A Final Letter and a Flesh-Skin Oath

Li Huowang sat on the ground, his face a storm of hesitation and inner conflict.

He stayed in place for a very long time. Finally, he picked up the brush and began to write on the sheet of paper.

But every few characters, he would pause for a long while.

Part of it was his unfamiliarity with the brush. More importantly, by now Li Huowang had already begun to forget the strokes of many everyday words.

He understood what that meant. It meant he was becoming more and more like Danyangzi.

He filled the page with his sprawling script, and at the very end, he wrote five large characters: Last Words of Li Huowang.

Once he finished, he blew on the paper to dry the ink and handed it to the fat nun beside him.

“If any of my fellow disciples come looking for me… please give this letter to the tall one. He can read.”

Then he passed her the gourd containing the Heavenly Scripture and the Daoist bell. “Please give these two things to them as well.”

“They know how to use the bell and the gourd. As for the Heavenly Scripture… let it be a memento.”

Miao Yin’s eyes flicked over the three items, then shifted to the Thousand Greats Record at Li Huowang’s waist.

“Not sending that one?”

Li Huowang pressed his hand against the bamboo slips that had brought him so much endless pain. He shook his head slightly. “No. That thing is inauspicious. Leaving it with them would make me uneasy. Better it goes with me.”

Once everything was arranged, he turned to look at Jingxin, who had been waiting nearby. “Venerable, everything is ready.”

Jingxin nodded and began walking deeper into Anci Nunnery. Her loose, sagging skin dragged across the ground behind her like a hem.

She led the way, and Li Huowang followed, one hand pressed to his abdomen. Neither of them spoke.

They passed through the moldy ‘swamp’ of spoiled food and walked past several dilapidated, filthy temple halls. Gradually, a short black pagoda came into view.

Seeing the pagoda, Jingxin finally spoke. “You truly wish to do this?”

Li Huowang nodded. “What you said earlier reminded me of something… All along, what I’ve really wanted is to destroy Danyangzi completely. As for whether I survive…”

He let out a low chuckle. “Looking back on it now… I don’t really care that much about my own life anymore.”

He pressed his palm against the wound on his abdomen, a deep weariness spreading across his face.

“To be honest, Venerable… after everything I’ve been through… I’m really tired. I don’t want to watch my mother suffer anymore. I don’t want to endure Danyangzi’s erosion every single moment. I just want to rest.”

Faced with the death that was coming, Li Huowang felt no fear. Instead, there was a faint sense of relief in his heart. “Ah… I’m so tired.”

Jingxin nodded and led him toward the tower. “Very well. As you wish.”

“Thank you, Venerable. Of all the people I’ve met in this world, you are the only good one.”

“I am a monastic. Compassion is the way of the monastic. It is only natural.”

“Venerable, since you are a Buddhist disciple, may I ask you a question?”

“Oh? What question?”

“Do you think… after a person dies, do they really become a ghost?”

“And what about you? You are about to die. Which would be better—becoming a ghost, or vanishing utterly without a trace?”

“I think… living is tiring enough. After death, you should rest. No more trouble.” Li Huowang spoke with complete candor.

Jingxin tilted her head slightly, regarding him with her withered eyes. “Are you truly certain you have no attachments left? Is there truly nothing in this mortal world worth holding on to?”

Li Huowang’s expression stiffened. Many things flashed through his mind. “There is… but the person I am now… I would only hurt them if I stayed.”

Hearing this, Jingxin said nothing more and continued walking toward the black pagoda.

As they drew closer, Li Huowang heard a rustling sound—very distinctive, like leaves rubbing together.

He looked up toward the source and finally identified it. It was cockroaches. Countless black insects, packed together, squeezed inside the pagoda.

Jingxin did not stop. She walked straight into the swarm, and Li Huowang followed.

The sensation of cockroaches crawling all over his body was unbearable, but Li Huowang, determined to die, no longer cared.

He had to shove the crawling bugs aside, barely managing not to fall behind.

They pushed through the insect swarm for the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense. Then the space before him opened up, but before he could catch his breath, what he saw made his entire body shudder.

Rats. Large and small, their tails tangled together, forming writhing clumps of rodents clinging to one another.

These clumps fused into a single, massive mountain of rats.

Countless red eyes from the writhing mountain stared straight at Li Huowang.

At the base of the rat-mountain, there was a hole, as if waiting for someone to enter.

“This is the place?” Li Huowang took a deep breath and stepped toward the hole in the mountain of rodents.

He had only gone a few steps when he stopped and turned back to confirm with Jingxin. “Venerable… are you certain that after I die, you can really get rid of Danyangzi?”

His own life was a small matter. Making sure that damned monster was utterly destroyed was the important thing.

After receiving a firm confirmation, Li Huowang let out a breath and stepped toward the rat-hole.

In the final moment before death, the faces of both Yang Na and Bai Lingmiao appeared in his mind. Gradually, their figures began to blur together.

“Goodbye… this rotten place.” Li Huowang thought to himself and lifted his foot to step inside.

Just as he was about to crawl into the rat-hole, Jingxin’s voice came from behind him.

“Since you are not afraid of death… I can recommend another option. If it truly proves useless, you can die then.”

Li Huowang turned around in surprise, looking at Jingxin. “There’s another way?”

The ashen despair in his heart was instantly reignited by her words.

Jingxin nodded and pointed at the Thousand Greats Record at his waist. “Seek help from the original owners of that thing.”

“Them?” Li Huowang looked down at the red bamboo slips in surprise. “Venerable, I never asked you before… where did this thing, which feeds on blood and flesh sacrifice, originate?”

“The Ao-Jing Sect.” Jingxin spoke a name entirely unfamiliar to Li Huowang.

“In the past, they were two sects—an Ao sect and a Jing sect. Later, they somehow got mixed together. The Thousand Greats Record in your hand is theirs.”

“The Ao-Jing Sect?” Li Huowang repeated the name to himself. He knew Buddhism and Daoism, but this Ao-Jing sect was something he was hearing for the first time.

“Can they remove Danyangzi from me?”

“You can go and try. If there is anyone in this world who can solve a strange case like yours… it is the ones who are even stranger than you.”

“Of course, if they do help you, you might never be free of them. But since you are not afraid of death… you should not fear that either.”

Having said this, Jingxin pinched a fold of her own loose skin and sliced it off with her fingernail. A piece of human skin was cut away.

Her dark fingernails moved swiftly across it, carving out a script of rectangular Nüshu characters.

When she finished, she walked over to Li Huowang and placed it in his hand.

“Take this to show them. When they see you, they will not strike immediately.”

“If they also cannot help you, then you can come back and die.”

Li Huowang rubbed the skin-letter in his hand, finding it hard to believe. He had already steeled himself for death… and now there was still a sliver of hope.

“Thank you, Venerable! If Danyangzi is truly dealt with, I will repay you greatly in the future!”

If he could live, then living was better after all. Clutching this last thread of hope, Li Huowang turned and headed back through the cockroach swarm.

“Venerable, it’s settled then! If they can’t solve Danyangzi either, I’ll come back in two months for you to kill me.”

Not long after Li Huowang had left, a fat nun emerged from the rat-mountain and approached Jingxin.

“Venerable… why did you help that Heart-Element kid so much? Using a flesh-skin letter… that’s a huge favor. And we’re already on bad terms with those people.”

Jingxin stared into the direction Li Huowang had left, her expression complex. After a long silence, she finally spoke slowly.

“Earlier… that boy held my face and called me mother.”

“Do you know… he really looked a lot like Yu-er when he was young. The way he spoke, the way he moved.”

I’m sorry, I’m stuck today. This chapter is owed. I’ll repay it in a few days.

(End of Chapter)