Chapter Summaries

Chen Shi stormed Grandma Black Mountain Temple, using his strength, speed, and sword qi to cut through the gray-furred rats and their elders. The golden dragon on his ridgepole destroyed the temple and Grandma Black Mountain, and Chen Shi finished off the last surviving elder.

• Chen Shi charged up the mountain and slaughtered the gray-furred rats with his ridgepole, thunder talismans, and sword qi.
• Chen Shi shattered a white-bearded elder rat’s Golden Core force field with successive sword strikes, killing it and driving back the others.
• Chen Shi broke the arms and necks of two more elders, then hurled his ridgepole through Grandma Black Mountain Temple’s defenses toward its main hall.
• Chen Shi evaded the surviving elders’ attacks and sent the ridgepole crashing toward Grandma Black Mountain’s statue, which opened its head into a gaping maw and seized him with its many arms.
• Golden dragons on the ridgepole came to life, shattered the statue and flattened the temple, destroying Grandma Black Mountain’s transcendent power.
• Chen Shi cut the unconscious white-bearded elder in two with sword qi.

Chen Shi defeated Grandma Black Mountain, returned her temple beam to the Mountain Lord Temple, and refused the villagers’ offers of worship. After he safely passed the night without his illness flaring up, Granny Sha and the green goat wondered why consuming so many souls had caused no reaction and considered summoning Chen Yindu for an explanation.

• Chen Shi carried the vermilion beam down Black Mountain while Black Pot killed the fleeing demon rats, and he collected the rats’ valuable tail tips.
• The private-school tutor and local villagers thanked Chen Shi for killing Grandma Black Mountain and offered to build him a living shrine, but Chen Shi rejected their worship and explained he had acted to avenge a friend.
• The tutor concluded the villagers should remain grateful but respect Chen Shi’s wishes, and Chen Shi returned the beam to the Mountain Lord Temple before heading home.
• Chen Shi brewed his medicine and practiced through the night, but his illness did not flare up despite the many souls consumed during the battle.
• Granny Sha and the green goat questioned why Chen Shi’s illness had not acted up, and Granny Sha agreed to try summoning Chen Yindu for an answer.

Granny Sha and her companions transformed themselves into ghosts and gods and descended into the Underworld to find Chen Yindu, while Chen Shi visited the Mountain Lord Temple and then met Shao Jing in the county city. Shao Jing bought Chen Shi’s dangerous mouse tail tips, and Chen Shi kept the tiny pebble’s secret to himself.

• Granny Sha used an altar to send herself, the Green Goat, and the bearded man into the Underworld, disguising them as ghosts and gods and leaving five ghost kings to guard the incense.
• Chen Shi found the altar outside Huangpo Village, then went to the Mountain Lord Temple, where extraordinary power was shaping something inside the shrine.
• Chen Shi traveled to the county city and met Fu Leisheng, who accepted him as a disciple and invited him to visit Wencai Academy.
• Chen Shi showed Shao Jing a mouse tail tip, and Shao Jing demonstrated that it could put people to sleep and be abused for robbery, assault, or murder.
• Shao Jing bought all of Chen Shi’s mouse tail tips for ten taels each, while Chen Shi decided not to show him the tiny pebble.

Shao Jing found a way to use the mouse-tail tips for medicine instead of exploiting or destroying them, while Chen Shi visited Wencai Academy and learned about its fox cultivators. In the Underworld, Chen Yindu revealed that countless evil spirits had entered Chen Shi through the azure ghost hand, leaving everyone wondering what Chen Shi truly was.

• Shao Jing struggled over whether to profit from the mouse-tail tips, but Xiao Tao persuaded him that they could be used to relieve pain and save lives.
• Xiao Tao tricked Shao Jing into thinking she had fallen asleep, then teased him after he kissed her.
• Chen Shi met Hu Feifei at Wencai Academy and learned that her Hu family were fox cultivators who studied among humans.
• Fu Leisheng accepted Chen Shi’s silver, promised help with the county examination, and warned him to bring heavy tea next time.
• Hu Feifei warned Chen Shi that Fu Leisheng had sold a student’s divine embryo and said he should neither excel nor perform poorly in the examination.
• Chen Yindu showed Granny Sha, Green Goat, and the bearded man an enormous azure ghost deity whose arm connected the Underworld to Chen Shi, explaining that over a hundred evil spirits had entered his body.

Chen Yindu refused to let anyone harm Chen Shi and went to block the source of the Underworld spirits entering him. Meanwhile, Granny Sha, Green Goat, and Hu Xiaoliang were ambushed in a strange fog and ended up tumbling from an altar after Gouzi burst out of the smoke.

• Granny Sha, Green Goat, and Hu Xiaoliang urged Chen Yindu to kill Chen Shi before the spirits inside him became a threat, but Chen Yindu vowed to protect his grandson.
• Granny Sha proposed watching for spirits that escaped Chen Shi and sealing the source, and Chen Yindu agreed to plug it while entrusting the Yang World to them.
• Chen Yindu asked whether they had found King Yama, then headed toward the cyan ghost-god's right arm.
• Granny Sha, Green Goat, and Hu Xiaoliang sensed they were being watched and hurried toward the Chao Feng Incense Burner, but a woman in white lured them into a disorienting fog filled with monsters.
• Chen Shi saw the giant beast carrying Granny Sha, Green Goat, and Hu Xiaoliang stampede toward him, and Gouzi leaped out of the smoke, sending the three tumbling off the altar.
• Green Goat accused Gouzi of being abnormal, but Granny Sha and Hu Xiaoliang hurriedly stopped him from saying more.

Chen Shi reassured himself that his grandfather was well, then joined his classmates in investigating the students who had gone missing. The goose-selling old man captured Chen Shi and the students in a sack, transforming Chen Shi into a goose, while Black Pot remained a dog.

• Granny Sha told Chen Shi that his grandfather had received his offerings and was living comfortably in the underworld, then left with the Five Great Ghost Kings.
• Granny Sha, Green Goat, and the bearded man discussed whether Black Pot had come back from the underworld with Old Chen three years earlier.
• Chen Shi studied for the county examination, examined the forming Mountain Lord statue, and learned that students had gone missing in the city.
• Hu Feifei persuaded Chen Shi and the other students to follow Fu Leisheng to the East Market, suspecting their teacher was behind the disappearances.
• A white-haired goose seller stuffed Hu Feifei, Shen Yusheng, the other students, Chen Shi, and Black Pot into a sack; Chen Shi turned into a goose, and the seller offered the captured geese to the County Magistrate.

Chen Shi and the scholars were transformed into geese and taken to Magistrate Geng’s residence, where they discovered that his wife was an evil spirit who planned to eat them. Fu Leisheng arrived to rescue the scholars, but the magistrate’s wife revealed her true form as she confronted him.

• Chen Shi and the other scholars rode into the city trapped as geese inside the old goose vendor’s enchanted cloth bag, and Chen Shi showed he could use his Golden Core to counter its talismans.
• Magistrate Geng’s servants hung the scholars in cages in the backyard, where the magistrate’s wife transformed into a long, centipede-like creature and prepared to eat them.
• Fu Leisheng came to claim the geese he had paid for, and Magistrate Geng invited him to dinner after the old goose vendor denied receiving payment.
• Fu Leisheng made Hu Feifei insult the magistrate’s wife, then demanded to take all the Wencai Academy students away.
• Magistrate Geng agreed to release the academy’s scholars, but his wife refused and transformed into her monstrous form.

Chen Shi discovered that Magistrate Geng and his wife had tricked Fu Leisheng into letting the students go, while Fu Leisheng exposed the goose-selling old man as an enemy and killed him. Chen Shi then attacked the magistrate couple, killing Geng and fighting the centipede-bodied wife as Fu arrived.

• Magistrate Geng pretended that his wife Qu Ling had become an evil spirit through cultivation and persuaded Fu Leisheng to take the students away in goose form.
• Magistrate Geng and Qu Ling revealed their deception and planned to kill Fu Leisheng with the Myriad Souls Banner, while Chen Shi returned to their backyard as a goose.
• Fu Leisheng recognized that the goose-selling old man was an evil spirit, killed him with a bamboo pole, and sent Hu Feifei to lead the students back to Wencai Academy.
• Chen Shi transformed back into a youth, killed Magistrate Geng, and attacked Qu Ling as she revealed her centipede form and unleashed her blood-red Golden Core.
• Chen Shi charged through Qu Ling’s blood light with his powerful qi and blood, and her battered head smashed through a wall as Fu Leisheng reached the backyard.

Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng escaped the yamen after defeating the evil magistrate and his wife, while Fu Leisheng concealed how much Chen Shi’s strength astonished him. Back at Wencai Academy, County Vice Magistrate Zheng Shiyun praised Fu Leisheng for the rescue, and Fu distributed the reward money to Chen Shi and Hu Feifei.

• Fu Leisheng discovered the magistrate’s wife was already dead from Chen Shi’s precise sword strikes and realized Chen Shi had forged a Golden Core despite having no divine embryo.
• Chen Shi stopped reaching for the Myriad Souls Banner after Fu Leisheng warned that taking the county’s treasure would make him an enemy of the Western Ox Continent.
• Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng left the yamen, and Fu restored the transformed students to human form with his Golden Core.
• Fu Leisheng told the students to stay at the academy until County Vice Magistrate Zheng Shiyun arranged their return home.
• Zheng Shiyun credited Fu Leisheng with solving the case, and Fu accepted silver from him for the academy.
• Fu Leisheng gave Chen Shi and Hu Feifei shares of the silver, claiming that accepting wealth from defeated enemies did not violate a gentleman’s conduct.

Chen Shi took the county examination and wrote an answer that alarmed examiner Tian Huaiyi, while fellow Wencai Academy student Shen Yusheng received a True God Descent. Fu Leisheng decided to rewrite Chen Shi’s paper to protect himself and the academy from the consequences.

• Chen Shi and Hu Feifei explored the night market, discussed how the Myriad Souls Banner guarded the county, and wondered whether Magistrate Geng was an evil spirit.
• Chen Shi and Hu Feifei spent the night at Wencai Academy talking about their ambitions before the county examination began the next day.
• Examiners used a clear mirror to catch a student cheating with a Knowledge Rat, while Chen Shi quickly completed his essay and submitted it first.
• Tian Huaiyi read Chen Shi’s paper and feared it could be treated as rebellious, while a crimson light descended on Shen Yusheng and bestowed a divine embryo.
• Fu Leisheng and Tian Huaiyi discussed the danger of Chen Shi’s answer, and Fu Leisheng decided to write a replacement paper for him.

Fu Leisheng and Tian Huaiyi tried to protect Shen Yusheng’s divine embryo, while Chen Shi took the martial examination and shattered the old sword-qi records. The chapter ended with Tian Huaiyi and Fu Leisheng debating how to falsify Chen Shi’s scores without attracting attention to his literary-exam cheating.

• Fu Leisheng and Tian Huaiyi discussed protecting Shen Yusheng’s Wenchang Mysterious Embryo and recalled a prodigy named Chen Shi whose Innate Dao Embryo had been stolen.
• Tian Huaiyi ordered the examiners to keep Shen Yusheng’s identity and embryo grade secret, but the news spread throughout Xinxiang County by afternoon.
• At the martial examination, Hu Feifei pierced seventeen straw screens with her sword qi, astonishing Tian Huaiyi and the examiners.
• Chen Shi unleashed sword qi that broke the thirty-six-zhang record, but a gust of wind deflected his first strike before its full range could be measured.
• Fu Leisheng and Tian Huaiyi chased Chen Shi’s remaining sword strikes and measured them reaching as far as eighty-four zhang, while several strikes damaged the grounds and nearby trees.
• Tian Huaiyi and Fu Leisheng worried that reporting Chen Shi’s scores would expose his literary-exam cheating, and they struggled to decide how much to falsify them.

Chen Shi’s eighty-four-zhang Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword stunned the Li Family and drew the attention of Xijing, while Li Xiaozheng recognized him as the child scholar who had supposedly died ten years earlier. Chen Shi reunited with Li Tianqing, who warned that the true gods might refuse to grant him a Divine Embryo.

• Fu Leisheng and Tian Huaiyi tested the Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword and found that even their Golden Core cultivation could not send its sword Qi beyond about thirty zhang.
• Li Xiaozheng arrived with members of the Li Family, witnessed Chen Shi’s achievement, and ordered the news sent to Xijing.
• Li Xiaozheng recognized Chen Shi as the child scholar who had returned from the dead, and the report caused turmoil among the officials in Xijing.
• Chen Shi met Li Tianqing, who explained that his grandfather had not come along and helped Chen Shi review his sword technique.
• Li Tianqing warned Chen Shi that the true gods might refuse to bestow a Divine Embryo on him, leaving Chen Shi stunned.

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing exposed the hypocrisy of Li Jun and the other young scholars, then demonstrated their Golden Core abilities in a fight on Qingqu River. After returning to Huangpo Village and offering incense to Godmother, Chen Shi was drawn into a strange space and found an ancient temple.

• Li Jun asked Li Tianqing to guide the Li family youths around Xinxiang, and Chen Shi accompanied them to Qingqu River.
• Li Jun and the others condemned the government and lamented the people’s suffering before heading to a brothel, where they were thrown out for lacking money and Chen Shi paid their boat fare.
• Chen Shi revealed that he had cultivated a Golden Core, and he and Li Tianqing fought across the river until Chen Shi walked away and Li Tianqing went ashore.
• Chen Shi returned to Huangpo Village, told Scholar Zhu about the county examination, and offered incense to Godmother.
• A beam of light shot from the stone tablet and transported Chen Shi into a desolate space, where he discovered an ancient temple bearing inscriptions about establishing laws and relying on oneself.

Chen Shi discovered that a mysterious temple had appeared behind his head and that Scholar Zhu had become its divine embryo, strengthening Chen Shi’s cultivation. After seeking answers about the temple and finding none, Chen Shi saw the Mountain Lord’s unfinished idol vanish from its shrine and reappear inside his own temple as a divine embryo.

• Chen Shi entered an illusory temple, then returned to his body and learned that the same temple had appeared behind his head in place of his divine shrine.
• Chen Shi activated the temple, and Scholar Zhu found himself seated in its shrine, helping Chen Shi circulate qi and increasing the power and range of his sword qi.
• Chen Shi offered incense into the temple, and Scholar Zhu absorbed it but could not leave until Chen Shi thought him back out.
• Chen Shi noticed the stone tablet godmother’s power had faded, learned Scholar Zhu had been dead for about a thousand years, and wondered about the ancient secrets of Huangtu Ridge.
• Chen Shi asked Granny Zhuang and the Great Serpent Xuan Shan about the temple, but neither explained its origin.
• Chen Shi found the Mountain Lord’s nearly formed idol had vanished from its shrine and saw it inside the temple behind his head, realizing he had gained a divine embryo.

Chen Shi’s divine shrine awakened the Mountain Lord Sun, drawing incense and spirits from across the Ganyang Mountains. As the Mountain Lord’s image began to stabilize, a fireball from beyond the heavens destroyed the Mountain Lord Temple, but Chen Shi realized he had saved the deity inside it.

• A colossal yellow tiger emerged from Chen Shi’s small temple, and its aura awakened spirits throughout the Ganyang Mountains.
• Granny Sha, Hu Xiaoliang, the green goat, the old turtle, and a young silver dragon headed toward the Mountain Lord Temple as spirits gathered to pay homage.
• Li Xiaozheng sensed the powerful presence in the mountains and worried it would threaten the Li family’s plans to seize the Great Ming Treasure Ship.
• The Great Serpent Xuan Shan recognized the awakened Mountain Lord as Sun, and spirits offered incense that helped his divine image form in Chen Shi’s temple.
• As Chen Shi left the mountain, a blazing object from beyond the heavens struck the Mountain Lord Temple, destroying it and killing many spirit beasts.
• Chen Shi survived the blast behind protective trigrams and realized that he had saved the Mountain Lord.

Chen Shi revealed that his divine shrine had become a little temple containing the Mountain Lord, while Granny Sha and the others warned him to keep it secret and investigated the strange godmother behind it. At Wencai Academy, Tian Huaiyi took Shen Yusheng to seek protection from people hunting divine embryos, but he returned after midnight covered in blood and said he had failed to protect him.

• Chen Shi showed Granny Sha, the Green Goat, and the bearded man the little temple behind his head, where they recognized the Mountain Lord seated in its shrine and urged Chen Shi to keep his return secret.
• Granny Sha, the Green Goat, and the bearded man went to Huangtu Ridge to investigate Chen Shi's godmother, but the ridge's immense pressure forced them to offer incense at the stone tablet before they could leave.
• At Wencai Academy, Tian Huaiyi warned Chen Shi that Shen Yusheng's first-grade Wenchang divine embryo made him a target for people who stole embryos, and said he would shelter Shen Yusheng beneath the Myriad Souls Banner.
• Tian Huaiyi took Shen Yusheng to the county yamen while Fu Leisheng stayed at the academy with Chen Shi.
• After midnight, Tian Huaiyi appeared blood-soaked outside the academy window, knelt before Fu Leisheng, and confessed that he had failed to protect Shen Yusheng.

After discovering Tian Huaiyi and Shen Yusheng had been murdered, Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng investigated the scene, while Fu quietly prepared for a dangerous reckoning. On the day of the Great Sacrifice of Divine Descent, Chen Shi abandoned his chance to receive a divine embryo and left to kill someone.

• Fu Leisheng learned from Chen Shi that Tian Huaiyi had left him a bloodied dream warning of trouble at the county yamen, then broke down grieving for his former student.
• Fu Leisheng and Chen Shi found Tian Huaiyi and Shen Yusheng dead at the yamen; they realized the Myriad Souls Banner had been turned against Tian Huaiyi and suspected an outsider was responsible.
• Fu Leisheng arranged coffins for the two dead men, sent his family away, and told Chen Shi not to investigate his affairs.
• Chen Shi placed first in the county examination, but Shen Yusheng's name was missing from the posted rankings and news of Tian Huaiyi's death remained concealed.
• At the Great Sacrifice of Divine Descent, Chen Shi left the procession and told Hu Feifei he was going to kill someone.

Chen Shi killed Zheng Shiyun after learning that the Li family had bought Shen Yusheng’s divine embryo, then joined Fu Leisheng on the way to confront them. At the Li family’s residence, Li Tianxiu received a stolen divine embryo and rode ahead, where an azure projectile pierced his head.

• Chen Shi found Zheng Shiyun impaled at home, learned the provincial governor’s Li family had bought Shen Yusheng’s divine embryo, and killed Zheng with the Zi Wu Zhan Xie Sword.
• Chen Shi caught up with Fu Leisheng, prepared sharpened bamboo stakes, and traveled with him toward the Li family’s residence.
• The boat girl ferried Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng across the Qingqu River and told them where the Li family was staying.
• Xia Weiyin and Yan Jingshu learned that Sister-in-law Gu had arranged for Li Tianxiu to receive a divine embryo taken from a child, and Sister-in-law Gu said the family had paid for it.
• Li Tianxiu rode ahead of the family’s carriages, and an azure flash pierced through the back and front of his head.

Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng attacked the Li Family convoy, killing Li Tianxiu and several guards before Chen Shi used a Nine Yang Heavenly Thunder Summoning Talisman Script to shatter four Golden Cores. With thunder suppressing their opponents, Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng charged into the formation.

• A piece of green bamboo pierced Li Tianxiu's head, and Sister-in-law Gu ordered the Li Family to protect the women in the carriages.
• Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng approached with Black Dog as Chen Shi activated a talisman during the True God Descent ceremony.
• Four Golden Core experts attacked Fu Leisheng, but Chen Shi's Nine Yang Heavenly Thunder Summoning Talisman Script called lightning that shattered their Golden Cores.
• Chen Shi said he could summon rain or thunder with other talismans, then charged forward with his wood-chopping knife as bamboo shot from his creel.
• Fu Leisheng charged toward the carriage formation with his bamboo pole while Chen Shi cut down Imperial Guards and retainers.

Fu Leisheng and Chen Shi fought through the Li Family retainers and Imperial Guard, but Mr. Zeng stopped them before they could reach the carriages. Xia Weiyin revealed who had arranged the murder of Fu Leisheng’s disciple and offered him justice, then demanded his life in return; Chen Shi stopped Fu Leisheng from killing himself and declared her judgment wrong.

• Fu Leisheng and Chen Shi killed Li Family retainers and Imperial Guard along the riverside road, with Chen Shi using green bamboo and his woodcutter’s saber to clear high positions and gunmen.
• Mr. Zeng revealed his Nascent Soul Realm strength, shattered Fu Leisheng’s bamboo spear, and forced Chen Shi and Fu Leisheng back before bowing to the First and Second Madams.
• Xia Weiyin halted Yan Jingshu’s revenge and had Sister-in-law Gu confess that she had bribed Zheng Shiyun, murdered Tian Huaiyi, wounded Shen Yusheng, and taken his divine embryo using the Earth Book’s control over the Myriad Souls Banner.
• Sister-in-law Gu revealed that she was a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, then obeyed Xia Weiyin’s order to commit suicide and died when heavenly thunder destroyed her Nascent Soul.
• Xia Weiyin declared that Fu Leisheng had to pay for killing Li Family members, and Fu Leisheng agreed to die in exchange for Chen Shi’s safety.
• Chen Shi seized Fu Leisheng’s wrist before he could kill himself and told Xia Weiyin that her judgment was wrong.