The Overlord of Puluo

Along the pitch-black path, Li Banfeng walked forward cautiously with the feather duster in hand.

This path was called Little Yellow Spring. The old hunter had repeatedly warned him that this stretch was the most dangerous and that he must never rush.

Thick fog pressed in on both sides of the narrow path. Beyond it, there might have been wild grass, or perhaps trees. Now and then, faint shapes shifted in the mist, looking disturbingly like crawling creatures.

According to the old hunter, one could only walk along the designated path. Step even a single foot off it, and the difference would be life or death.

Aside from that, one had to constantly pay attention to the wind’s direction while walking.

If the wind blew south, he could keep moving forward, but he must never look back. There was no knowing how many ”things” were following behind him.

If the wind blew north, he would have to stop immediately and stay still. Taking even one more step could lead to an encounter with something unknown.

If the wind blew east, he would have to take out some food or drink and place it on the ground. It did not need to be a lot of food. He just needed to show a token of sincerity. Once the offering disappeared, he could then continue forward.

If the wind blew west, he had to light a cigarette and let a bit of fire show. As long as the tip stayed lit, he could keep walking.

If the wind’s direction was abnormal or unclear, he had to turn around and walk backward until it became normal again.

The old hunter said it over and over again. ”These rules weren’t made by me. They were taught to me by others. As for the logic of these rules, I don’t know. But I’ve seen people break these rules at Little Yellow Spring. Even if they broke only one rule, they died on the spot.”

”Ghosts are not beings we can see,” he added. ”So when it happens, you won’t even know how you died.”

Li Banfeng remained optimistic. He could see ghosts, but that did not mean he wished to watch himself die. He would still obey the rules concerning the wind direction.

As for the best tool for sensing wind direction? It would be the feather duster.

Holding the feather duster, Li Banfeng walked south. The breeze blew southward, and the feathers drifted the same way. His progress was smooth.

After walking more than five kilometers, the wind suddenly stopped. Li Banfeng stopped as well. He had no idea what to do next. The old hunter had never said what one should do when the wind simply vanished.

The old hunter had said that the wind at Little Yellow Spring would never stop blowing. Yet, the feather duster had stopped moving at all, showing that the wind had stopped.

This should count as an abnormal wind, right? Li Banfeng thought.

He turned around, ready to walk backward. At that moment, he saw it. A cluster of green flames was following close behind him.

It was not just one cluster. It was an entire trail. Countless ghostly flames followed one after another, forming a neat, orderly line behind Li Banfeng.

It seemed he should not have turned back just now.

As Li Banfeng wondered whether turning forward again might solve the problem, a wave of malice surged from the ghostly flames.

With no time to think, he grabbed the Blood-Drinking Pendulum, the only enchanted artifact he possessed that could hurt spirits.

Bang!

The Blood-Drinking Pendulum was struck forcefully, and Li Banfeng trembled violently with it.

Bang, bang, bang!

The blows came without pause, each one driving him back another step.

”Master, I cannot hold on!” the pendulum cried out in agony.

Li Banfeng opened the door to his Pocket Dwelling with one hand and tossed the key away. However, he did not close the door.

Since you’re delivering yourselves as food, he thought, I’ll gladly accept it.

Clusters of ghostly flames rushed in after him and drifted about the room for a long while. Yet the gramophone did not react at all.

In the main room, Li Banfeng dodged left and right, calling out again and again, ”Wifey, the meal is ready!”

Huff… huff…

The gramophone finally responded. ”Husband dear~ Please wait in the outer room. I have starved for many days, and my table manners will be unsightly. I do not wish for you to see it.”

”It is only the two of us here. Why would you care about that?”

Li Banfeng did not understand the gramophone’s intention, and at the moment he had no way to reach the outer room.

More than a dozen spirits rushed in to attack. Another dozen moved in to support them, while yet another dozen sealed off every escape route. Their movements were disciplined and precise, like a well-trained army, and Li Banfeng was left struggling to hold his ground.

What’s wrong with my wifey? I bought groceries back, so why isn’t she excited at all?

Pop… crackle… pop…

Music slowly began to play.

A crackle of static sounded, and the gramophone began to sing.

「 In spring, green grass grows,

Battle garments stitched with care.

In summer, red blossoms bloom,

War drums thunder through the air.

In autumn, yellow leaves fall,

Before the ranks, enemy heads are taken.

In winter, white snow flies,

Blood is spilled to honor the heroic dead.~~ ♪」

Whoosh!

A wind rose, so real it felt as though an actual breeze swept through the Pocket Dwelling.

Within the wind, he heard his wifey singing. It was the most beautiful voice Li Banfeng had ever heard.

What song is this? Li Banfeng wondered. Maybe I shouldn’t dwell on it. Whatever my wifey sings is always able to calm wandering ghosts.

These ghosts, disciplined and well trained, were no exception. They stopped at once, formed orderly rows, and listened quietly to the singing.

A burst of steam billowed out and pushed the door to the outer room open. Li Banfeng understood at once. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Then he took out the Threaded Earring and listened carefully to the sounds outside.

The song continued. At first, he heard only one or two faint sobs. Then more voices joined in. Before long, it had become a chorus. Dozens of spirits in the house seemed to be sobbing together.

Are they really just moved by his wifey’s singing? Nothing else at all? Li Banfeng wondered.

When the song ended, the gramophone spoke. ”I never intended to see you all again. Yet here we are. What you owe me cannot be repaid, and it does not need to be. Leave. And from this moment on, you are not allowed to touch that man again.”

She knows these ghosts? She knows the wandering ghosts of the new land? Li Banfeng thought.

He was still standing there in shock when the door to the outer room opened. Outside stood more than a dozen ghostly flames, lined up in perfect formation.

They were waiting for Li Banfeng to open the door.

His wifey slipped back into her usual singing tone, chanting slowly, ”Husband dear~ These resentful ghosts have been dead for far too long. They are old and stringy, bitter and spicy. They are truly hard to swallow. Hurry up and send them away.”

Li Banfeng remained silent for a moment, then nodded.

He had heard everything the gramophone said to the departed souls earlier. The gramophone knew that he had heard it as well.

However, Li Banfeng did not ask a single question. He opened the door and led the group of departed souls out of the Pocket Dwelling.

He had barely stepped outside and had not yet picked up the key when a mass of ghostly fire surged toward him again.

At the same moment, ghostly flames poured out of the Pocket Dwelling, swept around Li Banfeng, and forced the approaching fire back. Once he retrieved the key, they closed ranks around him and escorted him southward.

Inside the Pocket Dwelling, the Crimson Lotus asked, ”So? Did it feel like your heart was clawed out when you saw those old friends of yours?”

The gramophone laughed coldly. ”If you’re going to mock me, at least do it properly. Do I even have a heart left?”

The Crimson Lotus’s petals fluttered open and shut, as if it were still laughing at the gramophone. ”Only you know whether you still have a heart. Just look at what they turned you into. You think you can forget that? A chance for revenge shows up, and you actually let them go?”

Huff! Huff!

”What difference would killing them make? What difference would revenge make? My heart is already gone. I don’t even care anymore.”

***

A group of wandering ghosts escorted Li Banfeng for a full fifty kilometers. He could not help exclaiming inwardly that Blue Poplar Village was small, but the new land was unimaginably vast!

As he walked on, the narrow path gradually widened. The cold mist thinned and faded, and the land around him opened into a vast wilderness. At last, he had made it out of Little Yellow Spring.

The rest of the journey led across flat ground. He occasionally encountered strange creatures, but they were of low level, and he avoided them by relying on Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity.

After sprinting across the wilderness for two hours, Li Banfeng finally saw a vast stretch of orange trees.

From a distance, the orange trees looked no different from the ones he knew. Their leaves were simply more numerous, and their fruit slightly larger. It was only when he drew closer that he realized something was wrong.

Each tree stood more than a dozen meters tall, and every orange was around fifty centimeters across. They were far larger than anything he would have called a normal orange.

To the old hunter from Blue Poplar Village, the orange grove was a place of real value. The oranges here were edible, rich in sugar, and full of oil. In the new land, food like this was exceedingly rare.

Orange peel was a precious spice that was worth a great deal of money. Ma Wu would pay eight hundred for half a kilogram of orange peel.

Besides the peel, there were orange grubs as well. They were pests that burrowed into the fruit, but the ones from this orange grove were useful. They could be used medicinally and worked especially well on external injuries. At Ma Wu’s place, a high-quality orange grub could sell for two hundred yuan.

There were elephant beetles as well. They were really just weevils, but the ones in this grove had unusually long proboscises. Those made perfect tools for acupuncture. A single weevil needle could sell for more than five hundred yuan.

In the orange grove, one could peel oranges, hunt for grubs, or catch weevils. However, there were limits, and harming the trees was strictly off-limits. As the old hunter had said, one had to look after the trees above and the saplings below.

Some hunters came to the grove for grubs and went about it the wrong way. They chopped down the trees, stripped every orange, and crushed them one by one to dig out the grubs. Those people all died in the end, and no one ever knew how.

Others hauled away more than a thousand kilograms of oranges just for the peel, tossing the flesh aside without caring whether it was ripe or not. They died too.

Some hunters came for the weevils and found the saplings in their way. They swung their sickles, cleared a path, and cut down the young trees. They died as well.

To put it simply, as long as one took only what was needed and caused no excessive damage, nothing would happen to them in the orange grove.

The old hunter had warned him that Blue Poplar Trees could show up among the orange trees. Still, poplars and oranges were nothing alike. One good look was enough to tell them apart.

Li Banfeng wandered through the orange grove for two hours and found nothing but orange trees. After walking all day, exhaustion caught up with him, and he returned early to his Pocket Dwelling to rest.

The moment he stepped inside, a wave of warm steam rushed toward him, as if his wife had wrapped him tightly in her arms.

”Husband dear~ You must have had a hard day. ”Husband dear~ Come, change your clothes. I will wash them for you.

”Husband dear~ The hot water is ready. Let me serve you while you bathe.

”Husband dear~ if you want to relax, then relax as much as you wish in your bath. I will clean up afterward.”

The gramophone had hidden some things from Li Banfeng and had let him down despite his good intentions. Feeling guilty, she spoke with unusual gentleness that night.

Li Banfeng ignored her and crouched beside the cabinet, searching for something.

Huff, huff.

Her voice sounded slightly nervous. ”Good husband dear~ Are you angry with me? I know how hard it was for you to go get groceries, but I am really not hungry today. Please don’t blame me. Please accept my apology.”

Li Banfeng took an oil can from the cabinet and smiled pleasantly. ”Wifey, I am not blaming you. I just think you don’t sound as smooth and straightforward as usual today. You must be stuck somewhere, so I thought I would give you a bit of lubrication.”

The gramophone panicked, her tune slipping out of key. ”Husband dear~ Let’s talk this out. There’s no need for oil. I’m running perfectly fine.”

Li Banfeng ignored her protests, took the oil can behind the gramophone, and opened her casing.

The gramophone hurried to explain, ”Husband dear~ I truly do not lack oil.

”Husband dear~, please listen. I did not mean to hide anything from you, nor was I holding myself back on purpose. They truly were old acquaintances, but the past is something I do not wish to bring up again.

”Husband dear~, if you insist on oiling me, then use the oil brush. Nothing else is allowed!

”Husband dear~

”Husband dear~”