611 Gu Xuan's Deception Dao
'So, you want to take from my hands?' thought w.a.n.g Wei as he a.n.a.lyzed Chu Luo's reaction. He was fined with that outcome as well. Meanwhile, Lord Spirit seemed happy that no one had an objection, and she did not have to justify his choice.
"Tomorrow, you can accept the inheritance."
w.a.n.g Wei nodded and went to rest. The next day, he met with Lord Spirit before the talisman.
"You seem excited," commented w.a.n.g Wei.
"Of course I am. My master has been waiting for a worthy inheritor for too long. And once he succeeds, I can finally reunite with him," replied Lord Spirit, his joy and excitement exuding from his tone and eyes.
"That's good for you," w.a.n.g Wei replied calmly. He followed Lord Spirit into the PaG.o.da, where he found himself in a brightly lit room, with a bunch of torchlight with white flame surrounding the room.
In the middle was an altar with candles. In front stood a middle-aged man with long black hair tied in a bun and a long black beard that was exceptionally trim. His hair and beard had streaks of white hair, accentuating his peaceful aura with a touch of wisdom.
"Master," said Lord Spirit before kneeling and kowtowing.
"Lord Gu Xuan," said w.a.n.g Wei as he cupped his hand and bowed. Gu Xuan smiled and nodded in salutation. He then gazed at Lord Spirit. "You did a great job."
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"It was my honor."
"You can leave. Prepare to leave with me."
"Yes, master," replied the odd spirit, walking out of the room with exciting steps. Then, Giu Xuan looked at w.a.n.g Wei and smiled: "Another unparallel genius appeared in the Myriad Emperor World. Your accomplishment will definitely surpa.s.s your ancestor."
"You knew my ancestors?"
"Not personally. But I've heard of their legend. Well, enough about these pleasantries. Let's talk about my inheritance. My Longevity Art is nothing special besides allowing its ability to create Insurgent and live longer. I'm sure there is no tangible benefit to a Heaven Chosen such as yourself.
"However, it means a great deal to me; it is the result of my long cultivation, hard work, and dedication. As such, I wanted the best and most gifted individual to - -"
"Excuse," said w.a.n.g Wei, interrupting him.
"Is there something?"
"This is to cliche."
"Pardon me?"
"I mean your obvious attempt at stalling so you can take over my body; the entire situation is a little too cliche and overdone."
"I"m afraid I do not understand?" asked Gu Xuan, perplexed.
"I'm sensitive enough that the moment I walked into this room, I could tell I had entered a soul form, and the entire room was my Sea of Consciousness. So, please remove the charade; you can't deceive me."
w.a.n.g Wei chuckled to himself as he thought using the word "deceive" was clever. Unfortunately, Gu Xuan could not appreciate such a great joke. His demeanor changed, turning gloomy. His gentle eyes became similar to a snake hiding in the bushes in ambush.
"As expected. As a Dao Overlord, you still surprise me even after overestimating your capability."
"It was not as hard as you expected. As a person who practices the Dao of Deception, I have to say, you're not very good at it."
"What did you say?"
"It's true," replied w.a.n.g Wei. "The first mistake you made was your reputation. After learning about your history, it's normal to conclude you were a snake who feared death above anything else. You were selfish and were not above using disgusting methods for your success or survival. Now, why would I trust someone with such a reputation?"
Veins appeared on Gu Xuan's face.
"This is not how you should practice the Dao of Deception. If I were you, I would have deceived the entire world and crafted the perfect personality. A good reputation, even a Saint-like one, is excellent for doing anything. People will trust you more, and your words will have more weight, perfect for deceiving people.
"I would deceive myself by crafting a secondary personality with Sain-like morality, always doing good for the people and the world. And when I wanted to deceive someone or something, I would switch to my real personality.
"As long as you deceive yourself and the world, it should not be a problem to deceive Heavenly Dao. But I'm confused about how one could deceive Grand Dao, thought. Isn't that thing neigh omnipotent? Forget it for now. Well, that's how I would cultivate Deception Dao, not the low-level method of conning people left and right."
At this point, Gu Xuan was seeing red. He was usually very calm and calculated, as he needed such a mindset to deceive people effectively. However, if there was one thing he was proud of, it was his Dao. He took something that most people in power would scoff at and elevated it to an art, to a Dao.
Yet, some snot-nosed brat is preaching to him about his own Dao. What made the situation worse was he made some excellent points.
"Do you want to know the other mistakes you've made?" asked w.a.n.g Wei, with an innocent face that made people want to punch him. "I'll tell you.
"The trial itself was an anomaly. At first, I thought it was because of the whole Deception Motif you were following. However, each section was detailed and tested something specific, meaning you had strict requirements. Yet, the rules–especially the points and seeded player token system made absolutely no sense. It was like you did not want partic.i.p.ants to know who would inherit your legacy.
"But then, I thought deeper. I asked myself, what is it that someone like you want? Why set up this trial? The answer came after I divided the essence of your personality into two traits: survival and longevity."
"You dare to claim you know me?"
"Tell me if I'm wrong. You're a man who fears death very much, hence why the first draft of your longevity art involved increasing lifespan. However, you achieve your goal of becoming immortal after becoming a Dao Ancestor, never having to worry about lifespan.
"Your life became even better when you discovered that you could make your scripture into an Insurgent one and used it as a Longevity Technique; this also meant the longevity aspect of your personality was fulfilled.
However, I"m guessing something happened that gave you a wake-up. If I had to guess, you died and only survived because of the longevity aspect of your art. It's then the second aspect of your personality kicked in: survival. You realized even if you did not have to worry about lifespan, you could die at any moment.
"So, you asked yourself how to deal with the situation? How to ensure your survival? And the answer you came up with was to acquire the power of eternity; you wanted to become an Eternal Emperor. Am I right?"
Gu Xuan did not answer, his mind traveling to that moment when he faced death; it was the worse sensation he had felt in his life.
"Unfortunately, you knew yourself well," continued w.a.n.g Wei. "You were self-aware of your limitation; you knew with your talent, you would never become an Eternal Emperor. Disillusion, you continued the path of cultivation, hoping by reaching higher realms, you could conquer these feelings of fear and inferiority. Unfortunately, they never went away.
"So, you decided to do something drastic; you decided on your ultimate deception: deceive Heaven and Earth and take the ident.i.ty of an unparallel genius: you would receive their strength, Dao Heart, Will, comprehension, intelligence, Luck, Karma, etc. You would inherit their entire existence and, with that newfound talent, prove the Dao and become an Eternal Emperor.
"This act should be the last part of the Deceiving Heaven Longevity Art: the ultimate deception of the self: becoming someone else."
Gu Xuan had calmed down, squinting his eyes at w.a.n.g Wei with no expression.
"Honestly, if you had chosen someone else and just given me the inheritance, your plan might have succeeded."
Gu Xuan's eyes twinkled slightly, and w.a.n.g Wei caught that slight change.
"So, that was originally your plan? Let me guess, after seeing how exceptional Chu Luo and I were, you changed your mind. And you chose me–even though I'm technically weaker than him–because of that last trial. My success in reaching the lifespan limit of the world appealed to the longevity part of your core personality.
"Someone like me would survive and prosper even if you failed to become an Eternal Emperor. So, you chose me since I was more p.r.o.ne to success than Chu Luo."
"Enough," said Gu Xuan. "I applaud your wit and cannot wait for it to belong to me. Nevertheless, this will not change anything."
"How so?"
"No one will come to save you. I've sacrificed most of my cultivation to set up the Deception Ceremony. I've completely isolated your Sea of Consciousness from the outside world. Even if the Lower Dimension were not sealed, these parasites would be unable to detect your presence for quite some time."
"Is that so? I guess I don't have to use my methods."
"What do you mean by this?" asked Gu Xuan, raising his guard.
"Seriously? You know I'm a Dao Overlord, and I spent all this time telling you this information. For what reason would I do that? Do you think things will go smoothly for you?"
Gu Xuan's face changed for a moment before he regained his bearing.
"I can already guess you will say something stupid like 'in front of absolute power, all plots are useless.'"
Gu Xuan almost choked since that was the exact words he was going to say.
"The whole point of the Supreme Outlaw Trial is to overcome the odds. Plus, you don't even have the absolute advantage in power since you had no choice but to sacrifice most of your cultivation for this ceremony."
"So what? My soul still has some of the quality and power of a Dao Monarch."
"True. That's why I need to use some drastic means." Purple chains appeared on w.a.n.g Wei's body before they broke, falling to the ground. And what Gu Xuan saw afterward almost made his soul scared to death.