Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 1227 595: The Second War (Part 2)

Li Banfeng had misunderstood, because he'd known for a long time that Dumpling was a Literature Cultivator.

"You're a Fourth Layer polymath, but after taking the Wenxiu medicine powder, you weren't affected?"

Dumpling answered seriously: "There was an effect. It hurt, it really hurt. You know that place on me has pretty thick flesh, but it still hurt so bad I couldn't walk."

"I'm not talking about the pain. Literature Cultivators and polymaths are actually two different systems, you should know that."

"I know, that's why I wanted to really be a Literature Cultivator for once. After I took the medicine powder, at first nothing changed, I thought I'd suffered for nothing,

but lately I've noticed things are different. A lot of my Techniques have changed, some things I couldn't control before, now I can."

Dumpling spoke very excitedly, going over every subtle change everywhere. Li Banfeng listened carefully; Dumpling's control over her cultivation level had indeed improved, and she really was more like a Literature Cultivator now.

Even in this situation, the Harmonizing Agent still worked, raising Dumpling to the Fifth Layer. The Guidance Agent and entry-level medicine powder, the Harmonizing Agent and Elixir—there really were countless hidden connections among them.

Just listening to Dumpling talk about cultivation level, Li Banfeng almost forgot about the other matters.

"Have you heard of the two Puluo Wars?"

Dumpling looked up at Li Banfeng, then lowered her head again.

Her eyes darted around, as if she was worried about surveillance equipment in the room.

"Relax, the monitoring's already turned off."

Dumpling let out a breath and said: "Seventh Master, this is top-secret material. I only saw it once before. Puluo State went through two major wars. The date of the first Puluo War is unknown, and the second Puluo War happened more than forty years ago."

"Who were the targets in these two wars?"

"The first Puluo War was an internal war in Puluo State. The parties involved should have been the Royal Family of Puluo State and the commoners.

The second Puluo War was extremely complicated, with many factions fighting. Besides the Royal Family and commoners of Puluo State, some external forces also joined the war, like the Chase the Light Group from Lavsha Nation and the Birch Tree Hermit Society—they were all participants in the war."

"Huan Country didn't take part in the war?"

"As far as I know, Huan Country didn't join the war, but did take part in the post-war reconstruction. It was also starting from the second Puluo War that Huan Country and Puluo State formally established a cooperative relationship.

As for how things developed afterward, I don't really know. I only saw that top-secret file under very accidental circumstances."

"Do you know where one can see similar top-secret files?"

"You have to go to the archives and use extremely high clearance to look them up."

"Archives?" Right now Li Banfeng still couldn't figure out how many archives the Dark Star Bureau actually had, or which archive's materials were genuine.

If he wanted to fully get to the bottom of this, it seemed he'd have to carefully think of a way.

Back at his place, Li Banfeng went to the north-facing room on the first floor.

Playful Matron was dancing in the room, and a group of Lost Souls were watching intently.

To be fair, whether it was her face or her figure, Playful Matron was flawless. Even Li Banfeng wanted to take a longer look… What was he looking for, he was a man!

Li Banfeng coughed once, and all the Lost Souls returned to their jars. These Lost Souls had all been bought from Yin Si Niang. Usually they just stayed around the house, and as long as they didn't cause trouble, Li Banfeng didn't really restrain them.

Li Banfeng called Playful Matron out of the room alone, took him to the living room and turned on the TV. After carefully picking through, he found a TV drama, pointed at the scene on the screen and said: "This is procurement from the Outside Provinces—asking for quotes, negotiating, signing contracts. Can you understand the process in there?"

Playful Matron nodded: "I get this. When you're not home, I often watch TV too."

Not bad, he was pretty honest.

"Now I want you to help me buy something. With this process, do you know how to operate?"

Playful Matron carefully thought over the whole thing: "Acting is no problem, but I don't understand the market. If I buy things too expensive or buy the wrong stuff, I really can't guarantee anything."

You couldn't really force this matter. Playful Matron hadn't gone to school much; asking him to grasp physics knowledge was way too hard.

And Playful Matron had another concern: "On TV they say big-ticket procurement always has to be backed by a company, otherwise suppliers won't trust us."

"You actually know quite a bit." With Playful Matron thinking things through this thoroughly, Li Banfeng felt much more at ease. "Leave the company part to me, you just have to put on the show properly."

That night, Li Banfeng went to find Tang Changfa and asked: "Does the black market side have any connections to get me a company? I want to use the company's name to buy some things."

Tang Changfa laughed: "Why would we need connections? Our family already has a company!"

Li Banfeng shot Tang Changfa a look: "Do you even know what a company is?"

"What's there not to know? Once you're out doing business, you've gotta have your own front. With a company backing us, we can get involved in big deals."

Li Banfeng stared in silence for a while. After not seeing him for a stretch, Tang Changfa's state was really quite different from before.

"We really have a company?"

"We do! I spent money to have Lin Fojiao set it up for us, the paperwork's all perfectly in order. Shopkeeper, just tell me what you want to buy."

Li Banfeng said: "I want to buy some scientific research equipment."

Tang Changfa thought for a moment and asked: "Scientific research equipment, that's for researching science, right? We actually have that in our business scope, we can just buy it directly!

It's just that I don't understand anything about this science stuff. We'll have to find someone who knows the field to negotiate for us when the time comes."

Li Banfeng nodded: "I've already got someone lined up to handle the negotiations. You guys try not to show your faces. Also, help me keep an eye out for one more thing, see if you can find any materials on Nie Liaishefu on the black market."