Innate Nature

1,206 words

Chapter 156: Innate Nature (For Alliance Leader "A Wonderful" — Additional Chapter!)

"Kill!"

Li Huowang swept his sword low, scraping the ground. A faint, dark red blade glare seemed to flicker along the steel.

The next instant, the black shadow-puppet shredded in two let out a sharp shriek before dissolving into black smoke.

Pressing his advantage, Li Huowang clenched his jaw and accelerated forward, the distance between them closing rapidly.

He had assumed there was only one puppet monster left, something he could deal with easily. He hadn't expected that the masked man would flex his armpits and extend four more arms.

Each hand clutched a different shadow-puppet.

As the slender fingers twitched, Li Huowang found himself surrounded in the moonlight by a swarm of these paper-thin puppet monsters.

"Senior Brother Li, we're coming to help!"

"Don't anyone come near! Stay back! Miao Miao, stop drumming! I can handle these!"

Li Huowang quickly executed a sweeping strike, forcing them back a step.

The red bamboo slips snapped open with a rustle.

As he began the ritual, excruciating pain nearly made him black out.

But the sacrifice was effective. The moment his two severed fingers left his hand, they instantly swelled and tore apart.

Bone from within the fingers grew at a frenzied pace, twisting out of the torn flesh and spinning like two long darts, flying straight toward the masked man.

The masked man twisted to dodge, but the fingers tracked his movement in perfect sync.

With two wet thuds, the fingers buried themselves in his neck. Instantly, the shadow-puppets surrounding Li Huowang froze and fell back to the ground.

"You—" the masked man only managed a single word before stumbling and collapsing.

Li Huowang strode over and looked down at the dead, six-armed freak.

"That's it? That simple?" Li Huowang was incredulous. Compared to what he'd faced before, this felt like child's play.

He leaned in a little closer and used his sword to pry up the copper coin mask.

He had to see what this thing really looked like.

The mask came away. Li Huowang froze.

Underneath was a wooden mouth. This thing was nothing more than a puppet!

"Watch out! The dwarf is still inside its belly—he's about to ambush you!"

The voice came from nowhere. The instant it finished speaking, the corpse's abdomen burst open, and a flash of cold steel stabbed straight for Li Huowang's heart.

Thanks to the warning, Li Huowang got his sword up just in time, parrying the sneak attack.

The next moment, he shoved upward, then drove his sword—still heavy with killing intent—straight into the masked man's belly.

A strangled, duck-like scream. Blood poured from the wound.

A malformed dwarf—bald, one eye huge and one eye tiny, loose-skinned and hunched—spat blood and tried to claw his way out of the cavity with a look of agony.

He was wasting his time. After a few pitiful, wailing struggles, his swollen head slowly drooped.

Having just killed a man, Li Huowang felt the sword hiss like a dragon and almost lost his grip.

He yanked it free, wiped the blade, and sheathed it in one motion. The sword finally stopped its restless quivering.

But Li Huowang had no time for the sword now. He spun around to find the source of the warning.

There stood the monk in his patched, tattered robes, smiling at him.

"You again? Who the hell are you?"

The monk lifted one sandaled foot, showing a toe poking through, and started walking. As he passed the dead dwarf, he casually plucked the copper coin mask from its face and tucked it into his pocket.

"Come on. We'll talk on the move. Don't you see them coming?"

Li Huowang glanced back at the black dots swelling from every direction and quickly followed.

"Everyone, move! Run! Don't fall behind!"

Catching up to the monk, he pressed again. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

The monk smiled and turned to face Li Huowang. "Don't be so pushy, Li Huowang. Let me ask you something: in the time we've spent together, have I ever harmed you?"

Before Li Huowang could answer, the monk answered himself.

"No. Not only have I not harmed you, I've helped you at every turn. I helped you see through Zhengde Temple's plot. I warned you there was something wrong with those Nuo opera performers."

Glancing again at the pursuit closing in, Li Huowang took a deep breath, forcing his agitation down. "I'm grateful for your help. But I don't want to be kept in the dark."

The monk's perpetually cheerful expression suddenly turned grave. "Who I am isn't important. Who you are is what matters. Are you really Li Huowang?"

"What?!" Li Huowang's pupils shrank to pinpricks. For a moment, he wanted to stop the man from saying another word.

"What I'm about to tell you may be shocking. But considering I've saved your life more than once, you have to believe me."

"I'm not a monk. And you're not Li Huowang. Those are other people's identities—we've just been temporarily borrowing them. Your real name is Peng Zhi. Mine is Peng Jiao. Neither of us is a real person. Our true identities? We're someone else's Three Corpses!"

"What the hell is all this?!" Li Huowang's mind was a tangled mess. "I'm not Li Huowang? There's another Li Huowang?"

Swoosh! A crossbow bolt flew past. The monk yanked Li Huowang aside just in time.

Sensing the urgency, the monk sped up his words. "Do you know about the Three Corpses in Daoism? Any cultivator who wants to attain immortality must cut off their own Three Corpses. We are those severed corpses!"

"The Upper Corpse, Peng Hou, is Danyangzi. The Middle Corpse, Peng Zhi, is you. And the Lower Corpse, Peng Jiao, is me!"

"Danyangzi has already been severed. We two are next! So we have to join forces—it's the only way either of us has a chance to survive!"

"This... this can't be..." Li Huowang still refused to believe it. In the span of a few moments, his entire world had been turned upside down.

"Daoshi! Look at me, look at me!"

When Li Huowang's eyes met the monk's, he found a gaze of absolute sincerity.

"The Upper Corpse Worm is named Peng Hou. It dwells in the human head, rendering men stupid, dull, and without wisdom."

"The Middle Corpse Worm is named Peng Zhi. It dwells in the human chest, filling men with troubles, delusions, and preventing them from achieving clarity."

"The Lower Corpse Worm is named Peng Jiao. It dwells in the human belly, driving men toward extravagance, evil, and lasciviousness."

"We all have innate natures we can't escape. But look at me—I've completely broken free from mine. My nature drives me toward evil, but I choose to do good!"

"My nature drives me toward extravagance and lechery, but I choose to be a penniless monk! My fate is determined by me, not by heaven!"

"I know Peng Zhi's nature is toward suspicion and delusion. But, Daoshi, these are all your innate nature. You must break free from it just like I did! That's the only way we can fight the man who seeks to become immortal! And win our freedom!"

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Three Corpses Doctrine: Daoist Horror at its Finest

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The Three Corpses (三尸): This is a major, core Daoist concept that the novel has just weaponized. In Daoist internal alchemy and religious cultivation, the "Three Corpses" or "Three Worms" (San Shi/San Chong) are three malevolent, parasitic entities that live inside every human body. Their only goal is to hasten a person's death so they can be free. The Upper Corpse (Peng Hou) lives in the brain and causes stupidity; the Middle Corpse (Peng Zhi) lives in the chest and causes worldly desires and confusion; and the Lower Corpse (Peng Jiao) lives in the lower belly and causes lust and greed. The goal of the true Daoist adept is to "cut off the Three Corpses"—a process of purifying oneself to the point where these internal demons are starved and expelled, allowing the spirit to ascend. By turning Li Huowang, Danyangzi, and the Monk into these very corpses, the author brilliantly literalizes a classic spiritual metaphor into a horrifying, physical reality.

"My Fate is Determined by Me, Not by Heaven" (我命由我不由天): This is one of the most iconic and defiant slogans in all of Chinese fantasy and Daoist philosophy. Attributed to the ancient Daoist alchemist Ge Hong, it's a powerful declaration of human agency against cosmic predestination. In modern pop culture, it's most famously associated with the hero Nezha from the blockbuster animated film. In this chapter, the monk uses it not just as a boast, but as a desperate justification for his entire existence: he is a severed demon of sin, yet he chooses to be a good monk. It elevates the chapter's conflict from a simple fight for survival to a profound struggle of will against one's own damned nature.

Chapter Overview

Get ready to have your entire understanding of this story turned inside out. Chapter 156 doesn't just throw Li Huowang into another fight—it shatters the very foundation of his identity. After a deceptively easy victory over a six-armed puppet controlled by a grotesque dwarf, Li Huowang is cornered by the mysterious, ever-helpful monk. And what the monk reveals is nothing short of a cosmological bombshell: Li Huowang isn't who he thinks he is. None of them are. The monk spins a wild, deeply Daoist theory that they're all severed "Three Corpses"—the discarded parts of another cultivator's soul. It's a lore drop that recontextualizes everything, delivered with the kind of breathless urgency that makes you want to flip back to the first chapter and start re-reading.

Key Plot Points

A Deceptively Easy Fight: Li Huowang dispatches the copper-masked six-armed freak with shocking speed, using his own severed fingers as homing projectiles. The victory feels almost too easy—a clear sign something bigger is coming.
The Puppet Within: Just as Li Huowang peels off the mask and discovers a wooden mouth (it was a puppet all along!), a hidden dwarf bursts from the corpse's belly for a sneak attack. He is warned by the mysterious monk's voice-from-nowhere and survives the ambush.
The Monk's Revelation: Cornered by pursuit, the monk drops the chapter's core bombshell: Li Huowang is not Li Huowang. He is actually "Peng Zhi," the Middle Corpse of some unknown immortal. The monk himself claims to be "Peng Jiao," the Lower Corpse.
The Three Corpses Doctrine: The monk explains that the three corpses—Peng Hou (Danyangzi, the Upper Corpse), Peng Zhi (Li Huowang), and Peng Jiao (himself)—are severed parts of a single cultivator trying to become immortal. He claims Danyangzi has been "severed" and that they are next.
A Call to Resist Innate Nature: The monk's final plea is a rousing, almost philosophical call to arms: they must overcome their innate natures (suspicion, evil, lechery) to fight the immortal and win their freedom. "My fate is determined by me, not by heaven!"

Reading Guide

This chapter is the sort of game-changing revelation that defines Daoist Immortal. The fight is a setup, and the payoff is pure existential horror. Pay close attention to the monk's words—he's not just rambling. He's laying out a new cosmic rulebook. If he's right, then everything you thought you knew about Li Huowang, Danyangzi, and even the nature of the two worlds is a lie. The chapter hinges on the phrase "innate nature" (天性). The monk's core argument is that we can choose to defy what we are born to be. Is that a hopeful message of freedom, or a terrifying condemnation that Li Huowang is doomed by his very nature to be suspicious and paranoid? The author leaves you to stew on that question, and it's a deliciously cruel cliffhanger. Buckle up—the mythology just got a whole lot deeper and a whole lot darker.