The dark clouds in the distance looked like a heavy ball of sand, rolling in with the wind and covering the stars and moon above Richan Town.
The air was heavy and heavy.
The sandstorm is coming.
A beautiful couple walked on the deserted streets of Richan Town.
The woman held an orange cat in her arms.
"Meow."
The little Feng meow, curled up in the woman's arms, raised its head, whimpered, and pressed its paws on the soft spot blocking its nose.
This big pillow made Meow flustered.
"Be good, don't make trouble."
Xie Luohe comforted her softly, and Miaoer quickly calmed down.
After comforting Xiao Fengmiao, Xie Luohe raised his eyes and looked into the distance.
There were figures on the roof of the house, hidden in the night, and she subconsciously clenched her fists.
"We're almost home, don't be in a hurry."
Zheng Xiu smiled slightly and put his arms around the woman's shoulders.
Xie Luohe lowered his head: "Yeah."
The two of them returned home peacefully and lit the oil lamp.
"Husband, I have an ominous premonition."
After meal.
Zheng Xiu took out the dusty wooden box from under the bed.
Phew~
After blowing off the dust on the wooden box, Zheng Xiu slowly took out the Luohe pen that had been dusted for many years.
Xie Luohe, who had been lying on the bed early, turned around lazily and kept watching quietly as Zheng Xiu picked up the pen. Her eyes inadvertently fell on the long bow that had been hung on the wall for many years.
Zheng Xiu walked out of the house, fetched a bucket of water from the well, wetted a towel, sat at the door and carefully wiped the stains on the Luohe pen.
After a while, the Luohe pen stirrup was as bright as new.
Go back into the house and close the door tightly.
Zheng Xiu pressed Luo He's pen under his pillow and blew out the oil lamp. In the darkness, Xie Luo He's bright left eye stared straight at him.
"Sleep peacefully tonight."
Zheng Xiu rubbed Xie Luohe's long, silky hair and smiled.
I remembered what happened in Mohexuan during the day.
Xie Luohe felt a little uneasy for no reason.
"Husband, I always have an ominous premonition."
"Don't worry, the boat will go straight when it reaches the bridge."
"They won't let it go."
"Haha, of course."
"But they inquired about the Green River Trade Road because..."
"I guess something happened in the Central Plains."
Zheng Xiu sighed softly: "Confrontations between countries are never that simple. But, what do these have to do with ordinary people like us who are powerless?"
Hearing this, Xie Luohe remained silent, turned around and closed his eyes.
Huh...huh...huh...
It's midnight.
There were faint sounds of different sounds outside the house.
Xie Luohe tossed and turned on the bed.
She was close to Zheng Xiu for a while, touched Zheng Xiu's chest for a while, rubbed Zheng Xiu's cheek for a while, and covered her ears tightly for a while.
Xie Luohe suffered from insomnia.
In the darkness, she sat up suddenly, stared out of the window through the coarse cloth, and subconsciously made a "tightening of her gloves" motion.
The other hand secretly stretched out from the bed. It turned out that the husband was not sleeping either. He accurately inserted five fingers into Xie Luohe's fingers and intertwined them. With a little effort, Zheng Xiu used this gesture to push Xie Luohe's murderous look.
Hold it with your little hands.
"Why are you up so late at night and doing such weird things?"
Zheng Xiu rubbed his fingers and said with a bad smile.
"My husband hates me." Xie Luohe, who used to be domineering in the past, has become a smart young woman who knows everything after ten years of married life. She knew what Zheng Xiu was implying as soon as she saw Zheng Xiu's actions, and the murderous intention in her heart disappeared immediately.
Without a trace, he said with an angry smile.
"Can't sleep?" Zheng Xiu saw that Xie Luohe's murderous intention had calmed down, he hugged Xie Luohe, pushed her back into bed, and asked softly.
"Noisy..." Xie Luohe said pitifully.
Zheng Xiu thought for a while.
"become."
He only said one word, then stood up in the dark and lit the oil lamp.
"what you do?"
Xie Luohe looked at her husband in surprise. He abandoned his beloved wife in the middle of the night, lit a lamp and polished ink, and said curiously.
"I suddenly got interested and wanted to... draw something."
Blank sheets of paper are spread out on the long table.
After grinding, Zheng Xiu dropped a few drops of blood into the ink.
In a corner of the room, a cat named Xiaofeng Miao suddenly raised its head and stared at Zheng Xiu calmly with its green eyes.
Zheng Xiu sat cross-legged, stroking his sleeve with his left hand and holding a pen with his right hand, motionless, as if hesitating.
Xie Luohe asked: "Is this really good?"
Zheng Xiu shook his head: "I know you don't like making noise. Now that you're out of the world, don't go in again."
"But you."
"I'm still a painter."
Zheng Xiu, who was still a little hesitant, finally made up his mind. The veins on his forehead bulged, and he pressed the tip of the pen heavily on the drawing paper as if with the force of a fist.
"Demons and monsters."
Zheng Xiu first drew a rich dark night on the paper with thick brush and ink.
Then he lightened the ink color, and in the rich "night color", he sketched with a few strokes, leaving many light-colored "spots", which looked like looming eyes. On the drawing paper, there were endless ghosts of the night.
, as if there are many unknown evil spirits hidden inside.
"alright."
Zheng Xiu stood up, and when Xie Luohe wasn't paying attention, he secretly pressed his unhealed finger into the "demon monster".
Lights out.
The two embraced each other, and Xie Luohe's expression gradually calmed down.
She curled up greedily in Zheng Xiu's arms.
I want time to stay in this moment.
On the scroll, the "spots" outlined little by little, the "eyes"-like patterns, began to rotate.
"Go to sleep."
…
The next day.
Three poles in the sun.
A corner of the street was surrounded by many desert residents.
Brother Ridi is now the leader of the clan and is running around in Ricchan Town anxiously.
The neatly dressed Boss Mo held a piece of breakfast in his hand, whistled, and walked slowly to Mohexuan. When he was about to open the shop, Sun and Di hurriedly passed by Zheng Xiu.
"Brother Di, what happened?"
Zheng Xiu grabbed Ri Di and asked.
"Something strange happened." Ridi, who had just become the leader of the clan, didn't want to pay attention to it at first, but when he looked back, he saw that it was Boss Mo, his friend from the alien race. He could only stop and said with a wry smile: "I don't know what happened on the street this morning. There are too many
There are many crazy businessmen from the Western Regions. If ordinary businessmen are crazy, they will go crazy, but these Western Regions businessmen are all possessed of strange powers. They cry, laugh, beat and smash, causing chaos in the tribe."
Zheng Xiuping asked: "Does this mean we can't send them back?"
"Yes," Ridi shook his head helplessly: "We have to find some way to send them back. This trip will cost a lot of money."
"It doesn't matter, I'll come out."
Zheng Xiu took the initiative.
"Ah? Are you out? But..." Sun and Di were dumbfounded when they heard this.
Boss Mo is a businessman, how can he take the initiative to do business that is obviously a loss?
"It's okay. I have received a lot of care from your tribe over the years. The great elder has just left and I have finally established a foothold here. If you run into trouble, you should help me."
Zheng Xiu said as he followed Sun Di to an open space.
I saw a strong man with a long bow on his back, a spear in his hand, and a scorching sun battle pattern on his body, tying up the crazy merchants from the Western Regions tightly.
Sure enough, as Ri Di said, these businessmen from the Western Regions were all crazy. They were crying and laughing. Some people shouted "Mom" and some people exclaimed "Ghost, ghost!". The people from the Lie Sun tribe gathered around several times and pointed at the madmen.
Pointing.
While maintaining order in the sun and the earth, Zheng Xiu went back to the shop, took out a stack of gold leaves, and wrapped them carefully.
After giving the "travel expenses" to Sun and Di, Zheng Xiu gave a few instructions and returned to Mohe Xuanzhong.
in the store.
Xie Luohe, who was wearing a woman's bun, was lying on the counter, holding up a wooden board in boredom, patting left and right.
When Zheng Xiu entered the store and took a look, he couldn't help but laugh: "Madam, let alone people in the store, there isn't even a fly. If you continue to swat, with your strong hands, you won't accidentally drop the table."
Beat it to pieces."
"I want you to take care of it!"
Xie Luohe came over with Xiao Fengmiao in his arms, and whispered in Zheng Xiu's ear: "What on earth did you do last night?"
She didn't understand Zheng Xiu's operation.
Over the years, Zheng Xiu has been quietly cultivating his skills as a painter. In obscurity, Xie Luohe has retreated into the world for many years. She no longer knows how deep Zheng Xiu has gone.
Zheng Xiu saw that there was no one around. There was something going on in the city today, so he thought no one would come to drink. So he closed the door early and hung a sign at the door saying "The proprietor made a happy event".
"The human soul is divided into four parts: form, intention, luck, and direction."
Zheng Xiu raised four fingers.
Xie Luohe nodded, she naturally knew this.
"I painted a night, in which there are ghosts and monsters hidden. This 'scene' temporarily replaced the surroundings of our yard last night. When they broke in, they were eaten by the 'ghosts'."
Xie Luohe frowned slightly: "Eat?"
"I didn't eat them all." Zheng Xiu smiled: "'Ghost' is just a 'painting', not real. I used 'painting ghost' to absorb part of their human soul, that is, 'intention', and they became 'Ghost'"
"Frustrated people' will naturally go crazy."
He was talking about a terrible thing in an understatement.
However, Xie Luohe was unmoved. She didn't want Zheng Xiu to gradually penetrate deeper into the door, and sighed softly: "It's better to kill him, and it will be over."
When Zheng Xiu heard this, he snatched the board from his wife's hand and hit her on the head.
Unexpectedly, Xie Luohe covered her head and said nothing.
"What kind of behavior is it for a woman to yell, fight, and kill people all day long?"
Zheng Xiu reprimanded with a straight face.
"It's against you!"
Xie Luohe slapped the table, crossed the counter with a scissor kick, and locked Zheng Xiu between his legs.
"How dare you, bitch!"
"Why don't I dare?"
The two rolled under the counter and started fighting.
Beside, Xiao Feng Miao weakly covered her eyes with her paws.
She didn't know that Zheng Xiu had the same idea as hers, and Zheng Xiu didn't want Xie Luohe to go further into the door.
Ever since he glimpsed the murals on Sunset Mountain and saw the fate of the "Sun Chaser", Zheng Xiu vaguely realized that Menjing Qigong was not a risk-free way of practice.
The reason why Zheng Xiu was brave enough to go deep was, firstly, because he was used to it; secondly, he never forgot from the beginning to the end that his real path was as a "Prisoner", not as a "Painter".
Xiu thinks it's not a big problem.
There were no serious "side effects" on him, unlike Feng Bei and Xie Luohe, who gained strength but also came with a price.
After fighting for a while, the two of them were out of breath.
Xie Luohe bit a bunch of silk scarves in his mouth, smoothed his long hair behind his head with both hands, tied it tightly with one hand, and took off the silk scarf in his mouth with the other hand to tie up his hair.
The long ponytail flicked.
Xie Luohe's face was still red, and she asked curiously: "Then, is this all they do?"
After being educated and whipped by her husband under the counter, Xie Luohe became honest now.
Zheng Xiu picked up his trousers and tightened his belt. Hearing this, he smiled and said: "That's not true. When I go back tonight, I just need to burn the painting and let the 'soul' trapped in the painting escape. In a short time, I will return."
Go to the human soul and return to wholeness."
Xie Luohe nodded: "My husband is kind-hearted."
Zheng Xiu's eyes flashed: "I hope I can use this to scare the monkeys."
A few days passed so peacefully.
A group of troops from an unknown country came from the west and stopped outside the town of Richan.
The leading man is tall, nearly two meters tall. The person sitting under him is riding a camel with jet black hair. The camel is also covered with thick armor. The camel has a pair of dark red eyes, which looks restless under the man's crotch.
disturbed.
"Dulu! Agua, Urado!"
The tall man took off his helmet and shouted towards the town.
His voice sounded like a loud bell, far away, and spread throughout Richan Town. The pigs and sheep raised in the town were so frightened that they bumped against the fence in panic. The two camels raised by Zheng Xiu and his wife were also so frightened that they lay on the ground and vomited.
Foaming and shivering.
"drink!"
"drink!"
"drink!"
Behind the man, hundreds of soldiers wearing strange armors took out a strange weapon about four feet long and shaped like an iron fan from their waists, and neatly struck the round armor plates on their chests, letting out a thundering roar.
"Husband."
Xie Luohe, who was washing dishes in the kitchen, walked out with his sleeves rolled up and his hands wet, and he used his palms to wake up the man who was napping on the counter.
"I heard it."
Zheng Xiu rubbed his eyes, feeling sleepy, and stretched.
"Then let's..."
Xie Luohe wiped his hands with a towel and showed a questioning look.
"wait."
Zheng Xiu stood up and persuaded all the innocent tea guests in Mohe Pavilion to leave.
Then, the door opened wide.
He placed a few dishes of side dishes on the table and two small wine glasses on the table, each filled with wine.
Outside town.
Troops from foreign lands are negotiating with the sun and the earth in dialects.
Although the Lieri tribe is not a soldier guarding the Daqian border, this place is their home. As the new chief of the tribe, Ridi will never allow anyone to get involved.
Since ancient times, the desert has been a natural barrier between the Central Plains and the Western Regions. No army has ever been able to cross the desert without a map.
The opening of the Green River Trade Road was already a matter of the previous dynasty.
Today, only the people of the Lieyang tribe and a few others know about the detailed Green River trade route.
Not long ago, a soldier from the Western Region pretended to be a merchant and entered the town to inquire about the Green River trade route, which aroused Zheng Xiu's vigilance.
The expert sent by the clan leader to the Central Plains to inquire for information has not yet returned. Zheng Xiu doesn't know what this means.
The negotiation took half an hour in total.
After the negotiation, the tall general laughed three times, took off his armor, and threw it aside.
Each piece of armor he took off hit the ground heavily, making a muffled "thunk" sound.
It can be seen that the armor he is wearing is extremely heavy.
The remaining soldiers got off their war camels in unison and set up camp on the spot.
The warriors of the Lie Sun Tribe, holding long bows and looking wary, were watching the foreign soldiers encamped in the open space outside the town from a distance. After the tall man took off all his armor, he finally thrust the strange fan-shaped weapon into the sand.
Insert and enter the city calmly.
In the past ten years, the comfort and increasingly prosperous life in the desert have allowed the town of Richan in the west of the desert to grow from a tribe of only a hundred people to a city of nearly a thousand people.
There are no laws and no government. Perhaps even Daqian, who is suffering from civil strife, does not know that there is such a prosperous town bordering the Western Region, which is becoming increasingly prosperous under the management of the Lieri tribe.
It's like a paradise here.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The tall man took every step he took very steadily and powerfully.
With his armor removed, he only wore a vest-like lining on his upper body, revealing his strong shoulders and arms.
It is covered with deep and shallow scars that have long since healed, showing that he has gone through many battles.
The man finally walked to Mohexuan.
The sharp gaze swept inside, and the man was stunned for a moment.
I saw that tables and chairs had already been set up inside, and a handsome man happened to be sitting leisurely on one side, with wine and food on it.
"Hahaha!" The man was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter: "Yarkand, Arturu! Drink!"