The short man continued, "Daoist Ximen Zi said that the Rakshasa bird's perception is far beyond that of ordinary people. I'm afraid that before the hunter could even get close, it would have fled thousands of miles away.

He suggested that he go and strangle the demon.

The master hurriedly asked what they needed to prepare.

Daoist Ximen Zi said that all he needed was a fine horse.

The servant led the horse over. The Daoist kicked off the ground, his figure fluttering up, mounted the horse, and urged it to rush out of Long County.

He set off in the early morning, and before noon, he returned with the head of a strange bird dripping with blood."

"Good! Slaying a demon in ten steps, leaving no trace for a thousand miles."

The fat man was fascinated when he heard this, and couldn't help but applaud Daoist Ximen Zi, instantly becoming his fan.

The short man continued, "The great revenge was suddenly avenged, and the family was overjoyed and wept.

Daoist Ximen Zi righteously refused the gift money, and cast a spell, pinching the sword technique, and pointing it at the foreheads of the newly married couple who had lost their eyes.

They saw foul-smelling blood flowing from the dark eye sockets of the newlyweds. Amidst the frightened onlookers,

Tiny eyeballs actually grew in the couple's dark eye sockets, changing from small to large, growing in the wind.

In a few breaths, they regained their sight."

The thin man who first mentioned the rumors of Daoist Ximen Zi couldn't help but be astonished, "This... in this world, there is such a magical immortal technique?!

I have also heard many rumors about strange people and strangers from all over the world, but even the reclusive monks who are best at the art of Qihuang (traditional Chinese medicine) probably have no way to restore sight to eyes that have lost their eyeballs.

Daoist Ximen Zi is truly a divine man!"

This kind of bizarre Zhi Guai (tales of the strange) story is most suitable for drinking. The three men toasted each other, all admiring Daoist Ximen Zi's chivalrous behavior.

"After Daoist Ximen Zi healed the newly married couple, he still didn't take a penny in the face of the grateful crowd.

He only took some vegetarian meals, then left Long County and went to the villages where the Rakshasa bird had committed crimes before, to cure the blind there."

In the next room, the Brahman monk Qiyu frowned and remained silent.

He himself was very good at the art of Qihuang and could use ordinary herbs to refine pills with different effects.

But he didn't think that it was possible to grow eyeballs back in the eye sockets—this was completely beyond his understanding.

Perhaps only the legendary Buddhas and Da Luo Jin Xian (Golden Immortals) could bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh on bones. How could a mere wild Taoist in the countryside do that?

Qiyu shook his head, convinced that this newly famous Daoist Ximen Zi was probably just an unknown pawn who used illusions to deceive people.

"By the way, I have also heard of another righteous deed of Daoist Ximen Zi."

The thin man put down his wine glass and said, "West of Luzhou, there is a Yue City, where a strange thing happened today.

There were two Jianghu (martial world) performers who were parading through the city with a huge black dog,

The black dog had a half-human, half-dog face, and its walking and lying postures were different from ordinary dogs. It could also speak human language and sing ditties. Those who were curious asked it questions, and it could even answer fluently.

There were countless onlookers, and the coins they rewarded filled the performers' plates.

The magistrate of Yue City was also a nosy person. When he heard about this, he ordered the yamen runners to find the performers, saying that he wanted to invite them and the black dog to the magistrate's house to perform for the old woman's banquet.

The two were overjoyed. They were originally lowly Jianghu performers, but they never thought that one day they would be invited by the magistrate to enter the house and perform.

They immediately told the yamen runners that they needed to prepare and go to their residence to change into decent clothes.

The yamen runners didn't have the patience to wait, so they told the performers to go to their residence themselves, and led the black dog back to the yamen first.

The magistrate saw the strange dog under the hall and couldn't help but be startled. He casually asked, 'Are you a human or a dog?'

The strange dog replied, 'I don't know either.'

The magistrate asked again, 'Why are you following those two people?'

The strange dog still replied that he didn't know.

After several inquiries, the magistrate vaguely felt that something was wrong. This strange dog's thinking was agile and didn't seem like a dog, but rather a little naive and childish, like a child.

So he asked about the two performers' information indirectly.

The black dog only said that the two performers usually lived on a boat, took him to the streets during the day to attract onlookers, and locked him in a wooden bucket at night.

One day, the wooden bucket was not locked, and the black dog quietly poked his head out to take a look. He only saw the two performers manipulating lifelike wooden puppets in the cabin, talking about the matter of skin,

At their feet lay an unconscious old beggar."

The thin man paused and said in a low voice, "The magistrate was shocked and confused, and hurriedly ordered people to arrest the two performers, preparing to torture them severely and ask what was going on with their kidnapping of the beggar.

Unexpectedly, when the yamen runners arrived at the small boat where the two lived, the performers were long gone.

Only at the bottom of the cabin did they find an unconscious beggar.

The magistrate ordered the yamen runners to search the city, causing a commotion. Just as Daoist Ximen Zi entered Yue City, he stopped a yamen runner, saying that he might know the origin of the performers and the black dog."

It's Daoist Ximen Zi again?

The Brahman monk Qiyu in the next room couldn't help but wonder, how could this person be so free, stirring up trouble everywhere.

The thin man continued to narrate, "The yamen runner brought Daoist Ximen Zi to the yamen. After the Daoist saw the black dog, he immediately sighed, made a sword gesture, pressed it on the black dog's back, and drew it down from top to bottom.

A crack appeared in the skin on the black dog's back, and a seven or eight-year-old child with deformed hands and feet and festering all over fell out of it."

The fat man was extremely shocked and almost didn't hold his wine glass steady, "It's actually a child?!"

"That's right."

The thin man said slowly, "Daoist Ximen Zi told the magistrate that this black dog was actually made by some sinister and cruel lower-level *shushi* (sorcerers) using evil techniques.

They would find three-year-old children, smear poison all over their bodies, causing the children's skin to fester completely,

Then sprinkle a layer of medicine,

And cover the newly peeled black dog fur on the child’s body,

The child will regrow skin that is connected to the dog hair,

And then through demon magic, make the child grow a dog's tail, and lock him in a bucket for a long time, making his hands and feet deformed, unable to stand, and only able to crawl,

In order to use this as a strange dog that can speak human language,

To attract onlookers and collect money for them."

*Pa!*

When the fat man heard this, he couldn't help but feel furious. He crushed the thin wall of the wine glass and cursed in a low voice, "They are truly sinister and inhuman!"

"That's exactly right."

The thin man sighed, "This animal-making technique is extremely cruel. Among ten children, nine cannot withstand the pain of constantly changing their skin.

Those two performers don't know how many children's lives they have harmed.

They hid the beggar in the cabin, also preparing to harm his name, strip his skin, and use it as medicine to create the next human-faced dog."

The short man was also extremely angry when he heard this, and quickly asked, "What happened then?"

"The magistrate of Yue City was filled with righteous indignation and immediately made a poisonous oath to bring the two demons to justice.

Daoist Ximen Zi said that the two of them should already know that the yamen runners are now chasing them all over the city. I am afraid that they have already used the animal-making technique to temporarily transform themselves into livestock and hide in the city, making it difficult to track them down.

The magistrate was very distressed, but Daoist Ximen Zi smiled slightly. First, he cast a spell,

Like healing the two blind couples, he casually healed the child's festering skin and deformed limbs, asked the magistrate to take good care of the child, turned around and left the yamen, came to the market, closed his eyes and concentrated, listening to the movement of the entire city.

After a while, the Daoist suddenly opened his eyes, rose from the ground, stepped on the roof tiles, and crossed most of Yue City.

Finally, in a dark alley, he found the performers who had turned into two dogs and were preparing to sneak out of the city through a dog hole, and arrested them."