A Covenant Deed Demands Blood

Li Banfeng sprinted toward Moxiang Shop with everything he had, gasping for breath. The peddler was pushing his cart, charging down the slope. His leg was injured, leaving him limping violently as he ran. The bandages wrapped around him were thoroughly drenched in blood, leaving a crimson trail behind him. Qiao Yi had laid out an airtight plan. He still had over thirty thousand soldiers of the Totem Army left. He had detached five thousand to hold off Eighteen Wheels, and another five thousand under Nian Shangyou to scout an exit. That left twenty thousand to surround the peddler—surrounding without attacking. The peddler was severely wounded. If he wanted to live, he would never dare initiate a battle. Once Nian Shangyou found an exit, Qiao Yi could lead the Totem Army out of the valley, push into Moxiang Shop, garrison there, coordinate with Santoucha, and use the imperial jade seal and the Great Totem to continuously summon reinforcements until they conquered the entirety of Puluo Province. Yet the peddler came charging down the mountainside, throwing Qiao Yi's entire plan into total disarray. Qiao Yi was not the only one thrown into turmoil. The Totem Army had been locked in bitter battle across this valley for two full days. Scattered across every corner of the ravine, they had been butchered by the peddler and Wulao Valley through every conceivable means. Now that they were finally reunited—thirty thousand strong surrounding a single peddler—instead of displaying their proper composure, they fell into an uncanny panic. A squad of Fire Cultivators in the vanguard focused their fire, unleashing a barrage of flames directly at the peddler. "Reckless!" Qiao Yi shouted in dismay. He rarely commanded from the front lines, so the fact that even he could see the recklessness proved just how irrational the strike was. Had these soldiers fallen under one of the peddler's techniques? The flames did not touch the peddler. A violent gust howled through the ravine, blowing the conflagration straight back into the ranks of the Totem Army. No matter how resilient a soldier's physique might be, fire was something one had to dodge. Chaos broke out among the vanguard. The soldiers waited for Qiao Yi to issue a countermeasure, while Qiao Yi waited for the soldiers to neutralize the threat themselves. As the inferno raged, a raincloud drifted above the canyon, bringing a wave of relief to the ranks. Lord Qiao had responded after all. Deploying Water Cultivators to summon rainclouds was the wisest possible choice in this moment. The instant the fire was extinguished, the vanguard would reform their battle lines. Qiao Yi was also relieved. The Totem Army's tactical discipline was truly beyond reproach; after only a fleeting moment of disorder, they had known to use rainwater to quench the flames. Then the torrential downpour crashed down—and the inferno roared with the wind, tearing from the vanguard straight through to the rear guard. Qiao Yi was dumbstruck. The soldiers were completely dumbstruck. The sky had not poured down water. It was pouring oil! The raincloud had not been Qiao Yi's doing, nor was it the soldiers' initiative. It was the peddler's technique. When oil, fire, and wind struck in unison, how was one supposed to counter it? The Totem Army had no immediate answer. Qiao Yi barked an order: "Deploy the Thousand Men Concerted Effort Formation to block him!" Deploying the Thousand Men Concerted Effort Formation in such a narrow gorge was no simple task. The formation indeed had numerous variants, among which the Long Snake Formation was well suited to the terrain of a mountain valley. Yet the Long Snake Formation was inherently thin. Against an opponent like the peddler, a thin formation risked being butchered straight through. Under current circumstances, however, there was no time to worry about thickness. To anchor a battle formation, one first had to withstand the flames. The Totem Army was made of flesh and blood; trapped in the fiercest heart of the inferno, the vanguard could not form up at all. The center army managed to hold their ground. Using Wind Cultivator techniques, they pushed the flames forward. With winds clashing on both sides, the Totem Army, holding superior numbers, ought to have possessed the upper hand. Yet the opposing wind was not coming from the peddler alone. When the peddler fought, Wulao Valley fought with him. Wulao Valley whipped up tempests alongside the peddler, locking the mountain winds in a stalemate against the Totem Army's Wind Cultivators. The fire hung suspended in the center, blowing neither forward nor backward—burning down entirely upon the vanguard. Thirty percent of the vanguard burned to death on the spot. The surviving seventy percent abandoned all pretense of formation and scattered in every direction. The center army struggled desperately to hold off the peddler, and though he unleashed Sever the Path to Forge a Way multiple times, he failed to punch through. Qiao Yi rallied a group of Mind Cultivators to disrupt the peddler's thoughts. The peddler's footing slipped under his wheels, and he nearly tumbled to the ground. Seeing his compromised state, Qiao Yi immediately ordered a counterattack. Glue Cultivators surged forward to glue the peddler's soles and cart wheels to the ground, while Arrow Cultivators loosed a hail of tens of thousands of arrows, turning the cart into a hedgehog of quivering shafts. Struck by more than a dozen arrows, the peddler ducked behind his cart, racking his mind for his next move. He pulled the shafts out first. The puncture wounds did not hurt much; instead, a strange numbness and itch crept through them. The arrowheads were poisoned—every Arrow Cultivator had a Poison Cultivator backing them in coordinated strikes. With arrows raining like sheets of water, how was he going to break through? The best method was an Oil Cultivator technique to make the arrows slide harmlessly past. But he had failed to channel it just now; his focus had been fractured by the Mind Cultivators, and poisoned as he was, he could not muster any moderately potent arts. Another viable option was to relocate. The problem was that Qiao Yi would no longer take the bait. Qiao Yi had already deduced the rules of the life covenant: if the peddler did not fight, Wulao Valley would not fight. If the peddler relocated, the valley would suspend combat during that interval and refrain from using its shifting mountain ranges to block the enemy from leaving, allowing Qiao Yi to mass his forces and charge out of Wulao Valley. If Qiao Yi truly led thirty thousand troops out into Puluo Province, the consequences would be catastrophic. What other method did the peddler have left to stop Qiao Yi? He could barely even resist the Totem Army's Mind Cultivators. Tinkle! A gentle breeze brushed past, setting the wind chimes hanging from the cart ringing. They were the wind chimes Lu Qianjiao had given him. Though small, the sentiment behind them ran deep. She had fashioned them with her own hands—twelve bells, six pendants, each polished by Lu Qianjiao herself. With such profound affection woven into them, certain arts became effortless to unleash. The peddler drew out a single thread of passion and tied it to the wind chimes. The chimes resonated instantly. Their chime grew louder and louder, gradually disrupting the Mind Cultivators' mental arts and throwing off the Arrow Cultivators' aim. As a Peeping Cultivator, Qiao Yi caught faint echoes of the chime, but he never expected it to carry such power. He commanded his troops to sound the horns and beat the war drums, using the thundering clamor to drown out the chimes. The peddler flicked his fingertips again. The wind chimes swayed violently, guiding the thread of passion to bind around a dozen rattle drums resting on the cart. Clack-clack-clack! The rattle drums snapped in unison. Though far smaller than war drums, their sound was shockingly immense. Across the valley, the clatter of the rattle drums reverberated. Echo and beat compounded, forming an overwhelming acoustic field. Excruciating pain pierced Qiao Yi's ears. He hurriedly ceased all of his Peeping Cultivator techniques. Under the assault of the drumming, the Mind Cultivators' arts severed entirely, and the arrows flew wildly off mark. The peddler exhaled a long breath. The art he had just unleashed was the Love Cultivator technique, Hearts in Harmony. Lu Qianjiao's deep affection dwelled within the wind chimes. With only a single thread of passion, the peddler had linked the chimes to the rattle drums, and through them, to the entire valley, deploying a Sound Cultivator technique that shattered the enemy's offensive. Having earned this brief reprieve, the peddler retrieved a bottle of medicinal powder from the cart to purge the poison from his veins. Once he had recovered slightly, he shoved the cart with all his might. The cart remained rooted in place, but every arrow bristling from its wood detached and shot forward, flipping midair to skim along the ground toward the enemy. Every Totem Army soldier assumed the peddler was using an Arrow Cultivator technique. Even Qiao Yi guarded his legs. They had all witnessed the peddler's vicious cunning; far too many soldiers had perished to his penchant for targeting feet. The arrows flew neither too fast nor erratically; their trajectory was rigid, without bends or curves. Dodging required nothing more than a simple hop, demanding almost no effort. Just as they thought the peddler's arrow arts amounted to nothing more, some of the soldiers landed and realized something was wrong. Their bodies were sinking. The ground beneath their feet had turned into a quagmire. Against the Thousand Men Concerted Effort Formation, Mud Cultivator techniques were highly effective. Their only drawback was limited area of effect. A typical Mud Cultivator could only create a small patch of marshland. In a formation of ten thousand men, twenty or thirty getting stuck hardly disrupted the overall array. Yet this mud art was not cast by the peddler alone; a vast portion was channeled by Wulao Valley itself. Thousands in the center army sank into the mire, effectively stripping them of their formation stances. Qiao Yi sank into the mud as well, unable to pull his legs free. Soldiers rushed forward to haul him out, but the mire was so soft that they sank in right alongside him. The peddler sprang up abruptly and slapped the cart. Over a hundred kitchen cleavers flew out, carrying Blade Cultivator arts as they hacked and slashed through the enemy ranks. Seeing his center army on the brink of falling into chaos, Qiao Yi hesitated over whether to commit the rear guard in support. Taking advantage of his indecision, the peddler unleashed Sever the Path to Forge a Way, ripping an open corridor straight through the chaotic ranks. The peddler's Travel Cultivator art carried terrifying force. Soldiers swept aside along its path preserved their lives, while those who stood firm in its way were torn clean in two. Beneath the commander's banner, Qiao Yi was not far from the path of destruction. With just a slight adjustment of angle, the peddler could rip him apart. Qiao Yi could not even dodge; he was still hopelessly stuck in the mud. In his panic, Qiao Yi cried out to his men for help. Several soldiers rushed to his aid, only to sink into the quagmire alongside him. Then a few other soldiers suddenly spewed fire directly onto the mire, baking a patch of the marsh dry. Witnessing this, Qiao Yi stopped shouting. Sometimes he truly could not fathom the Totem Army's logic. If the soldiers thought they could save him this way, he would burn to death long before the ground baked dry. Yet the soldiers were not spitting fire at Qiao Yi's vicinity. They were spraying flames aimlessly across the marsh. Qiao Yi still failed to understand their intent—until he glanced back at the peddler and saw smoke rising from his body, his skin cracking wide like parched, scorched earth. Having lingered in the valley so long, some soldiers had gradually gleaned insight into countering the life covenant. If Wulao Valley was injured during combat, the peddler suffered the exact same injury. Under normal circumstances, if the Totem Army torched the ground, smashed rocks, or chopped down trees in Wulao Valley, none of it affected the peddler. However, if the ground, rocks, grass, or trees were being used by Wulao Valley as weapons to attack the army, any damage they sustained counted as combat loss—and the peddler had to bear the corresponding harm. The peddler had just deployed a Mud Cultivator technique, meaning the mire on the ground was an active weapon. Mud was inherently resilient. Slashing a groove or poking a hole into it inflicted negligible harm. Yet if the water within the mud was baked dry, turning it to brittle earth and sand, the damage to the mire was catastrophic. With the mud suffering such grievous injury, the peddler was dragged down with it. He recalled his Mud Cultivator technique, and his Travel Cultivator technique was forcibly interrupted. Qiao Yi broke free from the crumbling earth, only then realizing just how close he was to the peddler. He scrambled back toward the rear guard, frantically directing troops forward to shield him. Wounded on top of existing injuries and surrounded on all sides, the peddler remained unruffled. A patch of mire still lingered beneath his feet; it instantly froze solid, shattered into jagged shards of ice, and swirled through the formation on the wind like a storm of arrows. Many soldiers paid no heed to fingernail-sized shards of ice piercing their flesh. Their physiques were vastly tougher than ordinary men, and backed by the Thousand Men Concerted Effort Formation, such scratches seemed negligible. Other soldiers were more cautious, invoking their own techniques to ward off the shards. Soon, they realized just how wise caution was: there was dirt within those ice shards, and seeds nestled within the dirt. The seeds sprouted rapidly inside their bodies, and grass began bursting through flesh. Blades of grass pierced skin and muscle, and roots drove deep through internal organs, inflicting horrifying damage. Watching his center troops collapse in droves, Qiao Yi could not comprehend how many techniques the peddler still held in reserve. He had just deployed Cold Cultivator, Wind Cultivator, Arrow Cultivator, and Grass Cultivator techniques. Before that assault even ceased, the green grass sprouting from the soldiers' bodies blossomed and went to seed. Riding the howling gale, the seeds whirled through the air and drilled into the flesh of more soldiers, where they immediately took root and sprouted anew! If this continued, the seeds would multiply endlessly, leaving no conceivable counter. Qiao Yi recalled when they had assaulted Baishun County—an entire garrison had perished precisely like this. "Shangyou! Quick, think of something!" Qiao Yi shouted, turning to Nian Shangyou. After all, Nian Shangyou had weathered many a fierce campaign in the ranks. Nian Shangyou indeed had a plan. At that very moment, he had already arrived in a completely different valley. He saw nothing wrong with his actions. Qiao Yi had ordered him to find an exit, and he had departed ahead of time. This merely proved he grasped the gravity and urgency of the mission. Only by thorough preparation in advance could one seize fleeting opportunities at critical junctures. With Nian Shangyou gone, Qiao Yi had no one left to lean on. To his surprise, the Totem Army possessed its own countermeasure. A detachment of soldiers skilled in Body Cultivator techniques hardened their flesh into armor, forming a protective barrier before the others. The grass seeds lacked sufficient hardness to pierce the Body Cultivator techniques of most totem soldiers. Just as the peddler was contemplating how to crack their armor, Wulao Valley coordinated its effort, sweeping a vast swarm of exceedingly hard tree seeds upon the wind and driving them deep into the soldiers' bodies. The tree seeds sprouted instantly, rapidly tearing through flesh and bone. Soldiers fell in swathes, leaving Qiao Yi horrified. Victory appeared within reach, yet the peddler realized disaster had struck. Several soldiers raised their blades and began furiously hacking off the saplings growing from their own flesh. Others eagerly followed suit, hacking at the trees sprouting from their bodies. As over a thousand soldiers chopped down the trees, countless wounds split open across the peddler's body. His technique broke immediately, and he collapsed behind his cart. He had risen by the life covenant, and by the life covenant he fell. Relying on the covenant to unite with Wulao Valley against their shared foe, he had maneuvered against seventy thousand enemy troops and slain thirty thousand, all through the valley's support. Yet that very support had just dealt him a catastrophic blow. The trees were the valley's weapons. When the trees were chopped down, it counted as combat damage, inflicting grievous harm upon the peddler. Already severely wounded, taking so many blade strikes all at once left the peddler feeling as though he might never stand again. Qiao Yi's eyes lit up. Pointing at the peddler, he barked at the Totem Army, "Capture him alive!" Before the messengers could relay the order, a battered, blood-soaked soldier sprinted over, screaming, "Eighteen Wheels is attacking!" Qiao Yi was stunned. "Didn't I send reinforcements to hold him off?" The soldier shook his head. "No one ever came to reinforce us." Qiao Yi stared in shock. He had clearly assigned troops to intercept them. Why was this soldier claiming none had arrived? Had he not sent them? Or had he? Qiao Yi had indeed forgotten to dispatch the detachment. Just as he had been about to do so, the peddler had charged down the slope, forcing him to respond and driving the interception clean out of his mind. How could he have overlooked something so vital? "Old Qiao, you're getting old. Your head isn't working..." Qiao Yi heard laughter. It came from behind the cart. The peddler still had the strength to laugh? When he came charging down the mountain, had the entire army fallen under one of his techniques? Had that technique caused them to forget all about intercepting the enemy? Which discipline did such a power belong to? A Fool Cultivator, or a Mad Cultivator? Could the peddler truly know arts like that? Weren't those techniques kept strictly in the hands of the founders themselves? Qiao Yi pinched the bridge of his nose, forcing his mind clear. What time was it to ponder such things? Eighteen Wheels was already upon them! Qiao Yi ordered, "Detach five thousand to block Eighteen Wheels! The rest, follow me to find an exit!" The peddler could fight no longer; Qiao Yi could see that clearly. Even if he could, it mattered little. Battered as he was, leaving three to five thousand men behind would be more than enough to end his life. There was no time to waste on him or get tangled up in another brawl. No one knew how many more tricks the peddler had up his sleeve. "Old Qiao!" The peddler rolled a cigarette and lit it. "Don't bother wasting your breath. No need to block them. Listen closely—the Old Train is already here!" Chug-chug, hiss—! The distant hiss of venting steam echoed through the valley. Had Eighteen Wheels truly arrived? Or was this another of the peddler's illusions? "Pay him no mind!" Qiao Yi roared. "Follow me to find the exit!" "No need to look for an exit either. I'll open one for you." The peddler exhaled a plume of smoke that coalesced into a feathered arrow in midair and struck the opposite mountainside. A fissure split across the slope, widening steadily into an open path. On the other side of the path, vague figures came into view. Qiao Yi peered through his peeping arts, spotting a figure clad in a black suit and a black fedora sprinting forward with all his might. "Li Qi?" Qiao Yi recognized Li Banfeng, yet he could not tell whether this was an illusion or the man in the flesh. Was that truly an exit? Why would Li Qi enter Wulao Valley through it? What could he possibly accomplish alone? He was certainly no match for the peddler in combat. If even the peddler had fallen here, what could Li Qi hope to do? It was a trap! That could not be an exit—it had to be the peddler's illusion. They must not go there! Qiao Yi shouted orders forbidding anyone from approaching the breach, but the soldiers of the Totem Army, having fought bitterly in the gorge for two days, rushed toward it ahead of everyone else. Being closer, they could tell that the exit was real. Qiao Yi was furious. The Totem Army grew sharper with every battle, their intellect rising amid combat so they could independently adapt to shifting situations. That was normally an asset. Yet initiative came with a price: sometimes, they disregarded military orders. They raced past the peddler's cart, none daring to lay a finger on him as they bolted toward the exit. Clamping the cigarette between his teeth, the peddler slapped the cart. Clack-clack-clack! The rattle drums snapped a few times, and rain began falling from the heavens. Rain again? Qiao Yi turned pale with horror, unable to tell whether this was water, oil, poison, or glue. His guards shielded him from the downpour, only to find that every drop striking the earth was crimson. It was not rain. It was blood. Where had so much blood come from? The peddler's face was chalk-white as he took a drag from his cigarette. Every drop of blood hitting the ground rooted instantly, sending a stone pillar erupting from the earth. Pillar after pillar sprouted upward, transforming the battlefield into a vast forest of stone. A covenant deed demands blood; only with blood can a covenant be forged. Every person's blood was unique, and within one's blood lay one's utmost sincerity. This was the Covenant Cultivator technique, Covenanted in Blood Sacrifice. The peddler had forged the ultimate covenant with Wulao Valley using his own blood. So long as the blood was sufficient, Wulao Valley was willing to commit its full strength to meet the enemy for a brief period. This stone forest was a tactic the peddler had prearranged. Though the cost was colossal, it forged a battlefield uniquely unfavorable to the Totem Army. The towering totem soldiers could barely move within the maze of stone pillars, let alone maintain their formations. Ordinary humans, on the other hand, could slip freely between the pillars, completely unhindered by the stone forest. Li Qi reached the battlefield and plunged into the stone forest, racing toward the peddler. Che Wushang arrived right behind him, setting down the Gluttonous Old Cart to release the fighters from the four great families and the two great gangs. Chu Huaiyuan, Zhang Xiuling, and Lu Chunying led their people straight into the stone forest to clash with the enemy, while Ma the Fifth and Qin Tianjiu held the exit. Whoo-whoo—! A train whistle pierced the valley as Eighteen Wheels joined the fray, carrying another host into the battle. Li Banfeng fought his way to the cart and knelt beside the peddler, supporting him. "Senior Brother, let's go. I'll take you somewhere to treat your wounds." Clamping his cigarette, the peddler looked at Li Banfeng. "Do you still have the vanishing cream I gave you?" "I have it." Li Banfeng only then remembered the two jars of vanishing cream the peddler had given him before departing, which could heal injuries. Just as he pulled the jars out, the peddler said, "When you finish the vanishing cream, don't throw away the jars." "I won't throw them away. Good thing both jars are still full—I'll use them to treat you..." Before he finished, Li Banfeng realized the peddler had stopped moving. The cigarette still hung between his lips, but he had gone completely still. "Senior Brother?" Li Banfeng called out softly. The peddler did not answer. Lu Qianjiao rushed over and threw her arms around the peddler. "What happened to you? Talk to me! Tell me what's wrong!" Amid her weeping cries, arrows flew and totem soldiers collapsed one after another. Sound Cultivator Grandmaster Shang Yuzheng, Garment Cultivator Grandmaster Feng Xuanzhen, Wine Cultivator Founder Liu Hutian, and Cold Cultivator Founder Bing Suling all charged into the stone forest. Ye Jianhuang, Qiao Wuzui, Gui Jianchou, and Song Qianhun ran even faster, circling around to the far side of the stone forest to cut off any retreat. Most of the Totem Army was wedged tight among the stone pillars, unable to maneuver. These pillars could not be severed, shattered, or displaced by techniques. Peeping Cultivator Grandmaster Zhen Luoming shouted, "Brothers! The peddler bought this with his life! Charge in and slaughter them!" He could see that these stone pillars were formed from the peddler's blood, and he knew this was the moment to say the right words. He knew this was a prime opportunity to build a reputation. The current situation was vastly easier than the battle at Wuyouping; the totem soldiers stuck in the stone forest could be slaughtered with a casual flick of the wrist! A fraction of the Totem Army squeezed desperately through the pillars, trying to flee through the opening Li Banfeng had entered from. But Hong Ying stood guard outside, executing every soldier who emerged. A'yu swiftly laid down formations outside the stone forest. Even if they bypassed Hong Ying, they would never reach the exit. Several soldiers carried Reckoner Cultivator techniques. Combining their calculations, they managed to navigate out of the formation, only to be blocked by the Three Heroes Sect. Qin Xiaopang charged at the forefront. "Brothers, follow me!" Two soldiers wielding Poison Cultivator arts unleashed a toxic mist to halt Qin Xiaopang. Qin Xiaopang opened his mouth and swallowed the poison mist whole. He coughed twice, unable to digest it entirely, and ended up spitting nearly half of it back out. He could hardly be blamed; he had never encountered such vicious Poison Cultivators before. Yet the half he spat out spelled disaster for those around him—the other disciples of the Three Heroes Sect could not endure such virulent mist. Fifth Miss stepped forward and kicked Qin Xiaopang. "Useless trash!" Qin Xiaopang was about to flare up in rage, but the moment he saw it was Fifth Miss, he hung his head and fell silent. Li Banfeng had told him that this young lady was a senior in his discipline, not someone he could ever afford to cross. Fifth Miss opened her mouth and swallowed the remaining poison mist clean. Seeing their poison fail, the totem soldiers hurled a wave of ink. Before the ink could take shape as characters, Fifth Miss swallowed it clean as well. Ranged attacks seemed utterly ineffective against her. The totem soldiers charged forward, engaging in close-quarters melee. Close quarters indeed yielded a different result: Fifth Miss stepped up and began eating directly. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen soldiers had vanished down her gullet. Ma the Fifth watched from the side, dumbfounded. He turned to Feng Daiku and asked, "Where on earth does she come from?" Feng Daiku was equally stunned. "I've never seen a Food Cultivator like this..." Qin Xiaopang's face was stark white, not daring to look Fifth Miss in the eye. Fifth Miss coughed up several Xuanyun Pills and shoved them into Xiaopang's hands. "Eat these and build some real competence." Using the stone forest to their advantage, the allied forces ambushed and slaughtered the enemy, inflicting horrific casualties upon the Totem Army. Qiao Yi still commanded over ten thousand troops. If not for the hostile terrain created by the stone forest, and if not for the disastrous misdirection caused by that exit, the battle would never have become so passive. He managed to gather several thousand men and slip past the stone forest, intending to escape the valley and seek another way out, when he suddenly saw Eighteen Wheels transformed into a locomotive, blocking the valley mouth alongside Tou Youlu. Sun Tiecheng crouched beside the train, looking at Qiao Yi and pointing northward. "Don't come this way. There's no way out here. Head the other way—be good, now." Heading north meant crossing the stone forest once more. Passing through it again would cost untold lives. Moreover, heading north meant charging directly into their pursuers. Naturally, Qiao Yi had no intention of heeding Sun Tiecheng's words. Yet he could not fathom why the City Lord of Fools was here. He had sent scouts to investigate, and the City of Fools had made no moves in all this time. Had the scouts lied to him, or had Sun Tiecheng deceived the scouts? That would have to wait for later. Qiao Yi rallied the Totem Army, preparing to repel Eighteen Wheels and escape the valley first. Rumble! The peaks on both flanks collapsed, opening vast passages outward. The surrounding terrain shifted drastically, to the point where Qiao Yi could no longer recognize the original valley or discern which way to go. Qiao Yi looked toward the peddler. The man still sat beside his cart. Was this, too, a tactic he had prepared in advance? Beside the peddler, Li Banfeng rose to his feet. He looked toward Qiao Yi and tugged down the brim of his fedora.