Chapter Summaries

Qing He Miao stopped a starving man from stealing food, then used his Stands to intimidate the gathered people and feed the man, his child, and an old woman. He announced that he planned to establish a Taoist temple and recruit local help, then secretly doubled back to watch the crowd.

• Qing He Miao returned from hiding and subdued the starving man who had stolen the old woman's flatbread, but hesitated when he saw the man's frightened child.
• Qing He Miao used [Cream] and [Red Hot Chili Pepper] to carve a trench in the ground, frightening the onlookers into staying put.
• Qing He Miao left the instance to retrieve egg cakes and water, then returned and gave food and water to the man, the child, and the old woman.
• Qing He Miao introduced himself as a Taoist and announced that he would build a Taoist temple, promising provisions and asking the crowd to help with construction.
• Qing He Miao left the area, concealed himself with [Metallica], and secretly watched the people for a long time.

After leaving the instance, Qing He Miao reflected on how the system’s promise of experience and power had fostered a latent disregard for life, then decided to level up near his spawn point instead of seeking out Li Xingyun’s group. Back home, he resumed family chores and discussed the risks of Outcasts drawing attention; the chapter ended as the family sat down to eat and the narration began to turn to oil and grain shops.

• Qing He Miao buried his plastic cup, used Metallica to conceal himself, and left The Outcast world.
• Back in his room, Qing He Miao examined his Killing Intent status and admitted that he had begun to view people as potential experience.
• Qing He Miao decided not to seek out Li Xingyun’s group and planned to gain experience near his spawn point by fighting bandits, routed soldiers, or wild beasts.
• Qing Mu scolded Qing He Miao for lounging on the cold kang, then went to light the fire and prepare dinner.
• Qing He Miao admitted to Qing Fu that he had eaten the flatbreads and old cakes, then got up to help with chores and warned Qing Mu that Outcasts who drew attention could face trouble.
• The family gathered for a meal after the older relatives returned, and the narration began discussing oil and grain shops.

Qing He Miao bought rice and pickles in town, hid the supplies near the hills, and entered the instance to continue his plans. There, Huang Liu of Huang Family Fort approached him on behalf of his master and requested a private meeting.

• Qing He Miao bought five sacks of early-season indica rice and arranged for them to be delivered near Miaotaizi Village.
• Qing He Miao bought a case of cheap pickles and rode the delivery three-wheeler to a secluded slope behind the village.
• After the driver left, Qing He Miao hid the food and entered the “Drawing Rivers and Lakes: The Degenerates” instance.
• Qing He Miao walked toward the settlement, where Huang Liu introduced himself as a steward of Huang Family Fort.
• Huang Liu said his master had heard about Qing He Miao's divine powers and plans for a Daoist temple, then asked to speak with him privately.

Qing He Miao met with Huang Liu, who offered to help him establish a Taoist temple at the ruins of Old Monk Rock. Qing He Miao accepted the site but declined the Huang Family’s offer of labor and materials, leaving their intentions unresolved.

• Huang Liu questioned Qing He Miao about his origins and plans, but Qing He Miao avoided revealing his background.
• Huang Liu offered to show Qing He Miao a secluded site, and Qing He Miao agreed while preparing to leave the instance if necessary.
• Huang Liu led Qing He Miao and two men west through the mountains to the ruins of Old Monk Rock.
• Qing He Miao judged the ruins suitable for his cultivation site and asked about obtaining the land and notifying the authorities.
• Huang Liu said the abandoned land needed no purchase and offered manpower and materials from the Huang Family, but Qing He Miao declined.

Qing He Miao named the ruined temple the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Temple and recruited starving disaster victims to repair it in exchange for rice and meals. After organizing the workers and bringing rice from his own world, he revealed the grain to the waiting crowd.

• Qing He Miao told Huang Liu that his master, Crooked Gourd Taoist, had traveled to Khitan and taught him assorted knowledge.
• Qing He Miao offered a sheng of unpolished rice and two meals for a full day of labor, and Huang Liu urged the disaster victims to accept.
• Qing He Miao used a display of strength to control the crowd, made the workers line up, and registered their names and families before issuing rice-claim slips.
• Qing He Miao asked Huang Liu to take the first group of workers to the ruined temple, then returned to his own world to fetch rice.
• Qing He Miao arrived at the temple with two bags of rice and opened one, leaving the workers and Huang Liu staring at the white grain.

Huang Liu reported his suspicions about Qing He Miao to Huang Wulang, who decided to watch him while maintaining neighborly courtesy. Qing He Miao later stood before a large map of China at home, preparing to consider his geographic location.

• Huang Liu told Huang Wulang that Qing He Miao seemed like an unusually privileged young master, though his motives and resources remained unclear.
• Huang Wulang ordered someone to keep an eye on Qing He Miao, planned to ask his father to make inquiries, and arranged to send a housewarming gift.
• Huang Wulang struck the target's bull's-eye with an arrow as Huang Liu praised his shot.
• In the depths of winter, Qing He Miao stood on the heated kang and examined a large map of China hanging on his wall.

Qing He Miao used an old map and his research to locate himself near Laishui in the Taihang Mountains, concluding that the main plot of “The Bad Guys” had probably not begun yet. As New Year approached, his mother sent him to visit their elderly relative in West Gully, and he set out carrying food in the bitter cold.

• Qing He Miao traced the map to Laishui County and the Taihang Mountains, where he believed his current location lay.
• Qing He Miao reasoned that Li Xingyun was probably still at Mount Qingcheng and the main plot had not started, but decided the distance and dangers made acting early impractical.
• Mother Qing asked Qing He Miao to take frozen meat and boxed milk to his fourth granduncle in West Gully and keep him company.
• Qing He Miao agreed, listened to his mother's advice about what to say, and left for West Gully through the biting cold.

Qing He Miao visited his elderly Fourth Great-Uncle in a freezing, poorly heated home and tried to comfort him with promises of better living conditions and future travel. He left after encouraging Fourth Great-Uncle to live long enough to see those changes.

• Qing He Miao brought meat and milk to Fourth Great-Uncle and shared hot water with him in his cold house.
• Qing He Miao asked whether Fourth Great-Uncle's children would return for the New Year, and the old man said they were away earning money.
• Qing He Miao reassured Fourth Great-Uncle that assistance programs would become stricter and provide him with steady income in the future.
• Fourth Great-Uncle asked whether life would really improve, and Qing He Miao described future prosperity, sightseeing trips, and snowy attractions.
• Qing He Miao checked the clock and rose to leave.

Qing He Miao helped organize the refugees sheltering at the ruined temple and planned to explore the surrounding mountains for monsters. Back home, mourners arrived to tell his mother that her fourth maternal granduncle had died peacefully during the night.

• Qing He Miao brought frozen meat to the temple camp, where refugees cooked it into porridge and settled into makeshift shelters under his management.
• He watched the camp’s meal and considered making rules to maintain order while helping everyone survive the winter.
• After several peaceful days, Qing He Miao admired his long plume of winter breath and thought about searching the nearby mountains for wild monsters.
• A group of men wearing mourning cloth knelt outside Qing He Miao’s open gate, and he hurried to fetch his mother.
• A woman told Mother Qing that her fourth maternal granduncle had been found dead in bed, apparently having passed peacefully during the night.

Qing He Miao confirmed that an old man had died peacefully and stayed through the funeral, easing the relatives’ grief with a Yuzhou Bangzi opera performance. After the old man was buried, light snow fell, and village life moved on.

• Mother Qing sent Qing He Miao to help the old man’s family with the funeral preparations.
• Qing He Miao examined the old man and confirmed that his life force had fully dispersed with no unusual signs.
• Qing He Miao comforted the old man’s son and accepted the customary payment as the family began to grieve.
• Qing He Miao sang an excerpt from The Emperor's Procession, calming the relatives as they prepared the old man’s body.
• The family buried the old man without trouble, and light snow fell several days later.

At dinner, Qing He Miao tried to explain to his family how education, money, and everyday comforts differed between their village and the wider world. After joking that his future might make him famous even in death, he left to train when Grandpa Qing asked whether the afterlife procession he described was real.

• Mother Qing urged Qing He Miao to study hard, attend a good university, and bring honor and comfort to the family.
• Qing He Miao explained that education and wealth were separate paths, using factory-made mini steamed buns to illustrate the gap in awareness and spending between village life and city life.
• Mother Qing dismissed his explanation and criticized his plan to move back to the village after university.
• Qing He Miao joked that his talents would make him a notable figure and imagined a grand procession after his death.
• Grandpa Qing asked whether the afterlife and funeral procession Qing He Miao described were real, and Father Qing rebuked him for asking.
• Qing He Miao said he had only been joking, finished his meal, and left to train on the mountain.

Qing He Miao continued rebuilding the ruined temple while allowing the disaster victims to work at their own pace. When he caught a bandit spying on him, he captured the man and summoned Steward Huang Liu for help.

• Qing He Miao entered the instance world and found the disaster victims working and eating better as the ruined temple slowly took shape.
• Qing He Miao knowingly let some workers slow their pace because they feared losing their food and work if the current task ended too soon.
• Qing He Miao discovered a thin man hiding on the roof and had [Red Hot Chili Pepper] yank him into the room.
• Qing He Miao identified the intruder as a LV6 Bandit, pinned him down, and heard his repeated claim that hunger had driven him to steal food.
• Qing He Miao sent a young man to fetch Steward Huang Liu and kept the bandit restrained while his substitutes searched for anyone else suspicious.

Qing He Miao exposed a bandit scout who had been spying on the refugees, then killed him and asked Huang Liu to arrange a meeting with the Huang Family Fort’s leader. After Huang Liu left, Qing He Miao questioned local disaster victims about the bandits and the fort before returning to his own world.

• Huang Liu examined the captured man and found a hidden map, identifying him as a scout for the Mount Luba bandits.
• Huang Liu said the Huang Family Fort had fought the bandits and warned that they were notorious for murder, robbery, and abductions.
• Qing He Miao killed the scout with Red Hot Chili Pepper and Metallica, earning experience points.
• Qing He Miao asked Huang Liu to tell the fort’s leader that he wanted to meet, and Huang Liu returned to the fort to report.
• Qing He Miao had nearby disaster victims dispose of the body, rewarded them with food, and asked others about local rumors concerning the bandits and the Huang Family Fort.

Qing He Miao visited Huang Family Fort and met its leader, Huang Wulang, while assessing the settlement and its people. Their polite conversation turned to the turbulent times and the Tang dynasty, leaving Huang Wulang to dismiss his men so they could speak privately.

• Qing He Miao confirmed that the information he had gathered about Huang Family Fort matched Huang Liu’s account, then took time alone on the mountain to settle himself after killing for the first time.
• Huang Liu accepted Qing He Miao’s invitation and led him through Huang Family Fort’s layered defenses.
• Huang Wulang welcomed Qing He Miao and personally escorted him to the main hall for tea and a conversation.
• Qing He Miao praised the fort’s practical defenses and described the era as turbulent, citing upheavals since Emperor Xuanzong’s Tianbao era.
• Huang Wulang cautioned Qing He Miao about discussing the previous dynasty and sent his men away so they could talk alone.

Qing He Miao proposed that Huang Wulang’s men help him seize Mount Luba’s bandit stronghold after he secretly killed its leaders. Huang Wulang was tempted by the promised spoils, but the chapter ended before he gave his answer.

• Qing He Miao asked Huang Wulang about the Mount Luba bandits and learned they numbered nearly a hundred, had military weapons, and threatened the Huang Family Fort.
• Qing He Miao suggested eliminating the bandit leaders and asked Huang Wulang to send men to capture fleeing bandits and secure the spoils.
• Huang Wulang warned that the bandits were formidable and asked what Qing He Miao and the fort would gain from taking them on.
• Qing He Miao claimed he was ninety-eight percent certain of success, offered the fort the bandits’ armor and equipment, and said he acted because he disliked others coveting what was his.
• Huang Wulang weighed the low risk and possible gains, then began explaining how hard life in the mountains was.

Qing He Miao and Huang Wulang agreed to wait until after New Year's Day to attack the bandits, while Huang Wulang arranged for him to stay at the fort. Qing He Miao spent the New Year with his family in the main world, where he entertained a cousin by making a coin vanish with his system.

• Huang Wulang agreed to help Qing He Miao target the bandits but proposed waiting until after New Year's Day because winter made travel and raids dangerous.
• Qing He Miao accepted the delay, and Huang Wulang arranged a room and hosted a banquet for him at the Huang Family Fort.
• Qing He Miao continued to distrust the Huang Family Fort and returned each night to the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Temple and his home in the main world.
• Qing He Miao celebrated New Year's Day with his extended family, joining their greetings and festive meal.
• Qing He Miao used his system to make a one-yuan coin disappear and reappear, delighting his younger female cousin.

On New Year’s Day, Qing He Miao left his family home and returned to the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Temple, where he offered the disaster victims a game with food and liquor as prizes. The crowd eagerly stepped up to try their aim at a bird’s nest.

• Qing He Miao’s uncle and aunt left with his younger cousin, and he went outside to clear snow from the family dogs.
• He used [Red Hot Chili Pepper] to snap several dangerous icicles from the eaves, then took snacks and baijiu toward the mountain.
• Qing He Miao appeared at the temple, where disaster victims were waiting for their New Year porridge with pickles, greens, and meat.
• He invited the disaster victims to hit a bird’s nest with stones or frozen clods in exchange for handfuls of snacks, with liquor as an added prize for those who threw from farther away.
• Several men stepped forward and began hurling stones and clods at the nest.

Qing He Miao entertained villagers with a stone-throwing game before joining Huang Wulang and more than sixty armed clansmen on a nighttime raid against Mount Luba’s stronghold. After studying the hide map, he proposed deciding whether to set fires based on how the raid unfolded.

• Qing He Miao drew a crowd by offering peanuts, sunflower seeds, candy, and baijiu as prizes for hitting a bird’s nest with stones.
• Qing He Miao shared the remaining treats among the villagers and poured the leftover liquor into the fire.
• Huang Wulang gathered more than sixty armed young men and led Qing He Miao to a concealed position near Mount Luba’s stronghold.
• Huang Wulang showed Qing He Miao a hide map marking the stronghold’s leaders, supplies, horses, and jail, and outlined a plan to set fires before the clansmen attacked.
• Qing He Miao studied the map and suggested they decide whether to set the fires according to circumstances.

Qing He Miao infiltrated the mountain stronghold invisibly and silently killed several bandit leaders before encountering Mount Luba. After Mount Luba detected an attack from an unseen foe, Qing He Miao struck him with a punch, leaving him dazed as the fight began.

• Qing He Miao declined to set the stronghold on fire and slipped away from Huang Wulang’s group to begin his raid.
• Qing He Miao used Metallica’s invisibility to enter the stronghold and reach the leaders’ quarters.
• Qing He Miao killed several sleeping bandit leaders with Red Hot Chili Pepper.
• Mount Luba dodged an attack in his room, drew his saber, and demanded that the intruder reveal himself.
• Qing He Miao punched Mount Luba, and the system identified him as a level 13 bandit and reported that he had suffered a concussion.

Qing He Miao helped Huang Wulang’s force seize the bandit stronghold by killing its chiefs, sowing panic, and signaling the attack. After the Huang Family soldiers took control, he emerged exhausted and asked for a clean chair.

• Qing He Miao killed Mount Luba with a rapid Stand-assisted attack and took the bandit’s machete.
• Qing He Miao threw the chiefs’ corpses into the open, destroyed nearby walls and doors, and sent the stronghold into chaos.
• Qing He Miao fired a New Year firework as a signal, then used his Stand and machete to kill bandits in the crowd until he reached level 11.
• Huang Wulang led more than sixty Huang Family soldiers into the stronghold, where they secured key locations, defeated the remaining bandits, and took prisoners.
• Qing He Miao emerged from hiding, told Huang Wulang he was mentally exhausted, and asked for a clean chair.