Why does Li Huowang trust a dry scrap of skin?

He tasted it and recognized the unique texture from his past experience with Black Tai Sui. In the Dao-Twisted World, sensory memory is often the only reliable anchor he has left.

What is the "grasslands nest"?

Qingqiu's green grass covers a hidden underground ecosystem of supernatural entities. The Great Khan prohibits even discussion of it, because thinking about or naming the things below can attract them.

Is Black Tai Sui a permanent cure?

No. Li Huowang believes it can block his hallucinations temporarily. Its flesh dissolves on death, and the solution it offers is described as "a rotting bandage"—a short-term patch on an incurable wound.

The Source

1,325 words

Chapter 231: The Source

“Elder Brother Li? What’s wrong?” Dogwa asked cautiously. When he saw Li Huowang put that thing in his mouth and start chewing, his heart sank.

“Oh no. Elder Brother Li is having another episode.”

Li Huowang, however, paid him no mind. He savored the taste of that thin skin, his face growing more excited with every chew. “There’s no mistaking this taste. This is Black Tai Sui skin! My hysteria can be cured!”

Though the skin was completely dried out, Li Huowang, who had seen it before, knew that Black Tai Sui dissolved into a puddle of water when it died. Only this skin was left behind.

It had ended up like this simply because the Black Tai Sui had dehydrated after death.

Right now, he had no leads at all. Trying to find a way to cure a Heart-Element was nothing but a fool’s dream. The hope was minuscule.

But Black Tai Sui could help block out his hallucinations. Even if it was just temporary, it would still be incredibly useful!

“Mantou! Where did you find this?” Li Huowang turned and asked the dog.

“Woof…” The floppy-eared mongrel cocked its head left, then right, clearly not understanding.

Li Huowang thrust the Black Tai Sui skin under its nose. “Smell! Go find it! Find out where this came from!”

“Woof! Woof!” This time, Mantou seemed to understand. It sniffed the black skin, then turned and bolted into the grass beside the road.

“Leave the oxcart with Sun Baolu! We’re not moving! We’ll leave once we find the Black Tai Sui!” With that, Li Huowang leaned on his crutch and hurried after the dog.

Though no one knew what Li Huowang was doing, the others still followed. Given his current state, they were afraid he was having another episode.

Mantou ran a long way—so far that the skin under Li Huowang’s armpit, chafed raw by his crutch, began to bleed.

The rapid clatter of hooves sounded. Li Huowang looked over to see Sun Baolu, who had caught up on horseback, leading a few other Qingqiu people.

“Elder Brother Li! What are you looking for? Get on the horse! I’ll take you!”

Li Huowang put his foot in the stirrup and swung himself up onto the saddle, pointing at Mantou, still sprinting in the distance. “Follow it!”

The horse was much faster than Li Huowang on foot. At last, he wouldn’t be left further and further behind by Mantou.

Gradually, the sun climbed to its zenith, and the air grew hot.

“It’s this far? Where the hell did Mantou find the Black Tai Sui?”

Li Huowang thought as he reached behind him and touched the longsword strapped to his back. A Black Tai Sui might have been dangerous to his past self, but for him now, it was no threat at all.

He shouldn’t be worrying about whether the Black Tai Sui could hurt him. He should be worrying about how to capture it alive, how to imprison it, and how to steadily eat its flesh bit by bit.

Just as Li Huowang was pondering these questions, the Mantou, who had been running in the distance, suddenly vanished.

When the horse caught up, Li Huowang saw that Mantou hadn’t vanished at all. It had just run into a dip in the grass.

On the left side of the depression was an irregular round hole. It looked like a rabbit hole, the kind common on the grasslands.

But this hole didn’t look like it had been dug by a rabbit. It was far too big—at least ten feet wide.

Li Huowang dismounted and went to Mantou, who was circling the spot. He saw the traces. The traces of the Black Tai Sui.

The scattered black skin had already been blown away by the Qingqiu wind, leaving only a few scraps behind. But the trail of black water on the ground hadn’t disappeared.

Li Huowang recognized that black water. It was the water the Black Tai Sui had spewed from its body before it died. Every blade of grass that had been touched by that black water was already dead.

The trail of black water led from the round hole. From the scene, Li Huowang could piece together what had happened to the Black Tai Sui.

It had probably lived in the hole. It had suffered some fatal wound, crawled out with its last bit of strength, and died outside.

Then, after it died, the skin it left behind was picked up by Mantou and brought to him.

“Mm. I hope there’s more than one Black Tai Sui in that hole,” Li Huowang said to himself. Cautiously, he began walking toward the dark, round opening.

“Wait!” Sun Baolu spurred his horse forward, stopping it right in front of the hole, blocking Li Huowang’s path.

His face drenched in cold sweat, Sun Baolu dismounted and grabbed Li Huowang, trying to drag him away. “Elder Brother Li! You can’t go! You really can’t go!”

He looked terrified of the hole, not even wanting to look at it.

“You’ve been here before?” It was obvious to anyone who wasn’t blind that Sun Baolu was afraid of this opening.

“Elder Brother Li! I’m begging you! We really need to go! This place is very dangerous!”

Sun Baolu was almost on his knees begging, but Li Huowang remained unmoved.

“No way. I finally found a lead on the Black Tai Sui. There’s no way I’m letting it get away again.”

“Baolu, calm down. It’s safe here. No one can hurt you.” Under Li Huowang’s reassurance, Sun Baolu gradually composed himself.

Li Huowang took a gourd of water from Gao Zhijian beside him and handed it to Baolu. “Have a drink. Your lips are chapped.”

After watching Sun Baolu finish the water in loud gulps, Li Huowang asked him again, “Do you know anything about this place? What’s inside? I need to go in and find something. Your information might be a big help.”

“Elder Brother Li, you really can’t go in there! Qingqiu doesn’t have any evil spirits, but that’s not because they all just vanished for no reason. It’s because they’re all hiding! Hiding under the grass! And that hole is their nest!”

Li Huowang looked down at the green grass under his feet, where Sun Baolu’s trembling finger was pointing.

So, the saying went: the whole of vibrant, green Qingqiu was built on a foundation of evil spirits? A chill ran down Li Huowang’s spine.

But after thinking it over, he found it made perfect sense in this mad world. Otherwise, there was no way a Black Tai Sui would have appeared here out of thin air.

“That’s it? Your people don’t know anything else?”

“Elder Brother Li, please don’t go! No one else knows what’s in there! The Great Khan of Qingqiu even issued an order forbidding anyone from speaking about what’s in that hole! There are some things inside—just saying their names, just thinking their shape in your head—can bring bad luck!”

Hearing Sun Baolu’s words, Li Huowang was silent for a moment before speaking again. “Alright. I understand.”

With that, he leaned on his crutch and walked toward the hole behind the horse.

“Elder Brother Li! I’ve told you everything! Why are you still going in! You’ll really die!” Sun Baolu jumped up and down in panic.

Li Huowang looked at him, remembering the hallucinations he had experienced that morning. Right now, his craving for a Black Tai Sui that could isolate those visions was far too great.

“I’ve already dealt with plenty of evil spirits. I’m not some rookie anymore. If I run into one, it doesn’t mean I have no chance of winning.”

He couldn’t bear the entanglement of those two worlds anymore. The truth was, Li Huowang had very little confidence in himself. He was terrified that if he endured just a few more hallucinations, he would fall back into that pit.

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Hunger for a False Cure

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The "Grasslands Nest" Logic: Sun Baolu’s terror reveals a key piece of xianxia worldbuilding about how supernatural ecosystems work. In standard fantasy, monsters are often forced to the margins by civilization. In the Dao-Twisted World, they’ve retreated downward, forming a hidden, subterranean continent of corruption beneath the plains. This is a classic inversion of the "sacred mountain" trope—here, the entire landmass is a thin crust over an abyss of hungry spirits. When Li Huowang says the world "makes sense" this way, he’s accepting a dark, cynical rule: safety is never stable; it’s just the top layer of a nest.

The Danger of Naming (言灵, Kotodama): Sun Baolu’s warning that "just using the name" or "thinking the shape" of certain entities can bring disaster echoes a real-world folk belief known as kōtōdama (言霊, "word spirit"), though it has deep roots in Chinese folk religion as well. In Daoist-influenced magical thought, names are not labels but handles that give the universe a grip on both the speaker and the thing named. This is why Li Huowang’s habit of speaking his fears aloud (his "hysteria," his "hallucinations") is risky—he’s inviting the supernatural to notice him. The novel weaponizes this: ignorance is not stupidity here; it’s armor.

The Lure of the Imperfect Cure: Black Tai Sui is a temporary, addictive solution to a permanent problem. This chapter introduces a classic xianxia dilemma: a quick fix that demands not only a dangerous hunt but also future dependency. In cultivation terms, it’s a "side path"—short-term power or relief that corrupts the practitioner’s foundation. Li Huowang’s frantic pursuit shows how far he’s fallen: he’s no longer thinking about recovery, but about managing an incurable wound with a rotting bandage.

Kotodama (言霊)

A folk belief, also present in Chinese tradition, that names and spoken words have power; mere mention or thought of certain entities can summon their attention or influence.

Chapter Overview

Think you’ve seen the worst of the Dao-Twisted World? Chapter 231 brings a sharp, cruel reminder that hope itself is a poison. Last chapter ended with Li Huowang tasting a dried scrap—and this chapter is the bitter aftermath of that one taste. The hunger is back, but this time it’s not for violence. It’s for a cure. In his quest to find more Black Tai Sui, Li Huowang stumbles onto a secret that Qingqiu has worked hard to bury: the land is fertile because something underneath it is festering. The green grass is a lie. The ground is a nest. And our man is about to walk right into it.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang identifies a dry piece of Black Tai Sui skin by taste, believing it can cure his "hysteria."
He commands the dog Mantou to track the source, leading the group deep into Qingqiu's grasslands.
Sun Baolu panics and physically tries to block Li Huowang from an enormous, unnatural hole in the ground, citing a local taboo.
Baolu reveals the geographical truth: Qingqiu has no surface-level demons not because they're gone, but because they're all hiding in tunnels beneath the grass.
The Great Khan has forbidden even speaking of the hole’s contents, as thinking or naming certain things inside can summon calamity.
Li Huowang disregards the warnings, calculating that his need for the Black Tai Sui outweighs the risk.

Reading Guide

Get ready, because this chapter is atmosphere. It’s not a fight scene—it’s the quiet before the dive. The true horror here is the act of choosing to walk into the dark. Li Huowang’s logic is terrifyingly sound: he knows the risk, but he also knows the alternative (more hallucinations, more identity slips). When Sun Baolu pleads with him and he doesn’t even flinch, that’s not courage. That’s the cold, desperate pragmatism of a man who has already decided that living with his mind intact is worth dying for. The hole is a perfect metaphor for where we are in the story: we know there’s something down there, and it’s probably going to be worse than what’s above—but there’s no other way forward.

Quick Q&A

Lore recap (TL;DR) drawn from this chapter's Cultural / Xianxia Notes — same text as the FAQ structured data on this page.

Why does Li Huowang trust a dry scrap of skin?: He tasted it and recognized the unique texture from his past experience with Black Tai Sui. In the Dao-Twisted World, sensory memory is often the only reliable anchor he has left.
What is the "grasslands nest"?: Qingqiu's green grass covers a hidden underground ecosystem of supernatural entities. The Great Khan prohibits even discussion of it, because thinking about or naming the things below can attract them.
Is Black Tai Sui a permanent cure?: No. Li Huowang believes it can block his hallucinations temporarily. Its flesh dissolves on death, and the solution it offers is described as "a rotting bandage"—a short-term patch on an incurable wound.