White-Robed Chief

“Take it out and have a look!” Su Ru smiled.

As Chu Li opened the box, a faint fragrance assailed his nostrils. It was a spice used to prevent rotting and absorb moisture, but this was one that an average household would not be able to afford.

Scrolls of paintings were stacked in the box. When Chu Li carefully removed a scroll from the box and slowly unfolded it, he saw a lifelike, yellow tiger with white eyes. In the painting, the tiger was letting out a long roar into the sky.

Chu Li gasped in admiration, “Magnificent!”

Looking at the painting, it was as if a real ferocious tiger was roaring right in front of his eyes, making his whole body turn cold.

Xue Ling gave the painting a curious glance, and her face immediately turned pale.

Chu Li turned his head to her and chuckled. “Scaredy-cat, you need to build up your courage!”

Xue Ling suppressed her fear and took a glance again but her face paled once more. It was as if a tiger had lunged at her and was going to eat her up. Fear gripped her heart involuntary and she could not control it.

Su Ru chuckled as well. “Now, don’t scare her!”

Chu Li turned and grinned at Xue Ling. “Xue Ling, you need to be braver. Put this painting on the wall, and look at it a few times every day!”

Xue Ling hesitated. “You really want to hang it up?”

Chu Li pointed at the Longevity Crane Art. “Hang the painting there!”

The Longevity Crane Art was hanging on the wall that was directed towards the north, but the art itself faced the door of the hall. So whenever someone entered the main hall, they would see the art when they looked up.

Xue Ling looked at Su Ru helplessly.

Then, Su Ru chided Chu Li, “Chu Li, are you crazy?”

Chu Li explained, “It’ll be beneficial to her. With her timidity, if she were to go out and encounter some savage people, even if she possessed the strongest martial arts, she won’t be able to utilize it!”

“…That’s true.” Su Ru thought about it and nodded.

The people out there in the martial arts world were all vicious and violent, and they could sprout whatever evil nonsense they want. Not to mention, Xue Ling’s martial arts was not up to par. Even if it was good, she would not be able to manifest it with her timidity; it would be too dangerous.

Xue Ling pouted. She had no choice but to take down the Longevity Crane Art and carefully hung up the tiger painting instead.

Whereas Chu Li just stood at the door with his hands behind his back, as he guided her to adjust the painting until it was right. Now, at first glance, it looked like a tiger was standing there.

Su Ru smiled. “Xue Ling, how’s your martial arts training these days?”

Xue Ling gave a shy smile. “It’s much better now.”

“That’s good.” Su Ru laughed. “It’s such a blessing to have a great teacher like Chu Li to enlighten you. You have to cherish this opportunity.”

Xue Ling glanced at Chu Li and nodded her head lightly.

However, Chu Li had unfolded another scroll of painting — a picture of a tiger hunting a sheep. The tiger had furs surging like the tide, and teeth like sharp drills, as it glistered with a piercing-cold light. Its eyes were ice-cold and merciless; it truly had the type of aura that made all creatures seemed like they were at its mercy.

He shook his head and sighed in admiration. Lu Boyuan was really awesome.

Lu Boyuan’s paintings were not only lifelike but more importantly, they contained a glimmer of spiritual force. Chu Li had assumed that perhaps this great master painter was an Enlightened Master, or maybe he achieved his martial arts skills by drawing; through that, only was he able to grasp a hint of its essence.

Letting Xue Ling look at the painting invariably would not only increase her bravery, but it would also strengthen her spirit. Besides, doing this would bring her boundless benefits.

With a stronger spiritual force, she would be able to cultivate her heart technique for a longer time, as well as circulate her inner energy at a much faster rate. It was also the key to pushing her cultivation boundary in the future.

Su Ru sat at a side as she watched him immerse himself in the painting and a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

Lady Xiao Qi had the same expression when she saw the paintings too, but it was a different case for Su Ru. Instead, it gave her a sense of fear whenever she saw the painting, and she could not see the beauty in this painting at all.

Chu Li admired the paintings one by one until he had appreciated all of the ten paintings. By then, he felt as if he had eaten a feast. Feeling satisfied, he put the scrolls of paintings back into the box and laughed. “This is the best of all art pieces!”

“Your drawings aren’t too bad as well.” Su Ru smiled. “I’ve seen your drawings of Spirit Herbs, and your skills are brilliant.”

“I’m still far from good. Without guidance from a teacher, I have yet grasped the true essence of it.”

“That’s a pity.”

“If there’s an opportunity, I will apprentice myself to a famous teacher and learn it well!”

“There’s a famous teacher in the Public House.”

“Who is it?” Chu Li asked in a hurry.

“The Second Lady.” Su Ru grinned. “Second Lady was apprenticed to the Great Master Han Xi in the past. You do know who Great Master Han Xi is, right?”

Chu Li was shocked. “Second Lady was Great Master Han Xi’s disciple?”

Han Xi was one of the top painters of this generation, who specialized in landscape drawings. However, his grasp of the profound artistic concept in his drawings made others feel as though they were experiencing the scene of the painting. In fact, his paintings were definitely a fine work of art that could edify one’s state of mind; a fine work of art that was sought after by countless people.

“Great Master Han Xi had lived in the Public House for five years.” Su Ru tilted her head to one side and pondered for a moment. “At that time, Second Lady was 13-year-old, Great Master Han Xi said that he had nothing left to teach her and went away.”

Chu Li mused, “Rumor says that Great Master Han Xi has an eccentric personality, that he has never had a disciple, and that he would not meet outsiders.”

“Great Master Han Xi lives in remote mountains. Once, he was bitten by a poisonous snake when he went out to pick some herbs, and Second Lady happened to pass by. So, she saved him. Then, to return the favor, he offered to teach Second Lady for five years.”

Chu Li was so surprised, he laughed. “The Second Lady is so lucky!”

“The Second Lady has quite a good luck.” Su Ru sighed. “It’s a pity that she can’t practice martial arts.”

“Why so?”

“Her body is too weak to withstand her inner energy.” Su Ru shook her head and said, “It’s inborn and there’s no solution to it. She even gets sick from time to time.”

“That’s a pity.”

“You have very little chance of learning painting from the Second Lady, so keep practicing your martial arts!”

Chu Li laughed. “That’s true too.”

“I’m leaving.” Su Ru waved her jaded hand and left nonchalantly.

…

The moonlight was as shiny as the water.

As the night wind blew past the green bamboo, a soft rustling sound rang out.

Chu Li sat in the pagoda motionlessly; he was still like a statue.

In the void of his mind, a silver-white tiger came alive. It roared from time to time, as it rehearsed every form and posture of the Sun Cultivating White Tiger Portrait.

When his thoughts shifted, the ten paintings of the ferocious tiger in which he saw during the day came to mind.

The white tiger lunged at one of the paintings violently, and like a water droplet falling into a puddle of water, the white tiger disappeared into the painting. After a while, the painting broke into pieces before it disappeared. Yet at the same time, the white tiger leaped forward with a subtle charm added to it.

One after another, the white tiger broke all of the paintings. When it was done, the white tiger had gone through a total transformation and it had become as vivid as a real tiger.

Chu Li’s consciousness then entered the tiger. At that moment, he felt calm and indifferent; he was fearless.

However, he took a small part of his consciousness to look at his own body. The influx of energy from the void had entered and changed his body. It was as if his body was immersed in an herb bath, and change only happened invariably.

When he woke up, it was already the next morning.

A night had passed without him noticing, yet his body was physically more compact and robust than before. When he clenched his fists, he felt that his strength had increased — the effects were remarkable.

As he got up to practice the Sentient Menace, the force in his body flowed smoothly and it was a great improvement.

Xue Ling was also practicing the eight forms of Crescent Cryptic. After that, she started to prepare breakfast.

Then, Xue Ling stood beside Chu Li as he ate his breakfast in the main hall with his back to the door. That way, she had no choice but to face the north wall where she would have to look into directly at the picture of the fierce tiger.

She knew Chu Li had done this deliberately, so she could only express a helpless look. When Chu Li was done with his meal, she was already sweating bullets and her clothes were almost drenched.

After she had washed the dishes, she quickly went back to the house and took a bath.

For the next few days, Chu Li stayed in the small courtyard. It was as if he had never returned to his room, nor did he go out of the courtyard. If there was anything he had to attend to, he would order Xue Ling to do it while he focused on practicing Sentient Menace. His goal was to achieve the third level within one month.

Since he saw Lu Boyuan’s paintings, the power of Sun Cultivating White Tiger Portrait had increased tremendously, and Sentient Menace’s cultivation progress was much faster as well. However, by combining the practice of Sentient Menace and Sun Cultivating White Tiger Portrait, he had a faint feeling that it would lead to a bad outcome in the future.

After he was done with his Sun Cultivating White Tiger Portrait practice, it had become much faster for him to practice Sentient Menace, but there were subtle changes to his state of mind. Cultivating Sentient Menace after exiting the fierce tiger’s state of mind was like tossing flames into the oil pan — the raging killing intent in him could not be suppressed.

When he was self-cultivating, he relied on the Omniscient Mirror to repress and calm the killing intent, as well as prevent himself from getting affected by it.

However, this was just forcibly repressing the intent instead of eliminating it entirely. Once the Omniscient Mirror stopped functioning, the killing intent would rise again.

So, Xue Ling began to read the Buddhist scriptures once again, in hopes of eliminating his killing intent. Whenever Chu Li was self-cultivating, she would recite the Buddhist scriptures by his side.

With the help of Xue Ling’s reciting, Chu Li was able to eliminate his killing intent and restore his state of mind.

Though in order to diminish his killing intent, he had to recite the Buddha austerities after self-cultivation every day and this took up a part of his self-cultivation time. Yet, this made him rather anxious. It was a pity that he could not practice Buddha’s Devil Desolation Scripture.

Due to the fact that the Buddha’s Devil Desolation Scripture was taught through enlightenment, he could not learn it no matter what. Thus, he had no choice but to resolve to a stupid method which was very time-consuming.

Fortunately, he had the Omniscient Mirror. Whenever he felt that there was something wrong, he would activate the Omniscient Mirror to restore his calm so that the killing intent did not control him. Otherwise, he would never dare to practice it anymore.

…

One day, Su Ru came to look at Glory’s Will Tree’s growth, as well as the rest of the Spirit Herbs. So Chu Li took this chance to ask, “Chief, the Public House should have a lot of paintings, is that right? ”

“Yes.” Su Ru dressed in an apricot-yellow gown. As her gaze moved away from the Glory’s Will Tree, she looked up at him. “Do you still want to look at other paintings?”

Chu Li smiled. “I want to look at those that can nurture my temperament, cultivate my mind, and improve my character.”

Su Ru replied, “Cultivate your mind and improve your character?”

Hence, Chu Li explained, “The Sentient Menace training creates too much killing intent, and I’m thinking of ways to neutralize it.”

Su Ru stopped smiling. “Something went wrong?”

Chu Li waved his hand and laughed light-heartedly. “It’s not a big issue. As long as I regulate my state of mind, I will be fine. Are there any more of Great Master Han Xi’s paintings?”

“Well, there are a few,” Su Ru answered. “But those are Second Lady’s… I’ll borrow the paintings from Second Lady! ”

“Thank you, Chief.” Chu Li gave her a fist salute and smiled.

Su Ru observed him and he did not look like his state of mind was affected. However, she was still concerned.

Chu Li let out a sigh. “It’s a pity that I cannot learn painting from Second Lady.”

“Stop dreaming!” Su Ru cried. “Second Lady is not the same as Lady Xiao Qi. Lady Xiao Qi is someone who is cold on the outside but warm on the inside, while Second Lady is someone who is warm on the outside but cold on the inside. She might look gentle and friendly, but no one has gotten close to her. She normally doesn’t go out and she won’t see outsiders… I’ll ask if I can borrow the paintings.”

After she said that, she rose to her feet and walked away.

Yet shortly after, she came back with a long, white wooden box and passed it to Chu Li. “I’ve successfully borrowed it. Inside this box are Great Master Han Xi’s paintings — a total of eight paintings. You must be careful with them!”

Chu Li quickly opened the box and as he carefully took out a painting, a picture of landscape entered his line of sight — dark green mountains and a part of a house that could be seen vaguely.

That moment, Chu Li’s mood unexplainably brightened up. His face broke out into a smile, and the surging agitation in his heart dissipated.

“How is it?”

“It’s truly a great master’s work of art!” Chu Li was impressed.

“You can have it only for a month, and do not damage it!” Su Ru warned him.

Chu Li grinned. “Don’t worry, Chief!”

However, Su Ru was not assured. “These are the Second Lady’s treasure. If they are damaged, we won’t know what would happen!”

Chu Li laughed. “The Second Lady is very generous.”

“It’s because she has a good relationship with Lady Xiao Qi.” Su Ru rolled her eyes at him and left the room.