Heavenly Star

Time passed second by second, and the scene was unusually silent. No one dared to make noise for fear of interrupting. The whole crowd grew expectant for an exceptional piece of work.

In a minute’s time, what could he achieve? At first, people secretly jeered at him for being arrogant, but after several surprises, they realized little by little that he had the skill to back up his own arrogance. And this time he even so boldly declared being able to complete within one minute --- perhaps he really could!

The once dazzling Lin Xiao was now being cast out of the limelight, and hardly anybody was paying attention to him right now.

Ye Wuchen had calculated his maneuvers in silence. Before coming to this world, his painting skills were not inferior to that of the Lin Xiao’s. At that time he was only on the cusp of what could be called the first level of his power, but as of then it was still lacking. Right now, Wuchen was at the second level of his power but he didn’t reveal the limits of his speed. Just this would be enough to shock the world and cause people to be stupefied.

Finally, as everybody expected, when the time came to an end, he ended the motion of his brush and it lay still on his hand. At exactly the same time, the yellow clothed attendant who had been holding a weird looking timer yelled. “The quarter hour is up.”

Finishing exactly at the right moment revealed the amazing precision of his sense of time. Only a few people in the world had the same capability.

Ye Wuchen threw away all the painting tools in his hands, and then stepped aside to put up his completed work and present it to the audience. What he was met with were not sounds of surprise but that of total silence. People at the scene mostly looks at each other with faces filled with confusion.

Anyone would have been able to identify the painting as one that depicted a lotus. A twin blossomed pinkish white lotus - one facing obliquely to the left, the other to the right. The twin buds were not yet in bloom, but the twin lotus did not bring out an aesthetic feeling, but instead reflected the coarseness of its heavy color Below the flower, the green stem and leaves were painted with exquisite delicacy, brimming with lifelike realism. Between traces of the strokes, one could almost vaguely smell the fresh fragrance. Below the lotus stem was water, but the water was painted very oddly. Because there was no outline on the water’s surface, it depicted either an impossibly deep or vaguely shallow pool. Light green colored speckles dotted the water surface along with a slanted reflect of the same twin buds - all painted in the same manner as one would see in real life.

At a quick glance, this painting had nothing special about it. Examining carefully, one could notice that it was just an extremely ordinary piece that contained many faulty strokes.

No words came out of Lin Xiao, his gaze was affixed at the twin lotus flower painting. He believed that prior to this, Ye Wuchen already had an attitude full of self-confidence. It was unlikely of him to use this kind of painting as a joke, certainly he will have his own mysterious principles applied to this painting. But no matter how he observed the painting down to the smallest details, he still couldn't find anything magical about it. No matter how he looked and from every possible angle, this painting still could be considered as a masterpiece compared to Lin Xiao's Clear Water Lakeside, the difference was more than a hundred and eight thousand miles.

“This painting is called Twin Lotus Flower on One Stalk, an improvised work. Other works with the same suber are certainly innumerable. But I humbly consider it sufficient enough to be included among the well-known pieces.” Ye Wuchen said smiling.

Long Yin knitted his brows and looked for quite a long time and turned. “My beloved officer Wen, what do you think about this painting?”

“This...” a white haired old man, exceeding sixty years of age, dressed formally as a government official said respectfully, “I'm an old man who has a pair of dull eyes and cannot point out any marvelous points on this work. Based on my perception, this is just an inelegant piece of work.”

His evaluation caused majority of the people to simultaneously nod their heads. The remaining group of people still attempted to search for the marvelous principles behind it. Based on Ye Wuchen's previously excellent performance, it was impossible for him to make such inferior work. Moreover, judging by his fresh and unstressed facial expression, it does not seem like he was disappointed with himself.

“Beloved Officer He, how about your opinion?”

“My opinion is exactly the same as that of Officer Wen’s.”

“How is compared to Lin Xiao's painting?”

“Unable to compare.”

Long Yin nodded his head and looked at Ye Wuchen. “This is also what I think. Wuchen, although your painting skill is highly perfected, this time you painted such a trifling matter, so for this stage of competition it's...”

“Wait a moment, Your Majesty. Wuchen has something to say.” Ye Wuchen said with a gesture.

“Oh? You have something to say? Might it be that there's really a mysterious principle behind it?” Long Yin asked with a face full of expectation, but seemingly unsurprised.

“If there's no mysterious principle, how could I present it.” Ye Wuchen smiled faintly, then turned around and said in a clear voice, “I would like to ask you elders, brothers and sisters if any one of you have brought wine?”

People looked at each other, one by one they shook their heads. Who would bring wine to this kind of occasion? But suddenly, thunder-like voice echoed. “I brought some. Catch it, young fellow!”

As though afraid of Ye Wuchen’s failure, Hua Zhentian removed the wine sack hanging from his waist and directly threw it at Ye Wuchen's direction. Hua Zhentian loves wine as though it were his life. In his lifetime he valued two things — First was his daughter, and second was wine. This wine sack made by Hua Shuirou was indispensable. Once emptied it is refilled itself again immediately.

Ye Wuchen extended his hands to catch it, and said smiling, “Thanks for the wine, Elder Hua, some other day I'll invite you to drink to your heart's content.

Originally, this was just an answer out of courtesy, but Hua Zhentian took it seriously and shouted. “Great! Young fellow, you better keep your word! If you dare not drink with me to our heart's content, then you are not a man! Also, elder or not, it is awkward hearing it, you must call me Old Hua!”

“Then... that's a deal!” Ye Wuchen answered, ignoring the latter part of his statement. He already noticed before that there was something hanging from his waist and believed that it was contained wine.

For those who don't know the character of Hua Zhentian would have been stunned upon hearing the conversation between them two. This Hua Zhentian previously wanted to teach Ye Wuchen a lesson for hurting Lin Xiao, but in turn he had been tricked using “despicable” methods into agreeing to three conditions. Not only did he not get angry, but was laughing upon his defeat. This time he was too enthusiastic, based on his tone. It's almost as though he wanted Ye Wuchen to become one of his sworn brothers that very second.

Maybe Hua Zhentian just had a very odd personality of enjoying getting deceived?

“Everybody, please have a look.”

Ye Wuchen removed the lid, the fragrance of wine spread all over the place. He lifted his head and took one long gulp before facing the painting and spurting out a mouthful. Liquid mist evenly sprinkled all over, dampening the entire painting. He lifted his head and swallowed another gulp, doing the same thing three times after which he finally stepped aside, his face was adorned with a smile.

Nobody had been able to understand his extremely strange actions. One by one they shifted their attention to the painting. Then, several people opened their mouths wide, their jaws almost falling to the ground from surprise. Many people unwittingly dropped what they were holding. An old scholar’s glasses fell to the ground with a loud “bang”.

Not only was the crowd surprised, but the once calm and composed Lin Xiao opened his eyes so wide his eyeballs almost bulged out. As for Long Yin, his face revealed a rare unresponsiveness that hadn’t been seen in many years.

Translated by: Fatty_Uncle

Edited by: patrick_the_father_of_dragons