Chapter 202 - Harvest
The atmosphere turned heavy in an instant.
Just then, Chun Xiaoman noticed that Li Huowang had no reaction, and was about to speak but stopped.
"Shh," Li Huowang placed a finger on his lips, motioning for her to be quiet. Then, he tilted his head toward the south and listened carefully. After a while, a rare smile appeared on his face. "Don't worry, the food issue has been resolved.”
As the others watched him, Li Huowang’s body gradually shifted and slowly phased through the nearby wall.
“Wait here for me; I’ll be back shortly,” his voice echoed from nowhere.
“Ah, this is what my second uncle mentioned, the art of passing through walls. The gentleman is truly exceptional in every way,” commented Lu Zhuangyuan.
On the other hand, Li Huowang concealed his illusion within the wall, while his body continued to remain in a hidden state. He stayed close to the wall and headed toward another building. On the way, he passed through the courtyard where they reared chickens and then stepped into the room. This allowed him to hear the conversation of the people inside more closely.
“Son, you aren’t there yet. Your skills are not fully developed. Go and read the Liar’s Scripture ten more times,” said a man.
“Yes...” replied a youth.
“Don’t blame your father for being strict; this is the foundation of our Wu Family. All of our family’s assets were amassed by our ancestors by swindling them from others one at a time,” said the man.
Li Huowang sighed softly. From the looks of it, this place was not the utopia it seemed. People here actually used their skills of deception to make it big.
But this fact just worked in Li Huowang’s favor. Now, he wouldn’t need to worry about his conscience when engaging in illegal activities to take care of their urgent needs.
Who knew that the first time I made use of my new ability would be to steal things. I had originally thought of earning money through honest means such as escorting goods and people. But now I’m actually doing things like this. Perhaps legitimate work is not meant for me.
As he contemplated this, he began to search through the entire building.
Soon, he found a hidden compartment and opened it. It was filled with all sorts of silver and gold ornaments, with various styles and varying levels of wear and tear. It was obvious that these were ill-gotten goods.
Seeing these items, Li Huowang’s face lit up in delight; he had just found their travel expenses! After a moment, he quickly found a bag and filled it up with the pieces of silver and gold.
As this was happening, the father and son duo were still discussing their arts of deception in the next room over.
“Son, you’re the only seedling of our family. You must learn well. If you don’t, then our family’s legacy will be at risk,” said the man.
“I have memorized all of it, Dad. I will study hard and not let you down,” replied the youth.
Hearing this, a trace of disdain appeared on Li Huowang’s face. This bunch of liars actually felt proud about being from a family of liars.
After making one round, Li Huowang found their cellar and walked in. Here, he found all sorts of preserved meats and salted vegetables. He quickly brought all these outside, and then tossed them behind the wall to the people there.
This was a very strange scene. The vegetable jar would float up by itself, come to the corner of the wall, and then run off once again.
If others were to witness this, they would definitely be very shocked.
Meanwhile, the father continued to speak to his son. “When you go down the mountain this time around, use your arts of deception to find yourself a wife. I will only consider you a worthy disciple when you succeed in this endeavor.”
“Dad, can you actually deceive someone into marrying you?” asked the youth.
“Nonsense! As long as you put your heart and mind to it, you most certainly can. Back then, your mom was also hoodwinked by me, and she’s still in the dark even now,” said the father.
The more Li Huowang heard them talk, the angrier he felt. After a while, he suddenly stopped what he was doing.
Should I just kill them?
Because of his past with the Sitting Oblivion Dao, Li Huowang felt extreme hostility toward any and all liars, to the point that he felt that it was best to kill off all liars.
“Daoist, you can’t do that. They are indeed in the wrong, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve the death penalty.”
The appearance of a sudden voice beside caused Li Huowang to jump. When he turned toward the voice, he saw that the voice belonged to Monk, someone he hadn’t seen for quite some time.
Monk circled around Li Huowang and started nagging him with his little pearls of wisdom.
After a while of contemplation, Li Huowang finally decided to give up on the idea.
Monk was right; he shouldn’t kill them. He couldn’t just go around killing to deal with issues. That would only make him more and more radical; if he only held a hammer in his hands, then everything he saw would look like nails.
While a death sentence could be avoided, a life sentence was inevitable. He had decided that he would completely empty their house and allow them to savor the feeling of losing everything.
After coming to his decision, Li Huowang emptied everything from their house, taking away everything as long as it was edible or worth some money.
“Son, when you deceive others, you can’t just make things up. It is necessary to use a mixture of truth and falsehoods. That’s how you will get others to believe you,” explained the father.
“Dad, I know that. But how much truth should be mixed with falsehoods? The Liar’s Scripture does not elaborate on that,” questioned the youth.
“Fool! That obviously depends on who you are dealing with. When dealing with those that are easier to deceive, use less truth and more lies. Against those that are less believing, especially the more stubborn types, speak more truth in front of them. Then, they will believe you when you try to deceive them later. Remember: a competent liar’s words must have some truth within!”
“I understand.”
Li Huowang was about to leave, but after overhearing their conversation, he went back into the room. When he emerged again, he was holding a slightly worn out book with the words “Liar’s Scripture” written on it.
I’ll let you guys lie even more!
“How’s it going? Did you guys get everything?” asked Li Huowang as his illusory body merged with his actual body and he appeared before the others once again.
“Yes, we got everything; it’s to the point that we can’t fit anymore. But, Senior Li, where did you get all these items from?” asked Puppy, already munching on a piece of cured meat.
“That’s good. Come, we will talk on the way,” said Li Huowang.
As they left the village, the miserable cries of the father-son duo rang out in Li Huowang’s ears before gradually fading away.
“Dad! Our Liar’s Scripture has been stolen!”
“Dad! Our chickens have been stolen!!”
“Dad! The pots on our stove have been stolen!!!”
After a lot of effort, they finally managed to move everything down from the rugged mountain path.
When they looked at all the heavy things that they were holding, everyone’s faces were filled with joy; they wouldn’t need to go hungry anymore.
The first thing they did when they got down the mountain was to find a source of water, make a fire, and enjoy a meal.
After they had eaten their fill, their anxieties disappeared, and even their tempers improved.
“Sister, I apologize for my thoughtless words from before.” Puppy beamed as he once again approached those women.
“Get away! Who doesn’t know what your actual thoughts are at this point? Once you’re full, you directly start thinking about dirty things,” said Xiaoman, shooing him away.
“Sister Xiaoman, look at the way you’re talking. My words were not intended to harm anyone, but were for the greater good...” said Puppy, trying to defend himself.
Meanwhile, Li Huowang listened to them bickering before reaching into his pocket and passing the heavier bags to Bai Lingmiao, “This is the loot from those liars. There are quite a few pieces of gold and silver; you can count them.”
“Okay,” replied Bai Lingmiao.
As watched the others who were now full after their meal, Li Huowang finally felt at ease.
They had managed to resolve their worry about supplies, and now all they had to do was to get out of Hou Shu. Then, their current troubles would be over.
He pondered for a moment, then flipped through the Liar’s Scripture that he had gotten earlier.
There’s actually a manual that specializes in teaching people the art of deception. It’s my first time seeing something like this.
Heh, there are even tactics and strategies for deception here.
Originally, Li Huowang had just been planning to pass some time by flipping through the book. But as he continued to look through it, his expression became more solemn.
He found that the members of the Sitting Oblivion Dao had also used some of the tactics mentioned in the book.
The Sitting Oblivion Dao’s words had indeed contained a mixture of truth and falsehoods!
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