Chapter 170 - 128: Beneath Truth and Falsehood

Chapter 170: Chapter 128: Beneath Truth and Falsehood

Xue Yanluo suddenly realized all his memories were a hazy blur, as if submerged in water. When he tried to grasp them, they were nothing but bubbles, popping at the slightest touch.

Lu Changyuan continued, "How could it be impossible? You haven’t forgotten your own gender, so why would you be suffering a backlash from the Yin-Yang Dao? It’s simply because the Painting Demon could paint you, but it couldn’t paint the Yin-Yang Dao itself. Therefore... you aren’t Xue Yanluo at all. You’re just a painted person, a copy based on his appearance and behavior."

Qiu Yuehan stared, stunned. "How did you figure it out?" she asked in disbelief. "He didn’t even know he was a paper person."

The Moon Fairy hadn’t noticed a single flaw. She had actually thought Lu Changyuan was trying to save Xue Yanluo.

Lu Changyuan said, "Ever since I saw that monster in the rain, I felt something was off. It was only later that I pinpointed the source of that feeling."

Most people who enter this village would be inclined to trust the first person they meet. This is especially true when that person warns you not to get caught in the rain and provides a perfectly valid reason for his actions—that Xue Yanluo needed to stay behind to find Bai Wei.

He seemed like a normal person, a potential ally. That was the first impression.

First impressions can easily cloud one’s judgment, which is why neither Lu Changyuan nor Qiu Yuehan saw anything wrong at first.

But later, after visiting the grave, when he was back home holding Qiu Yuehan, he suddenly realized where that nagging feeling of wrongness came from.

Why would Xue Yanluo help them?

Lu Changyuan laid it all out. "The story about Bai Wei being captured was meant to deceive us, but it was so full of holes that we saw right through it. Yet, seeing through it was also part of the Painting Demon’s plan. It was meant to reinforce one idea: that there was nothing wrong with Xue Yanluo. The Bai Wei we met was riddled with inconsistencies, clearly a fake. By contrast, Xue Yanluo’s story was seamless. Therefore, he had to be real."

If you intentionally create one fake for people to expose, it makes another, more flawless fake seem all the more real.

The Xue Yanluo in front of them had completely reverted to a paper figure, unable to utter a single word.

The tips of Qiu Yuehan’s ears turned red. She felt like a complete idiot.

Lu Changyuan chuckled. "The most brilliant part is that the Painting Demon also created a Leg-Eating Monk. This monk, just like you," he said to the dissolving figure, "had a motive and was painted to look perfectly real. He had nothing to do with us—he was here to find Xue Yanluo, so I never bothered to verify if he was real or not."

Qiu Yuehan asked curiously, "But the Painting Demon shouldn’t be able to paint someone it’s never seen, right?"

"Correct. That means a real Leg-Eating Monk did come to this village, and he really did fight a battle with Xue Yanluo. The Painting Demon must have painted that scene... When we entered the village, half of the mountain was gone. That was probably the scar left from their battle."

Lu Changyuan exhaled. "That’s why the fight we saw between Xue Yanluo and the Leg-Eating Monk felt so real. And the Leg-Eating Monk being devoured by the rain at the end seemed to demonstrate something else: that even someone with high Cultivation will disappear if they’re caught in the rain."

The Painting Demon was guiding their train of thought step-by-step. Its ultimate goal was to make them believe two things.

First, that they couldn’t get caught in the rain. Second, that Xue Yanluo could be trusted.

Lu Changyuan watched the fading figure of Xue Yanluo. "I’m guessing the Painting Demon had another scene planned where you would be ’forced’ into the rain. You would disappear, and when we combined that with the earlier incident with the fake Bai Wei, the logical loop would be complete for us."

The paper Xue Yanluo remembered how, just a short while ago, he had been planning to find Lu Changyuan and declare that he would brave the rain to save Bai Wei. His eyes glazed over with confusion... ’So those weren’t my own thoughts. They were painted by the Demon.’

The paper figure finally turned to ash.

All that remained in the room was the candle the paper Xue Yanluo had lit moments before. It was still burning slowly, but its light offered no warmth.

Qiu Yuehan sheathed her sword, her eyes tracing the lines of Lu Changyuan’s face in the candlelight.

’He’s incredibly handsome,’ she thought. ’And he has this strange quality... something that young women find captivating.’

The Fairy asked softly, "But if the Painting Demon’s illusion was so flawless, how did you see through it?"

"The old man’s grave."

"The grave?"

"That’s right. It couldn’t paint the old man’s grave."

’What does he mean, it couldn’t paint the old man’s grave?’

Lu Changyuan gave a cold smile, his expression calm as he delivered the final blow: "We’re inside the Painting Demon’s painting!"

’Inside a painting?’

’How could that be possible? This place doesn’t look like a painting at all,’ Qiu Yuehan couldn’t help but think.

"We aren’t in the real world. We’re inside one of the Painting Demon’s creations. Everything here was painted by it. That’s why the houses in the village are completely undamaged, even after Xue Yanluo supposedly fought monsters in the rain for seven days."

It finally dawned on Qiu Yuehan.

’If Xue Yanluo’s story was true—that he fought monsters for seven days and was grievously injured—there must have been a huge battle. So why were the houses on the street completely untouched when we arrived?’

The answer was simple, really. All of it was a painting. From the moment they first stepped into the village and saw that big yellow dog, they had already entered the Painting Demon’s illusion.

Lu Changyuan looked up at the sky. In the rain, there was no moon, no stars.

"If we hadn’t realized we were inside a painting, it would have kept leading us in circles until it got what it wanted. But its illusion had one fatal flaw: it couldn’t paint the grave I built for the old man."

Qiu Yuehan’s head was spinning. She still didn’t quite understand.

"It’s actually a very simple question. If the Painting Demon had the power to move the real grave, why would it need to stick around and play games with us? But if it *didn’t* have the power to move the grave, then why isn’t the grave here?"

It was a difficult detail to notice, but once you did, everything else fell into place.