"Old demon, old demon, are you feeling better?"
The gentle female voice reached his ears. Lu Liangsheng exhaled a breath of turbid air, and his fuzzy consciousness returned and became clear. He supported Qi You's hand and got up from the ground, "It's okay."
He spoke softly, picking up the master from the ground and putting him aside, his eyes returning to the scroll.
"That magical power... only covered Chang'an, and I almost died. If the whole world was covered by it, with my current cultivation level, I'm afraid that if I use it once, my flesh and blood and magic power will be exhausted and I will die."
Thinking about it, he quickly took out a piece of white paper and wrote down his feelings just now. Before he started writing, he subconsciously looked at the bright sunshine outside the window, and it seemed that there was no lightning gathering at the moment.
Hmm... So, this spell seems to change the weather, but in fact it is just borrowing Zhu Jiuyin's magical power to temporarily block the sunlight. It is obviously not accurate to call it a sleight of hand, because it actually blocks the sunlight, but does not change the normal weather.
If I were to perform this, not only would I not be afraid of thunder tribulations... Wait, this world seems to be being given alms day and night by Zhu Jiuyin, so wouldn't I be interfering with his duties
If you don't pursue it, maybe you won't blame me.
Hmm... I need to write this down, write it down.
On the table, the Toad Taoist priest lifted his head from the table with all his strength, and puffed up his belly to restore his body to its original state.
"It's a waste of my care. You are either being oppressed or stepped on..."
He slid down the desk breathlessly, glanced at the back of his apprentice who was writing, turned around, and walked to the bookshelf with a slightly hunched back, carrying his hands on his back.
'... Do you really think I don't have a temper? Back then, those who dared to attack me were all highly skilled...'
He muttered something and walked to the side of the bookshelf. The door creaked open. The toad who was walking forward with his webbed feet and head down suddenly stopped talking. He tilted his head and his eyes widened as he saw the door pushed open.
Bang!
The door hit the wall and bounced back slightly. In the gap, a black shadow lying on the wall with its tongue hanging out slowly slid to the ground like a piece of paper.
Outside the open door, Sun Yingxian came in sweating profusely, followed by Lu Pan and eight others, each holding a lot of food and silk in his hands.
The Taoist priest stood beside the scholar anxiously, gesticulating with his hands.
"Old Lu, what happened just now? It got dark all of a sudden. I counted on my fingers..."
Seeing the scroll on the table, with a long dragon-headed beast with a human face, he paused for a second and said, "...Oh, so it was you who did it, that's not surprising, what's this time?"
After writing the last word, he rolled up the experience and put it away. Just as he was about to explain it to the Taoist priest, he heard a commotion in the inn outside.
"Shopkeeper, do you have a scholar sitting here?"
"Your name is Lu Liangsheng, please think about it carefully."
"Yes, yes. I don't know if this is what you are looking for. It's on the second floor. Go up the stairs and it's the first room on the front."
The wooden ladder then creaked and the sound of footsteps was heard. Lu Pan and his eight men in the house deployed their troops. The men who came up were wearing armor and cloaks, and they were obviously not ordinary soldiers. The man in the lead carried a wooden box on his back, and when he reached the door, he unfastened the sword at his waist and stopped, glancing at the scholar who had just put down his pen.
He raised his hands and asked, "Are you Lu Liangsheng, Mr. Lu?"
"Exactly."
Judging from their attire, they should be the imperial guards. It was not difficult to guess why they came here. Lu Liangsheng wiped his hands, walked over and bowed in return.
"It is me. What do you want to see me for?"
"So Mr. Lu is here in person. I apologize!" This time, the man cupped his hands and bowed his body, greeting again: "I am a soldier from the Imperial City, greeting Mr. Lu."
The guests who were eating and staying in the inn were standing downstairs or at the door of their rooms looking over there. They originally thought that the scholar or his gang of rough men had committed a crime and the soldiers who came over were there to arrest them. Unexpectedly, they were the imperial guards, who even bowed and saluted them. Immediately, everyone stretched their necks, not only wanting to see what was going on, but also wanting to hear clearly.
"Mr. Lu, we are here on the orders of His Majesty and Duke Yue to take you into the palace."
People who have worked hard in the imperial city are very discerning. As soon as he finished speaking, he added, "And the master's entourage will also follow us into the palace."
As he spoke, he untied the wooden box on his back, carefully took out the imperial edict, read it aloud in front of all the guests in the inn who were watching the fun, then folded it up, presented it above his head, and bowed to hand it to the scholar opposite him.
Lu Liangsheng stroked the silk cloth of the imperial edict and said with a smile, "Thank you for coming from afar to deliver the message. Let me pack my luggage and then go with you."
"No need for you to do anything, sir. We can do it!"
The leader waved his hand, but was stopped by Lu Pan and others. The big man raised his chin and said, "You said you were accompanying us. Naturally, we will carry the things of my Liangsheng. You just lead the way."
There wasn't much in the way of formalities. The pens, ink, paper and inkstone were put into the bookshelf, along with the Toad Taoist priest behind the door. Then Lu Pan started to carry the two weapons, shaking and clanking as he went downstairs to the backyard and placed them behind the old donkey's buttocks.
Then Lu Liangsheng went downstairs to pay the bill. The customers who had gathered around him dispersed like waves. The shopkeeper waved his hands and came out from behind the counter.
"Sir, I won't charge you. It is a great honor for our inn to have a distinguished guest like you."
"How can this be done? Wouldn't this mean that you will lose money?"
After Lu Liangsheng became a disciple of Shu Huagong, he lost the competitive nature of his youth and stopped cheating others in his business. However, the shopkeeper over there refused to accept his business. After a stalemate, the fat shopkeeper simply asked his waiter to bring him brushes, ink and rice paper.
"Sir, why don't you write a calligraphy for this shop of mine?"
"Okay."
Seeing that the shopkeeper insisted, Lu Liangsheng took the money bag and took the brush from the wooden tray. The former quickly took the rice paper and waved it to let the guests who were blocking the way move aside.
"Please make way."
Then, he spread out the paper on the table and stepped aside, tiptoed to the side, and watched Lu Liangsheng bend over, rolled up his sleeves, picked up the pen, and slowly wrote a few big words on the paper.
The writing is vigorous, yet there is a sense of calm and leisure.
"Everyone is a guest, and we treat everyone equally!"
The nearest person who could read read it out loud, causing the surrounding guests to clap and shout, "Good!"
These eight words are not clichés like "business is booming" and "profit is coming in". Rather, they are words of advice to encourage store owners to pay more attention to hospitality in the future and not to bully customers by pretending to be big.
The shopkeeper picked up the paper and looked at the eight words on it. His face flushed with excitement and he bent down and nodded repeatedly.
"Thank you for your suggestion, Mr. Xie. I will have it framed and hung in the most conspicuous place in the hall!"
After seeing him off to the door, he bowed again and quickly called his waiter to find the best paperhanger in the city. Then he went into the inn and looked around to see where would be the most suitable place to hang the painting.
…
On the long street, the bustling pedestrians were still talking about what had just happened. Lu Liangsheng took the old donkey from Lu Pan and walked with the guards not far away. There was a carriage waiting for a long time.
"Mr. Lu, please get in the carriage."
"No need. There are nine people following me. How can I go ahead alone?"
He politely declined the offer of riding in the carriage and just walked to the front, leading the old donkey. Lu Pan chuckled twice, patted the shoulder of the leader of the guards, and quickly followed his nephew with his bag on his shoulder.
Old Sun naturally followed closely behind and waved to the guard: "Don't look at it, lead the way quickly, Mr. Lu you mentioned is just this kind of person, a boring person."
He said so, but he had known Lu Liangsheng for many years and had not left because he was convinced by the great scholar Lu. If it were someone else, he would have disappeared long ago.
The chief of the guards sighed, and without mounting his horse, he called upon his subordinates who had come with him, as well as the carriage over there, and walked behind him, passing through the long and bustling streets to the palace.
The sun was slanting, and the reddish afterglow was shining on the ancient city walls from the west.
Woo—
Soon, the solemn and powerful sound of the horn resounded throughout the four corners of the imperial city and echoed in the sky at dusk.