Taoist priest goes to America

After Li An finished hitting his hand, his right hand hung by his side, blood dripping down his fingers onto the ground. He glanced at his hand, then bent down and picked up the pink lace miniskirt hanging next to the sofa to wipe it.

The fabric was expensive silk, smooth to the touch, but Ang Lee simply wiped the blood off his right hand with the hem of the skirt, threw the skirt back onto the sofa armrest, and turned to look at the door.

Gu Jinghong was still standing there. He looked at Li An, then glanced at Ren Mingxuan lying on the ground. His gaze lingered on the face that was no longer recognizable, and he swallowed hard.

"Drag him into the room," Li An said.

Gu Jinghong hesitated for a moment, then walked into the living room, walked around the pile of garbage on the floor, walked to Ren Mingxuan's side, bent down, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him towards the bedroom.

As Ren Mingxuan's body was dragged across the ground, his head tilted to one side, his mangled face pressed against the floor, leaving a trail of blood that stretched into the bedroom.

While Gu Jinghong was still dragging people into the bedroom, Li An walked to the sofa in the living room where Ren Mingxuan's father's body was lying, took Lao Bai's jujube wood spirit doll from his belt, and held it in his left palm.

He channeled his spiritual energy into the puppet through his fingertips, allowing it to seep inwards along its surface. He gently pressed his finger against the puppet's surface, and a small clump of dark red flesh and blood seeped out, like a mass of minced meat churned by a machine.

The lump landed in his palm, the flesh still wriggling slightly. He used his right hand to knead the small lump, stretching it out and then flattening it.

Its shape quickly transformed into a flat, dark red film with a texture somewhat like animal leather.

[Flesh Split] is active. Ang Lee used this skill to cut off a small piece of flesh from Old White and made a rather tough flesh-and-blood body bag.

Li Bai stretched out the film, pulled out two thin ropes, placed the body bag on the ground, stood up and walked towards the sofa.

The corpse remained in its original position, sandwiched between the sofas. Ang Lee ripped off the trash covering it, revealing the old plaid shirt the corpse had originally been wearing.

Ang Lee bent down, grabbed the corpse by the collar with one hand and the trousers with the other, and pulled the body out from the gap between the sofa and the armrest.

The body was very thin, much lighter than he had imagined. Its face and chest were sunken, the bones clearly visible, and the dark circles under its eyes indicated severe overwork and malnutrition. Judging from its chapped and peeling lips, the dutiful son, Ren Mingxuan, hadn't even given his father water for days.

Li An pulled the body down to the ground, opened the body bag, put the body inside, closed the bag, tightened the drawstring, and tied a knot at the end.

Ang Lee bent down, hoisted the body bag onto his shoulder, and looked at Gu Jinghong, who had already finished dragging away the body.

After Ren Mingxuan was dragged into the bedroom, Gu Jinghong walked out without even closing the bedroom door. He stopped at the door, looked back, and then turned and walked back to the living room.

Gu Jinghong glanced at the bulging body bag on Li An's back, seemingly understanding something, and asked with a grim expression:

"Hey buddy, you... you're moving the body yourself? I thought you'd call a team or something..."

Ang Lee didn't explain; he simply squeezed past the door frame.

"Come out, let's go, Lao Gu," Li An said, turning around.

"Huh? You're leaving like that?" Gu Jinghong's face was full of bitterness, but he could only follow Li An out and close the door behind him.

Ang Lee took the body bag off his shoulder, leaned it against the outer wall, then took out a stack of banknotes from his suit pocket—seven hundred-dollar bills—rolled them up twice, and handed the money to Gu Jinghong.

Gu Jinghong looked at the stack of money but didn't reach out to take it. "Fellow villager, I... I'll just go by the market price, six hundred is enough..." His voice was much lower than when they first met, as if he was afraid of upsetting Li Anyi and getting killed by him too.

"Here you go." Li An handed the banknotes forward. Gu Jinghong hesitated for a moment, then reached out and pulled out six hundred-dollar bills, intending to push the remaining one back.

Li An didn't take it. Instead, he grabbed Gu Jinghong's wrist, stuffed the banknote that had been pulled out back into his palm, then closed his hand and patted the back of his hand.

"Take it."

Gu Jinghong held the banknotes in his hand, and under Ang Lee's gaze, he hesitated before putting them into his pocket.

Ang Lee hoisted the body bag back onto his shoulder and turned to look at him.

"Hey, are there any nice rental apartments nearby?" Li An asked.

Gu Jinghong was taken aback for a moment when asked, but quickly realized what he meant and hurriedly replied to Li An, "Yes, yes! What kind do you want, fellow villager?"

"Hmm... the landlord should be reliable, not too stingy, the room should be fully equipped with appliances, the environment should be clean and tidy, and it should be quiet."

"Oh, and most importantly, the landlord doesn't discriminate against us Dongda students."

Gu Jinghong quickly went through it in his mind, then said, "Go down two blocks, to K Street, there's a residential area with relatively few residents, and one of the buildings is managed by a white female landlord."

"She is young and beautiful, a rich girl in her early twenties, and has always been very kind to Chinese people. Basically, she will agree to rent to Chinese people."

"You can go and take a look; that building is in a relatively quiet location."

Gu Jinghong typed out the address and the landlord's contact information on his phone and showed it to Li An.

"Oh, by the way, fellow countryman... the only thing to watch out for is this landlady. She has a severe case of yellow fever and only looks at people with yellow skin."

"Yellow fever?" Li An asked, puzzled. "Isn't that a viral hemorrhagic disease? What do you mean by only targeting yellow-skinned people?"

"No, no, no," Gu Jinghong explained, "It's a fetish that only white Westerners have. They are obsessed with Asians and only associate with Asians, rejecting other races."

"So, my friend, you have to be careful. With your handsome features, if a woman takes a liking to you, she'll start harassing you endlessly."

"6, that's pretty weird." Li An was speechless, but he still looked down and memorized the house number and contact information. Then he adjusted the position of the body bag on his shoulder and walked in the direction where he had parked his car.

"Hey, I'm leaving now. Goodbye, Lao Gu. Remember to keep an eye out for any corpses in the group next time." Li An turned his head and waved goodbye to Gu Jinghong.

"Ah...fellow villager, you're going to buy a corpse after all?"

"Seven hundred dollars a body! Aren't you satisfied with the money you made?"

"Okay...okay...I'm satisfied." Gu Jinghong was on the verge of tears, but could only wave goodbye to Li An as well.

The streetlights cast long shadows, and the body bag on Ang Lee's back added a raised shadow behind him, swaying slightly with his steps.

He walked to the car parked at the alley entrance, opened the door, and Chigur sat quietly inside.

Ang Lee laid the body bag down on the back seat, fastened the seatbelt to secure it, and then closed the back door.

He went around to the driver's seat, opened the car door, closed it, started the engine, and drove the car out of the alley and into the sparse traffic on the street.