What is the "opener" (引子) mentioned in the lore?

A Zuowandao term for the first, seemingly harmless step of a long con. The target accepts it willingly, making the eventual trap feel like a natural consequence.

Why does Li Huowang feel relief when he sees it is the Fa Sect?

He was terrified the ambush was the work of The Dice, a dead Zuowandao master whose schemes he can't understand. The Fa Sect is a "simpler" terrestrial enemy he knows how to fight physically.

How does Li Huowang pretend to be injured?

He cuts off his own right hand, throws it on the ground, and lies down. He then points a trembling, bloody finger in the wrong direction to send the pursuers away.

The Pursuit

1,300 words

Chapter 751: The Pursuit

Zuowandao were actually madmen who had Cultivated the False until they had gone insane. But no one had ever seen a being who had successfully Cultivated the True or Cultivated the False. Everyone, including the Zuowandao themselves, believed this state was correct.

"How pitiful… how pitiful."

Li Huowang murmured to himself. Perhaps The Dice had already known this; he was just too deep in it, and turning back now would be incredibly difficult.

Li Huowang lowered his head, peeled open the man’s belly before him, retrieved the soft stone, and placed it next to the abdominal cavity.

A tentacle emerged from the navel, dragging the object back inside.

This boiled-soft stone, fought over by the Fa Sect followers, was actually just a piece of Li Huowang’s own liver.

He had looked for other substitutes, but Li Huowang still felt this one was the most suitable.

"Dad, what have you been doing lately? I don’t really understand," Li Sui said. Two cracks split open on her neck, revealing her double-pupiled eyes.

"I’m deceiving them."

"So that’s what deception is." Li Sui suddenly understood. She had learned something new from her father.

Since his goal was achieved, Li Huowang should leave this place.

He was currently deep in the territory occupied by the Siqi Fa Sect. Such a disturbance naturally drew a reaction quickly.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Li Huowang immediately showed himself. He wiped his face, and it instantly transformed into the face of the dead Hu Biao.

He cut off his own right hand, threw it to the ground, and immediately lay down with a pained expression on his face.

"Hurry! He… he ran that way!" Li Huowang trembled as he raised a bloody finger, pointing a direction for the pursuing Fa Sect followers.

Watching the indignant Fa Sect believers chase in the direction he had pointed, Li Huowang immediately stood up, picked up his hand, and quietly followed behind them.

When these people realized they had been deceived and began to turn back, Li Huowang gradually withdrew in the direction they had abandoned.

After Li Huowang, now wearing a different face, arrived at a remote county town, the crisis of being tracked was resolved.

Li Huowang sat down in the main hall of an inn. Having been busy for so long, he was hungry. "Innkeeper, some food."

"Coming right up! But guest, in these troubled times, some things are hard to transport. I can only see what’s in the kitchen and make you something from that."

"It doesn’t matter. Anything that can fill my stomach will do."

Soon, half a fragrant braised goat head was placed before Li Huowang, accompanied by two pieces of soft-baked flatbread.

"Guest, this is bean paste, and this is vinegar. Cut the meat from the goat head, dip it in the sauce, stuff it in the flatbread, and eat. It's very good."

Li Huowang stared at the goat head for a while. When he saw that the goat head did not open its mouth to speak to him like last time, he picked up the small knife beside him and began to eat.

As he continued to Cultivate the False, Li Huowang found that the side effects of Cultivating the True had indeed lessened considerably.

At least he no longer had to worry that everyone around him was something he had cultivated out of his own mind.

The more he understood the false, the more inevitably he understood the true.

Compared to the techniques and divine powers of the Non-Gang and the Zuowandao, the biggest change in Li Huowang was a shift in mentality—that feeling of genuinely deceiving people with false things.

And right now, he needed this very shift to counter the side effects of Cultivating the True.

Whether it was not being able to distinguish the real or not being able to distinguish the illusory, it was all a matter of mental change.

Cultivating the True and Cultivating the False were now like both sides of his body pulling on a rope, one left and one right, perfectly balanced.

Having gradually understood the false, he had gained a certain degree of control over true reality and the reality he himself had created.

Cultivating the False could indeed cure the Qi deviation from Cultivating the True. Whether or not this was The Dice's opener, the bait he had thrown out, Li Huowang had to take it.

Although the trouble with Cultivating the True was solved, he had to be extra vigilant against The Dice's scheme, even if there were no signs of it now.

"The Dice, what exactly are you trying to do? You're already dead, the entire Zuowandao are wiped out. What else can you do?"

Lost in thought, Li Huowang raised the small dagger with the mutton on it and slowly brought it to his mouth.

But just as he was thinking this, Li Huowang's heart suddenly stirred. A slit cracked open behind his left ear.

After Li Sui's eyes quickly darted towards the diner on the left, Li Huowang immediately sensed something was wrong. That couple had just glanced at him.

Glancing at a stranger was normally nothing, but the two retracted their gazes at an extremely fast speed. That was a problem. After all, ordinary people couldn't achieve that level of control.

"Guest, is the goat head to your liking?" The cook from the kitchen bent over, his face full of sycophantic smiles as he asked Li Huowang.

As those four eyes swept rapidly across the surroundings, gathering various details, Li Huowang immediately gripped his Purple-Tasseled Sword and swung it with force. The head of the fawning cook beside him shot into the air.

In the spraying rain of blood, the cook's head did not fall. Instead, its hair and face skin whipped open, transforming into a blood-soaked flying guillotine, hurtling down to envelop Li Huowang's head.

A black tentacle emerged from Li Huowang's neck, yanked out the Bronze Coin Sword, and amidst flying copper coins, shredded the black flying guillotine. The previously peaceful inn instantly became filled with deadly intent.

Whether it was the diners, the accountant, or the waiter serving dishes, everyone pulled out various weapons and lunged at Li Huowang.

Li Huowang could naturally handle these people, but his expression was exceptionally grim. He couldn't figure out who had sent these people. Could it be… The Dice?

Just as Li Huowang was about to finish them off, the crossbeams of the three-story inn suddenly cracked open. The top two floors came crashing down directly onto Li Huowang with a thousand-jin weight.

A thunderous crash echoed. Rubble and stone fragments flew in all directions from the pile on top of Li Huowang as a body covered in black tentacles rose from the collapsed building.

As the dust gradually settled, Li Huowang saw the immense changes all around him. Everyone in the town had dropped their disguises.

They had black cloth on their shoulders, erected white funeral banners, and carried huge divine statues, surrounding the collapsed inn in layers and layers. He was surrounded.

But when Li Huowang saw the Fa Sect markings on them, for some reason, he felt a wave of relief instead.

He was ambushed by the Fa Sect. Even though he had deliberately concealed his tracks, they had still found him. Li Huowang understood—he was dealing with a tough opponent this time.

Just then, a path suddenly opened from the left side of the crowd. Four strange figures holding umbrellas slowly walked out from within.

Their faces were hidden by black umbrellas, and they were very tall, at least ten feet. Their bodies and robes were long, and their arms, which reached down to their knees, were completely wrapped in long sleeves, not revealing a shred of flesh.

(Chapter End)

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Reading Guide Decoding

Li Huowang's Great Deception Internship

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The Fa Sect & The Siege: The Fa Sect (法教), meaning the "Law Sect" or "Dharma Sect," is often portrayed in folk horror as a lineage of rebellious, heretical ritual masters wielding unorthodox spells. Unlike established Daoist orthodoxy, they are associated with blood sacrifices, command of lesser spirits, and corrupting talismanic arts. Their tactic of disguising an entire town or inn as a trap is a classic trope in Chinese martial arts novels — the inn ambush (黑店). The white banners and statues in this chapter transform a civilian space into a ritual battlefield.

The Flying Guillotine Head: This is a grotesque fusion of two folkloric weapons. The "Blood Drop" (血滴子) is a legendary Qing dynasty execution weapon: a spiked metal helmet thrown to decapitate and retrieve the head. By merging this weapon with a servitor's own head splitting open, the novel creates a horrifying, living version that is both a projectile weapon and a piece of a person.

Mental Balance (Balance of True & False): This chapter deepens the novel's unique take on Daoist cultivation. Traditional Internal Alchemy seeks a balanced state of Yin and Yang. Here, Li Huowang frames his own psychological state as a tug-of-war between Cultivate the True (yang/real) and Cultivate the False (yin/false). He isn't seeking an immortal soul; he's trying to balance two psychosis-causing thought patterns. This is the Dao-Twisted World’s version of the Tai Ji — a symbol of ultimate balance, now splattered in blood and paranoia.

Chapter Overview

You thought the last fight was messy? Oh, honey. Li Huowang is now deep in Fa Sect territory, playing a game of whack-a-mole with his own identity. He's practicing a new kind of art: culinary deception. Not only is he feeding people his own liver cutlets, but he's also cutting off his own hand as a distraction prop. The man is a one-man theater troupe of gore. The chapter is a masterclass in Li Huowang's mental shift from a paranoid realist to a cunning, deliberate liar, using the Zuowandao's own medicine against the world. But even his best performances can't fool everyone forever. By the final scene, the entire town drops its suburban dad act and reveals itself as a Fa Sect spider web, with four very tall, very suspicious umbrella-wielders coming to rain on his bloody parade.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang confirms that the "soft stone" the Fa Sect believers fight over is actually a piece of his own liver; he uses it as a lure.
Li Sui asks what her father is doing; he explains he is "deceiving" them.
To escape pursuit, Li Huowang transforms into the dead Hu Biao, cuts off his own hand, and pretends to be a wounded informant, sending the pursuers on a wild goose chase.
After arriving at a remote county, Li Huowang orders goat head at an inn, noticing the food doesn't "speak" to him like the last time, a sign his Cultivate the False training is stabilizing.
Li Huowang internally reflects on the new balance between Cultivate the True (side effects: paranoia, creating reality) and Cultivate the False (counterbalance, conscious deception), recognizing the specific mental state of lying as a therapeutic tool.
A couple's controlled, retracted glance alerts Li Sui; Li Huowang decapitates the fawning cook, whose head transforms into a bloody flying guillotine.
The entire inn collapses onto him; Li Huowang, covered in tentacles, rises from the rubble to find the entire town has shed its disguise and surrounded him with Fa Sect banners, statues, and armed followers.
Four unnaturally tall, umbrella-wielding figures emerge from the crowd, clearly presenting the next tier of threat.

Reading Guide

Get ready, friends — this chapter is Li Huowang’s "internship" in being a con artist, and boy, is he a natural. The scene where he cuts off his own hand just to use it as a prop shows how far he's come from the frantic, self-mutilating boy of earlier chapters. Now, his self-harm is theatrical and strategic. It's a new level of terrifying competence. Pay close attention to the moment he explains his deception to Li Sui. Her innocent "so that's what deception is" is a darkly comic highlight. But don't get too comfortable. The final reveal—every single person in the town was an actor—is a classic gotcha moment. The four tall figures with umbrellas are a masterful horror image; think of them as the "Zone Boss" who just spawned in. You want to know what's under those sleeves? You won't. And that's the point.

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.

What is the "opener" (引子) mentioned in the lore?: A Zuowandao term for the first, seemingly harmless step of a long con. The target accepts it willingly, making the eventual trap feel like a natural consequence.
Why does Li Huowang feel relief when he sees it is the Fa Sect?: He was terrified the ambush was the work of The Dice, a dead Zuowandao master whose schemes he can't understand. The Fa Sect is a "simpler" terrestrial enemy he knows how to fight physically.
How does Li Huowang pretend to be injured?: He cuts off his own right hand, throws it on the ground, and lies down. He then points a trembling, bloody finger in the wrong direction to send the pursuers away.