Mutated Tao

“Is that so? Senior Li, where’s the jade pendant, then?” Bai Lingmiao asked, casting a confused gaze at Li Huowang. She had no idea what he was talking bout.

Li Huowang was stunned when he heard her say that. How come she doesn't know when I gave it to her?

Even though it was a long time ago, Li Huowang could still remember the jade pendant that represented the Imperial family of the Liang Kingdom, and it was inside Xuan Yang’s quarters within the Zephyr Temple.

However, Bai Lingmiao had actually forgotten it—no, she thought that it didn’t exist.

Something’s wrong here! If Ji Zai had turned everything he had experienced on that huge wooden ship into a “Lie," then there was definitely something strange here!

Why did Ji Zai turn that into a “Lie”? Why did Ji Zai make it so that he never obtained the jade pendant?

This meant that quite a few more memories were altered, or worse, some past events were altered after Doulao lost those Heavenly Daos.

Li Huowag looked at Bai Lingmiao’s eyes covered in white silk. “Miaomiao, go and summon those who had traveled with us from the Zephyr Temple. I need to talk to them.”

Bai Lingmiao was confused, but she nodded. “All right.”

Soon, those who had been with him in the Zephyr Temple. They were all equally confused as to why Li Huowang had called for them.

Li Huowang swept his gaze across them before showing them a drawing of a jade pendant.

“Have any of you seen me bringing this jade pendant out of Zephyr Temple? Do you remember anything about it?”

“What is that? A jade pendant? I've never seen anything like that. I don’t think it’s something we'll obtain throughout our lifetime.”

“Yeah, and even if we had that jade pendant, we would have sold it long ago to fund our travels."

Li Huowang realized just then that everyone had also forgotten about the jade pendant's existence. Bai Lingmiao wasn't the only one affected.

“Master, is that jade pendant important? Where did you lose it? I can go and help you find it,” Lu Xiucai said, wanting to show his worth.

Li Huowang shook his head and dismissed them. “It’s fine. You can go now.”

Ji Zai hadn't said anything about it, so Li Huowang found it suspicious.

However, it was just a guess on his end. He still needed to take further action to confirm it.

The others thought that Li Huowang was purposely being mysterious toward them, but they still obliged and left.

Bai Lingmiao wasn’t sure what Li Huowang was planning on doing, and she was worried that the lotus root was losing its effectiveness.

“Miaomiao, bring me a messenger pigeon. I need to contact someone,” Li Huowang took out a bamboo slip with the moon engraved on it.

Li Huowang was planning to find none other than Liu Zongyuan from Moongate.

He thought it would take several days for Liu Zongyuan to arrive, but the latter actually arrived at midnight on the same day.

It seemed that Liu Zongyuan was incredibly motivated these days.

“Aiya, Senior Er Jiu, long time no see. Your status has been elevated, and I truly couldn't have seen that you're related to the emperor. I was wondering why you weren’t really active in the Surveillance Bureau, so your relationship with the emperor is the reason behind it,” Liu Zongyuan praised, sounding more respectful than usual.

The Surveillance Bureau was outside the jurisdiction of the emperor, and the former never really cared about the emperor's identity.

However, Liu Zongyuan's rank was low—low enough that the friend of the emperor had a higher status than him.

“Sit. It's been a long time since we saw each other, and I need your help as well.”

“Say no more. We survived a mission together, so I will definitely do you a favor,” Liu Zongyuan said, patting his chest with pride.

Staring at Liu Zongyuan's wooden mask, Li Huowang pondered over his questions before asking, “Do you still remember how the Sitting Oblivion Dao wrecked the Sacred Mountain Ghost Eye in Shangjing?”

“Of course. It was such a large-scale event. It would be hard to forget it.”

“Good, now tell me everything you remember about it. Don’t leave out a single word!”

“All right, I can tell you that much at least. It was just half a year ago, after all...” Liu Zongyuan proceeded with his recount.

Li Huowang was finally convinced that something was wrong.

It was one thing for his comrades to forget about the jade pendant, but Liu Zongyuan’s recount was drastically different from the truth as well.

It seemed that upon losing the two Heavenly Daos, everything about Doulao and its history was altered. Li Huowang suddenly remembered Ji Zai's words.

"What is real and what is fake? Are you sure that everything you're touching is real? What about everything you've experienced so far? Are you sure they're real? If so, then how are you going to prove it?"

The side effects of a Heavenly Dao changing hands from one Siming to another were far more serious than he had imagined.

He thought that such an event would only bring about the manifestation of Natural Disasters, but he couldn't have been more mistaken.

Does that mean that history changes itself every time there’s a Natural Disaster? How come I never noticed that until now? Li Huowang suddenly discovered something extremely important about the world.

The past of this bizarre and crazy world was not set in stone. They would change whenever there was a change in the controllers of the Heavenly Daos.

Simings and Twisted Ones… Li Huowang ignored Liu Zongyuan and paced in the room. The cogs in his mind turned rapidly as he recalled every single detail in his past. Li Huowang then remembered what they had written on the walls of the Surveillance Bureau.

"Find the Surveillance Bureau to purchase almanacs. Those who had printed it themselves would be exiled along with the three generations of their family."

Li Huowang unsheathed his spine sword and examined it carefully.

“Uh… Senior Er Jiu, is everything alright?” Liu Zongyuan couldn't help but ask. He found Li Huowang's behavior to be quite erratic and odd. He wanted to approach Li Huowang, but he hesitated and remained frozen in the end.

Li Huowang ignored Liu Zongyuan and talked to the hilt of the sword. More specifically, he was staring at the shrunken head of Zhuge Yuan as he asked, “Senior Zhuge, do you think it’s possible that the Qi Kingdom that you saved was just a part of a changed history that was brought about by the swapping of the Heavenly Daos between the Simings?”

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