The Toad Taoist was stunned for a moment, then he supported himself on the ground and climbed up, walked to the collapsed stone door, touched the moss covering it, and his eyes became serious.
"It shouldn't be..."
His footsteps stepped on the grass and mud on the ground. In the peripheral vision of the toad's profile, Lu Liangsheng walked to the side. Looking at the tilted stone door, he could guess what had happened. Moreover, he was still in the Min Mansion in the capital, and he had heard from his master that the cave might have been broken into.
Um
The scholar suddenly lifted up his robe and squatted down. He touched the corner of the open door with his fingertips and picked off a piece of moss. The color was different from the others and was dark.
"Master, it seems that someone broke into your cave by force."
From south to north, Lu Liangsheng, who is already in his twenties, has experienced a lot differently than before. The dark color of the moss naturally shows that it is the result of blood stains that have remained for a long time.
Throwing the moss on the ground, Lu Liangsheng rubbed the dust off his fingertips and stood up. Looking at the moss around him, it was not difficult to find that there were quite a few mosses of this color, scattered in spots.
"It seems that quite a few people died."
Over there, the Toad Taoist, who had been silent for a long time, spread out his webbed feet and ran over. He stretched out his short legs and kicked them, launching himself into the air. He leaped onto the edge of the slanted stone gate and went through the gap. His white belly tightened up, and he kicked his legs a few times outside before he managed to squeeze in.
Outside, Lu Liangsheng called Yue Long from the bookshelf, cut off a nearby branch, and flicked and hooked the sleeve of his robe towards the stone door over there. The collapsed and tilted stone door moved outwards a few inches with a heavy sound, revealing a path that was enough for people to pass through.
At this time, Hong Lian also came out wearing a painted skin, with her red sleeves rolled up and she landed next to the scholar.
"Sir, where is Master Toad?"
"In."
Lu Liangsheng took out the fire starter and blew out the sparks. He moved his index finger upwards and a bean-sized fire point moved out from his fingertips. He injected magic power into the branch in his hand to light it, and walked in with Hong Lian.
The flame flickered in the dark cave, and probably because of the movement of the stone door, it stirred up a lot of dust. The area within the dim firelight was a mess, with spider webs hanging on the broken wooden frames and broken porcelain scattered all over the floor.
Hong Lian helped to clear away the dust, and the scholar stepped on the debris and shouted inside.
"Master?"
There was no response from inside.
Lu Liangsheng frowned slightly, looked at the female ghost beside him, carefully formed a spell, and at the same time a loud laugh was heard.
"Hahaha-"
Hearing the familiar laughter, the scholar quietly withdrew the magic spell from his sleeves, walked forward over the fire, and saw the Toad Taoist priest with his hands on his round waist, laughing with his head raised in front of a cushion.
Hearing the footsteps of his disciple, Toad turned his head, pulled the cushion away and threw it aside.
"These thieves even took away the bed where my master slept, but they didn't even look under the futon. Liangsheng, bring me the gourd from your waist."
Lu Liangsheng took off the gourd and handed it to Toad, then squatted beside it and shone the firelight over there. The ground exposed after the cushion was removed was no different from other places.
On the side, Taoist Toad held the gourd and moved it away, imprinting it on top.
“Watch this!”
There was no dazzling strange light like in the bizarre and fairy-tale novels, only a flash of spiritual energy at the moment when the bottom of the gourd touched the ground.
Click~
A light sound echoed in the cave, and Lu Liangsheng stood up. When the branch in his hand was about to burn his hand, a light green halo spread out in the darkness and spread to the entire cave wall.
"Is this a rearrangement of the restrictions?"
Gradually, light appeared in the scholar's field of vision. The female ghost next to him began to shiver as if she had caught a cold, and she folded her arms and slowly backed away.
"Master, Hong Lian can't stay here. She's going out first."
"Master..."
Seeing that she looked very tired, Lu Liangsheng turned his head to look at his master. The Toad Taoist stood up, snorted, and slowly turned around.
"This is a blessed land for the immortals. Only you and I can stay here. That little ghost girl should wait outside!"
After saying this, he raised his head and looked at the ceiling of the cave. Lu Liangsheng withdrew his gaze from the female ghost who retreated to the cave entrance. He felt a flash of azure blue in his peripheral vision and followed the toad's gaze to look above his head.
The pale blue halo gathered and spread out in all directions, transforming into a deep blue ripple. The dark cave ceiling was pushed open like the night sky, gradually blooming with star-like light, forming the Big Dipper constellation one by one and also illuminating this side.
The Toad Taoist slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath, as if he had returned to the feeling at his peak, and waved his hand casually.
A breeze blew up from the flat ground.
Inside the cave, the shattered bookshelves, porcelain, and even the spider webs hanging in the corner began to shake, as if time was going backwards. In the scholar's eyes, everything flew backwards, the tables and chairs were closed and stood up, and the cracks were visibly restored to their original state.
The collapsed stone door stood up with a dull sound and sealed the cave entrance with a bang.
Looking at the cave that had been restored to its original state, the Toad walked around with satisfaction on his webbed feet, touched the smooth porcelain, and turned around to look at his apprentice over there.
"Liangsheng, how is this place?"
The scholar had heard his master talk about how high he had reached before, but every time it sounded like bragging to him. Now he was truly shocked.
"Master's magic power has been restored?"
Toad was stunned for a moment, then turned around angrily: "Recovery bullshit!"
He carried his flippers and staggered over to the gourd. He stuck out his butt and dug around, then pushed something away. His short figure seemed to have stepped off the ground and disappeared from the scholar's sight.
"Liangsheng, you stay where you are and wait for your master. Don't move."
When the voice came back, Lu Liangsheng raised his head and looked around, and there was a sound caused by the vibration of the air.
“Bang, bang!” “Bang, bang.”
“Boom boom boom—”
Amid the noise of rummaging through drawers and cabinets, the figure of Toad Taoist could not be seen, but his voice could be heard chattering.
"That's not it… "
"Hey, why is this thing here?" "Put it away, there are more, there are more?"
"Found it." "Take this with you."
"Hahahaha, I knew it was still there!"
…
Could it be that this cave has another world? Lu Liangsheng didn't know much about the so-called blessed land, but when he used the Qiankun Zhengdao magic formula, he didn't feel that he was absorbing spiritual energy faster.
"Is this just where Master stores things?"
The crackling sound stopped, and Toad Taoist started to speak from nowhere: "Liangsheng, move aside!!"
There were fluctuations as the spiritual energy condensed.
The scholar's eyelids twitched and he quickly left his position. The moment he moved away, he waved his robe sleeves to cover his face, and a strong wind blew in.
Boom…
The strong wind blew up my hair, and then the sounds of various things bumping into and squeezing each other followed. When something touched the tip of my shoe, the huge noise stopped.
Lu Liangsheng let down his wide sleeves, and what came into view were piles of books, vials of elixirs, swords, spears, abacus, dice, and magic wands... which occasionally slid down to the scholar's feet.
Even though he was gentle and calm, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.
"So many... Master, where did you get them? Weren't they stolen?"
Crash...
On the hill, Toad Taoist pushed aside several things that looked like magic weapons and elixir bottles, held a bead slightly larger than his head, quickly drilled out, jumped down with a bang, and waved his flippers nonchalantly.
"How can good things be kept together? These things are all yours!"
After saying that, he sat down cross-legged, looked at the beads held in his webbed hands and took a deep sniff.
"My cultivation as a teacher depends entirely on it."