When the wind blows, the bamboo forest outside the yard can be heard rustling.
Lu Liangsheng took a deep breath and opened his tightly pursed lips slightly: "Then why let me help you."
"Because you are also a scholar, and scholars who practice Taoism have righteousness in their hearts."
The old woman's voice was a little choked. She stood up from that side, walked over here, and lowered her head while leaning on her cane: "I dare not make excessive requests. I only ask that when you travel in the world, if you meet someone named Qin Xujia, ask him to come back and visit."
This was not an excessive request. There were so many people in this huge crowd, and if he met the old lady, it would only be a matter of words. What's more, the old lady kept her promise and never left. How could Lu Liangsheng refuse? He just nodded and agreed.
"I've made note of this. If I encounter him again in the future, I will definitely ask him to come back."
"Thank you, young master! Thank you all!" The old woman bowed to everyone under the eaves, and the two demons who were supporting her on both sides also followed suit.
This made Lu Pan, the Taoist and others feel quite embarrassed.
"Old man, don't worry! My Liangsheng is extraordinary. If we meet him and he doesn't come back, we will help you get him back!"
Seeing everyone's replies, the old woman smiled and her tone became much lighter.
"I originally wanted to send these two juniors to serve you for a night, but you are a righteous man, and ordinary women may not be interested in you. It just so happens that where I live, I still have some books of my master hidden, so why not take them."
His eyes passed the little Taoist priest who kept pointing at him, and looked at Lu Liangsheng, who bowed and left with the two female demons beside him.
"Hey, hey, hey... don't go!"
The Taoist chased down the stairs a few steps, watching the smoke disappear, still pointing at himself with his hands.
"… Look at me, I'm very good at finding people, and I can help you!! Even one person is fine."
He stretched his neck and shouted, the smoke dissipated at the end of the corridor, he brushed his sleeves awake, turned around and walked back.
"It's fine if you're just a vixen, but even a weasel can look down on me?! How can this be absurd—"
Turning around, I found that the eight people under the eaves had returned to the house and were snoring. The scholar at the door had also returned to the room and slammed the door shut.
Lu Liangsheng ignored the Taoist who was confused when he met the female demon, and went back to sit at the table. Thinking of what the old woman had just said, he poked his master who was sleeping soundly under the candlestick.
Feeling his belly being poked twice, Toad Taoist opened his eyes, sat up, and rubbed his eyes: "What's the matter? Have you dealt with the monster?"
"Yes, but I didn't take them."
Lu Liangsheng repeated the old woman's words to Toad, and then asked, "Master, have you ever eaten a cultivator from the Qin Xu family?"
“Among the people that Master has eaten…” The Toad Taoist paused, then suddenly jumped up, his eyes wide open: “Do you think it was Master who did it? There are many monsters in this world that have eaten countless people, for example… for example… the white wolf monster in the northwest!”
"Didn't Master say last time that he attained enlightenment through the wolf spirit residing in the shrine?"
The Toad Taoist stopped talking and glared at him fiercely: "Do you have to have such a good memory? Even my master can't remember it, but how can you remember it?"
He walked around the candlestick with flippers on his feet, humming a few times and waving his flippers.
"Thinking back to the past, how powerful was my master, how bloody it was, how many cultivators besieged me on the mountaintop... If I really had to eat so many people, how could I not remember their names?"
As he spoke, he pushed aside the two whiskers that were moving back and forth in its mouth and said, "Besides, I don't know how to go into the water. The old woman was talking about a monster that ate countless people underwater, not on land... It's late, go to bed quickly."
"Um... Master..."
Before Lu Liangsheng could ask more questions, he saw Taoist Toad slide down the corner of the table to the ground, ran into the bookshelf compartment, got into the bed, flicked out his tongue, and the small door closed with a bang, and snoring sounds were heard.
"Alas... never mind."
Swallowing the questions he was about to ask, Lu Liangsheng picked up the book again and started reading it for a while before he fell asleep.
Soon, there were rustling footsteps outside the door, and a beautiful female voice said outside:
"Sir, my mother-in-law asked me to bring you some books."
"Just leave it outside the door."
After sending away the little demon outside the door, Lu Liangsheng took the candlestick and went to open the door. Outside the threshold, there was a large wooden box made of peach wood, and the gaps were sealed with silver thread. From this detail, it can be seen that the man named Qin Xujia is a real scholar.
'Let me see what books are hidden.'
He moved the wooden box into the house, lifted his foot back, and hooked the door to close it.
Bang!
The wooden box fell next to the desk. Lu Liangsheng sat next to it casually and took out books from it.
"'On Entering Chu'? I don't think I've ever seen this book... But I have a copy of 'Baopu Ciling Ji' at home that is exactly the same."
I flipped through the contents and found that they were indeed the same, except for the binding. I took out the outer book and found that there were three bamboo slips side by side at the bottom of the box.
Lu Liangsheng used some magic formula to gently brush away the books and bamboo slips, separating them from the air. Then he took them out and unfolded them with his heavy hands.
I saw a line of words written on it: "Record of the Guardians of the Mountains and Rivers Volume 1"
He read the name carefully to the left. The content on it made Lu Liangsheng's hands tremble. He quickly put it on the table and read it word by word with a frown.
“…Isn’t this the Wanling Formation from the Illustrated Records of Mountains and Seas?”
He murmured softly, then turned around and took out the other two volumes from the bottom of the box. Most of them were scattered records of various magic arrays, many of which were extremely similar to the Wanling Array.
Could it be that... the All-Spirit Array was drawn from this
That's not right. Judging from the dates and fonts, these three bamboo books are not from ancient times at all. The things inside are scattered and seem to be pieced together.
But since he couldn't figure it out, Lu Liangsheng was not in a hurry to figure it out. He put the books back in place, cast a shrinking spell and put them on the bookshelf, then lay down on the mat next to him. With a wave of his wide sleeves, the candle on the table tilted, and the room instantly fell into darkness.
The night deepened, and as time passed, the clouds in the east began to brighten. The sun shone on the still wet streets. In the backyard of the inn where flags were flying, several shop assistants yawned and came out of the room. The fat shopkeeper was sitting under the eaves early in the morning, looking through an account book.
Hearing the sound of the waiters washing up, he raised his eyes and urged them to open the door and do business quickly.
"I remember when I was soliciting customers, I spoke louder and looked like I hadn't eaten all day..."
The voice paused, and suddenly called the last guy who was leaving, moved his mouth, and motioned him to go to the house behind to take a look.
"It's been a whole night, it looks like everything is fine. Go call them over for breakfast, and settle yesterday's bill."
"OK."
The guy threw the rag aside, ran to the yard quickly, unbolted the door, and just as he opened the door, he saw someone coming towards this side from the bamboo forest.
"Hello, sir."
Those people were the ones who had stayed there the previous night. Seeing that the other party did not look frightened at all, they greeted him immediately and invited him into the yard. Then, they ran to the shopkeeper and whispered something in his ear, which made the shopkeeper's fat round face break into a smile.
"I said there was no ghost, but you didn't believe me. It must be because those two guys were suspicious before. Now they have to clean up the place and move in."
As he said this, he smiled and pushed aside the waiter, and raised his hand to the scholar who came over: "Everyone, how was your stay yesterday?"
"That's good. Thank you for your hospitality. We have to go on the road early this morning, so we came to settle the bill on the way."
Lu Liangsheng returned the greeting and followed the shopkeeper into the inn hall to settle the bill. After putting down the heavy bag of money, he waved his sleeves, strode out, took the reins handed to him by the Taoist priest, and walked onto the street.
Lu Pan bought more than ten pancakes on the roadside and distributed them to seven people, and also gave one to the Taoist and Lu Liangsheng.
"That guy is very evil-hearted. How could Liangsheng let him off so easily?"
The scholar smiled but said nothing. He pulled the braying and shouting old donkey, dragged the bookshelf, and walked towards the bustling crowd, continuing to head north in the daylight.
…
In the inn, the shopkeeper who was fiddling with the abacus poured out his money bag and looked at the copper coins piling up, his face broke into a smile.
"Money is a good thing. It's not easy to save it. I can only make money if I serve the guests with less weight and no problem..."
The shopkeeper suddenly covered his mouth. Several regular customers who were just entering the store stood at the door and stared at him blankly. They naturally heard everything that had just been said. After a moment, they snorted heavily, turned around and left.
"Hey, don't leave, guys. I was just joking. How could I do such a thing? At most I would spit some saliva into the food and deduct some of the guys' monthly wages."
Now the whole inn was quiet, and even the passers-by passing by the door were stunned.
"I... I... how could I say such a thing?" The shopkeeper turned around with difficulty, and saw the shop assistants in the store rolled up their sleeves and walked towards him with gritted teeth.
The sun broke through the clouds, and golden light sprinkled on the blue and white flags of the inn. After a while, the screams of someone being beaten were heard: "I really didn't mean to say these words, just listen to me...ah...ah..."
The sound of tables, chairs, pots and pans being smashed to pieces echoed in the street for a long time.
At this time, Lu Liangsheng and his group walked out of the town and crossed mountains and rivers to the Hezhou border.