Boom!
Boom!
…
Lu Erlai, who was kneeling, raised his head and kowtowed again, his forehead turning red in an instant.
"Please forgive me, Grandpa Mountain God... Please forgive me, Grandpa Mountain God... I won't dare to do it again, I really won't dare to do it again."
Compared with the dizziness, the most terrifying thing was the unbearable itching all over his body and the excruciating pain of pulling out chicken feathers. For several hours, he almost felt what it meant to be worse than death.
The man who had given Lu Erlai advice earlier quickly said, "Confess your sins to the mountain god, maybe things will get better."
Erlai, whose forehead touched the ground, was in a mess at this time.
"Grandpa Mountain God, Erlai was wrong... I won't dare to be sneaky or flirt with other women in the future... Please have mercy on me and let me go this time."
"Admit it, Grandpa Mountain God, punish him for two more days!!" A voice shouted from the people watching the excitement outside.
There was also an elderly man with long hair and beard, waving his cane twice: "You scoundrel finally admitted that the good crops in my field were ruined by you, a scoundrel!!"
The old man's children had already rushed in, punched and kicked Lu Erlai, and were then pulled away by the man from the temple who gave the idea. Outside, the villagers who had often been taken advantage of by Lu Erlai flocked to him, wanting to come in.
Lu Erlai was beaten so hard that his nose was bleeding and his right face was swollen. He cried out "Ah!" and kowtowed to them. He was a scoundrel who bullied the weak and feared the strong, so he was naturally panicked and scared. His face was covered with tears and snot, and he kowtowed to apologize continuously.
"Don't hit me... please... please..."
Then, he turned over and lay on the ground, scratching his neck and chest frantically, tearing out large pieces of chicken feathers, and the bloody and mangled state was heart-wrenching.
Lu Liangsheng stood in the crowd, watching the figures writhing and wailing. Previously, he thought that the hair plucking technique was just a punishment that caused unbearable itching. But now he felt that the real punishment was the uncontrollable itching and the severe pain of having the chicken feathers pulled out of the body.
"A small side door technique is like this, then the master's level is probably even more terrifying..."
After a moment of thinking, Lu Erlai, who was rolling over there, suddenly stopped moving. Someone shouted loudly: "Look, the chicken feathers on Erlai's body are starting to fall off!"
Lu Liangsheng came back to his senses and saw Lu Erlai groaning vaguely on the ground. The chicken feathers on his neck, chest and arms were retracting at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Didn't they say it would take a few days to recover..." Liangsheng looked past the crowd and at the neckless statue of the mountain god on the altar at the back of the temple.
“… Mountain God?”
Then, he shook his head and said, "No, maybe my cultivation is too low and I can't maintain this little magic for two or three days. That should be it."
His sight fell on a broken long plaque not far from the crowd. He wiped away the thick dust on it, revealing a few large characters.
Brilliant... Brilliant... The glow of the sunset lasts for thousands of years...
"This is the inscription in the temple... Where is the other half?"
Over there, the whole body of chicken feathers retreated, and Lu Erlai was also helped up by kind-hearted fellow villagers and sent back home. There were also people around to smooth things over: "Today's matter is over. We are all from the same village. It's good that he knows he was wrong. You can't really beat him to death."
Some people also shouted: "If we kill him, will the government still be able to arrest us all?"
"That's right. If I had known, I would have been the first to rush in and give this scoundrel a punch."
"Forget it, forget it. The mountain god has let him go. Let's go. We are all relatives. If we really beat him to death, the other villages will laugh at us."
"Whoever makes fun of me, let's beat him up!"
Although they said these cruel words, everyone still moved outside. Although the people in the mountains were cruel, they had really killed someone and were involved in a murder case. They felt unlucky after all, and might even have to face the end of their lives. Not long after, they left in groups of three or four. Following Lu Laoshi, Li Jinhua and Lu Xiaoxian, who were watching the fun, they said to Liangsheng, "Let's go home." They walked and excitedly talked about what happened today.
The dilapidated mountain temple gradually became quiet again. The birds that had flown away came back and stood on the branches, looking at the lonely figure who had not left yet.
Lu Liangsheng stood alone in front of the abandoned temple.
After walking around for a while, I finally found the other half of the long plaque, on which was the remaining inscription: … The divine power is so great that it shakes the universe.
I had thought of something to give back to my master, but I had nothing at home. I happened to see a nice inscription in the temple, and the words I wrote were also quite beautiful... Well... at least that's what Lu Xiaoxian said.
After writing down the inscription, Lu Liangsheng followed the same path he had come from, caught up with his parents and sister who had already walked a long way, and returned home together, where he continued to practice according to the formulas taught by his master.
For two or three days, Lu Erlai didn't hang around in the village. Even if he met him occasionally, he would stay away from him. Li Jinhua led the old donkey around the village and showed off everywhere. Lu Laoshi found all the wood and sat under the eaves thinking about how to make the frame of the cart.
In the room, Lu Xiaoxian followed her brother curiously, "Brother, do you want to write?"
"Um."
Lu Liangsheng knocked off a little bit of graphite, put it in a small dish, mixed it with some water, and gently ground it for a while. He then soaked the prepared rabbit-hair brush with some water and kneaded it. This was the process of starting to write. When he was at the village market before, he had seen an old man writing for people do this.
Xiaoxian saw the opportunity to help and cut a piece of paper from her brother's blank book. She smoothed it out with her sleeve for fear of dirtying the white paper.
Lu Liangsheng picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, concentrated his attention, and then started writing.
Each stroke of the pen wrote a coherent inscription: The brilliant rays of light last for thousands of years, and the divine power shakes the universe!
He put down the brush, picked up the paper with the writing on it and blew on it, "Xiao Xian, what do you think of my handwriting?"
"It's so pretty... Brother, can you draw a little fish for Xiao Xian?"
Xiao Xian was illiterate and couldn't understand what it meant, but she thought her brother was very capable. When she started writing like a dragon, she thought she was dazzled, but vaguely, she seemed to see a faint light shining on the pen.
In fact, the young man had unknowingly used his shallow magical powers.
After collecting the almost dried writings and folding them neatly, Lu Liangsheng pinched his sister's cheek and said, "Not now. Wait until I come back and I'll draw for you. Stay at home."
"oh."
The little girl, with her pigtails shaking, saw her brother out of the room, then sat down on a low stool under the eaves in a depressed mood, propping her chin up to watch Lu Laoshi banging on wood on the other side.
Outside the village, a young man was walking quickly on the muddy path in the field, touching the inscription in his arms, full of high spirits. This was the first time he had written good calligraphy, which was quite meaningful and was also a gift to his master.
When they arrived at the huge rock under the cliff, before they could open their mouths, the big rock had slowly opened, revealing a cave behind it. Lu Liangsheng walked in. There was a flame burning, and on top stood a large cauldron that was big enough for two people to hug. Something was floating on the warm water, emitting a faint fragrance.
The old man with his back turned waved his wide sleeves behind him.
"Liangsheng, take off your clothes, shoes and socks, and sit in the cauldron."
Lu Liangsheng was stunned: "Sit in?"
“Yes, sit in. Didn’t your master tell you three days ago that I would help you break through the Kaidan stage…” The figure with his back to the mountain wall faced the mountain wall. On the stone platform in front of him were strange plants, roots, and some bloody pieces of meat.
"... The fire, food... the elixirs are all ready, come in quickly."
In the shadow with his back to the fire, no expression could be seen on the old man's face.