I'm still in the early chapters till now I don't know about jio's origin but we pretty much can say he's the Root (I think he merged with it when he died) that what I believe.
As for the novel, it's a straight cooking course with his son honey TT
The manhwa goes straight to the important events which is a plus here.
ive heard the novel readers said the novel is mostly just cooking and tea
so jio is the being that makes dungeons?
Yep that's what they're saying in the manhwa and the novel. When he paint something may relate to the present he can go to that place and connect with, if the place is completely new it will be created.
He paints something that may be related to*
to anyone who read the novel, what exactly is jio now?
also is the novel really 90% about jio's tea