Chapter Summaries

After Ji Lin rewarded Li Huowang for killing the Empress Dowager and the Princess, Li Huowang weighed whether the Emperor could help him fight the Dice and the Sitting Forgetting Dao. Back home, Zu Yi arrived to meet him, leaving Li Huowang to face the mysterious man who had helped him rebel against the Princess.

• Ji Lin raged in court over the deaths of his mother and imperial sister, then privately praised Li Huowang for killing them and gave him a Death Exemption Gold Medal.
• Li Huowang asked whether Ji Lin hated the Sitting Forgetting Dao, and Ji Lin confirmed that he blamed them for his father's death.
• Ji Lin told Li Huowang to wait while he assessed the political fallout, and Li Huowang left the palace wondering why the Dice wanted Ji Lin on the throne.
• Zhuge Yuan reassured Li Huowang that Ji Lin could not be working with the Sitting Forgetting Dao, while Li Huowang remained worried about Miao Miao and the Dice.
• Li Sui proudly served Li Huowang her failed steamed buns, and Zu Yi arrived at the house requesting an audience.
• Li Sui recognized Zu Yi as the man who had once been engulfed in fire.

Li Huowang questioned Zu Yi, who sought the method of ascending steps, and learned that repeated ascensions could grant immense power. After confronting the horrors required by Dung Beetle Ascending Steps, Li Huowang vowed to find another way to defeat the Dice.

• Li Huowang confronted Zu Yi about his past loyalties, and Zu Yi explained that he had repaid a favor to the Princess before helping Li Huowang.
• Zu Yi revealed that he had come to obtain Li Huowang’s method of ascending steps, prompting Li Huowang to ask about the Dice.
• Zu Yi explained that each ascension added a tribulation and increased a practitioner’s power, and he named Gu Shen as the Ao Jing Sect’s legendary Ten Tribulations practitioner.
• Li Huowang realized repeated ascensions might help him defeat the Dice, but memories of Dung Beetle Ascending Steps’ brutal demands overwhelmed him.
• Zhuge Yuan calmed Li Huowang, who promised not to pursue the method and questioned Zu Yi’s claims about the Great Elders’ strength.
• Zu Yi explained that the Dice was difficult to find because he excelled at deception, and Li Huowang realized the Celestial Surveillance Division had likely contacted the Ao Jing Sect.

Li Huowang received a letter from Bai Lingmiao that suggested she might be connected to Yang Na, but Nine Wan’s suspicious delivery made him doubt whether the letter was genuine. Meanwhile, Lu Zhuangyuan’s opera troupe entered Shangjing with Li Huowang’s travel permit.

• Li Huowang dismissed Zu Yi and rejected the Ao Jing Sect’s claims about ascending the steps.
• Zu Yi found a letter from Bai Lingmiao, who wrote that she would return soon and sent Li Huowang dried persimmon cakes.
• Li Huowang linked Bai Lingmiao’s mention of two years to his promise to Yang Na and suspected the Dice had never kidnapped Bai Lingmiao.
• A little beggar delivered the cakes, and Li Huowang seized him and peeled away his faces until he revealed himself as Nine Wan.
• Li Huowang threatened Nine Wan, but Nine Wan went limp and died before Li Huowang could question him.
• Lu Zhuangyuan’s troupe passed through Shangjing’s barbican after guards inspected their carriage, then marveled at the city’s buildings.

The Lu Family Troupe arrived in Shang Jing, where Lu Zhuangyuan was mocked for trying to buy an Opera House. Gouwa then used a string of coins to recruit beggars to find Senior Brother Li and the pale woman, leaving the group waiting for news.

• Gouwa bought a rattle drum, and the Lu Family Troupe searched for an inn before settling down to eat plain noodles.
• Lu Zhuangyuan tried to buy an Opera House but was ridiculed by Shang Jing’s wealthy residents and left the inn in anger.
• Lu Xiucai quarreled with his family and declared that he would find Master, while Gouwa urged him to follow.
• Gouwa offered a string of coins to beggars who could locate the Red Daoist Robe and the pale woman, and they scattered to search.
• Gouwa told Lu Xiucai to return and wait for the beggars to find the pair.

Gouwa and Lu Xiucai searched Shang Jing City for Senior Brother Li, then encountered Lu Xiucai’s opera troupe and learned why Lu Zhuangyuan had planned different futures for the family. After Green Skins extorted them, Lu Xiucai discovered their homeland had fallen, leaving the troupe with no clear way back.

• Gouwa explained that he had paid beggars to search for Senior Brother Li and laid out what they would do if they found him.
• Lu Xiucai and Gouwa reunited with Lu Xiucai’s family opera troupe, and Lu Juren told them Lu Zhuangyuan had learned opera performers could not study or take the Zhuangyuan examination in Daliang Kingdom.
• Lu Zhuangyuan explained that he wanted Lu Juren to inherit the troupe, Child Student to pursue the examination, and Lu Xiucai to learn supernatural abilities as separate paths for the family.
• Green Skins demanded tribute from the troupe, and Lu Zhuangyuan paid them off after Gouwa warned Lu Xiucai not to provoke them near the Celestial Surveillance Division.
• Lu Xiucai suggested returning home, but Lu Zhuangyuan told him Four Qi had fallen and that they would need to find an inn in Shang Jing City.

Li Huowang argued with Brother Zhuge about whether Bai Lingmiao was in danger and resolved to act against Dice rather than wait. After Ji Lin summoned him, Li Huowang secured two Siming corpses and learned the emperor had survived an assassination attempt and intended to clean up the palace.

• Li Huowang argued that Dice might have captured Bai Lingmiao and that he could not afford to wait, while Li Sui listened.
• An old eunuch delivered Ji Lin’s decree telling Li Huowang not to enter the palace because Ji Lin would come to him.
• Li Huowang hid two preserved Siming corpses in a cellar before setting out to meet Ji Lin.
• At a gambling house, Li Huowang met Ji Lin, who revealed that an assassination attempt had left him injured and that the palace needed a thorough cleaning.
• Ji Lin refused Li Huowang’s offer to protect him and had a eunuch bring over a rolled painting.

Li Huowang tested whether the Spine Sword could send someone alive from Great Liang to Great Qi, then infiltrated Prince Ren’s Residence to investigate Ji Lin’s rival for the throne. He found Prince Ren watching a nude opera singer in his bedroom, but had not yet confronted him.

• Li Huowang received Ji Lin’s map of Prince Ren’s Residence and learned that Prince Ren’s Attendants were suspected Heretical Cultivators.
• Li Huowang used the Spine Sword to send a hidden sentry to Great Qi, and Li Sui confirmed that the man was alive there.
• Li Huowang decided to deal with Prince Ren before attempting Zhuge Yuan’s plan to reach Great Qi himself.
• Li Huowang followed the map and opera music through the residence, finding Prince Ren watching a lavish performance.
• Li Huowang followed Prince Ren to his bedroom and saw him lying in bed as a naked woman in opera makeup sang to him.

Li Huowang assassinated Prince Ren, but Prince Ren escaped in paper form and summoned the Gods of Wealth to fight him. Surrounded by reinforcements, Li Huowang tried to use a rift into Great Qi to escape, but he and Li Sui had not yet reached it.

• Li Huowang cut through Prince Ren's hidden metal-wire barrier and killed him and the dan actress, but a paper figure escaped from Prince Ren's hair.
• Li Huowang chased Prince Ren, but shadow puppets pinned him until Li Sui extinguished the candles; Prince Ren returned to normal size as white smoke filled the room.
• The Jumping God of Wealth appeared, drew the coins from Li Huowang's Coin Sword, and sent it flying back at him.
• A Martial God of Wealth attacked Li Huowang with a silver mace, but Li Huowang severed his own arm to escape the blow and reclaimed the Spine Sword.
• As more enemies emerged from the smoke, Li Huowang opened a huge rift to Great Qi and tried to charge through with Li Sui, but they fell short.

Li Huowang pursued Prince Ren across Great Qi and Great Liang, then abandoned the chase after discovering Prince Ren had a Dharma Sect assassin and planned to report him to the Celestial Surveillance Division. In Great Qi’s abandoned Cold Palace, he recovered his Coin Sword and found a eunuch in a dangerous labor, leaving him confronted by a monk pleading for help.

• Li Huowang crossed into Great Qi through a moving rift, pursued Prince Ren, and returned to Great Liang after the prince’s sedan chair escaped.
• A masked Dharma Sect woman attacked Li Huowang, and he chose to report Prince Ren’s dealings with the sect to the Celestial Surveillance Division instead of continuing the pursuit.
• Li Huowang evaded Prince Ren’s Residence pursuers by returning to Great Qi and headed toward the Celestial Surveillance Division after retrieving his Coin Sword.
• Li Huowang found a laboring eunuch in the abandoned Cold Palace, and a monk asked him to help deliver the baby.

In the Great Qi Cold Palace, Li Huowang and a monk tried to help a pregnant eunuch, who gave birth to a grotesque Human-faced Ox that died after singing a bizarre verse. As Li Huowang prepared to leave, Zhuge Yuan urgently asked him to deliver a message to several old friends in Great Qi.

• Li Huowang revived the monk hallucination and sent him to help the eunuch, who begged them to save the child and then died during the attempt to deliver it.
• Li Huowang pulled a Human-faced Ox from the eunuch's belly, and it survived being thrown against a wall long enough to sing a strange verse before dying.
• Li Huowang questioned the monk about the failed rescue and prepared to leave the Cold Palace with Li Sui.
• Zhuge Yuan stopped Li Huowang and asked him to deliver words to several old friends in Great Qi, but did not explain what had happened.

Li Huowang learned that the Human-faced Ox was a Yu, whose ominous words foretold that Great Qi’s dragon vein was breaking and the kingdom might cease to exist. Zhuge Yuan used Li Huowang’s power to gain a physical body, then performed a desperate ritual to protect Great Qi before Li Huowang collapsed.

• Zhuge Yuan identified the Human-faced Ox as a Yu and warned that its prophecy meant Great Qi’s dragon vein was about to break.
• Zhuge Yuan explained that the previous rupture of Great Qi’s dragon vein had brought Great Liang into existence, and warned that another might erase Great Qi.
• Li Huowang gave Zhuge Yuan a physical body, nearly collapsing from the effort.
• Zhuge Yuan and Zhuge Sword confirmed that the dragon vein had broken, then Zhuge Yuan used the Spine Sword to write a ritual into the ground.
• Zhuge Yuan completed the ritual with brush and paper, hoping it would keep Great Qi’s dragon vein from breaking.
• Zhuge Yuan returned to find Li Huowang unconscious and bleeding from all seven orifices in Li Sui’s arms.

Li Huowang woke in White Pagoda Hospital after attempting to materialize a Mind Coil and learned that Yi Donglai understood the danger the dice posed to Great Liang’s dragon vein. Yi Donglai offered to help him and proposed a bargain, but Li Huowang suspected the deal was meant to make him accept the hospital as reality.

• Li Huowang awoke strapped to medical equipment after electroshock treatment and refused the medicine offered by the doctors.
• Yi Donglai calmed Li Huowang and asked whether the dice were targeting Great Liang’s dragon vein.
• Yi Donglai advised Li Huowang to stop helping the Emperor and suggested they find a way to rescue Miao Miao from the dice.
• Yi Donglai offered to restore some of Li Huowang’s freedom if he stayed lucid during an inspection, and returned Li Huowang’s phone.
• Li Huowang rejected the offer, accusing Yi Donglai of trying to make him believe that Great Liang was only a hallucination.

Li Huowang threatened Yi Donglai when the doctor challenged his beliefs about the two worlds, then was restrained and taken back to the ward. He woke in Great Qi with Li Sui and Zhuge Yuan, learned Zhuge Yuan had finished what he could, and prepared to return to Great Liang.

• Li Huowang smashed his phone and threatened Yi Donglai with a shard when Yi Donglai questioned whether Great Qi was real.
• Orderlies restrained Li Huowang in a straitjacket, and he recognized the patient Wang Wei as a former attending physician who had gone mad.
• Li Huowang woke in a dilapidated house in Great Qi and learned Li Sui had fed him steamed buns while he was unconscious.
• Li Huowang apologized to Li Sui for knocking away her food and asked Zhuge Yuan whether he needed to try making him real again.
• Zhuge Yuan said he had done all he could, and Li Huowang learned that severing Great Qi's dragon veins would benefit Great Liang.
• Li Huowang pulled out the Spine Sword, prepared to return to Great Liang, and told Li Sui to get inside.

After recovering in Shangjing, Li Huowang learned from Zhuge Yuan that Shangji Irrigation Inlet in Great Qi could locate Dice. He set out for Great Qi, determined to find Dice, but would have to gather his own allies to fight him.

• Li Huowang rested after returning from Great Qi and asked Zhuge Yuan whether Dice had another plan for the dragon vein.
• Zhuge Yuan explained that the dragon vein could protect the imperial palace, but he did not know how Great Qi's dragon vein had broken.
• Zhuge Yuan urged Li Huowang to find Dice before turmoil in Great Qi made the search harder.
• Zhuge Yuan told Li Huowang that Shangji Irrigation Inlet could locate Dice and advised him to leave the city before crossing into Great Qi.
• Li Huowang put on his Red Daoist Robe, gathered his weapons and Li Sui, and rode out with Zhuge Yuan toward Great Qi.

Li Huowang left the capital and crossed into Great Qi, where he encountered a devastating locust plague. Zhuge Yuan warned that the swarm could bring famine, drought, war, and disease, while Li Huowang wondered what was happening in Great Qi.

• Lu Zhuangyuan’s troupe performed Pink Opera in the capital, but constables broke up the show and confiscated their earnings.
• Lu Xiucai and Gouwa returned without finding Master, and Gouwa decided to send word to Xiao Man and the others by carrier pigeon.
• Li Huowang left the city, prepared to cross into Great Qi, and entered the rift with the Spine Sword.
• A massive locust swarm descended on Li Huowang, who used the Zisui Sword’s Killing Intent to drive the insects away.
• Zhuge Yuan called the locust plague a heavenly calamity and warned Li Huowang that it could lead to widespread famine and death in Great Qi.

Li Huowang followed Zhuge Yuan’s directions through Great Qi in pursuit of Shangji Irrigation Inlet, then spent the night at a stranger’s house in a strangely quiet town. In the morning, he found the townspeople cooking in pots throughout the streets and left wondering what they were doing.

• Zhuge Yuan guided Li Huowang and Li Sui through the mountains, explaining that Shangji Irrigation Inlet moved and could be tracked through changes in feng shui.
• Li Huowang reached a large town late at night but found its shops and inns closed, so he sought shelter at a man’s home.
• Li Huowang drew his sword on the bound-footed man, then lowered it after Zhuge Yuan explained that the man belonged to a Prostitution Household; Li Huowang paid him for lodging.
• Li Huowang noticed the man worshipped Rabbit Lord, barricaded the stairs, and slept while Li Sui kept watch.
• In the morning, Li Sui told Li Huowang that the man had left with other white-cloth-wearing people, and Li Huowang decided to leave town.
• Li Huowang saw that every household was cooking and encountered rows of steaming stoves and people carrying heavy pots near the city gate.

Li Huowang discovered that the White Turbans in Great Qi belonged to the Fa Sect and were tied to the same calamity as the cult in Great Liang. Surrounded by starving believers, he fought his way through them, but his rampage stopped when he faced a mad woman carrying a dead infant.

• A White-Turbaned man told Li Huowang that boiling a stone into Stone Soup would let him become an immortal, but Li Huowang warned him that the claim was a fraud.
• White-Turbaned believers surrounded Li Huowang after he condemned their teachings, so he used Li Sui’s tentacles to scatter their pots and fled toward the city gate.
• Li Huowang recognized the White Turbans as Great Qi’s Fa Sect, and Peng Longteng killed the Witch Doctor who had attacked him.
• Outside the city gate, Li Huowang found a vast crowd of starving Fa Sect believers who charged him after someone accused him of killing their Witch Doctor.
• Li Huowang charged into the crowd and slaughtered his attackers with the Zisui Sword and Spine Sword until a mad woman holding a dead infant stopped him.
• A huge black shadow crushed the woman and infant, then seized people as weapons and cleared the space around Li Huowang.

Qiu Chibao charged the red-robed Daoist after he smashed her Stone Soup, then Li Huowang snapped out of his daze amid the battle with the Fa Sect Believers. As he and Peng Longteng fought through the crowd, Li Huowang confronted the believers’ suffering and fanaticism before an unseen enemy trapped his legs in the earth.

• Qiu Chibao fed human bones to her fire and prepared Stone Soup for her sick son, believing it would cure him and make him immortal.
• When the Fa Sect Believers rose and accused a red-robed Daoist of killing their Witch Doctor, Qiu Chibao attacked the Daoist for killing the Witch Doctor and smashing her soup, but darkness overtook her.
• Li Sui’s voice brought Li Huowang back to the battle, and he ordered the frenzied Peng Longteng to charge forward through the Fa Sect Believers.
• Li Huowang saw that the believers were starving and eating Guanyin Clay and rice meat, and thought of their blind faith and his former master, Danyangzi.
• Jin Shan Zhao made his first sound as Li Huowang charged, then the earth swallowed Li Huowang’s lower legs and three ridges of soil shot toward him from beneath the crowd.

Li Huowang escaped the Fa Sect’s encirclement after a brutal fight, but refused Jin Shan Zhao’s plea to help the captured believers. As he prepared to leave, another hallucination appeared behind him.

• Li Huowang fought off underground attackers, lost a leg bone, and used Li Sui’s tentacles to keep moving while Zhuge Yuan warned him not to reveal that his sword could lead to Great Liang.
• Li Huowang recognized a Miao woman from the Sitting Forgetting Dao among the Fa Sect forces and realized she had converted to Shidu.
• Li Huowang used Peng Longteng to swing and hurl him beyond the crowd, then hid underground and escaped to a distant mountainside.
• Jin Shan Zhao asked Li Huowang to help the Fa Sect believers, but Li Huowang refused and told him he could barely help himself.
• As Li Huowang prepared to leave, he saw a ragged woman with a White Turban and a half-rotted infant standing behind him.

Li Huowang dealt with Qiu Chibao, a new hallucination, while considering why the dead became part of his visions. Following Zhuge Yuan’s directions, he found the hidden Shangji Irrigation Inlet and plunged into its freezing waters, leaving the group sinking into darkness.

• Qiu Chibao tried to eat Li Huowang’s Blood Mantou, then attacked him with the Rust Knife when she could not reach it.
• Li Huowang gave Qiu Chibao his last bun to quiet her and wondered why she had become one of his hallucinations.
• Zhuge Yuan urged Li Huowang to find Shangji Irrigation Inlet, and Jin Shan Zhao comforted Qiu Chibao as Li Huowang hurried onward.
• Li Huowang found a sinkhole at the end of a dry riverbed and learned from Zhuge Yuan that the inlet appeared in its pool only during Zi Hour.
• Li Huowang and Li Sui plunged into the freezing pool with a heavy stone, while Qiu Chibao screamed that she was drowning.