Chapter 538 - 479: Fu Tailan: What Lies Cannot Counter

Chapter 538: Chapter 479: Fu Tailan: What Lies Cannot Counter

Kai Luonan had been a Hunter for over thirty years.

Fu Tailan had never bothered to ask about other people’s backgrounds, but the Hunter circles in Blackmoor City were only so large. Kai Luonan was also the head of a Family Faction—and as a first-rate Hunter, Fu Tailan had to meet countless people. After a few conversations, he ended up learning everything, whether he wanted to or not.

Fu Tailan had only been a Hunter for five years.

On one side was Fu Tailan, hailed by Illusion Hunters as a "boy genius"; on the other was Kai Luonan, the founder who had established and led his Family Faction for thirty years.

Whether it was knowledge of the Nests, experience, insight, tactics, or simply the number of Illusions he had handled, Fu Tailan was far from being in the same league as Kai Luonan.

When Kai Luonan held ???, he was a nightmare and a disaster for any opponent. Even the Residents were afraid.

’...But the old man is over sixty. It’s only natural for his imagination and adaptability to be a little rusty, right?’

Besides, Kai Luonan had already taken a backseat years ago, leaving most of the Family Faction’s affairs to Chaisi. The Nest had long since receded from his life—and when a person lives in the mundane world for too long, their reactions and thinking slowly revert to the side of "common sense" and "conventional logic."

It was for this very reason that he hadn’t expected it last time—the Chaisi he saw every day was suddenly not Chaisi at all, but an imposter in disguise.

...So Fu Tailan decided to go for a massive bluff.

No, it wasn’t just a bluff. He was also going to make a bet.

He was going to stake his own life on an almost naively optimistic possibility:

Kai Luonan didn’t yet have a one-hundred-percent understanding of the ??? Illusion’s properties.

The old man had only gotten his hands on ??? two or three hours ago. No matter how experienced he was, it was impossible to fully grasp an Illusion in such a short time. Before the Hunter Family Factions sold an Illusion, they would often use several Hunters, spend days, and take enormous risks to repeatedly hypothesize, test, and verify... only then could they get a clear handle on a single Illusion.

’He’d only had it for two or three hours. The ??? can’t talk, so what right did Kai Luonan have to act like he was about to use it to conquer the world?’

’Isn’t he celebrating a little too soon?’

Kai Luonan had used ??? on him for one reason and one reason only—to get the radio from him.

In that last instant, his main goal wasn’t even to kill Fu Tailan—it was to see what things Fu Tailan had on him and what information he knew.

’Look, my guts and intestines have all fallen out, yet I’m still standing here just fine, able to think, act, and speak.’

’Fu Han has fallen out, but I still recognize him, remember him, and recall everything from the past seventeen years of our father-son relationship.’

’In other words, whether things fall out or not, whether my intestines are on the floor or in my stomach, none of it actually affects my ability to act, does it?’

’After getting ???, this was probably Kai Luonan’s first time using it to "dismantle" a person, right?’

’So, from another perspective... whatever I do now, won’t Kai Luonan just have to believe it’s an effect of the ????’

’If I cry now, it must be because ??? made me cry. If I laugh, it must be because ??? made me laugh.’

’As long as Kai Luonan doesn’t fully understand ???...’

’Then right now, Fu Tailan’s lies... are the truth.’

All of the above thoughts flashed through Fu Tailan’s mind in the two or three seconds after he had just turned around and discovered his guts, intestines, father, Path, and Illusions scattered on the floor.

"That was close,"

Fu Tailan grabbed a handful of bloody, soft, slippery intestines, the fear still lingering. "I almost left something so important behind..."

His steps were unsteady, and he gasped for breath for a moment.

The guts and intestines were too slippery. Fu Tailan was desperate to scoop them up, but he couldn’t get a good grip. The floor was covered in intestines and blood. He lost his footing and slipped in a pool of blood, then scrambled back up to his knees.

He desperately tried to scoop his guts and intestines back into his body, scraping the blood into his hands. "Good... good thing Kai Luonan didn’t see..." he said, a mixture of panic and relief in his voice.

Lie number one: The things that had fallen out were a huge deal and had to be put back inside his body immediately.

It wasn’t even really a lie. Any normal person, upon seeing Fu Tailan’s parts scattered across the floor, would have the same subconscious, common-sense thought.

But in his entire life, Fu Tailan had never known what was normal or what was common sense.

’As long as I can still think and act properly, what’s the big deal about treating this underground hall as part of my body, a place to hold my guts, memories, and Path?’

"I have to get them back... before he finds out... They’re mine, they’re important, I can’t lose them..." Fu Tailan muttered to himself as he walked forward.

Lie number two: Fu Tailan’s mind was addled, and he was incapable of analyzing the situation.

After the words left his mouth, Fu Tailan had to keep his head down, his eyes fixed on Fu Han’s face. His entire body was tense, and he held his breath, terrified that if he looked up or opened his mouth, he would give himself away.

This was the most dangerous part.

If Kai Luonan knew for a fact that after being dismantled by ???, Fu Tailan’s mind was still perfectly fine and he was just pretending, then Fu Tailan would likely have no hope of survival tonight.

Therefore, Fu Tailan couldn’t let the old man think too deeply. He couldn’t let Kai Luonan start thinking, ’This isn’t the right reaction for Fu Tailan.’

"Jin Xueli lied to you..."

Fu Tailan’s speech was soft and slurred, as if he were so dazed that he would blurt out important information like he was talking in his sleep. "After she melted the candle, her personal history was inside the Candle Tears..."

While Kai Luonan fell silent, Fu Tailan bypassed Fu Han and continued walking forward.

At the end of this little path made of his scattered parts was his true goal—the three Illusions that had fallen on the floor.

One of them was a power strip. It was useless against ???, so he could ignore it for now.

But the other two Illusions, "lent" to him by the Ballet Resident, were things that could affect a person’s body... Because time was so tight, they weren’t the ideal weapons to use against Kai Luonan, but they were Fu Tailan’s only hope at this moment.

Fu Tailan had to get them back, and he had to do it without arousing Kai Luonan’s suspicion.

"How strange. I’ve picked up so many things, but I still feel so empty... What’s going on...?"

The third lie was, "Even after picking things up, his mind remained addled."

"How did you know about the radio?" Kai Luonan asked.

’Good, his attention is still on the radio. As long as he still needs to dig for information, I can use my answers to buy time—’

Before the thought had even finished, a shadow tumbled out of him.

In that instant, even Fu Tailan was caught off guard—he felt a jolt run through his body and almost took a step back. But how could a dazed person suddenly react so quickly?

He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, barely suppressing his fight-or-flight response, and forced his feet to stay rooted to the ground. Only then did he see clearly.

Even lying on the ground, the Ballet Resident maintained its pose, on the tips of its toes with its arms raised high, its mouth ceaselessly repeating things like "The radio’s whereabouts are in the candle," and "You went to get it first."

’...Crap.’

’The ??? is so powerful and unpredictable. How can it make the answer fall out of me in real-time in response to its owner’s question?’

Fu Tailan knew he was out of time.

Using the Ballet Resident as cover, he immediately bent down and picked up two pieces of hard cardboard that had been screwed together—

"There’s no point in leaving you alive anymore. You tricked me out of my Path, so consider that my funeral gift to you, Fu Tailan."

Kai Luonan’s voice rang out, seeming to come from right behind Fu Tailan’s head. In the same instant his voice sounded, Fu Tailan had already given the cardboard in his hand a light twist.

The first piece of cardboard was black, with a long, narrow slot cut into it. Through the slot, the text on the white cardboard underneath was visible—"Normal."

After Fu Tailan twisted the black cardboard, the slot moved, and the visible text changed from "Normal" to "Opposite."

He held his breath.

"...As expected of the boy genius famous for his skill with lies,"

After a second or two, Kai Luonan let out a low chuckle. "I really almost fell for your act."

’What’s going on?’

’Why is Kai Luonan’s voice still behind me?’

Fu Tailan first glanced down at the Illusion—that’s right, the Illusion had definitely activated, and the text had indeed changed to "Opposite"—but how could Kai Luonan seem completely unaffected?

"But do you know why lies are the weapon you’re best at?"

Kai Luonan said unhurriedly, "I once spoke to Chaisi about you. Only when a person lacks absolute power do they have to rely on words and deception... For a kid who entered the Nest at twelve, what other means of survival did you have besides your brain and your lies?"

Fu Tailan slowly turned his head.

It was as if Kai Luonan had been standing behind him for a long time, and Fu Tailan was only just now seeing him.

"Unfortunately, ??? is the kind of absolute power that can destroy all clever words and deceptions."

Kai Luonan seemed to find the expression on his face quite amusing—if Fu Tailan and he had shared no history of enmity, perhaps Fu Tailan would already be dead.

Perhaps it was precisely because Fu Tailan had once tricked him out of his Path that Kai Luonan had come to appreciate the look on his face at this moment, the moment he realized his lies had collapsed.

"If I’m not mistaken,"

He gestured with his chin toward the Illusion in Fu Tailan’s hand as if bestowing a piece of charity. "That’s Perception, isn’t it? An Illusion that once entered the mundane world and then somehow, it’s said, flowed back into a Nest. It can alter a person’s perception of their surroundings. In any other situation, it would indeed have the potential to turn the tables... But, look."

Fu Tailan opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He saw it, but he couldn’t understand what it was he was seeing.

He only knew that what he was seeing now was definitely not part of his own Illusion’s effect—even though it was thickly enshrouding the Perception Illusion, obscuring the cardboard from view.

"What... what is this?"

"To be able to see it with your own eyes before you die is a rare opportunity in the mundane world."

Kai Luonan smiled slowly and said, "This is ’entropy.’"