Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

"Brother Zuo, you're seriously injured now. Wouldn't it be better to rest and recuperate at our Bu family village before doing anything else?"

"No need, failing to kill that vile specter is truly a shame for someone like me. I will take my leave now."

Watching the young man dressed in brocade reach into his sleeve, Zuo Qianfu couldn't help but reveal a hint of caution in his eyes.

Soon, the caution in his eyes mostly dissipated.

What the young man pulled out from his sleeve was not a hidden weapon, but gold, shiny gold, as much as a hundred taels.

"My good friend, we hit it off at first sight and you even incurred serious injuries trying to rid my Bu family village of that specter. I wanted to keep you here, but you wish to leave. Since we must part ways, let me give you something for the road."

Bu Wantian said with genuine sincerity, speaking slowly and deliberately.

"Brother Bu, I... "

Thud~

It was the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh.

A short dagger hidden up a sleeve suddenly plunged into Zuo Qianfu's chest.

"Brother Zuo, I'm sorry, I really didn't want to kill you, but I can't gamble on it."

"If you reported me to the authorities and ruined my plans, what then?"

"So, my good friend, please go to your death! Hehehe!"

If it hadn't been for his injuries, Zuo Qianfu could have easily countered Bu Wantian's sneak attack. But now, his reactions slowed, he was unable to break free, and could only struggle to grab the short blade with his bare hands.

Blood dripped down drop by drop.

The blade cut through his tough skin and, despite the young man's efforts, kept inching towards his heart.

"Brother Zuo, your body cultivation technique is truly incredible, so formidable. How about this, hand over your cultivation technique and I will give you a quick death. How does that sound?"

The young man in brocade still wore a faint smile, looking sincere as if he was not committing murder, but conversing with an old friend not seen for years.

"You... dream on!"

Zuo Qianfu, staring at the slowly advancing dagger, couldn't help but despair. At that moment, he couldn't help but think of a burly Daoist.

"Master, it seems Qianfu is not fated to truly enter your tutelage."

Just then, the wind and clouds surged tumultuously, and a demonic wind suddenly swept in from all around, forcibly knocking everyone to the ground.

For a while, everyone could only cling to nearby trees and other objects to stabilize themselves.

The gentle smile on Bu Wantian's face finally collapsed, and his expression drastically changed.

Barely able to open their eyes in the middle of it, they heard a strange chant coming from afar under the moonlight. A burly figure with a peculiar black cat sitting on his shoulder was slowly walking over.

That was a Daoist.

The Daoist continuously twirled three golden iron balls in his hand, his strong pectoral muscles pushing up against his Daoist robe, and he chanted:

"Flowers hidden in the mist are nowhere seen, deceiving the heavens to reach Penglai."

"No lies are worse than a person's heart foul, strange events and wicked deeds are both beyond reproach."

"Untouched by mud or dust in the air, they're merely the mortal sight that we share."

"What's true and false, and black from white, with one spear thrust, I suppress the sea's might."

The Daoist crouched down, and his face loomed large in Zuo Qianfu's dilating pupils.

"My foolish disciple, how is it that upon our second meeting I find you're almost at death's door? Really now!"

"Master... Master."

Zuo Qianfu looked at the familiar figure in front of him, his tension eased, and he fainted.

When he awoke again, he was by a campfire while Bu Wantian and the others were tied up on a large tree nearby like sticky rice dumplings.

"Awake now? Such a disgrace, to think my nominal disciple could be played like this," the Daoist retorted with a stalk of foxtail grass in his mouth and a curled lip.

"Master, I... I'm sorry. I never imagined Bu Wantian would be such a hypocrite, that the specter would be the transformation of his deceased wife. This time, I truly did abet tyranny."

"And I don't know if that specter ended up completely destroyed. If that's true, then it's a great sin I've committed." Zuo Qianfu struggled to sit up and speak.

"Tsk tsk tsk, Qianfu, you believe anything you're told, I'm almost thinking of expelling you from the sect."

"With such a brain, I could sell you the same overpriced chicken a hundred times over, and you'd keep paying."

Yi Chen spat out the stalk of foxtail grass from his mouth, teasing with a grin, as the moonlight revealed two rows of unnervingly white teeth.

"Ah? Isn't it true?"

"Idiot, Bu Wantian told lies, so does that make everything the ghost said true? Your cat master is a hundred times more astute than you."

"Miao Zi, go fetch that specter back here, alive, don't play her to death."

Miao Zi sneered at Zuo Qianfu on passing and stood upright, strutting to the riverbank before leaping into the swift currents.

After the time it takes to drink two cups of tea, a strange black cat the size of a small black panther emerged from the water. Its tail coiled around, dragging a large dark shadow, and even holding two odd green fish each weighing over ten pounds in its upright paws.

"Father, I caught a green fish for you on my way back, for your late-night snack."

"See? Your cat uncle is just a little over two years old, yet look at that cultivation, that capability. Even if you were on par with him in cultivation, your cat uncle could easily play you to death without a sound."

Amidst the aroma of fish, Yi Chen's eyes swirled with a strange vortex as he began to interrogate the transformed corpse on the ground.

Soon, Zuo Qianfu's complexion changed anew.

With the statements from Bu Wantian cross-referenced, the version of the story also began to shift.

As it turned out, the transformed female corpse wasn't any kind of virtuous person either; she was the youngest daughter of the Yin clan from a large village two hundred miles away.

The mighty Yin clan had long coveted the fertile lands occupied by the Bu family village. So they married off their daughter with the intention of using marriage as a conduit, hoping that once their daughter bore a male heir, they could smoothly seize control and turn the Bu family village—a millennium-old great village—into a nest bearing the Yin surname.