The morning sun rises among the clouds, the trees form a forest, and the branches and leaves sway gently in the wind.
On the mottled treetops, a spotted sparrow shook out its feathers, leaped from the branch, spread its wings and flew into the sunlight. In an instant, a stone hit it and spun to the ground.
The Taoist came running with a yellow cloth bag, picked up the sparrows together with the birds in the bag, squatted by the roadside, and cast a fire talisman to burn off the bird feathers. Not far away, he heard the sound of copper bells coming closer, and then he put the birds away.
"Follow me, you won't starve. There seems to be a pond ahead. Catch two more fish!"
The old donkey that came over shook his long ears. Inside the shaking bookshelf behind him, Taoist Toad pushed open the small door and stuck his head out.
"Two aren't enough, catch a few more."
"Got it, got it." Sun Yingxian put away the cloth bag, rubbed his hands in the grass, ran forward excitedly, and disappeared at the end of the forest trail in a blink of an eye.
Amid the jingling of neck bells, Lu Liangsheng was walking and reading two volumes of "Illustrated Records of Mountains and Seas" behind the old donkey. He passed Huaiyi Prefecture and turned north without encountering any strange things. Instead, he saw people living and working in peace and contentment and the city was prosperous everywhere. It can be seen that in the next few years, the Chen Dynasty will be completely recovered and people's lives should not be too bad.
Yang Jian was a good emperor after all. After the Qihuo Sect incident, he took some time to go and take a look. If possible, he would paint a picture of the grand event for him. I wonder if it could add some luck to the Sui Dynasty.
While reading a book and walking, he was thinking about other things. Even though the muddy road in the forest was bumpy, he did not stumble. While thinking about Chang'an, a dogtail grass stretched out from the side, and the woman teased the side of Lu Liangsheng's face with a smile.
It was a tree demon that had transformed into a human form. When it took off its veil, it revealed an exquisite and beautiful appearance. However, trees are asexual, so sometimes this tree demon would act strangely and transform into the appearance of a man. Once, the Taoist wanted to approach it, but when the tree demon turned around, he saw the face of Yan Chixia. He was so frightened that he was depressed for two days in a row. Only when he left the territory of Huaiyi Prefecture did his condition improve.
Lu Liangsheng took the dogtail grass and tapped the smiling pretty face on the forehead: "Why do those two fox demons call you grandma?"
"Because... old, just like this!"
The mind of a few-year-old child made this thousand-year-old tree demon quite cheerful. He covered his face with his hands, and then opened them to transform into an old woman. Even his high-pile black hair turned completely white.
Her slender body was slightly hunched, and she looked really old.
"Old demon, are you very powerful? I saw that some people who passed by Lanruo Temple were very fierce and scared others, so I was very fierce in front of them, but not in front of the old demon."
Lu Liangsheng returned the dogtail grass to her: "Why not?"
The tree demon in the black skirt danced with the grass and trotted happily to the front, her skirt spreading out. She turned her face and smiled charmingly, but there was a hint of mischief in her tone.
"Because you are an old demon, I remember you! It seems like we have known each other for a long time."
In the sunshine, an old donkey was walking leisurely in front, chewing grass, while a man and a demon were following behind, chatting and laughing. In the bookshelf, the Toad Taoist priest was sitting by the door with his legs crossed. He subconsciously touched the rope around his waist, knocked a few cigarette butts, re-lit it, leaned comfortably against the gourd placed horizontally behind him, took a puff, showing his bulging belly, and exhaled smoke.
"I feel... if this continues, I won't be able to make progress... I was close to the demon king back then, quack..."
"Take another puff."
As he was thinking about it, he couldn't help but take another sip, when suddenly the Taoist's voice came from the front.
"Let's have lunch here!"
Lu Liangsheng stopped talking, brought the tree demon with him, came in front of the old donkey, took the reins and walked out of the woods on both sides. The view became wider, and several lush peaks stood in the distance. In the past direction, a raised terrain formed two halves of height. There was a mountain spring gurgling to a pool of water five or six feet below. Leaves were floating on the water surface. When you get closer, you can see that it is deep green and bottomless.
After letting go of the reins and taking the pots and bowls from the bookshelf, Lu Liangsheng let the old donkey go and play around by himself. When he saw the Taoist priest who was breaking off a branch and tying a string to it, he couldn't help but smile and said,
"Why bother?"
"So what do you have to do, draw?"
When the Taoist saw the scholar unfold a blank scroll, he threw the branch in his hand to the ground, dusted it off and walked over: "You are in even more trouble. If I didn't want to ruin the scenery here, I would have fired a few palm thunders. What's the point of fishing? I'll catch all the fish for you."
"The scenery here is very beautiful, and it's a good opportunity to go fishing."
Lu Liangsheng smiled and spoke as he dipped the tip of his pen into ink and dropped it onto the scroll. The tree demon couldn't help but lean over.
On the white paper, blue ink flowed along the tip of the pen, leaving a long line of ink. Lu Liangsheng rolled up the wide sleeves of his wrist holding the pen and shook it gently. The ink dotted several links, and the ink bamboo pole took shape.
Lift your wrist slightly, leaving only a tiny trace of the pen tip on the surface, and draw out a winding fishing line. Then casually outline the end of the line to form a fish hook.
Lu Liangsheng put down his brush, brushed his sleeves upwards, and reached out to grab it. The ink-colored bamboo pole with the fishing line and hook attached to it magically emerged from the painting, and the painting became blank again.
The Taoist hurriedly touched the paper, horror in his eyes.
"Now that you have reached the Nascent Soul stage, can you draw the virtual as real?"
"It can only transform into some small, dead objects." Lu Liangsheng waved the fishing rod and could feel his magic power condensed into reality on it, "Like this fishing rod, or some tables, chairs, and stools."
Seeing the Taoist's burning gaze looking at him, he immediately understood what the other party wanted to say. He waved his hand to push his face away, walked to the edge of the pond, brushed the dust off a stone, conjured up a fishing bait and hung it on the hook.
"Don't even think about it. Painting a beautiful woman has no soul."
"That's not nice." The Taoist muttered and went to light the fire and set the pot.
The tree demon came over with a smile and squatted beside him, "Then I will show you how to transform."
Hearing this, Sun Yingxian quickly moved aside, buried her face, and waved her hands repeatedly with lingering fear.
"Forget it. If you suddenly turn into a Bodhisattva or a deity in a temple, I'm afraid I'll be struck to death by lightning..."
Soon, smoke rose up. The tree demon was afraid of fire, so he didn't say much to the Taoist priest and ran to find the old donkey.
The sun was pouring down, illuminating the quiet old forest and deep pool. Lu Liangsheng caught a small fish with a fishing rod and threw it to the Taoist who was lighting a fire and cooking behind him. At that time, he heard a faint sound coming from the forest high up, like someone singing.
"… Across the hill, there is a village where unmarried women look toward the horizon… hoping that their brother will come over over the wall in the middle of the night…"
A somewhat vulgar folk song came over here along with the rustling footsteps in the woods. An old man carrying a few bundles of firewood stopped singing and saw a young man in a white robe with apricot patterns fishing by the pond below. His expression was stunned for a moment until the young man over there smiled at him and bowed.
The scholar had a gentle smile and was humble and polite. The old man quickly imitated his manners and bowed in return.
The north is densely populated, so it is normal to have houses in the mountains. Lu Liangsheng inserted the fishing rod into the cracks in the rocks and walked to a higher place.
"Old man, we just happened to be passing by here to light a fire and cook, but we don't have much firewood. How about selling me one of the bundles you carry on your back?"
Seeing a few copper coins handed to him, the old man hesitated for a moment, but still bent down, took a bundle of firewood and put it on the ground.
"If it's not enough, this gentleman can take another bundle."
"That's enough."
Handing the copper coin to the old man, Lu Liangsheng chatted with him for a while, asked about the place, and also asked which road was closer to Helingzhou.
While we were chatting, there was a slight "pop" sound in the pond and the floating fishing line was suddenly pulled downwards and became taut.
The Toad Taoist, who was yawning and basking in the sun on the bookshelf, took a glance and saw the fishing rod swaying left and right in the crevice of the stone. Seeing his apprentice still talking to an old man, he started mumbling and walked over with the clacking sound of his flippers.
"Alas, I can't even catch a fish properly. I have to do it myself."
The frog used its webbed feet to hold the fishing rod. The fishing line connected to the water swam around and suddenly sank. Just as the Toad Taoist was holding the fishing rod, he felt a strong pull. His eyes widened, and his short body and the fishing rod fell into the pond with a bang.
Hearing the voice, the Taoist turned his head, but he could not see anything when he looked straight ahead.
"Did you hear any noise, old Toad?"
There was no response from the bookshelf.