Borrow It

Li Banfeng was bound hand and foot with iron chains and locked inside the Hostage Room.

The so-called Hostage Room was a room for hostages. This mother and her two sons made their living by drugging and harming people.

Earlier that very day, before Li Banfeng was taken captive, a mother and daughter had also fallen into their hands.

The mother was named Xiao Yeci. She was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, dressed in a long cross-collared gown. Her face was covered in mud and scars, yet they could not conceal her fine, handsome features. Most especially, there was an air of learning and dignity between her brows unique to a scholar.

Her daughter was named Lu Chunying, looking twelve or thirteen years old. She wore clothes similar to her mother's, but lacked that scholarly bearing.

When she saw Li Banfeng thrown into the Hostage Room, the daughter grew curious and stepped forward to poke him.

Her mother, Xiao Yeci, hurriedly pulled her back and repeatedly whispered in her ear, "NanNan, don't touch things carelessly. Listen to Mother. Don't touch anything carelessly."

The Hostage Room was small, only seven or eight square meters. A pile of firewood sat in the middle. Li Banfeng had been thrown to the left of it, while Xiao Yeci hugged her daughter and hid to the right, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and Li Banfeng.

Nearly an hour passed, and the night deepened. The daughter fell asleep in Xiao Yeci's arms, while Xiao Yeci's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and she nodded off from time to time.

Li Banfeng had managed to gather some strength. While the mother and daughter were asleep, he bit down on the key and slowly began turning it.

Click, click~

A sluggish resistance came from the key, proving that it had formed a connection with the Portable Abode.

But Li Banfeng's neck could only move through a limited range, making the three rotations difficult to complete.

His arms could not move because they were locked in iron chains. He could only use his teeth and tongue to control the key, turning it slowly.

His teeth knocked against the key's handle, producing a faint sound.

The little girl, Lu Chunying, opened her eyes and secretly looked toward Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng swallowed the key back into his mouth and shot Lu Chunying a vicious glare.

Lu Chunying jolted in fright and quickly withdrew her gaze.

This little brat was such a nuisance. What the hell was she looking at!

That one glance had rendered all of Li Banfeng's previous efforts useless.

The poison in his body was still acting up, and Li Banfeng had little strength left. Just as he was about to spit out the key, the little girl turned her head and peeked again.

Still looking!

Li Banfeng's gaze grew even fiercer, as though he might eat someone alive at any moment.

Lu Chunying hurriedly turned away. After waiting a moment, she truly could not hold herself back and glanced over again.

That man was gone!

He had just been there. How had he suddenly disappeared?

"Mom, that person, he..."

"Don't move around, don't talk nonsense," Xiao Yeci murmured in her sleep, not yet awake. "NanNan, listen to Mother. We'll definitely be all right."

Li Banfeng returned to the Portable Abode. Before entering, he spat the key into the pile of firewood.

After lying down in the Portable Abode for a while, Li Banfeng began vomiting heavily, throwing up the food he had eaten that evening along with the Yellow Bile Water.

After vomiting, Li Banfeng convulsed all over and broke out in a great deal of sweat.

The sweat carried a fishy, bitter odor. Smelling it made Li Banfeng want to vomit again.

Like the vomit, this sweat was poison being expelled from his body.

He was detoxifying rapidly. That was a House Cultivator's trait. But this differed from when he had been poisoned on Bitter Mist Mountain. He was not just expelling poison through vomiting, but through sweating as well.

Why was the method of detoxification different?

Was it because the poison was different, or because his means of detoxification had improved?

Li Banfeng wanted to wipe the sweat from his face, but his hands and feet were bound in iron chains and could not move.

Beads of sweat were flowing into his eyes, and the corners of Li Banfeng's eyes burned with waves of searing pain.

No, he had to break free of the chains quickly. He had to wipe away the sweat on his body and avoid being poisoned a second time.

But how could he break the iron chains?

Li Banfeng had regained some of his strength, but relying on brute force to break chains thicker than hemp rope was simply a fantasy from heaven.

Were there any tools in the Portable Abode?

There were. Pliers and wrenches, used to repair the phonograph.

The tools were in the phonograph's lower cabinet. Li Banfeng crawled over to it. His arms and wrists could not move, but his palms could. With great difficulty, he took out the toolbox and spent a long time cutting at the chain with the pliers, but the iron chain did not change in the slightest.

Tools for repairing a phonograph were too delicate for this kind of rough work.

More and more sweat poured out. Li Banfeng could no longer open his eyes, and amid the burning pain, they began swelling.

Was he going to go blind?

When Chu Yunlong had refined pills, his clothes had turned into scraps scattered all over the floor. Li Banfeng had not cleaned them up. Now he wanted to use those scraps to wipe his eyes, but after searching the floor for a long time, he could not find a single piece.

He crawled to the bed and rubbed his eyes against the sheets, but it did not help. Instead, quite a bit of sweat smeared onto his eyelids, making the burning pain even more intense.

Water, he needed water!

He had to wash his eyes clean!

Li Banfeng had a bucket of water that he normally kept by the bed. Whenever he had the chance, he would fill it to the brim.

The water in the bucket was very clean. Normally, it was for drinking. Whatever he did not finish that day would be used for washing the next day.

Where was the bucket?

Li Banfeng found it beside the bed and plunged his head inside. Even when his forehead struck the bottom of the bucket, he could not sense any water.

The bucket was empty?

Impossible. The bucket had still been full when I left!

Had it evaporated dry?

How could it happen so quickly!

The more anxious Li Banfeng became, the more he sweated.

Was there another way?

Was there?

There was!

As long as he broke free of the chains, there would be a way.

Li Banfeng thought of something.

Like an earthworm, he wriggled across the floor from memory, slowly making his way to the corner of the room.

He twisted his body and bumped into the eyeglass case in the corner.

Good, it was still there.

Li Banfeng painstakingly opened the eyeglass case and took out a Rust Pill.

Stabbing pain shot through his palm, but Li Banfeng had no time to care. He placed the Rust Pill on the iron chain.

The chain rapidly rusted away.

After waiting a dozen seconds, Li Banfeng suddenly exerted force and snapped the chain around his hands.

Li Banfeng rubbed the Rust Pill back and forth over the chains. Before long, he had broken free of every chain on his body.

The moment he broke free, his palms split open, and blood tinged with rust flowed out. Li Banfeng was expelling poison.

His eyes still burned fiercely. Li Banfeng put away the Rust Pill, ignoring his bleeding hands as he quickly left the Portable Abode.

The instant he stepped out, the phonograph hissed, hissed, hissed as steam rose from it.

The record spun, and singing began.

The phonograph was singing "Wandering Singer," but the lyrics had been changed.

"Wandering to the ends of earth, ah, the corners of the sea,

Covered in sweat, my dear, don't be afraid,

If it gets in your eyes, it only hurts for a while,

My dear, your eyes absolutely won't go blind, ahhh~"

Li Banfeng returned to the Hostage Room.

His footsteps were light, making no sound. Enduring the agonizing pain, he opened his eyes and first retrieved the key from the pile of firewood.

Looking around, Li Banfeng examined the Hostage Room's layout.

There was a door, and it had a lock.

There was a window. It was very small, barred with iron grating, and beyond it was the backyard.

The sound of water came in waves from outside the window. Li Banfeng heard it!

There was water!

Overjoyed, Li Banfeng opened the Portable Abode again. Before entering, he tossed the key out the window.

When Li Banfeng emerged from the Portable Abode again, he was already outside the Hostage Room.

This was the backyard. There was a well in it, and old woman's second son was drawing water by the well while sharpening a knife.

The knife was nearly sharpened. The second son wanted to draw another bucket of water to rinse it off.

He had just lifted a bucket of water to the edge of the well when Li Banfeng snatched it away.

"Let me borrow the water. Thank you." Li Banfeng thanked him very politely and even gave a bow. Then he casually grabbed the second son by the knees and flipped him into the well.

Li Banfeng plunged his head into the bucket. The cool comfort immediately eased the intense pain in his eyes.

In truth, Li Banfeng had been overly nervous. Sweat was not as damaging to the eyes as he had imagined.

After washing them, more than half the pain faded. Li Banfeng poured the entire bucket of water over himself, washing away every trace of sweat on his body.

While Li Banfeng was washing his face, the second son climbed out of the well. Clinging to the well's edge, he silently watched Li Banfeng's back.

The second son was a Martial Cultivator, a man with a strong competitive streak. He had done business with his mother and brother for over a decade, and never once had a hostage toyed with him.

How had he been caught off guard just now?

He had not even heard a single footstep?

He did not intend to call for his mother or brother. While Li Banfeng was unguarded, he would kill this hostage with his own hands.

Li Banfeng set down the bucket. The second son tensed both arms, preparing to leap out of the well.

Li Banfeng saw the knife on the ground, the knife the second son had nearly finished sharpening.

He took the knife from the whetstone, turned back to the second son, and said, "Let me borrow the knife too."

With that, Li Banfeng slit the second son's throat and pushed him back into the well.

Falling into the well water, the second son stared up at the sky above the well, unable to understand what had happened.

He had never expected a Travel Cultivator to strike so quickly!

He had never expected Li Banfeng to give no warning at all before attacking.

He had never expected that while Li Banfeng seemed focused on washing his face, he had actually been keeping watch on the mouth of the well all along.

He wanted to call for his mother, and he wanted to call for his brother.

But his mouth was full of blood and his nose full of water. He could not cry out at all.

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(End of Chapter)