Waigou, Mazhu Mountain.
Wearing a fedora and sporting a full fake beard pasted across his face, Li Banfeng crouched in the bamboo grove, silently watching the clearing ahead.
Thick dust blanketed the open ground, barren without a single blade of grass, but otherwise, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
A butterfly fluttered toward the clearing. The moment it neared the center, it suddenly disintegrated into a wisp of smoke and dust, vanishing without a trace.
A rabbit hopped onto the clearing. Two bounds forward, and mid-leap, it dissolved into dust and drifted away on the wind.
A bamboo leaf drifted across the clearing on a gust, dissolving into dust just the same.
A buzzing mosquito, chased toward the clearing by Li Banfeng, dissolved into dust too—a tiny little puff.
Li Banfeng folded a paper airplane and threw it across the borderline; it also dissolved into dust.
He picked up a stone and tossed it over; that turned to dust as well.
A dark cloud drifted overhead, shedding a few raindrops.
Soft pops rattled along the boundary line—even raindrops evaporated instantly upon hitting it.
Mazhu Mountain lay along the border between Yaowanggou and Lüshuiwan.
By train, one had to go from Lüshuiwan to Kudaikan first, and then to Yaowanggou.
Geographically, however, Yaowanggou, Kudaikan, and Lüshuiwan all bordered one another, each sharing frontiers; it was just that the border between Lüshuiwan and Yaowanggou was exceedingly remote.
Why go to Lüshuiwan?
Why not Kudaikan?
That decision stemmed from the newspapers Li Banfeng had read recently.
Kudaikan was also a town, nearly half the size of Yaowanggou.
Not only was it small, but its environment was quite unique.
In Yaowanggou, Medicine Cultivators predominated, but cultivators of other pathways were plentiful as well.
Those who lived long-term in Kudaikan, however, generally fell into only two categories: Joy Cultivators, or the partners of Joy Cultivators.
For an outsider like Li Banfeng, visiting Kudaikan for a few days of pleasure would seem normal enough, but lingering there would inevitably attract attention.
Lüshuiwan was an entirely different story.
It was home to the largest city in Puluo Province—Lüshui City!
Along with a vast sprawl of villages and towns beyond the city limits.
In both area and population, Lüshuiwan surpassed Yaowanggou, Kudaikan, Haichiling, and several surrounding towns combined. Such a place seemed far better suited for laying low.
Of course, was Lüshuiwan risk-free?
No. The roots of the Four Great Families were all planted in Lüshuiwan. Setting foot in Lüshui City meant strutting right beneath their noses.
Yet precisely because all four families were present, Li Banfeng was certain the Lu family would avoid making any major moves in Lüshui City. There were things they surely wouldn't want the He family to know, let alone all Four Great Families.
Still, was Lüshuiwan so easy to enter?
Li Banfeng had walked along the borderline for an entire day, and the current situation did not look promising.
An invisible border ran between Yaowanggou and Lüshuiwan. Anything larger than a speck of dust on the ground could not cross it.
A man dressed in a white robe stood nearby, accompanied by an immortal crane that stood two heads taller than a person.
The man glanced at Li Banfeng hiding in the bamboo grove and sneered. "Mortal rabble after all."
Li Banfeng asked in surprise, "Aren't you mortal rabble too?"
The man scoffed. "I have cultivated in seclusion for twenty years and tied my fate with the immortals. How can commoners like you compare? Do you wish to cross? I can give you a lift!"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Immortal sir, after you. I shall observe from the side first."
The man mounted the crane's back. With a shrill cry, the crane soared into the sky.
What pathway is this?
The man's cultivation is quite impressive!
Li Banfeng had seen people ride horses, donkeys, and camels, but this was the first time he had seen someone ride a crane.
As they circled in the air, the man riding the crane spoke up: "My lord, that fellow has no sense of what's good for him."
The crane spoke: "A creature of flesh and mundane eyes. Let him widen his horizons."
*Uh?*
Li Banfeng stared up at the crane for a long time.
Did he see wrong, or hear wrong?
Which one of you is the lord?
The crane is the lord?
Then how dare you ride your lord?
The crane hovered in midair for a while at an estimated altitude of fifty or sixty meters.
With a piercing cry, it charged toward the borderline carrying the man, who raised a flute and played a melody completely beyond Li Banfeng's comprehension.
Li Banfeng took out his gold earring, intending to distinguish the style of the tune.
The instant they crossed the borderline, the flute melody came to an abrupt halt.
The immortal and the crane dissolved into flying ash together, not even leaving the flute behind.
*His trick doesn't work!*
What was he supposed to do now?
Twenty years of secluded cultivation couldn't fly across—how was Li Banfeng supposed to barge through?
Enter the Portable Abode first and throw the key across?
Could the key withstand the destructive force of the borderline?
Li Banfeng thought not.
If the key turned to ash, could he still get out of the Portable Abode?
Li Banfeng thought not.
Earlier, Li Banfeng had considered going to the train station, stashing the key in some passenger's luggage, and sneaking aboard that way.
A nice idea, but thoroughly impractical.
The Lu family would inevitably guard the station with heavy security, just like Chu Yunlong's ambush near the station before. But with reliable intelligence, the Lu family would surely dispatch top experts, and Li Banfeng would be caught the moment he entered.
Even if he managed to slip into the station and stash the key inside a passenger's suitcase, the ensuing complications would be just as thorny.
Li Banfeng wouldn't know when to step out of the Portable Abode.
He wouldn't know when the passenger would disembark.
Even if he found a chance to glimpse their ticket, he still couldn't accurately gauge their arrival time.
One certainly couldn't rely on the timetable—steam trains were hardly punctual.
If he came out too early before the passenger got off, he would have no travel permit and no ticket. Running into that formidable conductor, there was no telling what would happen; one wrong move could cost him his life.
And if he came out too late, the passenger might already be home unpacking, only to discover a key of unknown origin. What would happen then?
If they merely threw it away, fine. But what if they knew what it was and handed it over to the Lu family or the Jiangxiang Gang?
If the passenger went to the Outer States and handed the key straight to the Dark Star Bureau, how would Li Banfeng ever get out?
Going to the station was impossible, but given the current situation, forcing his way across the borderline was equally unviable.
Xiao Yeci had mentioned checkpoints along the border between the two regions. After mulling it over, Li Banfeng knew his only option was to slip through a checkpoint.
But where was the checkpoint?
The map Shopkeeper Feng had sold him didn't mark the checkpoint locations.
Ask around in the village down the mountain?
Li Banfeng had been hesitating about entering the village.
Entering the village could easily attract attention, perhaps even expose his identity.
Yet blundering aimlessly along the border was no solution either; he at least needed to know the general direction of a checkpoint.
After deliberating again and again, Li Banfeng decided to pay the village a visit. The Lu family hadn't tracked him here yet, after all; rather than wasting time idling, he might as well get things clear as soon as possible.
Arriving at the village entrance, Li Banfeng saw no road sign or stone marker.
If the mountain was called Mazhu Mountain, was this village Mazhu Village?
Mazhu Village?
He felt as though someone had mentioned that place before.
Once inside the village, Li Banfeng didn't plan on asking for directions right away—that would arouse suspicion too easily. He decided to buy some food first.
The villagers rarely saw outsiders. When Li Banfeng walked in, farmers tilling the fields, women doing chores, and children playing by the roadside all stopped what they were doing and stared straight at him.
Li Banfeng grew nervous.
*Why are they staring at me?*
*Are they planning to rob me?*
Not daring to venture deeper into the village, Li Banfeng wanted to strike up a conversation with someone nearby to ask about the checkpoint.
Seeing an old woman cooking, Li Banfeng approached and greeted her. "Auntie, I'd like to buy some food."
The old woman was somewhat hard of hearing and a bit frightened of him, failing to grasp what he was saying at first.
Li Banfeng took out a fifty-yuan bill. This time, the old woman relaxed considerably.
She packed five portions of bamboo-tube rice for Li Banfeng, along with a jar of pickled fish and a jar of sweet potato liquor.
The old woman was an honest, generous soul. Feeling she had given too much, Li Banfeng was just about to pull out more money and take the opportunity to chat about the checkpoint when he suddenly saw panic wash over her face. She scurried back into her house.
She wasn't afraid of Li Banfeng; she was afraid of the man behind him.
Behind Li Banfeng stood a man wearing a patrolman's uniform.
The patrolman eyed Li Banfeng up and down, then asked, "Where are you from?"
Setting down the food and liquor, Li Banfeng replied naturally, "From Ligou."
The reason he set the things down was to free his hands for his knife and gun.
The patrolman pressed on, "What are you doing here from Ligou?"
"Visiting relatives," Li Banfeng answered, as calm as ever.
"Which relatives?" the patrolman probed relentlessly.
Li Banfeng frowned slightly. "Do you have to ask even that?"
"Can't I ask?" The patrolman sneered. "I've had my eye on you ever since you came up the mountain. You've been pacing back and forth along the border—looking to cross illegally, aren't you?
"If you can name the relative you're visiting today, I'll take you there myself. There's no one in this village I don't know.
"If you can't say, come with me to the police station right now."
Li Banfeng was naturally unwilling to go to the police station. His identity couldn't withstand scrutiny, and if it were uncovered, things would become even messier.
In the midst of the standoff, a woman's voice suddenly called out: "You heartless wretch! You promised to arrive yesterday—what kept you until now?"
Startled, Li Banfeng turned to see a woman in a qipao walking over. She hooked her arm snugly into his.
"Officer Wu, this is my brother from Ligou. He came to see me today."
"Brother?" The patrolman surnamed Wu looked the woman up and down with a teasing smile. "A blood brother, or a godbrother?"
The woman smiled. "Blood brother, godbrother—aren't they both brothers?"
The patrolman scoffed. "Far from it! Blood brothers come out of the same womb; godbrothers come out of the same bed."
"Look at what you're saying," the woman brushed it off with a laugh. The patrolman didn't care to press further.
He looked at Li Banfeng and said, "Young man, you've got good fortune. Be a good little godbrother, save your strength for the bedroom, and don't go wandering around outside for no reason."
Once the patrolman left, the woman quickly pulled Li Banfeng deeper into the village. Arriving in front of a bamboo building, she smiled and said, "Brother Baisha, what brought you here?"
*Baisha?*
Li Banfeng stared at her for a long time. She looked familiar, yet he couldn't quite remember where they had met.
The woman turned her back to Li Banfeng and gave him a backward glance with a smile.
Li Banfeng looked her up and down, then blurted out, "Peach!"
The mist on Bitter Mist Mountain had been thick, so her facial features hadn't been very clear, leaving Li Banfeng with only a faint impression of her looks—but he wouldn't forget the shape of that peach.
The woman gave a wry smile. "After all we went through, you only remember a peach? You could at least remember Youtao."
Youtao.
You Xuetao.
She had received Li Banfeng's kindness on Bitter Mist Mountain, and had mentioned living in Mazhu Village. No wonder the name had sounded familiar.
"Come, have a seat inside my home." Youtao started leading Li Banfeng into the bamboo house, but Li Banfeng hesitated, reluctant to enter.
Youtao was a Joy Cultivator, and as she had mentioned before, her partner was a Dwelling Cultivator. Li Banfeng was unwilling to enter a Dwelling Cultivator's house.
Youtao tugged him again. "Do you not trust me? Come on. That Wu Jinming is a suspicious man; he might just come back."
Wu Jinming was the patrolman from moments ago.
Li Banfeng was pulled into the bamboo house by Youtao. It was a two-story building; the first floor was spacious, with a tea table and two chairs in the center, and dish racks, a coat rack, and a cupboard set against the walls.
The furnishings were simple yet impeccably neat, entirely fitting the disposition of a Dwelling Cultivator.
"Brother Baisha, what brings you to Mazhu Village?" Youtao brewed Li Banfeng a cup of tea.
"Nothing in particular, just out for a stroll." Li Banfeng didn't drink the tea. When he had come down the mountain, mud had caked onto his shoes; he deliberately tapped his soles against the floor, and the mud that fell vanished in the blink of an eye.
There was a dwelling spirit in this house.
"Out for a stroll in Mazhu Village?" Youtao was taken aback. This was hardly a sightseeing destination. "Brother, tell your sister the truth. Are you trying to slip across the border?"
Just as Li Banfeng was pondering how to reply, he heard persistent coughing from upstairs.
*Cough, cough—*
From the sound of it, a woman.
Frowning, Youtao shouted upstairs, "Don't get the wrong idea, he's a friend of mine!"
Li Banfeng understood; this Dwelling Cultivator clearly did not welcome him.
It made sense—Dwelling Cultivators never liked strangers entering their homes.
Li Banfeng stood up. "Thanks for bailing me out earlier. It's getting late, so I'll be on my way."
Youtao stood up to block him. "Where are you going? Let me tell you, you cannot mess around with that borderline. You'll get yourself killed."
After pondering for a moment, Li Banfeng told her, "I'm not forcing my way through. I have a friend who needs to cross. Do you know where the checkpoint is?"
"The checkpoint?" Youtao pondered for a moment. "Do you mean yesterday's, or today's?"
*Yesterday's or today's?*
*How many checkpoints were there?*
Chapter 94