Blue Leaf Poplar

Blue Leaf Poplar? Was this the recipe the Red Lotus had deduced? Why were there only three words? Hadn't Ma the Fifth tasted dozens of medicinal ingredients? Was it meant to throw people off the scent? Even so, there was no need to use dozens of herbs just to mask a single one, was there? He would still have to ask Ma the Fifth about this. When Ma the Fifth woke up, his head felt a little clearer, and he planned to work out the recipe again, only for Li Banfeng to tell him that the medicinal powder was lost. Filled with exasperation, Ma the Fifth said, "Brother Li, such precious powder, and you actually went and lost it?" "Never mind the powder for now. Do you know what a Blue Leaf Poplar is?" "I do," Ma the Fifth said, nodding. "The most famous specialty of this newland is the Blue Leaf Poplar. Originally, there was no village here. Many hunters came to the newland to hunt Blue Leaf Poplars, and living nearby year after year is what eventually gave rise to Lanyang Village." So Lanyang Village's name came from the Blue Leaf Poplar. Li Banfeng was delighted. "Brother Ma, where are the Blue Leaf Poplars? Let's go chop one down and bring it back." "Chop one down?" Ma the Fifth gave a dry laugh. "Brother Li, you certainly think big. Never mind an entire tree—do you have any idea how hard it is just to gather a few leaves? Blue Leaf Poplars were overhunted to extinction thirty years ago. Some say people have spotted them deep within the newland, but whether that's true or false is hard to say, and that's no place an ordinary person can go." Li Banfeng pondered for a while. "How about we go try our luck?" Ma the Fifth found this even more baffling. "Brother Li, why should we try our luck on that? We have no use for Blue Leaf Poplars." Li Banfeng asked, "Just what use does a Blue Leaf Poplar have?" Ma the Fifth could hardly comprehend Li Banfeng's intentions. Without even knowing what it was used for, why had he suddenly taken an interest in the Blue Leaf Poplar? "Blue Leaf Poplars are used for forging weapons. You grind the branches into powder and add it to molten iron, and the forged weapons will be extraordinarily tough and resilient. If you add the leaves instead, the weapon will even become naturally venomous." Forging weapons? It wasn't a medicinal herb? Li Banfeng had fundamentally misunderstood what a Blue Leaf Poplar was. Ma Junyang said, "Brother Li, if you need weapons, we can just buy them ready-made. Put the Blue Leaf Poplar out of your mind for now. Craftsmen who know how to work with it can't even be found anymore." Did the Blue Leaf Poplar have no medicinal properties? No! It definitely had medicinal value; otherwise, the bronze lotus would not have offered that hint without reason. Li Banfeng thought it over for a while and still resolved to search for the Blue Leaf Poplar. Ma the Fifth sighed. "All right, then. I'll pack my things and head into the newland with you to try our luck." Li Banfeng shook his head. "Don't go. Stay here and watch the place. Just give me whatever leads you have." Ma the Fifth was worried about Li Banfeng, but on second thought, if he went along, he would likely only be a burden. He brought over a notebook containing observations he had recorded since arriving in Lanyang Village, picked out one entry, and said to Li Banfeng, "Rumors about Blue Leaf Poplars do exist, but most of them are pure nonsense. Only this one seems reliable. An old hunter told me about it half a month ago. He said he saw a Blue Leaf Poplar in the Orange Grove out in the newland and even asked me about the going market price. This old hunter has some standing in the village, so I doubt he'd casually spin lies." This old hunter was named Shen Xueyong. That very day, Li Banfeng went to the old hunter's home, gave him thirty silver dollars, and inquired about the Blue Leaf Poplar. Shen Xueyong took the money, counted it five whole times, tucked it into his robe, and said to Li Banfeng, "Blue Leaf Poplars grow in the Orange Grove. Setting out from the village entrance, it takes about half a month to get there." "Half a month?" Li Banfeng was momentarily stunned. He had not anticipated such a distance. "An ordinary person would need half a month. It's far, and the terrain is treacherous. If a journey cultivator at Tier 1 were to take this route, seeking good fortune and avoiding calamity while running for their life day and night, they could make it in five or six days. If their tier were even higher, well, I wouldn't know." A Tier 1 journey cultivator could reach it in five or six days, so Tier 2 would probably take three days at most. This distance was acceptable to Li Banfeng. The problem was that Li Banfeng couldn't run at full tilt; he would have to bring this old hunter along, as he had no idea where the Orange Grove was. Yet the old hunter could not serve as his guide. "Master, I truly would like to make another trip into the newland with you. You clearly know the value of things. Some days ago, I asked Fifth Young Master about the price of Blue Leaf Poplars, and he told me he'd only pay a thousand dollars for a single leaf." "Did you think that was too little?" The old hunter sighed deeply and shook his head. "I can't rightly say it's too little. If Song Jiasen were running the show here, he might not even offer three hundred. But this is Blue Leaf Poplar we're talking about—Blue Leaf Poplar! Master, you might not know what it's used for. Mix just one leaf into molten iron, and without needing any poison applied, the forged weapon carries its own venom that lasts for over a decade! Forty years ago, a single Blue Leaf Poplar leaf could fetch over ten thousand!" Li Banfeng frowned. By all rights, Ma the Fifth shouldn't have driven the price down that hard. The old hunter gave a bitter smile. "Actually, you can't blame Fifth Young Master. The Blue Leaf Poplars went extinct, and the craftsmen who know how to work them went extinct too. There's no market for them, so Fifth Young Master genuinely couldn't offer a high price. When I first saw that Blue Leaf Poplar, my heart bloomed with joy. I figured I'd make a huge haul. But the price Fifth Young Master quoted chilled my heart. Three days ago, I headed into the newland again, hoping to try my luck in the Emerald Bamboo Forest. I figured if I ran into a Bamboo Immortal, I could still make a fortune. And I truly did encounter one. Alas, I botched it. I failed to catch the Bamboo Immortal, and instead, I had a hundred bamboos pierce right through my chest." With that, the old hunter lifted his shirt and pointed at rows of see-through holes in his chest. "I didn't count carefully. A hundred holes is an exaggeration, but there are definitely twenty or thirty." Li Banfeng counted them meticulously: twenty-eight in total. Through twenty-six of the holes, one could see straight through his chest to the wall behind him. One hole had half healed, and through the remaining opening, writhing flesh and blood were visible. The last hole was almost completely healed. The old fellow was injured; he surely couldn't go to the newland. The crux of the matter was that Li Banfeng couldn't fathom how this old hunter was even still alive. "If you don't mind me asking, which pathway do you belong to?" Li Banfeng handed over another ten silver dollars. Inquiring into someone's cultivation pathway was taboo, so he couldn't expect the man to speak for nothing. The old hunter accepted the silver dollars and smiled. "Pardon my unworthiness. I am a Tier 2 body cultivator. I'm an earthworm." Qu shan—that was to say, an earthworm. One truly could not underestimate creatures of this kind; this self-healing ability alone filled Li Banfeng with envy. Even though he couldn't go to the newland, the old hunter didn't take Li Banfeng's money for nothing. He drew a map for Li Banfeng. As a hunter who couldn't read a single word, the map he drew was naturally far from precise, but the essential landmarks were made clear. "This mountain pass is called Gourd Ravine. It gets narrower as you go, and then widens out later. There are an awful lot of mosquitoes along the way, especially at the waist of the gourd. Mosquitoes of all sizes cluster together so thick you can barely keep your eyes open. You have to move through that place fast. Linger a bit too long, and they might suck every drop of blood from your body. Once past Gourd Ravine, the next place is Red Mud Ridge. It's a mud bog, so you can't move fast there; you must watch every single step. I once saw someone sink into Red Mud Ridge, and in less time than it takes to smoke half a pipe, he went completely under. I'm not afraid of it—I can crawl right out. But if you don't have that skill, you need to bring a good staff and probe ahead bit by bit as you edge forward. Then there's Wireworm River. If you want to cross, whatever you do, never enter the water... And then there's the Lesser Underworld. That stretch is deadly, and exceptionally long. While walking it, you must pay close attention to the wind direction... Past the Lesser Underworld is the Orange Grove. The Orange Grove is a fine place; the oranges are edible, but you have to follow the rules. As for whether you run across a Blue Leaf Poplar, that depends on your fortune..." The old hunter explained every location along the way and made a special point about rations. "You mustn't carry too much food. The journey is treacherous; better to go hungry than burden yourself. Once you reach the Orange Grove, there will be food." Li Banfeng was curious. "According to your timeline, a round trip takes a whole month. If you don't bring enough food, what do you eat along the way?" The old hunter chuckled. "I can eat dirt. Different soils have different flavors. The sludgy mud at Red Mud Ridge has the richest flavor of all—tastes just like it's been braised in soy sauce. Saves on salt, too." Li Banfeng could only admire that. He took his leave and returned to the warehouse to pack his supplies. Ma the Fifth tried to dissuade him: "Brother Li, there's no market for Blue Leaf Poplars anymore. It's not worth risking your life for." Li Banfeng wouldn't listen. Ma the Fifth sighed helplessly. "If you won't let me come, fine, but let Zuo Wugang go with you so you have someone looking out for you on the road." "If he comes with me, what happens to you?" Li Banfeng had hired Zuo Wugang precisely because Ma the Fifth was too weak. Having packed his gear, Li Banfeng set out at dawn, sprinting southward all the way to Gourd Ravine. There truly were countless mosquitoes here. More than ten li away from Gourd Ravine, dense swarms of them were already slamming into his face. The old hunter had traveled with great hardship because his supplies were limited. Li Banfeng, backed by the resources of the entire Lanyang Village and equipped with the hard-won experience distilled by the old hunter, had far more methods at his disposal. He pulled a glass jar from his knapsack, poured out the fat inside, and rubbed it over his body. This was fat rendered from a nine-legged toad. Toads of this kind loved nothing more than eating mosquitoes, devouring tens of thousands a day. The moment mosquitoes caught a whiff of the scent, they steered clear. While the grease was still fresh, Li Banfeng sprinted along, bursting out of the thirty-li-long ravine in under half an hour. Emerging from Gourd Ravine, he reached Red Mud Ridge. Not daring to be reckless, Li Banfeng slowed his pace, using the Tang dao as a walking stick and relying on his skill in seeking good fortune and avoiding calamity to inch forward cautiously. "Each string muffled, note by note a sorrowful thought, as if telling of a lifetime's unmet ambitions. Master, this humble servant is a renowned blade of a generation! Poking me into rotten mud—is that appropriate?" Li Banfeng probed the path ahead with the Tang dao and replied, "As long as the mood is right." The Tang dao shook off the muck covering its body. "What kind of mood is this? What artistic mood could there possibly be in rotten mud? Master, you are humiliating this humble servant!" Across the fifteen-li stretch of mud bog, Li Banfeng walked for more than five hours. Traversing Red Mud Ridge, he arrived at Wireworm River. The pitch-black river was over thirty meters wide, surging from west to east. Cultivators who could fly could soar across, while those who couldn't had to find a way to cross using magical treasures or spiritual items. Whatever one did, one must never dream of swimming across—not even a Water Cultivator could swim across it. Because there was no water in this river at all. Surging and flowing through the riverbed was not water, but dense masses of wireworms. Driven by some unknown force, these wireworms squirmed steadily in a single direction. If anyone set a single foot into the 'river,' countless wireworms would burrow into their flesh. They would drill into any opening they could find, and where there was no opening, they would bore a hole to crawl inside. One's entire body would become a wireworm nest; the wireworms would not merely live inside, but multiply and spread their lineage. Li Banfeng couldn't fly, nor did he possess any flying treasure. His method of crossing the river was remarkably simple: he took out the key, opened the Portable Abode, threw the key to the opposite bank, and then stepped back out of the Portable Abode. Beyond Wireworm River lay another stretch of wasteland. There was nothing special here, so he simply bolted forward at full speed. After traveling for sixteen whole hours, Li Banfeng had covered nearly half the journey. The reason he had made such rapid progress was, first, that he didn't need to scout the route, having the ready-made path provided by the old hunter; second, a Tier 2 journey cultivator was genuinely fast; and third, Li Banfeng was thoroughly prepared and unburdened by luggage, keeping everything inside the Portable Abode to retrieve whenever needed. At this rate, Li Banfeng wouldn't need three days; if he kept running, he could reach the Orange Grove by two or three in the afternoon tomorrow. However, he didn't plan on running any further. The journey had taken a heavy toll, and Li Banfeng's legs were trembling violently. Returning home to sleep was the foundation of a Dwelling Cultivator, as well as the basic virtue of an indoorsman. Stepping into the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng stripped off his mud-soaked clothes and sat down beside the gramophone. Clang-clang-clang~ The gramophone asked with concern, "Husband, you are covered in the dust of the road; you must have gone out to buy groceries." "Don't be so impatient, wife. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will definitely bring back top-grade goods." Li Banfeng ate two cans of food, polished off a box of biscuits, and fell into a deep slumber. The gramophone was thoroughly dissatisfied. While washing Li Banfeng's clothes with steam, she grumbled, "Tomorrow, tomorrow—every day he says tomorrow! I gave him Tier 3 cultivation, and in the end, he still leaves me to starve!" PS: Li Banfeng wasn't boasting. Passing through the Lesser Underworld tomorrow really was a fine place to pick up groceries.