The Overlord of Puluo

Li Banfeng had run for over half an hour and was now more than fifteen kilometers away from Greenwater Bay.

The land lay wide and empty. There were no villages, no homes, and not a single traveler in sight. Only wild grass swayed in the wind beside a lonely, unattended lake.

Li Banfeng thought the spot was just right. He reached for the key, ready to free the poor fellow he had dragged out of the mud. Just then, a middle-aged man came rushing toward him, swift as a sudden gust of wind.

”Big Beardie, where did you come from?” The middle-aged man wore a short gray striped jacket and held a black-stemmed cigarette between his teeth.

Big Beardie? Li Banfeng felt a twitch in his eye. He had stuck a fake full beard onto his face, but he still wasn’t used to being called this.

”What do you need from me?” Li Banfeng asked as he stared at the middle-aged man with a fawning smile.

With the cigarette pinched between his fingers, the man said, ”Our master wants to meet you.”

”Do I know your master?”

”Do you not know the Lu Family of Puluo Province?” the middle-aged man replied.

This middle-aged man was Huang Guangshi, a Wanderlust Cultivator that worked under Monkey Qiu.

Monkey Qiu had ordered him to seize anyone carrying a gramophone. Li Banfeng had nothing of the sort, so what exactly had caught Huang Guangshi’s attention?

Huang Guangshi was a man who excelled at seizing opportunities. While the others scattered to hunt down whoever carried the gramophone, he took a more calculated approach. He tracked down Xing Qiushan, the Ghosthand Sect’s Junior Pickmaster, asked what Li Banfeng looked like, and learned that his most recognizable trait was a fully bearded face.

So while everyone else searched for someone with a gramophone, he simply looked for anyone with a full beard. It saved him from pointless fights and gave him a far better shot at getting the right person.

Li Banfeng said, ”I have heard of the Lu Family, but there’s no reason your master would know me.”

”You will know when you arrive. Our master is waiting.” Then, without a warning, Huang Guangshi lunged to seize him. He moved with such speed that even his afterimage couldn’t be seen clearly.

Li Banfeng knew at once what he was facing: a Wanderlust Cultivator.

From the way the man had popped out of nowhere and from the crisp snap of his strike, it was clear his cultivation level was higher than Li Banfeng’s.

Li Banfeng carried the physique of a level-two Homebound Cultivator, and he had only stepped out of his Pocket Dwelling not long ago. His whole body shrank in with a neat little jolt as he stepped back and dodged the incoming attack.

Huang Guangshi let out a laugh. ”So you’re a cultivator. Looks like I found the right man.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Huang Guangshi closed in with a sudden step. It came without the slightest warning. His figure vanished from where he stood, as if he had slipped cleanly through the air and reappeared an instant later.

What level of cultivation could move like that? In truth, Huang Guangshi’s cultivation wasn’t high at all. He was only level two.

As Huang Guangshi moved in close, a spike nearly fifteen centimeters long snapped out from his fingertip and shot toward the center of Li Banfeng’s brows.

Seeing this, Li Banfeng backed away again.

However, Huang Guangshi was a very patient man. With the spike in hand, he kept pushing forward and forcing Li Banfeng back until they reached the lakeside.

This was Huang Guangshi’s tactic, and it was also the common approach used by most Wanderlust Cultivators.

The wild lake was overgrown with weeds, with foxtail grass rising taller than a grown man. An ordinary person walking through it would, with just one careless step, be tripped up by the tangle of roots and stalks.

In this kind of terrain, Wanderlust Cultivators moved with an ease that gave them a decisive advantage.

Although Li Banfeng was also a Wanderlust Cultivator, his level was lower than Huang Guangshi’s. If he fought head-on, it would only be a matter of time before he lost.

Seeing that Li Banfeng had walked straight into his trap, Huang Guangshi decided it was time to pull the net tight.

He moved so fast it felt like he had teleported. In the blink of an eye, he stepped around in a quick loop and popped up behind Li Banfeng. Then he lifted the spike, ready to jab it straight into his spine.

Huang Guangshi was a very experienced fighter who knew exactly where to strike. If he landed this strike, Li Banfeng would be paralyzed from head to toe yet perfectly able to speak, which meant no chance of escape and not a moment’s delay when it came to asking questions.

Yet Li Banfeng did not dodge nor fight back. He simply disappeared out of nowhere.

Huang Guangshi froze in surprise. What on earth is this? An enchanted artifact at work, or some clever invisibility technique?

As he searched for any sign of Li Banfeng, he suddenly felt a prickling warning that danger was rushing in from the right.

By the time he turned, it was already too late. Li Banfeng’s iron ruler struck first, driving straight into his cheek.

By darting in and out of his Pocket Dwelling, Li Banfeng completely threw off Huang Guangshi’s usual fighting rhythm.

Huang Guangshi tried another quick teleport to free himself from the iron ruler, but it failed. With an easy little tug, Li Banfeng dragged him straight into the Pocket Dwelling.

Inside the house, Huang Guangshi clutched the wound on his face and looked around.

It was utterly dark, so dark he couldn’t make out where he had ended up. Li Banfeng, of course, needed no light. This was his own house, after all.

Even without opening his eyes, Li Banfeng knew every corner and crevice of his home. He could walk about without stepping on a single thing, never reached for the wrong chamber pot in the middle of the night, and certainly never crawled under the wrong quilt to find the wrong wife. These were, after all, the basic qualifications of a proper homebody.

Before Huang Guangshi could work out what was happening, Li Banfeng swung a sickle and sliced into his right hamstring.

Huang Guangshi, now limping on one leg, still tried to resist. So Li Banfeng flipped his grip and drew another stroke, opening a gash more than half a foot long across his belly.

Once a level-two Wanderlust Cultivator stepped into the house of a level-two Homebound Cultivator, he basically had no chance of fighting back.

With a plop, Huang Guangshi dropped to his knees and cried out, ”Our master only wants to ask you a few questions! I’m just following orders! Sir, spare my life!”

Li Banfeng asked, ”Did your master specifically say he wanted to meet me?”

At this moment, Huang Guangshi didn’t dare lie or beat around the bush, so he told the truth. ”Our master is looking for a bearded man carrying a gramophone.”

Li Banfeng laughed. ”There are countless bearded men in Greenwater City. Are you planning to arrest them all?”

Pop... crackle... pop...

The gramophone laughed as well.

A burst of fire lit up the room, and the gramophone, tapping out a slow, lazy rhythm, started to sing.

”What crime is it to own a gramophone?

”What law condemns its song?

”By what authority, by what right,

”Do you seize a soul for sound alone?

Hearing the gramophone’s voice, Huang Guangshi’s whole body trembled with fear.

He had heard plenty of records played on a gramophone, but he had never heard of a gramophone that could talk to people.

However, what made him shiver even more came next.

In the flicker of the firelight, he noticed a coat on the floor. It was a yellow wool coat custom-made in Ingris. A renowned Ingris tailor had made this garment especially for Lu Dongliang. How had it ended up here?

A gramophone, a big beard, and the master’s coat... Huang Guangshi thought. Could it be...

He lifted his head toward Li Banfeng. ”You are...”

He did not dare finish the sentence.

The man before him might truly be Li Banfeng.

Did Li Banfeng kill Master Lu? That’s impossible! With the master being such a high-level cultivator, no one in Puluo Province can possibly kill him.

Li Banfeng could not be bothered to waste words. He hooked Huang Guangshi on the chin with the sickle and said to the gramophone, ”Wifey, have your meal.”

Pop... crackle... pop~

”Husband dear~ Thanks for loving me. But this little wifey is not hungry at all.”

Li Banfeng stopped mid-motion, as if someone had yanked his strings.

”Wifey,” he gasped, ”say that again. My ears must be playing tricks on me!”

”Husband dear~ This little wifey truly is not the slightest bit hungry.”

Li Banfeng suspected something was wrong with his wifey. Then again, maybe that stab to his belly had knocked his hearing loose.

Wifey said she’s not hungry? Really? That can’t be right. It must be because she’s still damaged from before. Since the repairs aren’t done, she should be eating even more!

”Wifey, I brought the ingredients back. Have a few bites, won’t you? Just a little snack.”

”Ohhhhhh~ Husband dear~ How you love your little wifey so much. But this little wifey has been terribly rude to turn you down. Let me ask this man first... which Daoist path do you follow?”

A puff of steam struck Huang Guangshi’s face.

Huang Guangshi answered truthfully, ”I am a Wanderlust Cultivator...”

”A Wanderlust Cultivatooooor? Hek..hek..hek~”

The sound of gongs and drums sounded as the little wifey’s smile twisted into something even more sinister.

”The ninth-level soul my Husband once brought back was a Wanderlust Cultivator.

”And now the man before me is a Wanderlust Cultivator as well.

”Tell me, tell me, why does the world overflow with Wanderlust Cultivators today?”

The gramophone sounded more and more menacing.

Li Banfeng froze in shock. Why does Wifey hate Wanderlust Cultivators so much? And what does she mean by me bringing back a ninth-level soul? I never did that!

Before Huang Guangshi could answer, Wifey sliced a layer from his soul.

”All the Wanderlust Cultivators under heaven should be sliced a thousand times over!” she roared, and then she sucked in his soul with a long, delighted slurp, very much like someone enjoying a bowl of noodles on a cold night.

Li Banfeng was confused and asked, ”Why should Wanderlust Cultivators be sliced a thousand times?”

The gramophone munched and giggled at the same time. ”Because they absolutely deserve to die! Husband dear, you’re a Homebound Cultivator. Don’t you hate Wanderlust Cultivators?”

Li Banfeng let out two dry, nervous laughs. ”Hate them. Yes, yes, I hate them a lot... terribly much... absolutely.”

That shouldn’t be it... Li Banfeng thought. Wifey wouldn’t hate Wanderlust Cultivators just because my Daoist path clashes with theirs. That doesn’t make sense. There has to be another reason behind this.

”He is also...”

Through the agony, Huang Guangshi tried to shout that Li Banfeng was a Wanderlust Cultivator.

Cold sweat burst out on Li Banfeng’s skin. Before the words could escape, he saw the Bronze Lotus spit out a dewdrop that shot straight into Huang Guangshi’s mouth, choking the rest of the sentence off.

The Bronze Lotus and the gramophone were old acquaintances. She knew it was best not to mention Wanderlust Cultivators too often in front of the gramophone.

The gramophone barked, ”Such terrible manners! I have not even finished eating, and you are already grabbing your chopsticks!”

The Bronze Lotus spat at the gramophone, and the two fell into a noisy little scuffle. In all the fuss, the topic of Wanderlust Cultivators was conveniently forgotten.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Li Banfeng stared at the yellow wool coat on the floor, a nagging sense of familiarity tugging at him.

So many strange things happened today. Wifey refused to eat and even brought up a ninth-level Wanderlust Cultivator for no apparent reason. Now, even after reluctantly taking a bite, she still seemed distracted, busy fighting with the Lotus.

”Wifey, what on earth did you eat to make yourself so full?”

”Heyyyyaaaaaaaa~ Husband dear~ You just brought the groceries home. How did you forget so quickly?”

Groceries?

Li Banfeng had no memory of getting ”groceries.” All he remembered was bringing home three gramophones, which the Crimson Lotus happily refined into a pill packed with little gears before feeding it to Wifey. And honestly, the refinement had worked remarkably well...

WAIT. A. MINUTE.

It was at this moment that Li Banfeng recalled where the yellow wool coat had come from and he asked, ”Where is the man I rescued?”

”Eaten,” Wifey replied with perfect calm. ”We sisters ate him together.”

”How could you simply eat him! Do you know who that is? That is someone that can bring us good fortune!”

Whoosh~

With gongs and drums still pounding loud, the gramophone sang clear and proud.

”Fortune has come, fortune has stayed, our whole family shares the gains!”

A puff of steam drifted over, and two stacks of old newspapers slipped into the gramophone’s casing.

Click. A flat mirror inside the casing twirled into place and cast firelight straight into the gramophone’s horn.

A beam of light shot from the horn and struck the wall, and the curtain hanging there opened in response.

Wifey had inherited the projector’s function.

On the screen appeared a photograph taken from a news piece about the Lu Family’s successful land activation. Many key members of the Lu Family stood in the shot, and Wifey had drawn a neat circle around Lu Dongliang’s face.

The second photograph showed the Lu Family acquiring two medicinal trading houses in Medicine King Gully, and once again Wifey had circled Lu Dongliang’s face.

The third photograph showed the Lu Family purchasing the Paramount Club from the Chu Family.

The fourth photograph showed the Lu Family acquiring the He Family Bank.

The fifth photograph showed the Lu Family taking over a plot of Ma Family’s land.

The sixth photograph showed Lu Dongliang lying in the Pocket Dwelling with his face smeared with mud.

Li Banfeng stared at the screen in horror. ”Wait... the fellow I brought back just now was Lu Dongliang?”

”This little wifey knows not his name,

”Only that his face matched the man in the papers.

”A ninth-level Wanderlust Cultivator, rare in all of Puluo Province,

”His death was just, his fate was sealed,

”All Wanderlust Cultivators deserve to be killed!

”This little wifey has eaten her fill,

”That foul-mouthed Hanxue has eaten her fill too.

”Only that wretch Crimson Lotus is still chewing away.

”Ah, this grand feast will last for days!”

Full. They are all full... For a good long moment, Li Banfeng couldn’t quite collect himself.

Then a small sob drifted past his ear. It belonged to the Threaded Earring.

Li Banfeng listened closely and caught only one line.

”Master, my life is bitter... so bitter...”

The Threaded Earring followed Li Banfeng everywhere, which meant she hadn’t gotten the chance to taste that ninth-level cultivator.

The earring could speak only a little, so she could do nothing but cry. Before Li Banfeng could figure out what she was bitter about, he suddenly heard a long sigh full of grief and indignation.

”His gifts reached the heavens yet faded,

”His heart’s great vows remained sealed.

”A fleeting chance came before him,

”And passed like a wandering cloud.”

Tang Saber began to bawl, and its crying was so miserably loud and sad.

During the fight with Madam Bagworm Moth, Tang Saber slashed three times and hopped straight into Li Banfeng’s pocket.

When they came back to the Pocket Dwelling, Tang Saber hid inside the second room and fell into a deep sleep.

It slept so outrageously long that it missed such an important meal.

Despite being nowhere near recovered, Tang Saber shot out of Li Banfeng’s pocket, stretched into a full saber, and started whacking at the Blood-Drinking Pendulum.

While doing that, it cried, ”You feast on meat and swallow rivers of blood. Why leave me neither a sip of broth nor a taste of blood?”

”I will not. Absolutely not!” the Blood-Drinking Pendulum yelled, wriggling and thrashing with all its might. In a blink, the two were rolling around the main room in a ridiculous, screeching brawl.

Having drunk the blood of a ninth-level cultivator, the Blood-Drinking Pendulum was so pumped full of energy that it went toe-to-toe with Tang Saber.

Li Banfeng ignored the ridiculous scuffle between the pendulum and Tang Saber. At this moment, there was just this one thought echoing again and again in his head.

Lu Dongliang is dead.. Lu Dongliang is dead...

The truth was, he barely knew anything about Lu Dongliang. Today was the very first time they had even met.

He had no idea why Lu Dongliang had ended up planted headfirst in the mud, but that hardly mattered now.

The man was already dead.

The head of the Lu Family had died.

The mighty man who had sent people scrambling all over the place to hunt Li Banfeng was dead.

Li Banfeng slipped out of the Pocket Dwelling and sprinted toward Blue Poplar Village while it was still dark.

He ran into the village and pushed into the wooden hut. Ma Wu was inside, and finally let out a sigh of relief when he saw him. ”Brother Li, you’re back at last. Did you buy the gramophone?”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”I bought it, hated it, and threw it on the roadside.”

”You tossed it? You went all the way into the city, risked your neck to buy a gramophone, and then threw it away?” Ma Wu was completely defeated. ”Brother Li, you really are...”

At daybreak the next morning, Ma Wu carried the two beasts he had hunted in the new land and set off toward the edge of the village to deliver the goods. Feeling rather pleased with himself, Li Banfeng tagged along.

The steam-powered road roller had only just rumbled to life. The workers were already tossing gravel and sprinkling asphalt everywhere as they began patching up the road.

Ma Wu handed over the goods and was just about to leave when Li Banfeng climbed onto the steam-powered road roller and called out to Little Chuan, ”Can you let me drive it for a bit?”

When Li Banfeng was young, he had believed that excavators were the mightiest beasts in the whole wild kingdom of construction vehicles.

That belief shattered the very first time he saw a road roller. From that moment on, he decided the road roller was the ultimate machine, a big, rumbling giant that could squash anything flat with a single, magnificent roll.

Little Chuan gave Li Banfeng a helpless look. ”Sir, I told you already, this really won’t work!”

Li Banfeng pulled out a fat stack of bills. ”I’ll pay!”

”This isn’t about money...” Little Chuan looked even more troubled.

Ma Wu shot Little Chuan a look. Little Chuan frowned and whispered, ”What if the foreman sees it?”

”It’s still early. The foreman won’t be here yet. Don’t worry!”

That did it. Little Chuan snatched the money like a man accepting his fate and let Li Banfeng plop into the driver’s seat.

There was no accelerator and no brake at all. The driver’s seat held only a steering wheel, a giant lever, and a few wheezing air valves.

Under Little Chuan’s instructions, Li Banfeng yanked the lever, shoved it into forward gear, and the steam-powered road roller gave a grumpy groan before trundling ahead at a slow, lumbering crawl.

The moment they saw Li Banfeng steering with that ridiculous burst of excitement, every worker dropped what they were doing and scrambled out of the way.

Little Chuan coached him with the care of a man handling explosives. ”Good, very good, you’re nice and steady. Sir, you can speed up now. That’s it, just crack the air valve a bit more.”

Li Banfeng twisted the air valve open.

He honestly hadn’t expected a steam-powered road roller to be this fast. With the valve flung all the way open, the thing could probably roar up to thirty miles an hour.

Huff! Huff!

Li Banfeng felt as if he were driving a train and a road roller at the same time. The thrill shot up from his toes and blasted straight out the top of his head.

Little Chuan panicked. ”No, no, you can’t open the valve this wide! Slow down, slow down, you can’t drive like this!

”Sir, what did you just say? Brake? What brake? This thing doesn’t have brakes! Quick! Open the exhaust valve and let the steam out! Open the air valve and pull the lever down! Oh no! WE ARE GOING TO FALL IN THE DITCH!”

Bang!

The road roller plunged straight into the ditch.

Li Banfeng climbed down from the driver’s seat and said to Ma Wu, ”Hire a few people and haul the road roller out.”

Little Chuan plopped down on the road roller and burst into tears. ”What are we gonna do? The foreman will be here any minute!”

The foreman showed up right on cue.

Ma Wu hurried over, greeted him, and quietly stuffed some money into his palm. Then, out of nowhere, someone bellowed, ”A bloodcall at Skygreen Field! Hurry, come see!”

Li Banfeng grew excited. ”Let’s go, Brother Ma, let’s go watch!”

Ma Wu frowned so hard his eyebrows nearly touched. ”You shouldn’t go.”

”I can go now. Honestly, I think I can!” Li Banfeng said with a delighted grin.

Author’s Note:

PS: Wild bloodcalls were divided into the Skygreen Field and the Skyblack Field. The Skygreen Field decided victory or defeat, while the Skyblack Field decided life or death. However, there was more to it than met the eye.