Chapter 27: Evil Ways

"Hehe, tell me, do I look more like a human or a god?"

The thing in the woods continuously shook the tree branches, and its voice became increasingly shrill.

"You look human! You're human! Please, great spirit, our family has had a hard life; we're just trying to make a living!"

Terrified, Lu Zhuangyuan ignored everything else, immediately prostrating himself on the ground and repeatedly kowtowing towards the woods.

As he kowtowed, he suddenly stopped. At the edge of the woods, he saw a pair of small feet in embroidered shoes standing there like two pointed cones.

A chill ran down his neck as he slowly raised his head in disbelief, seeing a small-footed woman standing alone, dressed in a brand-new floral padded jacket.

Her large face was very pale, but her mouth was tiny, and her eyes, like black beads embedded in her face, did not blink at all.

Her entire pale face was hidden in the darkness, resembling a small balloon floating in mid-air.

"Hehe, do you think I look human?" The small-footed woman chuckled, covering her mouth, and began to approach the bonfire with her delicate steps.

When he saw the woman walk, her body twisting as if it had no bones, Lu Zhuangyuan's last glimmer of hope was extinguished. He realized he had encountered something truly supernatural!

"Xiao Wa! Xiao Wa! Wake up now! Quickly, use your virgin boy's urine!" Lu Zhuangyuan's terrified cries woke the others.

A burning piece of firewood was shakily picked up by the panicking Lu Juren and thrown with force.

However, the attack had no effect; the firewood passed directly through the woman's body.

Just as the small-footed woman was about to reach the fire, her body suddenly froze, and her large head abruptly twisted towards the woods to the east.

Branches swayed, and Li Huowang and his companions emerged from the woods, holding several glowing fluorite stones.

"Hmm?" Bai Lingmiao, who had removed her blindfold, noticed something odd. "Brother Li, look! This woman is truly bizarre! She doesn't have a back to her head; both sides are faces!"

"Clang!" With a sound, the long sword was unsheathed. Li Huowang cautiously watched the extremely eerie small-footed woman in the distance. "What are you?"

"Hehe, I'm human, don't I look like it?" After a very delicate voice sounded, the small-footed woman twisted her slender body like a centipede, beginning to change her approach towards the target.

Li Huowang naturally couldn't stand by and do nothing. He immediately reached into his left hand, and a flattened Taoist bell appeared in his grasp.

"Jingle, jingle, jingle~" A piercing bell sound rang out, and everyone present, including Li Huowang himself, clutched their heads in pain.

Li Huowang did not stop; he continued to shake it vigorously, because he saw everything in his line of sight, including the small-footed woman, twisting and shaking violently.

Under the shaking, her brand-new floral padded jacket began to tear, and black mist continuously seeped out from within.

This brass bell is effective against this woman!

Suddenly, the small-footed woman shrieked, and her gradually disintegrating body frantically twisted and retreated into the woods, disappearing from Li Huowang's sight shortly after.

The bell's ringing gradually stopped. Li Huowang looked down at the Taoist bell in his hand with surprise. "Although it didn't summon Master You, I never expected you to have such a use."

He wasn't sure if it was because it had been flattened or for some other reason. Although Li Huowang had obtained Danyongzi's Taoist bell, each time he shook it, the surrounding lines swayed chaotically and did not coalesce into Master You as they had before.

The more he learned about this world, the more confused he became. What exactly was all this chaos?

"Esteemed master, esteemed master! Thank you for your help! I truly failed to recognize your greatness; please, come and warm yourselves by the fire."

Lu Zhuangyuan, overcome with gratitude, cupped his hands and approached, enthusiastically pulling Li Huowang towards the bonfire.

Compared to the creature from earlier, the "monsters" following this Taoist priest were undoubtedly much more benign. After all, with the priest keeping them in check, these things were at most frightening, whereas the previous entity truly posed a deadly threat.

"Ugh! That cursed beast! If it hadn't suddenly fled like it was struck by a plague, how could I, an old man, have neglected such an esteemed master?" Lu Zhuangyuan pulled out his pipe and theatrically tapped it against the saddle.

After a few taps, he turned and shouted, "Hey, Juanhua, quickly, quickly, roast some steamed buns and fetch some water! Bring the biggest white flour buns! And three... no! Five salted duck eggs!"

Lu Zhuangyuan's sudden enthusiasm made Li Huowang quite uncomfortable. "Elder, please don't trouble yourself. May I bother you with a few questions?"

"Ask! Ask anything you like! Young Taoist priest, you just saved the lives of our entire family, old and young! Haha, anything you want to know is fine!" Lu Zhuangyuan thumped his chest and readily agreed.

As if he still wasn't enthusiastic enough, he inserted the mouthpiece of his pipe into his armpit, rubbed it vigorously a few times, then re-lit it and presented it to Li Huowang with fawning hands.

"Uh... thank you, elder, but I don't smoke. Do you know what that thing we just encountered was? What is it called?" Li Huowang used his hand to push away the well-worn, seasoned pipe.

He currently knew nothing about this world and needed to learn as much as possible to survive safely.

Lu Zhuangyuan was clearly bewildered by the question. "What? How... how would I know that, Taoist priest? Didn't you drive away that 'asking for a title' thing? You don't know?"

Seeing his confused look, Li Huowang realized he had asked the wrong person. The old man might not know as much about this as he did.

"I heard you mention virgin boy's urine. Can it harm that thing from earlier?"

"Yes, yes, yes!! Absolutely! Those things fear foul objects! I heard that wiping snot on them also works, but the most effective is virgin boy's urine. It has the strongest 'yang' energy and is also a foul object."

"Really? Elder, have you used it before?"

Lu Zhuangyuan, who had just been so resolute, smiled awkwardly at Li Huowang's question, his gaze evasive. "Perhaps it works. That's what the village elders say, and if everyone says it, it must be true."

Li Huowang sighed helplessly. Was it another ancestral method? Were people here so backward in passing on knowledge?

"Alright then, elder. Let me ask you what you do know: have you encountered many things like this?"

"No, you don't encounter such strange things every day. If they came every night, I'd have sold all my belongings and taken my son back to farm the land long ago." Lu Zhuangyuan put his pipe in his mouth and puffed away.

"I've been out and about for many years, and I've only encountered four such instances."

"So that's how it is..." Li Huowang looked at the dark woods around him, gaining a new understanding of this world.

Having spent a long time with Danyongzi, he had assumed that things like the Black Grand Elder were everywhere outside. Now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

Ordinary people had heard of these things, but they were very distant.