The Overlord of Puluo

Li Banfeng and He Yuxiu jumped off the train before it reached the city and went back to Greenwater Bay. Instead of entering Greenwater City, they found a place to stay in Taiming Town.

He Yuxiu was deeply impressed with Li Banfeng. “Big Bro Qi, where did you hide yourself on the train? Even I could not find you.”

Li Banfeng answered solemnly, “It all comes down to your state of mind. Once you reach the proper state, you can become one with everything around you.”

He Yuxiu looked down at herself. “Do I not look like I have already become one with my surroundings?”

She was covered from head to toe in black coal dust.

Of course, the real secret had nothing to do with his state of mind. Li Banfeng had spent most of the journey inside the Pocket Dwelling, so naturally He Yuxiu had been unable to find him.

After washing away the coal dust, the two of them changed into fresh clothes. Li Banfeng began considering where He Yuxiu could go next.

The Border Control Office was not going to give up the hunt anytime soon, so He Yuxiu would have to remain hidden for a while longer.

The He Family owned plenty of plots in the New Land around Greenwater Bay, but most of it had already been developed. There were too many people coming and going on those plots, which made them poor places to hide.

And in He Yuxiu’s present condition, even an ordinary village would have been a poor place to hide, never mind the plots of land belonging to her own family.

Li Banfeng did have one suitable place in mind: Meng Yuchun’s territory.

It was far away enough, and Li Banfeng owned a one-and-a-half-kilometer stretch of land there himself. That was a place where ordinary people would have little chance of finding, and he could let He Yuxiu stay there for the time being.

Besides, the area did not belong solely to Meng Yuchun. Part of it was Li Banfeng’s own territory, and after being away for so long, it was about time he went back for a look.

The thought of that land filled Li Banfeng with heartfelt pride. He was the land deity of that place. That would be his foundation upon reaching the Cloudborne Layer...

Ba-dum!

The more Li Banfeng thought about it, the more worked up he became. Suddenly, his heart began pounding so violently that he clutched his chest and collapsed.

He Yuxiu was terrified. “Big Bro Qi, what is wrong?”

Li Banfeng waved a hand to show that he was all right and told her to rest at the inn. Then he returned to his room and entered the Pocket Dwelling alone.

When the Gramophone saw how pale he was, she quickly caught him with a stream of steam. “HEYA! HUSBAND DEAR! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?”

“My heart suddenly started racing. It felt as though it was about to leap out of my chest,” Li Banfeng explained. He pressed a hand to his chest. Once he was back inside the Pocket Dwelling, the sensation seemed to ease a little.

The Gramophone thought for a moment. “Those sound like palpitations. Husband dear, is something weighing on your mind?”

Li Banfeng shook his head. “Nothing is troubling me. I was only thinking about that land of mine.”

“Your land...”

Huff~

A slow clapper beat sounded as the Gramophone began to sing. “Husband dear, since you have become a land deity, it is only natural for you to share a connection with your own territory. But what could have happened there to leave you suffering from palpitations?”

What happened? Did someone from the Inner Provinces come? Did they find out about me pretending to be the Mountain-Uprooting Lord?

A wave of anxiety swept over Li Banfeng. Once the palpitations had eased, he went back to the inn and drew He Yuxiu a map so she could make her own way to Meng Yuchun’s territory.

He Yuxiu had travelled through the New Land before, so she nodded. “Big Bro Qi, don’t worry about me. You be careful.”

Li Banfeng raced toward his own territory as fast as his legs could carry him. When he finally arrived, he found Meng Yuchun every bit as anxious as he was.

“You are finally back! Someone has come to activate land. How are we supposed to handle this?”

“What is so difficult about that? This is hardly your first time dealing with land-activators.”

Meng Yuchun shook her head. “They are not activating land in my territory. They are doing it in yours.”

“My territory?” Li Banfeng was stunned into silence.

Meng Yuchun explained, “Two people set up an offering table in your territory. At first, I thought they would leave on their own when you did not respond. But those two young women refused to give up. They have been waiting there for days, and they still will not leave.”

Whose family’s daughters could possibly be this stubborn? Li Banfeng thought. He ran to the edge of his territory and soon spotted a young woman in the woods. She was bending over gathering firewood, and through the hazy darkness, two full, rounded buttcheeks came into view.

Li Banfeng smiled faintly. “Peachy butt!”

Nectarine jumped in fright and spun around, nearly attacking him on the spot.

Once Li Banfeng came a little closer and she could make out his face, she lit up with delight. “Brother Bai Sha, what are you doing in this dump of a place?”

Who would have thought that, a full year after parting in Pricklebamboo Village, the two of them would meet again here?

“This place is...a dump?” Li Banfeng looked around and asked, “I came here to hunt. What did you come here for?”

Nectarine lowered her head slightly and said, “ I came here to hunt as well.”

As someone who had ventured and wandered through the jianghu, lying was a common thing. Yet for some reason, whenever she saw Li Baisha, her words came out a little stiff and awkward.

Li Banfeng kept his face blank. “You came all the way from Pricklebamboo Village to hunt here?”

Nectarine explained, “Actually, this place is not that far from Pricklebamboo Village.”

Not that far? That depends on how you measure it. If you travel through the New Land, then at my speed, it really is not that far. But you are not a Wanderlust Cultivator. You are a Hedonism Cultivator.

And besides, how would you know the way through the New Land?

Li Banfeng nodded. “Hunting is easy enough. I know this place well. Come with me. I know where the good catches are.”

Nectarine shook her head. “No, thank you. I have already caught plenty this time. If I hunt any more, I will not be able to carry it all.”

Li Banfeng took out his wallet. “If you can’t carry anymore, sell them to me. I brought plenty of people who can carry it, and I will pay you the market price.”

“That would not be right. I can’t let you be taken advantage of...”

“I would not lose anything. I have my own channels for selling the goods. Let me see the quality of your catch is first.”

“No, really, there is no need...” Nectarine’s voice grew quieter and quieter. She did not have anything to show him.

“So this is what a year apart has done to us. You will not even tell me the truth anymore,” Li Banfeng said. He lowered the brim of his hat and turned to leave.

Nectarine held back for as long as she could, but finally called after him. “Brother Bai Sha, I... I came here to activate land.”

Li Banfeng stopped in his tracks. “Why come all the way here to activate land?”

“Because nowhere else would do. This is the only place that can take us in.”

This land of mine is special? Li Banfeng stood there in silence for quite some time.

Li Banfeng walked back over to Nectarine and spoke in a calm voice. “Nectarine, we are friends. If you want me to help you, then you need to tell me the truth.”

Nectarine thought it over for a moment. “Let me take you to meet someone.”

Deep in the forest stood a tent. Beside it, a slender woman was cooking several fruits, each about the size of two fists.

The fruit was a specialty of Meng Yuchun’s territory and one of the few things on her land that could attract visitors. The water in the pot had also come from Meng Yuchun’s territory. There were already activated plots there, and it was unlikely that the land owners there would turn away a pretty girl like Nectarine.

Judging by the steam rising from the pot, the two fruits were probably taro-flavored. Once they were cooked through, they would be ready to eat.

Nectarine called toward the tent. “Feng!”

The slender woman was just about to answer when she spotted Li Banfeng. At once, she ducked back inside the tent.

Li Banfeng glanced at Nectarine. “Is that your companion?”

Nectarine nodded. “You have met her in Pricklebamboo Village.”

She had remembered that quite wrongly. Li Banfeng had never actually met Feng. He only knew that the Homebound Cultivator at her house did not like him and even argued with Nectarine because of him.

So why had Nectarine brought Feng all the way into the New Land? Why would Feng, a Homebound Cultivator, go somewhere so far away from home? This was what deeply puzzled Li Banfeng.

Nectarine called Feng several times, but Feng stubbornly refused to come out. With no other choice, Nectarine stood outside the tent and explained the whole story to Li Banfeng.

“Feng, Xia, and I were living together in Pricklebamboo Village. Perhaps it was because of the pills I had taken, but for several days I was particularly... needy. I grew closer to Feng and ended up neglecting Xia. Then...”

“You are still defending her!” Feng burst out of the tent. “We never wanted to bring her with us in the first place. She clung to us until we finally gave in. Nectarine needed someone to look after her during those two days, but Xia cared only about enjoying herself. Was Nectarine wrong for wanting to ignore her?”

Li Banfeng listened for quite some time. He could not tell which part was supposed to be the main point, yet somehow every part sounded important.

“Well, let us set aside who was right or wrong for the moment. Who exactly is this Xia you keep mentioning?”

Nectarine lowered her head and said nothing. It seemed like Feng was not her only companion.

After fidgeting for quite some time, Feng finally answered, “She is my dwelling spirit.”

Li Banfeng pondered for a moment and snapped, “WHO ON EARTH USES A DWELLING SPIRIT THAT WAY?”

Feng shuddered and quickly hid behind Nectarine.

Nectarine stared at Li Banfeng in bewilderment. She had no idea why he was mad.

Li Banfeng calmed his voice. “And then the two of you ran away?”

Nectarine answered, “We had no choice but to run. Xia was going to attack Feng.”

Li Banfeng said nothing for a long while.

He had heard stories of dwelling spirits killing their masters, but never anything quite like this.

A female dwelling spirit wanted to kill a female Homebound Cultivator over a female Hedonism Cultivator.

How in the world had these three women managed to turn things into such a mess? Surely there had to be some misunderstanding buried in all this.

Li Banfeng turned to Feng. "You said the dwelling spirit wants to kill you. Did she let something slip, or did she say it outright?"

Hiding behind Nectarine, Feng replied, "I worked it out with a fortune-telling calculation."

"Fortune-telling?" Li Banfeng cried. The very mention of it brought the fortune tellers of the Jiangxiang Gang straight back into his mind, and that was quite enough to make him angry.

Nectarine quickly explained, "It is one of Feng's abilities. She can tell fortunes, and her predictions are extremely accurate. If she says Xia is going to harm her, then I am certain she is right."

Feng gave Nectarine's sleeve a gentle tug, signaling for her not to say too much.

Li Banfeng was curious as well. How could a Homebound Cultivator possess an ability for fortune telling?

After thinking for a moment, Li Banfeng remembered that his level-one abilities, Keen-Eyed Perception and Hundred Flavors at the Tip of the Nose, had both been given to him by Wifey. Feng's fortune-telling ability had probably come from her dwelling spirit as well.

Nectarine said, "Feng's prediction was right. That very night, the eastern wall of the bamboo house collapsed. The house was trying to protect her, and it fought the dwelling spirit."

Li Banfeng was astonished. The dwelling spirit had actually fought the house head-on. This was something that Luo Yuni was not capable of doing.

Of course, there was another possible reason. Luo Yuni's house had been far stronger than Feng's bamboo house.

Nectarine said, "The house had already been beaten into submission. If we had stayed any longer, Feng would certainly have died."

"So you abandoned the dwelling spirit and ran?"

Nectarine lowered her head in shame. "Feng only did it because of me."

Feng gave a little sob. "She wanted to kill me, but you were the one who refused to leave me behind."

"None of this would have happened without me. If I had not been there, Xia would have continued helping you cultivate."

"Without you, what would be the point of cultivating? I do not want any of it anymore."

With a grim expression, Li Banfeng stared at the two in silence.

The two women wiped away each other's tears and, rather reluctantly, brought their tender little moment to an end.

Li Banfeng asked, "You had already escaped from the house. Why did you come all the way out here?"

"To hide from Xia," Feng replied. "She broke free from the house."

"Was it really necessary to run this far?"

"We didn't want to do this," Youtao said. "We kept running, and she kept coming after us. Feng and Xia can sense each other, so Feng will always know when she is approaching."

"Then why did you have to hide in the New Land?"

"According to Feng's calculations, this is where we should go. Whenever we reached a new place, she would read our fortune again before deciding where to go next. She worked out the entire route that way."

Li Banfeng glanced around. "And her fortune-telling told you to activate this particular plot?"

Feng nodded.

Li Banfeng pointed toward Meng Yuchun's territory. "That land over there seems much better. There is food, there is water, and there are plenty of land-activators there who can look out for one another. Why don't you activate the plots of land there instead?"

Feng shook her head and said, "I read our fortune and it told me that we could nto stay there for long. If Xia found us there, the land deity there would not be able to protect us."

Meng Yuchun can't protect you two? Li Banfeng couldn't help but doubt Feng's fortune-telling ability.

He then asked, "And you think the land deity here can protect you two?"

Feng nodded and said, "That is what the hexagram showed. A capable land deity would never give us the chance to activate a plot of land. As for the land deities that would give us the chance, they would not be able to protect us. This is the only place where the land deity would let us activate a plot and still be strong enough to protect us."

"Is this really the only place?"

Author's Note:

PS: Is Banfeng really such an excellent land deity?