He Yuxiu had been captured by the Jiangxiang Gang in Qishuiyao.
This came as quite a surprise.
Not only had He Yuxiu never expected it, even the Hall Master of Qishuiyao hadn't seen it coming.
After surviving a bloody battle where she nearly lost her life, He Yuxiu had stopped by a soda stall looking for a bite to eat. The stall was in a rather secluded spot, and the vendor belonged to the Jiangxiang Gang. Seeing how beautiful she was, he had spiked her drink.
Parched with thirst, He Yuxiu had downed more than a dozen bottles of soda in a single breath.
It didn't help that she hadn't visited Qishuiyao in years and failed to detect the off taste in the soda, and just like that, she was knocked out cold.
Faced with such a stunning beauty, the vendor didn't dare make a move on her lightly and presented her to the Hall Master first.
Before the Hall Master could lay a hand on her, he noticed her name engraved on her pocket watch.
This was He Yuxiu?
The eldest young mistress of the He family?
The head of the He family?
The Hall Master found it hard to believe. He compared He Yuxiu's features with the photograph sent over by the Garrison Commissioner.
She looked quite similar, but certain things didn't add up.
First was her age.
According to the intelligence the Hall Master possessed, He Yuxiu was in her forties, but the woman before him looked barely around thirty.
He Yuxiu was an exceptional beauty to begin with, and with years of martial arts practice, a solid foundation, fine physical health, and an easygoing mindset, she had preserved her youth remarkably well.
Her attire didn't match either.
The clothes she wore were made of cheap fabric with shoddy stitching—how could the head of the He family step out dressed like this?
The Hall Master bound He Yuxiu with an iron chain custom-made by a Craft Cultivator and tortured her for nearly half a day. But He Yuxiu was tough to the bone and stubbornly refused to admit her identity.
With her refusal to confess, the Hall Master felt uncertain, unsure whether he should report the matter to the Garrison Commissioner.
The Garrison Commissioner had issued a secret order directing the Jiangxiang Gang to watch for news of He Yuxiu. Now that he had captured her, handing her over would surely be a massive merit. It might well earn him an entry into the Garrison Office, or even grant him an official standing in the Outer States.
Yet what if he had seized the wrong person?
If he rashly sent her over, let word leak out, and offended the Garrison Commissioner in the process, how could he answer for it?
Still, keeping her locked away indefinitely wasn't an option either. If the He family came searching, how could he ever withstand them?
Greedy for credit yet lacking the nerve to match his ambition, the Hall Master hesitated to act rashly and kept He Yuxiu locked away for the time being.
He planned to torture her for another morning tomorrow; if she still wouldn't confess, he would report the matter to the Garrison Office.
As it turned out, that single night of delay set his own backyard on fire.
This time, the fire was literal—Li Banfeng had set it with his own hands.
Shocked, the Hall Master hastily dispatched men to put it out. But this blaze had been ignited by Old Yao's liquor; no matter how hard they fought it, the fire only burned fiercer.
The Craft Cultivator intervened.
This Craft Cultivator wasn't a disciple of the Jiangxiang Gang. Being a friend of the Hall Master, he frequently stayed at the branch hall and served as his assistant.
In the entire Soda Hall, he was the person who concerned Li Banfeng the most. According to the fortune teller, this man's cultivation might have reached the sixth tier.
With a sixth-tier cultivation, what couldn't he do? Why reduce himself to working as an assistant for the Jiangxiang Gang?
There had to be an ulterior motive; he was likely an operative sent by the Garrison Commissioner.
The Craft Cultivator gathered a few simple components and quickly assembled a sand-flinging machine.
Its principle was straightforward: using belts and a bucket wheel to scoop up sand from the ground and fling it into the air.
The build was fairly crude as well, requiring a dozen Jiangxiang Gang disciples to crank the wheels together to set the belts and bucket wheel in motion.
Yet the effect was remarkable; the airborne sand quickly brought the blaze under control.
To construct such a machine in so short a time—Li Banfeng, watching from the shadows, was inwardly impressed.
While the Craft Cultivator was occupied here, Li Banfeng followed the sounds to infiltrate the dungeon, knocked out several guards, and slipped into the cell.
Where did this handsome woman come from? Why did she look somewhat familiar?
He Yuxiu thought someone had come to interrogate her again and was prepared to fight with her life, but after staring for a moment, she also felt she recognized him.
"Li the Seventh?" He Yuxiu asked cautiously.
Li Banfeng smiled. "Xiu'er, what are you doing here?"
He Yuxiu didn't know how to answer.
Truth be told, He Yuxiu and Li the Seventh barely had any rapport.
They only knew each other through Ma the Fifth and Qiu Zhiheng, and they hardly spoke in daily life.
Meeting in a place like this today, He Yuxiu didn't even know whether Li the Seventh had come to harm her or save her.
"I've made a fool of myself in front of you." He Yuxiu kept her head lowered, offering no further explanation.
Li Banfeng walked behind her to undo the chains.
He Yuxiu asked, "You really came to save me?"
Li Banfeng replied, "I was passing through. Consider it your lucky day."
"These chains are heavy and hard. You'd need a fine blade to chop them open; pulling definitely won't break them."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Even a fine blade might not cut through. The craftsmanship here is truly rare."
"Then don't waste your energy," He Yuxiu said, gritting her teeth. "Get me a mouthful of water, then get out of here quickly. Don't get yourself dragged in too."
Sensing that Li the Seventh hadn't moved behind her, He Yuxiu grew anxious: "When I tell you to go, go! You can't save me here anyway. Look at my cultivation—an eighth-tier Martial Cultivator like me can't break free, what could you possibly do..."
*Clatter.* The chains fell open.
He Yuxiu looked at Li Banfeng, her face completely flushed.
How did he open them?
Just how strong was he?
Chains, as objects, consisted of two parts: the lock and the chain.
The chain was indeed hard; even the sickle couldn't cut through it.
But the lock had been picked by the glove.
"Master, this lock is no ordinary piece of work. It took me quite a bit of effort."
Li Banfeng patted the glove, signaling that a handsome reward would follow.
A bit embarrassed, He Yuxiu mumbled, "I... I haven't eaten all day. If I had a full stomach, a chain like this... with a bit of effort, I could snap it in two tugs."
"Mm." Li Banfeng nodded.
He Yuxiu picked up the iron chain and said, "I really could have broken it! Two tugs would do it!"
"I believe you. Not even two—one would do. Can you fight right now?"
He Yuxiu stretched her limbs. Beaten for a day, starved for a day, and with the poison in her body not yet cleared out, her current condition was truly not suited for combat.
Li the Seventh tugged his hat brim lower. "If you can't fight, find a place to hide first. I'm not in the habit of letting vengeance wait overnight."
"Hide?"
He Yuxiu reached out, snatched up a leather whip, and asked Li Banfeng, "Got a smoke?"
Li Banfeng took out a cigarette and lit it for her.
With the cigarette between her teeth and the whip in hand, He Yuxiu strode out of the dungeon.
Say what you will, the eldest sister of the He family possessed a truly formidable aura. Despite her battered face and bloodstained clothes, her stride remained as sharp and spirited as ever, without the slightest change.
*Thud!*
He Yuxiu stepped right onto a mechanism and plunged into a pitfall.
Li Banfeng hurriedly hauled her out. "Slow down. There are traps everywhere here. Here's a map—take a close look. Once we're upstairs, follow this line."
Reaching the courtyard, the Hall Master and the crowd were still busy fighting the fire.
He Yuxiu charged straight toward the Hall Master. A disciple stepped up to block her path, only for He Yuxiu's whip to lash off half his skull.
Kicking the corpse aside, He Yuxiu continued forward.
The leather whip lashed through the air, sending flesh and blood flying all around. Li Banfeng had never understood the principles behind Martial Cultivators, and this pathway truly defied reason.
The whip was clearly a flexible weapon, yet in her hands it proved more vicious than any sharpened blade.
A dozen paces later, a dozen corpses littered the ground. Terrified out of their wits, the Jiangxiang Gang disciples fled in all directions.
For every one that ran, Li Banfeng grabbed one, dragged him into a secluded corner, and tossed him into the Portable Abode.
His wife had grown a bit picky with her palate lately and looked down on fare of this caliber, but they could serve as light snacks.
If she truly didn't want them, there were plenty of artifacts waiting at home, some of which had rather unique natures.
One slaughtered, the other captured; before long, not a single person remained at the Hall Master's side.
With a flick of her whip, He Yuxiu wrapped it around the Hall Master's neck.
The Hall Master puffed out his cheeks and spewed a mouthful of bloody water at He Yuxiu.
This bloody water was no ordinary fluid; the Hall Master was a fifth-tier Poison Cultivator. Anyone else would have been poisoned to death on the spot.
He Yuxiu was reckless to the core, not even bothering to dodge, allowing the venomous blood to spray across her body.
She seized the Hall Master's head, twisted her wrist, and wrenched his head clean off right at the base of his neck.
Only that sixth-tier Craft Cultivator remained in the courtyard, and panic seized him.
He Yuxiu was injured and heavily poisoned; had he been fully prepared, a sixth-tier Craft Cultivator might have held his ground against her for a while.
But he wasn't prepared now.
Moreover, he knew there was another person beside He Yuxiu—someone moving so fast his figure was a blur, with strength no less than He Yuxiu's.
Even if he couldn't see clearly, he had to look!
If his opponent was a journey cultivator and managed to unleash the technique of Viewing Flowers on a Galloping Horse, it would all be over.
While he was lost in thought, He Yuxiu's whip lashed out toward him.
Unable to dodge either way, the Craft Cultivator chose to tough it out.
He didn't take the blow with his bare head; he wore an iron helmet.
Back when dealing with Tu Yinghong, the gramophone had once quoted a battlefield proverb: *A Craft Cultivator has a hundred blades.* It meant that Craft Cultivators were poor at adapting on the fly, but excelled at attrition; on the battlefield, their fine weapons were endless, so when fighting a Craft Cultivator, one should aim for a swift resolution rather than getting bogged down in a stalemate.
He Yuxiu had no intention of dragging things out either. A single crack of her whip dented the Craft Cultivator's helmet.
The helmet took some damage, but the Craft Cultivator was unharmed.
When one strike didn't finish it, she struck again, the whip crashing into the Craft Cultivator's head.
The Craft Cultivator's helmet was truly tough. Though dented and battered, he remained uninjured.
If hitting the head didn't work, strike elsewhere.
Nowhere else could be pierced either. The whip lashed in from all angles, yet the Craft Cultivator parried with ease—he was clad in a full suit of armor.
Even He Yuxiu hadn't been able to break the chains he forged; this armor, meant for saving his life, was naturally sturdier still.
Taking advantage of He Yuxiu's furious assault, the Craft Cultivator reached into his robe, produced a handful of glass marbles, and tossed them silently onto the ground.
The marbles rolled toward He Yuxiu's feet. With the poison coursing through her veins, her mind was already somewhat hazy. In her fury, she wanted only to take the Craft Cultivator's life and didn't notice her footing at all.
She stepped on the glass marbles and tumbled to the ground with a loud thud.
Seizing the opportunity, the Craft Cultivator vaulted over the wall to flee for his life, when he suddenly realized something.
Where did that journey cultivator go?
A figure flashed before his eyes, and the Craft Cultivator's brain buzzed.
*Bang!*
The Craft Cultivator exploded, blown into a cloud of flesh and blood.
Li Banfeng dumped the Craft Cultivator's remains along with his armor into the Portable Abode, then vaulted back over the wall.
Sitting on the ground, He Yuxiu's eyes were glazed and unfocused—the poison had flared up.
She curled her lips into a faint, strained smile. "Li the Seventh, thank you. I don't know how I can ever repay you."
"You certainly will repay me. The debt of saving your life—could such a massive favor simply be written off?" Li Banfeng pulled He Yuxiu to her feet.
Her cigarette finished, He Yuxiu tossed the butt to the ground and asked Li Banfeng, "Got another smoke?"
Li Banfeng handed her another.
He Yuxiu struggled to her feet and staggered toward the exit.
Li the Seventh asked, "Shouldn't you find a place to treat your injuries first?"
"There's still one more. I can't spare him." He Yuxiu stumbled all the way into a deep alley.
In the alley was a vendor running a soda stall; seeing He Yuxiu, his face turned green with terror.
It was his soda that had poisoned He Yuxiu in the first place.
He Yuxiu could barely stand steady, and her hand was trembling slightly.
Li Banfeng said in a low voice, "Let me."
"No, you can't. This one has to be me!"
The soda vendor took off running, but He Yuxiu caught up in two strides and cracked her whip.
The tip of the whip slashed from the top of the man's head straight down to the ground.
*Crack!*
The man split down the middle into two halves, spilling in pieces across the ground.
He Yuxiu's body swayed, and she collapsed beside the stall.
"Crawled through mud and blood my whole life, only to trip over these few pieces of trash!" He Yuxiu gave a bitter laugh and looked at Li the Seventh. "I've really let you see me make a fool of myself this time."
"I'm not laughing." Li Banfeng shook his head and offered He Yuxiu another cigarette. "Good on you. You've got balls."
He Yuxiu shook her head.
PS: Balls were the one thing she definitely didn't have.
Chapter 369