Layered Shadows of Wisteria and Pine

Li Banfeng accepted A'yu's price. "I'll make a trip over to Old Train's right now and see what the situation is with that television." "Little brother, you must be careful! Big Sis wishes you swift success!" A'yu's voice was loud and clear, yet muffled around the edges—she was probably snacking on pastries again. Li Banfeng was distinctly dissatisfied. "Don't just give me lip service. Lend a hand, at least." "Lend a hand too? You're terribly picky. Which hand do you want Big Sis to lend?" "You have to tell me where Old Train is." "That's not lending a hand. That's asking for Big Sis's eyes and ears. Let me have a look and see where the old coot is hiding." After searching for quite a while, A'yu said to Li Banfeng, "Try the sixth floor first." Li Banfeng sensed the auspices. The sixth floor was a place of great fortune. Just as he was about to set off, A'yu spoke again: "Little brother, don't go to the sixth floor yet. Looks like that old codger ran off." After waiting another moment, A'yu said, "Go take a walk around the seventeenth floor." The seventeenth floor was also a place of great fortune. Li Banfeng began walking up the stairs, only to be called to a halt by A'yu once more. "Hold on. He isn't on the seventeenth floor. He ran off again." Li Banfeng frowned. "Big Sis, can we be a bit more decisive?" "I want to be decisive with you too, but the problem is that Eighteen Wheels is completely useless. Last time he reunited with himself, heaven knows how many good things he lost. Now he doesn't even dare show his face to me." It seemed the Artisan Cultivator Old Train's strength had been drastically reduced; he no longer had the power to butt heads with A'yu. Deducing from this, taking the television from his hands shouldn't be particularly difficult. A'yu picked up a sound again: "The thirty-sixth floor! No mistake!" The thirty-sixth floor was the top floor. Li Banfeng sensed the auspices; it was also of great fortune. "Big Sis, are you sure this time?" "Positive, little brother. But by all means, don't be reckless. Eighteen Wheels isn't easy to deal with, after all." Li Banfeng departed. Faint footsteps sounded from inside Cell No. 6. A'yu let out a soft sigh. "Come, get up and walk around. Lying there day after day, if you stopped breathing altogether one day, I might not even know. "Day in and day out, you keep brooding over how to scheme against that lad, never imagining he'd deliver himself right to our doorstep. Tell me, can I trust him? "Tell me, who else can I trust? "What if he's deceiving me? "Even if he deceives me, I still have to help him. "He wants to strike the Bandit-Subduing Battalion. I have to help him!" *** Li Banfeng arrived at the thirty-sixth floor. Pushing open the heavy iron door of the stairwell, he was greeted by bright sunshine and a sprawling sea of blooming flowers. It was a garden. Though Li Banfeng didn't know much about flora, he was well aware that in late autumn, so many blossoms shouldn't be in bloom. And where was the sunlight coming from? While the thirty-sixth floor was the top floor, it wasn't an open-air rooftop. What lay before him was clearly an illusion, or some other contrivance. Li Banfeng walked deeper into the garden. Its layout was immensely complex. Before he had gone far, he reached a fork with three possible paths. To the left lay a pine forest. The pine trees were all of the same species, nearly uniform in height and girth, their branches laden with white snow. Straight ahead was a pond with a small boat floating upon it. Surrounding the boat were lush lotus blossoms extending all the way to the far bank, where dazzling clusters of flowers and thick mist obscured the view. To the right was a long corridor framed by wooden beams and pillars. Purple vines crawled all over the woodwork; some were bursting with blossoms, vibrant with life, while others had withered long ago, like taut ropes binding the framework. The corridor was roughly eight meters wide, with wooden planks laid over a gravel bed. This peculiar design looked vaguely familiar to Li Banfeng. Just as he was pondering which path to take, the whistle of a train suddenly blared from the corridor. Choo—choo—! Was Old Train inside the corridor? The corridor wound through the blooms, its end out of sight. Li Banfeng walked along it, carefully monitoring the ebb and flow of fortune and misfortune along the way. Danger lay ahead, and of no small degree, but it was within acceptable limits. The corridor's scenery was gorgeous. The deeper he went, the denser the vines grew, and the greater the variety of flowers blooming upon them. Yet the sounds were jarringly discordant with the view. In a gallery filled with blooming flowers, train whistles blew with increasing frequency, accompanied now and then by the hiss of a locomotive venting steam. If one closed their eyes, they would think they had arrived at a railway station. Most jarring of all was the smell: waves of sweltering steam, pungent machine oil, and pulses of floral fragrance, carried on the corridor's breeze, washing over Li Banfeng's face wave after wave. Li Banfeng considered withdrawing his Hundred Flavors Exquisite technique, as the jumbled scents were distorting his perception. Yet if he truly disregarded his sense of smell, between Golden Pupils Piercing the Fine Down and Discerning Spiritual Sound, which judgment could be trusted as real? Reaching the end of the corridor, Li Banfeng saw a screen wall formed entirely of fresh flowers. The sweltering heat vanished, the train whistles vanished, and the stench of machine oil vanished. Every sensation related to a station disappeared. Yet danger bore down upon him. Li Banfeng sprang up abruptly, leaping into midair. Almost at that exact instant, the floral wall shattered, and a pitch-black steam train burst through. From the train's exhaust vents, a massive plume of steam surged forth like a silver dragon, lunging upward after Li Banfeng in the air. Li Banfeng was in no hurry to dodge. He didn't even activate Dwelling Heart and Benevolence; instead, he plunged straight through the steam toward the train. There was something inside this train. Behind him, the green vines on the pillars grew madly. This was clearly a prearranged trap: had Li Banfeng dodged the steam, he would have been ensnared by the vines. Yet Li Banfeng felt there was no need to dodge such steam at all. The temperature was somewhat high, but not enough to harm him. He stood calmly atop the locomotive, watching the vines lash out in pursuit from every direction. The vines were not fast. Though seemingly dense, they left plenty of gaps. Li Banfeng could easily evade them with ordinary footwork, without even needing to employ Carefree and Unfettered. Using Hundred Flavors Exquisite to analyze the floral scents carefully, he found the blossoms on the vines were toxic, but not lethally so. Even without retreating to his residence, he could weather it through the physique of a Dwelling Cultivator. All the offensive measures in this garden were aimed at this train. The outer hull of the train was extraordinarily tough. Li Banfeng's Tang dao, refined by the red lotus, could effortlessly pierce armor of magical-treasure caliber. Yet when he slashed the train, he left merely a shallow scratch. "What kind of fucking joke is this?" The Tang dao began to doubt itself, and its very concept of hardness. The scythe marveled, "This is Old Train's true power. It's completely beyond our understanding." Li Banfeng stared at the train in silence. He was certain that the train beneath his feet was definitely not Old Train, even though the resilience of its hull surprised him as well. He was also certain that the garden's master had not prepared thoroughly. They had not anticipated a powerful foe, and while they had set a grand stage, their methods were terribly rushed. As long as he stepped off this train, it seemed he could free himself from the garden's siege. Yet Li Banfeng remained standing on the train, using Golden Pupils Piercing the Fine Down to observe its internal structure. The train's interior was exceedingly peculiar. No connecting rods or pistons were visible, nor was there any coal or fire. Even pushing Golden Pupils Piercing the Fine Down to its limit, certain areas remained obscured. The train sped through the corridor, veered, and plunged into the pond, driving from the surface down to the very bottom. Clinging to the train, Li Banfeng dropped into the water with it. He worried that if he let go now, the train would vanish at once. The pond water was icy and slick, yet Li Banfeng's clothes were not wet. The water was illusory, and poisonous to boot. Holding his breath, Li Banfeng rode the train across the pond and breached the surface. The moment the train surged onto the shore, the flowers along the bank burst into flames. Saturated with the "pond water," the train caught fire immediately, plunging into the pine forest wrapped in raging flames. The entire forest ignited. Thick smoke and roaring flames surrounded them on every side. Li Banfeng kept his eyes locked on the train, pouring all his concentration into Golden Pupils Piercing the Fine Down. Why couldn't he see clearly? Why was it concealed so well? At the forest's edge appeared a small hill formed of piled molten lava, and the train was hurtling straight toward it. Li Banfeng didn't spare the hill a single glance. A single thought consumed his mind: What on earth is inside this train? I have to see it clearly this time! Boom! Li Banfeng stamped down onto the train with Treading Ten Thousand Rivers. If you want to see what lies beyond the mountain, trample the peak flat; if you want to see what lies inside the train, stomp right through it. The entire garden shuddered, and even the Dark Star Bureau building outside the garden trembled. A'yu cried out, "What is he doing? Making such a huge racket—how many people is this going to draw?" Haitangguo was on duty in the bureau, and the booming crash gave her quite a fright. She picked up the duty telephone, about to report the incident, when she suddenly noticed a smudge on the receiver. When had that gotten there? When Juzi returned from her mission, she had been covered in mud and had touched Haitangguo's desk phone. That girl was truly sloppy! Haitangguo hurriedly grabbed a rag and wiped the phone. After rubbing for a long time, she finally got it clean. Yet while the phone was spotless, Juzi had left several handprints on the desk as well. Haitangguo picked up the rag and kept wiping. A'yu murmured under her breath, "Scrub away, girl. The cleaner the better. Forget about what just happened as fast as you can." Other sections had duty personnel as well, and all of them were currently busy cleaning. *** In the garden, under Li Banfeng's stomp, a watermelon-sized hole was blasted through the train's hull. With a thunderous rumble, the mountain of lava collapsed. The teapot had already prepared its defense, ready to raise a water curtain against the molten rock. They thought the scalding lava would destroy the entire garden, but upon hitting the ground, the lava transformed into jet-black stones and red bricks, scattering everywhere. Scattering alongside the lava was the sheet-iron plating of the locomotive. Clatter-clatter-crash! The locomotive likewise collapsed into a heap of black stones. Amid the rubble, a woman clutching her chest, blood bubbling at her lips, struggled to her feet and scrambled toward the sea of fire in the woods. She was the key to the train, serving as both its power source and its raw material. Li Banfeng recognized this woman. She was the Painting Cultivator Mu Yuejuan! The lake, the forest, the corridor, the train, the mountain of lava—all had been painted by Mu Yuejuan. The black stones and red bricks strewn across the ground were congealed ink and cinnabar. The reason the train had been so resilient was that Li Banfeng was inside Mu Yuejuan's painted world. In this world, the ink she used was the sturdiest material in existence. Mu Yuejuan had created this durable train to provide herself with a hiding place. When Li Banfeng discovered her sanctuary, she concentrated every offensive around the train, aiming to shock and butcher the intruder. Though executed in haste, she had actually felt confident of success. First, the train was hidden deep within. Under normal circumstances, a cautious person entering unfamiliar territory wouldn't follow a path all the way to its end; especially with that bizarre corridor, an ordinary cultivator would have turned back halfway. She never anticipated that Li Qi wouldn't turn back, pressing forward relentlessly until he found the train. Finding the train wouldn't have mattered either; Mu Yuejuan had focused all her attacks on it, convinced that even if she couldn't hurt Li Qi, she could frighten him off. Yet Li Qi was neither scared away nor hurt. He hadn't even exerted much stamina or energy. With things as they were, Mu Yuejuan had decided to resort to venomous measures. She crafted a mountain of lava from cinnabar and ink, intending to drag Li Qi through the molten rock. Being a mountain of lava of her own painting, it wouldn't burn her. Even if some lava went wild, her train was sturdy enough to withstand it. But Li Qi was flesh and blood—how long could he last in molten rock? Who could have guessed that Li Banfeng's Treading Ten Thousand Rivers would pack such devastating might, smashing the train to pieces and injuring Mu Yuejuan in the process? Injured, Mu Yuejuan could no longer maintain the mountain of lava and could only flee deeper into the forest. Li Banfeng appeared before her and called out, "Senior, don't be in such a hurry to leave. I bear you no malice." Without a word, Mu Yuejuan grabbed a glob of ink and hurled it at Li Banfeng. Her slender jade fingers flickered, painting hundreds of black vipers that closed in around him. This was finger painting. Li Banfeng had dabbled in it when learning to paint from Hong Ying, but he had never seen technique as consummate as Mu Yuejuan's. With a flick of her fingers and not a single wasted motion, a snake—from head to tail—leapt to lifelike existence, even the flicking tongue and venomous fangs drawn with absolute clarity. Her ink was poisonous, and so were the hundreds of black serpents. With Li Banfeng's cultivation, a single bite wouldn't prove fatal, but his movements would inevitably be hindered. Having finished painting the venomous serpents, Mu Yuejuan turned to flee again, only to see Li Banfeng vanish from the swarm of snakes. Not good—Viewing Flowers from Horseback! Mu Yuejuan didn't waste time trying to track Li Banfeng's whereabouts. Instead, she splashed a wide swathe of ink, attempting to conceal her form. As long as she remained hidden and out of Li Banfeng's line of sight, the Viewing Flowers from Horseback technique could not take effect. Her reasoning was sound, but only if she possessed sufficient speed. Before the airborne ink could even fall, Mu Yuejuan had already exploded. From the back of her head down to her waist, her entire back was blown into a mangled pulp of blood and flesh. Having just taken a Treading Ten Thousand Rivers, followed by a direct hit from Viewing Flowers from Horseback, Mu Yuejuan was gravely wounded, her steps faltering. With a wave of her hand, she summoned the little painted snakes to her. Swarming densely, they plastered themselves against her back. This was a painted world; everything in the painting favored Mu Yuejuan. While these little snakes were venomous beasts against Li Qi, on Mu Yuejuan they served as healers, stanching bleeding and mending wounds. Taking advantage of Li Qi's absence, Mu Yuejuan bolted into the woods, concealing her silhouette. As long as she hid for a few minutes, she could recover seventy to eighty percent in this painted world. By then, she would surely find a way to contend with Li Qi. Spasms of sharp pain wracked her wounds. Mu Yuejuan couldn't help reflecting: not long ago, Ai Yeqing had warned that while Li Qi had some cunning, one must never engage him in head-on battle. Looking at Li Qi's combat prowess now, capable of beating her into such wretched misery inside her own painting, if he truly fought Ai Yeqing head-on, who would prevail was genuinely hard to call. Subduing Li Qi would indeed require a clever scheme... "Senior, I remember you." Li Qi's voice suddenly echoed beside her ear. Mu Yuejuan was petrified. What if he remembered her? Was he trying to bluff her into revealing herself? She absolutely could not fall for his trick. Li Banfeng was pondering the same question at that moment: what would happen if he remembered? The author of Asking the Relay Station Amid Floating Clouds had written that he could never remember what pretty girls looked like—either he forgot them or remembered them wrong. But what if one remembered, and remembered correctly? What would the consequence be? Bang! Mu Yuejuan exploded straight out from within a tree trunk. Her garments were shredded to rags; nearly half her flesh was gone. Her left hand was blown away, splashing directly into the pond. Eighty percent of the little snakes on her back were blasted to dust; the remaining twenty percent were thrown clear, some landing beyond the forest. Dozing off, Haitangguo startled awake from her dream. She was about to head to the stairwell to check the situation, but the moment she stood up, she found her chair was dirty. There seemed to be a footprint on the seat. Which wicked bastard stepped on my chair? Furious, Haitangguo took her rag and scrubbed it over a dozen times. A'yu sighed. "Scrub away, girl. Don't go running around blindly; take a wrong turn and you'll lose your life. "And that Li Qi, honestly—it's just a fight, does he really have to make such a colossal racket?" *** Mu Yuejuan lay on the ground, still unable to fathom why she had exploded a second time. In the understanding of Travel Cultivators across the world, the technique of Viewing Flowers from Horseback consisted of three steps: First step: appear before the opponent, letting them perceive your presence. Second step: vanish from before the opponent. Third step: focus your gaze on the opponent, causing them to explode. Among Travel Cultivator techniques, Viewing Flowers from Horseback was cumbersome. It was difficult to execute, demanded considerable physical energy, and yielded relatively ordinary power. Consequently, most high-tier Travel Cultivators employed it merely for ambushes rather than as a finishing move. Old Train had refined the first and second steps, dramatically increasing speed and significantly enhancing the technique's potency. Hong Ying was singularly gifted; she wielded the technique effortlessly, and her Viewing Flowers from Horseback was extraordinarily vicious. Yet Asking the Relay Station Amid Floating Clouds had offered Li Banfeng a different insight: Viewing Flowers from Horseback was not three steps, but four. Building upon the completion of the first three steps, a fourth step was added: after the opponent exploded once, focus your mind on them, reconstruct their image in your thoughts, and trigger a second explosion. This process was not easy. The figure envisioned in the mind had to closely resemble the actual person; the closer the resemblance, the greater the power of the second detonation. Li Banfeng was unfamiliar with Mu Yuejuan, unable to recall many details of her facial features and figure. Furthermore, Mu Yuejuan had neither a horn nor a stylus, so Li Banfeng didn't find her attractive. This meant that in Li Banfeng's impression, her beauty was severely diminished. Combining all these factors, the Mu Yuejuan in Li Banfeng's mind bore only a thirty percent resemblance to the real person. Yet even with merely thirty percent, the resulting explosion far surpassed the power of the first blast. The first explosion had only injured Mu Yuejuan, and that was compounded by the prior stomp of Treading Ten Thousand Rivers. As for the second explosion, had the little snakes not shielded her, she would already have lost her life. Struggling up from the ground, she still wanted to flee, when suddenly she felt something prodding the small of her back. "What... what is this?" Mu Yuejuan gasped in shock. "Don't get any wild ideas," Li Banfeng said solemnly. "This is a blade!" Li Banfeng pressed the Tang dao against the small of Mu Yuejuan's back. With only her right hand remaining, her palm clenched around a handful of blood, Mu Yuejuan contemplated risking her life in a desperate gamble. Li Banfeng issued a warning: "Don't make any sudden moves. My blade is faster than my techniques." The Tang dao's edge glinted, searching for a place to strike along Mu Yuejuan's neck. Weighing her options, Mu Yuejuan decided to take a softer approach. Her voice trembled slightly. "Seventh Master, we don't have any deep grudge between us, do we? Ma the Fifth is your brother. When you came to me for help with his ascension above the clouds, I lent a hand." Li Banfeng said, "Let's set past matters aside for now. I had no intention of killing you today. You made the first move against me." Mu Yuejuan hurriedly explained, "Seventh Master, I'm trapped by the Dark Star Bureau! I haven't been to the Outer States many times. Being trapped here, I really didn't know what would happen to me. I was frightened out of my wits! And you're with the Dark Star Bureau—tell me, could I not be on guard against you?" Mu Yuejuan's words weren't entirely unreasonable. Li Banfeng said, "Explain the full story first. Why did you come to the Dark Star Bureau?" Hearing Li Banfeng's tone soften slightly, Mu Yuejuan explained pitifully, "It was an order from the Brotherhood Alliance." "The Brotherhood Alliance?" Li Banfeng reflected for a moment. He seemed to have seen Mu Yuejuan not long ago. "Weren't you with Ai Yeqing? I recall you had joined Xuehuapu." Mu Yuejuan didn't deny it. "I did stay with Ai Yeqing for a time, but that good-for-nothing has no ambition for serious business. All he wants is to hole up somewhere and muddle through the rest of his life. "I had no desire to waste away my years with him, so I simply left Xuehuapu and defected to the Brotherhood Alliance. Who knew that right after joining, they ordered me to come to the Dark Star Bureau to retrieve something, and then I ended up trapped here." Li Banfeng was intrigued. "What did you come to the Dark Star Bureau to take?" Mu Yuejuan said, "A painting of my own." Li Banfeng was baffled. "Coming to the Dark Star Bureau to retrieve your own painting? Are you joking?" Mu Yuejuan sobbed, "How would I dare joke with you? Seventh Master, I'm practically at death's door! My clothes are gone, nearly half my flesh is stripped away... At least let me drape something over myself and tend to my wounds. I can barely stay on my feet." Li Banfeng sheathed his Tang dao. Mu Yuejuan didn't dare make any rash moves either. Dipping her fingers into her own blood, she first painted a cloak and wrapped it around herself. Then she plucked two pine cones from a nearby pine tree, shelled the pine nuts, and tucked them inside the cloak, letting them heal her wounds. "Why didn't you paint snakes?" Li Banfeng felt those black snakes earlier were more useful. Mu Yuejuan shook her head. "I don't have the strength to paint them anymore. Those serpents are my ultimate skill, far too exhausting. At least these pine nuts are readily available." "Tell me about your painting. What kind of painting is it? Why is it in the Dark Star Bureau?" Mu Yuejuan was reluctant to speak. Li Banfeng smiled with apparent concern: "Senior, are your wounds nearly healed?" "Seventh Master, that painting is my most exceptional masterpiece. As long as one finds the correct path within it, one can traverse every single painting of mine." Li Banfeng thought for a moment. "I recall Liao Zihui once gave me a similar painting." Mu Yuejuan shook her head. "That one is far inferior. Trying to find me through that painting depends purely on luck, and certain secret works aren't connected to it at all. But the painting I came for this time is different. It links to every single painting I've ever made. "That painting is the thorn in my side, because if someone else takes possession of it, all my worldly assets—along with myself—will be clutched firmly in their grasp." Li Banfeng mulled it over; that indeed made sense. "What are you keeping a painting like that around for? Why haven't you destroyed it?" Mu Yuejuan shook her head. "I don't dare. Having walked the path of a Painting Cultivator for so many years, there are aspects of cultivation I cannot control. "That painting is the foundation of my cultivation. I don't know what the consequences of destroying it would be. I tried every means to hide it away, but in the end, Xiao Qianshou managed to swipe it. "Later, I heard he sold it. I sought out countless people, hoping to redeem it, but only learned from Old Mother Ku that it had fallen into the hands of the Dark Star Bureau. "Old Mother Ku told me to take it back myself, and it was she who sent me into the Dark Star Bureau. But the moment I found the painting, the Dark Star Bureau's mechanisms triggered and trapped me." "How could they possibly trap you?" In Li Banfeng's impression, aside from Xiao Qianshou, no one was better at escaping than Mu Yuejuan. As long as a single painting of hers was present, she had a chance of breaking out. "This place is too peculiar," Mu Yuejuan admitted, unable to fathom it either. "The garden you stand in is one of my proudest works, a painting entitled Painting of Layered Shadows of Wisteria and Pine. It was connected to over thirty of my paintings, yet upon arriving here and triggering the mechanisms, I couldn't connect to a single one. I can't even walk out of this painting! "In this state... I'm really not boasting to you, but if it had been linked to even one more painting, I wouldn't have been beaten into such a miserable state by you. Unable to leave, flustered and frantic, I lashed out at you. Please, show magnanimity and don't hold it against me. Spare my life! "Let's work together and figure out a way out of here." "I know the way. I should be able to walk out," Li Banfeng said, looking back at the path he had come from and lowering the brim of his hat. He has a way out? Is that true? Mu Yuejuan felt it was likely true. Travel Cultivators always knew their way—it was an innate talent of their pathway. And judging by his combat prowess, Li Qi's cultivation was terrifyingly high. Perhaps he truly possessed a means to walk out. Li Banfeng was in no rush to leave just yet. "I need to know how I got here first. Where is that painting of yours hidden?" "Right on this floor, inside a room—a very large room filled with all sorts of things. My painting is inside a glass display cabinet." "Aside from that painting, what else did you see? Did you see a television?" "I saw a radio, and I think there was a television too." "Did you see a train locomotive?" "No, not that. How could a locomotive possibly be inside a room?" Li Banfeng knew what place this was. A'yu hadn't pointed him in the wrong direction. But why did he run into Mu Yuejuan here? Was it merely a coincidence? It seems she found me a helper. Mu Yuejuan startled. "What helper? Seventh Master, you don't need to call any helpers! You've beaten me into total submission!" "The helper is you," Li Banfeng said, looking at Mu Yuejuan. "Let's make a deal. I'll take you out, and you give that painting to me." "Give it to you? That truly is the foundation of my cultivation!" Mu Yuejuan was unwilling to agree. "Can we... can we discuss this price a bit further?" Li Banfeng smiled, and his figure abruptly vanished. "Senior, what price do you think is suitable?" Mu Yuejuan trembled from head to foot. "You name the price! Seventh Master, whatever you say goes!" A sheet of covenant paper fluttered down in front of Mu Yuejuan. "Gift that painting to me, and do one more thing for me. If you agree, sign a covenant deed."