Dao Cheng Gui Xian

Chapter 179 Heart and Liver Transplant, Each with Their Own Hidden agendas
I just finished talking about Zhu Junzi's birthday celebration.
The Donkey Taoist suddenly slapped his forehead and stood up from the table.

"Oh dear, I forgot to feed the donkey."

He then bowed apologetically to Li Wushou and walked towards the door.

Halfway there, as if remembering something, he asked Li Wushou with a hint of curiosity:
"Um, Fellow Daoist Li, would you like to feed him?"

Li Wushou subconsciously shook his head. "Feed it yourself. Do you need my help to feed a donkey?"
Then it dawned on him that the Taoist priest wasn't asking if his paper donkey needed to be fed, was it?
The Taoist priest didn't mind Li Wushou's refusal and turned to feed the donkey.

The camera follows the hiker as he walks out of the village shop; the hiker is very familiar with the village shop.

After leaving the house, I walked straight to the right.

A large bundle of reeds was neatly stacked against the wall. Judging from their crisp and tender appearance, they must have been cut just a few days ago.

It seems that this was prepared in advance by the village store, just to make it convenient for the hikers to resupply.

This suggests that the Donkey Taoist held a very high position in Huangmao Village.

Huang Maocun always put him first, and he also did his best to protect Huang Maocun.
Let's all be kind to each other and create harmony together.
However, Li Wushou thought otherwise.

Putting aside the strange behavior of Village Chief Huang and Sister-in-law Huang, the donkey-walking man himself exudes an eerie aura.

Ever since he witnessed the so-called Dharma Realm of the Donkey Taoist, he had had a hunch.

That is, this Dharma Realm is not for protecting against evil spirits, but for preventing the people of Huangmao Village from escaping; it is more like the gate of a prison.

In other words, Huangmao Village is the territory that the donkey trailmen have enclosed.

The so-called evil spirits eating people is his means of controlling and enslaving Huang Maocun.

Moreover, it's hard to say whether this evil spirit is a real evil spirit or just the Donkey Taoist himself.

At least along Li Wushou's journey, the shadowy figure hadn't given any warnings, but he had seen a man-eating donkey.

Therefore, assuming that the Donkey Taoist is the man-eating "evil spirit," he himself, under the guise of protection, kept Huangmao Village under house arrest and exploited him.

That explains the unusual behavior between Village Chief Huang and Sister-in-law Huang.

These two must have realized this, and they're planning to kill the Donkey Taoist?
However, this Taoist priest was clearly not someone to be trifled with. The cold smile on his face just now made Li Wushou feel that things were unlikely to go as planned for Village Chief Huang and Sister-in-law Huang.

Sure enough, the Taoist priest walked to the base of the wall, looked around, and then secretly took out a yellow paper talisman from his pocket.

He murmured a phrase, and the talisman spontaneously combusted without fire.

The Taoist priest held the talisman and circled it around the reeds a few times. Strangely, the smoke from the burning talisman gathered above the pile of reeds and condensed without dissipating.

Until the talisman burned out, the Taoist priest suddenly opened his mouth and blew into the smoke, which slowly seeped into the reeds!
The Taoist bent down, picked up a pile of reeds, turned around, went to the big willow tree, and threw the reeds in front of the donkey.

He clapped the debris off his hands, stood calmly in front of the donkey, and completely blocked the view from the village shop window.

Li Wushou simply closed his eyes to rest, but secretly changed his perspective.

The stubborn donkey slowly raised its head, its eyes slightly red, staring fiercely at the donkey Taoist, looking as if it wished it could devour the donkey Taoist alive.

The Taoist priest, however, patted the stubborn donkey's head without taking it seriously.

The movement seemed gentle and without any force, but the donkey uncontrollably lowered its head and began to eat the reeds bite by bite.

The donkey's head was held down until only a little of the bundle of reeds remained, at which point the donkey guide withdrew his hand.

The stubborn donkey, who had just been looking at someone with malice, suddenly had clear eyes.

What surprised Li Wushou even more was that the donkey's eyes no longer held any of the complex emotions of humanity.

No matter how you look at it at this moment, the other party is a donkey.

The Taoist priest rubbed the donkey's back with a smile, seemingly quite satisfied.

In the instant he turned, he quietly observed Li Wushou inside the window.

Seeing that Li Wushou was resting with his eyes closed, the donkey-walking Taoist walked to the side of the donkey and took off the talisman that he had just stuck on the donkey's belly.

The talisman was entirely red with intricate patterns that looked like various internal organs.

Just after the donkey finished eating the reeds, the talisman sank into the donkey's belly, and then slowly reappeared.

Li Wushou had never really understood the art of talismans, nor did he know what this represented.

The Taoist priest first took out another red talisman from his mouth, and then quickly replaced the talisman that was stuck to the donkey's belly.

To Li Wushou's surprise, the Donkey Taoist muttered something and then directly stuck the talisman that had been on the donkey's belly onto his own.

The talisman sank into the donkey-man's abdomen, and then reappeared.

Li Wushou stared intently at the donkey-riding Taoist, and suddenly his mind was jolted, and he thought to himself, "Interesting!"
Is this the Taoist method of the Donkey Taoist? It's truly bizarre!

From Li Wushou's perspective, the heart, liver, spleen, and stomach of the donkey-human body silently appeared on the donkey's body.

His own heart, liver, spleen, and stomach had been replaced by that donkey's!
Does this work too?
Li Wushou's eyes were opened to a whole new world.

While the Taoist priest was still busy with the heart and liver transplant, Li Wushou thought for a moment, then took out a tree seed from his pocket and swallowed it.

The Taoist priest had clearly sensed Huang A-sao's methods and was making preparations.

Li Wushou might have been wary of other methods, but he wasn't worried about food and drink.

However, seeing that the Taoist priest had taken precautions, and thinking that it was better to be safe than sorry, Li Wushou also made a preparation.

With his hands quietly forming several hand seals, the tree seed, hanging in his throat, took root and sprouted, growing into a small tree inside his throat.

The tree had no branches or trunk, resembling a round log, with a hollow interior that completely sealed off the throat.

This way, the tea and food will fall directly into the tree.

Regardless of what strange methods Granny Huang might use later, at least they wouldn't affect him. Having done all this, Li Wushou calmed his mind.

Now that he was certain that both the donkey-walker and the people of Huangmao Village had ulterior motives, he felt much calmer.

I secretly began to look forward to the show that was about to begin.

Continue looking out of the store.

Ever since the Taoist priest changed the talisman on the donkey, the donkey has never eaten the reeds again, and just stands obediently by the willow tree.

But thinking about it, it makes sense, since the heart, liver, spleen, and stomach now belong to the donkey enthusiast himself.

The Taoist bent down, picked up the remaining reeds from the ground, and prepared to return them to the base of the wall.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, the Donkey Taoist turned around and walked to Li Wushou's short paper donkey. He picked up a few reeds and tentatively teased the paper donkey's mouth a few times.

After going back and forth several times and seeing that the paper donkey really wouldn't eat, the donkey Taoist finally carried the reeds back to the base of the wall.

Li Wushou, inside the village shop, felt as if he had been struck a heavy blow, his forehead veins bulging.

The Taoist priest just asked whether his paper donkey needed to be fed!
Seeing that the Taoist priest was about to return to the village shop, Li Wushou breathed a sigh of relief and calmed his mind.

Just now, he was actually wondering if he had overestimated the wickedness of people's hearts.
Perhaps this hermit is genuinely trying to protect Huangmao Village? And Huang A's cooking and boiling water is just a local specialty of Huangmao Village?

All these thoughts vanished at that moment, and Li Wushou concluded that this Taoist priest was utterly wicked!
Feeding paper donkeys with reeds?

What else could this be but an evil spirit?
The key point is that this Taoist priest, who is on the path of donkeys, insists on regarding Li Wushou as a close friend.

This made Li Wushou very uncomfortable. Wasn't this implying that Li Wushou was just as strange as the other party and had something wrong with his mind?
At this point, the Taoist priest placed the reeds down and patted his Taoist robe all the way to the village shop.

"Fellow Daoist Li, I apologize for keeping you waiting."

The Taoist priest sat back down at the square table and quickly clasped his hands in apology to Li Wushou.

Li Wushou nodded slightly, completely suppressing his emotions.

After sizing up the donkey Taoist, he wondered if the man would change after having a donkey's heart and liver.

Looking at it from both sides, there seems to be no difference. This method is indeed a bit strange.

Just as he was about to reply to the donkey hermit, he heard a voice coming from the backyard in the distance:
"The tea is ready."

Sister-in-law Huang, carrying a teapot in her right hand and a tea tray in her left, lifted the curtain and walked out from the backyard.

The Taoist priest's smile remained unchanged. He slightly stepped aside to make it easier for Sister Huang to place the tea tray on the table, then turned to Sister Huang and said:
"Thank you for your hard work, Sister Huang. It's not easy to get a cup of tea brewed by you."

After Huang A-sao set out the tea tray, she smiled as she listened to what the donkey-walking Taoist said, seemingly quite pleased.

"If you wish to drink tea, please come to me anytime. Would I ever refuse you tea?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Sister Huang handed a blue and white porcelain teacup to Li Wushou and placed another one next to the donkey Taoist.

He pointed to the tea canister on the tea tray and said to the two of them:

"This is a new willow leaf tea that I made this year. Please try it and see if it suits your taste."

The Taoist priest narrowed his eyes, reducing them to just slits, and replied with delight:

"Oh? You're in for a treat! Fellow Daoist Li, you may not know this, but the willow leaf tea from Huangmao Village is extremely famous within a hundred miles. If it weren't for wanting to drink some willow leaf tea back then, I wouldn't have come to Huangmao Village by chance."

As they spoke, he took a spoonful of tea from the tea canister and put it into Li Wushou's cup, then eagerly took another spoonful and put it into his own cup.

Aunt Huang waited by, smiling as she poured hot water for the two of them from the teapot.

Li Wushou nodded slightly to express his gratitude.

Then, seemingly unconcerned, he casually picked up the teacup, held it under his nose, and sniffed it a few times. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, as if he were pleasantly surprised.

Gently blow on the tea and take a sip.

After closing his eyes and pondering for a moment, Li Wushou opened them and exclaimed, "Excellent tea!"

The Taoist priest's face broke into a wide smile, and he laughed heartily.

"Right? The willow leaf tea from Huangmao Village is already exceptional, but the tea that Sister Huang fries herself is even more outstanding."

Sister-in-law Huang waved her hand with a smile.

"Donkey Master, stop praising me. Huang Maocun might have had some confidence in the past, but things are different now."

The Taoist priest took a sip of tea, and upon hearing this, he did not refute it. Instead, he echoed it with considerable regret:
"Alas, it is indeed a pity. Who would have thought that the Golden Willow Leaf Tea, which was once more precious than gold, was actually made from the leaves of the village ancestral god? And who would have thought that the village ancestral god would meet with misfortune so suddenly?"

Hearing this, Sister Huang's spirits sank, and she murmured:
"Yes! How could the village's ancestral god die so suddenly?"

But soon, Sister-in-law Huang regained her composure and flattered the donkey-walking Taoist:

"Fortunately, God has blessed Huangmao Village. The village's ancestral god had just died when Huangmao Village welcomed the Donkey Immortal. This can be considered as Huangmao Village's good fortune continuing."

The Donkey Taoist chuckled, stroked his mustache, and replied modestly:

"Sister-in-law Huang, you flatter me. My abilities are limited; how can I compare to the village's ancestral deity?"

Li Wushou sipped his tea, watching the two exchange pleasantries.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he looked toward the doorway.

A burly figure appeared at the entrance of the village shop.

Inside the Three Immortals Pavilion, Chen Gou'er suddenly covered his nose and exclaimed, "It stinks!"

(End of this chapter)