"What was the point of pulling a stunt like this? You scared the hell out of me!" Li Banfeng was still shaking the medicine pot.
The peddler wore an expression of sheer disgust. "Stop shaking it! What stunt did I pull?"
"You're clearly alive, yet you just had to stage a scene to scare people!" Li Banfeng clapped his hands together, and the medicine pot vanished from his grip.
Naturally, he hadn't actually gathered any of those ingredients; they had all been conjured using the All Wishes Fulfilled technique.
The peddler sighed. "Surviving at all was luck granted by Heaven. Battered like this and having sealed a covenant through blood sacrifice, by all rights, my life should have been forfeit. Thanks to fortunate timing and the protection of Wulao Valley, I managed to snatch my life back with great difficulty. Was I supposed to just throw it away on a whim?"
"What do you mean, throw it away on a whim?" Li Banfeng paused, startled. "You played dead just to stay alive?"
The peddler gave a bitter smile. "What do you think? Did you expect my old friends would let me live?"
Li Banfeng didn't understand. "Could they even kill you? Who in this world has that kind of capability?"
"Normally, they couldn't. Right now, it's hard to say!" The peddler tried to move his body, but failed. "Right now, I can't even move. Even if I could protect myself, in this state I wouldn't be able to hold back. If I went all out and slaughtered those old friends of mine, who would be left to fight this war later on?"
Li Banfeng supported the peddler. "I'll take you to another spot to rest."
Crack, snap!
The peddler's bones popped in rapid succession. "Brother, we can't move. Just let me sit right here."
Horrified, Li Banfeng asked, "I thought you just couldn't move on your own—even with me helping, you can't? Are your injuries really that severe?"
The peddler shook his head. "It's not just the injuries. There's a covenant involved. I entered a life covenant, and certain debts are destined to be repaid."
"What debts?" Li Banfeng had just heard Old Train explain some of the mechanics behind a life covenant. "Advancing and retreating together, sharing life and death—isn't that the foundation of a life covenant?"
"That's how Old Train put it?" The peddler let out a derisive scoff. "He's too impatient. On some matters, his understanding barely scratches the surface. Think of Wulao Valley as a person. It has stayed here in peace and safety on Qunying Mountain for hundreds of thousands of years. Why would it share life and death with us? Does it make any difference to it who comes here? Why should it help me? Does that sound like a clean slate where neither owes the other? I signed a life covenant to get Wulao Valley to fight on my behalf. Now that the battle is over, this debt must be repaid. I have to remain on this mountain on guard for a period of time. Some people call this serving as a mountain god."
Li Banfeng asked, "How long do you have to serve as a mountain god?"
The peddler pondered for a moment. "Maybe thirty to fifty years, maybe one or two centuries. Right now, Qunying Mountain still doesn't trust me, so it certainly won't let me move around freely. Once it gradually comes to trust me, it will only allow me to walk around on the mountain. Only when there is no longer any suspicion between us will I be able to descend. If some major catastrophe befalls Qunying Mountain and I save it, the debt will be considered settled. But if Qunying Mountain remains peaceful and unharmed forever, I might have to stay here for all eternity."
Li Banfeng thought for a moment. "I'll go find A'yi tomorrow and blow this mountain to pieces."
With a helpless look, the peddler said, "Can't you tell? Qunying Mountain possesses a spiritual consciousness. If we return kindness with treachery, just watch how this great mountain punishes me. And you, kid—you've got some nerve, actually releasing the Heavenly Maiden! You almost made me slip up."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "How could you slip up? Even I couldn't tell!"
The peddler gave a snort. "You think it was easy? Tears were about to burst from my eyes! If your wife wept like that, wouldn't your heart ache?"
Li Banfeng recalled the scene. "So as long as you kept your eyes shut, it didn't count as seeing each other?"
The peddler shook his head. "Closing my eyes alone wasn't enough. I could sense that the covenant she and I established back then came within a hair's breadth of triggering. While I forced myself to pretend, Sun Tiecheng used his techniques to desperately conceal me, and with Wulao Valley shielding me on top of that, we barely managed to fool the covenant deed."
"A covenant deed can be fooled?"
"It can, but fooling a covenant deed drafted by my own hand is extraordinarily difficult. Going forward, the deed will keep pursuing the matter; who knows if one day the old account will be dredged up again, dragging me right back in."
At this point, the peddler sighed. "Seeing her cry like that, my heart truly ached."
Li Banfeng said, "I'll go back in a bit and tell her the truth so she won't suffer."
The peddler snapped angrily, "Are you trying to get me killed? If word of this gets out, I won't last long—do you believe me?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "I won't let anyone harm you. I'll arrange for people to take turns guarding you."
"It's useless!" The peddler had thought through this countless times. "You can't stay on guard against a thief for a thousand days—you must understand that. If they knew I was still alive, they'd rack their brains scheming to put an end to me."
Li Banfeng recognized the wisdom in his words. "The next step is retaking Santoucha. How should we fight this battle?"
The peddler looked at Li Banfeng. "How do you think we should fight it?"
"I think we could wait a few days. Qiao Yi is dead, and the Bandit Suppression Camp has lost its commander. They shouldn't want to fight anymore. The Shang State's national strength took a hit and needs time to recover as well. So if we wait a few days, maybe Santoucha will fall back to us on its own."
"It won't!" The peddler shook his head. "Under Qiao Yi are many hawks. Ordinarily, those people were fiercely loyal to him, but once they learn something has happened to him, they'll immediately look for ways to take his place. The people of Shang won't spit out meat that's already in their mouths, especially since Santoucha is such a unique place. It connects to Puluo Province, the Outer States, and Wansheng Province; through Baishun County, it can even reach Inner American and the Land of Slumber. Shang will spare no effort to hold Santoucha. Before whoever replaces Qiao Yi shows up, we need to take back the underground city as soon as possible."
Li Banfeng pondered this. "Retaking it shouldn't be too hard either. This time there's only one camp, the Bandit Suppression Camp. There shouldn't be another adversary as difficult to handle as Qiao Yi."
The peddler remained uneasy. "Xu Han and Zhang Wanlong are both ruthless figures, and Santoucha has the Sinless Army. For the battle to turn out like this, I'm afraid it's not as simple as just the Bandit Suppression Camp. Santoucha is such a crucial location; Qiao Yi wouldn't treat it lightly. I can't guess how much force he stationed there either. Looking at Santoucha and Jianren Ridge together, it's hard to say which side Qiao Yi invested more into. Even if there really is only one camp, we can't let our guard down. Back then, they were still in training when you caught them off guard. The situation today isn't what it was then, nor does that camp possess the same combat strength it had before. Qiao Yi was a rare talent, but Shang isn't short on capable people. Perhaps someone out there is even better at warfare than he was, simply lacking the opportunity to make a move until now. As for their national strength taking a hit—as long as the Great Totem remains, Shang can assemble a massive army again in short order. The Great Totem is a locus that commands life itself; that's the hardest thing to counter. And then there's the imperial jade seal. Qiao Yi grasped how to use it, and there's no guarantee he didn't pass that knowledge on to others. As long as that artifact remains in Shang's hands, it will remain a lethal hidden hazard."
As they spoke, the peddler caught the sound of footsteps. "Someone's coming to see me."
Li Banfeng listened closely with Discerning Spiritual Sound for a moment, discerning the direction of the approaching footsteps, then identified the visitor's identity using Exquisite Hundred Flavors.
The air carried a faint scent of cosmetic powder, a thick aura of allure threaded through the fragrance.
Sui Chanxin was coming.
Li Banfeng pretended not to notice and sat quietly beside the peddler.
Before long, Sui Chanxin arrived by the cart, smiling at Li Banfeng. "Brother Li Qi, you're here too."
Li Banfeng nodded slightly. "Senior, you haven't slept yet?"
Sui Chanxin shook her head. "Couldn't sleep. Came to see my good big brother. In truth, the peddler treated me well in the past and looked out for me quite a bit. If not for his approval, my lineage wouldn't even have been established. I clamor all day long about how he did wrong, but deep down, I was just nursing resentment. I poured my feelings into him, yet I could never tell whether he truly couldn't see it or was just feigning ignorance—he never once took an interest in me. Come to think of it, look at the kinds of women by his side: the Heavenly Maiden goes without saying, the greatest beauty under heaven; Lu Qianjiao has beauty that could topple cities and states. When it comes to me, of course he wouldn't spare me a second glance."
Li Banfeng chuckled. "So you badmouth him every day because your love turned into hatred?"
Sui Chanxin laughed. "Do you think I'm rather pathetic?"
Li Banfeng made no comment.
Sui Chanxin continued, "Old Seven, as for you taking charge of Puluo Province from now on, I'm all for it. What I said before about seniority and standing was just formalities for the crowd; don't take it to heart. If you can trust your older sister, she'll follow you from now on!"
Li Banfeng smiled. "Then my thanks to you, Senior."
This woman certainly changed her tune fast.
He wondered what attitudes Zhen Luoming and Bing Suling held right now.
Sui Chanxin wanted to say a few more warm words to Li Banfeng, but Lu Qianjiao approached from a distance.
"What did you come here for?" By her tone, Lu Qianjiao held deep distaste for Sui Chanxin.
Sui Chanxin raised her eyebrows, stood, and said to Li Banfeng, "Old Seven, I'll take my leave. Miss Lu doesn't care for my company."
Lu Qianjiao sat down beside the peddler and said to Li Banfeng, "Old Seven, when you attack Santoucha, I won't be going with you. I'm staying here to keep your senior brother company."
Li Banfeng nodded slightly.
Lu Qianjiao looked at him and asked, "You're always calling him Senior Brother, and he's always calling you Junior Brother. Who is your master? When exactly did you two meet?"
Li Banfeng opened his mouth for several seconds, unable to find an answer.
Lu Qianjiao asked again, "He also said once that originally it wasn't him, but through a twist of fate, it ended up being him. What does that mean?"
Li Banfeng gave a dry, helpless laugh, having no idea where to begin.
"Forget it, I won't pry," Lu Qianjiao smiled. "Hurry and get some rest. You have to fight on the battlefield tomorrow."
Li Banfeng felt a little worried. "Sister-in-law, in this desolate wilderness, will you be all right staying here?"
If Lu Qianjiao couldn't bear staying, Li Banfeng intended to find someone else to protect the peddler.
"I can stay. I used to live alone in Jiaoqichuan for all those years, and I never grew weary of it." Lu Qianjiao stroked the peddler's cheek. "He loved this mountain most. Once, when you were looking for him and couldn't find him, you made a huge fuss all the way to the radio station. Later, I found him on Qunying Mountain. He told me he came here looking for his sweetheart. I took it seriously and turned this mountain upside down, determined to drag his sweetheart out and hack her to pieces. Only later did I find out that he called this mountain his sweetheart. He was so deeply attached to Qunying Mountain. From here, you can see the entire panorama of Puluo Province. He loved gazing out over Puluo Province. From now on, I'll stay right here and watch it with him."
Li Banfeng looked at the peddler, who sat motionless beside the cart with his eyes shut.
"Once the war is over, I'll come over and take a good look too." Li Banfeng brushed the snowflakes off his fedora, got to his feet, and departed.
***
At daybreak the next morning, everyone boarded the Gluttonous Old Cart, and Li Banfeng brought the Rickshaw Man toward Santoucha.
On the way, Che Wushang asked Li Banfeng, "Have you thought about how to fight this battle?"
Li Banfeng replied, "I'll go check the situation in the Earth Market and Sea Market first. If there's an opening for a surprise raid, that would be ideal. If not, we'll think of another way."
The Rickshaw Man disagreed. "Old Seven, don't rush to the Earth Market yet. Head to the Mankind Market first and ask Old Xu what's going on. Times are different now. If anything happens to you, this whole crowd might scatter—or maybe turn on one another and start fighting amongst themselves tomorrow. Listen to me: being cautious can never go wrong."
Upon arriving at Santoucha, Li Banfeng followed the Rickshaw Man's advice and went to the Mankind Market first.
The Mankind Market was far more crowded than before. Retreating step by step, Xu Han and Zhang Wanlong had brought the common folk of the Earth Market and Sea Market along with them. Fortunately, the Mankind Market had many abandoned factories and residential quarters, providing temporary shelter for the displaced people.
Li Banfeng found Xu Han and Zhang Wanlong in the Mankind Market.
Upon hearing that something had happened to the peddler, Xu Han's tears spilled over. "I've let him down. I failed to hold Santoucha, and now I can't even speak a single word to him."
Zhang Wanlong was searching everywhere for soil. His method of combat relied entirely on farming, but arable land in the Mankind Market was far too scarce.
"If worst comes to worst, I'll go up to the surface and plant!" Zhang Wanlong had selected a few plots outside the underground city, but Santoucha was unlike other places; seemingly fertile soil wasn't necessarily fit for cultivation, and an acre might be blasted by sky-light once a day, which most crops simply couldn't endure.
Zhang Wanlong was anxious as well. "Of the field hands we brought over from the Earth Market, not many are left either. The other side has been launching raids from the Earth Market nonstop, and we've had no choice but to brace ourselves and endure it."
Li Banfeng asked, "Has anyone raided today?"
Xu Han answered, "No one has come today. Perhaps because Qiao Yi died, they've quieted down a bit."
While Li Banfeng was still asking questions, Bai Wusong brought word: the enemy was attacking.
Bai Wusong had followed A'yi to the underground city, where he normally led the White Crane Gang on patrol duty. Relying on their ability to fly and their sheer numbers, the White Crane Gang's patrols were of exceptional quality, and they had already foiled several enemy raids.
This raid was on a rather large scale, beyond what Bai Wusong could handle alone, so he immediately sent word to Xu Han. Xu Han and Zhang Wanlong led their "field hands" alongside Bai Wusong to the battlefield, and Li Banfeng accompanied them with the various heroes.
The battlefield was located in the eastern district of the Mankind Market, within a coal yard. More than two thousand enemy troops had launched the surprise assault. All along the way, Li Banfeng had been contemplating how to prevent them from forming the Thousand Men's United Strength Formation.
Upon arriving at the eastern district, however, Li Banfeng found that these soldiers were in no hurry to form ranks; they were carrying out the raid in a relatively dispersed manner.
One soldier held a writing brush in his left hand, writing characters on the ground, while holding a shield forged of icicles in his right hand to block aerial strikes. The head in the middle roared, using Voice Cultivator techniques to attack members of the White Crane Gang in the air.
"There are Totem troops here?" Li Banfeng looked at Xu Han in astonishment.
Some things were impossible to find answers to without stepping onto the battlefield.
Xu Han had only clashed with the Totem Army once back at Wuyouping. After that skirmish, he had immediately rushed to Santoucha, so he had no clear concept of the name "Totem Army." Furthermore, the Totem Army was also capable of employing the Thousand Men's United Strength Formation, so Xu Han had simply assumed they were the Bandit Suppression Army.
Had Li Banfeng not come to the front lines in person, he would never have known what Santoucha was up against.
Zhen Luoming said, "Old Xu, you can truly hold your own. The Totem Army is worlds apart from ordinary Bandit Suppression troops!"
Xu Han had no mind for such distinctions. When bandits showed up, you fought them—that was Xu Han's way of thinking. Leading his field hands, he charged first, and Li Banfeng along with the various heroes joined the fray against the Totem Army.
Having fought so many battles over the past days, the heroes were quite familiar with the Totem Army. In less than half an hour, the two thousand-plus Totem soldiers were repelled.
These two thousand-odd men also had a supreme commander. Beneath the commander's banner sat a man who, compared to the Totem troops, was not particularly tall. His build was similar to that of the three-headed folk of Santoucha, yet he possessed only a single head.
Zhen Luoming stared for a long while before suddenly shouting, "Isn't that Qiao Yi?"
Beside him, Sui Chanxin chimed in, "That's impossible! Didn't Old Seven kill Qiao Yi?"
"Yeah, we all saw it with our own eyes."
"Qiao Yi's head was severed! Ironclad proof! His body turned to ashes—his soul scattered completely!"
Xu Han was equally shocked. "I've never seen this man before. Today is the first time he's shown himself."
Li Banfeng stared at the figure's back, utterly bewildered.
Using Golden Eyes of Keen Detail, he saw with absolute clarity.
This wasn't Zhen Luoming deliberately stirring up trouble. The one beneath the commander's banner was indeed Qiao Yi.
Then who had they killed two days ago?
Li Banfeng was struck speechless for a long time.
***
Back in the companion dwelling, Li Banfeng discussed countermeasures with his lady, and the whole household was astonished.
When Qiao Yi's head fell, Lady had seen it with her own eyes. As for this Qiao Yi who had suddenly popped up, she felt he couldn't possibly be real.
"Husband, in ancient wars, whenever a commander suffered an accident, there were times a body double was used to take the fall. It's not a novel trick, mainly done to steady the army's morale."
Hong Ying nodded. "I've seen that trick too. Plenty of commanders keep a body double for themselves just in case. It's the same on your side, right?"
As she spoke, Hong Ying looked toward the Heavenly Maiden.
The Heavenly Maiden looked at Hong Ying and answered earnestly, "He was just a peddler hawking sundries through streets and alleys. He was truly shameless, imagining I could ever take a liking to him. Fallen though I was, I was still a princess back then. Why would I ever look twice at him?"
Hong Ying said to Li Banfeng, "Master Seven, it's the same on the Heavenly Maiden's side—they all have body doubles."
Zhao Xiaowan, holding her clapper, asked, "How on earth did you deduce that? Was she talking about body doubles just now?"
Rubbing his chin, Li Banfeng said, "Whether it's a double or not, we'll know the answer soon enough."
He dispatched the two finest shadows of the Earthly Branches lineage to investigate the Earth Market.
That night, Banfeng Zi returned first. According to his findings, the Quenching Camp was stationed in the Earth Market, alongside another fifty thousand soldiers of the Totem Army.
Fifty thousand!
How could that be?!
How could there still be fifty thousand!
Li Banfeng refused to believe it.
Yet Banfeng Zi had witnessed it with his own eyes, and he had even drawn a map of the Totem Army's encampments.
Fifty thousand Totem soldiers were stationed dispersedly across the Earth Market, their camp layout highly distinctive. Lady would need to study it thoroughly.
"Husband, don't worry just yet. These fifty thousand Totem troops might not have appeared all at once. The entrance from Soil Exchange Island to the Inner States is still intact, so the Inner States are likely channeling troops into Santoucha in a continuous stream."
The peddler's words had truly rung true—it was hard to say which side had invested more.
After a long daze, Li Banfeng said, "No wonder Xu Han suffered defeat after defeat. He didn't use the wrong tactics, nor did he use the wrong men; he was simply pitted against an unwinnable opponent."
Hong Ying was brimming with confidence. "We can win! Fifty thousand is nothing to fear! When we fought that earlier battle, didn't the enemy have seventy thousand in all, and we still won?"
"How can you compare the two?" Jiu'er rolled her eyes at Hong Ying. "That was because we had the peddler! The peddler wore down half the enemy force in the valley. Where are you going to find the peddler now? And there's no valley to be found either!"
Zhao Xiaowan looked grave. The situation before them was indeed difficult to handle.
Late into the night, Banfeng Yin also returned. "The one leading the troops in the Earth Market is indeed Qiao Yi."
Li Banfeng truly did not want to believe it. "Are you sure you didn't mistake him?"
Banfeng Yin shook his head. "Hiding inside Xi Zhaofu's shadow, I stayed in Chaoge for a long time. Back then, I saw Qiao Yi every day; I'm intimately familiar with him. The one in the Earth Market behaves and carries himself in exactly the same way. That isn't something that can be mimicked—some traits are innate, things Xi Zhaofu could never learn back then. That person is definitely Qiao Yi!"
Li Banfeng was thoroughly at a loss. Qiao Yi was alive, and a massive horde of Totem troops had suddenly surfaced. How could such a situation even happen?
Hong Ying was nonchalant. "So what if Qiao Yi is alive? Do we stop fighting him just because he's alive? In a bit, let's take our troops, march straight into battle against him, and see how he responds!"
Zhao Xiaowan asked, "Have you ever been to the Earth Market?"
Hong Ying shook her head. "Well, no, I haven't."
Zhao Xiaowan said, "The Earth Market is a vast expanse of farmland. Do you think it's a canyon? If the Totem Army truly deploys across it, what will our side fight them with? Xu Han has managed to hold out until now by relying on the large numbers of people he planted! He also relied on the fact that Metal Cultivators are far more effective in war than other lineages. If we truly want to defeat the enemy, we have to find another way. At the very least, we must hem them into a confined space so they cannot maneuver."
Zhao Xiaowan took the map Banfeng Zi had brought back and began making marks and notes on it.
Li Banfeng looked at the Heavenly Maiden, studying her for a long while.
The Heavenly Maiden looked back up at Li Banfeng and whispered, "That peddler boy... every day he walked past my window, he just had to sneak a peek inside, and he often gave me bead flowers, dangling hairpins, and the like. None of them were valuable things; I shouldn't even have worn them on me. Tell me, how did I get fooled? How did I ever fall for him?"
Li Banfeng said, "When destiny arrives and affection blossoms, you cannot stop it."
"Indeed, you cannot," the Heavenly Maiden lowered her head. "That day, he hopped into my courtyard. I wanted to call for help, but I couldn't bring myself to speak. I told him to leave, but he refused to go!"
Hong Ying steadied her breath and asked nervously, "And then what?"
The Heavenly Maiden's cheeks flushed crimson. "Not only did he not leave, he stepped right into my room."
Hong Ying wiped the sweat from her face. "What did he do in your room?"
The Heavenly Maiden kept her head down. "He said... he had just brought in some fine rouge and wanted to give it to me."
Hong Ying leaned in close. "Did you take it?"
The Heavenly Maiden bit her lip. "In my heart, I wanted to take it, but with my mouth, I didn't agree. I said I didn't know how to apply rouge."
Hong Ying grinned. "And then he applied it for you, didn't he? They weren't lying when they said you used to be a princess—what clever little games you played!"
The Heavenly Maiden blushed even deeper. "I stayed inside a sprawling compound every day, never stepping beyond the inner gates. I didn't know anything."
"You didn't know anything?" Hong Ying's eyes gleamed. "After applying the rouge, did you do anything else?"
The Heavenly Maiden didn't want to talk to her anymore. "Back then, I really wanted to chase him out, but he just wouldn't leave..."
Li Banfeng said, "You didn't use the right method. If you had set down a boundary line back then, you could have driven him away."
The Heavenly Maiden looked at Li Banfeng. "Are boundaries useful?"
"Useful? They're immensely useful!" Li Banfeng picked up the map. "Santoucha isn't an uncharted land. Drawing a boundary line here shouldn't be much of a problem, right?"
The Heavenly Maiden looked over the map. "You want to use a boundary to enclose the entire Earth Market?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "First enclose the Earth Market, then gradually shrink the boundary's radius, herding the enemy into an ideal location, and finally wipe them out in one stroke."
The Heavenly Maiden nodded slowly. "That was how the Bandit Suppression Camp was defeated back then. You think just like him. But... you aren't him. Why should I help you?"
Zhao Xiaowan looked at Li Banfeng. "Husband, perhaps you should butter her up a bit more?"
Li Banfeng said, "Wiping out these bastards from the Inner States is avenging the peddler! If you're the peddler's woman, this isn't something you should shirk!"
The Heavenly Maiden snapped her head up. The blush on her cheeks vanished, replaced by an icy coldness like frost and snow. "Yes. Revenge. You are right! I can create a boundary for you, enclose Santoucha, and slaughter every last one of those bastards from the Inner States. But I don't know whether there are paths in the Earth Market. If there are paths, setting a boundary won't be of much use."
Li Banfeng asked her, "The paths you speak of aren't ordinary roads, are they?"
The Heavenly Maiden waved her hand, and a map appeared within the room. "With this physical vessel, I'm not adept at using the All Wishes Fulfilled technique, so I can only give you a simple demonstration. Just like the path leading from the Inner States to Jianren Ridge, or the path from Sage Peak to Qunying Mountain, these paths originally all existed, but for certain reasons they were never opened up. To put it in terms of Outer States knowledge, these paths are wormholes within wormholes left behind where wormholes formed. There is a professor in the Outer States named Zhao Zhihong; do you know him?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "I do. The man is very fond of balloons."
The Heavenly Maiden waved her hand again, and a balloon shaped like the character '雨' appeared in the room. Holding an air pump, she inflated the balloon. "Zhao Zhihong's balloon theory explains the essence of Puluo Province remarkably well. In essence, Puluo Province is a wormhole connecting the Inner States to the Outer States. The wormhole is just like this balloon: between every stroke, there are connecting passages. When I pump air into one spot, the entire balloon expands. These passages are the paths of void origin in Puluo Province—the most primordial paths.
"These paths of void origin are beyond my power to restrict with boundaries. However, most paths of void origin are impassable in themselves; some because of differing physical laws, some because the environment is too harsh, and some because void origin lifeforms within them have mutated. During your time at the Dark Star Bureau, you should have encountered a mutated void origin lifeform once. They had formed a Dark Star Special Operations Team, and inside a new model of tracking device, they encountered spherical creatures and were almost entirely wiped out. At that time, they had mistakenly wandered into a path of void origin and run into mutated void origin silkworms."
Li Banfeng naturally remembered this incident. Back then, Guan Zhengyang had personally formed the special operations team in an effort to replace the Dark Star Bureau. As a result of that special operation, he had lost most of his team members, and he himself had suffered severe injuries.
It seemed the Heavenly Maiden hadn't been asleep the entire time while at the Dark Star Bureau; she could remember certain events as well.
The Heavenly Maiden put away the map and shaped her hand into an object resembling a seal. "Only the Imperial Jade Seal of State can open a path of void origin, and only the Imperial Jade Seal of State can locate one. If Qiao Yi still holds the Imperial Jade Seal of State, you must ascertain whether there is a path leading to the outside world in the Earth Market. Otherwise, everything we do will be in vain—he could escape at any moment."
Li Banfeng rubbed his temples. He planned to go see the site in person; perhaps through Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity, he could find the entrance to a path of void origin.
Not long after stepping out of the companion dwelling, Li Banfeng ran into Eighteen Wheels. The two stared at each other for a moment, both freezing in place.
Eighteen Wheels spoke first. "Old Seven, you went to the battlefield during the day. Was the one you saw truly Qiao Yi?"
Old Train hadn't gone to the battlefield earlier, but Li Banfeng could tell he cared deeply about this matter.
There was also something Li Banfeng cared about deeply.
"It should indeed be Qiao Yi," Li Banfeng replied, turning to ask Eighteen Wheels, "Brother, how did you split one person into two back then?"
Old Train was troubled by this as well. "I disliked being an Artisan Cultivator, yet I loved being a Travel Cultivator too much. Lian Buda gave me a hand, and split me apart."
***
*PS: In Chapter 740, Qiao Yi went blind and was forced to become a Peeker; he had originally wanted to become a Scholar Cultivator. Yet Lian Buda harbors a deep, ocean-like grudge against the Inner States—how could he possibly do something to help Qiao Yi?*
Chapter 837