"The giving has already been given, just give more..."
Hong Ying hacked off a beggar’s hand and stuffed it into his mouth, "Is that enough for you?"
Li Banfeng was curious; Hong Ying couldn’t see, yet she had managed to stuff it so accurately.
It was unclear whether it was due to frequently taking beatings, but the Begging Cultivator really could endure. He spat the hand out of his mouth and tried to use a Technique, "The giving has already been given..."
A cloud of Steam, from his feet to his head, peeled off a layer of the beggar’s skin. Overwhelmed by the excruciating pain, the beggar gave up resisting.
"Spare my life! I am the Local Deity! I was sent by someone, I was sent by someone! I didn’t mean to harm you!"
Upon hearing this, Hong Ying paused for a moment, then said to Li Banfeng, "Qi Lang, this isn’t Yuan Showu."
Li Banfeng feigned surprise, "Oh, is it truly not him?"
Hong Ying shook her spearhead, "Though Yuan Showu has fled, he isn’t a coward."
The Tang Sword straightened up upon hearing this.
The Phonograph inquired, "Who sent you here?"
"I, I..." the beggar coughed repeatedly.
"Won’t speak?" The Phonograph sneered coldly, and clouds of Steam scoured back and forth over the beggar’s skinless frame.
"Uh, uh..." The beggar was still coughing; he seemed to have lost the ability to speak.
Hong Ying shouted, "Villainess, don’t be so heavy-handed! We haven’t gotten the information yet!"
"Seems like we’re not getting anything," said the Phonograph, probing the beggar’s throat with the needle. "He can’t speak. Someone’s tampered with him."
"If he can’t speak, then write!" Hong Ying roared in anger. The beggar, using his own blood, tried to write on the ground.
His fingers disintegrated in an instant.
"Something’s wrong!" The Phonograph cooked the beggar on the spot with Steam. "Husband, stay away from him!"
Li Banfeng scratched his cheek; it seemed the situation had indeed gone awry.
...
In the wilderness, Cui Tiq was still searching for the beggar’s trail when he suddenly heard Li Banfeng call from behind, "Dr. Cui Tiq, out for a walk so late?"
Cui Tiq slowly turned around, smiling at Li Banfeng. "You can see me."
He had the power of the Greenwater Beggar; Li Banfeng shouldn’t have been able to see him.
But through the Golden Gaze Autumn Hair Technique, Li Banfeng did see him.
In Cui Tiq’s eyes, that was the strength of Li Qi.
Cui Tiq relaxed his shoulders. "It seems I’ve underestimated you. To be honest, I’m here to find that beggar."
Li Banfeng deliberately asked, "Which beggar?"
Cui Tiq chuckled. "There’s no point in talking about that now. Given the current situation, he’s probably died by your hand.
Li Qi, I’ve never understood something. At Medicine King Valley, during our first encounter, Da Boyins and I both wanted to capture you. Truthfully, neither of us was a match for you, so why did you still hide from us back then?"
Of course, Li Banfeng wouldn’t admit, so he phrased it differently: "Because I genuinely wanted to befriend you."
Cui Tiq nodded. "Your insincere flattery is very touching. If I’m not mistaken, the beggar I’m looking for has died by your hand, and I am in the wrong place at the wrong time. What you plan to do now is kill me to silence me, but I don’t want you to do that. Can we find a middle ground?"
Li Banfeng thought for a moment. "That depends on how deep our friendship is."
"I don’t trust friendship; I do trust business. How about we make a deal? Does that sound good to you?"
"Let’s hear it."
Cui Tiq said, "Right now, I truly don’t know where that beggar has gone. I’ll just assume you killed him. I need to inform a very important person about his death, but I won’t say it was you. I’ll say it was a person in white clothes, which I witnessed myself. Can you accept that?"
A person in white clothes—he was referring to Sweet Melon Hong Ying in her white attire.
After thinking for a moment, Li Banfeng replied, "Whether I can accept it or not depends on what kind of chips you can put on the table."
Cui Tiq said, "I can cure your illness. Don’t you feel a bit itchy on your face?"
Cui Tiq disclosed to Li Banfeng, "This is a disease from our Taoist Sect’s Grandmaster. It’s very lethal, but much more potent than the boils I contracted before. I can cure your disease. Is this chip enough for you?"
"Your Taoist Sect’s Grandmaster? The Greenwater Beggar?" Li Banfeng was nervous, but his expression remained calm. "As far as I know, there’s no cure for the Greenwater Beggar’s diseases unless you go to him directly."
Qiu Zhiheng had once told Li Banfeng that not even Elder Yao could break the Greenwater Beggar’s Techniques.
But Cui Tiq was confident. "Now, I have the strength to do so. You can mistrust me, or you can kill me right now. Perhaps you have other ways to cure yourself, but that will take time. And as long as the Grandmaster’s disease is on you, he can lock onto your location. He could find you at any moment. You surely wouldn’t want him to find you. So, this deal is a good option for you, don’t you think?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "I think this deal is fair."
Cui Tiq approached Li Banfeng, gazing intently at his cheeks. "Don’t worry, I won’t sneak attack you. That would be stupid. Give me a little time, and the problem will be solved quickly."