Light... Lantern
How could there be two lanterns falling from the sky in such a desolate mountain? Lu Liangsheng's face turned pale. He took a half step back holding the "Qing Huai Bugeng". From the corner of his eye, his master who had entered the package didn't seem to have any intention of coming out to help.
As he stepped back, he stepped on a dry branch, which broke with a crisp sound. The next moment, two lanterns outside approached, and there was a loud bang. The earthen wall bulged inward, and mud and window frames flew backwards. The crooked roof and thatch fell down.
The air was filled with smoke and dust. Lu Liangsheng had no time to be afraid. He swept away the tufts of straw on his body in the mess. A sharp and hoarse voice was heard outside.
"Toad... come out quickly, I know you are hiding here."
The scarlet eyes swam in the dust, and the two pointed whiskers poked around in the room and swayed. When it saw the young man standing alone in the room, its long body slid forward and its mouthparts closed and collided.
"Hmm... a strange young man, but after eating the toad, he will eat you. Don't run around. It's dark at night and the mountain road is difficult to walk on."
The dust settled, and a huge red-headed centipede head broke through the earth wall and poked its head in. A faint black gas appeared and disappeared around it. Its tentacles were like spears in the hands of soldiers, waving across another earth wall and tearing a deep ravine. The air waves rolled, and the packages in the corner of the wall were flipped over. The bag opened, and a curled up toad was thrown out.
"Master—"
Lu Liangsheng was panicked. If it was a jackal, a tiger or a leopard, he would have been mentally prepared, but the monsters were only in the stories told by the older generation, and they were right in front of him alive. Considering his age, he was already calm as he didn't pee his pants in fear.
Beside the wall, Taoist Zixing sat up, his eyes moving back and forth between the centipede monster and the young boy, then he climbed up.
"Liangsheng, hold it back."
"How...how to delay?"
"Use your pen to write the words of that day—"
The centipede looked over and suddenly jumped out, with its entire body half inside. The earth wall that had not yet completely collapsed was hit and collapsed, and the beams of the house were shaken off.
Lu Liangsheng quickly took out a pen from his waist and started writing on the back of the book. Behind him, Taoist Zixing opened his frog mouth and stood up excitedly.
… Let that little demon eat you, and I will kill the little demon to avenge you, how wonderful!
In an instant, the toad ran and jumped high, its pimples turned purple and smoke gathered from its mouth.
“Master!”
Suddenly, Lu Liangsheng's voice sounded, and the boy turned around: "No ink—"
A moment.
The beam at one end of the house fell down and hit the toad that had jumped into the air on the back. With a scream of "Gua...", the purple smoke brewing in its mouth was dispersed, and it was hit forward by the force of the falling beam.
It flew over the boy's head and collided with the red-headed centipede that was biting towards it, and stuck to the centipede's forehead.
Taoist Zixing raised his head and squeezed out a voice with difficulty.
"That woman's..."
Boom!
The wooden beams fell down, and the entire roof was dragged together and collapsed in the night.
A little further away, Hui Chuan and the other eight rushed out of the forest and saw the collapsed hut. Their hearts were in their throats, "Liangsheng, please don't get into trouble..."
The next moment, the collapsed ruins pushed open the gap with a bang, and the dry grass and broken wood were lifted up to the night sky. The long shadow with the lower body exposed raised the upper half of the body straight up.
"Little Toad, you insult me!!"
A shrill roar broke out, and the toad that was sticking to its head was thrown up with its four legs stretched out, then fell back and landed on a half-broken earth wall with a bang, almost having its intestines sprayed out.
hiss~~
hiss~~
The crawling long shadow twisted, and its densely packed long legs slowly stepped across the ground. It stood up, hissed, and waved its long whiskers towards the toad lying on it.
"It's my bad luck to fall into the hands of a little demon like you today." Taoist Zixing propped up his body, but was unable to move. The fall he just had was quite heavy.
The long shadow swayed and moved left and right, and two big red eyes looked around carefully.
"You have little magical power, but you can speak... How come you, a toad, are also weird..."
As they were talking, sparks appeared under the collapsed ruins, igniting the thatch. Flames suddenly appeared and the night wind blew, illuminating the surrounding scene.
A dark red centipede with a long body and a red head, its shell twisting and turning in rings, its long whiskers and legs baring their fangs and claws in the firelight.
On the other side, eight people far away saw the full appearance of the red-headed centipede, and they were trembling all over. The weapons in their hands fell to the ground with a snap, and they dared not move.
The flames spread, illuminating the long body as it slowly crawled, staring at the toad below for a while, with its mouth open.
"If I wasn't about to shed my skin, I'm sure you, a toad, would want to..."
Before the rest of the words were uttered, the burning hut, the interlaced crossbeams and thatch that had covered it slid down and were pushed aside. A figure stood up, with a brush in his hand glowing, and he wrote stroke by stroke in the air.
The word "Huang" appeared and flashed away. The red-headed centipede, which was about to bite the toad, turned its head and its erected body shook slightly as if it was hit by something.
Over there, Lu Liangsheng held the pen in his hand without stopping. After the word "Huang", it was "Xia Guang Qi Qian Zai", until the last few big characters "Shen Wei Zhen Qian Kun" were completed in one go.
In the firelight, the big centipede shrank its head and turned its head instinctively. There were still sounds coming from its tentacles, and small pieces separated from them.
"This is... the power of incense... and wishes."
The red-headed centipede was not hurt much and was about to rush towards the figure in the ruins, but suddenly it stopped motionless, looking at the small section of its tentacle, staring at the young man with its scarlet eyes for a while.
There was a faint sound similar to laughter, and the tall body danced and turned.
"I understand... I understand... Why have I been stuck in spiritual communication for so long and have made so little progress? So that's why... Wishes and incense... Hehe."
The laughter echoed, and the red-headed centipede looked towards Lu Liangsheng and nodded his head slowly.
"You gave me this opportunity unintentionally, so I am grateful for it. I will let this toad go today and leave early!"
Lu Liangsheng's feet were so thick that his thumbs were digging into the mud. He gave a stiff smile, returned the greeting with the pen, and tried to keep his tone calm.
"We'll leave early tomorrow morning."
The red-headed centipede seemed to be in a hurry to do something. It didn't say much. Green smoke gradually rose, and it quickly rushed into the forest with its long body.
"Did you see that just now?"
Lu Pan opened his mouth but couldn't close it. The seven big men around him nodded in amazement. The tall and thin man squeezed out a cry of disbelief.
"That big centipede seemed to kowtow to Liang Sheng..."
The night wind was blowing in varying degrees. Beside the burning hut, the toad struggled to get up and looked at the approaching boy with a complicated expression.
"You don't even have much Taoism, why did you save me?"
Lu Liangsheng's face turned pale and beads of sweat covered his face. He forced a small smile.
"You said you wanted me to hold it back... Besides, you are my master, I can't just ignore you."
As he said this, a warm liquid flowed out of his nostrils. Lu Liangsheng touched it and saw a bright red on his fingertips. He shook it a few times and turned to look at his master, but his eyes rolled back and he fell backwards with a bang.
"Liangsheng—"
Taoist Zixing was about to go over to take a look, but a series of footsteps came running towards them. Lu Pan saw a figure fall in the firelight and knew it was Lu Liangsheng. He moved faster than the other seven people, picked up the boy on the ground, turned around and said to his companions who had caught up with him, "We can't stay here anymore. Let's quickly see if there is anything else and collect it. We will go to the county town tonight."
The seven people, who were already terrified, couldn't wait to leave after hearing these words. They quickly put out the fire, searched for their luggage in the ruins, and patrolled the ground to see if there was anything they had missed. Someone found something that looked like a spike, and seven or eight pages of "Qing Huai Bugeng" that had fallen to the ground were burned.
Without caring about the pain, Lu Pan stuffed the boys into Lu Liangsheng's bag, put them on the old donkey's back, and led them to the road below.
Only when they reached the flat ground did the eight people feel at ease. They looked back at the hazy mountains, then turned back, probably not coming back again.
It was the second half of the night, and we were halfway through the fifteen miles. The sky was gradually getting brighter, and there were more pedestrians and vendors on the road.