Headless Immortal

Chapter 37 This Bow

Lu Xun is gone.

Before the old man and the child could understand what was going on, he left the money and turned to leave.

They are already suffering enough; why should they be frightened into worshiping this 'god' who is all they depend on for survival?

What's there to worship? He's not a real god.

What's the point of praying?

He simply left behind the few small pieces of silver and drifted away.

After leaving, he visited two more villages outside the city, but to no avail.

However, he discovered that the village was not familiar with the Five Gods.

It just goes to show that if worshipping gods were effective, ordinary people wouldn't even know how to do it.

In Meilan County, wealthy merchants and businessmen mostly knew about the Five Gods and even knew how to summon them. In the countryside and villages, however, they were more astonished as if they had seen a monster, and only a few unsubstantiated legends circulated.

Lu Xun felt that the Five Gods had gone astray. While the county town was indeed a good place to preach, the truly devout believers were not necessarily them. They should distribute the looted tax money to the poor people.

Someone as extreme as Wutong Shen, who frequently committed adultery with other men's wives and daughters, and whose minions also caused trouble, deserved to die.

……

I returned to the city under the moonlight.

First, Zhao Jia was sent back to his room. Lu Xun then returned to his room, lit a lamp, and began to look through two booklets.

The "Essentials of Military Preparedness" contains sixteen techniques, which are combat skills used in the military. The moves are ruthless and fierce, yet also upright and stable.

Lu Xun was overwhelmed by the words. He only knew a few characters and could write at most a dozen.

These characters are long and unbroken, looking like gibberish. Fortunately, there are illustrations to help you understand the postures for practicing the exercises just by looking at the pictures.

Let's look at "The Record of the True Qi of the Earth Official".

Okay.

It's all text, with only a few pages of illustrations.

The illustrations depict the pathways of meridians and acupoints, as well as the circulation of vital energy.

You can't understand it at all just by looking at these few pictures.

Learning a new language is a painful thing, but Lu Xun has no choice but to learn it. If he doesn't learn, he will be eliminated. If he doesn't practice martial arts, he will be killed by the Demon Suppression Captain of the Earth Division like the Five Gods.

Study it, at least until you can understand "The True Qi Record of the Earth Official", or at the very least, memorize it completely.

Wu Tong Lu Xun, who was leaning against the couch reading a book, fell asleep without realizing it.

I woke up in the early morning.

……

"Why are you smiling like a chrysanthemum?" The short man crossed his arms and looked at the big mouth who had entered the cell.

Looking around to make sure no one was watching, Big Mouth lowered his voice and said with delight, "This morning when I woke up, I suddenly felt a silver nugget next to my pillow, it was this big..."

I measured it with my hand, and it's definitely not small.

The strong man who walked over grinned foolishly.

"What good news has made you laugh so happily?"

Zhuangzi said mysteriously, "I found a piece of silver, a very large one."

"You have one too?" Big Mouth looked at Zhuangzi in surprise.

The old man, puffing on his pipe, squinted and said, "It seems we all have some. I weighed it; that silver coin is almost seventeen taels."

"bet?"

Zhuangzi took out the dice cup first.

"Go away, who's going to bet on this with you?" The little guy rolled his eyes.

One tael of silver can buy seven hundred catties of rice, enough for a family to eat for half a year. Seventeen taels of silver is a huge sum of money. It's okay to gamble a few copper coins for entertainment, but who would put such a huge sum of money on the gambling table?

"No need to guess."

Zhao Jia, who was on duty, interrupted their whispered conversation.

"Boss, you don't have one too, do you?"

Zhao Jia nodded.

"This……"

"The three legs are left to you."

"Cat Master?!" The little guy jumped up, his eyes wide, and asked, "Isn't he coming with us?"

This was something everyone tacitly agreed upon, so no one brought it up first.

The black cat left them silver, clearly indicating that he didn't intend to go to the county town with them to take up their posts.

Zhao Jia shook his head slightly.

“Boss, you should talk to him. He’ll listen to you.” Seeing that Zhao Jia was unmoved, the little guy quickly grabbed Big Mouth’s arm: “Big Mouth, go and talk to Cat Master. You know him.”

Big Mouth also did not reply.

The joy of receiving the silver was overshadowed by the sadness of parting.

"Come to my house for drinks tonight."

Zhao Jia left in a hurry after saying a few words; he had to hand over his official duties.

……

Had lunch.

Black Cat and Xiaoyue are studying literature in the courtyard.

Wang Ruo, who came from a prominent family, was considered a good teacher.

Wang Ruo, who was initially somewhat resistant to this, now readily agrees.

Having something to do is better than spending all day at home doing needlework.

With diligent students, they are naturally enthusiastic.

Even though this student is a monster.

Wang Ruo held a ruler in one hand and a book in the other: "Today we will learn the Thousand Character Classic." The black cat Lu Xun pressed down the pages with its paw, and used its other paw to trace the characters written in the book on the sand tray.

He originally wanted to keep the appearance of the Five Gods, but considering that it would frighten the two of them, he decided to use the most harmless black cat form, since he was learning it all by himself anyway.

Moreover, since she is a female relative of a brother or friend, one should know how to maintain proper boundaries. No matter how familiar one is with her, one should avoid any impropriety. It is even more inappropriate to use the Five Gods, who have left behind bad legends, to teach her to read.

"The sky and the earth are dark and yellow, the universe is primitive..."

Read, read silently;

Write, sketch.

Soon after, a loud scraping sound could be heard as the sand table's horizontal railing was scraped by.

A four-foot-tall black cat was writing furiously on a plate.

……

dusk.

All the brothers gathered in the courtyard.

As dusk fell, Lao Cheng took a fingerful of brass-colored tobacco from his cloth bag, took a deep drag, and the golden-red sparks flickered and spread.

call.

The thick white smoke faded away.

Zhuangzi was holding several wine jars by himself.

Big Mouth was mysteriously holding a bundle.

"Where's Cat Master?"

The little guy who carried the wine jars in immediately started looking for them.

Zhao Jia said with a smile, "Don't be scared."

"How could that be, boss?"

Big Mouth's pupils narrowed slightly, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes. Judging from what Zhao Tou'er meant...

The door to the east wing was gently pushed open.

A pair of demonic eyes reflected golden light in the firelight.

clack.

The beast's claws and large feet left the blue bricks and stepped over the threshold, its entire body leaping out.

Her silver-gray hair swayed gently in the evening breeze.

Thunder God's mouth, with blue fangs, flesh inside and bone growing outward, as if wearing a red bronze mask, ferocious and solemn, quite terrifying, yet with a faint divine quality.

"Wutongshen!"

Zhuangzi suddenly stood up, about to look for a weapon.

"It's a cat." Zhuangzi was taken aback, realizing it was Da Zui's voice.

"Yes!"

Despite having suspected it beforehand, Big Mouth was the first to recognize the black cat who had transformed into a raging tiger to clear away danger for them.

However, when they actually saw the black cat transform into the Five Gods, everyone was still greatly shocked.

It's so unbelievable, it's simply unbelievable.

Wu Tonglu took his seat.

Zhao Jia laughed loudly, "Let's drink!"

"You won't come home until you're drunk."

"You won't come home until you're drunk!"

Ding!
The five men and one oddball raised their glasses together and drank heartily.

Once they got into the swing of drinking, the fear of facing the Five Gods had long since vanished.

After all, the current Wutong God is no longer the original Wutong God, but the black cat they are familiar with transformed into Wutong the Cat, so they don't have so many scruples.

They drank until late into the night, and the group was so unsteady from playing drinking games that they could barely stand. So they simply sat down and continued drinking.

Lu Xun grabbed five handfuls of soil from the ground and plucked five hairs from the ground, placing them into the soil.

To cast a spell to select generals.

Five handfuls of soil transformed into five lifelike clay sculptures in the flowing water.

Lu Xun distributed the five clay sculptures to the five people.

"I don't know when we'll meet again after this parting. Take care, Brother Cat."

"This bundle contains local specialties, such as five kinds of dried fruit, to be eaten on the road."

"Take care of yourself."

"Take care, Third Master."

"Take care of yourself!"

Five people and one strange person.

They rose and bowed to each other.

With this bow, a familiar feeling of dizziness washed over me.

Lu Xun's eyes widened, and distorted light and shadow appeared around him.

The fallen plum blossoms turned to ashes, and the moon's halo rippled with light.

Wu Tonglu began to run.

The bundle in his hand was quickly covered in brownish-black, as if a raging fire had broken out inside, or as if it had succumbed to the violent changes and turned to ashes. Not only the bundle, but also his purple-blue armor, the booklet at his waist, and the remaining piece of silver all began to turn mottled and black.

Lu Xun released the bundle containing the five thousand coins, which was quickly swept away and turned into ashes. The changes in his armor and the booklet gradually stabilized.

A glimmer of light appeared amidst the black and red ashes.

Running wildly.

Leap over the dancing light!

(End of this chapter)