Chapter Summaries

Jiang Qiao traversed the deepest corridor of Floor -99, destroying rogue supernatural appliances and a Vicious Ghost before reaching a bottomless pool. As he considered entering it, a stranger told him it was the Hungry Ghost Pool and led to Hungry Ghost Hell.

• Jiang Qiao smashed abnormal appliances as he advanced through the corridor and concluded that they were out-of-control Supernatural Items.
• Jiang Qiao encountered a Miao Yi-like figure eroded by a Vicious Ghost and burned away the ghost and the Wooden Doors blocking his path.
• Jiang Qiao continued through a widening, descending tunnel with rusted railroad tracks and no further supernatural disturbances.
• Jiang Qiao reached a black pool where the corridor ended and weighed whether to enter it.
• A voice from behind Jiang Qiao called the pool the Hungry Ghost Pool and said it led straight to Hungry Ghost Hell.

Jiang Qiao met Zong Liu beside a pool leading to Hungry Ghost Hell, and Zong Liu told him about Chong Heng, a past Fated Person who rose to Half-God after avenging his family. Zong Liu said Chong Heng later vanished completely and suggested that Fated Persons paid a price for their power, leaving Jiang Qiao to consider what would have happened if he had failed to collect the Red Moon fragments.

• Jiang Qiao met Zong Liu, who warned him that the pool led to Hungry Ghost Hell and could not be entered recklessly.
• Jiang Qiao questioned Zong Liu about the pool and learned it could lend him power and serve as a passage to other places.
• Zong Liu recounted how Chong Heng lost his family as a child, became a Fated Person, and climbed to Half-God while taking revenge on two Major Factions.
• Zong Liu said Chong Heng later disappeared so completely that even the River of History held no trace of him.
• Zong Liu suggested Fated Persons' power came at a price and asked Jiang Qiao what he thought would happen if he failed to collect the Red Moon fragments.

Jiang Qiao learned that the historical Fated Person Chong Heng wielded many supernatural rules through a core power Zong Liu called Taotie. Jiang Qiao recognized that power as Demonization and considered how Chong Heng had mastered it without losing control.

• Zong Liu told Jiang Qiao that Chong Heng's traces had been erased after he failed to fulfill his fate of collecting Red Moon fragments.
• Zong Liu explained that Chong Heng displayed at least eight rules, with a devouring ability he called Taotie at their core.
• Zong Liu theorized that Taotie let Fated Persons absorb and fuse rules, while life replacement could reset conflicts between them.
• Jiang Qiao realized Taotie was actually Demonization, a talent that fused Vicious Ghosts and supernatural rules but gradually eroded the user's mind.
• Jiang Qiao recalled Demonization's Simulator description, which traced its wielder's nine lives from a repeatedly betrayed do-gooder to a rebel called the Demon.
• Jiang Qiao suspected Chong Heng had been deliberately arranged to become the Demon and recalled the description's doubts about whether the Chess Players existed.

Jiang Qiao realized Chong Heng had been consumed by the Simulator, then Zong Liu used the mystery of Jiang Qiao’s erased past to launch a supernatural attack on his consciousness. Jiang Qiao resisted Zong Liu’s induced despair and guilt, but still struggled with doubts about whether he truly existed.

• Jiang Qiao wondered where Chong Heng had meant when he said there was nothing there.
• Zong Liu told Jiang Qiao that his history had no traces before ten years ago and compared him to Chong Heng, whose past records had been erased.
• Zong Liu’s questions led Jiang Qiao to suspect that the Red Moon had erased his past, triggering a crisis over who he was and where he came from.
• Jiang Qiao recognized Zong Liu’s words as a supernatural attack that magnified negative thoughts from within his own consciousness.
• Zong Liu used a gentle demeanor and accusations of intrusion to make Jiang Qiao feel shame, but Jiang Qiao reminded himself that the Green Lotus Sect and the Yin Demon were his enemies.
• Jiang Qiao broke free of the induced guilt, though his doubts about his own existence remained difficult to dispel as Zong Liu questioned the meaning of Chong Heng’s power.

Jiang Qiao turned Zong Liu’s mental invasion around with Demonization and began beating him, revealing how he broke free of the attack. He realized he might be able to use collapse to pulverize the lingering consciousness fragments within himself, but had not yet tested the idea.

• Zong Liu used Jiang Qiao’s doubts about Chong Heng’s predetermined life to deepen his mental attack.
• Jiang Qiao’s Demonization absorbed Zong Liu’s invading mental power, allowing Jiang Qiao to regain control and counterattack.
• Jiang Qiao teleported after Zong Liu and repeatedly punched him, forcing him onto the defensive.
• Jiang Qiao recalled that Demonization left consciousness fragments behind and reasoned that Chong Heng might have absorbed them a second time.
• Jiang Qiao considered using collapse, which he had mastered through the six beasts rule, to pulverize the fragments before absorbing them.

Jiang Qiao used Demonization and the four divine beast rules to isolate and destroy Zong Liu’s invading Mental Power, then fully absorbed the Negative Emotion and mastered Demonization. He pursued Zong Liu, whose rules were damaged, and taunted him about serving the Green Lotus Holy Mother as their fight continued.

• Jiang Qiao activated Demonization and used the Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Teng Snake, and Gou Chen Rules to isolate Zong Liu’s Mental Power and negative force.
• Jiang Qiao rejected Zong Liu’s speculation about his identity and used his own reasoning to overcome the influence of Zong Liu’s words.
• Jiang Qiao devoured the isolated Negative Emotion without using Wish and mastered Demonization.
• Jiang Qiao chased Zong Liu and attacked him, while Zong Liu realized that Jiang Qiao had absorbed part of his rules and damaged his chance of becoming a Half-God.
• Jiang Qiao mocked Zong Liu for serving the Green Lotus Holy Mother, enraging him as their battle continued.

Jiang Qiao fought Zong Liu, whose shrine power expanded into a towering divine image, and answered it by summoning a true Thunder Spirit. The two giants faced off as Zong Liu struggled to understand how Jiang Qiao had defied the limits of the Thunder Art.

• Jiang Qiao battered Zong Liu's shrine with the Power of Chaos, pushing its protective technique to the brink of collapse.
• Zong Liu transformed the shrine's incense smoke into a thousand-zhang divine image that imposed its Deity's Kingdom and stomped at Jiang Qiao.
• Jiang Qiao summoned a thousand-zhang Thunder Spirit, which punched the divine image back and stopped its attack.
• Zong Liu recognized the Thunder Spirit as genuine and questioned how Jiang Qiao's Daoist Thunder Art could have produced one.
• Jiang Qiao and the Thunder Spirit gathered lightning around themselves and stood ready to face Zong Liu's divine image.

Jiang Qiao fought Zong Liu and discovered that combining the Time Rule with the Gou Chen Rule could turn time reversal into an offensive power that made his opponent’s summoned beings decay. Zong Liu’s incense-fueled defenses repaired the damage, but the costly clash left him shaken and consuming incense rapidly.

• Zong Liu summoned an Ancient Corpse through his shrine’s incense, but Jiang Qiao’s Thunder Spirit cleaved it apart with a Giant Axe.
• Zong Liu merged with the Thunder Spirit and empowered its axe with a dusky yellow radiance that made the Ancient Corpse and god statue decay.
• Zong Liu recognized the radiance as Jiang Qiao’s Time Rule and realized its offensive capabilities exceeded the intelligence he had received.
• The shrine’s incense repaired the Ancient Corpse and god statue, but using it against Jiang Qiao’s attack consumed incense rapidly.
• Jiang Qiao explained that he had combined Time Reversal with the Gou Chen Rule, causing grafted concepts such as the Ancient Corpse’s age to decay when rewound.

Jiang Qiao killed Zong Liu with the power of Ancient Time, ending their fight and escalating the conflict with the Green Lotus Sect. Afterward, he reflected on the sect’s mastery of incense and wondered whether incense also explained how Survivor Systems connected villages.

• Jiang Qiao used Ancient Time and All Things Wither to attack Zong Liu, whose incense failed to protect him as the shrine collapsed.
• Zong Liu died after the shrine shattered, and Jiang Qiao recognized that his killing of a Green Lotus Sect expert had made reconciliation impossible.
• Jiang Qiao considered how the Green Lotus Sect used incense and reviewed the Path of Incense and Fire as a method for ascending the Divinity Staircase.
• Jiang Qiao theorized that spirit idols and incense might enable Survivor Systems to connect villages across great distances, while their limits in the underworld and Forbidden Zones might be intentional.

After defeating Zong Liu, Jiang Qiao investigated the Hungry Ghost Pool and discovered it contained shifting spatial layers concealing a freezing, lightless region and powerful evil spirits. He sent nine powerful clones into the depths to explore.

• Jiang Qiao waited to see whether more enemies would appear after dealing with Zong Liu, then examined the Hungry Ghost Pool.
• Jiang Qiao tested the pool with stones and detection talismans, finding that objects at the same spot could settle on a shallow bottom or sink into an unseen depth.
• Jiang Qiao used the talismans to observe a spatial barrier, a region of extreme cold, total darkness, and liquid that felt both heavy and strangely empty.
• Jiang Qiao sensed an approaching presence in the depths, and the evil spirits there destroyed the detection talismans one by one.
• Jiang Qiao concluded that powerful evil spirits lurked below and created nine clones, each strong enough to contend with a powerful figure on the third step of the Divinity Staircase.
• Jiang Qiao's nine clones leaped into the pool to begin exploring its depths.

Jiang Qiao sent nine avatars into the pool’s depths, where they fought Hungry Ghosts and encountered a regenerating tentacled Evil Spirit on an asteroid. After one avatar left the asteroid, Jiang Qiao detected resistance through their connection and destroyed it with Stove Fire, leaving him to suspect the main body had been infected by a supernatural force.

• Jiang Qiao’s avatars descended through freezing mist and defeated the Hungry Ghosts that attacked them.
• One avatar found a small asteroid and uncovered a paper-thin, painted face surrounded by regenerating tentacles.
• The avatar fought the painted face, discovered that its tentacles regrew unless completely destroyed, and found that the face’s buzzing sound caused no immediate harm.
• The avatar left the asteroid and continued descending, while the tentacles pursued it briefly before withdrawing.
• Jiang Qiao sensed hidden resistance in the departing avatar and burned it to ashes with Stove Fire.
• Before dying, the avatar wondered whether the main body’s consciousness had been infected by a mysterious supernatural force.

Jiang Qiao destroyed a clone after sensing mental contamination that might split it from his consciousness. Another clone was swept into a vortex and found himself in a strange room, where a fake-faced figure in golden armor invited him to meet a deity.

• Jiang Qiao sensed resistance between himself and a clone, suspected mental contamination, and destroyed the clone to keep it from spreading.
• Another clone was caught by a great vortex and carried through distorted space into a room decorated with pearls, jade, and coral.
• A figure in golden armor entered the room and told the clone to come meet a deity.
• Jiang Qiao noticed the figure’s face seemed fake and its scent concealed a smell of decay.
• The clone agreed to follow the figure and see what it was hiding.

Jiang Qiao’s clone arrived in Hungry Ghost Hell, where ghosts hailed him as the prophesied king who would lead them home. The Stove God’s prophecy connected the place to Jiang Qiao’s theories about Stove Fire and Crow Country, and he agreed to take time before accepting their offer.

• The Golden Armored Person led Jiang Qiao’s clone across a bleak wasteland to a pyramid, where ghosts knelt and urged him to sit on the throne.
• A priestess told Jiang Qiao’s clone that the Stove God’s prophecy named the first living person to arrive after the Great Destruction as their king.
• Jiang Qiao recalled the Simulator’s descriptions of Stove Fire and considered how the Stove God might be connected to the Abyss and the Land of the Cold Crow.
• The priestess explained that they were stranded wanderers in Hungry Ghost Hell, not hungry ghosts or ghost-remnants, and said she did not know how to reach Crow Country.
• Jiang Qiao’s clone asked for time to consider becoming king while he investigated the ghosts and their prophecy.

Jiang Qiao explored the palace and the silent ghost town, questioning the Golden Armored Person about the ghosts’ origins and their request for a king. He left unable to communicate with the ghosts and unsure who built the palace or what the place truly was.

• The Golden Armored Person brought Jiang Qiao to a vast palace and told him the ghosts needed a guide, though it could not explain why.
• Jiang Qiao learned that the palace’s sixty-four stone statues represented the ghosts’ predecessors, while a bronze statue was called Old Mother.
• Jiang Qiao examined the palace’s living quarters and considered the mysteries of Hungry Ghost Hell, the Kitchen God, and the ghosts’ origins.
• Female ghosts brought Jiang Qiao a meal of cold but genuine food, and he later explored the surrounding town.
• Jiang Qiao saw crowds of ghosts moving through the streets in complete silence and failed to communicate with one, then returned to the palace to think.

Jiang Qiao watched the ghosts gather at the pyramid as the Kitchen God Stone Statue came to life and promised a sacrificial offering. The ghosts begged it for life, leaving Jiang Qiao facing a supernatural ritual whose purpose remained unclear.

• Jiang Qiao heard a voice calling him and then taunting him from somewhere in Hungry Ghost Hell, but the maid ghosts denied hearing anything.
• After Jiang Qiao threatened the unseen caller, his echoed words turned mechanical, and the ghosts outside began dancing silently toward the pyramid.
• Jiang Qiao saw the female ghost ring a bell before the gathered ghosts, and he suspected they wanted him to lead them back to their hometown.
• The twenty-meter Stone Statue at the pyramid temple stood up, and Jiang Qiao realized he could barely sense its danger.
• The ghosts knelt and begged the Stone Statue to grant them life, and it lowered its head and said, “Sacrificial Offering.”

Jiang Qiao discovered that the Vicious Ghosts planned to make him their king and sacrifice him to a being posing as the Stove God. When the priestess tried to persuade him to stay, he tested her reaction by saying he wanted to leave.

• Jiang Qiao realized the Vicious Ghosts regarded him as a sacrificial offering, but calmly waited to learn what they would do.
• The purple-robed and red-robed ghosts discussed making Jiang Qiao their king and sacrificing him so their supposed Stove God could possess him and help them escape.
• Jiang Qiao recognized that the stone figure was not the true Stove God, noting that his Stove Fire did not react to it.
• The female ghost reported that Jiang Qiao seemed unwilling, and the red-robed ghost insisted that his consent did not matter.
• Jiang Qiao told the female ghost he planned to leave, and she urged him to stay by promising worship, Half-God power, eternal life, and unity with a god.

Jiang Qiao rejected the Vicious Ghosts’ offer to make him their king and deduced that their Kitchen God wanted to use an outsider’s body to escape. When the three ghosts attacked him, he discovered they were weaker than expected and killed them all, leaving the reason for their strange behavior unresolved.

• Jiang Qiao mocked the ghosts’ sacrificial-offering scheme and accused the Kitchen God of seeking a body to escape Hungry Ghost Hell.
• The red-robed Vicious Ghost attacked Jiang Qiao, and the purple-robed ghost and female ghost joined the fight.
• Jiang Qiao noticed the three ghosts were less powerful than their auras suggested, and the purple-robed ghost’s Corpse Water barely affected his copied rules.
• Jiang Qiao killed the purple-robed ghost with a lightning punch, then killed the red-robed ghost and female ghost as they continued fighting without fear of death.

Jiang Qiao learned that Grievance Swamp was formed from imprints and illusions, while the bronze statue woman revealed that his living aura had drawn a horde of hungry ghosts. She offered him two choices: face the horde or become the Kitchen God's Sacrificial Offering.

• Jiang Qiao questioned why the town's Vicious Ghosts ignored his battle and considered whether they were merely imitating living people.
• The bronze statue woman told Jiang Qiao that the ghosts and residents of Grievance Swamp were illusions formed from imprints left by the devoured.
• The woman said she did not know her own past and had watched people arrive, build cities, and be consumed by hungry ghosts.
• Jiang Qiao felt the earth tremble and saw countless hungry ghosts approaching across the wilderness.
• The bronze statue woman warned Jiang Qiao that his living aura had attracted the hungry ghosts and offered him the choice to be devoured or become the Kitchen God's Sacrificial Offering.

Jiang Qiao rejected the bronze woman’s choices of becoming a sacrifice or fleeing the hungry ghosts, and used a strange power to collapse into a singularity and unleash a devastating storm. The hungry ghosts lost his scent and dispersed, while the bronze woman stared in shock at his disappearance.

• The bronze woman explained that the hungry ghosts would devour anyone whose scent they detected, and demanded Jiang Qiao choose between being devoured and becoming a sacrificial offering to the Kitchen God.
• Jiang Qiao reasoned that the bronze woman and the statues were imprints whose original wills had likely been consumed by hungry ghosts.
• Jiang Qiao rejected both becoming a sacrifice and repeating the escape attempt of a stronger man who had eventually disappeared.
• Jiang Qiao folded inward into a singularity, then expanded and unleashed a violent storm that destroyed buildings and annihilated vicious ghosts in the Grievance Swamp.
• The storm cracked the stone statues and snapped the bronze woman’s zither strings, while the hungry ghosts lost Jiang Qiao’s presence and dispersed.

At the deepest part of the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor, Jiang Qiao reviewed what his avatars had discovered in the Hungry Ghost Hell and the surrounding void, then spotted a railway running beneath the cliff. He suspected it might belong to the Ghost Train and wondered whether he had already crossed into extradimensional space.

• Jiang Qiao learned that three of his nine avatars had died, including one that found the Hungry Ghost Hell before self-destructing, while others found an asteroid and an unreachable oil lamp.
• Jiang Qiao considered the bronze statue called the Old Mother far more powerful than the ghosts he had killed and speculated that hungry ghosts could occasionally escape the Hungry Ghost Hell through the pool.
• Jiang Qiao decided there was little reason to investigate the Hungry Ghost Hell, asteroid, or oil lamp further and questioned whether the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor had an exit.
• Jiang Qiao sent two avatars down the smooth cliff, where they lost contact with him after sinking too far into the void.
• Jiang Qiao confirmed that a thin line beneath the cliff was a railway and wondered whether it was connected to the Ghost Train and extradimensional space.
• Someone asked Jiang Qiao what he was looking at.