The Actor refused to come closer, and Li Banfeng could not keep the door to the Portable Residence open indefinitely. He closed the door, picked up the Clock Pendulum, and resumed his fight with the Actor.
The Actor had a good singing voice but mediocre fighting skills. Although Li Banfeng only wielded a Clock Pendulum, his swift strikes ensured he wasn’t at a disadvantage.
After about three to five minutes, the Actor had been cut several times, while Li Banfeng was unharmed.
Seeing that he was not gaining the upper hand, the Actor disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Li Banfeng shouted angrily, "Are you coming out or not? If you don’t show yourself, I’ll start singing again!"
With the Deep House Technique, he could bring out his wife’s technique from the house. His wife’s singing could attract souls. Li Banfeng stood in the Second Courtyard and resumed singing "Wujia Slope."
He belted out several sections with all his might. Peking opera is not an ordinary song; it tests one’s skills. Li Banfeng’s voice was raw from singing, but the Actor did not appear.
The plan had been to hide in this mansion for the night and wait for daybreak, but now it was clear they could not stay any longer.
Li Banfeng ordered Xiao Yeci, "Gather everyone immediately. We’re leaving."
Xiao Yeci responded, "Understood," and quickly gathered everyone at the entrance.
Li Banfeng reached out to push the door, but it wouldn’t open.
He tried kicking it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Even with several men ramming it together, the door wouldn’t give.
The door had been sealed.
Xiao Yeci had everyone pile up water jars, wooden boxes, and other assorted items at the base of the wall. Niu Guangda was the first to step up, climbing onto the wooden boxes, then the water jar. Just as he was about to scale the wall, his hands touched the top, and a puff of blue smoke rose.
"Damn it!" Niu Guangda wailed as he fell from the water jar; the top of the wall was hotter than a branding iron.
Since the top of the wall was impassable, Li Banfeng told the others, "I’ll jump out first, then figure out a way from the outside."
The brick wall might look tall, but to Li Banfeng, it was not much different from a threshold.
He vaulted, his feet surpassing the wall by a foot, just as he was about to land outside.
Suddenly, the brick wall shot up by ten feet. Li Banfeng crashed into it, sliding back down engulfed in blue smoke.
Being scorched by the wall wasn’t a big deal; Li Banfeng was used to being burned by his wife.
He got up from the ground, scrutinized the brick wall for a moment, and thought about just squeezing through.
After pondering for a long time, Li Banfeng suddenly burst into curses, "If you’ve got the guts, come out and fight fair and square! Resorting to these filthy tricks to disgust me, what kind of hero does that make you?"
"What do you mean by ’filthy tricks’?" The Actor’s voice came from the night sky, rhythmically tapping a beat and singing arrogantly, "There is a net of heaven and earth here, ensuring that you’ll have no escape! AHAHAHA!"
Li Banfeng yelled, "You’ve trapped us here and refuse to let us go! What exactly do you want?"
The Actor continued to sing, "That shameless lass relieved herself in my courtyard. Even if she doesn’t pay with her life, she cannot escape a good beating!"
Xiao Yeci said to Lu Chunying, "Girl, this is the trouble you’ve caused. Take the responsibility yourself. Kneel down here and let them give you a good beating."
Lu Chunying was stunned.
"Mom, you want me to kneel here?"
Xiao Yeci said sternly, "Girl, don’t feel wronged. Everyone’s lives hang in the balance. You can’t avoid this suffering today."
Lu Chunying said in shock, "Mom, what did I do wrong?"
Xiao Yeci gritted her teeth and said, "Regardless of right or wrong today, you just bear the punishment. Girl, don’t blame me for being heartless..."
THWACK!
Li Banfeng, holding the Clock Pendulum, slashed at Xiao Yeci’s face.
Everyone was shocked beyond belief; they had not expected Li Banfeng to be so ruthless.
Xiao Yeci, covering her face, stumbled backward a few steps and looked at Li Banfeng. "Benefactor, what are you doing? I’m her mother. Can’t I discipline my child a little?"
Li Banfeng, still holding the Clock Pendulum, continued to slash at the face. "You shameless thing! You’re a man. How can you be her mother?"
Xiao Yeci cried out, "How am I a man? Benefactor, you’re mistaken!"
"I’m mistaken? Really? Could I also be mishearing things?"
Li Banfeng had noticed something off about Xiao Yeci’s behavior earlier, but since he saw no green light on her and her appearance and voice were identical to Xiao Yeci’s, he hadn’t dared to act rashly.
Once "Xiao Yeci" asked Lu Chunying to kneel, Li Banfeng confirmed that this "Xiao Yeci" was a fake and immediately swung the Clock Pendulum at her, causing her figure to vanish.
Li Banfeng shouted, "I’ve exposed your trickery! Now give the person back to me!"
The Actor’s voice returned from the night sky, "Why should I give her back to you?"
Li Banfeng replied, "If you can’t fool me, that means you’ve lost. If you don’t admit defeat, what kind of hero are you?"
Yet, after hearing what Li Banfeng said, the Actor was somewhat conflicted.
While he was conflicted, Li Banfeng called out again, "Even if you won’t return her to me, at least tell me where she is!"
The Actor no longer hesitated and firmly stated, "She’s lying in the guest room of my main courtyard. I haven’t hurt her or harmed her. If you’re brave enough, come and fetch her yourself!"
"Mom!" Upon hearing this, Lu Chunying dashed towards the Hanging-Flower Gate, but Li Banfeng swiftly grabbed her back.
"Stop causing trouble. Take everyone and find a room to hide in. Pair up and watch each other. If anything seems off, tie them up immediately. If you can’t beat them, run. If you can’t outrun them, everyone grab whatever weapon you can and pee in the room together."
Lu Chunying was stunned. "What good will peeing do?"
but Li Banfeng couldn’t be bothered to explain.
Li Banfeng strode into the Double Courtyard, which was a garden. Although overgrown with wild grass, one could still spot the remnants of a flower garden.
Beyond the flower garden, there was a pond and a carved tower, with a row of houses on each side.
Directly ahead was another Hanging-Flower Gate, supposedly leading to the Third Courtyard. But Li Banfeng didn’t walk through it, as two strands of green fire coiled in front of the gate.
The only Lost Soul Li Banfeng had actually fought was that Actor. Even then, he couldn’t quite discern the Actor’s level.
Li Banfeng shouted towards the Hanging-Flower Gate, "ROAR!"
The green light twisted. The little ghosts were startled and scattered in all directions. The original Hanging-Flower Gate disappeared, and another gate popped up some ten meters away.
This was the real Hanging-Flower Gate.
Li Banfeng stepped towards the gate, but Lu Chunying suddenly rushed over. "Benefactor, there’s trouble! The Actor has tied up Niu Guangda and the others and said he’s going to eat them as side dishes for his drinks."
Li Banfeng looked at Lu Chunying and asked, "Where’s your mom?"
Lu Chunying was taken aback. "Isn’t she in the main courtyard?"
"I’m asking about your real mom."
"Isn’t that my real mother?"
"ROAR!" Li Banfeng bellowed, and Lu Chunying trembled violently, a green light emitting from her body.
Li Banfeng, wielding the Clock Pendulum, swung again. Lu Chunying vanished after being struck twice.
The night sky echoed with the Actor’s voice again, "How did you see through me?"
Li Banfeng said, "Come out and fight first!"
"First, tell me where I went wrong!"
"Your acting is terrible; it’s so full of flaws I don’t even know where to start."
"Thief, don’t get cocky! We’ll have a rematch in the main courtyard."
The Actor’s tone was full of resentment. Truthfully, just his impersonation of Lu Chunying alone was flawless, both in form and spirit.
But Xiao Yeci was not Lu Chunying’s real mother, and Li Banfeng knew that.
Crossing through three gates, he entered the Third Courtyard, where corridors crisscrossed, flanked by study rooms.
In the center of the courtyard, beneath a pavilion, stood a lean man with piercing eyes and a mustache, followed by a group of attendants, all kneeling on the ground awaiting his command.
The Saint looked at Li Banfeng and said, "Did you think you could escape?"
Li Banfeng, holding the Clock Pendulum, continued to slash.
The Saint roared, "You dare to slash even me?"
"And what if I do!" Li Banfeng brought down the Clock Pendulum on the Saint’s forehead. The Saint cried out in pain and vanished, leaving the group of attendants to rush him all at once.
"I’m just in the mood to slaughter curs like you!" Li Banfeng swung the Clock Pendulum and burst into the song "Wild Boar Forest," channeling all of Lu Zhishen’s burning rage, and began to fight fiercely against the horde of Lost Souls.
In terms of martial arts, these Lost Souls were not bad at all; some were even slightly stronger than the Actor.
In terms of tactics, they were more ruthless than the Actor—true experts in killing, aiming for vital points with every strike.
But they had little resistance to Li Banfeng’s operatic art. Hearing the powerful singing, they were rendered unable to use their techniques.
After fighting for a few minutes, most of the souls had been dispersed by Li Banfeng, with only a few of higher cultivation levels still engaging him. Li Banfeng saw an opportunity and opened his Portable Residence; instantly, his wife’s singing filled the air.
"Roses, roses, so delicate and charming, roses, roses, so bright and beautiful..."
One of the Lost Souls snorted disdainfully, "Flowery words and gaudy lines!"
Li Banfeng shouted, "Darling, sing the opera!"
"Who has tinged the frosty woods with deep red at dawn? It’s always the thousand streams of lovers’ tears..." His wife sang a passage from the "Romance of the West Chamber," which had substantial destructive power.
The horde of Lost Souls uncontrollably entered the Portable Residence. By the time Li Banfeng slammed the door shut, it was too late for any of them to escape.
One Lost Soul asked, "Were those two lines just sung by the Valiant Cavalry General?"
The Phonograph didn’t answer, asking in return, "And who are you?"
The Lost Soul said, "I’m Peng Chunyang from Prince Chun’s Mansion. Don’t you remember me?"
The Phonograph didn’t recall who Peng Chunyang was, but Hong Ying did. "Steward Peng, is that you?"
At the sound of that voice, Peng Chunyang exclaimed, "Material Officer General, is that you? How could you..."
Before he could finish, the Phonograph swallowed all the Lost Souls in a single gulp.
Hong Ying said angrily, "These are people from Prince Chun’s Mansion! How could you just eat them?"
The Phonograph sneered, "So what if I did? This is food my man bought. I should eat it, I love to eat it, and I’m going to eat it with relish!"
PS: A good man knows how to shop for groceries, and once bought, someone should know how to enjoy them!