The gentle breeze blew across the hills, and birds chirped on the tender green branches. I watched a young man who looked like a scholar walk along the winding stone steps below, and then he turned and stopped at a nearby path.
Lu Liangsheng cupped his hands and turned around, "Lu Liangsheng wants to see the old mother of Mount Li!"
… Lu Liangsheng asked to see his mother in Mount Li!
The sound echoed in the mountains and woods, and the only response was the chirping of birds. Occasionally, porters and vendors passing by the stone steps outside would hear the sound and run over. They took one look and saw that it was a scholar, so they thought he was mentally ill and could not help but give him a few words of advice.
"Sir, if you want to see the Old Mother of Mount Li, you should go to the temple, burn some incense and candles, and get down the mountain quickly."
Lu Liangsheng smiled awkwardly and nodded, thanking the other party for his kindness. After watching the other party leave, he took a deep breath and looked up at the tall mountains.
…My mother is usually here, but she wasn’t there today. It seems she knew I was going up the mountain and was hiding on purpose.
The wind blew through the woods, rustling the branches. Faint footsteps were heard, and Lu Liangsheng turned around. A woman in an apricot-yellow dress was carrying a basket and walking slowly towards the Laomu Temple.
Lu Liangsheng laughed and stepped forward to greet her: "Miss Xiaodie, you're not going to buy tea today?"
The woman who was walking over rolled her eyes at him, snorted, and walked past the scholar.
"Some people may appear gentle and polite on the surface, but they may be saying bad things about others behind their backs."
Well…
Lu Liangsheng looked at the woman's back, frowned slightly, followed behind and asked: "Miss, what's the matter? I don't seem to have done anything wrong, right?"
The slender figure in front stopped. Xiaodie turned her head and looked at the scholar in front of her for a long time.
"Master Lu, my mother knows you will go up the mountain, so she will not come to see you today."
"Then I'll come back tomorrow."
puff.
The woman was amused by Lu Liangsheng's words. She lowered her head and pursed her lips and chuckled twice. Then, realizing that she had lost her composure, her face quickly became serious again and she glared at him.
"I'm afraid it won't work tomorrow. Master Lu is very good at talking. As long as you still have that in your mind, my mother won't see you."
"I see."
Lu Liangsheng bowed to the woman, but when he raised his head, she had disappeared. Unfortunately, he did not have the chance to ask about the whereabouts of the Kongtong Seal.
He sighed and was about to leave the mountain. As he walked past the place where the woman had just stood, he suddenly noticed in his peripheral vision that the fallen leaves were blown away, revealing the covered soil.
Um
Lu Liangsheng pushed aside a piece of sycamore leaf, and there were two lines of words on the soil: Go east out of the sea, and return to the place of ruins.
After a while, the soil squirmed, and the two lines of text slowly closed and returned to their original appearance. The scholar raised his head and looked around. Was this the intention of the yellow-skirted butterfly, or was his mother using her to convey her message
Guixu…
After memorizing the word in his mind, he did not stay in Mount Li. He bowed silently towards the foot of the mountain, quickly went down the mountain and headed towards the city. It was almost noon when he returned to Wanshou Temple. Lu Liangsheng greeted the others and told them there was no need to call him for dinner. He returned to his room, closed the door, took out "The Boundless Mountains and Seas", and used magic to search for the location of Guixu in it.
I don’t know whether Lu Yuan didn’t know, or the boundless law of mountains and seas had not yet reached there, and there was no response at all.
'Isn't it here?'
Thinking about it, Lu Liangsheng found a few books and flipped through them, but there were no similar words. There were tens of thousands of books in the attic, some left by the Holy Fire Master, and some collected in the Sui Palace before. Lu Liangsheng put down the books in the room, turned and walked out of the room. Hong Lian, who was guarding outside, called out, "Young Master." The scholar went straight to the end of the corridor and opened the door at the end. Several lamp posts lit up with flames, illuminating the windowless study.
In front of each bookshelf, Lu Liangsheng was flipping through the bamboo slips. The books were arranged in order of the time when the books were written, so it was quite difficult to find the books. Hong Lian followed him closely, took a candle and shone it in front of two messy bookshelves. Looking at Lu Liangsheng squatting on the ground, flipping through the books one by one, she followed him and squatted beside him.
"Sir, what are you looking for? I will help you find it."
"Return to the Ruins!"
Lu Liangsheng responded without even raising his head, his eyes quickly scanning the words engraved on the bamboo slips. Unless he was appreciating the content of the book, he would read very quickly. Often, he would flip through four or five bamboo slips while Hong Lian, who was standing beside him, had just finished reading one.
"There's no need to look for Hong Lian anymore."
"Master, have you found it?"
"Hmm." The scholar patted the two books in his hands, stood up and waved his sleeves, put the bamboo slips and books piled on the ground back to their original places one by one, blew out the candle, returned to the room without stopping, and turned the book called "Zhuangzi" to the page he had just found.
'Zhun Mang was heading east to the Great Valley, and happened to meet Yuan Feng on the shore of the East China Sea. Yuan Feng asked, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'I am going to the Great Valley.' He said, 'Why?' He said, 'The Great Valley is a thing that can never be filled even if you pour water into it, and never be exhausted even if you pour water into it. I will go there to swim!'
He read the contents above softly, and then looked at another book.
'To the east of the Bohai Sea, for an unknown number of millions of miles, there is a huge abyss, which is actually a bottomless valley, with no bottom at the bottom. It is called Guixu. The waters of the eight directions and nine fields, as well as the flow of the Milky Way, all flow into it, without increasing or decreasing.'
If these two books are put together, the word "Guixu" becomes more detailed.
"Return, return to the original place, ruins, desolate... bottomless valley... In other words, Kongtong Seal is underneath it?"
Lu Liangsheng was actually still confused. Since the Kongtong Seal was such a divine artifact, why did it end up here? Why didn’t the gods in the sky take it away? Could it be that... they were afraid of this Guixu place
While she was thinking, the door behind her creaked open. Hong Lian turned around and saw the Toad Taoist holding a small bowl of red rooster and eating as he walked in. "Liangsheng, the red boiled pig meat made by the Taoist priest today is really good... Liangsheng?"
Seeing that his disciple didn't respond, he called again. Hong Lian, who was standing next to him, put her finger between her lips and said softly, "Master Toad, the young master just flipped through two books and has been thinking about what's in them. It's better not to disturb him."
"snort."
Taoist Toad snorted, put the bowl on the ground, rolled up his sleeves and walked to the corner of the table. "Why don't you ask me when you encounter difficulties? Back then, I traveled 30,000 miles and looked down at the mountains and rivers. What have I not seen? I have a lot of knowledge in my belly."
"Then Master, do you know what Guixu is?"
Over there, Lu Liangsheng put down the two books "Liezi" and "Zhuangzi", turned his head and asked. When Toad Taoist came in, he actually knew it a long time ago, but he was just thinking about the question just now and had not yet come to his senses.
At this moment, after being asked this question, the Toad, who had struggled to climb up the edge of the table, was stunned for a moment, quickly retreated under the table, picked up the porcelain bowl on the ground and walked towards the door.
"I don't know everything, Liangsheng... you should think about it slowly. I will go out to eat first."
The door slammed shut, Hong Lian covered her mouth and chuckled, her eyes curved into crescents. On the other side, Lu Liangsheng withdrew his gaze from the door and looked at the spring sunshine outside the window.
Now that we know where Guixu is, maybe we can go out to sea to take a look... If we have a chance to get the Kongtong Seal, the people of Sui can be spared the suffering of division and war.
Lu Liangsheng looked at the old tree with new branches sprouting, thinking, he clenched his hands slightly in his sleeves and calmed down his mind.
… As the national teacher, this is my duty.