The story is split into two parts; on the painter's side, it was rather miserable.
These blacksmiths were useless in the first place, but the key issue was, he hadn't had the chance to paint them completely.
The portraits of these blacksmiths were incomplete, missing most of their memories.
One should know that the mind of a high-tier cultivator is locked with spiritual shackles, sealing off memories...
As a result, pseudo-humans attempting possession cannot invade the sea of consciousness, and every possession leads to amnesia.
But he was different.
He paints with a focus on capturing the likeness in its entirety.
Not only does he paint your essence, qi, and spirit, and your cultivation technique paths, but even paints your spiritual shackles completely.
Even the combination lock outside your deeply buried memory safe is painted....though this cannot spy on the memories inside the "safe," you, as an ember, will have a substantial amount of encrypted "safe" memories.
