The Overlord of Puluo

Qiu Luoye stood in the scrubbing room, shivering uncontrollably. He was cold, which was exactly how it should be. The muskmelon body was icy, crisp, and refreshing, so of course he felt cold.

Qiu Luoye rolled his shoulders and neck. ”What kind of poison was that? My body doesn’t even feel like mine anymore.”

Li Banfeng shivered along with him. ”I am cold too. The poison must fill the body with a chill. Take an antidote first, then soak in the hot water for a while.”

Li Banfeng handed him the pill Crimson Lotus had made, but Qiu Luoye shook his head. ”I don’t need it. You two take it.”

”We have got our own,” Li Banfeng said. He took out two lozenges, handed one to Ma Wu, and swallowed the other himself.

Only then did Qiu Luoye take the pill. After swallowing it, he stared at the chunks of flesh scattered across the floor for a long while.

They had come from his own body. Inevitably, some of them would look familiar.

Li Banfeng had originally planned to cover everything with lime, but there was no good way to explain where the lime had come from.

Instead, they had disguised it with the grime scrubbed off a person’s body. It looked perfectly natural and would never seem suspicious.

Qiu Luoye gave the bloody pulp another kick. ”Is that bath scrubber really dead?”

Li Banfeng pointed at what was left of him. ”The corpse is right there. How could he not be?”

Ma Wu backed him up at once. ”I saw it with my own eyes. Old Qi blew him to bits!”

Qiu Luoye looked at Li Banfeng. Suddenly, he could not see any reason to doubt them. The corpse was right there, so the man was obviously dead.

”Does this scrubber have accomplices?” Qiu Luoye asked.

Li Banfeng had been waiting for exactly those words. ”I will go outside and have a look.”

Qiu Luoye spoke at once. ”I am coming with you.”

Ma Wu caught Qiu Luoye by the arm. ”Big Bro, you are still injured. Come soak in the hot water first.”

Qiu Luoye lowered himself into the bath. The heat soon chased away much of the chill, but something about his body still felt terribly strange. His flesh was as stiff as ever, and somehow it had become much smoother and slipperier than before. Just what sort of poison had that bath attendant used? How could it be this powerful?

***

Li Banfeng hurried back to Qiu Luoye’s territory and went back into the Pocket Dwelling. ”Wifey, we have passed the first trial. He’s taken the medicine, so we should pass the second trial very quickly .”

Gramophone took the deed and started doing three things.

Gramophone first washed Qiu Luoye’s blood off the deed with her steam. However, the mist on the deed still created the illusion that the blood was still there. For now, they needed that illusion to deceive the Inner Provinces.

But once the blood had been washed away, did that mean the deed was completely severed from Qiu Luoye? No. For the second step, the Gramophone turned the deed over. The back was densely covered with records of Qiu Luoye’s life and accomplishments.

The deed was still tied to Qiu Luoye, and as long as any connection remained, even something as small as his name, it was not safe. So the Gramophone carefully changed every mention of Qiu Luoye’s name to Elephant Qiu, one character at a time.

Then came the third step. There was still another Qiu Luoye inside the Pocket Dwelling, the one grown from a muskmelon. The Gramophone pricked the muskmelon Qiu Luoye’s hand with her needle and sprinkled the melon juice over the iron deed.

With that, the deed was finally severed from the real Qiu Luoye completely.

***

Little Chuan, who was guarding the boundary line, quickly realized something was wrong. The moment loose stones or fallen leaves landed near the line, they instantly turned to ash.

The Kinless Township and Qiu Luoye’s territory were once again separated by the boundary line.

One of the men beside Little Chuan asked, ”Big Bro Chuan, what’s going on?”

Little Chuan could not make sense of it either. ”Don’t ask questions. Guard the road and don’t let anyone through!”

Aside from Li Banfeng and his household family members, no one knew what had really happened.

Qi Qiu City had now been split in two. Kinless Township still belonged to Qiu Luoye, while Qiu Luoye’s original territory now belonged to Elephant Qiu.

So who was Elephant Qiu? As far as the deed was concerned, whoever spilled their blood on it was Elephant Qiu. The muskmelon had spilled its juice onto the deed, so the muskmelon was now Elephant Qiu.

***

The Gramophone said to the muskmelon Qiu Luoye, ”You are Elephant Qiu.”

The muskmelon Qiu Luoye stared back at her blankly. Could this muskmelon version of Qiu Luoye really connect with the deed?

The muskmelon juice had been sprinkled on the deed. As for whether a connection could really be made, it depended on whether the muskmelon version of Qiu Luoye knew that he had a nickname called Elephant Qiu.

Seeing the blank expression on the muskmelon Qiu Luoye, Li Banfeng felt increasingly uncertain.

The Gramophone said, ”Husband dear, just do it. The muskmelon was grown from Qiu Luoye’s blood, so as long as that nickname works, he would surely sense a connection. You have to move quickly. Once the deed leaves the house, the illusion will stay for a little longer, but no longer than two minutes. If you are not done by then, bring the deed back at once. Otherwise, the Inner Provinces will notice that something is wrong.”

Li Banfeng nodded. He took the iron deed and the paper contract that had been prepared beforehand and led the muskmelon Qiu Luoye out of the Pocket Dwelling.

Standing within Qiu Luoye’s territory, Li Banfeng unfolded the paper contract. A single line was written across it: ”Qiu Luoye defeats Elephant Qiu. Elephant Qiu cedes his entire territory, all ten thousand plots across fifty kilometers, to Qiu Luoye.”

Li Banfeng glanced at the muskmelon Qiu Luoye and asked, ”Elephant Qiu, do you agree?”

The muskmelon nodded and agreed.

Li Banfeng handed the paper contract to the melonmusk Elephant Qiu. Elephant Qiu took it and dripped melon juice onto the paper.

Li Banfeng then took out a small bottle and poured the last of Qiu Luoye’s blood onto the same contract.

Now both sides had left their mark. Qiu Luoye’s blood was there, and so was Elephant Qiu’s. If the agreement had truly taken effect, the Iron Deed should show some sign of it.

Li Banfeng flipped the deed over and saw that there were no changes.

It didn’t work? Li Banfeng thought. The muskmelon and the deed didn’t form a connection? What should we do now?

The deed now no longer had anything to do with Qiu Luoye, which meant that Qiu Luoye was now just the land deity of Kinless Township. However, Qiu Luoye was not familiar with Kinless Township. In addition, the territory itself was not big enough. And so, if Qiu Luoye only had possession of the Kinless Township territory, he would not have enough land to keep his standing and cultivation stable, which meant he would not be able to pass the third trial.

Li Banfeng was very nervous. The time of two minutes would arrive soon, but the deed still had not shown any changes. Why was this happening?

Wait a minute! I almost forgot! The illusion is still on the deed.

Li Banfeng used Keen-Eyed Perception and looked at the deed again. This time, a new line of text had appeared at the very bottom.

”Qiu Luoye defeats Elephant Qiu. Elephant Qiu cedes his entire territory, all ten thousand plots across fifty kilometers, to Qiu Luoye.”

It worked! They did it!

Li Banfeng looked at the muskmelon Qiu Luoye and burst out laughing. ”It’s done, Elephant Qiu. Farewell.”

As soon as Li Banfeng said that, he unleashed Treading Through Ten Thousand Rivers and the muskmelon Elephant Qiu exploded on the spot.

Li Banfeng immediately opened the door to the Pocket Dwelling and handed the deed to the Gramophone. ”Wifey, it’s done.”

The Gramophone urged him, ”Quick, take the deed to the old man!”

Li Banfeng carried the deed into the third room and set it on the floor.

”Sir, destroy this deed.”

”You are sure this deed has nothing to do with Qiu Luoye, right?”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”Nothing at all.”

”Then I am doing it!”

A little steam still clung to the deed on the floor. A cold wind swept through the third room and blew every trace of it away, revealing what the deed really looked like.

”What are you doing?”

The Pocket Dwelling gave a sinister chuckle. ”HEK HEK HEK. Let’s have a little fun with them.” The deed on the floor flickered faintly with light. Li Banfeng still had no idea what the Pocket Dwelling was planning.

Hiss. A wisp of green smoke rose from the contract.

Li Banfeng had no idea where the smoke had come from. The Pocket Dwelling said, ”Use Perceiving the Spirit’s Melody and listen. Let’s listen together and see if we can hear what’s happening on their side. Whatever they are doing over there should sound wonderful!”

With the Pocket Dwelling’s help, Li Banfeng used Perceiving the Spirit’s Melody on the deed and heard a burst of agonized screams.

It was a man whose voice sounded deep and resonant.

Li Banfeng asked, ”Who was that?”

The Pocket Dwelling’s chuckle turned even more sinister. ”That’s one of the men guarding the iron deeds in the Inner Provinces. He touched my fire. HEK HEK HEK.. Listen! I think another one’s coming!”

Another scream came through the deed. This one was also a man’s voice, though much hoarser than the first.

”Good! Serves him right for sticking his hands where they don’t belong. If they touch my fire, they die. Burn those bastards to death! Qi, you don’t know this, but the people guarding the iron deeds aren’t lapdogs. They are pure-blooded native of the Inner Provinces. Old Train used to love killing their kind. Those bastards are the worst of the lot, and there’s nothing more satisfying than killing them!”

Pure-blooded!

Li Banfeng immediately felt excited as well. ”Pure-blooded native of the Inner Provinces... You mean they are the masters Chu Shaoqiang serves?”

”Exactly. They are the masters of those lapdogs!”

”Then where did they come from?”

”Old Train spent a long time investigating that, but he never figured that out. They aren’t from our world!”

Li Banfeng gritted his teeth. ”If only I could kill one of them with my own hands!”

The Pocket Dwelling laughed. ”Qi, those two count as your kills. You came up with the plan, and you were the one who carried it out. At least seventy percent of the credit belongs to you!”

”Good! That’s what I like to hear!” Li Banfeng was still grinning when another scream suddenly rang out from the deed.

”There’s another one! Hwahahahaha!”

The old man and Li Banfeng burst out laughing together and their laughter echoed throughout the house.

The old man sighed. ”What a pity. This deed can’t hold out much longer. Otherwise, we could have baited a few more of them into coming over.”

As he spoke, Elephant Qiu’s deed melted into molten iron, then quickly evaporated.

Li Banfeng said, ”Don’t worry. We will have plenty more chances. We will keep killing those bastards until they never dare to stretch their hands into Puluo Province again!”

”What a Good fella you are!”

”Hwahahahaha!” The two of them burst into laughter again and their cackling echoed throughout the house again.

Hong Ying shuddered. ”Those two sound downright terrifying when they laugh!”

The moment she finished speaking, she felt another shiver and realized that it was the effect of Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity. Something was about to happen to her!

Hong Ying couldn’t see, but she sensed a faint, icy glint behind her.

The Gramophone was right there. While Hong Ying’s attention was elsewhere, she slipped a stream of steam into Hong Ying’s body.

Hong Ying couldn’t move anymore. While she couldn’t move, the Gramophone carried her to the Second Room.

Hong Ying gnashed her teeth and said, ”What are you doing?”

The Gramophone brought out a wooden chest. ”That madman is in such a good mood tonight, so there’s no chance I will escape tonight. You and I have fought side by side all our lives, so I can’t very well be the only one suffering tonight!”

Hong Ying tried to shout, ”You damned wicked woman...”

The Gramophone stuffed her mouth, shoved her into the chest, and made a fake gramophone with her in it.

The Gramophone glanced around. She still had to hide the Joysoil. Otherwise, even that wretched Hong Ying would not be able to keep things going for long.

***

Li Banfeng left the Pocket Dwelling and hurried toward the bathhouse. Halfway there, one of Little Chuan’s men stopped him.

”Master Qi, you can’t go any farther. That boundary line has appeared again.”

Li Banfeng picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it across the line. The stone flew across without the slightest damage.

Everyone stared in astonishment. The boundary line had clearly appeared just moments ago, so how had it vanished again?

Li Banfeng pulled the brim of his hat lower and smiled. ”There won’t be any more boundary lines from now on. This is all one territory now. From this day forward, there’s only Qi Qiu City!”

***

Inside the bathhouse, Qiu Luoye felt increasingly certain that something was wrong with his body and asked, ”Old Wu, why do I feel like I am wearing a piece of clothing on me?”

Ma Wu shook his head. ”You are not wearing anything. Who wears clothes in the bath?”

”No, something’s definitely wrong with me. I feel horrible,” Qiu Luoye said as he kept scratching at his skin.

Ma Wu hurried to stop him. ”Big Bro Qiu, you have been poisoned. You mustn’t scratch at it. Just bear with it a little longer. It will be over soon.”

Qiu Luoye finally couldn’t stand it anymore. ”This isn’t my body. This definitely isn’t my body! Old Wu, what the hell is going on? Are you hiding something from me?”

Li Banfeng wasn’t there, and without him, the effects of Ironclad and Mountain-Solid Evidence were beginning to wear off. Little by little, Qiu Luoye came back to his senses. He kept pounding at his new body, and it slowly began to swell.

”Big Bro Qiu, don’t! Listen to me. Just wait a moment...”

Boom!

Qiu Luoye exploded, splattering Ma Wu’s face with melon pulp.

”Big Bro Qiu! Big Bro...” Ma Wu wiped the melon pulp from his face and froze. A gaunt man stood before him, completely skinless, with raw flesh exposed from head to toe.

The man slowly turned to look at him. Ma Wu froze for a long while and tried calling out , ”Big Bro Qiu, is it you?”

Qiu Luoye touched his own flesh, still unable to make sense of what had happened. ”Is this really me? Where did my skin go?”

He passed the second trial? He grew his own flesh back! Ma Wu was overjoyed, but the feeling lasted only a moment. Something was clearly wrong with Qiu Luoye. His thoughts were slipping into confusion again. His body swayed, and he toppled into the water. His soul was clearly still unstable.

Ma Wu helped Qiu Luoye up. He carried him out of the water and laid him on a lounge chair. Ma Wu had no idea what to do next. All he could do was wait for Li Qi to come back.

A few minutes later, Li Banfeng rushed into the bathhouse and found the skinless Qiu Luoye barely clinging to life.

”Big Bro Qiu, think about your own territory. Use it to keep your soul stable in your body!”

”My territory? You mean Kinless Township?” Qiu Luoye was still dazed. He could barely remember anything.

”Forget Kinless Township. Think only about your own territory, the land you guarded for all those years!”

”My own territory...” Qiu Luoye still did not understand.

”The place you know best. Think carefully!”

Qiu Luoye concentrated for a moment, then his eyes widened. His territory slowly took shape in his mind. From every mountain and stream to every blade of grass and tree, he knew that land extremely well.

The more he remembered, the clearer his thoughts became, and strength gradually returned to his body.

Qiu Luoye sat up. His soul had finally stabilized within his new body. He had passed the third trial.