Chapter 180

It really was as the Miss said; in a combat situation, the paper concubine Li Banfeng printed out couldn't even last a minute before scattering into pieces.

Actually, it was still far from a minute. Li Banfeng had timed it with his pocket watch: standing in place and doing nothing, the paper concubine could last fifteen minutes.

Doing some chores, she could last three and a half minutes.

Fighting with fists and kicks, it was roughly between fifteen and twenty seconds.

Fighting with weapons, it was roughly between ten and fifteen seconds.

The time was indeed short, but the paper concubine was truly capable of fighting; her specific combat power depended on Li Banfeng's intent.

If the intent was infused more gently, the paper person could perform simple actions like throwing punches or stabbing with a knife.

If the intent was infused more fiercely, the paper person could even display a certain level of martial arts, though she would scatter into pieces much faster.

Zhong Bai advised, "Master, you'd better learn painting techniques from me; this opportunistic method is too useless."

"Painting techniques must be learned, but this method is also quite useful." Li Banfeng bought a pile of brushes and pigments, learning painting techniques from Zhong Bai while training the imprinted paper people, striving to exert maximum combat power within the limited time.

Neither of these two things was easy. Li Banfeng prepared all the necessary supplies and went to a new territory to go into seclusion and cultivate.

Walking on the road, Li Banfeng suddenly muttered to himself:

"Did you forget one thing?"

"What thing?"

"Aren't you going back to Yuezhou?"

"That's not urgent anymore."

"Why isn't it urgent?"

"He is still in Yuezhou, and I don't know what his intentions are. If I go back now, I'm afraid I'm no match for him."

In Yuezhou, Dark Star Bureau agent Zou Guoming (Datou) was eating at home, eating the meal his wife cooked.

Datou's wife was named Miao Ruifang; she had great culinary skills, could manage the household, was very frugal, and was also very considerate.

But ever since he lost his job, Miao Ruifang's temperament had changed somewhat.

Halfway through the meal, she suddenly put down her chopsticks and said to Datou, "Let's sell the house."

"Why?" Datou was stunned.

In Yuezhou, owning a house of 103 square meters was the only pride Datou had had for many years.

Miao Ruifang said, "The child is starting middle school next year. Either we get a school district house, or we let the child go to a private school; we can't just make do like in elementary school anymore."

The Dark Star Bureau's income was not low; even if his wife didn't work, the family's life was quite comfortable.

But the tuition fees for private schools in Yuezhou made people shiver.

As for school district houses, they made people not even have the strength to shiver.

Datou looked at his wife and said, "I'll find a way regarding the school placement."

"What way can you find? When he was in elementary school, you said you'd find a way, but what did you find?"

When the child was starting elementary school, the Bureau promised to help Datou apply for a placement at a key elementary school.

The placement was eventually applied for, but due to various reasons, the placement wasn't given to Datou.

The Bureau's explanation to Datou was that he needed to consider the overall situation.

The Bureau also promised to help apply for the middle school placement, but what if they asked him to consider the overall situation again?

"I have the night shift tonight, I'm leaving first." Datou put down his chopsticks and put on his jacket.

"Didn't you just work the night shift yesterday?"

"I'm working overtime temporarily today."

"I really don't know what kind of work you actually do!"

Married for over ten years, his wife had never been to Datou's company and had never asked much about Datou's work. She only knew Datou worked at an electrical appliance company, but she didn't understand why the electrical appliance company often had night shifts.

Not understanding, she didn't ask. His wife cleared the bowls and chopsticks with a sullen face, and Datou lowered his head and left the house.

He didn't need to work the night shift today; Datou went to Huahu Park.

Walking behind the Western-style building, he saw that sobbing woman again.

Hu Lishan, who jumped into the lake to commit suicide—is she still here?

She had long since not been here; neither her corpse nor her wandering soul was here.

What remained here was just a mark, a mark left for Datou by He Haiqin. Only Datou could see this sobbing woman; seeing her meant finding the entrance to the New Territory.

Datou followed the woman step by step into the lake water; unlike before, Datou was well-prepared.

He brought an oxygen bag, ensuring he could hold out for twenty minutes.

He knew the way to leave the New Territory; if he couldn't hold out, he also had means to escape with his life.

Diving into the cold lake water, Datou found a loach in the mud at the bottom of the lake.

Datou carefully pulled the loach out of the mud; visually, it was twelve or thirteen centimeters long.

This loach could increase a man's size by five or six centimeters; no surgery was needed, just eating the loach.

Datou had once followed a case where someone brought this kind of loach from the Star Fall Continent to sell on the black market; one loach could sell for 800,000. The case eventually fizzled out, but Datou knew where the black market was and who to find to sell the goods.

I'm just doing business; I caught the loach, and I'm selling it. This isn't a big deal.

One loach couldn't buy a school district house, but it was enough for three years of private school tuition.

Datou was clutching the loach and preparing to surface when the loach, which had been quite docile, suddenly burst out with a strange force, broke free from Datou's hand, and bit Datou fiercely.

After a burst of intense pain, Datou's body began to go numb, and his head hit the surface of the lake as if hitting a piece of rock.

He failed to break through the lake surface.

He couldn't get out!

Datou, in his nervousness, didn't know what to do. Although he had been to the New Territory before, this environment was still too unfamiliar to him.

A hole suddenly appeared on the lake surface, and a hand grabbed Datou's clothes and pulled him up.

It was He Haiqin.

"I'm a patient; I have to lie in a hospital bed, I can't keep running out to save you!" He Haiqin looked at the wound on Datou's hand and asked, "What are you catching loaches for?"

"I want to earn some extra money; I want to earn tuition money for my child." Datou told him about the child's schooling.

He Haiqin gave Datou an elixir: "A fifth-layer martial cultivator, worrying about this little bit of money? You might as well go to the Star Fall Continent; being a big support for someone there earns more than now."

Datou took the elixir and hurriedly thanked him.

He really wanted to go to the Star Fall Continent to see, but he couldn't leave his wife and child behind.

"I'll go down into the lake and try again." The elixir took effect, the numbness in his body eased quite a bit, and Datou wanted to go down into the lake again, but was stopped by He Haiqin.

"You're running to the black market to do business; aren't you afraid someone will investigate you?"

Datou was silent for a moment and said, "There are people in the Bureau who deal with the black market, and they haven't been investigated either."

"They aren't investigated, but you aren't them! If you sell the goods today, you might be in tomorrow! How will you let your wife and child live?"

Datou didn't make a sound.

He Haiqin pondered for a moment and said, "Your wife lost her job?"

Datou nodded.

"What was her job before?"

"A hotel lobby manager. The hotel went bust, and she lost her job too."

"I have a friend who just opened a hotel and is short of a lobby manager. It pays 20,000 a month, bonuses are extra, and it solves the school placement. Let your wife go to work."

Datou's identity was special; if he wanted to help him, he couldn't just give him money, otherwise Datou would inevitably be investigated.

This was the safest method He Haiqin could think of.

Datou was stunned.

He didn't understand why He Haiqin wanted to help him.

He knew He Haiqin was a person who could change his fate; it was He Haiqin who let him see the New Territory of the Star Fall Continent, and the two would have some cooperation on some matters in the future.

But ever since the two met, He Haiqin hadn't asked anything and hadn't asked him to do anything.

"Why are you helping me?"

"No reason. You are a person with real skills, and a person with real skills should live with dignity." He Haiqin took out paper and pen and wrote down the hotel's address.

He had just taken the paper and pen from a stationery store; his movements were too fast, and Datou couldn't see clearly.

"A fifth-layer martial cultivator, you have to live with a bit of backbone; why risk your life for this little bit of trouble?" He Haiqin handed the hotel's address to Datou. "Come find me if you have anything in the future."

"Can you not come find me anymore?" Ma Wu looked at Chu Er helplessly. "The Baile Sect matter is already in the past. I've already hidden in the New Territory; why are you still pestering me endlessly?"

Chu Er's expression was slightly sorrowful: "I came to bid you farewell; I'm going to Kucai Village to cultivate."

Having experienced the Baile Sect matter, Chu Er had also sobered up a lot. In the Star Fall Continent, the hardest capital is cultivation.

Ma Wu nodded and said, "Going to Kucai Village is good. Do you lack a travel permit or travel expenses? You don't need a travel permit to go to Kucai Village; if you lack travel expenses, I'll lend you some."

Chu Er rolled her eyes upward and said, "Ma Wu, there's some sentiment between us; you don't need to speak so meanly."

"There's no sentiment between me and you; there never has been. Do you have anything else? If not, I won't see you off."

Swallow had told Ma Wu not to talk about sentiment with bitter cultivators. Bitter cultivators don't talk about sentiment, nor do they talk about love. If she really wanted to in her heart, she absolutely wouldn't say it; if she said it, it was absolutely just acting.

Just like Zhong Desong toward Old Mrs. Han; no matter how much he wanted to in his heart, he never dared to tell her.

Chu Er sighed and said, "I really do have one thing to ask of you; I want to see Li Qi once."

"What do you want to see him for? Do you know each other? You only danced with him once; don't you dare say there's any sentiment in this!"

If it came to sentiment, Chu Er herself didn't believe it.

But she knew that ever since Ma Wu met Li Qi, the situation was very different. Li Banfeng had the ability to help people turn their lives around.

"I respect people with skills; I just want to see him once, otherwise I won't leave."

"Even if you don't leave, I have no way; Li Qi isn't here."

"He has a plot of land here," Chu Er looked at Ma Wu calmly. "If I can find you, I can find him, but if I go find him myself, I don't know what might happen."

Ma Wu sneered, "What can you do? Are you afraid I'm not?"

Chu Er lowered her head and said, "You can gamble once."

Ma Wu was silent for a long time and said helplessly, "Fine, I'll take you to see, but if Li Qi refuses to see you, I have no way."

The two plots of land were ten miles apart. Under Ma Wu's arrangement, each built a row of wooden houses.

Arriving in front of Li Banfeng's wooden house, Ma Wu knocked on the door, but there was no response: "You came at an inconvenient time; Li Qi isn't here."

Chu Er sat in front of the door and said, "I'll wait for him here."

"Don't wait; once he leaves, he might not come back for three or five days."

Chu Er sat for more than half an hour, indeed didn't see Li Qi, and left with a frustrated face.

Ma Wu didn't see her off either, returned to his plot of land, and went to cultivate with Swallow.

Among the many strange beings in the New Territory, Ma Wu was best to Swallow. He didn't pamper Swallow in vain; following the eighth-layer Lady Suoe to cultivate, Ma Wu's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds and had already reached the second layer. If Chu Er dared to mess around, he would accompany her at any time.

But he didn't expect that Chu Er hadn't gone far and had circled back.

She lay by Li Banfeng's window and watched; maybe Li Banfeng was hiding in the house and refusing to see her.

This look was no small matter; she saw a huge spider hanging from the ceiling, using one leg to dig a key out of a crack in the floor.

Chu Er shouted, "Dabo Ensi, is that you? You dare come here to steal things! Ma Lao Wu, did you see? Someone came here to steal things!"

Ma Wu had long since gone far away; Chu Er was deliberately scaring this spider.

But this spider had no reaction, hanging by a spider silk, hooking the key, and about to leave.

Chu Er took a pair of nail clippers out of her skirt pocket and threw them through the fence into the window.

The nail clippers instantly grew larger, and with a *crack*, they cut off the spider leg that was holding the key.

The nail clippers quickly dived, bit the key, rushed out of the window, and drilled into Chu Er's skirt pocket.

Chu Er ran away, and the spider followed closely behind.

Seeing that she was about to be caught by the spider, Chu Er became more and more panicked as she ran.

Is it really Dabo Ensi?

If it really is him, then it's over.

Chu Er knew Dabo Ensi's cultivation wasn't low; she didn't bring any support, so it was impossible for her to be his match.

After running for more than two miles, the spider suddenly stopped chasing.

Chu Er leaned on her knees, her face green, panting for a long time.

She touched the key; it was still bitten by the nail clippers.

What to do?

Give it to Ma Wu?

Chu Er turned to go find Ma Wu, but suddenly stopped her steps again.

This key is so important; can Ma Wu know about it?

Go to the house and wait for Li Qi to come back?

What if that spider comes back too?

That spider wasn't Dabo Ensi; it was Dabo Ensi's puppet.

The reason he stopped chasing Chu Er was because the puppet had exceeded the control range.

He sent the puppet over to find Honglian, and unintentionally discovered this key in the floor.

"What is that key for?" Dabo Ensi muttered to himself. "Why does the Chu family's second young lady also want this key?"

Having had his tracks seen by Chu Er, Dabo Ensi didn't dare stay long and immediately left the New Territory.

The train arrived at Kucai Village station; Chu Er prepared to get off.

Yang Yanzheng and Wen Hongyan wanted to follow, but were stopped by Chu Er.

"You aren't unaware of the rules of Kucai Village; all go back. If there's no urgent matter, don't come find me."

Chu Er carried her suitcase off the train, and Wen Hongyan and Yang Yanzheng watched with worried faces.

"Old Yang, if she makes trouble in Kucai Village again, what should we do?"

"If she should be beaten, let her be beaten; if she should be punished, let her be punished. This depends on her own fortune; what else can we do?"

Li Banfeng was using his intent to control the paper concubine, who was currently fighting against the Tang Dao.

As soon as the Tang Dao made a move, the paper concubine was broken into two halves.

Li Banfeng was unhappy: "Didn't I tell you not to use lethal force?"

The Tang Dao said: "I only used thirty percent of my strength; this woman is really not able to take a hit."

"Then use twenty percent of your strength this time!"

At twenty percent strength, the paper concubine still couldn't parry.

After three slashes, the Tang Dao went to rest, and Zhong Bai took the field instead.

In front of Zhong Bai, the paper concubine still couldn't last a single round.

What use is she then?

When fighting, it's better to let Zhong Bai go directly.

No, must practice more!

Li Banfeng didn't leave the house for two days, diligently training the fourth-layer technique.

The traveling cultivator cultivation was delayed a bit, but the technique indeed improved.

He controlled the paper person to circle with Zhong Bai for two rounds; although Zhong Bai intentionally let her, the paper person also had a chance to fight back.

The white paper was almost used up; Li Banfeng wanted to find Ma Wu to ask for some. He pushed the door and went out, only to find that he wasn't in the wooden house, but in an earthen house.

The pitch-black earthen house was dilapidated, with only a hole opened on the south wall, barely counting as a window.

What place is this?

Li Banfeng's brain buzzed, realizing his key had been picked up by someone.

There was a sound in the outer room.

It seemed someone was chopping firewood.

Li Banfeng walked to the outer room and saw a simple farm woman, her head wrapped in a towel, wearing coarse cloth clothes, holding an axe, looking at Li Banfeng in surprise.

"You really came to find me!" The farm woman was full of surprise.

Li Banfeng looked for a long time and asked, "Who are you?"

Chu Er took off the towel on her head, wiped the dust off her face, and said, "You don't recognize me anymore?"

Do I recognize her?

She looks a bit familiar.

"What place is this?"

Chu Er was stunned for a long time and asked, "You came yourself; you don't know what place this is? This is Kucai Village!"

PS: There is a big shot in Kucai Village!

(End of chapter)