A waiter hid behind a door behind Li Ang, peering through the crack. Seeing Li Ang take a bite of the roasted flatbread, he secretly heaved a sigh of relief, nodded, and ran towards the backyard through a side door.

Soon, Third Lady returned with the waiter. She swept her gaze across the table, almost imperceptibly. When she saw that Li Ang's plate was clean of porridge and roasted flatbread, her face lit up with joy. "Master Taoist, the backyard is ready. Please come and have a look."

"Hmm."

Li Ang put down his bowl and chopsticks, patted his stomach, and followed Third Lady to the backyard.

In the backyard, donkeys and horses were gathered in groups, their coats of varied colors, their neighs rising and falling.

"Hmm?"

Li Ang furrowed his brow. "Why are these donkeys and horses divided into two groups?"

In the open paddock area, all the livestock were clearly split into two factions. One group appeared listless and numb, solely focused on grazing. The other was extremely agitated, neighing desperately and at times ramming into the paddock fence, continuing even when injured.

With an unwavering expression, Third Lady answered, "These restless ones are newly arrived donkeys and horses. Perhaps they haven't adapted to the environment yet, or they're not used to the fodder."

"Oh."

Li Ang nodded and walked around the edge of the large paddock, then suddenly stopped. "What's with this donkey?"

Ever since he entered the backyard, a mottled grey donkey had been staring at him fixedly. As he approached, the grey donkey became even more agitated, braying "HEE-HAW! HEE-HAW!" and staying close to the fence, not moving away from him.

"Noisy beast." The waiter who had been following Li Ang scowled, muttered under his breath, and moved forward, raising his whip to lash the grey donkey harshly.

The whip cut through the air. Before it could land on the grey donkey, Li Ang caught it, pulling it from the waiter's grasp with a simple tug.

What strength! The waiter was inwardly shaken. Li Ang smiled as he waved the whip. "Don't mind it; they're just animals. It's normal for them not to have manners. If we whip disobedient animals harshly and leave scars, how can we sell them?"

"The Master is right." The waiter bowed his head and took the whip back from Li Ang.

Li Ang turned to look at the grey donkey. It became even more agitated, tears rolling incessantly down its long, narrow face.

"Hmm..." Li Ang frowned. At this moment, the donkey was providing him with a continuous stream of Power of Faith points, even more devout than the faith generated when he had been putting on a divine act in the Goose City inn.

Pointing at the grey donkey, Li Ang asked Third Lady, "This donkey is weeping so miserably. Has it suffered some injustice?"

Third Lady waved her hand with a coquettish laugh. "Master Taoist, what are you saying? It's just a donkey. With food and drink, it should be content. How could it be wronged?"

"Third Lady, you are mistaken. All beings have spirits; I realized this truth long ago," Li Ang said earnestly. "When I was young, my family was poor, and we had no mosquito nets over our beds. There are many mosquitoes in the south, and during summer, our home would always be filled with dense swarms of big, black mosquitoes."

Wait a minute, didn't you just say your family was from a renowned lineage? How did it suddenly become impoverished? Third Lady desperately wanted to retort, but Li Ang gave her no chance, continuing, "To prevent my parents from being bitten by mosquitoes, I decided to stand naked in the courtyard, letting the mosquitoes feast on my tender flesh. As long as the mosquitoes were full of blood, they wouldn't bite my parents anymore."

Hey, hey, hey! Don't think I haven't read *The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars*! Isn't that Wu Meng letting mosquitoes feast on his blood? Is it really okay for you to plagiarize so blatantly? And does standing naked in the courtyard actually achieve anything? I think you're just indulging your exhibitionist tendencies! Due to the overwhelming urge to interject, Third Lady's pretty face twisted.

Li Ang then said, "At that time, I was only twenty years old."

Twenty years old?! What the hell are you baring at that age?! This is blatant exhibitionism!

Li Ang shook his head. "Unfortunately, those mosquitoes were naturally vicious and greedy. They left my body covered in welts, yet they were still not satisfied and continued to bite my parents."

Third Lady asked, her face stiff, "And then what happened?"

"Such a minor difficulty naturally couldn't stump me." Li Ang raised an eyebrow with a smile. "I drank lethal arsenic, allowing the poison to fill my blood, thereby killing those mosquitoes and perishing along with them."

What?! How are you not dead?! Third Lady said drily, "Haha, Master Taoist, you are indeed exceptionally shrewd."

"Indeed." Li Ang nodded. "Soon enough, all those mosquitoes were poisoned to death. And with this peculiar talent, the Imperial Palace selected me. I was employed as a royal Arsenic Taster, specifically to sample potential poisons like arsenic for the imperial family and high nobility, to prevent assassination attempts."

"That's quite an educational story." Third Lady praised drily, then quickly changed the subject. "Master Taoist, you should hurry and choose your horses. The stench here is unpleasant, and it wouldn't do for it to get on your Crane Cloak."

Li Ang nodded and turned to look at the paddock. The grey donkey, seeing Li Ang about to leave, had a look of determination flash in its eyes. With an "E-AH!" it bent its forelegs and knelt on the spot, braying desperately at Li Ang and even biting onto his black Crane Cloak, refusing to let go.

"Damn beast!" The burly waiter cursed, stepping forward and forcefully grasping the grey donkey's nape. The grey donkey, tears streaming down its face from the pain, still bared its teeth, refusing to release Li Ang's black Crane Cloak.

"Hold on!" Li Ang raised his hand, motioning for the waiter to release the grey donkey. He then crouched down, frowning, and looked through the fence at the grey donkey. "You... want to tell me something?"

"E-AH!" The grey donkey nodded, stood up, and with its unfamiliar front hooves, clumsily began to write on the ground. Gradually, crooked characters appeared on the dirt floor of the paddock.

"I..."

"Am..."

Li Ang read the characters on the ground aloud. Behind him, Third Lady and several waiters exchanged vicious glances. One waiter even reached into his robes, his hand gripping the hilt of a dagger.

In this world, Orthodox Cultivators always carried Taoist Documents. The death or disappearance of any such cultivator would elicit a strong response from both the Martial Virtue Guard and the Taoist Door. But Third Lady and her cohorts ran a murderous trade. Over the years, they had caused the deaths of countless traveling merchants and passing guests. Even if killing this Taoist provoked a search by the Martial Virtue Guard, they couldn't let him reveal what was happening here.

"Human?" When Li Ang read the last character, his expression changed drastically, and he abruptly shot to his feet.

Behind him, the tall, burly waiter suddenly drew a dagger and lunged, stabbing towards the vital point on the Taoist's back.

CLANG!

The blade struck the black Crane Cloak but failed to pierce it. The waiter felt a massive jolt through his hand, as if he'd struck solid iron. He instinctively released the dagger, letting it clatter to the ground.

"Hmm?" Li Ang slowly turned around. Looking at Third Lady and the waiters, whose expressions had changed abruptly, he said with a smile, "A sneak attack from behind? That's hardly hospitable."

"An invulnerable garment from hardened martial arts training?" Third Lady retreated half a step, mentally calculating the time. A vicious expression flashed across her still-charming face. "What a pity, Master Taoist. Heaven has a path, yet you refused to take it. Hell has no door, yet you barged right in. Transform!"

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