Amidst all the trivial matters at home, An Yinong had not even thought about caring about the affairs of “Hua You”. He seemed like a numb tool for manuscript submission. Apart from mailing manuscripts and collecting royalties, he was invisible at other times.
In the end, even those in the class who didn’t read comics knew several of the main characters in “The Legend of the Desert Heroes”. An Yinong then realized that the newly revised comic magazine “Huayou” was very popular, and the “The Legend of the Desert Heroes” serialized in it was extremely popular.
The new president sent him a report showing the increase in the magazine’s sales in the past two months. He said that as long as the plot after “The Desert” was not bad, it was expected to become one of the “Top Ten Best-selling Comics” this year, and even “Yinong” could become one of the “Top Ten Best-selling Cartoonists” this year.
It was the first time that An Yinong knew that there was such a ranking in the comics industry.
Zhen Weilong, who left “Huayou” and joined “Xia Dao”, was one of the “Top Ten Best-selling Cartoonists” last year. His comics are also on the list, at ninth place. It was because he was on this list that Xia Dao spent a huge sum of money to recruit him.
“If Yinong and Damo are also on this list, will our Huayou get more resources?”
“Of course it does. There are benefits. We will definitely take care of the people and comics on the list first. As long as a magazine has one person on the list, it can be considered a famous magazine. If there are two, it will be even more amazing.” said the president.
An Yinong seemed to be thinking about something.
“Is this cartoon very popular?” he asked his classmates.
“It’s super popular, Tiantong, don’t you know?”
“I’m not sure. There’s a lot going on at home lately.” He said honestly.
“Then you are really out of date. Come here, let me tell you, this is a very popular comic book recently. Even my sister, who never reads comics, knows about it.”
Zhang Wei, a martial arts comics fan, showed up with a copy of Huayou and a delicate acrylic key pendant in his hand: “This magazine also gives this away. Isn’t it nice? Last time it was a small mirror, which was snatched away by my sister. But she wasn’t interested in this thing, so she gave it to me.”
“Ah Wei, you still listen to your sister? You’re so obedient?” Everyone laughed at him.
“There’s nothing I can do. She’s my creditor. I don’t have money, so I had to borrow it from her.” Zhang Wei placed the pendant on An Yinong’s desk like he was presenting a treasure.
“What is this?” An Yinong held up the transparent acrylic ball and found that it was made up of several components.
“You don’t know? This is a Luban lock. It can only be taken apart using a very special method. The same goes for the composition. But I finished assembling it in a short while.” The complacent Zhang Wei selectively ignored the fact that there was an instruction manual included in the package.
An Yinong picked up the new edition of “Huayou”. The entire cover was a beautiful anime character with sharp eyes, sword-like eyebrows and phoenix eyes. He recognized him as a popular supporting character in his comics. The name and date were in the upper left corner. He looked at it and saw that it was the latest issue. After the revision, Huayou became a weekly comics magazine, published once a week.
“Eh? ‘Huayou’ seems to be a small magazine with no reputation, and one of its resident cartoonists was poached by another magazine.” An Yinong pretended not to understand.
“That was a long time ago. The new comics they published are really good. If they don’t, you can hit me.” Zhang Wei snatched the magazine unhappily and quickly flipped to the back. “Look.”
What appeared before him was a bird’s-eye view of the “Devil City” from the air. When the magazine was opened, the two pages were combined into a whole bird’s-eye view, which was quite visually impactful.
“Wow.” Even the girls who weren’t very interested in comics were attracted. “This overhead view is so magnificent. The one riding the horse seems to be a girl? Is she a female hero?”
“She’s the heroine. She has a nickname, Zhuge Nu Yu Linglong, which means she is very smart and has a smart mind. That’s why many people look for her when they encounter a puzzle they can’t solve.” Another boy continued. It seems that he was also a fan of the book.
The female classmates gathered around. In general male comics, there was no role for girls, or they just played a vase with little role. Suddenly, a female character with a large role appeared, and everyone was very interested.
Then Zhang Wei took out several copies of “Huayou” from his desk: “I have every copy, do you want to read it?”
Naturally, everyone said yes, and they gathered together to open the book. The classic protagonist’s parents died and relatives and friends were injured. In order to find his only relative, the protagonist embarked on a long journey to find them.
He chased all the way to the northwest, only to discover that the Devil City he was looking for was hidden in the desert, and even the merchants who were best at walking in the desert didn’t know its exact location. At this time, A Xiang, the charming tavern owner in the desert, told him that perhaps there was someone who could help him.
Then the heroine appeared. She had just solved the mystery of the treasure of the previous dynasty. Because she was too handsome in men’s clothing, she attracted a female knight and was being chased by her “rival” for thousands of miles.
“This comic is so interesting.” The female classmates gathered together and read it with great interest. They had no interest in comics before.
Compared with other martial arts comics, this one has more refined character portrayal. The men are heroic and the women are gentle. The weapons and accessories on their bodies are also very attractive. Although there are still many immature aspects, both the story and the pictures have great potential.
Before he knew it, An Yinong had finished reading the first four books and picked up the fifth.
Zhang Wei saw that they were staring at it intently and smiled: “How is it? It looks good, right?”
“It’s OK. The style was unstable in the early stage, but it’s OK later on.” An Yinong said truthfully. After all, it was his first time drawing comics, and the first episode had heavy traces of line drawing, and the characters were not particularly stable, but they became fixed later on.
“The latter part is great! The scene where the six heroes take on thousands of horse thieves with swords!” Zhang Wei, being a fan for some reason, filtered out the first half of the sentence and only heard the second half, then he started praising again.
An Yinong: …feeling a little ashamed.
“Zhang Wei, where did you buy it? I want to buy one too.” a girl asked.
“Me too, can I subscribe to this magazine for the whole year?”
“It’s easy to buy. It’s available at newsstands and bookstores,” Zhang Wei said. “But this magazine is very popular. You have to go early or it will be sold out.”
Seeing how they liked the comic, An Yinong suddenly thought that the comic “Da Mo” seemed to be able to attract female readers. If he could get more girls into comics, would he have an audience base for his female-themed comics?
To be honest, he wanted to see the top ten best-selling comics and the top ten best-selling cartoonists of the year. But “Da Mo” was released too late, and the success rate was 50-50. So now that martial arts comics are becoming saturated, he took a different approach and drew comics on female themes, maybe he could make a breakthrough.
Anyway, summer vacation was coming soon and he had plenty of time, An Yinong thought.
“Host, you want to create another comic book with a completely different style at the same time? Why? Can’t you finish the story of the first one first?” The system didn’t quite understand why he wanted to make his life more difficult. It never understood its host, even though it had followed him for several worlds.
“If I can do it, why not try it?” An Yinong asked back.
“My comic was a success, and all I have to do now is keep going in the same direction, but I want to try another route. If I succeed by chance, maybe I will be the one to open a new door. -H”
“Do whatever you want. -X”
The system looked at the smiling host, then looked at the small note: “Humph, it looks like you are the kind of villain who likes to deceive people with sweet words.”
An Yinong really tried it and painted female themes – time-travel adventure themes.
In real life, she was a tough and strong little girl, and the only heir to a dilapidated martial arts school. However, due to a certain opportunity – the family jade pendant broke, she signed a contract with the nine-tailed fox spirit living in the jade and awakened her mysterious power.
Her talent was to communicate with demon spirits, sign contracts with them, and temporarily borrow the power of demon spirits during battle. People like her were the “spirit masters” among the “psychics”.
The inspiration for these “demons” of An Yinong came from the “Classic of Mountains and Seas”, so the nine-tailed fox was set as an ancient auspicious beast and the mother clan of the monarch (emperor). Later, many “demons” from the Classic of Mountains and Seas would appear.
When borrowing the power of different spirits, the protagonist would have completely different disguises, men’s clothing, women’s clothing, Western clothing and Chinese clothing. There was nothing he dared not draw, as long as he could think of it.
“I’m the one who completed the dress-up game.” An Yinong said to himself.
The protagonist was not the “silly and sweet” heroine preferred by men in aesthetics. On the contrary, the heroine lived in the bottom of society and has experienced many things, but she still remained optimistic, brave, kind, and full of hope for the future. Her original wish was to revive the martial arts school and become the head of the family martial arts.
It was precisely because she was such a person that she could impress those demons who can see through people’s hearts, become friends with her, and achieve mutual success. Since the main consumer group of comics was teenagers, they certainly won’t discuss too many serious social topics, and there was even a romantic love story and brilliant friendship between the protagonists.
Among her friends were the aloof “music player” girl and the shy “poet” boy. The former uses voice as power, while the latter uses poetry as power. Her enemies were the monsters derived from humans’ excessive desires, and the ‘psychics’ contaminated by the monsters.
Of course, the main thing was the plot. It looked like an upgrade comic about adventure in another world and saving the world, but the core was the growth history of a protagonist. It was the process of the protagonist having friendship and love, and looking at the world more maturely.
“There are world changes that break the routine, adventures, monster-killing and leveling up, all kinds of cute creatures and spirits, and cross-dressing… The overall style is relaxing.”
It may not seem like anything special to future generations, but local comics of this era did not have so many attractive elements. The cross-dressing element can attract many people. Those clothes that could not appear in the past can appear in this fantasy world. In addition, the portable spirit is also a highlight. A “spirit girl” without a “little spirit” was not a qualified “comic girl”.
“These two elements increase the appeal.” In fact, boys also like cross-dressing and cute pets, but they were embarrassed to say it.
The system looked at An Yinong, who had split himself into two, one painting “Legend of the Desert Heroes” and the other painting “Imperial Spirit Girl”. It held its face with both hands and said: “Don’t you feel like you have a split personality?”
One was a classic martial arts comic style, with cool fighting scenes and an ancient background, which has a sense of landscape painting. The other was a classic girl comic style, with gorgeous hairstyles and costumes, fighting scenes, but more “fantasy”, with a magical modern background, full of fantasy, so don’t you feel split personality?
A new girls’ comic was being created, and “The Legend of the Desert Heroes: Devil City” continued to be serialized, with the villain who was both good and evil and full of charisma making his debut. His charm was second only to the protagonists and another popular character – the tavern owner A Xiang.
At this time, the comic magazine “Huayou” backed by the He family had appeared in 90% of newsstands and bookstores in Hong Kong. The appropriate price after adjustment and the gifts given with the books attracted many people, and some people even bought magazines specifically for those exquisite little gifts.
The magazine had already been bought, so of course they just took a look at it, and thus many people fell in love with “Huayou”. And many of those who fell in love with “Huayou” became fans of “The Legend of Desert Heroes”. The story of “Desert Heroes: Devil City” was not long, and the plot quickly proceeded to the final episode, which was also the “final battle” in the entire plot.
That Friday, after dinner, he returned to his room and directly took out the comic book in which he had drawn the final battle, ready to start writing. However, after picking up the pen, he could not put it down.
His condition even affected the shadow puppet that painted “Imperial Spirit Girl”.
The cool and handsome fighting scenes in martial arts comics were a big attraction. If the final battle failed to make a breakthrough and leave a deep impression, this new comic would inevitably be suspected of being anticlimactic. An Yinong had studied fighting and had some understanding of many styles of martial arts, but how to draw the moves of the final battle beautifully was still a big problem for him.
He was gesturing with a pen in his hand, rehearsing the fighting process in his mind.
“No, it doesn’t feel right this way. …By the way, isn’t there a training room on the first floor? I see there seem to be cold weapons displayed there.”
Martial arts movies were very popular nowadays, and various martial arts schools and martial arts training have also become popular. Many people would follow suit and build such a room at home. An Yinong guessed that the practice room was the same. He ran downstairs and walked into the practice room.
The training room was small, more decorative than practical, with white walls on all four sides and a layer of soft plastic on the floor. There was also a shelf for cold weapons on one side, where most cold weapons can be found.
He touched the handsome Miao Dao, and looked at the sword lying on the shelf. On the snow-white wall behind him, there was a huge word “Wu” written in black ink. He looked carefully and found that it was painted. Yes, to write such large characters with such vigor and power, with the brush tip as sharp as a sword, one must be a great calligrapher who understands martial arts.
“This place is too small. Should I move the weapons to the yard?” he thought.
At the same time, the neighbor next door took many detours, shook off the little tail, and finally entered the community alone. He should have gone straight back home, but when he reached a fork in the road, he turned around for some unknown reason and headed towards a less-frequented path.
He saw the young man walking along this road, flying on his roller skates, with birds following him. The trees on both sides bowed their heads in the breeze, as if welcoming their little master.
It was just an ordinary path that he would never even glance at when passing by it in the past. But that day it became the ‘fairy tale’ that he had longed for since he was a child but could never dream of.
The wind blew off a leaf, and a buzzing sound was heard in the air, which was the vibration caused by the sharp weapon breaking through the air.
“Strange, why is there the sound of sword dancing nearby?” The sound was quick and light, and unusually clear in the quiet evening. The man suddenly became a little worried, and he walked quickly towards the child’s home.
As a result, the sound of the sword became clearer and clearer, as if it came from behind the wall. He looked towards the door.
The door was not completely closed. Through the narrow gap, one could seem to see a person holding a Silver Frost sword and quickly making stabbing, chopping, blocking and other movements. Because the movements were too fast, the sword body trembled slightly, making a pleasant buzzing sound.
He was a young man, his body was as light as a swallow, his sword gleamed like a rainbow, and when the sword chopped down, it had the force of a towering mountain.
The neighbor was quite surprised, and took a step closer without realizing it, making a noise. The sword practitioner inside turned around and stabbed with his sword, the tip of the sword gleaming with light, and it stopped just in front of the door.
The young man holding the sword had clear eyes and a charming appearance, as if he had traveled through time and appeared before him.
“Who?”
WhiteMoon x BlackSun 