Chapter 1: The Master

Li Huowang raised the pestle in his hand and pounded it into the mortar with a bored, monotonous rhythm, slowly grinding the luminous green stones mixed with silt into powder.

Even though the cavern was damp and cold, he wore only a coarse cloth garment. But he didn't seem to care at all, as if none of this mattered.

He wasn't alone in the cave. There were others of similar age, both male and female, all with their hair tied up in the same way, all in the same coarse hemp rope. The only difference between them and Li Huowang was that every one of them had a visible physical defect—some had albinism, some had polio. All kinds of congenital and acquired deformities could be found here. The small medicine-preparation cavern was like a museum of malformations.

These people did the same work as Li Huowang: grinding things. Only the materials differed—some were minerals, some were herbs. But clearly, not everyone was content with the work.

"Ah!" A woman's terrified shriek drew everyone's attention.

Off to one side of the cavern, a fat youth with a cleft lip was wearing a lecherous grin, trying to pull an albino girl into his arms.

"Just let me mess around a bit, just once, hehehe~"

Li Huowang ignored the commotion, closed his eyes, and continued his work with steady, rhythmic strokes.

As the woman's cries grew more desperate, Li Huowang cursed under his breath in irritation. Gripping the stone mortar by its handle, he stood up.

Thud. Stone met bone with a dull impact.

The cleft-lipped fatty sat down hard on the ground, stunned. He was clearly dazed by the blow. After a couple of seconds, his face twisted in pain, and he began to wail, clutching his bleeding wound.

The albino girl, white-haired and pale-skinned, who had escaped defilement, huddled behind Li Huowang in fear, clutching her clothes.

"I tell ya! Yer screwed! Do ya know what I am to the Master? When he finds out, he'll kill ya!" The cleft-lipped fatty threatened angrily.

"He's nothing! He's less than nothing!" The moment Li Huowang said this, the entire cavern fell into stunned silence.

None of the others had ever imagined that this man would dare say such a thing.

Seeing the expressions on his so-called senior and junior brothers' faces, Li Huowang took a deep breath and suppressed the anger in his heart.

"What am I doing? Getting angry at these things? That's not like me. I'm not usually so aggressive. I can't let these things affect my personality. That wasn't the real me just now. Calm down, calm down."

While Li Huowang was still trying to steady himself, someone called his name from the entrance.

"Junior Brother Li, Junior Sister Wang, the Master summons you." The tall young man who called out was clearly of a different status than Li Huowang. He wore a blue-green Daoist robe. Although the robe looked old, its cuffs washed white, it was immeasurably better than the tattered hemp Li Huowang wore. The man held a horsetail whisk in one arm, and his eyes held a trace of arrogance as he looked at the juniors before him.

Seeing the young Daoist appear, the bleeding fatty immediately put on a smug expression. "Haha! Yer screwed! Today's your turn!"

But Li Huowang completely ignored him. He turned and began to walk toward the entrance, following a woman with a twisted, drooling mouth. Her face was waxy and pale, clearly unhealthy.

He had only taken two steps when someone tugged at his sleeve, holding him back. Li Huowang turned around to find the albino girl he had saved.

Tears welled in her eyes, and she shook her head repeatedly, her face full of terror.

Li Huowang remained unmoved, coldly shaking off his sleeve and striding forward.

Emerging from the medicine-preparation cavern, they entered a larger cavern. The walls of this main cavern were dotted with more cavities like the medicine room, serving other purposes. From the rough, pitted look of it, whoever built this place was clearly unskilled.

The entire cavern was vast, with tunnels branching out in all directions like an enlarged ant nest.

Planks of rotting peach wood were nailed above each small cavern entrance, carved with deep characters naming each cave: Hall of the Numinous Officials, Hall of the Ancient Law, Hall of Ancestral Veneration, Hall of the Four Sovereigns. A naturally formed limestone cave had been crudely fashioned into something resembling a Daoist temple.

As they continued along the cave passage, the twisted-mouthed woman beside him pulled a dark lump from her pocket and suddenly shoved it in front of Li Huowang. "Want some gruel?" she asked in a dull, vacant voice.

Li Huowang frowned slightly, aware of her simple-mindedness. He took it impatiently and shoved it into his sleeve.

Seeing that he had accepted, she pulled out another piece for herself, stuffed it into her mouth, and continued in a silly, happy tone: "Master's good... with Master, there's food..."

Li Huowang said nothing to that. They walked on. After about a quarter of an hour, a tall, blackened alchemical furnace of ancient design appeared before him.

The smoky furnace reached up to the cave roof, massive as a metal hill.

As he approached, the furnace seemed to grow larger and larger, until its shadow swallowed him whole. It pressed down on him, suffocating.

But what made him feel even more oppressed was not just the five-story furnace, but the figure sitting in front of it.

From behind, the figure wore a blue-green Daoist robe, with hair pinned up and a crown, graying at the temples—an image of immaculate Daoist grace.

He sat cross-legged on the ground, doing the same work Li Huowang had been doing: pounding with a pestle. But the pestle in his hand was far larger, like a stone pillar.

With each rise and fall, the sound of stone on stone echoed through the cavern.

"M-Master!" The twisted-mouthed woman clumsily pressed her right thumb over her left thumb, folded her other fingers, and brought her hands to her chest in a bow, her eyes full of reverence.

At her voice, the jarring pounding stopped.

The figure turned around. Despite being mentally prepared, Li Huowang's pupils involuntarily contracted in shock.

The Daoist's front was completely different from his back. From behind, he looked like a celestial immortal. From the front, he was a disgusting old man with a scabby head and a protruding underbite, revealing a few yellow teeth.

"You're here? Good disciple. I've been waiting."

With a wave of his filthy Daoist robe, the old Daoist rose into the air, grabbed the twisted-mouthed woman by the neck, and dragged her back.

Before the simple-minded woman could utter another word, she was thrown into a half-man-high stone vat. The next moment, the Master's face twisted with savagery as he gripped the massive stone pestle and brought it down with full force.

A scream was cut short, replaced by wet, pulping sounds from inside the vat.

Fragments of flesh and spatters of blood sprayed onto the old Daoist's face and robes, but he paid them no mind. His expression ecstatic, he chanted in a rhythmic cadence:

"Dingchou, extend my years! Dinghai, guard my soul! Jiazi, protect my body! Jiaxu, preserve my form! Jiashen, fortify my fate! Jiawu, keep my spirit! Jiachen, make my spirit true!"

When he had completely pulverized the contents, he lifted the stone vat—weighing several hundred jin—with one hand and emptied it all into the furnace before him. Then, in a state of extreme frenzy, he thrust both hands toward the sky.

"Light the furnace! Refine the elixir!"

Two child acolytes with heavily rouged cheeks emerged from the shadows, fanning the flames and tossing various ingredients into the furnace—some mineral powders, some live, writhing things.

Before long, a cloying, strange fragrance filled the air.

At that moment, the scabby-headed Master closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Stroking the few scraggly hairs on his chin, he wore a satisfied expression on his filthy, ugly face.

He slowly opened his eyes, clasped his hands behind his back, and turned to look at Li Huowang. "I hear you called this Daoist a piece of shit. Is that true?"

In an instant, the air seemed to freeze.

Facing this so-called Master, who killed without blinking, Li Huowang remained unmoved. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, silently reciting: "You can't fool me. This is all fake. All fake."

"Speak! Cat got your tongue? Hmm?!" The Master's footsteps grew closer, and the stench of blood mixed with his body odor slammed into Li Huowang like a wall.

Trembling, Li Huowang clenched his jaw and forced his eyes open with all his might.

In an instant, the dim, oppressive cave temple vanished. A bright, clean hospital room with fresh air appeared before him. His lower body was tightly bound to the bed by cloth restraints.

(End of chapter)