Chapter 8
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In the second quarter of the Shen hour.
[TL_Note: Around 4:30 to 5:30 PM]
The afternoon sunlight poured down, shining through the gaps in the trees. A gentle mountain breeze passed by, causing the light spots on the ground to sway lightly. The rustling sound of leaves echoed softly.
Inside the stone cave, there was a faint rustling sound. After a moment, clothes were neatly folded, and a piece of paper was placed on top.
“Master, the words written on that paper… it is a gift I have for you.”
Splash… there was a sound of water rippling. Lu Liangsheng stepped into the large cauldron. The water was not too hot, just warm enough, with steam rising from it. The water reached up to his chest. He sat in the water and looked at the old man with his back turned, fishing out something floating on the water resembling a fungus commonly found in the mountains.
As the steam rose, hazily obscuring the view, the old man in the gray robe turned around with a smile on his face, holding a few things in his hands.
“Liangsheng has a good heart.”
Slowly, he walked over and tossed a few hexagonal leaves into the cauldron, followed by some unknown roots and stems. A small splash of water landed on the young man’s chest, prompting Lu Liangsheng to quietly ask: “Master, what are these?”
“These are, of course, good things. I prepared them specifically for today… These are mountain essences… used to heal injuries and enhance cultivation. When they meet water, they dissolve and add flavor.”
The old man rolled up his sleeves, speaking in a more excited tone than usual. He shook a plant root that resembled ginseng and then threw it into the water.
“This is Rain Mother… it can make the flesh… the body more resilient.”
As he spoke, he pulled out something bloody: “Don’t be fooled by how bloody this looks, as if it were meat. In fact, it is the essence of the mountain sunflowers. This thing is hard to come by, but luckily, I stumbled upon it.”
One item after another was placed into the cauldron.
Lu Liangsheng furrowed his brow slightly, then relaxed and smiled: “Master, you look like you’re making Gudong Soup (a type of ancient hotpot).”
“Heh heh…”
In the firelight, the old man’s face shifted between light and shadow as he looked at him for a moment, his mouth curling into a smile. He turned around and said: “Liangsheng, to be honest…”
Reaching out to grab the white paper on top of the clothes, he probably wanted to see what kind of gift his disciple had given him. “…I, your master, was ambushed, and I’m injured. I need to replenish and I need nourishment, and I accepted you as my disciple only because…”
The old man unfolded the paper in his hands. The words after “only because” abruptly stopped. His eyes suddenly widened, staring at the two lines of text written on the paper. The characters glowed faintly with golden light. He opened his mouth and squeezed out a single curse: “Your mother…”
On the other side, Lu Liangsheng, who was still waiting for his master to finish speaking, turned his head and asked, “Master, only because of what?” In the next moment, a sudden burst of white light enveloped the spot where the old man had been standing, and soon, everything became a blinding white, filling his entire field of vision.
After a brief pause, the white light gradually faded. The young man quickly climbed out of the cauldron, standing barefoot on the ground. In an instant, a mass of pale purple mist suddenly exploded, filling the entire cave with swirling, rolling purple fog.
“Cough…”
Lu Liangsheng covered his nose, the air thick with an acrid smell. He waved away the purple smoke with one hand and cautiously took two steps forward, shouting loudly: “Master!”
His voice echoed through the cave, but there was no reply.
With wet feet, Lu Liangsheng carefully groped around, his bare body moving cautiously. When he accidentally stepped on the gray robe on the ground, an inexplicable panic surged in his heart, he had no idea what had just happened.
“Master—!” he shouted again.
“Stop shouting!”
As soon as Lu Liangsheng called out, the old man’s voice echoed within the stone cave, sounding somewhat irritated.
Upon hearing the familiar voice, the young man breathed a sigh of relief and quickly took half a step forward, looking around. “Master, where are you?”
“I’m beneath you!”
“Huh?”
As the purple mist dissipated, a small table with a swaying oil lamp was revealed. In the dim, warm yellow light, Lu Liangsheng quickly lowered his head, his brow twitching.
“What a huge lump.”
“That’s you. I’m behind you!”
The young man quickly turned around and scanned the area. “Master, I don’t see you.”
“Lower your head!”
Lu Liangsheng looked down and saw a large toad with big, oily eyes marked with red dots. Its back was covered in raised lumps arranged like the Big Dipper, emitting a glossy black sheen. The toad’s legs were stretched out straight, making its entire form appear upright, and it stood there, taller than the young man’s knees.
One person and one toad stared at each other for a long while.
After a moment, Lu Liangsheng’s mouth twitched and hesitantly spoke: “Master…?”
“Indeed, it is I!”
The toad rolled its big eyes, and it propped up its front limbs, puffing out its round belly. Its webbed feet made a pat-pat sound as it stomped on the ground. The tone was serious: “What kind of expression is that? Didn’t I tell you before? I was ambushed and injured by an enemy’s spell. The wounds were severe, and I couldn’t resist anymore, so I was transformed into this state… Ribbit.”
“Master… you… hahaha!” Seeing its actions and hearing its tone, Lu Liangsheng suddenly burst into laughter.
“Master is speaking to you very seriously!”
The young man quickly stopped laughing and bit his lip hard. “I’m sorry, Master. I just couldn’t help it.”
“Forget it, forget it. Most of my cultivation has been wasted. It’s unsafe for me to stay here. You can accompany me down the mountain. Perhaps some interaction with the fireworks of the mortal world might help me recover.”
The toad swayed as it walked to the stone bed, its forelimbs held behind its back. It looked up at the bed’s edge, which was as high as a cliff to him, and sighed: “But Master won’t drag you down.”
Having said that, the toad pushed off with its legs and tried to leap up, clinging to the bed’s edge. Its front limbs grasped the grass mat tightly, while its webbed feet kicked wildly in the air… but it still couldn’t get up.
The little short legs were given a push from an outstretched hand, and it finally tumbled onto the grass mat. It sat up, puffed out its big eyes, and glared at Lu Liangsheng, shouting: “Master can get up here by himself!! Ribbit!”
The toad turned and, with its webbed feet wobbling, moved over to the low writing desk. It took the black-patterned gourd from the desk and strapped it to its back, saying, “This is my personal magic treasure, capable of collecting all things in the world! However, it’s unusable right now. There are also a few spell books on the shelf that I, your master, obtained. You should take those too.”
Meanwhile, Lu Liangsheng quickly put on his clothes, slipped into his tattered shoes, and jumped onto the stone bed. He gathered the few ancient books from the shelf and tucked them into his arms.
The toad, carrying the gourd, leaped down from the stone bed with a thud. “Obedient disciple, follow your master!” It then began to chant an incantation towards the giant rock and waved its webbed hand.
Across from them, the giant rock stood unmoved.
Lu Liangsheng: “…”
Toad: “…”
With a sigh, the toad lowered its head and said, “It seems my spirit energy can only support my speech now, I can’t even move this rock.” It reached out to tug on the young man’s pants leg. “You need a technique to move the boulder. You still have some cultivation, you should be able to manage it.”
The spell was only a few short words. As Lu Liangsheng chanted the spell and waved his hand towards the giant rock, a heavy rumbling sound was heard. The cave entrance slowly opened, and a beam of residual red light from outside illuminated the faces of the man and the toad.
“Master, let’s go!”
Lu Liangsheng picked up the toad and placed it on his shoulder. “It’s getting late, we need to hurry back. Hold on tight, Master.”
Before the toad on his shoulder could respond, the young man quickly started running. The mountain path was rugged, but for Lu Liangsheng, who was familiar with it, it was not particularly difficult. Moreover, since he began his training, his body had become more robust and agile.
“Liangsheng… slow down…”
The figure running up and down, with the toad clinging tightly to his shoulder, bounced up and down, shouting anxiously, “Master doesn’t have hands… ungrateful disciple… your mother… ribbit ribbit…”
After reaching the base of the mountain, the toad, feeling as if it had used up most of its life, was hanging its eyelids limply. Before entering the village, Lu Liangsheng whispered to it: “Master, don’t let others know you can speak…”
The toad weakly lifted its eyelid and glanced at the young man.
“I understand, ribbit.”
As they entered the village, they encountered familiar villagers returning from their work. The villagers spotted the large toad on Lu Liangsheng’s shoulder from afar: “Liangsheng, you’ve caught such a big toad…”
“It’s probably turning into a spirit, and it’s even carrying a gourd.” Someone joked.
“The gourd was picked on the mountain. I didn’t want it to run away, so I tied it up,” Lu Liangsheng, though inexperienced, quickly and wisely responded to the adults joking around him.
Once at home, Lu Xiaoxian was terrified and kept her distance from the large toad that her brother had set down from his shoulders. She had been afraid of such warty toads since she was young.
However, having never seen one so large, she fetched a stick as long as her arm and ran over to poke it a few times. Even Lu Laoshi and Li Jinhua came over to take a look.
“It’s nothing special besides its size. Liangsheng, just toss it into the vegetable garden, it can help catch pests.”
After the parents and sister left, Lu Liangsheng carefully placed the toad by the fence of the vegetable garden and whispered: “Master… I’m sorry, if it gets cold tonight, come into the house.”
“Go on, go on…”
The large toad, sprawled on the ground, murmured with its eyes fixed on the dim light of the stove, while his disciple’s family gathered around the stove for dinner.
“To think that I, a venerable demon cultivator, who has achieved physical transformation,… has fallen to such a state… I hate it.”
Buzz… mosquitoes began to fly in.
In the blink of an eye, a long, crimson tongue shot out, quickly wrapped around a mosquito, and pulled it into the toad’s mouth. The toad licked its lips.
“The taste isn’t bad… ribbit.”
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