Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 1431: Dirty Work

Chapter 1431: Chapter 643: Dirty Work

Li Banfeng looked over Lai Baifan’s corpse; though the body was scattered to pieces, once you pieced the broken limbs and shattered bones back together, overall, it still looked like a toad.

To be fair, this Hundred-Turn Hundred-Change Technique of his really is powerful. Li Banfeng said, “He must’ve combined Body Cultivation and Food Cultivator methods to create this unique Star Skill.”

The Phonograph said from the side, “Beloved husband, Little Servant didn’t taste any hint of Body Cultivation.”

Li Banfeng was taken aback. “Body Cultivation has some special flavor to it?”

“Of course. A Body Cultivator shaped like a cow has the unique chewiness of beef; one shaped like a sheep has the unique gamy taste of mutton; those shaped like scorpions, centipedes and such have the unique fishy stench of crawling things. This guy didn’t have any special flavor on him.”

Li Banfeng said, “Wife, savor him more carefully. Doesn’t his Soul have the taste of a toad?”

The Phonograph laughed. “Beloved husband, now you’re asking the right person. Little Servant loves eating toads the most. If this man’s Soul had a toad taste, how could Little Servant possibly fail to notice it?”

Li Banfeng thought for a moment, then asked again, “If he’s not a toad, maybe he’s some other kind of Body Cultivator?”

The Phonograph sighed. “Husband, Little Servant only eats Souls, so maybe I didn’t catch the flavor. Why not ask those ones who eat flesh?”

Hong Ying puffed out her chest and said, “I can’t tell the difference!”

The Phonograph swung up her board. “If you can’t tell, then lower your head and eat. Where do you get so much to say? Little Nine, your tongue works well—did you taste anything?”

Miss Jiu gave Hong Ying a smug look, then turned to Li Banfeng and said, “Xiaowan was right. This guy definitely isn’t a Body Cultivator.”

He’s not a Body Cultivator, yet he’s posing as a Body Cultivation ancestor?

Li Banfeng exclaimed, “That’s a brilliant trick.”

Every motion he made was like a toad, his appearance also somewhat resembled a warty toad, yet in truth he wasn’t even a Body Cultivator, and still managed to sit legitimately as the Body Cultivation Grandmaster at the Three-Head Fork.

What’s worse, before crossing hands, Li Banfeng had asked Tie Tuzi and the group of overseers; not a single one of them knew Lai Baifan’s real Taoist Sect affiliation.

Lai Baifan hadn’t Dual Cultivated in Body Cultivation, but that didn’t stop him from creating Techniques.

“Beloved wife, what’s the core of creating a Technique?”

Hong Ying shook her head. “Beloved Qi Lang, why would you want to create Techniques? There are so many ready-made Techniques—aren’t they enough for you to learn?”

Miss Jiu sneered. “Ah Qi is a fine young man. His ambitions are not something a blockhead like you could fathom.”

“Who are you calling a blockhead?” The two were about to start fighting again when the Phonograph sprayed out a puff of steam, scalding them both red.

“Husband, when you self-create a Technique, you need to grasp the essence of The Unnamable. Before using a Technique, you must figure out where the Technique’s root lies; after using the Technique, you must also figure out what kind of transformations the Technique can give birth to.

“Swinging a chop, throwing a kick—these moves have no identifiable root, and they don’t give rise to any changes, so they clearly aren’t Techniques.”

Root and transformation.

Li Banfeng mulled it over for quite a while, then left the Portable Residence.

…

Back in the wooden cabin, Li Banfeng released a crowd of Shadows and convened a meeting.

“Regarding the future prospects of the Five Horses Splitting Corpse Technique, I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts. Don’t hold back—speak freely.”

The hall was silent for two minutes before a shadow spoke first: “I think Five Horses Splitting Corpse isn’t a Technique, because it doesn’t possess the traits of a Technique. It looks more like a tactic, the same way our joint Puppet Dance is a tactic.

“Speaking of Puppet Dance, I recently came up with a new set of steps. The changes in footwork are minimal, but in terms of upper-limb language, the expression is clearly much richer. As we all know, our body language has always been relatively monotonous…”

Li Banfeng cut the shadow off. “Comrade Ban Feng Bing, stop dancing. And Ban Feng Ding, turn off the soundtrack. A solemn occasion like this isn’t suited to music with such a strong beat.”

Ban Feng Bing and Ban Feng Ding each went back to their seats; they said nothing, but they were both disgruntled.

Ban Feng Jia said everyone should speak freely, but his bias was obvious: he wanted Five Horses Splitting Corpse to be a Technique.

But most of the other Ban Fengs didn’t think so:

“Logically, Five Horses Splitting Corpse just can’t be a Technique, because you can’t find any Taoist Sect affiliation for it at all.”

“I actually think it’s easy to pin down the Sect. So-called Five Horses Splitting Corpse is just us brothers charging in together and tearing the enemy into five chunks. To use this Technique, you first have to know Shape and Shadow Suspension. In the end, it’s just a Home Cultivation tactic.”

Li Banfeng was unconvinced. “Then why is it that every time we use Five Horses Splitting Corpse, I get a resonance?”

“All the brothers are taking action—if you don’t feel a resonance, do you still have a Conscience?”

Li Banfeng thought again. “Then tell me this: why is it that every time we use Five Horses Splitting Corpse, it’s always seven of us going in together?”

The Shadows went quiet for a while, then all voiced their own opinions.

“Because all of us are named Li Qi, we have feelings about the number seven!”

“The very first time we used Five Horses Splitting Corpse as a tactic, it was seven going in together. That clearly formed a habit of thought.”

“Four handling the main assault, three running support—this division of labor is obviously more reasonable.”

Everyone’s reasoning sounded good, yet none of their explanations were the outcome Li Banfeng wanted.

The debate dragged on. Li Banfeng turned to look at Ban Feng Yi.

Ban Feng Yi had remained silent the whole time. He’d spent the longest stretch in Lai Baifan’s stomach, repeatedly soaked in gastric acid; both his body and his psyche had taken some measure of damage.

They met each other’s gaze for a moment, then Ban Feng Yi spoke. Li Banfeng thought he’d start by grousing, but instead, his very first sentence greatly encouraged Li Banfeng.

“When we use Five Horses Splitting Corpse, we barely discuss anything at all, yet our timing is that precise. So I think this is a Technique.”