It was early summer, and the green grass was swaying in the red glow of the sunset. The insects that had climbed onto the grass tips were suddenly rolled into the donkey's mouth along with the grass.
A bright red old donkey, swinging its tail, nibbled on the grass by the roadside while carrying Lu Liangsheng leisurely along the country road.
It is several hundred miles away from here to Hegu County. If we ride fast, we can get there in two or three days. If we use the magic of shrinking the distance, we can arrive there at night.
But it's still early, there are still four or five months left, so even if we take it easy, we can still catch up.
After bidding farewell to his mentor, they had walked several miles northward. He had never been to the north before, and the surrounding mountains, villages and towns were all new to Lu Liangsheng.
The bookshelves placed on both sides of the donkey's buttocks were shaking, and the small door under the shelf opened. Next to a pile of books, the Toad Taoist stretched out his two short legs, sat there leaning against the black-patterned gourd, straightened his short jacket, and yawned.
“The scenery here is pretty good.”
On the other side of the frame, there were several scrolls, and from one of them there was a sound of silver bells chuckling.
"Master Toad, you look so ignorant and funny."
Across the old donkey and the bookshelf, the Toad Taoist changed to a side-lying position, supporting his head with one of his webbed feet, and hummed.
"How dare you... I have seen mountains and rivers, and a little ghost girl like you can't compare to them..."
On the donkey's back, Lu Liangsheng heard the sound of the toad, turned around and smiled: "Master is awake?"
As the donkey was swaying up and down, the reins were pulled inadvertently, and the old donkey's hoof stepped on a stone, causing its body to tilt suddenly.
With the small door of the bookshelf open, the toad lying on its side said calmly, "Nothing a little female ghost like you can compare to." As soon as the words came out of its mouth, it was shaken out, and its round body was kicked by the outstretched hooves. It flew forward like a ball and bounced a few times on the ground before stopping.
The toad climbed up in a panic, with grass debris still stuck to its head. The breeze blew and it swayed slightly.
"Evil disciple... you want to betray your master and ancestors... quack..."
Lu Liangsheng quickly got off the donkey and picked up the Toad Taoist priest. He waved his hand and patted the donkey's head: "I told you not to walk properly!" The old donkey stared with wide eyes and blinked, breathing heavily from its nostrils.
"Huff, huff!"
After two neighs, Lu Liangsheng put his master on his shoulders and simply led the old donkey forward. The mountains on the left stretched out in the rosy glow, and the village on the other side gradually fell into the background. As the sky became increasingly dim, it disappeared at the end of the road.
Sometimes he would chat about a person with the Toad who was leaning his head against him.
"I don't know how Sun Yingxian has been doing these past two years... He should have lived a happier life than me. Who knows, he may have already broken through the Qi training stage and reached the foundation building stage."
The toad, with its back against the scholar's ear, pulled the grass off its head and threw it outside.
"Foundation building is nothing. When I was at the peak of my mastership, it was not even enough to make me yawn. Take that purple-gold gourd with black stripes. If I throw it out, it can hit a bunch of cultivators..."
Lu Liangsheng picked his ears and sighed helplessly. His master began to chatter on again. In the past three years, every time he asked when his injuries would be healed, he always just said soon.
"... I always feel that Master wants to continue to eat and drink for free..."
As he was thinking, a figure suddenly flashed in the dim light of the setting sun in front of him. Lu Liangsheng stopped, and the Toad Taoist on his shoulder, who was still talking, rolled over. Fortunately, he grabbed the collar of his robe with his webbed feet in time, and his two short legs hung outside. He moved and kicked a few times before climbing up again.
"Come again, fortunately, the master has been prepared..."
Then, he saw two figures in front of him, one thin and one fat. Toad Face was stunned for a moment, "Robbery?"
"It really is a robbery." Lu Liangsheng was also a little stunned.
The two men were wearing single clothes, with their chests open, revealing thick black chest hair, and they blocked our way with weapons in their hands and crooked noses and slanted mouths.
"Scholar, you are unlucky today. We don't want your life. Just leave your money..."
"Then you can take it."
Before he could finish his words, a few silver ingots had rolled to their feet. The thin man in the middle looked at them blankly, then raised his head and looked at his companion in surprise.
"So straightforward... Is there a trick?"
The fat bandit quickly picked up the silver ingot, touched his head and whispered, "Really."
"I got rich, but I met a fool." The thin bandit snatched the silver ingot, put it in his arms, and pointed at Lu Liangsheng's waist opposite him: "And throw your jade pendant over here too."
Lu Liangsheng nodded: "Okay." He took off the jade pendant and threw it to the other party. The thin man hurriedly caught it, blew on the two fish on it, wiped it with his sleeve, smiled widely, and then pulled his companion away.
"Since you are so honest, I don't want your old donkey anymore. Go away quickly."
"Thank you both!"
Lu Liangsheng bowed, rode his old donkey slowly past the two of them, and suddenly turned his head with a smile on his lips.
"You two should know that all things have spirits, and money also knows who its owner is. I hope you two can do your duty in the future and stop doing this business."
"Go away, go away, you've become stupid from reading too much." The skinny bandit waved his hand to tell the scholar to get out of here, holding up the jade pendant and said with a smile: "Why is there such a business that can make money quickly? Prostitutes."
As he was speaking, perhaps because he was dazzled or what, the emerald jade pendant suddenly twisted a few times, and the two fish on it suddenly turned their eyes and their tails began to sway.
The frightened bandit loosened his grip and stammered, "Fish...fish..."
The companion turned his neck, but before he could say anything, he saw the jade pendant that was thrown up turned into two carps that swam their tails in the air and swam towards the scholar who was leaving.
“Chase after him!”
Someone shouted, and the two of them took steps together, but they fell to the ground with a bang, unable to get up. The silver ingots in their pockets suddenly rolled out, and in their sight, they could even hear a faint "Hey, hey, hey" sound as they lined up and rolled towards the scholar.
The silver ran away by itself, and he was still shouting slogans?! The jade pendant also turned into a fish swimming in the air...
The faces of the two men were more frightened than seeing a ghost. After a moment, their bodies relaxed and they quickly got up from the ground. The distant sunset glow illuminated the backs of the men riding donkeys. They waved their sleeves, and the silver ingots rolling on the road and the two fish swimming in the air flew into each other's sleeves one by one.
"Mother too!!"
The two men shouted loudly, and they were so scared that their white hair broke out in sweat. Only then did they realize that the person they had just stopped was a local expert. They immediately knelt down behind him, kowtowed, and begged for mercy. Then, they screamed "Ah--" and ran away in a hurry under the setting sun.
In the distance, Toad stood on his shoulder, holding his apprentice's head with one webbed foot, watching the two bandits running away from behind.
"Such blind people should be killed."
Lu Liangsheng stroked the donkey's mane with his hand, then hung the jade pendant in his sleeve back on his belt. "The weapons in their hands are sticks and hatchets. They only asked for money and kept their promise to let us go. They are not evil people. Killing them is a bit too much. Let's give them a small punishment to scare them. They will be more cautious if they want to do such things in the future."
"A goody-goody." The Toad Taoist hugged his flippers and sat back on his shoulder.
The scholar smiled but said nothing. He was not the kind of bloodthirsty person. He had practiced the righteous way of heaven and earth and had already gone through the stage of training qi. He did not want to add more violence to himself, so as to avoid making it difficult for him to enter the foundation-building stage in the future.
The sky gradually darkened.
The stars and the moon hang in the night sky. After getting used to the lights in the village and the city, the dark and desolate mountains and wilderness appear to me like a ferocious beast lurking in the shadows, eerie and terrifying.
Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey and looked at the fork in the road in the forest. In the end, he chose the road on the right. There, there stood a dilapidated building.
"Just stay here for one night."
He walked into the dusty temple, flicked his wide sleeves, and the cold wind blew away the hay and dust on the ground, creating a clean area. Soon, he lit a bonfire, placed the bookshelf on one side, and took out books to read.
The cold moonlight shone through the hole above his head, and the surrounding woods rustled in the wind. The hazy moonlight shone through the gaps in the trees to the road that Lu Liangsheng did not choose. In the distance, several figures carrying bookshelves and holding lanterns walked through the thin mist.
Hehehe…
The night wind blew through the woods, the leaves swayed, the mist rolled, and a faint chuckle like a silver bell could be heard.