Why is the Linglong Pagoda shocking to Li Huowang?

From a distance it appears to be a beautiful piece of sacred architecture, but it's actually a high-end brothel. Li Huowang is disgusted by the hypocrisy and the reduction of human beings, especially women, to the status of exquisite objects.

What is the significance of the broken old beggar?

His face has the same藏 blue tattoo patterns as the courtesans in the pagoda. He is a symbol of what happens to these women when their beauty fades. Like a piece of shattered porcelain, he has been thrown away once he lost his value, highlighting the cruel, transactional nature of this society.

The Porcelain Pagoda

1,369 words

Chapter 282: The Porcelain Pagoda

There were no inns near the city gates. Following the wide avenue— broad enough for sixteen horses to run abreast—Li Huowang and the others walked for half an hour before they finally found a place to stay.

"This broken city is insane! They fined us ten coppers just because an ox took a dump in the street! How am I supposed to control where an ox shits?" Zhao Wu, who handled the money, was still stewing over the incident.

"Exactly! Ox dung can be used for fuel! We were giving them a gift by leaving it there! And they still fined us! What a load of crap!" Lü Xiucai chimed in from the side.

"That's enough," Li Huowang said. "When you're in a new place, you follow its rules. Let's go in. Tonight, we sleep on beds. Get some proper rest." He stepped inside.

The moment he entered the inn, Li Huowang felt a surge of relief that he had obtained a travel permit from the magistrate of Pi County earlier. In this place, you needed the permit even just to rent a room.

"Hiss... little Daoist, this inn even charges for water! Have they gone mad? This isn't even tea—it's just mountain spring water!" Lü Zhuangyuan clutched the gourd-shaped teapot as if it were a ticking bomb.

Li Huowang, who was studying a map to familiarize himself with the layout of the entire Great Liang Empire, looked up at him briefly but said nothing.

"Heh, this old man has figured it out. This 'Great Liang Empire' is nothing compared to our place. At least back home, drinking water doesn't cost you," Lü Zhuangyuan said with a sigh, carefully placing the ceramic teapot on the table.

As if on cue, his stomach let out a loud gurgle. They hadn't even eaten lunch today, all in a rush to make it to the city before dark.

Hearing the sound, Li Huowang turned his head to look at Bai Lingmiao, who was straightening the bedding. "Hungry? You can finish that later. Let's go eat first."

"Little Daoist, maybe we should just eat our own dried rations," Lü Zhuangyuan suggested. "If even water costs money in this city, the food must be outrageously expensive."

Li Huowang tossed the map onto the table. "So let it be expensive. After traveling so long, don't we deserve a little enjoyment? Go call everyone from the Lü troupe. We're eating well tonight."

The moment they heard "eating well," everyone perked up. A large, disorganized crowd filed out of the inn.

As the sky began to darken, Li Huowang and the others climbed the stairs to the top floor of a five-story restaurant.

Standing atop the tall building, they could see the entire city of Yinling spread out before them. Everyone couldn't help but let out sounds of awe.

The scenery below was overwhelming, too much to take in all at once.

Having been exposed to countless sights in his later life, Li Huowang was hardly impressed. Noticing the absence of any Daoist temples or Buddhist monasteries within the city, he found his interest waning.

"Elder Li, look at that! How beautiful! Is that a pagoda made of porcelain?"

A porcelain pagoda? Li Huowang looked up and was genuinely stunned by the sight. Bai Lingmiao wasn't exaggerating. It was, indeed, a pagoda completely made of porcelain.

The top of the pagoda was capped with multi-colored glazed tiles. Its body was a pristine white, and the unique藏 blue patterns of celadon snaked up from the first floor like several azure dragons, their sinuous forms coiling all the way to the top in a flourish of energy. Even the wind chimes at its edges were plated in gold, swaying gently in the breeze and emitting a low, resonant note that added a touch of solemnity to the exquisite structure.

"That really is a beautiful pagoda," Li Huowang said aloud, and he meant it. This was a marvel he wouldn't have been able to see even in his later world.

Hearing Li Huowang's praise, a young scholar in a blue robe who was also admiring the view snapped open his paper fan with a flourish. "Naturally," he said smugly. "This is the Linglong Pagoda of Yinling City. There is only one like it in all of Great Liang."

He then glanced at the patches on Gao Zhijian's shoes and the clothing of the others, so clearly out of place in this environment, and a look of contempt flickered across his face.

Li Huowang pointed at the distant Linglong Pagoda and asked the scholar, "Might I ask, who does that place belong to? Are there people cultivating within the pagoda?"

The scholar burst into laughter. "Haha, young friend, that's an interesting question. Indeed, there are people cultivating inside the Linglong Pagoda."

Li Huowang, always sensitive to such things, tensed up. "What? Does this city have something like Zhengde Temple as well?"

He narrowed his eyes, and the distant Linglong Pagoda became clearer in his vision. He could make out the figures of some women inside.

Plump women dressed in thin, translucent gauze moved with a slow, twisting motion. On their bodies, as white as jade, were tattooed藏 blue patterns. If they stood still, they would look exactly like incredibly exquisite celadon statues.

Right then, the scholar, barely containing his laughter, continued. "Inside the Linglong Pagoda, they cultivate the Way of Man and Woman! Hahaha! The Linglong Pagoda is actually a house of pleasure! Ahahaha!"

"Why do you people of Great Liang build your brothels inside a pagoda?" asked Gouwa, puzzled.

Another onlooker joined the conversation. "Ah, you miss the point! There are plenty of places to visit the willows and ask for flowers. So why is the Linglong Pagoda the best under heaven? It's all about novelty!"

"As long as you have money, you can even go to the Linglong Pagoda and pick out a girl, deciding what pattern gets tattooed on her. I heard that last time, some drunk got carried away and had a turtle tattooed on his girl's face."

This kind of topic quickly drew in others. "That's not all. I've been there once, lucky me. The flesh of the girls at the Linglong Pagoda feels just like jade. It's truly extraordinary, truly extraordinary."

As the conversation around him grew increasingly explicit, Li Huowang looked at the distant Linglong Pagoda with a sneer on his face. "So this is the Great Liang of the Beauty Paper. They really do exhaust their minds on these sorts of things."

Just then, his gaze dropped and landed on an old beggar crouched on the ground nearby.

The old beggar was dressed in rags. His face was also adorned with藏 blue patterns, like those on the women. But the deep wrinkles split the lines apart, making them look like shattered fragments.

Everyone loves a fine piece of porcelain. But once it's broken, it's worthless.

"Elder Li, the waiter has brought the food. Let's go eat. Don't let it get cold."

Li Huowang took one last look at the distant Linglong Pagoda, then turned and sat down at the round table to begin eating.

In Great Liang, when it came to food, as long as you had money, the variety and quality were more than you could count.

Amidst elegant names like "Mulberry Lowers Green Branches" and "Over the Vast Watery Fields, White Egrets Fly," plates of food that were a feast for the eyes, nose, and tongue were set on the table.

Gao Zhijian stared at the phoenix exquisitely carved from a carrot. The chopsticks he had reached out with retracted.

"Eat. What are you waiting for?" Only after Li Huowang took the first bite did the others begin to move.

Soon, there was no more talking, only the sounds of swallowing and chewing. Even Li Huowang, with his currently dulled sense of taste, couldn't find a single fault.

People at other tables shot them looks of contempt at the sight of their crude manners, but Li Huowang and his group paid them no attention.

The sky grew dark. On the ground, countless lights mirrored the stars above.

"Elder Li! Look! There are lanterns in the sky!"

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Reading Guide Decoding

Jade Flesh and Broken Pottery: Society's Empty Gaze in Yinling City

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Beauty Paper (美人纸) and Porcelain Prostitution: Li Huowang's wry remark about "Beauty Paper" is a callback to a truly horrific historical practice in feudal China, where wealthy nobles would use a beautiful woman as a living, reusable piece of toilet paper. The Linglong Pagoda is the city's ultimate expression of this twisted philosophy: aestheticizing and commodifying the female body as if it were a beautiful object. The description of the courtesans—their bodies like celadon statues, their flesh feeling like jade—blurs the line between human and object. The name "Linglong" itself (玲珑) means "exquisitely carved" or "ingeniously intricate," usually referring to fine art, which adds a layer of dark irony to the pagoda's purpose. This is a brilliant use of folk-horror by the author, replacing supernatural dread with the horror of systemic, casual dehumanization.

The Symbolism of Porcelain: In Chinese culture, fine porcelain is a highly valued art form. It is beautiful, delicate, and expensive. A single crack can render it worthless. The beggar with the shattered藏 blue tattoos on his wrinkled face is a direct, tragic parallel to the pagoda. He was likely once a part of that world, a vessel for pleasure, now discarded and broken once his "glaze" was ruined. Li Huowang noticing this small detail, while everyone else stares at the spectacle, highlights his core character: he always looks at the price paid, not just the show.

Chapter Overview

Alright, fellow travelers, we've finally made it to a proper city! After the grime and terror of the road, Yinling City presents itself as a bustling, expensive, and deeply cynical metropolis. Li Huowang's group checks into a nickel-and-diming inn, gets their first hot meal in ages, and climbs a high restaurant to take in the view. And what a view it is. The centerpiece is the breathtaking Linglong Pagoda—a tower made entirely of porcelain. But as our weary Daoist soon learns, this city's crowning jewel is a gilded pleasure house. This chapter trades jump-scares for cultural whiplash, contrasting the brutal poverty of a single beggar with the obscene wealth of a city that turns everything, even art, into a very specific transaction. It's a deep dive into the social hypocrisy of the Dao-Twisted World, showing that the cruellest monsters here sometimes wear human faces and charge for water.

Key Plot Points

The group finally arrives in Yinling City and immediately feels the sting of its bureaucratic, money-grubbing regulations (fines for ox dung, paying for water at the inn).
Li Huowang decides to splurge on a good meal for everyone, a rare moment of comfort and morale-boosting leadership.
From the top floor of a restaurant, they get a panoramic view of the city, dominated by the stunning, but ultimately profane, Linglong Pagoda.
A local scholar proudly reveals that the "cultivation" inside the pagoda is a euphemism for high-class prostitution, where wealthy patrons can even commission tattoos on the courtesans.
Li Huowang's attention is drawn away from the spectacle of the pagoda to a single, broken old beggar on the ground, whose face is tattooed with the same fine porcelain patterns now ruined by age.
The chapter ends with the group enjoying their lavish meal and Bai Lingmiao pointing out floating lanterns beginning to light up the night sky.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a masterclass in using setting as satire. The "horror" here is purely social and economic, and it's arguably more unnerving than a monster because it feels real. The fine for ox dung isn't just a joke; it's the first taste of how this city commodifies everything, even the most basic bodily functions. This sets the stage for the Linglong Pagoda, where even beauty and intimacy are just products to be bought and customized ("I heard someone got a turtle tattooed on his girl's face").

Pay close attention to Li Huowang's mood. He's not scared, he's disgusted. Tired. His reaction isn't panic but a weary, cynical detachment. He's seen enough to recognize the pattern. His glance at the broken old beggar is the real gut-punch of the chapter, a quiet moment of pathos that speaks louder than the tawdry gossip about the pagoda. It's a reminder that in this world, the most valuable objects are people, and when they break, they're thrown away. Get ready, because the lights in the sky are a beautiful sight, but in the Dao-Twisted World, beauty is always a trap.

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 is the "Beauty Paper" Li Huowang mentions?: It is a reference to a horrifying historical practice in ancient China where wealthy nobles used a beautiful woman as a living, reusable piece of toilet paper. The term is used here as a scathing critique of the Great Liang Empire's culture of commodifying women.
Why is the Linglong Pagoda shocking to Li Huowang?: From a distance it appears to be a beautiful piece of sacred architecture, but it's actually a high-end brothel. Li Huowang is disgusted by the hypocrisy and the reduction of human beings, especially women, to the status of exquisite objects.
What is the significance of the broken old beggar?: His face has the same藏 blue tattoo patterns as the courtesans in the pagoda. He is a symbol of what happens to these women when their beauty fades. Like a piece of shattered porcelain, he has been thrown away once he lost his value, highlighting the cruel, transactional nature of this society.