The Letter

1,317 words

Chapter 524: The Letter

After learning from Zu Yi that the Supervisory Heavenly Office had invited the Ao-Jing Sect to deal with the Zuowandao together, Li Huowang realized that trying to find a solution from this man had been the wrong place to look.

If the Ao-Jing Sect really had a way to restrain the Dice, the Dice wouldn't have had the spare energy to threaten him.

Sitting on the long bench, Li Huowang let out a light sigh and said to Zu Yi before him, "Alright, you can go. The grievance between us that night is settled. From now on, you go your way, and I'll go mine."

Hearing this, Zu Yi was momentarily taken aback. A hint of tension crept into his voice. "Grand Elder, about the method of Ascension..."

"There's no such thing as a shortcut!" Li Huowang's voice grew irritable, as if recalling something. "Do you know how much pain extreme suffering of mind and body really is?! How much despair?! And you self-flagellating lunatics actually want to rush into it! Get out! Get far away from me!"

Beneath Li Huowang's curses, Zu Yi slowly retreated into the courtyard. He looked at the man sitting on the bench inside the room, deliberated for a moment, then spoke hesitantly. "Grand Elder, have you encountered some trouble today?"

"You are honored as the Grand Elder of the Ao-Jing Sect. If there is any matter in which a disciple of the sect can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to command me."

Li Huowang shook his head and waved his hand impatiently. "You can't help. If you really could, you'd have done it already."

Hearing this, Zu Yi said nothing more. He turned and prepared to leave the courtyard.

But just as his hand touched the wooden door latch, his voice came from beneath his broad cloak. "Elder, perhaps this disciple is overstepping, but... all the troubles of the mortal world are but illusions before the pain of Ascension."

"As a disciple of the Ao-Jing Sect, we should focus our energy on the true path as soon as possible."

Li Huowang was too exhausted to argue with these self-torturing madmen. He turned his back, refusing to look at him.

"Grand Elder."

"Are you done or not?!"

Li Huowang whirled around, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword. But to his surprise, he saw Zu Yi bend down and pick up a folded, cream-colored envelope from the ground.

"Grand Elder, it seems there is a letter for you."

"A letter?" Suspicious, Li Huowang walked over, took it, and looked down at the envelope.

"Since you have personal matters to attend to, this disciple will take his leave. If anything important arises at the temple, I will send a special messenger to report to you. After all, you are the Grand Elder of the Ao-Jing Sect."

But Li Huowang was no longer listening to Zu Yi's words. His eyes were fixed on the contents of the letter.

"Bai Lingmiao? Bai Lingmiao, who was kidnapped by the Dice, wrote me a letter?!"

His fingers trembling slightly, Li Huowang quickly tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter inside.

"Senior Brother Li, are you well? I am truly sorry for not contacting you for so long."

"I actually wanted to get in touch with you long ago, but they wouldn't let me. I can't write who 'they' are; I'm afraid they would change it even if I did. But they have been good to me and haven't mistreated me."

"I know that after I left, you must have searched the whole world for me. Don't worry, Senior Brother Li, I'll be back soon. It won't take the two years you said. I'll be back in a little while. Oh, and the dried persimmons here are very sweet. I'll send you some. From your wife, Bai Lingmiao."

"Two years? Two years?" Li Huowang's pupils constricted as he was instantly pulled back to a memory. How did Bai Lingmiao know about two years?

He recalled himself, separated by a chain-link fence, speaking to Yang Na as she was carried away on her father's shoulder.

"Yang Na, wait for me! Give me three years! No, two! Just give me two more years!!"

"Yes! That's right! Bai Lingmiao left me around that time! Back then, Yang Na was just the projection of Bai Lingmiao in this world! She was being carried away by someone too!"

Clutching the letter in his hand, Li Huowang paced excitedly inside the room! This letter meant something huge!

It meant that maybe the Dice hadn't kidnapped Bai Lingmiao at all! He had been lying to me from start to finish!

It was an exhilarating hypothesis. But just as Li Huowang's thoughts began to spiral, a ragged little beggar poked his head in from the doorway, his face full of apology.

"Boss Hongzhong! Ah, I'm so sorry, so sorry! I was so busy delivering the letter that I almost forgot the dried persimmons."

Carrying a bamboo-woven basket in his grimy hands, he walked in, panting.

The little beggar had just set down the basket when he casually walked toward Li Sui. "Ah, a pleasure! You must be Boss Hongzhong's dog, right? I've heard so much about you!"

Li Huowang looked at the envelope in his hand, then at the little beggar who was now chatting away with Li Sui. The excitement in his heart cooled rapidly.

"What does this mean? Is the Dice trying to warn me with a letter because he thinks I've been making too many small moves lately?"

"Or maybe the Dice is bluffing me! Bai Lingmiao really isn't with him!!"

"Bang!" Li Huowang reached out with one hand, grabbing the little beggar by the throat and slamming him against the wall.

Li Huowang didn't ask for his name. Instead, he directly pulled out his dagger and peeled back the skin of the man's face.

After flipping through several faces, Li Huowang saw one that was making exaggerated expressions at him—a Nine-Wan.

"What the hell are you people trying to do?!" Li Huowang growled through gritted teeth.

"Oh, what else could I be doing? Just delivering a letter. And I really didn't steal any of the dried persimmons; that's all there was."

"Fine. If you won't tell the truth, that's okay. I'll make you tell the truth! I know both Ao-Jing and Zuowandao methods! You choose!" Li Huowang snarled, opening the pouch of torture implements at his waist.

Amidst the clattering of metal, Li Huowang suddenly noticed something wrong with the mocking grin on the other's face.

He quickly released his grip on the man's throat. The Nine-Wan immediately went limp, collapsing to the ground without a sound. He was dead.

"Officer, sir, we're just an opera troupe. Nothing worth inspecting here. Have a look, just costumes. Hehehehe." Lü Zhuangyuan put on a fawning smile as he explained to the city guard who was inspecting them.

But the capital's city guards couldn't be bothered to even glance at him. They rummaged through the contents of the cart carelessly before tossing the travel permit coldly at Lü Zhuangyuan's face.

Lü Zhuangyuan quickly caught the permit with both hands, holding it reverently. This thing had to be kept safe. In Great Liang, without it, you couldn't take a single step.

More importantly, this was something Little Daoist had left behind. If it was lost, it would be gone forever.

After carefully tucking the permit back into the pocket sewn into the inner side of his clothing, Lü Zhuangyuan led the others through the thick barbican gate.

Once they passed the barbican, the sight before them stunned everyone. This was the capital, the largest city in all the land.

Many were awestruck by the towering wooden buildings on both sides of the street, and fascinated by the capital's unique architectural style, so different from anywhere else.

Share to

Reading Guide Decoding

The Horror of a Single Envelope

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter is a fantastic example of the "psychological horror of the mundane." The horror here isn't a monster you can stab; it’s a piece of paper. In the Dao-Twisted World, information is a weapon, and trust is a liability. Li Huowang’s frantic analysis of the letter—was it real? Was it faked? Who wrote it?—is a painful reminder that for a Heart-Element, reality is negotiable. The Zuowandao don’t need to torture you with knives; they torture you with possibilities. The letter’s mention of “dried persimmons” (柿饼) is a masterstroke of this. It’s a sweet, domestic detail meant to bypass Huowang’s paranoia and appeal to his heart. It's a folk-horror version of a phishing email, and the fact that it almost worked is the most chilling part.

The scene also gives us a peek into imperial bureaucracy with Lü Zhuangyuan’s arrival at the capital. The travel permit (路引) is a crucial historical artifact. In ancient China, you couldn't just wander around; you needed official documentation to pass through checkpoints, especially into a walled city. Guarding this permit with his life shows Lü Zhuangyuan’s practical wisdom—in a world of gods and monsters, it’s often the mundane, man-made rules that keep you alive. The barbican (瓮城) is a real architectural feature of Chinese city walls, a fortified enclosure designed to trap invaders. Passing through it symbolizes entering a place where the rules—both political and supernatural—might be completely different.

Chapter Overview

Welcome back, fellow travelers of the twisted path! This chapter serves up a different dish of horror. Forget the screaming flesh-monsters and the splattering gore for a moment. Here, the real terror is a quiet, yellowed envelope. Li Huowang, fresh from his confrontation with the Ao-Jing Sect, finds a letter from Bai Lingmiao—a lifeline of hope dangled right in front of him. But in this world, hope is just the bait in a Zuowandao trap. We watch Huowang’s mind spiral from manic joy to cold, biting suspicion as he tries to puzzle out if the letter is a gift from his missing wife or a performance staged for his torment. It’s a masterclass in psychological dread, proving that sometimes a single, kind word can cut deeper than any blade. And just when you think you've caught your breath, the plot pivots to a new scene: Lü Zhuangyuan’s troupe finally arriving at the capital, setting the stage for a whole new kind of trouble.

Key Plot Points

Li Huowang rejects Zu Yi’s offer of help, confirming that the Ao-Jing Sect has no real solution for the Dice, and telling him to leave with a flash of anger that reveals his lingering trauma from the Thousand Greats Record.
A little beggar delivers a letter from Bai Lingmiao, which Li Huowang receives with trembling excitement. The letter is warm, apologetic, and mentions “two years” — a specific timeframe that immediately triggers a shocking connection in Li Huowang’s mind.
Li Huowang pieces together that the “two years” reference matches something he said to Yang Na in the modern world, leading him to a frantic hypothesis: Bai Lingmiao might not have been kidnapped by the Dice at all, and the whole thing was a lie.
The brief euphoria is shattered when Li Huowang realizes the beggar is a Zuowandao agent (a Nine-Wan). He attempts to interrogate him, but the enemy kills himself before any information can be extracted, leaving Li Huowang with nothing but doubts.
The chapter cuts to a new scene: Lü Zhuangyuan’s opera troupe, carrying Li Huowang’s travel permit, passes through the capital’s gates, marking their arrival in the politically complex heart of Great Liang.

Reading Guide

Get ready for a shift in tone, folks. This chapter is a breather chapter, but don’t let that fool you. These quiet moments are where the best horror simmers. Pay close attention to the emotional whiplash. Watch Li Huowang go from a weary, cynical leader to a kid opening a birthday present, and then watch that joy curdle into cold, hard suspicion. The real action here is in his head. Also, keep an eye on that new setting. We’re in the capital now, the big show. The Supervisory Heavenly Office, the emperor, the walking corpse emperor—the stakes just got a lot more political. This is the calm before a very, very bad storm.

The Horror of a Kind Word

The deepest cut in this chapter isn't a sword or a tentacle. It's a simple line: "The dried persimmons here are very sweet. I'll send you some." In a novel built on screams and blood, this quiet, domestic kindness is a masterful piece of psychological warfare. Bai Lingmiao’s voice—whether real or fabricated—offers Li Huowang something he can't afford to have: hope. And in the Dao-Twisted World, hope is the most dangerous currency of all. This chapter proves that the Zuowandao understand their victim's psychology perfectly. They know Huowang's deepest wound isn't physical; it's the loss of the people he loves. By making him choose to doubt a message of love, they are torturing him without lifting a finger. That's the true horror of the Dice.