Chapter 152: Thorn Bush

In the Suishenju, the wife was spraying steam evenly and deeply. She was still sleeping.

Li Banfeng lay on the bed, counting the holes on his body one by one.

The recovery ability of Residential Cultivation was very strong, but the iron wire bugs' ability to drill holes was also very strong. Li Banfeng rested for a day, but he still hadn't fully recovered.

But he had to go out today.

This wasn't just the nature of a traveler, but also the fear of a strange environment.

It sounded a bit contradictory. Shouldn't a traveler be wandering in a strange environment?

That depends on how strange it is.

When Li Banfeng got off the train, he at least knew the place he was in was called Medicine King Ditch.

Now he didn't know where he was at all. He had only seen a wilderness before.

Leaving the key in such a place for a long time made him uneasy.

Li Banfeng ate something, put on his top hat, and left the Suishenju.

The key was still on the wilderness, more than twenty meters away from the endlessly flowing "Iron Wire River."

This wilderness was very flat, with no mountains, no trees, no grass, and not even a stone to be seen.

In such an environment with almost no reference points, it was easy for people to get lost.

But Li Banfeng knew how to walk back.

Walking backward along the river, at his speed, it wouldn't take long to walk back to a familiar place.

Having not walked much for two days, Li Banfeng felt his joints were a bit sluggish. He ran nearly three miles, panting and sweating profusely.

Li Banfeng leaned on his knees and panted for a long time.

This isn't right!

No matter how bad his condition was, a second-layer traveler couldn't possibly fail to run three miles.

And his cultivation wasn't just second-layer anymore. During this new land reclamation, Li Banfeng had encountered Feng Daiku and iron wire bugs one after another, and his cultivation had grown for nearly a year. He was very close to the third layer, yet running three miles was this difficult. This really didn't make sense.

Li Banfeng opened his water bottle, took a big gulp, looked at the "endlessly flowing" Iron Wire River, and walked slowly along the riverbank.

After walking more than two miles, Li Banfeng stopped.

He couldn't walk anymore. His legs felt like they were dragging thousand-pound shackles, incomparably heavy.

And he didn't know where to go either.

He had thought very clearly before that walking backward along the "Iron Wire River" would lead him back to the original place.

But he hadn't expected that the Iron Wire River had tributaries.

Ahead, there were three tributaries converging into the Iron Wire River before him.

Which tributary should Li Banfeng walk back along?

Judge by the width of the tributaries?

These three tributaries looked about the same.

The thing Li Banfeng worried about most had happened: he was lost in the new land.

Li Banfeng had heard Ma Wu talk about this situation. All those who had been lost in the new land and survived had only one piece of experience to give—leave it to fate.

In the new land, many common sense rules didn't apply. Judging direction relied entirely on memory and intuition. If intuition was accurate, one could walk out. If intuition wasn't accurate, no one knew what would happen, because those whose intuition wasn't accurate were all dead.

What should be done in this situation?

Li Banfeng calmed down and thought about countermeasures.

Li Banfeng didn't believe in intuition.

He decided to walk backward along the first tributary on the left. He had been unconscious in the Suishenju for a total of twenty hours, so the key in the Suishenju had followed the iron wire bugs for twenty hours.

Li Banfeng felt that he was faster than the iron wire bugs. If he walked back for twenty hours and found that he had returned to a familiar place, it would prove that he had walked in the right direction.

If he hadn't walked in the right direction, he would walk back and try again. The round trip would take forty hours.

It might take fifty.

His current condition was a bit wrong, so he might not be faster than the bugs.

Three rivers. If he walked the wrong two, it would take at most one hundred hours. The last river must be the correct direction.

As far as the current situation was concerned, even with the worst-case scenario, it would take at most one hundred and twenty-plus hours. Walking sixteen hours a day, he could walk out in eight days.

The Suishenju's food was sufficient, and drinking water was a bit tight. If he really couldn't walk anymore, he would ask the phonograph for help.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the phonograph, but because the phonograph had been sleeping, he didn't know when she would wake up. She had eaten special ingredients, and he didn't know the consequences of waking her up forcibly. If he waited for her to wake up and the water was all gone, it would be too late to say anything.

And the phonograph had always been inside the Suishenju and knew nothing about the outside environment. She couldn't possibly have many ideas.

Even if his wife could really think of a way, it would be easy to expose one thing while discussing the route: Li Banfeng had speed different from ordinary people. If his wife planned a route five hundred miles long and Li Banfeng walked it in three hours, that would be a big problem. His wife would deduce that Li Banfeng was a traveler.

Of course, he could tell his wife that he had always been on the road, but his wife wasn't that easy to fool. If he showed even a little flaw, Li Banfeng's life would be in danger.

But if it reached a point of no return, for example, if there were a few more tributaries ahead, Li Banfeng would have to ask his wife for help, and even consider moving the phonograph outside.

Of course, his wife might not be willing to come out, so he would have to discuss it properly then.

Li Banfeng walked along the first tributary on the left, gritted his teeth and walked more than ten miles, but he couldn't lift his legs anymore.

Opening his pocket watch, he saw that these ten-plus miles had taken three hours!

It seemed his physical condition was truly poor.

Li Banfeng sat by the roadside and rested for a while.

Come to think of it, as long as he didn't walk, his physical strength recovered very quickly.

This should be the effect brought by Residential Cultivation. Returning to the residence should make him recover even faster.

Li Banfeng returned to the Suishenju, and his wife was still sleeping soundly.

Li Banfeng slept for more than half an hour, gathered enough strength to move forward, and walked another ten-plus miles before his physical strength reached its limit again.

If he had no strength, he would return to the Suishenju to rest. Rest for a while, eat something, and then walk again.

Repeating this, he walked dozens of miles, and was blocked by a patch of thorns ahead.

The thorns were distributed on both banks and were very dense. Li Banfeng now had two choices: one was to pass through the thorn bush, and the other was to enter the Iron Wire River again and charge forward along the river surface.

He would rather die than enter the Iron Wire River again.

But this thorn bush didn't look easy to walk through either.

Each thorn didn't know how many years it had been growing here. The upper half was green, and the lower half was charred black; they all looked like charcoal.

Li Banfeng touched the sharp thorns on the bush, broke one off, and it could serve as a phonograph needle for his wife.

Li Banfeng didn't have copper skin and iron bones. How was he supposed to walk this road?

With no other choice, he took out the Tang Dao.

The Tang Dao looked at the thorns in front of it and said in astonishment: "Master, are you asking me to clear the road? A sickle would be more suitable for this kind of thing."

"How big is a sickle?" A sickle more than ten centimeters long was obviously not a good weapon for clearing a thorn bush of this scale.

"Master, I can only cut three times. What kind of situation it becomes after cutting, we'll have to see what fate has in store."

The Tang Dao was about to cut after saying this, but Li Banfeng shouted: "Wait! Let me think about which direction to cut first."

Which direction could he cut?

Wouldn't it be right to cut in the opposite direction of the river?

Li Banfeng felt something was wrong. Looking in the direction opposite to the river, Li Banfeng felt goosebumps all over his body.

There was danger here. What kind of danger, Li Banfeng didn't know for the time being.

After sensing for a long time with the technique of Seeking Good Fortune and Avoiding Calamity, Li Banfeng selected a position slightly to the left and let the Tang Dao strike with all its might.

A large patch of thorns fell, and behind the thorns were more thorns.

The road opened up was no more than two meters deep, which disappointed Li Banfeng.

There didn't seem to be any danger here, but this direction didn't bring any surprises either.

Li Banfeng continued to sense with the technique of Seeking Good Fortune and Avoiding Calamity, and the most favorable direction was still the position slightly to the left.

What was special about this position?

Li Banfeng let the Tang Dao cut again.

This time it cut more than three meters deep, and the thorns seemed to become a bit softer.

Testing again with the technique of Seeking Good Fortune and Avoiding Calamity, it was still this direction.

Li Banfeng decisively cut the third time. This time, Li Banfeng saw a road.

It wasn't a road he had opened himself, but an existing road in the thorn bush, a road extending to the left and right.

Li Banfeng walked into the thorn bush and looked left and right.

This road wasn't wide, enough for two or three people to pass side by side. There were thorns on both sides, but the thorns didn't grow onto the road, growing densely on both sides of the road like a hedge wall.

This road should be able to pass through this thorn bush, but which direction should he walk?

Walk left or walk right?

Li Banfeng took out the Silk Earring and ordered: "You've eaten your fill of oil and water, you have to put in some effort."

Could the Silk Earring distinguish direction?

No.

But she could hear changes in sound.

Only two kinds of sounds could be heard in the thorn bush: one was the whistling wind, and the other was the "crawling" sound of the Iron Wire River not far away.

Li Banfeng walked to the right along the road. This road was closer to the Iron Wire River. After walking out of the thorn bush, he should still be on the bank.

After walking to the right for a while, the road turned left.

After the turn, a fork appeared ahead. Li Banfeng continued to choose to walk in the direction closer to the Iron Wire River.

Walking in the thorn bush for five hours, he encountered more than a dozen forks. Li Banfeng's standard for choosing a road was only one: it must be close to the Iron Wire River.

This journey was extremely exhausting. For every mile he walked, Li Banfeng felt as if he had run wildly for a day.

After walking more than three miles, Li Banfeng sat by the roadside to rest for a while.

Through the Silk Earring, he could still hear the crawling sound of the river, proving that he hadn't walked in the wrong direction.

He observed the thorns on both sides carefully. He didn't understand why these thorns didn't grow onto the road.

Was it controlled by some kind of power, or did someone come to trim them regularly?

How could anyone trim them?

Li Banfeng mocked himself, stood up, and was about to continue his journey when he heard another sound in the Silk Earring.

*Hoo~*

A gust of wind came over.

The tone was very high, and the sound was very loud, proving that the wind was very fierce and came very urgently.

Li Banfeng sniffed and smelled a slight scent in the air.

It was the smell of smoke.

It was very faint, but it was identified by Li Banfeng's technique of Hundred Flavors Linglong.

The smell of smoke was approaching, and the strong wind was also approaching.

Not good! It might be a fire.

Li Banfeng took out the key, opened the Suishenju, threw the key into the thorn bush, and immediately closed the door.

After more than half an hour, Li Banfeng tentatively opened the door.

There was no danger outside. He hurriedly went out to pick up the key.

The road was empty, with only some residual ashes.

Charred smoke was rising from the roots of the thorns on both sides, and there were sparks in some places.

The key was a bit hot; it had also been roasted by the fire just now.

Did the thorn bush catch fire?

And now the fire was out again?

This thorn bush was very dangerous!

Li Banfeng couldn't care about his fatigue and ran wildly along the road.

More than seven hours later, Li Banfeng smelled the smoke again and hurriedly returned to the Suishenju to hide.

This time he was a bit slow entering the door and saw at the corner of the road ahead, a human head about three meters in diameter. It had no hair, but had complete facial features. Its eyes were open, its pupils were turning back and forth, and it was slowly walking over from the road surface, spraying flames from its mouth.

How did it walk?

Why would a human head without legs walk?

It seemed to have feet under its neck.

Li Banfeng didn't dare to observe carefully. All the living creatures that appeared on the road, including the crawling bugs on the ground, the flying bugs in the air, and the thorns that occasionally grew over the boundary, were all burned to ashes by the flames sprayed by the human head.

Someone was indeed trimming these thorns. This human head had been patrolling back and forth on every road, never stopping.

Li Banfeng hurriedly threw the key into the thorn bush. At the same time, the human head opened its eyes and looked at Li Banfeng.

It hadn't seen a living person for a long time, and the human head seemed very interested in Li Banfeng.

Being looked at by the human head, Li Banfeng felt his whole body was about to catch fire.

It was really about to catch fire; he started to smoke.

Not daring to stay for another moment, he immediately closed the door and returned to the Suishenju.

PS: This human head's level is very high. Could it also be a local deity?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 153 =====