"Fifth, do you know what the oldland is?"
Ma the Fifth nodded. "I know the oldland. It's a great place to make money."
"How does one make money there?"
"Well, about that money... the way you earn it is, first you have to do whatsit, and then... Wait, Old Seven, while the two of us are talking business, can you send the band out first?"
Ma the Fifth couldn't take it anymore. The two of them were discussing affairs in the council hall, yet Li Banfeng had dragged in a band to toot and bang right beside them.
It would have been fine if they were skilled, but the drummer missed the beat, and the horn player blew off-key.
Li Banfeng knew full well the band was terrible, but creating the right atmosphere was what mattered. "Make do for now. In a few days, I'll hire some more people."
"Don't you still have a gramophone? Couldn't you just use that to play some tunes?"
"That gramophone has other uses. I'll tell you in a bit. Let's talk about the oldland first."
Ma the Fifth was exasperated. "Old Seven, what I'm about to tell you is trade secrets about raking in cash. Are you sure you want them hanging around listening?"
Li Banfeng immediately shooed the band out. When secrecy was called for, there was no room for negligence.
Ma the Fifth began explaining the ways of the oldland. Compared to Zuo Wugang, his eloquence was vastly superior. His conceptual rundown was largely identical to what Li's wife had told him, but his emphasis was entirely different—he was focused on turning a profit.
"Making money in an oldland isn't quite like in a newland. In a newland, what you harvest are physical objects, both living and dead. In an oldland, what you harvest is numen—living spirits and empty spirits."
Li Banfeng had heard both terms before, but Ma the Fifth was clearly not using them in their ordinary sense.
"In an oldland, human presence has vanished, leaving only ghostly miasma. Spirits of the departed who have lingered in the mortal realm for years can dwell in the oldland without restraint.
"Once these lingering souls stay there long enough, living with utter abandon, their minds undergo a change, and they begin to view themselves as living humans.
"And once dead souls consider themselves human, they forget the arts of preserving their souls. As the years wear on, their souls slowly dissipate, leaving behind only raw numen. That kind of numen is called an empty spirit, and empty spirits are prime materials for refining magical treasures and spiritual items."
Li Banfeng understood this well.
Before refining Red Lotus into a magical treasure, he had let his wife consume the soul, leaving behind only the numen, which allowed an imprint to be placed upon the treasure so it could be easily mastered.
Ma the Fifth continued, "Some souls haven't stayed in the oldland long, or possess innate methods to protect their souls, so their souls remain intact. These are called living spirits.
"Living spirits of this sort cannot be used to refine magical treasures or spiritual items; even if refined into one, they won't obey commands. Yet they are precisely where the oldland's danger lies.
"Among hunters, there's a saying: 'Better ten years braving a newland than a single day walking the oldland.' It means the oldland is vastly more perilous than a newland.
"Most anomalies in a newland lack sapience. Even those that have it are still inferior to humans, and anomalies are bound by the local spirits, so they wouldn't dare push things too far.
"The oldland is an entirely different story. An empty spirit's intellect is only slightly below a human's, while a living spirit's wits rival a mortal's. Because they've existed for countless years, many living spirits are actually far sharper than ordinary mortals.
"Hunters who venture into the oldland face nine deaths to one life, and most hunters don't even have the means to harvest empty spirits.
"That Citun pearl we hunted before—that was a fine tool for capturing numen, but a top-grade pearl costs hundreds of thousands. How could an ordinary hunter ever afford that?
"Even if a hunter has an artifact to trap numen, and even if he's clever and skilled enough to actually catch one, he might still end up without a copper."
Li Banfeng frowned. "Even that won't make money? As far as I know, even an ordinary spiritual item costs over ten thousand silver dollars, let alone a magical treasure. Numen is the crucial core of any magical treasure or spiritual item. It's bound to fetch a handsome price—pricing it at a million or so in Huan Country notes wouldn't be an exaggeration."
Ma the Fifth nodded. "It can indeed fetch a million or so, but you have to pay road tolls.
"There are bandits in the oldland guarding all the key thoroughfares. Once a hunter goes in, if he wants to come back out, he has to cough up a hefty toll. If he has no cash, he can surrender the numen he harvested in exchange.
"If a hunter enters the oldland and comes back empty-handed, he takes a catastrophic loss.
"If he manages to harvest just one empty spirit, that spirit goes straight to the mountain kings.
"Old Seven, if you're thinking of hunting in the oldland, drop the idea right now. We don't lack for money, and we don't need to take such risks."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "I never planned on hunting. I just want revenge. I pried some information out of the Three Paragons of Iron Sheep.
"Lu Xiaolan is currently the chief scout of Iron Sheep Mountain. Iron Sheep Mountain sent her to sweep through our turf, and they nearly pulled it off. This score must be settled.
"If we don't settle it, they'll come back, and they'll hit even harder."
Li Banfeng was certain of this.
Lu Xiaolan would not stop. For the sake of Red Lotus, she would hound him endlessly.
Ma the Fifth fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "This score definitely needs settling, but the question is, how?
"If the Iron Sheep Mountain bandits were standing right in front of us, we'd fight them tooth and nail.
"If they stepped out of the oldland, we'd also have a shot at them.
"But if they stay holed up in the oldland, we won't have a prayer.
"Back in the day, when the He family dredged up a great xiao from the oldland, they passed by Iron Sheep Mountain without paying their respects to Rong Yeguang. In the end, the great xiao was hijacked."
"What's a great xiao?" Li Banfeng asked.
"A great xiao is also a type of empty spirit. It's formed when dozens or hundreds of departed souls coalesce together over countless years, creating an extraordinary empty spirit.
"Capturing a great xiao was an incredible feat for the He family. After it was stolen, they were furious and led a force to lay siege to Iron Sheep Mountain. They assaulted it for half a month and couldn't breach it.
"That was the He family! If even they couldn't pull it off, what chance do we have?
"Those ferocious bandits have lived in the oldland for years; they know every path, every contact, and every unwritten rule. Going into the oldland to attack their stronghold is pure fantasy."
"We still have to make a trip. Even if we can't beat them, we at least need to know where they live so we can find a chance to settle accounts with them down the line." Li Banfeng had truly set his sights on Iron Sheep Mountain.
"I honestly don't know where Iron Sheep Mountain is. Let me ask around."
While Ma the Fifth went to inquire about Iron Sheep Mountain, Li Banfeng pushed his gramophone out to start pulling surveillance hooks across the parcel.
First, he placed a record on the turntable, wound the mainspring to maximum tension, set the needle in place, flicked the switch, and took off sprinting while pushing the gramophone.
"Pretending, pretending, why must you keep on pretending? You want to look, you need to look, then take a good, clear look..."
Li Banfeng whizzed past the warehouse like a wisp of smoke. Chuanzi stood rooted to the spot, muttering to himself, "What's gotten into Seventh Master?"
Bang! Something exploded in the warehouse.
Amidst the song, a hook was plucked.
Xiao Genzi was in the middle of preparing his golden liquor. His previous hypothesis had proved correct: combining the golden liquor of anomalies with that of ordinary humans produced a remarkably subtle transformation.
His cultivation progress was accelerating by leaps and bounds, and he was already preparing to buy a third bucket from the peddler.
Ahead lay a pile of superior quality—plenty of warmth, high purity, and devoid of excessive contaminants.
Just as Xiao Genzi moved toward it, Li Banfeng beat him to the punch.
That prime specimen was squashed flat beneath Li Banfeng's foot.
Xiao Genzi felt immense regret, but looking at the footprint stamped across it, he still reluctantly scraped it up.
"What's got into Seventh Master? Why is he looking so flashy today?"
He was indeed flashy—and literally catching the wind.
With a giant pinwheel mounted behind the gramophone, spinning endlessly as he ran, how could he not catch the wind?
Not only was the gramophone a sight to behold, but the song itself was captivating.
"Pretending" was a staple in every major dance hall. Its lyrics and melody were catchy and infectious, but above all, his wife sang it with immense gusto. Her playful, charming voice reverberated across the entire parcel.
In the span of a single song, Li Banfeng raced through most corners of the parcel.
Once the song ended, the gramophone needed to rest for three days. Li Banfeng tallied the results: he had rooted out six hooks along the way.
These had likely all been planted during Lu Xiaolan's infiltration. She had certainly invested heavily.
Scrying Cultivators were truly difficult to guard against; he would have to step up regular sweeps in the future.
Li Banfeng returned the gramophone to the Portable Abode, spent half a day scouting the surrounding area until he had accumulated sufficient cultivation, and then headed over to Zuo Wugang's door and pushed it open.
Zuo Wugang was currently practicing martial arts with a centipede lady. The clash was fierce, with thrusts and parries in rapid succession; from the looks of it, they had only just begun.
Li Banfeng stepped outside for a moment.
In less than a minute, the centipede lady departed.
Li Banfeng entered the room and asked, "Do you know where Iron Sheep Mountain is?"
Zuo Wugang was pulling on his clothes. Since he knew the Three Paragons of Iron Sheep, Li Banfeng had assumed he knew the mountain's location.
As it turned out, he truly didn't. "Seventh Master, back when the Lu family did business with Iron Sheep Mountain a few times, it was all conducted in the proper land. I was serving as a guard back then, so I saw them on a few occasions. Later, Iron Sheep Mountain delivered a batch of substandard goods—empty spirits mixed with living spirits. Both sides had a falling out and clashed in several fights. I traded blows with the Three Paragons of Iron Sheep, which is how I came to know them."
"Did the Lu family win in the end?"
"Nope! Those bandits from Iron Sheep Mountain don't observe any rules. When they have the upper hand, they beat you half to death; when they suffer a setback, they flee straight into the oldland. The Lu family didn't want to get bogged down chasing them into the oldland, so the matter ended up fading away.
"Seventh Master, those bastards had the nerve to run wild on our turf, and I know you can't stomach that insult. But you must not go into the oldland to fight them. Their supreme leader may only be tier six—equal to me in cultivation—but that mountain harbors every sort of scoundrel and every trick imaginable. Anyone who goes there will suffer a terrible loss."
Both the He family and the Lu family had tasted defeat at Iron Sheep Mountain.
Iron Sheep Mountain was truly not simple!
How did Lu Xiaolan manage to secure such a backer?
Li Banfeng grew even more intrigued by Iron Sheep Mountain.
He returned to the Portable Abode and asked the gramophone, "Wife, where is Iron Sheep Mountain?"
"Husband, what do you want to go to Iron Sheep Mountain for?"
"Just to clear my head." Li Banfeng felt he had come up with a rather sound excuse.
*Ch-chhh—*
His wife paused in silence for a moment before speaking. "Oh, husband, your humble servant does remember a place called Iron Sheep Mountain, but only that it lies within the oldland. As for how to get there, your servant truly cannot recall. Precious husband, take a word of advice from your humble servant: if you wish to clear your head in the oldland, you must wait until your cultivation has advanced further."
Whether his wife truly couldn't remember or not, he wasn't going to get an answer out of her.
Li Banfeng returned to the council hall to continue drilling the band.
Having learned that Li Banfeng was fond of "Pretending," the band spent the entire afternoon practicing it in the hall.
Now it was stuck in everyone's heads—the whole parcel had become obsessed.
The warehousekeeper sang while weighing goods.
The bookkeeper sang while counting silver.
Yanzi and Ah Qin sang while trading blows.
Ma the Fifth walked back humming the tune all the way, saying to Li Banfeng, "Old Seven, there's a hunter on our turf who claims to know where Iron Sheep Mountain is."
Li Banfeng's face lit up with pleasant surprise. "Where is he? Take me to see him."
"I don't know whether he's telling the truth or not. Old Seven, we really can't be rash about this."
"It's fine. Let's see him first."
Ma the Fifth ordered someone to summon the hunter to the one-li parcel, which was relatively safe.
On the way, Ma the Fifth asked Li Banfeng, "Shouldn't we give this ten-li territory a name?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "I've already thought of one. Let's call it Zhengjing Village."
Ma the Fifth pondered for a moment and nodded repeatedly. "That's a good name."
This hunter was named Sun Tiecheng, in his fifties, plainly dressed, and honest-looking.
Upon meeting Li Banfeng and Ma the Fifth, the hunter hurried to bow. Li Banfeng asked straight away about Iron Sheep Mountain's location, to which the veteran hunter replied:
"That depends on whether you two masters travel from the outside or from the inside."
Li Banfeng frowned. "What do you mean, outside or inside?"
Ma the Fifth explained, "He means the newland and the proper land."
Sun Tiecheng said, "If you go through the proper land, the journey will be relatively peaceful until you reach the oldland, but with my legs, it would take half a month. If you cut through the newland, you can reach the place in just a day."
It would take a hunter only a day.
If Li Banfeng ran, wouldn't it take just an hour?
"Brother, what pathway do you practice?"
"Journey Cultivator, tier three."
What a coincidence!
Ma the Fifth said to the hunter, "Draw us a map and show us how to get there."
The hunter drew a sketch, but when he finished, Li Banfeng couldn't make heads or tails of it.
The hunter was also embarrassed. "Masters, I don't know how to draw, nor do I know how to write. I've barely ever held a brush."
"This will do, we'll make do with it," Ma the Fifth said, tucking the map away and handing Sun Tiecheng two silver dollars. "Hurry along and sell your goods. Once you're done, be on your way."
Ma the Fifth genuinely did not want Li Banfeng venturing into the oldland; he hadn't even wanted to bring this hunter in the first place.
Yet if he truly hadn't brought the man, it would have seemed as though he didn't care about Li Banfeng's concerns, and if Li Banfeng ever ran into the hunter later on, it would make Ma the Fifth look deceitful.
Handling it this way was just right: having him draw a map that made little sense, keeping it clutched in Ma the Fifth's hands, and leaving the expedition to Iron Sheep Mountain for further discussion later.
The hunter returned to "Zhengjing Village," offloaded his goods within the settlement, and without lingering, headed toward the depths of the newland.
In half an hour, he had traveled five or six li when Sun Tiecheng suddenly sensed someone tailing him. Turning around, he saw Li Banfeng following close behind.
"Master, what are you..." Sun Tiecheng was visibly nervous.
Li Banfeng frowned slightly. "Aren't you a tier-three Journey Cultivator? You're not moving very fast, are you?"
Wiping sweat from his brow, the hunter said, "Master, with you trailing behind me, I didn't dare go any faster."
Li Banfeng pulled out thirty silver dollars and shoved them into the hunter's hand. "I'm heading for Iron Sheep Village. Can you lead the way for me?"
Chapter 201