"Where do Seimei's shikigami reside?"
Luo Qiushui searched the courtyard for a place where the shikigami could live, but after searching for a long time, she could not find an empty room, and she felt disappointed.
Actually, there isn't one here.
This is not her Heian-kyo after all.
Taking a few steps forward, Luo Qiushui walked around the flowering trees, and the surroundings suddenly became quiet, with a dim light falling on the corner of the wall.
Luo Qiushui looked up and saw that it was another large courtyard. She stood in the shadows and looked around. In the sunlight, there were several uneven walls on the opposite side.
On the wall directly opposite her, a painting illuminated the entire courtyard.
It was a blue painting.
In the painting, Abe no Seimei sits under a cherry blossom tree, with a small brown table in front of him. On the table are a calligraphy brush, colored ink, and an unfurled painting.
A man dressed in a blue hunting outfit held a paintbrush and painted with fluid movements and an elegant and noble posture. A blue scroll was unfurled in his hands, with a thick scroll next to him that seemed to stretch out to a very long length.
Cherry blossoms gracefully fall, landing on Abe no Seimei in the painting, while some drift in the air, adding a touch of gentleness to the pure moonlight of the night.
Looking at the painting, Luo Qiushui thought of midnight in the courtyard, and her restless heart suddenly calmed down.
The moonlight in the painting is hazy, and beautiful cherry blossoms drift in the wind in the middle of the night. Abe no Seimei sits calmly in the desolate courtyard, holding a paintbrush in his hand.
In him, Luo Qiushui seemed to be able to transcend time and space and see that bizarre and wonderful world, which was so vividly displayed before her eyes at this moment.
The scene depicted in this painting may not exist in reality; it only exists in the painting, or perhaps it once existed in a world made up of the dead, but it too has vanished with the wind.
Luo Qiushui's gaze gently fell on the painting. She approached it and saw the scroll in Abe no Seimei's hand in the painting.
"Miss, so you've been here all along."
A soft, unfamiliar female voice came from behind, sudden yet not abrupt.
Luo Qiushui turned around and saw the woman who had led some people on a tour of the place standing behind her, smiling at her.
"Hello."
Luo Qiushui greeted her.
The kind-faced woman responded and walked over gently to her side, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.
"Miss, you've been looking at this picture. Do you like it?"
Luo Qiushui turned her head, and a pair of gentle eyes met hers. These eyes held a hint of curiosity, as if there was something else in them.
"I like it very much."
Luo Qiushui frankly stated.
"I hope it exists in reality."
She added.
"Um?"
The woman next to her glanced at her.
"You like supernatural tales and monsters? It seems like there are more people who like that kind of thing lately."
"No."
Luo Qiushui shook her head in denial.
After completing this action, her gaze remained fixed on the blue-toned picture on the wall, and she didn't move it.
The woman standing next to her spent a long time trying to figure it out before she realized that Abe no Seimei's gaze had been fixed on the painting in the picture.
The painting depicts a dragon, a blue and majestic dragon, and himself, standing between heaven and earth, seemingly higher than heaven and earth.
"Legend has it that this painting was drawn by Abe no Seimei himself. It depicts him, his identity as an Onmyoji, and his artistic conception."
The woman beside him spoke up.
Luo Qiushui looked at the picture, and after a while she turned her gaze back to the woman.
"Legend has it that Abe no Seimei was the greatest Onmyoji of the Heian period, with countless honors and adoration, and the ability to turn the rotten into the miraculous."
She said it casually.
What were you just saying?
The woman looked at her in surprise.
The translator failed to render her last sentence correctly, leaving the woman bewildered upon hearing these strange words.
"He was a great Onmyoji."
Luo Qiushui couldn't explain it, and could only sigh like this.
This time the woman understood, and she nodded slightly as she looked at the picture.
There was a moment of silence between the two, and then many more petals fell from the sky.
"Are you the witch here?" Luo Qiushui asked, looking up.
The woman shook her head. "No."
"Excuse me, I have a question for you. Do you know the great Onmyoji, Abe no Seimei? I mean..."
Luo Qiushui thought for a moment, unsure how to continue. To some extent, she didn't know much about the person in front of her.
Are you referring to his achievements?
The woman asked.
"Um……"
Luo Qiushui raised her finger and pointed around Abe no Seimei in the picture. "According to Japanese legend, Abe no Seimei was the greatest Onmyoji of the Heian period, possessing superb Onmyoji skills and subduing many magical shikigami. Why can't I see his shikigami in this picture?"
Upon hearing her words, the woman paused for a moment, then smiled knowingly.
"How do you know that Lord Abe no Seimei had many shikigami?"
Luo Qiushui choked.
She didn't know.
But she once had it.
The woman looked into her eyes, pointed to the picture on the wall, and her voice was like a long, unhurried river flowing slowly forward.
"Many people in later generations believe that Abe no Seimei had any shikigami at all, and that those yokai were figures of his imagination. After all, even today, with advanced technology, no one has ever seen the legendary yokai."
Upon hearing this, Luo Qiushui was greatly disappointed. Her face gradually darkened, as if she had lost her last bit of solace.
The woman beside her, seeing her suddenly bitter face, continued unhurriedly, "There are also some people who don't agree with this view; they believe in the existence of shikigami."
Her hand landed on the courtyard in the picture, on the cherry blossom tree: "They believe that there is a shikigami standing next to each cherry blossom under the cherry blossom tree. They all exist, but we just can't see them."
Luo Qiushui was stunned for a moment.
My gaze fell upon the cherry blossoms, and it didn't seem out of place to see some unusual people standing in those empty spaces.
"Or, there's another possibility—"
The woman drew out her words, and Luo Qiushui focused her mental energy intently, awaiting her answer.
"They're here."
The woman said with a smile.
Luo Qiushui stared blankly at the spot where the woman was pointing; that was Abe no Seimei's heart.
"Whether shikigami truly exist in this world, no one knows. Whether Abe no Seimei truly had shikigami by his side, only he himself knows. Even if the mysterious yokai did not appear in reality, they had already taken up residence in his heart. As long as he remembered them in his heart, they would exist forever."
Several petals fell, and Luo Qiushui stared blankly at the Yin-Yang Master in the picture, who was left with only one person in the end, her eyes welling up with tears.
In the end, Abe no Seimei was left all alone, and he disappeared into the annals of history.
That magnificent Heian-kyo, that cozy Yin-Yang Bureau, was ultimately just a dream. The only evidence Abe no Seimei could use to prove the existence of his shikigami was a scroll he drew himself.
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