The Overlord of Puluo

The Gramophone stood beside the bed. She looked first at Li Banfeng, who was sleeping soundly, and then at Hong Ying, who stood before the dressing table.

She couldn't sit. She could only stand these two days.

After a moment of silence, Hong Ying suddenly snapped, "You wicked woman, how are you going to pay me back for this?"

The Gramophone was even angrier than she was. "Pay you back? You got to take advantage of my man, and you still dare demand payment? Had you been of any use at all, would I have suffered so much last night?"

"I was useless? Your madman can't even figure out the right door. How can I be of use when he can't even figure that out!"

The Gramophone sneered and said, "Even if he can figure it out, do you think you could have done it with him?"

Hong Ying laughed as well. "I couldn't, but could you? We both died as virgins, and fighting was the only thing either of us understood. What are you showing off for?"

Pop...crackle...pop~

"You wretched woman, I suppose you are right. You could have married the prince, but I ruined it all. You must hate me terribly, do you not?"

"You wicked woman, I will tell you one more time. I did not kill you because of that! I killed you to save the tens of thousands of soldiers under my command. You never cared about any of their lives."

"Wretched woman, how could you say that I don't care?"

"If you cared, why did you insist on continuing the battle?"

"Because I could have won!"

"You couldn't have won a thing! That seller of sundries had already reached the battlefield. How were you supposed to fight him?"

"I was not afraid of him!"

"Such bullshit!" Hong Ying snapped. "Ask anyone who was there. Who was not afraid of him? Even the fiercest men from the Inner Provinces trembled before him. What could you possibly have used to fight him?"

The Gramophone fell silent for a moment, then gnashed her teeth as she said, "Why couldn't you just believe me then? Why couldn't you believe that I could win?"

"I did believe you," Hong Ying replied. "From the moment we went to war, I followed you. I believed every word you said! Two of our three vanguard commanders died, and only Yuan Shoulü was left. Then even he ran away. He said he would rather spend the rest of his life begging than ever fight another war. Even then, I still believed you. I believed you could win. But what good would winning have done? There was still no road ahead except death!"

They were about to start quarreling again when the Gramophone noticed Li Banfeng's eyes move and said, "Heyaaa~ Husband dear, if you are awake, get up quickly."

Li Banfeng opened his eyes. He had hoped to listen for a little longer, but Wifey had seen through him.

"What exactly happened back then?"

The Gramophone remained silent.

Hong Ying sat down in the chair with an angry huff, then sprang back to her feet just as crossly.

Li Banfeng stared at her in surprise. "Sit down. We can talk slowly."

"Sit down? After what you did to me last night, how am I supposed to sit?"

Li Banfeng scratched his head. He couldn't remember doing anything to Hong Ying the night before.

Is the seller of sundries she mentioned the Peddler? Li Banfeng thought. Can the Peddler make even the fiercest man from the Inner Province tremble? Just how powerful is he?

Li Banfeng got up and went to look inside the third room. The whole room was still piled high with Heavenspring Joysoil.

"Nothing was used to build the train station?"

The Pocket Dwelling replied, "Have you even picked the place to build it?"

"I have to choose? Can I put it anywhere I like?"

"Of course not. You have ridden on a train before, so you know what a station looks like. The platform must be large enough for a train to stop beside it, and large enough for all the passengers to stand on it without tumbling onto the tracks. But you cannot let just anyone wander in. The platform needs walls around it, or people without tickets will sneak aboard."

Hmm.. Finding the right place is not going to be easy. It's not too troublesome to find a place that can fit the train but...

Li Banfeng thought about the size of the Pocket Dwelling. Each room was a little over three meters long, and there were eight carriages now. Once he reached the Cloudborne Layer, there should be twelve rooms altogether. The third room did not count as part of the train, so the other eleven rooms would only be a little over thirty meters long. There were many places large enough for that.

There was no need to worry about the passengers either. The Pocket Dwelling was Li Banfeng's home, and most of the time, the only passengers would be the people in his house. Even if everyone came along, there would still be plenty of room.

The real trouble was the wall. Where was he supposed to find a wall around such a large piece of land?

He could ask someone to build one, but that would be far too noticeable. A strange building appearing in the middle of the wilderness would basically tell any passerbys that this place was special.

Perhaps he could find a place with natural walls instead. But where could such a place be?

Li Banfeng thought about it for a moment, and then a very good place popped into his head.

The Mountain-Uprooting Lord's residence. He had not been back there since returning to the New Land. The residence stood deep in the mountains, with no proper entrance anywhere. Great masses of rock surrounded it on every side. They wouldn't stop the Pocket Dwelling, of course. The masses of rocks around it were basically a natural wall.

Li Banfeng went to the cliff and used Deep Court Domain to borrow Hong Ying's Path of Unhindered Steps. Then he slipped straight through the rock and entered a tunnel.

The Mountain-Uprooting Lord's house was at the end of this tunnel. The train station couldn't be built in the residence as there were many blind guards there.

The tunnel was more than a hundred meters long, which made it a very good choice indeed.

Li Banfeng hid the key carefully, stepped into the Pocket Dwelling, and asked, "What do you think of this place?"

The Pocket Dwelling gave a weary sigh. "Who ever heard of building a station platform inside a tunnel?"

"I think a tunnel is rather a good place for it. We will not need to build a roof, and we will not have to worry about the rain."

At last, the Pocket Dwelling agreed. "Hide the key well, and don't let me leave this place for the next ten days."

Li Banfeng found that rather odd. "Why must I hide the key? You could simply stay where you are."

The Pocket Dwelling gave a bitter little laugh. "Do you think I don't want to leave? Had I been free to go wherever I pleased, I would have left long ago. I have only two choices. I must either follow you or follow the key, and I am not allowed to choose between them."

Li Banfeng frowned. "What do you mean when you say you are not allowed to choose?"

Pocket Dwelling did not answer.

Li Banfeng hid the key carefully and went to the Mountain-Uprooting Lord's residence.

There had been two wolves guarding the entrance. One of them had been killed by Li Banfeng while the other one had been promoted to be the steward of the residence. Guarding his job was no longer his job, so a blind headless ox had taken his place.

The ox had no head at all. There was just a neat, flat stump where its neck ended. Although the ox had no head at all, it still had all its "facial" features.

There was a gaping hole in its left side that led straight to its stomach. That was its mouth. Two empty sockets lay on its back. They had once held its eyes, but the Mountain-Uprooting Lord had dug them out. An ear grew from each of its front hooves.

When the ox heard footsteps approaching, it wagged its tail and blocked Li Banfeng's path. "Who are you?"

Li Banfeng looked the creature up and down. "You don't know me?"

"No, I don't!"

The headless ox truly had no idea who he was. On the day Li Banfeng had declared himself the master of the estate, the poor creature had been ill with a dreadful case of diarrhea and had never heard his voice.

Li Banfeng did not bother arguing with an ox. He simply walked around it.

The ox, however, was very loyal. The moment it realized it couldn't stop Li Banfeng, it raised its enormous voice and bellowed, "Help! Someone has broken into our residence!"

Its voice was so loud that half the estate must have heard it.

The mountain wolf came rushing out first. "Who dares cause trouble here?"

Li Banfeng smiled and stepped forward to pat the wolf on the head.

The moment the mountain wolf felt that touch, he knew exactly who Li Banfeng was.

"You blind old ox! Do you not recognize the master of our house? Hurry up and apologize to him!"

The moment the old ox learned that the master had arrived, it hurried forward, wagging its tail as it apologized.

The mountain wolf caught a whiff of something and barked, "How dare you wag your tail in front of the master? Have you no manners? Get away from here!"

The old ox hurried off.

Li Banfeng turned to the mountain wolf. "What rule did he break by wagging his tail?"

"Master, you may not know this, but that old ox has its nose on its tail. With how hard he was wagging his tail, he must have farted. He was trying to spread the smell around!"

The mountain wolf had kept the residence in splendid order. All the aberrant creatures living there also looked much plumper than they had during Li Banfeng's last visit.

Li Banfeng asked, "Have the aberrant creatures in the territory been bringing you more food than before?"

The mountain wolf shook its head. "You might not like hearing this, Master, but they have actually been bringing us less. We receive only about half as much as before."

Li Banfeng couldn't understand it. "Then why have all of you grown fatter?"

"Half is still more than enough for us. When the Mountain-Uprooting Lord was here, we did not even get one tenth of it."

The mountain wolf had told Li Banfeng before that they had only been allowed to eat the leftovers of the Mountain Up-rooting Lord.

"Could the Mountain-Uprooting Lord really eat ninety percent of all that food by herself? She wasn't even a Gourmandism Cultivator."

"Even when she couldn't finish it, she wouldn't let us have any. There are caves all around the estate filled with food that has gone sour and rotten, but she still refused to give us a bite. She said we were born with worthless lives and that hunger was simply our fate. Ever since I came to this mountain, I have only ever eaten my first proper meal after I started serving you. I really don't know how I can ever repay you..."

"You don't need to repay me. You earned it yourself."

Li Banfeng went down into the cellar and took out the land deity seal from the contracts. He rewarded the mountain wolf a share of merit before rewarding each of the others as well.

After leaving the residence, Li Banfeng went to Meng Yuchun's house. He took out the land deity seal and said, "I will give you half of the cultivation gathered here as payment for everything you have done these past few days."

Meng Yuchun shook her head at once. "I owe you my life. It is only right that I help you."

"It is right for you to help me, and it is also right for me to reward you when the work is done. These are two separate matters," Li Banfeng said. He then asked, "First, tell me about Bei Wushuang and Pan Dehai. Their lands are so far apart, so how did the conflict between them even start?"

"According to the news the Cook Monster gathered, it seems to have something to do with the mosquito plague in the Ridges of Bottomless Stomachs."

Mosquito plague? Li Banfeng thought.

The mosquito plague was caused by the Entomic Luminary[1], and the Peddler personally killed the Entomic Luminary because of this.

What does any of that have to do with Bei Wushuang?

Meng Yuchun continued, "I heard that Pan Dehai has already declared that he will take Bei Wushuang's life. I have never dealt with the land deities of the Proper Land, but I know they are all at very high levels and possess far more methods than those of us from the New Land. If a battle between them really started, I am afraid we might be dragged into it as well."

Li Banfeng nodded. "That is certainly something we should worry about. We need to prepare early. Give the Cook Monster a larger reward and have him gather more information."

Meng Yuchun nodded. "At the first sign of trouble, I will light up the boundaries of my domain. They can fight however they please, but I will not let them bring their battle onto my land."

Li Banfeng lowered his voice. "What exactly is that ability you use to light up the boundary lines?"

Meng Yuchun frowned. "Why are you asking about my abilities again? You cannot simply tell other people about them."

Li Banfeng's expression turned serious. "Look at the situation we are in! There may be a war. Have you never heard that knowing yourself and knowing your enemy will bring victory in every battle? I don't even know what resources we have at our disposal or what methods we can use. If we continue guarding against one another, how are we supposed to fight this war together?"

Meng Yuchun thought it over and decided that he had a point.

"This is a level-eight Homebound Cultivator ability. It's called Hermit's Lockdown[2].

"What is the trick to using it?"

Author's Note:

PS: Yuan Shoulü was once the land deity of Beggar Bay. After he was defeated by the Greenwater Beggar, Beggar Bay became Greenwater Bay.

1. Sorry guys! I have to change this term again. Just realized this should be Entomic instead of Insect. This was previously the Insect Luminary mentioned in chapter 170 and chapter 341. I have changed them to Entomic Luminary ☜

2. First mentioned in chapter 313 ☜