Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

After some refusals, Senior Brother Linghui finally managed to get rid of the group of villagers.

"Qiaoxia, it's getting dark soon, light the fire," her senior brother said.

"Okay, senior brother."

Senior Sister Qiaoxia nodded, took out two talismans from her waist pouch, and activated them. The yellow paper burst into flames, and with a wave of her hand, the two balls of fire floated to a height of half a meter above the ground, swirling around her.

The flames illuminated the surroundings, and the villager exclaimed in admiration, "The Taoist priest truly possesses divine abilities!"

"Go and get the horse on board, let's go exorcise the demon," the senior brother said.

"Do we need to lead a horse to exorcise a demon?" Qiaoxia asked, somewhat puzzled.

As soon as she said this, Zhuang Xing noticed that the villager was subtly gripping the longbow on his back.

"Do you expect me to carry the magic artifact over?" Her senior brother rolled his eyes at her.

"Oh dear..." Qiaoxia tapped her head and went to lead the horse.

Zhuang Xing breathed a sigh of relief; the tense atmosphere finally eased a bit. The villager watched the group leave from the village entrance, waving enthusiastically.

As night fell, Zhuang Xing and his three companions quickly walked away.

Zhuang Xing focused his Qi in his eyes, looked back carefully, and saw no one following him.

"Senior brother, what should we do next?" Zhuang Xing asked.

"Let's go see what's going on with that mandrill," the senior brother said.

"Isn't the village going to take care of it?"

"Those people are quite strange, let's stay away from them for now."

"Strange?" Qiaoxia asked in confusion. "What's strange about them?"

“Senior sister, there are no millet roots in that field. Those millet stalks were all deliberately placed there,” Yunling said.

"Huh? Why are they setting up millet stalks?" Senior Sister Qiaoxia was full of questions.

"I knew it, they really did it on purpose to fool people," Zhuang Xing nodded.

“If we can’t figure anything out from that mountain demon, we’ll go back to the temple and ask our elders for a decision,” said Senior Brother Linghui. “This is no longer a place for disciples of Bai Sui.”

"Wait...should we go back to the temple?" Qiaoxia felt a little dizzy. "Weren't we here to exorcise demons?"

Zhuang Xing thought to himself that this senior sister was really a bit slow-witted. So he started by telling her about the things that had been wrong these past few days, beginning with the villager's horse.

"So, that old man might be a bad guy?" The senior sister looked incredulous. "Did you all realize that? Was I the only one who didn't know?"

"Senior sister, didn't you receive a note from senior brother?" Zhuang Xing asked.

"What note?"

Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling both silently took out the slips of paper.

"Why didn't you write me a note, senior brother!" Qiaoxia puffed out her cheeks.

“Because I believe in you, Qiaoxia,” Senior Brother Linghui said expressionlessly.

That one sentence silenced all of her complaints.

Zhuang Xing thought to himself, "As expected of my senior brother, he handles everyone in the team perfectly. He's truly admirable and worthy of respect."

Meanwhile, after the four of them left the village, it became lively again.

The villagers, who had been in a panic just moments before, were now orderly carrying boxes onto the cart. There were slight movements inside the boxes, with them occasionally vibrating.

"Big brother, are you really leaving like this?"

A thin, hunchbacked man came up to the villager carrying a longbow.

"That ungrateful wretch has suddenly gone mad and stolen a lot of our goods. Are they really not going to get them back before leaving? I just can't swallow this insult!"

"Skinny Monkey, speaking of which, this is all your fault." The villager held his pipe, took a puff, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "If you hadn't broken that runaway kid's leg in front of Blackie and scared him, how could he have suddenly gone mad?"

“Think about it, when we came here to build the village five years ago, Black Ghost was already here. Before that, he was very docile, not afraid of people at all, and even helped us watch over the goods.” The villager looked at the scars on Skinny Monkey’s face. “I told you long ago that if you want to discipline the children, take them to the cellar. You wouldn’t listen, so I went out for a while and you caused such a big mess.”

“We were all law-abiding citizens who paid our taxes on time. But now, things are really bad. The autumn tax collectors are coming soon, and we can’t even afford to pay our taxes. If we get caught, we’ll all have our faces branded. Forget about eating, we might not even survive. If you had been more law-abiding, we wouldn’t have ended up like this today, with no choice but to flee far away.”

The skinny monkey lowered his head and muttered, "Who knows that bastard, I raised him for five years and he still can't tame him? I even gave that bastard half a roast chicken once, and he didn't even remember a favor."

“If it didn’t remember your half of the roast chicken, your head would be off by now,” the villager said. “Do you know why the black devil ignores me when I leave the village? It’s because it remembers me, remembers that I fed it meat and helped it build a house. Although I don’t know what’s wrong with it, it just wanted to steal our goods, it didn’t mean to kill anyone.”

"Sigh... I'm sorry, big brother, it's all because I was disobedient..." said Skinny Monkey.

“Skinny Monkey, I know you can’t swallow this insult, but we’re just ordinary people trying to make a living. We should be content with what we have to eat, wear, and have a place to live. We can’t be too greedy,” the villager said. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, I just want you to know that we should be more humble and not take ourselves too seriously.”

“Brother is right, but if we just leave like this, won’t those Taoist priests come back?” the skinny monkey asked again.

“They won’t come back,” the villager said. “Those four Taoist priests are all smart men. I deliberately rode there on horseback and had you tie up old millet stalks in the field and bring out the clean farm tools. Smart men can tell at a glance that there’s something wrong with us. Didn’t you see how the Taoist priests politely refused when I said I wanted to follow them? They are very suspicious and definitely won’t come back.”

“But brother, what if the person you invited isn’t a smart one?” the skinny monkey asked. “Then we’ve wasted our time.”

“If the Taoist priest who comes isn’t that smart, then we should just honestly accompany him in exorcising the demon,” the villager said calmly. “Just treat the Taoist priest well and see him off. It’s just a matter of leaving a day later. Skinny Monkey, you still don’t understand what I mean. People like us should never think about going against the Taoist priests all day long.”

"Big Brother is the smartest," Skinny Monkey nodded. "But I'm still a little worried, what if Black Ghost ignores those Taoist priests..."

"Don't worry, the black devil will definitely come looking for them." The village chief took a puff of his pipe. "Once we've loaded the goods, we'll head in the opposite direction. By the time the Taoist priests realize what's happening, we'll be long gone."

"But... once we go, there may be no turning back." The villager shook his head. "After we sell these goods, let's go east. Being a fisherman next time doesn't seem so bad."

The villager glanced leisurely at the dark, looming mountains, put on his straw hat, and extinguished his pipe.

Chapter 81 Mountain Spirit

The forest was quiet and dark, with the incessant chirping of insects.

By the dim firelight, Zhuang Xing looked around at the tall trees. It was a very pristine forest, with no trace of anyone having ever set foot there.

"The mountain demon, also known as the mountain spirit, is a cautious and timid monster with a more acute sense of smell, sight, and hearing than humans."

"Because the mandrill's body shape is similar to that of a human, in some copper and iron mines in the north, mandrills are kept as pets and used to replace laborers in mining."

"It is important to note that the claws of the mandrill contain a venom that can paralyze people. If you are scratched, you must wash the wound with water as soon as possible, then tie the wound area up and use your true qi to force out the venomous blood. Otherwise, if the venom spreads throughout the body, you will be paralyzed and unable to move. Those with weaker constitutions may even be poisoned to death."

Senior Brother Linghui walked in the lead, parted a patch of grass, and found a beast trail. The four of them followed the beast trail.

"Because I already knew before this trip that the demon I was to exorcise was a mountain demon, I prepared an antidote ointment in advance."

"Keep this ointment safe. If you are accidentally scratched, take off the water bag from your waist, rinse the wound, and then apply the ointment to the wound. That way, it will be fine."

Senior Brother Linghui handed three small wooden boxes to Zhuang Xing, Yunling, and Qiaoxia respectively. The boxes had a faint herbal fragrance. When Zhuang Xing opened the box, he found some herbal paste that he couldn't identify.

They are currently searching for the mandrill. Although there are problems in the village, the purpose of this trip, besides eliminating the demon, is also to let Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling experience what it's like to really fight a demon.

By this time, they were far from the village and no longer needed to worry about those troublemakers. Only then did they come to investigate the mountain demon's background, or rather, to continue what they were supposed to be doing.

Senior Brother Linghui explained the secrets to dealing with mandrills: "Before they reach adulthood, mandrills usually move in groups, typically with the larger ones leading the smaller ones, forming small groups of three to five, and hunting in the mountains and forests."

"They don't attack people easily, especially when there are many people. If the number of people is greater than the number of mandrills, they will hide. However, if you are traveling alone, the probability of encountering mandrills will increase significantly."

"If you encounter a mandrill on the mountain, you must not be afraid. If you feel that you are no match for it, you can raise your hands and make a loud noise to scare it away. But the best way is to injure one of them, even if it means trading blows. Once they see their own kind bleeding, they will become fearful, their morale will collapse, and they will scatter and flee."

Unbeknownst to them, they had reached a water source. The senior brother bent down and searched around, picking up a small tuft of black hair from a dry branch.

"Qiaoxia, these are the mandrill's hairs. See if you can find its location."

"Leave it to me, senior brother!"

Senior Sister Qiaoxia took out a compass from her handbag and placed the tuft of black hair in the very center of the compass.

Then, she closed her eyes and tapped the compass a few times, and the compass needle immediately began to spin.

After a while, the spinning pointer not only didn't stop, but it spun faster and faster. If it was the speed of a fan at the beginning, it was now the speed of a third fan.

Senior Sister Qiaoxia frowned and suddenly shouted, "It's right above us!"

The faint flames that had been flickering around the senior sister instantly intensified, illuminating the surroundings.

Zhuang Xing immediately looked up and saw a black figure with long arms hanging on the tallest tree. The thin shadow looked like a demon hanging from a tree.

Senior Brother Linghui drew his sword: "There are clearly four of us, yet we still have to follow along... Oh well, this will save us some trouble."

"Zhuang Xing, Yun Ling, just take care of yourselves. This mountain demon is very strange. If it attacks, I will deal with it."

"Then I'll leave it to you, senior brother."

Zhuang Xing and Yunling stepped aside, making way for each other.

As a beginner, the most important thing is not to hold the pros back.

Zhuang Xing adhered to the principle of "rather do nothing than make a mistake," and hid in the back.

The stage was left to Senior Brother Linghui, who faced off against the mountain demon. The mountain demon seemed to be observing its opponent. After a long while, it took down the ancient sword it was carrying on its back.

The mandrill's arm was almost as long as its entire body. Its arm seemed to have three joints, twisting into an arc that no human could possibly achieve. Then it let out a sharp hiss to intimidate its opponent.

Under the moonlight, the howl, which sounded like the wailing of a demon, startled the mountain birds in the forest. Accompanied by the sound of flapping wings, the mandrill moved.

It even used its sharp claws to hook onto the tree bark and run.

Its movements are very agile, and it walks on the bark as if it were flat ground.

Where it passed, it stirred up bits of tree debris. It moved as fast as the wind, and Zhuang Xing could hardly catch a glimpse of it.

Linghui's pupils kept moving, his gaze never leaving the mountain demon.

"When encountering agile monsters, if you cannot detect them with your eyes, use their aura to judge them."

He still had the leisure to attend class, and with a backhand swing of his sword, he blocked the attack from behind by the mountain demon.

The metal clashed, the swords hummed, and sparks flew in the darkness.

The mandrill moved like a ghost, and after failing to strike once, it crawled into the darkness, only to raise its sword again from another spot in an instant.

Linghui wielded her sword with one hand, effortlessly exchanging sword moves with the mountain demon.

Although small, the mandrill always occupies high places and attacks from tree trunks. It leaps up, raises its ancient sword high, and swings it down heavily as if it were chopping wood with a giant axe.

Its long arm drew an arc, and the sword slashed through the air with a whooshing sound.

The senior brother raised his sword to parry, clang! clang! clang!

Three crisp collision sounds rang out in succession, and sparks flashed like metal being struck.

The mandrill's attack had no particular method; it was simply a matter of sheer force.