The Overlord of Puluo

Chu Shaoqiang finished writing a letter and slipped it into an envelope. Before sealing it, however, he took the letter back out and carefully went over every word and sentence one more time.

Five days had passed. It was time to give the Inner Provinces an explanation for what had happened to Guo Jinshi and Tian Dasong.

Chu Shaoqiang had taken the two of them to Qiu Luoye’s territory, hoping they could earn enough merit and level up to the Cloudborne Layer. Instead, they had lost their lives there.

For the past few days, Chu Shaoqiang had been trying to figure out how to get himself off the hook, but he still had not come up with a good excuse. He thought he would just tell the truth, but just make the truth sound a little better. Instead of simply using the word ”fail,” he could use ”slow progress” instead.

As Chu Shaoqiang was revising the letter, a man suddenly appeared before him. He had large eyes, a long face, and a pair of wings on his back that made him look like a bat.

Chu Shaoqiang knew at once that someone had arrived. The bat-like man was Wang Fuqi, his personal messenger for communicating with the Inner Province.

Chu Shaoqiang said, ”Go get some rest. I will call you once the letter is ready.”

Wang Fuqi bowed. ”Lord Chu, I actually came to bring you some news. Something happened to the three lords guarding the deeds.”

Chu Shaoqiang was not particularly concerned. The men guarding the deeds were all high-ranking figures from the Inner Province, but whatever had happened to them had nothing to do with him. Still, if it had nothing to do with him, why had Wang Fuqi come all the way here just to tell him? Could it actually involve him after all?

”Was Qiu Luoye’s deeds contract stolen?” Chu Shaoqiang asked. This was his best leverage against Qiu Luoye. If it had really been stolen...That would be wonderful news for Chu Shaoqiang as it would help him find a really good excuse for the failure earlier.

Wang Fuqi shook his head. ”The deed wasn’t stolen. It was destroyed.”

Chu Shaoqiang found that hard to believe and asked, ”Who did it? If the deed was destroyed, it would have triggered the curse and Qiu Luoye would surely be dead. Don’t tell me he decided to kill himself.”

Wang Fuqi said, ”We still don’t know what happened to Qiu Luoye. Last night, Lord Fan was the first to notice something wrong with Qiu Luoye’s deed. The moment he touched it, he caught fire, and the flames spread across his whole body.

”Lord Lu tried to save him, but the fire jumped onto him too. Both of them were burned to ash. The others ran for the door, but Lord Zhong was a little too slow. A single spark landed on him, and he was burned to ash as well.”

Chu Shaoqiang found the whole thing hard to believe. After thinking it through, he asked, ”Did someone in the Inner Provinces tamper with it? Or did someone do something to the other deed in Puluo Province, and it somehow affected the other one in the Inner Provinces?”

Wang Fuqi shook his head. ”Lord Chu, you have seen the library in the Inner Provinces yourself. Normally, not even a fly could get inside. How could anyone possibly tamper with something in there?”

Chu Shaoqiang gave a short laugh. ”Fuqi, that’s because there are things you don’t know. Something did happen in the library, and not that long ago either. I still think they should start checking the people within the Inner Provinces. I don’t think someone in Puluo Province did this. If someone was capable of sending such a powerful attack through the deed, just how strong would they have to be?”

Wang Fuqi lowered his voice. ”Lord Chu, don’t bother with how strong this person is for now. I came to deliver a message. The Censorate has pinned this whole matter on you.”

”On me?” Chu Shaoqiang stared at him in shock. ”Why?”

”They say you failed to handle the matter properly and drove Qiu Luoye into taking such desperate measures. They have already laid the blame at your feet, so it is better if you start thinking about how you are going to explain yourself when you are back in the Inner Provinces.”

Chu Shaoqiang shook his head. ”Explain when I am back? I can’t go back, and there’s nothing I can say that will clear this up.”

Wang Fuqi’s expression changed. ”Lord Chu, I only came to pass along the message. Whatever else you might be thinking, I don’t know anything about it.”

He turned to leave, but Chu Shaoqiang stopped him. ”You don’t understand. If I go back now, I won’t be able to explain any of this. All I will be doing is walking straight into punishment, and if things go badly, I could even lose my life.”

”Then what do you intend to do, Lord Chu?”

”What do the higher-ups want? Land. Proper Land. So we need to take the land back for them!”

Wang Fuqi nodded. ”I will take a look at Qiu Luoye’s territory and see what the situation is like now.”

Chu Shaoqiang sighed. ”You are still thinking of going after Qiu Luoye? There are three thousand three-headed monsters over there. How many people would we have to bring just to take that territory? We would be better off looking somewhere else.”

”But if Qiu Luoye is dead, we might be able to take over the place without much trouble.”

Chu Shaoqiang shook his head. ”Is Qiu Luoye really dead, though? At this point, I can’t even tell what’s going on.”

***

Qiu Luoye, still wrapped in bandages from head to toe, was gnawing on a pumpkin. The moment he finished one, he picked up another and dug right in.

Ma Wu looked puzzled. ”Big Bro Qiu, since when did you start liking vegetables?”

Before Qiu Luoye could answer, the rock chimed in from the side. ”Master Qiu has always preferred vegetables. Whenever he eats meat with you lot, he’s only doing it to fit in. He’s an elephant, so vegetables are what really hit the spot...”

Bam!

Tiger kicked the rock. It had nothing to do with the vegetables. The problem was what the rock had said about Qiu Luoye being an elephant.

The Tiger snapped, ”Master Qi already told us we are not allowed to call Master Qiu an elephant anymore. How did you forget that so quickly?”

Although the deed had been destroyed, Li Banfeng did not want Qiu Luoye connected to the name Elephant Qiu in any way, so he forbade everyone from ever mentioning the nickname again.

Qiu Luoye had regained his standing, and his cultivation had stabilized as well. How much of his fighting strength had actually recovered, however, remained unclear.

Qiu Luoye himself had no idea as well and all he could do for now was eat as much as possible.

After finishing another pumpkin, Qiu Luoye wiped his mouth. ”Pumpkin skin is good stuff. Eat the skin and grow some skin! Where did Old Qi go? I haven’t seen him all day.”

Ma Wu said, ”Old Qi is exhausted. He said he wants to get two solid days of sleep.”

Qiu Luoye picked up another pumpkin. ”I owe Old Qi too much. I don’t even know how I am ever going to repay him.”

Ma Wu smiled. ”Brother Qiu, don’t worry about that yet. Once you have eaten your fill, get some sleep too. Focus on recovering first. You can think about the rest once you’re back on your feet.”

***

Inside the Pocket Dwelling, Li Banfeng was not sleeping at all. He was having an art lesson. His teacher today was not the Pendulum, but Hong Ying.

Hong Ying had been born into a distinguished family and given a fine education from an early age. She knew her way around the qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting, though painting was where she truly excelled.

Her style was quite different from Pendulum’s Western painting techniques. Hong Ying had studied traditional ink wash painting instead. She felt along the paper with her hands to judge its size, then began to paint. Before long, she had finished a portrait of a beautiful woman bending down to pick flowers. The woman had delicate features and a graceful figure. The only problem was that she was not dressed very properly.

The Gramophone took one look and scoffed. ”You shameless hussy! Aren’t you embarrassed to paint something like that?”

Hong Ying spat, ”Bah! You have the nerve to talk about shame? Have you forgotten what you were like last night?”

The Gramophone tapped out a slow beat and sang softly, ”What happened last night? What’s wrong with being affectionate with my own man?”

Hong Ying ignored the Gramophone. She hung the painting on the wall and turned to Li Banfeng. ”Darling Qi, what do you think of this painting?”

Li Banfeng gave a cold snort. ”I can’t even be bothered to look at such an indecent painting.”

”Then do me the favor of looking at it please!” Hong Ying exclaimed as she pointed at the painting. ”This is the front door, and this is the back door. There are only two places. How could you possibly mix them up?”

Li Banfeng explained, ”I drank a little too much last night. I really didn’t know it was you. I thought you were my wifey. There’s nothing to distinguish when it’s my wifey.”

”YOU MADMAN! YOU WON’T ADMIT IT! SO I SUFFERED FOR NOTHING!”

On the surface, Li Banfeng was arguing with Hong Ying. But deep down, he was thinking about something else. He was going over everything that had happened when they saved Qiu Luoye.

They had passed the first trial with a Folly Cultivator ability. They had passed the second trial with Crimson Lotus’s pills. And they had passed the third trial with Zhang Wanlong’s seeds.

On the surface, these people had nothing to do with one another. Yet by using what each of them had provided, Li Banfeng had managed to break out of a seemingly impossible situation, one created by the Inner Province.

Could there be some connection between them?

Once Hong Ying had calmed down a little, the Gramophone leaned its horn close to Li Banfeng’s ear and lowered its voice. ”Husband dear, where did you learn the Skill of Fleshbuilding?”

Li Banfeng had no reason to hide it from his wifey. ”I learned it in Yuren City.”

”Yuren City?” His wifey found that strange. ”Husband dear, that ability doesn’t seem like something that came from the Folly Cultivators.”

Li Banfeng asked, ”Then which Daoist path do you think it came from?”

”I don’t understand the principles behind the ability, so I wouldn’t dare to make a wild guess,” the Gramophone responded. As she spoke, her voice became softer and softer. ”Husband dear, would you be willing to teach it to your little wifey?”

Li Banfeng smiled. ”If my wifey wants to learn, of course I will teach.”

The Gramophone sent everyone else away until only the two of them were left in the main room. Li Banfeng then explained the key points of the ability.

”When I first learned the Skill of Fleshbuilding, I thought it worked by attaching a soul to a body. It was only after I understood how the thing really worked that I realized I had it completely backwards. The soul isn’t glued onto the body at all. The body is glued onto the soul. There are two main parts to this: building up the flesh and piecing it together.

”You build the flesh from the inside out, then patch everything together from all sides until there are no gaps left. The important thing is making it look real. Wherever one piece of flesh joins another, the fit has to be perfect. Not even the tiniest seam can be left showing.”

When the Gramophone heard the explanation, she felt even more confused as she said, ”Husband dear, this seems to be an Adhesion Cultivator’s ability.”

”An Adhesion Cultivator ability?” Li Banfeng had heard Qiu Luoye mention Adhesion Cultivators before, but he knew very little about the abilities of that Daoist path.

The Gramophone asked, ”Husband dear, you are not an Adhesion Cultivator, so how did you manage to use one of their abilities?”

”I couldn’t have learned it on my own,” Li Banfeng said. He took a box of paste from inside his clothes. ”I brought this back from Yuren City. This is all you need to stick the flesh together.”

The gramophone took the paste with her needle and held it near her horn for a sniff. She gave a cold snort. ”It smells of rouge and powder. I wonder which little vixen gave this to you!”

Li Banfeng nodded approvingly. ”Wifey has a good nose. That woman wore a great deal of rouge and powder.”

The Gramophone blasted him in the face with steam. ”You shameless madman! You go around seducing women, and you still dare admit it so openly?”

Li Banfeng just chuckled. He didn’t defend himself, but just continued teaching his wifey the way to use this glue.

After leaving the Pocket Dwelling, Li Banfeng checked on Qiu Luoye’s condition, then asked Ma Wu how business was going.

Ma Wu sighed and said, ”This is the Lower Thirty Percent area and it’s not easy doing businesses in territories here. If we want to build Qi Qiu City into something prosperous, we’ll have to put a lot more thought and effort into it.”

Li Banfeng looked to the east. ”The Ink Fragrance Shop is over there, isn’t it? Is business any better on that side?”

Ma Wu did not quite know how to explain it. ”The Ink Fragrance Shop is a territory of scholars. That’s where Shen Rongqing came from, so she knows how those people think. If you know how to deal with them, you can just about do business there. Business won’t thrive, but it will sustain itself. If you don’t know them well, you won’t get anywhere.”

”What are scholars like?”

Ma Wu shook his head and said, ”I don’t know for sure and I can’t explain it clearly either. I went to the Ink Fragrance Shop twice when I was young, and I didn’t want to stay there a moment longer. Old Qi, we would be better off focusing our efforts somewhere else. The less we have to do with the people there, the better.”

Li Banfeng said, ”Qi Qiu City is going to become the pride of Puluo Province someday. How can we avoid dealing with our own neighbors?”

Lu Chunying spoke from the side. ”Big Bro Qi, my mother wants to take me to the Ink Fragrance Shop too. Why don’t we all go have a look together?”

Li Banfeng glanced at Xiao Yeci. ”Then let’s go take a look.”

Xiao Yeci turned to He Yuxiu. ”Big Sis, are you coming?”

He Yuxiu shook her head again and again. ”What would I go there for? To make myself suffer?”

The next morning, Li Banfeng boarded a train to the Ink Fragrance Shop with Xiao Yeci, Lu Yuanxin, Tan Fucheng, and the others.

After getting off the train, Li Banfeng walked along the platform and immediately noticed something strange.

This station looked nothing like an ordinary train station. The floor and pillars were all made of wood and painted red, while the platform roof rose into a high ridge lined with glazed tiles. If the train had not still been sitting behind him, Li Banfeng might have thought he had stepped into the covered corridor of some wealthy estate.

Choo-choo! Choo-choo!

The train pulled away, and Li Banfeng felt the entire platform tremble beneath his feet.

When they reached the station exit, a man in a blue-green changshan stopped them. His hair was slicked neatly back, and he spoke with perfect courtesy. ”Please wait, everyone. May I see your proof of passage?”

Li Banfeng paused. ”Proof of what?”

Xiao Yeci thought for a moment, then took out the train tickets and presented them with both hands.

The man accepted them with both hands, checked them carefully, then extended his right hand toward the exit. ”Everything is in order. Please take care on your way.”

The man turned out to be a ticket attendant.

Tan Fucheng gave a snort. ”He’s just checking tickets. Why make it sound so grand and call them proof of passage?”

Lu Yuanxin reminded him, ”Brother Tan, mind your manners.”

After leaving the station, Xiao Yeci kept reminding Lu Chunying, ”Nan’nan, eh! Show them that you are well-educated and well-mannered. We mustn’t let anyone laugh at us, eh!”

Tan Fucheng hailed a rickshaw. The driver looked over the group and asked, ”Many roads lie ahead. May I ask where you wish to go?”

Tan Fucheng answered, ”To an inn.”

”There are dozens of inns in the Ink Fragrance Shop. May I ask which one you wish to visit?”

”Well...” Tan Fucheng did not know how to answer. He had been a rickshaw driver before, and as far as he knew, this job was not supposed to be this complicated.

Just then, Li Banfeng faintly heard a sigh. ”Home.”

Home? Whose home?

Author’s Note:

PS: Who was talking?