018 Oriole and Swallow with the Monster

For the entire day next Saturday, Lin An was busy writing and drawing, but aside from various forms of cat tails, all other parts, though somewhat accurately depicted with the aid of the dark golden magical blood, lacked that unique charm no matter how much he tried.

He had to admit—he really needed to properly interact with that black cat at the office.

Moreover, he had discovered another interesting thing.

It seemed whether it was the Witch-hunting Knight's Breathing Skill or the Wizard's dark golden spiritual energy, he still got hungry and needed to use the restroom just the same.

In this regard, transcendent powers didn't seem to be so magical after all.

He didn't eat an extra bowl of rice because of them and continued to consume his usual portion.

While eating, he casually took out his phone and subconsciously searched for some sketching tutorials on a video platform. It was then that his transcendent powers began to show their extraordinary side.

Lin An astonishingly found that he could learn by watching a tutorial just once, and after eating, picked up a pencil to try and draw using the techniques from a short video—and he managed to do it quite well.

With the enhancement of Witch's dark golden spiritual blood, he quickly understood the techniques shown in the video.

And with the body control from the Witch-hunting Knight's Breathing Skill, he was able to bring those understandings in his head to life through his arms.

That wasn't the most amazing part yet.

He clearly felt that at first, he could only imitate the techniques in the video tutorials one-to-one, but under the influence of the Breathing Skill, these drawing techniques began to change gradually.

His body was actively adapting to these drawing techniques, constantly adjusting both itself and the methods to achieve harmony suited for his body's current state.

Unlike the doodles and handwriting of his school days, Lin An found that when he drew now, it wasn't just his wrists and fingers that he used.

The force seemed to originate from the seat beneath him.

Or rather, from his tailbone.

It traveled up from the tailbone, through the spine and its connected muscles and flesh to the shoulder blades, then on to the elbow, finally reaching the wrist and fingertips.

It appeared to contain a certain vigor.

This kind of vigor made Lin An feel that using a hard pencil to draw was somewhat awkward.

He simply ran outside to find suitable brushes. He bought a brush and a bottle of ink from a small shop by the entrance of a primary school.

With that, the previously constrained liveliness in the vigor finally flowed smoothly.

However, the brushwork of the brush seemed different, so he had to stop and open his phone to find tutorials again.

The path to mastery is long and arduous.

This was destined to be a prolonged cultivation. Coupled with the practice of 'Spirit Cat Body Stretching Skill', Lin An could clearly discern which paintings had a better charm, at least giving him a clear direction.

And so the Saturday quietly passed.

When tiredness welled up in him, Lin An lazily threw himself onto the bed, ignoring the ugly head's howling inside, and quickly fell asleep.

When he was awoken by the phone call from his young boss the next day, Lin An felt sore all over.

He vaguely sensed something odd about his body.

It was as if the areas that had been relaxed were now extremely tense while the tense areas had become particularly slack. Even lifting his hand felt indescribably strange.

Yet, somewhat inexplicably, he felt that his right hand, which he had used for drawing yesterday, had become much more dexterous than his left.

Groggily, Lin An reached out and fumbled a bit before finally grasping his phone and clicking to answer, "Hello, ah, you're almost here? Okay, I'm coming down right away."

Hurriedly brushing his teeth and washing his face, he changed out of his loungewear, swiftly locked his door, and hurried downstairs.

In the elevator, there was a young couple with their child about to leave the building. The man, dressed in a suit, greeted him with a smile, "Heading out too?"

Lin An pulled at the corner of his mouth, revealing a not impolite smile, and nodded.

He then tried his best to shrink into a corner of the elevator, hoping his overly familiar upstairs neighbor would stop trying to make conversation.

His wife was bending over to fix the child's hat. The child was looking up at Lin An with big, rolling eyes—full of curiosity.

The child's gaze was interesting, converging into an illusion of a simple line-drawn human doll, with a small body and a large head, and a white balloony texture to its body.

The stance was really well-behaved.

On that large head were a pair of huge eyes, crystal clear and brimming with curiosity as they gazed up at Lin An.

If eyes truly were the windows to the soul, Lin An really could feel the clean and pure heart of this little rascal from these eyes.

So clean it was charming.

It was curiously looking at Lin An while he himself was curiously looking into the eyes of that illusion.

The child's curiosity and that of Suxin, the female boss, were so different. Vibrantly represented on the level of illusion, the contrast between those cartoonish crystal-clear big eyes and the somber vertical pupils of cat eyes was so vividly presented before Lin An.

Lin An gazed intently, then suddenly raised his eyebrows.

Perhaps...

He could apply these observations on eyes to the character designs in the game?

The eyes of characters, monsters, or even the eyes on wall carvings?

It seemed pretty cool.

Look, he was also an adult with a polluted mind, and as soon as these illusions became synonymous with profit, he suddenly became fearless.

He wasn't just unafraid anymore; he watched with such focus.

Lin An would soon cease to think this way.

He took a ride with the young boss to Yunlu Mountain, joining a bunch of twittering crowds, feeling multiple gazes converge on him and nearly suffocating.

The yoga studio, for which the young boss had gotten them memberships, had more than twenty students, mostly women, with only three male students and a male instructor.

Lin An looked around and had to admit that even those with average looks had nice figures and temperaments thanks to their love of exercise.

Many girls left home in yoga outfits, wearing tight, thin pants and snug sports vests, some even in bras-likes vests, confidently displaying their impressive curves.

The cries of cicadas on a summer morning at Yunlu Mountain agitated the heart, and the morning breeze rustled through the trees, winding over the rolling mountains and brushing across the deep gullies.

Sweat mixed with fragrance and the scent of hormones hit the face.

Lin An's breathing became more rapid.

Of course, it was because of those terrifying hallucinatory monsters.

He frowned slightly and stepped back, hiding behind a light pole at the edge of the crowd, but still three monsters clung to him.

Clearly, three people were staring at him.

One was a male student who seemed to harbor some animosity towards him and the young boss.

The hallucination from his gaze was a huge emerald cockroach, waving what looked like scythe-like, three green, oily, black-haired forearms, with a pair of yellow-furry eye sockets each containing pupils sharp like knives.

Another was a girl with a melon-seed face and an impressively fit figure, her gaze forming a sticky, pink leech about a meter tall and of indeterminate length.

This leech hallucination flickered, suggesting the girl's eyes were flitting between him and the young boss.

The last one was a big mouth full of tentacles, its appendages flailing in the air as if to grab something to stuff into its mouth; right now, it stretched a tentacle, winding around Lin An.

However, Lin An did not respond to this hallucination, and the tentacles of the hallucination could only pass through him.

The three creatures looked utterly disgusting.

The giant cockroach could put your hair on end, the pink leech kept secreting mucus, and the most threatening to Lin An was the big mouth with tentacles.

He had to be vigilant at all times; one careless reaction, and those tentacles could become tangible, then who knew what might happen.

At that point, he would have to quickly enter the state of the Breathing Skill to make these hallucinations vanish.

Otherwise, if he were wrapped up in tentacles and taken into the sky or something, it would certainly become big news.

He must master the Breathing Skill as soon as possible; such hallucinatory symptoms truly interfered with Lin An's normal life.

Not to the point where the Breathing Skill could only be used in emergencies, as it was now.

He took deep breaths repeatedly, following the content narrated by the yoga blogger with the ID 'Yun Juan Yun Shu,' adjusting his mindset and relaxing himself.

He couldn't show any abnormalities; he didn't want to be seen as a freak or a lunatic!

Huh?

Suddenly, Lin An remembered that Yunjuan Yunsu was also from their city, and he even mentioned this event in a private message reply. Could he be here as well?

He wondered if he would have a chance to ask for advice.

While Lin An continued to relax, he suddenly felt his peripheral vision filled with vague shadows.

He looked up, nearly jumping in fright.

At least a dozen monsters were surrounding him, staring intently at him.

"Haha~" A crisp and hearty laughter came, and a slim and tall figure turned to look at the young boss, "Your friend seems quite shy."

The young boss chuckled, "He's a programmer, a homebody; seeing so many beautiful women, of course, he's shy."

The slim girl rolled her eyes at the young boss, "Bro, when I took you to the dorm social in college, you were the same, the pot calling the kettle black."

The young boss lightly flicked his bangs, "Qin, I've leveled up now."

Life is like a game; some people can illuminate to high levels a skill tree that ordinary people cannot touch.

Lin An did not envy it; he was almost driven to social anxiety by his hallucination illness and really didn't want to draw any attention by speaking.

He stood with a few others for a while, then quietly slipped away.

As the young boss joked while driving, Qin's yoga studio was not only a place to practice yoga but also an interesting social venue.

It had wealthy sons that came to play at high-difficulty stretching techniques and enjoyed flirty vibes, sparrows that sought opportunities to scale higher branches, handsome guys intending to refine their tea art, and rich young ladies who liked to play.

It was like a stage set up by Qin in the social circle, where each has their turn to sing and play.

Lin An didn't like such places; he knew his status, an ordinary corporate drone. He couldn't afford to play, nor did he want to.

Compared to the world of the wealthy, the Transcendent world seemed more real to him.

Eagerly, he opened the forum app and looked up the record of his private messages with 'Yunjuan Yunshu.'

——"Yunjuan Yunshu, thank you for your advice. I've arrived at Yunlu Mountain scenic area. The air is good here, but it's not relaxing at all, too noisy."

That yoga blogger replied quickly——"Hahahaha..."

"!!!"

Lin An instantly realized that Yunjuan Yunshu might be using his phone, quickly looking around.

Unfortunately, with hundreds of people bustling about in the rest area next to the parking lot at the foot of the mountain, it was impossible to tell who it was.