Chapter 557: A Foot Too Hot to Handle

“You don’t want it? Why? This is a heaven-sent opportunity to become a Mystic.”

Zheng Xiu coaxed.

Qing Shisan chuckled, his demeanor light and breezy. “Lord, please don’t mess with me. You know full well what I’m like. Years ago, I grew tired of all the fighting and killing. It’s one thing to go out and help you with a few things, have a little fun on the side, but to actually become a full-fledged Mystic… Tsk, tsk. I’d rather not. If I really had that kind of ambition, I wouldn’t have chosen to be ‘Wandering’ in the first place.”

“Besides,”

Qing Shisan’s tone shifted. He pushed the window open a crack, tapped out his ash, and sighed in resignation. “As for the ‘Wandering’ Path… I’ve gone a bit astray.”

Zheng Xiu’s expression turned serious. “Astray?”

“Yeah,” Qing Shisan grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth. “I strayed a little, but it might not be all bad.”

After a pause, Qing Shisan gave Zheng Xiu a conspiratorial wink. “I think, Lord, that you might need this thing more than I do.”

It seemed he knew something.

Zheng Xiu had never revealed to his household that he could use Incarnations to walk many different Paths. But from the various abilities Zheng Xiu had inadvertently displayed, Qing Shisan had vaguely guessed at his master’s special nature. After all, being a Painter and mastering the Sword Dao—those two alone were expressions of Miracle Techniques that could never be encompassed by a single Path.

The moment the words left his mouth, terrified that Zheng Xiu might forcibly shove the foot from the table onto him, Qing Shisan shot off and vanished.

He had even used a Miracle Technique to flee, which just went to show how truly repulsed Qing Shisan was by the idea.

‘I’m screwed.’

Zheng Xiu stared at the empty room. On the table, the Broken Foot rested quietly, perfectly still; the night of taming had been quite effective. But all Zheng Xiu could think now was: ‘This thing has really become a hot potato!’

One had to understand that walking a Path wasn’t as simple as a “DING” and an instant level cap, something you could start whenever you pleased. The Path Zheng Xiu had currently delved deepest into was, ironically, the Painter Path. Only he truly understood the hardships involved. He and Feng Bei had been trapped in the Cannibal Painting, where he had lived for nearly two hundred years as Gongsun Mo. He had endured the erosion of time and nearly lost his true self in the process—a treacherously unpredictable and mentally exhausting ordeal.

Besides, Zheng Xiu’s current Incarnations each had their own paths of development. Zheng Shan walked the Path of the Painter. The Evil Child, while not yet on any Path, possessed an extraordinary Constitution and had attained the “Glazed Pure Body,” which allowed him to roam through the Filthy Qi of the Rifts, utterly inviolable. He could, in a pinch, be forced onto the Wandering Path, but Zheng Xiu felt it would be a bizarre and discordant fit. Then there was Zheng Baimei, whose extraordinary Scholarship had evolved into Enlightenment. He pursued the Dao through the sword, making him, by definition, even more incompatible with the Wandering Path…

This troublesome foot left Zheng Xiu in a bind, causing him a silent headache.

Having too many Deceitful Objects was its own kind of trouble.

Who else around him was suitable?

Zheng Xiu ran through the list of people he trusted, but he couldn’t think of anyone suitable to become a Wandering Mystic.

Besides, what if it wasn’t for the Wandering Path?

The four maids becoming Orchid Mystics had involved a good deal of luck and coincidence. Zheng Xiu had no idea what side effects might occur if a mortal was forcibly bonded with a Deceitful Object and they turned out to be “incompatible.”

At the end of the day, Deceitful Objects were never risk-free items to begin with.

“Wait.”

Zheng Xiu’s pupils contracted. He hurriedly locked the study door from the inside, hung up a sign that read, “Red King in Seclusion. Do Not Disturb,” and then sank his consciousness into his Heart Prison.

With a wave of his hand, a sheepskin Paper Scroll materialized in the void, followed immediately by a blank one.

The last time he had pushed open a new door and his Prisoner class had advanced, Zheng Xiu had obtained a blank Character Card. Because he hadn’t decided what to do with it at the time, he had set it aside and hadn’t used it yet.

“What if I create… a ‘new Mystic’ out of thin air?”

Staring at the blank Character Card, Zheng Xiu murmured to himself as inspiration surged.