Smart as Can Be?

"Ge Jun, a pure-blooded Inner State native," Li Banfeng asked Qiu Luoye, "Are all Inner State people clams?"

Qiu Luoye shook his head and said, "There are chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, and even some that look like humans."

"So, they're body cultivators?"

Qiu Luoye shook her head and said, "I don't know what sect they belong to, nor do I know what level of cultivation he has. Ge Jun can read books, and he has even used the A Word Worth a Thousand Gold,' so he might be a literary cultivator."

"So, he was born a toad?"

Qiu Luoye couldn't answer. He had met people from Inner State, but he didn't know much about Inner State. Just as Meng Yuchun said, they were like livestock in Inner State, and no one wanted to waste words on livestock.

Li Banfeng used his "Trample Ten Thousand Rivers" technique to crush the cabbage clams into a pulp, and some clues had already been sorted out in his mind.

Chu Shaoqiang will definitely come to the Ink Fragrance Shop.

Chu Shaoqiang suffered a great loss at the Qiu Luoye, and he will certainly have a hard time explaining himself when he arrives in Inner State.

To atone for his sins, he had to find a way to perform meritorious service, and the best way to do so was to obtain a piece of Proper Land.

As long as the Proper Land owner is secured, past transgressions are likely to be overlooked.

If they manage to obtain the Proper Land, they can also save a man from the Inner State. Not only will they forgive past transgressions, but they might even be promoted.

It was for this reason that he chose the Ink Fragrance Shop, knowing that Ge Jun was Ink Fragrance Shop.

But why would someone from Inner State appear at the Ink Fragrance Shop?

"Brother Qiu, can people from Inner State just come to Pro State?"

Qiu Luoye shook his head. "According to the rules, they can't come."

"Is it because there's a boundary between the two places? Then how was Chu Shaoqiang able to get out?"

"It's not just about boundaries," Qiu Luoye drew a circle on the ground, rubbing a gap in it. "There are some fixed passages in the Inner State, and each passage can only release one or two people per year."

But these people were either lackeys of the Inner State or people appointed as Local Earth God. Pure-blooded Inner State people would be killed if they came to Pro State.

Li Banfeng chuckled, "Who would kill them?"

Qiu Luoye shook his head and said, "I don't know. It's said to be a ruthless person from Pro State, but this rule is true. Purebred Inner State people never dare to come to Pro State. I don't understand why Ge Jun would come either."

If Chu Shaoqiang arrives at the Ink Fragrance Shop, he will likely find Wise Scholar's residence very quickly. If he joins forces with the toad, Wise Scholar will surely die.

At that time, the Ink Fragrance Shop will become part of the territory of Inner State.

"I have to kill Ge Jun first." With limited time at the station, Li Banfeng had to hurry back to Portable Abode Ju.

Qiu Luoye said, "Brother, I'll go with you. That bastard Ge Jun has made me suffer a lot, and I'm looking for revenge!"

Li Banfeng looked at Qiu Luoye's condition; his body was covered in bandages and stained with blood.

"Brother Qiu, there will be plenty of opportunities for revenge. You should focus on getting better first."

Qiu Luoye said, "I'm really not up to par right now. Take all my junior brothers with you; they can fight!"

Li Banfeng shook his head.

He was referring to the Three-Headed People who came from the Sinner City.

They are indeed good fighters, but why should they be sent to the Ink Fragrance Shop?

The last time they fought Chu Shaoqiang to the death, it was for their families. What are they fighting for this time?

Li Banfeng returned to his Portable Abode and said to Judge's Brush, "A'Bi, we'll go to Murong Gui's place later. You need to explain things to him clearly."

I'm here to help him; he needs to team up with me to get rid of that toad.

"Hmph~" Judge's Brush's Pen snorted weakly.

"Hmph!" Portable Abode also snorted, his tone full of mockery.

Li Banfeng glared at the Judge's Brush's pen. "What are you humming about? Get to work!"

The Judge's Brush slowly said, "Give it a try."

After leaving Portable Abode, Li Banfeng arrived at Yan Sha Study.

Xiao Yeci was still reading in his study and hadn't returned to the inn all night.

Tan Fucheng continued his study of the Hundred Family Surnames, and reportedly made further progress. He cried three times that morning.

This wasn't the first time he'd cried. He'd cried last night too. He'd accidentally sneezed while reading, spitting some saliva on the book. He felt it was disrespectful to the book, so he slapped himself a dozen times and almost chopped off one of his fingers.

Li Banfeng took the key and headed straight for Willow Garden. As he walked, Li Banfeng kept thinking about one thing.

Now that Ge Jun is gone, can Murong Gui protect the Ink Fragrance Shop?

He might be able to beat Chu Shaoqiang in a one-on-one fight, but would Chu Shaoqiang actually fight him one-on-one?

Chu Shaoqiang brought two helpers to deal with Qiu Luoye. Now that he needs to acquire land and rescue people, how many more helpers will Chu Shaoqiang bring?

According to Qiu Luoye, people from the Inner State can only leave if the passage is restricted, so the number of people will not be too large.

Even if only three or five come, even if I were willing to help Murong Gui, I might not be a match for them.

Kill Ge Jun first, then think about what comes next?

The key issue is that this matter cannot be delayed. Li Banfeng doesn't know when Chu Shaoqiang will arrive at the Ink Fragrance Shop; he might arrive tomorrow, or he might arrive tonight.

Protecting the Ink Fragrance Shop is no easy task; it involves the Inner State, so we need to find help.

Li Banfeng recalled Qiu Luoye's words.

Purebred Inner State people dare not come to Pro State; they would be killed by the ruthless people of Pro State.

Who is this ruthless person?

The ruthless people Li Banfeng knew were nothing more than the Peddler, the Train Grandpa, Sun Tiecheng, and the Bitter Granny.

There is also Old Xu, the ancestor of Jin Xiu.

The Train Grandpa is stuck in the Inner State and can be disregarded for now.

Bitter Granny lives in the Bitter Vegetable Manor. If I ask her for help, will she come?

My Second Aunt has a rather eccentric personality. Getting a beating from him isn't a big deal, but I don't want to be sent to the Bitter Vegetable Manor for another trial. I can't afford to waste any more time there.

Old Xu seems like a good person, but he's focused on protecting Medicine King Gully, so he probably won't be involved in the affairs of the Ink Fragrance Shop.

The only thing I can think of is Peddler. Would Peddler care about this?

He took care of the Insect Plague at Sea Eat Ridge, and now that Ink Fragrance Shop is facing such a big problem, he'll probably take care of it too.

Moreover, among these people, the Peddler was relatively easy to find.

The New Year has just passed, and according to normal practice, Peddler should now be appearing at Sea Eat Ridge or Belt Ridge.

Upon arriving at Liushuyuan, Li Banfeng took out his personal phone, plugged in the battery and antenna, and contacted Luo ZhengNan: "Lao Luo, go to Belt Ridge, find the Peddler, and tell him that the people from Inner State went to the Ink Fragrance Shop."

Upon hearing that he was from Inner State, Lao Luo was startled and quickly had someone arrange Travel Permit. He boarded the train that very day.

Li Banfeng came to the willow tree and asked the judge's pen to write the word "wisdom" on the ground while no one was around.

The willows sprouted leaves, and willow catkins fluttered in the air. Li Banfeng entered Murong Gui's residence once again.

On the frozen lake, Murong Gui was still writing at his desk, filling one scroll before switching to a new one. Li Banfeng sent the Judge's Brush forward to negotiate, and the Judge's Brush flew to Murong Gui's side, saying, "It is me."

Murong Gui stopped writing with his brush, raised his head, and silently looked at the Judge's Brush.

Seeing that the two were getting along fairly well, Li Banfeng walked over to Murong Gui's side.

Murong Gui's writing today was slightly different from last night's. In addition to the characters "kill" and "", he wrote "the blind should feel ashamed" and "the learned should strive", and there was also the line "people of the world should learn literature".

Li Banfeng asked, "What do these three sentences mean?"

Murong Gui did not answer.

Li Banfeng didn't dwell on those three sentences and quickly got to the point. "That clam is a purebred Inner State; he's here to take over your territory."

I came to you because I wanted to team up with you to kill him. Do you know when he usually appears?

Murong Gui raised his head and looked at Li Banfeng.

In the silence, Murong Gui's pupils contracted, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

Sensing malice, Li Banfeng quickly left the lake.

This malice came very clearly, emanating from Murong Gui.

The words on the paper stood up one by one and flew towards Li Banfeng. The speed was so fast that even Li Banfeng, a seventh-level Travel Cultivator, was unable to keep up.

"A'Bi, how did you communicate with your former employer? Isn't he incredibly intelligent? Isn't he supposed to be able to guess someone's intentions in three sentences and understand their heart in five? I came with good intentions, couldn't he figure that out?"

Judge's Brush sighed, "Stop guessing, let's beat him up."

Murong Gui seems to be in a bad state; apart from writing, he doesn't seem to be able to do anything else.

Is this some kind of special sleepwalking state?

Li Banfeng dodged the barrage of words, trying to observe Murong Gui's condition further, when suddenly a loud boom was heard.

The ice cracked, Ge Jun emerged from the bottom of the lake.

Murong Gui was locked in a fierce battle with Li Banfeng and was unable to create wings in time. He leaned against a piece of writing on the ice to support his body and desk. Even so, he did not stop writing with his brush.

In order to buy Murong Gui time, Li Banfeng once again used the Ride a Horse and Admire Flowers.

But this time the giant clam wasn't fooled. It wrote more than a dozen "eye" characters on its body, and these "eye" characters all turned into eyes, opening up on its cheeks, front legs, hind legs, and back, taking turns staring at Li Banfeng.

Ge Jun is indeed a scholar!

He knew Li Banfeng was coming and had prepared a response.

When faced with someone who keeps a close eye on him like this, Li Banfeng has a set routine: he pulls out Ling Miaoying's pistol from his pocket.

Start pricking the eyes.

Bang! Bang!

Two of the six bullets were fired. The power of the pistol would not cause fatal damage to Ge Jun, but as long as he blinked, Li Banfeng's technique would succeed.

Ge Jun blinked, and Li Banfeng briefly disappeared from sight, while a hole exploded on the toad's back.

It was thought that this would give Murong Gui a chance to retaliate, but unexpectedly, Murong Gui did not retaliate against Ge Jun. Instead, he wrote dozens of "ban" characters and flew them towards Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng knew the power of the word "ban" (禁). He had been attacked by Scholar Guo with twelve "ban" characters, rendering all his weapons and magical artifacts unusable.

He was carefully avoiding the words when Ge Jun rushed up and sprayed a glob of viscous liquid at Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng dodged, and the slime landed on the tree. The tree, which took two people to hug, turned into a muddy mess in the blink of an eye.

That was close!

If this slime gets stuck to your body, you're doomed.

Li Banfeng originally planned to fight Murong Gui two against one, but now it has become one against two.

What exactly happened to Murong Gui?

Even if they couldn't figure out Li Banfeng's intentions before, now that things have come to this point, they still can't tell friend from foe?

With clams blocking his way ahead and text surrounding him, Li Banfeng prepared to reach for his keys.

Ge Jun stuck out his tongue, about to capture Li Banfeng, when hundreds of characters pounced on the clam's back, tearing off a piece of flesh.

Unable to bear the excruciating pain, the giant clam turned around and retaliated against Murong Gui.

Li Banfeng seized the opportunity to launch a pincer attack, but was repelled by a series of attacks.

To be honest, Li Banfeng had an impulse to kill Murong Gui together with Ge Jun first, and then settle the score. At least Ge Jun's actions wouldn't be as abstract as Murong Gui's.

The ink in the inkstone was almost dry, so Murong Gui quickly took the ink stick and ground it into ink. Li Banfeng rushed over immediately.

They wanted A'Bi to try one more time to see if she could awaken Murong Gui.

Murong Gui quickly picked up his brush and filled the entire scroll in the blink of an eye.

The entire book contained only one word. "Kill." As the words flew across the page, they forced Li Banfeng to retreat, and also forced Ge Jun to retreat.

Ge Jun jumped back into the lake, and soon the lake froze over again.

Murong Gui returned to the ice and continued writing.

The battle had just been intense, and Murong Gui was somewhat nervous. He only wrote three words: "Kill," "Forbidden," and "Prohibit."

2?

Li Banfeng stood nearby, looking at Murong Gui with a helpless expression. He didn't know how to communicate with Murong Gui, but he knew that if he took another step closer, Murong Gui would retaliate.

Under these circumstances, it was impossible to kill Ge Jun, so Li Banfeng had no choice but to leave Liushuyuan.

Chu Shaoqiang could arrive at any moment. What should we do now?

Where can I find help?

PS: It seems we can only wait for the Peddler.