Chapter 157: Peng Jiao

The monk's words made Li Huowang glance at his fellow disciples surrounding them.

When they heard Li Huowang's question, their replies stunned him as if he had been struck by lightning.

"Senior Brother Li, there aren't two monks here; there isn't even one monk in our wagon formation! Quick, help! Their crossbows are incredibly powerful."

"No monks at all? Were all the monks my illusions? How is that possible? At least one of them must be real!"

"No! That's absolutely impossible!" Li Huowang glared at the panting Yang Xiaohai. "When we were transporting the ashes earlier, we clearly met that monk on the road, and he accompanied me the entire way! How dare you claim you didn't see him?!"

The anxious Yang Xiaohai lay on the ground, fearfully peering at the enemies outside through the wagon wheels. Hearing the question, he turned to look at his eccentric Senior Brother Li.

"Senior Brother, there really wasn't one. When we were transporting the ashes, there was no monk beside you at all."

"Impossible! The monk chatted with me for so long on the road. If he was fake, I would have been talking to thin air by myself. Are you blind? You didn't react at all?"

Yang Xiaohai finally burst into tears. He said, utterly aggrieved, "But, Senior Brother Li, you often talk to invisible people even when nothing's wrong. How am I supposed to know which times are real and which are fake?"

These words made Li Huowang stumble. "I often talk to myself even normally... What is real... and what is fake?"

He began to look around at everyone, a bitter, dry laugh escaping his lips.

Bai Lingmiao, Gouwa, Sun Baolu, Chun Xiaoman, Yang Xiaohai, Gao Zhijian, Lu Zhuangyuan, Lu Juren, Lu Xiucai — all their faces flashed before Li Huowang's eyes.

"Or perhaps some of them are fake too? Is this world even real? Why does it seem so fake? Or is that other reality the true one, and this one is the illusion?"

The monk lifted Li Huowang from the ground, continuing his earnest persuasion: "So you are Peng Zhi, prone to delusions. Whatever happens to you is perfectly normal."

"If you think he's real, wouldn't it become clear if you tried to touch him? Where is that illusionary monk? Come on! I'll go with you to touch him!"

Li Huowang's head was buzzing. He pointed to his right, and the monk, seemingly annoyed, guided him in that direction.

The monk in the distance was identical to the monk beside Li Huowang, with no apparent difference.

"Taoist, are you alright?"

As he approached with concern, Li Huowang gently extended his right hand and easily passed it through the monk's body.

He was right; this monk, like Dan Yangzi and Jiang Yingzi, was merely a figment of his imagination.

"So that means..." An expression of extreme pain contorted Li Huowang's face.

"Well? Did you pass through? See, I'm real, and what I said is real! You are Peng Zhi! You're not Li Huowang; we must join forces to—"

Mid-sentence, the monk suddenly stopped. He slowly lowered his head, his eyes widening slightly as he looked at his abdomen, where a long sword had impaled him.

"Why?" The monk was utterly shocked. He looked at Li Huowang, who stood directly in front of him, and questioned him in disbelief.

He said, his voice trembling slightly, "He was clearly fake, wasn't what I said reasonable? Where did I go wrong? Where did I make a mistake? Why did you have to kill me?"

Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang, with a single hand on the hilt, forcefully plunged the sword deeper into the monk's stomach.

"You didn't say anything wrong, and he is indeed fake. But I am not Peng Zhi; I am Li Huowang."

"What gives you the right? What makes you so sure you're Li Huowang? You clearly believed it just now!"

Hearing this, Li Huowang's expression turned ferocious. Gripping the sword with both hands, he pushed the monk backward.

"I don't need any proof! I am Li Huowang, and I don't need a reason! I don't need logic; I am Li Huowang!"

Taking three swift steps, Li Huowang pushed the monk back against a wagon, effectively impaling him there.

Red blood flowed down the monk's tattered robes onto the ground. The gradually weakening monk looked at Li Huowang before him and asked with difficulty, "Did you... did you not consider that you might have killed the wrong person? Perhaps what I said... was true?"

Li Huowang took a deep breath, and with all his might, he shrieked hysterically at the monk, "What if what you said is true! What if you are Peng Jiao!"

"I don't care! I am Li Huowang! I am the Li Huowang they care about! No one else will take that away!"

As these words left his mouth, the monk's head completely slumped. Staring at the dead man, Li Huowang trembled and continued to repeat, "I am Li Huowang, I am Li Huowang, I am Li Huowang..."

With each repetition, the killing intent in his heart intensified, and the image of the birthday cake from earlier flashed through his mind.

"If the Li Huowang that Yang Na and the others care about truly exists, then I just need to find him and kill him! Once I kill him, the identity of Li Huowang will be mine!"

Witnessing this scene, the three faces of Dan Yangzi next to him twisted into satisfied smiles.

"Ugh... why are you such a lunatic? I was deceiving you perfectly, why didn't you follow the script? Why did you suddenly attack?"

The supposedly dead monk suddenly spoke. His round head quickly morphed, becoming square, while his facial features and wrinkles rapidly transformed into two swirling circles on that square head.

Seeing this person's sudden transformation, Li Huowang was first startled, then overcome with ecstatic joy.

"Hahaha!! I knew I was right! You're a trickster! You're a trick—no! You're not just a trickster! You're a practitioner of Zuowang Dao! You're Erbing!"

The moment he saw that mahjong-tile face, Li Huowang instantly realized this was the Zuowang Dao, the very entity the abbess had warned him to be extremely wary of!

"Ugh, so annoying! You clearly already fell for it, why did you suddenly attack me?! Lunatics are lunatics!"

Erbing's face rapidly shifted, morphing into the visage of a beautiful woman. She swiftly stomped her feet, executed a flip, and leaped onto the wagon's roof. The moment she landed on the rooftop, all surrounding attacks ceased instantly.

By the time Li Huowang used a wagon wheel to step onto the rooftop, Erbing had already leaped out of the wagon formation and rejoined the others outside.

Seeing that neither the Nuo opera performers nor the bandits attacked Erbing, Li Huowang no longer had any doubt about the situation. It was clear these individuals had all been brought by Erbing! All that talk of 'severing the three corpses' was nothing but fabricated nonsense from the Zuowang Dao.