Why can't Li Huowang just trust Bai Lingmiao is real?

Because his "Cultivate the True" ability makes his belief manifest. If he's wrong and she's fake, trusting her makes her more real. If she's real and he doubts her, his doubt can accidentally delete her. He's trapped in a paranoid loop.

What does "Cultivate the False" mean?

It means learning to consciously create and interact with illusions and falsehoods. It's the balancing skill to "Cultivate the True"—if you only make things real, you break reality. You must learn to lie to the universe to keep it stable.

Is The Dice's advice trustworthy?

That's the whole point of the chapter. The advice is logically perfect, but The Dice is a pathological Zuowandao liar. Even dead, his words might be a trap. The reader and Li Huowang are left in the same state of paranoid uncertainty.

The Method

1,246 words

Chapter 722: The Method

Li Huowang’s cultivation had undoubtedly made him far stronger, but the side effects that came with it were equally enormous.

“Real… or fake?” He gasped for air, staring at Bai Lingmiao with an expression caught between belief and suspicion.

“Brother Li? What’s wrong—?”

“Don’t come closer!” Li Huowang hurriedly stopped her as she started to move toward him.

“Let me ask you! Back in the Qingfeng Temple, did you—” No. That’s no good!! If she really was something I cultivated into existence, then she’d know that too!

Pacing anxiously by the river, Li Huowang—now a master of Cultivating the True—found himself unable to distinguish truth from falsehood for a moment. With his power, anything could become real if he willed it.

“Heh heh heh…” Taishan Shi watched the scene and let out a low, sneering laugh. “No wonder you’re Jizai’s Heart-Pan.”

“Pah!” Li Huowang backhanded him across the face, the left side of Taishan Shi’s cheek swelling up instantly. “Shut up! You’ll have plenty of time to cry later!”

“Miaomiao, don’t panic. We’ll… we’ll do it this way.” Li Huowang pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Let’s go back the way we came. The exact path you took to get here, walk it back.” It was a clumsy method, but a useful one.

Just retrace the steps. If there was no other Bai Lingmiao at the starting point, then this one was real. If there was another Bai Lingmiao there, then this one was fake.

Bai Lingmiao neither agreed nor disagreed. Instead, she went straight to the heart of the matter. “Brother Li, can you tell me what’s really going on? Have you relapsed?”

His current state—manic and unhinged—genuinely worried her.

“I haven’t… Fine. Maybe I have.” Li Huowang didn’t want to explain too much to this Bai Lingmiao who stood halfway between real and fake.

He also didn’t want to invest too much emotion. If he grew close to her, only to discover she was the fake one, what would he do? Make her disappear? Or just… live the rest of his life with two Bai Lingmiaos?

Just as he turned around and pulled out his torture instruments to interrogate Taishan Shi, he suddenly caught something strange in the reflection of Bai Lingmiao on the water’s surface.

At first, he thought he’d seen wrong. But as he stared intently, the reflection began to stop moving. The water was no longer water; it had become a mirror.

Li Huowang turned around slowly, and realized with a shock that Bai Lingmiao’s body was wavering like a reflection in water!

“So you really are the fake?!” The moment he said this, Bai Lingmiao’s body began to flicker, gradually fading into nothingness.

“Brother Li! Li Huowang! What are you doing?! Save me!” Faced with her body dissolving, Bai Lingmiao frantically beat her drum and chanted the incantation of the White Lotus Society for summoning spirits.

Just as her body was about to vanish completely, the twin lotus at the center of her brow suddenly emitted a soft, gentle light, blocking Li Huowang’s view.

As the light enveloped his vision and everything grew blurry, he suddenly felt a familiar presence—it was Wusheng Laomu.

The feeling came and went quickly. But from her, he learned something critically important. He immediately lunged forward and hugged Bai Lingmiao tightly, a wave of belated terror washing over him.

Through all the past trials and tribulations, he had never been afraid. But just now… he really had been scared.

If Wusheng Laomu hadn’t warned him, he would have truly cultivated Bai Lingmiao out of existence!

With his current power, he could, of course, Cultivate True a Bai Lingmiao back. But would that Bai Lingmiao really be the same as before?

She tried to push him away, but found his grip as tight as iron, impossible to break. “Li Huowang! What’s wrong with you?! Explain it clearly! Have you relapsed? If you have, just say so!”

Seeing this, a group of Bai Lingmiao’s devotees ignored the Holy Maiden’s orders, rushing forward. “How dare you! Show the Holy Maiden respect!”

After his emotions had settled slightly, Li Huowang let go of her, still shaken. He lifted her red bridal veil.

He reached out and gently touched her fur, her scales, her spikes… and the many, many eyes.

After this incident, Li Huowang finally understood the severity of his own situation. He knew he could no longer ignore the side effects of mastering Cultivate the True.

If he didn’t solve this problem, not only would the people he had accidentally Cultivated True clutter his perception, but anyone who stayed by his side could be treated as a fake and simply erased by him. That was an unimaginably great danger.

Bai Lingmiao had Wusheng Laomu to protect her, to withstand his Cultivation the True. But what if the next person was someone else? What if it was Suisui?

Li Huowang remembered the few moments during his training in the woods when a fake Suisui had appeared. His heart clenched.

“What happened? What exactly did you go through while I was away? Just say something.”

At Bai Lingmiao’s prompting, Li Huowang—now having temporarily clarified real from fake—began to explain everything.

Half an hour later, Li Huowang sat by the campfire, pulling on the red Daoist robe Bai Lingmiao handed him. “That’s the gist of it. I’m not sick. I just mastered Cultivate the True. I knew every gain would come at a price, but I never expected it to be this steep.”

And the bigger worry was, this problem would only get worse as his Cultivate the True ability grew. It was dangerous enough now… he didn’t dare think about what would happen later.

Bai Lingmiao nodded, finally understanding the reason for his bizarre behavior. “So, Brother Li, how do you plan to solve this problem?”

“Sigh… I wish I knew. But a solution isn’t going to just appear by staring into space.” Li Huowang decided he would go ask Jizai about it first.

Bai Lingmiao furrowed her brow, resting her chin on her hand, trying to think of a solution alongside him. For a moment, the area around them fell silent.

Li Sui also wanted to help her dad, but she couldn’t really understand all this “real” and “fake” talk.

Just as Li Huowang walked back to the riverbank, called out for Jizai into the water’s surface with no success, Bai Lingmiao suddenly asked him, “Brother Li, do you remember that person? The one who sold breakfast?”

“Sold breakfast? Who?”

“The plump one. The one who made youtiao wrapped in ci fan.”

“The Dice?!” Li Huowang immediately remembered who she was talking about. That bastard had targeted him to achieve his own goals before.

“Back when you were leaving the city gate, didn’t he shout something at you?”

“If you Cultivate the True without Cultivating the False, you’ll fall into Qi Deviation.”

“If you Cultivate the True without Cultivating the False, you’ll fall into Qi Deviation.” They both said it at the same time.

“That’s right, Brother Li. That’s what he said. And right now, what you’re experiencing… isn’t that just a type of Qi Deviation?”

Li Huowang’s expression twisted with difficulty. The logic was sound, but the person who spoke it was the problem.

The Dice was the head of the Zuowandao. Was there some hidden agenda behind his words? Even if he was dead now, who said a dead Zuowandao can’t still lie?

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Price of Cultivate the True: When Your Thoughts Can Delete People

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Cultivate the True vs. Cultivate the False: This isn’t just a power system; it’s a philosophical booby trap. In classic Xianxia, “Cultivating the True” (xiu zhen / 修真) literally means “to cultivate authenticity” or “to cultivate the Real”—the classic path of an immortal. Our novel twists this into a literal, world-breaking ability: Li Huowang can now force reality to match his belief. If he firmly believes something is “real,” it becomes real. The problem? He’s paranoid and surrounded by shapeshifters, so every time he gets scared, he accidentally deletes or creates people. “Cultivate the False” (xiu jia / 修假) is the terrifying opposite: embracing illusion, deception, and the creation of false realities—which is exactly what the Zuowandao do. The Dice’s warning isn’t a hint; it’s the key to the whole damn system. If you only make “true” things, you break the universe’s balance. The solution might be to learn how to lie with reality itself.

Qi Deviation (走火入魔): In standard Chinese fantasy, Zouhuo Rume means a cultivator’s energy has gone haywire—basically a system crash. Symptoms can be anything from organ failure to permanent psychosis. But here, it’s been recontextualized: Li Huowang’s “deviation” isn’t a loss of Qi control; it’s a loss of ontological control. He’s not leaking blood; he’s leaking falsehoods into the world. His Qi Deviation is diagnosed by the state of his social reality, not his dantian.

The Failed Verification Trick: Li Huowang’s method of checking if Bai Lingmiao is real is pure folk logic: “walk back the way you came and see if the other you is still there.” It sounds dumb, but it’s rooted in a truth about this world: if she’s a duplicate born from his power, the duplicate is attached to him. If he walks away, the duplicate might cease to exist independently. He’s testing not her body, but her independence from his perception. Clever kid.

Chapter Overview

“The Method” is a masterclass in internalized horror. Our boy Li Huowang—fresh off his massive power-up—isn’t celebrating. He’s staring at his own reflection like it’s about to bite him. That’s because his “Cultivate the True” ability, the very power he’s been grinding for, has turned into a paranoid bloodhound that can literally delete people if he thinks they’re fake. The chapter is a quiet, coiled-spring panic attack disguised as a campfire chat: one wrong thought from our trigger-happy protagonist, and the friends he loves most get disintegrated from reality. And the only lead on a fix? Some sage advice from a level-99 professional liar who is dead (or was that part of the lie too?). Buckle up, fellow followers of the Unspeakable—the price of power just got a lot higher.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang, now fully “Cultivate the True” ascended, tries to verify if Bai Lingmiao is real by asking her to retrace her steps. His logic: if there’s no second Bai Lingmiao at the starting point, this one is legit. It’s a clumsy but terrifyingly practical test.
While interrogating Taishan Shi, Li Huowang catches Bai Lingmiao’s reflection acting strangely—it freezes, then the water turns to a mirror. When he accuses her of being fake, her real body starts flickering like a skipped frame, fading into nothing.
Bai Lingmiao, now panicking, chants White Lotus summoning spells and pounds her drum. Just as she’s about to vanish, a soft light from the twin lotus on her brow—Wusheng Laomu’s mark—intervenes, stopping the erasure.
Li Huowang, shaken to the core, realizes his power’s danger: even Bai Lingmiao, protected by Wusheng Laomu, nearly got Cultivated out of existence. He fears that anyone else nearby (like Li Sui) could be next if he slips up.
After calming down, Li Huowang recounts his ordeal. He now understands the terrifying side effect of his Cultivate the True mastery: whatever he subconsciously labels “fake” might become so.
Bai Lingmiao reminds him of a clue from the past: the Dice, leader of the Zuowandao, once warned him, “If you Cultivate the True without Cultivating the False, you’ll fall into Qi Deviation.”
The chapter ends on a bitter, paranoid note: the advice is perfect, but the advisor was a pathological liar whose words might still be a trap, even from beyond the grave.

Reading Guide

This is a breather chapter that breathes wrong. Everything is calm—a campfire, a conversation, an old lantern—but our boy Li Huowang’s internal pressure cooker is screaming. Pay close attention to the dialogue cadence here: his lines are choppy, self-interrupting, paranoid. He’s not really talking to Bai Lingmiao; he’s interrogating a suspected illusion who happens to talk like her. When he admits “Fine. Maybe I have [relapsed],” that isn’t an agreement—it’s a tactical surrender so he can process in real time. Also, the scene where Bai Lingmiao “breaks” is our first live demonstration of the Cultivate the True side effect in action. The twin lotus (bing di lian—a symbol of joined destiny and the White Lotus Saint) saving her is a major signal: Wusheng Laomu is very invested in keeping this particular Bai Lingmiao alive. Also, the final zinger about The Dice is a chef’s kiss: even a dead Zuowandao can still lie. Always keep the reader guessing if the advice itself is a trap. If you want the deepest cut, re-read the Dice’s line: it’s not just advice—it’s a philosophical demand. The Dao-Twisted World doesn’t just ask you to be strong. It asks you to be false on purpose. And Li Huowang hasn’t even started learning how to lie.

Quick Q&A

Lore recap (TL;DR) drawn from this chapter's Cultural / Xianxia Notes — same text as the FAQ structured data on this page.

Why can't Li Huowang just trust Bai Lingmiao is real?: Because his "Cultivate the True" ability makes his belief manifest. If he's wrong and she's fake, trusting her makes her more real. If she's real and he doubts her, his doubt can accidentally delete her. He's trapped in a paranoid loop.
What does "Cultivate the False" mean?: It means learning to consciously create and interact with illusions and falsehoods. It's the balancing skill to "Cultivate the True"—if you only make things real, you break reality. You must learn to lie to the universe to keep it stable.
Is The Dice's advice trustworthy?: That's the whole point of the chapter. The advice is logically perfect, but The Dice is a pathological Zuowandao liar. Even dead, his words might be a trap. The reader and Li Huowang are left in the same state of paranoid uncertainty.