The Overlord of Puluo

Inside the Pocket Dwelling, the Gramophone was releasing steady, deep bursts of steam. She was still asleep.

Li Banfeng lay on the bed, counting the holes all over his body.

A Homebound Cultivator had powerful recovery abilities, but iron-thread insects had powerful burrowing abilities. Even after resting for a full day, Li Banfeng had yet to recover completely.

However, he had to go out today.

That was not only due to his disposition as a Wanderlust Cultivator but also his fear of unfamiliar surroundings.

It sounded a little contradictory. Shouldn’t a Wanderlust Cultivator thrive in unfamiliar places?

That depended on how unfamiliar the place was.

When Li Banfeng first arrived in Puluo and got off the train, at least he knew the place was called Medicine King Gully.

Now, he had no idea where he was at all. Before entering the Pocket Dwelling, all he had seen was a barren wasteland.

Leaving his house key in a place like this for too long made him uneasy.

Li Banfeng ate something, put on his fedora, and left the Pocket Dwelling.

The house key was still out on the wasteland, more than twenty meters away from the endlessly rushing Iron-Thread River.

This stretch of wasteland was extremely flat. There were no mountains, no trees, no grass, not even a single stone in sight.

It was very easy to get lost in an environment like this, where there were almost no landmarks.

Nevertheless, Li Banfeng knew how to find his way back.

He could just retrace his steps along the river. With his speed, it would not take long for him to reach familiar ground again.

After retracing his steps for two days, Li Banfeng felt his joints stiffen. After running nearly one and a half kilometers, he was panting heavily, cold sweat pouring down his body.

Li Banfeng braced his hands on his knees and panted for quite some time.

Something’s wrong!

No matter how bad his condition was, it was impossible that a level-two Wanderlust Cultivator would be this winded from trying to run one and a half kilometers.

Moreover, his cultivation level was not simply at level two. During the recent activation of a New Land, Li Banfeng had successively encountered Feng Daiku and the iron-thread insects. His cultivation had advanced by more than half a year’s worth, and he was now very close to level three. Yet, running a kilometer and a half had now become a strenuous feat for him. That made no sense at all.

Li Banfeng took a big gulp from his canteen and looked at the Iron-Thread River that ”flowed without end.” He walked slowly along the riverbank.

After walking another kilometer or so, Li Banfeng came to a stop.

He could not go on. His legs felt as though they were dragging shackles that weighed five hundred kilograms. They were unbearably heavy.

Furthermore, he no longer knew which way to go.

Earlier, Li Banfeng had a very clear thought on what to do. If he went upstream along the Iron-Thread River, he should be able to return to where he started.

However, he had not expected the Iron-Thread River to have tributaries.

Up ahead, three tributaries converged to form the Iron-Thread River.

Which tributary was Li Banfeng supposed to follow?

Should he judge by the width of the tributaries?

All three tributaries looked roughly the same.

The worst-case scenario that Li Banfeng had feared ultimately happened anyway. He was lost in a New Land.

Li Banfeng had heard Ma Wu talk about situations like this. Everyone who had gotten lost in a New Land and still survived had given only one piece of advice: ”Leave it to fate.”

In a New Land, many common rules did not apply. Determining the right direction required complete reliance on memory and intuition. If a person’s intuition was right, then they could make it out. If it were wrong, no one knew what would happen, because those whose intuition had been wrong were all dead.

So, what should I do now?

Li Banfeng calmed down and thought through his options.

As for intuition, he simply did not believe in it.

Li Banfeng decided to head upstream along the first tributary on the left. He had been unconscious in the Pocket Dwelling for a total of twenty hours, which meant his housekey had also followed the iron-thread insects for twenty hours.

Li Banfeng believed his travel speed was faster than that of the iron-thread insects. If he retraced his steps for twenty hours and found himself back in familiar territory, that would prove he had chosen the right path.

If he had chosen wrongly, then he would turn back and try again. One round trip would only take forty hours.

Or... fifty.

Something was off about his physical state. He might not actually be faster than the iron-thread insects after all.

With three rivers, even if he chose the wrong one twice, it would take at most one hundred hours to make two round-trips. Then the remaining river would definitely be the correct one.

Given the current situation, even in the worst-case scenario, it would only take one hundred and twenty hours or so. If he walked sixteen hours a day, he could make it out in eight days.

He had enough food in the Pocket Dwelling, but he was a bit tight on water. Nevertheless, if he truly could not go on, then he would turn to the Gramophone for help.

He wasn’t treating asking the Gramophone for help as a last resort because he didn’t trust her; it was because she had been sleeping the whole time, and he did not know when she would wake up. She had eaten special ingredients, and forcibly waking her carried unknown consequences. But if he waited until she woke up and the water was already gone, it would be too late, no matter what he said.

Moreover, the Gramophone had been inside the Pocket Dwelling the entire time and knew nothing about the outside environment. Any solutions she could think of would be limited.

Even if the Gramophone could come up with a solution, discussing routes would easily expose one thing. Li Banfeng’s speed was far beyond normal. If the Gramophone planned a two-hundred-and-fifty-kilometer route and Li Banfeng finished it in three hours, that would be a serious problem. The Gramophone would figure out that Li Banfeng was a Wanderlust Cultivator.

Of course, he could tell the Gramophone that he had been on the road the whole time, but she was not so easy to deceive. If he revealed even the slightest flaw in his lie, his life would be in danger.

However, if it came to a truly desperate situation, such as more tributaries appearing ahead, then Li Banfeng could only seek help from the Gramophone and even consider moving her outside the Pocket Dwelling.

Of course, the Gramophone might not be willing to come out, and they would have to negotiate carefully when the time came.

Li Banfeng set off along the first tributary on the left. However, after gritting his teeth and walking only five or so kilometers, he could no longer lift his legs.

He opened his pocket watch and saw that those five or so kilometers had taken him three hours!

It seemed he truly was in a terrible physical condition.

Li Banfeng sat by the roadside to rest for a short while.

Unsurprisingly, as long as he did not walk, he had a pretty fast recovery speed.

This was likely due to Li Banfeng being a Homebound Cultivator. Returning to the dwelling should allow him to recover even faster.

Li Banfeng returned to the Pocket Dwelling. The Gramophone was still sleeping soundly.

Li Banfeng slept for over half an hour. After gathering enough energy to move on, he went back out and walked another over five kilometers before he drained his stamina again.

Whenever he ran out of energy, he returned to the Pocket Dwelling to rest, took a short break, ate something, and then set off again.

Repeating this cycle, he covered a dozen or so kilometers until a stretch of thorny undergrowth blocked the path ahead.

Extremely dense thickets of thorns were spread along both banks of the river. Li Banfeng now had two choices. One was to push through the thicket of thorns before him. The other was to enter the Iron-Thread River again and charge forward along its surface.

Regarding the Iron-Thread River, he refused to enter it, even if his life depended on it.

However, going through the thicket of thorns did not look like an easy route either.

Li Banfeng couldn’t tell how long the thorns had been growing there for. The upper half was green, while the lower half was charred black, as though it had turned into charcoal.

Li Banfeng brushed his fingers along one of the sharp thorns and snapped it off. He t thought his wife could use it as a stylus.

However, there was still the pressing matter at hand. Li Banfeng did not have bronze skin or metal bones. How was he supposed to get through this thicket of thorns?

Left with no other choice, he took out the Tang saber.

The Tang saber stared at the thicket of thorns ahead and said in surprise, ”My lord, are you asking me to clear the way for you? The sickle would be more suitable for this task.”

”My sickle is tiny.”

Li Banfeng’s sickle was only ten-odd centimeters. It obviously was not a good tool for clearing a thicket of thorns of this scale.

”My lord, I can only strike three times. What kind of situation that creates will depend entirely on fate.”

Just as the Tang saber was about to start chopping down the thorns, Li Banfeng shouted, ”Hang on! Let me think about which direction to cut first.”

Which other direction could he take?

Wouldn’t cutting in the direction of the upstream be the obvious choice?

Li Banfeng felt that something was wrong. As he looked in the direction of the upstream, he broke out in goosebumps all over.

There was danger here. As for what kind of danger it was, Li Banfeng did not yet know.

Li Banfeng spent some time using Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity to sense for danger. Then he chose a position slightly to the left and had the Tang saber strike with full force.

A large patch of thorns fell, but there were, of course, still more thorns behind.

The Tang saber had only managed to clear up two meters of the thicket. It wasn’t much of a path, and Li Banfeng was quite disappointed.

There did not seem to be any danger here, but neither was there a pleasant surprise.

Li Banfeng continued using Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity. The most favorable direction continued from the path he’d started making through the thicket of thorns.

What’s so special in this direction?

Li Banfeng had the Tang saber strike again.

This time, the Tang saber cut through over three meters of the thicket, and the thorns in this section seemed softer.

He used Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity again, and it still told him to continue in the same direction.

Li Banfeng decisively ordered the Tang saber to make his third strike. When the thorns fell away this time, Li Banfeng finally saw a pathway.

It wasn’t the path he’d cleared; it was a pathway that already existed within the thicket of thorns, one that stretched on to the left and right.

Li Banfeng stepped into the thorn thicket and looked to both sides.

The pathway was not particularly wide, but it could fit two or three people walking side by side. Both sides of the pathway were lined with thorns, but they did not encroach onto the pathway. Instead, they grew densely along the sides like hedges.

I should be able to get through this thicket of thorns by taking this pathway, but which way should I go?Left or right?

Li Banfeng took out the Threaded Earring and instructed, ”You’ve had your fill of benefits, now you’d better put in the work in return.”

Could the Threaded Earring tell directions? No, but she could hear changes in sound.

Within the thicket of thorns, there were only two kinds of sounds. One was the howling wind, and the other was the wriggling sounds from the Iron-Thread River nearby.

Li Banfeng decided to turn right. This stretch of the pathway lay closer to the Iron-Thread River, so once he passed through the thicket of thorns, he should still be on the riverbank.

After walking for a short while, the pathway turned left.

After the turn, a fork appeared ahead. Li Banfeng continued choosing the direction that led closer to the Iron-Thread River.

He spent five hours walking through the thicket of thorns and encountered more than a dozen forks along the way. Li Banfeng followed only one rule when choosing which way to go—it had to keep him close to the Iron-Thread River.

Li Banfeng was exhausted. For every half a kilometer he walked, he felt as though he had been sprinting for an entire day.

After walking a kilometer and a half or so, Li Banfeng sat down on the pathway to rest for a moment.

Through the Threaded Earring, he could still hear the wriggling sounds from the river, proving that he had not gone the wrong way.

He carefully observed the thorns on both sides. He could not understand why they did not grow on the pathway.

Are they being restrained by some force, or does someone come to trim them regularly?

But how could anyone possibly be trimming them?

Li Banfeng mocked himself for being silly and stood up, intending to keep walking. Right then, he suddenly heard another sound through the Threaded Earring.

Whoosh.

A gust of wind swept over.

It had a loud, high-pitched howl, indicating that the gust of wind was fierce and fast approaching.

Li Banfeng’s nose twitched as he caught a faint scent in the air.

It was the smell of smoke. It was very faint, but Li Banfeng identified it with the Hundred Scents at the Tip of the Nose.

The smell of smoke was closing in, and so was the squall.

Crap! I think there’s a fire.

Li Banfeng took out his house key and unlocked the Pocket Dwelling. He threw the key into the thicket of thorns and immediately shut the door.

After more than half an hour, Li Banfeng cautiously opened the door.

There was no danger outside. He hurried out and picked up his house key.

The pathway was empty, with only a bit of ash left behind.

Scorched smoke rose from the roots of the thorny undergrowth on both sides, and there were still simmering sparks in some spots.

His house key was slightly hot. It had clearly been scorched by the fire as well.

Did the thicket of thorns catch fire?

And now the fire’s out?

This place is extremely dangerous!

Li Banfeng ignored his exhaustion and sprinted forward along the pathway.

After seven or so hours, Li Banfeng smelled smoke again and hurried back into the Pocket Dwelling to take shelter.

This time, he was a bit slow getting inside, and he saw a human head about three meters in diameter come round the bend. It had no hair but possessed complete facial features. Its eyes were wide open, flitting from side to side. As it slowly advanced down along the pathway, it spewed blazing flames from its mouth.

How is he walking?

How can a human head with no legs move?

He seems to have feet beneath his neck.

Li Banfeng did not dare to observe more closely. Every living thing that appeared on the pathway, including the wriggling worms on the ground, the flying insects in midair, and even the thorns that occasionally encroached past the boundary, was reduced to ash by the flames that the human head spewed.

It turned out there was indeed something trimming the thicket of thorns. This human head constantly patrolled the pathway without ever stopping.

Li Banfeng hurriedly threw his house key into the thicket of thorns. Right then, the human head opened its eyes and looked straight at Li Banfeng.

The human head had not seen a living person for a long time, and it seemed very interested in Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng suddenly felt as though he was about to catch fire.

And he did truly catch fire. Smoke rose from his body.

He did not dare to linger for even a moment longer. He immediately entered the Pocket Dwelling and shut the door behind him.