Petals of tender green swayed gently on the thatched cottage, and the room was filled with silence.
The light was warm yellow. Looking at Hong Lian's smile, Lu Liangsheng held her hand tightly. It was not an easy task to remove the evil spirits and fierce monsters. He had no idea what dangers might arise.
But since Hong Lian chose to believe him, he had to give it a try no matter what. For now, to give Hong Lian some confidence, he could only say some comforting words temporarily.
"City God Zhou Yu will not lie to me. If he is not bad, I can remove the evil spirit and build a temple to worship him. I hope to create a Dharma body. Then, with the help of a spiritual branch, I may be able to rebuild my body."
Feeling the warmth from Lu Liangsheng's palm, Nie Honglian looked at him without saying a word. She couldn't help but stretch out her other hand which was hanging at her side. At that moment, a light cough came from the table over there. Honglian quickly retracted her hand and turned her face away.
The toad held its webbed feet to its mouth and coughed twice, glancing back and forth at the man and the ghost opposite, cursing in its heart.
"You bastard, you disturbed my sweet dream. Did I call you here just to watch you two show off?"
He put on his flippers, walked to the edge of the table and sat cross-legged: "Liangsheng, building a temple to worship is safe, but it will take too long. I have a way to try it."
Lu Liangsheng let go of the ghost girl's hand, sat up straight, and looked at his calm master with a half-believing and half-doubting look.
"real?"
Hearing Toad's words, Hong Lian on the other side also became excited, stood up and bowed to the short figure.
"Master Toad, can you really help me rebuild my body?"
"Humph, what I said cannot be false."
Over there, the Toad Taoist opened one eye, glanced at the female ghost, stood up from the edge of the table, and walked to the window. The cold moonlight illuminated the entire courtyard.
“This method is simple and direct, and I, the master, happen to understand a little bit of the mystery. However, it requires eight female bodies and their flesh and blood as sacrifice.
Gen Earth is the place where Yin Wood grows. It is the beginning of spring, and in a few days it will be the Waking of Insects, which is a good time to cast a spell... quack"
He stopped talking and couldn't help but think of the woman in the lonely grave in Qishan.
…If only I had obtained this method earlier.
The lights flickered, and Lu Liangsheng fell silent. His hand was suddenly held by Hong Lian, who was standing beside him. She smiled and said, "If I were to survive, I would have killed eight innocent women. I would not be happy even if I survived. Besides, when I turned into a ghost in the Chen family, I had already killed several innocent people..."
"When you turned into a ghost, you were driven by hatred, not your true nature."
After a moment of silence, Lu Liangsheng patted her hands and said, "Don't worry, I won't do such a thing."
The Toad on the desk glanced at it, snorted, turned around, picked up the cup of water, took a gulp, then sat down comfortably with his legs stretched out.
"Then I, the master, can't do anything about it. It's fine like this. You can sing a little song for me when you have nothing to do. If I don't have you, my little ghost girl, I will feel lonely when I travel far away in the future."
Hong Lian covered her mouth and chuckled: "Master Toad is just treating Hong Lian as a casual singer."
At the side, Lu Liangsheng suddenly stood up, opened the door and walked outside. Since his master had no other solution, he could only do as the City God said. After all, ghosts would eventually disperse. Even if he used spiritual energy to nourish them, after a long time, the ghost messengers would come to question them.
"It's easy to do it just like Pudu Cihang, but the difficulty lies in removing Honglian's evil spirit. It may be inadequate for one person to cast the spell. Master is a demon cultivator and may not be very comprehensive in this area. I, Old Sun, may be able to help. It's a good opportunity to find Yang Su as well, as he may know something about this."
After walking in the yard for a while, he unknowingly stood under an old pine tree, looking at the black sea of clouds rolling outside the cliff. He turned over and over a jade pendant in his hand. It was the one Mingyue had given him before.
Lu Liangsheng tightened his fingers and mobilized his magic power to pour into it. Immediately, the magic circles on the surrounding hills began to circulate spiritual energy, and his hair fluttered in the wind.
With the spiritual power of the Qixia Mountain magic circle, it is not difficult to communicate with Fushui County, which is dozens of miles away.
The spiritual energy that ordinary people cannot see surged, drawing a line along the mountain ridges, and in the blink of an eye flew to the city with dotted lights in the dark night.
Bang! Bang!
In the middle of the night, a thin layer of mist was rolling on the ground on the long street. The night watchman was staggering over with a lantern stuck on the back of his neck, knocking on a gong and shouting as he walked.
"It's late at night, be careful with candles and fire, close doors and windows tightly and beware of thieves and Mr. Wang next door!!"
Bang!
As he walked past the street corner, the voice had just fallen when a gust of wind blew past his head, almost causing him to stumble and fall to the ground. The tiles of the houses on both sides were rustling.
In the backyard of the county government office, the warm yellow light cast the shadows of two people in the room onto the window lattice. Yang Su was talking to Yang Guang opposite him. Most of the conversations were about Lu Liangsheng from Mount Qixia, and some of them mentioned what happened after the southern expedition to the Chen Dynasty.
"After this battle, Your Highness must be careful with your words and actions in front of His Majesty, and be humble and not arrogant." "... I do not want to compete with my brother for the position of Crown Prince."
"Your Highness is intelligent, why is he so confused now? Although the prince is kind, he will become the emperor in the future..."
Yang Su was quite fond of the Prince of Jin, who had been clever and forward-thinking since childhood. In addition, he had a good understanding with the generals in the army when he led the troops south this time. He might have a chance to ascend the throne in the future.
"Go back, Your Highness, remember to keep your distance from the generals in the army..."
At this moment, he suddenly stopped talking, and under Yang Guang's puzzled eyes, he stood up, opened the door and walked out.
"Uncle, what's wrong? Is there anything wrong in the courtyard?"
Yang Guang was walking behind and followed out. Amid the voices, Yang Su, who was standing under the eaves, stroked his long beard and raised his hand to interrupt the words of the Prince of Jin.
"It's Lu Liangsheng."
"Mr. Lu?"
Hearing the name, Yang Guang hurriedly walked to his uncle's side, opened his eyes wide and looked up at the night sky in the yard. He scanned the surroundings, but there was nothing.
"Where is Mr. Lu?"
Yang Su on the side did not answer him, but raised his hand, bowed to the night sky, and the long beard under his chin trembled.
"I hope you are well, Brother Lu."
…
On Mount Qixia, Lu Liangsheng, who was holding the round jade, also had a smile on his face. He looked at the sea of clouds outside the cliff and replied softly, "I went to the Tianzhi City God's place last night and just got back this afternoon. I'm sorry to have kept Lord Qinghe waiting for a long time."
In the empty night, Yang Su's voice was heard again after a moment.
"That's not the right time, but since Fellow Daoist Lu has returned to Mount Qixia, I will come to visit you again tomorrow during the day. Is that okay?"
"Of course it's good. It just so happens that I also need Mr. Qinghe's help with something."
"Then we'll meet at Qixia Mountain tomorrow."
The thread of spiritual energy broke from the night sky. Yang Su withdrew his hand, turned around with a smile on his face, and looked at the stunned Prince Jin standing aside.
"Your Highness, Lu Liangsheng has returned to Mount Qixia and invited us to visit him tomorrow."
"That's great." Yang Guang clenched his fist and pointed at the night sky with some excitement. "How did Lord Qinghe manage to talk to Mr. Lu just now?"
At this point, Yang Su nodded slightly, stroked his beard, and laughed.
"Your Highness, this is the art of listening to the sound of the Dharma, but it is not something that people with low cultivation can do. Your Highness, go and rest quickly. Tomorrow morning, we will only take the guards with us, otherwise the aura of war will alarm the magic formation in the mountain again."
After giving some instructions in the manner of a spiritual master, he turned around and went back to his own room with a smile, leaving Yang Guang alone, staring at the night sky with his head tilted, wondering how this was done.
The next morning, the two men got up early, took only twenty guards and the guard general Yu Juluo, and rode out of the city to Qixia Mountain. When they arrived at the mountain road where the magic circle was triggered yesterday, no strange phenomena occurred, but there was still a donkey blocking the middle of the road, swinging its bald tail and strolling there by itself.
This made Yu Juro almost want to draw his sword and chop it. Fortunately, Yang Su reacted quickly and held his hand. In the blink of an eye, the old donkey turned into an afterimage, leaving a series of blue-white lightning and went up the mountain. Yu Juro was so frightened that he couldn't even hold the sword steadily.
Yang Su let go of his hand, stroked his beard and urged the horse to continue moving forward.
"Don't be reckless when you see ordinary livestock here. If you bring disaster to Your Highness, I will make you live a life worse than death."