The Overlord of Puluo

Early next morning, two support hooks were patrolling Qiu Luoye’s territory when they spotted a plump figure walking along the newly built path leading more than a dozen people.

The three-headed people’s settlement was just ahead.

What were these people going there for? Judging by their clothes, these people clearly were not here to activate land. The support hooks sensed something was wrong and hurried off to find Ma Wu.

Ma Wu pushed the spotted snake off his bed, pulled on his clothes, and made his way to the three-headed people’s settlement.

The moment he saw that plump figure, his heart gave a jolt. It was Liao Zihui, Commissioner of Border Control Office. He had actually come in person.

More than a dozen subordinates accompanied him, all of them men of some standing in the Border Control Office. Among them was Cai Junshan, the Border Controller in charge of Convict City.

Cai Junshan called Juan over and said, ”You are the one in charge, aren’t you? Call everyone out. It’s time to go back.”

Juan was terrified. She knew Cai Junshan. She had seen the things he could do, and she knew how many three-headed people he had tormented until death would have seemed like mercy. The fear of him had been driven so deep into her that now, with him standing in front of her, even breathing felt difficult.

Even Meng, who normally rushed headfirst into trouble, had gone completely silent. Sweat stood thick on his forehead, even more than on Juan’s.

Seeing that Juan did not dare answer, Aunt Fang spoke from beside her. ”Sir Border Controller, if you want us to go back, then fine. But shouldn’t you explain a few things first...”

Cai Junshan swept her a glance. ”I wasn’t talking to you!”

Aunt Fang lowered her head and fell silent.

Cai Junshan turned back to Juan. ”This is the last chance I am giving you. If the Commissioner hadn’t come in person, I wouldn’t even have bothered looking at you. I should have ordered every last one of you killed on sight! ”Pack your things and come with me!”

Several of the three-headed people looked at Juan. She did not move, so neither did they.

Cai Junshan frowned. ”What’s wrong? Didn’t you understand what I said?”

Ma Wu walked over with a smile. ”Sir Border Controller, there’s no need to rush. Let’s talk this through calmly.”

Cai Junshan looked at him. ”Who are you?”

Liao Zihui smiled. ”Junshan, he’s a friend of mine.”

Cai Junshan glared at Ma Wu but said nothing more.

Did Cai Junshan really not know who Ma Wu was? Convict City was quite far from Greenwater Bay, but Cai Junshan must have seen Ma Wu in the newspapers before.

This had been Liao Zihui’s order. As soon as they met, Cai Junshan was supposed to intimidate Ma Wu and make him think twice before interfering.

Liao Zihui would then step in with a few soothing words, giving Ma Wu a way to save face. After that, Ma Wu would naturally keep quiet.

Ma Wu looked at Liao Zihui. ”Commissioner Liao, what’s going on here...?”

Liao Zihui gave him a look and sighed softly. ”Junyang, stay out of this. This isn’t something you should be getting involved in.”

Cai Junshan turned back to the three-headed people. ”You see? No one can help you today. I am the only one who can. I am giving you thirty seconds. Get over here and line up before those thirty seconds are up, or I won’t be so polite...”

The moment he finished speaking, he dropped to his knees with a thud and knocked his forehead against the ground before the three-headed people.

Juan froze and so did every other three-headed person.

Since when had the Border Controller become so courteous? It was because Li Banfeng had his hand firmly pressed on the man’s head.

Cai Junshan lifted his head and was just about to shout when Li Banfeng grabbed him by the head and slammed it down again.

Several bodyguards rushed forward, but when they saw Cai Junshan’s head firmly in Li Banfeng’s grasp, they did not know what to do. They turned to Liao Zihui instead and Liao Zihui ordered them to raise their steam guns.

Gunpowder was unreliable in Puluo Province, but steam guns used high-temperature, high-pressure steam, so they worked much more reliably.

Li Banfeng ignored them. He kept hold of Cai Junshan’s head and made him kowtow three more times, until his forehead split open.

Cai Junshan’s eyes turned red. It was hard to tell whether he was frightened or simply in pain.

Li Banfeng tossed Cai Junshan aside and asked, ”Little Shan, why are you crying?”

Cai Junshan gritted his teeth. ”I am not!”

”I wasn’t talking to you.” Li Banfeng turned to Juan’s third head. The child was Little Shan. He wiped away the boy’s tears and comforted, ”What are you afraid of? Come on, don’t cry.”

Little Shan sniffled. ”With Master Qi here, I am not scared.”

Behind Li Banfeng, Cai Junshan ground his teeth. ”Did you just hit me?”

Li Banfeng turned around. ”Who are you?”

Cai Junshan snapped, ”I am the Border Controller of Convict City!”

”What’s the Border Controller of Convict City doing here? Does this look like Convict City to you?”

”I am here on the Commissioner’s orders...”

”Who’s your dad? Didn’t he ever teach you any manners? Is this how you are supposed to talk to people?”

Cai Junshan could not take it anymore. He pointed at Li Banfeng. ”Li Qi, I am only talking to you because I am giving you face. Who do you think you are...”

Smack!

Li Banfeng slapped him across the face. He used a little too much force and tore a layer of skin off Cai Junshan’s left cheek.

Li Banfeng looked down at the strip of skin in his hand. ”So this is the face you were giving me?”

Cai Junshan clutched his face and whimpered under his breath, but no one could make out what he was saying.

Li Banfeng looked at the strip of skin in his hand. ”I don’t like this face you are giving me. You can have it back.”

Smack!

He slapped Cai Junshan again and stuck the torn skin onto the man’s right cheek.

That was too much for Cai Junshan. He burst into tears.

Cai Junshan was a ruthless man, the sort who had killed countless people without blinking. However, after spending so long in Puluo Province, Li Banfeng had noticed something. Men like Cai Junshan, the ones who always wore that vicious look on their faces, usually had one thing in common. They had never been beaten themselves.

Li Banfeng had guessed right. Cai Junshan had never been taken a beating in his life. Now he was sobbing his heart out, tears streaming down his face, while the Film Projector carefully recorded every precious moment.

The bodyguards behind Liao Zihui did not move. Cai Junshan’s two personal guards wanted to rush forward, but they knew they were no match for Li Qi. If they charged in, they were bound to suffer for it.

Taking a beating was not the problem. That came with the job. However, Li Qi looked like he had a very heavy hand. If they offended him, they would probably suffer quite a lot. They were only here to work as bodyguards. Why put themselves through all that suffering?

The Border Control Office did not pay them all that well either. Was it really worth suffering this much for the job? And what if they ended up badly injured, or even lost their lives? Would that be worth it?

Why were the two bodyguards suddenly thinking so much? Protecting Cai Junshan was their duty. These were hardly thoughts they should be having at a time like this.

From a distance, Miss Chu raised her brow at Li Banfeng. A moment earlier, she had quietly used a level-four Ascetic Cultivator ability, Sorrowful Thoughts of Suffering, on the two bodyguards, making them gloomy and pessimistic without them realizing it.

Liao Zihui had someone take Cai Junshan back to the car as it was simply too embarrassing to let him stand there crying.

Then he looked up at Li Qi on the hillside and spoke in a calm, reasonable voice. ”I might have been a little abrupt coming here today, but we should get things straight. If our attitude was poor, we can apologize for that. But you sheltered convicts from Convict City, and that was wrong.”

Li Qi looked down at him. ”What crimes did they commit?”

Liao Zihui smiled. ”Let’s not talk about what crimes they committed for now. Let’s first talk about why you shouldn’t have sheltered convicts.”

Li Qi shook his head. ”Let’s not talk about whether I sheltered convicts for now. I am asking you what crimes they committed.”

Li Banfeng was not falling for the whole ”let’s not talk about that yet” trick, which made things rather difficult for Liao Zihui. With no other choice, Liao Zihui could only say, ”Whether these people are guilty isn’t for me to decide. That’s...”

”If it’s not up to you, then what the hell are you talking to me for?” Li Banfeng cut Liao Zihui off. ”Tell your superior to come see me. Send me the one who actually gets to decide.”

The veins on Liao Zihui’s forehead throbbed.

The words were irritating enough on their own, but somehow they made him far angrier than they should have.

Why? Because Ma Wu was standing beside him, trying very earnestly to ”calm him down.”

”Commissioner Liao, don’t get angry. Old Qi didn’t say anything unreasonable. He makes a very good point. So who exactly is in charge here?”

Ma Wu was using a Hedonism Cultivator ability.

”Commissioner Liao, you can’t just use that big mouth of yours to keep everyone else from speaking. Go on, explain it clearly. What exactly are they guilty of?” Lu Chunying said as she walked over with Tan Fucheng and Lu Yuanxin.

”I went to bed late last night and thought I would catch up on some sleep today, but you have been making a racket since the first thing this morning,” He Yuxiu said. She yawned as she came to stand beside Li Qi.

When she saw Liao Zihui, He Yuxiu smiled. ”Well, if it isn’t Commissioner Liao. Haven’t seen you in ages. You still haven’t managed to kill me yet. Getting anxious?”

The He Family. The Lu Family. The Ma Family. The Chu Family.

Ma Wu was not exactly a member of the Ma Family in the traditional sense, but Liao Zihui knew very well that Ma Junyang’s status in Puluo Province had already surpassed that of his father, Ma Chunting.

With the members of the Four Great Families standing next to Li Qi, Liao Zihui felt this unprecedented pressure.

Liao Zihui raised his voice. ”Is the local land deity here?”

”HERE!” Qiu Luoye answered.

”Can you say something?”

”YES!” Qiu Luoye responded again.

Liao Zihui said, ”I told you before that no one was allowed to shelter convicts from Convict City. Now they have all come into your territory. Don’t you think you owe me an explanation?”

”GET LOST!” Qiu Luoye gave him his explanation.

Liao Zihui still refused to give up. ”You mean you want these convicts to get out of your territory?”

”YOU GET LOST!” Qiu Luoye had to spell it out for him.

The veins on Liao Zihui’s forehead started throbbing again. Everyone around him was ready for a fight.

Li Qi gave him a kind piece of advice. ”Zihui, go home. You look pathetic here.”

A cold look flashed in Liao Zihui’s eyes. ”You are really going this far for a bunch of three-headed people? For a bunch of monsters?”

Li Banfeng said, ”Don’t go around calling people monsters. It only shows how little manners you have.”

Liao Zihui raised his voice. ”They are monsters! That’s what they have been called in Puluo Province all these years. You still have a lot of rules to learn, and there are far too many things you don’t understand!”

Liao Zihui was deliberately trying to provoke Li Qi. However, Li Banfeng did not get angry. He advised in a solemn and earnest tone, ”Puluo Province has changed and you are falling a little behind.”

Liao Zihui shook his head. ”I have never liked change, and I have never been very good at adapting to it.”

Li Banfeng continued with another piece of advice, ”You can’t expect the world around you to adapt to you. You gotta learn to adapt to it yourself. Zihui, you really need to learn how to adapt.”

Liao Zihui’s cheek twitched. He used to say those very words himself. Back then, he had always thought they sounded both sensible and forceful. Now that someone else was saying them to him, he found them absolutely infuriating. The worst thing was that he couldn’t get these words out of his head.

Liao Zihui gave the order, and led his men out of Qiu Luoye’s territory.

Juan dropped to her knees in front of Li Banfeng and was about to kowtow, but Li Banfeng pulled her back up. When the other three-headed people started to kneel as well, he shouted, ”No kneeling! Stand up straight when you speak!”

”Dawn is upon us,” He Yuxiu said as she looked up at the sky. More and more Heavenly Light was appearing, while only a little of the dark mist remained.

Lu Chunying said, ”Brother Qi, my mother has been looking through a lot of old books lately. She’s found quite a few records about New Land becoming Proper Land. There are some things we should start preparing for early.”

Xiao Yeci nodded. ”Benefactor, we need to get the population up to ten thousand as soon as possible. We also need to make arrangements for the creatures that were already living on the New Land to leave.”

Qiu Luoye appeared beside Li Banfeng. ”Is there any way I can keep a few of my old brothers here? I can’t bear to part with them.”

Li Banfeng looked at Xiao Yeci.

Xiao Yeci nodded. ”There is a way, but the rules make it a little troublesome.”