Chirp... Chirp...
Birds chirped in the woods and flew over the branches. The morning light shone on Lu Liangsheng's face. He opened his eyes slightly, sat up from the mat and stretched lazily. In the bright sunshine, the Toad Taoist stood on a stone outside the woods, stretched out his webbed feet, and twisted his round waist left and right.
Light dust danced and fell on the fat body in spots. The pig demon turned his back to the Taoist who wanted to rush forward to snatch the book. The Taoist came around and tried to grab the yellowed book in his hand, but quickly turned to the other side with the book in his hand.
Sun Yingxian was so angry that she stomped her feet and yelled behind him.
"Give me back the book, believe it or not, I will accept you!"
"By you?"
On the other side, the pig demon didn't even turn his head, and replied with two words in a muffled voice, not paying any attention to the Taoist's angry words. After a long while, he turned the last few pages and then threw the book back to the Taoist with satisfaction.
"A good book! Do you have any more?"
"It's gone, it's gone!" Sun Yingxian hurriedly picked up the book, fearing that it would be snatched away, and quickly put it in her arms, waving her wide sleeves as she walked away, saying, "Even if I have it, I won't give it to you."
He walked to the pile of dead branches and sat down, took out the talisman and shook it. With a bang, a flame ignited, and soon a small bonfire rose.
Listening to the sound of reading outside, Lu Liangsheng put on a small pot and added millet, green beans and water to cook porridge. The noise in the forest seemed quite harmonious in the early morning.
Outside the forest, the four scholars he rescued yesterday were sitting outside in the sunshine, holding books and reading aloud. Seeing that Lu Liangsheng had gotten up, the four of them immediately put away their books, walked around the meat-mountain-like pig monster, and walked over carefully.
Wang Feng, the oldest of the four, clasped his hands and bowed.
"My benefactor, it is already late today. The four of us are in a hurry to take up our posts, so we won't delay any longer. You have saved me several times, and I am grateful for your kindness. If you have any further missions in the future, I will repay you with my life!"
The three people behind him, Ma Liu, Zhang Ti and Zhao Tang also bent down.
"My brother is right. If the four of us can become successful and serve as officials in the court, we will be loyal to you if you ask us to do something for us!"
"Yes, yes. And I will devote my life to the cause until I die. That's all!"
Zhang Ti thought about it and bowed heavily: "I will go through fire and water, and die in pieces!"
Only the youngest one, Zhao Tang, was left. He scratched his cheek and looked at his three brothers on both sides.
"Please leave me some words!"
The bonfire crackled and sparks flew up. The Taoist laughed loudly, scooped the fire, and looked at the other person with a smoky face.
"You four are just playing catch-up here."
Lu Liangsheng also laughed, put down a dead branch, brushed the dust off his hands, and bowed in return. He knew that the four people had also suffered from encounters with evil spirits and had become frightened. He did not dare to stay any longer and sent them out of the forest.
"You four are old friends of mine. I hope that you, as the local parents, will manage the business well and benefit the local people. This will also bring honor to the people of Jiangdong in the northwest."
As he spoke, Lu Liangsheng spread out his sleeves, folded his hands and bowed to Wang Feng, Ma Liu and the other three.
The branches in the forest swayed, and the sunlight shone through the mountain ridges and fell on the figure of the scholar bowing on the opposite side. Wang Feng, Ma Liu, Zhang Ti, and Zhao Tang sought official positions all the way from the south to the north, and now they are the parents of a place in the northwest. They even saw the highly accomplished Lu Liangsheng, who bowed to them, with thousands of emotions in their hearts.
The silk scarves fluttered in the wind. The four of them took a deep breath, raised their hands together, and bowed to Lu Liangsheng opposite them.
"I will not let you down, my benefactor!"
After saying that, the four of them stood up, pursed their lips and arched their backs again. When they put them down, they linked their arms around each other, and left quickly along the rugged road on the ridge carrying the bookshelves.
"Brother, does what we said before count?"
"Of course it counts!"
"But what if they really call us?" "Yes, the benefactor is a Taoist master. If he can't solve the problem, then even if we four are tied together, it won't work."
"That's just polite talk. We're leaving now, so of course we have to say nice things. That's what makes it nice."
"That's right, that's right."
"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up. I don't believe there are monsters waiting for us ahead!"
…
The four people who were muttering to each other walked away in the sunlight. Lu Liangsheng withdrew his gaze, shook his head and walked back into the forest. He reached out and picked up his master who was lying exhausted on the stone and put him next to the fire.
Then, he took out "Boundless Mountains and Seas" and looked through it. He had already wasted quite a while on behalf of the four scholars. Now the destination was almost nearby, and it was time to find the location and see how strange the place pointed out by the scholar was.
"Mr. Lu, what are you looking at?"
Zhu Ganglie, who smelled the fragrance of rice porridge from the other side, stood up and walked over. Every step he took made the ground shake. The Toad Taoist, who was lying on the ground and yawning, was shaken and flew more than an finger high, then fell back.
"Damn it, didn't you see I'm still here..."
The toad raised its head, and a huge shadow was reflected in its eyes, covering its body. It lay on the ground, and its two short legs kicked wildly, and then shot out. There was a dull bang, and Zhu Ganglie sat down cross-legged, causing dust and fallen leaves to fly.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Toad Taoist falling to the side in a panic, then he reacted and touched the steel bristle behind his head.
"I'm sorry, I'm too tall, and the fat on my belly blocks my vision, so I can't really see you..."
Over there, Toad wanted to yell at him, but when he saw his silly smile, he apologized, picked up his flippers and turned in another direction.
"You're smart."
The pig demon smiled innocently and looked at the other side: "What is that book? I, the old pig, can feel the divine power in it."
"A treasure I found by chance."
Lu Liangsheng patted the cover of the book, stroked the four golden characters "Boundless Mountains and Seas" with his fingertips, and talked about the Helingzhou Fire Prayer Sect. He spread the book out in the air and showed the other party the painting of the Purple Mountain Temple and the spreading mountains.
"Come to think of it, this Taoist priest and I came all the way here, looking for the human head symbol on it, but unfortunately we didn't find the same mountain range."
Hmm... Zhu Ganglie puffed up his eyes like copper bells, his ears flapping and rubbing his chin. He looked carefully at the human head mark that Lu Liangsheng mentioned, and his gaze swept over the rolling mountains around him.
Suddenly he remembered something, and withdrew his gaze with hesitation, lowered his head and touched the painting tied around his waist that the scholar had given him last night.
"Forget it. If anyone is kind to me, I won't do him any harm."
After a moment, he raised his long mouth, his fangs rising and falling, and said in a low voice:
“The mountain is actually right under your feet.”
"Um?"
Not only Lu Liangsheng was stunned, but even the Taoist who was stirring the porridge and the Toad Taoist who was squinting his eyes and thinking about how to quickly repair the demon pill were also stunned.
"Under our feet? This mountain?"
Lu Liangsheng pointed down at the ridge where he was, and the fat pig monster as big as a mountain nodded.
"The head in your painting... should be Xingtian's head... It just so happens that among all the monsters and gods with names, he is the only one whose head was cut off and suppressed in the mountains."
"No, there is also Chi..."
"That's dismemberment!" The pig demon turned his head and glared at the Taoist.
Lu Liangsheng put away the book and threw it into the bookshelf. Without waiting for the pig demon to continue speaking, he leaped up and stepped over a nearby tree. With a light step, his body floated to the top of the dense tree cage and stood on the swaying branches and leaves. His eyes were filled with magic light, sweeping the terrain below.
At this moment, the scene he saw was different again. The grass, trees, birds and beasts on the mountain seemed to have become invisible outlines, and only the shape of the mountain was visible. The whole sky turned pitch black with a hint of white light.
Following the direction of the white light, there was a faint thing flickering slowly in the mountain. If you didn't observe this mountain deliberately, even a cultivator with a high level of cultivation would not waste his magic power to look at an ordinary mountain.
"Sure enough, there is something."
After falling back to the ground, Lu Liangsheng became a little hesitant. He wondered whether he should go down to find out. After all, he heard Zhu Ganglie say that the person inside was Xing Tian...
That's an ancient god.