Mutated Tao

“Come now. Yikes! Be careful. Slowly stuff it back, or your intestines will entwine.” Shai Zi carefully helped Li Huowang up and sat him on the carriage. He then started rummaging around in the carriage. “Hong Zhong, where is the Golden Wound medication? I can’t seem to find it.”

Li Huowang stared at Hong Zhong’s back and was puzzled by what was happening.

“Ah! Found it!” Shai Zi took out a bag of Golden Wound medication and sprinkled some on Li Huowang’s wound. He clapped his hands in satisfaction once he was done treating Li Huowang. “You're heavily injured. Why don’t you rest? I will go boil some bird nests and make you a serving of donkey hide gelatin congee.”

“Why do I need to help Ji Lin succeed to the throne? Is he a Sitting Oblivion Dao member?” Li Huowang asked, trying to piece together the puzzle pieces to determine Shai Zi’s goal.

“You're thinking too much. How could the imperial family be part of the Sitting Oblivion Dao? They are the people chosen by the gods themselves. Don’t worry about the ‘why’ first. You just need to help him ascend to the throne, and your job is done. Of course, you can find me if you want in on the next steps as well after that. Don’t worry; there are people helping us in the palace.” Shai Zi chuckled and patted Li Huowang’s shoulder. “Do you not need me to take care of you? Then I will leave first. Once you’ve recovered, you need to make haste and go back to Shangjing. There are many people scrambling to get official positions, and everything is in chaos.”

Shai Zi covered Li Huowang’s body with a thin blanket before leaving.

Li Huowang stared in the direction where Shai Zi had disappeared before smashing the wooden floor of the carriage with his right fist.

Li Huowang understood them the most. He was afraid that even if he helped Ji Lin succeed to the throne, Shai Zi still wouldn’t give Miaomiao back to him. It would be an insult for a trickster to trust someone blindly!

Shai Zi would definitely use Bai Lingmiao as a hostage and squeeze out every single drop of value Li Huowang had to offer!

However, he was already on the web, so he had no choice but to follow the path that Shai Zi had laid out for him. Of course, Li Huowang swore to find a way to break out of Shai Zi's intricate plan once he learned of the latter's goal.

He definitely wouldn’t be able to do so alone, so he needed to find a way to recruit someone to help him.

He might be able to find a way through Ji Lin or maybe through the Surveillance Bureau.

It was a faint hope, but he had no choice because the enemy had the upper hand here, and worst, his enemy was Shai Zi!

The pressure on his heart was so huge that he could barely breathe.

But he did not give up. Instead, his hatred fueled his heart. He needed to save Bai Lingmiao!

“Hong Zhong, do you think Shai Zi is telling the truth? You might’ve really owed him a favor last time. Bai Lingmiao really did suddenly disappear, and I don’t think he used the technique of the Sitting Oblivion Dao.”

The fake Hong Zhong illusion suddenly chimed in.

“You are not qualified to trick me with Shai Zi!”

Li Huowang struggled to stand up before he started keeping the stuff within the cave.

“Sure, I might not have the qualifications to trick you, but you’ve seen yourself that the sword was alive and still on the ground. I don’t think it’s possible that you would have two Zhuge Yuans.”

Li Huowang looked at the spine sword covered in flesh on the ground. Zhuge Yuan’s head on the pommel of the sword also looked at Li Huowang at the same time.

“Junior Li, long time no see. Don’t worry, even though my body is destroyed to this point, I can still help you with the trouble with Shai Zi.”

“No, you won't. You've been deceived by Shai Zi, too. You think you are Zhuge Yuan, but you're not Zhuge Yuan. Zhuge Yuan is right next to me. The Sitting Oblivion Dao can trick themselves into thinking like they're someone else. I’ve seen enough. I’ve met someone who managed to trick themselves into thinking that they were Li Huowang, but they were not.”

Li Huowang hugged his bloody abdomen before picking up the purple talisman on the ground.

Zhuge Yuan’s face changed when he saw Li Huowang approaching him with the purple talisman.

“Junior Li, what’s wrong with you?! Since when did you have a Zhuge Yuan beside you? That Zhuge Yuan is just an illusion! I'm different from the Sitting Oblivion Dao on Xing Island!”

“Don’t try to trick me like Shai Zi did! The illusions are real because they know things that I don’t know! I'm a Strayed One, so the souls of those I had killed will get attached to me! The Second Deity did not become my illusion, so I didn't murder her! I also don't owe Shai Zi any favors. He had kidnapped her! Everything is fake and is part of his trap! More importantly, your behavior is different from the Zhuge Yuan I'm familiar with!" Li Huowang roared, and the illusions flickered.

Zhuge Yuan’s eyes widened in shock as Li Huowang placed the purple talisman on his forehead. Zhuge Yuan’s head quickly shrank to the size of a fist.

Even though his head had shrunk, the meat and organs on the sword didn’t. They hung on the spine sword like grapes.

The fake Hong Zhong illusion wanted to say something but Zhuge Yuan’s illusion stopped him. “Don’t worry. If the talisman can be placed onto the sword, it can be removed as well. Let me think about something first.”

“Hoh. What are you thinking?”

Zhuge Yuan opened his fan. “Let me think whether I'm fake, or the sword is fake, or whether both of us are fake while the real Zhuge Yuan has returned back to the Three Ancient Ones.”

Li Huowang sighed when he saw the spine sword not moving anymore. He picked up the cloth on the floor and slowly wrapped the sword.

The cloth was dyed red due to the blood. Since it grew organs and flesh on it, the cloth could not cover the sword completely. There were bones, flesh, and even some hair squeezed out from the gaps of the cloth.

But Li Huowang didn’t care. He only needed to cover the sword enough that people wouldn’t recognize what it was.

Now that the spine sword had grown into this form, he was certain that even the purple-lipped woman wouldn’t be able to recognize it.

“Dad, let me help you.” Li Sui walked over and carried the misshapen sword into the carriage before helping the injured Li Huowang into the carriage.

“Dad, where are we going?”

“Shangjing!”

Li Huowang commanded the carriage to move forward. The wheels rolled and they left the ravaged mountain.

They had just left when a massive foot stepped on the marking of the wheels. It was Shai Zi!

“Hehehe~ It’s so fun to trick Strayed Ones.”

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