After listening to Chen Liqiu's talk, Changsheng became more and more curious, "Third Senior Brother, do you mean that the current monks and Taoists are not welcome by the court?"
"It is up to the emperor to decide whether he is treated well or not." Chen Liqiu casually broke off a piece of dogtail grass and held it in his mouth. "The current emperor has not been on the throne for a long time. I don't know what his attitude is towards monks and Taoists."
He was not very concerned about the situation of the monks and Taoist priests. He was curious about whether the Taoist priests could refine elixirs. "Third senior brother, can Taoist priests really refine the elixir of immortality?"
"Well," Chen Liqiu curled his lips at Li Zhongyong, "ask the second brother, he does this every day."
Changsheng turned to look at Li Zhongyong.
"Well," Li Zhongyong cleared his throat and took over the conversation, "Alchemy has been around since ancient times. It is definitely not a scam. It aims to absorb the essence of heaven and earth through the fire of the alchemy cauldron, blend yin and yang, and adjust the five elements..."
"Burn the house and blow up the inn." Chen Liqiu interrupted with a wicked smile.
"Tsk." Li Zhongyong frowned and gasped.
"Tsk, what? Have you never burned it or exploded it?" Chen Liqiu curled his lips and teased.
"Nothing can be accomplished overnight. It requires a long period of practice and speculation," Li Zhongyong argued. "What's more, what I study and study is not only the art of furnace fire, but also the creation of mechanisms."
"We are martial arts practitioners. If you do this all day long, you are not doing your job properly." Chen Liqiu said.
"When you see something different, do you have to show mercy at all times to do your job properly?" Li Zhongyong said with a smile.
"Both of you are not doing your job properly," Batulu said in a low voice, "Master said that a person can only do one thing well in this life, and you two are not attentive."
Batulu is the eldest brother, so Li Zhongyong and Chen Liqiu still have to give him some face. Now that he has spoken, the two will stop arguing.
There is no fixed time for everyone to rest or eat. They will rest when they find a suitable place to stay. If they don't find it, they will keep on going. Most of the time, they will eat two meals a day, and sometimes they may only eat one. pause.
Changsheng would stay away from everyone when they were meditating and practicing martial arts. Although he had begun to practice Qi and Heart Methods, he had not formally practiced martial arts.
Changsheng has a habit of wandering in the woods when he has nothing to do, not to go sightseeing, but to look for things to satisfy his hunger.
This time he saw the monkey again. The monkey was sitting high on a big elm tree, holding something in his hand.
When Changsheng discovered the monkey, the monkey did not notice him. Changsheng watched from a distance and found that the monkey was hiding very secluded, and it was in a position where he could clearly see the cave where everyone was resting.
The last time he saw this monkey was four days ago. At that time, he thought that the monkey had escaped from the monkey charmer. But now it seems that is not the case. The monkey may have been following them in the dark.
Since he was not discovered by the monkey, Chang Sheng observed from the dark for a long time, and the results of the observation confirmed his guess. While eating, the monkey poked its head out to look at the cave where everyone was staying.
Confirming that the monkey was acting suspiciously, Changsheng picked up a few stones and tiptoed to the foot of the tree. Since the monkey was high up in the tree, he thought he couldn't hit it with stones, so he climbed up the trunk.
But he underestimated the monkey's alertness and was discovered by the monkey before he could climb very high.
Seeing him climbing up under the tree, the monkey hurriedly threw the thing in his hand towards him. Taking advantage of the gap when he was ducking, he jumped down from the tree and ran deep into the dense forest.
Changsheng threw a few stones, but failed to hit it, so he had to retreat from the tree.
From under the tree, he saw what the monkey hit him. It turned out to be a pine cone the size of a fist. The monkey had eaten pine nuts in the pine cone before.
A pine cone is the fruit of a pine tree. An ordinary pine cone is about the same size as an egg, but this pine cone is about the size of a fist, and the pine nuts inside are about the size of a fingernail.
Upon discovering the anomaly, Changsheng immediately took Songta back to the cave and explained to Taoist Lin what he had seen and heard before.
Taoist Lin held the pine cone and looked at it with a solemn expression.
"Master, such a big pine cone is definitely not produced in Dengzhou." Li Zhongyong said.
Director Lin nodded, pointed to the tail of the pine cone and said, "This pine cone must have been picked last autumn. The stems are neat. They were not twisted off, but cut off with a sharp instrument."
"The monkey that Lao Wu saw earlier has an owner," Chen Liqiu said. "This pine cone was probably fed to it by the monkey's owner."
Taoist priest Lin nodded slowly.
Seeing the solemn expressions on everyone's face, Changsheng also realized the seriousness of the problem. The last time he saw this monkey was four days ago, which means that this monkey has been following them for at least four days. Such a long period of observation and surveillance is enough to show that The owner of the monkey is very calculated. He is less likely to be a friend and more likely to be an enemy. There are only two reasons for the enemy to follow him from the dark. Either he is seeking revenge, or he wants to rob everyone of their martial arts secrets.
"Master, we don't seem to have offended anyone in Dengzhou." Li Zhongyong said.
"The owner of the monkey is not from Dengzhou," Lin Daozhang waved his hand and said, "Lao Wu is the monkey we found four days ago, but it doesn't mean that the monkey started following us four days ago. It may also have been following us for a long time. , but we have never noticed it.”
Li Zhongyong said, "The monkey's owner should be nearby, but why doesn't he show up?"
"Before showing up," Taoist Master Lin said, "Maybe he didn't wait for the opportunity to take action, or maybe the helpers he summoned haven't arrived yet."
Hearing what Taoist Lin said, everyone felt awe-struck. Chen Liqiu threw away the dogtail grass in his mouth and asked seriously, "Master, how should we respond?"
Daochang Lin frowned slightly and did not answer.
Chen Liqiu turned to look at Changsheng again, "Lao Wu, didn't you hit that monkey by throwing a stone before?"
Without waiting for Changsheng's answer, Li Zhongyong took over the conversation, "Whether Lao Wu hit the monkey or not, the monkey was already frightened and would definitely tell its owner about the previous encounter. If nothing else, the monkey's The master should already know that we are aware of it.
"What if you know that? If he dares to cause trouble for us, his mother will not recognize him even if he is beaten." Batulu clenched his fist and raised his hand.
Taoist priest Lin shook his head and said, "One more thing is worse than one less thing. Try not to conflict or enmity with them. Let's go and leave this place."
After hearing what Lin Taoist said, everyone started to pack their luggage. It was late afternoon, and worried about being followed by monkeys, the group left the forest and chose an open path to speed along.
There are many hills in Dengzhou, so even if everyone chooses the open official road, they may not be able to get rid of the monkeys, because the monkeys can secretly stalk them from the distant forest.
After walking twenty or thirty miles in one breath, in the evening, everyone left the road and crossed the fields into the forest on the south side of the official road. There were fields on both sides of the official road and it was very empty. If the monkey wanted to continue tracking, it would have to cross Cross this field, and as long as the monkey crosses the field, everyone can spot it.
After observing for a moment in the forest, no monkeys were seen. The group began to move southwest from the forest. After walking two or three miles, a small stream appeared in front of them. The water was gurgling and crystal clear.
Everyone was a little thirsty after walking fast. After discovering the creek, Batulu strode forward, put down the wooden box he was carrying, and leaned over the cow to drink.
Everyone also went to the stream to drink water. Tian Zhengong brought a pottery bowl with him, so he filled the bowl with water and presented it to Taoist Lin.
Changsheng was also very thirsty, and when he leaned over to drink water, he suddenly noticed something strange, "Hey, why are the ground tigers here not afraid of people?"
Everyone didn't know why and turned to look at him.
"What did you say?" Batulu wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
Changsheng rolled up his sleeves and fished out a small fish from the water. The small fish was no bigger than his index finger. After it came out of the water, it twisted and struggled in Changsheng's palm.
Changsheng held up the little fish and said to everyone, "We call this fish here the tiger, it is the hardest to catch. It will run away when it sees people. You see, now I can catch it with my hand."
"You mean the water is poisonous?" Chen Liqiu guessed.
"Ah?" Batulu stared in shock. No matter whether the water was really poisonous or not, it meant nothing to him, because he had already drank it before Changsheng warned him.
Li Zhongyong raised his hand and took off the silver hairpin on his head, dipped it in water and tested it. "The silver needle has not changed color and does not seem to be poisonous."
"It scared me to death," Batulu said with relief, pointing to the stream. "If the water was really poisonous, the fish would have been poisoned long ago. It must be because the weather is cold and the fish don't like it..."
Batulu stopped before he could finish his words, because where he was pointing there happened to be a few small fish with their bellies floating down from the upstream.
Seeing this, Li Zhongyong hurriedly put down his baggage, took out something that looked like a folding fan from the baggage, unfolded it, took water from the stream and dropped it on the five fan bones of different colors one by one, and then looked at it intently, "Fire is not a poison. It’s not gold poison, it’s not water poison, it’s not earth poison, it’s not wood poison, there’s really no poison in the water.”
"That fish, ah, what, ah, what's going on?" Batulu spoke a little unclearly.
Taoist priest Lin had been holding the pottery bowl Tian Zhengong handed him without drinking it. After thinking about it, he took a sip, but he did not swallow it. Instead, he tasted it in his mouth and spit it out, "It's not poison, it's an anesthetic."
"This thing is called Buddleia. It is common in areas south of the Yangtze River and cannot grow in the north." Lin Taoist priest said sternly. "Although Buddleia is not a highly poisonous thing, it can paralyze the limbs and make people lose control."
After Lin Dao had finished speaking, Batulu wanted to speak, but in just a moment, his words were so confused that it was difficult to distinguish.
Tian Zhengong took the pottery bowl, poured out the stream water inside, and then asked, "Master, what should I do?"
"Have you ever drank from the stream?" Taoist priest Lin asked in a deep voice.
Tian Zhengong shook his head, and Li Zhongyong and Chen Liqiu also shook their heads. Needless to say, Changsheng was the first to notice something strange. Naturally, he didn't know how to drink the stream water. Among them, only Batulu drank it, and he drank a lot.
At this time, Batulu was already unstable and about to fall. Li Zhongyong hurriedly supported him, turned to Chen Liqiu and said, "Third brother, you take the wooden box, and I will carry the boss on my back."
"I'll carry it." Chen Liqiu walked towards Batulu.
"You can't carry him," Taoist Master Lin said in a deep voice, "Now that the matter is over, just stay here. What is supposed to come will come sooner or later..."
