Powder

The burly man standing before him was over two meters tall and weighed an estimated two hundred and fifty jin or more. His name was Han Xiaoxuan. He stared at Li Banfeng for a moment, then said with a beam, "Little handsome, do you really want to buy face cream?" Li Banfeng nodded. "Yeah. Everyone says your face cream is especially good for oil control." "Your little face isn't oily at all." Han Xiaoxuan reached out to stroke Li Banfeng's face. Li Banfeng dodged Han Xiaoxuan's hand. "Let's talk price first." Han Xiaoxuan pouted coyly. "Little handsome, why talk price with me? Just name a number, and I'll agree to it." "So generous?" Li Banfeng was pleasantly surprised. "Then let's find somewhere to chat in detail." "Wanting to take me out on our very first meeting?" Han Xiaoxuan gave a cold scoff. "Where do you want to take me? Won't right here do?" Li Banfeng looked around. "Isn't it inconvenient here?" "I've got a sofa right here. What's inconvenient?" Han Xiaoxuan tapped the powder puff in his hand. With a puff, fragrant cosmetic powder burst from the compact, filling the entire room with a hazy gray fog. Li Banfeng, who had been sitting across the desk, was gone. Han Xiaoxuan covered his mouth with a giggle. "Where did you go? Weren't you just asking me out? Why are you shy all of a sudden?" Han Xiaoxuan clutched the powder puff in his palm and slowly pushed the door open. His demeanor was highly deceptive. A puff of fragrant powder seemed harmless enough, but if someone got enough of it on their body, it could kill a mid-tier dark-energy user in seconds. Standing at the doorway, Han Xiaoxuan squeezed the powder puff, filling the entire corridor with dust. Through the dust, Han Xiaoxuan sensed for movement around him, but couldn't detect Li Banfeng anywhere in the corridor. "Little handsome, did you just run off like that? That really breaks my heart. You're a journey cultivator, aren't you? A Wanderer couldn't have moves as good as yours. Did you inherit your cultivation from family, or did you come from Puluo Province? With such fine skills, why not find a place to live in peace? Why come here looking for trouble with me?" With every sentence he spoke, a plume of powder spewed from Han Xiaoxuan's mouth. When the powder reached its thickest, the corridor became almost impenetrable to the eye. The thicker the dust grew, the bolder Han Xiaoxuan became. He walked toward the end of the corridor. In the stairwell, he could faintly hear Li Banfeng's voice. Nearing the stairwell, a sudden gale swept through, quickly blowing the dust apart. As the dust concentration dropped, Han Xiaoxuan immediately raised his guard and stopped approaching the stairwell. In the dead of winter, the corridor windows were all closed. Where did this wind come from? "Little handsome, you used Mind Traversing a Thousand Mountains just now, didn't you? To summon such a fierce wind, your skills are quite something!" Han Xiaoxuan deduced Li Banfeng's technique. Li Banfeng had brought the fierce gale encountered during Riding the Wind and Driving Clouds into the corridor. It was reasonable for a journey cultivator to know Mind Traversing a Thousand Mountains, but Han Xiaoxuan hadn't expected the technique's power to be so astonishing. The dust drifting from the powder puff couldn't linger for an instant before being swept into the corners of the corridor. The wind died away. Mind Traversing a Thousand Mountains was too exhausting, and Li Banfeng couldn't keep it up for long. Yet Han Xiaoxuan felt a twinge of fear. Not knowing what other methods Li Banfeng held in reserve, he wanted to use his powder to test him, but then heard two people talking in the stairwell. "Go on, go fight him." "I'm not going. You go first." "His powder is poisonous. It's not appropriate for me to go." "You know it's poisonous, yet you want me to go? What do you take me for?" "You're not afraid of poison anyway, why don't you dare go?" Who was he talking to? When did two people get here? Han Xiaoxuan grew anxious. The opponent had appeared too abruptly; he had no intel and had made no preparations. Li Banfeng was also anxious. He didn't know much about Han Xiaoxuan either. He had wanted to use the shadow to test the waters, but the shadow refused to come out. Ever since visiting Hulu Village, the shadow had developed more and more thoughts of its own. After a long debate, they reached an agreement, and the shadow finally emerged. Standing before Han Xiaoxuan, it said slowly, "Don't use your powder anymore. You've burned me black." Burned black? What was this thing? It looked very much like that man from earlier, but it was truly black. "Little black bro, I didn't burn you black. Your skin lacks care—you need a whitening treatment." Using the light from the corridor window, Han Xiaoxuan angled the mirror on his powder compact and beamed a ray of light at the shadow. The shadow was accustomed to being hacked by sabers and chopped by axes, and had even been blown up by dynamite in Hulu Village, so it didn't take this beam of light seriously at all. It charged straight at Han Xiaoxuan's face. The mirror's reflection pierced right through its chest, nearly knocking the shadow to the ground. A hole was burned through the shadow's chest, clear enough to see through from one side to the other. The light swept from its chest across its ribs, almost cleaving the shadow's upper torso off. The light reflected by the mirror could deal some harm to ordinary people, but unexpectedly, to the shadow, the damage was devastatingly severe. The shadow's upper torso wobbled precariously while its lower half bolted at top speed. It cried desperately to Li Banfeng, "Come out quick! I can't hold this off!" Li Banfeng phased out through the wall, seized Han Xiaoxuan from behind, and prepared to drag him into the companion dwelling. Strange. Earlier he had looked to be two hundred and fifty jin, yet now gripped in his hands, he seemed to weigh only twenty or thirty jin. With that frame, how could he weigh twenty or thirty jin? Was it an illusion? Whoosh! Han Xiaoxuan whipped his hair, sending a spray of dust flying toward Li Banfeng's face. Li Banfeng dodged the dust, but Han Xiaoxuan held a ball of powder in his hand and slammed it directly into Li Banfeng. Bang! This strike was vicious. Li Banfeng's body smashed into the wall along with the powder ball, punching a hole through the office building wall and sending him flying straight down to the ground below. Han Xiaoxuan's fingertips twitched, and the powder ball exploded, coating Li Banfeng all over in lethal scented powder. Li Banfeng used Benevolent Dwelling Heart to forcefully weather the blow. As Han Xiaoxuan moved in to pursue, the shadow seized the opportunity to close in and unleashed Treading Ten Thousand Rivers. Thud! A kick landed with a dull crunch, and Han Xiaoxuan blew up. Blown up just like that? Was Han Xiaoxuan really this frail? Li Banfeng flew up to the third floor and slipped back inside through the hole he had blasted in the wall. The shadow waved at Li Banfeng, telling him to leave the corridor quickly, as the dust here was too heavy. Li Banfeng promptly slipped into the wall. Only the shadow remained in the corridor. Han Xiaoxuan was gone, without even a trace of remains left behind. He wasn't dead? Where had he escaped to? The shadow guarded the corridor. Using the Unimpeded Passage art, Li Banfeng moved between the offices of various departments: finance, R&D, human resources, logistics... Everyone was busy working. With such a massive commotion in the corridor and a gaping hole blown in the building, not a soul cared. These people clearly weren't human. Li Banfeng could tell: they were likely puppets of some kind, puppets with significant gaps in intelligence. The reason there were significant gaps was that each department reacted differently to Li Banfeng. In the finance department, both accountants and cashiers completely ignored Li Banfeng's existence. Even after he disabled his easily-ignored trait, nobody spoke to him. In the human resources department, a group of people scrutinized Li Banfeng and wouldn't stop talking: "Which department are you from?" "Why isn't there any record of you clocking in?" "Was your leave slip signed?" The people in the logistics department were noticeably more welcoming. Someone invited him to sit down, and someone even poured him a glass of water. "Please sit for a moment. Our General Manager Han will be right here." Were these illusions or people? Where was the sales department? Li Banfeng used Exquisite Hundred Flavors to sniff around, catching the fragrant scent of cosmetic powder. This fragrance was very unique, identical to the scent on Han Xiaoxuan. Where was the scent coming from? Was it the woman who poured him water just now? There was powder scent on her, but it didn't seem very strong. Li Banfeng looked toward the logistics manager's private office; the scent of powder there was exceptionally strong. He charged into the office to see the tall, burly Han Xiaoxuan sitting behind the desk with his back to the window, holding his powder compact. Han Xiaoxuan stood up and said, "Little handsome, even after I hid all the way here, you still found me!" The powder compact shifted angles, and the bright reflected light spot rapidly swept toward Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng dodged the beam, unleashed his Tang dao, and decapitated Han Xiaoxuan with a single slice. Bang! Han Xiaoxuan exploded again. Powder swirled in the air, still leaving behind no physical remains. To evade the dust, Li Banfeng immediately dashed out of the office. Seeing their manager's office explode, the other staff members in the logistics department were completely dumbfounded. Such an incident didn't happen often, and they didn't know how to handle it. An older employee realized the gravity of the situation and hurried to shout, "Quick, clean up the dust! Leaving it this filthy is utterly disgraceful!" Li Banfeng shuttled back and forth through the office building. Before long, he ran into Han Xiaoxuan again in the restroom. "Little handsome, could you not be so clingy?" Han Xiaoxuan rolled a ball of powder. "You can't hurt me, but if I hit you, you might not be able to take it!" Dust billowed throughout the office building. Chen Changrui checked the time and ordered, "Prepare for combat." This was the tactical plan Li Banfeng had arranged: once fighting inside the office building exceeded five minutes, regardless of the outcome, the next phase of the plan would proceed immediately. Huajia guarded the exits, and Tangyuan directed everyone to take their positions. Neither reconnaissance personnel nor combat operatives were allowed to enter the scene at this moment, because the first wave of forces for this operation consisted of drones. The reconnaissance section dispatched sixty drones to spearhead the operation. Hearing the sound of drones, the factory workers immediately rushed out of the workshops and warehouses. They hadn't come out to flee for their lives; they had come out to fight. Watching the details of their movements, Chen Changrui quickly deduced, "These are puppets." His deduction was correct. Like most members in the office building, those emerging from the workshops were neither human nor mechanical equipment; they were puppets constructed through occult arts. They had their own fixed combat protocols. Seeing the drones in the sky, the puppets on the ground exploded one after another, kicking up a thick blanket of fragrant powder. This was the only response these puppets could muster: no matter where the enemy came from, self-destruction was their sole move. Amidst the explosions, Li Banfeng flew out of the office building once more—knocked out by Han Xiaoxuan. This battle left Li Banfeng feeling somewhat helpless. He had blown Han Xiaoxuan up dozens of times, yet Han Xiaoxuan always reconstituted on the spot, his combat capability only slightly diminished without serious impairment. Floating in midair, Li Banfeng clearly saw what was happening in the workshops. The self-destructing puppets appeared utterly foolish, yet Li Banfeng felt fortunate. If the first ones to charge in had been public security team members or reconnaissance personnel, the outcome would have been completely different. No matter how many charged in, they would all have perished in the dust. Drones didn't fear dust. They launched the first round of attacks against the raw materials warehouse. Incendiary bombs rained down, flames surged, and all the raw materials that had yet to enter the manufacturing process were completely destroyed. The drones soon entered the second phase of the operational plan: they flew into the production workshops. The cosmetics currently in production were the primary targets of the second phase. Amidst the detonation of incendiary bombs, the workshops swiftly caught fire. Puppets exploded continuously, dust grew thicker, and visibility across the factory grounds plummeted, severely degrading the video feed transmitted back by the drones. But this did not stop the drones from carrying out the operational plan. The target of the third phase was the finished goods warehouse. The layout of this factory was somewhat unusual: the finished goods warehouse, raw materials warehouse, and production workshops were not in the same yard, separated by quite a distance. The drones arrived above the finished goods warehouse, preparing to drop bombs, when a crowd of people rushed out of the warehouse, frantically scattering across the yard. Because the finished goods warehouse was far from the main factory area, the drone video clarity was still decent. Judging from the footage, these people were evenly split between men and women, wearing uniform business suits with prominent company logos on their clothes. They appeared to be sales personnel. Why were sales personnel working in a warehouse? The reactions of these sales personnel were vastly different from the puppets encountered earlier. They had no intention of fighting; they only wanted to flee, desperately running for their lives. But the warehouse walls were high, and all exits had been sealed off, leaving them to circle aimlessly in the yard. Were they humans, or puppets? No one dared jump to a conclusion. If they were humans, public security officers should be dispatched immediately to guide and evacuate them. But if they were puppets in disguise, sending officers in was tantamount to sending them to their deaths. As to whether to attack the finished goods warehouse now, the drones were waiting for orders. Chen Changrui delayed issuing the command, still observing. Huajia reminded him, "Bureau Chief Chen, time is running out. The dust from the production workshop is about to drift over to the warehouse." The dust was lethally toxic. Once it drifted into the warehouse, these sales personnel would all perish. Provided they truly were human, and not a trap to lure the public security officers in. The new public security captain, Ji Shoulin, offered a suggestion: "Notify Bureau Chief Li to evacuate the scene immediately. Once Bureau Chief Li is out, destroy the warehouse at once, then cap the dome." "Capping the dome" meant deploying the sealed containment dome. It was the best method to contain the dust, but the dome was extremely fragile; the slightest internal impact could rupture it, so all threats within the factory area had to be resolved before capping the dome. Tangyuan looked at Ji Shoulin and asked, "Are we just leaving those sales personnel to die?" Ji Shoulin's expression was cold. "I believe there's a high probability they aren't human. Like everywhere else, they are products created by dark abilities." Tangyuan voiced her disagreement. "There's a high probability they are human. The sales department is a company's external arm. If they used puppets, they couldn't communicate normally with the outside world, so they had to hire humans to handle sales work. That's also why the sales personnel were working in the warehouse—this company didn't want the sales staff interacting too much with the other puppets." Ji Shoulin shook his head. "We can't risk the public security team based on your personal speculation." In truth, he knew deep down that Tangyuan's deduction was very likely correct; those sales personnel probably were human. But Ji Shoulin's method was the most prudent. Following his plan, there would be no casualties among the Dark Star Bureau members, and the risk of dust spreading would be neutralized. Tangyuan yelled, "I'll go evacuate them! I can go alone!" Ji Shoulin frowned. "This isn't a question of who goes, nor is it the time to play hero!" Tangyuan gritted her teeth in silence. While Chen Changrui was still hesitating, a figure suddenly appeared in the drone feed. The figure smashed open the warehouse's iron gate and began evacuating the sales personnel. "It's Zhong'er!" Tangyuan recognized the figure. Zhong'er had charged into the warehouse yard all by himself. He shouted at the sales personnel, "Don't panic! There's an exit here! Leave the factory immediately, don't head to other areas!" The sales personnel all crowded toward the exit. Relying on his strengths as a Brawler, Zhong'er did his best to maintain order and speed up the evacuation. Boom! A thunderous crash came from the office building. Fragrant dust erupted from the windows, mingling with the dust above the workshops and spreading across the entire factory grounds. Han Xiaoxuan had rolled an enormous powder ball and collapsed the floor slab between the second and third stories. Huajia reminded Chen Changrui, "The spread of dust risks escalating." Huajia was one of the Dark Star Bureau's best Peeping Cultivators, second only to Chen Changrui. His judgment of trends was accurate: if this lethal dust spread out of control, it would bring catastrophe to several surrounding streets. Ji Shoulin shouted into the walkie-talkie, "Zhong'er, pull out right now!" Chen Changrui issued orders: destroy the finished goods warehouse in one minute, extinguish the flames in two minutes, and cap the dome in three minutes. Zhong'er received the order, but was still making a final effort to evacuate the sales personnel. Only one person remained, moving somewhat sluggishly. Zhong'er hoisted him onto his shoulder and ran for the gate. A breath of fragrant powder entered his nostrils, and Zhong'er understood why this person had been sluggish: He had been poisoned. And Zhong'er himself began showing symptoms of poisoning as well. His legs grew weaker and weaker, his vision steadily deteriorated, and Zhong'er staggered forward. Boom! A deafening explosion shook the air as the drones dropped incendiary bombs on the warehouse. A wave of scorching air blasted toward Zhong'er, clearing his nearly-fainting mind somewhat. Run! I can make it out! Zhong'er gritted his teeth, summoned every ounce of strength in his body, and charged out of the factory. Tangyuan immediately arranged for emergency medical personnel to receive Zhong'er and the last sales employee. Ji Shoulin ordered the Burners into position, preparing to extinguish the flames. Weren't Burners used to start fires? Why were they putting them out? In an environment where drones could operate normally, incendiary bombs did the heavy lifting of arson. The Burners' primary task was to control the fire using their techniques and extinguish the blaze within the designated time limit. Two minutes elapsed. The incendiary carpet-bombing had lasted long enough, and the Burners began putting out the fire. Chen Changrui contacted Li Banfeng: "Bureau Chief Li, we're ready to cap the dome." "Cap it!" Li Banfeng responded into the walkie-talkie on his sleeve cuff. Tangyuan asked in surprise, "Bureau Chief Li isn't coming out?" Chen Changrui's expression was grave. Zhong'er had only inhaled a tiny whiff of fragrant powder and was already unconscious. How much longer could Li Banfeng hold out? Li Banfeng was also nearing his limit. Mind Traversing a Thousand Mountains had been pushed beyond its capacity and could no longer be used. He was relying entirely on his homestead cultivator physique to resist the toxic dust. The critical problem now was that the entire office building was permeated with the scent of fragrant powder; Li Banfeng could no longer pinpoint Han Xiaoxuan's location using Exquisite Hundred Flavors. Outside the factory, the fire had been extinguished. A drone over two meters in diameter, driven by its propellers, hovered directly above the factory. Chen Changrui consulted Li Banfeng again: "Bureau Chief Li, the isolation dome is ready. Please instruct when to deploy!" "Deploy immediately!" Li Banfeng ordered the dome capped at once. If they waited any longer, the dust truly would spread beyond the factory grounds. But Li Banfeng couldn't leave just yet. As long as Han Xiaoxuan was alive, he could easily destroy the containment dome from within. The drone's lower hatch opened, and a mass of yellowish-green gelatinous substance poured down. The gelatinous substance expanded automatically in midair, going from a ball one meter in diameter to a disc over two hundred meters wide. Suspended from its center by the drone, the disc hovered in midair while its edges drooped, extending continuously downward until they reached the ground, turning into an inverted bowl that capped over the entire factory. This was the containment dome. Seen from a distance, it looked like a massive yellowish-green soap bubble. Li Banfeng also found it strange: why did it have to be yellowish-green? The color was quite thick, making it impossible to see through from inside or outside. The glove poked out of his pocket and sniffed. "Master, don't you notice a fishy stench?" "Yeah," Li Banfeng nodded. "The fishy smell is somewhat familiar." "Master, this must be a Phlegm Cultivator's method." "Impossible..." Li Banfeng's face turned slightly pale. "Can't be wrong, it's definitely the stench of phlegm!" The glove's guess was entirely accurate. That two-meter drone was a specialized piece of equipment modified from a Phlegm Cultivator artifact. That glob of yellowish-green gelatinous substance was a glob of thick phlegm. After being compressed and expanded, the thick phlegm first turned into a phlegm pancake, then formed an enormous bubble, trapping the dust and the factory beneath it. Because phlegm was exceptionally viscous, the dust wouldn't escape outside and would instead be absorbed in large quantities by the phlegm fluid. The walkie-talkie sounded again: "Bureau Chief Li, we're preparing to grout." Li Banfeng shuddered. "What do you mean by grouting?" Chen Changrui came up with a suitable explanation: "It means injecting gelatinous fluid from the top of the dome to thoroughly absorb all the dust." Li Banfeng imagined the scene of grouting. He asked Chen Changrui, "Are this grout and this protective dome both Phlegm Cultivator techniques?" Chen Changrui paused for a moment before replying, "Bureau Chief Li, the signal at your location isn't very clear, I couldn't hear that!" It really was! Li Banfeng shouted, "Don't grout yet! Wait for my order!" "Understood!" Chen Changrui breathed a long sigh of relief. As long as the containment dome wasn't damaged, the dust certainly wouldn't escape. The rest awaited Bureau Chief Li's command. Li Banfeng continued searching for Han Xiaoxuan. Passing by the warehouse area, he suddenly saw a burly man emerge from the dust on the top floor of the office building. He raised his powder compact, intending to use the mirror's reflection to punch a hole through the dome. Li Banfeng flew up to the rooftop and kicked Han Xiaoxuan to the ground. "Little handsome, I'm in no mood to play with you right now. Take a close look: this is a giant wad of thick phlegm! We're both going to drown in here!" Han Xiaoxuan adjusted the angle of the powder compact, directing the reflected light toward Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng dodged easily, but the glove failed to dodge in time and had a hole burned through it. Li Banfeng used Treading Ten Thousand Rivers to kick up a cloud of smoke and dust, blocking the mirror's reflection and saving the glove. Fortunately, the light inside the dome wasn't strong, so the hole wasn't large—only the size of a coin. "How could you be so careless!" Li Banfeng inspected the glove, while Han Xiaoxuan vanished once more. The glove panted, "Nothing serious, Master. That powder compact must be his lifeline—I put a mark on it! He won't get away this time!" Li Banfeng had long deduced that this powder compact was an external device. As long as he confiscated the external device, he could deal with this unkillable Han Xiaoxuan. The glove sensed for a moment, pointing downward: "He's on the third floor." Li Banfeng phased through the floor, pursuing him straight to the third floor, and knocked Han Xiaoxuan to the ground. Han Xiaoxuan got up, wanting to flee again, but found a ring of haloed light beneath his feet. "What is this? You brought a Dark Star Bureau Boundary switch? Was there originally a Boundary here?" The Dark Star Bureau even had Boundary switches. The Dark Star Bureau had plenty of good things. Li Banfeng smiled. "Yeah, this is a Boundary. Let's see where you can run now!" "Little handsome, if you can't bear to part with me, just say so! What's the point of trapping me with a Boundary? You can only trap my body, you can't trap my heart!" With a pop, Han Xiaoxuan dissolved into a cloud of dust. Li Banfeng wasn't worried. Even if he dissolved into dust, he couldn't leave the Boundary; before a homestead cultivator's Boundary, even dust would be burned into dry ash. Yet to Li Banfeng's surprise, Han Xiaoxuan reappeared at the end of the corridor. He had crossed right through the Boundary! How had he managed that? Li Banfeng was utterly astonished, but saw Han Xiaoxuan hesitating at the end of the hallway for a long time without fleeing. Han Xiaoxuan wanted to break free; he just didn't want to get entangled with Li Banfeng, but he wasn't afraid of fighting him. "Little handsome, give me back the powder compact! Everything else is negotiable, but don't joke with me about this!" Rolling another powder ball, he actually charged back toward Li Banfeng. The glove laughed. "The monk can run, but the temple can't! Master, his powder compact couldn't leave your Boundary—I found it!" The glove handed the powder compact to Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng waved at Han Xiaoxuan. "Come and get it!" Han Xiaoxuan braced himself and charged into the Boundary. The moment he crossed it, his entire body shattered into a pile of ashes on the floor. Without his external device, he was this useless? At least Han Xiaoxuan had finally been handled. Li Banfeng prepared to clean up the remaining few puppets, then have Chen Changrui inject the grout, bringing an end to this battle. He was just about to head downstairs to look for the puppets when he suddenly sensed danger behind him. Looking back, Han Xiaoxuan was charging at him from behind once more. "I'll say it one last time, give me back the powder compact right now, or I'll make you wish you were dead!" He had just turned to ashes! The ashes on the floor were still there! How was he still not dead? "Give me back the compact!" Han Xiaoxuan hurled a powder ball and charged forward to snatch the compact. Li Banfeng chuckled. "Why should I give it back to you?" As the words left his mouth, Li Banfeng's figure vanished. Locking his gaze, he detonated Han Xiaoxuan with Viewing Flowers from Horseback. The blasted Han Xiaoxuan dissolved into dust all over the floor as before. Barring any surprises, he would reconstitute immediately. The glove offered a suggestion: "Master, let's get far away from here. I reckon that as long as this powder compact is near him, he can resurrect right on the spot." Holding the powder compact, Li Banfeng flew out the window to the ground floor. Han Xiaoxuan rose from the ground floor's marble floor, pursuing Li Banfeng relentlessly. "Little handsome, you've really broken my heart! All my sincere affection has been trampled by you!" Li Banfeng was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected Han Xiaoxuan to keep pace with him. More importantly, Han Xiaoxuan's behavior was abnormal. Based on past experience, once distanced from their external devices, people from the Inner States quickly lost their mobility. Han Xiaoxuan seemed hardly affected. Holding the powder compact, Li Banfeng continued running wildly. Near the ruins of the workshops, Han Xiaoxuan crawled out from the mangled machinery, raised a powder ball, and hurled it at Li Banfeng: "I told you, if you don't give me back the compact, I'll make you wish you were dead!" Keeping his lower body still, Li Banfeng twisted his torso to evade the powder ball. Truth be told, the dance moves learned from Du Wenming's instructional materials really were quite handy. However, Li Banfeng also noticed a problem: compared to his previous power, Han Xiaoxuan's body had weakened considerably. What on earth had weakened him? Li Banfeng looked around, seeing only dust permeating the air and clinging thickly to the inner walls of the containment dome. Clutching another powder ball, Han Xiaoxuan came to snatch the compact again. Li Banfeng kept running with the compact, reaching the electrical room, where Han Xiaoxuan crawled out of an electrical cabinet. Li Banfeng flew to the edge of the containment dome. Han Xiaoxuan watched from a distance without approaching. He seemed somewhat afraid of the dome. Yet he could still move freely, which proved the compact still wasn't far enough away from him. Li Banfeng flew directly from the edge of the dome back to the office building, and Han Xiaoxuan promptly materialized in the office building. This led Li Banfeng to a bold hypothesis: could Han Xiaoxuan teleport through the dust? If that was truly the case, running anywhere would be futile. He had to send the powder compact somewhere Han Xiaoxuan couldn't reach. Using Unimpeded Passage, Li Banfeng slipped into Han Xiaoxuan's office, opened the door to the companion dwelling, and tossed the compact inside. The instant he shut the door to the companion dwelling, Li Banfeng heard a dull thud outside the office. Thump! Li Banfeng opened the office door and saw Han Xiaoxuan lying sprawled motionless on the floor. He finally exhibited the proper state of an Inner States person deprived of an external device. Li Banfeng hoisted him up from the ground. His body felt heavier than before, now weighing at least two hundred jin. What had caused this? Li Banfeng was in no rush to move Han Xiaoxuan into the companion dwelling. He dropped him onto the floor and observed the changes taking place. Swirls of dust hovered around Han Xiaoxuan. A great deal of white dust settled onto his body, blurring colors, blurring contours, gradually merging into one with Han Xiaoxuan. The surrounding visibility grew clearer and clearer as all the dust in the air merged into Han Xiaoxuan's body. Bang! Bang! Explosions sounded one after another from neighboring offices. Throughout the entire building, every puppet created by Han Xiaoxuan exploded. The dust released from the explosions converged like rivers, flowing incessantly toward Han Xiaoxuan. Li Banfeng finally grasped the fundamental nature of Han Xiaoxuan's life. No wonder he was so terrified of the containment dome. No wonder Li Banfeng couldn't shake him off no matter where he went. Because he was everywhere in the factory. He wasn't teleporting through the dust—he himself was the dust. In this factory, apart from the sales personnel, everyone had been created by Han Xiaoxuan, crafted from his very own body.