That night, Ma Wu slept on the first floor.
He had thought Li Qi would be sleeping on the second floor and planned to find him at daybreak to show him around Blue Poplar Village properly. To his surprise, there was no trace of Li Qi in the bedroom.
For an outsider to wander around Blue Poplar Village was very dangerous, and Ma Wu searched the village several times over.
He couldn’t possibly find Li Qi because at that moment, Li Qi was sleeping in his Portable Residence.
Last night, Li Banfeng wandered the village all night. He not only accumulated enough cultivation for a Traveling Cultivator but also mastered the geography of Blue Poplar Village.
At the southernmost end of Blue Poplar Village, Li Banfeng saw the entrance to New Land. Standing upon treetops, he could faintly make out some lights, proving that people had successfully reclaimed the land.
On his way back, Li Banfeng encountered two robbers. He extorted over three thousand pieces of money from them and then sent the robbers to his wife for a scolding lesson.
After the lesson from his wife, the robbers, now full of burps, promised that they would not offend again.
By dusk, the worn-out Ma Wu finally found Li Qi under the wooden house.
Li Banfeng was watching the excitement.
Below, two groups of people were brawling, their fighting methods crude, with hardly any technique to be seen.
The tactics were quite direct. The two factions charged at each other, with some falling and others running away.
The weapons were somewhat primitive. Some wielded kitchen knives, while others didn’t even have knives.
The noodle shop owner also joined the fight. Initially, he carried a kitchen knife, but later switched to a rolling pin to avoid damaging his knife.
Ma Wu approached Li Banfeng and whispered, "Brother Li, where have you been all day?"
"Just wandering around," Li Banfeng replied evasively, continuing to watch the fight.
Ma Wu warned, "Brother Li, it’s better not to watch this mess."
Li Banfeng said sternly, "I have to watch. Our landlord is in there!"
Ma Wu glanced over and indeed saw Landlord Wei fighting in the crowd.
He was injured, his face covered in blood, wielding an axe with all his might.
In the melee, about five or six people were attacking him. They were clearly targeting him.
Ma Wu said softly, "Brother Li, it looks like your two months’ rent is going down the drain."
As they spoke, the landlord took another hit to his back. His body shook, and he nearly fell, almost unable to hold onto his axe.
The people around him waved their knives, hacking down without caution. The landlord’s consciousness blurred, his will to fight almost depleted due to his severe injuries.
Ma Wu stared at the landlord for a moment, and the landlord seemed to sense Ma Wu’s gaze.
Like a person on the brink of death injected with adrenaline, under Ma Wu’s gaze, the landlord’s will to fight returned, and he wielded his axe to continue the desperate struggle.
After holding on for a little over three minutes, a shout suddenly came from the alley: "Back up! Retreat!"
The group attacking the landlord quickly left the scene. The landlord, with a dozen men behind him, chased after them fiercely, "Brothers, don’t let those bastards run away! For each kill, I’ll give ten Ocean Dollars!"
Not far after the landlord chased out, another group of people burst out from the alley, seemingly reinforcements for the landlord.
Watching the chaos intensify, Ma Wu reminded Li Banfeng, "Brother Li, it’s time to go. If someone recognizes you, things will get complicated."
Li Banfeng, startled by the comment, followed Ma Wu back to the wooden house.
Last night, Li Banfeng paid Ma Wu his first day’s wage: one hundred and fifty.
Ma Wu bought some sauce-coated beef, pig’s ears, and a bottle of baijiu. The two of them ate and chatted together.
"Brother Ma, just now, that was you using a Technique on the landlord, wasn’t it?"
Ma Wu nodded. "Seeing him at a life-or-death moment, I gave him a boost of energy, just enough to preserve your two months’ rent."
Li Banfeng was surprised. "Lust Cultivation Techniques can actually give people energy? The Lust Cultivators I’ve met always cause heart palpitations and trembling hands."
Ma Wu said, "Actually, it’s all the same Technique, but it has different applications. Like morning dew moisturizing everything, that’s Charm Art. Like a gentle rain being sprinkled, that’s Inspiration. Like a torrential rain pouring down, that’s Confusion. I haven’t reached the First Layer yet, so I can only use Inspiration. I haven’t learned the Art of Confusion."
Ma Wu’s analogy was apt, and Li Banfeng understood it clearly.
After a moment of silence, Ma Wu asked, "Brother Li, aren’t you curious how I came to be this way?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "I am a bit curious. Back when we met at the Peddler’s, you seemed pretty straightforward, but now your words seem evasive."
Ma Wu blinked, feeling that the matter of being straightforward was not the key issue.
Ma Wu took a swig of his drink. "Actually, you could have guessed some of it back at the Peddler’s. Logically, I shouldn’t have been looking to buy medicine there."
Li Banfeng took a bite of pig ear. "Then where should you have bought the medicine? To get initiated, doesn’t one have to find a Peddler?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "The Ma Family still has some foundations in Puluo State. People from the Ma Family don’t need to find a Peddler for initiation; we have the medicine at home."
"Are you from the Ma Family of the Four Great Families?"
Ma Wu nodded. "My name is Ma Junyang, the fifth son of the Ma Family. The reason I went to the Peddler to select medicine is that I wanted to be a Lust Cultivator."
Li Banfeng pondered. "Because your family doesn’t have Lust Cultivation medicine, you went to the Peddler?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "It’s not because we don’t have Lust Cultivation medicine, but because one simply cannot be a Lust Cultivator in my family. The Ma Family is a prestigious family, and descendants must have proper cultivation levels. In Puluo State, Literature Cultivators and Martial Cultivators follow the legitimate paths of cultivation. This is especially true for the Ma Family, which values orthodoxy extremely highly and scoffs at other Taoist Sects. Lust Cultivation is the Taoist Sect practice most despised by my father. By cultivating it, I effectively disgraced the Ma Family, becoming a true shame to our name."
To a wealthy family, the reputation of Lust Cultivation might indeed be poor, but Li Banfeng felt that this wasn’t enough to leave Ma Wu in such dire straits. "Just because of this, the Ma Family kicked you out?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "It wasn’t that serious. My father has many children: two elder brothers and two sisters above me, all with proper cultivation levels. Having produced such a black sheep as myself didn’t seem to raise too much of an issue. This was especially true since I was destined not to inherit the family business. My father gave me two dance halls, which I managed quite well. I wasn’t short on money, nor worried about my cultivation."
Li Banfeng was astonished. "Really not worried? Cultivating ten times a day doesn’t seem easy."
Ma Wu gave a wry smile. "Back then, I could afford all the tonics and medicines, so I managed to sustain myself."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "I’m worried your Taoist partners wouldn’t be able to keep up."
Ma Wu laughed. "One Taoist partner certainly couldn’t keep up, but with ten partners, one session each, there was no difficulty. There were plenty of willing girls at Greenwater Bay, a whole lot ready to throw themselves at me. I never worried about such matters. My butler, Chen Yupeng, was always finding new girls for me every day. That is, until one day my third brother came to my place, kicked the door open, dragged me out of bed, and beat me up. That’s when the real trouble started."
"What kind of trouble?" Li Banfeng took a sip of his drink.
Ma Wu drained his cup in one go. "The woman in my bed was my brother’s fiancée, yet to be officially married into our family."
Li Banfeng laughed. "Were you and your sister-in-law childhood sweethearts?"
Expecting a melodramatic story, Li Banfeng instead heard Ma Wu laugh bitterly. "Brother Li, you really jest. My third brother has sixteen wives, and I can’t even recognize all of those who have married in, let alone one who hasn’t."
Li Banfeng frowned. "You didn’t recognize this sister-in-law?"
"Not at all!" Ma Wu said, his face bitter.
After a moment of thought, Li Banfeng said, "You’ve been set up!"
"Yes," Ma Wu nodded. "I was set up by my third brother and my butler. They conspired to put the Seventeenth Sister-in-law in my bed as a trap for me."
Li Banfeng put down his cup. "Why would your third brother set you up? What vendetta does he have against you to go to such lengths?"
Ma Wu took a sip. "The third brother schemed against me for my money. He’s the legitimate heir of the Ma Family, set to inherit everything. My father has already given him two gambling houses, two restaurants, and a department store. In Greenwater Bay, he owns half a street—all these assets, over thirty percent of the Ma Family’s holdings, were provided by my father."
Li Banfeng couldn’t understand. "He’s not short on money. Why does he want yours?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "He’s desperate for money, truly desperate. He’s incompetent, and none of the businesses under his control have made a profit. It was almost autumn. According to Ma Family rules, we audit our accounts on the first day of autumn. His ledgers were in such poor shape this year, he couldn’t show them. He wanted support from my dance halls to cover his losses, but I refused.
"I only have two dance halls, which in the grand scheme of the Ma Family’s wealth are negligible. But I have a knack for making money. From just these two halls, I could generate twenty percent of the Ma Family’s income. The third brother wanted to force me to give him money. So, he staged a ploy, sending his fiancée to my bed to extort a large sum from me."
Li Banfeng felt there was a problem with how things were handled. "He extorts money from you; you could just give it to him. Even if the affair came to light, your family had means to quell the scandal. It’s unlikely your father would kick you out over this."
Ma Wu sighed with a bitter smile. "There are ways to handle it, but it depends on the situation. My third brother had just arrived when the reporters showed up. Our bare pictures were snapped, and the story got out! Old Five sleeping with the third brother’s wife—the Ma Family lost face in a big way, disgracing the whole Puluo State!
"Who called the reporters? Your third brother can’t be that stupid, right? Even if he was cuckolded, would he dare spread the word around?"
"Definitely not him," Ma Wu said with a laugh and a sigh. "It could have been my fourth brother, or maybe my eldest sister. My third brother schemed against me, and someone else schemed against him from behind. I was driven out by my family, and my father has locked up the third brother. In a short time, that person might take the third brother’s place as the heir to the Ma Family."
Li Banfeng asked, "Who wants to be the heir?"
"Still don’t know," Ma Wu shook his head. "That person is hidden deep, and I don’t even know if I’ll live to see him."
It was clear that Ma Wu’s health was in poor condition.
Li Banfeng asked, "Because the matter was reported in the newspapers, the Ma Family had you leave with nothing but the clothes on your back?"
At this, Ma Wu sighed repeatedly. "It wasn’t exactly leaving with nothing but the clothes on my back. When I left the house, my family gave me three hundred Ocean Dollars. Brother Li, I’m not bragging, but with those three hundred Ocean Dollars, I could have earned myself a new family fortune.
"But less than two hours after I left home, I was robbed. The three hundred Ocean Dollars were taken clean; even my jacket was stripped from me. I had hidden a jade pendant and exchanged it at a pawnshop for five silver coins. I came to Blue Poplar Village to find a way to make a living. Within half a month, I had earned one hundred twenty Ocean Dollars. Guess what happened then?"
Li Banfeng took a sip of his drink. "You got robbed again?"
Ma Wu nodded. "You guessed it. Just ten days ago, the one hundred twenty Ocean Dollars were completely stolen. I couldn’t pay the rent, so I got kicked out and ended up sleeping in a makeshift shelter. Near New Land, I collected some trash to sell and scraped together about a hundred or so Huan Country Banknotes. Just when I thought of finding a place to stay, the day before yesterday, I got robbed again. They didn’t leave me a penny for food. That’s why I ended up picking garbage to eat."
Li Banfeng frowned. "Who did this? Who wants to push you to a dead end?"
"Who else could it be?" Ma Wu said with a bitter smile. "It must still be someone from my own family."
Ma Wu took a big gulp of liquor and looked at Li Banfeng. "Brother Li, if it weren’t for the meal you gave me, I might have starved to death last night. I really don’t know how I can repay this kindness..."
Li Banfeng nodded. "You definitely have to repay the kindness you owe me. Eat your meal first, and then write an IOU. We can discuss the debt repayment later."
Ma Wu shook his head with a bitter smile. "It’s not something that can be settled by eating a meal. I haven’t cultivated for ten days, and my life is nearly at its end. Brother Li, I don’t have much time left. I only want to do more for you. I’m looking for someone by the name of Li Banfeng. Do you know him?"