Li Banfeng did not know why Xiao Genzi was here, and Xiao Genzi himself had no idea how he had ended up in this place.
The old man held his bucket and looked at Lüshui Beggar.
Lüshui Beggar offered a faint smile. Hundreds of pus-filled boils erupted across his body, swelling until his skin could no longer contain them. One by one, the boils burst open, and from each crawled an emerald-green figure no larger than a fingertip. Flapping their wings like tiny angels, they flew toward the old man.
"What a Lü Huazi, opening with a killing move right off the bat," the old man said calmly, even taking the time to lecture Genzi. "Genzi, look closely. These little critters don't look fast, but the moment you move, they'll latch right onto you.
"Unless you have the footwork of a journey cultivator or a Thief Cultivator, no other pathway can dodge them. That's why we have to parry—using this move: Golden Light Cascading!"
Seeing the tiny figures close in, the old man produced a ladle, dipped a small spoonful from the bucket, and flicked his wrist with practiced ease. A glittering golden cascade poured down from the sky, walling off every single approaching figure behind it.
Lü Huazi was taken aback. The old man possessed remarkable discernment.
He had spoken the truth. The little figures appeared sluggish, but they were sentient; if their target dodged or fled, they would suddenly accelerate in pursuit.
Now that the direct path was cut off by the golden waterfall, Lü Huazi steered the figures, attempting to skirt around the cascade and strike from the flanks.
The old man dipped another small spoonful from the bucket, opening and closing his wrist in broad, sweeping motions to scatter the broth outward.
The liquid dispersed into tens of thousands of drops of sweet dew as the old man continued Genzi's lesson. "This technique is called Golden Flecks!"
Each fleck of night soil seemed alive, streaking through the air in hot pursuit of Lü Huazi's little figures.
Li Banfeng pinched his nose and marveled—this truly was flying shit!
As the night soil landed on the figures, they wailed in anguish. Green pus seeped from their bodies, and where gold met green, the figures dissolved amid screams, turning into thick clouds of smoke alongside the golden fluid.
Lü Huazi was privately stunned.
These pus-born figures were the refined essence of his cultivation.
Surely whatever was in that old man's bucket couldn't be called essence, could it?
And yet they cancelled each other out just like that?
Lü Huazi had underestimated it. A mere cancellation was not the end of it—the flecks of night soil far outnumbered the figures, and the remaining golden sparks shot forward like arrows, darting straight for Lü Huazi's face.
Showing no fear, Lü Huazi seized Lin Dexing beside him and used him as a shield, parrying high and low.
It had to be said that Lü Huazi was exceptionally skilled; not a single golden spark touched him, every last one intercepted by Lin Dexing.
This night soil carried far more than a terrible stench. The moment it touched skin, it corroded straight to the bone. Lin Dexing's face became pitted and gouged, eaten away into gaping cavities, and the clothes on his body were burned to tatters.
Lü Huazi ripped open the skin of his own face, letting blood and pus seep out together and blend into one.
He moved to invoke another technique, but the old man gave him no opening. The cascade hanging in midair, blazing with brilliant golden radiance, shifted laterally straight toward him.
This spelled trouble. There was nowhere to dodge and no clean way to parry.
Lü Huazi hoisted Lin Dexing once more, turning shield into spear. Parrying left and thrusting right through the cascade, he forcefully carved a path and burst out.
The old man praised, "Fine spear technique! Genzi, watch closely. This man has the foundation of a Martial Cultivator."
Seeing the cascade about to slam into Old Yao's house, Pan Dehai panicked and scrambled inside to take cover.
Li Banfeng was nervous too—the house had just been rebuilt!
With a flick of his ladle, the old man dismissed the waterfall and condensed it into a gigantic golden dragon that surged toward Lü Huazi.
"Genzi, this is called Golden Dragon Leaves the Mountain!"
The golden dragon flowed with a radiant golden aura, howling as it closed in. The slightest brush against it could inflict devastating trauma.
Lü Huazi truly did possess the foundation of a Martial Cultivator. Wielding Lin Dexing like a twisting monstrous serpent, he clashed head-on with the golden dragon.
The old man reached to the bottom of the bucket with his ladle and fished out some of the thicker sludge.
He was putting real weight into this one. Veins bulged along his arms as he exerted his strength. "Genzi, this is called Flooding the Golden Mountain!"
Genzi watched intently, but he never saw the old man fling the ladle.
The ladle exerted force secretly within the bucket, and at the same moment, the ground trembled.
Beneath Lü Huazi's feet, the ground-crust split open. Golden light burst forth, and a mountain peak slowly swelled upward.
Now things were tricky.
Lü Huazi tried to leap away, but his feet found no purchase. The mountain was soft underfoot, and extremely sticky.
One careless step, and sinking in would mean doom.
Li Banfeng was awestruck.
He felt he had a glaring blind spot in his cultural education.
In the past, he had always assumed that the key element of 'Flooding the Golden Mountain' lay in the word 'water.'
How had it never crossed his mind that the key element could just as well be the 'gold'?
Unable to evade the golden mountain, the pus coating Lü Huazi condensed into the shape of green wings.
Flapping the wings, he lifted himself into the air.
For every inch higher he flew, the golden mountain grew an inch taller. Once he reached a height of over eight feet, Lü Huazi could rise no further.
Above his head, the golden dragon pressed down, pummeling him from above.
While Lü Huazi was contending with the dragon, the old man suddenly shouted and yanked the ladle from the bucket.
Flooding the Golden Mountain—the gold was there, but where was the water?
Here it came!
The very peak of the golden mountain caved in slightly, opening a fist-sized aperture from which a torrent of golden liquid erupted.
Lü Huazi dodged, but the golden stream chased him down.
Lü Huazi parried with Lin Dexing, but the golden dragon kept pounding from above.
Lü Huazi suddenly sneezed: "Achoo!"
A howling gale swept forward, scattering the golden dragon and blowing the golden torrent off course.
The old man called out, "Well sneezed!"
Li Banfeng was startled.
Why 'well sneezed'?
Lü Huazi's counter seemed perfectly sound.
The golden stream quickly regained its direction, and the golden dragon reformed its shape.
Lü Huazi wanted to sneeze again to disperse them completely.
Yet before the sneeze could come, he realized he had fallen into a trap.
There was night soil in the air—infinitesimally fine, invisible to the eye, imperceptible under ordinary circumstances.
This time, however, Lü Huazi sensed it.
Before sneezing, one had to draw a breath—a very deep breath.
When he sneezed earlier, Lü Huazi had inhaled deeply, taking in a massive amount of night soil.
The first breath hadn't felt like much, but on the second breath, Lü Huazi felt something burning inside him, madly scorching his internal organs.
Vicious!
In his fury, Lü Huazi let out a wail and spewed a splatter of bone-white vomit.
The steaming vomit rapidly vaporized into a white mist, drifting through the air.
The old man said to Xiao Genzi, "He's trying to spread pestilence."
"What a disgusting guy!" Xiao Genzi cursed.
Xiao Genzi wasn't afraid. After following the old man for so long, he knew the old master would certainly have a way to counter it.
The old man lit a bowl of tobacco, finished it in one long, bubbling draw, and knocked the glowing embers into the bucket. The night soil inside boiled, billowing with clouds of golden vapor.
The golden vapor swirled, merged with the white mist, and dissolved into haze that drifted away on the wind.
Lü Huazi coughed twice. This wasn't an attempt to release disease foci; the night soil was scorching his lungs.
Could he keep fighting?
He could. He could use the disease foci in his lungs to neutralize the night soil.
But Lü Huazi no longer wanted to fight. His opponent was too formidable; continuing might leave him gravely wounded.
He wanted to leave, but the golden dragon and the golden stream would not let him go.
A veteran of a hundred battles, Lü Huazi showed not the slightest panic in the face of crisis.
He raised his body temperature until his skin burned crimson, instantly vaporizing any night soil that came near him.
Shielded by this heat, Lü Huazi swung Lin Dexing, first driving back the golden dragon, then charging onto the golden mountain. He jammed Lin Dexing's head straight into the crater, plugging the golden stream on the spot.
The opening was only the size of a fist, making it a tight fit, but fortunately the mountain itself wasn't particularly hard.
Seizing the chance, Lü Huazi flickered and vanished.
With the vent blocked, pressure within the golden mountain surged violently until, with a loud bang, it blasted Lin Dexing out.
Lin Dexing shot into the sky and disappeared beyond the horizon.
Xiao Genzi asked the old man, "Founding Master, aren't we going after him?"
The old man sighed. "Lü Huazi has real skill. If we truly cornered him, he wouldn't be easy to handle."
"What about the other one?"
The old man glanced outside the courtyard and smiled. "No need to worry about that one. The one who needs worrying about is inside the house."
Pan Dehai was inside Old Yao's room at that very moment.
Standing by Old Yao's bedside, his expression turned sinister. "Don't blame me for not warning you beforehand. I'm going to dig up your covenant deed now."
Old Yao lay on the bed without responding.
Pan Dehai said, "I'm not joking with you. I'm really going to dig it up. Yaowanggou is a fine place, and I wouldn't mind adding another piece of territory. You don't need it anyway, so you might as well give it to me."
Old Yao still showed no reaction.
Pan Dehai fell silent for a moment, then sat down on the edge of the bed.
He rummaged through his robes for a long time, eventually pulling out a thin stick.
"I bought a sugar figurine on the road."
Pan Dehai felt around in his clothes several more times and pulled out some broken bits of candy. "It was a fine sugar figurine, but that bastard Lin Dexing smashed it to pieces.
"Piece it together, and it's still good to eat. It's sweet as can be. Want some?
"You're not getting up, are you? You won't eat?
"If you won't eat, I will. I'm not joking with you, I'm really eating it."
Standing in the courtyard, Genzi asked the old man, "Founding Master, who is he?"
"He is Pan Dehai, the local spirit of Haichiling."
"And the one lying down?"
"He is Yao Xin, the local spirit of Yaowanggou."
"Are they friends or foes?"
"Hard to say," the old man said, shaking his head. "Do you remember the disaster at Haichiling?"
"I remember."
"Pan Dehai acted wickedly, trying to spread Haichiling's insect plague to other territories. Because of that, he fought several battles with the surrounding local spirits, but he never laid a hand on Yaowanggou.
"During that disaster, out of all the local spirits, only Yao Xin lent Pan Dehai a hand, sending medicine to Haichiling to eradicate the pests. Just how many grievances and debts lie between them, even I can't say."
...
Lin Dexing stumbled down the mountain. The skin on his body had completely sloughed off, and more than half his flesh was gone.
His brains sloshed inside a skull riddled with holes, internal organs dropped out from time to time, and his bones were entirely dislocated.
Halfway down the mountain, Lin Dexing tripped, lost his balance, and crashed heavily to the ground.
With his eyes severely damaged and his vision failing, he couldn't see what had tripped him.
He struggled to get up, but failed; he was trapped in a net.
This was Tu Yinghong's net, originally meant to hunt Li Banfeng, only to be pilfered by the glove.
Lin Dexing tried to thrash, but he was too gravely wounded, and the net wound tighter and tighter around him.
Li Banfeng produced Prince Chun's horse whip and gave Lin Dexing a savage thrashing. He whipped him until Lin Dexing wailed at the top of his lungs, smoke billowing from his body, beating him until Lin Dexing stopped moving entirely. Only then did Li Banfeng stay his hand.
The glove propped itself up on its thumb and middle finger, raised its index finger, and swayed its head from side to side. "Boss, none of the stuff I bring back is bad quality, right?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "Well done. You take top credit for this battle. You deserve a generous reward!"
"Thanks, Boss! Wait, uh..." Seeing Li Banfeng take out a key and unlock the Portable Abode, the glove froze.
"Boss, you're not thinking of bringing this thing home, are you?
"Boss, can't we just finish him off right here?
"What are you doing? Why do you have to drag him home? That won't do! The smell is way too foul! If I'd known, I never would've given you the net!"
Chapter 348