Li Banfeng was bound hand and foot in iron chains and locked in the mark room.
The so-called mark room was a holding cell for hostages. This mother and her two sons made their living by drugging and harming people.
Earlier today, before Li Banfeng fell into their hands, a mother and daughter had already been captured by them.
The mother was named Xiao Yeci, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, dressed in a side-fastening gown. Her face was smeared with mud and bruised, but it could not hide her refined, striking features, especially the intellectual grace and dignity between her brows that belonged only to the educated.
Her daughter was named Lu Chunying, looking about twelve or thirteen. She wore clothes similar to her mother's, though she lacked that scholarly air.
Seeing Li Banfeng tossed into the mark room, the girl grew curious and stepped forward to nudge him.
Xiao Yeci hurried to pull her daughter back, whispering repeatedly into her ear, "Nannan, don't move around. Listen to Mama. Don't touch anything, all right?"
The mark room was small, only seven or eight square meters, with a pile of firewood in the center. Li Banfeng had been dumped to the left of the woodpile, while Xiao Yeci held her daughter and huddled to the right, keeping as much distance from Li Banfeng as possible.
Nearly an hour passed, and the night deepened. The daughter fell asleep in Xiao Yeci's arms, and Xiao Yeci's eyelids grew increasingly heavy as she dozed on and off.
Li Banfeng, on the other hand, had gathered a bit of strength. While mother and daughter were asleep, he gripped the key between his teeth and slowly began turning it.
*Click... click...*
A sticky resistance pushed back through the key, proving it had established a connection with the Portable Abode.
Yet the angle at which Li Banfeng could turn his neck was limited; completing three full rotations was no easy task.
His arms were locked by the iron chains and could not budge, so he had to rely entirely on his teeth and tongue to maneuver the key, turning it bit by bit.
His teeth tapped against the key's bow, producing faint clicking sounds.
The young girl, Lu Chunying, opened her eyes and stole a peek at Li Banfeng.
Li Banfeng pulled the key back into his mouth and glared fiercely at her.
Lu Chunying started in fright and quickly looked away.
*Meddlesome brat, what the hell are you looking at?!*
With that single glance of hers, all Li Banfeng's prior efforts were ruined.
The poison was still coursing through his system, leaving him with little physical stamina. Just as he was about to spit the key out again, the girl turned her head for another peek.
*Still looking!*
Li Banfeng's gaze grew even more murderous, looking as if he might devour someone whole at any moment.
Lu Chunying hastily whipped her head around. After waiting a short while, unable to resist, she took another peek.
The man was gone!
He had just been right there—how could he suddenly vanish?
"Mama, that man, he..."
"Don't move around, don't talk nonsense..." Xiao Yeci murmured groggily, not fully awake. "Nannan, listen to Mama. Nothing will happen to us, truly."
***
Li Banfeng had returned to the Portable Abode. Before stepping through the door, he had spat the key into the woodpile.
After lying on the floor for a moment, he began violently vomiting, expelling the food he had eaten that evening along with bitter yellow bile.
Once he finished vomiting, his entire body seized in spasms, breaking into a heavy sweat.
The perspiration carried a foul, bitter stench, and smelling it brought another surge of nausea.
Just like the vomit, the sweat was full of toxins being expelled by his body.
He was rapidly purging the poison—a trait of a Dwelling Cultivator. But this time was different from his poisoning on Bitter Mist Mountain; he wasn't just purging through vomiting, but through his sweat as well.
Why had the method of detoxification changed?
Was it because the poison was different, or because his purging ability had improved?
Li Banfeng wanted to wipe the sweat from his face, but his limbs were bound tight with iron chains, leaving him unable to move.
Beads of sweat trickled into his eyes, sending bouts of searing agony through the corners of his vision.
*No good. I have to break these chains immediately, and I have to wipe away this sweat to avoid poisoning myself all over again.*
*But how am I supposed to break iron chains?*
He had recovered some strength, but relying on brute force to snap chains thicker than hemp rope was pure fantasy.
*Are there tools in the Portable Abode?*
*Yes, there are pliers and a wrench used for servicing the gramophone.*
The tools were kept in the cabinet beneath the gramophone. Li Banfeng crawled over. His arms and wrists were immobilized, but his fingers could still move. With great difficulty, he dragged out the toolbox. He gnawed away with the pliers for a long time, but the chains showed not the slightest mark.
The tools for repairing a gramophone were too delicate for such heavy work.
Sweat poured out in greater volume. Li Banfeng could no longer open his eyes; amid the searing pain, they began to swell.
*I won't go blind, will I?*
When refining pills, Chu Yunlong's clothes had been shredded into scraps all over the floor, and Li Banfeng hadn't bothered to clean them up. He now wanted to use a scrap of cloth to dab at his eyes, but after searching the floor for a long time, he couldn't find a single piece.
He crawled to the bed and rubbed his eyes against the sheet, but it did no good. Instead, it smeared more sweat over his eyelids, making the burning pain worse.
*Water, I need water!*
*I have to wash my eyes clean, now!*
Li Banfeng kept a bucket beside his bed. Whenever an opportunity arose, he would fill it to the brim.
The water was clean, normally used for drinking, and whatever was left over would serve for washing up the next day.
*Where is the bucket?*
Finding the bucket by the bed, Li Banfeng plunged his head inside. But even when his forehead touched the bottom, he felt not a drop of moisture.
*The bucket is empty?*
*Impossible. It was full when I left!*
*Did it evaporate?*
*How could it dry up that fast?!*
Panic seized him, and the more anxious he grew, the more he sweated.
*Is there another way?*
*Is there anything else?*
*Yes!*
*As long as I break the chains, there will be a way.*
Li Banfeng thought of an item.
Like an earthworm, he crawled along the floor by memory, slowly inching toward the corner of the room.
He twisted his body until he bumped into the eyeglass case in the corner.
*Thank goodness, it's still here.*
Using every ounce of effort, Li Banfeng forced open the eyeglass case and retrieved a rust pill from inside.
A sharp sting flared across his palm, but he had no time to worry about it as he pressed the rust pill against the iron chains.
The chains rusted away at terrifying speed.
After waiting a dozen seconds, Li Banfeng exerted a burst of strength, snapping the chains around his hands.
He took the rust pill and smeared it across the rest of the metal. Before long, he broke free of every chain binding his body.
The moment he escaped the chains, his palms split open, and blood mingled with rust oozed out. Li Banfeng was purging the toxins.
His eyes still throbbed with intense burning pain. Stashing the rust pill away, he paid no heed to his bleeding hands and quickly made for the exit of the Portable Abode.
Just as he reached the door, the gramophone puffed out bursts of steam.
*Chsssh! Chsssh! Chsssh!*
The record spun, and singing arose.
The gramophone was playing "The Wandering Songstress," but with altered lyrics:
"To the ends of heaven, and the corners of the sea~
Covered in sweat, my love, do not fear~
In your eyes it will only sting for a while~
Oh my love, your eyes definitely won't go blind, ah-ah~"
***
Li Banfeng returned to the mark room.
His footsteps were soundless, making no noise at all. Enduring the agony, he forced his eyes open and first retrieved the key from the woodpile.
Glancing around, he studied the layout of the mark room.
There was a door, fitted with a lock.
There was a small window with iron bars, looking out into the backyard.
The sound of splashing water drifted from outside the window. Li Banfeng caught the noise!
*There's water!*
Overjoyed, he opened the Portable Abode once more. Before stepping through the doorway, he tossed the key out through the window.
When Li Banfeng emerged from the Portable Abode again, he was already outside the mark room.
This was the backyard. In the yard stood a well, beside which the old woman's second son was drawing water to sharpen a blade.
The knife was nearly honed, and the second son wanted to draw another bucket of water to rinse it down.
Just as he hauled a bucket to the rim of the well, Li Banfeng snatched it away.
"Let me borrow some water. Thanks." Li Banfeng politely offered his gratitude and even gave a bow, while smoothly wrapping his arms around the second son's knees and dumping him into the well.
Li Banfeng plunged his head into the bucket. The cool, refreshing relief immediately soothed the searing agony in his eyes.
In truth, Li Banfeng had been overly anxious; the sweat's damage to his eyes was nowhere near as severe as he had imagined.
Once washed, most of the pain receded. Li Banfeng poured the entire bucket of water over himself, rinsing away every trace of sweat.
While Li Banfeng was washing his face, the second son scrambled up from the well, gripping the rim and staring silently at Li Banfeng's back.
The second son was a Martial Cultivator, a competitive man who had run this business alongside his mother and elder brother for over a decade. Never once had he been made a fool of by a mark.
*How could I have let my guard down just now?*
*I didn't even hear a single footstep!*
He had no intention of calling his mother or his brother. Taking advantage of Li Banfeng's lack of vigilance, he would kill this mark with his own hands.
Li Banfeng set down the bucket. The second son braced his arms, preparing to leap out of the well.
Li Banfeng noticed the knife on the ground—the blade the second son had nearly finished sharpening.
He picked it up from the whetstone, turned around, and looked down at the second son.
"Let me borrow the knife too."
With that, Li Banfeng slit the second son's throat and shoved him back into the well.
Tumbling into the well water, the second son looked up at the sky framed by the well's opening, utterly bewildered by what had just occurred.
He had never expected a journey cultivator to strike so fast!
He had never expected Li Banfeng to attack without the slightest warning.
Nor had he realized that while Li Banfeng appeared entirely absorbed in washing his face, he had been watching the well mouth the entire time.
He wanted to call for his mother, and he wanted to call for his brother.
Yet his mouth was filled with blood and his nose was full of water; he could not make a sound.
Chapter 44