Chapter 315: Husband, You Don't Want to Undergo Tribulation, Do You? |
Five minutes later, Li Banfeng looked refreshed and satisfied.
"Wifey," he said cheerfully, "take your time and tell me."
The Gramophone gave a miserable little sob.
"Tell you? Tell you what?" it snapped. "You shameless madman! You got everything you wanted. You are pleased and satisfied. What is there left for me to say?"
"Wifey, come on," said Li Banfeng. "Just tell me a little."
"Wifey, just tell me." Li Banfeng stroked the cabinet door at the back.
The Gramophone beat out a slow rhythm and sounded deeply annoyed. "Don't touch my butt either. It still hurts! Since you have had some dealings with land deities, Husband, you must know that advancing from level nine to level ten means facing a tribulation."
"I know that."
"Then you should also know how dangerous a tribulation is. Most people don't survive it, and even if they do, they still have to go to the Inner Provinces and suffer."
"Then do you know that even if one succeeds in undergoing tribulation, one still has to go to the Inner Provinces to suffer?"
"I know that as well."
"Do you want to suffer?"
"Of course not."
"Then you should know there's a way to avoid the tribulation."
"I have heard of two ways. One is to steal it, the other is to rob."
Pop… crackle… pop…
Wifey let out a scornful laugh. "As for stealing and robbing, this little wifey truly has no respect for such methods."
Li Banfeng nodded. "Does Wifey know of another way?"
"Heyaaaa~ Husband dear, I just heard that old hag say it herself. She's willing to give you her position as a land deity to you."
Li Banfeng nodded vigorously, "I heard as well."
"Since she's offering it to us, it would be a little heartless to refuse."
"Exactly. We can't let an old lady's kindness go cold," Li Banfeng said as he patted the back cabinet door.
"Don't pat my butt. Didn't I tell you it hurts?" the Gramophone said, her tone softening. "Husband, once you take a land deity's contract, you have effectively taken that land deity's standing. With this standing, you can skip the tribulation and jump straight from level nine of the Terranean Layer to level one of the Cloudborne Layer.
"After that, you can cultivate according to the methods of Cloudborne Layer. It's just that this opportunity has come a little too early. You may not be able to withstand it. I didn't dare tell you about these things before because I was afraid you would act rashly."
"It's not early. The timing is perfect." Li Banfeng said as he stroked the mouth of the horn.
"Heyaaa~ Husband dear~ It is really too early. There are risks you must bear when you forcibly take a standing. You would be jumping from level nine of Terranean Layer to level one of Cloudborne Layer. Husband dear, you must have a strong body to bear this risk. That part can be trained slowly.
"But you are only at level six right now. You may not be able to hold on to the position of a land deity. You heard what she said just now. To extend their lives, land deities will kill each other. If another land deity sets their sights on you, how will you deal with it?"
Wifey does have a point.
Although Li Banfeng had been part of two battles between land deities, he still was not strong enough to face a land deity head-on.
Some land deities had morals comparable to the villagers of Blue Poplar Village, which meant that it would be extremely difficult to hold onto a territory.
"But I can't let such a good opportunity slip away," Li Banfeng said. At this point, getting him to give up was basically impossible.
Li Banfeng continued, "We still haven't negotiated with Meng Yuchun the price of helping her. I will discuss it with Meng Yuchun. There should still be a way. For now, let's find that old thing's contract first."
"Husband dear, after you find the contract, let me take a look first. There are a few things in the contract that need to be dealt with first."
After leaving the Pocket Dwelling, Li Banfeng put away the key and walked out of the cave. Meng Yuchun was circling along the stone wall.
"Li Qi!"
Meng Yuchun had finally found Li Qi.
The Mountain-Uprooting Lord had entered Li Banfeng's cave, and Meng Yuchun had immediately chased after her. But after she entered, she saw neither Li Qi nor the Mountain-Uprooting Lord.
She first guessed that the Mountain-Uprooting Lord had used some wall-passing ability to take Li Qi through the mountain and out the other side.
However, she had set up layer upon layer of boundaries around the cave. By all rights, the Mountain-Uprooting Lord should die after crossing two more of them.
If the Mountain-Uprooting Lord died when crossing one of those boundaries, would Li Qi survive? Meng Yuchun thought.
Should I deactivate the boundaries and let them escape first, just in case that's the only way to keep Li Qi alive?
I don't think the Mountain-Uprooting Lord will force her way through the boundaries. She's more likely hiding somewhere inside the cave.
Meng Yuchun searched and fretted at the same time. She was still turning the whole messy business over in her head when Li Banfeng came out by himself.
Meng Yuchun was so shocked and pleased. "Li Qi, how did you escape? Where is the Mountain-Uprooting Lord?"
Now, that would be very hard to explain, so Li Banfeng decided not to explain it at all.
"The Mountain-Uprooting Lord has something to do," he said. "She left first."
"Left?" Meng Yuchun didn't quite understand.
Li Banfeng asked, "Are those aberrant creatures under her still alive?"
"They are all here."
In the corner of the cave, Meng Yuchun had drawn a neat little circle with her boundaries, trapping every aberrant creature inside.
Li Banfeng looked at it with genuine admiration. "That ability is really useful. What level of Homebound Cultivator ability is this?"
Meng Yuchun chided, "How can I tell someone that so casually? Of course, if you want to count that as part of the price for our business deal, I could tell you."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Let's leave that aside for now. We should find a proper place to discuss the price."
Meng Yuchun brought Li Banfeng to her home, but Li Banfeng behaved exactly as he had before. He stopped at the doorway and would not take even half a step inside.
"The cost of helping you is the Mountain-Uprooting Lord's territory," he said. "Do you agree?"
Meng Yuchun blinked. This was not the sort of price a person heard every day. "The Mountain-Uprooting Lord's territory? Is that something I can decide? And where is the Mountain-Uprooting Lord?"
"You don't need to worry about where she is," Li Banfeng said. "She's already agreed to it."
Meng Yuchun stared at Li Qi in astonishment. Even if Homebound Cultivators tended to be a bit slow, she still understood what those words meant.
"The Mountain-Uprooting Lord is dead? You killed her?"
Li Banfeng gave a small nod.
"How is that possible…" Meng Yuchun was utterly dumbstruck.
"You don't believe me?"
"I saw you activate land before. Your cultivation isn't low, but you are still only at the Terranean Layer. How could you possibly kill the Mountain-Uprooting Lord?"
Li Banfeng smiled faintly. "I was hiding my strength back then."
Meng Yuchun blinked. "For those three days, you were hiding your strength?"
Li Banfeng tipped his hat lower. "I hide things very well."
Meng Yuchun still appeared to be in a daze. She couldn't believe it.
Li Banfeng said, "Whether you believe me or not, the Mountain-Uprooting Lord is dead. I want her territory, but I don't want anyone to know about it. I don't want my name attached to it. So you will claim it for me, and that will be the price for this deal. Will you do it?"
It took Meng Yuchun quite a while to digest that. "You want… her territory placed under my name?"
Li Banfeng nodded.
Meng Yuchun kept shaking her head. "That won't work. I am just an ordinary local land deity. How can I hold two territories at once? What would the other land deities think?"
"They used to come after you because you were easy to bully," Li Banfeng said. "As for what they will think from now on, you don't need to care. They won't trouble you again, because they will be afraid of you."
"You think they will believe I killed the Mountain-Uprooting Lord?"
"The Mountain-Uprooting Lord tried to kill you first. Once it became a matter of life and death, it was only natural for you to kill her. If they don't believe it, they are free to gamble against you themselves. But I don't think they will dare."
Li Banfeng was not lying to Meng Yuchun. This really was the best way to deal with the other local land deities. The Mountain-Uprooting Lord had come for her, and the Mountain-Uprooting Lord was dead. Anyone else who dared to come would end up the same way.
Meng Yuchun thought it over for a long time before letting out a sigh. "To be honest, I still don't fully understand this, and I don't quite dare to do it either.
"But I owe you. If not for you today, I would have died at the Mountain-Uprooting Lord's hands.
"My life was already on the line anyway, so I will agree to this."
"Good," Li Banfeng said. "Then let's go find the Mountain-Uprooting Lord's contract first."
Meng Yuchun led Li Banfeng over to a group of roaming aberrations. Right in the middle of the heap lay the Theatrical Temptress, sprawled out and looking very much dead.
Li Banfeng looked for a moment.
"This one's dead," he said. "Burn the body and wipe away the evidence."
The Theatrical Temptress's eyes blinked open at once, tears brimming beautifully in them. "Mercy, please! I never meant to offend either of you. Oldie Due-Taker tricked me! He forced me to come here!"
Li Banfeng had Meng Yuchun open a gap in the boundary and let the Theatrical Temptress out.
The Theatrical Temptress hugged her shoulders and trembled all over, looking like a helpless, delicate woman who had been wronged by the whole wide world.
Li Banfeng looked at her with great seriousness. "How exactly did Oldie Due-Taker trick you?"
The Theatrical Temptress sobbed as she told her story. "I met him while I was wandering through the wilderness. Without realizing it, I accepted his offering. After that, he wanted to have sex with me. I couldn't stop him, and I couldn't refuse him, so I became his temporary wife. I even bore him a child."
Li Banfeng looked surprised. "You bore him a child?"
Meng Yuchun explained from the side, "It is not unusual for aberrant creatures to marry and have children."
The Theatrical Temptress wept even harder. "Noble ones, have mercy on me. Please spare my life. I am not begging only for myself, but also for my poor child."
The story was pitiful enough to make even Meng Yuchun feel sorry for her.
The Theatrical Temptress cried so miserably that the surrounding aberrant creatures started tearing up too.
Li Banfeng wiped his eyes, then kicked the Theatrical Temptress over.
"Poor child, my foot. You are a man. How did you give birth to anything?"
"A man?" Meng Yuchun stared at Li Banfeng in shock. "This Theatrical Temptress is a man?"
"It isn't just this Theatrical Temptress. All Theatrical Temptresses are men. They are a special kind of roaming aberration. They were transformed from cultivators that practice both the Performing Arts Cultivation and Hedonism Cultivation.
"Because of the New Land's influence, every Theatrical Temptress can only appear as a woman. They all share the same habit. They use a woman's identity to deceive women.
"First, they gain the woman's trust. Then they trick her into bed. Since they are Hedonism Cultivators, they have plenty of ways to control what happens under the covers. Even if the woman realizes she has been tricked, most of them still won't resist."
Li Banfeng's display of knowledge was impressive. Even in the New Land, very few people knew what Theatrical Temptresses really were.
None of the aberrant creatures present had ever heard the name Theatrical Temptress before, including the two roaming aberrations. They knew even less about this aberrant creature's peculiar habits. All of them had assumed the Theatrical Temptress was simply a high-level Performing Arts Cultivator.
The Theatrical Temptress was just as astonished. This man seemed to know everything about him.
Of course, Li Banfeng had only learned all of it from his wifey a few moments earlier.
Meng Yuchun stepped forward and kicked the Theatrical Temptress twice.
"Where is Tinywing?" she demanded.
The Theatrical Temptress no longer dared to put on a pitiful act. Scrambling to his feet, he answered honestly, "Tinywing is cocooning on a mountain to the southwest.
"She told me about everyone's temperaments and habits, but she refused to tell me where you lived. I had no choice but to disguise myself as her, then follow Redwing and Goldwing when they came to deliver the wine. That was how I planned to find your home."
Meng Yuchun wanted to find Tinywing and get the full story from her, but Li Banfeng reminded her that there was no rush. They had something more urgent to deal with first.
He turned to the Theatrical Temptress. "Do you know where the Mountain-Uprooting Lord lives?"
The Theatrical Temptress nodded quickly. "I will take you there."
With the Theatrical Temptress leading the way, Li Banfeng and Meng Yuchun headed to the Mountain-Uprooting Lord's territory. After some time, they arrived at the edge of a sheer cliff.
The Theatrical Temptress pointed toward the stone wall. "Heroes, the Mountain-Uprooting Lord lives inside the cliff."
"Where's the entrance?" Li Banfeng asked.
The Theatrical Temptress shook his head. "The cliff is the entrance. The Mountain-Uprooting Lord's ghostly fire can slip in and out of stone."
Li Banfeng looked at the cliff. "So no one has ever been inside her home?"
"I have seen people go in," the Theatrical Temptress said, "but I have never seen anyone come out.
"How did they get in?"
"They followed the Mountain-Uprooting Lord through the wall. As for what spell she used, I wouldn't know."
Li Banfeng stared at the cliff and started thinking about the way to get inside.
There were only two proper ways in. The first was Severing Paths to Forge a Way, and that was the safest choice.
The trouble was that the ability Severing Paths to Forge a Way was not a quiet one. With Li Banfeng's current cultivation, it would also take him far too long to force his way through such a hard rock. If he really went at the cliff like that, everyone would know he had come to dig up the contract. After that, hiding the truth would be a great deal trickier.
The other way was the Path of Unhindered Steps. In other words, walking straight through the wall.
The Path of Unhindered Steps was nicely suited for sneaking about. The problem was that Li Banfeng had no idea how thick the wall was.
Being a level-six Wanderlust Cultivator who had been taught by Grandpa Train, he could easily pass through a wall more than a dozen meters thick. However, this was a great mountain. If the rock stretched on for three to five kilometers, Li Banfeng would very likely be trapped inside it.
If the Path of Unhindered Steps failed, the consequences would be very severe.
Is there no other way? Li Banfeng thought.
There was indeed another way.
Author's Note:
PS: But a proper discussion is needed.