Chapter 788: Black Screen Black Screen

The "Transformation" effect at the Sovereign level was completely unexpected.

Xu Xiaoshou was ecstatic.

But when he checked the information panel...

"Passive Points: 599,462." This feature's appearance had directly consumed about a third of his passive points.

"Damn it," he thought. "'Transformation' is powerful, but it's such a money sink!"

Xu Xiaoshou calmed down. Ignoring Xu Xiaoji, who was limping towards him, he turned and went back to his experimental base.

He needed to properly set up the spatial barrier, otherwise, curious onlookers might witness unusual spectacles like him digging a pit to bury himself.

"Should I draw again?"

To be honest, Xu Xiaoshou was a bit hesitant to draw again.

He still wanted to awaken.

However, an Awakening Stone currently cost 30,000 passive points, meaning ten awakenings would cost 300,000. It was a rip-off!

Generally, the effects of awakening were superior to those of extending passive skills.

Therefore, Xu Xiaoshou planned to prioritize awakening.

"Right, and there are six free keys..."

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes suddenly lit up. He redeemed four more keys to make a set of ten for a multi-draw.

Although the free keys often felt like they wouldn't yield anything good, he thought mixing them in might catch the system off guard and confuse it.

"Don't get anything, it's okay if I do, don't get anything, it's okay if I do..." Xu Xiaoshou mumbled to himself like he was possessed. Soon, ten keys were inserted into the turntable's keyholes.

The system replied: "Another key!" "Another key!" Xu Xiaoshou was speechless. In frustration, he punched the ground, which exploded into a massive crater, startling him.

"Damn it," he cursed. "I guess having a Sovereign body and drawing the divine skill 'Transformation' used up all my luck."

"No more draws!"

Xu Xiaoshou suppressed the second impulse that surged within him. He felt that if he continued drawing, he would truly get frustrated again.

His passive points were already dwindling.

If he pushed his luck again, even if he did get something good, only a hundred thousand or so points remaining would be almost as bad as having none.

"Only two keys left..."

Looking at the last two free keys, Xu Xiaoshou felt like crying but had no tears.

Free items truly were the worst! Only what you paid for was the best!

Overall, this time, he both gained and didn't gain.

But after all, there were still two...

"God, save this child, I'm so pathetic!"

He inserted another key.

Instantly, Xu Xiaoshou's pious expression turned as dark as ink, his face grim.

If the wretched system had a physical form, he would tear it in half!

The last key...

"Can I get a breakthrough?"

Xu Xiaoshou covered his eyes with his hands, creating a manual "black screen," then forcefully inserted the key into the turntable's annoying slot using his spiritual sense.

"Buzz!" A strange sound echoed in his mind.

The sound came so suddenly that Xu Xiaoshou reacted almost immediately.

Normally, there wouldn't be such a commotion.

He opened his eyes in shock, but his vision remained black.

He removed his hands, and it was still black!

In an instant, excitement and madness surged through him!

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly clutched his head, his lips stretching into a grin wide enough to reach his ears.

"It's black! It's black! A black screen! Holy cow!!!" his heart screamed.

Soon, the world shifted, and the familiar illusion appeared before his eyes.

It was a blank world, like an artist's uninked canvas. Even the concepts of land, sky, and chaos seemed yet to be born.

"What kind of passive skill will it be?"

Xu Xiaoshou suppressed his excitement, knowing that the illusory world had its own rules.

He didn't need to move; the illusion would unfold on its own.

Indeed, as he pondered, spiritual energy suddenly gathered above the nine heavens, forming a brush.

The brush touched the world's base, and a boundless expanse of land emerged; with a stroke across the world's zenith, white clouds and a blue sky appeared.

Xu Xiaoshou watched it all in awe.

From nothing to something?

What type of passive skill would this be? Mastery-based? Status-based? Or an entirely new category?

Although the world now had land and sky with initial colors, it remained lifeless.

Just as Xu Xiaoshou felt that some life should appear, the Nine Heavens Brush spun again, spraying spiritual ink across the land.

Instantly, mountains, basins, and grasslands emerged. Rivers, lakes, and vast oceans surged.

The world was colored green for the first time, and life began to emerge.

Xu Xiaoshou felt as if he was witnessing his Primeval Mansion space evolving into a world; the scene was strikingly similar.

Although the methods differed, both were slowly growing.

Having experienced the baptism of the "Culinary Mastery" and "Textile Mastery" principles, Xu Xiaoshou knew that this passive skill illusion was presenting him with an entirely new concept.

To use a single brush to outline an entire world.

It wasn't over yet!

After the terrain and rivers appeared, the world remained silent; the concept of sound had not even emerged.

Then, Xu Xiaoshou watched as the Nine Heavens Brush trembled.

"Rumble—" Gale-force winds howled, and the sea roared. Summer rain drizzled, and winter snow swirled.

Sound had appeared!

Moreover, the Nine Heavens Brush moved faster and faster.

With a single stroke, colossal ancient beasts with lion heads and dragon bodies reappeared on the land, roaring in the air, their power shaking the four cardinal directions and swallowing the eight wildernesses.

The void trembled again, tearing open to reveal a green bird with azure feathers and a fiery tail, resembling a phoenix or a luan. Its cry echoed for thousands of miles, splitting the sky.

The great sea stirred up winds.

Amidst surging waves, a colossal shadow, tens of thousands of miles across, emerged from beneath the surface, breaking through the water.

"It's a fish!"

Then, its scales transformed into feathers, and its fins into wings. A sky-darkening golden great bird soared into the nine heavens, astonishingly swallowing the Nine Heavens Green Bird as easily as a mere morsel.

It was too big...

It was only then that Xu Xiaoshou realized.

"A Kunpeng!"

He immediately regretted calling it a "fish," as it completely lowered the Kunpeng's prestige.

The Nine Heavens Brush continued to sweep.

Countless ancient creatures appeared one after another.

Xu Xiaoshou felt as if he was witnessing a historical map of the primeval world's evolution until the spiritual brush lightly tapped, and humanity appeared.

The law of the jungle disappeared.

Or rather, it was innovated to a new extreme.

Humans began to multiply, evolving from weak, helpless, and pitiable beings to developing tools, then cultivation systems, and finally discovering the principles of the Dao.

They grew as powerful as deities and began to wage war against the primeval wilderness.

Ancient beasts were consumed, and the continental landscape was altered... Tectonic plates shifted, sea levels rose... Species went extinct, and new civilizations emerged generation after generation, only to be overthrown again...

Xu Xiaoshou's scalp tingled as he watched.

Finally, he discovered that at the very edge of the world, there was still a single white trace of the initial blank canvas, and he realized he wasn't within the painting but an observer outside it.

At the same time, "Swoosh!" The historical map of the primeval world trembled, transforming into a stream of light that flowed into the mind of its observer.

When Xu Xiaoshou opened his eyes again, he was back in his Primeval Mansion world.

"That was truly awe-inspiring..."

He couldn't immediately recover from the magnificent primeval world. After a long while, and carefully imprinting the illusory scenes into his memory, he finally had the presence of mind to look at the information panel.

"Obtained Mastery Passive Skill: Painting Mastery!"

"Yes!" Xu Xiaoshou punched the air excitedly.

Having anticipated it and actually receiving it were two completely different concepts.

A mastery-based passive skill... He had only acquired three such skills in his entire life.

And almost every one of them had changed his combat style, opening a new world of possibilities for him.

This "Painting Mastery" might even elevate him to the level of Ma Liang with his magic brush.

"But where's the brush?"

Xu Xiaoshou searched around for a long time but couldn't find the Nine Heavens Brush.

His face darkened.

No brush, no ink—what good was it?

But then he thought, if he needed a physical brush to create a world, that would be far too simplistic.

So, Xu Xiaoshou pondered briefly, then used his spiritual essence as a brush to draw a bizarre, four-legged creature on the ground.

"What is this thing!"

He was disgusted by his own drawing ability.

Yet, vaguely, he felt that the "four-legged creature" on the ground had a lifelike quality to it.

"Is it my imagination?"

Xu Xiaoshou doubted himself.

The feeling was too strange; even though he couldn't tell what kind of creature he had drawn, it somehow felt remarkably vivid, as if it were a real living thing.

He suddenly remembered that "Painting Mastery" hadn't been upgraded yet, and understanding dawned on him.

A mastery-based passive skill like this definitely had to be maxed out immediately.

Without a doubt.

Ten thousand, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand passive points were spent recklessly.

After several hours, Xu Xiaoshou emerged from the flood of experience.

"Painting Mastery (Post-natal Lv1)." "Painting Mastery (Sovereign Lv1)."

The benefits of raising his cultivation limit were clearly evident.

Xu Xiaoshou, using his existing passive points, directly maxed out "Painting Mastery."

Now, when he used spiritual essence as a brush...

"Wait!" Xu Xiaoshou suddenly paused, as if realizing something.

The brush in the illusion was intangible and formless, only perceivable through thought.

This was clearly far superior to his current method of using spiritual essence as a brush.

While spiritual essence appeared formless, it was still tangible and finite.

If he were truly disturbed, using spiritual essence as a brush would indeed make it difficult to manifest anything.

Xu Xiaoshou pondered for a moment, then considered using his spiritual sense as a brush.

But then he realized spiritual sense also had limitations...

"Thought!" His eyes suddenly gleamed. If he could use pure thought as a brush, it would mean that whatever he conceived would manifest instantly!

This was terrifying.

It completely transcended the scope of "painting."

This was the realm of a god!

But... he had never strictly followed the rules for any of his previous mastery-based passive skills. Why should it be different now?

"Let's try it."

"Painting Mastery" was now at the Sovereign level. Drawing upon vast insights into the Dao, Xu Xiaoshou used his thoughts to manipulate principles, conjuring an invisible brush.

The Brush of Thought!

He wielded this brush that was invisible to others and himself, feeling like a pure visionary.

"I believe, therefore it exists."

With amusement and a sense of experimentation, Xu Xiaoshou looked down at the ground.

Then he wondered, if he were in mid-air, how could he paint using the ground as a canvas?

A canvas was necessary.

But wasn't the void also pure, unblemished, and blank like paper?

Thus, Xu Xiaoshou skipped past "physical drawing," a skill that might have been required at the Innate or Grandmaster levels of "Painting Mastery," and simply gazed at the sky.

To an outsider, he seemed to do nothing but casually glance at the empty sky.

Yet, in Xu Xiaoshou's mind, he used his Brush of Thought, with the sky as his canvas, swiftly drawing what he envisioned.

The sky changed!

Spiritual essence gathered in the void, and lines appeared, quickly outlining the form of a creature.

Then... a chicken appeared!

"Cluck, cluck, cluck..." It even made sounds!

The chicken squawked in alarm because as soon as it appeared, it fell to the ground and died from the impact, disintegrating into a pile of spiritual energy.

Xu Xiaoshou watched this scene, his eyebrows twitching wildly, falling into deep thought.

This drawing was just an experiment. He felt a slight drain on his mental power, but his spiritual essence and vital energy quickly refilled the gap, restoring him to peak condition.

"This is disgusting," Xu Xiaoshou finally blurted out, muttering with a look of shock.

"How is this painting? To an outsider, this is clearly the ability to 'materialize'!"

"The key is that drawing this chicken didn't consume much mental power; it could be completely recovered instantly."

Xu Xiaoshou thought of the Kunpeng from the illusion, his eyes widened, and his lips curled into a smile.

Then, he tilted his head, looking to the other side.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh." Spiritual energy rapidly converged in the void, mental power swiftly diminished, and spiritual essence also began to deplete.

Beads of sweat appeared. Xu Xiaoshou realized that he had only drawn the head of a roc, yet his entire body's power was almost drained.

And if he didn't finish the drawing, the creature simply wouldn't materialize.

"Right, there's no such thing as half a bird; it's either one or two..." He fell into thought.

Then, with a flick of his spatial barrier, Xu Xiaoshou called out to the other side, "Little Chicken!"

Xu Xiaoji, who was still counting, instantly tensed up and stiffly turned around.

He saw the figure of the Great Devil King Xu confidently strolling over from a distance.

Then... "Cluck, cluck, cluck!" A chicken rushed past the Great Devil King's feet... A chicken?!

Xu Xiaoji was bewildered.

He stared blankly at the black and white chicken, feeling that it completely clashed with this world...

"I shouldn't 'feel' like this, should I? It *is* out of place!" "What world did this chicken come from? A new type of ghost beast?" "What kind of trick is the Great Devil King up to now?"

Xu Xiaoji's mind was racing. Nothing else mattered; the main thing was that this chicken was so ugly!

The ugly black and white hen had already rushed to his heels, its feathers ruffled, its head held high.

"Peck him!" Xu Xiaoshou excitedly commanded.

Xu Xiaoji ???

He stood stunned, disdaining even to retreat, watching as the sharp beak pecked down.

"Cluck!" His toe felt a sharp pain.

But it was merely a fleeting pain. Xu Xiaoji stared dumbfounded at the ugly hen with a bent beak in front of his foot, then his lips twitched, and he glanced up at Great Devil King Xu.

He raised an eyebrow, silently conveying three question marks, a line of black descending over his head.

Xu Xiaoshou was speechless. So weak!

He had simply drawn it casually, without considering its combat strength.

At that moment, he added a few more strokes to the chicken, infusing it with most of his power. Xu Xiaoshou only stopped when his body felt a bit weak and his face turned pale.

The chicken's beak hardened again.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck! (I'm good to go again!)"

The black and white chicken's feathers bristled once more, and its head jutted out.

"Peck him," Xu Xiaoshou commanded a second time, both weakly and excitedly.

"Cluck!" This time, the chicken's head pecked down, leaving afterimages.

Xu Xiaoji was almost scared witless. Reacting swiftly, he immediately pulled his foot back.

"Boom!" The void was pecked open by the hard beak, creating a small black hole.

This pinpoint explosive ability immediately reminded Xu Xiaoshou of Gu Qingsan's "Point Dao."

"Holy cow, it's that terrifying?"

He never imagined that by focusing his own power into this chicken, such an absurd and comical attack method could yield such unbelievably formidable results.

Xu Xiaoshou felt that his combat style seemed to be deviating again.

It was clearly powerful! But wasn't it incredibly outlandish?

He could already foresee himself in the future, as the Chicken King, leading a motley crew of chickens charging into battle, clucking chaotically.

Wait! Why chickens?

Xu Xiaoshou almost wanted to strangle himself; it was too comical.

He was now a Dual Sovereign, a highly prestigious expert. How could he possibly fight alongside a flock of chickens?

Bringing a Kunpeng would be more fitting...

But!

"Heheheh..." Xu Xiaoshou thought, what could be more humiliating for an enemy than being defeated by a mere chicken rather than a Kunpeng?

He then let out a mischievous chuckle. "But... it looks so much fun!"