Free Web NovelAlthough Nanling Qifeng personally guided it, the system still took a while to find the portrait on him.
On the yellowed notebook page, slightly messy lines pieced together to outline the almost perfect jawline of the girl's profile. A few strands of hair hung at her temples. Although her face showed no expression, the captivating eyes, with a gentle sidelong glance, were breathtaking.
From a drawing skill perspective, the artist didn't seem to have much professional training, but her talent was excellent. The characters she drew were exceptionally vivid; one or two parts of the skill, the remaining eight or nine parts, were all due to emotion.
The system looked at the portrait as if recalling something, falling into a trance, a faint, gentle smile unconsciously rising at the corner of its mouth. But soon, that weak tenderness was replaced by coldness and anger.
And its series of micro-expression changes, coupled with its grotesque and ugly appearance, were seen by the other three present, and the atmosphere immediately turned strange.
Obscene, ferocious, evil... such words surged in their minds, with a frequency as high as the bullet comments on a video with tens of millions of views.
It wouldn't do anything bad, would it?
"You, what do you want to do?!" Lord Huaiyuan exclaimed cautiously.
Hearing this, the system collected itself, held the portrait in front of it with a fin, and said with a somewhat aggrieved tone, "I, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to do anything. It's just that the girl in this portrait is too beautiful, and I accidentally got lost in looking at her."
This painting by Nightmare is a perfect recreation; most people would be moved by it, the system thought.
Putting aside its love-hate relationship with Disaster, it highly admired Disaster's appearance.
Honestly, if it weren't for that top-tier seductive and cheap facade, Disaster wouldn't have pulled off so many major stunts. For the troublesome things she did, if it were someone like Plague Tai Sui, whose face is detested by both gods and men, she would have died dozens of times over already.
Lord Huaiyuan was originally skeptical of the system's explanation, but after seeing the portrait in its hand, she completely believed it.
"Wow! Is this Senior Unmyouki's wife? So beautiful!" she couldn't help but exclaim.
Upon hearing this, Bai Kai eagerly said, "Let me see!"
When the system handed the portrait to him, and he saw the content, he paused.
He could be sure that the person painted in the portrait was absolutely not Wang Meili, but Lu Yibei.
Could it be that Xiao Bei really put it in? Bai Kai thought, his slightly furrowed brows gradually knitting into a knot.
He knew that Lu Yibei should still be somewhere within Yumen Pass at this moment. Thinking carefully, after Lu Yibei had someone help her draw such an exquisite profile portrait, she then infiltrated the depths of the Lords Manor, slipped the portrait into the iron box, and then escaped from that strange person unscathed. The motive and logic seemed a bit illogical, but...
Based on his understanding of Lu Yibei, she often acted without any motive or logic. As long as she could torment people and find amusement, that was enough. For example...
Placing a portrait, whose style and paper completely mismatched that era, into an iron box sealed for a thousand years.
As for the meaning... she gained happiness, wasn't that the meaning?
It was like when she was in school, for an entire month, she drew a mysterious symbol on the last line of her Chinese homework, baffling her teacher. Tormented by growing curiosity, the teacher couldn't help but ask her about it, only to receive a pile of meaningless nonsense.
Collecting his thoughts, Bai Kai examined the portrait again and made an unexpected discovery.
"Wait! Is there... writing on this?" freewёbnoνel.com
After saying that, he looked at the portrait again carefully, his doubts growing.
Were these words originally there? They didn't seem to be there just now, or did I misread it?
The first time he looked at this portrait, he had looked very carefully. He remembered that the first time he saw it, there were no words on the portrait.
"Words? What words? Let me see?" Lord Huaiyuan said.
Hearing this, the system suppressed its strong curiosity and held the portrait in front of her.
"There really are!" Lord Huaiyuan carefully distinguished the words on the portrait, and as if seeing something rare, she couldn't help but exclaim, "It seems to say...'She's not bad?' And it's even in regular script? What the hell? I don't understand."
System, "???"
Not bad? Referring to Disaster? Damn it! What exactly happened between Disaster and Nightmare?
————
Night fell. On a wind-eroded rock wall near the edge of the Longxiang Army Camp, Shen Baiwei leaned back on a protruding rock, like a kitten that had eaten its fill and was enjoying the sun. She stretched contentedly, then picked up her beloved little notebook again.
Feeling refreshed!
It was like finishing a day of work and study, getting some exercise, taking a hot shower, lazily curling up on the sofa, and sipping a favorite, slightly chilled drink.
This was her most direct feeling after leaving Lu Yibei's side.
Stay away from Disaster, otherwise you will become unfortunate. This saying isn't just talk, whether this "Disaster" refers to a matter or a person.
Without Disaster by her side to annoy her, and unwilling to interact with the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, she simply found such a place to do what she loved most in her daily life—writing and drawing.
Shen Baiwei couldn't remember when she developed this hobby. Perhaps it was when her teacher first asked her to keep a diary in school, or perhaps it was when the black night disease began to affect her, causing her to be treated as an outcast by her classmates, and she had nowhere to vent her frustrations.
In short, as long as she had a pen and paper, allowing her to write and draw as she pleased, she could calm down and feel at ease.
This notebook was the last gift she received before entering Tethys Laboratory. At that time, she had been isolated by those around her for a long time. At that time, she even felt that those people wished she would die sooner, to avoid infecting them with the incurable black night disease.
After all, few people could tolerate all their past experiences, good or bad, appearing in someone else's mind. Although Shen Baiwei didn't want to, and almost had her mind filled with chaotic, inexplicable images, those who felt their privacy violated didn't care.
And just as she was preparing to apply for a leave of absence to go to the hospital for treatment due to her increasingly severe black night disease, she unexpectedly received a gift. She unwrapped the exquisite packaging and saw this notebook, along with a small greeting card wishing her a speedy recovery and inviting her to a farewell ceremony.
There was indeed a farewell ceremony, but only Shen Baiwei attended.
That day, after packing her things and completing the procedures to leave school, she returned home, put on her favorite dress, carefully dressed up, and then, as written on the small greeting card, went early to the hot pot restaurant near the school, ordered a table of dishes, and looked forward to the arrival of her "friends." However...
The hot pot kept boiling and bubbling. By the time the tofu placed in the pot was completely soaked by the soup base and started to turn black and bitter, and the hot pot staff had expressed concern several times with worried faces, Shen Baiwei still hadn't waited for anyone to appear before her.
This was a prank she had experienced countless times, but... that day, she still regarded the prank as a special farewell, thinking that the person who left the gift might have had a temporary engagement and thus didn't show up.
After that day, she moved into the hospital, picked up her pen, and began to confide her worries to her only friend—the little notebook.
She wasn't worried that the little notebook would run out one day. Anyway, this little notebook had become a Spiritual Energy item closely related to her Spirit Mark ability. Anyway, every time she "reloaded," the content she personally wrote on it would disappear a lot...
————
"Rustle... rustle..."
The quill pen made from the tail feathers of a brown-eared pheasant glided across the paper, emitting a soft, calming sound.
Shen Baiwei first "created files" for Hong Bian and Dragon Xiang in her small notebook, recording their characteristics and venting her frustrations by drawing several ugly graffiti portraits of them. Dragon Xiang was covered in arrows, and Hong Bian had a shiny bald head with mismatched eyes.
"That's right! If you're not bald, how can you call yourself a Holy Monk?" Shen Baiwei admired her "masterpiece," muttered a few words to herself, and then picked up her pen again. This time, what she recorded in her small notebook was the myriad scenes within the Dragon Xiang Army Camp.
A great battle was imminent, yet there wasn't much tension or restlessness to be sniffed in the Dragon Xiang Army Camp. It was as if all unease and fear were hidden, brewing in unseen places, like the brief calm before a storm.
If ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) not for the occasional Longxiang Army Armored Soldier in military uniform patrolling the camp, and the distant snorting of warhorses, one might even think this was a large outdoor camping ground.
After drawing a quick sketch of the camp scenery and a few portraits of Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers, Shen Baiwei was tapping her chin lightly with the feather of her quill, pondering what to write next. Just then, a metallic clanging sound suddenly echoed over the camp.
Following the direction of the sound, in the open space in front of the main camp, a man whose armor differed slightly from other Armored Soldiers, seemingly holding an official position, was holding a short stick and striking a piece of metal shaped like a tile.
"Clang—Clang—Clang—!"
The sound was slightly faint but very clear.
As the striking sound spread, the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers resting in their tents quickly gathered, and within a minute or two, several dense phalanxes had assembled in the open space in front of the main camp.
Then Dragon Xiang walked out of the main camp and said a few words to the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers. Immediately, the previously silent phalanxes became agitated, disregarding military discipline and regulations. Some even occasionally raised their hands to wipe their faces, as if brushing away tears from their eyes.
"What's going on? Are they going to break camp and set off?" Shen Baiwei, who hadn't clearly heard Dragon Xiang's words, murmured her guess.
"Setting off? Not for a while! That old man is telling the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers to leave things like family letters, and then have someone send them back to Yumen Pass, probably to give their families something to remember them by?"
Hearing the voice suddenly behind her, Shen Baiwei nodded thoughtfully, "So that's how it is..."
Mid-sentence, she abruptly turned around and saw Disaster, who had appeared behind her at some unknown time, her eyes wide, "You... when did you get here?"
"That was too early!" Lu Yibei shrugged, "Pretty much, as soon as you left the camp, I followed."
Shen Baiwei was a human reading record, the key to changing the outcome of Yumen Pass, and even the key to saving her own life. Could she just be allowed to wander off?
No!
Not seeing Shen Baiwei for a moment felt as uncomfortable as having ants crawling all over one's body! Lu Yibei thought.
