"Hot pancakes, freshly-cooked pancakes."
"Crisp pears, juicy when you take a bite, no money if not sweet~~"
A short man carrying a load on his shoulder and a child carrying a basket walked past the flags, shouting and yelling. Sunlight shone through the window on the second floor. The Toad Taoist woke up, rubbed his eyes, sat on the edge of the bed, and stretched lazily together with Lu Liangsheng who was standing in front of the window.
"Master, good morning."
The scholar lowered his hands, walked to the basin rack in the corner, poured water and washed his face. While wiping the water stains on his face, the toad stretched out its webbed feet a few times and slid down along the edge of the bed, rubbed its eyes with its belly sticking out, and waved to his apprentice.
"Good morning, Liangsheng."
He walked to the bookshelf, pulled out the small wardrobe, took out a few clothes, chose one and put it on, jumped onto the leg of the desk, climbed up the edge of the desk, kicked in the air, pulled out a book, lay on it, opened his mouth wide and yawned.
"Wow~~~ Master, please take a nap first."
Lu Liangsheng smiled, opened the door and went down to the inn lobby, called the waiter to order more than 30 pancakes and half a bucket of porridge, which immediately startled the noisy diners at the tables on the first floor. They watched you, the scholar, go back upstairs in silence. Someone hurriedly grabbed the waiter who was about to go to the kitchen to work, and after asking about the situation, he learned that there were eight strong men, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"I thought it was because this scholar wanted to eat so much, it scared me to death."
"Of course not. If he was really alone, I would report him to the police without saying anything. He might just be a monster."
"You're probably trying to avoid paying for your meal..."
"Hey, don't be so loud, be careful that the shopkeeper hears it."
Amid the noisy sounds of people eating and talking downstairs, Lu Liangsheng went upstairs. The Taoist priest from another room also came out at this time. His clothes were disheveled, and his Taoist bun hung loosely on his shoulders. He raised his hand listlessly to the scholar, greeted him loudly, followed him into the room, sat down at the round table, poured a bowl of overnight tea, and drank it.
"Old Lu, you don't know that your eight uncles were completely overthrown by me last night. Humph, let's drink together!" As he said this, he drank another bowl of tea.
By the window, Lu Liangsheng took the scroll and spread it out on the desk, then moved his master, who was lying on the book, to the side along with the book.
"You used magic again? That's hardly a skill."
"Magic is my own way, how can it not be considered a skill?"
The Taoist turned around, picked up a pair of chopsticks that were placed there last night, and stuffed the leftovers into his mouth. Looking at Lu Liangsheng who was busy over there, he asked, "What are you doing so early in the morning? Didn't that Gong recommend you to the emperor to be the imperial teacher? Why are you still standing here?"
"How can you just do it when asked to do so?"
Lu Liangsheng stroked the scroll, took out a small ink block and put it into the inkstone to grind it gently: "... I'm afraid it will still need to be discussed by the court, and then the Ministry of Personnel will draft the imperial edict, make robes, and seals... Even if there are no obstacles along the way, the earliest we will have news is in the afternoon. If we encounter resistance, it will be even later."
As he spoke, he shouted towards the messy bed, "Qiyou!"
Listening to the affairs of state was more uncomfortable than listening to a book. Sun Yingxian held the bowl and chopsticks and turned her face away.
"I cannot bear your troubles. Why not just tell the world and be done with it?"
He chewed a blade of grass and put it into his mouth, then turned to the bed over there. Between the folded quilts, there seemed to be a few ginseng tendrils sticking out, and then a black wooden stick with dense roots spread to the edge of the bed, and there was also a faint lazy female moan.
In an instant, it leaped up and flew across the air. Its dense tendrils tangled together to form a pen tip, and its body shrank several times before falling into Lu Liangsheng's hand and turning into a pen shaft.
The tip of the pen was dipped in ink and dropped onto the scroll. Lu Liangsheng looked intently at the green ink being outlined in his hand while responding to the Taoist's words.
"It's just so troublesome. However, I have some free time now, so I can paint a few more pictures in case I need them. I've ordered food, which will be served soon. You can go back to the bar and wake up."
"It's up to you." The Taoist took a bite of the dish, put his hands behind his head, and while the scholar was busy painting, he went to the bookshelf, squatted down and continued to look at the Xuanyuan Sword hanging on the shelf.
Yue Long, who was also hanging on the side, shook twice, emitting a cold light, and Pu Du Ci Hang's voice rang out from the sword.
"Little Taoist priest, I have a magic spell to reshape your face. Would you like to learn it? Just kowtow and it will be fine."
"Hehe, no matter how ugly I am, there are still people who want me."
The Taoist spat at it, feeling bored, so he walked to the bed, lay down on it with his head tilted back, listening to the bustling voices on the long street outside the window and the rustling sound of the pen tip quickly sliding across the paper on the desk.
The sunlight shone through the window lattice, becoming slightly warm. The Toad Taoist moved his limbs and turned in another direction. His bean-sized eyes were half closed. He enjoyed the comfort of the morning sun while looking at his disciple.
"Liangsheng, what are you going to draw?"
The painting depicts endless dark clouds outlined by dark ink, while on one side the sun floats behind the clouds, shining upon the earth. The rugged mountains, overgrown with trees, and the long shadow winding around the solitary peak seem as tiny as weeds.
"Zhu Jiuyin."
Lu Liangsheng answered his master while the Qiyou in his hand kept moving across the paper, dotted out the steep peaks and isolated strange trees. With a turn of the pen tip, he cast the long winding shadow and outlined the thick and long body covered with pieces of ink scales, showing yin and yang.
"… There are different kinds of fierce beasts in the mountains and seas, and this one is far beyond my common sense. But if I can borrow its magical power, in just half an incense stick, I might be able to turn the tide!"
The Toad Taoist couldn't help but stand up, walked to the side with his flippers on his back, and glanced at the painting: "Is it difficult to draw?"
"Um."
The arm holding the pen on the scroll quickened. Lu Liangsheng stared at the densely packed dragon scales extending to the neck and then to the head. His face was already covered with sweat. On the one hand, he had to control Qiyou's thousand-year-old Taoism and evenly distribute it to all parts of the scroll. On the other hand, concentrating on calligraphy and painting was also extremely exhausting. The quality of a strange beast depended entirely on whether its head was lifelike. Otherwise, if it was summoned by illusion, it would have a ridiculous face. Wouldn't that make the opponent laugh out loud
To the north of the Chishui River, there is Zhangwei Mountain. There lives a god with a human face and a snake body. When he closes his eyes, he is in darkness, and when he sees, he is clear... The most difficult part of Zhulong to draw is the pair of eyes.
But for now, let's sketch out the remaining details.
After a while, the food brought by the shop waiter was delivered to the three rooms in turn. Toad Taoist watched for a while, then asked Lao Sun to put him on the table to drink porridge and eat cakes, and wait for his apprentice to finish painting.
Soon, Lu Pan and eight other people came over, and the room became even noisier. Toad lay on his side on a wooden pillow with his head propped up, crossing his short legs and humming the little tune he had learned from Hong Lian.
The Taoist was squatting on the bookshelf and cursing at Yue Longjian. Lu Pan and his eight companions were bored, so they picked up the round table and benches and tossed them around, which attracted the waiters who heard the noise to come over and cry and beg them to put them down.
It was really too noisy, so Lu Liangsheng simply gave the Taoist some change and took his uncles and aunts out for a walk. The room became much quieter then.
It was almost noon, and the Taoist priests who had gone out for a stroll had not returned yet. Lu Liangsheng had finally finished embellishing the details of the painting. Looking at the Zhulong with a dragon head and a human face, the tip of his pen hesitated for a moment. Then, controlling his magic power and the power of Qiyou, he slowly dotted the long shadow that almost filled the entire painting. He dotted a half crescent moon in the middle of the eye socket of the dragon head and a sun disk in the other eye.
Open your eyes!!
In an instant, the Qiyou in his hand was suddenly thrown onto the table, spilling a pool of ink. Lu Liangsheng's body straightened and he stood stiffly in place. In the middle of his back, it seemed as if a red-hot iron needle was poking his coccyx.
“Old demon!!”
A cloud of black smoke fell from the table to the ground, and turned into a human form and ran over to support. The Toad Taoist who was humming a little tune was also frightened by the sudden scene. He hurriedly fell off the edge of the bed and fell to the ground with a bang. Then, he got up again, spread his webbed feet and ran to the apprentice's calf, raising his head.
"Liang Sheng?!"
"Master, I'm fine."
After a long while, Lu Liangsheng recovered his breath and the burning pain in his back eased a little. He waved his hands, leaned on the edge of the table, and stared at the Zhu Jiuyin in the painting. His eyes slowly closed.
The next moment.
Qiyou and Hema, who were still talking, suddenly felt their vision cloudy. "What's going on?" They subconsciously turned their heads to look at the window. The sunlight pouring into the room seemed to be blocked by something, and at this moment, the bustling street burst into panic shouting.
"Why is it dark?!"
"It's a solar eclipse—"
"Bullshit, there was only a wisp of cloud in the sky, not even a black spot."
“… Could it be that the sun has fallen?”
Passersby stood on the street, looking at the sky in panic. The originally blue sky with white clouds and bright sunshine turned dark at a rapid speed. A group of horsemen came galloping from the palace, led by a man carrying a red-painted and gilded wooden box on his back. He reined in his horse with a "whoa" and looked at the darkness above his head that was like a tidal wave. He was frightened. The horse under him raised its hooves in fear, and no matter how the knight urged him, it dared not move and just neighed restlessly in the spot.
In the imperial city, there was a hall with lights on all the time. Yang Jian led Yang Su and a group of civil and military officials out of the hall. Looking at the pitch-black night sky, there was a hint of fear on their faces. Even though they had been through hundreds of battles and fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, they had never seen such a strange sight.
"Duke Yue, do you know what happened?" Wu Jianzhang snatched a knife from the guard and blocked the emperor. He tilted his head to look at Yang Su, who was pursing his lips. The latter had a frown on his face and his fingers were moving rapidly under his wide sleeves.
"Strange, this celestial phenomenon should be normal..."
Amid the murmurs, someone suddenly exclaimed, "Your Majesty, look, it's daybreak again."
Sure enough, in the sight of countless people, even in the huge city, the darkness receded and the sunlight shone into people's eyes again, illuminating everything.
On the second floor of an inn in the city, Lu Liangsheng opened his eyes. The moment the sunlight shone into the room again, blood from the scholar's mouth and nose dripped onto his collar. He staggered back two steps, and with a "pa" sound, he stepped on something soft. His steps continued to move backwards until he hit the round table, causing the cups and teapots on it to clink and fall over. Only then did the scholar stop.
Whoosh whoosh…
Lu Liangsheng was almost unconscious. He sat down on the floor leaning against the edge of the table, looking at his master lying on the ground with his tongue hanging to one side, feeling somewhat indifferent.
This magical power to change the weather... is so terrifying~~
Fortunately, Qiyou came over and leaned on him to nourish his energy and spirit, and his consciousness returned a little.