As the 

donkey-drawn

 cart was approaching the village, the dog barking became louder and clearer. 

Indeed, all the dogs in the village acted as Uncle Chen had told me. They were barking crazily, and I could sense fear in their barking. It seemed something very dangerous or horrible was about to take place. 

I frowned. “Uncle Chen, since when 

did the

 dogs 

start 

barking at you?

You’ve been selling tofu for so many years. 

Did it just happen recently?”  

Uncle Chen thought

 for a moment. 

“I don’t remember the time clearly, but I’m sure 

it started

 last year.

” 

It seemed the village had something new, or the

 villagers

 had changed 

the

geomancy

. Otherwise, the dogs wouldn’t 

frantically bark 

like that. Dogs were a 

type

 of 

spirit

 animal. They could feel the existence of ghosts and souls, and they would bark wh

en they felt endangered

. That

 wa

s why people in rural areas liked to keep dogs. It wasn’t just to prevent thieves, but also to prevent ghosts from entering their houses. 

I didn’t dare to imagine 

the thing that was scaring

 all the dogs. 

However,

 I

 was

 sure it was a big boss! My intuition told me that 

this case

 wouldn’t be solved as 

easily

 as the previous cases. I called Li Mazi to bring me the Holy Mother Scepter and the Yin and Yang Umbrella. 

Uncle Chen became tense when he saw my cautious 

expression

. “Immortal, did you 

notice

 something?” 

I frowned

 and said, “Those dogs are barking at an ominous thing.”

 Then, I stood up on the cart to check out Xiaoliu Village. It was twilight, the moment when day and night, Yang and Yin shifted. If there 

was

 something foul in the village, 

now 

would be the time it would show up or leave 

a

 mark. Even 

if

 it could conceal 

itself

, I 

w

ould sense the anomaly through the abnormal air movement. 

However, 

we had

 entered the village,

 and

 I hadn’t 

noticed

 anything. I even felt 

that 

this village was quite peaceful compared to other places. This place gave me an unknown but firm feeling. 

The people here might have been worried that the trucks could break their roads, so they had installed two big rock columns at the village entrance to narrow the road. The space between the two columns was just enough for a small vehicle to 

pass

 through. Uncle Chen was worried that his cart would brush the columns here and there, so he 

got out of

 the cart. I also followed him to the back to help him push the cart. 

After we passed the columns, before I could get on the cart, I saw many people congregating

. They were

 pointing at us. 

T

hey didn’t look 

angry

 but worried. A middle-aged man walked out of the crowd. He came and offered Uncle Chen a 

cigarette

, 

and said

 with a twisting face

,

 “Brother Chen, the dogs in our village keep barking. I think you should…” 

That middle-aged man wanted to ask us to leave politely. Uncle Chen didn’t 

become

 mad. He puffed his cigarette then said 

in a serious tone, “Old Liu, I’m not here to sell tofu. I’m here to help.” 

Old Liu was bewildered. His gaze turned to me and the yellow 

bag

 on my back. His eyes became 

vigilant

. He stiffly asked, “Brother, what do you mean?” 

“Uncle Chen thought that his house had 

a

 problem, so he came to me for help. I’ve checked his house carefully. I found nothing strange about it. That’s why I 

think

 the problem 

lies

with

in your village. We

’ve 

come here to take a look. If you don’t believe me, we can leave

,

” I said faintly. 

Since

 Old Liu didn’t give me a polite look, I wasn’t going to be polite to him. 

Old Liu’s countenance changed. He sternly looked at me and then at Uncle Chen. Then, he turned to the people behind hi

m and said

, “Stop watching. Go home for dinner, folks!” 

After he said that, the crowd 

dispersed

. It seemed this man had some power in this village. After all the people 

left

, he put on a wry smile

 and 

extend

ed

 his hand toward me. 

“Good evening, I am Liu Dali, 

the

 Village Elder of this village.” 

H

e apologized for his manner and told us about the situation 

in

 the village. He understood that the problem wasn’t from Uncle Chen for 

two reasons. One, 

when Uncle Chen wasn’t in the village 

selling

 his tofu, the dogs still barked crazily. Two, 

w

hen some villagers ate tofu, the dogs 

barked 

crazily. 

However,

 the commotion wasn’t as big as when the tofu seller came. 

Being

 the Village Elder, Liu 

Dali was

concerned for his

 people’s wellbeing, so he had to push the blame on Uncle Chen. Recently, he had secretly 

invited

 some 

geomancers

. They came and did some 

exaggerated

 moves

, achieving nothing, or

 ran away with a panicked face. Some had asked Liu Daly to pay a huge sum to help this village. However, as Liu Dali was keeping this problem a secret from his villagers, he couldn’t ask them to contribute money. In the end, nothing had been resolved yet…

After he said that, he sighed

 and pulled 

my arm. “If you hadn’t come here, 

M

aster, I think I would have asked the folks in our village to stop eating tofu forever! Please, help us!” 

“Hmph!” Before I could answer, Uncle Chen snorted and pulled his donkey cart

. It seemed 

he was leaving. 

I

 felt

 he 

was angry

 that Liu Dali had 

pushed the blame for

 this unfortunate event on him. Liu Dali and I hurried to stop him. Unexpectedly, the old man wanted to leave, no matter what.

Feeling helpless, I told him, “Uncle Chen, the thing that has caused trouble here somehow relates to tofu. We would need to use your tofu tonight. I don

’t

 think you 

should

 leave…” 

“Okay, I

’ll

 leave my tofu here 

for

 you to help this village, Immortal Zhang. Don’t let 

it 

harm people

,” said 

Uncle Chen

.

Then, he 

threw a hostile look toward Liu Dali. He left his donkey cart in 

the

 village and went home. I shrugged

 and looked 

at Liu Dali. 

Liu Dali 

smiled reluctantly. “Chen Tofu is a good man. However, he’s too stubborn.”  

After this short 

event

, the sky was completely dark. Liu Dali and I pulled the donkey cart to his house and tied the donkey by the stack of woods behind his house. He 

kindly

 invited 

me to have dinner

 at his home. No matter what, I needed to wait for Li Mazi to bring me my tools, so I agreed. 

Liu Dali happened to have a dog in his house. When I came to the courtyard, I saw the dog lying on the ground, whining

. It was

curling

 its body into a ball. Its head was cocked 

to the side. 

It ignored me

, 

a stranger who had just intruded into the house. 

I frowned and wanted to approach the dog to see what it was looking at. It could help me guess the direction of that foul thing. Unexpectedly, as soon as I moved close to it, the dog jumped up. I was lucky that it was chained. Otherwise, it could have bitten me already! 

The dog saw 

that I had stopped

 approaching it

 and

 didn’t mind me anymore

. It laid back 

down. This time, it looked 

in another

 direction. I decided to try a few more times. The dog reacted in the same way. However, it would change its direction every time it 

laid

 down. I thought 

that this

 wasn’t a good method. 

I 

wanted to

 wait and see what would happen 

at night

. If that thing was interested in tofu, I thought it would come out, no matter what. 

A 

little girl around four or five years old 

stayed in

Liu Dali’s

 house. He told me she was his granddaughter, a kindergartener in the village. After dinner, the little girl nicely sat down and did her homework. She 

asked

 Liu Dali to help her from time to time. I liked kids, so I 

played

 with her for a while. 

After the little girl 

finished

 her writing exercise, Dali’s wife took her to the bedroom. I lifted my head to check the clock. It was 8:00 PM already,

 and 

Li Mazi hadn’t come here yet. I took out my phone to call him, but the line 

didn’t connect. 

I frowned

. I took 

out the Emei Piercer from my bag and 

rushed

 outside. Liu Dali hurriedly 

ran

after

 me. “What’s wrong?” 

“Uncle Liu, stay here and wait for me. I’m going to fetch my friend.” 

I didn’t turn around

 and ran 

directly to the village entrance. 

Along

 the way, I heard the dogs 

bark non-stop. 

I recognized that the situation 

was

 even more serious than I had imagined. Those dogs had been barking for more than two hours. They should be exhausted. What made them bark and howl 

with no 

regard 

for

 their lives? 

When I 

reached

 the village entrance, I realized that I should call Ru Xue. She told me that Li Mazi had departed right after receiving my call. He had left three hours ago! 

The strange thing was that

 the distance only required one hour!

“Li Mazi, are you here? Li Mazi!” 

I was bewildered for a while

, but

 I pulled myself together

 and called his name

. However, my voice was 

silenced by the 

deafening dog barks. Moreover, Li Mazi wasn’t in the village. If he 

was

, he would have called me. I thought he had accidentally provoked that foul thing. 

Ordinary

 people 

could easily

 enter the village. This time, Li Mazi was carrying the Holy Mother Scepter and the Yin and Yang Umbrella, two powerful weapons. The evil 

creatures

 would automatically 

consider

 him their enemy.  

I patted my thigh in regret. But then, I 

thought of

 a solution. I could read the spell to awake the Holy Mother Scepter. 

Once

 the Holy Mother Scepter radiated gold light, I could spot Li Mazi’s whereabouts! 

It required a lot of magical power to cast the spell 

from a

 distance. However, to save Li Mazi, 

this 

was the only solution I had. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, ready to read the spell. 

At this

 moment, Liu Dali suddenly called me. We

’

d exchanged numbers before dinner

; t

hat

 was

 why he 

had

 my number. 

“Uncle Liu, what’s wrong?” I thought he wanted to know where I was, so I told him that I was at the village entrance. While talking with him, I kept scanning the place. 

Liu Dali’s voice was shaking on the other end of the line. “Young 

Master

, you should come back. Hurry! Something

...

S

omething’s wrong here…”