Inspiration

With that, Lin Ke began to look for ideas to paint. He didn't want to paint Lily straight away, as he wanted to make sure he was confident enough to begin.

Looking around for inspiration, Lin Ke felt stumped.

Looking around for some inspiration, Lin Ke was stumped. There was nothing around him aside from trees, trees, and more trees. There was no epic scene to stimulate his imagination, nothing... Just the still peacefulness of the forest, the sounds of the wilderness. Granted, that had its own appeal, but Lin Ke felt that if he just drew the forest on repeat, he would get nowhere.

"You want inspiration?" Lily suddenly cuts in.

"Can you?" Lin Ke asked.

Lily nods. "Sure I can. If you think that it'll help you pass the last stretch and become a B-class artist. I can show you a scene, one that occured a long time ago, between existences that you couldn't even begin to fathom. However, that should be where you aim."

Before Lin Ke knew it, his vision had already blurred, and the forest had melted away once again. This time, when Lin Ke opened his eyes, he was standing in the air above an ancient battlefield. Looking down, Lin Ke realized that there was nothing. He was nothing. He had no legs, no waist, no feet. It was a really odd feeling that he experienced.

"Watch carefully." Lily's voice echoed in his head. "I'm only allowed to show you this once, so watch carefully… Also, don't worry, nothing can hit you. You don't exist here after all. This is just a memory."

Then, the scene unfolded. Lin Ke heard the thunderous roar of lightning, the clashing of steel, the tempests of the wind, rushing past the blood red sky. The ground was littered with the dead bodies of the fallen, weapons strewn across the battlefield. There were only a few left standing, still fighting, battling it out in bursts of sparks and energy. However, it was not these smaller figures that drew Lin Ke's attention.

Instead, Lin Ke's focus was drawn towards the center of the battlefield, where two people stood, face to face. They each had an indubitable aura to them. Each of them, a force to be reckoned with, bending the world with their presence alone. Each of them were surrounded by an astronomical amount of True Energy, wrapping around them like a thick cocoon.

They emanated raw power, and they were on opposite sides of the battlefield. One of them was a tall man, built extremely studily. His chest was bare, revealing rows of extremely well toned muscles. His hair was short and black, whereas his face was hard and weather -worn.

On the other side was a woman, tall and fair. She wasn't the prettiest of figures in Lin Ke's opinion, but could still be considered a rare beauty. After all, Lin Ke's standards have already been brought higher than the tip of Mount Everest. The woman had a proportionate figure, was tall, slim, and gave off an aura of maturity. Her chest was quite large, barely kept from spilling out by her loose outfit. Her clothes were quite revealing, showing much of her snowy white thighs, and she held a small black fan in her hand. She was wearing a loose robe, one flowered in design, with a luxurious look to it.

"Are you sure you want to fight me?" The woman spoke. Her voice was extremely musical and powerful, but also held a bitter undertone.

"Of course not... But..." The man responded, sounding extremely hesitant about fighting the woman. "I have no say in this."

"But you do! You're the strongest in your clan! If you spoke up, if you said something, if you listened! THIS WOULDN'T HAPPEN!" The woman cried out, sounding quite bitter. "Fine! Come, we will finish this out. After all, as you said, we have no choice in the matter."

The man opened his mouth, wanting to speak, but before he could, a large skeletal claw reached out of the sky, swatting down at him. It came so fast that Lin Ke could see and hear the sonic boom that came crashing over as the hand smashed down on the man. However, right before it hit, the man disappeared.

The man disappeared before reappearing a little further back. The skeletal claw had dissipated, leaving only the imprint of the hand on the dry cracked ground.

Lin Ke was shocked at the scene. 'Where did the claw come from? How did the man dodge so fast? Who are these people?' There were so many questions flying through his head, however, he had no way of getting the answers.

However, the fight on hand wouldn't wait for Lin Ke to get those answers. In the time it took him to think that, countless moves have already been exchanged, with the woman launching multiple ferocious attacks that would cause the world to tremble and man desperately dodging her attacks.

The man frowned. "There's something wrong... Why are you so much weaker?" He asked.

The woman after hearing this hesitated for a moment before becoming even more enraged. "You dare ask????" She screamed before raining down more attacks on the man.

After seeing that her attacks were going anywhere, the woman stopped attacking for a split second. Lin Ke was barely able to keep up with the fight, which was a miracle in and of itself. Of course, this was probably thanks to Lily, who was providing him with the ability to witness this fight to the fullest.

This slight pause in the woman caused Lin Ke to notice something unusual. The woman's right eye was glowing in a brilliant white. Instead of pupils, there was instead a Chinese Character on the eye. It was a large "Jie" character.

Lin Ke could faintly sense the pressure and power emanating from that eye, which was probably the cause of the skeletal claws that had been attacking the man. However, Lin Ke could tell the pressure from the eye was toned down by Lily a lot. This was because the numerous people on the ground fighting had all stopped, unable to bear the pressure of the mysterious eye.

Many of them were on their knees, unable to hold their weapons any longer. The weaker ones had already collapsed from the pressure. Even the man fighting the woman was struggling slightly with the pressure, as seen by the sweat on his brows.

"You… Why are you using your Eye right now? Don't you know how many people would want to take advantage of-" The man panickedly said.

"Stop!" The woman shrieked. "I don't want to hear your concern!!! If you really cared, it wouldn't come down to this!" With that said, the brilliant light from the woman's eye only got brighter and brighter, causing many skeletal hands to appear in quick succession, all smashing down towards the man.

*Jie as in the Chinese character for world.