A master of comedy!

Chapter 106 The finishing touch
Zhou Sheng tiptoed home in the dark, not wanting to wake his sleeping master.

However, as soon as he opened his door, he saw a figure sitting in his room. Their eyes met, and he felt a little awkward.

"Master, why aren't you asleep yet?"

Zhou Sheng asked with a smile.

"The knife broke?"

Yu Zhensheng glanced at the dagger at his waist, then his gaze fell on the wound on his disciple's shoulder, his eyes deep and unfathomable, as if he were deep in thought.

"Master, I'm sorry for breaking your knife."

Zhou Sheng felt somewhat ashamed. This snowflake-patterned iron ring knife was used by his master when he was young, and he traveled all over the country, roaming the martial arts world. Now it was broken in his hands.

"It doesn't matter if the knife breaks, as long as my arm is still intact."

Yu Zhensheng was quite open-minded and stepped forward to apply medicine to Zhou Sheng.

The ointment he used was very magical; it was a bright red, like cinnabar, under candlelight and had a slight incense scent. When applied to the wound, it was sometimes warm and sometimes cool.

Zhou Sheng felt his pain quickly subside, and even felt some comfort at the wound site.

He could feel a surge of vitality flowing through the wound, rapidly nourishing the bones and flesh, as if it were slowly healing.

"Rest tonight and don't move your left arm. It should scab over by tomorrow morning."

"Master, what kind of medicine is this? It's so potent!"

A hint of surprise appeared in Zhou Sheng's eyes. He had been worried that it would affect his performance, but now it seemed that his left arm would recover quickly.

After Yu Zhensheng finished applying the medicine, he gave the remaining ointment directly to Zhou Sheng.

"Take it, this is called incense paste, the City God got it for you."

Zhou Sheng was taken aback, then realized that his master had already foreseen his injury and had gone to the City God of Xunyang in advance to ask for a miraculous medicine.

It seems that Master and the City God of Xunyang have some connection.

"Tell me, what happened tonight? How was the battle?"

Zhou Sheng dared not hide anything and recounted everything that had happened that night, from learning the Guan Gong opera to ordering clothes from Aunt Zhu, then receiving a painting from Tang Weng, and finally the battle with the general.

Yu Zhensheng's eyebrows twitched; he hadn't expected his disciple's experience tonight to be so exciting.

"You're really blessed, kid."

He exclaimed, "Leaving aside the fact that Xiao Feng spent a fortune to make you clothes, Tang Weng's painting 'Horses Drinking at the Wujiang River' is a priceless treasure!"

"I don't know how many times I begged Mr. Tang back then, but he wouldn't give it to me. You rascal, hurry up and show it to me!"

Zhou Sheng then realized that his master also knew Tang Weng, and he quickly handed the scroll to his master.

Yu Zhensheng opened the painting and carefully examined the black horse inside, praising it repeatedly.

"Yes, this is the painting, it's really beautiful!"

"If Master likes it, this painting will be yours—"

"Alright, I don't want to be killed by Old Man Tang's spittle."

After admiring it for a while, Yu Zhensheng returned the painting to his apprentice and instructed him, "Take good care of it; this is an authentic work by Zhang Sengyao."

"Zhang Sengyao!"

Zhou Sheng had been very interested in antiques in his previous life, so he naturally knew who Zhang Sengyao was.

A famous painter during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, one of the four patriarchs of painters, he was especially good at painting Buddhist images, dragons, and eagles, and mostly created scroll paintings and murals.

"Among the Yin Bai family, there is a lineage called the Painters, whose skills are so magical that they can paint fakes that are indistinguishable from the real thing. Zhang Sengyao is the representative figure of this lineage."

"Legend has it that he once painted four dragons on the wall of Anle Temple in Jinling, but none of them had eyes. Others found this strange, but he said that once the eyes were painted, the dragons would fly away." "Later, someone kept asking him to do it, and Zhang Sengyao could not refuse. He could only pick up his brush and dot the eyes. In an instant, there was lightning and thunder, and wind and rain. Two real dragons broke through the wall and flew away. The two dragons that did not have eyes painted remained on the wall."

After a pause, Yu Zhensheng laughed and said, "You can still see that mural in Anle Temple now."

Zhou Sheng had heard of this story of adding the finishing touch to a painting in his previous life, but he still couldn't hide his excitement at this moment, because he knew that what his master was talking about was no longer a legend, but a secret of the Yin Bai family lineage.

"The lineage of painters requires extremely high talent, and sometimes there are no successors for hundreds of years. Some people speculate that they may be hiding in the paintings."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Sheng's eyes flashed, and he thought of the story "Painted Wall" in "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," which tells the tale of a scholar who enters the world of murals and falls in love with a fairy maiden who scatters flowers.

The more I pondered it, the more it resembled the lineage of painters that my master had described.

"The lineage of painters is very mysterious. If you encounter them in the future, you should be able to form a good relationship with them through this painting."

Zhou Sheng carefully put away the scroll, lost in thought.

Genuine works by painters are very rare, yet the city lord gifted Tang Weng such a painting. Could it be that the mysterious city lord is a descendant of painters from the Yin Bai family?
Why did the city lord treat Tang Weng so specially, and what agreement did they reach?
"As for that great general..."

Yu Zhensheng said calmly, "Your ability to force him to draw his sword and fight seriously has already exceeded my expectations."

"By the way, Master, what is that three-foot-long blue flame?"

“That’s fire, also known as Kui Fire. It’s recorded in the Taoist scriptures that ‘when Kui Sheng chews up ghosts, he spits out their souls.’ This fire is neither yin nor yang; it’s a fierce and powerful magic that specifically counters ghosts. I didn’t expect you to be able to learn it so quickly.”

After speaking, Yu Zhensheng gave his apprentice a deep look. It seemed that his apprentice's talent in acting had exceeded his expectations.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The closer one gets to the gods, the more one resembles them, but the more likely one is to lose oneself and become possessed.

But as a sorcerer, who can resist the terrifying temptation of playing a god, or even becoming a god?
"You don't need to worry about the general. If we delay for another month, we'll leave here. The emperor is far away, and he can't control us."

Seeing his apprentice's hesitant expression, Yu Zhensheng patted him on the shoulder.

"I know you're reluctant to leave Juxianlou, that's alright. You can come back when you're strong enough."

"But at your current level, don't even think about making an enemy of the Great General. Your skills are still far from sufficient."

Zhou Sheng clenched his fists as he recalled those terrifying crimson pupils and that horrifying demonic sword.

"Master, what exactly is the cultivation level of that great general?"

Yu Zhensheng pondered for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "The Great General is very special. He has the murderous aura of a Ghost King, as well as an astonishing demonic aura. He is neither a ghost nor a demon, and his background is not insignificant."

"He fought against the City God of Xunyang. The battle was so fierce that it was like the sky and earth were darkened. If the city lord hadn't come out of seclusion to stop it, the City God of Xunyang... would probably be gone."

Zhou Sheng was shocked. Even the City God of Xunyang was no match for him?

"Of course, don't worry too much. Maybe that general will suddenly pass away one day."

Yu Zhensheng sneered, "His condition is very strange. His yin energy and demonic energy seem to be unable to maintain a balance. In my opinion, he is on the verge of going berserk at any time."

"Don't be fooled by his arrogant demeanor. He's probably been suffering behind the scenes for a long time. Some of the consequences... are not so simple."

……

Little Fengdu, General's Mansion.

As soon as the general returned to his room, he immediately sat down cross-legged, casually tossing aside his beloved Dragon-Swallowing Blade. He then sat down cross-legged, forming a mudra with his hands, his whole body trembling slightly, as if he were enduring or resisting something.

A moment later, he suddenly raised his eyes, a flash of pain and madness in his scarlet eyes.

"Quickly, go and invite the Fairy of the Qin, and have her play the Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra for me!"

……

(End of this chapter)