She had just turned around, facing the door, using her foot to brace against the windowsill, when she heard the "creak" of the door opening, right above her head.

San Niangzi felt a chill run through her entire body, freezing her internal organs into ice.

She slowly raised her head and saw the short-haired Daoist priest hanging upside down on the outer wall of the inn like a gecko, looking at her with a smile.

"Creak—"

Li Ang made a perfect imitation of the sound of a door opening.

"Found you."

Li Ang suddenly released the fingers that were gripping the wall crack, his body plummeting downwards, reaching out to grab San Niangzi's ankle, bringing her down with him onto the haystack on the ground.

Bang.

Li Ang stood firmly on the ground.

Suddenly, weeds flew everywhere from the haystack beside him.

San Niangzi, with disheveled hair and a ferocious expression, wordlessly stabbed at his waist with a dagger.

The Shiwu Sanshe (Debris Scattering) skill activated instantly, exploding in front of San Niangzi, causing her to lose her balance and fall back into the haystack.

"Is this what you use to cast evil spells?"

Li Ang calmly took the package from her arms, took out the wooden box, and shook it in his hand.

San Niangzi lost her usual composure and calmness, lying in the haystack and cursing like a shrew, "You bull-nosed Daoist, I have no old grudges or new hatreds with you, why do you want to kill me?"

"Grudges?"

Li Ang casually placed the wooden box on the ground and picked up the account book to browse through it. "If it weren't for my profound Daoist skills, I might have fallen victim to your yemei (bewitchment) art and been turned into a donkey or horse, to be kept in the stable."

As he spoke, he quickly flipped through the pages of the account book.

San Niangzi had been running the inn for several years, and she had harmed more than a thousand travelers and merchants from all over the country.

Most of the money she had plundered had been converted into real estate, land deeds, or silver shares in chambers of commerce (equivalent to modern company stock dividends) in various places.

"Tsk tsk, I didn't expect you to be so investment-minded."

Li Ang shook his head. "This account book says that a portion of your monthly income is donated. Who is it donated to?"

San Niangzi rolled her eyes, closed her mouth and said nothing, lying down in the haystack, looking dazed and numb.

"Heh, let me guess, it should be the White Lotus Sect."

Li Ang said, "The White Lotus Sect is the leader of all evil sects in the world.

Even if you are not a member of the White Lotus Sect, as long as you use evil spells to operate a large-scale industry, you have to take out some money to supply the White Lotus Sect,

To seek protection,

To prevent being discovered by the government, the Wude Guard, or the Longhu Gate."

"..."

San Niangzi remained expressionless, lying motionless no matter what Li Ang said.

"How do you turn those who have been turned into donkeys and horses back to their original form?"

San Niangzi shook her head and said, "My skills are not good enough, I don't know."

"Fushang Wushang Tianzun (Hail to the Celestial Worthy of Boundless Salvation)."

Li Ang sighed, bent down, stretched out his finger and tapped her brow, and whispered, "Zuanxin Wangu (Bone-Penetrating Heart-Piercing)!"

This finger seemed ordinary, but in that brief contact, countless hyphae spread and grew from Li Ang's fingertips, piercing into San Niangzi's forehead and spreading wildly into her brain.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

San Niangzi was tearful, her face twisted into a ball.

"Just now that was a special Daoist technique from the Western Regions, one of the three unforgivable curses. If you don't tell me, there's also the soul extraction and Avada Kedavra waiting for you."

Li Ang stopped releasing his divine power, expressionless, and continued to ask in the same way, "How do you turn those who have been turned into donkeys and horses back to their original form?"

San Niangzi's whole body was soaked with cold sweat, and she said with difficulty, "You, you have to cast the spell again."

"Go and turn them back."

"Okay."

San Niangzi got up with difficulty, picked up the wooden box on the ground, bypassed the bodies of the shop assistants, and came to the horse pen.

After resting for a while, she took out the wooden figures of people and oxen from the wooden box and began to cast spells.

But this time, what grew out of the wooden arable land was not buckwheat, but rice.

After the wooden man ground the rice into powder, San Niangzi sprinkled the powder into the horse pen's trough.

The donkeys and horses smelled the aroma and crowded together, eating the feed in big gulps.

A moment later, the donkeys and horses fell to the ground one after another, neighing loudly, and the skin on their backs all cracked open, the sound of cracking leather bursting non-stop.

Living people emerged from the skin cracks on the backs of the donkeys and horses,

Some had terrified expressions, not knowing where they were, opening their mouths to shout, but only making a turbid and unclear "ugh" sound,

Some were gaping, drooling, and utterly confused.

Those who were more sober should be travelers who had just been turned into donkeys and horses.

The dazed and numb ones were victims who had been turned into livestock for a long time and whose minds were muddled.

"Ugh ah—"

Zhao Shusheng struggled out of the blue donkey skin, his robe covered in mucus and in a sorry state.

He only ate a small piece of cake, so he was not as deeply affected by the spell as others, and he recovered his senses the fastest. He immediately knelt on the ground and said to Li Ang, "Daoist priest, your grace in saving my life, I will repay you by tying grass and wearing a ring..."

"Please, please get up."

Li Ang helped the scholar up and looked at the trembling San Niangzi beside him. "How long will it take for those demented people to regain their senses?"

San Niangzi, who was questioned by Li Ang, couldn't help but shiver, and stammered, "It depends on how long they have been transformed. It will take several months for a short time, and several years for a long time..."

Li Ang paused and frowned, "What about those who were sold before?"

San Niangzi was meticulous, and recorded in the account book the origin information of each donkey and horse's buyer, as well as the specific whereabouts.

However, the past travelers were scattered all over the world. Even if the government was sent out to pursue them, it would probably be a huge project.

"Fou, four years or less should be able to regain their senses."

San Niangzi said with difficulty: "More than four years, maybe, it depends on luck."

"What a sin."

Li Ang shook his head. San Niangzi's method came from an evil art called yemei (bewitchment), which was on par with witchcraft.

In folklore, it is called "Da Xuba," "Yan Kui," and "Che Xuba."

The traditional Da Xuba is to use something to trick people into eating it, making them unconscious, muddled, and following the scammers, working hard and complaining, like livestock.

In remote areas of Nanjun, many mine owners even bought a large number of laborers who had been bewitched from warlocks, forcing them to work hard in the mines until they died.

Some warlocks also use this method to abduct children, the lower level is commonly known as Paizi (child kidnappers).

And this yemei art of turning people into donkeys is even more advanced than ordinary Da Xuba.

It can transform the bewitched into the appearance of livestock, and it cannot be seen from the outside at all.

It is convenient for warlocks to travel around the world and sell manpower remotely.

Zhu Xuemin only mentioned a sentence or two in his notes. He did not expect that in this desolate inn, he could see a Fang Shi (Taoist alchemist) who knew the evil yemei art with his own eyes.

Li Ang looked at the crowd in the horse pen, thought for a while, asked Zhao Shusheng a few questions, learned that the other party was a scholar who was going to Beijing to take the exam, so he asked him to take the crowd in the horse pen to the inn to wash themselves up a little,

Then go to the government office to report the case together and hand San Niangzi over to the government.