After a pause, the gardener continued, "The demon king has also established a series of laws and rules. If you break the law, you will be captured by the demon king and thrown into a prison deep in the mountains. Actually, it's not a prison, it's just a mountain. But who knows what kind of magic the demon has cast, and those who break the law can't escape!"

"Once those criminals were imprisoned, their families would never see them again. They wouldn't even know when they died or where their bodies were dumped! Occasionally, some would be found in the mountains, mummified bodies exposed in the wilderness, their deaths horrific. Everyone knew it; they must have been sucked dry by the demon king!"

"We've been taught since birth to be cautious in our lives and actions, never to break the law, and to act according to the rules of the law!" said the gardener. "But even so, we still broke the law!"

After a pause, he continued, "It was my sister! As livestock that provide blood, the food and water we eat and drink are all regulated by the Demon King. We are not allowed to touch anything that affects the quality of our blood. My ten-year-old sister was greedy and secretly ate mushrooms in the woods. Who knew that although the mushrooms were not poisonous, they were very bad for the blood! My sister, no, no, no, our whole family didn't know that the mushrooms would affect the quality of our blood. On the day to hand in the blood, we handed in a bag of my sister's blood, but we didn't expect it to cause such a disaster!"

"That day, the mayor personally brought people to arrest my sister and my parents! Because my sister was only ten years old and underage, my parents had to punish her for all her mistakes! So, my sister and my parents were all captured and taken to the mountain." The gardener said this with a pained expression on his face. "Overnight, I was the only one left in our relatively happy family of four!"

"A few days ago, a well-dressed man arrived in Lanye Town, claiming to be a friend of the demon we call the Heavenly God. The mayor personally received the man and led him to see the Heavenly God!"

"The next day, the mayor issued a notice saying that the respectable man was called Taotie..."

Before the man could finish his words, Lan Ziye interrupted him in surprise, "Taotie? You said that ogre was the ferocious beast Taotie?"

This is really awful. Some time ago I met a pheasant pretending to be Vermilion Bird, and now I met a ferocious beast Taotie. Do all monsters like to pretend so much nowadays?

"A vicious beast?" The man paused for a moment before continuing, "That demon is indeed vicious, even scarier than the gods! Under normal circumstances, the gods wouldn't kill a person by sucking blood, but when that demon strikes, the person dies without a single bone or scrap left! Only the clothes are left. I saw it with my own eyes, it's incredibly terrifying!"

"Then who is the Taotie you are talking about?" Chu Xixuan asked impatiently.

"It's... Butler Zhong... Zhong!" the gardener trembled. Then he hurriedly added, "The mayor said that Master Taotie needed help and asked us to volunteer. But we didn't know what we were doing with Master Taotie, so we didn't dare to sign up. So, no one signed up for the first two days! Later, the mayor said that there were still some criminals in the back mountain who hadn't died, and their families could sign up. As long as they satisfied Master Taotie, he could pardon their crimes and let them go home!"