Chapter Summaries

Chen Shi stormed Rouge Alley to rescue the little girl, killing the five women who guarded her and defeating Madam by using a silver needle to break her golden body. He entered the Bower of Tenderness and began killing the old hags who had helped oppress its young women.

• Chen Shi killed the five Nascent Soul women with his speed, spells, and physical strength, while Black Pot and Hu Feifei secured Ai Dai.
• Madam threatened to kill the little girl, but Chen Shi advanced and fought her after she transformed with the Great Wheel Bright King Golden Light Mantra.
• Chen Shi used a silver needle to pierce Madam's Shanzhong acupoint, then struck the flaw in her golden body and sent her tumbling away.
• Madam's golden body collapsed and her Qi and blood exploded, leaving a deep pit as Chen Shi entered the Bower of Tenderness.
• Chen Shi borrowed a young maiden's hairpin and used it to kill an old hag who had helped run the brothel.

Chen Shi killed the hags who controlled the girls in Rouge Alley, helping the maidens reclaim their agency and escape in a miniature courtyard. He, Hu Feifei, Black Pot, and the newly named Nannan left the scene unseen, while Hu Feifei and Chen Shi took the chance to beat Sun Zheng.

• Chen Shi used a flying hairpin to kill the hags attacking him and crippled one surviving hag, who crawled into the courtyard seeking a quick death.
• Chen Shi encouraged the pipa-playing girl to take the hairpin, and she stabbed the hag; the other maidens joined her and killed the hag together.
• Chen Shi named the surviving child Nannan and decided to take her away, while Hu Feifei offered to shelter the maidens in a fox village.
• Chen Shi placed the maidens inside a miniature wooden courtyard, and Black Pot led the group past the crowd and approaching yamen runners unseen.
• Chen Shi and Hu Feifei abandoned their visit to Prince Zheng's Mansion and left Rouge Alley with the silver needles Hu Feifei had recovered.
• Hu Feifei beat Sun Zheng in the street, and Chen Shi added a couple of kicks before the group continued on.

Zhuge Jian investigated the massacre at Rouge Alley and realized Chen Shi was the killer, while Marquis Zheng worried that Chen Shi’s death could endanger Yudu. Chen Shi brought the rescued young women to Hu Village, where the fox spirits took them in, before Zhuge Jian arrived to confront him.

• Zhuge Jian examined the Rouge Alley victims and concluded that the killer had used a cramped-space spell and a hairpin, while the brothel proprietress had died when her golden body broke.
• Zhuge Jian inferred that the killer was Chen Shi, and Marquis Zheng recognized the danger of conflict between Chen Shi and Young Master; Young Master told Zhang Ji to let Yudu handle the matter itself.
• Marquis Zheng left the investigation to the penal officer, while Situ Wen insisted that Luban Gate would join the case because it concerned Young Master.
• Chen Shi and Hu Feifei traveled with Nannan and Black Pot to Hu Village, where the fox spirits welcomed Hu Feifei and called Chen Shi Grandpa Chen.
• Chen Shi entrusted the rescued young women to the fox spirits, who built them homes and arranged for their care and instruction.
• Zhuge Jian arrived outside Hu Village and told Chen Shi that he had committed another crime.

Chen Shi reunited with Zhuge Jian, who had resigned as Yudu’s chief registrar rather than arrest him over the Rouge Alley case. After Chen Shi gave him a more complete Wind Thunder Yu Step Divine Mantra and warned him about the Young Master’s suspected criminal network, Zhuge Jian left to investigate the Tianmu Association and promised to help bring down the Young Master if the allegations proved true.

• Chen Shi and Zhuge Jian recounted how Zhuge Jian’s attempts to find work in several counties and Gongzhou were disrupted by beheadings and catastrophe.
• Zhuge Jian explained that he had resigned as Yudu’s chief registrar because his principles prevented him from arresting Chen Shi, whom he could not fault in the Rouge Alley case.
• Chen Shi questioned the Young Master’s ties to Kongkong Gate and the Tianmu Association, citing a Tianmu Association incense master’s use of the Great Wheel Bright King Golden Light Mantra.
• Chen Shi gave Zhuge Jian a hand-copied, more complete version of the Wind Thunder Yu Step Divine Mantra, and Zhuge Jian accepted the gift with gratitude.
• Zhuge Jian warned Chen Shi about the Young Master’s network and powerful figures in Yudu, then said he would investigate the Tianmu Association in Gongzhou and help bring down the Young Master if the connection was confirmed.

Chen Shi watched Yuadu’s evil spirits converge on Hu Village, convinced that Nannan was the Demon Seed they had come to nourish or devour. Empress Shi Ji slaughtered the spirits and then attacked Nannan, but Black and White Impermanence intervened, leaving Chen Shi and Nannan safe while Shi Ji hid in her temple.

• Chen Shi considered the Young Master's connections while Empress Shi Ji suspected Nannan was the Demon Seed, and Nannan roasted a poisonous snake to share with Black Pot.
• At the Fox Clan’s banquet and performance, Chen Shi recognized the play’s characters as people connected to his grandfather and their grave-robbing.
• Evil spirits surrounded Hu Village, and Empress Shi Ji identified Nannan as the Demon Seed after sensing the spirits’ baleful Qi flow into her.
• Empress Shi Ji emerged in her enormous true form and absorbed the evil spirits, including the powerful sui and the white-robed possessed cultivator.
• Empress Shi Ji tried to devour Nannan, but Black and White Impermanence appeared and struck her until she retreated into her temple.

Chen Shi learned that Black and White Impermanence were orthodox Underworld gods connected to Nannan, then accepted Situ Wen’s challenge at Guanshan Market. After Chen Shi secretly scouted the ambush and kept Situ Wen waiting, Situ Wen mobilized the Luban Gate’s war machine, the Pivot, just as Chen Shi arrived.

• Chen Shi suspected Nannan was a demon seed, but Empress Shi Ji warned him to stay away from the girl and revealed that Black and White Impermanence were Underworld gods who captured fugitives and guarded King Yama.
• A wooden puppet delivered Situ Wen’s invitation for Chen Shi to meet him at Guanshan Market at noon, and Chen Shi agreed while secretly sending a transformed cricket to scout the town.
• Chen Shi left Hu Feifei to watch Nannan and went to Guanshan Market with Black Pot, while Situ Wen waited and grew increasingly angry when Chen Shi did not appear.
• Chen Shi’s transformed cricket inspected Situ Wen’s hidden puppet ambushes throughout the abandoned market.
• As evening approached, Situ Wen activated the Luban Gate’s enormous war machine, the Pivot, and set out to attack Hu Village.
• Chen Shi and Black Pot approached the Pivot, and Chen Shi accused Situ Wen of breaking their appointment by leaving.

Chen Shi and Situ Wen postponed their fight to share a meal, and Situ Wen showed Chen Shi the power and inner workings of Luban Gate’s Pivot. When Situ Wen activated the giant automaton, Chen Shi’s hidden transformation turned it into a monstrous haunted house that he could no longer control.

• Situ Wen confronted Chen Shi over their missed appointment, but they realized they had been waiting for different noons and agreed to eat before fighting.
• Chen Shi and Situ Wen discussed their hunger and arranged for Black Pot to hunt and cook a meal while they explored the Pivot.
• Situ Wen showed Chen Shi the Pivot’s artificial Golden Cores and explained its strength, limitations, and damaged condition.
• Chen Shi admitted he had caused Qian Xiangzhu’s death, and Situ Wen said Qian Xiangzhu deserved it before deciding not to fight Chen Shi over Madam.
• After eating, Situ Wen activated the Pivot to demonstrate its power, but its rooms and doorways became monstrous mouths and its tongues lashed out as Chen Shi’s transformation made it uncontrollable.

Chen Shi defeated Situ Wen by turning the Luban Gate pivot mechanism against him and using the complete Dragon Claw Art. After hearing Chen Shi’s warning and witnessing a plan to attack Hu Village, Situ Wen rejected Young Master and came to Chen Shi, who asked whether he would join the Heavenly Court.

• Chen Shi captured control of Situ Wen’s pivot mechanism, used it to defeat Situ Wen’s Dragon Claw Art, and spared his life while offering to teach him the complete technique.
• Situ Wen refused to betray Young Master, but Chen Shi called him a donkey and argued that Young Master’s ideals blinded him to his evil.
• Outside Bath City, Situ Wen heard Aunt Xue propose slaughtering everyone in Hu Village and realized Young Master was part of the corrupt world he claimed he would change.
• After Situ Wen came to Hu Village seeking Chen Shi, Chen Shi asked whether he intended to join the Heavenly Court.

Chen Shi recruited Situ Wen and made him Heavenly Court’s Ministry of Works, then learned about the vast Luban Gate and the Young Master’s other affiliated businesses. After discovering that Aunt Xue and other leaders might be preparing to attack Huangpo Village, Chen Shi took the codename True King and set out to confront them in Yudu.

• Chen Shi explained Heavenly Court to Situ Wen, recruited him as its Ministry of Works, and gave him the complete Dragon Claw Art and instruction in Southern School Talismans.
• Situ Wen revealed Luban Gate’s nationwide reach and annual surplus, along with the Young Master’s financial ties to it and several other organizations.
• Situ Wen told Chen Shi that Aunt Xue had contacted Happy Forest and Mingfeng Pavilion and was considering an attack on Huangpo Village.
• Chen Shi sent Situ Wen to Gongzhou to avoid the coming trouble and asked him to identify the other organizations’ locations.
• Situ Wen suggested True King as Chen Shi’s codename, and Chen Shi accepted it before heading out to confront the groups in Yudu.

Aunt Xue gathered Rouge Alley experts to avenge the Madam, but Chen Shi and Situ Wen ambushed them at Awakening Lion Bridge, killing Aunt Xue and the three women. Chen Shi then headed to Happy Forest, where he discovered its gambling bankers had grasshopper souls.

• Aunt Xue arranged for Manling, Chuchu, and Lizhen to join her in traveling to Xinxiang to avenge the Madam.
• At a noodle stall on Awakening Lion Bridge, Aunt Xue realized the stall owners were Situ Wen’s puppets and the customers were attacking them.
• A bamboo-hatted attacker used a superior Seven Turns Seven Changes Sky Dance Technique and Five Thunder Spell to kill Aunt Xue, while Manling, Chuchu, and Lizhen also died.
• Chen Shi removed his bamboo hat, told Situ Wen to give Black Pot meat, and left with Situ Wen for Happy Forest.
• At Happy Forest, Chen Shi saw hired scholars and discovered that a six-armed gambling banker had a grasshopper head and soul.

Chen Shi entered Happy Forest to find Du Shenshou and killed him with a single strike while escaping the gambling house. The Eight Great Vajras recognized Chen Shi and began searching for him as he vanished into the darkness.

• Chen Shi surveyed Happy Forest and, with Situ Wen's help, identified Du Shenshou and his Eight Great Vajras.
• Chen Shi gambled on nine repeatedly, winning a large pile of silver as Du Shenshou approached his table.
• The dice finally rolled ten, and the crowd surged away from the table, creating an opening for Chen Shi to reach Du Shenshou.
• Chen Shi ducked past a vajra and struck the back of Du Shenshou's head, crushing his skull and killing him before fleeing Happy Forest.
• The vajras recognized Chen Shi and searched for him, while Du Shenshou's corpse fell to the floor.

Chen Shi confronted Shopkeeper Qiu at Mingfeng Pavilion and fought through his powerful Thunder Body Technique and ghostly arts. Chen Shi defeated him and pinned him to a watchtower, leaving Yudu City’s defenses in ruins as dawn approached.

• Chen Shi explained to Situ Wen that he had killed Du Shenshou with a single blow to the back of the head, then described how he could have killed Situ Wen but chose to befriend him.
• Chen Shi and Black Pot entered Mingfeng Pavilion and searched the Peony Tower for Shopkeeper Qiu, finding the room empty and its painted ghost faces coming to life.
• Shopkeeper Qiu attacked Chen Shi with four ghost-and-god heads and lightning, striking him in the back, but Chen Shi survived and transformed into a sixteen-foot-tall, three-headed, six-armed form.
• Chen Shi destroyed the four ghost heads and fought Shopkeeper Qiu, breaking his masks and overpowering his Thunder Body Technique with his weapons and the Emperor Sword.
• Chen Shi hurled Shopkeeper Qiu onto a Yudu City watchtower, then returned to normal size as dawn neared.

Chen Shi enfeoffed King Zheng as Yudu’s deity before leaving the city, where Zhang Ji and a crowd of experts pursued him. Marquis Zheng intervened to protect Chen Shi and decisively defeated Zhang Ji, revealing that the supposed number one expert in Yudu had never been his match.

• Zhang Ji reported Chen Shi’s actions to the Young Master, then led Prince Zheng’s Mansion retainers out despite Marquis Zheng ordering them to stay.
• Chen Shi visited the Zheng King's Temple and used the West King's Jade Seal to appoint King Zheng, Sanbao, as Yudu’s deity, causing the temple’s extraordinary power to gather in the golden statue.
• A withered old man questioned Chen Shi about the seal and the enfeoffment, then rushed back into the temple and watched King Zheng’s golden body absorb extraordinary power.
• Chen Shi left Yudu with Black Pot as dozens of experts followed him, and Pei the Scholar was killed by Chen Shi’s blade during the pursuit.
• Zhang Ji attacked Chen Shi, but Marquis Zheng blocked him and defeated him in a clash of Primordial Spirits, leaving Zhang Ji gravely injured.

Marquis Zheng saw Chen Shi’s attack on the Young Master’s forces as a chance to reclaim Prince Zheng’s Mansion, while Chen Shi fled toward Henggong Mountain under pursuit. Black Pot took Nannan and Hu Feifei toward Xinxiang, and Zhuge Jian reached Guxian Town after killing an ambush party, intending to investigate the Tianmu Association.

• Marquis Zheng left the Zheng King's Temple and resolved to use the chaos in Yudu to take back Prince Zheng’s Mansion.
• Chen Shi summoned wind and thunder to kill several pursuers, then escaped into Henggong Mountain by disguising himself as animals and diving into the river.
• Black Pot took Nannan and Hu Feifei aboard a boat, where the boatman and boat girl revealed their supernatural power before submitting to Black Pot.
• Zhuge Jian killed the woodcutter, herbalist, and three men who ambushed him on the mountain path to Guxian Town.
• Zhuge Jian continued toward Guxian Town, planning to destroy the Tianmu Association and inspect its records.

Zhuge Jian wiped out the Tianmu Association in Guxian Town and uncovered that its true master was Young Master, then met Chen Shi and his allies at Red Mountain Hall. As they prepared to face Young Master’s forces, Granny Sha and her companions worried about the demons inside Little Ten’s Sea of Consciousness.

• Zhuge Jian entered Guxian Town, where Tianmu Association cultists attacked him, and he killed them with his Wind Thunder Yu Step and stolen pumpkin hammers.
• Zhuge Jian destroyed Tianmu’s forming divine statue with fire caltrops and found account books showing the association’s money flowed to Young Master.
• Zhuge Jian met Situ Wen at Red Mountain Hall and learned that Situ Wen had defected to Chen Shi; Yutian City expressed interest in joining the Heavenly Court.
• Chen Shi arrived with Crane Boy and the “Red Mountain” Empress, explaining that Young Master’s experts were pursuing him, and Yutian City mobilized Red Mountain Hall’s fighters.
• Granny Sha, Hu Xiaoliang, and Green Goat discussed their inability to remove the more than one hundred demons inside Little Ten’s brow-center and wondered how much they knew about Young Master.

Chen Shi recovered at Red Mountain Hall, formed the Heavenly Court with his allies, and returned to Huangpo Village to prepare for the Jinshi examination. At the village, the boat girl and her father planned to wait for the Benevolent Lord to regain her memories before returning to the Underworld, while Chen Shi reunited with Nannan, Black Pot, and Hu Feifei.

• Granny Sha, Green Goat, and the bearded man discussed Chen Shi's conflict with Young Master and learned that Young Master's Ren lineage had once borne the taboo imperial surname Zhu.
• Chen Shi discovered that his lifespan had reached six hundred years, and Empress Shi Ji told him about the powerful but physically taxing Thunder Jade Pivot Great Law.
• Yutian City, Situ Wen, and Zhuge Jian returned to Red Mountain Hall, joined Chen Shi's Heavenly Court, and chose the codenames Jade Rabbit, Heavenly Artisan, and Clerk.
• The three Heavenly Court members discussed whether they could change the world and decided that Chen Shi's trip to Xijing for the Jinshi examination might give them a chance to challenge Young Master.
• Chen Shi returned to Huangpo Village, where the boat girl told her father to wait for the Benevolent Lord to recover her memories before they escorted the abducted souls back to the Underworld.
• Chen Shi brought Nannan and Black Pot home, where Hu Feifei cooked for them and Old Lady Wuzhu teased him about returning with a fox spirit and a child.

Chen Shi took Nannan to meet Ganyang Mountain’s spirits, whose divine forms and blessings were overwhelmed by her power, and she effortlessly destroyed the mountain’s evil sui. At a gathering called to discuss her origins, Lord Wuwang connected Nannan’s birth to Chen Yindu’s Underworld expedition and a mysterious waning moon that fled toward Yindu.

• Chen Shi brought Nannan to offer incense to Xuanshan, Granny Zhuang, and the Mountain Lord, and each spirit warned that her blessings and divine power were too strong to withstand easily.
• Nannan bowed to the evil sui on Ganyang Mountain, bursting floating skulls and destroying other monsters while Chen Shi watched in concern.
• Granny Zhuang summoned Ganyang Mountain’s powerful spirits to discuss Nannan, and Chen Shi told them how he had found her in Yindu’s Rouge Alley and how Black Pot obeyed her.
• Lord Wuwang recalled that Chen Yindu had asked him to help rescue Chen Shi’s soul during an Underworld expedition more than four years earlier.
• Lord Wuwang revealed that the expedition reached the Yama Primordial Palace, where a strange waning moon escaped toward Yindu, prompting the gathered spirits to connect it with Nannan’s origins.

Chen Shi and Ganyang Mountain’s elders tried to investigate Nannan’s origins, but Black and White Impermanence drove them off with their soul-striking mourning staffs. After learning that Nannan was a fallen Yama of great merit, Chen Shi brought her to Wuwang City, where Lord Wuwang revealed that the city was a fragment of Tongue-Pulling Hell.

• Lord Wuwang suspected Nannan was the escaped crescent moon, and Black-clothed Xuanshan tried to inspect her Primordial Palace.
• Black and White Impermanence emerged to protect Nannan and struck the elders’ souls and divine phases, forcing Ganyang Mountain Lord to withdraw.
• Ganyang Mountain Lord told Chen Shi that Nannan had once been a Yama who judged ghosts, and warned him to keep her close.
• Chen Shi brought Nannan to offer incense to Godmother, whose stone tablet began to show extraordinary power and produce the sound of gods and devils chanting.
• Chen Shi and Nannan traveled to Wuwang City at Lord Wuwang’s invitation, and Lord Wuwang explained that the city was a fragment of Tongue-Pulling Hell.

Chen Shi learned how Lord Wuwang found Wuwang City and tied his life to the broken Judge's Brush. Lord Wuwang asked Chen Shi to retrieve the missing brush tip, and Chen Shi proposed reaching it through the Yang World instead of crossing the dangerous Underworld.

• Lord Wuwang explained that Wuwang City was a fragment of the Tongue-Pulling Hell and described how ghosts survived through incense offerings and remembrance.
• Chen Shi saw the giant coffins of Mirror Lake Villa in the Underworld and learned that five people inside were nearing demonic transformation.
• Lord Wuwang recounted finding the flying land and half a Judge's Brush after an earthquake in Ganyang Mountain, then building Wuwang City and discovering that the brush and his lifespan were dwindling.
• Lord Wuwang asked Chen Shi to retrieve the Judge's Brush tip, and Chen Shi agreed after recruiting him into the Heavenly Court.
• Lord Wuwang gave Chen Shi a map to the brush tip, and Chen Shi suggested approaching its location from the Yang World rather than traversing the Underworld.

Chen Shi learned from Li Tianqing’s letter that sunlight and moonlight caused cultivators to gain power without extending their lifespans, then prepared for his journey to retrieve the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush. After cultivating a Nascent Soul, he told Lord Wuwang’s messenger that he would depart after dawn.

• Lord Wuwang gave Chen Shi the Wuwang Spear, which Chen Shi consecrated with incense and learned to resize and control with his thoughts.
• Chen Shi returned to Huangpo Village and received Li Tianqing’s letter describing how he crippled his Golden Core, resumed cultivation, and discovered that his lifespan had increased.
• Chen Shi concluded that sunlight and moonlight caused cultivators’ realms to rise without extending their lifespans, then wrote an enthusiastic reply to Li Tianqing and mailed it.
• Lord Wuwang’s tea boy repeatedly asked Chen Shi when he would set out, while Chen Shi practiced with the Wuwang Spear and continued cultivating.
• Chen Shi entered a profound state of stillness, and a golden sprout emerged from his Golden Core and transformed into a Nascent Soul.
• Chen Shi told the tea boy that he would depart after dawn, now that his Nascent Soul had increased his chances of success.