Celestial being

Yuan Ming carefully looked at the person in front of him and recognized him.

This Commander Fu, named Fu Qing, is one of his father's personal guards. He not only leads the military, but is also an immortal cultivator.

As for the people behind him, Yuan Ming didn't recognize them, they all had unfamiliar faces.

However, it is not difficult to guess that in order to prevent people around him from leaking secrets, General Yuan chose new people for this mission except for selecting his close confidant Fu Qing.

"Brother Fu." Yuan Ming chuckled and stepped forward to help Fu Qing up.

"Young Master, I have finally found you." Fu Qing said with red eyes.

"I didn't expect that father would send you to pick me up. Thank you for your hard work coming all the way." Yuan Ming said.

"As long as the young master can be found, I will not hesitate to die." Fu Qing clasped his hands in fists.

Only then did Lord Bayin step forward and asked, "Do you know each other?"

"This is the person we asked the lord to help find, the young master of our general's mansion." Fu Qing said.

"Oh... the Inu God bless you and allow you to reunite. This is really the best arrangement." Bayin said in a long tone.

After that, he called over the stout man who was beaten half to death. After giving him some decoction to revive him, he asked about the cause and effect.

"In the words of you Central Plains people, this is called 'the flood has washed away the Dragon King Temple, and one family does not know the other'. Mr. Yuan..., please don't blame us for our recklessness." Bayin quickly changed his name. Said with a warm smile.

"It's okay. I heard that Lord Bayin is looking for a painter. I happen to be good at sketching with pen and ink. If you don't mind, you can let me try." Yuan Ming glanced at him and realized that he was also a monk in the Qi Refining Stage, smiling. said.

"Young Master Yuan is an honored guest, so there is no reason to trouble an honored guest. Come on, come on, our banquet has just begun. Mr. Yuan and Commander Fu, please take a seat." With that, Lord Bayin led Yuan Ming and his entourage back to the banquet. living room.

After several people sat down one by one, they began to have a banquet.

After a while of pushing cups and changing cups, Lord Bayin was still a little angry when he talked about being cheated.

Wu Liao was a eloquent man, and with just a few words he convinced everyone that he was a court painter and the direct descendant of Wu Daozi. After spending two days cheating and drinking at the house, he stole some gold and silver jewelry from the house and went out to look for inspiration. Under the guise, he swaggered out of the lord's mansion.

It was his "above and aboveboard" behavior that deceived everyone, so much so that they all relaxed their vigilance. When they found out, they could no longer find him.

"Lord Bayin, the master of Ming'en Tower is also confused by him. Please don't blame him again. I am an old acquaintance with him, and I came here just to help him understand this matter. I don't know Bayin. What does the lord want to draw?" Yuan Ming asked.

"This..." Bayin hesitated for a moment.

"Lord Bayin, to tell you the truth, our young master is a young genius in the Jin Dynasty. He knows everything about music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and he is even better at calligraphy and painting. If you have such a need, you can just let our young master show off his talents. That's right." Fu Qing also agreed.

Yuan Ming smiled and nodded.

"In that case, I'll trouble Mr. Yuan." Lord Bayin paused and then said with a smile.

After eating, Lord Bayin led Yuan Ming and Fu Qing towards the inner courtyard of the Lord's Mansion, and did not stop until they came to the door of a house with a huge copper lock.

"This is our family's worship hall. It's similar to the ancestral hall of your Central Plains people, but we don't have as many rules as you, and the things inside are more messy." Bayin said as he opened the door.

The three of them walked into the room one after another. After Yuan Ming took a look at the situation inside, he realized why Lord Bayin said that. The things inside were quite messy.

It turns out that the worship hall is divided into two rooms, inside and outside. There are three shelves outside, with all kinds of miscellaneous furnishings on them, including exquisitely crafted bronzes and porcelain, some bows and arrows, weapons, and some ancient books.

"These are the favorite things of the ancestors of the past generations. After everyone enters the worship hall, they will leave a personal thing here. It may not be a valuable thing, but most of them are their favorites. There are also some of the ancestors' own things. Autobiographies are also stored here." Lord Bayin explained with a smile.

The three of them walked into the inner hall, where there was a large altar table with memorial tablets for the ancestors of the Bayin family. On the wall behind the altar, there was a large ancient painting.

On top of the ancient painting, there is a tall man wearing the costume of the Kasi tribe. His appearance is not similar to Bayin, and his temperament is completely different. His phoenix eyes are bright and lively, and he looks quite heroic.

However, after all, the ancient paintings were very old and were often exposed to incense. The paper surface was severely yellowed and covered with tiny cracks. Even though it had been framed many times, it still looked damaged.

"Master Yuan, take a look. Are you sure you can copy this painting?" Bayin said.

Yuan Ming heard the words, but did not answer, and was speechless for a long time.

He was looking at this ancient painting now, and the scene he saw was completely different from others. He only felt that there was a thin layer of smoke on the ancient painting, making it unreal.

This smoke-like thing is not something that can be seen with the naked eye, but is perceived by his spiritual consciousness. It is a kind of special spiritual power that is difficult to describe.

"Lord Bayin, how long has this portrait been enshrined here?" Yuan Ming asked.

"I haven't calculated it carefully, but it has been around for at least three to four hundred years." Bayin said.

"Are you here to receive incense and offerings every day?" Yuan Ming spoke again.

"It's not like this every day. There is a small sacrifice on the first and fifteenth day of every month, and there is a big sacrifice on each of the Shangyuan and Zhongyuan festivals every year. The small sacrifice is nothing, but the big sacrifice requires all family members to be present together to worship and pray together." Although Bayin He didn't understand why Yuan Ming asked these questions, but he still told the truth.

"No wonder this painting has a dilapidated appearance, but the aura of the ancestors has not been damaged at all. I dare not say that I can copy 100% of the aura, but it should not be difficult to retain 70% or 80%." Yuan Ming heard this and guessed in his heart. After confirming it, he said.

"That's very good. Don't dare to force it too much." Bayin was delighted when he heard this.

He had also found several painters from southern Xinjiang before, but none of them dared to praise this Haikou.

"I need seven days to carefully observe the charm of the portrait here. During this period, it is best to stay behind closed doors and not be disturbed by the outside world, is that okay?" Yuan Ming asked.

"It's okay. I'll have my servants bring the bed and table in a moment." Bayin responded.

After that, Bayin left first to make arrangements, and only Yuan Ming and Fu Qing were left in the room.

"Young Master, you have suffered." Fu Qing had only said this until this moment.

"It's not a hardship, it's the blessings and misfortunes that make us what we are today." Yuan Ming said with a smile.

"When the general learned that you were here, he immediately sent me to come and take care of you. Things may change later. In fact, we should return as soon as possible." Fu Qing hesitated and said.

"It doesn't matter, I have my own plan." Yuan Ming shook his head and did not explain much.

Fu Qing was about to speak but stopped.

"Father, is there anything you want you to bring to me?" Yuan Ming asked.

"The general just said that if we can find the young master, let us protect your safety to the death, but he didn't say anything for me to spread the word on his behalf." Fu Qing said.

"It's my father's style." Yuan Ming smiled.

Not long after, the servants from the lord's house brought over a small couch and a desk.

Later, Lord Bayin personally delivered pens, inks, paper and inkstones, all of which were the finest items from the Central Plains.

After everyone left, Yuan Ming closed the door and first collected the ashes accumulated in the incense burner on the altar table.

Then he came to the table, looked at a thick pile of ribbed rice paper on the table, and with his fingers like a knife, he scratched it vertically and horizontally, and quickly cut it.

Looking at the cut pieces of rice paper, Yuan Ming smiled knowingly. After grinding the ink by himself, he picked up his pen and began to draw on the paper.

With a few simple strokes, a large ship sailing in the waves appeared on the paper. On the bow was a young man with a sullen face, looking behind him.

Behind him, there was a group of robbers with fierce looks, holding swords, axes, bows and crossbows facing each other, as if they were going to rob him.

After finishing one painting, Yuan Ming took it aside and put it aside to dry the ink, and immediately began to draw the second one.

The second scene shows the young man being shot by an arrow and falling into the water, while the pursuers are reveling with their swords raised.

Then there is the third picture. The young man is lying on the water bank and is stolen by a body picker. His clothes are stripped off.

…

Yuan Ming paints very fast, and his fine brushwork outlines are very smooth. He writes with almost divine help, almost without thinking. It seems that he already has a plan in mind. In just half a day, he has drawn dozens of line drawing illustrations.

The shelves in the entire enshrinement hall are almost all filled with drawings wherever illustrations can be placed.

Afterwards, Yuan Ming started writing without stopping, and the small regular script with hairpin flowers was arranged neatly on the paper, which was pleasing to the eye.

"It is said that the son of the Sheng family in the south of the Yangtze River traveled south and reached the southern and northern regions..."

Just like painting, when Yuan Ming wrote the "Journey to the South of Master Sheng", which had already been drafted, he also wrote in a spiritual state, with thoughts flowing out and flowers blossoming in his pen.

He refined and adapted his various experiences in southern Xinjiang and mixed the various regional customs of southern and northern Xinjiang into it. The writing is so vivid that it makes people read it as if they have experienced it personally.

However, three days later, Yuan Ming finished all the manuscripts and illustrations, and after some overall proofreading, he sorted and typed them and put them away.

Then, he really started copying the portraits of Bayin's distant ancestors.

This time he started painting. After a few strokes, Yuan Ming's brush strokes stagnated and he couldn't continue painting.

It wasn't that there was something wrong with his painting skills, it just felt wrong.

He could draw the shape of the painting, but he could not draw the meaning of the painting, that is, the charm that he had discovered before that was difficult to see with the naked eye.

Even if I can barely draw it, it lacks energy.

Others may not be able to see anything, but he himself felt uncomfortable. He had previously boasted that Haikou could depict seventy-eight points of charm, but now it seems that it is good to get three or four points.

After several attempts failed, Yuan Ming did not persist. After standing up and observing for a while, he walked to the outer hall.

Bayin once said before that the biographies of his ancestors were stored here, so Yuan Ming thought that finding that ancestor and looking at his life experience might also be helpful in painting.

After searching around on the shelf, he found a book at the bottom.

This book is packed in a square sandalwood box with insect-killing camphor inside, so the book is very well preserved. Except for some yellowing of the pages, there is no sign of insect decay.

Yuan Ming immediately took it out and started reading.

At this glance, he discovered that Bayin's distant ancestor was also a monk, and he was also a monk who studied talismans.