"Soul Burial in the Underworld" was the first painting that Lu Liangsheng could not complete in one go.
When I stepped out of the scroll, I felt dizzy and nauseous. The scene was completely different from what others saw.
With full concentration.
What I saw was a gloomy sky. The surrounding world was all red. The sunlight had no warmth. The mountains and rivers were like knife blades. The rivers were flowing with dark red blood. Standing in the wilderness, I could hear the sad cries of ghosts in the woods around me. It was as if I was in a world in a painting.
“I’ll leave it for the next drawing…”
After putting away his brush and easel, Lu Liangsheng realized that it was getting dark. The setting sun flooded into his field of vision like a tide. In the fenced courtyard, the old donkey was crawling in the thatched shed, being scolded by Lu Laoshi. Hong Lian and Lu Xiaoxian were sitting in the house learning to sew clothes, and the master was being thrown into the vegetable garden by his mother, carrying his clothes. Everything became warm and real.
As for Sun Yingxian, she was probably hanging out with the Lu family's Eight Vajras again.
The scholar sitting on the stool moved the easel and the scroll on it back into the house, went to the compartment and asked Hong Lian for a piece of white cloth, and covered the easel to cover it.
The Toad Taoist, who was coiled in the vegetable garden, took advantage of Li Jinhua entering the kitchen to quickly stand up, spread his webbed feet and ran quickly into the room. He turned around, pushed the door shut, climbed onto the bed, sat down breathlessly, and drank a sip of water.
"Liangsheng, have you had an epiphany in painting?"
"Epiphany?"
Lu Liangsheng, who was sorting out the books that he hadn't finished opening last night, turned his head to look at his master with some surprise. In fact, he himself didn't know whether this counted or not.
He put the book back on another table and sat down next to Toad Taoist.
"I don't know either. I just felt that I wanted to deal with that Dharma Master, so I put all my strength into it and described it with the idea I had before... When I withdrew, so much time had passed without me noticing."
The Toad Taoist kicked lightly with his webbed feet, and the thin membrane of his webbed feet spread out and rubbed his chin for a moment: "That's not far from enlightenment. I was like this when I was a teacher..."
Whoosh… Whoosh…
The Toad stopped talking and turned his head. Lu Liangsheng felt a little tired on the bed and fell asleep with his clothes on.
… Can’t you let me finish speaking
"Liangsheng, it's time to eat!"
The door creaked open, and the Toad Taoist quickly climbed down and pretended to sleep. Li Jinhua stood at the door and glanced at her sleeping son, but did not wake him up. She picked up the Toad who was sleeping soundly beside her.
"You run around the house all day long. You're such a big toad, how can you not be smart? There are not enough insects in the vegetable garden for you to eat."
She walked out of the room, talking and throwing the Toad Taoist into the vegetable garden. Outside the fence, Sun Yingxian just came back and was immediately stared at by the woman.
"What are you looking at? Eat your meal!"
The Taoist priest immediately dropped his head and ran past the donkey shed with his head down. Lu Laoshi came out and wiped his hands. Just as he was about to say something to persuade him, his wife grabbed his ear and said, "None of them is worry-free."
“It hurts…”
Lu Laoshi cried out a few times and was dragged straight to the kitchen.
The next morning, amid the sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking, Hong Lian pushed open the window and called out softly, "Master, get up!"
The cool morning breeze blew in, and Lu Liangsheng felt the coolness brush across his face. He slowly opened his eyes, greeted Hong Lian, put on his shoes, stood on the ground and stretched.
After a comfortable night's sleep, I felt much more energetic, but I was very hungry. I covered my sleeping master with the small quilt, went out to the kitchen to eat something, and sat under the eaves with the book on refining equipment, reading quietly.
In the courtyard, Sun Yingxian was practicing boxing, and the two of them, one quiet and one dynamic, complemented each other.
A few birds flew down from the old tree, stood by the well and chirped, then carefully jumped onto his book, tilting their little heads from side to side.
Lu Liangsheng waved his finger lightly to drive the bird away, took the tea handed to him by Xiaoxian, and continued to study the content of refining equipment. As for yesterday's "Soul Burial in the Underworld", he put it aside for the time being as there were some details in it that he had not yet figured out.
"To avenge my master, I must fight against that Dharma Master. To restrain his soul-demanding Sanskrit sound, I have the "Soul-demanding Burial in the Underworld", but to defeat him, Yuelong also needs to refine it, so this may not be enough."
While mumbling in thought, Lu Liangsheng referred to the response strategies in "Ce Dui" as usual, closed the book, looked at the Taoist who was fighting vigorously over there, and the corners of his mouth suddenly curled up.
"If we force it to reveal its true form, the evil spirit will naturally spread everywhere, and Tianzhi and the surrounding city gods will certainly be alarmed. Who knows, other practitioners may also come... Well, this is what we call taking advantage of the situation."
After making up his mind, he stood up and went back to the house, took the seven magic swords from the bookshelf, put them all on his back, and took Yuelong with him. He said hello to the Taoist priest, jumped over the roof, and flew out of the village. Acres of harvested fields with yellow mud exposed were flying backwards in his sight. As he flew high in the sky, the greenness of the mountains made him feel broad-minded and happy.
Crash—
He stepped over a big tree, causing its branches and leaves to shake. He bent his body in mid-air and leaped to the top of the tree. His toes stepped on the tips of the leaves, leaving a trail of white. When he could see an old pine tree welcoming him on the cliff in the distance, his feet suddenly shook.
Wow!
The tree cage shook violently, and Lu Liangsheng jumped onto the cliff, his whole body tilted and ran wildly on it, and jumped onto the edge of the cliff.
"Morning, Master!"
The scholar bowed to the tombstone, and in the morning sunlight, he followed the instructions in the refining book and used his magic power. The seven magic swords behind him formed a circle around him.
"It's your turn."
Lu Liangsheng unsheathed his sword and threw it casually. The Yuelong Sword flipped in the air and slowly descended vertically, making a buzzing sound, pulling the other magic swords that formed a circle around it to resonate with it.
"The mountains and forests here are full of spiritual energy. I hope I can succeed in refining it!"
Watching the eight swords resonate with each other, Lu Liangsheng walked to a rock on the side and sat down cross-legged.
This is to add the spiritual essence of the seven swords to the Yuelong Sword in the hope of forming a sword blank.
"I hope it will be..."
There is still time. If he fails to refine it in one go, there will be another chance. However, Lu Liangsheng naturally still hopes to complete the sword as soon as possible.
…
Chen Chaotianzhi.
On the sixteenth day of the lunar calendar, it was the Lesser Heat, and a drizzle began to fall. Amid the soothing sound of the dripping rain curtain, Chen Shubao was listening to the zither and enjoying the rain in the Linchun Pavilion with his beloved concubine and several other concubines. From time to time, he asked the concubines to take turns feeding him wine with their mouths, and the wine stains spilled all over his clothes, but he didn't care at all.
He picked up the wine glass and staggered to his feet from among the women.
"Haha... 30,000 soldiers are marching south to tell Lu Liangsheng, what's wrong with practicing Taoism? I am the Son of Heaven, I hold the power of the state, and millions of people will follow me."
The dragon's sleeves fluttered as he turned around, and his eyes were full of beautiful women, especially the imperial concubine Zhang Lihua, who had picturesque eyebrows and hair like clouds.
I also recently got a new woman. When I thought of all the wonderful things about her sitting on my lap, my poetic spirit suddenly arose, and I asked someone to bring out the four treasures of the study.
"Your Majesty, are you going to write a poem?"
Zhang Lihua came over with her skirt dragging to grind ink for him. Looking at the rain curtain outside and the pavilions in the rain in the distance, he took a breath, suddenly pulled the beauty beside him into his arms, and dipped the brush in the inkstone.
As the woman hummed softly, the pen wrote on the paper:
"The beautiful house and fragrant forest face the high pavilion, and the new clothes are gorgeous and charming..."
After writing two lines, the emperor paused. He looked sideways at the delicate beauty in front of him and reminisced about the general's wife outside the palace.
“… The enchanting lady’s face is like a flower covered with dew, and the flowing light of the jade tree illuminates the back garden.”
Seeing this line of poetry, Zhang Lihua smiled and gently pinched his waist with her hand.
"Your Majesty, how could you write such a thing?"
“Haha, there’s more to come.”
Chen Shubao liked this expression of the woman in his arms the most. He suppressed his restlessness, waved his arms and continued to write. Just as he wrote: "Flowers bloom and fall, not forever", a maid came in from the corridor outside holding something. The people in the pavilion hurried over to take it and sent the maid away, then turned and came behind the emperor who was playing and painting.
"Your Majesty, there is military intelligence."
In his hand was an urgent letter.
"Don't be anxious, my beloved. Let me see if there is any good news." Chen Shubao put down his pen, pinched Zhang Lihua's nose with a smile, reached out to take the letter, unfolded it and took a look.
The next second, the smile on his face became stiff, and then... "Ah!" He threw away the letter, overturned the desk, and the pen, ink, paper and inkstone fell to the ground.
Zhang Lihua, who was standing by, was startled. When she went to pick up the letter on the ground and read it, the emperor was shouting angrily: "Go and get the master of the law! I want to see him now!!!"
As if all his energy had been drained away by the roar, Chen Shubao stumbled back into his chair.
The three words "Lu Liangsheng" were like a mountain pressing on his shoulders.