Chapter 46: I Couldn’t Bear to See Him Suffer

Li Banfeng shoved the Rust Pill down the old woman’s throat.

Just as she was inhaling due to the kick he’d delivered to her stomach, the pill went down with the gasp.

A searing pain erupted within her, and the old woman knew she’d been poisoned. She tried to vomit, but Li Banfeng gave her no chance. He seized the opportunity to reach behind Decai, snatch his short knife, and hack at the old woman’s head, blow after blow.

At first, the old woman dodged with practiced ease, but as the poison took hold, her throat burned like fire. A metallic, acidic fluid churned within her, causing unbearable pain and severely restricting her breathing.

Amidst the struggle, the old woman was drenched in sweat, a reddish-brown hue staining her skin. Her face became mottled, as if consumed by rust.

Li Banfeng recognized the process instantly.

She was expelling the poison!

Though unable to vomit, she had another way to detoxify, a method eerily similar to his own.

She was a Home Cultivator!

Home Cultivators could conceal their presence, causing opponents to underestimate them. The rickshaw driver had said that Travel Cultivators couldn’t sense the danger posed by Home Cultivators. This explained why Li Banfeng had been unable to perceive the old woman’s malice.

But the old woman’s two sons weren’t Home Cultivators. Why hadn’t he sensed their ill intentions when they poisoned him?

Li Banfeng swiftly identified the crucial factor.

It all started with the location.

The location was this house.

This house was the key to everything!

This was the old woman’s house, the house of a Home Cultivator.

Within their own house, Home Cultivators were protected by their Home Spirit.

The old woman had recognized Li Banfeng as a Travel Cultivator and used the power of her Home Cultivation to shield her malice, and that of her two sons.

Was her cultivation that advanced?

Could her power extend to her two sons?

Her level wasn’t that high; she was only a First Layer Home Cultivator. If she’d reached the Second Layer, Li Banfeng wouldn’t have survived this long.

With her strength, she certainly couldn’t have influenced her two sons outside the house.

But inside the house, with the aid of the Home Spirit, the old woman’s techniques were amplified. This was why she was faster than Travel Cultivators, more ruthless than Martial Cultivators, and tougher than Body Cultivators.

Having a Home Spirit was truly advantageous!

Li Banfeng couldn’t help but feel envious.

If he killed the old woman, would the Home Spirit become his?

The Peddler had said that an unowned Home Spirit could be taken over by the next owner.

The more Li Banfeng considered it, the more excited he became. He fought the old woman with all his might.

With the Home Spirit’s assistance, the old woman continued to sweat and expel poison, but the Rust Pill’s potency was simply too great, and sweating was too slow.

Li Banfeng was about to conduct a personal experiment: Could a Home Cultivator inside their own house resist the corrosion of the Rust Pill?

Of course, conducting the experiment personally didn’t mean using himself as the subject. The most important thing was the scientific attitude with which the results were regarded.

Based on the results of tonight’s experiment, a First Layer Home Cultivator couldn’t withstand the Rust Pill without being able to vomit freely.

According to Li Banfeng’s estimation, the old woman’s combat power had decreased by more than half in under two minutes.

Two minutes later, the old woman’s movements became increasingly sluggish, her speed barely exceeding that of an ordinary person. A strange grinding sound emanated from her joints.

Li Banfeng dodged the old woman’s hairpin and kicked her squarely in the stomach.

The old woman coughed, hacking up a mouthful of reddish-brown fragments.

She was rusting, her entire body rusting away.

Li Banfeng quickly distanced himself from the old woman.

He wasn’t sure if this rust disease was contagious.

The old woman staggered towards Li Banfeng, each step more labored than the last, all while spewing venomous curses: "Little bastard, don’t run! Come here!

If you don’t run, this old woman will give you a quick death! If you dare take another step, I’ll cut you into a thousand pieces!

You can’t escape! This is my house! Hehehe… you’ll never leave, you’ll never leave for the rest of your life!"

Though her words were fierce, the old woman was terrified.

Every inch of her body felt as if molten iron was being poured over her, melting layer after layer of her flesh, and seeping deeper within.

Her son was a Poison Cultivator, and she had seen many poisons, but she had never encountered one as terrifying as this.

The excruciating pain was unbearable, but that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part was the numbness that followed the pain.

She felt her body rapidly losing sensation amidst the agony.

Aside from the metallic, astringent taste of rust in her mouth, she could barely feel her body at all. Even vomiting was useless.

She wanted to return to her room; she wanted to hear the sound of the grandfather clock.

But if she returned to her room now, her son would surely die.

The old woman took a few more steps forward, each one slower and more difficult than the last.

Rust powder fell from her body, rust particles spewed from her mouth and nose, her snow-white hair yellowed at the roots, breaking into fragments, gradually turning into rust residue and scattering in the wind.

Crack!

The old woman stumbled, falling to the ground.

She looked back and saw half of her lower leg broken off, the bone rusted through, and her flesh and blood reduced to rust slag.

She saw this bone.

Many other bones were also broken. She couldn’t see them, but she could feel them.

Her body was about to collapse.

Her eyes were fixed on her house, the largest room in the courtyard.

She hoped to hear the clock chime, even if only once.

But she never heard the clock.

She saw Decai lying on the ground, convulsing and struggling. She thought of Demao, whose whereabouts were unknown.

How could this have happened?

How could she have died at the hands of a sapling?

No, not just this sapling, who deserved to die a thousand deaths, but also that pair of shameless whores.

She should have killed them the moment they walked through the door. She shouldn’t have let those two harlots seduce her son.

Her son was hers, hers alone, for life…

"You… spare my son… I’ll… give you something good…" The old woman looked at Li Banfeng, her voice tinged with entreaty.

Li Banfeng looked at the struggling Decai and sighed, "I don’t want to kill people either, but I can’t bear to see it."

The old woman shook her head, "What are you talking about? I don’t understand."

"How can you not understand?" Li Banfeng took his short knife and approached Decai. "What’s the point of letting the child live after the mother dies? Isn’t it suffering for them to be left alone in the world? It’s better to go with you.

Isn’t that what you just said?"

"Bastard, if you dare touch my family, I am from the Jiangxiang Gang. The Jiangxiang Gang will never forgive you…" The old woman hissed.

The Jiangxiang Gang again.

He had to give the Jiangxiang Gang some face!

Li Banfeng chopped off Decai’s head right in front of her.

"Mother, save me…"

Decai’s voice stopped abruptly.

Seeing Decai’s head fall to the ground, the old woman’s body convulsed.

She remembered when she killed other people’s children; their parents’ bodies also convulsed.

Red spots filled her vision, whether rust or blood, she couldn’t tell.

Her consciousness faded, along with her body, turning into a lump of rust slag.

A gust of cold wind blew, scattering the old woman’s remains in all directions.

Xiao Yeci looked at Li Banfeng, her face filled with admiration and fear, her hands tightly covering her daughter Lu Chunying’s eyes.

The old woman was dead, and Decai was dead too.

Although Xiao Yeci had long wanted to kill this family of evildoers, she felt a deep-seated fear now that they were really dead.

She didn’t know where Li Banfeng came from, nor could she discern his Sect or cultivation level.

He was so fast; was he a Travel Cultivator?

But what about the old woman rusting?

He saved them; would he let them go?

What would they do if he didn’t let them go?

Li Banfeng looked dejected, as if lamenting the old woman’s fate.

Xiao Yeci noticed Li Banfeng’s regret.

Regretting the fate of an evildoer, he must be a good person, right?

Perhaps he could help them again…

Looking at the rust slag on the ground, Li Banfeng’s expression was solemn as he sighed deeply.

He hadn’t expected this result.

A pity!

A pity indeed!

He could have taken it back to refine pills.

End of Chapter