In Liyang City, the heavy rain has stopped.
The brown and yellow land stretches out, and occasionally one or two green spots can be seen emerging from the soil, showing vitality. The victims living under the city still have a meal of thin porridge every day, but their emotions are stable.
There were tattered straw huts one after another, and ragged children were chasing and playing with each other. They were scolded by their parents who were sitting on dry grass and branches. They looked back with dirty faces, turned around and continued to chase their friends, and cheerful laughter spread among the crowd.
There were also places where bonfires were lit. People who were warming themselves by the fire exhaled bursts of white air from their mouths, rubbed their palms to warm them, and talked about whether there would be any food.
I often looked towards the distant city wall, and thought of the shock that the man in white robe felt when he stood in the thunder that night, and I couldn't express it for a long time.
“I don’t know if that gentleman can survive.”
"Yes, fortunately there is that master... I heard that he went against the will of heaven and forced the rain to fall. Otherwise, heaven would not be angry and strike down thunderbolts."
"That's God's fault. There are also those dozen people who wanted to kill you. I heard from the soldiers who distributed porridge that they stole our lost children and girls."
"These are inhumane people!"
"Alas... I just don't know how old that gentleman is."
"How can you tell when the person is so burnt?"
The people gathered around the fire, looking at the children playing and joking not far away, finally felt that this place had come alive.
"I hope that gentleman is alright..."
…
In the backyard of the government office, there was a quiet and pleasant atmosphere. A maid in a green dress and trousers walked across the corridor carrying dishes and knocked twice gently on a door.
A slight creaking sound.
A Taoist with a pointed chin and monkey-like face opened the door, and when he took the tray, he took the opportunity to touch the maid's hand twice, and before the other party could get embarrassed, he slammed the door shut.
He ran back to the room with the food, put it on the table, and took a deep breath from his hand that had just touched the maid.
“It smells so good.”
The Toad Taoist priest wrapped himself in a small cotton-padded jacket, gathered all his strength, and kicked his short legs quickly a few times before he finally climbed onto the round table. He looked at the Taoist priest and his eyes rolled up.
"What's so rare about women? They are not as good as a table of food."
As he spoke, he put his webbed hands behind his back and walked around the dishes, then dipped his round webbed hands in the soup and put them in his mouth to suck on.
"So light..."
On the side, Hong Lian, who had wrung out the towel, rolled her eyes at the man and the toad, floated to the bed and sat down, lifted a corner of the quilt, saw the scholar's charred arm, lowered her head, and sighed.
When she wiped it off with a warm, damp towel, she wiped off a thick layer of burnt black, revealing her fair skin.
Nie Honglian was stunned for a moment, and suddenly thought of a possibility. Dimple appeared on her cheek. She put down the towel and reached out to look at the other burnt areas.
The charred arm hanging from the chest was suddenly raised, and the charred residue fell off.
The palm whose five fingers were burned and stuck together suddenly opened, and when he held Hong Lian's hand, his arm had become smooth and white.
"Young Master!" Hong Lian called softly, causing the Taoist and Toad at the round table to look over.
On the wooden pillow, half of the face was charred, the black color gradually peeled off, and the tightly closed eyelids trembled slightly. Lu Liangsheng opened his eyes, looked at the woman approaching, and smiled.
"I'm awake."
As he spoke, he suddenly sat up, reached out to hug Hong Lian, and patted her on the back.
"It's all right now."
cough-
Suddenly a dry cough was heard, and Lu Liangsheng realized what he was doing. When he let go, the woman in his arms hugged him even tighter. She put her cheek on his chest and rubbed it gently. After a while, she let go, her eyes curved into crescents, and she smiled sweetly with dimples.
"It's Master Toad's turn."
The Toad Taoist, who had his webbed hand on his lower lip, turned his back to his webbed hand and snorted, "I'm not interested."
Lu Liangsheng wanted to get out of bed to greet them, but just as he stretched out one leg, he found that there was not a single piece of cloth on his body, so he quickly huddled back into the quilt.
"Um... Master... I won't come down to pay my respects to you."
"No!"
The Toad Taoist waved his flippers, jumped off the round table, staggered to the bookshelf, and took out the black-patterned gourd.
"Now that you're awake, everything is fine. I still have things to do."
After saying that, he crawled under the bed with the gourd on his back.
He probably wanted to repair the gourd that had been struck by thunder. Amidst the tinkering, Sun Yingxian helped him find a clean robe and threw it over.
"This is what the fat prefect wore when he was young. Take it."
Lu Liangsheng took the scholar's robe thrown to him and tried it on. It seemed to fit him well. It seemed that the fat prefect was also a handsome scholar with a well-proportioned figure when he was young...
"Hong Lian, why don't you go back to the painting first?"
Lu Liangsheng gestured to her while pinching her robe. Nie Honglian pouted, spun on her toes, turned to face the window, twirled the corner of her robe with her fingers, and muttered with her pouty lips.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”
Well…
On the bed, Lu Liangsheng looked at the Taoist priest, who spread his hands and sat back at the table: "She thinks I am too rough... so she had to let her do it."
There was a rustling sound of someone getting dressed.
Lu Liangsheng got down and put on his shoes and socks. After working for a while, he found that he did not feel any discomfort or pain. He walked to the basin rack and washed his face. The towel was covered with dust and dirt.
The sunlight poured in, shining through the window and falling on the scholar's profile.
In the bronze mirror, the newly grown skin made him look... well, Lu Liangsheng could only think of the four words "skin as white as jade" to describe it.
Fortunately, the fox demon pill cannot affect one's appearance...
call.
Lu Liangsheng put down the wooden comb, stood up, and let out a breath.
Ta-da-da! The Taoist priest, who was digging with long chopsticks quickly, raised his face from the bowl, wiped the rice grains from the corner of his mouth and looked at the scholar's back passing him.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"Get some sun."
With his sleeves spread out, Lu Liangsheng whispered something to the Taoist priest and opened the door. The golden sunlight was shining through the gaps in the rolling clouds, falling on the scholar under the eaves, bringing warm warmth.
"It's comfortable..."
The trees in the yard had only a few leaves, swaying gently rustling.
Lu Liangsheng walked out from the eaves and stretched comfortably. A series of crackling sounds came from the joints of his bones all over his body.
Afterwards, with the long sleeves of his robe fluttering in the wind, he breathed in and out gently towards the morning sun, using the mantra of "The Right Way of Qiankun" to guide the warm light into his body, absorbing the spiritual energy within it to build up his own cultivation and magic power.
Hmm? It seems to be a lot faster than before.
Lu Liangsheng felt that after his body had been tempered by the electric light, his cultivation had clearly accelerated. In the surrounding sunlight, the spiritual energy that was visible to the naked eye turned into star-like points of light and quickly gathered towards him, entered his body, and spread out, just like spring rain nourishing all things, nourishing his limbs, bones, and internal organs.
Even the demon pill in the body was nourished, and its circulation speed became extremely fast.
"Will the cultivation of the righteous way of Qiankun conflict with the demonic power?"
The scholar closed his eyes and felt the spiritual energy seeping into his body, transforming it into bits of magic power. The demon pill continued to rotate calmly, as if it had nothing to do with it. They were each doing their own thing without any conflict.
… Then can I use the magic power of Qiankun Zhengdao and the magic power of the demon pill
However, Lu Liangsheng had no experience in how to use the magic power. He tried several times but failed to use any of the magic power.
In the house, Sun Yingxian stood in front of the window holding a bowl, looking curiously into the courtyard. The cloud-patterned robe fluttered in the morning light as Lu Liangsheng waved it. The dead leaves on the ground were guided by the scholar's movements, floating around and tumbling.
"If you are envious, you can try the thunder tribulation."
The toad, holding the gourd, stood on the round table at some point and sat there with his back to the Taoist priest, eating vegetables and talking.
"Do you think I'm stupid? I won't do such a thing where I have to die if I don't succeed." Sun Yingxian withdrew her gaze with the bowl in her hand, shook her head and turned back to the table.
“He has his way, and I have mine.”
He put the unfinished wine jug down heavily with a bang.
"Come on, old Toad, let's continue!"
Through the window lattice, the sun was warm, and among the falling leaves, Lu Liangsheng took one step at a time, inserted his palm into the flying leaves, and then pushed out -
Crash.
Countless dead leaves collided and flew out in the direction of the scholar's palm, rolling like a long dragon, hitting a tree, and scattered all over the ground. The whole tree was shaking.
I originally wanted to paint, but unfortunately, under the thunder, except for the tentacles of the centipede monster which were intact, the tip of the pen had been burned to ashes.
At the moment, Lu Liangsheng is still satisfied with the result.
He stayed in the government office for a few more days. Monk Fajing also came once, but left in a hurry. He wanted to go to other places in Heliangzhou to help the local people and find the remaining Disha Yinhuo magic array.
There are people with evil intentions everywhere, but the monk in front of him made Lu Liangsheng have nothing but respect.
Soon after, the weather became colder and heavy snow began to fall.
Lu Liangsheng secretly went outside the city once. The fat prefect was a capable official. Most of the victims were able to keep warm and had warm porridge to drink every day. Farm tools and seeds for the spring were also prepared.
It's about time to go... he thought.
On the ninth day of the first lunar month, it was snowing heavily. Lu Liangsheng declined the magistrate's invitation to stay, and quietly left from the west gate with the Taoist priest, leading the old donkey that was breathing white air and carrying the bookshelf.
Ahead is a world covered in snow.
On the city wall, the fat prefect sighed, looked at the vast expanse of white, and bowed to the sound of copper bells that were gradually fading away in the flying snowflakes.
"What a great man..."