More than an hour had passed.

Eventually, one by one, the participants slowly opened their eyes. The first one to do was Hua Hengyun followed by Dunggo Shi. Noticing that they were done with the first step, the other participants who were also under the first phase opened their eyes.

In actuality, they were already done with their first phases. However, seeing that the two geniuses who were not yet done with it, they decided to carry it on and finalize their thoughts over and over again. After all, they did not want to implicate a shame for their guilds. Even though they were bounded to lose this year just the usual, they still needed to do their best and put up a fight with all their best.

They were not pushovers to begin with!

When everyone was about to get their brushes and make a sketch and outline of their finalized thoughts for painting, they suddenly heard a soft snore. This snore could not be heard by the audience and even the master themselves. However, them, as the nearest could hear this!

They tracked where this snore came from and found out that it came from the back and personally came from the unknown young man! They only heard that this young man was personally recommended by the crowned prince Yuan Gu of the Gu Empire. So they were expecting a little since he was recommended by a behemoth figure, however, never did they expect it to be this way!

What the hell?! Are you sleeping right here right at this moment? F-ck! You even had the luxury to give yourself a nap this time around?

Aren't you being too arrogant, eh?

Hua Hengyun, who also looked over, said, "I thought that since he was recommended by the crowned prince of the Gu high-tier Empire, he would be having some skills. However, seeing this greatly disappointed me. He was really here only to add up the numbers and be one of the cannon fodders?"

Dunggo Shi also acknowledged this, "This.. I cannot disagree with you since we have the same thoughts. Oh well, he might really be someone to be an occasional display for this competition. Why don't you mind him and just start your painting? After all, you will taste your defeat this time around. You see, I already have something in mind and was already finalized. Luckily for me, the museum had not changed the entire rules and still gave it by freestyle painting."

Freestyle Painting, this meant that there were no restrictions regarding the painting. A painter could paint anything he or she likes as long as it fitted the criteria for judging. This also included what painting strokes a painter would be using. Just like the word itself, this was free. Many Master Painters were very in favor with this kind of set up. After all, if they had no restrictions of what to paint, many things would come into mind and in fact, they might had it finalized less than an hour. They could also paint something with something that could be done by simple Painting Strokes.

Painting Strokes. This was a kind of skills in painting where this factor greatly affects the outcome of a painting. If one did not use the proper Painting Strokes for the painting, no matter how good the painting was, it could not even reach the realm of the Realm Light. In fact, the best it could reach was pinnacle of the Beginning of the Path. There were at least tens of Painting Strokes available in this world and the best ones currently in the possession of the Museum of the Hundred Arts! To tell the truth, one of the prizes for this competition was a heaven-defying Painting Stroke and a Spirit Animation Painting!

Note that Spirit Animation Painting was something any sects even the behemoth ones would dare to fork a large sum of money just to purchase this! And so, the competition for today was very heated even with those participants who had no chances of winning at all. At the very least, they wanted to create a Realm Light Painting!

Everyone started painting, except Jin Rou who was currently sleeping. They busied themselves so hard as they wanted to not make a mistake this time. They wanted to make a painting reaching perfection even not winnable! Of course, it was different for Hua Hengyun and Dunggo Shi since they were both aiming for the victor stage!

At this very moment, no one could see what the participants were painting since they were fronting them with the xuan paper in front. Everyone could only see the hand movements of the participants that were constantly giving touches to the xuan paper.

Gyune Tyy, who was the host of this competition sat at the other side of the masters. She was beaming with smile as she thanked them, "Senior Masters, thank you for inviting me to be the host of this prestigious competition. You really have my deepest and warmest gratitude regarding this matter."

Master Xiaomei waved it off and said, "Don't think about that way. You have given us a lot of face this time around for getting out of your seclusion. Your family is indeed persevering this time. And we all know that you people were carrying a huge burden."

"Hais.." Gyune Tyy could not help but wryly smile and sigh, "Yes, Master Xiaomei. We are very worried since the sealing barrier of the cave was already very thin and it almost would be gone in month's time. So we are strengthening our powers to stand the ground for the worse case scenario."

Gio Hu, one of the masters seating next to Xiaomei, also heard this and chuckled, "What are you youngsters worrying about? I mean, that demon was already sealed for at least hundreds of thousands of years ago or maybe a million already, right? There is no way that that would still be alive. There is no one who could escape fate no matter they do. Even those old undyings who chose to bury themselves in a life vessel will still eventually die."

"After all, that is part of the cycle of life. What more for a demon who had not seen the sunlight for a very long long time without any foods or whatnot to survive?"

Master Dongsha also joined in, "Master Hu is right. So you don't need to worry about it any longer."

Although the masters were reassuring this to her, Gyune Tyy could not still help but feel anxious and afraid. She was really getting an ominous feeling right now. However, she did not showed it and just smiled gently, "Thank you, Senior Masters." She still had a job to do, this is no time to ponder things like that.

Xiaomei patted her hand and said, "Come on, let's carry on watching. I am really looking forward for this competition."

---

Afternoon. Ten minutes before the sun set..

The participants were now finished with their painting, only giving some finishing touches to enhance the effects of the painting and increase the realm of it.

Gyune Tyy reminded them, "Several minutes before the sunset, be sure you already done with your works! Those will be judged respectively!"

When everyone was busy finishing their works, someone had just woken up. And in fact, if not for the reminder that rang his ears, he would not be waking up!

Of course, this is Jin Rou!

When he heard this that there were only several minutes left, his sleepy eyes regained its life as he was full of suprised expression, "What?!"