Zuowandao

1,261 words

Li Huowang looked at the Hong Zhong before him, pausing in place as a thought took hold.

Making the other party agree to his request again wasn’t particularly difficult—he just needed to walk through the same steps as before.

But Hong Zhong had been agreeable enough before. And Hong Zhong was also Zuowandao. In his heart, the doubt remained.

Even with the previous Hong Zhong, he had always been wary, never sure whether the other man harbored other intentions toward him.

Now that this one had just been reset, maybe this was an opportunity to test this Zuowandao version of Li Huowang himself?

Even if he saw through it, it didn’t matter. In an hour, he wouldn’t remember anything.

With that thought, Li Huowang leveled his gaze at Hong Zhong’s crumbling face and asked, “Hong Zhong, can you answer me one question? Why did you run the moment you saw me earlier? Is my impression in your head really that bad?”

Hearing Li Huowang’s question, Hong Zhong let out a chuckle. “Heh. What do you think? Did you actually think… you left a good impression on people?”

“Stop kidding yourself. If you had a choice, you wouldn’t want to be around Li Huowang either.”

At these words, Li Huowang’s brow gradually furrowed. “Don’t forget, you’re Li Huowang too.”

“Hahaha. You got that right. I am Li Huowang. So I hate myself too. When I’m bored, I even lie to myself sometimes.”

That was not a good sign. Li Huowang paused, then pressed on. “So what you’re saying is, even if I genuinely wanted to help you, you still wouldn’t trust me?”

Hong Zhong smiled. “You say ‘genuine.’ Do you even believe that yourself? You don’t trust me. Why should I trust you?”

He added another sentence. “Zhuge Yuan doesn’t trust you either.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang’s molars slowly clenched. He understood now what the previous Hong Zhong had thought of him.

Maybe he would do what he said. But it was just as likely that he had his own schemes running in the shadows.

After weighing his options, Li Huowang looked at Hong Zhong again. “Don’t be so absolute. The last you, he was willing to cooperate with me.”

“What exactly did you tell the last me? Say it out loud. Let me hear it.” Hong Zhong propped himself up.

“Alright. Let’s walk and talk. I’ll repeat what happened before. Whether I’m lying or not, you can judge for yourself.”

With that, Li Huowang began to explain rapidly. He couldn’t afford to be slow. If an hour passed, this one would forget everything again.

This time, Hong Zhong didn’t run. He followed beside Li Huowang, listening in silence.

By the time he had a full picture of the situation, Hong Zhong’s face lit up with sudden understanding. “Oh~! So that’s how it is. Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Would it have made a difference if I had said it earlier? You ran off as soon as you saw me. How could I have said anything earlier?”

Just as Li Huowang was saying this, Zhongyin Temple appeared hanging upside down on the ceiling panel in the distance.

“Well?” Li Huowang looked at Hong Zhong. “Since you understand Li Huowang, you should also know that I’m not lying to you now.”

“You already made a choice once, but since you’re a new you, I’m giving you a second chance. What I’m saying is—cooperating with me is better than waiting here in vain.”

“Heh. Can’t be too sure. Maybe one day, Doumu will rise again, and then I can come back.”

“Don’t repeat yourself. You already said that an hour ago. If you’re still saying the same thing, then you’re thinking exactly what the last Hong Zhong was thinking.”

“Is that so? Heh.” Hong Zhong scratched his head. “Alright then. My choice is the same as last time.”

“Then let’s go. The next hour is almost up. I really don’t want to repeat this circular nonsense a third time.”

As Li Huowang spoke, he led Hong Zhong toward Zhongyin Temple, having already made up his mind deep down.

When they reached the temple, Li Huowang finally heard the rumbling sound of the turning wheel again.

Even though Hong Zhong couldn’t enter Zhongyin Temple on his own, Li Huowang could drag him in by force.

Their bodies began to stretch, pulled into long strips, and finally, with that buzzing sound, they entered the prayer wheel held by the dried-corpse lamas.

When Li Huowang opened his eyes again, he could clearly feel that the people gathered around him collectively let out a sigh of relief.

Li Huowang reached out and patted Li Sui’s head as she walked up to him, his mind racing.

Soon, he felt a new set of memories settling into his mind—a lifetime of memories, from childhood to adulthood, of becoming a Zuowandao, a Hong Zhong. These were the memories that Doumu had crammed into his head back then.

With those came the memories of the Cultivate the False techniques as well.

Reflecting on this, Li Huowang let out a breath. No matter what, despite the twists and turns, the outcome was barely acceptable.

“Thank you, masters, for your help.”

Li Huowang offered his thanks to the dried-corpse lamas, but they gave no reply. They simply turned and walked away coldly.

Clearly, they had seen through the little trick he had pulled earlier. The hour had not been erased.

“Dad? Are you okay? You really died just now. It scared me,” Li Sui asked, worried.

“I’m fine. It won’t happen again.” He patted her head and turned to walk out of Zhongyin Temple.

On the way out of the city, Li Huowang eagerly began sifting through his Zuowandao memories, searching for the Cultivate the False techniques.

“Sitting is motion. Forgetting is thought. Without sitting, the labor does not cease. Without forgetting, the thought does not rest. When the labor does not cease, the spirit is still. When the thought does not rest, the mind is calm…”

As a Hong Zhong, he now knew most of the techniques the Zuowandao taught from childhood to adulthood. He even knew the Wangtian Precious Declaration that summoned Doumu. But knowing something didn’t mean he could use it.

Li Huowang reached up and wiped his face, attempting to change his features. But nothing happened. His face remained the same.

He let out a soft sigh. Back then, he had been able to use Zuowandao techniques because Doumu had directly poured them into him.

Now that Doumu had fallen, everything he had gained through her had also been stripped away.

Even though he had retrieved Hong Zhong’s memories, he would have to start every Zuowandao technique from scratch in his own cultivation.

But he wasn’t too concerned about that. The Zuowandao had never been strong in direct combat. He hadn’t expected their techniques to help him deal with the Fa Sect.

His True Cultivation abilities were good enough for that.

He had taken on these memories simply to balance True Cultivation. He couldn’t bear the severe side effects of True Cultivation for even a moment longer.

“Let me have a look…” Li Huowang walked out of Zhongyin Temple, casually sat down in a nearby tea house, and began searching for the most basic Zuowandao techniques.

But as he looked at the Scripture of Deception in his mind, Li Huowang fell into deep thought.

The Zuowandao didn’t start with how to train or how to circulate energy. It started with how to be a real liar.

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Mirror Speaks — Why the Zuowandao’s First Lesson Is Lying

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Zuowandao's Deliberate Perfection of Deception
The Scripture of Deception (骗经) is a sharp narrative joke and a genuine philosophy rolled into one. Traditional xianxia cultivation always begins with posture, breath, intent—jing, qi, shen. But the Zuowandao begins with lying. The novel is arguing, in its dark way, that to “cultivate the false,” you must first live as a lie. It’s not a cheat code; it’s an identity shift. The later lines from the scripture (“Sitting is motion… Forgetting is thought”) sound like classical Daoist meditation advice, but the context makes them sinister—these are words for someone who has already decided that self-deception is the first step toward power.

The Wangtian Precious Declaration
Li Huowang now has the ability to recite the Wangtian Precious Declaration (罔天宝诰), the liturgical formula for summoning Doumu, the Yin-Yang Siming. But having the poem in his head and being able to chant it with effect are two different things. Without Doumu’s direct sponsorship, the words carry no divine weight. This is a recurring theme in Daoguai Yixian: the text or memory is not the power itself; the relationship with the source is everything.

The Reset Clock
Doumu’s mechanism—resetting Hong Zhong every hour—is not just a punishment; it’s a fabrication machine. Each reset creates a genuine, fresh Hong Zhong who can make independent choices, but the pattern of his choices is shaped by his nature, which is Li Huowang’s nature. The loop doesn’t generate randomness; it generates a constant vector of suspicion, self-hatred, and reluctant cooperation. The clock is a torture device that produces sameness.

Chapter Overview

This is the second negotiation with a Hong Zhong who has been factory-reset by Doumu’s clock, and Li Huowang is already sick of the circular conversation. But beneath the fatigue, he’s also testing—because “Hong Zhong” is not just a Zuowandao trickster; he’s a copy of himself. Every point of agreement feels indistinguishable from a trap. The chapter walks a tightrope of paranoia and pragmatism as Li Huowang drags the reset Hong Zhong back into the prayer wheel, successfully retrieves the memories Doumu implanted, and finally gets his hands on the Scripture of Deception—only to discover that the Zuowandao’s very first lesson isn’t about energy cultivation at all. It’s about becoming a real liar.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang confronts the reset Hong Zhong and immediately tests his attitude, hoping to gauge whether this version will be any less hostile than the last.
Hong Zhong delivers a brutal, self-loathing diagnosis: “I hate myself too. When I’m bored, I even lie to myself.” The dialogue is a hall of mirrors where self-hatred becomes indistinguishable from deception.
Hong Zhong insists that not even Zhuge Yuan trusted Li Huowang, a line that cuts deeper than any physical blow and exposes the raw nerve of Li Huowang’s guilt.
After a quick recap of the timeline, Hong Zhong agrees to cooperate—just like the last one did—and Li Huowang drags him into the wheel.
The gamble pays off: Li Huowang gains a full set of Zuowandao memories, including the Wangtian Precious Declaration and the Scripture of Deception.
However, though he knows the techniques, he cannot use them; Doumu’s fall has stripped away all direct access, and he must start from scratch.
The chapter ends on a quietly devastating note: the Zuowandao’s foundational step is not cultivation but learning to lie authentically.

Reading Guide

This chapter is all interior architecture. Nothing much happens in terms of plot—no fights, no monsters, no demonic breakthroughs—but Li Huowang crosses a threshold that matters more than any cultivation level: he finally understands the shape of the thought process that keeps biting him in the tail. Hong Zhong is not an enemy; Hong Zhong is a mirror that speaks. The dialogue between the two is the novel’s most explicit confession of Li Huowang’s own self-doubt, wrapped in the genre fiction trick of “negotiating with your double.”

Pay close attention to the moment Hong Zhong says “Zhuge Yuan doesn’t trust you either.” This is the kind of line that a lesser novel would use to drive a wedge between allies. Here, it functions as a test—of Li Huowang’s reaction, of Hong Zhong’s intent, and of the reader’s own assumption about Zhuge Yuan’s loyalty. The novel never confirms whether this is true or just psychological warfare. That’s the point: in a world where you can’t even trust your own memory, the accusation itself is already damage.

The final line—“The first step was learning to be a real liar”—is the episode’s thesis. Li Huowang is now holding a book that tells him to become something he’s ashamed of, and he’s doing it because he’s desperate to escape the weight of his own True Cultivation side effects. The irony is gorgeous: cultivating the false to balance cultivating the true. He’s not breaking the Dao-Twisted World’s rules; he’s turning himself into a walking contradiction—one that the system might not be able to digest.