Harvest

Chapter 203: Harvest

The atmosphere was particularly heavy.

Just then, Chun Xiaoman noticed that Li Huowang's face showed no reaction at all. She was about to speak.

"Shh." Li Huowang put a finger to his lips, signaling Chun Xiaoman to be quiet. He tilted his head toward the south, listening.

After a moment, a rare hint of a smile appeared on his face.

"Don't worry. The food problem is solved."

Then, under the others' watchful gazes, Li Huowang's body slowly shifted, gradually sinking into the wall beside him.

"Wait here for me. I'll be back in a while." Li Huowang's voice rang out from empty air.

"Ooh, I know what this is," Gouwa said, his eyes wide. "My second uncle told me about wall-passing. A real master is a master at everything, even being a thief."

When Li Huowang hid his phantom form within the wall, his physical body entered a state of invisibility.

He pressed himself against the wall, circling around toward one of the buildings.

Passing through the outer courtyard where chickens were kept, he entered the house. The voices he had heard earlier became clearer.

"Son, that's not good enough. Your skills still aren't polished. Go read the Art of Deception ten more times."

"Yes, Father..."

"Don't blame your father for being strict. This is our Wu family's foundation. This whole estate—every bit of it was tricked out of others by our ancestors, copper by copper."

Li Huowang let out a soft sigh. So much for finding some kind of peaceful haven.

Of all the things to find in this broken place—a family that built its fortune on deception.

But that actually worked out better. He could just rob them fair and square, ease his own pressing needs.

"Never thought my first use of this new ability would be stealing," he thought to himself.

"I was planning to earn travel money as an escort. Now I'm doing this kind of thing. Maybe honest work really isn't for me."

Still half-thinking these scattered thoughts, Li Huowang began searching the entire house.

He soon found a hidden compartment. Opening it, he found it packed with silver and gold—all sorts of shapes and ages, clearly stolen goods.

A grin spread across Li Huowang's face. That took care of the travel expenses. He quickly grabbed a bag, stuffed it full, and tucked it into his chest.

From the next room, the father and son's discussion about deception continued to drift into his ears.

"Son, you're our only heir. You have to study hard. If you can't learn, the Southern School's lineage will die with you."

"I remember, Father. I'll study hard and not let your efforts go to waste."

Hearing this, a look of contempt crossed Li Huowang's face. A den of thieves and they've turned it into a family honor.

After a quick sweep, he found their cellar and went in. It was packed with all kinds of cured meat and jars of pickled vegetables.

Li Huowang brought everything out. He tossed the goods over the wall to the others on the other side.

The scene was particularly strange—a jar of pickles floating up on its own, drifting to the wall, then disappearing over the other side.

Anyone who saw it would have been terrified.

The father and son's conversation from next door continued.

"Son, once we head down the mountain this time, I want you to trick yourself a wife. If you can manage that, I'll consider you ready."

"Father, can you really trick someone into being your wife?"

"Of course. If you put your heart into it, what can't you trick? I tricked your mother back in the day myself, and she's still in the dark about it."

For some reason, the more Li Huowang listened, the hotter the anger burned in his chest. He stopped what he was doing.

"Should I just kill them?" he wondered.

Because of what Zuowandao had put him through, he now harbored a deep hostility toward liars. If all the liars in the world were dead, that would be best.

"Daoist, you can't do that. They've done wrong, but it's not a capital offense."

The voice from beside him startled Li Huowang. He found the monk, whom he hadn't seen for a while, had suddenly appeared again.

The monk circled Li Huowang, chattering on with his usual words of moral persuasion.

After hesitating for a long time, Li Huowang finally abandoned the idea.

The monk was right. He couldn't kill them.

He couldn't make killing his only method. If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. He would grow more and more extreme.

Still, while they deserved to live, they didn't deserve to get off easy. He decided to strip the place clean. Let them really feel what it was like to lose something.

And so, Li Huowang emptied the house from top to bottom. Anything edible or valuable, he took.

"Son, you can't just make up lies. You have to mix a few parts false with a few parts true. That's how you make people believe."

"Father, I know that. But how many parts false with how many parts true? The Art of Deception doesn't say."

"Idiot! You adjust for the mark. For easy marks, less truth, more lies."

"For someone hard to fool—especially the stubborn, obsessive types—you have to speak more truth, more sincerely. That way, when you finally spring your trick, they'll trust you."

"Remember, a true con man's words must contain truth!"

"I'll remember."

Li Huowang, who had been about to leave, turned back at these words and re-entered the house.

When he emerged again, a half-old, half-new book was in his hands. On its cover, two crooked characters were written: The Art of Deception.

"I'll show you deceit."

"So did you get everything?" Li Huowang's phantom form and his physical body overlapped again in front of the others.

"Got it all, got it all! We can't even carry any more! But, Senior Brother Li, where did all this stuff come from?" Gouwa asked, already shoving a piece of cured meat into his mouth.

"Good, that's it. We'll talk on the road."

As they gradually left the village behind, the miserable wailing in the distance slowly faded from Li Huowang's ears.

"Father! Someone stole our Art of Deception!"

"Father! Our chickens are gone!"

"Father! Even our cooking pot is gone!"

It took considerable effort to carry all that loot down the rugged mountain path.

But looking at the heavy bundles in their hands, everyone's face was bright with joy. They wouldn't go hungry now.

The first thing they did after descending the mountain was find running water, light a fire, and cook a proper meal.

After eating their fill, the anxiety disappeared from everyone's faces. Even their tempers improved.

"Sorry about what I said earlier, sister. My words were thoughtless." Gouwa smiled ingratiatingly as he sidled up to the women.

"Get away! We all know what you're thinking now. Your stomach's full, so your mind's in the gutter."

"Xiaoman Jie, don't say that. What I said before was for everyone's good. The food belonged to all of us..."

While listening to their bickering, Li Huowang reached into his chest and pulled out his earlier haul.

He handed the heavy bags to Bai Lingmiao. "This is all that liar's stash. Both gold and silver. Count it."

"Mm."

Finally idle, Li Huowang looked at the others, sated and content. The stone that had been pressing on his heart finally settled.

The supply problem was solved. Now, if they could just get through Later Shu safely, this trouble would be behind them.

After a moment's thought, he took out the Art of Deception and started flipping through it.

"Never thought I'd see a book dedicated to teaching deception. First time for everything."

"Huh. It even has the verbal routines for trickery."

He had just been flipping through it to pass the time.

But as he kept reading, Li Huowang's expression gradually grew serious. He sat up straight.

He realized that some of the techniques described here—Zuowandao had used them on him.

What Zuowandao said... it wasn't all lies. Part of it was truth.