Pity

1,164 words

Chapter 194: Pity

Inside the Gathering Hall of Righteousness, Li Huowang weighed the Thousand Greats Record in his hands once more, his fingers brushing lightly over its surface.

A flicker of reassurance settled in his chest as he rehung it at his waist.

Every use of the Record demanded a terrible price, yes—but when it mattered most, it always delivered.

Suffering, after all, was still better than dying.

"Little Daoist! Little Daoist! You're our Lü family's living ancestor! If it weren't for you, we'd all have been finished here!"

"I was possessed by a ghost before, running off like that! I—I deserve a beating! I really do!"

Lü Zhuangyuan, looking like a war refugee, didn't hesitate to raise his grimy palm and slap himself across the face.

"Alright, alright. Are your people safe?"

Hearing Li Huowang's interruption, Lü Zhuangyuan gave an embarrassed smile and lowered his hand.

"That bandit named Big Golden Dragon—his mother liked opera, so none of them died, but... my daughter-in-law suffered a lot..."

Suddenly remembering something, Lü Zhuangyuan shuddered, then spoke with fierce resolve. "Little Daoist, we're not going anywhere else from now on. We're sticking with you! This debt of life-saving grace will never be forgotten! The Lü Family Troupe is your private opera company from now on!"

"What would I do with an opera company? I can't even understand the singing."

Before Li Huowang could finish, the impassioned Lü Zhuangyuan dropped to his knees with a thud and began kowtowing furiously.

"Enough, enough. If you want to follow, then follow. This place isn't safe. Do you still have your opera gear? Pack up and let's move."

After traveling together this long, Li Huowang had already seen through his intentions—the man wanted a bodyguard. And as it happened, Li Huowang would need them soon enough.

At these words, Lü Zhuangyuan scrambled to his feet and thumped his own chest.

"I do! We do! And I know where their horse pen is! I'll bring all their horses over right now!"

Actions spoke louder than words. Eager to prove his worth, Lü Zhuangyuan grabbed his family and hurried toward a side tunnel.

Dealing with Lü Zhuangyuan done, Li Huowang looked up at the cave Chun Xiaoman had charged into moments ago. A flicker of something complicated passed through his eyes.

He turned to Gao Zhijian beside him. "Go in and hurry them up. This is a bandit stronghold—it's not safe. Tell them to come out now. We're leaving."

Gao Zhijian nodded, dropped his iron staff, and grabbed a bandit's fallen spiked mace from the ground. Hefting it onto his shoulder, he strode toward the cave.

But before he could even step inside, Chun Xiaoman and Bai Lingmiao emerged, their eyes red—they had clearly been crying not long ago.

"What is it?" Li Huowang frowned.

Chun Xiaoman bent down and tore a piece of clothing off a dead bandit. "Go in and see for yourself... These bandits... they're not human! They're animals!"

Li Huowang glanced at Bai Lingmiao, who was also stripping clothes from the dead, then stepped into the cave.

At the far end of the tunnel, Li Huowang found them—women, completely naked, their eyes hollow, their bodies trembling as they curled up on the ground.

Nearby stood several wooden frames in the shape of an X.

From the ropes still tied to the wood and the purple-black bruises circling the women's wrists and ankles, it was clear they had only just been cut down by Bai Lingmiao moments ago.

Others helped them into the bandits' cast-off clothes and led them into the torch-lit Gathering Hall.

If the women seized on Reed Island had at least held some status, then the women in a bandit's den were nothing but tools for release.

And that was the best-case scenario. From Lü Zhuangyuan, Li Huowang learned that life in the stronghold was dull, and when the bandits grew bored, they treated these women as toys.

The outcome was always the same. When they were broken, they were thrown away and replaced with new ones. As long as there were raids, women were never in short supply.

At those vile descriptions, Li Huowang's head snapped toward the collapsed rock wall, murder in his eyes.

With a flick of his hand, the Daoist bell appeared. Ring—ring—ring—

The piercing chime rose, and the Wandering Lord, formed from lines, materialized swiftly before Li Huowang.

"Feng zou!" Li Huowang thrust a finger toward the rock wall.

The Wandering Lord gave a brisk nod, turned, and vanished into the rubble.

In no time at all, Li Huowang's keen senses caught faint screams seeping through the stone.

Half an incense stick later, the Wandering Lord emerged from the wall, nodded to Li Huowang one last time, and dissipated.

The bell's ring faded. Li Huowang turned to the women behind him and said, "Don't worry. The bandits are all dead. Every last one."

But the news drew no reaction. No excitement, no grief, no joy—just that same numb emptiness.

Li Huowang looked at them with pity. These people had been damaged too deeply. They were, for all intents and purposes, broken.

"Wait... is this what pity feels like?"

Li Huowang froze. He reached into his robes and pulled out the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments.

Holding that feeling in his heart, he began to recite the obscure incantation from his translation. The white wax swiftly coalesced into a burning slug.

It crawled down his trouser leg and made its way toward the wound on his belly.

With a sizzling hiss, the gnarly gash was seared and fused in an instant.

In that moment, the missing piece of the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments was finally complete.

What Jiang Yingzi had left for him could now truly be put to use.

It should have been a joyful thing—but this was no time for joy.

Li Huowang looked at the dazed women, committing the feeling in his heart to memory so he would not forget.

After plundering the bandit stronghold, the group departed under moonlight, leaving the death-filled place behind.

Just as Lü Zhuangyuan had said, the bandits had plenty of horses. They also found some bedding and food supplies in the caves.

They had everything—except silver. The bandits' hiding place for money must have been behind the collapsed rock face.

There were no living souls left in that cave. They would be buried there forever, alongside the bandits the Wandering Lord had killed.

That night, they hurried on without rest, traveling until noon the next day before they finally stopped to rest, far from the bandit's nest.

While the others slept, Li Huowang and Mantou stood watch.

When they woke in the evening, Li Huowang immediately fell into sleep himself.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already the next morning.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around. Bai Lingmiao was distributing porridge to the women.

Nearby, the voices of Sun Baolu and Gouwa drifted into his ears.

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Price of Rescue – Li Huowang Finds the Key in Pity

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Pity as a Key to Spiritual Attunement
In many xianxia systems, emotional states serve as keys to unlocking techniques or realms—rage, grief, desire. What makes this chapter distinctive is the use of pity. Li Huowang does not weaponize his anger or his survival instinct; he simply feels for another person's suffering, and that pure recognition unlocks the last piece of the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments. It subverts the trope of "power through violence" and replaces it with "power through empathy"—a rare, quietly subversive moment in the genre.

Railway Survivors and Pre-Modern Trauma Care
The women Li Huowang rescues are textbook rape-trauma survivors, but the novel does not engage in modern psychological jargon. In the Dao-Twisted World, there are no counselors, no safe houses, no language for "PTSD." The women's numbness is portrayed as a natural survival response—a mind that has retreated somewhere unreachable. Li Huowang's pity is not a cure; it is simply an acknowledgment that something precious has been broken.

The Bandit Economy of Women
Lü Zhuangyuan's description—"when they're broken, they're thrown away"—reflects a grim historical reality in pre-modern Chinese bandit culture. Captured women were often treated as fungible sexual property, replaced when captured villages offered new victims. The novel does not sensationalize this; it presents it as a blunt, ugly fact of life in the Dao-Twisted World, making Li Huowang's cold rage feel earned rather than performative.

Chapter Overview

After the carnage of the bandit stronghold, Li Huowang faces a different kind of aftermath. The women he rescued are not grateful—they are hollow, broken beyond the reach of simple rescue. In this quiet moment of recognition, Li Huowang experiences something rare: pure pity. And in that emotion, he unlocks the final piece of the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments, completing a tool he inherited from Jiang Yingzi. But there is no triumph here. The chapter lingers on the cost of violence and the weight of seeing suffering that cannot be undone.

Key Plot Points

Lü Zhuangyuan pledges his troupe's loyalty to Li Huowang out of gratitude and self-preservation.
Bai Lingmiao and Chun Xiaoman emerge from a side cave, visibly shaken.
Inside, Li Huowang finds naked, traumatized women—prisoners used as tools by the bandits.
Li Huowang learns the full extent of the bandits' cruelty: the women are treated as disposable objects, traded and discarded when broken.
Enraged, Li Huowang summons the Wandering Lord to hunt down and kill any surviving bandits hiding in the collapsed tunnel.
The news of the bandits' total death draws no reaction from the women—they are too damaged to feel anything.
Li Huowang identifies the emotion he feels as “pity” and uses it to channel the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments, completing it.
The group loots the stronghold, finds horses and supplies but no silver, and departs under moonlight.
They travel through the night and rest the next day; Li Huowang stands watch with Mantou.
The next morning, Bai Lingmiao distributes porridge to the rescued women, and life inches forward.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a breather in the worst possible sense—the violence stops, but the horror remains. Pay attention to how Li Huowang handles the aftermath: he does not give a speech or try to comfort the women with empty words. He acts—summoning the Wandering Lord to ensure no bandit escapes justice—and then he lets silence do its work. The moment where he names his emotion ("Wait... is this what pity feels like?") is critical: it shows Li Huowang's ongoing struggle not just to survive, but to recognize his own humanity in a world that grinds it down. And the fact that this recognition unlocks the Fire Vestments sutra suggests that, in the Dao-Twisted World, even kindness can be a weapon—or at least a tool.