Chapter 10

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In the early morning, the rooster’s crow broke the tranquility of the night. As the sky brightened, Lu Liangsheng got up early, ate his breakfast, and followed Lu Laoshi to the fields. After washing in the peculiar pot of soup from his master, he carried a faint, delicate fragrance on him, not the cloying kind, but a light, fresh aroma.

When he swung his hoe, it didn’t seem as laborious as before. Working alone along the edge of the field, the ditches he dug nearly matched the progress of Lu Laoshi.

“Liangsheng, you should also take a break…”

Lu Laoshi sat down on the edge of the field, setting his hoe aside. He called out to his son, who was still wielding his farming tools a short distance away. Liangsheng stopped, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and came over to sit down, pouring himself a bowl of cold water and drinking it straight.

“Why have you been working so hard these days?”

“…I don’t know,” Liangsheng replied, wiping the water droplets from his chin. Lu Laoshi didn’t press further. He probably thought that his son was still young and growing stronger and stronger was normal.

But he had still some doubts like the large toad huddled a short distance away.

“Liangsheng, why did you bring that toad?”

The young man, who picked up his hoe and took a few steps, turned back with a smile, saying: “I’m worried about leaving it at home. What if a cat or dog carries it off? It’s not every day you find a toad this big. It’d be a shame to lose it.”

“Do as you like.”

Lu Laoshi couldn’t argue with his son’s reasoning. After resting a while, he went to turn the soil on the other side of the field. Not far from the ceramic jug, the Purple Star Daoist, who had been lying flat on the ground, slowly opened his eyes and glanced at the young man working. The toad’s webbed feet twitched slightly as it crushed a small clump of mud.

Recalling last night, his spine still ached faintly. If it hadn’t been for that fellow suddenly turning over, he might have already died from his fatal poisonous smoke.

“This grudge must be avenged…”

The creature on the ground stirred, scraping away a bit of soil as it fixed its gaze on the young man’s back. Gradually, it moved its webbed feet faster, darting forward and then leaping up into a full run!

The morning light illuminated the black lumps on its back, which now showed patches of light purple.

“I’ll make sure your father experiences the pain of the white-haired one sending off the black-haired one…”

The small figure running suddenly crouched, and with a powerful kick of its toad legs, it leaped into the air—

“Liangsheng!” On the other side, Lu Laoshi’s voice rang out. He lowered his head and rubbed his eyes: “Sand got into my eyes. Come over and help me blow it out.”

“Coming.”

Lu Liangsheng put down his hoe and ran towards his father. Behind him, a dark shadow swooped down. However, the young man had already left, and the shadow fell onto the ground below. The scene magnified to show a hoe leaning against the field edge, with one end slightly raised.

Purple Star Daoist: “… This.”

The toad fell down and hit the hoe, and the handle snapped back, striking its forehead with a loud bang. It stumbled backward a few steps before collapsing onto the ground, its view of the sky spinning. Its limbs twitched intermittently.

In the distance, the father and son’s conversation could be faintly heard.

“Dad, what happened to your eyes?”

“Sand got in. It’s quite uncomfortable and I can’t get it out. Help me blow it out.”

The Purple Star Daoist blinked his toad eyes and struggled to turn over, “I won’t give up.”. His gaze then fell on the ceramic jug placed on the edge of the field. He opened his mouth slightly and let out a faint, mocking laugh. Pressing his belly into the soil, he began to crawl towards the jug.

“I’ll poison both of you father and son!”

As he approached the jug, Lu Laoshi, who had rubbed his eyes and was feeling much better, blinked a few times and suddenly sprinted away.

“Dad?!”

“Liangsheng, your toad is drinking the water——” Lu Laoshi shouted.

Hearing the shout just as he was lifting the jug’s lid, the Purple Star Daoist turned his head. A foot wearing straw sandals filled his vision. With a loud thud, the toad’s mouth twisted, its long tongue shooting out as its massive body was flung through the air, landing and rolling twice before finally coming to a stop.

Lu Laoshi, hands on his hips, looked at the ceramic jug and sighed in relief.

“Luckily, I noticed in time. If you toad had drunk this water, the jug would probably be ruined.”

Lu Liangsheng crouched next to the big toad lying on the ground. “Master, if you’re thirsty, just make a sound…”

“I’m… I’m not thirsty, master is just… Just a bit tired. Let me rest a while longer.”

“Then you rest, Master. I’ll go help Dad with some work and call you when we’re leaving.”

The young man went back to help his father, who was still grumbling, with the work in the fields. They only returned to the village close to noon. However, they found that many of the village men and women had gathered, their voices raised in anger and complaints.

“They say we’ve cut off the river water, denying the villagers bellow a way to survive. They are bullying us, they actually even gone to the Yamen to complain!”

[TL_Note: The Yamen (衙门) was the administrative office or government headquarters used by officials in imperial China, particularly during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The term refers to both the building and the functioning of government administration within it.]

“… The people from the northern village are all ***, they should gone to Qixia Mountain themselves to have a look.”

“Exactly… the water that flowed down from the mountain this year is already this shallow… The village chief actually believed their words.”

At the foot of Qixia Mountain, there were only two villages, one to the south and one to the north. The mountain village where Lu Liangsheng lived was to the south, and the water from the mountain flowed through this village before heading north. Farmers depended on the land to make a living, so they often argued over water sources, and this time, the issue had even reached the county yamen.

Lu Laoshi stayed behind to discuss countermeasures with the others, while Lu Liangsheng, carrying two hoes, went back home. His mother was also in the kitchen, cursing the northern village. The discord between the two villages was long-standing. There was little he could do about it unless he could turn one river into two…

Thinking of this, Lu Liangsheng almost laughed. With his current cultivation, he couldn’t even lead a stream to the field, let alone divide a river into two. It was far quicker to use a hoe.

“Xiaoxian, call me for dinner later.” Liangsheng placed his hoe away and instructed his sister, who was daydreaming under the eaves. He then went inside, picked up a brush and ink, and practiced writing. The content he wrote was from the “Southern Waters Collection of Lost Arts”, which served both to practice writing and to reinforce his memory of the techniques described in the book.

In urgent situations, it wouldn’t do to still be flipping through books.

At lunchtime, Lu Laoshi came back, fuming with anger. He sat by the stove, holding a bowl but not picking up his chopsticks. When he thought about what made him so upset, he slammed the bowl down with a loud bang.

“… If those scoundrels from the northern village succeed in their lawsuit, and the judgment is made in their favor, every household in our village will suffer… If we have to make up for their harvest this year, what will we eat?!”

“The guilty ones are the first to complain. And the big shots at the county yamen don’t even bother to come down and take a look! It’s enough to make someone die from anger!”

Li Jinhua gently patted her husband’s back. “Calm down. What if you hurt yourself from all this anger? They’re bullying us because no one in our village can read. You men are good for hunting up in the mountains, but in front of the county yamen, you can’t even fart.”

“Hey, are you comforting me or—”

“My brother can read.”

Lu Laoshi was about to say something like, “You’re embarrassing us,” but suddenly stopped. Even Li Jinhua, who was about to battle her husband to the end, turned her head in surprise. Both of them stared at Lu Xiaoxian.

The little girl raised her hand, pointing at Lu Liangsheng, who was sitting off to the side, pondering the spell techniques from <Southern Waters Collection of Lost Arts>. He looked up at the three of them, confused. “Why are you all looking at me?”

“Xiaoxian just said you can read?”

“Children tell lies…” Lu Liangsheng didn’t want people to know too quickly that he had learned to read and write. After all, it hadn’t been that long since he started. If people found out, he feared they might accuse him of being some kind of monster.

Lu Laoshi and Li Jinhua both turned their attention back to Lu Xiaoxian. The little girl stood up, her face lifted confidently. “My brother wrote the characters from the temple, and he even read them to me.”

Lu Laoshi suddenly slapped the stove with a loud bang. Without even asking when his son had learned to read, he excitedly rubbed his hands together. “This is great! We were just saying no one could go to the yamen to argue with those scoundrels. Liangsheng, tomorrow we’ll go to Fushui County!”

Before Lu Liangsheng could respond, his father clapped his hands, deciding right then and there. He jumped up and ran outside to inform the others.

By the vegetable patch, the large toad blinked its eyes.

Its mouth opened slightly as if it were smiling.

“Going away is good. Once you leave, don’t even think about coming back. This old man will definitely get my revenge…”

Gua Gua Gua Gua…

A gray figure approached, and the Purple Star Daoist felt a peck. He shifted his crouched body, his big eyes meeting those of his adversary.

“Even you, you beast, dare to bully me! Be careful, or I’ll have you stewed!”

The chicken tilted its head, clucking twice, and then spread its wings, charging at him.

In the courtyard, the chicken and the toad battled fiercely, neither able to gain the upper hand…

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