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Story context

Li Huowang goes straight to the top. Impersonating an agent of the Supervisory Heavenly Office, he gains an audience with Magistrate Yang Hongzhi, hoping to gather intel on the invisible ghost that causes the horrifying “Retracted Yang” affliction. The magistrate is desperate and almost spills the beans, but stops dead, struck by a paralyzing fear. Before Li Huowang can pry more out of him, the yamen staff erupts into a frantic, absurdist folk ritual—beating bronze gongs, pinching their fingers black, and crawling on the floor to sprinkle chili powder on their own crotches. The sheer ridiculousness of it triggers a sharp pang of suspicion in Li Huowang. This pattern feels too familiar, too staged, almost like a bad joke. Is the town’s terror real, or has he stumbled into another elaborate trap?

Why it matters

Get ready for a chapter that feels like *The Sorrow and the Pity* meets *The Holy Mountain*—absurd, desperate, and crawling with suspicion. Li Huowang’s impersonation of a Monitory Bureau agent is a masterclass in street-smart pragmatism: he sees a power vacuum and fills it with a lie. But the real treat here is the tonal whiplash. After chapters of serious, flesh-rending horror, we’re suddenly dropped into a scene of grown men acting like terrified, chanting turtles, slapping chili on themselves while beating gongs. It’s deliberately funny, but the laughter dies in your throat because you *know* something is wrong.

Quick facts

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Source novel

Dao Gui Yi Xian