Chapter 305: The Cultivation of the Land God

When Li Banfeng opened his eyes, a woman of breathtaking beauty was cleaning his wounds.

Halfway through, the woman sighed in admiration: "This little thing has such spirit!"

Li Banfeng scrambled up in a panic, pulled on his clothes, and looked at the woman: "Do we know each other?"

The woman laughed: "You just opened up wasteland on my territory, and now you turn around and say you don't know me?"

"You're the Land God?"

The woman nodded: "My name is Meng Yuchun. What's yours?"

"I'm Li Qi. All of this should be written in the contract."

"I've prepared the contract. Write your name down."

Li Banfeng wrote his name, pressed his fingerprint, burned the contract, and sprinkled blood on the land.

"All of this should have been done before opening the wasteland."

Meng Yuchun explained: "I'm not like other Land Gods. In the past, anyone who opened wasteland on my land followed these rules!"

"How many people have opened wasteland on your land before?"

"Just you. That's why I said in the past it was always these rules."

Li Banfeng looked at the woman before him. "Don't you think these rules are a bit too hasty?"

Meng Yuchun shook her head and laughed: "It's been over half a year since I became Land God, and you're the first living person to enter my territory.

This place has already fallen barren to such a state—would I still bother with all those useless rules and regulations, and ask when I might finally see a way out?"

The place was indeed barren. Li Banfeng looked around and asked: "Why did you insist on choosing such a place in the first place?"

"Did I have a choice? Whatever land the Inner Province gave me, that's what I had to take."

The origins of the Land God were exactly what Li Banfeng wanted to know.

Meng Yuchun spoke with a frankness, even more direct than Qiu Luoye. As long as he treated her sincerely, he should be able to ask out some things.

"Does one have to go to the Inner Province to become a Land God?"

"Of course. How else would I advance a layer?"

Advance a layer?

Li Banfeng asked: "What layer is your cultivation at now? If you don't want to say, forget it. I know I shouldn't casually ask others about their cultivation."

Meng Yuchun laughed: "Even if I don't tell you, you should be able to guess. I only have one layer of cultivation. I've only been at this new land for half a year. In this wretched place, how many layers could I possibly advance?"

Li Banfeng hadn't guessed: "What do you mean by this 'one layer' you're talking about?"

Meng Yuchun was taken aback: "Your cultivation isn't low, but your knowledge isn't broad. I'm definitely not at the Ground Layer One."

Ground Layer One?

This concept seemed to have been heard somewhere before.

Right, the coachman had mentioned it back then.

The first time he rode in the Yaowanggou coachman's cart, Hou Zi Qiu asked the coachman about his cultivation, and the coachman had said he was a cultivator at Ground Layer One. Li Banfeng was still Bai Gaozi at the time and hadn't paid much attention to how he phrased it.

Thinking about it now, the word "ground" didn't refer to a specific layer, but represented a certain stage of cultivation.

In Puluo Province, within the range Li Banfeng was familiar with, all the cultivation layers might be at the Ground stage!

"Then what is the one layer you're at now called?"

Meng Yuchun said: "I'm currently at Cloud Layer One. Stop trying to pump me for information. I'm not your master, nor your wife—why should I teach you so much?"

Li Banfeng sat beside Meng Yuchun and asked very sincerely: "I'm a skilled wasteland-opener. In the future, I can open plenty more wasteland here. Give me a bit more guidance, and I can also put in a lot of effort for you down the line."

Meng Yuchun shot Li Banfeng a look: "What's the use of just you alone opening wasteland? The human energy on my territory isn't going to rise!"

"It can rise. I know plenty of skilled wasteland-openers. I'll bring them all here. Many a little makes a mickle. Slowly, this place can become proper land."

Meng Yuchun frowned: "Why should I trust you?"

"If you don't trust me, we can draw up a contract. Within one month, I'll bring more people to open wasteland. Wouldn't that be far better than you waiting here over half a year without seeing a single person?"

Meng Yuchun thought for a moment and said: "Your cultivation really isn't low. Some things you'll learn sooner or later anyway. What can be said, I'll say. What can't be said, don't push me."

Li Banfeng nodded: "Let's first talk about Cloud Layer One. Does one have to cultivate to Ground Layer Ten before advancing to Cloud Layer One?"

"Of course. And it must be a fully-formed Ground Layer Ten."

"What does a fully-formed Layer Ten mean?"

Meng Yuchun patiently explained: "Going from Nine to Ten, one must pass the Life-and-Death Tribulation. If the Tribulation Crossing succeeds, one can ascend to the clouds. Only by ascending to the clouds can one go to the Inner Province. Only by going to the Inner Province can one obtain Cloud Layer One cultivation."

"What if the Tribulation Crossing fails?"

"Then things get difficult. But it also depends on the degree.

The so-called success of Tribulation Crossing means the body is destroyed and the soul ascends, whole and undamaged.

If the soul has some damage, it's not as if there's no room for recovery.

If the damage is less than twenty percent, it can still be repaired through various means. Once whole, there's still a chance to go to the Inner Province.

If the soul's damage exceeds twenty percent but is less than fifty percent, it becomes hard to repair.

Such souls will drift through Puluo Province, called Wounded Demonic Fiends. They are the most formidable type among the evil spirits of Puluo Province. Being able to survive long in the world can also be considered a kind of final resting place.

If the soul's damage exceeds fifty percent, it will slumber in the earth until it slowly dissipates. A few souls, however, are nourished by residences and become House Spirits.

Such House Spirits are rare. To encounter one is a blessing for a Yu Zhaixiu."

Li Banfeng nodded repeatedly.

His wife's level was definitely beyond ten layers. Who in this world could compare with such good fortune?

Li Banfeng asked again: "What if the soul is completely damaged?"

Meng Yuchun was stunned: "You mean the soul is damaged, but the body remains?"

Li Banfeng nodded.

"That's a Broken Cocoon Chrysalis—the most wretched kind. During their Tribulation Crossing, these people used the wrong sequence and became walking corpses. They can't die, nor can they live. Some are even kept like livestock by others."

Li Banfeng had seen the Breaking-Cocoon Chrysalis, the senior disciple on the Wretch's Ridge — in the eyes of the Sages, he was probably just a beast of burden that could fight.

Li Banfeng asked, "If you successfully cross the Tribulation and reach the Inner Province, do you become a Cloud Upper Layer?"

"No. Reaching the Inner Province only counts as getting onto the Cloud's Edge — just like a cultivator who has just entered the door, no layer, lifespan the same as an ordinary person, no change."

"Lifespan doesn't change? I thought it became three times as long?" This didn't match what Li Banfeng had learned.

Meng Yuchun shook her head: "That's a common misconception among the world. To gain triple the lifespan, you need the cultivation of a Cloud Upper Layer; to reach that layer, you need a reward from the Inner Province."

You still need a reward?

"How does one obtain a reward?"

At this point, Meng Yuchun hesitated — she didn't want to speak directly about the Inner Province.

"I don't want to say it. Can I show you?"

"How?" Li Banfeng couldn't understand.

Meng Yuchun gave a bitter smile: "Perhaps it's because I'm old, but I've lost all sense of shame."

She turned her body and undid her long robe.

The long robe slid down slowly, stopping below her knees.

Li Banfeng saw her fair skin, and the dense scars covering it.

Meng Yuchun said, "You see? This is how the grace-bestowal is earned.

I wouldn't be like other women, giving my body to serve them. I was willing to be a hired thug, even a servant.

Whether servant or thug, it's all the same as being a beast of burden.

I can't count how many times I've been beaten, nor remember how many years I endured the beatings — only then did I trade for the cultivation of a Cloud Upper Layer, only then did I trade for the qualification to be a local earth god."

Li Banfeng's eye twitched. He first asked Meng Yuchun to put her clothes back on, then asked, "How did you endure it?"

"What could I do but endure? And this isn't even the hardest part to bear. The hardest part is… is…" Meng Yuchun paused a moment, then said, "They killed my house spirit right in front of me, devoured it alive. I'm a coward — I didn't dare make a sound."

Both were silent for a long while. Meng Yuchun lowered her head and said, "I shouldn't have told you this. They don't allow us to speak of their affairs.

It's been too long since I've spoken to anyone. In the Inner Province, no one would talk to me; when I came here, I couldn't even see a living person."

Li Banfeng sighed: "So you're a Yu Zhaixiu."

Meng Yuchun nodded: "Every Yu Zhaixiu in the world hates the Traveling Cultivator, so I came down pretty hard on you."

Li Banfeng lowered his head and pressed his fingers against his brow.

He had always been striving to raise his cultivation, always fantasizing that one day he would reach the tenth layer and gain triple the lifespan.

But what was the price behind triple the lifespan?

Being someone's beast of burden?

Was that something he could accept?

"Once you became a Cloud Upper Layer, you returned to Puluo Province?"

Meng Yuchun nodded: "I came back. They rewarded me with a new territory and made me a local earth god.

I could also have not come back. If I'd earned their favor, I could have stayed in the Inner Province as a servant and continued cultivating."

"Still as a servant?"

"Plenty of people want to be servants — and that still depends on whether they're willing to bestow the chance."

"What's good about being a servant?" Li Banfeng didn't understand.

"Staying in the Inner Province lets you keep raising your cultivation."

"If you're not in the Inner Province, you can't raise your cultivation?"

"You can, but you need human energy." Meng Yuchun pointed at the wasteland around them. "A local earth god's cultivation is sustained by human energy — the stronger the human energy, the faster the cultivation grows.

But look — does this look like a place with human energy?

A Cloud Upper Layer cultivator's lifespan is generally around three hundred years, and pills can extend it a bit more, but never beyond five hundred at most.

By the day I die of old age, I probably still won't reach Cloud Upper Second Layer."

Li Banfeng said, "Does advancing to Cloud Upper Second Layer increase the lifespan? Or does the lifespan only change once you reach Cloud Upper Tenth Layer?"

Meng Yuchun shook her head: "I don't know. I don't know if there are ten layers above the clouds. I don't even know what Cloud Upper Second Layer is like.

No one ever told me. In the Inner Province I was no different from a beast of burden — no one wastes extra words on a beast."

Did all local earth gods go through this?

Did those whose strength was above the local earth gods go through this too?

The Peddler, the Train Eunuch, the Bitter Old Woman — did they all have similar experiences?

That couldn't be right!

With their temperaments, how could they possibly go to the Inner Province as servants?

Li Banfeng asked, "If you don't go to the Inner Province, you can't reach Above the Clouds?"

"You can!"

Meng Yuchun only said two words, but they put Li Banfeng on high alert.

"How?"

"Steal and rob."

Li Banfeng shook his head: "I'm a righteous man. Let's talk about the robbing part first."

"Robbing means taking from the local earth gods — taking their rank, their identity, their cultivation."

Li Banfeng immediately grew serious: "How do you rob them?"

Meng Yuchun said, "Do you know the local earth god of Green Water Bay, the Green Water Beggar?"

"I don't know him, but I've heard of him."

"His cultivation was robbed — robbed when he was at the ninth layer.

Green Water Bay was originally called Beggar's Bay; it wasn't his territory, but rather the domain of the Qi-cultivator Yuan Shoulv.

When Green Water Beggar was on the Ninth Layer, he defeated Yuan Shoulv of the Second Layer Above the Clouds, seized the position of local earth god, forcibly absorbed Yuan Shoulv's cultivation and rank, and advanced himself to the Second Layer Above the Clouds — preserving both his soul and his body, becoming the most formidable local earth god!"

Li Banfeng pinched his chin, unable to work out the process.

Ninth Layer fighting the Second Layer Above the Clouds?

How many layers did that span?

How did he win that fight?

PS: No matter how you fight, you can't win!

(End of chapter)