"Take it out and have a look!" Su Ru smiled.

Chu Li opened the box, a faint fragrance a.s.sailed his nostrils, it was a spice used to prevent rotting and absorb moisture. The average households could not afford to use this spice.

Scrolls of paintings stacked in the box, Chu Li carefully removed a scroll from the box and slowly unfolded it, entering his view was a lifelike yellow tiger with white eyes. In the painting, the tiger was letting out a long roar into the sky.

Chu Li gasped in admiration, "Magnificent!"

Looking at the painting, it was as if a real fierce tiger was roaring right in front of his eyes, and this made his whole body turn cold.

Xue Ling gave the painting a curious glance, and her face turned pale.

Chu Li turned his head to her, and chuckled, "Scaredy-cat, you need to build up your courage!"

Xue Ling suppressed her fear and took a glance again but her face paled once more, it was as if a tiger lunged at her and was going to eat her, fear gripped her heart, it was involuntary and she could not control it.

Su Ru chuckled, "Now, don't scare her!"

Chu Li turned and grinned at Xue Ling, "Xue Ling, you need to be braver, put this painting on the wall, and looked at it a few times every day!"

Xue Ling hesitated, "You really want to hang it up?"

Chu Li pointed at an art of Longevity Crane, "Hang the painting there!"

The art of Longevity Crane was hanging on the north wall, the art itself faced the door of the hall, so whoever entered the main hall will see the art when they looked up.

Xue Ling looked at Su Ru helplessly.

Su Ru chided Chu Li, "Chu Li, are you crazy?"

Chu Li explained, "It will be beneficial to her. With her timidity, if she were to go out and encounter some savage people, even if she possessed the strongest martial arts, she will not be able to utilize it!"

"...That's true," Su Ru thought about it and nodded.

The people outside in the martial arts world were all vicious and savage, they can sprout whatever evil words, not to mention that Xue Ling's martial arts were not that good, even if it was good, she will not be able to manifest it with her timidity, and this was too dangerous.

Xue Ling pouted, she had no choice but to take the art of Longevity Crane down and carefully hang up that tiger painting instead.

Chu Li stood at the door with his hands behind his back, giving her instructions to adjust the painting until it was right, thus, at first glance, it looked like there was a tiger standing there.

Su Ru smiled, "Xue Ling, how is your martial arts training?"

Xue Ling gave a faint smile, "It was much better now."

"That's good," Su Ru laughed, "You have a great teacher like Chu Li enlightening you, and this is your good fortune, you have to cherish this opportunity."

Xue Ling glanced at Chu Li and nodded lightly.

Chu Li unfolded another scroll of painting, it was a picture of a tiger hunting sheep, with furs surging like the tide and teeth like sharp drills, glistering with piercing-cold light, its eyes ice-cold and merciless, it truly had the all-creatures-are-at-its-mercy aura.

He shook his head and sighed in admiration, Lu Bo Yuan was really awesome.

Lu Bo Yuan's paintings were not only lifelike, they—more importantly—contained a glimmer of spiritual energy. Chu Li guessed that perhaps this great master painter was an Enlightened Master, or, he trained his martial arts through drawing and he grasped a hint of its essence.

Letting Xue Ling look at the painting invariably will not only increase her bravery, but also strengthen her spirit, thus doing this will bring her boundless benefits.

With a stronger spiritual energy, she will be able to cultivate her heart technique for a longer time, and her inner energy can circulate faster. It was also the key to moving up in her cultivation boundary in the future.

Su Ru sat at a side and watched him immersed himself in the painting, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

Lady Siao Qi showed the same expression when she saw the paintings too, but it was a different case for Su Ru, she felt fearful whenever she saw the painting, she could not see the beauty in this painting at all.

Chu Li admired the paintings one by one until he had appreciated all 10 scrolls of paintings, he felt as if he just had a hearty meal. Feeling satisfied, he put the scrolls of paintings back into the box and laughed, "They are truly the paramount work of arts!"

"Your drawings are not bad too," Su Ru smiled, "I saw your drawings of Spirit Herbs, and your skills are brilliant."

"I am still far from good as I don't have a teacher to guide me, I have not grasped the true essence of it yet."

"That's a pity."

"If there is an opportunity, I will apprentice to a famous teacher and learn properly!"

"There is a famous teacher in the Public House."

"Who is it?" Chu Li asked in a hurry.

"Second Lady," Su Ru grinned, "Second Lady was apprenticed to Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi before, you know who is Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi right?"

Chu Li was shocked, "Second Lady was Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi's disciple?"

Han Xi was one of the top painters of this generation, he specialized in landscape drawings and he had grasped the profound artistic conception in his heart. His paintings made others feel as if they were in the scene of the painting personally, his paintings were definitely fine work of arts that can edify one's state of mind and sought after by countless of people.

"Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi had lived in the Public House for five years," Su Ru tilted her head to one side and thought for a moment, "At that time, Second Lady was 13-year-old, Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi said that he had nothing left to teach her and went away."

Chu Li mused, "It is said that Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi is eccentric, that he never has a disciple and that he would not meet outsiders."

"Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi lived in remote mountains, one time when he went out to pick some herbs, he was bitten by a poisonous snake, and Second Lady happened to pa.s.s by. She saved him, and thus, he taught Second Lady for five years to return the favor."

Chu Li was surprised, he laughed, "The Second Lady is so lucky!"

"It's true that the Second Lady is lucky," Su Ru sighed, "It is a pity that she could not practice martial arts."

"Why so?"

"Her body is too weak, it cannot withstand inner energy," Su Ru shook her head and said, "It was congenital and there was no solution. She even gets sick occasionally."

"That's a pity."

"You have very little chance of learning painting from the Second Lady, so keep practicing your martial arts!"

Chu Li laughed, "That's true too."

"I'm going," Su Ru waved her hand and left nonchalantly.

The moonlight splashed down its watery white-silver glow.

The night wind blew through the green bamboo, creating a soft rustling sound.

Chu Li was sitting in the paG.o.da motionlessly, he was still like a statue.

In the void of his mind, a silver-white tiger came alive and it was roaring from time to time, rehearsing every form and posture of the Art of White Tiger.

His thoughts flickered and the 10 paintings of fierce tigers he saw during the day came to mind.

The white tiger lunged at one of the paintings, like a water droplet falling into a puddle of water, the white tiger disappeared into the painting. After a while, the painting broke into pieces and disappeared too, at the same time, the white tiger leaped forth with a subtle charm added to it, looking slightly more lifelike.

The white tiger broke all 10 paintings one after another. A total transformation of the white tiger occurred and it became as vivid as a real tiger.

Chu Li's consciousness went into the tiger, feeling calm and indifferent, he was fearless.

He separated a small part of his consciousness to look after his own body, an influx of energy from the void was entering and changing his body, like immersing his body in an herb bath and changes to his body happened invariably.

When he woke up, it was already the next morning.

Without him noticing, a night had pa.s.sed. His body was physically more compact and robust, he clenched his fists and felt his strength had increased, the effects were remarkable.

He rose to practice Sentient Menace, the force in his body flowed and he found that there was a great improvement.

Xue Ling was also practicing the eight forms of Crescent Cryptic, and after that, she started preparing breakfast.

Chu Li ate his breakfast in the main hall with his back to the door. Xue Ling stood beside him so she had no choice but to face the north wall and looked right at the picture of a fierce tiger.

She knew that Chu Li did this deliberately so she just gave a helpless look. When Chu Li finished his meal, she was already sweating bullets and her sweat almost drenched her clothes.

After was.h.i.+ng the dishes, she quickly went back to the house and took a bath.

The next few days, Chu Li stayed in the small courtyard, like he never came back from that night. He did not go out, whatever matter he will order Xue Ling to do it. He focused on practicing Sentient Menace because he needed to reach the third level within one month.

Since he saw Lu Bo Yuan's paintings, the power of Art of White Tiger surged and Sentient Menace's cultivation progress was faster too, but he also had a faint feeling that practicing Sentient Menace and Art of White Tiger together will lead to a bad outcome in the future.

After finished practicing the Art of White Tiger, it became much faster to practice Sentient Menace, but there were subtle changes to his state of mind. Training Sentient Menace after exiting the fierce tiger's state of mind was like throwing flame into the oil pan, the raging killing intent in him could not be suppressed.

When he was self-cultivating, he used the Omniscient Mirror to repress and calm the killing intent to prevent getting affected by it.

But this was just repressing it forcibly, not eliminating it entirely. Once Omniscient Mirror stopped functioning, the killing intent will rise again.

Xue Ling began to chant Buddhist scriptures once again, using Buddhist austerities to diminish his killing intent, thus whenever Chu Li was self-cultivating, she will chant the Buddhist scriptures by his side.

Chu Li with the help of Xue Ling's chanting of Buddha austerities was able to eliminate his killing intent and restore his state of mind.

However, he needed to chant the Buddha austerities to diminish his killing intent after self-cultivation every day and this took up a part of his self-cultivation time. This made him rather anxious, it was too bad that he could not practice Scripture to Buddha's Devil Concealing.

Scripture to Buddha's Devil Concealing was taught through enlightenment, he could not learn it no matter what, thus he had no choice but to use a stupid method which was time-consuming.

Fortunately he had the Omniscient Mirror, whenever he felt that there was something wrong, he will activate Omniscient Mirror to restore calm so that the killing intent could not control him, otherwise, he would not dare to practice it anymore.

One day, Su Ru came to look at Glory's Will Tree's growth as well as the rest of the Spirit Herbs. Chu Li took this chance to ask, "Chief, the Public House still has a lot of paintings right? "

"Yeah," Su Ru was in apricot yellow gown, her gaze moved away from the Glory's Will Tree and looked up at him, "You still want to look at other paintings?"

Chu Li smiled, "I want to look at some that can nurture my temperament, cultivate my mind and improve my character."

Su Ru said, "Cultivate your mind and improve your character?"

Chu Li explained, "The training of Sentient Menace produced too much killing intent and I need to neutralize it."

Su Ru stopped smiling, "Something went wrong?"

Chu Li waved his hand and laughed, "It's not a big issue, as long as I regulate my state of mind, I will be fine. Are there any Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi's paintings?"

"Well, there are a few," Su Ru answered, "However, those are Second Lady's… I will borrow the paintings from Second Lady! "

"Thank you, Chief," Chu Li gave her a fist salute and smiled.

Su Ru sized him up and saw that his state of mind was not affected, but she was still concerned.

Chu Li let out a sigh, "It's a pity that I could not learn painting from Second Lady."

"Stop dreaming!" Su Ru cried, "Second Lady is not the same as with Lady Siao Qi, Lady Siao Qi is someone who is cold on the outside but warm on the inside while Second Lady is someone who is warm on the outside but cold on the inside, she might look gentle and friendly but no one got close to her. She normally doesn't go out and she won't see outsiders… I will go and ask if I can borrow the paintings."

After saying that, she rose to her feet and walked away.

Shortly after that, she came back with a long white wooden box and pa.s.sed it to Chu Li, "I successfully borrowed it. Inside this box are Great Master Han Xi Xi Xi's paintings, a total of eight paintings, you must be careful with them!"

Chu Li quickly opened the box and carefully took out a painting, a picture of landscape entered his line of sight—dark green mountains and a part of a house that can be seen vaguely.

Chu Li's mood unexplainably brightened, his face broke out into a smile, the surging agitation in his heart dissipated.

"How is it?"

"Worthy to be a great master's work of art!" Chu Li was impressed.

"Only for a month, do not damage it!" Su Ru warned.

Chu Li grinned, "Don't worry, Chief!"

Su Ru was not a.s.sured, "These are the Second Lady's treasure, if they are damaged, we won't know what would happen!"

Chu Li laughed, "The Second Lady is very generous."

"It is because she has a good relations.h.i.+p with Lady Siao Qi," Su Ru rolled her eyes at him and left.