Chapter 139
The sky was clear and bright, its azure canopy like a deep ocean reflected above, stretching endlessly toward the horizon. It epassed undting mountains beneath, forests deep as indigo, and majestic ssical castles sprawling through the verdant woonds.
Frost had not fully melted, leaving streaks of white across thend. Despite being June, the northern Rnd Kingdom felt like early spring.
In terms of national strength, Rnd Kingdom was merely a third-rate small country. However, in the realm of arts and culture, this nation, renowned as the Country of Arts, held a special position throughout Blue Star.
As Blue Star’s most art-and-elegance-revering nation, it gathered the world’s most prestigious music schools and various other art academies. Countless artistic powerhouses emerged from here.
The “Moonlight Temple,” symbolizing the highest hall of arts, was located in Rnd Kingdom’s capital. Innumerable artistic medals originated here, including the “Silver Moon Medal” – the highest honor all Blue Star artists dreamed of.
Even beyond medals and awards, simply having the opportunity to hold a personal concert or private exhibition at the Moonlight Temple was a lifelong wish for countless artists.
–This meant they had been recognized as supreme among their peers – from then on, their fame would spread throughout the world.
Someone had once conducted a rather pointless survey that concluded: Rnd Kingdom citizens, immersed in art since childhood, surpassed all other Blue Star nations in average artistic cultivation and achievement.
–This became a point of pride for Rnd Kingdom – at least in this field, they had beaten countries with stronger economies, more advanced technology, and greater national power.Since then, Rnd Kingdom increasingly emphasized its strengths. From top to bottom, their focus on arts only grew, creating the strongest artistic atmosphere on Blue Star. Many parents who discovered their children’s artistic talents would, if possible, send them to study in Rnd Kingdom from an early age.
Outstanding artists in various fields received treatment far exceeding other countries and enjoyed special status difficult to obtain elsewhere. For instance, ennoblement – Rnd Kingdom was Blue Star’s only nation that granted honorary titles to artists and cultural workers.
Though extremely difficult to obtain – only Silver Moon Medal recipients qualified, and there were barely thirty recipients to date – and though these titles were honorary with no real power, and though noble status was declining with time’s progress, bing a symbol of obsolescence… Nevertheless, it represented status and honor. In the feudal era centuries ago, it would have been an unreachable peak formoners, a goal families strived for generations to achieve.
Imaginably, Rnd Kingdom held tremendous appeal for Blue Star’s artistic practitioners, attracting countless talents to this small nation.
Even randomly selected pedestrians could discuss various artistic fields knowledgeably, reciting famous Blue Star painters and musicians like familiar acquaintances.
These factorsbined created Rnd Kingdom’s intensely artistic atmosphere. Cultural customs bore artistic hallmarks, and city streets teemed with wandering singers, painters, musical groups, sculptors… along with various events held in cities of all sizes, and numerous art-rted festivals.
Of all festivals and celebrations, the grandest was the annual Year Festival, hosted by Rnd Kingdom’s royal family.
The reason for holding the Year Festival in June was simple – it marked when the new Rnd Kingdom held its first celebration after the world-spanning war that ended over fifty years ago,memorating the war’s end and the nation’s rebirth.
Since then, this tradition continued. This annual celebration became known as Rnd Kingdom’s Year Festival.
This small nation, once teetering on the brink of destruction during the war, not only survived but was reborn from the mes. After over fifty years of development, it became the globally recognized Country of Arts.
The Rnd people took indescribable pride in this. When the Year Festival arrived, countless people would flood into the capital to participate in this nationwide celebration, releasing their joy and passion through artistic performances in a uniquely Rnd way. Artists from around the world would never miss this grand gathering.
Rnd Kingdom’s Year Festival was more free-spirited than most imagined. On this day, the entire capital became a stage for performances.
Any alley, street corner, riverside, station, dock, park, za – one could see festival participants everywhere. Some held exhibitions disying personal sculptures on the streets, others set up easels to paint on the spot, individual bands performed outdoors in parks, while impromptu singing and dancing urred everywhere. Children, specially dressed up adorably by their parents, acted as flower children, distributing Rnd’s national flowers to every passerby… In short, from the moment one entered the Rnd capital, everywhere one looked, everyone participated in this grand feast in their own way.
Joey silently walked through the capital’s busiest crowds.
The special invitation from Chandler would allow him direct entry into the Moonlight Temple to enjoy that night’s first-ss concert. This was one of only two annual open days at the Moonlight Temple, and every artist performing there was reportedly a Silver Moon Medal candidate, or at least of that caliber.
However, even without entering the Moonlight Temple, the sights along the way were already an extraordinary experience.
This was truly a paradise that art lovers dreamed of.
“Hey, young man, look here!” someone suddenly called out loudly while waving, making sure Joey saw him before asking, “Interested in being my temporary model?”
The speaker sat by the roadside with messy medium-length hair and scraggly beard, revealing only deep blue eyes, his age difficult to determine. He held a paint-stained brush, with a fresh nk canvas on the easel before him.
Beside him, seven or eightpleted paintings were disyed in a row, drawing quite a crowd of admirers. Judging by the number of people attracted, his skill level was clearly quite good. Hearing the artist’s words, some viewers turned curious nces toward Joey.
After the Cursed Painting incident and given Joey’s striking appearance, theoretically no one in the world shouldn’t know his true identity. But as he walked, everyone who saw him showed no special reaction beyond admiring his looks, as if he weren’t a mysterious extraordinary. This was naturally due to the mental suggestions Joey continuously projected affecting everyone.
The artist clearly hadn’t recognized his identity either, but was attracted by the young man’s mysterious ssical unique aura. He eagerly rose to meet Joey, and the closer he got, the more his deep blue eyes zed with enthusiasm.
He circled Joey like a cat discovering dried fish, sighing almost obsessively. “The moment I saw you, my inspiration began flowing endlessly. Just your presence here is like art manifesting in reality! Please, you must be my muse for today!”
Joey approached under his persistence, neither agreeing nor refusing, but unexpectedly picked up a brush and asked. “May I try? I suddenly feel interested.”
“Ah?” Duzuo was stunned at first, then quickly recovered, showing a hearty smile as his deep blue eyes curved, “No problem, so you’re also an artist? Hey, feel free to use it, today’s a day for everyone to celebrate freely, no one would refuse such a request.”
He pointed to the park entrance where energetic singing and dancing drew attention. “Even if I pulled you to join them now, they’d only wee you warmly!”
Indeed, as he spoke, more and more attracted passersby joined the vibrant dance performance at the park entrance.
Joey raised the brush and began painting on the canvas.
He was quiet andposed while painting, his ck hair falling from the side of his face, hiding eyes as quiet as night, emanating an indescribable unique aura.
People were unconsciously drawn to watch from beside him.
The deep purple sky dome was like an inverted deep sea, with drifting yellowish clouds like whales passing through, distant mountains painted deep crimson like solidified red ink, and under melting frost, the white forest faintly revealed dreamlike rainbow-colored branches, leaves and flower buds, like rainbows reflecting off frost. Then there were buildings melting like chocte in the snow, and blurred crowds, with every person showing different colors, from hair to fur to clothing, like walking rainbow candies…
At least twenty distinguishable colors appeared on the canvas, many used in ces most wouldn’t think to apply them.
“Well, your color choices… they’re really childlike!” Duzuo unconsciously gaped before finally uttering these words.
How to put it? The other’s basic painting skills were much stronger than his – before coloring, it was an absolutely perfect realistic line drawing. But after coloring, it quickly moved toward the impressionist school. All sorts of bold coloring he wouldn’t dare imagine created a chaotic yet enchanting, illusory yet strange feeling throughout the entire painting.
Joey didn’t specifically imbue spiritual energy while painting, relying purely on technique, so this was currently just an ordinary painting. Without mobilizing spiritual energy to drive the painting’s spirit, Joey, being colorblind,cked normal coloring ability and colored purely by feeling.
As a result, Duzuo found it difficult to judge whether this painting was excellent or terrible. The unparalleled painting techniquebined with childlike colorbinations left him caught in contradiction and confusion.
“That’s too euphemistic, what do you mean ‘childlike’? This is clearly child-level scribbling,” a blunt voice suddenly rang out from behind.
Another young man pushed through the onlookers, showing disapproval. “As they say, painting is an art requiring talent. Those without talent shouldn’t waste their time!”
The suddenly appearing person had cat-like deep green eyes radiating obvious arrogance.
Ignoring Joey beside him, he seemed to havee over after hearing Duzuo’s words and immediately fired at him, his tone quite discourteous.
“Duzuo, I can’t stand your fake way of speaking. This false encouragement only misleads mediocre people, making them mistakenly think there isn’t a vast talent gap between them and true geniuses, wasting time pursuing what they can never achieve in their lifetime, wrongly chasing impossible goals! Better to let them face reality from the start and choose a path suitable for them.”
Jo-the-mediocre-person-without-talent-ey: “…?”
“Grant, you’re going too far…” Duzuo instinctively nced at Joey, seemingly worried he’d be hurt by those words.
But he quickly realized his action was inappropriate and swiftly withdrew his gaze, staring displeasedly at the sudden arrival. “Not everyone pursues the peak of their field. Simply loving to paint and painting freely is enough.”
“Heh. And then waste time producing worthless paper that won’t sell?” Grant mocked mercilessly.
For some reason, after speaking he also nced at Joey, exining in a somewhat stiff tone. “I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about certain people who don’t know their limits… Well, anyway, you’re not a painter, you don’t make a living from painting, your current level ispletely fine.”
Jo-expelled-from-the-ranks-of-painters-ey: “???”
“Um, are you alright, young man? Actually, Grant wasn’t targeting you, he was targeting me,” Even after the young man had left, Duzuo watched the continuously silent Joey, suspecting he’d been hurt, and hurriedly exined, “Though it’s not good to discuss others’ privacy, please don’t misunderstand him. His father was exactly the type of overambitious painter he mentioned, never sold a single painting, had to rely on his wife to support the family, andter spent his days drinking. Grant was badly influenced from childhood…”
“I heard about this from others. Because he identally discovered me encouraging juniors without talent to persevere and not give up, he’s always disliked me…” He vaguely said a few words, not sharing too many private details with the unfamiliar Joey.
“Ah, I’m fine,” The previously silent Joey suddenly smiled slowly, enunciating each word, “Ipletely, don’t, misunderstand.”
Duzuo: “…” Really? In a manga, this smile would definitely indicate turning evil, right?<hr>
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