Chapter 1632 - 598: Book Saint Descends (Part 3)

Thus, while Zhou Xuan was writing the calligraphy, the Book Saint stood beside him, wielding his brush.

Moreover, Zhou Xuan and the Book Saint’s figures, drawing closer and closer with the calligraphy’s augmentation,

The closeness stirred an indescribable sense of tragic heroism within Zhou Xuan’s heart,

He couldn’t help but read aloud the content of the Sangluan Stele,

"Chaos to the extreme, first the grave and then separation, torment beyond recall, mourning decimated absolute..."

"Pain piercing heart and liver, what more pain can one bear!"

The sorrow in the stele, with Zhou Xuan’s recitation, poured like a torrential rain, Yu Ruying, standing beside him, stood in the rain, unable to escape,

She immediately fell into grief.

"This stele, so profoundly sorrowful."

The sadness Yu Ruying felt was first stirred by the calligraphy’s words—mourning decimation, pain piercing heart and liver.

"What kind of painful state must one be in to write such agonizing verses?"

As for Yu Ruying’s second layer of sorrow, merely hearing the verse evoked such deep sadness, what pain must the brush have felt writing these lines.

"One wonders what extraordinary brush technique the human world’s Book Saint within Zhou Dangzheng’s grand dream used to convey such sorrow?"

Thinking I cannot witness these brush techniques, my sorrow surpasses that of the human world’s Book Saint..."

Yu Ruying glared at West Valley True Monarch once more, she truly wished to tear that human doctor apart.

West Valley True Monarch, seated in meditation with eyes closed, continually felt surrounded by intense hostility,

"How strange, what kind of calligraphy is Zhou Xuan writing, so filled with blame and venom? Must be vulgar scolding or petty-mindedness."

West Valley True Monarch muttered internally.

...

"Grief deepens, what more pain can one bear..."

As Zhou Xuan copied to this phrase on the Sangluan Stele, his figure unknowingly overlapped with the Book Saint’s.

Their figures merged into one, with no seam visible,

And at that moment,

Zhou Xuan’s perception of the sorrow in the Sangluan Stele was exceedingly intense,

The Book Saint’s extreme sorrow stemmed from the desecration of ancestral graves, which Zhou Xuan clearly felt,

He seemed to see the ancestors’ remains crudely unearthed, exposed under the Fierce Sun,

The scattered bones thrown haphazardly here and there,

He too felt an immense sorrow,

This intense sorrow caused Zhou Xuan’s right hand to tremble uncontrollably,

He tightly grasped the folded fan and, in the void, unabashedly wrote seven characters of "grief",

"Sorrow! Sorrow! ...Sorrow!"

And these seven characters of sorrow formed visible strokes in the air, visible to everyone.

Everyone saw that the seven expressions of "grief" in the air each had distinct forms,

The first character, richly inked, neatly structured, still somewhat restrained,

But the second character’s frame had become somewhat manic, as though the Book Saint was overwhelmed, losing control of the brush,

However,

The accuracy of brushwork was never the key criterion in calligraphy’s excellence; whether each stroke conveyed emotion was the pinnacle of calligraphy,

By the third character, ink already ran low, even showing signs of "dry brush flying white",

The strokes remained fluid and powerful throughout, as the Book Saint solely aimed to express sorrow without replenishing the ink, just continued writing,

Because of the ink shortage, the fluid strokes left some traces of ink while some were devoid of ink, showing signs of "dry brush",

Yet due to this dry brush, the character "grief" was depicted even more vividly,

By the seventh character, it was no longer "dry brush flying white", Zhou Xuan used a nearly parched brush to boldly inscribe in the sky,

A character of "grief", virtually devoid of ink yet blazingly sharp,

Yu Ruying, seeing these seven characters of "grief", found them stunning,

"Humans possess Seven Emotions and Six Desires, when emotions and desires peak, the structure of characters exudes emotional hues,

These seven characters of sorrow by Zhou Dangzheng, capturing the calligraphy’s initial restrained grief to its peak frenzied state, embodied through the strokes with full force,

A sight to behold, a sight to behold..."

Yu Ruying, having expressed her amazement twice in a row, felt something amiss,

She could not see that Zhou Xuan and the true "Book Saint" had already merged into one at this very moment.

Zhou Xuan at this time was the Book Saint, and the Book Saint was Zhou Xuan.

She merely felt inexplicably that—Zhou Xuan seemed to transform, his youthful appearance gaining an elderly demeanor, yet each stroke made with the brush was exceedingly natural,

Every movement of the brush, each dot and stroke, was laden with sorrow yet profoundly aged and vigorous.

"No, no!"

Yu Ruying, after uttering "No, no" twice, suddenly realized, and murmured: "This time Zhou Dangzheng isn’t just copying, he is—possessed by the Book Saint."

"Zhou Dangzheng at this moment is the Book Saint."

Yu Ruying, having immersed herself in calligraphy for years, had deep insights into the calligraphy,

If Zhou Xuan’s seven characters of sorrow were mere copying, no matter how immersed in the process, she would instantly discern it clearly.

Yet now, seeing the person as seeing the characters, Zhou Xuan’s sudden old appearance matched perfectly with the seven sorrowful characters, allowing her to ascertain Zhou Xuan was possessed by the scholar.

And her deduction was indeed precise,

In the original Sangluan Stele, there were no continuous seven characters of sorrow,

These seven characters were Zhou Xuan’s spontaneous expression after "overlapping" with the Book Saint,

"The Book Saint wielding a brush is truly extraordinary."

Yu Ruying sighed without knowing that in the Jing Country, two locations underwent changes simultaneously,

One place was Bai Yujing.

The other was far away in Hidden Dragon Mountain of Jingchuan Prefecture...