Chapter 442
Chapter 442
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 442
>Chapter Title: The Past
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Although it was just turning into an illusion for now, who knew how long it would take to turn that illusion into a real person.
But having the illusion meant there was a glimmer of hope. Zhuge Yuan could live—he wouldn’t have to die!
He instinctively reached out, his hand passing through Zhuge Yuan’s body. Naturally, he couldn’t touch anything, but this still made Li Huowang even more excited.
This rise and fall left Li Huowang drenched in sweat, his face flushed red.
“Red Middle Boss, what are you doing? Are we going or not? If you’re not, I’m heading out.”
Beifeng glanced at the chaotic battlefield in the distance, his face showing a hint of eagerness.
Li Huowang pulled his mind back. He first glanced at Beifeng beside him, then at the two sides clashing in the distance.
Although the Fighting Matron had retreated, neither the Sitting Oblivion Dao nor the Supervisory Heaven Division showed any signs of stopping. The battle grew even fiercer.
A pair of dragon horns pierced out from behind the Emperor of Great Liang’s ceremonial crown, while those four dice, with help from other Sitting Oblivion Daoists, sat cross-legged on the ground, setting up some kind of scheme.
Li Huowang withdrew his gaze, quickly sank his body into the ground, switching to his invisible form, and gradually withdrew from the crumbling Great Liang imperial palace.
“Daoist, why are you leaving? Didn’t you say you were going to get some cultivation technique from Beifeng?”
Hearing this, Li Huowang sneered.
“He’s got no damn cultivation technique. It’s fake, just bait put out to lure in heart elements.”
After the Fighting Matron’s earlier rampage, there weren’t many intact places left in the capital. Everywhere he looked was a mess, as if a massive earthquake had struck.
Li Huowang mounted an ownerless steed and whipped it into a gallop toward his courtyard.
When he arrived home, at the doorway of the tilting house, he spotted Mantou crouched on a crooked tree, tail tucked between its legs, trembling in fear.
Li Huowang rushed into the courtyard first, swiftly grabbing the necessary luggage, then scooped up the dog and bolted toward the east city gate.
After leaving the city and running another ten or so li, Li Huowang finally stopped in front of a waterfall amid verdant mountains and clear waters.
Zhuge Yuan’s expression was grave at the moment, showing no interest in admiring the scenery.
“Sigh, I wonder if the others in Great Qi are faring well in their efforts to clear the emperor’s side without me.”
“Come on, Brother Zhuge. You’re barely keeping yourself together like a clay Buddha crossing the river. Worry about yourself first. Not sure if you heard my plan before you died—let me run it by you again.”
Li Huowang detailed his plan to revive the other man once more.
Hearing this, Zhuge Yuan fell into deep thought, pondering it very seriously and very slowly.
After a long while, he shook his head slightly, brows furrowed.
“Brother Li, I don’t think this method will work.”
“Hm?! Why not?”
“True, a heart element can move mountains and seas at will, but I’m a living person—a flesh-and-blood human. And don’t forget, I’m no ordinary man. I’m a heart anchor.”
“Even if you achieve great success in cultivation, you’d still be of the heart generation. No matter how strong a heart element’s innate primordial qi is, it can’t create a heart anchor.”
“It can!”
Li Huowang’s emphatic declaration drew the gazes of all five illusions straight to him.
“Brother Zhuge, I think therefore I am. You can’t even imagine how powerful a heart element truly is! What Beifeng said earlier hid part of the truth—the heart element’s innate primordial qi does share a source with the Fighting Matron’s solar aspect.”
“But what he deliberately left out is that even those heavenly principles governing truth and illusion on the Fighting Matron’s body weren’t something she was born with!”
Li Huowang looked down at his clenched fist, excitedly continuing,
“This is something even more powerful than the Si Ming! By then, forget merely giving you a body directly—what would be wrong with joining Pangu in the creation of heaven and earth!”
Looking at Li Huowang before him, a trace of worry appeared on Zhuge Yuan’s face.
“Brother Li, where did you learn all this?”
He was certain Li Huowang hadn’t known any of this when he’d come to Apricot Island looking for him.
This question stunned Li Huowang. The excitement on his face gradually faded.
“I remembered some things. Some things about the past. Some... about me being a Sitting Oblivion Dao Red Middle.”
“Hm?!”
Zhuge Yuan looked utterly shocked.
A bitter smile crept onto Li Huowang’s face.
“I don’t want to accept that reality either, but the facts are right there. I, Li Huowang, am Red Middle.”
“If Beifeng cooperating with me makes some sense, what about the memories in my head? What about those divine abilities I suddenly know?”
As he spoke, Li Huowang’s face kept shifting, finally settling on the appearance of the Red Middle card.
The moment he said it, pain stabbed through Li Huowang’s heart like a drill. Him being Red Middle meant there had never been any high school student, never any reality.
The nun from Peaceful Mercy Nunnery had been right from the very first meeting—he was a person of this world. All that mess in his head had always been nothing more than Red Middle’s illusory disguise.
The thought that Yang Na and his mother were both fabrications made Li Huowang’s newly eased heart ache even more.
“Wait, hold on, Brother Li. Something’s off. Something’s not right. Let me think this through.”
Zhuge Yuan clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing back and forth.
After dozens of steps, Zhuge Yuan turned back to Li Huowang.
“Brother Li, don’t jump to conclusions. You might not be Red Middle.”
“If it were just one complete, crystal-clear memory, that’d be one thing. But how do you explain my Sitting Oblivion Dao divine abilities? And moreover—”
At this point, Li Huowang quickly checked his bearings, mounted his horse, and galloped east for a few li before finally stopping at a roadside noodle stall.
He strode in. Without waiting for the stall owner to speak, Li Huowang revealed his Red Middle face.
The stall owner, who had been smiling welcomingly, paled instantly. He immediately pulled out a Red Middle mahjong tile from behind him and held it up reverently with both hands toward Li Huowang.
Li Huowang swiped his hands over it, splitting the tile in two. He held up the front half, showing it to Zhuge Yuan. Inside were five tiny characters: Red Middle Li Huowang.
“See? This is the secret agent I planted six years ago. I know it’s hard to accept, but these ironclad facts prove I’m Red Middle. I don’t want to run from it anymore—running is pointless.”
“No, that’s not right.”
Zhuge Yuan shook his head even more vigorously.
“You’re not Red Middle. You were just swapped in. Just like with Great Qi... and Great Liang. Originally, Great Qi unifying the world was real, and this divided heart-world of Great Liang was fake. But it got swapped, just like you—a history that was replaced.”
(End of chapter)