The morning light spread over the undulating mountains and small villages. In the farmyard, the cypress trees swayed slightly in the wind, and dewdrops on the tips of the leaves dripped down and sprinkled into the water tank, causing ripples. In the open window frame under the eaves, a toad wearing short clothes, with a serious face and webbed feet spread, jumped up and down in place. Then, his foot slipped, and he fell off the window frame with a somersault and fell to the ground with a thud.
A white hen poked its head out from the vegetable garden, spread its wings and rushed over. When the door of the house opposite opened, it immediately stopped, folded its wings as if nothing had happened, pecked at the ground, and turned and walked away with a cluck.
Under the eaves, the slightly opened door was pulled open, and a young man in a blue robe walked out, picked up the master under the windowsill, put him on his shoulders, and filled a basin of clean water in the bucket to wash.
'Gululu'
The water splashed between his lips for a few times, and then Lu Liangsheng spat it out.
"Huh!"
He spit out the clean water in his mouth, took a towel to wash his face, raised his head and called the room in the attic. Only the Taoist priest was there, yawning, leaning against the fence with his chin supported.
"Didn't you sleep last night?" Lu Liangsheng put on the towel, smiled and looked back at the second floor. The Taoist's eyes were dark, he yawned several times and waved his hands.
"Don't mention it. I was dragged by Lao Zhu to study a book for the whole night."
Hearing the sound of Lu Xiaoxian's door opening downstairs, she quickly shut her mouth, hushed to the scholar, tiptoed back into the room, and closed the door gently.
Xiaoxian came out of the house yawning and called out, "Good morning, brother." She went to the water tank to fetch water for washing.
After saying hello to his sister, Lu Liangsheng thought about the "book" the Taoist had mentioned, sighed, shook his head, went back to his room, and reached out to knock on the painting on the wall.
"Hong Lian, wake up."
On the wall, there is a painting of a woman on a swing. Birds are flying over the branches. The woman sitting on the swing with her legs twisted suddenly blinks her eyes and smiles. In an instant, she turns into a wisp of smoke and falls to the ground. She spreads her skirt and turns around, bowing softly.
With a smile on his face, he went over to help tidy up the bedding. On the other side, Lu Liangsheng took the pen and ink from the bookshelf. After Hong Lian had finished packing, he told Li Jinhua that he was going to the mountains outside.
Actually, the reason I came back this time was to take a look at the magic array set up in Qixia Mountain and reinforce it. I want to know how powerful the catastrophe of heaven and earth will be and what it will look like. At least the magic array can be improved, so I can feel more at ease.
He walked to the gate of the yard and waved towards the donkey shed. The old donkey spread its hooves and ran over excitedly, following him out of the village.
As he passed through the village, the villagers who had gotten up early jokingly greeted him and called out, "Master Lu!"
This caused Hong Lian to cover her mouth and laugh softly.
"You are so majestic, sir."
"Hong Lian, are you thinking of making a joke too?" Lu Liangsheng stretched out his hand and lightly scratched the tip of her nose. They walked along the neat village road. In the distance, they could faintly hear the childish voices of children reading. He took Hong Lian to the window and looked inside. There were a dozen children holding books and nodding their heads.
"Originally, I was supposed to teach these kids, but I didn't expect them to win the championship in River Valley County."
As the soft morning light shone in, Lu Liangsheng looked at the serious children inside and gently closed the window. Then he and Hong Lian left the village together. However, the woman had to go back to the temple to guard it, so she held the scholar's hand and slowly pulled away reluctantly.
"Sir, how long do I have to wait? I miss the time when I could follow you everywhere."
Lu Liangsheng went over and held her in his arms, smelling the faint sandalwood scent on her black hair. "After we go back, I'll try the method you mentioned before. If it works, Hong Lian will be able to move around freely in the future."
"Don't lie to me!"
Nie Honglian came out of Lu Liangsheng's arms, raised her face, with dimples appearing on her cheeks. She raised her white arm and stretched it in front of the scholar, with her little finger raised.
"Pin! I will keep my promise. I will wait for you to come back in Qixia Mountain."
On the opposite side, Lu Liangsheng looked at the little finger raised in front of him, smiled, and also stretched out his little finger to hook it with hers.
"good!"
Hong Lian pulled her little finger and shook it twice, then turned her thumb over and pressed it against Lu Liangsheng's thumb. It was soft and warm.
He withdrew his hand, raised his chin, flicked his long sleeves, and flew into the air, floating towards the temple on the hillside in the distance. His figure disappeared in the sunlight in the blink of an eye.
At this time, the big toad lying on his shoulder got up and said, "You brought me out here so early in the morning just to see this?"
He stopped talking, stretched his two short legs, jumped back, and jumped onto the head of the old donkey. The latter was chewing grass, his eyes rolled up, and he glanced at the Toad Taoist. When he shook his head hard, he was hit by the other party's frog web.
"Don't move!"
As he said this, he looked at his disciple and said, "Where are you going? Lead the way quickly. I have to go back to have breakfast, otherwise I will be harmed by that stinky Taoist priest again."
Lu Liangsheng smiled and nodded, spread his sleeves, cast a spell to shrink the distance, led the old donkey, and walked to the nearest Xiaoquan Mountain as if taking a stroll.
A man in a green robe walked up the mountain path. The hanging branches, weeds and shrubs on the ground moved to the left and right as the scholar and the old donkey with a toad on its head came over. Before they passed by, Aokiji's voice was heard calling in the distance.
"gentlemen!!"
Far away, on the top of a tree, a little boy in black pants and white clothes jumped to the ground and looked at the gentleman and the old donkey who were coming over with surprise. He walked quickly to meet them, and the small gourd hanging from his waist was shaking with the small stones inside.
He ran to Lu Liangsheng, folded his hands, bent down respectfully, and repeated it again.
"gentlemen."
When he saw the old donkey, he smiled brightly and called out obediently, "Uncle Donkey."
The Toad Taoist nodded slightly and looked at the dense branches above, but what he heard was the old donkey's grunts and neighs. It then walked leisurely, swinging its bald tail and chewing the grass.
Lu Liangsheng asked Mingyue to get up and asked, "Where is your mother?"
"My mother is at the magic circle, sir. Mingyue will lead the way for you."
The little boy turned around and ran upstairs, calling out to Yanzhi who was practicing over there.
"Mom!" "Mom, the master is here!"
It didn't look like a half-human, half-fox, but more like a little monkey, which disappeared in a few steps. Lu Liangsheng called out to the old donkey to follow him, and walked with his sleeves folded up while looking at the winding mountains outside. The Toad Taoist sitting on the old donkey's head opened and closed his mouth slightly, looking at the child who had disappeared.
"What the hell, I'm right in front of you, and you didn't even call out to me? Back then, I traveled all over the world and over mountains, and no monster or human would not show me respect."
“Master!”
At this time, Lu Liangsheng, who was looking at the scenery outside the mountain, suddenly spoke, turned his head and looked at the toad waving its webbed feet angrily on the old donkey's head.
"In fact, Master was in seclusion before the New Year, and he didn't repair the demon pill at all, right?"
Over there, the frog web waving on the donkey's head froze, and the Toad Taoist's mouth twitched, and he turned his face away in embarrassment.
"Liang Sheng... did you see that?"
Toad lowered his head, exhaled, and said: "Actually... Master can repair the demon pill, but I am also afraid that once the former strength is restored, the demon nature will not be suppressed."
"Then why..." Lu Liangsheng pointed to the Xiaoquan Mountain Waterfall, his meaning was obvious: "Yanzhi is also a demon, why can she suppress her demonic nature?"
The Toad Taoist rolled his eyes, turned his toad face back, snorted disdainfully, and straightened the small scarf on his body.
"How can such a little demon be compared with my master? After all, my master was close to being a demon king back then... quack."
At this time, in the direction where the man and the donkey had passed, on a gentle slope, a beautiful figure was standing there. When she saw the scholar in a blue shirt, she hurriedly bowed to him with Mingyue beside her.
"Yanzhi, I'm honored."
Her skin is white and firm, her hair is black like a waterfall. The fox demon who used to only be able to perform tricks is now close to the realm of transformation.