Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

"I can have a drink with Uncle Wei," Zhuang Xing said.

"Good!" The bearded man laughed, walked out, grabbed a fat chicken by the neck, killed it, and bled it out.

He handled the chicken skillfully, boiling water to scald it and pluck its feathers, then burning off the fine feathers with straw. In no time, he had the chicken all done.

After killing the chicken, he went outside and picked a cabbage and two radishes. He took a sickle and went out to dig up two bamboo shoots. When he came back, he took some pickled cabbage from the pickle jar, added it to the pot, and stewed a pot of chicken soup over high heat.

The little panda was a little scared when it saw him quickly chop the chicken with a knife, and the chicken blood sizzled out from its neck. It hid next to Zhuang Xing and stayed close by.

"Did the Taoist priest raise these red pandas from a young age?" the bearded man asked while chopping vegetables.

"I guess so," Zhuang Xing said.

“My daughter used to want to keep a red panda, so I went to the mountains and caught one, but I couldn’t tame it. It ran away after three days,” the bearded man reminisced.

He was talking about his daughter, but Zhuang Xing didn't see any other presence or figure. He was the only one living in the house.

Chapter 162 The Bone Demon Under the Tree

As the sun sets, twilight brings smoke and mist.

The dim sunlight shone in from outside the door.

Zhuang Xing looked out through the door.

A flock of chickens clucked and pecked at rice in the yard, while Wuzhui found a spot outside the yard and began to eat tender grass.

Weeds have grown in the old houses that are visible.

The crackling of burning firewood came from behind him. A red panda lay on his lap. He gently stroked the panda's head and felt that this place was isolated from the world, quiet and somewhat lonely.

Before long, food and rice wine were laid out on the old wooden table.

The wine was a bit cloudy, probably homemade rice wine. Zhuang Xing picked it up and took a sip. It had a very low alcohol content and a slightly sweet taste from fermentation.

Zhuang Xing scooped up some hot rice and gave it to the panda.

The bearded man watched all this silently, increasingly convinced that Zhuang Xing was not a Taoist priest from Xuanqing Temple.

He had seen the Taoist priests of Xuanqing Temple before; they always walked in groups of at least three.

Zhuang Xing looked to be at most a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy. How could he be wandering around outside alone?

While thinking this to himself, the bearded man did not reveal his true feelings. He simply treated Zhuang Xing like a regular guest, drinking and eating with him.

"I wonder what Uncle Wei wants?" Zhuang Xing picked up a piece of radish and gave it to the panda.

"Since you're from Xuanqing Temple, young Taoist priest, you must know how to exorcise demons, right?" The bearded man downed a bowl of yellow wine.

"Are there any monsters around here?" Zhuang Xing asked.

"Yes." The bearded man chugdredged up his liquor.

"So Uncle Wei wants me to help exorcise the demon," Zhuang Xing asked.

The bearded man remained silent, only nodding.

The atmosphere fell silent for a moment. Zhuang Xing then asked, "Uncle Wei, do you know what kind of demon it is? Only by knowing the name of the demon can I prescribe the right medicine and get rid of it."

The bearded man looked at the red panda lying in Zhuang Xing's arms for a while, then whispered, "It's a monster that's been turned into a dead man."

"A monster transformed from a dead person?" Zhuang Xing put down his chopsticks and frowned. "Could you tell me in detail?"

The bearded man fell silent again. He stared at the sword at Zhuang Xing's waist, gritted his teeth, turned his head to the side, and took another big gulp of wine.

"Before you speak, could you promise me that you will definitely get rid of that demon?"

"I can't guarantee anything, I can only say I'll do my best."

"That demon should only be a minor demon. If the Taoist priest is willing to take action, he will surely be able to eliminate it."

"Uncle Wei, if it is truly something within my power, I will certainly spare no effort."

“Okay.” The bearded man finally nodded. “Actually, it happened the winter before last.”

He then told Zhuang Xing the whole story.

It turns out he had a daughter named Xiao An, who was frail and sickly from a young age and couldn't speak until she was three years old.

Every winter, she would get very cold, so he would have to chop more firewood to make a fire to keep his daughter warm.

But his daughter ultimately didn't make it through the winter of the year before last.

That year, despite the heavy snow, even though the bearded man chopped enough firewood under the eaves before winter and burned it almost non-stop to keep his daughter warm, his daughter, who had suffered many misfortunes since childhood, still caught a cold and died in bed.

He was naturally heartbroken. His wife had been dissatisfied with him from the start because she thought he was ugly, and after they had a mentally challenged daughter, she became even more upset.

One time, he discovered that his wife was beating their daughter with a bamboo stick while he was away from home, making the daughter cry loudly. And this was not the first time. There were bruises all over the daughter's back and legs, places that were not usually visible. He hardened his heart and divorced his wife, sending her back to her parents' home.

Since then, the father and daughter have relied on each other for survival.

After his daughter passed away, he was filled with despair.

But the dead cannot be brought back to life, so they had no choice but to bury their daughter.

But then, a strange thing happened.

Late that night, he suddenly discovered a skeleton crawling out of the soil.

Clothes were hanging on the bones; they were his daughter's clothes.

After his daughter died, she transformed into a demonic entity.

Even though it was just a skeleton, it was still his own flesh and blood, so of course he couldn't bring himself to do it, and it was impossible for him to do so.

Instead, fearing the villagers would discover it, he hid his daughter, who had turned into bones.

It was shortly after this incident that the soldiers arrived in the village.

The villagers suffered terribly from the heavy snow. Many frail elderly people and children froze to death, and the food stored in their homes was almost gone.

Upon hearing of the relief efforts provided by the government troops, the villagers abandoned their homes and moved away with their families.

But the bearded man refused to go; he was still thinking of his daughter, his only remaining attachment in the world.

He stayed in the village for the entire year, spending time with Xiao An, who had turned into bones.

He had hoped that his daughter would still remember him as her father after she turned into bones, but those bones were just as foolish and stupid. Once they were enclosed by a fence, they could not get out.

Day after day, he gradually lost hope and felt that he should let his daughter rest in peace.

But... that was his daughter. He simply couldn't bring himself to do it. In the past year, no one else had come. That's why he met Zhuang Xing and wanted the Taoist priest to help him get rid of the white bone demon.

"Don't worry, Master. Xiao An... those bones can't even be broken by bamboo. A strong woodcutter could easily split them apart. It won't be difficult for you, Master."

"My only wish is for Xiao An to be laid to rest in peace. Please help me, Taoist priest."

The bearded man seemed to be drunk. The rice wine wasn't very strong, but drinking too much would still make him drunk.

It's not that you can't get drunk; if you want to get drunk, you can.

Zhuang Xing sighed inwardly after hearing about this ordeal.

What kind of person would stay up late at night to guard a cemetery?

He finally understood why the bearded man had stayed there alone.

If he were to eliminate that white bone demon, the person before him would likely lose the will to live.

But if it is not removed, it will only increase people's suffering.

"Uncle Wei, take me to see Xiao An first." Zhuang Xing thought to himself that no matter what, he had to go see that white bone demon.

The transformation of bones into demons is a truly strange occurrence.

Zombies and skeletons, these two sinister creatures, are things that heaven and earth cannot tolerate.

Even if someone wanted to defy the heavens and refine zombies and bones, it would not be an easy task, let alone the naturally occurring white bone demons.

He vaguely sensed that this matter might be related to the panda becoming a spirit.

Moreover, he cannot confirm the truth of a matter simply by hearing it from others without seeing it for himself.

So the two of them stopped eating, and the bearded man led Zhuang Xing straight outside.

Actually, it's not far away, in a small grove of trees on the way up the mountain.

There was a tall locust tree in the woods, and a fence made of bamboo poles was built under the tree to enclose the area.

Zhuang Xing saw a small skeleton, which looked like the skeleton of a five or six-year-old girl.

"Xiao An, Daddy has come to see you!"

The bearded man called out, and the skeleton stood up. However, the empty skull did not look in his direction. Instead, it reached out towards the outside of the fence, seemingly without any consciousness, just grabbing around haphazardly.

Chapter 163 Not as Smart as the King

Zhuang Xing observed the small fence in front of him and found it to be surprisingly exquisite, with even a rain shelter already built.

The small, white skeleton before me did not appear to have been exposed to the sun and rain for many years; its bones were translucent like jade, without a trace of dirt.

However, it was indeed a stark white human skeleton, which would surely startle any ordinary person who saw it.

Zhuang Xing didn't find it scary at all. Seeing it foolishly scratching at the bamboo strips, not knowing how to get over them, he actually found it kind of cute and silly.

The bearded man simply turned his head away, seemingly unable to bear to look.

"Taoist Master, as you can see, this is exactly what Xiao An looks like."

"It can't eat or talk, and if we don't fence it in, it will run around everywhere."

"Please, Taoist priest, remove it."

The bearded man turned his back, and the last embers of dusk stretched his shadow long.

"May I ask Uncle Wei, has Xiao An ever harmed anyone?" Zhuang Xing asked.

"I've been watching it since the day it crawled out of the cemetery, and it has never harmed anyone," the bearded man said.

"Does Uncle Wei think it will harm people?"

"What does it matter whether it harms people or not? In the end, it's just a skeleton, a demon..."

The bearded man let out a long sigh.