Just the location itself wouldn’t have caught Ma Wu’s attention, but the key to his interest was that this novel mentioned Blue Poplar Village.
Ma Wu read the novel. Although it didn’t mention him and Chu Er by name, it was clearly their story.
He looked through old newspapers and discovered that as news about Chu Er increased, the novel’s popularity soared.
Today, the news of Chu Er’s acquisition of the Hundred Joy Gate dominated the front page, and this novel also climbed to the top headline of the features section.
Ma Wu had to face reality: to outsiders, his relationship with Chu Er was no longer simple.
As expected, it did.
That evening, Ma Wu had someone buy an evening paper. He was shocked to see a headline on the second page: "Ma Junyang Might Come Out of Retirement to Carry the Hundred Joy Gate’s Banner for the Chu Family."
Ma Wu fumed internally.
Ma Wu had a premonition:
Although he had hired Zuo Wugang, a single Sixth Layer Martial Cultivator might not be enough protection. Just as Ma Wu was agonizing over where to hide, Li Banfeng pushed open the door. He was wearing a suit and a top hat, and carrying a feather duster.
He brushed the snowflakes off his clothes with the feather duster, sat by the fireplace, and warmed himself for a while.
Ma Wu, surprised and pleased, exclaimed, "Brother Li, you’re finally back!"
Li Banfeng had been gone for eighteen days in total: three days to get there and fifteen days to return.
The return journey took so long for only one reason: he had to consume a Gold Yuan Pill every day.
He consumed fifteen pills in total along the way, earning him four years, one month, and six days of cultivation. Adding this to his previously accumulated time, Li Banfeng now possessed sixteen years, eight months, and seventeen days of cultivation as a Traveling Cultivator, bringing him ever closer to the Third Layer.
The Third Layer required twenty years of cultivation. Even if Li Banfeng had started at the age of ten and progressed systematically, he wouldn’t have reached it before he was thirty.
Now, in his early twenties, the Third Layer of Traveling Cultivator was within reach, and he had already achieved the Third Layer as a Home Cultivator. Li Banfeng thought.
This also gave Li Banfeng an idea: he wanted to develop a piece of New Land and stay out of sight as much as possible.
Li Banfeng had planned everything on his journey, but he lacked experience in pioneering. He would need to discuss this with Ma Wu.
Initially, Ma Wu was against it.
The education he had received since childhood made him deeply biased against New Land. In Ma Wu’s view, New Land was dangerous and not to be entered lightly.
But his thoughts paused for a few seconds, and then Ma Wu suddenly came to his senses.
After pondering for a moment, Ma Wu nodded and said, "I’ll call the Chief Custodian, and bring Zhen Jincheng and Cao Zhida too. We’ll form a team and go pioneering!"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Zuo Wugang can’t go. If he leaves, there’ll be no one to guard Blue Poplar Village, and I’m afraid someone will cause trouble."
With Zuo Wugang not going, Ma Wu felt a little apprehensive. "If we only rely on Zhen Jincheng and Cao Zhida, pioneering might not be secure enough."
Li Banfeng shook his head slightly. "Actually, I was thinking we shouldn’t even bring those two."
"Not bring them either?" Ma Wu was shocked. "Brother Li, do you mean just the two of us will go pioneering?"
Ma Wu thought.
Li Banfeng said, "My idea is, you tell me the pioneering process, and I’ll go do it myself. You don’t even need to come."
"That won’t work! Some things can’t just be explained; I have to do them myself." Ma Wu, needing to seek refuge in the New Land, had to go along.
"If you come with me, what about your cultivation?" Li Banfeng was a Traveling Cultivator; for him, walking was cultivation. Ma Wu, however, was a Lust Cultivation practitioner, and he definitely couldn’t bring any women on this trip.
Ma Wu pondered for a moment. "I’ll use Elixirs to tide me over. The Gold Yuan Pills I took before saved me about a hundred days of cultivation time. Pioneering will take a month at most. I’ll treat it as recuperation; I can handle it."
Li Banfeng agreed. "Alright, the two of us will go together. First, let’s talk about the pioneering rules. Do we need to prepare offerings first?"
Ma Wu nodded. "Offerings are simple. As long as there’s food and wine, it’s fine. The more lavish the food and wine, the faster the Local Deity of the wilderness will respond."
Li Banfeng thought this was easy. "Then let Xiao Chuanzi prepare it. Tell him to bring the best food and drink we can offer, all of it."
"Brother Li, we still have to act within our means."
"A bit of food and drink? What’s there to be ’within our means’ about? Can’t we afford it or something?"
"We can afford the food and drink, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to handle the consequences. In the wilderness, within a hundred-mile radius, there’s usually only one Local Deity. If this Local Deity accepts our offerings, they will grant us a plot of land. The more lavish the offerings, the larger the plot."
Li Banfeng nodded happily. "Bigger is good! The bigger, the better!"
Ma Wu shook his head. "Bigger is good, but we also have to be able to manage it. When the Local Deity grants land, it’s not free. We have to pass a challenge. We sprinkle our blood on the plot to seal the contract. It takes effect after one day. The Pioneer enters the plot, and the Local Deity summons nearby unusual creatures to attack. If the Pioneer can defend it for three days without stepping outside the Boundary, the land becomes ours. In our line of work, this is called a challenge."
Li Banfeng understood this rule. The old gatekeeper of Yu Family Village had mentioned that the Pioneer and the owner of the New Land didn’t necessarily have to be the same people. The owner of the New Land would go first to spill blood and make the contract, and the Pioneer would enter the New Land the next day.
Ma Wu continued, "Plots of land are generally divided into four types. The smallest is about a one-mile radius. For this, the Local Deity will summon ordinary unusual creatures for the challenge. Usually, three to five waves of attacks mean success. If you’re lucky, it might only be one wave; if you’re unlucky, it could be more than a dozen. For this type of wilderness, five or six First Layer Cultivators can develop it. If you really can’t find Cultivators, dozens of strong men might also have a chance, but having too many people brings other problems. We can discuss the details on the way."
Li Banfeng recalled Yu Nan’s Yu Family Village in the New Land. It looked to be less than a one-mile radius, so some parts were probably not yet fully developed. It must be this smallest type of wilderness.
Ma Wu continued, "The second type of wilderness is a three-mile radius. This kind is much harder. The Local Deity can summon over ten types of unusual creatures in a single day to attack the Pioneer in waves. To develop a three-mile radius territory, you’d have to hire professionals like Da Boyins to do the pioneering. Da Boyins charges a high price, usually only offers guidance, and rarely takes action personally. Even then, success isn’t guaranteed.
"Larger still are the five-mile radius plots. These require at least one Eighth Layer Cultivator to oversee the pioneering effort to even have a hope. The creatures sent by the Local Deity are all formidable; even seeing a Straw Moth Lady wouldn’t be surprising.
"The largest is a ten-mile radius. I don’t know much about that one. I heard the Lu Family once teamed up with the Chu Family to pioneer a ten-mile wilderness, but they failed. That’s how the Head of the Chu family died.
"Brother Li, with our current strength, successfully pioneering a one-mile radius wilderness would already be a great fortune. So, the offerings must be chosen moderately. If we prepare too many offerings and the Local Deity is pleased and grants us a ten-mile radius plot, our pioneering effort is doomed to fail."
"If we fail, we fail. We’ll just try again," Li Banfeng said, quite nonchalantly.
Ma Wu shook his head. "You can’t just try again. If pioneering fails, the Local Deity will look down on us. Within a hundred-mile radius, neither of us will ever be able to pioneer again, neither as owners nor as Pioneers."
PS: If we encounter the Straw Moth Lady while pioneering, what should we do?