Chapter 203 - True? False?

“What happened to Senior Li?”

“I don’t know, he was fine until just a moment ago. How come he seems like he suddenly got possessed after glancing through that book?”

“Junior Bai, do you want to go and take a look? Is his illness acting up again?”

Under their urging, Bai Lingmiao nervously walked over and squatted beside Li Huowang. She asked, “Senior Li, are you... alright?”

As she spoke, Bai Lingmiao sneaked a glance at the rows of words that Li Huowang was staring at. She was illiterate and did not know what they meant, but from the looks of it, they seemed to be important to him.

When she saw that Li Huowang didn’t respond, Bai Lingmiao paused, then took out the whip that she used to knock the drum. Then, she used it to knock the book aside, sending it flying.

Senior Li had been reading this book before he became like this. Perhaps it is something ominous.

She then asked him again, “Senior Li, are you alright?”

On the other hand, Li Huowang, who usually had heightened senses, now could not hear what the others were saying. He was entirely focused on the lines of text that he had written on the ground.

I am Peng Zhi, one of the Three Corpses. (False)

I am Hong Zhong, one of the three leaders of Sitting Oblivion Dao. Earlier, the members of the Sitting Oblivion Dao lied to me because I instructed them to do so. (False)

I killed the people in the dead town. (False)

Among the members of Sitting Oblivion Dao, there is a high-ranking person who is also a Strayed One. He has lived to the age of 190, and has completely shaken off the hallucinations brought about by being a Strayed One. (?)

As Li Huowang looked at the fourth line, he contemplated various possibilities.

Could this be real?

Since everyone wanted to capture Strayed Ones, he knew that they were clearly valuable. If they could make use of Strayed Ones, then why could the Strayed Ones themselves not use their own powers?

Due to his newly acquired abilities, Li Huowang deduced that the potential of a Strayed One far surpassed what he had imagined.

If there’s a way, then that would mean that this illness can be cured! Then, I can become a normal person. No, I may even be able to completely control this strength. If that were the case, then no one would dare to deceive or harm me anymore!

With excitement bubbling within him, Li Huowang felt a surge of strength course through his body. Even his mood turned from being gloomy to becoming more impassioned.

However, he gradually calmed himself down. Everything hinged one major premise—that the Sitting Oblivion Dao member was speaking the truth back then.

But based on their past interactions, it was rather uncertain.

Li Huowang did not know the probability of the last statement being true. But even if there was only the tiniest sliver of a chance, it was already extremely tempting for him.

After all, he was desperate.

His desire was not just for more power, but it was for a way out of his suffering. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B1(j)n.

His random bouts of switching between reality and hallucinations was too tormenting. He did not want to go through the excruciating pain he had gone through before; it was something that was even worse than death.

I can’t do anything right now, but after we escape from Hou Shu, I can start gathering information on this slowly, and analyze it rationally.

I also need to be cautious, and not rashly believe any of the words uttered by the members of the Sitting Oblivion Dao. Be it true or false, I need to take things one step at a time, only using the truths as my reference.

After sorting out his thoughts, he stood up. When he looked around, he noticed that the others were watching him with strange expressions.

“Why is everyone staring at me? Is there something on my face?” asked Li Huowang.

“No, there’s nothing,” said Yang Xiaohai as he tried to pick up the large pot and place it on his back. However, Gao Zhijian suddenly reached out and lifted it with his big hand.

At the same time, the rest of them also started to pack up their belongings, as though they were preparing to set off.

Li Huowang looked around, then picked up the Liar’s Scripture that was lying in the distance, and started preparing to continue their journey.

But at this point, he suddenly had a thought.

Hold on! Could those two liars also be from the Sitting Oblivion Dao? Are they planning to deceive me again? No, I need to go back there.

With a grim look on his face, he threw the Liar’s Scripture on the ground, and started heading back toward the flat-topped mountain.

The others were bewildered by this, unable to understand what was going on. For a while, everyone remained silent.

“I’ll keep an eye on him, in case his illness acts up on the way,” Chun Xiaoman said, then picked up her sword and followed him.

As the rest of them waited, four hours quickly passed and it started turning dark. At that moment, they saw Li Huowang once again coming down from the flat-topped mountain with Chun Xiaoman following behind him with a disturbed look.

On the other hand, Li Huowang’s expression was clearly better than it had been before he had gone up the mountain; it was as though a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“What happened?” Puppy ran to Chun Xiaoman and whispered.

“Those two liars are pitiful. It’s really terrible. They were just deceiving others, and did not deserve to die,” said Xiaoman.

“Why did Senior Li do that?” asked Puppy, surprised.

Faced with this question, Chun Xiaoman hesitated, unsure of how to explain. “He... wanted to see how many faces those two had. Evidently, they only had one face each.”

Hearing this, Puppy hissed, his scalp tingling.

“Quit chatting. We should hit the road before it’s completely dark. Don’t forget that we are still being pursued,” said Li Huowang.

Li Huowang’s words prompted both of them to pick up their pace and catch up with the others. They both stopped discussing what had happened on the flat-topped mountain.

Just then, another unexpected event occurred as they were preparing to set off.

“Senior Li, what’s happening? Are you okay?”

At this moment, Li Huowang had an extremely distressed expression on his face as he clutched his head with both hands. He shouted,“...chains... Chain me up quickly! It’s coming!”

“Senior Li, we don’t have the chains! They were all on the carriage!”

“Then quickly dig a hole and bury me! Hurry! Don’t let me run around!”

Before they had finished digging the hole, Li Huowang had already returned to a ward filled with the disinfectants. There was a person standing before him. It was a young, bespectacled man in a white coat.

The man smiled slightly and pushed his glasses up. “Li Huowang? You’re finally awake? Let me introduce myself. I’m your attending physician, Dr. Hou. How are you feeling now? It seems that you have been having fewer and fewer periods of wakefulness compared to before.”

Li Huowang looked around and asked, “Where’s my mom?”

Hearing this, a warm smile spread across Dr. Hou’s face, and he said amiably, “Your mom had something to attend to outside. She had been here until just a moment ago, but you had not yet awoken. Li Huowang, if you truly care about your mom, then you need to cooperate with my treatment. The sooner you recover, the earlier you can repay her for all she has done for you. Let’s have a chat. I know you think that this place is a hallucination. That’s alright, then how about we talk about your “real world” there? From the looks of it, many... interesting things have happened over there.”