The Overlord of Puluo

Li Banfeng turned around and sized up the man who had spoken.

He looked to be about thirty, bundled up in a shaggy fur coat with a fur hat pulled low over his head. A short saber hung at his waist, and a bow with a full quiver of arrows was slung across his back.

”Who are you?” Li Banfeng asked.

”I am here to hunt,” the man said. ”First time in the new land next to the Three-Shift River, right?

Li Banfeng nodded. Then he frowned. ”What was the Bloodfang Monster you just mentioned?”

The hunter wasn’t exactly articulate. His words tended to blur together, and Li Banfeng hadn’t caught the name clearly the first time.

So the hunter said it again, a little louder this time. ”The Dripper Bloodfang Monster. Anyone who’s been to the Three-Shift River knows one thing for sure. Mount Bloodfang isn’t meant to be climbed.”

The Dripper Bloodfang Monster. That’s quite a mouthful, Li Banfeng thought. He turned his gaze toward Mount Bloodfang, which was thick with greenery and choked with wild growth.

After a moment, he looked back at the hunter and asked, ”Have you actually seen this Bloodfang Monster?”

”I have,” the hunter replied. ”I hunt in this new land all the time.”

”And what does it look like?”

The hunter scratched his head. ”That’s hard to say. It shows up in all sorts of forms. Best advice? Stay as far away from it as you can.”

”So... nothing distinctive at all?”

”Well...” The hunter paused, thinking hard. ”If there’s one thing you could recognize it by, it’s the fangs. Two of them. Long. Exceptionally long. It usually keeps them tucked away inside its mouth.”

He leaned in slightly and added, ”But sometimes, they slip out.”

Its most distinguishing feature was its teeth. By the time one saw them clearly and thought about defending, it was usually far too late.

”So as long as you don’t go up the mountain, you won’t run into the Bloodfang Monster?” Li Banfeng asked.

The hunter nodded. ”The Bloodfang Monster can’t come down the mountain. That’s the rule.”

If it couldn’t come down, that meant it stayed on the mountain at all times. That was simple enough. Unfortunately, simple did not mean good.

Old Mister Yao’s instructions were very clear. Li Banfeng had to follow the fixed route to the Ridge of Bottomless Stomachs. No detours. No clever shortcuts. If he strayed away from this fixed route, he would only encounter more dangers.

This meant that Li Banfeng had to go up the mountain. However, before doing that, he needed to know more about this Mount Bloodfang.

Li Banfeng took out one thousand Huan notes and handed them to the hunter. He never let others work for nothing, and this had always been his habit.

”Is the Bloodfang Monster strong?” he asked.

The hunter took the money, and his expression brightened at once. He answered the question with clear seriousness. ”That depends on who you compare it to. The Bloodfang Monster has level-five cultivation. If you are a level-five cultivator or higher, there is no need to fear it.”

Level-five cultivation... That’s a bit troublesome, Li Banfeng thought.

As a level-three Homebound Cultivator combined with a level-three Wanderlust Cultivator, it would indeed be very difficult for him to defeat a level-five opponent under normal circumstances.

Moreover, Mount Bloodfang was the Bloodfang Monster’s territory. If he fought the monster here, he would be at a clear disadvantage.

All of this was under the assumption that the hunter was telling the truth.

”How many Bloodfang Monsters are on this mountain?” Li Banfeng asked.

”One,” the hunter replied.

”Just one?”

The hunter’s eyes widened. ”You think that’s too few? Isn’t one already more than enough?”

Hmmm... This mountain is very huge and there’s only this one monster here. As long as I don’t charge around recklessly, I have a high chance of avoiding it, Li Banfeng thought.

The real problem was that this was Li Banfeng’s first time on the mountain. He was completely unfamiliar with the terrain.

As he pondered and searched for a way forward, the hunter suddenly asked, ”Why are you so set on going up Mount Bloodfang?”

Li Banfeng waved it off casually.

”Same as you,” he said. ”I’m hunting too.”

The words had barely left his mouth when a loud boom rang out.

A rock beside Li Banfeng exploded without warning. A shard of stone sliced past his cheek, tearing open the skin and leaving a bloody gash behind.

The hunter jolted in fright and shouted furiously, ”You are lying!”

”I am not!” Li Banfeng denied instinctively.

Bam!

Another stone burst apart. This time, Li Banfeng sensed the danger early and dodged most of the fragments, though his clothes were still ripped to shreds.

What in the world is going on? Li Banfeng wondered.

The hunter grabbed his head and protected himself as he screamed, ”You birdbrain! You lied again!”

”I really didn’t...”

The hunter looked utterly terrified. ”Shut up! Once you step onto Mount Bloodfang, you absolutely cannot lie! If you want to die, then go die on your own. Don’t drag me down with you!”

You can’t lie on this mountain? Li Banfeng thought. How bizarre. And how interesting!

He looked around, took a deep breath, and shouted at the mountain, ”I really am here to hunt!”

Bam!

A stone exploded.

”I have never seen Ms. Song’s butt!”

Bam!

Another stone exploded!

”I have never killed anyone!”

Boom!

This time, the entire mountain seemed to shudder in response.

Several nearby rocks collapsed at once, sending dust billowing into the air. For a long moment, neither of them could even open their eyes.

Li Banfeng darted left and right through the flying debris, but he still picked up quite a few scrapes along the way.

The hunter clutched his head, crouched low against the ground, and screamed until his voice went hoarse. ”What are you trying to do? What exactly are you trying to do? Didn’t I tell you that you cannot lie on Mount Bloodfang?”

Li Banfeng wiped the blood from his body and turned to look at him.

”You’ve seen the Bloodfang Monster,” he said. ”That means you’ve been up Mount Bloodfang before, right?”

”I have,” the hunter replied.

Nothing exploded. No rocks shattered. He was telling the truth.

Li Banfeng nodded and asked, ”Would you be willing to act as my guide?”

The hunter stood up, brushed the dust from his clothes, and stared at Li Banfeng. ”Why should I guide you? I came here to hunt.”

Once again, the mountain remained silent. The hunter was speaking the truth.

Li Banfeng took out two thick stacks of Huan notes and handed them over. ”Is this enough?”

The hunter accepted the money, counted it carefully, then tucked it away. ”Let me make this clear. I will only lead the way. I will not bother with anything else.”

”You don’t need to,” Li Banfeng replied. ”Just get me across this mountain.”

”And one more thing. You absolutely cannot lie again. Someone could really die because of it!”

Li Banfeng nodded and said, ”You would also do well not to lie. Otherwise, someone really will die.”

”Follow me.”

The hunter had only taken two steps when Li Banfeng’s voice sounded from behind him. ”Are you the Bloodfang Monster?”

The hunter spun around in shock. ”Are you insane? How could I be the Bloodfang Monster? I avoid it whenever I can!”

The mountain rocks remained perfectly still. He was telling the truth.

Li Banfeng smiled faintly and followed as they began climbing the mountain, chatting as casually.

”What kinds of monsters live on this mountain?” Li Banfeng asked.

”Just the Dipper Bloodfang Monster,” the hunter said, shaking his head. ”Other monsters can’t come up Mount Bloodfang. Sometimes there are birds or wild beasts, but those aren’t a problem. I can deal with them.”

If they were truly nothing more than ordinary birds or beasts, Li Banfeng could have handled them himself. He wouldn’t need the hunter at all.

The mountain path was difficult to traverse, with wild grass rising to their knees. As they walked, Li Banfeng asked, ”The Bloodfang Monster doesn’t usually appear around here, does it?”

The hunter shook his head again. ”I don’t know. I have walked this path before. That’s all I can say.”

”You’ll help me avoid the Bloodfang Monster, right?”

”I will,” the hunter said at once. ”I don’t want to run into it either.”

The mountain did not react. This, too, was the truth.

The higher they climbed, the thicker the vegetation became. The hunter kept his curved blade in hand and hacked away at the growth ahead, clearing a barely passable path through the mess of vines and weeds.

They talked as they went. Or rather, the hunter talked, and Li Banfeng did his best to follow along. The man was spectacularly bad with words, and listening to him was honestly a bit of a chore.

At least there was one comfort. Every word the hunter spoke was true, and the mountain rocks stayed silent.

Halfway up the mountain, the hunter suddenly turned right. ”We won’t go all the way to the top,” he said. ”The Bloodfang Monster’s lair is near the summit. We’ll go around from here.”

Li Banfeng nodded, then suddenly asked, ”Do you have cultivation?”

”Of course I do!” the hunter replied with a nod.

”Which Daoist path, and what level of cultivation?”

The hunter scowled. ”Why should I tell you that? We barely know each other.”

Li Banfeng said calmly, ”Because I am a good person.”

Hearing that, the hunter shuddered and instinctively threw his arms over his head.

Nothing happened. The mountain rocks did not react at all. Li Banfeng was telling the truth.

”That nearly scared me to death,” the hunter said, letting out a long breath. ”I thought you were about to pull some other stunt again.”

Li Banfeng replied calmly, ”I really am a good person.”

Once again, the mountain remained completely still.

In Li Banfeng’s own understanding, he truly was a good person.

This led him to form a tentative hypothesis. Mount Bloodfang did not judge whether someone was lying based on objective facts, but rather on the speaker’s own self-perception.

A desolate mountain in a new land could not possibly collect that many objective facts. Moreover, whether a person was good or bad was itself difficult to define in purely objective terms.

However, if someone spoke words that contradicted their own inner understanding, it would be equivalent to violating Mount Bloodfang’s rules, causing the rocks to shatter.

The greater the contradiction, the more violently the rocks would explode.

If someone who was particularly adept at lying came here, would they blow up the entire mountain? If anyone truly dared to do that, they likely would not survive themselves.

This line of thought reminded Li Banfeng of an enchanted artifact used by Moralism Cultivators at border checkpoints.

That artifact could test whether a person was lying. If someone falsely reported their own name, they would be torn apart on the spot.

If a person had recently changed their name and had not yet fully accepted it as their own, they would also die instantly before the artifact. This precisely exploited the nature of lies.

One could deceive others with lies, but it was extremely difficult to deceive oneself. This was likely how Moralism Cultivators discerned falsehoods.

Of course, this was only Li Banfeng’s speculation.

As Li Banfeng was thinking, the hunter suddenly turned back and asked, ”You said just now that you had never killed anyone, but the rocks exploded. You lied. That means you have killed before.”

”I have,” Li Banfeng answered truthfully.

”You’ve killed people, yet you still say you’re a good person?” the hunter asked.

Li Banfeng replied calmly, ”The people I killed all deserved to die.”

The mountain rocks remained completely still, further confirming Li Banfeng’s hypothesis.

Whether someone deserved to die was difficult to judge. However, in Li Banfeng’s own understanding, those people truly did.

The wild grass around them grew taller and taller, some of it reaching Li Banfeng’s shoulders. At the same time, the stones underfoot became more numerous. Without the foundation of a Wanderlust Cultivator, a single careless step would have twisted an ankle.

This was somewhat abnormal. In a place where vegetation thrived so densely, there should not have been so many stones.

After circling past the middle of the mountain, they were almost ready to head down.

The hunter wiped the sweat from his face, set down his curved blade, and asked, ”Rest for a bit?”

Li Banfeng did not feel tired, but when he saw the hunter sit down, he sat down as well.

He did not sense any danger around him. However, if the Bloodfang Monster was level five and deliberately concealed its malice, Li Banfeng, as only a level-two Wanderlust Cultivator, would have great difficulty detecting it.

The hunter ran his hand along the hilt of his curved blade and said, ”Get some rest. Once you’ve rested a bit, it’ll be time for you to go your way.”

Li Banfeng took out his liquor gourd, took a mouthful, and asked, ”Which way do we go?”

The hunter looked at him in surprise. ”What other way could there be?”

Li Banfeng stared at him seriously. ”I truly don’t know.”

The hunter frowned. ”You really are crazy.”

”I’m not crazy.” Li Banfeng smiled naturally. The mountain rocks did not react. This, too, was the truth.

The hunter frowned. ”Then what exactly are you trying to do?”

”I just want to ask which path we’re supposed to take,” Li Banfeng replied.

”You were the one who insisted on climbing Mount Bloodfang,” the hunter said. ”Of course you’ll be going up this path on your own.”

”You’re not going to accompany me any further?”

”Have I not been accompanying you all along?”

A cold light flashed in Li Banfeng’s eyes. ”You intend to kill me, don’t you?”

The hunter answered slowly, ”I already told you. I am not the Bloodfang Monster.

Li Banfeng nodded. ”That’s true. You are not the Bloodfang Monster. You also told me that apart from the Dripper Bloodfang Monster, no other monsters can come up Mount Bloodfang.”

”Yes,” the hunter said with a calm nod. ”I said that. On this mountain, apart from the Dripper Bloodfang Monster, there are no other monsters.”

Li Banfeng smiled. ”Then you are the Dripper, aren’t you?”