Standing in the middle of the courtyard, Zhong'er saw only roaring flames and billowing black smoke surging from the windows, completely concealing the figures of Lian Buda and Shu Wanjuan.
The fire was bizarre; it burned exclusively within that single room. None of the residence's dozen other rooms were affected in the least, and not even the faintest smell of smoke drifted into them.
Zhong'er glanced toward Lightbulb's room, worried that something might have happened to him.
Lightbulb appeared by the window and waved to Zhong'er, signaling that he was fine.
Lightbulb had awakened long ago and had remained hidden inside, not daring to step out.
Staying inside was the right choice at a time like this. Lian Buda could no longer spare any attention to watch over the two brothers; the decisive battle between him and Shu Wanjuan was about to begin.
Shu Wanjuan burned amid the fire, yet by some unknown spell, his flesh, hair, beard, and clothes remained completely unscathed.
Anyone else would have looked for a flaw in Shu Wanjuan's defenses at this point, seeking to break his spell and let the fire consume him.
Yet had Lian Buda done so, he would have fallen right into Shu Wanjuan's trap.
Finding an opening in Shu Wanjuan's guard was extraordinarily difficult; he would deliberately feign a vulnerability to lure Lian Buda in, and if Lian Buda stepped into the snare, no one would be able to save him.
Precisely because he knew Shu Wanjuan so well, Lian Buda's battle strategy remained unchanged even at this critical juncture: maintain his seventy-percent initiative, concentrate all the oil on Shu Wanjuan, and burn him fiercely to see how he would counter.
Shu Wanjuan truly had no easy answer. There was nowhere to write, flung ink found no purchase, and over a dozen books he produced one after another were burned to ash. By the time the paper cinders dispersed, Shu Wanjuan's face was thoroughly blackened by soot.
Lian Buda chuckled. "Storyteller, are you about to give out?"
He truly was reaching his limit. This was the finest oil in Puluo Province, and burning in flames of such intensity pushed Shu Wanjuan's spells to their very edge.
Nor could he easily flee. In a room drenched with oil, any form of movement became exceptionally difficult. Pushed to this extremity, he was forced to bring out a contingency prepared in advance—an arched iron certificate.
"An iron book? Is that all you've got?" Lian Buda scoffed, though his heart tightened with tension.
He had seen this iron book before. Its shape was similar to a local spirit's covenant deed, but its material was vastly superior.
Now that Shu Wanjuan intended to wield the characters on this iron book in battle, how should Lian Buda counter?
His approach remained unchanged: no matter how exceptional the material, once the iron book was melted down, it would cease to be a threat.
Lian Buda guided the flames to scorch the iron book.
Shu Wanjuan's brow twitched. The battle was nearing its conclusion.
From the moment Shu Wanjuan appeared through several dozen exchanges, this was Lian Buda's very first mistake.
He shouldn't have used fire.
Lian Buda's fire was formidable indeed, but this iron book was Shu Wanjuan's life-preserving talisman; it could not be melted in the short term.
Carving knife in hand, Shu Wanjuan etched the character "Loyalty" into the iron book.
Composed of "Center" above "Heart," the character held nothing unusual in itself, but inscribed upon the iron book, it became something entirely different.
Shu Wanjuan fixed his gaze upon Lian Buda. A sudden chill struck Lian Buda's chest as the character "Center" pierced into him, driving straight toward his heart.
A surge of oil welled up within Lian Buda's chest cavity. The character "Center" slipped past his heart, sparing his life, yet Lian Buda was still wounded. The character churned through his chest and tore through his body, leaving behind countless internal lacerations.
"Does it hurt?" Shu Wanjuan smiled. Raising the carving knife, he prepared to inscribe another character, but this time the blade slipped, leaving no mark.
Lian Buda had caught on. He truly shouldn't have used fire earlier; he should have kept relying strictly on oil. He had not anticipated that Shu Wanjuan's iron book had been blank to begin with, or he would never have allowed him to carve a single stroke.
Yet it was too late now. This character "Loyalty" wasn't limited to a single use. The characters inscribed upon the iron book could be deployed repeatedly. A flurry of "Loyalty" characters surged forth, breaking into individual strokes and slashes that all stabbed toward Lian Buda's heart.
Lian Buda's chest was turned into a pincushion, and he relied entirely on slick oil to desperately keep the blows away from his vitals.
Shu Wanjuan shook his head repeatedly. "Brother Lian, this is no way to fight. Hitting you like this makes me feel like a bully. Why don't we find a more open place to trade blows?"
"Change locations? What are you dreaming of?" Lian Buda certainly refused to move. The room full of oil was his entire advantage; in an open area, how could he possibly match Shu Wanjuan?
"If you cannot bear to leave this room, so be it." Shu Wanjuan glanced toward Lian Buda's bed. "Step down from the bed, and let us fight a proper bout. At least you would have room to maneuver, instead of shrinking under the covers taking a beating."
Step off the bed?
Lian Buda glanced beneath the bed frame. The floor was covered in paper ash.
Those ashes had come from Shu Wanjuan's books; even reduced to cinders, one could hardly be sure they held no residual power.
Lian Buda refused to budge. "If you have the skill, come over and kill me!"
Shu Wanjuan could not cross over either. The slightest movement would send him sliding out of control. The two were locked in a stalemate.
Yet Lian Buda knew in his heart that he could not outlast Shu Wanjuan. Big Lian Buda wasn't here, and his own oil was running low.
Where was the Peddler?
Hadn't he seen the raging fire?
Why hadn't he come?
***
The Peddler was equally anxious. Clutching his feather duster, he was thrashing Shan Chengjun relentlessly. Dozens of chicken feathers wove back and forth through Shan Chengjun's body, perforating him with bloody holes as Shan Chengjun desperately picked up discarded weapons to fend him off.
Song Xianyao, the founder of the Offering Cultivators, clutched a wound on her chest and called out, "Older Brother, I've taken so many beatings for you, yet you haven't returned a single strike on my behalf!"
"Could your older brother ever mistreat you?" The Peddler casually grabbed a handful of vanishing cream and hurled it toward Song Xianyao.
Song Xianyao dodged in haste. The Peddler also knew Offering Cultivator skills; if she accepted his vanishing cream, it was far from certain who would end up having to pay the compensation.
Yet avoiding the Peddler's vanishing cream was no easy feat. The white cream chased after Song Xianyao, and despite twisting and darting, a dab still stuck to her cheongsam.
Song Xianyao tried to sprint into the distance to run down the skill's duration, but the Peddler seized Shan Chengjun and barked at her, "Halt!"
The Offering Cultivator skill took effect, and Song Xianyao froze in place, unable to move.
Lian Baizi, a Grass Cultivator, summoned a swath of wild grass in an attempt to entangle the Peddler. The Peddler opened his mouth, thrust out his tongue, and devoured every strand of grass and leaf clean.
When Lian Baizi charged forward again, the Peddler severed one of his arms and swallowed that down as well.
Lian Baizi stopped charging and glanced to the side.
Many people had arrived today; he had to give others a chance to fight.
Bu Baikai, a Travel Cultivator, had been wounded by the Peddler and did not dare advance for the moment.
Shao Bujin, a Fire Cultivator, had had more than ninety percent of the sparks covering him plucked away by the Peddler; his few remaining flames were flickering on the verge of extinction, leaving him too fearful to make a rash move.
A dozen or so champions remained, all carrying injuries, watching from a distance.
Only Shan Chengjun, battered and covered in wounds, fought on to the death, seizing a roof tile and smashing it over the Peddler's head.
Wiping the blood from his brow, the Peddler praised him, "That's the one thing I admire about you: when it comes time to risk your life, you truly don't waver!"
That compliment made Shan Chengjun's heart burst with joy—literally burst. Shan Chengjun's chest split open in a blossoming spray of blood; he had fallen prey to the Peddler's Sound Cultivator skill.
Just as the Peddler prepared to finish Shan Chengjun off, he felt a sudden numbness course through his sinews and bones.
Turning his head, he saw an old man holding up an alms bowl. "Given is given!"
Inside the bowl rested a small dab of vanishing cream.
The Peddler gritted his teeth. "Old beggar, you came to join the commotion too!"
***
Inside Lian Buda's room, the fire was dwindling.
Shu Wanjuan chuckled. "Out of oil?"
Lian Buda said nothing, his body stained with blood and soot.
Shu Wanjuan's iron book had been melted down, but the characters left behind earlier had severely wounded Lian Buda.
Having fought to this point without the Peddler arriving, Lian Buda realized his chances of victory were slim.
Holding out for a few moments more, Lian Buda shouted out the window, "Run!"
Zhong'er looked toward Lightbulb; neither brother knew what to do.
Shu Wanjuan waved his hand. "No need to run."
Lian Buda shouted, "Don't listen to him, run! I can still hold him off!"
Shu Wanjuan sighed. "Brother Lian, why won't you trust me? As long as you return to Chaoge with me, I will not make things difficult for these juniors."
"Yet I often make things difficult for seniors."
*Slash!*
Shu Wanjuan's right arm dropped from his shoulder, blood splattering across the floor.
Lian Buda was ecstatic.
Fighting Shu Wanjuan was exasperating precisely because one could almost never harm him; his Heavenly Harmony skill provided far too many ways to substitute for injuries.
Who could have imagined that Shu Wanjuan would fall to an ambush and lose an entire arm—a genuine arm of flesh and blood. Sneak attack though it was, it was thoroughly satisfying.
The Peddler was finally here! Why hadn't he severed Shu Wanjuan's head just now? Was he still mindful of old ties—
Wait, who was this?
This wasn't the Peddler.
Lian Buda looked closely. In the firelight, he couldn't see the person's face clearly, but he could barely make out the figure's silhouette.
"Brother, how did you get here?"
Li Banfeng had arrived.
He had just intended to rip Shu Wanjuan to shreds with Five Horses Tearing the Body, but Shu Wanjuan's body was too tough, and he had only managed to tear off one arm.
Being able to sever even one arm was a stroke of luck for Li Banfeng; had Shu Wanjuan not been entirely focused on dealing with Lian Buda, Li Banfeng wouldn't have had the opportunity to launch a sneak attack at all.
Shu Wanjuan twisted his body, flinging out spattering blood that transformed into a dozen or so characters for "Blood," hurtling toward Li Banfeng.
Lian Buda hurriedly used his oil to dissolve them, but those characters were not so easily countered. Blood-water writing the character "Blood" was a fusion of the illusory and the tangible, requiring time to neutralize. Shu Wanjuan had originally intended to save this technique for Lian Buda, but had now used it on Li Banfeng.
The "Blood" characters swooped around Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng slid across the floor to evade them, emerging unscathed.
The blood dissolved into the oil, settling onto the floor and transforming into slithering vipers that darted to coil around Li Banfeng's legs.
Alternating his feet with light, nimble steps, Li Banfeng moved so gracefully that the vipers couldn't even touch the soles of his shoes.
Beyond the blood, there was paper ash on the floor. The cinders gathered together, forming a hunter's net intended to ensnare Li Banfeng.
This was the reason Lian Buda had not dared step off the bed: the moment his feet touched the floor, he would have been trapped by that net.
Yet Li Banfeng was unbothered. He skipped and leapt atop the net, which expanded and contracted repeatedly without ever catching him.
Furious, Shu Wanjuan took a step forward, flinging more blood from his wound.
*Thud!*
Shu Wanjuan's foot slipped and he crashed to the floor. The blood failed to form characters and was swept up cleanly by the clock pendulum.
Walking was impossible, let alone flying; in a room coated with oil, very few could move freely. Li Banfeng did not fall, partly due to his foundation as a Travel Cultivator, and partly due to his tacit rapport with Lian Buda.
Back when he was on Big Lian Buda's face, Little Lian Buda had chased him everywhere; walking on oil was something Li Banfeng had mastered until it became second nature.
Taking advantage of Shu Wanjuan's fall, Li Banfeng used Five Horses Tearing the Body again, ripping another large chunk of flesh from Shu Wanjuan's right leg.
Shu Wanjuan pushed himself up and retrieved his carving knife from his robes.
The iron certificate had been melted, but the knife remained. Shu Wanjuan sliced open his own clothing and carved directly into his chest.
He was resorting to ruthless measures.
From the attire and pathway, Shu Wanjuan could tell that the man before him was Li Qi, yet he was unfamiliar with him. When storytelling at the teahouse, he had only caught a brief glimpse of Li Qi's shadow.
Back then, Shu Wanjuan had no way to judge Li Qi's caliber, but from these two exchanges alone, he could clearly feel that his life was in jeopardy.
Moreover, even now, he had no idea how his right arm and the flesh on his right leg had vanished.
Twisting the knife edge, Shu Wanjuan recited rapidly:
"Story and song urge mankind toward grace,
Walk the middle way between the three great paths;
Good and evil find their just reward in the end,
The righteous course of mortals is fraught with change!"
Fearing that Shu Wanjuan might employ techniques like Standardized Scripts and Shared Rules, Lian Buda hurriedly used oil to block the transmission of sound.
Yet blocking the sound could not block the characters. Li Banfeng could not see what words Shu Wanjuan had etched into his chest, but he watched as twenty-eight characters from the opening poem flew out from the wound.
The twenty-eight characters formed of blood chased after Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng remained completely composed, parrying them with the clock pendulum. The pendulum didn't hesitate either, gobbling them up one by one until all were cleanly swallowed.
Having consumed all twenty-eight characters, Li Banfeng dismantled Shu Wanjuan's technique and prepared to execute Five Horses Tearing the Body once more.
Killing Shu Wanjuan would naturally be ideal, but failing that was fine too; tearing another chunk from his body would see how long he could hold out.
Guarding against Lian Buda while resisting Li Banfeng, Shu Wanjuan appeared to have no strength left to counterattack. Yet beyond Li Banfeng's expectations, a change occurred within the clock pendulum.
Upon the pendulum's previously smooth surface, an image appeared like a moving picture.
The image depicted a man dressed in a long gown, holding a storyteller's gavel before a table—a teahouse storyteller.
The storyteller was narrating. Because Lian Buda had used oil to stifle the propagation of sound, Li Banfeng had not heard the spoken words clearly, nor had he noticed the pendulum's condition.
Yet the storyteller within the pendulum spoke with utmost gravity, recounting the tale of a master storyteller:
"At that moment between life and death, the storyteller swung his folding fan, slashing from the black-clad man's shoulder to his waist. Crafted by the master artisan Duan Wuhun, that fan cleaved half the black-clad man's body away!"
The clock pendulum sensed a transformation within her body. Faintly hearing the storyteller's voice, she quickly warned Li Banfeng, "Master, be careful!"
Thanks to that warning, Li Banfeng acted on instinct and invoked Dwelling Heart and Benevolence.
At the very same moment, Shu Wanjuan waved his folding fan toward Li Banfeng across the distance.
*Rip!*
Shu Wanjuan had not touched Li Banfeng; a considerable distance separated the two.
Yet Li Banfeng was struck.
A gash ripped open from his left shoulder down to his waist. Blood sprayed out, and Li Banfeng staggered two steps, nearly falling to the floor.
How had that blow landed? How had he struck? When had the skill been unleashed?
Before Li Banfeng could figure it out, he heard the clock pendulum cry, "Master, there's a man telling a story inside my body! Listen!"
The storyteller within the pendulum said: "The iron folding fan failed to slay the black-clad man. Unhurried, the storyteller snapped the fan shut and struck down once more at the black-clad man's head!"
Shu Wanjuan raised his fan and brought it down toward Li Banfeng's forehead.
This time Li Banfeng was prepared. He dodged in advance, avoiding the line of Shu Wanjuan's swing.
Mid-dodge, Li Banfeng glanced at the clock pendulum and indeed saw the storyteller's figure.
This was Shu Wanjuan's technique, conjured through his own blood.
The storyteller had parasitized the clock pendulum. According to Li Banfeng's assessment, Shu Wanjuan worked in concert with the storyteller inside the pendulum: whichever plot point the storyteller narrated, Shu Wanjuan executed that corresponding maneuver. The moves ignored distance, yet still originated from Shu Wanjuan's hand, meaning the key to countering them lay with Shu Wanjuan himself.
As long as he dodged Shu Wanjuan's attack, he should be—
A muffled crack sounded, and blood trickled down Li Banfeng's forehead.
He had dodged the path of Shu Wanjuan's strike, so why had he still been hit?
The storyteller inside the pendulum showed no sign of stopping: "The fan found its mark, striking hard enough to shatter the black-clad man's skull."
His skull hadn't shattered because Li Banfeng was a fourth-tier Home Cultivator above the clouds, enduring the strike through sheer physical resilience.
Yet the pressing question was how many more blows Li Banfeng could withstand.
Could the crux lie not with Shu Wanjuan, but with the storyteller inside the clock pendulum?
Had that storyteller used a skill that turned spoken words into reality, causing Li Banfeng to take the damage?
Taking advantage of Li Banfeng keeping their foe occupied, Lian Buda mustered every drop of his remaining oil to continuously stoke the flames. Shu Wanjuan's garments, beard, and hair began to catch fire.
Shu Wanjuan paid Lian Buda no heed, intent on focusing entirely on taking Li Qi down.
The storyteller within the clock pendulum continued his tale without pause: "The storyteller snapped open his folding fan, its tip thrusting straight for the black-clad man's throat."
Shu Wanjuan flicked open his fan and thrust it toward Li Banfeng's throat.
Li Banfeng did not dare be careless. He moved to dodge Shu Wanjuan's motion first; regardless of whether Shu Wanjuan's physical motion mattered, Li Banfeng had to maintain his guard.
At the same time, the clock pendulum flew toward the edge of the room, widening the distance between herself and Li Banfeng while desperately trying to regurgitate the blood she had absorbed.
Dodging on both fronts, could he avoid this strike?
He could not.
A slash opened across Li Banfeng's neck, blood trickling down his collar and onto the floor.
The strike did not cause severe injury solely because Lian Buda had lubricated Li Banfeng's neck in advance.
The clock pendulum had indeed pulled away, but that had not diminished the blow's effect. She strained desperately to spit out the absorbed blood, yet after several attempts, nothing came out.
While Li Banfeng was still pondering a countermeasure, Lian Buda poured the very last dregs of his oil onto the fire and shouted toward Li Banfeng, "Don't try to counter his moves!"
What did that mean? Why not counter the strikes?
This was Lian Buda's hard-won experience: when fighting Shu Wanjuan, one must never attempt to parry blow for blow. In all his bouts against Shu Wanjuan, Lian Buda relied on only two methods from start to finish—either fire or oil. The reason was simple: trying to dismantle Shu Wanjuan's moves was a losing proposition.
Shu Wanjuan's combat tactics were ever-shifting. Though it appeared that the storyteller inside the pendulum was relentlessly directing literary attacks at Li Banfeng, the strikes Li Banfeng sustained might not have had anything to do with those words at all.
Even if one deduced the underlying link, finding a way to dismantle it was nearly impossible. Li Banfeng had taken three strikes, and those three strikes might not have used the same technique at all.
Li Banfeng and Lian Buda truly shared a deep rapport; he understood Lian Buda's meaning.
The storyteller inside the clock pendulum was still narrating. The pendulum was on the verge of tears, unable to find a way to dispel the phenomenon.
Lian Buda had staked everything on this final effort, leaving not a drop of oil behind as he drenched Shu Wanjuan.
Shu Wanjuan's folding fan never caught fire. He was fully prepared to slay Li Qi with a single blow.
Looking down at the bloodstains on the floor, Li Banfeng scraped his foot. Under the cover of the firelight, a halo of light swept beneath Shu Wanjuan's feet.
The glare of the fire was blinding, entirely concealing the luminescence of the Boundary.
Li Banfeng's control was exceptionally precise; Shu Wanjuan suffered no harm from the Boundary and failed to sense its existence.
Against an opponent of Shu Wanjuan's caliber, the Boundary's direct damage was too negligible. Rather than alerting the enemy prematurely, it was better saved to secure victory in one decisive stroke.
Now that Shu Wanjuan stood within the Boundary, Li Banfeng first invoked the Sit Back and Relax skill, adjusting his own condition to its peak.
Before launching his attack, Li Banfeng activated the skill once more, driving Shu Wanjuan's condition down to its lowest.
Shu Wanjuan's physical state truly underwent a shift. His resistance to fire deteriorated, and the flames enveloping him flared far more violently than before.
The timing was ripe. Before Shu Wanjuan could adapt, Li Banfeng charged toward him using Bent on One's Own Way, elevating his own combat prowess by a whole tier.
The final killing blow remained Five Horses Tearing the Body. If it killed him, so be it; if not, he would immediately use Heart Arrowing Home to cast Shu Wanjuan into the companion dwelling.
Once inside the companion dwelling, the battle would continue.
Shu Wanjuan was a top-tier figure. His lady, Hong Ying, Xiao Jiu, and the entire household would have to go all out; otherwise, defeating him might truly prove impossible.
Yet once he crossed that threshold, they would never let him back out. Even if they couldn't overpower him, they could wear him to death.
Which room lay beyond the front door again?
In the past, this matter would have been simple: entering the front door led straight into the main room, where his lady and Yingying would be waiting to strike immediately.
Right now, it was genuinely hard to say. Ever since learning Connecting Bridal Chambers, Li Banfeng had scrambled the layout of the companion dwelling. If memory served, stepping through the front door right now should lead to Room Seven.
Room Seven belonged to the Peeping Pathway. Neither his lady nor Hong Ying liked staying there under normal circumstances, so there was no telling where they were, or whether they could join the fray the moment he entered.
Li Banfeng was tense. The enemy before him was far too formidable; this was the first time Li Banfeng felt that an opponent might not be beatable even if dragged into his own home.
Dwelling on it was pointless. The storyteller inside the pendulum had reached another climax:
"Leveling his fan and pointing at the black-clad man, the storyteller bellowed, 'Villain, where do you think you're going? Today I must claim the head from your shoulders, lest you commit further atrocities in the days to come!'"
He could delay no longer. If Shu Wanjuan struck first, Li Banfeng might not be able to withstand it.
Roughly envisioning the battle that would follow once inside his home, Li Banfeng gritted his teeth and strode forward toward Shu Wanjuan.
One step, two steps, three steps.
Three steps in, Li Banfeng was abruptly tripped by a chair, stumbling headlong.
Where had this chair come from?
Who set a trap?
Just as Li Banfeng was fuming, he noticed the chair looked remarkably familiar.
Isn't this the chair from my home, the one placed in Room Seven...?
Beneath the chair seemed to rest another object—an ornament that wasn't very tall.
Shu Wanjuan and Lian Buda only saw a chair suddenly materialize, having not yet noticed the ornament, and had no idea what kind of tactic Li Banfeng was attempting.
The moment he saw that ornament, Li Banfeng was filled with despair, yet the ornament was thrilled.
"The heavens have eyes!"
That ornament was the red lotus. Slowly unfurling her lotus leaves, she had actually come outside!
What had caused this?
Had he inadvertently triggered Connecting Bridal Chambers again?
Could Connecting Bridal Chambers transport items from home to the outside world?
Could they be moved back?
Li Banfeng swiftly visualized the layout of the companion dwelling in his mind. In the blink of an eye, both the red lotus and the chair vanished without a trace.
Having never seen the red lotus, Shu Wanjuan and Lian Buda remained utterly bewildered by Li Banfeng's intentions.
Yet standing outside the window, Zhong'er lifted his head. He gazed up, wondering why the night sky tonight was so dazzlingly bright.
Chapter 706