"Master, what do you think that fat monk did by kidnapping those children?"
“… maybe eat it.”
"Um?"
"Haha... It was just a joke from the teacher."
"Then... Master said he might be the disciple of the old bald donkey. Who is that old bald donkey?"
The night wind blew across the foothills. On the mountain path, a lantern hung in front of the donkey's head.
Tap tap tap…
The donkey took small steps and walked slowly forward in the dim firelight. As it swayed, the Toad Taoist hugged his webbed feet, sat cross-legged in the small compartment, and turned his face away to cover it.
"An old bald donkey is an old bald donkey. Why ask so many questions?!"
"Just asking, you can tell me if you want." Lu Liangsheng smiled and glanced at the cubicle.
The toad with webbed feet twisted its mouth, turned around, closed its eyes and sighed.
"Alas, my master was a powerful figure in the world back then, and no one could defeat him, but he also had many enemies. One day, he was besieged by people from several sects. After he beat them back, he unexpectedly ran into an old monk from the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple. This old bald donkey was very good at the Great Ming Zun Demon Subduing Seal, but if it weren't for my master..."
At this time, the anxious Taoist Rouzhou ran back from the direction of the inn, kicked a stone on the ground with a bang, and hit a tree beside the road.
Lu Liangsheng looked at his expression and asked, "Is the meat porridge mushy?"
"What's the matter? The whole pot is gone."
The scholar was stunned for a moment. The front was not far from the inn, so he loosened the reins and walked over quickly. Hong Lian also followed to see what was going on.
The toad who stayed in the bookshelf compartment looked at the two people running to the inn, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
… Damn it, you asked me to tell you something, so listen to it before you leave! !
Over at the inn, the light from the bonfire was still shining out from the doorway, but the bandits who had been pinned to the ground by Lu Liangsheng's magic in exchange for silver were now stripped naked and covered in blood, having been dead for a long time.
The two families in the corner had long disappeared, but the bloody footprints on the ground, some big and some small, showed that they walked out of the door.
The two families killed the bandits on the ground, looted everything and fled...
"This severe drought has turned people into evil spirits."
This was Lu Liangsheng's most direct feeling. On the side, Nie Honglian curled her lips and snorted when she heard his words. The scholar turned his head away and forced a smile.
"I didn't say you were an evil spirit."
Hong Lian's expression relaxed then, she turned her pretty face away and snorted again with an ambiguous tone.
Soon, Lu Liangsheng and the Taoist dragged the bodies out of the inn and buried them. After cleaning the blood on the ground, they took out some dry food and the food in Sun Yingxian's leather bag and grilled them. After eating a few bites, they lay down on the long table and fell asleep.
The two men and the toad all had some cultivation, so the cold wind did not have much effect on them.
The next day, I packed my bags early in the morning and set off again. On previous days, I would have had breakfast, but now I saved the time for breakfast.
"What a pity, that pot."
On the way, the Taoist kept muttering to himself that he went to rescue people, but when he came back, the things he had were taken away by the people he rescued. He felt depressed and had no way to vent. If he were someone with a bad temper, he would have chased after the people and captured and killed them.
Lu Liangsheng could only comfort him with a few words, because due to a severe drought, the world in the northwest had really become a blur and it was unclear what was right or wrong.
After going down the mountain road, the view became wider. Moving forward along the official road, Lu Liangsheng used sleight of hand to avoid places where the victims were concentrated as much as possible, and followed the long dragon to find Liyang City.
According to what Sun Yingxian said before, the monks who had prayed for rain earlier settled here and tried to make the clouds and rain, but it ultimately had no effect.
As they approached the city, they saw people coming and going. Some disaster victims who were unwilling to leave their homeland and were waiting for government relief gathered outside the city gate. When Lu Liangsheng and the Taoist went over, there was a lot of noise, followed by a commotion. The city gate opened slightly, and it was the government officials who came out to distribute porridge.
"Liyang is a big city, it seems to be much better."
People squeezed over, and Lu Liangsheng helped a child who had been knocked down up. He said something softly to the Taoist priest next to him, and he also felt a little relieved.
Taking advantage of the momentary chaos during the porridge distribution, they entered the city and found an inn nearby. The Taoist went to look for the group of ascetics first, while Lu Liangsheng washed up in the room, changed his clothes, and finally felt a lot more relaxed.
There were no other guests in the inn, and the food in the inn was pitifully small. All that was available was a plate of pickled cabbage and two bowls of porridge.
The waiter wearing a green headscarf also had a pale face. After putting the food down, he spoke rather embarrassedly.
"Sir, this is all we have. Please don't despise it. Other inns and taverns are in the same situation. All the food and dishes in the inns in the city have been taken away by the government to help the victims."
Lu Liangsheng picked up the chopsticks and paused twice on the table, then said with a smile, "It's okay, as long as there's something to stutter about, you can go and do your work."
"What else is there to do?"
Seeing that the scholar was easy to talk to, the guy leaned against the railing and swung the rag over his shoulder.
"Now we just have to hope that it rains, or even snows, so that we can wait until next spring when the soil becomes moist and grow some food, giving us a way to survive."
"God will never leave us with no way out. Maybe the dragon that controls the clouds and rain is already on its way."
While eating, Lu Liangsheng said some comforting words. When the word "dragon" came to his mind, he suddenly thought of Pu Du Ci Hang who was entrenched in the imperial city. If the other party turned into a dragon, would he be a good dragon or an evil dragon
After a moment, the scholar chuckled to himself while holding the pickled cabbage, shook off the thought, and asked the waiter about some trivial matters in the city.
"How many people are there in the city right now?"
"I don't know. Anyway, quite a few left last year. They were all wealthy families. They were afraid that the government would make them bleed, so they sent a batch of food and moved their families south."
Lu Liangsheng nodded, put down his chopsticks, and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief.
"Yes, those who have family businesses will naturally leave. I just don't know how many people died in a year of drought and how many people will be left. In the future, the northwest will be even more sparsely populated."
The waiter was probably too bored, and when he heard the scholar's melancholy, he started to talk unsteadily.
"I don't know how many are left, but in the past year or two, there have been many cases of lost children and women."
Lost a child
Lu Liangsheng withdrew his gaze from the sparsely populated street outside and looked at the waiter.
“Lost often?”
"Of course, yes. Not long ago, the youngest son of a family on this street disappeared for no apparent reason." The waiter looked around, approached the dining table, leaned over, and whispered:
"Master, I'm telling you something, but don't tell anyone. One night, when I got up to go to the toilet, I saw a few ghosts running through the street with children in their arms. You saw it, too. This place is close to the city wall, so I followed them out to see what was going on. They passed through the city wall right under the noses of the soldiers and disappeared. I was so scared that I quickly covered my head and fell asleep."
The waiter didn't notice that Lu Liangsheng's eyes darkened, and he continued to say:
"I heard from people who have been outside that people often go missing among the disaster victims. But during the famine years, disappearances and deaths were all very normal, and no one cared at all..."
As he was speaking, the voice of the innkeeper was heard on the first floor of the inn.
"Guests are coming, please come upstairs!"
The waiter on the second floor stopped talking, smiled at Lu Liangsheng, and put the rag back on his shoulder.
"Enjoy your meal, sir. I'll go downstairs to greet the guests first."
Not long after he went down, he came up again with a trot. Behind him, Sun Yingxian led four people and came over.