Chapter 118 Chapter 118
“Click.”
With the last chess piece falling, the game finally came to an end.
"Oh, it's a draw." Axue said excitedly.
"Yeah, it's a draw." Phoenix said contentedly.
It had been ages since I'd played such a satisfying game of chess. The two exchanged glances, instantly feeling a mutual appreciation and a sense of regret for not meeting each other earlier.
"I had so much fun playing chess this time. Before... the people at home were either worse than me or refused to play with me. It was not fun at all. Now I finally met a worthy opponent. This is truly the greatest blessing in life." Axue said as she collected the chess pieces on the board one by one.
At this time, poor You Lin was still struggling.
"This one is even better, my dear sister, please try it." Zhiyuan has transformed into the best salesman in the world.
"I don't……"
"Oh, just believe me, it will definitely look good!"
"It looks like they're both having a lot of fun." Phoenix curved her eyes.
He almost laughed out loud at You Lin's bewildered expression. Honestly, after all their time together, this was the first time he'd seen You Lin so flustered. In a sense, this kite girl was quite talented.
When You Lin saw Fenghuang looking at him, he seemed to panic even more. He hurriedly closed the book and stuffed it back into Zhiyuan's hand. Then he looked at his nose and his heart, as if nothing had happened.
Phoenix: "Am I that scary?"
You Lin hesitated, then nodded, then shook his head vigorously. What else could he say? Could he tell Fenghuang that now, whenever he saw him, all sorts of bizarre stories would pop up in his head uncontrollably? The most outrageous thing was that these stories all featured Fenghuang as the protagonist... How would Fenghuang think of him in the future?
This storybook has done a lot of harm to the dragon, so I give it a bad review.
Zhiyuan originally wanted to continue selling her storybook to her friends, but for some reason, she suddenly felt guilty when she saw Fenghuang.
Although the sister in red seemed to have a good temper, there was a voice in her ear shouting at the top of its lungs: She must not be allowed to see these books, otherwise something terrible would happen.
Zhiyuan thought it was her sixth intuition of seeking profit and avoiding harm, so she quietly put the notebook away.
Axue's curious eyes moved around the two of them: "What's wrong? The atmosphere is weird. What are you two doing behind our backs?"
"No, nothing. Hey, look, what is that on the stage? It's so beautiful." Zhiyuan forcedly changed the subject.
At the same time, earth-shaking cheers suddenly erupted from the audience, and someone suddenly shouted excitedly: "Miss Liu Liu!"
"Miss Liu Liu!"
"I am attracted to you, Miss Liu Liu!"
Phoenix looked in the direction of the sound and discovered that the huge circular stage below had been painted green at some point and was covered with green curtains and gauze. Following the sound of a clear piano, a cloud of mist suddenly spread out, and the entire scene became dreamy and ethereal, like a fairyland.
Another melody echoed, and the scroll hanging in the center of the stage suddenly fell down, revealing the same cyan painting. It was also a painting of a beautiful woman, holding a pipa, seated on a strange rock. The figure in the painting gazed at the painting with a pair of peach-shaped eyes, as if gazing at the audience from afar.
It was just a picture, but the people's cheers seemed even louder.
Zhiyuan lay on the railing outside the box, trying hard to look at the scroll.
"It's him! It's my senior brother's painting!" As if confirming something, she quickly grabbed Ah Xue's sleeve and shouted excitedly. But her voice was quickly drowned out by the crowd's cheers. Even though Ah Xue was standing opposite her, she could only see her mouth opening and closing as if she was saying something.
"Humans, this is really exaggerating." Phoenix rubbed his ears with lingering fear.
Another sound of the piano fell, and everything on the scroll suddenly moved.
At first, the willow leaves in the painting appeared on the stage out of thin air.
The next second, the hand of the figure in the painting suddenly moved very noticeably. Phoenix recognized it as a strumming technique, and at the same time, the same note was heard from the stage.
But there was clearly no one there, there was even only an empty pipa that no one was playing.
"It sounds like it was played by the person in the painting." You Lin murmured.
As the figure's movements grew larger, the pipa's music grew more passionate. When the music reached its climax, the figure in the painting came to life. She stood up and spun around with the pipa in her arms.
Like a gust of wind, accompanied by falling willow leaves, it landed on the stage out of thin air during the pause of a certain note.
She also held a pipa in her hand, and her makeup, clothing, and hair accessories were exactly the same as the person in the painting, as if she had really walked out of it.
After Liu Liu appeared, people's calls became more enthusiastic.
"Miss Liu Liu!"
"The fairy in the painting—this is the real fairy in the painting!"
"Fairy sister!"
"This is the real magic!"
Liu Liu held her pipa in her arms, bowed, and began to play again. The painting behind her seemed to have returned to its normal state, the figures in it maintaining their original movements, as if everything that had just happened was just an illusion.
But soon people no longer thought so. Several more scrolls fell, and soon several dancers appeared in the same way.
This magical performance is an audio-visual feast from any perspective.
Ah Xue was stunned, her eyes filled with amazement. She turned to look at Zhi Yuan and said with emotion: "Are you painters really that powerful?"
Zhiyuan shook her head. The junior sister who created this miracle was more confused than anyone else at this moment.
"This is simply impossible. How can a person fit into a painting? Even Master can't do this. When did you acquire this ability, Brother?"
Her expression became increasingly strange. Phoenix noticed her abnormality and asked softly, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"To have such an effect, senior brother must be here. Miss Liu Liu is not from our lineage, so it is impossible for her to have such magic. It can only be senior brother... Yes, senior brother must be here." Zhiyuan murmured to himself.
She really couldn't understand it.
She didn't know what her senior brother had been through during this period, nor did she know how he had developed this kind of magic. However, to her, these questions were not important.
As her junior sister, she was sincerely happy for her senior brother's success. But she still wanted to find him and ask him face to face: In the past month, have you ever thought about your master who is about to pass away, or have you ever thought about her who was left alone in the inn?
Even if he is addicted to the life of luxury and doesn't want to go back, he should at least report to his family that he is safe, right?
At the end of the song, the audience rushed to throw cloth, silver, and jewelry onto the stage. Liu Liu sat there, holding her pipa, unmoved. The dancers rushed forward, picking up the valuables and bowing to the audience.
These are all rewards given to Liu Liu, and as dancers, they can also get a share of the profits.
Liu Liu played more than one song. After a brief pause, another soft song flowed out from her slender fingertips.
Zhiyuan rarely showed his impulsive side: "He must be backstage now, I have to go down and take a look."
"Hey, Miss Zhiyuan..." Ah Xue failed to stop Zhiyuan. She looked uneasy and left a sentence "I'll go and take a look" before decisively chasing after her.
Looking at the two figures, one tall and one short, running towards the backstage, Fenghuang suddenly asked, "How is it? What's the result?"
You Lin shook his head.
"Zhiyuan's soul is pure, unstained by blood. Her current behavior is not an act. However, the material used in that painting is the same as the fragments we found yesterday. I'm afraid her brother is involved in this case."
"And that Liu Liu down there..." You Lin frowned. "The smells here are too mixed. I can't distinguish them clearly, but I can vaguely smell some similar smells."
The Kite and the Roadblock smell similar because they both carry something in common... so what about the smell on stage?
Could it be that the man was so cruel that he made all the peeled human skins into scrolls, and then used the hands of the people to make them disappear without anyone noticing?
That makes sense, but what good would digging out a spiritual root do? If it's not the person's will, forcibly digging it out will simply disintegrate and become useless. It can't be just to frame the demon race, right?
"I checked Zhiyuan's meridians at the bun stall earlier, and she still looks human," Phoenix said. "But there's one thing I really don't understand. Monsters have a high energy demand after transforming because the transition between the two forms consumes a lot of energy, and they also need to maintain stability between the two forms. But why do humans need so much more energy?"
“…” You Lin shook his head.
Ah Xue rushed to the backstage with Zhi Yuan. It was empty inside, with no one there, only the wide-open windows hinting at something.
Zhiyuan lay by the window and looked out, but unfortunately there was nothing outside except a shaking wind chime.
"There's my senior brother's presence here... He's been here before. I'm still a step too late." She sighed and slid down to the ground silently. "He must have known it was me, otherwise he wouldn't have run so fast."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
