Before discussing business, Daboinsky said one thing. "Madam, with your high status, you have plenty of people who can handle things for you. You don't need to hire me for any of these three matters."

Zhuo Yuling fell silent for a moment. Then she replied, "For the latter two, I don't want anyone to know about them, especially not the Lu Family."

Daboinsky gave her a knowing smile. "So, the land-activating job is for the Lu Family, but that's just a front. And the rescue and the killing are for you, Madam?"

Zhuo Yuling frowned slightly. "You didn't talk this much in the past. Just name your price."

After thinking it over, Daboinsky quoted prices for the three jobs Zhuo Yuling had requested.

"First job, land activation. There's a market rate. The plot you want will cost three thousand silver dollars to activate. That needs no further discussion."

Zhuo Yuling nodded in agreement.

Daboinsky continued, "Second job, finding your daughter. This is a very difficult task, harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

"A needle in a haystack will stay put, but your daughter is currently hiding from the He Family's pursuit. That means she'll be running around, so it won't be easy to find her."

Zhuo Yuling wasn't happy to hear that, but she didn't let it show on her face. "Who told you the He Family wants to kill my daughter? What did my daughter ever do to wrong them?"

Daboinsky smiled. "Madam, there are no walls that don't leak wind. This information didn't come from me, so there's no need to vent your anger at me. I'm only telling you the job will be difficult to do."

Zhuo Yuling stubbed out her cigarette and didn't persist with the topic. "Just name a price. Spare me the nonsense."

Daboinsky raised one finger. "Ten thousand silver dollars."

Zhuo Yuling asked, "Can you guarantee success?"

Daboinsky shook his head. "No guarantee. But if I can't find her, I won't take your money."

Zhuo Yuling nodded. "Fine. We'll go with your price."

"Third job, a kill. The target is Li Banfeng, but you'd prefer me to capture him alive…" Daboinsky considered it for a moment. "Alive, twenty thousand silver dollars. Dead, ten thousand."

Zhuo Yuling took a sip of tea and fell silent in thought for a moment. Then she asked, "It costs ten thousand silver dollars to kill that piece of trash? Do you think that's reasonable?"

She wanted to say that Li Banfeng's cheap life could never be compared to that of her daughter Lu Xiaolan's.

But she didn't say it out loud.

She would not compare Li Banfeng to her daughter.

However, going by Daboinsky's price for capturing Li Banfeng alive, Li Banfeng was worth even more than her daughter.

Daboinsky leafed through the intel on Li Banfeng and said to Zhuo Yuling, "I don't know his background, and your information isn't accurate. That means I'm taking on a lot of risk."

Zhuo Yuling frowned slightly. "Why do you say it isn't accurate?"

Daboinsky spoke with great patience. "Madam, your intel says Li Banfeng is not a cultivator, but as far as I know, he is a level-one cultivator."

"A cultivator?" Zhuo Yuling did not believe him. "How do you know he is a cultivator?"

Daboinsky smiled. "If I say I just saw him earlier, would you believe me?"

Zhuo Yuling laughed and shook her head. "You saw him?"

She naturally would not believe such a claim.

In her view, Daboinsky did not know Li Banfeng at all, so there was no way he would have any dealings with Li Banfeng.

Yet, Daboinsky was convinced that the person he had run into on the way here—that man who had styled up as a beautiful woman—was Li Banfeng.

"Your price is too high," Zhuo Yuling said, lighting another cigarette and shaking her head. "Li Banfeng isn't worth that much."

"I don't care what he is worth. I am worth this price," Daboinsky replied, adjusting his sunglasses.

Doing her best to keep her composure and her soft, languid smile, Zhuo Yuling said, "Da Binzi[1], I asked you here because of the friendship we once had. Don't think that means you can overstep."

"Much obliged for your favor, Madam," Daboinsky replied. He removed his fedora and gave a slight bow. Then he lowered his voice and said, "I call you 'Madam' out of respect. Little Lingling, you're a rich wife now. Why are you still so petty?"

The corner of Zhuo Yuling's eye twitched, and a cold gleam flashed across her eyes. "Spider Bin, mind your words."

Daboinsky laughed. "Gecko Ling, you mind your manners as well. If you can pay, I'll do the job. If you can't, you can find someone else."

At those words, Zhuo Yuling's expression changed drastically. The languid and calm vanished from her face, replaced by fury she could no longer hide.

Daboinsky put his fedora back on, the same gentlemanly smile still on his face.

***

Li Banfeng sat in the gatehouse of the Yu Family Stockade, chatting idly with Old Zhu, the gatekeeper.

Li Banfeng said he was a friend of Yu Nan, and Old Zhu believed him without a hint of doubt.

"Trader Li, you're clearly a friend of our young lady. She, like you, likes to wear men's clothes."

Likes to wear men's clothes?

I am a man!

What is this old man talking about…

Li Banfeng touched his face and felt there was a layer of something smooth and greasy on his face.

What is this?

Rouge?

Li Banfeng finally realized that was why the spider Physique Cultivator he'd met in the gorge had called him "My lady" at the start. That bitch Hanxue[2] had caked his face in heavy makeup.

When did she put it on me? How did I not notice?

Li Banfeng asked, "Old Mister Zhu, could you fetch me a basin of water? I want to wash my face."

Old Zhu was a long-term laborer of the Yu Family. He had joined them at the age of seventeen and had worked there ever since.

Now, he was old and no longer fit to be a laborer, but Yu Nan did not dismiss him. She gave him two houses on the new land and had him help guard the Yu Family Stockade.

The Yu Family Stockade consisted of two rows of wooden houses, with around seven to eight houses in a row.

The placement of the two rows of houses was quite peculiar. A seemingly endless forest surrounded the houses, and amid the dark of the night, the only place with light was the area where the houses stood.

Li Banfeng looked up at the night sky and noticed a faint halo, perfectly aligned to cast down upon the Yu Family Stockade.

Where's that light coming from?

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

It reached the ground without much diffusion. From what Li Banfeng understood about the way light worked, the source of light was likely powerful and fixed in a specific location high above.

However, Old Zhu's explanation told a different story.

"New lands don't have daylight at first. Heavenly light shines down only after the land has been activated."

"Heavenly Light!" Li Banfeng exclaimed. A wave of tension washed over him as he recalled the time when he'd been hit with a beam of Heavenly Light.

Old Zhu waved his hand to dismiss the idea. "Not that Heavenly Light. I mean the light that shines down from the heavens during the daytime."

Li Banfeng asked, "So this place used to be pitch dark?"

"Of course," Old Zhu replied with a sigh. "It's not easy for our young lady to run a cloth shop alone. She saved over a thousand silver dollars, and she spent it all on this new land."

Li Banfeng was even more puzzled. "You mean she bought this land?"

"Buy? Where would we buy it?" Old Zhu gave a wry smile. "Our young lady hired six land activators, two hundred silver dollars each. Five of them died just to activate this land."

Li Banfeng was stunned. "Five out of the six people died? Farming can kill people?"

Old Zhu explained, "Land activation isn't farming. It means living in the wasteland for three days. The owner first makes an offering and takes an oath, then they send people in to activate the land.

“Whatever time the land activators go in on the first day, they will come out at the same time three days later. If light shines on the ground, the owner will mark the ground with a drop of blood, and the land is considered activated."

What kind of process is that?

Li Banfeng felt lost.

Old Zhu went over the process in detail, and Li Banfeng finally had a better understanding of it.

Yu Nan had activated the barren land in three steps.

For the first step, Yu Nan offered a sacrifice to a deity of the wilderness and forged an oath with that deity. As for which deity she had made the oath with, Old Zhu didn't know.

For the second step, Yu Nan sent in the land activators right after making the oath. The land activators stayed by the offering table in the barren land for three days and nights. Only one of them survived, but that was the minimum number required to indicate that the land had been activated successfully.

For the third step, Yu Nan returned to the barren land and marked the ground with her blood. From then on, the land belonged to her.

Li Banfeng understood the steps of the process now, but there was something that didn't make sense.

"Yu Nan hired six people, five died. If the one who survived dropped blood on the land, wouldn't that make the land his?"

Old Zhu shook his head. "No. He didn't make an oath with the deity of this land."

"Isn't it easy to make an oath? Just make an offering, right?"

"Yes, but he still can't claim the land. Our young lady made an oath with this land's deity. For three days after that, the deity won't accept offerings from anyone else. If he goes elsewhere to make an oath, that land would be his. But he would have to pay for the land activators himself. He'd have to spend a thousand silver dollars to 'buy' a barren plot like this. It's unlikely he would want to."

Li Banfeng still did not understand. "If the land activators won't buy land themselves, why does Yu Nan spend a fortune to get this land?"

Old Zhu sighed. "Our young lady wants to use this as a backup plan for herself. None of us could talk her out of it."

Li Banfeng did not press the topic further. He was more interested in Yu Nan's schedule now.

"Old Zhu, when will the young lady of your household get here?"

Old Zhu thought for a moment. "You said they set out last night. At the earliest, they should arrive tomorrow night."

"Travel for two days and two nights?"

Old Zhu nodded. "Two days and two nights is already fast."

Li Banfeng had arrived too early.

He was a Wanderlust Cultivator, so he'd hurried over to the new land in just seven hours.

However, Yu Nan could not do the same. Moreover, she was bringing subordinates with no cultivation and a heap of heavy belongings. It would indeed be a fast trip if they made it in just two whole days.

Old Zhu rose and said, "Trader Li, I've tidied up a room for you. Take a bath and rest a while. I'll go prepare dinner."

When they first met, Li Banfeng had only given a simple introduction of himself, yet Old Zhu had not suspected at all that he might be lying or have malicious intentions.

"Aren't you afraid I might be a bad person?" Li Banfeng asked casually.

Old Zhu shook his head. "This is the Yu Family Stockade. It is our young lady's domain, and she has the protection of the land's deity. Bad people don't dare come here. Because our young lady dripped her blood on the land, anyone who comes here uninvited will be smashed to bits."

Li Banfeng was taken aback. "Is that so?"

***

Meanwhile, Yu Nan was still trudging along with her subordinates in tow.

Their journey was taking longer than expected because too many of her subordinates were injured. Additionally, there was Chubby Qin, who did nothing but eat and sleep. He didn't spend much time awake.

Fifty kilometers from Mount River Moon, Yu Nan received word that the Yu Family's old residence had been burned down.

It had been within their expectations, but everyone's eyes still turned bloodshot with anger.

Wang Xuejiao cursed, "Geng Zhiwei is a bastard. We must chop him to pieces and feed him to the dogs! Shopkeeper, let's stop here. We should go find him and fight him to the death!"

The group shouted together, "Fight them to the death!"

"We can't let that bastard Geng Zhiwei off!"

Yu Nan bit down hard on her cigarette but said nothing.

The old warehouse keeper Zhang Shiquan advised, "A gentleman takes his revenge even ten years later. Let's do as Shopkeeper says. Hold your tongues."

After another fifteen kilometers or so, they stopped on the side of the road to rest. One of Yu Nan's assistants rushed over to pass on a message. After spending a long moment panting hard, the assistant said, "Shopkeeper, the Geng Family's medicinal trading house was set on fire. Geng Zhiwei's whereabouts are unknown. He was probably burned to death!"

Yu Nan was shocked speechless.

The Geng Family's medicinal trading house was burned down?

Who did it?

1. This was Daboinsky's name before he became a foreign gentleman ☜

2. Reminder that this is the "refined" spirit previously in the pendulum ☜