Chapter 454: Protagonist, the person in the painting
Late at night, among the gate towers of Nanke Immortal City, the lights of thousands of houses were soaked in the skylight.
On the street, half-drunk cultivators hugged each other and talked about the fairy’s beauty. There were also pairs of talented men and beautiful women chatting about love among the lamplight railings.
Feng Yudie tied up her silver hair and covered it in a bamboo hat, pretending to be a tourist and mingling among the passers-by. Her golden eyes on the white veil were very smart, and she quickly scanned the surrounding shops and passers-by.
It was not convenient for Xiao Yunluo to hold her head like a hornet’s nest, and Xiao Tian was not here with her, so after they booked a private room in the inn, they went to the street alone. In the busy traffic, they paid attention to “Young Master Ye” and words like “Hundred Lotus Sect”.
However, just like the immortal cities they passed along the way, there were not many people talking about the “Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect” now:
“Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect is already in the late stage of core formation at a young age, and he is naturally handsome… I really want to visit the Western Domains. Is the Hundred Lotus Sect far away?”
“It’s quite far, but we sisters are just a few young cultivators in the Qi refining stage. Even if we go, others may not see us.”
“Yes, alas…”
…
“Why is it so unfair? Even though he is only in his twenties and in the late stage of core formation, he is still a young master of a sect. He also has some spring of life, and he is also handsome. Brothers, have you listened to what those girls are talking about? That young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect?”
“How could you not hear it? My Daoist companion suddenly said a few days ago that she wanted to go to the Hundred Lotus Sect in the Western Domains to see the mountains and rivers there, and she asked me to accompany her.”
“Ah? Brother, there is something wrong with your Daoist Companion~~ Forget it, stop talking, let’s drink, drink!”
…
Of course, there were also some Daoist topics talking about the spiritual energy of “Spring of Life”. Feng Yudie walked around the street for nearly two hours and listened to about twenty people talking about Ye Anping’s casual cultivators or sect disciples, but there was nothing at all that she wanted to hear.
She wanted to know where Ye Anping was now, and then rush over with Xiao Yunluo to meet him.
It had been half a month since she and Xiao Yunluo came out of the Xuanxing Sect.
The roast chicken that Ye Anping specially marinated for her before leaving had already been eaten…
Now walking on the street, she felt as if something was blocked in her heart. She couldn’t go up or down. She felt extremely uncomfortable. In her mind, she couldn’t help but replay the words she heard when she was sweeping her master’s grave:
——”He is about to die. After he dies, won’t Junior Sister Pei belong to you?”
Feng Yudie knew that this was the “Inner demon” that cultivators often talked about in daily life. She had also heard from Master Taixu before that inner demons were terrible and could easily lead the Daoist mind to distortion.
However, it wasn’t until she actually faced her “Inner demon” that she realized what the “Terrible” her master meant was terrifying.
The murmuring voice disguised as her master’s voice was like a nightmare, constantly repeating things that went against Taoism in her mind.
Can’t touch it, can’t cut it.
Like a ghost.
Even if she covered her ears, she couldn’t stop the voice.
Moreover, the frequency of that sound was getting higher and higher, and the sound was getting clearer and clearer…
“Young Master Ye… Where are you…”
Feng Yudie clenched her fists and felt as if her head was swollen and painful as Xiao Tian was practicing fire spells inside. Suddenly her vision was blurred and her body tilted.
Wow——
“The newly released glazed porcelain~the price is affordable…Ah?!!”
Her left hand was directly supported on a wooden stall next to her, but she accidentally swept a piece of glazed porcelain placed on it to the ground and broke it into pieces.
The stall owner sitting on a small wicker chair next to him was startled.
The stall owner watched Feng Yudie wearing a bamboo hat passing by his stall, but suddenly he came over and broke one of his glazed lamps, thinking it was a vandal.
However, after noticing the core formation stage cultivation level of Feng Yudie, he did not dare to step forward, but stayed in place with a dull look on his face:
“This… Senior? What’s wrong with you…”
Feng Yudie looked at the glass fragments on the ground, winked, stood up straight, and asked:
“How many?”
“Uh… Sixty spirit stones.”
“Well, I’ll make it up to you.”
After taking out a small bag of spiritual stones from the storage bag and throwing it to the stall owner, Feng Yudie felt that it would be better for her to go back to the inn to find Xiao Yunluo, so she quickly turned around and returned the same way.
However, that was the moment she turned around.
A figure in a snow-white dress stood out from the pedestrians in front of her.
Among the crowds of people and colorful clothing, that figure seemed to be emitting a faint white light, deliberately drawing all her attention to it.
The figure didn’t seem to notice her. His handsome face turned slightly toward her, revealing his dark purple eyes to Feng Yudie, but he didn’t seem to notice her and just looked around. All around, they walked forward without looking back.
“Ah… Wait!! Ye… Wait!!”
Feng Yudie’s lips and teeth were slightly open, and she quickly reached out her hand. Watching the voice fade away, she quickly chased after him.
“Wait!!!”
“…”
“You… Wait a minute! It’s me!!”
“…”
Feng Yudie felt that the passers-by around her were looking at her strangely, but she knew that it was never a good idea to call out “Young Master Ye” or give her name on the street now.
She still remembered that Senior Sister Xiao said before that Young Master Ye definitely didn’t want to be exposed to everyone.
Feng Yudie shuttled through the crowd, trying her best not to bump into pedestrians, and quickly chased forward, but found that the figure was walking faster and faster.
“Wait!! Ye… Ah!! Wait–”
Hot sweat covered her forehead, and Feng Yudie felt as if she had run for dozens of miles on her feet, and even her breathing was not smooth.
Seeing that the white figure was about to be drowned by the flow of people on the street, she bit her lips slightly, no longer paying attention to the pedestrians around her, and waved her hand to push away those who blocked her way.
Then, she condensed her spiritual power to her ankles, stepped forward, and dashed away.
The hat on her head was lifted from her head due to air resistance and stayed in place. The long silver hair coiled in it spread out like a waterfall.
Feng Yudie bit her lip. Seeing that he was close at hand, she quickly reached out and grabbed “his” shoulder.
But just when the palm of her hand touched “his” shoulder, Ye Anping’s figure in Feng Yudie’s field of vision and the shops on both sides of the street all melted and dispersed in an instant, like ink droplets in clear water.
Then, a male voice with a strange accent came from beside her:
“Huh? Fairy?”
“…”
“Fairy, do you want to buy a painting? The portrait you are holding will be counted as three hundred spirit stones for you. What do you think?”
“Painting…”
Only then did Feng Yudie recover from her daze. It was also at this time that she noticed that she was now standing in front of a wire hanging with more than ten ink paintings, and her raised right hand was grabbing one of them.
The man in the painting was lifelike, every trace of his hair was exactly the same as the face of Ye Anping in her mind.
The middle-aged man on the side smiled and continued:
“It’s the portrait of Young Master Ye of the Hundred Lotus Sect. His story has been widely known to everyone recently. I happened to have painted that Young Master Ye before, so I wanted to sell the painting to earn some spiritual stones.”
“…”
“I promise that this painting is not fabricated. Young Master Ye is exactly the same as the person in this painting.”
Feng Yudie twisted her eyebrows and looked at Ye Anping’s face in the painting. She suddenly felt very peaceful. Moreover, the voice of the inner demon in her mind seemed to be shocked, and stopped speaking.
But…
Feng Yudie looked at the stall owner of the painting stall and saw that he was only a cultivator in the middle stage of foundation establishment, and he seemed to be quite young, so he raised his eyebrows and asked:
“Hmm… Have you met the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect? Where was he?”
“It happened a long time ago. I was invited by the master of the Hundred Lotus Sect to paint a blessing for the Ye family. I also helped the eldest lady of the Moon Shadow Sword Sect paint the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect. I think the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect has become famous. There are quite a few people buying this painting, so I came to set up a stall… Fairy, don’t worry, I have sold a lot of it during this period, mostly to girls like you.”
“…”
“Ah ha ha ha… This beautiful young man from the Western Domain is already among the core formation cultivators at such a young age. I dare you to ask which beauty in the world won’t admire him?”
Feng Yudie pursed her lips and looked at the painting she was holding. She didn’t say anything more and just nodded:
“Yes, I bought it.”
Then he took out three hundred spirit stones directly from the storage bag and handed them to the owner of the painting stall.
The stall owner quickly accepted it, cupped his fists, and said with a smile:
“Thank you for your support, thank you for your support!”
The owner of the painting stall hurriedly stepped forward to remove the painting from the wire.
However, at this time, two men wearing masks suddenly came over and asked:
“Boss, I heard that you have a portrait of the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect here? You also said that you have met the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect before? How about painting one for us?”
The portraits of the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect had indeed been selling very well recently, but this was the first time that the painting stall owners had seen male cultivators come to buy paintings, and most of the male cultivators just didn’t want to buy.
Moreover, the auras of these two people were obviously wrong now. Although they were wearing two relatively friendly baby masks, their whole bodies were exuding a violent aura.
The owner of the painting stall looked at the two of them, hesitated for a while, and responded:
“Uh… Wait a moment, I’ll help this fairy pack first.”
“Um…”
The two masked men unconsciously looked toward Feng Yudie and took a closer look at the silver hair on the back of her head.
Feng Yudie naturally noticed that these two people were sizing her up.
Her silver hair was indeed very conspicuous, but now there was something wrong with these two people, and she suddenly had the idea of drawing a sword to kill someone.
However, the portrait of Ye Anping beside her calmed her down.
——In fact, even if she didn’t show up, these two people would probably come over to buy Ye Anping’s portrait.
In other words, she had better not do unnecessary things, lest she accidentally ruin Young Master Ye’s plan.
Now just pretend to be a passerby…
“Boss, is the young master of the Hundred Lotus Sect really as beautiful as in the painting?”
“Ah… Yes.” The owner of the painting stall replied with a smile, “I guarantee that it is definitely painted according to the model. Although it cannot look like a real person, it is at least 90% like it.”
Indeed… Feng Yudie looked at the painting and nodded:
“Then the real person is more beautiful than the person in this painting?”
“If I want to tell you, it really needs to be more spiritual. After all, Mo is dead and people are alive.”
“Okay! I’ll go to the Hundred Lotus Sect when I get the chance. If it doesn’t look like it, I can come back to you to refund the money.”
“Of course, of course…”
The painting stall owner smiled and agreed, and the two people next to him seemed to have relaxed their vigilance after listening to this conversation and went to sit on the chairs prepared by the stall owner and waited.
Feng Yudie didn’t look at them. She waited for the stall owner to wrap up the painting, bowed her hands, then turned around and blended into the crowd. She took the first turn and rushed straight into a small alley where no one was paying attention. Took out the spare bamboo hat and put it on, jumped up to the eaves, and hurried back from the roof toward the inn.
The painting stall was located in the Eastern District of Immortal City, and the inn she and Xiao Yunluo booked was at the city gate in the south of the city.
Feng Yudie paid attention to the movements around her to prevent herself from being followed and wandered around for a while before landing on the roof of the inn.
Stepping on the tiles, she took out the sealed portrait in her hand, opened it slightly, and looked at it under the light of the waning moon.
Perhaps it was because the owner of the painting stall was so good at painting that she saw paintings as if she were seeing people.
Looking at the solemn bust on the scroll, she felt as if she was seeing Ye Anping himself. The fatigue and anxiety accumulated along the way were swept away at this moment.
“Young Master Ye…”
There was a hint of tenderness in Feng Yudie’s eyes, but when she recalled the conversations she had heard along the street before, she pursed her lips and tilted her head, and a question arose in her heart:
——Is it possible that Young Master Ye is really handsome?
She didn’t think Ye Anping was particularly good-looking before, but maybe it was because of her influence, or maybe it was because of the daily interactions over the past few years…
“Well, it does look pretty good, especially when he helps me roast chicken, hehe…”
A faint blush appeared on her fair cheeks, paired with a silly smile and the faint silver thread under the hat, as if spring was blowing across all things.
Feng Yudie stood on the roof and stared at the painting and giggled for a while, then re-rolled the painting and put it in the storage bag on her waist, hung it upside down, and directly opened the window and jumped in.
“Senior Sister Xiao, I’ll be back…”
“Ah!!!”
A scream frightened Feng Yudie’s body.
Feng Yudie looked toward the bed with a horrified look on her face, only to see Xiao Yunluo lying on her side on the bed holding the quilt with a blushing face, not knowing what she was doing.
“Senior Sister Xiao… What are you doing?”
“I…” Xiao Yunluo pursed her lips and quickly hid something in her hand under the quilt, then picked up the pillow and threw it towards Feng Yudie’s face, “You idiot! Don’t you know how to knock on the door? ! Why open the window if you have nothing to do!!”
Puff–
Feng Yudie didn’t hide either. After catching the pillow with her face, she took the pillow in her hand and said with a smile:
“…I’ll pay attention next time. By the way! Senior Sister Xiao, can you dye my hair?”
“Dye… Dye your hair?”
“Well.” Feng Yudie took off the hat on her head, then moved her hair in front of her body and said, “I almost got targeted just now. My hair is too conspicuous.”
“Targeted?”
“Well, I thought about it, we can’t do this. You see, I have silver hair, and you have a hornet’s nest. The two of us are too conspicuous when we walk. Young Master Ye probably doesn’t know that we are following you now, so we’d better be low-key on the road!”
?
Xiao Yunluo was stunned for a moment and touched a pair of antlers on her forehead. She always felt like she was being scolded.
Feng Yudie was indeed right, they should indeed keep a lower profile.
But!
“It makes sense, but the main thing is your hair! People will find it strange at most when they see a hornet’s nest on my head, and they won’t know my identity. Snowy hair is really rare, and your reputation is not small… When others see your hair, No matter what, they would guess whether you are an idiot…”
“…”
Xiao Yunluo sat up, pulled her skirt slightly, and pointed to the dressing table in the room:
“Sit there! I have something to dye your hair.”
“Oh! So cool~ Hehe…”
Feng Yudie bared her teeth and smiled, then quickly sat down on the small stool in front of the dressing table and spread her hair behind her.
Xiao Yunluo walked behind her and saw the smile on Feng Yudie’s face in the bronze mirror on the table. She immediately twisted her eyebrows and asked:
“You idiot, what happened to you that made you so happy? Weren’t you always looking sad on the way here?”
“Huh? It’s nothing~ I just… feel at ease.”
“What peace of mind?”
“Hehe~~ I won’t tell you— Unless you treat me to roast chicken.”
Xiao Yunluo suddenly felt that she was happy to be a mother, and she was very tired. She sighed, tapped her head gently, and took out a comb and a small bottle of hair dye from the side:
“Put your head up!”
“Oh!”
“Stop staring at my face, shut up!”
“Oh!”
“…Have you heard about Anping?”
“No, but I did see someone eyeing Young Master Ye and the others. Young Master Ye should have thought of it a long time ago, and I think since someone in Nanke Immortal City is eyeing Young Master Ye now, then Young Master Ye and the others are probably not here yet, so let’s wait here, right?”
Xiao Yunluo twisted her eyebrows and asked:
“How did you become smarter?”
“I’ve never been stupid… By the way, Senior Sister Xiao, your face was so red just now, what were you doing?”
“…Reading the Book of Great Dao.”
“Oh~~”
…
