Ge Junma

Li Banfeng was woken by the Judge's Brush, which hovered midair as usual. "You have something to tell me?" "Yeah," the Judge's Brush replied with a single word. "Go ahead then." The Judge's Brush said nothing. Li Banfeng stared at it for a moment, then asked, "Think there are too many people around?" "Yeah." Though they all lived under the same roof, the Judge's Brush seemed to trust only Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng took the Judge's Brush to the Fifth Room, the glove trailing silently behind him. The gramophone was a little concerned, but she could sense a gaze—the gaze of the Portable Abode. Once inside the Fifth Room, Li Banfeng said to the brush, "Crawling out of bed in the dead of night—it must've taken a lot of thought. Speak now." The Judge's Brush said, "I'll take you to the local spirit's dwelling. Don't tell anyone." Li Banfeng yawned. "Let's go." Stepping out of the Portable Abode, the Judge's Brush proactively traced a circle and carried Li Banfeng aloft into flight. Ever since meeting this good fellow, Li Banfeng had never seen it act so diligently. They flew south from Yanshazhai, crossing three streets, and arrived within a landscaped garden. Moxiangdian boasted many gardens, but now was hardly a good time for a stroll. The weather was freezing cold, the flora withered and bare. Aside from dense thickets of withered trees, Li Banfeng saw nothing out of the ordinary. The Judge's Brush set Li Banfeng down, and beneath a willow tree, it wrote the character "慧" (Wisdom). The bare willow suddenly sprouted buds, bursting with lush leaves, and drifting waves of willow catkins twirled into a circular barrier, enclosing the willow as well as Li Banfeng. A chilly wind blew, gradually dispersing the catkins, and the surrounding scenery shifted. The trees and path originally behind him had vanished, replaced by an endless expanse of thick fog. With the willow tree where the Judge's Brush had written marking the boundary, the thick fog came to an abrupt halt. The scenery ahead seemed unchanged, yet from the distance faintly drifted the sound of a zither. Following the zither music, Li Banfeng looked up to see an open clearing stretching ahead, upon which lay a lake. Upon the frozen lake sat a writing desk, on which unrolled a scroll over ten meters long. A man clad in a white robe sat behind the desk, holding a brush and writing upon the scroll. *Is this Moxiangdian's local spirit, the Wisdom-Karmic Scholar?* *Practicing calligraphy in the dead of night—what refined taste.* Li Banfeng walked toward the lake, while the man's brush never once paused. *Did he not notice me? Or is he already prepared to strike?* Li Banfeng halted his steps as a premonition of danger washed over him. It did not originate from the white-robed man, and for the moment its direction could not be pinpointed. Li Banfeng slipped behind a tree. The Judge's Brush whispered, "Something... got in." "Where did it come from? Did it follow us in?" "No. It entered long ago." The Judge's Brush was exceedingly familiar with this place; it could sense changes that ought not to have occurred. Li Banfeng sensed for the source of danger, fixing his gaze on the lake's surface. *Creak, creak, creak! Bang!* A fissure opened across the frozen lake. There was something beneath the ice. *Bang, bang!* More and more cracks spread, yet the white-robed man remained unperturbed, continuing to trace characters stroke by stroke upon the lake. The scroll floated into the air, and one written character after another stood up from it, darting and patrolling across the lake. *Is this A Word Worth a Thousand Gold, or Trace the Ink and Stride the Lines?* Characters produced by Trace the Ink and Stride the Lines would slaughter friend and foe indiscriminately, yet these characters did not attack the white-robed man. Characters created through A Word Worth a Thousand Gold could distinguish friend from foe, but were limited in number. Among the Literary Cultivators Li Banfeng had encountered, Guo Jinshi could deploy twelve "Forbidden" (禁) characters at once, which stood as the most powerful demonstration of A Word Worth a Thousand Gold he had witnessed. Yet now, several hundred characters rose from the scroll. From a glance, the character "War" (戰) was the most numerous, followed by "Kill" (殺). *Bang! Bang! Crack!* A breach tore open in the ice, and a red dragon surged straight for the white-robed man. The characters patrolling the ice swarmed toward the red dragon together. The "戰" characters were like soldiers wielding dagger-axes, hooking and pecking up and down at the red dragon. The "殺" characters were like warriors wielding spears, thrusting furiously against the red dragon. In truth, it wasn't a spear; this weapon resembling a spear was called a *shu*, which Li Banfeng had seen in an illustrated manual of weaponry. The red dragon lunged out from the lake, only to be driven back by the multitude of characters. Once the red dragon retreated into the water, all the characters dispersed immediately, resuming their patrol across the frozen lake. Hundreds of characters advancing, retreating, attacking, and defending in such seamless coordination gave Li Banfeng a genuine taste of a Literary Cultivator's formidable combat strength. Cracks reappeared across the ice. A portion of the characters gathered near the fissures in battle readiness. Li Banfeng also kept his eyes on the cracks, waiting for the red dragon to surface again. *Rumble!* The red dragon did not appear. Instead, the entire sheet of ice abruptly caved in! Hundreds of characters plunged into the depths, churning up rolling waves. The white-robed man, along with his desk, hovered in midair. The brush in his hand did not pause for an instant as characters continuously rose from the scroll and leaped into the water to battle the monstrous fiend lurking below. *Hummm!* A muffled roar reverberated, and the lake water boiled into a violent churn. A toad one-third the size of the lake leaped out of the water and lunged toward the white-robed man. So the "red dragon" from earlier had not been a true dragon at all—it was this toad's tongue! Thirty-two "Wing" (翼) characters transformed into a pair of wings, swiftly lifting the white-robed man dozens of meters higher into the air. The toad kicked its hind legs and paddled its forelegs midair in a breaststroke motion, pursuing relentlessly. Seeing that the white-robed man was about to be overtaken, Li Banfeng suddenly stepped out of the woods into the toad's line of sight. The toad cocked its head slightly and cast a glance at Li Banfeng. That glance was crucial. It meant the creature was conscious of Li Banfeng's presence—the prerequisite for using Viewing Flowers on a Galloping Horse. Li Banfeng fixed his gaze on the toad, moved with rapid speed, and vanished from the creature's sight. If the toad failed to keep its gaze locked on Li Banfeng, it would suffer injury from Viewing Flowers on a Galloping Horse. Even if the toad could lock onto him, it would still be distracted, granting the white-robed man an opportunity to counterattack. *Bang!* With most of its attention fixed on the white-robed man, the toad failed to lock onto Li Banfeng, and one of its forelegs detonated with an injury. Li Banfeng vanished from the toad's sight once more. When the toad attempted to track his silhouette, a swarm of characters blocked its view. *Bang!* One of its hind legs was blasted with an injury as well. Though the wound wasn't severe, it noticeably hampered the speed of its breaststroke, allowing a gap to open between the toad and the white-robed man. The white-robed man hovering in midair continued writing, which left Li Banfeng somewhat puzzled. Writing characters certainly produced more troops. Yet with such a golden opportunity, didn't this Wisdom-Karmic Scholar have any better counterattack? Li Banfeng hadn't seen much of techniques above the clouds, but even pulling out an ordinary ground-crust technique at random should have been enough to severely injure this toad. *And this guy is hailed as supreme in intellect and unparalleled in wisdom?* Those wings flew quite fast, pulling the white-robed man further and further from the toad. Greatly infuriated, the toad turned its gaze toward the shore, seemingly intending to attack Li Banfeng instead. *Slash!* The dagger-axe of a "戰" character hacked into the toad's back, drawing a splash of blood. With characters gathering thick and fast around it, each possessing considerable lethality, the toad realized that continuing this standoff was pointless despite its reluctance, and plunged back into the water. Quick of eye and deft of hand, Li Banfeng leaped into midair, grabbed a "戰" character, and snatched the dagger-axe from its grasp. It was this very "戰" character that had struck the toad; its dagger-axe bore traces of blood. Li Banfeng swiftly collected those few drops of blood into a glass vial. The other characters acted as though provoked and swarmed in unison to attack Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng said to the Judge's Brush, "Tell your old master that I'm his friend." "This..." The Judge's Brush hesitated. With hundreds, even thousands, of characters on the verge of encircling Li Banfeng, he urged anxiously, "Speak up! Now isn't the time to be lazy!" "Fly!" The Judge's Brush uttered only that single word. It carried Li Banfeng, bursting out of the encirclement of characters, and after several twists and turns, flew right beside the white-robed man. The Judge's Brush spoke to the man: "You!" It said only that single word. Yet the white-robed man acted as if deaf to it, continuing to write incessantly upon the desk. Li Banfeng glanced over what he was writing. More than half consisted of just two characters: "戰" (War) and "殺" (Kill). The other half consisted of two sentences: "The blind should feel ashamed," and "Literary scholars should strive." Seeing another wave of characters closing in, the Judge's Brush spoke no further to the white-robed man and carried Li Banfeng directly toward the willow tree. Across the entire courtyard of ice and snow, only this willow tree was covered in green leaves, standing out conspicuously. Beneath the tree, the Judge's Brush once again wrote the character "慧". In an instant, every leaf upon the willow shed completely. The willow leaves swirled with the wind, forming a barrier that held back all the characters behind them. When the barrier dispersed, the characters were gone. Vanished along with them were the lake and the white-robed man above it. The entire garden returned to silence, as though nothing had ever taken place. Li Banfeng returned to the study inn, entered the Portable Abode, and took the Judge's Brush into the Fifth Room. "Why didn't you talk to the Wisdom-Karmic Scholar back there?" The Judge's Brush hovered midair, offering no reply. Li Banfeng asked, "Do you have a grudge against him?" "Yeah!" "Can he hear you speak?" "No." The Judge's Brush and the Wisdom-Karmic Scholar couldn't communicate? Li Banfeng frowned. "Do you actually want to return to his side or not?" "No!" the Judge's Brush answered unequivocally. "Then why did you take me to find him?" "Moxiangdian." The Judge's Brush had done this for Moxiangdian? This took Li Banfeng quite by surprise—it had such deep affection for its homeland! Li Banfeng sorted through the causes and effects, piecing together the clues. "A giant toad infiltrated the local spirit's dwelling. In order to battle this giant toad, the local spirit has been expending a massive amount of energy, creating an illusion for the outside world that he has fallen into an extremely weakened state. Is that the idea?" The Judge's Brush remained silent for a long while before replying, "Probably." Its deduction matched Li Banfeng's, but it could not provide a definitive answer. Li Banfeng sighed. "Actually, it can't really be called an illusion either. The local spirit's situation is genuinely dire. If he faces a siege on top of this, I'm afraid things will turn out very badly for him." "Yes." This time, the Judge's Brush answered with absolute certainty. "Where did that giant toad come from?" "Don't know." "Do you know him?" "No." The Judge's Brush did not know this toad, nor had it been aware of the creature's presence beforehand. It was only after hearing Critick's words that it had wanted to check on the local spirit's condition. Li Banfeng took the projector to the Main Room. The gramophone was awake, and Hong Ying had woken as well. The projector played the footage of the toad emerging from the water. Li Banfeng asked the gramophone, "Darling wife, do you recognize who this toad is?" His wife watched for a long while, then replied, "I don't recognize him!" Hong Ying spoke up, "Brother Seven, tell me what the toad looks like. Maybe I might know him." The gramophone gave Hong Ying a slap. "Slut, what are you trying to show off? You've been deaf and blind for so many years. If I don't recognize someone, how could you? Darling husband, this person should be a transformative body cultivator, perhaps having ascended above the clouds not long ago." A body cultivator, newly ascended above the clouds. He wondered if Qiu Luoye would know him. ... Li Banfeng had the Portable Abode travel to the train station. Once outside, he headed straight for Qiu Luoye's residence. Deep in the night, Qiu Luoye was fast asleep. Li Banfeng woke him gently. Fortunately, Qiu Luoye didn't have much of a temper upon waking. "Old Seven, what is it?" Li Banfeng did not show Qiu Luoye the projector footage, as that would expose the dwelling of Moxiangdian's local spirit. It wasn't that he distrusted Qiu Luoye, but doing so could invite disaster upon Moxiangdian. Li Banfeng brought out the small medicine vial, poured a drop of the giant toad's blood onto a cabbage seed, and added two drops of Zhang Wanlong's specially formulated liquid medicine. The cabbage began growing rapidly. A few minutes later, once it had reached over three meters tall, the cabbage burst open. A toad stepped out from the cabbage. Its size was nowhere near comparable to the one in the lake, likely having reached the growth limit of a cabbage person. Qiu Luoye stared at the toad for a long time. Having not yet grown skin, his entire body was wrapped in bandages, obscuring his facial expression, but Li Banfeng could clearly sense his tension. "Is this toad only this big?" Qiu Luoye had seen cabbage people before and knew they differed somewhat from the actual person. Li Banfeng shook his head. "The real toad is far larger than this—roughly the size of your compound." "Ge Junma!" Qiu Luoye ground his teeth as he spoke the name. Li Banfeng asked, "This person called Ge Junma—is he a body cultivator?" "Not a body cultivator!" Qiu Luoye shook his head. "He's from the Inner States—a pureblood!"