Chapter 376: Ah Xia

The chef kept interrogating Miss Xiao Feng, trying to get her to reveal the source of the information.

But Miss Xiao Feng insisted it had been divined by the house spirit.

Li Banfeng didn't believe the house spirit had that kind of skill. If she really could divine so well, why hadn't she divined that Li Banfeng was going to expose her tonight?

But Miss Xiao Feng might truly not know.

Youtao finished eating the roast chicken, then ate the squab inside the chicken's belly, then ate the quail inside the squab's belly, sucked on her fingers, rose and said: "This big brother, I know you've come to help me. I'll never forget this kindness you've shown me, Youtao.

Miss Xiao Feng and I sever all ties from this day forth, but after all these many years, some bonds of affection I still can't forget. I beg you, big brother, show mercy, spare her life, just let her go."

The chef couldn't follow Youtao's request; he was waiting for Meng Yuchun's instructions.

Meng Yuchun looked at Li Banfeng, and Li Banfeng raised his brows at Meng Yuchun.

Let her go first, and see whether Ah Xia comes looking for her.

Meng Yuchun understood, and used a technique to relay the order to the chef.

The chef rose and said to Miss Xiao Feng: "You may leave."

Miss Xiao Feng struggled to sit up, her stomach still throbbing with sharp pain. She looked at the chef and said: "Aren't you going to give me the antidote?"

The chef laughed: "You don't want to leave?"

Miss Xiao Feng looked at Youtao, hoping Youtao would plead for her once more.

Youtao turned her face away and said through gritted teeth: "Get lost!"

"Tao'er."

"I said get lost!"

Miss Xiao Feng dared not speak another word, lowered her head, and left the plot of land.

But leaving the plot was easy; trying to walk out of Li Banfeng's territory was hard.

After walking more than three li, Miss Xiao Feng's stomach pain worsened, and she crouched by the road, beginning to retch.

She couldn't bring anything up, and could only force herself to keep walking.

After another two or three li, Miss Xiao Feng came across a vine covered in sharp thorns. It tore her clothes and ripped a patch of skin on her back.

Although it was only a scratch, Miss Xiao Feng felt the wound throb with unbearable pain. After a few more steps, she saw vines everywhere ahead, with no way to avoid them.

No path forward, so she'd go around to the left. Yu Zhaixiu had a very poor sense of direction, and she had no idea where going left would lead.

After a few dozen steps, the left side was also covered in vines.

Was her vision playing tricks on her?

Miss Xiao Feng rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, only to feel her eyelids burning as if cut by a knife.

She looked down and saw vines had actually grown on the back of her hand.

Not just the back of her hand—her arms, shoulders, chest, belly, both legs: vines were sprouting all over Miss Xiao Feng's body.

In terror, Miss Xiao Feng screamed at the top of her lungs: "Ah Xia, Ah Xia, save me!"

Meng Yuchun and Li Banfeng waited quietly nearby, watching to see whether this Ah Xia would be willing to make a move.

After waiting some ten minutes, when Miss Xiao Feng was nearly hoarse from shouting, a cluster of green light flickered into view in the distance.

Above the green light, the figure of a woman slowly appeared. She wore a pale blue long robe, a round-topped small cap on her head, round-framed black sunglasses on her face, held a bucket of counting rods in her hands, and carried an enormous abacus on her back.

This style of dress was common among fortune-tellers, but a woman wearing it was truly rare.

Meng Yuchun paused for a moment and asked: "Gao Shuxia?"

They actually knew each other.

Gao Shuxia sighed and said: "I told Miss Xiao Feng to hide from you by every means possible, but she still couldn't avoid you. Who is this man beside you?"

Gao Shuxia looked at Li Banfeng.

Meng Yuchun smiled, took Li Banfeng's arm, and said: "This is my lover."

Gao Shuxia stared for a moment and said: "Your lover is a man?"

Li Banfeng frowned—what a low-quality question that was.

Meng Yuchun is a woman, so naturally her lover is a man.

Meng Yuchun nodded and said: "I wanted to try something different."

You don't need to change anything, you—

Li Banfeng looked at Meng Yuchun and realized the situation might not be what he had imagined.

Meng Yuchun and Gao Shuxia were old acquaintances, Gao Shuxia and Miss Xiao Feng had a very special relationship—could Meng Yuchun's be special too?

Were their tastes all the same?

Think again about those close friends by Meng Yuchun's side—Yellow Butterfly, Red Butterfly…

These two women seemed to want to catch up. Li Banfeng glanced at Meng Yuchun, reminding her to get to the main business first.

Meng Yuchun asked: "How did you know something happened to Ba Shan Zhu? And please don't tell me you divined it."

Gao Shuxia was silent for a moment, then said: "Ba Shan Zhu hired quite a few wandering fiends, wanting to take over your territory. That happened, didn't it?"

"It did!"

"One of those wandering fiends was an old friend of mine for many years. She was hired by Ba Shan Zhu and should have fought you,

but when the moment came to act, she got scared and didn't go with Ba Shan Zhu to your territory.

Afterwards, fearing Ba Shan Zhu's retaliation, she prepared a generous gift, intending to apologize and make amends to Ba Shan Zhu. But after waiting many days, Ba Shan Zhu never showed up.

She deduced that Ba Shan Zhu was already dead. I followed her lead and performed a divination, which confirmed Ba Shan Zhu was indeed dead, so I sent Miss Xiao Feng to come scout the truth of the matter.

To tell the truth, I really did want this piece of land, but since you've already taken it, I won't keep thinking about it.

I can't bear to give up Miss Xiao Feng. If you still remember the old affection between us, spare her life. If you truly don't care, then let's fight it out right now!"

Meng Yuchun hesitated for quite a while—whether out of regard for their old friendship or fear of the other's strength, she ultimately chose not to fight Gao Shuxia.

"Take her and leave. Don't ever come back to my territory."

Gao Shuxia stirred up a gust of wild wind and vanished into the night with Miss Xiao Feng.

Li Banfeng asked Meng Yuchun, "What cultivation level is this Gao Shuxia? Has she reached the clouds?"

Meng Yuchun shook her head and said, "Back when I was close with her, she was still at the ninth layer. We advanced together — I succeeded, she didn't, and she became a Wounded Demon Fiend."

A Wounded Demon Fiend — a failure of the nine-to-ten advancement, whose soul damage exceeds twenty percent but has not reached fifty percent.

Because the soul damage is severe and hard to recover, they can endure long in the world, making them the fiercest class of evil spirits in Like Puluozhou.

"Can a Wounded Demon Fiend serve as a local land god too?"

Meng Yuchun shook her head and said, "By rights her rank isn't high enough, but I haven't seen her in years and don't know what changes she's undergone.

Judging by how she behaved just now, she wasn't afraid to fight in front of me — her cultivation may well be no lower than mine."

"Her soul is badly damaged and hard to repair — could she still keep advancing?"

Meng Yuchun looked at Li Banfeng in embarrassment; her knowledge on this subject was extremely limited.

That matter wasn't urgent — he could ask his wife when he had the chance. The pressing thing right now was: had this Gao Shuxia told the truth? Did she really get her information from a wandering monster?

Did this wandering monster she mentioned even exist? That needed to be verified by the Cook first.

Li Banfeng went to Youtao's plot. Youtao sat on the ground, her gaze blank, like a clay statue.

Meng Yuchun frowned and said, "Look at her uselessness. If a strange monster came to test her now, one slap would kill her dead. A person like this can't be allowed to succeed at clearing land — she doesn't deserve it!"

Meng Yuchun wasn't wrong at all — in Youtao's current state, she truly didn't deserve this one-li plot.

But Li Banfeng wanted the Sky Light.

For a good omen, Li Banfeng didn't want his first clearing to end in failure either.

He stood outside the boundary line and nodded toward the projector in the tree.

The projector adjusted its lens angle, revealing Li Banfeng's figure.

Seeing Li Banfeng, Youtao stood up and walked toward him, lost and hollow.

"Brother Bai Sha, you've come."

"I'm here."

"What do you think of my face? Is it pretty?"

"Pretty."

"And my figure? She always said I had a good figure, said holding me in her arms, she never got tired of it."

Li Banfeng nodded: "Yes, definitely not tiring."

"Brother Bai Sha, do you like it? Do you want it? I'll go with you, I'm all yours, you can do whatever you want."

Youtao's tone was very calm, like a soul-less person muttering to herself.

She walked toward Li Banfeng step by step. Li Banfeng signaled her to stop: "Don't come any closer. If you cross the boundary, the clearing fails."

"Clearing, hehehe," Youtao laughed — a foolish, vacant laugh, a laugh of utter despair. "Why would I still clear land? I was played for a fool. I'm just a torn rag shielding someone else from wind and rain. She treated me like a torn rag. Do you understand, brother?"

Li Banfeng said, "What she thought of you, I don't know, and it doesn't matter. I thought of you as a friend. I invited this big brother Cook here to help you clear land — surely you owe me that much?"

"Fine, I'll repay you right now, I'll give you everything." Youtao walked toward Li Banfeng again.

Li Banfeng shook his head repeatedly: "Please don't talk about repaying with your body — that cheapens you, and it cheapens me too.

If you don't want to clear land, then go. Let's pretend we never met."

After saying this, Li Banfeng glanced at the Cook, lowered the brim of his hat, turned, and left.

The Cook took out another dish from the food box: "Miss, eat this — soft-braised meat slices, refreshing and appetizing. Once your belly is full, no knot in the heart can't be untied."

Youtao stood rooted in place. The Cook set the food box on the ground, placed the soft-braised meat slices inside it, and went to find Li Banfeng.

Youtao looked at Li Banfeng's retreating back, then at the food box on the ground, and couldn't help sobbing — two streams of tears slid slowly down past the corners of her mouth.

……

Li Banfeng asked the Cook, "When Ba Shan Zhu hired wandering monsters to find Meng Yuchun back then, how many did he hire?"

The Cook thought for a moment and said, "Besides me and Old Vine, there was Drama-Recruiter Wife, Tribute-Taker Elder, and a Hundred-Bai Mu Yu. The rest were people from her own territory."

"What's the background of the Hundred-Bai Mu Yu? A creature of the river?"

The Cook shook his head: "She's no river fish. She's a kind of borer — looks like a silverfish, but she doesn't just eat clothes, she eats everything.

If you ask her background, I can't say clearly. If you ask how high her cultivation is, I never looked into it either.

But I saw her make a move once — in the blink of an eye, she ate Old Vine's whole arm.

After that, none of us dared provoke her again. Her cultivation should be above ours."

According to Gao Shuxia's account, it must have been this Hundred-Bai Mu Yu who leaked the news.

But was that really the case?

Li Banfeng asked the Cook, "Can you find out any news about the Hundred-Bai Mu Yu?"

The Cook thought for a moment and said, "I'll try. Since I started following Shopkeeper Meng, I've heard less about outside matters."

Li Banfeng never let people work for him for nothing — he took out two Xuanchi Pills and gave them to the Cook.

Even if they found the Hundred-Bai Mu Yu's whereabouts, it would be hard to solve the problem at its root. The news of Ba Shan Zhu's death had already spread. Today they sent Gao Shuxia away; tomorrow, who knew what other people would come to seize the territory.

Rivals on the land, Meng Yuchun could still handle. But what if rivals from the clouds came?

And what if the Inner State learned of this matter?

Having spent a year and a half in Like Puluozhou and reached dual seventh-layer cultivation, Li Banfeng's advancement speed could make countless people green with envy.

But now Li Banfeng felt he wasn't advancing fast enough. Dual seventh-layer cultivation, placed in the seat of a local land god, wasn't just insufficient — it was almost embarrassing.

He found a secluded spot and took a pill.

There weren't many Jin Yuandan left. By Li Banfeng's calculation, reaching the eighth layer was certainly no problem, but reaching the ninth layer still needed about ten more.

Red Lotus was in some unknown state lately — lately it either produced Xuanchi Pills that Li Banfeng didn't want to eat, or Xuan Accumulation Pills that Li Banfeng had no use for.

He needed to find a source for those ten-plus pills as soon as possible. Besides, just advancing the Travel Cultivator wasn't enough — he also needed to find some supplements for his wife, so the Yu Zhaixiu could keep up too.

……

Gao Shuxia, carrying Xiao Feng on her back, flew out of Li Banfeng's territory and arrived at a mountain cave, where she found a woman in a long silver gown.

The woman looked at Xiao Feng's sorry state and asked Gao Shuxia, "Did you fail?"

Gao Shuxia nodded. "The plot of land was taken by Meng Yuchun."

"Is it that you couldn't beat Meng Yuchun, or that you didn't want to make a move against her?"

"Easy for you to say. Meng Yuchun's cultivation is on the Clouds — she's not that easy to deal with."

The woman in white sighed softly. "Then we'll just have to wait slowly. On Bei Wushuang's side, though, there's some good news."

Gao Shuxia started. "You want me to go find Bei Wushuang? He's even harder to deal with than Meng Yuchun."

"I heard he's provoked someone he shouldn't have. Before long, there'll probably be a fierce battle. Whether we can pick up some advantage then will depend on our own ability."

"Us?" Gao Shuxia gave a cold laugh. "When have you ever lifted a finger?"

"Ah Xia, why are you still keeping score with me?" The woman in white stroked Gao Shuxia's hair, her face full of tenderness. "It's not that this sister won't put in the effort — it's just that the time isn't right yet."

PS: Bei Wushuang seized Ba Shan Zhu's territory — this matter was recorded in the contract. For Li Banfeng, this person remains a hidden danger to this day. See Chapter 318 for details.

(End of Chapter)