Chapter 609
Chapter 609
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 609
>Chapter Title: False Truth
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Xu’er.”
Although a long time had passed, Li Huowang still remembered that this was the nickname the Tranquil Heart Abbess of An Ci Nunnery had given her son.
But he never imagined that this so-called Xu’er was actually the Xu Shou now opposing him.
The Abbess’s son was a Heart Elemental, and his other side actually existed in the real world. This information was nothing short of a bombshell for Li Huowang—it implied so many things.
But those matters could wait. Right now, Li Huowang desperately wanted to ask the Xu Shou in front of him one thing: why.
“Xu Shou!! Why are you doing this to me? What exactly do you want?!” Li Huowang bellowed at the old man before him, his eyes wide open.
“Cough cough...” Xu Shou, helped up by Li Huowang, spat blood. His somewhat unfocused eyes fixed on Li Huowang, filled with utter reluctance. His bloodless lips parted slightly as he began to say something.
“...”
Li Huowang suddenly jerked his head up in fury, glaring at the helicopter drawing closer in the sky.
“Get lost! So damn noisy! I can’t hear!!”
Immediately after, Li Huowang anxiously propped Xu Shou up and pressed his left ear to the man’s mouth, trying to catch what he was saying.
Finally, as Xu Shou’s lips parted slightly, some familiar, clear words entered his ears.
“Huowang? Huowang, don’t zone out. It’s your turn.”
Stunned, Li Huowang snapped back to reality. As he looked around in bewilderment, he found that his surroundings had changed completely.
The ship, Xu Shou, and the roaring helicopter from moments ago—all gone. The shift from extreme chaos to utter stillness caught him utterly off guard.
The wounds on his body, his severed arm—everything seemed to revert to how it was days ago.
Li Huowang realized he was now sitting on a plastic chair, along with the other patients from Kangning Hospital, gathered in a circle. The entire hall felt calm and serene.
“Li Huowang? What’s wrong?” Wu Cheng, dressed in a white doctor’s coat and holding a tablet, asked his patient in surprise.
Li Huowang slowly turned his head to look at the Wu Cheng before him. His face should have been mangled from Li Huowang’s bites, yet now there wasn’t a single mark.
Not only that, but facing the man who had once tormented him, Wu Cheng showed no resentment whatsoever—as if none of it had ever happened. A trace of concern even appeared on his square face.
“Is your condition acting up again? Don’t worry. Tell me—I’m your doctor. As long as you’re in this hospital, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
After staring at him with a conflicted expression for a moment, Li Huowang slowly spoke.
“Doctor Wu, it seems like something just happened.”
He then recounted everything that had just occurred.
However, after hearing Li Huowang out, Wu Cheng crossed his arms, frowning deeply.
“It’s not strange for you to have hallucinations—your records mention them. But fragmented thinking, usually only seen in autism, mixed in with hallucinations? That’s pretty unique for you.”
Autistic? Fragmented thinking? Li Huowang looked around in confusion, his gaze settling on the autistic patient beside him.
The man’s honest face broke into a widening grin, only to suddenly freeze, turning utterly blank—just like Li Huowang moments ago—before the cycle repeated.
Was everything just now fake? All my imagination? How is that possible?! It felt so real! How could a hallucination be that real?!
Li Huowang knew this wasn’t over. He had to get answers!
“Doctor Wu, can I borrow your phone? I want to call Doctor Yi.”
“Alright, though hospital rules normally prohibit lending personal phones.” Wu Cheng unlocked the screen and naturally handed the phone to Li Huowang.
This action erased the last shred of doubt in Li Huowang’s mind. Wu Cheng had truly changed.
Li Huowang pulled out the slip of paper with Yi Donglai’s number from his pocket and quickly dialed.
“Beep... beep... beep.” The dial tone rang out steadily.
Accompanied by the sound, Li Huowang gazed at the pond before him. He knew this pond well—it was Niuxin Village’s pond.
The Fighting Matron Heart Pan from moments ago, the ship, the wriggling worms in his gut—all vanished. It was as if he’d returned to the moment before the Great Liang National Preceptor struck.
The dial tone stopped. Li Huowang suddenly threw his head back and shouted at the sky,
“Come out!! Was this you?! What the hell did you do?!”
Then, something wondrous happened. Li Huowang saw his reflection in the pond slowly emerge from the water.
“What’s wrong? Isn’t this great? Everything’s fine.”
“Fine? Fine my ass! Tell me, what was with those changes just now?! What happened on that ship? How did it vanish?! How did I end up with fragmented thinking?!”
Ji Zai paused in place for a moment before speaking again.
“Because I’ve seized the heavenly dao of true and false from the Yin-Yang Fighting Matron, everything she set up before has turned fake.”
Irritation flickered across Li Huowang’s face.
“What the hell are you rambling about?”
“I told you before: walk this path, and everything you care about might turn illusory, while the once-illusory could become real. You didn’t think that was just hype, did you?”
Hearing this, Li Huowang’s irritation deepened.
“But those things clearly happened!! They were real!! How can they just vanish like that?!”
“What’s real? What’s fake? If you can see and touch it, does that make it real? Is everything you’re experiencing now real? How do you prove it? Prove it to me.”
Ji Zai’s words left Li Huowang speechless.
“Don’t dwell on what’s passed. It’s over—we should look ahead.”
Ji Zai said as his body slowly leaned back, merging once more into the watery reflection.
“Here’s some good news: I now control three half-heavenly daos. Bewilderment, true, false, and the chaos of the Divine Mountain Ghost.”
“You don’t need to worry about the rest anymore. I can protect myself now.”
“I’m done guessing! Explain it clearly—every damn detail! What exactly happened?! I really can’t figure it out!”
But Ji Zai didn’t answer directly.
“Good. Keep that up.”
“Fuck you!!” Sensing he was being toyed with, Li Huowang swung his spinebone sword, swiftly slicing open fissures that shredded the reflection in the pond over and over.
Li Huowang had never hated his future self more than he did right now.
Yet no matter how many times he slashed, no matter how much pond water he scattered, the reflection remained undamaged.
“I’ve grown stronger. You’re my heart pan—you’ll share in that power. You should be happy.”
“I don’t want it!”
Li Huowang slashed down with full force, sending a long fissure flying out and cleaving the pond in two.
As the waters from both sides crashed together heavily, Li Huowang shouted at it again,
“It’s done now! Don’t bother me anymore! I get pissed just seeing you! Scram!!”
“You should understand: one day, you’ll be in my place, hearing your present self say these exact words.”
With that, the reflection in the water shut its mouth. But as Li Huowang stared at it, he felt it watching him still.