Arrival at Youdu: The Heart-Mandala’s Unsettling Reality

1,242 words

Li Huowang’s mind was in complete chaos as he stared at the map that should have been his own. He simply could not figure out what was happening.

People could be explained away by suggesting the Heart-Mandala’s ability was some kind of area-of-effect hypnosis, but how could his own map now belong to the Great Qi? How could the Heart-Mandala’s ability be so strange? Why couldn’t he understand it?

Was the Great Qi a parallel world? Or did the Great Qi not exist at all, and everything was simply a distortion caused by the Heart-Mandala’s power?

“Li-xiong, it’s getting late. We should hurry. If we don’t leave soon, we’ll end up camping in the wilderness.” Seeing Li Huowang frozen in place, Zhuge Yuan began to urge him.

Li Huowang tore his gaze away from the map and turned to look at the pale-faced scholar before him. He spoke with great seriousness, “Zhuge-xiong, can you tell me the truth? What exactly are you Heart-Mandala bearers? I really don’t want to have to guess anymore.”

“Can’t say, can’t say.” Looking perfectly calm, Zhuge Yuan once again pointed his folded fan toward the sky.

“I’m not asking about the source. I mean, what anomalies happen around you? I can’t adapt like this.”

Hearing this, Zhuge Yuan spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “Around me? There are always people appearing around me who claim to be from the Great Liang, who claim that the so-called Great Qi was destroyed a thousand years ago. For example, Li-xiong, I naturally know you are from the Great Liang. But the Great Liang is fake. The Great Qi is real.”

“But the Great Qi is clearly—” Li Huowang started, then stopped himself. If he kept arguing, they would only circle back to the same dead-end argument, unable to convince each other.

“Fine. I won’t ask.” Li Huowang rolled up the map in his hand. “Let’s go. I’ll follow you to the capital of the Great Qi, Youdu!”

Along the way, there was still no sign of the Zuowandao. If not for the incident on Almond Island, Li Huowang might have thought the Zuowandao had completely given up on taking revenge on Zhuge Yuan and gone off to do something else.

With the cart from the black inn and the recovery of the Great Qi’s Supervisory Heavenly Office agents, their speed increased.

Even taking the back roads, it wasn’t long before they finally reached their destination.

The crimson sun slowly rose over the towering, thick city walls. Li Huowang, standing on the roof of the cart, let out a slow breath of white steam. “Finally back to the Upper Capital… or rather, here to… Youdu.”

He turned his head and saw a group of people in the distance, teary-eyed and welcoming with open arms. Li Huowang, standing there, felt utterly out of place.

“Daoist, it’s the first of the month. Remember to eat the Black Tai Sui, or you’ll start losing your mind again,” the hallucination of the monk reminded him.

“I know.” Li Huowang pulled out a dagger, reached into the cart, and cut off a large piece of Black Tai Sui, stuffing it into his mouth and chewing vigorously.

“Elder, what are you eating? Can this help you cultivate?” At that moment, Xia Ri, who had been secretly watching Li Huowang’s actions and couldn’t contain his curiosity, approached and asked cautiously.

Li Huowang couldn’t be bothered with him. He jumped back onto the cart, gave the reins a gentle shake, and the horse pulled the cart forward, following Zhuge Yuan’s group toward the massive city gate.

Once inside the city walls, Li Huowang carefully examined his surroundings, trying to find any differences from when he had left.

He found that this so-called Youdu was still the same as the previous Great Liang Upper Capital. The wide roads were bustling with people, and the shops along the streets were still the same, though some details had changed.

“Milord~! Come play~!” A soft, coquettish voice caught Li Huowang’s ear.

He followed the sound and was stunned to see that the speaker was a young man with delicate features, wearing a gauze so thin it was practically see-through, striking poses inside a bamboo cage tied with red ribbons.

“Fuck…” Li Huowang’s brow furrowed as he watched those heavily made-up men locked in the cages. He remembered this place well—before, it had been women for sale. Now it was men.

“Ahem!” A cold snort came from Old Qin. His hands clenched into fists, trembling as if with rage.

Just then, two plump, fair-skinned men got off a carriage, holding hands. Though they were far away, Li Huowang could still smell the same scent he had once smelled on the Chief Recorder—a strong perfume mixed with a sharp stench of urine.

These two eunuchs completely ignored the stares of others, smiling intimately at each other as they walked hand in hand toward a courtyard called the Fragrant Tasting Pavilion.

At that very moment, a white-haired scholar-official came out from within. Two identical, exquisite young men supported him on either side as he walked toward an ox-cart.

When one of the young men lay down on the ground to act as a mounting step for the scholar-official to climb into the cart, the two didn’t leave. Instead, they ducked their heads into the cart and followed the official away.

“Outrageous! Outrageous!! This is all the work of those eunuch dogs, turning the entire city into such a filthy mess! Pederasty everywhere! How outrageous!”

“These people even dare to call this filthy business elegant! Bah! A bunch of gutless cowards who’ve sold out to the eunuchs! Their sage books must have been read to the dogs!”

Old Qin, having just recovered from serious injuries, worked himself up so much that he began to wheeze again. The people around him quickly surrounded him and led him away from the area to prevent him from further harming his health.

Watching them gradually move away, Li Huowang stood still, as if waiting for something.

Once Zhuge Yuan and his group were far enough, Li Huowang was surprised to find that the young men posing so seductively had all turned into women.

Their features hadn’t changed, but their facial structures had become much softer, transforming them completely into women.

Li Huowang frowned. He reached out and grabbed an old man carrying firewood into the city to sell. “Is it the Great Qi or the Great Liang now?”

The old man looked at Li Huowang as if he were an idiot. “This is the Upper Capital of the Great Liang. What do you think?”

“Heh.” Li Huowang let out a low laugh. It was now clear that this change only existed within a few dozen zhang of Zhuge Yuan.

Within a few dozen zhang of him, everything would turn into another country, the Great Qi.

As for the other details, Li Huowang could sense the strangeness but couldn’t quite articulate it.

Why this happened, and whether the Great Qi was real, Li Huowang still didn’t know. He suspected it had something to do with the Three-Bodied Old One.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to understand too much. As long as he knew that Zhuge Yuan’s strange ability wasn’t harmful to him, that was enough.

“Hyah!” Li Huowang whipped the reins hard against the horse’s rump and quickly sped off in the direction Zhuge Yuan had gone.

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Bounded Domain of Zhuge Yuan’s Heart-Mandala

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The Heart-Mandala (心蟠) in this chapter reveals itself as a passive, bounded domain—a localized bubble of reality warping that doesn’t require active effort from Zhuge Yuan. This is a fascinating twist on the usual xianxia “domain” trope, where cultivators deliberately exert pressure on their surroundings. Here it’s just there, like a chronic condition. The phrase “Three-Bodied Old One” hints at a higher cosmic entity—possibly the source of this ability, and a nod to ancient Chinese myths of primeval gods with multiple forms, like the Three Sovereigns or Pangu’s transformations.

The depiction of eunuchs and boy-prostitutes has deep roots in Chinese historical fiction and satire. The eunuch class, often vilified as corrupt and decadent, was a staple target of moral outrage in dynastic-era literature. The phenomenon of “male brothels” (the xianggong trade) was particularly noted during the Ming and Qing periods, especially in Beijing. The smell of perfume masking urine is a classic detail—a symbol of rot covered by fragrance, very much in line with the Dao-Twisted World’s love of visceral, sensory horror.

Chapter Overview

Li Huowang finally arrives at Youdu, the capital of the Great Qi—except it’s also the Upper Capital of the Great Liang, depending on who you ask. The closer he stays to Zhuge Yuan, the more the world twists around him: shops swap out, cages of female prostitutes become cages of male prostitutes, and even the map in his own hands claims allegiance to a dynasty that supposedly vanished a thousand years ago. This chapter is a dizzying deep-dive into the Heart-Mandala’s passive reality-warp, forcing both Li Huowang and the reader to sit with the nausea of not knowing which world is “real.” And because nothing ever stays simple, there’s eunuch perfume, boy-toys, and an old man having a stroke over the city’s moral decay. All in a day’s work for our favorite mad daoist.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang confronts Zhuge Yuan directly about the Heart-Mandala, demanding a straight answer for once. Zhuge Yuan deflects with a cryptic “can’t say” and points his fan toward the sky—because of course he does.
The group reaches Youdu, where Li Huowang immediately notices the city looks identical to the Great Liang’s capital, down to the street layout, but the details are all subtly wrong.
A jarring scene at a brothel quarter: cages that once held women now hold heavily made-up young men. Old Qin loses his temper, blaming the eunuchs for turning the capital into a den of pederasty.
Two eunuchs stroll past arm-in-arm, reeking of perfume and urine, followed by a scholar-official who uses a boy as a mounting step for his cart. The subplot dripping with political rot.
Once Zhuge Yuan moves far enough away, Li Huowang tests the effect: the boy-prostitutes revert to women; a passing woodcutter confirms it’s still the Great Liang. Proof that the Heart-Mandala’s reach is strictly localized.
Li Huowang concludes the ability is harmless to him, files it away as a peculiarity tied to the “Three-Bodied Old One,” and hurries to catch up to Zhuge Yuan.

Reading Guide

This is a “breather chapter” that does more than just move the plot—it sharpens a core existential question: what is reality when one man’s presence overwrites it? Watch how Li Huowang’s desperation shifts from wanting answers to accepting limited safety. His pragmatic decision to stop arguing and just trust that the Heart-Mandala isn’t lethal is a quiet but significant character beat. He’s learning to compartmentalize the impossible. Also, keep an eye on the political background radiation—the eunuch corruption isn’t just set-dressing; it’s a sign that the Great Qi / Great Liang schism has real-world consequences, and the Supervisory Heavenly Office may have more than one kind of stain to clean up.