What happened to Sun Baolu in the cave?

As a child, he was touched by an unseen entity that felt like a “large brush,” which physically rearranged his internal organs into a scrambled, disordered state.

Why does Li Huowang insist on entering the cave despite the danger?

He believes the Black Tai Sui, a parasitic entity inside the cave, is his only known cure for the hysteria and hallucinations that are driving him insane.

Why does Sun Baolu finally agree to guide the group?

After failing to stop Li Huowang through persuasion, Sun Baolu overcomes his own traumatic fear to volunteer as a guide, driven by a sense of debt and loyalty to the man who saved his life.

Baolu's Secret

1,165 words

Chapter 232: Baolu’s Secret

“It’s dangerous in there. Don’t follow me—I’m going in alone.” Li Huowang turned to Bai Lingmiao and the others, then headed inside by himself.

This time, however, it was the others who refused. Gouwa spoke up, “Senior Brother Li, that won’t do. If you really run into trouble, we can help.”

Li Huowang sized up Gouwa’s scrawny frame and said impatiently, “Help how? You’re less useful than a steamed bun! If you come along, I’ll have to spare a hand to watch your back!”

Gouwa dropped his head, a little shamefaced. “Don’t say that... it took a lot of guts for me to speak just now. Besides, I’ve been practicing with my knife. At the very, very least—if you have one of your episodes—I can lend a hand when it comes to tying you up.”

“Senior Brother Li, Gouwa may be useless, but the rest of us aren’t. You can go in, but we have to follow!” Bai Lingmiao’s face was unusually grave. In one hand she held her whip, in the other her drum.

Bai Lingmiao had always seemed soft and timid, but beneath that softness was a core of steel. On certain matters, she always held her own resolve.

Just then, Gao Zhijian stepped forward as well. The honest giant said nothing, but his clenched fists clearly showed his determination.

“Senior Brother Li, if the Black Tai Sui can help you shake off the hysteria, then we’re happy to help. More people means better support. And we’re not like Gouwa.” Chun Xiaoman, holding her Daoist bell, explained with calm reason.

Seeing their earnest faces, Li Huowang felt a faint warmth in his chest. “Fine. But we stay alert. The moment something feels wrong, we pull out immediately.”

With that, he led the others toward the cave entrance. But once again, Sun Baolu blocked his path.

“Are you ever going to stop? Move.” Li Huowang’s expression turned cold.

Sun Baolu’s eyes were wild with agitation. He stood there, his trembling hands loosening his belt and starting to undo his jacket. “Senior Brother Li, I’ve been inside. If you think it’s fine to end up like me—then I won’t stop you any longer!”

“You asked before why I had to hide it when everyone else was already strange. Because I’m different from you! No matter how twisted you all are, you’re still human! But me—I’m a complete and utter monster!”

The jacket peeled open, and Li Huowang caught sight of a small depression the size of a thumb below his neck.

“What is that...? It almost looks like a belly button. Wait—that is a belly button. But how did Sun Baolu’s belly button end up below his neck?”

With a rustle, Sun Baolu pulled the jacket wide open and stood there, bare, for Li Huowang to see.

Except for Chun Xiaoman and Bai Lingmiao, who had turned away out of modesty, everyone who saw Sun Baolu’s body drew in a sharp breath.

“Old Sun, you... how did you get so jumbled up?” Gouwa stammered, dumbfounded.

Looking at the body beneath Sun Baolu’s clothes, Li Huowang finally understood why Sun Baolu always hid when relieving himself or bathing. His body was completely disordered—organs scattered wherever they pleased.

A buttock sat where the navel should be. The navel had migrated to the neck. Patches of hair sprouted in places they had no business being.

His body looked like a misshapen lump of clay casually pinched together by a child.

The shock on their faces crushed Sun Baolu under a weight of shame, sorrow, and pain.

He had dreamed countless times of this secret being exposed. He had hidden and hidden and hidden again. He never imagined he would be the one to voluntarily lay it bare.

Li Huowang let out a breath. Limping over, he helped Sun Baolu pull up his pants and fasten his clothes.

“How did it happen?” Li Huowang asked quietly.

“Inside the cave. Something touched me, and I ended up like this. It was too dark—I couldn’t see what it was. I just remember it felt like a really big brush.”

The memory of those days made Sun Baolu’s face pale with lingering fear. His trembling hands instinctively clutched his own shoulders.

“I was small back then—only seven. I was herding sheep. A few of them ran inside. The adults said it was dangerous, but I thought if we stayed near the entrance, it would be fine. I went in with four other kids. Out of the five of us, only I came out alive.”

When he finished, Sun Baolu looked urgently at Li Huowang again. “Senior Brother Li, you saved my life and sent me home. I owe you. I can’t just watch you walk into a fire!”

Even now, Sun Baolu was still pleading.

Li Huowang sighed softly. He could feel the other man’s concern. “Do you know what might be in there? The Black Tai Sui. Do you know what the Black Tai Sui means to me right now?”

His voice was calm as he explained why he had to enter the cave. “So I have to go in. Otherwise, I really think the hallucinations will drive me mad. It’s my only medicine.”

“I know how much you’ve given for me, and I appreciate it. But Baolu, if you truly want what’s best for someone, you don’t force your goodwill on them. You let them choose.”

“And... thank you for the information. It’s very useful to me.”

He patted Sun Baolu on the shoulder, then hobbled forward into the cave, a look of grim resolve in his eyes.

The others exchanged glances and quickly followed.

Sun Baolu watched their figures gradually swallowed by the pitch-black cave mouth. He fought to control his trembling legs. His expression flickered from hesitation to inner conflict, then finally—he gritted his teeth and followed.

“Since you’re dead set on going, I’m coming too! I’ve been in there before. I can guide you!”

As they filed in one by one with their fluorescent stones, the world outside fell away.

The wind of Qingqiu, the warm sunlight overhead—all of it vanished without a trace.

“Hah—” Li Huowang exhaled, and a puff of white mist escaped his lips.

“Baolu, is it always this cold in here?” Li Huowang’s voice made Sun Baolu, who was wound tight, jump.

Sun Baolu nodded hurriedly. “Yeah. It was this cold last time too. The further in you go, the warmer it gets.”

With that, he strode ahead to take point. “Follow me, and stay close. It’s not far from here. One of my playmates just... disappeared right around this spot.”

His words put everyone on edge. They tightened their grips on their weapons.

The cave was silent. Apart from their own footsteps, there was nothing.

It wasn’t a karst cave, but some kind of rock tunnel. The entrance slanted downward, and the deeper they went, the further they got from the surface. They were descending.

(End of chapter)

Share to

Reading Guide Decoding

The Body Unmade: Sun Baolu’s Confession

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The Body as a Microcosm, Wrongly Assembled: In traditional Chinese medicine and Daoist internal alchemy (内丹), the human body is a perfectly ordered microcosm of the universe. The organs correspond to the Five Phases (五行), the meridians to rivers, and the apertures to the senses of the cosmos. Sun Baolu’s body is a horrifying inversion of this order—a microcosm that has been shaken like a snow globe. His scrambled organs are physical proof that the Dao-Twisted World doesn't just threaten your life; it can rewrite the very architecture of your being. He is a living warning of what happens when the world’s corrupted rules interact with a human body.

The "Bristly Brush" Entity: Sun Baolu’s description of the entity as "a really large brush" is a brilliant piece of folk horror. It’s not a claw, a tentacle, or a maw. It’s a brush. The image suggests something that doesn't attack so much as paint over or smudge reality. It implies a being that reshapes flesh with the casualness of an artist making a mistake, turning a human body into a crude sketch. This aligns perfectly with the novel's theme of the world being a twisted, second-rate copy of something else—a reality that is itself a bad drawing.

The Ethics of Benevolence: Li Huowang’s speech to Sun Baolu—"don’t force your goodwill on someone"—is a surprisingly mature and psychologically astute moment for a character who is, by all accounts, teetering on the edge of sanity. In the context of Chinese xianxia morality, this is a small but important subversion. The trope usually involves a senior protecting a junior by sheer force of will and power. Here, Li Huowang rejects that paternalistic model. He acknowledges the value of the gift (ling qing), but insists on the recipient's autonomy, framing his own potentially suicidal choice not as a rejection of Sun Baolu’s care, but as a necessary act of self-determination.

Chapter Overview

The mask comes off. Sun Baolu, the quiet, unassuming man who’s been dodging bath time and bathroom breaks like a spy on a mission, finally shows his cards—and his skin. This chapter strips away the last of his secrets in the most visceral way imaginable, revealing a body so physically scrambled it would make a Picasso painting look like a photograph. But don’t mistake this for a simple horror reveal; it’s a turning point. Li Huowang, staring at a man whose anatomy is held together by pure spite and bad luck, recognizes a fellow survivor of the Dao-Twisted World’s special kind of corruption. What follows is a quiet, emotional clash of wills: one man trying to save his benefactor by stopping him, and another man who’s already decided that the only cure for his madness is walking straight into the monster’s den. This isn’t a chapter about fighting—it’s about the terrifying courage of choosing to face the source of your nightmares.

Key Plot Points

Sun Baolu’s Confession: After repeatedly blocking Li Huowang’s path, Sun Baolu reveals his horrifying transformation. His organs are scrambled—his belly button is on his neck, his buttocks are where his stomach should be—a result of a childhood encounter with an unknown entity in the cave.
The Origin Story: Sun Baolu recounts how, as a seven-year-old, he and four other children entered the cave. Only he came out alive. The entity that touched him was something large and bristly, like a giant brush.
Li Huowang’s Resolve: Despite Sun Baolu’s warnings, Li Huowang explains the stakes: the Black Tai Sui inside the cave is his only known cure for the crippling hallucinations that threaten to consume him. He must enter, and he will not be swayed.
The Choice: Li Huowang delivers a surprisingly gentle but firm lesson on love and autonomy: “If you truly want what’s best for someone, you don’t force your goodwill on them. You let them choose.”
Sun Baolu’s Final Decision: After a moment of visible internal struggle, Sun Baolu swallows his fear and volunteers to guide the group into the cave, becoming the leader of the expedition into the very place that broke him.
Descent Into the Unknown: The group enters the cave. The warmth and light of the outside world vanish, replaced by cold, silence, and a downward-slanting tunnel. The hunt for the Black Tai Sui has officially begun.

Reading Guide

Body Horror Porn: If you’re here for the visceral, "I can’t unsee that" descriptions of human flesh gone wrong, this chapter delivers. Pay close attention to the way the narrative lingers on the wrongness of Sun Baolu’s body. It’s not just gore; it’s a philosophical statement about the physical consequences of entering a corrupted space.
Emotional Gut Punch: Don’t skim over Sun Baolu’s dialogue. The real horror here isn’t the exposed organs—it’s the shame and isolation he’s lived with for years. The scene where he exposes himself is an act of profound vulnerability, and Li Huowang’s reaction (helping him dress, speaking to him quietly) is a masterclass in showing compassion without patronizing.
The Descent Begins: The last paragraph is a masterclass in atmospheric dread. The group is heading down. The world above is closing off. This is the classic "point of no return" in the hero’s journey. Get ready for the next chapter to deliver on the promise of horror that Sun Baolu’s backstory has set up.

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.

What happened to Sun Baolu in the cave?: As a child, he was touched by an unseen entity that felt like a “large brush,” which physically rearranged his internal organs into a scrambled, disordered state.
Why does Li Huowang insist on entering the cave despite the danger?: He believes the Black Tai Sui, a parasitic entity inside the cave, is his only known cure for the hysteria and hallucinations that are driving him insane.
Why does Sun Baolu finally agree to guide the group?: After failing to stop Li Huowang through persuasion, Sun Baolu overcomes his own traumatic fear to volunteer as a guide, driven by a sense of debt and loyalty to the man who saved his life.