The atmosphere became particularly heavy for a moment.
At this moment, Chun Xiaoman noticed that Li Huowang had no reaction on his face, and she was about to speak.
"Shh." Li Huowang put his hand to his mouth, gesturing for Chun Xiaoman to be quiet. He leaned towards the south to listen.
After a while, a rare smile appeared on his face.
"Don't worry, the food problem is solved."
Then, under the gaze of others, Li Huowang's body slowly shifted and gradually disappeared into the wall next to him.
"Wait for me here, I'll be back soon." Li Huowang's voice sounded out of thin air.
"Tsk tsk tsk, I know this, this is the wall-crossing technique my second uncle talked about. A master is a master, even better than others in doing illegal things."
As Li Huowang hid his own shadow in the wall, he was in a state of invisibility.
Li Huowang stuck to the wall and walked around to a building.
After passing through the courtyard where chickens were raised, he entered the house. The conversation just now was more audible.
"Son, this won't do, your skills are not yet up to par. Go read 'The Art of Deception' ten more times."
"Yes..."
"Don't blame your dad for being cruel. This is the foundation of our Wu family. All of our family's businesses were earned by our ancestors penny by penny through deception."
Li Huowang sighed lightly. It didn't seem like a paradise here.
There are actually people who make a living by cheating in this broken place.
But that's even better. He can now do illegal things openly and solve his urgent needs.
"I never thought that the first use of my new ability would be stealing."
"I wanted to make money by escorting goods before, but now I'm doing this kind of thing. Maybe doing legitimate work really isn't for me."
As he thought about these things, Li Huowang groped around the entire room.
Soon, he found a hidden compartment, and when he opened it, it was full of silver and gold, of all kinds and ages, and they looked dirty.
Li Huowang's face lit up with joy. He had the money he needed, so he quickly found a bag, put the money in it, and put it in his arms.
At this time, the conversation of the father and son next door was still going on, and their voices kept coming into his ears.
"Son, our family only has you as the only son. You must study hard. If you can't learn it, our Wu family's incense will be cut off."
"I remember, Dad, I will study hard and won't let you down."
Hearing this, a hint of disdain appeared on Li Huowang's face. These swindlers even cheated for the honor of their family.
After quickly turning around, Li Huowang found their cellar and went in. It was filled with all kinds of cured meat and pickled vegetables.
Li Huowang brought all these things outside and threw them over the wall to the other side.
This scene was particularly strange. A vegetable jar floated up and went to the corner of the wall, then ran over.
If someone saw it, they would surely be frightened.
The conversation of the father and son next door continued.
"Son, when you come down the mountain this time, you have to cheat a wife for me. As long as you can cheat her back, I'll consider you as having graduated."
"Dad, can a wife also be cheated?"
"Nonsense, as long as you cheat with all your heart and soul, what can't be cheated? Your mother was cheated by me back then, and she is still in the dark now."
For some reason, the more Li Huowang listened, the angrier he became. He stopped his work and thought, "Should I just kill them?"
Because of his previous experience with Zuo Wangdao, he now has a strong hostility towards swindlers. It would be best if all the swindlers in the world were extinct."Taoist, you can't do that. They did something wrong, but at least it's not a crime punishable by death."
A voice from the side startled Li Huowang. He realized that the monk he hadn't seen for a while had suddenly appeared.
The monk circled around Li Huowang, talking incessantly about those uplifting words.
After much hesitation, Li Huowang finally gave up on the idea.
The monk was right. He couldn't kill them.
He couldn't always resort to killing as the only means. Otherwise, holding a hammer in his hand, everything he saw would become a nail, and he would become more and more extreme.
But while the death penalty can be avoided, the living cannot escape punishment. He decided to thoroughly empty their house and let them enjoy the feeling of losing things.
Then Li Huowang emptied everything in their house. Anything that was edible or valuable was stolen.
"Son, you can't just make up lies when you're trying to deceive people. You have to mix some truth with some lies. That's how people will believe you."
"Dad, I know that, but how much truth and how much lies should I mix? The 'Deception Sutra' doesn't say."
"Stupid! It depends on the person you're trying to deceive. For someone easy to deceive, say less truth and more lies. For someone hard to deceive, especially someone particularly stubborn, you have to tell more truth and be more honest in front of them. That way, when you're deceiving them, they'll believe you."
"Remember, a qualified swindler must have some truth in what they say!"
"I remember."
Li Huowang, who was about to leave, heard this and went back into the house.
When he came out again, an old and new book was already in his hand. Two crooked characters were written on it, "Deception Sutra."
"I'll let you deceive!"
"How's it going? Did you get everything?" Li Huowang's virtual body merged back with his real body in front of everyone.
"We got everything. We got everything. But Li Shixiong, where did all this stuff come from?" Gouwa, who had already stuffed a piece of bacon into his mouth, asked.
"It doesn't matter as long as we have it. Let's talk while we walk."
As they gradually walked out of the village, the pitiful howling gradually faded from Li Huowang's ears.
"Dad! Someone stole our 'Deception Sutra'!"
"Dad! Someone stole our chickens!"
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"Dad! Someone even stole the pot on our stove!!!"
It took a lot of effort to move all these things from the rugged mountain road.
But looking at the heavy things in their hands, everyone's faces were filled with happiness. They could finally eat their fill.
The first thing they did after descending the mountain was to find fresh water, start a fire, and cook a delicious meal.
After eating their fill, everyone's anxiety disappeared, and even their tempers improved.
"Sister Xiaoman, I'm sorry. The things I said before were unintentional." Gouwa smiled and leaned towards the women.
"Get away from me! Who doesn't know what you're thinking now that you're full? You only think of those dirty things after eating."
"Sister Xiaoman, look at what you're saying. I didn't say those things before for everyone's benefit. We all share the food..."
As he listened to their bickering, Li Huowang reached into his pocket and took out the loot from earlier.
He handed the heavy bags to Bai Lingmiao. "These are all the swindler's goods. There's gold and silver in them. Take a look."
"Okay."
Finally, Li Huowang, who had some free time, looked at the others who were full of food and felt relieved.The material problem was solved, and as long as they smoothly passed through the Later Shu, the trouble this time would be safely passed.
After thinking for a while, he took out the "Deceiving Scriptures" and started to read it.
"I can't believe there's a book specifically teaching deception, this is the first time I've seen it."
"Heh, even the speaking techniques of deception are included in it."
Li Huowang was just casually flipping through it to pass the time.
But as he continued to read, Li Huowang's expression gradually became serious and his body straightened up.
He found that some of the rhetoric on it had been used on him by the Taoist sects that deceive beings.
The words spoken by the Taoist sects were indeed partly false, but there was also a part of it that was true!