Chapter 109: A Carefree Journey among Flowers and Moons·Extra
"A gentleman has three changes: he looks solemn, he is warm when approached, and he is sharp when he listens to his words." Shi Zhixuan held Hou Xibai's hand holding the pen and wrote neat words on the white fan.
Hou Xibai's hand holding the fan was still shaking slightly. He didn't quite understand the sentence Shi Zhixuan taught him, but it didn't hinder his worship of his master.
After writing a sentence, Shi Zhixuan let go of his hand silently and turned around, standing with his hands behind his back in front of the waterfall of Xianji Rock.
"Practice a thousand times."
He said, without any extra instructions, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.
Hou Xibai had long been accustomed to Master Shi's style, and obediently placed the fan with wet ink aside, spread out the rice paper and copied it.
Mr. Ouyang in the valley is also a master of calligraphy, but Master Shi only let him learn from Mr. Ouyang. As for the way of using the brush, Hou Xibai is not impatient, and knows that calligraphy and painting cannot be achieved overnight. When Master Shi accepted him, he boasted in front of him, and now he must work hard to do his best.
Hou Xibai glanced at the direction where Shi Zhixuan left, and then looked at the sky.
Master Shi has a habit of going to Luoxing Lake to observe the stone tablet every day. Hou Xibai once thought that the stone tablet must be the calligraphy left by the masters of the previous dynasty, but he looked at it for a long time and couldn't see anything more special. Even Mr. Ouyang said that although the stone tablet is beautiful, it lacks some agility, and the characters are a bit rigid. It's okay to try to figure out the shape, but don't delve too deeply.
The inscription on it is a few lines from the "Juan Er" in the "Book of Songs". Hou Xibai has already learned the "Thousand Characters", "Book of Songs" and "Analects", but he is still young and only has a partial understanding of the meaning. He vaguely knows that it is a poem of nostalgia.
Wanhua Valley is a place of spiritual beauty, and the Seven Saints are famous all over the world. People in the world can't help but praise them. Master Shi cultivated him as the successor of the painting saint, obviously with high hopes. But Hou Xibai felt that his knowledge was shallow.
On the day he entered the valley, whether it was Shang Xiufang, who was amazing at first glance with her extraordinary zither skills, or Wan Wan, who was barefoot and graceful among the flowers in white clothes, they all made him shudder. These two sisters were younger than him, but they had left him far behind in both martial arts and skills.
If he wanted to catch up and become someone who could live up to the title of the Saint of Painting, he would need to practice hard.
When Hou Xibai grew up, he slowly realized that Master Shi had always been thinking of someone in his heart.
There was once a great master with amazing talent in Wanhua Valley. He entered the realm of Broken Void at the age of only twenty. He was worried about the suffering of all living beings and insisted on staying in this world for more than thirty years. It is said that he and Master Shi were close friends, but when that person broke through the void, Master Shi was unable to see him for the last time, which was a lifelong regret.
Senior Sister Xiufang was his direct disciple. Hou Xibai had never seen that person, but from their descriptions, he could vaguely get a glimpse of his unparalleled grace. He
was proficient in the arts of music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, tea, and medicine. This was how the world evaluated the seven arts of Wanhua, and also how it evaluated that person.
He alone could master the skills they had pursued for their entire lives, and even his martial arts were far superior to those
of ordinary people. He was truly a genius unparalleled in the past and present. The battle with Ning Daoqi in the bamboo forest, the taming of precious horses at the Pegasus Ranch, the defeat of Bixuan at the military parade, and the persuasion of Goguryeo in the game of Zhenlong chess, every bit of this person's legacy seemed like a myth.
Hou Xibai admired that person very much.
The events of the past were kept secret in the valley, even the girl who always liked to tease him and didn't care about discipline refused to mention a word.
Hou Xibai had no choice but to think of some solutions outside the valley.
There were some stories about that person circulating in the world, and the storytellers told them with saliva flying, which always made people fascinated. But he always felt that it was not enough, so he bought all the books related to that person.
As he read, he actually read a few stories saying that Shi Shi was a cut-sleeve, and talked about Shi Shi's admiration for that person, saying that he was willing to abandon the dark and join the light, assist the Sui Dynasty, and even if he was cursed by both the righteous and the evil, he would build a peaceful and prosperous era for that person... The story was surprisingly moving, and it felt like he was there in person. He
looked at the signature again, "The Man in the Abbey".
Ha, this must be something that Cihang Jingzhai created to tarnish Shishi
's image. Hou Xibai quickly burned all those idle books. He had seen Shishi sketching the man alone in Zhaixing Pavilion. He was elegant and gentle, with long black hair like a spring. He was amazed at the man after just a sneak peek. Unfortunately, Shishi soon crumpled the picture into a ball, as if he was very dissatisfied.
There must be at least a hundred or a thousand similar pictures thrown away over the years.
Hou Xibai felt that the painting was missing something.
Shishi always came and went without a trace, and seemed to be very busy every day. Hou Xibai could not disturb him often, so he could only try to learn faster to prove that he was not slacking off.
The Huajian School is a strategist in the martial arts world. Master Shi slowly began to teach him the art of strategizing and also mentioned a little about his experience in the court.
Today, the country is peaceful and the people live and work in peace and contentment, and it is unprecedentedly prosperous. No one would have thought that more than five years ago, the world was in chaos and wars broke out
everywhere. Master Shi was 90% responsible for this. The old enemy of the Shengmen, Cihang Jingzhai, bet on the wrong treasure and suffered disaster. The emperor of the Sui Dynasty was unjust and lost the great country. Cihang Jingzhai was cursed by the whole world, which was completely different from the one who could stand up to the Shengmen a hundred years ago.
Flipping through the map of twenty years ago and then looking at the map of the Tang Dynasty today, Hou Xibai was deeply moved and sighed that he was not as good as them.
Gradually, he grew up to be a romantic and talented man who indulged in wine and women. He was known as the "Amorous Young Master" in the Jianghu. His painting skills were unparalleled. He painted all the most beautiful women in the world on the beauty fan, and inherited the name of the painting saint of Wanhua Valley.
Only then did he understand what was missing in Shishi's painting.
A painter should not have love in his eyes. Once he has love, he will be hesitant when he puts pen to paper, and he will no longer be able to paint the soul of the other person.
He combined the words of the elders and guests in the valley, and referred to the clothes of the Wanhua disciples. He spent all his efforts and finally painted a fan and gave it to Shishi as a gift for his apprenticeship.
When he went to give the fan, he accidentally ran into the conversation between the Yingui Sect's Zhu Zongzhu, Shishi and Wanwan.
"I promised you a world where the Holy Sect can freely display its power. Now I have fulfilled my promise."
Zhu Yuyan's face was not happy at all. Since the failure of forcing Wanhua to change her fate caused Xiao Hao to break the void, the status of Cihang Jingzhai in the hearts of the people in the world has plummeted. Young disciples have even broken out of the sect in groups, and Cihang Jingzhai is in name only.
Bi Xiuxin supports Li Yuan, while the Holy Sect secretly supports Li Shimin. Shi Zhixuan, in the name of Pei Ju, makes plans for him. In just a few years, the world is stable and under his control.
He did not hesitate to overthrow the dynasty that he had built up with his own hands, just to completely destroy the group of nuns that disgusted him.
Zhu Yuyan didn't know what kind of existence the Holy Gate held in his heart, but the Evil King was no longer the Evil King he used to be. She was no longer qualified to negotiate any terms with this man and could only obey him respectfully.
When he was just the leader of the small Huajian Sect, no one believed such a light promise, not even his master, but Zhu Yuyan knew that he would do it. Moreover, only he could do it.
"Zhixuan is still blaming me?"
Shi Zhixuan glanced at her coldly without saying anything.
Kankan stood behind them, with a completely different enchanting smile and cold satisfaction on her face, "When Cihang Jingzhai forced you to submit, you should have thought about the day when you would suffer the consequences."
Shi Zhixuan held a yellow crystal ball in his hand and played with it slowly, "I will be in seclusion in Luoxing Lake soon to absorb the essence of the holy relics. The affairs of the Holy Gate will be handed over to Yuyan in the future."
Zhu Yuyan nodded with a lowered eyebrow.
The evil spirit in the evil emperor's relic had been taken away by the soul-catching messenger. Now the relic is a treasure that can greatly increase one's power.
That day, Shi Zhixuan hurried back to Wanhua. In order to stop people from spreading the news of what happened in the valley, Fan Qinghui only said to the outside world that Xiao Hao accidentally broke through the neck of the bottle and shattered the void. However, Shi Zhixuan remembered every word Xiao Hao said. He said, "Only the people in the valley know what happened in the valley."
The young Wan Wan cried and threw herself into his arms, telling him everything she had witnessed.
"... The master said: 'Zhixuan is sincere, he has a world in his heart, and has been working hard for that peaceful and prosperous era. You really misunderstood him.' He also said 'We two are confidants and have a mutual understanding', but they didn't listen! They said you were a big devil, and they all knelt down to ask you to change the fate of Sui! You left because of them!"
Shi Zhixuan was very happy and angry, and he hated himself for being eager for quick success and unwilling to give up the unification of the world that he had been pursuing for half his life.
He thought of the last question Xiao Hao asked him, and vaguely felt that this might be the answer left for him.
In this case, he slowly subverted the Taoism pursued by that group of people, and then accompanied him for a long time.
After Lu Miaozi knew about Xiao Hao, he immediately showed the general map of Yang Gong's treasury. Shi Zhixuan easily got the evil emperor's relic, but he didn't know if he could control the timing of breaking the void as freely as Xiao Hao, so he never absorbed the essence.
Among the younger generation, Hou Xibai is a very good disciple, who is far better than him in the way of governing the world, leaving his body in the white clouds, and getting love and forgetting love among flowers; Wan Wan has also practiced to the eighteenth level of the Heavenly Demon Great Law, and is the best one among the successors of the Yingui School; Shang Xiufang is multi-talented, although her martial arts are not top-notch, but she can write poems and songs at will, and no one in the world can match her.
What's more, Wanhua still has Fu Cailin, the old guy, sitting in the town, so he doesn't need to worry about anything.
Shi Zhixuan tightly grasped the evil emperor's relic and finally laughed.
...
Hou Xibai wandered to the sea of flowers in a daze. He seemed to be possessed by a demon. When he arrived at the door, he did not offer his fan. There were always many things in Shishi's eyes. He could not understand them when he was young, and the older he got, the more he could not
understand them. The more he understood, the more he could not understand.
He knew that Shishi would also leave.
"I picked and picked the curled ears, but the basket was not full. Alas, I miss you, and walk around."
Someone vaguely recited "Curled Ears" in the sea of flowers. When he turned around, Shi Zhixuan was touching the broken stele and drinking wine. His eyes were drifting to who knows where. The more he drank, the colder his eyes became.
...
"It seems that you have lived in the valley for a long time, and you still have someone you care about."
"You are just a clean-handed person in the valley, but outsiders don't understand the true concept of Wanhua's seclusion."
"I don't seek to avoid the wind and rain alone, I just want to smile that the Peach Blossom Land is not a dream."
...
Hou Xibai walked over tremblingly and presented the folding fan he painted.
This time, Master Shi praised him very rarely.
"You are very good." He said so.
"You are better than me in painting. I have nothing to teach you."
Hou Xibai seemed to have felt something, and bowed respectfully behind him, his eyes slightly hot.
"Congratulations, Master, for fulfilling your long-cherished wish."
Shi Zhixuan smiled faintly and looked back at him, "I wish you good luck."
That night, Master Shi broke into the void.