There was a swelling pain in my internal organs, and I could vaguely hear the rapid sound of horse hooves "trample trample..."
His body was light and floated, rising and falling.
After regaining consciousness a little fuzzily, Lu Liangsheng slightly opened his eyes and felt that he was leaning against a body with a soft touch.
As he swayed up and down, he was restrained by something like a rope around his waist to prevent himself from falling. He leaned on the shoulder of the person in front of him. A few strands of black hair brushed past his face. The person tilted his face slightly, and the outline illuminated by the sunlight looked familiar.
“…Min Yuerou?” Lu Liangsheng asked tentatively in a weak voice.
"It's me, Mr. Lu. Why are you here? You seem injured. What happened?"
"Where is this place? Take me back to Qixia Mountain..."
"This is Fulin Prefecture. It will take at least two days to get back to Qixia Mountain."
The words floated in the wind and there was no response for a long time. Min Yuerou tightened the horse's belly and looked back. The scholar tied to her back had his eyes closed and fainted again.
"He might not be able to hold on if he keeps going this fast."
The woman gritted her teeth, whipped the whip hard, and shouted, "Go!"
The horses picked up speed again, whizzing through the woods, turning onto another slightly wider road. It would take at least a day to get to Fushui County by the official road, and it would not be enough time for one horse to carry two people. Moreover, when they met Lu Liangsheng, they had already been running for half a day, and both the man and the horse were already tired.
After turning around the mountain road in front, the road became flat. There was a building halfway up the mountain. Min Yuerou looked at the sky and led the horse up the hillside.
'Why not just live here?'
After leaving Chang'an, Min Yuerou was no longer the delicate young lady from an official family. She went all the way south, and suffered a lot during the long journey. She became different from before.
He pulled some dry grass and spread it under the broken wall, put Lu Liangsheng down on it, unscrewed the water bag and fed him some water, ran to find a pile of dead branches, tucked her hair behind her ears, blew on the tinder a few times, watched the sparks burn and the smoke rise, and a smile appeared on her face.
The setting sun left a trace of red in the air. An old crow stood on the branch of a nearby dead tree, uttering a creepy cry.
Wow! Wow!
In the half-collapsed shabby house, the setting sun shone on the spread hay. Amid the cry of crows, Lu Liangsheng slightly opened his eyes. He felt as if there was a force pulling at his body, like the Buddhist energy of Monk Zhenhai. However, it did not hurt his internal organs, but made him feel a little weak. He felt much better now.
Looking at the bonfire burning not far away, it took a while for my thoughts to slowly come together.
'Before falling into coma, I seemed to have seen Min Yuerou.'
The shabby house is not big and I can see all around at a glance. There is no sign of the woman. Are they going to leave me here and run to Qixia Mountain to get help
Thinking about this, Lu Liangsheng walked to the door, holding onto the wall. The setting sun shone on his face, and he squinted his eyes. He heard a woman's cry nearby, "Hum, hey!", and the unique whistling sound of a sword cutting through the air.
Turning the corner, in the open space next to the woods where the dilapidated house stood, a woman in a green tight-fitting dress had her sleeves flying in the red glow, and fallen leaves were floating down. She was dancing lightly with the Yuelong Sword, drawing out dense sword shadows, with a beauty of hardness and softness.
Hearing the footsteps, Min Yuerou stopped dancing with the sword, her pretty face slightly flushed, she breathed slightly heavily, looked at the scholar standing there, and laughed heartily.
He walked over confidently and handed the Yuelong Sword back.
"Awake, you're awake. I saw you carry this sword with you all the time, so I tried it. It seems to be quite useful."
Lu Liangsheng took Yuelong, a magical power was transmitted into his palm, and the voice of Pudu Cihang rang in his mind.
"Master, she looks down on me, teach her a lesson for me!"
Lu Liangsheng walked back to the dilapidated house with the woman and smiled, but he answered the woman's words.
"This sword is the one that killed Pudu Cihang. If you have magical powers, it won't be as easy to use as it seems."
“So amazing?”
Back in the house, Min Yuerou squatted beside the fire and looked at the sword in the scholar's hand in surprise. Then her eyes showed confusion and she looked at the scholar for a long time.
"Then why is Mr. Lu here and injured?"
"I..." Lu Liangsheng sat on the hay and stopped talking. He was quiet for a while, then he looked at the Yuelong in his hand and smiled.
"I lost my magic power, and I met my master's enemy, and was abducted here. I thought I was still in Qixia Mountain, but I didn't expect to be in Fulin Prefecture in a blink of an eye. By the way, why are you here?"
Seeing that the scholar changed the subject, he seemed unwilling to talk more about it. Min Yuerou thought that he might feel a little embarrassed, so she smiled and passed a dry branch to the fire, then took out a bunch of dry food from her bag and roasted them on the branch.
"As for me, I ran away from home... I walked and walked, and unknowingly crossed the river, and went to Tianzhi to see where I used to live. I thought that since I was here, I might as well come and see Qixia Mountain..."
In the firelight, the woman's eyes were somewhat evasive. Lu Liangsheng was silent for a moment, then asked in a low voice: "Was it after that night?"
Min Yuerou thought of her own boldness that night, and her face became hot. She glanced at the scholar and said, "You are so beautiful!"
He handed the baked steamed bun to Lu Liangsheng, and sat down beside him with one in his hand. He blew on it twice, carefully tore off a little and put it in his mouth to chew.
"Hu...hiss...don't let your imagination run wild...huhu...I...didn't...huh...leave home...for you."
Lu Liangsheng also blew on the hot buns and said with a smile: "That's just my own wishful thinking."
On the side, Min Yuerou opened her mouth slightly, wanting to say something but stopping herself, stamped her feet lightly, and muttered, "That's right!"
He bit the steamed bun in his hand hard, cried out because it was hot, and quickly spat it on the ground, which made Lu Liangsheng laugh out loud. Min Yuerou rolled her eyes at him and stepped on her.
As they played and laughed, the sky darkened completely. In the wilderness, the moonlight was like water. Min Yuerou led the horse into the shabby house and hung the coarse cloth she had prepared at the door to block the wind. The autumn night was chilly and it was definitely not possible for the two to sleep together, so they stayed awake and sat by the campfire talking about recent events.
"I left Chang'an alone and realized that the world outside was completely different from what I had seen before. People were diligent and hardworking, and they had houses to live in and food to eat. But in some mountainous areas, many people lived on the land and depended on the weather. When bad times came, the whole family would go hungry..."
Min Yue bent her legs, hugged her knees, rested her chin on them, looked at the swaying flames, and spoke quietly.
"Actually, I miss my parents too. I wonder how anxious they will be when I leave. What about you? Master Lu, how did you lose your magic power?"
"I?"
Lu Liangsheng was stunned for a moment, and when he saw the woman looking at him, he smiled and poked the campfire, and talked about what happened before from Chang'an to the northwest, how he rushed into the Turkic army and rescued his apprentice, how he met the Old Mother of Mount Li, and the monkey demon trapped under the mountain, and told the woman the story.
Supernatural matters are always something people enjoy talking about. Min Yuerou, who originally missed home, couldn't help but ask questions about them.
"I believe you when you say you saw the Old Mother of Mount Li, but I also believe you when you say it was the monkey trapped under the mountain. But I don't believe you when you say he jumped out of a stone. How could a stone give birth to flesh and blood?"
Min Yuerou rested her chin on her head and laughed out loud: "I'll give you monkey hair back, then change it for me to see."
As he spoke, right in front of her sight, Lu Liangsheng took out a handful of brown and yellow hair from his sleeve pocket, picked up one of the hairs, blew it onto the ground, and recited the words of the Demon Monkey Cult. In the firelight, a cloud of smoke rose with a bang.
A monkey over three feet tall stood there carrying a stick, with its paw on its forehead as if looking around. It stared blankly at the man and woman in front of it, cursing under its breath.
"Entertain me, Old Sun!"
The next moment, it turned into a cloud of smoke and then into hair.
"Do you believe it now?" Lu Liangsheng looked at the stunned woman and picked up the monkey hair and put it together with the ball of hair. "The monkey got into trouble and was pressed under the mountain. It has been many years now. Maybe it will come out in a few decades."
"Even if you come out, it's still during your cultivation..."
Suddenly remembering that Lu Liangsheng had no more magic power, Min Yuerou quickly shut up and changed the subject: "… Even if it comes out, a mortal like me will definitely not be able to see it."
Lu Liangsheng smiled and did not respond. After that, the two chatted casually, no longer talking about cults or gods and ghosts. However, they were exhausted after all and could not bear it any longer. Before they knew it, they leaned against each other, sat on the hay, and nodded their heads together.
Late at night, Lu Liangsheng simply let Min Yuerou go to sleep and sat by the fire. Unfortunately, he had no books to pass the time and seemed a little bored. Sometimes, his back began to itch again, but he couldn't reach it with his hands, so he ran to the door to rub it. The woman who was not asleep yet saw him and wanted to come over to scratch it for him.
"Take off your coat. I'm not ashamed. What are you afraid of? I've seen everything along the way. I've often seen people unbuttoning their belts and peeing on the side of the road."
With a look of disdain, he pulled down Lu Liangsheng's outer clothes a little, revealing his back, and then let out a soft cry.
"Mr. Lu... why are there so many black spots on the itchy area on your back..."
Lu Liangsheng frowned and turned his head in confusion: "What?"
In an instant, Min Yuerou's stammering words were heard.
"Like... the stars in the sky."