The Flying General Battalion

By some unknown art, Sun Tiecheng broadcast the news of Gu Rusong's death across the entire city. Throughout the City of Fools, wails of mourning rose without pause. Sun Tiecheng said to Tang Changfa, "A'fa, step outside and take a look. See if there's anyone who isn't crying!" Tang Changfa began walking toward the back hall, only for Yan Qing'er to yank him back. "Brother Fa, the door is that way." Tang Changfa turned toward the main entrance, but Li Qi caught him. "You don't even have eyes anymore. What are you going to look at? I'll go check." Li Qi made a round through the City of Fools. The breakfast vendor was crying, the rag merchant was crying, the teahouse proprietor was crying, and the street performers were crying too. Amidst the chorus of wailing, a cloud of dust hovered over the City of Fools, attempting to coalesce again and again, only to scatter continuously until it dissolved completely into nothingness. Returning to Changsan Shuyu, Li Banfeng said to Sun Tiecheng, "The whole city from top to bottom is weeping!" Sun Tiecheng nodded. "Good that they're all crying. If everyone is crying, that means he's thoroughly dead. We have to guard against the Inner States keeping a card up their sleeve." The Inner States keeping a card up their sleeve? What did that have to do with weeping? "The whole city crying means he's thoroughly dead?" Li Banfeng asked. Sun Tiecheng replied, "The entire city wept. With so many witnesses, isn't that Ironclad Evidence?" Could Ironclad Evidence even be used like that? Gu Rusong, Sun Tiecheng's eldest disciple, had brought Li Qi to the City of Fools just to play it safe. In his eyes, the City of Fools was his home turf; once Li Qi arrived, he would have no way to live and no way to run. Gu Rusong had thought victory was assured, never imagining it would end like this. While Sun Tiecheng was still grieving, Tang Changfa crouched beside Li Qi and consoled the master, "City Lord, the Eldest Young Master is gone. Please restrain your grief. Isn't our shopkeeper still right here?" Li Qi said to Tang Changfa, "You're calling me that too early. I'm not the City Lord yet. Wait until our City Lord Sun... well, moves on, and then it won't be too late to call me City Lord!" Terrified, Tang Changfa hurried over to Yan Hong'er to apologize. "City Lord, listen to me, I don't have eyes right now, so I really can't see clearly..." Yan Hong'er shoved Tang Changfa. "Don't say that sort of thing to me..." Sun Tiecheng stepped forward and kicked Tang Changfa. "Why did you put so much force into gouging out your own eyes? You ruined them completely! They can't even be fixed!" Tang Changfa sighed. "I really didn't want to hurt the Eldest Young Master. I was ruthless only because I wanted to drive him away. Who knew he would push his luck even further!" Sun Tiecheng turned to Li Banfeng. "You too! Killing your senior brother is one thing, but you could have at least left the corpse behind to patch Changfa up! Instead, you turned him into ash!" Li Qi protested, "You're pinning that on me too? You were the one who turned him to ash!" Sun Tiecheng fumed, "You dare talk back? Where's my saber?!" Beside them, Yan Hong'er sobbed softly. "City Lord, let's leave the saber aside for now. Now that the Eldest Young Master is gone, whenever our pathway faces matters large or small in the future, you'll still have to rely on our shopkeeper to share your burdens." Sun Tiecheng shot Li Qi a glare and snorted. There were two matters that genuinely worried Li Banfeng. First, He Jiaqing was not Sun Tiecheng's disciple, so why did he know Fool Cultivator arts? "Brother Sun, Thief Cultivators can steal techniques from others, right?" Sun Tiecheng nodded. "That technique is called Empty-Handed Steal." "Once a technique is stolen, does it belong to him permanently?" Sun Tiecheng waved his hand dismissively. "How could any art be that powerful? Empty-Handed Steal is a technique of the first layer above the clouds. At Cloud Layer One, a thief can only steal a single technique. With each layer of advancement, they can steal one more. "Once a stolen technique is used a few times, it's gone. The higher the layer of the technique, the fewer times it can be used. "A first-layer art might be usable nine times after being stolen, but a ninth-layer art might only be good for a single use. To use it again, they have to steal it all over again." Li Banfeng was startled. At Cloud Layer One, a thief could only steal one technique, gaining one more per layer of advancement. During the clash with Chu Shaoqiang, He Jiaqing had successively deployed Water Cultivator, Fire Cultivator, and Enfeoffment Cultivator techniques. That wasn't Li Banfeng's blind guess—Chu Shaoqiang had verified it on the spot. Stealing three techniques at the same time proved He Jiaqing was at least at Cloud Layer Three! Did he truly possess such high cultivation? Li Banfeng said to Sun Tiecheng, "He Jiaqing stole a Fool Cultivator art from Gu Rusong. I don't know how much he knows about the City of Fools." Sun Tiecheng remained silent. Li Banfeng was even more concerned about another issue. "Gu Rusong defected to the Inner States. How much intelligence about the City of Fools will reach them?" Sun Tiecheng had considered this as well. "As for the Inner States, I expect Gu Rusong told them everything he could. The entrance to the City of Fools will probably have to be relocated. "Gu Rusong learned two arts from me: Speak with Certainty and Grip Weakness and Strength. Thousand Deliberations of the Fool was something he picked up on his own, half-baked. I don't know which technique He Jiaqing stole from him." Li Qi sighed. "Half-baked techniques seem pretty useless to me. If one's going to learn, one should learn the whole thing properly. Getting caught halfway between competence and ignorance means when danger strikes, who knows if it'll even work? "Take Ride Donkey Downslope, for instance. I still haven't figured out what this slope means, let alone the donkey." "That donkey... How did you end up so greedy? Every time you visit, you manage to squeeze a technique out of me," Sun Tiecheng grumbled with a sigh. "Fine, I'll teach it to you, but not for free. "The Inner States might come knocking any day now, and I need to concentrate on dealing with them. I'll give you one year to bring back a junior brother for yourself. "You can't just pick anyone, either. Whoever it is must pass my examination to count." Li Qi frowned. "How could that be easy? Your tests are absurdly difficult. Can't you lower the threshold a bit?" Sun Tiecheng scoffed. "The threshold stays where it is. I'd rather have an empty sect than recruit deadweight. "That Thief Cultivator you mentioned earlier, the one named He Jiaqing—what's he like?" Li Banfeng replied, "He's decent, quite capable. I imagine you'd like him too. Only one thing isn't so great." "What's that?" Li Banfeng answered honestly, "I really want to kill him." "Forget it then. You're too vicious!" Sun Tiecheng waved him off. "If you can't stand him, I probably won't either. Let's find someone else. "Our pathway was once the foremost pathway under heaven. Not just any stray cat or dog can join. Aside from this He Jiaqing, is there no one else suitable around you?" Li Banfeng thought about it. "Ma the Fifth, who built a business alongside me. You know of him. He's sharp enough and works hard at his cultivation." Sun Tiecheng shook his head. "His reputation is rotten. I have so many fine maidens in my city; if he came here, he'd ruin every last one of them. "I'm speaking of serious business. Ours is an upright pathway. You must choose an upright person." Li Banfeng paused in thought, then suggested, "He Yuxiu, the head of the He family. An upright woman, high cultivation, high status. She could help our pathway flourish." Sun Tiecheng looked at Li Banfeng. "Is she your lover?" Li Banfeng shook his head. "We're completely innocent. We're sworn brother and sister." "Innocent?" Sun Tiecheng sneered. "There's no such thing as an innocent pair of sworn siblings under heaven. They all end up in the same bed! Besides, that rash, reckless woman He Yuxiu—would she fit in here? Before she learns a single thing, she'd probably anger me to death. Pick someone reliable!" Li Banfeng racked his brain for a long time before replying, "There's a foreigner named Critick, a disciple of Lüshui Beggar. Do you think he fits?" "I won't teach foreigners, and I definitely won't teach anyone from that flower beggar Lühuazi," Sun Tiecheng rejected flatly. "Seventh, this is a monumental matter for our pathway. You have to take it seriously!" Li Banfeng pondered. "There's also..." *Banfeng A, stop talking!* A voice in his head suddenly snapped Li Banfeng out of his thoughts. Li Banfeng had so many names he wanted to bring up: Qiu Zhiheng, Xiao Yeci, Lu Chunying, Chu Huaiyuan, Zuo Wugang, Xiao Chuanzi... And others whose names could never be spoken aloud, including Luo Zhengnan, Wu Yongchao, Zhang Wanlong, Xiao Genzi, Bai Qiusheng, Liang Wucai... All of these individuals carried Li Banfeng's hidden arrangements. Had Banfeng B not fought desperately in his mind to stop him, Li Banfeng would have blurted out their names. What was happening? Why was his urge to confide so overwhelming today? Li Qi looked toward Sun Tiecheng, who was smiling faintly. "Go on. Why did you stop?" Li Qi said, "You can't use techniques to scheme against me! We're on the same side. I genuinely want to do great things for our pathway." Sun Tiecheng nodded. "That's why I showed mercy. Otherwise, I could have kept you talking until tomorrow morning. "Have you figured out how to set up this slope?" Li Qi reflected for a moment, then turned to Yan Cui'er. "Cui'er, let's go back to the room and practice thoroughly!" Yan Cui'er was thrilled, pulling Li Qi toward the back rooms. Sun Tiecheng frowned. "Don't go bothering Yan Cui'er all the time. Changfa is in that state, and you don't even care?" Li Banfeng supported Tang Changfa by the arm. "Come, A'fa, let's go back to the room and practice!" Sun Tiecheng barked, "Why do you keep practicing on your own people? If you've got the guts, go play outside! Bring back some flesh and blood! Can't you even feed a single courtesan house on your own?" Feed them? How could that be easy? I have an entire household waiting for meals back home. More importantly, all of your dietary preferences are so bizarre. Sun Tiecheng explained some specific essentials of Ride Donkey Downslope to Li Qi, then picked up a wooden stick and drew a map in the dirt. "Previously, the City of Fools opened its south gate. Now it opens the west gate. The route goes like this; commit it to memory..." Li Banfeng memorized the entrance, then headed out to scrounge some sustenance for the courtesan house. He returned first to the companion dwelling, handing his bloodstained clothes to the gramophone. "Precious wife, help me wash this garment and collect the blood from it." His wife asked, "Does this blood have a use?" "For fishing. It's bait." His wife understood immediately. "Oh, my dear husband, you want to hook those little shrimp under the Opera Cultivator, don't you? There's no need to fish for them. This humble slave looks down on that sort of trash." Li Banfeng hugged his wife from behind. "Oh, my dear wife, you haven't grown any plumper, but your airs have certainly grown grand. Are even local delicacies beneath your notice now?" "If there were a seventh or eighth layer among them, they'd make a decent snack!" A snack at the seventh or eighth layer... Just how many seventh or eighth layers even existed across Puluo Province? Still, speaking of food, the red lotus had consumed Ge Junma and He Caiyuan a while ago. Shouldn't the pills be ready by now? He walked into the Ninth Room and asked with a beaming smile, "Jiuhua, are the pills refined yet?" The red lotus snorted. "Can you stop calling me Leek Flower? Why don't you just call me Sesame Paste?" Li Banfeng thought about it. "Then we'll call you Hua Jiu. Let's talk about the pills first!" The red lotus had indeed finished refining them. Li Banfeng peeled away the lotus seed covering and examined them closely. One seed had produced two Profound Accumulation Pills, while the other had produced one. "Which one produced two?" "The purebred native of the Inner States." "Why did the Inner States man yield an extra pill? Was his cultivation higher than He Caiyuan's?" "Not because of higher cultivation, but because of his unique pedigree. Their flesh and blood not only yields more pills, but the essence is far purer." Li Banfeng gently stroked the center of the lotus seedpod and said with a chuckle, "Hua Jiu'er, my Golden Origin Pills are almost gone, and I haven't reached the ninth layer yet. You have seven holes here; don't force my hand!" Li Banfeng kept his hand resting on the seedpod. The red lotus trembled slightly. "I'm doing this for your own good, really. "Ordinary flesh and blood can't refine Profound Accumulation Pills. Once you reach the cloud level, you'll know how precious these are." This was already the seventh Profound Accumulation Pill Li Banfeng had accumulated. Li Banfeng gently stroked each of the holes on the lotus head one by one and said softly, "No matter how wonderful something is, I must be able to use it for it to matter. I'll go find some ordinary ingredients, and you'd better produce some suitable pills for me!" *** The gramophone extracted the blood from Li Banfeng's clothes and dripped it onto a cabbage seed. When the cabbage finished growing, Li Banfeng smiled wryly. This bait wasn't going to work. The figure that emerged from the cabbage was Gu Rusong himself. Li Banfeng wanted him to impersonate Lu Dongliang, but a cabbage person lacked such capability. He would have to rely on his wife to alter him into Lu Dongliang. While his wife reshaped the cabbage person's features, the projector arrived in the Fifth Room, conjuring a new film scenario. Across a twilight meadow, a pure and innocent girl dressed in a plain blue long-gown ran ahead. A young man wearing a black Zhongshan suit chased closely behind her. The young man caught up to the girl and placed a beaded hairpin into her hair. The girl looked somewhat unusual; she wore a student cut, also known as a mushroom cut, which didn't quite suit beaded hairpin accessories. Setting aside those details, the sentiment was what counted. Holding the girl's hand, the young man in the Zhongshan suit said, "I want to stay with you for this whole lifetime." The girl shook her head. "That's not enough. I want you to be with me for lifetimes without end." "Alright!" the young man promised. Holding the girl close, he quietly admired the sunset across the grassland. "We'll stay right here and slowly recall the stories of our past lives." The girl nodded and buried herself bashfully in the young man's chest. The projector was thoroughly anxious. *Director Qi, I've done my utmost.* *If I can pry any words out of her, count it as my luck.* *If I can't, it'll all be up to you.* *** At the entrance of Zhengjing Village stood a poplar tree whose canopy spread wide. Yanzi the bagworm moth often rested beneath its shade. Today, another woman joined her under the tree. Yanzi looked her up and down, then asked, "Waiting for someone?" Lu Dongchun nodded. "Waiting for my man." Yanzi chuckled. "What a coincidence. I like waiting for my man here too. We couldn't possibly be waiting for the same fellow, could we? Is your man good to you?" Lu Dongchun fell silent for a moment before answering, "He's very good to me. He is the only person in this world who treats me well." Yanzi twitched the antennae on her head, her tone thick with disdain. "That's no way to talk. We women don't have to live our lives just for men. I refuse to believe no one else in this world treats you well!" Lu Dongchun looked at Yanzi. "Does your man treat you well?" Yanzi snorted. "He's good to me when he's sleeping with me, and when he's sleeping with other women, he's good to them instead. It's useless for me to get anxious. That's why I say we can't live our lives for men. Next time I see him, I definitely won't give him a pleasant face." Lu Dongchun lowered her head. "My man isn't like that. He's very good to me usually, but when that time comes, he doesn't understand anything." Yanzi laughed. "Doesn't understand anything? You have to teach him? Your man is a virgin?" Lu Dongchun shook her head. "He didn't used to be. In the past, he knew everything. The things he knew frightened me. "Yet suddenly he forgot it all. I don't know why." Yanzi furrowed her brow. "Sister, is that still your man? You haven't crossed paths with something wicked, have you?" "Is he? I don't know either." Lu Dongchun sighed. Her delicate face was devoid of color and expression, resembling a Western doll. Yanzi put some distance between them. Although she was a wandering monstrosity of profound cultivation, looking at Lu Dongchun's eerie appearance still unsettled her. Along the path in the distance, a group of people approached at an unhurried pace. Yanzi's eyes lit up, and she hurried forward to greet them. "Fifth Lord, you're back!" Ma the Fifth had returned. He intended to transport a shipment of rare treasures from Zhengjing Village to Huangtu Bridge, using them to attract surrounding merchants and drum up business there. Seeing Yanzi rush over, Ma the Fifth embraced her and planted a firm kiss on her plump cheek. Yanzi turned back, glancing beneath the tree. "There was a woman over there, quite eerie. She was waiting for her man too. Was she waiting for you?" Ma the Fifth glanced toward the tree. "What woman?" Yanzi frowned. "She was right there a moment ago, gone in the blink of an eye. Her cultivation is nothing to sneeze at!" Ma the Fifth patted Yanzi, his eyes fixed on the great poplar tree. Amidst the tangled grass beside the tree, Lu Dongchun was also watching Ma the Fifth. Two full days had passed without any word from Lu Dongliang. She feared something had happened to him. She worried that Lu Dongliang had fallen into Li Qi's hands. If that was truly the case, the only plan she could think of now was to kidnap Ma the Fifth and force Li Qi to surrender Lu Dongliang. Ma the Fifth had two women beside him who were likely formidable fighters. That Madam Bagworm Moth was even harder to deal with. Yet no matter how difficult it might be, she had to try. There was nothing else in this world left for her to care about anyway. Just as Lu Dongchun prepared to dart from the overgrown grass, a strand of spider silk wrapped around her arm. The thread trembled, causing the fabric of Lu Dongchun's clothes to vibrate with it. Sound was vibration at its core. With her clothes vibrating, Lu Dongchun heard a voice: "Do not go over there. Whatever you do, don't be rash. Going out now is suicide." Lu Dongchun used vibrations to respond: "Who are you?" "I am here to help you. Whether you wish to admit it or not, Li Qi and Ma the Fifth are overlords of Puluo Province, no different from the four great prominent families of the past. "Facing either of them alone is tantamount to suicide. If you are willing to accept my assistance, you still have a chance of surviving." The speaker's cadence was peculiar. He had a Puluo Province accent, yet it was laced with the cadence of a foreign devil. Ma the Fifth was walking toward the patch of grass. Lu Dongchun had to either charge out and fight for her life or leave immediately; remaining hidden in the brush would only lead to death. The spider silk transmitted the voice once more: "Come with me. I know you are doing this for Lu Dongliang. I want to help him as well, but first we must determine where he is." Hearing those words, Lu Dongchun hesitated no longer. Following the guidance of the silk, she slipped away from the brush. *** Ma the Fifth searched the weeds with A'qin and Huo Ling for a long time without finding the woman Yanzi had described. Returning to the village, while listening to Yanzi recount the woman's characteristics, Ma the Fifth spotted Shui Yongquan drinking at a small tavern. He immediately hurried over to greet him. "Brother Shui, Yanzi saw a woman at the village entrance who looks like a cloth doll. Did Master Shui happen to notice her?" Shui Yongquan quietly erected a curtain of water around them, sealing off all sound without leaving behind a single trace of moisture. "You must be talking about Lu Dongchun, right?" Ma the Fifth nodded. "She has a grudge against us. You know her?" "I don't know her personally; Seventh told me about her. She's a Garment Cultivator. Her scent is faint, and she leaves no footprints, making her trail hard to track. "There are sixteen others scattered through the small woods east of the village. They're hiding deep, quite troublesome to find. Last night they ambushed and killed several hunters to steal their rations. "I found the hunters' corpses and used that clue to track down those sixteen bastards. Seventh plans to strike tonight and round them all up along with Lu Dongchun." Ma the Fifth was pleasantly surprised. "Seventh is in the village?" "Don't rush. Don't look for him yet. Wait until tonight is over." *** Lu Dongliang walked into the woods east of Zhengjing Village and lit a cigarette. When the cigarette was half-finished, a man in his thirties approached Lu Dongliang and bowed respectfully. "Master!" Lu Dongliang raised a hand. "Summon everyone here." The man asked no questions and turned to call the others. Fortunately, he hadn't probed. A cabbage person was inferior to a muskmelon person in quality and couldn't manage complex responses. Before long, all sixteen of Lu Dongliang's subordinates assembled, but Lu Dongchun was nowhere to be seen. Shui Yongquan furrowed his brows, signaling Li Qi to clean up these men in the woods first while he went to track down Lu Dongchun. Li Qi nodded. Seeing Shui Yongquan depart, he quietly opened the door to the companion dwelling. Drawn by the technique Hidden Beauty in a Golden House, the cabbage Lu Dongliang walked toward the companion dwelling. Unsure where Lu Dongliang was heading, the subordinates had no choice but to follow behind with their heads lowered. They followed him straight into the companion dwelling. Li Banfeng shut the door from the outside. The sixteen men had no idea why they had gone from an open forest into such a cramped room. They looked toward Lu Dongliang, only to find him standing respectfully against the wall. Across from Lu Dongliang sat a gramophone. Beside the gramophone was a woman in red with long, silky black hair, her back turned to the crowd as she combed her hair. The room was dim and misty, preventing them from seeing the mirror before Hong Ying or what her face looked like. They could only tell that her figure was stunningly alluring. Was this a reward sent by Master Lu? To tell the truth, these sixteen subordinates had been pent up for far too long. Ever since setting out for the newland, they hadn't touched a woman. The gramophone puffed out a fine water mist as the record spun rapidly on its platter. A woman's voice drifted from the horn: "Yingying, our man brought back some snacks. I'll share some with you." Hong Ying rose slowly from the corner and said in a soft, gentle voice, "Xiaowan, I knew you cared for me." With that, Hong Ying turned her face toward the crowd. Before them sat a spearhead gleaming with cold light, draped in thick black hair, jutting out between the woman's shoulders. Most of the sixteen men began trembling violently. Some grew dizzy; others wanted to scream. Dizziness and trembling didn't matter, but screaming was forbidden. It was very late, and the Old Master was already asleep. Anyone who opened their mouth to scream had their throat slit by Hong Ying. Those who kept quiet were allowed to watch how this family enjoyed their midnight snack. *** Ten li away, the renowned detective Daboynes held his hand against a strand of spider silk, quietly sensing each vibration. Lu Dongchun asked, "What's the situation?" Daboynes said, "A man appeared in the woods. Sixteen men gathered around him." "It's Dongliang! He brought sixteen subordinates in total." Lu Dongchun grew agitated. She knew Lu Dongliang's men were in the woods, and only Lu Dongliang could make them assemble in full. She was about to rush toward the forest when Daboynes stopped her again. "That man has vanished. The others have vanished as well." Lu Dongchun asked nervously, "What happened?" Daboynes shook his head. "My spider friends can only provide simple descriptions. They don't understand or know how to explain the exact process." "I'm going over to see!" "Don't be rash. Wait a moment..." After waiting several minutes, Daboynes felt another tremor through the silk. "That man has reappeared, but the others have not." Lu Dongchun couldn't make sense of it. Daboynes reeled in the spider silk and said to Lu Dongchun, "I have worked as a private detective for decades. I can tell you with certainty that the person who appeared in the woods is not Lu Dongliang." Lu Dongchun shook her head. "Impossible. His men only obey his commands." Daboynes replied, "That is likely someone who looks very much like Lu Dongliang, or is impersonating him through other means." "How do you know?" Lu Dongchun didn't believe Daboynes. "Didn't you say the spiders couldn't understand the specifics?" "Madam, this is my deduction. For Lu Dongliang to enter the woods in the dead of night and assemble all his subordinates is an extremely dangerous move that easily exposes their location. "If he went out of his way to summon everyone, that means Lu Dongliang intended to lead them in executing an operation—one that couldn't be accomplished without them. "Yet Lu Dongliang took them away and then returned alone. Such behavior holds no value whatsoever; it only brings danger upon himself. "Therefore, the only reasonable deduction I can draw is that he has already handed those sixteen men over to the enemy, and he returned to the spot to serve as bait to draw you out as well." Lu Dongchun stated tonelessly, "Dongliang would never betray me." Daboynes nodded. "I believe he wouldn't betray you. That is precisely why I say that person isn't Lu Dongliang. This is a trap laid by someone else. "If you go to the woods now, you will fall straight into the trap just like the others. By then, escaping with your life will be practically impossible." Lu Dongchun fell into hesitation. Daboynes said, "If you want to go throw your life away, I won't stop you. If you choose to trust us, we can help you find Lu Dongliang." "Us?" Lu Dongchun looked at Daboynes, her translucent eyes gleaming like glass beads, bright yet dull. "Who are you?" "We are members of the Flying General Battalion, all subordinates of the Flying General." "Who is the Flying General?" Daboynes spoke with solemn reverence: "Everyone in Puluo Province has heard her name: Flying General Zhao Xiaowan, whose single spear pacified the realm." Lu Dongchun didn't quite believe it. Zhao Xiaowan was a figure of legend. *Drip! Drip!* A sound arose from the grass. The two looked toward the sound and saw drops of dew sliding down from the blades of grass. "The moisture is heavy!" Daboynes said with a grave expression. "Shui Yongquan is coming soon. Madam Lu Dongchun, this is your last chance. If you are willing to join us, we depart together. If not, we go our separate ways." Lu Dongchun nodded. She agreed. A strand of spider silk descended from above, and Daboynes carried Lu Dongchun away, vanishing into the night. *Rustle-clatter...* The blade of grass that had shed the dew pulled its roots out of the soil and sprinted away across the ground on its root tips. It reached a man, quickly scampered up his back, and upon reaching the back of his head, bit through his skin. It curled its body into an emerald-green sphere and drilled into the man's skull. The man's cheek twitched; that seemed to hurt a bit. The green ball moved back and forth at the back of his head, resembling an emerald eyeball. A Peeping Cultivator: Kui Bafang. He was the capable operative Qiu Luoye had gifted to Li Banfeng. Many parts of his body could detach and act independently, and the eye at the back of his head was one of them. This eye had been quite lucky. Stationed far from the village, he hadn't held much hope of discovering anything, yet he had stumbled upon crucial intelligence. Kui Bafang immediately relayed the message to Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng was somewhat surprised upon receiving the news. Daboynes was still alive. "They have an organization called the Flying General Battalion. Lu Dongchun followed him to seek refuge with Flying General Zhao Xiaowan." Hearing this, the gramophone burst into laughter. "Oh, my dear husband, pass word along to them: if they want to defect to me, they'll have to discuss it with me face to face!"