The Overlord of Puluo

At noon the next day, the centipede woman staggered out of the New Land. Her eyes were unfocused. Her face had gone pale, and her spirit seemed shaken to the core.

From noon until dusk, from nightfall until dawn, she tried again and again to kill Ma Wu. Each time she raised her hand, something stopped her. No matter how she struggled, she could not bring herself to strike.

She hurried over to the wild boar, her face pale and her steps unsteady. With trembling voice, she said, “I was affected by his ability. That’s why things turned out like this. You must not tell anyone.”

The wild boar let out a tremendous snort. “If you have something to say, just tell your mom about it. I already told her.”

The centipede woman’s face turned ashen. ”What did my mom say?”

”She said you have disgraced her. Said she’s going to kill you, you little wretch. Told you to wait nicely for your death.”

Her voice trembled as fear overtook her. ”Why did you say anything? Why can’t you keep your mouth shut?”

The wild boar could not be bothered to argue. “You already stepped out of the plot. It’s my turn one.”

She stared at him in shock. “You dare go in?”

He let out a harsh, savage laugh and turned his gaze toward Ma Wu. “Why wouldn’t I dare? I am not a woman! He can barely stand. Killing him will be easier than killing a grasshopper!”

Ma Wu did look a little frail. Yet there was not a trace of fear on his face as he stared straight at the wild boar.

Beside him, Little Gen gripped a ladle in one hand and wore a bucket on his back. He was ready to fight to the death.

Just as the wild boar was about to step into the plot, a furious roar erupted from behind him.

”Let me see which beast dared to defile my daughter!”

The roar rolled across the wasteland, echoing again and again, as though the earth itself were trembling in anger. From the depths of the forest, another centipede slowly emerged.

The wild boar quickly stepped aside. This was not someone he could afford to offend.

The centipede woman was already enormous, a good three meters from head to tail.

However, the one who came out of the forest was something else entirely. She was over five meters long.

Her upper half looked like a woman. Her lower half was pure insect. Two long rows of thin legs rippled beneath her as she moved, wave after wave, click click click across the ground.

She crawled right up to the edge of the plot and stopped there.

This was the centipede woman’s mother.

Ma Wu studied her carefully.

Her features were delicate, and her cheeks were fair and smooth. She was quite pretty and looked no older than twenty-eight or twenty-nine.

The centipede woman dropped to the ground beside her mother with a heavy thud.

”Mother, listen to me. It’s not what you think. It happened like this…”

”I’ll listen to your nonsense!” the centipede mother roared. The sound alone made the centipede woman’s bones feel hollow. She trembled where she knelt.

”You have ruined my reputation,” the centipede mother said through clenched teeth. ”Go back home. I will kill this bastard first. Then I will return and break every bone in your wretched body.”

The centipede woman did not dare say another word. She spread her rows of legs and fled at once into the depths of the forest.

The centipede mother glared at Ma Wu. “Little thief, are you ready to die?”

Ma Wu nodded calmly. “I’m ready.”

***

Li Banfeng was exploring the New Land.

In the past, he had only traveled between the Orange Grove and the Little Yellow Spring. This time, he ventured much farther and entered unfamiliar territory. Along the way, he encountered many strange lifeforms.

One of them was the Green Serpent Vine. Half snake and half vine, it did not possess much intelligence. As long as a person moved beyond the reach of its roots, it would not attack.

There was also a tiny plant, barely an inch tall, called the Splinterchain Chrysanthemum. It was far more dangerous than it looked. If someone stepped on it by accident, its sharp stem would pierce straight through the sole of a shoe and punch out through the upper.

Li Banfeng had never seen aberrant creatures like these before. Fortunately, the gourd was knowledgeable and well-traveled. It could name most of them and explain their traits.

”Little bro, if you ever see the Splinterchain Chrysanthemum, avoid it at all costs,” the gourd warned. ”If you step on one, it means you have stepped on an entire cluster, and there will be more ahead, waiting to ambush you.”

Li Banfeng carefully memorized the plant’s appearance. Out on this wasteland, he needed to walk every step carefully.

After walking another two or three kilometers, he suddenly heard a sound from beneath his feet.

He froze. Did I step on something I shouldn’t have?

He quickly lifted his foot and looked down. The ground was barren, cracked, and dry, without even a blade of grass.

Yet there was indeed a sound. It was singing.

「 Can’t forget, can’t forget,

Can’t forget the wrongs you made,

Can’t forget how good you are,

The wandering in the rain,

The embrace in the wind… ♪」

The song Unforgettable Love[1] drifted up from the earth in a voice so full of aching devotion that it made the air feel heavy.

The longing in it was the sort that crept into your ears, slid down your spine, and settled deep in your bones, where it refused to leave.

Even the liquor gourd, being a lady, seemed quite touched by it.

“Little bro, you just encountered the Dreamsinger Flower.”

“Dreamsinger?”

”This flower is also known as the Songstress Flower,” the gourd said. ”Legend has it that when a songstress dies, if someone in the mortal world still longs to hear her voice, her soul will drift into the New Land.

”She chooses a stage for herself, slips into a beautiful evening gown, and keeps singing for passing travelers. Look! Over there! That’s the flower!”

There was no need for further explanation. Li Banfeng knew at once which flower the gourd meant.

It was impossible to miss. The flower stood alone in the wilderness, more than twenty meters away from him. No grass grew near it. No trees cast shade over it. On the empty wasteland, there was only this single plant, over one meter tall.

Its appearance made it even more striking. It had not yet bloomed. The bud was as long as a forearm. Its petals were deep crimson, each one glistening with beads of dew.

The leaves were even stranger. Several leaves above curved upward and wrapped around the bud, as though shielding it. Below, a string of long leaves draped downward like the hem of a skirt, trailing all the way to the ground.

“Little bro!” cried the liquor gourd, wobbling excitedly. “Listen to her song. Listen properly. It’s pure luck that you’ve run into a Songstress Flower in the New Land! Just hear that voice! Even the immortals up in the heavens would tilt their heads and sigh in envy.”

Immortals in the heavens? Li Banfeng thought. The liquor gourd usually has no interest in the affairs of the world. Why is she so sentimental today?

After standing still and listening for a moment, Li Banfeng turned to leave.

He did not think Unforgettable Love was sung particularly well, nor did he believe anyone in this world could sing better than his wifey.

Seeing him walk away, the liquor gourd quickly called out, “Little bro, don’t rush off. Listen more carefully!”

“There’s nothing worth listening to,” Li Banfeng replied. “It’s far worse than my wifey’s singing!”

“Little bro, look! The flower has bloomed. The Songstress Flower has bloomed!”

Li Banfeng turned back.. The Songstress Flower’s petals were unfolding one by one. At its center stood a pistil over one and a half meters long.

The pistil had taken on a strange shape. It had a head, shoulders, and a slender waist. The lower half was blurred, its legs indistinct, yet the outline was unmistakable. It looked like a woman standing at the heart of the flower, singing softly as the petals unfurled around her.

“Little bro, look how beautiful she is!”

There was something odd about the liquor gourd’s behavior. Li Banfeng gave it a glance and continued walking. “Nothing special. The singing isn’t that good either.”

No matter how the liquor gourd tried to persuade him, Li Banfeng refused to stay. Suddenly, the singing stopped.

Before Li Banfeng could take another step, the pistil shot out of the flower’s heart and landed in front of him, blocking him from leaving.

“Sir, you claim I do not sing well. On what grounds do you say that?”

Anyone else would have jumped out of their skin at the sight of a pistil strolling out of its flower like a tiny, opinionated lady. Li Banfeng was not surprised. He lowered his head and looked at the pistil, answering seriously, “If it doesn’t sound good, then it doesn’t sound good. What else is there to say?”

”You have only heard only a few lines and already call it unpleasant,” she said sharply. “Isn’t that rather hasty? You should listen a little longer.”

The scenery around him suddenly changed. The wilderness vanished. In its place sprang a riot of colored lights and glimmering chandeliers. Music flowed through the air like ribbons of silk.

There was a stage, a dance floor, and round tables.

And Li Banfeng, who had most certainly been standing outside a flower only a moment ago, now found himself seated at one of those round tables with a glass of wine in his hand.

On the stage stood a stunning woman in a green qipao. The silk clung to her like mist. She sang Unforgettable Love with such aching tenderness that the notes seemed to stretch and shimmer in the air.

She was the songstress.

Around him, the guests sat perfectly still. They stared at her as if blinking might shatter the spell. Some even held their breath, afraid that the faintest sound would cause them to miss a single precious note.

It was a dance hall. Yet not a single soul danced. The polished floor gleamed under the lights, empty and ignored. Every guest sat rigidly still, every gaze locked on the woman in green.

Li Banfeng was not captivated. He was thinking about his situation.

How did I end up in this dance hall? Li Banfeng thought. This must be an illusion? But how do I get out of this illusion?

Li Banfeng had no experience dealing with illusions like this. The songstress looked straight at him. Though her lips curved in a gentle smile, a faint chill flickered in her eyes.

Li Banfeng tried to draw his Tang saber, but what he pulled from his waist was a rose.

The songstress smiled and stepped down from the stage, walking until she stood before Li Banfeng. She took the rose from his hand, brushed it against his cheek, and asked softly, “Sir, do you still think I sing poorly?”

Li Banfeng answered without hesitation. “It truly doesn’t sound good.”

The songstress’s expression twisted. She dragged the rose across his cheek. The thorns bit into his skin. Blood welled and ran down in a thin line. Yet Li Banfeng felt no pain at all.

Her voice turned soft again, almost tender. “You simply haven’t listened long enough. Stay here and listen a while longer.”

Li Banfeng looked at her steadily. “What if I say it sounds good?”

The songstress shook her head. “Then you wouldn’t be sincere.”

“And if I sincerely say it sounds good?”

“Then you will stay here and listen for the rest of your life.”

“So you’re not going to be reasonable?”

Li Banfeng tried to stand, but his legs felt like they were stuffed with cotton. No matter how he forced them, he could not gather even a shred of strength.

The songstress leaned closer and gently patted his cheek. “This is my domain. What I say is reason.”

He could not exert strength, and he felt no pain. This was a dream.

Wake up! Wake up now! Li Banfeng screamed inwardly. He suddenly opened his eyes and tore himself free from the dream.

He was still standing on the wasteland. The liquor gourd was talking about the Splinterchain Chrysanthemum as though nothing unusual had happened at all.

“Little bro, if you run into the Splinterchain Chrysanthemum, avoid it. Step on one, and you’ve stepped on a whole chain. There’ll be more waiting ahead to ambush you. For example, the Songstress Flower. Little bro, look at how beautiful she is…”

We were talking about the Splinterchain Chrysanthemum. How did it suddenly turn into the Songstress Flower? Li Banfeng thought. Am I still dreaming? This gourd is fake!

Li Banfeng pulled the liquor gourd from his waist and threw it aside. He broke into a sprint, only to find himself back in the dance hall, a glass of wine in his hand, seated beside a round table.

The songstress stood on the stage, smiling at Li Banfeng.

***

“Little bro, I was just telling you about the Splinterchain Chrysanthemum. Were you listening? If you heard me, answer! There are plenty of them around here. You have to be careful!”

The liquor gourd had been talking about the Splinterchain Chrysanthemum when Li Banfeng suddenly stopped replying.

“Little bro? …Little bro?”

She felt deeply displeased. Out of all the enchanted artifacts Li Banfeng owned, she considered herself the one who understood him best. At the very least, there should have been some basic courtesy between them.

She floated in a slow circle around him. Seeing his vacant gaze and hearing his slightly heavy breathing, she finally realized that he had fallen asleep.

He’s dreaming? There’s a Dream Cultivator nearby! I must wake him up quickly! the liquor gourd muttered inwardly.

The liquor gourd called out several times, but Li Banfeng did not respond. She rose into the air, tilted herself back, and rammed straight into his head.

Thud! Thud!

Two dull, hollow impacts echoed across the wasteland.

Yet, Li Banfeng did not wake up.

The liquor gourd hovered there. She could not keep smashing into him. If she knocked him fully unconscious, he might sink even deeper into the dream instead of waking from it. He might never wake up from this dream.

“Tang Saber,” she called sharply, “cut little bro once. Not too deep!”

The Tang saber left its sheath, circled Li Banfeng twice, then returned to the scabbard.

The liquor gourd asked, “What is the meaning of this?”

The Tang saber replied, “How could a loyal subject harm his lord?”

“I am not asking you to kill him! Just cut him a little so he feels pain!”

The Tang saber remained utterly firm. “I am loyal and upright. I will never commit such treacherous acts.”

One could not truly blame the Tang saber for its stubbornness.

It was, after all, a high-tier enchanted artifact. Its awareness far exceeded that of ordinary tools, yet it remained bound by the limits of its own nature. Every enchanted artifact possessed a self-definition and beneath that definition lay rules it could not violate.

The gourd defined herself as a confidante. If she teased Li Banfeng or bumped into him a few times, it meant nothing. That fell well within the boundaries of her nature.

The Tang saber, however, defined himself as a loyal subject and a righteous general. Until he had delivered three cuts, he was bound to remain absolutely loyal to Li Banfeng.

Unless those three cuts were completed and he formally challenged Li Banfeng to a duel, there was no situation in which he could attack Li Banfeng.

“Pendulum girl, what if you try?”

The pendulum answered coldly, “Try what? How would I dare touch my master?”

The Blood-Drinking Pendulum had never liked the gourd. In front of Li Banfeng, she appeared dutiful and restrained. But when speaking to the gourd, she reverted to Luo Yuni’s cold and distant temperament.

She, too, was bound by her definition.

Under the identity imposed by the gramophone, she firmly believed she was Li Banfeng’s woman. Aside from occasionally putting makeup on him, she would never harm him.

Still, she was doing her utmost to rescue him.

As a Mentalism Cultivator, she possessed a measure of restraint over dream cultivators. She focused her will and tried to seize control of Li Banfeng’s thoughts, intending to wrench him free from the illusion by force.

As expected, she failed. Li Banfeng’s thoughts were too numerous, too scattered. There was no clear order, no single thread she could grasp. They surged in all directions, impossible to command.

Even so, she did not return empty-handed.

“There’s singing,” the pendulum said suddenly. “Inside master’s thoughts… there’s singing. A woman’s voice…”

Her tone wavered. The moment she brushed against that melody, her own mind began to blur. The song seeped through her awareness like mist, pulling at her consciousness.

She had only been able to hold on because of her abilities as a Mentalism Cultivator.

“Singing?” the liquor gourd murmured.

Hearing this, the liquor gourd no longer dared to touch Li Banfeng’s thoughts.

Where exactly does the singing come from? The liquor gourd thought. Suddenly, she remembered the Threaded Earring.

The gourd suddenly remembered the Threaded Earring.

“Threaded earring sister?” the liquor gourd called urgently. “Did you hear the singing? Did you fall asleep? Wake up!”

The pendulum flicked sharply against the earring. She did not hold back. She wouldn’t hold back against the earring.

The earring jolted awake with a faint tremor. After hearing the liquor gourd’s question, it answered in a hurried voice. “There really was singing. I heard it just now too. I only caught two lines before I fell asleep.”

The liquor gourd muttered darkly, “Dreamsinger Flower. There’s a Dreamsinger Flower underground.”

The Tang saber slid from its sheath and hovered in the air for a moment. “I have seen Dreamsinger Flowers before. As long as they do not break through the surface, no one can hear their song. I saw none emerging nearby.”

That was true. The Dreamsinger Flower had not surfaced. So where was the singing coming from?

The liquor gourd could not make sense of it.

The pendulum, however, understood at once. “It’s that wretched earring again. She’s squeezing gains from the master!”

The price using the Threaded Earring was hearing sounds that should not be heard.

The Dreamsinger Flower had been underground. Li Banfeng should never have heard her singing. Yet because of the Threaded Earring, he had.

The Threaded Earring trembled as she tried to explain, “I did not mean to. I never wanted to harm my master. I was…”

Before she could finish, her voice faded. She fell asleep again.

The pendulum turned to the gourd at once. “Wake master. Immediately. We must leave this place.”

Waking Li Banfeng was not difficult. Aside from cutting him with a blade, the gourd could think of several other methods.

The problem was that waking him would not solve the root of it. The earring had just awakened, only to fall asleep again in the blink of an eye. That was the Dreamsinger Flower’s method. Once one had heard her song, one could slip back into the dream at any moment.

If this repeated too many times, the consequences would be grave.

“We must force the Dreamsinger Flower out,” the liquor gourd said grimly.

The Tang saber shouted, “If she dares to emerge, I will chop her down at once!”

The pendulum snapped back, “Enough empty bravado. Do you think we would need you to chop her if she was willing to come out on her own?”

None of them could think of a way to force her to reveal herself. Then a weak voice spoke, uttering a single word. “Blood.”

Who just spoke? All of them wondered.

It was the Judge’s Brush. The Judge’s Brush refined by a Lazy Cultivator.

He was willing to offer only that single word. Any more would have required too much effort.

Blood… the liquor gourd murmured inwardly. What blood?

The gourd did not understand. The Tang saber could not make sense of it either.

Then the pendulum remembered. “The Dripper’s blood. The Sylvan Cultivator’s blood. I still have a mouthful!”

When they had slain the Dripper, the pendulum had drunk her fill of blood. Much of it had been digested over time, yet she had kept one last mouthful.

Everyone else had forgotten and only the Judge’s Brush had remembered.

The truth was that the Judge’s Brush remembered many things. He simply could not be bothered to mention them.

The pendulum leapt into the air and spat the blood across the wasteland. The dark red droplets scattered over the barren ground. In an instant, the soil began to stir.

Across the desolate earth, all manner of plants burst forth. Seeds that had lain dormant for years took root at once, splitting the ground as they sprouted and surged upward.

Deep beneath the earth, the hidden Dreamsinger Flower was splashed with the Sylvan Cultivator’s blood and started growing uncontrollably.

Rustle, rustle.

A flower burst through the soil. Its petals were a deep, vivid crimson, still tightly closed. Several broad leaves wrapped around the bud, while a string of slender leaves trailed downward like the hem of a gown.

It looked as though the songstress herself stood there, dressed for an evening performance.

It really was the Dreamsinger Flower!

The pendulum’s voice turned sharp with fury. “Wretch, die!”

Roots shot up from the ground, tearing through the soil and flinging clods of dirt into the air to block her path. The Dreamsinger Flower twisted, trying to flee back underground.

The Tang saber flashed. A streak of cold light cut through the air.

The flower’s neck snapped and its bud fell heavily to the earth.

1. Listen to the song here. 不了情 (Bu Liao Qing) or Unforgettable Love was sang by Gu Mei. It is a classic Mandarin song from the 1961 film of the same name. ☜