Mutated Tao

“Hehe… You brat! You are fucking vicious!”

Liu Wan held his injury in pain. He twisted his arm to remove the steel rod from his back, but his efforts proved futile. The steel rod had somehow fused into his body.

Li Huowang chuckled, approaching the dying Liu Wan. “Don’t try to take it out, senior Liu Wan. You won’t be able to do so. I am a Sitting Oblivion Dao member myself, so I know what kind of techniques you have. This is an artifact that I acquired by deceiving others, and I went to great lengths to obtain it. It’s specifically designed to kill you.”

Liu Wan stared at the young man before him, a mix of fear and respect filling his eyes. “You... You were pretending. To use False Qi so easily… You must’ve been in the Sitting Oblivion Dao for quite a while. I can’t believe I fell for your deception...”

“You faked being my senior to try to trick me, right? I just set up another plot to counter yours.”

Liu Wan nodded approvingly. “To think there’s someone better than me at tricking others here. The future of the Sitting Oblivion Dao is going to be bright. I lost. The Curved One is yours! I won’t take it from you.”

Li Huowang shook his head, “No. Liu Wan, you must be kidding me. What use do I have for a Curved One? You should know what I want. Honestly, I don’t even have an identity, so I can’t call myself a member of the Sitting Oblivion Dao.”

Liu Wan panicked and touched his face because he knew what Li Huowang wanted. Li Huowang wanted his face!

Li Huowang took out a dagger and slowly approached the struggling Liu Wan, but it was too late. Li Huowang soon dismembered Liu Wan’s limbs.

Li Huowang looked down at Liu Wan before sitting on his chest and grabbing Liu Wan’s neck. Li Huowang used the dagger to slowly carve the sides of Liu Wan’s face.

“Do you know how long I planned for this day? How long I have been stalking you? I know how many secret agents you have and how many backup plans you have. I even know you have a son.”

Li Huowang cut off the old Daoist’s face before putting it on. Li Huowang’s voice became the old Daoist’s voice too.

“But that doesn’t matter to you anymore. All of this is mine now.” Li Huowang cut off another face with a mustache before placing it on his face. “Your secret agents are mine. Your backup plans are mine, and even your son is mine.”

Li Huowang carefully carved out the faces before plastering them onto his own. Only one face remained—the original face of Liu Wan, adorned with the mahjong tile bearing the Liu Wan symbol. Li Huowang didn’t stop at all.

Li Huowang chuckled. “Don’t blame me. These are the rules of the SItting Oblivion Dao. I need to trick others into thinking I’m the real Liu Wan. I will then become the real Liu Wan.”

He plastered the final face onto his own before cutting off Liu Wan’s neck. “Now, I am Liu Wan.”

Li Huowang laughed out loud when he saw Liu Wan’s hatred seething in his eyes. “Senior, you were right. I should deceive as many people as I can!”

Li Huowang’s faces flickered like the pages of a turning book before his face returned to normal.

He slowly closed his eyes and removed himself from the memories of the Sitting Oblivion Dao.

Li Huowang slowly explored the memories in his room.

He now had a deeper understanding of the Sitting Oblivion Dao.

“I need to trick others to obtain False Qi… And then use it to cultivate the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s techniques?”

Since he also had Hong Zhong’s past, he already had a good understanding of the techniques of the Sitting Oblivion Dao. What he needed now was False Qi.

However, False Qi was different from the primordial breath of a Strayed One. He needed to deceive others to obtain it. He had to cultivate ‘Lies’ to counter the side effects of cultivating ‘Truth.’

Still, he wasn’t sure of how to do so—he also didn’t want to truly become someone from the Sitting Oblivion Dao.

Li Huowang looked around and saw Li Sui lying on the bed. He stood up to leave, but Li Sui suddenly woke up.

“Dad, where are you going?”

“Watch the house. I will be back soon.” The stench was unforgiving within the city since there were feces everywhere, but at least it was a proper city. Even though there was a war with the Dharma Sect, there were still a lot of people here too.

“How should I trick someone?” Li Huowang looked around and squatted down in front of a stall.

The stall owner saw Li Huowang was an outsider and tried to communicate in the official language, saying, “Do… What… Do you want?”

Li Huowang picked up the objects being sold. He looked at the honest-looking merchant before he placed the items down.

Sigh. Li Huowang didn’t feel like doing something against his morality.

Li Huowang was thinking about what to do when he picked up some unusual sounds.

Since I don’t want to trick ordinary people, I can just trick some bad people instead. I would feel better doing that too.

Li Huowang followed the voice's direction before he found several young people from Qing Qiu brandishing knives and surrounding a man.

The man's skin was tender and pale, suggesting that he was not from Qing Qiu. He appeared to have been taking refuge here.

“Maybe I can try something here…” Li Huowang approached them.

“Uh… There’s a fire.”

He coughed to get the attention of the youths. They all turned around and saw fire at the base of Li Huowang’s feet.

Li Huowang tapped the ground with his feet. The fire snaked towards the youths and scared them away.

After scaring them away, Li Huowang stood still but felt nothing. There wasn’t any False Qi.

Huh? I just tricked them, so why am I not getting any?

He then realized that even though he tricked them, the fire was real since he used his cultivation to conjure it. Since the fire was real and could’ve burned them, it was not trickery.

Should I use my cultivation to conjure something fake? To use ‘Truth’ and conjure ‘Lies’? Cultivate ‘Truth’... Cultivate ‘Lies’...

He frowned from his confusion.