Tiese stood on the city wall, charcoal brush in hand, finishing the last stroke on the propped up easel.
His entire body let out a long breath, and was somewhat disheartened.
On the parchment canvas, a crystal city was drawn with a diagonal overhead perspective.
The city was arched by four tall walls, each of which built a towering, straight obelisk. This was a totem left behind by the old gods, and Yao God did not destroy it, but instead gave it the responsibility of continuing to guard the city.
As soon as the Killing Flying Locusts approached the city walls, they would be scorched by the fiery flames spewed out by the totem.
The road extended all the way out along the city gates, splitting off towards the left and right to form the first circular main road that surrounded Crystal City.
The main road continues to branch off to the west, a spiderweb of paths large and small spreading out around the ancient and magnificent city, but the source comes from here.
After the fall of the Empire, the villages situated along the road were completely deserted, and with the locust swarms ravaging the area, wooden houses and farmland were destroyed. All that remains today are the remains of stone walls and houses, as well as sand and gravel everywhere.
As the wind sweeps the sand and dust into the air, these crumbling villages appear and disappear, like a mirage.
The local ghosts say that it wasn’t like this before, that the war changed everything. The ghosts of the Empire hated the killing flying locusts and cursed the monsters, saying that it was the swarms of locusts that had completely destroyed their homes.
Tiese was initially puzzled.
Wasn’t the real reason that the Glass Gods had started the Divine War?
War was the driving force and firewood that kept the Fifth Fearless Empire going, and the history of the empire was the process of participating in one war after another.
Only this time, the Empire had lost, so everything had gone up in smoke.
It seems the Ghosts don’t hate war, just defeat.
Tiese thought so.
After spending three years in Crystal City, he realised that such thoughts were both arrogant and frivolous.
The old folk of the Empire were not allowed to comment on the gods they believed in.
The will of the glass god was the will of the empire.
They dared not and could not hate the Glass God who used them as martyrs, but could only curse and hate the locust swarms, venting all their resentment and pain by killing the flying locusts.
It was only after Tiese became friends with many ghosts that he gradually touched this contradictory and depressing mood.
There were words that could not be spoken.
It would take a long time to get rid of the brand that the Glass God had carved into this world over the years.
……
Inside the old empire’s capital city, houses collapsed by more than half and the ground became pitted.
It was as if a giant palm had descended from the sky and rolled over the buildings in the city that were originally arranged in an orderly manner, causing many of them to become deformed, either collapsing or being askew.
The centre of the imperial capital was originally the emperor’s court, and the dome of the court was connected to the holy shrine. The tall and majestic palace stood tall, surrounded on all sides by circular steps and inner walls, like a giant sword thrust into the earth, revealing only the long hilt.
At the top of the hilt is the jewel-like high, shining lustre of the Palace of God.
Its brick walls are made of pieces of glass glued together in a spherical shape, topped by a huge green crystal carved into a vertical eye, representing the gods gazing at the world.
In the past, commoners were not allowed to approach the palace, let alone the shrine.
All the will of the gods was proclaimed through the divine Emperor Soter.
Today, it has been transformed into a spectral lighthouse.
Anyone can enter and visit.
The local commoners were finally able to enter the place of their dreams after death.
Tiese often went to the lighthouse to ask Medicine Put for advice. He felt that there was nothing magical about the place, it wasn’t decorated with much flamboyance inside, it was more of a manifestation of majesty, deepening the emperor’s posture of being above everyone else.
So even though there were many steps inside, the places on the steps were basically areas and rooms that only the emperor could set foot in. To him, it looked rather like a labyrinth.
Under the divine might of the Old Gods, the local ghosts had not only had their flesh condensed into glass, but their spectral bodies had also suffered quite a bit of damage. There were very few healers who could treat ghosts, and Medicine Put was one of them. As a ghost healer, she chose to stay.
Retracting his gaze, Tiese examined his painting.
For this piece of artwork, he had stayed in Crystal City for three years, and he had been to the field to observe and measure the scenes on the painting. However, due to the large amount of content on this drawing, there were many detailed outlines that charcoal depictions weren’t enough and could easily fade out.
So after Tiese finished the first draft, he had to make a trip to the south to Saniro, to find Mr Paiva to borrow his feather quill and smoke ink. This facsimile of the Crystal City will be re-drawn again, in order to better preserve it in the world.
Before leaving, Tiese found Medicine Put.
“I’m leaving for a trip to the south, to Saniro.”
“Oh, and come back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then …… I wish you good luck.”
“This is for you.”
Tiese took a parchment scroll from his pack and handed it to the other man.
The spectral healer spread out the parchment and found a portrait drawn on it. It was of a young girl in armour, her long hair coiled behind her head, her gaze hard and sharp, but a smile at the corners of her mouth.
She was healing a disembodied apparition with her hand on him.
“How do you know what I look like?”
There was surprise in Medicine Put’s voice, “Can you be psychic?”
“No.”
Tiese smiled, “I’m a painter, and painters can always see the models they want to paint.”
“See you around.”
The painter put on his travelling bag and walked out of the tower to an earth-arched cavern. He got into an earthbound boat and travelled all the way through the underground, avoiding the killing flying locusts and rushing to the south.
Yakupu watched her friend’s departure through a window in the tower.
She turned over the sheepskin painting again.
On the back of the painting was a small line.
–For the most beautiful woman in my heart.
Yakutobi sighed, “What a fool.”
……
After a series of bumps and turns, Tiese finally arrived at his destination.
The inner city of Saniro City, the Pava mansion directly across from the fountain.
Pava, the legendary travelling storyteller, now not so young, with half-white hair, sat on a rocking wicker chair, drinking a cup of honey water in front of the fire.
And to Tiese’s envy, the lady standing next to him – Pava’s wife, Jodie – still looked young, as if she was only in her twenties, and she had a delicate, soulful face.
“Done.”
Tiese handed the couple his finished sketch.
On the drawing paper, the couple, Pava and Jyoti, were snuggling, plain but cosy.
“That’s a nice drawing, Mr Tiese, thanks.”
Jodi looked happy as she sealed the drawing in resin and fixed it to the wall.
Pava, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes, crossed her legs and said, “Tiese, you look preoccupied. Might as well tell us.”
Tiesse smiled and said no.
Jodi handed him a glass of honeyed water and said with a smile on her face, “If there’s anything we need help with, we’re all here for you.”
After hesitating for a moment, Tiese then spoke, “I have a friend who likes a pretty girl ……”
After hearing this, Paiva coldly said, “Are you stupid?”
“You think you’re romantic, spontaneous and classy, don’t you?”
“Leaving a painting for the woman you love, then letting her be sad and emotional before going to another man and waiting for another man to comfort and hold her. Is that what you want?”
“No, it’s not ……” Tiese said, a little flustered.
“Then what are you doing this for?”
“I just don’t know what to say ……”
“Tell it like it is.”
Pava interrupted, “Remember, tell it like it is.”
Jyoti chimed in with a smile, “Honey’s right.”
“Go on. While there’s still a last chance.”Pawel waved his hand impatiently, “I don’t want to see tragedy and stupidity, go and do what you can.”
“I know ……”
Tiese picked up his backpack and ran all the way out the door.
Jodi reminded, “Your quill and smoky ink, don’t leave them behind.”
She clicked her fingers and a packet flew towards the man in the doorway.
“Ooooh, okay, thanks.”
……
Tiese flew all the way on his bucket and spade armour, and half a month later returned to the high towers of Crystal City, rushing all the way to the Spectre Healer.
“Back so soon?”Medicine Put was a bit surprised.
“I ……”
Tie Sai gathered his courage and said, “I want you to marry me!”
“Eh?”
Yakuto froze for a moment, as if he hadn’t reacted.
“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”
“So you liked my past appearance.”
Tetsusaigi said honestly, “Well. I can’t get over the fact that I fell in love with you ever since I saw your face when I was sketching, it won’t actually take me three years to paint this city, I just wanted to see more of you.”
“I see.”
Yakuto paused and carefully whispered, “But, I’m a married man.”
“Huh? What?”
Tie Sai was struck by lightning and his smile completely stiffened, “No, not …… why did you never say that?”
“You also did not ask ah.”
“You’re lying to me! You’re lying to me!”
“I’m not lying to you.”
Medicine Put spread his hands, “My husband is called Fabiani, an archaeologist. He doesn’t have much money and he’s a bit stubborn, but he’s a pretty good guy.”
“Never heard of Mr Fabiani having a wife!”Tiesse’s mind exploded and his face went pale.
“Because he said he didn’t have the money to organise a wedding and said he would make it up later.”Medicine Put patiently explained, “Archaeologists don’t have much money, it’s not easy for him to be out in the wind and rain all day. That’s why I also applied to become a Martial Cultivator, so I can save a little more money for the wedding.”
Tie Sai clenched his fists and unwillingly launched a final enquiry, “Why did you marry him?”
Medicine Put raised his helmet slightly and seemed to think hard for a while.
“Forgot.”
“……”
“At that time, we had known each other for two days, he proposed to me, and I also thought he was good, so that was it.”
“No …… I don’t believe it ……”
“That’s the truth ah, we even registered at the YC city hall, at that time the mayor, Mr Coppersea, and the commander, Mr Botu, all came to congratulate us.”
“I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear it!”
Tiese yelled and ran out, tearing his painting to shreds and howling in the rain.
……
On that night, Tiesse painted his pinnacle work, Lying.
From then on, Tiesse’s style changed drastically, changing from his previous realistic and heavy painting style.
His paintings became gloomy and abstract, and most of his subjects depicted and celebrated the tragedy of love between men and women.
