Contact

1,269 words

Chapter 682: Contact

Upon hearing Yang Xiaohai's words, Lyu Xiucai's face stiffened. The painful memories of the past surged back, but he quickly suppressed them, forcing a casual tone as he said, “He’s dead. Killed by the Fa Sect.”

“What?! Juren is really dead?” Yang Xiaohai’s eyes flew wide.

Hearing this, Lyu Xiucai slowly turned his head, his own eyes widening as he stared at Yang Xiaohai. “What do you mean by that? What do you mean, ‘really dead’?”

Li Huowang, standing nearby, also turned to look. He knew that when Yang Xiaohai had left, Lyu Juren was still living it up in Shangjing City. How could he have known Lyu Juren was dead?

“No, don’t get me wrong! When I was in Qingqiu, I ran into an earthquake, and then I encountered some strange stuff. I thought it was a dream before. I saw Brother Juren there, but he looked… weird.”

Yang Xiaohai quickly recounted everything he had experienced with Lyu Juren. “And it wasn’t just him. In that place called Fengdu, there was another Li Senior Brother, just as strange.”

As soon as he finished, he saw Senior Brother Li staring at him with a furrowed brow. “What did you say? Another me? Tell me again, from the beginning, everything you went through.”

Hearing this, Yang Xiaohai repeated his strange experience in Qingqiu once more, this time focusing on the bizarre version of Li Huowang.

“Hong Zhong? Li Huowang? The Hong Zhong Li Huowang didn’t disappear?!” At these words, Li Huowang’s pupils contracted to pinpricks.

Back then, Doumu had gifted him a piece of the Zuowandao’s past, and it was from that piece of the past that the Hong Zhong Li Huowang had been born.

Li Huowang had always assumed that with the disappearance of that past, the Hong Zhong Li Huowang would have vanished as well.

But now, it was clear that wasn’t the case at all. The Hong Zhong Li Huowang might have left his side, but he hadn’t disappeared. He had simply been hidden away, just like the Great Qi!

“But… why? Why isn’t he anywhere else? Why is he trapped in Fengdu?” Li Huowang pondered the question, his brow deeply furrowed. “And then there’s the Siming that Hong Zhong mentioned…”

The Siming who presided over death was actually dead, hidden beneath Qingqiu. That was something he never could have imagined.

“Kid, are you saying that there was seawater of a very strange color flowing into that underground cave?” Li Huowang repeated another important detail.

“Yeah! That seawater was weird. Even though I was far away, I felt my body getting sucked into it. If I hadn’t managed to run into that upside-down Zhongyin Temple at the end, I almost wouldn’t have made it back.”

Recalling his previous experience, Yang Xiaohai began to shiver with fear. Seeing Senior Brother Li’s reaction, he realized that his past experience had been real. He really had almost not come back.

“Was it this color of seawater?” Li Huowang asked, reaching out to pull out his spine-sword and slashing it through the air into the distance.

A rift to the Great Qi tore open, and from within poured that dark, iridescent, metallic-colored something.

It dripped onto the ground, writhing like a living thing. Anything it touched began to distort. Inanimate objects gained life, while living things became even more twisted.

“Yes! That’s it!! That’s what I saw! But back then, there was way more! An ocean of it!” Yang Xiaohai cried out, backing away as if afraid it would touch him again.

“The Child God… It really is the Child God.” Li Huowang’s face turned extremely grim. Not only was the Fa Sect, which worshipped the Child God, conquering cities in Hou Shu, but the Child God itself was also attacking the Siming in charge of death. “What does the Child God want? Is it trying to steal the Heavenly Law of death too?”

Lost in thought, Li Huowang felt a softness on his right hand. He looked down and saw Bai Lingmiao holding his hand.

“Senior Brother Li, what’s wrong?”

Li Huowang shook his head out of habit. “It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

Just as he was about to leave, he felt Bai Lingmiao’s hand tighten around his. Her grip was soft, but beneath that softness was a firm, unyielding pull.

He turned his head to look at her face, her eyes still bound by the white silk ribbon. “Senior Brother Li, I am the Holy Maiden of the White Lotus Society now. The Society is spreading further and further through the Liang Empire. I have the strength to help you now.”

“If you’re really in trouble, you don’t have to bear it all alone like you did before. Tell me. We can figure something out together.”

Looking at Bai Lingmiao’s delicate features, Li Huowang reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. He could feel her sincere concern for him.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally spoke. “This is a bit of a long story. You know the Child God that the Fa Sect worships, right?”

“Mn, I know. Wusheng Laomu said the Child God is a traitor.”

“Well, this is what happened.” Li Huowang had just begun to lay out the entire chain of events when he stopped mid-sentence, frowning as he stared at the distant, pitch-black sea.

A long line of torches was lighting up in the distance, forming a fiery dragon that was slowly approaching them. “Hm?”

“Kid, what’s the situation over there? Have those people been brainwashed by the Fa Sect?”

Seeing Li Huowang’s hand tighten around his sword hilt, Yang Xiaohai’s face went pale. His voice filled with urgency, he said, “Senior Brother Li, they’re not with the Fa Sect! They worship the Dragon King! We need to go! Now!”

Daddy and Big Sister were already dead. He really didn’t want to lose any more family, even if that family was never kind to him.

“Are you keeping something from me?” Li Huowang shot him a glance. But even as he said it, he didn’t press further. He simply turned and prepared to leave with the others.

He hadn’t forgotten his purpose for coming to Hou Shu. Finding the Dragon Vein of Hou Shu was the key. As for whatever schemes Yang Xiaohai had in his head, he couldn’t be bothered to think about them.

But they had barely taken a few steps when firelight appeared on the dirt road ahead of them as well. It was clear that while they had been talking, these people had already been quietly surrounding them. They never intended to let them leave.

“Hah. This is getting interesting. I wasn’t going to bother them, but they’ve come to bother me instead. Li Sui!”

As Li Huowang opened his mouth, Li Sui burrowed into his body. Writhing tentacles began to burst forth from every part of him, brandishing themselves menacingly.

“Master! Let me come too this time! I want revenge on the Fa Sect!” Lyu Xiucai stepped forward, his eyes blazing with hatred, his voice unwavering.

Li Huowang glanced at him. “Fine. Keep yourself alive. Same as always: I don’t want a burden.”

“I’m NOT a burden!” Lyu Xiucai said, tearing off his outer robe to reveal the paper under-vest covered in incantations.

With hatred burning in his eyes, he pulled out a jagged, double-edged sword. Stomping his right foot, he began to tap the sword against his own forehead, muttering an incantation under his breath.

(There is one more bonus chapter, it may be a little late.)

(End of this chapter)

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Reading Guide Decoding

Cosmic Revelations and the Predator's Approach

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Let’s talk about the big cosmic geography here. Fengdu (酆都) is not just a random spooky name. In Chinese mythology and Daoist folk religion, Fengdu is the capital of the underworld—a vast, bureaucratic city of the dead where souls are judged and administered. It’s like the DMV of the afterlife, if the DMV were run by demons and vengeful spirits. The fact that the "Hong Zhong" Li Huowang is trapped there is deeply, structurally meaningful. It suggests that this discarded fragment of self has fallen into a kind of ontological limbo, a place for things that are supposed to be gone but aren't. Meanwhile, the Zhongyin Temple (中阴庙) that saved Yang Xiaohai gets its name from "Zhongyin" (中阴), a Buddhist term for the bardo—the intermediate state between death and rebirth. A temple named for the bardo and located inside a death-god's domain is a clever, chilling detail. It implies a sanctuary or a waypoint within the territory of death itself. This is top-tier worldbuilding that uses religious terminology as a map of the metaphysical horror.

Yuer Shen

The Child God, a deity from the Classic of Mountains and Seas worshipped by the Fa Sect, now revealed to be a cosmic predator.

Chapter Overview

Alright, buckle up, fellow Daoists! This chapter is titled "Contact," and boy, does it deliver. After the brutal emotional rollercoaster of the last few arcs, we finally get a moment to breathe—but only a moment. Yang Xiaohai is back, and his return drops a series of cosmic truth-bombs that completely re-contextualize everything we thought we knew about Qingqiu, Fengdu, and the fate of that "other" Li Huowang. But the chapter isn't just exposition. It's a masterclass in mood whiplash. We start with a tense, somber reunion, pivot to a mind-bending revelation about the Child God and the Siming of death, and then—just as a fragile moment of connection between Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao makes you think things might be okay—the torches appear on the horizon. The world does not wait. The Fa Sect's influence has followed them, and the "contact" of the chapter's title isn't just about Yang Xiaohai's return; it's about the inevitable, predatory contact of the Dao-Twisted World's horrors.

Key Plot Points

The Shocking Revelation: Yang Xiaohai drops the biggest bombshell of the arc: the "Hong Zhong" Li Huowang did not cease to exist. He is still out there, trapped in the underworld city of Fengdu. This forces our Li Huowang to confront the unsettling possibility that his discarded past lives on.
The Child God's True Goal: Connecting the dots, Li Huowang realizes the horrifying truth: the Child God (Yuer Shen) isn't just backing the Fa Sect's conquest of Hou Shu. It is actively attacking and attempting to devour the Siming of Death itself. The question "What does it want?" becomes terrifyingly clear—it wants to usurp the very concept of death.
A Moment of Vulnerable Connection: Before the storm, we get a rare, quiet scene of genuine emotional intimacy. Bai Lingmiao, now fully embracing her role as the White Lotus Holy Maiden, reaches out to Li Huowang. It's not a plea for rescue, but an offer of partnership. This moment of fragile domestic warmth makes the chaos that follows hit so much harder.
The Inevitable Encounter: The chapter ends with a classic Dao Gui setup. Just as our heroes are about to leave, they find themselves encircled by torch-wielding locals. These aren't Fa Sect cultists, but desperate, scared people, making the conflict both more tragic and more complicated.

Reading Guide

Pay attention to the "Contact" in the title: It has multiple layers. The obvious one is Yang Xiaohai making contact with the group again. But look deeper. The metallic seawater from the Great Qi is making contact with the Dao-Twisted World. The Child God is making a predatory contact with the Siming of death. The locals' torches are making contact with our heroes. The chapter is a cascade of intersections, each one more dangerous than the last.
Li Huowang's emotional state: Notice how quickly his shock and concern are replaced by cold, functional analysis. He barely has time to process the existence of his "other self" before he's assessing the tactical situation. This isn't callousness; it's survival. He has learned that the world will not give him a moment to grieve or to wonder.
The tragic irony of Lyu Xiucai: He is so consumed by his revenge fantasy that he's already performing the pre-battle ritual, oblivious to the fact that his primary target (the Death Siming) might already be dead. His quest for vengeance might be chasing a ghost.