Chapter 224

The senior brother and junior sister were riding on the backs of two gray donkeys, swaying forward. The gray donkeys were weak, and the Daoist's figure was also slender, which was a good match.

One was holding a roasted chicken in their hand.

One was holding a paper kite in their hand.

With the help of the clear breeze, the kite floated in the sky, bound by the few feet of string in her hand, so it couldn't float far, nor would it be caught by the branches on the side of the road.

The Xiao Shimei was happy in her heart, constantly looking up to examine her kite as she walked.

This was in the shape of a brightly colored bird, not as fierce as an eagle, nor as crude as the kites made by ordinary families themselves; it was very beautiful.

But even for kites made by ordinary families themselves, she could only watch others fly them before.

Who could have thought—

The little girl working on the hillside had grown up in the blink of an eye, and seeing someone flying a kite while outing, she could actually go and ask, and then buy one for herself.

She even had the ability to buy one for her senior brother.

This was truly wonderful.

"Third Shixiong brother, when shall we go fly the kite?" the Xiao Shimei couldn't help but ask.

"There has been no wind for the past two days. Let's wait two days, and in two days we'll go to the top of the opposite mountain to fly it," Lin Jue said. "Buy some pastries, bring some food, and just treat it as an outing to the mountain."

"Okay!"

The Xiao Shimei agreed.

As they walked along, there were often pedestrians on the side of the road. The children couldn't help but look at her with envy, looking just like her when she was young, while the adults were puzzled about where the wind came from.

They walked back to the thatched courtyard.

The peach blossoms in the courtyard were still there, but the small flowers on the fence had withered a bit. Lin Jue blew a breath casually, and they stood up again.

"Back?" Luo Seng was picking vegetables. Seeing them back today, he already had a guess in his heart. "It seems you encountered that yaoguai."

"Luo Gong is worthy of having been a county lieutenant."

"Did you eliminate it?"

"Sigh, no. Seeing that it wasn't unforgivably evil and was also pitiful, we spared it and ordered it to return all the money it extorted," Lin Jue said.

"Hmm."

Luo Seng nodded. In fact, he often did the same.

There was no way. Yaoguai and ghosts are not like humans, and he is not the imperial court. The imperial court has county government offices, prisons, and laws. Humans who commit capital crimes have the death penalty, and there are criminal laws to follow for major and minor mistakes, and criminal laws to execute. But he only had the sword in his hand. It is naturally best to encounter unforgivably evil yaoguai and ghosts; just slash them with one sword and be done with it. When encountering those yaoguai and ghosts who committed minor mistakes or had excusable reasons, he couldn't build a yaoguai and ghost prison on the spot to lock them up and then guard them for two years.

Therefore, he often just gave them a lesson and let them go.

"We passed a shop on the road that smelled very fragrant, so we brought a roasted chicken for Luo Gong to drink with," Lin Jue said. "There was an unexpected surprise last night too."

"Could it be news about the Long Wang?"

"You really can't hide anything from Luo Gong!"

Lin Jue put away the paper donkey, sat down cross-legged, and described in detail the news he heard last night.

The fox was lying silently on the ground.

The colored cat stood beside it, stretching its paws to poke it from bottom to top, and while poking, it cast a questioning look at it.

In the mountains outside the village, someone was bending over and busy.

Spring is a good season; it is neither too cold nor lacking in wild vegetables. As long as there is no famine everywhere, it is not easy for diligent people to starve to death.

Suddenly, a voice came from behind.

"Qiao Er? Digging for vegetables?"

The middle-aged man was startled, thinking it was the owner of this piece of land. Although he was digging on the side of the road outside the land, there are always unreasonable people in this world.

Poor families cannot fight against others.

But he saw it was a fellow villager he knew well, who happened to be passing by.

"Phew..."

The middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief, put the wild vegetables into the basket, and asked him: "What's the matter?"

"Didn't you go to Runze County a few days ago? That road has a yaoguai causing trouble at night. Did you encounter it when you walked the night road?"

"I found a thatched shop to stay for one night and didn't walk there at night," the middle-aged man said. "Besides, that yaoguai is extorting money and offerings. My family can't even afford to eat, so even if I met him, he wouldn't look for me, right!"

"Hey! I heard from people! That yaoguai was dealt with by two immortal experts a few days ago!" The man said to him with excitement. "In the past few days, all the money extorted has been returned! And it's begging people for forgiveness!"

"Really or fake?"

"Of course it's true."

"You aren't just talking nonsense, are you?"

"Several families! The yaoguai went to find them one by one at night and returned the money. They all said so, it must be true!" The fellow villager said. "If you ask me, most of those families have substantial family assets. Why return it? It would be better to give it to us poor people, don't you think?"

"..."

The middle-aged man frowned, feeling something was wrong.

"When did this happen?"

"Just a few nights ago."

"A few nights ago..."

"It is said that it was the night you walked the night road!" The fellow villager said vividly. "I heard from others that someone asked the yaoguai what kind of experts it encountered, and the yaoguai said that the two immortal experts were a man and a woman!"

"Ah?"

The middle-aged man's whole body stiffened instantly.

How could there be such a coincidence in this world?

Could it be...

The man and woman he met that night were neither like ordinary people nor like yaoguai. It was already dark, yet they dared to walk forward, and returned in the middle of the night. He had never been able to figure out the reason.

So it turned out to be like this?

"Qiao Er, dig less of those wild vegetables. That thing is bitter without oil and can't be eaten. Aren't there a few dandelions nearby?"

The middle-aged man couldn't listen for a moment.

Although in his view, this matter had nothing to do with him, people in this day and age can talk about yaoguai and ghost stories nearby with relish for a long time. And he had personally met immortal experts, talked to them, and even stayed with them for a night. How could it not make people dazed for a moment?

In a daze, he suddenly felt a jolt!

"Hiss!"

The dream he had almost forgotten gradually became clear in his mind again.

"Oh no!"

With a clatter! The middle-aged man dropped his hoe and ran home. After running a few steps, he ran back, picked up the hoe, and continued to run home. Even when the fellow villager called him strangely, he didn't hear it.

He returned home first, put down the basket and hoe, told his wife and children, and walked to Runze County.

He walked along the official road to the Xiao family shop. At the intersection where he left the official road, he really saw a poplar tree. He dug under the tree and really dug out a stone box.

He opened the stone box and looked—

Inside was a silver cup and a pinch of rabbit fur.

"It's actually true..."

The middle-aged man opened his eyes wide and couldn't help but ponder.

In this way, if those two experts aren't immortals, what are they?

The immortals clearly eliminated the yaoguai that night, but they came back and stayed with him, specifically to resolve his predicament.

He was at a loss for a moment.

He didn't bring money today, so he had to curl up outside the thatched cottage for a night, and walked for half a day, before he walked to the Runze County government office with a hungry stomach.

Before the government office, he was hesitant and explained the whole story to the county magistrate in a stumbling manner. Not to mention the county magistrate's bewildered look after hearing this, even he himself had no bottom in his heart.

A chance encounter on the road, a conversation, and just because of keeping his promise, an immortal specifically came back to find him and gave him money to pay off his debts.

Isn't this the same as the immortal stories in books?

But the county magistrate remembered clearly that among the families who were extorted by the yaoguai and then had their money and offerings returned, there was indeed one family. The yaoguai had returned all other money, but only one silver cup was missing. The yaoguai said it was given to an expert as a token, and the person didn't know why.

The county magistrate hurriedly sent someone to invite that family to identify it, and it was indeed this silver cup.

"Oh my..."

"Tsk tsk..."

Everyone present heard about this and couldn't help but click their tongues in wonder.

"Are there really immortals in the world?"

At first, when they heard that someone had dealt with the yaoguai causing trouble on the official road at night, they thought it was an expert who knew spells, or a skilled martial artist. Later, when they heard that the person persuaded the yaoguai to turn over a new leaf and ordered the yaoguai to return the property, everyone was moved by the character of this expert. Now that they heard about this, they suddenly realized that it might be called an immortal.

The middle-aged man finally got these ten taels of silver.

Holding the money and walking out of the county government office, he was still dazed, feeling as if he were in a dream.

His mind echoed with the elusive dream of that night, and then echoed with the sentence the county magistrate sighed just now: "This matter should be recorded in books and passed down to warn the world."

On the green mountains outside the city, there was a sense of spring.

Runze County is a big city. At this time of year, many scholars and elegant people come out to enjoy the spring, drinking and playing flower-drinking games on the hillside, or chanting poems, which is very romantic.

The top of the mountain, however, is narrow and difficult to climb. Only two Daoists and one martial artist reached here.

Oh, and a fox and a cat.

The three of them didn't treat themselves badly, buying some pastries in the shop, bringing some dried meat, and preparing a pot of rice wine. Luo Seng was sitting on the ground eating.

The Xiao Shimei was standing on the edge of the cliff, holding the string reel in her hand, looking up at the sky, without blinking.

In the blue and green sky curtain, with white clouds as solid as cotton, a paper kite was flying in the middle, looking very small already.

The fox and the cat were running and jumping wildly in two different directions, chasing two balls made of withered grass.

Lin Jue sat cross-legged on the ground, his mouth moving constantly.

Because the control of the spell became more and more proficient, and Lin Jue also improved in the attainments of sound transmission, he explored and combined the two. Now, chanting the spell would not make a sound.

This has a benefit—

It is not easy for people to hear the spell, and thus judge the change of the flying sword's direction through the change of the spell.

He saw a small ball fly high rapidly. The fox pounced forward, riding the wind, and was about to catch the small ball, but unexpectedly the small ball stopped falling suddenly and passed under its belly. On the other side, the small ball that kept going back and forth teased the colored cat into a crazy cat, shaking its head and body constantly, not knowing where to run for a moment.

At this time, the fox and the colored cat were almost at the edge of his vision, one on the left and one on the right. Lin Jue used one mind for two purposes, controlling two balls at the same time, and was actually quite handy.

Sometimes the ball could even hit the colored cat's head.

It couldn't hit the fox; the fox was too smart and agile.

And this was actually more difficult than flying swords.

Because flying swords are more about active attack, going forward without hesitation, no need to dodge, chasing others instead of being chased by others, and many times they don't even need to chase others, just aim at the direction and shoot, or spin and cut within a general range, no need for such fine and clever control.

Fewer opponents can be as agile as Fuyao.

Therefore, practicing like this has high benefits.

"Third Shixiong brother, let you fly it."

A hand holding the string was handed to him.

"Flown enough?"

"You play for a while! I'll play again!"

"Okay."

Lin Jue reached out and took the string reel.

At the same time, his mouth touched a few times quickly, without any sound, and the two balls flew over one after another, while he raised his other hand, palms open, bang bang two sounds, catching these two balls one after another.

The Xiao Shimei was stunned.

The fox and the colored cat not far away were also stunned, turned their heads to look, and then walked toward him unwillingly, as if they had lost this game.