Li Banfeng climbed over Waigou’s Jiangyue Mountain and walked more than a hundred miles of mountain roads, reaching a canyon at three in the morning.
According to Yu Nan’s description, passing through this canyon would lead to the Land of Rebirth.
The canyon was difficult to navigate, with the widest part being two to three meters and the narrowest part only allowing passage by sidling through.
Sidling through a narrow crevice for over a mile, Li Banfeng felt that the effort was more productive than walking ten miles in Ligou Town, according to his senses.
Just as he emerged from the crevice, Li Banfeng failed to notice the sheer cliff beneath his feet and fell straight down.
Luckily, as a Traveling Cultivator, he had nimble feet, and he managed to slow his descent along the slope before landing, so he was not injured.
His clothes were torn, but it was no big deal—they belonged to a guard from the Geng Family.
But his shoes were worn through, which pained him a little.
Dusting himself off, Li Banfeng looked back at the cliff and suddenly noticed a spider crawling out of a gap, slowly descending on its thread.
This spider was indeed quite special—it was large, with a body diameter excluding legs of more than a meter.
Even more peculiar, the spider wore a black top hat on its head. When he reached Li Banfeng, he even took off the hat and made a very gentlemanly bow to him.
Not only could it bow, the spider could also talk, "Madam, why are you walking alone in this perilous place?"
Li Banfeng stared at the spider for a long while. "You’ve mistaken me for someone else, haven’t you?"
Upon hearing Li Banfeng’s voice, the spider paused for a moment. This "woman," with heavy makeup and handsome features, was actually a man. "I apologize, sir, it’s my mistake. Are you here to reclaim the New Land? We happen to be going the same way."
"Are you a Farming Cultivator?" Li Banfeng asked.
"Farming Cultivator?" the spider chuckled. "You really have a sense of humor. By my appearance, you should be able to tell that I am a Body Cultivator."
This spider’s manner of speaking was unlike the locals, and also different from the modern society that Li Banfeng was familiar with.
It had a tone reminiscent of dubbed foreign films.
Of course, how it spoke was not the main point.
The key point was that it was a spider that could talk.
In the Geng Family Medicine Shop, Li Banfeng had met Song Baiming. As a Body Cultivator, he bore some resemblance to a crab.
Before that, Li Banfeng had also seen a Body Cultivator on Kuwu Mountain who had his own suit of armor.
Now he’d encountered a talking spider, making the Body Cultivation sect seem quite diverse in form.
On a wider stretch of the path ahead, the spider quickened its pace to walk alongside Li Banfeng. "Friend, your steady gait suggests you are a Traveling Cultivator. Traveling Cultivators’ Medicinal Powder is quite expensive—you must be wealthy."
"So-so," Li Banfeng replied nonchalantly.
"I guess I’m the unlucky one, with no money for a foundation, nor for Medicinal Powder. I can only try my luck at Three-Head Fork," said the talkative spider.
Li Banfeng really became quite interested when the spider mentioned Three-Head Fork.
"You’re building your foundation at Three-Head Fork? Have you grown three heads yet?"
The spider laughed. "Are you deliberately making fun of us Body Cultivators?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "I’ve never left Medicine King Valley in my life; I don’t know much about Three-Head Fork."
As they walked, the spider explained, "Even if you haven’t been to Three-Head Fork, you must have heard about the origin of Body Cultivators. All the world’s Body Cultivators come from there. For poor people seeking a cultivation level, this is their only path."
"Why is it for poor people?" Li Banfeng wasn’t afraid to show his ignorance; if he didn’t understand, he asked.
The spider smiled. "Friend, are you deliberately feigning ignorance? Poor people can’t afford Miracle Elixirs and have no money to obtain Taoist Fate. They can only go to Three-Head Fork to try their luck. Three-Head Fork by nature carries Taoist Fate, but it’s not something everyone can benefit from. Out of ten people who go, nine become Three-Headed Monsters. Such people can only live as monsters for the rest of their lives. Only the one with a strong physique can attain True Fruit; hence, we are called Body Cultivators."
"To attain True Fruit is to become a spider?"
"I always feel like you’re mocking me," the spider’s eight eyes rolled simultaneously. "What form one can cultivate into depends on one’s luck and talent. Some turn into birds, some beasts, and quite a few into scorpions and spiders. Are you looking down on my appearance?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Not at all. This path is so treacherous, yet you navigate it more smoothly than I do. That’s a serious skill."
"Thank you for the compliment," the spider raised its top hat and bowed again. "I’ve told you so much because I want to convey that I’m an honest individual. If you are also here to work for the Lu Family, let’s partner up."
This reminded Li Banfeng of his painful experiences with making alliances.
"I really am not here to reclaim land," Li Banfeng politely declined the spider’s offer.
"If you’re not here to reclaim land, then don’t blame me for..."
"Blame you for what?"
Li Banfeng looked at the spider with a smile.
The spider’s eight eyes met Li Banfeng’s two.
After a moment of staring, the spider suddenly spat out a strand of web.
Li Banfeng’s smile remained since the web wasn’t directed at him, and he detected no malice from the spider.
The web latched onto a rock face ahead, and the spider, using the web, continued climbing up the wall. "If you’re not here for the reclamation, then I won’t take you with me, HO HA HA HA!"
The path ahead was narrow and muddy, making Li Banfeng’s trek difficult as he trudged through the mire, watching as the proud spider deftly navigated the rock face with ease.
A few minutes later, the spider disappeared from Li Banfeng’s sight.
Then, after two more hours, Li Banfeng finally reached the end of the canyon.
No wonder Yu Nan sought refuge here; even as a First Layer Traveling Cultivator, Li Banfeng found it so challenging. For others, just making this journey would cost them their skin.
The end of the canyon wasn’t the normal exit Li Banfeng had imagined, but another sheer cliff.
To be precise, this canyon was a crevice set within the cliffs, and now Li Banfeng was about to emerge from within it.
Standing at the edge of the cliff, he had two choices: one was to jump down directly, and the other was to climb down the cliff using his hands and feet.
The cliff below his feet was hundreds of meters high; it seemed that both choices were unscientific.
Li Banfeng ultimately made the most scientific choice.
He opened up his Portable Residence and before entering, he threw the key down the cliff.
Sitting in the house for a moment, Li Banfeng left the Portable Residence and picked up the key beneath a tree.
In front of him were trees, and trees surrounded him; the dense trunks and branches took up over ninety percent of Li Banfeng’s field of vision.
Li Banfeng took a step forward, and the ground, covered in dead branches and fallen leaves, submerged his ankles.
Taking another step forward, he tripped over a hidden tree root beneath the leaves and stepped into the mud.
This step was deep enough that the mud engulfed his thigh.
Li Banfeng was quick to act and grabbed a vine to pull his leg out. Just as he steadied himself, he suddenly sensed danger approaching.
Li Banfeng felt a tingling itch on his calf and, rolling up his pant leg, he found densely packed leeches sucking on his leg as if they had given him a pair of hairy pants.
Li Banfeng tore off one of the leeches. This wasn’t an ordinary leech; it was very strong and clung on tightly, tearing off a piece of skin from Li Banfeng’s leg.
He returned to the Portable Residence, took off his trousers, and got a can of salt to sprinkle onto the leeches.
Unexpectedly, this group of leeches was very formidable. Even after the salt, they still clung on and didn’t let go.
Li Banfeng planned to use a knife to slice off the bodies of the leeches when he suddenly saw the Phonograph emit a burst of steam.
Under the scorching high temperatures, the leeches, unable to bear the intense pain, all loosened their grip.
The Phonograph then cleansed Li Banfeng’s legs with several rounds of steam, disinfecting the wounds all over his legs.
The Phonograph even played a song to comfort Li Banfeng: "If there wasn’t me, how would you get by..."
Geng Zhiwei’s soul had long been consumed, and the corpse had been eaten by the Copper Lotus Flower, whose petals were tightly closed as it continued to refine the elixir.
The ground was littered with sundry items. Li Banfeng cleared the area a bit and took the opportunity to collect the weapons of Geng Zhiwei and the two Martial Cultivators while the Copper Lotus Flower was too busy to bite.
Their weapons were quite good. One of the Martial Cultivators had a weapon that was an iron thorn over a foot long, with two smaller thorns, each three inches long, at its base.
Li Banfeng called it Iron Thorn, which led to merciless mockery by the Phonograph.
"Why are you making fun of me? Do you know what this thing is actually called?"
The Phonograph didn’t reply.
The other weapon was also special, resembling a fork made of two intersecting crescents of different sizes.
Li Banfeng called it Fork, and once again, the Phonograph laughed at him.
Geng Zhiwei had a pistol with bullets still in the magazine.
After storing the weapons safely, Li Banfeng threw out the useless items from the Portable Residence and continued trekking through the forest, following the map drawn by Yu Nan.
After walking for over an hour, Li Banfeng pressed his pocket watch to look at the time.
「Medicine King Valley, Jiangyue Mountain’s New Land, Lu Family Mansion.」
A ray of sunlight entered the main hall, where Zhuo Yuling, the Second Aunt of Lu Family’s Head, Lu Dongliang, held her teacup delicately, took a sip of tea, and quietly waited for her guest to arrive.
After waiting for about an hour, a man of medium stature entered the main yard, led by the butler.
The man was dressed in a black tuxedo, topped with a black top hat, and wore a pair of black round sunglasses. His cheeks were full, his features handsome, exuding an air of a perfect gentleman.
He took off his hat and bowed to Zhuo Yuling. "Private detective, Da Boyins, at your service."
The man standing opposite her was clearly a local with yellow skin and black hair, yet he had given himself a foreigner’s name.
And he and Zhuo Yuling were old acquaintances.
Zhuo Yuling did not return the bow; she didn’t even stand up from her chair. Looking at the bowing man, she responded only with a light, derisive sneer, "Haven’t seen you in years, and now you’ve become a fake foreign devil?"
Her voice was soft, but her words were sharp.
Da Boyins politely responded, "Lady, a gentleman is not defined by his lineage, and grace knows no borders."
Zhuo Yuling pointed to a chair next to her. "Sit."
Da Boyins put on his top hat, somewhat displeased with Zhuo Yuling’s arrogance, but still took a seat on the chair.
Zhuo Yuling lit a lady’s cigarette, took a drag, and slowly said, "I called you here to do three things. The first is to clear land, the second is to find someone, and the third is to kill someone.
"The land-clearing doesn’t need explanation; you know the market.
"As for finding someone, I’ve mentioned it in my letter to you—that’s my daughter. This matter is the most urgent.
"And about killing someone, his name is Li Banfeng. Here are his photo and information. It would be best if you could capture him alive."
Da Boyins looked at the photo of Li Banfeng, fell silent for a moment, and then said softly, "What a pity."
"What’s a pity?" Zhuo Yuling was taken aback.
Da Boyins smiled. "Nothing much. I just feel it’s a pity for this young man."
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