Chapter 789 — Where Does He Rank in All the World?
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The scholar watched him draw and laughed. "The Sect Master Shen is indeed gifted in many arts—he has no small accomplishment in the way of calligraphy and painting as well."
Shen Mu's face reddened slightly. He said modestly, "I would not dare boast of the way of calligraphy and painting—I am only second in the world. First in the world is my family's Deaf Grandpa. His calligraphy and painting enter the Dao, and have inner and outer worlds."
The scholar was astonished and praised him: "His calligraphy and painting have already reached the realm of creating things in the void? And there are inner and outer divisions besides—truly profound accomplishment. But his first place in the world has some water in it, and your second place has some water too."
Shen Mu laughed. "Then who is first in the world?"
The scholar said, "I too have made no small study of the way of calligraphy and painting. When the way of calligraphy and painting is cultivated to a profound realm, it becomes creation—and creation is the divine power of transformation. Of other things I dare not speak, but in the divine power of transformation, none can surpass me."
Shen Mu handed over the brush in his hand. "May I presume to ask you to paint, brother?"
The scholar shook his head. "I do not paint on ordinary days. I paint only when I have use for it."
Shen Mu raised his head and gazed up at the gateway towering into the heavens. "Another Southern Heavenly Gate... a pity it's a broken one! I shall paint a Southern Heavenly Gate!"
With a flick of his brush tip, a great sheet of paper stood upright in the air. Shen Mu turned his palm, four brushes clamped in his left hand, and with his right he traced a circle into being, ink forming of itself and spinning endlessly in the air.
Shen Mu lifted his brush and painted, the strokes moving like dragons and serpents, and countless details flowed from the brush tip, transforming into the veins and patterns of the Southern Heavenly Gate.
Shen Mu's brush flew like the wind, the tip even sinking deep into the interior of the paper, as though within there were another cosmos, another heaven and earth. Though this Southern Heavenly Gate was painted by him upon paper, yet within that paper there seemed to be a world, a vast expanse of space.
His brush became a divine instrument of creation, building up the infinite details of the Southern Heavenly Gate, growing finer and finer still.
In the end, the four brushes flew into the interior of the paper and painted within it, wondrous beyond all description.
After a long while, the Southern Heavenly Gate was finished.
Shen Mu put away brush and ink, plucked the painting down from the air, and shook it hard. At once a Southern Heavenly Gate flew out from the painting and crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom!
This Southern Heavenly Gate stood ten thousand zhang tall, majestic and extraordinary, displaying the full grandeur of the Ancient God Heavenly Court, towering amid this ancient battlefield as a symbol of the Celestial Emperor's awe-inspiring authority.
Shen Mu looked at the scholar and laughed. "How is my art of creation?"
The scholar exclaimed in admiration. "You have not yet entered the Dao, yet you have such accomplishment—you can barely count as third in the world. If you could surpass your Deaf Grandpa, you would barely be second. If you could abandon paper and brush, unconstrained by paper and brush, then you would stand firm in second. As it is, you are still at the level of painting a thing and having it resemble the thing—there is still some distance between you and first."
Shen Mu asked humbly, "Then what level is first?"
"The way of painting has threefold levels. Painting a thing and having it resemble the thing—that is the first level. Painting a thing and having it be the thing—that is the second."
The scholar said, "Not painting, yet following the Dao; no ink, yet heaven and earth arising of themselves—that is the third level."