Chapter Summaries

Yuan Zhu and Meng Xiyue compared their mission rewards and recounted their exploits in the Underground World, prompting Zhou Chu to criticize their extreme methods and describe her own intervention in Firefly City. The chapter ended with Zhou Chu negotiating better pay for the children’s silkworm work while Yuan Zhu asked Meng Xiyue to teach him about Skull Servo.

• Yuan Zhu checked his mission earnings and found that Gods' Space had awarded him 11,500 points for his work in the Underground World.
• Meng Xiyue revealed that she had earned 4,500 points, then bragged about her time in Lacewing City; Yuan Zhu shared a toned-down account of his own exploits and claimed a Shadow System Demon God had helped him.
• Zhou Chu reprimanded Yuan Zhu for using Holy Light and cooperating with an unknown Demon God, then warned Meng Xiyue about spreading the evil art of head-making and ordered her to undergo a psychological assessment.
• Zhou Chu described forcing Firefly City's children onto the Law System to restrain their pollution and having them raise Mao Mao King's insect eggs for trade.
• Zhou Chu negotiated higher wages from Happy Home for the children's Insect Silk, while Yuan Zhu asked Meng Xiyue to teach him about Skull Servo.

The captain assessed Zhou Chu, Meng Xiyue, and Yuan Zhu’s mission results in Foam World and distributed their rewards according to their contributions to Mao Mao King. Yuan Zhu ranked first, and the captain privately discussed his world-altering actions with him, revealing that they had strengthened Happy Home’s and Gods’ Space’s connections to Foam World.

• The captain judged Zhou Chu’s rescue and employment arrangements modest, then explained how Huo Tuo Luo’s capture and the Mutated Uniform’s discovery led Centipede City to complete his mission for him.
• Meng Xiyue reported that she had persuaded Lacewing City to raise insect eggs by promising their silk would support her Skull Servo work.
• Yuan Zhu presented Moonlight Spiritual Essence cocoons, his insect experiments, and Pastoral Village, and proposed making it Happy Home’s base for breeding and cross-plane trade.
• The captain used Happy Home’s feedback to rank Yuan Zhu first and concluded that Pastoral Village could be a valuable foothold in Foam World.
• The captain paid Zhou Chu six coins and 800 points, Meng Xiyue fifteen coins and 1,500 points, and Yuan Zhu twenty coins and 2,000 points, explaining that rewards reflected contributions to Mao Mao King.
• The captain privately asked Yuan Zhu about the Shadow Dream Hole, Shadow Domain, and Holy Cough Explosion, explaining that they had strengthened Happy Home’s and Gods’ Space’s connections to Foam World.

Yuan Zhu learned that the Shadow Dream Hole could anchor a Foam World territory and negotiated a potential partnership with Happy Home, while the captain offered him the full ascension knowledge for Three Aspects Power and Anti-Law. After Meng Xiyue made her own deal, she and Yuan Zhu agreed to cooperate on Skull Servo technology and the secrets of true qi.

• The captain explained that Dream Apertures were Gaps of Erosion that could anchor Dreamlands, and he expressed interest in investing in Yuan Zhu's camp.
• Yuan Zhu offered Happy Home half of the camp's profits and gave the captain control permissions for three Insect Pillars through the Chang Ghost Memory Stick.
• The captain promised Yuan Zhu the complete Three Aspects Power and Anti-Law ascension ritual, while warning that Three Aspects users faced dangerous Instigators and poor credit ratings.
• The captain spoke privately with Meng Xiyue, while Zhou Chu asked Yuan Zhu about bringing her students to his territory and hiring them to uphold order.
• Meng Xiyue proposed that Yuan Zhu help trial and promote Skull Servos in exchange for technical support on true qi, and Yuan Zhu agreed to cooperate.

After discovering ways to trade Duling goods for the Underground World's scarce resources, Yuan Zhu and Meng Xiyue arranged to meet in Taixi, while Little Miss planned to teach the Insect City children safe Knight and Law techniques. Back in Running, Yuan Zhu felt an unexplained pull toward the shadows and wondered whether he was about to ascend.

• Meng Xiyue explained that cheap Duling medicines could counter pollution in the Underground World and proposed trading them, along with other goods, for local materials.
• Yuan Zhu, Meng Xiyue, and Little Miss agreed to meet in Taixi the following week, while Little Miss planned to seek safe training methods for the Insect City children.
• Meng Xiyue returned to Duling to undergo Academy inspections, and Little Miss returned to the Security Bureau to pursue Knight and Law training guidance.
• Yuan Zhu returned to Running, intending to rest, adapt to his strengthened powers, and consult the Rain Institute about the Nightmare School.
• Yuan Zhu felt a heavy pull toward the shadows even in human form, compared it with the strange sensation in the Disease Garden, and wondered if he was about to ascend.

Yuan Zhu discovered that his Tiger Demon’s overloaded mass caused its sinking sensation and that releasing the Shadow Demonic Insects eased it. He tested the insects in the Disease Garden, where they mutated into stronger Shadow Disease Demonic Insects, then returned to the Haunted House and considered how to use them.

• Little Spicy Strip identified the Tiger Demon’s overloaded Chang Gui Divine Power and swallowed entities as the cause of Yuan Zhu’s sinking sensation.
• Yuan Zhu released four Eggplant Head Ghosts and twenty Shadow Demonic Insects, easing the Tiger Demon’s collapse while strengthening its connection to the Shadow Layer.
• Yuan Zhu sent two Shadow Demonic Insects into the Disease Garden, where they devoured disease plants and soil, grew stronger, and mutated into Shadow Disease Demonic Insects.
• Yuan Zhu withdrew the insects before the Disease Garden could further reverse-refine them, then assessed the garden and his creatures’ pollution limits.
• Yuan Zhu rejected Little Spicy Strip’s suggestion to send the Chang Ghosts into the sewers and noted that they needed to remain within his Tiger Demon’s range or be stored in the Haunted House.

Yuan Zhu decided to turn the Disease Magic Insects into Insect Pillars and use them to build a new Shadow Domain in Running, potentially installing the Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture server. He began refining the first insect while leaving four valuable refinement tasks running, and the chapter ended with that fifth task underway.

• Yuan Zhu concluded that the twenty Disease Magic Insects were too conspicuous to use openly, so he wanted to make them productive inside the Haunted House.
• Spicy Strip proposed using the Shadow Domain as a substitute spirit vein to install the Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture server, while Jade Capital Child outlined a plan to build a new domain from the insects.
• Yuan Zhu agreed to forge the Nightmare-powered insects into Insect Pillars, hoping the resulting Shadow Domain could provide a base for his plans and perhaps connect to Pastoral Village.
• Yuan Zhu found that Universe Within the Belly was already processing four valuable refinement tasks and decided not to interrupt them.
• After Spicy Strip estimated that the first Insect Pillar could be completed in about four days, Yuan Zhu swallowed a Disease Magic Insect and added it as the fifth refinement task.

After returning from the Foam World, Yuan Zhu stored his recovered materials, cultivated Holy Light through the night, and returned home to reassure Yuan Su. He then drank Yellow Millet Echo and entered Yellow Millet Village, where he sensed a powerful Holy Light network and discovered the Dreamland’s connections to several cultivation systems.

• Yuan Zhu stored the Unyielding Pride Bone and Mutated Tissue, then fell asleep while his Shadow Snake tail managed the Haunted House and strengthened its Magic Insects.
• After waking, Yuan Zhu cultivated Holy Light in the Disease Garden, condensed his Soul Crystal past halfway, and sensed a vast Holy Light source beyond the Garden’s spatial barrier.
• Yuan Zhu returned home, told Yuan Su that his exhaustion came from a demanding business trip, and encouraged him to focus on studying.
• Yuan Zhu drank Yellow Millet Echo and entered Yellow Millet Village with a crystalline spirit body that caused a small anomaly.
• Yuan Zhu sensed the Dreamland’s Holy Light network, recognized connections to Kunlun spiritual qi and other systems, and found that Yellow Millet Village was more advanced and interconnected than Cockroach Village.

Yuan Zhu visited Dream Chasing Tower to ask how he could connect Yellow Millet Village to a small Dreamland in the Nightmare Layer, but learned such contact was forbidden and potentially dangerous. He arranged a banquet and used the tower’s dream power to summon thirty-three Wish Association instructors, who gathered before him as their Cult Master.

• Yuan Zhu arrived at Dream Chasing Tower and asked Deputy Manager Xie about contacting unknown Nightmare dimensions and linking separate Dreamlands.
• Manager Xie explained that unauthorized contact with unknown Nightmare signals was prohibited because it could let Evil Gods corrupt dreams, and said the tower could not provide such a service.
• Yuan Zhu considered seeking authorized help from the Rain Institute’s Nightmare School or finding a secretive illegal group, and asked Xie about the tower’s business and travel between Dreamland and the outside world.
• Xie described how ability users could enter Yellow Millet Village and explained that the tower was backed by a Commercial God whose hotel business aimed to expand its influence.
• Yuan Zhu booked a banquet hall with thirty-three seats and used the tower’s power, his faith connections, and the Tiger Demon’s dream techniques to draw his followers into the dream.
• Thirty-three instructors from the Wish Association appeared in the banquet hall and greeted Yuan Zhu as their Cult Master.

Yuan Zhu reorganized the White Feather Association as Tai Xi Merchant Guild-63, reassured its followers, and distributed new spiritual pills while planning to establish the guild in Running City. The meeting ended with Yuan Zhu uncertain why Holy Light purification had erased his Holy Cough Blessing, even as he prepared to draw the followers deeper into his organization.

• Zheng Hao reported that he had purchased the Haunted House, canceled its exorcism request, and registered Tai Xi Merchant Guild-63 at City Hall.
• Zheng Hao explained that only twenty-four followers had attended because some distrusted Yuan Zhu, left Running City, or were waiting to see what happened.
• Miss Mei and other followers told Yuan Zhu that Holy Light treatments at a church or hospital had removed their Holy Cough Blessing.
• Yuan Zhu claimed that Holy Light had shattered the fragile blessing, offered to restore it, and distributed one Kunlun Spiritual Pill to each attendee.
• Yuan Zhu announced that Tai Xi Merchant Guild would soon establish a headquarters in Running City and open an exchange system for followers seeking extraordinary power.

Yuan Zhu used New White Feather’s promised benefits and contribution points to recruit members into procuring scarce goods for the Underground World. While assigning purchases, he learned that Du Ling’s medicine trade was dominated by ancient pill arts and eastern demon drugs, leaving chemical Western medicine suppressed.

• Yuan Zhu outlined New White Feather’s religious, trading, and business benefits, then offered members contribution points for advancing the costs of simple procurement tasks.
• Zheng Hao and other members volunteered to buy scarce supplies, and Yuan Zhu assigned them items such as medicines, instruments, watches, and spices.
• Little Spicy Strip suggested bringing fertilized chicken eggs to the Underground World, and Yuan Zhu considered raising chickens there as a valuable food source.
• Yuan Zhu learned that Kunlun-backed pill refining dominated western medicine while eastern demon drugs competed across the continent, and that chemical medicines had been suppressed by established interests.
• Yuan Zhu sent his followers to purchase cheap civilian pills and inferior demon drugs from Running’s markets.

Yuan Zhu planned to turn his pharmaceutical experience into a business selling extraordinary veterinary medicine and related products in Insect City, then explored a possible partnership with underground fighting organizers. After returning from Dreamland, he received an urgent call from Lü Rang about the Goblins he had requested.

• Yuan Zhu recalled his former veterinary medicine career and learned that Duling's ordinary medicine market was already standardized and highly competitive.
• Little Spicy Strip suggested targeting the Underground World, and Yuan Zhu planned to produce cheap veterinary medicine in Running, sell it in Insect City, and develop extraordinary medicines through Pastoral Village.
• A cultist told Yuan Zhu that a Blood Tomato had healed an injured underground fighter and helped him enter the Great Dao of Strength; Yuan Zhu offered to sell him more and considered organizing staged fights to promote medicines and supplements.
• Yuan Zhu ended the Dreamland gathering, returned to Running, and decided to visit Rain Institute with questions about the Frog School and Body Tempering Fluid.
• Lü Rang called Yuan Zhu and urged him to meet because the Goblins Yuan Zhu had wanted were about to overflow the warehouse.

Yuan Zhu met Lü Rang, whose sword cultivation had advanced along the heretical Torture Sword path, and learned how he had captured and stored dozens of Goblins. They reached the filthy building where the Goblins were held, leaving Yuan Zhu facing the test subjects he had come to collect.

• Yuan Zhu met Lü Rang and noticed his improved cultivation and sharp, bloodied flying sword.
• Lü Rang explained that he cultivated Sword Qi by inflicting pain on Goblins, and said he would restrain himself from torturing humans.
• Lü Rang led Yuan Zhu to an abandoned building where he had chained up fifty-one Goblins, but both hesitated to enter because of the stench.
• Lü Rang described how he partnered with a Goblin-hunting squad, bought their injured captives, and gained their guidance while collecting the Goblins.

Yuan Zhu arranged to move Lü Rang’s goblins to the Haunted House, where Shadow Eggplant transformed them into controlled workers and cleaners. After using them to gather prey and fuel his Holy Light through the night, Yuan Zhu raised his Soul Crystal condensation to 47% and discovered a way to sustain his power by continually burning outside materials.

• Yuan Zhu inspected the fifty-one disabled goblins in the abandoned building, learned that Eggplant Head Ghosts cleaned the Haunted House, and told Lü Rang to keep collecting goblins there.
• Yuan Zhu described the Underground World to Lü Rang and discussed using its Insect Gold to strengthen Lü Rang’s Pipe Wrench Flying Sword.
• Yuan Zhu brought four Eggplant Head Ghosts to the abandoned building, where Tiger Demon used Shadow Eggplant to parasitize and heal all fifty-one goblins.
• Yuan Zhu took the goblins to the Haunted House, used some to supply living prey for his Holy Light experiments, and sent the rest to hunt pests around the residential complex under Little Spicy Strip’s control.
• By dawn, Yuan Zhu had raised his Soul Crystal condensation to 47% and found that he could sustain his Holy Light by continually burning outside materials and storing the recovered energy.

Yuan Zhu visited Chen Yi to give her polluted Kunlun seeds and ask about the Nightmare Dimension, then learned how the Frog School’s Way of Strength worked. He left considering a risky route into the Nightmare Layer and with new knowledge about strength cultivation.

• Yuan Zhu brought Chen Yi seeds from Foam World and asked to share the research results; she suggested they could privately study them in her own laboratory.
• Yuan Zhu asked Chen Yi how someone could connect reality to an unknown Dreamland, and she warned him that such exploration was illegal and dangerous, recommending the Spirit Realm Layer or the eastern barbarian nations.
• Yuan Zhu told Little Spicy Strip to search for nightmare knowledge and skilled collaborators willing to take the risks.
• Yuan Zhu asked Chen Yi about the Way of Strength, and she explained that it belonged to the Frog School and was unusually accessible in Running City.
• Chen Yi described Frog God Pollution as Muscle Synthesis, which strengthened muscle fibers through repeated rounds; Yuan Zhu learned that the process could reach a third round.

Yuan Zhu learned how Running City’s spacetime docking had attracted pharmaceutical corporations and realized he needed a business to fund his extraordinary growth. Senior Sister Chen proposed that he start a Holy Light-powered breeding farm for clean experimental frogs and mice, giving him a possible route into the Frog School and Body Tempering Fluid field.

• Yuan Zhu learned from Senior Sister Chen that Running City’s Spirit Descent phenomenon had drawn investments, prisons, and pharmaceutical research into the Spirit Realm Layer.
• Yuan Zhu explained that he wanted to make money and asked Senior Sister Chen to help him enter the pharmaceutical industry through her Dangerous Botany and Frog School connections.
• Senior Sister Chen rejected Yuan Zhu’s idea of becoming a Body Tempering Fluid agent and fighter manager, but offered him a connection to Rain Institute’s experimental-animal breeding industry.
• Senior Sister Chen explained that Yuan Zhu could raise clean experimental frogs and mice, use Holy Light to purify polluted animals into useful ash, and sell both breeding stock and ash to the Academy.
• Senior Sister Chen suggested that Yuan Zhu specialize in frogs to gain access to Frog School researchers working on Frog God dependents and Body Tempering Fluid.
• Yuan Zhu accepted the plan, and Senior Sister Chen agreed to help him find a site, contact Frog School students, and apply for an Academy Enterprise Assistance Contract.

Yuan Zhu visited Cui Miao Zhu to ask about his unusual Holy Cough blessing and options for his Second Seal. After learning that his skill had merged with disease rather than evolved to counter it, Yuan Zhu chose to remain unaffiliated for now and went to Happy Home to check for new Holy Seals.

• Yuan Zhu showed Cui Miao Zhu that he had completed Seal Casting and begun condensing a Soul Crystal with his seven-mark Sanctuary seal.
• Yuan Zhu asked why another priest's Holy Light Baptism had erased his Holy Cough blessing, and Cui Miao Zhu considered several explanations before examining the skill himself.
• Cui Miao Zhu determined that Yuan Zhu's Holy Cough was neither a curse nor a typical disease-countering skill, but a strange form of Holy Light that had merged with disease.
• Cui Miao Zhu explained how the Holy Light Net Dao and the Eight Holy Kings' systems differed, and described the benefits of choosing a faction's Second Seal.
• Yuan Zhu declined to join the Tai Huang Path immediately and left to visit Happy Home and check whether the Exchange List had new Holy Seals.

Yuan Zhu nearly completed his first Soul Crystal by purifying the Disease Garden, while planning a ceremonial breakthrough that would steer his future Holy Light path toward the moon. Meanwhile, he discovered that Shadow Eggplants could sustain parasitized Goblins, inspiring him to turn his crowded Haunted House into the starting point for a Goblin-breeding business.

• Yuan Zhu devastated the Disease Garden and came within one step of completing his Soul Crystal, though his health steward warned that he needed rest before the breakthrough.
• Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Strip planned to make his breakthrough ceremonial and guide his Holy Light connection toward the Moon Sea of Consciousness rather than the Eight Holy Kings or the Spirit Realm Layer.
• Yuan Zhu pursued his business plans, gathered supplies and land information, and accumulated more disabled Goblins from Lü Rang's suppliers.
• Yuan Zhu discovered that Shadow Eggplant seedlings could sustain their Goblin hosts through the Haunted House's Shadow network, eliminating the need to feed them and keeping their quarters clean.
• Yuan Zhu decided to use the symbiotic Goblins as labor for a breeding business, imagining that Shadow Pollution could make them durable enough for continuous work and eventual recycling into Chang Ghost wetware.

After reaching 99.99% Soul Crystal progress, Yuan Zhu considered selling the Disease Garden until Little Spicy Strip revealed he could use it to breed powerful Disease Demonic Beasts for high-quality Soul Ash. He weighed independent Second Holy Seal options against faction ties and his Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture, but left the choice undecided.

• Yuan Zhu assessed the Disease Garden's limited usefulness and considered selling it to obtain resources suited to his Shadow Domain.
• Little Spicy Strip advised Yuan Zhu to let Disease Pollution twist animals into powerful Demonic Beasts, then use their Soul Ash to improve his Holy Seals.
• Yuan Zhu decided to seek a buyer and possible exchange for Tai Huang Path inheritance while also considering the Great Moth and Tai Huang Dao Lord factions.
• Yuan Zhu reviewed the benefits and obligations of accepting the Tai Huang Yellow Sky Talisman, but preferred to preserve his independence from the Holy Light Kings.
• Yuan Zhu compared the independent Thunder Punishment and Holy Seal Armor options, found neither fully satisfactory, and postponed choosing his Second Holy Seal.

Yuan Zhu tried to cultivate a Goblin into a source of power for completing his Soul Crystal, but his uncontrolled experiment transformed it into a Fallen Seal flesh monster. He trapped the monster inside his Sanctuary and began refining it with Holy Light.

• Yuan Zhu dragged the restored Parasitic Eggplant Goblin into the Disease Garden and struck it with Holy Cough and Holy Breath, forcing it to evolve through pain and pollution.
• The Goblin devoured diseased plants and Earth Rank Magic Insect Mutated Tissue, growing into an uncontrollable mass of flesh and reaching toward the 2nd Seal.
• The monster attacked Yuan Zhu with flesh tentacles wreathed in Fallen Seal Holy Light, so he manifested his Sanctuary and expanded it to repel the assault.
• Yuan Zhu sealed the Fallen Seal monster inside the Sanctuary, then poured his Soul Crystal's stored Holy Light into the prison and began refining it.

Yuan Zhu condensed the Soul Crystal after the Fallen Seal flesh-mountain Demon King was refined, then briefly connected to the Holy Light Source and received its power. He realized the crystal gave him a way to build leverage against the Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture, and began examining its benefits.

• The Holy Light refined the Fallen Seal flesh-mountain Demon King, and its mixed Ember completed Yuan Zhu’s Soul Crystal.
• Yuan Zhu’s soul was pulled beyond the Soul Firewall, where he glimpsed the Holy Light Source and formed a connection to it before returning to his body.
• Jade Capital Child and Snake Snake warned that the Soul Crystal had escaped the Immortal Scripture Client’s surveillance, while Yuan Zhu recognized signs of Holy Light influence in his thoughts.
• Yuan Zhu concluded that the Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture could not control the Holy Light Source and considered using Anti-Law to create another point of leverage against it.
• Yuan Zhu learned that the Soul Crystal had opened a one-meter Soul Space through its connection to the Holy Light Source’s Netway.