Glorious God Throne

[You have completed the corresponding prerequisite side quests, unlocking main quest one: Obtain the title of God in the field of painting.]

When the system’s prompt suddenly appeared, Bai Yi had just finished arranging a table of delicious food in the living room. The good neighbors from the entire building, whom he had invited, were seated in a circle.

After several cycles, Bai Yi had gained a certain degree of understanding of this world.

This was a world with particularly special rules, originally indistinguishable from the ordinary city where Blue Star was located.

But ever since the creation of the painting of death “Sabbath” years ago, this world seemed to have been infected by some kind of madness factor. Without exception, people who had come into contact with “Sabbath” went insane, and various items passed on by their hands also became bizarre, continuously infecting more people, like a drop of thick ink spreading in water, the meme of madness spread throughout the world.

—At first, no one realized that there was a problem with the “Sabbath” painting, until more and more contaminated individuals appeared, until everyone discovered that the contaminated could spread it to others.

When the total number of contaminated reached a certain range, this matter finally caught the attention of the World Federation. After an investigation, an absurd yet undeniable truth emerged—the madness of these people was not due to physiological changes, but more like a mental contamination, and this mental contamination could spread out of thin air.

And the source of everything was that painting called the painting of death, “Sabbath”.

It was like a needle coated with bacteria, piercing through the originally tightly-ruled protective layer of this world, plunging the entire world into mad contamination and spread.

Even though the federal government sent out its most elite troops to break into the gallery of the last owner and seal off this painting, the world that had already been contaminated could not return to its original state.

Fortunately, in times of crisis, the world’s self-rescue mechanism would also give birth to corresponding countermeasures. From then on, all artistic fields that could transmit one’s emotions to others in some way received an epic-level enhancement.

The status of artists in this world was infinitely elevated.

They could soothe chaotic and insane souls through paintings, music, poetry, and literary works, reducing the degree of mental contamination in the contaminated.

Correspondingly, the threshold to become an artist was also infinitely raised. Technique alone was not enough; spirituality was crucial.

Only those with sufficiently strong spirits and keen sensitivity to special existences like “Painting Spirits” could create artworks with spirituality. And only artworks with spirituality could spread their spiritual will and affect others.

—Only works possessing spirituality could be considered the work of an artist.

This might sound mystical and abstruse. In fact, people in this world still hadn’t understood the essence of spirituality. After all, it had only been a hundred years since the world’s contamination, and the concept of “spirituality” was only proposed thirty years ago.

But Bai Yi was different.

Regarding mental contamination, he had rich experience, and with bug-level talents and skills like the Rhythm of All Things and Web of Thoughts, the invisible mental fluctuations that ordinary people couldn’t perceive were as clear to him as paint on a white canvas, with even the colors and properties perfectly clear.

So, after several cycles, he had understood the principle of how artists in this world gave birth to “spirituality” in their works.

The biggest difference between this world and Blue Star was the extreme activity of spiritual energy and its terrifying contamination.

And artists were the rare existences among countless ordinary people who possessed special talents and qualifications.

They could inject different spiritual energies into their works, making them full of spirituality, thus influencing and contaminating others.

—If this was an extraordinary system of the spiritual class, then artists would be the extraordinaries profession of this system.

Therefore, the strength or weakness of spirituality was essentially the degree of contamination of the spiritual energy injected into the work by the artist. It was the degree of “extraordinary power” output by an artist.

According to different spiritualities, artists’ works were divided into two categories: “Dark Art” and “Healing Art”.

That painting of death, “Sabbath”, must have emitted a kind of insane spiritual energy with extremely strong contamination, which is why every owner was mentally contaminated.

—It was said that in this world, there were worshippers of Miu Yin, the author of “Sabbath”, groups of painters practicing dark art, who had established various organizations in private.

And if a painter created a work full of healing spirituality, it would, in turn, soothe the spirits of the contaminated. Such painters held extremely high positions in the Federation.

The same principle applied to music, poetry, and other artistic fields, which explained why the status of artists was so high in this world.

—They were devils, and also gods. They were destroyers, and also saviors.

In this situation, even the profession of chef, which shouldn’t have been comparable, suddenly rose to become the most special existence among many artists.

After all, delicious food could bring humans the most primitive sense of happiness, and it didn’t require any aesthetic appreciation to achieve this. This was something that no other art could easily compare with.

It could be said that delicious food was the “work” that could most easily soothe people’s spirits. It was the “art” with the lowest threshold.

—When Bai Yi understood the situation of this world, especially the special nature of chefs, he immediately got excited, almost slapping his thigh: Oh, this is something I’m familiar with!

If he hadn’t encountered the Painting Spirits right after entering the game, clearly having the opportunity to complete the painting field challenge first, Bai Yi would have been eager to become the new era’s “Food God”!

Even now, while training the Painting Spirits to cooperate with each other every day, he didn’t forget to polish his culinary skills.

After all, this world was quite different from reality. Although Bai Yi was confident enough in his skills, “Dark Cuisine lv3” was not easily achievable as the limit of mortals!

But this world placed more emphasis on the spirituality in food.

In this regard, Bai Yi was also a novice, only able to practice quietly first, waiting for the right moment to amaze everyone!

As such, these warm-hearted neighbors naturally became the best food testers for Bai Yi to practice this world’s special cuisine.

—Of course, Painting Spirits couldn’t eat human food, but the ingredients Bai Yi chose weren’t ordinary ingredients. They were chaotic spiritual energies he captured in this world’s special rules using his Rhythm of All Things talent.

—In other words, while others injected spiritual energy into ingredients, he directly captured spiritual energy to serve as ingredients.

It was roughly equivalent to capturing elements to feed elemental spirits.

A bunch of chaotic spiritual energies were directly stirred together, skipping even the medium of ingredients. A table of Painting Spirit exclusive delicacies was thus produced, with spiritual fluctuations at their peak.

Sensing the strong spirituality emanating from the table of food, Bai Yi felt an incomparable sense of achievement and pride.

Look at how strong this spirituality is, if this doesn’t qualify as the “Food God of the Age”, who else could claim this title?

In terms of culinary skills, if I’m second, who dares to claim first?

“Everyone, please eat, don’t be shy,” he enthusiastically urged the motionless neighbors sitting at the table. “This is my first time inviting neighbors over~”

A group of Painting Spirits tremblingly raised two colorful chopsticks drawn out of thin air.

At this moment, the task in front of Bai Yi refreshed.

[First phase of the task: Successfully complete a work and submit it to participate in the “World Painting Grand Prix” that opens today.]

[Second phase of the task: Successfully pass the preliminary selection and obtain the first display rights in the Death Gallery.]

[Third phase of the task: Deserve the name.]

[Hint: Please turn on the TV and watch the World Art Channel that’s currently broadcasting.]

Bai Yi: ???

It seemed that after uncovering the system’s origin, even its prompts had become more proactive. What’s this about watching TV?

Despite his internal complaints, Bai Yi still turned on the living room TV. The host’s provocative voice immediately came through: [The annual World Art Grand Prix is about to begin, and the registration times for various art groups will be announced one by one. This month is the stage for the World Painting Grand Prix. From 8 AM this morning until 8 AM next Sunday, participants please go to the Federation’s various district art centers to submit their entries…]

[The rules for the World Painting Grand Prix are as follows…]

[After the first round of preliminary selection, each district art center will screen out a batch of entries with spirituality, which will then be uniformly placed in the Death Gallery. The Death Gallery will rank and display all entries on its own…]

In mid-air, the system’s subtitles thoughtfully explained: [Death Gallery: The gallery opened by the last owner of “Sabbath”, which once hung “Sabbath”. Due to unknown reasons, it underwent contamination and mutation, and can rank the paintings in the gallery according to spiritual strength. The stronger the spirituality, the closer the position in the gallery to the depths. It has been controlled by the Federal Government and serves as the “judge” for the Painting Grand Prix.]

The host’s passionate voice came from the TV:

[…The entry appearing in the deepest part of the gallery will be the winner of the Painting Grand Prix. The participant will receive the title of Painting God recognized by the Federation and enjoy all the benefits that come with the title. Until the Painting Grand Prix opens again next year, everyone will have the opportunity to compete for the title of Painting God again.]

“Oh my,” hearing this, Bai Yi finally raised an eyebrow, “This difficulty seems quite high.”

…If he understood correctly, each year’s participants not only competed among themselves but also against the previous year’s, the year before that, and even earlier predecessors?

…The so-called Painting God was not only the first place of this year but also had to defeat all previous Painting Gods, surpassing everyone in this field to be qualified to claim the “divine throne”?

“Oh, oh, oh, I’m getting excited!” The more Bai Yi thought about it, the brighter his eyes became. He turned to look at the Painting Spirits sitting around the dining table, “Everyone must be full of motivation too, right!”

But what met his gaze were Painting Spirits struggling to taste the dark cuisine, their eyes glazed over, overwhelmed by the strong spiritual contamination waves contained in that powerful spirituality.

As the dark cuisine entered their mouths, the sour and stimulating sensation made all the Painting Spirits’ eyes well up with tears.

They met Bai Yi’s gaze like this. Forced to reluctantly raise a praising thumb.

“…Delicious.” QAQ Help!

…Why are my eyes filled with tears?

…Because I love this dark cuisine so deeply.

Bai Yi was moved by the Painting Spirits’ sincere and unaffected gesture. How much must they love his cooking to be moved to tears! Indeed, is this what loving and caring good neighbors are like? They understand him!

The living room light shone on the table of strange food, and also on the faces of all the Painting Spirits filled with moved tears.

At this moment, inspiration exploded in Bai Yi’s mind.

—He wanted to paint this touching scene!

—Strangers who had never met before could be so loving, happy, and harmonious together, sharing the joy brought by delicious food. Was there a more heart-healing scene in the world? This would be the best entry for the competition!

—Especially since the Painting Spirits were the main characters enjoying the food, they must have particularly strong feelings. Letting them participate in creating this painting, putting their emotions into it, would surely make it more sincere and inject more spiritual energy!

Thinking of this, Bai Yi exclaimed that he was indeed a genius!

Hmm, what should this painting be called?

He was about to set off to participate in the Painting Grand Prix, and might have to complete tasks in other fields afterwards. It would probably be difficult to have another chance to gather the Painting Spirits to share food…

Since that’s the case, why not call this painting…

—”The Last Supper”?

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