The next morning, Lu Liangsheng, who had just woken up, was awakened by a loud noise outside. The Toad Taoist beside him also opened his eyes, took off the quilt, and just as he stood up, he was suddenly pushed by his apprentice. He hung on the edge of the bed on his webbed feet, paddling quickly in the air with his webbed feet, but still fell straight under the bed with a snap.
Lu Liangsheng put on his shoes and then he saw the big toad lying on the ground.
"Master, what are you doing in such a hurry?"
"Master, I have to pee urgently. Can't I?!" The Toad Taoist raised his toad face and said. The disciple had already stood up and walked to open the door. Amid the crisp bird calls, two villagers who were chopping wood were standing there, pointing at the hut and talking.
"Where did this house come from..."
"Yeah, there was none when we went up the mountain yesterday."
At this moment, when they saw the door open and a figure in green and white robe walked out, their nervousness suddenly disappeared and they smiled on their rough faces.
"It's Liangsheng. You were away from home. When did you come back?"
"I rushed back last night."
Lu Liangsheng went out and took the water bag and poured it on his palms, then rubbed it on his face, and replied with a smile: "... When I came back, the house was not built yet, so I built a straw hut here to sleep for the night."
After chatting with the two of them for a while, he called the donkey under the old pine tree over, left the luggage there for the time being, and went down the mountain to check on his home.
"Master, are you not going down the mountain?"
"No, I will sleep a little longer and then take a walk in the mountains."
The Toad Taoist was lying in bed when he heard the sound of his neck bell fading away. He suddenly opened his eyes, jumped off the bed, ran to the bookshelf, picked up the three porcelain bottles he brought out from the cave in Qishan, spread out his webbed feet and ran excitedly to the forest opposite, stepping on the thick fallen leaves and running back to the original cave with his tongue wagging.
"open!"
With the little remaining magic power he had, the boulder slowly moved open a gap with a heavy muffled sound. The Toad Taoist threw the porcelain bottle in first, looked outside, then pulled in his belly and squeezed in. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he raised his flippers and waved them, then hurriedly closed the boulder again with a bang.
Birds flew across the white clouds and landed in the mountain village below. Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey back home. Lu Pan and eight other people went back and forth with bare chests to help carry soil and rocks. Wang Banxia sat on a stone bench, calculating Feng Shui with his fingers, observing the direction of the door and the future position of the wooden beams. Three young men carried wood and went around in circles under his command...
Lu Laoshi was laying the wall with a brick knife, and his wife Li Jinhua cooked a big pot of breakfast and invited all the villagers who helped with the work to come and eat. The several large tables were packed.
Seeing her son coming back, Li Jinhua hurriedly scooped a bowl and asked Xiaoxian to take it over. Lu Xiaoxian, who was already a grown-up girl, was more reserved than before. When she saw her brother, she spoke softly and slowly.
"Brother, when did you come back? Here, mother just served it."
"Last night, seeing that there was no place to sleep at home, I went to the mountains to spend the night."
Lu Liangsheng took the bowl and took a sip, then glanced around. The old white hen was clucking and flying around, and was also tilting her head to look around at the scholar's feet.
"Where's Old Sun?"
"He ran away. A few days ago, he suddenly said that he had some insights and wanted to go out and explore."
This Old Sun, I asked him to help look after the house, and he just left without saying anything. He also wanted to be my brother-in-law. I'm afraid I'll have to think about this in the future.
At this time, Wang Banxia directed the three young men into the house, and hurriedly stood up and followed Lu Liangsheng's voice to greet him. Yuwen Tuo, Li Suian, and Qu Yuanfeng, who knew they had been tricked, dropped the wood, ran out, pushed the old man aside, and stood in front of Lu Liangsheng, bowing.
"Greetings, Master!"
After building the house for several days, the three men's hands were covered with calluses, which showed that they were not lazy. After breakfast, Lu Liangsheng also went to help, and they worked until dark, then they remembered their master who was still on the mountain.
"I must be starving..."
After getting dinner, they returned to the west hillside from the village. The Toad Taoist lay on the bed, his gray belly contracting and his eyelids half closed. He saw his disciple push the door open and put the food on the table. He immediately got up, jumped a few times, hooked onto the edge of the table, and kicked his short legs a few times underneath. It was Lu Liangsheng who reached out and pushed him that allowed him to climb up. He held the exquisite little bowl in his arms, took a bite of the hot food, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"You almost starved me to death!"
"I almost forgot about building a house. I promise I won't do that next time."
Lu Liangsheng smiled, took out several books of Dharma selected from the cave in Qishan and opened them, then sat down next to the Toad Taoist. Hong Lian moved the candle and leaned over curiously.
"Sir, do you want to learn the above as well?"
"You don't have to learn it, but at least you have to understand how to practice it."
With the help of the lamp, Lu Liangsheng swept his eyes over each word and memorized the content. If he wanted to teach it to Yuwen Tuo and the others, he had to master the content himself, otherwise how could he teach
Of course, it is impossible to master several books of spells at once. I probably planned to learn by myself and teach them at the same time. I can't just throw the books to the three of them and let them read them by themselves.
Studying other sects' methods is different from studying academic subjects, but they also have something in common, that is, enlightenment. Lu Liangsheng was able to pass the examination and become a tribute student, so he naturally has his own way of studying texts. For example, if there are difficult parts in "Indigo Thunder Fire", he would write annotations and analyze them thoroughly.
Afterwards, he asked Hong Lian, who was singing beside him, to help grind the ink. The scholar took the wolf hair brush, dipped it in the ink, spread out a piece of white paper and started writing.
The Toad Taoist came over with a bowl in his hand, clacking on his flippers. He glanced at the paper, wrote a few words with the tip of his pen moving quickly, then stretched out his legs and sat down holding the bowl.
"What are you doing?"
“Group together the annotations.”
The tip of the writing pen paused for a moment. In the light, Lu Liangsheng raised his head, rubbed his cheeks, and looked at the densely written content on the paper.
"List all the things you need, annotate them, and then you can look them up on your own when you have a certain foundation."
As he spoke, he picked up a few other academic books and waved them in his hands.
"But before that, they still have to study saint studies for a period of time."
In his hands, the books were spread out, including "Zhi De", "Zuo Lun", and "Jing Yan". Seeing the titles on them, the Toad Taoist quickly turned around with the bowl in his arms, which made him feel a little uncomfortable all over.
"It's a pity that the three young men called me their master. I wonder what they have become after being taught by you..."
Lu Liangsheng smiled but said nothing. He picked up the pen again and started to write notes while flipping through "Indigo Thunder God Fire" and "Sword Controlling Technique". He also extracted the wind, forest, fire and mountain that he had comprehended from the Five Elements Taoism from the Yuelong Sword he had refined, and formed a magic array that could be controlled by humans.
'This should be suitable for Qu Yuanfeng who wants to be a general.'
The night is hazy, and with the rustling sound of old pine branches and leaves, the sea of clouds rises and falls on the cliff behind the warm yellow cottage, crossing the winding mountains, stretching northward, passing through cities with thousands of lights, and the surging rivers.
Small boats with lights on and cavalry patrolled along the river bank. In the brightly lit water fort in the distance, a copper basin was set up and a bonfire was burning. The generals lined up on both sides quietly looked up at the commander-in-chief who was reading a letter with his head down.
Yang Su was wearing armor, holding a golden sword and sitting on a tiger-skin chair. The letter in his hand was sent from Chang'an. It was written by his cousin, the current emperor.
"Master, what did His Majesty say?!"
On the lower left side, the first general stood up. He had a long mustache and a short beard, and was of sturdy build. When he stood up, he was like a small mountain, blocking the view of the people behind him.
"But His Majesty wants us to start the war as soon as possible?!"
Above, Yang Su gently put down the letter, looked at the general, stroked his beard and smiled: "My brother privately ordered that General Han do not have to worry, you are the vanguard of this battle, no one can take you away!"
He paused and glanced at the generals present.
"Have you ever heard of a man named Lu Liangsheng?!"