Chapter Summaries

Yang Ling was suppressed by Fake Jiang Qiao’s Heavenly Talisman, but he revealed a hidden technique called Grafting and trapped Fake Jiang Qiao in a space dominated by a tiny black speck. Fake Jiang Qiao’s attempts to escape or copy the power only worsened his situation, leaving him rapidly drawn toward it.

• Fake Jiang Qiao used Heavenly Talisman to suppress Yang Ling, who refused to flee or use a Taboo Weapon.
• Yang Ling summoned a red cloth and a thick paper mask, causing Fake Jiang Qiao’s lightning strike to miss.
• Yang Ling activated Grafting, creating a hazy space around Fake Jiang Qiao and a tiny black speck that expanded with overwhelming gravitational force.
• Fake Jiang Qiao’s attacks and attempt to escape through Stalker failed as the black speck pulled him in.
• Fake Jiang Qiao tried to copy the black speck’s power with Demonization and Heavenly Talisman, but the attempt accelerated his descent toward it.

Yang Ling gained the upper hand against the Fake Jiang Qiao after realizing the Replicant could not fully reproduce Jiang Qiao’s Art of Talismans or Thunder Art. As Yang Ling trapped it and dragged it toward a black spot, the Replicant unleashed a Wish that plunged the hall into nothingness, leaving Jiang Qiao astonished.

• Yang Ling recognized that the Fake Jiang Qiao lacked proficiency in the Art of Talismans and could not use the Thunder Spirit or Jiang Qiao’s advanced Thunder Art techniques.
• Jiang Qiao watched the fight and considered whether the Thunder Spirit had a corresponding complete form for the Art of Talismans.
• Yang Ling used Prison to form a cage from shifting lights, eyes, and Talisman Cores, trapping the Fake Jiang Qiao and pulling it toward the black spot.
• As the Fake Jiang Qiao touched the black spot, it smiled and used a Wish that enveloped the hall in nothingness.
• The nothingness vanished, and Jiang Qiao exclaimed in surprise that the Fake Jiang Qiao could use a Wish that way.

Yang Ling and Jiang Qiao defeated Fake Jiang Qiao, but Fake Jiang Qiao used Wish to sacrifice its Demonization talent and unleash one last attack through the black spot. Jiang Qiao explained the danger of the Replicants and reflected on how sacrificing talents with Wish might work.

• Yang Ling used Grafting and Cage to trap Fake Jiang Qiao, while realizing how incomplete Replicants could still threaten powerful experts.
• Jiang Qiao explained that Yang Ling's Divine Firmament Thunder Seal would protect his life from Fake Jiang Qiao's final attack.
• Fake Jiang Qiao sacrificed its Demonization talent with Wish, exploiting its connection to the black spot to affect it as its body shattered.
• Yang Ling decided to destroy the source of the Replicants after learning that they could mass-produce dangerous, if imperfect, copies.
• Jiang Qiao reconsidered his assumptions about Wish and explained why he had avoided sacrificing his own talents.

Jiang Qiao realized that Wish and Mason concealed unusual potential after studying Fake Jiang Qiao’s desperate fight with Yang Ling. He and Yang Ling then led the surviving explorers from Tianyu Ancient Village up to another staircase and began descending.

• Jiang Qiao recognized that Wish could nearly force Yang Ling into mutual destruction, and wondered why Wish had no tier despite its power.
• Jiang Qiao noticed that Mason, a B-rank Talent, had reached Ninth Rank beyond its expected limit and concluded that it concealed secrets.
• Jiang Qiao reviewed how Fake Jiang Qiao used Demonization, the black dots, and the Fusion Entity in a sacrificial counterattack that nearly made Yang Ling share his fate.
• Jiang Qiao considered whether Sacrificial Offering could exchange fates outright, rather than merely making them converge.
• Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling led the surviving explorers from Tianyu Ancient Village to a dim staircase leading downward, and Yang Ling entered first.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling navigated the staircase’s warped spaces by uncovering its hidden rules. They reached a new section with ninety-nine steps, where Jiang Qiao explained the precise binary sequence needed to reach the platform below.

• Jiang Qiao realized the staircase was a maze of overlapping Supernatural Spaces, and Yang Ling agreed they needed to break through its hidden dimension.
• Jiang Qiao chose to follow the staircase’s rules and used his Dual Pupils to determine that they had to walk backward down ten steps, crossing two stairs with each step.
• The staircase changed into a wider passage with wooden stairs after Jiang Qiao followed the instructions, while Yang Ling wondered why Jiang Qiao’s eyes seemed familiar.
• Jiang Qiao discovered that the next staircase had ninety-nine steps and explained the timed binary sequence required to reach the platform without getting trapped.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling passed a complex supernatural staircase and entered an ancient prison filled with powerful evil spirits. Jiang Qiao found a cursed pair of embroidered shoes, resisted their curse, and kept them as the group continued exploring the ruin.

• Jiang Qiao analyzed the hidden spaces in the staircase and guided the group through its passages.
• Jiang Qiao opened a rusty iron door, revealing a damp corridor lined with prison cells.
• Yang Ling spotted what looked like a barefoot child in a dark cell, and Jiang Qiao identified it among the corpses as an imprisoned evil spirit.
• Jiang Qiao explained that the cells restrained powerful evil spirits, including entities that could affect people's minds.
• Jiang Qiao opened a cell and took a pair of red embroidered shoes that tried to attach themselves to his feet.
• Jiang Qiao resisted the shoes' curse because of his Evil Spirit Body, removed them, and put them in his pocket.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling’s team encountered a cursed table in the prison that lured a Ninth Tier team member toward it with ghostly stories. After they escaped the immediate danger, Jiang Qiao reflected on the Guangming Society’s failed attempts to find him and how his movements through the underworld made news travel too slowly to catch up.

• A supernatural table in a prison cell told stories that drew a Tianyu Ancient Village team member through the iron bars until Yang Ling pulled him back.
• Jiang Qiao identified the table’s stories as a cursed phenomenon that could control listeners, and Yang Ling warned the team to stay alert.
• Jiang Qiao questioned why Yang Ling had brought Ninth Tier Experts into the dangerous ruins, while Yang Ling said they needed trials ahead of a coming calamity.
• Jiang Qiao recalled how the Guangming Society had hunted for him after his past attacks, but failed to locate him even with a Half-God’s divination.
• Jiang Qiao had entered the underworld, where poor communication meant the Guangming Society would likely learn of his whereabouts too late.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling reached the dead end of the prison, where they found an uncanny dressing table that Jiang Qiao suspected was a Half-God item. Unable to identify its trigger, Jiang Qiao asked someone to put on makeup and test whether anything would happen.

• Jiang Qiao and the others found empty, broken cells and nine still-burning oil lamps at the end of the prison.
• Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling discovered an old dressing table and found no signs of survivors or a path beyond the prison.
• Yang Ling suggested that someone had left the dressing table while doing their makeup, and warned that it might have a trigger condition.
• Jiang Qiao used his Dual Pupils to judge that the dressing table was extremely powerful and might be a Half-God item.
• Jiang Qiao opened a drawer, found old-fashioned gold jewelry, and asked someone to put on makeup to test the dressing table.

Jiang Qiao recalled a supernatural incident involving actress A Zhu, who encountered a strange clothing store and posed in a royal-blue dress before behaving like a lifeless copy on set the next day. The real A Zhu arrived to find her identical double already filming, leaving the production crew baffled.

• Jiang Qiao recalled how A Zhu, a struggling actress, was cast as Wu Da Lang in the bizarre short drama Wu Du Tou Beats White Bone Demon Three Times.
• A Zhu felt increasingly unfamiliar with her neighborhood and entered a newly opened clothing store after becoming captivated by a royal-blue dress.
• The store owner offered A Zhu the dress in exchange for posing in it for promotional photos, and A Zhu agreed.
• A Zhu acted stiffly and mechanically during filming the next day, prompting the furious director to threaten to fire her.
• Another A Zhu arrived at the set and came face-to-face with the identical woman already in costume, shocking the entire crew.

A wooden doppelgänger of A Zhu appeared on a film set and revealed its horrifying ability to dismantle and reassemble bodies. After killing the prop handler and trapping the crew, it put on makeup and asked the real A Zhu if it looked like her.

• A Zhu mistook the costumed duplicate for an actor hired by the director, but the director accused her of causing trouble and threatened to blacklist her.
• When the director grabbed the duplicate, its head fell off, and it mechanically reattached it before asking to resume filming.
• The crew screamed and fled when the duplicate’s cracked face revealed wood beneath its makeup, while the prop handler tried to inspect it as a robot.
• The duplicate snapped the prop handler’s hand, dismantled his body, and replaced its own body parts with his.
• The duplicate trapped the crew, touched up its makeup, and asked the real A Zhu, "Do I look like A Zhu?"

Jiang Qiao recalled an old supernatural case involving a clothing-store Vicious Ghost that replaced victims’ identities through makeup and mannequins. He had Gu Zheng sit at the Dressing Table to test whether supernatural makeup would trigger an event.

• An Awakened investigator arrived at the clothing store after its occupants had been killed and discovered the Vicious Ghost had escaped after swapping heads with A Zhu.
• The Special Department linked similar bloody cases to the Vicious Ghost’s identity-replacement behavior, including an Underground Garage victim who had been fully replaced and taken away.
• Investigators found that victims seemed to disappear into a one-meter surveillance blind spot near a supermarket, and the case remained unsolved.
• Jiang Qiao recalled the case while considering whether supernatural makeup could cause identity replacement or summon a mysterious existence.
• Jiang Qiao called for someone to try the makeup, and Gu Zheng sat at the Dressing Table; he learned she had once worked as a beauty influencer.

Jiang Qiao, Yang Ling, and Gu Zheng investigated uncanny similarities between the worlds’ histories while Gu Zheng applied Old era makeup to test for resonance. The test appeared to summon something: Gu Zheng vanished from the mirror, where a woman in a bright-red qipao sat with her back to them.

• Jiang Qiao suggested that Gu Zheng use Old era makeup to encourage resonance with the relic’s style, and Gu Zheng agreed.
• As she applied the makeup, Gu Zheng described its distinctive techniques and discussed her experience confronting supernatural dangers with Jiang Qiao.
• Yang Ling told Jiang Qiao that Blue Star and the Supernatural World shared striking similarities with the Hometown Immigrants’ Old era, including major historical events, despite finding no evidence of interference.
• Jiang Qiao agreed that the lack of evidence could indicate an influence operating at an extremely high level.
• After Gu Zheng finished her makeup, Jiang Qiao noticed she was missing from the mirror and saw a woman in a bright-red qipao sitting in her place.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling confronted a mysterious Evil Spirit appearing in Gu Zheng’s mirror and learned that its cheongsam was likely one of three Ghost Garments sewn with Deity’s Pollution. The woman rose from the mirror as they raised their Taboo Weapons and prepared to fight.

• Jiang Qiao failed to see through the woman’s reflection with his Dual Pupils and suspected she was an exceptionally powerful Half-God Evil Spirit.
• Yang Ling recognized the cheongsam as a Ghost Garment from the Ten Perfect Tailor Shop, whose three most dangerous garments used Deity’s Pollution.
• Yang Ling explained that the pollution in those garments could be controlled and warned everyone to attack immediately if anything seemed wrong.
• The woman in the mirror began to rise after Yang Ling’s Taboo Weapon spread its power across the Dressing Table.
• Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling aimed their Taboo Weapons at the woman and prepared for battle.

Jiang Qiao discovered that the Dressing Table, not the mirror, contained the real source of the Woman in the Mirror’s curse on Gu Zheng. He cut the Fate Line linking them as Yang Ling attacked the Dressing Table, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• The Woman in the Mirror began turning as a new face formed over Gu Zheng’s, prompting Jiang Qiao to strike the mirror with the Divine Firmament Thunder Seal.
• Jiang Qiao used Fate Weaver and his Dual Pupils to see the prison’s ghosts and trace the curse affecting Gu Zheng to a Fate Line from the Dressing Table.
• Jiang Qiao realized the Dressing Table was projecting the Woman in the Mirror through the mirror and used his transformed Assassination Technique to cut the curse’s Fate Line.
• Yang Ling received Jiang Qiao’s information and unleashed a terrifying force against the Dressing Table.

Jiang Qiao faced the Dressing Table as Yang Ling’s tombstone Taboo Weapon crushed it, and the artifact’s core began leaking dark-red liquid. When the Dressing Table reconnected its Fate Line to Jiang Qiao, he cut the connection and demonstrated how his Ninth Step Fate Weaver could graft death onto historical Vicious Ghosts, leaving him with far greater freedom to alter fate.

• Yang Ling’s tombstone crushed the Dressing Table, but the artifact briefly transcended space and escaped the pressure.
• The tombstone’s power surged again, rapidly destroying the Dressing Table while its bottom cabinet remained intact as the likely core.
• Dark-red liquid seeped from the cabinet, reconnecting the Dressing Table’s Fate Line to Gu Zheng and forming a new blank Fate Line to Jiang Qiao.
• Jiang Qiao cut the new Fate Line and grafted it onto a caged Vicious Ghost.
• Jiang Qiao explained that reaching the Ninth Step let him separate and redirect outcomes such as death to historical images, while fate could now realign after limited edits.

Jiang Qiao discovered that the vicious ghost in the dressing table’s cabinet could use the power of time to restore the shattered furniture. As Yang Ling brought out the tombstone at the heart of his Taboo Weapon, Jiang Qiao realized the Heavenly Palace was really an Underground Palace built around a tomb.

• Jiang Qiao grafted the cabinet’s curse onto a vicious ghost image, making the woman in qipao appear briefly before the image vanished.
• Jiang Qiao watched the cabinet’s dark-red liquid restore the dressing table and recognized the cabinet’s power as Time Reversal.
• Yang Ling warned Jiang Qiao that the cabinet could withstand a Taboo Weapon wielding time and might be a true Half-God.
• Yang Ling manifested the tombstone, transforming the Heavenly Palace into a gloomy, tomb-like place in Jiang Qiao’s eyes.
• Jiang Qiao realized the Heavenly Palace was actually an Underground Palace and that the tombstone was the core of Yang Ling’s Taboo Weapon.

Jiang Qiao and Yang Ling attacked the Dressing Table, but the Evil Spirit inside it remained safe by existing at a fixed point in the future. The Dressing Table then unleashed qipao-clad Replicants that copied supernatural powers and attacked Jiang Qiao.

• Yang Ling buried the Dressing Table beneath a tombstone and a mound of yellow soil, but it remained untouched because it occupied a fixed point in the future.
• Jiang Qiao realized the Dressing Table's future existence let it survive attacks, then struck it with the Divine Firmament Thunder Seal alongside Yang Ling's suppression.
• Bubbles burst around the Dressing Table, producing faceless women in red qipaos with traces of Half-God aura.
• Jiang Qiao entered the Stalker state and fought the women, but they replicated his thunder and cutting powers and split him in two.
• Jiang Qiao healed with his scissors, then discovered two qipao-clad twins clinging to his legs were Replicants of the Vicious Ghosts imprisoned nearby.

Jiang Qiao discovered that the twin Vicious Ghosts’ laughter was a supernatural transfer mechanism, not a killing curse. The Dressing Table and a fully formed Half-God appeared beside him, turning him into their target.

• Jiang Qiao transformed into the Thunder Spirit and used the Divine Firmament Thunder Seal to destroy the qipao women, but the twin Vicious Ghosts’ laughter continued to grow louder.
• Jiang Qiao saw an Awakened from Tianyu Ancient Village begin to succumb to the laughter and used Fate Weaver to cut out the point of death in his Fate Line.
• Jiang Qiao grafted the removed death point onto the Vicious Ghost in the cell, which began laughing and gained a qipao instead of dying.
• Jiang Qiao realized the overlapping laughter harmonized supernatural frequencies and opened a hidden passage for the evil entity to transfer its power.
• The yellow liquid turned dark red, the Dressing Table appeared inside a bubble beside Jiang Qiao, and the qipao woman’s aura rose to that of a complete Half-God.

Jiang Qiao fought the qipao-clad evil spirit, whose copied abilities and terrifying curse left him unable to counterattack until Yang Ling intervened. Yang Ling identified her as Yuan Yu, a powerful former Duty Overseer of the Qintian Platform, and warned Jiang Qiao that she was stronger than most Half-Gods of the present era.

• Yuan Yu trapped Jiang Qiao with a curse and struck him with attacks copied from his own supernatural abilities.
• Jiang Qiao used the Fate Weaver's scissors to transfer the curse and relied on the Divine Firmament Thunder Seal to survive Yuan Yu's assault.
• Yang Ling dropped a tombstone into the battle, breaking Yuan Yu's supernatural effect and freeing Jiang Qiao.
• Jiang Qiao realized Yuan Yu could reproduce his SSR talents at full strength and use them in unfamiliar ways.
• Yang Ling recognized the qipao-clad woman as Yuan Yu, a former Qintian Platform Duty Overseer and an exceptionally powerful Half-God.
• Yang Ling warned Jiang Qiao that Yuan Yu and other prodigies of her era surpassed most Half-Gods of the present.

Yuan Yu attacked Jiang Qiao with the Corpse Pool while ascending the Ninety-ninth Tier of Jade Steps, shrugging off the staircase’s supernatural defenses. Just as Jiang Qiao seemed to be pulled into the pool, he returned to reality and struck at Yuan Yu.

• Yuan Yu appeared behind Jiang Qiao and brought the Corpse Pool’s freezing supernatural place into the prison.
• Yang Ling tried to stop Yuan Yu on the Ninety-ninth Tier of Jade Steps, but its curses and trapped supernatural figures failed to slow her for long.
• Yuan Yu copied the rules of a Half-God’s trapped arm and dispelled its supernatural attack before continuing upward.
• Jiang Qiao was pulled into the Corpse Pool as Yuan Yu prepared to take another step.
• Yuan Yu stopped ascending and went after Jiang Qiao, who burst out from behind black lightning and punched toward her.