"Old Toad?!"
The Taoist threw away the dead branch and stood up. The tree demon who was pulling the old donkey not far away heard the noise and trotted over. He looked around and seemed to hear the sound of water, so he pointed to the edge of the pond.
In an instant, the rippling water surface suddenly broke apart with a bang, splashing water. With a cry of "Wooah... Old man...", the Toad Taoist priest fell back into the water, holding the fishing rod, and swayed rapidly from side to side, pushing away ripples and swimming rapidly.
The Taoist stared solemnly at the toad dancing and sliding on the water surface, and recalled the scene of the toad falling into the reservoir several years ago. He squatted back into the fire and continued to pass the firewood to make the fire.
"I thought he fell into the water, but it turns out he went swimming."
He waved his hand to tell the tree demon to be calm: "The old toad can't swim. He is probably learning it now. Don't worry."
In the pond, the rain line tightened, and the Toad Taoist who was floating towards the waves holding a fishing rod suddenly sank and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Gurgle…
Only a few bubbles emerged from the water.
"That..." The tree demon opened and closed his mouth slightly, pointed at the pool with his fingertips, turned his head and looked at Sun Yingxian, "... that little toad seems to have sunk... down, don't you want to take a look?"
"!"
The Taoist was stunned for a moment, then he dropped the firewood and ran to the pond. The water was calm with only a dozen dead leaves floating on the water, rippling the water gently.
At this moment, Lu Liangsheng was thanking the old man and finding out the name of the place. He picked up a bundle of firewood and walked back to the pond. He saw the Taoist taking off his clothes, sitting on the ground, and throwing his shoes and socks aside.
"Are you going to play in the water?"
"Fuck your grandma..."
The tree demon raised his eyebrows, and the Taoist waved his hand: "It's not your grandma." Then, he pointed to the pool and said to Lu Liangsheng: "Master fell into the water, I am going to rescue him."
He scooped up a little water and patted his chest. Before the Taoist jumped in, the toad floated up limply on the water surface with its face down. Lu Liangsheng was about to use his fingers to hold his master above the water surface when suddenly, the motionless Taoist toad floated diagonally to the edge of the pond while keeping his posture motionless.
When I got closer, I found that there was a circle of green shadow wrapped around the toad's fat waist. As I got closer to the edge of the pond, the slender green shadow loosened, slid to the bottom of the river, and swam away in a winding manner.
You can vaguely see a small green snake, as thick as a finger.
"Old Toad?" "Wake up!"
The Taoist flicked the toad's cheek with his finger. Here, Lu Liangsheng gathered magic power with his fingertips and lightly pressed on his master's white belly. Immediately, three streams of water spurted out from his nose and mouth. He sat up suddenly, looking to both sides with his head and stomach.
"Hey, where's my fish?"
Lu Liangsheng breathed a sigh of relief, took a silk handkerchief from the bookshelf and wiped the water stains off his master's body, "Master wants to eat fish, I'll be there in a minute."
He walked to the edge of the pond, waved his hand to suck up the fishing rod floating on the water, and put the bait on it again. Then the Toad Taoist ran to the bookshelf compartment, changed his clothes, sat quietly beside it, pointed at the sinking fishing line, and slapped his apprentice's trouser leg hard.
"Pull it up quickly!"
As Lu Liangsheng lifted the fishing rod, a grass carp broke out of the water, fell to the ground, and kept jumping and flapping its tail, making a rustling sound.
"Master, this fish is big enough for lunch."
The woods, the small pond, the bright sunshine, the chirping of cicadas, and the old donkey leisurely swinging its tail make it look like a group of people going out for a spring outing, chatting and laughing.
He was used to being away from home, so his cooking skills were not very good, but he was quite familiar with it. He skillfully gutted and scaled the fish, cut it into several pieces, and put them in a large bowl to marinate to remove the fishy smell.
Toad leaned forward and sniffed the bowl: "Put more rice wine, ginger, and salt to make it taste good. I am an expert in food. I just fell into the water, so it's just right to drive away the cold."
"OK."
The Taoist priest added the pickled seasoning with a smile, stirred it evenly, and broke off a few shallots from the bag: "Add shallots to the herring, and the old toad will be stuffed to death."
"You want a beating!" The toad jumped up and hit the Taoist's knee with its webbed feet. Lu Liangsheng and the tree demon couldn't help laughing out loud, and the old donkey that was chewing grass nearby neighed twice.
After lunch, Lu Liangsheng packed up and prepared to leave. He walked to the edge of the pond and bowed to the bottom of the pond in thanks.
"I have been so grateful for your kindness that I cannot repay you."
He took out a pill from his sleeve and said, "Although this medicine is not a magical medicine, it can help boost vitality. Please accept it."
"Let the Master come."
The Toad Taoist came over from the other side at some point, tugged at his disciple's robe, and asked him to hand over the pill in his hand, holding it between his flippers.
"I don't owe you any favors, so I'll take this medicine as a thank you gift. I hope you can shed your scales and transform into a human soon, and achieve the right result through cultivation."
With a light throw, the pill fell into the shallow water beside the pond. The moment it sank below the water surface, a small green snake slithered over, opened its mouth and swallowed the apricot yellow pill into its stomach.
As if it could understand what Toad Taoist said, the little green snake emerged from the water, stuck out its head and pecked at the heads of two figures, one tall and one short, on the shore. Its body created ripples in the water, and it happily swam to the other side of the pond.
Taoist Toad, with his flippers on his back, watched the ripples disappear on the water, then turned around and sighed.
"I also came out of a small pond like this one."
"Then why can't Master swim?" Lu Liangsheng picked him up, put him on his shoulders, and went to help tidy up the bookshelf and hang the old donkey's hindquarters.
The toad coiled on the disciple's shoulder and tilted his face, "How would I know? It has been at the bottom of the pond since it became conscious, and only later ran to the edge of the pond."
"It's as if the stone sculpture of Master is sinking in the water."
Lu Liangsheng was just joking, but he remembered that when he entered the Southern Chen Dynasty to take the palace examination, an eunuch introduced that there was a sculpture of a golden toad looking at the moon that was stolen from the palace. Could it be his master
But after thinking about it, he quickly put the idea behind him. Although there are mountain spirits and stone monsters among the monsters that absorb the essence of the sun and the moon and transform themselves, it is almost impossible for them to achieve the same ability as his master did.
They left the small pond and walked up to a higher place leading the old donkey. Looking back, they saw a tiny shadow on the rock beside the pond, coiling and flicking its tongue towards them, then raising its body high and pecking at them as if saying goodbye.
"When mountains and rivers meet, it is fate. Farewell!"
Lu Liangsheng smiled, bowed to the little snake, rolled up his robe sleeves, and set off northward toward Helingzhou. By the pond, the coiled little green snake looked in the direction where the scholar and the old donkey disappeared, quickly climbed down the stone, its fine scales spreading over the messy mud and stones, and it rustled as it chased after them.
…
The setting sun cast a crimson glow on the clouds in the sky, and an old crow stood on a nearby dead tree and cried "wow".
It was already dusk when Lu Liangsheng and the Taoist priest walked dozens of miles away from the small pond. The mountain road was rugged and difficult to walk on. They sometimes performed magic and sometimes walked slowly to enjoy the mountain and water scenery, which was quite pleasant.
It was getting dark. The two men, two monsters and one donkey, who had originally planned to camp in the woods, walked up the hill in front of them. Enshrouded in the fading red of the setting sun, the outline of a small town was bathed in the setting sun.
There is a dense forest on one side and a continuous cliff on the other side. From a distance, a straight road in the middle of the town extends to the north, which can lead to Helingzhou.