Han Shan's Sword Unsheathed

Fengyue City.

The long night is long, and the hall is empty and lonely.

The painter lowered his head and was mixing paints in front of the long desk.The candlelight of the lampstand coated his profile with a faint halo, making him look gentle and melancholy.

The phoenix demon who sneaked into the palace sat beside him, admiring the magnificent murals, chatting with him without saying a word:

"I guess your body is a chameleon."

The painter didn't look up, and was still mixing paint: "I am a snake."

"Snake? The king of Lingshan is also a snake. You and the king are of the same race!" Luan Niao was startled, and approached with fear and curiosity, "Hey, have you seen the king? What kind of monster is he?"

"That's me."

Luan Niao giggled: "I don't believe it, you lied to me!"

The painter didn't speak.

"You are my first friend here." Luanniao said again, "I want to perform and sing at the Ten Thousand Monsters Conference, can you come? If you come, I must sing very well!"

The painter nodded, not paying much attention.

Luanniao was very happy: "Then it's a deal!"

Luxurious and prosperous in Fengyue City, monsters come and go.When she first entered the city, her eyes were wide open and she was full of ambition. At night, she dreamed that she would meet friends with songs, and the songs she composed were sung in the demon world.

But for some reason, as time went by, she felt more lonely among the monsters than in the mountains.

The little demons who perform for the banquet live in the dormitories in the palace, and they don't care about singing and breath, they only care about whether they can get the favor of the big demon.The little demons are intriguing, comparisons are common, and love is weak.

She wrote a sad and beautiful aria, but the court chief forbade her to sing it, and asked her to sing a hymn praising the achievements of the King of Lingshan.

No demon can understand her tune.Just like this painter, he clearly painted ferrets most vividly, with each stroke of the painting full of sincerity, but there are no ferrets on the palace murals.

Perhaps because the former demon king Xueshan Dawang was originally a mink, so Lingshan Dawang did not allow him to paint, and his "painting mink technique" can only be a pearl in the dust.

As soon as Luanniao thought about this, he felt that he and the painter were suffering from the same disease and sympathized with each other, and they were friends in the downcast.She sneaked into the palace to look at the murals, but the painter didn't report her, and even helped her cover it up, what a gentle and kind monster.

"I'd also like to see that picture of the ferret."

The painter took out the scroll, and the starry night and snow-capped mountains unfolded slowly.

Luan Niao was attracted by the painting, and said in a daze: "The place where I have been infatuated all my life, under the starry night and snowy mountains... Does this mink have a name?"

The painter frowned slightly, and said softly, "He is my friend."

"Then tell me about your friend."

The painter showed nostalgia: "In the past, I had two friends. We went out to play together, and did tricks for the children of the world and the cubs of the demon clan."

Luanniao said in surprise: "You can also juggle?"

"I can't, I'm a prop, and the tricks are fake. I become a bracelet, the mink becomes a scarf, and another friend performs 'Going to the Stars'..."

The trick of "picking stars from the sky" was figured out by Que Xianming to amuse children.

Under the clear starry night, the bonfire is lit, and the eyes of the children watching are shining.

Que Xianming took off the snow-white scarf and called out "Change", and the scarf came alive and turned into a little mink.

He took off the bracelet again, and tossed it into the wind. The bracelet unfolded and turned into a thin spotted snake.The thin snake straightened up like a long rope.The little mink climbed up along the "rope", and the "rope" became longer and longer, sinking into the night sky.

Que Xianming said: "Let's give some applause, please ask my scarf to pick up the stars for everyone."

Not long after, sparkling low-grade spirit stones and low-grade spirit beads fell in the air, like little stars.The children reached out to catch it one after another, jumping and fighting with their companions.

Amidst cheers and exclamations, the star-seeking mink climbed down the "rope" again.

The artist said: "We have acted many times. The mink crawled around on me. I always wanted to coil him and wrap him tightly. This is the instinct of snakes. But when I play a rope, the rope cannot move. ..."

He spoke eloquently, with sincere affection, and Luanniao was fascinated by it: "What happened later? Did you buy it?"

The painter shook his head: "The loneliest thing about being a monster is not that you don't have friends, but that you have had friends before."

Luanniao felt pity suddenly: "I am willing to be your new friend!"

The painter looked up.Luanniao met his gaze, and for some reason, her heart skipped a beat, and a terrifying chill ran down her back.

The next time the sculptor laughed again, the cold illusion was fleeting.

"You should go back," said the painter.

Luanniao heard footsteps outside the hall, and said anxiously: "Is there a demon coming to inspect the palace so late? I'll slip away first!"

After that, he flew out of the flower window, using the shadow of the hall eaves to cover his whereabouts.

"My lord, an urgent report from the Demon Town Tower!" The demon general entered the hall and fell to the ground.

The King of Lingshan said indifferently: "Say."

"The Tower of Demon Suppression collapsed, and the two sinners fled. General Ying disappeared, and the Great Demon of Black Mountain, the Great Demon of Baihe, and General Tiger fought chaotically under the tower, and all identified the other party as an accomplice of the sinner."

A moment of silence.

The demon general didn't dare to raise his head, and felt chills in his heart.Such absurd and sad news will definitely provoke the king's fury, don't dare to come to report the news, afraid of being angered, push it back and forth, and finally push it on your own head.

But the king's voice was calm: "Chuan Hu will return to Fengyue City to confess the crime. He is ordered to seal off the territory and lead troops to capture the criminal demon and the eagle general. It is said that the tree demon will go to the Red Forest to negotiate, and ask the old demon of the Red Forest to assist in the search. Go."

The demon general breathed a sigh of relief, sweating all over his brow, got up and exited the hall.

The King of Lingshan said to the picture scroll: "You are really back. Before you show up, let me lose my troops and lose my generals. I am as capable as before."

The author has something to say: Don’t give your true feelings to Snake, he won’t wash his hands, he’s just a villain who can get the essentials

ps: The trick was born out of the "Tongtian Rope" in "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio"