dragon pen

Yunqi is the capital of the country.

evening.

It's still the garden full of flowers and plants.

Under the eaves, the young emperor who had been sitting upright for a whole day seemed to be irritated by the scorching weather. He turned his head and glanced at the man in a white safari sitting next to him—the latter had a smile on his lips, Looking up at a certain cloud in the sky not far away, even sitting under the eaves, you can still see the tiny blue blood vessels on his face...

Not in a hurry at all.

The young emperor hesitated for a moment, and then said in a tone full of resentment: "Yozhen, I wasted a day here."

"Isn't it very good?" Long Zhen finally took his eyes back from the clouds, and he turned his head to look into the eyes of the people around him, "Anyway, sitting in the hall, His Majesty will not review the memorials with peace of mind, but I was drawing circles on it, but what I was thinking about was riding a camel in the desert.”

"What, what did you say—"

"Do you want to repeat it again?" Mizuma showed a surprised expression, but it actually looked a little cunning.

"No need!" The self-defeating man unscrewed his head, and turned his head back after a while, "You tell the widow that there will be a definite answer to the monster in Tiancang Kingdom today, but now everyone It's almost evening-"

"The time of the devil."

"……what?"

"When the day and night alternate, the special time when the heavens and the earth alternate between yin and yang, this is the best time for monsters to come and go. Most of the disasters, monsters, and diseases start at this time. Some people call this time "Hundred Charms". When all kinds of ghosts and monsters are born, those who have children should pay attention not to take them out of the house at this time, and the elderly should also pay attention..."

"I have no children and I am not old. Does that have anything to do with what I said?"

The corners of Hazy's lips curled up slightly: "No."

The emperor gasped.

Hazy's smile remained unchanged: "I just saw that His Majesty has recently become interested in Yin-Yang magic, and I feel happy in my heart. I can't help but want to tell Your Majesty some interesting knowledge-maybe at this time, a certain Tiancang When the person was eating dinner, he developed a high fever without warning..."

"It's none of your business!" The young emperor finally couldn't bear it anymore and jumped up from the ground, but his feet became numb and swayed because he had been doing it for too long. He supported the pillars in the corridor with one hand and cursed, "Yuzhen, Are you playing tricks on the widow?! Saying that there must be a result before the sun goes down, tricking the widow to sit here with you like a fool—"

"coming."

Amidst the young emperor's curses, the man raised his head and glanced at the sky, and said calmly.

The sound of cursing stopped abruptly, and the emperor also raised his head and looked in the direction of Luzhen, only to find that the place where the sun was about to set in the sky, and the clouds that Luzhen had been staring at before suddenly turned red like fire—— The red was not the color of the usual Huoshaoyun, it was as red as if it was on fire. The emperor widened his eyes slightly, and after a while, he saw three huge red wolfhounds coming over the clouds, biting and playing with each other, and finally It gradually approached and landed in this small courtyard.

Among them, the largest and the leading one, with its tail between its legs, sniffed here and there in the courtyard, and finally its ears pricked up as if it smelled something, and turned its head to stare at the emperor——

The emperor was taken aback for a moment, and then jumped to hide behind Luzhen: "Where is the dog?!"

"It's Inugami." Oboro corrected me gently, "Yuehua, you're still so afraid of such animals."

"It looks like a dog—oh, don't call the widow by its first name!"

"It's a nice name."

"Like a woman, just don't bark!"

The emperor protested by tugging at the hunting clothes of the man standing in front of him, but at this time the three big wolfhounds were already approaching, the leader stretched his neck and sniffed at the place closest to the emperor, then turned his head and rushed Zhuo Zhen whined a few times——Lun Zhen poked his head out from behind, first stared at the wolf dogs with great distrust, and then couldn't help asking: "What are they whimpering?" ?”

Makoto said with a smile: "They are saying that they saw spiders under the bougainvillea in the courtyard weaving webs before they went out this morning, and unexpectedly there are rare visitors in the courtyard today."

The emperor gave a strange "huh": "These three beasts still understand this kind of thing—"

"Not three." Obscure said indifferently, "At least when we go out, there are still five."

As if understanding what Yuma said, the leading wolf dog let out a whimper and lowered its head, and Yuma raised his slender hand to gently stroke the wolf dog's big head—strangely, the next He didn't communicate with the wolfhound again, and when he finally moved his hand away, he said lightly: "Okay, I understand."

As the words of Oboroshin fell, two slips of paper suddenly appeared in his hands. There were a few extremely scrawled words written on the human-shaped slips of paper. He waved his hands lightly, and whispered a short incantation ——When the two pieces of paper were thrown out of his hands, two white lights lit up, and then, two wolf dogs that looked almost similar to the three big wolf dogs appeared beside them, and the remaining three wolf dogs Looking extremely happy, he circled around the two extra wolf dogs a few times——

As if celebrating the return of a companion.

Lu Zhen said lightly, "Go", and after a soft "bang", the five wolf dogs suddenly disappeared, and a few white papers that Lu Zhen took out just now fell from the air——

The emperor looked dumbfounded.

"what happened?"

"Things that His Majesty is not interested in."

"What about the things that the widow is interested in?"

"Already have news." Hazy looked at the emperor coming out from behind him, with a smile on his lips, "Master Inugami said, the monsters in the south of Wusai City are not real monsters, they smelled it when they approached it. The smell of ink is like a drawn creature running out of the scroll—"

"what does that mean?"

"It won't really hurt people," Mizuma said, "It doesn't bark like a dragon, it's more like an ordinary watchdog."

The emperor's eyes widened a little wider, filled with the dissatisfaction of being deceived——

"But why did the painting come out of the scroll, hey, you people..."

"It's not 'our kind'," Oboroma said with a smile, "It seems to be a character with other unique skills. If it's us, we won't pick up the contract spells of other warlocks rashly—"

"Did he do it? How did you know? Did the dogs tell you?"

"He did this, and I just knew it. It wasn't what the Inugami-sama said, but he knew it the moment he was touched by the contract spell."

"Then... what will happen to that person?"

The young emperor was full of curiosity, but in his questioning, Yu Zhen was unwilling to answer as if he was deliberately keeping a secret. He turned his head and looked at the sun that had completely fallen into the edge of the desert in the sky, and the faintness in the sky. Joyo hung the moon, he sighed, but the corners of his bright red lips hooked up completely incongruously: "Yes, what will happen to that person?"

"How about it?"

"Maybe I will suffer a little, and then meet some interesting things."

"What about specifics?"

"I won't tell you."

"Hazy!"

The plants in the garden swayed gently in the evening wind and made a rustling sound, and in the dark corner, it seemed that some creature was laughing softly.

……

At the same time, there is no sorrow in the city of Tiancang.

The same bright moon can be seen in Tiancang Kingdom tonight.

In the afternoon, the three runaway red wolfhounds were going in the direction of Yunqi Kingdom. When Lou Hen heard the news, he wanted to send someone to chase after him. He wanted to find out what kind of strange thing it was, but they chased after him. After a period of time, they found that the footprints of the beasts had disappeared, and the returning soldiers were almost lost in the middle of the vast desert...

Lou Hen had nowhere to vent his frustration after suffering this, so he was naturally very angry.

But Zhang Ziyao couldn't take care of these things anymore, because when he was having dinner in the evening, he who had been sitting at the table for dinner suddenly felt powerless and dizzy. Not to mention continuing to eat, even swallowing saliva seemed to be a pain in the ass. Like punishment... At that time, I thought I was tired, put down the bowl and went to rest, went to bed, Su Lian worried and followed him, sat on the edge of the bed, glanced at him and said, "I have a fever."

Complaints like "I told you not to touch things you don't know the origin" are clearly written on that pretty little face. Seeing him slightly frowning and seeming worried, Zhang Ziyao thought it was a little funny and couldn't bear it. I couldn't help reaching out to touch his fingertips: "It's not necessarily the problem that I touched the torn paper."

"Then you give me a good reason to suddenly get sick for no reason."

"Maybe I'm tired today."

"The biggest thing you have done since morning is to buy all the buns in a bun shop," Su Lian said shamelessly, "I was the one who carried the pile of buns to the city wall."

right.Zhang Ziyao let out a hot breath, and said lazily, "...be nicer to the patients."

Su Lian closed her mouth, her golden eyes were still staring at Zhang Ziyao's face - probably because of the heat, at this moment the black-haired boy's face was flushed, and with his eyes slightly squinted and smiling, It looks like some cute little animal——

Very pleasing look.

"..." Su Lian paused, turned his face away and said indifferently, "I'll get you a wet towel."

"Bring a wet towel? Isn't that right?" Zhang Ziyao leaned against the bed and teased, "I read in the folklore that an ordinary mortal gets sick, and if the Immortal puts his hand on his forehead for a while, his illness will be cured."

"This kind of thing can only be done by a great god, and a god of disaster like me can only turn your illness into a plague." Su Lian stood by the bed and said expressionlessly, "Stop watching boring things. What's wrong with using your brain to memorize useful things?"

"Something useful? Like?"

"For example, I warned you not to touch things you don't know the origin of."

While talking, Su Lian turned around to get a wet towel, and placed it on Zhang Ziyao's head clumsily... The unwrung water dripped down Zhang Ziyao's forehead, and Zhang Ziyao sighed, worried that he might have a fever He was first invaded by the moisture on his head and died of a headache—but right now he didn’t have the strength to instruct Su Lian to teach him how to take care of the patient correctly, so he just leaned against the bedside and said slowly in a lazy voice: “ You mean the piece of paper today? What is it, why does it make you sick if you touch it?"

"It's just like ordinary mortals who blaspheme the gods will get sick. That's a reason." Su Lian said, "Assuming that the thing is a simple form of contract reached with some demons and ghosts for people to drive, then unless the owner who initially made the contract touches Touch, other people touch, it's like offending the gods in a rude way—"

"What will happen?"

"Be possessed."

Zhang Ziyao's smile froze.

Su Lian glanced at him: "It's okay, it's not fatal, but it's a little troublesome——"

"...Your consolation didn't comfort me at all," Zhang Ziyao yawned, his eyelids drooping as if he was extremely tired, "It's alright, alright, I'm going to sleep no matter what, you can play for a while and rest by yourself , remember to wipe your face before going to sleep."

"Understood." Su Lian moved, thought for a while and asked again, "Do you want to invite a mortal doctor to take a look?"

For a long time, there was no answer.

Su Lian leaned down to look, only to find that the black-haired boy had already embraced the pillow and fell asleep quite sweetly at this time... The child standing by the bed was stunned for a long time, then turned his head and looked at the open, open bed. The window where the cool wind was blowing inside, he hooked his fingers, and the thin sheet on the bed floated up out of thin air and landed on the boy's belly, that slight movement made the boy utter vague dreams...

Immediately afterwards, the room fell into an unprecedented tranquility.

Su Lian walked to the candlestick, his golden pupils shone brightly in the light of the candle, after a short pause, he bent down slightly, and blew out the candle.

The boy on the bed turned over, in a daze of high fever, as if falling into a dream——

……

Zhang Ziyao dreamed of a temple.

It looks like a very simple and popular temple—at least from the moss-covered tiles and the incense burner in the center of the temple filled with high-incense tributes from pilgrims who have not yet finished burning. It can be seen that... at this moment, the willows are on the moon, and the gate of the temple has been tightly closed.

And Zhang Ziyao was in such a temple.

He also knew that he was a monk in the dream, and he was still young, about the same age as he is now - at this time, it was time to clean the steps in front of the temple, so he took a broom and left When he came out, he turned his head to look at a certain bronze mirror. The young monk in the mirror had beautiful features, even with a shaved head, he looked gentle, refined, kind and peaceful...

The little monk walked out of the hall with the broom in his arms. When he bought the door, a gust of evening wind blew by. He paused for a while and looked around, then lowered his head and carefully swept the dust on the steps. After sweeping the floor, he took the broom He put it down against the door, and while doing this, he raised his head and looked around——

He vaguely felt that he seemed to be waiting for someone.

A man who waits for the night, when the night is quiet.

But tonight, this person did not show up.

He should have been disappointed, but he was surprised at random that he wasn't - when he found no one else around, he was surprisingly relieved, and his tense heart relaxed, Muttering "Don't come", he turned and returned to the main hall, and sat down at the front of a futon. His slender body straightened a little, and his soft eyebrows and eyes became a little serious...

At this time, Zhang Ziyao vaguely remembered that the face of the little monk he saw in the bronze mirror did look a bit like himself—not exactly the same—just a little bit—maybe it was an illusion, or it might be the difference between him and the little monk. There was a person with a "face of all living beings" that couldn't be found if he fell into the crowd... Zhang Ziyao suddenly felt a little funny when he thought of this, he collected himself, took the wooden fish placed on the tribute platform, and tapped the wooden fish There was a very crisp and flexible sound of "dong"——

He closed his eyes and began to recite the scriptures and practice the evening class——

"Ananda, there are living beings in the same category. Each of them has twelve inversions. It is like pinching eyes and chaos. The inversions are wonderful, perfect, pure, and bright, and they have such illusory and delusional thoughts. Now you practice Buddha Samadhi, So Ben Yinyuan thought about it..."

A cold night wind blew behind him.

The candle flames on the candle holders in the hall trembled slightly.

The door of the main hall, which had been tightly closed behind him, was pushed open again with a "squeak" sound. I don't know if it was caused by the wind, or...

[Little monk? 】

【Little monk...】

In the wind, there seemed to be faint whispers.

"Establish three gradual steps to get rid of it. It is like removing poisonous honey from a clean vessel, washing the vessel with various soups, water, and ashes, and then storing nectar. What is it called three gradual steps? One is to practice and get rid of its help Cause. The two are truly cultivated, and their positive nature is broken. The third..."

The voice of the young monk who closed his eyes and chanted sutras suddenly became quieter, and his originally stretched brows were slightly frowned, but he didn't look back, as if he knew what happened behind him a long time ago——

["All Bodhisattvas Playing the Surangama Sutra", Volume [-], it talks about the ten categories of sentient beings—well, such and such, little monk, are you making a special trip to read it for me? 】

An unscrupulous laugh came from behind, such a reckless intruder finally interrupted the monk's chanting, he stopped, opened his eyes and put down the wooden fish, turned around and looked at the monk standing with his sleeves folded at this moment. The white-haired man on the threshold, at this moment, is looking at him with red pupils, with an unscrupulous smile on his face——

"Why are you here again?" The monk stood up, "The forbidden place of the Buddha's gate is not a place for monsters like you to play around - quickly get down from the threshold! Didn't I tell you last time that the threshold is the shoulder of the Buddha, How can you step on the shoulders of Buddha!"

【Well, as long as you have many rules, the Buddha does not admit that the threshold is his shoulders. Last time, I made a special trip to ask about it. 】The man narrowed his eyes with a smile, but he still walked down the threshold as if he was afraid of offending the young monk in front of him. He came to the young monk, 【What are you doing?Chanting? 】

"I was interrupted by you."

[Then you continue, I will read with you. ] As the man said, he sat down with another bedding—

Sitting in a carefree manner.

The little monk raised his eyebrows, as if he was going to get angry again, and the man seemed to be waiting for him to make such a reaction, and he smiled again. He stretched out his hand, and the long arm easily moved the person in front of him. He embraced the person in his arms, and when the person unexpectedly hit his chest with the tip of his nose, he sneered and laughed——

【Stop chanting sutras, what is there to recite, you little monk, your roots of wisdom are not pure, even if you recite it a hundred times, you will not become a Buddha. 】

"You bullshit!"

[Umm, I'm talking nonsense, I'm talking nonsense, don't move around - come on, little monk, let me tell you a joke...]

……

Zhang Ziyao felt himself being pulled into a firm embrace, and then he began to struggle desperately—but that embrace was like a nightmare that he couldn't shake off, no matter how much he tried to push him away, or simply from sleep After waking up, he couldn't even do it, his eyes seemed to be tightly glued together...

Temple fire.

The sound of people chatting softly outside the window of Wubei City.

Suddenly, it was twisted and twisted into a ball, unable to distinguish reality and dreams——

The young man frowned tightly. The wet towel that was originally placed on his forehead had already fallen off because of his restlessness. His forehead was covered with sweat due to high fever or other reasons. "You're talking nonsense" or something like that...

Standing beside the bed, the tall man holding the cage raised his eyebrows, leaned slightly and approached his lips as if trying to hear what he was talking about clearly, but those fragmentary sleep words were hard to understand. Clearing his mind, in the end, he gave up and straightened up——

The red eyeballs rolled around in the eye sockets, and finally swept across the pillow under the young man's feet at this moment, so the originally playful eyes became cold at this moment, and the air pressure suddenly seemed to be screaming. The surrounding air froze... Amidst the black-haired boy's continuous thoughts, the man stretched out his hand and gently pinched the area near his feet——

With a "squeak", a little monster with a red face, a big nose, and small fangs that looked like a child was held in his hands.

Anti-pillow, also known as "pillow monk" or "pillow back", likes to play pranks such as putting the pillow under the person's head under his feet when he is sleeping...where he appears, the sleeping person Will fall into the endless dreamland, when people completely sink into the dreamland, the soul will be taken back, and thus be killed in the dreamland...

The man narrowed his eyes slightly, brought the little monster that was constantly struggling when he was holding it to his eyes, and asked strangely: "How could such a thing appear here?"

While talking, he threw the little monster into the corner - the little monster made a "plop" on its buttocks, and it let out a soft "ouch", and then got up, as if it was extremely afraid to stand by the bed at this moment The man ran down the window like a shit.

At the same time, the boy on the bed who had been in a nightmare also fell silent.

The man bent down, picked up the boy, dropped him, and let his head rest on the pillow——

Putting him down, when he pulled his hand away, he inadvertently touched the hot skin on the boy's cheek.

The man let out a "huh" and muttered "Could it be that he touched something that shouldn't be touched", while stretching out his hand to cover his forehead - after a while, it was not clear whether it was from outside the window or from inside the room, there was a sound After the wail of the wolfhound disappeared, the temperature on the boy's face also quickly disappeared.

It turned out to be a fever.

After a while, he showed the appearance of sleeping peacefully.

At the same time, the little beast sleeping soundly in the picture scroll seemed to be awakened by the wail of the wolf dog. It raised its head, and the handkerchief on the small pointed corner fell to its paws. After a moment of hesitation, it jumped out. The scroll fell to the ground... He came to the bed, looked down at the sleeping boy, and saw that he was sleeping peacefully, so he reached out to touch his forehead——

The temperature is normal.

Su Lian let out a long breath, wondering if he was worrying too much during the day, but as Zhang Ziyao said, he was just tired. At this time, the black-haired boy opened his eyes and asked in a daze: " What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Su Lian withdrew his hand, "You have a fever."

"Ah, is that right? I just said that it's definitely not such a mysterious idea of ​​being possessed by gods and evil spirits..." Zhang Ziyao got up, yawned and rubbed his eyes, and asked after a pause, as if remembering something, "You Just standing here?"

"I'm standing here too." Su Lian glanced at her strangely.

"Not now... eh? Forget it." Zhang Ziyao looked around, and wondered again, "Why did I come to sleep here? My head was obviously sleeping with the window before!"

"Maybe it's because I didn't sleep honestly. The pillow got under my feet, and then I subconsciously searched for the pillow and crawled over."

"... What crawling, it's not a dog." Zhang Ziyao twitched his lips, raised his eyelids and looked at the sky outside, "It's not dawn yet, go on sleeping, why did you wake up suddenly?"

"The dog barking outside woke up."

Su Lian simply responded, glanced at Zhang Ziyao, and while speaking, glanced deeply at the open, empty window, paused, then turned back to the scroll...

Zhang Ziyao stared at the little beast and returned to the picture scroll, watched it lie down in the rocky mountain, his eyes swept across the quiet and unmoving lush pine branches again, he paused, turned his eyes back and looked back. lie down.

The tent was once again quiet.

……

The boy who had recovered from his fever and fell asleep happily did not know that in the Yunqi Kingdom far away——

Sitting under the moonlight, the man in a white safari opened his eyes.

Under his slightly cold gaze, a piece of human-shaped paper that fell under his feet during the day unexpectedly ignited without fire, and the sound of howling wolf dogs came from his ears, and the paper burned into ashes at random...

Another huge red wolfhound came out of the shadow with a paw on its feet. It raised its head to look at the bright moon in the sky, and then let out a sad moo, as if it understood that this time its companion really would never come back again. coming.