Treatment

1,211 words

Chapter 125: Treatment

Li Huowang watched Shou San's face as he spoke those words with an eerily calm tone.

"Fine," Li Huowang replied. "I'll trust you one more time. But I don't want anything like today to happen again. If you push me too far, I don't mind letting Danyangzi take over and we all go down together!"

At Li Huowang's threat, a flicker of displeasure crossed Shou San's face.

But he eyed the Daoist before him with extreme caution, and in the end, he said nothing.

Under the watchful gaze of the Ao-Jing sect members, Li Huowang reached out, helped Yingzi up from the ground, and pulled her step by step back the way they had come.

After they left, Shou San turned to a completely unremarkable-looking Ao-Jing disciple beside him and lowered his voice. "Elder Shenbenyou, you saw that too. Aren't you going to do something?"

The mysterious Grand Elder Yingzi had spoken of had been right there all along.

The man's gaze was fixed on the direction Li Huowang had gone. "No. This Heart-Element is different from the others. You've seen his abilities—he's far more dangerous than the rest. Keep him steady for now. I need time to observe him carefully, to get a clear picture before I make a decision."

"Yes, I understand."

Back inside the house, Li Huowang seemed to have drained every last ounce of his strength. He collapsed directly to the floor.

Yingzi, now missing an arm, stood hesitantly. When she saw that Li Huowang was still bleeding, she carefully moved closer. "Benefactor, are you all right?"

"Heh… fine. Won't die from this."

Hearing this, Yingzi's eyes hardened. She walked over to the wax-sealed book lying on the ground.

Holding the book with her one hand, she knelt before Li Huowang and spoke softly. "Benefactor, bear with it. I'll heal your wounds."

With that, she raised the book and began to chant. Her voice was strange, mimicking the crackling sound of flames burning.

"Hoo—!" The entire wax book in Yingzi's hand burst into flame.

The burning wax, molten and fiery, dripped directly onto the wounds in Li Huowang's body.

A sizzling sound rang out, and Li Huowang caught the familiar smell once more.

As Yingzi held the book above her head, the burning wax oil on Li Huowang's body seemed to come alive. It began to writhe across his skin like a fiery slug.

Wherever the thing crawled across Li Huowang's body, white smoke rose, leaving trails of scorched, charred marks.

It didn't just stop the bleeding. Flesh-melting burns sealed over the wounds that had been deep enough to show bone.

As it crawled, it covered Li Huowang's entire body. The injuries were now mostly patched up.

But the price was that Li Huowang, whose pain sensitivity had been amplified, nearly bit through his own tongue. He was drenched in sweat, looking as if he had been caught in a downpour.

And it wasn't over yet. Seeing the fire-slug slithering across his skin toward his face, Li Huowang sucked in a sharp breath and instinctively jerked his head back.

"Tch. This kind of healing is fucking lethal."

After a few rapid breaths, Li Huowang steeled himself and opened his mouth.

He grabbed the fire-slug from his chest and shoved it straight into his mouth.

The next moment, Li Huowang felt what it was like to swallow a mouthful of magma.

He could feel the ball of molten fire crawling down his throat, slowly making its way into his esophagus.

A continuous sizzling sound filled the air, and thick white smoke poured from Li Huowang's mouth and nose.

The searing, unbearable pain made Li Huowang clutch his throat as he rolled on the ground in agony.

When he felt the thing nearing his stomach, the trembling Li Huowang quickly signaled to Yingzi.

"Stomach… no! There's something in there. The fire-slug can't beat it!"

Although Yingzi didn't quite understand what Li Huowang meant, she followed his instruction anyway.

The fire-slug crawled out of Li Huowang's mouth. It didn't dissipate. Instead, it moved onto Yingzi's body and began searing her arm, which was now nothing but bone.

A thud sounded as the bone fell uselessly to the floor. Under the fire-slug's wrapping, the gap in her severed arm began to slowly close.

Having completed its task, the fire-slug crawled back onto the book, re-covering its surface. As the flames subsided, the wax quickly solidified, and the book returned to its original form.

"Does it hurt?" Li Huowang asked, looking at Yingzi, who was breaking out in a cold sweat.

"How could it not? But compared to the day my siblings died, this pain is nothing…"

Li Huowang's gaze dimmed slightly. Then he nodded. "Yeah. Physical pain can be endured, but heartache… that's unbearable."

Yingzi, now with only one arm, looked at him silently for a moment. She didn't say a word. She helped him up and guided him toward the bed.

Li Huowang glanced at the side of Jiang Yingzi's face, unable to figure out what she was really thinking.

The things she did were deeply contradictory.

Then he remembered what Shou San had said earlier. "I wonder how much of that was true. But since he said it, there probably won't be any more attacks, right?"

Once they both lay down again, Li Huowang, exhausted and wounded, was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

In a hazy, dream-filled state, Li Huowang dreamed of many things.

But when he woke up again, he couldn't remember any of it.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Mantou circling Yingzi excitedly, letting out whimpering sounds full of affection.

"How did you two get so close all of a sudden?" Li Huowang walked to the stone table and began to wolf down the breakfast.

Yingzi looked at Mantou with a complex expression, stroking its white-stained paws.

"I remember now. It was my neighbor's dog. That year, the old dog had seven puppies. It was one of them."

"I thought it was surely dead. I didn't expect it to have survived."

Watching Mantou happily lick Yingzi's hand, Li Huowang let out a soft sigh.

"A whole town, killed down to just one person and one dog. What a damn world."

"Benefactor… why did he kill us all? He was a powerful immortal, and we were less than ants to him. Was it just because we were in his way?"

A tremor crept into Yingzi's voice. She was struggling to hold her emotions in check.

Li Huowang sighed again. "Who knows. That's just how this world is. The good die young, and the wicked live forever."

Li Huowang and Yingzi chatted idly, the gap between them narrowing just a little after the events of the previous day.

"By the way, what's the name of that book you used to heal me?"

Li Huowang realized the thing was actually quite useful. The process was excruciatingly painful, and the fire-slug left horrific scars wherever it crawled, but…

He found that after a night's sleep, he was actually mostly healed.

Yingzi pulled the wax-sealed book from her robe and handed it to him with her one hand. "The True Sutra of the Fire Vestments. If you need it, Benefactor, it's yours."

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Price of Healing and a Fragile Truce

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter introduces a new form of "healing" that is violently antithetical to the pleasant, restorative imagery found in typical xianxia. The technique from the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments is a prime example of the novel's subversion of genre tropes.

Fire and Wax as "Medicine": Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and alchemy sometimes used moxibustion (the burning of mugwort on the skin) for therapeutic effect. However, this practice is gentle and controlled. In Dao Gui Yi Xian, this concept is twisted into a barbaric, full-body cauterization. The "fire-slug" is a living manifestation of alchemical fire, essentially melting and re-fusing flesh. This reflects the novel's theme that spiritual and physical power must be paid for in suffering, not in serene meditation.

The Cult of Suffering: The Ao-Jing Sect's healing art is horrific, but it works. This reinforces the core principle of many sects in this world: efficacy is divorced from morality. A technique that causes agony is not necessarily evil—it's just a transaction. Li Huowang's willingness to endure this pain signals his deepening integration into this world's logic, where pain is currency and survival requires spending it freely.

Scriptures as Tools: The "True Sutra" is not a book of philosophy to be read, but a ritual tool to be burned. This is a powerful re-imagining of sacred texts. In the Dao-Twisted World, knowledge is not passive; it is an active, often destructive, substance that you must consume to gain its effect. The text is a vehicle for a power, not a guide to one.

Chapter Overview

Get ready, fellow Daoists, because Chapter 125 is all about pain, trust, and the brutal calculus of survival. Our boy Li Huowang has just made a deal with the devil—or at least with a very shady cultist—and he's paying the price in flesh and agony. After a shocking betrayal that nearly got him killed, Li Huowang is forced to accept a "healing" that feels more like being eaten alive from the inside out. But amidst the searing pain, a strange new bond forms with the one-armed survivor, Jiang Yingzi. This chapter is a masterclass in the novel's core philosophy: there are no free lunches, and every bit of power or aid comes with a price tag of suffering. Buckle up, because the Ao-Jing Sect's true intentions are still murky, and Li Huowang's patience is wearing dangerously thin.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang directly threatens Shou San and the Ao-Jing Sect, warning that he will let Danyangzi take over if provoked again. This establishes a fragile, hostile truce.
The mysterious Grand Elder "Shenbenyou" is revealed to have been watching the entire time. He orders Shou San to keep Li Huowang stable for now, showing that the sect is wary and observing, not ready to strike.
Yingzi uses the wax-sealed book, the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments, to perform a grotesque, painful healing ritual on Li Huowang. A "fire-slug" of burning wax crawls over his body, sealing wounds with horrific burns.
Li Huowang forces the fire-slug down his own throat to heal internal injuries, demonstrating his increasing willingness to endure extreme pain for tactical gain—and to protect the Black Tai Sui inside him.
Yingzi herself undergoes the same treatment to seal her severed arm, revealing her own resilience and fortitude.
A quiet, domestic scene follows where Li Huowang and Yingzi share breakfast and conversation. Yingzi reveals that the dog, Mantou, was from her old neighborhood, a rare survivor of Danyangzi's massacre.
Yingzi questions the meaning of Danyangzi's cruelty, and Li Huowang offers a bleak, fatalistic answer: "The good die young, and the wicked live forever."
In the end, Yingzi offers Li Huowang the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments, solidifying a new, tentative trust between them.

Reading Guide

Chapter 125 is a "breather" chapter in the worst way possible—it's not a break from horror, but a quiet, visceral meditation on its consequences. The frantic action of the previous chapter gives way to a slower, more intimate kind of dread.

Pay close attention to the power dynamics. Li Huowang's threat to let Danyangzi take over is a genuine gamble. He is bluffing, and the Ao-Jing Sect knows he might be, but they cannot risk calling his bluff. This creates a fascinating, tense equilibrium where both sides are afraid of each other.

The healing scene is the chapter's centerpiece. Don't rush through it. The author's description is deliberately visceral and tactile. Feel the wax, smell the burnt flesh. This is the core aesthetic of the novel—a world where even a "helpful" act is agonizing.

Finally, notice the bond forming between Li Huowang and Yingzi. They are both survivors of an unspeakable trauma, bound by the loss of their world. Their conversation about the dog and the cruelty of the world is a rare moment of genuine human connection. These moments of quiet, grim intimacy are what make the horror of the world so much more effective. They are not just surviving; they are desperately trying to find a reason to survive together.