"Sir, what happened to Master Toad?"
Seeing the toad head portrait disappear, Hong Lian felt a little worried. On the other side, Lu Liangsheng took a step back and did not answer directly.
"Hong Lian, Qi You, take care of my body!"
Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Lu Liangsheng put his hands together and pointed his sword-like fingers, pressing his temples to the left and right, drawing a semicircle and placing them on his knees.
'The soul is leaving the body!'
The sound of wind blew around him at that moment, and in the sight of Hong Lian, who was already in a trance state, a human silhouette floated out of the scholar's body and flew straight to "Boundless Mountains and Seas".
In the blink of an eye, he was immersed in the picture on the page of the book.
Lu Liangsheng entered the painting, and his vision was surrounded by endless darkness. Dense stars extended infinitely backwards. For a moment, looking down at the end of the darkness, it was as if a window was opened, and light came on, filling everything he could see.
Chirp chirp~~
The strong light melted from the bottom of his eyes, and what came to his ears was the clear and melodious bird song. When his feet were firmly on the ground, his eyes became clear. Lu Liangsheng looked around. There were rolling mountains and white clouds floating in the sky. In the nearby woods, a few birds were jumping on the branches, jumping around and shaking the branches.
A vibrant picture.
"This is the foot of Ziling Mountain."
Lu Liangsheng looked at the surrounding environment. Perhaps it was different, but the mountains and woods had not changed much. Raising his sight, he saw the cliff halfway up the mountain, with a glazed pavilion standing against the mountain, and under the towering mountain gate, a bluestone staircase meandering through the woods from the foot of the mountain.
Walking along the stone steps, the cicadas in the woods around us could be heard chirping. From time to time, a squirrel would drag its big fluffy tail and quickly climb up the tree, holding a pine cone and looking curiously at the humans walking below.
'This place has become a natural world of its own?'
Lu Liangsheng, who was good at illusion, was a little confused. He could sense that the painting was full of vitality, which was a completely different feeling from illusion. The subtlety in it was indeed difficult for him to understand.
What is the purpose of the Nine Spirits Formation arranged by Huangdi? How did this small world come into being, and what maintains the world in the painting
The mountain breeze blew through his hair. Lu Liangsheng thought for a moment but still couldn't figure out the key. However, there was one thing he might be able to guess, such as the altar on Changyang Mountain. It is very likely that after the altar was activated, it had the magic power to maintain this place.
"That should be the case..."
With an unclear idea in mind, Lu Liangsheng walked up to the mountain gate and came to the square outside Zishan Temple. The broken ground that day had been repaired by the magic power in the painting, but the body of Shenghuo Mingzun was still placed far away by the pond.
“Master!”
Lu Liangsheng withdrew his gaze from the corpse and shouted towards the attic in front of him. There was no response from the Taoist Toad for a long time. He was about to walk to the hall door when suddenly there was a bang and the door opened outwards. A fully stuffed package was slowly pushed to the door. A short Toad, wearing a small jacket, stuck out his butt and used both webbed feet to pull backwards, pulling it out little by little.
“Master… what are you doing?” Lu Liangsheng went over to help him carry the package out, and it fell to the ground, with a series of clanging and clattering sounds coming from inside.
The Toad Taoist sat down on the ground, panting, and spread his webbed feet to fan himself with the cool breeze.
"It's the things that were stolen from my master by them."
After cooling down for a while, he climbed onto the package, followed the gap, and looked inside headfirst. He kicked his legs a few times outside before finally squeezing halfway in. After rummaging around, he pulled out a porcelain bottle and threw it to Lu Liangsheng.
"For consolidating your realm and refining your spirit."
Lu Liangsheng held the porcelain bottle in his hand and looked at it. He unscrewed the bottle cap and smelled it. There was a faint pungent smell. He frowned slightly and said, "Master, is this thing really edible?"
"Who told you to take it orally?"
Toad slid down from above, leaning against the mountain-like package, subconsciously protecting it behind him, while pulling the knotted cloth strip to tie it tightly around his arm, he explained.
"After your soul leaves your body, absorb the medicinal spirit emitted by the beads to refine your soul and transform it into a spirit. Even if your physical body is destroyed in the future, your soul will not fall into reincarnation and will continue to cultivate. If your physical body becomes a saint, then just treat it as if your master never said anything."
After some instruction, the Toad Taoist priest looked serious, squatted down in a horse stance, and straightened his waist with all his strength. “Um… uh… ah…” His dark face turned red, but he just couldn’t recite it.
He sat down on the ground and looked up at his apprentice's knees.
"What are you still looking at? Come and help me!"
Hearing his master shouting below, Lu Liangsheng stuffed the pill he was examining back into the bottle, sealed the bottle with magic, and used his magical power to suspend the package in the air.
"Master, now that we have taken the things, let's go out."
On the ground, Toad Taoist nodded weakly.
"Then hurry up."
After saying that, Lu Liangsheng waved his robe sleeves, connected with the book, and flew into the sky along with the Toad Taoist on the ground and the package in the air.
"Liangsheng, slow down, I feel so uncomfortable..."
On the shoulder of the figure flying high into the sky, the toad's demonic power was increasingly suppressed. It felt like half its life was almost gone, and its webbed feet tightly grasped Lu Liangsheng's shoulders.
"Master, don't worry, I'll be out soon." The scholar said with his face slightly turned.
In front of them, a hole seemed to have opened up among the floating white clouds, and the master and disciple, along with a package, instantly disappeared into the round hole.
In the house, a slight sound of wind blew gently through the room. The two women guarding the bed held Lu Liangsheng's arms, one on the left and one on the right. Qi You stared at him and moved closer. With her other hand, she tried to push Hong Lian from behind. On the other side, Hong Lian did not let her go. The soul and the demon looked at each other with lightning in their eyes.
There was a sudden sound of pages rustling on the desk opposite. The two girls then turned their gazes away. On the small page of the book, a figure dragged a package, which grew from small to large like a wisp of green smoke. It transformed into a human form in mid-air and flew to the edge of the bed.
As a package half a person's height fell to the ground with a clink, Lu Liangsheng, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, opened his eyes. In his field of vision, the bright winter sun shone through the window lattice onto the desk.
The toad that had fallen on the table got up, its demonic power returned to its body, and with its tongue hanging out in excitement, it went down from the foot of the table and dragged the package to under the bed. After dragging it hard a few times, it finally pulled the package, which was a head higher, in.
Feeling the breeze in the room, Lu Liangsheng stabilized his spirit and got down to the ground. Before he could say anything, he heard a sound like Toad Taoist rummaging through boxes from under the bed.
"My master is picking up treasures, don't disturb me, go and play by yourself, and by the way, close the door and don't let that chicken in!"
Hong Lian and Qi You forgot about the eye contact and looked at each other, not knowing what the Toad Taoist in the painting had done. They were about to go under the bed, but Lu Liangsheng reached out and knocked on their heads, then pulled one of them out of the room with each hand to avoid disturbing the master.
Then, just like before, he asked them to stand in the yard, set up the easel again, spread the scroll and started painting again. Around noon, the mother and sister came back with the skinned rabbit. They waited for Lu Laoshi and the Taoist priest who were strolling in the fields to come back, and had lunch together. Lu Liangsheng sent the two girls away and let them go out of the village to relax.
He locked himself in the room and placed the pills given by his master on a lacquer tray. His soul floated out of his body and he sat cross-legged on top of his head, absorbing the medicinal spirit that slowly wafted out of the pill. He could only feel the spiritual energy spreading through his soul and there was a cold and tingling pain, and sometimes a burning pain, and his body would even shake.
At first he wondered if his master was lying to him. However, after several days, the soul wandering outside his body seemed to be able to withstand a little bit of the spiritual wind of heaven and earth, and had a sense of solidity.
'Who knows, if a person is in Qixia Mountain in the future, his soul may be able to fly to Chang'an.'
In the half month, when the pill was completely absorbed, the soul was able to float out of the body and fly under the sun for two hours. Occasionally, it would show up, and the villagers passing by could not see any clues and even greeted Lu Liangsheng and joked.
He walked around the village and gave some magic power to Lu Taigong who was basking in the sun on the dam to make him more sober. Now seven years have passed, and sometimes he can't recognize Lu Liangsheng when he stands in front of him and says hello.
Magical power flowed in his old body. Grandpa Lu opened his toothless mouth and yawned. His cloudy eyes seemed not to see Lu Liangsheng, whose spirit had appeared. He walked slowly, leaning on a pear wood stick. He was led by the villagers passing by and it took him a long time to return home.
'Even if a cultivator has to go through many heavenly tribulations, he or she may not be able to achieve immortality... Alas, immortality is difficult.'
Thinking of the words of the Holy Fire Master of Zishan Temple, Lu Liangsheng stood up and flicked his wide sleeves. His figure turned into nothingness, floated to the small courtyard and returned to his body.