Chapter Summaries

After the Conceal the Heavens Curse nearly killed Chen Luo, Lang Feixian explained why he could not safely return to Dongcang and worried that Chen Luo might resent the human race. Chen Luo reassured him, and as they planned to return to the bamboo grove, his Second Senior Sister arrived.

• Chen Luo told Lang Feixian how the Mountain Guarding Monk had saved him from the Conceal the Heavens Curse.
• Lang Feixian said Chen Luo could not return to Dongcang because the Demon Race and Buddhist Sect could still target him, while the human race lacked enough powerful cultivators to protect him.
• Chen Luo told Lang Feixian he did not blame the human race and spoke of his dream of Huaxia and the people who had protected him.
• Lang Feixian, relieved by Chen Luo's words, called for wine and suggested they return to the bamboo grove.
• A flower-embroidered shoe struck Lang Feixian, and he blamed Chen Luo for asking to drink before introducing him to their Second Senior Sister.
• Chen Luo's Second Senior Sister appeared on a Mist Steed and introduced herself.

Ling Chuchu arrived and beat Chen Luo to weaken his Heavenly Dao misfortune before revealing that a Half-Saint had fallen beyond the heavens and that their teacher was being sent there with two Half-Saints from the Fang Family. With Lang Feixian assigned to oversee the bamboo grove, Chen Luo received a choice between cultivating in the Ye Clan Secret Realm and traveling south to the Hongyan Clan’s ancestral land.

• Ling Chuchu struck Chen Luo repeatedly, reducing his Heavenly Dao misfortune, while Lang Feixian explained what she was doing.
• Chen Luo and Lang Feixian witnessed a meteor whose Dao principles had returned to the Heavenly Dao and learned that a Half-Saint had fallen beyond the heavens.
• Ling Chuchu told Lang Feixian that the Fang Family had invoked precedent to make their teacher travel beyond the heavens with two Half-Saints, postponing the Saint war for three years.
• Ling Chuchu said she and Fifth Child would accompany their teacher while Lang Feixian returned to oversee the bamboo grove.
• Ling Chuchu gave Chen Luo a Ye Clan Secret Realm token and a map to the Hongyan Clan’s ancestral land, where he could make trouble while the teacher was away.
• Chen Luo connected the Hongyan Clan’s history to Buddha, the Golden-Winged Great Peng Clan, and the possible location of the Bodhi Land.

Chen Luo chose to travel to the Demon Race’s Bodhi Land, where he hoped to cultivate Mount Fangcun and perhaps unlock stories tied to the Demon Race. His teacher’s jade slip gave him instructions and promised protection, while Chen Luo learned that his mysterious Third Senior Brother would meet him after he entered the Demon Race.

• Second Senior Sister departed after warning Chen Luo that she would bury anyone who bullied him, and Lang Feixian took Chen Luo away in the carriage.
• Chen Luo chose the Demon Race’s Bodhi Land after reasoning that it could benefit his cultivation and open a new source of stories.
• Chen Luo discovered his teacher’s jade slip, which explained how to conceal Mount Sumeru, publish books among humans and demons, and seek safety if a Demon Race story proved useless to them.
• Chen Luo learned that his teacher had hidden a full-strength Divine Ability in the map and had arranged for his Third Senior Brother to handle his Demon Race identity.
• Chen Luo questioned Lang Feixian about the mysterious Third Senior Brother, learning only that he was male, unusually beautiful, and rarely present in the Bamboo Grove.
• Chen Luo and Lang Feixian continued south through the night while discussing their senior brothers.

Chen Luo met storyteller Sang Luo in Lin'an City to learn about the Demon Race before entering the Southern Wasteland. Sang Luo revealed that Chen Luo’s destination, Jingze Lake, belonged to Si Zhu Kingdom, whose people already admired Chen Luo’s literary works.

• Chen Luo listened to Sang Luo tell an embellished account of Chen Luo’s life, then invited him to the Lakeside Residence with Nanyuan Xi’s letter of introduction.
• Chen Luo revealed himself to Sang Luo and asked about Demon Race customs and the region around Jingze Lake.
• Sang Luo explained that the Demon Race had fractured into many kingdoms and that the Hongyan Clan’s former territory, Jingze Lake, had become a forbidden land after the Great Peng Clan’s members went mad there.
• The Mountain Guarding Monk told Chen Luo that the Great Peng Clan’s madness came from inhaling demonic mental energy tied to the Ancient Buddhist Rhyme, and assured him that Mount Fangcun could withstand it.
• Sang Luo explained that Si Zhu Kingdom now controlled Jingze Lake and that its half-demons admired Chen Luo’s writing, prompting Chen Luo to suspect that a familiar routine awaited him.

Sang Luo told Chen Luo about Si Zhu Kingdom’s spring poetry competition near Jingze Lake, prompting Chen Luo to travel south and investigate the kingdom’s rulers. After entering the Southern Wasteland, Chen Luo encountered a mysterious youth whose gaze stirred the Demonic Energy within him, but the youth escaped by vanishing inside an illusory snake.

• Sang Luo explained that Si Zhu Kingdom’s poetry competition took place near Jingze Lake and that Chen Luo’s Timeless Poetry had silenced Demonic Confucians who challenged the Human Race.
• Chen Luo agreed to travel south, and Sang Luo left for Han Prefecture with a handwritten copy of Legend of the Eight Immortals.
• Chen Luo and Ao Lingling left Lin'an, crossed Zhennan Pass, and entered the Southern Wasteland, where many human and demon scholars were traveling to the poetry gathering.
• Chen Luo read an official dossier describing Si Zhu Kingdom’s three Great Sage state lords, each with a dramatic history of betrayal and revenge, and wondered whether they were connected to his Third Senior Brother or his teacher.
• A cold-faced youth used a giant illusory python to collect tolls from travelers in the Domain of Courtesy, and his gaze stirred Chen Luo’s Hundred Birds in the Flower Forest.
• The youth escaped by being swallowed by the python, which burst into water vapor; Chen Luo saw the youth mouth the word “Delicious!” as he vanished.

Chen Luo arrived in Three Main City, learned about local customs and the Four Pavilions of Poetry selection for the Jingze Poetry Gathering, and decided to attempt it immediately. He left with Lang Kuakua as Jin Guagua offered the guide a golden bead to keep quiet.

• Chen Luo reached Three Main City and hired Lang Kuakua to guide him around the city.
• Lang Kuakua explained that demons wore human-style clothing and that the city’s restaurants served game and mountain delicacies.
• Lang Kuakua tried to arrange a visit to Fengya Tower, but Ao Lingling shut the window and Chen Luo asked about the Jingze Poetry Gathering instead.
• Lang Kuakua told Chen Luo that participants had to pass the Four Pavilions of Poetry, where they wrote a poem while climbing Four Pavilions Mountain, and warned him that demons sometimes disrupted human scholars.
• Chen Luo decided to challenge the Four Pavilions of Poetry after eating, and Jin Guagua offered Lang Kuakua a golden bead to buy his silence.

Chen Luo challenged Four Pavilions Mountain, defeated the Crow Demons with a deliberately plain opening and a powerful concluding poem, and learned that the Great State Lord had been waiting for him. The chapter left Chen Luo wondering whether the Great State Lord was his Third Senior Brother.

• Chen Luo gave a God Solidifying Pill to save a Confucian scholar’s companion and accepted a Master Realm brush, then returned it as a reward after learning Crow Demons had been attacking challengers.
• Wunao Zui, Wunao Qiang, and Wunao Ji provoked Chen Luo into challenging Four Pavilions Mountain, and Chen Luo bet that they would demote themselves if he passed all four pavilions.
• Chen Luo wrote two deliberately simple lines at the First and Second Pavilions, then added lines about the red sun, white clouds, and the view across the Nine Regions and Demon Continent.
• Chen Luo passed the challenge, and Cui Shanque punished the three Crow Demons according to the consequences they had wagered.
• Lord He arrived, bowed to Chen Luo, and called him Little Ancestor before inviting him to meet the Great State Lord.

Chen Luo met Bai Sanqian, the Great State Lord of Si Zhu Kingdom, and learned that he was the disciple of Chen Luo’s Third Senior Brother. Bai Sanqian led Chen Luo through his master’s bizarre garden to meet him, where Chen Luo discovered that his Third Senior Brother was a White Marsh.

• Chen Luo traveled to the Three Main City palace, where Bai Sanqian revealed himself as Chen Luo’s nephew and asked him to visit his master alone.
• Bai Sanqian showed Chen Luo a Life Bamboo Leaf, then carried him through a teleportation array to his master’s garden.
• Bai Sanqian explained that his master had plucked the feathers from a Peacock Great Sage and imprisoned demons as flower fertilizer.
• Bai Sanqian brought Chen Luo to a bamboo hut, where his handsome master transformed from a white beast into human form.
• Chen Luo recognized his Third Senior Brother’s beast form as a White Marsh.

Chen Luo met Bai Xiao, his Third Senior Brother, who explained the plan to help him establish Mount Fangcun and build a reputation in the Demon Race under a new identity. The chapter ended with Bai Xiao giving Chen Luo his extra heart as a meeting gift before falling asleep.

• Bai Xiao welcomed Chen Luo and explained that he had been suppressing the extraterrestrial Demonic Energy at Jingze Lake.
• Bai Xiao told Chen Luo to win the Jingze Poetry Gathering so he could claim territory around Jingze Lake and plant Mount Fangcun with less scrutiny.
• Bai Xiao examined Chen Luo’s Barbarian transformation and explained that Chen Luo should make a name for himself in the Demon Race under a different identity.
• Chen Luo realized the plan could help the Demon Race reconnect with the Heavenly Dao through his Book of Demons and Ghosts, while leaving him a way to return to the human race if it failed.
• Bai Xiao revealed that he had been born with two hearts, removed the extra one, and gave it to Chen Luo as a meeting gift before falling asleep.

Chen Luo absorbed Bai Xiao’s Bai Ze bloodline and gained two Innate Supernatural Powers, then received the name Bai Mo and a cover story for appearing among the Demon Race. He prepared to make his first appearance at the Jingze Poetry Gathering, unaware that Bai Xiao’s former admirers might come looking for him.

• Chen Luo accepted the Heart of Bai Ze and entered the Sea of Divine Soul, where Bai Xiao’s lingering soul tested him and died repeatedly until Chen Luo absorbed the essence blood.
• Chen Luo gained the Bai Ze Monster Scroll, whose Monster Charm could raise a monster’s cultivation rank and whose Monster Divination could awaken hidden bloodlines.
• Bai Xiao told Chen Luo to present himself among the Demon Race as Bai Ze, claiming he had been enlightened by Bai Xiao beside a now-dried great lake.
• Bai Xiao named Chen Luo Bai Mo and warned him that female demons he had once misled might seek him out, advising him to deny knowing where Bai Xiao was.
• Bai Xiao explained that the Jingze Poetry Gathering would be Bai Mo’s first appearance and that its territory reward would draw powerful demons; Chen Luo confidently promised to overwhelm them with his poetry.

Chen Luo traveled to Jingze Lake for the Demon Race’s poetry gathering after absorbing Bai Xiao’s bloodline and changing his appearance. As Bai Qingqing dealt with demons fighting near the lake, a huge shadow surfaced beneath its waters.

• Bai Xiao accepted some of Chen Luo’s spirit medicines and treasures before Chen Luo left.
• Chen Luo discovered that absorbing Bai Xiao’s bloodline had changed his appearance, and Jin Guagua decided to wait until reaching the fifth rank before entering his name in the Book of Monsters.
• Lord He guided Chen Luo toward Jingze Lake and gave him a Wood Bell to summon intelligence scouts.
• Young demons argued over Si Zhu Kingdom’s offer of a fief to the poetry gathering’s champion, then the Horse Demon and Wolf Demon began fighting.
• Bai Qingqing restrained the Horse Demon and Wolf Demon and led the demons away, unaware that a huge shadow appeared in the lake.
• Chen Luo arrived by teleportation at a hidden location a hundred li from Jingze Lake.

Chen Luo entered Stone Town for the Jingze Poetry Gathering and concealed his identity as he competed on Stele Sixteen. His bamboo poem devoured every other poem on the stele, earning him a sealed-entry place in the next round as White Ink.

• Chen Luo arrived in Stone Town, registered for the gathering, and learned that the first round involved writing poems on steles.
• Chen Luo rejected advice to choose an easier stele and went to Stele Sixteen, where he met its top-ranked poet, Bai Taotao.
• Chen Luo introduced himself as White Ink and wrote a poem praising bamboo to represent his Bamboo Forest lineage.
• Chen Luo's Green Bamboo poem shattered every other poem on Stele Sixteen, including Bai Taotao's, and the stele became a Solo Monument Poem.
• The gathering's voice named White Ink as Stele Sixteen's selected entrant and teleported Chen Luo away.

Chen Luo arrived at the Jingze Poetry Gathering and repelled demons who probed his Soul power, then refused She Xiangxiang's advances. She Xiangxiang declared him her man and warned Jin Chen away from him, while Bai Qingqing noticed that Bai Mo's words resembled Chen Luo's poetry.

• Chen Luo arrived at Jingze Lake, absorbed the demons' probing Soul power with his Yin Yang Boundary, and rebuffed Jin Chen of the Great Peng Clan.
• The magpie spirit told Chen Luo that the gathering would begin around the sixth division of Moonlight and offered him a companion, but Chen Luo declined and went to rest.
• She Xiangxiang entered Chen Luo's house and said his superior bloodline attracted her, but Chen Luo carried her outside and shut the door.
• She Xiangxiang promised to wait for Chen Luo and warned Jin Chen that Bai Mo was her man.
• Bai Qingqing compared Bai Mo's verse to a line by Chen Luo and wondered why they sounded alike.

Chen Luo attended the Jingze Poetry Gathering, where he learned that teams of three competed by writing poems whose literary radiance powered a contest among tablet fish. After the topics were announced, he wrote a poem on Lamenting Spring, sending literary radiance soaring above the island.

• Chen Luo encountered Jin Chen, Bai Qingqing, She Xiangxiang, and Stone Man'er among the gathered demons, and Stone Man'er invited him to drink after the gathering.
• Bai Sanqian’s crane-feather edict announced the gathering’s rules: teams of three would combine their poems’ literary radiance to compete.
• Chen Luo learned that the island was a Great Turtle, and that poems written on tablet-fish scales determined which carp absorbed the others’ literary radiance.
• Leng Hanbing, Qing Niao, and Tree Elder announced the topics Lamenting Spring, Lovesickness, and Returning to the Mountains.
• Chen Luo chose Lamenting Spring and wrote a poem that sent a streak of literary radiance soaring into the sky.

At the Si Zhu Kingdom poetry gathering, Chen Luo wrote several acclaimed ci and poems under the name Bai Mo, turning the competition in his favor. His final poem, on Tree Elder’s chosen topic of Returning to the Mountains, produced a massive Literary Brilliance stele on the Great Turtle’s back, which began to explode.

• Leng Hanbing and the other experts praised Chen Luo’s spring lament and lovesickness ci after Lord He identified him as the demon Bai Mo.
• Chen Luo’s poems made his Literary Brilliance Carp powerful, and Jin Chen sent his carp to attack him.
• She Xiangxiang blocked Jin Chen’s carp long enough for Chen Luo to write a poem that summoned a Literary Brilliance Swan Goose, which devoured Jin Chen’s carp.
• Chen Luo stopped Jin Chen from striking the swan goose, while Lord He prohibited them from fighting and warned Chen Luo about a hidden Great Sage of the Great Peng Clan.
• After Bai Qingqing and Shi Man’er challenged him to write again, Tree Elder urged Chen Luo to choose Returning to the Mountains, and Chen Luo accepted.
• Chen Luo’s Returning to the Mountains transformed his carp into an azure dragon and then a massive stone stele; the Great Turtle’s back shook and exploded.

At the Jingze Poetry Gathering, Chen Luo won the championship as Bai Mo, but the demons questioned his identity and demanded he reveal his Original Form. Chen Luo manifested Bai Ze and declared himself an anomalous beast.

• Tree Elder, Bluebird Woman, and Leng Hanbing praised the poems on the stone tablet, and Leng Hanbing offered to take Bai Mo as his disciple.
• Chen Luo said he already had a master, and She Xiangxiang declared that he was hers; Stone Man'er and Bai Qingqing conceded, making Bai Mo the gathering's champion.
• Jin Chen demanded the championship reward for the Great Peng Clan, but Chen Luo named one hundred drops of Golden-Winged Great Peng blood essence, and Lord He stopped Jin Chen from using force.
• A wolf demon accused Bai Mo of being human and demanded he reveal his Original Form, while Bai Qingqing offered Chen Luo a way to avoid doing so.
• Chen Luo used Blood Body Transformation to manifest a snow-white beast with a tiger's head, a single horn, and a Qilin Body, then declared himself Bai Ze.

Chen Luo revealed himself as Bai Ze, won the Jingze Poetry Gathering, and received Jingze Lake as his fief. He raised Mount Fangcun from the lake and used Primordial Chaos Qi to make his first Monster Race draw, which produced Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

• Chen Luo revealed his Bai Ze identity, and Jin Chen killed the fleeing wolf monster before apologizing to him.
• She Xiangxiang, Bai Qingqing, Shi Man'er, and other monsters supported Chen Luo, and Lord He announced him as the poetry gathering’s champion.
• News spread that Chen Luo had chosen Jingze Lake as his fief, and Lord He’s decree made the lake his territory.
• At the center of Jingze Lake, Chen Luo used a stone and his vital blood to raise Mount Fangcun from the water, while Di Ting absorbed most of its Primordial Chaos Qi.
• Chen Luo entered the Dream Flower Forest and drew the Monster Race’s first book, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

Chen Luo established his residence on Mount Fangcun and named it Strange Tales, while Qingqiu’s rulers discussed the growing conflict over Elegant Script and humanity. After writing the story of Yingning, Chen Luo gained a Book Spirit whose seed could dispel sorrow and anger, and wondered whether the tale would benefit the demon race.

• Chen Luo invited Shi Man'er, Bai Qingqing, and She Xiangxiang to explore Mount Fangcun, then named his residence Strange Tales and introduced himself as Bai Mo, Mr. Strange Tales.
• Bai Lanlan told the eight-tailed white fox that her younger sister had lost the Jingze Poetry Gathering to a White Marsh, prompting the Fox Saint to react with delight and call out Bai Xiao.
• Chen Luo sensed an unexplained warning from the Danger Mirror, then entered his study to test the effects of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.
• Chen Luo wrote Yingning and received the Book Spirit Laughing Willow, whose power could dispel sorrow and melancholy and extinguish anger.
• Chen Luo turned the Laughing Willow into a seed and considered planting it to suppress the Demonic Energy in Jingze Lake, but questioned whether Yingning would be useful to the demon race.

Lang Feixian reunited with Bamboo Forest Old Seven, who revealed plans to hide Chen Luo’s identity and stage his return among humans. Meanwhile, Chen Luo tested a new article on three demons at Mount Fangcun, and they discovered it produced blue vapor within them.

• Lang Feixian exposed Old Seven’s Paper Figure illusions and met him in the real bamboo hut.
• Old Seven explained that Chen Luo had entered the Southern Wasteland and presented elaborate plans to create false traces of his presence among humans.
• Lang Feixian chose Old Seven’s seventh plan and gave him Chen Luo’s later manuscripts to publish under Chen Luo’s name.
• Yu Jia lamented losing Chen Luo’s trail in Qingzhou while eating fish.
• At Mount Fangcun, Chen Luo asked Shi Man’er, She Xiangxiang, and Bai Qingqing to read his article about fox demons.
• Shi Man’er, Bai Qingqing, and She Xiangxiang each produced blue vapor after reading, and Chen Luo asked what effect it had.

Chen Luo discovered that stories from Yingning produced blue qi that greatly aided the Demon Race’s cultivation, prompting three demon clans to seek his alliance. After sending a letter to Third Senior Brother to arrange experiments, Chen Luo sensed someone crawling up Mount Fangcun from the lake.

• She Xiangxiang, Shi Man'er, and Bai Qingqing found that Chen Luo’s blue qi aided demon cultivation and could neutralize the dangers of the Essence of Sun.
• Bai Qingqing offered an alliance between Qingqiu and Mount Fangcun, while She Xiangxiang and Shi Man'er urged Chen Luo to join their clans.
• Chen Luo declared his dream of ending war and division and asked the three demons to journey with him; they agreed and left with manuscripts for their clans.
• Alone in his study, Chen Luo worried that helping the Demon Race could threaten humanity and decided to investigate how book-given power might be restrained.
• Chen Luo wrote Third Senior Brother about the blue qi, enclosed Yingning, and requested two condemned prisoners for experiments.
• Mount Fangcun alerted Chen Luo that someone was crawling up the mountain from the lake.