The Overlord of Puluo

Li Banfeng raised a candle and searched for the corpses of Tiger Lamb and the man in the gold-rimmed glasses.

However, he didn’t find any bodies, only a pile of odds and ends in the corner and some tattered clothes. The way the fabric had been torn showed that an external force had ripped the garments from their bodies.

The items in the clothing were still there and Li Banfeng even found both of their wallets.

The cloth bag filled with speckled-snake chrysanthemums also remained, and all the flowers were perfectly intact.

Beside the bronze lotus flower, Li Banfeng also found the gold-rimmed glasses, a wooden spectacles case, and an iron tobacco tin. However, the folding fan of the man in the gold-rimmed glasses was missing.

Li Banfeng had been quite intrigued by that folding fan.

The folding fan gave off a strange fragrance, and both its material and craftsmanship were unusual. When closed, it could be wielded like an iron rod. When opened, its surface could serve as both a blade and a shield.

Where did the fan go? Did the bronze lotus flower swallow it?

And what about the bodies? Were they eaten too?

Maybe the bronze lotus flower devoured the two corpses and even took the folding fan.

But why would it want a weapon? Could it really wield one and fight?

These questions flickered through his mind.

Previously, when the bronze lotus flower had devoured speckled-snake chrysanthemums, it refined them into Speckled-Snake Pills.

And now, it devoured the corpses and the weapon. But why didn’t it touch the speckled-snake chrysanthemums collected by Tiger Lamb and the man in the gold-rimmed glasses?

Maybe after feasting on flesh, it doesn’t want vegetables anymore. So it ate the fan to pick its teeth, Li Banfeng thought. To him, this logic made perfect sense.

He then wondered, What could be inside the three lotus seeds?

Could it be that it refined the man in the gold-rimmed glasses and Tiger Lamb into pills as well?

Li Banfeng carefully plucked the three lotus seeds from the seven-holed lotus core, and the lotus immediately closed.

Two of the lotus seeds swelled in his palm. After about ten seconds, they both burst open, each releasing a crimson bead.

These beads were slightly larger than the Speckled-Snake Pills, their color a pure red, glowing with crystalline brilliance under the candlelight.

What kind of pills are these? Li Banfeng wondered.

As he pondered, the third lotus seed burst open, revealing a single bead the color of rust. It not only looked like rust but also felt like it.

Resting in his hand, it carried a heavy, coarse resistance that left a lingering, unpleasant drag against his skin.

The bead didn’t just resist his touch. It pricked with pain, leaving his palm sore. Li Banfeng flung it aside and saw a red mark where it had pressed. Along with the sting came a faint numbness.

Am I Poisoned?

Li Banfeng didn’t know how to react when the red mark suddenly split open, and a thin trickle of blood seeped out.

As the blood flowed, the sting and numbness faded away.

A Homebound Cultivator possessed strong regenerative abilities within his home. That bleeding just now had to be his body’s way of purging the poison. However, Li Banfeng hadn’t expected that a mere touch of the rust-colored bead could cause such harm.

If he had held it longer, or even swallowed that rusty-looking pill, would he have died on the spot with no chance of healing? Even with the regenerative abilities of a Homebound Cultivator within his own dwelling, recovery would surely be impossible.

In the spirit of seeking the truth, should I test it myself?

At that thought, Li Banfeng gave a cold laugh and muttered, ”Am I crazy?”

Li Banfeng emptied the wallets of the man in the gold-rimmed glasses and Tiger Lamb. He wrapped the two pills in the torn clothing on the ground, placed them separately into the wallets, and then crouched down to study the bronze lotus flower.

He decided to call the round crimson bead and the round rust-colored bead the Red Pill and the Corrosion Pill for now.

The Red Pills most likely came from the corpses of the man in the gold-rimmed glasses and Tiger Lamb, while the Corrosion Pill probably came from the vanished folding fan.

Although Li Banfeng did not understand the principle behind the transformation, he knew that the bronze lotus flower had turned both the corpses and the fan into pills. As for the uses of these two kinds of pills, he had no idea for the time being.

What concerned Li Banfeng most was the principle by which the bronze lotus flower chose its pill-refining materials. Previously, it had refined the speckled-snake chrysanthemums, so why had it lost interest in refining these flowers now?

Li Banfeng couldn’t help but wonder, Could it one day take an interest in me and turn me into a pill?

He carried the bag of speckled-snake chrysanthemums to the bronze lotus flower, but the lotus showed no reaction.

He then thought, So why did the speckled-snake chrysanthemums I picked earlier turn into Speckled-Snake Pills? What was different about last night when I returned?

While he was pondering, dizziness crept over him again. This was the usual reaction to inhaling the toxic fog. He would first feel dizzy, then the urge to vomit.

Vomit! The thought struck him like a sudden flash of light.

Li Banfeng suddenly remembered something. The first thing he had done after returning to the pocket dwelling was vomit.

Because he could not figure out a suitable place to do that, he puked directly into the pouch that had held the flowers. Before that, he had already dumped the speckled-snake chrysanthemums out of the bag.

Could it be that the bronze lotus flower can’t sense the speckled-snake chrysanthemums when they are inside the bag?

At that thought, Li Banfeng opened the bag and dumped out the more than forty stalks of speckled-snake chrysanthemums that the man in the gold-rimmed glasses had collected, placing them near the bronze lotus flower.

The moment the flowers touched the ground, the petals of the bronze lotus flower began to quiver.

Screech~

A metallic screech rang out as the seven petals of the bronze lotus opened one by one.

Once again, Li Banfeng was struck by the ingenious mechanism.

By now, he truly could not tell whether modern civilization or this strange technology was more advanced.

When all seven petals had fully unfurled, Li Banfeng finally saw the seven-holed lotus core clearly.

A moment later, he sensed the air within the Pocket Dwelling shifting in an unnatural way. It spiraled inward, forming a vortex that drew everything toward the lotus core.

The forty or so chrysanthemums on the ground slowly lifted under its pull. Caught in the current, they drifted through the air, swirling up and down as if the entire room had become an otherworldly dance floor.

This must have been exactly what happened last night, but I slept too soundly to notice it!

By instinct, Li Banfeng took two steps back, afraid the vortex might drag him into the lotus core.

In total, forty-three stalks of speckled-snake chrysanthemums were drawn into the lotus, and then the petals closed once more.

So the items really did need to be within the range of the bronze lotus flower for it to sense and respond.

Wait... did I just say range of sight? That doesn’t sound right. Can the bronze lotus flower even see?

As he pondered, a sharp clink reached his ears. He lifted the candle up and looked down. After searching for a long while, he realized that the Corrosion Pill had fallen on the ground.

I thought I just placed it into my wallet? Li Banfeng thought as he picked up the wallet and examined it. A hole had burned through the bottom, and the leather around it was charred with bluish-black scorch marks.

Corroded? Does the Corrosion Pill have corrosive properties too?

What would happen if someone swallowed it?

Even a Poison Cultivator would likely be unable to withstand it, let alone a Homebound Cultivator.

As these questions ran through his mind, Li Banfeng’s curiosity only deepened! He then wondered if the iron box could withstand the corrosion.

Using a piece of rag as padding, he carefully placed the Corrosion Pill into the iron tobacco tin.

The result was clear. It couldn’t! The corrosion was even more severe than with the wallet.

The moment the tobacco tin touched the Corrosion Pill, it began to rust at an alarming rate. By the time Li Banfeng took the pill back out, the box was already eaten through with rust, its shape barely recognizable.

If the iron box can’t withstand the corrosion, can a wooden box? Li Banfeng wondered again.

He placed the Corrosion Pill inside the spectacles case and watched closely. When he saw that the pill did not corrode the wood, he finally felt relieved and set the case down in a corner of the room.

He waited silently beside the bronze lotus flower. After about half an hour, the petals opened once more, revealing a new lotus seed within.

Li Banfeng cupped the seed in his hand. The moment it left the lotus core, it swelled at a frightening speed.

Bang!

With a muffled explosion, the seed split apart, releasing a pill mottled in black and white.

It was a Speckled-Snake Pill!

Li Banfeng counted carefully. There were ten pills in total.

Previously, thirty-seven stalks had been refined into eight pills. At that ratio, the bronze lotus flower used about four and a half stalks to produce one pill, far surpassing the methods of medicinal trading houses.

This time, fewer stalks had been consumed and the yield was higher, most likely because the speckled-snake chrysanthemums gathered by the man in the gold-rimmed glasses were larger in size.

Li Banfeng then dumped out all the speckled-snake chrysanthemums, including those collected by Chubby Qin, Nectarine, Leafy, Old Smoke Cannon, Tiger Lamb, the bald man, and his lackeys.

In total, three hundred and thirty-two stalks were drawn into the lotus core.

Once again, after more than half an hour, the petals opened. This time, three lotus seeds lay within the lotus core.

Li Banfeng plucked the seed and waited in silence for them to burst one by one.

A few minutes later, he gathered the shattered husks scattered across the floor and found himself holding a total of seventy-six Speckled-Snake Pills.

Plus the eighteen Speckled-Snake Pills that he had refined with his own flowers as well as the glasses guy’s flowers, he had a total of ninety-four pills.

Money!

This was stacks upon stacks of money!

Li Banfeng had bought two cloth bags at the general store, but in the end he only used one to store the pills. The other was soiled with vomit.

After packing the pills into the clean bag, he went through the belongings left behind by Tiger Lamb and the man in the gold-rimmed glasses.

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses had two thousand six hundred and thirteen yuan in cash, while Tiger Lamb carried three thousand five hundred and twenty-eight and a half.

By now, Li Banfeng had no interest in such meager sums. He only kept the money as a token of respect for the dead. After all, they had crossed paths, and even became teammates. The least he could do was look after what they left behind!

After resting in the Pocket Dwelling for over two hours, Li Banfeng left Mount Bitterfog and made his way to the gathering point of the medicinal trading houses.

There, cultivators clutching bags of speckled-snake chrysanthemums were still locked in heated arguments with the members of the medicinal trading house. They shouted that they wouldn’t sell, yet not a single one of them walked away.

Who else could they sell to if not the medicinal trading house? All they could do was hold out, hoping to squeeze out a slightly better price.

As one middle-aged cultivator grumbled, ”Even thirty would be fine. Twenty-five is just daylight robbery.”

Knowing that Chubby Qin and the others were still waiting in a secluded spot, Li Banfeng was totally not in the mood to watch them squabble.

Meanwhile, back in the secluded spot, Chubby Qin was filled with so much anxiety. Li Banfeng had been gone for almost three hours!

He paced back and forth, rubbing his hands together as he muttered, ”I never should have let him go alone! With the whole mountain to search, how could he ever find that old woman? And he already spent the whole night up here. It might kill him!”

Leafy lowered her head and murmured, ”If Elder Brother Bai Sha really traded for pills, I’d be content with just half.”

Nectarine muttered, ”That old woman... what sort of woman could she be? Could it be that he ran into Lucky Star?”

When they finally spotted Li Banfeng’s figure, everyone’s faces lit up with joy. However, Li Banfeng was not in the mood for thanks, nor did he have time for empty pleasantries. Without hesitation, he went straight to handing out the pills.

”Nectarine, you handed in thirty-eight stalks and I exchanged four pills for you.”

Nectarine blinked in surprise. ”Wait... I thought I was two stalks short of four pills?”

”I made up the difference for you,” Li Banfeng said. ”Think of it as rounding it off.”

Hearing that, Nectarine looked at Li Banfeng with both gratitude and guilt.

Li Banfeng then took out six more pills. ”Leafy, you had sixty-one stalks. That number’s too far off, so I can’t make up the difference. I can only round it down.”

Nevertheless, Leafy was overjoyed. She quickly uncorked the bottle and began checking the pills for authenticity.

Chubby Qin was the next one up, and his share turned out to be a bit trickier to calculate. He had originally collected only twenty stalks of speckled-snake chrysanthemums, which should have earned him two pills at most.

However, Li Banfeng had chosen to divide both Old Smoke Cannon’s harvest and the flowers taken from the bald man’s group with him. That alone pushed his total up to eighty-four stalks. When added to his own twenty, it came to one hundred and four.

Even then, Li Banfeng didn’t stop there. Remembering how Chubby Qin had looked out for him and taken care of him throughout their journey, he added another eleven pills on top of the share.

Chubby Qin’s hands trembled uncontrollably as he clutched the pills.

”One pill is worth ten thousand! Come on, let’s sell them right now!” he blurted out.

Leafy quickly stopped him. ”Big Bro Fatty, where do you plan on selling them?”

”To the medicinal trading houses, of course! Aren’t they right there?” Chubby Qin replied without hesitation.

Leafy shook her head firmly. ”We can’t sell them to the medicinal trading houses. We can’t explain where these pills came from.”

Chubby Qin frowned. ”What do you mean we can’t explain it? Aren’t they, well, you know...”

The truth was indeed hard to put into words, and even if they did explain it, no one would believe them.

Leafy said, ”I used to be an apprentice at a trading house. They’ll never accept pills without a verifiable source. If they start digging for answers, we will actually get into trouble.”

She’s right. Selling to the trading houses is out of the question. Li Banfeng stayed silent, quietly watching as the group worked to find a solution.

Chubby Qin’s excitement faded, and his shoulders slumped. ”So what now? Even with all these pills, we’re just stuck holding onto them.”

Nectarine let out a light chuckle. ”Who said they’ll go to waste? There are plenty of people out there who’d kill for pills like these. The richer they are, the more desperate they get. Even at ten thousand a pill, they still might not be able to buy one. If you sell to them, they will even think of how kind and good you are. A deal like this is something you can only dream of.”

Li Banfeng’s frown eased.

So there is a solution, but this solution doesn’t really suit me.

What Nectarine meant was to sell them in private, directly to those who wanted the pills.

Li Banfeng, however, was unfamiliar with both the place and the people here. There was no way he could find suitable buyers on his own, so he turned to Chubby Qin, hoping he knew of buyers they could approach.

Chubby Qin scratched his head. ”But this isn’t something we can sell overnight.”

Nectarine asked in surprise, ”What’s the rush? Pills won’t spoil in a day or two!”

”Well, that’s true, but still...”

Not wanting to argue further with Chubby Qin, Nectarine turned and cupped her fists to Li Banfeng. ”Words can’t express how grateful I feel. I owe you for these pills, and I owe you for my life as well.

”If you ever come to Pricklebamboo Village in the Outer Gully, ask around for You Xuetao and you will find me. If you ever need my help, just tell me. Even if it means walking through fire and blades, I will say yes without batting an eye!”

Her nickname, Nectarine, was very similar to her real name, You Xuetao[1].

She had given her address. If Chubby Qin couldn’t find a way to sell the pills, they could always seek out Nectarine later.

Leafy bowed to Li Banfeng. ”Brother Bai Sha, my name is Xue Yingying. If you ask for the Old Xue family in Threeshore Village of the Outer Gully, you’ll find me.”

Nectarine took out two pills and said, ”We are unable to repay this debt now, so please accept these as a token of my gratitude.”

Leafy also took out two pills. ”I too wish to offer a token of thanks.”

Li Banfeng waved his hand, refusing to take them.

The two women thanked him profusely, but if they had known Li Banfeng had received sixty-five pills, who knew what they would have thought?

Nectarine gazed at him. Indeed, she had her mind on him. A thought stirred in her heart. As a Hedonism Cultivator, her thoughts were often direct and unrestrained.

If I could do it with a man like him, he surely wouldn’t turn out to be the lumpy kind. He’d be long and lasting.

Leafy’s thoughts, however, were more complicated. She hadn’t seen clearly what had happened earlier, but she knew the bald man’s group had died at his and Chubby Qin’s hands!

She knew that this was a man capable of great deeds. If he supported her, there was a real chance that she could open a medicinal trading house in the future!

The two women eventually took their leave. Meanwhile, Li Banfeng remained where he was, pondering about how he would return to Yuezhou Province.

Logically speaking, with so many pills in hand, he was no longer in need of money. Yet until they were sold, they were worth nothing. The question was how he could sell them quickly.

Li Banfeng glanced at Chubby Qin, who also seemed in urgent need of money.

After sitting quietly for a while, Chubby Qin’s anxiousness gradually eased. He felt that Nectarine’s words made sense.

”There’s no rush to sell the pills. That woman was right. These are valuable goods. I can not only sell them for a good price, but also use them to make plenty of friends. So there’s really no need to hurry!”

You’re not in a rush to sell the pills anymore? That won’t do! Li Banfeng thought.

He sat down beside Chubby Qin and urged, ”But I am in a hurry! I am in urgent need of money!”

Although Li Banfeng had taken quite a bit of cash from the man in the gold-rimmed glasses, bringing these pills back to Yuezhou Province would be of little use.

Chubby Qin asked curiously, ”What do you need money for so urgently? Want me to lend you some first?”

Li Banfeng waved his hand. ”I don’t want to borrow money. I just want to sell the pills as quickly as possible.”

”You want to sell the pills as quickly as possible...” Chubby Qin thought it over and understood Li Banfeng’s reasoning. Li Banfeng had come from the outer provinces, and here in Medicine King Gully he was a stranger. He hardly knew anyone, much less any wealthy or influential people.

Chubby Qin tapped his chin, thinking it over. ”There is a place where you could sell your pills quickly, but...you’d have to let them go at a discount.”

Li Banfeng’s eyes lit up. ”How much of a discount are we talking?”

1. In Chinese, (You Xuetao) sounds very close to (Youtao), which means ”nectarine.” Both names also share the character , meaning ”peach.” ☜