Black Tai Sui

1,170 words

"Tai Sui. Black Tai Sui." Danyangzi's cold voice echoed in the small ingredient room.

Li Huowang raised his head slightly and looked at the disgusting thing in the old man's hand. On closer inspection, it seemed somewhat similar to what was in the black cauldron—no, it was the very same thing that had been eating people inside that cauldron.

"So this is called Black Tai Sui? He's not planning to use this to refine pills, is he? Disgusting taste," Li Huowang thought to himself.

With a flick of Danyangzi's wrist, the writhing mass of Black Tai Sui arced through the air and landed squarely on Li Huowang's foot.

The sticky, squishy sensation made Li Huowang's scalp tingle. He stumbled backward, shaking his legs.

Staring at the dust-covered Black Tai Sui on the ground, Li Huowang looked up at Danyangzi in disbelief, not understanding what the man meant.

"It's a gift. Pick it up and swallow it. Before, you were just a human ingredient, so it didn't matter. Now that you're this Dao Lord's disciple, things can't be so casual. This will suppress your madness."

Li Huowang seemed not to understand what he was saying. He didn't want to understand. The youth's face turned pale as he backed away. "I'm not eating that! I'm not crazy!"

"Not eating? Hmph. That's not up to you. Chang Ming, Chang Ren."

Danyangzi gave a slight jerk of his chin. Two Daoists wearing swords at their backs hurried over to Li Huowang, each grabbing one of his arms.

Then Danyangzi beckoned with his right hand, and the Black Tai Sui that had been creeping toward the corner of the room flew straight into his palm.

Watching Danyangzi approach with that nauseating thing, Li Huowang's body began to tremble uncontrollably. A bone-deep cold seeped through him from the inside out.

He instinctively tried to struggle free, but the two senior disciples' hands were like iron clamps around his shoulders.

But there was still one last resort. With Li Huowang's rapid breathing, his chest heaved violently. In his terror, he gritted his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and with all his strength, pulled his mind and body inward to a single point.

"Huowang? Huowang! What's wrong? Are you in pain?" Yang Na's gentle voice sounded like an angel's to Li Huowang at that moment.

He opened his eyes and saw the girl in a white turtleneck sweater. He lunged forward, grabbing her desperately as if she were a lifeline, hugging her tightly.

A blush rose on the young girl's cheeks as she struggled and whispered, "Huowang, Huowang, let go. Auntie is watching behind us."

Li Huowang looked up and saw his mother standing beside the attending doctor, smiling at them knowingly. "Oh my~ my son is doing great."

Looking at the clean, tidy hospital room, the bright sun outside the window, and his beloved family, Li Huowang's fear-soaked heart gradually calmed.

The attending doctor adjusted his glasses and stepped forward, frowning. "Little Li, what did you see in the hallucination? Your emotions are a bit volatile. What's been going on lately? Have you been following my instructions?"

Thinking of everything he had just endured, Li Huowang's heart clenched. He said urgently to his doctor, "Doctor, is there any medicine that can temporarily suppress those hallucinations? I really can't take it anymore. I want to rest for a while."

"Ah, alright. I'll prescribe some haloperidol and perphenazine. But Little Li, medication can only help. To truly get rid of the hallucinations, you have to follow my method." The doctor finished speaking and began to prescribe medicine on his tablet.

When he saw the nurse bring a few blue capsules, Li Huowang rushed over, didn't even bother with water, and tossed them into his mouth.

He didn't want to think about masters or pills anymore. He just wanted to be quiet for a while. What had just happened really scared him.

The capsules felt sticky and gritty, disgusting to eat, but he forced himself to swallow them.

"Little Li, tell me, what scared you in that hallucination just now?"

Li Huowang, feeling much lighter after taking the medicine, smiled and replied, "Nothing much. It's just that the guy over there had a strange tone. From how he said it, it sounded like he was saying that place is the real world and this is the illusion, hahaha."

As soon as he said that, the air around them seemed to freeze. The unusually bright colors dimmed. Yang Na, his mother, the attending doctor, and the nurse who had brought the medicine all froze in place.

The sudden change all around made Li Huowang's body begin to tremble again. His breathing grew rapid. He looked helplessly out the window. The bright sunny sky had turned pitch black. The safe, peaceful environment was gone.

Fear like a physical weight enveloped him. Panic overwhelmed every other emotion. By instinct, Li Huowang grabbed Yang Na and lunged toward his mother's embrace.

But the moment he touched her, her body burst like a soap bubble. His reliable, strong mother, who had always sheltered him from any storm, was gone.

"Huowang..." Li Huowang's body gave a violent start. He whipped his head around, watching helplessly as Yang Na's body faded completely before his eyes. His only love was gone.

In that moment, every positive, beautiful thing left in Li Huowang's heart vanished. All that remained was despair, oppression, and pain.

The white walls of the hospital receded like a retreating tide. He was back in the dark cave among the mountains.

Li Huowang's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging on his forehead. He wanted to scream, to howl, to pour out all the despair and suffering in his heart.

But he couldn't. His throat was packed solid with Black Tai Sui. Not a single sound could escape. All the despair and pain rebounded back onto him, forcing him to bear it all.

Watching his disciple kneel on the ground, trembling and retching, Danyangzi clasped his hands behind his back, shook his head, and walked toward the door of the ingredient room.

"Tsk tsk tsk. You're this crazy and you still say you're not mad? In this whole ingredient room, you're the sickest one. Did you think I picked my human ingredients at random before?"

"Enough. The madness is gone now. Time to get to work. Remember, Qingfeng Hall doesn't keep idle hands. Come to me on the first of every month to get your medicine."

With that, Danyangzi's other disciples followed him out. In the whole ingredient room, besides Li Huowang, only the other human ingredients remained.

The strangely shaped human ingredients, each carrying congenital or acquired illnesses, looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

About the time it takes half a stick of incense to burn, the Black Tai Sui in Li Huowang's mouth finally slid down. His heart-wrenching cries echoed through the cave.

"Why?! Why, even after coming to this damned place, does this sickness still not let me go?!"

(The chapter ends)

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Taste of Despair: Black Tai Sui and Broken Sanity

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

"Tai Sui" (太岁) is a term deeply rooted in Chinese folk religion and astronomy. Traditionally, it refers to the star Jupiter (the Year Star) and the associated deity believed to govern fortune and misfortune for the year. The phrase "to disturb the Tai Sui" (太岁头上动土) warns against acting recklessly in the face of powerful forces. In this novel, however, the Black Tai Sui is a grotesque, living parasite—a physical manifestation of corrupt alchemy. It consumes flesh and suppresses madness, inverting the protective or ominous role of the traditional Tai Sui into a tangible horror. The "human ingredients" (人药引) concept draws from the alchemical practice of using rare human constitutions as raw materials for elixirs. Historically, such practices existed in more symbolic or metaphorical forms, but the novel literalizes them to create visceral body horror. Li Huowang's transformation from "ingredient" to disciple does not free him from being treated as a subject; he remains a vessel for Danyangzi's experiments.

Chapter Overview

In this harrowing chapter, Li Huowang is forced to confront the limits of his dual-reality existence. Danyangzi introduces the Black Tai Sui—a writhing, parasitic entity that is both a tool of suppression and a grotesque emblem of the cave world's horror. As the substance is forced down his throat, Li Huowang desperately escapes into his modern reality, only to find that his words inadvertently shatter that safe haven. The chapter culminates in an extended sequence of raw grief and helplessness, as Li Huowang realizes that neither world offers him true sanctuary. This is a turning point where his identity as both patient and disciple becomes a prison, and the Black Tai Sui becomes the symbol of his inescapable affliction. The stark contrast between the sterile hospital and the crude cave amplifies the psychological terror, leaving the reader to question what is real and what is madness.

Key Plot Points

Danyangzi reveals the Black Tai Sui, a slimy, animate entity that was previously seen inside the black cauldron eating people. He orders Li Huowang to swallow it to suppress his madness.
Li Huowang resists, but two disciple Daoists, Chang Ming and Chang Ren, hold him down. In desperation, he uses his mind to force a transition back to his modern reality.
He finds himself in the hospital, embraced by Yang Na and his mother. The doctor prescribes antipsychotics (haloperidol and perphenazine), which Li Huowang takes eagerly.
Relieved, Li Huowang jokes that the voice in his hallucination claimed that world was real and this was the illusion. This statement triggers a catastrophic collapse of the hospital environment: colors drain, people freeze, and the sky turns black.
Yang Na and his mother disappear like bursting soap bubbles, leaving Li Huowang alone in pure despair.
The hospital walls recede like a tide, and he is pulled back into the cave, now with the Black Tai Sui lodged in his throat.
He tries to scream but cannot; all the pain rebounds onto him. Danyangzi declares him cured and leaves with his disciples, ordering him to report monthly.
The other human ingredients in the room stare in confusion. After half an incense stick of time, the Black Tai Sui finally slides down, and Li Huowang breaks down in wailing grief, asking why the sickness still haunts him even in this strange world.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a masterclass in emotional whiplash. Li Huowang swings from terror to relief to utter despair within a few pages, and the reader is forced to ride that wave with him. Pay close attention to the sensory details: the sticky, gritty texture of the Black Tai Sui and the capsules; the clean white hospital versus the dark, earthy cave. The moment where Li Huowang jokes about the hallucination being real is the pivot point—his words, spoken in a moment of casual relief, unmask the fragility of his safe reality. The hospital collapse is not caused by external forces but by his own cognitive dissonance. This reinforces the novel's central theme: the boundary between worlds is porous, and belief is a dangerous weapon. Danyangzi's final line, "The madness is gone," is chilling because we know it is a lie—the Black Tai Sui does not cure madness; it only silences it, forcing the pain inward. Li Huowang's final scream is the sound of a man who has lost all hope of escape.

The Symbolism of Black Tai Sui

The Black Tai Sui in this chapter serves as the nexus of several key themes: body horror, corrupted alchemy, and the crushing weight of Li Huowang's illness. In traditional Chinese belief, Tai Sui is often depicted as a powerful spirit that must be appeased. Here, it is a parasitic mass that is simultaneously medicine and curse. Its texture (slimy, squirming) and its behavior (eating people, blocking throats) make it a perfect symbol for the Dao-Twisted World: everything sacred is twisted into something repulsive. The fact that Danyangzi uses it to "cure" Li Huowang highlights the moral inversion of this world—the cure is indistinguishable from poison. For readers unfamiliar with Chinese mythology, understanding the original Tai Sui concept intensifies the revulsion: the familiar is made monstrous.