Tales of Herding Gods
Tales of Herding Gods - Chapter 94: Painting Dragons And Dotting Eyes

The moment he said that, everyone in the village exclaimed in admiration. Village Chief nodded his head and smiled, "Deaf sure is remarkable, what an elegant way to compete. Bestowing divine soul with a dot by mutual sensitivity, to seize the nature of the world and nothing more than that."

Qin Mu went forward and paid his respect to Deaf as a disciple.

Deaf's expression changed slightly and immediately avoided, "You and I are having a competition, therefore, there's no master or disciple. You and I are both students now, therefore we shall greet each other as equal. Only after the competition can I be your teacher."

Qin Mu knew he always handled stuff peculiarly, therefore, he immediately paid his respect to Deaf as equal and Deaf also paid his respect back.

Each of them picked up a brush and stood in front of the painting, looking at it.

Using magic power as divine art and dotting the dragon on the painting to life was already a remarkable achievement. However, with the lack of cultivation in magic power, it would involve the nature of the world if one could still bestow a mind to the dragon in the painting by dotting the eyes with artistic conception.

Qin Mu had learned painting, calligraphy, reading and writing from Deaf. Even though it could be said that Deaf had taught him a lot and Qin Mu had quite a strong foundation in painting techniques after painting quite a number of paintings, it was still the first time for him to try to bestow life to a painting.

One dot of mutual sensitivity to bestow soul to the human or object in the painting was something Deaf had taught him before but Qin Mu had never succeeded.

This match was much more difficult than the previous few matches.

Qin Mu focused his attention on the dragon in the painting which was in front of him. This dragon was too lifelike therefore as his gaze landed on it, he actually felt like that the dragon in the painting was slowly moving and changing its pose continuously.

Deaf's painting technique sure was extraordinary. Even the eyes hadn't been drawn, he already had the feeling that the dragon in the painting was about to soar into the sky!

Qin Mu held the brush yet he didn't start painting. The dragon in the painting was right in front of him, so how should he dot the eyes?

He felt that no matter how he dotted it, it would be hard for him to bring this dragon to life. No matter where he dotted, it would be wrong.

"Mu'er, rip Deaf's painting and you'll win!" Granny Si couldn't help but mumble to Qin Mu under her breath.

Deaf rolled his eyes at her, "Evil and unorthodox method. I teach Mu'er how to read the holy books, therefore, he is wise and a holy man at heart. He won't make such an evil move like you."

Granny Si flew into a rage.

Village Chief smiled, "Granny, don't interfere with their showdown. Deaf's test for this match is very ingenious."

Granny Si could only restrain her anger.

In Qin Mu's eyes, only the dragon in the painting remained. The village no longer existed in his eyes and only the painting was floating in front of him. A few moments later, the painting also disappeared and all that was left was the dragon painted with ink.

In his eyes, this dragon sometimes swam up and sometimes swam down, while other times it would also swim left and right. It was sometimes soaring in the air, sometimes coiling up and sometimes prone on the floor. It would raise its head, sway its tail, slither like a dragon, play with water, spit fire and lightning which made it all kinds of strange for being so clever.

Qin Mu felt like he had become the dragon in the painting, however, from this angle, everything in his eyes was black because he was still missing his eyes.

He tried his best to break out of this darkness but he didn't know how to open his eyes.

He remembered the dragon pillars in Border Dragon City and the dragon bones as well as the dragon soul in Surging River Dragon Palace. He remembered the statues in the village and the touch of the divine being.

The god statue that the divine being had sculpted was also a form of art. Those incredible skills and the profound grace carved within had seemed to bestow souls into the sculptures and let them protect Great Ruins like gods.

After some time, Qin Mu felt that a line of light gradually appeared in the darkness. It was as if the dragon had slowly opened its eyes. When all the darkness in front of his eyes had dispersed, a trace of vigor burst forth from Qin Mu's eyes. He raised his brush and dotted the dragon's eyes!

Bestowing the divine soul with a dot using mutual sensitivity!

With his brush down, the dragon in the painting instantly came alive on the paper. Shaking its head and swaying its tail, it suddenly flew into the sky from the paper and frolicked among the clouds. Only white paper was left on the painting and there was not even half a drop of ink!

Qin Mu stared blankly. He actually succeeded!

He actually succeeded in dotting a dragon painting to life!

That dragon flew around in the sky for a moment and soon turned back into ink, dyeing the clouds black.

Qin Mu urgently looked towards Deaf only to see that he had already washed his brush and hung it back on the rack. He didn't dot the eyes for the dragon in the painting in front of him.

Qin Mu instantly realized, "Grandpa Deaf, you let me win?"

Deaf shook his head, "I didn't let you win. When I was your age, I didn't have such high attainment like you did. My test is not about winning or losing. A teacher is to impart his knowledge to his disciple and solve his doubts. I'm currently imparting my path to you so why should I care about winning or losing?"

Apothecary exclaimed in admiration, "Deaf, you have the heart of a teacher which I really admire. Mu'er, my test isn't about competing with you as well and instead, I want you to refine medicine. Go to the herb garden outside the village and gather thirty highly poisonous plants to refine them into a medicine of great supplement. After the medicine is done, you'll have to consume it. If it supplements you, you'll pass the test. If you are poisoned and die, you'll have to continue to stay in the village."

Qin Mu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. How could he remain in the village if he died from poisoning?

Apothecary's objective was very obvious. To use thirty highly poisonous plants to create a medicine of great supplement would require one to be extremely proficient in medical knowledge. The amount of each herb, to use the leaf or the root, to use the pollen or the petal, to boil it or to cure it, all these needed careful studies.

Furthermore, Apothecary didn't tell him the prescription and let him decide how much herbs he should use and how he should concoct the medicine so that the toxic would counter each other in a full cycle to become a great supplement with his own medicinal knowledge.

In the concocting process, the heat was also very crucial. Qin Mu had to use his own judgement from his experience in concocting medicine to decide when a herb should be placed in, whether should it be in powder form or in pieces, the heat control, and the time taken to boil a herb.

The slightest mistake would make a world of difference. If there was any mistake in any part, all of Qin Mu's hard work would be for naught and he would concoct out a highly toxic substance to poison himself.

Qin Mu stood at the side of Apothecary's herb garden and took a look at the herbs inside. Muttering to himself for a while, he calculated the toxicity of all the herbs in the garden and wondered how to match them together, how to assign a ruler and his ministers, how to vanquish dragons and tiger, how to balance out the yin and yang.

After some time, he then came into the herb garden to carefully gather the herbs.

When he gathered the twenty-ninth herb, Qin Mu stopped gathering and carefully caught a five patches fly from the leaf of a poisonous herb. Pinching off its head and removing the wings, he took it as the thirtieth toxic medicine.

Qin Mu returned to the village and used vital qi to cure the rhizome of some herbs to refine out the excess medicinal energy. Some of the herbs were steamed with water and some were roasted to extract the water out.

After being busy for a long time, he now then started to concoct the medicine.

Apothecary stood not far away and observed his every step and every method as well as how he used his vital qi while nodding his head silently.

As Qin Mu concocted his medicine, he used his vital qi to prop the huge cauldron in the air. Throwing the thirty herbs into the cauldron, he didn't add any water and instead used his incomparably dense vital qi to nourish the herbs, using his vital qi which had no attributes to extract the medicinal energy from the medicines.

Apothecary had a slight change in expression. This was Qin Mu's unique technique and even he won't be able to learn it. His vital qi had an attribute and the herbs also have their own attributes. Vital qi would spoil the medicinal property of the medicines. Only Qin Mu who had no attributes in his own vital qi could use this method, this technique, to extract the medicinal energy.

Qin Mu became even more careful as he split his vital qi into thirty strands and each of them permeated one type of medicine. At the same time, Vermilion Bird Vital Qi burst forth from the hand which was propping up the huge cauldron and turned into blazing flames, causing the medicinal energy in the cauldron to start to fuse together.

Black Tortoise Vital Qi surged out from his other hand as he used water vapor to moist the medicinal energy, slowing down the fusing process and also washing out the dregs in the cauldron.

After some time, Qin Mu suddenly stirred this huge cauldron and clattering sounds came from the cauldron. When the huge cauldron had stopped spinning, there were white medicinal pellets that were spinning continuously inside the cauldron. The pellets were crystal clear and were like beads made from sheep-fat white jade.

Qin Mu stretched his hand out and picked out a spirit pellet. Granny Si asked anxiously, "Apothecary, is there any poison?"

Apothecary smiled, "When Mu'er consumes it, you'll know if there's poison."

Qin Mu opened his mouth and consumed the spirit pellet, "Don't worry granny, there's no toxicity in this spirit pellet…"

Bang—

His hair suddenly exploded out and grew in all directions, scaring Granny Si and the rest. Qin Mu immediately said, "Don't be alarmed, it just that I didn't balance one of the herbs properly and it affected my kidney water. With my kidney waters being stimulated, it just made my hair grow a little thicker."

Granny Si retorted angrily, "This is a little thicker?"

Qin Mu's hair was still growing longer and longer frantically. His hair was like bamboo shoots growing vertically upwards. In just a short while, the hair had already grown ten yards long. Every strand of hair stood upright and very hard.

Qin Mu felt his head getting heavier and replied, "Granny, the biggest advantage of this spirit pellet lies in healing injuries. This spirit pellet could let decomposed muscle rapidly regenerate and heal ripped muscles. Broken bones could also grow and broken tendons can reconnect together. Stimulating the kidney waters is merely an insignificant side effect…"

His hair was still growing and pressed down heavier and heavier on his head. He almost couldn't support the long hair that was like an explosion on the head.

Apothecary held back his laughter and said, "You've passed this test. Butcher, help him tidy up his hair. If it continues to grow longer, his neck is going to snap from the pressure."

Butcher went forward and shaved off his hair in two to three moves.

Everyone looked at Mute as he used a towel to wipe his hand and dragged his furnace out from the collapsed smithy. Taking out two Winter Irons, he threw them into the furnace and the fire inside instantly extinguished as frost formed on the walls inside the furnace.

Mute walked away and smiled, "Ah, ah ah!"