Taoist, Pig and Dog

"The celestial dog is about to devour the moon, if there's any delay, be careful with your skin!"

The Taoist priest scolded the yellow-skinned monster without hesitation, holding a baby in his swaddling clothes. The yellow-skinned monster rolled its eyes and snorted in response.

Clearly, it was disdainful of the Taoist priest.

Seeing the contemptuous expression of the monster, the Taoist priest took out a peculiar short knife from his pocket. The handle of the knife had a small earth-yellow ring hanging from it.

"Do you dare to challenge me, Daoist?"

As soon as the Taoist priest revealed the knife with the ring, the complexion of the yellow-skinned monster changed drastically. Before he could react, the Taoist priest swung the knife with the ring.

The moment the copper-yellow ring at the end of the knife clinked, the solid body of the yellow-skinned monster instantly disintegrated into smoke.

The disintegrated part of the monster's body emitted a piercing roar, indicating its desire to resist. However, the Taoist priest's knife seemed to impose many restrictions on it, making it cautious and unable to make any reckless moves.

The Taoist priest shook the knife with the ring for a while and said to the suffering yellow-skinned monster, "Don't you dare show disrespect to me! Although you were created by the master, now this Earth Knife is in my hands, and you must obey my command!"

"Do you understand?"

The Taoist priest, who was no longer wielding the knife with the ring, snorted coldly, and the yellow-skinned monster reassembled its ghostly form.

But compared to before, it appeared much more illusory.

In its eyes, there was a mixture of fear and resentment.

"Alright, let's go back for now."

The Taoist priest put away the knife with the ring and took out a yellow pouch from his waist. As he opened the mouth of the pouch, he said, "Your wooden ghost brother led away the spirit cat of Mao City. Now Mao City is defenseless, so let's rest for a day and continue to collect the Human Returning Pellets tomorrow night."

The yellow-skinned monster obediently transformed into a turbid yellow smoke and entered the pouch, which the Taoist priest tied securely around his waist.

After putting away the yellow-skinned monster, the Taoist priest frowned as he picked up the swaddled baby.

"Having only one Human Returning Pellet, how can I fulfill my duty?"

"The celestial dog is about to devour the moon, and the master needs eighty-eight Human Returning Pellets to refine the Blood Soul Pill. But now, we only have fifty, and it's quite troublesome!"

While the Taoist priest returned with the swaddled baby, Du Ke, who had eyes raging with fire, sensed a trace of spirituality from the Taoist priest.

This beast dared to call a newborn baby a Human Returning Pellet.

How can a child be a pill?

Does this creature still have any humanity?

Thinking this way, Du Ke turned around and went to find the dog.

The dog, who had eaten and drunk his fill, was holding a water pill with his paws, playfully licking it. It seemed that he was treating drinking water as a game.

I'll lick it once.

Hey, I'll lick it again!

Ha, I'll feint with a spear!

The dog, engrossed in playing with the water pill, felt a weight behind him after a while, indicating that the white cat had returned.

The dog turned his head to look at the frowning cat and couldn't help but ask with a howl.

"Hmm, you're wondering why I'm so angry?"

Du Ke raised his head and looked at the dog.

"Because he saw something that was even worse than a beast!"

As he spoke, Du Ke adjusted Dog's tiger-head hat.

"Awwoo!"

Dog raised its paw and made a feint, showing its teeth and grinning. Cat was momentarily startled but quickly burst into laughter.

"You're right, if someone annoys us, we'll just take care of them."

"If we don't like that animal, we'll wipe out that animal along with everyone and everything behind it!"

As Du Ke said this, a look of fierceness flashed in his eyes.

He was no longer the Cat who could only take advantage of chaos and flatter those stronger than him.

He now held considerable power in his hands!

"But before that, we need to make a test."

Du Ke rubbed his chin and looked at Dog with a troubled expression.

"I wonder if I can use my innate abilities to envelop you as well."

"Forget it, let's give it a try!"

.............

"The little girl is charming, the big girl is pretty~"

A Taoist priest with a pocket tied around his waist carried a baby in his hand and hummed vulgar songs as he walked along a forest path.

It was the middle of the night, and the forest was unusually dark.

But the Taoist priest seemed to have walked this path thousands of times. The tree roots sticking out of the ground, the protruding rocks, and the sunken pits couldn't trip him up.

While swinging the baby in his hand, he sang even more wantonly.

"The beautiful young lady cries at thirty, it troubles my heart. Oh, the widow at forty wearing mourning clothes, she wears mourning clothes, and then I laugh~"

The squinting Taoist priest turned his footsteps and directly entered a bush.

He didn't care about the baby in the swaddling clothes crying out loud from being scratched by the sharp branches. He forcibly squeezed himself in.

With just one squeeze, the Taoist priest vanished without a trace.

After the Taoist priest disappeared, a cat and a dog also stopped in front of the bush. But their bodies seemed like illusions, hazy and indistinct. When they stopped, they quickly disappeared without a trace.

"I didn't expect this saddle given by Old Li to have such a wonderful use. It allows me and Dog's aura to connect with each other, concealing our figures along with his."

Du Ke, lying on the saddle, stroked the saddle handle while marveling inwardly.

Originally, he planned to try enveloping Dog using his own abilities and let him disappear as well.

But unexpectedly, this saddle connected his and Dog's aura, turning Du Ke's idea into reality.

Now, Thirteen had also disappeared along with Du Ke, invisible to ordinary people.

"I wonder what the old man has prepared for me. I wonder if it's also remarkable."

Du Ke muttered to himself, and Dog barked, prompting Du Ke to say, "I know, don't worry, we won't lose track of him. Let me take a look first!"

The Taoist priest's spiritual resonance was still present in Du Ke's perception. However, it was crucial to figure out the reason behind the sudden disappearance of the Taoist priest.

Du Ke focused his gaze on the bush, and as golden light surged in his eyes, the bush in his line of sight also swayed.

As Du ke became more focused, the shrubbery directly turned ethereal, replaced by a deep and mysterious thief hole that an adult could stoop into.

"It seems like they used an illusion!"

While muttering to himself, Du ke also patted the dog's head.

"Let's go in and take a look!"

The dog squeezed into the shrubbery, and after Du ke corrected the dog's orientation, the dog also stepped into the thief hole, only to find empty space and dove into the hole.

Fortunately, when the dog fell into the void, Du ke grabbed the saddle, allowing the dog to be lifted up a bit, preventing it from falling down and turning into a rolling gourd with a white cat.

After the cat and dog entered the thief hole, they both let out a snort.

The smell inside the thief hole was too stifling. Although there was air flowing outward, Du ke could still smell an extremely putrid odor.

"What kind of place is this underground? Why is it so stinky?"

Du ke covered his and the dog's noses, and the dog blinked its eyes, exploring downward along the thief hole.

After about the time it takes to brew a pot of tea, Du ke and the dog reached the end of the thief hole.

At the same time, a shouting voice entered Du ke and the dog's ears.

"Oh, the Five Chiefs, oh, six-six-six!"

"Seven clever ones, eight horses!"

"Hey, you lost, drink up!"

Following the shouting, Du ke and the dog also saw five Taoist priests gathered around a stone coffin, shouting and drinking while playing a drinking game.

They used the stone coffin as a table, with food and cooked meat placed on it. Two people were clearly intoxicated, stepping on the stone coffin and playing the game with bloodshot eyes.

However, this guy drank too much, his judgment was no longer accurate, and coupled with his bad luck, he lost another round and lifted the wine bowl, taking a big sip.

After downing a bowl of wine, the Taoist priest swayed and nearly fell to the ground. The others mocked him, saying, "Can you handle it?"

"Yeah, can you still drink?"

"If you can't, don't force it!"

"Who said I can't?"

The drunken Taoist priest shook his sleeve and said, "Don't just talk nonsense. Even if it's ten barrels of wine, I can handle it!"

"Alright, stop bragging."

The Taoist priest who had gone to fetch the baby walked out of another tomb room and came to the person who was getting drunk.

"If you can't handle it, just lie down and make room for me!"

"Who said I can't?"

Just as the intoxicated Taoist priest spoke, a loud crying suddenly came from one of the tomb rooms.

"Waa~~waa~~waa!"

Seeing this crying, several Taoist priests showed an impatient expression, and one of them even picked up a bone and threw it at the person opposite.

"Lin Liuzi, what are you doing?"

"That's right! When the Bewildering Incense is lit, even adults will be unconscious for three days. How long has it been since you gave this person a Human Returning Pellet? Just a day and a half, and he woke up."

"Are you hiding it for yourself, planning to give it to someone's wife after you return?"

Facing the accusations from his companions, Lin Liuzi also widened his eyes and mumbled unclearly, "Stop talking nonsense! How could I possibly covet the Bewildering Incense? It must be the one making the incense who cut corners."

"Stop making noise! Go light another incense stick to calm these people down. I waited in the forest for that rural ghost for nearly half the night and nearly froze to death. I need to warm up with a drink!"

"This is just my luck!"

Lin Liuzi slammed the bowl on the table and reluctantly left the stone coffin, heading to another burial chamber.

Du Ke saw this and patted Thirteen, signaling him to follow.

"Stop making a fuss, why are you all gaping?"

As soon as Lin Liuzi entered the burial chamber, he shouted loudly, causing the seven or eight infants inside to cry even louder.

Having come here, unable to find food and lacking warm beds, without a mother's care, they had reached their limit.

"Cry all you want. In two more days, you won't be able to cry anymore. You will all be refined into the Human Returning Pellet in the furnace."

Lin Liuzi muttered to himself and lit an incense stick, poking it into the crevice of the burial chamber wall.

After lighting the incense stick, Lin Liuzi quickly covered his nose and walked out, leaving behind a group of exhausted children crying their hearts out.

After Lin Liuzi left, Du Ke also urged Thirteen to take a look inside.

With just one glance, the white cat trembled all over.

At this moment, all seven or eight infants were placed inside the icy stone coffins, squeezed tightly together, and the stench of feces filled the air.

Especially this incense stick, once lit, made those children, who had cried until their voices were hoarse, lose the light in their eyes and quickly fall into a deep sleep.

"Damn it!"

Du Ke took out a baseball-sized Sun Essence Pellet from the Black Cauldron Space, his eyes spewing fire as he looked at the group of Taoist priests.

These were not Taoist priests, they were worse than pigs and dogs.

"Hey, when will the temple people come to collect these people and take the Human Returning Pellet?"

A sly-looking Taoist priest spoke in a low voice, and another Taoist priest beside him added, "They will arrive tomorrow morning. Once tomorrow morning comes, these children will be sent to the temple."

"Hurry up and send them away. I can never sleep soundly with these people and the Human Returning Pellet around!"

"It's not that you can't sleep soundly, it's just that your gluttonous bug inside your belly is making you restless!"