Chapter 208: Offended this old man and still want to leave?!

Tap, tap, tap…

The dim, yellowing sun hung over the distant mountain peaks. Along the dirt road leading to Lu Family Village, the rumbling of hooves rolled forward, causing the merchants collecting fish and shrimp from the village to hurriedly pull their carts to the roadside and wait for them to pass.

“Hyah!” “We’re almost there!”

“The caravan ahead, make way!”

Amid the urging cries, as they rounded the bend ahead, the yamen runner from Fushui County who was leading the way tugged on his reins, slowing his horse. He pointed toward the open view in the distance, where the outline of a mountain village appeared, and called out to the side:

“Everyone, that over there is Lu Family Village!”

“Whoa!”

The captain of the guards raised a hand, signaling the riders behind to halt. After scanning the surroundings, he turned his horse and rode toward the youth protected in their midst, cupping his hands in salute: “Young Master, Lu Family Village lies just ahead. There is no danger in the vicinity.”

“Thank you for your trouble. However, Lu Family Village is Mr. Lu’s hometown—if there were any danger, it would only have been in the past.”

Chen Jing stepped past the guards and took a deep breath of the mountain air, his mood easing. Seven consecutive days of travel had already worn him down mentally—fortunately, they had finally arrived.

At this moment, he gave a somewhat complicated smile. Watching the farmers carrying hoes as they returned home through the fields and onto the village road, he unconsciously tightened his grip on the reins.

Along the way, he had prepared many things to say. Yet now that he had arrived, even as a smile rose unbidden to his face, he also felt a trace of worry—after not seeing him for several years, would Mr. Lu be willing to leave with him?

‘Three years… If only Father Emperor hadn’t humiliated Mr. Lu in the Golden Hall back then…’

He lifted his head and let out a somewhat world-weary sigh. After a moment, just as he raised his whip to signal the group to move on, a burst of crackling sounds suddenly came from the mountainside not far away. Birds scattered from the forest in fright, and Chen Jing turned to look—just in time to see a flash of pale lightning dissipate among the trees.

Several dozen guards urged their horses into a circle, hands resting on their weapons. Amid cries of “What’s going on?”, the forest over there rustled noisily. Then—

With a crash, several bushes by the cliff burst apart. A donkey charged out, dragging behind it a long rope. At the end of the rope, a person was tied.

Under everyone’s gaze, it rushed forward not far ahead. The old donkey let out an excited bray, provocatively lifting its hooves toward the dozens of warhorses. On top of its head, a toad clung to its long ears, waving a smoking pipe. Then, in a flash, it bolted toward the village, its hooves flying, while the bound youth was dragged along the ground, stumbling and bumping as he was hauled away.

“…Was that a donkey just now?” “Faster than our horses…”

“Wait—you didn’t notice the toad on its head?!” “This is bad—there’s a young man tied up back there. He won’t be dragged to death, will he?”

“That toad might be some kind of demon… Your Maj—Young Master, perhaps we shouldn’t go any further.”

The donkey had already disappeared into the village entrance. Chen Jing withdrew his gaze and waved his hand, smiling at them: “It’s fine. I’ve seen that toad before—it’s a pet Mr. Lu keeps by his side. As for that young man… Mr. Lu isn’t the kind of person to be ruthless. There must be a reason behind it.”

With a flick of his whip, his voice, rough from being in the midst of adolescence, gave a low shout: “Move!”

On Qixia Mountain, the scholar who was sitting beneath an old pine tree, chatting and discussing the Dao with a Daoist and a plump monk, paused slightly with his wine cup in hand and turned his face toward the direction of the mountain village.

Beside him, Sun Yingxian raised his cup and called out with a “Hey”:

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothing—just an old acquaintance.” Lu Liangsheng turned back, raised his cup to clink it lightly against his, and with his free hand, his wide sleeve brushed outward in a gentle motion.

Far away, on the dirt road outside the village, it was as if a gust of wind had blown past. The group that had been heading toward the village entrance suddenly heard their horses neigh loudly, stopping in fright, unwilling to proceed.

At first, the group paid it little mind, whipping their horses and forcing them forward for a stretch. Yet they soon discovered that although the village entrance had seemed less than twenty zhang away, it was still just as distant.

“What’s going on?!” “We were almost there just now—why does it feel like we’re still in the same place?”

“Don’t tell me that Mr. Lu has cast some immortal technique?!”

Amid uneasy murmurs, a farm woman carrying a hoe and leading a child glanced at them a few times, then simply walked straight into the village without the slightest hindrance.

Chen Jing and the captain of the guards dismounted. Facing the village, they cupped their hands and bowed in greeting, observing proper etiquette, thinking that this would allow them to enter. But after the two of them had only taken a few steps forward, they turned their heads—

Only to see that all the guards under their command wore expressions as if they had seen a ghost.

In their eyes, the two who had walked forward seemed to be seized by invisible hands and pulled back, yet the pair themselves felt nothing at all.

Chen Jing stood there for a moment. As if thinking of something, he ordered the guards to dismount as well. He himself went to sit by the roadside, treating it as a rest. Even if they could not enter the village tonight and could not see Mr. Lu, they would simply take it as a night of exposure to wind and dew.

“Mr. Lu may be testing me…”

The group also took the opportunity to rest, quickly dismounting and sitting along the dirt road outside the village, eating dry rations with cold water.

On Qixia Mountain to their west, the plump monk holding a teacup let a smile spread across his fleshy face and set the tea down. Fa Jing’s cultivation was not shallow—or perhaps he had some other method of perception—as he sensed that many unfamiliar auras had appeared down below the mountain.

“Lu… Dao… friend… it seems you are unwilling… to meet that… acquaintance.”

“Refusing him face-to-face would likely hurt his dignity. Better to let him retreat in the face of difficulty like this.” Lu Liangsheng looked at the wine cup in his hand, brushed away pine needles from the illusory stone table, sighed softly, and slightly furrowed his brows.

“It’s not because of my past relationship with his father, but because of what I seek—a unified realm and lasting peace. Yet if I help him, too many people will die… Whether those in the north, or the soldiers of the Chen Dynasty, they are all people of Huaxia.”

The Daoist drained the wine in his cup and propped his chin up, letting out a sly chuckle. “If they fight their way over, people will still die all the same.”

The empty cup he set down slowly filled itself again with wine. Across from him, the scholar smiled: “At least fewer will die. Besides, if I, a cultivator, take part in the rise and fall of worldly dynasties, would other cultivators also intervene?”

Lu Liangsheng rose to his feet, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked to the edge of the cliff, gazing at the sea of clouds beneath the setting sun.

“…If I start using Daoist arts to stir the rise and fall of mortal regimes, things may very well become even worse.”

Fa Jing pressed his palms together in a Buddhist gesture and bowed slightly toward the empty air. “Amitabha… Fellow Daoist Lu… sees things… clearly.”

“This kind of matter gives me a headache just thinking about it. Enough, enough.” Sun Yingxian, most afraid of such tangled affairs, waved his hands repeatedly. Holding his wine cup, he gave it a light swirl. “Let’s talk about the three little ones taking a master tomorrow instead.”

“What is there to talk about?”

Lu Liangsheng walked back, lifting the cup that had slowly filled again, and drained it in one gulp. “Let things take their natural course.”

His sleeves swayed as he raised the cup and lightly clinked it with the two of them.

“Drink to your heart’s content!”

As night gradually fell, in the small fenced courtyard, a youth in tattered clothing lay stiffly on the bed, his eyes dull as he stared at the ceiling.

Li Sui’an wrung out a towel and walked in, wiping the soot-blackened face of Yuwen Tuo. With a few teasing laughs, he reached out and patted the other’s hair, which had been fluffed up from being electrocuted.

“Grand-master, I saw him back at the inn—how could you go and kick him? Look what happened now, you’ve caused trouble, haven’t you? And you still want to run—wouldn’t it be better to just cultivate properly?!”

After a round of scolding, Li Sui’an stood up to go wash the towel. Before leaving, he turned back and lowered his voice:

“From my years of experience as a waiter, I’d say Grand-master is the petty kind. You’d better be careful from now on!”

On the bed, once Li Sui’an had gone out, Yuwen Tuo blinked, then, with a whoosh, flipped off the bed. He lifted the curtain with his fingertips and peeked toward the donkey shed in the distance. He saw the old donkey lying by the trough, while that toad was locked in an inseparable fight with a mottled hen. Turning around, he climbed back onto the bed, gently pushed open the other window, and slipped out!

Night had already settled in, the distant mountain slopes forming a gloomy silhouette.

Amid soft rustling footsteps, the disheveled youth darted forward, leaping across ridge after ridge of farmland, until he finally scrambled onto the dirt road.

This time they won’t expect that after being caught and brought back, I’d sneak out again, right?!

The night wind rushed against him. Yuwen Tuo’s soot-blackened face couldn’t help but break into a grin, revealing white teeth. The next moment—

A unified “Ha!” burst out ahead on the road.

It was the kind of synchronized shout only several people yelling together could produce.

“I—”

His smile froze. The youth abruptly stopped. In the darkness ahead, torchlight flared up. Within the swaying glow of the flames stood eight burly men, lined up in a row, their bare chests heaving.

“Young man, you won’t escape—”

In Yuwen Tuo’s eyes, the eight of them advanced like war chariots!

“Ahhh—!”

The scream rang out sharp and clear through the night.

Not long after, the group still sitting at the village entrance heard that complicated cry. Then they saw eight burly men carrying a youth pass by them.

Everyone shuddered in unison.