Well…
… The Purple Light Golden Spirit Pill must have been taken away by Jing’er… How can I just sit there and wait for death
… After fifty years of practice, how can there be no way out
The broken grave was blown by the mountain wind, which raised up sand all over the sky. The corpse lay quietly, with its clothes fluttering in the wind. Streams of negative energy overflowed from the ground around it, swirling and pulling the old man into the grave, and in an instant it penetrated into his seven orifices.
In a moment, the stiff palms bent, the nails grew larger with a crackling sound, and the body stood up straight from the grave. The corpse gas spread over the sand, dyeing it pitch black.
At a certain moment, his eyes suddenly opened, his pupils were gray and lifeless, but there was a horrifying feeling, and between his tightly closed lips, there were voices coming out of nowhere.
"Without the golden elixir to restore my body, I can only transform myself into a corpse demon and secretly help Jing'er clear the obstacles... Uh ah..."
The words suddenly changed and turned into hysterical screams. In the sunset glow, the old man covered his face with his arms, stumbled and fell on the grave pile, his body hissing, and he rolled and crawled behind the tree in front with white smoke. He hid in the shade of the tree, staring blankly outside the cliff. An old crow flew by.
Wow wow —
The evening breeze blew through the treetops, and a leaf broke off the branch, swirling past the old man and quietly floating to the ground.
With his gray hair disheveled and draped over his shoulders, Chen Fu huddled in the shade of the tree, staring at the leaf that was drifting away in the sunset glow, and finally couldn't help but curse.
'… Shit.'
Finally, they reached the western top of the mountain. The setting sun cast its last rays of light and darkness enveloped the foothills. The old man then walked out from behind the tree, took stiff steps, and staggered away from the cliff in a panic, dragging his bloodstained undergarment.
As the old man walked away, in the dark night, the lights of thousands of houses in River Valley County were like stars, and the long street was bustling. The rebels outside the city surrendered, and many people from every household went out. When they saw the soldiers returning from outside the city, they clapped and cheered. The literati and scholars booked a teahouse and wrote a heroic poem, which attracted a lot of praise. Below the noisy second floor, children were chasing and playing, jumping and following the side of the soldiers entering the city, clapping their hands and singing nursery rhymes composed by someone unknown.
"Xia Yanyan, the plague dogs are barking, the boys in the city are so brave, they beat the villains so hard that they run away with their heads in their hands..."
…
A servant of the Zhou mansion who was asking for news on the street ran back to the mansion quickly, holding up his robe and excitedly spread the news that the army in the city had defeated the rebels. The maids and servants in the mansion clapped their hands happily, and their previous shock was gone.
"I didn't expect that our River Valley County's general is so powerful? I wonder which general he is."
"Why are you feeling sick? I'm telling you, don't tell anyone. I saw Mr. Lu come to the mansion with my own eyes in the afternoon, but no one else could see it."
"Mr. Lu? Who is Mr. Lu?"
"Humph, you don't know. Back then, I, Ergou, saw Mr. Lu cast a spell with my own eyes. At that time, Mr. Lu even lived in our house for a while."
A young servant stood among a group of maids who had gathered around him, waving his hands with a red face, and talked about the time when he accompanied Mr. Lu to the toilet and saw him draw a black line on the wall and fly to the side yard of the mansion to spray water on an old woman.
There were also servants who passed the news through the corridor to the study in the side yard, but were stopped and sent away by the old servant outside the door. In the open window frame nearby, an old man and a young man sat opposite each other, drinking tea and smelling the scent of ink as they turned pages of books.
Lu Liangsheng put down his teacup with a smile, and the two chatted about academic matters until night fell. Only then did they change the topic and talk about the war that took place during the day.
"Mr. Zhou ran up to the tower. Wasn't he afraid?"
"Scared! I felt something was wrong after I stood on it, but I can't retreat... But speaking of fear." Zhou Zhen paused with his cane on the ground, thinking of his mood at that time, he still felt his heart pounding.
"… Speaking of fear, I am more afraid that the city gate will be breached and the people in the city will suffer. Haha, I have spent my whole life studying, but now that I am about to die, I have managed to stand up for once, which makes my life worthwhile."
Lu Liangsheng also laughed and offered the tea to him.
"That Liangsheng respects Mr. Zhou."
The old man and the young man clinked their teacups, looked at each other and burst into laughter. After a while, the old man looked at the scholar in front of him, who was wearing a robe that was different from his usual clothes.
"This morning, my son wrote a letter home, mentioning that Liangsheng is now serving as the Imperial Master in Chang'an. Is this true?"
"Indeed."
Talking about the twists and turns in his journey to becoming the Imperial Master, Lu Liangsheng did not hide anything, especially the fact that Emperor Yang Jian of the Sui Dynasty still asked Zhou Zhen to come out of seclusion from before he succeeded and even after he had lost all his magical powers, which made Zhou Zhen sigh.
The old man nodded and sighed.
"If Chen Shubao had the emperor's courage to treat scholars with humility, he would not have ended up like that."
His original intention was to stay with the old man to see how he recovered. After an afternoon without any symptoms, Lu Liangsheng was ready to leave. Zhou Zhen knew the temperament of those who practiced Taoism, so he did not try to keep him overnight in his mansion.
The old man and the young man then walked out of the study and went to the corridor along the eaves.
Looking at the lanterns under the eaves on both sides of the corridor, Lu Liangsheng smiled and said, "Mr. Zhou, there is no need to lament what happened back then. It may be God's will that the Chen Dynasty will perish. By the way..."
I walked to the gate of the courtyard and turned around to look at the old man on the side.
"What does Mr. Zhou think?"
"Feelings? Hahaha, I have no feelings at all." Zhou Zhen stroked his beard and laughed. He stepped over the threshold with the help of a cane and looked at the area illuminated by the lanterns at the gate.
"… Life is just a few short autumns, what is there to lament about? If the predecessors don't miss the descendants, I am the predecessor! Let's take care of our own lives. For the rest of my life, it will be nice for me to be a free immortal."
How many people can be indifferent to life and death in this long journey of life
Lu Liangsheng walked out of the courtyard, stood at the edge of the lantern, bowed to the old man at the door, turned around and jumped, disappearing into the darkness.
"Liangsheng, take care!"
Looking at the empty courtyard gate, Zhou Zhen clasped his hands and said something, then he straightened his back and returned to the mansion, walking with heroic steps.
On the wall of the alley in the distance, Lu Liangsheng stood in the darkness, watching the courtyard door slowly close. Then he really left and arrived at the military camp outside the city where the prisoners were guarded. The general of Hegu County who received the notice hurried over and respectfully invited the state teacher, who looked quite young or whose age could not be determined, to come in.
After all, a Taoist master who is in his teens or 100 years old may look like he is in his twenties or thirties... Well, this is what the general guessed.
"Master, please look, I have followed your instructions during the day and am currently conducting an interrogation. The county governor is also here."
The general took Lu Liangsheng into the military camp, and batches of rebel soldiers were disarmed, their hands were tied, and they were divided into more than ten small circles and taken to various tents for questioning.
As the long line of soldiers slowly moved, a man with a drooped face seemed to have heard the voices, raised his head and looked over here, and suddenly struggled out of the crowd. The generals following Lu Liangsheng quickly drew their swords and said, "Someone come and protect the national teacher! Capture this man!"
All around, there were the sounds of swords and weapons. The moment the soldiers rushed over, the figure running towards this side was tied with a taut rope and knelt down not far away. He bowed up and down with his bound hands, and knocked his forehead.
"Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu! Do you still remember me?"
A soldier raised a torch to illuminate the man's face. Lu Liangsheng looked at him carefully for a moment before he recognized him as the guard named Cao who was beside Chen Jing when he first met him.
"Cao Shouren?"
The man showed surprise on his face and kowtowed several times in a hurry. His loose hair bun trembled as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw.
"Mr. Lu still remembers me. Did you hear that? Mr. Lu still remembers me."
With his tied hands, he stretched out to the guard beside him, "Quick, untie me, I won't die..."
The soldier looked at his general. The general glanced at the imperial teacher beside him and nodded quietly. The soldier drew his sword and was about to step forward to cut the other party's rope.
"slow."
The soldier's falling blade seemed to be supported by an invisible hand and became extremely slow.
"National Master?!"
The general turned his head to look aside. Lu Liangsheng shook his head, took a half step forward, stared at Cao Shouren who was kneeling opposite him, and was silent for a moment.
"This man is the leader of the rebels, and he led his soldiers to cause chaos. This national teacher has no right to plead with the general. It is better to let the Supreme Pillar State and the Great General Han Qinhu deal with it according to the law."
The general smiled, cupped his hands and said, "Yes!" Then he waved his arm and shouted to the soldiers, "Take this rebel leader away and imprison him. He cannot be interrogated or allowed to leave until the general is here."
"Mr. Lu!!"
Cao Shouren felt a chill in his heart. He was dragged away by the soldiers who were rushing towards him. He struggled hard on the ground with his feet and cried for mercy to Lu Liangsheng who had his back turned.
"Mr. Lu... Mr. Lu, please save me. Please save my life for the sake of our acquaintance..."
The shrill shouting attracted the attention of the surrounding rebel soldiers, and they all spat at him.
"Coward!"
“… You are afraid of death and bring suffering to our soldiers.”
"That's right, it's really blind to work for such a person!"
"Oh... Te!"
The shouting and struggling figures disappeared in the military camp. Lu Liangsheng had a solemn expression on his face. He glanced around and then stayed in the military camp. In the following time, he mostly watched the 20,000 surrendered soldiers being identified one by one and those who were forced to be taken away. The rest were interrogated. Many of them were gangsters who had followed Chen Jing and Chen Fu to the north, and most of them were people who risked their lives to get rich.
However, these are not Lu Liangsheng's concerns, and are left to veteran generals like Han Qinhu to worry about.
On the sixth day, at dawn, in the morning light, on the western official road leading to this side, a Taoist priest came slowly over, leading an old donkey and shaking a bookshelf.
I saw a figure on the roadside.
The old donkey neighed excitedly a few times, broke free from the Taoist's hands with the reins, spread its hooves, ran up happily, and rubbed its mouth and nose gently against the palm of its master's hand.
Lu Liangsheng stroked the donkey's head, and nodded with a smile towards his master, who was shaken out of the small door and was hanging shakily under the door with his arms folded and an expression of "I knew it".
"Master."
In the distance, eight big men lined up in a row, shaking their armor ferociously. When they saw Lu Liangsheng waiting on the side of the road, they grinned with thick beards and waved their arms.
"Liang Sheng!!"
The sound is loud and echoes through the woods and roads.