In Wanshou Temple, the shade of the trees illuminated by the sunset glow swayed slightly. The little man stood on tiptoe, staring straight at the eight muscular men over there. Among them, Lu Xi hooked his arm towards him, and his bulging muscles outlined obvious lines.
Qingfeng's mouth opened slightly, unable to close it.
"Qingfeng?"
Hearing Lu Liangsheng's voice again, he quickly turned around and stood up straight: "Yes, Master..." Thinking of what the master asked just now, a bitter look suddenly appeared on his little face.
"Master, actually Qingfeng was originally in Wu Se Manor, repairing the attic and the formation according to Master's instructions. But the day before yesterday, a few wolf howls suddenly sounded in the northwest mountains, and all the monsters in the northwest came out, some seen and some not, running all over the mountains. Wu Se Manor was then discovered and taken a fancy to by several big monsters."
At this point, Qing Feng patted his chest and raised his chin with pride: "Fortunately, I am smart. A good man never suffers a loss in front of him. I will report to Master first, and then fight back and drive them away."
Pop.
A scroll of book hit the little guy on the head. Lu Liangsheng took the scroll with a smile on his face and said, "If you want to run away, then run away. You made it sound so clear-headed and unworldly. If you gave half of your personality to Mingyue, he wouldn't be so rigid."
On the opposite side, Qingfeng covered his forehead and blinked, seizing the opportunity to change the subject.
"Master, who is Mingyue?"
"My other little boy, you will have a chance to meet each other in the future, so don't change the subject." Lu Liangsheng knew what he meant and pretended to hit him. The little boy quickly jumped away with his head in his hands. Seeing that the book was not knocked down, he took a peek and saw his master sitting there with a smile. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
'Except for the difference in cultivation, this master is much gentler than the previous master.'
The thought only flashed through his mind for a short while before he began to ponder over the scene that had taken place in Wujiang Mountain. He raised his chin and stared at the red clouds in the sky, humming for a long while.
“… The three monsters looked like a tiger, a deer, and a sheep.”
"I'm not talking about them, but why all the monsters suddenly appeared in the mountains in the northwest."
What Lu Liangsheng was considering was that there were several cities in the northwest mountains, and they were all populated by his own people. If all kinds of monsters gathered there, even if they were not targeting humans, the demonic aura in the air would have an impact on all living things nearby.
Over there, Qingfeng shook his head.
"I don't know either. They all ran out overnight. There must be thousands if not ten thousand. The momentum was quite scary."
Hearing this, Lu Liangsheng frowned slightly, "Wolf sound?" He subconsciously turned his eyes and looked towards the attic, where there was an endless sea of mountains and seas placed among the bookshelves.
"It's the white wolf demon."
At this time, the voice of Toad Taoist suddenly rang out. He held the red rooster bowl, scooped a spoonful of iced cheese with a spoon and put it into his mouth, then walked over with his webbed feet.
"Gongsun Liao left two days ago. He was the one who howled the wolf. Only the Northwest Demon King can call upon the demons of the Northwest... Including the little demons who have awakened, there are more than 3,600 of them. I know all the demons flying in the sky, swimming in the water, and crawling in the grass."
Lu Liangsheng put down the scroll, leaned forward slightly with his elbows on his knees, and looked at the Toad Taoist who was carrying the bowl over: "Master, why do you know so much?"
Feeling the sour and sweet cool taste in its mouth, the toad hummed twice, jumped onto the apprentice's hand, sat down on his shoulder, basking in the sunset, squinting its eyes comfortably.
"Liangsheng, you should know that in the past, your master was as powerful as the demon king. In the northwest, which hilltop has some tasty demons... Bah, how could your master not know what demons there are? It's just that I'm getting lazy now and don't want to ask. Otherwise, if Zixing's name is mentioned, all the demons in the northwest will tremble."
Qingfeng looked at Lu Liangsheng opposite him and whispered, "Master, I have never heard of it in the northwest."
"snort!"
The Toad Taoist opened his eyes, sat up straight, held the bowl of iced cheese, and took a big bite. He didn't bother with the little kid. He hung his two short legs and chewed leisurely. He said, "What do you know?" and ignored him.
He roughly figured out why Qingfeng suddenly appeared here. As for the three monsters occupying Wuse Manor, Lu Liangsheng didn't need to worry, because there was a magic circle left by Lu Yuan to guard it, and he couldn't enter the attic. As for why Gongsun Liao suddenly returned to the northwest and changed his previous hedonistic lifestyle, it made people suspicious.
His eyes could not help but turn to the toad on his shoulder: "Master, he is your good friend, do you know what you are going to do by gathering all the monsters?"
"I don't know. I have never eaten him."
The spoon that was scooping up the food suddenly loosened its grip, and the Toad Taoist slapped his disciple's ear fiercely. "When that stupid wolf left, he tried to persuade me and said a lot of nonsense. I had something important to do at the time, so I didn't listen."
This made Qingfeng laugh out loud.
"It's like saying nothing, haha..."
Then he was glared at by Lu Liangsheng, and he quickly closed his mouth and dared not make a sound. The scholar held the scroll and gently clapped his palms, looking at the last ray of sunlight shining from the top of the city. The shaking scroll fell heavily on his palm with a snap, and then he stood up.
"Early tomorrow morning, we will rush to the northwest."
Hong Lian had never been to the northwest of the Sui Dynasty. Lu Pan and his eight companions were so happy to have seen the desolation of the northwest that they packed their luggage overnight. Even their dinner was much faster than usual. In front of the big round table, Qingfeng was holding a bowl, but before he could hold the chopsticks firmly, eight pairs of chopsticks fell down with afterimages. In an instant, only empty plates were left on the table.
"Do you have to hurry? I'm just a kid, please leave some for me!"
The eight people ignored him and quickly ran upstairs after eating. The little guy had no choice but to take the leftover soup from the plate and pour it into the rice, and hurriedly dug it up, looking up from time to time to listen to the footsteps coming and going on the wooden board above.
The lights in the room on the third floor were bright. Taoist Toad was leaning against a lamppost with his legs crossed, looking calmly at the cookbook in his hand. Over there, Hong Lian and Qi You were busy tidying up. He tilted his head to look at the scholar who was writing at his desk.
"Are you really going to the northwest? That old wolf can't make any waves. If he really wants to do something bad, I will deal with him myself."
“It’s better to take precautions before they happen.”
Lu Liangsheng replied softly, spread out the paper, took the wolf hair brush and dipped it in ink, and wrote a letter to the emperor about his trip to the northwest.
The content is roughly: I sensed an evil spirit in the northwest last night, and something ominous must have happened. The people of our Great Sui are living and working peacefully there, and I will feel at ease only if I take care of them. I am hundreds of miles away, but will be there in a moment. If Your Majesty needs to summon me for something urgent, you can put this letter in front of the northwest window and light it on fire.
After writing just a dozen words, he put down his brush, folded the letter into a paper crane, blew on it, and put it on the windowsill. The next moment, the paper crane seemed to come alive, flapped its paper wings, and flew out of the window, dragging a ray of star-like light, and disappeared into the night.
"Master, has your magic power recovered?" Lu Liangsheng stretched out his finger to bring a copper basin of clean water to clean the ink on the pen tip, shook off the brocade bag, put it in his sleeve, and then looked at the toad who was looking through the recipe under the lamppost.
The latter just said "hmm" nonchalantly, and thinking about how surprised his apprentice would be, he couldn't help but twitch his lips and laughed.
After a moment, there was no sound of questioning. The Toad Taoist sat up straight. In front of him, Lu Liangsheng was packing up the books and putting them on the bookshelf. It seemed that he didn't hear the "hmm" he just said.
"Master has already recovered his demon core, don't you really believe it?"
Lu Liangsheng turned around and just smiled, then was pulled away by Hong Lian. When they went outside, the door slammed shut, and Toad was so angry that he tensed his two short legs and stomped hard on the spot.
"What the old man said is true!!!"
Qi You on the side turned his head and stuck out his tongue at him, obviously not interested.
The night gradually passed. In the distant east, the clouds were glowing with golden light, which pierced through the gaps in the clouds and sprinkled down. On the official road to the west of the city, pushing the black edge past, a group of people and an old donkey were chatting and laughing lively.
The sound of bronze bells rang softly, and the morning sun faded away.