Li Banfeng stomped down with Treading Ten Thousand Rivers, blasting away half of Hua Manchun's flesh and blood.
The skeleton, still clinging to the remaining half of his flesh, hung impaled upon the Tang dao. Glowing a fiery red from tip to hilt, the Tang dao seemed extraordinarily excited.
"Lord, this man's blood is something special."
For an above-the-clouds Joy Cultivator, the quality of his blood was indeed extraordinary.
The pendulum jumped out to eagerly suck the blood, and Hua Manchun seized the opportunity to tear himself free from the Tang dao.
Barbs sprouted all over the Tang dao, their shapes and sizes constantly shifting, foiling every attempt Hua Manchun made to break away.
How could this blade be so fierce?
Hua Manchun couldn't fathom it; he had no idea how many high-level cultivators the Tang dao had already devoured.
After struggling for a few moments, Hua Manchun's strength abruptly surged. Li Banfeng noticed fresh flesh and blood regrowing across his skeletal frame.
Hua Manchun held quite a reputation among the local spirits of the proper land, feared even by the likes of Pan Dehai, so he naturally possessed extraordinary abilities.
Not only could he fight, but he could also take a beating. He possessed methods similar to Lühuazi's—the flesh stripped from his bones could be reclaimed. Even more remarkably, his technique was stealthier than Lühuazi's; Li Banfeng hadn't even noticed him drawing his flesh back.
Yet Feng Daiku had noticed.
Like Chu Yaoxian, she had suffered at Hua Manchun's hands and wanted him eliminated. Yet Feng Daiku hadn't pinned all her hopes on others; she had taken matters into her own hands.
She had pinpointed the perfect moment to ambush Hua Manchun, and she was thoroughly familiar with his combat methods.
Seeing Hua Manchun's flesh blasted apart by Li Banfeng, Feng Daiku nudged Ma the Fifth. Riding atop Mei, Ma the Fifth scattered Mei's brood.
Leeches were bloodthirsty by nature. Swarms of tiny leeches, having just crawled out from the egg cocoons, threw themselves madly upon the scattered flesh and blood.
Hua Manchun had regenerated less than half of his body when the rest of his flesh could no longer be drawn back.
The surrounding ground was suddenly crawling with fattened leeches, and every last scrap of remaining flesh had been devoured by them.
Hua Manchun wanted to crush the leeches, but he was still impaled on the Tang dao. Li Banfeng was in no rush to kill him; gripping the Tang dao, he churned it ceaselessly within Hua Manchun's viscera.
Having gained the upper hand, Li Banfeng didn't switch moves or overextend; he simply pressed his advantage to the hilt.
This fighting style was utterly unbearable for Hua Manchun. When Hua Manchun surged forward, Li Banfeng moved forward with him. When Hua Manchun leaped sideways, Li Banfeng followed in kind. Whatever Hua Manchun tried, Li Banfeng stuck right behind him like a shadow, keeping the Tang dao lodged deep inside his body.
The Tang dao continually shifted its form. Though Hua Manchun looked mostly intact on the outside, his insides had been ground into mush, yet Li Banfeng still refused to stop.
Bracing through grievous injury, Hua Manchun forcibly snapped his body in two to wrench himself free from the Tang dao, sprinting for all he was worth toward the newland.
That newland ahead was the very marsh they had come through. Ma the Fifth was about to give chase atop Mei, but Li Banfeng stopped him. "Huaxian Manor hasn't been secured yet. You and Miss Feng go take care of the manor first."
Ma the Fifth took Feng Daiku into the manor while Li Banfeng bolted forward, quickly catching up with Hua Manchun.
Hua Manchun halted and unleashed a technique at Li Banfeng—Dry Tinder and Raging Fire.
This technique was crude and blunt: plainly put, it stoked Li Banfeng's desires to the boiling point, making him want to have his way with anything he laid eyes on. If a moth fluttered past, he'd probably snatch it out of the air just to check if it was male or female.
Hua Manchun was too severely injured; his glare reached, but the technique hadn't landed yet. Li Banfeng quickly darted more than a dozen zhang away, out of Hua Manchun's casting range.
Failing to hit his mark, Hua Manchun didn't linger to fight and fled deeper into the marshland. Suddenly, a pitch-black figure of a man ran up beside him and pointed ahead.
Hua Manchun had no idea where this man had come from or what he meant; he only saw him pointing forward. Beside them, Li Banfeng helpfully explained, "He's asking if you're going to keep running straight ahead."
This black figure had a build rather similar to Li Seven's, and even the outline of his clothes was nearly identical. Could it be Li Seven's shadow?
Why could Li Seven control a shadow? That had to be an above-the-clouds technique of a Dwelling Cultivator.
Hua Manchun cast Dry Tinder and Raging Fire at Li Banfeng again. Li Banfeng dodged swiftly, but the shadow didn't move. The shadow assumed that since it wasn't a fully solid body, it wouldn't be harmed by a Joy Cultivator's technique.
Having evaded the technique, Li Banfeng charged up with his sickle, unleashing a flurry of slashes that pushed Hua Manchun to the brink of collapse.
If the shadow had joined in to flank Hua Manchun right then, they could have subdued him with ease. But when Li Banfeng glanced over, the shadow was currently sprawled face-down on the soft marshland, vigorously thrusting its body up and down against the ground.
Whether they could quickly subdue Hua Manchun wasn't the main issue; the problem was how utterly embarrassing the sight was.
Li Banfeng recalled the shadow and began frequently using the Half-Step. One moment he was a mere three to five paces away, the next several dozen meters off, leaving Hua Manchun unable to defend himself, much less retaliate.
They ran in pursuit for over two li until a pool of water appeared ahead.
In the middle of the pool swirled a whirlpool. It wasn't very wide, but its center sank deep, stirring up all sorts of impure thoughts in Li Banfeng's mind.
This was truly bizarre.
Why on earth was he fantasizing about a whirlpool?
Looking at the alluring curves of that swirl, Li Banfeng actually felt a surge of impulse.
Had he been hit by a Joy Cultivator technique too?
Probing his physical condition closely, Li Banfeng realized he had indeed fallen under the technique's influence.
Hua Manchun's technique had landed on the shadow, and the shadow had been affected. Now that Li Banfeng had recalled the shadow, he seemed to have caught the backlash.
If he didn't deal with this effect, there was no telling what he might end up doing.
Yet as for dealing with it, there was hardly an appropriate place around here.
The sensation grew more and more pronounced; now, whenever Li Banfeng spotted a hole of any sort, his heart throbbed inexplicably.
Out of options, Li Banfeng opened a door and stepped into the companion dwelling.
Hua Manchun froze, noticing that Li Seven had vanished.
Where did he go?
Well, if he was gone, all the better to make an escape. Hua Manchun pushed through several more strides, but in the blink of an eye, Li Seven was giving chase from behind once more.
Back inside the companion dwelling, Madam had taken care of the matter for him. Luckily, she had been quick about it, so the pursuit hadn't been delayed.
Li Seven summoned his shadow again. Exercising greater caution this time, neither his true body nor the shadow got touched by Hua Manchun's techniques. With the true body wielding the sickle and the shadow wielding the shovel, the two worked in seamless coordination, landing slashes on Hua Manchun every so often.
Battered and covered in wounds, Hua Manchun stood atop a mud pit and abruptly stopped moving, fixing his gaze on Li Banfeng's true body.
He realized that Li Banfeng was experimenting with some technique on him.
Hua Manchun was indeed injured, but given his status, he couldn't bear to be toyed with like this.
After running this far, he had left Feng Daiku and Ma the Fifth behind; only he and Li Seven remained.
"Come! Let us settle this in life or death!" Hua Manchun ignored Li Banfeng's shadow, paying no mind to whatever it was, and focused solely on Li Banfeng's true body.
He had chosen to stand on the mud pit because its ground was exceedingly soft—unsuitable for a Traveler Cultivator to execute footwork techniques, and likely even capable of trapping a Traveler Cultivator's steps.
Once a Traveler's footing was restrained, they were reduced to sitting ducks.
Hua Manchun prepared to take a gamble: use the mud pit to kill Li Banfeng first. Once the true body was dead, the shadow would naturally vanish.
Once this was handled, he would nurse his wounds properly and then devise a way to deal with Feng Daiku.
Even as he deliberated, Li Banfeng and his shadow charged Hua Manchun together. The moment they neared the mud pit, the shadow stepped straight into the mud and thrust both hands upward, catching Li Banfeng's foot.
With his foot on the shadow's hands, Li Banfeng had two options. One was to use the shadow's hoist to leap into the air, fly straight up to Hua Manchun, and kick him off his feet.
This was relatively safe, but the catch was that the hang time would be somewhat long. Given Hua Manchun's combat prowess, he could easily seize the opening to hit Li Banfeng with a technique midair.
The second option was to use the shadow's hoist to execute the Half-Step, stealing a step forward to finish Hua Manchun in close-quarters combat.
This second method was the outcome Li Banfeng truly wanted: he hoped to prove that he could still unleash the Half-Step even with the shadow present.
However, it carried risk. If the Half-Step failed to manifest, Li Banfeng might sink directly into the mire.
Li Banfeng decided to gamble. Hua Manchun was gravely wounded; even if something went awry, Li Banfeng was confident he could break away.
Following the essentials of the Half-Step, he kicked off the shadow's hands and surged toward Hua Manchun.
Hua Manchun had assumed Li Banfeng would leap into the air. Just as he prepared to seal off the aerial approach, he saw Li Banfeng sinking into the mud pit instead.
The Half-Step had failed. Li Banfeng hadn't managed to steal that step, and now he was on the verge of being swallowed by the mire.
As if stepping on a red-hot iron griddle, his feet tapped frantically back and forth across the mud, trying to find solid purchase, but found none.
"Li Seven, you brought this death upon yourself!"
Hua Manchun was about to cast a technique!
What was he to do? He couldn't even stand steady—how could he dodge?
Li Banfeng moved faster and faster across the mud, his toes tapping in a frantic blur.
Yet the ground beneath him only grew softer with every tap. Without solid purchase, speed was useless; he couldn't control his direction of travel.
Hua Manchun's technique was imminent. This time he was using Burning Flame of Joy; if Li Banfeng caught even a spark, fire would inevitably erupt from his insides outward.
In his desperation, Li Banfeng's feet suddenly left the ground, and his entire body soared into the air.
Had he leaped?
Impossible. In the mud pit, Li Banfeng didn't even have a firm place to plant his feet. How could he possibly jump off ground that soft?
Li Banfeng was flying!
The moist air of the marshland felt like running water beneath his feet.
Using footwork similar to treading water while swimming, Li Banfeng treaded upon the air and took flight—this was the technique of Riding the Wind and Driving Clouds!
Ever since reaching the second layer of the Traveler Cultivator pathway, Li Banfeng had longed to fly every single day, yet had never managed to learn it. Who could have thought he would master it at this very moment?
Hua Manchun's technique struck out. Sensing the danger, Li Banfeng evaded it with ease in midair.
That was the difference between flying and jumping. If he had jumped, as long as Hua Manchun timed his movement, Li Banfeng would never have avoided it. But when flying, Li Banfeng could alter his direction at any moment in the air.
Hovering midair, Li Banfeng felt overjoyed. Looking down at Hua Manchun, an even greater delight followed.
The shadow, sunk into the mud pit, was currently clashing with Hua Manchun while brandishing the shovel.
The shadow was still here! That proved Li Banfeng could maintain Body and Shadow Comforting Each Other while executing other techniques—and a high-tier technique like Riding the Wind and Driving Clouds at that!
Li Banfeng was so thrilled that he circled Hua Manchun twice in the air and couldn't resist bursting into hearty laughter. "Gwahahaha—"
From the ground, the shadow scooped up a glob of foul mud and splattered it right across Li Banfeng's face. The laughter stopped dead.
Looking down, Li Banfeng saw the shadow was sunk halfway into the mud pit, fighting Hua Manchun with immense difficulty.
He had truly put the shadow in a tight spot. Li Banfeng swooped down and hooked Hua Manchun's chin with the sickle. "I heard you have a hook that works wonders on your subordinates. Is this how it's used?"
With a mouth full of blood, Hua Manchun still tried to fight for his life. Li Banfeng pulled the sickle from his chin and hooked it into his cheek instead. "Used like this?"
Hua Manchun still gave no answer, techniques churning relentlessly from within his body.
Whenever a technique surged forth, Li Banfeng used Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity to dodge, resolutely refusing to suffer a hit.
"Cheek isn't right either. Where on earth should it be hooked then? Come over to my place and tell me!" Dodging Hua Manchun's technique, Li Banfeng hooked the back of his head and dragged him into the companion dwelling.
The shadow was trapped in the mud pit, murky water already past its waist.
It wanted to spit at Li Banfeng, but there was no water in its body. It made the spitting motion, yet no saliva came out.
Inside the companion dwelling, Hua Manchun still attempted to resist. Hong Ying swung her sword and severed Hua Manchun's hamstrings. Collapsing to the floor, Hua Manchun temporarily abandoned all thought of resistance.
"Brother Li Seven, I belong to Xuehuapu! Xuehuapu is an enterprise under the peddler, and I work for him. I know you're the peddler's friend. Whatever grudge lies between us, set it aside for now. For the peddler's sake, spare my life!"
"You're really with Xuehuapu?" Li Banfeng began building a conversational ramp to probe. "You don't seem like it to me. When I first arrived at Huaxian Manor, I chatted a bit with Lian Cui'er. She said the manor is strapped for cash right now and that you're always doing business in the surrounding regions. Xuehuapu mints coins; how could you be short on money to spend?"
"I really am from Xuehuapu! Yuan Chunping at my manor is a messenger for Xuehuapu. If you don't believe me, we can confront her face-to-face later, and you'll know whether I'm telling the truth."
Submissive on the surface, Hua Manchun covertly activated a technique, rapidly mending his severed tendons.
Li Banfeng followed the conversational ramp and asked, "Then why are you short on cash?"
"Xuehuapu demanded a huge amount of money from me. I don't know why the Pu is strapped for funds either. Plenty of friends in the Pu have even sold their magical artifacts just to keep it running. I've only managed to hold out until today by relying on the business in my own territory."
"What business do you run in your territory that earns so much?"
Li Banfeng was genuinely curious. Huaxian Manor had a small population, and few women in the manor engaged in productive labor, yet the entire manor was exceedingly prosperous. Li Banfeng couldn't understand where its revenue came from.
Hua Manchun explained, "There are several mountains around the manor, with abundant local specialties. Harvesting and selling those specialties brings in quite a lot of money."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Relying on mere specialties to cover Huaxian Manor's expenses and still having enough to support Xuehuapu? That explanation is far too forced."
"I'm telling the absolute truth."
"He's lying!" spoke Mengde, hanging on the wall.
Hua Manchun was severely injured and in poor shape. On top of that, Mengde had recently consumed quite a bit of above-the-clouds flesh and blood, significantly advancing her strength, and she saw right through his lie.
"Manor Master Hua, now that's where you're in the wrong." Li Banfeng raised his sickle, aiming it at the part a Joy Cultivator valued most.
"Lord, why use a butcher's blade to kill a chicken? Leave this task to this general!" The Tang dao leaped out of its scabbard on its own accord. Ever since drinking Hua Manchun's blood, it had been rather stimulated, its blade swollen significantly larger.
Seeing the blade about to fall, Hua Manchun yelled frantically, "Brother Li, don't! There are secrets that really shouldn't be spoken, but since you've asked, Brother Li, I'll tell! In the surrounding mountains, I mainly refine certain powders. The value of these powders is a hundred times that of gold!"
Li Banfeng said, "What kind of powder?"
"Initiation powder for cultivators."
The room fell instantly silent.
Li Banfeng remained calm and continued probing. "That kind of powder seems to come only from the peddler."
Hua Manchun said, "The powder in the peddler's hands is his proprietary powder, the orthodox powder for cultivators entering the dao. But the peddler's business is somewhat peculiar. Certain powders he simply doesn't carry, and no one can buy them even if they wish. Other powders he does possess, but if he refuses to sell, no one can do a thing about it. Prominent families don't want to be beholden to the peddler, so they pay top dollar to buy powders and stockpile them at home for emergencies. No matter where they procure those powders, in Puluo Province, half of the supply traces back to me."
"Half traces back to you?" Li Banfeng was still skeptical. "Did you calculate that, or what?"
"I haven't tallied it up, but I've seen it. My powders have rouge mixed into them. The powders I've seen in several prominent families all carry that scent of cosmetics. It's not that I wanted to counterfeit it; the rouge serves another purpose."
Li Seven shook his head. "Now I'm even more baffled. What purpose could mixing rouge into initiation powder possibly serve?"
Hua Manchun put slight tension into his hamstrings; the repair was nearly finished. "Brother Li Seven, as for its exact purpose, I can't say just yet. So long as you spare my life, I will teach you the method of refining the medicine, guaranteeing you an endless stream of wealth from now on."
Before he finished speaking, the Tang dao slashed out, severing the hamstrings Hua Manchun had just reconnected. Hua Manchun wailed in agony.
"Reconnected them pretty fast, haven't you!" The Tang dao was exceptionally sharp today, seeing right through Hua Manchun's attempt to knit his tendons back together.
Li Banfeng said to Hua Manchun, "Give me the truth. Exactly what method do you use to refine the powder?"
Hua Manchun said, "East of the manor lies Mount Baiming, teeming with rare birds and exotic beasts. Collecting blood from certain beasts and blending it with rouge allows one to refine it into powder. Take Martial Cultivators as an example: Mount Baiming has three types of golden eagles, all possessing superb martial prowess. As long as their blood is—"
"Seventh Master, no need to listen to him. He's lying!" Mengde exposed Hua Manchun's falsehood once more.
Li Seven grew irritated. With a wave of his hand, the Tang dao lopped off Hua Manchun's right hand.
Having delivered this blow, the Tang dao had now struck three times and by rights should have rested. Yet the Tang dao remained worked up, refusing to return to its sheath.
Hua Manchun screamed incessantly. He had countless methods to torture the women of the manor, but Li Banfeng's methods of tormenting someone were not inferior to his in the least.
"Brother Li Seven, I really am telling the truth."
As the Tang dao rose once more, Hua Manchun cried out, "Enough! What I harvest on the mountains isn't rare beasts—it's corpses!"
"Whose corpses?"
"Corpses of the people from my manor," Hua Manchun finally spoke the truth. "The thousands of people in Huaxian Manor were all bought by me. Many among them possess cultivation. When these cultivated women die, they aren't buried in the village. Instead, according to their cultivation, they are buried across the surrounding mountains. Mount Baiming is where Literary Cultivators are buried; Mount Hanren is where Martial Cultivators are buried; and other barren hills serve as mixed burial grounds for various pathways. Every so often, I hike up the mountains, dig up corpses that have decayed fifty to sixty percent, and use their remains to refine powder, extracting the initiation powder they once consumed to enter their pathways. As for the precise refining method, the flame intensity, the supplementary ingredients—I can tell you everything, so long as you spare my life!"
Li Banfeng recalled Lian Cui'er's descriptions and asked further, "I heard you frequently kill people in the manor, especially those who grow old and fall out of favor, finding pretexts to execute them now and then. What is the reason for that?"
Hua Manchun said, "It's because I have a bit of a temper."
The Tang dao slashed across, ripping Hua Manchun's belly open. Gritting his teeth, Hua Manchun stuffed his spilling intestines back inside and clutched his wound. "I'm really not lying! Sometimes it truly was due to my bad temper, and sometimes... it was because of business matters—"
Li Banfeng said, "By business matters, you mean when you ran short of a certain pathway's powder, you killed a cultivator of that pathway. Isn't that right?"
Hua Manchun lowered his head. "Clients pressed hard for delivery; I really had no choice."
Li Banfeng stroked the edge of the Tang dao and smiled faintly. "In Puluo Province, I've seen plenty of wicked people, but someone as utterly depraved as you is truly rare. In your eyes, are those women nothing more than stockpiled raw materials? If the peddler knew what you were doing, he would tear you into ten thousand pieces."
"That makes no sense," Hua Manchun said, shaking his head. "Year after year, I paid hefty sums to buy those women—not through middlemen, but directly from their own hands! I gave them money and three days to spend it however they wished. After three days, they came willingly to my manor to serve as slaves and servants, subject to whatever disposal I chose! This isn't just talk; we drew up covenant deeds between us! I can take you to my residence right now so we can examine the deeds and judge the matter. Even if the peddler were standing right here, I would dare to reason this out with him!"
Li Banfeng remained skeptical. Beside him, the gramophone chimed in, "Husband, Puluo Province sets great store by covenant deeds; what he speaks of is indeed the logic of Puluo Province. Here, if someone willingly sells themselves, so long as the terms are stated clearly in the covenant deed, no matter how they are sold, it is considered fair and proper. Even if it stipulates they can be slaughtered or dismembered at will, there is nothing illicit about it."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Who would sell themselves like that?"
"There are! Every single person in my manor was sold this way," Hua Manchun offered as an example. "Take Lian Cui for instance—you've met her. She's a Martial Cultivator, but an inveterate gambler. To pay off gambling debts, she owed Zhang Gunli three thousand silver dollars. Zhang Gunli declared that if Lian Cui'er couldn't pay it back, he would slice her flesh off alive to go with his wine. If you know Zhang Gunli's reputation, you'd know he's more than capable of doing exactly that. If Lian Cui'er hadn't sold herself to me, she never would have lived to this day! Every single deed in my hands was written by their own fingers; I never coerced them with a single word. Brother Li Seven, if you want to play the righteous chivalrous hero, I advise you to pick someone else. On this matter alone, you have no right to kill me."
Li Banfeng was silent for a moment, then laughed softly. "I never said I was going to kill you over this. First, tell me: why did you contact people from the Outer States to harm me?"
"Because He Jiaqing entered my manor, and I certainly couldn't let him off. On top of that, you ridiculed me earlier, and I feared you would stab me in the back, so I wanted to find a way to tie you down. I honestly never expected people from the Outer States to be so unreliable—they barely claimed they had you tied down, and you showed up here the next moment."
"Which eminent figure from the Outer States did you seek out? What made you so confident he could tie me down?"
Hua Manchun lowered his head. "I wouldn't dare call him eminent, but his position is certainly high. As for who he is specifically, I don't know. The one who helped me contact him was our Xuehuapu's branch in the Outer States, called the Ferry Gang."
"I've heard of the Ferry Gang. Chu Zikai is the gang boss."
Hua Manchun shook his head. "He was the Boat Boss, but a Boat Boss isn't the gang boss. If the gang boss falls, the Ferry Gang falls apart; if a Boat Boss is gone, you just replace him with a new one. Now that he has gone missing, the Ferry Gang has a new Boat Boss, but the gang boss remains the same gang boss. Co-founding the Ferry Gang alongside our Xuehuapu was the Birch Hermitage. Their way of doing things is quite similar to ours—they have a president too, but the president isn't the true leader. The one truly running the Hermitage never shows his face."
"Who runs the Hermitage?"
"I truly don't know that."
"Who is the gang boss of the Ferry Gang?"
"That... I don't know either."
"He's lying!" Mengde once again saw through Hua Manchun's lie.
Hua Manchun bowed his head. "I really can't say."
Li Banfeng picked up the Tang dao. "Speak. If you don't, you're going to suffer."
Hua Manchun kept his mouth shut. Li Banfeng looked at the Tang dao. "Since your spirits are so high today, carve an opening into him and let him be your woman for once."
The Tang dao had just that in mind, flaring with fiery light as it prepared to open a passage.
Gritting his teeth, Hua Manchun blurted out, "No matter how civilized people from the Outer States seem, it's all a fabrication!"
The moment the words left his mouth, his face twisted violently.
The gramophone shouted, "Husband, get back! Leave him to this humble servant—this man is about to blow!"
Chapter 562