Chapter 507
Chapter 507
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 507
>Chapter Title: True or False
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“Come, come—hey! Careful, careful. Easy now, don’t stuff it in too fast—don’t let the intestines knot up.”
Dice carefully helped Li Huowang onto the carriage and seated him down.
Then he buried his plump, big-eared head inside the carriage, rummaging around.
“Hey, Red Center—where’d you put that wound medicine? Why can’t I find it?”
Li Huowang silently stared at Dice’s back, rapidly assessing the current situation.
“Ah~ found it!” Dice pulled out a packet of wound medicine, pinched a bit together with his fingers, and lightly sprinkled it over Li Huowang’s injuries.
After finishing, Dice clapped his hands.
“You’re hurt pretty badly—want to rest? I can cook you some bird’s nest and donkey-hide gelatin porridge to replenish your blood and qi.”
“Why let Ji Lin ascend the throne? Is he one of the Sitting Oblivion Dao?”
To find a way out of being controlled like this, Li Huowang began gathering information.
“You’re overthinking it. How could someone from the royal family be Sitting Oblivion Dao? The Son of Heaven rules by divine mandate.”
“As for the rest, don’t worry about it yet. Help him ascend first. After that, if you still want to keep playing, come partner up with me.”
“Compared to his brothers, Ji Lin’s support is too weak. I alone might not be enough to get him on the throne.”
“Relax. There are powerful patrons in court backing him.” Dice chuckled and patted Li Huowang’s shoulder. “You sure you don’t need tending? I’ll be off then.”
“When you recover, move quickly. Right now in Shangjing, quite a few people are fighting over that broken chair.”
After saying this, Dice pulled a thin blanket from the carriage and gently covered Li Huowang before striding away.
Once Dice left, Li Huowang leaned against the carriage, watching him depart. His right fist clenched and slammed hard against the wooden board.
No one knew his own situation better than he did.
Even if he truly helped Ji Lin ascend the throne, Dice would never obediently return Miaomiao. Keeping one’s word was an insult to a swindler.
Dice would absolutely use Miaomiao to threaten and exploit him until every last ounce of value was drained.
He was already inside Dice’s scheme.
To break it, he first had to move along the path laid out before him—understand the game Dice had set, then find a way to overturn it.
Alone, he could never snatch Bai Lingmiao back from Dice.
He would need to seize an opportunity—perhaps through Ji Lin of the royal family, or the Supervising Heaven Bureau, which was hunting down the Sitting Oblivion Dao.
But the odds were slim.
Not only did Dice hold leverage over him—
Dice was Dice.
The hopelessness pressed on Li Huowang like a mountain, suffocating him.
Yet he did not despair. The hatred in his heart fueled his resolve.
He would save Miaomiao.
“Hey, Red Center,” the faceless, eyeless hallucination beside him spoke up, “is it possible Dice was telling the truth? Maybe you really did owe him a favor. Bai Lingmiao did vanish suddenly… it doesn’t quite feel like a Sitting Oblivion Dao method.”
“Trying to play along with Dice and fool me? You’re not qualified!”
Li Huowang retorted firmly and struggled to stand, beginning to pack up the cave dwelling.
“I’m not qualified—but you saw it yourself. That Living Sword is still lying there. There can’t be two Zhuge Yuans, right?”
At those words, Li Huowang looked toward the spine sword on the ground, now grown over with flesh. The head of Zhuge Yuan embedded in it stared back at him.
“Brother Li, long time no see. Though I remain but half a broken body, I will aid you against Dice.”
“No. You’re not him. You were deceived by Dice. You think you’re Zhuge Yuan—but you’re not. The real Zhuge Yuan has always been by my side.”
“The Sitting Oblivion Dao excels at deceiving even themselves. I’ve seen this trick before. Once, someone convinced himself he was Li Huowang. He was fake.”
Clutching his bleeding abdomen, Li Huowang bent down and picked up a purple talisman.
Seeing him approach with it, Zhuge Yuan’s expression changed.
“Brother Li! What’s wrong with you? There is no Zhuge Yuan beside you! That’s all your delusion! I’m not like the Sitting Oblivion Dao from Xing Island—”
“Don’t try to deceive me along with Dice!”
“These hallucinations are not my imagination! They know things I do not! Because I am Heart-Su, when these people died, their souls were drawn to me!”
“So I did not kill the Second God! The Second God did not become my hallucination! I do not owe Dice anything! Miaomiao was kidnapped by them! All of this is fake—it’s Dice’s trap!”
“And most importantly—you’re nothing like the Zhuge Yuan I knew!”
As he shouted those words, all the hallucinations flickered faintly.
Before Zhuge Yuan’s stunned gaze, Li Huowang slapped the talisman onto his forehead.
In the next instant, Zhuge Yuan’s head rapidly shrank, compressing into a fist-sized lump.
Though the head reverted, the tangled flesh and organs remained, hanging grotesquely like grapes.
The faceless hallucination seemed about to speak, but Zhuge Yuan stopped him.
“Don’t panic. Even if it’s pasted on, it can be removed. No rush. Let me think.”
“Hah. At this point, what could you possibly think of?”
With a snap, Zhuge Yuan’s folding fan opened.
“Think whether I’m false—or that sword is false. Or perhaps we are both false, and the true Zhuge Yuan has already ascended to the Three Bodies of Old.”
Seeing the spine sword fall silent, Li Huowang exhaled deeply and began wrapping it with strips of cloth.
The fabric quickly soaked through with blood. Too many things protruded to fully conceal it—peachwood talismans, human bones, hearts and livers, even black hair peeked from between the folds.
He didn’t bother wrapping it more thoroughly. The cloth was merely to avoid drawing attention.
In its current grotesque form, even the purple-lipped woman from before might not recognize it.
“Father, I’ll help.”
Li Sui lifted the swollen spine sword into the carriage, then returned to carry the heavily wounded Li Huowang inside.
“Father, where are we going?”
“Shangjing.”
At his command, the carriage wheels began to roll, gradually departing the devastated mountain foothills.
Not long after they left, a large foot stepped into the wheel tracks.
Its owner had a perfectly square head.
Dice.
“Hehehe~ Heart-Su is so fun~”
(End of Chapter)