Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

Just as Black Claw was about to succeed, Gou An threw a ball of Nine-Separation Demon Fire at him.

Bang!

A flash of light!

The dark figure was instantly knocked over.

Gou An leaped up and stomped the dark figure under his foot.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a large black-feathered bird, of unknown species.

Upon being discovered, the blackbird struggled frantically to escape, but it was no match for Gou An's control.

Gou An sniffed the black bird and discovered that it was not an ordinary bird, but a demonic beast.

In such a place with so little spiritual energy, there are actually demonic beasts? That's quite rare.

It immediately set its sights on Fatty. Maybe the recent rumors about child traffickers stealing children were the work of this strange bird?

Thinking of this, Gou An did not hesitate and stomped down hard.

With a snap, the strange bird was stomped to death and could no longer move.

Then Gou An took out its demon core and saw that it only had one pattern on it.

It's just a first-tier demon beast, only slightly stronger than an ordinary wild animal.

For Gou An at this point, the first-tier demon core was useless, and keeping it would be a waste of storage space, so he crushed it and threw it aside.

Gou An kicked the strange bird's corpse away again, so that its stench wouldn't disturb his sleep.

After doing all this, Gou An sat back down under the tree.

Turning his head to look at the chubby girl beside him, he saw that she was still sleeping soundly, smacking her lips as if she was dreaming of eating some delicious food, with drool dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"This chubby girl is sleeping so soundly!" Gou An couldn't help but pinch the chubby girl's cheek again.

When it was dawn, Gou An led Fatty Ya on their way.

As for where to send Fatty, Gou An hasn't decided yet.

If you encounter a suitable sect along the way, you can give it a try.

If there isn't a suitable one, take her to the City of Ten Thousand Demons. With her talent, it should be fine to have Master Wenxu as her master.

After all, Master Wenxu was also a Golden Core cultivator, which was more than enough for him.

Arriving at the next town, Gou An knew that Fatty had a big appetite, so he specially bought a lot of dry food.

The little girl kept eating as soon as she came in, riding on the donkey's back with a flatbread in her left hand and a roast chicken in her right, her mouth dripping with oil.

While eating, she said to Gou An, "Don't worry, Immortal Master, I won't eat your food for nothing. When I have the ability in the future, I will definitely treat you back to double the amount."

"Alright!" Gou An led the donkey down the street, chuckling happily. "But I'm not interested in any of this food."

"What are you interested in, Immortal Master?" Fatty asked quickly.

"Spirit stones!" Gou An flipped his hand and took out a small, white stone the size of a jujube. "These are little things like this. When you become successful in the future, just send me some of these!"

"So the Immortal Master likes stones!" the chubby girl said while chewing. "I'll definitely send the Immortal Master more of these in the future."

Just as Gou An was about to leave the town with Pang Ya, his ears suddenly twitched as he heard the commotion in the town.

At this time, a large crowd gathered outside the courtyard of one of the houses, discussing the matter animatedly.

I could vaguely hear them talking about monsters and children, so I led the donkey over.

Only when we got closer did we understand what was going on here.

It turned out that a strange black bird had broken into the family's house last night and almost stole the child.

Fortunately, the child's father reacted quickly and injured the strange bird with an axe, thus saving the monster.

However, the child's father was also scratched by the strange bird, his face turned bluish-black, and he was on the verge of death.

The family could only consult traditional Chinese medicine doctors, but several doctors were unable to help.

Gou An came to the low wall, just enough to peek out and see what was happening inside the courtyard.

The child's father was lying on a wooden chair, breathing weakly, while an elderly doctor was examining him.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" A woman standing nearby asked, holding the hand of a seven or eight-year-old boy with a worried expression.

The old doctor shook his head, sighing, "It's not poisoning, it's not illness, there's nothing I can do!"

"What's wrong?" The woman's worry deepened as she watched the doctor struggle with the problem.

"It's like an evil spirit has entered the body; ordinary medicine is useless!" The old doctor stroked his beard and sighed helplessly.

"Are there any other ways?" the woman asked hastily.

The child's father is the pillar of the family; if the man falls ill, life will be difficult from then on.

"Based on what you said before!" the old doctor said, "the strange bird that injured your husband last night is most likely an evil spirit. To cure it completely, we need to remove its evil energy."

"Therefore, we need to find someone who practices spiritual cultivation."

"Where are we supposed to look for this?" The woman looked desperate upon hearing this, and tears streamed down her face involuntarily.

Gou An understood what was happening and couldn't help but think of the strange bird he had encountered the night before.

There's more than one of these monsters?

If that's the case, then the demon horde is in the vicinity.

That makes it even stranger!

In such a place with sparse spiritual energy, it might be enough to support one or two demonic beasts, but it would be far from sufficient to support a whole group of them.

Combining this with previous reports, the child loss incident was only a recent occurrence, meaning these strange birds only recently arrived in the vicinity.

However, the activities of ordinary monster groups are within a fixed range, and only individual monsters can roam around.

Just as Gou An was pondering this, a person suddenly walked into the courtyard and said to the weeping woman, "This humble Taoist priest can cure him!"

Upon hearing this, everyone's attention turned to him.

Gou An also looked at the man and found that he was an old man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties. He was wearing a plain robe, had a goatee, and looked like he had some Taoist skills.

"Are you a monk?" Upon seeing this, the woman quickly wiped away her tears and asked curiously.

The old man nodded slightly and said, "I am Qingfeng Daoist, and I can barely be considered to have some cultivation and practice."

"Since you are a Taoist priest, please save my husband!" the woman pleaded immediately.

The old man who called himself Qingfeng Daoren nodded and walked up, while the old doctor next to him voluntarily gave up his place.

Qingfeng Daoist walked up to the man, reached out and examined him several times, then nodded slightly.

"It is indeed an evil spirit entering the body!" Qingfeng Daoren gave his diagnosis.

"How should it be treated?" the woman asked hurriedly. "How can we cooperate?"

Master Qingfeng simply smiled and said, "It's simple. The one that hurt him was just a low-level demonic beast. We just need to remove the evil energy."

As he spoke, he stretched out two fingers and pressed on various acupoints on the man's body. A moment later, the man suddenly stood up and began to complain bitterly to the ground.

Finally, it vomited out a disgusting, black, fleshy ball covered in black feathers that was even wriggling slightly.

The onlookers all looked disgusted and repulsed when they saw this thing.

The next second, Qingfeng Daoist suddenly flicked his fingers together, and a ball of spiritual fire condensed out of thin air at his fingertips.

Such a miracle caused everyone present to gasp in astonishment.

"break!"

The next second, Qingfeng Daoist pointed two fingers at the fleshy ball, and flames shot out, igniting the fleshy ball.

Soon, the black fleshy mass was burned to a pile of charcoal, and at the same time, the man returned to normal.

Seeing her husband recover, the woman immediately knelt down to express her gratitude: "Thank you so much, Taoist priest!"

Master Qingfeng simply stroked his beard and slowly said, "No need for thanks. I came here on the orders of my sect to investigate matters concerning demons and evil spirits."

He then turned to the onlookers and said, "Recently, a large number of children have gone missing in this area. It's not the work of human traffickers as rumored, but rather the work of evil spirits that prey on children."

Upon hearing this, the onlookers gasped in surprise once again.

Although there had been rumors that it was the work of a monster, it was still surprising to actually confirm it.

"But don't worry, everyone!" Qingfeng Daoist continued, "I am an elder of the Six Blessings Sect, and I assure you that I will eliminate this evil spirit and restore peace to everyone."

Everyone expressed their gratitude once again after hearing this.

"However..." Qingfeng Daoist suddenly changed the subject, "This demon's movements are elusive, and capturing him will not be easy. Even I alone cannot protect everyone."

At this point, he suddenly pulled out a stack of talismans from his pocket and continued, "I have exorcism talismans here. Stick them on the door of your house, and they can ward off these evil spirits."

"Just three taels of silver per piece, and you'll be safe!"

Having witnessed the miracles performed by Qingfeng Daoren, no one doubted anything further.

Although three taels of silver was not a small amount of money for them, most people rushed forward to buy it immediately for the safety of their families.

Gou An watched from the sidelines as the old Taoist priest sold out a large stack of talismans in no time, earning at least a thousand taels of silver in one go.

Luckily, he had a storage bag; otherwise, it would have been difficult to carry such a large bag of silver.

Out of curiosity, Gou An gave the fat girl three taels of silver and told her to buy one as well.

After the old Taoist priest sold out of talismans, he addressed the crowd, "Everyone, don't go out after dark. Lock your doors and windows, and affix the talismans properly, and you'll be fine. I'm going to search for the demon's tracks now!"

With that, he leaped up and flew away, causing the onlookers to gasp in astonishment.

"Wow! That old man is amazing!" Fatty exclaimed in surprise when she saw it.

The people who had bought the talismans dispersed, eager to get home and put them up as soon as possible.

Gou An gazed thoughtfully in the direction where Qingfeng Shangren had left. The spiritual energy fluctuations on this person were not strong; at most, he was only at the Qi Refining realm.

He's even less capable than the Taoist Master Fuling we met before; he might only be at the Meridian Opening stage.

"Let me see the talisman!" Gou An snapped out of his thoughts and took the talisman from the fat girl's hand.

What Gou An didn't expect was that the talisman spontaneously combusted as soon as he got his hands on it.

However, the fire was too weak, and Gou An had a half-body of fire-infused holy body, making him immune to fire damage, so it couldn't cause any harm at all.

"There's actually something there!" Gou An clenched his fist and extinguished the flames.

I initially thought this person was a conman trying to make money off me, but to my surprise, the talisman he gave me actually had some effect in exorcising demons.

Unfortunately, this talisman is only so-so and can't deal with a powerful demon like Gou An who has transformed into human form.

As for the Six Blessings Sect he mentioned, Gou An had never heard of it before; it was probably just a small sect in a local area.