Chapter 443: Mo Xiang Shop

Chu Shaoqiang finished writing a letter and placed it in an envelope.

Before sealing the envelope, Chu Shaoqiang took out the letter again and carefully checked every word and phrase.

Five days had passed. It was time to account for the matters concerning Scholar Guo and Tian Dasong to Neizhou.

These two men had been taken by Chu Shaoqiang to Qiuluoye's territory, originally intending to earn merit and achieve high promotion, but unexpectedly, they lost their lives.

For the past few days, Chu Shaoqiang had been pondering how to absolve himself of responsibility, but he still hadn't found a suitable excuse.

It would be better to report truthfully, but the wording should be more embellished. Instead of using the word 'failure' casually, it could be changed to 'slow progress'.

As Chu Shaoqiang was revising the letter, a man with large eyes, a long face, and a pair of bat-like wings on his back appeared before him.

Chu Shaoqiang knew someone had arrived. This bat-like man was Wang Fuqi, Chu Shaoqiang's personal messenger for contacting Neizhou.

"You can go back and rest for now. I'll call you when the letter is finished."

Wang Fuqi bowed and said, "Lord Chu, I'm here to deliver news. Something has happened to the three lords guarding the contracts."

Chu Shaoqiang wasn't overly concerned about this. Although those guarding the contracts were high-ranking Neizhou officials, this matter was ultimately unrelated to him.

But if it was unrelated, why had Wang Fuqi specifically come to report it?

Could it be related after all?

"Were Qiuluoye's contracts stolen?" To Chu Shaoqiang, this was the most crucial leverage against Qiuluoye.

Once the contracts were stolen…

That would be a tremendous stroke of luck for Chu Shaoqiang.

This way, he could find a very sufficient excuse for his previous failures.

Wang Fuqi shook his head and said, "The contracts weren't stolen, but they were destroyed."

"Who did it?" Chu Shaoqiang found it hard to believe. "If the contracts are destroyed, the curse will naturally be triggered, and Qiuluoye is bound to die. He wouldn't commit suicide, would he?"

Wang Fuqi said, "We don't know Qiuluoye's condition yet. Last night, Lord Fan was the first to notice something was wrong with Qiuluoye's contract. He touched it, and suddenly his body caught fire. The flames immediately spread all over him.

Lord Lü went to rescue Lord Fan, but the fire also engulfed him. Both were burned to ashes.

The remaining lords ran out. Lord Zhong was a bit slow and caught a spark on his body; he was also burned to ashes."

Chu Shaoqiang found this hard to believe. He deduced the cause and effect and asked, "Did someone tamper with it in Neizhou? Or did someone manipulate another contract in Prozhou, transmitting the effect to the contracts in Neizhou?"

Wang Fuqi replied, "Lord Chu, you've seen the Neizhou library. Normally, not even a fly can get in there. How could anyone tamper with it?"

Chu Shaoqiang let out a laugh. "Fuqi, that's because there are some things you know too little about. The library has had incidents before, and quite recently too.

I think this matter still needs to be investigated starting from Neizhou. I don't believe it was done by someone from Prozhou.

If someone could transmit such a powerful technique from Prozhou into Neizhou via contracts, how capable would that person have to be?"

Wang Fuqi whispered, "Lord Chu, let's not worry about how capable that person is for now. My purpose in delivering this message is to inform you that the Censorate has blamed this on you."

"Blamed on me?" Chu Shaoqiang was shocked. "On what grounds!"

"The Censorate says it's because of your ineffective handling of affairs, which led Qiuluoye to take desperate measures. The charges have already been placed on you. You should think about how to explain yourself when you return."

"Return? Explain?" Chu Shaoqiang shook his head. "I can't go back, and there's no way to explain."

Wang Fuqi was startled. "Lord Chu, I'm just delivering a message. If you have other thoughts, I truly don't know about them."

As he spoke, Wang Fuqi was about to leave, but Chu Shaoqiang called him back.

"You know nothing, boy. If I go back now, I won't be able to explain anything clearly. I'll just have to wait for punishment, and I might even lose my life."

"Then what does Lord Chu mean?"

"What does the top want? Land, the rightful land! We must take that land back!"

Wang Fuqi nodded. "I'll go to Qiuluoye's territory and see what the situation is now."

"Still going to find Qiuluoye?" Chu Shaoqiang sighed. "There are three thousand three-headed monsters there. How many people would we need to bring to occupy that place? Let's look elsewhere instead."

Wang Fuqi said, "But if Qiuluoye is dead, we might be able to take over easily."

Chu Shaoqiang shook his head. "Is Qiuluoye really dead? I can't figure this out either."

Qiuluoye, covered in bandages, was munching on pumpkins. After finishing one, he immediately picked up another and continued eating.

Ma Wu was a bit confused. "Brother Qiu, when did you start liking vegetarian food?"

Before Qiuluoye could answer, Shitou said from the side, "Our Master Qiu always loved vegetarian food. Eating meat with you outsiders was just putting on a show. He's an elephant; vegetarian food really energizes him..."

Laohu kicked Shitou.

It wasn't about the vegetarian food; it was about the elephant remark.

Laohu angrily said, "Seventh Master said no one is allowed to call Master Qiu an elephant anymore. How could you forget so quickly?"

Although the contracts were destroyed, Li Banfeng didn't want Qiuluoye to have any connection with the nickname 'Qiuluoye the Elephant' anymore, so he forbade anyone from mentioning it.

Qiuluoye's position had been restored, and his cultivation stabilized. As for how much fighting strength he had recovered, it was unknown for now.

Qiuluoye himself wasn't sure; all he could do was eat voraciously.

"Pumpkin skin is good stuff! Eat the skin, grow the skin!" Qiuluoye finished another pumpkin, wiped his mouth, and said, "Where's Seventh Master? Haven't seen him all day."

Ma Wu said, "Seventh Master is tired. He said he wants to sleep soundly for two days."

Qiuluoye, holding a pumpkin, said, "I owe Seventh Master too much. I don't know how I'll ever repay him."

Ma Wu laughed, "Brother Qiu, don't think so far ahead. Eat your fill, then get some sleep and recover your health. We can talk about the future later."

Inside the Portable Dwelling, Li Banfeng wasn't sleeping; he was attending an art lesson.

Today, his art teacher wasn't Bloody Pendulum, but Hong Ying.

Hong Ying came from a prestigious family. She had received an excellent education from a young age, dabbling in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, with her painting skills being particularly exquisite.

Unlike Pendulum's Western painting techniques, Hong Ying specialized in traditional Chinese ink wash painting. She felt the size of the paper with her hand and quickly painted a beautiful woman. The woman was bending to pick flowers, her face delicate and lovely, her figure graceful and slender, though her attire was not particularly elegant.

The Gramophone took a look and asked, "Whore, don't you feel ashamed drawing such things?"

"Hmph!" Hong Ying spat. "You know shame? Don't you recall how you were last night?"

The Gramophone hummed a slow tune, softly singing, "What happened last night? Is there anything wrong with being intimate with one's own man?" Hong Ying ignored the Gramophone, hung the painting on the wall, and asked Li Banfeng, "Seventh Young Master, what do you think of this painting?"

Li Banfeng sneered, "I'm too lazy to even glance at such an improper painting."

"Then kindly take a look!" Hong Ying pointed at the painting and said, "This is the door! This is the window! How can you not distinguish between just these two places?"

Li Banfeng explained, "I had a few too many drinks last night. I truly didn't know it was you. I thought it was my wife. My wife isn't shaped like that."

"Oh, you crazy man, so you deny it after enjoying yourself, do you! So I suffered for nothing, didn't I!"

While outwardly still arguing with Hong Ying, Li Banfeng's mind was on other matters.

He was replaying the process of rescuing Qiuluoye.

He passed the first hurdle with the Foolish Cultivation technique.

He passed the second hurdle with Red Lotus's pills.

He passed the third hurdle with Zhang Wanlong's seeds.

These individuals seemingly had no connection, yet by utilizing their methods, Li Banfeng resolved what appeared to be an insoluble dilemma—the predicament set by Neizhou.

Was there some connection among them?

As Hong Ying calmed down slightly, the Gramophone extended its horn to Li Banfeng's ear and whispered, "Husband, where did you learn the Body-Building technique?"

Li Banfeng didn't deceive his wife: "I learned it in Fool's City."

"Fool's City?" His wife felt something was off. "Husband, this technique doesn't seem like it came from Foolish Cultivators."

"Which sect do you think this technique came from, my dear?"

"Your humble servant doesn't know the technique's essentials, so I dare not guess," the Gramophone's voice grew fainter as it spoke. "Husband, would you be willing to teach this technique to your humble servant?"

Li Banfeng smiled. "Of course I'm willing to teach it if my own wife wants to learn."

The Gramophone sent everyone else away, leaving only the two of them in the main room. Li Banfeng taught the technique's essentials to the Gramophone.

"When I first started learning the Body-Building technique, I mistakenly thought it was a method for souls to possess bodies. Only when I truly understood the mechanism did I realize I had thought about it backward.

This technique isn't about souls attaching to bodies; it's about attaching bodies to souls. There are two key essentials: stacking and splicing.

Stacking is done from the inside out, and splicing involves patching from all sides. The crucial point is realism; where flesh and blood connect, it must be seamless."

After listening, the Gramophone found it perplexing. "Husband, this seems to be the Glue Cultivation technique."

"Glue Cultivation technique?" Li Banfeng had heard Qiuluoye mention Glue Cultivation, but he knew very little about the techniques of that sect.

The Gramophone continued, "Husband, you haven't joined the Glue Cultivation sect, so how could you learn their techniques?"

"I naturally couldn't learn it on my own," he said, pulling out a box of paste from his robes. "This was obtained from Fool's City. It's entirely reliant on this substance to stick flesh and blood together."

The Gramophone took the paste with its stylus, brought it to its horn, sniffed, and coldly snorted, "It smells like perfume! I wonder which vixen gave it to you!"

Li Banfeng praised, "My dear, you have a keen sense of smell. That woman's perfume was indeed very strong!"

The Gramophone sprayed steam onto Li Banfeng's face. "Shameless madman, going out and seducing women so brazenly, are you?"

Li Banfeng smiled, offered no defense, and taught his wife how to use the paste.

Leaving the Portable Dwelling, Li Banfeng checked on Qiuluoye's condition and then inquired with Ma Wu about business matters.

Ma Wu sighed, "This is the rear third of the land, and business in the surrounding territories isn't easy. To make Seven Autumn City prosper, we need to put in more effort."

Li Banfeng looked to the east. "That's the Ink Fragrance Shop, isn't it? Is business good there?"

Ma Wu didn't know how to respond. "The Ink Fragrance Shop is the territory of scholars. Shen Rongqing came from there. If you understand their temperament, you can barely do business, but if you don't, you can't achieve anything."

"What kind of temperament do scholars have?"

Ma Wu shook his head. "I can't quite grasp it, nor can I explain it. I went to the Ink Fragrance Shop twice as a child, and I didn't want to stay there for a moment longer.

Seventh Master, let's focus our efforts elsewhere. It's best to have less interaction with the people from the Ink Fragrance Shop."

"Seven Autumn City will become Prozhou's landmark in the future. How can we not interact with our neighbors?"

Lu Chunying, standing by, said, "Seventh Brother, my mom also wants to take me to the Ink Fragrance Shop. How about we all go for a visit together?"

Li Banfeng looked at Xiao Yeci. "Then let's go visit!"

Xiao Yeci looked at He Yuxiu. "Sister, are you going?"

He Yuxiu shook her head repeatedly. "Why would I go there? To suffer?"

The next morning, Li Banfeng, along with Xiao Yeci, Lu Chunying, Lu Yuanxin, Tan Fucheng, and others, boarded the train bound for the Ink Fragrance Shop.

Upon arriving and stepping off the train onto the platform, Li Banfeng found it very strange.

This place was unlike a normal train station. The floors and pillars were wooden, painted red. The platform's roof had distinct ridges, inlaid with glazed tiles. If not for the train still behind him, Li Banfeng would have thought he had arrived at the veranda of a wealthy family's estate.

Puff, puff.

The train departed, and Li Banfeng felt the entire platform vibrating.

At the platform exit, a man wearing a dark blue long gown, with slicked-back, shiny hair, politely asked, "Esteemed guests, please halt. May I inquire about your credentials?"

Li Banfeng was taken aback. "Credentials for what?"

Xiao Yeci pondered for a moment, then took out the train ticket and presented it with both hands.

The man received it with both hands, verified it, extended his right hand towards the exit, and said, "Farewell, esteemed guests!"

This was a ticket inspector.

Tan Fucheng snorted, "Just checking tickets, no need to make it sound like a grand credential verification."

Lu Yuanxin reminded him, "Brother Tan, mind your manners."

Leaving the station, Xiao Yeci repeatedly exhorted Lu Chunying, "My dear, show some politeness and good breeding. We mustn't let people laugh at us."

Tan Fucheng called a rickshaw puller. The puller looked at the group and asked, "There are many roads ahead, but where do you wish to go?"

Tan Fucheng replied, "To the inn."

"There are dozens of inns in Ink Fragrance Shop. May I ask which one you intend to go to?"

"Well..." Tan Fucheng didn't know how to respond. He had pulled rickshaws himself, and logically, calling a ride shouldn't be this complicated.

Li Banfeng faintly heard a sigh: "Home."

Whose home?