Chapter 1542: Struck by Deception

Chapter 1542: Struck by Deception

In a thick fog, the young figure in black robes with a jade-white face appeared somewhat naive and bewildered.

A strand of Gu Thought, like a hair, hooked onto this figure.

Master Wu felt a slight surprise inwardly, he hadn't expected to trace the source of the Cause-and-Effect Fate Pattern so quickly through the Gu Arts.

He had originally assumed it would take more effort, yet unexpectedly, it went smoothly.

“My Unorthodox Path Arts have truly improved greatly... It wasn't in vain that I've cultivated for so many years,” Master Wu thought to himself.

In the Unorthodox Path, cultivation age often equates to cultivation attainment.

The longer one lives, the longer one cultivates, the stronger one's attainment naturally becomes, and the more effortless one's Fāng Arts grow.

Master Wu took another look at Mo Hua's face.

Indeed young, and indeed somewhat immature, his gaze clear as water, one could see straight to the bottom of his heart. There was also a certain stiffness and childishness, as if he had never grown up.

This was the Fate Manifestation of a cultivator within their Cause-and-Effect Fate Pattern.

Unlike a complete, condensed Divine Sense Avatar with clear self-awareness, the manifestation within a cultivator's karmic destiny pattern is often an illusory form produced by the convergence of all the causes and effects accumulated throughout the cultivator's life.

The form of such Fate Manifestations is mostly passive, with appearances and forms varying greatly.

Different cultivators, with different origins, different experiences, naturally manifested different forms from their Cause-and-Effect Fate Patterns.

Even the same person, at different ages, in different circumstances, with different mindsets, would present vastly different Fate Forms.

But this was a secret of a higher order within the Divine Dao.

The exact relationship between a cultivator's heart, spirit, and fate was a lifelong mystery pursued by many Unorthodox Cultivators, and even many old monsters of the Divine Dao.

Master Wu himself did not know it deeply.

But regardless, the fact that a Fate Pattern could manifest in ‘human form’ indicated that this person must possess extraordinary temperament and some special qualities in their Divine-Sense.

Perhaps they even had some connection to the Unorthodox Path.

Master Wu was somewhat surprised inwardly, but upon recalling that this young man was a Formation Master, proficient in Formations, he found it not entirely unexpected.

Master Wu gazed at this figure and probed with a question: “Who are you?”

‘Mo Hua’ also asked: “Who are you?”

It can communicate... this much spiritual nature?

Master Wu asked again: “I'm asking you.”

Mo Hua likewise said: “I'm asking you.”

Master Wu frowned, thinking to himself, this Fate Manifestation is like an idiot—could it only repeat what was said?

Master Wu then said: “I am... Lord Qingchou.”

Mo Hua said nothing, merely silently watching Master Wu, as if looking at a fool.

Master Wu was taken aback, realizing something was off. This manifestation didn't seem to merely parrot words, and it even seemed able to judge that he was lying?

After pondering for a moment, Master Wu said: “I am Master Wu.”

Mo Hua also said: “I am Mo Hua.”

Master Wu's eyes flickered, and he instantly understood the trick behind this.

To obtain something, one must first give something.

To ask something, one must first answer something.

This was called equivalent exchange, cause-and-effect mutually repaid.

Beings within the Cause-and-Effect Fate Pattern were anchored in “reality” but presented in “illusory” form.

Since they were illusory, they were inherently mutable, full of variables.

The various manifestations of Cause-and-Effect each had their own characteristics and Laws.

The Fate Manifestation before him had its own rules: it adhered to the cycle of Cause-and-Effect and equivalent exchange.

From the perspective of Cause-and-Effect, this was perfectly reasonable. In fact, it seemed almost too reasonable, too much by-the-book.

In this day and age, a Fate Manifestation that played by the rules this much could only appear on someone so new to the Dao, a veritable novice.

Those old foxes of the Unorthodox Path—every last one of them—would go out of their way to poison their own Cause-and-Effect, laying all sorts of insidious traps. One misstep, and you'd be caught.

“But... Mo Hua?”

Master Wu frowned, silently mulling over the name, and couldn't help but ponder:

“In all of Kun Province, which noble family bears the surname Mo? And which faction of any renown goes by Mo?”

“Among the Unorthodox Path, there doesn't seem to be any branch surnamed Mo either...”

“Mo Hua...”

Master Wu was puzzled, turning the two characters ‘Mo Hua’ over and over in his mind, completely unaware that the Fate Manifestation before him was watching him with a strange, eerie gaze.

Master Wu seemed bewitched, muttering the name repeatedly, when suddenly a chill ran down his spine. He snapped his head up to look at Mo Hua.

But the manifestation before him had suddenly become well-behaved again. His gaze was clear, looking a bit dazed.

Master Wu frowned, then a thought struck him, and he asked, “Have you ever cultivated the Unorthodox Path?”

Mo Hua asked in return, “Have you ever cultivated the Unorthodox Path?”

Master Wu nodded. “I have.”

Mo Hua paused for a moment, then said, “I have too.”

Master Wu's pupils contracted at this. Wait… this kid actually cultivated the Unorthodox Path?

He immediately pressed on, “How many years did you cultivate the Unorthodox Path?”

Mo Hua echoed, “How many years did you cultivate the Unorthodox Path?”

Master Wu said, “Less than three hundred years.”

Mo Hua said, “Less than thirty years.”

Master Wu frowned. Less than thirty years? That's hardly any time at all. Barely enough to even get through the door...

Master Wu asked, “Do you have a master?”

Mo Hua repeated the question again.

Master Wu's eyes flickered, and he answered first, “This old man hails from a lost lineage of the Southern Frontier. I studied under True-Person Wugong, cultivating the Myriad Poisons Gu School of the Unorthodox Path, and revere Lady Thousand Spiders as my deity...”

Mo Hua suddenly understood, and asked, “Who is Lady Thousand Spiders?”

“Lady Thousand Spiders...” Master Wu was taken aback, immediately realizing something was off. This manifestation's cause-and-effect Q&A pattern seemed to be breaking the rules again.

Master Wu asked in a low voice, “Why did you stop repeating my words?”

Mo Hua countered, “Why should I repeat your words?”

Master Wu's pupils narrowed slightly. He sensed something strange, and pressed further, “Your master... you still haven't answered me?”

Mo Hua said, “I have no master in the Unorthodox Path.”

Master Wu frowned. “No master? Then how could you possibly cultivate the Unorthodox Path?”

Mo Hua said, “I only cultivated a tiny bit.”

Master Wu asked, “How did you cultivate it?”

Mo Hua said, “I just fumbled around and taught myself...”

Master Wu sneered inwardly, neither confirming nor denying.

But Mo Hua pressed on, “That Lady Thousand Spiders you mentioned, who exactly is she? Is she a great deity?”

Master Wu's heart stirred slightly. “Why do you ask?”

Mo Hua said, “I am a devout and good cultivator. When I come across a temple, I pay my respects; when I encounter a deity, I also think to offer my worship...”

Master Wu was noncommittal. “Devotion is a good thing. A cultivator must know reverence in life, especially reverence for spirits and gods, and for those unknowable existences.”

Mo Hua nodded, deeply agreeing. “Then could you take me to pay respects at Lady Thousand Spiders' temple?”

Master Wu asked again, “After you pay respects to Lady Thousand Spiders, what do you plan to do?”

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then said, “I want to learn some Unorthodox Path Fāng Arts. I wonder if Lady Thousand Spiders would be willing to teach me.”

Master Wu said, “You don't understand. Deities are born with innate Divine Power; they disdain learning 'arts.' Fāng Arts are meant for humans, they are the knowledge of mankind.”

“I see...” Mo Hua felt a pang of regret, his expression turning dejected.

A glint of sharp light flashed in Master Wu's murky eyes as he said slowly, “Lady Thousand Spiders doesn't know Fāng Arts, but this old man does.”

Mo Hua was startled, his eyes brightening slightly. He asked, “Then would you teach me Fāng Arts?”

Master Wu nodded. “I can.”

Mo Hua's face lit up with joy, but then he grew puzzled and asked, “But... why would you teach me Fāng Arts?”

Master Wu gave Mo Hua a deep look and said, “Because this old man can tell that you are an absolute genius.”

Mo Hua nodded, then asked doubtfully, “Can you really tell?”

Master Wu sighed. “Not only can I tell that you possess extraordinary innate Divine-Sense, I can also see that you have exceptional comprehension when it comes to Fāng Arts. A genius like you, if you don't study Fāng Arts and become an Ancestor of the Unorthodox Path, it would truly be a waste of heaven's gift...”

Mo Hua felt a surge of delight. “Really?”

Master Wu nodded solemnly. “This old man is the master of the Thousand Spiders Temple, heir to the Ten Thousand Poisons Gu Way, and a master of the Unorthodox Path. My word carries weight, how could I deceive you?”

Mo Hua's face beamed with joy, a smile tugging at his lips as he confirmed once more:

“Master Wu, you're certain you'll teach me Fāng Arts?”

Master Wu nodded. “I will teach you.”

Mo Hua asked again, “You're not lying to me?”

Master Wu said, “If you don't believe me, this old man will teach you a technique right now.”

Mo Hua grew even more delighted. “What will you teach me?”

Master Wu spread open one of his palms. “Watch closely...”

Mo Hua fixed his gaze on the palm. He saw that Master Wu's hand was pale and withered, covered in poison blotches and missing chunks of flesh, as if it had been bitten by venomous insects—mottled and raw.

“This is...” Mo Hua was momentarily stunned.

Master Wu said, “This is the price of cultivating the Five Poison Gu Art. But for the sake of cultivating the supreme wonders of the Unorthodox Path, this bit of Backlash is hardly worth mentioning...”

Mo Hua nodded.

Master Wu said, “Don't move. I'll show you the true mystery of Fāng Arts.”

Mo Hua stood still.

Master Wu's mottled, withered old palm slowly pressed against Mo Hua's forehead, and then he said:

“The Fāng Art I'm teaching you now is a type of Gu Arts. It's called the Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art. It's a technique in which five Human-Faced Ghost Spiders are refined into Gu insects, cruelly slaughtered, and their curse-remnants are fused into the five fingers...”

“When it's cast, the five fingers transform into curses. As long as you use Cause-and-Effect as a medium to seep the Human-Faced Ghost Spiders' Divine Sense Thought Power into someone else's Sea of Consciousness, you can instantly curse them to death...”

“Just like this...”

The five fingers pressed against Mo Hua's forehead suddenly turned black. The nails bulged, the flesh rotted, and five Ghost-Faced Spiders crawled out, skittering across Mo Hua's forehead and burrowing inward.

Mo Hua was frozen for a moment before he stammered in shock, “Master Wu... weren't you going to teach me Fāng Arts?”

Master Wu said, “Isn't this me teaching you right now?”

“But...” Mo Hua's face began to turn pale as the black curse-remnants bit through his forehead and burrowed into his Sea of Consciousness. “I...”

Master Wu said, “If you don't experience it yourself, how would you know how powerful and vicious this Curse Art truly is?”

“What I'm teaching you now is the fastest way to comprehend the Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art.”

Black lines were already crawling across Mo Hua's face, like black worms, as he stammered, “You... want to kill me?”

Master Wu shook his head and said, “Lord Qingchou truly is a fool. Not a single word he said can be trusted.”

“You're far, far smarter than Lord Qingchou.”

“You even knew to create a 'Fate-Pattern False Body' to deceive me.”

“Unfortunately, your cultivation is too shallow, and your arts are not refined enough. In the end, you revealed too many flaws for this old man to overlook...”

“To cultivate Unorthodox Path Arts, one must possess an eye that discerns truth from falsehood. How could a false body ever pass for the real thing?”

Mo Hua's Fate-Pattern body was already cursed to the marrow. His flesh began to rot and crack, black blood seeping out, as if he were about to die.

Mo Hua let out another sigh and asked, “Why do you want to kill me?”

Master Wu's face twisted with mockery as he said, “Blame yourself. Your skills are lacking, your cultivation insufficient, and yet you dared to imitate others and play these petty tricks of the Unorthodox Path...”

“Dying under the Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse is a blessing for you. In your next life, remember this lesson well.”

Master Wu activated the final death curse. From his five fingers, black blood like spider silk burrowed entirely into Mo Hua's head.

Mo Hua's entire body was stained with black blood, a truly miserable sight.

He murmured, “Master Wu, I'm doing this for your own good... I was afraid that if you saw my true form, you'd be scared to death on the spot...”

Master Wu was momentarily stunned by these words, then let out a cold laugh.

This brat, what nonsense was he spouting?

“Die in peace...”

The Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art was indeed an extremely powerful Curse Art.

In but a moment, Mo Hua could no longer speak a single word. His entire body was cursed until blood flowed from all seven orifices, and he no longer retained any semblance of human form.

His Fate-Pattern False Body had thus been cursed to death. Cause-and-Effect shattered, leaving only a husk behind.

Master Wu shook his head. The Five-Poison Hand pressed against Mo Hua's forehead suddenly clenched, crushing half of Mo Hua's skull.

As Mo Hua's head shattered, a gap opened in the warping void.

Master Wu's cultivation was deep enough to determine that this Fate-Pattern False Body called Mo Hua was one with the true Fate Pattern.

This brat had shaped a false body of Cause-and-Effect, wrapping it around his true Fate Pattern to deceive others.

And the truth of Cause-and-Effect was hidden within the false exterior.

Master Wu sneered, “This old man will see for himself what your true Fate Pattern really looks like...”

With that, he peered through the gap in Mo Hua's skull… and the smile on his face instantly froze.

He hadn't actually seen anything, really.

Or rather, he had seen something, but his brain simply couldn't comprehend what he was looking at.

He only felt a vague illusion, that through the gap in Mo Hua's skull, he had inadvertently glimpsed a deep abyss, witnessing the incubation of an indescribable Primordial Chaos.

Master Wu felt as though he were dreaming.

And not just any dream, a nightmare. The most ultimate, terrifying nightmare he could never have imagined in all his life, even in his wildest dreams.

Master Wu's body began to tremble.

At that moment, he wished he could gouge out his own eyeballs.

And indeed, he tried to.

Not just in the Cause-and-Effect Fate Realm...

But in reality, within the great hall of the Thousand Spider Temple.

Lord Qingchou, who was guarding the ritual, suddenly saw Master Wu, who had been perfectly fine just moments ago, curl up into a ball and begin to squirm slowly.

The all-powerful Master Wu was crawling on the ground like a maggot.

For a moment, Lord Qingchou's mind could not quite comprehend what he was seeing.

Before he could do anything, Master Wu's limbs twisted backward like spider legs, writhing and contorting as his fingers clawed at his own eyeballs.

“Not good!”

Lord Qingchou's face turned pale with alarm.

Recalling some of Master Wu's earlier instructions, he immediately stamped his foot, shattering the ground, smashing all the clay jars, and crushing every gu worm with his overwhelming pressure, forcibly breaking the ritual.

After doing all this, Lord Qingchou walked over to Master Wu and, with his bare hands, snapped Master Wu's limbs out of joint.

But even that didn't seem to work.

Master Wu seemed to have become a puppet, his consciousness in chaos.

His broken limbs twisted together like a twisted dough twist, converging toward the top of his head, still trying to gouge out his eyeballs.

It seemed he had seen something unclean, and his eyeballs could no longer be kept...

(End of Chapter)