Deceiver Cultivator

No wonder Li Banfeng felt that the man was kind.

No wonder Li Banfeng felt very welcome in the whole village.

Iron Gate Fort, a gathering place for House Cultivator.

Li Banfeng couldn't quite understand how this gathering place had come about.

House Cultivator contact with people, making the concept of "gathering" extremely challenging for them.

Moreover, House Cultivator has a fixed residence and cannot easily move. It is simply unimaginable to imagine them living together in one place.

It does indeed exist in Iron Gate Fort. There are quite a few House Cultivator where people live. As Li Banfeng looked around, he saw houses one after another, with no end in sight.

A burst of arguing interrupted Li Banfeng's thoughts.

A young woman went out to buy rice and rummaged through the rice bag, finding a lot of sand inside.

The woman questioned the old man driving the donkey cart, "Every time I buy rice from you, there's sand in it, and the sand is getting worse and worse. This is outrageous!"

The old man snorted and said, "It's not uncommon for grain to be transported from a great distance with some mud and sand on it."

"You're so delicate, don't eat rice, eat meat every day! There's no sand in meat."

The old man was shameless and unreasonable, but the woman didn't argue with him and left with her head down.

House Cultivator doesn't seem to be good at arguing, so I gritted my teeth and decided not to buy from him.

Would it be better to buy someone else's?

They're all the same.

There was also a cart selling grain in the fort, but the rice and flour were mixed with something else.

Moreover, their grain prices are very high. In Pro State, because of the existence of Farming Cultivator, grain has never been expensive. Even in Green Water City, a kilogram of rice costs only about one dollar and eighty cents.

But here it's selling for 2.5 yuan.

It's not just rice; they sell other things too.

There were vendors selling cotton, fabrics, rouge, books and newspapers, paper, pens and stationery, and daily necessities.

There are also people who come to your home to cut your hair. They don't go inside the house, they just stand at the door. The House Cultivator bring their own small stools, sit down at the door, and the barber puts on a big cloth and starts cutting. After the haircut, they get paid, but they don't wash your hair. The House Cultivator then go home to take care of their own business.

There are also toilet collectors who come to collect toilets from your home. They collect the toilet from last night and replace it with a clean one. They charge you for each replacement.

They all offer door-to-door service.

How do these House Cultivator make a living if they never leave their homes?

Li Banfeng soon discovered something.

These merchants who came to Iron Gate Fort not only sold goods, but also bought them.

The middle-aged woman who sold fabrics bought quite a few ready-made clothes and embroideries; her craftsmanship was quite good.

The man selling groceries had collected a lot of pottery and porcelain, all of which were very finely crafted.

There was a House Cultivator who was very good at making Smoking Pipe. Several vendors would come to his door to pick up their orders, and his business was quite prosperous.

The book and newspaper vendor had a good eye; he collected paintings, and he acquired more than a dozen of them, all of which were exquisitely painted.

This means that the House Cultivator who sold the paintings likely had already reached the fourth level of cultivation.

Influenced by the techniques used, the painting skills of the four-story House Cultivator are bound to be superb. Of course, there are exceptions; Li Banfeng's painting skills are slightly inferior...

Before he knew it, Li Banfeng had been wandering around Iron Gate Fort for more than an hour, and he was reluctant to leave.

Li Banfeng felt very comfortable in Iron Gate Fort, a comfort that defies description.

Of course, there were also things he couldn't stand. The merchants who came here to do business sold their goods at prices much higher than the market price, and bought them at prices much lower than the market price.

This results in very low profits for House Cultivator businesses.

Of course, it's reasonable to make a little extra profit from a business that comes knocking on your door, but Li Banfeng felt that things like mixing sand into the grain were going too far.

He wanted to teach these grain sellers a lesson when he suddenly heard a shout from behind him.

"Oops~"

A girl fell to the ground, surrounded by scattered flowers and a walking stick.

This is not an ordinary walking stick; it is a blind man's Blind Man's Cane used by blind people to find their way. Old Woman Wu from the Welfare Institute had poor eyesight and used this in her later years.

This girl is blind; she must be a flower seller.

Judging from the situation, someone must have knocked her down, and flowers are scattered everywhere.

Who knocked her down?

Li Banfeng looked up and recognized the man—the young man who had given him directions.

The man had sold two paintings and was chasing after the cloth seller to buy some fabric when he accidentally bumped into the girl.

"My flowers..." The girl groped around on the ground, her hands still stained with blood.

The young man quickly helped the girl pick up the flowers, his face covered in sweat.

He dislikes trouble House Cultivator, but he's even more afraid of causing trouble for others.

House Cultivator is afraid of being hurt by others, but he is even more afraid of accidentally hurting others.

Especially since she's such a pitiful girl.

The flowers scattered on the ground were covered in mud, some had broken stems, and some had lost their leaves.

The young man picked up the plants one by one, placed them in the girl's hand, and kept apologizing to her.

"It's okay, it's okay..." The girl wiped away her tears, struggled to her feet, and continued selling flowers with a limp.

"Buying flowers? Who buys fresh flowers?"

Those two cries, filled with weakness, sorrow, and trembling with sobs, directly broke the young man.

"Miss, wait a moment, I'm going to buy flowers." The young man chased after her.

"How much do you want to buy...?" the girl asked timidly.

"I bought them all!"

He bought all of the more than one hundred flowers of various sizes that the girl was carrying.

Some spent three yuan, some spent five yuan, and several hundred yuan were spent in total, and that was it.

He had just sold his paintings and earned a few hundred yuan, but he lost it all.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't heartbroken; the young man's cheeks were trembling.

But he still paid the money; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to get over this mental hurdle.

The girl accepted the money, a smile appearing on her face, and a hint of life seemed to return to her previously dull eyes.

"Brother, thank you, you're a good person."

The young man shook his head and said, "Well... take it easy and be careful on the road."

The girl, carrying the Blind Man's Cane, poked and pointed at things along the way, and then left.

The young man stood behind her, gazing into the distance until the girl's figure completely disappeared. Only then did he return home, holding the flowers.

What a romantic chance encounter.

But Li Banfeng didn't find it romantic at all.

He only noticed three things.

First, most of the flowers this girl sells are common roadside wildflowers. Li Banfeng is Travel Cultivator and is familiar with these kinds of flowers. He can easily find a patch of grass, pick a large bunch, and sell them at such a high price. It's really a bit unethical.

Secondly, the girl's flowers weren't broken from the fall; many of her flowers were already damaged. The young man's attention was focused on the girl, and he didn't notice the flowers, but Li Banfeng did.

Third, this girl doesn't know how to use the Blind Man's Cane. When Li Banfeng was taking care of Old Woman Wu, he paid special attention to how the Blind Man's Cane used. It's used to sweep left and right to explore, not to poke around like that.

Li Banfeng frowned slightly. A woman selling groceries next to him chuckled, "You can tell now, can't you? This person is fake. You little slut, you have such a wonderful time to learn this instead of this."

Li Banfeng looked at the woman and asked, "Do you recognize her?"

The woman nodded. "This slut's name is Sui Donglan. She's educated and can read. I heard she used to have a job in the city."

But later he became addicted to gambling, losing all his savings at the gambling table and accumulating a mountain of debt. He fled to Iron Gate Fort to hide from his creditors and swindle money.

Today she's a flower girl, preying on naive young men; tomorrow she'll pretend to be a beggar, then trick kind-hearted people.

Yesterday she dressed provocatively and claimed to be a prostitute. An old bachelor was scammed by her, giving her nearly ten thousand yuan without even touching her hand. Can you believe how shameless she is?

Li Banfeng nodded slightly and said, "It's shameless."

A man selling cigarettes nearby scoffed, "It's a case of 'one willing to hit, the other willing to be hit,' who told these House Cultivators to fool?"

The woman didn't like hearing this. "What do you mean by being easy to fool? They just don't have bad intentions! If it's really about fighting, how many Daoist sects can beat them?"

This is still their own backyard. If they really wanted to do something underhanded, which scammer could escape?

The man shook his head and said, "They wouldn't have any intention of using underhanded tactics."

"Of course you have! Have you forgotten how those swindlers died?"

The man lit a cigarette and said, "Those swindlers are bastards, killing them is the right thing to do."

Li Banfeng was stunned for a long time before asking, "What is fraudulent repair?"

"The Daoist sect!" said the woman selling groceries. "You haven't heard of fraudulent cultivators, have you? They can impersonate anyone and act so convincingly that it's impossible to tell the difference."

Isn't it true that there are no living fools in the world?

How can there still be scam repairs?

Foolishness is foolishness, deception is deception, but could these two things really not belong to the same school?

Li Banfeng asked, "You can pretend to be anything, right? Was that Sui Donglan also a fraud?"

The woman selling groceries scoffed, "She'd like to, but for some reason, she never seems to run into Peddler."

The last time the Peddler came to Iron Gate Fort, she arrived too late and missed it.

She did manage to catch the peddler Peddler came to Iron Gate Fort last time, but Peddler didn't enter the Iron Gate Fort, and there were no other customers around.

Sui Donglan didn't recognize the Peddler and assumed he was just an ordinary vendor selling miscellaneous goods, so she didn't even glance at him and simply passed by.

She was so angry afterwards! You know, she's just unlucky!

The cigarette seller shook his head and said, "It's not fate. I suspect the Peddler is deliberately avoiding her. This girl is so cunning; if she falls into the trap of a swindler, she'll become a demon!"

Li Banfeng asked the woman selling groceries, "You mean Sui Donglan didn't recognize the Peddler last time?"

The woman selling groceries nodded.

Li Banfeng picked up a Pellet Drum from the woman's stall. "Who can I sell this to? To House Cultivator's child?"

The woman laughed and said, "There's no need to sell them to children; House Cultivator himself enjoys playing with these things."

Li Banfeng then looked at the Feather Duster next to the Pellet Drum: "This thing is really quite fun."

I'll take this whole truckload. Let's calculate the price.

The woman was taken aback, not having heard Li Banfeng clearly. "You mean you're going to take this whole truckload of goods?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "I'll take your car too."

Once Sui Donglan left Iron Gate Fort, she stopped pretending to be blind.

Once they reached a secluded spot, she put down the Blind Man's Cane, wiped the blood from her hands, and began counting the money.

The bloodstains on her hands were fake, the cuts and bruises were fake, and the flowers she sold were all picked casually from the wild fields by the roadside.

This kind of flower cannot be sold to women. Even if a woman is House Cultivator, she can tell that this flower is not high-class.

Selling it to men would be much easier, because men only look at her face, not her flowers.

Half of the flowers were sold, but I really didn't want to sell the other half, so I decided to find Big Head to take care of them.

The House Cultivator who gave Li Banfeng directions was the Big Head she had her eye on. She bumped into him, threw him to the ground, smeared some red ink on her hands, and the charade was done.

House Cultivator are easily deceived. They don't even realize they've been scammed until they do. Even if they do, they never tell anyone. Sui Donglan has used this tactic many times.

But I can't pretend to be blind tomorrow; it's too obvious.

What should I pack tomorrow?

As she was pondering, she suddenly heard the sound of drums.

Clang, clang.

"Imported Soap, Snow Cream, matches, candles, shovels! A cart full of good stuff from established brands, buy it all if you get your money's worth!"

"Peddler!" Sui Donglan's eyes lit up, and she rushed to the roadside. She saw a man pushing a cart, wearing a felt hat with the brim pulled down low, beating Pellet Drum and shouting.

Is this really Peddler?

The shouts were definitely right; they were exactly the same as what Old Yu, who sold fabric scraps, had said.

But this date is strange! Why is he here at this time?

Sui Donglan became suspicious, but then she remembered something else.

Lao Zhang, who sold charcoal, once said that Peddler sometimes don't come on a regular schedule, and it's considered lucky if you happen to meet one.

It seems my luck has finally turned around.

Sui Donglan approached the Peddler, her face flushed with shyness, and asked in a soft voice, "Are you Peddler?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "Is that even a question?"

Sui Donglan lowered her voice and asked, "Do you have any medicine powder?"

"Yes!" Li Banfeng took out two pickled vegetable jars. "One hundred yuan for a gold repair, three hundred thousand for a fraudulent repair. Which one do you want?"

P. S.: Since there were no cabinets with drawers, pickle jars would have to do.

I just don't know if the Peddler will get angry.