Whoosh!
Darkness folded upon darkness. Two mountain ranges converged into one, and Li Banfeng was swallowed by the valley.
The projector told him that those had not been two mountain ranges just now, but two lips. Even now, Li Banfeng had not sensed that he had entered anything's mouth, but he sensed direction, he sensed time, and he sensed his own existence.
Bang!
The bubble burst.
Enclosed in the bubble a moment before, Li Banfeng was plunged into water once again.
Whoosh! The floodwaters receded, and Li Banfeng saw dry land.
He reached down and felt the ground beneath his feet. Hard. Extremely hard. It was likely rock that had been battered by water for ages—pitted and uneven across the surface, yet fairly level on the whole.
Luo Shaojun said joyfully, "Wubian City really does listen! Elder Sister only called a few times, and he came to pick us up."
Luo Yujun panted, "If he'd taken any longer, we would've been crushed to death."
Luo Lijun coughed twice. "I shouted for hours. My throat is hoarse."
Luo Yanjun gave a snort. "When you were with Ma Junyang, you could scream for hours too, and I never heard you complain about going hoarse."
Luo Lijun struck Luo Yanjun with a stick. Luo Shaojun asked curiously, "Sister, how did you scream with Ma Junyang? Teach me!"
Just as Luo Lijun was about to hit Shaojun, she noticed Li Banfeng standing nearby and didn't dare go through with it.
Li Banfeng looked at the five sisters in bewilderment. He hadn't understood a single thing they'd just said.
It wasn't that their words were overly complex; rather, the situation before his eyes was hard to comprehend.
Li Banfeng began by asking, "Were we just swallowed by Wubian City?"
Luo Shaojun nodded. "Yes! Elder Sister called Wubian City over and saved us!"
"Wubian City is a city, right?" Li Banfeng felt there might be something fundamentally wrong with his understanding of the word "city."
"It is a city, an enormous one," Luo Shaojun said with immense pride. "Our Luo family built it ourselves, and it's the largest city in our family's fief."
Li Banfeng asked again, "This city can move?"
Luo Lijun smiled faintly. "Isn't Qiqiu City your domain, Young Master Li? Can Qiqiu City not move?"
"That... is different..." While Li Banfeng couldn't easily answer Luo Lijun's question on the spot, Qiqiu City and Wubian City were definitely two different things.
At least, they ought to be two different things...
Li Banfeng looked around at their surroundings. In the pitch-black darkness, he could faintly make out mottled rock. Looking up, he could vaguely see specks of starlight.
Starlight could be seen even inside Wubian City's belly? Just what kind of place was this?
Luo Yujun urged, "Let's hurry up and get moving. Don't linger in his mouth. If he drinks water in a bit, we'll be crushed to death again."
Why was she always talking about being crushed?
Li Banfeng asked, "Is the water pressure here very strong?"
Luo Yanjun understood a bit of Earth's scientific concepts: "Young Master Li, if calculated according to your world's terms, our position just now had pressure roughly equivalent to tens of thousands of meters beneath the sea."
Luo Shaojun asked Luo Yanjun, "Sister, are the seas in the Outer States that deep?"
Luo Yanjun frowned. "Girl, are you just arguing for the sake of it? It's a metaphor."
How deep the seas were in the Outer States wasn't the point. Li Banfeng shook his head. "I didn't feel that much water pressure just now."
Luo Yanjun explained, "That is because Young Master Li was closest to the passage entrance, where your physical form turned intangible, protecting you from the pressure. But with the undercurrents churning beneath the water, my sisters and I were inevitably a bit farther from the entrance. If not for the protection of our hard snail shells, we would certainly have been severely injured by the water pressure."
Li Banfeng took a moment to understand what Luo Yanjun meant.
They had been at the entrance of the wormhole just now, and their physical state had undergone a change—what Luo Yanjun called turning intangible.
Once they drifted away from the entrance and their bodies regained tangible form, it became very difficult to withstand the water pressure.
Luo Xiujun said, "Waiting there for several shichen just now, I thought Wubian City wasn't coming. To tell the truth, I even felt like swimming back."
Several shichen? What did that mean?
Li Banfeng asked, "We didn't seem to wait that long, did we?"
Luo Yanjun explained once more: "Around the entrance, consciousness stagnates. Several shichen feel like only a fleeting instant."
She meant that near the wormhole, one could not perceive the passage of time.
Li Banfeng took out his pocket watch and checked the time.
Indeed.
According to the time shown by the dream bell, Mengde, over a dozen hours had passed since they entered the water at Qishuiyao.
The group moved forward along the slick rock. A Travel Cultivator's steps could adapt to all manner of road conditions, so Li Banfeng had no difficulty walking. The five Luo sisters had an even easier time; they were far better acclimated to this environment, especially after transforming into river snails, which allowed them to crawl rapidly across the slippery surface.
"Seventh Brother, get on my back." Luo Shaojun dabbed some rouge onto her face and used her antennae to pull Li Banfeng onto her shell. Li Banfeng looked up, once again seeing the sky filled with starlight.
"We're inside Wubian City's body. Why are there stars in the sky?"
Luo Shaojun said, "Seventh Brother, those aren't stars. Those are Wubian City's eyes."
"Eyes growing inside its body?"
Luo Shaojun said, "Wubian City was forged by the Luo family ancestors, so it probably resembles the ancestors' physical form somewhat."
"The Luo family ancestors' eyes grew inside their bodies?"
Luo Shaojun nodded. "Everyone in the Luo family has eyes inside their bodies. Yesterday, a bug was causing trouble in Sister Yujun's belly. Sister Yujun used her eyes to locate the bug and plucked it out with the hands inside her belly."
Li Banfeng stared at Shaojun for a long time. "You actually have hands in your bellies too?"
Luo Shaojun giggled. "Seventh Brother, we're not like you people from Puluo Province. We have sensory organs in our bellies, but you Puluo folk don't—"
Luo Yanjun, who had also applied some rouge, gave a cough. "Little Sister, since there is everything inside our bodies, don't forget there are ears too. You keep saying 'Puluo Province' over and over—others will overhear you."
Luo Lijun, having just finished applying rouge, waved her antennae and sensed their surroundings for a moment.
Luo Yujun put away her rouge box. "So what if they hear? Wubian City is our Luo family's territory after all."
Luo Yanjun said, "Not necessarily. From the day we were thrown into prison, it stopped being certain whose territory Wubian City belongs to."
Luo Xiujun patted some more powder onto her face. "Even if we were jailed, we still went on campaign with our noble titles intact. Our titles haven't been stripped, so how could they seize our family's city so quickly?"
Luo Yanjun gave an analogy: "Going up the mountain to hunt a tiger isn't because the tiger bites, nor because it looks frightening. It's because someone wants the tiger's bones, meat, and pelt. Don't you understand the logic in that?"
Luo Yujun pondered for a long time. Being stubborn and simple-minded, she genuinely couldn't wrap her head around it. "The Tiger family is quite nice. Why would anyone attack them?"
Luo Yanjun couldn't be bothered to argue with her, turning instead to Luo Lijun. "Sister, we'd better hurry and look for Hu Chihong. She might still live in Wubian City."
Luo Xiujun said, "Sister Lijun ennobled her as a retainer. If she doesn't live here, where else could she live?"
Luo Yanjun hardly knew what to say. "You two really are blockheads. Hu Chihong is a favorite under Qiao Yi now. With our Luo family fallen, it wouldn't be out of the question for her to move to Qiao Yi's fief."
While the sisters continued arguing, Li Banfeng was busy taking in the sights.
At first, the surroundings had been pitch black, with only the rock and silt beneath their feet visible. After walking about a dozen li, Li Banfeng gradually began to see lights.
The lights came from a single-story building—white walls, domed roof, looking like an enormous white steamed bun turned upside down on the ground.
From a distance, the building didn't seem particularly large, but up close, one could tell it spanned dozens of mu. People constantly bustled in and out through the entrance.
From the perspective of the Inner States, these were indeed people: octopuses walking on the ground, clams flying through the air, sparrows swimming along a pond, heading into the building in groups of three to five.
Li Banfeng asked, "What is this building for? Don't tell me it's a furnace for refining humans here?"
Luo Shaojun said, "Seventh Brother, what do you take us for? This is an eatery. In Puluo Province, you'd call this a coal yard."
An enclosed coal yard at that. Li Banfeng peered through the doorway and could faintly see piles of coal inside.
"Do you all eat here?"
Luo Xiujun said, "We don't eat here. This is where commoners eat."
Li Banfeng said, "Isn't it all just eating coal? Even that has social strata?"
Luo Yujun said, "We rarely eat coal. Usually we eat oil and fat. Here, grease and tallow are very difficult to store, so they're extremely precious."
Luo Xiujun added, "Even if we did eat coal, we wouldn't eat this kind. This coal is full of impurities, produces heavy smoke, and has an impure taste. One bite makes you sick for days. Only commoners come here to fill their bellies; retainers would hardly ever set foot in such a place."
Luo Yanjun coughed. "Stop talking."
She noticed Li Banfeng had fallen silent.
Li Banfeng was still peering into the coal yard. An earthworm-like worm, carrying a stack of cargo crates on its back, was passing by the coal yard and peering inside as well.
The worm was watching so intently that it accidentally bumped into Luo Lijun.
Luo Lijun, returning to her homeland, was both excited and tense. Getting bumped by the worm made her temper flare.
"Are you blind?! Watch where you're going!" Luo Lijun pulled a cudgel from her snail shell and struck the worm several times. The worm didn't dare dodge; it prostrated itself on the ground and took the beating obediently. The crates fell from its back, scattering a few items.
Luo Lijun raised her cudgel to strike again, but Luo Yanjun held her back.
Li Banfeng's eyes flashed with cold light as he looked at Luo Lijun. Luo Lijun quickly stayed her hand.
The worm trembled all over with fright. It wanted to pick up the scattered crates from the ground, yet didn't dare move.
Li Banfeng hopped down from Luo Shaojun's shell, gathered the cargo crates from the ground, and stacked them back onto the worm's back.
"How much does it cost for him to have a meal here?" Li Banfeng asked, looking at the group.
None of them dared answer, save for Luo Shaojun. "He can't eat here. He's a bondservant."
Li Banfeng fell silent for a long time.
This was an eatery for commoners, a place where the Luo family would never dine. Yet this bondservant didn't even have the right to eat here.
Li Banfeng scrutinized the worm. It looked very similar to the bugs he had seen in Baisun Commandery. Its body had quite a few holes, but these holes held no weapons like hooks; instead, they were fitted with tools such as ropes and buckles.
Luo Shaojun produced a jar of fat from her shell and offered it to Li Banfeng. "Seventh Brother, this is tasty."
Li Banfeng handed the jar of fat to the worm. The worm didn't dare take it, so Li Banfeng forced it into its grasp.
Returning to Luo Shaojun's back, Li Banfeng resumed their journey.
The worm continued watching silently.
It hid the fat inside one of the holes on its body, raised the upper half of its torso, and kept its gaze fixed on Li Banfeng's retreating figure.
Luo Lijun explained, "Young Master Li, I lost my temper just now. Every land has its customs. In Great Shang, punishing bondservants is an ordinary occurrence."
Li Banfeng said nothing.
Luo Lijun added, "From now on, where restraint is needed, I will certainly exercise it. I know our customs are different."
Li Banfeng looked at Luo Lijun and said, "In the past, I carried heavy cargo on my back. Do you know what hauling sacks means?"
Luo Yanjun said, "I know that in Puluo Province, there are also many people who make a living through physical labor. But that is different. It's truly different from bondservants...!"
Li Banfeng nodded. "I know it's different. Puluo Province is indeed different."
Luo Yanjun wanted to change the subject: "Hu Chihong lives on Ninth Left Street. Let's go see if we can find her first."
The zoning in Wubian City was remarkably crude, and the definition of Ninth Left Street was simple and straightforward: Li Banfeng and the others had been swallowed through Wubian City's head; facing the direction of the head, the ninth street on the left was Ninth Left Street.
On their way to Ninth Left Street, Li Banfeng saw teahouses, inns, opera theaters, and playhouses. Everything Puluo Province had, Wubian City had as well. Luo Xiujun was quite knowledgeable about local entertainment: "Young Master Li, if you're interested, I can bring you to the opera house some other day. Not long ago, a famous performer arrived here—a sewing machine playing the huadan role. The singing and stagecraft were truly impeccable."
Li Banfeng couldn't wrap his mind around how a sewing machine could possibly sing opera. If you said a sewing machine played percussion instruments, that might make some sense. What Li Banfeng found even more baffling was what kind of entity a sewing machine was.
"Do people in the Inner States have pure machinery like that?"
Luo Lijun didn't want to explain, fearing some things might strike a nerve with Li Banfeng.
Luo Shaojun whispered, "Actually, they are bondservants too—bondservants from Puluo Province. Their original bodies are gone, leaving only their souls. What shell is fitted over the soul depends entirely on their master's arrangement."
Li Banfeng's expression grew even heavier. Luo Shaojun didn't dare say more. The group turned onto Ninth Left Street and walked toward Hu Chihong's residence.
Pedestrians grew more numerous along the street. Li Banfeng was curious: the five Luo sisters were walking openly down the street, so why hadn't any of the passersby taken notice of them?
"Aren't we being too conspicuous?"
Luo Shaojun understood what he meant. "Seventh Brother, don't worry. The us they see isn't the us you see."
Li Banfeng didn't quite get it: "Different how?"
"There's no sunlight here year-round. Relying on eyes alone, many things can't be seen clearly at all. So we don't just see with our eyes—we see with our noses and our ears too. Earlier, we put on rouge. When our scent changed, what we look like to them changed as well. Right now, when I look at Sister Yujun, she actually looks like a rabbit; Sister Yanjun looks like an otter; Sister Lijun looks like—"
Shaojun's voice grew smaller and smaller, not quite daring to finish.
Lijun snorted. "Say it if you want to say it. You've already blabbed everything whether you should have or not."
"Fine, then I'll say it! Sister Lijun looks like a water snake, Sister Xiujun looks like a fish, and I look like a clam carrying a little clam on my back!"
Li Banfeng snorted. "Am I the little clam?"
Xiujun glanced at Shaojun. "Silly girl, do you know what clams carrying clams on their backs are doing?"
Luo Shaojun blushed. While she seemed naive, what she had said was critically important: it not only revealed their method of disguise, but also pointed out a weakness of Inner States inhabitants—scent could interfere with their vision.
Arriving before a mansion compound, Luo Yujun stepped forward and knocked on the gate. After quite a wait, the two tall gate leaves slowly opened.
The architecture here was gigantic—absurdly so. Especially in the darkness, illuminated by dim lights, these massive structures exerted an intense, oppressive presence.
"If these buildings weren't so large, what kind of sight would it be?"
Luo Shaojun said, "Our bodies are big to begin with. If the buildings weren't large, they wouldn't fit us!"
"That's true." Li Banfeng smiled. His remark just now hadn't been meant for Shaojun, but for the projector.
The projector was searching for filming angles; it had noticed that this place bore some resemblance to the Underground City.
Luo Yanjun was negotiating with the gatekeeper. Hu Chihong was a retainer; though her status was not particularly high among the aristocracy, she was not someone just anyone could meet.
Claiming to be a fellow townsman of Hu Chihong, Luo Yanjun spoke with the doorman for a good while and slipped him a fair amount of broken silver before he finally agreed to announce their visit.
Li Banfeng noted, "So your currency is silver too."
Luo Xiujun retorted, "What do you mean 'too'? Let's get this straight: we used silver first! Your world learned it from us!"
After waiting a moment longer, the doorkeeper admitted them. Hu Chihong had used a transformation art to turn into a woman in red, sitting in the parlor. She scrutinized the group closely. "You are...?"
She hadn't recognized the Luo sisters at all!
Luo Lijun had someone bring a basin of clean water, washed her face, and released her original scent.
Hu Chihong hurried forward to bow. "My Lord, you have returned!"
Luo Xiujun explained, "Washing one's face before someone signifies removing all disguise to meet in complete sincerity. It's considered a very high courtesy."
The others washed their faces one after another. Li Banfeng hopped down from Luo Shaojun's back, moving out of the range of their scent influence.
Hu Chihong greeted each in turn. Standing before Li Banfeng, she addressed him with utmost solemnity: "Your Highness. Crown Prince, did your banquet with Lord Qiao Yi proceed smoothly?"
"Don't call me Crown Prince. Call me something else," Li Banfeng said. "I haven't met Lord Qiao Yi yet."
"Not met yet?" Hu Chihong was greatly taken aback. "I heard Lord Qiao had already prepared the ceremonial guard and was waiting in Zhaoge for His Highness Li Qi. Why did Your Highness come to Wubian City instead?"
Li Banfeng's brow furrowed slightly. "You were the one liaising in the middle. Don't you know whether I went to Zhaoge or not?" He suspected Hu Chihong was playing dumb.
Hu Chihong shook her head. "Ever since His Highness Li Qi agreed to the appointment, Lord Qiao Yi has forbidden me from having any further contact with you."
"What is the reason for that?"
Hu Chihong found it awkward to speak openly, so Luo Shaojun answered for her: "This is standard practice for royalty. They won't allow any single person to play too large a role in any given matter. Especially Hu Chihong—she was once an aide to the Luo family, and this matter is deeply entangled with our family. Naturally, Qiao Yi would be wary of her. Once used halfway, she was bound to be replaced."
Li Banfeng recalled his experience at the Dark Star Bureau. "I'm familiar with this tactic. Qiao Yi arranged an honor guard to welcome me, but why wasn't I notified beforehand?"
Hu Chihong said, "There is no need for notification on this. This is—"
Halfway through her sentence, she didn't dare say more.
None of these people were straightforward. If everyone were like Shaojun, how much trouble could be spared!
Shaojun explained, "We sisters naturally understand matters of etiquette. By rights, we should have brought Seventh Brother directly to Zhaoge. But Elder Sister couldn't trust Lord Qiao, so she wanted to return to our own territory first."
"About that..." Hu Chihong glanced at Luo Lijun.
Luo Lijun nodded slightly, understanding Hu Chihong's meaning. "Wubian City is no longer our Luo family's territory. Who is the master here now?"
Hu Chihong explained, "Strictly speaking, it isn't an outsider. Zhaoge just issued an edict enfiefing Wubian City to the Bao family. And the one enfeoffed here was originally a young master of the Luo family as well."
Luo Shaojun let out a gasp. "Do you mean... Brother Yingjun?"
Hu Chihong nodded slightly, unsure whether this was cause for celebration.
Luo Yujun and Luo Xiujun remained silent, as neither was familiar with Luo Yingjun.
Luo Yanjun roughly grasped the situation but found it awkward to point out bluntly. Luo Shaojun was still recounting Luo Yingjun's background to Li Banfeng: "Seventh Brother, I told you before, I had an older brother who transformed into a leopard when he was fifteen..."
Li Banfeng remembered this person. Because he failed to transform into a river snail, he was forced to leave the Luo family. However, the Bao family was also a regional lord, and he retained his status as a high dignitary. Why was he able to take over Wubian City?
Luo Lijun laid the matter bare herself: "Does he believe that if he hadn't transformed into an outsider at fifteen, Wubian City would have been entrusted to him, and our family's noble title would have gone to him as well?"
Hu Chihong kept silent; this was not something she had any right to pass judgment on.
Luo Lijun gave a cold laugh. "The three of us had just recovered from our illness and didn't dare tell a soul. Afraid of courting trouble, we even painted rashes on our bodies. Yet who would have thought that our every move was relayed to Zhaoge in the blink of an eye? I was wondering who leaked this to Zhaoge—turns out there was an insider traitor in our family. It seems quite a few people back home are still in contact with Yingjun."
Luo Shaojun asked, "Sister, what should we do? Are we still staying in Wubian City?"
"Stay? Why wouldn't we stay!" Luo Lijun sneered. "When I told Wubian City to pick us up at the crossing, he came. At the end of the day, Wubian City still obeys me. Bao Yingjun doesn't have the ability to control Wubian City at all."
Luo Yanjun offered a reminder: "Sister, when Yingjun was twelve, he once controlled Wubian City to travel to Zhaoge and bring Father back. He possesses the skill to control Wubian City, and he's not any—"
Luo Yanjun cut herself off halfway, but Luo Shaojun finished it for her: "Sister, Brother Yingjun is no worse than you!"
Luo Lijun was about to explode with anger when Li Banfeng suddenly sensed danger closing in.
He turned back toward the hanging-flower gate, only to see a worm standing before the gate, carrying several cargo crates on its back, peering inside.
The hanging-flower gate was the passage connecting the front courtyard to the main courtyard. How had this worm reached the hanging-flower gate? Where had the gatekeepers gone?
Li Banfeng recognized this worm.
The worm looked at Li Banfeng, seemingly recognizing him as well.
Luo Shaojun held Li Banfeng back. "Seventh Brother, don't go yet. You're unfamiliar with Great Shang; you'll suffer if you go over."
The worm shook its body, and the cargo crates all over it tumbled to the ground.
The components inside the crates spilled across the ground and rapidly assembled together.
Li Banfeng was intimately familiar with these parts: a stylus, a turntable platter, a mainspring, gears, and a vinyl record.
Yanjun, Yujun, and Xiujun immediately lunged forward to stop the components from assembling, only to be battered black and blue by flying gears and springs, forced to retreat.
Fortunately, their shells were hard; without their snail shells to shield them, all three snails would have lost their lives.
The components assembled into a gramophone. The worm fully wound the spring and began playing a tune.
"Ji-ji~*!"
After a clash of gongs and drums, a huqin began to screech, its notes piercingly harsh.
Yanjun, Yujun, and Xiujun charged forward once more. With a series of sharp cracks, their shells split open from the vibrations of the music!
Snail shells capable of withstanding twenty thousand meters of water pressure had been shattered just like that!
Shaojun's shell was on the verge of cracking as well. Li Banfeng dashed forward, relying on his quick hands to grab the gramophone's stylus, attempting to lift the record off the turntable platter.
The record seemed alive, clinging tightly to the platter, and Li Banfeng couldn't pry it loose.
The Tang dao cleared its scabbard instantly and slashed down toward the record.
Sparks flew in all directions. The Tang dao said in shock, "It didn't cut through—"
The record sustained only a slight scratch and continued spinning rapidly on the platter.
The stylus sprouted spikes all over, forcing Li Banfeng to release his grip.
Just as Li Banfeng let go of the stylus, a passage of operatic singing poured into his ears:
"Mada and Jianghai are marched out to be slain,
Sever their heads to hang from high poles.
In 'Slaughter of the Yellow Robe,' tears stream at the sight of the head.
In 'Battle of Taiping,' with a rumble three cannon shots roar,
A bloody, severed head rolls by the roadside.
In 'Beaded Curtain Fort,' with a rumble three drum rolls beat,
Cai Yang's severed head drops before the steed!"
Amidst the singing, Li Banfeng's body began to tremble.
The five Luo sisters, together with Hu Chihong, shook all over, as if their bodies were about to shatter along with their snail shells.
Was this a weapon of the Inner States?
P.S. Had that worm ambushed them by the roadside, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Chapter 668