Chapter 507: Chapter 479: Past of the God Brush Sect
An ancient painting, looking slightly shabby, hung on the wall.
The scene depicted in the painting was precisely the canyon world where Xu Ke and Li Fan had been, where they were trying to catch the Splitting Realm Whale.
There were about thirty more scrolls of paintings on the walls of this room.
What surprised Li Fan was that some of the scrolls seemed to be enveloped in an aura of mysterious energy that prevented outsiders from peering in.
Even his Heavenly Mandate Mystic bird was incapable of seeing the content of the paintings.
The Azure Luan Bird flew out of the scroll, gently placed Xu Ke on the ground, then transformed into a wisp of azure light and vanished into his arms.
“Xu Ke is back!” A young cultivator who was dozing off in the room suddenly wore a jubilant expression and ran outside shouting.
In no time, the fairly cramped room was suddenly filled to capacity with cultivators.
“It’s good he’s back, he should have successfully found that Splitting Realm Whale, right?”
“Finally, the difficult times are over!”
“Indeed, since Xu Ke is back, that guy Lu Ya should also be getting ready to leave, right?”
“Just because he has an Exotic Beast, he bullies people everywhere! He’s too hateful!”
“Brother Liu, the last time you squared off against Lu Ya, he didn’t even summon his Tianwu, and yet you were still beaten and had to beg for mercy.”
“That was a mistake! If I have another chance…”
“Shush! Lu Ya’s here!”
“Umm…”
The previously noisy crowd went quiet in an instant.
They even made way for Lu Ya to walk in smoothly.
Lu Ya with his blond hair showed no expression, not glancing at the cultivators around him with different expressions, and went straight to the sleeping Xu Ke.
His gaze rested on Li Fan for a moment, then gently fell on Xu Ke’s face.
With a flick of his wrist, he levitated Xu Ke along with Li Fan.
Walking out of the room, a Demonic Beast with a human face and tiger body instantly appeared.
“Tianwu, huh…” The aura emitted by the other party made Li Fan feel slightly uncomfortable, and he instinctively shrank deeper into Xu Ke’s hair.
The human-faced, tiger-bodied beast roared, and Lu Ya jumped up and stood on its back.
The Tianwu glared around with a show of martial might, after which it flew into the sky.
“I am immensely grateful for the three years of hospitality from the God Brush Sect!”
“I will definitely return the favor someday. As for now, no need for a send-off, everyone!”
Lu Ya made a formal bow towards the ground, addressing out loud.
Without waiting for the God Brush Sect’s response, he directed the Tianwu and quickly disappeared in the horizon.
“What a show-off! He’s only powerful because he has the backing of the Beast Taming Sect!”
“Hehe, Lu Ya is already in the late stage of the Nascent Soul. Plus, with that Tianwu beast on his side, even our grandmaster might not be his match.”
“Yeah, whose fault is it that we are not competent enough ourselves. We can’t expect the seniors to step forward, can we?”
“Forget it, given the appearance of our Sect Leader, he’s not even comparable to the grandmaster.”
…
Before departing, Li Fan faintly heard some discussions from below.
Lu Ya, however, was unconcerned and flew away with Xu Ke in tow.
The scenery below constantly changed as they flew across plains and crossed mountains and rivers.
After traveling for more than twenty days, the surroundings became somewhat familiar.
They were back at the Beast Taming Sect’s territory.
“Without the existence of the White Mist Barrier, traveling around various places in ancient times must have been a lot easier.”
Li Fan thought so, but also felt that his journey to the Fallen Immortal Realm was coming to an end.
And Xu Ke, who had slept all the way, was finally woken up by Lu Ya at this moment.
“Huh? Brother Lu Ya?”
Still a bit groggy, Xu Ke rubbed his eyes. Seeing Lu Ya standing upright in front of him, his clothing flapping due to the wind, Xu Ke responded in confusion.
“Where am I?” Still thinking he was dreaming, Xu Ke surveyed his surroundings again.
Li Fan gave him a harsh claw-swipe, and Xu Ke instantly sobered up.
“Wow! Beast Taming Sect! I’m back!” Recognizing the familiar scenes around, Xu Ke excitedly jumped up.
A hint of a smile surfaced on Lu Ya’s face.
He patted Xu Ke on the head and asked about his experiences searching for the Splitting Realm Whale over the past three years.
Xu Ke naturally poured out his heart’s bitterness.
After comforting and praising him somewhat, Lu Ya’s face turned serious again, and he brought up the significant task at hand.
“Next, there’s another much more critical matter for you to handle.”
Hearing that he had to go out again shortly after returning, Xu Ke’s face fell at once.
However, seeing Lu Ya’s earnest expression, Xu Ke still nodded his agreement.
“Brother Lu Ya, what is it?”
“I want you to go to Nanming and deliver something for me.” Lu Ya said in a heavy tone.
“Nanming? Seems like I’ve heard of it before…” Xu Ke scratched his head while trying to remember and then suddenly realized.
“Oh! It’s that place with a lot of Demonic Beasts…”
Just as Li Fan was about to listen more acutely, he suddenly noticed the surrounding scenes and sounds becoming blurred.
“This…”
Despite much unwillingness in his heart, he couldn’t change the rules of the Fallen Immortal Realm.
The next moment, after a whirl of heaven and earth, Li Fan returned to the Tianxuan Mirror.
“God Brush Sect, Nanming…”
Li Fan recalled what he had learned during his trip to the Fallen Immortal Realm, thought for a moment, and then began searching in the Tianxuan Mirror.
The God Brush Sect was a medium-sized cultivator’s sect in ancient times.
They pursued Dao through calligraphy. It was said that writing and painting could reveal the divine.
Disciples within the sect were all highly skilled in calligraphy and painting, and there was even a legend about painting creatures to life.
Unfortunately, due to numerous Great Calamities, virtually no works survived.
Even Li Fan wasn’t able to find any inheritable artifacts in the Museum of Divine Artifacts.
In the current Immortal Cultivation World, there weren’t many records about cultivators of the God Brush Sect. Most of them were aimlessly good and had no name.
Only a once Sect Leader of the God Brush Sect, Chu Youhong, left a faint trace in history.
This person, at the Nascent Soul Stage, was appointed by the predecessor Sect Leader before his death to take over the God Brush Sect.
Because of his low status and weak strength, he was often looked down upon by cultivators within the sect.
But in regard to his title, there was no outright chaos.
Chu Youhong did not mind; he treated all the cultivators in the sect kindly, appearing to have no authority as a Sect Leader.
Even so, Chu Youhong’s duties as the Sect Leader weren’t neglected.
All matters within the sect, no matter how big or small, he dealt with personally.
He also maintained good relations with many other sects outside.
Thanks to his diligent efforts, the God Brush Sect recovered from the sudden death of the former Sect Leader and the lack of capable successors.
With these contributions, the God Brush Sect’s disciples gradually acknowledged Chu Youhong’s status as sect leader.
When the mortal disciple he took under his wing made rapid progress, surpassing him, he finally secured his position as the sect leader.
Seeing everything was going well, and the sect’s future looking promising, something unexpected happened.
One day, an incident erupted.
The talented disciple, the Big Brother of the God Brush Sect, turned out to be a spy from another sect – the Sect of the Stroke and Glyph. His target was the treasure of the God Brush Sect, the Heaven Brush Paint.
One night, aided from within and attacked from outside, the Sect of the Stroke and Glyph launched a raid against the God Brush Sect.
The God Brush Sect suffered numerous deaths and injuries, teetering on the brink of extinction.