The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#310 - The immortal gift pen

Under the influence of the talisman, Miao Yuanwai's youngest son, Miao Shi, quickly couldn't hold on any longer and confessed everything that had happened during this period, like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

Most of it was similar to what Lu Jing and Yan Jun had previously guessed.

Whether it was Han Erlang's wife, Li Er's ox, the nine-tailed fox demon Miao Yuanwai encountered, or the Nine Dragons Treasure Basin that had miserably swindled Xin the Skinner, they all originated from his brush.

The divine brush in Miao Shi's hand possessed the powerful ability to turn what was painted into reality.

After obtaining the brush, the first thing he painted was a stool. As soon as he finished the last stroke, the stool leaped out of the painting and landed in front of him.

It looked no different from the one in his room.

Then he tried painting his own desk, screen, and bed, which were also identical to the real objects.

So Miao Shi's courage gradually grew, and he began to turn his attention to living things. The first living thing he painted was a goldfish.

After painting it, he threw it into the pond in the backyard, and the goldfish wagged its tail and swam away, quickly disappearing into the school of fish, making it difficult to distinguish.

Greatly encouraged, Miao Shi then painted a golden oriole and a rooster. The golden oriole soared into the sky, while the rooster crowed and flapped its wings, jumping into the courtyard.

Miao Shi knew he had found a treasure, so he immediately wielded the brush and painted himself a mountain of gold.

However, for some reason, the mountain of gold did not become real.

Miao Shi then tried painting a silver ingot, but the silver remained on the painting as well.

Miao Shi was dumbfounded at the sight and hurriedly painted a brush holder. This time, the brush holder did appear in front of him, but as soon as he had the idea of selling the brush holder for money, it turned back into a painting.

So Miao Shi vaguely realized that the things painted with this brush could not be exchanged for money.

For the next half month, Miao Shi did nothing else but constantly explore the divine brush in his hand, and he discovered many other things.

For example, things from the painting could only stay in this world for ten days at most, after which they would turn back into a painting and could not be painted again.

Also, if the painting was not good, even with this divine brush, it would not bring the thing in the painting to life. For example, Miao Shi later tried a pomegranate painting that he was not familiar with, and nothing happened after he finished painting it.

Miao Shi had been studying painting for less than two years, and he didn't practice every day. He wasn't skilled in many things, and he quickly ran out of things to paint, facing the dilemma of having a divine brush but nothing to paint.

However, this situation was not without a solution, which was to copy paintings.

Afterwards, he and the woman returned to her residence in the city, but after Miao Shi inquired with the neighbors, he found that the woman had actually died two years ago.

Then, Miao Shi simply told her that she was actually a person from the painting and only had a lifespan of ten days. After the woman heard this, she was silent for a long time, and then asked Miao Shi if she could stay in the city.

Miao Shi didn't care about this. He had originally copied the painting to verify the power of the divine brush. Now that the person had appeared in front of him, he didn't know how to place her.

Although the Miao family's mansion was not small, he was only a son born of a concubine, and basically he could only manage his own small courtyard. In addition, he also knew what kind of person his father was.

Worried that leaving this woman would make his mother's already precarious position even more unstable, he readily agreed.

After this incident, Miao Shi cherished the divine brush even more, and began to try to use it to do something.

Although the path to making money had been blocked, there were still many other places where the divine brush could be used besides making money.

For example, a few days later, Li Er's ox trampled on the Miao family's chrysanthemum field, and there were many chrysanthemums that Miao Shi liked very much. He had originally planned to go there to make a few paintings, but now he couldn't paint chrysanthemums, but there were other things he could paint.

Miao Shi noticed that among the paintings Ma Liang had given him, there was a painting of Li Er's ox, so an idea came to his mind. Miao Shi asked a guard who had the best relationship with him to lead away Li Er's ox under the cover of night.

Then he killed the ox, removed its horns, and threw the body into the river.

Then he put the pair of horns outside the backyard of the village butcher. When Li Er discovered the horns and went to the yamen to sue the butcher, Miao Shi finished the last stroke of the ox painting he had copied.

He sent the newly recreated ox to Li Er's house, so that Li Er was beaten with a board, and Miao Shi also looked forward to Li Er's expression when the ox disappeared again ten days later.

After this, Miao Shi continued his efforts, first painting a fox demon to scare his lustful father, and then painting the Nine Dragons Treasure Basin, asking someone to sell it to Xin the Skinner, who had once swindled his mother. Of course, Miao Shi didn't dare to take a single cent of the two thousand taels of silver.

When he said this, Lu Jing and the other two frowned at the same time. Then Yan Jun opened his mouth and said, "What about your teacher, Ma Liang?"

"What?" Miao Shi was at a loss.

"You also painted your teacher, Ma Liang, right? Counting the time... it should have been ten days ago, one day earlier than when you painted the ox."

"I... I haven't painted my teacher." Miao Shi's expression didn't seem to be lying.

Moreover, he hadn't mentioned Ma Liang from beginning to end when he was affixed with the talisman.

Seeing that the three of them had unkind expressions, Miao Shi hurriedly added, "I was indeed a little worried that my teacher would see something, after all, those paintings were all given to me by him, but he never asked me about this, so of course I wouldn't take the initiative to tell him."

Lu Jing's heart moved, "Have you lent the brush to anyone during this time?"

"No," Miao Shi answered very simply, "How could I give such a treasure to other people."

"Then how did you initially obtain this brush? Could it really be that some immortal gave it to you?" Xia Huai said.

"That's right," Miao Shi nodded, "That immortal also told me to be careful of people from some academy, so I've been avoiding those scholars recently."