Chapter 155: Blood Fang Mountain

Li Banfeng looked back at the man who had spoken. He was about thirty years old, wearing a fur coat and a fur hat. He had a short knife slung at his side and a bow and arrows on his back.

"Who are you?" Li Banfeng asked.

"A hunter," the man replied. "Is this your first time in the Three Plate River New Land?"

Li Banfeng nodded, then asked, "What did you just say about a 'fang monster'?"

The hunter mumbled somewhat, making it hard for Li Banfeng to hear him clearly.

The hunter repeated, "The Dripping Bloodfang Monster. Anyone who's been to Three Plate River knows not to go up Bloodfang Mountain."

"Dripping Bloodfang Monster"—what a mouthful.

Li Banfeng looked at the lush Bloodfang Mountain and asked the hunter, "Have you ever seen a Bloodfang Monster?"

"Yes, I hunt in this new land often."

"What does a Bloodfang Monster look like?"

"It's hard to say. They come in all forms. Just stay far away from them."

"Nothing special about them?"

"Well, if you want something special..." the hunter thought for a moment. "Bloodfang Monsters have two unusually long fangs. They usually keep them hidden in their mouths, but sometimes they accidentally show them."

The distinguishing feature was their fangs.

By the time you saw their fangs and prepared, it would probably be too late.

"So, as long as I don't go up the mountain, I won't encounter a Bloodfang Monster?"

The hunter nodded. "Bloodfang Monsters can't come down the mountain. That's the rule."

The fact that Bloodfang Monsters couldn't descend the mountain meant they always stayed on it.

According to Elder Yao's instructions, Li Banfeng had to follow a fixed route to Haichi Ridge without deviation, or he would face even greater dangers.

This meant Li Banfeng had to go up the mountain.

But before ascending, he needed more information.

Li Banfeng took out one thousand Huan Kingdom notes and handed them to the hunter. It was his habit never to let others do things for free.

"Are Bloodfang Monsters strong?"

The hunter, pleased to receive the money, answered Li Banfeng's questions seriously. "That depends on who you're comparing them to. Bloodfang Monsters have five levels of cultivation. If you're a master above the fifth level, you don't need to fear them."

Five levels of cultivation...

That was a bit tricky.

Li Banfeng was a third-level House Cultivator plus a quasi-third-level Travel Cultivator, making it difficult for him to defeat a fifth-level opponent under normal circumstances.

Moreover, Bloodfang Mountain was the Bloodfang Monster's territory, and fighting it there would clearly be disadvantageous for Li Banfeng.

All of this was assuming the hunter was telling the truth.

"How many Bloodfang Monsters are on this mountain?"

The hunter replied, "One."

"Only one?"

The hunter's eyes widened. "Are you saying that's too few? Isn't one enough?"

For such a large mountain to have only one monster, the chances of avoiding it were quite high, as long as he didn't stumble around blindly.

But the key was that Li Banfeng was going up the mountain for the first time and wasn't familiar with the terrain.

As he pondered a solution, the hunter asked, "Why do you have to go up Bloodfang Mountain?"

Li Banfeng vaguely replied, "Like you, I'm also a hunter."

The moment he finished speaking, there was a sudden loud bang.

A stone near Li Banfeng suddenly exploded.

A shard of rock grazed Li Banfeng's cheek, leaving a bloody scratch.

The hunter shuddered in fear and angrily shouted, "You're lying!"

"I'm not!" Li Banfeng adamantly denied.

Another stone exploded. This time, Li Banfeng sensed the danger and dodged most of the fragments, but his clothes were torn.

What was happening?

The hunter clutched his head and cried, "You bird-brained fool, you're lying again!"

"I really didn't..."

"Shut up!" the hunter yelled, terrified. "Once you're in Bloodfang Mountain's territory, you absolutely cannot lie! If you want to die, go do it yourself, don't involve me!"

You couldn't lie on this mountain? What a strange place!

Li Banfeng looked around and shouted, "I really am here to hunt!"

A stone exploded.

"I haven't seen Teacher Song's peaches!"

Another one exploded!

"I've never killed anyone!"

Boom!

The entire mountain seemed to shake.

Several rocks around them collapsed, dust billowed, and they couldn't open their eyes for a long time.

Li Banfeng dodged left and right among the rubble, but still sustained numerous scrapes.

The hunter, clutching his head, huddled on the ground and shrieked, "What are you doing? What exactly are you trying to do? Didn't I tell you not to lie on Bloodfang Mountain?"

Li Banfeng wiped the blood from his body and looked back at the hunter. "You've seen Bloodfang Monsters, so you must have been up Bloodfang Mountain, right?"

"Yes," the hunter replied. No stones exploded, so he was telling the truth.

Li Banfeng asked, "Would you be willing to be my guide?"

The hunter stood up from the ground, brushed the dust off his clothes, and looked at Li Banfeng. "Why should I be your guide? I'm here to hunt!"

This was also the truth.

Li Banfeng pulled out two stacks of Huan Kingdom notes and handed them to the hunter. "Is this enough money?"

The hunter took the money, counted it, and pocketed it. "I'm telling you, I'll only lead the way. I won't get involved in anything else."

"You don't need to worry about anything else. Just lead me over this mountain!"

"And you absolutely mustn't lie again, or someone might die!"

Li Banfeng nodded. "You'd better not lie either, or someone really might die."

"Follow me!"

The hunter had barely taken two steps forward when he suddenly heard Li Banfeng ask from behind him, "Are you a Bloodfang Monster?"

The hunter turned around. "Are you crazy? How could I be a Bloodfang Monster? I'm trying to avoid him!"

The stones remained still, so the hunter wasn't lying.

Li Banfeng smiled and walked up the mountain with the hunter, chatting as they went.

"What kind of monsters are on this mountain?"

The hunter shook his head. "Only the Dripping Bloodfang Monster. Other monsters can't come up Bloodfang Mountain. Occasionally there are some birds and beasts, but you don't need to worry about those; I can handle them."

If they were truly just ordinary birds and beasts, Li Banfeng could handle them himself without the hunter's help.

The mountain path was difficult, with wild grass knee-deep. Li Banfeng asked as they walked, "Bloodfang Monsters usually don't appear around here, do they?"

The hunter shook his head. "I don't know about that. I've walked this path before, though."

"You'll help me avoid the Bloodfang Monster, right?"

"I'll definitely avoid him. I don't want to meet him either."

The stones remained still; this was the truth.

The higher they went up the mountain, the denser the vegetation became. The hunter, holding a curved knife, cleared a path ahead.

They chatted along the way. The hunter spoke quite unclearly, and Li Banfeng found it genuinely difficult to understand him.

However, every word the hunter spoke was the truth, and the mountain stones remained consistently still.

When they reached halfway up the mountain, the hunter turned right. "We won't go to the peak. The Bloodfang Monster's lair is quite close to the summit, so let's go halfway around from here."

Li Banfeng nodded and suddenly asked, "Do you have any cultivation?"

The hunter nodded. "Yes!"

"Which sect, and what level of cultivation?"

The hunter frowned. "Why should I tell you that? We're not close!"

Li Banfeng calmly said, "I am a good person."

The hunter shivered in fear at his words and quickly clutched his head.

The mountain stones remained still.

Li Banfeng was telling the truth.

"You scared me to death!" the hunter exhaled, relieved. "I thought you were going to pull some other trick!"

Li Banfeng calmly said, "I really am a good person."

The stones remained still.

In Li Banfeng's own perception, he truly was a good person.

This led Li Banfeng to a deduction: Bloodfang Mountain's basis for determining if someone was lying wasn't objective facts, but rather the individual's own perception.

An uncultivated mountain in a new land couldn't possibly gather so many objective facts, and defining whether a person was good or bad was also difficult to do objectively.

However, if a person said something that contradicted their own understanding, it was equivalent to breaking Bloodfang Mountain's rules, causing the stones to shatter.

The more severe the contradiction, the more violently the stones would shatter.

If someone who was exceptionally good at lying came, would they blow up the entire mountain?

If anyone truly dared to do that, they probably wouldn't survive it themselves.

This reminded Li Banfeng of a magic artifact: the Virtue Cultivation artifact used by border defense at the frontier.

That artifact could test if a person was lying. If someone falsely reported their name, they would be torn to pieces on the spot.

Even if a person had just changed their name and didn't fully acknowledge it, they would die instantly in front of that artifact.

This precisely leveraged the nature of lies.

One could deceive others with lies, but it was difficult to deceive oneself. This was likely the method Virtue Cultivators used to discern lies.

Of course, this was just Li Banfeng's speculation.

While he was pondering, the hunter suddenly turned back and asked, "You just said you'd never killed anyone, and the stones exploded, so you lied. It seems you have killed people."

"I have," Li Banfeng replied truthfully.

"You've killed people, and you still say you're a good person?"

Li Banfeng calmly replied, "The people I killed deserved to die."

The stones remained still, further proving Li Banfeng's deduction.

Whether a person deserved to die was difficult to discern, but in Li Banfeng's perception, they certainly did.

The wild grass around them grew taller and taller, with some blades reaching Li Banfeng's shoulders.

However, there were more and more stones underfoot. If he didn't have his Travel Cultivation foundation, he would have twisted his ankle with the slightest misstep.

This was a bit unusual; a place with such lush vegetation shouldn't ordinarily have so many stones.

After circling halfway up the mountain, it was almost time to descend.

The hunter wiped his sweat, put down his curved knife, and asked Li Banfeng, "Want to rest?"

Li Banfeng didn't feel tired, but seeing the hunter sit down, he followed suit.

He didn't sense any danger around them, but the Bloodfang Monster had five levels of cultivation, while Li Banfeng's Travel Cultivation was only at the second level. If the Bloodfang Monster deliberately concealed itself, Li Banfeng would find it difficult to perceive any malice.

The hunter fumbled with his curved knife and said to Li Banfeng, "After a short rest, we should get going."

Li Banfeng took out his wine gourd, took a sip, and asked, "Which path are we taking?"

The hunter looked surprised. "What other path could there be?"

Li Banfeng looked seriously at the hunter. "I really don't know."

The hunter frowned. "Are you really crazy?"

"I'm not crazy." Li Banfeng smiled naturally, and the stones didn't react, confirming this was the truth.

The hunter frowned. "Then what exactly are you trying to do?"

Li Banfeng said, "I just want to ask, which path are we actually taking?"

"You were the one who wanted to go up Bloodfang Mountain, so naturally, you're the one who needs to get going."

"You won't accompany me anymore?"

"Haven't I been with you this whole time?"

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Li Banfeng's eyes gleamed coldly.

The hunter slowly said, "I told you, I'm not a Bloodfang Monster."

Li Banfeng nodded. "You're certainly not a Bloodfang Monster. You also told me that no other monsters can come up Bloodfang Mountain, apart from the Dripping Bloodfang Monster."

"That's right, I said there are no other monsters on this mountain besides the Dripping Bloodfang Monster," the hunter calmly nodded.

Li Banfeng smiled. "So, you're Dripping, aren't you?"