The Darkness Listens

1,280 words

"Senior Brother Li, who is Wang Wei?" Bai Lingmiao couldn't help but ask, having heard Li Huowang muttering to himself.

Li Huowang shook his head indifferently. "Heh. Wang Wei is no one. He doesn't exist at all."

Supported by Bai Lingmiao, Li Huowang led the others back the way they came.

Compared to when they had entered, the return journey felt far less grueling.

After all, no one had died, and they had even found the Black Tai Sui. Everyone's steps were light.

"Senior Brother Li, we're not in a hurry to leave now, right? Can we take a good rest at Old Sun's place? I want to eat a few more good meals of lamb. Visiting this godforsaken place once takes at least half a year off your life, I swear."

It was Gouwa who spoke. His face, mottled in patches of white and yellow, was pulled into a bitter gourd-like expression as he looked at Li Huowang.

Li Huowang glanced around at the exhaustion on the others' faces and nodded. "Alright, I appreciate your help on this trip. It's only right that we rest a bit longer."

People weren't made of iron, after all. He truly needed to start considering the limits of others.

Hearing this, Gouwa clenched his fists in excitement. Just thinking about that delicious, tender mutton made his mouth start to water.

"Ah, this Qingqiu lamb really lives up to its reputation. There's just no comparing it to the stuff from anywhere else."

"Wait, Gouwa, what are you holding in your hand?" Li Huowang noticed some white fuzz drifting down as Gouwa's fist swung.

Gouwa raised his fist in front of Li Huowang and opened it. "Oh, this? It's some of the white fuzz from that lion dance costume. I cut off a bunch. Since it turned Sun Baolu into... that thing, it can't be an ordinary object."

"Maybe we can sell it for a good price when we get to a big town. Help make ends meet, right? We've been spending a lot on food and gear for this trip."

The white tassels, wrapped in a piece of fabric, were now presented before Li Huowang. They looked like a pile of fluff.

Li Huowang shook his head. That Gouwa, he couldn't go three sentences without mentioning money. "That lion dance is dead. It's anyone's guess whether this stuff is even useful anymore, and you just took it?"

Gouwa's heart skipped a beat. Cautiously, he extended his pinky finger and gently brushed it across the white tassels.

Then he watched, helpless, as his own fingernail—following his stroke—twisted around to the pad of his finger, while the fingerprint-bearing pad moved to where the nail should be.

"This... this..." Gouwa stared at his pinky, which was now growing the wrong way around, and looked helplessly at Li Huowang. "Senior Brother Li, it's reversed! It's all reversed!"

"What are you panicking for? Reverse or not, it still works the same. Don't be in such a hurry to sell this stuff. You'd be better off figuring out how to use it against enemies. For example, wrap it around a needle and blow it out through a thin tube."

Li Huowang's advice made Gouwa's eyes light up. "Hey! Right! Senior Brother Li, you sure are clever, being able to read and all. That's way smarter than a mud-footed hick like me."

A surge of excitement filled his heart. Counting this, he now had some kind of power that could twist a person's body.

Whether it was real or not, if he showed this off in front of those women, they'd be begging to be his wife!

And from now on, he wouldn't just be an assistant. He could actually help Senior Brother Li out.

Thinking this, Gouwa forgot all about his reversed pinky. He quickly took off his top and carefully wrapped up the white tassels.

Just as Gouwa was lost in his own little schemes, he noticed that the others had gradually come to a halt.

"Hold on. Something's wrong. Why have we been walking for so long and still haven't reached that bronze cauldron?"

Li Huowang's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over everyone's hearts, dousing the joy and sending a shiver through the more timid ones.

Everyone stared blankly into the surrounding darkness, searching for any familiar point from their journey in.

But what drove them to despair was the fact that the darkness was exactly the same in every direction.

"This place is wrong! It's making us lose our way!" Any trace of the earlier relief was gone, replaced by anxiety and tension on every face.

"Don't panic! Look for footprints! We'll follow the footprints!" At Li Huowang's command, everyone immediately aimed their glowing fluorescent stones at the ground.

Seeing the clear footprints on the ground steadied their frantic nerves somewhat.

"Let's go! We'll turn back and follow the footprints in reverse."

Everyone started moving according to Li Huowang's direction. Even if the footprints weren't clear in some places, it didn't matter.

The drops of blood constantly falling from Li Huowang marked the direction of their return.

A quarter of an hour. Half an hour. An entire hour passed. They hadn't walked this long on the way in.

Yet the lion dance's corpse still hadn't appeared, and the bloodstains on the ground continued to stretch into the darkness.

Sun Baolu looked at Li Huowang, a hint of despair in his eyes. "Senior Brother Li... we can't get out. This cave is going to swallow us whole."

Trapped in such a desperate situation, Li Huowang's expression had also turned grim. But then, his face shifted into one of confusion.

"Shh!" Li Huowang quickly lowered his body, closed his eyes, and furrowed his brow, listening intently.

With this strange posture, he began to move, slowly walking eastward. "Put away the stones... I can hear voices."

The others complied. As darkness enveloped them all, everyone's heart began to race. They grabbed hold of each other, afraid of getting lost.

"What voices? I can't hear a thing!" Gouwa had just spoken when Li Huowang clamped a hand over his mouth.

They walked side-by-side for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, when Li Huowang suddenly stopped. The others listened carefully but still heard nothing.

Then, a sharp, elderly voice pierced Li Huowang's ears. "Let me test you. Born as a man, what makes you a man?"

A childish, milky girl's voice answered back, "People are made of flesh, so flesh is a person."

Li Huowang's brow furrowed deeper. He paused, listening to what these two beings in the darkness were saying.

"Wrong! That fleshly body is just a bag of skin and bones."

"But that's not what Master says. He says, don't overthink it. People are just made of flesh."

"Don't believe our master. Everything that old man says is made up! It's all fake."

"Can you stop beating around the bush? If you're not going to say it, then don't! I'm getting annoyed!" The girl's voice took on a hint of irritability.

The old man's voice took on a note of smugness. "A person is the One. The One is a person. Because every person carries this 'One' within them, it can give birth to the Two, transforming into the dual principles of life and death, yin and yang. Then the Two gives birth to the Three, which extends to the Three Corpses and the Seven Emotions."

"Cultivation is the cultivation of that One. Therefore, we must cast aside the Seven Emotions, sever the Three Corpses, and cut off life and death, only then can we become that One!"

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Reading Guide Decoding

Lost in a Philosophical Trap

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter features a key piece of corrupted philosophical dialogue that defines the novel's twisted worldview. Let's break it down.

"A Person is the One" (人就是一): The old man’s core argument is a direct, though perverse, reference to a classic Taoist metaphysical framework. This is not The Dao De Jing’s "Dao gives birth to One," but rather a more specific argument about the human soul. The "One" (一) represents the primordial, undifferentiated state of being. The idea is that you must return to this singular, pure state before you can begin true cultivation.

"The One gives birth to Two... Three... the Three Corpses and Seven Emotions": This paraphrases the famous Dao De Jing line: "The Dao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to the ten thousand things." The old man weaponizes this concept. He claims that the "Two" are the separation of life and death, and the "Three" are the Three Corpses (三尸, San Shi)—the three internal parasitic worms/demons in Taoist belief that crave death, fame, and lust, which must be "severed" for immortality. The "Seven Emotions" are the standard set in Chinese culture (joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, desire), which becloud the soul.

The Perversion of the Lesson: This entire debate is a masterstroke of the novel's horror. What should be a serene, if difficult, meditation on spiritual refinement is twisted into a terrifying interrogation. The "One" is no longer a state of enlightenment, but a quantifiable, consumable thing. The lesson implies that a person is an ingredient to be processed—their emotions and flesh are impurities to be stripped away. This perfectly mirrors Danyangzi's alchemy and the world's systemic dehumanization. It’s not a path to peace; it's a manual for becoming a blank, singular object for a higher power.

Chapter Overview

Fresh off a 'successful' but harrowing expedition to retrieve the Black Tai Sui, Li Huowang and his crew think they've earned a break. The mood is light, and Gouwa is already dreaming of mutton and profit from his strange souvenir. But the Dao-Twisted World doesn't do rest stops. As they try to retrace their steps, the cave's unnatural darkness proves to be a predator in its own right, erasing landmarks and stretching time. Trapped and spiraling into panic, Li Huowang's fraying senses latch onto something else: a bizarre philosophical debate echoing from the void, between a cynical old man and a petulant girl. It's a conversation about the very nature of being human, and for a man questioning his own reality, it's the most terrifying thing he could hear. This chapter is a masterclass in building dread, swapping gore for a chilling, philosophical trap.

Key Plot Points

Post-Quest Relief: The group exits the sacrificial cave with everyone alive and the Black Tai Sui in hand. There's a palpable sense of accomplishment and exhaustion.
Gouwa's Profit Motive: Gouwa reveals he scavenged tufts of white fur from the dead lion dance costume, hoping to sell them. Li Huowang warns him of the danger but suggests a creative, martial use for it, showcasing his pragmatic leadership.
The Path Collapses: The group realizes they've been walking for an abnormally long time without reaching the bronze cauldron. The cave is actively preventing their escape by making them wander in circles.
Desperation and Despair: Hope fades as even Li Huowang's blood trail proves useless. Sun Baolu voices the group's terror: the cave is going to "swallow them whole."
Auditory Breakthrough: Driven by instinct, Li Huowang shushes the group, extinguishes their lights, and listens. He leads them in a new direction, guided by a sound only he can discern.
The Voices in the Void: The chapter climaxes with Li Huowang eavesdropping on a strange, disembodied conversation. A girl argues that "flesh is a person," while an old man refutes her with a metaphysical lesson on Taoist cultivation, stating that a "human is the One," from which all duality and suffering spring.

Reading Guide

Hold on to your metaphysical hats, fellow travelers. This chapter pulls a classic Dao Guai maneuver: just when you think the horror is over, the real horror begins. And this time, it's not a monster, but an idea. The feeling of the cave actively forgetting them is a visceral, physical manifestation of the world's decaying logic. Pay close attention to the weird, philosophical Q&A session at the end. It’s a tiny, terrifying window into how the high-level beings in this world think. They don't see people; they see fragmentary "ones" that need purifying. For Li Huowang, a man already fracturing, this is a direct attack on his very existence. The true conflict of this chapter isn't finding the exit—it's about holding onto the belief that "I am a person" when everything, including a disembodied voice in the dark, tells you that's a primitive lie.