Mutated Tao

“Fate was taken from a Witch?”

Li Huowang ruminated on those words.

According to the Emperor, they could sustain the world because of Fate. However, he didn’t know what the Witch was, so Li Huowang was confused too.

Still, Li Huowang didn’t dismiss the Emperor’s words. He knew there was truth to them and needed to consider the matter carefully. Legends like these were often heavily distorted, leaving only fragments of truth.

After considering it, Li Huowang concluded that Fate was most likely Time. Without Time, the world would teeter on the brink of destruction, just like the Qi Kingdom.

Li Huowang was still partially embedded in the wall as he looked at Xuan Pin. "They claim there is no Siming, but don’t you think there could be a Siming who controls Time? Wouldn’t that be plausible?"

Xuan Pin nodded silently.

“Seniors… do you know what the Witch looks like? Is it like a golden dragon?”

Li Huowang stared at the golden scales and asked his question.

If the golden dragon in the Tianchen Kingdom was indeed the Dragon Vein, then the Tianchen Kingdom was truly unique. It was hard to believe that their Dragon Vein wasn’t formed by emperors.

“A golden dragon? I don’t know.”

“We are the sons of dragons! We are the dragons!”

“Lingyang is a dragon, though not a golden one.”

The more they discussed, the more plausible Li Huowang thought it was.

If that were the case, Li Huowang would have a good understanding of what had happened in ancient times.

Back then, humans were livestock. To escape, they stole the Heavenly Dao of Time from the Siming that controlled it. Since a regular person could not handle it, they split it into sixteen Dragon Veins. That was why the Liang Kingdom originally had sixteen divisions.

However, the more Li Huowang pondered, the more nonsensical it seemed. This wasn’t just limited to the Liang Kingdom—there were five different histories.

All five histories had time, which was also called the Fate of the Witch. If he were right, it would mean the people in all five histories had managed to snag and split the Heavenly Dao of Time from the Siming who controlled it.

At the start of every history, there were sixteen Dragon Veins. Since there were five histories, that also meant that there were 80 Dragon Veins now!

Li Huowang thought about the Heavenly Mater's past. The people in the Tianchen Kingdom had stolen her Heavenly Dao and distributed it.

He thought the Tianchen Kingdom was weird, but it appeared that something similar had happened in all five histories.

Everyone took it for granted due to how much time had passed.

“Father, if the golden dragon is indeed a Dragon Vein, you need to count how many divisions the Tianchen Kingdom has in a single day when you go there.” ṟ

Li Huowang understood what she meant and nodded. The number of divisions represented the number of Dragon Veins in the Tianchen Kingdom.

Since they could touch and neutralize the Heavenly Daos so easily, it was possible they could also easily neutralize the Dragon Veins of the Liang Kingdom.

If that were the case, then even tens of Dragon Veins would be unable to do anything, even if they pooled their Dragon Qi together.

Moreover, with so much Dragon Qi, the Tianchen Kingdom could easily create a group of elites immune to the Heavenly Daos by cloaking them with Dragon Qi.

If they could do something like that, Li Huowang was sure that even Doulao would be useless in the fight against the Tianchen Kingdom.

Li Huowang considered many things, but in the end, he decided to take things one at a time because he could do nothing with the information at hand.

Li Huowang contemplated various factors but ultimately chose to proceed step by step, as he could do anything with the information at hand.

Since the TIanchen Kingdom hadn’t done so yet, Li Huowang thought that there might be some restrictions stopping them.

“Seniors, thank you for the help.” Li Huowang bowed and climbed up the coffin.

“Father, was their information helpful? I don’t think it will help us much right now.”

Li Huowang nodded at Li Sui’s question.

“It's erratic but still useful. There might be a day when it helps us, even if it doesn’t amount to anything right now. We don’t know what we will face in the future. At the very least, we won’t be completely clueless.”

Li Huowang raised his head and looked at the starry night. “Also, I learned something through our conversation just now.”

“What is it?”

“Have you not realized that the world is not fixed? Our history and Heavenly Daos can be easily changed. Do you know what this means?”

Li Huowang raised his hands and covered the skies. He then clenched his fists, and his eyes lit up. “It means that if we work hard enough and are strong enough, we can shape the world as we please.”

Li Sui looked up at the stars as well. “Father, what kind of world do you want this to be? Don’t you think it's nice now?”

“It’s not that it’s bad—I just don’t like it. Remember Dan Yangzi?”

Li Huowang and Li Sui left the palace quickly as they talked.

“I do. I remember you told me that he didn’t even blink when he killed someone. He was also an illiterate idiot.”

Li Sui was floating closely behind Li Huowang.

“Back in the Zephyr Temple, I hated him a lot. I wanted to kill him and even risked my life to do it. However, now that I’ve gone through so many things, I can understand why he became so evil. He wasn’t always evil—this crazy world forced him to become evil. Otherwise, he would’ve died very early on. He simply made the best choices he could to survive.”

After exiting the palace, Li Huowang and Li Sui walked along the large streets. They arrived at a crossroads and saw many people drawing circles on the ground while burning paper money and paper ingots for the deceased. It was the Qingming Festival once more.

The Liang Kingdom had suffered numerous disasters, resulting in the loss of many lives. As such, there were a lot of people burning offerings for the deceased.

They crouched down by the fire, burning their paper offerings and whispering the words they wished their deceased loved ones could hear. Li Huowang, with his keen hearing, could catch every word.

Most of them were asking their family members what the underworld was like. They also asked them to contact them through dreams if they needed anything.

“Suisui, don’t you think that this world is wrong? Those who harm others can live until they’re old, while honest and good people die young. They don’t deserve it.”

Li Huowang approached one of the stalls that sold paper ingots and paper money. He bought some for himself.