The Overlord of Puluo

Two rickshaws pulled up outside Lu Chunying's home. Two women stepped out, one after the other, and entered the courtyard.

Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying were waiting at the door to welcome them. The moment Xiao Yeci saw the two women approaching, she hurried forward with a bright greeting.

Lu Chunying chimed in from beside her. "Sister!"

Bam! Xiao Yeci swatted Lu Chunying out of the way and hurried over to take He Yuxiu's luggage. Not that He Yuxiu had brought much. Nectarine was carrying the few everyday things she needed.

Nectarine looked very restrained. She kept her head lowered and did not dare say a word.

Xiao Yeci smiled. "This must be little sis Nectarine. Chunying, call her Auntie."

Lu Chunying looked Nectarine up and down, then shook her head. "Forget it. I'll call you Big Sis instead."

Li Banfeng arranged for He Yuxiu to stay at Lu Chunying's home. Since everyone in danger was now gathered under one roof, they finally knew where to concentrate their defenses.

Ma Wu thought the whole arrangement was ridiculous, but once Li Banfeng had made up his mind, there was no changing it.

Over dinner that evening, Ma Wu sighed and said, "I am just worried that Chu Huaijun might suddenly send someone after us. If that happens, we will be..."

He Yuxiu cut him off. "There's nothing to fear. If he dares set foot in this house, I will take his head myself."

Ma Wu smiled bitterly. "Big Sis Yuxiu, don't let your temper take control of you. Chu Huaijun has the Border Control Office backing him now."

He Yuxiu shook her head. "This isn't anger talking. I should have died long ago. I should have died horribly at the Soda Kiln, but Old Qi dragged me back from the gates of hell. I thought I would never come back to Greenwater City. Yet here I am, living in this house, with Sister Yeci and Sister Chunying willing to take me in. I owe all of it to Old Qi."

Xiao Yeci smiled. "Big Sis, you are far too polite. Chunying and I hardly deserve to be called your younger sisters."

He Yuxiu shook her head. "Everyone under this roof, myself included, is one of Old Qi's people. If anyone dares lay a hand on this house, I will fight them to the death, no matter who they are!"

Xiao Yeci stole a glance at her, and her heart gave a little flutter as she thought, This woman is more heroic than most men!

After dinner, Li Banfeng quietly took He Yuxiu and Luo Zhengnan to the He Family's main residence. When they were still half a street away, they slipped into an ordinary house nearby.

The house belonged to Luo Zhengnan. It had no courtyard. It was just a narrow two-story building.

The moment He Yuxiu stepped onto the ground floor, she noticed that the walls were covered in scraps of colored paper. They had been pasted at uneven heights and seemed to form some sort of pattern, though she could not make out what it was.

"These are Sound Cultivator artifacts," He Yuxiu whispered to Li Qi. "Are they meant to prevent anyone from eavesdropping?"

Li Banfeng gave a slight nod.

Luo Zhengnan slipped into the kitchen and poured a bucket of water into the sink. The water went straight down the drain, though no one knew where it really went. Then he fed firewood into the stove and lit it, but put no pot on top.

He Yuxiu glanced at Li Banfeng and lowered her voice. "That's a steam engine, isn't it?"

Sharp eyes, Yuxiu.

Luo Zhengnan went upstairs and lifted the boards beneath the bed. Hidden underneath was an iron drum more than half a meter long. Both ends extended through the floor below, and pipes stuck out from every side. Something inside it hummed steadily.

He Yuxiu froze. She knew exactly what it was, though such machines were exceedingly rare in Puluo Province.

She asked Li Banfeng. "Isn't this an electrical generator?"

"You recognize it?"

"Of course. It's a steam turbine generator. They are common in the Outer Provinces, but they are practically useless here in Puluo Province. Any electricity generated here is gone before it can travel from the front room to the back courtyard. What do they call that again? Too much power lost in transmission?"

What He Yuxiu meant was that far too much electricity is lost due to the long wires. The moment it entered the wires, it seemed to leak away, and hardly any of it reached the other end. So why didn't they just get rid of the wires and use the electricity right there in the room?

People had tried that too. Unfortunately, fussy machines such as televisions and computers simply would not behave in Puluo Province. Even after they were switched on, their screens would still look as though they were covered in snow. Every now and then, a peculiar picture would flicker into view, though nobody had the faintest idea where it had come from.

Simpler electrical appliances, such as lightbulbs, worked well enough. However, the generator was extremely noisy. To keep one little bulb glowing, someone had to shovel coal, add water, and endure enough noise to make their teeth rattle. Considering all that, a gas lamp was much less trouble to use.

He Yuxiu really hated this noise. She covered her ears as she screamed, "WHAT'S THE USE OF THIS?"

Li Banfeng said, "It depends on how skilled our expert is."

There was a cable running from the steam turbine generator to a hemispherical device that resembled a radar dish.

Luo Zhengnan turned a wheel to adjust the direction of the dish. Then he pulled out two wires and attached one to each of his temples. He flipped the switch. The moment the current passed through him, his whole body shuddered, and he activated his ability.

He Yuxiu stared at him in astonishment. "I have never seen such a Daoist path before."

Li Banfeng smiled. "Yuxiu, you will see something even more astonishing in a moment."

Luo Zhengnan straightened his back and put on a solemn expression. "Now, please enjoy Scouting the Valley from The Yang Clan's Women Generals.

"「The people cry oooout, the reed pipes blaaare, the mountains answer, the valleys tremble, and the battle cries rise, rise, rise to shake the heavens! ♪」"

Li Banfeng applauded and asked, "Yuxiu! What do you think about this singing?"

He Yuxiu was not impressed. "His voice is nothing special, though his stage movements are decent enough."

Luo Zhengnan shook his head. "Wrong channel."

He adjusted the direction of the radar dish and waited a moment before saying to Li Banfeng. "There are three people carrying hooks near the He Family's main residence. One is at the front gate, another is at the back gate, and the third is by the roadside."

Obviously, these three were Spycraft Cultivators sent by the Border Control Office.

Li Banfeng took a music box from inside his coat and opened the lid. A tiny golden figurine stood on the tray within. He turned the box until the figurine was facing Luo Zhengnan, then pressed the switch. A gentle, moving melody began to play.

The music box was a fine gift Ling Miaoying had given Li Banfeng. Neither he nor He Yuxiu felt any ill effects because the figurine was not facing them.

However, Luo Zhengnan felt the effects. He felt really exhausted and was about to fall asleep. The melody reaching his ears was quite different from the one Li Banfeng and He Yuxiu heard. And now, he needed to pass this music on. Twisting his left ear, he switched himself from receiving to transmitting.

The melody from the music box travelled through the radar dish and straight into the ears of the three Spycraft Cultivators. In less than a minute, all three of them had dropped off to sleep, one after another.

Luo Zhengnan fell asleep as well. The music box was simply too powerful.

Li Banfeng shut down the generator, packed away the equipment, and carried Luo Zhengnan back to bed. Then he took He Yuxiu with him and returned to the He Family's main residence.

"Big Bro Qi, did you really make all these preparations just so I could come home once?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "You will have to repay me for this favor. I am going to ask you to do something rather excessive."

He Yuxiu smiled. "Then I will do it. How excessive could it possibly be?"

"Once you get home, explain everything clearly. As soon as you are done, come straight back."

He Yuxiu nodded and headed toward the He Family's residence.

***

At the He Family's main residence, the bookkeeper Sheng Shanzhou was carrying a case toward the door when Madam Yan Yulin stopped him. "Old Sheng, you cannot leave now. Are you really going to abandon the family and run off?"

Sheng Shanzhou looked very troubled. "Madam, I am only a bookkeeper. I cannot hold the whole family together. I am getting old, and I have no strength left for this. Please let me go home and spend what years I have left in peace."

Yan Yulin shook her head. "You cannot leave, Old Sheng. What are we supposed to do without you?"

"The head of the house is gone. What can I possibly do? Madam, please let me go."

A voice came suddenly from the window. "Who said the head of the house is gone?"

He Yuxiu sprang through the window, startling Yan Yulin so badly that she nearly screamed.

Sheng Shanzhou dropped his case with a thump and bowed at once. "Eldest Lady, you are back. I was just..."

"Just leaving?"

"I... well..." Sheng Shanzhou did not dare move another inch. Even if He Yuxiu had ordered him to leave, he would not have dared put so much as one toe through the door. "I was going to fetch the account books so I could report the finances to you."

"Enough. I don't have time to listen to your nonsense chants," He Yuxiu said. "There are buyers for all our goods now. Follow Ma Wu's instructions for the details, and cut off every last deal with the Chu Family."

Once everything had been settled, He Yuxiu went back to Lu Chunying's residence, while Li Banfeng went back to Luo Zhengnan's house. After waking Luo Zhengnan, they set up the equipment again and woke the three sleeping Spycraft Cultivators up.

Li Banfeng asked, "They all fell asleep at the same time. Won't they find that suspicious?"

"Master Qi, don't worry. None of them know that they all fell asleep at the same time. Each of them only knows that they themselves fell asleep. They are all from Puluo Province, working for outsiders just to earn a living. Do you really think any of them would admit they fell asleep on duty in the middle of the night?"

Li Banfeng then went to Freewind Wharf, where he had been planning to share a drink with Ma Wu. Before he could sit down, Cao Zhigang hurried over and reported, "There's a young man at the dance hall. He drank without paying, and now he's demanding a cup of tea as well. Judging by his clothes and the way he talks, I would say he's from the Three Heroes Sect."

Cao Zhida felt really nervous, but Ma Wu thought it was no big deal. With Qin Tianjiu in the Three Heroes Sect, it was unlikely that anyone from the Three Heroes Sect would stir up any serious trouble.

"Give him some money and send him off," Ma Wu instructed.

However, Li Banfeng shook his head and said, "I will go buy this person a cup of tea. Old Luo, come with me."

Li Banfeng brought Luo Zhengnan because he was worried that hooks would be planted around them.

The moment they entered the dance hall, Li Banfeng spotted the young man. He was sprawled across a chair with all four limbs flung wide, wearing the sort of smug expression that made a person's palm begin to itch.

Luo Zhengnan gave a tiny nod. There were no hooks planted around.

Li Banfeng dropped into the seat beside the young man and lowered his voice. "Looking for me?"

The young man was startled and was about to sit up straight when Li Qi stopped him. "Don't move. Sit exactly as you were."

The young man froze at once. Keeping his voice low, he said, "Master Qi, our Copper Seal would like to invite you for tea tomorrow."

Li Banfeng handed him a silver dollar, pulled the brim of his hat lower, and left the dance hall.

The next morning, Li Banfeng arrived at the teahouse. Chubby Qin hurried over and led him into a private room.

"Big Bro Qi, Chu Huaijun, the head of the Chu Family, invited our boss and third boss to dinner last night. He even gave our boss a treasure."

"What treasure?"

"A pair of Judge's Brushes."

Judge's Brushes? The mention of Judge's Brushes made Li Banfeng think of his own. Could these be relatives of the Judge's Brush in my house?

"What can these Judge's Brushes do?" Li Banfeng asked.

Chubby scratched his head. "I don't really know. I have only heard that they are among the finest treasures the Chu Family has kept hidden away."

Judging by where they came from, these Judge's Brushes were probably nothing like Li Banfeng's. After all, Li Banfeng had taken his Judge's Brush from two thugs.

"They invited your boss and third boss, but not your second boss. Were they intentionally trying to ostracize him?"

Chubby nodded. "Our second boss was furious. Last night, he called me and the other Silver Seals over, then spent half the night drinking and cursing. He didn't dare curse the boss, so he called the third boss a spineless coward instead.

"Big Bro Qi, I thought about what you told me before. Now that I think about it, he was probably saying all that so I would hear it. Maybe he really wants to work with you. Do you want to meet him?"

"There's no hurry. Send him a gift first. Go to the Imperial Workshop Hall and choose something fine, preferably something your second master will like. I'll pay for it."

Chubby Qin hesitated. "It won't mean much if it comes from me. It would be better if you gave it to him yourself."

Li Banfeng smiled. "If you deliver it, he will know it came from me."

***

"A pair of Judge's Brushes, and they are one of the Chu Family's finest treasures?" He Jiaqing frowned. "How come I have never heard of them?"

Wan Jinxian replied, "The news came straight from the Three Heroes Sect. They have already been given to their Golden Seal, so there's no mistake about it."

"Old Wan, get in touch with the Ghosthand Sect. Tell them this is my order. I want them to find a way to get those Judge's Brushes for me."

***

"Judge's Brushes?" Luo Zhengnan muttered as he wiped down the antenna and tucked it back into its box. He continued muttering to himself, "He Jiaqing seems to really like these Judge's Brushes. I wonder if Master Qi will like it too."

Author's Note:

PS: Does the Judge's Brush really have relatives?