The Overlord of Puluo

Somehow, Sun Tiecheng had used an ability to spread news of Gu Rusong’s death throughout the city, and before long, cries of grief could be heard everywhere in Yuren City.

Sun Tiecheng turned to Tang Changfa. ”Changfa, go outside and have a look. See if there’s anyone who isn’t crying!”

Tang Changfa immediately headed toward the back hall, only for Yanqing to grab him and pull him back. ”Big Bro Changfa, the door’s that way.”

Tang Changfa turned around and started walking toward the front entrance, but Li Qi stopped him this time. ”You don’t even have eyes anymore. What are you planning to look at? I will go.”

Li Qi walked around Yuren City and found people crying everywhere he went. The breakfast vendors were crying, the cloth sellers were crying, the teahouse owners were crying, and even the street performers were weeping as they went about their routines.

High above the city, a cloud of dust stirred amid the sound of their cries. It repeatedly tried to gather back together, only to scatter again each time. After several attempts, it finally dispersed completely and turned into dust.

When Li Banfeng returned to Changsan Literary House, he told Sun Tiecheng, ”The whole city is crying.”

Sun Tiecheng nodded. ”Good. If everyone’s crying, that means he’s properly dead. We still have to watch out in case the Inner Provinces have a trump card left.”

A trump card? But what does this have to do with crying?

”If the whole city is crying, that means he’s completely dead?” Li Banfeng asked.

Sun Tiecheng said, ”If the whole city’s crying, then there are this many witnesses. Isn’t that Ironclad and Mountain-Solid Evidence?”

Ironclad and Mountain-Solid Evidence can be used like that too?

Gu Rusong was Sun Tiecheng’s eldest disciple. To be safe, he had brought Li Qi to Yuren City. As far as Gu Rusong was concerned, Yuren City was his turf. Once Li Qi entered the city, there was no way he could survive or escape.

Gu Rusong had thought he had everything under control. Who would have thought that things would have ended up this way?

Sun Tiecheng was still grieving. Tang Changfa squatted beside Li Qi and tried to comfort him. ”City Lord, the Eldest Young Master is already gone. Please don’t be too sad. Our boss is still here, isn’t he?”

Li Qi said, ”You are calling me that too soon. I am not the City Lord yet. Wait until our City Lord Sun is... you know. Then you can call me City Lord.”

Tang Changfa was terrified. He quickly ran over to Yanhong and tried to explain himself. ”City Lord, listen to me. I don’t have my eyes anymore, so I really couldn’t see clearly...”

Yanhong gave him a shove. ”Don’t say that to me...”

Sun Tiecheng stepped forward and kicked Tang Changfa. ”Why did you gouge your own eyes so damn hard? You completely ruined them. They can’t even be fixed now!”

Tang Changfa sighed. ”I really didn’t want to hurt the Eldest Young Master. I went all out because I only wanted to force him to leave, but instead of backing off, he just kept pushing further!”

Sun Tiecheng turned to Li Banfeng. ”And you! Killing your Senior Brother was bad enough. You could have at least left the body behind so Changfa had something to work with, but you went and turned him into ashes.”

Li Qi protested. ”You are blaming me for that too? You are the one who turned him into ashes!”

Sun Tiecheng snapped, ”Still talking back? Where’s my knife?”

Yanhong’er sniffled beside them. ”City Lord, never mind the knife for now. With the Eldest Young Master gone, whenever you need something taken care of with the cultivation path, you will have to rely on our Shopkeeper to lend you a hand.”

Sun Tiecheng shot Li Qi a look and snorted.

There were two things that Li Banfeng was worried about. Firstly, if He Jiaqing wasn’t one of Sun Tiecheng’s disciples, how had he managed to perform a Folly Cultivator ability?

”Big Bro Sun, Thievery Cultivators can steal other people’s abilities, right?”

Sun Tiecheng nodded. ”That ability is called Art of the Empty Hand.”

”And once they steal an ability, is it theirs to use from then on?”

Sun Tiecheng waved him off. ”It’s not that powerful. Art of the Empty Hand is a level-one Cloudborne Layer ability. If you are at level one of Cloudborne Layer, you can only steal one ability, and each time you advance another level, you can steal one more.

”A stolen ability only lasts for a limited number of uses, and the stronger the ability, the fewer times you can use it. If you steal a level-one ability, you might get nine uses out of it. If you steal a level-nine ability, you might only get one. After that, if you want to use it again, you will have to steal it again.”

Li Banfeng was shocked.

At level one of the Cloudborne Layer, a Thievery Cultivator could only steal one ability. With each additional level, they could steal another ability.

During the fight with Chu Shaoqiang, He Jiaqing had used abilities from the Water, Fire, and Devotion cultivation paths. Li Banfeng wasn’t guessing. Chu Shaoqiang had identified all three on the spot.

If He Jiaqing could hold three stolen abilities at once, then he had to be at least level three of the Cloudborne Layer.

Is his cultivation level really that high?

Li Banfeng said to Sun Tiecheng, ”He Jiaqing stole a Folly Cultivator ability from Gu Rusong. I don’t know how much he knows about Yuren City.”

Sun Tiecheng fell silent. That brought Li Banfeng to an even more troubling question. ”Gu Rusong defected to the Inner Provinces. How much has he already told them about Yuren City?”

Sun Tiecheng had thought of that too. ”I figure Gu Rusong has already told the Inner Provinces everything he knows. We might have to change the entrance to Yuren City. He learned two abilities from me: Words Chiseled in Stone and Seizing Upon a Weakness. He taught himself The Fool’s Thousand Worries, but never really got the hang of it. I don’t know which ability He Jiaqing stole from him.”

Li Qi sighed. ”What’s the point of learning an ability halfway? If you are going to learn it, you might as well learn it properly. Otherwise, when your life is on the line, you won’t even know whether it will work. Take Dismounting Along the Slope as an example. I still haven’t figured out what the ’slope’ is supposed to be, let alone how the dismounting is done.”

”The dismounting...” Sun Tiecheng sighed. ”You really are a greedy little brat. Every time you come by, you somehow end up walking away with another ability from me. Fine. I will teach you, but I can’t do it for free. The people from the Inner Provinces might come knocking soon, so I will need to focus on dealing with them. I will give you one year. Find yourself a junior brother and bring him back to me. Don’t just grab anyone off the street. He will only count if he passes my trial of worthiness.”

Li Qi frowned. ”That’s easier said than done. Your trial of worthiness is way too hard. Can’t you lower the bar a little?”

Sun Tiecheng snorted. ”No. I would rather take no one than accept someone useless. What about that Thievery Cultivator you mentioned just now? He Jiaqing, was it? What’s he like?”

Li Banfeng said, ”He’s a decent guy, and he’s capable. I think you will probably like him too. There’s just one problem.”

”What problem?”

Li Banfeng answered honestly, ”I really want to kill him.”

”Forget it. You are too ruthless, kid,” Sun Tiecheng said with a wave of his hand. ”If even you can’t stand the man, chances are I won’t like him either. We will find someone else. Our Daoist path was once the greatest in the world. We can’t let just anyone through the door. Other than He Jiaqing, isn’t there anyone else around you who might be a good fit?”

Li Banfeng thought for a moment. ”Ma Wu. He helped me build everything from the ground up. You know him too. He’s clever, and he’s a hard-working cultivator.”

Sun Tiecheng shook his head. ”That man’s got a terrible reputation. I have got plenty of good girls in this city. If I let him in, who knows how many of my girls he will ruin? I am talking about something serious here. Ours is a respectable Daoist path. You need to bring me someone respectable.”

Li Banfeng thought for a moment, then said, ”What about He Yuxiu, the head of the He Family? She’s respectable, her cultivation is high, and she has status. She might even help our Daoist path flourish again.”

Sun Tiecheng looked at him. ”She’s your lover, isn’t she?”

Li Banfeng shook his head. ”There’s nothing going on between us. We are sworn brother and sister.”

”Nothing going on?” Sun Tiecheng scoffed. ”There’s no such thing as innocent sworn siblings. Those kinds of ’brothers and sisters’ all end up sharing the same bed. And that hotheaded woman He Yuxiu? You really think she would be a good fit here? She would probably learn nothing and end up infuriating me to death instead. Pick someone more reliable.”

Li Banfeng thought long and hard before answering, ”There’s a foreigner named Cedric. He’s a disciple of the Greenwater Beggar. What do you think of him?”

”I don’t teach foreigners, and I definitely won’t teach anyone from Green Beggar’s side. Old Qi, this is an important matter for our Daoist path. You need to take it seriously.”

Li Banfeng thought for a moment. ”There’s also...”

Banfeng A, stop right there! Not another word!

The voice burst into his head so suddenly that it cut the thought clean in half.

There were still so many names that Li Banfeng wanted to say. Qiu Zhiheng, Xiao Yeci, Lu Chunying, Chu Huaiyuan, Zuo Wugang, Little Chuan...

And then there were the names that absolutely must not be said aloud. Luo Zhengnan, Wu Yongchao, Zhang Wanlong, Little Gen, Bai Qiusheng, Trusty-Doubty...

Every one of them was connected to some little arrangement Li Banfeng had tucked away in secret. If Banfeng B had not desperately stopped him inside his head, he might have blurted out every last name.

What’s going on with me today? Why am I so eager to share today?

Li Qi looked over at Sun Tiecheng and caught the faint smile on his face.

”Go on,” Sun Tiecheng said. ”Why did you stop?”

Li Qi protested, ”You can’t use an ability to mess with me like that. We are on the same side. I really do want to do something important for the Daoist path.”

Sun Tiecheng nodded. ”That’s why I went easy on you. Otherwise, I could have kept you talking until tomorrow morning. So, have you figured out how to set up the ’slope’ yet?”

Li Qi thought for a moment, then turned to Yancui. ”Yancui, let’s go back to the room and practice properly.”

Yancui’s face lit up. She grabbed Li Qi and was already pulling him toward the room when Sun Tiecheng frowned and said, ”Stop torturing her. Don’t you see the state that Changfa is in? Aren’t you going to do something about him?”

Li Banfeng helped Tang Changfa to his feet. ”Come on, Changfa. Let’s go back to the room and practice.”

Sun Tiecheng snapped, ”Why do you keep using your own people for practice? If you are so capable, go test it on someone outside! Bring back some flesh and blood while you are at it. You can’t even keep this Literary House fed?”

Feed them? Like it’s that easy. I have got a whole family waiting to be fed too. And the real problem is that the ingredients you people need are too damn special...

Sun Tiecheng went over the finer points of Dismounting Along the Slope with Li Qi, then picked up a stick and drew a map on the ground. ”The entrance of Yuren City used to be its southern gate, but now we are going to use the western gate. This is the route you need to take. Remember it...”

Li Banfeng memorized the new entrance, then left to find something for the Literary House to eat.

He went back to the Pocket Dwelling first and handed his bloodstained clothes to the Gramophone. ”Wifey, help me wash these. Save the blood for me.”

”What do you need the blood for?” Wifey asked.

”Fishing. I am using it as bait.”

The Gramophone understood at once and sang, ”Heyaaaa~ Husband dear! You are planning to use it to lure out those little minnows under the Performing Arts Cultivator, aren’t you? Don’t bother fishing for them. This humble wife has no taste for such small fry.”

Li Banfeng wrapped his arms around Wifey from behind. ”Heyaaa, Wifey. You haven’t put on much weight, but your appetite sure has grown. You don’t even think cultivators at the Terranean Layer are worth eating?”

”If they were level seven or eight, they might make a decent little snack!”

A level-seven or level-eight cultivator... as a snack? How many such cultivators are there in Puluo? Oh right, Crimson Lotus ate Ge Junma and He Caiyuan some time ago. Are the pills done?

With that thought, Li Banfeng headed to the ninth room with a smile. ”Ninth Flower~ Are you done making the pills?”

Crimson Lotus snorted and said, ”Can you stop calling me Ninth Flower? Why don’t you just call me sesame paste?[1]”

Li Banfeng thought for a moment. ”Fine. Then I will call you Flower Nine. Now, about those pills!”

Crimson Lotus really had finished refining Ge Junma and He Caiyuan into pills. Li Banfeng peeled open the lotus seeds and examined what was inside.

One had produced two Profound Essence Pills, while the other had produced only one.

”Which one gave us two?”

”The pure-blooded native from the Inner Provinces.”

”Why did the refinement of the Inner Provinces cultivator produce an extra pill? Was his cultivation higher than He Caiyuan’s?”

”No. It wasn’t his cultivation. There was something special about his bloodline. Their flesh and blood can be refined into more pills, and the pills made are purer too.”

Li Banfeng gently stroked the lotus core with a smile. ”Darling Flower Nine, I am almost out of Golden Essence Pills, and I still haven’t reached level nine. You have got seven holes right here~ Don’t make me do something you will regret.”

As he spoke, his hands remained on the lotus core. The Crimson Lotus trembled slightly as she explained, ”I am doing this for your own good! I am telling the truth! Ordinary flesh and blood can’t be refined into Profound Essence Pills. Once you reach the Cloudborne Layer, you will understand just how precious they are.”

This was already the seventh Profound Essence Pill Li Banfeng had saved up.

Li Banfeng slowly ran his fingers over each hole in the lotus core and spoke in a gentle voice. ”It doesn’t matter how precious something is if I can’t use it when I need it. I will go find you some ordinary ingredients, and you better refine them into pills I can actually use.”

1. 九花 (Jiuhua, ”Ninth Flower”) sounds very similar to 韭花 (Jiuhua, chive-flower sauce). So when Li Banfeng calls her Ninth Flower, Crimson Lotus hears it like he’s calling her ”Chive Flower.” That second half works because chive-flower sauce and sesame paste are both classic northern Chinese hotpot dipping-sauce ingredients and are commonly mixed together. ☜