The Overlord of Puluo

When Ma Wu stepped out of the Lucky Celebration Troupe’s camp, he was robbed.

He went out to gather a few herbs from the new land and patched himself up. For a young master from a wealthy family, he knew an awful lot about such things, and over those few days, Li Banfeng ended up learning quite a bit from him too.

When his injuries were getting better, Ma Wu bowed deeply to Li Banfeng. ”Brother Li, I don’t know when I’ll ever repay the favor I owe you. I’ll move out tomorrow. I can’t let you be dragged into whatever my family is scheming against me.”

Li Banfeng lifted an eyebrow. ”We haven’t made enough money yet, and you’re already thinking of leaving?”

Ma Wu smiled. ”Brother Li, once I’ve shaken myself free from this tangle of trouble, I’ll come back and do great things with you.”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”Alright then. If you’re set on leaving, let’s split the money we’ve made over the past few days.”

Ma Wu shook his head. ”That’s your money, Brother Li. I was only working for you.”

”Don’t talk nonsense,” Li Banfeng said. ”We only made money in Blue Poplar Village because of your skill. What’s yours should remain yours. Not a single coin should be taken away.”

Ma Wu shook his head again. ”Brother Li, you don’t have to give me a single coin. If you do, I’ll only be robbed of it again.”

Li Banfeng frowned. ”What’s your family after? Who could be so cruel they won’t even let you live?”

Ma Wu sighed. ”It might be my fourth brother, or perhaps my eldest or second sister. After more than twenty years in the Ma Family, there are still things I can’t see through.”

Li Banfeng furrowed his brow. He had already provoked the Lu Family and gotten entangled with the He Family. Now, it seemed he might end up offending the Ma Family as well.

So be it, he thought. A few more debts won’t make a difference. I’ll figure out what’s really going on first.

Even so, Li Banfeng couldn’t shake the feeling that Ma Wu had it wrong. There was still a chance this whole mess had nothing to do with the Ma Family at all.

”I’ll go with you to the Lucky Celebration Troupe’s camp tomorrow,” Li Banfeng said.

Ma Wu blinked in surprise. ”What are you going there for?”

”To cultivate, of course,” Li Banfeng said. ”It sounds like a wonderful place, and I might as well learn a few skills while I’m there.”

***

In Puluo Province, pleasure districts came in every shape and size. There were grand ones like the Paramount Club and the Great World, glittering with noise and light, and smaller dance halls scattered everywhere like fallen stars across the land.

Compared to those, troupes were an ancient institution, perhaps even older than Puluo Province.

The members of the Lucky Celebration Troupe were not fashionable singers or dancers. They simply sang old folk tunes to please their guests. Yet the troupe itself was said to be ancient. It had passed through the hands of dozens of troupe masters over the years, and its reputation had remained strong.

Ma Wu went off to cultivate with a girl he knew well. Though he attained level one, he still had to cultivate in accordance with the proper order of the path, which was to complete three rounds of basic practice each day. To rise to the next level, he would need to complete five.

Li Banfeng found himself a girl as well.

There were no grand villas or fine gardens in the Lucky Celebration Troupe’s camp, only a row of small, plain huts. The girl led him into one, told him to lie down, massaged his legs, thumped his back, and then asked sweetly if he’d like to hear a tune.

If he chose not to listen, they would get straight to the action. But if he wanted a song, it would cost a little extra.

Li Banfeng thought that since he was already there, he naturally had to listen to the song. So he asked the girl to sing her best piece.

The girl took down her pipa[1] and started singing ”Blossoms Under the Full Moon.”[2]

「As the drifting clouds scatter,

The bright moonlight illuminates the path ♪」

Li Banfeng listened carefully to the whole song but thought it was mediocre. It wasn’t even on the same level as his wifey’s singing.

The girl set down her pipa and was about to get on with the real business when Li Banfeng said, ”Sing another one. Sing ’The Song of Four Seasons.’”

The girl frowned. ”Another one?”

Li Banfeng took out a hundred Huan bills and laid them neatly on the table.

To the members of the Lucky Celebration Troupe, a hundred Huan bills was no small amount. The girl’s face lit up with joy, and she sang another song, ”The Song of Four Seasons.”[3]

When she finished, Li Banfeng was even less satisfied than before.

”You sang that half-heartedly. Sing another one. Sing ’All-Consuming Love.[4]’”

The girl cleared her throat and forced herself to sing.

「Through the spring night drifts the wind of longing,

Longing for you, how my heart aches to say it. ♪」

She stopped mid-line and stammered. ”Er... erm...”

”Erm what?” Li Banfeng snapped angrily. ”You can’t even remember the lyrics? What’s the point of singing then?”

The girl froze for a moment before asking, ”Sir, did you really come here just to listen to songs?”

”What else would I come here for if not for the songs? I’ll sing a line, and you try next. Listen carefully and learn it properly.”

***

Two hours later, Ma Wu finished his cultivation and stepped out of the room.

A clerk hurried over to tell him that Li Banfeng had already stepped out of his room as well.

The girl Ma Wu had chosen was named Xiao Die. As she walked him out, she looked at him with tender eyes and a gentle smile. ”Master Wu, will you be coming again tomorrow?”

”I’ll definitely come.”

The girl Li Banfeng had chosen was named Xiao Cui. Her face had gone a pale shade of green as she escorted Li Banfeng to the door. ”Sir, if you come again tomorrow, maybe try one of those other girls.”

Noticing that Xiao Cui’s voice had turned coarse, Xiao Die asked, ”Cui’er, what’s happened to your voice? How big of a mess did you make inside?”

Xiao Cui didn’t know how to explain. ”A big one. I didn’t stop at all.”

Ma Wu glanced back and asked, ”How was that girl, the one called Xiao Cui?”

Li Banfeng shook his head. ”Not good at all. She still needs a lot more practice.”

Ma Wu grew curious. ”When you say practice, Brother Li, what exactly does she need to work on?”

”Obviously, it would be her voice,” Li Banfeng said.

Ma Wu grew even more intrigued. ”Is the voice really that important?”

This time, Li Banfeng was the one intrigued. He turned to look at him and said, ”If the voice isn’t important, then what is?”

Ma Wu nodded slowly. ”Ah, so Brother Li’s tastes are rather different.”

They went on chatting about all sorts of things as they walked, but when they were still two hundred meters from the wooden hut, Li Banfeng suddenly stopped. He moved aside, out of the window’s view. He could sense danger up front.

Ma Wu froze for a moment before asking, ”Something wrong at home?”

Li Banfeng motioned for Ma Wu to stay quiet. He pressed his earring to his ear and listened carefully to the sounds within.

There were many houses nearby. An ordinary tool filled with spirit essence would have caught nothing at all. However, this was no ordinary artifact. This was an enchanted artifact, and it always knew what Li Banfeng wanted to hear.

He heard intense breathing. He heard voices whispering. Then came the sound of footsteps. One by the door, two on the second floor, and another in the living room.

Their cultivation wasn’t high, but the malice in them was clear as day. And truth be told, they wouldn’t need a powerful cultivator to deal with the Ma Wu of today.

These bastards hadn’t stirred up trouble at the Lucky Celebration Troupe’s camp, nor had they set an ambush on the road. Instead, they had gone straight to the wooden hut and were waiting there like snakes in the dark.

Their timing was spot on. But how could they have known where Ma Wu lived?

Li Banfeng said, ”Brother Ma, don’t go in yet. Let me set things up first.”

However, Ma Wu stopped Li Banfeng. ”Is it someone from my family? Brother Li, you shouldn’t be implicated. I’ll deal with them myself.”

He was about to rush into the house when Li Banfeng pulled out a pair of shoe covers with iron-plated soles and said, ”Do you have these? Without them, you can’t go in.”

Ma Wu immediately understood what Li Banfeng meant. He was planning to use the sticky clay.

Li Banfeng slipped on the shoe covers with iron-plated soles and said quietly, ”Find a place to hide first.”

It was Li Banfeng’s order to Ma Wu. Li Banfeng wanted Ma Wu to protect himself and not become a burden.

But what if Ma Wu hid somewhere safe and still got caught? In that case, there would be nothing that Li Banfeng could do.

To put it bluntly, even if Ma Wu was going to die, he had to die far away so he wouldn’t distract Li Banfeng.

So Ma Wu hid in a noodle shop instead. It was a clever choice. A quiet place wasn’t always a safe one, but in a crowded spot, at least, no attacker would dare make a move.

Li Banfeng didn’t approach the house recklessly. He stepped one foot into his Pocket Dwelling before hurling the key somewhere near the wooden hut.

Up on the second floor of the wooden hut two men sat keeping watch and chatting. The one in a blue short jacket said, ”Beat him senseless if you must, but don’t kill him. He’s tied to a big family, and if he turns up dead, we won’t be able to talk our way out of it.”

The man in the dark green vest spat a laugh. ”That depends on whether the brat knows what’s good for him. We’ve searched the whole place and found nothing worth a dime. If he won’t hand something over, how are we supposed to explain ourselves to the boss?”

”Why worry about explanations? That’s the boss’s problem,” the man in blue said. ”You should worry about him coming back for revenge. He’s still the fifth young master of the Ma Family, after all.”

”Revenge, my foot,” the man in green snorted. ”The last time I beat him I hit him proper and he didn’t even dare look at me. I’m telling you, he’s a dog now. If we don’t have our fun while we can, when will we—”

Clink~

Something tinkled outside.

The man in the green vest peered out and frowned. ”Did you hear that? I just heard a tinkling sound.”

”What tinkle?”

”Outside the window. I swear I heard it...”

”There’s no one out there! Pull your head back and stay away from the window. Do you even know how to act during an ambush? Stop sticking your head out like that!” the man in the blue jacket snapped.

Li Banfeng tiptoed out of his Pocket Dwelling. Using the ability of a Wanderlust Cultivator, he climbed the wall and crept up onto the roof.

This time, the man in the green vest really did hear something and leaned out the window again.

”What’s wrong with you? I told you to stop sticking your head out. Someone might see us.” The man in blue was fuming now.

The man in the green vest leaned out the window, tilting his head toward the sky. As he did, he opened his mouth and said, ”There really is something up there... definitely above—”

He stopped mid-sentence. Li Banfeng dropped from the roof and swung his sickle, driving it straight into the man’s mouth, through his palate, and deep into his brain. The way he had been standing by the window had made the angle perfect.

The man in the blue jacket froze in shock and reached for his blade. However, the Tang Saber was faster. It flashed from its sheath and cut halfway through his neck in a single stroke.

The man in the blue jacket fell, choking on his own breath. He struck the floor with his palm, three long taps and two short. It was a signal, a warning to the men below.

Li Banfeng leapt into the room, opened the door to the Pocket Dwelling, and tossed both bodies inside. Then he stood by the bedroom door, waiting in silence.

He could have done it more cleanly. He could have killed them both without a sound, and he could have made sure the man in blue never made a single noise. But he had let the noise happen on purpose. He wanted the two downstairs to hear.

The footsteps came, pounding up the stairs. Li Banfeng waited until they were close, then opened the iron case and poured a thin layer of gluey clay across the doorway.

After setting the trap, he slipped out the window and climbed back onto the roof, ready to watch what would happen next. It was his first time using the gluey clay in real combat, and he wasn’t sure how far it would spread or what it would do.

Nearly a minute passed before the bedroom door creaked open. Two men stood in the doorway, peering inside cautiously.

The window stood open and blood splashed across the sill and floor. However, their two accomplices were nowhere in sight.

The two men felt a knot of fear in their stomachs. They had come with their mates just to give Ma Wu a beating and take his money.

Ma Wu was only a level-one Hedonism Cultivator, an easy target in their eyes. The thought that someone might die on this job had never even crossed their minds.

The two men watched for a while but saw no one inside the room. Where could he be hiding? Under the bed, perhaps?

They crept inside, each holding a dagger and covering the other’s back. Their footsteps drew closer. They took one step, then another, and a third. After that, they stopped.

The two men were stuck in place, unable to move. Panic quickly spread between them. The one in the purple shirt shouted, ”Big Bro, what’s happening?”

The other man, dressed in a dark gray Zhongshan suit, responded, ”Don’t move. It’s gluey clay.”

The man in the Zhongshan suit was clearly their leader. It was obvious that among the four of them, he had the most knowledge and experience.

And so, Li Banfeng decided that he had to take the man in gray out first.

He took out the eight-inch-barreled Colt Python revolver that Yu Nan had given him. Hanging from the edge of the roof, he steadied his hand, took aim at the man in gray, and fired six times in quick succession.

Luck was with him that day. Out of six shots, only three bullets fired, and every single one hit. The man in the purple shirt dropped like a sack of potatoes.

The Tang Saber exclaimed in admiration, ”Fine marksmanship!”

Li Banfeng was a bit surprised as well. He had been aiming at the man in gray, but somehow, all three bullets had hit the man in purple instead.

The man in gray glared up at him, getting ready to use a technique on Li Banfeng. But before he could do a thing, Li Banfeng pulled himself back onto the roof.

The man in gray was left speechless.

This fellow from the roof isn’t even fighting me properly! he thought. What am I supposed to do? Just stand here and let it go? Of course not!

He might be reloading his revolver up there. What if he came back and started shooting again?

The man in the gray Zhongshan suit was only a level-two cultivator. There was no way he could dodge bullets.

Before long, Li Banfeng hung down from the edge of the roof again, ready to fire. However, the man in gray threw up his hands and shouted, ”Friend, spare my life! We were sent by the Ma Family’s eldest young lady to find Young Master Wu! Ask me anything! I’ll tell you everything! Just let me live!”

Li Banfeng asked, ”Why does the Ma Family’s eldest young lady want to ruin Ma Wu like this?”

The man in gray replied, ”I don’t know! We just take the money and do what we’re told.”

Hearing this, Li Banfeng nodded in satisfaction. ”Oh, so you don’t know a thing. Then I suppose keeping you alive is rather pointless, isn’t it?”

Li Banfeng was about to fire again when the man in gray cried out, ”Wait! There’s more! Before we came, the Ma Family’s eldest young lady told us to beat Young Master Wu, take his money, and tell him that the old grudge from back then would be settled!”

Li Banfeng frowned. ”What grudge?”

The man in gray stammered, ”Friend, put down the gun first. We can talk this through. The eldest lady must have some grudge against Young Master Wu. I’ve heard a few things, though I’m not sure they’re true. Why don’t you call Young Master Wu over, and he can verify whether what I say is true?”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”That makes sense.”

He jumped through the window and landed back in the room. Then he spread a piece of cloth on the floor and said to the man in gray, ”Take off your shoes, step on this cloth, and walk forward. I’ll take you to see Young Master Wu.”

”Oh, good sir, thank you, thank you!” The man in gray said over and over. He quickly took off his shoes and stepped carefully onto the cloth.

Delight filled his heart. He had just saved his own life, or so he thought. Now all he needed was a chance to kill this madman when he wasn’t looking.

”Sir, are we going to see Young Master Wu right now?” he asked.

”Yes, right now,” Li Banfeng replied. He turned around, twisted the key, and unlocked the door to his Pocket Dwelling.

The man in gray was thrilled. He hadn’t expected Li Banfeng to be so foolish as to turn his back on him.

He raised his dagger and lunged toward Li Banfeng’s back.

Suddenly, Li Banfeng moved in a flash. He twisted aside and kicked hard, sending the man in gray flying straight into the Pocket Dwelling.

That man really lived up to his title as the leader, Li Banfeng thought. So thoughtful and tidy. Aside from a pair of leather shoes, he didn’t leave a single trace. Saved me the trouble of cleaning up, too.

Author’s Note:

P.S. Esteemed readers, Salagus here greets you all on this beautiful morning. Please vote for me and chat with me!

1. The pipa (琵琶) is a traditional Chinese lute, known for its pear-shaped wooden body, short neck, and four strings. It typically has 29 to 31 frets, and players pluck the strings using their fingertips or artificial nails. ☜

2. ”Blossoms Under the Full Moon” is a song mentioned in Chapter 27. It was part of the soundtrack for the film Romance of the Western Chamber. The lyrics depict the beauty of flowers in full bloom under a bright moon. The song is often used at weddings and expresses a longing for a happy life. This is a version played with the instrument pipa. You can listen to it and imagine yourself as Li Banfeng. ☜

3. How this song sounds when played with pipa ☜

4. This is a classic old Shanghai song sung by Zhou Xuan. This song was released in 1940. You can listen to it here. ☜