Mutated Tao

“Come, take these. Junior Kun refined them,” said Zhuge Yuan, handing over ten pills to Li Huowang, who was nibbling on dry rations.

Li Huowang accepted them and asked, "What are these?"

“Brother Li, aren’t you skilled in pill refining? How come you don’t recognize these Fasting Pills? They're great substitutes for meals, and you'll feel invigorated just eating them. They're perfect pills for traveling,” Zhuge Yuan explained.

Li Huowang took one and examined it carefully beneath the sunlight. The fingernail-sized pill was dark brown and was emitting a strong herbal scent.

“Brother Zhuge, let’s refrain from making a move against that small fry from the Sitting Oblivion Dao. We should employ a strategic approach and wait for the right moment to strike. That way, we'll achieve our goals,” Li Huowang said while staring at the pill.

Li Huowang had many burning questions, but his main goal remained the same—to find Bei Feng.

“Rest assured; I understand,” Zhuge Yuan replied.

Li Huowang loosened his grip on the pill, and it "fell" to the ground, rolling away.

Bun rushed over and gave it a quick lick. It instantly lost all interest in the pill and crouched, staring at Li Huowang's dry rations.

Li Huowang’s expression turned grim as he stashed the rest of the Fasting Pills into his pocket. Then, he turned to Zhuge Yuan and asked, “Brother Zhuge, do you have a moment? There’s a question that has been bothering me for a while now.”

Zhuge Yuan wasn't surprised at all. He had long guessed what Li Huowang wanted to ask him. There were outsiders around them earlier, which made it inconvenient for Li Huowang to approach Zhuge Yuan and ask questions.

“I guess you want to know whether we're in Great Liang or Great Qi?” Zhuge Yuan said.

Li Huowang nodded. His earlier visit to the Surveillance Bureau to ask about Zhuge Yuan’s information yielded no decent results whatsoever, which caught him by surprise.

Zhuge Yuan snapped open his white folding fan and lamented, “These matters involve the higher-ups, and for the sake of your safety, I dare not tell you too much. However, the Great Qi has always been there; the Great Liang is the fake one.”

The Great Liang is fake? What did I experience then? Were my hardships in the Great Liang fake as well? Li Huowang found it amusing.

Were the hardships and trials he had experienced in this vast world all fake? Were they just illusions, similar to the hallucination? He had slaughtered Bai Lingmiao’s entire family, but was that fake all this while? It'd be great if that were the case.

Li Huowang patiently said, “Brother Zhuge, you must've encountered people from the Great Liang throughout your travels to many different places. You snatched that Muddled One’s corpse from the Great Liang's Surveillance Bureau. Why do you insist that the Great Liang is fake?”

“Ah, Brother Li, it's not exactly a straightforward lie. Take the old noodle seller we've encountered earlier. In your eyes, he’s a decision of the Great Liang, but in my eyes, he’s a denizen of the Great Qi.

"If neither of us looks at him, where do you think he's from?”

“He's from the Great Liang! He’s not from the Great Qi!”

“How can you say that?”

“He is from Great Liang because he was born in the Great Liang, he grew up in the Great Liang, and he'll die old in the Great Liang.”

“But in my eyes, he's from the Great Qi because he was born in the Great Qi, he grew up in the Great Qi, and he'll die old in the Great Qi."

“Brother Zhuge, are you suggesting that everything is from the Great Qi in your eyes? Why is it that only you can see that kind of scenery while everyone else sees the Great Liang? Have you never thought about that?” Li Huowang asked.

“No, everyone else also sees Great Qi, just like me. I understand what you're seeing, but what you're seeing is wrong, and it must be corrected,” Zhuge Yuan replied.

“Why is it so difficult to make you understand? It’s obvious—” Li Huowang stopped mid-sentence when he met Zhuge Yuan’s eyes. He suddenly realized that arguing with Zhuge Yuan was a waste of time.

“Fine, the old noodle seller is from the Great Qi. You win.”

“Sigh, you still don’t trust me. Forget it, I'm not going to argue with you. Arguments are just going to cause conflict. Anyway, just watch, you'll know whether the Great Qi is real or fake once you've seen enough," Zhuge Yuan said. Then, he turned around to leave.

Zhuge Yuan seemed disappointed that Li Huowang didn't actually believe in the Great Qi's existence.

Meanwhile, Li Huowang frowned, thinking about many different possibilities.

The Strayed Ones, the Twisted Ones, the Muddled Ones. None of them were easy to handle. Regardless of what the Twisted One would obtain from the so-called Three Ancient Ones, Zhuge Yuan was definitely the reason behind the strange changes.

Unfortunately, Li Huowang still couldn’t quite figure out how these strange changes had come about.

Could it be that Zhuge Yuan had brought me with him, traversing a thousand years to connect the Great Qi from a thousand years ago with the Great Liang of a thousand years later? That doesn’t make sense, though. How could that old couple exist a thousand years ago and a thousand years later?

The old man cooking noodles had changed his statement thrice as if there had always been two different noodle stalls. However, Li Huowang was standing right next to the old man, and he was certain that the old man had never changed.

It’s like the whole world is putting up an act, holding two different scripts. The world is acting according to the first script in front of me and the ordinary people, but it's acting according to the second script in front of Zhuge Yuan.

Li Huowang contemplated silently. He couldn’t help but recall what Ji Xiang had told him at the Buddha’s Skeleton Temple. Is this what he meant by strange but reasonable things? Does this kind of thing happen often around the Twisted One?

The Abbess’ Siming deals with decay, and Ba-Hui deals with suffering. What do the so-called Three Ancient Ones deal with? How could they create such strange changes around Zhuge Yuan?

Li Huowang knew it was best not to think about such things to avoid trouble, but he couldn’t resist. After all, the "strange" situation was unfolding right before him.

Never mind, never mind, never mind… Li Huowang shook his head eventually; his head throbbed from the hodgepodge of assumptions and speculations. In the end, Li Huowang decided to believe whatever Zhuge Yuan would say. It wasn't his concern, anyway.

Li Huowang only had one goal—to find Bei Feng.

Zhuge Yuan had killed Fa Cai, so the members of the Sitting Oblivion Dao would definitely not let him go. Li Huowang just had to stay by Zhuge Yuan’s side, and he would have a good chance of finding Bei Feng.

Footsteps echoed just then. Li Huowang looked up to see a young man in a white robe.

Li Huowang could smell blood from the white-robed young man.

"This one's name is Xia Risheng. Greetings, Lord Li.”

“What's wrong?” Li Huowang asked. The white-robed young man was a member of the Great Qi's Surveillance Bureau. However, Li Huowang wasn’t sure whether Xia Risheng had come here to gather information or for something else.

“Lord Li, I’m a disciple of the Ao Jing Sect!” Xia Risheng exclaimed, opening his robe to reveal hooks hanging from him.

“Is that so? You should go back if there's nothing else. We have a long journey ahead of us,” Li Huowang said, dismissing the young man. He was afraid of speaking too much and inadvertently revealing that he wasn't a true disciple of the Ao Jing Sect.

“Lord Zhuge said that you’ve executed the Cang-Qiang Ascension three times. May I ask if it's true?” Xia Risheng asked, staring at Li Huowang with admiration in his eyes.

Chacha and Char's Thoughts

Here's a bonus fanart of Shaved Chun Xiaoman! Credits to 格子的乱七八糟 on douyin

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