Chapter 447: Ge Ge Junma

Li Li Banfeng was awakened by the Judge's Brush, which was still hovering in mid-air.

"You have something to tell me?"

"Mm." The Judge's Brush answered with a single character.

"Then speak!"

The Judge's Brush remained silent.

Li Li Banfeng stared at the Judge's Brush for a moment and asked, "Do you think there are too many people?"

"Mm."

Living under the same roof, the Judge's Brush seemed to trust only Li Li Banfeng.

Li Li Banfeng took the Judge's Brush to the Fifth Room, with the Glove following silently behind.

The Gramophone was a bit worried, but she could sense a gaze—a gaze coming from the Portable Abode.

Upon entering the Fifth Room, Li Li Banfeng said to the Judge's Brush, "Crawling out of bed in the middle of the night, it's really hard on you to be so concerned. Speak now."

The Judge's Brush said, "I will take you to the Earth Deity's residence. Do not tell anyone else."

Li Li Banfeng yawned. "Let's go."

After leaving the Portable Abode, the Judge's Brush took the initiative to draw a circle, and with it, Li Li Banfeng flew up.

Ever since he had met this brother, he had never seen him be this diligent.

The two flew south from Yansha Studio, crossed three streets, and arrived in a garden.

There were many gardens in Ink Fragrance Shop, but now was not a good time for a stroll.

It was freezing cold, the flowers and trees were withered, and apart from layers upon layers of dead trees, Li Li Banfeng saw nothing special.

The Judge's Brush set Li Li Banfeng down and wrote the character "Hui" (Wisdom) under a willow tree.

The bare willow tree suddenly sprouted buds, grew large leaves, and drifted out layers of willow catkins. As they swirled, they formed a barrier that surrounded the willow tree and Li Li Banfeng as well.

A cold wind blew, the willow catkins gradually dispersed, and the surrounding scenery began to change.

The trees and roads that were originally behind them disappeared, replaced by endless thick fog.

With the willow tree where the Judge's Brush had written as the boundary, the thick fog stopped abruptly. The scenery ahead seemed unchanged, but faint zither music drifted from afar.

Following the zither music, Li Li Banfeng looked up and saw an open space ahead, and on that open space, there was a lake.

On the frozen lake surface sat a desk, and on the desk was a scroll over ten meters long. A man in a white shirt sat behind the desk, holding a brush, writing on the scroll.

Was this the Earth Deity of Ink Fragrance Shop, the Scholar of Wisdom?

Practicing calligraphy in the middle of the night—what refined taste.

Li Li Banfeng walked toward the lake, but the brush in the man's hand never stopped.

Had he not noticed me? Or was he already prepared to strike?

Li Li Banfeng stopped in his tracks as a sense of danger struck him. It didn't come from the man in white; the direction was temporarily impossible to determine.

Li Li Banfeng hid behind a tree, and the Judge's Brush whispered, "Something has entered."

"Where did it enter from? Did it follow us in?"

"No, it has been inside for a long time." The Judge's Brush was very familiar with this place; he could sense that an improper change had occurred here.

Li Li Banfeng sensed the direction of the danger, and his gaze turned toward the lake.

*Cackle, cackle, cackle! Bang! *

A crack appeared on the frozen lake surface. There was something beneath the lake.

*Bang! Bang! *

The cracks grew more numerous, but the man in white remained unmoved, still writing stroke by stroke on the lake.

The scroll floated up, and one character after another rose from the scroll, weaving and swimming above the lake surface.

Was this "A Word Worth a Thousand Gold" or "Counting Ink and Seeking Lines"?

The characters created by "Counting Ink and Seeking Lines" would fight regardless of friend or foe, but these characters did not attack the man in white.

The characters created by "A Word Worth a Thousand Gold" could distinguish friend from foe, but their quantity was limited.

Among the literary cultivators Li Li Banfeng had seen, Metropolitan Graduate Guo could use twelve "Prohibit" characters at once, which was considered the most powerful combat example of "A Word Worth a Thousand Gold."

Yet now, there were hundreds of characters standing up from the scroll. By visual estimation, the "War" character was the most numerous, followed by the "Kill" character.

*Bang! Bang! Crack! *

An opening appeared on the ice, and a red dragon lunged straight at the man in white.

The characters swimming on the ice surface rushed toward the red dragon together. The "War" character looked like a person holding a long halberd, hooking and pecking at the red dragon from above and below.

The "Kill" character looked like a person holding a long spear, thrusting desperately at the red dragon.

Actually, that was not a long spear; this weapon resembling a long spear was called a *shu*, which Li Li Banfeng had seen in an illustrated manual of weapons.

The red dragon leaped out of the lake and was repelled by the numerous characters.

Once the red dragon retreated into the lake, all the characters immediately scattered and continued patrolling the surface of the lake.

Hundreds of characters, advancing, retreating, attacking, and defending with such fluid movement, made Li Li Banfeng truly feel the powerful combat strength of a literary cultivator.

Cracks appeared on the ice surface again, and a portion of the characters gathered near the cracks to wait for battle. Li Li Banfeng also stared at the cracks, waiting for the red dragon to appear again.

*Boom! *

The red dragon did not appear.

The entire ice surface suddenly collapsed.

Hundreds of characters dove into the water, kicking up layers of waves.

The man in white, along with his desk, hovered in mid-air. The brush in his hand did not pause for a moment, and characters rose continuously from the scroll, jumping into the water to fight the evil monster in the lake.

*Hum! *

A muffled roar came, and the lake water churned violently as if boiling.

A toad, one-third the size of the lake surface, jumped out of the water and lunged at the man in white.

So the red dragon from before was not a real dragon; it was the tongue of this toad.

Thirty-two "Wing" characters transformed into a pair of wings, carrying the man in white rapidly dozens of meters higher.

The toad kicked its legs and paddled its arms in the air, doing a breaststroke, in hot pursuit.

Just as the man in white was about to be caught by the toad, Li Li Banfeng suddenly walked out of the woods and appeared in the toad's line of sight.

The toad turned its head slightly and glanced at Li Li Banfeng.

This glance was very important; it meant that it had realized Li Li Banfeng's existence, which was the prerequisite for using "Looking at Flowers While Riding a Horse."

Li Li Banfeng stared at the toad and moved rapidly, disappearing from the opponent's line of sight.

If the toad could not lock onto Li Li Banfeng, it would be injured because of "Looking at Flowers While Riding a Horse."

Even if the toad could lock onto Li Li Banfeng, it would be distracted, giving the man in white a chance to counterattack.

*Bang! *

The toad's attention was mostly on the man in white, and its gaze failed to lock onto Li Li Banfeng. One of its front legs exploded in injury.

Li Li Banfeng disappeared from the toad's line of sight again. The toad tried to track Li Li Banfeng's figure, but a group of characters blocked the toad's view.

*Bang! *

A hind leg exploded in injury again.

Although the injury was not heavy, it clearly affected the speed of its breaststroke, and the toad and the man in white opened up a certain distance.

The man in white hovering in mid-air was still writing, which left Li Li Banfeng somewhat puzzled.

Writing could indeed create more troops.

But with such a good opportunity, did this Scholar of Wisdom not have a better way to counterattack?

Li Li Banfeng hadn't seen many techniques from above the clouds, but even if he just took out a technique from the ground level, he could severely injure this toad.

And this was called "extremely intelligent and wise"?

That pair of wings was indeed fast; the man in white was getting further and further away from the toad. The toad was very annoyed, and it turned its gaze to the shore, seemingly intending to strike at Li Li Banfeng.

*Pfft! *

The long halberd of a "War" character slashed onto the toad's back, cutting out some fresh blood.

There were more and more characters around, and the lethality of each character was not small. Although the toad was unwilling, there was no point in continuing the stalemate, so it could only return to the water.

Li Li Banfeng was quick-witted; he jumped into mid-air, grabbed a "War" character, and snatched the long halberd from its hand.

It was this "War" character that had slashed the toad with a halberd. There was blood on its halberd, and Li Li Banfeng hurriedly collected these few drops of blood into a glass bottle.

The other characters seemed to have been provoked and swarmed up to surround and attack Li Li Banfeng.

Li Li Banfeng said to the Judge's Brush, "Tell your old master that I am his friend."

"This..." The Judge's Brush was in a difficult position.

Thousands of characters were about to surround Li Li Banfeng. Li Li Banfeng urged, "Speak! Now is not the time to be lazy!"

"Fly!" The Judge's Brush said only this one word.

He took Li Li Banfeng, flew out of the encirclement of characters, and after several turns, flew to the side of the man in white.

The Judge's Brush spoke to the man in white: "You!"

The Judge's Brush said only this one word.

The man in white, however, acted as if he hadn't heard and was still writing non-stop on the desk.

Li Li Banfeng took a rough look at the content he was writing; more than half of it consisted of only two characters: "War" and "Kill."

The remaining half consisted of two sentences: one was "The blind should feel ashamed," and the other was "The literate should be diligent."

Seeing another patch of characters surrounding them, the Judge's Brush didn't speak to the man in white again and flew directly toward the willow tree with Li Li Banfeng.

The entire courtyard was covered in ice and snow, and only this willow tree was full of green leaves, looking exceptionally conspicuous.

Under the tree, the Judge's Brush wrote the character "Hui" again.

The leaves on the willow tree fell clean in an instant.

The willow leaves flew in the wind, forming a barrier that blocked all the characters behind them.

When the barrier dispersed, the characters had disappeared.

Along with them, the lake and the man in white on the lake also disappeared.

The entire garden returned to silence, as if nothing had ever happened.

Li Li Banfeng returned to the study, entered the Portable Abode, and took the Judge's Brush into the Fifth Room.

"Why didn't you speak to the Scholar of Wisdom just now?"

The Judge's Brush hovered in mid-air without responding.

Li Li Banfeng said, "Do you have a conflict with him?"

"Mm!"

"Can he hear you speak?"

"No."

Could the Judge's Brush and the Scholar of Wisdom not communicate?

Li Li Banfeng frowned and said, "Do you really not want to return to his side?"

"No!" The Judge's Brush answered very crisply.

"Then why did you take me to find him?"

"Ink Fragrance Shop."

Was the Judge's Brush doing it for Ink Fragrance Shop?

This surprised Li Li Banfeng very much; he didn't expect his feelings for his homeland to be so deep!

Li Li Banfeng combed through the cause and effect of the matter and roughly cleared up the clues.

"A big toad sneaked into the Earth Deity's residence. In order to fight this big toad, the Earth Deity was entangled with a lot of energy, giving the outside world the illusion that the Earth Deity had fallen into an extremely weak state. Is that the logic?"

The Judge's Brush was silent for a long time before answering, "Should be."

His speculation was consistent with Li Li Banfeng's, but he could not give an accurate answer.

Li Li Banfeng sighed and said, "Actually, it can't be considered an illusion; the Earth Deity's situation is indeed not good. If he encounters a siege at this time, I'm afraid it will be more ominous than auspicious."

"Yes." The Judge's Brush's answer this time was very certain.

"Where did that big toad come from?"

"Don't know."

"Do you know him?"

"Don't know."

The Judge's Brush didn't know this toad, and he hadn't known of its existence before.

He had heard Cui Ti's words and wanted to see the Earth Deity's condition.

Li Li Banfeng took the projector to the main room. The Gramophone was still awake, and Hong Ying was also awake.

The projector played the scene of the toad coming out of the water. Li Li Banfeng asked the Gramophone, "My dear wife, do you recognize who this toad is?"

The wife looked for a long time and answered, "Don't recognize!"

Hong Ying said, "Seventh Brother, tell me what that toad looks like; perhaps I can recognize it."

The Gramophone gave Hong Ying a slap: "Slut, what are you trying to show off? You've been deaf and blind for so many years; if I don't recognize him, how could you?"

"My dear husband, this person should be a biological body cultivator, perhaps having just ascended above the clouds not long ago."

A body cultivator, newly ascended above the clouds.

He didn't know if Qiu Qiu Luoye recognized him.

Li Li Banfeng let the Portable Abode go to the station. After stepping out, Li Li Banfeng immediately went to Qiu Qiu Luoye's residence.

The night was deep, and Qiu Qiu Luoye was sleeping soundly. Li Li Banfeng called him awake softly. Fortunately, Qiu Qiu Luoye didn't have much of a temper upon waking.

"Old Seven, what's the matter?"

Li Li Banfeng didn't show Qiu Qiu Luoye the images from the projector; this would expose the Earth Deity's residence in Ink Fragrance Shop.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Qiu Qiu Luoye, but doing so might bring disaster to Ink Fragrance Shop.

Li Li Banfeng took out a small medicine bottle, poured out a drop of the big toad's blood, sprinkled it on a cabbage seed, and added two drops of Zhang Wanlong's special medicine.

The cabbage began to grow rapidly. A few minutes later, it grew to over three meters high, and the cabbage burst.

A toad walked out of the cabbage. Its figure could not be compared with the toad in the lake; it was estimated that it had grown to the limit of a cabbage person.

Qiu Qiu Luoye stared at the toad for a long time. He hadn't grown skin yet and was covered in bandages, so his expression couldn't be seen, but Li Li Banfeng could clearly feel his nervousness.

"This toad, is it only this big?" Qiu Qiu Luoye had seen cabbage people and knew that there would be some differences between this thing and a real person.

Li Li Banfeng shook his head and said, "The real toad is much bigger than this, about as big as your residence."

"Ge Ge Junma!" Qiu Qiu Luoye gritted his teeth and said a name.

Li Li Banfeng said, "Is this person named Ge Ge Junma a body cultivator?"

"Not a body cultivator!" Qiu Qiu Luoye shook his head. "He is a person from the Inner Province, a purebred one!"

PS: Compared to the name Ge Ge Junma, the name Qiu Qiu Luoye still has quite a bit of artistic conception!

(End of chapter)