Bringing some shocking pranks to the Cultivation World
Chapter 47 - 47 40 Strong Desire Pot

47: Chapter 40: Strong Desire Pot 47: Chapter 40: Strong Desire Pot The Thirty-Six Stratagems, the fifteenth stratagem: Lure the Tiger Off the Mountain.

Exhaust them with patience, lure with people, approach when hindered, connect when blocked.

Zhou Li still remembered that breezy and sunny afternoon, sitting in the Zongxue Academy, listening to the teacher’s instruction.

His awareness was incompletely opened at the time, and his memories from his past life were also incomplete, which is why he thirsted for the irrigation of knowledge.

Therefore, he asked the teacher, who was speaking at length:

“Master, what if the tiger refuses to leave its mountain?”

The Master said, “Lure it with profit.”

“And if the tiger still refuses to come down the mountain, what should be done?”

The Master said again, “Entertain it with allure.”

“But how can you use allure to tempt the tiger?”

The Master sighed and said, “This tiger is not a true tiger.

Although the stratagem speaks of luring the tiger away from the mountain, it is actually about the art of warfare, the true aim is to manipulate people, not tigers.”

“If both profit and allure fail to tempt the person off the mountain, what should be done?”

The Master, furious, said in exasperation, “You’re such a tiresome talker with so many questions—if they won’t come down, then you set the mountain on fire.

Why don’t you understand at all?”

Later, Zhou Li, with the stratagem of luring the tiger off the mountain, first tried to bribe the pedant with money to buy answers and got brutally beaten.

Having failed, Zhou Li had Tang Cen cross-dress, hoping to seduce the pedant with allure and get the answers, only to be brutally beaten again.

Finally, Zhou Li set fire to the pedant’s outhouse in the courtyard, successfully executed the stratagem of luring the tiger off the mountain, obtained the exam answers, and after selling them made a thousand coins.

He later found that the answers were a bait-and-switch by the pedant, all fakes.

Though he refunded the money, he was chased for a thousand miles by the buyers, who, in anger, beat him up.

At that time, Zhou Li remembered very clearly, after being pursued halfway across Beiliang by six students who had repeated their year, a guilt-ridden Zhou Li burst into a rage on the spot when they insulted his intelligence, and beat each one of them up while shouting, “This failure is my destiny.”

Since then, Zhou Li had evolved.

He realized it wasn’t that he was foolish, nor that his stratagems were flawed, but that the old pedant, as a Second-Rank General Fei, was not someone he could challenge.

Thinking it over, Zhou Li arrived at a life truth.

Those dumbasses who truly believe they’re clever are the easiest to deceive.

And the Mountain God was a prime example.

He thought he had a grasp on the hearts of men, believed he had found the loophole in human nature.

He thought he could write a book, titled “The Discourse on Those Deluded by Wealth.”

Therefore, he viewed himself as a god among men, with everything well in his control.

Zhou Li and the three others were mere toys in his hands, manipulations clear as day.

Now was the time to fantasize.

After the fantasy ended, the Mountain God would be faced with an extremely sad reality.

That is, the person who had been toyed with in his applause was actually himself.

To deceive?

What’s the use?

Zhou Li turned around and watched the Mountain God Statue in the distance with a face full of terror, screaming hysterically, a brilliant sunshine-like smile on his face.

He stretched out his hand and waved it towards the other party, as if seeing an old friend after many years, warmly yet modestly calling out:

“Don’t rush, rushing is of no use.”

Could the Mountain God not be anxious?

Just as Guo Lingyun had said, his true form was not in the Gold, Silver, Copper Statue, but in the Mud Mountain God enshrined in the temple!

He had originally had seven Kind Person Statues to protect the temple, but in a moment of anger and frustration, he had fallen for the enemy’s cunning plan to lure the tiger out of the mountains!

At this moment, in the Mountain God Temple where his most prized possession was kept, there was no defense left except for the “Strange Pot” left by a Hei Qi Master…

wait, the Strange Pot!

It was then that the Mountain God remembered that creature that he had always overlooked, and suddenly, his nervousness and despair vanished, replaced by a cold, mocking sneer.

The Mountain God turned to Guo Lingyun, who was poised with a drawn longbow, and said with a cold laugh:

“Do you really think you have already won?”

“I don’t believe that you have no desires at all!”

At this time, Zhou Li and Tang Wan were ready with their preparations for lock-picking.

As geniuses who did everything but study during their school days, Zhou Li’s lock-picking skills were second to none, superior to most of the teachers at the Imperial Academy.

As for Tang Wan, she was way more straightforward.

Faced with a metal lock, she made a quick decision, pulled out the Cartilage Water, and under Zhou Li’s guidance, unlocked the heavy metal lock weighing dozens of jins in a matter of seconds, pushing open the tightly closed temple doors.

Tang Wan took out a Firestarter, lit it, and held it up.

By the light of the flame, the two saw the full interior of the temple.

“This isn’t quite like the time I sneaked in to eat the Tribute Fruit.”

Tang Wan pinched her delicate chin and clicked her tongue before reminiscing, “How come I remember it being all splendid and magnificent at first?

What’s with this long-neglected toilet situation?”

In Tang Wan’s memory, when she sneaked in to find something to fill her stomach, she was met with a spotless floor, three magnificent Mountain God Statues, and seven distinctly different statues.

Those three Mountain God Statues were crafted in bronze with silver paint and gold bells, luxurious and majestic, while those seven statues were also intricately carved, lifelike.

But what appeared before them now was a dilapidated shrine, its ceiling made of grass and tree branches, and the ground covered with uncleared dust and mud.

The god enshrined in this rundown temple was just a sculpture made of rotten mud, barely recognizable in resemblance to the Mountain God’s face; both hardly looked human.

“It seems he’s moved out everything that could be moved.”

Zhou Li, quick-witted as ever, instantly understood why the temple was so different from when he first saw it.

He had twice lured the tiger out of the mountains in quick succession, causing the Mountain God in a fit of anger to mobilize his Gold, Silver, Copper Statue, and those seven eerie Kind Person Statues.

The result was that the Mountain God made a spectacle of himself before Zhou Li and the others, but the bad news was…

He had lost his home.

“Have you learned the lesson?”

Zhou Li patted Tang Wan on the shoulder and said earnestly, “All the strategic home transitions are technical work.

You’ll have fun when you’ve learned them.”

“You’re the one with the skills.”

Tang Wan nodded in admiration, and just as she was about to step forward, Zhou Li’s expression changed suddenly, and he swiftly picked up the petite her.

Before Tang Wan could ask, she saw that under the Mud Mountain God Statue, a “pot” with a grimacing smile so bizarre it was physically disturbing, was watching her and Zhou Li.

It had a green body like that of a human, with eerie blue patterns, and the spout was adorned with simple geometric patterns.

What was most suffocating, though, was the blood-red, grinning mouth that stretched to the corners, and those teeth symbolizing impurity.

“Strong Desire Pot…”

Looking at the weird flesh pot in front of him that was both revolting and strangely alluring, Zhou Li said the name of the entity with a serious expression.

And in the next second, the Strong Desire Pot opened its eyes, and a hint of red invaded the eyes of Zhou Li and Tang Wan.

[Let’s see, just how strong are your desires.]