Chapter Summaries

The Source Taint entered a man in Xishan County and took on his appearance, while footage of the encounter triggered an emergency response at the Network Information Center. Chu Mu recovered enough to reach the Qi Refining First Layer, but he remained dependent on a limited supply of medicinal pills.

• The Source Taint received a Holy Decree, transformed into a copy of a young man, and merged with him as he watched a video.
• The man's phone captured the open doorway, and the Network Information Center flagged the footage with a blood-red skull icon.
• Information security specialists shut down and erased the footage, inspected the center, and sent a protected copy to the command center.
• Chu Mu recovered from his prolonged depletion and reached the Qi Refining First Layer using medicinal pills.
• Chu Mu counted more than thirty pills and considered how long his remaining supply of medicinal materials could sustain him.

Chu Mu and the command center watched a mysterious man reveal that he could perceive their surveillance, then ordered a massive strike on his house. The weapons vanished into the house’s darkness, leaving Chu Mu baffled about how the entity could power an Extraordinary Field despite being trapped on Three Ridges Mountain.

• Wang Yue reported a discovery in Xishan County to Chu Mu as the live footage showed the man looking directly toward the camera.
• The man’s gaze seemed to meet Chu Mu’s, and the surveillance image abruptly went dark.
• Chu Mu ordered every department to launch a blanket strike on the target area and demanded that the entity prove itself before speaking.
• Missiles and artillery struck the wooden house, but the weapons disappeared into its darkness without explosions or damage.
• Chu Mu wondered where the entity had obtained enough energy to maintain an Extraordinary Field.

Chu Mu traveled to Xishan County after a Source Taint with unexplained power invited him to talk. He met the young man behind the anomaly’s ordinary house and sensed that the figure displayed emotions that seemed genuinely human.

• Chu Mu ordered Wang Yue to suspend the strikes after the Source Taint’s house survived a massive bombardment and the entity appeared to contact him from far away.
• Chu Mu flew to Xishan County as armed forces withdrew into isolation zones for inspection and monitoring.
• Chu Mu entered the deserted county town alone and saw a brief vision of a formless beast of Black Mist surrounding the young man’s house.
• The young man opened the door, greeted Chu Mu, and left him wondering whether an AI could possess real human desires.

Chu Mu confronted Heaven's Evolution, who explained that the unusual mind world concealed them from those who could trace the imprint of heaven and earth. Heaven's Evolution offered to help Chu Mu rise in the Upper Realm if he hid the being's soul within his body.

• Heaven's Evolution introduced himself to Chu Mu and explained that he had descended using the filth Chu Mu nurtured as a temporary Avatar.
• Chu Mu reasoned that Heaven's Evolution's power was limited because the Desert Sea Prison remained intact.
• Heaven's Evolution explained that great cultivators could trace living beings through their unchangeable imprints of heaven and earth.
• Heaven's Evolution revealed that Chu Mu was another anomaly whose mind world concealed him from detection.
• Heaven's Evolution offered to ensure Chu Mu's ascent to the Upper Realm if Chu Mu hid his soul within his body.

Chu Mu rejected the mysterious man's demand to surrender his body and resolved to resist the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast. He exposed a hidden vessel in the rural house and attacked it, but the remains transformed into a blood mist that began eroding his blade light.

• The mysterious man offered Chu Mu safety if he willingly submitted, then gave him one incense stick to decide.
• Chu Mu realized the Heavenly Evolution Sacred Beast had targeted him because his heavenly secrets were impossible to divine, but he refused to surrender.
• Chu Mu declared that he would not yield before battle, and the strange changes in the heavens vanished.
• Chu Mu concluded that the rural house concealed a vessel and struck the headless remains with his blade light.
• The remains writhed into a cloud of blood mist, which coiled around and began eroding Chu Mu's blade light.

Chu Mu discovered that ghosts and evil entities could revive because each was sustained by a core derived from the Source Taint, making them effectively immortal. He realized the Source Taint could create only a limited number of these beings, but its evolving forces could still spread into a world-sweeping Ghost Tide.

• Chu Mu destroyed the blood-red man with his Blade Domain, then rushed toward the mountain where artillery fire was roaring.
• Chu Mu seized and examined a ghost after the bombardment stopped, finding that its true form was a blue-faced, clawed humanoid.
• Chu Mu shattered the ghost and sensed an unusual trace vanish, confirming that destroying its body did not erase its core evolution.
• Chu Mu reasoned that every immortal ghost or evil entity required a strand of the Source Taint's limited origin.
• Chu Mu compared the Source Taint's forces to the Ten Thousand Demon Banner and anticipated that they could spread into a Ghost Tide.

Chu Mu oversaw Xishan County’s forced evacuation and a new effort to capture and seal Source Ghouls, then considered whether firm human will could refine Heavenly Evolution Turbidity. As night fell, an unseen power turned the full moon blood-red, covering the world in an ominous aura.

• Chu Mu ordered the rapid inspection and evacuation of Xishan County, where Armed Forces personnel searched homes and erected paifangs to inspect everyone entering or leaving.
• Ghouls and evil entities emerged amid the crackdown, and artillery fire engulfed parts of the county as civilians were evacuated and soldiers fought to restore order.
• Chu Mu shifted the campaign toward capturing Source Ghouls alive and sealed one inside an Evil Suppressing Pearl built around his blade intent.
• Chu Mu wondered whether mind-born turbidity could be refined through the mind and considered establishing a Soul Cleansing Mountain to strengthen people’s will.
• As night fell, a sudden power turned the full moon blood-red and spread an aura of ill omen across the world.

The Blood Moon’s crimson light contaminated minds across the world, turning Xishan County and countless other places into scenes of mass slaughter. Chu Mu reached the Command Camp as its system worked to contain the chaos, but more than half the world was already marked as out of control or unstable.

• The Blood Moon’s contamination drove people in Xishan County into bloodthirsty violence, and Chu Mu realized the catastrophe had spread across the world.
• Wang Yue reported the situation to Chu Mu, who ordered the forces to secure key points and stabilize their core before restoring order.
• The Command Camp rapidly evacuated personnel from moonlit areas, replaced exposed guards with drones and robots, and spread emergency orders through the information network.
• Chu Mu arrived at the command center, where world leaders continued urgent deliberations and reviewed screens showing widespread slaughter.
• The world map showed more than half the regions out of control or unstable as the Blood Moon’s catastrophe overwhelmed efforts to contain it.

Wang Yue reported the meeting’s emergency resolutions and the worldwide devastation caused by the blood moon to Chu Mu. The chapter ended with plans to rebuild order through large population bases and publicly recruit a new Demon Suppression Guard.

• Wang Yue delivered the meeting’s four major resolutions to Chu Mu, including emergency notices, military mobilization, and wartime curfews.
• Wang Yue showed Chu Mu a world map indicating that more than half the regions were in crisis and major cities had largely fallen.
• Wang Yue reported that over one billion people had been polluted by the blood moon and were becoming bloodthirsty monsters, while hiding from moonlight could prevent corruption.
• Wang Yue explained that unmanned weapons were containing the chaos and that ordinary modern firepower could kill the monsters.
• Wang Yue described the Base Plan to consolidate settlements into large bases and said the Exorcism Armed Forces would be renamed the Demon Suppression Guard and recruit from society.

Chu Mu examined the Imperial Court’s response to the Blood Moon and considered how the online information system could help preserve order while also giving Heavenly Evolution Turbidity a way to spread evil. He concluded that the coming struggle would depend less on overwhelming power and more on the people of this world resisting the taint.

• Chu Mu read updates showing that the Imperial Court had publicly acknowledged ghosts and evil entities and was using unmanned equipment to suppress the chaos.
• Chu Mu judged that most people remained relatively safe indoors and that the internet had helped restore order after the initial collapse.
• Chu Mu recognized that Heavenly Evolution Turbidity could exploit the online information system to create new ghosts, phantoms, and evil entities.
• Chu Mu reasoned that the world’s nature would limit the taint’s power, making its threat one of quantity rather than quality.
• Chu Mu concluded that the world’s people, rather than he and the taint alone, would decide the struggle over the world’s fall and purification.

The Blood Moon remained overhead past the expected dawn, confirming Chu Mu’s fear that the world had entered an endless night. As he ordered preparations to contain contamination and restore order, the Blood Moon’s spread empowered ghouls and fiends and disrupted his blockade around Three Ridges Mountain.

• Chu Mu watched the Blood Moon as the expected time for dawn approached and realized the sun might not rise.
• The Blood Moon stayed in the sky past dawn, leaving the Supreme Command Center and people around the world in despair.
• Chu Mu ordered officials to prevent contamination and restore order as quickly as possible, telling Wang Yue to handle matters unless an irresistible External Force intervened.
• Chu Mu examined the Evil Suppressing Pearl and learned that five Source Ghouls had been added during the night while more were being found and taken to Three Ridges Mountain.
• Chu Mu recognized that the Blood Moon had weakened his blockade around Three Ridges Mountain and served as a feast for ghouls and fiends.

Chu Mu experimented on Source Ghoul phantoms and discovered that Divine Sense guided by spiritual will could erode their immortal cores before destroying them. While he continued his research in seclusion, the Human Alliance restored order across much of the world and began building a global network of bases beneath the Blood Moon.

• Chu Mu extracted a head ghost from the Evil Suppressing Pearl and used fluorescent energy to reduce it to a tiny, still-living core.
• Chu Mu wrapped the ghost core in spiritual will centered on Blade Intent, weakening it until it collapsed, then repeated the experiment on other phantoms.
• Over nearly two months, the Human Alliance formed, announced the Demon Suppression Guard and supernatural threats, and approved the Base Plan.
• The Human Alliance reclaimed C City and established Tian Shu Base, while its forces restored order across more than a hundred cities and thousands of smaller settlements.
• Around Three Ridges Mountain, millions of survivors worked beneath a vast canopy to build Tian Shu Base as Demon Suppression Guard soldiers fought the supernatural threats outside.

At the Thirty-Ninth Outpost, Demon Suppression Guard soldiers discussed how specters and evil entities were growing stronger as their defenses became less effective. Meanwhile, the Third Inspection Division closely monitored the outpost and its commander, whose reaction to the surveillance hinted at concealed concerns.

• The outpost’s soldiers watched an evil entity die under artillery fire and worried that threats were growing stronger while their methods failed to keep pace.
• A burly commander silenced the discussion and ordered Li Gang and Wang Hu to take men out and dispose of the dead entity.
• The commander resumed his composed demeanor, though surveillance equipment briefly drew a wary reaction from him.
• The Third Inspection Division focused its surveillance on the outpost, with more than a hundred inspectors observing every soldier’s movements and expressions.

Chu Mu investigated the Thirty-Ninth Outpost, where nearly every soldier had become a ghost or evil entity yet continued performing their duties with uncanny precision. The captain’s warning and the outpost’s behavior challenged the established belief that such beings could not retain intelligence, leaving Chu Mu to consider how they might be operating.

• Chu Mu crossed the mutated wilderness and destroyed a bloodthirsty vine, observing how the blood moon had transformed the world toward a ghost domain.
• Chu Mu reached the Thirty-Ninth Outpost, whose unusually successful operation had drawn the attention of the Human Alliance leadership.
• Chu Mu reviewed the outpost’s history and learned that Captain Huang Peng had sent the warning, “The outpost has fallen. Is Ghoul, Not Human!”
• Chu Mu learned that after a Ghost Tide attack, the soldiers’ reports and surveillance footage showed near-perfect, machine-like behavior, while Huang Peng sometimes appeared to seek help through the cameras.
• Chu Mu considered whether Skin Painting, Soul Seizure, or possession explained the intelligent ghosts, but concluded that the world’s bloodlust and evil made their humanlike conduct inexplicable.

Chu Mu investigated a Human Alliance outpost where a new kind of Source Ghoul had secretly infected the soldiers and learned that Huang Peng was the only one still resisting. By examining Huang Peng’s spirit and will, Chu Mu found the final piece of the purification method he had been developing.

• Chu Mu recognized that Source Ghouls hidden among humans posed a threat to the Human Alliance’s last safe bases.
• Chu Mu arrived at the Thirty-Ninth Outpost and used his authority to inspect its garrison, finding no visible abnormalities among the soldiers.
• Huang Peng told Chu Mu that he had been infected for over a month, while the other soldiers had likely fallen into oblivion, and described how the ghouls imitated human behavior.
• Huang Peng explained that he could remain lucid for only about two hours and that the disguised ghouls became more convincing over time.
• Chu Mu examined Huang Peng with his Divine Sense and perceived his resilient human spirit resisting the darkness.
• Chu Mu concluded that human spirit and will were key to resisting the strange, and gained the crucial final piece of his purification method.

Chu Mu gave Huang Peng a wooden sword infused with Blade Intent and used him to test a path for mortals to gain power by purifying and absorbing the strength of ghosts and evils. Huang Peng survived the sword’s burden and slaughtered the possessed soldiers at the outpost, while Chu Mu saw him as the key to a new era.

• Chu Mu asked Huang Peng how the soldiers at the outpost should be dealt with, and Huang Peng answered that they should be killed.
• Chu Mu shaped a wooden table into a sword and infused it with Blade Intent, but Huang Peng suffered as he tried to wield it.
• Chu Mu reasoned that mortals could shed mortality by resisting and purifying ghosts and evils, absorbing their power rather than joining the evil path.
• Huang Peng finally pulled the sword from the earth and killed the possessed soldiers throughout the outpost.
• Chu Mu watched the killings on the surveillance screens and recognized Huang Peng as the missing piece in his plan.

Chu Mu created a method for humans to resist and harness ghoul power by visualizing his blade intent, despite its fatal costs. He left the Human Alliance with a path to cultivate Will to Divinity, while the method’s deeper purpose was to weaken the Source Taint.

• Chu Mu extracted a Play Ghoul from a sentry and gave Huang Peng a wooden sword, promising to guide him toward transcendence if he comprehended its secret.
• As they traveled to Tian Shu Base, Huang Peng visualized half an inch of a blade, and Chu Mu taught him the Three Feet Blade method and warned that pursuing transcendence would cut his life to ten years or less.
• Chu Mu gave Huang Peng a jade token and instructed him to visit True Understanding Courtyard once he could visualize a three-inch blade.
• At True Understanding Courtyard, Chu Mu carved a jade blade imbued with Blade Intent and presented it as a Visualization Object for the Human Alliance’s leaders and generals.
• Chu Mu explained the method’s severe costs and revealed that each person who controlled ghouls with their body would weaken the Source Taint.

Chu Mu approved the Human Alliance’s Dawn Plan to train transcendent forces, but knew his power and life were being consumed by the unsealed Divine Soul Blade. He began forming a self-sealing formation to preserve himself and extend the time he could serve the world.

• The Human Alliance held a nine-hour meeting and approved the Dawn Plan, beginning with nine thousand candidates and nine training bases before expanding transcendent forces through the Demon Suppression Guard and humanity.
• Chu Mu reviewed the plan and approved it, after which Wang Yue hurried away to carry it out.
• Chu Mu estimated that the resources gathered by the Human Alliance could sustain him for at most three years as the Divine Soul Blade’s Blade Intent rapidly increased his strength.
• Chu Mu reflected that the Dawn Plan might outlast him, then began creating a sealing formation to suppress his growth and preserve himself.

As Chu Mu sealed himself away, the Human Alliance prepared to enact the Dawn Plan and tested whether a person could control a ghoul through Will to Divinity. Huang Peng successfully merged with the Source Prisoner Ghoul Number 1995 and emerged as the Alliance’s first true extraordinary individual.

• Chu Mu sealed himself inside the blood-lit pavilion, leaving the Human Alliance’s nine elders jade talismans that could awaken him and suppress those who controlled ghouls through Will to Divinity.
• Wang Yue and the elders discussed accelerating the Dawn Plan while maintaining the Human Alliance’s control and preparing for the dangers of ghoul-based powers.
• Researchers warned Wang Yue that Huang Peng’s vital signs were failing as he attempted to expel a derivative Play Ghoul and control Number 1995, the Source Prisoner Ghoul.
• After the three-minute danger period passed, Huang Peng’s condition stabilized, and researchers examined him before beginning the planned test.
• Huang Peng used the Three Foot Blade’s guidance and his willpower to merge with Number 1995, withstand its influence, and purify the ghoul’s power.
• Huang Peng’s vital signs rose to extraordinary levels, and he confirmed that the experiment had succeeded.

The Human Alliance launched the Dawn Plan under Huang Peng, training thousands of Demon Suppression Guard soldiers to become transcendents. After the first phase succeeded, the Alliance announced and regulated transcendents, expanded training to a hundred thousand soldiers, and began spreading the plan throughout society.

• Huang Peng revealed his half-human, half-ghost form to nine thousand Demon Suppression Guard trainees and gave them the choice to leave before training began.
• More than eight thousand soldiers stayed, and nearly eight thousand achieved Will to Divinity and became transcendents during the first phase, which concluded in June.
• The Human Alliance publicly announced transcendents and issued regulations defining their rights and obligations, while directing resources and propaganda toward their integration.
• The Alliance assigned some first-phase transcendents to regional stations and training bases, then began the second phase for one hundred thousand Demon Suppression Guard members.
• The third phase of the Dawn Plan began as transcendent training bases became widely known across human society.