The sun shone through the old trees in the yard. The soft voices of Li Jinhua and Min Yuerou could be heard under the eaves, and Lu Xiaoxian laughed from time to time.
In the room, Lu Liangsheng put on his robe, frowned, turned around and looked at the pensive pig demon, who was quietly waiting for his next words. The anxious Taoist sat on the edge of the bed, twisting his buttocks back and forth.
"Old Pig, what solution have you come up with? Tell me now."
Over there, the fat figure stroked his chin and pondered for a moment, took two steps, and pondered for a moment: "I think Lu Liangsheng has lost his cultivation, so he can recast the five elements. The black turtle can produce kidney water, so there should be other strange beasts that can produce the other four elements. You might as well draw them. If they can appear on him, then it may be feasible."
After Zhu Ganglie's reminder, Lu Liangsheng frowned even more. It seemed that he had never heard of this method before, but it did not prevent him from giving it a try.
But before that, the scholar must first find the other four corresponding ones from the numerous strange beasts in the mountains and seas, and he needs to identify them one by one, otherwise if he chooses the wrong one and puts it on himself, he doesn’t know what accidents will happen.
Lu Liangsheng sat back at his desk and took up pen and ink to write down the descriptions of strange beasts in the three volumes of "Illustrated Records of Mountains and Seas" according to his memory. This was not the first time he had done this and he was quite familiar with it.
The Taoist and Zhu Ganglie who stayed in the room seemed bored. Seeing the scholar writing as if no one was around, they did not disturb him and invited him to slip out.
Min Yuerou, who had been talking for a long time under the eaves, quietly walked to the door and took a look. Seeing the scholar's focused profile, she smiled slightly, and left shyly, pinching the corner of her clothes, to help Li Jinhua with some housework.
The sunlight gradually tilted, casting a dim yellow cast.
The scholar who had been writing for a long time put down his pen, stretched himself, exhaled, and looked at the originally blank page, which was now covered with dense handwriting.
'The rest, just find it out from inside, it shouldn't be difficult... Hmm...'
Lu Liangsheng looked out the window. It was almost dusk. He had been writing for such a long time without realizing it, and Min Yuerou was still at home. He felt a little uncomfortable leaving her alone. He went out of the house and found that the girl was quite accustomed to being here. She followed her mother and helped around. Even if she didn't know how to do something, she would still ask for advice.
Xiao Xian nudged her brother with her elbow and looked at Min Yuerou who was making a fire and chopping wood in the kitchen. She whispered, "Brother, you finally got it. Our family will not be cut off. Look at mother's expression. If you dare to refuse, I'm afraid you will be beaten."
"Go away. You are already an adult, why don't you get married?" Lu Liangsheng glanced at her and frowned.
"Humph." Lu Xiaoxian raised her chin, crossed her arms in front of her chest, turned around and walked away: "I am still young and beautiful, so I don't want to get married so soon. I am still a child, how can I be a mother?"
Ever since her younger sister took the elixir given to her, her parents and even her younger sister have continued to age, but the aging process has become slower. They have gone to a private school in the village and have become more and more independent. Li Jinhua got angry two or three times because of this, and Lu Liangsheng also suffered as a result.
As it got dark, Hong Lian and Mu Qiyu came back one after another. The latter threw herself into Lu Liangsheng's arms and rubbed him a few times when she saw him, which made Hong Lian and Min Yuerou stare at him with their bowls of rice in hand and put them on the table with bangs. Lu Laoshi sat on the side and watched from all sides. He was pulled to the stove by his wife by the ear and asked to serve the dishes and put them on the table.
The Taoist went over to help, took out talisman paper, and cast a spell of five ghosts bringing wealth. He suspended plates of food in mid-air and dropped them onto the round table. With a bang, they hit Lu Xiaoxian's face, leaving all the greasy food residue on it. Then, Xiaoxian chased after him, holding a stool in her hand.
The old donkey curiously poked his head into the kitchen door, and a stool hit the door frame with a bang. He screamed and neighed in fright, and ran back to the donkey shed with his hooves spread.
Soon, a group of people started eating dinner around the round table.
…
The night deepened and the courtyard gradually became quiet. Lu Liangsheng returned to the room, lit the oil lamp, and in the dim light, read the name, location, and description of the strange beast on the page, word by word.
He used pen and ink to circle several strange beasts that might be useful. The next morning, Min Yuerou got up early at the sound of roosters crowing. She saw Lu Liangsheng sitting on a stone bench in the yard with his easel set up. Curious, she went over to see what he was painting.
The scholar's hand was filled with blue ink, which was used to draw lines. On it was a one-legged crane with its wings spread out as if ready to take off. The feathers were dotted with spots of blue ink, and there were faint flame-like lines around them.
"What kind of bird is this? Why does it have only one leg?" Min Yuerou couldn't help but ask out of curiosity. After all, she had seen huge creatures like the black tortoise before, and suddenly there was a painting of a crane, and a bird with only one leg, so she found it strange.
Lu Liangsheng put down the last stroke, looked at the strange beast taking shape on the painting, smiled, took down the drawing paper and put it on the stone table beside him.
"Bifang, according to legend, once it appears, it will be accompanied by a fire."
"That and the giant turtle that appeared that day..."
The woman couldn't find the right words to describe the black turtle she saw that day, so she could only say it was a big turtle. When she saw the scholar spread another blank piece of drawing paper on the easel, she stopped what she wanted to say and asked, "Do you want to paint more?"
"Yes! There are three more."
After washing the pen tip in water, Lu Liangsheng shook off the water stains and dipped the pen in ink again. With the woman's eyes, he slowly dotted the paper. The dark ink extended from the pen tip, outlining a body like an ox. The muscles were knotty like raised rocks, but on the head there was a single horn drawn by the scholar's pen, the tip of the horn bent forward, with the sharp side facing the opposite side.
“This is called Si.”
Without waiting for the woman to ask, Lu Liangsheng answered first, his hands never stopping, drawing thick and long hair on the body of the strange beast.
Wow!
He took off the drawing paper and overlapped it on top of the Bifang painting, continuing to paint without stopping. The insect had a beast's head, a snake's body, and two feet like eagle claws. It looked so creepy that Min Yuerou got goose bumps all over her body.
The last painting shows a ferocious beast crouching, with an ox head and body, covered in long hair like a waterfall, and four horns on its head, a pair of thin horns on the inner side and a pair of thick horns on the outer side that curve downwards. Its mouth has fangs sticking out, which is completely different from the curved 煕 in the previous painting, and it looks like it is ready to devour its prey.
Looking at the four lifelike pictures of strange beasts, Min Yuerou felt her heart palpitating. When the morning sun shone on her, she felt a chill on her back. She carefully watched Lu Liangsheng compare the four paintings carefully and take them into the house.
When the scholar pushed the door open and entered the room, placing the four paintings in front of "Boundless Mountains and Seas", a change quietly occurred. Four streams of green air visible to the naked eye floated out of the paintings and sank into the book.
In the painting of the event "Boundless Mountains and Seas", Qi was flowing and the roar of strange beasts could be faintly heard from above. Lu Liangsheng raised the book and unfolded it, and saw that among the mountains in the painting, there were four strange beasts, standing on the top of the mountain in the order of the five elements with the black tortoise.
The next moment, feeling an itch on his back, Lu Liangsheng clenched his fists.
The faint feeling became clearer, with itching all over as if someone was poking me with the tip of a brush. I couldn't help but take off my robe and try to scratch it.
On his invisible back, black spots that appeared at the corresponding positions of his five internal organs gradually formed stars and connected together to form the appearance of a strange beast.
"Mr. Lu, I'm here to bring breakfast."
Outside the door, Min Yuerou came in with breakfast, her beautiful eyes wide open. The scholar who took off his robe had tattoos all over his back and almost spilled the porridge.