Death

1,252 words

Jiang Yingzi vanished. Without any warning, right before Li Huowang's eyes, she was gone.

He stood frozen for a moment, replaying her parting words in his mind. "The elders of the Ao-Jing Sect are all Zuowandao? Danyangzi is still alive? He's not an illusion?"

Coming from a hallucination, he should have ignored it. But as he turned the possibility over in his head, a terrible logic began to click into place.

The Zuowandao hadn't just appeared at his side recently. They had been there all along. They were already there, back at the Ao-Jing Sect.

"This isn't possible! You can't have figured it out!"

The furious, desperate cry drew Li Huowang's gaze downward, to Erbing on the ground.

The same Erbing who had worn that smug grin through every torment she'd endured now had a face twisted with something new. Her composure was shattered. She looked utterly defeated.

In that moment, Li Huowang finally understood what the abbess had meant. This was how you fought the Zuowandao. You had to oppose them on their own terms.

These madmen didn't fear pain or death. They did what they did for their own twisted pleasure. Some things they valued far more than their own lives. And that thing was the game.

Now that Li Huowang knew what they cared about, he also knew how to make them pay.

"Want to know how I saw through your trick?" he asked, raising his sword and driving it straight down into her chest.

She coughed, choked. Blood leaked slowly from her mouth. The few scraps of skin left on her face twitched. "How...?"

Li Huowang leaned down, bringing his own battered body close, and whispered into her mutilated earhole with a soft, ugly laugh.

"Heh. Guess."

As he spoke, he twisted the sword's hilt slowly to the right. Her body went rigid, like a fish gasping on land. Her face was a mask of pure, bitter refusal.

With a wet shluck, he pulled the blade free. Then he raised it high, and brought it down on her skull, cleaving her head clean in two.

But it wasn't enough. The hate burning in his eyes wouldn't let it go. He lifted the sword again, and swung. Again. Blood and meat flew through the air. In moments, Erbing's corpse was nothing but a red pulp on the desert floor.

The others could only watch from a distance, watching Li Huowang as he slowly went mad. None of them dared to make a sound.

Bai Lingmiao bit her lip and started forward, but Chun Xiaoman blocked her. "Don't go near him now! What if he—"

"I'm not afraid!" Bai Lingmiao shoved her aside and rushed to Li Huowang's side.

"Brother Li! Brother Li! Please, wake up!" Tears streaming down her face, she grabbed his arm with both hands, holding on for dear life, refusing to let him swing again.

He looked at her face. The fog cleared a little. The bloody sword slowly lowered, and slid back into its sheath.

Li Huowang lifted his head, stiff and slow, and looked at the terrible figure of Danyangzi hovering nearby. The three faces watched him—one joyful, one furious, one grieving. Under Li Huowang's gaze, Danyangzi smiled a cold, dark smile, and then slowly sank back into the earth.

"Brother Li, that's enough. She's dead. We're safe now. It's over."

Li Huowang took a deep breath, and nodded. Danyangzi's return... there was no mistaking what that meant now.

"Yeah," he agreed, his voice hollow. "It's over."

He looked at the mess on the ground for a moment, then turned to the others. "Who has a fire striker? We need to burn this. Completely clean."

He couldn't take that risk. Not even for a chance as small as a hair. Erbing had to be reduced to ashes.

They did as he said. They used the wreckage of the cart as fuel, and piled the other bodies on top with Erbing's. On the Gobi morning, a great bonfire roared, its black smoke staining the sky.

Li Huowang didn't leave. He had to watch until she was nothing but dust. In this twisted world, anything could happen. He wouldn't gamble on it.

Lü Zhuangyuan stood at a distance, his pack on his back, hesitating for a long time. Finally, he looked at Li Huowang's bloodstained silhouette and cleared his throat. "Ahem... Little Daoist Master, sir... My daughter-in-law took a bad scare last night. She's with child, so she's in a delicate way. We were thinking we shouldn't travel for a bit, might take her to town to see a doctor about it. What do you think, eh?"

Last night, it wasn't just his daughter-in-law who had been frightened. The entire Lü troupe had been terrified. The old man had been quietly congratulating himself for getting on the good side of a powerful Daoist without paying a cent. But after what he'd witnessed, his clever plan had turned out to be a disastrous mistake.

If the Lü troupe traveled on their own, the worst they'd face was a robbery, or maybe some trouble with the women. But if they kept following this Daoist... they'd end up dead. This Little Daoist Master had hidden his nature too well. He'd nearly fooled everyone. The man was completely insane.

Li Huowang tilted his head slightly. Lü Zhuangyuan's face went white. He stumbled back a few steps, his mouth already working to form an apology.

"Alright. Safe travels, Chief Lü. Gouwa, give them two camels to carry the people."

"No, no! No need for that!" Lü Zhuangyuan waved his hands frantically. He took Li Huowang's agreement like a pardon from the executioner, and led his family scrambling back the way they'd come.

Li Huowang didn't spare them another glance. He watched the fire burn from morning until afternoon. At last, the flames went out.

He walked into the ashes himself, and checked. Nothing but ash. Only then did he finally let himself relax.

"Are you alright?" He looked at Bai Lingmiao's shoulder wound.

"It's nothing," she said with a forced smile. "Just a scratch."

She reached out with both hands, carefully, toward the stump of his arm. Her eyes were filled with grief.

"It's fine. I only lost a hand. It'll grow back soon enough." He gently touched her soft hair.

"Really?" Her eyes lit up again.

"Of course," he said. He finished reassuring her and turned to look at the others.

They were all a mess. The state of their wounds, Li Huowang could no longer afford to worry about. Because someone was dead.

The sharp-eyed man with one arm. He had died. Lying beside him was a fat young Daoist boy.

Two bodies, one short and one thin, lay side by side on the ground. The old monk in his rags stood over them, his hands clasped together, his face filled with grief as he chanted the Buddha's name.

More dead. Li Huowang looked at their ashen faces, and found himself already numb. A strange thought crossed his mind. Was he even doing the right thing, dragging them along with him? Maybe if they had walked home on their own, they'd have arrived long ago.

"Burn them, too. Do we have any jars? If not, wrap them in cloth."

When everything was ready, Li Huowang led the others onward.

"Brother Li, you're going the wrong way. That's the road back to Siqi."

Li Huowang nodded. "I know. We need to hurry. Or we'll miss it."

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Game is Up: Li Huowang's Dark Victory

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The Three Corpses (三尸): The chapter's closing image, Danyangzi's three-faced form, is a perfect echo of a core Daoist concept. The San Shi are three internal, parasitic demons that reside in the human body (head, chest, belly) and are responsible for the Seven Emotions. They crave the host's death so they can become ghosts. 'Cutting off the Three Corpses' is a foundational step to immortality in Daoist alchemy. In Dao Gui Yi Xian, this ancient concept is weaponized into a horrifying, externalized entity that stalks the protagonist, suggesting his own internal demons have become tangible.
The Psychology of Zuowandao: The "game" is the key to understanding this faction. Unlike Western trickster gods who might revel in chaos for its own sake, the Zuowandao's joy is derived from the act of deception itself. To be proven wrong, to be figured out, is the only true defeat for them. This makes them terrifyingly unpredictable—they will endure any physical pain to maintain the integrity of their 'play.' Li Huowang's epiphany that "some things are more important than life" is his first true step toward combatting them on their own psychological battleground.
The Bleak Aftermath: The chapter subverts the classic "victory celebration." There is no loot, no new technique, no respite. There are only dead companions, terrified allies fleeing, and a protagonist who is more alienated than ever. This gritty, consequence-driven structure is a hallmark of the genre's departure from traditional 'level-up' power fantasy, as established in the core style guide.

Chapter Overview

Fellow Daoists, hold on tight, because Chapter 161 is a brutal, gut-punch of a reckoning. The game has finally changed. After enduring endless torment and psychological warfare from the Zuowandao trickster Erbing, Li Huowang isn't just fighting back—he's winning. The revelation that Jiang Yingzi was real, and that her final message reframes his entire Ao-Jing Sect ordeal as one massive, layered deception, sparks a cold, terrifying fury in our protagonist. We watch him dismantle an enemy not with a complex spell, but by finally understanding what makes a Zuowandao madman tick—and then exploiting that weakness with savage, bloody efficiency. But victory here is a hollow, bloody affair. Li Huowang emerges from the haze as a figure of pure, terrifying will, but the cost is measured in the lives he couldn't save and the distance he's placed between himself and his own humanity. This isn't a power-up; it's a psychological breakthrough that leaves everyone around him, including us, wondering just how much further he can fall.

Key Plot Points

Jiang Yingzi's Revelation: Before vanishing, Jiang Yingzi confirms the Ao-Jing Sect elders were all Zuowandao in disguise, and that Danyangzi is not a hallucination but a real, active entity. This shatters Li Huowang's current understanding of his reality.
Erbing's Defeat: Li Huowang's cold, calculated taunt ("Guess") is his true victory here. By denying Erbing the satisfaction of knowing how she was outplayed, he strikes at the very core of a Zuowandao's identity—the game itself. His subsequent execution of her is a visceral, hate-filled act.
Li Huowang's Frenzy: His slaughter of Erbing's body descends into a frenzied, near-catatonic rage, from which Bai Lingmiao must physically pull him back. This moment showcases the deep, unstable well of violence within him.
Danyangzi's Confirmation: As Li Huowang regains his senses, the three-faced Danyangzi appears, smiles, and sinks into the earth. His existence is now an unquestionable fact, a permanent scar on Li Huowang's reality.
The Lü Troupe's Departure: Terrified by Li Huowang's true nature, the Lü family severs their ties, fleeing back the way they came. This is a crucial social consequence to his actions.
The Aftermath of Battle: The chapter closes on a profound note of loss. Two more people are dead. Li Huowang, numb and weary, makes the decision to march back toward Siqi, hinting at a dark purpose yet to be revealed.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a turning point that will leave you feeling hollow and unsettled. Don't expect a triumphant hero's pose. Watch Li Huowang's psychological evolution carefully. He's not just fighting monsters anymore; he's learning to think like them. The cold, clinical way he analyzes Erbing's weakness, followed by the animalistic frenzy of the execution, perfectly illustrates the double-edged nature of his survival instinct. Pay close attention to the social fallout—the Lü troupe's terror is a powerful signal from the narrative that Li Huowang is becoming something even the hard-luck characters of this world fear to be near. The decision to return to Siqi is foreboding. He's not going back for healing or peace. He's going back because he has a new, grim purpose. The biggest question this chapter leaves us with isn't how Li Huowang will defeat his enemies, but what part of himself he will have to sacrifice to do it.

Deeper Dive: The Horror of a Solved Mystery

One of the most chilling aspects of this chapter is the revelation about the Ao-Jing Sect. Think about it. Zuowandao didn't just appear to hassle him; they infiltrated his earliest safe harbor in this world. They were wearing the faces of the people who were supposed to "heal" him after Danyangzi. This retroactively poisons Li Huowang's entire timeline, making us question every interaction he's had since his escape from Qingfeng Temple. This is a masterclass in crafting dread—not by showing a new monster, but by re-framing the past as a lie.