The Overlord of Puluo

The land of Kinless Township had once been eaten away, shrinking from more than ten thousand plots to just over three thousand. No one knew why.

Madam Kinless was most likely Qiao Shaofen, yet every bit of the township’s history had been erased from the deeds. Who had done it, and what had they hoped to achieve?

There were still plenty of unanswered questions, but none of them spoiled Li Banfeng’s good mood.

After leaving the abandoned village, Li Banfeng began planning their next move.

”We build a railway through New Land and connect Big Bro Qiu’s territory to Kinless Township. Then we can use the station here to transport supplies. It will be a little more troublesome, but as long as everything runs smoothly, the transport costs shouldn’t increase by much.”

Shui Yongquan listened with a serious expression. ”If you want to manage both territories together, the local customs in Kinless Township will have to change.”

”It must change indeed and Big Bro Qiu will need to help them.”

Shui Yongquan glanced back at Qiu Luoye. Qiu Luoye was walking slowly, as though something was weighing on his mind.

Shui Yongquan asked, ”Are you thinking about where to bury your deed? It would be best to bury it somewhere near your territory, so you can keep an eye on it.”

This was something that Shui Yongquan was worried about.

Qiu Luoye responded, ”Sure.”

Li Banfeng said, ”The area right beside the territory is also right next to the boundary line. Even if we notice something happening to the deeds, we will still have to make a detour through New Land to get there. We might not be able to respond in time.”

”That’s true,” Qiu Luoye agreed.

Shui Yongquan said, ”Then leave a Contract Guardian Spirit on this side to watch over it. If anything happens, it can send word directly across the boundary line without anyone noticing. We just need to put it somewhere Elephant Qiu can see.”

Qiu Luoye nodded. ”Sure.”

Li Banfeng quickened his pace as he followed the boundary line, searching for a suitable spot.

Qiu Luoye, burdened with thoughts of his own, was walking slower and slower.

Shui Yongquan looked at him. ”Elephant Qiu, we are picking this place for you. Can you at least put some thought into it?”

Qiu Luoye lowered his voice. ”I still feel like Old Qi got the short end of the stick tonight.”

Shui Yongquan froze. So this is what Qiu Luoye is worried about...

Shen Yongquan responded, ”There’s nothing we can do about that. His cultivation is still at the Terranean Layer, so he can’t take any human auras.”

”I have already gotten a whole territory out of this. I have benefited more than enough already. I want to save fifty percent of Kinless Township’s human auras for Old Qi.”

Shui Yongquan froze. ”How long are you planning to save it for? He’s still a long way from the Cloudborne Layer.”

”I don’t think he’s that far off.”

Shui Yongquan let out a long sigh. ”Don’t forget...Going from level nine to level ten still means heading to the Inner Provinces to suffer through that ordeal. How many years do you think he will suffer there?”

”What if he doesn’t have to go to the Inner Provinces?” Qiu Luoye was pondering something that was extremely complicated for him to think about, but one he felt was worth thinking through.

Qiu Luoye continued, ”Think about it. Why does Madam Kinless have two deeds? Is it because she’s not under the Inner Provinces’ control? Can we take ours back? I don’t want anything to do with the Inner Provinces and I don’t want Old Qi to suffer there.”

Shui Yongquan fell into thought as well, only for a sudden argument to break his concentration.

”I don’t want to live anymore! I will die right here today!”

Two land activators had gotten into a fight in Qiu Luoye’s territory.

They were husband and wife. They had just received their reward for activating the land and had planned to head home and enjoy the New Year, only to learn that they could no longer leave.

The husband was not good with words and failed to explain the situation properly. Then, his wife suddenly lost control of her emotions and charged straight toward the border.

Her husband stared in shock, then rushed after her.

The people couldn’t react fast enough to stop them.

Li Banfeng realized what was happening, but he was on the other side of the border and could do nothing to stop them.

Just as the couple was about to turn into ashes, the wife charged straight across the border without so much as a scratch. Her husband charged straight through the boundary line after her.

The wife continued crying and shouting while the husband chased after her. The two of them ran all the way into Kinless Township.

Li Banfeng stood beside the boundary line and looked completely baffled.

On the other side of the border, several hunters who had been trying to stop the argument were just as stunned.

One of them was a middle-aged hunter in his forties who had seen more of the world than the others. He stared at the border and shouted, ”What matters is determination! As long as we are determined enough, we can break through the boundary line!”

Naturally, no one around him believed such nonsense. But still, how did the couple manage to cross the boundary line just now?

While everyone was still confused, they heard the middle-aged hunter shout, ”I WANT TO GO HOME! LET’S GOOO!!”

With a long yell, he threw himself at the border.

One should never overestimate a person’s ability to stay rational.

This middle-aged hunter had spent nearly a year in New Land. He worked as a land activator and later as a hunter. Day after day, he had risked his life for one reason: to save enough money to go home, build a new house, and live a good life with his wife and children. He finally made enough money now, but he couldn’t go back home. The middle-aged man was no longer in any state to think rationally.

The moment he charged at the border, the determination on the middle-aged man’s face was even fiercer than the couple’s.

He made it through! He did it! What’s going on?

The crowd on Qiu Luoye’s territory grew restless.

”I want to go home too!”

”I want to get married!”

”I want a son!”

”What’s the hurry? Aren’t we already working on that?”

”I want two!”

”Then put some effort into it!”

One person after another rushed toward the border.

The border was not supposed to be crossable! They were challenging one of the most basic facts everyone in Puluo Province knew.

Qiu Luoye blinked. ”Determination? I don’t think this has anything to do with determination.”

The three didn’t have to spend a lot of time thinking to figure out why this was happening and it really had nothing to do with determination. The boundary line disappeared because both territories now belonged to Qiu Luoye.

”A boundary line can actually disappear on its own? Could it be that the boundary lines are connected to the deeds as well?” Shui Yongquan muttered. He had lived a long life, but this was the first time he started to think what boundary lines were really made of.

”We are one family now! All one family!” Qiu Luoye did not bother thinking that deeply. He was excited. He held the deeds tight in his arms and went back into his territory happily.

”Determination! Make up your mind and charge through!” someone shouted. The people in the territory grew more and more excited. They could finally leave, and the shouting rose in wave after wave.

Li Banfeng was shouting too, forcing his way against the flow of the crowd as he yelled, ”This has nothing to do with determination! This boundary line is just gone! Stop charging around! If you run into another boundary line, you will still die!”

***

Yuezhou, Garden Stadium.

He Jiaqing took out the seal from the sewer and pressed it against the top of his head.

The seal had been left there for more than a month and had absorbed plenty of human auras.

He Jiaqing knew that taking in a large amount of human auras all at once would cause severe discomfort, and he had prepared himself for it.

As the human auras poured continuously into his body through the top of his head, He Jiaqing began trembling violently. His vision suddenly blurred, and he nearly passed out on the spot.

What happened to him? The human auras at Garden Stadium was certainly powerful, but this was not He Jiaqing’s first time absorbing it here. He shouldn’t have shown that big of a reaction.

He seemed to not be in a good state today. Perhaps he had simply been too exhausted lately.

More than half of the human auras still remained inside the seal. He Jiaqing put the seal back to its original spot, then staggered out of the stadium.

He took a taxi to a villa and stumbled up the stairs. Without even taking off his clothes, he collapsed onto the bed and soon drifted into a deep sleep.

***

”The boundary line is gone?” Liao Zihui stared at the report in disbelief, then looked up at Liu Guocai, the Border Controller of Kinless Township.

Liu Guocai nodded. ”I have already sent people to verify it. The border between the two territories really disappeared.”

”How is that even possible...” Liao Zihui pressed a hand to his forehead as a wave of dizziness came over him. He had been waiting for Li Qi to come begging him for help, begging him to build the railway, begging him to set up the checkpoint, begging him to establish a Border Control Office.

He had even prepared the lecture he was going to give Li Qi. He would teach him to conduct himself with more maturity and to follow the rules. More importantly, he would make Li Qi understand who really called the shots in Puluo Province.

Who would have expected something like this to happen? How could the boundary line just disappear? Did Li Qi do this? If he did, then this would be very serious!

Deputy Commissioner Tang Huanjie said, ”Commissioner, I suspect Li Qi has already figured out how to control the boundary lines.”

”Impossible...” Liao Zihui said, but the way he said it did not sound very confident.

Tang Huanjie advised, ”Commissioner, we should report the situation in Kinless Township to our superiors immediately. This could change the entire landscape of Puluo Province and we cannot bear the consequences.”

”Yes...yes, you are right. We cannot bear such consequences,” Liao Zihui muttered. He seemed to snap out of his daze and quickly called in his secretary, Ling Sujun. ”Draft the report at once. Coordinate directly with Controller Liu on the details.”

Liu Guocai and Ling Sujun were just about to leave when Liao Zihui suddenly called them back. ”Wait. Don’t start the report yet. Go outside first and wait for my orders.”

He had just told them to write it, and now he had changed his mind. Liu Guocai and Ling Sujun looked at each other in confusion. Still, seeing the state Liao Zihui was in, they didn’t dare to ask. They just hurried out of the office.

Only Liao Zihui and Deputy Commissioner Tang Huanjie were left in the office.

Tang Huanjie asked, ”Commissioner, what are you still hesitating about? This is a serious matter. We can’t delay this.”

Liao Zihui sorted through his thoughts. After more than thirty years being in position, he had seen enough trouble to know not to panic. Gradually, he calmed himself down and said, ”I know it’s serious. The boundary line between the two territories just disappeared. Do you really think Li Qi did it?”

”Who else could it be?”

Liao Zihui shook his head. ”That was the removal of an entire boundary line. We can’t even do something like that.”

”That’s exactly why this is such a serious matter,” Tang Huanjie said. ”We have to report it to our superiors at once.”

”We are only finding out now that Li Qi is capable of doing something this powerful. If we report it just like this, won’t that leave us on the back foot?”

Tang Huanjie nodded. ”Sir, that is indeed correct. But if we know about it and don’t report it, we will be in an even worse position.”

”I never said we should hide it. We just don’t know enough yet. We can’t rush to report something this important when we still haven’t figured out who Li Qi really is.”

Tang Huanjie quickly made it clear that he was not to be blamed. ”Commissioner, we have already gotten to the bottom of that. His name is Song Zhuowen and he’s from the Ridges of Bottomless Stomachs, and he’s a level-five Wanderer. I reported all of this to you before.”

Liao Zihui shook his head and said, ”No. Something’s off. There are still things that don’t add up.”

Tang Huanjie looked puzzled. ”Commissioner, you keep saying there’s something suspicious about this, but we have been going over it for so long and still haven’t figured out what doesn’t add up.”

Liao Zihui was silent for a moment. ”We need to keep investigating. We have to find out exactly who Li Qi is, and we need to look into what’s happening in Kinless Township as well. We simply don’t know enough yet.”

Tang Huanjie did not agree with him, but Liao Zihui had already given the order, so he did not dare to say anything more.

After Tang Huanjie left the office, Liao Zihui immediately had Deputy Commissioner Bai Zhiming called in.

”Zhiming, we are still in contact with Madam Kinless, the land deity of Kinless Township, aren’t we?”

Bai Zhiming nodded. ”Our relationship with her is fairly good, but you know the rules in Kinless Township. They are always talking about being ’neither kin nor friends.’”

Liao Zihui nodded. ”I know her temperament. Go collect a batch of dark matter stabilizers and tell them I approved it. Someone can submit the paperwork afterward. Take the stabilizers with you and head to Kinless Township right away. Ask the land deity what happened to the boundary line. You must go there yourself. As soon as you learn anything, report back to me. Don’t tell anyone else about this. Leave now!”

Author’s Note:

PS: What exactly happened to He Jiaqing? Did he absorb too much human aura, or did he get poisoned by the steel wool?