Chapter Summaries

Daoist Jin Lu and the scholars in the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land were devoured by monsters in the fog, while Chen Shi’s group crossed a perilous region of Buddhist Hell. After rescuing Monk Wuchen, they learned that the giant Buddhas were fallen Buddhist masters and that they might be trapped in Hell.

• Daoist Jin Lu ignored Chen Shi’s warning, fled through the fog, and was killed by a demonic monster that devoured the scholars in the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land.
• Chen Shi’s group saw living red eyes on the giant Buddhas, and Chen Shi’s hidden power killed the ghost monks that attacked them.
• Chen Shi and the others rescued the badly injured Monk Wuchen, who recognized Chen Shi as having repaid an old debt.
• Monk Wuchen explained that the giant Buddhas were half-Buddhas who had presided over Buddhist Hell, while their followers had become monsters inside the eyes.
• Monk Wuchen said the group could not escape Buddhist Hell and would die there.

Yan Guzhi failed to locate the missing provincial scholars, while Fuzheng Pavilion officials assumed the scholars were dead and prepared to promote the Young Master. In the Underworld, Granny Sha and Chen Tang crossed into another realm and discovered that Chen Shi and the others were still alive.

• Yan Guzhi learned that 217 provincial scholars had died and 427 were alive in an abandoned region of the second hell, then ordered the search to continue and asked Xiang Yunfei to find Granny Sha.
• Xiang Yunfei denied knowing where Sha Qiutong was, and the Shanglin Park Bureau searched for thirteen days before Yan Guzhi allowed its exhausted staff a two-day rest.
• Shui Xuanzhi and Qin Su concluded that the missing scholars could not survive and began preparing to build momentum for the Young Master's examination success.
• Granny Sha, Chen Tang, and Black Pot reached the Temple of Ksitigarbha, where Granny Sha used Approaching Quarters to send her and Chen Tang's Primordial Spirits into another Underworld.
• After discovering a dead provincial scholar and questioning ghosts, Granny Sha and Chen Tang found the Immortal Bridge Blessed Land and learned from a ghost monk that Chen Shi and the others were still alive.

Chen Tang and Granny Sha tracked Chen Shi's party through the Buddhist hell and learned that Chen Shi had already led everyone out. Their search ended at Leiyin Temple, where Chen Shi had found the long-lost Xiang Tianyu, and the chapter left them preparing to go home.

• Chen Tang and Granny Sha followed traces through the mountains of Buddhas, where they found demonic monster meat and learned that Chen Shi's party had merged with Hu Feifei's group.
• After repeated deaths in borrowed yaksha bodies, Granny Sha and Chen Tang reached Leiyin Temple and discovered that Chen Shi had awakened its Buddha consciousness and received its help to leave the Buddhist hell.
• Chen Shi taught the group the Summoning Yin God Incantation, organized them into Ten Absolute Arrays, and led them through battles against the blood Buddha, asuras, an arhat, and gandharvas.
• Chen Shi guided the survivors to Leiyin Temple, where a child revealed he had entered the Underworld to find Three Lives Stones for his mother.
• Chen Shi recognized the child as Xiang Tianyu, embraced him, and promised to take him home to his mother.

Chen Shi and his companions escaped the Buddhist hells after witnessing a brief revival of their Buddhas, then returned to the Yang World. Xiang Tianyu reunited with his feverish mother, Granny Sha, at Red Mountain Hall.

• Chen Shi learned that a malicious Young Master had sent Xiang Tianyu into the Buddhist hells to retrieve Three Lives Stone fragments and gathered the fragments at Leiyin Temple.
• Chen Shi offered incense and conferred divine titles on the destroyed Buddhas, causing the Buddha mountains and other Underworld beings to briefly regain their radiance and forms before a mysterious voice ended the transformation.
• Buddha light carried Chen Shi, Guo Daozi, and the others out of the Buddhist hells, but the Young Master and red-haired ghost never appeared.
• Granny Sha and Chen Tang followed the traces to Leiyin Temple, returned to their bodies, and traveled back to Red Mountain Hall, where Granny Sha fell ill.
• Chen Tang learned that the scholars who had died in the metropolitan examination had returned alive and rushed back to Red Mountain Hall with Chen Shi and Xiang Tianyu.
• Xiang Tianyu called Granny Sha Mother and threw himself into her arms.

Chen Shi returned from the Underworld with more than three hundred Jinshi Scholars as Young Master’s Palace Examination victory was being staged and celebrated in Xijing. He confronted the officials at Zhongji Hall and challenged Young Master for the title of Top Scholar.

• Granny Sha reunited with Xiang Tianyu’s soul, and Chen Shi told Chen Tang he planned to kill Young Master and seize the Top Scholar title; Chen Tang supported him.
• Yan Guzhi was blamed for the examination disaster, suspended from office, and replaced by Yang Shaoqing, who confirmed Young Master as Huiyuan and arranged the Palace Examination.
• Fuzheng Pavilion spread rumors and staged displays of Young Master’s virtue and supernatural favor to build support for his expected Palace Examination victory.
• Young Master impressed the capital during the literary examination, while the Jinshi Scholars yielded during the martial examination and Zhang Fuzheng prepared to announce the result.
• Chen Shi arrived at Zhongji Hall with more than three hundred surviving Jinshi Scholars, and the assembled soldiers lowered their weapons rather than attack them.
• Chen Shi recounted the Jinshi Scholars’ ordeal in the Underworld and challenged Young Master, declaring that no one deserved to be Top Scholar without fighting him.

Chen Shi and Young Master Ren Mu agreed to fight for the top scholar title after the Cabinet admitted Chen Shi and the returning candidates to the palace examination. The duel began in the Nine Halls, where Chen Shi revealed he had forged a primordial spirit and slammed Young Master into a wall, leaving the watching officials scrambling to intervene.

• Young Master Ren Mu called for a fair palace examination duel with Chen Shi, and the Cabinet arranged for them to compete for the top scholar title.
• Chen Shi refused to rest, and the duel was set to take place within the Nine Halls of True Kings.
• Chen Tang retrieved the West King's Jade Seal, armed himself with a mysterious wooden box, and knocked Jiang Mo unconscious when Jiang Mo tried to stop him.
• Chen Tang told the noble-family ancestors that Western Capital owed Chen Shi a top scholar title because the thirteen noble families had taken his Innate Dao Embryo.
• Young Master explained that he wanted to choose his own path and win an upright victory, while Chen Shi silently inspected the Nine Halls.
• At the start of the martial examination, Chen Shi manifested a primordial spirit and drove Young Master into Zhengyi Hall's wall, prompting Chen Tang to open the box as officials cried out for help.

Chen Shi overwhelmed the young master and prepared to kill him while Chen Tang’s thirty-seven Talisman God Heavenly Mechanisms held off Xijing’s officials and noble-family ancestors. Though Lord Feng stopped the wider battle, Chen Shi struck the young master through the glabella and fulfilled his promise to avenge the Taiping Gate victims.

• Chen Shi used his Spirit Transformation ghost-and-god powers to cripple the young master and pinned him against the wall of Zhengyi Hall.
• When officials called for Chen Shi to stop, he summoned the Ten Absolute Array and focused on killing the young master for the people who had been abducted, harvested, or exploited.
• Chen Tang opened the wooden chest, releasing thirty-seven Talisman God Heavenly Mechanisms that attacked the noble-family ancestors and Xijing’s officials.
• Lord Feng unleashed Zhongji Hall’s power and ordered everyone to stop, prompting Chen Tang to recall the Heavenly Mechanisms.
• Chen Shi drove a Ten Absolute Array beam through the young master’s glabella and primordial spirit, then reminded him that he had promised to avenge the Taiping Gate.

Zhang Fuzheng’s maneuvering collapsed when Chen Shi killed Young Master, forcing Zhang to resign and Yan Xianshi to reclaim the Grand Secretary’s seat. Yan pacified the court, Chen Shi became Top Scholar, and the chapter ended with Chen Shi’s fellow scholars bidding him farewell before taking up provincial posts.

• Zhang Fuzheng realized that Chen Shi’s killing of Young Master had ruined his plan to control the factions, and the early onset of darkness alarmed the court.
• Zhang Fuzheng conceded his political defeat to Yan Xianshi, then left the capital after submitting his resignation; Yan resumed the Grand Secretary’s position.
• Yan Xianshi’s cabinet dismissed officials, arranged Ren Xiao’s retirement, gave Chen Tang an empty honorary promotion, and assigned Chen Shi a powerless Hanlin Academy post.
• Chen Shi was named Top Scholar, Zhang You placed second, and Hu Feifei unexpectedly received third place in the examination results.
• Chen Shi returned spiritual beings and herbs to their places, then welcomed Hu Guanghan, Tian Yue'e, and hundreds of scholars who came to bid farewell before leaving for their official posts.
• Chen Shi answered the departing scholars’ cultivation questions and gave each a Thousand Mile Sound Talisman.

Chen Shi rejected Shui Xuanzhi and the surviving Fuzheng Pavilion members’ proposal to make him their new Young Master, warning that he would hunt them down for their crimes. After Xiang Yunfei reunited with his returned wife and son, a visitor named Wujiu arrived in Western Capital seeking a matured treasure and decided to meet Chen Shi.

• Chen Tang joined Red Mountain Hall and learned that his father and son belonged to the Heavenly Court under the codenames Drillmaster and True King.
• Chen Shi saw Monk Wuchen and Ying Rumeng off, then encountered Shui Xuanzhi and other former Fuzheng Pavilion members, who asked him to lead them.
• Chen Shi condemned the group’s past atrocities and vowed to kill them, but Xiang Yunfei intervened and escorted him away.
• Sha Qiutong and Xiang Tianyu appeared on Ganyang Street, and Xiang Yunfei tearfully embraced his family after their long separation.
• Wujiu visited Zhang You, offered respects at the Young Master’s grave, learned Chen Shi had killed him, and decided to meet Chen Shi.

Chen Shi created encrypted talismans that let Red Mountain Hall members enter the Lesser Heavens, and Chen Tang organized how the keys would be distributed. At the Hanlin Academy, Chen Shi encountered Zhuang Wujiu and discovered that the Sky Listener Lord Guangxiao had come to deliver information about him to the Exalted One.

• Chen Shi helped his mother cultivate until she reached the Golden Core Realm while waiting for her soul to return.
• Chen Shi developed talismans that opened portals to the Lesser Heavens, then created and encrypted more than forty different keys.
• Chen Tang tested his key, entered the Lesser Heavens, and arranged with Yutian City, Granny Sha, Green Goat, and others to restrict access to vetted members of the heavenly court.
• Zhuang Wujiu questioned Chen Shi about how he had cultivated without a Divine Embryo, but Chen Shi refused to reveal his secrets.
• Chen Shi saw Sky Listener Lord Guangxiao kneel before Zhuang Wujiu and report that he had brought the requested materials about Chen Shi.

Chen Shi learned from Zhang You that Zhuang Wujiu had been present at the battle for his Innate Dao Embryo eleven years earlier and came from Despair Slope, whose agents might command the Sky Listeners. The chapter ended with Chen Shi and the Black Pot entering the Underworld to find Zhuang Wujiu.

• Zhuang Wujiu examined the Sky Listeners’ dossier on Chen Shi, rejected its records as false, and burned it.
• Zhang You told Chen Shi that the Thirteen Noble Families, the Young Master, and people from Despair Slope had gathered in Xinxiang County to seize the Innate Dao Embryo, but no one knew who had obtained it.
• Zhang You said Zhuang Wujiu came from Despair Slope and suggested the Sky Listeners might also answer to it.
• Zhang You explained that he helped Chen Shi because Chen had saved his life and Dao heart in Buddhist hell, then warned they might become enemies in the future.
• Chen Shi went to the Hanlin Academy to investigate Zhuang Wujiu, and the Black Pot led him down into the Underworld.

Chen Shi witnessed the Sky Listeners gather around an ancient iron pillar in the Underworld, where Zhuang Wujiu seemed to activate its markings. After Eunuch Liu warned him about the Sky Listeners, Chen Shi borrowed an Eastern Depot manuscript containing his grandfather Chen Yindu’s notes on prehistoric relics.

• Chen Shi followed the Sky Listeners’ flight toward the iron pillar, while Eunuch Liu’s Primordial Spirit warned him not to approach the dangerous Sky Listener Lord.
• Chen Shi and Eunuch Liu watched the pillar’s ancient markings glow as Zhuang Wujiu flew around it, apparently triggering the relic’s power.
• Eunuch Liu sent Chen Shi and the Black Pot back to the Eastern Depot and explained the relic’s prehistoric origins.
• Chen Shi rejected the idea of becoming a sage, saying his grandfather had warned him against being bound by others’ expectations.
• Eunuch Liu gave Chen Shi a unique manuscript on relic markings, and Chen Shi recognized some annotations as Chen Yindu’s handwriting.

Chen Shi deciphered four new thunder runes, gained powerful abilities, and fled to the Underworld with Black Pot after wrecking the Chen household. There, he activated the runes on the enormous iron pillar, making it vanish and leaving a black iron staff in its place.

• Chen Shi studied Eunuch Liu's notebook, then woke to find four elegant thunder runes added to his paper by the white-robed female immortal.
• Chen Shi used the first three runes to refine his body and spirit, approach pure yang, and fly through the air, damaging the Chen household in the process.
• Chen Shi discovered that the white-robed female immortal could not remember her past or speak, and he tried to care for her.
• Chen Shi fled Chen Tang's furious pursuit into the Underworld with Black Pot, while Zhuang Wujiu and Venerable Guangxiao withdrew after their attempt to activate the iron pillar killed many Sky Listeners.
• Chen Shi recognized the fourth rune on the pillar and activated its inscriptions with the five thunders, transforming the immense pillar into a floating black iron staff.

Chen Shi tested the black iron club in the Lesser Heavens and accidentally sent it through Western Capital, destroying the Meridian Gate and damaging the imperial palace. He returned home unaware of the destruction, while Zhuang Wujiu arrived too late to catch the treasure thief, and the boat girl appeared at the Chen Mansion asking for the Top Scholar.

• After Zhuang Wujiu discovered the treasure had vanished, he ordered Venerable Guangxiao to deploy Sky Listeners throughout Western Capital and the surrounding region.
• Chen Shi took the black iron club into the Lesser Heavens and activated it with the Heavenly Fire Realm, causing it to extend hundreds of miles and pierce through the realm's barrier.
• The club shot through Western Capital, smashing the Meridian Gate and Hall of Supreme Harmony before Zhuang Wujiu arrived and watched it shrink away.
• Chen Shi retracted the club and returned home, while Chen Tang told him about the destruction in Western Capital without realizing Chen Shi had caused it.
• The boat girl arrived at the Chen Mansion, bruised and carrying a broken bamboo pole, and asked whether the Top Scholar was there.

Chen Shi learned that the boat girl rescued his mother’s soul but lost her father in the Immortal Capital after a mysterious force trapped them in the Underworld. As Chen Shi prepared to enter the Underworld, Granny Sha discovered his soul was unusually powerful, and Chen Shi concluded that rescuing his mother would mean confronting an entity stronger than Black Pot.

• The boat girl told Chen Shi that she and her father rescued his mother’s soul from the Immortal Capital, but a mysterious force led them into the Underworld and left her father trapped there.
• Chen Tang agreed to stay with Chen Shi’s mother and leave Xijing with her while Chen Shi went to the Underworld with Black Pot.
• Chen Shi visited Granny Sha, who offered to use the Art of Transforming into a God to help him enter the Underworld and explained that only a sufficiently powerful Primordial Spirit could enter a Primordial Palace.
• Granny Sha examined Chen Shi’s unusually powerful soul and warned that his Three Corpses God could become dangerous when he tried to slay it.
• Chen Shi and Granny Sha suspected that Black Pot had influenced his grandfather and others, and Chen Shi returned to Xijing determined to strengthen Black Pot before facing a more powerful entity.

Chen Shi tested Black Pot’s Ghost and God Domain on the road to the Western Capital, then survived an ambush by armed attackers and confronted Zhuang Wujiu. Zhuang Wujiu admitted arranging the attack to test whether Chen Shi had regained his Innate Dao Embryo, but said Chen Shi’s performance disappointed him and questioned whether he was worthy of it.

• Chen Shi discovered that opening a ghost book created an eerie domain, and he realized Black Pot’s cultivation could blur perception and the boundary between the Yin and Yang Worlds.
• Sky Listeners suppressed Black Pot’s domain as cannon fire and a Garuda eunuch, a green-robed Daoist, and other attackers ambushed Chen Shi on the post road.
• Chen Shi used his canopy and sword techniques to kill the attackers and destroy the cannon squad, then had Black Pot make the travelers forget the battle.
• Chen Shi encountered Zhuang Wujiu, who explained that he had selected three Young Master loyalists to attack Chen Shi and test whether he had regained the Innate Dao Embryo.
• Zhuang Wujiu told Chen Shi that he was disappointed and asked whether Chen Shi felt unworthy of the Innate Dao Embryo.

Chen Shi retaliated against Zhuang Wujiu for belittling him by striking his carriage with the Heaven Measuring Iron Ruler, while Chen Tang humiliated the injured Zhuang Wujiu and made him repeat his insults. After Zhuang Wujiu returned to Despair Slope, he encountered a smiling young man who resembled Chen Shi and Chen Tang.

• Zhuang Wujiu praised Chen Shi’s talent as a child but declared that the resurrected Chen Shi was unworthy of the Innate Dao Embryo, then mocked his prospects compared with life on Despair Slope.
• Chen Shi deduced that Zhuang Wujiu resented the person who had obtained his Innate Dao Embryo and struck the departing Kirin Carriage with the expanding Heaven Measuring Iron Ruler, destroying the carriage and fire kirin and badly injuring Zhuang Wujiu.
• Chen Tang appeared before Zhuang Wujiu, forced his divine shrine out for inspection, and made him recite the insults he had directed at Chen Shi.
• Zhuang Wujiu returned to Despair Slope without summoning the Sky Listeners and vowed to avenge his humiliation, then encountered a smiling young man who resembled Chen Shi and Chen Tang.

Chen Shi sent Chen Tang and his mother out of Western Capital, remaining behind as the Chen family's hostage while planning to escape through the Underworld. As Chen Tang traveled west, the Thirteen Noble Families revealed their formidable Void Realm heritage to him.

• Chen Shi searched for ways to strengthen Black Pot, then studied Hanlin Academy records and found that demonic transformations had grown more frequent over time, while records from before six thousand years ago were largely absent.
• Chen Shi urged Chen Tang and his mother to flee to Xinxiang, and Chen Tang packed their belongings and took Chen Yindu's spirit tablet and the Xuanwei Sword.
• Chen Shi escorted Chen Tang's carriage to the west city gate, then stayed in Western Capital and made sure the Thirteen Noble Families' watchers saw him there.
• The Thirteen Grand Secretaries reported Chen Tang's departure to the sect masters, who ordered them to keep Chen Shi under watch and show Chen Tang the families' power without obstructing him.
• As Chen Tang's carriage flew away, the nine immortal palaces opened a view of the Thirteen Noble Families' Void Realm, and Yan Xianshi invited him to witness their heritage.

Chen Tang returned to Ganyang Mountain under the thirteen noble families’ divine surveillance, while Chen Shi’s outing with the white-robed female immortal terrified the cabinet in Western Capital. The chapter ended with the officials interpreting Chen Shi’s approach to the Nine Halls as a threat demanding Chen Tang’s release.

• Yan Xianshi showed Chen Tang the gods of the thirteen noble families and sent him home, promising that the court would keep his official position and stipend.
• Chen Tang returned to Huangpo Village, spoke with the villagers, and settled his unconscious wife and Chen Yindu’s spirit tablet at the old family home.
• Yan Xianshi ordered Chen Shi watched, then discovered that a mysterious white-robed woman had appeared beside him and recognized her as a calamity-grade baleful entity.
• The thirteen grand secretaries debated how to respond, fearing that the Nine Halls could devastate Western Capital if they attacked the woman there.
• Chen Shi took the white-robed woman from Qixia Temple toward the Nine Halls, and the cabinet believed he was using her to force them to let Chen Tang go home.

Chen Shi used his position as a hostage to keep the cabinet from harming Chen Tang and his people while preparing to leave the Western Capital. He escaped with the boat girl and Black Dog through the Lesser Heavens and descended into the Underworld, leaving Yan Xianshi and the cabinet ministers celebrating his departure.

• Chen Shi toured the Nine Halls with the white-robed female immortal, and the cabinet promoted him first to academician and then to Academician of the Imperial Academy of Subordinate Fifth Rank.
• Chen Shi visited Granny Sha in Gaoshan County, learned the Surrogate Corpse spellcraft, and arranged for her to wait with the Fox Grape Mirror while he prepared to seek his mother in the Underworld.
• Chen Shi taught the boat girl how to open the Lesser Heavens and secretly escaped the Chen Mansion with her and Black Dog, reuniting with Granny Sha in the Huangyan Mountain Range.
• Granny Sha transformed Chen Shi and the boat girl into ghost gods, and Chen Shi and Black Dog plunged into the Underworld.
• Yan Xianshi and the cabinet ministers saw Chen Shi leave the Western Capital and celebrated their relief.