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Chapter 351 The Woodpecker (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
In a hut by the river, two mountain runners huddled together, quietly waiting for news from Lord Xu.

The two were close friends and chatted casually.

After a while, I felt something was off, like I'd forgotten something...

The two frowned in deep thought, then almost simultaneously slapped their foreheads and remembered: "Where's the adult's goose?"

Old Bai felt increasingly uneasy: "The master entrusted Dafu to us, but why do we always subconsciously overlook it?"

"It was the same at the cook's place before..."

Xu Yuan followed the staged accident perpetrator in front, while Da Fu followed Xu Yuan behind.

Before the operation, Xu Yuan instructed Dafu to follow the two mountain runners. Dafu stared blankly with his goose-like eyes, showing no reaction whatsoever—this meant they could attack or defend as needed.

As for what Fan Zhezi said, I'll pretend I heard it if I want to, and I'll pretend I didn't if I don't want to.

After all, in Xu Yuan's eyes, Dafu always looked like this silly goose whenever he talked to it.

"Tuk tuk tuk..."

That flat mouth really looks like a chisel.

However, the expected scene of sawdust flying everywhere did not occur.

The tree burl writhed in agony, like a pool of viscous black oil, and even tried to stick Dafu's mouth shut.

But Dafu's neck was very strong, and it kept shaking. Every time he chiseled, the burl was hit hard.

After repeating this seventy or eighty times, the burl finally broke open.

With a snap, it was like a boil bursting open.

The foul-smelling sap, along with some tiny, almost invisible, strange insects, splattered out.

Daifuku's target remains those insects.

Guixumu was furious.

How dare a silly goose mess with me!

But before it could react, a rope from the fallen leaves on the ground got tangled around its trunk.

A bark quickly spread upwards, covering its entire canopy.

They were very "skilled" with both rope and leather.

The ropes were wrapped around and tied up, just enough to bind each of the eyes on the main trunk.

The same goes for the skin.

Ghost Beard Wood can completely transform into "grass," and its scent becomes that of grass.

But it still couldn't change its "fate".

When the con artist stopped in this grove of trees, Xu Yuan guessed that the Ghost Beard Tree was nearby.

Then, the scammer suddenly and mindlessly tried to scam the three people, which further solidified Xu Yuan's guess.

Because Guixumu was hiding nearby, the three of them were already very close to Guixumu.

That's why scammers were tasked with being brought out.

This diverted the three people's attention and disrupted their search rhythm.

The three men mentioned that they wanted to capture a mountain runner as bait to lure Gui Xumu. Xu Yuan hesitated whether to follow them because he had already found Gui Xumu using "Looking at Fate".

Xu Yuan ultimately decided to follow them, not because he wanted to continue eavesdropping on their conversation.

Instead, it was to lower Guixumu's guard.

Xu Yuan left, but he left behind the tendon pill and the skin pill.

Daifuku was an accident...

But Dafulai's timing was just right.

When Daifuku hugged the tree, Jindan and Pidan appeared together.

Gui Xumu then prepared to use the "Golden Cicada Shedding Its Shell" technique.

But just as it was about to begin, it was interrupted by Dafu's relentless pounding, the continuous, excruciating pain cutting off the spellcasting...

After Daifuku broke through the tree burl, Oni-shuki became even more enraged, because there was no hope for the fourteenth eye in the near future.

It took a huge risk to steal all the "ailments" it had obtained during the battle between the raven and the cultivator, and they all disappeared.

It angrily pulled its roots out of the earth.

The forest was already filled with a strong yin energy, and now it became even more shrouded in mist, and the temperature dropped sharply.

Dafu shivered from the cold.

Then, he stared in astonishment at his own wings. Dafu thought he must be seeing things; why did he see a pair of pale, human-like little hands growing from beneath his wings?

Those hands were wrinkled, with swollen and bent joints, and were incredibly ugly!

Numerous roots, like ghostly claws, gripped the animal sinew rope and hide, tearing them apart forcefully.

Several others silently circled behind Dafu, raised their heads high, and were about to stab it in the head.

Suddenly, from outside the mist, a handful of counting rods were thrown in with a clatter.

This craftsmanship is of the highest caliber, and even though Xu Yuan doesn't understand "algorithms," it can automatically perform some calculations.

The counting rods flew, and one was nailed into each eye!
Guixumu trembled all over in pain.

Therefore, they did not notice that among these counting rods, there was a clump that stuck to its main stem with a snap.

Immediately afterward, Xu Yuan flew over on his fiery wheels, spewing out a mouthful of fire from his belly, causing the ghosts to squeak and howl.

However, the next moment, there was a loud bang, and Gui Xumu disappeared!

The big fortune clinging to the tree, the sinews and bark wrapped around the tree, and the counting rods nailed to the tree are all still in the same place.

However, their target has become another ordinary big tree.

Xu Yuan immediately understood that Gui Xumu's method was not some kind of "golden cicada shedding its shell," but rather similar to Chang Xunbei's "method" back then.

Swap your position with a large tree somewhere else!
This tactic must be planned in advance.

The limit of this "exchange" is the number of eyes.

Xu Yuan sensed carefully, but did not rush to chase after them.

Just now, Lord Xu threw something onto the tree trunk.

Ghostly Beard Wood possesses both Yin and Yang properties.

The roots of a tree are yin, and the trunk is yang.

Once that thing has eroded for a while longer, it will no longer be able to perform this "exchange" trick, saving me some effort.

……

The three left the forest and found a dark and eerie canyon.

The adult took off his clothes, revealing that his entire upper body was covered in various tattoos!

It looked particularly sinister and terrifying.

He muttered incantations, and then a tattoo on his back came to life, from which emerged a strange insect with three pairs of wings.

The strange insect was ferocious, squeaking and screaming.

The two henchmen retreated thirty paces and covered their ears.

The adult stretched out his finger and fed his blood to the strange insect.

After the strange insects had drunk their fill, a swarm of them flew out of the tattoo with a whoosh.

After hovering above the adults' heads for a moment, it flew towards the surrounding mountains.

The adults, on the other hand, kept their eyes tightly closed and stood motionless.

A short while later, he suddenly opened his eyes and grinned maliciously, "Found them, and two at once, more than enough!"

He followed the strange insect's guidance and ran towards that section of the riverbank.

Two subordinates hurriedly followed.

……

Half an hour later, Xu Yuan leisurely walked up a hillside.

There used to be a large tree growing on the shady side of the slope, but now it has been replaced by a ghost tree.

The "dirty silk" had already covered the tree trunk, like silkworm silk, wrapping around the tree body layer by layer.

The tree eyes were also covered.

Deng Linyue said he had obtained a spider web in an attempt to use it to counter the "golden cicada shedding its shell" technique of the Ghost Beard Wood. Xu Yuan then secretly refined the foul silk into a strange pill.

Within a ten-mile radius, one can sense the location of their own ghost core.

Even if it's more than ten miles away, there's a mysterious connection that can point Lord Xu in the general direction.

With a flick of his wrist, Xu Yuan sent out three hairpins flying out, which were arranged in a "品" shape around a tree eye. With a twist, he gouged out the tree eye.

As expected, Guixumu was no longer able to use that strange technique.

(End of this chapter)