2:00 PM.
In the afternoon, the sun poured down, shining through the gaps in the trees. A breeze blew through the mountains, and spots of light swayed gently on the ground, with the rustling of branches and leaves.
There was a rustling sound in the cave, and after a moment, clothes were folded and a piece of paper was placed on top.
"Master, the words written on that piece of paper... are my gift to you."
There was a splashing sound of water, and Lu Liangsheng stepped into the big cauldron. The water temperature was not scalding, and the steaming water surface just covered his chest. He sat in the water and looked at the old man with his back to him, while trying to pick up something floating on the water, which looked like a kind of fungus commonly found in the mountains.
Steam was rising, and in the hazy air, the gray robe turned around, and there was a smile on the old man's face and something more in his hands.
"Liangsheng is thoughtful."
He walked over slowly and threw a few hexagonal leaves into the cauldron, followed by some unknown roots. When small splashes of water splashed on the boy's chest, Lu Liangsheng asked in a low voice: "Master, what are these?"
"Of course it's good stuff. Master prepared it specially for today... It's mountain spirit... It can be used to repair injuries and enhance cultivation. It will dissolve when it comes into contact with water, which makes it even more delicious."
The old man rolled up his sleeves and spoke with a little more excitement than usual. He shook the plant rhizome, which was similar in shape to ginseng, and then threw it into the water.
"This is Rain Mother... It can make the flesh... physique more resilient."
As he spoke, he took out something bloody and said, "Don't be fooled by the fact that this looks like meat. Actually, it is meat, a mountain essence. It is very hard to find. I was lucky enough to come across it."
Things were put into the tripod one by one.
Lu Liangsheng frowned slightly, then relaxed his brows and said with a smile: "Master, it looks like you are going to cook Gudong soup (an ancient name for hot pot)."
"hey-hey… "
In the firelight, the old man's face flickered. He looked at him for a while, grinned twice, and turned away: "Liangsheng, to be honest..."
He reached out to take the white paper on the clothes, probably wanting to see what gift this disciple had given him: "... I was attacked by someone and I am injured. I need to take some nourishment. I accepted you as my disciple only because..."
The old man unfolded the paper, and the words after the word "only for" suddenly stopped. His eyes widened suddenly, staring at the moment when the two columns of handwriting were written. The words were parallel and there was a faint golden light emitting. He opened his mouth and squeezed out a voice: "That mother's..."
Over there, Lu Liangsheng, who was still waiting for his master to finish speaking, turned around and said, "Master, just for what?" The next moment, a white light suddenly rose up, enveloping the old man who was originally standing over there, and then everything was white, filling the field of vision.
After a while, the white light gradually faded away, and the young man hurriedly climbed out of the cauldron and stood barefoot on the ground. In an instant, a ball of light purple mist suddenly exploded, and the whole cave was filled with surging purple air.
"Ahem..."
Lu Liangsheng covered his nose, surrounded by a pungent smell. He waved away the purple smoke with his other hand, took two careful steps, and shouted loudly, "Master!"
The sound echoed in the cave, but no one responded.
Stepping on the wet ground, Lu Liangsheng groped around with his hands, and his body moved with him. When he stepped on the gray robe on the ground, he felt a sudden panic in his heart, and had no idea what was going on.
"Master—" he shouted again.
"Stop yelling!"
When Lu Liangsheng shouted this, the old man's words also echoed in the cave, and his tone seemed to contain anger.
Hearing the familiar voice, the young man breathed a sigh of relief, quickly took a half step forward, and looked around: "Master, where are you?"
"Under you!"
"ah?"
The purple mist dissipated, revealing the swaying oil lamp on the low table. In the dim warm yellow light, Lu Liangsheng hurriedly lowered his head, and his eyebrows twitched.
"It's a big lump."
"That's yours, I'm behind you!"
The young man quickly turned around and looked around: "Master, I didn't see you."
"Keep your head down!"
Lu Liangsheng lowered his eyes and saw a huge toad, with big, shiny eyes with red dots, and its back was covered with bumps that formed seven stars and had a dark luster. Its two toad legs were stretched straight, pulling its entire body straight. It stood there, not even as tall as the boy's knees.
The man and the toad stared at each other for a long time.
After a moment, Lu Liangsheng's mouth twitched, and he hesitated and said, "Master...Father?"
"It is the Master!"
The toad rolled its eyes, and it carried its front legs, sticking out its bulging belly. Its webbed feet stomped on the ground, and it said in a serious tone, "What's with that expression on your face? Didn't I tell you before? You were ambushed and hit by the opponent's spell. Now you are seriously injured and unable to resist. That's why you were turned into this by the spell... quack."
"Master...you...haha!" Lu Liangsheng suddenly laughed out loud at its movements and tone.
"The teacher is speaking to you seriously!"
The young man immediately stopped smiling and bit his lip hard: "I'm sorry, Master, I really can't help it."
"Forget it, forget it. Now most of my cultivation has been wasted. It's not safe to stay here. I'll go down the mountain with you and get some exposure to the world. Who knows, I can rise again."
The toad staggered to the stone bed with its front legs, raised its frog face and looked up at the edge of the bed that was like a cliff, and sighed: "But I will not be a burden to you."
After saying that, the toad kicked its legs, shot up, climbed onto the edge of the bed, grabbed the straw mat tightly with its front paws, and kicked rapidly with its two webbed feet hanging in the air... but it just couldn't get up.
The toad's kicking short legs were pushed by the hand, and he finally flipped over onto the straw mat. He sat up, stared at Lu Liangsheng with his eyes bulging, and shouted, "Master can get up by himself! Quack!"
He turned over, wobbled over to the low desk with his flippers, picked up the black-patterned gourd on it, and put it on his back: "This is my personal magic weapon, it can collect everything in the world! But it can't be used now. There are a few books of magic that I got on the bookshelf, you can take them all."
Over there, Lu Liangsheng quickly put on his clothes, put on his worn-out shoes, jumped onto the stone bed, and took a few ancient books from the shelf into his arms.
The toad carrying the gourd jumped off the stone bed with a bang, "Good disciple, follow me out!" He chanted a spell towards the huge rock over there, and then waved his webbed hands.
On the opposite side, a huge rock stood there motionless.
Lu Liangsheng: “…”
Toad: “…”
Then, he sighed and lowered his head: "It seems that my magic power can only sustain my speech, and I can't even move this huge rock." He stretched out his hand and pulled the boy's trouser leg: "The huge rock needs magic to be moved away. You still have some skills, you should be able to do it."
The formula consisted of only a few short words. As Lu Liangsheng recited it silently, he waved his hand at the boulder. There was a rumbling sound of heavy movement, and the entrance to the cave slowly opened. A ray of residual red shone in from outside and fell on the faces of a man and a toad.
"Master is gone!"
Lu Liangsheng picked up the toad and put it on his shoulder. "It's too late now. We have to go back quickly. Master, hold on tight."
Before the toad on his shoulder could answer, the boy started running quickly. The mountain road was rugged, but it was not a difficult task for Lu Liangsheng, who often walked here. Moreover, since he started practicing, his body had become stronger and more agile than before.
"Liangsheng... slow down..."
The running figure rose and fell, and the toad on his shoulder lay on it tightly, jumping up and down, shouting anxiously: "Master has no hands... bad disciple... that... mother... quack..."
After going down the mountain, the toad felt like it had lost half its life, and its eyelids drooped. Before entering the village, Lu Liangsheng whispered to it, "Master, don't let others see that you can talk..."
The toad weakly raised his eyelids and looked at the boy.
"Master knows, quack."
After entering the village, he met some villagers who were returning from work. They were all familiar with each other and could see the toad on the boy's shoulder from a distance: "Liangsheng, you caught such a big toad..."
"I'm afraid it has become a spirit, carrying a gourd on its back." Someone also joked.
"I picked the gourd from the mountain. I tied it up because I was afraid it would run away." Although Lu Liangsheng did not have much experience, he was smart and responded quickly to the adults around him who were talking and joking with him.
When she got home, Lu Xiaoxian stared at the thing her brother put down from his shoulder and was so scared that she moved away from it. She had been afraid of this bumpy toad since she was a child.
But he had never seen one this big before, so he found a small stick as long as his arm and ran over to poke it a few times. Even Lu Laoshi and Li Jinhua came over to watch for a while.
"Apart from its large size, it's nothing special. Liangsheng, throw it into the vegetable garden to help catch insects."
After his parents and sister left, Lu Liangsheng carefully placed the toad beside the vegetable garden fence and whispered, "Master... I'm sorry to bother you. If you feel cold at night, come to the room."
"Go, go..."
A big toad was crawling on the ground, and when I looked over I saw a stove with a dim light. The apprentice and his family were sitting around the stove eating dinner.
"To think that a demon cultivator like me who has transformed into a human form has ended up like this... I hate it so much."
Buzz... Mosquitoes are flying over with their wings flapping.
In the blink of an eye, a long scarlet tongue wrapped around it and quickly pulled it into its mouth, and the toad licked its mouth.
"It tastes pretty good... quack."