Ge Jun Toad

Li Banfeng was awakened by the Judge's Brush remained suspended in mid-air.

"Is there something you need to tell me?"

"Hmm," the Judge's Brush replied with a single word.

"Then tell me!"

The Judge's Brush remained silent.

Li Banfeng stared at the Judge's Brush for a moment, then asked, "You think there are too many people?"

"Um.

Living under the same roof, Judge's Brush seemed to trust only Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng took the Judge's Brush to the Fifth Chamber, his gloves following silently behind him.

The record player was a little worried, but she could sense the gaze, the gaze from the Portable Abode.

Upon entering the Fifth Chamber, Li Banfeng said to the Judge's Brush, "It's really kind of you to get up in the middle of the night and care so much. Now, tell me."

The Judge's Brush wrote, "I will take you to the dwelling place of the Local Earth God, but do not tell anyone."

Li Banfeng yawned. "Let's go."

Portable Abode, the Judge's Brush's Pen drew a circle and took Li Banfeng flying.

I've never seen this guy so diligent since I met him.

The two flew south from Yan Sha Study, crossed three streets, and arrived at a garden.

Ink Fragrance Shop has many gardens, but now is not the best time to visit them.

In the freezing cold, with flowers and trees withered, Li Banfeng couldn't see anything special except for the layers of dead trees.

The judge put down Li Banfeng's pen and wrote the word "wisdom" under a willow tree.

Suddenly, the bare willow tree sprouted new leaves and began to grow. Layers of willow catkins drifted out, forming a barrier that surrounded the willow tree and Li Banfeng.

A gust of cold wind blew, the willow catkins gradually dispersed, and the surrounding scenery changed.

The trees and road that were behind us disappeared, replaced by a thick fog that seemed to stretch endlessly.

Using the willow tree with the Judge's Brush's pen as a boundary, the thick fog abruptly stopped. The scenery ahead seemed unchanged, but the faint sound of a zither could be heard in the distance.

Following the sound of the zither, Li Banfeng looked up and saw an open space in front of him, with a lake on it.

On the frozen lake sat a desk, upon which unfolded a scroll over ten meters long, and a man...

Wearing a white shirt, he sat behind his desk, holding a pen, writing on a scroll.

Is this the Local Earth God Wise Scholar of Ink Fragrance Shop?

Practicing calligraphy in the middle of the night, what a refined hobby!

Li Banfeng walked towards the lake, while the other person's calligraphy brush never stopped moving.

Was he oblivious to me? Or was he already prepared to attack me?

Li Banfeng stopped in his tracks. A sense of danger approached, but it wasn't coming from the man in White Clothes; the direction was currently unknown.

Li Banfeng hid behind a tree, and Judge's Brush Pen whispered, "Something's in."

"Where did you come in from? Did you come in with us?"

"No, I've been here for a long time." Judge's Brush was very familiar with this place, and he could sense that something unusual had happened.

Sensing the danger, Li Banfeng turned his gaze to the lake.

Cluck cluck cluck! Bang!

A crack appeared on the frozen lake surface, and there was something beneath the surface.

Bang! Bang!

The cracks multiplied, but the man in White Clothes remained unmoved, continuing to write characters stroke by stroke on the lake's surface.

The scrolls floated up, and words rose from them, swimming and dancing across the lake's surface.

Is this A Word Worth a Thousand Gold, or Ink Counting and Line Following?

The characters created by Ink Counting and Line Following would fight each other indiscriminately, but these characters did not attack the man in White Clothes.

The characters created with each word A Word Worth a Thousand Gold can distinguish between friend and foe, but their number is limited.

Among the scholars Li Banfeng had ever met, Scholar Guo's ability to use twelve "forbidden" characters at once was the most powerful example of a single character being worth A Word Worth a Thousand Gold.

Now there are hundreds of words standing up from the scroll. According to visual inspection, most of them are the word "", followed by the word "kill".

Bang! Bang! Crack!

A crack appeared in the ice, and a Red Dragon rushed straight at the man in White Clothes.

The characters floating on the ice rushed towards the Red Dragon. The character "" resembled a person holding a long spear, hooking and pecking at the Red Dragon.

The word "kill" is like a person holding a spear and stabbing the red dragon with all his strength.

Actually, that wasn't a spear. This kind of weapon that resembles a spear is called "mei" (pronounced the same as "shu"). Li Banfeng had seen it in a weapon manual.

The Red Dragon leaped out of the lake, only to be repelled by a multitude of words.

Once the Red Dragon retreated back into the lake, all the text immediately dispersed and continued patrolling the lake surface.

The hundreds of characters, their advances and retreats, their offense and defense, all flowed so smoothly that Li Banfeng truly felt the powerful combat strength of the literary cultivator.

Cracks reappeared on the ice, and some of the characters gathered near the cracks to await battle. Li Banfeng also stared at the cracks, waiting for the Red Dragon to reappear.

Boom!

The Red Dragon did not appear.

The entire ice surface suddenly collapsed.

Hundreds of characters plunged into the water, creating ripples.

The man in White Clothes, along with his desk, floated in mid-air. His brush never stopped, and words flowed continuously from the scrolls, leaping into the water to fight the monsters in the lake.

Buzz!

A muffled roar was heard, and the lake water churned violently as if boiling.

A clam, about a third the size of the lake surface, jumped out of the water and pounced on the man in White Clothes.

It turns out that the Red Dragon from before wasn't a real dragon, but the tongue of this clam.

The thirty-two "wing" characters transformed into a pair of wings, carrying the man in White Clothes as he quickly soared dozens of meters higher.

The clam kicked and paddled in the air, mimicking the frog swimming motion, relentlessly pursuing the fish.

Just as the man in White Clothes was about to be caught by the toad, Li Banfeng suddenly walked out of the woods and appeared in the toad's sight.

Ha turned his head slightly and glanced at Li Banfeng.

This glance was crucial, as it meant he was aware of Li Banfeng's presence, a prerequisite for using the Ride a Horse and Admire Flowers technique.

Li Banfeng stared at the clam, then moved swiftly and disappeared from its sight.

If the clam cannot lock onto Li Banfeng, he will be hurt by Ride a Horse and Admire Flowers.

Even if the toad can lock onto Li Banfeng, it will distract him and give the man in White Clothes a chance to counterattack.

Bang!

The toad's attention was mostly on the man in White Clothes, and its gaze failed to lock onto Li Banfeng, whose front leg was injured in the explosion.

Li Banfeng disappeared from the clam's sight again. The clam tried to track Li Banfeng's figure, but a group of words blocked the clam's view.

Bang!

Another hind leg was injured in the explosion.

Although the injury wasn't serious, it clearly affected the speed of his breaststroke. The clam and the man in White Clothes had created some distance between them. The man in White Clothes, who was suspended in mid-air, was still writing, which puzzled Li Banfeng.

Writing can indeed create more troops.

But with such a good opportunity, didn't this Wise Scholar have a better way to retaliate?

Li Banfeng hadn't seen many techniques used in the cloud, but even a random technique used on the ground could severely injure this toad.

Is this what you call exceptionally intelligent and wise?

Those wings flew fast, and the man in White Clothes got further and further away from the toad. The toad was very annoyed and turned his gaze to the shore, seemingly about to attack Li Banfeng.

Puff!

A long spear with the character "" slashed at the clam's back, drawing some blood.

As more and more text appeared around it, each character was quite destructive. Although the clam was unwilling, there was no point in continuing the stalemate, so it could only return to the water.

Li Banfeng reacted quickly, leaping into the air, grabbing a character, and snatching the long spear from its hand.

It was this character "" that cut off Ha Yige's long spear, which was covered in blood. Li Banfeng quickly collected the few drops of blood into a glass bottle.

The other texts seemed to have been provoked and joined in attacking Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng said to the Judge's Brush, "Tell your master that I am his friend."

"This—." The Judge's Brush hesitated.

Hundreds upon hundreds of words nearly surrounded Li Banfeng urged, "Speak up! Now is not the time to be lazy!"

"Fly!" The Judge's Brush uttered just that one word.

He led Li Banfeng out of the encirclement of words, and after several twists and turns, flew to the side of the man in White Clothes.

The Judge's Brush spoke to the man in White Clothes: "You!"

The Judge's Brush uttered only this one word.

The man in White Clothes acted as if he hadn't heard anything and continued writing on his desk.

Li Banfeng glanced at what he had written, and more than half of it contained only two characters: one was "" and the other was "kill".

The remaining half consists of two sentences: one is "The blind should feel ashamed," and the other is "The learned should strive harder."

Seeing that another layer of text was surrounding them, the Judge's Brush stopped talking to the man in White Clothes and flew directly towards the willow tree with Li Banfeng in his arms.

The entire courtyard was covered in ice and snow, but this willow tree, with its full green leaves, stood out conspicuously.

Under the tree, the judge's pen once again wrote the word "wisdom".

The leaves on the willow tree fell off completely in an instant.

Willow leaves fluttered in the wind, forming a barrier that blocked out all the words behind them.

When the barrier dissipated, the text disappeared.

Along with it, the lake and the White Clothes figure on it also disappeared.

The entire garden returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.

Li Banfeng returned to his study, entered his Portable Abode, and took the Judge's Brush into the Fifth Chamber.

"Why didn't you speak to Wise Scholar just now?"

The Judge's Brush hovered in mid-air, offering no response.

Li Banfeng asked, "Do you have a conflict with him?"

"Um!"

Can he hear you?

"Cannot."

Can't the Judge's Brush and the Wise Scholar communicate?

Li Banfeng frowned and asked, "Do you want to go back to him or not?"

"No!" the Judge's Brush answered decisively.

"Then why did you take me to him?"

"Ink Fragrance Shop".

Was the Judge's Brush meant for the Ink Fragrance Shop?

This surprised Li Banfeng greatly; he had such deep feelings for his homeland!

Li Banfeng explained the cause and effect of the matter and roughly clarified the clues.

"A giant toad has infiltrated the dwelling place of the Local Earth God. In order to fight this giant toad, the Local Earth God has been drained of a lot of energy, creating the illusion to the outside world that the Local Earth God is in a state of extreme weakness. Is that the reason?"

The Judge's Brush remained silent for a long time before replying, "It should be."

His speculation was consistent with Li Banfeng's, but he could not give a precise answer.

Li Banfeng sighed and said, "Actually, it can't be considered an illusion. The Local Earth God is indeed in a bad situation. If he is besieged again at this time, I'm afraid his chances of survival are slim."

"Yes." This time, the Judge's Brush's pen answered with absolute certainty.

"Where did that giant clam come from?"

"I don't know."

Do you know him?

"I don't know him."

The Judge's Brush did not recognize the clam; he had not known of its existence before.

He only decided to go and check on the Local Earth God's condition after hearing what Cui Tike said.

Li Banfeng took the projector to the main room. The record player was still awake, and Hong Ying was also awake.

The projector showed footage of clams emerging from the water. Li Banfeng asked the record player, "My dear Wife, do you recognize this clam?"

The Wife looked at it for a long time before replying, "I don't recognize it!"

Hong Ying said, "Seventh Son, tell me what that toad looks like, maybe I can recognize it."

The record player slapped Hong Ying: "You bitch, what are you trying to prove? You've been deaf and blind for so many years, how could you know people I don't know?"

"My dear husband, this person should be an Evolved Body Cultivator, perhaps he just recently advanced to the Cloud Realm."

Body cultivator, newly promoted to the Cloud Realm.

I wonder if I recognize the Qiu Luoye.

Li Banfeng sent Sui Shenju to the station. Portable Abode leaving the station, Li Banfeng immediately went to Qiu Luoye's residence.

It was late at night, Qiu Luoye was fast asleep. Li Banfeng gently woke him up. Fortunately, Qiu Luoye wasn't too grumpy when he woke up.

"Seventh Brother, what's the matter?"

Li Banfeng did not show Qiu Luoye the images projected on the projector, as this would expose the residence of the Local Earth God Ink Fragrance Shop.

It's not that I don't trust Qiu Luoye, but doing so could bring disaster to Ink Fragrance Shop.

Li Banfeng took out a small medicine bottle, poured out a drop of clam blood, sprinkled it on the cabbage seeds, and then added two drops of Zhang Wanlong's specially made medicine.

The cabbage began to grow rapidly, and within minutes, it had grown to over three meters tall and burst open.

A clam emerged from the cabbage, its size incomparable to the clam in the lake; it had probably grown to the limit of Cabbage Man.

Qiu Luoye stared at the toad for a long time. It hadn't grown any skin yet and was covered in bandages, so Li Banfeng couldn't see its expression, but he could clearly feel its tension.

"This clam, is it only this big?" Qiu Luoye had seen the Cabbage Man before and knew that this thing would be a little different from the True Person.

Li Banfeng shook his head and said, "Real clams are much bigger than this, about the size of your house."

"Ge Jun!" Qiu Luoye gritted her teeth and uttered a name.

Li Banfeng asked, "Is this person named Ge Jun a body cultivator?"

"Not a body cultivator!" Qiu Luoye shook her head and said, "He's from the Inner State, a purebred!"

PS: Compared to the name Ge Jun, the name Qiu Luoye is much more poetic!