Was Zhuge Yuan's fall foreshadowed earlier?

Yes, Zhuge Yuan's fate was established in earlier chapters (around the Zhengde Temple arc) where a Flesh Buddha caused his death. This dream is a traumatic re-experiencing of that loss.

Is the "Fa Sect" a major new faction?

Yes, the Fa Sect is introduced as a cult centered on the Yu'er Shen. They are causing widespread displacement, suggesting they have become a significant threat in the Dao-Twisted World.

Why can't Li Huowang control his Innate Pneuma?

As a Heart-Element, his very nature is unstable. His Innate Pneuma is not meant for him to control; it's a raw, reality-warping force that distorts anything it touches, including his own body and the environment.

The Dream

1,287 words

"Really? That good?"

Hearing Li Huowang's words, Bai Lingmiao carefully accepted the book, curiously running her fingertip across the ink marks on the page.

Just as Li Huowang was about to help her understand some of the more difficult parts, he saw Bai Lingmiao's eyes suddenly widen. "Senior Brother Li, there are voices to the east—something's coming."

Li Huowang glanced at her, then parted the carriage curtain and stepped out.

After he passed through a grove of trees, Li Huowang soon spotted the source of the voices: two carriages, fleeing in panic.

It looked like they were trying to drive the carriages into the woods to hide from something.

But clearly they were overestimating their luck. After a few steps, the carriages were snagged by vines and branches.

Immediately after, their pursuers arrived. A group of ragged, emaciated men.

Bandits, Li Huowang thought at first, but they didn't quite fit the image. They looked more like refugees.

Wait… Could these all be Zuowandao, putting on a double act for me?

Li Huowang, invisible, stood silently in place, turning this thought over. Even if they weren't Zuowandao, any person could be a pawn swallowed by the Dice. He had to be on guard.

But when he saw the ragged bandits drag the crying women from the carriages and start groping them—even the young girls—he finally decided to act.

Still, to avoid falling into one of the Dice's traps, Li Huowang didn't plan to do it himself. "Li Sui!"

Li Sui, beside him, took off her wide-brimmed hat, revealing a dog's face stripped of its skin.

The bronze coin sword was in her hand. The tip of a tentacle quickly split open, and the black mucus seeping from it swept across a sheet of turmeric paper in wild, flying script.

"Let insight pierce through all barriers, let the five vapors surge, let the golden light hasten forth, to shield and guard the altar—by this urgent command!"

Li Sui lifted the bronze coin sword, threading it through the talisman she had just written. Her tentacle-covered body burst from the oversized straw raincoat, and like a spider with countless legs, she pounced toward those men.

When they saw what Li Sui looked like in that moment, both the victims and the bandits started wailing in terror, scattering in all directions.

It was her first time taking action, and she was clearly excited. She quickly gave chase. Li Huowang watched silently from behind.

He watched every detail of their movements, observed the subtle shifts in the expressions of fear on their faces.

Probably not Zuowandao. If they were ordinary Tiao, Bing, or Wan tiles, I should have been able to spot the signs.

Half an hour later, Li Sui returned, thoroughly satisfied. "Dad, they said they're not bad people. They begged me not to kill them."

"They also said they were forced into it by some kind of Fa Sect. The Fa Sect destroyed their homes, and they don't believe in that Yu'er Shen either. They only robbed to buy food."

Li Huowang handed her the raincoat and hat, his expression unreadable. "Forced by the Fa Sect? Have their movements grown this large? They're already creating refugees."

He looked at Li Sui, a hint of instruction in his voice. "You can't take that kind of talk at face value. It might be true that they were turned into vagrants by the Fa Sect, but just look at what they were doing. They weren't only after money."

Taking this opportunity, Li Huowang gave Li Sui a thorough lesson on the depravity of the human heart, so she wouldn't be deceived by others later.

When Li Huowang and Li Sui returned to the carriage, they saw Bai Lingmiao sitting there quietly, holding the book.

"Aren't you going to ask what happened over there?" Li Huowang asked as he sat down beside her.

"No need. I heard it all from here." Bai Lingmiao's words made Li Huowang nod in understanding. Her perception was even sharper than his now. He hadn't expected that.

"Let's keep moving. It was just a small matter. Not the Zuowandao. If the Dice were really going to make a move, he wouldn't use something so petty."

The carriage continued slowly along the road as the sky gradually darkened.

They lit a campfire, hastily ate some soft, dry rations, and Li Huowang took advantage of this rare free time to practice his cultivation method.

By the time he finished, it was nearly dawn.

Li Huowang rested his head on Bai Lingmiao's lap and slowly closed his eyes. He could only manage to cultivate on quiet nights; during the day, he usually napped in the moving carriage.

It wasn't that he couldn't cultivate in the carriage, but if he did, he couldn't be sure what kind of twisted, distorted state the uncontrolled Innate Pneuma would reduce the carriage, Li Sui, and Miao Miao to.

As the carriage began to jostle gently, Li Huowang gradually drifted into sleep.

In the haze, he seemed to be back in elementary school, sitting for an exam. But his mind was completely blank—he couldn't remember a thing.

"Huowang… Huowang!"

He saw Yang Na beside him, making faces and nudging her finished exam paper toward him.

Li Huowang clasped his hands together in a silent, grateful bow, then picked up his pen, ready to copy.

The tip of the pen touched the blank paper. The surface of the page began to ripple, and then, within the ripples, Li Huowang's own reflection appeared.

First it was blurry black and white, then gradually, it gained color and clarity.

The sound of rain. A torrential downpour shattered the reflection into pieces. Drenched, Li Huowang frantically threw himself to the ground, using his body to shield the small puddle that held his reflection.

When the ripples on the water's surface finally stilled, Li Huowang looked at his own reflection and smiled with satisfaction.

"Li Huowang." Hearing his own name called from the reflection, Li Huowang nodded and answered. "Yeah. I'm here."

"Li Huowang." "Yeah. I'm here."

"Li Huowang." "I'm here."

"Li Huowang." "I'm here!"

As Li Huowang's voice grew more frantic, the entire world turned frantic. Layers upon layers of impatient shadows shifted rapidly.

They moved swiftly, drawing closer and closer to him, yet they never reached him. And he felt as if he would be trapped in this tangled web of fear and impatience forever.

"Stop it! I'm right here!" The maddened Li Huowang raised his fists and slammed them down hard onto the reflection.

With a sound like breaking glass, the reflection, along with the ground itself, shattered. Li Huowang fell, tumbling down with the fragments.

The strong sensation of plummeting made Li Huowang instinctively curl up like a baby, waiting in silence for the moment of impact.

Suddenly, a large hand reached down from above and grabbed him, pulling him back.

When Li Huowang opened his eyes, the world was turned upside down. He found himself clinging to a cliff, holding tight to someone's hand. It was Zhuge Yuan's hand.

"Li Xiong! Help me!" Zhuge Yuan's face was twisted in extreme agony as he shouted at Li Huowang.

"Don't let go! Whatever you do, don't let go! I'm pulling you up right now!"

Li Huowang gripped with all his might, using every ounce of strength he had. But to his despair, Zhuge Yuan's body grew heavier and heavier.

Finally, under the immense weight, Zhuge Yuan fell into the bottomless abyss. "Li Xiong! Help me! I'm in so much pain!"

"Hah!" Li Huowang gasped, sitting bolt upright, breathing heavily, still shaken.

It took him a long moment to notice the sound outside the carriage window. A pattering sound. It was raining.

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Reading Guide Decoding

A Quiet Lesson Before the Fall

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Innate Pneuma (先天一炁)

This is a heavyweight term from Daoist internal alchemy (内丹). "Innate Pneuma" or Xiāntiān Yīqì refers to the primordial, undifferentiated energy that exists before the separation of heaven and earth—the raw stuff of the cosmos before it gets all messy with yin and yang. In cultivation fiction, it's the holy grail: the purest form of power you can channel. But here, Li Huowang treats it like a loaded weapon—he can't use it casually because he has no control over what it will twist his companions into. That's not just a limitation; it's a character beat. His power is so inherently wrong that even its basic function is a threat to the people he loves.

The "Yu'er Shen" (于儿神)

Mentioned by the bandits, this is a nod to the Classic of Mountains and Seas (《山海经》). Yu'er Shen is a deity described with a human head and two serpentine bodies. In the Dao-Twisted World, it's being used as a focus of worship by a "Fa Sect"—likely a corrupted cult that has forced these people from their homes. This is a subtle piece of worldbuilding: the novel is pulling from actual Chinese mythology, but twisting it into a source of terror and displacement.

Chapter Overview

This chapter is a masterclass in quiet dread before the storm. We get a deceptively peaceful sequence: Li Huowang teaching Bai Lingmiao, a brief encounter with bandits (handled by the increasingly capable Li Sui), and a much-needed father-daughter talk about the ugliness of human nature. But the real show is the nightmare that follows—a hallucinatory descent that drags Li Huowang through a school exam, a shattered reflection, and a heartbreaking cliffhanger with Zhuge Yuan. The chapter's true horror isn't external; it's the slow, creeping realization that even in his dreams, Li Huowang cannot escape the weight of his own mind. Prepare for feels, not fights.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang gives Bai Lingmiao a copybook, a quiet gesture of intimacy and teaching. Her perception is now sharp enough to hear distant disturbances from inside the carriage, marking her growth as a spirit-medium.
A group of refugees-turned-bandits attacks two fleeing carriages. Li Huowang deduces they're likely not Zuowandao—the scale is too small for the Dice—but still has Li Sui handle the response as a precaution.
Li Sui's first combat deployment: she uses the bronze coin sword and a talisman, terrifying both victims and bandits with her monstrous appearance. Li Huowang uses the encounter as a teaching moment on human deceit.
The carriage resumes its journey. Li Huowang cultivates at night, explaining the danger of uncontrolled Innate Pneuma distorting his surroundings.
The nightmare sequence begins: a school exam, Yang Na's help, then a surreal collapse into a puddle-reflection that shatters. Li Huowang's desperate attempts to affirm his own existence ("I'm here!") spiral into madness.
The dream's climax: Li Huowang clings to a cliff, holding Zhuge Yuan's hand. Despite his desperate efforts, Zhuge Yuan falls into the abyss, crying out in agony. Li Huowang wakes with a gasp to the sound of rain.

Reading Guide

Alright, settle down, fellow travelers. This chapter is a mood piece disguised as a filler episode. The first half is all about Li Huowang as a reluctant teacher—he doesn't just tell Li Sui not to trust the bandits; he explains why with a weary cynicism that speaks to his own scars. It's a small, beautiful moment of character growth wrapped in ugly pragmatism.

But the nightmare. Oh, the nightmare. This isn't just a bad dream; it's a microcosm of Li Huowang's entire psychological war. The exam panic is a classic anxiety-trope, but the reflection in the puddle? That's pure Dao Gui—the desperate self-affirmation that turns into a scream. And Zhuge Yuan's fall… that's the knife that's been buried in Li Huowang's heart for a very long time, finally being twisted again.

Pay attention to the rain. It frames the chapter. It starts as the setting for the nightmare's disintegration, and it ends as the real-world sound that drags him back. The line between the real and the hallucinated is paper-thin, and this chapter reminds us that Li Huowang's worst enemy isn't the Dice or the Fa Sect. It's the hole inside him where Zhuge Yuan used to be.

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.

Was Zhuge Yuan's fall foreshadowed earlier?: Yes, Zhuge Yuan's fate was established in earlier chapters (around the Zhengde Temple arc) where a Flesh Buddha caused his death. This dream is a traumatic re-experiencing of that loss.
Is the "Fa Sect" a major new faction?: Yes, the Fa Sect is introduced as a cult centered on the Yu'er Shen. They are causing widespread displacement, suggesting they have become a significant threat in the Dao-Twisted World.
Why can't Li Huowang control his Innate Pneuma?: As a Heart-Element, his very nature is unstable. His Innate Pneuma is not meant for him to control; it's a raw, reality-warping force that distorts anything it touches, including his own body and the environment.