A halo of light appeared beside Li Banfeng, closing into a loop around him. It was neither round nor square; at its farthest, the halo was over five meters away from him, and at its closest, it brushed right against his feet, forming an irregular boundary overall.
Bao Yingchen had never seen a halo of such a shape, but he recognized the technique. The instant he crossed the halo, his flesh was mangled into a bloody mess, and he nearly crashed to the ground.
This was the tier-eight Dwelling Cultivator art: Shutting Doors and Barring Gates.
How could this kid possibly use a Dwelling Cultivator technique?
A journey cultivator couldn't possibly double as a Dwelling Cultivator.
Overthinking was useless. Bao Yingchen was already wounded; he couldn't keep fighting Li the Seventh.
But run where? Behind him was still the halo.
Using Parting Across Ten Thousand Li could break Shutting Doors and Barring Gates.
Yet Bao Yingchen didn't know how to use Parting Across Ten Thousand Li.
Wasn't he a tier-nine journey cultivator? Why couldn't he use Parting Across Ten Thousand Li?
There was a story behind this, a history Li the Seventh knew nothing about.
Bao Yingchen claimed his cultivation was not inferior to Lu Dongliang's. He said this wherever he went, for it served as a tremendous deterrent against any opponent.
He had indeed fought Lu Dongliang once. But he was only a tier-eight journey cultivator. Relying on sheer experience, he had tangled with the tier-nine Lu Dongliang for dozens of exchanges. Lu Dongliang hadn't wanted to make an irreconcilable enemy of Sanying Gate, so he held back, and the duel ended in what could tentatively be called a draw.
When Lu Dongjun stepped in, however, he gave no thought to such niceties. He went all out right from the start. Bao Yingchen couldn't hold his ground and was defeated by Lu Dongjun.
Taking on the two heroes of the Lu family alone was the most glorious achievement of Bao Yingchen's life.
Though the tale had many versions, there was only ever one conclusion drawn: Bao Yingchen's cultivation was in no way beneath Lu Dongliang's.
This conclusion was difficult to disprove, as cultivation itself could not be seen.
Who could have imagined that the moment to test Bao Yingchen had arrived?
Li the Seventh had unleashed Shutting Doors and Barring Gates, and Bao Yingchen was injured. The only reasonable response was to use Parting Across Ten Thousand Li to break away immediately.
If he didn't use it, it would prove he didn't know it, proving his cultivation hadn't reached tier nine. Li the Seventh would attack without reserve. Trapped within the boundary, Bao Yingchen's journey cultivator arts would be crippled, and eight or nine chances out of ten, his life would be forfeit.
A veteran of the pugilistic world after all, Bao Yingchen didn't panic in the face of crisis. He took a step forward, making as if to shove Li Banfeng.
If he didn't know Parting Across Ten Thousand Li, what good would shoving Li Banfeng do?
This was intimidation; this was tactics.
This was telling Li Banfeng: *I know Parting Across Ten Thousand Li, I have tier-nine cultivation, and even wounded, I still have the strength to fight you!*
*I can easily break free, and I can shove you out to a location of my choosing, casting you into a desperate trap.*
As long as he could intimidate Li the Seventh, Bao Yingchen could stall for time.
From what Bao Yingchen knew, Shutting Doors and Barring Gates was extremely draining. With Li the Seventh's current cultivation, he certainly couldn't maintain it for long.
Once he couldn't keep it up and the boundary vanished, Bao Yingchen would successfully escape, summon the men outside, and find a way to kill him!
The move really worked—it truly did startle Li the Seventh.
Li Banfeng wasn't in good shape either. His entire body throbbed with excruciating agony. He didn't dare clash head-on with Bao Yingchen, so he could only retreat in haste.
With this retreat of his, the halo moved back along with Li Banfeng, sweeping right under Bao Yingchen's feet once more.
Before Bao Yingchen could react, his body passed through the halo a second time.
Back and forth, he was struck twice by the halo, leaving gashes across his body that were deep enough to show bone.
Bao Yingchen looked up at Li the Seventh, speechless for a long time.
*This isn't the tier-eight Dwelling Cultivator art, is it?*
*How can this halo move?*
Bao Yingchen spewed a mouthful of blood. This time, he couldn't stay on his feet any longer, collapsing flat on his back.
"What's wrong with you?" Carrying his sickle, Li Banfeng stepped forward with a look of genuine concern.
"Don't come over here..." Propping himself up with both hands, Bao Yingchen dragged his body backward with great difficulty.
Bao Yingchen wanted to call for help, but no sound came out.
Li Banfeng walked forward. The halo advanced along with him, sweeping across Bao Yingchen yet again.
The third time.
For the third time, the halo passed through Bao Yingchen's body.
Having been passed through three full times, hardly any flesh was left on Bao Yingchen. His skeletal frame and squirming viscera were laid bare before Li Banfeng.
This time, Bao Yingchen moved no more.
Li Banfeng casually lifted him up and fished out the key to the Portable Abode.
...
The wife was speaking with the Portable Abode. "Old Master, something doesn't feel right. A surge of power just left the residence. Could it be..."
The Portable Abode cleared its throat. "It most likely is."
"A tier-eight art?" The gramophone's voice trembled slightly.
The Portable Abode sighed. "You two as husband and wife truly know each other best. We really shouldn't have let this kid secretly learn the art—now that he has, he actually had the nerve to use it!"
"How did he pull it off?"
"You know your man does business across two doors. He used Headstrong Course to raise his tier, then forced the technique out."
The gramophone didn't believe it. "Old Master, don't joke around. To use Shutting Doors and Barring Gates, you have to stay inside the residence without setting foot outside for at least several months before the art can be mastered. He's running around outside every day, so where would he find the time to practice it?"
"This old man travels wherever the key goes, and the key has been on him the entire time. Though he wasn't inside the residence, he was right beside it. The circumstances aren't that different."
"Even that works?"
The Portable Abode fell silent for a moment. "This old man is not someone who refuses to adapt."
"Then when did he sprinkle the blood?"
"Just now."
"After sprinkling blood, one has to temper it for months to form a resonance. Can blood sprinkled just a moment ago really count?"
The Portable Abode pondered for a moment. "This old man gets along quite well with this madman. Resonance is something that can be flexible too..."
"Old Master!" the gramophone snapped. "You can't just bend the rules whenever you feel like it! Using an art beyond one's tier will get someone killed!"
The Portable Abode said helplessly, "Girl, you couldn't see out there. The situation was dire just now. If I hadn't made an exception..."
*Clang!*
Li Banfeng tossed Bao Yingchen into the Portable Abode.
The gramophone cried, "Husband, husband, listen to me..."
*Slam!*
Li Banfeng didn't come in; he shut the door.
Outside the door were over thirty ruthless fighters of Sanying Gate, and backstage were more than a hundred people from Xiaoyaowu. Li Banfeng couldn't return just yet.
Examining Bao Yingchen's injuries, the gramophone was certain that Li Banfeng had indeed used the tier-eight Dwelling Cultivator art.
"Old Master, what do we do?"
"I'll figure out a way to call him back."
*Wooo—wooo—*
The Portable Abode blew its steam whistle.
Li Banfeng didn't respond.
Under excruciating agony, Li Banfeng's consciousness was hazy, and he didn't hear the whistle.
The gramophone shouted, "Open the door, I'll call him back!"
The Portable Abode grew irritated. "This isn't a train station! You think you can just say open the door and it opens?"
...
"Should we open the door?" a Sanying Gate disciple asked the third chief, Yang Xingbo.
Yang Xingbo was hesitant as well. The first chief had gone inside quite a while ago, and all of a sudden, the noise within had ceased.
A Scrying Cultivator lowered his voice. "I heard someone saying 'don't come over.' It sounded like the first chief's voice."
Yang Xingbo grew anxious. "Brothers, you are all pillars of our sect! At a critical moment, pillars cannot go soft! Follow me and breach the door!"
As he spoke, Yang Xingbo swept his gaze over the crowd.
Veins bulged on everyone's temples, their fighting spirit soaring.
This was the invigoration technique of a Joy Cultivator. The mob prepared to charge through the doorway.
Inside the room, Li Banfeng looked calm as he glanced at the halo beneath his feet.
Though he still couldn't fathom where this halo came from, since it could subdue Bao Yingchen, holding off the people outside would surely be child's play.
The halo flickered and went out.
Li Banfeng was calm no longer.
Why did it go out?
Shutting Doors and Barring Gates drained massive amounts of stamina. In Li Banfeng's current condition, the art naturally couldn't be sustained for long.
The men outside were about to burst in. What to do?
Li Banfeng could retreat into the Portable Abode. If he worried the key couldn't stay hidden, he could also find a way to slip through the walls and escape. With Bao Yingchen gone, Li Banfeng had plenty of options.
Yet Li Banfeng had never considered abandoning the hundred-plus people backstage.
As he took inventory of his treasures one by one and weighed his tactics, a shout of cursing suddenly echoed from outside: "Barging into someone's door in the dead of night—are you here to steal or to rob out in the open? Sanying Gate is supposed to have some standing, so why are you always doing things that can't see the light of day!"
From the voice, it was an old woman.
The Street-Scolding Crone had arrived!
The old woman wobbled up the stairs. She looked quite elderly and could barely walk steady, yet her voice when hurling abuse was remarkably loud.
Yang Xingbo started, knowing this old woman was no ordinary person. He originally intended to find out who she was first, but her ceaseless torrent of abuse stoked a chest full of fury within him.
How could her tongue be so foul?
*I can't be rash—she's using a technique!*
While Yang Xingbo was doing his utmost to maintain his composure, a thought suddenly popped into his mind:
"Strike! She's cursing him like this and he still won't hit her? All his brothers are watching—how will he ever hold his head up again?"
"Look at that pathetic sight. Cowering and trembling, wishing he could dig a hole in the dirt to hide in. His guts are completely terrified out of him—how would he dare strike!"
A pretty woman, appearing in her mid-twenties, was talking to herself beside the Street-Scolding Crone.
Hearing this voice, Li Banfeng smiled.
To others it seemed she was talking to herself, but Li Banfeng knew better: this was two people speaking.
Liang Wucai had arrived. The two sisters shared one body with two heads, each speaking her own mind, though their true appearance had been concealed by Shui Yongquan's art of Hundred Streams, Hundred Transformations.
Yang Xingbo was a tier-seven Joy Cultivator and had some natural resistance to begin with.
Yet under the dual provocation of the Street-Scolding Crone and Liang Wucai, Yang Xingbo couldn't suppress his rage any longer.
In truth, his choice wasn't wrong either. These two women, one old and one young, were clearly no easy marks. A fight was inevitable sooner or later, so striking first wouldn't hurt.
He first swept his gaze over the Street-Scolding Crone and Liang Wucai.
The Street-Scolding Crone was advanced in years and had no interest in such matters, so she wasn't affected much.
Liang Wucai was in the prime of her youth; under his gaze, her body shivered, and her thighs couldn't help but clamp a little tighter.
Yang Xingbo shouted, "Get them!"
Over a dozen subordinates charged at the Street-Scolding Crone and Liang Wucai. The old woman swung her walking stick into action, while Liang Wucai held a longsword in her left hand and a scimitar in her right.
These three didn't just have sharp tongues; they possessed genuine skill. A tier-four body cultivator had barely drawn near when the Street-Scolding Crone pierced him to death with her walking stick.
A tier-five body cultivator transformed into an emerald caterpillar covered in stinging spines, squirming toward Liang Wucai.
Liang Wucai recognized the insect. Its scientific name was the slug moth caterpillar, colloquially called the stinging caterpillar. One must never let it touch skin; once stung by those bristling spines, the pain was excruciating.
Though the stinging caterpillar squirmed slowly, its attacks were far from sluggish. A pair of sharp fangs snapped continuously toward Liang Wucai as its head thrust forward and back.
Yet he couldn't bite her. Liang Wucai was a Mind Cultivator, always able to divert the stinging caterpillar's attention at critical junctures.
Moreover, Liang Wucai's moves were bizarre; the forms of the longsword in her left hand and the scimitar in her right bore no relation to one another. The stinging caterpillar was run ragged trying to parry, taking several slashes from Liang Wucai.
Realizing he had no advantage in continuing like this, the stinging caterpillar ceased trading blows directly. He retreated half a step, gave a shudder, and the bristling spines across his entire body stood on end.
Taking a deep breath, his massive body began to vibrate. The surrounding Sanying Gate disciples all scrambled back—the stinging caterpillar's spines were about to launch.
Liang Wucai was somewhat apprehensive as well; even if she slashed the caterpillar to death right now, being showered in those spines would leave her suffering for a long time.
Just as the stinging caterpillar vibrated faster and faster, a burly woman stepped in front of Liang Wucai, opened her massive maw, and swallowed the stinging caterpillar whole.
The size of this stinging caterpillar was comparable to a normal human being. Not a single person around could comprehend how this woman had managed to gulp down such an enormous bug.
"Spicy! Wonderfully spicy!" The Food Cultivator Chi Liuhe had arrived. She licked the bristling spines around her mouth, still craving more!
The Nightmare Cultivator Duan Wuchou had also arrived, flanked by more than twenty ghost servants weaving back and forth among the crowd.
A Martial Cultivator stepped forward and lopped off Duan Wuchou's head. Duan Wuchou paid it no mind, continuing to command her ghost servants in the slaughter.
That hadn't been her head in the first place; she had no head. It was merely an illusion conjured by Shui Yongquan using the art of Hundred Streams, Hundred Transformations. After drinking plenty of water in a bit, she could grow it right back.
Bai Shoulian fought the crowd wielding a pair of broadaxes. When the broadaxes were parried, he whipped out a pair of iron hammers; when the iron hammers were blocked, he pulled out a pair of spiked maces...
The corridor descended into a chaotic melee. Just as Sanying Gate's third chief, Yang Xingbo, was looking for an opening to strike, He Yuxiu leaped in through the corridor window and seized a fistful of his hair.
"Seventh Brother!" He Yuxiu called out. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Nothing's wrong at all." Standing in the center of the grand dance floor, Li Banfeng let out a long breath.
He took out his key, unlocked the door to the Portable Abode, stumbled back inside, and collapsed face-first onto the bed.
The gramophone said anxiously, "Husband, oh husband, we told you not to secretly learn arts—why didn't you listen?"
Hong Ying murmured softly, "I think I understand what doing business across two doors means now."
"Why bring that up now?" the gramophone scolded. "Lend a hand! I have to make him advance!"
Hong Ying said, "He just rose to tier seven, and now he's rising to tier eight. Can his body endure it?"
"What else can we do? He used a technique beyond his tier! If he doesn't advance, he'll just lose his life!"
Hong Ying helped Li Banfeng up. The gramophone sang tenderly, "Darling husband, bear the pain. It's time to rise."
Li Banfeng couldn't make any sense of it.
"Giving birth is a joyous thing, so why am I the one bearing the pain?"
Chapter 395