Lu Liangsheng pushed open the half-open charred wooden door and returned to the house, where he found a fleshy figure with a long mouth and big ears sitting by the burning fire. When the latter saw the scholar coming in, the corners of his mouth pulled back to the back of his head.
"I, old pig, miss your drinks."
"It's Old Pig." Lu Liangsheng laughed, reached out and took the self-portrait in the corner of the room. The illusion of sitting on the edge of the bed disappeared. He took a small pot from the bookshelf, added some millet and water, and boiled it.
He casually conjured up a wine jug and cups and placed them in front of his master and the pig demon.
"Old Pig, why are you with my master? When we parted at Changyang Mountain last time, didn't you say you were going to look for weapons?"
Taoist Toad took a sip from the wine glass which was bigger than him, squinted his eyes and muttered quietly, "He was captured by the wolf demon and banished from heaven to earth."
At the side, Zhu Ganglie was not angry either. He smiled naively. He was afraid that the sound of metal rubbing against metal would disturb the villagers outside the house, so he spoke very quietly. He also repeated to Lu Liangsheng what he had explained to Toad Taoist before. Fortunately, his trip was not in vain. He finally knew where the weapons were, and it would not be too late to get them later.
Although Lu Liangsheng was curious about what weapon the pig demon had traveled a long distance to the northwest to find, he did not ask more questions since the other party did not tell him. The man and the pig talked for a while, and the scholar then asked his master what he wanted to say to him outside just now.
The toad holding the cup put it down, used its webbed feet to smell the aroma of the rice porridge in the pot, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Last time you killed the Holy Fire Master of the Fire Praying Sect, you angered the Five Colors Manor. A person called Wu Yuan Da Xian will definitely come after you."
"Is Wu Yuan Immortal very powerful?" Lu Liangsheng covered the corner of the quilt for Qu Yuanfeng who was lying on the wooden couch. He knew about Wuse Manor, but as for Wu Yuan Immortal, it was naturally the first time he heard of him.
Could it be the person in Taoist robes who stood on the top of the mountain that day in Mu Qiyu’s memory
I carefully recalled the scene of that day, but unfortunately it was only the tree demon's memory and I couldn't see the other person's appearance or age at all.
"Don't think too much, I'm here!"
The Toad Taoist raised his head and looked at his disciple, patting his chest and saying, "Although I don't know what kind of person this is, I think he must be quite capable to make the White Wolf Demon afraid of him."
Hearing this, Lu Liangsheng laughed, went over to stir the pot, and pondered for a moment.
"Then what did Master say about Yuan Feng?"
Seeing that the porridge was almost cooked, he just scooped up a spoonful when Zhu Ganglie and Toad Taoist both held out their bowls. Seeing that his disciple filled his red rooster porcelain bowl first, they nodded with satisfaction and sat down cross-legged.
"Liangsheng, you used the life-extending lamp to bring back his soul, but his body is already dead. It won't be long before he turns into a pile of bones."
Lu Liangsheng looked at his disciple lying on the wooden couch and his heart sank. He had thought about this problem before, but in the end he still held the view that if he could lead the soul back to the body first, there might be a chance of turning around. Now it seemed that he had to find another way.
Zhu Ganglie, holding the bowl, stared at the scholar who took the spoon and put it back into the pot. He was so anxious that he took the wooden spoon and scooped a bowl himself, and said something.
"If you die, then die. Live towards death, and you may have a better destiny."
The rice porridge was scooped into the bowl, and suddenly there was no sound around. Zhu Ganglie raised his head with the bowl in his hand, and saw the scholar and the toad looking at him together.
"Hey... I am an old pig who is outspoken and straightforward..."
"Speak." The man and the toad narrowed their eyes.
Zhu Ganglie shrank his neck, glanced to the south, waved his hand, and asked Lu Liangsheng and Toad Taoist to come closer. He opened and closed his long kiss and whispered, "Lishan, save this man. Go to Lishan. There is a magical spring on the mountain that can save him. But if you see the real owner, don't say it was me, Old Pig, who said it."
Mount Li
Lu Liangsheng frowned slightly, but the Toad Taoist over there spat out the rice porridge into the fire and waved his hands repeatedly.
"You can't go, you can't go!"
Before the scholar could speak, the pig demon beside him nodded and whispered, "That mountain is where the old mother of Mount Li lives. I'm afraid it will be difficult to use the sacred spring."
"You have to try."
The scholar looked at the flickering fire and said softly, "After dinner, he cast a spell on Qu Yuanfeng to block the death energy. It was already dark outside."
The next morning, in the ruined village, the villagers got up early and came to visit the young gentleman. There was only a pile of smoking firewood in the house, and a few herbs on a tattered table next to it.
“My benefactor!”
The old man in the village took the medicine, ran to the entrance of the village with tears in his eyes, and knelt down. Twenty or thirty people followed him and knelt down one after another.
"Send it to the benefactor!"
The sounds mixed together and spread far into the blooming morning light, returning to the mountains.
The morning breeze blows gently across the rolling hills.
Lu Liangsheng, who was walking up the hill, seemed to feel the words of gratitude behind him. He turned back with a smile, pulled the reins, and the copper bells rang. On the side of the old donkey's outstretched hoof, the tall and fat Zhu Ganglie hummed, picked a wild flower, and put it under his nostrils to sniff it. In the shaking bookshelf, through the open door, Toad Taoist chose clothes for today, picked a few pieces, and threw aside the ones he was not satisfied with.
Heading south, Lu Liangsheng regained his mood because of his apprentice's matter, but what he saw along the way still made him feel heavy.
A small number of Turkic cavalry marched southward, and wherever they passed, they saw ruined farmlands and mountain villages. People with bloodstained faces and ragged clothes sat on the roadside and at the entrance of the villages, looking at their dead relatives with numb expressions. Children who had lost both their parents stood alone in front of the collapsed houses, rubbing their eyes and crying loudly.
Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey forward, took out a few white flour buns and put them in the child's hand. He dug a hole for him to bury his dead relative, asked for his name, and carved the name on it.
He also went to treat the injuries of the villagers. The journey would have taken half a day, but he spent two days saving lives in various mountain villages, just as he had said before when he treated Mr. Lu in Lujia Village.
"No matter how high your cultivation is, if you don't use it to save those who need to be saved, then you are no different from a miser."
It was already the morning of the third day when they finished everything. They packed up and left with the old donkey. People from the surrounding villages came to see them off. Looking at the scholar and the old donkey walking away, someone suddenly slapped his thigh and started shouting.
"Oh, I remember now!"
The man pointed at the receding figure in a white scholar's robe, and began to stutter when the words came to his lips.
"He... he... is the Immortal in White! It was him who caused the drought in Liangzhou. I recognize him. No wonder he can save dying people. He is the Immortal in White!"
This man was originally from Liangzhou in the Chen Dynasty. He witnessed with his own eyes the deity being struck by lightning on the rain-praying platform. After the drought, he had no relatives left, so he came to the north to live with his sister who had married here. Now that he meets her again, he is naturally ecstatic. He will brag about it for the rest of his life when he tells others about it.
…
The bright morning light shone on the wild flowers on the hills, which swayed gently in the wind. The Toad Taoist sat on the donkey's head with a rope tied to his neck, holding a pipe in his mouth and exhaling a puff of smoke.
"Liangsheng, are you really going to Mount Li?"
"go."
The scholar in front of the old donkey turned his face to the side, the sunlight fell on his face, his eyes swept across the pig demon who was looking at the scroll on the side, and looked back at the distant mountain village and the mountain people standing at the entrance of the village.
"No matter what, whether it's saving them or for my disciple Qu Yuanfeng, I'm afraid I won't be able to face the future and my past self if I don't try my best."
He smiled, turned back and continued walking.
“… There can be no regrets.”