The Realm of Emptiness
"I've read such a story in the folk stories, which said that it was the work of evil spirits that created a world of its own in the painting." Bai Roushuang reached out to touch a passerby, who gave her a strange look when she touched him, and his reaction was lifelike.
Jiang Yan shrugged: "Maybe the owner of this place took the material from folk stories, who knows?"
"But this place is more magical than any storybook I've ever read." Bai Roushuang stretched out her hand to the bird on the branch, and the bird flew over and pecked at her palm.
In a roadside tavern, a Hu girl was dancing a Hu Xuan dance to a cheerful tune. Her skirt fluttered in the wind, but the dancer's posture was not graceful at all. Instead, the dance was based on strength.
"Strings and drums sound, sleeves are raised, snow flutters and the wind blows," Bai Roushuang murmured, and suddenly sighed, "In history, after not many years, this place will become a deserted city, a ruined capital, and will no longer be as glorious as it is now."
Xu Shulou stood beside her and whispered, "But after a few years, it prospered again. Dynasties have changed, people are gone, but this city will always be there."
Bai Roushuang came back to her senses and smiled sheepishly: "I was being hypocritical."
"What's this?" Xu Shulou bought a bottle of sugarcane juice with cherries on the street and handed it to her.
Bai Roushuang felt a slight warmth in her heart. Her senior sister would always comfort her when she was sad, and her comfort was very appropriate. When she was young, she heard the storyteller say "The most valuable thing in life is a confidant, and when you meet someone in the world, you are as close as your own flesh and blood." She used to sneer at him. Even flesh and blood can betray you, so how can a confidant be closer than flesh and blood? Now she knows the true meaning of it.
She looked at her senior sister with gratitude, but unfortunately her senior sister failed to understand the complex meaning of her look, and poured all her tenderness into the bowl of sugarcane juice with cherries in her hand.
Xu Shulou was not without some sentimental feelings, for example, at this moment she was holding a cherry stem in her mouth and sighing, "It's a pity that the things in the painting cannot be taken out. It's really a pity."
“…”
After leaving the painting, Bai Roushuang randomly selected another "Judgement Picture" and entered it first. She was surprised to find herself sitting in the court, behind the desk. Two people were kneeling in the court, one of them was shouting, "Sir, I am innocent!"
She was startled: "What are you doing?"
Xu Shulou, who was dressed as a lawyer, came over and explained to her in a low voice: "Those who enter the painting can play the role of judge and judge cases for the people in the hall."
Bai Roushuang was stunned: "What if I make a mistake?"
"There is no punishment for making mistakes. This world is ruled by those who enter the painting," Xu Shulou stroked his fake beard, "If you want, you can even drag them all down and chop them up."
"This..." Bai Roushuang looked around, "Where is the fifth senior brother?"
Turning around, he saw Jiang Yan standing in the hall, dressed in a black robe, holding a water and fire stick that was black on top and red on the bottom. It was obvious that he was a yamen runner here.
Bai Roushuang suppressed her laughter and began to listen carefully to what the people in the hall were saying, such as "I did steal the neighbor's chicken, but that was because he stole my duck last year" and "He was talking nonsense and I had never stolen any ducks." She was so confused by what she heard.
She turned around to ask for help from her senior sister, and found that Xu Shulou, the fake master, was concentrating on playing with his fake beard. He also took out a bronze mirror from somewhere and stroked his beard while looking at himself in the mirror. Bai Roushuang had no choice but to bite the bullet and go up by herself. She raised her hand and slammed the gavel. Before the two people in the hall responded, she was the first to scare herself.
"Well... since you lost your duck, you should have reported it to the police immediately. If you take revenge in private, even if you are right, you will lose your reason. I, I sentence you to return a chicken to your neighbor, and the matter ends here! Go away!"
"Thank you, sir."
Bai Roushuang stared at the two men and saw that the neighbor was very happy to have his chicken returned, while the other man was only sentenced to return the chicken and was not beaten with a stick, so he accepted it and did not look depressed. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sir," the bailiff took the two away and reported at the door, "Can the next victim, Zhang's daughter and the prisoner Song, come in?"
"No, no, no, it's too difficult. Please let me go," Bai Roushuang grabbed her senior sister and almost ran away, "Let's leave quickly!"
The three of them left the painting and walked around in this Taixu Realm until they saw a painting in front of them showing cows leisurely grazing. Bai Roushuang stopped and asked curiously, "Five Cows? Would anyone choose to be in this painting?"
Xu Shulou and Jiang Yan looked at each other, and the latter cleared his throat: "Well, there are always people with special hobbies."
Bai Roushuang still had a confused look on her face and was quickly carried away by the two men.
After reading A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains and Travelers in Mountains and Streams, Xu Shulou introduced: "In these paintings, the main thing is that you can fly in the air to see the scenery and appreciate the thousands of miles of rivers and mountains."
Bai Roushuang suddenly thought: "Will we meet other people in the painting?"
"Yes, but these paintings have fewer people choosing them, so it's not easy to bump into them. There are more people upstairs."
Bai Roushuang then asked, "Which painting has the most people?"
Jiang Yan looked strange: "A picture of a secret play at a night of spring, or a scene from a brothel."
Upon hearing the name, Bai Roushuang understood: "...Spring Palace Picture?"
"That's right."
"I thought that monks could have higher pursuits," Bai Roushuang shook her head, "such as experiencing ascension to heaven in a painting, or living in heaven or something like that."
"What you said is also possible. One can enter the painting and become a general or fairy in heaven. One can also experience the legendary Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea. Some people even pretend to be the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl," Xu Shulou said with a smile. "There are not a few people who choose to enter the painting. But after all, it is an imaginary fairyland. Some people always think it is too fake."
"That's right," Bai Roushuang thought for a moment, "Senior Sister, have you ever pretended to be someone?"
"Yes," Xu Shulou recalled, "I played the role of the goddess in heaven and went to the Milky Way to separate the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. It was quite interesting."
Bai Roushuang looked at her expressionlessly, then turned to ask Jiang Yan, "Fifth Senior Brother, how about you?"
"I came here with my senior sister last time. I dressed up as the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King. I caught whoever my senior sister told me to catch and broke up any couple she told me to break up."
"..." What kind of weird hobbies are these? Bai Roushuang suppressed her complaints and said, "Then the most complicated painting here must be the fairyland scene?"
Xu Shulou thought for a moment and said, "It should be the Classic of Mountains and Seas."
Bai Roushuang became interested: "Can I go and take a look?"
"certainly."
Before they knew it, the three of them had reached the fifth floor along the spiral staircase, where a huge scroll of the Classic of Mountains and Seas was engraved on the wall.
Xu Shulou paid the spiritual stones, but this time the maid next to the scroll handed each of the three of them a defensive paper talisman, and reminded them: "Use it immediately if you encounter danger after entering. The paper talisman can be transformed into a spiritual power shield to resist one attack."
"Thank you very much."
As soon as the three entered the painting, several winged tigers flew and swooped down towards them.
Bai Roushuang was startled and took a defensive stance, but the flying tigers did not attack them. They just stopped in front of them and looked at them curiously.
Xu Shulou's hand touched the tiger's head very skillfully. After she touched it a few times, the flying tiger lay comfortably on the ground, exposing its belly.
Bai Roushuang: “…”
The other Flying Tigers looked at her and Jiang Yan with dissatisfaction, as if they were disgusted with their lack of understanding of romance. The two could only smile bitterly.
Feihu carried them for a while, during which they encountered a huge human-faced snake, which almost frightened Bai Roushuang to the point of falling off the tiger's back.
She asked her senior sister carefully: "Is the Classic of Mountains and Seas realistic or imaginary? Do these mythical beasts really exist in reality?"
Xu Shulou shook his head to indicate that he was not sure: "Most of the mythical beasts here have never been seen in the world of cultivation. But there is always someone better than you, who knows if they exist in another world? Maybe it's the fairyland, or maybe it's some secret place we haven't discovered yet."
The Flying Tiger stopped at the foot of the mountain. The three of them got off the tiger and said goodbye to the Flying Tiger. They saw a mythical beast strolling nearby. Bai Roushuang stared at it for a long time and said, "This two-headed pig is quite cute."
Xu Shulou tapped her forehead and said, "It's called Pingpeng."
Bai Roushuang stuck out her tongue, and saw a huge strange bird perched on a tree not far away. Just as she was about to get closer to take a closer look, Xu Shulou pulled her back: "Luoluo bird, it eats people."
Bai Roushuang shivered, hiding behind her senior sister and looking around. She saw a goat-like creature, and when she looked closely, she saw that it had eyes under its armpits. She quickly looked away, not daring to look again: "Is there no cuter one?"
"Cute? There are a lot," Xu Shulou thought for a moment, "Follow me."
A few people climbed a section of the mountain road and searched several caves before they found the lovely mythical beast. It was a white deer with four horns and was quite friendly to people.
Xu Shulou stroked it a few times, and it leaned its head in her arms.
There is also a mythical beast named Chenghuang, which looks like a white fox, but has horns on its back. It is small in size and is very much loved by Xu Shulou. Bai Roushuang finally plucks up the courage to step forward and touch it.
They also encountered a nine-tailed fox with beautiful fur. Seeing that the junior sister was eager to try, Xu Shulou reminded her: "If you want to touch it, you can open the defensive spiritual power shield to touch it. Remember to run away after touching it."
"..." Bai Roushuang cherished her life very much and chose to watch from afar.
Passing by the water, she saw for the first time a fish that sounded like a cow, which was an eye-opener. She and her fifth senior brother gathered together to watch the mermaids, and they were so focused that they were almost swept away by a mermaid. Xu Shulou pulled them up by the collar of each of them.
If it weren't for the fact that she often saw terrifying mythical beasts with human faces, whose eyes were often placed in the wrong position, Bai Roushuang would have thought that the tour here was quite pleasant.
After the few people left the scroll, she was still frightened and only looked at the figures and landscapes, ignoring those mysterious and bizarre ones.
Soon she saw another painting of several people bathing in a hot spring. Bai Roushuang observed it carefully, but didn't see anything special. She asked, "What's the mystery here?"
Jiang Yan explained for her: "There's nothing mysterious about it, just go in and take a bath in the hot spring."
"You know that this kind of thing is everywhere in the world, right?"
Her voice was a little higher. The maid standing in front of the painting looked at her and said with a smile, "In our Taixu Realm, what matters is that the universe is all-encompassing. We must have everything and nothing can be missing."
"……Been taught a lesson."
Several people continued to climb the stairs, and a night scene appeared in front of them. The painting was very simple, just one person and one boat. The person in the boat stopped from time to time to take a sip of wine. These simple actions inexplicably made people feel a bit free and easy.
"This is?"
"Li Bai's Moonlit Night Boating," Xu Shulou looked up at the large scroll, "You can go in and talk about poetry and swordplay with the Immortal Poet, but many people say that the experience is poor. The Immortal Poet probably thinks they are noisy and is not very willing to talk to them. But some people also say that if you catch the Immortal Poet's eye, he will even dance with the sword for you, allowing you to understand the meaning of the sword and improve your own cultivation. But no one has yet figured out how to catch his eye. In short, arrogance is not allowed, and flattery is even worse."
"It's magical." Bai Roushuang felt that she had said this sentence too many times today, but at this moment she really couldn't find a more appropriate sentence to describe her mood.
After turning another corridor, there was a war scene on the wall. Soldiers were riding tall horses, holding swords, spears, and halberds in their hands, fighting each other.
Bai Roushuang frowned: "Who would want to experience war?"
"Many people," Xu Shulou sighed, "there are always people who think that building a career by stepping on the dead bones is a very... interesting thing."
Bai Roushuang raised her eyebrows: "We mortals wouldn't think like that. This is probably just the arrogance of a cultivator."
Xu Shulou laughed and said, "Let's go."
The three of them continued strolling and soon saw a palace painting with many characters, including the harem and the former dynasty.
"There are many people who come here to paint," Xu Shulou introduced, "and they stay for a long time."
"What are you going to do?"
"They play it in a special way. Some time ago, I heard that someone went in to be a powerful official. After 20 years, he finally succeeded in usurping the throne and became the emperor."
"Twenty years? It shouldn't be that difficult for a cultivator to seize the throne, right?"
Xu Shulou shook his head: "For everyone's experience, you are not allowed to use spiritual power to break through this painting. Once you enter, you will all be ordinary people."
Bai Roushuang thought of a possibility and was a little horrified: "What if he was killed in the painting?"
“You can withdraw in time, but if you don’t react, you will really be killed.”
"Then wouldn't it be dangerous if I didn't have spiritual power?"
Xu Shulou spread his hands: "Some monks have lived too long, and they just want this kind of excitement."
"..." Bai Roushuang really couldn't understand, "Mortals all want to cultivate immortality, but these people have been cultivators for so long that they actually want to experience the life of mortals."
Jiang Yan smiled and said, "The life of a cultivator is very long. If you can think of something new and unexpected, they would like to try it all out. I also heard that someone experienced a moment of mutual affection in a painting and used it to overcome a love tribulation. I also have a friend who likes to go into the painting over and over again to experience the feeling of being struck by lightning when overcoming a heavenly tribulation. He said it felt warm and comfortable."
Bai Roushuang's mouth twitched. You monks are really weird!
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