Half the roast chicken had vanished, and the parcel suddenly lit up.
A woman's voice announced that the trial had begun.
What did this mean?
Was she a local spirit?
Forcing him to pioneer the land?
Li Banfeng shouted, "I didn't intend to make an offering! I never set up an altar table!"
"The offering has already been received," the woman replied between bites of a chicken leg.
"Even if there is to be a trial, we must sign a covenant deed first!"
"Signing after the trial is just the same. I don't care for tedious formalities!"
Sign after the trial?
What if she went back on her word once it was over?
Li Banfeng couldn't be bothered to argue with her; this local spirit was clearly out of her mind.
He walked straight toward the edge of the parcel. At worst, it would just count as a failed pioneering attempt.
This place was so remote anyway; he simply wouldn't come back.
Just as he reached the parcel's border, a leaf fell onto the glowing boundary line and turned to ashes in the blink of an eye.
What was this?
Li Banfeng had only ever seen such a phenomenon along the boundary lines between territories.
"You think you can leave after arriving on my turf?" the local spirit snorted. "I've accepted your tribute, so you must pioneer this land! Don't you know the rules?"
Li Banfeng could not make heads or tails of this local spirit. He used Golden Eyes Discerning the Minutest Detail to scan around for a while, yet couldn't spot where she was.
"Let's be reasonable," Li Banfeng said. "Setting aside the deed for now, even if you want me to pioneer the land, you're supposed to give me until this time tomorrow—a full day to prepare before we begin. As for whether I hire someone else or pioneer it myself, that should be my decision when the time comes. That rule ought to apply, shouldn't it?"
"No such rules exist! Once tribute is accepted, the trial starts! Everything else can wait until later!"
"Then I won't pioneer it. I don't want it anymore. Just count me as failed!"
"Not allowed! As long as you're alive, it doesn't count as a failure! A three-li parcel—the trial begins now!"
"How am I supposed to pioneer three li on my own—" Before Li Banfeng could finish speaking, snarling roars echoed all around him.
Anomalies were coming!
He had never pioneered a three-li parcel and knew nothing of its rules.
Did the anomalies come one by one like in a one-li parcel, or could they attack all at once?
The crux was that knowing the rules wouldn't help anyway—this local spirit didn't follow rules herself.
To Li Banfeng, pioneering was supposed to be simple. Provided the local spirit gave him a day of preparation, he could fetch the key, rush back, and hide in the Portable Abode for three days.
But this local spirit was utterly unreasonable!
Unable to cross the border, Li Banfeng had no choice but to bring out all his magical treasures and prepare for battle.
Before he could finish arranging them, a colossal tiger five to six meters tall charged into the parcel.
Li Banfeng dodged aside. Behind him, a massive tree two arm-spans thick was crushed to the ground by the tiger's pounce.
The fallen tree slowly stood back up, yawned, and brought its branches smashing down at Li Banfeng.
Li Banfeng pointed at the tiger and yelled at the tree, "He knocked you over! Why are you attacking me?!"
Clamping a branch between its jaws, the tiger lunged it toward Li Banfeng's chest. Its movement was swift, its aim precise, and its timing impeccable, making it nearly impossible to evade.
Wielding a branch with such finesse... was this tiger a Martial Cultivator?
Dodging the tiger's strike, Li Banfeng swung his Tang dao and cleaved clean through the tree's trunk.
From the severed trunk leapt a toad, which croaked at the top of its lungs: "Ribbit! Croak! Endless falling leaves rustle down in torrents!"
As soon as the words left its mouth, countless razor-sharp branches plummeted from above like a torrential rain of blades.
Words Become Truth?
This toad was actually a Literary Cultivator!
Li Banfeng dodged among the falling branches, all while keeping guard against ambush from the giant tiger.
Amidst the fray, the local spirit's voice sounded beside his ear: "With footwork so nimble, could you be a journey cultivator? Well then, I definitely can't let you off easy!"
Did this woman have a grudge against journey cultivators too?
Could she be a Dwelling Cultivator?
While he was wondering, the ground trembled violently.
An earthworm over a meter thick and ten meters long erupted from beneath the earth, coiling tightly around Li Banfeng.
The earthworm's tactic was simple: pin Li Banfeng down while the tree, toad, and tiger unleashed their attacks. It possessed potent regenerative powers and had no fear of collateral damage from Li Banfeng.
Ensnared by the earthworm, Li Banfeng found himself hard-pressed. He shouted toward the projector, "Bring someone out to back me up!"
The projector had been constantly adjusting its angle, finally managing to cast a projection.
A gorgeous young woman appeared beside Li Banfeng, assumed a combat stance, and then turned her back to him to unfasten the frog buttons of her cheongsam.
"Why are you taking off your clothes?!" Li Banfeng roared in fury. "Fight first!"
***
Inside the Portable Abode, the gramophone was dripping with beads of hot sweat.
"That madman hasn't come home for days again. Let's see how he explains himself to the house this time!"
"Explain what, dammit?!" Hong Ying struggled in the corner. "Vicious hag, let me go! I'm going to fight this house to the death!"
"Could you even win?" the gramophone asked with a hint of mockery. "Look at the state you're in—a blind old hag. What do you have to fight it with? That slut Red Lotus has hoarded who knows how much strength just trying to escape this place, and even she doesn't dare act rashly!"
Hong Ying froze. "What strength has Red Lotus hoarded?"
Far away in the seventh chamber, Red Lotus bellowed, "You two sluts, stop gossiping behind my back!"
Just as the three were about to tear into each other, the house shuddered, and an ancient chuckle reached their ears: "Heheheh~"
It was the house laughing.
The gramophone, Red Lotus, and Hong Ying all held high enough status, and all three had heard this laughter before. All of them possessed backbone, yet every time they heard it, their blood ran cold.
Hong Ying trembled all over, screeching, "Vicious hag, let me go! I'll fight him to the death! I can't take it anymore!"
"Shut up, bitch! Do you want a beating?!" The gramophone snapped at her, and Hong Ying quieted down for the moment.
A few minutes later, Hong Ying lost control again. "No! I'll fight him! I'll kill this old scoundrel!"
A burst of bizarre strength surged through her. Catching the gramophone off guard, she broke free from the steam's restraint and thrust her spearhead straight into the wall of the Portable Abode.
"Woo-ooh-honk—!"
A train whistle blared inside the Portable Abode.
The spear darted wildly through the air amid the wail of the whistle, lunging and thrashing in fierce combat, though it was impossible to tell who she was fighting.
Five minutes later, Hong Ying lay prone on the ground, motionless.
Hiss... Hiss...
The gramophone asked cautiously, "Bitch, are you still alive?"
Hong Ying propped herself up and stood.
The gramophone was dumbfounded for a long time. She couldn't understand what Hong Ying had used to prop herself up, nor what she had used to stand.
Hong Ying had grown arms—and legs!
"Bitch! What happened to you?" the gramophone asked nervously.
Hong Ying ran a hand along her spear shaft, murmuring in a low voice, "I'm fine. This battle... counts as a draw."
With that, Hong Ying strode briskly over to the corner and stood there obediently.
In the gramophone's memory, Hong Ying was a woman who knew no fear.
Who knew what methods the house had employed to beat Hong Ying into such a state—even beating limbs out of her.
"Bitch, you didn't wet your pants, did you?"
"Hmph!" Hong Ying sneered coldly. "What kind of talk is that? Why would I wet my pants? Do I even have pants? Now that you mention it, I really do need to find a pair of pants. Don't I have legs now? If you have legs, you have to wear pants. Otherwise, what if someone sees?"
Hong Ying rambled incoherently; the battle had thoroughly shaken her.
The gramophone lowered her voice. "This house is probably even more formidable than the person who built it."
Hong Ying asked, "Who built it?"
"Likely a Grandmaster of a pathway, someone even above a Chief."
"The person who built it was above a Chief, and it's even more formidable than its builder... Hehehe..." Hong Ying suddenly burst out laughing, breathless and wheezing.
The gramophone asked, "What are you laughing at? What's so funny? Don't laugh yourself sick!"
"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at myself. My chest feels uncomfortably tight... it seems I've grown a conscience."
"A conscience..." The gramophone turned her horn toward Hong Ying and noticed a slight swell about a quarter of the way down the spear shaft.
"It really can grow..." The gramophone grew thrilled. "If you can grow one, does that mean I can too?"
"There seems to be more than just a conscience..." Hong Ying's words remained clumsy. "There seems to be something else..."
"Something else? Portals?!" The gramophone became even more excited!
"There really seems to be!" Hong Ying cried out. "I know why this house is so formidable! It possesses methods from many pathways! Where did these methods come from? How could anyone cultivate so many pathways at once?"
The wife coiled steam around the spear, asking in a sweet, gentle murmur, "Sister, setting aside the methods for now, let's talk about the portals. Did they truly grow out?"
"They grew out! Both of them came out! If you can grow portals, you have to grow both as well. Don't let that madman poke around the wrong place again—it hurts just thinking about it for you!"
"Pah! Why would it hurt you?!" the gramophone spat.
Hong Ying said in a panic, "Vicious hag, stop talking about portals! Do you know where the house's methods came from? Will we be turned into methods too? Will we never be able to leave again?!"
"Bitch, I told you not to provoke it! Do you understand now?" The gramophone turned her gaze toward the calendar poster and told Mengde, "Not a single word of what happened here is to be mentioned to my husband. Do you hear me?"
Mengde nodded repeatedly.
Hong Ying asked, "I truly don't understand. Why do you always keep secrets from that madman?"
From the seventh chamber, Red Lotus shouted, "You know he's mad! Aren't you afraid he'll pick a fight with the house? If anything happens to him, we're all finished!"
"Bullshit! You're the one who's fucking mad!" After chewing out Red Lotus, the gramophone turned back to Hong Ying. "My husband isn't mad. He just doesn't do things by conventional logic. We have to break this to him slowly. Whatever you do, don't push him into a corner."
Hong Ying said, "I'm anxious too! Find me a pair of pants! I really have portals now!"
***
Li Banfeng was hard-pressed.
He had spent three days and three nights running from Lian Buda, costing him half his life. Now, the half that remained was being staked on this newland.
Corpses littered the ground.
Wounded anomalies stood in several rows along the edge of the parcel.
Li Banfeng kicked a leopard flying, trampled a wild boar underfoot, and fought with eyes blazing blood-red.
Suddenly, the local spirit called out, "The trial is passed!"
The anomalies retreated from the parcel one after another.
Exhausted, Li Banfeng collapsed onto the ground, his vision swimming.
He just wanted to sleep.
The local spirit appeared before Li Banfeng, sitting down beside him. "Fine fellow. I like your style."
Li Banfeng's gaze drifted toward midair.
Light shimmered in the sky above—a sign that pioneering had succeeded.
Li Banfeng gave a faint nod. Before he could even get a clear look at the local spirit's appearance, his eyelids shut tight, and he fell asleep.
Chapter 303