The human eyes and the toad eyes face each other.
"Toad?"
"Taoist?"
The man and the toad asked each other a question at the same time. The next moment, the Toad Taoist put down his hands and feet, jumped out, and stomped his webbed feet on the ground as he ran.
Sun Yingxian propped herself up, brushed off the dust, and looked at the toad running away with its short legs, before she could react.
"Hiss... This toad runs on two legs and can talk."
etc!
His eyes suddenly widened, he lifted up the hem of his robe, took out the bronze mirror from his cloth bag, ran after him, and shouted, "Don't run! Monster—"
Since he started his apprenticeship, he finally encountered a real monster.
"Imperial command, divine action!"
Two pieces of talisman paper suddenly appeared in his hands and hit his legs. The moment his cloth shoes landed on the ground, smoke and dust were stirred up in all directions. The whole person was like a sharp arrow released from a bow, and a long trail of dust rolled up behind him.
In front, the Toad Taoist, who had run for a distance, looked back and saw the man waving his arms wildly, rushing towards him with dust. His original idea of running into the woods suddenly changed, and he jumped over a clump of grass and turned in another direction.
"Do you really think I'm a foolish toad?"
Feeling the figure running behind him getting closer and closer, Toad Taoist rushed into the village, suddenly lay down on the ground, and crawled forward quickly with all four limbs.
In front, there was a bustling crowd. Many villagers gathered in the spacious dam, guarding the carts, or sending one person from each family to sign a contract with the village elder. In addition to getting back the stolen items, they could also get extra money.
Amid the excited noise, a few children playing on the outskirts of the crowd noticed a toad slowly crawling in from the west entrance of the village and ran over curiously.
"It seems to be from Brother Liangsheng's family."
“… Look, there’s a big gourd on its back. Hehe, maybe there’s something delicious inside.”
Two older children stepped forward, squatted in front of the slowly crawling toad, and tilted their heads to watch where it was going to crawl to. At this time, Sun Yingxian's figure rushed over a few steps away from the village entrance.
"What a courageous monster, you dare to drag innocent villagers... Hey... Stop..."
The Toad Taoist suddenly slowed down and crawled slowly, leaving him no time to slow down. Seeing that he was about to hit the two children in front of him, he hurriedly withdrew his magic of speed. He paused, but still slid half a foot away. A thick layer of mud piled up on the edges of his shoes, and he stopped almost in front of the children, with a big hole in his cloth shoes.
The two children squatting on the ground stared at the figure that was less than half a hand's distance away, were stunned for a moment, and then cried out in fear.
The villagers who were surrounding the scene looked back and were immediately in an uproar.
"Where did this wild Taoist priest come from!" A woman also shouted: "He bullied my child—"
A group of people rushed over, some took the child away, and the others surrounded Sun Yingxian, looking him up and down.
Lu Pan stepped forward with his injured arm hanging, blocking the Taoist priest who was trying to squeeze out: "You are a grown man, and a monk, how can you bully a child?"
"I didn't bully!!"
He still remembered the injustice he had been accused of by the head constables. Now he was accused of bullying a child. He yelled in anger and pointed at himself: "Also, I am only seventeen years old and I am here to catch monsters!"
"Seventeen?" A village girl nearby looked up and down at his pointed face and the pair of mustaches on his upper lip, and laughed out loud with her hands covering her mouth: "Then you look a little anxious."
Lu Pan waved her off and frowned.
"Catch a monster? What does the monster look like? Where is it?"
Sun Yingxian pushed and shoved in the crowd, searching everywhere with her eyes, pointing at a dark shadow crawling away from under the feet of the people, and hurriedly shouted: "Isn't that it?!"
The villagers stepped back and saw the black shadow on the ground. The Toad Taoist blinked his eyes, croaked, and continued crawling.
Everyone laughed, and a frightened child pointed at the Taoist.
"He is the one who bullies us!"
Lu Pan pointed at the toad on the ground and said, "You little Taoist priest, you are telling lies. That toad has been in the village for quite some time, and no one has lost chickens or ducks, or died young. How can it be a monster? Bullying a child is bullying a child!"
After saying that, he turned around and shouted to the strong men in the village: "Tie him up and send him to the authorities!"
"Yes, maybe he wants to steal things in the village!"
"Tie him up first!"
Everyone rushed forward at once, and Sun Yingxian was squeezed in the middle. He could no longer see the toad monster. He opened his outstretched hand and his face turned red with anxiety.
"You...you...if Master hadn't told me before his death not to attack ordinary people, I would really like to teach you a lesson!"
"How dare you be so violent!"
Among the crowd, eight people including Lu Pan suddenly lined up in a row, shouted "Ha" angrily, pressed their arms down, clenched their fists, and their knotted chest muscles bulged inside their open lapels, shaking towards the Taoist man.
"How dare the eight people from Lujia Village to cause trouble in our Qixia Mountain? How could they be afraid of you?"
Sun Yingxian looked at the eight men's chest muscles bouncing. They all stood there in a daze, shook their heads, and clenched their teeth with red faces.
"I really don't dare..."
Before the Taoist could finish his words, there was a sudden whistling sound from behind. Sun Yingxian turned around subconsciously and a stick hit him on the forehead with a bang.
In front of my sight, there is a burly and fat village woman.
"Auntie... you... have great arm strength."
Sun Yingxian staggered twice and fell down with a thud. The woman put down the rolling pin and spat at Lu Pan and the other eight people: "It's just a piece of cake. Is it necessary to make such a fuss?"
The country women worked in the fields and went up the mountain to collect firewood, so they naturally had plenty of arm strength. Everyone checked the Taoist's breath and found that he was fine, so they tied him up first and continued to distribute the things.
It's like nothing happened.
"Let's go, lock him up first and divide the things first."
"Hey, where's the toad?"
"… Maybe it went back to Liangsheng's place. This toad is quite intelligent and has even learned how to recognize the door."
Amid the sound of conversation on the other side pushing the cart, Taoist Toad indeed returned to the small courtyard with a fence. He glanced over and saw that Li Jinhua and her daughter were not outside, so he quickly stood up and ran into the house.
"I am so thirsty... Bring me some water."
Lu Liangsheng was chatting and laughing with Hong Lian. When he heard what was said, he quickly reached out and took the bowl of water on the small table next to him.
"Master, where have you been?"
The Taoist Toad jumped to the **, sat down cross-legged, untied the gourd behind him and threw it aside, then gulped down a few mouthfuls from the bowl handed to him, then lay down comfortably, showing his white belly, and talked about the reason for going out.
"I'm going to look for medicine for you. I'm so tired."
Nie Honglian chuckled, floated to the bed, and gently massaged the toad's tiny limbs.
The young man leaning against the head of the bed sat up and looked around: "Master, where are your medicines?"
“Hmph…” The Toad Taoist opened one of his eyes, swept away the ghost woman’s two fingers, stood up, and walked to the gourd with his webbed feet behind his back.
"Look carefully, everything is in here. I mentioned it to you before. This thing is my magic weapon. It can swallow everything in the world. But it also has another function. It can make good things out of the things put in it."
The toad pulled out the stopper and shook it. A herb fell out, and even things bigger than the mouth of the gourd could fit in and out.
"How is it? Awesome, isn't it?" Toad Taoist patted the gourd as if to show off, and stuffed the herbs back. "As long as you recite the spell, this magic gourd can refine the things inside into elixirs."
Then, he added: "Don't disturb me for now."
He jumped off the bed, dragging the gourd, and went under the bed to avoid being disturbed.
The room fell silent again. The atmosphere of laughter and chat with Nie Honglian was broken. Now it was a bit awkward to continue talking. Lu Liangsheng was about to speak again when Lu Laoshi came back with Lu Pan following him.
"Liangsheng, let us tell you something."
The voice came from far away. Nie Honglian couldn't stay any longer, so she turned around and went into the scroll. After a moment, Lu Laoshi and Lu Pan also pushed the door open and came in.