Mythical Scroll Artist: Starting with the God of Wealth, Zhao Gongming

Chapter 12 The Five Virtues of the Rooster
Once you've chosen your direction, begin your exploration on foot.

Unfortunately, the Zerg monsters were nowhere to be seen for quite some time.

"Didn't they say there are many Zerg dimensional monsters? Where are they?"

Wu Xian couldn't help but begin to doubt himself.

Just then, the roar of engines came from behind, and then several cool mountain bikes sped past and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

At that moment, he finally understood why there was a vehicle rental service at the [Artillery Fortress].

Someone recommended it to him at the time, but he thought it was too expensive and didn't rent it.

"Never mind, it's good to save some money."

But reality told him that saving that money was a bit difficult.

After a half-hour hike, I started to question the meaning of life.

Activate the scroll to summon the Chicken King. "Such a big rooster, I should be able to ride it, right?"

If all else fails, we can first requisition the black tiger of the God of Wealth.

Just as I was about to climb onto the back of the chicken king, I heard the roar of an engine again. A slightly dilapidated mountain motorcycle sped by, making a cool brake and drift, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Hitch a ride, kid?" The man, who looked to be in his forties with a toothpick hanging from his neck, had dark skin and dressed in a somewhat wasteland style. "Thirty dollars, fixed price."

Wu Xian was stunned and had a strange sense of déjà vu.

I couldn't help but recall the motorcycle taxi drivers outside the train station in my hometown in my previous life.

"Twenty," Wu Xian replied thoughtfully.

"Okay, get in the car!"

The motorcycle driver grinned, gestured for Wu Xian to get on the back seat, and showed him his payment QR code.

After paying and getting in the car, the experienced driver immediately switched to a high-speed off-road mode, giving Wu Xian quite a beating. "At such a young age, you dare to go into a dungeon alone? Aren't you afraid of dying?!"

Aren't you alone too?

"Can you compare to me? I'm an old hand at this," the guy boasted. "I know these Zerg dungeons better than my own home base. If I hadn't recently bought this secondhand motorcycle and wanted to recoup some losses, I wouldn't bother wasting time recruiting people."

"There are monsters in that area ahead, which is perfect for a kid like you to practice on."

Shortly after, the motorcycle swerved and braked.

"Look, it's right ahead."

After saying that, the older brother abandoned Wu Xian and sped away without even looking back.

Wu Xian looked at the area ahead where the insect monsters appeared and felt it was more cost-effective than renting a car, at least an experienced driver knew where the monsters appeared.

On the wasteland littered with insect remains, scattered insectoid monsters nibbled at the remains of other insectoid creatures. These were all Tier 1 insectoid monsters, about the size of a medium-sized dog.

The scroll was thrown out, and the Chicken King made a dazzling appearance, his sharp gaze instantly locking onto his prey.

Perhaps sensing the danger, the worm-like creatures that were feeding on each other became alert and immediately darted over when they saw Wu Xian, a living person.

However, upon approaching, they were frightened by the Chicken King's aura and hesitated to get closer.

“Ku ...!”

The rooster crowed, and the insect monsters trembled as if they had been frightened out of their wits.

At the same time, the King Chicken flapped its wings and pounced over.

With a single, powerful grab, the chicken easily tore off half of the insect monster's body; with a peck, it effortlessly pierced through its hard shell.

The other insect monsters struggled to fight back, but were overwhelmed by the agile and flailing chicken king.

In just a short while, the insect monsters had been reduced to a pile of mangled limbs, a truly gruesome sight.

Not yet satisfied with absorbing the "experience points energy," the Chicken King surveyed its surroundings with sharp eyes and began searching for other prey.

Through the scroll's perception, Wu Xian could clearly sense that some of the Rooster King's attributes had increased to a certain extent; this was the talent effect of the [Five Virtues of the Rooster].

By defeating monsters from other dimensions, you can strengthen the Five Virtues passive ability and improve certain attributes and abilities.

Wende: Reduce spiritual energy consumption

Martial Virtue: Increases attack power
Yongde: Feather protection ability

Benevolence: Toxin Resistance

Xinde: Timing and Agility
The [Exorcising Demons and Ward Off Evil] talent allows the Chicken King's crowing to have a powerful deterrent effect, which is especially effective against snakes, rats, insects, and ants.

They can be described as natural Zerg killers.

The rest of the way was unstoppable, as if entering a bug-free land. The Chicken King became more and more courageous and fierce with each battle.

Wu Xian's job was to follow behind the Chicken King and pick up "trash," but unfortunately, first-tier insect monster materials were worthless and could only be sold by weight.

Fortunately, the Chicken King seemed to be able to sense the aura of the Zerg monsters. It swept through the enemy lines with unstoppable force, and the figures of second-tier Zerg monsters began to appear ahead. The number and density of the Zerg monsters were also increasing.

"What is the Chicken King going to do?"

Seeing the insect monsters swarming in and growing in number, Wu Xian had no choice but to release the God of Wealth for protection.

Given the current wealth reserves of the God of Wealth, these mixed first and second-tier insect swarms simply cannot break through the God of Wealth's protective wealth aura.

Moreover, as the God of Wealth's spirituality increases, the defensive effect of wealth energy is also enhanced. Previously, 100 points of wealth energy could block 100 points of damage, but now 90 points of wealth energy can block 100 points of damage.

The key is that the protection from wealth only consumes wealth energy, not spiritual energy, so there's no need to worry about spiritual energy consumption.

"That's...?!" After a moment, looking at the Zerg mother nest surrounded and protected by the swarm of insects, Wu Xian finally understood.

The Chicken King is aiming straight for the heart of the enemy.

However, facing the heavily fortified mother hive, the Chicken King, which had just been upgraded to two stars, was clearly struggling. Its attack power was sufficient, but its health and defense were not holding up. Its spirit form was noticeably dimmed by the swarm of insects fighting and devouring it.

Fortunately, the Chicken King wasn't fighting alone.

The God of Wealth glanced at the chicken king, and his wealth transformed into a stream of light, enveloping the chicken king's entire body. The black tiger beneath him roared, intimidating the swarm of insects.

The chicken king, which was at a disadvantage just a second ago, suddenly perked up and charged towards the mother nest without any scruples, as if it had activated "invincibility".

"Tsk tsk, perhaps this is the power of money?"

Wu Xian couldn't help but think of the arrogant and cool figures of those pay-to-win players in his previous life's online games.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a handsome young man dressed in the uniform of Dengfeng Art Studio was attempting to storm the mother nest.

A fire spirit in front of him controlled the flames, burning the swarm of insects, while another mechanical cannon bombarded them fiercely, but the number of insects was too great.

"So, we still can't break through?"

The young man sighed helplessly. He had been eyeing this mother nest for a long time, but unfortunately, he was still not quite there yet.

Just as he was about to give up, the number of insects in front of him suddenly began to decrease, greatly reducing his pressure.

"What's going on? The swarm seems to be gathering towards the mother hive."

The young man was both surprised and suspicious, and hurriedly led the two painting spirits toward the mother nest.

……

On Wu Xian's side, the Chicken King had already struck at the heart of the matter. With a scratching motion of its sharp claws, it dragged a plump, fleshy worm out of the mother nest. With a peck of its beak, it struck the mother worm's vitals, killing it instantly.

With the death of the mother insect, the swarm became chaotic and disorderly, as if it had lost its backbone. Some insect monsters even began to kill and devour each other, creating a scene of utter chaos.

"The mother insect is a good thing."

Wu Xian excitedly stepped forward to examine the corpse of the mother insect.

Although the mother insect is weak, she is a rare and highly valuable material.

But before he could be happy for more than a few seconds, he was startled by the sounds of a fierce battle.

Looking in the direction of the sound, one could see a fire spirit and a mechanical butcher clearing out the insect monsters as they approached.

Behind the two painting spirits was a handsome young man who was staring at him with a look of disbelief.

"Hello, I am Zhou Qi, a second-year student at Dengfeng Art Studio."

Zhou Qi suppressed his shock, clasped his hands in greeting, and couldn't imagine how the person in front of him had done it.

Could he really rely on those two unfamiliar painting spirits beside him?

"Any advice?"

Wu Xian's eyes were wary and alert.

This person has a level three spiritual power cultivation, two painting spirits by his side, one three stars and the other two and a half stars, plus his status as a student in the art studio, making him a true young talent.

"To be honest, in my recent scroll design, I need to use the unique spiritual characteristics of the mother insect," Zhou Qi said hesitantly, "I wonder if you could spare it?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Xian relaxed his guard slightly. "What price?"

Zhou Qi was overjoyed and quickly offered a price: "How about 30,000?"

The price is reasonable for this Tier 2 Zerg rare material.

"A flat price of 35,000." Wu Xian calmly raised the price.

"can."

Zhou Qi was a little conflicted, but this guy in front of him really intrigued him.

Subsequently, the two parties exchanged money and goods, and the cooperation went smoothly.

"Can you tell me how you broke into the Mother Nest?" Zhou Qi couldn't contain his curiosity.

"They just barged in like that," Wu Xian said, uninterested in explaining anything, and instead inquired, "By the way, what exactly is the use of this queen insect's rare characteristics?"

“The rare characteristics of the mother insect contain certain information about the insect world, which is an extremely important part of perfecting the ideas for the related scroll,” Zhou Qi explained. “Of course, this is something that only scroll artists can deal with, and it is not very meaningful to you spirit tamers.”

"Oh, oh." Wu Xian understood, but pretended to be puzzled and impressed. "So this is how you find inspiration, make associations, and come up with ideas?"

"That's one way to understand it, but it's only part of the story. The main thing is understanding and talent."

Wu Xian seemed to understand but not quite, and pondered about getting another female insect so he could go back and try to study it himself, to see what this so-called "information network" was all about.

He immediately bid farewell to Zhou Qi, and with Chicken King leading the way, he left in a swift and decisive manner.

Watching Chicken King slaughter everyone with ease, Zhou Qi was deeply disturbed.

"I've never heard of such a powerful scroll being from the Elf or Beast types. Could it be a niche inheritance from some family?"

While deep in thought, he suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Tsk~ I forgot to ask for their contact information!"

……

(End of this chapter)