Chapter Summaries

Xia Fan weighed whether to leave Qingshan Town before the Great Desolation Evil Night while caring for the recovering Li. Their conversation revealed that Li sought revenge on the Bureau of Military Affairs to rescue her former master, who had once been an Azure Blade.

• Xia Fan told Wei Wushuang he needed until the next day to decide whether to withdraw from the examination.
• Xia Fan returned to the inn and found Li awake, then checked her wounds and urged her to rest.
• Li asked why Xia Fan had saved her, and he said he wanted to continue their cooperation long-term.
• Li refused because she intended to take revenge on the Bureau of Military Affairs and rescue her master, whom it had captured eight years earlier.
• Li revealed that her master had defected from the Bureau of Military Affairs and had once been an Azure Blade.

Xia Fan learned that Li had been trained by a former Azure Blade and agreed to help her find her master in exchange for her knowledge. After Li explained the Great Desolation Evil Night and the dangers beneath Qingshan Town, Xia Fan told her he had already found a way to pass the Scholar Examination.

• Li told Xia Fan that her missing master had once been an Azure Blade and had taught her Sorcery Arts and knowledge of the Bureau of Military Affairs.
• Xia Fan offered to help Li find her master if she shared what she had learned, and Li agreed on the condition that he pass the Scholar Examination and join the Bureau.
• Li explained the Great Desolation Evil Night, including how resentful qi animated corpses and why well passages could offer shelter from the creatures.
• Li warned Xia Fan that the safe spaces beneath Qingshan Town were limited and that the larger passages might already be occupied by powerful families.
• Xia Fan noticed that Li was feverish, told her to rest, and said he had found a way to pass the examination.

In the main tent, Ba Xingtian and the inspector reviewed the examination and learned that Luo Qingqing was coordinating an evacuation from Qingshan Town. As Luo Qingqing prepared the evacuation, Xia Fan arrived asking to speak with her.

• Ba Xingtian told Shen Chun that the Qingshan Array had a history of unusually low pass rates and candidate deaths, and Shen Chun estimated that seventy or eighty candidates might pass this time.
• Shen Chun reported that Luo Qingqing had shared her discoveries with the candidates and was organizing their evacuation, earning Ba Xingtian's praise.
• The short inspector questioned Shen Chun about Xia Fan's growing funds and Source of Spirit Fire, then asked whether Shen Chun had noticed anyone who might be the Listener.
• Luo You'er gave Luo Qingqing the evacuation list, and Luo Qingqing planned to use Wooden Kites and hemp ropes to get the candidates out of town the next morning.
• Luo You'er told Luo Qingqing that Xia Fan had come to see her.

Xia Fan brought fried crabs to Luo Qingqing and told her he had a better way to face the Great Desolation Evil Night, one that required keeping everyone in Qingshan Town. When the Release Platform and Wooden Kites were reported burning, Xia Fan admitted he had set the fire.

• Luo Qingqing agreed to meet Xia Fan, suspecting he had come to use the previous night's incident as leverage.
• Xia Fan served fried crabs to Luo Qingqing, Luo You'er, and the other Luo Family disciples, winning them over with the food.
• Xia Fan told Luo Qingqing that gathering everyone in Qingshan Town would give them a better chance against the Great Desolation Evil Night, and said he only needed to leave the examinees with no other choice.
• A Luo Family disciple reported that the Release Platform and Wooden Kites were on fire, and Luo Qingqing feared Xia Fan had caused it.
• Xia Fan confirmed to Luo Qingqing that he had set the fire.

After Xia Fan persuaded Luo Qingqing that the examinees could survive the Great Desolation Evil Night by fighting together, he announced a plan to turn Qingshan Town’s central buildings into a defensive city. He left the gathered examinees with two days to build defenses and organize supplies, medicine, and teams.

• Xia Fan told Luo Qingqing that the examinees could earn Spirit Fire by killing Evil Spirits and that he could help everyone who stayed pass the examination.
• Luo Qingqing argued that the well tunnels were safer, but Xia Fan proposed raising the defenses above the examination’s expected danger level by building a city.
• The next morning, Xia Fan addressed the examinees with a Xun-Character Wind-Calling Talisman and promised that everyone who remained could survive and pass.
• Xia Fan urged the examinees to transform the central grid of Qingshan Town by removing outer buildings, sealing inner gaps, and connecting the remaining houses into one defensive line.
• Xia Fan called for the examinees to gather medicinal materials, prepare replacements for the injured, and form a hunting team to collect food in Green Mountain.

Luo Qingqing and Xia Fan’s plan brought the candidates together to fortify Qingshan Town against Great Desolation Evil Night, while Luo Qingqing explained why she supported a better order even if it meant sharing credit with Xia Fan. As preparations advanced, Luo Qingqing predicted Xia Fan would place among the top candidates and they might serve in the same bureau.

• Luo Qingqing had Fang Xiandao taken to hear the new countermeasure after he angrily accused the Luo Family of sealing the mine tunnels.
• Luo Qingqing told Luo Tang she chose Xia Fan’s plan because it established a better order, despite the risk of losing credit and angering her family’s eldest senior brother.
• Candidates organized into teams to dismantle houses, seal gaps, build defenses, and hunt crabs, transforming Qingshan Town into a fortress.
• Xia Fan explained that shared survival pressures and the chance to pass the examination could suppress the candidates’ conflicts for the two days they needed to endure.
• Luo Qingqing told Xia Fan that surviving Evil Night could make him a top Scholar Examination candidate assigned to the Capital Region, and suggested they might serve in the same bureau.

Xia Fan discussed the dangers of the Capital Region with Li, who questioned whether he could survive the Scholar Examination and reach it. As the examinees prepared to defend Qingshan Town through the night, an unnatural white mist spread over Green Mountain and swallowed the surroundings.

• Xia Fan fed the injured Li and asked about Shangyuan, prompting her to describe the Bureau of Military Affairs’ role in confronting human threats and recount her clash with Ba Xingtian.
• Xia Fan asked Li to accompany him to the Capital Region, and she agreed while warning that he might not survive Great Desolation Evil Night.
• Li stayed awake beside Xia Fan and realized he treated her like an ordinary person rather than a monster.
• Xia Fan joined Luo Qingqing and Fei Nian at the inn’s defense command post, where they reviewed their plan to protect Qingshan Town until dawn.
• The examinees spotted unnatural white mist spreading from Green Mountain until the surrounding town became indistinct.

As the Great Desolation Evil Night began, Xia Fan and the examinees defended a fortress against the approaching Mei. The first Evil Spirit reached the west wall, where Fei Nian attacked it with a fire Sorcery Art.

• Luo Qingqing ordered the examinees to light torches and take their assigned defensive positions.
• Xia Fan joined Luo Tang's group on the west wall, where she explained the torch defenses and the retreat plan if the wall fell.
• After nightfall, unnatural fog and wind reduced visibility as black figures emerged from the darkness.
• Xia Fan saw the approaching Mei and discovered that the Evil Spirits had hollow, debris-covered bodies that made the living instinctively recoil.
• Fei Nian encouraged the examinees and used Li Technique Guiyou, Flying Flower Flame, to engulf the first Mei in fire.

Xia Fan and the examinees held off Mei from behind Qingshan Town’s walls, but Luo Tang discovered that firelight was the only thing slowing the Evil Spirits. As the group seemed to gain control, Ba Xingtian secretly increased the danger by combining Mei into a much larger shadow.

• Fei Nian destroyed a Mei with Flying Flower Flame, encouraging the examinees to attack the spirits from the walls with Sorcery Arts and arrows.
• Xia Fan and Luo Tang realized Mei moved several times faster in darkness and that shrinking firelight could leave the defenders vulnerable.
• Shen Chun and Ba Xingtian watched from a rooftop as they discussed Xia Fan’s role in organizing the defense and the short man’s mysterious plans.
• Ba Xingtian used a purple Talisman to thicken the mist and merge more than ten Mei into a single, much larger shadow.

A Demon breached Qingshan Town’s west wall, and Luo Qingqing arrived in time to save Fei Nian before Mei flooded through the darkened breach. The west-side reserve examinees fled, leaving the defenders overwhelmed as the chapter ended.

• Luo Fengqing revealed that he had secretly prepared a Dry Well evacuation plan and intended to use the chaos to escape with some Luo Family disciples.
• Luo Qingqing ordered Luo You'er to watch Luo Fengqing and went to support Fei Nian against the Demon.
• The Demon lunged into the west wall, collapsing part of it and leaving Fei Nian hanging from a broken beam.
• Luo Qingqing severed one of the Demon’s palms and helped Fei Nian escape, but the destroyed torches let Mei climb onto the wall.
• Luo Qingqing urged the examinees to fight the Mei with their wooden swords as the defenders fell into chaos.
• Luo Tang and Xia Fan saw that the west-side reserve examinees had fled after the wall collapsed.

Xia Fan stopped Zhang Yan from fleeing and carried a torch to the collapsed west wall, where Demon’s attack shattered the defenses. Luo Qingqing and Fei Nian prepared to fight Demon while Xia Fan guarded their retreat, leaving the breach’s fate uncertain.

• Xia Fan threatened Zhang Yan into staying, and Luo Tang used Life Bestowal to retrieve a spare torch for him.
• Xia Fan ran toward the breach with the lit torch as Demon crashed into the wall and broke it apart.
• Fang Xiandao used Kan Technique, Flower in Water, to slow Luo Qingqing’s fall and help her land safely.
• Fang Xiandao claimed he could hold the line, but a falling Xia Fan struck him unconscious.
• Xia Fan arrived with the torch, and Fei Nian told him to guard the area while Luo Qingqing and Fei Nian fought Demon.

Xia Fan and Luo Qingqing charged toward the Demon so Xia Fan could get close enough to ignite the wooden beams in the city-wall breach. The Demon struck back, and the chapter ended with Xia Fan beneath it while Luo Qingqing was captured by one of its ropes.

• Xia Fan proposed setting the exposed beams alight and asked Luo Qingqing and Fei Nian to cover him while he approached the Demon.
• Luo Qingqing guided Xia Fan across the rubble, explained movement techniques, and tested how close they could get to the Demon.
• The Demon attacked Luo Qingqing with black ropes, but she cut one and then led Xia Fan in a charge beneath its belly.
• When two Mei dropped in front of them, Luo Qingqing shielded Xia Fan and deflected the Demon's attack, but another rope struck her and seized her by the neck.
• Xia Fan reached directly beneath the Demon as it lifted Luo Qingqing toward its belly.

Xia Fan used his pendant—a magnet tightly wound with copper wire—as a unique catalyst to unleash a devastating Zhen Technique Thunderclap, destroying the Mei and badly wounding Demon at Qingshan Town’s wall. The examination ended, Li resolved to accompany Xia Fan toward the Capital Region, and Xia Fan concluded that he needed to investigate the Bureau of Military Affairs to understand his unusual sorcery.

• As Mei and black ropes closed in, Xia Fan tore off his pendant and cast the Zhen Technique, Gui Shen—Thunderclap.
• The lightning strike ignited Qingshan Town’s west wall, destroyed the Mei, and left Demon badly wounded as Ba Xingtian and Shen Chun watched.
• Ba Xingtian ended the examination and ordered Shen Chun to reactivate the grand formation and oversee the aftermath.
• Li reconsidered leaving Xia Fan and decided that she would face the Bureau of Military Affairs with him to seek her master.
• Xia Fan recognized that his pendant’s magnet and copper wire had enabled the Thunderclap, and decided he needed to go to the Bureau of Military Affairs to investigate his power.

Xia Fan and Luo Qingqing escaped the burning breach and discovered that Great Desolation Evil Night had ended, with Mei’s remains and Spirit Fires marking the examinees’ success. After a day of rest, the Proctor announced that 189 of 401 participants had passed the Qingshan Town Scholar Examination.

• Xia Fan helped the injured Luo Qingqing descend from the ruins as the sounds of battle fell silent.
• Xia Fan and Luo Qingqing reached the city wall and saw the black fog disperse and Spirit Fires spread across the landscape, signaling that Great Desolation Evil Night had ended.
• The examinees gathered in Qingshan Town a day later, where Xia Fan learned that the Bureau of Military Affairs had controlled the examination and that others credited Fang Xiandao with the Demon-Slaying Thunder.
• The Proctor announced that 189 examinees had passed and that those who fled without fighting had violated the third rule.

The Scholar Examination results placed Xia Fan around forty-first, despite Luo Qingqing arguing that his achievements deserved a higher rank. After the candidates departed, Shen Chun reflected that a mysterious official had deliberately lowered Xia Fan’s placement to influence his assignment, and decided not to investigate further.

• The Proctor revealed the rankings, placing Fang Xiandao, Luo Qingqing, and Fei Nian in first place and Xia Fan near the end of the fourth rank.
• Luo Qingqing challenged Xia Fan’s low placement, citing his plan for the final night and his decisive strike against the Demon.
• The Proctor insisted the rankings were final and asked Xia Fan whether he objected; Xia Fan shook his head rather than challenge the decision.
• The Proctor concluded the examination and told the candidates their appointment documents would reach their local offices within half a month.
• Shen Chun recalled that a short man had changed Xia Fan’s preliminary first-place ranking to forty-first, apparently to control where he would be assigned.
• Shen Chun decided not to investigate the short man or Xia Fan’s future assignment, believing the secret was safer left buried.

Xia Fan and Wei Wushuang arrived in Fenghua County, where Xia advised Wei on how to reveal his appointment to the people who had mocked him. Xia then lodged Li at Yingsong Inn and set out to rescue his master.

• Wei Wushuang worried that his peers would not believe he had passed the Scholar Examination, and Xia Fan advised him to arrange for an official to present his Appointment Decree during a gathering.
• Xia Fan told Wei Wushuang he would not stay at his family home, and they parted after entering Fenghua County.
• Xia Fan brought Li to a secluded suite at Yingsong Inn and helped her settle in.
• Li reminded Xia Fan that he had completed the first step toward redeeming his master and encouraged him to go rescue him.
• Xia Fan left Li at the inn and headed out to take care of his master.

Xia Fan returned to redeem Zhao Dahai, only to find his master had settled his gambling debt by helping Shopkeeper Xiao’s business and had no wish to leave. After Xia Fan departed, Zhao Dahai told Shopkeeper Xiao he feared how far his unusually gifted disciple might go inside the Bureau of Military Affairs.

• Xia Fan arrived at the gambling house with ransom money and found Zhao Dahai dining with Shopkeeper Xiao instead of being held prisoner.
• Shopkeeper Xiao explained that Zhao Dahai had taught massage techniques to Ruanxiang Pavilion, helping it defeat its rival and offset his debt.
• Xia Fan told Zhao Dahai that he had passed the Scholar Examination and offered to support him, but Zhao Dahai chose to remain and live freely.
• After Xia Fan left, Zhao Dahai told Shopkeeper Xiao that Xia Fan had shown extraordinary Sorcery Arts talent and unusual self-control since childhood.
• Zhao Dahai admitted he feared Xia Fan would either be broken by the Bureau of Military Affairs or become part of it and cause great harm, though he had let him pursue that path because it was the only place his talent could fully develop.

Xia Fan returned to the lodging after finding that his master, Zhao Dahai, was safe and unwilling to join him. As Li began explaining Evil Spirits, an old woman arrived seeking help for a ghost troubling her family, and Xia Fan learned that her daughter-in-law and grandson were in danger.

• Xia Fan told Li that Zhao Dahai was safe but would not come with him.
• Li refused to teach Xia Fan Sorcery Arts, explaining that he should wait for the Bureau of Military Affairs to provide systematic instruction.
• Li began explaining the classifications of Evil Spirits, but a waiter interrupted them with news of an old woman seeking Xia Fan.
• The old woman said Daoist Zhao had sent her and begged Xia Fan to save her daughter-in-law and grandson.
• The old woman explained that a ghost was in her home.

Xia Fan agreed to investigate the strange disturbances tormenting Old Madam Tian’s pregnant daughter-in-law, hoping to enlist Li’s help in finding the cause. After setting conditions for the ritual, he tried to persuade Li to cooperate.

• Old Madam Tian told Xia Fan that unexplained noises and destructive phenomena had been tormenting her household and endangering Ruqiu’s health and pregnancy.
• Xia Fan decided he could not turn away the family and proposed having Li inspect the house while he handled any fight.
• Xia Fan told Old Madam Tian that everyone must wait outside, she must keep his involvement secret, he could not guarantee success, and he needed Ruqiu’s loose clothes, a bamboo hat, and a rain cape.
• After Old Madam Tian left, Li objected that she had never agreed to help a human, and Xia Fan argued that she could help him as a field lesson.

Xia Fan and Li investigated the strange footsteps in Old Madam Tian’s home and discovered that the invisible presence was a Xu Liang. By using candlelight and strips of oiled paper, they made it perceptible, revealing an ordinary Li Hua Cat.

• Xia Fan searched Old Madam Tian’s home and let Li inside to help investigate the nightly disturbance.
• Li explained the classifications of Evil Spirits and identified the tapping as an anomaly rather than a ghost.
• When a wooden cup fell, Xia Fan swung his wooden sword at the unseen presence but hit only the table.
• Li recognized the creature as a Xu Liang and had Xia Fan obtain oiled window paper and candles.
• Li arranged the paper strips and candles so Xia Fan could perceive the Xu Liang’s shadow, then told him to approach it.
• Xia Fan walked around the paper and saw an ordinary Li Hua Cat on Tian’s Wife’s bedframe.