Chapter 394
Chapter 394
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 394
>Chapter Title: True and False
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"Pa!" With a sharp clack, the black piece dropped. Li Huowang mulled over the other's words in his mind.
"The 'pan' from 'entanglement'? What does that signify?"
As a heart pure himself, and having witnessed the bizarre abilities of heart turbid before, he truly struggled to imagine what sort of existence a heart entwined might be.
Looking at the two mismatched black pieces on the board—like a donkey's lips to a horse's mouth—Zhuge Yuan shook his head slightly. He pinched a white piece between his fingernail and let it fall onto the board.
"This 'pan' means that I am fated in this lifetime to be entwined with one of the Three-Bodies Old Above, in life or in death."
"What is this Three-Bodies Old Above?" Li Huowang placed his piece and asked.
When he saw Zhuge Yuan, smiling faintly, snap his folded fan shut and point upward, Li Huowang's heart tightened. His pupils trembled slightly as memories buried deep within resurfaced.
"Brother Li, there are some things I don't wish to hide from you, but the more you know, the greater the danger. A muddled life is a blessing sometimes." With that, Zhuge Yuan picked up another white piece and placed it.
The other's actions spoke volumes. This so-called Three-Bodies Old Above was the name of some si ming in the White Jade Capital. He didn't even dare utter the name, resorting instead to this cryptic phrase.
"I understand. I understand." Li Huowang nodded repeatedly, murmuring to himself.
The bamboo loft fell silent for a moment, broken only by the occasional crisp chirp of birds outside the window.
As Zhuge Yuan stared at the riddled-with-holes board with a slight headache, he heard the other start questioning again.
"Thank you, Brother Zhuge, for clarifying. But may I ask—since you're not a heart pure like me, why help me at all?"
This question had plagued Li Huowang for a long time. Today, he had finally voiced it.
"Why say such a thing?" Zhuge Yuan seemed genuinely surprised.
"Though we met by chance, saving a life surpasses building a seven-story stupa. Could I simply stand by and watch you die? With any real cultivation, that copper-coin mask of yours is just for show."
"It's that simple?" Li Huowang stared at him in disbelief. He'd thought about this endlessly during this time, yet never imagined the reason for the man's kindness was mere goodwill.
"So what did Brother Li imagine? Not just you—even for the spirit generation or void generation in trouble, I'd lend a hand if I could."
"He's lying to me? What's his angle?" The thought sprang unbidden into Li Huowang's mind.
He promptly crushed it himself. Zhuge Yuan didn't even care about his heart pure identity—what angle could there be?
With the power to slay Fa Cai, if he wanted heart pures, he'd have them in droves. No need for all this effort to deceive him. Aside from that, nothing else about him held such value.
"Brother Li, you traveled all the way to Apricot Island just to ask me this?" Zhuge Yuan looked puzzled.
"No, not that. I sought you out for a crucial matter." Li Huowang pulled himself together and recounted his discovery about North Wind.
Though the man meant well, Li Huowang wasn't one to push his luck. He proposed a win-win solution.
"Brother Zhuge, you need do nothing extra. I know the Sit-Forget Dao has been hounding you lately, and North Wind will likely join them. Just let me stay by your side and help fend off the Sit-Forget Dao together!"
Seeing the white piece hovering over the board, the man hesitating to place it, Li Huowang upped the ante.
"Brother Zhuge, rest assured—even if I later shake off the heart pure hallucinations, I won't abandon you abruptly. I'll stay until your affairs are settled."
"Are you doubting my strength, Brother Zhuge? I'm no match for you in that regard, but I'm well-versed in the Ao Jing Sect's secret arts. Even the most grueling Cang Qiang Ascension Rite—I've endured it three times. No mere half-immortal could withstand such a pinnacle technique!"
As Li Huowang grew more urgent, Zhuge Yuan raised a hand to halt him.
"Brother Li, no need to panic. I haven't refused—merely a few points for you to consider. First: you say you'll fight alongside me, but do you know what lies ahead for me?"
The question stunned Li Huowang, but he quickly caught on and looked up.
"That heart turbid you snatched from Buddha Bone Temple—it's not over yet?"
Snatching a heart turbid from the Supervising Heaven Bureau for no reason meant trouble, and with Zhuge Yuan's strength, for it to drag on for months spelled something major.
Zhuge Yuan glanced up at the landscape painting behind Li Huowang, where a withered corpse lay sprawled on a dirt path halfway up the mountain.
"Sigh. Though I can slay Fa Cai, we heart-generation folk all live difficult lives. We've entangled ourselves in causalities not our own. It's hard—all of it so hard."
"This journey ahead will be fraught with peril for me, and the Sit-Forget Dao will meddle endlessly. Brother Li, is risking life and limb truly worth it?"
"Worth it!" Li Huowang's reply was resolute, without even asking what lay ahead.
"As long as it lets me escape those hallucinations and that bewilderment, anything is worth it!"
Zhuge Yuan took a sip of his now-cool tea.
"Very well. Second point: North Wind is indeed heart pure and has escaped the hallucinations, but is his method truly suited to you? Remember, he's Sit-Forget Dao."
"Perhaps it's self-deception, like that other one? Or some abhorrent evil cultivation? You plan to follow suit?"
Li Huowang's face darkened at the question. He drained his own cold tea and forced out, "Do I have any other choice right now? Whatever method North Wind used, I have to see it for myself."
Zhuge Yuan pondered this.
"Not necessarily. Long ago, I read of a method in a book."
"What method?" Li Huowang's pupils contracted, his heart racing.
"Your heart pure hallucinations stem, at root, from failing to control that excess innate qi within. If that book's cultivation technique truly masters this innate qi, the hallucinations might vanish."
"You've seen this technique?" Li Huowang pressed eagerly.
"I glimpsed it once in a book, and I've mostly forgotten it, but I believe it exists."
"Why's that?"
"The Sit-Forget Dao's oddity. I always wondered why they torment and toy with heart pures above all else—they never treat heart entwined or heart turbid this way."
"I puzzled over whether they bore a grudge against every heart pure. Then it hit me: if the book was right, it's a cultivation technique that counters them perfectly. That explains their loathing and games with heart pures."
"A cultivation technique that counters Sit-Forget Dao? Do they even cultivate?"
"Of course. All their absurd deeds aim to substitute the false for the true. Amid the world's myriad changes, all paths lead to the core. Ghost cultivation, dao cultivation, evil cultivation—they're simply cultivating the false."
"Wait—they cultivate the false, and heart pure techniques counter them. So what do heart pures cultivate?"
Zhuge Yuan said nothing, simply placing a white piece. Li Huowang glanced at the board—his scattered black pieces formed the character for "true."
"The true?"
(End of chapter)