"How did the catastrophe happen that night, and how did you survive?"
…
"What's the current situation in Jinling City? I heard there are still many survivors in the city?"
…
"How did you deal with the goods transported by the Sihai Escort Agency?"
…
"You said in your letter that you had hidden the goods somewhere in Jinling City. What were your thoughts at the time?"
…
"Did you encounter anyone from the White Lotus on your way back?"
…
"In your opinion, how strong are the White Lotus's troops?"
…
"What are the conditions like in the states you pass through? Which states and counties did you see riots?"
…
"Have any of the garrisons you saw along the way rebelled? What are the conditions of the local nobles and the people?"
…
For the next hour, Yan Liqiang carefully answered the questions from Luqiu Mingyue and the elders present one by one. He recounted in detail the entire process from the time the group left Jinling to the time they returned to Laizhou over the past two months, including his own observations and thoughts.
Yan Liqiang felt like he was attending a hearing, and he was the one being questioned. As someone who had experienced it firsthand, Yan Liqiang was certainly qualified to answer these questions.
Luqiu Mingyue and the elders present were most concerned about three issues. The first was how Yan Liqiang dealt with the goods that the Sihai Escort Agency had not delivered. The second was the banditry of the White Lotus Sect. The third, which was very detailed, was the various situations that Yan Liqiang and his team saw and experienced along the way back to the Jianshen Sect.
Yan Liqiang was very eloquent, and his speech was logical and organized. As soon as Luqiu Mingyue and the elders asked them questions, he knew what they were concerned about, so his answers were detailed and targeted. His descriptions of many scenes and experiences sounded as if they had seen them with their own eyes to Luqiu Mingyue and the elders.
While answering the elders' questions, Yan Liqiang was also quietly observing the expressions of the elders. He found that his master, Liu Guiyuan, had never asked him any questions from beginning to end, but just listened calmly, nodding from time to time, or looking thoughtful.
You pretend quite well!
Yan Liqiang muttered to himself.
"… The situation in Huizhou was like this. When we passed through Huizhou, cities all over Huizhou were in a state of chaos. Citizens in many cities caused a lot of disturbances because of food grabbing, and the local garrisons were unable to suppress them. In Yanhui County, the He family and the Lu family, two local wealthy families in the county, had a long-standing family feud. In the chaos, they organized their own servants to attack each other and compete for control of Yanhui City. Many people died on both sides, making the local chaos even more chaotic. When we were in Huizhou, we deliberately avoided those cities on our way, for fear of being involved. Many chaotic areas along the way had already done everything they could to grab food. As long as people saw cattle and horses, they might be killed and their meat divided. We often rested during the day and traveled at night…"
After talking for more than an hour, Yan Liqiang's mouth was dry, but he could only stand there and did not dare to say that he was thirsty.
After talking about what he saw and heard in Huizhou, there was silence in the hall and no elder asked any more questions, because beyond Huizhou is Wenzhou, which is adjacent to Laizhou. The bigwigs in the Sword God Sect naturally knew the situation in Wenzhou.
After more than ten seconds, seeing that the elders did not speak, Luqiu Mingyue looked around and asked, "Do you have any other questions, elders?"
"I have one more thing I want to verify!" An elder who was wearing a goose yellow dress and had almond eyes and rosy cheeks and looked like a beautiful middle-aged woman on Yan Liqiang's left hand side spoke up. Her voice was gentle and clear. The beautiful woman elder glanced at Yan Liqiang with her beautiful and bright almond eyes. "I just heard you say that your unique painting skills were self-taught since childhood. How did you draw the painting that was passed to the sect? None of us has seen it. I am very curious and want you to show it to the sect master and the elders here. If you have such a skill, I think it should not be difficult for you to draw a painting in public..."
Hearing what the beautiful elder said, many of the other elders in the hall nodded. They were also curious and wanted to see how Yan Liqiang drew that painting. It was so lifelike and realistic, it was unprecedented and could be called a masterpiece...
"If Elder Lin wants to see me paint, of course you can!" Yan Liqiang looked at the beautiful elder with a smile, "But I need to prepare some tools for the painting I want to do!"
"Just tell me what tools you need. Now that Elder Lin mentioned that, I would also like to see how this unique painting in the world was created!" Luqiu Mingyue also spoke up.
"You need a piece of white cardboard about two feet square, a few embroidery needles, a flat thin wooden board a little larger than the paper by two inches, a few black charcoal cores about the length of your fingers, a small knife and a baked bread!"
"Okay!" Luqiu Mingyue nodded, then clapped his hands twice. Then an old man in black came out from the screen behind him, came to Luqiu Mingyue, bowed, and said, "Excuse me, what can I do for you, Sect Master?"
"According to Yan Liqiang's request, bring him what he wants!"
"yes!"
The old man bowed and left. In less than two minutes, everything Yan Liqiang needed was placed in front of him.
"I wonder what Elder Lin wants me to draw?"
“What can you draw?”
“I can draw whatever I see!”
The beautiful woman elder suddenly smiled and said, "If that's the case, then draw me and see if I look like you!"
"Okay!" Yan Liqiang nodded and started moving.
He first laid the paper flat on the wooden board, then inserted the embroidery needle into the corners of the paper, and folded the needle over to fix the paper. Then he picked a charcoal core, whittled it with a knife, and sat cross-legged directly in front of the beautiful woman elder. "It will take some time for me to paint. During this time, please sit upright on the chair, look at me, don't move, and wait for a moment!"
"Okay!" Elder Lin nodded, then sat down on the chair gracefully, looking at Yan Liqiang quietly.
Yan Liqiang placed the wooden board on his knees, and suddenly he was back to the state in his previous life when he was setting up a stall on the street to paint portraits for people. He just glanced at Elder Lin, and then began to paint with concentration.
Lvqiu Mingyue and the elders present in the hall were all top-notch in terms of martial arts and knowledge, but they had never seen anyone draw like Yan Liqiang. They all stared with wide eyes, because the things Yan Liqiang used were so incredible in the eyes of the elders. Not to mention the charcoal paper, was it necessary to use baked bread when drawing? Did Yan Liqiang eat while drawing? It was really weird.
"It's strange, it's strange. When other painters paint with pen and ink, they put the paper flat on the table. But why does Yan Liqiang have to put the paper vertically when he paints?" An elder couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Seeing Yan Liqiang drawing something seriously on paper, the extremely curious Lu Qiu Mingyue was the first to stand up. She went straight to stand behind Yan Liqiang and wanted to see how Yan Liqiang painted with her own eyes.
Slowly, a look of surprise appeared on Luqiu Mingyue's face.
With the sect leader taking the lead, the other elders came behind Yan Liqiang one after another and watched Yan Liqiang painting. All the elders' faces were as excited as Luqiu Mingyue's. After just a few glances, the expressions on their faces began to become interesting.
Gradually, except for Elder Lin who was sitting on the chair, almost everyone in the hall stood behind Yan Liqiang, watching the black charcoal core in Yan Liqiang's hand silently, revealing a world they had never seen before.
The baked pancake had cooled down long ago, and Luqiu Mingyue and other elders also discovered the use of the pancake. Just when Yan Liqiang gently tore off a piece of dough from the pancake, everyone thought that Yan Liqiang was going to eat the dough, but Yan Liqiang gently rubbed the dough on the paper and corrected the stroke drawn by the charcoal core on the paper.
To Yan Liqiang, this baked bread was just like an eraser, because the earliest eraser was actually bread. But in the eyes of bystanders, the use of this bread was extremely surprising, as if it confirmed what Yan Liqiang said before. Everyone suddenly believed what Yan Liqiang said before, that he had figured out the painting skill by himself.
Yan Liqiang was a master of facial sketching in his previous life, and in this life, with the improvement of his hand-eye coordination, control, observation and memory abilities in his brain, his skills have not only not declined, but have become even stronger than in his previous life.
Under Yan Liqiang's hands, Elder Lin's face gradually became clear on the paper, while the expressions on the faces of the people behind Yan Liqiang became more and more shocked. Some of them even opened their mouths in shock...
There are also line drawing skills in ink painting, but even line drawing skills are not on the same level as Yan Liqiang's painting skills at this moment. The painting skills that Yan Liqiang has mastered, such as perspective, changes in light and shadow, and the creation of three-dimensional images, are incomparable to the simple line drawing skills with a brush. Such skills, in this era, are simply the Dugu Nine Swords of painting skills, especially in the eyes of those behind him who have never seen such painting skills, it is simply a magical skill.
Yan Liqiang painted with all his heart, fully demonstrating his level and fully displaying the realm that can be achieved with black and white.
Under his charcoal pencil, in Elder Lin's portrait, even the strands of hair at the temples seemed to be counted one by one, and every wrinkle in her long skirt became very three-dimensional. Especially the brilliance in Elder Lin's eyes, the outstanding charm of a mature woman, and her unique temperament, all of which were clearly visible and vividly displayed on the paper.
Without being modest, the whole painting looks like a photograph that has been artistically processed. If it were Yan Liqiang's previous life and posted on the Internet, it would also be amazing. He would have no problem getting into the Central Academy of Fine Arts!
(End of this chapter)