Long-handled boning knife

Story context

Li Huowang is back in the modern world, and it feels *wrong*. Riding a public bus like a normal person, he calls Yang Na under the flimsy cover of a delivery driver just to make sure she’s safe. It’s a quiet, heartbreaking moment of restraint—he *wants* to talk to her, but he knows his presence is a threat. That fragile peace shatters when a familiar face spots him: Old Liu, a fellow mental patient from the hospital. Li Huowang’s attempt at a low-profile trip to the dock turns into a violent detour as he hunts down a weapon and silences the witness. The chapter ends with Li Huowang standing before the sprawling dock, facing the question of how to breach the fortress where Xu Shou waits.

Why it matters

This is a transitional chapter, and it reads like a ticking clock. Li Huowang is completely alone, scavenging for tools and handling threats the *normal* way—no sorcery, no self-mutilation, just raw human desperation. The phone call with Yang Na is the emotional core: he can’t even let himself hear her voice properly. The encounter with Old Liu is almost darkly comedic—a terrified old man being taped to his own toilet—but it underlines how far Li Huowang has fallen from “normal people” rules. Notice how he corrects Old Liu: *“How many times do I have to tell you? I’m not crazy!”* That line isn’t just frustration; it’s a man trying to claw back his own identity. The dock at the end is a great visual cliffhanger—a concrete barrier that reminds us Li Huowang is up against logistical reality, not just supernatural horrors.

Quick facts

Appears in chapters

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Source novel

Dao Gui Yi Xian