Mutated Tao

Li Sui was riding in the carriage as she rounded the small alleyway. Behind her carriage were two people. One was a skinny man with a messy beard, while the other was Li Huowang, who had changed his attire.

The skinny man was a pickpocket, but this time, he was Li Huowang’s prey.

As the carriage trundled along the street, a small bag slowly opened up, revealing the reflection of silvers inside. The bag of money instantly attracted the skinny man.

“Go!” Li Sui drove the carriage even faster. The bag fell off the carriage and onto the ground before spilling out the silvers onto the alley.

Li Huowang was in front of the skinny man. When Li Sui’s carriage wandered off, he quickly grabbed the bag of silvers. He then looked around and saw the skinny man.

“Shh! Let’s be quiet and split this in half!”

“Al… Alright!” The skinny man’s body trembled when he saw the bag of money.

Li Huowang chuckled when he saw the skinny man’s reaction. Since I can’t really fool others, I should just refer to the tricks that I read in the Liar’s Scripture.

This was the missing bag trick, and also one of the classics.

It was a simple and reliable method of deceiving others. People still fell for this trick, even though it has been used since ancient times.

As long as the tricks remained reliable, there was no need to introduce new ones incessantly. This particular trick targeted the greed residing within one's heart.

Now that the bag had been picked up, Li Huowang needed to take some of the silver, hide them away in a corner, tie up the bag again, and then wait for Li Sui to return to search for the bag. In reality, Li Sui was an accomplice. Li Sui was also a natural-born actor when she shouted to call the officers, saying that the money in the bag was less than the original amount. All they needed to do now was give the money in their own purse to appease Li Sui.

Even though Li Sui’s expression was slightly exaggerated, it was still very believable. After Li Sui left, Li Huowang took out the hidden bag of silver that he had taken from Li Sui’s bag.

Soon, Li Huowang took his portion from the skinny man before leaving. He then hid in a corner to see the skinny man holding his half of the share.

The skinny man waited until he confirmed that both Li Huowang and Li Sui weren’t returning. He quickly opened his bag and checked the silver in it. He bit onto one and was happy to realize they were real silvers.

“Hm? What’s going on?” It was Li Huowang’s turn to be confused. According to the scripture, the man should’ve found a bag of stones rather than silvers, thus completing the deceit.

That was how Li Huowang was supposed to get some False Qi, but why wasn’t it working?

"Dad, he didn't get deceived. That really is a bag of silvers," Li Sui muttered.

“I know, but I placed stones in that bag just now, so why did it turn into sil…”

Li Huowang suddenly realized his mistake. He had turned the stones into silvers!

Now that he couldn’t control his powers to cultivate the ‘Truth,’ everything he said would become true. The trick would fail in that case since it was the ‘Truth.’

The skinny man had indeed taken a bag of real silver. It wasn’t a trick at all!

Shai Zi was right to say he would suffer by cultivating ‘Truth’ but not ‘Lies.’ It would be difficult for Li Huowang to cultivate “Lies” right now since he was too powerful.

“Wait, let’s follow him!” Li Huowang refused to give up. He took Li Sui and tailed after the man.

When he saw the happy-looking man trying to pay for a prostitute, Li Huowang focused on the bag and kept muttering, “Those are stones! Those are stones!”

The man opened the bag and realized the silvers had become stones!

He panicked and shouted. He ran out to find Li Huowang for payback, but the latter was long gone.

Technically, the trick should’ve worked, but Li Huowang didn’t feel any False Qi flowing into his body. It had failed.

Utilizing ‘Truth’ to set up a trick to obtain False Qi appeared ineffective. The two sides of the same coin balanced each other out, and Li Huowang gained nothing.

“Sigh, it’s one thing to not get any by turning them into real silvers, but why didn’t I get any even after I turned them back to stone? Why is this so hard?”

Li Huowang made several attempts and continued until sunset, then returned to the inn feeling defeated.

He reached his room and saw Li Sui sitting on the stool with an unhappy face.

“Dad! You lied to me! You said you would come back soon! Why did you return so late?”

She had just said that when Li Sui, who was beside Li Huowang, disappeared. Li Huowang suddenly felt a faint trace of tingling coming from the base of his spine entering his brain.

Even though it was very faint, Li Huowang immediately knew what it was. This is False Qi!

Li Huowang now understood what it took to cultivate ‘Lies.’ He had to use lies and tricks. He couldn’t use his cultivation of ‘Truth’ at all.

“So this is how I should do it!” He finally found the most important aspect of cultivating ‘Lies.’ It was exceedingly simple, but Li Huowang overcomplicated it.

Li Huowang didn’t bother explaining to Li Sui why there was another her when he decided to look for his next “victim.”

As Li Huowang was celebrating the success of his trip to Qing Qiu, Xuan Pin’s illusion floated up from the ground

Li Huowang stared at Xuan Pin’s illusion and felt the little trace of False Qi in his brain as he pondered.

He was already annoyed from seeing Xuan Pin, but there wasn’t much False Qi for him to use. He could only change his face.

Xuan Pin was about to say something when Li Huowang sat on the stool as he changed his face. His face flickered, and soon, Shai Zi’s eighteen-sided head replaced his actual head.

Li Huowang then copied Shai Zi’s tone and chuckled. “Xuan Pin, did you really think I didn’t have a backup plan? It’s not that easy to kill me.”

Xuan Pin’s illusion froze up and Li Huowang felt a tsunami of False Qi surging into his brain. He couldn’t withstand it and laughed.

“HAHAHA! You fell for it! You really fell for it!”