Past Events of the Divine Brush Sect

A somewhat worn antique painting hung upon the wall. Depicted within the painting was the very canyon world where Xu Ke and Li Fan had just been capturing the Realm-Rifting Whale. Upon the walls of this room hung no fewer than thirty other scrolls. To Li Fan's surprise, several of the scrolls seemed shrouded in a layer of mysterious energy that blocked outside probing. Even as the Heavenly Destiny Profound Bird, he could not see through to what was painted inside. The qingluan flew out from the scroll and gently set Xu Ke down upon the floor. It then dissolved into a wisp of green light and vanished into his robes. "Xu Ke is back!" shouted a young cultivator who had been dozing in the room, his face lighting up with joy as he sprinted outside. Before long, a crowd of cultivators came surging into the cramped room with a great clamor. "Thank goodness he's back! He must have managed to find that Realm-Rifting Whale or whatever, right?" "Our hard days are finally over!" "Yeah! Once Xu Ke leaves, that fellow Lu Ya should be heading back with him, right?" "Throwing his weight around and bullying people everywhere just because he has an exotic beast! Despicable!" "Senior Brother Liu, when you sparred with Lu Ya last time, he didn't even summon that Tianwu of his, and didn't you still get beaten until you begged for mercy on the spot?" "That was just a slip-up! If we went again—" "Shh! Lu Ya is here!" "Uh..." The boisterous crowd instantly fell dead silent. They even took the initiative to part and open a path so Lu Ya could walk in without hindrance. Yellow-haired Lu Ya was expressionless. Without sparing a glance at the varied expressions of the cultivators around him, he walked straight up to the soundly sleeping Xu Ke. His gaze lingered on Li Fan for a moment before softening as it fell upon Xu Ke's face. With a gentle wave of his hand, he drew up both Xu Ke and Li Fan. Striding out of the room, a beast with the body of a tiger and a human face suddenly appeared. *A Tianwu, is it...?* The aura radiating from the creature made Li Fan feel slightly uncomfortable, and he instinctively shrank a little deeper into Xu Ke's hair. The tiger-bodied, human-faced beast let out a roar, and Lu Ya leaped onto its back. The Tianwu beast cast a flaunting, swaggering look all around before finally taking to the sky. "For the three years of hospitality from the Divine Brush Sect, Lu Ya is immensely grateful!" "There will surely be handsome recompense in the future. Today I bid my farewells, so there is no need for you all to see me off!" Lu Ya called out in a resonant voice, cupping his hands toward the ground below. Without waiting for any response from the Divine Brush Sect, he spurred the Tianwu and swiftly vanished into the horizon. "What's he acting so smug for! He's just relying on the might of the Beast Taming Sect!" "Heh, Lu Ya's own cultivation is already at the late Nascent Soul stage. On top of that, he has the Tianwu beast. Even Eldest Senior Brother might not be his match." "Yeah, who told our own people to be so useless? It's not like we can have our seniors step in, can we?" "Forget it, forget it. Looking at our Sect Master's pathetic state, he's not even as good as Eldest Senior Brother." ... Before they departed, Li Fan faintly caught snippets of discussion drifting up from below. Lu Ya paid them no mind at all, flying onward with Xu Ke and Li Fan in tow. The scenery below shifted constantly as they traversed plains and mountain ranges along the way. After more than twenty days, the surrounding landscape finally began to look familiar. They had already returned to the territory of the Beast Taming Sect. *Without the White Mist Barrier, traveling between places in the ancient era was indeed far more convenient,* Li Fan thought to himself, though he could vaguely sense that his time in this Fallen Immortal Realm excursion was drawing to a close. Xu Ke, who had slept the entire way, was finally shaken awake by Lu Ya. "Huh? Senior Brother Lu Ya?" Xu Ke rubbed his eyes groggily and spoke in bewilderment as he saw Lu Ya standing upright ahead, his robes flapping in the wind. "Where are we?" Still thinking he was dreaming, Xu Ke looked around. Li Fan gave him a sharp clawing, snapping him wide awake. "Whoa! The Beast Taming Sect! I'm back!" Recognizing the surroundings, Xu Ke hopped up excitedly. A faint smile appeared on Lu Ya's face. He patted Xu Ke's head and asked about his three years of experience searching for the Realm-Rifting Whale. Xu Ke naturally poured out all his grievances. After offering some comfort and praise, Lu Ya's expression turned solemn as he brought up serious business. "Next, I have an even more important task to entrust to you." Hearing that he had to leave again barely after returning, Xu Ke's face instantly fell. Yet seeing Lu Ya's solemn look, Xu Ke still nodded in agreement. "Senior Brother Lu Ya, what is it?" "I need you to go to Nanming and deliver something for me," Lu Ya said in a deep voice. "Nanming? Sounds kind of familiar..." Xu Ke scratched his head, thought for a moment, and suddenly came to an understanding. "Oh! That's the place with lots of beasts, right..." Just as Li Fan was listening intently, he abruptly noticed the surrounding sights and sounds beginning to blur. *This...* No matter how much reluctance he felt, he could not alter the rules of the Fallen Immortal Realm. In the next instant, after a bout of dizzying disorientation, Li Fan found himself back inside the Heavenly Profound Mirror. "The Divine Brush Sect, Nanming..." Reflecting upon what he had seen and heard during this trip into the Fallen Immortal Realm, Li Fan pondered for a moment before searching through the Heavenly Profound Mirror. The Divine Brush Sect had been a mid-sized cultivation sect in the ancient era. They entered the Dao through the brush, and it was said their calligraphy and paintings could commune with the divine. Disciples of the sect were exceptionally skilled in calligraphy and painting, and legends even claimed they could bring painted creatures to life. Unfortunately, after several Great Cataclysms, virtually none of their works had survived. Even when Li Fan had visited the Museum of Divine Archives, he had seen nothing handed down from them. In today's cultivation world, records regarding cultivators of the Divine Brush Sect were sparse as well. Most were unremarkable, obscure figures. Only one former Sect Master of the Divine Brush Sect, Chu Youhong, had left a faint trace in history. With only a Nascent Soul cultivation, this man had accepted the dying mandate of the previous Sect Master to take charge of the Divine Brush Sect. Because his cultivation was low and his strength meager, he was often looked down upon by the sect's cultivators. Out of deference to the title of Sect Master, however, things were never made too unpleasant on the surface. Chu Youhong had not taken it to heart either. He treated the sect's cultivators with genial warmth, completely lacking the majesty expected of a sect master. Even so, he never neglected his duties as leader. From major sect matters down to the smallest trifles, he saw to everything personally. Externally, he also cultivated good relations with many neighboring sects. Under his diligent and conscientious efforts, the Divine Brush Sect finally recovered from the plight left by the previous leader's sudden demise and the gap in disciple generations. Relying on this merit, the disciples of the Divine Brush Sect gradually accepted Chu Youhong's status as Sect Master. And once the mortal disciple Chu Youhong took in made rapid strides in cultivation, surpassing even Chu Youhong himself, the master's stature rose along with his disciple's, finally securing his position as Sect Master beyond dispute. Just as everything seemed to be progressing smoothly with a promising future ahead for the Divine Brush Sect, disaster suddenly struck one day. That remarkably gifted disciple, the Eldest Senior Brother of the Divine Brush Sect, turned out to be a spy sent by another sect, the Dianhua Gate. His objective had been the supreme treasure of the Divine Brush Sect: the Brush of Heavenly Depiction. One night, coordinating from within, he assisted the Dianhua Gate in launching a surprise assault on the Divine Brush Sect. The casualties were countless, and the Divine Brush Sect was nearly wiped out.