The Unruly Immortals

"Of course, it was tricked from other places! Isn't the Oblivion Path all about deceiving heaven, deceiving earth, and deceiving the Fate Commander?"

Zhuge Yuan gave a slight smile, snapped open his fan with a flick, and gently fanned himself. "Who told you this? You've been deceived by them; this claim does indeed circulate in Jianghu."

"They just don't want others to know the truth, so they spread rumors that the divine skills of the Oblivion Path are all obtained through deceit."

"But, Li Brother, think about it, would a mere mortal be able to deceive other Fate Commanders and steal their divine skills?"

"The Fate Commander of the Oblivion Path? Doesn't that mean everything it controls is a lie?" This thought popped into Li Huowang's mind.

After pondering for a while, Li Huowang again spoke, "Brother Zhuge, what is the name of the Fate Commander of the Oblivion Path?"

"Doumu Taiyin."

"Doumu Taiyin? So this Fate Commander rules over the falsehood of this world?" Li Huowang couldn't help but ponder even more.

"Was it also in the White Jade Capital back then? Have I seen it?" Li Huowang, holding his head, tried hard to recall the memories from a year ago.

Zhuge Yuan seemed to sense something, looked up at the sun, and abruptly snapped his fingers in front of Li Huowang's face, clearing his mind in an instant; suddenly, he couldn't remember what he was just thinking about.

"Li Brother, the affairs of the realms beyond, for us mere mortals, it's better not to get involved, lest we disturb our own karma and destiny."

Li Huowang, holding his forehead, nodded with a weary voice, "None of them are suitable?"

"It's best not to think about them."

Li Huowang had quite a few questions about the Fate Commander, but hearing this, he could only swallow them back down and changed the subject."

"Brother Zhuge, can you teach me this method? If I could learn this, there would be no hidden danger for the Oblivion Path."

Zhuge Yuan was about to reply as he fanned himself again when someone nearby mockingly whispered.

"Hey, look at that pedantic Scholar fanning himself in the cold weather; he must be mad."

The expression on Zhuge Yuan's face stiffened; he snapped the fan shut and said to Li Huowang, "With such a predestined Heart Pan, this is unlearnable for you, but you can learn your own. As long as Xinsu masters the Cultivation Technique, once the Oblivion Path sees you, they'll definitely run faster than rabbits."

A bitter smile appeared on Li Huowang's face. Hearing Zhuge Yuan's words, it seemed like his future self would become the natural enemy of the Oblivion Path. "I hope so. I just want to rid myself of that illusion; nothing else matters."

"Hehehe, the noodles are here, three steaming bowls of fish soup noodles, try my old man's cooking."

Li Huowang picked up the chopsticks, from each bowl took a few noodle strands, and threw them on the ground. Mantou immediately started licking the noodles with rapid flicks of its tongue.

"Brother Zhuge, please wait a moment and let Mantou eat first."

Zhuge Yuan, who was about to take out a silver needle, nodded knowingly, "Good idea, that's also a method. I was wondering why you'd keep a dog for no reason. But what if someone's Knockout Drug acts slowly? By the time the dog dies, you'll have eaten it all."

"No worries, if I see Mantou has been poisoned, I can cut open my stomach and scoop out all the food from the stomach."

Zhuge Yuan looked at Li Huowang in amazement as he said this, seeming to want to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

Seeing Mantou had finished eating and was squatting beside him, wagging its tail non-stop, Li Huowang picked up his chopsticks again. "Brother Zhuge, it's not poisoned. Let's eat."

The old woman was right; this fish noodle soup was exceptionally delicious, with some rice-yellow fish roe scattered in it, which, together with the milky-white broth, was especially soothing in this twelfth lunar month.

Just as Li Huowang hesitated about whether to order another bowl, he suddenly looked up, his brows furrowed, gazing towards the forest on the left.

As Zhuge Yuan leisurely rolled up the noodles and put them into his mouth, he chewed slowly and meticulously before swallowing and then asked, "Brother Li, what's wrong?"

"There's a disturbance to the south, sounds like a fight."

"Brother Li, where did you learn this Heavenly Ear Technique that you can hear from so far away?" Shaking his long sleeves, Zhuge Yuan stood up and followed Li Huowang towards the nearby forest.

The leaves rustled as they were pushed back, and as the two got closer to the scene, they soon stopped, smelling the strong scent of blood and staring at the chaotic situation in the distance.

The combatants from both sides seemed to be at the critical moment, each of them seeing red, fighting to the death with various methods Li Huowang had never even heard of, with someone dying every moment.

After a glance at a waist badge on one of the corpses, Li Huowang said to Zhuge Yuan while examining, "One side is from the Astrological Bureau, I don't recognize the other side, do you, Brother Zhuge?"

Watching one of the fighters take out a white grub and smear it over a bone-deep wound before promptly moving freely to counterattack, Zhuge Yuan shook his head, "I'm not sure either, but I think one of them must be from the Oblivion Path."

"The Oblivion Path? Who?!" Li Huowang now had an instinctive reaction to this phrase.

"It's that Miaojiang woman with the purple lips."

Hearing this, Li Huowang's eyes gradually turned colder as he watched the glinting silver headgear fluttering up and down.

But after a moment of thought, Li Huowang didn't step forward. "Brother Zhuge, this person seems insignificant at a glance. A rash approach might only startle them."

Li Huowang's goal had not changed; he intended to capture Bei Feng and force out the method of dispelling illusions he spoke of—he wished to avoid getting involved in anything else. "Brother Zhuge, let's go back. It's best not to complicate matters further."

Zhuge Yuan nodded and prepared to leave with Li Huowang.

However, just then, someone noticed them. A masked man fighting shouted in their direction, "Lord Zhuge!"

The moment he heard that familiar voice, Zhuge Yuan's fan opened swiftly, and with a strong kick against a tree trunk, he didn't hesitate to rush towards the man in black.

Seeing Zhuge Yuan engage with those fighters, Li Huowang couldn't just stand by; he immediately drew out his Purple Tassel Sword and charged into the fray.

With the addition of Li Huowang and Zhuge Yuan, what should have been a stalemate turned one-sided in an instant, and the enemies of the Astrological Bureau were swiftly defeated.

Wiping blood from his face, Li Huowang walked over to Zhuge Yuan, and upon arrival, he saw the surviving fighters kneel on one knee before Zhuge Yuan. "We pay our respects to Lord Zhuge!"

This scene took Li Huowang by surprise. "Does Zhuge Yuan have such high prestige in the Astrological Bureau? Then why did he seem as unwelcome as a plague in the eyes of the Record of Appearance before?"

"Ah, Brother Li, come here." Zhuge Yuan helped a masked person up from the ground and introduced him to Li Huowang with a smile.

"This man is my old friend. Don't let his position in the Astrological Bureau fool you; he's also a grandmaster from Da Qi!"

"A grandmaster from Da Qi?"

"Oh, a grandmaster means he's among the strongest players of intellectual games within the territory of Da Qi. Playing games is like the game of black and white pieces we played before."

"A grandmaster from Da Qi?!"