Ordinary observers in fast time travel

It's that time of year again – Awakening Day! Every district in the Land of Painting is bustling with activity. On every street corner, people are talking about Awakening and about painters. Businesses are doing much better.

The temples dedicated to the Painter in each district have recently become increasingly popular with worshippers. Regardless of whether there are any younger members in the family who are about to awaken, people always come to pay their respects at this time of year.

Some even set up betting pools to wager how many artists would awaken this year.

It's no wonder that busybodies set up betting games; it's because in recent years, the turbid energy has risen while the spiritual energy has declined, making it increasingly difficult for awakened painters.

Of course, this only applies to ordinary people living in red, orange, and yellow zones.

As for the aristocratic families in the upper districts, they only consider whether to awaken as a spirit painter or an object painter. And what is the first thing to manifest after awakening as a painter?
For an artist, the first thing they embody often represents the abilities they possess.

Of course, this doesn't mean you can't manifest two, three, or more things, but the prerequisite is that your spiritual consciousness and spiritual power are sufficient to support your efforts.

The principle of "don't bite off more than you can chew" applies everywhere. Of course, exceptions exist for extraordinary individuals.

At this moment, in the Painting Saint Temple of the Green District in the Upper Three Districts, the Green Clan Chief, the Jade Clan Chief, and the Emerald Clan Chief are leading the children of their clans who are about to awaken in worship in the temple.

The Temple of Painting is vast, with 128 stone pillars, each as thick as several people could encircle, supporting a high dome. The pillars are carved with flowers, plants, insects, birds, and beasts; each pillar has a different carving, but all are exquisitely beautiful.

The dome is very high, and it depicts a vast blue starry sky. When you look up at it, you will be involuntarily drawn in, as if your soul is floating up there.

Compared to the magnificent stone pillars and the starry sky overhead, the temple floor was quite ordinary. It makes sense, though; the ground is meant to be walked on, and any amount of decoration will eventually be worn away by the passage of time.

Passing through the stone pillars, you reach the innermost part of the Painting Saint Hall, where a towering statue of the Painting Saint, three zhang tall, sits. The Painting Saint is depicted as a woman holding a paintbrush in one hand and a palette in the other. But this is not unusual, after all, it is a statue of the Painting Saint. The key point is that the Painting Saint's eyes are closed.

In front of the icon was a large altar with two large incense sticks on either side, and in the middle were a jade pen, a ream of gold-flecked paper, and a box of twelve-color mineral pigments.

The three offerings are the most basic offerings for worshipping the Sage of Painting, and are also the most precious treasures of the three schools of painting: Qing, Bi, and Cui.

At this moment, the three clan chiefs prayed devoutly and recited the list of those who would participate in the awakening that day.

After the list was read aloud, the three clan leaders walked to the statue, exchanged glances, and took out the twelve amethyst crystals they had prepared beforehand and inlaid them into the statue.

After the amethyst was inlaid, the three clan leaders summoned paintbrushes together and pointed at the crystal.

Then something amazing began to happen.

Twelve crystals lit up, and purple energy surged upwards to the eyes of the statue. The tightly closed eyes slowly opened. At the same time, a faint purple light appeared on the surfaces of the one hundred and twenty-eight stone pillars in the temple.

The birds, beasts, flowers, insects, and fish on the stone pillars seemed to come alive and even move. Some of them even jumped down from the stone pillars and walked up to the prospective painter.

Some of the larger ones rubbed their noses against their faces, some nudged their bodies with their heads, and some wagged their tails at them...

The smaller ones simply landed on their shoulders, heads, hands, or touched their faces, ears, or any part of their skin with their antennae; some pecked at their hair, clothes, or ears with their beaks...

Suddenly, it was as if a breeze blew by, and a flurry of petals and leaves drifted down, floating above their heads and landing at their feet...

They couldn't help but twitch their noses, inhaling the intoxicating fragrance.

Woof, moo, cluck...

The air around me began to buzz.

The aspiring artists watched in disbelief as the illusion before them became reality! The temple vanished, replaced by gardens, forests, grasslands, rivers, and the sea…

They marveled at this miraculous scene, their emotions surging and unable to calm down. But without hesitation, they took out various crystals that they had prepared beforehand from their respective storage bags.

Not only them, but at this very moment, all the prospective painters participating in the awakening in all the temples within the Kingdom of Painting took out their crystals.

Shi Jia did the same, holding the crystal in his hand, searching for something close to him. Looking at the various things before him, the first thing that came to mind was the banyan tree. Thinking of the banyan tree's various abilities, he felt an urge to materialize them immediately. But he quickly shook his head. No, he had to help Sun Yu fulfill his wish now. Sun Yu only wanted to be a pie-in-the-sky artist, drawing pie-in-the-sky dreams for a lifetime, so he would never go hungry.

Is it just empty promises? A hint of reluctance flashed through his mind. But he quickly dismissed it. Forget it, don't make decisions on your own, just get the task done quickly.

"Once the mission is complete, I'll be able to uncover the secret of my identity," Shi Jia told himself.

So he began to focus on finding cakes.

Egg pancakes, soda crackers, savory pancakes, scallion pancakes, mooncakes, pumpkin pancakes...

Soon Shi Jia was surrounded by all kinds of cakes, his eyes were too busy to keep up, and he couldn't make a decision for a long time.

What kind of pie do we have to make in the sky?

Shi Jia thought for a moment. Sun Yu's initial goal was simply to avoid starving. So this pancake definitely had to be something he could eat as a meal! He then thought of the steamed bun shop downstairs from Sun Yu's rented apartment.

A lightbulb went off in my head: "I can draw pies!"

After Shi Jia finished speaking, all that remained in front of him was a thick, palm-sized pie. The aroma of flour mixed with filling wafted up. His stomach couldn't help but rumble.

"It smells so good!" I want to eat it, I want to draw it!
With a thought, a pen and a drawing board appeared before him. Compared to the pie in front of him, the pen and paper seemed almost illusory.

However, when he touched it, he was able to grasp it firmly.

He held a paintbrush in one hand and a drawing board in the other. Each palm held a crystal.

He moved quickly, and with a few strokes, a pie exactly like the one in front of him appeared on the drawing paper. He seemed to smell a rich aroma from the pie in the drawing.

All that's missing is its manifestation!
He shook his hand, and some powder fell from his palm; the green crystal's energy had been exhausted. He immediately took out another green crystal, began to absorb it, condensed the energy into the tip of the pen, and then tapped it.

In an instant, a burst of light appeared, and two identical pies appeared before him.

It worked!
Shi Jia breathed a sigh of relief. After arriving in this world, the tension that had been building up inside her immediately eased considerably.

At this moment, the pen in front of him began to solidify and fell into Shi Jia's hand.

The cool touch reminded him that this was a real pen, and he had become an artist!
Sun Yu's wish has come true!

He looked at the pen in his hand; it was beautiful! The red jade penholder and white bristles complemented each other perfectly, and the crimson tips of the bristles further enhanced the jade penholder's beauty.

Shi Jia couldn't help but feel delighted. He couldn't resist giving the pen a name: Red Jade!

Suddenly, a strange emotion welled up in his heart, and he actually felt a sense of repulsion towards the red jade in front of him!

Shi Jia clutched her chest and frowned. That was... Sun Yu's emotion just now?

Why? Why would he reject Hongyu? Didn't he want to become a painter? Shi Jia was a little confused for a moment.

However, this feeling quickly disappeared, and he didn't investigate it further.

He looked around; he was still in the illusion of the temple.

How are we supposed to get out of here?

The next second, the various pancakes in front of him split in half, revealing a path in front of Shi Jia. He raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. (End of Chapter)