Chapter 1033 — Looking Back on a Former Spring, Like a Dream
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Granny Zhu looked God King Langwan up and down, growing happier the more she looked, and quietly gave Shen Mu a thumbs-up. Shen Mu flushed slightly and hurried off to find the Alchemist. The Deaf Elder's eyes lit up; he fetched brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, sat down squarely, and prepared to paint Granny Zhu and God King Langwan into a picture—only to spend a long while with no idea how to begin.
God King Langwan studied Granny Zhu and could not help praising her. "What a beautiful little sister."
Granny Zhu laughed. "Little sister? You should call me Granny."
God King Langwan was startled. After a moment's hesitation she said, "Langwan is one million and fifty thousand years old this year. May I ask how old Granny is?"
Granny Zhu was given a fright. To the Deaf Elder she said, "You entertain this little sister Langwan. I am going to find Shen'er and have a word!"
The Deaf Elder turned a deaf ear, and went on tracing God King Langwan with his brush in the air, still unable to set down a stroke. The woman was too beautiful; once put to paper, however one painted her, her spirit and charm would all too easily be lost. After a long while the Deaf Elder sighed, rolled up his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, and left.
God King Langwan blinked and thought, "The Holy Infant's family are all so very odd."
The Deaf Elder sought out Granny Zhu, only to find her holding Shen Mu by the ear and scolding him soundly. Shen Mu answered meekly, not daring to talk back, while the Alchemist, gathering herbs nearby in his bronze mask, watched them with open amusement and made no move to intervene.
"I cannot paint her."
The Deaf Elder said out of nowhere, "I can paint a beauty like Granny Zhu. I can paint every thing in the world. But this God King Langwan, and her alone, I cannot paint."
Shen Mu, still covering his ear, asked curiously, "Deaf Grandpa, Granny's looks are no less than God King Langwan's. You can paint Granny, so why can you not paint God King Langwan?"
The Deaf Elder took his hand. "Come with me."
The two came before God King Langwan, each set out a desk, laid out brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, and each took up a brush and loaded it full of ink. Granny Zhu and the Alchemist followed, to watch how the two painting sages would lay down their strokes. God King Langwan grew still more curious, and sat quietly watching them.
Shen Mu and the Deaf Elder studied the beauty before them closely, each lost in thought. Shen Mu was just about to set his brush down when he felt that for the brush to touch the paper would be to defile her; the stroke would not come. The Deaf Elder was the same. That two painting sages should hold their brushes yet be unable to touch ink made Granny Zhu and the Alchemist click their tongues in wonder.
"Now do you have your answer as to why I can paint Granny Zhu but not God King Langwan?"
The Deaf Elder heaved a long sigh, flung his brush to the ground, and said, "Granny Zhu is a human being. Even if she has cultivated to the divine realm, even if her looks are so exquisite that no words or verses can describe them, one can still fathom her spirit and charm. But this woman you brought back—she is not human. There is not a trace of human flavor about her. She carries only pure divinity, pure godhood and no emotion at all. That is why I cannot capture her spirit and charm, and cannot set down a stroke. Alchemist, take off your mask."
Hearing this, the Alchemist was briefly taken aback, but he removed the bronze mask covering his face. The Deaf Elder looked at God King Langwan; God King Langwan looked at the Alchemist. The Deaf Elder shook his head. "Even a man so handsome that the whole world adores him cannot stir a shred of human feeling in this God King. I still cannot paint."