Li Banfeng tried his best to explain the situation to Lu Qianjiao. "The duel between the Peddler and that person from heaven was almost certainly just a rumor. Things have basically been cleared up now—"
"There's no smoke without fire! It can't be as simple as a mere rumor!" Lu Qianjiao refused to listen. "I'm going to look for him. I can sense him. He's alive—he's definitely still alive!"
As she spoke, she rubbed her temples incessantly, focusing her mind. "He should be in a proper land... a proper land that was once desolate, that almost turned into oldland... He's right there. I can find him..."
Li Banfeng asked, "Didn't you just say he was inside your cabin?"
Lu Qianjiao shook her head. "I want that! I truly do! I want him to stay in my cabin for the rest of his life. Whatever he asks for, I'll give him! Whatever I can give, I'll hand over! Even what I can't give, I'll find a way to get it for him!"
Li Banfeng frowned. "Setting aside whether you'd give him everything, why did you lie to me?"
Lu Qianjiao was emotionally unstable. Before Li Banfeng could finish, she leapt up and bolted from the wooden cabin.
Li Banfeng gave chase. His cultivation was not equal to hers, but as a traveler cultivator, he had the advantage of speed.
After running for ten-odd minutes, Li Banfeng caught up behind her.
"Sister-in-law, you said you had a sense of him—you aren't lying to me again, are you?"
"I'm not lying! All these years, the connection between us has never been broken!"
No wonder Zhao Lanmeng had told Li Banfeng to seek out this sweetheart of his; her bond with the Peddler was truly extraordinary.
Li Banfeng said, "Then let's look for him together. Once we find him, we can both rest easy."
Lu Qianjiao came to a halt. She looked into Li Banfeng's eyes, then peered behind him.
After staring for a moment, she asked, "Did that bitch send you to find me?"
Li Banfeng considered seriously whether Zhao Lanmeng counted as a bitch.
After carefully weighing it, Li Banfeng replied in earnest, "Probably not."
Lu Qianjiao sneered. "That bitch had you come here to pry for information, hoping to use me to locate the Peddler, didn't she?"
She wasn't wrong on that point—Zhao Lanmeng indeed wanted Li Banfeng to track down the Peddler through this sweetheart—yet Li Banfeng still didn't think Zhao Lanmeng qualified as a bitch.
Seeing that Li the Seventh remained silent, Lu Qianjiao scoffed, "To think he treated you like a brother! And here you are, selling him out just like that?"
Li Banfeng felt this was entirely off the mark. "Can we be clear about this? Who did I sell out?"
Unwilling to say another word, Lu Qianjiao flicked the toe of her shoe, kicking up a rock that shot straight toward Li Banfeng's face.
In an instant, the stone split into more than a hundred fragments, converging on Li Banfeng in the blink of an eye. It was obvious she was striking far more viciously than before.
Fortunately, Li Banfeng was on solid ground, where he was much more agile than in midair. By the time he dodged the swarm of stones, Lu Qianjiao was already nowhere to be seen.
There were no footprints on the ground, nor any trail in the mountain woods. Just as Li Banfeng was pondering how to track her down, a signal came from the projector: "The makeshift telephone is ringing."
Li Banfeng answered Luo Zhengnan's call. Luo Zhengnan and Ma the Fifth were tending to business in Huangtu Bridge, where an unexpected crisis had broken out.
A rickshaw carter had arrived at Huangtu Bridge, bringing dozens of helpers along with him.
They had injured the local spirit, Qin Bulou, abducted his daughter, Miss Xiao Qin, and demanded that Qin Bulou surrender the covenant deed immediately.
"What kind of carter?"
Luo Zhengnan found it hard to describe. "Fifth Master says he knows the man—he dealt with him in the past."
The carter from Yaowanggou?
That coward? Back then, when they offered to help him take back Huangtu Bridge, he had chickened out in front of Qin Bulou, too timid to make a move.
Now that Qin Bulou had built Huangtu Bridge up, he had returned to seize the territory?
This didn't sound like something the carter would do.
Lu Qianjiao had a sense for the Peddler, so she would likely find him soon enough. Rather than blundering around aimlessly, it was better to wait for news from her.
However, the trouble at Huangtu Bridge could not wait, and Li Banfeng sensed something fishy.
Lu Qianjiao had just spoken of a desolate proper land that had almost turned into oldland.
Could she have been referring to Huangtu Bridge as well?
Was that truly a feeling originating from the Peddler?
Why would the Peddler go to Huangtu Bridge?
At the East Bridgehead of Huangtu Bridge, Ma the Fifth walked up to the carter and offered him a cigarette. "Big Brother, is there no room for compromise here?"
The carter took the cigarette, lit it, and looked at Ma the Fifth. "Brother, out of respect for you, I waited until today. Otherwise, Qin Bulou's head would have been taken off long ago."
He was not boasting. At present, Huangtu Bridge was split in two: the north belonged to Qin Bulou, while the south belonged to the carter. According to the carter's plan, it would only take one or two more fights to secure the entirety of Huangtu Bridge in his hands.
Ma the Fifth lit a cigarette for himself and took a drag. "Big Brother, shouldn't we be reasonable about some of this?"
The carter looked up at Ma the Fifth. "This is my territory, given to me by my master. Now I'm taking my territory back—is that not reasonable?
"You tell Qin Bulou to pack up and get the hell out right now, and I'll return his daughter to him. We'll call it settled.
"If he keeps tangling with me here, then his whole family, along with every last relative of his at Beiqiao—I won't spare a single one. I'll sweep them all clean."
Ma the Fifth took another drag. "Back then, Old Seventh and I offered to help you reclaim your turf. Halfway through, you pulled your rickshaw and ran, leaving the two of us behind. How do we settle that?"
"I had difficulties back then."
"What difficulties? Tell me."
The carter remembered it too. "Back then, Huangtu Bridge had too few people. If I came to blows with Qin Bulou and slaughtered all his men, Huangtu Bridge would have turned into oldland. It was an act of necessity. If you two don't hold a grudge, we can let bygones be bygones. We'll still be brothers going forward, and the business in Huangtu Bridge will still belong to you. But if you hold a grudge, then consider whatever friendship we had dead. I know you and Old Seventh are capable men now, but if you truly want to turn on me, I'll see it through to the bitter end!"
"Since you put it that way, my brother and I will have to answer," Ma the Fifth said, making one last demand. "Release Miss Xiao Qin, and we'll fight this out with dignity."
The carter crushed out his cigarette butt. "Didn't I already say? Once Qin Bulou gets lost, I'll certainly release his daughter. As for whether we fight, let me remind you—you don't have the final say on this. Wait for Old Seventh to speak."
Ma the Fifth snubbed his cigarette as well. "Let me give you a reminder too. While Old Seventh isn't here, there's still room to talk. Once Old Seventh arrives, it'll be too late for regrets."
Back at Beiqiao, Ma the Fifth took stock of their forces. Zuo Wugang, Zhen Jincheng, Cao Zhida, Xiao Genzi, Xiao Chuanzi... the brothers who had braved life and death together had all arrived.
A'qin, Huo Ling, Duan Wuchou, Xiang Fenglan—several intimate confidantes had arrived as well.
However, Feng Daiku had not come. She had to oversee two territories, and she was genuinely unwilling to get involved in the affairs of Huangtu Bridge.
Morally speaking, the place ought to belong to Qin Bulou. Yet Huangtu Bridge was also the territory that Grandpa Train had left to the carter. Feng Daiku was well aware of this, and the rights and wrongs of the matter were indeed hard to unravel.
Qin Bulou was severely injured and still unable to get out of bed. "Fifth Master, this shouldn't drag you down. It's my own fault for being useless yet still wanting to be the local spirit here. Tomorrow, I'll unearth the covenant deed and hand it to the carter. He can deal with me however he pleases; I only beg him to let my daughter go."
Ma the Fifth consoled him, "Just focus on resting and recovering. Once our Old Seventh returns, the matter will be settled."
"It'll be tough," Qin Bulou sighed. "The carter and Tang Shijiang, the local spirit of neighboring Black Rock Slope, are fellow disciples. I expect Tang Shijiang will step in too. I truly want to beg Seventh Master for help, but I really don't want to burden him."
"Whether you want to burden me or not, you already have—we have a signed deed between us." Li Banfeng handed Qin Bulou an elixir pill. Qin Bulou was stunned for a long while.
Ma the Fifth, already accustomed to his sudden appearances, hurriedly ordered the men to prepare wine and food. "Old Seventh, you got here so quickly?"
Li Banfeng said, "I should have come earlier. Before this, I made a trip to Yaowanggou to check on the carter."
Ma the Fifth was taken aback. "Didn't I have Old Luo tell you that the carter had already arrived at Huangtu Bridge?"
Li Banfeng had suspected that the carter at Huangtu Bridge was an impostor, so he had gone to Yaowanggou to verify.
As it turned out, he hadn't seen the carter in Yaowanggou.
He went to find Qiu Zhiheng, who told him that the carter with fire wheels hadn't shown his face in quite some time.
Li Banfeng then went looking for Old Xu, but Old Xu had been staying up on Bitter Fog Mountain all this time, worried that someone might steal the bamboo, so Li Banfeng hadn't been able to locate him.
Could the carter at Huangtu Bridge truly be real?
Ma the Fifth said, "Old Seventh, Black Rock Slope's Tang Shijiang is the carter's senior brother. If he intervenes, it won't be easy for us to handle."
Xiao Chuanzi chimed in from the side, "I've heard people say Tang Shijiang is a hot-blooded, righteous hero. What the carter is doing isn't honorable, so Tang Shijiang shouldn't come to help him."
Li the Seventh remained silent.
Being righteous and hot-blooded—all that was true.
Yet Tang Shijiang was the carter's senior brother, and this was territory left behind by their master; that was true as well.
"Old Fifth, what are the backgrounds of those helpers the carter brought?"
"They're all rickshaw pullers, and they're all traveler cultivators."
Li Banfeng was surprised. "Such a coincidence?"
Ma the Fifth shook his head slightly. "You can't really call it a coincidence. There is such a trade in Puluo Province. When traveler cultivators pull rickshaws, it's called 'running with fire wheels.' This group calls themselves the Fire Wheel Gang, and that head carter is their gang leader."
Li Banfeng frowned. "What are they after?"
Ma the Fifth said, "If a gang can seize a piece of proper land, they'd gain considerable status in Puluo Province. If their leader even becomes a local spirit, such a gang could climb right over the head of the Three Heroes Sect."
The reasoning made sense, and the ambition was plausible, but Li Banfeng still felt something was off.
Ma the Fifth said, "Should we set a time to talk with the carter again?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "There's nothing to talk about. You've already said everything that needed to be said. If he won't agree, our only option is to fight. Aside from the carter, how high is his men's cultivation?"
Ma the Fifth looked at Qin Bulou. Qin Bulou recalled their prior clash. "It's hard to judge high or low. They don't use techniques much, but their foundations are very solid. They're fast, have great stamina, and handle their rickshaws with immense skill."
"What do they do with the rickshaws?"
Qin Bulou said, "At first, I couldn't make sense of it either. Only later did I learn it's a unique method of the Fire Wheel Gang. Their rickshaws count as their weapons, but they're also their armories and mobile barracks. They normally eat and sleep inside the carts, which have hidden mechanisms to guard against ambushes. In battle, all sorts of weapons are packed inside, ready to draw at a moment's notice. The rickshaws themselves are fitted with points and blades, capable of charging individually or forming a rickshaw formation. Attacking, defending, advancing, or retreating, there is hardly any flaw to be seen."
Rickshaws could be used like that?
Li Banfeng asked, "What do you mean by no flaws to be seen?"
Qin Bulou said, "I examined it with my techniques, and there truly were no flaws."
If others couldn't see any, that was one thing, but Qin Bulou was a high-tier calculation cultivator and had even pioneered the Error Cultivator pathway. If even he couldn't spot a flaw, how complete was this formation?
His wife was an expert at breaking formations. Li Banfeng found an opportunity to return to the companion dwelling and explained the rickshaw formation to her.
Before Li Banfeng could finish, Hong Ying cut in from the side, "What kind of rickshaw formation is that? That's the Mad Artisan's fire chariot formation."
The gramophone struck Hong Ying with a plank. At home, one couldn't casually say "Mad Artisan."
Hong Ying rubbed the sore spot for a moment and said, "I'm talking about Old Train."
A formation created by Grandpa Train?
In that case, this carter was indeed the genuine carter.
But how was the fire chariot formation used?
Li Banfeng tried to imagine it. "To set up a train formation, do you have to lay tracks first?"
Hong Ying shook her head. "Not the kind of train you're thinking of. A chariot that burns with fire."
Li Banfeng was still puzzled. The gramophone explained, "On the battlefield, there was once a type of two-wheeled war chariot pushed by men. These chariots bore weapons and could unleash fire, which was why they were called fire chariots. Old Train gathered such chariots together and had traveler cultivators push them into battle. Relying on the nimble footwork and swift strikes of traveler cultivators, it once slaughtered its way across the battlefield. Later, the formation was broken by Hong Ying."
Li Banfeng looked up at Hong Ying, his eyes brimming with respect. "Yingying, how did you break it?"
Hong Ying replied, "People always said that formation was tough to handle, but I didn't think there was anything special about it. When they formed ranks and charged, I just used Treading Ten Thousand Rivers to smash them apart. When they brought out all the weapons mounted on their chariots, I dodged them all with Carefree and Unfettered. Later, when they shifted formations to surround me, I broke out using Sever the Path to Forge a Way, circled behind them, and without much effort, slaughtered them into disarray."
Li Banfeng held a small notebook, jotting down every single method Hong Ying described.
The gramophone cautioned, "Husband, you must be careful whenever using Yingying's methods. Her combat power and nerve are unlike ordinary people; most cannot pull off what she does."
Li Banfeng flipped through his notes and felt Hong Ying's methods weren't overly complicated—nor were they high-difficulty feats like rocketing two hundred meters in a single stride. If it were him, he should be able to do it too.
Hong Ying got annoyed and sat back down at the vanity. "I teach him real skills, and you say it's wrong again. Fine, tell him yourself how to break the formation!"
"Husband, your humble servant has broken the fire chariot formation as well. The greatest strength of this formation lies in its transformations, and its greatest flaw also lies in its transformations."
"How so?" Li Banfeng took careful notes.
The gramophone said, "Traveler cultivators are swift on their feet and unaffected by terrain. Aided by the chariots, their shifts between offense, defense, advance, and retreat are extremely fast, often catching enemies unprepared. However, for the fire chariot formation to take shape, it requires at least twenty traveler cultivators. The Traveler pathway isn't a grand mainstream pathway like the Scholar or Martial pathways. Finding twenty traveler cultivators with identical cultivation levels is exceedingly difficult.
"When cultivation is uneven, execution of command orders will vary. During formation shifts, higher-tier travelers reach their positions instantaneously, while lower-tier travelers will be just a fraction slower. That minuscule gap is where the formation's flaw lies."
His wife brought paper and brush and painstakingly explained it all to Li Banfeng, from square formations to circular formations, from goose-wing formations to fish-scale formations, clearly elucidating the vulnerabilities during every transition.
"Husband, when you face the enemy, you must first force them to shift formations. The flaws might not be obvious the first or second time, but after several attempts, slips in the formation are guaranteed to appear. During that window, grasping just a single flaw will allow you to shatter their ranks entirely. How you handle them afterward will depend on your discretion."
The gramophone phrased it very tactfully. In truth, she knew full well that once Li Banfeng was on the battlefield, there was zero chance he would hold back.
Yet his opponent this time was the carter, a disciple of Grandpa Train. If he truly wiped them out, it might displease the companion dwelling.
Li Banfeng had no leisure to brood over such things. He fetched a pile of Go stones and carefully rehearsed the key points of breaking the formation his wife had taught him. After honing them for several hours, he finally left the companion dwelling.
When he returned to Beiqiao, it was already late into the night. Xiao Chuanzi was leading men on patrol, while Ma the Fifth, Qin Bulou, and the others had retired to rest.
Li Banfeng prepared to head toward Nanqiao to check on the carter's situation. He hadn't gotten far from Beiqiao when dozens of carters pulling rickshaws came charging straight at him.
Such a coincidence that he ran right into them?
It wasn't a coincidence. They were launching a night raid; even if Li Banfeng hadn't stepped outside, he would have met them at Beiqiao.
The dozens of carters hadn't noticed Li Banfeng. Had Li Banfeng simply chosen a suitable spot to stand still, they would have charged right past him.
However, one carter did spot him. That carter was also pulling a rickshaw, standing atop the roof of a three-story building along the street. He shouted aloud: "Deploy the formation!"
This was the carter Li Banfeng knew best, the leader of these carters. Hearing his command, the others looked up, finally taking notice of Li Banfeng.
Swinging their rickshaw shafts, the carters pivoted their carts in a full circle while holding their ground, pointing the cart hoods toward Li Banfeng. Pushing their carts, they charged in a fish-scale formation.
Relying on his speed, Li Banfeng slipped through a gap in the fish-scale formation and drove straight into its center.
The first step to breaking a formation: don't let the enemy stabilize, and force them to shift formations.
These dozens of carters were thoroughly trained. Seeing Li Banfeng breach the fish-scale formation, they instantly shifted into a circular formation, moving to encircle him.
According to his wife, the moment between formation shifts—when uneven cultivation caused staggered positioning—was the best opportunity to find a flaw.
Where was the flaw?
Dozens of carters covered one another and settled into position simultaneously, astonishingly fast, leaving no flaw.
It seemed they had practiced together for a long time and possessed tremendous rapport, compensating for one another to conceal the discrepancies in speed.
No matter; his wife had foreseen this.
One or two shifts might be smoothed over through mutual coordination, but after several more, flaws were bound to show.
Li Banfeng slipped out from the flank of the circular formation. The carters immediately adjusted, shifting from the circular formation to a goose-wing formation, using the buildings on either side of the road to surround Li Banfeng once more.
Throughout the transition, every man moved at the exact same speed, taking up position rapidly and covering one another flawlessly. Still no flaw.
Li Banfeng darted back and forth through the rickshaw formation, but the carters responded with calm composure. After shifting formations a dozen times, their ranks remained immaculate, ultimately sealing him inside an encirclement.
Li Banfeng's tactic had failed.
When it came to reading the battlefield, his wife had always been uncanny, but for the first time, she had miscalculated.
Under siege, Li Banfeng found himself in a precarious spot. The dozen or so carters in the front row manipulated their rickshaws to spew flames toward him.
Li Banfeng sprang into the air to evade the fire, intending to leap clear of the encirclement. But the dozen carters in the rear cast ropes in unison; the ropes intertwined in midair to form a net, trapping Li Banfeng aloft.
Using the technique Unhindered Passage, Li Banfeng slipped through the net. Beyond it, arrows rained down, forcing him to dodge in every direction.
The head carter seized the opportunity. Locking eyes on Li Banfeng, he turned on his heels and bolted!
Not good! Viewing Flowers from Horseback!
Li Banfeng's most vicious tactic was being turned against him!
If the head carter ran out of Li Banfeng's sight, Li Banfeng would inevitably be blown apart by Viewing Flowers from Horseback.
In such circumstances, he couldn't afford to focus on dodging arrows.
Li Banfeng invoked his Benevolent Heart technique, forcibly tanking the arrows as he gave chase, keeping his gaze locked onto the head carter the entire way.
The other carters rapidly altered their tactics, breaking down the large formation of dozens into small squads of three to five, coordinating with the head carter to intercept Li Banfeng.
Forced to the ground under the onslaught, Li Banfeng used Unhindered Passage to slip into a roadside factory.
The head carter and his men simultaneously used Unhindered Passage to enter the factory floor, maintaining their formation as they continued the fray against Li Banfeng.
How could they possess such uncanny coordination?
How long had these people trained together?
In Li Banfeng's memory, the carter from Yaowanggou had always been a solitary figure. When had he trained such a fearsome bunch?
Li Banfeng bolted through the factory into a teahouse, dashed through the teahouse into a restaurant, and the pack of carters followed like shadows, clinging tightly behind him.
The chase continued all the way into an abandoned inn. The head carter pursued Li Banfeng up to the second floor, where a figure cloaked in black surged out from the corridor, brandishing a sickle and hacking down toward the head carter.
The head carter dodged the sickle and clashed with the black-robed figure.
He hadn't anticipated that Li Banfeng would have an ambush waiting here, nor had he expected this figure to strike with such ferocity. Judging by the figure's speed, it had to be a high-tier traveler cultivator.
The figure's speed was indeed formidable—it was Li Banfeng's shadow.
Seizing the opening, Li Banfeng rushed outside the inn and used Sever the Path to Forge a Way to split the pursuing carters into two groups.
This was Hong Ying's tactic. It might have seemed reckless, but it worked. The carters could no longer coordinate between front and rear, and with the head carter entangled by the shadow, he couldn't direct them in the heat of the moment.
Li Banfeng grasped the opportunity. While the enemy formation was disrupted, he cut down a dozen isolated carters in quick succession.
A heavy blow to their numbers!
The head carter kicked the shadow away, grabbed his rickshaw, and rushed out onto the street. He blew two sharp whistles, and the carters retreated in perfect unison.
Li Banfeng moved to pursue, but the head carter stepped in to block him. After trading over a dozen blows, the head carter broke off combat as well. Using Sever the Path to Forge a Way, he dashed from Beiqiao all the way to Dongqiao, shaking Li Banfeng off.
By the time Li Banfeng returned to Beiqiao, the rest of the carters had vanished, taking the corpses and rickshaws with them.
Recovering the corpses of their fallen could be attributed to gang loyalty; that was understandable.
But why carry off the carts as well?
Those rickshaws were indeed fine gear, but they were cumbersome to haul away. For one man to flee while pulling two rickshaws was immensely difficult.
Was there some mystery behind this?
While pondering, Li Banfeng recalled his shadow and felt a sharp ache in his chest.
His shadow had taken a kick from the head carter, and the pain had transferred over.
Just moments ago, seeing the situation turn sour, the head carter hadn't fled immediately; he had chosen to stay behind to cover their retreat. That was unlike the carter Li Banfeng was familiar with.
His wife's strategy wasn't flawed in principle, but for dozens of traveler cultivators to act in absolute lockstep was clearly abnormal.
In a life-or-death crisis where they barely had time to run, they still hadn't forgotten to retrieve both bodies and carts.
Who on earth were these people?
Li Banfeng stepped into an abandoned teahouse, wiped the dust off a chair, sat down at a table, and sank into thought.
After pondering for a good while, he formed a rough hypothesis. Returning to Beiqiao, he called for Ma the Fifth, as well as Chuanzi and Genzi. "In a little while, we're going to Nanqiao. Get ready."
At four in the morning, Li Banfeng arrived silently at Nanqiao.
Even after a fierce battle, the carters showed not the slightest laxity. Over a dozen carters were pulling their rickshaws as they patrolled the streets.
Pulling carts even while patrolling?
Li Banfeng grew even more certain of his suspicion.
Just as he was about to make a move, a tall figure appeared behind him.
Li Banfeng turned around and saw an old friend. Lowering his voice, he greeted him, "Brother Tang, it's been a long time."
The local spirit of Black Rock Slope, Tang Shijiang, had arrived.
Tang Shijiang hung his head, his expression conflicted.
After a moment of silence, he looked at Li Banfeng. "Brother, I'm in a difficult position."
Li Banfeng knew why he was torn.
Huangtu Bridge was once Grandpa Train's territory. Had the carter lacked the guts to seize it, that would have been that. But now that the carter dared to claim it, Tang Shijiang, by rights, ought to lend him a hand.
Yet he didn't want to fight Li the Seventh. Though they hadn't interacted constantly, their bond was deep; they had always looked out for each other, and neither wanted to shed all pretense of friendship.
"Brother Tang, when did you arrive?"
Tang Shijiang said, "Just now. Brother, tell me: what should we do about this?"
Li Banfeng wanted to charge into Nanqiao and bathe it in blood, but Tang Shijiang would surely object. Therefore, he had to find a way to get Tang Shijiang on board.
Coming up with a method wasn't difficult.
"Brother Tang, wait here for a moment. I'll show you something interesting."
Li Banfeng slipped quietly onto the street, picked out a patrolling carter, and lunged forward.
With a swift kick, he knocked the carter flat. Without killing him, he grabbed the handles of the carter's rickshaw and bolted.
Terrified, the carter scrambled to his feet to give chase, but how could he hope to keep pace with Li Banfeng? After running less than a hundred meters, the gap widened rapidly.
Tang Shijiang couldn't fathom why Li Banfeng was snatching the man's rickshaw.
His junior brother kept the covenant deed to Huangtu Bridge inside his rickshaw, so it was understandable why he never parted with his cart.
But this wasn't his junior brother's rickshaw. What good did stealing it do?
What happened next astonished Tang Shijiang.
Unable to catch Li Banfeng and watching the rickshaw draw farther and farther away, the carter froze, his entire body stiffening on the spot.
Tang Shijiang was a Cloud-tier craft cultivator and was no stranger to such a sight. The carter's condition looked just like a machine that had lost its power source.
Li Banfeng tossed the rickshaw aside and approached Tang Shijiang, preparing to explain the reason behind it.
Tang Shijiang shook his head. "No need to explain, brother. I know what breed they are."
As he spoke, Tang Shijiang produced an abacus.
This abacus had belonged to Huang Zennan—the Inner Stater who had disguised himself as Zhang Gunli. It was his power core. Sun Tiecheng had asked Gui Jianchou to deliver this abacus to Tang Shijiang.
The rickshaw was just like this abacus.
All the carters here were just like Huang Zennan: they couldn't exist without their carts. They were Inner Staters.
Li Banfeng asked, "Brother Tang, are you still conflicted?"
Tang Shijiang rolled up his sleeves. "What conflict is there left? Not a single one can be spared!"
Chapter 579