Volume 3: Dao, Dao, Dao… Heaven’s Dao, Earth’s Dao, Human Dao, Ghost Dao— I seek only my own Dao! Chapter 151

Gazing at the hanging corpse, Lu Liangsheng could no longer hold on. Supporting himself with the Veiled Moon Sword, he half-knelt to the ground. In his half-conscious state, he felt the old donkey stretch out its tongue to lick his face, then nudged him with its snout, snorting twice.

Not far away, the Toad Daoist came bounding over with labored breaths, his webbed feet flapping as he ran. Hong Lian flew ahead, arriving first.

“Young Master!”

“Liangsheng!”

The Toad Daoist extended a webbed limb to feel his disciple’s pulse, then rushed to the old donkey’s belly and jumped, trying to hook down the bookshelf. No matter how he jumped, he couldn’t reach it. In frustration, he kicked at the donkey’s leg with his webbed foot.

“You damned old donkey, kneel down!”

“Master Toad, let me do it!”

The drifting red sleeves of Hong Lian swept through the air, knocking the bookshelf to the ground. The small compartment door sprang open with the impact, and a black-patterned gourd rolled out.

“Is it this one?”

She pulled out the gourd’s stopper. The Toad Daoist poured out the pills they had brought from the cave-dwelling, then hurried back, stepping onto his disciple’s half-kneeling thigh. He pried open Lu Liangsheng’s mouth and stuffed a pill in, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

“Good thing this old man didn’t forget these pills when we left.”

Cough—

The half-conscious scholar coughed twice. His eyes slowly opened, and he forced a smile toward his worried master and Hong Lian. Grasping the hilt of his sword, he propped himself up from the ground. Swaying unsteadily, he turned his head to glance toward the treasure vault.

He remained silent for a moment. Sensing that his spiritual power had somewhat recovered after taking the pill, he lowered his gaze to the Toad Daoist.

“Master… how far is the nearest county town from here?”

The Toad Daoist pondered for a moment.

“A little over two hundred li… what are you planning to do now?”

Panting heavily, Lu Liangsheng staggered forward two steps, pulled out a scroll from the bookshelf, and felt over his robes—only then remembering that his wolf-hair brush had long since been destroyed. Frowning deeply, he bit through the tip of his finger and painted a crimson mark on the blank scroll.

“That wooden building… still has many women and children inside. We… can’t take them in. We’ll have to notify the local authorities, let them… handle the aftermath and arrange their shelter…”

With his fingertip, he drew a long red pillar. Lu Liangsheng tilted his head to look at Hong Lian.

“Also, those things related to the so-called Mingzun—we can’t take it with us, nor can we destroy it. Just throw it all off the cliff. Don’t let the officials who come later take it away. If they do, it’ll only bring them death and disaster.”

Hong Lian looked at the weakened Lu Liangsheng, her lips pressed into a tight line. She nodded silently, then floated toward the treasure vault. As the gloomy wind scattered, the scholar released his finger from the painting and swallowed hard.

“Incant—”

Lu Liangsheng’s fingers trembled as he tried to form a spell seal, but beside him, a webbed foot suddenly reached out to block his hand. The Toad Daoist sighed and turned to the scroll.

“Master…”

“Stay still. Let me handle it instead. I can still muster a few breaths’ worth of spiritual power.”

As he spoke, he spread out both of his webbed hands and pressed them onto the painting.

The Toad Daoist’s bulging toad eyes flared with two pinpoints of crimson. As spiritual power surged through, the blood-red pillar drawn on the scroll burst into radiance, turning from ink into solid form.

A beam of crimson light shot straight into the heavens.

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Two hundred and twenty li away, in the county town of Huai’en, near Yingshi Mountain, it was already deep into the night. The streets were empty, and only the bang bang of the night watchman’s clappers echoed in the darkness.

“Summer nights bring biting insects—keep your doors and windows shut tight, and guard well against fire.”

Bang, bang…

“…And beware of thieves—and that Wang fellow next door.”

A thin mist rose through the town as the watchman, swinging his lantern, ambled along. Suddenly, he halted mid-call. Amid the occasional barking of dogs, he looked up toward the night sky over the street. In the depths of his pupils, a narrow red pillar extended into the firmament. The next moment, crimson light flooded his face.

“Wha—what is that?!”

With a cry, he turned and ran. The pillar of red light still rose in the distant foothills, casting its scarlet radiance across the rolling mountains, pressing steadily toward the city.

Within moments, the entire county town was wrapped in red.

Cocks crowed and dogs barked from every household, echoing across the city. Awakened from their slumber, groggy townsfolk rubbed their eyes. Drowsily, they noticed the red glow spilling in through the lattice windows. Hastily, they put on shoes, threw on single-layer garments, and pushed open their windows.

Before long, more and more people stepped out of their courtyard homes and onto the streets, staring in stunned silence at the red pillar of light that seemed to link heaven and earth.

“Immortals have manifested!!” “Could it be a demon coming?”

“Heavens, nearly scared me to death…”

At the county yamen, the county magistrate was roused from his bed by his subordinates. Seeing the red light pouring across the courtyard, he hurriedly threw on his robes and rushed outside—just as he was about to dispatch men to investigate what had happened in the city…

A solemn, majestic voice echoed as if it were emerging from within the crimson light.

“Evildoers stirred chaos within Yingshi Mountain, abducting women and children…”

The county magistrate clenched the sleeves of his robe, cried out in shock, and dropped to his knees beneath that vast radiance. Citizens across the city—those who had stepped out, and those timidly peering from behind their window lattices—fell to the ground one after another as the authoritative voice resounded through the air.

“…The chief culprits have already been dealt with. The women and children fall under the jurisdiction of your mortal authorities. Come quickly to escort and shelter them!”

The instant the Dharma voice concluded, the red light swiftly contracted back toward the mountain under countless stunned gazes.

The crimson spell light receded into the scroll and gradually faded to stillness.

“…Displaying divine power before mortals like that… why does it feel oddly satisfying?”

The Toad Daoist rolled up the scroll and slung it across his back, smacking his lips as though savoring the sensation of being worshiped.

“I wonder why I never realized this before…”

Behind him, Lu Liangsheng stood unsteadily, swaying as he looked toward the figure drifting to and fro—Hong Lian was throwing the objects from the wooden building out past the courtyard wall and down into the ravine. In a low voice, he said:

“Master… It’s time we leave as well.”

“Mhm, let’s go, let’s go. A pity none of this old man’s treasures are here.”

The toad let out a long sigh as Lu Liangsheng picked him up and placed him into the compartment within the bookshelf, then hoisted the shelf onto the donkey’s back. He looked down at the pair of small bronze bells on the ground. After a moment’s hesitation, he picked them up, replaced the rusted ones hanging around the donkey’s neck, and gently patted its head.

“Well, they’ve no use for them anymore—consider this your reward for that kick of yours.”

Snort, snort.

The old donkey raised its head and nuzzled its master’s palm, as if expressing joy.

“Let’s go.”

Lu Liangsheng, weak and weary, climbed onto its back, his whole body nearly collapsing forward onto it. He gave the reins a casual tug, and the old donkey, flicking its patchy tail, trotted leisurely through the stele gate and onto the mountain path. Inhaling the crisp mountain air, its hooves grew lighter, and it broke into a brisk canter.

The bookshelf on its back creaked and groaned with every step.

Inside the shelf compartment, the Toad Daoist braced himself with both webbed hands and bellowed, “You damned donkey—slow down!”

Amid the ding ding dang dang of the neck bell’s ringing, Lu Liangsheng slowly straightened up, tilted his head slightly to glance left and right. The thick mist of spiritual energy had now fully dispersed. Bathed in the light of the moon, he realized—

Someone was missing.

“Master, did Hong Lian not follow us?” Lu Liangsheng asked weakly, twisting his body with effort to glance back at the slowly receding stone gate.

The small door of the bookshelf compartment creaked open. The Toad Daoist, busy tying a rope, poked his head out to look.

“There she is!”

Lu Liangsheng turned back. In the shadowed veil of night behind them, crimson sleeves fluttered—indeed, it was Nie Honglian. Her face was radiant with joy, and it looked like she was carrying something on her shoulder.

“…What’s she carrying that makes her so delighted?”

He tugged the reins slightly, bringing the old donkey to a halt. When Hong Lian caught up, she dropped a black wooden box to the ground with a thud. A yellow talisman was pasted across the seal, using a method similar to the clay jars from before.

However, this black wooden box emitted a distinct fluctuation of spiritual power, though it was entirely sealed by that talisman.

“Could this be one of that Mingzun’s magic treasures?”

Lu Liangsheng dismounted and reached out to touch the box. The moment his fingers brushed it, he quickly pulled back, brows furrowed.

“Hiss… such profound cultivation.”

Hovering in mid-air, Hong Lian nodded. “I sensed it was radiating powerful spiritual energy, so I brought it along—perhaps there’s something inside the young master could use.”

From the compartment of the bookshelf, the small door swung open again. The Toad Daoist, dragging his rope, slowly descended and waddled over, webbed limbs swaying.

“Let your master take a look.”

With no hesitation, his webbed hand grasped the yellow talisman and gave it a sharp rip, tossing it aside.

With a bang, the black box sprang open of its own accord. Inside lay a pitch-black branch, its bottom densely covered in fine root tendrils.

“Master, can you tell what it is?”

Before his disciple could finish the question, the Toad Daoist had already taken the branch in both hands, examining it closely, his toad eyes narrowing.

“A spirit root cultivated for a thousand years…”

Then, without warning, he hurled it to the ground.

Thud! It rolled more than half a zhang away. Lu Liangsheng and Nie Honglian stared in surprise.

“Master, what are you—”

Before he could finish, a female voice cried out, “Aiyo…”—interrupting the scholar midsentence.

There, a woman in a sheer black gauze dress, her high-piled hair adorned with a pair of jeweled hairpins, was holding her forehead. She had been flung out so violently she seemed thoroughly dazed.

The Toad Daoist’s voice grew stern as he extended his webbed hand with a commanding wave.

“Liangsheng—tie her up!”