There were many people in the village with the surname Niu, so Li Banfeng initially thought this place was Niu Family Village.
Later, he learned that the village was called Pancake Village, home to over a hundred households and more than five hundred people.
In Third Ridge, they were one of the few villages that still had food to eat.
Their ability to have food amidst such a severe pest disaster depended mainly on three conditions.
The first condition was the ability to grow crops.
Li Banfeng had met their Farming Cultivator, a man in his forties named Niu Jingchuan. He had cultivated many special seeds that could be sown in the dead of winter and harvested within the same month.
Li Banfeng was quite surprised. "According to your cultivation method, wouldn’t it be possible to produce twelve harvests a year?"
"That won’t do!" Niu Jingchuan shook his head. "This is fast cultivation. After growing it a few times, the soil is spent. Fast cultivation generally only yields two harvests, and then the soil needs a year to recover. Third Ridge has fertile soil, so we can get at most three crops a year, but then the soil must also rest for a year afterwards."
Niu Jingchuan said no more; he entered the fields and checked each plant one by one.
This Farming Cultivator was Pancake Village’s key to survival.
But even with the means to survive, they still needed to protect it.
The second condition was the ability to defend, and the people of Pancake Village truly excelled at defending!
The grain harvested in autumn had been completely plundered by mosquitoes, so the Farming Cultivator immediately planted fast-growing crops.
From the moment the grain began to ear, mosquitoes would invade. With the first fast crop, they harvested less than twenty percent of the grain.
By the time of the second fast crop, the villagers had gained experience. They used smoke and Medicine Powder. From the moment the grain began to ear, men, women, young, and old watched over it day and night, managing to protect half of the grain.
After the grain was collected, it was sent straight to the cellar. People took turns guarding the entrance, checking the cellar every hour. They killed any mosquitoes they saw; no one came out until all the mosquitoes were killed!
This was the attitude required to stay alive!
The third condition was knowing how to ration the food.
The method for rationing food was simple. They went from house to house, calculated rations based on the number of people, and issued only two days’ worth per person. This prevented anyone from keeping a stock at home, which would otherwise feed the mosquitoes.
The method was simple, but its implementation was not.
Anyone acquainted with the person distributing the rations would certainly try to get a bit more.
If one person took more, others would want to as well.
When many people took more, some would end up short-changed.
If enough people were short-changed, some might not wait for their rations and would start to loot the food.
Pancake Village put considerable effort into rationing food. Each family sent one person to be responsible for filling the bags.
Once the bags were filled, they were not to be taken immediately. The people who filled them also couldn’t leave the granary. All the grain was piled at the granary entrance for another family member to collect.
A family would take as many bags of rice as there were people in the household. If a family included a Food Cultivator, they received additional allocations.
These rice bags were made together by the village and were all identical. Nobody could tell which bag belonged to whom, so they took whichever one they picked.
There were still ways to cheat, such as marking the grain.
But cheating was difficult and carried serious consequences. If caught, one would be expelled from the village.
With the fair distribution of food, the villagers were united. Logically, Pancake Village should have been able to survive the pest disaster.
But a few days ago, an incident occurred.
A Thief Cultivator from outside the village came to steal food, skillfully deceiving all the guards.
It wouldn’t have mattered much if he had stolen a little grain, but this Thief Cultivator was unscrupulous. He left the granary door open, allowing mosquitoes to enter and ruin more than half of the food stock.
The Farming Cultivator, Niu Jingchuan, had no choice but to plant the third batch of fast-growing crops.
There were only five days left until the harvest, and the crops were about to head.
The number of mosquitoes nearby was increasing, and the effectiveness of various poisons was decreasing.
Niu Jingchuan was very anxious. He had already spotted mosquitoes near the crops.
The appearance of even a single mosquito could mean no harvest at all, rendering all previous efforts futile.
If this crop could not be protected, Pancake Village would face starvation. The villagers would starve to death or become Evil Ghosts that fed on people, ultimately becoming no different from other desolate villages.
Li Banfeng watched the colorful smoke drifting across the fields and the mosquitoes lingering within it, listening to Niu Fuzhi talk about the village’s troubles.
"These medicines were all brought by the Peddler. We know the Peddler, but we don’t know you, so we fought with you at the village entrance. The Peddler truly is our Benefactor! His medicines used to be so effective, but now they’re becoming less and less so. Still, we can’t forget his kindness; he’s a genuinely good person. You were sent by the Peddler, weren’t you? Speak up, will you? Even if you haven’t been educated, you have a cultivation level; surely you recognize the Peddler?"
Li Banfeng was stunned.
While Li Banfeng was still pondering, Niu Fuzhi said from the side, "I’ve been talking for so long, where is your medicine? Hurry up and use it!"
Li Banfeng was about to take out two packs of ready-made medicine, but after looking at the surroundings, he shook his head.
"We can’t use the medicine here."
"Why not?" Niu Fuzhi was puzzled.
Li Banfeng said, "I’m afraid it will attract mosquitoes."
Niu Fuzhi frowned. "We need medicine to kill mosquitoes. Why would you bring medicine that attracts them? See? That’s why I said you’re uneducated."
Li Banfeng frowned. "You’re the one who’s uneducated!"
Niu Fuzhi puffed out his chest. "I readily admit I haven’t been educated."
It was impossible to get through to him.
Three hundred meters away from the fields, Li Banfeng chose a spot to administer the medicine. Following the instructions on the prescription, he asked Niu Fuzhi to prepare a large pot and some firewood.
"Your medicine needs to be boiled? What are you planning to do, feed the mosquitoes the medicine? We’ve always used smoke to drive them away."
"You’re uneducated, yet you make so much fuss! Just hurry up and get the things!"
Soon, Niu Fuzhi returned carrying a large pot, and Li Banfeng added water to boil the medicine.
Once the water boiled, he added a packet of Medicine Powder, and its fragrance wafted through the air.
Niu Fuzhi sniffed the air and joked, "You know, this smells pretty good. Can people eat this medicine? Let me try a taste..."
BUZZ!
Before he could finish, a massive swarm of mosquitoes converged. Some flew straight into the pot, while others hovered nearby.
Niu Fuzhi shouted, "You Bird Person! You’re really causing harm! Did you actually attract the mosquitoes?"
As Niu Fuzhi cursed, Farming Cultivating Niu Jingchuan, who was working in the fields, laughed.
All the mosquitoes that had been hovering over the rice paddies were gone.
Looking in the direction of the mosquitoes’ flight, they were all heading towards Li Banfeng.
Mosquitoes from all directions gathered into a dense swarm, surrounding Li Banfeng.
He calmly stirred the pot, watching as mosquitoes dropped lifelessly to the ground around him.
Old Yao’s medicine could attract mosquitoes and also kill them.
The slightest whiff of the scent would draw them in, and just a touch of the mist drifting from the pot would kill them instantly.
Niu Jingchuan approached, his face alight with joy. "This medicine is truly magical!"
Niu Fuzhi was a bit worried. "If this medicine can kill so many mosquitoes, can it kill people too?"
To be honest, Li Banfeng was also a bit concerned.
But the Wine Gourd reminded him, "When we were leaving, Old Yao said that this medicine doesn’t harm people."
Near the medicine pot, mosquitoes piled up thickly. One dose of the medicine, once prepared, could be boiled for a day and a night. Li Banfeng had boiled it for two hours when Niu Fuzhi found someone to take over for him.
"Benefactor, come and have a meal at my house first."
But Li Banfeng really was hungry again.
This meal consisted of Pancake Village’s specialty—their famed pancakes.
At Lao Niu’s house, the hostess was a little unhappy but didn’t voice her discontent.
After the meal, Li Banfeng checked the medicine’s effectiveness.
Walking over two miles from where the medicine was boiling, he could still see many mosquitoes flying towards the pot.
Another three miles out, he saw no mosquitoes in the area; they had all been lured away by the medicine’s scent.
Walking further, mosquitoes appeared again.
The scent of the medicine did not reach that far.
Li Banfeng used his Hundred Flavors Delicate Skill to carefully distinguish the scents. There indeed was no smell of the medicine in the air anymore.
Elder Yao’s medicine was indeed powerful. Within a radius of five miles, all mosquitoes would be attracted to the vicinity of the medicine pot and killed.
This effectively created a protective shield, one that could safeguard Pancake Village’s grain.
The grain would ear in five days, and harvesting would take three. Threshing and storage would require a few more. Leaving them over a dozen packs of Medicine Powder should be enough.
This could mean salvation for Pancake Village.
Li Banfeng wanted to see if there were other villages still surviving, living as humans should. There certainly were more.
If he could just reach them early enough, perhaps one more village could hold on.
He was about to hand the prepared medicine to Niu Fuzhi but then had second thoughts.
As he was contemplating, Niu Fuzhi caught up to him. "Benefactor, where are you going? It’s mealtime again! Hurry to our house for a meal!"
Li Banfeng followed Niu Fuzhi into his home.
Niu Fuzhi’s wife was counting rice grains into a pot. She grabbed an extra handful, hesitated for a moment, then put some back.
In a household with only two days’ worth of food per person, this was the third meal Li Banfeng was having with them. The hostess couldn’t help feeling troubled.
"What are you doing!" Niu Fuzhi scolded his wife. "The Benefactor is here! Stop pinching pennies!"
His wife bit her lip and added two more handfuls of rice to the pot.
Niu Fuzhi fumbled around in the cellar for a while and brought out a jar of wine.
"Benefactor, please don’t look down on it, ha. We don’t have much good wine, just this homemade batch. There’s been a disaster this year, so we only brewed this one jar. It was meant for celebrating the New Year. Benefactor, please have a taste today."
Li Banfeng felt a sharp pain in his chest. A severe pain.
Niu Fuzhi poured the wine. "Benefactor, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you drinking? If you don’t like this wine, I’ll go out and find a better one tomorrow. I heard there’s still wine in Rice Soup Village. My wife still has a bracelet; I’ll pawn it to get wine for you, Benefactor!"
Li Banfeng felt another pang in his chest.
"Have a bowl first, give it a try!" Niu Fuzhi lifted the bowl of wine.
Li Banfeng took the bowl and drank a large mouthful.
The wine was rich and fiery, heating Li Banfeng’s entire body.
Niu Fuzhi then called to his wife, "Stew that piece of salted pork for the Benefactor!"
His wife couldn’t help but reply, "That’s the last piece we have. Even the child was reluctant to eat it."
Niu Fuzhi said angrily, "What are you saying? I told you to stew it, so just stew it!"
His wife didn’t dare to say anything more.
Li Banfeng was at a loss for words.
Niu Fuzhi took another sip of his wine and said to Li Banfeng, "Benefactor, I know your medicine is extraordinary. Could you give us two more packs? We won’t take it for nothing; we’ll pay for it. Whatever we can give, we’ll give to you. Benefactor, I beg you! I’ll even kneel before you!"
As he spoke, Niu Fuzhi started to kneel.
Li Banfeng took a deep breath. "Stand up! Do not kneel!"
Niu Fuzhi said, "I mean this sincerely."
Li Banfeng frowned. "Sincerity doesn’t warrant kneeling. Old Pan, come out. Stop taking advantage of this honest man."
Niu Fuzhi was stunned. "What are you saying? Who’s Old Pan?"
Li Banfeng said, "Niu Fuzhi, you are a man of good fortune and ambition; such a man should not kneel. Old Pan was trying to make you kneel just now. Never kneel again. Old Pan is here. Tell your wife to put away the salted pork; don’t let him have it. You should find a place to hide for a bit. I need to have a word with Mr. Pan."
PS: Pan Dehai, has arrived.