Chapter 44: Borrow Me for a While

Li Banfeng was bound hand and foot with iron chains and locked in the hostage room. This "hostage room," or *yangzi fang*, was where they kept their captives. The mother and her two sons who ran the place made a living by drugging and harming people.

Earlier that day, before Li Banfeng's capture, a mother and daughter had also fallen into their hands. The mother, Xiao Yeci, appeared to be in her late twenties. She wore a long-sleeved *dajin* gown, and although her face was covered in dirt and scratches, it couldn't hide her striking and beautiful features. Her brow, in particular, conveyed the unique intellect and grace of a scholar. Her daughter, Lu Chunying, looked twelve or thirteen and was dressed similarly to her mother, but she lacked the scholarly demeanor.

When Li Banfeng was thrown into the hostage room, the curious daughter approached and touched him. Her mother, Xiao Yeci, quickly pulled her back, whispering repeatedly, "Nannan, don't move around. Listen to Mama, don't touch anything."

The hostage room was small, only about seven or eight square meters. A pile of firewood lay in the center. Li Banfeng was thrown to the left of the woodpile, while Xiao Yeci held her daughter and huddled to the right, trying to keep as much distance from him as possible.

Nearly an hour passed. As night deepened, the daughter fell asleep in Xiao Yeci's arms, and Xiao Yeci's eyelids grew heavy, causing her to doze off intermittently. Li Banfeng, having conserved some strength, took advantage of the mother and daughter's sleep. He clenched a key in his teeth and slowly began to rotate it.

A resistant friction came from the key, indicating it had connected with his Portable Abode. However, Li Banfeng's neck had limited mobility, making it difficult to complete the required three full rotations. His arms were immobilized by the chains, so Li Banfeng had to use only his teeth and tongue to slowly turn the key. His teeth clinked faintly against the key's handle.

The little girl, Lu Chunying, opened her eyes and secretly glanced at Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng swallowed the key back into his mouth and glared fiercely at Lu Chunying. Startled, Lu Chunying quickly averted her gaze. *What a nosy girl, what's she staring at!* That single glance from her had ruined all of Li Banfeng's previous efforts.

The poison in his system was still active, and Li Banfeng had little strength left. Just as he was about to spit out the key, the girl turned to peek again. *Still looking!* Li Banfeng's gaze grew even more menacing, as if he were about to devour someone. Lu Chunying quickly turned her head away. After a moment, unable to resist, she peeked again. The man was gone! He was just here; how did he suddenly disappear?

"Mama, that man..."

"Don't move around, don't talk nonsense," Xiao Yeci mumbled in her sleep, not yet fully awake. "Nannan, listen to Mama. We'll definitely be fine."

Li Banfeng had returned to his Portable Abode. Before entering, he spat the key into the firewood pile. After lying down for a moment in the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng began to vomit profusely, expelling the food he had eaten that night along with yellow bile. After vomiting, Li Banfeng's body convulsed, and he broke out in a heavy sweat. The sweat carried a foul, bitter odor, and smelling it, Li Banfeng felt another urge to vomit. Like the vomit, this sweat was the body expelling toxins.

He was detoxifying rapidly, a characteristic of a Dwelling Cultivator. However, this time was different from his poisoning in Bitter Mist Mountain; detoxification wasn't just through vomiting but also through sweating. Why were the detoxification methods different? Was it due to a different type of poison, or had his detoxification abilities improved?

Li Banfeng wanted to wipe the sweat from his face, but his hands and feet were still bound by iron chains, preventing him from moving. Sweat beaded and streamed into his eyes, causing intense stinging pain at the corners. No, he had to break free from the chains quickly and wipe away the sweat to avoid re-poisoning. But how could he break free from the iron chains? Li Banfeng had recovered some strength, but trying to break chains thicker than hemp ropes by brute force was a fantasy.

Were there any tools in the Portable Abode? Yes, there were pliers and wrenches for repairing the phonograph. The tools were in the phonograph's lower cabinet. Li Banfeng crawled over to the phonograph. His arms and wrists were still immobile, but his palms could move. With difficulty, he retrieved the toolbox. He tried to cut the chains with the pliers for a long time, but they remained completely intact. The tools for repairing the phonograph were too delicate for such heavy-duty work.

More and more sweat poured out, and Li Banfeng's eyes couldn't open. Amidst the burning pain, they began to swell. *Am I going blind?* When refining pills, Chu Yunlong's clothes had turned into shreds all over the floor, which Li Banfeng hadn't bothered to clean up. Now he wanted to use some rags to wipe his eyes, but after searching the floor for a long time, he couldn't find a single piece. He crawled to the bed and rubbed his eyes with the bedsheet, but it was no use. Instead, more sweat was rubbed onto his eyelids, making the burning pain even more intense.

Water, he needed water! He had to wash his eyes clean immediately! Li Banfeng had a water bucket that he usually kept by his bed, and he filled it whenever he had the chance. The water in the bucket was clean, normally used for drinking, and if not finished on the same day, it would be used for washing up the next. Where was the water bucket? Li Banfeng found the bucket by the bed and plunged his head into it, but even when his forehead hit the bottom, he felt no water. The bucket was empty? Impossible, it was full when I left! Had it evaporated? How could it be that fast! Li Banfeng grew anxious, and the more anxious he became, the more he sweated.

Was there any other way? Any at all? Yes! As long as he broke free from the chains, there was a way. Li Banfeng thought of something. Like an earthworm, he wriggled on the floor by memory, slowly inching towards the corner of the room. He twisted his body and touched the spectacle case in the corner of the room. Good, it was still there. Li Banfeng struggled to open the case and took out a Rust Pill. A stinging pain shot through his palm, but Li Banfeng ignored it and placed the Rust Pill on the iron chains. The chains rapidly rusted.

After waiting about ten seconds, Li Banfeng exerted sudden force, and the chains on his hands snapped. Li Banfeng rubbed the Rust Pill back and forth, and before long, all the chains on his body broke free. As he broke free from the chains, his palms immediately cracked open, and rusty blood oozed out—Li Banfeng was detoxifying. His eyes were still burning intensely. Li Banfeng put away the Rust Pill, ignoring his bleeding hands, and quickly left the Portable Abode.

The moment he exited, the phonograph hissed, hissed, hissed! Steam rose from it. The record spun, and a song began. The phonograph was playing "Singer at the World's End," but the lyrics had been altered:

"To the ends of the earth, oh, the corners of the sea,Don't fear, my love, a body full of sweat.If it gets in your eyes, it'll just sting a bit,Oh, my love, your eyes will never go blind, ah-ah~"

Li Banfeng returned to the hostage room. His footsteps were light; he made no sound. Enduring the intense pain, he opened his eyes and first retrieved the key from the firewood pile. Looking around, Li Banfeng examined the layout of the hostage room. There was a door with a lock. There was a small window with iron bars, overlooking the backyard. Sounds of water came from outside the window—Li Banfeng heard it! Water! Overjoyed, Li Banfeng opened his Portable Abode again. Before entering, he tossed the key out the window.

When Li Banfeng emerged from his Portable Abode again, he was already outside the hostage room. This was the backyard, where there was a well. The old woman's second son was by the well, drawing water and sharpening a knife. The knife was almost sharpened, and the second son wanted to draw another bucket of water to rinse it off. Just as he lifted a bucket of water to the well's edge, Li Banfeng snatched it.

"May I borrow this water? Thank you," Li Banfeng said politely, even bowing. As he did so, he grabbed the second son's knees and flipped him into the well. Li Banfeng plunged his head into the bucket. The cool relief instantly eased the intense pain in his eyes. Actually, Li Banfeng had been overly nervous; sweat's harm to the eyes wasn't as severe as he had imagined. After washing, most of the pain subsided. Li Banfeng poured the entire bucket of water over himself, rinsing away all the sweat.

As Li Banfeng was washing his face, the second son climbed out of the well, gripping the well's edge, silently watching Li Banfeng's back. The second son was a martial cultivator, a strong-willed man. Having worked in this business with his mother and elder brother for over a decade, he had never once been outwitted by a *yangzi* (hostage). How could he have been so unprepared just now? He hadn't even heard a single footstep? He didn't intend to call his mother or his brother. Taking advantage of Li Banfeng's supposed distraction, he would personally kill this hostage.

Li Banfeng put down the bucket. The second son tensed his arms, preparing to leap out of the well. Li Banfeng saw the knife on the ground—the one the second son had almost finished sharpening. He picked up the knife from the whetstone, turned to the second son, and said, "I'll borrow this 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 looked up at the sky visible from the well's opening, unable to comprehend what had just happened. He hadn't expected a Travel Cultivator to act so swiftly! He hadn't expected Li Banfeng to show no signs before striking. He hadn't expected that Li Banfeng, seemingly focused on washing his face, had actually been keeping an eye on the well's opening the entire time. He wanted to call out to his mother, and his brother. But his mouth was full of blood and his nose full of water; he couldn't call out anything.