**“Sitting in Forgetfulness” (Zuowang, 坐忘)** — This is NOT a random made-up chant. It's lifted directly from the *Zhuangzi* and later Daoist cultivation texts, where it describes a state of deep meditative emptiness—forgetting the body, forgetting the mind, forgetting that you're even forgetting. In the novel, the Zuowandao have weaponized this. Their name literally means “The Way of Sitting in Forgetfulness,” but for them, forgetting is a tool of deception, not enlightenment. They forget what's true so they can pretend the false is real and vice versa. The verse they chant in this chapter is a corrupted, almost ritualistic mockery of classical Daoist self-cultivation language, complete with a maniacal “Hahaha!!” at the end. That's the Zuowandao signature—taking high-minded philosophy and turning it into a weaponized joke.
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Definition
**“Sitting in Forgetfulness” (Zuowang, 坐忘)** — This is NOT a random made-up chant. It's lifted directly from the *Zhuangzi* and later Daoist cultivation texts, where it describes a state of deep meditative emptiness—forgetting the body, forgetting the mind, forgetting that you're even forgetting. In the novel, the Zuowandao have weaponized this. Their name literally means “The Way of Sitting in Forgetfulness,” but for them, forgetting is a tool of deception, not enlightenment. They forget what's true so they can pretend the false is real and vice versa. The verse they chant in this chapter is a corrupted, almost ritualistic mockery of classical Daoist self-cultivation language, complete with a maniacal “Hahaha!!” at the end. That's the Zuowandao signature—taking high-minded philosophy and turning it into a weaponized joke.
Story context
In this chapter, Li Huowang forges a tactical alliance with the Zuowandao to fight their common enemy, Danyangzi—but “alliance” in the Dao-Twisted World is just another word for mutual assured destruction. One-Ten dangles the ultimate bait: a way for a Heart-Element to escape perpetual bewilderment. Li Huowang takes the deal with his eyes wide open, but anyone expecting a clean victory hasn't been paying attention. The battle devolves into a gruesome entanglement of flesh, worms, and seething hatred, before the Zuowandao pull out their signature move—not summoning a god, but *cheating* one. Get ready for a chapter where the only thing more twisted than Danyangzi's body is the logic of Zuowandao's divine scams.
Why it matters
This is a fast-paced, high-stakes chapter that reads like a fever dream of tangling flesh and escalating deception. The physical horror is dialed up to eleven—Li Huowang and Danyangzi literally become a single writhing ball of meat. But the real horror is the psychological vertigo. The Zuowandao's offer to cure Li Huowang's bewilderment is the most seductive bait they could possibly dangle, and Li Huowang knows it's probably a lie. Yet he takes it anyway, because between a known monster (Danyangzi) and a known liar (Zuowandao), the liar is the safer bet. The chapter ends on a perfect cliffhanger: the ritual is at its peak, the Xi Shen is being conned, and Li Huowang has just made a tactical withdrawal at the worst possible moment—or the best. The reader is left to wonder: who got cheated in the end?
Quick facts
Source novel
Dao Gui Yi Xian
First appearance
Cooperation
Chapter references
1
Type hints
Zuowandao, Danyangzi, Xi Shen
Guide tags
body horror, cosmic deception, tactical alliance
Appears in chapters
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