My lady, don't be angry. I'm letting you touch my big tail.

Joey was even more surprised.

"A male? He has a woman's face."

That guy really did have fair skin, an oval face, and almond-shaped eyes.

With her eyebrows slightly raised, she stood there exuding the air of a woman.

She's more like a woman than I am.

Hua Ran nodded and waved her hand in front of Qiao Yi's eyes.

"He's male. The previous two times he was far away from me, and he had some kind of yang energy blocking the smell, so I couldn't smell him. But now he's so close, the smell of a male dog makes me want to vomit, ugh..."

Joey thought, "Aren't you all canines?"

Inugami looked Hanazono up and down.

His almond-shaped eyes were filled with doubt.

But he quickly looked up.

"The monster comes out when the sun is at its strongest. I've observed this many times. Although this mountain is a world of its own, the outside world still operates naturally. Usually at noon, the monster will extend a claw. This has never changed over the years."

He paused for a moment, then added, "The last time the monster stretched out its claws was a week ago."

Joey noticed that his voice was also somewhat androgynous.

It sounds really good.

Joey immediately used her mind to tell the system, "Tell me the weather conditions outside for the next few days."

"Okay, sweetheart~"

The system's youthful voice was cheerful.

"It's been sunny outside for the past few days, but the temperature hasn't been high, only around 24 or 25 degrees Celsius. The temperature in the mountains is naturally low, but it will reach 28 degrees Celsius at 2 pm the day after tomorrow—the highest it's been in the past few days."

"Then adjust it to the highest temperature from a week ago."

"Oh dear~ The highest temperature a week ago was 30 degrees. If you want to reach that temperature again, you'll have to wait eight days."

"No, it's too late. All the good people will be dead by then. Let's set it for the day after tomorrow!"

Joey had made up her mind.

She said to the dog god, "Thank you for the reminder. I will start breaking the fox spirit after sunset tomorrow, and I will be able to lure the underground monster out the day after tomorrow."

Inugami didn't say anything after hearing that.

He turned to leave.

Qiao Yi immediately said, "Where are you going? The Taoist nun said you're not dead. Your body is buried under the small wooden house to the north. You should hurry up and let your soul return to its place. After all, the fox spirit will have more yin energy after it comes out, which may contaminate you."

Inugami's body trembled.

He suddenly appeared in front of Joey.

Hua Ran immediately blocked it.

"Hey!"

Ignoring Hanazono, Inugami grabbed Joey's hand.

"Where is my body?"

"Under the little wooden house on the back..."

"Impossible! I'm dead! I was poisoned by my master!"

Joey was puzzled, because the Taoist nun didn't seem like she was lying.

Besides, she would protect even complete strangers' souls, so how could she possibly harm the dog god?

However, before Joey could say anything, the dog god turned and disappeared.

Hua Ran put her hands on her hips and snorted.

"Who do you think you are, daring to grab my wife's hand? Only I can touch her hand!"

Hanazon thought Inugami was completely gone, but the next moment, a note flew from a distance and hit Hanazon on the forehead.

He unfolded it to look at it.

There are four big words written on it.

Beware of the villagers.

Qiao Yi didn't feel anything after reading it. She just went back into the house and said to her father, "Dad, from now on, no matter who asks you to go out, no matter what it is, no matter if someone in someone's family has died or is suffering, you must not go out."

Old Man Qiao nodded hurriedly and said he understood.

“The priestess is no good person. Many women in the village offered sacrifices, saying they wanted to marry the fox spirit, and she always said it was voluntary. But then she tricked you away, and I hated her so much! I think the women who died in the village in the past were not there voluntarily either…”

As a result, that afternoon, villagers began loitering in front of her house.

One, two... eighteen...

There are only so many villagers in the whole village, and suddenly a quarter of them have come.

Joey looked out the window and noticed that they all looked unhappy.

One of them was a case that Joey had handled before—the family that was plagued by weasels.

The well-behaved son walked to the door, wanting to knock but not daring to. Finally, just as he was about to turn away, Joey opened the door.

"What's your business?"

"Miss Qiao, I think you should...you should be more careful..."

He had barely finished speaking when a pebble was thrown at him and hit him.

He felt a sharp pain, looked back, then immediately lowered his head and ran away.

Joey kicked a pebble, hitting an old woman who was squatting at their door.

The old woman exclaimed, "Ouch!"

Seeing that she had been discovered, she didn't try to hide it. She straightened up and said, "It's you! You're the one who ruined this village! Look, the river is rising rapidly and it's about to break through the dike. Yesterday, hail fell and destroyed the roofs of several houses, injuring many villagers!"

The man behind her also stood up.

Pointing at Qiao Yi, he cursed, "You said you got help from the fox spirit, but I think you came with the fox spirit to take revenge on the villagers. Tell me, since you came back, besides bringing peace to the weasel family, who else has benefited from your return? Even Granny Wang is paralyzed on the kang (a heated brick bed). You... you might as well not have come back!"

After the two finished speaking, many more villagers appeared from elsewhere.

They all glared at Joey fiercely.

"Yes, we thought you were so capable, but you came back alive only to end up like this. What was the point of coming back alive? You might as well have died like those women before. At least if you were sacrificed, the village could have a year of peace."

Joey picked up a stone, tossed it into the air, spun around, and kicked the stone into the mouth of the third person who had opened his mouth.

"Well!"

The man clutched his throat and kept gagging.

Although he finally spat out the stone, he also coughed up a lot of blood, which frightened everyone around him into taking a step back.

Joey said, "I can save you, or I can kill you. You'd better think it through."

Hua Ran stood behind Qiao Yi. He no longer had his delicate appearance; instead, he crossed his arms and looked at the villagers with his foxy, alluring eyes.

The villagers stared blankly for a moment, unconsciously looking at Hua Ran.

Then, what they saw was a terrifying scene that looked like hell in Hua Ran's eyes.

A bloody red.

They felt as if they were surrounded by countless hands holding them down, rendering them unable to move.

The falling knife quickly pierced them.

Blood immediately spurted out.

Strange things came and gutted them.

"what!"

One person shouted, and everyone else reacted.

They immediately scattered and ran away.

Even the person who was beaten so badly by Joey that he vomited blood ran away very quickly.

Hua Ran's lips curled slightly.

He showed a disdainful expression.

When Qiao Yi turned around, Hua Ran had already turned back into Jiao Jiao.

He took Joey's hand and said, "My lady, these villagers give off a very uncomfortable feeling..."

Joey wondered to herself.

Were the villagers really scared away because he injured one of them?

Suddenly, several black things darted across the sky and flew straight into the house.