Li Banfeng and He Yuxiu jumped off the train midway and returned to Lüshuiwan. Avoiding Lüshui City, they first found a place to stay in Taiming Town.
He Yuxiu was full of admiration for Li Banfeng. "Brother Seven, where on earth were you hiding on the train? How could even I not find you?"
Li Banfeng replied, "It mostly comes down to state of mind. Once your state of mind gets there, you can blend into one with all things in the world."
He Yuxiu looked down at herself. "Haven't I blended in enough?"
She was pitch-black from head to toe, like a lump of coal.
The crux of the matter had nothing to do with state of mind; it was simply that Li Banfeng had spent most of his time inside the Portable Abode, so naturally He Yuxiu couldn't find him.
Once they had washed away the coal soot and changed into fresh clothes, Li Banfeng gave some thought to where He Yuxiu should go.
The Garrison Commissioner was not about to let matters drop anytime soon, so He Yuxiu still had to lay low for a while.
The He family owned quite a few newlands near Lüshuiwan, but those areas were already developed to a certain degree. With so many eyes and ears on the plots, hiding would be difficult.
Never mind the He family's holdings; given He Yuxiu's current situation, even going to Zhengjing Village wasn't suitable.
Li Banfeng did think of a suitable place, however: Meng Yuchun's territory.
That place was remote enough, and Li Banfeng still had a three-li plot there. Having He Yuxiu stay there for the time being would work, as ordinary people wouldn't be able to track her down.
Besides, that area held not only Meng Yuchun's territory, but also Li Banfeng's own land. After so much time had passed, he ought to go back and check on it.
At the thought of that territory, Li Banfeng felt genuinely proud of himself. He was the local spirit there, and it was the foundation he had built since arriving above the clouds...
Thump!
The more he thought about it, the more agitated he grew, until he clutched his chest and collapsed to the floor.
He Yuxiu was terrified. "Brother Seven, what's happened to you?"
Li Banfeng waved a hand, telling He Yuxiu to rest at the inn for now, while he returned to his room and entered the Portable Abode.
Seeing Li Banfeng's deathly pale face, the gramophone supported him with a plume of steam. "Oh my, husband, whatever is the matter?"
"My heart started pounding wildly out of nowhere, like it was about to burst out of my ribs." Li Banfeng pointed to his chest. Once back inside the Portable Abode, he seemed to feel a bit better.
The gramophone pondered for a moment and said, "That is heart palpitations. Is there something troubling your mind, husband?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Nothing's troubling me. I just thought of my own plot of land."
"Your land..."
Whoosh—
Keeping a slow beat, the gramophone sang, "Husband, dear, since you became a local spirit, having a mutual bond with your own land is only natural. But what could have occurred on that land to bring such palpitations to your heart?"
What could have happened?
Could people from the Inner States have arrived?
Had his impersonation of Lord Mountain-Uprooter been exposed?
A spike of anxiety shot through Li Banfeng. Once the palpitations settled, he first returned to the inn, drew a map for He Yuxiu, and told her to find her own way to Meng Yuchun's territory.
Having roamed the newlands before, He Yuxiu nodded. "Don't worry about me, Brother Seven. Be careful out there yourself."
Li Banfeng ran like the wind toward his plot. When he arrived, he found that Meng Yuchun was also frantic.
"You're finally back! Someone is clearing wasteland. How do we deal with this?"
"What's so hard to deal with about clearing land? It's not your first time."
Meng Yuchun shook her head. "They're not clearing land on my territory, but on yours."
"On my territory?" Li Banfeng was struck speechless.
Meng Yuchun said, "Two people set up an offering table on your territory. I originally assumed that if you gave no response, they would leave on their own. Who would've thought these two girls would dig in? They've been waiting here for days and just won't leave."
Whose girls were they, being so stubborn?
Li Banfeng hurried to the edge of the land to take a look, and soon spotted a young woman among the trees.
She was bent over gathering firewood, and in the dim night, two plump, rounded cheeks caught his eye.
Li Banfeng smiled faintly. "Peach!"
Youtao jumped in surprise and whipped around, nearly striking at Li Banfeng.
When he drew closer and she could see him a bit better, her face filled with delight. "Brother Baisha! What brought you to this godforsaken place?"
Never would either have imagined that a full year after parting ways in Mazhu Village, they would meet again in such a place.
"Is this place... godforsaken?" Li Banfeng looked around, then asked, "I came here to hunt. What are you doing here?"
Youtao lowered her head slightly. "I came to hunt, too."
She had wandered the pugilistic world and lying came naturally to her, yet for some reason, whenever she saw Li Baisha, she grew flustered.
Li Banfeng kept his face deadpan. "You ran all the way from Mazhu Village just to hunt here?"
Youtao explained, "Actually, it's not all that far from Mazhu Village."
Not all that far.
It depended on how one looked at it.
If traveling through the newlands at Li Banfeng's speed, it truly wasn't far.
But Youtao was no journey cultivator; she was a Joy Cultivator.
Besides, how could she have known the path through the newlands?
Li Banfeng nodded. "Hunting is easy enough. I know this place well. Come with me; I know where the good stuff is."
Youtao shook her head. "No need. I've already caught plenty this time. If I hunt any more, I won't be able to carry it."
Li Banfeng pulled out his wallet. "If you can't carry it, sell it to me. I've brought plenty of hands, and I'll buy it at market value."
"That won't do. Wouldn't that be taking advantage of you...?"
"Not at all. I have ways to move the goods. Let me inspect the quality of the prey first."
"No need, really..." Youtao's voice grew smaller and smaller. What prey could she possibly have?
"A year apart, and we've grown distant after all. You won't even give me an honest word." Li Banfeng pulled down the brim of his hat and turned as if to walk away.
After holding back for a long time, Youtao finally called out, "Brother Baisha, I... I'm here to reclaim land."
Li Banfeng halted his steps. "Why come here of all places to clear land?"
"Because nowhere else works. Only this place can take us in."
Li Banfeng was dumbfounded for a good while.
Was his land really that special?
Li Banfeng walked back over to Youtao and said gently, "Youtao, we're friends. If you want me to help you, you have to at least tell me the truth."
Youtao weighed her words for a moment and said, "I'll take you to see someone."
Deep in the forest stood a tent, where a slender woman was boiling several fruits the size of two fists.
This was a specialty of Meng Yuchun's territory, and one of the few attractions her land had to offer.
The water used for boiling had been fetched from Meng Yuchun's territory, where cleared plots already existed, and the master of that land wouldn't turn away a pretty girl like Youtao.
Judging by the fragrant steam rising from the pot, the fruits had a flavor akin to taro, ready to eat once cooked through.
Youtao called out to the woman, "Xiaofeng!"
The slender woman was just about to answer when she spotted Li Banfeng and promptly ducked into the tent.
Li Banfeng asked, "Is that your partner?"
Youtao nodded. "You met her back in Mazhu Village."
Youtao was misremembering. Li Banfeng hadn't met her back then; that Dwelling Cultivator named Xiaofeng had been very hostile toward him, and had even quarreled with Youtao over him.
Now that Youtao had brought Xiaofeng to the newlands, Li Banfeng felt thoroughly bewildered.
As a Dwelling Cultivator, how could she have traveled so far from home?
Youtao called out several times, but Xiaofeng refused to emerge. Left with no alternative, Youtao explained the situation to Li Banfeng outside the tent:
"Xiaofeng, Axia, and I were living together in Mazhu Village. Those couple of days, perhaps because of some medicinal pills I took, I was feeling especially desirous. I was a bit more intimate with Xiaofeng and inadvertently neglected Axia, and as a result..."
"And you're still defending her even now!" Xiaofeng stepped out of the tent. "We weren't going to bring her in the first place; she begged and pestered us relentlessly until we let her join! Tao'er needed someone to look after her those two days, but Axia only cared about her own pleasure. Tao'er didn't want to cater to her—what's wrong with that?"
Li Banfeng listened for quite a while, unable to tell where the main point lay—or rather, feeling that every single word was loaded with significance.
"Hold on... let's set aside right and wrong for a moment. Who is this Axia you're talking about?"
Youtao hung her head in silence; evidently, she had more than one partner.
After squirming awkwardly for a good while, Xiaofeng spoke up. "She's my dwelling spirit."
Li Banfeng processed that for a second, then barked angrily, "Is that what you're supposed to use a dwelling spirit for?!"
Xiaofeng shuddered and quickly ducked behind Youtao.
Youtao stared at Li Banfeng in astonishment, having no idea what had provoked his fury.
Li Banfeng leveled his tone. "And so you two ran away?"
"We had to," Youtao said. "Axia was going to kill Xiaofeng."
Li Banfeng fell silent for a long time.
He had heard of dwelling spirits murdering their masters, but he had never imagined a scenario like this could unfold.
A female dwelling spirit wanting to kill a female Dwelling Cultivator over a female Joy Cultivator.
How on earth had these three women driven things to such an extreme?
Could there be some misunderstanding in all this?
Li Banfeng asked Xiaofeng, "You say the dwelling spirit wanted to kill you—did she slip up and show signs of it, or did she say it outright?"
Hiding behind Youtao, Xiaofeng said, "I divined it through finger calculation."
"Divined it?!" At the mention of divination, Li Banfeng's temper flared again, reminded of those fortune-tellers from the Jiangxiang Gang.
Youtao explained, "It's Xiaofeng's technique. She knows how to divine with hexagrams, and her readings are very accurate. Axia definitely meant to lay hands on her."
Xiaofeng tugged at Youtao's lapel, signaling her not to reveal too much.
Li Banfeng was curious as well: how could a Dwelling Cultivator possess divination techniques?
After a moment's reflection, it dawned on him.
Li Banfeng's first-tier skills, Golden Eyes Discerning the Minutest Detail and Hundred Flavors Exquisite, had both been bestowed by the wife. Presumably, this was also a technique granted to Xiaofeng by her dwelling spirit.
Youtao said, "Xiaofeng's reading was spot-on. That very night, the eastern wall of the bamboo pavilion collapsed. The house fought with the dwelling spirit to protect Xiaofeng."
A dwelling spirit going toe-to-toe against the house itself—even Luo Yuni hadn't possessed that kind of power back then.
Of course, another factor couldn't be ruled out: Luo Yuni's residence was inherently far stronger than Xiaofeng's bamboo pavilion.
Youtao continued, "The house had already been beaten into submission. If we hadn't fled, Xiaofeng would've been dead for sure."
"So you abandoned the dwelling spirit and ran away?"
Looking somewhat ashamed, Youtao said, "Xiaofeng did it all for me."
Xiaofeng let out a sob and said, "The one she wanted to kill was me. It was you who refused to abandon me and brought me along."
"In the end, this all started because of me. If not for me, Axia could still be guiding your cultivation."
"Without you, what would I even cultivate for? I don't care about anything else anymore."
With a sullen face, Li Banfeng silently watched the two of them.
The two women wiped away each other's tears, temporarily setting aside their tender intimacy.
Li Banfeng asked, "Since you escaped the house, why did you come to this place of all places?"
Xiaofeng said, "To hide from Axia. She broke free of the house."
"Did you really have to flee this far?"
"We didn't want to either, but no matter where we fled, Axia kept chasing us!" Youtao said. "Xiaofeng and Axia share a mutual sense. Whenever Axia draws near, Xiaofeng knows."
"Why did you have to flee toward the newlands?"
"Xiaofeng divined it. At every place we stopped, Xiaofeng cast a hexagram. Every leg of the journey was guided by her divination."
Li Banfeng asked, "And clearing land on this territory was also decided by your divination?"
Xiaofeng nodded.
Li Banfeng pointed toward Meng Yuchun's territory. "That territory over there is quite good too. There's food and water, and plenty of land reclaimers looking out for each other. Why didn't you reclaim land there?"
Xiaofeng shook her head. "I divined it. We can't stay on that territory for long. Otherwise, when Axia catches up, the local spirit there won't be able to protect us."
Meng Yuchun wouldn't be able to protect them?
"And you think the local spirit here can protect you?" Li Banfeng was deeply skeptical of Xiaofeng's divinations.
Xiaofeng nodded. "That's what the hexagrams showed. Any local spirit capable enough wouldn't let us claim a plot, while the local spirits of plots we could claim wouldn't be able to protect us. The only one that can both protect us and let us claim a plot is this one right here."
"Really? Only this one?"
Chapter 371