Chapter 36
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Their eyes—human and toad—met in a strange confrontation.
“Toad?”
“Daoist?”
Both the person and the toad simultaneously asked each other a question. The next moment, the Toad Daoist dropped to his hands and feet and leaped away with a swish, his webbed feet slapping loudly on the ground as he sprinted off.
Sun Yingxian propped himself up, brushed off the dirt, and stared at the short-legged toad running away, still trying to process what had just happened.
“Damn… This can toad runs on two legs and can talk.”
Wait a minute!
His eyes widened suddenly. Adjusting his robe, Sun Yingxian pulled out a copper mirror from his pouch, sprinted after the toad, and shouted: “Don’t run! Demon—”
He had finally encountered a real demon since the start of his journey.
“Edict, Divine Movement!”
In an instant, two talismans appeared in his hand. As they struck his legs, his cloth shoes hit the ground, and smoke and dust exploded outward. He shot forward like a loose arrow, trailing a long cloud of dust behind him.
Ahead, the Toad Daoist, who had gained some distance, looked back and saw the man’s arms flailing wildly, charging toward him with a cloud of dust. His original plan to flee into the forest was immediately abandoned. He leaped over a clump of grass and changed direction.
“Does he really think this old man is a clueless toad?”
Sensing the figure chasing him growing closer, the Toad Daoist dashed into the village, suddenly dropped to the ground, and began crawling forward quickly on all fours.
Ahead, the noise of people was lively. Many villagers were gathered in the spacious square, guarding carts, or sending someone to the village elder to seal documents. In addition to retrieving the stolen items, they could also receive extra distributed funds.
Among the excited and noisy crowd, a few children playing on the outskirts noticed a toad slowly climbing in from the west village entrance and curiously ran over.
“It looks like it’s from Brother Liangsheng’s house.”
“…Look, it has a big gourd on its back. Hehe, I wonder if it has something delicious inside.”
Two slightly older children crouched down in front of the slowly moving toad, tilting their heads to see where it was heading. Meanwhile, Sun Yingxian’s figure was already rushing over from a few steps away at the village entrance.
“Such a bold demon, daring to target innocent villagers… Hey, hey… stop…”
The Toad Daoist’s sudden deceleration and slow crawling caught the Daoist off guard, leaving him with no time to slow down. Seeing that he was about to crash into the two children, he quickly withdrew his Divine Movement technique. His feet skidded to a halt, leaving a thick layer of mud on his shoes, and he nearly collided with the children before coming to a stop, tearing a large hole in his cloth shoes.
The two children, crouching on the ground, looked at the figure which was less than half a hand’s width away, and were startled into crying with a loud “Wah!”
The surrounding villagers turned to look, and the scene erupted in chaos.
“Where did this wild Daoist come from!” Some women shouted, “He’s bullying my child—”
A group of people rushed over. Some picked up the children, while others surrounded Sun Yingxian, inspecting him up and down.
Lu Pan, with his injured arm in a sling, stepped forward and blocked the Daoist who was trying to push his way out: “You are a grown man and a Daoist, how could you bully children?”
“I didn’t bully anyone!!”
Still fuming from being wronged by the constables earlier, Sun Yingxian was furious at being accused of bullying children again. Sun Yingxian shouted, pointing at himself: “Also, I’m a seventeen-year-old Daoist, and I’m here to catch demons!”
“Seventeen?” A woman from the village looked him up and down with a smirk, noting his sharp mouth and the mustache on his upper lip, and laughed: “Well, you certainly look a bit hasty for your age.”
Lu Pan waved his hand to silence her, frowning deeply.
“Catch demons? Can you describe what this demon looks like? Where is it?”
As Sun Yingxian was jostled by the crowd, his eyes searched everywhere. He pointed at a black shadow crawling away from under people’s feet and urgently called out, “Isn’t that it?!”
The villagers stepped back to get a better view of the black shadow on the ground. The Toad Daoist blinked his eyelids and croaked, continuing to crawl.
The crowd started laughing, and the frightened children pointed at the Daoist.
“It’s him who bullied us!”
Lu Pan pointed at the toad on the ground: “You little Daoist, you’re lying. That toad has been in the village for a long time. No one’s chickens or ducks are missing, and no one’s had any misfortune. How can it be a demon? Bullying children is just bullying children!”
Afterward, he turned to a few strong men in the village and shouted: “Tie him up and take him to the authorities!”
“Yes, who knows, he might be trying to steal something in the village!”
“Bind him first and talk later!”
In an instant, the crowd surged forward. Sun Yingxian was pushed to the center and could no longer see the toad demon. He pushed away the hands reaching for him, his face turning red with anxiety.
“You… you… If it weren’t for my master’s last wish forbidding me from hurting ordinary people, I’d really want to teach you all a lesson!”
“Still trying to act tough!”
Among the crowd, including Lu Pan, eight strong men lined up and shouted angrily in unison. “Ha!” They pressed their arms down, clenched their fists, and their bulging chest muscles quivered under their open shirts, shaking intimidatingly at the man.
“Daring to cause trouble in our Qixia Mountain, the eight of us from the Lu Family Village are not afraid of you!”
Sun Yingxian watched the eight men’s chests heaving, and his own body froze in place. He shook his head, biting his lip and blushing with anger.
“Do you really think I’m afraid…”
Before the Daoist could finish speaking, a sudden whoosh came from behind. Instinctively, Sun Yingxian turned around just as a stick struck his forehead with a loud thud.
In front of him stood a village woman with broad shoulders and a round waist.
“Auntie… you… have quite the strength.”
Sun Yingxian swayed and then fell to the ground with a thud. The woman put down the rolling pin and spat toward Lu Pan and the other eight: “Is it really necessary to go through so much trouble for a single blow?”
Village women who worked in the fields and gathered firewood were naturally strong. The crowd checked the Daoist’s breath, relieved to find he was unharmed. They tied him up and then went back to distributing the goods
It was as if nothing had happened.
“Let’s go, lock him up first, and we’ll sort out the rest later.”
“Hey, where’s that toad?”
“… It probably went back to Liangsheng’s place. That toad seems to be quite spiritual, it even recognizes the door.”
Amid the chatter, as they returned to the carts, the Toad Daoist did indeed make his way back to the small fenced courtyard. Seeing that Li Jinhua and her daughter were not outside, he quickly stood up and hurried inside.
“I’m dying of thirst… Bring Master some water.”
Lu Liangsheng was chatting with Honglian when he heard this. He quickly reached over and brought the bowl of water from the small table next to him.
“Master, where did you go?”
The Toad Daoist jumped onto the bed, crossed his legs, and set the gourd from his back aside. He eagerly drank several gulps from the bowl of water, then lay back comfortably, exposing his white belly, and began to explain why he had gone out.
“I went to find medicine for you. It nearly exhausted this old man.”
Nie Honglian let out a soft laugh, floated to the front of the bed, and gently began to knead the Toad Daoist’s small limbs.
The young man leaning against the head of the bed sat up straight and looked around: “Master, where’s your medicine?”
“Hmph…” The Toad Daoist opened one of his toad eyes, swatted away the girl ghost’s fingers, and walked over to the gourd with his webbed hands behind its back.
“Take a good look. Everything is in here. I mentioned before that this item is Master’s magic treasure. It can swallow anything in the world, but it also has another function. It can refine what’s put inside it into something valuable.”
The Toad Daoist pulled out the stopper, shook it, and a medicinal herb fell out. Even items larger than the mouth of the gourd could fit in and out.
“How about that? Impressive, right?” The Toad Daoist proudly patted the gourd and then stuffed the herbs back inside. “As long as you recite the incantation, this magic gourd can refine the contents into elixirs.”
He then added: “Don’t disturb me just yet.”
Dragging the gourd, he jumped off the bed and went under the bed to avoid being interrupted.
The room fell silent again. The earlier cheerful atmosphere with Nie Honglian was now broken. Lu Liangsheng was about to speak up again when Lu Laoshi returned, followed by Lu Pan.
“Liangsheng, we need to tell you something.”
The voice approached from afar. Nie Honglian, feeling out of place, turned and disappeared into the painting. Moments later, Lu Laoshi and Lu Pan entered the room.
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