Chapter Summaries

Chen Mu watched Song Wuji destroy the White Smoke Monster swarm at Jilong Mountain, then discovered a host of the creatures had followed the Five Ghosts Paper Figures to his home. After the paper figures devoured them, his Five Ghosts Bag expanded and filled with Yin Soul Monsters.

• Song Wuji dispersed the White Smoke Monsters covering Jilong Mountain and sent his Insect Cloud to kill the scattered creatures.
• Chen Mu returned to Chaoyang Mountain, but five Little Paper Men arrived riding human-faced White Smoke Monsters and triggered the Yama Heavenly Son Order, revealing a swarm around him.
• General Jin sent Thousand Eyes to search for the scattered Yin Nether Insects, and Thousand Eyes found them gathered in one place.
• Chen Mu used the Yama Order to control the White Smoke Monsters, then ordered the Five Ghosts Paper Figures to devour them instead of alerting Mo Wuzhou.
• The White Smoke Monsters enlarged the Five Ghosts Bag, where Chen Mu discovered clouds of Yin Soul Monsters had appeared.

After the White Smoke Monster vanished, Chen Mu examined the Yinhun-filled Five Ghosts Bag and returned to cultivation, while Song Wuji and Mo Wuzhou discussed the monster and Yuanbao. Jilong Mountain’s rice recovered, and Chen Mu began forging more Vermilion Feather Swords to improve his scouting.

• General Jin ordered Thousand Eyes and the Black-Clad Strongman to avoid Jilong Mountain and focus on luring a Calamity Demon to destroy the Earth Vein Spirit Spring without exposing themselves.
• Chen Mu concluded that the White Smoke Monster had caused the Five Ghosts Bag to expand, considered seeking more monsters at Chongshan Dao, then examined the bag and resumed cultivation.
• Song Wuji told Mo Wuzhou that the monster combined several forms of Heavenly Demon and hid in the void, and said they would ask the Dao Lord about it.
• Song Wuji questioned Yuanbao about eating spiritual herbs, and Yuanbao swallowed his upper body while Mo Wuzhou watched.
• After the White Smoke Monster vanished, Jilong Mountain’s Yellow Sprout Rice recovered, and Chen Mu used Sun Wujiu’s ores to prepare two more Vermilion Feather Swords for better scouting.

Chen Mu wondered whether he had helped Yuanbao develop its bloodline, trained his Yin Thunder, and accidentally blasted himself and his rocking chair. Meanwhile, a man preparing to leave Jiaquan Mountain for a new Lower Courtyard was swallowed by a living shadow.

• Mo Wuzhou gave Chen Mu scarce materials for Foundation Cultivation Pills as thanks for helping Yuanbao develop its bloodline, though Chen Mu denied knowing how he had done it.
• A month later, Chen Mu listened for news of the White Smoke Monster but found that people had moved on to discussing the pioneering war in Jilong Dao.
• Chen Mu practiced his second-tier Kuishui Yinlei and accidentally shot lightning into himself, destroying his rocking chair.
• At night, a man on Jiaquan Mountain woke with a sense of dread, saw a shadow move across the floor, and was swallowed by it.

Chen Mu used Return Vitality Soup and the Soul Seizing Yuan Returning Technique to recover from Kuishui Yinlei and opened a new Secret Aperture that let him move through plants and trees. After he killed a shadow creature on Chaoyang Mountain, a group of black-clothed men arrived and decided to search elsewhere until their general returned.

• Chen Mu discovered that the Soul Seizing Yuan Returning Technique healed wounds and strengthened his body by draining vital energy, then paired it with Return Vitality Soup and Kuishui Yinlei.
• After more than a month of training, Chen Mu opened a Secret Aperture beneath his right ribs and gained the ability to slip into grass and trees.
• Chen Mu heard a scream and used the True Hearing Technique to find a shadow creature consuming someone inside a secluded house.
• Chen Mu pinned the shadow creature with his Flying Sword and Vermilion Feather Swords, but its body burned into white ash before he could identify it.
• Eleven black-clothed men investigated the ash and decided to search Jilong Mountain while avoiding the Three Chaoyang Mountains until their general returned.

Chen Mu exposed a group of murderers preparing to cause chaos on Jilong Mountain, then secretly eliminated a surviving Shadow Serpent after Mo Wuzhou’s forces wiped out the eleven black-clothed figures. With the mountain peaceful again, Chen Mu learned from Yuanbao that Primal Chaos Qi surrounded him, though the Great Toad knew little about it.

• Chen Mu reported the black-clothed figures’ planned Human Pillars to Mo Wuzhou and gave him a booklet identifying their hideouts and weaknesses.
• Mo Wuzhou led the Patrol Institute in coordinated attacks that killed all eleven black-clothed figures, but a small Shadow Serpent escaped unnoticed.
• Chen Mu trapped the Shadow Serpent as it tried to attack a disciple in a Yellow Sprout Rice Field and destroyed it with lightning.
• The Patrol Institute found no leads on the attackers’ origins, and Chen Mu resumed cultivating while Jilong Mountain returned to peace.
• Chen Mu questioned Yuanbao about Return Vitality Soup and learned that Primal Chaos Qi surrounded him, though Yuanbao could not explain it further.

Chen Mu learned about Primordial Qi, advanced his cultivation, and discovered a new fire-evasion ability, while General Jin’s plan to gather the Twelve Night Roaming Gods failed when none arrived. The chapter ended with General Jin suspecting that the Night Roaming Gods had been wiped out on Jilong Mountain.

• Chen Mu paid a Scripture Doctor to learn that Primordial Qi gathered near Earth Vein Spirit Springs and helped refine Divine Apertures.
• Chen Mu suspected the Exquisite Jade Disk could gather Primordial Qi and decided to deepen his secret chamber.
• After half a month of cultivation, Chen Mu gained another ring on his Divine Aperture Talisman and discovered he could evade into flames.
• Chen Mu’s Soul Seizing Yuan Returning Technique advanced, and he realized its influence had nearly made him bring his head to his own draining hands.
• General Jin, Thousand Eyes, and Lian Cheng waited for the Twelve Night Roaming Gods to report, but no one arrived by dawn.
• General Jin concluded that the Twelve Night Roaming Gods had likely met with disaster on Jilong Mountain.

Chen Mu refined Foundation Cultivation Pills and, after hearing an ominous cry, asked Mo Wuzhou about secluded Lower Courtyards so he could leave Jilong Mountain. Mo Wuzhou failed to uncover what Chen Mu knew, then sensed a Heavenly Demon Monster's attention despite finding no danger nearby.

• Chen Mu raised his Nine-Four Foundation Cultivation Pill method to the limit and refined one hundred and thirty-two pills, then heard a strange cry and searched the area without finding anything unusual.
• General Jin learned that the Calamity Demon had sunk into the Netherworld and that the Patrol Institute had killed the Twelve Night Roaming Gods, and he suspected Mo Wuzhou was involved in discovering the demon.
• Chen Mu asked Mo Wuzhou to help find a secluded Lower Courtyard along Jilong Dao, concealing his concern about the cry and claiming he simply wanted a quiet place to cultivate.
• Mo Wuzhou questioned Chen Mu about a hidden danger on Jilong Mountain but got no answer, so he decided to strengthen the Patrol Institute's vigilance.
• Mo Wuzhou felt the warning of a Heavenly Demon Monster watching him, found nothing nearby, and argued with the Black Smoke inside his Jade Seed before flying toward the mountain summit.

General Jin and his companions were reprimanded by the Spirit Venerable, while Chen Mu prepared to leave disaster-plagued Jilong Mountain for the remote Ganhe Lower Courtyard. After Yuanbao revealed Chen Mu’s destination to Mo Wuzhou, Mo Wuzhou decided to go there too.

• The Spirit Venerable revived General Jin and the other two after killing them, then ordered them to stir up trouble elsewhere while keeping their actions secret.
• Chen Mu gave Jia Tian boxes of Fasting Pills and learned about the dangerous but profitable Canglan Lower Courtyard, then asked Jia Tian about safer, remote alternatives.
• Chen Mu arranged to leave Jilong Mountain once his replacement arrived and told Yuanbao he planned to move to Ganhe Lower Courtyard.
• Mo Wuzhou discussed peaceful Lower Courtyards with his master’s fading image and considered where to continue cultivating.
• Yuanbao chose Ganhe Lower Courtyard, leading Mo Wuzhou to suspect Chen Mu was going there and decide to follow him.

Chen Mu left Jilong Mountain for Ganhe Lower Courtyard, where he discovered that Academy Supervisor Mo Wuzhou was also headed there. Worried Mo might detect the Primal Chaos Qi and take his Exquisite Jade Disk, Chen Mu searched Liu Hongyang’s cultivation notes for a way to conceal it.

• Chen Mu prepared to move, then heard a deer cry aboard the Cloud Bat Airship and briefly sensed a colossal creature on Jilong Mountain before it vanished.
• After leaving the airship at Lichuan Lower Courtyard, Chen Mu joined a transport convoy to Ganhe Lower Courtyard and heard Hundred Crafts Hall members discuss why the remote location was safe and connected to the Tianhe Water Mansion.
• Chen Mu learned that Academy Supervisor Mo was Mo Wuzhou, the young pavilion master of the Pill Treasure Pavilion, and feared Mo would discover his Primal Chaos Qi.
• At Ganhe Lower Courtyard, Chen Mu settled into a cabin he had built and searched Liu Hongyang’s cultivation notes for Prohibitions that might conceal the Primal Chaos Qi.

Chen Mu studied and practiced the Harmony Light Restriction, eventually using it to conceal the chamber beneath his cabin and hide the Exquisite Jade Disk. Just as he believed Mo Wuzhou would not find him, the Great Toad appeared at his courtyard, having sensed the surging Primal Chaos Qi.

• Chen Mu studied Liu Hongyang's notes and gradually traced the Harmony Light Restriction's foundational spell talismans into his Jade Seed.
• Chen Mu repeatedly attempted to activate the restriction around stone pillars, but the pillars exploded; after further practice, he built a working restriction in an underground chamber that Divine Listening perceived as a boulder.
• Chen Mu used the Three Powers Restriction to conceal the Exquisite Jade Disk and believed Mo Wuzhou could not discover the Primal Chaos Qi.
• The Great Toad appeared in Chen Mu's courtyard and explained that the Primal Chaos Qi surging around his hiding place had led it there.

Chen Mu traced the Primal Chaos Qi to the Five Ghosts Bag and his Yin Soul-related powers, then concealed his home and chose to cultivate in seclusion until he could control it. Elsewhere, General Jin defeated Wu Ruo and her companions, while Chen Mu advanced his Kuishui Yinlei and resumed refining Divine Aperture Talismans.

• Chen Mu discovered that the Five Ghosts Bag leaked Primal Chaos Qi whenever he opened or closed it, and that his own body also emitted some.
• Chen Mu expanded the Harmony Light Restriction to conceal his cabin and courtyard, then decided to remain in seclusion until he completed Condensing Orifice and controlled Primal Chaos Qi.
• Chen Mu accused Yuanbao of revealing his secret to Mo Wuzhou, but was stunned when the Great Toad mentioned Song Wuji's visits to Yihong Courtyard.
• General Jin tore off Wu Ruo's arm, transformed into a monster, and broke her spine after she wounded his face; he ordered Lian Cheng to send the captives to Tianhe Water Mansion and pursued an escaped target with Thousand Eyes.
• Chen Mu cultivated on his porch, advanced Kuishui Yinlei to Tier 3, and began refining the seventh layer of Divine Aperture Talismans.

Mo Wuzhou learned that Jilong Dao was preparing to relocate to Haizhou and remained on guard for mysterious outsiders. Chen Mu opened a new Secret Aperture that strengthened his escape art, while hostile investigators began plotting to draw him away from Ganhe Lower Courtyard.

• Rong Qiu told Mo Wuzhou that Jilong Dao was preparing to move to Haizhou and ordered him to oversee the secret construction of the Deep Dive Ferry at Ganhe Lower Courtyard.
• Mo Wuzhou discussed the relocation and the Netherworld Ghost Demons with Black Smoke Monster Tu, who teased him about humans hiding their schemes.
• Chen Mu formed a new Secret Aperture and discovered that his escape art let him pass through solid metal and ore.
• Yuanbao brought Chen Mu a Golden Whisker Black Scale Strange Fish, which Chen Mu butchered and prepared for food and Return Vitality Soup.
• Two men investigating Chen Mu planned to learn about his acquaintances and lure him away from Ganhe Lower Courtyard, noting that Mo Wuzhou might count as one.

Chen Mu condensed his seventh layer of Divine Aperture Talismans, formed a Heavenly Demon True Form embryo, and discovered that his nine Secret Apertures contained his Primal Chaos Qi. Meanwhile, Mo Wuzhou began building a hidden shipyard near Chen Mu’s cabin, and a Little Wooden Horse exposed Chen Mu’s presence.

• Lin Su ordered Tantai Zong to hire drifters to watch Chen Mu so they could lure him into the Dragon Trapping Well.
• Chen Mu condensed his seventh layer of Divine Aperture Talismans, opened a ninth Secret Aperture, and formed an embryonic Heavenly Demon True Form.
• Chen Mu found that his Primal Chaos Qi circulated between his nine Secret Apertures without leaking, then tried to persuade Yuanbao to take him to Yihong Courtyard.
• Hu Quan arrived at Ganhe Lower Courtyard, where Mo Wuzhou prepared a concealed Shipyard and arranged guards to protect it.
• A Little Wooden Horse wandered into Chen Mu’s courtyard, revealing his location to Mo Wuzhou, who realized Chen Mu’s cabin stood near his Secret Dock.

Mo Wuzhou kept Chen Mu at the remote shipyard site after Chen Mu learned that Jilong Dao planned to migrate to Haizhou, and Yuanbao assigned him to watch the underground Qi mechanism. After Chen Mu detected someone observing the valley from thirty li away, Mo Wuzhou went to investigate, suspecting Chen Mu’s presence meant trouble was imminent.

• Mo Wuzhou told Chen Mu he could not leave the shipyard site and assigned him to monitor the underground area with Yuanbao.
• On the Black Canopy Boat, Tantai Zong described a plan to use two herbalists to track a man with the Far Sight Technique and lure him into the Dragon Trapping Well.
• Chen Mu confronted Yuanbao for hiding the secret, then learned that Jilong Dao planned to migrate to Haizhou.
• Worried the remote valley had become unsafe, Chen Mu used his True Hearing Technique and Vermilion Feather Swords to detect someone watching from thirty li away.
• Chen Mu told Mo Wuzhou about the watcher and asked to move into the Patrol Institute's dungeon, prompting Mo Wuzhou to investigate after recalling the disasters that followed Chen Mu's departures.

Mo Wuzhou followed a chain of animal-carried messages, only to discover that Lin Su and Tantai Zong had been baiting Chen Mu and that he had walked into a trap at Yellow Springs Crossing. Meanwhile, Shang Huan and Lu Ku continued fleeing toward Ganhe Lower Courtyard, preparing another desperate deception to evade the Bullhorn Monster.

• Mo Wuzhou traced bamboo-tube messages through Mutant Beasts to Lin Su and Tantai Zong, then revealed himself after mistaking their operation for an investigation of the Mountain Belly Shipyard.
• Lin Su and Tantai Zong realized Mo Wuzhou was not Chen Mu, and Lin Su suspected that Chen Mu had used them to test the waters.
• Chen Mu woke from a nap, demonstrated that his improved Finger Points to Steel could briefly stop Yuanbao’s earth escape, and returned to Dreamfield while wondering where Mo Wuzhou had gone.
• Lin Su stalled Mo Wuzhou aboard the Black Canopy Boat until Tu warned him that the scene was Yellow Springs Crossing; Mo Wuzhou escaped the teleportation trap just before the boat vanished into the Netherworld.
• Shang Huan and Lu Ku neared Ganhe Lower Courtyard, and Shang Huan created a Seven Kill Puppet from his own flesh so Lu Ku could lure the Bullhorn Monster farther away.

Chen Mu discovered that Primal Chaos Qi could nourish his gestating Heavenly Demon True Form, but his experiments were interrupted when Shang Huan and Lu Ku arrived while fleeing a powerful pursuer. After Chen Mu fled from them, Lu Ku revealed that Chen Mu was also marked as a sacrifice for the pursuers’ ritual.

• Chen Mu used the Hundred Mile Qi Seal to gather Primal Chaos Qi and feed it into his brow aperture, accelerating the growth of his Heavenly Demon True Form.
• Chen Mu sensed Shang Huan and Lu Ku approaching Ganhe Lower Courtyard and saw that Shang Huan had become skeletal while Lu Ku had grown onto his body.
• Shang Huan and Lu Ku told Chen Mu that they were being hunted and had been driven away from Jade Spring Mountain, so Chen Mu fled in the opposite direction.
• Chen Mu tried to shake the pair’s tracking, but Lu Ku explained that their Sevenfold Heart-Linking Gu made them suitable sacrifices for a Heavenly Capital Primordial Embryo ritual.
• Lu Ku revealed that Chen Mu, as the Gu master, was also an especially suitable primary sacrifice and would be hunted once they were captured.

Chen Mu was lured into Thousand Lantern City, a sealed space where he could find no way out. As he searched the deserted city for a means of escape, something unseen began moving in his shadow.

• Chen Mu realized Lu Ku had led him away from Ganhe Lower Courtyard so their pursuers could trap him, but Lu Ku revealed it was already too late to return.
• Chen Mu was transported into a vast, empty city surrounded by an unreachable black horizon, and his attempts to flee or burrow underground brought him back above its streets.
• Shang Huan collapsed after Lu Ku explained that Chen Mu, as the chief sacrifice, had to be trapped before they could be turned into Ghost Soldiers.
• Tantai Zong and Lin Su captured Shang Huan and handed him to Thousand Eyes, while Lin Su confirmed Chen Mu had been sent to Thousand Lantern City and that Dragon Trapping Well was nearing completion.
• Chen Mu explored the silent city and concluded that a spatial Secret Art enclosed a real place, then spotted his shadow moving and attacked it with his Vermilion Feather Sword.
• Chen Mu felt something brush his neck again and raised his defenses, becoming certain that his shadow had moved.

Chen Mu discovered that the living shadows in Thousand Lantern City were draining his primordial qi, then destroyed their lantern cores and absorbed the shadow monsters with his Heavenly Demon True Form. Thousand Eyes and Jin E arrived just as the city went dark, realizing Lian Cheng was dead and they were trapped there.

• Chen Mu used the Hundred Mile Qi Seal to detect malicious shadows that attacked him and drained his vitality and primordial qi.
• Chen Mu traced the shadows’ draining path to the lanterns, destroyed many of them with Three Yin Slaying Demon, and set the city ablaze with the Fire Cloud Gourd.
• Chen Mu’s forming Heavenly Demon True Form manifested as a black sphere that pulled the shadow monsters into itself and replenished his primordial qi.
• Thousand Eyes and Jin E entered Thousand Lantern City through a White Skin Lantern, carrying Shang Huan and expecting Lian Cheng to have succeeded.
• The remaining lantern went out as the shadows vanished, and Thousand Eyes realized Lian Cheng was dead and they had no way to escape the city.

Chen Mu was ambushed in the strange city by the powerful Jin E, who had been using Lu Ku and Shang Huan to lure him away. After his defenses broke, Chen Mu unleashed a transformation that let him overpower Jin E, leaving the fight’s outcome uncertain.

• Chen Mu killed the shadow monster with the Heavenly Demon True Form and sensed Lu Ku and Shang Huan nearby through the Heart-Linking Rope.
• Jin E appeared and struck Chen Mu through a building, while Lu Ku and Shang Huan revealed that the enemy had deliberately used them to draw him away.
• Jin E repeatedly forced Chen Mu out of the ground, and Chen Mu used the Vermilion Feather Swords to destroy Thousand Eyes, whose fragments turned into scattered eyes.
• Jin E shattered Chen Mu’s Yang Bone Shield with a series of punches, forcing Chen Mu to meet his next blow with his own fist.
• Chen Mu’s body transformed amid black smoke, and he struck Jin E down through the ground before declaring Jin E pathetically weak.

Chen Mu broke free of Jin E’s binding and transformed into a mad, monstrous form that overwhelmed the Horned Monster, while Lin Su ordered Tantai Zong to send General Jin into the Yellow Spring. As the Yellow Spring flooded Thousand Lantern City, Shang Huan and Lu Ku sank beneath it, leaving Chen Mu’s rampage unchecked.

• Jin E trapped Chen Mu with Ten Directions of Heavenly Fiends and prepared to strike him down.
• Chen Mu unleashed Ten Thousand Ghosts Possession, shattered the binding, and broke Jin E’s arms before hurling him toward the ground.
• Lin Su chose the dried-up pool as a place to send General Jin into the Yellow Spring, and Tantai Zong used Crossing the Yellow Springs.
• Shang Huan and Lu Ku watched Chen Mu destroy much of Thousand Lantern City, while Thousand Eyes searched for a way to restore his senses.
• Bright yellow water spread through the city, and Shang Huan and Lu Ku sank beneath it as buildings disappeared into the flood.