Chubby Qin's qi and blood surged out of control. He had reached the limits of his body.

There was a very simple reason for that.

A Gourmandism Cultivator could rapidly convert food into vital nourishment, and a large portion of that nourishment would transform into new blood cells.

For older Gourmandism Cultivators, their slower blood production would balance things out, so it rarely caused problems.

However, Chubby Qin was still young, so he had a good blood production rate. The food transformed too quickly, and now his blood vessels were on the verge of bursting!

Zhang Liuze had once seen a Gourmandism Cultivator die from ruptured blood vessels. He should have been more cautious.

However, that had been more than twenty years ago, so Zhang Liuze hadn't thought of it beforehand.

"Brother, stop eating!" Zhang Liuze exclaimed quickly to stop Chubby Qin from eating any more. Then he turned to his men and ordered, "Go to the pond and catch some leeches!"

"What for?"

"Don't fucking ask. Just go!"

Just after saying that, Zhang Liuze noticed Chubby Qin was still stuffing buns into his mouth.

Zhang Liuze grabbed him tightly. "Brother, didn't I tell you to stop eating?"

Panting, Chubby Qin said, "Brother Liu, with all these people watching, I'd rather die than fail to finish these ten kilograms of buns."

"As if I'll fucking let you do that!" Zhang Liuze growled, pressing Chubby Qin against his chair to stop him from eating.

Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

"What's going on?"

"His qi and blood are surging. He has to stop eating. If he keeps eating, he'll die."

"Look how red his face is. It might already be too late. Everything he's eaten has turned to blood. If he doesn't let some of his blood out, he's finished!"

"Isn't that easy to resolve? Just slice him open and let him bleed."

"Are you trying to kill him? It's not that simple! His blood and qi are raging within his veins. If the cut's too deep, he'll spray blood everywhere and die on the spot. Too shallow, and the wound will clot before it drains enough."

"Who could cut with the right depth at this crucial moment? If I were to give you a knife now, would you dare make the cut? Even a Medical Cultivator of a decent level might not have the skill for it."

"Brother Liu's right. The leeches are our only hope now."

As the crowd discussed Chubby Qin's situation, Chubby Qin's face turned from red to purple.

Zhang Liuze's eyes turned red with anger and anxiety. "Where the hell did they all go? I told them to just catch some leeches. Why are they taking so damn long?!"

Even if the leeches were brought over now, it would be too late.

Chubby Qin didn't even dare move in the slightest. Even one movement could lead to a vital blood vessel bursting, resulting in his death.

Li Banfeng stepped behind Chubby Qin and took off his suit jacket, using it to cover his right hand. He said quietly, "Brother, bear with it."

Then he pulled out the Blood-Soaked Pendulum and jabbed it into Chubby Qin's back.

The pendulum shifted from a shiny silver to red, from red to purple, and finally to a deep, ominous black.

Then Li Banfeng heard the pendulum say, "Master, I can't eat anymore."

He pulled the pendulum out, and the flush drained from Chubby Qin's face.

The Blood-Soaked Pendulum had drawn out his excess blood.

Li Banfeng put the pendulum away and checked the wound on Chubby Qin's back.

The wound was only two centimeters wide, and the blood clotted very quickly. It was nothing serious.

After resting for a while, Chubby Qin's complexion slowly returned to normal.

Zhang Liuze was still on edge. He had no idea what method Li Banfeng had used, nor could he be sure that Chubby Qin was truly out of danger.

Zhong Desong, the shopkeeper of Azure Pond Teahouse, had someone brew a pot of tea and offered a cup of it to Chubby Qin. "Master Qin, have some tea. It will help you calm your qi."

Chubby Qin waved it away. "I'd better not. My stomach's still uneasy."

Zhong Desong set the cup aside and glanced at the wound on Chubby Qin's back.

Li Banfeng had used his jacket to cover the pendulum earlier, but the wound hadn't escaped Zhong Desong's sharp eyes.

And of course, Li Banfeng noticed that. He lowered his voice and asked Shopkeeper Feng, "Who's that?"

"Zhong Desong, from Azure Pond Teahouse. You should recognize the name," Shopkeeper Feng answered with a meaningful smile.

Then Li Banfeng realised where he knew the name from.

He had seen that name on Shopkeeper Feng's list.

Zhong Desong was a Virtuous Adept of the second branch of Jiangxiang Gang's Medicine King Hall. He was a level-two Ascetic Cultivator.

Today is Chubby Qin's big day. Why would anyone invite a member of the Jiangxiang Gang?

Li Banfeng wondered that because he didn't know the full story.

Zhang Liuze had invited most of the banquet guests, including Zhong Desong.

He had known that Chubby Qin had a feud with the Jiangxiang Gang, but he had no such conflict with Zhong Desong. In fact, the two got along fairly well.

It was Zhang Liuze's way of giving Chubby Qin a way out of the feud, to help ease potential future tensions and prevent things from spiraling into a fight to the death.

After sitting for a while, Chubby Qin glanced at Zhang Liuze and said, "Brother Liu, my stomach doesn't feel too good."

"You ate too fast. Just eat slowly, and you'll be fine. You didn't advance this time, but don't get upset. Next time, we'll—"

Before Zhang Liuze could finish comforting Chubby Qin, he saw Chubby Qin reaching toward the pile of buns.

"I think… I'm hungry."

"Hungry?" Zhang Liuze uttered puzzledly.

It made sense that Chubby Qin was hungry. Everything he had eaten had turned into blood.

The pendulum had drawn that blood out, and that stimulated his body to speed up the digestion process. Chubby Qin was truly hungry again.

Zhang Liuze yelled, "Who's got a watch? Has time run out yet?"

A shopkeeper checked the alarm clock on the table. "Master Zhang, there's still a quarter of an hour left!"

Upon hearing that, Chubby Qin grabbed a bun and stuffed it into his mouth.

In less than ten minutes, every last bun was gone.

Afraid the buns might not be enough, he seized a roast chicken and devoured the meat in a few quick bites.

"Brother Liu, does that make the count?"

Zhang Liuze wasn't sure. Cultivation progress couldn't be seen by the naked eye, and he had no way of telling whether Chubby Qin had advanced to the next level. "Brother, what do you think? How do you feel?"

Chubby Qin rolled his shoulders and neck. After about ten minutes, both his shoulders visibly swelled, growing noticeably broader.

It wasn't just his shoulders;his waist, abdomen, thighs, and forearms all increased in size. Except for his height, every visible part of his body had grown, making his frame rounder and fuller than before.

Zhang Liuze burst into hearty laughter. "My brother, you did it! When I advanced to your level back in the day, I got this fat too!"

Chubby Qin's heart swelled with joy as everyone cheered and congratulated him. At this moment, Zhang Liuze finally remembered the stranger who had saved Chubby Qin earlier.

Zhang Liuze approached Li Banfeng and asked quietly, "Friend, how did you save him?"

"It's an ancestral medical art, not something I can share freely," Li Banfeng replied with a small smile. Then he changed the subject. "Brother Liu, where did that Stomach-Clearing Powder come from? I'd like to get some myself to regulate my digestion."

Hearing that, Zhang Liuze let out a laugh. "Guess I couldn't fool you, friend. That powder came from a street-side medicine shop. It's nothing special at all. I only gave it to Chubby Qin to give him some confidence."

Li Banfeng smiled amusedly. It was just as he had thought.

The banquet lasted until the early hours of the next morning, when the guests finally headed home.

Li Banfeng left ahead of the others.

No one had noticed him when he arrived, and no one realized when he left.

That was the power of a level-two Homebound Cultivator. Most of those present lacked the cultivation to sense his presence at all.

However, one man hadn't overlooked him.

Li Banfeng walked down an alley, planning to find a quiet spot to open his Pocket Dwelling. Right then, he suddenly felt danger closing in.

He abruptly turned to look behind him and saw a man slowly approaching from the mouth of the alley.

The man appeared to be in his fifties, dressed in a

changshan

and wearing a flat-topped round hat. He held a teapot in his hands as he approached Li Banfeng with a pleasant smile.

"Qin Tianjiu calls you Brother Qi, and the shop assistants at Yu's Cloth Shop also mentioned a certain Master Qi. You must be Li Qi, aren't you?"

Li Banfeng didn't answer the question. Instead, he shot back with a question of his own. "Shopkeeper Zhong, what advice do you have for me?"

The man was none other than Zhong Desong, shopkeeper of Azure Pond Teahouse, a Virtuous Adept from the second branch of Jiangxiang Gang's Medicine King Hall, and a level-two Ascetic Cultivator.

Holding his teapot, Zhong Desong looked at Li Banfeng with a small smile. "Advice? No, I'm not here to give you advice, Master Qi. I just wanted to invite you for a cup of tea. Would you prefer to join me at my teahouse, or shall we have a cup of tea right here?"

Li Banfeng shook his head. "It's too late for tea. I wouldn't be able to sleep afterward, but thank you for the offer."

Zhong Desong continued to hold the pot in the palm of his hand, gently stroking its lid and spout. The tea that had been sitting inside quietly began to bubble and release steam.

"Master Qi, you're ruthless and cunning. You burned down the Geng Family's medicinal trading house with a single fire. Yet, you don't even dare to have a cup of tea with me?"

Li Banfeng stuck his hands into his pockets, stealthily checking the positions of his hidden weapons. "Shopkeeper Zhong, I don't know where you heard that. I have no dealings with the Geng Family, and I had nothing to do with their medicinal trading house burning down."

Zhong Desong let out a cold laugh. "A true man should stand tall with an indomitable spirit. You dared to do the deed, but do not dare to admit it? Geng Zhiwei deserved to die, so I won't question that. As for the Elysian Melody Dancehall, it was one of my gang's properties. I suspect that was your doing too, but the gang forbade me from asking about it, so I won't.

“But there is one thing I

must

ask about. Old Madam Han from Hearthstay Village and her two sons. Were you the one that killed them?"

Hearthstay Village

?

That old woman and her family?

Her surname was Han?

I forgot. She's a member of the Jiangxiang Gang too.

Does that mean Zhong Desong is here to avenge her?

"You've got the wrong man. I've never even been to Hearthstay Village. If there's nothing else, I'll be taking my leave," Li Banfeng said.

However, Zhong Desong flicked his wrist, and the tea inside his pot spilled to the ground. The boiling hot tea instantly turned into something akin to a geyser, spraying upward from beneath the earth.

What kind of spell is this?

Li Banfeng leaped onto a wall, narrowly dodging the spray of scalding tea below.

He planned to jump into the courtyard of a nearby house to escape Zhong Desong, but he realised he couldn't. There was an invisible wall around the courtyard, the mouth of the alley, and even the sky. The entire alley had been turned into a sealed chamber.

The scalding tea continued to gush out from the ground, spraying out to a higher height with each spurt. The tea had already surpassed boiling temperatures;it was now hotter than molten iron.

Perched atop the wall, Li Banfeng pressed his back against the invisible barrier. One misstep, and he would plunge straight into the incredibly hot tea.

Tilting his head, he listened carefully and heard the faint voice of an old man.

"Come now, warm yourselves up! Both of you, come to me!"

The voice came from the teapot in Zhong Desong's hand. The teapot was speaking.

Zhong Desong hadn't conjured the scalding tea with a spell. It had come from the teapot itself. Li Banfeng heard its spirit essence. The teapot was an enchanted artifact.

What a powerful artifact! So this is what a level-two cultivator can control?

However, the artifact seemed flawed. Li Banfeng noticed Zhong Desong leaping onto the wall as well, pressing his back against the invisible barrier to avoid the scalding flood.

The teapot was attacking indiscriminately. Its scalding tea and steam targeted both Li Banfeng and Zhong Desong.

Despite that, the results were far from equal.

The searing steam churned back and forth in the sealed space. Sweat began to bead on Li Banfeng's brow.

Zhong Desong, on the other hand, wasn't sweating. He remained calm;he could endure pain, pain beyond what most people could imagine.

This was an enchanted artifact designed specifically for Ascetic Cultivators.

It created extreme, torturous environments that were devastating for most cultivators, but they barely affected Ascetic Cultivators.

Li Banfeng raised a brow and said, "Shopkeeper Zhong, is this really necessary? You mean to die together with me?"

Zhong Desong shook his head with a faint smile. "We won't die together. I can withstand this torment, but you can't. You're a Homebound Cultivator, aren't you?"

Li Banfeng's heart tensed. Many people had mistaken him for a Wanderlust Cultivator since the signs of that Daoist path were easy to recognize.

Yet, Zhong Desong hadn't been able to tell that Li Banfeng was a Wanderlust Cultivator. Instead, he had figured out that Li Banfeng was a Homebound Cultivator.

How had he figured that out?

Zhong Desong rubbed the teapot and let out a soft laugh. "Old Madam Han had a treasure in her house—a standing clock. Others couldn't tell that it was a treasure, but I knew its secret. It was her dwelling spirit. And the pendulum you carry came from that very clock. I recognize it. You managed to kill her inside her own dwelling and even took her dwelling spirit. Only a Homebound Cultivator could do something like that."

So he didn't simply figure it out from looking at me;he deduced it,

Li Banfeng realized.

Zhong Desong walked along the top of the wall, stroking the teapot as he slowly approached Li Banfeng. "Li Qi, killing Old Madam Han's whole family proves your cultivation level isn't low. But judging by your age, you're at best a level-two cultivator. If you'd just come out of your dwelling, I wouldn't dare face you. But I've counted. It has been three hours since you entered the bun shop. Your dwelling must be nearby. Once you return there, I won't stand a chance against you. But here, in this place, you won't live through the night. Feeling the heat yet? Do you feel yourself being cooked alive? Homebound Cultivators are too used to the comfort of staying at home. They can't endure hardship. In this place of torment, you can't fight me."

Zhong Desong knew a lot about Homebound Cultivators. They were not suited for combat in hostile environments.

He had come prepared, meticulously so, to kill Li Banfeng.

The top of the wall beneath their feet was narrow, wet, and slippery, and there was an invisible barrier behind it. For an ordinary man, even standing still there would be difficult, let alone fighting.

Yet, Zhong Desong moved with perfect balance. The calm smile on his face slowly twisted into a sinister snarl.

"Tell me, how did you kill Old Madam Han? And how did you kill her two sons?"

Li Banfeng was astonished. "Why do you care so much about her? Was she your wife?"

"If only she had been," Zhong Desong said softly, not denying it. He truly had feelings for her, but she had never given him a chance.

"What did you even like about that old woman?"

"Everything. She was a good person!"

A good person?

What makes this old man think that?

Guess he truly is in love!

Seeing him draw closer, Li Banfeng shifted his footing slightly, as if preparing to retreat.

Zhong Desong laughed. "Don't move;you'd better not move. This wall is very slippery. All it takes is a second of carelessness, and you'll fall into the water. Once you do, there won't even be a bone fragment left of you.

"I have killed six level-two cultivators, two level-three cultivators, and severely wounded one level-four cultivator in this pool of tea. Do you think you can escape?

"I can walk on the wall, but you cannot. No matter how treacherous the path, I can walk it. I can fight here, but you cannot. Because unlike you, I can endure any hardship.

"If you don't believe me, take a few steps forward and try it. If you want to be scalded alive, I won't stop you. If you want a quicker death, then answer my question honestly. How did you kill Old Madam Han and her family? How exactly did you—"

Wham!

Li Banfeng had run swiftly over to Zhong Desong and kicked him.

Zhong Desong stumbled and nearly fell, leaving him stunned.

Li Banfeng took advantage of that and grabbed Zhong Desong's wrist. He twisted it and snatched the teapot away.

Alarmed, Zhong Desong tried to pull Li Banfeng down with him into the scalding tea.

He could endure the high temperatures of the tea for a while, but Li Banfeng would not last a single moment in it.

Nevertheless, that was of no consequence to Li Banfeng;he had absolutely no intention of falling into the tea.

Li Banfeng moved with lightning speed and kicked Zhong Desong again.

This time, Zhong Desong could not keep his footing and fell alone into the boiling pool of tea.

Pain tore through him as he struggled with all his might to survive.

How is this possible?

How is he still standing so steadily?

How was he able to run over to me?

How is it that he still hasn't fallen from the wall?

Under the scalding steam, the wall had become extremely slick.

Under normal circumstances, a Homebound Cultivator in Li Banfeng's position would undoubtedly have lost balance easily. They would not be able to take even a single step on a surface that was as wet and slippery as the top of the wall.

Zhong Desong could endure harsh conditions and had an exceptional capacity to adapt, so each of his steps had been solid.

However, his solid steps were nothing compared to those of a Wanderlust Cultivator.

For a Wanderlust Cultivator, this slippery wall was no different from level ground. Li Banfeng could run along it easily.

While Zhong Desong was being boiled alive, he forced his head above the surface of the water with great difficulty and tried to transfer his suffering onto Li Banfeng.

With one foot planted firmly on the top of the wall, Li Banfeng stuck out his foot and stepped on Zhong Desong's head, shoving him back down into the boiling tea.

"Think you can endure pain? Be my guest. Suffer all you want!"

Zhong Desong raised his head above the water surface again, only for Li Banfeng to step on his head yet again.

"Since you like Old Madam Han so much, I'll send you off to reunite with her!"