The Overlord of Puluo

Chapter 337: Donkeys

"Where does a fake love root come from?"

Feng Daiku explained, "A true Love Root grows from a seed of affection. It is nurtured deep within the heart and takes root in the eyes.

"But this Fake Love Root is made from an illusion. It is born in the eye, remains in the eye, and dissolves in the eye. It is both real and false, both illusion and reality. This Fake Love Root is the product of an illusion ability."

The two of them were having this conversation inside the cinema. Were they not afraid someone might overhear them?

Not at all. The people around them could not see Feng Daiku, much less hear what she and Ma Wu were saying.

Someone had used an illusion to imitate a Love Cultivator's ability, and that clearly made Feng Daiku angry.

"Darling Wu, where did this handkerchief come from?"

"From an intimate friend of mine at Blackstone Slope. This blood was left behind when I pulled out the fake love root from her eye."

Feng Daiku murmured, "People developed this fake love root after watching the film in Blackstone Slope, but nothing like that happened here in Girdle-Slipping Hollow. Why would that be?"

Ma Wu said, "Whoever is behind this cannot be that reckless. If they faked a Love Cultivator's ability in your territory, wouldn't they be basically asking for you to come and punish them?"

Feng Daiku shook her head slightly. "That is not what I meant. I am saying, if it is the same movie, why doesn't a fake love root form? If it had already taken root, I would need to deal with the person behind it as soon as possible. If it had not, then what exactly was different about the movie shown here?"

Ma Wu understood what Feng Daiku meant. The movie shown at Blackstone Slope might be different from the one shown at Girdle-Slipping Hollow.

But what could be the difference?

As it happened, Ma Wu had come prepared. "My men will arrive at Girdle-Slipping Hollow tomorrow. They will bring the film reel from Blackstone Slope with them."

Feng Daiku glanced at the screen and frowned slightly. "Did you only bring this one movie? The Legendary Bloodblade Detective is a little too boring."

Ma Wu held Feng Daiku in his arms and said, "There are plenty of good movies. We can enjoy them one at a time."

***

The next day, Feng Daiku stayed with Ma Wu at the inn and watched Blackstone Slope's version of Bloodblade Detective.

Feng Daiku had a sharp eye for detail. After watching for a little over ten minutes, she found the key moment.

"Darling Wu, rewind this part a bit."

Ma Wu rewound the film by about five minutes.

The female lead, Xiao Xiufei, was bathing beneath the showerhead. At the height of her sorrow, a single tear suddenly slipped from her eye. The tear trailed from the corner of her eye to her cheek, slid down her neck, and continued downward until it reached her chest.

Then the male lead, Chu Ningsheng, suddenly stepped into the bathroom and sucked the tear into his mouth.

There was no denying how well this sequence had been shot. Even Ma Wu, looking at it purely from an artistic point of view, had to admire the skill behind it. The Legendary Bloodspear Detective had nothing that could match a continuous shot like this.

What Feng Daiku noticed, however, was the moment the male lead swallowed the tear. With that single swallow, it was as though he had swallowed all of the female lead's sorrow and longing along with it.

"Darling Wu, I don't think this scene was in the version they showed at Girdle-Slipping Hollow."

"It was not?" Ma Wu paused. From what he remembered, he seemed to have seen this scene at the cinema yesterday too.

Feng Daiku shook her head. "I am sure it wasn't there. This scene was filmed very carefully, and it leaves a deep impression.

"You missed it because you have too much experience with this sort of thing. Some people are also born with little interest in romance and desire, so tricks like this do not work on them.

"But people like you are rare. For most ordinary people, this scene would definitely stir something in their hearts. That is how the fake love root gets planted.

"Look closely. Watch the tear first, then the woman's chest. There is an illusion technique hidden in this scene."

Ma Wu looked more closely, and sure enough, something was different.

He had made love with Xiao Xiufei before, so he knew her chest was much lighter in color. In this scene, both the color and texture had become much darker.

This was where the illusion started. They had gone to such lengths just to sell a few more movie tickets.

Ma Wu shook his head with a sigh. "After Ling Miaoying died, I have no idea who took over this film company, but this is a nasty thing to do."

Feng Daiku frowned. "Darling Wu, I cannot let this go. I do not care what their purpose is. They used such a filthy trick and made it look like a method of my cultivation path. I absolutely cannot tolerate that."

Ma Wu asked, "How do you want to handle it?"

"Darling Wu, is there any way to lure them to Girdle-Slipping Hollow?"

Ma Wu thought for a moment, then shook his head. "These people usually stay in Greenwater City. It would be too difficult to lure them out."

At the mention of Greenwater City, Feng Daiku sighed. "If this had happened anywhere else, I might still be able to pay them a visit. But if it is Greenwater City..."

Greenwater City was the Green Beggar's territory, and no land deity would dare say they were not afraid of the Green Beggar.

Ma Wu comforted Feng Daiku a few more times before her mood finally became better.

"Darling Wu, were you thinking of learning their method too, so you could sell more movie tickets?"

"What kind of man do you think I am?" Ma Wu shook his head. "No matter what business a person does, they cannot throw away their basic principles. Once I get back, I will expose this matter at once. We cannot let anyone else be tricked by them."

Feng Daiku stroked Ma Wu's cheek. "Then I will teach you a few illusion tricks. The next time you encounter something like this, you will be able to see through it with just a glance."

Ma Wu was delighted. The chance to learn illusion tricks from a land deity was far too rare.

Feng Daiku poked him on the forehead. "I keep teaching you skills. Am I letting you take advantage of me?"

Ma Wu pulled her into his arms. "How can I let you be taken advantage of? I will pay you tuition."

***

It was early morning. Before Qiu's Medicinal Trading House had even opened for the day, the old Mourning Cultivator was already sitting outside the entrance with his smoking pipe in hand.

With that gloomy face of his planted at the door, the trading house could forget about having any business. Even if customers came to buy medicine, they would turn away the moment they saw him. No one wanted to risk getting too close to a Mourning Cultivator.

Did this old Mourning Cultivator really have nowhere else to go?

He did. In fact, he had already tried plenty of other places. After comparing them again and again, however, he decided that this spot suited him best.

The main reason was that his cultivation level was not low and ordinary people could not withstand the misfortune he brought.

Qiu Zhiheng had asked around and learned that the old man's name was Yu Heshun. He was a level-six Mourning Cultivator, and over the course of his life, he had turned eighteen villages into deserted ruins.

The villagers could not bear the harm he brought. Some died, while the rest fled. Once a village was abandoned, Yu Heshun could no longer cultivate there, so he had no choice but to move on. Now that he was old, he really did not want to keep relocating. He wanted to find a suitable household to cling to and spend a couple more years there.

There were not many households capable of withstanding a level-six Mourning Cultivator. Yu Heshun had once gone to the bun shop in Inner Gully, but the owner there was an honest man.

An honest man ran an honest business, and such a person could not withstand too much trouble. After Yu Heshun disgusted him with only a few remarks, the bun shop nearly closed down. If Yu Heshun had kept at it for a few more days, the owner might well have taken his own life.

Qiu Zhiheng was clearly no ordinary man. In Yu Heshun's eyes, someone like him might still be alive even after ten or twenty years of harassment. That made Qiu Zhiheng a livelihood worth clinging to.

Of course, if Yu Heshun had ever heard Qiu Zhiheng's name, he would not have dared to keep pestering him like this.

Qiu Zhiheng had only tolerated him for the moment because he did not want to touch such bad luck. That did not mean he would tolerate Yu Heshun forever.

"Old Qi, I'll leave the Lu family's newspaper business to you. You know the people at the Medicine King Gully newspaper office, right?"

Li Banfeng replied, "I wouldn't say I know them well, but I can recognize them."

"As long as you know who they are, that is enough. Invite them over for a bit."

"Brother Qiu, are you thinking of asking the newspaper office to expose that old bastard? He has no sense of shame at all, so I am afraid that will not work."

Qiu Zhiheng shook his head. "He does know shame. It just depends on the matter."

He then turned to his wife and handed her the prescription. "My dear, follow this prescription and make Yu Heshun a proper medicinal meal."

Qiu Zhiheng's wife looked over the prescription, and her face turned red. "Will this really work? At his age..."

Qiu Zhiheng answered with a serious expression. "He is old, so he needs something to nourish his body. Leafy, stop crying. Lend me those two cart-pulling donkeys of yours."

***

At noon, Madam Qiu brought a bowl of lean pork porridge to the entrance and handed it to Yu Heshun. "This is for you. Eat."

Yu Heshun took the bowl and looked it over with a mournful expression. "Did you poison this?"

Madam Qiu frowned. "What kind of thing is that to say?"

"What did I say? What did I say, huh? I only asked if there was poison in it! Why are you angry? Are you feeling guilty? Is that it?" Once Yu Heshun opened his mouth, there was no stopping him. His words came rattling out like pebbles in a tin can.

Madam Qiu could not be bothered with him. She turned and went back inside.

Yu Heshun raised the bowl and gulped down the porridge in great mouthfuls. Even while eating, he kept muttering, "This porridge is far too thin. It is all water and barely any food. Stingy. Terribly stingy. One look at this bowl tells you what kind of household this is!

"And a family like this can still run a business? They cannot even bear to put proper ingredients in a bowl of porridge. People like this deserve to be poor for the rest of their lives!"

While Yu Heshun ate, he kept tasting the porridge carefully, searching for anything strange among the seasonings. He was afraid that this bowl of porridge might be poisoned.

Madam Qiu had not poisoned anything. She was a high-level Gormandism Cultivator, and her cooking was excellent. She had made that bowl of porridge with real care, and Yu Heshun scraped it clean down to the last drop. Then he smashed the bowl on the ground.

"You fed me, but you did not even let me eat my fill. Just one look and I know you people are up to no good!" Yu Heshun spat on the ground after he finished shouting.

A passerby could not help asking, "You did not pay them a single coin, and they still gave you something to eat. Why are you scolding them?"

"What did I scold them about? What exactly did I scold them about?" Yu Heshun raised his voice at once. "I said I was not full. Was I wrong?"

There was no point arguing with him. Every extra word spent on a man like this was already a loss.

A shop assistant came out of the medicinal trading house with a bucket of filthy soil to throw away. On his way back, he led two donkeys over and tied them right beside Yu Heshun.

Yu Heshun looked up with his miserable old face drooping lower than ever. "What is this? Are you blind? Can you not see I am sitting here? Why are you bringing these beasts over?"

The assistant did not even look at him. He turned around and went straight back inside.

Yu Heshun stayed exactly where he was, planted beside the donkeys.

Trying to chase me away with two donkeys? Yu Heshun thought. Dream on.

Qiu Zhiheng came up behind him and gave him a light tap on the shoulder.

Yu Heshun spun around at once. "I am warning you! Do not touch me! Touch me again, and your whole family will die a horrible death!"

This was called Mourning Curses, one of the abilities used by Mourning Cultivators. If Qiu Zhiheng harmed him, his family might not end up dying but would certainly experience misfortune.

Qiu Zhiheng raised both hands and shook his head. "I will not touch you. I only wanted to give you some money so you could go somewhere else."

"I am not going. I am not going anywhere! I like sitting here. What are you going to do about it?"

Qiu Zhiheng nodded. That was the last chance he gave Yu Heshun.

Madam Qiu had not put poison in the porridge. She had only added tonics. However, once those tonics were paired with Qiu Zhiheng's ability, they became something else entirely.

Yu Heshun stayed by the entrance and smoked another pipe of dry tobacco. Then one of the donkeys suddenly brayed beside his ear.

"Eee-aw!"

Weird, Yu Heshun thought. Why did the donkey sound so lovely?

Yu Heshun lifted his head and glanced at the donkey. Then he quickly lowered his head again.

"Eee-aw!"

The donkey brayed once more.

Yu Heshun's face turned a little red. It really did sound rather lovely.

The donkey brayed a third time.

Yu Heshun did not lift his head, but somehow... it seemed as if he had.

The donkey brayed several more times, one after another.

Yu Heshun stood up.

What's going on with me? Yu Heshun could sense that something dreadful was about to happen.

No! I mustn't allow myself...

Yu Heshun wanted to leave.

"Eee-aw!"

The donkey brayed again.

No one knew who had loosened its reins, but the donkey suddenly began trotting toward the entrance of Memorial Arch Street..

Yu Heshun followed. He actually followed the donkey! At this moment, all he could see was the donkey!

By the time they reached the crowded street entrance, Yu Heshun lost control. The donkey lost control as well.

He got behind one donkey and screwed it right there in the street. The other donkey moved behind him and screwed him back.

Every passerby stared until their eyes nearly fell out.

This was the street entrance!

Those were donkeys!

Even the reporters from Medicine King Gully stood there like they had been struck by lightning.

Li Banfeng looked at them from the side. "What are you staring for? Take pictures! Record it!"

"Ah..." One of the reporters snapped back to his senses and quickly raised his camera. As he recorded, his mind was already racing over how to write the article.

Author's Note:

PS: If this news got out, Medicine King Gully would probably become famous overnight.