Chapter Summaries

Chen Shi, Li Tianqing, Jin Hongying, and Black Pot escaped the Evil Bodhisattva through a mountain cave and reached Mirror Lake Villa, where they reunited with Li Jindou, Prince Xiao, and Granny Sha. As the group gathered by Mirror Lake to discuss what to do next, Chen Shi realized their team of experts consisted of the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

• Chen Shi led Jin Hongying, Li Tianqing, and Black Pot through a maze-like cave to evade the pursuing Evil Bodhisattva.
• The group emerged in a secluded valley, cooked a meal, and Jin Hongying explained how the Li family and Zhao family were maneuvering around the True King's Tomb.
• Chen Shi and his companions reached Mirror Lake Villa, where Li Tianqing found Li Jindou alive and was scolded by his grandfather.
• Jin Hongying called Prince Xiao out of the villa, and Granny Sha also emerged from a coffin as one of the villa's original builders.
• Granny Sha led the group to the lakeshore, where Chen Shi noted that their companions were old, weak, sick, or disabled as they faced the Evil Bodhisattva.

With the Evil Bodhisattva growing stronger and the survivors too injured to repeat their first attack, Prince Xiao and Granny Sha weighed their remaining options. Chen Shi left to find Chen Yindu, while Li Tianqing offered a way to study the Evil Bodhisattva’s talismans and Prince Xiao began taking an interest in him.

• Jin Hongying demanded Prince Xiao hand over the West King's Jade Seal, but he explained that only someone with imperial blood could use it to open the True King's Tomb.
• Chen Shi went to Great Serpent Xuan Shan to look for Chen Yindu, and Prince Xiao and Granny Sha discussed the danger of Chen Yindu being driven into demonic transformation if he fought.
• Granny Sha and Prince Xiao revealed that Chen Shi possessed the legendary Innate Dao Embryo, which had been stolen after he was killed as a child, and Jin Hongying connected the revelation to the massacre of Xijing’s three great battalions.
• Prince Xiao, Granny Sha, Jin Hongying, and Li Jindou agreed to fight the Evil Bodhisattva again, while Jin Hongying entered Granny Sha’s coffin to heal her injuries.
• Li Tianqing said he had memorized the Evil Bodhisattva’s talisman patterns and that Chen Shi could decipher them, giving the group a possible way to plan its defeat.
• Prince Xiao offered to help Li Tianqing improve his cultivation, prompting Granny Sha to warn Jin Hongying to come out and stop him.

Chen Shi reunited with Chen Yindu and learned that porcelainized people and other beings remained alive, while he and Li Tianqing mapped the Evil Bodhisattva’s talismans to help the experts fight it. After the adults set out to attack, Chen Shi and Li Tianqing considered using the Divine Machine Battalion’s cannons against the Zhao family’s encampment.

• Chen Shi found Chen Yindu beneath Great Serpent Xuan Shan and told him he could suppress the Ghost Hand Seal.
• Chen Yindu explained that porcelainized beings were still alive, moving so slowly that they could recover if the Evil Bodhisattva was destroyed within a hundred days.
• Chen Shi proposed escaping the demonic domain through the Underworld on a Great Gu, and agreed with Chen Yindu to wait two days before leaving with their family if the Evil Bodhisattva remained undefeated.
• Chen Shi and Li Tianqing copied and analyzed hundreds of the Evil Bodhisattva’s talismans, identifying ways to weaken its attacks.
• Prince Xiao, Granny Sha, Jin Hongying, and Li Jindou left to fight the Evil Bodhisattva, while Chen Shi suggested that he and Li Tianqing shell the Zhao family’s encampment with a Hongyi Cannon.

Prince Xiao, Jin Hongying, Li Jindou, and Granny Sha shattered the Evil Bodhisattva’s porcelain shell, but its bloodied body survived and began regenerating. As it threatened to consume them, Chen Yindu advanced toward it, chanting a golden-light incantation.

• The Evil Bodhisattva gathered life force in its demon domain and sensed that its metamorphosis was nearing completion.
• Prince Xiao, Jin Hongying, Li Jindou, and Granny Sha attacked using knowledge of the talismans, striking the creature’s weapons and breaking its porcelain body.
• The bloodied Evil Bodhisattva rose from the shards, seized the Fine Waist and Bailao swords, and overwhelmed the group with an illusion until Granny Sha drove it back.
• The Evil Bodhisattva regenerated its porcelain skin and declared that it would turn the four fighters into nourishment.
• Xuan Shan watched as Chen Yindu bowed farewell and walked toward the Evil Bodhisattva, chanting an incantation that surrounded him in golden light and talismans.

Chen Yindu’s golden Luo Tian Grand Ceremony nearly destroyed the Evil Bodhisattva, but its taunts stirred Chen Yindu’s demonic nature and the ceremony collapsed. Chen Yindu annihilated the Evil Bodhisattva, then Xuan Shan suppressed his expanding demonic domain and told him he could no longer remain in the mortal realm.

• The Evil Bodhisattva shattered Li Jindou’s jade wheels and porcelanized Li Jindou, Jin Hongying, and Granny Sha while twisting Prince Xiao through the Bailao Sword.
• A golden Luo Tian Grand Ceremony trapped and refined the Evil Bodhisattva, while it taunted Chen Yindu about his desires and his nature as a dead malefic entity.
• Chen Yindu’s deities turned sinister, the ceremony dissipated, and the Evil Bodhisattva recovered in miniature form beside him.
• When the Evil Bodhisattva urged Chen Yindu to kill his grandson, Chen Yindu stomped it into the underworld and annihilated it, but his dark demonic domain expanded and he turned toward Prince Xiao.
• Xuan Shan and his oil-paper umbrella suppressed Chen Yindu’s demonic nature, and Chen Yindu regained clarity as Xuan Shan told him he could no longer stay in the mortal realm.

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing prepared a cannon while the Evil Bodhisattva’s domain collapsed and the porcelainized victims began to recover. They pursued the fleeing Zhao family and used black iron cannonballs to devastate the group, leaving Zhao Yanliang dead and the survivors running for their lives.

• Chen Shi and Li Tianqing prepared the Hongyi Cannon as Li Tianqing discussed the provincial examination and his possible plans to join the Divine Machine Battalion.
• Chen Yindu’s dark domain vanished, the Evil Bodhisattva’s domain dissolved, and porcelainized people and plants began to return to life.
• Chen Shi and Li Tianqing pursued the Zhao family scions and Imperial Guards as they fled Ganyang Mountain.
• Chen Shi hurled a black iron cannonball into the group, killing and maiming many Zhao family members and guards.
• Chen Shi and Li Tianqing detonated a second pair of cannonballs, shattering Zhao Yanliang’s golden core.
• Chen Shi caught up to Zhao Yanliang, broke his wrist, and killed him with a blow to the head.

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing pursued the surviving Zhao family forces from Ganyang Mountain, where Zhao Yanlong regained enough strength to flee toward Governor Zhao Tianbao’s camp. Chen Shi reached the camp and killed Zhao Yanlong and Zhao Duofu in front of the governor and his officials, then walked away.

• Chen Shi and Li Tianqing drove the Zhao family disciples and Imperial Guard out of Ganyang Mountain, killing many as the survivors fled toward the provincial capital.
• Zhao Yanlong recovered from his porcelain state while fleeing with Zhao Duofu and learned that his sixth brother and second daughter had been killed.
• Zhao Yanlong and Zhao Duofu reached the Governor’s camp, while Chen Shi ignored Li Tianqing’s warning and pursued them alone with the remaining black iron pellets.
• Chen Shi destroyed Zhao Yanlong’s approaching primordial spirit with exploding pellets as Zhao Tianbao and the officials mistook Chen Shi for a promising Zhao family youth.
• Chen Shi killed Zhao Duofu and beat Zhao Yanlong to death before meeting Zhao Tianbao’s gaze and walking away.

Chen Shi escaped after killing Zhao Yanlong, while Chen Yindu intervened to stop the Zhao Family’s pursuit and killed Governor Zhao Tianbao. Chen Shi and Li Tianqing returned to Huangpo Village, where they found signs that Ganyang Mountain had survived its demonic transformation and reunited with their injured companions and Grandpa.

• The Zhao Family and provincial officials chased Chen Shi, but Chen Yindu’s influence pacified them and sent them back toward the provincial capital.
• Chen Yindu confronted Zhao Tianbao, killed him, and left behind a final testament warning the Zhao Family to flee and preserve its bloodline.
• Chen Shi and Li Tianqing escaped to Ganyang Mountain and saw fish swimming again as a strange beast roared from the forest.
• Chen Shi returned to Huangpo Village, where the sacred tree had recovered and offered him a sweet crimson fruit.
• Chen Shi found Li Jindou, Jin Hongying, Granny Sha, and Prince Xiao badly injured, then saw Grandpa return carrying a cyan rain umbrella.

After the disaster, Chen Shi sold the ancient turtle shell to Shao Jing for a thousand taels and traveled with Grandpa to Xinxiang County City for medicine. Grandpa then took Chen Shi to a haunted courtyard in Youcai Village to meet his friends, while the Black-clothed Xuanshan watched from the fields.

• Chen Shi and Grandpa took the turtle shell to Qiaowan Town, where several cultivators tried to buy Black Pot along with it.
• Shao Jing identified the shell as belonging to a centuries-old temple turtle and bought it for a thousand taels of silver, warning Chen Shi about a would-be robber.
• Grandpa told Chen Shi the shell contained twenty-four luminous pearls and explained that Shao Jing had offered a fair price.
• Grandpa gave Chen Shi a medicinal formula to memorize, then took him to Xinxiang County City to buy herbs and onward to Youcai Village.
• Grandpa stopped at a haunted courtyard outside Youcai Village, and Chen Shi wondered whether Grandpa's friends were evil spirits as villagers warned them away.
• Chen Shi spotted the Black-clothed Xuanshan watching from a rapeseed field.

Chen Shi and Grandpa visited two old friends to ask them to become Chen Shi’s godmothers and protect him after Grandpa was gone. Both friends refused, but their reactions showed that they cared deeply about Grandpa and Chen Shi, and Grandpa continued toward another old friend.

• Grandpa asked Old Hu to become Chen Shi’s godmother, but Old Hu refused because he feared the consequences for the Fox Clan.
• After Grandpa and Chen Shi left, Old Hu revealed that Grandpa had built him a lavish man-made Ghost and God Domain, but he still refused the request out of fear of the infamy it would bring.
• Grandpa told Chen Shi that Old Hu would protect him after Grandpa was gone, and they traveled through the night with Black Pot guarding the cart.
• At dawn, Grandpa and Chen Shi reached a village and met Green Goat, who joked about sacrificing Chen Shi and making hotpot from Black Pot.
• Grandpa asked Green Goat to care for Chen Shi, but Green Goat refused and threatened them before retreating into the sacred tree.
• After Grandpa, Chen Shi, and Black Pot departed, Green Goat wept because Grandpa had told him he was going away.

Chen Shi’s grandfather departed for the underworld, leaving Chen Shi devastated and grieving with Black-pot. The chapter ended when Chen Shi used his grandfather’s talisman to contact his estranged father, Chen Tang, and told him that Grandpa had died.

• Grandpa told Chen Shi about friends who might help him and promised he would do everything to keep his grandson alive.
• Chen Shi prayed at the stone tablet godmother for Grandpa’s safety, but the tablet did not respond.
• Grandpa appeared to Chen Shi in a dream to say he was leaving, and Granny Sha woke Chen Shi to tell him Grandpa had truly gone to the underworld.
• Chen Shi used the Ram Horn Heavenly Spirit Lamp to light Grandpa’s path while Granny Sha sang him across, then mourned and kept vigil by the coffin.
• Chen Shi used Grandpa’s Thousand Mile Sound Talisman to contact Chen Tang and told him that Grandpa had left.

After learning that Chen Tang regarded him as a ghost rather than his son, Chen Shi discovered that Chen Yindu had descended alive in body to the Underworld and took comfort in believing his grandfather could be met again. As those around him departed, Chen Shi received the West King's Jade Seal without knowing its value, while Chen Yindu ventured deeper into the Underworld to prepare a realm for him.

• Chen Tang told Chen Shi that his son had died ten years earlier and rejected Chen Shi as a resurrected monster, while Chen Shi refused his offer of help.
• At Chen Yindu's funeral, Granny Sha explained that he had died months ago and gone to the Underworld as a Corpse-Liberated Immortal, but Chen Shi insisted that his grandfather was still alive there.
• Jin Hongying, Li Tianqing, Li Jindou, and Granny Sha said their farewells, and Li Tianqing gave Chen Shi the promised books before warning that the treasure ship was more dangerous than the kiln.
• Prince Xiao gave Chen Shi the Water-Fire Tempering Art and left a jade seal hanging from Scholar Zhu's willow tree; Chen Shi identified it as the Imperial Seal of Heaven's Mandate.
• Jin Hongying pursued Prince Xiao and demanded that he hand over the West King's Jade Seal as he fled in his carriage.
• Chen Yindu traveled deep into the Underworld to seek the source of Chen Shi's Ghost Hand Seal and vowed to forge a realm there for his grandson.

Chen Shi delivered the Water-Fire Tempering Art to Granny Sha and learned that a moon had appeared in daylight, an anomaly that could let evil spirits roam by day. As the strange events spread, Chen Shi answered a village’s call for help and confronted a giant gray rat spirit devouring a sleeping man.

• Chen Shi realized Grandpa had used the Water-Fire Tempering Art to preserve his corpse after his death and found that the jade seal made the mysterious stone box glow.
• Chen Shi gave Granny Sha a copy of the Water-Fire Tempering Art, and she accepted it despite recognizing Grandpa’s scheme to ensure she would protect him.
• Chen Shi and Granny Sha saw a crescent moon appear beside two suns, while Xuan Shan worried that the True Gods from Beyond the Heavens had begun to change.
• Chen Shi sold talismans as strange daytime disturbances spread, then agreed to help a village whose resident was being eaten by an unseen evil spirit.
• Chen Shi saw a tall gray rat spirit gnawing on the man’s arm, and the spirit turned to ask whether Chen Shi could see it.

Chen Shi killed a gray-robed mouse spirit and discovered its tail could put people to sleep, then hurried to Luwei Town to deal with two cultivators trapped inside a pregnant woman. He used talismans to induce Cui'e’s labor, and the chapter ended with the birth of twins.

• Chen Shi killed the gray-robed mouse with the thunderous force of his punch and found an invisibility talisman on its body.
• Chen Shi tested the mouse’s sleep-inducing tail on himself and Black Pot, then returned to selling talismans.
• A villager asked Chen Shi to help Cui'e, whose belly carried the voices of two adults, and Chen Shi rushed to Luwei Town in his talisman-powered cart.
• Chen Shi recognized the voices as a master and disciple whose Nascent Souls had been trapped in Cui'e’s womb.
• After collecting five taels of silver, Chen Shi pasted a fetus-calming talisman on Cui'e’s navel and a labor-inducing talisman on her lower back.
• Cui'e gave birth to a boy and a girl.

Chen Shi handled a series of evil-spirit incidents during the Moon Festival and learned that Grandma Black Mountain was a powerful temple deity seeking to take over Luwei Town. As Chen Shi returned to Huangpo Village, her rat spirits appeared on the road to threaten him, prompting him to plan how to strengthen himself.

• Chen Shi explained to Black Pot how he had saved two infants carrying the Nascent Souls of cultivators, realizing that he had become a capable Fu master.
• Chen Shi drove an evil spirit out of a butcher in Shilanzi Village, rescued a girl from an evil spirit, and killed grey-clothed rats that had eaten villagers.
• The little Taoist priest told Chen Shi that Grandma Black Mountain was worshipped at a temple, then returned beaten and warned that she planned to take over Luwei Town.
• Chen Shi sold thunder talismans through the rest of the Moon Festival and set out for Huangpo Village with Black Pot.
• Grey-clothed rat spirits confronted Chen Shi on the mountain road, delivered Grandma Black Mountain's threat, and vanished before he could fight them.
• Chen Shi decided to buy an iron hat and seek the complete Three Lights Righteous Qi Art so he could face Grandma Black Mountain.

Chen Shi entered True King's Tomb seeking the complete Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, but found that its stone tablets all omitted the Divine Shrine and Divine Embryo realms. After escaping the tomb, he fought a mouse empowered by Grandma Black Mountain, then learned the Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword and unexpectedly began condensing a Golden Core.

• Chen Shi took the Imperial Seal of Heaven's Mandate into True King's Tomb, where it awakened the Ghost and God Domain instead of protecting him.
• Chen Shi read the tomb's stone tablets and discovered that every cultivation method skipped the Divine Shrine and Divine Embryo realms before the Golden Core.
• Chen Shi escaped the tomb, while its guardians mistook him for a Holy Envoy carrying the West King's Jade Seal and wondered why he had left so quickly.
• A gray mouse summoned Grandma Black Mountain's power and knocked Chen Shi back, but Black Pot killed it before it could attack again.
• Chen Shi decided to practice the Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword, mastered its six forms, and sent sword qi across the Yudai River.
• Chen Shi's vital qi, true qi, and spirit began rotating into a Golden Core, and he realized the process was wrong because he had never cultivated the missing realms.

Chen Shi completed the first revolution of his Golden Core at the Mountain Lord Temple, where the stone casket vanished and the temple’s power was released. After realizing his cultivation defied accepted rules, he chose to keep following the True King’s path, while Grandma Black Mountain’s procession arrived to claim Luwei Town.

• Chen Shi went to the Mountain Lord Temple and cultivated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, forming a cyan inner elixir in his Dan Yuan Cauldron.
• The stone casket unlocked and shrank into a tiny stone as sunlight filled the temple, and a voice announced that its power could finally flow and an avatar could be formed.
• Chen Shi completed the first revolution, found that his Divine Shrine and true qi remained without a divine embryo, and resolved to continue cultivating despite the contradiction.
• An evil Sui attacked Chen Shi in the wind but fled when his Golden Core’s light burned its hands.
• Grandma Black Mountain’s rat procession entered Luwei Town, and a rat announced that the town must hold festivals and sacrifice boys and maidens to her.

Grandma Black Mountain defeated the young taoist priest of Luwei Town and set out to kill Chen Shi after the Zi hour. When she entered Chen Shi’s dream, something hidden there overwhelmed her, leaving her fate unclear while Chen Shi woke to find the wounded village Godmother hiding in his bed.

• The young taoist priest attacked Grandma Black Mountain with the ancient bronze bell, but Grandma Black Mountain swallowed both him and the bell with the black hole in her statue’s face.
• Grandma Black Mountain ordered her rat-people to build her a traveling palace and declared she would kill Chen Shi after the Zi hour passed.
• As Grandma Black Mountain approached Huangpo Village, her power withered the ancient tree and the village Godmother’s arms, driving the maiden to take refuge in Chen Shi’s bed.
• Grandma Black Mountain entered Chen Shi’s dream to devour him, but something inside the dream terrified her and dragged her into the darkness.
• Chen Shi woke and chased the armless village Godmother from his bed, while Granny Sha and the bearded man wondered what powerful being lived inside him.

Chen Shi went to the county town to seek a county examination quota and learned that Grandma Black Mountain had been carried off by rat-men after the young taoist priest died. Enraged by the priest’s death and Luwei Town’s destruction, Chen Shi set out to find Grandma Black Mountain Temple and kill her that afternoon.

• Granny Sha and the bearded man concluded that a mysterious soul-devouring evil spirit was parasitizing Chen Shi, while Green Goat left in frustration and Granny Sha judged Grandma Black Mountain too damaged to threaten him soon.
• Chen Shi visited the village godmother, waited for Grandma Black Mountain to retaliate, then focused on studying for the approaching Spring Examination.
• Chen Shi traveled to the county town, witnessed the execution of the Zhao family, and asked Shao Jing to arrange a place for him to take the county examination.
• Cui'e’s husband told Chen Shi that rat-men had carried off Grandma Black Mountain and that the people of Luwei Town had fled after losing their godmother.
• Chen Shi blamed himself for the young taoist priest’s death and vowed to find Grandma Black Mountain Temple and kill Grandma Black Mountain that afternoon.

Chen Shi borrowed the Mountain Lord Temple’s gilded crossbeam and inscribed it with thunder talismans to counter Grandma Black Mountain’s immense incense-powered magic. He reached Black Mountain and began slaughtering the mice guarding Grandma’s temple, declaring that he had come to level the mountain and smash the temple.

• Chen Shi bought iron hats for himself and Black Dog, then went to the Mountain Lord Temple to find a treasure that could break Grandma Black Mountain’s magic.
• Chen Shi removed the front hall’s gilded dragon-painted crossbeam, inscribed it with dozens of thunder talismans, and carried it to Black Mountain with Black Dog.
• Chen Shi arrived as Grandma Black Mountain’s mice and the villagers worshipped, strengthening the divine likeness taking shape inside her temple.
• Chen Shi introduced himself to the mouse guards and used the Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword to cut through the guards and challenge the five mouse elders.
• Chen Shi told Black Dog to stay at the foot of the mountain and fought his way uphill, killing the mice with sword Qi and the thunder-charged crossbeam.
• Chen Shi announced that he had come to level Grandma Black Mountain’s mountain and smash her temple.