Chapter 212: Deceiving Cultivators

No wonder Li Banfeng felt a sense of familiarity with the man. No wonder he felt such a deep connection to the entire village.

Iron Gate Fortress was a gathering place for House Cultivators. Li Banfeng couldn't quite grasp how such a settlement came to be. House Cultivators preferred minimal human contact, making the concept of "gathering" inherently difficult for them. Furthermore, House Cultivators had fixed residences and rarely moved, making it almost inconceivable for them to live together in one concentrated area.

Yet, Iron Gate Fortress defied this logic. A significant number of House Cultivators resided there; as Li Banfeng surveyed the scene, he saw houses clustered one after another, stretching endlessly.

A quarrel interrupted Li Banfeng's thoughts. A young woman buying rice rummaged through her sack, discovering a considerable amount of sand. She confronted the old man driving the donkey cart, "There's sand in the rice every time I buy from you, and it's getting worse. This is outrageous!"

The old man snorted coldly, "Grain comes from far away; it's common for it to have some dirt or sand. If you're so delicate, don't eat rice. Eat meat every day instead; there's no sand in meat."

The old man was shameless and unreasonable, but the woman didn't argue. She lowered her head and left. House Cultivators didn't seem adept at arguing. They would grit their teeth, decide not to buy from him, and move on. But would buying from someone else be any better? It was all the same.

There was also a vendor selling grain from a pushcart in the fortress, and his rice and flour were similarly adulterated. Moreover, their grain prices were exorbitant. In Pro Province, thanks to the presence of Field Cultivators, food had always been inexpensive; even in Green Water City, a jin of rice cost around 1.8 yuan. Here, however, it was selling for 2.5 yuan.

Beyond rice, other goods were also available. There were sellers of cotton, fabric, rouge, books and newspapers, stationery, and daily necessities. There were even barbers who offered home services. They didn't enter the houses; instead, House Cultivators would bring their own small stools, sit by the doorway, and the barber would drape a large cloth around them and begin shaving. After the shave, they would calculate the cost, with no hair washing included; House Cultivators would handle that themselves at home.

Additionally, there were services for collecting night soil: they would collect the chamber pot from the previous night and replace it with a clean one, charging for each exchange. All these were home services. If these House Cultivators never left their homes, how did they make a living?

Li Banfeng soon realized something. The vendors who came to Iron Gate Fortress didn't just sell goods; they also bought them. The middle-aged woman selling fabric bought a significant amount of finished clothing and embroidery, demonstrating excellent craftsmanship. The man selling general merchandise purchased many pottery and porcelain items, all of which were exquisitely made.

One House Cultivator was exceptionally skilled at making smoking pipes, and several vendors would wait at his door to collect goods, indicating a thriving business. The books and newspapers vendor was quite discerning; he acquired over a dozen paintings, all exhibiting superb artistry. This implied one thing: the House Cultivators selling these paintings had very likely reached the fourth cultivation level. Influenced by their techniques, fourth-level House Cultivators' painting skills were invariably refined, though exceptions existed—Li Banfeng's own painting skills were comparatively lacking...

Unbeknownst to him, Li Banfeng had been strolling around Iron Gate Fortress for over an hour, reluctant to leave. The place filled him with an indescribable sense of comfort. Of course, there were things he disapproved of. The vendors conducting business here sold goods at prices significantly higher than market rates and bought goods at much lower prices. This resulted in very meager profits for the House Cultivators.

Certainly, for door-to-door services, a larger price difference was perhaps understandable, but adulterating grain with sand felt utterly egregious to Li Banfeng. He was about to teach these grain sellers a lesson when he heard a cry from behind him.

"Oh dear!"

A young woman had fallen to the ground, scattering fresh flowers and a walking stick around her. This was no ordinary walking stick; it was a guide cane used by the blind. Old Mrs. Wu from the welfare home, whose eyesight had deteriorated in her later years, had once used such a cane. This young woman was blind and appeared to be a flower seller. From the scene, it looked like someone had just bumped into her, scattering her flowers everywhere.

Who had bumped into her? Li Banfeng looked up and recognized the person: the young man who had given him directions. The young man had just sold two paintings and was rushing to catch the fabric seller to buy some cloth when he accidentally knocked the girl over.

"My flowers..." The girl groped around on the ground, bloodstains on her hands. The young man quickly helped her pick up the flowers, sweat beading on his face from anxiety. House Cultivators feared trouble, but they feared causing trouble for others even more. House Cultivators feared being harmed by others, but they feared accidentally harming others even more. Especially such a pitiful young girl.

The scattered flowers on the ground were some mud-stained, some broken-stemmed, and some missing leaves. The young man picked them up one by one, placing them into her hands, apologizing profusely.

"It's okay, it's okay..." The girl wiped away tears from her face, struggled to stand up, and limped away, continuing to sell flowers.

"Flowers for sale, fresh flowers!"

These two cries, filled with fragility, sorrow, and the tremble of suppressed weeping, completely broke the young man. "Miss, please wait, I'll buy the flowers," the young man rushed after her.

"How many...?" the girl asked timidly.

"I'll buy them all!"

She had over a hundred flowers, large and small, on her person, and he bought every single one. Some flowers cost three yuan, others five yuan; a few hundred yuan were gone just like that. He had just sold his paintings, earning a few hundred yuan, and now it was all gone. To say he didn't feel the sting was a lie; the young man's cheeks twitched. But he still handed over the money; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to overcome the mental hurdle.

Upon receiving the money, a faint smile appeared on the girl's face, and her dull eyes seemed to gain a spark of life. "Big brother, thank you. You're a good person."

The young man shook his head, "I... just... walk carefully, be safe on the road."

The girl tapped her guide cane along the path and walked away. The young man stood behind her, watching intently until her figure completely disappeared before he carried the flowers back to his own home.

What a romantic encounter. But Li Banfeng didn't find it romantic in the slightest. He only noticed three things.

Firstly, most of the flowers the girl was selling were common roadside wildflowers. As a Traveling Cultivator, Li Banfeng was familiar with such flowers; one could easily gather a large bunch from any patch of grass. Selling these kinds of flowers, and at such high prices, was truly unethical.

Secondly, the girl's flowers weren't damaged from the fall; many were already ruined. The young man's attention had been entirely focused on the girl, so he hadn't noticed the condition of the flowers, but Li Banfeng had.

Thirdly, the girl did not know how to use a guide cane. When Li Banfeng had cared for Old Mrs. Wu, he had specifically noted how guide canes were used: they were swept left and right to probe the path, not just jabbed randomly like she was doing.

Li Banfeng frowned slightly. A woman selling general merchandise nearby chuckled, "You figured it out, didn't you? She's a fake. That little hussy, with such good years ahead of her, what a waste to learn such tricks."

Li Banfeng looked at the woman and asked, "You know her?"

The woman nodded, "That hussy's name is Sui Donglan. She's educated and literate, and I hear she even had a job in the city before. But then she got hooked on gambling, lost all her savings at the tables, and racked up a ton of debt. She ran to Iron Gate Fortress to hide from creditors and scam people. Today she's a flower girl, specifically scamming naive young men. Tomorrow she'll pretend to be a beggar and swindle soft-hearted good Samaritans. Yesterday, she dressed provocatively and claimed she was selling herself. An old bachelor was conned by her, giving her nearly ten thousand yuan without even touching her hand. Can you imagine how shameless she is?"

Li Banfeng nodded slightly, "Indeed, utterly shameless."

A man selling rolled tobacco nearby scoffed, "It's like 'one willing to be beaten, the other willing to endure.' Who can blame them when these House Cultivators are so easy to trick?"

The woman didn't like that. "What do you mean, 'easy to trick'? They just don't have bad intentions! If you're talking about fighting ability, how many Taoist sects could beat them? And this is their home ground. If they really wanted to play dirty, which swindler could escape?"

The man shook his head, "They don't have the heart to play dirty."

"Of course they do! Have you forgotten how that group of Deceptive Cultivators died before?"

The man lit a cigarette and said, "Those Deceptive Cultivators were truly rotten. Killing them was the right thing to do."

Li Banfeng was stunned for a long time, then asked, "What are Deceptive Cultivators?"

"They're a Taoist sect!" the general merchandise woman said. "You haven't heard of Deceptive Cultivators? They can perfectly imitate anything; their acts are so realistic you can't tell the difference."

"Aren't there no living Ignorant Cultivators in the world?" Li Banfeng wondered. "How can there be Deceptive Cultivators then? Ignorant is ignorant, and deceptive is deceptive. Are these two really not the same Taoist sect?"

Li Banfeng asked, "Imitate anything? Is that Sui Donglan also a Deceptive Cultivator?"

The general merchandise woman scoffed, "She wishes. But for some reason, she never encounters a Peddler. The time before last, when the Peddler came to Iron Gate Fortress, she arrived too late and missed him. Last time the Peddler came, she did catch him, but he didn't enter Iron Gate Fortress then, and there were no other customers around. Sui Donglan didn't recognize the Peddler, thinking he was just an ordinary general merchandise seller, and didn't even glance at him, just missed the opportunity. She was furious afterwards! It just goes to show, her fate is truly unlucky!"

The man selling tobacco shook his head, "It's not fate. I reckon the Peddler deliberately avoided her. That girl is so cunning; if she joined the Deceptive Cultivators, she'd become a true menace!"

Li Banfeng asked the general merchandise woman, "You said Sui Donglan didn't recognize the Peddler last time?"

The general merchandise woman nodded.

Li Banfeng picked up a rattle drum from the woman's stall. "Who would buy this? For House Cultivators' children?"

The woman chuckled, "No need to sell to children, House Cultivators themselves enjoy playing with these things."

Li Banfeng then looked at the feather duster beside the rattle drum. "This item is indeed quite amusing. I'll take this entire cartload from you. Calculate the price."

The woman was startled, not quite believing what Li Banfeng had said. "You want this *entire cartload*?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "Even your cart, I'll take it."

Sui Donglan, having left Iron Gate Fortress, stopped pretending to be blind. Reaching a secluded spot, she put down her guide cane, wiped off the bloodstains from her hands, and began counting her money. The bloodstains on her hands were fake, as were the wounds from her fall. The flowers she sold were simply picked from the roadside wilderness.

Such flowers couldn't be sold to women; even female House Cultivators would recognize their poor quality. But selling them to men was much easier, as men only looked at her face, not her flowers. She had sold half the flowers and didn't want to bother selling the rest, so she looked for a gullible target to offload them. The House Cultivator who had directed Li Banfeng was the perfect mark she had chosen. She bumped into him, fell to the ground, smeared a little red ink on her hand, and the act was complete.

House Cultivators were easy to fool; even after being scammed, they often didn't realize it, and even if they did, they never told anyone. Sui Donglan had used this trick many times. However, she couldn't pretend to be blind again tomorrow; it was too obvious. What disguise should she adopt tomorrow?

As she pondered, she suddenly heard a drum sound in her ears. *Clink-clank, clink-clank.*

"Foreign soap, vanishing cream, matches, candles, tin shovels! A cartload of good merchandise, an old brand, kill the price as you please, pick what you want!"

"The Peddler!" Sui Donglan's eyes lit up, and she rushed to the roadside. She saw a man pushing a cart, wearing a felt hat pulled low over his eyes, beating a rattle drum and shouting his wares.

Was this truly the Peddler? The hawking cry was unmistakable, exactly as Old Yu, the fabric seller, had described. But the timing was off! Why was he here now? Sui Donglan felt suspicious but then remembered something else. Old Zhang, the charcoal seller, had once said that the Peddler sometimes came on irregular days, and encountering him was a stroke of luck.

"It seems my luck has turned," she thought.

Sui Donglan approached the Peddler, her face shy, and asked softly, "Are you the Peddler?"

Li Banfeng nodded, "Is that even a question?"

Sui Donglan lowered her voice and asked, "Do you have any medicinal powder?"

"Yes!" Li Banfeng pulled out two pickle jars. "One hundred yuan for Gold Cultivators, three hundred thousand for Deceptive Cultivators. Which one do you want?"