Chapter 504: Truth and Falsehood

Chapter 504: Truth and Deception

"Come on, come on! Oh! Be careful, be careful—go slow with that, don’t let the intestines get knotted," Dice carefully helped Li Huowang sit down on the carriage.

Immediately after, he buried his plump, round head into the cabin and began rummaging around. "That red Zhong—where did you put your medicinal ointment? I can't seem to find it anywhere."

Li Huowang silently stared at Dice's back, his mind racing through the current situation.

"Aha! Found it!" Dice pulled out a packet of wound salve, squeezed a small amount between his fingers, and gently sprinkled it over Li Huowang’s wound.

After tending to the injury, Dice clapped his hands and asked again, "Say, given how badly you're hurt, should we take a break? I could cook some bird’s nest and donkey-hide gelatin porridge to replenish your blood and qi."

"Why make Ji Lin ascend the throne? Is he a follower of the Forgetful Dao?" To find a way out of this predicament where he was at their mercy, Li Huowang began actively gathering intelligence.

"You’re overthinking it. How could royalty possibly belong to the Forgetful Dao? They are divine emperors chosen by heaven itself."

"This matter, don’t worry about it for now. Help him ascend first. Once he’s on the throne, if you still want to play games, come find me to team up."

"Compared to his brothers, Ji Lin lacks support. I alone might struggle to help him ascend."

"Oh, don’t worry. There will be influential figures in court to assist." Dice chuckled as he patted Li Huowang’s shoulder. "Really, no need for me to look after you? I’ll be going then."

"When your wounds heal, you’d better move fast. There are too many people vying for that worthless chair in Shangjing."

With those words, Dice carried a thin blanket from inside the carriage and gently draped it over Li Huowang before walking away with long strides.

Once Dice had gone, Li Huowang, leaning against the carriage, silently watched him disappear into the distance. His right fist clenched tightly and slammed against the wooden panel.

He knew his own limitations. Even if he truly helped Ji Lin ascend, Dice wouldn’t willingly return Miao Miao. Honesty was an insult to a con artist!

He would definitely use Miao Miao to blackmail and exploit every last bit of value from him!

He was already caught in Dice’s web. To escape it, he had to follow Dice’s pawns, figure out what game Dice was playing, and then find a way to break free.

Alone, he couldn’t reclaim Bai Ling Miao from him—he needed to find a clever way to gain leverage.

Perhaps he could work with Ji Lin from the imperial family or the Heaven-Supervising Bureau, which was currently hunting the Forgetful Dao.

But hope remained faint. He not only held the cards in Dice’s hands but worse—Dice himself was Dice!

The hopeless situation felt like a mountain crushing down on Li Huowang’s chest, making it hard to breathe.

Yet, Li Huowang didn’t despair. The hatred in his heart only fueled his determination. He must save Miao Miao!

"Hey, Hongzhong, do you think Dice’s words might actually be true? Maybe you really owed someone a favor before. And Bai Ling Miao really did vanish suddenly—it doesn’t seem like something the Forgetful Dao would do."

The faceless hallucination beside him suddenly leaned closer and spoke.

"You want to cooperate with Dice to fool me? You’re not even worthy!"

Li Huowang firmly rebutted, then struggled to stand and began packing up items in the cave.

"I’m not worthy, but you saw—the living sword is still lying there. It’s impossible for there to be two Zhuge Yuan, isn’t it?"

Hearing this, Li Huowang looked at the sword, now covered in flesh and blood, its spine still intact. At that moment, the head of Zhuge Yuan on the blade turned toward him.

"Brother Li, how have you been? Don’t worry—I may only have half my body left, but I’ll help you deal with Dice’s troubles!"

"No, you’re not. You’ve been deceived by Dice. You think you’re Zhuge Yuan, but you’re not. Zhuge Yuan has always been by my side."

"The Forgetful Dao is also good at deceiving themselves. I’ve seen such tricks before. I once met someone who believed he was Li Huowang—but he was fake."

Li Huowang clutched his bleeding belly and bent down to pick up a purple talisman.

Seeing Li Huowang approach with the talisman, Zhuge Yuan’s expression changed instantly.

"Brother Li! What’s wrong with you?! There’s no Zhuge Yuan by your side! That’s all just your imagination! I’m nothing like the one from Xing Island!"

"Don’t try to deceive me together with Dice!! These illusions clearly aren’t products of my imagination—they know things I don’t. Because of my identity as Xin Su, their souls were absorbed into me after death."

"So I never killed the Two Gods, and they didn’t become my illusions! I didn’t owe Dice anything because of them! Miao Miao was taken by them! All of this is false—it’s a trap set by Dice!!"

"And more importantly—your personality is nothing like Zhuge Yuan’s!"

As Li Huowang shouted this aloud, all the surrounding illusions flickered slightly.

In Zhuge Yuan’s shocked gaze, Li Huowang pressed the talisman onto his forehead. In the next instant, his head rapidly shrank and became the size of a fist.

Though the head returned to normal, the interwoven flesh and organs remained hanging like grapes.

The faceless Forgetful Dao beside him seemed about to speak, but Zhuge Yuan stopped him. "Don’t panic. We can remove it later. No rush. Let me think."

"Heh, what can you possibly think at a time like this?"

Snap! Zhuge Yuan opened his folding fan. "Think—am I the fake, or is the sword fake? Or perhaps... we’re both fakes. The real Zhuge Yuan has long since gone to the Three Bodies Old."

Looking at the motionless spine sword, Li Huowang exhaled deeply and picked up a cloth strip to slowly wrap the entire blade.

The cloth gradually soaked through with blood. Due to the added contents, the sword wasn’t fully concealed—the peach talisman, human bones, liver and heart, even black hair peeped out from the gaps.

Li Huowang didn’t care. He didn’t plan to wrap it further; a simple cloth was enough to mislead others.

Now transformed into such a grotesque form, even the woman with purple lips wouldn’t recognize it.

"Dad, I’ll help you," Li Sui said, carrying the abnormally swollen spine sword onto the carriage, then came back to lift the severely wounded Li Huowang into the vehicle.

"Dad, where are we going?"

"To Shangjing!"

With Li Huowang’s command, the wheels rolled forward, slowly leaving behind the unfamiliar mountain base.

Not long after, a large foot stepped onto the wheel tracks—the owner bore a square-shaped head: Dice.

"Hehehe～Xin Su is so much fun～"

(End of Chapter)