The Overlord of Puluo

Li Banfeng sat inside the Pocket Dwelling, deeply reflecting on the series of reckless actions he had taken.

He had attacked members of the Dark Star Bureau. He didn’t know what kind of organization it was, but the fact that it had ”Bureau” in its name suggested it had something to do with the government.

He had arrived at an unbelievable place and somehow ended up becoming a Dark Ability User.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if he were just a normal Dark Ability User, but he had even begun cultivating two completely incompatible Daoist paths simultaneously.

What should I do next?

Return to Yuezhou?

Go find Jiaqing, who is lying comatose in a hospital bed?

But how am I supposed to buy a train ticket?

Li Banfeng had left his wallet, dress shirt, dress pants, and leather shoes behind in the He Family’s old residence. There was no way he could go back for them.

This was everything he owned: a fedora, a hiking hat, a set of pajamas, a T-shirt, a pair of sweatpants, a pair of sneakers, two cups of instant noodles, a can of chips, a little more than one pack of latiao, and He Jiaqing’s bronze lotus flower.

Should I sell the bronze lotus flower to get a train ticket back to Yuezhou?

But how much is the bronze lotus flower worth? It doesn’t seem right to sell it as scrap metal.

But if I don’t sell it, then what will I eat?

I don’t have a single yuan.

Li Banfeng slept the night away in the Pocket Dwelling.

It was very quiet inside the Pocket Dwelling; there was almost no sound at all. It didn’t have any windows, but the air seemed clean and fresh. Aside from a musty scent from the many years’ worth of accumulated dust, there were no unpleasant odors.

That meant neither of those things woke Li Banfeng. Instead, it was his hunger and thirst.

He had only eaten one cup of instant noodles yesterday and hadn’t drunk any water.

Once again, he took out a cup of instant noodles, but he didn’t know how he was going to swallow it.

There was no way he could eat it dry this time.

Li Banfeng stepped out of the Pocket Dwelling. Upon returning to the alley, he retrieved his key and stored it away. Then he knocked on the door of a nearby house.

He had grown up in an orphanage and endured plenty of hardship... but he still found it difficult to ask for water from a stranger.

”Madam, could I trouble you for a bowl of water? I don’t need any food, just water.”

Li Banfeng repeatedly emphasized that he didn’t want food, and the woman only gave him a bowl of water as requested. However, the hostile look in her eyes made him feel like his face was being stabbed by dozens of needles.

He was only asking for water now, but how much longer could he last before he would be begging for food?

Li Banfeng only had two cups of instant noodles left.

He had to find a way to make a living.

A Wanderlust Cultivator had to traverse at least ten kilometers a day. After eating a block of uncooked instant noodles, Li Banfeng wandered down the streets of the Inner Gully.

”Extra! Extra! The Chu Family’s second daughter tried to kill her husband on their wedding night and fled in fear of punishment! The husband’s family is offering a reward of three million! Sir, buy a paper! We’ve got a fresh headline today. It’s big news! Just fifty mao!”

Fifty mao... I don’t even have that.

Li Banfeng smiled as he looked at the paperboy.

Maybe I should sell newspapers with you.

However, it wasn’t easy to get a job selling newspapers. Many kids were already in this line of work and relied on it to survive.

Li Banfeng had no idea what the job market was like for this line of work, nor did he know the tricks to getting people to buy newspapers. As far as he knew, newspapers had already faded from the public eye more than ten years ago.

In town, Li Banfeng found two shops that were hiring day laborers. One was a furniture store, and the other was a rice shop.

He didn’t ask for high pay. If he could do some odd jobs for a few days until he had earned enough to buy a train ticket, he would be happy with that.

However, neither of the shops hired him... because he was dressed too strangely.

To Li Banfeng, pairing a short-sleeved T-shirt with a fedora didn’t seem that strange, but to the shopkeepers, he didn’t look like someone trustworthy.

By noon, his stomach was growling again. He begged for a bowl of water from another stranger and ate his last block of uncooked instant noodles. Now, all he had left was a can of potato chips.

This is hard, truly hard.

Since he could not find a job in the Inner Gully, Li Banfeng walked all the way to the edge of town and headed toward the Outer Gully.

The Outer Gully was much larger than the Inner Gully, and it was a much more complicated place.

Walking along a dirt road, Li Banfeng saw farmers working in the fields. He also saw short houses and stretches of mountain forests where not a single person could be seen for several kilometers.

By the time dusk arrived, Li Banfeng had long since digested the last block of instant noodles, and he had eaten the potato chips too.

The only good news was that Li Banfeng felt tremors in his head.

Cultivators felt special sensations when they made progress in their cultivation.

The tremors indicated he had met his daily requirement of walking ten kilometers for his fundamental cultivation as a Wanderlust Cultivator.

The indicative sensation for Homebound Cultivators was much milder. Whenever Li Banfeng stayed inside the Pocket Dwelling for two hours, he would feel a refreshing and pleasant coolness wash over him.

Li Banfeng was approaching a small restaurant, which had just five tables inside a dark-tiled room. There was a notice pasted at the entrance. It said they were hiring help. He decided to try his luck.

Right then, someone inside the restaurant called out, ”Brother Li, is that you?”

Li Banfeng turned around and saw a stout and strong young man slurping noodles. There were three full bowls and three empty ones on the table in front of him.

Li Banfeng froze in surprise. Chubby Qin!

Chubby Qin waved him over. ”Brother Li, come sit! It seems like fate’s tying us together, huh? You like this place too? I love it. The food’s cheap, and the portions are generous.”

Li Banfeng didn’t bother pretending. ”Brother Qin, to be honest, I’m not here to eat. I saw the hiring notice. I’m here looking for work.”

Chubby Qin blinked. ”You’re looking for work at a restaurant? Why?”

Li Banfeng’s face twisted in agony. ”I don’t have a single coin left. If I don’t find work, I’ll be begging for food soon!”

Chubby Qin was a loyal and generous person. He patted his chest and said, ”Waiter, two more bowls of noodles! Brother Li, if you don’t mind, let’s eat first!”

Li Banfeng felt a bit embarrassed. They had only met by chance. What right did he have to accept a free meal from Chubby Qin?

”Not eating means you’re looking down on me!” Chubby Qin exclaimed. He dragged over a chair and pulled Li Banfeng into it.

A moment later, two steaming bowls of plain noodles in broth were brought to the table.

As a Gourmandism Cultivator, eating 2.5 kilograms of rice a day and five bowls of noodles per meal was part of Chubby Qin’s fundamental cultivation.

Li Banfeng was starving. The noodles had no meat. There was only half a bowl of broth, a spoonful of soy sauce, and two leaves of baby bok choy. Nevertheless, to him, it was the most delicious meal he had ever had.

He devoured the two bowls of noodles in a flash.

After paying the bill, Chubby Qin said, ”Brother Li, too many eyes around here. Let’s find a place to talk.”

Chubby Qin and Li Banfeng left the restaurant and found a quiet spot near the woods.

Chubby Qin lowered his voice and asked, ”Brother, have you been initiated yet?”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”I have.”

Chubby Qin lowered his voice even more. ”Which path did you take?”

Chubby Qin was a genuinely good person, and Li Banfeng already knew what Daoist path he followed. Li Banfeng felt like he’d be doing the guy a disservice if he were to lie now.

”I chose the path of a Wanderlust Cultivator.”

He didn’t mention the Homebound Cultivator part. It was hard to explain and not something he should reveal easily.

Chubby Qin scratched his cheek. ”Logically, you should have plenty of options as a Wanderlust Cultivator. You could be a courier, a guard, a bodyguard... At worst, you could pull a rickshaw.”

Li Banfeng smiled. He had genuinely considered pulling a rickshaw.

As a Wanderlust Cultivator, he’d be classified as a rickshaw puller with fire wheels. A single trip could earn him several hundred yuan, and it would be pretty easy work for him.

And when he put on his hiking hat, he really did give off the vibe of a rickshaw driver!

However, to pull a rickshaw, Li Banfeng needed a rickshaw, and of course, he didn’t have one.

He could rent one, but he would need to put down a deposit, and he didn’t have the money for that.

Additionally, he needed to have a permit to work as a rickshaw driver, but there was no way he could get one on short notice.

Most importantly, rickshaw drivers had to know the roads, but Li Banfeng didn’t.

As a Wanderlust Cultivator, Li Banfeng had an incredible sense of direction, but he didn’t know the names of places. He clearly did not meet even the basic requirements of being a rickshaw driver.

Seeing that Li Banfeng remained silent, Chubby Qin smiled awkwardly and said, ”My bad. I’m not very good with words. What kind of men are we, anyway? There’s no way you should be doing a job like rickshaw pulling.

”Brother Li, I’ve got a small business opportunity. It won’t make you rich, but it’ll cover your immediate needs. It just depends on whether you’re willing to take the risk.”

”Brother, I was just at a restaurant looking for work. I’m hardly in a position to be picky. But you said it’s a business opportunity. I’ve got no money for the capital.”

”Not needed. This is a business opportunity that requires no capital whatsoever. The only capital investment we need is our lives. Ever heard of Mount Bitterfog?”

Mount Bitterfog? Li Banfeng thought about it for a moment and shook his head. ”Never heard of it.”

Chubby Qin said, ”In Medicine King Gully, everyone knows about Mount Bitterfog. That place is shrouded in thick fog all year round. That fog is highly toxic. If an ordinary person were to try climbing that mountain, they would end up dead for sure.”

Li Banfeng frowned. That sounds like a naturally occurring gas chamber.

He asked, ”What kind of business opportunity could we possibly have there?”

”There’s a plant that grows on Mount Bitterfog. It’s the speckled-snake chrysanthemum. Have you heard of it?”

Li Banfeng shook his head. He definitely hadn’t.

Chubby Qin spoke a little louder. ”The speckled-snake chrysanthemum blooms once a year, just for a single day. It’s the main ingredient in Speckled-Snake Pills. Taking one pill gives you one day’s worth of cultivation progress. I told you this, didn’t I? That it normally takes ten years of cultivation to advance to the next level. But if you take one Speckled-Snake Pill a day, you’ll only need five years.

”The speckled-snake chrysanthemums bloom the day after tomorrow. A few medicinal trading houses have already named their price. They’ll pay eighty-five yuan per stalk. If you’re lucky, you can usually find two or three speckled-snake chrysanthemums per hour. That means if you spend ten hours gathering the flowers, you could find twenty to thirty stalks, which would get you around two thousand yuan.

”You’re a Wanderlust Cultivator, so you’ve got great stamina. If you spend ten hours on the mountain, you could probably gather enough to sell for three thousand yuan, maybe even five thousand. How about it?”

Three thousand yuan was more than enough for a train ticket. Li Banfeng could even enjoy a few carefree days once he returned to Yuezhou.

This is a great business opportunity!

Li Banfeng was about to agree, but he paused, realizing there was an important point he had forgotten. ”Hang on, if the fog is toxic, wouldn’t it be suicide to go up there and gather the flowers?”

Chubby Qin grinned. ”For ordinary folks, yes. But we’re not ordinary! We’re cultivators. Our bodies are far tougher than those of ordinary folks. You’re a Wanderlust Cultivator. You could easily last ten hours up there. If you grit your teeth, you might even make it fifteen. After you descend from the mountain, just spend a day vomiting. Clear everything from your system. Then rest for two more days, and you’ll be fine. As for me, I’m a Gourmandism Cultivator. With a full stomach, I could easily last twenty hours up there.”

This business opportunity really does take your life as the capital investment!

Li Banfeng thought about the profits and nodded. ”Brother, I’m in.”

Chubby Qin laughed. ”You’ve got speed, I’ve got endurance. We’re going to earn bucket loads with this business!”