The sound of the wind gradually died down, and the pine branches that had been swaying wildly stopped, swaying gently and hanging down with the remaining strength.
Lu Liangsheng lowered his sleeves to cover his face and looked over there in surprise.
"Master?"
The old man in front of the stone gate strode over with his hands behind his back and a round belly. He looked at his apprentice with satisfaction and a stern look on his round face.
"Haha... it's you, Master!"
The Toad Taoist flicked his sleeves, and stone tables and stone benches appeared around the scholar. The wine jug on the table rose up by itself, and the wine poured out into the white jade cup.
On the side, Lu Liangsheng could naturally feel the magic flowing in the air, but this kind of control over the magic power was rare among the cultivators he had seen. He was afraid that even the female Pu Du Ci Hang in the imperial city could hardly compare to her.
"Ha ha!"
The Toad Taoist smiled and sat on a stone bench. He flicked the wine glass and the glass slowly floated in front of the scholar. "What are you still standing there for? Sit down and drink with me."
On the other side, Lu Liangsheng did not hesitate, reached out to take the half-empty cup and took a small sip.
The aroma of the wine was rich and spicy, and a feeling of heat surged up in the stomach. This was not an illusion at all... When the scholar raised his eyes and looked at his master in surprise, the Toad Taoist stroked his beard and laughed.
"There are numerous arts and methods, and they are all interconnected. This wine pot was created by Master's magic power, but the wine was taken from the cave where the fine wine is stored. As the saying goes, cultivation will not go far if you are too rigid."
How could Lu Liangsheng not hear the intention of teaching? He cultivated his senses to go to the cave, pulled the wine jar placed in the cave, and touched the cup with his fingertips. The half cup of wine slowly filled up. However, he was unpracticed after all, and the water overflowed the rim of the cup and spilled onto the ground.
"Haha! Good disciple, you get it right away. Even though you are not very experienced, you just need to work harder in the future."
After taking a sip of wine, the Toad Taoist put down the white jade cup and waved his hand towards the campfire. The dim flames became brighter and the originally silent night seemed to have turned into dusk. In the distance, there were cranes singing and flying by with their wings spread.
The red glow shines in, and under an old pine tree, an old man and a young boy are enveloped in the sunset.
"Master, have you fully recovered from your injuries?" The scholar asked after clinking the rim of his cup with the Toad Taoist and taking a sip.
The ease with which Lu Liangsheng could wield his magical powers made him feel as if he had returned to his prime as an old man. If so, he could return to Southern Chen tomorrow.
“… Only recovered a little.”
The Toad Taoist stroked his long beard and shook his round head, as if he could see what his disciple was thinking. He smiled and said, "But it's enough to deal with that little centipede."
Immediately, he stood up and walked away with his hands behind his back, his eyes narrowed and a cold light flashed in them.
"Hmph, turning into a dragon? In two days, I will take you back on a cloud and go directly to the Chen Dynasty Palace. Watch how I crush it to death with one hand and extract its shell!"
"Two days later?"
Hearing his disciple's doubts, Toad Taoist nodded and stroked his beard, then looked at the stone gate. A layer of purple smoke appeared on his face, which was facing away from his disciple.
"Yes, in the next two days, I will go find the thief who stole the treasures from my mansion. How can I not take revenge for such a vengeance?!"
The scholar frowned and looked at his master's back, feeling a murderous intent in the air.
"Master, do you know who it is?"
"Humph, my master's cave has been restored, so how could I not remember the person who broke in that day?"
The Toad Taoist restrained the purple smoke and shifted his gaze back to Lu Liangsheng.
"The group of people you met in Heliangzhou are... They are led by a man. Master, I remember that when Master was surrounded and injured, a middle-aged Taoist saved him. I returned the favor and passed on some things to him. Now that I think about it, this man used the things Master gave him to find this place and obtained the magical pills and some magic books that Master left outside."
These words directly hit the nail on the head for He Liangzhou, and some of Lu Liangsheng's doubts were explained.
"From what happened in He Liangzhou, did the Fire Prayer Sect actually get its magic from Master?"
The wind blew gently, ruffling his long snow-white beard. The fat old man turned around to look at his apprentice.
"Of course..."
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Toad Taoist's round face was suddenly stunned, and he changed the subject: "What's going on?!" He suddenly touched his stomach, and it started to rumble.
Over there, Lu Liangsheng felt that the stone bench he was sitting on became solid and empty, and he quickly stood up. He saw smoke rising around Toad Taoist and the sunset scenery began to shake.
"Master?"
The next moment, smoke exploded and spread all around. The setting sun, stone benches and tables, and wine jugs turned into shattered starlight.
The scholar's vision suddenly went dark, and he was back in the night. The intermittent chirping of insects among the weeds came into his ears again. The campfire was swaying, and the small pot was burning, making a popping sound.
Lu Liangsheng walked quickly towards the diffuse smoke, and used his magic power to clear the mist and dust, revealing a huge toad on the ground. The toad stared with its shiny eyes, stretched its two short legs and lowered its head in thought. When it saw the scholar looking at him, it put its webbed hands behind its back and passed by the scholar's knees with a snap.
"What you just said about crushing the centipede monster to death doesn't count."
The previous Toad Taoist is back again.
…
The night was quiet. Standing on the top of the mountain, the stars in the sky seemed to be right in front of him. Lu Liangsheng yawned and lay beside the fire, looking at the night behind the gaps between the pine branches, and occasionally glancing at the stone gate.
"Master, why did you change back again?"
Hong Lian was combing her long hair and turned her face to the side.
"This is better, Master Toad. His aura was so scary before. I feel like I'm about to be wiped out before I even see him."
Inside the cave, the faint light illuminated a short, slightly bent figure waving his flippers and smashing things on the ground, making a series of crackling sounds.
"What's wrong?" "That woman... I've already used the Dragon Pearl, why is it still useless?"
"You obviously have magical powers... Why can't you even maintain your human form for long?"
"And he embarrassed himself in front of his apprentice... Damn it!!!"
After a while, the Toad Taoist sat down on the ground, threw the small map to the ground dejectedly, kicked away, propped up his chin, looked at the messy "treasure mountain" and sighed.
"Fortunately, I can feel that the magic power is still there... I will find out the problem later."
He muttered something, got up from the ground, picked out some things from the pile of magic tools and elixirs, pounded them in his arms, carried them outside, and piled them next to the fire.
Lu Liangsheng sat up and watched his master run back and forth several times, moving a lot of strange things, red stones that looked like they were on fire, bottles that emitted cold air, and rootless trees that bloomed forever...
His attempts to help were rejected, and then Toad Taoist used something to draw a talisman array in the open space.
"Liangsheng, sit in the center of the formation."
Lu Liangsheng recalled a familiar scene, but this time he did not hesitate. He left the range of the campfire, walked to the talisman formation on the ground, and sat down cross-legged in the middle.
In the dim light of the fire and the shadow of the night, Toad Taoist kept placing the things he had moved to the corners of the formation.
"I will help you advance to the Golden Core Stage. As for whether you can forge a Golden Core and survive the thunder tribulation in the future, it depends on your own luck."
The short figure wiped the sweat from his face and spoke softly.
…
The stars stretch out, under the same night sky, beside the rushing river, in the huge city called Chang'an.
In a certain mansion, in the window frame reflecting the firelight, someone was unfolding a letter from a distant friend under the light.
"Brother Chongwen, who do you recommend? Lu Liangsheng, a scholar from the Southern Chen Dynasty..."