Looking at the hanging corpse, Lu Liangsheng could not hold on any longer and half-knelt down with the help of Yuelong. When he was half conscious, he felt the old donkey licking his face with his tongue, then he moved his mouth and nose towards him and uttered two grunts.
A little further away, Toad Taoist spread his webbed feet and ran over breathlessly. Hong Lian floated to the scholar's side first.
"Young Master!"
"Liangsheng!"
The Taoist Toad stretched out his webbed feet to feel his disciple's pulse. He ran to the old donkey's lower abdomen, jumped a little, and tried to hook the bookshelf, but couldn't. He was so angry that he kicked the donkey's leg with his webbed feet.
"Get down on your knees you old ass!"
"Master Toad, let me do it!"
Hong Lian waved her red sleeves, threw the bookshelf to the ground, slammed open the small door of the compartment, and the black-patterned gourd rolled out.
"Is this it?"
Pulling open the stopper of the gourd, Toad Taoist poured out the pills he had brought out of the cave, ran over, stood on the thighs of his half-kneeling disciple, pried open his mouth, stuffed a pill in, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, I didn't forget these pills before I left."
cough-
The half-awake and half-conscious scholar coughed twice, slowly opened his eyes, forced a smile towards his worried master and Hong Lian, propped himself up from the ground by grasping the hilt of the sword, and staggered back to look at the treasure house.
After a moment's silence, he felt that his magic power had been restored a little after taking the elixir, and looked down at Toad Taoist.
"Master... How far is the nearest county town from here?"
Taoist Toad pondered for a moment.
"More than two hundred miles... What do you want to do?"
After taking a few deep breaths, Lu Liangsheng took two steps with difficulty, took out the scroll from the bookshelf, and touched his body. Then he remembered that the wolf-hair brush had been broken a long time ago, so he frowned, bit his fingertips hard, and painted a deep red on the blank scroll.
"There are still many women and children in that wooden building. We can't accommodate them. We can only notify the government and ask them to come and accommodate them and clean up the mess..."
A long red column was drawn by his fingertips, and Lu Liangsheng tilted his head to look at Hong Lian.
"Also, we can't take away the things of Ming Zun, nor can we destroy them, so we should throw them all over the cliff. Don't let the officials who come to take them away, otherwise they will be killed."
Hong Lian looked at the weak Lu Liangsheng, pursed her lips and nodded, then floated over to the treasure house. The cold wind dissipated, and the scholar released his fingers on the painting and swallowed his saliva.
"Law… "
Lu Liangsheng's fingers trembled as he formed a spell. Suddenly, a frog's webbed feet stretched out to block his hand. The Toad Taoist sighed, turned around and walked towards the scroll.
"Master..."
"Stay still, and let me do it, even though I can only provide a few breaths of magic power."
As he spoke, he spread out his flippers and pressed them against the scroll.
Two scarlet spots lit up in the Taoist Toad's eyes, and his magic power flowed. The red pillars drawn in blood on the scroll suddenly glowed and turned into substance.
A red light shot up into the sky.
…
It was already late at night in Huai'en County, 220 miles away from Yingshi Mountain. The streets were deserted, and the sound of night watchmen's drums could be heard from time to time.
"On summer nights, mosquitoes bite. Keep doors and windows closed to prevent fires."
Bang bang…
“… Beware of thieves and the Wang next door.”
A thin mist rose, and the night watchman who was staggering over with a lantern in his hand suddenly stopped talking. Amid the occasional barking of dogs, he raised his head to look at the night sky above the street. A thin red column in his eyes extended to the sky, and the next second, the red light reflected on his face.
“What…what…what is this?!”
He shouted, turned around and ran. The red light was still rising from the foothills in the distance. The red light almost illuminated the endless mountains and pushed towards the city.
In a moment, the entire county was enveloped.
The sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking could be heard throughout the city. The sleeping people were awakened, rubbing their eyes. In a daze, they saw the red light shining in through the window frames from outside. They quickly put on their shoes, put on a single piece of clothing, and opened the window.
Soon, more and more people walked out of the courtyard and came to the street, staring in amazement at the red beam of light that seemed to connect the sky and the earth.
"The gods have appeared!!" "Could it be a monster?"
"Oh, that's enough to scare someone to death..."
At the county government office, the county magistrate was awakened by his servants. Seeing the red light filling the courtyard, he quickly put on his clothes and ran out, just as he was sending people to investigate in the city.
A majestic voice seemed to come from the red light.
"Evil people are causing trouble in Yingshi Mountain, kidnapping women and children..."
The county magistrate clenched his sleeves, cried out "ouch" and knelt down in the light. The common people who were leaving the city and the timid figures behind the window frames knelt down on the ground one after another when they heard the majestic legal voice.
"… The main culprit here has been eliminated. The women and children are under the jurisdiction of your human government. Come and take them away and settle them!"
The moment the Dharma sound fell, the red light quickly shrank back into the mountain amidst the astonished gazes.
…
The red Dharma light retracted into the scroll and calmed down.
"Something like showing off in front of others... why do I feel so comfortable?"
The Toad Taoist put away the scroll, put it behind his back, and smacked his lips as he savored the feeling of being worshipped just now.
"Why didn't I realize this before..."
Behind him, Lu Liangsheng stood up shakily, watching the person floating in and out, throwing things from the wooden building over the wall and onto the cliff, he whispered:
"Master...it's time for us to leave too."
"Well, let's go, it's a pity that none of my things are here."
The toad sighed and was picked up by Lu Liangsheng and put into the compartment of the bookshelf. He then placed the bookshelf on the donkey's back, looked at the pair of bells on the ground, hesitated for a moment, then picked them up, replaced the rusty copper bells, tied them around the old donkey's neck, and gently patted the donkey's head.
"It's useless anyway, so just consider it as a reward for the hoof you gave me."
Hum-ah-hum-ah.
The old donkey tilted its head and nudged its owner's palm, as if to express its happiness.
"Let's go."
Lu Liangsheng sat weakly on its back, almost lying on it, and casually pulled the reins with his hands. The old donkey swung its bald tail and walked slowly through the gate, walked to the mountain path, smelled the mountain air, and started to trot briskly with its hooves.
The bookshelf creaked and shook.
The Toad Taoist propped himself up against the compartment with his webbed feet and yelled out, "Slow down, you old donkey!"
Amid the jingling sound of the neck bells, Lu Liangsheng straightened up and tilted his head slightly to look left and right. The diffuse magic mist had dissipated by now, and in the moonlight, he discovered that one person was missing.
"Master, Hong Lian didn't catch up?" he asked weakly, and tried to turn his body to look at the stele gate that was getting farther and farther away behind him.
The small door of the compartment was pushed open, and Toad Taoist was busy tying the rope while sticking his head out to look out.
“Isn’t that so!”
Lu Liangsheng turned around and saw red sleeves fluttering in the night behind him. It was indeed Nie Honglian. Her face was filled with joy, and she seemed to have brought something back with her on her shoulders.
"… What did Hong Lian resist that made her so happy?"
The scholar pulled the reins and asked the old donkey to stop. When Hong Lian came over, a black wooden box fell to the ground with a bang. A yellow talisman was pasted on the seal, and the method was somewhat similar to those pottery jars.
However, the fluctuations of magical power coming from the black wooden box were blocked by the talisman paper.
"Could it be the magic weapon of that Ming Zun?"
Lu Liang gave birth to a donkey. He went over and touched the black wooden box, then immediately withdrew his finger and frowned.
"Hiss... Such a high level of cultivation."
Hong Lian floated back and forth in the air and nodded: "I brought it out because I saw that it has a strong magical power. Maybe it has something you can use."
The small door of the bookshelf compartment over there was pushed open, and the Toad Taoist came down dragging a rope, staggering towards us with his flippers on his back.
"Let the master take a look."
The frog's webbed feet directly grabbed the yellow talisman, pulled it off with a hiss, and threw it aside.
The black wooden box popped open by itself, revealing a dark wooden branch lying inside, with tiny roots densely growing at the bottom.
"Master, did you figure out what it is?"
Without waiting to answer his disciple, the Toad Taoist held the branch in his webbed hands, examined it carefully, and squinted his eyes.
"A spiritual root that has been cultivated for thousands of years..."
Then, he fell violently to the ground and rolled half a foot away. Lu Liangsheng and Nie Honglian looked over in surprise.
"Master, what are you doing..."
The next second, a female voice of "Ouch..." interrupted the scholar's words. Over there, a woman in a black gauze skirt, with her hair in a high bun and a pair of precious hairpins, covered her forehead and was knocked unconscious by the fall.
The Toad Taoist spoke in a majestic voice and waved his webbed feet.
"Liangsheng, tie her up!"