Wait a minute, where is my master?

The Banyan Tree Elf was no more.

...

...

Even though Jin Xu had done his best to control the power of his Hand Palm Thunder, he still created a deep pit in the ground.

He even brought out the groundwater.

At the time, Jin Xu wanted to have another chat with the tree that had turned into a "vegetable."

But his sincere questions were met with nothing but merciless thrashing.

Jin Xu had no choice but to leap high into the air and bring down a heaven-sent Hand Palm Thunder on the Banyan Tree Elf.

Golden thunderbolts spread into the depths of the earth.

Standing beside the pit that had turned into a fountain, Jin Xu murmured to himself.

"Actually, if things were really as you said, I might choose to seek revenge too," he said.

"But I'm not a child. I can't just believe whatever you say. So go in peace. Once I investigate and if there truly is such a matter, with a clear target for the grudge, I'll avenge you."

...

The commotion startled all the villagers of Da An Village.

Everyone gathered in the small square in front of the village ancestral hall, a place where the villagers of Da An Village would worship their ancestors and pray for blessings during the holidays and festivals.

It was Jin Xu who had asked An Laoxiang to call everyone there.

An Laoxiang stood beside Jin Xu, with Little White and Yu Yaoer next to them.

Xu Qian lay on the ground in a coma. In truth, his injuries were not severe, mostly superficial wounds.

It was Jin Xu's fall that was more serious. Even after Yu Yaoer's treatment, there were still no signs of him regaining consciousness.

The young Taoist silently apologized in his heart to this young man who had a strong sense of justice but lacked the strength to back it up.

Then.

In front of everyone, he recounted the old story that the lame elder had told him from forty-two years ago, which made Yaoer's impression of An Laoxiang even worse.

The villagers, on the other hand, remained silent.

After listening to the old story, An Laoxiang sighed deeply, "Ah~~ Taoist, you are a good person, but I have another story to tell if you're willing to listen?"

At that moment, Yaoer stepped up to Jin Xu's side, wanting to talk to him about the counterfeit silver.

But the young Taoist had already signaled An Laoxiang to tell his story.

......

Forty-two years ago, there was a small mountain village where two sworn brothers who were not related by blood partnered up to plant trees. When the trees grew large, they sold them to the wealthy merchants of the city. Though they weren't wealthy, they lived comfortably. One day, the elder brother discovered that his sworn brother had succumbed to temptation and, under the pretext of delivering trees, had secretly kidnapped children from nearby villages and hidden them within the trees before sending them to the city in exchange for gold and silver.

The elder brother was very angry when he found out, but it was his own sworn brother after all.

They argued fiercely several times, but since the sworn brother never harmed the children from their own village, and out of brotherly affection, the elder brother ultimately could not bring himself to expose him.

Until one day, the elder brother's wife took their eldest son and younger daughter to visit her family. On the way back, the younger daughter went missing. As soon as the elder brother learned of this, he immediately sought out his sworn brother.

It turned out that his men had taken the wrong child, not recognizing her.

Unfortunately, by the time the girl was discovered, she had already been sent to the city.

The sworn brother was powerless to reverse the situation.

The elder brother then tasted the bitter fruit of his indulgence towards his own brother.

So the elder brother cut down all the banyan trees and from then on, only planted eucalyptus trees that couldn't hide people inside them.

Even though he didn't go to the authorities to reveal everything, disrupting someone's livelihood was akin to killing one's parents, and the two eventually became estranged, with the sworn brother dying in depression.

A year later, the child trafficking done by the city's wealthy merchant was discovered by the Great Xia Empire, who ordered severe punishment. Unexpectedly, on one fateful night, 138 members of that merchant's family were all tragically killed.

It seemed like retribution.

The investigation later traced the trafficking channel back to this small mountain village, but since the main culprit was already dead, leaving only his young son, and given the Emperor Xia's graciousness, they did not pursue the matter further.

And this incident, the sworn elder brother only told his son.

He also exhorted his son to take good care of the descendants of his sworn brother.

"The elder brother in this story is my father, and that little girl was my sister. The kind of treatment I've given to Elder Rong over these years has been witnessed by all the villagers. I've advised him, but he just refused to join us in planting eucalyptus trees. I had no choice but to give him my share of the profits," shared An Laoxiang, whose voice was already choked with emotion.

The surrounding villagers were also buzzing with discussion.

"The village chief has indeed treated Elder Rong well over the years."

"That sworn brother was really no good, even trafficking the daughter of his sworn elder brother."

"But they said it was because his men didn't recognize her."

"Hmph, who knows if that's true or not."

"If you ask me, that elder brother wasn't all that great either!"

"Right, he felt regret only after his own daughter was trafficked, pah!"

An Laoxiang gestured for everyone to quiet down and then continued, "Later, I sent the old tiger to deliver silver to him. He said the tiger and I were putting on airs and even cursed the tiger as a bastard. The tiger had been drinking at the time and, on impulse, broke his leg. I found a doctor for him afterward, but he refused, and so his leg has remained crippled."

"I never imagined he would harbor such hatred toward me. When my sister went missing, I only blamed his father, never him." An Laoxiang was overcome with tears.

After hearing An Laoxiang's story, Jin Xu thought to himself, "It truly is a bizarre and twisted tale."

Yu Yaoer then asked, "You've talked for quite a while, but only you know about this. How can you prove that what you're saying is true?"

An Laoxiang remained silent.

Yu Yaoer turned to look at Jin Xu.

"Young Master, you can't trust this old man's words. I'm telling you, he..."

"I can prove it."

A weak voice came from beneath their feet; it was Xu Qian.

He had actually woken up earlier, but thinking of how he had previously protected the little Taoist and told them to run quickly had made him slightly uncomfortable, so he had been feigning unconsciousness the whole time.

But after listening to the entire story, he couldn't help but speak up.

"I can prove it. What he says is true," Xu Qian struggled to sit up from the ground, leaning on his long saber.

"When I first joined the night watchmen, I went through old archives to accumulate merits more quickly. The case of the Zheng family in Gusu City colluding with the Demon Sect to abduct children, where one hundred and thirty-eight members died overnight, is one I remember. The records mentioned Da Rong Village, stating that the culprit was dead, leaving only a child, and that there was no need for further investigation."

An Laoxiang quickly said, "Our village used to be called Da Rong Village."

"If you don't believe me, I'll bring a copy of the records when I return," Xu Qian was now genuinely afraid Jin Xu wouldn't believe him.

Jin Xu nodded and gave Xu Qian the specific address of his Taoist temple.

Now that he knew the truth, Jin Xu no longer wanted to stay any longer.

The demon had been vanquished, and the calamity resolved.

Jin Xu left with his fish and dog, heading home.

Yu Yaoer: "Young Master..."

Little Fish Demon hesitated, lost for words.

"Let's go, back to the Taoist temple first," the little Taoist said, waving his hand.

The rain in the sky had already stopped. Upon leaving Da An Village, Jin Xu and Yu Yaoer rode on Little White's back.

The little Taoist thought to himself,

"This world is not only dangerous but also very complicated."

...

...

As Jin Xu and his company left Da An Village,

An Laoxiang, supporting the wobbly Xu Qian, visited the "site" of his beating to look for some evidence, but when they arrived, they found that the small courtyard had become a fountain.

Standing next to the fountain, Xu Qian mused,

This strike must have been from a power at the Refining Void Realm, he guessed. After all, the highest realm he'd ever seen was his own master's, and his master was a brute from the Body Cultivation school.

He looked so young, but could he actually be an old monster?

Thinking back on how he had told them to run first, the embarrassment made his wounds feel less painful.

After examining inside the house and finding nothing but some broken furniture, they found a set of apricot-yellow Taoist robes and a Peach Wood Sword under the bed.

An Laoxiang said they looked like the belongings of the expert they had hired before.

Now they belonged to Xu Qian, mainly to be used as physical evidence.

"Hey!" An Laoxiang suddenly called out, holding something in his chest.

Xu Qian, startled, quickly stood at the ready with his saber, only to find there was no immediate danger.

"What are you shouting for?"

"Huge trouble, huge trouble!" An Laoxiang exclaimed anxiously.

"What's wrong?" Xu Qian didn't understand; with the tree elf resolved, what could make the old man so agitated?

"Earlier, I was carrying silver to find a recluse expert. With all the recent disturbances near Gusu City, I placed two money bags on me, one real and one fake, in case I ran into bandits and needed to barter. But just now, I realized that I accidentally gave the fake money bag to the little Taoist," An Laoxiang said with a downcast face.

Xu Qian couldn't help but laugh in disbelief.

He consoled An Laoxiang, suggesting that a recluse expert like the little Taoist wouldn't care about such worldly possessions.

"Still, old man, you should find a chance to explain, or he might think you deliberately deceived him. Be careful or your entire Da An Village might turn into a fountain, hahaha."

Xu Qian ended with a playful jest.

Then he hummed a tune and swayed back toward Gusu City to find his Little Hong, Xiangxiang, and Du Juan.

An Laoxiang hesitated on the spot for a moment but then, gritting his teeth and stamping his foot, he decided to take a drastic approach with Taoist Jin Xu!