Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo'

Chapter 1061 555: Birch Tree Secret Cult_4

Yan Cui'er stuck out her tongue and fell silent, as Yan Hong'er came up with an idea: "Use sedatives to knock them out, and wait for the Shopkeeper to arrive to deal with them."

Tang Changfa turned around and locked the box room's door: "Yan Hong'er, I think you also deserve a beating. How did the Shopkeeper tell us? We're doing legitimate business, don't always play with sedatives!

After taking sedatives, they feel dizzy for several days, wouldn't that make them suffer? Just cut their tendons directly, then it all ends, and there's no dizziness."

...

Not long after, Li Banfeng entered the box room, frowned and said: "What have you done? What did you do with their tendons?"

Yan Cui'er said with pursed lips: "This was all because Tang Changfa told us to do it..."

Li Banfeng looked at Tang Changfa and said: "I've really taught you in vain for all this time, we're people who do legitimate business, and you just cut their tendons like that? Can they still be reattached?"

Tang Changfa whispered: "I was afraid he'd feel dizzy after taking sedatives..."

Li Banfeng said: "What's wrong with feeling dizzy for a while? At least the tendons would still be there, and usable when attached to you. Now that you've cut them, how can they be used?

Couldn't you have just taken out the tendons beforehand and attached them directly? Breaking them now is simply spoiling things."

Yan Cui'er said: "They never listen to me, I thought of that from the start."

Li Banfeng nodded and said: "In the future, for this kind of thing, listen to Yan Cui'er."

Yan Hong'er huffed and said: "Shopkeeper, haven't we forgotten the beating she received? A full hundred strokes, we all remember it clearly!"

Li Banfeng waved his hand: "We'll talk about that later."

Yan Cui'er glared at Yan Hong'er: "The Shopkeeper cares about me, even beating me is caring. It pisses you off, you wretch!"

...

"Wretched, I really am pissed off by you!"

Li Banfeng had just entered the Portable Residence, seeing Hong Ying being held on a stool by the phonograph, getting beaten.

This wasn't a joke, the phonograph was really doing it.

Li Banfeng asked: "What's going on here?"

The phonograph said: "I asked her to use fire to drive that foreign devil out. She went too far and actually burned him to a crisp. There's so much we hadn't had a chance to ask yet!"

Hong Ying gritted her teeth and said: "Seeing how he could build such a big house all at once, he must've had cultivation level Above the Clouds, who would've known he couldn't withstand burning!"

The Portable Residence said: "Xiaowan, don't trouble Hong Ying. It's good she burned him to death; trying to suppress his house would have been tough."

The phonograph released Hong Ying, who stood up, looking aggrieved: "Even the Old Man said it would be hard, wasn't he supposed to be definitely Above the Clouds? Yet he burned to death in less than half an hour. Who would've thought!"

Miglov was burned to death by Hong Ying, still plastered in mud before dying.

This was the indescribable power Chu Zikai spoke of, Miglov's fortress made the Portable Residence quite wary, yet Hong Ying just started a fire, ending up burning Miglov to death.

"Dear wife, is there a way to interrogate a soul?"

The phonograph said: "There is a way, but it's risky. After a foreign devil's soul leaves the body, it forgets most things. To make it recall, we need to gradually nurture it, turning it into a Resentful Spirit.

No telling how much time that would require, nor what might happen during, so to be safe, the Little Servant should just devour him."

This wasn't because the phonograph was greedy; it truly didn't lack for food recently.

She was indeed right, raising a deeply resentful spirit within the Portable Residence could lead to unforeseen consequences.

"If he's dead, let him be; time to feast!" Li Banfeng accepted it. Miglov died, just missing a testimony, and testimonies need verification; they are not very valuable.

He had some physical evidence, quite valuable.

"Dear wife, take a look at these photographs."

The phonograph examined the pictures carefully: "These are some algorithms, without heads or tails, and no clue to decipher them. However, these texts are rather complex."

Some photos had texts, not Huan Guo Script, yet similar to the ledger's writing.

"This should be Lavshan Text, no one at home seems to understand it," Li Banfeng thought for a moment and said, "Tomorrow, I'll take these to Dark Star Bureau, have them translated, make a translation."

Tang Sword felt it improper: "My lord, we just killed Birch Tree Secret Cult's leader, now we're showing their stuff to Dark Star Bureau,

Even with friends there, we can't be so candid with them. Necessary precautions still need taking."

Li Banfeng knew precautions were necessary, so he thought of tearing up the sentences, getting translations piecemeal.

The crucial point was only one Lavsha Language translator seemed available at Dark Star Bureau, regardless how many pieces, connections might end up made.

Directly online translation?

Uploading these materials online is equivalent to informing the whole world about this matter.

Find an electronic dictionary, don't go online, translate offline, but the quality of this translation is truly touching...

Portable Residence came up with an idea: "There's a Literature Cultivator in the Ninth Room who knows many foreign languages. He probably knows Lavsha as well."

The Old Man seems to have remembered quite a few things recently.

Li Banfeng said, "You all go ahead and eat, no need to wait for me."

Hong Ying prepared to scrape off the mud from Miglov's body, but Portable Residence said, "Don't touch it, let me do it. This mud is very special, and I still have use for it."

Li Banfeng arrived at the Ninth Room and first touched Red Lotus's Lotus Heart: "Hua Jiu'er, did you stay at Snowflake Beach for a while?"

Red Lotus pinched Li Banfeng's finger with her Lotus Heart: "I originally couldn't remember such an experience, but hearing Chu Zikai mention it, it seems vaguely familiar. I never joined Snowflake Beach, just did some things with them, you could call it collaboration."

"You made Elixirs for them to sell for money?"

"Not just that, I also helped them refine Magical Treasures and Weapons, and even gave them lots of ideas. I've done quite a lot for them."

"Why did you do that?"

"For revenge."

"Who are you seeking revenge against?"

"I can't remember, I was once seriously injured at Snowflake Beach and lost a lot of memory."

Li Banfeng then asked, "Why did you leave Snowflake Beach afterward?"

"I didn't intend to leave, but I was forcibly taken away, that's when I got injured."

"Who took you away? He Jiaqing?"

"Not him, he doesn't have that kind of ability, but exactly who it was, I can't recall."

It's unclear whether she really can't remember or if she's deliberately hiding it.

Li Banfeng didn't ask further, he laid out the photos and account books in the Ninth Room, looked around, and said: "Friends living in the Ninth Room, would you be willing to lend a hand?"

A woman's voice reached his ears: "Sir, is this Ravsha Language?"

Li Banfeng nodded and said: "Yes."

The woman softly said: "The words in the photo record an ancient spell, alongside the spell, there are calculations and derivations."

Li Banfeng was quite surprised: "Using mathematics to derive a spell?"

"Yes, I found it curious as well." The woman's voice was very ethereal, her breath weak and indistinct, it was difficult to discern what she said if listened to inattentively.

Li Banfeng asked again: "What was the result of the derivation?"

"That I don't know, I can only translate these words for you, sir."

After a short wait, the translation was done, written on a white sheet of paper.

Li Banfeng picked up the white paper for a glance, it had a few lines of text.

"Unaware of the cruelty in the flames of war, unaware of the blood and tears between life and death, we are but strangers meeting by chance, don't speak of deep affection, it's nothing but an illusory dream."

Li Banfeng read it several times, then asked: "Is this the translation? Can foreign languages be translated into something like this?"

The woman replied: "Translation aims for fidelity, expressiveness, and elegance; making it more elegant adds more meaning."

"But this doesn't seem like a spell."

"It is a spell, a Western curse spell. Sometimes reading it does feel like poetry. If you don't believe me, you might let the lady of the house have a look, she is well-versed and should be able to tell its authenticity."

Li Banfeng read it a few more times and indeed found different meanings within the text.

What kind of conclusion will this spell derive? Will it create an Array? Or activate a specific Curse Technique? The exact situation will need to be judged by the lady.

Taking the translation back to the main room, Li Banfeng was about to give it to the Phonograph when suddenly a newspaper fell off a shelf onto the floor.

How did the newspaper fall down?

Li Banfeng looked up and realized it was the Judge's Pen that knocked off the newspaper; it had used it as a blanket.

"Give it to me." The Judge's Pen picked up the translation, placed it over the candle flame, and directly burned it to ash.

Li Banfeng was shocked: "Why did you burn it?"

The Judge's Pen replied with four words: "Bullshit nonsense!"