His fingers seemed to still feel the warm and delicate temperature of the girl’s skin, with a lingering subtle fragrance from Miss Sakai’s hair at the tip of his nose.

Hearing a girl say she likes you in your ear is truly an indescribable and wonderful feeling.

On the day he was about to turn eighteen, Gu Weijing officially confirmed a romantic relationship, saying goodbye to being single.

Having a girlfriend like Koizumi Katsuko, who is both beautiful and excellent, made him feel proud of himself, and there was even a surreal dreamlike feeling.

After being lost in thought by the table for a moment,

Gu Weijing suddenly remembered that he still had a system reward he hadn’t claimed.

He opened the virtual panel,

and saw an Intermediate Treasure Chest waiting to be claimed in the inventory, a reward for emulating "Old Church on a Stormy Day" at more than fifty percent similarity.

"Hmm, Intermediate Treasure Chest, I hope for a skill, I hope for a skill..."

Gu Weijing mumbled a few random words, then clicked to open the Intermediate Treasure Chest.

In the past, Basic Treasure Chests had yielded oil painting experience points and various miscellaneous knowledge cards, but never directly usable skills.

So far,

any skill provided by the system can be considered a divine skill.

Perhaps because what was on his mind, or maybe just a pure coincidence, as he opened the Intermediate Treasure Chest, a Skill Card indeed jumped out of the chest.

Gu Weijing’s eyes widened slightly.

He noticed that this card looked a bit different from any skill cards he had seen before.

[Active Skill: Muse Goddess’s Blessed Small Candle]

[Quality: Fine (One-time skill, automatically disappears after the duration ends)]

[Equipment Requirements: No special requirements]

[Special Effect One (Burst of Inspiration): Under the illumination of the goddess’s candlelight, your creative thinking will become more active, merging your mindset and environment, making it easier for the creator to pour emotions into their work.]

[Special Effect Two (Art Blessing): You can choose one or more system skills or painting techniques. After using the "Muse Goddess’s Blessed Candlelight" skill, you will receive a sustained positive boost under the candlelight. The level of the painting technique you choose or the skill quality will increase by one level.

The duration of the skill varies depending on the initial proficiency level of the technique you choose.]

[Skill Description: Muse (Latin: Musae), the goddess, reputed to possess endless artistic talents, the protector of artists, and the source of spelling for words related to music, art, intelligence, etc., in English.

Throughout history, the level of painting techniques artists express in their works is not entirely equivalent to their current painting skills.

Great painters might produce substandard works due to illness, aging, or perfunctory efforts, or they might, due to a fortunate coincidence, perform extraordinary feats, momentarily reaching an unprecedented artistic peak.

Under the blessing of the Goddess of Art, the miraculous moments briefly birthed under a painter’s brush surpass the results of countless long and perfunctory artistic creations.

In the art world, such precious moments are commonly referred to as Muse moments.]

[Note: His brush can touch all things, as if the Muse Goddess personally descends, spreading the brilliance of art and beauty to the world through the painter’s hand — "Selected Poems of Tagore"]

"Muse Goddess’s Blessed Candlelight? It can actually affect a painter’s state and enhance inspiration..."

Gu Weijing gazed at this skill.

In painting, inspiration is of great importance.

A creation feeling as if aided by a divine power is an elusive painting state, yet it truly exists.

Lu You once had a line of poetry, "Drink like a whale happily drawing from rivers, think like a thirsty steed courageously rushing to springs," describing the wonderful feeling of thoughts pouring out under the artist’s inspired state.

In the field of painting,

when the feeling is right, a work may be completed in an instant, guided by emotion, guided by the pen, guided by the painting.

When the feeling is not right, painting can be like an old donkey dragging an old mill, huffing and puffing for ages without producing anything worthwhile.

Finding the right feeling is often a difficult task.

It often requires artists to have passionate emotions towards life and keen observation.

For some people, being inspired requires traveling the world, sailing in the Mediterranean, watching snow on glaciers, or witnessing horses gallop on the plains.

For others, it only takes a bird’s call in a peach blossom grove, or a sudden beam of cold moonlight hitting the face.

At the same time,

there are also some idiots in the world who foolishly equate methods of obtaining artistic inspiration with the effects of taking hallucinogenic mushrooms or chewing a couple of ecstasy pills.

They roll joints, cough up cocaine, and stick LSD (a hallucinogen absorbed through the skin) patches on their foreheads, claiming they’ve mastered a shortcut to painting.

They mistakenly equate their state of high with possessing endless creative inspiration.

Actually, it’s just an empty reverie, meaningless fragments of thought.

What these people believe to be divine blessing is just a fleeting joy brought about by momentary soul weightlessness during their plunge into the dark abyss.

The inspiration of art and the pleasure of drugs,

though they may appear similar on the outside, are as different as real gold and fool’s gold that looks equally gleaming.

Even without considering the lives shattered into a pulp by addicts.

Hallucinogens can hardly bring real inspiration, not even the dregs of it.

While drugs may make a painter’s brain hot, what falls on paper are only chaotic and confused lines.

True inspiration,

is more like the pursuit of the combination of mindset and environment by ancient Dongxia painters during creation.

Ming Dynasty Imperial Painter Bian Wenjin, when painting cranes, had the habit of bathing and changing clothes, dining and drinking with white cranes for three days before picking up the brush to paint. And the great painter of the late Song period, Zheng Sixiao, whenever painting the orchid in ink, would weep for his lost country, sobbing, and infusing the lament for the ruined homeland into his orchid paintings.

These great painters were not engaging in avant-garde performance art.

Their actions were the quest for artistic inspiration, the search for a momentary understanding of creation.

Such deep and profound emotions are something that neuro-drugs can never replace.

"Not only can it bring creative inspiration, but it can also briefly elevate the technique level by one!"

Gu Weijing looked at the [Special Effect Two] on the Skill Card.

This skill effect can temporarily improve his technique level for a certain time.

This function is much more straightforward.

In terms of functionality, compared to the uncertain effect of the burst of inspiration, it seems more practical.

"It’s simply an exam tool. Alas, it’s a pity that Myanmar doesn’t have a unified art entrance exam like in Dongxia or Japan, otherwise using it in such an exam would easily result in an outstanding performance."

Gu Weijing thought.

The technique level displayed on a painter’s work doesn’t necessarily equal the painter’s real skill.

As a newly entered professional painter,

the level of almost every painting is about the same, almost just a reflection of the current painting technique experience points he possesses.

Tier One Professional level results in Tier One Professional level works, Tier Two results in Tier Two works.

At most, the final data and the technique level on the virtual panel fluctuates by a few points or a dozen.

This is mainly because,

his current painting level is quite entry-level, allowing little room for fluctuation.

The higher a master stands,

the greater the difference between the upper and lower limits of the work’s refinement level.

Especially for artists whose creative style is more reliant on painting state, the technical level of their work often fluctuates greatly due to external factors.

Some of Picasso’s works have brushstrokes that are incredibly perfect, masterpieces among masterpieces.

Some are really quite poorly drawn.