The Overlord of Puluo

Just as the Peddler was about to leave, Li Banfeng quickly asked, ”When’s the next time you’re coming here?”

”I come here once every three months. Same date, same place. Anything else?”

Once every three months.

I might not even still be here three months from now.

This is a rare opportunity. I have to buy something.

”I’ll take two candles!”

The little house is too dark. I absolutely need candles.

The Peddler handed him two candles. ”Want some foreign fire too?”

By ”foreign fire,” he meant matches.[1]

Li Banfeng used to have a lighter, but it had fallen out of his backpack at some point during the journey.

”I’ll take a box.”

”Two candles and a box of foreign fire. Will you be paying with Huan yuan or silver dollars?”

Li Banfeng grinned sheepishly. ”You’re charging me for these?”

The Peddler raised a brow. ”Why wouldn’t I?!”

Each candle cost two mao[2], and the box of matches was five fen[3]. Li Banfeng didn’t have any small change, so he handed over a hundred-yuan note.

And the Peddler actually gave him change—a huge pile of small notes and coins, even including a few long-discontinued fen coins.

Once the exchange of money and goods was finalized, the Peddler left.

Li Banfeng found himself in a bind.

He had no working phone, and he was in an unfamiliar place. How was he supposed to find He Jiaqing?

It had been an overwhelming day. Li Banfeng had passed out twice, but he still felt exhausted. Furthermore, he hadn’t eaten much the whole day.

He used the bronze key to unlock his ”house”. Before he entered it, he tossed the bronze key to a spot amid the tall grass. It was well hidden but easy enough for him to find. After all, he never missed when his target was within five meters.

Inside the pitch-dark house, Li Banfeng lit one of the candles he had just bought. Then he took off his backpack and massaged his sore shoulders.

He had been carrying that backpack ever since he got off the train. Everything else was manageable, but the bronze lotus flower was just too heavy.

Li Banfeng opened his backpack, tore open a cup of instant noodles, and munched on the uncooked noodles.

He didn’t have any water, but luckily, he’d drunk two bowls of that fruit dew earlier, so he wasn’t parched.

As he ate, he thought back on everything that had happened today. There were signs indicating that he might have recovered from his mental illness.

After I got off the train, I was struck by heavenly light, a.k.a. a dark matter radiation stream. And the reason for that is unknown.

Because of that heavenly light, I couldn’t move. And I was hunted by two guys in Gatsby caps.

Then I somehow became a cultivator of two incompatible Daoist paths, and I even got a mobile house.

Who would dare call me crazy now? Has anyone ever gone through something more insane than this?

What am I going to do if I can’t find He Jiaqing?

Should I just go back to the train station, buy a ticket, and head straight back to Yuezhou?

What am I thinking? I’ve already made it to Medicine King Gully. How could I just go back now? I just need to find a place to charge my phone. Then everything will work out, won’t it?

Li Banfeng rested his head on his backpack and lay down on the cold floor.

This house is a bit dark and a bit small, but honestly, it isn’t bad.

From now on, I’ll call it Pocket Dwelling.

This is my house.

I have a house now.

Li Banfeng’s brows relaxed, and his lips formed a small smile.

He did not know how He Jiaqing was doing, nor did he really know what sort of place Puluo was. Nevertheless, Li Banfeng was in an excellent mood.

He fell into a deep sleep inside the Pocket Dwelling. When he woke, he had no idea what time it was. He had no watch, his phone was dead, and he couldn’t see the sky from inside the house. He felt as though he had lost all sense of time.

Sleeping on the cold, hard floor had left him sore all over. He rubbed his neck and stretched out his arms and legs.

Crack!

His joints popped painfully.

All of a sudden, Li Banfeng felt much stronger.

There’s power surging through my body.

Was this what the Peddler meant by bonding with the house?

Delighted, Li Banfeng walked a few laps within the Pocket Dwelling. He felt much lighter, and he was significantly more agile on his feet.

He changed into a dress shirt and pants.

Compared to the T-shirt, the dress shirt looked a lot less conspicuous.

He still had to carry the backpack, but he wasn’t going to put anything inside it.

If he wasn’t going to carry anything, why take an empty bag with him?

Well, that was all part of Li Banfeng’s plan.

Those two guys in Gatsby caps at the train station had targeted him. However, no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure out what kind of grudge there was between them.

This was Li Banfeng’s first time setting foot in Puluo. The only possibility was that they were after the bronze lotus flower.

The bronze lotus flower belonged to He Jiaqing, who had been born in Puluo. Li Banfeng was certain there were people in Puluo who knew of its existence.

Someone wants to snatch away this treasure, so they’re focusing their attention on me.

If they come after me again, the best escape method would be to use the backpack as bait and hand it over to them. Then, while they were distracted, he would slip away.

The backpack was damaged. It had gotten stuck under the sleeper berth on the train, and when Li Banfeng yanked it out, he accidentally ripped it in several spots.

Nevertheless, a little damage was fine as long as the backpack could still serve its purpose.

Upon leaving the Pocket Dwelling, Li Banfeng remembered the Peddler’s warning. The first thing he needed to do was retrieve his house key.

Just as he was about to bend down to look for it, he realized he wasn’t standing in the area of wilderness where he had left the key.

He was still surrounded by darkness. He couldn’t see daylight or the night sky.

Could it be that I haven’t left the Pocket Dwelling yet?

Li Banfeng panicked, thinking he was still trapped inside the house. However, he calmed down very quickly.

He wasn’t in the Pocket Dwelling. He couldn’t see anything, but there was a scent in the air, and it smelled nothing like the Pocket Dwelling.

The Pocket Dwelling had been uninhabited for a very long time, so it had the scent of stale, dusty air.

In comparison, the air in his current location seemed much fresher. It carried the scent of the wilderness. In particular, there was a distinctly foul scent of fresh blood.

Additionally, his surroundings were not actually pitch black.

After sleeping a night in total darkness, Li Banfeng’s eyes had become very sensitive to light. Under the dim illumination, he made out some faint outlines.

Rocks and rock walls. This looks like a cave.

Could this be some wild beast’s lair...?

Li Banfeng guessed right. A pair of moss green eyes slowly opened right beside him.

The instant he saw them, he bolted.

”Raaar!”

A roar reverberated through the cave, followed by the sound of heavy breathing and pounding footsteps.

A string of questions flooded Li Banfeng’s mind.

What kind of beast is that?

Judging by its footsteps, it’s probably massive.

Where am I running to?

Is this the way out?

What if I’m running to a dead end?

Why did I end up in this cave?

Did this beast set this up to trap me here?

Did I get caught in someone’s scheme again?

As he ran, the answers gradually revealed themselves.

Firstly, Li Banfeng realized he hadn’t run the wrong way. He spotted a faint light ahead, which meant he was indeed heading toward the cave entrance.

As for how he had managed to pick the right direction, he was too preoccupied to try figuring that out.

He focused on the circle of light. It was tiny, which meant the cave entrance was still far away.

Li Banfeng didn’t think he could outrun a wild beast in a slippery cave like this. But it turned out that he could outrun it!

Despite the cave’s slippery floor, Li Banfeng had a very steady footing on it, and he was running very fast. It didn’t take him long to reach the cave entrance, and the beast never came close to catching up.

After leaving the cave, Li Banfeng didn’t stop running. He ran for dozens of meters more, and only then did the beast finally emerge from the cave, staggering after him.

Li Banfeng turned his head to look at the beast. It was a massive black bear, walking on all fours. Its head came up to Li Banfeng’s shoulders.

He had seen plenty of bears at the zoo, but he had never seen one this ridiculously large.

Li Banfeng ran for his life, desperate to shake the bear off.

Surprisingly, it didn’t seem all that hard for him to do that.

Even on the rugged mountain trail, Li Banfeng ran incredibly fast. The black bear chased him for a while more, but it eventually slowed down.

Unable to catch up to him, the black bear gave up on the chase.

The black bear roared twice in frustration at losing its prey. Nonetheless, it wasn’t stubborn and knew when to cut its losses. It turned around and lumbered back into the cave.

It stopped chasing me!

I succeeded!

Having escaped with his life, Li Banfeng was overjoyed.

I really did!

Though, did I really?

If I can keep myself alive, then yes, I really did succeed.

But what about the key?

Li Banfeng turned around and looked at the retreating black bear.

His vision had improved a lot. Even though the black bear was quite far from him, he spotted a glimmering golden object on the black bear’s back.

Stuck in the black bear’s thick fur was Li Banfeng’s house key.

1. Matches used to be called 洋火 ”foreign/Western fire” in China because it was introduced to the country in the early 19th century by people from Europe. Chinese companies started producing matches locally in the late 19th century and gained dominance over the foreign competitors in the 20th century, leading to a term change from 洋火 ”foreign fire” to 火柴 ”fire stick”. ☜

2. 0.1 yuan ☜

3. 0.01 yuan ☜