Chapter 217: Summarizing Techniques

Early the next morning, Lu Liangsheng had only just woken up when a burst of noise outside roused him fully awake. Beside him, Toad Daoist also opened his toad eyes and threw off the blanket. The moment he got up, however, he was abruptly shoved aside by his disciple. Balancing on his webbed feet with his body hanging over the edge of the bed, both flippers paddled frantically in midair before he toppled straight to the floor with a loud splat. 

Only after slipping on his shoes did Lu Liangsheng notice the toad sprawled carelessly on the ground. 

“Master, why are you in such a hurry?” 

“This master… needs to pee urgently, alright?!” Toad Daoist raised his toad face and snapped back. By then, his disciple had already risen and gone to open the door. 

Amid the crisp birdsong outside, two villagers carrying firewood stood nearby, pointing at the little hut as they spoke. 

“Where did this house come from…” 

“Exactly. There wasn’t anything here when we came up the mountain yesterday.” 

But when they saw the figure in blue robes and white garments step out through the door, the tension on their faces immediately vanished, replaced by rough but cheerful smiles. 

“So it’s Liangsheng! Weren’t you away on a long journey? When did you get back?” 

“I hurried back last night.” 

Lu Liangsheng stepped outside, poured water from a waterskin into his palm, rubbed it across his face, and replied with a smile: “…But when I got back, the house still wasn’t finished, so I just built a straw shelter here and spent the night.” 

After chatting with the two men for a while, he called over the donkey resting beneath the old pine tree. Leaving the luggage here for the moment, he prepared to head down the mountain first to check on his family. 

“Master isn’t coming down the mountain?” 

“No. This master is going back to sleep for a bit, then wander around the mountain.” 

The Toad Daoist lay beneath the blanket listening to the sound of the donkey’s neck bell fading into the distance. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. Jumping off the bed, he hurried to the bookshelf and pulled out the three porcelain bottles brought from the Qishan cave dwelling. Hugging them tightly, he spread his webbed feet and excitedly dashed toward the forest opposite the hut. 

Stepping over the thick fallen leaves, tongue flicking about, he ran all the way to the old cave. 

“Open!” 

With the little spiritual power he had left, he cast a spell. The massive stone rumbled heavily as it slowly shifted open a narrow gap. The Toad Daoist tossed the porcelain bottles inside first, glanced back outside, then sucked in his belly and squeezed himself in as well. No one knew what he was planning to do. Raising a flipper to wave once, he hurriedly slammed the giant stone shut again with a bang. 

Birds swept across the white clouds before descending toward the mountain village below. Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey back home, where Lu Pan and the other seven men had their upper bodies bare, busily hauling dirt and stone back and forth. Wang Banxia sat upon a stone stool, pinching his fingers as he calculated the feng shui, examining the orientation of the doorway and the future placement of the wooden beams, while three youths carried timber in circles under his direction… 

Lu Laoshi held a brick trowel as he laid the walls, while his wife, Li Jinhua, cooked a huge pot of breakfast, calling over all the villagers helping with the construction to eat. Several large tables had been pushed together, packed shoulder to shoulder with people. 

When she saw her son return, Li Jinhua hurriedly ladled out a bowl and had Xiaoxian carry it over. Now a grown young lady, Lu Xiaoxian was far more reserved than before. Even her speech toward her elder brother had become gentler and slower. 

“Brother, when did you come back? Here, Mother just filled this bowl.” 

“Last night. Seeing there was nowhere left to sleep at home, I made do for the night up on the mountain.” 

Lu Liangsheng accepted the bowl and took a sip, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings. The speckled old hen clucked as it wandered about in circles, tilting its head to examine the area around the scholar’s feet. 

“Where’s Old Sun?” 

“He ran off. A couple of days ago, he suddenly said he’d gained some kind of insight and wanted to travel around for a while.” 

That Old Sun… I asked him to help watch over the family, and he just left like that. And he still wants to become my brother-in-law? It seems I’ll have to reconsider things in the future. 

At that moment, after directing the three youths into the house, Wang Banxia quickly got up and followed the sound of Lu Liangsheng’s voice to offer his greetings. Knowing they had been tricked, Yuwen Tuo, Li Sui’an, and Qu Yuanfeng tossed down the timber they were carrying and hurried out after him, squeezing the old man aside before stopping in front of Lu Liangsheng and bowing with clasped fists. 

“We pay respects to Master!” 

After several days of building the house, thick calluses had formed on the three men’s hands. At the very least, it showed they had not been slacking off or trying to shirk work. After breakfast, Lu Liangsheng also went over to lend a hand. They worked all the way until nightfall before he suddenly remembered the master still up on the mountain. 

“He’s probably starving by now…” 

Carrying dinner with him, Lu Liangsheng returned from the village to the western mountainside. The Toad Daoist was sprawled atop the bed, his mottled pale belly expanding and contracting, eyelids half closed. The moment he saw his disciple push open the door and place the food onto the table, he immediately scrambled up, hopping several times before hooking himself onto the table edge. His short little legs kicked helplessly beneath him for a few moments until Lu Liangsheng reached over and gave him a push, finally helping him climb up. 

Clutching the delicate little bowl in his arms, the Toad Daoist took a mouthful of the steaming food and let out a satisfied sigh. 

“This master was nearly starved to death!” 

“We were building the house, and I almost forgot. I guarantee it won’t happen again.” 

Lu Liangsheng smiled as he spoke, taking out several cultivation manuals selected from the Qishan cave dwelling and flipping them open. Sitting down beside the Toad Daoist, he began reading through them while Honglian moved the candle closer, curiously leaning her face over. 

“Young Master, are you planning to learn everything written in those as well?” 

“Not necessarily learn them all, but at the very least, I need to understand how they’re cultivated.” 

By the candlelight, Lu Liangsheng’s gaze swept over line after line of text, committing the contents to memory. If he wished to teach Yuwen Tuo and the others, then he himself first needed to grasp the material. Otherwise, what would he teach them with? 

Naturally, there was no way he could thoroughly digest several manuals in one sitting. More likely, he intended to study while teaching them at the same time. After all, he could hardly just toss the books to the three of them and tell them to figure it out themselves. 

Researching the cultivation methods of other sects differed from pursuing scholarly studies, though there were similarities as well—the key lay in comprehension and insight. Since Lu Liangsheng had succeeded in earning the title of Gongsheng, he naturally had his own approach when it came to studying texts. For instance, whenever he encountered difficult passages in [Indigo Thunder Divine Fire], he would add annotations beside them, breaking down and analyzing the contents thoroughly. 

A moment later, he had Honglian, who had been softly singing nearby, grind ink for him. The scholar picked up a wolf-hair brush, dipped it lightly, spread open a sheet of white paper, and began writing. 

Holding his bowl, the Toad Daoist waddled over with soft pat pat sounds from his webbed feet. Glancing at the flowing lines of characters rapidly written by the brush tip, he stretched out his legs and sat down while hugging the bowl. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Organizing the annotated sections together.” 

The brush paused briefly. In the candlelight, Lu Liangsheng raised his head, rubbed his cheeks, and looked toward the densely packed writing covering the paper. 

“I’m listing all the necessary things and adding explanations for them. Once they’ve built a sufficient foundation in the future, they’ll be able to read through things themselves.” 

As he spoke, he also lifted several books on scholarly studies and waved them slightly. 

“But before that, they’ll still need to study the teachings of the Sages for a period of time.” 

In his hands, the books were spread out—[Perfect Virtue], [Discourses While Seated], [Words of Admonition]. The moment he saw the titles written atop them, the Toad Daoist hurriedly hugged his bowl and moved off to one side, feeling uncomfortable all over.

“Pitiful, those three young lads calling this old man Grandmaster. Who knows what sort of people you’ll end up teaching them into…”

Lu Liangsheng merely smiled without replying. Picking up the brush again, he continued flipping through [Indigo Thunder Divine Fire] and [Sword-Control Art] while adding annotations. At the same time, from the insights he had gained into the Five Elements Dao Arts—Wind, Forest, Fire, and Mountain—and from refining the Veiled-Moon Sword, he extracted and reorganized them into an array formation that could be controlled by human hands. 

‘This should suit Qu Yuanfeng, who wishes to become a general.’ 

The night was hazy and dim. Amid the rustling sounds of the old pine branches brushing together, the sea of clouds surged and rolled beyond the cliff behind the warmly lit little hut, crossing the winding mountain ranges and stretching endlessly northward, passing over cities glittering with myriad lights and the ceaselessly flowing great rivers. 

Small boats carrying flickering firelight and mounted patrols moved along the riverbanks. In a brightly illuminated water fortress in the distance, great bronze braziers had been erected, bonfires blazing fiercely. Rows of generals stood on either side, silently looking toward the seat of honor above, where the commanding marshal sat with his head lowered, reading through a letter. 

Yang Su wore a full suit of armor and sat imposingly upon a tiger-skin chair. The letter in his hand had come from Chang’an—it was personally written by his clan elder brother, the current Emperor. 

“Marshal, what did His Majesty say?!” 

Below, on the left side, the foremost general rose to his feet. With long whiskers, a short beard, and a burly frame, he stood like a small mountain, completely blocking the view of those behind him. 

“Did His Majesty order us to begin the war quickly?!” 

Above them, Yang Su gently lowered the letter and looked toward the general, stroking his beard with a smile. “My elder brother’s private instructions. General Han need not be anxious—you are the vanguard of this campaign, and no one can take that away from you!” 

His tone paused briefly as his gaze swept across the fierce generals seated before him. 

“Have any of you heard of a man named Lu Liangsheng?”