I Am Loaded with Passive Skills

Chapter 3880: Chapter 1864: Delusion (Part 2)

Dao Qiongcang stood up and walked over. Apart from the torn and bloodstained clothes, his injuries were already healed as if new, his presence under the moonlight carrying a cold and eerie aura.

His face showed a mix of sighs and disdain as he stopped in front of the three women, and said amusingly:

"That pool of fish, doesn’t exist anymore, does it?"

Yu Zhiwen’s face remained emotionless, not a hint of emotion showing, knowing that Qiongcang could easily discern subtle signs, making it necessary to be on guard.

Dao Qiongcang flicked his sleeve, snorted coldly, saying:

"If I can openly tell you, I’m not afraid that I’ll destroy that pool of fish right now. All is false, both the pool and the fish."

"Of course, even if you have other means to forcibly summon Xu Xiaoshou back from the All Time Forgotten Sorrow Pavilion, do you think I would care?"

As he spoke, the corner of his lips lifted, resembling a half-smile, his expression becoming extremely subtle as he lifted his eyes to the moonlight and recalled:

"On the day of the Four Symbols Secret Realm, I went to great lengths to ask for Bei Huai’s divided intent to possess the Holy Emperor Qilin to severely injure Xu Xiaoshou."

"Later, I captured Xiang Yaoyao in Jade Capital City to force Xu Xiaoshou to show up after being injured, revealing his true self."

"This ’herding pigs into a pen’ scheme, you participated in the whole process."

Yu Zhiwen’s spirit trembled, not understanding the implications behind Qiongcang’s mention of these, when she heard him continue:

"From Jade Capital City to Qingyuan Mountain, you went through most of it, even the Thirty Three Heavens Star Weaving array that almost trapped Xu Xiaoshou was your handiwork."

"There’s a place you didn’t go. Do you know where it is?"

Yu Zhiwen didn’t know what Dao Qiongcang was saying, but was inexplicably tense.

Suddenly, her palm felt warm, realizing Yue Big Sister had held it in reverse, instantly bringing some peace to her heart.

"There is a small town under Qingyuan Mountain, called Changde Town."

"In the town, there is a Cao’s Blacksmith Shop, housing Cao Yihan, also the Kui Leihan of the Ten High Nobles."

Dao Qiongcang said, spreading his hands with an unruly expression on his face: "You certainly can’t go to this place because you are a Divine Sorcerer. If you were to go, you might discover something amiss, there is a slight chance you see that the whole town is fake people, forms resembling the Path Division, all serving as my eyes guarding Kui Leihan."

Yu Zhiwen’s delicate frame quivered.

The Path Division was her scar.

Dao Qiongcang had no thought of sparing her feelings, his words were like salt on her wounds.

"Returning to the ’herding pigs into a pen’, until Qingyuan Mountain, this scheme has reached the net-closing stage, did I fail?"

"Yes, I failed, I didn’t catch Xu Xiaoshou."

"Xu Xiaoshou camouflaged the real with the false, even at the last moment, when I forcibly logged into the Apricot Realm, it was too late, he had already escaped the Apricot Realm with the Dragon Apricot golden cicada shell, out of my sight."

"While I had to feed Greedy the Cat Spirit with flesh and blood, driving it mad to ravage Jade Capital, attempting to add fuel to the fire, forcing him to appear again, as merging to become a ghost beast host body is the only solution."

Even up to this day, recalling this scheme, Yu Zhiwen still felt a bit afraid, but she knew the ending.

After Xu Xiaoshou returned, his heavy injuries had healed, even if he became the ghost beast host body, Dao Qiongcang no longer had any chance of turning things around.

She held Yue Big Sister’s hand tightly, muttering: "Failing to catch the chicken and losing the bait instead."

Dao Qiongcang seemed delighted by the scolding, his expression turning exceedingly bright, shifting the conversation: "But did Xu Xiaoshou win?"

The cold wind howled, and the waves roared.

The three women each tilted their heads, seeing Dao Qiongcang snort in disdain:

"He didn’t win!"

"Do you know who his only savior was in his panic after escaping with the Dragon Apricot golden cicada shell?"

"The first place he would go, and indeed did go, where was it?"

Yu Zhiwen’s thoughts surged violently.

In Li Fuyu’s mind, it was as if a thunderbolt had struck.

Yue Gongnu, having listened to Dao Qiongcang speak of many things about the five regions over the past half-year after she left the cold prison, though she didn’t gain much, she wasn’t deeply versed in this scheme’s inner workings either.

Upon hearing this, she too had an answer in her heart, softly mumbling out:

"Kui Leihan..."

Dao Qiongcang retracted his smile, his face returning to calm, picking up the divine Sinan whose whereabouts were unknown before, reverting to his true self as the pearl of wisdom in hand:

"Correct, Kui Leihan."

"The place he went was also the Tianji Town, which you Yu Zhiwen had never visited."

Dao Qiongcang gazed at the river of time, looked at the Southern Underworld night, encompassing all vastness in his eyes, as could be said nothing was beyond grasp, he sighed at length:

"The true memory branding is not the ’symbol’ openly displayed that can be replaced, it was a psychological suggestion I gave him in advance. At a dead-end, he considered it his life-saving ’only’.

"The result of ’herding pigs into a pen’ was Xu Xiaoshou, with an injured body and intent, voluntarily entered my encirclement, even considering gifting me a Dragon Apricot."

Dao Qiongcang turned his head to look at Yu Zhiwen calmly, saying faintly:

"Xu Xiaoshou won."

"But it’s not that he won, it’s that I felt it was enough, and thus spared him."

He held the divine Sinan with one hand, the other supported the void, holding empty air, his face was brimming with a delightful morning of enlightenment, and the evening without death:

"What is meant by: Divine Secrets?"

"Divine Secrets are not elusive nor are they absolute variables.

"The moment I confirmed my thoughts when someone realized he won, he was no longer a variable in my chessboard—Xu Xiaoshou had become a constant!"

Dao Qiongcang stood beyond the river of time, his figure hazy, vanishing within the bubbles of time, both near at hand and distant across the vastness.

His gaze passed over the river, undisturbed as it fell upon them:

"This is the last lesson I teach you."

"And having said that, does Ms. Zhiwen understand?"

"Your so-called third choice, in my eyes, has never amounted to a ’choice’, it was only a delusion of self-deception."