Chapter 680: Empire

Li Banfeng spent two days at home painting clouds. When he took them outside, he found that his 'Golden House for a Beloved' technique could indeed bring the paintings to life, though whether the materialized forms were truly clouds was debatable.

Frankly, their texture and feel were more akin to cotton. What's more, they weren't very large. The clouds he initially painted had an actual area smaller than a single room in a portable dwelling. Luo Yuni possessed special painting methods that allowed her to create artworks several times larger than the room itself. This wasn't difficult; it simply involved folding the canvas while painting, a technique Li Banfeng quickly mastered.

But could Li Banfeng control such large paintings using his 'Golden House for a Beloved' technique? Among the many techniques he knew, 'Golden House for a Beloved' was one he hadn't mastered well, and it consumed a vast amount of energy.

Li Banfeng eventually painted a cloud twice the size of a portable dwelling and, with the help of Banfeng Bing, Banfeng Ding, and Banfeng Wu, carried the painting outside. He exerted all his strength to perform the technique, but only half of the cloud materialized; the other half remained embedded in the painting. Staring at the half-cloud, Li Banfeng felt a peculiar sensation, as if an object had been partially extracted from some unknown space. It was pulled halfway and then got stuck.

What exactly was that space? Was it the world within the painting? Li Banfeng reached his hand into the boundary between the cloud and the painting, feeling what seemed like a viscous liquid. What kind of liquid was this? The materialized cloud vanished, the canvas fully reverted, and the viscous liquid disappeared. Li Banfeng touched his fingers, but there was no trace left.

Controlling half a cloud for such a short time highlighted the many limitations of the 'Golden House for a Beloved' technique; the larger the object being controlled, the harder it was to maintain. Whether clouds created this way would be truly practical remained a big question mark.

Li Banfeng was still pondering other ways to create clouds when his projector flew over. "Director Qi," it announced, "Luo Zhengnan called, and Liao Zihui sent a message: twenty thousand three-headed people have arrived."

Li Banfeng, Qiu Zhiheng, Qin Tianjiu, and Luo Zhengnan — a group went outside the city to meet them. The orderly settlement of twenty thousand people was a major undertaking, so Li Banfeng brought all his trusted aides with him. The City of Sinners was encircled by a perimeter line, and all incoming and outgoing individuals were subjected to strict inspections.

The city gates opened wide. At Liao Zihui's command, a row of searchlights illuminated the city walls, their overlapping beams covering a section of the perimeter line in front of the gate. These searchlights were rather irritating. The dark bridge cannons his wife had painstakingly created were far less effective than these few searchlights. Li Banfeng was eager to find out where these searchlights were stored, but he wasn't very familiar with the structure of the Defense Office. Could this matter be connected to Neizhou, and then he could find a way to acquire one of these lights?

The twenty thousand three-headed people, carrying heavy wooden suitcases, followed Liao Zihui out of the city, forming two square formations. Photographers and videographers followed alongside as Li Banfeng and Liao Zihui, exchanging polite but false smiles, engaged in a cordial conversation. Once the handover was complete, Liao Zihui immediately returned to the city. Liao Zihui didn't ask a single question about the three-headed people's destination.

According to Qiu Zhiheng's plan, these twenty thousand people were sent to Luoxia Mountain. Compared to other parts of San Tiaocha, Luobo Mountain was relatively safe and had less natural light. Qiu Zhiheng planned to procure weapons and then entrust these twenty thousand people to Tan Jinxiao for training, believing they could quickly become a respectable guard force.

However, when Luo Zhengnan went to invite Tan Jinxiao, he refused, claiming he was too busy with business in the Sea Market to spare the time. Qiu Zhiheng asked Luo Zhengnan, "Business in the Human Market is quite relaxed, but is it busy in the Earth Market