A somewhat worn ancient painting hung on the wall.
It depicted the very world where Xu Ke and Li Fan had recently been—the gorge where they had captured the Realm-Splitting Whale.
No fewer than thirty other scrolls and paintings lined the walls of the room. To Li Fan's surprise, several of them were shrouded in a layer of mysterious energy that blocked any attempt at inspection. Even with his current form, he could not make out the contents within.
The Azure Luan Bird glided out from the painting, set Xu Ke gently on the ground, then dissolved into a wisp of azure light and vanished into his embrace.
"Xu Ke's back!" A young cultivator who had been dozing in the corner shot upright, his face lighting up as he bolted outside, shouting the news.
The already cramped room was flooded with cultivators before long.
"Good that he's back. He must have found that Realm-Splitting Whale, right?"
"Our hard days are finally over!"
"Yeah, and now that Xu Ke's back, that Lu Ya fellow will have to follow, right?"
"Flashing that exotic beast of his around, bullying everyone. Despicable!"
"Senior Brother Liu, last time you sparred with Lu Ya, he didn't even summon that thing and you still ended up begging for mercy on the spot, didn't you?"
"That was a fluke! If we went again..."
"Shh! Lu Ya's here!"
"Uh..."
The clamor died at once. The crowd parted without being asked, clearing a path for Lu Ya to walk through unimpeded.
The blond-haired Lu Ya entered with an expressionless face, not sparing a glance for any of them. He walked straight to the slumbering Xu Ke, paused for a moment to look at Li Fan, then let his gaze settle on Xu Ke's face, his expression softening slightly.
With a calm wave of his hand, he lifted Xu Ke into the air, Li Fan along with him, and strode out of the room.
A demonic beast with a tiger's body and human’s face materialized the instant he stepped outside.
Tianwu... The aura rolling off the creature made Li Fan uncomfortable, and he instinctively burrowed a little deeper into Xu Ke's hair.
The beast let out a roar. Lu Ya leaped up and landed on its back.
The Tianwu swept a triumphant glance around the courtyard, as though showing off, then launched itself into the sky.
"I, Lu Ya, am deeply grateful for the Divine Brush Sect's hospitality these past three years!" Lu Ya called down loudly, cupping his hands in a parting salute. "I shall repay this generosity in the future. Today I take my leave, no need to see me off!"
Without waiting for a response, he urged the Tianwu onward, and they vanished into the horizon.
"Who does he think he is! Riding on the Beast Taming Sect's coattails!"
"Hmph. Lu Ya's own cultivation is already at the late-stage Nascent Soul realm. Add that Tianwu to the mix, and I doubt even Big Senior Brother could necessarily beat him."
"True. We can only blame ourselves for not being strong enough. We can't very well ask the elders to step in."
"Forget it. With our sect leader the way he is, he's probably no better than Big Senior Brother anyway."
Li Fan caught the tail end of these exchanges drifting up from below as they departed. Lu Ya paid them no attention, carrying Xu Ke onward as the Tianwu flew on.
The terrain below shifted constantly as they crossed plains and mountain ranges. After more than twenty days, the landscape gradually grew familiar.
They had returned to the territory of the Beast Taming Sect.
Without the White Mist Barriers segmenting the land, traveling across such distances in ancient times must have been far more convenient.
Even as that thought settled, Li Fan sensed faintly that his time in the Fallen Immortal Realm was drawing to a close.
Xu Ke, who had slept the entire journey, was finally shaken awake by Lu Ya.
"Huh? Senior Brother Lu Ya?" Xu Ke rubbed his bleary eyes, blinking at the figure standing ahead with robes fluttering in the wind. "Where are we?"
He glanced around, still half-convinced he was dreaming. Li Fan gave him a sharp swat with his claw.
"Wow! The Beast Taming Sect! I'm back!" Xu Ke leaped up the moment recognition hit him, practically vibrating with excitement.
A faint smile touched Lu Ya's face. He patted Xu Ke's head and asked him to recount the three-year search for the Realm-Splitting Whale.
Xu Ke poured out his grievances without hesitation.
After offering comfort and a measure of praise, Lu Ya's expression grew serious. "There is an even more important task I need to entrust to you."
Xu Ke's face fell the instant he understood it meant leaving again so soon. But seeing Lu Ya's grave look, he gave a reluctant nod. "Senior Brother Lu Ya, what is it?"
"I need you to go to the Southern Abyss to deliver something for me," Lu Ya said.
"Southern Abyss? That sounds familiar..." Xu Ke scratched his head, thought for a moment, then straightened. "Oh! That place with lots of demonic beasts, right..."
Just as Li Fan leaned in to listen more closely, the surrounding scenery and sound began to blur and fade.
This...
No amount of frustration could change the rules of the Fallen Immortal Realm.
A dizzying spin, and he was back inside the Tianxuan Mirror.
The Divine Brush Sect. The Southern Abyss.
He sat with the memories of this visit for a moment, then began searching the Tianxuan Mirror's records.
The Divine Brush Sect had been a mid-sized cultivation sect of ancient times. They pursued the Dao through the brush, and it was said that their words and paintings could reach the divine.
Disciples of the sect were invariably skilled in calligraphy and painting, and legends spoke of works that could give birth to life.
After several great calamities, almost none of those works survived. Even during his visit to the Museum of Divine Treasures, Li Fan had not encountered a single piece that could be called a true masterpiece passed down through the ages.
In the current cultivation world, records of Divine Brush Sect cultivators were scarce and, for the most part, unremarkable. Only one former sect leader, a man named Chu Youhong, had left any meaningful trace in history.
Chu Youhong possessed only Nascent Soul cultivation, yet he had inherited the previous sect leader's mandate on that leader's deathbed and gone on to guide the Divine Brush Sect from that precarious position. His low realm made him an easy target for contempt among the sect's cultivators. They kept the scorn veiled out of deference to the title, but it was never far beneath the surface.
Chu Youhong gave no sign of minding. He treated every sect member with patience and goodwill, projecting none of the authority one would expect from a leader, yet never once neglecting his duties. He attended personally to every matter within the sect, great or small, and built steady relations with many of the neighboring sects as well.
Through those careful, unglamorous efforts, the Divine Brush Sect slowly recovered from the chaos left by its previous leader's sudden death and the absence of capable successors. Gradually, the disciples came to accept him.
Then came the moment that secured his position beyond all dispute: the mortal disciple Chu Youhong had taken under his wing made extraordinary progress in cultivation, eventually surpassing the master himself. The teacher gained honor through the disciple, and the last traces of doubt surrounding his leadership dissolved.
With everything moving steadily forward, the Divine Brush Sect's future seemed full of promise.
Then, one day, catastrophe struck.
That exceptionally gifted disciple, the Divine Brush Sect's Big Senior Brother, turned out to be a spy planted by a rival sect, his true target the Divine Brush Sect's most treasured artifact: the Heaven-Painting Brush.
One night, aided by his treachery from within, the Dot-Painting School launched a surprise assault on the Divine Brush Sect. The casualties were immense. The sect was nearly wiped from existence.