For ten years I practiced Gu poison in Southeast Asia; all living beings revered me as a deity.

"understood."

Luo Feng lowered his head, as if he had thought of something again, and asked, "Master, speaking of which, I haven't seen Senior Brother Liu these past two days. I remember he doesn't live in the city, and usually travels around Lipan, right?"

"Didn't the Yang family in the village, led by Yang Caifa, have that mother-in-law and daughter-in-law run into some kind of cat-faced old woman?"

Diao Wudou took a sip of tea.

"I've asked your Senior Brother Liu to investigate this matter. It should be an evil entity, not particularly powerful, but if it succeeds, it will cause some trouble..."

A tactic to lure the tiger away from the mountain!

Luo Feng's thoughts shifted, and he asked, "Aren't the other senior brothers joining in either?"

"Your third and fourth senior brothers are both married, and your fifth and sixth brothers are busy with the family's pharmacy. They all have their own things to do."

Diao Wudou laughed.

"What are you afraid of, kid... Even if the sky falls, I'm tall enough to hold it up. Alright, let's go."

Luo Feng didn't know what else to say, so he nodded and turned to leave the Red Head Datuk Temple.

……

……

After Luo Feng left, Diao Wudou's mood also became somewhat heavy.

He retrieved the iron abacus passed down through generations of his sect, closed his eyes, and began to move the beads with his fingers!

After a series of crackling sounds, Diao Wudou's hands trembled slightly. He exhaled a breath of stale air, lowered his head, and stared at the abacus again. A divination result had already appeared on the abacus.

He stared at it for a long time and came to a conclusion: this was an ominous sign.

"Obstruction inevitably leads to difficulty, hence the consequence is hardship. Hardship signifies difficulty..."

"The upper trigram is Kan, which represents water. The lower trigram is Gen, which represents mountain. High mountains and deep waters naturally present numerous dangers and difficulties, and being surrounded by water, one stops at the sight of danger..."

With danger ahead and formidable obstacles behind, this hexagram is naturally inauspicious.

The old man sighed and glanced again at the iron ship token on the table.

"According to the divination, 'Iron comes from the mountain, and boats sail on water'... It seems that the Iron Boat Order will fall into the hands of my little apprentice Ding Miaosheng, which is indeed aimed at me."

The arrival of that "Iron Ship Order" naturally brought back memories of a bygone era.

Inside the temple, time ticked by, and Diao Wudou was completely lost in thought. He pondered for most of the day, from afternoon to evening, and all the way into the night.

The tea that the mute man had brewed had gone cold, so the old man came over and changed the tea for him, then served him porridge and some pickled vegetables to go with it.

Diao Wudou ate a rather light meal, but this time he didn't touch his chopsticks at all, only drinking a little tea.

Incense was burning in front of the altar, and candles were lit in the main room.

Diao Wudou usually goes to bed early, but today he was wide awake. The old man frowned, one hand on the abacus, the other tapping the armrest of the chair with his index finger.

A soft thumping sound echoed continuously in the temple's main hall.

"Mao Geng... It happened decades ago, yet you still can't forget it. Such deep-seated obsession, inability to let go, inability to understand, and inability to find peace of mind will inevitably become your own torment..."

The old man sighed deeply.

The night wind was biting, and as he looked back on the past, Diao Wudou gradually began to recall those days.

More than thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye. I forgot about it quickly, but I didn't expect that my old friends would still remember this matter.

He suddenly thought of something, and his gaze shifted to the sky. He noticed that the moon was emerging from the clouds in the night sky outside the courtyard.

However, the moonlight was not bright; it seemed to be just a hazy halo around the moon.

Diao Wudou carefully observed the moon, his gaze becoming somewhat strange.

He had seen the moon quite often as well.

However, the moon before him aroused strong doubts in the old man.

—The moon is oval, and there's a hazy halo around it, but...it's not the third day of the lunar month, so why is there a moon in the sky?!

The old man's eyes changed. He carefully observed the moon and found that it was a pale white color, and on it was a simple human face.

This face, including eyes, nose, mouth, and different eyebrows and eyes, gives people a stiff feeling.

"So that's what happened?"

Diao Wudou noticed this scene and had some thoughts in mind. He didn't get up from his chair, but instead spoke with a solemn expression: "Friend from whoever you are, you're already here, why not show yourself?"

...cough cough cough.

Suddenly someone coughed a few times and laughed: "Mr. Diao, you're too kind. But I'm here to take your life today, so this politeness is a bit unnecessary."

The main room was neither too big nor too small, but the surrounding scenery was all visible, except for Diao Wudou, there was no one else in sight.

Strangely enough, even though it's the transition season between spring and summer, tonight's night isn't hot and humid, but rather unusually cold and damp.

Your voice sounds unfamiliar.

Diao Wudou had never heard this voice before. He thought the voice was very old, and that the other person was an old man, just like himself.

"But I should know you very well..."

The altar attendant at the Datuk Temple slowly rose, his steps unsteady, the moonlight and candlelight casting a slanted shadow.

"If I'm not mistaken, my friend, you and I have known each other for quite a few years! We've gotten along well all these years, so why make things awkward for both of us?"

Diao Wudou sighed, "We're both this old now, who knows how many more years we have left to live? We might as well just make do and get along like this."

That's true.

The aged voice gave a bitter laugh: "Precisely because we neither of us will live much longer, we naturally have to do what we should do."

"We're both getting on in years, we don't have many more years to live, why bother fighting like this?"

Diao Wudou pondered, "Uncle Ya, I've taken you in for fifteen years now, and I don't think I've treated you badly. What benefits did that bastard Mao Geng give you that made you willing to risk your life for him?"

—It turns out that the person hiding in the shadows was none other than the mute old man who had been taking care of Diao Wudou and Aunt Shen.

"'The incense array soars to the heavens, the gods bless me! The three kings lead the way, the iron ships clear the path'... I, Deng Shengqian, am not your enemy for personal grudges, nor am I acting on behalf of someone else!"

The mute man snorted coldly, "Things have come to this point, there's no need for further words! Diao Wudou, let me see your true abilities!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the moon with the human face in the sky fell down.

boom!

The night suddenly darkened! In the instant of its descent, the human-faced moon transformed into a ghastly white ghost face.

This terrifying face suddenly tilted downwards, its mouth opening and closing, revealing a gaping maw filled with countless sharp teeth.

The old man's entire figure was almost completely covered by this huge mouth.

"...Wind and fire, rush forth swiftly!"

Diao Wudou had not expected the opponent's attack to be so fast. He quickly chanted an incantation and stomped his foot hard.

Bang!

The ground, like a drum, was shaken by some force, and burst out with a loud bang.

At the same time, the shadow of Diao Wudou, which was illuminated on the ground by the moonlight and candlelight, seemed to tire of the flat surface and rose off the ground like a "living thing," transforming into a pitch-black ghost hand more than ten feet long. The palm was spread out like a millstone and forcefully lifted upwards.

In an instant, these two forces, one rising and one falling, one sinking and one floating, seemed to collide with each other, producing a chemical reaction.

boom!

A burst of green light erupted.

Dazzling as lightning.

Suddenly, the entire temple hall was covered in a ghastly green.