The Overlord of Puluo

It was almost dawn when Li Banfeng finally returned.

The Gramophone complained, ”Husband Dear, why were you gone for so long? You only spent a few hours at home yesterday. How could a level-eight Homebound Cultivator be like you? Fortunately, the Old Man is busy building the train station, or he would definitely have fought you.”

Li Banfeng wiped the sweat from his body and said, ”I couldn’t put my mind at ease, so I made a round of the territory. I’ll stay home during the day today.”

He slept until noon, but Li Banfeng could not stay home any longer. He wanted to go out for a walk, so he found an excuse and left again.

The Old Man was busy with the train station and indeed had no interest in dealing with Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng first went to take a look at the plot of New Land. Miss Chu and Old Bull were resting with their respective groups of people on the plot. The two parties had agreed to fight for only one afternoon each day. They would rest during the remaining time. Neither side would launch surprise attacks, and they were absolutely forbidden from attacking each other’s wounded.

Miss Chu was frightening when she went mad, but once rules had been established, she followed them to the letter. Less than ten minutes before the battle for the day began, Old Bull’s formation was still incomplete, yet Miss Chu and her people waited quietly, with no intention of launching a surprise attack. After the battle began, the two parties were still evenly matched.

Seeing that, Li Banfeng did not stay long. He returned to the Pocket Dwelling to fetch his painting supplies, then he went up the mountain again.

There was no thunder this time, so it should be safe for him to go up the mountain. The humidity levels in the mountain were even higher than yesterday, and much of the paper Li Banfeng had brought got wet.

After circling the mountain more than a dozen times, Li Banfeng finally found Fu Taiyue. His hand was hidden beneath his sleeve, with only the tip of the brush extending beyond it. His sleeve was stained with quite a bit of ink.

The portrait Li Banfeng had seen the day before was gone, perhaps because it had already been completed. Fu Taiyue was working on a new piece. This time, he was painting a middle-aged man around forty. A brush and inkstone sat beside him, and his eyes were filled with yearning.

Yet, once again, Fu Taiyue had not painted the hands, and Li Banfeng still could not make out what the figure in the painting was doing. The Blood-Drinking Pendulum and Hong Ying had both said that painting hands was a fundamental skill, but given Fu Taiyue’s skills, he should not have any problems with the basics.

”Old Mr. Fu, is there a reason you never paint the hands?” Li Banfeng asked.

Fu Taiyue remained silent for a long while before saying, ”Have you grasped the frame of mind for the Dao of Brushwork?”

Isn’t it a little early to be talking about the frame of mind already? Besides, I have no intention of entering the Dao of Brushwork.

Li Banfeng did not rush to set up the conversational slope. He focused on learning the painting techniques first. He had the Glove bring him a writing desk, paper, brushes, and an inkstone. Then Li Banfeng learned from Fu Taiyue and practiced at the same time.

It was almost noon when Li Banfeng felt he had learned enough for the day. He had the Glove put away the desk and left one hundred silver dollars for Fu Taiyue.

For a famous painter in Puluo, a tuition fee of this amount was perfectly reasonable. It was only natural that Li Banfeng paid to learn how to paint from him. Setting up the conversational slope did not necessarily have to be done with words.

Does this old gentleman have anything to eat out here in these desolate mountains?

Li Banfeng placed two cans of food beside Fu Taiyue and descended the mountain alone.

Fu Taiyue stared at his painting for several hours.

That evening, he used a porcelain cup to collect some dew. He wanted to pour it into the inkstone to grind his ink, but he was somewhat reluctant to use it. Fu Taiyue brought the porcelain cup to his lips, his eyes showing a deep longing for even just a sip.

The man in the painting said to Fu Taiyue, ”You can’t drink it. Whatever you do, don’t drink it.”

Fu Taiyue opened his mouth and poured the water into it.

The man in the painting warned, ”Don’t swallow it. Spit it out, quickly!”

Fu Taiyue held it in his mouth for a while, then he spat it out.

He looked at the cans on the ground. This time, he truly could not resist.

The man in the painting warned again, ”You can’t eat it. Not even one bite. If you eat it, it’s over.”

”Wouldn’t waiting here to starve to death also be the end?”

”One more day alive is one more day that you have. Perhaps you can still make it down the mountain?”

Fu Taiyue shook his head. ”I can’t get down. Even if I did, it would be useless!”

He bit open the metal can with his teeth and poured all the meat and broth from the can into his mouth. He chewed for a long time, but this time he could not bear to spit it out. Fu Taiyue swallowed the meat and broth, then he immediately bit open the second can.

The man in the painting sighed repeatedly, but there was nothing he could do to stop Fu Taiyue.

***

That night, Li Banfeng woke up in the middle of the night again.

The Gramophone yawned and said, ”Husband Dear, you can’t sleep again?”

”I want to go out and take a look again.”

Hong Ying yawned and chimed in, ”Keep this up, and it’ll become an obsession. Talk to the Old Man another day, and let me out. I’ll kill that painter and put your mind at ease.”

By the time she finished speaking, Li Banfeng had already gathered his things and left.

Quite some time after Li Banfeng left, the Gramophone felt that something was wrong. ”Ying, I have something to ask you.”

”What now?” Hong Ying said impatiently. ”He finishes making a fuss, then you start. Are you going to let anyone sleep?”

”Why does Husband Dear keep wanting to go outside?”

”He has a sweetheart outside. Are you angry?”

”You’ve seen the way he looks... Do you think he’s about to advance?”

”Advance to what?” Hong Ying let out a snort. ”He just advanced to level eight. Do you think cultivation progress is that easy to earn?”

”Cultivation, easy to earn...” the Gramophone muttered. She pondered for a long while before suddenly saying, ”He really might have earned quite a lot of cultivation progress. That mountain might not have been painted!”

Hong Ying did not understand. ”If it wasn’t painted, how else could it have come about?”

How else could it have come about?

The Gramophone could not think of an answer to that question either.

”Sir,” the Gramophone called to the Old Man, ”call that madman back first.”

The Old Man gave no response.

Hong Ying said, ”He’s been busy building the train station. He didn’t sleep at all last night. Then he worked all day today. He’s sleeping soundly now. How could you possibly wake him?”

”Building the train station, the large train station... Heavenheart Stones. Now I understand why this happened so coincidentally!” the Gramophone yelled. ”This is bad! Sir, wake up! Call that madman back!”

***

As Li Banfeng went up the mountain, he muttered to himself the entire way. ”I have to find out what he’s after, or I won’t even be able to sleep peacefully!”

The Judge’s Brush asked, ”Is it really because of him?”

Is it not because of him? Then who else could it be?

Li Banfeng searched all over the mountain for nearly the entire night. He had no idea how many kilometers he had walked before he finally found Fu Taiyue.

The old painter had completed the painting of the middle-aged man he had been working on the day before. Today, he was painting a sixty-year-old man, none other than Fu Taiyue himself.

Once again, he had not painted the hands.

Li Banfeng looked for the hands of Fu Taiyue standing before him. The old painter held them behind his back, hidden inside his sleeves. From the outside, there seemed to be nothing unusual about them.

From their previous two encounters, Li Banfeng could tell that Fu Taiyue was very shrewd. He absolutely could not rush when setting up the conversational slope.

Li Banfeng set up his small desk on the ground and painted quietly. He waited for over an hour before Fu Taiyue finally spoke.

”Ten years can only be exchanged for one level of cultivation. This path of cultivation is truly too difficult.”

Li Banfeng replied, ”Isn’t it like that for every Daoist path?”

Fu Taiyue sighed. ”But the art of painting has no end. I’ve only just begun on this road, yet this life of mine has already reached its end.”

Li Banfeng felt quite relieved. It was clear Fu Taiyue had yet to reach the Cloudborne Layer.

”Old Mr. Fu, your painting skills are already of a very high level.”

”I’ve painted so many paintings for that mountain deity. Yet, that mountain deity told me that only by going to the Land of Extreme Yin can I experience the supreme realm of painting. Would you dare go?”

Fu Taiyue had begun revealing crucial information.

When Li Banfeng visited Fu Taiyue’s home in the past, he had indeed seen Fu Taiyue’s paintings of the mountain deity in question. The mountain deity had looked very imposing in the paintings.

Did that mountain deity send him here?

Fu Taiyue looked at the painting and repeated, ”The Land of Extreme Yin. Would you dare go?”

Li Banfeng replied, ”I’m still far from that realm. Old Mr. Fu, you’ve already neared that realm, so I’m sure you would dare to go.”

Still gazing at his painting, Fu Taiyue continued, ”But the mountain deity also said that going to the Land of Extreme Yin means a one-in-ten chance of survival.”

Li Banfeng latched onto that lead and asked, ”Which mountain deity are you talking about? Where exactly is the Land of Extreme Yin?”

Fu Taiyue’s gaze remained fixed on his painting. ”So what if there’s only a one-in-ten chance of survival? You’re already this old. If you don’t go now, you’ll never have another chance in this life.

”But that place is too special. Even if I wanted to go, I might not be able to get there.”

Li Banfeng said nothing more. He was thinking about something. Who exactly is Fu Taiyue talking to?

This whole time, he had observed Fu Taiyue talking endlessly while looking at his own portrait. That meant the old painter was probably talking to himself.

Thinking back to what happened during these past few days, has he been talking to himself this entire time?

Fu Taiyue stared at the painting and continued, ”The mountain deity said that mountain is coming soon. Are you going or not?”

That mountain is coming? A mountain can move? Li Banfeng wondered in surprise.

The portrait in the painting spoke to Fu Taiyue. ”That mountain is coming at the wrong time. It’s early spring, and there is so much rain!”

Fu Taiyue shook his head. ”It wasn’t raining when I went up the mountain.”

The portrait said, ”But once you reached the mountaintop, there has been an endless downpour of heavy rain!”

What happens when it rains?

Fu Taiyue replied, ”I should have been able to avoid it, but I’m old now. My eyesight has deteriorated, and my hands and feet aren’t as nimble as they used to be.”

The portrait sighed. ”It would have been fine if you could have gone down the mountain sooner.”

”I really wanted to go down the mountain, but I couldn’t find the way down. Once they poisoned me, I could no longer find the way down.”

”You actually made it all the way to the foot of the mountain. If you’d only run another kilometer or two, you could have escaped.”

”I wanted to, but I couldn’t run anymore.”

The portrait let out another sigh. ”You should have cut off your hand then. Losing one hand would at least have saved your life.”

Fu Taiyue shook his head. ”I can’t be without that hand. It’s my right hand. Without my right hand, how can I paint?”

A cold wind blew, and dark clouds suddenly gathered.

Rumble!

As a thunderclap reverberated through the air, Fu Taiyue looked at the portrait. ”I’ll paint your hands. I’m almost unable to remember what you look like. Once I can’t remember you, it’s all over for me.”

The portrait said nothing. Fu Taiyue took his brush and painted a pair of arms onto the painting.

Li Banfeng was not sure whether they were actually arms. He could not see the hands, nor could he see the upper or lower arms. All he saw was Fu Taiyue painting two long masses of flesh onto the shoulders of the portrait Fu Taiyue. Those ”arms” were really just swollen, twisted masses of flesh.

The portrait said, ”My hands don’t look like this.”

”But mine look exactly like this...”

Fu Taiyue extended his right hand from his sleeve.

His hand was not a hand either. It was the same mass of flesh as in the painting. There was no skin, and it looked like a lump of meat that had been rotting for a long time. It exuded a thick layer of pus that stuck the brush to it.

”My hand has become like this. I can’t even hide it anymore,” Fu Taiyue said, his face expressionless. ”It’s over. This time, it’s really over.”

Rumble!

The thunder sounded again.

Whoosh! Thud, splat!

Rain poured down.

”I’m thirsty! I want to drink water!” Fu Taiyue cried out. He tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and drank the rain voraciously.

The portrait yelled, ”Don’t drink it! Don’t drink it!”

After drinking the rainwater, Fu Taiyue’s head swelled rapidly. His hair and beard quickly fell off, and his eyes and ears dropped to the ground. His body swelled along with his head. His skin split apart layer after layer. Fat, blood, and flesh poured through the cracks, quickly covering his entire body.

In less than a minute, Fu Taiyue had become completely unrecognizable. He was covered in pus, blood, and fat. And on his round head, only a mouth remained.

He roared at Li Banfeng, ”SCREEE-AAAAAAHHHH!”

The sound was shrill and piercing. Li Banfeng was genuinely afraid it would damage the Threaded Earring.

What kind of monster is this? Is this an illusion Fu Taiyue created with his painting?

Li Banfeng suddenly disappeared. He wanted to use Passing Flowers on Horseback to test Fu Taiyue.

However, Fu Taiyue stood still where he was. He did not track Li Banfeng’s movements, and he did not seem to be affected by Passing Flowers on Horseback either.

Fu Taiyue let out another roar. ”SCREEE-AAAAAAHHHH!”

The Judge’s Brush cried out, ”Ghost, a Toilblade Ghost!”

What’s a Toilblade Ghost[1]?

Toot~ Toot~

Li Banfeng heard the sound of a train whistle. Tsehe Pocket Dwelling was urging him to return.

Sssssss!

Fu Taiyue opened his mouth and spewed out a spray of black mist toward Li Banfeng.

”Dodge!” the Judge’s Brush shouted.

Even without that warning, Li Banfeng had already dodged the mist. There was no doubt in his mind that the black mist was poisonous.

”Hold your breath. Go!” the Judge’s Brush urged as he lifted Li Banfeng into the air.

While holding his breath, Li Banfeng was still thinking about how to subdue this monster.

This was his territory. He could not let this Whatever-blade Ghost wreak havoc here.

The Judge’s Brush flew for a while. The downpour grew heavier and heavier.

Fu Taiyue suddenly leaped out from the forest and sprayed another cloud of black mist at Li Banfeng. The Judge’s Brush dodged with all his might, preventing the black mist from touching Li Banfeng.

The moment Fu Taiyue landed on the ground, he leaped up again and swung his arms—those fleshy masses—at Li Banfeng.

The monster was extremely fast, and the Judge’s Brush was not agile enough. Seeing that he could not dodge the monster’s attack, Li Banfeng let go of the Judge’s Brush and dropped to the ground.

A Toilblade Ghost appeared ahead.

Is that even still Fu Taiyue?

”SCREEE-AAAAAAHHHH!”

A Toilblade Ghost leaped out of the grass.

”SCREEE-AAAAAAHHHH!”

Another one leaped down from a tree.

Li Banfeng felt the soil beneath his feet loosen, and he hurriedly moved away. A mass of flesh broke through the earth, and a Toilblade Ghost crawled out of the mud.

”SCREEE-AAAAAAHHHH!”

Their shrieks pierced through the mountain incessantly.

Are all of these that what Blade Ghosts? What Blade Ghost...

Li Banfeng remembered something the rickshaw driver had once told him, ”There is a Ghostblade Ridge on Sheep Fork Mountain. Walk half a kilometer along that ridge, and not only will you gather enough cultivation progress to meet your daily requirement, but you can even accumulate an entire day’s worth in excess.”

Is this Ghostblade Ridge? How could Ghostblade Ridge have appeared here?

1. See translator’s thoughts. ☜