Volume 1: The magnificent Qixia Mountain, the young sparrows faded their spots, the phoenixes jumped on the branches and cried Chapter 034 The Sad Taoist
In a daze, I felt a faint pain deep in my head as if something was being drained out.
Lu Liangsheng slightly opened his eyes in the darkness, and seemed to be lying on the back of a donkey. The night wind whimpered past his ears. In his slanted eyes, there was a floating figure on the side.
"Nie Honglian?"
In the dim woods, the figure's skin was as light as smoke, gradually becoming graceful. She turned her head and looked at Lu Liangsheng who had just woken up. Dimple appeared on her cheek and she bowed slightly.
"It is my slave family."
Lu Liangsheng moved, but his hands were too weak and he almost fell off the donkey's back. He had to shrink back again and breathe heavily against the donkey's neck.
"...How did you get to my house..."
"After you avenged me that day... I had nowhere to go, so I thought I could follow Lu Lang and perhaps repay him for his kindness."
"Don't call me Lu Lang, it sounds a bit awkward."
Nie Honglian waved her sleeves to cover her mouth and chuckled, floating closer: "Then I'll call you Master. I didn't expect you to be so old. I always called you Sir before..."
"I'm one year younger than you... whatever you want."
The old donkey went down the mountain path and finally stabilized. The dark clouds floated away, revealing a cold crescent moon. The ground, which was overgrown with weeds and covered with dirt in the troubled times, seemed to be covered with silver frost.
Lu Liangsheng tried to mobilize his magic power, but all he felt was a pain in his meridians as if he was exhausted. He could not feel the existence of any magic power in his body, just like an empty pottery jar.
He gave up on activating the talisman that could shrink the earth into an inch stuck on the old donkey and compromised by continuing to lie down. It would probably not be long before he could return to Lujia Village.
The moonlight illuminated the surroundings. Lu Liangsheng stared at Qingli's profile, hesitated for a moment, and said softly: "I heard from my master before that if you... kill someone again, you will become a Rakshasa ghost... Now you... will really never be reincarnated?"
Nie Honglian lowered her head, was silent for a moment, and said softly: "It's okay..."
He raised his face again, as if he sniffed, and smiled a beautiful smile.
"…Maybe God thinks what I did was right?"
"I hope so... I just feel... if you can't be reincarnated as a human, God is really unfair to you..." Lu Liang struggled to stand up, shaking his body. His consciousness became dim again. He lay back on the donkey's back and looked at Hong Lian: "... I can't bear to watch..."
Nie Honglian floated over, stretched out her white arm, and gently stroked his back.
"I can't bear to look at it... Then let me keep it and attach it to the painting. It's also very good... If you add some birds and trees on it, it will be even better."
Lu Liangsheng smiled and nodded: "Okay, I'll draw it for you when I get back."
"Hey, you promised." Hong Lian lowered her body a little, level with the boy, and raised her little finger: "Pin, no matter what happens in the future, you are not allowed to chase me away!"
Over there, Lu Liangsheng stretched out his hand and hooked his little finger with hers. It was cool and soft.
"It's a deal."
At this time, Nie Honglian withdrew her hand, looked ahead, and said, "Someone is coming."
Lu Liangsheng turned his head and looked ahead. In the distance, he saw more than a dozen torch lights sparsely rushing towards him in the darkness, and people were talking in the inner room.
"There's my father's voice... and Uncle Pan and the others..."
As expected, when the two sides approached, there were more than 20 figures running over there, including people from Beicun. When they saw the old donkey and Lu Liangsheng on the donkey's back, they also saw the floating female ghost. They were so scared that their faces turned pale and they dared not approach. Lu Laoshi put down his hoe and called softly, "Liangsheng?"
"Dad... and everyone else, don't be afraid. This is Hong Lian. Uncle Pan should have seen her..."
In the crowd, Lu Pan, who had one arm bandaged, kept nodding his head. He had seen ghosts more than once. Even if he saw them again, ghosts were too terrifying for ordinary people, let alone other villagers.
The young man probably understood that they came here because they heard that he had gone to the bandits and were worried, so they came to look for him with hoes and axes.
After thinking about it, Lu Liangsheng struggled to stand up and wanted to come down, but he was weak after all, and he fell down unsteadily. Lu Laoshi, who was a few steps away, didn't care whether the female ghost in front of him was scary or not, and hugged his son.
"Come on Dad's back, Dad will take you back."
Lu Liangsheng leaned on his broad back and told Lu Laoshi not to leave in a hurry. He looked at Lu Pan and others and said weakly: "Uncle Pan... the bandits' place is empty, our things are all inside... you take people to get them... back... there should be others... bring them all back..."
"Hey!" Lu Pan nodded, eager to leave quickly. He took a few steps and fell back: "Well... Liangsheng, Uncle Pan has never been there... I don't know the way."
"I'll take you there."
Nie Honglian, who was floating, was naturally relieved to see that the boy was safe and someone was carrying him back. She turned her head and said something to Lu Pan and the others, then turned around and whizzed back the way she came.
After Lu Liangsheng finished his instructions and went back on his father's back, he relaxed his consciousness and gradually sank. Lu Pan, Lu Qing and others looked at each other, said goodbye to Lu Laoshi, stamped their feet, gritted their teeth and followed.
In the dim woods, the occasional cries of wild foxes could be heard, and the rustling footsteps of a dozen people were heard walking on the mountain path. They were not afraid of the gloomy atmosphere in the woods, after all, there was a real ghost above their heads, and it was leading the way. If they told others about this, it would be enough for them to brag about for the rest of their lives.
Soon, we followed the fork in the mountain path, turned into a narrow passage, and entered the valley. We were shocked to see the corpses everywhere .
The bandits' deaths were not so bloody. They were almost all drained of their yang energy, with distorted faces and weird limbs. But the look still made Lu Pan and others feel cold all over.
This female ghost is so powerful... Fortunately, Liangsheng was able to suppress her.
But when they entered the stronghold, they saw the dead bodies of Liu Erlong and other bandit leaders on the ground, which made them gasp. Several corpses were hung on the beams, folded like twists and swinging swayingly.
"Don't look at it, go in and search!"
Lu Pan endured the discomfort and called the villagers who came with him as well as Chen Tai and his group from the North Village. The latter reacted and ran tremblingly into the back hall or upstairs to search through the drawers and cabinets.
Afterwards, the fear gradually eased, and one by one, people came out with red faces, holding the looted things. Apart from the property and food that had been stolen before, all the valuables stored in the village were carried into the hall by everyone.
Lu Pan pried open three large wooden boxes. The light of the torch reflected patches of white. A "hissing" sound of inhalation was heard in the hall. The two large boxes were filled with three layers of silver ingots neatly stacked together, with a few gold ones that were quite conspicuous. The other wooden box was filled with some fine silks, furs, and some jewelry.
"This... this is fucking advanced!"
Nie Honglian, who was floating in the hall, stared over. Then everyone suppressed their ecstasy and ran out of the wooden building. They found a cart in the village and lifted the three large boxes together. The people from Beicun even stripped the clothes of the dead bandits and put all the copper and silver coins into their pockets.
Lu Pan waved Liu Erlong's steel knife twice, then looked at the twisted body with some regret. He could no longer wear the cloak and leather armor on the other person.
"What book is this? Everyone has lost things in different places. Go back and give it to Liangsheng." Lu Pan walked out of the village building and stepped on a book bound with yellow thread. He patted the footprints on the book, walked into the team, and threw it onto the cart, where it was piled with other belongings.
Then, he waved his hand and said, "Go back!"
A group of people went down the mountain excitedly, guarding the property.
The firelight obscured the forest, and the village tower fell into silence again. Suddenly, a rustling sound was heard. In the darkness, a bulge appeared on the ground and flew towards this side quickly. A person came out in front of the village tower.
It was the young Taoist priest Sun Yingxian who was leaving. He dusted off his head and quickly walked into the hall.
"I left in such a hurry that I forgot to count the things these bandits returned to me... Where is the book of Taoist magic that Master gave me?"
He muttered to himself as he searched everywhere. When he got upstairs, he discovered that the place had already been ransacked and almost all the valuables were gone.
"I said your mother... This is terrible, could it be that the guy just now took it all away?"
After searching for a while, he hurried downstairs. Suddenly, a series of horse hoof sounds were heard outside the village gate. Sun Yingxian stopped, looked sideways, and heard a "whoosh".
On horseback, a figure with two swords on his back happened to look over, and his eyes met the Taoist's. And then... there were corpses all over the ground.
" You're such a demon!!"
The moment the roar sounded, a sword was unsheathed with a clang, and the figure jumped off the horse directly, leaving a cold light in Sun Yingxian's field of vision.
"I didn't kill him!"
The Taoist hurriedly dodged, and the wooden pillar under the eaves was cut in half with a bang, wood chips flew everywhere, and the entire eaves collapsed in an instant, tiles fell down with a clatter, and a cloud of dust rose up.
More than a dozen more figures on horseback rushed over from behind, holding torches and dismounting with swords drawn.
Sun Yingxian kept dodging the extremely fast blade and waved his hands repeatedly: "It really wasn't me!!!"
Seeing that he was surrounded, he had no choice but to use the escape technique, burrowed into the ground, and quickly fled into the distance. The surrounding figures were blazing with fire, illuminating the surroundings, and reflecting the big word "Bu" on the yamen uniform on his chest.
These people were none other than the constables who had rushed over from Fushui County. Previously, the gatekeepers in the city had reported that someone practicing magic had been spotted, so Zuo Zhengyang led his men to ask for instructions from the county magistrate and began to chase and investigate the suspects along the way. When they were about to return to the city after finding nothing, they met the headman who was in a hurry on his way to the county seat, who said that bandits had attacked Lujia Village.
As the chief constable, Zuo Zhengyang naturally knew the details of the bandits in this area. Since he didn't find the target, he still had to keep the people safe, so he rushed over directly and happened to see the scene just now.
Looking at the Taoist who had disappeared into the darkness, Zuo Zhengyang gritted his teeth, put back his weapon, and jumped on his horse.
"It depends on whether he can run faster with his escape technique or my horse can run faster!"
He pulled the reins, looked back at the constables who were riding on their horses, waved his hands and shouted, "Follow me and keep chasing!"
He rode his horse and rushed out first.
"drive!!"
More than a dozen constables shook their reins and followed closely behind.
