Zuowandao

Li Sui drove the horse-drawn cart slowly through a secluded alley. Behind her walked two people—a scruffy, thin man with a scraggly beard, and Li Huowang, now dressed in a different set of clothes.

This thin man, who had a habit of cutting open other people's coin purses, was Li Huowang's target.

As the cart jostled over the uneven ground, a package the size of a grapefruit gradually worked its way out from the back of the cart. The glint of silver from within immediately caught the attention of the rat-faced thin man.

"Hyah~!" With a flick of the whip, Li Sui accelerated the cart. The cloth bundle tumbled with the next bump, finally falling to the ground, scattering a few bits of broken silver.

Just as Li Sui's cart disappeared into the distance, Li Huowang, who had been standing at the front of the alley, rushed over and scooped up the bag of silver.

He then looked around furtively, and pressed a finger to his lips with a quiet "shush" towards the thin man, who was staring at him. Lowering his voice, he said, "Shh! Don't make a sound. Let's go over there and split the take! Half for you, half for me!"

"Alright! Alright!" the thin man trembled with excitement, his eyes fixed on the bulging package.

Watching the man take the bait, Li Huowang thought to himself, Since other cons aren't working, I'll just follow the Scripture of Deception this time.

This was called the "Drop Package" con, a very classic trick from the Scripture of Deception.

Simple as the method was, this particular con had been around for at least a thousand years. No matter how much time passed, the same simple trick still managed to hook people.

A con didn't have to be novel; it just had to work. As long as greed persisted in the human heart, this kind of deception exploiting the dark side of people would never go out of style.

Following the "Drop Package" script, Li Sui, playing the part of the person who had lost the silver, came back and put on a double act with Li Huowang.

One claimed the silver in the bag was missing and threatened to report it to the authorities; the other cooperated by handing over all his own money to prove his innocence.

Their expressions were a bit exaggerated, but Li Sui performed with serious dedication.

Soon, Li Huowang pocketed the few coins he had swindled from the thin man and left with Li Sui, hiding in the shadows to watch the thin man clutch the bag of silver.

After a while, seeing that they hadn't returned, the thin man quickly opened the bundle. He picked up a silver ingot from inside, shoved it into his mouth, and took a hard bite. Then, clutching the bag of silver, he scurried away in delight.

"Eh? What's going on?" Li Huowang's face showed confusion. According to the script, this guy should have discovered that it wasn't silver at all, but plaster blocks.

Then he'd realize he'd been conned, and Li Huowang would get his False Pneuma from the successful deception. Why wasn't this guy following the plan?

"Dad, he wasn't conned. There really was a bag of silver in there," Li Sui said.

"I know, I know that. But I only put plaster in there. How did it turn into silv—"

He stopped mid-sentence as understanding dawned. The plaster had been Cultivated into silver by his own ability.

He couldn't control his power to Cultivate the True. Now, his words had the force of law. Every lie he spoke became reality. Was this even a con anymore?

Since the silver was genuine, the man hadn't been cheated. Everything was real.

From now on, every deception that came out of his mouth would turn into truth. If it was all true, then it wasn't a con. It was just stating facts.

To Cultivate the True without Cultivating the False leads to Qi Deviation. But for a Heart-Element master who had achieved great success in Cultivating the True, trying to Cultivate the False was proving to be just as difficult.

"Come on! Let's follow him." Unwilling to accept defeat, Li Huowang led Li Sui and quickly gave chase, trying to salvage the situation.

When they saw the thin man again, his face was beaming. Li Huowang stared intently at the bag, muttering under his breath. "It's plaster! It's plaster!"

Finally, when the thin man reached a brothel and reached into the bag to pull out more silver to spend, he discovered that all the money had turned back into plaster.

Panicked, the thin man screamed in alarm. Clutching the plaster, he ran back to find Li Huowang to settle the score. But Li Huowang was long gone.

By all rights, this "Drop Package" con should have been a success. Yet, once again, Li Huowang didn't feel the False Pneuma flowing into him. Cultivating the False had still failed.

It seemed he couldn't use the methods of Cultivating the True to hack his way into Cultivating the False. He didn't know if the two conflicted, but the net result was nothing.

"Huh. Not getting it when it turned into silver I can understand, but not getting it when it turned back to plaster? Why is cultivating a fake and conning someone so damn hard?"

After a few more failed attempts, Li Huowang noticed the sky was getting dark. He led Li Sui back to the inn.

When they reached the door of his room and pushed it open, Li Huowang found another Li Sui sitting on a stool, looking thoroughly displeased.

"Dad! You lied! You said you'd be right back! But you were gone for so long!"

The moment she finished speaking, the Li Sui who had been following Li Huowang vanished. Instantly, he felt a strange, barely perceptible sensation that sent a shiver down his spine, seeping into the back of his head.

It was only a sliver, but Li Huowang immediately understood what it was. "So this is False Pneuma..."

In that instant, clarity struck him. He finally understood what Cultivating the False was all about. You had to use the false—real lies, fake things.

Using Cultivate the True to Cultivate the False, when it came down to it, the 'false' he created was still real. He was still Cultivating the True, not the False.

To Cultivate the False, he could not use anything true. The things he used had to be fake. Only then could he cheat out a genuine falsehood.

"So that's how it is!" Li Huowang was elated. He had finally found the trick. Cultivating the False was actually simple. He had been overthinking it.

Ignoring Li Sui's questions about the other her, he immediately turned around, eager to start a new round of conning.

Just as Li Huowang was celebrating that his trip to Qingqiu hadn't been a waste, he saw the long-absent phantom of Xuanpin rising out of the ground.

Looking at the apparition of Xuanpin, who had always rubbed him the wrong way, Li Huowang felt the faint wisp of False Pneuma inside him and began to scheme.

With just this tiny bit of False Pneuma, he couldn't use any of the Zuowandao's divine abilities. At the very most, it was enough to swap out a face.

Just as Xuanpin was about to speak, Li Huowang leaned back in his chair. His face contorted rapidly, and in a flash, the eighteen-sided die replaced Li Huowang's head.

Imitating The Dice's tone of voice, Li Huowang chuckled. "Hehehe, Xuanpin, didn't expect me to have a backup plan, did you? It's not that easy to kill me."

Xuanpin's phantom stopped in its tracks without moving. But Li Huowang felt the False Pneuma surging like a tidal wave from the back of his head, and he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"HAHAHA! You believed it! You actually believed it!!"