Chapter Summaries

Chen Shi cultivated his Nascent Soul, then traveled with Granny Sha to Hanging Rock Island to locate the Yang World position of the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush. A dragon-like roar sounded from the lake, Wuwang Spear stirred, and Granny Sha realized that A Zhuo, now a Sui, was nearby.

• Chen Shi refined his Nascent Soul and discovered its out-of-body senses and ability to reach through bodies, prompting him to consider how dangerous Nascent Soul cultivators could be.
• Chen Shi paid Granny Sha to help him enter the Underworld and followed her map to identify Hanging Rock Island as the likely location tied to the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush.
• Chen Shi, Granny Sha, and Black Pot traveled toward Hanging Rock Island while Chen Shi cultivated with help from Granny Sha and Empress Shi Ji.
• Chen Shi and Granny Sha reached Hanging Rock Island and discussed the ancient civilization and powerful relics that predated the True King Era.
• A deep roar shook Southern Lake, Wuwang Spear vibrated, and Granny Sha warned that A Zhuo, who had become a Sui, was nearby.

Chen Shi and Granny Sha crossed Lake Danan amid rumors of a dragon-shaped treasure, then opened an altar route into the Underworld so Chen Shi could claim it. Chen Shi and Black Pot landed in the middle of the battle around the dragon-shaped behemoth, while the boat girl warned Granny Sha that her altar had sent them somewhere far from the intended destination.

• Granny Sha hid Chen Shi and Black Pot from A Zhuo’s bee-like evil Sui, then took them to Xuan Yan County to find a boat across Lake Danan.
• Chen Shi and Granny Sha hired the boat girl’s costly pleasure boat and learned that cultivators were searching the lake for a dragon or a powerful magical treasure.
• A dense fog swallowed the lake, and Chen Shi saw a massive black dragon pass nearby as fighting broke out among the searching cultivators.
• Granny Sha used the Qi Zhen Altar to send Chen Shi and Black Pot into the Underworld, while the boat girl noticed that the altar’s layout might have sent them far from their intended destination.
• Chen Shi and Black Pot landed amid a fierce battle between Yang World experts and a dragon-shaped behemoth, and Chen Shi set out to seize the treasure.

Baili Mu and Saintess Xuan led the Banshan Sect and Hundred Refinements Hall in trying to capture a dragon-shaped treasure from a True King Era cave-heaven for Young Master. A young man riding a giant dog suddenly seized the treasure, revealed as the Nether Spring Wandering Dragon Sword, and escaped with it.

• Baili Mu explained to Saintess Xuan how the Banshan Sect had located the cave-heaven and praised Young Master, while Hundred Refinements Hall prepared an altar to open the Underworld.
• The cliff burst open, and a dragon-shaped treasure emerged before fleeing into the Underworld as the Banshan Sect and Hundred Refinements Hall attacked it with formations and magic treasures.
• Baili Mu subdued the treasure enough to reveal its true form as a slender sword containing a young dragon, and Saintess Xuan entered the Underworld to help capture it.
• A young man riding a giant dog charged into the battle, scattered the experts, and knocked the Mysterious Mechanism Myriad Changes Furnace aside.
• The young man battered the dragon-shaped treasure until it became a sword, mounted it on his spear, and escaped on the giant dog while Baili Mu pursued.

Chen Shi escaped the Underworld with the Youquan Youlong Sword, believing it was the Judge’s Brush head, while Baili Mu vowed to hunt him down. After discovering the sword held a young dragon and learning to control it with incense, Chen Shi followed its dragon roars into the mist to search for the missing Wuwang Spear and the real brush head.

• Chen Shi and Black Pot escaped the pursuing Banshan Sect and Hundred Refinements Hall, while Baili Mu halted when a giant hand seized the dragon-headed fiend monster.
• Baili Mu returned to the altar, learned Saintess Xuan believed a rogue cultivator had made the incense burner appear enormous, and vowed to pursue whoever had taken Young Master’s treasure.
• Chen Shi returned to the painted barge with the Youquan Youlong Sword, offered it incense, and let the boat girl inspect it before the sword flew into the mist after a passing dragon with the boat girl and Granny Sha in pursuit.
• Chen Shi discovered that the young dragon inside the sword was not the Judge’s Brush head, and he decided to return the sword if he found its rightful owner.
• After feeding the sword incense, Chen Shi established a bond with it, tested its swift sword techniques, and entered the mist to seek the Wuwang Spear and the brush head, leaving Black Pot and the carriage on the boat.

Chen Shi entered the Underworld through the Netherworld Dragon-Traveling Sword and found himself crossing the Sea of Nanming, where Empress Shi Ji began absorbing the seabed’s bone mountains to restore her body. Their disturbance drew Uncle A Zhuo’s bee-like evil sprites, who poisoned and captured them, leaving Chen Shi and Shi Ji bound and unconscious.

• Chen Shi used moonlight from his small temple to reopen the Netherworld path and walked into the Underworld, where he discovered that the Dragon-Traveling Sword could not take him back to the Yang World.
• Chen Shi crossed the Sea of Nanming and saw departed souls sink beneath its surface as their bones joined vast underwater mountains.
• Chen Shi woke Empress Shi Ji, who explained the sea’s nature and began absorbing the bone mountains to rebuild her body.
• Empress Shi Ji grew stronger as the seabed collapsed, then petrified the human-headed crow that had been watching them.
• Uncle A Zhuo’s swarm of evil sprites attacked; their poisonous stingers overwhelmed Shi Ji and Chen Shi despite Chen Shi’s plea that Uncle A Zhuo was his uncle.
• Chen Shi regained consciousness while the swarm carried him and the still-stung Shi Ji upside down across the sea.

Chen Shi arrived at the South Sea Bee Mansion, where he learned that his grandfather’s friend A Zhuo was a living Underworld Marshal. After recovering from the bees’ poison, Chen Shi met A Zhuo, who was delighted to hear about his grandfather and invited him to drink.

• The human-headed bees brought the paralyzed Chen Shi and Empress Shi Ji to the South Sea Bee Mansion, where the bee official recognized Chen Shi as A Zhuo’s nephew and ordered the bees to treat him gently.
• Chen Shi asked the bee official to spare Empress Shi Ji, and the official agreed to give her some detoxification pills without fully curing her.
• Feng Ling’er helped Chen Shi recover, bathe, and dress, and explained that A Zhuo was a living Underworld Marshal who governed insect-kind.
• Chen Shi entered A Zhuo’s study and met the broad-shouldered young man, who asked about Chen Yindu and learned that he had died over half a year earlier.
• A Zhuo was disappointed that Chen Yindu had not visited him, but cheered up when Chen Shi said his grandfather had spoken fondly of him and invited Chen Shi to drink.

Chen Shi accompanied A Zhuo to capture the fugitive Xue Daoren, while Granny Sha and the boat girl lost the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush to a mysterious expert. A Zhuo and Chen Shi found Xue Daoren disguised as a village Daoist, and Chen Shi reclaimed the brush as A Zhuo’s bee soldiers defeated him.

• A bee official told A Zhuo that Xue Daoren had evaded death for decades by stealing another person’s lifespan, and A Zhuo took Chen Shi along to capture him.
• On their way, Chen Shi saw Granny Sha and the boat girl fighting over the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush, but a mysterious hand from the Void Realm seized the transformed dragon and vanished.
• A Zhuo told Chen Shi about the Five Great Evils and brought him to a village on Lake Danan, where they sold honey while searching for Xue Daoren.
• A Zhuo and Chen Shi recognized that the village’s slovenly Daoist, Xue Daoren, had altered the villagers’ memories and planned to steal Chen Shi’s lifespan.
• Xue Daoren revealed the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush, but Chen Shi summoned it back to his hand, and A Zhuo’s bee soldiers poisoned Xue Daoren’s Primordial Spirit and knocked him down.

A Zhuo returned to his village and reunited with his wife and children while Chen Shi examined and refined the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush and Youquan Swimming Dragon Sword. When five Nascent Soul experts tracked Chen Shi down over the sword, he offered it back and learned they belonged to the Banshan Sect, prompting him to ask whether they served Young Master.

• A Zhuo ordered Daoist Xue taken to the Underworld and freed Shi Jingming’s family from their pig forms, but learned Shi Jingming’s father had already been sold as meat.
• A Zhuo brought Chen Shi to his home by Lake Danan, where he reunited with A Ying, Qiao Wei, and Qiao Hu.
• Chen Shi refined the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush and Youquan Swimming Dragon Sword, then considered whether either treasure could serve as a divine embryo.
• Five armed Nascent Soul experts showed Chen Shi portraits of himself and a demonic hound, and Qiao Wei and Qiao Hu denied having seen them.
• Chen Shi met the five experts at the bridge and offered to return the Youquan Swimming Dragon Sword, but the fortune teller demanded more than its return.
• After the fortune teller identified the group as the Banshan Sect, Chen Shi asked whether they were Young Master’s people.

Chen Shi killed four Banshan Sect cultivators with the Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword and marked their surviving fortune-teller with a Nightmare Wood talisman. The fortune-teller reached the Banshan Sect’s branch, where the talisman erupted and began killing its members.

• Chen Shi used four basic sword techniques to kill the fortune-teller’s companions before threatening him with the Nightmare Wood talisman and sending him to find a talisman master.
• Chen Shi burned the bodies, gave A Zhuo’s family silver for the children’s schooling, and told a villager to report that he alone had killed the four men.
• The fortune-teller rushed to the Banshan Sect branch in Nian Du, where Saintess Xuan, Baili Mu, and the talisman masters learned about the sword attack and the talisman on his chest.
• A talisman master began trying to remove the Nightmare Wood, but the talisman burst from the fortune-teller’s body and pierced Banshan Sect members with branches and roots, trapping them in nightmares.

Chen Shi’s Nightmare Wood Talisman devastated the Banshan Sect’s Nian Du branch, killing more than a hundred cultivators before Baili Mu destroyed it. Gao Chang stopped Baili Mu from pursuing Chen Shi inside the city, but Chen Shi then entered Nian Du, leaving Saintess Xuan startled.

• Huo Shanting tried to undo Chen Shi’s Nightmare Wood Talisman, triggering it and becoming its second victim.
• The Nightmare Wood rampaged through the Banshan Sect branch, connecting and killing more than a hundred cultivators before Baili Mu shattered it.
• Baili Mu summoned Banshan Sect fighters to pursue Chen Shi, but Gao Chang arrived with prefectural troops and forbade the sect from seeking revenge within a hundred miles of Nian Du.
• Gao Chang told Saintess Xuan that Chen Shi was responsible for the Gongzhou demonic transformation and warned her against entering the struggle of taboos.
• A Banshan Sect disciple reported that Chen Shi had entered Nian Du and was coming toward the branch, startling Saintess Xuan.

Chen Shi entered Nian Du, where Gao Chang persuaded him to keep his feud with the Banshan Sect outside the city. While shopping for a canopy for his wooden cart, Chen Shi rejected Saintess Xuan’s attempt to reconcile him with Baili Mu and recruit him to the young master, then beat her for lobbying on the young master’s behalf.

• Baili Mu hesitated to pursue Chen Shi after Gao Chang threatened to destroy the Banshan Sect if it harmed him near Nian Du.
• Chen Shi explored Nian Du’s bustling carriage trade and searched for decorations for his wooden cart.
• Gao Chang introduced himself to Chen Shi, offered him a carriage, and asked him to settle his grievances beyond Nian Du’s hundred-li boundary.
• Saintess Xuan approached Chen Shi and tried to persuade him to reconcile with Baili Mu and return the Youquan Youlong Sword.
• Chen Shi bought a blank canopy, then attacked Saintess Xuan when she urged him to pledge allegiance to the young master.
• Chen Shi paid for the damaged canopy poles and left the shop, warning Saintess Xuan that he would have killed her if he had not promised Gao Chang to spare people inside the city.

Saintess Xuan recovered from Chen Shi’s beating and joined Baili Mu’s pursuit after Chen Shi left Nian Du. As a Banshan Sect candle-lighter trapped Chen Shi in a ghostly burial ground, Chen Shi revealed his canopy’s thousand-plus talismans and began the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony.

• Baili Mu brought the injured Saintess Xuan back to the Banshan Sect, where she learned Chen Shi had stopped her Nascent Soul from emerging and vowed to join the pursuit.
• After two days, Baili Mu told Saintess Xuan that Chen Shi had left Nian Du, and she traveled with the Banshan Sect toward Lake Danan while unable to fight herself.
• Saintess Xuan spotted talisman markings on Chen Shi’s canopy in a bronze mirror and warned Baili Mu, but the sect’s experts dismissed the canopy as an improperly made weapon.
• As Chen Shi approached the hundred-mile mark outside Nian Du, a Banshan Sect candle-lighter trapped him on a haunted post road and demanded the return of the Youquan Youlong Sword.
• Chen Shi unfurled his canopy, revealing 1,200 talismans, and began the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony to challenge the candle-lighter’s spellcraft.

Chen Shi used the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony to destroy the candle-lighter and break through the Banshan Sect and Hundred Refinements Hall’s massive trap. He left their forces trapped in chaos and continued toward Lake Danan, while Baili Mu arrived to find the nightmare wood waiting for him.

• Chen Shi completed the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony canopy, which destroyed the candle-lighter’s ghosts and fiends and burned his body before a thunderbolt annihilated his Nascent Soul.
• Chen Shi realized the graveyard had lured him into an inescapable net array, while Gao Chang, Baili Mu, and Saintess Xuan watched and discussed the danger of his canopy.
• Saintess Xuan warned Baili Mu that Chen Shi’s canopy carried the Five Lakes Rogue Cultivator’s Luo Tian Grand Ceremony, but Baili Mu refused to withdraw his forces.
• Chen Shi used the canopy and Nether Spring Wandering Dragon Sword to kill cultivators within its range, then seized the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush and extracted Murong Yi’s Primordial Spirit.
• Chen Shi overturned the Mysterious Mechanism Myriad Changes Furnace, smashed a hole through the array, and escaped toward Lake Danan after trapping his pursuers with a Nightmare Wood Talisman.
• Baili Mu arrived to find the array destroyed and five Spirit Transformation Realm experts besieged by the nightmare wood, whose corpses welcomed him on Chen Shi’s behalf.

After Chen Shi annihilated the Banshan Sect and Hundred Refinements Hall forces, Baili Mu destroyed the Nightmare Wood and went after him across Lake Danan. Saintess Xuan became lost in the lake’s eerie Tongue-Pulling Hell, found Chen Shi, and was defeated by him just as a new danger stirred.

• Gao Chang recognized that Chen Shi himself, rather than the devils within him, was the real danger after seeing the carnage outside Nian Du.
• Baili Mu destroyed the Nightmare Wood with the Tathagata Treasure Seal and headed across Lake Danan to pursue Chen Shi.
• Saintess Xuan followed Baili Mu onto the lake, encountered a demonic double, ghostly boat crews, and an enormous landmass rising from the water, and gained insight from her skeletal reflection.
• Saintess Xuan heard Baili Mu searching for Chen Shi, then found Chen Shi on the strange landmass and was quickly beaten by him.
• Chen Shi admitted he feared Baili Mu and was trying to evade him, then told Saintess Xuan that lies in the Tongue-Pulling Hell brought punishment just as she sensed danger.

Chen Shi dismantled the Mysterious Mechanism Myriad Changes Furnace and turned its parts into tongues to bait Baili Mu, while Saintess Xuan remained bound and helpless. Baili Mu found her and approached, unaware that Chen Shi was waiting nearby to ambush him.

• Saintess Xuan tried to persuade Chen Shi to submit to the Young Master, but Chen Shi questioned whether the Young Master would tolerate a rival.
• Chen Shi learned that Baili Mu had received incomplete versions of the Dragon Shaking Scripture, Dragon Doubting Scripture, and Dragon Burial Method.
• Chen Shi dismantled the Mysterious Mechanism Myriad Changes Furnace and transformed its parts into toads that he identified as the tongues of liars in the Tongue-Pulling Hell.
• Chen Shi bound Saintess Xuan, stuffed a sock into her mouth to keep the tongues away, and transformed his canopy into a tongue as part of his ambush plan.
• Baili Mu approached Saintess Xuan, mistook her for someone ambushed by Chen Shi, and began taunting her as he drew near.

Baili Mu gave in to his desires and tried to force Saintess Xuan to help him find his tongue, while Chen Shi waited for the right moment to attack. Chen Shi and Saintess Xuan finally destroyed Baili Mu's body and Primordial Spirit, though the Mysterious Mechanism Myriad Changes Furnace was shattered in the fight.

• Baili Mu approached the bound Saintess Xuan, but the Tongue-Pulling Hell pulled out his tongue before he could act.
• Baili Mu searched among the tongues caught by swarms of toads, then seized Saintess Xuan and demanded that she help him find his tongue.
• Baili Mu found his bloody tongue in a toad's mouth, but it transformed into a magnificent canopy as Chen Shi attacked with the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony and Judge Dragon Whisker Brush.
• Chen Shi trapped Baili Mu's Primordial Spirit in the reassembled Mysterious Mechanism Myriad Changes Furnace and attacked it with the Youquan Youlong Sword, but Baili Mu burst out and charged at Chen Shi.
• Saintess Xuan struck Baili Mu's Primordial Spirit with the Tathagata Treasure Seal, driving the Youquan Youlong Sword through its forehead, and Chen Shi shattered it with the Judge Dragon Whisker Brush.

After Chen Shi and Saintess Xuan escaped the Underworld, they parted ways on Lake Danan, with Chen Shi heading for Xijing and Saintess Xuan warning him against confronting the Young Master. Saintess Xuan then encountered Fuzheng Pavilion Assistant Officer Fang Tan, who revealed that he had tracked Chen Shi down and flew off to pursue him.

• Saintess Xuan helped Chen Shi kill Baili Mu, and Chen Shi collected the valuable fragments of the Mysterious Mechanism Myriad Changes Furnace while teasing her.
• Chen Shi told Saintess Xuan that Taiping Gate had trafficked abducted children and urged her to investigate the Young Master's enterprises, including the Tianmu Association.
• While they waited for dawn, Saintess Xuan spoke about her Bodhi Dojo training and her uncertainty about whether she liked the Young Master.
• At daybreak, Chen Shi and Saintess Xuan left Tongue-Pulling Hell and returned to Lake Danan, then parted ways after Chen Shi declared he would go to Xijing and challenge the Young Master.
• Saintess Xuan boarded a boat and met Fang Tan, the Fuzheng Pavilion Assistant Officer, who healed her injuries, said he had tracked Chen Shi, and flew off in the boat.

Fang Tan and Wei Xize tracked Chen Shi to Shuikou Village, where they joined Tang Boling, Dou Qi, and Sima Xi to confront him. As the Fuzheng Pavilion experts prepared to take Chen Shi away, A Zhuo revealed the terrifying power he had learned from Chen Yindu.

• Fang Tan and Saintess Xuan reached Shuikou Village, where they met Wei Xize, who had also tracked Chen Shi there.
• Chen Shi sent Qiao Hu and Qiao Wei home as Aunt A Ying and A Zhuo prepared to face the approaching Fuzheng Pavilion experts.
• Fang Tan and Wei Xize confronted Chen Shi, and Tang Boling and Dou Qi arrived to reinforce them.
• Dou Qi explained that killing Chen Shi could trigger the demon inside him, and Sima Xi arrived and proposed killing him in the Underworld.
• Chen Shi called on A Zhuo, who stepped forward and unleashed a powerful Void Realm, startling Sima Xi and the other experts.

A Zhuo revealed his overwhelming strength when Fuzheng Pavilion’s Xi Sima confronted him, and he defeated the old expert despite both being at the peak of the Void Returning stage. Xi Sima escaped with the others but lost both legs, which a boat girl later caught in her net.

• Xi Sima sensed A Zhuo’s power and realized the young countryman was a peak Void Returning expert with a chance of reaching Great Ascension.
• A Zhuo stepped forward and crushed the Fuzheng Pavilion members with pressure, while Xi Sima used his Void Realm to protect them.
• Xi Sima’s Void Realm clashed with A Zhuo’s, and their power split Shuikou Bridge and the river before A Zhuo’s second step shattered Xi Sima’s boat and fishing rod.
• Xi Sima fled with Dou Qi, Tang Boling, Fang Tan, Wei Xize, and Saintess Xuan, using a fishing line around Shuikou Village to threaten A Zhuo.
• A Zhuo flicked the line and severed Xi Sima’s legs at the knees, then let him escape while the injured Xi Sima claimed his legs were returning.
• A boat girl cast a net and caught Xi Sima’s severed legs, saying the group had offended the provincial top scorer.

Xi Sima fought off several Heavenly Court pursuers while escorting Dou Qi, Saintess Xuan, and the others, but the injuries and strain of forcing himself into the Great Ascension stage killed him. Saintess Xuan left the Five Dragons Cave Mansion wondering whether Chen Shi’s Heavenly Court could rival the Young Master’s faction and what she should do about her growing feelings.

• The boat girl transformed into a Horse-Faced Underworld God and attacked Xi Sima’s group, but Xi Sima broke the Underworld illusion and led everyone to shore.
• Granny Sha and Black Pot attacked Xi Sima, who forced his body to fuse with his Void Realm and Primordial Spirit, briefly reaching the Great Ascension stage before driving them back.
• Xi Sima and his companions encountered the Heavenly Fox and the Green Goat, who tested Xi Sima’s strength and let him continue.
• Xi Sima brought the group to the Five Dragons Cave Mansion, named Zong Xuan as his successor, and died after explaining that he could no longer help the Young Master.
• Saintess Xuan performed the Rebirth Mantra and wondered whether Chen Shi’s Heavenly Court was a rival faction and how to handle her new feelings.