Chapter Summaries

Jiang Qiao used his search for ghost medicine as a pretext to learn about the ghost realm and its inhabitants, while keeping the locals from viewing him as an immediate threat. After Shopkeeper Ma revealed that Yunshi Tower had a large stockpile, Jiang Qiao headed to the city center to visit it.

• Jiang Qiao's offer to buy large quantities of ghost medicine attracted no sellers, so he continued investigating the ghost realm through the inn.
• Jiang Qiao questioned Shopkeeper Ma about merchants with large ghost medicine stocks, and Shopkeeper Ma cautiously suggested Yunshi Tower.
• Shopkeeper Ma explained that Yunshi Tower had not shipped its stock recently and usually charged about ten times the purchase price to account for transportation costs and risks.
• Jiang Qiao suspected that major merchants might profit from bandits targeting smaller traders, then left the inn for Yunshi Tower in the city center.

Jiang Qiao visited Yunshi Tower to buy ghost medicine, but the manager demanded an exorbitant price and tried to send him away. Jiang Qiao threatened to destroy the tower, and a red-robed old man entered to confront him.

• Adventurers watched Gan Ba head to Yunshi Tower, expecting a spectacle over his attempt to buy ghost medicine.
• The manager and four offerings received Jiang Qiao, judged him too powerful to handle, and called for the owner to send someone.
• Jiang Qiao asked to buy ghost medicine, and the manager claimed the stock was reserved before offering ten stalks.
• The manager demanded ten million for the ten stalks, and Jiang Qiao insulted him and threatened to reduce Yunshi Tower to ruins.
• A red-robed old man entered and warned Gan Ba not to run wild in Yunshi Tower.

Jiang Qiao rejected Yunshi Tower’s claim to enforce Ten Thousand Ghost Forest’s rules, and its elder trapped him in a supernatural space to punish him. Jiang Qiao killed the elder in one punch, and Yunshi Tower’s supernatural space vanished.

• Jiang Qiao mocked the elder’s talk of rules and denounced the Major Factions for exploiting merchants and adventurers.
• The elder shut Yunshi Tower’s doors and transported Jiang Qiao into a supernatural space connected to the building.
• The elder sent four corpses carrying a Red Coffin toward Jiang Qiao, intending to trap him inside.
• Jiang Qiao struck the elder with a thunderous punch, shattering him and his supernatural fan.
• The scarlet supernatural space receded, and the doors reopened to reveal the elder’s mangled remains.

Jiang Qiao killed Yunshi Tower’s old enshrined expert, then killed its manager and four more enshrined experts before taking the tower’s ghost medicine. Fu Wenbo learned of the killings and theft, but refused an offer of help as he prepared to deal with Jiang Qiao himself.

• Jiang Qiao killed Yunshi Tower’s old enshrined expert in ten seconds, shocking everyone in the city.
• Jiang Qiao killed the Yunshi Tower manager and four enshrined experts with a wave of his hand.
• Jiang Qiao told the onlookers he had taken Yunshi Tower’s ghost medicine and invited its owner to seek compensation.
• Fu Wenbo received word that Jiang Qiao had killed Yunshi Tower’s people and taken five hundred stalks of ghost medicine.
• A mustached man offered to help Fu Wenbo deal with Jiang Qiao, but Fu Wenbo refused and said he could handle it himself.

After taking ghost medicine from Yunshi Tower, Jiang Qiao examined its properties and considered its possible connection to the Dark Space and the Green Lotus Sect. As Ten Thousand Ghost Forest emptied around the inn, an attack struck and dropped him into a volcanic space.

• Jiang Qiao expected Yunshi Tower to retaliate quickly and examined the ghost medicine he had taken, finding its Ghost Qi harmless to him but too weak to increase his strength.
• Jiang Qiao considered whether ghost medicine came from the Dark Space and questioned the Green Lotus Sect's purpose in creating strange passages and involving the bus and Ghost Train.
• Jiang Qiao regretted that Liu Ping had fled with the Paper Figure Maker, who had defected to the Green Lotus Sect.
• The people around the inn disappeared as Yunshi Tower prepared to retaliate, leaving Jiang Qiao alone in the area.
• An attack collapsed Jiang Qiao's room and sent him falling into a smoke-filled, lava-filled space resembling the bottom of a volcano.

Jiang Qiao used the Vermilion Bird to destroy Yunshi Tower’s supernatural trap and killed the experts sent to attack him. As he prepared to strike Yunshi Tower’s headquarters, Huang Tianci approached and introduced himself.

• The Vermilion Bird overwhelmed the dead head’s consciousness, collapsing the supernatural space and restoring Jiang Qiao to the inn.
• Thirty-six Yunshi Tower experts outside the inn died, and Jiang Qiao killed the two Ninth Rank experts involved in the attack.
• Jiang Qiao learned that one surviving attacker belonged to Yunshi Tower, then killed the fleeing underlings and resolved to target the tower’s headquarters.
• Huang Tianci approached Jiang Qiao and praised his formidable strength.

Huang Tianci of Blood Aversion Island tried to pressure Jiang Qiao into returning the ghost medicine and sparing Fu Wenbo, but Jiang Qiao refused and called out the factions’ hypocrisy. Huang Tianci threatened him, then was suddenly struck and hurled away before he could finish speaking.

• Huang Tianci introduced himself as a representative of Blood Aversion Island and asked Jiang Qiao to spare Fu Wenbo and return the ghost medicine.
• Huang Tianci described the dispute as a misunderstanding and urged Jiang Qiao to prioritize peace, while onlookers praised Blood Aversion Island and condemned Jiang Qiao.
• Jiang Qiao refused to return the ghost medicine, pointing out that the factions ignored their own rules when it suited them.
• Huang Tianci threatened Jiang Qiao for refusing to yield, but a sudden blow caved in his chest and sent him flying as Jiang Qiao told him to shut up.

Jiang Qiao overpowered Huang Tianci despite the deadly rule curse Huang Tianci unleashed. After the curse vanished, Jiang Qiao crushed Huang Tianci’s head in front of the onlookers.

• Huang Tianci blamed Jiang Qiao for ambushing him and unleashed a rule curse that made its victims feel as though they were breathing their last.
• Jiang Qiao endured the curse, surprising Huang Tianci by continuing to speak and fight.
• Huang Tianci intensified the curse as the corpse procession invaded reality, but Jiang Qiao vanished before the rule could overwhelm him.
• Jiang Qiao burst through Huang Tianci’s paper-person defense, struck him repeatedly, and pulled him back with lightning.
• The corpses’ faces began to emerge from their yellow paper coverings, and their mist started to possess Jiang Qiao with a malevolent ghost.
• The curse and procession disappeared, and Jiang Qiao crushed Huang Tianci’s head in his hand before the onlookers.

Jiang Qiao repeatedly crushed Huang Tianci until the Blood Aversion Island powerhouse died, then received Tong You Lu from Wu Tian as an apology gift. The Simulator revealed that the book could upgrade Jiang Qiao’s Mad Scientist talent, while Wu Tian explained its power to release sealed entities and mutate the user’s rules.

• Jiang Qiao crushed Huang Tianci each time he revived, until repeated deaths exhausted him and he vanished.
• The onlookers fled after Jiang Qiao dismissed them, while they feared Blood Aversion Island would retaliate for Huang Tianci’s death.
• Wu Tian, owner of Wanfu Inn, brought the innkeeper’s head and apologized to Jiang Qiao for his subordinates’ wrongdoing.
• Wu Tian offered Jiang Qiao a battered ancient book, and the Simulator identified it as Tong You Lu, an item that could upgrade the Mad Scientist talent.
• Wu Tian explained that Tong You Lu contained sealed evil entities that could be released through complete stories and could merge with the user’s rules to make them more powerful and sinister.

Jiang Qiao accepted Tong You Lu as partial compensation from Wu Tian and ordered him to bring a greater gift. After Jiang Qiao entered the inn, Wu Tian resolved to report the encounter, prepare compensation, and kill Fu Wenbo.

• Jiang Qiao considered that Tong You Lu might be a key to a hidden door that could upgrade his Mad Scientist talent.
• Jiang Qiao told Wu Tian he would forgive him for now but demanded compensation beyond the book within three days.
• Wu Tian ordered a subordinate to take over Wanfu Inn and ensure Senior Gan was treated well while he stayed there.
• Wu Tian suspected Gan Ba was using a false name or came from a powerful faction, and decided to prepare a generous gift and report to his elder.
• Wu Tian concluded that Fu Wenbo had to die for secretly contacting Blood Aversion Island and planned to use others to help kill him.

After Gan Ba killed Huang Tianci, the factions of Ten Thousand Ghost Forest chose to investigate him and wait rather than challenge his strength. Jiang Qiao received Fu Wenbo’s severed head at the inn and left while hidden scouts watched.

• Du Weiyang heard that Gan Ba had overwhelmed Huang Tianci and ordered his subordinate to investigate Gan Ba before the factions acted.
• The major factions and powerful merchants of Ten Thousand Ghost Forest agreed to wait and see, hoping to learn Gan Ba’s identity and whether Blood Aversion Island would respond.
• Jiang Qiao emerged from his room the next morning and received Fu Wenbo’s severed head from the innkeeper.
• The innkeeper told Jiang Qiao that the owner would prepare an apology gift within a day or two.
• Jiang Qiao ate in the empty lobby, left the inn, and vanished despite scouts watching the street.

Jiang Qiao entered the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest to investigate why he had appeared there and to learn about its adventurers. After selling ghost medicines to Ma Yan’s team, he asked them for help with something else.

• Jiang Qiao passed the guards at the forest entrance and traveled from its safe outskirts into the deeper region.
• He saw how adventurers formed temporary teams despite distrust, using one another as bait or turning on one another over ghost medicines.
• Jiang Qiao changed his appearance and approached a camp to hear directly from the adventurers about the forest.
• Ma Yan introduced himself as the leader of the team, and Jiang Qiao offered to sell him one hundred stalks of ghost medicine.
• Jiang Qiao told Ma Yan that he needed the team’s help with one more thing.

Jiang Qiao recruited more than eighty adventurers to investigate a cave that appeared to contain Illusionary Medicine and a Ghost Medicine Field. He planned to use the expedition to test whether tunnels in the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest could lead back to the yellow dirt path.

• Jiang Qiao told the camp about a cave with singing and apparitions, prompting someone to identify it as a possible sign of Illusionary Medicine.
• He proposed exploring the cave together and explained that they could recruit more teams if they found danger inside.
• Despite the old man's refusal, more than eighty adventurers agreed to join Jiang Qiao, leaving the old man with only his own companions.
• Jiang Qiao considered whether tunnels in the forest could let its inhabitants leave, and revealed that the Ghost Medicine Field's fissure connected to a passage resembling the route to the yellow dirt path.

Jiang Qiao led more than eighty adventurers into a sinister cave beneath a cliff in Ten Thousand Ghost Forest, where the scent of Ghost Medicine drew them deeper into supernatural darkness. The chapter left Old Wen surrounded by companions whose faces had become identical to his own.

• Jiang Qiao entered the cave first, and the woman and young man led the other adventurers in after him.
• The adventurers encountered unnatural cold and echoes that grew louder before abruptly vanishing, then followed the scent of Ghost Medicine deeper into the cave.
• As the cave widened, the darkness became so complete that the group held on to one another to stay connected.
• Old Wen grew exhausted from the supernatural chill and realized the companion behind him had let go and grabbed his shoulder again.
• Old Wen turned around and saw his own face in the darkness, then found that the adventurer in front of him also had his face.

Jiang Qiao and the adventurers encountered evil spirits and then entered the blue glow of the Illusionary Medicine, where a curse preyed on their memories and emotions. Jiang Qiao realized the curse was affecting vicious ghosts as well as the living, and the figures were beginning to take the adventurers’ appearances.

• Jiang Qiao warned the Slender Woman that evil spirits were attacking, and shadows dragged five adventurers into the cavern walls before the group destroyed them.
• The Slender Woman found petrified remains embedded in the rock, while Jiang Qiao said he had only noticed the attack when she asked.
• The group followed the scent of ghost medicine and found corpse-like figures standing in a blue glow, which they identified as Illusionary Medicine.
• After entering the glow, the adventurers heard familiar voices and relived painful memories, causing some to approach apparent loved ones without caution.
• Jiang Qiao observed that the curse affected vicious ghosts too, while the figures’ faces began to resemble the adventurers.

Jiang Qiao and the surviving adventurers reached a vast Ghost Medicine Field growing along a Ghost Vein after an emotional attack killed more than twenty people. As they considered harvesting the medicine, the vein began to pulse strangely, and something started climbing up from beneath the soil.

• A young man used a strange fluctuation to break the emotional attack, restoring the adventurers’ memories and revealing that their apparent companions had been supernatural imitations.
• The blue-lit figures vanished, but the attack had killed more than twenty adventurers, leaving the survivors shaken as they continued onward.
• Jiang Qiao and the adventurers emerged into a vast, mist-filled cavern and found countless ghost medicines growing along a Ghost Vein.
• The Slender Woman and the young man praised Jiang Qiao’s information and discussed harvesting the medicine and dealing with the Major Factions.
• Jiang Qiao warned the group not to be greedy, and the Ghost Vein began throbbing irregularly as something climbed up beneath the soil.

Jiang Qiao watched adventurers harvest Ghost Medicine from a transforming Ghost Earth Vein, then saw the vein awaken and unleash evil spirits. Its movement exposed the Space Rift he had been seeking, whose aura matched the one from the Yellow Mud Road.

• A young man urged the survivors to risk harvesting Ghost Medicine, and more than forty adventurers followed him into the hollow.
• Jiang Qiao and the Slender Woman stayed behind as other cautious survivors gradually joined the harvesting group.
• The Ghost Earth Vein erupted, sending rotten hands and hordes of evil spirits after the adventurers.
• Jiang Qiao realized the living Ghost Vein had exposed the Space Rift beneath it and sensed that the rift was connected to the Yellow Mud Road.

The Ghost Vein collapsed into a widening rift, trapping adventurers as evil spirits pursued them. Jiang Qiao secretly marked several people with talismans, and the greedy young man who had escaped with a huge haul was dragged into the rift.

• The Ghost Vein collapsed and pulled nearby adventurers toward the rift as evil spirits swarmed after them.
• Jiang Qiao stayed near the entrance and secretly placed talismans on several adventurers caught by the pull.
• A waiting adventurer eyed the returning survivors and their ghost herbs, hoping to rob them.
• The young man who had gathered a huge haul plotted to frame Jiang Qiao and flee with his herbs.
• The young man found himself at the rear of the fleeing crowd, lost control of his supernatural power, and fell into the rift.

After escaping the cavern’s rift, Jiang Qiao led the surviving adventurers back toward the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest and pondered the connections among the Abyss, the Green Lotus Sect, and his home world. Outside the cave, they found a rare ghost-burning-money phenomenon that the Slender Woman warned had preceded a catastrophic disaster in the past.

• About twenty survivors escaped the rift, and two would-be robbers abandoned their plan to attack the group until later.
• The adventurers looked to Jiang Qiao for direction, and he agreed they should return after collecting the herbs.
• Jiang Qiao recalled seeing a familiar building in the Abyss and suspected the Green Lotus Sect had connected it to the Black Tide and the Death Realm.
• The survivors left the cavern without encountering evil spirits, but found the surrounding smog had grown thicker and was filled with drifting paper ash.
• The Slender Woman identified the distant flames as ghost burning money and explained that an earlier occurrence had been followed by a disaster that killed an entire town.

Jiang Qiao led most of the adventurers safely out of the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest without paying the passage fee, while a group that distrusted him was stopped and robbed by the guards. The chapter left the unlucky adventurers regretting their choice after learning the mysterious man was Senior Gan Ba.

• Jiang Qiao questioned the Slender Woman about the delayed disasters linked to Ghost Burning Money and suspected a connection to the Black Tide omen.
• Jiang Qiao led most of the adventurers back toward the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest entrance and told them to trust him.
• The guards ignored Jiang Qiao’s group as they passed through with their ghost medicine, and Jiang Qiao disappeared afterward.
• Adventurers who had stayed behind tried to follow the others but were stopped by the guards, who demanded fifty percent of their ghost medicine.
• The guard captain slapped an adventurer, confiscated the group’s medicine, and revealed that the man ahead had been Senior Gan Ba.