The Overlord of Puluo

Early that morning, Cheng Mingke, the Chief Border Controller of Blackstone Slope, had only just woken up.

The Border Control Office at Blackstone Slope had one Chief Border Controller and twenty-eight deputies. Unless they were away on assignment, everyone stationed there, including the Border Controllers, ate and slept at the office.

Cheng Mingke had not even had time to wash up when his secretary, Tong Lingzhu, came in with an urgent report.

"Border Controller Cheng, we have lost contact with the members of the Jiangxiang Gang."

"Who have we lost contact with?"

Cheng Mingke assumed she meant Fu Botai, the newly appointed hall master. Fu Botai was supposed to make contact with the Sage at Sage's Peak within the next couple of days, so there was nothing unusual about him being away from the hall.

However, Tong Lingzhu was not talking about the hall master Fu Botai.

"The entire hall has disappeared. We cannot find a single person. Both branches in the city have gone dark as well. The only people we can still find are from the branch outside the city."

Cheng Mingke was taken aback. "What did the ones in the branch outside the city say?"

"They don't know anything."

For once, the men at the branch outside the city were telling the truth. That entire branch had only two members, a Branch Master and a Redstaff Crewmate.

It was not hard to guess what sort of position they held in the gang. They were the two least favored men in the hall, which was why they had been sent off to a branch beyond the city.

The others in the gang might not have cared for them, but fate had shown them a little kindness. The day before, the hall had received word that everyone was to gather at the warehouse and accompany the hall master to connect with the Sage.

It was the sort of opportunity that could earn a man real credit. And with a chance that good, who would spare a thought for those two? And so, no one had remembered them, and that was exactly why they were still alive.

Cheng Mingke's face turned grim. He immediately ordered every route out of Blackstone Slope closed and sent men across the city to search for the missing members of Blackstone Slope Hall.

The moment the order was issued, the trains and ferries stopped running, and every checkpoint along the regional borders was sealed. That was the sort of authority a Border Controller wielded.

Every region in Puluo Province was divided by boundary lines, and anyone wishing to travel needed a permit. Most people rarely left home in the first place, so under normal circumstances, shutting down transportation would not cause much disruption.

In a place like Medicine King Gully, cutting off travel for a while would hardly have mattered.

However, Blackstone Slope was different. It was an industrial city through and through. Finished goods from factories across the city were waiting to be shipped, and with transportation cut off, they quickly began piling up at the station.

Blackstone Slope also relied on outside supplies for many of its raw materials. Once those deliveries stopped, factory after factory was forced to halt production.

However, that was not the most important thing.

Blackstone Slope produced very little food on its own. There were a few villages far beyond the city, but they grew barely enough to feed themselves. Nearly all the food consumed in Blackstone Slope had to be purchased from elsewhere.

Once transportation was cut off, the city's food supply was cut off with it.

Surely a city this large had grain stored away somewhere? It did. The problem was that ordinary residents had none of it.

The people of Blackstone Slope did not keep food at home. Most ate their meals in the factory canteens, and whenever they had money to spare, they went out to restaurants together. Now that the city's food supply had been cut off, the canteens had stopped serving meals and the restaurants had closed their doors. Many people would soon go hungry.

Cheng Mingke had only recently arrived in Blackstone Slope, and Tong Lingzhu was worried he did not yet understand the city well enough.

"Border Controller Cheng, we cannot keep Blackstone Slope cut off for too long. This city is a bit different from the other places."

Cheng Mingke remained calm. "I know how important transportation is to the Blackstone Slope. That is precisely why the people here should learn not to take it for granted.

"An entire hall has vanished without a trace. I refuse to believe that no one knows anything. Yet the notices have been posted for days, and not a single person has come forward. That tells me they have no respect for the Border Control Office at all."

Tong Lingzhu didn't dare to ask any more. Still, clues weren't that easy to find!

The Jiangxiang Gang had never had much of a presence in Blackstone Slope, and its members were careful to keep their activities hidden. Most disguised themselves as charlatans, temple keepers, ritual women, fortune tellers, or medicine peddlers. Ordinary people had no way of knowing who they really were.

To make matters worse, the Border Control Office did not want its connection to the Jiangxiang Gang exposed. The notices were written as vaguely as possible, saying only that Fu Botai and several others had gone missing. People looked at the photographs and could make neither head nor tail of them. No one even knew who Fu Botai was.

Cheng Mingke, however, was entirely confident that they would get to the bottom of it.

The tension in Blackstone Slope was beginning to spread beyond the city. Many of the great families had business interests there, and the shutdown was affecting them as well.

The Lu Family had placed all of its business in Blackstone Slope in the hands of Li Banfeng and Ma Wu, but Ma Wu was in no mood to deal with any of it.

Ma Wu was entirely focused on editing a reel of film at Freewind Wharf.

Editing film was skilled work. One had to know how to cut it and how to splice it back together afterward. Ma Wu was no expert, but he had no choice but to edit this reel himself. After all, Li Banfeng had given this reel to him.

The film captured everything that had happened at Willowpond Village, from the peep-box performer abducting the children to his meeting with Fu Botai, the Hall Master of the Jiangxiang Gang.

Indeed. This hall master was Fu Botai. Ma Wu had compared his face with the photograph on the notice over and over again. The reason why Ma Wu was editing this film on his own was because he didn't want to expose Li Banfeng's whereabouts.

Three Jiangxiang Gang halls had been wiped out one after another. Ma Wu had never expected that it had been done by Old Qi.

It was a mad thing to do, but now that Old Qi had done it, Ma Wu intended to see it through with him.

Once he finished editing the film, Ma Wu made a copy and gave it to Shen Rongqing.

A vein throbbed at Shen Rongqing's temple after she watched the film.

There was no sound, but she could read Fu Botai's lips clearly enough.

"He said he can't see them? Excellent! Then this time, I will make sure all of Puluo Province sees! Print extra copies of the newspaper for the next few days."

***

"Print more copies!" Bai Qiusheng ordered the editors of Night-Blooming Jasmine. "Dig up everything on Fu Botai, and expose everything the Jiangxiang Gang has done over the years!"

Yu Wenqi felt a little worried. "A lot of families can barely afford food now. Rice prices keep rising by the day. How many people can still afford to buy a newspaper?"

"Then we will give it away for free!" Bai Qiusheng slapped the newspaper down on the table. "One way or another, we are going to make the truth known."

***

Border Controller Cheng Mingke slapped the newspaper down on the table. "So there really is someone determined to stir up trouble. Shut down this newspaper office!"

Tong Lingzhu hurried to dissuade him. "Border Controller Cheng, we cannot interfere in this. Nothing like this has ever been done in Blackstone Slope. In fact, there is no such precedent anywhere in Puluo Province."

Cheng Mingke's expression remained calm as he silently gazed out the window. "Then the precedent will begin with me. They need to learn to fear and revere the Border Control Office."

Downstairs from the Border Control Office, Li Banfeng looked up at the building, lowered the brim of his hat, and quietly walked away.

That evening, many households across the city received a small bag of rice.

There was not much inside, barely enough to last two or three days. Everyone wondered who had sent it, and a few people had actually seen the man making the deliveries.

"He said his first name is Bene and last name is Factor and we should call him Benefactor."

But where did the rice come from?

***

At first light the next morning, Cheng Mingke was still fast asleep when someone began knocking at his door.

He assumed it was his secretary Tong Lingzhu, so before opening up, he took a moment to smooth his hair and make himself presentable. But when he pulled the door open, he found Du Chaohui, the Deputy Border Controller responsible for logistics, standing there instead.

"Border Controller Cheng, someone has robbed our canteen."

Our canteen was robbed? Cheng Mingke stared at Du Chaohui in surprise. How is this important?

"Did someone steal a little food? Then let it go. Just tighten security from now on."

"It was not a little food. Every last grain in the canteen is gone."

Cheng Mingke froze, then went straight to the canteen storeroom.

The oil, salt, sauces, and vinegar had not been touched. However, the grain was completely gone.

An entire storeroom of grain stolen clean? Cheng Mingke felt a bit annoyed. "How did they manage to carry off that much grain? What were your men doing?"

Du Chaohui looked wronged. "I checked the storeroom myself last night..."

"Enough. Send someone out to buy more grain."

Du Chaohui personally led a group of men to a rice shop. The owner greeted him with a grin. "Lord Du, have you come to buy grain? So even your people need to eat? Well, that is something new. I do not have any rice. Try somewhere else."

Du Chaohui was furious, but he had lived in Blackstone Slope long enough to know what sort of people he was dealing with. The locals had plenty of nerve and very little patience for being pushed around. If he tried to take the grain by force, the whole city might erupt.

Even after visiting more than a dozen rice shops, he failed to buy a single sack. No matter how much he offered, every shopkeeper gave him the same answer: they had no rice.

Du Chaohui returned empty-handed, but Cheng Mingke did not look troubled in the slightest.

"Give everyone canned food and biscuits tonight. A train full of grain will arrive first thing tomorrow morning. I will send my men to collect it. This time, make sure your people keep their eyes on the storeroom."

At eight that morning, a train finally pulled into the station, which had been shut down for days.

It was carrying grain, coal, and medicine, all specially prepared for the Border Control Office.

Disguised as a porter, Li Banfeng kept to a quiet corner of the platform and waited for the right moment to strike. With a Homebound Cultivator's natural gift for Being Ignored, no one paid him any attention.

Luo Zhengnan had sent him the news. He had only discovered the day before that a shipment of supplies was bound for Blackstone Slope.

Li Banfeng had been waiting at the station since the previous night. He had not expected the train to arrive this late.

Stealing the grain from the canteen had been easy enough. Under cover of darkness, he had slipped into the storeroom, had Glove unlock the door, and transferred all the grain into his Pocket Dwelling. Then he simply carried it away without anyone noticing.

But the sun was now fully up, and the station was under heavy guard.

A small freight train was waiting just outside the station. Once the cargo was unloaded onto the platform, the porters would transfer it directly onto the smaller train and send it on to the Border Control Office.

If Li Banfeng waited until the grain was inside the Border Control Office, stealing it would become far more difficult. They had already been caught off guard once, so they would definitely have every precaution in place this time.

Li Banfeng had to decide quickly whether to make his move on the platform or wait until the supplies were in transit.

As he studied the situation, however, something about the train struck him as wrong. Steam trains were not easy to stop and it should have begun slowing well before it entered the station. Yet this one was still charging forward at full strength, chuffing loudly as though it had no intention of stopping at all.

Where exactly was it going?Li Banfeng was not the only one who could not make sense of it. The station workers were just as baffled.

The signalman waved his flag frantically, ordering the driver to stop. However, the driver was so scared that he had no idea what to do. He could only wave and wave at the platform

This train had lost control!

Several cultivators sent by the Border Control Office were stationed near the platform. One burly man bounded onto the tracks in two strides and let out a roar. His body swelled to twice its original size as he planted both hands against the front of the locomotive, trying to force the train to a stop.

"He's got some strength," a man beside Li Banfeng remarked. "That one's a bear."

The man surprised Li Banfeng. Who was that? Why did he appear next to me all of a sudden?

He looked to be around forty, and judging by his clothes, he seemed to be some kind of Artificer Cultivator.

The man raised his brows at Li Banfeng, signaling that there was no need to worry. His judgment had been correct. The burly man who had charged onto the tracks was a Physique Cultivator, and he really was a bear.

The burly man skidded along the tracks for dozens of meters, boots scraping and arms trembling, but the train did not stop. In fact, the train did not even slow down.

In the end, the burly man couldn't hold on anymore and leapt off the rails. The bones in both his arms had broken. If he kept trying, the train would crush him beneath its wheels.

The train roared straight through the station and kept going. The middle-aged man slipped away with Li Banfeng, and once they were outside, the two of them sprinted after it. Then, with one leap after another, they landed on the moving train.

Inside the carriage, the middle-aged man turned to Li Banfeng. "Little Bro, you must be Benefactor, right?"

Li Banfeng did not answer. He did not know who the man was, but he could tell that this senior meant him no harm. If the man had harbored any ill intentions, Li Banfeng would already be dead.

The middle-aged man smiled and said, "I know Benefactor is not your real name. I should call you Boss Ye."

He knows this identity too? Li Banfeng thought and felt rather bewildered. He then heard the middle-age man say, "My surname is Tang and my name is Tang Shijiang. I like a man with guts. If you respect me, call me Brother Tang."

As they spoke, the train covered another three and a half to four kilometers. This was not the speed of a typical steam train.

Tang Shijiang reached into his coat and pulled out a large handful of screws. Every screw came to life. Each one shot into a sack of grain, lifted it from the carriage, and carried it far away from the tracks.

Tang Shijiang was going to distribute the grain.

"Brother Tang, this grain belongs to the Border Control Office," Li Banfeng said. "They will track down every sack. If you throw them out like this without even changing the bags, will anyone dare take them?"

"Of course they dare!" Tang Shijiang laughed. "The people on my turf have guts. Anyone too afraid to take one does not deserve to live in Blackstone Slope."