Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo'-Chapter 801 - 492: Distorted Rumors (Part 3)

The Local Deity became angry and told the people of Bridge Yesong that Scabby-headed Song must be killed; as long as Scabby-headed Song was alive, he would bring disaster to Bridge Yesong.

The people were afraid, they banded together to poison Scabby-headed Song, and he fell for it, being poisoned to death. The Local Deity’s resentment was not quenched, he destroyed Scabby-headed Song’s corpse, and his Soul was wasted as well.

From then on, every so often, Bridge Yesong would be swept by strong winds, filled with dust, which was rumored to be Scabby-headed Song turned into it.

Li Banfeng listened very attentively, and asked many detailed questions: "Do you know the origin of those bandits? How did Scabby-headed Song defeat the bandits? Did he have cultivation level?"

Xiao Yeci shook his head: "I can’t remember most of it. The town has a few storytellers who occasionally talk about Scabby-headed Song. Benefactor, if you want to listen, I can take you to them!"

"Sure!" Li Banfeng followed Xiao Yeci out of the mansion, a few coachmen came up asking for business: "Are you two going to sit in a sedan chair?"

Li Banfeng was somewhat sensitive to the coachmen, Xiao Yeci also wanted to accompany Li Banfeng a bit longer by walking, so they didn’t sit in the sedan chair.

A group of coachmen walked dispiritedly back under the big tree and continued chatting:

"Such wealthy people, don’t they even sit in sedan chairs when they go out?"

"With such a big mansion, I wonder how they save money like that."

"Are they truly wealthy, or are they just pretending?"

A middle-aged man, with his hands clasped together, squatted on the ground and said: "Wealthy people don’t always sit in sedan chairs, and those who do may not necessarily be wealthy. Truly wealthy people might pretend, and those who pretend may become wealthy for real. Who can really tell who is sitting in a sedan chair?"

A coachman next to him asked: "Why is it that I don’t understand what you’re saying?"

The middle-aged man laughed: "You probably haven’t read much."

The coachman snorted: "If you’ve read so much, why are you carrying sedan chairs? By the way, are you a coachman?" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The middle-aged man said: "Why wouldn’t I be?"

The coachman looked him up and down: "I’ve never seen you before."

"There are many sedan chair carriers in the world, have you seen them all?"

The coachman glanced around: "Who’s your partner? Surely you’re not carrying the chair by yourself?"

The middle-aged man lifted the sedan chair by himself: "Who says a person can’t carry a sedan chair alone? Look, I’ve lifted it!"

"That’s not carrying, that’s lifting."

"What do you know? As long as the sedan chair can move, it counts as carrying!"

The middle-aged man walked away carrying the sedan chair.

Counting as carrying as long as it moves?

The other coachmen were stunned for a long time, thinking about it, they all found the middle-aged man’s words quite reasonable.

...

Li Banfeng listened to stories all day and returned to the mansion to organize his thoughts.

From different storytellers’ accounts, Scabby-headed Song seemed to be a real person, as his situation was unique, an unconventional hero not excessively glorified by the storytellers, most of the plot could withstand scrutiny.

Besides that, Li Banfeng also deduced that Scabby-headed Song had cultivation level; he was a Martial Cultivator, and not of a low tier, in the stories, Scabby-headed Song didn’t have a fixed weapon, even using a broom he could kill dozens, a typical feature of a Martial Cultivator.

As for the various misdeeds of Scabby-headed Song, most stories simply glossed over them, and few storytellers described them, all were trivial like petty thefts.

Scabby-headed Song’s madness came across quite abruptly; after driving off the bandits, he returned to his familiar rascal life, without any ambition to dominate Bridge Yesong, nor did he demand much gratitude.

What could cause someone powerful and without ambition to go mad? Was it really due to injuries sustained while fighting bandits?

Why did he go mad not when injured, but only some time after the bandits had left?

Was he pretending to be mad?

Why pretend to be mad?

If he wasn’t mad, why was he poisoned by the town’s people?

Regular people could’ve hardly deceived him, and even if they could, the poison to kill him, given his cultivation level, wasn’t something common folk could possess.

As thoughts raced, Li Banfeng put himself in Scabby-headed Song’s position.

The bandits had already left, likely the only threat to Scabby-headed Song in Bridge Yesong was the Local Deity.

Scabby-headed Song pretended to be mad to deal with the Local Deity.

It was the Local Deity who poisoned Scabby-headed Song.

The choice to use poison means the Local Deity couldn’t defeat Scabby-headed Song in a direct fight.

The inability to defeat Scabby-headed Song came from his refusal to accept the gift of cultivation level from the Local Deity.

If the Local Deity of Bridge Yesong had always been that coachman, then Li Banfeng could be certain of one thing, that the coachman couldn’t bestow cultivation level upon others.

His claim of granting cultivation level was purely a scam; Scabby-headed Song didn’t fall for it.

What if Scabby-headed Song did fall for it?

He would become the scholar Liu Yuansheng, he would become the heroine Wang Saihong.

He would gain great cultivation level and then leave Bridge Yesong.

Did he truly leave Bridge Yesong?

Why are there no subsequent stories of them?

Why does Bridge Yesong have strong winds filled with dust every few years?

People always hope for a happy ending for heroes.

In the legends of heroes, for the sake of this happy ending, many stories have been distorted.

Just like the legend of Zhao Xiaowan, many stories are true, but all the endings are distorted.

No one wants to believe that hero Zhao Xiaowan died due to internal strife within the army; for a more dignified end for Zhao Xiaowan, people even neglected Hong Ying’s existence, making her a part of Zhao Xiaowan.