Sudden Wind on Flat Ground

## Sudden Wind on Flat Ground

Li Banfeng had a wonderful dream all night, where a goose feather kept tickling his ear.

Stepping out of the Portable Abode, he found it was already noon. Li Banfeng realized he absolutely needed a timekeeping tool.

Once he returned to Yue Province, these things would be easy to handle; a mobile phone could solve everything.

It was getting late, and he wondered if he could still buy a train ticket.

Li Banfeng walked out of the Portable Abode and strolled down the street for a few hundred meters when he suddenly felt a strange reaction in his body.

What kind of reaction it was, Li Banfeng couldn't say.

He scanned the street for vehicles, whether it was a horse carriage or a foreign carriage, any kind of vehicle would do.

As he looked around, he noticed pedestrians occasionally casting glances his way.

Why are they looking at me?

Wearing a suit and tie, topped with a fedora, I'm dressed quite respectably today!

The pedestrians didn't seem malicious, just curious.

That's strange, how do I know they aren't malicious?

Why am I having so many strange reactions today?

The pedestrians indeed weren't malicious; they weren't looking at his clothes, but at Li Banfeng's unusually fast speed.

He wasn't running, just walking, hands in his pockets, strolling casually down the street.

But his feet were moving in a way that was difficult for ordinary people to comprehend, propelling his body forward rapidly. By the time Li Banfeng noticed the anomaly, he had already reached the end of the street.

I didn't mean to walk this fast...

Watching the buildings on either side of the street rapidly receding, Li Banfeng tried his best to control his steps.

He hadn't actively exerted any force, nor did he feel the slightest bit of fatigue.

Yet, his legs seemed to have motors attached; without hitting the brakes, he couldn't stop at all.

Even with the brakes on, it was hard to control. Li Banfeng could stand still, but as soon as he took a step forward, he seemed to rush forward at a speed of twenty miles per hour.

This isn't good. How did I forget how to walk normally?

Was this caused by the poisonous mist from Bitter Mist Mountain?

Is this a temporary symptom, or irreversible damage?

Despite his best efforts to control himself, Li Banfeng reached the edge of Inner Valley in a very short time.

He had intended to find a quiet place to practice controlling his legs, but as he passed a large banyan tree, a rickshaw beneath it caught his attention.

First, take the rickshaw to the train station, buy a ticket, get on the train, enter the Portable Abode, and then train my legs.

While he was thinking, his legs didn't stop, and he walked another few dozen meters. Li Banfeng turned back the way he came, stopped with difficulty in front of the rickshaw puller, and asked, "How much to the train station?"

The rickshaw puller took a puff of his pipe, looked up, and smiled at Li Banfeng, saying, "You're going to the station, do you still need a ride?"

Li Banfeng stared at the rickshaw puller for a moment.

He knew this puller; Monkey Qiu had hired him before. He was a puller with a Fire Wheel.

He was the one who had pulled Li Banfeng from the station to where the peddler was. Monkey Qiu had paid a full five hundred for the fare.

What the puller said was true. The station wasn't far from Inner Valley. At Li Banfeng's speed, he could walk there in the blink of an eye.

But Li Banfeng didn't know the way.

The puller stood up and pointed to the dirt road in front of them. "Follow this road north for three and a half li, turn east for two li, then north again for less than a li. There's a fork in the road there. Go another two li, and you'll reach the train station."

Li Banfeng shook his head. "That's too much trouble. I'll take the carriage."

The puller, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, said, "What's so troublesome about that? You're already at Travel Cultivator Layer One. Can't you find your way?"

Indeed.

This strange speed wasn't caused by the poisonous mist of Bitter Mist Mountain. It was caused by the Travel Cultivator advancing a layer.

Why did the Travel Cultivator advance a layer?

Because Li Banfeng had stayed in a dangerous place for a day and a night.

While on Bitter Mist Mountain, the poisonous mist had made him dizzy, causing Li Banfeng to forget the peddler's instructions.

Staying in a dangerous place for a day and a night would cause the Travel Cultivator to advance a layer.

Bitter Mist Mountain was a dangerous place. This meant Li Banfeng had passed the Travel Cultivator's test and become a Layer One cultivator.

The Travel Cultivator advancing a layer was a good thing.

But it couldn't advance too quickly, or it would suffer a backlash from the Shut-in Cultivator.

However, there was nothing he could do about it. The Portable Abode couldn't produce a Home Spirit, so the Shut-in Cultivator couldn't advance layers. For a period in the future, the Shut-in Cultivator was bound to be suppressed by the Travel Cultivator. All Li Banfeng could do was control the gap between the two.

"Why didn't I sense it yesterday?" Li Banfeng muttered to himself.

The puller asked, "When did you pass the Layer One test?"

"The day before yesterday, on Bitter Mist Mountain," Li Banfeng answered truthfully.

The puller chuckled. "Passing the test the day before yesterday and advancing a layer today is quite fast. Most people have to wait three to five days. Young brother, you have good fortune. Hurry to the station."

Li Banfeng said to the puller, "I'm too lazy to walk. Since you're pulling a carriage here, aren't you going to take a fare?"

The puller was stunned for a moment. "You insist on taking my carriage? Do you know how much my carriage costs? Others charge eight yuan, but I'll have to charge you two hundred."

"Two hundred, I'll pay!" Li Banfeng took out two hundred yuan in banknotes and gave them to the puller.

On this puller, Li Banfeng sensed a certain familiarity. He firmly believed he had given the money to the right person.

The puller felt the texture of the banknotes and smiled. "Alright, I'll tell you this now, my carriage will get there in the blink of an eye."

"Can you go slower?" Li Banfeng made a seemingly unreasonable request.

The puller understood what Li Banfeng meant. "Going slower is fine, but the slower I go, the higher the price. Five hundred yuan to go for two digits, do you agree?"

Two digits referred to two numbers on the dial, meaning to go for ten minutes.

Li Banfeng nodded, "Agreed."

The rickshaw puller sighed, "Fat meat is being delivered to my mouth, I can't not eat it. Get in the carriage."

Li Banfeng got into the foreign carriage. The rickshaw puller pulled the carriage, walking casually towards the north.

Li Banfeng asked, "What layer of Travel Cultivator are you?"

He could tell the rickshaw puller was a Travel Cultivator. The first time he rode in his carriage, the rickshaw puller had already displayed the abilities of a Travel Cultivator, but at that time, Li Banfeng didn't know the concept of a Travel Cultivator.

The rickshaw puller didn't answer, "Five hundred yuan, and you want to ask about my cultivation? Do you think that's appropriate? Two words pass very quickly, ask something else."

"Do Travel Cultivators usually walk this fast?"

"Do you see me walking fast?" As he spoke, the rickshaw puller walked forward step by step, at the same speed as a normal person.

"But why did I walk so fast?"

The rickshaw puller explained, "The way you were walking just now is called Sudden Wind on Flat Ground. This is a skill of a first-layer Travel Cultivator.

Travel Cultivators who have just reached this layer can't control the force in their feet. It takes more practice to be able to release and retract it freely."

"How do I practice?"

The rickshaw puller pointed to a hand pump well by the street, "Have you used a hand pump well? Before, walking was like swinging your arms and pumping water with a 'gudong gudong' sound. Now you have to hold back the force, so the water flow that comes out is even thinner than a hemp rope. Only then can you walk like a normal person."

Even thinner than a hemp rope?

"That's not easy to control."

"There's a trick. First, start by holding back the first layer of force from your hips, moving forward slowly one step at a time. Then, hold back the second layer of force from your kneecaps, following your hips as you step forward.

Next is your ankles, and then your toes. Hold back the force layer by layer. As long as you have enough comprehension, you can figure out the general idea in a day."

Li Banfeng gave a wry smile, "After reaching a new layer, I have to learn to walk again?"

"Don't find it troublesome. When you first start, you won't walk smoothly and you'll fall a lot. But once you learn the trick, walking sixty or seventy li in an hour is nothing."

With that speed, the basic cultivation of twenty li a day could be completed in less than half an hour.

But the problem was...

"Is twenty li a day enough for a first-layer Travel Cultivator?"

"Not enough!" The rickshaw puller shook his head repeatedly, "If you're walking in ordinary places, it's at least fifty li a day."

Fifty li?

That's not a big problem either.

"What do you mean by ordinary places?"

"Streets and alleys are all ordinary places."

"What are extraordinary places?"

"Going up mountains, the steeper the better. Going into water is also fine, the deeper the better. There's a muddy swamp in Lanqing Village. If you can walk two li through it, your cultivation for the day is enough.

There's Knife Ghost Ridge on Sheep Fork Mountain. If you walk one li on the ridge, not only is your cultivation enough, but you can also accumulate a day's worth of Heavenly Light.

"The essence of being a Travel Cultivator lies in this danger. The more perilous the place, the faster your cultivation increases."

Li Banfeng felt a deep resonance. "On Bitter Mist Mountain, cultivation also increased very quickly, right?"

The rickshaw puller shook his head. "That place, I advise you to go there less often. Going up and down the mountain, scattered here and there, you simply don't know how many people have lost their lives on that mountain.

To be able to come back alive, you have good luck. Your luck is indeed good; you even survived being struck by Heavenly Light. With good luck, you should cherish your life. To throw away such a good life for a few coins is not worth it."

"Going up Bitter Mist Mountain was also to earn money. Money, in the end, is not easy to earn." Li Banfeng felt this deeply.

The rickshaw puller shook his head and smiled. "There are plenty of easy ways to make money. Pulling a rickshaw is a good one. Last time I took on that urgent job for you, I earned five hundred in one trip. Today, I'm taking you on another trip and earned another five hundred.

I heard that this year, the major pharmacies are buying Snake Spot Chrysanthemums for only twenty-five yuan per plant. You tell me, whose money is easier to earn?"

According to his logic, pulling a rickshaw indeed seemed to earn money more easily.

The rickshaw puller smiled and said, "You look down on this profession and think pulling a rickshaw is shameful. I, on the other hand, look down on you people who risk your lives and think your lives are cheap."

Li Banfeng didn't argue about the profession with the rickshaw puller anymore and instead asked, "How should I look for suitable places for cultivation? Places that are somewhat dangerous, but not too dangerous?"

The rickshaw puller answered concisely, "For dangerous places, you must act within your capabilities. For dangerous people, you must keep your distance. Bitter Mist Mountain is both a dangerous place and full of dangerous people. You shouldn't go to such a place!"

"How do I distinguish between dangerous places and dangerous people?"

"Travel Cultivators can sense danger. This is called seeking good fortune and avoiding disaster. This is also a technique that only first-level Travel Cultivators possess. It can not only identify dangerous places but also dangerous people."

Li Banfeng's eyes lit up. "A first-level Travel Cultivator has two techniques?"

PS: November, the first day, Salad is asking for votes from all the esteemed readers.

(End of this chapter)