Chapter 162

Walking through several villages in succession, Li Banfeng still hadn't used the medicine.

Yao Lao's medicine was meant to save people, but these villages were either empty or only had a group of people who survived by eating others.

Empty villages didn't need saving, and for those who survived by eating others, if they only scavenged corpses, Li Banfeng could spare their lives; if they hunted innocent people, Li Banfeng would save them in a different way.

He would cut off their hands and feet, then send them into the Leaving Suishenju, letting the Lady save their souls.

As for whether the remaining parts had any edible value, it depended on Honglian's mood.

For corpses without cultivation, Honglian basically had no interest. Although Haichi Ridge was said to be a gathering place for food cultivators, there weren't as many people with cultivation as imagined.

But this place was indeed special. Every two hours, Li Banfeng had to return to the Leaving Suishenju to eat something. He didn't know what power was controlling this land; here, people got hungry very easily.

This was Sandaoling, the most isolated place in Haichi Ridge, the place where the insect disaster was most severe. It had been almost forgotten by everyone. For the first time in his life, Li Banfeng saw what it meant for nine out of ten houses to be empty, and what it meant for the starving to fill the fields.

This was completely different from the famine presented in movies and TV shows; this was suffocating oppression and fear.

"Thanks to my mental illness, otherwise I would have been scared sick by you," Li Banfeng touched a man's head and asked seriously, "When you were boiling your wife, weren't you afraid?"

This man had tied up his wife and was preparing to boil her alive, just when Li Banfeng happened to see it.

Li Banfeng let his wife go and then began to earnestly educate the man.

The man cried: "I had no choice, I was really too hungry..."

"Boil her alive? How could you bring yourself to do it? At least stab her first; I'll let you die a quick death too!"

Li Banfeng threw him into the Leaving Suishenju and continued searching in the village. By evening, he had found nothing. Li Banfeng returned to the house and ate six whole cans.

At this rate, Li Banfeng's own food supplies might not be enough.

The Lady had eaten very well today. Seeing Li Banfeng return with the Wine Gourd, she greeted her enthusiastically: "Hey, little sister, our whole family is full today. Are you hungry? I still have two fresh souls left for you."

The Wine Gourd jumped to the Lady's side and responded: "Thank you, sister, for your kindness, but I don't eat souls."

"What about flesh and blood? That bitch Honglian is picky; she left a pile of good things she wouldn't eat. Why don't you try some?"

"I can eat some flesh and blood, but I've seen quite a bit of blood following little brother today, and I'm a bit nauseated. Let's eat another day."

"Hey, little sister, you only go out and risk your life with my husband, but you don't even want a bite to eat. Sister really doesn't know what you like. Since you're a magic treasure, you must have a cost in the end, right?"

Hearing this, Li Banfeng's cheek twitched.

He had overlooked something.

Every magic treasure in the world had a cost, but ever since the Wine Gourd fell into his hands, Li Banfeng had never thought about this matter.

If it weren't for the Lady's reminder, Li Banfeng didn't know when he would have remembered.

The gourd responded: "The cost is naturally necessary, but I'm afraid sister will laugh at me if I say it. I'm greedy for wine and drink it all year round, just afraid that my body will get cold."

"But I can only produce one catty of wine a day, and this catty of wine has to be left for little brother. When there's no wine to drink, I have to find a place to warm up."

"If there's no place to warm up, I can only warm up on little brother. If it's inconvenient for little brother, then I'll warm up on sister. This is my cost."

Hearing this, Li Banfeng suddenly realized. Except for that night when he drank with the Lady, the Wine Gourd had been following Li Banfeng the rest of the time, and stuck to him especially tightly.

This cost wasn't considered high.

Li Banfeng was very satisfied, and the Lady sneered: "Pah! You little vixen, shameless. I'm sharing a room with my husband tonight; are you going to warm up with us too?"

"I'll just rub against you on the side; it won't be in the way."

"Pah! The more you say, the more shameless you get!"

Li Banfeng was also embarrassed and leaned toward the record player: "Lady, are we really sharing a room tonight?"

"Hey, husband, little slave was just joking. It's inconvenient for me today; husband, go rest in the outer room."

Inconvenient?

Where is it inconvenient?

"Is the Lady short of machine oil?"

"Oh, husband, little slave isn't short of oil, not at all. Husband, rest early, husband, sleep quickly, husband, oh, husband~"

The Lady's voice was too soft.

Li Banfeng slept in the third room for a night, and at dawn the next day, he continued searching in Sandaoling.

Only the record player and Honglian were left in the room. Honglian said to the record player in the outer room: "Did you notice?"

*Chi chi~*

"I noticed. Not only did I see her cost, but I also saw her sect."

"Tell me about it."

The record player snorted coldly: "You should have noticed it too, so why ask me?"

"That madman is suspicious by nature, yet he has no half-suspicion of that gourd. This is her cost; she can touch other people's thoughts and make them believe her. When she was alive, she should have been a thought cultivator."

Honglian was silent for a long time, feeling something was wrong: "That madman's thoughts are strange and naturally restrain thought cultivators. If the gourd were really a thought cultivator, she shouldn't be able to manipulate that madman's thoughts."

*Chi chi~*

"It's not manipulation, it's touching. This gourd is different from ordinary thought cultivators; she doesn't use hard methods but soft ones, serving that madman until he's obedient, so naturally he won't be suspicious of her."

Honglian was somewhat worried: "This matter is not easy to deal with; why didn't you expose her in front of the madman?"

"What's the rush? If I exposed her, how could I find out the thoughts behind her?"

"Don't worry, besides you and me, there is another person who is suspicious of her; that is her fellow sect member, who will help that madman guard against her."

Honglian sneered: "What can I do if I'm worried? I don't want to be his wife anyway."

*Chi chi~*

"Say what you will, but don't you still have to live under the same roof as him?"

Before long, the sound of a door opening came from outside; Li Banfeng returned to find cans to eat.

"Hey, husband, did you reach Haichi Ridge? At this rate of eating, the food supplies at home won't be able to hold up."

They really couldn't hold up anymore; Li Banfeng had to finish the Haichi Ridge matter quickly.

Walking from dawn until dusk, Li Banfeng still didn't see any decent villages. Walking to an intersection, a fishy and spicy smell drifted into his nostrils.

Someone is using poison!

Li Banfeng retreated rapidly, carefully observing the situation around him.

Danger struck from behind. Li Banfeng didn't rush to turn around, but drew his Tang Dao and stabbed behind him.

A cry of pain came from behind, and Li Banfeng immediately turned around and stomped his foot violently.

*Pa! *

Breaking Through Ten Thousand Rivers technique.

It didn't succeed.

The pebble on the ground didn't break; Li Banfeng's use of the technique failed.

This technique failed often; since learning it, Li Banfeng had only succeeded twice in the New Land, and that was when his legs were extremely heavy.

Standing behind him was a middle-aged man, looking to be in his fifties, holding a spiked club in his hand, pointing at Li Banfeng and shouting: "Who are you?"

Li Banfeng summoned his Tang Dao back, looked at the man, and said: "I should be the one asking you, who are you? Are you here to eat meat again? Do you want to eat an arm, or do you want to eat a leg?"

"Eat meat?" The man was furious. "You are a beast that eats people!"

As the words fell, the man rushed up with his spiked club.

Just listening to the sound of the wind, the spiked club must have weighed over a hundred catties. The man's shoulder had been cut by the Tang Dao, but it didn't affect his performance at all; one blow was faster than the next, forcing Li Banfeng to retreat step by step.

After circling for a while, Li Banfeng stole a step, arrived in front of the man, held the man's chest with his sickle, and shouted: "Who on earth are you?"

The man didn't dodge or retreat, but charged directly at the blade, and the spiked club continued to greet Li Banfeng's head.

With such a formidable physique and such a reckless fighting style, it could basically be concluded that this was a food cultivator.

Judging from his combat power, this person was no lower than the third layer.

Li Banfeng withdrew his sickle; he didn't deal a fatal blow. From the few words just now, it could be inferred that there was a misunderstanding between the two.

"I'm here to deliver medicine."

A short sentence made the middle-aged man stop.

He was stunned for a moment, looking at Li Banfeng with excitement: "Did the Lu Lu Er Ye send you?"

"Which Lu Lu Er Ye?" Li Banfeng was confused.

"The Lu Lu Er Ye of the Lu family!"

Lu Dongjun?

Li Banfeng remembered some news from the newspaper.

Lu Dongjun had come to Haichi Ridge to control the insect disaster, and it looked like he had already achieved some success.

Then what am I here for?

Li Banfeng shook his head and said: "It wasn't the Lu Lu Er Ye of the Lu family who sent me; another expert sent me. My identity is inconvenient to disclose."

The middle-aged man was very disappointed: "If it's not the medicine from the Lu Lu Er Ye of the Lu family, I'm afraid it won't be of much use."

"Whether it's useful or not, why don't you try it first? I've come all this way." Having traveled so hard to reach Haichi Ridge, only to be unwelcome, Li Banfeng felt a bit awkward.

"Trying it is fine." The middle-aged man sized Li Banfeng up and agreed just like that.

He agreed just like that.

Li Banfeng felt this person was really simple and honest, so simple that Li Banfeng felt a bit suspicious.

"Follow me." The middle-aged man brought Li Banfeng into a village. At the entrance of the village, three men were on high alert, one holding a hammer, one holding a Guan Wang blade, and one holding an axe; the weight of each person's weapon was not light.

"Put down your weapons; this is someone delivering medicine."

"Is it the Lu Lu Er Ye's medicine?" All three were very excited.

Li Banfeng frowned and said: "Not the Lu Lu Er Ye, it's the Seventh Master. Hurry up and clear the way."

The three looked at each other.

The man with the spiked club said: "This really is someone delivering medicine."

"Delivering medicine... then good." The three cleared the way.

Were they all this simple and honest?

Li Banfeng entered the village and saw the long-lost cooking smoke.

Someone in this village was still cooking rice, and Li Banfeng smelled the fragrance of rice.

The middle-aged man asked: "Have you eaten? Why don't you have a meal first."

Li Banfeng was indeed hungry. He entered the man's house and saw a sturdy middle-aged person bring a rice bowl and place it in front of Li Banfeng.

"Is this your younger brother?" Li Banfeng asked casually.

The man was unhappy: "What are you saying? This is my wife!"

Li Banfeng looked at the middle-aged person again.

The woman rolled her eyes at Li Banfeng and went into the inner room.

It's no wonder women aren't suitable for food cultivators; this mistress seemed to have grown a beard too.

The man introduced himself: "My name is Niu Fuzhi, having good fortune, having ambition. How should I address you?"

"My name is Li Qi."

Niu Fuzhi looked disdainful: "This name is so rustic; you can tell at a glance you haven't read any books. I guess your medicine won't be effective either."

Li Banfeng wanted to say that he was also called Li Furong; did this name seem very cultured?

But there was no need to haggle over this. The rice bowl was covered with a lid, and seeing the white rice, Li Banfeng had a great appetite. He smelled it, and besides the fragrance of rice, there was no other strange smell.

He used the perception technique to sense it for a moment, and didn't perceive any danger.

Lifting the lid, Li Banfeng ate with peace of mind. He had to be fast; some mosquitoes wouldn't even let go of cooked rice.

After eating eight taels of rice, knowing that this food was hard-won, Li Banfeng didn't have the heart to eat more.

Putting down his bowl and chopsticks, Li Banfeng asked: "Where did you get this rice?"

"Planted it."

Planted it?

"What season is this? How can you still plant rice?"

Niu Fuzhi said: "We have cultivation cultivators; we can plant food in this season too. It's just that we can't guard against these mosquitoes. Are you full? Take out the medicine and try it!"

"Where should I try it?"

"In the fields! We're about to harvest the rice."

Li Banfeng pondered for a moment and said: "Was it you who put poison in the fields just now?"

Niu Fuzhi said: "How is it putting poison? That's medicine to smoke out mosquitoes; we've tried quite a few medicines too."

PS: Are the people in this village really this simple and honest?

Adding a chapter at 12:00 noon!

(End of chapter)