Lujia Village is not big, and the land it occupies is not much. A young man in a scholar's robe set up a stone formation on the wasteland next to the river.
The surfaces of the seventy-two stones were covered with talismans written in ink.
His cultivation was at a low level, so he recovered quickly after a night. After infusing his magic power to activate each stone of the same size, he was quite tired.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, stood up with difficulty, his stomach growled a few times due to hunger, packed up his pens and ink, and went back. After this small magic circle was activated, it would operate in series with other magic circles buried at the bottom of the river, adding some spiritual energy to the water of the river and nourishing all living things.
After leaving here and returning to the village, Lu Pan at the entrance of the village saw Lu Liangsheng coming back from afar, and hurried to meet him and walked beside him.
"Liangsheng, why did you come back just now?"
The young man shook off the ink on the wolf-hair brush, wrapped it in oilcloth, and tilted his head to look at him: "What happened?"
"No, but there is a man from the government waiting for you at your house."
Lu Liangsheng put the brush into the inner pocket of his wide sleeves and frowned. Someone from the government office is looking for me? After thinking about it, he couldn't help but quicken his pace.
There were already many people standing outside the fenced yard. In that era, everything was rare, and when someone suddenly came to the yamen, everyone would inevitably gather around to watch the fun.
When someone saw Liangsheng coming back, they couldn't help but shout. The yamen runner who was holding a bowl in the yard hurriedly stood up, and when he saw the young man squeezing through the crowd, he didn't dare to neglect him.
"I am a public servant from the Fushui County Government. The Chief Clerk invites you to come over..."
Outside the fence, neighbors were whispering to each other.
"Hey, it's the chief clerk in the county government..."
"Liangsheng, you have really climbed up the ladder this time."
"Maybe he can become an official in the future. This morning a matchmaker came to help, but it seems he was chased away."
"Of course, how can our Liangsheng marry a girl from Beicun?"
…
Amidst the chatter, Li Jinhua brought a bowl of porridge to Lu Liangsheng. She looked at her son and seemed to want to say something, but in the end she did not tell him what happened this morning.
When the latter gulped down a few sips, the officer remembered that there was only one horse when he came here, so he put down the bowl.
"I came here on horseback, you..."
Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey out of the straw shed and patted the animal on the head: "I can ride it, don't worry, I can follow you."
The old donkey neighed and pawed excitedly.
It would take half a day to go back and forth from Lujia Village to Fushui County by galloping on horseback, but if the officer rode a slow old donkey, he would be worried whether he could get back to the county government office in one day. But since the young man in front of him said so, he couldn't refuse.
The two of them left the village, the officer rode on a big horse, and Lu Liangsheng also got on the donkey, put the Toad Taoist on it, and whispered, "Master, sit tight."
Toad Taoist said "hmm" indifferently.
The young man then raised his hands towards the bailiff.
"Brother, let's go. Just lead the way."
The officer nodded, shook the reins, and urged the horses to trot slowly. The old donkey snorted, snorted with disdain, shook twice, and slowly moved its hooves. The toad on its back slipped off, and the man and the donkey trotted after the horse in front without noticing.
The toad fell to the ground with a thud and cursed, "What's the point of keeping this donkey!" He got up covered in dust and was stunned to see Lu Liangsheng riding the donkey and jumping several feet away. He quickly ran with his two flippers on, shouting.
“I haven’t even gotten on the donkey yet!!”
Ahead on the road, the horse-riding yamen runner thought that the young man behind him was riding an old donkey and was not running very fast. When he looked back, he found that the old donkey was following steadily at a distance of ten feet behind him. He couldn't help but feel surprised.
Lu Liangsheng rode leisurely on the donkey's back, with a talisman infused with magical power pasted under the old donkey's mane.
There is a technique called "Xianwei" in "Qinghuai Bugeng", which is a small technique to shrink the distance into an inch. The spiritual energy is attracted to the person walking in front, and if the person walks a hundred miles, you can also walk a hundred miles without getting tired.
"Master, this little trick is quite useful and saves effort... Master?"
Lu Liangsheng lowered his head and suddenly found that the toad lying on the donkey's back had disappeared at some point. He let out a "whoa", stopped, and looked back.
A toad man stood there, running breathlessly behind.
Lu Liangsheng quickly got off the donkey, picked up the Toad Taoist, put him on the donkey's back, shook the reins and continued to follow the officer in front of him.
"Master, are you training your body?"
The toad lay on the donkey's back, its limbs twitching from exhaustion.
"Don't talk, Master... take a rest."
Shortly after noon, the two men, a horse and a donkey, arrived at Fushui County. Just like the previous time they came, people were still coming and going in the county. Walking through the long streets, Lu Liangsheng still vaguely felt a bit desolate.
"Is the city a little different from the last time I came here?"
The yamen runner who was traveling with him looked at the people and stalls passing by and sighed, "It was because of the evil spirit that haunted Mr. Chen's house a while ago. Captain Zuo thought it was the work of monks, so he checked the nearby temples and interrogated the monks passing by. Many of them dared not come here, and the pilgrims did not dare to leave the city at will."
Lu Liangsheng nodded: "I see." But he was alert in his heart, thinking that Captain Zuo must have realized that Chen Yaoke was not killed by a ghost.
Soon, he found a stall outside to eat some food, and found a place to practice the "Qian Kun Zheng Dao" magic formula facing the slightly slanting sun. Half a minute later, the chief clerk finally had some free time and sent someone to invite him, but not to the yamen, but to the small courtyard in the city.
It is mainly for the purpose of testing knowledge.
…
The afternoon sun slanted down, shining on the foothills more than fifty miles southwest of Fushui County.
Spots of light were cast on the thick fallen leaves on the ground. The rustling sound of footsteps passed through the trees, following the familiar path, up the stone steps halfway up the mountain.
Lu Erlai sat down and rested for a while.
"You all just wait..."
After saying this, he stood up and walked upwards, turned the road ahead, chose a hidden path at the fork, hurriedly ran into the mountain crevice that was wide enough for two or three people, walked for a while, passed a narrow gap in the sky, and the wide terrain ahead unfolded in his sight.
The village was surrounded by a row of wooden fences, and people could be seen walking inside from a distance.
Before he could get through, he was kidnapped by a hidden sentry nearby. If he hadn't been an acquaintance, he might have been killed with a single knife.
Lu Erlai smiled and bowed, saying, "Big brother, please let me pass. I'm here to give you some money."
The sentry looked at him twice. It was hard to hide any sharp weapon under the coarse linen clothes, so he stepped aside to let him pass and said coldly: "Don't look around after you go in."
"I know! I know!"
He smiled a few times, dodged the opponent's sharp knife edge, and entered the gate of the mountain stronghold. There were not many bandits in this group, about thirty people. The leader was Liu Erlong, also called Erye, who had a place to gamble in the city and occasionally led people down the mountain to rob. Although this place was close to Fushui County, it was actually under the jurisdiction of Tongling County on the other side.
Liu Erlong, with a big beard, sat on a wolfskin chair with a majestic look, staring at Lu Erlai who came in from the door, chewing the fat in his mouth with big mouthfuls.
"I heard from people below that you sent me money. I thought you were going to run away these days."
Lu Erlai rubbed his hands and smiled flatteringly: "Second Master, what are you talking about? I will definitely pay you back the money I owe you... Look, I've brought it to you."
Someone came over from the side, stretched out his hand, and motioned for him to take it out.
Er Lai looked at the hand that was extended to him, feeling quite embarrassed, and bowed first, "Second Master, this is too much money, I can't carry it all by myself..."
Liu Erlong wiped the grease off his mouth, rubbed it on the wolf, and waved his hand impatiently: "Drag him out and cut off his tongue."
"Second Master, it's true!"
Lu Erlai was lifted up by two men, staring at his legs in the air, and shouted: "That's hundreds of taels of silver, I know where it is!!"
The hall fell silent. Liu Erlong stared at him for a long while, picked up the wine on the table, took a sip, and threw it aside with a bang. His wine-stained beard stretched out, and his big yellow teeth were exposed between his thick lips.
"Let him lead the way."
A moment later, more than thirty people, including Lu Erlai, went down the mountain before it got dark.