Li Banfeng ran for over half an hour, putting more than thirty li between himself and Lüshuiwan.
The area was completely desolate—no villages, no households, not even a passerby in sight. There was only a stretch of wild grass and an untamed lake.
Deeming the place suitable, Li Banfeng prepared to release the man he had rescued along the way. Just as he reached for his key, he saw a middle-aged man arrive before him as swift as a gale.
"Hey, Beard, where did you come from?" The middle-aged man wore a grey striped short jacket and clamped a black-stemmed cigarette between his teeth.
*Beard...*
Even though Li Banfeng had pasted a full beard onto his face, being addressed like that still felt a bit unnatural.
"Looking for me for something?" Li Banfeng asked with a faint smile, eyeing the man.
Holding his cigarette between two fingers, the man said, "Our master wants to see you."
"Do I know your master?"
"The Lu family of Puluo Province—could it be you don't know them?" This middle-aged man was named Huang Guangshi, a journey cultivator under Monkey Qiu.
Monkey Qiu's orders were to seize anyone carrying a gramophone. Li Banfeng wasn't carrying one, so why had Huang Guangshi set his sights on him?
Because Huang Guangshi was an opportunist. While everyone else searched for a gramophone, he had exercised some forethought, seeking out junior pincher Xing Qiushan of the Ghost Hand Sect to ask about Li Banfeng's appearance. He learned that Li Banfeng's most prominent feature was a thick, bushy beard.
While others looked for gramophones, he looked for beards. That spared him needless brawling and gave him a better chance of success.
Li Banfeng said, "I've heard of the Lu family, but your master shouldn't know me."
"You'll know once you get there. Our master is waiting." Without another word, Huang Guangshi reached out to seize him, moving so fast that not even an afterimage could be discerned.
A journey cultivator.
From his sudden appearance earlier to the sheer speed of his strike, it was obvious he was a journey cultivator, and one of a higher tier than Li Banfeng.
Li Banfeng possessed the physique of a second-tier Dwelling Cultivator, and having only recently emerged from his dwelling, he pulled his frame inward and stepped back, dodging the grab.
Huang Guangshi grinned. "You have cultivation. Looks like I found the right man."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Huang Guangshi stepped forward without warning. His form was completely invisible, as if he had teleported across the gap in an instant.
How high was his cultivation?
In reality, Huang Guangshi's cultivation wasn't particularly high—merely second tier.
As he closed the distance with that step, a five-inch awl sprouted from his fingertips, thrusting straight toward the space between Li Banfeng's brows.
Seeing this, Li Banfeng retreated again. Huang Guangshi remained patient, pressing forward step by step with the awl until he had driven Li Banfeng to the edge of the lake.
This was Huang Guangshi's tactic, and the standard method used by most journey cultivators.
Wild grass grew thickly around this untamed lake, with foxtail grasses taller than a man. Ordinary people walking through could easily be tripped by roots and stems if they weren't careful.
In an environment like this, a journey cultivator held an enormous advantage.
Although Li Banfeng was also a journey cultivator, his tier was inferior to Huang Guangshi's. If he fought head-on, defeat would only be a matter of time.
Seeing that Li Banfeng had fallen into his trap, Huang Guangshi decided to reel in his net.
Teleporting once more, he circled around in a single step to appear behind Li Banfeng, raising the awl to drive it into his spine.
Huang Guangshi was experienced; if this blow landed, it would paralyze Li Banfeng while leaving him able to speak. That way, he wouldn't have to worry about the man escaping, nor would it hinder interrogation.
Li Banfeng did not dodge, nor did he parry. His figure simply vanished.
Huang Guangshi froze. Did this man possess a magical treasure, or did he know an invisibility technique?
Just as he was searching all around for Li Banfeng, he felt danger closing in from his right.
By the time he turned around, it was too late. Li Banfeng's iron ruler had already plunged into Huang Guangshi's cheek.
By slipping into the Portable Abode and popping back out, Li Banfeng had completely disrupted Huang Guangshi's fighting rhythm.
Huang Guangshi tried to teleport another step to tear free of the iron ruler, but he failed this time. Li Banfeng gave a smooth tug and hauled him right into the Portable Abode.
Inside the room, Huang Guangshi clutched the wound on his face and looked around.
It was pitch-black all around; he couldn't tell what sort of place this was.
But Li Banfeng didn't need light. This was his own dwelling.
Even without using his eyes, even feeling his way in total darkness, the layout and furnishings of his home were etched into his heart. Walking in and out without tripping over anything, finding the right chamber pot when pissing at night, slipping under the covers without grabbing the wrong wife—these were the basic instincts of a shut-in.
Before Huang Guangshi could make sense of the situation, Li Banfeng slashed the hamstring of his right leg with his scythe.
Hobbled on one leg, Huang Guangshi still tried to fight back, but Li Banfeng answered with a backhanded stroke that opened a gash more than half a foot long across his belly.
When a second-tier journey cultivator entered the home of a second-tier Dwelling Cultivator, there was virtually no chance of resistance.
With a thud, Huang Guangshi collapsed to his knees and shouted in terror, "Our master just wanted to ask you a few questions! I'm only following orders! Spare me, Master! Spare my life!"
Li Banfeng asked, "Did your master name me specifically?"
Huang Guangshi didn't dare lie or speak in riddles now. He could only tell the honest truth: "Our master wants anyone carrying a gramophone or wearing a beard."
Li Banfeng chuckled. "There are thousands upon thousands of bearded men in Lüshui City. You think you can arrest them all?"
*Chh-chh—*
The gramophone laughed as well.
A flare of firelight surged up, and the gramophone sang to a slow rhythm, "What's wrong with having a gramophone? Whose laws were broken? What right do you have to arrest people?"
Hearing the voice of the gramophone, Huang Guangshi trembled all over.
He had heard gramophones play tunes, but he had never heard one talk like a person.
Yet what terrified him even more came next.
On the floor, he spotted an overcoat—a yellow woolen overcoat custom-made in Ingrid.
That coat had been specially tailored for Lu Dongliang by a master artisan from Ingrid. How could it be in this tiny room?
A gramophone, a bushy beard, the master's overcoat...
Could it be...?
Huang Guangshi looked up at Li Banfeng. "You're..."
He didn't dare say another word.
The man before him might really be Li Banfeng.
Could Li Banfeng have killed the master?
Impossible. With a cultivation as high as the master's, no one in Puluo Province could kill him.
Li Banfeng couldn't be bothered to waste words. Hooking Huang Guangshi's chin with the curve of the scythe, he told the gramophone, "Wife, dinner is served."
*Chh-chh—*
"Thank you for doting on me, my lord, but this humble slave isn't hungry in the slightest."
Li Banfeng blinked in surprise. "Wife, say that again. I didn't quite catch that."
"My lord, this humble slave is truly not hungry."
Li Banfeng wondered if something was wrong with his wife. Or perhaps being stabbed in the belly had somehow damaged his hearing. His wife said she wasn't hungry? Such a thing had actually happened! It seemed her previous injuries still hadn't healed. And if they weren't healed, she needed to eat even more!
"Wife, I bought the groceries and brought them all the way back. Why not have a couple of bites? Treat it like a snack."
"Aiya~ Since my lord dotes on me so, this humble slave can hardly refuse~ Let me first ask this man: what pathway are you?"
A puff of steam blew into Huang Guangshi's face.
Huang Guangshi answered truthfully, "I'm a journey cultivator..."
"A journey cultivator? Heheheh~"
Gongs and drums struck up as the wife's laughter grew increasingly sinister.
"The ninth tier Husband brought home earlier was a journey cultivator, and you're a journey cultivator too. Why are there so many journey cultivators?" Her sung lyrics turned increasingly vicious.
Li Banfeng was startled.
Why did his wife harbor such deep hostility toward journey cultivators? What did she mean by saying he had brought home a ninth tier? Where on earth did a ninth-tier journey cultivator come from?
Before Huang Guangshi could answer, the wife sliced off a layer of his soul.
"Every journey cultivator under heaven deserves to be cut into a thousand pieces!" With a roar, the wife began slurping his soul.
Li Banfeng was bewildered. "Why do journey cultivators deserve to be cut into a thousand pieces?"
Eating and laughing at the same time, the gramophone said, "Because they deserve to die! Husband, you're a Dwelling Cultivator—don't you hate journey cultivators?"
Li Banfeng gave a couple of dry laughs. "Hate them? I hate them quite a bit. I hate them passionately..."
*Wait, that's not right. Would she really hate journey cultivators just because their pathways counter each other? That shouldn't be it. There seems to be another reason.*
"He's also a..." In his agony, Huang Guangshi wanted to scream that Li Banfeng was a journey cultivator too.
A cold sweat broke out over Li Banfeng. Suddenly, he saw the bronze lotus spit out a bead of dew straight into Huang Guangshi's mouth, stopping him from uttering the rest of his words.
The bronze lotus was an old acquaintance of the gramophone; she knew it was best not to bring up journey cultivators too often in front of her.
The gramophone barked furiously, "Impertinent! I haven't even finished eating, and you're already reaching in with your chopsticks!"
The bronze lotus spat at the gramophone. As the two scuffled, the matter of journey cultivators was momentarily brushed aside.
Li Banfeng sat at the edge of the bed, staring at the yellow woolen overcoat on the floor, feeling as if he had seen it somewhere before.
Many strange things had happened today. The gramophone hadn't wanted to eat, and she had babbled about some ninth-tier journey cultivator. Now that she was grudgingly having a bite, she was utterly distracted, focusing entirely on brawling with the lotus.
"Wife, what on earth did you eat to make yourself so full?"
"Aiya, Husband, you just came back from grocery shopping! Did you forget so quickly?"
Grocery shopping? Li Banfeng didn't recall buying any groceries. He only remembered bringing back three gramophones, which the bronze lotus refined into an elixir with gear-like markings and fed to his wife. Admittedly, the refining had worked quite well... Wait.
"Where is the person I rescued?" Li Banfeng finally remembered where the yellow woolen overcoat had come from.
"Eaten," the wife admitted casually. "Us sisters ate him together."
"How could you just eat him like that? Do you know who that was? That was someone who brings good fortune!"
*Whoosh—*
The gramophone struck up cheerful gongs and drums and sang loudly, "There is fortune indeed, and our entire family has enjoyed it!"
A cloud of steam drifted over, and two stacks of old newspapers slid into the gramophone's casing.
*Click.*
Inside the casing, a flat mirror shifted, projecting firelight into the gramophone's horn. The horn cast a beam of light onto the wall, and the projection screen hanging there unrolled in response.
The wife had inherited the projector's functions.
A photograph appeared on the screen, taken from a news report about the Lu family's successful land clearing. The photo showed many prominent members of the Lu family, and the wife had deliberately drawn a circle around Lu Dongliang's face.
A second photograph showed the Lu family acquiring two medicine shops in Yaowanggou; the wife had drawn another circle around Lu Dongliang.
A third photograph: the Lu family acquiring the Paramount from the Chu family.
A fourth photograph: the Lu family acquiring the He family's bank.
A fifth photograph: the Lu family acquiring the Ma family's land.
A sixth photograph: Lu Dongliang, his face caked in muddy water, lying inside the Portable Abode.
Li Banfeng stared at the screen in horror. "Just now... the one I brought back was Lu Dongliang?"
"This humble slave doesn't know who he was, only that he looked identical to this person in the newspaper. He was a ninth-tier journey cultivator—a cultivation rarely seen in Puluo Province. It's wonderful that he died! Journey cultivators deserve to be slaughtered! This humble slave has had her fill, that wench Hanxue is stuffed, and that slut Red Lotus is still eating. I'm afraid this feast will last several more days."
Full... they were all full...
Li Banfeng couldn't quite wrap his head around it for a moment.
A soft sobbing suddenly sounded in his ear. It came from the Thread-Hook Earring. Li Banfeng listened closely and caught only a single line: "Master, my life is so bitter, so bitter..."
The Thread-Hook Earring had been with Li Banfeng all along; she had missed out on this feast.
The earring's expressive abilities were limited, so she could only weep continuously. Before Li Banfeng could understand what made her life so bitter, he suddenly heard a long, indignant sigh:
"In vain I bore a towering talent that could touch the clouds; my lifelong ambitions never had the chance to bloom... Such a rare and wondrous chance, missed just like that!"
The Tang dao was weeping, sobbing most wretchedly.
In the earlier battle with Madam Bagworm Moth, the Tang dao had delivered three slashes before slipping into Li Banfeng's pocket. After returning to the Portable Abode, it had tucked itself into the second room and fallen into a deep slumber. That one sleep had cost it such a monumental meal.
Still unrecovered, the Tang dao leapt from Li Banfeng's pocket, shrank into a dagger, and began hacking at the Hanxue pendulum. "You lot feasted on meat, so you should at least let me have a sip of broth! You drank your fill of blood, so why won't you spare me a single mouthful?!"
"Won't give it! I won't!" The Hanxue pendulum resisted fiercely, and the two clashed in the main room.
Having drunk the blood of a ninth tier, the Hanxue pendulum genuinely held her own in combat against the Tang dao.
Li Banfeng paid no attention whatsoever to the scrap between the pendulum and the Tang dao. A single phrase echoed repeatedly in his mind:
Lu Dongliang was dead. Lu Dongliang was already dead.
Truth be told, he didn't know much about Lu Dongliang; today had been the very first time he had ever seen the man. He had no idea why Lu Dongliang had been planted headfirst in the muck, but that hardly seemed to matter anymore.
He was dead.
The head of the Lu family was dead.
That immensely powerful figure who had hunted Li Banfeng across the land was dead!
Li Banfeng stepped out of the Portable Abode and raced through the night all the way toward Lanyang Village.
Once he sprinted into the village and entered the wooden cabin, Ma the Fifth finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Brother Li, you're finally back! Did you manage to buy a gramophone?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "Bought it, but didn't like it, so I tossed it by the roadside."
"Tossed it? You took such a huge risk to go into the city, bought a gramophone, and then just threw it away?" Ma the Fifth was thoroughly dumbfounded. "Brother Li, you really are something else..."
At dawn the next morning, Ma the Fifth took two game beasts hunted from the newland and prepared to deliver them at the village entrance. In high spirits, Li Banfeng tagged along.
A steam road roller was just firing up. Workers were spreading gravel and sprinkling asphalt, starting their roadwork.
Ma the Fifth handed over the goods and was about to leave when Li Banfeng climbed onto the steam road roller and negotiated with Chuanzi, "Could you let me drive it for a bit?"
In his childhood impressions, Li Banfeng had originally believed that among all construction vehicles, the excavator possessed the greatest might. That was until he saw a road roller for the first time; his mind had changed, and he had come to view the road roller as the ultimate existence.
Chuanzi looked at Li Banfeng with an agonized expression. "Master, I told you, this really isn't allowed!"
Li Banfeng produced a stack of banknotes. "I'll pay!"
"It's not about the money..." Chuanzi felt even more conflicted.
Ma the Fifth shot Xiao Chuanzi a look. Xiao Chuan knitted his brows. "What if the foreman sees us?"
"What time do you think it is? The foreman won't be here this early. Relax!"
Xiao Chuan took Li Banfeng's money and let him sit in the driver's seat.
There was no gas pedal, no brake. The driver's position had only a steering wheel, a large lever, and several steam valves.
Under Xiao Chuan's guidance, Li Banfeng pulled the lever, shifted into forward gear, and the roller began chugging forward slowly.
All the workers stopped their tasks and stepped aside for the moment, watching Li Banfeng steer the wheel with pure excitement on his face.
Xiao Chuan guided him cautiously from the side: "Good, very good, driving nice and steady. Master, you can speed up a bit. That's it, open the valve wider."
Li Banfeng opened the valve wider.
To his surprise, a steam-powered road roller wasn't slow at all; with the valve opened all the way, it could probably hit thirty miles an hour!
*Chuff! Chuff!*
Li Banfeng felt as though he were driving both a train and a road roller at the same time. A rush of pure joy shot up from the tips of his toes straight to the crown of his skull.
Xiao Chuan panicked. "No, wait! You can't open the valve that wide! Slow down, you... you can't drive like this! Master, what did you just say? Brake? What brake? This thing doesn't have brakes! Bleed the steam, quick! Open the exhaust valve! Hurry, open the release valve and disengage the lever! No, no, it's going into the ditch!"
*Crash!*
The road roller tumbled into the ditch.
Li Banfeng climbed down from the driver's seat and looked at Ma the Fifth. "Go hire a few men and pull the roller out quickly."
Xiao Chuan sat atop the road roller and wailed, "What am I gonna do? The foreman will be here any minute!"
The foreman arrived. Ma the Fifth greeted him and slipped him some cash. Just then, someone shouted, "There's a wasteland duel! A daytime arena! Come watch the excitement!"
A surge of excitement hit Li Banfeng. "Let's go, Brother Ma, let's watch the excitement!"
Ma the Fifth frowned. "You shouldn't go."
"I can go now. I feel like I'm ready!" Li Banfeng said, his face beaming with a grin.
Chapter 117