"Five guests, please go upstairs."
The waiter came running over and hurriedly wiped the table next to the scholar, then invited Sun Yingxian, who had come upstairs, and the four people behind him to sit down.
"There's not much food in the store right now, so please make do with what you have."
Next to the Taoist priest, there seemed to be a middle-aged man who was the leader of the four. He waved his hand slightly and asked the waiter to go down. He looked at the scholar opposite him, smiled and cupped his hands.
"Longtou Mountain, Zhu Ziyi."
The other three also bowed and gave their names.
Sun Yingxian sat opposite Lu Liangsheng holding a pair of chopsticks, leaning over and glancing at the four people he brought with him.
"Old Lu, these four are all fellow travelers!"
The scholar hummed, looked at the four people over there, then brushed aside the sleeves of his robe, stood up and bowed.
"Lu Liangsheng from Qixia Mountain, nice to meet you seniors."
Several people nodded, and seemed to be quite satisfied with the word "senior" that the scholar said. Zhu Ziyi, who was in the lead, stroked his beard and smiled, then raised his hand and pressed it lightly.
"Since we are of the same mind, we should not be too particular about worldly matters."
Amid the sound of the Taoist priests shoveling porridge with their chopsticks, Lu Liangsheng exchanged pleasantries with them for a while before asking about praying for rain.
The middle-aged monk curled his fingers and tapped the corner of the table twice, then sighed.
"Heaven is blind. We have prayed for rain more than thirty times, but not a drop has fallen. All our efforts have been in vain. We have watched helplessly as thousands of lives died before our eyes... Alas, the lives of all living beings have been destroyed..."
The cultivation levels of these four people have all surpassed the Foundation Establishment Stage. When they said this, Lu Liangsheng could feel the heaviness of their words. Along the way, disaster victims were relocated, dead bodies were everywhere, and good people had turned into evil spirits.
After a moment of silence, Lu Liangsheng frowned, rubbed his fingertips lightly, thought of a possibility, hesitated for a moment, and spoke.
"If so, can you use magic to drive away the rain?"
At this point, the cultivator named Zhu Ziyi was stunned for a moment, then he smiled, stood up, walked to the guardrail and looked outside.
"This severe drought in the northwest is a natural disaster. We can only pray for rain. If we use magic power to force clouds and rain, it will be against the will of heaven. When the time comes, thunder and lightning will come. If it is mild, the cultivation will be lost and become useless. If it is severe, the soul will be scattered and the body will be shattered."
He paused, turned his head to look at the scholar, and continued with a smile:
"The prayer for rain will continue, but there are more important things to do right now."
Lu Liangsheng also stood up and bowed to the four people.
"May I ask what it is? If I can be of any use to you, I will do my best."
As soon as these words came out, the four of them laughed. One of them stood up and said, "Recently, there have been a lot of people missing from the disaster victims..."
"The missing ones are children and women?" Lu Liangsheng suddenly interrupted, "But a monk?"
"Exactly! It seems that Comrade Lu had already seen him when he came here."
Zhu Ziyi turned his gaze from the scholar to the street scene outside, with his hands behind his back.
"For several months in a row, children and women among the disaster victims outside the city have often disappeared. No one can find the person alive, and no one can find the body after death. Among the four of us, there is a Taoist friend who is good at summoning souls, but no matter what he does, he can't find the souls of the missing people..."
As the story was told, Lu Liangsheng roughly understood what had happened. The fat monk was alone, and at first he thought he had come to the northwest to pray for rain or to save the victims, but he didn't expect that he had snatched away children and even women from the victims one after another.
After discovering the situation, the monks had a fight and forced the monk away, but no one was seriously injured. Afterwards, the fat monk became more cautious, knowing that as long as there was any negligence on their side, a child would be lost.
As they were talking, Zhu Ziyi suddenly stretched out his hand, and a paper crane fell into his palm from the sky.
Did something happen
Lu Liangsheng and Sun Yingxian looked at each other. In their peripheral vision, they saw the faces of the other three cultivators at the neighboring table gradually darken.
Over there, Zhu Ziyi destroyed the paper crane in his hand and turned around.
"Let's go outside the city!"
Immediately, he jumped from the second floor and rushed to the roof opposite. The other three people bowed to the scholar and followed him out.
Sure enough, something happened.
Lu Liangsheng left a few coins for food and chased after the Taoist priest. Their footsteps clattered across the green tiles on the roofs. As they flew, they asked, "Four seniors, what happened?"
"That evil monk is here again!"
Zhu Ziyi in front said something, and his figure leaping in the air turned into a black shadow, disappeared above the city wall, and instantly arrived outside the city.
At this point, Lu Liangsheng did not ask any more questions. He used his light-body skills and sleight of hand to jump off the city wall in one go, and followed the four people in front of him up a hill. In the distance, the victims were in chaos, and some were crying loudly.
"What a sin... Give me back my child."
"I saw the child just now, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye."
"Everyone, please help find it!!"
…
People were shouting and in the chaos, two or three figures rushed out of the crowd and came over to the hillside. In just a few steps, they were already close. When they saw Lu Liangsheng and the Taoist, they were stunned for a moment, ready to raise their hands, but quickly put them down and spoke in a low voice.
"The monk was injured by his companions who were ambushing the victims, but he was still able to escape with the two children."
"Humph, he can't go far!"
Zhu Ziyi stretched out his palm from his robe sleeve, drew quickly on it with his fingertips, and waved it outwards, and a faint red air followed.
"Go after him!"
"Wait a minute, everyone."
Lu Liangsheng couldn't help but speak and raised his hands towards Zhu Ziyi.
"Since my companions and I are here, why don't we go with you and help out a bit."
Over there, the middle-aged man nodded at the scholar, then exchanged a glance with the others over there, with a hint of a smile on his face.
"That's fine. One more person means more strength. I wonder if you two know how to hurry up?"
Seeing Lu Liangsheng nod, Zhu Ziyi stopped trying to stop him. He gave instructions to his people, and then said something to the scholar and the Taoist priest.
"Split into two groups and intercept the monk. If you can capture him alive, bring him back for interrogation. After destroying his cultivation, hand him over to the government for punishment."
"That's exactly the point!"
The scholar said with a cupped hand.
After saying that, he formed a group with the other three people, and followed the reddish air along the southeast of Liyang, crossing mountains and ridges. With his light body martial arts and the ability to shrink the earth into an inch, he was no worse than the Taoist's magical speed. The forests and foothills blurred in his sight and disappeared backwards.
Tap tap tap…
His running footsteps kicked up fallen leaves, and when he passed through the woods in front, he suddenly stopped and listened. It was like the roar of a bronze bell tearing through the dusk.
The Taoist and the three monks sent by Zhu Ziyi came from the side.
"Did you hear that?"
"Over there!" Lu Liangsheng lowered his voice.
Looking at the valley, the wind was howling, and the loud noises were like thunder in a clear sky, exploding one after another.
For a moment, dust flew up in all directions.
boom!
Boom boom boom!
Several figures passed through the flying yellow earth and sand like ghosts, with flames in their palms that felt both real and unreal, condensing into a ball and moving forward.
The howling wind filled the air with mud and dust. A tall and fat figure in a yellow monk's robe looked like Maitreya. He raised his fearless seal and released the large yellow cloth bag in his hand.
"Om!"
At dusk, the Buddhist chanting sounds like a huge bell, rolling out.
In an instant, the fat body glowed with a faint golden light, and the soil under its feet burst open. Like a flying rock, it slammed into the figure that came first, and the other two people who rushed over were only brushed against the side.
The figures flew backwards instantly, one of them hit a tree, which broke in half and fell down, and the other one hit the cliff wall, blood oozing out, leaving a human-shaped scarlet streak on the cliff wall. The corpses slowly slid down and softened into a pool of rotten meat.
The last person who was hit head-on had his neck grabbed by the monk, his body suspended in the air, and then... slammed to the ground.
Bang!
The ground sank, revealing a large pit. The man was still alive, gasping for breath and uttering a few words with difficulty:
"The fire will not be released..."
The man's ankle felt tight, and he was cut short before he could finish his words. The monk grabbed his body again and dragged it up, drawing an arc in the air, before falling to the other side and hitting the ground hard.
Earth and rocks flew everywhere, and the figure that had fallen into the pit was dragged up again, thrown into the air, and slammed heavily onto the previous place.
"roll!"
After several fierce bangs, the monk kicked him away, and he fell to the ground and rolled several times before stopping. The monk's clothes were torn and he was bleeding from his mouth. He had no longer any human shape.
The fat monk covered a wound on his shoulder that was soaked with blood, spat, turned back, and reached out to grab the bulging and twisting cloth bag. He heard a few crackling sounds of stones rolling behind him.
The flesh on his face trembled a few times, and he turned around to look. A scholar, a Taoist priest and two monks were coming over. There was a ferocious look in his narrow eyes.
"Fat monk... so cruel?!"
The Taoist glanced at the corpse on the ground. Even though he usually looked indifferent, he felt a palpitation in his heart.
Looking at the Demon-Subduing Mirror in his hand again, he felt a headache.
"Old Lu, I'm good at exorcising demons, and I fight with my fists and palms. The fat monk's fists and feet are a bit scary, I can't beat him, so I might as well run away... Old Lu?"
Just as the two monks surrounded the monk, the Taoist turned to look at the scholar, who squatted down and moved a little of the rags from the chest of the corpse that was no longer in human form on the ground.
Lu Liangsheng's eyes fixed.
The corpse in front of him had a circle of flames shaped like petals surrounding its blood-stained chest.
Suddenly I remembered what Zuo Zhengyang had said to me at Zhou's house.
"The pattern on the Taoist's body is bright red, and the fireball is in a circle. Zuo guessed that it should be the symbol of a Taoist sect..."
Lu Liangsheng frowned.
These people are together with Taoist Yangming from Hegu County.
…
"Old Lu?!"
"A handsome scholar?!"
"Mr. Lu?"
"Lu Lang!!!"
On the side, Sun Yingxian kept calling him, but what he saw was the scholar standing up with a frown and looking at the two monks over there.
"Hey, what's with that expression on your face? What should we do now..."
While speaking, Lu Liangsheng ignored the Taoist. The Yuelong hanging on his waist was shaking slightly, as if it sensed the hostility of its owner.
"Old Sun, the enemy is not that monk."
The Taoist was stunned for a moment.
In the field of vision, the sword was unsheathed with a clang, and a slight sound was made in the air.