The foothills are covered in light green, and branches and leaves all over the mountain are swaying in the wind.
The spring breeze blows gently across the fields. Spring swallows chirp and carry mud to and from the village. Under their outstretched wings, farmers with their trousers rolled up walk across the ridges of the fields and greet familiar people from afar. Not far away, a girl carrying a basket and a kettle crosses the ditches, places pottery bowls by the side of her field, and calls her relatives who have gone to work in the fields to come over for a drink of water.
"Coming Soon"
Lu Laoshi watched the stream water carrying mud slowly flowing in from his relative's field. He turned back and called his wife to take a break and drink some water, and also called Sun Yingxian, who was wielding a hoe in the field, to join him.
Bang, the hoe hit the mud, the Taoist raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, took a deep breath, tilted his head and shouted.
"Old Pig, go and have some water!"
The dark and fat man put down his hoe, hugged the short gossip and wiped his face, then went to sit next to Lu Xiaoxian with the Taoist priest, took the pottery bowl and took a sip.
"Where is Lu Liangsheng?"
The Taoist took the water from the girl, raised his head and looked around. All around him were villagers from Lujia Village and Beicun who were busy with spring ploughing.
After taking a sip of water, the Taoist raised his chin in one direction.
"Go set up a small spirit gathering formation."
After drinking some water and resting for a while, Li Jinhua, Lu Laoshi and his wife, the Taoist priest, and Zhu Ganglie went back to the fields and spent the whole morning turning the soil and diverting water. Originally, Sun Yingxian wanted to use magic, but Liangsheng wouldn't let him, saying something like, "Spring farming is natural. Magic shortcuts can easily breed laziness."
"Oh, that's fine."
'Hoo!'
Zhu Ganglie said something, walked back to the field, spat into his hands, rubbed them, picked up the hoe, and with a "hahaha" sound, he started digging into the ground.
The handle connected to one end of the hoe broke with a snap, leaving only a bare end stuck in the mud, causing Li Jinhua to chase him with the hoe.
The villagers who were working around stood up, wiped the sweat from their faces, watched the scene, and started laughing.
…
At the river bank more than ten feet away, more than a dozen men with bare chests were waving hoes, digging up the mud by the river and diverting water to irrigate the fields.
A young man in a simple blue linen shirt, with long hair tied up simply, stood in the middle of the stream with his trouser legs rolled up. He picked up a large oval stone the size of a fist and threw it to the shore.
"Hong Lian, stand further away. Be careful not to get splashed with mud."
"Young Master, isn't there already a spirit gathering formation on the mountain?" Hong Lian squatted on the shore, watching the big wet rock rolling not far away, supporting her chin with a puzzled look.
Lu Liangsheng washed the mud off his hands in the water, and suddenly splashed water at the woman who was looking at him, causing Hong Lian to raise her sleeves to cover her face. "Oh..." she stood up with a soft moan, stamped her feet and shouted, "Young Master, stop making trouble!"
The scholar walked out of the river with a smile on his face.
"Okay, I won't bother you anymore."
After reaching the river, with his feet still in the water, Lu Liangsheng sat down on the ground, took the stone and placed it on his legs. There were spell engravings on it from the original arrangement.
"The one on the mountain isn't actually a spirit gathering formation. This one is."
He patted the stone in his hand and infused magic power into the original spell patterns on the stone. It extended rapidly along the patterns. After the entire spell pattern lit up, it gradually faded away, and it looked like an ordinary stone again.
Lu Liangsheng casually threw it back into the river. With a splash, water splashed down and ripples spread out, disappearing along the water surface. The scholar continued:
"The magic power above will eventually run out. A few days ago, I reconsidered the structure of this magic array and thought of a way to connect it with the large spirit gathering array on the mountain, so that it can nourish the land and water here endlessly."
Seeing Hong Lian's suspicious eyes, Lu Liangsheng laughed, remembering that he had also sat by the river like this, looking at his master in confusion.
"Don't worry, it won't turn into a demon or spirit. It will just make the fish and shrimp meat more delicious and bigger in size."
As he grew older and gained more experience, Lu Liangsheng had a vague suspicion that "Nan Shui Shi Yi" and "Qing Huai Bugeng" were actually some of the books that Toad Taoist picked out based on his own preferences. Especially in "Qing Huai Bugeng", the words "rejuvenate" and "nourish" were everywhere, and it felt like the word "eat" appeared in two-thirds of the book.
Although Hong Lian has been worshipped as a Rakshasa ghost, she does not have a deeper understanding of magic than Lu Liangsheng. Speaking of Toad Taoist, she has not seen him for a long time.
I couldn't help but ask the scholar.
"Sir, why did Master Toad come out of retreat? I miss him."
"Food was delivered to him two days ago, and he didn't say when."
Walking along the river to the next node of the magic circle, the scholar stopped and stared at the water with a frown: "If the injury is successfully repaired, after coming out of retreat, the spirit gathering array should react. Right now... nothing has happened. But I think with Master's concentration and perseverance in his past cultivation, he should not care about eating."
The sun shines through the surging river, and the ripples flow eastward, then westward to the Qixia Mountain Grottoes shrouded in clouds and mist.
The oil lamp was dim and a crackling sound was heard.
The Toad Taoist mentioned by the scholar was sitting on the ground with his legs stretched out straight. He seemed to feel someone was talking about him. He turned his head and looked around with puffy cheeks.
"Hiccup~~"
He stretched his neck and swallowed the food in his mouth hard, then he stood up and hugged his heavy belly with relief. He walked to the stone bed on his flippers, raised his toad face, and fixed his eyes.
In an instant, he stretched his legs and kicked them, launching himself outward, leaving a trail of afterimage… Then, he pressed his belly against the bed, clung to the edge of the bed with his legs hanging outside, and kicked hard a few times before finally climbing up.
Whoosh…
Sitting there panting, Toad Taoist touched the toad's face and belly.
"It's only been a short while since I started my retreat, but I feel like I've gained a lot of weight."
"It could also be my illusion..."
“Forget it… Let’s do the most important thing first.”
Mumbling to himself for a few times, Toad Taoist stood up on his knees and ran to the wooden drawer at the innermost part of the stone bed that was against the wall of the cave. On the shelf above, there was a round object covered under the cloth.
The light illuminated the cave, showing a short figure slowly approaching with its flippers on its back. The toad hummed twice, and its round flippers grabbed the cloth, ripped it open, and threw it into the corner.
A green bead was placed on a tray on the shelf, with mist lingering and floating slowly. Toad Taoist took it, held it in front of him and took a deep breath.
On the demon pill, the smooth surface reflected the light from the lamp, reflecting a toad's mouth slightly opened, and then widened almost to the back of its head.
“Hehe…hahaha…ahhahaha—”
The toad held the magic pill in his hand, raised his face, opened his mouth wide and laughed wildly.
“… There is only one step left. I can finally return to the top and look down upon the world!!”
The laughter penetrated the thick mountain walls, and the forest outside was shaken and swayed wildly. The birds were startled and flew away in an instant, circling in a dark mass on the mountainside.