"Old Pig, you are well-informed."
"… As soon as you left Wujiang Mountain, I knew about it. I even went there once. But your two boys said that you went back to Qixia Mountain first. I thought you might have something to go back for. You had to go back to Wujiang Mountain anyway, so I might as well wait for you here in Fuling Mountain. But are you really that anxious? Why don't you stay a little longer?"
"I have to leave. Heaven will not let me stay. I finally understand how Lu Yuan felt when he was monitored by the Eye of Heaven."
In April, there were faint sounds of cicadas chirping among the roads and forests. Two people were walking along the country dirt road, one in front and the other behind, talking and laughing. Occasionally, they looked over to the end of the acres of fields, where there was a farm. Many farmers were busy with spring plowing. They raised their heads and looked over here. They saw two people and a donkey passing by, but they didn't think it was surprising and continued to plant rice and weed.
“Hehe… The people in this village are quite nice, but it’s a pity that you wanted to go back so quickly, so I, Old Zhu, dragged you in.” Zhu Ganglie pointed at the village with a look of relief in his eyes, which reminded him of Lujia Village far away in Qixia Mountain. “The people in this village are similar to your home. Most of them have the surname Gao, and they are warm and kind. It’s been peaceful in recent years, and every family is doing well. I live in a mountain not far away, and sometimes I transform into a human to walk around there, especially the young lady from the Gao family… hehehe…”
Seeing him biting his finger, Lu Liangsheng suddenly stopped talking and kept grinning. How could he not guess what was going on? He said with a smile, "Didn't you say you wanted to take care of Zhu Erniang? How come you've fallen in love with someone else after so many years?"
"Monsters are no better than humans, bah... No, no."
Suddenly reacting, Old Pig gently pushed the scholar with his hand and said in a muffled voice: "Okay, you almost tricked me, but I am also an honest man. Zhu Erniang left a long time ago, she ran away secretly. I went to chase her, but she didn't come back. She said she was going to look for other sisters at home. I don't know whether it was true or not, but it shows that she has decided to leave. It's not good to stay, so I let her go in the end."
"She has sisters?" Lu Liangsheng frowned. He had previously thought that she was just a little demon following the Wolf King Gongsun Liao, so he didn't ask much about her origins.
The old pig nodded: "She said her home is in Pansi Cave, and she has six sisters, which is farther away than your Wujiang Mountain."
Farther than Wujiang Mountain
Lu Liangsheng raised his eyebrows, thinking that Fahai would go to Wuzhi Mountain to release the monkey and pass by him. With the attitude of the man and the monkey who were "seeing injustice on the road", Zhu Erniang would probably be beaten to death. After all, she was an old acquaintance who had done some things in Wanshou Temple. He felt a little bit reluctant to see her being beaten to death.
"Old pig."
The scholar stopped and looked at the fat figure on the side. The latter also looked at him, "You won't let me go to Pansi Cave? No! No! I promised Mr. Gao yesterday that I would move some grain from his warehouse this afternoon and take it out to dry. I don't have time to go that far."
"But you don't have a divine position, and you are still a demon now. If you want to marry Miss Gao, I'm afraid it will shorten her life. Isn't that a bad idea?"
Lu Liangsheng couldn't deify the demon, after all, he had no great merits. Old Pig also understood this, otherwise he would have been deified when the Yin God was deified. After the scholar finished speaking, Zhu Ganglie fell silent. Unless the other party was also a demon, they could not stay together forever.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, the scholar patted the old pig's arm, looked at Zhuangzi in the distance, and talked about letting Fahai travel west.
"You remember the old monk Zhenhai, right? He has a disciple named Fajing, who accepted disciples on his behalf. The youngest disciple is called Fahai, and he is the abbot of Jinshan Temple. He has the same temperament as the old monk, and his abilities may be even greater. Calculating the time, it is time for the monkey's Jie Di to be taken off. I will coax him to travel west to Tianzhu to spread Buddhism in China, and take off the Jie Di on the way and let the monkey out. Old pig, you will go with them, and when you pass by Wujiang Mountain, stay in the temple for two days and encourage the monkey to cause some trouble, so that I can get to know him and become his sworn brother."
Zhu Ganglie also knew about the monkey's sending little snow girl to the outer sky to burn all her hair, but when he heard the monkey's promise to become sworn brothers with Lu Liangsheng, he felt sad.
After looking at the farm over there for a while, the old pig said "hmm" in a faint voice, sat down on the grass by the roadside, picked a wild flower and put it under his nose to smell it.
"Well, I have a kind heart. When I pass by the Silkworm Cave, I will inform Erniang in advance to take her and her sisters to hide there. After all, we live together day and night. I can't just watch her get beaten to death by the monkey and Fahai."
Lu Liangsheng stood aside, smiled, and added: "Going west to spread Buddhism is also a great merit, and you can be deified in the future. Then you can get rid of your demon body and marry whoever you want. It's up to you, and there's nothing to worry about."
"You scholars are so cunning."
The old pig smiled along, and then the two of them talked about other things. After checking the time, Zhu Ganglie brushed off the grass and dust on his butt and said, "I'll go back to do some work for Mr. Gao first, and then explain some things to Cuilan. When the monkey comes, I'll go to your temple and see you off."
"Thank you!" Lu Liangsheng clasped his fists and watched the fat figure carrying the rake go to the muddy road of the village. He turned his head and looked at the ridge of the field not far away. He saw the Toad Taoist priest with his trouser legs rolled up standing in the mud, bending down and looking sideways at the mud hole, trying to take something out of it.
"Master, are you digging out eels or loaches? That's easy!"
The scholar made a gesture of incantation and the mud beside the field began to wriggle. In the inconspicuous little holes, turbid water flowed with a gurgling sound and bubbles kept coming out. Then, eels rushed out one after another, splashing water around the toad.
"..." Taoist Toad frowned and walked onto the ridge of the field in silence. He shook off the mud on his flippers, jumped onto the rope of the bookshelf, climbed up, and angrily went into the small door of the bookshelf. He sat on the door edge, tied the rope around his waist, and muttered to himself.
"Fun! You've ruined the fun of the field. I don't feel like it anymore. Let's go, let's go back quickly."
Uh… Master is imitating Old Sun, but I misunderstood and thought he was just craving for game. Lu Liangsheng laughed and shook his head, apologized to the master sitting by the small door of the bookshelf, and then pulled the reins and led the old donkey through the place called Fuling Mountain.
Now that everything is settled and I have returned to Wujiang Mountain, time has never stopped.
By May, the noisy chirping of cicadas could be heard one after another in the foothills. Pavilions stood in the temple built on the mountainside. Wind chimes rang softly and pleasantly on the eaves. Lu Liangsheng, standing in the backyard, was holding a kettle engraved with talismans and watering a towering tree. Two Taoist children with pigtails and wearing Taoist robes raised their little heads to look at the pink flowers blooming among the dense branches.
"Here." Lu Liangsheng stood up and handed the kettle to the side. Qingfeng came back to his senses, took the kettle, and looked at the flowers on the tree curiously, "Master, are you going to refine the spirit fruit again?"
"Yes and no."
Lu Liangsheng made different hand gestures with his hands, and a light blue light appeared all around, nourishing the towering tree, and there were also slight sounds.
"As a teacher, I am waiting for a monkey to fulfill his final promise."