The Betrayal of a Trusted Face

Facing such a bizarre Zuowandao in front of him, Li Huowang truly had no idea how to handle it.

He feared that if he stayed with the Zuowandao any longer, the rest of his abilities would also be swindled away, one by one.

If he truly wanted to finish him off, the only remaining option was the Dung-Beetle Ascension. But the enemy was right before him; when would he have the time to search for his own inner, extreme agony?

"No good. With the enemy's intentions unclear, I have to retreat first! I need to find Zhuge Yuan!"

Having made his decision, Li Huowang immediately cut off both his own ears and threw them behind him as a delaying tactic, then turned and charged out of the circular building.

When he re-emerged into the bamboo forest, the morning mist was gradually dissipating. Forcing himself to stay alert, he sprinted forward. As he ran, gritting his teeth, Li Huowang pulled out the broken bone fragment and performed another divination.

Either the divination would lead him to Zhuge Yuan, or Zhuge Yuan would sense that someone was divining for him—either outcome could free him from his current predicament.

As long as Zhuge Yuan, the one who could kill Facai, appeared, this crisis could be ended!

As he ran, a donkey cart appeared on the road ahead. It was a very old donkey. Old as it was, it had no trouble pulling the cart with the very light weight of a mother and her daughter inside.

"Benefactor!?" The sallow-faced woman's eyes went wide as she stared at the disheveled Li Huowang.

"Someone's chasing me! Help me get through this!" Li Huowang said rapidly, and without waiting for her consent, he scrambled into the cart.

Just as the sallow-faced woman was trying to figure out what was happening, she was shocked to see another identical benefactor rushing up from the front.

"Have you seen anyone who looks exactly like me?!"

Facing this second benefactor's question, the woman hesitated over how to answer. The child in her arms, however, pointed a small hand towards the bamboo grove beside the road.

"There's no escape for you!"

Watching this second benefactor charge into the bamboo grove and gradually disappear, the woman quickly hugged her child and pulled aside the cart's curtain.

Li Huowang, clutching the wound on his belly, looked at the two faces, one big and one small, and let out a slight sigh of relief.

"Thanks for the help. I owe you one for this."

Li Huowang never imagined that a good deed he'd done before would end up saving his life.

The woman shook her head hurriedly. "Benefactor, you saved my girl on that boat before. Helping you is the least I can do. You're bleeding a lot! You need to find a doctor in the village quickly."

Li Huowang shook his head, pulling out the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments to treat his own wounds. "You go on your way. Pretend I was never here."

The woman, holding her daughter, nodded repeatedly, closed the cart curtain, and urgently urged the old donkey to move faster.

Just as Li Huowang was using the burn scars to seal the bloody holes in his body, he felt the donkey cart beneath him stop. His heart sank.

He pulled aside the cart curtain and saw, in the distance, a face identical to his own.

The figure held a piece of cracked human bone. At some point, the enemy had already swindled away his divination ability and was now using it to find him.

Li Huowang took a deep breath, jumped down from the cart, and stood in front of it. He spoke to the mother and daughter behind him, his tone resolute. "You two, go! As far away as possible!"

The sallow-faced woman looked at the two identical men, then at her crying daughter. Abandoning even the newly bought donkey cart, she picked up her daughter, grabbed their luggage, and fled into the bamboo grove beside the road.

Li Huowang opened his mouth, slowly exhaling. He saw the other him open his mouth as if to say something, but then both of them suddenly turned their heads to look at a fork in the path.

Seeing the newcomer, a wave of intense excitement washed over Li Huowang's face. It was Zhuge Yuan!

Dressed as a scholar, Zhuge Yuan was shaking his folding fan, watching the two identical Li Huowangs with great interest.

Before Li Huowang could speak, he heard the other him say, "Brother Zhuge! I am Li Huowang! This man is a Zuowandao!"

Li Huowang nearly coughed up blood, but he wasn't about to just repeat the other's words. He looked at Zhuge Yuan seriously.

"Brother Zhuge, you were able to kill Facai with your own hands. Surely you can see through this little trick of a Zuowandao at a single glance, right?"

Hearing both sides speak, Zhuge Yuan thought for a moment and then asked with interest, "Did you bring that lock of hair from the Heart-Turbid that I gave you?"

"Of course! I have it right here!" Li Huowang slit open his own belly with a knife and pulled out the black spindle.

If Zhuge Yuan hadn't mentioned it today, Li Huowang would never have known that the spindle was wrapped in hair from a Heart-Turbid.

Looking at the black spindle in his hand, and then at the other him clutching his stomach with a conflicted expression, Li Huowang smiled. It seemed the other guy hadn't guessed there was still something hidden inside his belly.

Li Huowang tucked the spindle back into his bosom and turned to say to Zhuge Yuan, "Brother Zhuge, be careful. This Zuowandao is different. He swindles other people's abilities."

"You needn't say more. I already know." Zhuge Yuan snapped his folding fan shut and directly pulled a Judgment Brush from his sleeve.

Li Huowang watched intently. He really wanted to know just how powerful this Zhuge Yuan, the one who could kill Facai, really was.

Seeing the Zuowandao take half a step back, a cold sneer formed in Li Huowang's heart. Scared now, are you? Where was that attitude before? Daring to impersonate me.

Then, Li Huowang saw Zhuge Yuan clasp his hands in a respectful salute, then gently lift the Judgment Brush and point it at his own left leg.

Li Huowang instantly lost all feeling in his left leg and stumbled to the ground.

His face full of shock and disbelief, Li Huowang stared at the Zhuge Yuan in front of him. For a moment, he thought he must be seeing things.

But when he saw Zhuge Yuan raise the Judgment Brush towards him again, he finally understood. He wasn't seeing things. Zhuge Yuan was attacking him!

"What are you doing?! That man is the real Zuowandao!" Li Huowang roared in extreme grief and indignation.

Zhuge Yuan's Judgment Brush pointed again. Li Huowang's entire lower body became numb and useless.

Consumed by intense unwillingness, his face twisted in hysteria, Li Huowang screamed at the Zhuge Yuan before him. "You lied to me! All the kindness you showed me before was just a lie!! You're in cahoots with the Zuowandao!"

Faced with Li Huowang's accusations, Zhuge Yuan just smiled without saying a word. The tip of his Judgment Brush pointed at Li Huowang's neck.

"I can't die! They're still waiting for me! I've been through so much suffering, I can't die a pathetic death here!!"

Unwilling to give up, Li Huowang tried to struggle. But when the Judgment Brush traced a circle around his head, his body stiffened, and all signs of life vanished.

Thump! Li Huowang's corpse fell heavily to the ground. The black spindle rolled from his hand, coming to a slow stop at Zhuge Yuan's feet.

He pulled out a white handkerchief, picked up the bloodied spindle, and handed it to the other Li Huowang.

This Li Huowang—the Zuowandao—stuffed the spindle into his own belly. He walked over to the corpse and used a small knife to peel back its face.

Rifling through several layers of facial skin, he found the bearded, bald man from the boat—the one with the best card skills, who had died in the sea.

"Brother Zhuge, this Zuowandao really did seem to believe he was me for a while there."

Thanks to the "森之黑山羊"盟主's 100,000 Qidian coin tip!