Chapter 133
Chapter 133
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 133
>Chapter Title: Real or Fake?
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“Pure heart's illusion?”
Li Huowang stared blankly toward Jiang Yingzi and Danyangzi, who were still there in the distance.
One was a three-headed deformed mass of flesh entwined with strands of celestial floss, while the other was a naked girl missing one arm and one leg, her body covered in hideous scars.
They stood in place, watching him—one with hatred, the other with amusement.
The two looked so utterly real that Li Huowang couldn't tell whether they were actual people or mere illusions.
He trembled as he lifted his right foot to approach them, but he soon realized he simply couldn't.
With every step he took, the pair in the distance shifted backward in perfect sync.
They weren't moving on their own. Rather, it felt as though they had always been meant to stay exactly that far from Li Huowang.
“Young friend? Xuanyang, my young friend?”
It took several calls from the voice inside the cavern for Li Huowang to snap back to his senses.
A voice emerged from one of the caves. Li Huowang remembered it belonged to that square-faced Shen Benyou, who spoke with a hint of complex emotions.
“Young friend, your complexion looks terrible.”
“I'm fine. I'm fine.”
Li Huowang replied instinctively.
But after just a few words, he fell abruptly silent.
He realized right away that he'd said the wrong thing.
How could he possibly be fine? His problems were far greater now.
It wasn't just the distant Danyangzi and Jiang Yingzi. It also included whatever he himself had become.
Until that question was resolved, no one could guarantee that just one more wouldn't appear—or several.
“Young friend, are you alright? Pure hearts can never distinguish the real from the illusory. Isn't that just how it is?”
“Since you've survived to the age of the capping ceremony, you should be used to it by now. Why the surprise?”
Li Huowang swallowed hard with difficulty and forced himself to take a deep breath, steadying his mind.
After mulling it over for a long while—until he had barely managed to digest the information—he finally spoke again.
“Elder, I heard that Quiet Heart Abbess's son came to you before. He was a pure heart too. Could you tell me if he showed these same symptoms back then?”
Shen Benyou's voice paused for a very long time before responding.
“Ai, it's truly hard to say. Pure hearts are usually quite mad, from what I've heard. All I know is that he called himself a ship.”
Before Li Huowang could ask anything further, a rough voice came from another pitch-black cave in the wall.
“I know about this. That fellow would often jolt awake in the dead of night, screaming that the Three Pure Ones were staring at him. Not long after, he went completely insane.”
“Three Pure Ones? What are the Three Pure Ones?”
Li Huowang's question was quickly answered by Shou San from nearby.
“The unseen is called Yi, the unheard is called Xi, the ungraspable is called Wei.”
“Yi, Xi, Wei—one divides into three, three unites into one. That is the Three Pure Ones.”
“All the daoists from the various southern schools worship the Three Pure Ones. I've only ever heard of them, never seen them—and certainly never heard that they stare at people.”
Li Huowang struggled to make sense of it. The man's symptoms didn't seem to match his own at all.
At that moment, Shen Benyou spoke again from within the cave.
“That man came here of his own accord, yet Quiet Heart Abbess from Peace Mercy Nunnery always insisted that we drove him mad. We even had some conflicts because of it. What an undeserved calamity.”
“Young friend, you've witnessed our ways these past few days. Have we ever broken any rules? Under the round heaven and square earth, breaking the rules is the greatest taboo.”
Li Huowang paid no attention whatsoever to anything Shen Benyou said after that. His mind was buzzing, a chaotic mess.
“Then... for my condition, is there any way to resolve it?”
“Heh, you're joking, young friend. It would be wonderful if we had a solution.”
“A pure heart's fate is one of self-destruction. There's no solution, and no one who can solve it. If someone ever claims they have a cure, you must be wary—that person is almost certainly out to harm you.”
“You should know this yourself, right? To many, pure hearts are like sweet steamed buns. Plenty hunt them down to refine into pills or medicine, or use them in other cultivation methods to advance their own power.”
Hearing all this, Li Huowang realized just how unfamiliar his own body was to him.
The term “pure heart” encompassed far too much.
After standing there and pondering for a long time, he first glanced up at the pair in the distance, then at the silent Ao Jing believers all around him.
“At least Danyangzi won't assimilate me anymore. That has to count as a good thing, right?”
Li Huowang consoled himself inwardly with a trace of bitter amusement.
Immediately after, he cupped his hands toward the cavern before him.
“Many thanks to the six elders for clearing things up. Until fate brings us together again.”
With that, Li Huowang reached out to pet Mantou, who had followed along, and set off on the return path—accompanied by Danyangzi and Jiang Yingzi.
In a daze, he returned to the dead town and stopped, staring down the two of them. Both hallucinations began speaking at once.
“Child, Master has truly become an immortal. So long as you keep helping your master fully achieve fruition, all the past wrongs will be forgiven.”
“Why don't you just die?! Why are you still alive, you band of murdering fiends!!”
Yet no matter what they said or how close the distance seemed, they made no substantial contact with Li Huowang.
“Heh... at least it's more lively now. I'm not alone anymore.”
Li Huowang had no idea whether his current situation was better or worse than before.
The only thing he knew for certain was that, good or bad, he had to keep moving forward.
Li Huowang picked up the longsword still stuck in the dirt and began digging graves once more, reinterring the other bones from the town.
Jiang Yingzi dragged her mangled body over to Li Huowang's side and shrieked into his ear with boundless hatred.
“You think burying them makes it all go away? You killed them!”
“If you truly want atonement, kill yourself and die!! Otherwise, everything you do is futile!!”
“Li Huowang, why don't you just die?! Stop pretending to be a good person! Go die already!”
Li Huowang remained utterly silent, his lips pressed tightly together. Amid Jiang Yingzi's piercing torrent of abuse, he kept on digging one pit after another.
Within the Ao Jing cavern, Shen Benyou's voice emerged from the cave once more.
“Shou San, Tou Qi, you can all disperse now. If this man comes again, bar him at the mountain gate. Everything from before is settled—there are no further ties.”
“Yes, Elder Shen Benyou.”
The pitch-black Shou San bowed respectfully before leading the other Ao Jing believers away from the elders' secluded retreat.
Before long, the entire area fell quiet, leaving only that wall with its six caves.
Suddenly, a shrill female voice shattered the silence.
“Hee hee... that pure heart really bought it. He bought it all~! San Tiao, your trick actually worked!”
The voice was like flipping some sort of switch. In an instant, the entire wall—riddled with dense black caves—seemed to come alive.
Shrill sly cackles, rough wild laughter, mocking light chuckles—all sorts of gleeful laughs poured from the caves, filling the entire cavern.
(End of chapter)