dragon pen

Faced with Zhu Jiuyin's complaints, Houtu laughed briefly, and the peacock hairpin with a pearl on her forehead shook slightly, and she said slowly: "Isn't this here? This palace has not been idle for hundreds of years. It is to investigate the person who wanted to seal you back then and traveled all over the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas..."

"found it?"

"No."

"waste."

"Pay attention to your wording," Houtu glanced at Zhu Jiuyin, "You still have something to ask me."

Zhu Jiuyin sneered, ignored the woman, turned his gaze, but inadvertently looked at the black-haired boy standing aside, Zhu Jiuyin was a little surprised - he didn't expect that he was only talking to the land behind him. At that time, it turned out that the boy had been looking at himself...

"What's the matter?" Zhu Jiuyin asked.

That somewhat unfamiliar tone made Zhang Ziyao's heart sink, but after hesitating for a moment, he still asked, "Jiujiu, do you want Hongye's painstaking efforts to complete the finishing touch she said?"

He looked at Zhu Jiuyin, like a dying person looking at the last straw.

Zhu Jiuyin was silent for a while, and his cold face when facing Houtu eased a little—although it didn't ease much, and he just answered Zhang Ziyao's question in an inappropriate way: "I have been sealed in the painting for a hundred years, and I think about it every day. The only thing Ye thinks about is how to get out."

"Even at the cost of innocent lives?"

"What evil did I do to deserve to be sealed in the picture scroll?" Zhu Jiuyin showed a weird expression, and after a while, he added in a calm tone, "There are always people who need to sacrifice for no reason."

"..."

"That person can be whoever you want," Zhu Jiuyin's eyes became indifferent, he looked at Zhang Ziyao and said indifferently, "In short, it can't be me."

"What if Houtu wants a drop of my heart and blood today?"

"..." Zhu Jiuyin gave a light "tsk", "Don't ask such silly questions, what does this gentleman want your heart and soul to do."

"What if?"

"No ifs."

While talking, he turned his head away, unwilling to look at Zhang Ziyao again——

But it doesn't matter.

Zhang Ziyao felt that he had already got the answer.

In fact, Zhang Ziyao's question does not have a standard correct answer. In fact, what Zhu Jiuyin said is not wrong. Indeed, he should have done nothing wrong and was innocently sealed in the scroll by the Zhang family ancestor for hundreds of years—— This is what the Zhang family owes him.

As for Zhang Ziyao, it was because he was so close to Zhu Jiuyin along the way that he almost forgot that the person in the picture scroll in front of him was Zhu Jiuyin, the vicious twelve-year-old who did all kinds of evil in folklore. One of the ancestors of Wu, the ancient evil dragon-what kindness, only knows how to yell and talk, there is nothing that one bean paste bun can't solve, otherwise there are two, like a big dog, it likes to be scratched...

Everything is Zhang Ziyao's so-called "I think".

It has nothing to do with Zhu Jiuyin himself.

Therefore, Zhang Ziyao just nodded and said, "I see."

Listening to his tone of voice, Zhu Jiuyin subconsciously frowned slightly.

There was a brief silence in the tent, Houtu looked at the two people inside and outside the painting, covered his lips in surprise with an "oops", as if he had made some serious new discovery... But at this moment, Fuyao suddenly With an exclamation, they pointed at the bronze mirror in Houtu's hand. Everyone was slightly startled, and then they came back to their senses. Now is not the time to talk nonsense. Suddenly there was a dramatic shift—

Just when the hairpin in Yuanshi's hand was about to pierce Hongye's heart, Yuan Die appeared. Facing the scene she saw, she was shocked and angry, roaring Yuanshi's name, like an angry doe rushing towards Hongye. A woman pressing on her own daughter!

She knocked Yuanshi away with her body, lifted Hongye up from the ground, and checked her up and down to see if she was okay...

But at this time, the rose on Yuanshi's neck changed again—a petal withered from the flower body that was in full bloom. Yuanshi cried out in pain and covered the tattoo, his face twisted due to the pain, and the fierce light shone there. Shuang Pingli's soft eyes flashed, and Yuanshi clearly knew that her time was coming!

【Let me come!let me come!Anyway, if it wasn’t me, it would be someone else——]

Yuan Shi rushed towards Yuan Die's mother and daughter. The desire to survive made her go crazy. Zhang Ziyao watched helplessly as his mother's eyes turned blood red like he had seen before, and the woman in the bronze mirror became so strangeness--

For Zhang Ziyao, this moment was like a nightmare from which he could not wake up!

Watching his mother turn into another animal that can't even be called a "human", Zhang Ziyao couldn't help at all. He was fixed in place like a complete fool. He couldn't help Yuanshi and couldn't save Hongye— —

He could only watch Yuan Shi throw the mother and daughter down, and the hairpin she once loved the most in her hand turned into the sharpest wounding weapon. Yuanshi's eyes turned even more glaring red!

[Hongye, you said you like Aunt Yuan, can't you even fulfill Aunt Yuan's little wish now?Look, my rose is about to wither, do you want to see Aunt Yuan die? 】

【There will be no one in the world who will give up the desire to survive for others, Qi Yun won’t, I won’t, your father Zhang San won’t, anyone won’t—]

Hearing her father's name, Hongye's pupils shrank slightly as if she understood immediately. At this moment, Yuanshi raised the plain hairpin in his hand and pointed it at Hongye's heart——

【you are wrong!Don't forget that there is one person in this world who will never hurt even a single hair of my child——]

Yuan Die's scream interrupted Yuan Shi, and then she showed a resolute expression on her face, and made a movement that no one expected-she pulled out her hairpin and pierced her own hairpin. Throat!

【mother! 】

The cry of the little girl was accompanied by blood splashing on the yellow sand, Yuan Die fell to the ground, her eyes were always looking in the direction of Hongye, her body was twitching slightly, as if she had exhausted her last strength, she pointed to the side The dropped brass mirror—

At that moment Zhang Ziyao vaguely guessed what she wanted to do.

And obviously, Yuanshi seems to have guessed——

When Hongye cried and climbed to the brass mirror and put her hands into the mirror, the woman opened her eyes wide and yelled "No" in horror, but it was too late at this time, and Yuan Die was taken out of the mirror by Hongye. Pull it out, and the rose imprint on Yuan's neck suddenly burned like a flame!

A gust of wind blew past, rolled up the yellow sand all over the sky, when the imprint on Yuanshi's neck was like a blown-out flame flower gradually dissipating into black ashes, she collapsed to the ground, her eyes emptied...

Not far from her, Hongye cried and threw down the mirror, and threw herself into Yuan Die's arms. The woman stretched out her hand to gently hug her child, and whispered: [It's okay, it's okay...]

A pale pink rose flower was on the back of her hand, twisting slightly with her movements, as if it was still on the branch, lifelike.

...As Yuan Die said, there is one person in this world who would never hurt even a single hair of Hongye——

This person is Yuan Die herself.

As if the dust had settled, the Yuan Clan failed, and outside the bronze mirror, everyone was silent for a while.

"...Huh?" Holding the bronze mirror in her hands, Houtu raised the mirror high, she slightly raised her delicate eyebrows, "This time, I really didn't expect it, alas, Zhulong, what should I do? But the red leaf If we don't die, we won't be able to get the Scarlet Blood Sky Repair Stone..."

Before Houtu's words fell, in the bronze mirror she held in her hand, she saw Yuan Shi kneeling and sitting motionless on the ground, and Yuan Die ignored her, and just disappeared slowly into the yellow sand holding the red leaf— —

Behind the mother and daughter gradually traveling far away, a line of blood and tears slowly flowed from the eyes of Yuan Die's fallen body when he was a mortal...

The blood and tears dripped into the yellow sand, and were immediately absorbed by the yellow sand and earth below her. After the soil spread out her palm, a very delicate box of rouge filled with red pigment appeared in her palm.

"Oh, I forgot, this woman used to be a mirror witch." Houtu smiled, raised the rouge box in his hand and shook it in the direction of Zhu Jiuyin, showing off as if asking for credit, "Although there was a little girl in the middle It’s a small accident, but I got the thing—full of the Mirror Witch’s hatred and great love, the Scarlet Blood Sky Repair Stone—well, Candle Dragon, do you want it?”

"Stop talking nonsense." Zhu Jiuyin said forcefully, "Bring it if you want it, or get out."

"What is the use of this palace? It depends on the children of this family whether you are willing to use this paint. You seem to have hurt his heart just now..."

"what are you saying?"

"Hmph, sure enough, you know what a fart."

Houtu waved his hand as he spoke, and Zhang Ziyao immediately felt that he could move as soon as his feet were loosened—but at this moment, he didn't listen to what Zhu Jiuyin and Houtu said, and his eyes were still fixed on the bronze mirror. Seeing Yuanshi sitting on the yellow sand with his head down in silence, slumped like a dying person... Zhang Ziyao hesitated, and then ran out of the tent without looking back!

Zhang Ziyao searched around the camp, and when he finally saw Yuan Die lying on the ground, he found that there was no sign of the Yuan family around, only a messy footprint was left on the yellow sand, and he did not know when it happened. The wind and sand, the footprints in the distance have already been blown by the wind and sand...

"..."

Zhang Ziyao stood there for a long time.

Until Su Lian came behind him, the child carefully touched his hand behind the boy, and said in a calm voice: "She's gone, go back, the wind is blowing."

Zhang Ziyao looked back at Su Lian, and asked in a daze, "She left? Where did she go?"

"Probably because I feel that I have done something wrong and am ashamed to see you." Su Lian tilted his head, "Who knows."

Zhang Ziyao fell silent again.

"Go back, if you don't go back, those people who are in the way are reluctant to leave."

"Ah."

Zhang Ziyao responded, and let Su Lian lead him back. His face was expressionless, his eyes were empty, and he left with Yuanshi as if his soul...

But back in the tent, there were other things waiting for Zhang Ziyao.

"Don't disappoint me." Houtu smiled and narrowed his eyes slightly, and put the exquisite rouge box into Zhang Ziyao's hands.

Zhang Ziyao only felt the coldness in the palm of his hand. He clenched his palm a little bit, then raised his head to look at Zhu Jiuyin in the picture scroll, and suddenly said, "Jiujiu, my mother is gone."

"I saw it." Zhu Jiuyin rolled her sleeves and pursed her lower lip, "It's in the bronze mirror."

Zhang Ziyao showed a hesitant expression, but in the end he calmed down and asked, "Do you want to use this paint?"

"I want to use it." Zhu Jiuyin replied, "I want", not "want".

Zhang Ziyao nodded, and did not object any more. He just put down the rouge box containing the scarlet blood mending stone, touched the pen on his waist carefully, and frowned slightly: "Jiujiu, I object to you using this When you were using the Crimson Blood to Mend the Sky Stone, did you really annoy me and think I was so useless?"

"..." Zhu Jiuyin thought for a while, "This matter doesn't seem to have anything to do with you, and you can't stop it even if you want to."

"Well," Zhang Ziyao lowered his head and smiled, but there was a touch of bitterness in that smile, "That's true."

After he finished speaking, he took off the dragon point pen at his waist, turned the nib in his hand, and then tapped it into the rouge box—seeing the clean nib stained with bright red paint, and Zhang Ziyao's increasingly silent appearance, Zhu Jiu Yin suddenly felt a little uneasy, but he couldn't say why.

But at this moment he had no time to think too much——

Above the pine branches, the man has turned into a giant dragon, roaring and soaring through the clouds, the water vapor in the clouds wets his black dragon scales, and the smoke is lingering, only the emerald tail and the white dragon whiskers are faintly visible...

The young man standing outside the painting held a dragon brush in his hand. He stood on tiptoe a little, and painted on the scroll with a bit of scarlet on the tip of the pen. With a light tick, the thick red color bloomed——

The next moment, the world shook!

An earth-shattering thunder sounded from the sky outside the tent, and the wind and sand whizzed past wantonly, as if thousands of ghosts were crying... It was clearly the beginning of autumn, but when the cold wind wrapped in sand blowing into the tent, it could make people cry. Feel the biting cold!

"Why is it windy?"

"This is Yaofeng! What happened?"

"Something happened. I heard that someone saw Yuan Die's body beside the dead wood forest in the north!"

"What?! Is that the Mirror Witch? She's dead? How come?!"

……

The sound of soldiers talking came from outside the tent.They were clamoring to go to the stables to put the horses in order, and Zhang Ziyao couldn't hear what they were saying next——

The wind with yellow sand blew in, blinding Zhang Ziyao's eyes. He raised his hand to cover his eyes, but at this moment, he vaguely saw a dazzling light in the painting through his fingers——

Zhang Ziyao took a small step back.

At this time, the wind and rain stopped outside the tent without warning, and the inside of the tent suddenly fell into silence.

The crowd was silent.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Ziyao heard the slight rustling of his robes, and the shadow cast by the tall figure that appeared out of nowhere in front of him enveloped him. cold wind...

There was a faint scent of ambergris spice in his nostrils, Zhang Ziyao was slightly stunned, put down his hands, raised his head, and looked at a pair of red pupils he was familiar with——

"..."

"..."

"...Ninety-nine," Zhang Ziyao smiled nervously, as if he didn't know what to do next, "You are taller than I thought."

"It's because you're too short." Zhu Jiuyin's eyeballs moved slightly, "You can't grow tall just by eating."

The man's voice was low and full of magnetism. Zhang Ziyao thought his voice was nice when he was in the painting, but now that he was standing in front of him, the voice became even better when he was close at hand.

"..."

Zhang Ziyao smiled again, he looked at the man in front of him - in fact, he can be seen in the picture scroll every day, but when he really walked out of the picture scroll and stood in front of Zhang Ziyao, it still made people feel a little strange ...as if the person in front of me is not the same person who was sitting on a pine tree branch and eating bean paste buns that day.

—Probably an illusion.

Zhang Ziyao was in a trance. At this time, Houtu who was standing not far from them suddenly said coolly: "How long are you going to watch each other so affectionately?"

Zhang Ziyao and Zhu Jiuyin both turned their heads to look, and Houtu frowned a little at their uniform movements: "Zhulong, now that you have come out of the painting, don't bother me so shamelessly." I'm going to run errands for you... The next four sky-replenishing stones, please go find them yourself, and the person behind the scenes who sealed you up back then, you'd better ask about them The other dragon, maybe he knows something—"

"I know."

Zhu Jiuyin glanced lazily at Hou Tu—just this one glance made her shut her mouth obediently.

Hou Tu was stunned for a moment, as if annoyed that she lost face so easily, she stomped her feet and said disgustedly: "Zhulong, don't be complacent! Although you have come out of the picture scroll now, your ability is not as good as it was one tenth back then. You can't deal with any little fairy coming! You'd better restrain your bad temper, lest you get into trouble for no reason—"

"It has nothing to do with you." Zhu Jiuyin looked at Houtu with a smile, "Have you finished?"

Hou Tu's face twitched.

Then immediately calm down.

It was as if she had long been used to the ability of the dragon in front of her to turn his face and deny people——

"I'm leaving," she lowered her face, "will you go?"

"Where?"

"Find your stomach claws and that dragon root that should rot."

"Don't say that as if we had something in the past." Zhu Jiuyin raised his hand and covered Zhang Ziyao's ears from behind, "It's not good for children to hear it."

Zhu Jiuyin's hand was a little cold, Zhang Ziyao moved, but he didn't break free. When he raised his head, he could only see the perfectly lined jaw of the man behind him.

Houtu sneered, rolled her eyeballs around in her sockets and looked at Zhang Ziyao, paused for a moment—then raised her eyelids and glanced at Zhu Jiuyin standing behind Zhang Ziyao like a hill, she said "huh" With a sound, he said in surprise: "Zhulong, don't you still plan to take this child to find the rest of the sky-replenishing stone?"

"so what?"

"What do you mean 'so what'? Isn't the scarlet blood mending the sky stone enough to teach you a lesson? If Bengong hadn't come back in time, you would be able to stand outside the picture scroll alive and kicking right now?" Houtu frowned, "Don't you Have you been locked up for a long time, are you stupid?"

After the Tuyu fell, the hand that was covering Zhang Ziyao's ear was removed, and Zhang Ziyao turned to look at Zhu Jiuyin: "I heard everything."

"I didn't cover it properly."

"Jiujiu," Zhang Ziyao asked, "Are you leaving?"

Zhu Jiuyin smiled.

He raised the corners of his lips, raised his hand and patted Zhang Ziyao's head with that broad palm, then nodded still smiling.

Zhang Ziyao paused, but he didn't stop it, as if he had already guessed the ending of the matter the moment he picked up the dragon pen——

He silently turned his body away to make way for the path leading to the outside of the tent. Such a move was meaningless, as if he had just tacitly agreed that Zhu Jiuyin was about to leave.

Zhu Jiuyin took a deep look at Zhang Ziyao. After a long time, he rolled up his sleeves and went straight to the outside of the tent. Houtu stood outside the tent and waited without trouble.

Zhu Jiuyin bent down slightly and stepped out of the tent door. Just as he took the first step out of the tent, he suddenly felt a corner of his robe being grabbed from behind.

Zhu Jiuyin was stunned and turned around, and saw the young man standing behind her expressionless, staring straight at him with those dark pupils——

It was as if at this very moment, it wasn't him who was holding onto the corner of Zhu Jiuyin's robe.

"?"

"Nine nine..."

"what happened?"

"My mother is gone." Zhang Ziyao repeated numbly, "I am left alone again."

"..."

Zhu Jiuyin seemed to finally understand what Zhang Ziyao was trying to say before finishing his pen.

"Don't go, okay?" At this time, the young man looked at the man, and for the first time asked him to stay, "In the future, if you meet the sky-replenishing stone you want, I will never get in the way, and you can do whatever you want -"

After speaking, the boy lowered his head in frustration, as if he couldn't even believe what he said.

But the smile on Zhu Jiuyin's face remained unchanged from the beginning to the end. He whispered "You little idiot" with a condescending posture, then raised his hand and patted Zhang Ziyao's head. He raised his head and looked coldly at Zhang Ziyao behind him. Su Lian said: "Stupid cow, take good care of him."

Su Lian clenched the hilt of the sword in his hand, and said indifferently: "It has nothing to do with you."

"Okay, okay, anyway, I can't beat you now." Zhu Jiuyin helplessly teased.

At the same time, he felt the grip on his clothes loosen.

Zhu Jiuyin was slightly taken aback, but he didn't express the momentary blankness and emptiness in his heart on his face. He seemed to be wearing a smiling mask, and he was smiling lazily from the beginning to the end.

……

On that day, someone heard the voice of the dragon chant piercing through the nine heavens echoing in the sky of Wusai City.

Some people said that it was the black beast guarding the south gate that yawned;

Some people said that it was the sound made by the sudden flying sand and rocks outside, and the howling wind;

Someone else said that he saw a huge dragon soaring into the sky from the Wubei military camp. The dragon had black scales, a green tail, and a pair of eyes that seemed to be stained red with blood——

Among the people chattering and discussing, only a black-haired boy smiled and said nothing. The boy was dressed in plain clothes, and hung a picture scroll and a gold-plated pen on his waist like a baby.

"Hey, painter, what do you think the Dragon Yin was that day?"

"It's a lazy dragon," Zhang Ziyao said with a smile, both true and false, "it left my painting,"

Volume [-]: Night Walk of Hundred Ghosts