Chapter 38

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Sun Yingxian, having retrieved his book, didn’t rush to leave. He covered his head, nagging incessantly.

“Hey, hey… Are you really not going to ask for anything in return? You just gave the book back to me like that?”

“Do you know there’s a demon in your village, a toad, the kind that can talk!”

“…You should really ask for something in return… Your silence is making me anxious.”

As they walked past the nearly dispersed construction site, the villagers who were heading home for dinner watched the Daoist trailing behind the young man in green robes, both heading towards the small courtyard surrounded by fences.

After walking a bit further, when no one else was around, Lu Liangsheng turned around.

“The toad you mentioned, that’s my master.”

Sun Yingxian opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to speak for a while. He raised a finger, pointing toward the nearby fence.

“That demon is your master?”

Lu Liangsheng turned back and continued walking ahead.

“My master isn’t a demon. He was injured and cursed by a spell that transformed him into that form.”

Turning past the courtyard fence and entering through the gate, the Daoist still wanted to ask more questions. But when he saw Li Jinhua and Lu Laoshi, he respectfully greeted them with a bow.

Under the eaves, the woman had finished preparing dinner and invited the Daoist to join them. Now that the family was more well-off, adding an extra pair of chopsticks wasn’t a big deal.

Lu Liangsheng had no objections and gestured invitingly.

“Come and join us for dinner.”

“It’s only right that you invite me for dinner.” Sun Yingxian pointed to the wounds on his head and the back of his head. “It still hurts… Well, I won’t be polite then.”

The kitchen was already small, and with the addition of the Daoist, it became even more cramped. There was an extra dish of cooked meat that day, but as soon as it was placed on the table, several pairs of chopsticks moved in unison, swiftly picking it clean.

“Do you all have to eat so fast…” The Daoist held his bowl, and just as his chopsticks were about to reach the dish, only a few scraps of meat were left. His mouth hung open in disbelief, and he quickly scooped the remnants into his bowl and shoveled a few bites of rice.

Then he said: “By the way, I’m a Daoist skilled in subduing demons and exorcising spirits. If that female ghost in your home…”

Smack!

The end of a chopstick hit him on the forehead. Li Jinhua gave him a sharp look. “Eat.”

“Oh.”

Sun Yingxian quickly ducked his head, stuffing his mouth with vegetables and chewing vigorously. Around the table, Lu Liangsheng and Lu Xiaoxian watched his deflated appearance and couldn’t help but laugh.

After dinner, night had completely fallen. They offered Sun Yingxian a place to stay for the night. When he returned to the room, the first thing he saw was the toad, soundly asleep on the bed.

Though Sun Yingxian knew this was Lu Liangsheng’s master, he couldn’t help but grab a bronze mirror in his hand, nervously asking,

“Is that really your master?”

Lu Liangsheng ignored him and went to tidy up the bedding. Sun Yingxian shifted his gaze to the wall, where his eyes fell upon the painting.

“The Rakshasa ghost is in here, right… Tsk tsk, your room sure is lively with people, demons, and ghosts all present.”

The painting rippled gently, and Nie Honglian’s head peeked out. She glared fiercely at the Daoist who was scrutinizing her. “Keep staring, and I’ll gouge your eyes out.”

“Hmph, this Daoist couldn’t care less.”

Sun Yingxian turned his head, swaggering around the room, looking at other things. He couldn’t resist flipping through some books on the desk, and after seeing their contents, his scalp tingled, so he quickly set them aside.

“I didn’t expect you to read these kinds of scholarly books…”

Lu Liangsheng, who had just finished arranging the bedding, gently woke the slumbering Toad Daoist. Without looking back at the Daoist, he replied softly.

“Studying opens the mind.”

However, Sun Yingxian didn’t respond to that; instead, he found himself locked in a staring contest with the Toad Daoist. After a while, the Toad Daoist huffed out a line.

“If I hadn’t lost all my cultivation, do you think a Daoist like you would stand a chance?”

“Pah! My master taught me that slaying demons and exorcising evil is my duty…” Sun Yingxian clenched his fist, glanced at Lu Liangsheng, and then hesitated. He pursed his lips and let his fist drop.

“This Daoist respects the elderly and cherishes the young, so I won’t stoop to your level.”

The toad half-opened its eyelids and muttered indifferently: “Your mother.”

“You dare insult me!”

“Your mother. Ribbit.”

“Aargh… I curse your ancestors!”

“I don’t even know who my parents are, so go ahead. Your mother!”

“I curse your ancestors!!!”

One was restrained by his respect for Lu Liangsheng, unable to act, while the other, still harboring resentment from being chased earlier, lacked the strength to fight back. And so, the Daoist and the toad sat there, hurling insults at each other from opposite sides of the room. Even Nie Honglian, curious, floated down to watch the scene for a while.

Eventually, the toad grew parched and hopped away for a drink, while the flushed and fuming Daoist stormed out of the house, leaping onto the roof to avoid staying in the same room as the toad.

Lu Liangsheng returned to his bed, bored by the exchange. He picked up a book to read, but soon weariness overtook him, and he drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, when he woke, the pain in his body had completely vanished. Sunlight streamed through the window, and outside, birds chirped melodiously from the treetops.

In the courtyard, Sun Yingxian had been practicing martial arts since who knew when. His tattered Daoist robes fluttered in the morning light as he leaped and twirled in midair, his movements graceful yet powerful. With a single palm strike, a faint gust of wind stirred, causing the treetops nearby to sway gently.

He spun around, bending one leg while his palm transformed into a fist and struck out with heavy force. Despite his appearance, there was an air of otherworldly grace and an aura of a true Daoist master.

Lu Liangsheng stood by the water jar, washing his face while quietly observing.

…This Daoist not only knows the art of talismans but also martial arts

…If he had seen through my abilities that day, I really wouldn’t have been able to defeat him… It seems his cultivation level is much higher than mine.

While thinking about this, Sun Yingxian finished gathering his energy, looked over, and raised his chin.

“It’s your turn now, let me see what you can do.”

Lu Liangsheng smiled, took a sip of warm water, and said: “I don’t know martial arts, the only thing I know is this!” He took out a wolf-hair brush, but the joints of the brush exuded a demonic aura, causing the Daoist to quickly rush over.

“Is this a centipede’s antenna… Such a large one… It must have cultivated into a demon.”

Sun Yingxian looked at the young man again, his expression somewhat incredulous. “You defeated that centipede demon?”

“Not exactly, it let us go in the end.”

When talking about what happened that night, Lu Liangsheng didn’t hide anything and openly explained. In the morning light, he took out a sheet of paper, spread it out, and drew a small bird.

“…You wanted to see, so this is my Dao.”

With a flick of the brush, the ink-drawn bird suddenly blinked its eyes, its feathers gaining color, and it flew out, perching on the edge of the water tank and chirping.

The ink-drawn bird attracted a few real birds from the treetops, which descended and chirped excitedly as they fluttered around it.

Though the scene was astonishing, Sun Yingxian, being a practitioner of cultivation, quickly saw through it. Then… he cried out.

“That night, you used an illusion?”

Lu Liangsheng withdrew the magic from his drawing, and the bird perched by the water tank gradually faded away and disappeared. He set down the brush.

“…Because I don’t know anything else.”

“Ahhhh… I can’t believe I, a Daoist, fell for such a minor trick.” Sun Yingxian furiously tousled his hair, pacing back and forth for a few steps. Once he calmed down, he thought it over carefully and sensed something was off.

He furrowed his brow. “My master knew some illusion spells as well, but it was just simple trickery. But yours…why does yours seem so lifelike?”

“Your master didn’t know how to draw.”

The Daoist looked at the brush in the young man’s hand, then at the bird he’d drawn. Rubbing his face, he said: “That might be the case. Fine, I’ll teach you some hand-to-hand combat techniques used by people in the martial world. Consider it repayment for the book.”

Lu Liangsheng nodded. “I only have spell techniques, but I don’t know any combat moves. It seems these past few days have been quite fruitful for me.”

“Your master didn’t teach you? Well, I suppose a toad wouldn’t know how to teach you much.”

Not wanting to owe a favor, Sun Yingxian stayed around in Lu Famly Village, teaching him a set of bare-handed martial arts called the Qianyang Palm. He said it was passed down from his master and was part of a legitimate orthodox tradition. During this time, he also gave Lu Liangsheng pointers on the , occasionally sparring with him, winning most of the spars.

After all, Lu Liangsheng was only a beginner, but his illusion techniques had caused quite a bit of trouble for the Daoist, reaching a level where it was almost impossible to distinguish between true and false.

Once they became familiar with each other, Sun Yingsian would often talk about his frequently mentioned master.

“…My master was highly skilled in mystical arts and had methods for subduing demons and eliminating evil. I only learned a small fraction of his skills, but unfortunately, one day he said he was going out with his fellow disciples to eliminate a large demon that had devoured countless people. Less than half a month later, he returned but was afflicted with a deadly purple poison, his whole body covered in dark purple sores. He died within two days.”

This is also one of the reasons why Sun Yingsian was so determined to fight demons whenever he encountered them.

The Toad Daoist opened his eyes, snorted, and continued to bask in the sun, the bumps on his back showing a dark purple under the sunlight.

This continued for two months.

In the mornings, he gave Lu Liangsheng some advice, and in the afternoons, the two of them would leave the village together to reassemble the formation on the Yan River. Sun Yingsian also knew a bit about this and they discussed it a lot, improving it quite a bit from before. Although it was still rudimentary, it effectively enclosed both Northern Village and Lu Family Village.

The people of the two villages, unknowingly discovered that the fish and shrimp in the river had become abundant and were much larger than those in other places.

Before news of this sudden change could spread, the weather turned cold, and heavy snow began to fall.