"Ha! I knew it!" Upon hearing this, Feng Bujue sternly shouted at the grotesque face, "Monster! Quickly reveal your true form!" He shouted with great vigor, but his actions still showed no intention of approaching the creature.

The monster was also straightforward; since it couldn't keep up the pretense, it abandoned the shoddy disguise. The waxy yellow face rapidly changed, and the rough, dense wrinkles all transformed into the texture of tree bark.

Before long, the head "hiding" behind the tree and the section of arm became two branches on the tree trunk. A small bell even hung from the tip of the "arm"-turned-branch.

At the same time, two narrow slits, the color of dirty blood, abruptly appeared on the tree trunk, facing the direction Si Yu was looking. They were like a pair of eyes, suddenly opening; the eyelids were the bark, and beneath the bark was indeed a pair of huge, inky pupils.

"Such meddling..." A muffled, deep voice came directly from inside the tree trunk this time. "If you've got the guts, come over here..."

Si Yu didn't reply; she had nothing to say and responded with action.

The light of the Fengsheng Sword flashed, and she swung her arm in a diagonal slash, sending out a burst of sword energy mixed with spiritual energy. No one knew how powerful Si Yu's move was, but it tore a gash more than two meters long in the tree trunk from a distance.

The tree obviously couldn't move or dodge; the trunk took the hit head-on. From the cut bark, a stream of foul blood poured out.

"Ah!" A miserable cry came from within the tree trunk, as if the monster was experiencing immense pain.

Feng Bujue had already circled around to Si Yu's side. He knew that as long as he kept a few meters away from the tree, there would be no threat, so he approached with peace of mind.

"Its defense seems quite poor..." Feng Bujue muttered, "Its attack range also seems very limited, hmm..." He turned to look at Si Yu. "Then this guy's damage output is probably very high; if you get close to it, you might be killed in one hit."

"The cooldown for my last move isn't long, but it requires some spiritual energy," Si Yu said, understanding Feng Bujue's meaning. However, her ranged attacks were indeed limited.

"Well, then... leave it to me." Feng Bujue said with a smile, his expression practically radiating anticipation.

Si Yu put away her sword upon hearing this. "Be my guest."

"You..." The tree seemed to sense the ill intentions on Feng Bujue's face and immediately asked, "What... do you want to do?"

"Don't be afraid, just a few questions." As Feng Bujue spoke, he set down the folding stool, knelt on one knee, and took out Moxxi's Bad Touch from his luggage, placing it on the stool for support. He steadily aimed at the huge, unmoving target a few meters away.

Si Yu watched coldly from the side. She had never seen a player say "don't be afraid" to a monster before, let alone imagined such a scene.

"What if I don't want to answer?" The monster replied, still using a vicious tone.

*Ta-ta-ta*... The sound of gunfire answered the question.

Feng Bujue lightly pulled the trigger, and several bullets instantly poured out of the submachine gun's barrel. The gun's attribute was fire, and its effect stated "especially effective against flesh," so it was clear that whether the tree was considered an animal or a plant, it was a monster type severely countered by this weapon.

"Ah! Ah! Ah..." The monster roared incessantly. Just a few bullets left sparks on its body. If not for the blood flowing from under the bark extinguishing the flames, it probably would have been entirely ablaze.

"If you don't want to turn into firewood ash, from now on, I'll ask, and you'll answer..." Feng Bujue used his actions to make it impossible for the monster to refuse. He immediately asked, "First, tell me what kind of monster you are, and what is your name?"

"I don't know," the monster replied.

"Oh ho! Got some backbone!" Feng Bujue immediately prepared to open fire again.

"Wait! I'm telling the truth!" The monster quickly explained.

"I see... well, your name isn't important anyway." Feng Bujue raised his head, temporarily abandoning his aiming posture. "Then... first tell me what you meant by the 'Forest of No Return' you mentioned earlier?"

The monster thought for a few seconds and asked in return, "If I tell you, will you let me go?"

*Ta-ta-ta*...

"Ah! Okay! I'll tell you! Stop shooting!" The monster cried out in pain, begging for mercy.

It was silent for a short while, seemingly waiting for the feeling of pain to subside, and then said, "Decades ago, the villagers of the small town at the foot of the mountain were very afraid of this forest and gave it the name Forest of No Return. Almost no one dares to come into this forest, and if they do... they can't get out."

"Because there are many monsters like you in the forest?" Feng Bujue asked.

"There are, but not many." The tree sneered. "I don't even know if I count as a monster. I was just an old tree in this forest, but because the resentment of 'that child' was too strong, the whole forest was steeped in it. Affected by it, I became like this..." As it spoke, the crack that Si Yu had cut into the bark suddenly widened. As a stream of foul blood flowed out, the contents of the tree trunk were revealed to Feng Bujue and Si Yu.

It turned out that the tree trunk was filled with corpses. The dead looked extremely terrifying; their expressions of panic were frozen on their faces. Each corpse was missing limbs, but they were not completely rotten. All the corpses were intertwined like braids, and blood seeped out of all seven orifices.

"These villagers of Cang Ling Town all brought this upon themselves. Their descendants will also be punished." As the monster spoke, it closed the crack. "You're Taoist priests hired by the villagers to catch ghosts, right?"

Feng Bujue said, "A mountain spirit knows that there are Taoist priests in this world?"

"Many years ago, many enlightened monks, wandering Taoists, and exorcists who specialized in catching ghosts came to the mountains... countless people, but they all lost their lives in the hands of 'that child'," the monster replied.

"It said Cang Ling just now?" Si Yu interjected.

Feng Bujue was just about to ask about this too. He said to the monster, "The small town at the foot of the mountain is clearly called Cang Ling Town, so why did you say 'Cang Ling Town'?"

"This place has always been called Cang Ling Town. When did it change to Cang Ling Town?" the monster replied.

Feng Bujue looked at Si Yu and lowered his voice. "Something must have happened decades ago. The truth about this village's abandonment might be related to the person who left those three big characters at the entrance of the village."

Si Yu followed Feng Bujue's train of thought, but couldn't reach any conclusions for the time being. She just said softly, "Ask about the wronged spirit."

Feng Bujue looked up and said to the monster, "The 'child' you mentioned was killed by the villagers, right? What exactly happened?"

"You'll have to ask her yourself. I only know that her resentment is overwhelming and that she hates the villagers to the bone. She must have died unjustly, but I don't know how she died." The monster replied.

"Then where is she?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"Cang Ling Temple," the monster replied.

"Where is Cang Ling Temple? How do we get there?" Feng Bujue said.

"Hold my bell in front of you. As long as you face the direction of the temple, the bell will ring."

"Oh..." Feng Bujue's gaze shifted to the branch with the bell hanging on it. "Is it possible... for you to throw it over to me?"

The monster replied, "I can't."

"Hmm... I see..." Feng Bujue said, suddenly stopping himself, putting on a look of astonishment, and pointing to the other side of the tree. "Ah! What's that!"

Even Si Yu was startled. Although she was standing next to Feng Bujue, and their views were basically the same, and she didn't see anything unusual, Feng Bujue's exaggerated expressions and tone were so realistic that she unconsciously became nervous.

The monster didn't know what had happened. Its pair of eyes suddenly rotated along the bark to the other side, as if a human had turned their head.

In that instant, Feng Bujue activated Spiritual Sense Gathering Technique and burst forth, stealing the bell with lightning speed, tearing it off the branch and retreating back to a safe distance.

The monster's last hope was completely shattered at that moment, because the only chance it had to attack was when the player approached to take the bell, but now that was no longer possible. Feng Bujue had used a very childish, low-level trick similar to "Watch out behind you!" to get the quest item.

[Name: Bell]

[Type: Story Related]

[Quality: Normal]

[Function: Locate the position of Cang Ling Temple]

[Can be brought out of this scenario: No]

[Note: This small bell seems to have a connection with a powerful evil spirit]

"Okay, done, let's go," Feng Bujue said to Si Yu. After succeeding, he immediately deactivated Spiritual Sense Gathering Technique and casually put away the folding stool and gun, seemingly feeling that the monster had no remaining value to exploit.

"Shouldn't we kill it to prevent future trouble?" Si Yu asked.

"Let's save some bullets," Feng Bujue replied, raising the bell, extending his arm, and slowly rotating around himself. When he turned to a slightly northwest direction, the bell suddenly moved twice on its own, making a *ding-a-ling... ding-a-ling...* sound.

Feng Bujue turned his head and exchanged glances with Si Yu. They didn't say anything else, ignoring the monster behind them and heading in the direction the bell indicated without looking back.

After the two had gone far, the tree muttered in a deep voice, "Sigh... even if you are killed by that child, she will still bring the bell back and hang it on me..." After saying this, all the anomalies on the tree trunk disappeared, and it returned to being an ordinary tree.