"The food is served. Come and move aside. Watch out for splashes on your clothes!"
There were more than a dozen aunts and uncles serving the dishes, shuttling back and forth between the tables, serving the main dishes one after another.
"This is pot-roasted carp, steamed lamb, and red-boiled pork intestines... Dazhu, the chef today, uses the spoon well, and the dishes all taste good."
At the table, Li Jinhua gave a piece of meat to Mingyue, who was dangling her legs on a low stool and gently shaking them, and nudged her son beside her with her elbow.
"What are you looking at? Hurry up and eat."
“Yeah, I’m eating.”
Lu Liangsheng responded with a smile and casually took a few bites of the food. The festive atmosphere in the room made his cultivation level rise, which was a bit strange because the "Righteous Heaven and Earth" method he practiced did not absorb the worldly atmosphere in this way.
etc…
Could it be related to enlightenment through calligraphy and painting? He had thought about practicing all three at the same time before, cultivating Haoran through books, replacing the truth with illusion through paintings, and improving cultivation through the Righteous Path of Heaven and Earth. Now, perhaps the Righteous Path of Heaven and Earth method was influenced by the first two...
Thinking of this, Lu Liangsheng suddenly had a vague understanding, just like a layer of paper looking out the window, he could vaguely see the outline.
There were two other families of villagers at the table. They were in high spirits and the man was sweating profusely. He simply took off his clothes and ate meat with the others with his bare chest.
One of them put down his wine glass and took off his clothes.
“… The merchant who often sells fish to me passed by our village a few days ago. He drank with me at my house and talked about the outside world. Hey, you don’t know, there are fights along the rivers!”
The people in the mountains are isolated from the outside world and basically rely on the merchants traveling back and forth from the outside to bring them news from the outside world. If they hear something, they will repeat it four or five times and tell it out loud without getting tired of it.
We had heard about the war half a month ago, and as soon as this man opened his mouth, even the people at the neighboring table came over with their bowls in hand, urging him to speak quickly.
"Don't stop. Did Manager Wang tell you this? His words are somewhat reliable."
The man saw Lu Liangsheng looking at him, and with a smile on his face he looked around at the people around him, then excitedly gripped his chopsticks and continued talking at the top of his voice.
"Isn't that some dynasty? I heard that they have broken through the river and the army is stationed on the shore. Judging from the situation, they may be able to capture the capital of the Chen Dynasty in the first month of the year."
The other man who was drinking with him picked up the wine jar and filled it for him.
"It's not that easy to break into the capital. I heard that the wall of the capital is much higher than our Fushui County, at least ten feet high. How can that person climb up?!"
"I heard people brag, but the city wall is not that high."
"It's none of our business. It doesn't matter if it's broken. As long as we have enough food and clothing and can live our hard life, we don't care who becomes the emperor."
"That's right, that's right. Today is Erniu's big day. Why are you talking about this? Come on, keep drinking!"
There were few weddings in the village during this period, so a group of people took advantage of the lively atmosphere to eat and drink to their heart's content.
The sun was slanting at noon. After eating for half an hour, Lu Liangsheng felt that he was almost done. He said hello to his mother, told the three young men to be polite, and left. He was holding a bowl of corn rice with red boiled soup on it. More than ten slices of fat, mutton, and fish with bones removed were piled on top. Just looking at it made one's mouth water.
When he returned to Mount Qixia, there was no sign of Toad Taoist in the thatched cottage. In the past, he would have sat at the foot of the bed early in the morning waiting for food to be served.
“That’s strange.”
Lu Liangsheng put the food on the table and said, "Hong Lian, have you seen where my master went?"
On the wall covered with withered vines, a graceful figure floated out from the hanging scroll, then landed on the ground and walked towards them.
"Master Toad went out mysteriously, carrying the gourd on his back. When we asked him, he refused to tell us."
"Hmm... maybe he got impatient and went out for a walk."
Lu Liangsheng looked at the steaming rice on the table, sighed, pushed it aside, and waited for his master to come back and heat it up for him. Then he took out the book and continued to flip through and organize the things he wanted to teach the three teenagers.
"Being a teacher... is not easy."
As for the war stories he heard during the banquet, they were quickly forgotten in the sea of words.
Outside the half-open window, the sun was shining brightly. The withered and yellow woods were swaying slightly at the foot of the mountain. The mottled light extended upwards between the woods. Behind a huge rock, there was a cave lit with fire. The Toad Taoist mentioned above crushed pills one by one and scattered them at the four corners of the magic circle drawn on the ground.
Afterwards, he sat cross-legged on the side, with his webbed feet pressing his knees, his eyes fixed on the black-striped gourd in the middle of the formation, absorbing the elixir powder. Then he stood up, exhaled, and wiped the sweat off his face.
"Liangsheng should be back by now, hurry back... I still have some delicious braised pork!"
Slurp!
He swallowed his saliva, put the gourd back on his back, turned around and walked towards the boulder, waving his flippers lightly.
The boulder stood there motionless.
The Toad Taoist spread his webbed feet and took a look. Feeling that there was only a trace of magic power still floating in his body, he immediately slapped his forehead.
“… I was repairing the gourd and forgot to save my mana to open the door… Damn it!!”
The frog's webbed feet hung down and were placed on its back. It stared at the boulder with a serious expression, then slowly raised its face, with its big eyes half-closed.
"It seems that I can only use another method, although it is a bit embarrassing..."
The half-closed toad eyes suddenly opened wide, and the two short legs bent and tensed. The next moment, it kicked hard and pounced on the boulder.
"Someone come, I'm trapped!!"
The frog slapped the stone door with its webbed feet and shouted at the top of its voice.
"Liangsheng—"
"Do you hear my voice? My master is in here!!"
The roaring sounds were isolated inside the cave, and no sound could be heard from outside the huge stone door. A gentle breeze blew by, and the bright sunshine gradually took on a crimson color. In the thatched cottage far away on the edge of the cliff, the sunset light shone through the window lattice and fell on the paper covered with handwriting.
Lu Liangsheng put down his pen, stretched lazily, saw the sunset glow, was stunned for a moment, looked at the cold food on the table, frowned, and stood up.
"Master, what's going on?!"
He stretched out his hand from his sleeve and made some finger gestures, but there was no sense of demonic aura.
'Isolated.'
At this time, Hong Lian also came out of the painting. Seeing Lu Liangsheng's frown and the cold food on the table, she naturally realized that something was wrong.
"Did something happen to Master Toad?"
"I don't know, let's search the mountain first!"
Lu Liangsheng didn't say much. He opened the door and his figure turned into a shadow in the sunset glow and ran into the mountain. Hong Lian also knew what she should do. She took the painted leather and put it on, then quickly went down the mountain. What if Master Toad missed her aunt and the others
At the same time as they separated, Lu Liangsheng, who was going to the mountain, was also sensing the surroundings by setting up a magic circle in the mountain. There was only a slight trace of demonic energy that might have been left by his master.
Following this faint demonic aura, they came to the cave where the master and disciple first met. The demonic aura was cut off here.
Master ran inside
Lu Liangsheng went over and seemed to hear faint mosquito-like voices coming through the cracks in the stone.
"… Liangsheng… Your teacher is almost starving to death."
"Is there anyone passing by here... please move this stone..."
"I haven't eaten the braised pork yet... I haven't had the banquet yet... quack..."
The yellowish light burned quietly. The black-patterned gourd was thrown aside. The Toad Taoist stretched out his legs, leaned weakly against the stone door with his belly exposed, and shouted intermittently, his voice a little hoarse.
After a moment, his belly swelled, he took a deep breath and sighed softly.
"I'm so hungry..."
With a heavy muffled creaking sound, Toad Taoist suddenly felt the stone door slowly moving. His toad face immediately raised up, his eyes shining with joy.
"I knew Liangsheng would not ignore his teacher!!!"
He hurriedly stood up and slowly moved open the stone door. A ray of residual red shone in from outside. He said, "Liangsheng!" Just as he was about to speak, his smiling face froze. In his eyes that were filled with joy, a footstep enlarged in his sight the next second.
“Master!!”
Baji.
Lu Liangsheng stepped in and shouted, and he felt a strange soft sensation under his feet. He lowered his eyes and quickly moved his feet away. He saw Toad Taoist lying on the ground twitching, with his tongue sticking out and hanging from the corner of his mouth.
The frog raised its webbed feet tremblingly: "Master, here... here! Did you bring the braised... braised pork?"
After saying that, it fell to the ground with a plop.
…
As the last rays of sunset faded, the wedding banquet in Lujia Village came to an end. Hong Lian, wrapped in a gust of cold wind, dodged the women and children who were cleaning the dam and drying the clothes, and flew back to the small courtyard with a fence. She pushed open the door of the room where Lu Liangsheng once lived, but there was no sign of Master Toad at all.
"I wonder if you have found it, young master."
He murmured softly and left the room. Just as he was about to look for Lu Xiaoxian to ask her if she had seen the toad, the floating figure suddenly stopped under the eaves.
Turning his head slightly, he could hear the low conversation between Li Jinhua and Lu Laoshi in their room, and vaguely heard the words "Liangsheng" and "get married".
Hong Lian flicked her long sleeves and floated away to the window frame.