Inside the underground tomb,
several Daoists were gathered in front of that stone coffin. They had all rolled up their sleeves, revealing arms of various colors, with excited and fanatic expressions.
"Hey, give Daoist Chen three sixes!"
Chen Daoist, whose waist was tied with a yellow cloth bag, rolled up the sleeves of his Daoist robes with his left hand. With his right hand clutching three dice, he tossed them directly into the stone coffin.
The stone coffin had its lid opened at this time, revealing the space inside the coffin.
But instead of containing a corpse, these Daoists were using the coffin as a dice shaker for gambling.
The three dice in Chen Daoist's hand fell into the coffin, bouncing off the coffin boards before settling in different spots.
The facing up sides showed five, four, and one - not the three sixes Chen Daoist was hoping for.
"Hey, Old Chen, your luck isn't good!"
The Daoists beside laughed as they used bamboo scoops to gather the dice. Chen Daoist's face was gloomy as he threw out some copper coins.
"These oversized sleeves are affecting my skills. Let me take this robe off before going again!"
Chen Daoist took off his Daoist robe and bundled it up casually, including the tied yellow cloth bag and the sheathed dagger with a yellow metal ring on the end of the hilt.
"Hey, Old Chen!"
Seeing that Chen Daoist had tossed aside the Earth Dagger and Earth Pouch, Lin Liuzi also laughed, "Teacher gave you the Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger, yet you just threw them on the ground. Aren't you afraid Teacher will blame you later?"
"If this Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger could be exchanged for money, I would have pawned them at the gambling table long ago."
Bare-chested, Chen Daoist revealed a hairy and tanned chest.
Snatching the dice from other Daoists impatiently, he said, "Stop talking about that dead ghost. It's just a laborer that Teacher borrowed the Wutong Great God's power to refine. Let's keep gambling, keep gambling!"
After chatting for a bit, these Daoists turned their attention back to the stone coffin in front to continue gambling.
Soon, they were shouting and yelling with flushed faces, clearly fully immersed in it.
But no one noticed that the discarded Earth Dagger and Earth Pouch were hooked away by invisible claws, disappearing without a trace in a blink.
"Fools!"
Holding the Earth Dagger and Earth Pouch in his claws, Du ke looked at the Daoists yelling around the stone coffin, immersed in gambling, with contempt in his eyes.
"I was thinking of ways to steal these, but who would've thought you'd be so stupid as to toss them out yourselves."
At last, Du ke dispelled his and Dog's disguises.
The reason for being so reckless was that Du ke saw these Daoists had little abilities.
Not only were they steeped in wine, sex and money, their spiritual rhythms were murky and muddy, with feeble and weak vitality.
They must be taking some ferocious beast elixirs to create this facade of external strength and internal weakness.
Although Du ke had only studied the most basic alchemy texts, they also contained medical theories. With his experience, he could naturally see that if these people kept this up, they'd only have a few years left.
Facing such scumbags, Du ke could easily fight them three to seven.
If Du ke put in three parts of effort, they'd die in seven seconds.
Having revealed his true form, Du ke looked at the Daoists still immersed in dice throwing and roared.
Roar!
The roar was like spring thunder booming across the sky, making these people shiver.
Shivering, Chen Daoist turned around to see the cat sitting on the dog's back. His eyes were filled with puzzlement and confusion.
"When did this cat and dog get in?"
"I don't know. The tunnel entrance above has a minor Confusion Formation set up by Teacher borrowing the Wutong Great God's power. No one but us can see through it."
"Forget how the cat and dog got in. Look at their skin and figure - just one look and you know they're fat and strong. Throw them in a pot for a boil, that'll be a tasty meat stew!"
"You're right, Old Chen, quickly summon the Earth Ghost to catch these cat and dog, so us brothers can fill our bellies!"
"Alright, alright."
Bare-chested, Chen Daoist casually agreed before going to retrieve the Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger.
But after rummaging through his clothes for a while without finding the Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger, cold sweat instantly poured down Chen Daoist's back.
"It's... gone!"
"What's gone?"
"Old Chen, where's the Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger?"
"Are you looking for these two items?"
Lifting his paws holding the Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger, Du ke looked at them scornfully, "I was thinking of ways to steal them from you, but who knew you'd find these things cumbersome and toss them out yourself."
With an unstoppable derisive smile, Du ke said mockingly, "You're truly courting death!"
"A cat... a talking cat!"
One Daoist fearfully pointed at Du ke. The other Daoists also panicked.
"This isn't a cat, it's... it's... it's a monster!"
"When did this monster sneak in here?"
"The Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger were taken by this monster too, this is bad!"
...
As the Daoists babbled incoherently, Chen Daoist muttered, "A mere cat monster dares to cause trouble on our Wutong Temple's territory?!"
"Do you know whose territory Wutong Temple is, who Wu Tong Daoist is, do you know of the Wutong Great God's prestige?"
"Hmph, Compare roots?"
Du ke glared, "Do you know who I am?!"
As the tomb shuddered from his roar, Du ke's eyes were bloodshot as he snarled ferociously, "I am Mao City's Spirit Cat, Chi Yu Xiaofei Lian!"
"Need I ask where you get the children for your so-called Replenishing Dan?"
Du ke coldly sneered as all the Daoists turned pale.
In his heart, Chen Daoist was cursing - the temple master said Mao City only had two spirit cats, one guarding the city, one patrolling outside. How did a third one appear?
But thinking about it, Chen Daoist's back still chilled.
A talking cat, no matter its origin, unavoidably brought to mind those legendary monsters.
"Don't panic, there's so many of us brothers. Even if it's a monster, we can crush it by rushing together!"
Plucking up his courage, Chen Daoist yelled and was about to act when Du ke disdainfully laughed coldly, "A bunch of idiots drained dry by wine, sex and money want to oppose me?"
"You might as well think about what position you want to beg for mercy later!"
"Big talk!"
Chen Daoist's eyes flashed fiercely. But before he could say more, Du ke had already stored the Earth Pouch and Earth Dagger into his dark cauldron space. Then Du ke pounced towards Chen Daoist.
The Daoists only felt a blur before them then Chen Daoist's wretched screams exploded out.
"Ah!"
"My hands, my hands!"
Hearing Chen Daoist's screams, they looked over to see his hands severed at the shoulders. Blood gushed out uncontrollably as the severed arms were clenched in Du ke's paws.
The white cat who had directly ripped off this Daoist's hands had no emotion in his eyes. A terrifying, majestic aura rose from his body.
As the majestic aura rose, Du ke roared, sending it spreading out with his roar.
Despite having a cat's body, Du ke's angry roar emitted the might of a tiger's roar.
At the tiger's roar, Lin Liuzi, who had given the children the disorienting incense earlier, rolled his eyes back and flopped stiffly to the ground. His body twitched chaotically, shit and piss gushing from his crotch. After falling down, he lost all signs of life.
Clearly, he had been scared to death by Du ke's wrathful roar.
"Lin Liuzi was frightened to death..." When a Daoist saw Lin Liuzi in this state, he was also scared and collapsed on the ground, his face distorted in extreme horror as he pointed at Du ke and screamed: "Demon, demon, demon..."
"Demon!"
"Demon, I want to find my mother, I want to find my mother!"
"Where's my mother, have you seen my mother?"
This Daoist had clearly been frightened insane.
Seeing these two, one frightened to death and the other frightened to madness, the other Daoists also completely lost their morale.
Not only did they scramble to flee towards the cave entrance, they pushed and shoved at each other, each wanting to be the first to escape and the first to leave this place.
Seeing this, Du ke suddenly felt a sense of utter disappointment.
What a pathetic bunch these people were, really...truly...
"Heh, heh heh..."
With a cold laugh, Du ke took out the Earth Bag and Earth Blade from his dark cauldron space. Casually opening the Earth Bag, Du ke released the Earth Ghost inside.
A murky, earth-yellow mist emerged from the bag and quickly took the form of a yellow-skinned evil ghost.
Now that Du ke was closer, he noticed that this Earth Ghost's body had clay clumps stuck all over, which matched what the Daoists had idly chatted about earlier. Clearly, this ghost had been buried alive when he was still living.
After emerging from the Earth Bag, the confused Earth Ghost looked around.
Not only were the Daoists who usually bossed him around with the Earth Blade and Earth Bag now dead or insane, the rest were desperately sprinting away.
"They're yours now," said Du ke nonchalantly as he toyed with the Earth Blade. "Do to them what you did to that lamb herder that night."
"But leave a few alive. I have some questions."
As soon as the cat said this, the 13 Hells shuddered.
Boss Cat's move was truly vicious!
Hearing Du ke say this, the Earth Ghost's eyes lit up as he looked towards the Daoists, then immediately charged at them, grabbing one in each hand and slamming them into the ground.
After effortlessly paralyzing all the Daoists by slamming them, the impatient Earth Ghost immediately pounced on them.
He was just like an old sailor who had drifted at sea for years without seeing any females or female animals.
Seeing the Earth Ghost pounce at him, Chen Daoist's face instantly turned pale with fright.
Having followed the abbot of Wutong Temple for a long time, he knew what kind of character this Earth Ghost had been when alive.
This Earth Ghost...this Earth Ghost...when he was alive, this Earth Ghost was the fucking brothel king!
Seeing the Earth Ghost pounce, Du ke called to 13 Hells and went into one of the side tomb chambers. After entering, Du ke's ears twitched as horrifying, miserable screams erupted outside.
"Ah!!!"
"Stop, stop!"
"Stay away from me, stay away!"
"Ah, I'm the abbot's disciple, you can't do this to me, ah!!"
"It's torn off, my...ah!!!"
"Kill me, kill me, don't torture me like this!"
"Don't, don't put it in my mouth...mmmph...urghh...ah!!!"
..........
As the miserable screams continued, 13 Hells curiously tried to peek out to take a look. Du ke pulled him back and covered his ears and eyes.
"Don't look, you'll have nightmares tonight if you see!"