Chapter 606: False True

Chapter 606: The False and the True

"Xu'er."

Though much time had passed, Li Huowang still remembered that this was the childhood nickname Master Jingxin of the Anci Nunnery had given to her own son.

Yet never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that this so-called Xu'er was the very same Xu Shou who stood before him now, acting as his adversary.

The Master's son was a Heart-Calabash, and his other half actually existed in the real world. This revelation struck Li Huowang like a cataclysmic bombshell, carrying profound and sweeping implications.

Yet all of those matters could be set aside for later; right now, Li Huowang felt a desperate, burning urgency to demand an explanation from Xu Shou.

"Xu Shou! Why did you do this to me? What exactly are you trying to accomplish!" Eyes wide with fury, Li Huowang roared his interrogation at the elderly man before him.

"Cough... cough..." Supported by Li Huowang, a blood-spat Xu Shou stared back with unfocused eyes, filled with what seemed to be a profound sense of grievance. His bloodless lips parted slightly as he began to murmur something.

"........"

Li Huowang suddenly whipped his head up in a rage, glaring at the helicopter drawing near in the sky. "Get the hell away! It's too damn loud! I can't hear a thing!!"

Following this, a frantic Li Huowang hoisted Xu Shou up and pressed his left ear against the old man's mouth, desperate to catch whatever it was he was trying to say.

Finally, as Xu Shou’s lips parted just a fraction more, a series of familiar and distinct sounds drifted into his ear.

"Huowang? Huowang, don't space out, it's your turn."

A stunned Li Huowang snapped back to reality in an instant. As he looked around in complete bewilderment, he discovered that his surroundings had undergone a world-shaking transformation.

The ship, Xu Shou, and the roaring helicopter had all vanished into thin air. The sudden shift from absolute chaos to utter stillness occurred in a mere heartbeat, catching Li Huowang entirely off guard.

The wounds on his body, his severed arm—everything seemed to have reverted to the way it was a few days ago.

Li Huowang realized he was currently sitting on a plastic chair, forming a circle with the other patients of Kangning Hospital. The atmosphere in the grand hall was calm and serene.

"Li Huowang? What's wrong?" Clad in a doctor's white coat and holding a tablet, Wu Cheng looked at his patient with a hint of surprise.

Li Huowang slowly turned his head to look at Wu Cheng. By all accounts, the doctor's face should have been chewed beyond recognition by his own teeth, yet there was not a single mark upon it now.

Furthermore, facing the very man who had once tortured him, Wu Cheng harbored no negative emotions whatsoever, acting as though none of it had ever happened. A trace of genuine concern even lined his square jaw.

"Has there been a new development in your condition? Don't worry, just tell me. I'm a doctor, and as long as you are in this hospital, I will do everything in my power to help you."

Li Huowang stared at him for a long moment, his expression contorted in a struggle, before he slowly spoke: "Doctor Wu, it seems something happened just a moment ago."

Without delay, Li Huowang began to recount everything that had just transpired.

Yet, upon hearing Li Huowang's account, Wu Cheng crossed his arms and knit his brows tightly. "It is not unusual for you to experience hallucinations—that was noted in your previous medical history. However, a fragmentation of thought, which typically only occurs in cases of autism, manifesting in you alongside hallucinations... that truly is quite extraordinary."

Autism? Thought fragmentation? Perplexed, Li Huowang looked left and right, his gaze finally locking onto the face of the autistic patient beside him.

An honest and simple smile widened across the man's face, but then it came to a sudden, screeching halt, leaving him looking utterly bewildered—just as Li Huowang had been moments before—only for the cycle to begin all over again.

Was everything just now a lie? Was it all a product of my imagination? How... how could that be! It felt so entirely real! How could a hallucination be that vivid!

Li Huowang knew that this matter was far from over; he had to get a clear answer!

"Doctor Wu, could I borrow your phone? I want to make a call to Doctor Yi."

"Very well. Though by hospital regulations we aren't supposed to lend out personal phones." Wu Cheng unlocked the screen and naturally handed the device over to Li Huowang.

The doctor's casual gesture caused the last shred of suspicion in Li Huowang’s heart to dissolve entirely. This Wu Cheng had truly changed.

Li Huowang pulled out the slip of paper with Yi Donglai's phone number from his pocket and began to dial rapidly.

"Beep... beep... beep... beep..." The short, rhythmic prompts of the ringing phone sounded one after another.

Accompanied by the tone, Li Huowang looked out at the pond before him. He knew this pond well, for it was the pond of Niuxin Village.

The Doumu Heart-Calabash from moments ago, the ship, and the bellyful of writhing worms had all vanished along with it. It was as though he had reverted to the moment before the State Preceptor of the Great Liang Dynasty had laid hands on him.

The ringing stopped, and Li Huowang suddenly threw his head back, screaming at the heavens: "Come out!! Did you do this! What exactly have you done!"

Then, a wondrous spectacle unfolded. Li Huowang watched as his own reflection in the pond slowly stepped out from the water.

"What is the matter? Is this not wonderful? Everything is perfectly fine."

"Fine? Fine, how? Let me ask you, what the hell was that sudden change just now! What about everything I just experienced on that ship? Where did it go! How did my thoughts suddenly become fragmented?" Li Huowang demanded at the top of his lungs.

Ji Zai paused on the spot, contemplating for a moment before speaking once more: "Because the current me has stripped the Yinyang Doumu of the Heavenly Dao of Truth and Falsehood. Therefore, all of Doumu's prior machinations have been rendered false."

A look of sheer irritation crossed Li Huowang's face. "What kind of nonsensical gibberish are you spouting?"

"I told you before, once you embark upon this path, everything you care about may well turn into an illusion, while what was once illusory may perhaps become real. You didn't think that was merely a rhetorical flourish, did you?"

Hearing this, the irritation on Li Huowang's face deepened further. "But those things clearly happened!! They were explicitly real! How can they just vanish the moment you say so!"

"What is true? What is false? Is that which can be seen and touched definitively real? Is everything you are experiencing right now definitively real? How do you prove it? Prove it to me." Ji Zai's words left Li Huowang at an absolute loss for an answer.

"Do not dwell on things that have already passed. It is all behind us; we ought to look forward," Ji Zai said, his body slowly leaning backward as he melted back into the watery reflection.

"Allow me to share another piece of good news. I am currently in control of three and a half Heavenly Daos. Confusion, Truth, Falsehood, and the chaos of the Mountain and River Ghosts."

"You need not concern yourself with the rest. I am now capable of self-preservation."

"I don't want to keep guessing! Spell it out for me, explain exactly what happened in meticulous detail! I truly cannot wrap my head around it right now!"

Yet Ji Zai offered no direct answer to Li Huowang's query. "Excellent. Keep it that way."

"To hell with you!!" Feeling thoroughly toyed with, Li Huowang brandished his Spinal Cord Sword, swiftly slashing open rifts that repeatedly carved through the reflection in the pond.

Never before had Li Huowang loathed his future self as intensely as he did at this very moment.

Yet no matter how many times he slashed, no matter how much pond water was displaced, the reflection in the water remained entirely unscathed.

"I have grown stronger, and as my Heart-Calabash, you will likewise share in this bounty. You ought to be pleased."

"I don't want it!" Li Huowang struck out with all his might, sending a long rift flying forward that cleaved the pond directly in two.

As the waters from both sides came crashing violently back together, Li Huowang screamed at him once more: "The business is concluded! Do not ever pester me again! I am sick of the sight of you! Scram!!"

"You ought to understand that one day, you will stand in my position, listening to your past self utter these exact words here, will you not?"

With that, Li Huowang's reflection in the water closed its mouth. Yet as Li Huowang stared down at it, he could feel that the entity was still watching him, always.

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Next chapter update at 23:32.

(End of Chapter)