Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  The children’s painting classroom was in good condition.

  North Wind was really good at painting. Although she was not an artist, she was an excellent painter. More importantly, she thought highly of teaching children how to draw. She put her heart into it.

  Unlike some irresponsible teachers who made some simple graphics for children to copy, she taught from the basic skills of painting, including structure, line, color, layout and so on.

  The first lesson she taught was “sketching.”

  Sketching referred to the use of a pencil to quickly express an idea. Some strong artists like Sui Xiong could use a pencil to draw a picture that made people clearly feel the strength, speed, temperature and even emotion of the picture. Ordinary painters could only draw and copy without emotion.

  What North Wind taught was the simplest thing in sketching: drawing a box.

  She put a box on a plate and taught the children how to draw it.

  It was easier said than done. North Wind taught them one by one. It took her almost a week, but only four or five children learned how to do it.

  These children who learned it first were either gifted or had basic knowledge from before. Generally speaking, they could do better in the future.

  As for the other children, their drawings were disorderly and didn’t even have a basic frame. You could never know what it was at all. If North Wind was a grumpy teacher, she would kick them out, but she didn’t do that. Her patience surprised Wood. She divided the children into three groups according to the students’ level and taught them with specific training.

  Those gifted children made huge progress, but those with slow progress cost her tremendous time and energy.

  Luckily, there were no lazy students or mischevious children in the class. Every child who came here was diligent, and they practiced hard. That was the reason why some children could make such rapid progress.

  As for those children with slow progress, they were also diligent, but they had neither the basic knowledge nor the talent. They found it hard to build “shapes” in their minds, so their paintings would be very messy.

  The basic skills of line and color could be mastered through training, but how to “shape” a picture in their mind was difficult for them.

  When North Wind studied painting, her teacher never told her how to master this ability. A person without this talent would never be a painter, so it was better to have those children with slow progress give up.

  She didn’t want to do that. She wanted to give those children hope so that she could establish her name in Pyroxene Town.

  An ordinary teacher and a respectable teacher had completely different social statuses!

  For a spy, being a respectable teacher was the best disguise. Of course, it would be better to be a high-ranked official of a country, but that was too difficult. Even Wood could not do that, so North Wind did not believe that she could do it.

  Being a respectable teacher meant giving up more than being an ordinary teacher—more time, more energy and more effort.

  Wood advised North Wind not to be too hard-working. After all, the teacher’s identity was only a disguise. If she was too good, it might cause some unexpected trouble.

  “Look at me, I was just going to be a carpenter. And then Felix saw my woodcarvings, I became a woodcarver. Then I became an artist, and now I am a great artist,” Wood smiled bitterly and said. “Do you think I can still be a good spy?”

  North Wind looked at him calmly and shook her head.

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  “Yes and no,” Wood sighed and said. “The best cover for a spy is to be outstanding but to be ordinary. If I were just an ordinary carpenter, I might be even better at spy work.”

  North Wind frowned slightly. Even though it wasn’t the same as what was taught in a spy training class, she knew that Wood had a point.

  “When we were trained, the instructor said, ‘A good identity is the best cover.’ Of course, there is nothing wrong with this statement, but a good identity needs more time and energy to make, and it needs to shoulder greater social responsibility,” Wood said. “If we spent lots of time in establishing our name, there would be no time to collect information.”

  North Wind thought about it and nodded.

  “You’re right. You’ve been taking up too much time in woodcarving. If I spend too much time in art education, the work of my information collection will be greatly affected.”

  So North Wind suddenly fell seriously ill. The doctor said that it was hard work that led to her illness.

  “You’ve worked so hard these days that you need a few days of rest,” the doctor said to North Wind. He was an expert of the New Oriental Polytechnic School. “It is not easy to recover soon. Remember not to work too hard in the future. In a situation like yours, it’s easy to get worse and worse if you still work hard like before!”

  When the parents of the untalented children knew about this, they came to visit North Wind. They said that they wanted their children to stop learning how to paint.

  North Wind was confused. Although these children were had slow progress, they were still very diligent in learning!

  She was not really sick though. Instead, she had taken special medicine to make herself sick from the “accumulated work.”

  A few days later, North Wind recovered from her illness. At that time, she had only about 20 students in her painting classroom.

  That was enough.

  Looking at these twenty children, North Wind was smiling.

  Without the burden of these untalented children, North Wind was able to teach much more easily. In just two or three months, the fast-progressed children had completely mastered the “sketching” skill. It was time to take them outdoors to learn basic color theory and other skills.

  That was the fundamental reason why she started this painting class. With the excuse of teaching painting outdoors, she would not be suspected of spying on some places.

  If a person just sat there and drew pictures, they would stand out. But if the painting teacher was drawing with a group of children, no one would doubt her intentions.

  A few days later, she tried going outside with the kids. This time, they went to the South Gate of Pyroxene Town, and she ultimately painted the South Gate.

  The wall and gate of Pyroxene Town were designed by Sui Xiong. He adopted the architectural style of ancient China, and so the wall and gate were very thick. The structure was not complicated, but it had a convincing sense of security.

  A group of children who had just learned to paint for several months could not draw the gate vividly, so North Wind drew it first and explained it.

  She used the sketching technique.

  Sui Xiong, who was concealed in the air, saw her painting, shook his head, and said, “Her painting is not good.”

  In fact, Sui Xiong and the God of Art and Culture often communicated with each other about painting techniques, and they both had a lot to gain from each other. The God of Art and Culture even said directly, “Your understanding towards painting fully qualifies you to be the God of Painting.”

  Sui Xiong felt very honored to be called the “God of Painting.” To a person who loved painting, it was wonderful to be compared to that level.

  However, he was no longer an ordinary painter. He was a leader of a major force, shouldering the responsibility of a church and a country. His dream was no longer the same as before. In the past, he wanted to be a good painter and then make some money to live peacefully and stable. He now wanted to lead those who believed in him forward and build their homes better. He also wanted to promote social progress, change those unreasonable and unfair conditions, and make society better and better so that people could live and work in peace and pursue their own dreams.

  This was a big dream, and it cost him a lot of time and energy. Although he wanted to be the God of Painting, he eventually refused the proposal of the God of Art and Culture.

  “I want to be the God of Development and Progress,” he said. “Painting is my hobby, but promoting the development and progress of the world is my dream!”

  “What’s wrong with making your hobby a clergy?” the God of Art and Culture asked. “Many gods do that.”

  “In my view, my hobby is less important than my dream,” Sui Xiong laughed and said.

  The God of Art and Culture was silent for a moment and then asked, “Have you ever wondered how much resistance you would encounter if you really wanted to promote development and progress in the whole world, or at least the entire Main plane?”

  “Yes,” Sui Xiong laughed and said. “Progress is not achieved by saying, but by doing. To achieve this process, there will inevitably be fights and wars…… I’ve been prepared for that.”

  “Even if the whole world is your enemy?”

  “Yes.”

  Shortly after that conversation, a war broke out. The evil gods besieged Sui Xiong’s sanctuary.

  Sui Xiong didn’t think there was anything wrong with it at that time. It would never be bad to eliminate evil anyway, but there were many good gods among his enemies this time. He felt a little uncomfortable.

  “Maybe…… I really should have chosen to be the God of Painting……” Sui Xiong could not help but say to himself.

  In fact, if he wanted to be the God of Painting, he could do it anytime, even now. But that was not his dream, so he would not make that choice.

  Just like North Wind—she could choose to be a real, respectable painting teacher, but instead, she had to be a spy.

  Just like Wood, he was a great, respected artist now. As long as he wanted, the Republic of Northwest would give him strong support, and no one could attack him because of his past spy identity.

  However, Wood still insisted on his status as a spy and his loyalty to the Mifata Federation.

  Even if it hurt the people who cared for him over the years, he would not change his mind!

  North Wind’s painting classroom was well-run. Half a year later, the people of Pyroxene Town had fully adapted to her existence. It was common for her to go out with her students and draw everywhere.

  She often put up students’ paintings outside the classroom for people to see. From these works, one could clearly see the progress of the children, even though their paintings were not perfect. Even those who did not understand art could feel that they were getting better and better.

  This gave North Wind more courage, and even her request to paint the off-duty miners was approved by Mr. Reif Kawat.

  Of course, Mr. Reif Kawat couldn’t let her take these children into the underground mine to paint. It was too dangerous. North Wind could only take the children to observe the miners when they got off work.

  But this was enough to make North Wind very happy.

  In the past, no spy had ever gone to the Negative Energy Crystallization Mine, let alone observe the off-duty miners off closely.

  When North Wind sent that information, she was praised by the Mifata Federation.

  “Great!” The chief officer of the intelligence station looked at the information and smiled. “It was a good idea to send someone to take over No. 97’s job!”

  “That’s true, but I still suggest that it’s not necessary to kill Wood,” one subordinate said. “At least, Wood has not caused any hindrance to the work of North Wind. On the contrary, he’s actually helped a lot.”

  The chief officer thought for a moment and nodded.

  “You’re right. Whether he has betrayed us or not, at least he hasn’t stopped sending this information back. This shows that he hasn’t betrayed us. There’s no need to kill him now.”

  After discussion, they decided to ask one of the intelligence officers to send this command. Of course, there was no need to use the Transportation portal.

  Besides, North Wind and Wood got along well during this period, so there was no need to worry that North Wind would kill Wood immediately.

  However, to their surprise, North Wind took action while the command was still on the way.