Fang Zhiyi's gaze was intense; he had seen firsthand the dire straits of the Taoist temple.

But the old Taoist priest shook his head.

"With years of disasters, life is hard for the people. These things are good if they can help people. If you take them to sell, you will be scolded by the ancestors."

Fang Zhiyi was taken aback and looked at the old Taoist priest again. There were patches on the sleeves of his Taoist robe.

"No way, does the Grandmaster provide food and drink? You need to survive first, and you still have two disciples to rely on. Do you really think you're cultivating immortality?"

The old Taoist priest closed his eyes slightly and said, "There are some vegetable fields behind the temple; that should be enough to make a living."

Fang Zhiyi glanced at the statue of the patriarch again and remained silent for a moment.

"You think I'm being too polite?"

Fang Zhiyi suddenly threw a punch. The old Taoist looked old, but he was unusually agile. An ordinary person would not be able to avoid Fang Zhiyi's punch at such a distance, but the old Taoist managed to dodge it.

"Benefactor! What are you doing!" The old Taoist's voice rose slightly, and his two disciples, who had gone to rest, also ran over, still looking at Fang Zhiyi timidly.

“Strange.” Fang Zhiyi laughed. “I didn’t want to get involved in this, but it’s just too strange.”

The old Taoist priest stared wide-eyed at Fang Zhiyi, his gaze completely at odds with her face.

Fang Zhiyi raised her left hand, bending her little finger and tucking her thumb into her palm. The old Taoist's eyes widened in surprise: "Sword technique?"

"What exactly are you?" Fang Zhiyi asked, enunciating each word clearly.

The old Taoist priest slightly opened his mouth and leaned back slightly: "I am just an ordinary Taoist priest, benefactor. I have done what you asked for. You can leave now."

"No, no, no, there are very few things that can pique my curiosity, so I have to figure them out."

The air inside the main hall became tense, but this tension was broken only by the old Taoist's sigh.

Immediately afterwards, the old Taoist's body began to twist and swell, and in the blink of an eye, the old Taoist revealed his true form, which was a bear wearing a Taoist robe. Fang Zhiyi turned around, and the two little disciples were not afraid, but looked at Fang Zhiyi with even greater fear.

"I...I don't want to hurt anyone," the black bear spirit spoke, his voice becoming somewhat muffled. "If you think I've taken too much, then take it, just don't hurt my two junior brothers..."

Fang Zhiyi slowly lowered his hand. The little white thing hidden in his sleeve peeked out slightly, then quickly shrank back inside.

"Junior brother?"

The black bear spirit glanced cautiously at Fang Zhiyi: "I know you are a master, and I cannot afford to offend you, but I have never done anything immoral. If you want to kill me, I will not let you slaughter me!"

Fang Zhiyi waved her hand: "We've gone off on a tangent."

He didn't sense anything when he first came in, but after staying there for a while, Fang Zhiyi began to notice something was wrong. The old Taoist priest had the same aura as Xiao Bai, but after he left the main hall, the demonic aura decreased slightly.

Deep in the mountains, in a Taoist temple, two human Taoist boys and an old Taoist priest disguised as a monster—anyone would imagine a tragedy unfolding in their mind.

"What I find strange is that, as a demon, this ancestral master is willing to help you... Strange."

After confirming that Fang Zhiyi made no further moves, the black bear spirit replied, "I have often come here to beg for food since I gained wisdom. My master is a very kind person. He never drove me away. Instead, he would teach me. Over time, I became his disciple, although he never said it."

“I was afraid of scaring the worshippers, so I came at night. I did this for ten years. Back then, there were five senior brothers in the temple. They never treated me like a monster, but like a junior brother. Until…” The black bear looked up at the direction of the gate, “I heard from the eldest senior brother that things were in chaos outside, that humans were fighting, and that the worshippers stopped coming.”

"Later, my master took my fellow disciples down the mountain. I wanted to go with them, but they asked me to help guard the temple and said they would bring me something delicious when they came back."

The black bear spirit pointed to the two children at the door: "These two were taken in by my master. Their parents are dead. If they hadn't met me, they would probably have been carried off by other wild beasts..."

"Master and the others should be back soon." Black Bear looked at Fang Zhiyi. "I don't know who you are, but don't try anything with this Taoist temple, or even if you are a reincarnation of a Great Immortal, I won't be afraid!"