Not only did Liu Qin disappear without a trace, but the Calligraphy and Painting Hall also hasn't sent another painter.
The pawn shop suddenly became heavily guarded, lasting for several days before it ended, during which the apprentices could only draw repetitively.
They had no idea what kind of artwork to produce, and no matter how vibrant one may be, over time, they would become numb and despairing.
Li Mo, on the other hand, became the most idle one.
The three in the same room, Zeng Xiaoyi chose to voluntarily step down to do odd jobs, while the other two switched rooms consciously, leaving him alone.
Li Mo no longer went to the hall, as the Calligraphy and Painting Hall had no such rules, and with his current level of painting skill, prolonged practice provided little growth.
He simply stayed in the room, painting by the dim candlelight, not minding the simple conditions.
Li Mo balanced work and rest, typically stretching his muscles for a moment after completing a painting, trying to slow down his body's decline.
Only hunger would briefly pull him away from the room.
The only drawback was the occasional confusion between day and night.
Li Mo glanced at the stars outside the window, seeing it was still early before midnight, he wielded the brush on the rice paper, the gray-black ink slowly spreading out, forming a ferocious mountain lord.
The mountain lord in the painting was faintly discernible, exuding an inexplicable Sha aura.
As the painting became more complete, Li Mo was fully absorbed, his brush showing no pause, his expression relaxed and leisurely.
Just as he was putting the finishing touches, Li Mo's unfocused pupils refocused.
His thoughts seemed to return from the dense forest, forcibly stopping the brush.
Li Mo looked at the mountain lord in the painting that lacked spirit, not feeling regret, he casually crumpled it into a ball and burned it to ash on the candle flame.
The inksticks from the Calligraphy and Painting Hall were peculiar, emitting a fragrance under the flame's heat.
Now when he painted, he could only assure a thirty percent chance of reaching the level of the first Tiger Roar Painting, mostly running out of steam towards the end.
The first painting was undoubtedly blessed by factors of the right time, place, and people.
Even if he had finished that stroke just now, the mountain lord in the painting wouldn't have been the one he wanted.
He had been practicing painting diligently in the room for days, but unfortunately, he couldn't capture that bit of spirit light from before.
Of course, Li Mo had not been without gains, at least with the improvement in his painting skills, he was gradually regaining the feeling of painting with divine inspiration.
He closed his eyes to summarize the problem, then jogged a few laps along the walls.
Once Li Mo's state recovered, he sat back at the desk to start a new round of painting, again a mountain lord.
However, the ink was running low, and he picked up the last remaining inkstick.
As Li Mo was preparing to grind the ink, he heard the sound of dense footsteps passing outside the door.
"What the hell?"
Li Mo noted it was late at night, but the painter apprentices probably hadn't returned to their room yet, as they should be practicing in the hall until midnight.
Bang bang bang...
The footsteps outside the door sounded again, like a heavy object pounding on Li Mo's chest, with the room's temperature suddenly dropping five or six degrees.
It should be noted, Li Mo was nearly eleven years old, with the first signs of Death Disease appearing.
Li Mo wasn't sensitive to cold, but for him to immediately sense strangeness indicated that the room's temperature was equivalent to deep winter.
He thought of the recent heightened defenses at the pawn shop, his right hand instinctively moved to his waist, with a dagger falling into his palm.
This dagger was a small carving knife used by a carpenter, the handle's hemp rope tied by Li Mu, kept by Li Mo hidden in his shoe sole.
Li Mo's expression tensed, leaning against the wall, staring at the door.
After several breaths of stalemate, he hesitantly called out, "Steward Hu, have a large tolerance, why bicker with a little kid?"
"Hehehe..."
A silver-bell-like laughter sounded, and at some unknown time, Steward Hu's figure appeared in front of the desk where Li Mo originally sat, dressed in a light red long robe, the attire looking extremely voluptuous.
Especially the eyes, turned into willow leaf eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes.
"Little Li Mo, how did you recognize me?"
Li Mo let out a breath, respectfully bowing and saying, "I inadvertently smelled, Steward Hu's unique rouge scent…"
"And now?"
Upon hearing this, Li Mo looked up, only to see gray smoke emerging from Steward Hu's entire body.
The smoke was very similar to the black aura emitted by Liu Qin, though slightly different in color.
Soon, Steward Hu's delicate skin broke out with numerous pustules, along with the stench of rotten flesh, as if the skin was rapidly dissolving.
Li Mo couldn't help but stand frozen in place, understanding this was Steward Hu's test, yet a chill surged up his spine to the Heavenly Spirit Cover.
"Not teasing you anymore."
Steward Hu chuckled, using a veil to cover their face.
In an instant, the gray aura she emitted vanished, her flesh and blood returning to normal, only her features were wiped away, staring at Li Mo with a faceless visage.
Li Mo understood why Steward Hu needed to paint a ghostly makeup, because her features were fake, appearing overly flamboyant.
Steward Hu took out the Tiger Roar Painting that Li Mo had given to Liu Qin, with bloodstains still on the painting.
She examined it carefully under the candlelight.
"Li Mo, you indeed have some heat, no, talent-driven, able to vividly capture the fierceness of the mountain lord."
"But it's strange…"
Steward Hu's faceless visage stared at Li Mo, and he subtly sensed malice, as if the mountain lord from his painting was rushing towards him.
"Have you seen a tiger?"
Li Mo had a premonition that if his answer didn't align with Steward Hu's expectation, what awaited him would likely be death.
"Responding to Steward Hu."
"Li Mo grew up in Niu Village, once saw a mountain lord from the high slope behind the village, and never forgot it."
"Oh dear, my fault, my fault."
Steward Hu smiled pleasantly, saying capriciously, "You're from Niu Village, so seeing a mountain lord isn't considered odd."
Her demeanor changed again, playfully asking, "Have you eaten beast meat?"
Li Mo frowned slightly, answering, "Growing up in a poor family, with a brother and elder sister, we only had one meal of grains a day, and only pregnant women and children in the village ate meat."
Because of Immortality, food was unnecessary by thirty years of age.
Children obtained food only once a day, eating coarse grains barely affecting physical development, easy to sustain.
If not for the inability to procreate after age twenty, every household would swarm with descendants.
In Li Mo's knowledge, not eating meat was due to villagers' frugality, and with no lack of grains, there was simply no need to take the risk of hunting.
But after Steward Hu's series of inexplicable questions, Li Mo couldn't help but feel a creeping terror.
Li Mo suddenly recalled that while he saw pregnant women eating meat, he never witnessed villagers slaughtering wild beasts.
He wondered what peculiarities existed among the birds and beasts in the mountain forests, and whether it was inherently linked to the absence of such creatures in Rong Town.
Li Mo wanted to know the answers, but obviously, Steward Hu would not inform him.
All the mysteries could only be unraveled when he accumulated sufficient power and slowly cleared all of Rong Town's secrets.
Even though Li Mo remained silent, Steward Hu already understood his meaning.