Chapter 253: Chunwang Mansion

The actor refused to come closer, and the main gate couldn't stay open forever, so Li Banfeng shut the gate and swung the pendulum, continuing his fight with the actor.

The actor had decent vocal skills, but his martial prowess was mediocre; despite Li Banfeng holding only a pendulum, his swift strikes kept him evenly matched.

After three or five minutes of fighting, the actor had been slashed multiple times, while Li Banfeng remained unharmed.

Seeing he gained no advantage, the actor vanished in an instant.

Li Banfeng roared: "Are you coming out or not? If you don't, I'll start singing again!"

The technique of a grand mansion could carry the Lady's art outside its walls; her singing could lure souls. Li Banfeng stood in the second courtyard and began singing "Wujiapo."

He belted out several verses—Peking opera wasn't an ordinary song; it demanded skill. His throat burned raw, yet the actor never showed himself.

Was the Lady's technique ineffective?

Then it proved the actor's cultivation base was high.

If his cultivation base was high but his martial skill still poor, what sect did this actor belong to?

Forget what sect he belonged to—he won't come out, so I'll leave first.

I'd hoped to hide in this mansion overnight and wait till dawn, but now it's clear this place is far too dangerous to stay in.

Li Banfeng ordered Xiao Ye Ci: "Gather everyone immediately and set out at once."

Xiao Ye Ci replied: "Aye." He quickly gathered everyone at the gate.

Li Banfeng pushed at the gate—it wouldn't budge.

He kicked it—it wouldn't budge.

He brought several men to ram it—it still wouldn't budge.

The gate was sealed shut.

Sealed gate? No problem—we'll climb over the wall.

Xiao Ye Ci led everyone to drag water jars, wooden crates, and other debris, piling them against the wall. Niu Guangda stepped forward first, climbed onto the crates, then onto the water jar, ready to scale the wall—when his hands touched the top, a puff of green smoke emerged.

"Oh my god!" Niu Guangda screamed, falling off the jar—the wall's top was hotter than a branding iron.

The wall couldn't be scaled. Li Banfeng told the group: "I'll jump out first and find a way from outside."

Though the brick wall was tall, to Li Banfeng it was no higher than a threshold.

He leapt upward, his soles rising a foot above the wall's edge, about to clear it.

The brick wall suddenly grew a full zhang taller—Li Banfeng slammed into it, sliding down covered in green smoke.

Being burned by the wall wasn't much—he was used to being burned by the Lady.

He rose from the ground, stared at the wall for a moment, and thought: Maybe I should just tunnel through.

The fourth-level technique of a Traveling Cultivator allows unimpeded passage—slipping through this wall seemed easy enough.

But if this wall can grow taller, could it also grow thicker?

What if I got trapped inside it? Wouldn't I end up like a pan-fried dumpling?

After long thought, Li Banfeng suddenly cursed: "If you've got guts, come out and fight me face-to-face! Hiding behind these dirty tricks to annoy me—what kind of hero are you?"

"What do you mean by dirty tricks?" came the actor's voice from the night sky, singing in Xipi Liushui rhythm, triumphant: "This place holds heaven's net and earth's trap—you'll never escape, ahahaha~"

Li Banfeng barked: "You're trapping us—what do you want?"

The actor sang on: "You shameless girl, you urinated in my courtyard! Even if you don't pay with your life, you'll still get a good beating!"

Xiao Ye Ci said to Lu Chunying: "Girl, this mess is your doing—you take the blame. Kneel here and let them beat you properly."

Lu Chunying froze.

"Mom, you want me to kneel here?"

Xiao Ye Ci's expression turned stern: "Girl, don't feel wronged—everyone's lives hang on this. Today's suffering is unavoidable."

Lu Chunying exclaimed: "Mom, what did I do wrong?"

Xiao Ye Ci gritted her teeth: "Right or wrong doesn't matter—you take the punishment. Girl, don't blame me for being cruel…"

Plop!

Li Banfeng swung the pendulum and struck Xiao Ye Ci across the face.

Everyone stared in shock—none expected Li Banfeng to be so brutal.

Xiao Ye Ci clutched her face, staggered back, and said to Li Banfeng: "Sir, what are you doing? I'm her mother—can't I scold my own child?"

Li Banfeng swung the pendulum again at her face: "You shameless fraud—you're a man, how could you possibly be her mother?"

Xiao Ye Ci cried: "I'm not a man! Sir, you're mistaken!"

"Mistaken? Do you think I'd mishear too?"

Li Banfeng had long noticed Xiao Ye Ci's odd behavior, but saw no green aura on her, and her appearance and voice matched perfectly—he hadn't dared act.

But when Xiao Ye Ci ordered Lu Chunying to kneel, Li Banfeng knew this "Xiao Ye Ci" was fake—he swung the pendulum, and the figure vanished.

Li Banfeng roared: "I've exposed your trick—give me back my person!"

The actor's voice echoed again: "Why should I give her back to you?"

Li Banfeng said: "You can't fool me—you lost. If you won't admit defeat, what kind of hero are you?"

This logic made no sense—if the actor refused to admit defeat, what could be done?

Even if he admitted defeat, he wasn't obligated to return Xiao Ye Ci.

But hearing Li Banfeng's words, the actor hesitated.

I'm different from these people.

These people urinate anywhere—can I be like them?

If I lose and refuse to admit it, and these people laugh at me, I can't live with that shame.

While he hesitated, Li Banfeng shouted again: "Even if you won't return her, at least tell me where she is!"

The actor didn't hesitate—he answered plainly: "She's lying in the side room of the main courtyard. I haven't harmed her—have the courage to come and take her back!"

"Mom!" At this, Lu Chunying sprinted toward the flower gate—but Li Banfeng grabbed her and yanked her back.

"Don't cause trouble. Gather everyone into one room, pair off, watch each other. If you spot anything wrong, tie them up immediately. If you can't fight, run. If you can't run, grab whatever weapons you have and all piss in the room together."

Lu Chunying blinked: "What good would peeing do?"

It's very useful—Li Banfeng didn't bother explaining.

If Xiao Genzi were here, it'd be perfect!

Li Banfeng stepped into the second courtyard—it was a garden, overgrown with weeds but still bearing traces of flowerbeds.

Besides flowerbeds, there was a pond and carved pavilions; rows of buildings lined both sides.

Directly ahead stood another flower gate—normally the path to the third courtyard—but Li Banfeng didn't enter, for two strands of green fire curled around its threshold.

Ghost illusion?

This gate might not be real—it was likely a spirit's trick. If he pushed through, he might encounter something terrible.

How many spirits haunted this mansion? What levels were they?

The only spirit who'd truly fought Li Banfeng was the actor—and even his level was hard to judge.

If he were high-level, why couldn't he fight? Why did he keep avoiding me?

If he were low-level, how could he withstand the Lady's singing and evade the Golden Eyes' scrutiny? When he impersonated Xiao Ye Ci, Li Banfeng truly couldn't tell.

Could this actor have a technique specifically designed to counter me?

These minor spirits were probably weak. Li Banfeng roared at the flower gate: "Waaahhh!"

The green light twisted—the spirits recoiled and scattered. The original flower gate vanished; ten meters away, a new gate appeared.

This was the real flower gate.

Li Banfeng stepped toward it when Lu Chunying suddenly ran up: "Sir, something's happened—the actor has bound Niu Guangda and the others, saying he'll eat them as appetizers!"

Li Banfeng looked at Lu Chunying: "Where's your mother?"

Lu Chunying blinked: "Isn't she in the main courtyard?"

"I mean your real mother."

"Isn't she my real mother?"

"Waaahhh!" Li Banfeng roared—Lu Chunying trembled violently, green aura flaring from her body.

Li Banfeng swung the pendulum again—Lu Chunying took two blows and vanished.

The actor's voice echoed again: "How did you know?"

Li Banfeng said: "Come out and fight me first!"

"Tell me—where was my mistake?"

"Your acting is terrible—your flaws are everywhere, I don't even know where to start."

"Villain, don't be arrogant! We'll settle this in the main courtyard!"

The actor's tone was furious—but in impersonating Lu Chunying, he had no flaw; his form and manner were perfect.

But Li Banfeng knew: Xiao Ye Ci wasn't Lu Chunying's real mother.

Passing through three gates, he entered the third courtyard—corridors twisted everywhere, with study rooms on both sides.

In the courtyard's center, beneath a pavilion, stood a man—thin-faced, eyes blazing, with a mustache, surrounded by servants kneeling in wait.

The Sage of Jianren Hill?

The Sage looked at Li Banfeng: "Do you think you can escape?"

Li Banfeng swung the pendulum and struck again.

The Sage roared: "You dare strike me?"

"So what if I do?"

Li Banfeng swung the pendulum straight at the Sage's forehead—the Sage cried out and vanished, leaving his servants surging forward.

"I was just about to kill you bastards!" Li Banfeng swung the pendulum and sang "Wild Boar Forest," pouring out Lu Zhishen's fury in song as he clashed with the host of spirits.

In martial skill, these spirits were no slouches; some were even slightly stronger than the actors.

In ruthlessness, they surpassed the actors—they were seasoned killers, each move aimed straight at vital points.

But they had no resistance to Li Banfeng's opera; hearing his thunderous vocals, their skills became useless.

After a few minutes, most of the spirits were shattered; only a few with higher cultivation bases still fought Li Banfeng, who seized an opening and opened his Personal Dwelling, where his wife's voice immediately rang out.

"The rose, the rose, most lovely, the rose, the rose, most radiant..."

One spirit snorted: "Silly, flowery words!"

Li Banfeng shouted: "Wife, sing the opera!"

"Who has dyed the frost-bitten forest crimson? It is the tears of parting lovers, a thousand lines..." His wife sang a passage from "The Romance of the Western Chamber"—this segment carried devastating power.

The spirits, unable to resist, were drawn uncontrollably into the Personal Dwelling; by the time Li Banfeng slammed the door shut, it was too late for them to escape.

One spirit asked: "Were those two lines just sung by General Xiaoqi?"

The singing machine did not answer, but retorted: "Who are you?"

The spirit said: "I am Peng Chunyang of the Chun Prince's Mansion—don't you remember me?"

The singing machine didn't recall Peng Chunyang, but Hong Ying did: "Chief Peng—is that you?"

Hearing her voice, Peng Chunyang cried: "Chief Cai Guan—is that you? How are you...?"

Before he could finish, the singing machine swallowed all the spirits in one gulp.

Hong Ying snapped: "These are people from the Chun Prince's Mansion—how could you eat them?"

The singing machine sneered: "So what if I ate them? They're the dishes my man bought—of course I get to eat them, I love eating them, and I'll eat them with full satisfaction!"

PS: A good man must know how to buy groceries—and someone must know how to eat them!

(End of Chapter)