"City God Zhou Yu, come and see me soon!"
Lu Liangsheng's feet were suspended in the air, rising slowly, passing through the dense tree cage and standing on the tip of the leaves. The wind blew his robes and a few strands of black hair floated on the side of his face. The sound of the Dharma echoed in the empty field. Apart from a few construction figures gathered together and talking, there was only one person left who left with laughter and noise.
There was no more sound coming from the surroundings.
"Could it be that the City God Temple was destroyed and the spirit disappeared?" Lu Liangsheng descended to the ground after scanning the area with his eyes. The clothes Lu Jun wore yesterday appeared in his mind. The moment his figure appeared, the robe turned into a short-sleeved shirt and his lower body turned into tight jeans. Lu Liangsheng looked down and felt quite awkward. Fortunately, it was just an illusion to cover up, and he did not feel any discomfort in his movements.
Under the machine with huge iron arms raised in front, a man was squatting on the tracks and dialing the phone. When he heard footsteps, he raised his head, thinking that it was his companion who had just left coming back, and grinned.
"So soon? You're paying before you even get to the place..."
What I saw was a handsome young man in a clean white short-sleeved shirt, walking towards me with a smile. He put away the phone in his hand, squatted there, and raised his chin.
"What's up, bro?"
“Excuse me, I want to ask you something.” Lu Liangsheng wanted to bow, but when he thought about the people he had met since yesterday, they seemed to be quite casual about meeting each other, so he put down the hand he was about to raise and asked with a smile: “… I remember there used to be a City God Temple here. I haven’t passed by here for many years. Today I wanted to come and worship and burn some incense, but it’s gone. Has it been moved somewhere else?”
"He speaks in a weird way."
The man frowned and muttered something, but he liked the young man. He spoke softly and politely, much better than the children at home. After thinking for a while, he pointed behind him, where there were tall buildings behind the flattened land.
"This piece of land was sold last year, and the original City God Temple has not been built yet. I heard that it will be moved to a place near the city center. It may be completed next year or the year after. Let's come back then."
"I see. Sorry for bothering you."
Lu Liangsheng thanked him and looked at the machines in front of him. Even though he had read a lot of classics, it was difficult for him to make out anything about the delicate iron pipes on them. Seeing that the man had no intention of talking and was concentrating on fiddling with something that looked like a small board, he did not stay any longer and turned back to Lao Lu.
As he looked, the sky suddenly turned cloudy. There was a slight rustling sound in the nearby forest. A little misty white fog rose in the forest. The outline of a person appeared, and he bowed and said, "Wuhu City God, Xu Sheng greets the State Master."
This was a strange place, and when Lu Liangsheng heard the title of "national teacher", he suddenly felt as if he had found a "companion" in a maze. He had heard Zhou Yu mention this city god before. He was one of his generals during his lifetime and a "person" he could trust.
After removing the magic on his body, revealing a green shirt and white robe, Lu Liangsheng took a few steps and returned to the shade of the tree next to the old donkey. He raised his sleeves to the welcoming City God and said, "City God Xu, is Commander Zhou here?"
The man had a dignified face and stern eyes. He was obviously excited to see Lu Liangsheng. Amid the friction of his armor, the thick short beard around his lips stretched out and he said:
"Reporting to the Imperial Master, the Governor's temple was destroyed and his mind is unstable, so he cannot meet you, so he sent me to meet the Imperial Master first."
"So... how long has the master been gone?"
When Lu Liangsheng asked this question, he felt a little hesitant in his heart. After all, the world around him changed with each passing day and became completely unfamiliar. The only familiar people around him were his master and Lao Lu, and "Boundless Mountains and Seas" could not be opened, and Hong Lian and the others inside could hardly get out. This feeling of loneliness was quite uncomfortable.
Across from him, the City God Xu Sheng, who was bowing, raised his eyes, hesitated for a moment, and spoke in a low voice: "Master, it has been thousands of years..."
The scholar standing aside was mentally prepared. He couldn't help feeling sad when he heard the time. He turned his head and looked in the direction of Qixia Mountain. He was afraid that he couldn't even find his parents, sister, and Old Sun's graves.
Here, Xu Sheng saw that the Imperial Master stood there motionless, and did not dare to say anything else. After a while, Lu Liangsheng moved his lips and asked softly:
"Is Qixia Mountain still there?"
"The mountain is still there, but it has changed now. Many villas have been built there."
"Villa?" Lu Liangsheng frowned, "What is that?"
“Actually, it’s just the house.”
Xu Sheng has been living in the human world for a long time. Although he is only a spirit, he knows the changes in the human world and has learned a lot. He even learned that some people came to the City God Temple to burn incense and burned some mobile phones and computers, which made him laugh and cry because these things were of no use at all.
“The mountain is still there.”
Finally, there was good news that made Lu Liangsheng smile. As for those so-called villas, he didn't take them to heart. He pulled Xu Sheng to continue asking about the affairs of this world and the history after he left. He knew that after Yang Guang died, he passed the throne to his son. The Sui Dynasty lasted for more than a hundred years. However, later on, because of his descendants' stupidity and unjust behavior, the throne was seized by Li Shimin's son and the Sui Dynasty was changed to the Tang Dynasty.
"When these two families reach the underworld, Yang Guang and Li Yuan will probably fight each other."
To Lu Liangsheng now, the fall of the Sui Dynasty was just a story that happened in the long river of history. When he heard that there were no major wars during the transition between the two dynasties, a smile appeared on his face again.
During the subsequent conversation, he also asked about the group of Yin gods that he had sealed away back then.
"After thousands of years, how are they now?"
"To reply to the national master, when the country was founded in the early years, temples were torn down everywhere. Most of the Yin gods that the national master had canned were no longer there." Xu Sheng sighed as he talked about the past few decades. His temples had also suffered several times, but fortunately they were all repaired later, and he was proud that his soul did not dissipate.
As he spoke, he suddenly remembered something and continued:
"Master, I remembered something. Some of those Yin gods are still here. After losing their temples, they returned to the underworld, but soon returned to the human world with bodies. It seems that they were... resurrected by someone."
"Is there such a thing?"
"I can sense that... it's the power of the demon star..."
The conversation under the shade of the tree continued. At this time, the man squatting on the track was taking pictures with his mobile phone. He also showed a woman's face on the screen and spoke.
"Look, I'm really guarding the construction site. Don't you know who your husband is?"
A woman's voice rang out from the rotating phone, "Humph, of course I know. You only have a few seconds to spare, and you still have the nerve to go there. Aren't you ashamed?"
After saying a few harsh words, the tone suddenly changed.
"There are people wearing ancient costumes on your construction site? Is there a film crew shooting a movie here?"
"Where?"
The man turned his head away. There was no one around. On the phone, the woman was still talking: "It was right under the tree you just walked past. I saw it with both of my own eyes. Two living people that big, how could you not see them?"
The man looked again, especially at the big tree his wife mentioned. There was no figure under it. He thought the woman was joking with him and trying to scare him. He turned around and enlarged the screen in the upper right corner, and then... His hands trembled, and he saw a man in a green shirt and a white robe, and a man in armor standing under the tree as if they were talking.
He took out his phone to confirm again, his face changed drastically, and he screamed "Ah!!" He stood up and crawled into the machine's cab, slammed the door, buried his face, and trembled all over.
The sharp cry was heard from the trees on the gentle slope in the distance. Lu Liangsheng glanced at the machinery over there and nodded to Xu Sheng. "I already know about the monster star. I will go and take a look. Please come and meet me today."
"Don't bother me. I am honored to meet the Imperial Master."
The two men bowed to each other, and Xu Sheng said goodbye and left. Lu Liangsheng took the reins and pulled the old donkey away in the direction they came from. As for the monster star, he had seen it in the void when he ascended before, but after so many years, the monster star still existed in the human world.
"It looks like I have to stay a little longer."
As for Qixia Mountain, I will go back to take a look after I pick up my master. If possible, I will stay in the mountain and build a "villa" for myself!