Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 1461: Local Resident

Li Banfeng held Jin Qian’er, practicing controlling the copper coins. This practice lasted over three hours.

During these three hours, the Family Treasures Self-Counting technique remained active, draining Li Banfeng’s strength, his face pallid and drenched in sweat.

The phonograph felt pity, but didn’t stop Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng rarely polished his techniques, the Family Treasures Self-Counting being a pillar of Home Cultivation and his forte, yet even so, the phonograph felt the technique could be slightly improved.

These three hours passed, and though it’s not accurate to say Li Banfeng mastered the technique completely, at least in the phonograph’s eyes, it matched the cultivation level of the Cloud Top Third Layer.

The money had completely surrendered; Li Banfeng no longer needed any techniques, as now it understood his words directly.

“Stand up!”

Jin Qian’er stood on the palm of Li Banfeng’s hand.

“Dance!”

Jin Qian’er spun around several times in Li Banfeng’s palm.

“Smile!”

Jin Qian’er pulled the copper coin over, stacking two coins together, Jin Qian’er became the upper lip, and the copper coin became the lower lip, the two coins laughed heartily for a while.

Li Banfeng patted Jin Qian’er: “Good boy!”

Jin Qian’er rubbed against Li Banfeng’s fingertips, then burrowed into his pocket.

With one copper coin remaining, Li Banfeng handed it to his wife.

His wife sealed it with steam, saying to Li Banfeng: “My husband, this copper coin is a good thing. If you find more, don’t throw them away; let Little Servant keep them.”

Li Banfeng was taken aback: “This counts as a good thing?”

“A truly good thing; as much as you find, Little Servant will help you collect.”

“Alright, I’ll go out and gather some.” Li Banfeng stood up to leave.

The phonograph affectionately stopped him: “Beloved husband, take this person away first; our home isn’t hungry.”

He almost forgot, Zhu Yugu was still alive.

A moment ago, the gloves extracted two coins from his body, Zhu Yugu was injured and fainted from the pain.

Li Banfeng glanced at Zhu Yugu: “Wife, the guest already entered our home, and there’s no reason not to let him leave. Why not consume his soul, and I’ll take the body out?”

His wife chuckled bitterly: “If I suffer to eat him, they wouldn’t need to start, right husband? That reasoning seems flawed.”

“Then how does my wife suggest we handle this?”

The phonograph pondered briefly, then said to Li Banfeng: “Husband, leave Blood-Thirsty here; let Little Servant handle the rest.”

Li Banfeng departed, leaving the Blood-Thirsty Pendulum with the phonograph.

Terrified, the pendulum quivered, and the phonograph poked its face with a needle: “Little sister, do you want to eat souls?”

The pendulum retreated into the corner of the main room: “I wouldn’t dare compete with Lady for food.”

“You wouldn’t dare? Then I’ll lend you some courage! Eat with ease!”

Zhu Yugu still emitted a pungent odor, and the pendulum was covered in dew, shakily saying: “Lady, I cannot eat souls.”

Hiss~

A cloud of steam attacked, and the pendulum cried out in agony, its body turning bright red.

The phonograph chuckled: “Back at the old house in the wilderness, you controlled dozens, even hundreds of Lost Souls, and now you claim you don’t eat souls. Do you believe your own words?”

The pendulum glimpsed at Zhu Yugu again: “Lady, I truly can’t stomach this one.”

The phonograph softened its tone: “Little sister, you’re nearly with child; how can you afford to be so picky?”

Upon realizing it was exposed, the pendulum quickly pleaded for mercy: “Lady, I know I was wrong; please forgive me this once, Lady…”

The phonograph gently stroked the pendulum’s cheek, softly saying: “Silly sister, if you want to be with child, why not just tell me? Would I stop you? Could you hide it? I’m asking you to eat this soul for your own good; your soul is incomplete now, and once you have a body, you won’t be able to control it properly. Quickly eat this soul!” Another cloud of steam surged, nearly melting the pendulum.

Convinced by these words, the pendulum knew to feel ashamed and dared not argue further, sobbing as it consumed the soul.

The phonograph seemed satisfied: “Good sister, chew carefully, eat slowly, savor the taste. Once you’re done, Red Lotus will have its turn.”

Whoosh!

Red Lotus closed the flower leaves in the second son’s room, appearing like an ornament, sitting on the ground motionless.

Seeing the pendulum finish the soul, the phonograph coldly snorted: “If Red Lotus doesn’t eat, you can share. Decide yourselves!”

Hong Ying responded, glancing at Miss Jiu.

Miss Jiu advanced to press Red Lotus down, and Hong Ying pried open Red Lotus’s petals.

…

Outside the Portable Residence, Li Banfeng found Tan Jinxiao: “Old Tan, I know you never hesitate to act. Today I’ll help you retrieve the mark; what do you say?”

“Why hesitate?” Tan Jinxiao answered without hesitation, “Seventh Master, if this item can be retrieved, even if I die here, at least I’d die cleanly, walking on Yellow Springs Road with a straight back!”

This man is truly a hero; Li Banfeng took out the Music Box and played a tune for Tan Jinxiao.

With Tan Jinxiao’s cultivation level, the Music Box couldn’t knock him out, but Li Banfeng told Tan Jinxiao: “Old Tan, you must sleep; if you don’t, I can’t retrieve the mark.”

Tan Jinxiao obeyed Li Banfeng’s suggestion, lay on the bed, listening to the tune from the Music Box, and fell asleep.

Li Banfeng used the beggar bowl to access the Dark Dimension Space, asking the gloves to extract the copper coins.

Out of curiosity, Li Banfeng tested the bowl for a while, only to find the Dark Dimension Space within Tan Jinxiao’s body vanished.

Dark Dimension Space wouldn’t disappear without a cause, but why does it become imperceptible after extracting the copper coins?

Pondering for a while, Li Banfeng made a somewhat reasonable deduction.