Ambush

1,346 words

Chapter 718: Ambush

All under heaven, great unity across the Great Qi? Li Huowang had never expected to hear such words from the lips of a Fa Sect believer.

Without hesitation, he drew his bone sword and swung it forcefully at the gate.

A rift flew forth, and iridescent liquids of every color crawled out from within, staining everything they touched.

Pointing at the Door Gods pasted on the gate, Li Huowang roared, "So this is your great unified world? The Great Qi is filled with these horrid things now! Say it again to my face! Say that the people of the Great Qi have all come back to life! That they live in peace and contentment, all under heaven united!"

"Li Huowang, you are fixated on appearances. I had thought that, as a Heart-Pan, you would understand something. But clearly, you know nothing. Xuanpin and the others were right to keep you in the dark."

As the Door God's words faded, the closing rift squeezed out a mass of twisted, malformed flesh—a slimy, gray-white, grotesque body that pushed its way through.

Because the rift was closing, only half of the creature made it through. Yet even so, it lay on the ground, desperately expanding and contracting, showing no sign of a fatal wound.

A cluster of short, trembling pink tendrils emerged from its forehead, crying out like a baby. The creature had no fixed form; every part of its body shifted and changed from moment to moment.

"All good dharmas arise as illusion; all evil deeds are illusion as well. The body is like gathered foam, the mind like wind—illusions with no root, no substance."

"What bullshit! I don't understand! Speak plainly!" Li Huowang glared fixedly at the deformed monster in the distant courtyard.

What unsettled him was that, somehow, he could vaguely make out the silhouette of a human figure within that creature's outline.

"All sentient beings' good dharmas are illusory and unreal. All sentient beings' evil karma is also illusory and unreal."

"The bodies of sentient beings are like a heap of gathered foam—outwardly present, but without substance. Their minds are like the breeze that brushes against the face—coming without trace, going without shadow, felt but without substance. In short: everything we perceive is illusory and unreal."

"But things are different now. The Child-God Yuer Shen can free us from this illusion and make us truly existent. We are no longer foam. We are no longer wind without shadow!" As he spoke, the Door God on the gate panel pointed toward the monster in the courtyard.

"Once you submit to Yuer Shen, we will no longer be false! Think about it, Li Huowang! Even the immortals are no more than this. Aren't you a Daoist? If you believe in Yuer Shen, I guarantee you will achieve the True Result and attain immortality! You will become an immortal, sharing Heaven's lifespan and enjoying eternal bliss!"

"Immortality? Share Heaven's lifespan?" Li Huowang looked at the creature still crawling on the ground, and a chill ran through his heart. He finally understood what the other was talking about when he spoke of a world without death, a world of great unity.

The people of the Great Qi had indeed "come back to life"—but in a way far more terrible than death.

"Li Huowang, how about it?" The Door God seemed unwilling to give up.

"No."

"No?" The Door God stared at Li Huowang in disbelief, as if astonished by his response. "You don't want to see your loved ones come back to life? You don't want to become an immortal?"

"Heh. Though I have my doubts, if such a thing really existed, of course I would want it." Li Huowang tightened his grip on his sword's hilt.

"But you see, I've never liked asking for favors. Since you say Yuer Shen possesses the Heavenly Law that can bring people back to life, why should I bargain with you? Wouldn't it be better if I found a way to kill Yuer Shen and just take that Heavenly Law from him directly?"

To the ears of the Fa Sect believers, Li Huowang's words were nothing short of blasphemy.

"A good heart rewarded with ingratitude! This is outrageous! How dare you blaspheme the Heavenly Lord!"

"Ha! Nothing I can do about it! That's what my master taught me! If you can't get it, take it!"

"Bam!" The gate slammed shut. The red-cloth Wealth God pasted on the door began to turn a deep green.

Seeing that the enemy had finally shown his true colors, Li Huowang felt no surprise. "I knew you had an ambush!"

With a shiiing, another rift flew toward the gate bearing the Door Gods.

As the two doors opened briefly to dodge the rift and slammed shut again, Li Huowang had already vanished without a trace.

The two Door Gods exchanged a glance, raised their right hands, and clapped once in unison.

"Dharma originally has no dharma; no-dharma is also dharma. Now that I transmit the dharma-less, how can dharma ever be dharma?"

The moment the final "dharma" left their mouths, the entire room was enveloped by their divine sense. Nothing could escape their perception.

"Watch out! He knows earth-escape!" the Door God shouted.

The moment the words left his mouth, Li Huowang burst forth from the ground, dirt spraying with him. The Purple-Tasseled Sword in his hand slashed directly into one of the door panels. The entire gate was cleaved in two.

With one Door God dealt with, Li Huowang was about to go after the second when Li Sui's voice reached his ears.

"Dad! He's gotten onto you!"

"What?" Li Huowang lowered his head and saw a Door God plastered onto his bloodstained Daoist robe.

"Heh!" The Door God raised his sword and struck Li Huowang's arm. With a single blow, the entire arm was severed. In an instant, dense black tentacles writhed forth from the stump.

"Get off me!" Snapping a rib from his bellybutton, Li Huowang drove it hard into his own chest. The searing pain from his body immediately transferred to the Door God.

The Door God cried out in agony, abandoning his attack and sliding across the ground to retreat. But this time, Li Huowang was not about to let him go.

Stepping squarely onto the Door God, Li Huowang raised the Purple-Tasseled Sword to strike.

Just then, the world before him went dark. He looked up to see the other door panel, still bearing its Door God, crashing down toward him.

At the moment it was about to hit him—crack!—Peng Longteng, mounted on her warhorse, smashed directly into the door panel, shattering both the door and its Door God into fragments.

The next moment, covered in blood and laughing wildly, she crashed through the left wall, and the entire building began to shake.

Li Huowang stared at the Door God pinned beneath his foot. Reaching down with his single hand, he grabbed the Door God's edge and pulled. With increasing force, the Door God's body stretched and elongated.

Finally, with a scream, the Door God was torn in two by Li Huowang's bare hands.

At the same time, the entire roof collapsed, raining tiles and beams down onto Li Huowang.

When the dust finally settled, Li Huowang slowly emerged from the ruins. Gazing at the distant city wall, which had already been breached, he muttered to himself, "Is that all they've got? Looks like the Fa Sect won't last much longer."

He wasn't sure if it was because his own strength had grown too quickly, but it all felt a little too easy.

"Really? Hehehe. I wouldn't say that." A strange woman's voice came from behind him.

Li Huowang turned slowly. There, sitting casually on a roof ridge beast, was a woman carrying a large ceramic baby-faced doll. Her hands were shoved into two Door God hand-puppets.

The puppets in her hands were clearly ruined: one had been torn in half, the other shattered into several pieces—exactly the same fate as the Door Gods before.

(End of Chapter)

Share to

Reading Guide Decoding

The Fa Sect's "Great Unity" is a Flesh-Pit, and Li Huowang Is Not Buying

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Door Gods (门神): In Chinese folk religion and Daoist practice, Door Gods are protective deities whose images are pasted on gates to ward off evil spirits. They are guardians of the threshold, the first line of defense against the supernatural. In Dao Gui Yi Xian, this sacred, protective role is inverted—the Door Gods serve the Fa Sect, actively attacking rather than defending. The horror lies in the betrayal of a cultural archetype: the thing meant to keep danger out has become the weapon used against those inside.

"Dharma originally has no dharma" (法本法无法): This is a famous gatha (Buddhist verse) attributed to the Sixth Patriarch Huineng or found in the Platform Sutra. It's a classic expression of the Madhyamaka or emptiness (śūnyatā) doctrine: all dharmas (phenomena, teachings) are ultimately empty of inherent existence; even the concept of "no-dharma" is a dharma. The Fa Sect here weaponizes it as an incantation for their divine sense, a chilling misuse of a philosophical tool for deep contemplation.

The Fa Sect's "Great Unity" (天下大同): The concept of "great unity" or "great harmony" (datong) has deep roots in Chinese political philosophy, most famously in the Book of Rites (Liji), describing an ideal world of peace and shared prosperity. Here, it is grotesquely inverted: the sect promises a world without death, but the "living" are transformed into shape-shifting, fleshly masses. It's a brilliant subversion of a utopian ideal into body horror.

Siming

A class of high-dimensional, fate-manipulating entities. Li Huowang is connected to one.

Chapter Overview

Li Huowang thought he had walked into a negotiation. He was wrong. This chapter is a claustrophobic, three-stage ambush that turns the very architecture of safety—doors, walls, even the ground beneath his feet—into weapons. A Fa Sect Door God tries to convert him with the promise of immortality and a "great unified" world, but the sales pitch comes with a monster clawing its way through a reality rift, a second Door God trying to slice him up, and a final, chilling puppeteer who was watching the whole thing for fun. Li Huowang wins the fight, but the chapter's real weight is in the horror of the offer: a world without death, where everyone is "alive" as a writhing, formless pile of flesh.

Key Plot Points

The Fa Sect Door God reveals their vision of "great unity under heaven": a world without death, brought about by the Child-God Yuer Shen. The pitch is simultaneously a religious sermon and a sales talk.
Li Huowang refuses the offer, responding with characteristic bluntness: he'd rather kill Yuer Shen and take the Heavenly Law for himself.
The ambush escalates immediately. A monster with baby-faced tendrils crawls through a rift. A Door God transfers itself onto Li Huowang's robe and severs his arm. Another door panel is thrown at him like a weapon.
Li Huowang counters through relentless self-mutilation and pain-transference tactics (stabbing himself, tearing the Door God in half). A hospital isn't just a setting here; it's the frame where the violence feels more intimate and invasive.
The battle ends with Li Huowang emerging victorious from the rubble, but not triumphant. He is unsettled—the fight felt too easy.
The chapter closes on a third, unseen antagonist: a woman sitting casually on a roof ridge, holding the broken puppets of the Door Gods. The implication is clear: the real fight hasn't started.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a masterclass in the novel's unique brand of "philosophical ambush." Li Huowang is not just fighting monsters; he's fighting ideas. The Door God's pitch—"you can become real, you can become immortal"—is seductive, but the reader sees the price tag immediately: a world of undying things, not people. Pay attention to how Li Huowang's refusal is framed. He doesn't reject the offer on moral grounds; he rejects it on theological-methodological grounds: "If you have it, why should I ask? I'll just take it." This is pure, desperate pragmatism dressed up as blasphemy.

Also, keep an eye on the hospital setting. Like the Door Gods, the hospital is a space supposed to heal. The fact that it's the site of this ambush reinforces the novel's recurring theme: every structure designed to protect is revealed to be an accomplice to the horror. And that final shot, of the woman with the broken puppets, is a fantastic cliffhanger. It suggests that the Door Gods were never the real threat—just toys being played with. The true Fa Sect threat is still waiting in the wings.