Upon hearing this, Zhang Deming replied, "My knowledge on the subject is limited, but I do know a few things. Most Painting Cultivators today focus on Summoning. They either imbue their paintings with spirit—bringing them to life and granting them sentience through Spirit Awakening."
"Or they paint entire worlds, sealing spirits or various creatures within them. The methods may vary, but most use the Painting Dao as a path to Summoning."
"But for someone like you, sir, to use the Painting Dao to pursue a Dao of Shaping—specializing in the shaping of the Sword Dao, no less—that can’t be mainstream for Painting Cultivators, can it?"
Li Cheng nodded. "You’re right. The Painting Dao does mostly focus on Summoning. But due to the path’s inherent limitations, an unsublimated painting is Innately a notch weaker than direct Summoning."
"A sublimated painting, on the other hand, is significantly stronger than an ordinary summon. However, a Painter’s work usually only achieves sublimation after their death, which has created the current awkward predicament for the Painting Dao."
"The path I follow does indeed involve shaping the Sword Dao, but it also contains elements of Summoning."
Li Cheng paused for a moment before continuing, "Speaking of which, finding this place was quite a stroke of luck. If I’m not mistaken, this was the site of a battle between a Sword Cultivator and a traditional Painting Cultivator."
"Furthermore, based on the Sword Shadows we saw earlier, and if I’m not mistaken, the Painting Cultivator must have perished here. Even their Lifebound Painting dissipated and suffused this entire area."
"The Lifebound Painting, which should have sublimated on its own, instead created this peculiar region. After countless years of slow evolution, instead of the painting sublimating, it began to sublimate this place instead."
"During this process, it became entangled with the lingering aura of Swordsmanship, giving birth to those peculiar Sword Shadows we encountered earlier."
"Something like this is actually a rather valuable resource, especially beneficial to Painting Dao Cultivators."
"But this place probably completed its transformation not too long ago, maybe only a hundred or two hundred years."
"Second, there aren’t many Painting Dao Cultivators to begin with."
"Third, this location is no longer in the outer reaches of the Hengduan Mountain Range; it’s deep enough to be considered the middle ring."
"And fourth, the attacks from those Sword Shadows are too powerful, reaching the level of the Three Talents. A Three Talents Cultivator, however, would have no interest in these things."
"All these factors combined have led to the current situation, where no one has come to claim these resources, or perhaps they’ve never even been discovered. You could say this material is precious, but in terms of how many Spirit Stones it’s worth... it’s nothing spectacular."
"There aren’t many Painting Dao Cultivators, and even fewer of them specialize in the Sword Dao. For all these reasons, the demand for something like this is pretty much fixed."
"But because of a twist of fate, my current state happens to be a perfect match for this material."
"If I handle this correctly, I could use my own spirit to nurture Sword Spirits, perhaps even to the point of commanding thousands of them. So, as you can imagine, this item is exceptionally important to me."
Zhang Deming fell into deep thought as he listened to Li Cheng’s candid explanation.
’So, in layman’s terms, these orbs are basically pet eggs?’
’The kind of pet egg that requires a very specific skillset to hatch? And if you don’t have that skill, they’re so useless you couldn’t even stomach them if you cooked them?’
’With that thought, Zhang Deming instantly had a clear understanding of their value. To him, they were a classic case of something useless to keep, yet a pity to throw away.’
’If it were a stranger, knowing this material was especially effective for them, Zhang Deming wouldn’t have hesitated to jack up the price. But this was Li Cheng... Li Shifan’s ancestor. If he took advantage of him, it would surely create bad blood between them.’
’It wasn’t worth jeopardizing a rare friendship for a small amount of Spirit Stones. Besides, he wasn’t exactly hurting for a few Spirit Stones these days.’
After thinking things through, Zhang Deming broke into a smile. He looked at Li Cheng and said, "Well, in that case, wouldn’t it be far too petty of me to hold onto these?"
As he spoke, Zhang Deming tossed the orbs over.
Li Cheng wasn’t the least bit surprised by Zhang Deming’s reaction. In fact, by choosing to be so candid, he had likely anticipated this very outcome.
"Rest easy, young friend," Li Cheng replied. "I will purchase these from you at market price. After this is all over, I’ll have my grandson here settle the payment with you." As he spoke, he gestured with his hand, and the four flying orbs vanished directly into the small Scroll before him.
Li Shifan, who had been listening quietly, gave a silent nod, confirming Li Cheng’s promise.
Zhang Deming glanced at Li Shifan. "Mm, we can sort it out later."
The words had barely left his mouth when Zhang Deming’s expression flickered, and he stopped in his tracks.
Seeing this, Li Shifan also stopped immediately. He and Li Cheng quickly scanned their surroundings before he asked, puzzled, "What’s wrong, Senior Brother Zhang? Did you find something?"
"Give me a moment," Zhang Deming replied.
With that, Zhang Deming stood rooted to the spot, falling silent.
Li Shifan watched the blank-faced Zhang Deming, his own expression faltering slightly. Zhang Deming’s current state was strikingly similar to how he himself looked when communicating with his Ancestor. And this wasn’t the first time he had seen Zhang Deming act this way.
He and Li Cheng exchanged a look, a glint in their eyes as a thought flashed through his mind.
’Could it be? Does Senior Brother Zhang have an ancestor inside him too?’
「 」
After speaking with Li Shifan, Zhang Deming withdrew his Heart Spirit and entered his Spirit Nurturing Space.
In the sky of the space, an image was playing on a loop. It showed a scene from the Flying Spring Waterfall Cliff Entrance: inside Qin Shizhong’s Cultivation room.
Before Qin Shizhong lay numerous materials, including a vial containing the Bloodline of a Two-Tailed Demon Fox. As for the materials from the Qiu Ape and the Swamp Poison Python, he had already used them while comprehending a Technique.