The Clown Was Me All Along

Liu Mang looked at Di Jun and smiled faintly. "As for why? You'll know in the future!"

With that, he turned and looked into the distance, unable to stop himself from grumbling inwardly.

Do you think I'm Blue Cat's Three Thousand Questions? Where did all these whys come from? Don't you know making up reasons is hard!

No matter how Di Jun behind him seemed to want to speak yet stopped, Liu Mang paid him no further attention. With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked toward the horizon.

In his gaze, where heaven and earth met, a pillar that propped up the sky rose from the ground, standing upon the land of Hong Huang, joined as one with the ancient starry sky. Its aura was majestic, vast, and magnificent.

Though they were separated by ten thousand li, it still shook the heart.

"What do you think would happen to Hong Huang if the Heavenly Pillar broke?" Liu Mang asked lightly, seeming lost in thought.

Di Jun's face was all what-the-hell. "Big Brother, you're not thinking of breaking the Heavenly Pillar, are you?"

Liu Mang let out two guilty, awkward laughs. "Haha, what wild thoughts are you having? How could that be? I'm not that kind of person. Besides, even if I wanted to, I don't have the ability!"

Di Jun pointed at Liu Mang, his face full of certainty. "What the hell! You did think it! Don't deny it!"

Had Liu Mang thought it? Of course he had!

If things followed the original development of the Hong Huang world, the one who crashed into and broke the Heavenly Pillar would be Gong Gong of the Wu Clan.

The Wu Clan could not bear this share of karma. Even if Hou Tu became a saint, it would still be the same.

As the saying went, when the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up.

In Hong Huang, whose height was neither too big nor too small, just right to receive this share of karma?

Liu Mang's gaze turned toward the horizon, and for a time he sank into thought. There seemed to be a thread of an idea in his mind, but he could never quite grasp it.

When Di Jun saw Liu Mang's grave expression, he thought Liu Mang was pondering how to break the Heavenly Pillar, and was scared half to death.

Don't mess around, little brother! If the Heavenly Pillar broke, wouldn't the heavens collapse?

But when he thought about it again, he was relieved. Even someone like him, a quasi-saint, might not necessarily be able to break the Heavenly Pillar.

"He must have made me jump at shadows! How could the Heavenly Pillar possibly break?"

The Heavenly Pillar had originally been formed from Great God Pangu's spine, and innately carried Pangu's terrifying pressure.

After being washed by the long river of time for hundreds of millions of years, that pressure had instead grown even stronger.

Even for mighty Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals with the power to extinguish all life in heaven and earth with a single thought, reaching the summit was extraordinarily difficult, let alone breaking the Heavenly Pillar.

But seeing that Liu Mang was still thinking, Di Jun felt it would be better to interrupt such dangerous thoughts.

Just as he was about to speak, he sensed an aura coming from afar. Di Jun let out a long breath and slowly opened his mouth.

"It seems Fellow Daoist Nu Wa should be nearly finished adjusting her breath and is preparing to prove her Dao!"

Di Jun withdrew his gaze from the place where Nu Wa was adjusting her breath, then looked at Liu Mang with a half-smile. "Your goal has been achieved too!"

To tell the truth, Di Jun had no choice but to admire Liu Mang's actions in his heart.

Although he did not know what had happened between Liu Mang and the Ancestral Witches before the Demon Race arrived.

But the moment the Demon Race arrived, the Ancestral Witches transferred and vented all their suppressed anger onto the Demon Race, and he had seen that perfectly clearly.

Di Jun looked at Liu Mang and teased, "That move of yours, diverting the floodwaters east, was indeed well played. Even I was nearly fooled by you."

"Whether it was the Wu Clan taking the initiative to raise the topic and having you ask the Twelve Demon Gods for gifts, or you using your words to draw me out, you completely made everyone's gazes revolve around you, and instead made them ignore Nu Wa, the main figure at the side."

On the surface, Liu Mang seemed to be crazily courting death, but in truth, every step was a camp set in advance.

Because he had always been dangling a piece of bait before everyone, making it impossible for the Wu Clan and Demon Race to flip the table and come out swinging bare-chested.

And this piece of bait had even been hung on the hook by the Wu Clan on Liu Mang's behalf, used to disgust the Demon Race: the greeting gifts.

Liu Mang had only one goal: to buy time for Nu Wa to prove her Dao, while waiting for more people to enter the stage and muddy the waters.

Do not forget, the Three Pure Ones, Zhunti, and Jieyin, who had never shown themselves, were all Nu Wa's nominal senior and junior fellow disciples.

After they arrived, they might not necessarily help Nu Wa, but at the very least they could make others fear smashing the vase while throwing at the rat.

Di Jun knew exactly what kind of person Fu Xi was.

Relying on Fu Xi alone, he could not suppress a scene where the Twelve Ancestral Witches and the Demon Gods had all gathered.

As soon as everyone from the Demon Race arrived, the brief balance at the scene would immediately be broken, and they would instantly fight into a pot of congee.

Why had Di Jun only brought Tai Yi to arrive ahead of the others? This was the reason.

It was just that after calculating a thousand times and ten thousand times, he had failed to calculate Liu Mang's existence.

What greeted him was not the Twelve Ancestral Witches waiting in strict formation, but the Twelve Ancestral Witches' trash talk, barbed with spears and cudgels.

For a time, it had struck him completely unprepared.

After listening to Di Jun's words, Liu Mang felt his whole body tighten. Cold sweat poured out like raindrops, soaking the clothes on his back in the blink of an eye.

Liu Mang had thought that even if his plan was not flawless, it at least had all four corners complete.

He had even been secretly pleased with himself all along, feeling that the mighty beings of Hong Huang were nothing much after all. He had never expected that his plan had long since been seen through.

His actions, in the eyes of these old things, were merely a clumsy performance.

"Sure enough, novels don't lie. Not a single monster who's lived for hundreds of millions of years is easy to deal with."

"I didn't expect the clown to be me all along." Liu Mang gave a helpless smile, taking it as an admission of Di Jun's claim. "Then why didn't you stop me?"

"Why should I stop you?" Di Jun's gaze seemed to pierce through layer after layer of space, looking toward the place where Nu Wa was regulating her breath. "Is it bad for Nu Wa to attain the Dao? Even if she becomes a Saint, she is still of the Demon Race. No matter how things end, she will definitely act and leave the Demon Race a legacy."

Di Jun turned back to look at Liu Mang, his face full of teasing. "You have your schemes, so am I not allowed to have mine?"

Liu Mang smiled bleakly, seeming to understand a little why Di Jun had followed the plot he had arranged.

Perhaps it was simply because the long ages of Hong Huang were too boring, and when a toad he had never seen before suddenly appeared, he decided to watch just how many tricks it could play.

Liu Mang raised his head to look at the sky and muttered to himself, "Are you the same as well?"

Liu Mang did not think that Hong Jun had still failed to notice his appearance.

But he could not figure out why the other party had not made a move.

Was he unable to spare a hand, or did he want to see how long Liu Mang could keep hopping around?

Or perhaps he merely regarded Liu Mang as a little game amid the unchanging ages?

Still, so what if you're stronger than me? I know the script—and not just one!

I'll swap scripts and play with you. If it really doesn't work, I'll open up an inner world and bury this Hong Huang of yours along with it!

Di Jun looked at the silent Liu Mang and assumed that, after hearing his words, Liu Mang had fallen into self-doubt.

He secretly let out a breath of relief. "This is fine too! His methods are still rather green right now. After he suffers a few blows, perhaps in the future he can still..."

If Di Jun knew that Liu Mang was currently considering blowing up Hong Huang, who knew what he would think.

Di Jun: Let us go over! Attaining the Dao—how enviable. How difficult it is to become a Saint. I only wonder whether she can succeed.

Liu Mang looked at the yearning expression on Di Jun's face. "Since you already know, how about we make another bet?"

"Oh? What do you want to bet?"

"I bet my Mother Nu Wa will definitely become a Saint! If I win, don't forget what you promised me! That is..."

Di Jun rolled his eyes and cut Liu Mang off. "No need to say it. I know. You want me to help you take on Hong Jun! I just don't get it—who exactly are you? Even Luohu doesn't have as much fire in him as you, does he? You wanted to take him on the moment you were born!"

"Forget it. Even if I ask, you won't say. Then what if you lose?"

Liu Mang was too lazy to speak and gave Di Jun an eye roll.

If the Merit from creating humans could not help her attain the Dao, then was there not still the Dao of Creation, and the Dao of Marriage too?

He refused to believe that piling up three laws could not produce one Saint.

When Di Jun saw the look in Liu Mang's eyes, his breath caught, and he muttered inwardly, I almost forgot. This guy can foresee the future.

Immediately after, thinking of Liu Mang's ability to foresee the future, he asked in a low, excited voice, "Then can I really attain the Dao too?"

"Don't ask. Ask again and the answer is no! And even if you tell others, I won't admit it."

Liu Mang looked at Di Jun, who kept chasing after him to ask about attaining the Dao, his face full of impatience. "Stop talking. Hurry up and take me to see my Mother! Talking with you for this long has cost me who knows how many treasures!"

At the thought that he had failed to scoop up any treasures, Liu Mang hurt so much he could hardly breathe.