To slip into Lord Mountain-Uprooter's dwelling undetected, the best option was Unimpeded Passage.
Relying on Li Banfeng's Unimpeded Passage alone likely wouldn't suffice; he would have to borrow from Hong Ying.
Hong Ying could be considered his dwelling spirit, so using Sprawling Compound to borrow a technique from her was technically straightforward.
The prerequisite, however, was that Hong Ying had to be willing.
Over the past several days, Hong Ying had changed considerably, but Li Banfeng hadn't paid her much attention.
Cozying up to her now only because he needed a favor would make him look thoroughly insincere.
At the very least, he ought to bring her a gift first.
She had grown hair—bring her a hair ribbon?
Too meager; it wouldn't show his heart.
Bring some rouge, then?
Rouge still lacked sufficient weight.
A piece or two of jewelry?
Out in these desolate mountains, where could he buy that?
Li Banfeng thought about buying some jewelry from Meng Yuchun, only to find that she disliked wearing jewelry—she didn't even put on rouge.
What was to be done?
After pondering for a long time, Li Banfeng finally hit upon the ideal gift.
He knew what Hong Ying truly desired, and that gift, seemingly as far as the horizon, was right before his eyes!
No gift could ever surpass his own sincerity!
Returning to the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng sat down beside Hong Ying and said with a touch of awkward nervousness, "Miss Hong, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."
Hong Ying had known the moment he returned. She was sitting demurely to one side, bashfully nibbling on the flesh and blood of Lord Mountain-Uprooter.
Hearing Li Banfeng take the initiative to speak, she dabbed gently at the bloodstains around her lips with a silk handkerchief. With the poise of a young lady from a prestigious family, she said softly, "Why call me 'Miss Hong'? That makes us sound like strangers."
With tender affection, Li Banfeng called out, "Yingying, I'd like to borrow your technique for a bit."
Hong Ying turned her face away in coy petulance. "Just because you ask to borrow it, I have to lend it?"
Li Banfeng took Hong Ying's hand and said earnestly, "Yingying, I know what is in your heart. I will never let you down."
"Qi-lang, do you truly mean that?" Hong Ying squeezed Li Banfeng's hand back.
"From the bottom of my heart!" Li Banfeng shoved ten silver dollars into Hong Ying's hand. "I'm a sincere man. I never bother with false sentiment and empty words."
Hong Ying gripped the coins, her right hand trembling for a moment. "You give me silver dollars... and only ten?"
Li Banfeng handed over another ten. "If that's not enough, there's more!"
Suppressing her fury, Hong Ying counted the silver dollars first, then stowed them away.
"Which technique do you want to borrow?"
"Unimpeded Passage."
"What do you want it for?"
"To enter Lord Mountain-Uprooter's lair and find her covenant deed!"
"Twenty silver dollars isn't enough!"
"Then name your price!"
Hong Ying thought for a moment, then broke into a sudden smile. "Every few days, you apply machine oil to that vicious shrew. I just want to know how that machine oil gets applied!"
"Why ask about that?"
"Not just ask—I want to try it, too."
Li Banfeng looked at Hong Ying and asked with complete gravity, "Do you have gears?"
Hong Ying answered, "No."
"Do you have chains?"
"No."
"Do you have bearings?"
"None of those either..."
"Then what machine oil are you trying to apply?"
Hong Ying had no answer.
Li Banfeng stuffed another ten silver dollars into her hand. "Then it's settled."
"Fine," Hong Ying agreed, looking rather dazed.
Using Sprawling Compound, Li Banfeng formed a contract with Hong Ying and promptly left the Portable Abode.
Hong Ying straightened her hair and went back to eating Lord Mountain-Uprooter's flesh.
After two bites, she lost her appetite.
"What's the point of eating this? Even if it all grows back, nobody cares."
The gramophone had been watching from the side the entire time and finally burst out laughing. "Aiya, you wretched trollop, didn't he give you thirty silver dollars? Out there, it only costs three silver dollars! Your price isn't low at all!"
"What do you mean, three silver dollars?"
"A Changsan Shuyu—don't you know about them?"
Hong Ying genuinely didn't know, and when the gramophone refused to explain, she snatched up the Tang dao. "What is a Changsan Shuyu?"
In a trembling voice, the Tang dao squeaked, "This humble general is an upright person! I have never set foot in such places!"
Hong Ying cast the Tang dao aside, sighing in dejection.
Seeing that she had stopped eating, the other magical treasures swarmed forward to share the rest of Lord Mountain-Uprooter's flesh and blood.
The gramophone offered a word of counsel: "Trollop, restoring your human form is your great fortune. Don't cheapen yourself over a fit of pique."
"Whom would I be spiteful toward?" Hong Ying scoffed. "I just fancy that madman. Is that forbidden?"
"What could you possibly see in him? You're doing nothing more than trying to spite me. You could never fathom that madman's temperament, so don't waste your effort."
As they spoke, the magical treasures gorged themselves until they couldn't swallow another morsel, yet the room remained an utter shambles.
"What an unsightly mess. Hong Ying, go fetch that wretched Red Lotus and have her clean this up."
Hong Ying spat at the gramophone. Yet having grown accustomed to serving as her subordinate all those years ago, she remained obedient enough, heading to the seventh chamber to carry Red Lotus over.
Looking at the mangled mess across the floor, Red Lotus snapped at the gramophone, "You vicious shrew, do you take me for a swill bucket?"
"Aiyo, little sister, how can you say that? Whose swill bucket gets fed such prime ingredients?"
Swallowing her resentment, Red Lotus devoured every trace of the flesh and blood until the floor was clean.
***
Returning to the cliff edge, Li Banfeng first asked Meng Yuchun, "What does the covenant deed look like?"
Meng Yuchun picked up a twig and drew a diagram on the ground.
Dwelling Cultivators were all skilled at drawing, a capability grounded in Golden House Conceals a Beauty.
Yet Li Banfeng saw nothing resembling a scroll or document in the sketch—only a box containing an object that looked like a seal.
"This is the covenant deed?"
Pointing at the sketch, Meng Yuchun explained, "This isn't the covenant deed. This is the local seal and the seal box.
"The seal box is entirely yellow, with a silvery-white ring engraved on its lid. As long as you find this box, you will find the local seal.
"The covenant deed is buried directly beneath the local seal. You'll uncover it after digging half a chi into the dirt at most."
Li Banfeng was puzzled. "Why is that?"
Meng Yuchun explained, "A covenant deed gathers the cultivation of a territory, but cannot store it.
"Once buried, the covenant deed cannot be unearthed. If it is, the local god loses their station and will soon lose their cloud-tier cultivation as well. That's why you'll never see a covenant deed above ground.
"The local seal can store cultivation. Usually set atop the covenant deed, it draws cultivation from the deed to distribute to the living spirits of the territory.
"Cultivation stored in the local seal dissipates easily, however, which is why it must be kept inside the seal box.
"The covenant deed, the local seal, and the seal box are all bestowed by the Inner States. A local god cannot replicate any of the three, not even one who follows the Craft Cultivator path.
"So as long as you find the seal box, you are certain to find the covenant deed."
Having grasped the details, Li Banfeng carefully studied the shapes of the seal and the box in the drawing.
After sending the others away, Li Banfeng drew upon Hong Ying's power and, using the technique Grandpa Train had taught him, rammed headfirst into the cliff face.
Hong Ying's strength far surpassed his own. With her power bolstering him, Li Banfeng could not only delve much deeper while executing Unimpeded Passage, but could also change direction.
He traversed more than two li through solid rock before finally catching sight of Lord Mountain-Uprooter's residence.
It was a three-courtyard compound.
Li Banfeng struck a match and saw two mountain wolves standing guard at the gate.
"Someone's here."
"Not the master. The footsteps are wrong, and so is the scent."
"What do you smell?"
"Smoke and fire."
"There seems to be a stench of blood as well. This person carries quite a lot of blood on them."
The two mountain wolves spoke in human tongues, yet they judged an intruder's identity solely by sound and scent.
Looking closer, Li Banfeng realized their eyeballs had been gouged out, leaving only two pitch-black holes in their faces.
"Who are you?! How did you get in here?" one wolf snarled at him.
Li Banfeng looked at the wolves and asked, "Did that old crone gouge out your eyes?"
The other wolf barked, "What does that have to do with you? To serve our master as slaves is our good fortune!"
Closing in step by step, Li Banfeng said in an even voice, "Lord Mountain-Uprooter is dead. You need a new master."
The first wolf roared, "Save your breath! A loyal subject serves no second master! So long as we draw breath, don't even dream of crossing this threshold!"
Li Banfeng locked eyes on that wolf, and his figure abruptly vanished.
Having no eyes, the wolf couldn't see Li Banfeng. It tried to track him by sound, but couldn't detect his presence at all.
The other wolf, however, felt something all too vivid—the sticky warmth of blood splattering across its face.
Its fellow guard had detonated, showering it in gore.
Li Banfeng crouched down and patted the remaining wolf on the head. "If you don't care to change masters, you're welcome to join Lord Mountain-Uprooter."
The wolf gritted its teeth. "I'm not a spineless sort!"
Li Banfeng smiled. "Why don't you pull your spine out so I can see?"
"No need to pull it out—you can see it just fine!"
The wolf straightened its back, marched into the compound, and bellowed at everyone inside, "We have a new master! All of you, stand aside! Hey, you sweeping the floor—are you blind? The master has arrived, and you're still blocking the way!"
The one sweeping was a rabbit, and she truly was blind; her eyes had also been gouged out by Lord Mountain-Uprooter. Hearing the wolf's shout, she had no idea where to stand.
The wolf turned back to Li Banfeng. "Master, this way, please."
Letting a blind wolf lead the way—could this be reliable?
The wolf was full of confidence. "Master, aren't you looking for the covenant deed? None of these others are any good, but I know where it is!"
"How do you know?"
"My ears are sharp! I can't see, but I hear everything clearly."
Knowing where the covenant deed was hidden just by listening?
Yet the wolf truly did know.
It guided Li Banfeng to a cellar entrance in the rear courtyard and said, "Master, take a look inside. So long as you know what the deed looks like, you'll definitely find it."
Li Banfeng frowned. "How do you know for sure it's down in the cellar?"
The wolf replied, "Every year in the twelfth lunar month, Lord Mountain-Uprooter would distribute cultivation to the living spirits of the territory, and we'd get a bit ourselves.
"Whenever it came time to distribute cultivation, Lord Mountain-Uprooter would always come into this cellar. I've listened to it for all these years—clear as day, without a doubt."
Li Banfeng examined the cellar opening. The heavy stone doors were shut tight, with no visible lock or apparent mechanism to open them.
Then he simply wouldn't bother.
Li Banfeng phased straight through the doors and descended the stairs into the cellar, guided by the glow of his match.
The cellar was vast, cluttered with an assortment of goods: bolts of fabric, furs, a large store of medicinal herbs, along with cabinets, crates, and broken furniture.
This hardly looked like a place to hide a covenant deed.
Li Banfeng scanned the clutter and spotted an odd fixture.
A stone lion, taller than a man.
What was a stone lion doing inside a cellar?
Could there be something beneath it?
Li Banfeng tried to budge the stone lion. As a Tier Six Journey and Dwelling Cultivator, his physical strength vastly exceeded that of ordinary people.
Yet whatever stone it was carved from, Li Banfeng tried three times, and the lion didn't budge an inch.
Lord Mountain-Uprooter was a Strength Cultivator; whatever she used to guard an entrance was certainly beyond Li Banfeng's power to move.
What he was looking for was very likely beneath the lion's feet.
Dig straight through to get under the stone lion?
Li Banfeng tapped the ground; the stone slabs were hard as steel.
Digging down directly was out of the question.
Time to phase!
Activating Unimpeded Passage once more, Li Banfeng sank into the ground beside the lion's paws, then immediately banked toward the space beneath it.
With that turn, he breached a wall and entered another chamber.
Striking another match, Li Banfeng finally took in the layout.
Beneath the cellar lay yet another, smaller cellar.
In the ceiling of this small cellar was an entrance, atop which rested the immovable stone lion; no ordinary person could ever enter.
Inside the small cellar, a single item rested right in the center of the floor: a small yellow wooden box, one chi long, half a chi wide, and half a chi high.
Engraved on the lid was a silvery-white ring.
Chapter 316