Chapter 131: Burning

Everyone followed the direction pointed out by the young Daoist and couldn’t help but look a bit puzzled.

“Master Daoist, is there an evil spirit hiding in this teapot?” the honest man asked, disbelief evident in his tone.

“What teapot? I was talking about…” The young Daoist turned around and froze in place.

He hurriedly leaned over the wooden table, searching frantically while muttering in a panicked voice, “Where is it? Where’s the thing?!”

The honest man asked, “May I ask, Master Daoist, what are you looking for?”

“A wooden carving! About the size of a palm, shaped like a City God!” the young Daoist exclaimed, gesturing as he spoke.

Sniff, sniff.

The young Daoist took a sharp sniff, catching the scent of something burning in the air. Instinctively, he blurted out, “What’s on fire?”

Hearing this, everyone around took deep breaths, sniffing the air.

Sure enough, they all caught a whiff of something charred.

“Mr. Gu, why did you burn the wooden carving?” A young voice rang out.

Everyone turned to look at Gu Ning’an, who was standing outside the inner room.

At this moment, Gu Ning’an was holding the wooden carving by its base. A small flame had already ignited on the top of the carving’s head.

The flame was small but burned quickly. In just moments, the upper half of the carving had turned to ashes.

“Stop!” The young Daoist, his eyes nearly popping out of his head, rushed forward. “Put the carving down!”

Gu Ning’an smiled lightly and casually tossed the nearly burnt carving to the ground.

Plop! Plop! Plop!

The young Daoist stomped on the burning carving repeatedly, trying to extinguish the flames.

But no matter how hard he stomped, the flames wouldn’t go out!

In the blink of an eye, the entire wooden carving had turned to a pile of black ashes, still bearing the imprint of his shoe soles.

“Who are you? Why did you burn the carving?” The young Daoist, visibly agitated, demanded from Gu Ning’an.

“Was this carving yours, Master Daoist?” Gu Ning’an asked with a faint smile.

The young Daoist froze momentarily. “No!”

Gu Ning’an replied indifferently, “Then why are you so worked up over me burning it?”

“I…!” The young Daoist was at a loss for words. After a brief pause, he raised his voice, “The evil spirit was inside that carving! By burning it, aren’t you afraid of harming the woman lying on the bed?”

The young Daoist’s words of intimidation didn’t faze Gu Ning’an, but they terrified Lu Feng, his father, and even Li Fangzhang.

Lu Feng rushed forward in just a few steps, raising his hand as if to strike. But no matter how high he lifted his hand, it wouldn’t come down!

To outsiders, it looked as though Lu Feng wanted to hit him but didn’t dare to.

The honest man quickly stepped forward and grabbed Lu Feng’s raised hand. “Let’s talk this out. He’s Fangzhang’s friend—don’t hit him!”

With his father pulling his arm down, Lu Feng lowered his hand. He swallowed hard and stepped back a few paces, staring at Gu Ning’an with a horrified expression!

It wasn’t that he didn’t dare to strike—his hand had felt as if it was clamped in iron and couldn’t move at all!

This bizarre phenomenon made him feel that Gu Ning’an was the true source of evil!

“Master Daoist! Now that the carving is destroyed, will my wife…” The honest man’s words were cut off by the young Daoist, who interrupted, “Hah! The carving is gone, and the evil spirit… the evil spirit…”

“The carving!”

As the young Daoist turned his gaze back to Gu Ning’an, he saw another wooden carving appear in his hand.

The young Daoist’s eyes widened in shock, his pupils trembling violently as he glanced at the ashes beneath his feet.

But there, on the blue-tiled floor, was no trace of ashes at all—it was perfectly clean!

“Is the wooden carving yours?” Gu Ning’an held out the carving, smiling.

At this moment, the young Daoist realized that he had kicked a steel plate in his attempt to scam people!

The man in the green robe before him hadn’t actually burned the carving—what he had seen earlier was an illusion!

Such a lifelike illusion was something the young Daoist had never even heard of, let alone seen before!

“Yes… yes, it’s mine,” the young Daoist stammered as he accepted the wooden carving. He quickly fished out the copper coins he hadn’t even warmed in his palm and handed them back to the honest man beside him. With a solemn expression, he said, “Uncle, here’s your money back.”

“What… what does this mean?” The honest man couldn’t make sense of it.

The young Daoist bowed respectfully to Gu Ning’an and said, “Sir, I shouldn’t have… Can you spare me this once, considering it’s my first offense?”

Gu Ning’an waved his hand and said, “Wait for me outside. I have some questions for you.”

“This… alright!” The young Daoist’s expression froze for a moment before he clenched his teeth and walked out of the house.

“Teacher Li… Teacher Li.” Gu Ning’an called out twice before the dazed Li Fangzhang finally snapped out of it with an “Ah!”

Gu Ning’an patted the heads of the “three little quails” one by one and smiled. “These three are all good kids. With such students, you shouldn’t let temporary setbacks bring you down.”

“Your aunt will wake up soon. There’s nothing serious; you can relax.”

Li Fangzhang nodded. “Alright, alright!”

“In that case, I’ll take my leave now. I hope that next time we meet, Teacher Li will have fulfilled his aspirations.” With that, Gu Ning’an turned, clenched his sleeve, and strode away.

Seeing Gu Ning’an leaving, Li Fangzhang, still confused, hurriedly cupped his hands and said, “Take care, Mr. Gu!”

“Fangzhang! Fangzhang! I want some water…” A hoarse voice called out from inside the room.

“Aunt’s awake!”

“Wife!”

“Mom!”

“Aunt Zhou!”

The three adults and three children all rushed into the room, surrounding Aunt Zhou’s bedside with concern.

With her husband’s help, Aunt Zhou sat up. Li Fangzhang promptly handed her a cup of warm tea.

After downing the tea in one gulp, Aunt Zhou rubbed her dizzy head and asked, “What’s going on? Why are you all here?”

“Wife, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you later. Maybe you should lie down and rest some more?” the honest man said with a smile, trying to ease her back down.

“No, I’ve had enough of lying down…” Aunt Zhou shifted to get up. But when she noticed the empty wooden table, she quickly turned to her husband and asked, “Where’s my wooden carving? Where did you put it?”

“The wooden carving? The Daoist took it,” the honest man replied.

“What! I was planning to burn incense and pray with it so Fangzhang could pass his exam sooner!”

“What Daoist took the carving?”

“How could you just hand over something from our home to some Daoist?”

Aunt Zhou frowned deeply, her face showing signs of anger.

Li Fangzhang hurriedly stepped in to explain, “Aunt! Listen to me. Here’s what happened…”

Over the time it took to finish a cup of tea, Li Fangzhang recounted everything that had happened that day.

After hearing the story, Aunt Zhou slapped her thigh and exclaimed, “So it was Mr. Gu who saved us!”

“Quick! Fangzhang! Go and find Mr. Gu right now!”

“We must thank him properly!”