Deception

"Way of Sitting and Forgetting?" The red Nuo-mask cultist sounded highly skeptical. "What sect is that?"

Xia Lun did not answer immediately. His eyes shifted slightly as he swept a glance over the other cultist who had surrounded him and the four Skinned Corpses, then pointed at the thick fog behind him. "Do you know what this dense fog is?"

"Everyone in Sorrow Hill City knows."

The red Nuo-mask cultist's response was watertight, revealing no new information. Clearly, he was wary of Xia Lun.

Seeing that he could not get anything out of him, Xia Lun's mind turned, and he came up with another idea.

"Since you know what the fog is, then you should also know what it means to be able to walk through it." He spoke leisurely. "I just came through that fog, which is why you did not see me while searching this Daoist temple."

"..." The red Nuo-mask cultist froze and scratched his head in confusion.

—They had been lying in ambush here for a long time and truly had not seen anyone else. This man in strange clothes really did seem as though he had appeared out of nowhere.

Still, something felt off...

He pondered for a moment and was just about to ask another question when the cultist beside him suddenly spoke.

"Do you have a way to leave this place?" A cultist wearing a green Nuo mask suddenly asked. "Can you really walk through the Death Fog?"

As a merchant with exceptional eloquence, Xia Lun was well versed in the art of selling an image. He smiled at the green-masked cultist, then voluntarily said, "Words alone prove nothing. Let me show you."

The moment he spoke, the green Nuo-mask cultist on the other side seemed somewhat excited. The short cultist unconsciously stepped several paces closer.

At that moment, the red Nuo-mask cultist seemed to notice the subtle shift in the atmosphere as well. He immediately snorted coldly to warn his fellow cultist, then said, "Since the Yuanwater Festival, this fog has sealed off the entire city. Even Master Man in the Flesh cannot bring things in from outside. You merely want to use some street performer's trickery to deceive us!"

"Whether it is trickery or not, won't you know once you see it?"

Xia Lun extended his hand and, right before the cultists' eyes, materialized the Voidwood Box out of thin air. Silver particles glimmered with a firefly-like radiance as they emerged alongside the wooden box, drifting around it like thin gauze. The entire box seemed to take on an indescribably dreamlike aura, like starlight.

—Such bizarre special effects instantly stunned the green Nuo-mask cultist.

"A secret art?!" The green Nuo-mask cultist's voice became increasingly delighted. He naturally and fawningly bent at the waist. "We're saved! We're saved! We can leave this place!"

As the green-masked man lowered his head, the three Skinned Corpses beside him also lowered their heads and knelt on the ground.

The red Nuo-mask cultist was stunned as well, his prepared words catching in his throat. "This..."

This man truly knew secret arts?

In this city, aside from Master Man in the Flesh, Lord Bai, and Daoist Xuanyan, was there actually a fourth person who knew secret arts?

That made no sense—could this man be Daoist Xuanyan in disguise...?

With that thought, the red Nuo-mask cultist became even more vigilant. He quietly raised his red lantern and used Calling to summon Snake Face, the high-ranking cultist who had led him and his fellow cultists in ambushing Xuanyan.

At the same time, a line of cobalt-blue text slid across the corner of Xia Lun's vision.

[Deception! You successfully bluffed a "Nuo-Mask Plague believer," causing him to initially believe you. You gained 50 Memory Points.]

Nuo-Mask Plague?

Xia Lun noticed the strange term and silently committed it to memory.

Though countless thoughts ran through his mind, Xia Lun did not pause his speech.

"This fog wall is the Yin Bo Wall. Yin Bo is one of the Sunset Stars. There are four Sunset Stars: Zi Gong, Yin Bo, Luo Xiong, and Ji Ming. Yin Bo governs misfortunes of longevity. Those who enter it lose their sense of direction and have their lifespan reduced."

He raised his chin slightly, his tone certain and his pace steady, as though he were a genuine astrology expert.

"Watch carefully. I will now demonstrate the methods of the Way of Sitting and Forgetting."

As he spoke, he flipped his wrist and, under the cultists' astonished gazes, directly tossed the Voidwood Box into the thick fog behind him.

"To pass through the Death Fog, one must master the Astral Ritual and calculate the movement of qi and the stillness of water. To calculate that, one must know the environment before entering the fog. That environment concerns the turning of stars, human affairs, and geography. So tell me about the people and events in this city first. I need to consider their causes and effects to determine the direction, so I can take everyone out when the time comes."

He flipped his wrist again, retrieving the Voidwood Box that had fallen into the fog back into his personal space before materializing it in his hand once more.

"Ah?!"

This time, even the red Nuo-mask cultist, who had never believed Xia Lun, was completely dumbfounded.

This strangely dressed man had truly retrieved something from the thick fog, where once something entered, it could never return!

Moreover, he spoke with such logic and structure that his cultivation seemed even deeper than Master Man in the Flesh's.

He had even openly displayed such bizarre secret arts before them, as though he did not worry about the cost at all.

All these unusual phenomena, along with his completely unconcealed attitude, fully proved that this man truly possessed extraordinary abilities! Perhaps he really could walk freely through the Death Fog and had come from outside!

At this thought, the red Nuo-mask cultist immediately grew excited. He was just about to explain when his fellow cultist beside him spoke first again. "Sir, did you truly come from outside?"

"Genuine, without a doubt." Xia Lun smiled. Seeing their reactions, he knew his bluff had succeeded.

—The trick to deception was not making a lie flawless. It was grasping the desires and fears of the person being deceived, then using words to awaken their greed or whatever they feared, fully activating their imagination and making them fill in the gaps of the lie themselves.

In other words, the key to deception was not what one said, but how one was perceived.

Right now, these two cultists clearly wanted to leave this city as well. The fog was simply preventing them from doing so.

[Deception! You successfully bluffed a "Nuo-Mask Plague believer." He completely believed you. You gained 40 Memory Points.]

Seeing another notification, Xia Lun directly pulled a yellowed invitation from his pocket and waved it before the two dumbfounded cultists.

"There is no need to call me sir. We are all seekers of the Dao, so just call me Fellow Daoist. I recently came down from the mountain and do not understand worldly matters very well—first, tell me why this place is called Sorrow Hill City."

The green-masked man hurriedly came closer.

"Fellow Daoist, our city was not originally called Sorrow Hill City. It was called Seven Hills City, because there used to be seven small hills near it. But after the sun set and the Death Fog descended, the city was renamed Sorrow Hill City on Master Man in the Flesh's orders. It is said that doing so can slow the advance of the Death Fog."

Xia Lun nodded slightly and was just about to continue questioning him when, in the next instant, the red Nuo-mask man viciously slapped Little Green across the back of the head!

Smack!

"How dare you call the Master Fellow Daoist?" the red Nuo-mask man harshly rebuked. The next moment, he suddenly lowered his head and bowed humbly toward Xia Lun with the abruptness of a Sichuan opera face change. "Master, may I ask how you should be addressed?"

Xia Lun laughed, but did not put on airs. He shook his head casually. "I cannot be called a master. My Daoist title is Master Danyang—Big Red, stop talking for now. Let Little Green continue explaining the causes and consequences of this Death Fog."

First drawing them in with an approachable attitude, then casually suppressing them with belittling nicknames as though joking—this was an old but highly practical probing tactic.

Faced with his covert and malicious verbal test, the two cultists showed no reaction whatsoever. In fact, they seemed rather pleased with the nicknames Xia Lun had given them, even enjoying them.

—Without question, compared to suspicious and ferocious desperate pirate fugitives, these two cultists possessed a far lower level of cunning. They severely lacked experience in the treacherous struggles between people.

In just a few sentences, an imagined hierarchy of power had been established...

Little Green had been rubbing the back of his head, but upon hearing Xia Lun's words, he hurriedly lowered his hand and bowed respectfully.

"Master Danyang, Sorrow Hill City used to be an exceedingly prosperous city. Thanks to the Yin Longevity Pills refined by Master Man in the Flesh, Sorrow Hill City was once the most prosperous city south of Tianhuai. High officials and nobles from the eight lakes and six seas all liked coming here to seek pills and extend their lives.

"But one year ago, everything changed..."