Departure

“Mom, I might be going back to how I was before—crazy. But don’t worry, it’s nothing. Trust me, it’ll get better and better from here.”

“I’ll come back to my senses every three or five days. If I’m slow, don’t worry—I’m probably just tangled up in some trivial stuff over there.”

“No, Mom, I’m really not having an episode. Don’t get upset… Please, let me explain…”

In midair, Zhuge Yuan watched Li Huowang with a puzzled expression, listening to him whisper softly to a crooked tree.

“See? Quite the sight, isn’t it? A Heart-Element losing his marbles isn’t something everyone gets to witness.” The Zuowandao hallucination beside him spoke with the tone of someone who had seen it all, explaining things to Zhuge Yuan.

“Did Brother Li do this often in the past?” Zhuge Yuan asked, confused.

“Mm. According to the monk, before he ate Li Sui, he had episodes like this every few days.”

Zhuge Yuan glanced at Li Sui, who was curled up at the base of the tree, then back at Li Huowang muttering to himself. He couldn’t help but sigh. “Brother Li has endured much. Being a Heart-Element is far, far more difficult than being a Heart-Pupil.”

“Yeah. The Taoist’s had it rough. Watching him go through all this, my heart aches for him. If I could do something to help, I would,” the monk chimed in from the side.

“This venerable master, this humble student Zhuge Yuan offers his greetings.”

Even though the man looked exactly like the abbot of Great Qi’s Zhengde Temple, Zhuge Yuan knew at a glance that he wasn’t the real abbot—that one hadn’t died yet.

“Greetings? Oh, sure, sure. By the way, watch out for that faceless, eyeless one. He’s a liar. He’s tricked me several times.”

Zhuge Yuan looked at Hong Zhong and smiled slightly. “I can see that. He’s Zuowandao. And you, venerable master, who is that headless one?”

Following the monk’s introduction, Zhuge Yuan learned not only the names of the other hallucinations but also exactly how they had died and what had happened back then.

“So that means this senior, Jin Shan Zhao, was killed by Peng Longteng, correct?”

“That’s what the Taoist says. But he hates chatting with me—always busy. I don’t know the details very well.”

“Then why does Senior Jin Shan Zhao show no hostility toward General Peng?”

“How should I know? I’m not a tapeworm inside their stomachs.”

“Very well. Let me ask something else. Besides the five of us, are there others?”

“There are. I heard that before us, there was a baldy and a woman. They were both hallucinations by the Taoist’s side. But later, they were gone.”

“Then, Brother Li has had seven people by his side in total?” Zhuge Yuan lightly tapped his palm with his folded fan, lost in thought.

“What are you planning?” Hong Zhong frowned at the man before him. “We’re all just hallucinations around Li Huowang now. What else are you stirring up?”

Zhuge Yuan simply cupped his hands in salute and smiled without speaking.

“Brother Zhuge.” Li Huowang’s voice drew the attention of all his hallucinations.

The man before him still looked the same, but somehow, his spirit and energy felt different from before.

“Brother Zhuge, besides Great Qi and Great Liang, have you ever seen anyone else whose past was altered?” Li Huowang asked.

“No. To have ever seen a Siming is extremely rare in this world, and most of those who have either go mad or die—let alone having a Siming take direct action.”

Zhuge Yuan’s words made Li Huowang’s brow furrow. Didn’t that mean that if he wanted to remove Hong Zhong’s past, he had absolutely no reference to go by?

Having his past altered by Doumu seemed like a very difficult thing to deal with at first glance. But upon closer thought, it wasn’t quite that simple.

His past had been altered by Doumu. On top of his original identity, he now had an additional identity as Hong Zhong of the Zuowandao. Furthermore, he had instinctively learned quite a few powerful and useful Zuowandao techniques and abilities.

He’d been given both an identity and abilities, and finally, even a cultivation method for cultivating the True. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a good thing. As for any drawbacks, at least none had appeared yet.

The only thing worth suspecting was that Doumu must have her own purpose for doing this.

“Why is it doing this?” Li Huowang gathered everything he could from Hong Zhong’s memories about Doumu, but unfortunately, he found no leads.

Their relationship was not that of a believer and a deity, but of a fraudster and a victim.

Every Zuowandao knew that every falsehood in the world belonged to Doumu. It controlled all falseness.

Every person carried a thread of Doumu’s falsehood within them, just as everyone tells lies. It was fated, inevitable. The way the Zuowandao gained their power was by defrauding the falsehood belonging to Doumu out of each person.

Of course, falsehood was only part of it. While defrauding falsehood, it was only natural to defraud other things from people as well.

However, there was also a suspicion among the Zuowandao that they only did this because Doumu wanted them to. It was Doumu who tricked the Zuowandao into tricking it, in order to achieve its own goals.

As for Doumu’s goal, the Zuowandao, being its targets of fraud, naturally wouldn’t know.

“Maybe Dice knows something…” Li Huowang murmured to himself.

“Brother Li, in your current state, this humble student believes it would be best to stay far away from the Zuowandao. Especially Dice. If Dice sets its sights on you, the matter will not be so easily resolved.”

“You know as well as I do that the Zuowandao have never been good at direct confrontation. They always prefer to strike from the shadows. And that goes double for Dice.”

“Don’t worry. I haven’t lost my mind yet. There’s no way I’d go looking for Dice. The priority now is to find a quiet place to quietly cultivate this hard-won method of cultivating the True.”

“Only once our cultivation of this True method is complete will I have any room to struggle and survive in these two worlds.”

Whether it was to increase his strength, to make Zhuge Yuan real through falsehood, or to make the modern world real, this cultivation method was of utmost importance. The past of Hong Zhong attached to him was nowhere near as significant.

Zhuge Yuan nodded in agreement. “Then, Brother Li, what will you do next?”

“I…” Li Huowang hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “I’m going back to Niuxin Village. It’s quiet and remote there—a good place for cultivation. And with everything so chaotic now, I’m a bit worried about Miaomiao and the others.”

Besides, this was also the promise he had made to Miaomiao. Once he could completely get rid of the Heart-Element’s hallucinations, he would go back to find them. This situation now could probably be considered as fulfilling that promise.

As he thought of those faces he hadn’t seen for so long, a trace of longing welled up in Li Huowang’s heart. In this world, they were his only remaining ties.

No time like the present. Li Huowang immediately mounted his horse, ready to head toward Niuxin Village.

But just as he raised his riding whip, he felt like something was missing. “Wait. Where are Li Sui and Mantou?”

“Li Sui! Mantou!” Li Huowang shouted toward the surrounding woods.

Soon, sticky black tentacles began to emerge from the underbrush, more and more, until they formed a clump.

And Mantou was already wrapped up, its limbs and mouth bound by the tentacles, held aloft in midair by Li Sui.

“What are you doing?”

“Playing with the dog.”