The Overlord of Puluo

”You can hear the voice in my heart?” Li Banfeng said in astonishment. He quickly took two steps back.

Ling Miaosheng said with a smile, ”Sir, there is no need to worry. I’ll be honest with you. I am a Spycraft Cultivator. It was because I heard music in your heart that I introduced so many gramophones to you. I know you love music, and I would be glad to be your friend. But a moment ago, I heard a puff of steam from within you. I fear I cannot help you with that.

”There are only two steam gramophones made in Amikan in the entire Puluo. One is on the Lu Family’s private train, and the other has disappeared. I am guessing you have a special attachment to that gramophone, but unfortunately, I cannot help you fill that void in your heart.”

Ling Miaosheng was preparing to send Li Banfeng off.

Li Banfeng looked around and said, ”I will buy the sewing-machine gramophone and the bellows gramophone.”

Ling Miaosheng froze, then he shook his head. ”Sir, I must remind you that each gramophone has its own nature and sound. What you are looking for cannot be found in these two machines. And they are not cheap.”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”Just name your price. I’m still going to buy them.”

The two gramophones were indeed expensive. The bellows gramophone cost sixty thousand Huan yuan, and the sewing-machine gramophone cost seventy thousand.

Nevertheless, Li Banfeng believed that the gears and bearings inside them should be usable as replacements for his wife’s, so he handed over the cash without hesitation.

However, gears and bearings alone were not enough. Many of his wife’s steam-engine parts were damaged too. A connecting rod had been bent, and several water pipes were leaking. Where was he going to find replacements for those?

He noticed another gramophone in the corner of the room that Ling Miaosheng had not introduced to him.

Li Banfeng smelled the scent of fuel oil from this gramophone.

”Show me this gramophone!”

Ling Miaosheng quickly explained, ”Sir, this is not a gramophone. It is a shadow-play machine.”

A shadow-play machine? So, it’s essentially an electric film projector.

Nonetheless, this projector wasn’t electric.

Most cinemas in Puluo did not use electricity either. A film projector did not need electricity. It just needed light, a film reel, and a means to turn it.

When Ling Miaosheng lifted the cloth cover from the shadow-play machine, Li Banfeng’s eyes lit up.

This projector was exactly what he had been searching for.

It’s steam-powered!

Ling Miaosheng introduced the shadow-play machine to Li Banfeng. ”This is a steam-powered shadow-play machine from Amikan. It burns animal fat. Since you have seen a steam gramophone before, you should be familiar with how the steam engine works.”

Then he demonstrated the shadow-play machine for Li Banfeng.

He first lifted a heavy film reel into place, hung up the projection screen, and then lit the condensed fat.

Inside the fuel chamber, there were three mirrors that reflected the flame toward the backside of the lens.

The flame did not just power the steam engine; it served as the projector’s light source as well.

Once the focal distance of the projector lens was adjusted to the right length and the steam pressure within the steam engine reached the right point, the piston rose, steam burst forth, and the connecting rod drove the gears. The projector began to run.

It was a black-and-white film that ran for around fifteen minutes. The film depicted a man and woman getting stranded on a deserted island and the strange encounters they experienced there. It had almost no plot, only absurd comedic antics.

When the film reached its end, Ling Miaosheng extinguished the flame in the fuel compartment and said to Li Banfeng, ”This shadow-play machine and the steam gramophone were made by the same manufacturer. So the price is, of course, very high.”

Ling Miaosheng named a price of three hundred thousand Huan yuan.

Li Banfeng did not bargain with him. Since it came from the same manufacturer as his wife, the parts were sure to be interchangeable.

Using the excuse of returning home to fetch money, Li Banfeng left the shop. He went into the Pocket Dwelling, grabbed the money, and then returned to the shop. He paid Ling Miaosheng the full amount for the shadow-play machine—a film projector—on the spot and even purchased the two gramophones as well.

Ling Miaosheng was surprised at Li Banfeng’s straightforwardness in handling the purchases and gifted him thirty records and twenty films. Li Banfeng also bought ten barrels of animal fat and two barrels of engine oil. He hired a horse-drawn cart and loaded it with the two gramophones and the projector for delivery.

Li Banfeng gave a random delivery location, and once they reached an alley, he had the driver unload the goods immediately.

The cart driver reminded him, ”Shopkeeper Ling already paid me to carry everything into your home.”

Li Banfeng waved his hand. ”No need to take it inside. This is fine. You can head back.”

Having gotten paid to do nothing for the second half of the job, the driver left cheerfully.

Just as Li Banfeng reached for his house key to store everything in the Pocket Dwelling, he suddenly sensed malicious intent closing in from behind.

Li Banfeng snapped around and saw a young man walking quickly toward him. They were less than ten meters apart. When the young man saw that Li Banfeng had noticed him, he stopped walking and smiled at Li Banfeng.

What’s going on?

The young man had gotten so close, yet Li Banfeng had not heard a single footstep.

This man is a cultivator.

Which Daoist path does he belong to?

As he pondered that, he sensed danger approaching from all directions. Five people emerged from the lanes on both sides of the alley and surrounded him.

None of them made a sound as they walked. One stepped up and brushed a hand over the gramophones, and another touched the film projector.

A third man patted Li Banfeng. At the next instant, Li Banfeng noticed his inner pocket felt empty; his wallet was gone.

Such nimble movements and quick hands!

What Daoist path are these people from?

A man in suspenders opened Li Banfeng’s wallet and grinned at the man in a suit beside him. ”Elder Brother, look. This one is loaded. There’s over ten thousand in here.”

”Yeah, no shit,” the man in the suit replied with a smirk. ”If he wasn’t rich, could he afford such expensive gramophones? And buy so many at once? I say, brother, since you’re so wealthy, why don’t you give this money to us? Consider it as making friends with us.”

So this is Greenwater City?

Things like this happen in Greenwater City too?

Li Banfeng nodded. ”Sure, let’s become friends. What are your names?”

The six men burst into booming laughs.

The man in suspenders laughed until his stomach hurt, then he turned to the man in the suit and said, ”Elder Brother, he’s asking for your name. Are you going to tell him?”

The man in the suit smiled. ”I’m not telling you my name. We’re from the Ghosthand Sect. You can ask around Greenwater City about our reputation. Becoming friends with us won’t be a loss for you.”

”Indeed. I don’t feel like it’s a loss. I’ve given you the money in my wallet. Does that mean we’re friends now?” Li Banfeng asked.

It wasn’t easy for him to say those words. Taking his belongings crossed his bottom line, but today he endured it.

Li Banfeng did not want to linger in Greenwater City. He was in a rush to return and repair his wife. Additionally, he feared exposing his identity.

”This amount of money isn’t quite enough.” The man in the suit glanced at the wallet, which the man in suspenders was still holding. Then he looked at the gramophones beside Li Banfeng. ”Leave these gramophones. We may not know the market price, but anything from Ling Miaosheng’s shop will fetch a good price.”

Li Banfeng shook his head. ”I can’t give you the gramophones.”

The man in suspenders laughed, flashed forward, and stood before Li Banfeng. He slapped Li Banfeng’s face with the wallet. ”What did you just say? You can’t? Did you just say you can’t give them to us? Do you know what that means? Do you know—”

Swish!

Li Banfeng suddenly raised his hand and slit the throat of the man in suspenders with his mandarin-duck battle axes.

The man in suspenders clutched his neck and stared wide-eyed at Li Banfeng, his face filled with shock and terror.

Li Banfeng plucked the wallet out of the hand of the man in suspenders and used it to slap his face twice.

The man in the suit was horrified. He swung a dagger toward Li Banfeng’s neck.

Li Banfeng grabbed the head of the man in suspenders and used the back of it to block the dagger.

A black-clad man approached Li Banfeng from behind. Li Banfeng freed one of his hands, pulled out the Blood-Drinking Pendulum, and jabbed it into the neck of the black-clad man.

The man in the suit froze.

What kind of person is he?

How can he kill humans more easily than slaughtering a chicken?

***

At one in the morning, Li Banfeng carried the two gramophones and the film projector back into the Pocket Dwelling.

His wife made no sound at all. It seemed she was still asleep.

Li Banfeng sat beside her, struggling to breathe.

The scent of blood filled the air, and his wife woke up.

Puff, puff~

”Oh~ my dear~ husband.” The Gramophone’s pitch rose and fell as she spoke. ”Where have you been?”

”I went to Greenwater City. I ran into members of the Ghosthand Sect and fought them.”

”What were you doing running to Greenwater City? Aren’t there~ people trying to catch you? Why would you go~ there? Do you not want your life anymore?”

Li Banfeng let out a wry laugh. ”I thought you never cared about anything that happened outside the house.”

Huff, huff~

”The Ghosthand Sect? Thievery Cultivators? That Daoist path still exists? My dear, I’m injured, yet you did not bring back two of those thieves to nourish me~?”

”They had many people. I could not handle them all.”

”Hey~ It’s good that there were many of them. Bring them all~ back. I will take care of them.”

Li Banfeng let out another wry laugh. ”Look at the state you’re in. What if you could not beat them?”

”The state I’m in~? Do you~ dislike me now? Did I not become like this for your sake?

You brought back so much junk that the house can’t even hold it, yet you did not bring me anything to eat. You treat me so badly, so, so badly. You—why are you so badly hurt?”

The Gramophone was damaged and could not see well.

It was only at this moment that she finally noticed Li Banfeng holding his stomach, from which blood was flowing.

”My dear, why are you hurt~ so badly?”

Li Banfeng had been stabbed, and the wound was deep.

Li Banfeng leaned against the gramophone, his breathing growing heavier and rougher. ”Like I said earlier, they had too many people.”

”If there were many, why didn’t you just run? Why bring back all this junk?”

”This is not junk. These are gramophones and a film projector from Amikan. In a moment, I will take them apart and replace your damaged parts. After that, you will be fine.”

”You risked your life going to Greenwater City... just for this?”

Li Banfeng said nothing more and forced himself to stand, preparing to dismantle the gramophones and the film projector.

Huff~

However, a cloud of steam wrapped around Li Banfeng, laid him on the bed, and swirled softly as it brushed over his wound.

Li Banfeng’s lips trembled, and he gritted his teeth. ”It hurts like hell...”

The swirling steam circled around his forehead, and a wave of drowsiness swept over him. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted into sleep.

Huff, huff~

”You madman, do you even know what you amount to? You’re merely a garlic shoot, a young, inexperienced fool. You think you can save me? Who gave you the ability to do that? Who gave you the courage?”

Huff, huff.

”Do I need you to save me? I only treat you as a blade that kills, someone I trick into providing food for me. And you truly treat me as your own wife?”

The Arcane Crimson Lotus’s laughter rang out from the outer room. ”If this madman doesn’t save you, your miserable little body won’t last for much longer, will it?”

The Gramophone let out a cold laugh. ”It is just a body. So what if I lose it? I can simply get another.”

”Can you really transfer yourself into another object? Is there anything suitable for you in this house?”

”Not in this house, but there is always something suitable outside.”

”Can you even get outside? Besides, it won’t be easy for you to find something that can heat water, manage fire, and sing songs. This madman gathered everything for you.”

Huff, huff.

The Gramophone did not wish to argue with the Arcane Crimson Lotus.

She continued using her steam to caress Li Banfeng gently.

”You madman. Oh, you wonderful madman.”

Huff, huff~

Li Banfeng suddenly woke up. ”My dear, did you call me?”

Huff~

A wave of steam swept over him, sending him back into the land of dreams.

The steam coiled around him throughout the entire night.