On the road we had agreed on, Lu Ge and I met up without much incident. Even when he saw me riding over on the toad from far away, his expression remained solemn. When he saw me, he put on a grief-stricken face. "Brother, you have to take care of yourself. I know you were very fond of Mochen, but the dead cannot return to life. Even we immortals can hardly avoid life-and-death separations."
"Mm. I will." I sighed. Just then, the poisonous toad suddenly opened its enormous mouth and whipped its tongue toward Lu Ge. It curled him back toward its mouth as swiftly as if it had stuck to a fly. Lu Ge cried out in terror, and I hurriedly smacked the toad on the head. "Stop! From now on, only eat whoever I tell you to eat. Don't accidentally eat one of our own."
The toad froze for a moment, then spat Lu Ge out with great reluctance. He ended up covered in highly toxic slime. I extended a hand and blasted him with a water spell, scrubbing him clean before inviting him onto the toad's head.
Lu Ge's face was still sickly and yellowish as he said, "Damn it, I've had enough of this beast! It ate Mochen and then tried to eat me!"
I gave a bitter laugh. "We should have made soup out of it. But it's incredibly useful to us now. I had to move heaven and earth to make it a worshiped attendant of Heaven's Unity. I'm afraid we'll have to make offerings to it just like we did to Grandpa in the future. What irony... Still, having it around can solve a lot of problems. At the very least, if other sects want to move against us, they'll probably have to