Black Tai Sui

"Tai Sui, Black Tai Sui." Danyangzi's icy voice rang through the small Material Room.

Li Huowang raised his head slightly and looked once more at the disgusting thing in Danyangzi's hand.

Upon closer inspection, he realized it looked somewhat similar to the thing inside the Black Cauldron. No—it was the man-eating thing from inside the Black Cauldron.

This thing is called Black Tai Sui? Don't tell me he plans to use this to refine pills? What a heavy taste. Li Huowang thought to himself.

With a light flick of Danyangzi's wrist, the writhing lump of Black Tai Sui traced an arc through the air and landed squarely on Li Huowang's foot.

The sticky, soft sensation made Li Huowang's scalp prickle. His legs shook as he staggered backward again and again.

Staring at the Black Tai Sui now lying on the ground and coated in dust, Li Huowang looked up at Danyangzi in stunned confusion, unable to understand what he meant.

"A reward for you. Pick it up and swallow it. You were a Medicinal Guide before, so it didn't matter. But now that you are this Daoist master's disciple, things cannot be so casual. It can suppress your delusions."

Li Huowang seemed not to understand what he was saying—and he did not want to understand. The boy's face turned deathly pale as he kept backing away. "I won't eat it! I'm not sick!!"

"Won't eat it? Hmph. That is not up to you. Chang Ming, Chang Ren."

Danyangzi tipped his chin slightly, and the two sword-bearing Daoists at his side hurried over to Li Huowang, each grabbing one of his arms.

Then, with a beckoning motion of Danyangzi's right hand, the Black Tai Sui that had been wriggling toward the corner flew straight into his palm.

Watching Danyangzi carry that nauseating thing toward him, Li Huowang's body began trembling uncontrollably. An icy coldness seeped through him from the inside out.

He instinctively wanted to struggle free and run, but the hands of his two senior brothers clamped down on his shoulders like iron cast in a furnace.

Fortunately, he still had one final method. As Li Huowang's breathing quickened and his chest heaved violently, he clenched his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and with every ounce of strength in both mind and body, contracted himself inward toward his center.

"Huowang? Huowang! What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" At this moment, Yang Na's gentle voice sounded like heavenly music to Li Huowang.

When he opened his eyes and saw the girl before him, now changed into a white turtleneck sweater, emotion overwhelmed him. He threw himself at her and clutched her tightly, as though she were a lifeline.

A blush rose on the young girl's cheeks. Struggling, she urged him in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "Huowang, Huowang, let go of me. Auntie and the others are watching from behind us."

Li Huowang looked up and only then saw his mother standing beside the Attending Physician, watching them with a broad, doting smile. "Oh my~ My son is wonderful."

Looking at the clean and orderly hospital room, the brilliant sunshine beyond the window, and his dearest family, Li Huowang's heart, shrouded in fear, gradually settled down.

The Attending Physician beside him pushed up his glasses and approached with a slight frown. "Little Li, what did you see in your hallucination? Your emotions are fluctuating rather intensely. What has been going on lately? Have you actually been following my instructions?"

Thinking of everything he had just experienced, Li Huowang's heart suddenly clenched. He anxiously said to his Attending Physician, "Doctor, is there any medicine that can temporarily suppress those hallucinations? I really can't take it anymore. I want to rest for a while."

"Ah, all right. I'll prescribe you some haloperidol and perphenazine. But Little Li, medication can only play a supporting role. If you want to completely escape the hallucinations, you still need to follow my method." After saying that, the doctor used the tablet in his hand to write the prescription.

When he saw the nurse bring over several blue capsules, Li Huowang rushed over and shoved them into his mouth without even bothering to drink water.

He did not want to think about any master or any pills. Right now, he just wanted to be left in peace for a while. What had just happened had truly frightened him badly.

The capsules felt sticky and gritty in his mouth, utterly disgusting, but he still forced himself to swallow them despite the nausea.

"Little Li, tell me. What was it in your hallucination that frightened you?"

After taking the medicine, Li Huowang felt much more relaxed. Smiling, he replied, "Nothing much. It was just that the guy over there spoke in a strange tone. From the way he sounded, it seemed like he was saying that side was reality, while our side was the hallucination. Hahaha."

The moment those words left his mouth, the air around them froze into silence. The unnaturally vivid colors dulled and lost their light. Yang Na, his mother, the Attending Physician, and the nurse who had brought the medicine all froze where they stood.

The sudden change around him made Li Huowang's body gradually begin to tremble, his breathing growing faster and faster. Helplessly, he looked out the window. The sky that had just been bright with sunshine had turned pitch-black, and the safe, peaceful surroundings had vanished.

A tangible terror enveloped him. Panic crushed every other emotion he had, and acting on instinct, Li Huowang grabbed Yang Na and rushed toward his mother's embrace.

But the instant he touched his mother, her body burst apart like foam. His dependable, strong mother, the one who could shield him from wind and rain at any time, vanished as well.

"Huowang." Li Huowang's body jolted violently. He spun around and watched with his own eyes as Yang Na's body completely faded away before him. His only love disappeared as well.

At that moment, everything positive and beautiful that Li Huowang cared about vanished, leaving him with nothing but despair, suffocation, and pain.

The hospital's white walls and everything around him rapidly receded like the ebbing tide, and he returned to the dim cave amid the mountains.

His eyes bloodshot and veins bulging across his forehead, Li Huowang wanted to scream, to howl, to pour out every bit of despair and suffering in his heart.

But he could not, because Black Tai Sui had stuffed his throat airtight. Not a single sound could escape him, and all that despair and pain rebounded upon him, forcing him to bear it all in full.

Watching his disciple kneel on the ground, trembling and dry-heaving, Danyangzi clasped his hands behind his back, shook his head, and walked toward the door of the Material Room.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. You have gone mad to this extent and still say you have no delusions? Of everyone in the Material Room, you are the sickest. Did you think this Daoist master chose Medicinal Guides at random before?"

"Enough. Your delusions are gone, so now you can work properly. Remember this: Qingfeng Temple does not keep idlers. Come to me on the first day of every month to collect your medicine."

With that, Danyangzi's other disciples followed him out. In the entire Material Room, aside from Li Huowang on the ground, only the other Medicinal Guides remained.

The strange-looking Medicinal Guides, burdened with all manner of congenital or acquired illnesses, looked at one another, not knowing what to do for a time.

After the time it took to burn half an incense stick, the Black Tai Sui in Li Huowang's mouth finally slid down.

His heart-rending wails echoed endlessly through the cave.

"Why!! Why won't this illness leave me alone even after I came to this damned place?!"