The Tufang envoys departed the venue.
Even with the urgent medical treatment provided by the staff on site, severe, irreversible wounds had been inflicted upon them.
As three-headed people, the middle head had been ripped away by Li Banfeng using Five Horses Splitting the House. According to Li Banfeng's understanding of their physiology, that middle head was unlikely ever to grow back.
The envoys had wanted to issue a stern warning to Li Banfeng, wishing to make it clear that the consequences of this incident would be grave indeed!
Yet when Li Banfeng inquired after their injuries with warm concern, they chose silence to voice their displeasure, believing a wordless protest carried greater weight.
After ensuring the Tufang diplomats had no further issues, Li Banfeng left the venue. His entourage lingered a bit longer, reiterating time and again that Li Qi's actions did not represent the stance of Huan Country.
He had just returned to the Dark Star Bureau when he received a phone call from Teacher Song.
"Banfeng, you've caused a disaster! You should understand the current situation. What we need to do is buy time!
"You were far too impulsive. Where are you right now? I've sent my father to fetch Doctor Kang to see if this can still be salvaged."
Li Banfeng replied calmly, "Teacher, I really don't believe there was a better way to handle it."
Teacher Song was furious. "I know the people of Tufang tend to be overbearing, but as long as one grasps the right negotiation techniques, losses can still be minimized! You should have maintained proper clarity and restraint in this matter. Now that you've severely wounded their envoys, how is that any different from declaring war?
"Puluo Province isn't prepared for war in the slightest! What do you expect them to fight Tufang with?"
To Teacher Song's reproaches, Li Banfeng offered no further excuses.
Leaving the Dark Star Bureau, Li Banfeng sat in a park for a while. An old woman holding a broom was sweeping fallen leaves beside the bench. Li Banfeng stood up and offered, "Please, take a seat."
"Thank you, young man, but I won't sit. I still have work to do." Wiping away sweat, the old woman continued sweeping leaves.
Li Banfeng took the broom from her hands. "Second Aunt, please sit down. I'll do this work."
Granny Ku sat on the bench and sighed. "Hearing you call me 'Second Aunt' really makes me feel a bit embarrassed. People of my generation all treat you like a brother."
Li Banfeng considered it and realized she had a point; Sun Tiecheng had certainly been thoroughly disgruntled by the title "Second Aunt."
"Elder Sister, the thing is—"
*Smack!*
Granny Ku produced another broom out of nowhere and slapped it right onto Li Banfeng's face. Li Banfeng ended up holding two brooms, continuing to sweep the ground.
Granny Ku said earnestly, "Eldest Nephew, do you realize what kind of mess you've made?"
Li Banfeng swept the leaves into a pile and tipped them into a trash bin. "Do you also think I've caused trouble?"
Granny Ku chuckled. "Who hasn't been young once? When I was young, I was far more reckless than you and stirred up far more trouble.
"Still, this mess you've made this time is far too big. It won't be easy to wrap up. It would have been fine if you'd just threatened them with a few harsh words, but did you really have to chop off their head?"
Li Banfeng propped himself on the broom and stood there. "If I didn't chop off their head, could I have scared them off?"
Granny Ku shook her head helplessly. "You reckless brat, you just never listen to advice. Let me tell you, calamity is coming to Puluo Province. The people of Tufang will never let this go. Whatever you do, remember not to interfere in this. Once you're in up to your neck, getting back out won't be so easy."
Li Banfeng twirled the broom in his hands. "If I don't interfere, who else is going to step up and handle it?"
Granny Ku took the broom back from his hands. "That depends on whose head it falls upon. Everyone sweeps the snow from their own doorstep; don't fret over the frost on another's roof.
"Puluo Province has always been like this. Why insist on playing the hero? If you truly can't dodge it, come hide in Kucaizhuang. I'll protect you."
With that, Granny Ku flew away with her broom.
Li Banfeng stood on the ground, pondering a single question the entire time.
Why couldn't she just ride the broom to fly away?
Returning to the companion dwelling, Li Banfeng recounted the events to his lady.
After a long silence from his wife, Li Banfeng asked, "Do you also think I caused trouble?"
"Husband could never cause trouble. Husband is my darling treasure; how could you possibly do wrong?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Don't shield me blindly just because I'm your man. That isn't rational."
The gramophone promptly changed her tune: "Husband has always been wise and decisive in his actions. How could you ever cause trouble?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "Now that evaluation is rather more objective."
The gramophone sent her soul slipping into Zhao Xiaowan's body, coming over to sit beside Li Banfeng. "Husband, I truly don't think you did wrong in this matter, but we must understand the full cause and effect.
"Tufang has always been arrogant, yet this was their first time dealing with you. At the very least, there ought to have been some basic probing. They shouldn't have launched such a glaring provocation right from the start."
Li Banfeng had never dealt with Tufang before, but another deduction occurred to him. "What if the provocation itself was the probe?"
Being exceptionally sharp, his lady instantly grasped the implication. "If Tufang weren't sure whether Puluo Province would join the war, they wouldn't provoke rashly.
"If they had already caught wind of rumors that Puluo Province intends to enter the fray on Shang State's side, then provoking at this moment truly becomes a probe.
"If we let them have their way, Tufang will take a mile for every inch, demanding a city today and a territory tomorrow, gradually bringing Puluo Province under their thumb.
"If Puluo Province resists, they might strike preemptively and use it as a pretext to declare war, or they might continue their provocations to figure out our true strength."
Li Banfeng rubbed his forehead. When he had received the Tufang envoys, he had already sensed this; the situation was eerily similar to historical records he had read.
"They've backed us into a corner."
His lady sighed. "I merely don't understand why Tufang is so certain Puluo Province will take part in the war."
Li Banfeng fetched a sheet of paper. Husband and wife sketched and took notes, connecting the threads of the affair.
Li Banfeng first drew out the first lead: "The peddler has clashed with Tufang several times recently, sowing deep grudges between the two sides."
His lady drew out the second: "Husband abolished the bondservant system in Xiaodu, and Qiao Yi braved the court's pressure to not interfere with you, even helping you bring it to fruition. Tufang will surely believe that Qiao Yi and Husband reached a mutual exchange of interests."
Hong Ying chimed in, "Wasn't Qiao Yi's refusal to interfere with Seventh Brother because his three heads were reduced to one, leaving his weakness in Seventh Brother's hands, not to mention signing a covenant deed with him?"
The gramophone said, "Outsiders don't know any of that. In their eyes, Qiao Yi indulging Husband to such an extent must mean he allied with Husband. The fact that the abolition of the bondservant system proceeded so smoothly was indeed partly due to Qiao Yi's contribution."
Li Banfeng drew out the third thread: "Qiao Yi went with the flow and dispatched troops to the border. I heard from the Luo sisters that Tufang comes to raid every autumn, and Chaoge usually does nothing in response. Yet this year was an exception—Shang State deliberately mounted a resistance."
His lady continued, "Tufang will definitely infer that the reason Shang State has the backbone to resist is because they have Puluo Province's backing. With Qiao Yi leaking a few rumors on top of that, Puluo Province was dragged right onto the battlefield."
Jiu'er saw through the situation as well: "Now that Tufang has reached toward Puluo Province, Qiao Yi only has to wait for news. If Puluo Province doesn't act, he'll watch quietly from the sidelines; if Puluo Province acts, he'll strike alongside them.
"If this war is won, Qiao Yi's prestige will skyrocket, firmly cementing his foundation in Chaoge. From then on, even if he reveals his single-headed identity, no one will be able to shake his seat."
Li Banfeng sat at the edge of the bed, recalling Qiao Yi's countenance as he departed Xiaodu.
The more he thought, the more Li Banfeng smiled.
"He laid his methods out completely in the open, clear as day, yet there's simply nothing we can do about it!
"Whenever someone gains an advantage at his expense, he is certain to reclaim it with principal and interest, refusing to suffer the slightest loss.
"This isn't the first time. That old scoundrel Qiao Yi—no wonder even that Sage couldn't defeat him."
This praise came from the bottom of Li Banfeng's heart. But the critical question now was how to respond in the next step.
What if Tufang launched a direct war?
What if they kept probing?
Before Li Banfeng could devise a countermeasure, trouble erupted in Yaowanggou.
Qiu Zhiheng sent word: a group of three-headed people was heading up Mount Bitter Fog to harvest snake-dappled chrysanthemums.
Li Banfeng was startled. "The snake-dappled chrysanthemums are blooming this late in the year?"
Qiu Zhiheng replied, "Seventh Brother, late or early isn't the point. The point is that we cannot let them ascend Mount Bitter Fog. They aren't the three-headed people of Puluo Province. Even though they look very similar, they almost certainly come from Tufang."
"How many came?"
"Over three hundred."
Hearing the news, his lady realized the situation was dire. "This is a second provocation, and each probe strikes right at a vital spot. Mount Bitter Fog has the iron sinew bamboo."
Packing up briskly, Li Banfeng returned to Yaowanggou at once.
At daybreak, more than three hundred Tufang people arrived at the foot of Mount Bitter Fog.
Qiu Zhiheng led his men forward to block them. "Please leave Mount Bitter Fog."
In a stiff accent, one of the three-headed men said to Qiu Zhiheng, "We came from Santoucha. We are people of Puluo Province. We only wish to pick some snake-dappled chrysanthemums to make a living. What is wrong with that?"
Qiu Zhiheng shook his head. "If you want to find a livelihood, I can help you, but you cannot engage in this one."
"Why can't we?" The three-headed man glanced at the foragers already on the mountain. "Just because we look different from them, we don't have the right to make a living?
"Lord Seven claimed he would save us three-headed people, yet he refuses to give us the right to survive. Is he deceiving us with such hypocritical lies?"
Qiu Zhiheng's expression darkened. "You know best where you came from. Must I spell it out plainly?"
The three-headed man glared back, showing no fear. "Go ahead and spell it out plainly! Tell everyone, just where do you think we are from?"
People from all the major medicine guilds were watching from nearby. Pushed past his limit, Qiu Zhiheng was ready to strike, but a middle-aged man stepped in to hold him back, offering a subtle shake of his head.
Half a Mouthful of Yellow Broth Qiao Wuzui. He had succeeded Old Xu in overseeing Yaowanggou.
"Zhiheng, we cannot interfere in this. It will cause enormous turmoil."
Qiu Zhiheng also knew they could not act against these people lightly. Amidst that hesitation, the three hundred-odd three-headed people began climbing Mount Bitter Fog.
Halfway up the mountain, Xu Han wiped his ladle and readied his bucket.
Beside him, Lian Buda urged, "Old Xu, you're a clever man. In a matter this big, you can't lose your head! You're going to cause a massive disaster."
Granny Ku was also beside them, trying to dissuade him: "Xu Han, you're usually so prudent. Why are you acting so stubborn today?
"The Tufang people came to test us. Must you walk right into their trap?"
Xu Han set the bucket on the ground, looking up at Lian Buda and Granny Ku. "I'm a farmer. As long as no one touches my three-tenths of an acre, anything can be discussed. But touch my three-tenths of an acre, and things will be settled differently."
Seeing he could not be dissuaded, Lian Buda conceded a step: "How about this: we block them, but without harming them. What do you say?"
Xu Han raised his ladle. "Tell me then—without harming them, how do you plan to block them?"
"Slide them down!" Lian Buda slapped his chest. "With a little trick of mine, I can make them slide all the way to the foot of the mountain. Won't that settle the matter?"
Xu Han asked, "What if they want to climb the mountain again tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow the snake-dappled chrysanthemums will have withered. What mountain would they climb?"
"Is finding an excuse ever difficult?" Xu Han shoved Lian Buda aside. Seeing the silhouettes of the three-headed people drawing closer through the fog, he scooped up a ladleful of half-dry, half-liquid filth, preparing to make his move.
Lian Buda kept trying to stop him. "Old Xu, don't use lethal force! Leave some room!"
The three-headed people walked up close, looking over Xu Han, Lian Buda, and Granny Ku.
The central head asked, "Who are you?"
Xu Han smiled. "What do you think?"
The central head chuckled. "You look like a decent man to me."
Xu Han nodded. "Everyone says so."
The three heads took turns speaking:
"What are you doing here? Are you waiting for us?"
"To hold your ground halfway up Mount Bitter Fog for this long proves you aren't ordinary people."
"If you aren't ordinary, you should know our identities, and you should know our purpose in coming here.
"So we advise you not to do anything foolish."
Xu Han said nothing; he had no desire to waste words.
Lian Buda whispered, "Don't rush. Once they've all gathered, I'll send them down together."
More and more three-headed people gathered, their laughter rising and falling.
"Now that we've all gathered, what are you trying to prove? Prove your ignorance and stupidity once more?"
"Do you still believe Puluo Province possesses the highest individual combat strength? Times have changed. If you want a fight, we can satisfy your desires."
"Out of respect for your advanced age, we won't be too cruel to you. As that common saying in your Puluo Province goes, we can stop at touching the point—at least sparing your lives. Consider it our mercy and charity toward you."
Seeing the timing was about right, Lian Buda prepared to use his technique to slide all these three-headed people down the slope.
*Craaaack—*
A heavy tearing sound suddenly rang out. The smile vanished from the lead three-headed man's face.
His shoulders were ripped apart, leaving one head on the left shoulder, one on the right, and one in the middle, each anchored to a torn segment.
All the three-headed people stopped laughing.
Granny Ku looked at Lian Buda. "You slid them apart?"
Lian Buda shook his head. "I haven't even acted yet."
Xu Han chuckled. "Truly stopping at touching the point. Leaving your heads attached can still count as leaving an intact corpse."
Lian Buda panicked. "Old Xu, how could you—"
"That wasn't me just now," Old Xu brandished his ladle. "Now it's my turn!"
Seeing their leader killed on the spot, the three-headed people cried out in terror. Some fled down the mountain, but Old Xu scooped a torrent of golden light like a waterfall, cutting off their retreat.
Many others darted into the woods, but Old Xu scooped another scattering of golden specks. The night soil transformed into bead after bead of gold, bounding and leaping in pursuit of the scattering three-headed people.
First burning through their clothes, then burning through their flesh, and after scorching through their bones, the night soil flowed into their body cavities, merrily pulsing alongside their internal organs.
The constitution of the three-headed people was peculiar; under the golden specks, they could endure for a short while.
Having torn apart their leader earlier, Li Banfeng had seen it clearly: their anatomical structure was just like Qiao Yi's, with two bodies embedded into a third.
A tenacious three-headed man burst out of the woods, shaking off the pursuit of the golden specks. His body was severely mangled, yet his flesh and organs regenerated at extreme speed, using the rate of regrowth to resist the corrosion of the night soil.
This was some manner of physical cultivator method. No wonder this group of Tufang people was so arrogant; they were all dark-energy users, and of no low level. It was just that they were unfamiliar with Puluo Province, mistaking Xu Han and the others for ordinary cultivators.
Li Banfeng blocked the fleeing three-headed man and advised, "This is Mount Bitter Fog, a very dangerous place. Don't run about blindly or you'll lose your way. Hurry back now."
With a kick, he sent the three-headed man flying right in front of Xu Han.
"You've come all this way, no easy task. Forgive this old man's poor hospitality; make do with a bite first!" Old Xu fed him a ladleful of night soil.
That mouthful burned straight down from the throat, scorching clean through his internal organs. The three-headed man died on the spot; no matter how potent his regeneration, there was no recovering from that.
The rest scurried in all directions in panic. Ladle in hand, Old Xu urged, "Don't rush, don't shove, there's enough for everyone!"
Before long, the three hundred-odd three-headed people were completely wiped out by Li Banfeng and Xu Han.
Lian Buda stamped his feet in fury. "You two villains! Over three hundred people, and not a single one left!"
"You can't put it that way," Xu Han rummaged around in his bucket for quite a while. "There's one left. This one still seems to be breathing."
Lian Buda glanced at it. "Hurry and give him a swift end! What has he been soaked into? Didn't I tell you not to harm them?"
Li Banfeng looked over the corpses blanketing the ground. "We didn't harm them. Aren't they all dead?"
Lian Buda stared at Li Banfeng, speechless with rage. Turning toward Xu Han, he scolded, "He's young and ignorant, but you're getting up in years—are you losing your mind as well? Now that things have come to this, how will you explain it to the peddler?"
Old Xu put away his ladle. "I'll say it again: touch my three-tenths of an acre, and no matter who you are, I won't spare you.
"As for the peddler, I have nothing to explain. You have the big face—why don't you go explain it to him?"
Lian Buda fumed, "What does this have to do with my face being big?"
Granny Ku looked at Lian Buda. "I don't think your face is that big either."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Second Aunt, let's speak with a clear conscience. Is Brother Lian's face truly not big?"
"Not big!" Granny Ku answered without hesitation.
Li Banfeng froze for a moment.
He recalled something: someone else had indeed claimed Lian Buda's face wasn't big. Who was that again?
Lian Buda squatted by the roadside, refusing to speak.
Xu Han looked over the corpses on the ground and sighed. "They just wouldn't listen to advice. We told them not to climb the mountain, yet they insisted on coming up."
Li Banfeng sighed as well. "They climbed the mountain to pick snake-dappled chrysanthemums merely to earn a few coins to feed themselves. Every year, who knows how many like them die upon this mountain. Old Xu, give them a generous burial."
Xu Han nodded. "All right, I'll fish out some thicker portions for them later."
Granny Ku said, "Don't think this matter will just blow over. Tufang is very likely to use this as an excuse to go to war."
Li Banfeng gazed at the mist hanging over Mount Bitter Fog. "If it doesn't blow over, would Tufang refrain from going to war?"
Granny Ku was left speechless. She found it harder and harder to see through Li Qi, whether in temperament or strength.
Just now, when Li Qi suddenly killed the leader of the three-headed people, Granny Ku had not sensed his arrival beforehand.
Neither had Lian Buda; only Xu Han had noticed.
To what realm had this junior's cultivation advanced?
And how was this present situation to be salvaged? Tufang was bound to invade; how would the peddler respond?
***
In Tufang, outside Moye City, the vanguard army camp.
Centurion Yanggenni was patrolling the campsite when he spotted a soldier squatting beside a tent, lighting a fire.
The soldier was covered in long white fleece and bore a pair of curved horns. In appearance, he was a sheep, likely one of his own camp.
Stepping forward, Yanggenni asked, "What are you doing here?"
The soldier looked up. "It's too cold at night. I wanted to build a fire to warm myself."
Yanggenni stroked his beard, scrutinizing the soldier closely.
The soldier indeed had the face of a sheep, yet Yanggenni had no recollection of such a man in his camp.
Moreover, his accent was strange; although intelligible, his pronunciation was exceedingly stiff.
"Why didn't you return to your tent? Open fires are forbidden in the camp at this hour!"
The soldier shrugged. "I just told you, it's too cold inside the tent. If you won't let me build a fire, how else am I supposed to keep warm?"
Those few words completely exposed the soldier's identity.
He was not a man of Tufang; his Tufang speech was far from standard.
"Who are you?" Yanggenni drew his saber, leveling it at the soldier's face.
The soldier raised both hands. "Don't be so agitated. I actually have a decent knack for languages, but your pronunciation is truly uncomfortable."
Yanggenni moved to swing his saber, but his hand trembled violently, and he could not lift the blade.
"Heavy, isn't it?" The soldier took a few steps back, keeping his distance from Yanggenni. "I suggest you set the saber down first. When it falls to the ground in a moment and cuts your foot, it will adversely affect the progression of your condition."
No sooner had he spoken than Yanggenni's saber dropped to the earth.
Though the blade did not injure his foot, when he bent down to retrieve it, his fingers could muster no strength at all.
The soldier advised, "You don't have much time left. Don't squander it on meaningless matters. In the less than one minute remaining to you, you will still retain your clarity. Please allow me to use this precious time to introduce your condition.
"Your hands will rapidly lose their mobility, but that doesn't matter, because your actions hereafter will primarily rely on your legs and teeth.
"Though you will lose consciousness, as a soldier, you will still maintain a fine combat state.
"You will run, and you will run very fast. You will bite anyone you can see, friend or foe.
"Those you bite will enter the same state as you: their hands will lose function, but the power in their legs and jaws will be enhanced. They will run faster, bite harder, and carry the same affliction to even more people."
Yanggenni lunged at Critic, intent on fighting him to the death.
Critic dodged to the side. "I warned you not to do pointless things. Biting me is useless; I already carry the affliction myself.
"Go over there, into the tents. There are many people waiting for you. They are your targets."
Yanggenni looked at the tents, then back at the soldier before him.
He wanted to shout, but not a sound would come from his throat.
Critic offered an apologetic look. "I forgot to mention: once the illness takes hold, you lose the ability to speak. But I don't think that's very important either."
Yanggenni lunged at Critic several times, unable to touch even the hem of his combat robes.
His consciousness grew hazy. Unwilling to charge toward the soldiers' tents, he turned toward the fire pit, wanting to end his own life, only to be held back by Critic.
"Don't rush toward death. You only have three to five hours of life remaining. When the time is up, your entire body will ulcerate and die. But before you perish, please do something meaningful first. The meaning of your life lies inside the tents."
Critic guided Yanggenni into a tent.
A few minutes later, Critic watched as a mob of soldiers burst from the tents with arms hanging limp, mouths agape, searching for targets across the encampment.
Critic bent his waist, letting his own arms dangle limply, imitating their posture as he sprinted alongside the mob.
Running in this posture was exhausting, yet Critic thoroughly relished the joy of this moment.
Turning toward one of the soldiers, he said in a low voice, "This technique is called Oral Transmission and Mental Impartation. You must use your mouth and your inner fighting spirit to spread the affliction.
"Will you remember the name of this technique? Let me tell you some good news: with three above-the-clouds techniques, I can advance to an even higher tier!"
***
Thirty li from the vanguard camp stood a granary, storing vast quantities of grain.
Unlike the people of Shang State, the grain of the Tufang people consisted mostly of cereals, which could be eaten just the same back in Puluo Province.
The peddler sighed softly. "Tufang's grain is growing scarcer by the day. To fill such a large granary was truly no easy feat."
A'yi sighed as well. "No easy feat indeed. How about I deliver the grain to Hulu Village for safekeeping on their behalf?"
The peddler shook his head. "Quit talking nonsense. How long would it take to haul away a granary this massive?"
A'yi looked helpless. "Very well then, let's get to work."
She pulled thirty jin of explosives from her pack, stroking them while muttering under her breath.
The peddler felt a bit uneasy. "Will this stuff of yours actually work? Finding this granary and encampment took a great deal of effort on my part."
"Rest assured," A'yi smiled proudly. "Li Qi used this good stuff when he blew up the altar in Haocheng."
Worried that something might go wrong on Critic's end, the peddler urged her, "Is it ready yet?"
"Ready!" A'yi nodded. "It'll blow in the blink of an eye!"
The peddler blinked. "Blow in the blink of an eye?"
"Mm-hmm!" A'yi winked at the peddler, revealing a sweet smile.
Chapter 733