The Local Spirit's Covenant Deed

Lord Mountain-Uprooter scanned the severed limbs and shattered remains strewn across the room, sneering, "Usually pretending to be some virtuous woman, yet acting with such venomous malice behind closed doors—a two-faced wretch like that deserves death by a thousand cuts!" Her curse was aimed at Meng Yuchun, but Hong Ying mistook it for herself. Following the sound, Hong Ying turned her spear shaft toward her and demanded, "Old crone, who do you think you're cursing?" Lord Mountain-Uprooter flicked her walking stick. "You're the dwelling spirit?" "That I am!" Hong Ying flicked the spear tip with obvious pride. The spearhead was drenched in crimson, which, paired with the underlying steel, held an extraordinary, deadly splendor. Lord Mountain-Uprooter raised her walking stick to strike, when the gramophone suddenly cried out, "Hey now, you wretched trollop! What kind of dwelling spirit do you think you are? Since when do you call the shots in this household?" Lord Mountain-Uprooter looked toward the gramophone. At first, she had only seen it churning with steam and smoke, mistaking it for a tea stove. Only now did she realize that it bore a spinning disc, and sounds were issuing from the flared horn. Meng Yuchun actually had two dwelling spirits. She had heard of such things; certain high-tier Dwelling Cultivators indeed possessed more than one dwelling spirit. And what was that man doing there? Lord Mountain-Uprooter looked at Li Banfeng. "Are you a dwelling spirit too?" "I..." Li Banfeng didn't quite know how to explain. Lord Mountain-Uprooter chuckled coldly. "Never mind. I'll send you all on your way together!" *Bang!* The cane struck the floor, and an invisible force surged upward, launching the corpses and all manner of treasures in the room straight into the air. The Tang dao yelped in alarm and darted into Li Banfeng's pocket alongside the glove. The music box, somewhat clumsier, tried to reach Li Banfeng, but couldn't fly over. The Judge's Brush hovered in midair, treating it as no big deal at all, simply rolled over, and went back to sleep. The calendar poster rolled itself up, hitched onto the clock pendulum, and floated over to Li Banfeng's side alongside the liquor gourd. Floating near Li Banfeng offered no guarantee of safety either—Li Banfeng himself had floated into the air. Inside the main hall of the Portable Abode, the tables, chairs, benches, bowls, water buckets, and even Li Banfeng's bed were lifted off the ground. "A Strength Cultivator?" The gramophone hadn't risen, calmly venting puffs of steam. "One doesn't see much of this pathway these days." "What do you mean, you don't see much? Back in the day, weren't battlefields packed with them?" Hong Ying hadn't floated either, though her loose, disheveled hair drifted slightly upward. *Hiss...* The gramophone gave a light laugh. "Blind hag, times have changed. Strength Cultivators have been practically squeezed to extinction by Martial Cultivators." Hong Ying let out a cold snort. "One ounce of raw force subdues ten skills, and a sliver of sheer speed breaks a hundred tricks. What are Martial Cultivators worth?" While the two were still bickering over cultivation pathways, Lord Mountain-Uprooter realized things were looking dire. Neither dwelling spirit had been lifted off the ground, which proved their strength was no less than Meng Yuchun's. Killing them in short order would be extraordinarily difficult. Seeing that the male dwelling spirit seemed utterly inept, she decided to take him hostage first to see if she could find a way to escape. Lord Mountain-Uprooter shifted her force, aiming to smash Li Banfeng to the floor. *Clang! Clang! Clang!* A dense flurry of drumbeats rang out. Lord Mountain-Uprooter felt her breath choke, her techniques rendered impossible to unleash. Amidst the rhythm of gongs and drums, Li Banfeng, along with the entire room's furniture and treasures, drifted gently back into place. The wife had dismantled Lord Mountain-Uprooter's technique. Lord Mountain-Uprooter swung her cane straight at the gramophone. *Thud!* A dull impact echoed from the gramophone's front cabinet. Lord Mountain-Uprooter had struck the front doors, but none of her power had transferred into the blow. Her breath leaped erratically to the beat of the drums, and the energies within her body clashed violently against one another. The gramophone sang in a chilling, shadowy cadence: "Old crone courting death, who gave you leave to lay a hand on my husband?" The old woman's body trembled as she gathered every shred of her strength, desperate to break free of the gramophone's control. The gongs and drums grew even more frantic, intertwined with the wife's sinister operatic aria: "*Let me proceed in person to the Terrace of Homesickness to see, and behold the lesser demons and the great judges, escorting the wronged souls who died in vain, chains locked around their necks, weeping in sorrow and weeping in woe, chilling winds coiling about, piercing through to my very marrow...*" *Investigating the Nether Mountain*, originally an aria for a painted-face role, had its key and meter transformed by the wife into the haunting cadence of a qingyi. The tune was so ghastly and wretched that Lord Mountain-Uprooter was terrified to her core, cold sweat pouring down her face. No. She could not match this dwelling spirit! Lord Mountain-Uprooter wheeled around to head for the door, but the entrance would not budge. Spotting another door behind Li Banfeng, Lord Mountain-Uprooter transformed into a ball of ghostly fire and charged straight for it. This only enraged the wife further; she assumed the old crone was lunging for Li Banfeng. A blast of steam swept over, forcing the crone back into her physical form. A stylus pierced right through her eyeball, hooking into the socket and dragging the old woman back. "You truly do not value your life, daring to touch my husband!" The boiling steam heated the stylus cherry-red, scalding the crone's eye socket until smoke billowed from it. The crone attempted to use brute force to snap the stylus in two, but the chilling operatic aria never ceased, preventing her from gathering her strength. Li Banfeng didn't understand. The wife's singing sounded quite pleasant, so how could it inflict such devastating harm on the old crone? As he pondered this, a sudden warmth and dampness hit his ear. What was that? Li Banfeng plucked off the earring and snapped, "Didn't I tell you not to pee on my ear?" Hong Ying warned the earring, "Listen to what you're permitted to hear, and whatever you're not permitted to hear, don't you dare listen! That vicious woman was afraid of hurting her man, so she let you hear something pleasant. If you heard the true sound, your souls would be frightened right out of you!" Lord Mountain-Uprooter flexed her wrist. She wore a gold bracelet there—a rare numinous relic that might still save her life. She flexed her wrist for quite a while, but the bracelet didn't respond. Strange. Where was the bracelet? The bracelet was gone! The stylus grew even hotter, and layers of operatic singing overlapped, as though hundreds or thousands of performers were singing a grand opera in unison. Hanging from the stylus, Lord Mountain-Uprooter gradually ceased her struggles, lulled into a daze by the gramophone's verses. Another stylus drove directly into the crown of her head. Lord Mountain-Uprooter's body convulsed, her eyes rolling back as if her marrow were being sucked dry. Li Banfeng sighed to himself. *Thank goodness I'm an upright person, and my home is an upright place.* *If this were anyone else's house—dripping with fresh blood, littered with corpses, and an old crone having her brain sucked out alive—it would look just like a demon's den.* "Wife, leave her with a breath. I have questions for her." The gramophone replied, "Ask quickly, husband. Hong Ying, stay on your guard as well. This person's cultivation isn't on the ground-crust." Hong Ying said, "If she isn't on the ground-crust, kill her right now so we don't invite trouble!" "Vile wretch, who asked you to butt in? If my husband wants to question her, we listen to my husband!" Not on the ground-crust? That meant she was on the clouds. Li Banfeng asked, "Are you a local spirit?" Lord Mountain-Uprooter was reluctant to speak, but the stylus flared with sudden heat, sending her into a spasm of agony. She finally spoke: "I am the local spirit of the eastern domain, Lord Mountain-Uprooter." "A neighbor of Meng Yuchun?" "Yes." "Why did you want to kill her?" "I wanted her covenant deed. If she didn't resist or seek revenge, I wouldn't have killed her." "What use is her covenant deed to you?" Li Banfeng had always wanted to know just how valuable a covenant deed was to a local spirit. "Take her covenant deed to the Inner States, and you can exchange it for a hundred years of life." Li Banfeng froze. "That's a promise from the Inner States?" "It isn't a promise. It's a rule—a rule known to all local spirits." Li Banfeng was stunned into silence. The Inner States could actually lay down rules like that? Thinking back, Shui Yongquan had truly been loyal and honorable; he could have dug up Qiu Luoye's covenant deed back then, yet he hadn't. "What happens to a local spirit if their covenant deed is dug up?" "They lose their status." "And what happens when they lose their status?" "Their cultivation drops. Within three to five days at the shortest, or one to two years at the longest, a local spirit who loses their deed falls from the clouds back to the ground-crust." Falling from the clouds back to the ground-crust—was that equivalent to a failed advancement? "Meaning they become an Injured Demon Fiend?" "They can't even become an Injured Demon Fiend. A drop in cultivation causes massive damage. Those with deep foundations might retain a scrap of sentience and scrape by, while those with shallow foundations are obliterated on the spot." No wonder local spirits fought to the death whenever a covenant deed was mentioned. The price of having it dug up was simply too steep. Li Banfeng asked Lord Mountain-Uprooter, "Just for a hundred years of life, you were willing to take such risks?" "I had no choice. I'm over four hundred and eighty years old, which is already considered long-lived among local spirits. "On the Cloud First Tier, one's lifespan never exceeds five hundred. If I didn't find a way to extend my life, I wouldn't have lasted more than a few years." The gramophone piped up from the side, "Husband, the old crone isn't lying. The Inner States truly do have such a rule." Hearing the wife mention the Inner States gave Li Banfeng a slight shudder, half expecting her to lose her mind again. Yet the wife was quite normal today. It seemed she had recovered a great deal. All the feeding over these days hadn't been in vain! Li Banfeng continued his questioning, "Why did you pick Meng Yuchun specifically?" "She's a Dwelling Cultivator with little worldly experience, and she only just became a local spirit, so she's ignorant of many rules. Among the surrounding local spirits, she was the easiest target. "None of the neighboring local spirits have ever encountered a land reclaimer, and no one saw any hope. Only she was lucky enough to run into one within less than a year of arriving. "The surrounding local spirits all envied and hated her. If I killed her, nobody would speak against me. Even if she didn't die by my hand, she would have died by someone else's sooner or later." *So this is how local spirits relate to one another?* "The Devotion-Claiming Elder, Sweet Snot, the Knife-and-Brush Scribe, the Opera-Beckoning Matron—did you hire all those roaming anomalies?" "Yes." "What did you pay them with?" "Cultivation. Ground-crust cultivation." "Where did you get that cultivation?" The crone's expression grew increasingly hazy, mumbling incoherently for a long time without explaining. The gramophone said, "Husband, the domain of a newland spawns cultivation. A local spirit's covenant deed can gather this cultivation to reward their subordinate anomalies. If they can pay a hefty enough price, they can even bribe roaming anomalies. "Only, hiring so many roaming anomalies all at once has probably bankrupted this old hag. Down the line, she won't have any bargaining chips left to control the anomalies on her own ground." The old woman murmured weakly, "I couldn't care about that... couldn't care... I wanted to live..." Li Banfeng didn't catch her faint mumbling; his mind was entirely occupied with thoughts of cultivation. "Husband, ask whatever you need to ask quickly. This person cannot be kept alive for long." Li Banfeng hurried to ask, "Where is your covenant deed?" "At my dwelling." *Isn't that obvious?!* "Where is your dwelling?" "You want my deed?" Lord Mountain-Uprooter wheezed. "Spare my life, and I'll take you there." The stylus flared hot once more, and the wife warned her, "Spare the chatter. Answer honestly whatever you're asked." Unable to endure the torture, Lord Mountain-Uprooter spoke the truth: "Go find the Opera-Beckoning Matron. She knows where I live." "Good, good!" Li Banfeng nodded, signaling to the wife that she could finish it. The stylus extended abruptly, driving straight down through the crown of Lord Mountain-Uprooter's head all the way to the floor. As she convulsed, Lord Mountain-Uprooter was still whispering, "I want to live... let me live..." After a long while of faint moaning, Lord Mountain-Uprooter fell silent, her soul devoured by the wife. Puffing out billow after billow of steam, the gramophone sang softly, "Husband, even if you brought dragon liver and phoenix marrow today, this humble servant couldn't stomach another bite." Li Banfeng smiled and said, "Take a rest for a bit, wife. I'm going out for a stroll and will be back shortly." "Aiya, husband, you wouldn't be going after this old crone's covenant deed, would you?" Li Banfeng rubbed his nose and said, "Just curious. I want to go have a look." "Aiya, husband, you couldn't be coveting the cultivation stored inside the deed, could you?" Li Banfeng offered an innocent smile. "Wouldn't it be nice to amass a bit more cultivation? Just as you said, wife, the domain's cultivation is all stored inside the deed." "Aiya, husband, your cultivation is bestowed by this humble servant. What would you go seeking a covenant deed for?" Li Banfeng wiped his sweat. "Even if I don't use it, you can use it, wife!" "Aiya, husband, this humble servant has no use for that sort of cultivation. The cultivation from a newland is different from proper cultivation. "Husband, you've seen Madam Bagworm Moth. Would you like to turn into something like that?" Li Banfeng paused, startled. "Using cultivation from a newland turns you into Madam Bagworm Moth?" "Not quite. Madam Bagworm Moth was an Ascetic Cultivator who transformed. What a Dwelling Cultivator would turn into is hard to say. "Some anomalies in the newland were once human, while others were closely related to humans. They only ended up looking like that because of the newland's cultivation. Husband, you must think carefully. Do you truly want to become a creature like that?" Li Banfeng pressed his lips together. "Changing appearance isn't the end of the world." Hong Ying held a mirror up in front of Li Banfeng. "Take a look at how you look right now first. If you truly turn into a monster, won't you disgust yourself?" *You're a spear who looks in the mirror every day without feeling disgusted by yourself, so why should I be disgusted?* "I won't mind. I just wonder if my wife will mind me." "Aiya, husband, this humble servant won't mind either. If you want to go, then go, husband." "Alright, I'll go right now." Li Banfeng squatted down and reached toward the case. "Aiya, husband, what are you doing?" "I'm going to oil you up before I go." The gramophone began to tremble. "Husband, this humble servant was only giving a kind reminder! Why must you apply machine oil?" *Squeak...* Li Banfeng had already opened the back cover. The gramophone shivered even more violently. "Husband, this humble servant ate so much today! You mustn't put it in the wrong place! Husband, look carefully! Look... carefully... No, don't, husband, don't~ "Husband, oh husband! Th-that local spirit's covenant deed h-has other uses! D-don't be in such a rush! Listen to this humble servant, let me tell you slowly~"