Chapter 158
Chapter 158
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 158
>Chapter Title: Peng Jiao
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When Li Huowang heard their responses to his question, he stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning.
“Senior Brother Li, what do you mean two monks? There aren’t any monks in our carriage formation at all. Come help us out! Their crossbows are brutal.”
“No monks at all? All the monks were my hallucinations? That’s impossible. At the very least, one of them had to be real!”
“No! That’s absolutely impossible!” Li Huowang’s gaze snapped toward the panting young Yang kid.
“When we were delivering the ashes, we clearly ran into that monk on the road. He stayed with me the whole way! You’re telling me you didn’t see him!?”
The anxious Yang kid crawled on the ground, peering fearfully at the enemies outside through the wagon wheels. Hearing the question, he turned back to look at Senior Brother Li, who was standing there acting strangely.
“Senior Brother, there really wasn’t anyone. When you were delivering the ashes, there was no monk with you at all.”
“Impossible! He chatted with me the entire way. If he was fake, that means I was just talking to thin air by myself. Are your eyes blind? You didn’t react at all?”
This time, Yang kid burst into full tears. He said, utterly aggrieved, “But, Senior Brother Li, you often talk to people no one else can see for no reason. How am I supposed to know which times are real and which are fake?”
Those words made Li Huowang stumble. “I often talk to myself... So... what’s real... and what’s fake?”
He began scanning everyone around him, a bitterly dry laugh cracking his lips.
Bai Lingmiao, Gouwa, Sun Baolu, Chun Xiaoman, Yang kid, Gao Zhijie, Lv Zhuangyuan, Lv Juren, Lv Xiucai, and so on—every face flashed before Li Huowang’s eyes.
“Or maybe... some of them are fake too? Is this world even real? Why does it feel so fake? Or is reality over there the real one, and this side the fake?”
Li Huowang was hoisted up from the ground by the monk, who continued his earnest persuasion. “See? I wasn’t wrong, right? So you’re Peng Zhi with delusions. Anything happening to you is perfectly normal.”
“If you think he’s real, just touch him and find out. Where’s this hallucinated monk? Come on! I’ll go with you to touch him!”
Li Huowang’s head buzzed as he pointed a finger to the right. The monk angrily dragged him over.
The distant monk looked identical to the one beside Li Huowang, with no abnormalities whatsoever.
“Daoist, are you alright?”
As he leaned in with concern, Li Huowang’s right hand reached out lightly and passed straight through his body.
He was right. This monk was just like Danyangzi and Jiang Yingzi—another of his own illusions.
“That means...” An expression of extreme agony twisted across Li Huowang’s face.
“Well? Did it pass through? See? I’m the real one. What I say is real too! You’re Peng Zhi! You’re not Li Huowang. We have to team up to—”
The monk’s words cut off midway. He slowly lowered his head, his slightly widened eyes staring at his abdomen where a long sword had plunged in.
“Why?” The monk felt utter shock in that moment. He questioned Li Huowang, who was right in front of him, in stunned disbelief.
His voice trembled slightly as he said, “He was clearly fake. Was I wrong? I helped you all along the way, and now you kill me?”
Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang shoved the sword gripped in his single hand even deeper into the monk’s gut.
“You weren’t wrong at all. He really was fake. But... I’m not Peng Zhi. I am Li Huowang!”
“What gives you the right? What makes you so sure you’re definitely Li Huowang? You clearly believed it just now!!”
Hearing this, Li Huowang’s expression turned savage. He gripped the sword with both hands and shoved the monk backward.
“I don’t need any right! I’m Li Huowang, and that doesn’t need any reason! I don’t need logic either. Even if all the evidence proves I’m Peng Zhi, I am still Li Huowang!”
With three swift steps, Li Huowang clenched the sword with both hands and slammed the monk fully against the wagon.
Red blood trickled down along the monk’s tattered robes onto the ground. The weakening monk looked at Li Huowang before him and asked with effort, “Don’t tell me... you never considered... you might be killing the wrong one? What if I was telling the truth?”
Li Huowang took a deep breath and unleashed his greatest strength in a hysterical roar at the monk. “What if you were telling the truth?! What if you’re Peng Jiao?!”
“I don’t care! I am Li Huowang! I’m the Li Huowang they care about! No one else gets to take that away!!”
As soon as those words left his mouth, the monk’s head drooped completely. Looking at the corpse, Li Huowang’s face twitched as he trembled and kept repeating, “I am Li Huowang. I am Li Huowang. I am Li Huowang...”
Each shout added another layer of killing intent in his heart. His mind flashed to that birthday cake from earlier.
“If the Li Huowang that Yang Na and the others care about really exists! Then I just need to find him and kill him! Once he’s dead! The identity of Li Huowang is mine!”
Seeing this, Danyangzi’s three faces showed nothing but contemptuous disdain.
“Sigh... you lunatic, why’d you have to do that? I was scamming you so perfectly, but you didn’t follow the script. Why’d you suddenly attack? So annoying. It was just getting fun.”
The dead monk suddenly spoke. His round head rapidly morphed a few times into a square shape, while the facial features and wrinkles on his face swiftly turned into two swirling circles hanging on that square head.
Seeing this person’s sudden change, Li Huowang froze at first, then flew into ecstatic joy, followed immediately by furious rage.
“I knew I was right! You’re a fraud! You’re a—wait! You’re not a fraud! You’re from the Sitting Oblivion Dao! You’re Two of Circles!”
The instant he saw that mahjong face, Li Huowang realized—this was the Sitting Oblivion Daoist that Abbess had warned him to be extremely wary of!
“Aaah! So annoying! You clearly fell for it, so why’d you suddenly turn on me? You don’t even follow basic rules, you lunatic!”
Two of Circles’ face shifted rapidly into that of a glamorous woman. With a charming smile, she stomped the ground with both feet, flipped through the air, and landed on the wagon’s roof.
The moment she jumped onto the wagon top, the attackers outside spotted her, and the assault around them halted instantly.
By the time Li Huowang kicked off a wagon wheel and chased her to the roof, Two of Circles had already leaped out of the carriage formation and rejoined the others outside.
Seeing the Nuo opera performers and bandits alike not attacking Two of Circles, how could Li Huowang not understand? These people were clearly all brought by Two of Circles! All that nonsense about beheading the three corpses was just Sitting Oblivion Dao bullshit!
(End of chapter)