The Overlord of Puluo

Li Banfeng stared at the Calculation Cultivator before him in silence for a long while.

He remembered something the rickshaw driver had once told him in Medicine King Gully. ”You people look down on what I do because you think pulling a rickshaw is shameful. Well, I look down on people like you who are always gambling with your lives. As far as I am concerned, your lives are cheap.”

The rickshaw driver certainly was not the sort of person who liked risking his life, but he was a Cloudborne Layer cultivator. The Calculation Cultivator standing before Li Banfeng was only at the Terranean Layer.

No matter how cautious the rickshaw driver was, Li Banfeng could not understand why he would flee from someone at the Terranean Layer without even putting up a fight!

Convinced that the Calculation Cultivator was lying, Li Banfeng pressed him for the truth. ”I want to know exactly what happened. Why did the rickshaw driver run?”

The Calculation Cultivator answered, ”Because I told him that if he didn’t leave Yellowclay Bridge, I would turn this entire territory into Old Land.”

Li Banfeng lifted the brim of his hat with his right hand, revealing his eyes from beneath the shadow. He stared at the Calculation Cultivator. ”Go ahead and try. Let’s see if I can take your life before you make your move.”

The Calculation Cultivator said, ”Even if you take my life, it wouldn’t stop anything. The people from the Northern Bridge are waiting at the station with an enchanted artifact. The moment I die, they will know something has happened to me and board the train. As soon as they leave Yellowclay Bridge’s domain, Yellowclay Bridge will become Old Land.”

Li Banfeng said, ”So what if it becomes Old Land? The rickshaw driver already gave up the territory to you. Why would he care whether it became Old Land or not? If he was willing to risk everything anyway, why wouldn’t he dare fight you?”

”It’s different,” the Calculation Cultivator said as he raised the iron charter in his hand. ”Master Qi, you should have seen this before. It’s called a Vermillion-Writ Iron Charter. There were originally two of them. I have one, and the rickshaw driver still has the other.

”The rickshaw driver’s vehicle is special. It is bound by blood to Yellowclay Bridge. No matter who becomes the land deity of Yellowclay Bridge, as long as one deed remains on his vehicle, the rickshaw driver can retain the standing of the land deity of Yellowclay Bridge. As long as Yellowclay Bridge does not become Old Land, he will not lose that standing.

”However, the rickshaw has rules of its own. If the rickshaw driver returns to Yellowclay Bridge, he must immediately remove the deed from the rickshaw and bury it in the ground. If the deed is dug up, it must be placed back on the vehicle at once, and the rickshaw driver must immediately leave Yellowclay Bridge. If he is even a moment too slow, he will lose that standing.”

Li Banfeng thought about how much the rickshaw driver valued his rickshaw. Is that why he never lets the rickshaw out of his sight, because it’s what allows him to preserve his standing? And whenever he’s outside Yellowclay Bridge, does he always keep the rickshaw with him because the deed is inside? Or is it so he can grab the deed and flee at any moment? Has the rickshaw driver really been thinking about running away all this time?

”Even if what you’re saying is true, the rickshaw driver didn’t have to rush to dig up his own deed. He could have stalled you for a while and waited for me to arrive before figuring out what to do.”

The jianbing seller nodded. ”I calculated that possibility too. If we dragged things out for too long, there was no telling what might change by the time you arrived. That’s why I had to force the rickshaw driver to leave as quickly as possible.

”I had already narrowed down where he buried the deed. The rickshaw driver entered Yellowclay Bridge from the New Land, which meant he had to bury it as soon as he entered the territory.

”The hiding place had to meet very specific conditions. It needed to be safe and concealed, and the deed had to be buried at the right depth. Based on the rickshaw driver’s speed and the limited time he had, I calculated three places where he could have buried it.

”I sent people to watch all three locations, then told the rickshaw driver exactly what I had done. If my calculations were right, he would have no choice but to retrieve his deed and leave Yellowclay Bridge immediately. Otherwise, once my people dug it up, it would be too late for him to leave. And if my calculations were wrong, then the people from the Northern Bridge would board the train at once. Then we would see whether the rickshaw driver could still stay.”

Li Banfeng frowned. ”You calculated all of this?”

The Calculation Cultivator nodded. ”I have spent more than ten years calculating and planning for this one thing.”

No wonder he had thought everything through so carefully. He had been planning this for more than ten years.

Li Banfeng eyed the deed in his hand. ”Don’t tell me the rickshaw driver dug up his own deed and handed it to you. He couldn’t possibly be that foolish.”

The Calculation Cultivator shook his head. ”This one isn’t his. It belonged to the Star of Misfortune. I figured out where it was buried after calculating it again and again, then dug it up myself.”

Li Banfeng gave a scornful laugh. ”Now that I really don’t believe. If you managed to calculate where both deeds were buried, why didn’t you simply dig up the rickshaw driver’s? What was the point of all this scheming?”

The Calculation Cultivator calmly tucked the deed back into his clothes. ”Master Qi, if I had done that, would you have spared me? And if the rickshaw driver really lost his standing, do you think he would have let me off without a fight? I am only at the Terranean Layer. I haven’t reached the Cloudborne Layer, and I have no desire to gamble my life against people like you. I know perfectly well I wouldn’t win.

”From the very beginning, I have only wanted one thing: to make the rickshaw driver leave. I have calculated every step of this business very carefully, and I don’t do anything I don’t need to do. Take the first time you came to the Northern Bridge and ate my jianbing guozi. I could have poisoned it, but I didn’t. The odds of the poison actually bringing you down were too small, and all it would have done was make you suspicious and turn you against me.

”And about the coal I stole from you twice, I will pay you back double. That includes the coal, the transport costs, and the profit you would have made. I won’t let you lose any money because of me.”

The man was almost painfully rational, so rational that Li Banfeng could not find a single flaw in his reasoning. Even so, Li Banfeng still did not trust him.

He went to Miss Qin’s courtyard and brought Ma Wu out.

The Calculation Cultivator sighed in admiration. ”Master Qi, your subordinates really are ruthless. If I had arrived a moment later, Master Wu would have slept with my daughter.”

Ma Wu cupped his fists. ”Senior, may I ask how I should address you?”

The Calculation Cultivator replied, ”My surname is Qin. Qin Bulou.[1]”

The name was an unusual one, but Ma Wu rather liked it. ”Senior, you really don’t let a single thing slip through the cracks. Bulou is really a fitting name for you.”

Li Banfeng left the Northern Bridge with Ma Wu.

On the way back, Ma Wu said thoughtfully, ”I heard everything you two were saying outside. I think Old Master Qin is a decent man. He seems much more reliable than that rickshaw driver.”

Li Banfeng did not respond. ”Brother, head back to the mine first. Be careful on the way.”

At the crossroads, Li Banfeng headed toward the Southern Bridge and soon found the entrance to the New Land.

There was only one mountain path leading into the New Land from this side. The rickshaw driver was a Wanderlust Cultivator at the Cloudborne Layer, so Li Banfeng had no idea whether he had really fled or how far he might have gotten.

After tracking him for more than fifty kilometers, Li Banfeng finally spotted the rickshaw driver squatting by the roadside, rolling himself a cigarette with coarse tobacco.

Li Banfeng’s cheek twitched. He had not expected the man to actually run. ”Brother, what are you doing out here?”

The rickshaw driver did not look up. He knew Li Qi had arrived, but he was clearly embarrassed to face him.

”Well... Old Qi, I left in a hurry and didn’t even get the chance to tell you. That jianbing seller already explained everything, right? That’s basically what happened. I really didn’t have a choice.”

Li Banfeng asked, ”What do you mean you didn’t have a choice?”

The rickshaw driver took a drag from his pipe and spat to the side. ”I didn’t do it for myself. I am not afraid of losing my standing. I did it for Yellowclay Bridge. I can’t let Yellowclay Bridge become Old Land. My teacher left the territory to me. I can’t let him down like that...”

Li Banfeng cut him off. ”If you come back with me now, I will take you to that jianbing seller. I promise I won’t let Yellowclay Bridge become Old Land. I won’t give him the chance. Do you dare fight him?”

”Of course I dare.” The rickshaw driver took another drag from his pipe. He sounded bold enough, but he still did not get up. ”The problem is...if I go back, I have to bury the deed again. There are only a few places where I can hide it, and that jianbing seller has already figured them all out. His calculations are frighteningly accurate. If he digs up the deed...”

Li Banfeng said, ”I will have someone guard the deed for you and make sure no one digs it up. Can you trust me?”

”I trust you. Of course I do. But this is something we need to think through carefully. We have to protect the territory, and we have to protect the deed too. I don’t think I can stay in Yellowclay Bridge all the time, so this matter... Old Qi, don’t rush. Let’s discuss this first!”

Li Banfeng turned and walked away without looking back.

***

Back at the Northern Bridge, Li Banfeng went straight to the pancake stall. ”Make me a jianbing with a crispy cracker inside.”

Qin Bulou quickly prepared the jianbing and handed it over. ”Master Qi, you are back?”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”Go on then. Calculate why I came back.”

”You came back to do business with me.”

”Why couldn’t I have come back to settle the score with you?”

Qin Bulou set down his spatula. ”To tell you the truth, I was worried. There was a good chance you would come back to settle the score with me. Your temperament is unusual, so a lot of things about you can’t be calculated in the usual way. Even when I try, the result isn’t always accurate.”

Li Banfeng finished the jianbing guozi in a few bites. ”Let’s find somewhere private to talk.”

Qin Bulou led him back to his home, which was also Miss Qin’s house. Miss Qin came forward to greet him. ”Are you Master Qi?”

Li Banfeng nodded.

”I brewed a jar of wine and was hoping you could give it to Master Wu for me,” Miss Qin said and handed the wine to Li Banfeng. ”Please tell him I have no intention of pestering him. I only ask that the next time he comes, he removes the root of love from my eyes.”

The hardest thing about Love Cultivator abilities was how difficult they were to detect. Li Banfeng looked at Miss Qin. ”You can tell there’s a root of love in your eyes?”

Miss Qin shook her head. ”I can’t detect it directly, but I can work it out. Master Wu and I were complete strangers, and I am not the sort of shameless woman who would nearly give herself to a man after exchanging only a few words with him. There had to be some other method at work. I can guard against things like incense or medicated powders, and I have seen plenty of Mentalism Cultivator and Literary Cultivator abilities before. The only thing I might not have been able to defend against was a root of love.”

Li Banfeng smiled but gave no answer. Instead, he turned to Qin Bulou. ”Yellowclay Bridge has coal, mines, and no shortage of things worth selling. With brains like yours and your daughter’s, I doubt you would have much trouble running this place. So why do you insist on looking for me?”

Qin Bulou said, ”Master Qi, you know what kind of reputation Yellowclay Bridge has. Even if my daughter and I run an honest business from now on, the Great Families still won’t invest here. They might even try to make things difficult for us at every turn. If you won’t help us, Yellowclay Bridge might never get another chance to recover.”

Once again, Qin Bulou had calculated correctly. No one else even needed to interfere. Li Banfeng was already thinking of ways to make things hard for him.

”That rotten reputation is your own doing. You can’t blame anyone else for it.”

Miss Qin spoke from the side. ”Master Qi, if we hadn’t done all this, Yellowclay Bridge would have been finished.”

Li Banfeng frowned. ”What do you mean by that?”

Qin Bulou looked at him. ”Master Qi, you said my daughter and I were scheming. I will take that as a compliment. I wanted the standing of a land deity only so I could reach the Cloudborne Layer. Since I am supposedly so good at scheming, tell me this. Why didn’t I simply go into the New Land and steal the standing of some land deity there?

”Those land deities have not interacted with ordinary people for years. It would be much easier to scheme against them. So why would I insist on staying here in Yellowclay Bridge, fighting tooth and nail against the Star of Misfortune and the rickshaw driver? Neither of them is merely at level one of the Cloudborne Layer.”

Li Banfeng thought for a moment before asking, ”Is it because you wanted to absorb the human auras of a Proper Land after reaching the Cloudborne Layer?”

Qin Bulou shook his head. ”Master Qi, by the time the Star of Misfortune took over, there was hardly any human auras left in Yellowclay Bridge. In fact, places where aberrant creatures flourished might produce more human auras than this place. The problem was not only the lack of people. The Star of Misfortune had also ruined Yellowclay Bridge’s luck. If I had only been thinking about what was best for myself, I could have chosen a hundred times and still would never have chosen this place.

”However, my family has lived in Yellowclay Bridge for generations, and this is our home. I wanted to drive the Star of Misfortune away, but I could not defeat him in a direct fight. The only option I had was to make Yellowclay Bridge decline further and further until it was close to becoming Old Land. Only then could I force him to leave.”

Li Banfeng looked at Qin Bulou and his daughter. ”Are you telling me the truth?”

Qin Bulou said, ”Everyone who stayed behind at the Northern Bridge was born and raised in Yellowclay Bridge. If you don’t believe me, you can question them one by one. No matter how carefully a lie is put together, once enough people repeat it, there are bound to be inconsistencies. I am also willing to sign a contract. If even half a word I have said is false, I will accept whatever punishment follows.”

”We will definitely be signing a contract.” Li Banfeng said and took out a sheet of contract paper. ”I can take charge of developing Yellowclay Bridge, but I will decide how the profits are used.”

Qin Bulou nodded. ”Of course. All I ask is that you leave enough for those of us who were born here to make a living.”

”You don’t need to worry about that. I won’t let you lose out. But besides that, there are three things you need to agree to. The first one is the most important,” Li Banfeng said, ”The Inner Provinces have always wanted a piece of Proper Land. Now that the rickshaw driver is gone, they might try to take advantage of this opportunity. Yellowclay Bridge belongs to Puluo Province, and it can never be handed over to the Inner Provinces.”

Qin Bulou said, ”Master Qi, I will tell you the truth. I reached level ten long ago. If all I wanted was to advance, I could leave this body behind and head straight for the Inner Provinces. But these knees of mine are rather too stiff for kneeling. As long as I am alive, I won’t bend them for the Inner Provinces!”

Li Banfeng added this condition to the contract, then continued, ”Secondly, you managed to send everyone from the Northern Bridge to the station and even obtained travel permits for them. That means you have some connections with the Border Controller. If you are going to do business, you will inevitably have dealings with the Outer Provinces as well. But when something important is at stake, you need to remember which side you are on.”

Qin Bulou nodded. ”The Northern Bridge has rules of its own. I will show them to you in a moment, Master Qi. Every dealing we have with the Border Control Office has to follow those rules. If you spot anything that shouldn’t be there, please tell me.”

Li Banfeng said, ”The third condition is that I need to know about this new Daoist path of yours.”

1. Bulou means ”doesn’t leak” or ”leaves nothing out.” Ma Wu then describes him as ”not leaking even a single drop,” which means that he is someone who is extremely meticulous, thorough, and leaves no flaws. ☜