I have seen dragons

Chapter 58 The Nightmare in the Painting

“I picked up this painting from a junk stall in Wuyang City two years ago. The original owner had no idea of ​​its value, saying that he used to use this canvas to prop up table legs. But I could tell at a glance that it was clearly the work of the painter Dipsico from three hundred years ago. Look at the lines, the imagination…”

Two hours later, it was completely dark.

Guan Qin stood on the second floor, facing a vividly colored purple painting of a sunset over the sea, and continued talking incessantly to himself.

After saying that, he looked at Yue Wen's slightly embarrassed face and suddenly asked, "Hey? Where's Xiao Zhao? Didn't she say she was very interested in art?"

"Professor Guan, she fell asleep an hour and a half ago," Yue Wen said, pointing downstairs.

Zhao Xing'er "died" in front of a large apple. While Guan Qin was explaining the profound compositional logic hidden in the simple picture, Zhao Xing'er couldn't resist falling asleep.

Looking at her face, which was breathing evenly, Yue Wen shook his head at his own naiveté; he had genuinely thought she was interested in art.

"Hehe." Guan Qin chuckled twice. "It seems only you can truly understand my collection."

Professor Guan, I'm not that sleepy. Not being asleep doesn't mean I'm interested. Yue Wen's eyes revealed a hint of despair.

He turned his head to look, and it was already pitch black outside, but the surroundings were still quiet. He thought to himself, "Why hasn't this damned nightmare appeared yet?"

Get to work!

Fortunately, Guan Qin said, "This is probably the only one you haven't seen yet. I bought it at an auction not long ago. It was supposed to be a thousand-year-old painting. I spent almost all my savings and even sold several of my treasured pieces to barely raise the money. But from what I've observed, the actual value of this painting is far more than that..."

He led Yue Wen to the innermost room on the second floor, where a traditional Chinese ink painting hung on the innermost wall.

The painting depicts a magnificent ancient city in the darkness of night, its lights illuminating the city like a long dragon, while in the distance, menacing demons lurk in the sky. Standing atop the city wall is a woman in colorful robes, holding a jade flute, adorned with a golden hairpin and a flowing skirt, facing the horde of monsters alone.

It possesses a unique beauty that is both dazzling and courageous.

"The auction house at the time judged that it was a painting made by ancient people based on their imagination, but I happened to know some stories from ancient times... I have to thank your father for that, he told me a lot of historical legends from the last spiritual era."

Guan Qin stroked the picture frame, his gaze fervent.

"Legend has it that in the last spiritual era, there was a country called 'Nanliang,' located in the most prosperous land of the Nine Provinces. During the years when demons invaded and evil spirits were rampant, the fate of the Nanliang Kingdom was in grave danger. At that time, a woman emerged from the royal family. She was skilled in music and had unparalleled cultivation. She was known as the Bright Moon of Nanliang and the Heavenly Maiden of the Nine Provinces! Whenever demons besieged the city, she only needed to stand on the city wall and play a 'Demon-Slaying Song,' and all the evil spirits would retreat."

"From my observation, the technique and paper of this painting are similar to, yet different from, those made a thousand years ago, and its spirit is almost divine. Although there is no publicly available painting in the world that has survived from the previous spiritual era, I am 80% certain that this painting is the 'Ancient Demon-Slaying Song' recorded by the painter of that time! Its history is not just over a thousand years, but at least six thousand years!"

"An ancient painting over six thousand years old?" Yue Wen was genuinely surprised.

Humanity's understanding of the previous spiritual era is currently limited to fragmented legends pieced together; that vast span of millions of years is collectively referred to as the Ancient Era. It's not that there are no remnants from the Ancient Era, but they are primarily celestial objects.

Items without spiritual power, even if they survive all the upheavals and calamities, will find it difficult to withstand the erosion of time.

If the date of Guan Qin's painting can be confirmed, it will likely cause a stir in the art world.

“Yes, haha.” Guan Qin stroked the painting for a while longer, unable to put it down, before turning his gaze away. “I’ve been contacting some friends in the industry recently, hoping to get some authoritative figures who know about the last spiritual energy era to jointly appraise it. Once the appraisal is complete, this painting will shock the whole world!”

"Professor Guan has really been quietly accomplishing great things these past few years," Yue Wen said with a smile.

The two came downstairs again, and Guan Qin sighed, "I'm getting old after all, and my energy is waning. I need to rest. You two can sleep in the guest room. As for Xiao Zhao..."

Yue Wenxin thought to himself, "Who said you're old? You have such great energy!"

He glanced at Zhao Xing'er, who was sprawled out on the sofa in a carefree sleeping posture, and said, "I'll go get her a blanket, she can sleep here."

"Can I sleep well here?" Guan Qin asked.

"It's alright," Yue Wen waved his hand. "She can sleep for nine hours straight even on a tree branch."

... Zhao Xing'er slept on the sofa in the living room, Guan Qin returned to the bedroom, and Yue Wen stayed in the guest room.

Yue Wen had some impression of this room. Several years had passed, but Professor Guan's guest room was still clean and simple, with a traditional Chinese ink painting by Guan Qin himself hanging on the side wall.

Although the nightmare had not yet appeared, he did not relax at all. He turned off the lights, sat cross-legged on the bed, and quietly meditated and regulated his breathing.

The clock hands ticked away, and before we knew it, it was twelve o'clock.

Yue Wen glanced at the overlapping hour and minute hands, sensing it was about time. At midnight, yin prevails over yang, allowing weaker nightmares to materialize.

But after a few more minutes, there was still no movement. He couldn't help but wonder if Professor Guan had really made a mistake.

It seems normal for artists to develop some mental health issues.

Just then, a faint chill seeped in from outside the door. Yue Wen immediately became alert, put on his demon-revealing mirror, and discovered that wisps of yin energy were indeed drifting in from under the door crack.

"They've arrived?" He walked quietly to the door, using his divine sense to probe for any movement.

Then I heard a thumping sound coming from the first floor, like a bag of apples being spilled on the ground and rolling forward.

But Zhao Xing'er is right on the first floor. If there were any strange phenomena, why didn't she make a sound?

Yue Wen knew that she had a keen sense of perception. Although she looked like a dead person when she was sleeping, she could open her eyes immediately if there was any unusual noise.

With doubts in his mind, Yue Wen opened the first-floor door and slowly walked out.

The guest room was on the second floor. He looked down to the first floor and saw that the floor was empty. He couldn't tell what had made the rolling sound earlier. There was only a blanket left on the sofa; Zhao Xing'er was nowhere to be seen.

The two floors were empty, as if he were the only person in the room.

what happened?
Yue Wen wasn't too worried about Zhao Xing'er, after all, she was surrounded by a blazing red aura of martial spirit, and ordinary nightmare creatures would shatter on their own if they were to collide with her, so there shouldn't be any problem.

But Professor Guan is only human; let's hope nothing goes wrong.

He hurried to the master bedroom next door, knocked on the door, but there was no response. Yue Wen simply pushed the door open with a bang, only to find that Professor Guan's bed was covered with a quilt, and the man was nowhere to be seen.

"Professor Guan?" Yue Wen called out, but there was no response.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, a gray shadow flashed past on the stairs behind him.

Yue Wen turned around abruptly and started to chase after him, but his gaze suddenly stopped when it fell on a painting on the wall!

It was a figure sketch hanging at the corner of the stairs. In his memory, the figure was a long-haired woman wearing a white dress.

But now the woman is gone, replaced by a neatly dressed elderly man standing in the gray sketching area, his hands raised in front of him in terror, as if he doesn't know why his body has become like this!

The man's face was none other than Professor Guan's!
This situation is completely different from what Wang Miaomiao described. It's not like something from a painting has jumped out; it's clearly a living person who has run into the painting!
Before Yue Wen could even step forward to find a way to rescue them, he saw another painting next to this one, a picture of a mountain spirit walking at night.

The original painting depicted a gathering of ghosts in the mountains at night, with some blue-faced and fanged figures singing and dancing, others with red tongues dragging on the ground carrying a palanquin, and still others with skeletons waving torches...

But at this moment, all the ghosts in the painting changed their appearance, revealing their most terrified faces, and ran desperately towards the end of the painting, with one or two of their tongues sticking out.

Because on the mountaintop in the painting, there is now a woman wielding a huge meteor hammer, with one foot planted on a rock, a red glow appearing, her hair standing on end in anger!

Who else could it be but Zhao Xing'er?!
　Good morning.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)