After dinner, Su Wen and his grandparents sat together, chatting about their lives.
Su Wen grinned. "Grandpa, how did you ever manage to win the heart of such a beautiful lady?" he asked teasingly.
Grandpa puffed up with pride. "You brat, my handsomeness was enough to make her fall for me."
Before Su Wen could respond, Grandma snorted loudly.
"Is that so? Weren't you the one who used to stand at the corner of the street every day just to sneak a look at me? You were such a coward… you never even dared take the first step to talk to me."
Grandpa said grudgingly, "You idiot, it wasn't me who was the coward. You were such a tomboy who used to beat boys left and right, and I didn't want to get beaten by you."
Grandma's eye twitched. "Is that so? Then what about the day I caught you staring at me?"
She stared at him and said, "Instead of calling me beautiful, sweet, or saying I had a great figure, you said I was a thin and skinny… and if I wanted to beat more boys, you'd take me to eat Potato Mush so I could 'bulk up'!"
Grandpa nodded righteously. "Of course! I wanted you to become strong and fluffy so you wouldn't get hurt while fighting. It was all part of my love."
Grandma snorted and crossed her arms. "Hmph! I only went out with you because I was bored… not because I wanted to eat Potato Mush."
Grandpa gasped dramatically, clutching his chest. "You heartless woman! So all those bowls of Potato Mush I fed you were for nothing? You used to even eat from my plate…."
Su Wen "…"
Du Yue "…"
Little Sparrow "…"
Not bothering to listen to their bickering anymore, Su Wen took out a rolled-up painting and the Black Treasure Brush he'd received from Headmaster Michael.
The moment he brought out the brush, every pair of eyes in the room locked onto it.
The 12-centimeter-long black brush, patterned with golden vermillion streaks, looked like it could write on the world itself.
Su Wen glanced at his grandparents, then lifted the brush. He didn't need ink… his sword intent was his ink, and the brush became his sword.
A faint glow shimmered along the tip of the brush as sword intent gathered there. He made a few clean strokes across the paper.
Surprisingly, instead of being sliced to pieces like it should have been… the paper remained completely intact.
Not a single tear. Not a single scratch. Only the sharp, powerful strokes of Su Wen's intent left behind on the paper.
As Su Wen continued making strokes, everything on the paper looked chaotic… random lines, messy shapes, almost like gibberish. No one could understand what he was doing.
At that moment, Su Wen was completely lost in his own world. In front of his eyes, all he could see were his grandparents' smiling faces, warm and lively. His hand seemed to move on its own.
Slowly, very slowly, the messy strokes began to change. Figures started forming on the painting. There was no ink, no colour, and yet somehow… it still looked full of life, almost colourful in a strange way.
His grandparents appeared on the paper… Grandma with her familiar loving snort, and Grandpa trying (and failing) to act cool beside her.
Su Wen finally stopped.
At the bottom of the painting, he gently wrote one word:
"Happy."
A soft white light flickered through his eyes. No one noticed… no one except the bubbly Little Sparrow, Su Wen had broken through.
Before anyone could say anything, Du Yue softly whispered, almost without realizing it,
"...Beautiful."
She was completely absorbed in the painting… in the flowing, sharp strokes that looked as if Su Wen were carving the world itself with a sword. Her gaze trembled slightly, and a faint light bloomed in her right eye.
Unknowingly, she broke through to the Peak of Instinct Realm.
Only Little Sparrow noticed it and she looked at the both of them with a strange expression.
Just like that, without any effort or intention, Su Wen stepped into the Mid-stage Soul Awakening Layer, and Du Yue quietly broke through to the Peak-stage Instinct Realm. Su Wen had given her pills earlier to help her enter the Instinct Realm… but she simply jumped straight to the final stage without doing anything, her foundation perfectly stable, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
This was the Dao of Scholars… mysterious and unpredictable, sometimes advancing through enlightenment, sometimes through emotion, and sometimes through the purity of one's intent.
The old grandparents looked at the painting… at the single word written at the bottom.
"Happy."
They froze and then, almost unconsciously, they reached out and held each other's hands. In that instant, their souls resonated, condensing within their consciousness. It wasn't a simple soul condensation… it was the manifestation of an Immortal Divine Soul.
Their entire lives flashed before their eyes. Being born into this world…
Growing up through hardship…Meeting each other, arguing, loving, surviving…Marrying and giving birth to a daughter, only to lose her far too early to a mysterious illness.
After that, they lived alone in the mountains, drowning in quiet grief…until fate brought them back a ten-year-old boy, his matured eyes which was full of love for them.
Their grandson.
The boy they thought they would never be able see again.
The boy who brought light back into their world. The boy who changed everything.
They taught him, loved him, scolded him… but in reality, he was the one who took care of them.
He made them laugh when they forgot how.
He cooked for them warm food when the winters were cold.
He stood beside them when the world felt empty.
That one single word at the bottom of the painting… Happy…
said everything they felt.
He had become their happiness and their salvation of this mortal life. They should be happy as long as he was here.
Their Immortal Divine Souls suddenly stirred, and evolved, reaching a level even the author of this novel could only guess at this stage. They were just a step away from a breakthrough, so close that the air trembled faintly around them.
But just as they were about to cross that threshold, both of them opened their eyes at the same time. They looked at each other.
'Not yet.'
They were happy… more than happy.
But then their eyes shifted… toward the young man in front of them, and the girl who stood quietly by his side.
No, they can't leave him yet…
The grandparents carefully took the painting into their hands, holding it close as if it were a peerless Heavenly Treasure.
They didn't say anything…
but the smiles on their faces said more than words ever could.
Grandma couldn't hold it in… tears burst out of her eyes like a broken dam.
Grandpa had one tear too, but he immediately wiped it away with the speed of a martial artist pretending absolutely nothing happened.
Su Wen stared at them, dumbfounded.
"Oye! Oye! Is the painting that bad that you're crying already? You didn't like my gift, huh?" he teased.
Grandma snorted.
"Hmph! This is the best gift I've ever received in this life."'
She hugged the painting tighter.
"I'd rather sell your grandpa than let anyone take this painting."
Grandpa, who was seconds away from praising the artwork, froze mid-breath.
"You woman! Now that your grandson gave you a gift, you forget all the Potato Mush I treated you to back then!"
Grandma snorted, "Hmph, my grandson cooks the most delicious food in the world for me."
She hugged the painting even tighter, her eyes glistening with joy.
Du Yue and Little Sparrow giggled at the bickering, while Su Wen just shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. Somehow, seeing his grandparents like this… happy, warm, and alive… felt better than any breakthrough or battle he'd ever experienced.