Chapter 629: Art Must Keep up with the Times
Translator: AL_Squad Editor: Chrissy
Wang Lu always believed that a leader who has to take care of everything by himself was pitiful because it meant that no one under him was useful. What was the difference between a leader without men and a waste? At least, there was nothing wrong about the leadership identity itself
And today, Wang Lu personally realized the tragedy of taking care of everything by himself.
From the start of the writing, he had already written tens of thousands of characters. Although he didn't feel any soreness in his wrist or lumbar discomfort with his Jindan Stage physique, Wang Lu could experience a burst feeling of intense pressure that was almost like a substance that made it difficult for him to breathe and caused him to sweat buckets.
This fighting arena was a one-way isolation from inside to outside. The outside audience could see the inside, but people in the inside could not see the outside—of course, this needed to be adjusted later in the future. Thus, in theory, Wang Lu should not feel any pressure.
But now, he clearly felt that many people were staring at him with almost murderous looks.
Of course, this was to be expected since the originally good calligraphy performance had turned into copying a nearly twenty million characters novel. Anyone with a normal IQ could see his trick, and it was natural for them to feel angry about it.
Similarly, because of the particularity of this task, it was very difficult for Wang Lu to find a reliable calligrapher to carry it out, and he had to personally do it himself.
Among the cultivators, those who cultivated the way of calligraphy were quite pious about it. When they were told that they have to copy a book in the public eyes, and that it was also a super long novel, many of them turned extremely angry and directly refused on the spot. Some with gentle personality flatly told they had never learned a kind of calligraphy which required to write twenty million characters in one go in their life.
As for ordinary mortals, there were calligraphers who were easy to buy and persuade. A bottle of immortal ink or a few longevity pills was enough for them to put aside their literati idealism. The problem was that, no matter how vigorous their writing was, these ordinary mortals couldn't write twenty million characters in one go. Even until their wrist broke, they simply could not do it. Even if they madly wrote in cursive writing, they could only write several thousand characters in two hours, and that meant to finish writing, they had to keep on writing without any break or sleep for more than one hundred days.
Therefore, in the end, Wang Lu had to personally pick up the task. As the best student of Spirit Sword Sect, his calligraphy could be counted as passable. And with his peak Jindan Stage cultivation base, his physical strength and endurance were extraordinary. Let alone not sleeping for more than a hundred days, even not sleeping for several consecutive years would not be a major problem. Even rarer was that, he had no reservations and integrity, and he had no problem at all in copying a popular novel word for word!
The only pressure was from the angry Earth Immortals.
"Does that kid really think we're idiots?"
"Grandstanding in full view of the public, is this your Union of Ten Thousand Immortals' cultivator sincerity?"
The anger of the Earth Immortal was difficult to penetrate the fighting arena isolation and overwhelm Wang Lu directly, thus they had to shift the target to Supreme He Tu.
In the face of the angry Earth Immortals, Daoist He Tu merely smiled and said nothing.
First of all, he was not good at arguing. Wanting to persuade the angry Earth Immortals to calm down was beyond his reach. Secondly, Wang Lu had previously reported the matter to him and had made adequate plans. At present, a specialist would personally appear to handle this situation.
"Those words are wrong!"
Sure enough, there was no need for He Tu to worry. From behind him, someone stood up and confronted the Earth Immortals.
That person was dressed in a snow-white dress with waterfall-like fine black hair on the head. There was an emerald green bamboo sword at that person's waist and a wine gourd. She was none other than the number one Jindan in Nine Regions.
Wang Wu answered the question directed for He Tu and said, "The Union of Ten Thousand Immortals is really sincere, please don't misunderstand."
One of the angriest Earth Immortals couldn't help but stand up and pointed at Wang Lu who was constantly copying on the stage. "Really sincere? You call this damn calligraphy copying sincere? I have never heard any famous calligraphy work that is called 'Starting from Zero'!"
Wang Wu played it down. "Of course, this is a calligraphy created while you guys were asleep, so it's reasonable if you haven't heard of it."
"Ha, then do you have the ability to show us the original and let us have a look? To copy something, one should have the original work first!"
"It has been memorized in his mind, the way of calligraphy is all about wholeheartedness. Moreover, all of you were all the top experts in Nine Regions before the Age of Chaos, is there anything new in the world that you haven't seen? If we copy the calligraphy works of your time, we would inevitably play axes in front of Lu Ban 1 , and that is an expression of insincerity."
"You're clearly just an annoying troublemaker! How could there be such a long calligraphy in this world? Moreover, it seems that it would keep going on and on, and you just want to take this opportunity to delay time!"
Wang Wu continued to argue obstinately, "Therefore, art keeps advancing with the time and constantly innovating. If something didn't exist in your time, it doesn't mean that it won't exist in the future. As for delaying time, it's just unilateral malicious conjecture from your side. As a matter of fact, in my eyes, I see one of the most talented cultivators in the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals showing you the art of calligraphy in an extremely humble manner. From the beginning to end, we never cross any line."
"Ridiculous, too ridiculous!" The indignant Earth Immortal couldn't help but summon his immortal treasure. But, before he could make his move, he was stopped by Xuan Mo.
"Don't be impulsive. If we start the war at this time, we would be in the wrong."
"Xuan Mo, at this time, you still speak on behalf of them?" That angry Earth Immortal was anxious. "You want to be reasonable with them, but they are actually being annoying troublemakers, what could we possibly say to this kind of person?"
Xuan Mo said, "Notice the last sentence she just said. From the beginning to end, they did not cross any line. She's right. Although this absurd calligraphy show is just delaying times, from the rules point of view, they are beyond reproach."
That Earth Immortal was startled. "What rules?"
"It was in the proposal that they first submitted, and it was approved by all of us. I just looked at it carefully, and there's indeed no time limit for the opening ceremony."
"... You mean, this delaying time tactic of them is reasonable?"
Xuan Mo said. "Of course not. They are just exploiting loopholes in the rules, it's just that, we have approved the rules with these loopholes."
"What a joke! So what if we have approved? Who would've thought that they would use those rules to make such a despicable act! I don't acknowledge this kind of rules which contain hundreds of loopholes!"
Before his voice fell, he heard Wang Wu sneer. "Well said. Flatly denying when the rule brings disadvantage on your side, we can clearly see the sincerity of the Earth Immortals!"
"Obviously, you are being despicable first!"
Seeing that a new round of quarrel was about to break out, Xuan Mo furrowed her brows, but she somewhat could not do anything about it. Her leader's prestige was actually very limited. Because there was no one that could convince the others, she was just temporarily picked, half unwilling, to be the leader among a group of Earth Immortals. When a situation like this appeared, she really could not control it.
Bai Ze's prestige was higher than hers—although this person's popularity was very poor and his personality was even more disgusting, he had done a lot of things when he was trusted by their previous Boss in the past. However, at this time, it was already good if he didn't take joy in the misfortune of others, by hitting a person when he was down. He simply could not be expected to help...
The only one who could be counted on was him who always considered himself as a sinner and unwilling to show himself in public. And just as she thought about it, Xuan Mo suddenly felt that there was another person behind him. Then there was a deep voice, which made Xuan Mo feel at ease.
"Enough, stop the quarrel."
Quiet instantly descended on the rostrum.
The red-faced Earth Immortal retreated two steps back, his anger vanishing into thin air like smoke. The other Earth Immortals who had been watching enthusiastically also withdrew.
The black-clad Earth Immortal appeared from the void and then softly spoke.
"Just let them continue. After all, the rules were approved by both sides. Even if there are traps hidden in it, since they couldn't be identified at that time, then we could only put the blame on our own carelessness."
Hearing that the black-clad man said so, Xuan Mo was relieved. His prestige was second only to that leader who, in the past, led the group of Earth Immortals to build the group of immortal tombs. Thus, his words were effective and influential.
"If you say so, then I agree." That Earth Immortal, who was still angry, shook his head with a bitter smile. "It's just that, I never knew that you are a person who is so pedantic with the rules."
"Pedantic?" The black-clad Earth Immortal paused for a moment. "You're wrong. This is not being pedantic. That young woman was right, we are so different than the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals that we even lack the basic understanding and awareness of each other. To be able to work together in this kind of condition, it is a must for us to stick to the rules, regardless of whether we approve them or not."
"Even if… it's just a trick they used to delay time?"
The black-clad man said, "Isn't that also a test for the sincerity on our side? If upon encountering such problems we can't even tolerate them, even so much that we even shed all pretenses of cordiality, do you think they would feel comfortable working with us?"
"I… understand." The Earth Immortal who gave out the question was ashamed. "I thought too simple about the issue."
The black-clad man nodded. "So this time, we lost and we have to swallow it. But on the other hand." He then turned to look at Wang Wu. "Our patience is not infinite. We can tolerate you taking advantage of the rules, but don't forget that the basic purpose of our cooperation is to avoid internal frictions and waste. If too much time is wasted in boring traps, then there's no need to continue to cooperate."
"Heh." Wang Wu shrugged and nodded her head to indicate her approval.
Thereupon, the storm was resolved. The several Earth Immortals looked at each other and then went back on their seats. Some of them sat in repose with eyes closed, while others looked at Wang Lu's copying content with interest. No one mentioned the dispute that happened just now.
The black-clad man's prestige was high, which stupefied even the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals side. At the same time, they also felt fortunate that this person considered himself as a sinner and thus refused to go on the stage, which caused the group of Earth Immortals to be leaderless. Otherwise, Wang Lu's plan wouldn't have been successful from the beginning.
After dealing with the dispute, the black-clad man once again stepped into the void.
After the black-clad man left, Wang Wu withdrew and found a remote place to sit down. After sitting down, the woman looked at her right hand, which was slightly trembling. After a long silence, she gave out an indescribable chuckle.
"He is indeed worthy to be the top figure among the ancient Earth Immortals, it has been a long since I last experienced such a feeling of being suppressed by someone's imposing manner…"