Chapter 454: Protagonist, Person in the Painting
Deep into the night, unsure of the hour, within the gates of Nanke Immortal City, the myriad lights of households suffused the sky.
On the streets, cultivators, half-drunk, walked arm in arm, discussing the beauty of various fairies. Talented men and beautiful women walked in pairs, falling in love amidst the lamplit streets.
Feng Yu Die tied up her silver hair, concealing it under a bamboo hat, and disguised herself as a tourist, blending in with the crowd. Her golden eyes on the white veil were incredibly lively as she quickly scanned the surrounding shops and passers-by.
Xiao Yunluo, finding her “hornet’s nest” hairstyle inconvenient and Xiao Tian not with her, booked a private room at the inn. Afterwards, she ventured onto the street alone, searching the heavy traffic for keywords like “Young Master Ye” and “Hundred Lotus Sect.”
However, just like in the immortal cities they had passed, there were many people discussing the “Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect”:
“The Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect, already in the late Core Formation stage at such a young age, and naturally handsome. I really want to see the Western Regions. Is the Hundred Lotus Sect far?”
“Quite far. But, there are only a few of us, young cultivators in the Qi Refining stage. Even if we went, he might not see us.”
“Yeah, sigh…”
… …
“Why is it so unfair? Not only is he in the late Core Formation stage in his early twenties, but he’s also a Young Master of a sect, possesses some kind of Spring Aspect spiritual energy, and is handsome. Brothers, have you heard those girls talking about the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect?”
“How could we not have heard? My cultivation partner suddenly said a few days ago that she wanted to see the scenery of the Hundred Lotus Sect in the Western Regions and asked me to accompany her.”
“Ah? Brother, your cultivation partner is acting strangely~~ Never mind, let’s not talk about it, let’s drink!”
… …
Of course, there were also some discussions about the “Spring Aspect” spiritual energy in the Daoist arts. Feng Yu Die wandered the streets for nearly two hours, overhearing about twenty rogue cultivators or sect disciples discussing Ye Anping, but she heard nothing she wanted to.
What she wanted to know now was Ye Anping’s location so she and Xiao Yunluo could rendezvous with him.
It had already been half a month since she and Xiao Yunluo left the Xuan Xing Sect.
The roasted chicken that Ye Anping had specially prepared and preserved for her before leaving was all gone…
Now, walking on the street, she felt as if something was stuck in her chest, unable to rise or fall, making her extremely uncomfortable. Her mind couldn’t stop replaying the words she had heard when she was sweeping her Master’s grave:
—”He’s dying. After he dies, Junior Sister Pei will be yours, right?”
Feng Yu Die knew this was what cultivators often called an “inner demon.” She had heard Grand Void True Person say before that inner demons were terrifying and could easily lead one astray.
However, it was only when she truly faced the “inner demon” that she personally understood the “terrible” the Master had spoken of.
The murmuring voice, disguised as her Master’s, repeated things that went against her Dao heart like a nightmare.
It was intangible, impossible to strike down.
It was like a ghost.
Even if she covered her ears, she couldn’t make the voice stop.
Moreover, the frequency of the voice increased, and its clarity grew…
“Young Master Ye… where are you…”
Feng Yu Die clenched her fists, feeling as if Xiao Tian was practicing fire spells inside her head, causing it to swell and ache. Suddenly, her vision blurred, and she stumbled.
Crash—
“Freshly made glazed floral porcelain~ Affordable prices… Ah?!”
Her left hand directly supported herself on a small wooden stall beside her, inadvertently knocking a piece of glazed porcelain onto the ground, shattering it into pieces.
The stall owner, sitting on a small rattan chair nearby, was startled.
The stall owner watched Feng Yu Die, wearing a bamboo hat, pass by his stall, only for her to suddenly lean over and smash his glazed lamp. He thought she was causing trouble.
However, upon sensing Feng Yu Die’s late Core Formation cultivation, he didn’t dare to step forward. He just stood there, dumbfounded:
“Senior esteemed one? What’s wrong…?”
Feng Yu Die looked at the shattered porcelain on the ground, blinked, and stood upright, asking:
“How much?”
“Uh… sixty spirit stones.”
“Alright, I’ll pay for it.”
Taking out a small bag of spirit stones from her storage bag and tossing it to the stall owner, Feng Yu Die decided it was best to return to the inn to find Xiao Yunluo and hurried back the way she came.
However, the moment she turned around.
A figure dressed in snow-white robes stood out from the pedestrians in front of her.
Amidst the sea of people and colorful clothing, that figure seemed to emit a faint white light, deliberately drawing all her attention.
The figure seemed not to have noticed her. The handsome face turned slightly in her direction, revealing deep purple eyes that were as calm as a still pond to Feng Yu Die. But it seemed he didn’t see her, merely glancing around before walking forward without looking back.
“Ah… Wait!! Ye… Wait!!”
Feng Yu Die’s lips parted slightly, and she quickly reached out. Watching the receding figure, she hurried to catch up.
“Wait!!!”
“… …”
“You… Wait a moment! It’s me!!”
“… …”
Feng Yu Die felt the surrounding pedestrians giving her strange looks. However, she knew that shouting “Young Master Ye” or announcing her name on the street was not a good idea.
She remembered Senior Sister Xiao saying before that Young Master Ye definitely wouldn’t want herself to be exposed to the public.
Feng Yu Die weaved through the crowd, trying her best not to bump into anyone, and hurried forward. But she found that the figure was walking faster and faster.
“Wait!! Ye… Ah!! Wait—”
Sweat beaded on her forehead. Feng Yu Die felt as if she had run dozens of miles on foot, even her breathing becoming labored.
Seeing the white figure about to be swallowed by the crowd on the street, she bit her lip slightly, no longer caring about the surrounding pedestrians. She waved away those blocking her path.
Then, channeling spiritual power to her ankles, she took a step and directly darted forward.
The bamboo hat on her head was lifted by the air resistance, leaving behind, and the silver hair coiled within it scattered like a waterfall.
Feng Yu Die bit her lip, seeing him just a step away, and quickly reached out, grabbing “his” shoulder.
But the moment her palm touched “his” shoulder, the figure of Ye Anping in Feng Yu Die’s vision, as well as the shops on both sides of the street, dissolved and scattered like ink droplets in clear water.
Then, a male voice with a somewhat strange accent came from beside her:
“Hm? Fairy?”
“… …”
“Fairy, do you wish to buy a painting? This portrait you’re holding, I’ll give it to you for three hundred spirit stones, what do you say?”
“Painting…”
Feng Yu Die finally snapped out of her daze. It was then that she noticed she was standing in front of a wire rack displaying over ten ink paintings, and her right hand was holding one of them.
The man in the painting was lifelike, down to every strand of hair, exactly like the face of Ye Anping in her mind.
The middle-aged man beside her smiled and continued, “It’s a portrait of the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect. His affairs have been widely known lately. Coincidentally, I’ve painted that Young Master Ye before, so I thought I’d sell paintings to earn some spirit stones.”
“… …”
“I guarantee this painting is not fabricated. That Young Master Ye is indistinguishable from the person in this painting.”
Feng Yu Die furrowed her brow, looking at Ye Anping’s face in the painting. She suddenly felt a sense of peace, and the voice of her inner demon in her mind seemed to be suppressed, no longer making a sound.
However…
Feng Yu Die sized up the stall owner. Seeing that he was only a cultivator in the Mid Foundation Establishment stage and appeared to be quite old, she asked with a furrowed brow, “Hmm… you’ve seen the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect? Where?”
“It was a long time ago. I was once invited by the Sect Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect to paint blessings for the Ye family. Before that, I even painted the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect for the Eldest Miss of the Moon Shadow Sword Sect. I figured since the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect is famous now, many people would buy this painting, so I set up a stall… Fairy, you must admit, I’ve sold quite a few recently, mostly to young ladies like yourself.”
“… …”
“Ahahaha… This handsome young man from the Western Regions, already in the Core Formation cultivator ranks at such a young age, which beautiful woman in this world wouldn’t yearn for him?”
Feng Yu Die pursed her lips, looking at the painting in her hand. Without saying much, she just nodded:
“Yes, I’ll buy it.”
She then took out three hundred spirit stones from her storage bag and handed them to the painting stall owner.
The stall owner quickly cupped his hands, accepted them, and bowed with a smile, “Thank you for your patronage, thank you for your patronage!”
The painting stall owner hurried forward, preparing to take the painting off the wire rack.
However, it was at this moment that two masked men walked over and asked, “Boss, we heard you have a portrait of the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect? And that you’ve seen him before? How about painting one for us?”
Portraits of the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect were indeed selling well recently, but this was the first time the stall owner had seen male cultivators buying paintings. Most male cultivators merely looked without buying.
Furthermore, the aura of these two was clearly not right. Although they wore relatively harmless doll masks, their entire bodies exuded a murderous intent.
The stall owner sized them up and, after a moment of hesitation, replied, “Uh… please wait a moment, I’ll package this for the Fairy first.”
“Mm…”
The eyes of the two masked men couldn’t help but turn towards Feng Yu Die, scrutinizing her silver hair from behind her head.
Feng Yu Die naturally noticed these two eyeing her.
Her silver hair was indeed very conspicuous, and these two looked suspicious. A thought of drawing her sword and attacking them immediately arose.
However, the portrait of Ye Anping beside her calmed her down.
—Even if she hadn’t appeared, these two would likely have come to buy Ye Anping’s portrait.
In other words, she shouldn’t do anything unnecessary, lest she accidentally ruin Young Master Ye’s plan.
For now, she would pretend to be just a passerby…
“Boss, is the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect as handsome as he is in the painting?”
“Ah… yes.” The stall owner replied with a smile, “I guarantee it was painted from life. While it might not be exactly like the real person, it’s at least ninety percent accurate.”
Indeed… Feng Yu Die nodded, looking at the painting:
“Then, is the real person even more handsome than the one in the painting?”
“If I were to say, then yes, he’d have more vitality. After all, ink is dead, but people are alive.”
“Good! If I have a chance, I’ll make a trip to the Hundred Lotus Sect. If he’s not as handsome, I can come back to get my money back.”
“Naturally, naturally…”
The stall owner replied with a smile. The two men beside him, hearing this conversation, seemed to relax their guard and went to sit on the chairs the stall owner had prepared.
Feng Yu Die didn’t look at them. After the stall owner finished packing the painting, she cupped her hands in a salute, then turned and merged into the crowd. At the first street corner, she darted straight into a small alley that no one noticed, put on a spare bamboo hat, jumped onto the rooftop, and headed towards the inn from above.
The painting stall was located in the East City of the Immortal City, while the inn where she and Xiao Yunluo had booked was located at the South City gate.
Feng Yu Die paid attention to her surroundings, guarding against being followed. She wound her way around for a while before landing on the inn’s rooftop.
Stepping on the tiles, she took out the sealed painting in her hand, unrolled it slightly, and looked at it under the moonlight of the waning moon.
Perhaps because the stall owner’s meticulous brushwork was so good, seeing the painting was like seeing the person.
Looking at the half-body portrait on the scroll, she felt as if she were seeing Ye Anping himself. The fatigue and unease she had accumulated along the way at this moment vanished.
“Young Master Ye…”
A hint of tenderness appeared in Feng Yu Die’s eyes. However, recalling the conversations she had overheard along the street, she pursed her lips and tilted her head, a question arising in her mind:
—Is Young Master Ye really that handsome?
She hadn’t thought Ye Anping was particularly good-looking before, but perhaps due to being influenced by others, or perhaps due to the years of living together…
“Hmm, he really does seem quite handsome, especially when he’s roasting me a chicken, hehe…”
A faint blush appeared on her fair cheeks, accompanied by a silly smile and strands of silver hair beneath the bamboo hat, like the spring breeze caressing all things into life.
Feng Yu Die stood on the rooftop, smiling foolishly at the painting for a while. Then, she re-rolled the painting and put it into the storage bag at her waist. Hanging upside down, she pushed open the window and jumped in.
“Senior Sister Xiao, I’m back…”
“Ah!!!”
A scream startled Feng Yu Die, causing her to tremble like a cat.
Feng Yu Die looked towards the bedding with a look of fear, only to see Xiao Yunluo lying on her side on the bed, blushing, holding a quilt, doing God knows what.
“Senior Sister Xiao… what are you doing?”
“I…” Xiao Yunluo pursed her lips, quickly hiding something under the quilt, then grabbed a pillow and threw it at Feng Yu Die’s face, “You idiot! Can’t you knock? Why are you climbing through the window?!”
*Poof*
Feng Yu Die didn’t dodge. After taking the pillow on her face, she caught it in her hands and said with a smile,
“…I’ll be careful next time. By the way! Senior Sister Xiao, can you dye hair?”
“Dye… dye hair?”
“Mhm.” Feng Yu Die took off her bamboo hat and then moved her hair to the front, saying, “I was almost targeted just now. My hair is too conspicuous.”
“Targeted?”
“Yes, I thought about it. We can’t do this. Look at my head of silver hair, and your ‘hornet’s nest’. With the two of us walking around, we’re too eye-catching. Young Master Ye probably doesn’t even know we’ve followed him yet, so we should be low-key on the road!”
?
Xiao Yunluo blinked. She touched the pair of antlers on her forehead, feeling as if she had been insulted.
What Feng Yu Die said was indeed true. They should be low-key.
But!
“That makes sense, but it’s mainly your hair! When people see me with a hornet’s nest on my head, they’ll just think it’s weird and won’t recognize my identity. Snow-white hair is really rare, and you have quite a reputation… When people see your hair, how can they not guess you might be the ‘idiot’…”
“… …”
Xiao Yunluo sat up, slightly tugged at her skirt, and pointed to the dressing table in the room:
“Sit there! I have hair dye.”
“Oh! Alright~ Hehe…”
Feng Yu Die grinned and quickly sat on the small stool in front of the dressing table, flipping her hair back.
Xiao Yunluo walked behind her. Seeing the smile on Feng Yu Die’s face in the bronze mirror on the table, she couldn’t help but furrow her brow and ask,
“Idiot, what happened to make you so happy? Weren’t you frowning all the way here?”
“Hmm? It’s nothing~ It’s just… I feel at ease now.”
“At ease about what?”
“Hehe~~ I won’t tell you—unless you buy me roasted chicken.”
Xiao Yunluo suddenly felt like she had become a mother again, tired beyond words. She sighed, gently tapped her head, and then took a comb and a small bottle of hair dye from the side:
“Tilt your head back!”
“Okay!”
“Stop staring at my face, close your eyes!”
“Okay!”
“…Did you find any news about Anping?”
“No, but I did see someone watching Young Master Ye and them. Young Master Ye probably anticipated this. And I think since someone in Nanke Immortal City is watching Young Master Ye, they probably haven’t arrived yet, so we should just wait here?”
Xiao Yunluo furrowed her brow and retorted:
“When did you become so smart?”
“I’ve never been stupid… By the way, Sister Xiao, why was your face so red just now? What were you doing?”
“… Reading the Book of the Great Dao.”
“Oh~~”
… …
