Traveling back to ancient times from the Western Han Dynasty

Night is approaching.

Yan Fang was eating alone at the village head's house.

He sat casually on the small chair prepared for him by Shuxi. There was a small round table in front of him. On the left side of the table were barbecued spiritual beasts, and on the right side were some non-seasonal vegetarian dishes and spiritual medicines. He ate slowly.

He had his servants buy these meats and vegetables from some immortal channels at a certain cost. Although they cannot allow one to enter the Tao, they can nourish the body before entering the Tao, and combined with some martial arts, can also lay a solid foundation.

On the other side, an old man with white hair and wrinkles on his face walked in from the outside with a cane.

"Bo Jin spent another day painting outside?"

The old man took a look at the situation in the house and asked the servant beside him.

Bo Jin is Yan Fang’s name, the eldest son of the Yan family. Jin means beautiful jade.

"Yes!"

The servant nodded slightly and wanted to say something more, but then he glanced at the middle-aged man next to the old man and thought that the third young master had never liked Yan Fang, so he said nothing more.

"Haha, you're obsessed with these things all day long."

The square-faced middle-aged man said this with disdain. He really didn't understand why his father valued that boy so much.

In the eyes of this "hard-working" head of the village, the nouveau riche Yan family is nothing compared to his family, and Yan Fang is just a useless guy who idles around all day long.

I just don't know why I got my father's favor.

"Why is he obsessed with those nonsense things all day long? Why does his father leave him alone at home?"

The middle-aged man was the head of the village, named Liu Qing. When Yan Bojin came here to study, he often gave money to their family.

Unfortunately, Liu Qing thought his position was threatened and kept picking on Yan Fang.

The person chatting with Liu Qing was his father, Liu Lu, one of the three elders in the village. He was quite famous. His eldest son was an official in Beijing and his second son was a general in the northwestern frontier.

Yan Fang stayed in his hometown for a long time, using the excuse of studying under Liu Lu.

"Since Yan Fang came to our house, the food at home has improved a lot. If you have the guts, why don't you eat this meal?"

Liu Lu showed displeasure and scolded his youngest son who was the least promising.

After Yan Fang came to the Liu family, he not only presented a large sum of money as a gift to his teacher, but also occasionally let them eat delicacies together.

Due to the limitation of luck, if non-practitioners trade anything with practitioners, it will deplete the family's blessings and virtues. These things are rarely available even among ordinary wealthy families.

In other words, he is extravagant. Not only does he eat the spiritual food himself, he also voluntarily shares it with others.

"I'll go take a look."

Liu Lu shook his head and didn't want to pay any more attention to his son.

Compared with his first two sons, he did not discipline his third son well enough.

He was quite fond of the intelligent and polite Yan Fang and wanted to take him as his disciple, but unfortunately Yan Fang was devoted to practicing.

Among the young men he had met over the years, only Shuxi and Yanfang caught his eye, but unfortunately the latter was obsessed with spiritual practice, while the former had his own family tradition.

Thinking about what he had talked about at Old Man Wang's house the day before, Liu Lu touched the thing in his sleeve, made up his mind, and left Liu Qing and walked into the house.

"Humph! Aweng, this kid will definitely disappoint you!"

Liu Qing said angrily when he saw Liu Lu walk into Yan Fang's room.

Before he went to pick up his father during the day, he called two idle men to help him mess up Yan Fang. He thought Yan Fang would never succeed, so he was very confident.

"What did you do again?"

Liu Lu paused with his cane, turned around and looked at his son, disappointment in his eyes.

"I didn't take care of you during those years when you were growing up, so I feel like I owe you something."

"Now it seems that you have stayed with me for too long."

Liu Lu said this and then ignored Liu Qing and walked away on his own.

For more than ten years, he had been teaching a dog, and the dog could become a spirit, but the child had not made any progress.

To be honest, if Liu Qing had killed Yan Fang instead of playing tricks, he would have felt more relieved. At least he would have been more decisive and learned a lesson.

------------------

He turned around and walked into Yan Fang's hut, calmed himself down, and said:

"Bojin, have you been painting for another day?"

"I'm not saying anything bad about you, but you're overthinking. Your painting is too artificial and lacks spiritual energy. Why bother asking the painting fairy to do it?"

Liu Lu was quite optimistic about Yan Fang, but he spoke without showing any mercy.

Yan Fang learned his painting skills from a tutoring class in later life, and his technique is pretty good, but in this fairy-tale world, people value state of mind and spirituality more, and do not like mechanical things.

This is also the preference of most spirits of heaven and earth, so the fine painting skills acquired by Yan Fang in his previous life are an obstacle for him to enter the path of painting in this life.

Yan Fang lived a new life. Although he had the advantage of early wisdom, his soul was contaminated by the worldly atmosphere. His living conditions when he was young were extremely poor, and he missed the best period for training.

If he didn't have a good brain and a vision and perspective that transcended the limitations of time and region, no one would have been as optimistic about him as Liu Lu was, let alone expecting him to "achieve success late in life."

"Mr. Liu! Are you back?"

When Yan Fang heard the noise and saw Liu Lu, he quickly swallowed the last bite of food, wiped it with a towel, signaled the servants behind him to clean up, and walked to the door to greet him before Liu Lu came in.

Liu Qing mocked him all day long, and it was also Liu Qing who spread all kinds of things about him in the village.

However, his father Liu Lu treated him very well. Not only did he teach him the classics, he also did not care about his distraction from practicing painting and provided him with a place to stay.

Liu Lu said before that he was going to visit other old friends and would be gone for several days.

"I just had an inspiration today, so it took me a little longer. But why are you using a cane, Mr. Liu?"

After Yan Fang replied, he looked at the old man leaning on a cane and there were no scars on his body. He frowned slightly and helped Liu Lu sit down in the house.

This world is a world of immortals and heroes. Even if people like Mr. Liu have never practiced martial arts, they will not have to use crutches when they are old.

"Hey, I fell down and had to stay at Old Sun's house for two days. How was your painting today?"

Liu Lu felt unlucky as he spoke, and without asking Yan Fang about his homework, he asked directly about Yan Fang's paintings.

"Where are you injured? Have you consulted a doctor?"

Yan Fang frowned slightly and told the guard A Da to get the scroll, while he carefully inquired about Mr. Liu's condition. An elderly person falling down is not a trivial matter in any world.

"It's just a minor injury on the knee. There's no need to call a doctor."

Liu Lu didn't take it seriously. He had suffered much more serious injuries when he was young, so there was no need to make a fuss.

Yan Fang didn't say anything when he heard this. He thought to himself that he would ask the guard A Er to find a doctor to check it out tomorrow.

At this time, A'er found the scroll, and Yan Fang signaled him to hand it to Liu Lu.

"Let me take a look at your work today, kid. I can tell you that inspiration is useless even if you have it every day. The key is to rely on accumulation."

Liu Lu took the scroll and said this without opening it.

He was concerned about Yan Fang's progress in his heart, but he was a little harsh in his words. In this regard, his son Liu Qing and he had some points in common.

"It is just as the elder said. Today, I have accumulated a lot of experience and have won the recognition of heaven and earth."

Yan Fang spoke respectfully, modestly, and a little proudly, like a child expecting praise.

"Well, it's normal that they don't recognize us. Our hometown is not comparable to other places."

Liu Lu subconsciously comforted her arrogantly.

The "recognition of heaven and earth" in painting does not require the recognition of the entire heaven and earth.

If that were the requirement, there would be only a few painters in the entire world. The recognition of the spirits in a single region or village would be enough to allow a painter to enter the path of cultivation.

Yan Fang often travels to look for opportunities, relying on the reason of painting.

The customs and habits of each region are different, and the difficulty of recognition is also different. For example, Zixiang is a place with outstanding people and many sages living in seclusion. Compared with other areas, its requirements are naturally much higher.

"Hmm? You agree?"

Liu Lu realized something was wrong after he finished speaking, and immediately stared at the scroll with wide eyes, a look of disbelief on his face.

As the scroll unfolded, a spirit of aura came towards me. This was a painting that had just been completed, but it was not finished properly, causing the spirit of aura to dissipate.

Although the historical trajectory of this world is similar to that of the Han Dynasty, many details are different from the history that Yan Fang knows. Take the art of painting for example. Various techniques have long been mastered by that group of practitioners. Among them, the master of painting is the Emperor Fuxi. Otherwise, Yan Fang, who had suffered a loss once, would not have painted it openly.

The painting is an ink painting, which depicts the scenery of the village. There are green mountains beside the water, and birds take off from the peach trees in the mountains, startling a shower of peach blossoms. Next to the wooden house in the village, there is a white-haired fisherman returning with a full load, and there are also women weaving at home. However, the most eye-catching thing is the young man with a handsome profile in the lower right corner of the picture, who is carrying two bundles of firewood with a hoe and running towards his home against the setting sun.

Every person in the painting is lifelike, as if they were coming alive, especially the birds flying in the mountains and the young man running with a hoe. The two of them, one in the east and one in the west, one up and one down, correspond to each other perfectly, as if they were about to walk out of the painting.

“This, this, this!!”

Liu Lu had seen the world after all, and he immediately felt that this painting was extraordinary. Although his use of spiritual energy was rather crude, the spirit and energy in it were not as simple as those of a beginner in painting, but were close to the level of minor accomplishments.

"Hey, Mr. Liu, isn't my painting "Returning Home with a Hoe" nice?"

Yan Fang was quite pleased with himself. This time, he was painting by chance, which brought out all the accumulation from his past and future lives. He poured his life insights and pursuits into the painting, which directly transcended the realm.

"Flying Bird and Young Man, you are quite good at playing tricks, but I remember there is no peach tree in the village?"

Liu Lu instantly saw through the meaning of the painting, and when he looked at Shuxi in the painting, a strange color flashed in his eyes. It was obvious that he could see the changes in Shuxi from the painting.

In this painting, the young man is visible, returning home in a hurry, while the flying bird is hidden, accompanying the peach blossoms as they fly outside, reflecting each other.

"Mr. Liu has a sharp eye. I thought it would be ugly if it was left empty, so I painted the peach tree and flying birds, and took a risky step."

Yan Fang was also quite proud of the flying birds on the peach tree, because the peach tree was exactly where the black halo had been before.

Then he shook his fingers, and a flash of inspiration appeared and dotted into the painting.

"Chirp!"

Immediately, the sparrow in the scroll flew out and circled around the two people in the house. When its wings flapped, there was a little pink light and shadow, which was the shadow of peach blossoms.

"Is this a painting spirit? Haha, with your limited magical power, forget it."

Liu Lu curled his lips and showed a look of disgust, with a mixture of joy, shock and regret in his heart.

The joy was naturally for Yan Fang's success, but the shock was because Yan Fang's first painting gave birth to a painting spirit. This was the result of long-term accumulation and great fortune.

The pity is that the object in his arms is useless.

"Only you would dare to paint a false picture of the Tao. However, the peach blossoms here are also very beautiful. I will plant one here when the time comes."

Liu Luxin looked at the nimble flying bird, knowing that it was extraordinary, and pointed at the peach blossoms in the painting and said.

"Hehe, I think so too. Let Ah Da go to the city to find a peach tree tomorrow."

Yan Fang said this and happily called the sparrow back into the scroll. He had just entered the Dao, and the spiritual power he gained from sensing the heaven and earth was not much. He could only make the spirit sparrow appear for about four or five minutes a day.

However, a painting spirit is born in the painting, and the painting spirit can breathe in and out spiritual energy. Even without practicing any exercises, its spiritual power can be gradually increased.

In this world, apart from his deceased mother, the person he respected most was the old man in front of him.

Now he can show his achievements in front of the old man and get his shy "recognition", he is very happy for it even if he is a human being for the second time.

But what Mr. Liu said next made him stunned.

"This thing may not be of much use to you, but no one else in the village needs it either, so I think I should give it to you."

Looking at Yan Fang's appearance, Liu Lu was naturally happy for him. After thinking for a moment, he took out an envelope from his arms.

"This is?"

Yan Fang took the envelope with some confusion, not knowing what Mr. Liu meant.

"I understand why you are so keen on practicing, but unfortunately I can't do anything about it, so I went to find that old man Wang."

Liu Lu had a little fame in his early years, and his eldest son was an official in the capital, but he had no "immortal fate" and was just an "ordinary" family. He could not help Yan Fang in any way. It was good enough that he was willing to accept Yan Fang's message for so many years.

"That old man Wang was born in a farming family. He was a knight-errant in his early years. He once did a favor to the fortune teller Guo Ke, so I asked him to write this letter to you."

Liu Lu was quite sad. The old man Wang he mentioned was named Wang Xiu, one of the three elders in the village and also Shuxi's grandfather. The farming family Liu Lu mentioned was not a farming family in the general sense, but the family with the largest number of disciples among the Hundred Schools of Thought.

"Guo Ke!"

Yan Fang's face was filled with shock. He knew Guo Ke, he was a famous fortune teller.

There is no record of Guo Ke in later generations, but his ancestor was the great knight Guo Jie.

Guo Jie was not only a figure in the biographies of "Records of the Grand Historian", but also the most famous fortune teller and extraordinary woman in the world at the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and the grandson of Xu Fu.

According to legend, Guo Ke inherited the physiognomy skills of Xu Fu from a previous generation. Although his level was not as good as that of his grandmother, he also had a high status among practitioners in the Han Dynasty. Yan Fang could never imagine how Mr. Wang could have been so kind to Guo Ke.

"Why does Yan Fang deserve such kindness from Elder Liu and Elder Wang?"

Yan Fang's eyes were sparkling and he was deeply moved. In modern times, fortune-telling is nothing but a sham and his human feelings are nothing big.

It is different in this fairy-tale version of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Fortune tellers can help people plan their future and predict the future for them, and they can also predict the disasters and ward off misfortunes. Their kindness is their second life and their future prospects.

He and Mr. Liu have only known each other for a few years. He has neither inherited his legacy nor done anything for him. The so-called blood relationship is extremely thin. How can his words be worth it?

"When the time comes, you can ask Guo Ke for protection, or seek an opportunity to practice."

Seeing the shock on Yan Fang's face, Liu Lu felt much better and couldn't help but recall the time when they first met.

"Hmph! Stop being so coy."

At that moment, Liu Lu stuffed the envelope directly into Yan Fang's body. The old man left in a very casual manner, leaning on a cane and not asking for anyone's help.