This was Quinn Shepherd's first time encountering something as bizarre as stepping into a world inside a painting. This painting-dao was different from Deaf's painting-dao. Deaf paints and then applies his art to reality—for example, painting wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, then shaking out the painting, causing real wind, rain, thunder, and lightning to erupt in the world.
Or painting the Eighteen Layers of Hell—then the entire Heavenly Diagram Imperial City would suddenly collapse and transform into the Eighteen Layers of Hell.
This is applying art to reality.
But the painting Quinn entered worked the opposite way—it pulled reality into the painting. Quinn entered this world inside the painting and became part of it, only to discover that the interior was not flat at all. On the contrary, it was three-dimensional, with vast space inside.
"This is another kind of painting-dao!" Quinn looked around, thinking to himself.
If Deaf’s painting is about letting his brush invade reality, then this painting is about expanding the world inward.
If these two could be merged, it seems the height of painting-dao could be raised to an unimaginable level.
Quinn pondered: if it could be done, one could paint storms that sweep across the battlefield, smashing into countless enemy troops—then, as the storm world expands inward, absorb all those enemies into the painting, and with a single stroke, erase the painting and wipe out thousands of soldiers at once!
Scholarly ambition, sweeping all before you with a wave of the brush—nothing less than this!
Quinn reined in his wandering thoughts. His attainments in painting-dao were far inferior to Deaf’s; Deaf was a towering mountain, unreachable and awe-inspiring. Quinn felt he should share this idea with Deaf and let that supreme master of painting-dao study the two methods and try to fuse them.
The painted figure began with the Guiding Art for the first realm, which was already different from the version Quinn practiced—much simpler and more concise.
The Village Chief had taught Quinn the Overlord Three-Core Art’s Guiding Art in an extremely streamlined form—perhaps the simplest foundation method in the world, ideal for ordinary people.
Yet the Guiding Art painted by the figure was even simpler—though simple, it was not crude.
Quinn’s perspective now was far beyond his childhood self; he understood that the simpler the foundation, the harder it was to cultivate—and the greater the achievement.
It’s like painting on blank paper—the less you draw at first, the simpler the foundation, the more exquisite and refined the later work can become.
If you scribble and smudge all over the blank paper, even with a magic brush it’s hard to write a beautiful essay or paint a brilliant picture on such a foundation.
The Guiding Art painted by the figure was streamlined to an unbelievable degree. Quinn tried circulating his yuanqi according to the painting; at first it felt awkward, but soon his energy flowed more freely and powerfully, surging through his limbs and bones—a feeling of seizing the very essence of creation.
"If I had such a guiding diagram, breaking through the Spirit Embryo Wall would be even harder."
Quinn mused that when the Village Chief taught him the Overlord Three-Core Art, he must have tweaked it to make breaking through the Spirit Embryo Wall easier. Whether that was good or bad, it’s hard to say.
After the change, breaking through the Spirit Embryo Wall was certainly easier, but the foundation wasn’t as deep as the painted figure’s Guiding Art. At the time, though, the key for Quinn was to break through.
The painted figure then moved on to the second diagram. Quinn had seen this realm’s Overlord Three-Core Art at Calamity-Seal Palace; the painting matched the wall mural there, differing only in subtle details.
Quinn tried circulating his energy through this pattern. Instantly, he felt his Spirit Embryo truly bearing heaven and connecting earth—a sensation that stirred him deeply.
The version Quinn learned at Calamity-Seal Palace never gave him this feeling.
The Spirit Embryo marks the threshold for cultivators; only upon reaching this step does one truly enter the path of cultivation. Foundation is crucial, but crossing the threshold is just as important.
From Quinn’s current understanding, the Spirit Embryo Treasury opens the inner world of body and cosmos. As one’s cultivation deepens, the Spirit Embryo divides into heaven and earth—the lofty become heaven, the heavy become earth, and the Spirit Embryo stands at the center, feet planted on the spirit platform, swallowing and spitting the five qi: metal, wood, water, fire, earth.
The Spirit Embryo steps on earth, body unifying the Six Directions—heaven, earth, east, south, west, north.
When Quinn reached the Six Directions realm, his understanding of these treasuries and realms was as such. As for the later realms—Seven Stars, Heaven-Human, Life and Death, and Divine Bridge—he didn’t know much, but did have some personal insights.
In the Six Directions realm, one can basically cultivate a Primordial Spirit. The Primordial Spirit is born when the Spirit Embryo, through cultivation, absorbs soul and yuanqi, and matures in this realm.
Once the Primordial Spirit leaves the body, that’s essentially the Heaven-Human realm.
Quinn had never felt anything was wrong with his Overlord Three-Core Art before, but now, cultivating according to the painted diagrams, he realized something had been missing.
The painted figure drew the third diagram—the Five Elements realm. When Quinn reached this realm, the diagram he’d obtained wasn’t complete; he’d had to fill in the gaps himself, with help from his teenage master and his own cleverness. But he’d left a flaw at his left shoulder.
Later, Quinn patched that flaw with the Grand Fostering Heavenly Demon Sutra’s Grand Unification Art, but the qi circulation still wasn’t entirely smooth. The impact was minor, and Quinn’s real combat ability let him sweep through Five Elements realm warriors without encountering any real opponents—even some weaker Six Directions realm experts couldn’t beat him—so he’d never bothered to investigate the problem deeply.
But the painted figure’s Five Elements diagram was complete. Quinn studied it carefully and let out a sigh of relief—this diagram could fully repair the missing part of his technique, leaving no more flaws!
The fourth diagram was different from what Quinn currently cultivated—much more complex.
As Quinn pondered, starting from the first guiding diagram, he noticed something interesting: compared to the Overlord Three-Core Art he’d pieced together before, the painted figure’s version grew steadily more intricate, like a sapling sprouting with just two leaves, then gradually flourishing into a tree with dense branches and foliage.
The version he’d assembled from bits and pieces was like a small tree with one branch growing east, another west—it could still become a big tree, but the growth was lopsided.
Moreover, the painted figure’s technique didn’t show any divine abilities—just cultivation diagrams. Yet when he activated other divine abilities, it felt like a master flicking them out with a casual gesture.
Suddenly, a shock ran through Quinn’s mind. In his sea of consciousness, the echo of the Woodcutter Sage’s sermon from the stone at Sacred Descent Mountain resounded. The scripture’s cadence and the painted figure’s Overlord Three-Core Art overlapped perfectly, leaving Quinn gaping in astonishment.
The Grand Unification Art, which every Cult Master supposedly derives anew from the Woodcutter Sage’s teachings, turned out to be structurally identical to the Keane clan’s perfected Overlord Three-Core Art.
This revelation stunned Quinn. It implied his Holy Cult Grand Unification framework and his ancestral Overlord Body method shared a single origin, likely tracing back to Carefree Haven, and perhaps even to the Woodcutter Sage himself—who may have ties to the Keane clan.
He watched, entranced, as the painting-Hansen finished eight diagrams, covering cultivation from foundation through the Divine Bridge Treasury. Then, unexpectedly, the man began a ninth diagram: a realm beyond the Divine Bridge that mobilizes all seven Divine Treasuries at once. The qi route is so complex that a single misstep would cause qi-deviation.
Quinn painstakingly memorized this ninth chart, though the information nearly overwhelmed him. When he finished, the painted Hansen suddenly attacked. Quinn was swiftly beaten down. Yet the painting figure did not press the advantage; instead, he waited for Quinn to recover, then attacked again, clearly 'feeding moves' like a sparring teacher, forcing Quinn to internalize the true Overlord Three-Core Art in actual combat.
Outside the painting, on the ark’s deck, Loulan Grand Shamans, Witch Kings, and Wild Di warriors besiege the bridge, held off by the White Bat Demons and the Dragon-Qilin. Ben Coates, sifting through books and treasures pillaged from the ark, grumbles that all the tomes are sealed and require his ancient main body to open. Two months have passed without Quinn emerging. Just then a cabin door creaks open; Quinn, bruised and swollen from repeated beatings in the painting world, pokes his head out, spots Ben, and beckons him over, setting up the next phase of their uneasy alliance and struggle over the ark and its inherited secrets.