The sun is warm, shining through the dense branches. When the mountain breeze blows, the branches and leaves sway. Looking up from below, it looks like countless stars twinkling between the gaps.
The bird perching on the branch shook its feathers, chirped twice, and swooped down. The old donkey, which was busy eating the grass, raised its head slightly, turned its head to look at the bird perching on its back, wagged its tail to drive it away, and leisurely walked towards the next handful of tender grass.
Occasionally, I look at the master of the vast space and the sleepy toad under the green shade of the old pine.
The Toad Taoist slept comfortably. He sat up, raised his front paddles high and stretched them out. After a moment, he swayed with his paddles to look at the magic circle.
“It’s going pretty well.”
He leaned over to take a look at the burning gold and stone, then walked around to check the other refining objects. Then he nodded with satisfaction and turned his head to give instructions to Hong Lian who was holding a "cattail leaf fan".
"Little ghost girl, boil the water."
After saying that, she walked to the cave with her white belly and flippers on her back, waving them: "Open!"
The stone gate fell down, almost sticking half an inch to the Toad Taoist's belly, and landed in front of his flippers. There was a loud bang, and his short coat fluttered in the wind.
The toad jumped onto the stone gate with an expressionless face, walked into the cave entrance with the clatter of its webbed feet, scanned the surroundings of the cave with its eyes, and muttered to itself.
"What should I eat..."
He stuck his butt out and quickly dug around in the "treasure mountain" with his flippers. He looked at the porcelain bottle of elixir in his flippers and threw it aside, and also left behind all kinds of classic books and magic weapons one by one.
"Strange, I remember leaving an egg there for a midnight snack."
The toad rubbed its chin, jumped onto the "treasure mountain" and searched for a while. After a long while, it sat down with its flippers on its legs, with confusion in its eyes.
“…Did you eat it before?”
Gulp…
His stomach growled, and Toad Taoist sighed. He stood up, found a few bottles, piled them all in his arms, and staggered outside.
Puff puff puff…
The small pot was boiling. Toad watched the female ghost open the lid, stir it with a long spoon, take a deep breath of the rice fragrance, and open the bottles and jars in her arms.
"Master Toad, what are you holding?"
Hong Lian looked over curiously, and saw many strange-looking things coming out of the bottle mouths. Some looked like pills, some were densely packed with small particles, and some had fruits with several horns.
"Of course it's for food, you have no idea."
The sound of boiling water churned the rice grains, and amid the steam, Toad Taoist found a small apron in the closet and tied it on, then poured a few small grains into the water, causing small splashes of water.
"This is made of hemp vines. It tastes numbing and numb. I am an expert in food..."
"Over the years, I have saved a lot of good things!"
"Mostly on food?"
"snort… "
Amid the chatter, the condiments were put into the pot one by one.
The fragrance permeates and drifts far away.
The figure sitting cross-legged in the formation frowned slightly. At this time, Lu Liangsheng was half awake from his meditation, and the silent recitation of the magic formula to draw the energy of water, fire, earth and wood was also coming to an end.
In the small world within the body, water and fire invaded each other, wood rose from the ground, intertwined and overturned, just like a nebula manifesting and spreading out in all directions, slowly rotating around the demon pill that supplied the flesh and blood with vitality, faintly evoking the appearance of lightning.
"Water and fire forge gold, earth and wood create wind... Master, you created six things from four elements, I'm afraid you must have taken a different approach."
Thinking in his heart, Lu Liangsheng knew that there was a way to cultivate the Dao, and there was a stage to make the golden elixir. Water and fire met, and yin and yang complemented each other, forming a cauldron, stealing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to make the elixir...
"Well, no wonder there is a heavenly calamity... Could it be that God is angry that someone stole his spiritual energy, so he sent down thunder to punish him?"
Of course, this was just Lu Liangsheng's joking guess. After the nebula was formed, there was no telling when the thunderstorm would suddenly come. Then I'm afraid the thunder from the sky would also come...
However, at the moment it does not directly help his cultivation and magic power. The only obvious change that Lu Liangsheng feels is the expansion of his Danhai.
The mountain wind blew through the old pine trees, and spots of light swayed on the ground along with the branches and leaves. The Toad Taoist came over with a specially made small bowl and sat opposite his disciple. He dug the bowl into his mouth while feeling the progress of the gathering of spiritual energy.
"It's about time."
There were several "pop" sounds from the four corners of the magic circle, and the refined objects broke and withered. In the center of the formation, the scholar opened his eyes, embraced his Yuan Qi with his arms, and the swaying branches around him stopped in the wind.
Know... Know...
The sound of cicadas chirping echoed in his ears. Lu Liangsheng exhaled, gathered his energy, stood up from the ground, and respectfully bowed to his master who was eating from a bowl opposite him.
Taoist Toad held the bowl, held the chopsticks and waved, "Alright, alright." He turned around, took a few more bites, and said as he walked, "Things here are almost done, it's time to leave after dinner."
"yes!"
Lu Liangsheng laughed, shook his robe, and all the dust fell off. He followed his master to the fire. Hong Lian quickly put down the bowl in her hand, went to the small pot, scooped another bowl and handed it to him.
"Sir, this is cooked by Master Toad himself. It smells delicious."
"Then you must try Master's cooking."
Taking the bowl and chopsticks handed to him, the scholar walked to his master with the bowl in hand and sat next to him. The master and the disciple made the sound of their chopsticks tapping on the bottom of the bowl and scooped rice into their mouths, chewing it in big mouthfuls.
Snore…
The two of them held their bowls up and took a sip of the soup together. They then overlapped their bowls and chopsticks and handed them to Hong Lian who came over to collect the bowls.
The matter here was settled, and after dinner, the master and disciple discussed leaving. Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey over, put the packed luggage into the bookshelf, and placed it on the old donkey's hip.
"Master?"
Turning his head to look, he saw that the Toad Taoist dragged out a bag, which made a clattering sound on the ground. There were mostly small items in the bag.
"If you have the Mixu storage magic weapon, you can move all the things away. Now you can only take some small things. Come back later to get them."
As he spoke, he tossed a dice in his hand.
"Like this, take one or two for protection."
Lu Liangsheng secured the bookshelf, his sleeve brushing against the dark scales beneath the fur without noticing, and turned back and smiled:
"Master, with this level of cultivation, doesn't he have any?"
"have."
The Toad Taoist paused, loosened the bag, and pointed to the black-striped gourd hanging on his back with his webbed feet: "But it's useless."
Well…
The scholar looked at the gourd. Hong Lian, who was standing next to him, knew what was going on and covered her mouth with her hands and laughed.
The sky was slightly tilted, and amid the sound of cicadas, Lu Liangsheng hung several magic swords on the front and back of the bookshelf. With the sound of clinking, he put several important magic books into the small compartment on the right.
Leading the excited old donkey, the scholar headed down the mountain. Looking back, he saw a short figure with webbed feet staring at the stone gate in a daze at the end of his field of vision.
"Master, let's go down the mountain!"
Hearing his disciple's words, the Toad Taoist who had been looking at the stone gate for a while pursed his lips and replied, "I'm coming."
Looking at the cave that had been closed again, it belonged to the Taoist Zixing who once roamed the world.
…I will come back.
Toad took a deep breath, turned around and was about to speak, but his expression suddenly froze. In his field of vision, old pine trees swayed gently, green grass lay low, and the sound of the wind was quiet.
Where is the old donkey? Where is the apprentice
"Wait for the teacher—"
The Toad Taoist carried the gourd on his back and rushed down the mountain road, his webbed feet clattering on the ground. He turned the bend in front of him, and then slowly stopped.
On the roadside, Lu Liangsheng and the female ghost were waiting there with a smile on their faces, like an old donkey that had grown taller, sticking out its tongue to roll up the wild flowers on the roadside.
"You are the master, so of course I have to wait for you to go together."
The scholar opened the small door of the compartment. The Toad Taoist turned his face away, snorted, climbed into the small door of the compartment, tied the rope, and looked at the small bed, small wardrobe, and recipes.
The corners of his mouth could not help but curl up into a smile and waved his webbed hands.
"Let's go."
"Master, sit tight."
The skylight fell on the mountains. The scholar riding on the donkey cast a magic spell to shrink the distance. The female ghost took off her painted skin and red clothes, returned to the scroll, and hummed a soft opera. In the small compartment, the Toad Taoist looked at the mountains in the distance.
"I thought I could get back to my former glory and go see you, but unfortunately, it can't happen..."
Before he could finish his words, an old donkey's long and excited neigh was heard, and even Lu Liangsheng was stunned for a moment.
Ahem ah hum~~~
The old donkey paddled with its hooves, and the moment its hind legs slightly bent, the mud and rocks under its hooves were pushed outwards.
Whoosh—
It left a trail of afterimage and ran straight down the mountain!
“Ahh…”
Amid the rolling mountains, the screams of Lu Liangsheng and Toad Taoist were heard one after another.