Chapter 668: Painting

Inside the cave dwelling, the main feature was a quiet room, with its windows wide open.

Sitting cross-legged, Meng Chuan looked through the open window, his gaze extending beyond the courtyard wall of the cave dwelling to clearly see the entire majestic Mount Huasheng, its peaks soaring into the clouds.

“The diagrams I'm studying will primarily focus on the Chaotic Cavern lineage,” Meng Chuan thought, clear-headed. This was where his deepest accumulation lay, so it naturally required more effort.

Among the thirty-three diagrams, six contained the rules of the Chaotic Cavern, and only one of them purely depicted these rules.

Meng Chuan then focused on studying that pure Chaotic Cavern diagram.

He viewed it from multiple spatial perspectives...

...from a planar perspective...

...and from the perspective of the lightning lineage.

By viewing the diagram from different angles, Meng Chuan, possessing exceptional talent in painting, could vaguely understand why Dao Lord Shanwu had drawn it in such a way. At least in terms of painting, Meng Chuan felt a certain resonance with Dao Lord Shanwu.

These insights, corroborated by his cultivation on Qingquan Mountain and his study of the Eternal Secret Treasure Seal, were further deduced by his Essence Soul avatar in the 'Realm Mansion' of the Kunyun Secret Realm. This avatar, holding the majority of his Essence Soul origin, operated under a tenfold time acceleration, and the collision of different insights naturally led to many new understandings.

“After all, this painting is two-dimensional,” he mused.

“I should try painting as well.”

With a thought, Meng Chuan's Essence Soul world condensed energy into matter, forming a sheet of white paper that occupied most of the quiet room.

Meng Chuan reached out and grasped a brush, its tip naturally condensing ink. After a brief contemplation, he began to paint.

He first attempted to copy it, but as he did, Meng Chuan felt stifled and uncomfortable. After painting for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, he frowned and put down his brush. The giant paper in front of him silently disintegrated and vanished.

“My cultivation level is too far off; it's not suitable for copying. I’ll paint my own insights instead.” Meng Chuan began to paint again, this time illustrating his understanding of the Chaotic Cavern diagram.

Mere theoretical contemplation differed greatly from actual painting.

As Meng Chuan painted himself, his comprehension of the Chaotic Cavern diagram deepened.

“Yes, this is it. Dao Lord Shanwu created the Chaotic Cavern Diagram by painting his understanding of the Chaotic Cavern rules. I will also paint my own insights. Comparing my paintings with the original will further aid my comprehension.” Meng Chuan became increasingly energized as he painted.

“I'll paint them separately.”

“I'll divide my insights from different angles into separate paintings. First, the perspective of the Void Domain.” Meng Chuan immersed himself in the process.

From the Void Domain's perspective, Meng Chuan painted freely, with broad, sweeping strokes, creating a painting that resembled a multi-layered, dark abyss.

From the perspective of Void Walking, he painted lines—countless eerie, heart-palpitating lines that seemed to lead towards despair and annihilation.

From the perspective of Void Control, he created segmented diagrams, which grew increasingly chaotic and dark as they progressed.

From the particle state perspective—which Meng Chuan could enter after mastering the lightning rules, offering another way of viewing the world—his painting consisted of countless black dots.

From the lightning rules perspective, he painted a vortex formed by countless lightning bolts, a vortex that seemed to devour everything.

Creating these five paintings for the first time took Meng Chuan three years, yet it gave him a feeling of complete transformation. His understanding of Chaotic Cavern rules deepened, and his insights into spatial rules became much clearer.

“I can paint even deeper along these five perspectives,” Meng Chuan thought, thoroughly engrossed.

***

Within a grand hall in the Dark Star Space, members of the Dark Star Society were processing intelligence.

“Find out where City Lord Dongning, Meng Chuan, is currently located,” a tall, slender figure in a long robe commanded.

“Understood.”

A Six Tribulation Realm member skilled in causality began the investigation.

Meng Chuan, as one of the second-tier hunting targets on the Dark Star Society's list, had his avatars' locations tracked once a year. By identifying their positions, they could deduce what Meng Chuan was likely doing.

Was he in seclusion, exploring ruins, or entering some mysterious treasure trove?

If determined to be worth plundering, the Dark Star Society would immediately act.

“His various true bodies and avatars are located in the Three Bay Galaxy, Qingquan Island, the Valley of Time and Space, and the Shanwu Secret Realm. Additionally, one avatar has remained stationary in a mysterious location within the Taidong River Region, which we previously investigated and suspect to be the Kunyun Secret Realm,” said a corpulent Grand Master. In the Dark Star Space, his physique appeared normal, but outside, his true body was tens of millions of times larger and far more sinister.

“He’s been cultivating this whole time, not visiting any ruins or treasure sites?” The tall, slender figure frowned slightly.

True bodies and avatars engaged in cultivation across various locations certainly wouldn't carry valuable treasures, making them unworthy of their efforts.

“Investigate Cang Li next,” the tall, slender figure in the long robe continued to instruct.

Cang Li was also a hunting target on the Dark Star Society's radar, likewise ranked second-tier. The Dark Star Society was certain that Cang Li possessed vast treasures, but Cang Li was too elusive; they had never successfully cornered and killed him. The Dark Star Society suspected that Cang Li possessed some rule capable of divining the future.

The corpulent Grand Master sensed for a moment and then reported, “Cang Li’s outer-realm true body has left the Valley of Time and Space. Currently… he should be in the Phoenix Nest Ancestral Land.”

“The ancestral land of the Phoenix race?” The other members in the hall were astonished to hear this.

“An outsider going to the Phoenix Nest?”

“The Phoenix race values him so highly?”

These members felt both envy and jealousy. The Dragon and Phoenix races were the two most profoundly rooted special life forms in the entire River of Spacetime. Allowing an outsider into the Phoenix race's ancestral land undoubtedly meant actively granting them a great opportunity.

“My causal sense is being affected, but I can still confirm that his location is very close to the Phoenix Nest. Outsiders are forbidden near the Phoenix Nest Ancestral Land, so it's highly probable he is inside the Phoenix Nest Ancestral Land,” the corpulent Grand Master stated with absolute certainty.

“The Phoenix race's ‘Lord Fengyu’ has an unusual relationship with Cang Li, so your deduction is likely correct,” the tall, slender figure in the long robe nodded.

***

Time passed. Meng Chuan had been cultivating for 125 years since his arrival at Mount Huasheng.

Meng Chuan remained deeply immersed in his cultivation, corroborating his insights from studying the rules of spacetime operation on Qingquan Island with his study of the Eternal Secret Treasure rules within the Cangyuan Realm. This allowed him to comprehend the 'Chaotic Cavern Diagram' from various angles.

He painted his understanding from every perspective.

The environment of the Realm Mansion in the Kunyun Secret Realm made his Essence Soul ethereal, and the tenfold time acceleration granted Meng Chuan more time for contemplation and refinement.

Meng Chuan painted one picture after another, finding endless joy in the process.

“From the particle state perspective, the world is equally unpredictable,” Meng Chuan's Essence Soul avatar thought within the Kunyun Secret Realm's Realm Mansion. He transformed into a bolt of lightning, existing in a particle state, and viewed the world as a tiny particle himself. From this perspective, houses became hundreds or thousands of times larger than the sun, composed of countless particles. A single speck of dust appeared like a star, and even these dust-stars were made of innumerable particles.

“Therefore, the strokes should change again.” Inside the quiet room of his cave dwelling at the foot of Mount Huasheng, Meng Chuan once again put brush to paper.

Each stroke this time, though seemingly just a dot, had a ‘swimming’ sensation and came with a small tail.

A dot with a tail resembled a tadpole.

This bore a strong resemblance to the countless tadpoles in the 'Chaotic Cavern Diagram' on Mount Huasheng. However, Meng Chuan’s version was less complex than those in the original diagram; his variations were fewer. Each simplified tadpole consisted of just one dot and one tail. The dots varied in size, their distances to each other could be close or far. The tails also varied in thickness, length, and direction.

The picture, formed by countless simplified tadpoles, gradually began to influence spacetime, subtly transforming into a dark vortex.

Meng Chuan, however, seemed oblivious, utterly engrossed in his painting.

As the creation progressed, the painting's influence on spacetime grew. The countless simplified tadpoles seemed to swim, and the forming dark vortex began to swallow its surroundings.

“Boom.” The painting abruptly exploded. Ordinary paper could no longer contain such a diagram.

Meng Chuan sat there stunned, yet countless tadpoles seemed to swim within his eyes.

“This is… another Six Tribulation Realm rule?” Meng Chuan's mind rumbled, and a Six Tribulation Realm rule completely solidified.