The sun was slightly tilted, and dust from the sky was dancing as people moved.
In the dust kicked up by the footsteps coming and going, a creeping cloud of black smoke stretched out its limbs and silently passed under the passing soldiers.
The Toad Taoist looked around, but could not see any trace of his disciple or Old Donkey. Even the Yuelong Sword that he brought with him was nowhere to be found.
"You left without even asking me to come with you... How am I supposed to get back to Qixia Mountain now?! Quack—"
He looked around while muttering to himself, and then a big foot stepped down. He quickly rolled over to avoid it, and raised his head slightly to watch the owner of the feet dragging a prisoner over.
"If I hadn't stopped killing, I wouldn't be in such a mess!"
People around were shouting and horses were neighing. Toad Taoist threw a stone, determined the direction, and looked towards the south. He saw several war horses running towards him. They bent their legs, shot up, and dived into the grass behind a stone. When they poked their heads out again, there was a circle of grass rings wrapped around their heads.
He looked around, stood up, crouched, and quietly slipped behind a larger rock farther away. He stuck to the rock, with his belly heaving violently, and avoided several Sui soldiers who were escorting Turkic prisoners.
Buzz buzz buzz~~~
A flying insect flapped its wings and flew over in the grass. In the blink of an eye, a long tongue rolled over and pulled the insect into its mouth. The Toad Taoist licked his lips and continued to look around. At this time, in the corner of his eye, he was quite sensitive to dynamic scenery and vaguely felt that there was a black spot in the sky coming towards him.
'Pudu Cihang, you finally remembered me!'
He swallowed the insect in his mouth, turned around and squatted, bent his legs, and kicked his body hard, launching himself straight out. The next moment, a figure came over, took a step, and the Toad Taoist who was launched into the air turned his head, and in his eyes, a big foot enlarged in his sight.
Bang!
In an instant, the tongue hung crookedly on the corner of its mouth, and its round body flew out horizontally like a ball, bounced a few times on the ground, and the soldiers passing by stopped and looked down.
"I think I kicked something just now..."
Not finding what he had kicked, the soldier left with several captured weapons in his arms. In the grass in the distance, Toad Dao had no time to think about the kick just now, and he did a somersault... shook on the ground, quickly climbed up sideways, stood up, and ran after the black dot floating in the sky with his webbed feet, dragging his long tongue that had not been retracted yet and floating backwards.
"Pudu Cihang, I'm here!!"
“It’s right here!!”
After running past the man's feet and a little further away, the Toad Taoist waved his flippers breathlessly, shouted loudly, and jumped a few times from time to time, trying to make the other person see more clearly.
The sunlight gradually became brighter. Yuelong Sword, which was overlooking the ground below, naturally sensed the evil aura of Toad Taoist. It flew down and hung on the side of a big tree. The wind blew and caused the branches and leaves to sway gently.
"Old Toad, you can run pretty fast on two legs."
“… I will not go down, you jump up!”
The Sui soldiers traveling back and forth on the distant battlefield did not notice that in the weeds here, there was a toad wearing a long gown with square holes printed with Tongbao coins. It jumped twice on the spot with its legs, the veins on its head bulged, and its short webbed feet tried to hook the hanging rope in the air, but could not hook it.
"I'm so angry, come down a little bit!"
He fell back to the ground, whispered with gritted teeth, and stomped hard on the grass with his feet.
"Believe it or not, if you anger me, I will turn you gay!"
Hearing the old toad's words, the Yuelong Sword above slowly descended with the sound of "hehe". Just as the rope fell on the toad's head, the latter's mouth corners curved and he laughed with his long tongue hanging out.
A strong wind blew, and the small forest rustled. Countless branches and leaves shook wildly. The descending Yuelong Sword suddenly made a bang, and the sword body flew sideways and turned over, slashing into the ground at an angle.
The Toad Taoist turned his head and saw a stream of yellow sand rolling like a long snake, instantly covering him. In an instant, the Toad's figure disappeared from the spot.
Buzz~~
The Yuelong sword that was inserted diagonally into the ground trembled, and it was pulled out of the ground and flew back into the sky, making a circle. It could no longer sense the evil aura of the old toad, so it quickly changed direction, followed the breath of its master, flew for a while, and landed in a village below that was still emitting black smoke.
After the disaster, almost every family in the village had someone die, and even several members of a family were killed by the Turks. The surviving villagers found hoes and shovels and went outside to dig pits. The old, the weak, women and children stayed in the village crying and putting out the fire, or found mats to wrap the bodies of their relatives and sat beside them wailing.
A barefoot little girl with a black face and dirty little hands holding a half-burnt pancake walked into a small hut. On a wooden couch inside, an oil lamp flickered, illuminating the person sleeping on it.
Lu Liangsheng sat aside and looked at the lifeless corpse without much expression on his face. Hearing the sound of bare feet walking on the ground, he slightly turned his head and a pair of dirty little hands reached out to him.
"Sir... you can heal... my mother is sick... she is bleeding a lot... can you heal my mother?"
Seeing the scholar didn't say anything, the little girl, who was only five or six years old, moved timidly and handed over some of the half cake she was holding.
"Can this... be used as consultation fee..."
Lu Liangsheng looked at the half-burnt cake in her hand, and his gaze fell on his disciple who was lying motionless on the wooden couch. The life-extending lamp was still on, so the soul could not dissipate, and there should be a glimmer of hope.
As she was thinking about it, the little girl saw that the gentleman didn't say anything, and tears started falling down. Suddenly she knelt down and cried while holding the pancake.
"Sir... please buy me... please buy me, and use the money from the sale as medical fees, okay? Save my mother, she is dying, sir, please buy me, save my mother, okay."
“My consultation fee is very expensive.”
Lu Liangsheng withdrew his gaze from the wooden bed, reached out and took the half cake from the little girl's hand, "I want half a cake."
After saying that, he put the cake into his sleeve, helped the little girl up, and patted her head gently.
"You go first, the gentleman will be here soon."
The little girl was stunned for a moment, then when she saw that the gentleman had accepted half of the cake, she smiled with tears on her smoky face, nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking at rice, turned around and trotted out.
Lu Liangsheng got up, and the Yuelong Sword flew in from the window lattice on one side and landed on the table.
"Master, I lost the old toad."
Over there, Lu Liangsheng stopped and looked at the bookshelf on the hip of the bald old donkey that was swinging its tail in the room. Only then did he discover that there was a half rope stuck in the small door of the compartment. Because of the apprentice's matter before, he didn't notice the master for a while...
"It's okay. Master's magic power is actually... not weak, and nothing has happened. It just so happens that I have to stay here for a while, so Master will come to find me."
The lives of the scholar and the Toad Taoist are connected, so if something happens to one of them, the other will naturally know. With this connection, it is not difficult to find him as long as he is not in heaven or hell.
Lu Liangsheng walked out of the hut and went to see a little girl standing next to a woman whose half body was covered in blood. There were constant cries in the village and half a tree was still burning.
The black smoke rose into the sky, like a wandering dark cloud, extending the undulating mountains to the west. Among the mountains in the northwest, there were steep mountains and ridges with sparse vegetation. Gravel was peeling off from the rocks in the wind and blowing away into the distance.
A stream of yellow sand flew up, and the cypress that stretched out from the steep wall was snapped off. It turned around a mountain peak and flew into a cave on the cliff at the mouth of the gorge. It came to a spacious place, and the yellow sand scattered everywhere. Toad Taoist fell down in a daze, and sat on the cold ground, staggering.
When I regained consciousness, the dark cave suddenly lit up with fire. More than a dozen torches stuck in the cave wall caught fire. On both sides of the stone steps, the braziers set up were blazing with flames, illuminating a stone chair in the middle.
The yellow sand fell on it, condensing into the outline of a man, sitting on it with a big horse and a golden sword, wearing a cloak with a white fur collar, and his eyes were fierce and majestic, as if there was a flash of lightning.
"Zixing, long time no see."
Toad Taoist's heart skipped a beat.
… It’s over, it’s over, I’m afraid I won’t be able to leave this time.
However, I seemed to hear a few pig squeals from a distance...