"Master Toad, there is something you haven't prepared yet. I'll go get it for you."
"No need to go. What else can the old toad take except food? Look at the bag that Old Lu is carrying. I think it's almost full of food."
"Lu Liangsheng, what's in there? Let me take a look."
"Go away, that belongs to me, don't even look at it!!"
A fine drizzle fell down the mountain path and hit the oil-paper umbrella. Lu Liangsheng, who was walking behind the crowd, stopped holding the umbrella and felt a little itchy on his back. Could it be that he hadn't taken a shower for too long and his skin was dry
"… Little Toad is really going to retreat, what happened? Old demon, old demon, tell me."
Hearing Mu Qiyu's words, the scholar twisted his shoulders, moved his robe to rub the itchy area, and felt a little better. Then he walked over and caught up with her, with a smile on his face.
"Nothing happened. Master's demon core has been damaged for too long, so he just wants to speed up the recovery."
The tree demon is very innocent. She has been getting along with the people of Lujia Village for a long time and has been influenced by the worldly things. If she knew that she was surrounded that day and that she had lost her cultivation and her master had to go into seclusion to repair his injuries, she might really come to attack her and cause trouble.
In this matter, the master was at fault first. No matter what the excuse was, killing was killing, but he could not be dealt with like an ordinary monster by the monks in the sect.
After all, he is the master. As a disciple, I cannot sit idly by. At the moment, I must not create unnecessary trouble and turn the situation that I have finally managed to calm down into an unmanageable one.
'Next year when I arrive in Chang'an, I will go to the place called Luohe Town to erect a monument for the people who died there that year and pay off the debt for my master...'
As he was thinking, he walked along the mountain path guided by the faded red line and came to the big bluestone where he first met his master. The Toad Taoist walked closer on his flippers, raised his head and looked at the rock that looked like a mountain, and waved his flippers.
"open!"
boom-
The boulder dragged with a heavy sound and slowly moved to one side, revealing a dark cave entrance at the back. The Taoist took out a piece of talisman paper and threw it into the cave. It hung in the air and burned, illuminating the inside. There was an antique low table with a few bamboo scrolls on it. They were placed there when Lu Liangsheng was in seclusion to practice Nascent Soul, and he forgot to take them away.
There was a long-pillar oil lamp standing on the ground nearby. After entering, Lu Liangsheng borrowed a fire from the Taoist priest and lit the wick. Apart from that, there was only an empty stone couch in the entire cave.
The Toad Taoist jumped twice, climbed up the edge of the bed with his flippers hanging in the air, and kicked hard a few times before he finally climbed up.
"Liangsheng, put your things down and go."
"You asked us to sit down, how stingy!" The Taoist rolled his eyes. He and Zhu Ganglie looked around the cave, and felt that there was nothing to see. They shook their sleeves and walked out to wait.
Hong Lian cleaned the cave and Mu Qiyu also came to help. The two of them waved their long sleeves and used their magic powers to clean the dust.
The air flows against each other and smoke and dust fill the air.
Cough cough!
The Toad Taoist coughed twice and quickly asked his disciple, who wanted to give him a few more instructions, to take the monster and the ghost away.
The scholar had just taken two steps when he heard his master's words behind him.
"Liangsheng, wait a minute!"
Putting the gourd aside, Toad Taoist stood by the bed and called Lu Liangsheng. Seeing his serious face, he thought he had something important to tell him.
But he whispered: "If you have anything delicious, remember to send it to me and put it by the stone gate."
He glanced at the others who went out the door and added.
"Don't tell them."
“We all heard it!!”
Outside the cave, the Taoist, Zhu Ganglie, Hong Lian, and Mu Qiyu shouted towards this side at the same time. None of them were ordinary people, and the distance between them was only about 50 to 60 feet, so they could hear even the smallest voice.
"Humph, this is what I like, and you are not allowed to say it."
The Toad Taoist scolded, turned his back, and kept signaling his disciple to get out quickly with his webbed feet hanging by his legs. However, everyone saw through his mistake and laughed at him, which made him feel a little embarrassed.
"Then I will leave. I will come to see you every day. If Master needs anything, please feel free to ask."
Amid the laughter outside, Lu Liangsheng nodded in response, helped to tidy up the stone couch, and spread out the master's bedding. Then he said goodbye and left. Seeing the huge rock being dragged together with a rumbling sound, he sorted himself out and returned to the village and the small fenced yard while chatting and laughing with everyone.
Squeak~~
He pushed open the door and saw the easel still standing there. He looked at the strange beasts of the mountains and seas outlined in blue ink on it, shook his head, and put it away.
'Without the magic power, no matter how lifelike it is, it is just an ordinary painting.'
The rain gradually stopped, and birds flew to the old tree in the yard, landed on the branches, and chirped melodiously. The mother went to the kitchen with firewood in her arms. The Taoist priest was fighting with the pig demon in the yard. Hong Lian helped pick vegetables, and from time to time she competed with the tree demon, pulling up a whole vegetable with its roots and breaking it in half while it was suspended in the hands of the two.
Seeing this scene through the window, and thinking that he was now a normal human being, Lu Liangsheng suddenly shuddered.
'Just keep reading my book, there is beauty in the book...'
When he lowered his eyes and looked at "Boundless Mountains and Seas", his expression suddenly froze. In the painting, the altar in Sichuan and Shu had an extra turtle shape.
Um
This... isn't that the black turtle I drew before
The fingertips moved over and tapped lightly, and a small circle of ripples appeared on the paper in the shape of a turtle. Lu Liangsheng almost instinctively turned his hands over and spread them out. He didn't know why he made this gesture. However, the next moment, points of light gathered in his palms.
"Ming Ang~~~"
A sharp scream sounded in the light. When the white light faded, his palm became heavy, and he saw a dark blue turtle shell in his palm. Its limbs and legs kicked out together, and it slowly stood up on the basis of Lu Liangsheng's hand. At the position of the head and tail, two heads popped out.
The front is a bird's head with red feathers on the neck, and a long snake body extends from the tail. At the very top, there is a green snake with bared fangs, spitting out its tongue, and hissing.
Not even as big as the master... But this small one is quite interesting.
Lu Liangsheng touched it lightly and felt the reality. He threw it onto the table and it disappeared in white smoke. After waiting for a while, it did not reappear.
'Hmm... If it can't leave my hand, is it just for viewing? Or is there another way that I haven't discovered?'
He tried a few more times, and just like before, he only put it down temporarily when his mother called him to eat at the kitchen door.
'Maybe it has something to do with the painting? Don't be impatient. Haste makes waste. I'll explore it further this afternoon.'
Having made up his mind and come up with a new way of practicing, Lu Liangsheng contentedly closed "Boundless Mountains and Seas", shut the door, and walked into the kitchen with the Taoist priest and Zhu Ganglie.
Outside the dripping rain curtain, on the mountain road leading to Fushui County, the rain stopped and a horse-drawn carriage rolled over the muddy road, splashing a pool of mud and water.
Soon, the carriage stopped and a skinny old monk lifted the curtain and bowed to the coachman.
Wearing a cassock and holding a golden bowl, he strode towards the temple in the rain ahead.