A mysterious scholar whose name terrifies the Chief Recorder; he is believed to have stolen the Heart-Murk during the chaos at the Buddha Bone Temple.

Why did Li Huowang kill Xin Chi?

He wanted to eliminate a threat and assert his own ruthless efficiency, framing it as an accident to avoid responsibility from the Chief Recorder.

Why did Hong Da accept the bribe?

The Office is a place of mutual benefit, not loyalty. A pile of Lifespan Pills was enough to ensure his cooperation and silence.

Zhuge Yuan

1,223 words

One of the Zuowandao, Facai, was dead. Killed.

“Could it be…” Li Huowang’s mind instantly flashed back to the image of that scholar, Zhuge Yuan, from before. “Is that possible? How could it be?”

“The Heart-Murk is being fought over by more than just your Zuowandao! Now tell me! Who took it?”

As he spoke, the Chief Recorder’s aura changed in an instant. His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets, and the white powder on his face cracked and flaked.

He glared at the three pairs of identical twins before him.

Yet the entire hall was silent. No one answered his question.

“Not talking, are you? Fine! Then all of you will come back with me to the Capital! Once we’re at the foot of the Imperial City, let’s see if you still won’t talk!” The Chief Recorder threw the severed head aside and turned to leave in a huff.

No one dared to delay, scrambling to follow, afraid of being mistaken for a member of the Zuowandao.

The carriage couldn’t fit everyone, so the rest mounted horses and followed the Chief Recorder’s carriage toward the Capital.

On horseback, Li Huowang’s heart was racing. He only had this copper coin mask. If it wasn’t effective, what would happen if he was recognized in the Capital?

But clearly, someone was more anxious than Li Huowang and solved the problem for him.

Suddenly, one of the Li Huowangs dismounted and ducked into the nearby woods.

The moment he left, Hong Da and the monk Xin Chi also broke away at the same time.

The next instant, the carriage roof exploded outward. The Chief Recorder, golden abacus in hand, was the first to charge toward one of the Zuowandao.

“You two, go catch the other two! I want them alive!”

With a whoosh, the crowd that had just been gathered scattered, each pursuing a fleeing Zuowandao.

Xin Chi, taking long strides, hurried into the distance.

He was large, making it inconvenient in the woods, and he was the slowest.

Suddenly, his ears twitched. He tilted his head, dodging a flash of cold steel.

But immediately after, Xin Chi felt his body jolt. He was floating.

Feeling the searing pain, he looked down and saw an arm covered in sharp bone spurs thrust straight into his stomach.

“What the—” Xin Chi’s mouth had just opened when his pupils suddenly contracted. I’m talking!

At that moment, a red cord strung with coins whipped around his neck and tightened instantly.

A voice, gritting its teeth, sounded in Xin Chi’s ear. “You hold a grudge? Well, so do I!”

The red cord and coins were thin, and with Li Huowang’s sudden jerk, they sliced directly into flesh and blood.

The mortally wounded Xin Chi opened his mouth, making a choking sound, and frantically reached back, clawing at the air.

But even as he scraped the back of his hand to a bloody pulp, it was useless.

The veins on Li Huowang’s forehead bulged. Gritting his teeth, he pulled the coin-string tighter and tighter into Xin Chi’s neck.

One by one, tentacles emerged from all over Li Huowang’s body, firmly binding Xin Chi’s limbs.

Xin Chi struggled more and more violently. At the peak of his struggle, his body went rigid and then suddenly went limp. He was dead.

Li Huowang flicked the hilt of the coin-sword. The coin-string buried in Xin Chi’s throat rapidly retracted, reforming into the blade.

He flicked the blood away and was just sheathing the coin-sword on his back when Hong Da walked out from the side, staring at Li Huowang, whose body was covered in wriggling black tentacles.

Seeing this unexpected person, Li Huowang blinked and pointed at Xin Chi’s corpse. “This man was a Zuowandao.”

Hong Da glanced at Xin Chi’s contorted face, then slowly nodded.

“But Chief Recorder said we were to take them alive. Why did you kill him? That puts me in a difficult position.”

“My hand slipped. My apologies.”

Li Huowang took the gourd from his waist and shook it. The gourd’s mouth opened, revealing hideous fangs, and spat out a large pile of Lifespan Pills.

Hong Da swung his wide sleeve, as if it were a sack, and covered all the pills. Then he nodded approvingly.

“Young people make mistakes; it happens. There are two others anyway. The Chief Recorder won’t blame us.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang smiled slightly and nodded, his numerous tentacles slowly retracting back into his body.

“Let’s go. We still need to catch the next one.” Hong Da said, turning and leaving.

Li Huowang was beginning to understand the relationships among colleagues in the Supervisory Heavenly Office.

The Office was just a place to make some extra money. They weren’t really colleagues, at best nodding acquaintances.

When handling a case, cooperation or sabotage depended entirely on whether there was enough profit and on personal relationships.

When Li Huowang and Hong Da returned with another Zuowandao, they saw that Tuoba Danqing and the Chief Recorder had already returned.

The ground was covered in blood. Wrapped within the gore was a human skin, a skeleton, and a mass of flesh.

Seeing Tuoba Danqing covering his mouth, looking nauseated, it seemed a person had been tortured into that state.

The Chief Recorder paced back and forth with a grave expression, muttering to himself.

“Brother Tuoba? What’s wrong?” Li Huowang asked, walking up to him.

“The Chief Recorder forced a name out of the Zuowandao we caught: Zhuge Yuan. After he heard it, he became like this. I don’t know why either.”

“Zhuge Yuan?! He really killed Facai?”

Li Huowang’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.

Those few words the man had spoken to him echoed over and over in his ears.

The Supervisory Heavenly Office, the Zuowandao, and now this Zhuge Yuan. Since neither the Zuowandao nor the Office got the Heart-Murk, he must have it. Who the hell is this person?

The pacing Chief Recorder suddenly stopped, his expression grave as he looked at the other three.

“Let me ask you, when you went to the Buddha Bone Temple, did you notice anything strange? Did anyone do something laughable but perfectly logical?”

Li Huowang tried to recall his experience at the Buddha Bone Temple, his brow furrowing deeper. What did he mean by that?

“Chief Recorder, what exactly happened? Who is this Zhuge Yuan?”

Li Huowang didn’t know why, but he felt as if he had stumbled into something enormous.

The Chief Recorder didn’t answer, just muttering anxiously to himself.

“I should have guessed. This must be Zhuge Yuan’s divine ability. Yes, it’s him. If even he has come for the Heart-Murk, then the world is about to change.”

After pacing for a while, the Chief Recorder mounted his horse, ignoring the other three entirely, and galloped away.

“Chief Recorder! Chief Recorder!” Tuoba Danqing gave up calling after a futile effort, turning helplessly to Li Huowang and Hong Da. “Let’s go back. Ah, what a waste of time. Probably won’t even get paid.”

As Tuoba Danqing rode off as well, Hong Da looked at Li Huowang. “Ride together?”

“Thank you, but no. I prefer to travel alone.”

Hong Da nodded at this, mounted his horse, and left.

Once there was no one else around, Li Huowang waited a moment, then turned and headed back toward the Buddha Bone Temple.

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Reading Guide Decoding

A Scholar’s Shadow: New Players and Brutal Bribes

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Let’s talk about the Chief Recorder (记相). This isn't just a fancy title. A “Recorder” in the context of the Supervisory Heavenly Office heavily implies a eunuch official of the Ming dynasty court, an institution that wielded terrifying power. These were men who had been physically altered to serve the Emperor, and who often grew to command vast internal bureaus. The imagery here is perfect: the powdered face, the sweet perfume masking a stench of decay and urine, the abacus that is both a tool of bureaucracy and a weapon. The Chief Recorder represents the state’s use of the supernatural, a chilling blend of imperial authority and cosmic horror. He’s not a cultivator monk; he’s a corrupt accountant of fate, and his fear of Zhuge Yuan tells you everything you need to know about the scholar’s real weight.

Also, let’s appreciate the bribe structure. Hong Da’s willingness to look the other way for a pile of Lifespan Pills is a perfect example of the jianghu (rivers and lakes) code within an official body. The Office is not a place of justice or loyalty; it’s a marketplace. Every kill, every testimony, every piece of paperwork has a price. Li Huowang is learning this fast, and it’s making him a far more effective player than he was as a desperate, terrified victim. He’s learning the currency of this world.

Chapter Overview

Welcome back, fellow guides and travelers of the strange! Chapter 341 is one of those explosive instalments where the political board gets overturned and a new, terrifying player is name-dropped into the game. The dust hasn’t even settled from the rush for the Heart-Murk, and already the Zuowandao are bleeding. Their man Facai is dead, and the Chief Recorder is furious. But here’s the kicker: the killer is none other than the scholarly fanboy we glimpsed earlier, Zhuge Yuan. Now, the hunt is on, but not everyone is playing by the rules. Get ready for a brutal execution, a beautiful bribe, and the dawning realization that Li Huowang has just waded into a chess game between cosmic forces he doesn’t even know the names of yet. The tension is palpable, and the mystery is deepening faster than a knife into a monk’s gut.

Key Plot Points

The chapter opens with the reveal of Facai’s severed head. The Chief Recorder loses his cool, demanding to know who took the Heart-Murk from the remaining Zuowandao twins.
His fear is tangible. He suspects a new player, a name that makes even this eunuch official nervous.
The group splits to pursue the fleeing Zuowandao. We see a coordinated, if reluctant, manhunt.
Li Huowang corners Xin Chi. He uses his Black Tai Sui tentacles for the first time as a direct, offensive weapon, holding the monk in place while he garrotes him with his own coin-sword.
This is the first clean, cold-blooded kill Li Huowang makes under the Office’s banner. He doesn’t flinch.
The murder is immediately covered by a bribe. Hong Da shows up, sees the corpse, and is easily bought off with a pile of Lifespan Pills. The “colleague” relationship of the Office is laid bare: it’s a transactional network, not a brotherhood.
The second Zuowandao is caught, but the stress of interrogation breaks them instantly.
The Chief Recorder forces out the name “Zhuge Yuan.” His reaction is one of pure, mortal dread.
Tuoba Danqing is left in the dark, and Li Huowang is beginning to suspect that the world of the Office is much larger and more dangerous than he thought.
The chapter ends with the Chief Recorder fleeing to the Capital, the other handlers leaving, and Li Huowang deliberately turning back toward the Buddha Bone Temple, ready to investigate the source of the name on his own.

Reading Guide

Okay, so let’s chew on this. The reveal of Zhuge Yuan as a major player is a masterstroke. We met him briefly, a polite scholar with a fan, and we all had that spider-sense tingle, right? Well, now we know why. The name alone causes the Chief Recorder to break down, reciting it out loud with pure terror. He suspects Zhuge Yuan’s divine ability has something to do with making the absurd seem normal, a perfect cover for stealing the Heart-Murk from right under their noses.

This chapter also solidifies Li Huowang’s evolution. He is no longer a survivor reacting to threats. He is a predator making calculated moves. Killing Xin Chi wasn't a mistake; it was a statement. And using the bribe to instantly make it go away? That’s the move of a man who understands the system he’s in and is learning to exploit it. Keep a close eye on his choice at the end—turning back to the temple. This isn't retreat; it’s a deliberate search for answers. The world is much bigger than Danyangzi or even the Zuowandao. And Li Huowang is about to find out just how small he really is.

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.

Who is Zhuge Yuan?: A mysterious scholar whose name terrifies the Chief Recorder; he is believed to have stolen the Heart-Murk during the chaos at the Buddha Bone Temple.
Why did Li Huowang kill Xin Chi?: He wanted to eliminate a threat and assert his own ruthless efficiency, framing it as an accident to avoid responsibility from the Chief Recorder.
Why did Hong Da accept the bribe?: The Office is a place of mutual benefit, not loyalty. A pile of Lifespan Pills was enough to ensure his cooperation and silence.