The more you believe me, the more real it becomes.

Chapter 212 Tom and Jerry? ? ? (4k)

Du Yuan also poured the water in her hand into the well.

“I’ve been telling you that as long as you truly let go, you’ll naturally be free. Now, I’ve found three truly effective methods for you, but if they still don’t work, then you can’t blame anyone else!”

Water from the palm falls into the well, and the dragon in the palm surges into the abyss.

After a dizzying spin, the black dragon shook its head violently, and everything finally became clear.

The sky has disappeared, the light of day is gone, and it remains the dark bottom of the well.

For a moment, the black dragon even began to doubt whether it had actually left the area.

Looking down, I saw that the bronze chain was still firmly locked onto the claws.

May he never be able to rise again.

But everything that just happened felt so real.

Especially the image of five fingers supporting the sky, it is a truly unforgettable and shocking sight.

He even felt that at that moment, he heard the profound silence, as if he was just one step away from becoming someone like himself, able to observe the origin of the Tao.

Just as he was about to look up and ask Du Yuan, he suddenly noticed that the eerie blue light floating at the bottom of the well was rapidly dissipating.

Instead, a large net woven with golden patterns was erected.

At this moment, Black Dragon's mind was filled with Du Yuan's words:

"You've endured this for so long, you should have left long ago. But this well isn't sealing away your past sins, it's sealing away the demons in your heart!"

The punishment from the God of the Sun has been removed by the Daoist Master, leaving me with the test of conscience.
If you can break free from the demons in your heart, you can escape your predicament immediately.

Conversely, they will be trapped here forever, with no hope of ever getting out!
For a moment, the black dragon was both surprised and delighted, as well as afraid and terrified.

He couldn't help but bow repeatedly towards the well opening in reverence:

"Thank you, Immortal! Thank you, Immortal! I, Xiaolong, will definitely learn from this painful experience and correct my evil ways!"

Du Yuan then stood up, dusted off her sleeves, and said:

"Now that you understand, it's time for me to set off. I haven't yet gone to see that General Yingtian!"

After saying that, Du Yuan strode away, leaving behind only the Dragon Locking Well, which had transformed from green jade to gold.

Sincerity can move mountains!
You've provided the solution yourself; if you still can't get out of it, don't blame anyone else.
-
The heavy rain is still falling. Although the southwest is almost parched, there is not enough time for the mountains and fields to turn green.

But both in feeling and in reality.

Du Yuan could see that this dead land was beginning to show signs of life.

The only drawback is that once this rain stops, these few glimmers of hope will likely be like rootless duckweed.

After all, the root cause of the drought has not yet been solved!
Thinking about this, Du Yuan felt a little regretful; she should have asked the black dragon more questions beforehand.

Perhaps he will have a clearer understanding of what's going on in the Southwest.

As Du Yuan shook her head, she suddenly heard some noises coming from ahead.

Upon closer inspection, a slight smile instantly appeared on his lips.

interesting!--
At the foot of the small hill, several figures with hunched backs were whispering amongst themselves around a dark cave entrance. Their clothes were so long that they dragged on the ground.

Only upon closer inspection did one realize that these figures were not only short and stocky, but also had cunning features—triangular, slanted eyes, sharp noses, and thin, sunken lips.

Anyone who sees it will think to themselves – it really looks like a petty thief.

What's even stranger is that they're always restless under their clothes, occasionally sweeping out a bit of gray dust, making a rustling sound on the ground, and then suddenly withdrawing the sound.

As something they had hidden in the cave rolled out.

The leader immediately punched the guy next to him in the forehead:
"Look what you've done! It's all gone, go and get it back!"

The other party hurriedly covered their head and ran away.

After dodging a couple of punches, he jogged after the thing that had rolled away.

Strangely enough, this little thing wasn't exactly round and hard to stop, but it just kept rolling forward.

The person in such a hurry was almost on all fours.

"Hurry up, we need to get hidden so we can set off! If the King's affairs are delayed, none of us can afford the consequences!"

Upon hearing this, the guy, who was already almost on all fours, immediately started running on the ground without caring about anything else.

Believe it or not, even though it looks like a person with two legs, it crawls faster than it runs!
I still can't catch up with what rolled away.

It didn't stop until it hit something.

Just then, the person who caught up saw what he had bumped into—a boot.

It was a pair of boots that, despite being caught in a downpour, remained completely dry and free of mud and moisture!

After swallowing hard, the person who had chased after the thing cautiously raised his head to look.

At this moment, Du Yuan leaned forward slightly and smiled:

"Wow, what a huge rat!"

The man was instantly terrified and revealed his true form, transforming from his previous shifty-eyed appearance into a living, breathing rat!

It darted back to its companions in a flash.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Its companions also came to look, and soon saw the remarkable Du Yuan at a glance.

For a moment, even the rat spirits seemed quite wary.

But the one in the lead shouted loudly and pointed at Du Yuan, saying:
"Hey! You man, who are you? Why don't you kneel down before your Grandpa Rat?"

Then, adopting the air of a martial arts expert, he shouted:
"Don't you know that your Grandpa Rat is the first mythical beast in the twelve zodiac animals?"

Everything was fine until the last sentence made Du Yuan laugh.

What does that have to do with you?
"A mythical beast?" Du Yuan's voice was filled with barely suppressed amusement. "In my opinion, it's more like a rat spirit that stole someone's offerings and dared to use its zodiac sign as a cover."

After saying that, Du Yuan picked up the things that had rolled to her feet.

It wasn't food, but a candlestick.

Moreover, it's obvious that it's also imbued with some incense offerings and prayers.

It might not mean much to ordinary cultivators, but to these little monsters, it's probably a real treasure.

In particular, they are a bunch of rat spirits who steal everything.

As soon as these words were spoken, the monster's henchmen erupted in chaos. One of them, who was unusually thin even among them, shrieked:
"How dare you insult our boss! Do you know who's in charge of this area?"

As they spoke, they pulled out several short iron rods from who-knows-where, to show that they were not to be trifled with!

"Oh?" Du Yuan raised an eyebrow, glancing at the rusty short sticks in their hands, her gaze finally settling on the felt hat worn askew at the head of the group. "You actually have some kind of leadership? I wonder what's the story behind your leadership position? Don't tell me you just shamelessly bestowed it upon yourselves?"

These words turned the faces of the monsters a deep purplish-red, and the leader shouted, "You...you're asking for death!"

Having said that, it howled and pounced forward, and the others followed suit and rushed forward as well.

The one in the lead only made it halfway before letting out a cry of "Ouch!" and tumbling face-first into the mud, rolling all the way to Du Yuan's feet. Du Yuan looked down at it, lightly tapping the fallen hat with the tip of her boot, and said:
"When it comes to ranking people, you should first see if you are worthy. The Rat in the Chinese zodiac is about patrolling at midnight and guarding the granary, not about you guys using your zodiac sign as a signboard for villains."

The one in the lead was still dizzy and confused, but the others behind him clearly saw that their leader had fallen out of thin air and rolled away like a ball!
Spells, it's spells!

It's a spell they've only ever seen with the Great King!

In an instant, the little monsters knelt on the ground, threw away their short iron rods, and kowtowed repeatedly, saying:

"Oh dear, Grandpa, have mercy! Grandpa, have mercy! We were blind and didn't recognize your greatness. We didn't mean to frighten you, Grandpa Immortal!"

The one in the lead finally recovered.

As it looked closely at the cuckoo in front of it, it finally realized something was wrong.

The rain was so heavy that it turned the roads into rivers.

How come this grandpa's clothes are still dry?!
"Grandpa Immortal, spare my life! I haven't done anything heinous! At most, I've stolen a few things. It's true I'm not very honest, but it's nothing serious!"

Du Yuan also squatted down and said:
"If I hadn't seen through that, how could you little monsters have survived in front of me?"

The little demons quickly expressed their gratitude:

"Thank you so much, Grandpa Immortal! Thank you so much, Grandpa Immortal!"

Du Yuan then pointed to the entrance of the hole where they hid things and said:
"I see that most of what you've hidden are just random junk, probably unwanted even if you send them back. But a few items are offerings from the altar, and you must return those intact!"

These little monsters are indeed naive and inexperienced.

They stole things like wooden sticks, broken porcelain bowls, and tattered fishing nets.

I reckon it's only recently become sentient, which is why it thinks everything is a good thing.

Du Yuan could even imagine their reactions when they saw these things—oh dear, this stick can be used to hit people! Oh my, this bowl can hold water! Good heavens, this thing can even catch other things in a net!
They're all treasures!
Looking up at the tops of their heads, wow, it really is!

Du Yuan couldn't help but laugh.

"Good heavens, you little monsters! Seriously, never mind, never mind, I'll stop here. I'll save you some face!"

It's bad, it's a bit bad, but it's so bad that it's almost laughable.

The little demons kowtowed repeatedly.

After Du Yuan finished laughing, she stood up and said:
"I am going to solve the great disaster in the southwest. Once the drought in the southwest is over, the people will return one after another. Although you few are rat spirits, everyone hates to kill you."

"But precisely because you are transformed from rats, you can try to communicate with your fellow rats, uh, your kind? In short, you can try to communicate with the other rats and stop them from stealing the people's food."

Du Yuan was also a little confused. For monsters, are their original forms still considered to be of the same kind?

But he continued:
"Over time, you might be able to get some offerings and a shrine from the villagers!"

For ordinary people, food is of paramount importance, which is why cats are so popular.

As a result, there are quite a few places that have built shrines for cats.

Although they are rats, that doesn't mean they can't achieve the same effect by controlling other rats.

Moreover, Du Yuan remembered that there were places where temples were built for rats, although they were very niche.

But what ordinary people want is something that works; whether the one doing the work is a mouse or a cat doesn't matter!
These little monsters aren't really demons; at most, they're just spirits.

Of course, I'll try to help out.

No one has ever said that demons can only be guided to goodness but not to goodness.

The former is meritorious, but the latter is even more so!
The little monsters were so frightened they almost vomited their hearts out, so they couldn't listen to anything else and just begged the immortal grandfather to leave quickly.

So they all readily agreed:
"We understand, we understand!"

Du Yuan sighed helplessly and said:

"It's not just about remembering it verbally, it's about remembering it in your heart!"

The one in the lead was about to answer when he suddenly looked at Du Yuan and paused in surprise.

After a moment, it finally realized what was happening and asked:

"Grandpa Immortal, are you the one who refined immortal pills in the southwest before?"

"Yes, that is me!"

Du Yuan nodded and smiled.

But then they heard the group of little demons suddenly burst into joy.

"It's truly a blessing from heaven! We never imagined we'd actually meet you, Grandpa Immortal!"

Du Yuan asked curiously:
"What does this mean?"

The lead demon said:
"So that Grandpa Immortal may know, we little monsters were sent out to find you by order of the King!"

Then, somewhat embarrassed, he pointed to the entrances to his hiding places and said:

"Hehe, I was planning to hide all the treasures I'd collected along the way before looking for you, but I never expected you to run into us first!"

A monster is looking for me?
Is it because they're not afraid of death, or is there another reason?
For example, someone might feel they have accumulated merit and therefore request a title or honor.
Du Yuan became increasingly curious.

Since arriving in the Southwest, all sorts of demons and monsters, while not necessarily avoiding him, have certainly not dared to come looking for him!

Nowadays, I'm afraid even those old folks are a little afraid to see him.

Unexpectedly, there were even monsters looking for him.

Do you know why you've come to see me?

The little demons were immediately stumped:

"Well, we don't know. We're just doing the work; how would we know what the kings mean?"

Du Yuan, having gleaned some further information, smiled and said:

"Kings? You have more than one king above you?"

The little demon immediately said:
"Yes, yes, to be honest, Grandpa Immortal, we are all little demons from the Cat and Dog Cave. We have two great kings in our cave!"

A cat and dog hole?!

A strange thought popped into Du Yuan's mind, and then she pointed at them and asked:

"Are you telling me that your two kings are a cat and a dog?"

The little demon quickly flattered:
"Grandpa Immortal is indeed incredibly powerful, he knows all this! The cat transformed into our Second King, who specifically leads us little monsters, while the dog transformed into our First King! The most powerful king in our Cat and Dog Cave!"

"Not only do they possess powerful magic, but the people they transform into aren't as deformed as us!"

Du Yuan couldn't help but chuckle as she listened.

Good heavens, a cat king leading a bunch of mice, and a dog king living in the same cave as the cat.

what is this?
A family portrait of Tom and Jerry?
After shaking her head, Du Yuan asked:

“Alright, this is such a rare thing, I must go and see. Lead the way.”

Missing out on something so rare would definitely be incredibly frustrating.

(End of this chapter)