Great Sui Guoshi

"I didn't know there was an expert by my side..."

Chapter 122

After crossing the river and going north, entering the boundary of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the continuous spring rain finally stopped.

On the dirt road in the barren mountain, the old donkey carried the side-lying scholar, and happily kicked small steps up the small slope. The sun broke through the clouds and shone down. one time.

He felt a little regretful that he didn't meet the big fish that day. It is normal for the ghost to be pregnant in the river. According to the boatman, he saw it when he was young. Maybe he was seriously injured and died in the fight with the ascetic. , sank to the bottom of the river to be eaten by fish and shrimp.

And there is never a lack of cultivators in the world. If they hadn't died, they would probably have reached a high level of cultivation by now.

As for the ghost lurking at the bottom of the river last night, intending to deceive people and eat it, it is just a blue crab with a little spiritual consciousness, throwing fish into the boat, just like people throwing bait to fish.

"The blue crab is full of viciousness, and it turns black when it crosses the water. I don't know how many people drown in that Qinglan River every year, and it becomes vicious here because it is eaten by it. Fortunately, its spiritual wisdom is not fully developed, and it does not know any witchcraft. But , but also confirms the guess about the pictorial of this book..."

In the scholar's hand, "Illustrations of Mountains and Seas" just turned to the last page. On it, there is a sketch of a river, a big crab lying on the bottom of the river looking up at a small boat on the water.

There is text next to it, saying:

"The great waves of rivers and rivers, the dragon is the leader, and the dragon is the second... Shrimp and crabs are the last. They eat the dead bodies at the bottom of the day again and again, and they begin to take shape, but their hostility increases sharply, and their nature is ferocious. People can't avoid convulsions when they eat them. "

The old donkey had already passed the hillside, kicking its hooves, trembling through a shade of trees, Lu Liangsheng hung down his book, got up and sat sideways, and yawned.

"Master, didn't you follow the official path? Why did you go to the wilderness?"

In the bookshelf compartment, the small door was pushed open, Taoist Toad changed into a short-sleeved floral dress, stretched in the morning sun, and then his expression froze for a moment.

"This old donkey!"

The donkey turned its head slightly from the front, let out a rough breath, and continued to walk forward cheerfully.

Soon, after going down the slope and resting by a river, Toad untied the rope and jumped off the bookshelf. He stood on a blue rock and looked around. Then he turned out the small picture scroll on his back and sat down, carefully resting his round webbed fingers on it. Gestures.

"It's okay, follow this dirt road, go around the mountain and continue forward. After twenty miles, you can return to the original road eastward."

Lu Liangsheng squatted by the stream, rinsed his mouth gruntly, spat it out into the crevice of the stone, and turned his face sideways.

"Master, are you sure?"

"Hmph, when did the teacher lie to you?"

Toad twitched the corners of his mouth when he said this, snorted again, rolled up the scroll of the map and put it behind his back, hugged his fins and looked at the morning mist in the mountains and forests in the distance, coughed dryly.

"...The land of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, when I was a teacher for many years, the mountains, rivers and rivers are all at the feet of my teacher. What else do I not know? How can this distance go wrong?"

"Master Toad started to talk big again." Hong Lian's voice sounded in the picture scroll. During this period of time, she recovered fairly well.

Taoist Toad jumped down from Qingyan, whistled, called the old donkey, and climbed up to the compartment along the rope.

"Is it a lie, I will know later, the old man is waiting for you, the little ghost, to make amends."

wow wow...

After wringing out the towel, Lu Liangsheng listened to Master and Hong Lian talking, washed his face, took a deep breath of the smell of the stream, and exhaled heavily.

"Master, how far is Qishan from here?"

"not sure."

Toad sat on the edge of the cubicle, kicking with his legs dangling, looking at the apprentice who was walking back.

"You don't know how to ride the clouds and ride the fog. It takes five or six days to shrink the ground to an inch, and it takes ten and a half months at most."

Over there, Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey back to the mud path, followed by the dim black-striped gourd on his waist, and walked into the bamboo forest in front of him.Emerald green bamboo stretches, and when the wind blows, the bamboo leaves flutter and fall on one person and one donkey.

While walking forward, his footsteps stopped suddenly. Lu Liangsheng thought of some possibilities, and continued walking forward, asking:

"Master, you said that Qishan has your cave, and there are many panaceas. If you give some to my parents and sister, can you let them step into cultivation?"

"impossible."

In the small cubicle, Taoist Toad, with his short legs, bounced off a bamboo leaf that floated by with his frog webs.

"Not everyone can step into practice, you know that, but it can still be done to prolong the life of your parents and sisters, and there are quite a few of them in the teacher's cave."

There was a pause.

"Hmm... maybe just enough for three."

Uh!

Lu Liangsheng was stunned for a moment, then laughed, and subconsciously reached for the gourd, only to realize that there was no wine in it.

I'm not used to not having alcohol.

"Master, hurry up, hurry up!"

According to the geographical location described by Taoist Ha, after passing the mountain forest in front, it is an official road. Normally, after going north, it is Chaoning Prefecture, which is only seven or eight hundred miles away from Qishan Mountain. When walking all the way, you can sometimes see mountain villages Villages and towns, but after a long way, there are barren mountains and wild mountains in sight.

"Master, I'm afraid I've gone the wrong way."

"Absolutely not, I think back then, the old man traveled across three mountains and five mountains..."

In the afternoon when we arrived, Xiyun was showing a smudge, and we got on an official road, and we could see the fields on both sides of the road a little farther away. Lu Liangsheng led the rein and walked over, just as a farmer walked up to the ridge of the field, picking up a hoe.

"This old man, do you want to know the way?"

Hearing the words, the farmer carrying a hoe, over half a century old, turned around and saw a scholar in old clothes standing on the side of the road leading a donkey.

The old farmer smiled and put down his hoe, leaned on it by his feet, and wiped the sweat off his face.

"Judging from your son's accent, he must be from the Chen Dynasty in the south, right?"

Lu Liangsheng was slightly taken aback, but still replied.

"Exactly, people from Xianan Chenfushui County, how did the old man hear that?"

Most of the peasants lived their lives peacefully. From childhood to adulthood, they seldom left their villages or counties for one-acre land. Even traveling merchants traveling from south to north would not often stay in a village.

"Don't blame me, son. Except for some business travelers from the north passing by, there are very few people from the south who come here. Today, a few came to ask for directions, so I asked."

"I see."

Lu Liangsheng exchanged some polite words with the old farmer, and then asked where he was going.

"Chaoning Prefecture? Qishan?"

The old farmer shook his head, not daring to speak nonsense.

"I haven't heard of it, but Shunyuan County is not far ahead, you can go there and ask, Young Master."

Following the direction pointed by the old farmer, Lu Liangsheng cupped his hands to thank him, led the old donkey who was gnawing on the grass by the side of the road, and walked away quickly. After half a stick of incense along the official road, he saw the outline of a county town in the distance.

The setting sun dyed the western clouds red.

The rammed-earth city wall was not too long, and it was covered with holes of scolites, and pits were peeled off in some places. The Northern Zhou soldiers at the gate of the city yawned lazily, watching the four scholars looking around with their bookshelves on their backs.

"This is Shunyuan County." "Well, it's kind of old."

"It should be understandable in a remote and small county, not to mention that the four of us are here to visit Wang Sheng to study knowledge, why should we care about a single county town?"

"What brother said is true, what he said is true."

…………

"The city gate is closed!"

Seeing that the time was about the same, the soldiers guarding the city let out a howl, beckoning their comrades to go back inside, and when they were pushing the city gate to close, a scholar led the old donkey and slipped in quickly, got off the donkey's back, and said politely. Hands in a circle.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I almost missed it."

"Forget it, it's okay."

Stretching out their hands without hitting the smiling face, the soldiers saw that he was a weak scholar, dressed in shabby clothes, and it was rare to ask a lot of them.

"Thank you all."

While thanking Lu Liangsheng, he walked to the soldier who looked kind and asked:

"Brother, please ask me the way, how can I get to Ningzhou?"

"Chaoning Prefecture?"

The soldier was stunned for a moment, then he exchanged glances with his companions and laughed out loud.

"You scholar don't know the way, why are you running around? This is under the jurisdiction of Tai'en Mansion. If you want to go to Ningzhou, you have to go through here first. It will take at least two or three days. Find an inn to rest, and go on the road tomorrow morning."

Uh……

Lu Liangsheng froze in place, feeling very bad. According to the place names marked on the map, judging from the place where he landed, he had traveled at least tens of miles, and even went astray.

"Master...how do you say?"

cough……

In the compartment, Toad coughed several times and looked away.

"Hmm... Maybe the teacher is too old, so I forgot."

Chapter 123 Selling Paintings

The setting sun hides the hills, and dirty and old lanterns are hung under the eaves on both sides of the street.

Lu Liangsheng led the old donkey and walked along the road. There are many similarities between Fushui and the remote county in the north. The ranger with a sword was full of alcohol, and walked along the street with a bottle of wine. Pedestrians took a look and hurried past. .

The vendors gathered the tables, chairs and benches, picked up the loads and prepared to leave, the inn with the flags fluttering, there was a lot of noise, the waiter passed on a table of dishes, walked to the door, pulled off the rags from his shoulders, and welcomed the two guests, not forgetting to greet them. There were two loud yells outside.

"Passing by, all the guest officials have a look, smell it, there is no one at home, the stove is cold, the mother-in-law is going back to her mother's house, no one cares, why don't you come in and have a sip of fragrant rice wine, shave hot corn rice, and feel comfortable , as well as delicate lamb meat, dripping pig meat..."

Walking past this inn, Taoist Toad leaned his upper body, looked at the inn, sniffed hard, and smacked his lips.

"Liangsheng, I think it's not too early for my teacher, so I won't wander around if the streets are deserted. I'll find an inn and have an early rest. I have to hurry tomorrow morning."

The inn was full of guests, and the smell of wine and vegetables wafted out. Lu Liangsheng groaned twice, and looked back at the toad on the donkey's head with a smile.

"Master is also hungry, right?"

On the donkey's head, Taoist Toad was looking at the plate of meat passed by the second hand in the inn. Hearing what the apprentice said, he quickly turned his eyes away with a serious expression.

"Seeing what you do as a teacher, how can it be so unbearable to be a teacher?"

"Actually, I'm hungry too. I didn't eat anything warm along the way. The smell made me a little hungry. Let's stay here tonight, and I can get some wine to serve."

Naturally, Lu Liangsheng wouldn't touch it, he reached out his cuff to take out some money, the toad and frog webs on the donkey's head were gripped tightly, staring at the dishes delivered by the inn, he opened his mouth excitedly.

"I want to eat braised pig meat for my teacher. It's better to have a few taels of tender mutton. It must be steamed. Boiled eggs are also good... Suck."

Before the apprentice could reply, Toad turned his head impatiently. Lu Liangsheng's smile froze on his face, and he took out the money bag from his sleeve, only a few copper coins slipped into his palm.

"Master, we seem to be out of money."

Toad: "..."

When he came out of the house, he had more than 30 taels on him. Lu Liangsheng thought it was enough to spend outside, so he didn't take it once he went home halfway.

"Hegu County, the capital, Heliangzhou, and returned to the capital. Right now, all the way north is staying in hotels, eating, and buying wine, and all the money is spent..."

'Goo~'

Toad stood up, smelling the smell of food, and swallowed his saliva.

"Why don't you just use illusion to change some money and eat the food first."

"You can't trade at a loss."

The scholar is also hungry, but the illusion is fake after all. He has never done it before, and he doesn't have the face to do it. He took out half a cake and stuffed it for Taoist Ha, and led the old donkey to the inn. Under the eaves of the far street, and then took out the Four Treasures of the Study from the bookshelf.

"What are you going to do again?"

Seeing his apprentice finished grinding the ink, Taoist Ha held half a cake, chewed it, and stretched his head to look at it.

I saw Qing Mo wandering from the tip of the scholar's pen, and in a moment, the old donkey moved aside suddenly, a small flag appeared out of thin air, stuck on the ground, a long table, and three rows of calligraphy and painting racks rose up one by one.

"All right."

Lu Liangsheng's last stroke fell, and the four characters of "Calligraphy and Painting Prosperity" appeared on the banner.

"It's better to be self-reliant than cheating on things that violate your conscience. Do you think you are a master?"

Putting the pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the long table, he took the blank scroll from the bookshelf and put it on it. Nie Honglian's scroll was unfolded and hung in the most conspicuous position, as a way to attract customers.