In Moxiang Shop, inside Lu's Bookhouse.
Boss Lu first brewed tea, then warmed wine, pouring Li Banfeng a cup of hot tea and a cup of warm wine.
Li Banfeng took a sip of the warm wine first to warm his heart and stomach, then took a sip of hot tea to clear his head.
Boss Lu sighed. "Those senior masters must have been as vexing as ever."
"Not really. I thought they were decent folk. You know about this too?"
Boss Lu pulled out a newspaper and handed it to Li Banfeng. The front-page headline read: *Heroes Gather at Moxiang Shop: Why the Overt and Covert Strife?*
"*Moxiang Weekly* again?" Li Banfeng browsed through the paper carefully. "This man Shao Yingzhen is remarkably well-informed."
"He wasn't always this well-informed." Boss Lu brought over several back issues of *Moxiang Weekly* and pointed out a few articles in particular.
After reading through them, Li Banfeng's opinion of Shao Yingzhen soured considerably.
*Deep and Sorrowful Affection* told the story of Li Banfeng and Chu Huaiyuan. The article contained extensive descriptions of their bedtime intimacies, portraying behaviors that lay far beyond Li Banfeng's understanding.
*Blood and Tears of Mother and Daughter* chronicled the scandalous romance between Lu Chunying, Xiao Yeci, and Li Qi. Boss Lu had even highlighted a line of dialogue from Lu Chunying: "Xiao Yeci, I have to kill you! If you die, I only lose a mother, but if you live, I lose love!"
*Deep Hatred, Bitter Affection* depicted an impossible affair between Li Banfeng and Shan Chengjun—
"What total fucking bullshit!" Li Banfeng nearly tore the newspaper in half.
Boss Lu hastily stopped him. "Seventh Master, I'm keeping these issues for my collection."
"You're actually collecting this garbage?" Li Banfeng pointed at the articles. "You can grab fistfuls of this stuff in Black Rock Slope. Is Moxiang Shop into this kind of filth now too?"
Boss Lu shook his head. "Moxiang Shop has never cared for this. Not because the stories are bad, but because his prose is atrocious."
Li Banfeng corrected him, "His stories are terrible too!"
Boss Lu said, "Moxiang Shop prefers *Tianxiang Cihua*, *Xiushuangji*, and *Yuxiangji*. Gaudy and erotic tales are fine, but the writing cannot be so crass and blunt. You're right, Seventh Master; newspapers like this belong in Black Rock Slope, not Moxiang Shop. I looked into Shao Yingzhen. He has little experience in the publishing business. *Moxiang Weekly* wasn't his family's enterprise originally. After taking it over, within two months of operation, sales plummeted because Moxiang Shop dislikes this sort of fabricated nonsense. What he's doing is out of desperation. Given his current connections in Puluo Province, it's hard for him to gather valuable news material, so he simply applied the sensational fabricating tricks he learned in Black Rock Slope to Moxiang Shop. Yet lately, of all times, so much genuine substance has appeared from his press. You ought to think carefully about the reason behind that, Seventh Master."
Li Banfeng took three teacups and arranged them in a circle on the tea table.
"The Inner Province instructed Shan Chengjun to seize Moxiang Shop. Shao Yingzhen must have received word from the Inner Province to know the ins and outs of the whole affair."
Boss Lu placed another cup on the table. "Given Shao Yingzhen's current strength, he has no way of obtaining intelligence from the Inner Province on his own—unless he has already been bought out by the Inner Province and is working for them."
Li Banfeng stared at the four cups, finding it contradictory. "The Inner Province had Shan Chengjun act, yet also had Shao Yingzhen leak the news. What's the point of that? Aren't they undercutting themselves?"
Boss Lu tapped one of the cups. "Shao Yingzhen drew a crowd of old seniors to Moxiang Shop. From now on, they'll covet the position of local deity every single day. Perhaps that is the Inner Province's true objective. Moxiang Shop is tied to the rise and fall of Puluo Province's cultural lineage. Among that crowd, there are very likely people working for Qiao Yi who want to fish in troubled waters and bring Moxiang Shop under the Inner Province's control."
Li Banfeng pushed the cups aside. "Then we must find a way to keep them far away from Moxiang Shop."
Boss Lu shook his head slightly. "Guarding against a thief every day is no solution."
Li Banfeng put the cups back into the tea set box. "What if we send all these senior masters to their graves?"
Boss Lu puffed on his pipe. "I've thought of that. Getting rid of them all at once won't be easy, but taking them out one by one wouldn't be so hard. But just how many senior masters are there in Puluo Province? Even I can't keep count. Without a careful reckoning, some are bound to slip through the net. Besides, I suspect there must be a leader among them. If we don't dig out this ringleader, Moxiang Shop will never know peace."
Li Banfeng was pondering that very matter. "Those patriarchs lacked the courage to cross Shan Chengjun, yet now they dare make trouble for me. Someone must be backing them. Who could it be? Shu Wanjuan?"
***
Inside Mosong Press, Moxiang Shop.
Shu Wanjuan threw the newspaper down in front of Shao Yingzhen. "Was making the meeting of the heroes public also done under Lord Qiao's orders?"
Shao Yingzhen nodded. "Without Lord Qiao's command, how would this humble subordinate dare act on his own?"
Shu Wanjuan looked at Shao Yingzhen. The man's cultivation was not particularly high—a Martial Cultivator at the sixth layer of ground level—and his influence was modest, owning only a few factories and presses. No one knew whose connections he had used to latch onto Qiao Yi.
Moreover, Shao Yingzhen seemed to enjoy more of Qiao Yi's trust than Shu Wanjuan did. On the surface, Shao Yingzhen was acting under Qiao Yi's orders to work for Shu Wanjuan, but in reality, Qiao Yi issued orders directly to Shao Yingzhen without going through Shu Wanjuan at all, which displeased Shu Wanjuan greatly.
Shao Yingzhen's various practices also frustrated Shu Wanjuan. Seizing Moxiang Shop was such a crucial affair—how could it be loudly trumpeted in the papers?
Yet since it was Qiao Yi's instruction, Shu Wanjuan could not say much. He picked up the newspaper and flipped through it repeatedly. When he reached the supplement, his brow furrowed deeply. The stories were written in an utterly vulgar manner.
"Write less of these unsightly phrases in the future. Moxiang Shop is not Black Rock Slope!"
Shao Yingzhen assented repeatedly, though whether he would actually change was another matter entirely.
Shu Wanjuan left the press and walked out onto the streets of Moxiang Shop.
The streets were not wide, but the architecture was elegant and refined. With heavy snow falling today, the scenery took on an even more poetic air.
By the roadside stood an academy called the Stone-Rinsing Mountain Retreat, a two-story pavilion. From the upper floor came the orderly chanting of students reciting their texts:
"Xihe drives the sun, sun and moon hasten past;
The sea of learning is boundless, yet a single reed may cross.
To grieve in white-haired old age, is that not sheer folly?
Through the city of books lies a path, winding and turning..."
Shu Wanjuan loved hearing this, for they were reciting the *Rhapsody on Encouraging Study*, an exemplary piece he had composed to exhort learning when he first established Moxiang Shop.
In front of the academy stood a young boy around ten years old, weeping in the wind and snow.
Shu Wanjuan walked up to him and asked, "Why are you crying?"
Holding his book, the boy looked up at Shu Wanjuan. "I didn't have money to buy a new book, so I brought an old one. The teacher said I recited it wrong."
Shu Wanjuan opened the book in the boy's hands, read through the *Rhapsody on Encouraging Study* carefully, and turned to ask, "Where did he say you were wrong?"
The boy pointed at a line: "The immortals of the Purple Palace all burned the midnight oil; the portraits in Lingyan Pavilion are none other than those who bored walls to borrow light."
"The teacher said the *Rhapsody on Encouraging Study* doesn't have these two lines at all and told me to cross them out immediately. I saved up for a long time to buy this used book, and I couldn't bear to mark it up, so I angered the teacher, and he made me stand out here as punishment."
Shu Wanjuan frowned. "Take me to your teacher!"
The boy refused, wiping his tears. "I owe several months of tuition, and the teacher hasn't pressed me for it. He punished me, and I deserved it."
Hearing this, Shu Wanjuan's brow smoothed somewhat.
He climbed the stairs to the second floor and traced the character for "weariness" in the air, sending it onto the schoolteacher.
The teacher suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion. Telling the students to review on their own, he went back to his room to wash his face and rest a moment.
Upon entering his bedroom, he found a man seated beside the writing desk, dressed like a storyteller.
The teacher froze, then demanded angrily, "Who are you? How dare you barge into my quarters?"
Shu Wanjuan glanced at him. The teacher shuddered; all his thoughts surfaced at once, only to vanish an instant later, leaving nothing but sheer reverence in his mind.
He lowered his head, no longer daring to look Shu Wanjuan in the eye.
Shu Wanjuan spoke slowly: "'The immortals of the Purple Palace all burned the midnight oil; the portraits in Lingyan Pavilion are none other than those who bored walls to borrow light.' These two lines are indeed from the original text of the *Rhapsody on Encouraging Study*. Errors occurred when later generations copied it, leaving existing editions incomplete. You made an arbitrary judgment without proper textual research. For that, you deserve punishment!"
With that, Shu Wanjuan picked up the ferule and struck the teacher's head twice.
After striking him, Shu Wanjuan added, "Yet you teach without regard for personal gain, bringing fortune to students of humble birth, living up to the original aspiration behind my founding of Moxiang Shop. For that, you deserve a reward!"
Shu Wanjuan took out a book and poured a wooden chest from it, placing it on the desk.
The teacher heard every word clearly. Hearing the phrase "my founding of Moxiang Shop," he realized he had encountered an extraordinary figure.
He hardly dared to breathe, not daring to make a sound, unsure whether looking up or keeping his head down was the right thing to do.
After waiting for a long time, the teacher finally gathered the courage to look up, but he was the only one left in the room. On the desk sat a chest full of silver dollars.
***
Shu Wanjuan sat in a roadside teahouse, drinking tea with the Blood Fang Monster. Just then, Chang Jiuhai, the patriarch of the Demon Cultivators, walked past along the street, ghost servants lingering before and behind him.
Several ghost servants entered the academy. Holding his cup, Shu Wanjuan frowned deeply. "What do these people think they are doing?"
The Blood Fang Monster smiled. "What? Does your heart ache for them?"
Shu Wanjuan shook his head. "Acting so conspicuously will only draw the peddler here."
The Blood Fang Monster set her cup aside, ate a candied fruit, and stared at Shu Wanjuan. "Second King, don't think I can't see through you. When Old Shan wanted to take on this business, you made excuses and dragged your feet. I know you still hold affection for Moxiang Shop."
Shu Wanjuan said nothing.
The Blood Fang Monster continued, "How much affection you have, I don't care. Now that Old Shan is dead, I don't care much about that either. I just want to be a queen; living my life with anyone is all the same to me. We are going to exchange Moxiang Shop for those thirteen territories and establish ourselves as rulers—just don't forget that. As for what these people do, it has nothing to do with us. If they cross the line, when the peddler comes, we can use them as shields. Doesn't that kill two birds with one stone?"
Shu Wanjuan looked at her. "Qiao Yi gave orders to Shao Yingzhen without consulting me. This errand in Moxiang Shop is no longer solely in my hands."
The Blood Fang Monster sneered. "Why care about the errand? Isn't taking care of the business enough? Whoever holds Moxiang Shop has the leverage. As long as Qiao Yi's price doesn't change, we can keep doing this deal."
Shu Wanjuan gazed at the snowy scene, murmuring under his breath, "Just how many people did he promise that price to...?"
***
Looking at the document sent from Puluo Province, Qiao Yi's expression was complicated.
He was ninety percent satisfied with the outcome, but he still felt it fell short by that final tenth.
"Has the peddler still not shown himself in Moxiang Shop?"
Nian Shangyou replied truthfully, "To date, no trace of the peddler has been discovered."
Qiao Yi lifted his brush, intending to draft a reply. After thinking for a moment, he rinsed the brush tip and hung it to dry on the brush stand.
If the peddler was not going to Moxiang Shop, Qiao Yi did not wish to alter his strategy either.
Nian Shangyou also found it strange. With Moxiang Shop left unattended, what was the peddler so busy with?
***
In Hulu Village, A'yi wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to the peddler, "Don't rush. Go even slower."
Holding a jar of vanishing cream in his left hand and a probe in his right, the peddler's hands were trembling. "How much slower can I go?"
"Just pick out a tiny bit. Don't take too much, or it'll be hard to tell what it is."
The peddler picked out a pinhead-sized black shadow from the jar and placed it into the glass bottle in A'yi's hand.
The black shadow squirmed slowly inside the bottle. A'yi quickly capped it and said to the peddler, "Stay right here. Don't you dare seduce my wife!"
The peddler looked at Qiu Luoye, pressed his lips together, and remained silent for a long time.
Carrying a food basket and the glass bottle, A'yi ascended to the clouds above. Taking the opportunity of delivering food, he handed the bottle to A'yu.
A'yu examined it for a long time, then said to A'yi, "That's right. This is a Xuyuan silkworm, identical to the one the peddler gave you last time."
A'yi thought about it and shook his head. "Eldest Sister, you must be mistaken. The Xuyuan silkworm the peddler brought last time was much bigger than this."
A'yu looked at it a while longer. "This Xuyuan silkworm was trapped by a special technique, so it could never grow. Once the technique is removed and it is placed in a Xuyuan land with food to eat, it will quickly grow to the size of a finger."
A'yi scratched his scalp. "What's a Xuyuan land?"
A'yu snapped impatiently, "Go ask the peddler! I'm starving!"
Opening the food basket, she found lamb leg and minced meat noodles inside.
A'yu frowned. "Lamb leg again? Eating this every day is so cloying. Can't you switch it up a bit?"
A'yi grew annoyed. "You're just a half-dead deceased spirit, yet you're so picky about food!"
A'yu gave a sweet smile, lifted a leg, and kicked A'yi right out of the building.
A'yi flew out of the second floor and crashed onto the ground. Scrambling to his feet, he patted the dirt off his clothes and cursed at the building, "You shrew! If I starved you for three days, anything would taste delicious!"
Returning below the clouds, A'yi conveyed her words verbatim to the peddler.
The peddler gently shook the vanishing cream jar. "It really is a Xuyuan silkworm. A specks-worth the size of a pinhead is an individual worm. Just how many are hidden in that great totem?"
Earlier, the peddler had gathered a massive expanse of black shadow from the center of the great totem. If they were all composed of Xuyuan silkworms, their numbers would be truly impossible to estimate.
A'yi asked out of curiosity, "What exactly is a Xuyuan silkworm, and what is a Xuyuan land?"
The peddler explained, "When Puluo Province first came into being, it was entirely a Xuyuan land. Only through gradual transformation over time did so many territories emerge. There are still Xuyuan lands in Puluo Province today, but they are exceptionally rare. Xuyuan silkworms grow in Xuyuan lands. I can't say for sure what their exact origins are, but this thing causes fluctuations in one's cultivation."
A'yi asked, "What kind of fluctuations?"
The peddler recalled carefully. "As far as I know, once a person consumes a Xuyuan silkworm, fifty percent experience slight fluctuations, though not drastic. Twenty percent see significant gains, while thirty percent suffer a noticeable loss. A tiny fraction lose their cultivation entirely, and another tiny fraction experience explosive leaps."
A'yi blinked. "What kind of explosive leap?"
"I've heard of people jumping from ground level straight to the clouds in a short span of time."
A'yi snatched the jar of vanishing cream. "Then let me try it!"
The peddler snatched it back. "Why would you want to try it?"
A'yi looked aggrieved. "I've done so much for you, and you won't even give me a taste of something sweet? Didn't you say it can cause explosive leaps?"
The peddler looked exasperated. "Did you not hear a word of what I said earlier? Only an infinitesimal few can make that leap. Do you honestly think you're one of those rare few?"
A'yi argued back, "Even if I'm not, maybe my wife is!"
The peddler put away the jar. "Put that thought out of your mind. Such people are one in ten thousand. Where would you ever find one?"
***
Fatty Qin arrived in Moxiang Shop and brought Liangwucai to Li Banfeng's residence.
Liangwu was delighted to see Li Banfeng. "Seventh Master, I thought you had forgotten about us sisters."
Liangcai wore a melancholy expression. "Better to forget. Every time I see you, endless sorrow wells up in my heart."
Li Banfeng frowned. "Where does all this sorrow come from? Didn't I send you to live like empress dowagers? Did anyone mistreat you?"
Liangwu glared at Liangcai, then turned to Li Banfeng with a smile. "Seventh Master, don't listen to her. We've enjoyed plenty of good fortune these days, and we've always remembered your kindness in our hearts."
As she spoke, Liangwu looked tenderly at him and moved to embrace him, but Liangcai remained stubborn and refused to budge.
They shared a single body. If Liangcai would not move, Liangwu could only fret in frustration. As the two sisters were locked in their silent contest, Qin Tianjiu coughed awkwardly. "Seventh Brother, I brought the brothers from the Three Heroes Sect. If anything happens, we'll let you know immediately. I'll go take a walk around the streets first."
Once Fatty left, Li Banfeng asked Liangwucai, "Are you two biological sisters?"
Tears welled in Liangcai's eyes. "I told you he's a heartless man. He never remembers a word we say."
Liangwu was also somewhat disappointed. "Seventh Master, we really did tell you about this before. We weren't originally sisters. After dying, we drifted through the world as wandering souls. When we reached a newland, we grew together."
"Which newland did you go to? Why did you grow together?"
Li Banfeng had never asked this before, not wanting to pry into other people's secrets. But today, he had to understand clearly; the matter was of great importance.
Liangwucai was reluctant to speak of it, especially Liangcai, who looked out the window in an attempt to change the subject. "The snow is falling so heavily today. The pure snowflakes are cleansing my soul."
Li Banfeng said nothing, merely watching the two sisters quietly.
After holding out for a long while, Liangwu finally spoke: "That place cannot be mentioned lightly. Speaking of it invites fatal calamity. But since you asked, Seventh Master, it must be something critical."
Li Banfeng nodded. "It is indeed critical."
Liangcai said, "Even if we lose our lives because of it, must you still ask?"
Li Banfeng replied, "I will ensure your safety."
Liangwu bit her lip. "If we sisters truly lose our lives, Seventh Master, you must never forget us."
"Wait a moment!" Li Banfeng silently shed a drop of blood, allowing an invisible Boundary to surround the two sisters.
Within the Boundary, he employed his Sit Back and Relax technique. Should anything go wrong, he was confident he could save them.
Liangwu spoke first: "After I died, my soul wandered into a newland, but it was a place that didn't seem like a newland at all. That was where I met Liangcai."
Liangcai continued, "I arrived a few days earlier than Liangwu. I felt that place was the legendary oldland. It was vast, but sparsely populated."
Li Banfeng asked, "Did the place have a name?"
Liangwu said, "It was called the Zhougu Ruins. Living people dwelt there, addressing one another as sisters."
Liangcai added, "Our souls were trapped in the Zhougu Ruins. They cast curses upon us, forcing us to become sisters."
"They remade our bodies, joining the two of us together into what we are today."
"They even gave us a name: Liangwucai..."
Halfway through her sentence, Liangcai began coughing violently, as though something were choking her throat.
The sisters had not lied; they truly could not speak of that place.
Lai Wuju must have faced the same dilemma, which was why she had not even dared mention that sister of hers.
Li Banfeng activated his visual technique and pried open Liangcai's mouth, spotting a worm squirming against her throat.
He had the glove reach in to extract it. After two attempts, the glove reported, *"Master, this worm is too nimble. When cornered, it burrows straight into the flesh. It's hard to get a grip on it."*
Anywhere else, the two sisters would have already perished.
Yet within Li Banfeng's Boundary, under the influence of Sit Back and Relax, Li Banfeng was the master of this domain.
He lightly stepped forward, and the two sisters sat motionless like clay sculptures.
This was his technique of Standing on One's Own Ground, calibrated with just the right precision so as not to harm the sisters at all.
Unable to gnaw through Liangcai's flesh, the worm attempted to crawl further down her throat.
Li Banfeng exerted the authority of the Master of the House. Under that overwhelming presence, the worm's body stiffened, and the glove easily plucked it out.
The worm was jet-black and roughly the size of the glove's index finger, unremarkable in appearance.
Li Banfeng observed the creature for a moment. The stiffened worm twitched and attempted to bite him, but Li Banfeng rolled it into a ball and handed it to Old Teapot to handle.
After a long while, the sisters recovered from the Standing on One's Own Ground technique. Catching their breath, they realized nothing felt amiss anymore.
Liangcai rubbed her throat. "Are we not dead?"
Liangwu let out a long sigh of relief. "I knew it. With Seventh Master here, he could certainly break the curse."
Li Banfeng recalled the worm's appearance. "Was that a curse or gu?"
The sisters shook their heads, unable to distinguish between the two. Cultivators of those two Daoist paths were exceedingly rare in Puluo Province.
Li Banfeng asked, "Everyone in the Zhougu Ruins addressed each other as sisters. Were there no men?"
Liangwu replied, "During our time in the Zhougu Ruins, we never saw a single man."
Lai Wuju had told Li Banfeng that she had a sister who shared similar talents and a shared character in their names.
She had also told him that he had met sisters like them before—born in the same place, sharing the same traditions, and bearing the same character.
Liangwucai, Lai Wuju, and another named Hen Wuyou.
It seemed Li Banfeng had found the right people.
"How did you get out of the Zhougu Ruins?"
Liangcai said, "Through a dream. In the dream, a very beautiful woman showed us a path and let us leave the Zhougu Ruins."
Liangwu added, "That woman said she would come find us later and give us a home, but we never saw her again. Later, Master Qiu took us in, and we stayed in his territory."
"In a dream? A very beautiful woman?" Li Banfeng pondered for a long time. "Could it be Meng Qian?"
***
In Haozhou, Shang State.
Critic walked along the deserted streets into the Second Ring.
The layout of Haozhou was broadly similar to Chaoge: the First Ring held many factories, while the Second Ring was filled with workshops.
Now, both factories and workshops had ceased operations, for few people remained in Haozhou.
Yet a certain pottery workshop in the Second Ring was unusual. Though no one could be seen inside, Critic could faintly perceive a trace of life.
He entered the workshop and walked step by step toward the back courtyard.
A heavy wave of drowsiness suddenly struck him, forcing Critic to halt in his tracks.
"Lord Imperial Envoy, mine is merely a small business with nothing to investigate. Please take your leave elsewhere."
Critic recognized the voice. "Madam Meng, in Chaoge, I never set foot inside the Dream-Tethering Tower. I believe I have already shown you all due consideration."
Meng Qian replied, "I am endlessly grateful for your consideration, Lord Envoy."
Critic glanced around the pottery workshop. "Yet I cannot protect you forever. I am an Imperial Envoy and must carry out my duties."
Meng Qian understood his meaning. "I cannot ask for your favor without compensation either. Name your price, and I am willing to pay you handsomely."
"A price..." Critic considered his current predicament. "I want a dream—a dream that can preserve my life."
Meng Qian fell silent for a long time. "Lord Imperial Envoy, given your current circumstances, that will be exceedingly difficult. I can only do my best."
Chapter 815