In Chang'an, the sky was gloomy and it started to rain in the early morning. The rain line connecting the sky and the earth fell on the Lotus Pond, creating ripples. The buildings standing in the vast water vapor, the sound of rain fell on the eaves, weaving a bead curtain that dripped down.
The Taoist sat under the eaves with blurry eyes, watching the eight big men standing in the rain with bare chests, practicing boxing and array formations with "hum!" and "ha!". He yawned, and the door next to him opened. Zhu Ganglie looked out and saw that the scholar was not outside, so he quickly stepped out, not noticing that the Taoist who was still asleep was sitting next to him.
"Old Pig, what are you doing like this?"
"Hey, that scared me to death."
Turning back, he saw that it was the Taoist priest. Zhu Ganglie let out a long breath, tilted his head to look around, and whispered, "Lu Liangsheng isn't here, right?"
"I haven't seen you this early in the morning. You may still be sleeping in your room. Why are you..." The Taoist twisted the tip of his beard, squinted his eyes and looked him up and down, then leaned closer and asked, "Are you getting ready to go out?"
Over there, Zhu Ganglie rubbed his palms together, looked at Old Sun who had brought up his secret, and smiled foolishly with a rather embarrassed look.
"Hey, you already know this, why are you saying it out loud? Well... I, Old Pig, should just go back."
"return!"
The Taoist went up and grabbed his sleeve, then looked back at the eight people who were training in the rain in the square, and lowered his voice: "Did you bring the silver?"
The pig demon was stunned for a moment when he heard this, reached out to touch his waist, and nodded.
"Yes! I have a few ounces on me..."
"Then hurry up and leave. I have no money. You can pay later!"
“No need to worry!”
The man and the demon took advantage of the eight big men not paying attention, cast an invisibility spell, stepped on the puddles on the ground and sneaked towards the mountain gate. Before they went far, they heard a woman's voice.
"Where are you going?!"
An old tree nearby suddenly turned into a cloud of smoke. Mu Qiyou ran out of the forest quickly in her black gauze dress. She looked at the man and the demon who had appeared without saying a word. She put her finger on her chin, glanced in the direction of the city, and said meaningfully, "Oh, so you are going to..."
"Shh!"
The Taoist priest and Zhu Ganglie hurriedly shushed him, "Don't say it, or the great scholar Lu might hear you."
"Hee, the old demon is gone out so early in the morning, and he doesn't even take me with him."
Qi You's eyes turned and fell on Sun Yingxian and Zhu Ganglie opposite him. He grinned, moved closer, and patted the Taoist's shoulder with one hand.
"I'm going too!"
Ignoring the reactions of the man and the demon, he dragged them to the city's market. The blue bricks on the street were wet and there were few pedestrians on the rainy day. The scholar mentioned in the distant North Gate was walking along the Wei River outside the city.
The long river was rolling with waves, rushing eastward. Lu Liangsheng, walking on the shore, paid attention to the water flow. Just like when he was in Qixia Mountain, it was obviously not advisable to set up an array in the water. However, it was extremely difficult to draw a magic array to protect the entire Chang'an City.
'Chang'an is close to the Wei River, drawing its spirit from the water. To the east, there is Mount Li, which can serve as a barrier, drawing its spirit from the mountain as the backbone of the battle...'
Raindrops hit the oil-paper umbrella, and water splashed onto his shoulders. The Toad Taoist wiped the splashes with his webbed feet, then stood up, holding onto his apprentice's ears.
Looking at the thoughtful apprentice, he gave some advice.
"Liangsheng, don't forget, there are still living beings in the city, who can form a formation. If there are four elephants, there will be three elephants."
"Um!"
Lu Liangsheng withdrew his fingers from the water, flicked off the water droplets, held up his oil-paper umbrella and walked along the river bank to the next section. It was a heavy summer rain and the river water was surging. There were also many patrolling soldiers riding horses passing by along the river bank, scolding the people in the nearby villages not to get close to the shore to avoid falling into the water and drowning.
Occasionally, there would be brave villagers wearing straw hats and raincoats, running into the mist in the heavy rain, taking a look at the fields near the river that were not flooded, and clasping their hands together towards the turbulent Wei River to thank the Dragon King for showing mercy.
From a distance, Lu Liangsheng watched the villagers carrying their hoes and returning home with peace of mind, and turned back to bow towards the middle of the turbulent river.
In the river, a string of bubbles gurgled up, and the dim torrent rolled over, revealing a section of thick scaly body, which then sank and quickly went downstream along the river channel.
Boom—
Thunder rumbled among the dark clouds, blue-white lightning flashed across the rain curtain, and an oil-paper umbrella with the sound of "pa pa" passed over a team of patrolling Sui cavalry. The latter knew who was coming, so they slowed down, stopped with a "whoa", raised their weapons on horseback, bowed their heads and saluted.
"I have met the Imperial Master."
Under the paper umbrella, Lu Liangsheng nodded to them, made a spell and waved his sleeves. The wet armor and robes on the knights who bowed became dry instantly, and the falling raindrops deflected and slid over them to the ground.
"Thank you for your hard work. Please step up patrols and don't let nearby residents get close to the river."
"yes!"
More than a dozen soldiers looked at the slanting raindrops on their bodies, excitedly bowed and responded loudly, shook the reins, and shouted: "Gee!" They squeezed their horses' bellies and galloped away in the rain, splashing mud and water along the way.
Lu Liangsheng lowered his hands, looked at the cavalry disappearing in the rain, and continued walking along the river bank, observing the terrain. At a suitable place, he drew a small magic circle with stones as a mark so that he could find the direction accurately when setting up the formation later.
After placing a few marks along the river, they turned around and headed for Mount Li. The foothills were winding, and the branches were swaying and dripping with water. Lu Liangsheng walked over the wet stone steps holding an oil-paper umbrella. The "Fengzi" teahouse on the other side was still open, but there were not many customers. The waiter sat at the entrance of the shed, bored, waiting for the girl in yellow who came every day.
When he saw Lu Liangsheng, the waiter snorted and turned away, only to be slapped in the face by the shopkeeper. When he looked again, the scholar in the rain had reached the end of the mountain path without him noticing.
Tick-tick-tick~
Water droplets dripped from the tip of the leaf onto the paper umbrella. Lu Liangsheng walked for a while with his master, looked at the forests and mountains shrouded in mist, and frowned.
"It's a bit difficult to find a place with abundant spiritual energy."
He reached out from his sleeve and pulled out a thumb-sized book and spread it on his palm. Lu Liangsheng blew on it, and it suddenly became bigger, returning to its original size. It turned a few pages automatically without any wind, revealing the contents above.
"Mountains, water, and people are considered the three symbols. The east mountain, north water, and south wind make up the four symbols. People are standing in formation at the Wanshou Temple, but the wind has no form or shape, so there is no need to stand..."
The Four Symbols Soul Guarding Array is different from the Soul Gathering Array of Qixia Mountain. The latter focuses on nourishing the water, soil, and living beings in the array, while the former is more inclined to protect the living beings within the array.
But no magic array can generate spiritual energy out of nothing. It either relies on the heaven, earth, mountains and rivers to absorb spiritual energy and transform it into what the magic array needs, or it is like the Blood Spirit Array set up by Yuwen Tuo, which uses the spiritual energy of living things to transform into a magic array to drive it.
Lu Liangsheng was not good at magic arrays, and the Four Symbols Array had a complex structure and could not be completed in one day. Right now, just choosing the location for the mountain spirit array was a bit of a headache. After all, this Mount Li was where his mother was, and he couldn't do anything too excessive.
After walking for a while, a girl in a yellow dress came over at the other end of the misty mountain road, carrying a teapot. When she saw Lu Liangsheng, she smiled slightly.
"Mr. Lu, you are enjoying the mountains and rivers here. You might as well go to the northwest of Laomu Temple. The scenery there is unique."
Lu Liangsheng was stunned for a moment, then suddenly reacted. Under Toad's puzzled gaze, he bowed and thanked the girl in the yellow skirt who was walking towards the teahouse in the distance.
Holding a paper umbrella, I quickly went to the Laomu Temple and followed the direction pointed by the woman. Amid the rustling sound of rain washing the forest, I came to a steep cliff and stopped. The view became wider. In the hazy mist, distant mountains overlapped. I could see the official road leading to Shangluo winding between the two mountains, and I could also overlook the Wei River flowing eastward.
“Great place!”
Lu Liangsheng bowed towards the Laomu Temple again to express his gratitude, then picked up a large stone nearby, pressed it into the ground, carved a magic circle pattern on it, and left it as a mark.
"Of course it's a good place. How can my mother's place be bad?" The Toad Taoist rolled his eyes, looked at the misty mountain scenery, and yawned.
"Are you done? I'm hungry, let's go back quickly."
After carving the last line of the magic pattern on the stone, Lu Liangsheng estimated that it was getting late, so he brushed the dust and stone chips off his hands and walked back. He would call the Taoist priest over after some time and come over together. They should be able to finish it before the red light from the sky descended.
After leaving this place, I didn't meet the woman in yellow skirt again on the road. I went down to the foot of the mountain and entered the city from the east gate of Chang'an. On the street leading to Furong Pond, I saw a one-armed figure running on the puddles on the ground from a distance.
"Zuo Qianwei?"
Lu Liangsheng stopped and called out to the other party, who hurriedly stopped and exhaled heavily.
"Finally you're back, come with me."
"What happened?" Lu Liangsheng followed him puzzledly.
Zuo Zhengyang wiped the water stains off his face and turned around.
"It's not a big deal. It's just that Zhu Ganglie and Mu Qiyou demolished the brothel..."