Chapter Summaries

Jiang Qiao entered a sinister manor and found Yang Jing fighting a ghostly woman and a shackled prisoner. Yang Jing was weakened and under pressure as the two enemies tried to make him surrender.

• Jiang Qiao examined a corpse-stinking farm and a decaying villa, then entered the manor using Stalker state.
• Jiang Qiao realized the iron gate distorted what could be observed from outside and followed sounds of fighting.
• Jiang Qiao found Yang Jing facing a woman whose ghostly alley threatened to enter reality and a prisoner whose shackles froze Yang Jing’s movements.
• Yang Jing blamed Yun Zhou for bringing Gan Ba and causing the situation, while conserving his Broken Sword for a decisive strike.
• The Prisoner Man and the woman taunted Yang Jing and urged him to surrender as their fight continued.

Yang Jing fought a man and woman who revealed that his father’s plans involved the Abyss Passage, then warned him that he knew nothing about the dangerous manor he had entered. After the pair stopped attacking and backed away, split watermelons and stirring scarecrows turned their attention toward Yang Jing.

• Yang Jing failed to gain an opening against the woman and the night-owl-voiced man, who identified him and explained that he was inspecting the Abyss Passage for his father’s plans.
• The woman said she intended to damage the passage if it was too stable, while Yang Jing realized his father had kept him ignorant of the mission.
• The woman mocked Yang Jing as an illegitimate son and tool, and Yang Jing’s deathly aura spread through the manor’s crops, withering grass and rotting cotton and corn.
• The woman and man withdrew from Yang Jing and watched as he stood on guard, sensing an unexplained danger in the manor.
• After five minutes, watermelons split open and the scarecrows raised their heads and turned their straw eyes toward Yang Jing.

Yang Jing fought the manor’s scarecrows, whose curse and watermelon-linked durability trapped him while Jiang Qiao watched from hiding. When Yang Jing appeared to prepare an escape with the Broken Sword, he instead split into nine streams of blue-black energy, and two slipped past the scarecrows as the woman and Prisoner Man pursued.

• The scarecrows attacked Yang Jing, while the watermelons around them absorbed damage from his corpse-rotting power.
• Ghost Hands dragged at Yang Jing as straw filled and pierced his body, but he decayed the straw and broke free.
• Yang Jing damaged a scarecrow only slightly, and Jiang Qiao realized the many watermelons made the creatures difficult to destroy.
• Yang Jing raised the Broken Sword as the woman and Prisoner Man prepared to stop him from escaping.
• Yang Jing transformed into nine streams of blue-black energy; two escaped through gaps in the scarecrow blockade, and the woman and Prisoner Man reacted to his flight.

Yang Jing used a feigned escape to catch the woman off guard and kill her with his Broken Sword. The Prisoner Man fled after the attack destroyed the scarecrows, but a cold voice stopped him.

• Yang Jing split into nine streams of blue-black aura, and the woman and Prisoner Man pursued what they believed were two escaping pieces of him.
• The woman trapped one stream in Fierce Ghost Alley, while the Prisoner Man chased another away from the manor.
• The streams dissipated, revealing that they were a smokescreen, and Yang Jing appeared beside the woman and killed her with a sword strike.
• Yang Jing's strike destroyed the scarecrows and over a thousand watermelons, leaving the Prisoner Man afraid to risk another attack.
• The Prisoner Man tried to flee, but a cold voice confronted him for destroying the farm and leaving.

The Manor Master, a powerful man surnamed Gong, emerged from the villa and questioned Yang Jing about the damage to his farm and the missing members of the expedition. After learning that Gan Ba had killed Zhong Biao, he offered Yang Jing and the Prisoner Man a chance to redeem themselves, then sensed someone spying outside the manor.

• The Manor Master restrained the Prisoner Man, broke his leg, and came out of the villa as Yang Jing and Jiang Qiao watched.
• The Manor Master recognized Yang Jing as Uncle Yang’s son and asked about his disciple Zhong Biao.
• Yang Jing explained the Death Realm’s expedition and described how Gan Ba and Yun Zhou had disrupted it, leading to Zhong Biao’s death.
• The Manor Master identified Gan Ba’s scars and face as disguises, condemned him, and accused Yang Jing and the Prisoner Man of damaging his farm.
• The Manor Master began offering them a chance to redeem themselves, then sensed a spy outside the manor and demanded they reveal themselves.

Jiang Qiao was exposed near the manor and escaped Gong’s spatial restraints using talismanic self-summoning. Gong and his followers pursued him, while Yang Jing suspected Jiang Qiao was a successor of the legendary Dao Sect.

• Jiang Qiao taunted Gong after being discovered, then fled as Gong’s sound waves slowed him within the manor’s sphere of influence.
• Jiang Qiao transformed into a talisman and reappeared in distant woods, breaking Gong’s spatial shackles.
• Gong recognized Jiang Qiao’s Art of Talismans, grew greedy over his abilities, and ordered Yang Jing and Prisoner Man to capture him.
• Yang Jing recalled records about the Dao Sect, including that even the Deity had feared it, and suspected Jiang Qiao was its successor.
• Gong pursued Jiang Qiao, reasoning that he possessed both Soul Hook and talismanic inheritances and had found the Jade Gourd.

Jiang Qiao fought back against the prisoner pursuing him by amplifying the man’s inner fears and flooding his mind with strange information. The prisoner’s consciousness collapsed, leaving him reduced to babbling as Jiang Qiao continued to flee.

• The prisoner pursued Jiang Qiao despite realizing he was outmatched, driven by fear of Senior Gong and Yang Jing.
• The prisoner summoned supernatural chains to trap Jiang Qiao, but Jiang Qiao severed the binding force and countered with an unseen, unheard note.
• Jiang Qiao’s ability intensified the prisoner’s existing terror and panic, which the man could not suppress.
• A torrent of strange information poured into the prisoner’s mind and merged with his amplified emotions, overwhelming his consciousness.
• Jiang Qiao mocked the fallen prisoner as he ran, saying he would now only be able to babble.

Jiang Qiao incapacitated the prisoner with the Serpent Rule and Vermilion Bird Rule while the man surnamed Gong grew obsessed with uncovering his secret. As Yang Jing struggled to raise the Broken Sword, an ominous presence stirred within it, and the man surnamed Gong’s grab found only an afterimage.

• Jiang Qiao overwhelmed the third-step prisoner’s consciousness, leaving him dazed and unable to continue the pursuit.
• The man surnamed Gong praised Jiang Qiao’s displayed rules and decided to capture him to force out his secret.
• The man surnamed Gong ordered Yang Jing to attack Jiang Qiao with the Broken Sword, despite Yang Jing’s poor condition.
• Yang Jing raised the Broken Sword as Vicious Ghosts gathered around him, while an unsettling change developed among them.
• When the man surnamed Gong noticed Yang Jing’s abnormality and reached for him, Yang Jing vanished, and heavy footsteps sounded from within the Vicious Ghosts.

Yang Jing’s Broken Sword drew a Half-God’s rule into reality, forcing the Man surnamed Gong to abandon his pursuit of Jiang Qiao and flee. The Man surnamed Gong realized the sword had used Yang Jing’s location to pinpoint reality, allowing the rule to invade even without a medium.

• As heavy footsteps approached through the darkness, the Man surnamed Gong opened a Wooden Door to disrupt the invading Vicious Ghost phantoms and pursued no further.
• Jiang Qiao escaped using the Black Tortoise Rule and Stalker while warning that the Man surnamed Gong had celebrated too soon.
• A force struck the Wooden Door, breaking the seal and allowing the strange corpses and approaching footsteps to invade reality more rapidly.
• The Man surnamed Gong used his tattooed Vicious Ghost to unleash airflow that swept away the phantoms, but a pair of icy Ghost Feet emerged from the darkness.
• The Man surnamed Gong fled toward the farmstead as a growing danger followed him, then realized Yang Jing’s Broken Sword had used his location to let its rule invade reality without a medium.

Gong escaped into his farm after severing his lower body to break free of the Broken Sword’s rule, while strange black lines spread across the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest and began devouring matter. As Jiang Qiao investigated the phenomenon, he saw Shi Jin Jia approaching.

• Gong reached his farm, but a Ghost Hand grabbed his ankle and spread paralysis through his body.
• Gong severed his body below the waist and escaped inside, losing part of his rules and falling from the Eighth Step of Divinity Staircase to the Sixth Step.
• Gong discovered that his missing lower body and the Broken Sword’s rule had vanished as countless black lines filled the sky outside the farm.
• Jiang Qiao sensed that the black lines were a dangerous, seemingly incomplete Half-God phenomenon that devoured grass and soil, though his Ball Lightning form remained safe.
• Jiang Qiao turned around and saw Shi Jin Jia walking toward him.

Jiang Qiao discovered that the Shi Jin Jia he encountered was a lifelike figure woven from black threads, though Shi Jin Jia believed himself to be real. The two temporarily agreed to cooperate and search for the others, but Jiang Qiao realized Shi Jin Jia’s memories were unreliable before an unknown man approached them.

• Jiang Qiao noticed black threads showing through Shi Jin Jia’s skin and concluded that the figure was woven from them.
• Shi Jin Jia proposed a temporary truce with Jiang Qiao so they could find Du Weiyang and the others and escape the area.
• Jiang Qiao questioned Shi Jin Jia about his death, and Shi Jin Jia insisted he had resurrected with his disciple’s help and remembered no Mysterious Man.
• Shi Jin Jia explained that he needed to find his mission companions before leaving, then described powerful figures and factions in the Death Realm.
• Jiang Qiao tested Shi Jin Jia’s memories by asking about a wasteland of huge stones and concluded that the figure could adopt fabricated memories as real ones.
• As Jiang Qiao and Shi Jin Jia traveled together, a man’s voice called from behind them, saying he had found them.

Jiang Qiao watched Shi Jin Jia confront a revived Zhong Biao and realized that both men were black-line Evil Spirits with altered memories. Their argument was interrupted by Yuanbao, who appeared nearby.

• Zhong Biao appeared and Shi Jin Jia accused him of being an Evil Spirit, while Jiang Qiao noticed black lines on him like those on Shi Jin Jia.
• Jiang Qiao learned that Zhong Biao remembered entering the Bloody Forest but not dying, and inferred that the black lines had replaced lost memories with a false search for an entrance.
• Shi Jin Jia urged Jiang Qiao to attack Zhong Biao, but Zhong Biao warned that Shi Jin Jia's memories were damaged and accused Gan Ba of influencing him.
• Jiang Qiao concluded that the black lines were likely a rule-based supernatural phenomenon rather than conscious beings, as the two Evil Spirits argued over who was real.
• Yuanbao arrived, prompting Jiang Qiao to welcome the unexpected gathering.

Jiang Qiao recognized that the black-line versions of Zhong Biao and Yuanbao had mistaken their own nature and joined forces against him. As they attacked, he prepared to test whether their copied rules matched the real ones.

• Yuanbao found Zhong Biao and Shi Jin Jia, but they refused to believe she was alive and warned her not to approach.
• Yuanbao pointed out the black lines spreading across their bodies, and Shi Jin Jia mistook them for curses and urged Gan Ba to leave.
• Jiang Qiao told Zhong Biao and Yuanbao that he had killed them, but they dismissed his claim and suspected him because the black lines had not touched him.
• Yuanbao unleashed a deadly calamity while Zhong Biao spread his Fierce Sha Energy, and the two teamed up to capture Jiang Qiao.
• Jiang Qiao prepared to test the black-line creatures' rules against the real thing.

Jiang Qiao killed Zhong Biao by swallowing him in a black hole, and the black threads that made up Zhong Biao were destroyed. Jiang Qiao concluded that the threads could weave bodies and partially reproduce rules, though their power was limited.

• Shi Jin Jia refused to join Yuan Bao and Zhong Biao against Gan Ba and moved away to watch.
• Zhong Biao tried to capture Jiang Qiao with his burial shroud, but Jiang Qiao vanished and a black dot appeared before him.
• The black dot expanded into a black hole and engulfed Zhong Biao before he could open his ghost domain or use his rules.
• As the black threads were pulled from Zhong Biao, his memories faded and he realized he was woven from black threads rather than being Zhong Biao.
• Jiang Qiao destroyed Zhong Biao and assessed that the black threads could weave bodies and imitate rules at roughly seventy percent effectiveness.

Jiang Qiao used Story Comes True to turn Yuan Bao’s calamity back on her, killing her with the aid of a fisherman evil entity. After defeating both counterfeits, he agreed to leave with Shi Jin Jia as black lines gathered around them.

• Yuan Bao’s calamity failed to harm Jiang Qiao, who explained that he had told a fisherman’s story to redirect it.
• Jiang Qiao used the passage Yuan Bao had created to connect with a fisherman evil entity and curse her in return.
• Yuan Bao’s black lines unraveled under the curse, and Jiang Qiao closed the passage after she died.
• Jiang Qiao reflected that the fisherman had tried to use Yuan Bao to enter the real world, then considered killing Shi Jin Jia too.
• Shi Jin Jia urged Jiang Qiao to leave because more black lines were gathering, and Jiang Qiao agreed.

Jiang Qiao and Shi Jin Jia reached the Dark Domain, where they found Du Weiyang's corpse and evidence that an Awakened had killed him. Shi Jin Jia then began unraveling into a vortex of black lines, and Yun Zhou appeared to warn Jiang Qiao that the Earth Lord was coming.

• Shi Jin Jia explained that the different spaces of the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest converged at the Dark Domain, from which they could travel away from the Abyss Passage.
• Jiang Qiao and Shi Jin Jia found Du Weiyang's half-eaten corpse wedged in a rocky crevice near the Dark Domain.
• Jiang Qiao detected vital energy on Du Weiyang's corpse and concluded that an Awakened had killed him and might still be nearby.
• A snake-like sound accompanied Shi Jin Jia's body unraveling into a spinning vortex of black lines.
• Yun Zhou appeared by the spatial ripples and shouted at Jiang Qiao to flee because the Earth Lord was coming.

Yun Zhou brought Jiang Qiao into the Dark Domain and urged him to flee, but Jiang Qiao confronted him over his past betrayal and demanded an explanation. Yun Zhou admitted the return route was dangerous, then the Mysterious Man appeared and revealed that Yun Zhou could manipulate the odds of survival.

• Yun Zhou pulled Jiang Qiao through a spatial ripple into the Dark Domain, where he explained that black objects were absorbed by the floor and warned that the Abyss Passage had been breached.
• Yun Zhou urged Jiang Qiao to leave with him, but Jiang Qiao refused and accused him of abandoning him in the Blood-Colored Forest and hiding his plans.
• Jiang Qiao pressed Yun Zhou about the return route, and Yun Zhou admitted that travelers faced a chance of disappearing, with groups having better odds than lone travelers.
• Jiang Qiao suspected Yun Zhou was concealing how the odds affected each of them, and the Mysterious Man appeared in a web of blood-colored threads.
• The Mysterious Man said Yun Zhou could control probability, making Yun Zhou's chance of disappearing five percent while Jiang Qiao's remained twenty percent if they returned together.

Jiang Qiao learned that Yin Qiu, the Blood God, had come to retrieve his physical body after Yun Zhou opened the Abyss Passage and let the Child King through. Yin Qiu trapped and killed Yun Zhou when Jiang Qiao refused to help him, leaving Yin Qiu and Jiang Qiao facing each other.

• Yin Qiu revealed that he was an evil spirit called the Blood God and said the black threads were connected to his physical body, the Earth Lord.
• Yin Qiu explained that Yun Zhou had opened a crack in the Abyss Passage and released the Child King, forcing him to retrieve his body early.
• Yin Qiu stopped Yun Zhou from escaping the Dark Domain with his Soul Severing Thread.
• Yun Zhou admitted withholding information from Jiang Qiao and urged him to join forces against Yin Qiu, but Jiang Qiao stayed silent.
• Yin Qiu trapped Yun Zhou's rules with red threads and killed him despite his desperate struggle.

Yin Qiu killed Yun Zhou and confronted Jiang Qiao, revealing his connection to the Abyss and the Earth Lord. Jiang Qiao recognized Yin Qiu’s overwhelming advantage, but Yin Qiu refused to let him go, leaving their confrontation poised to turn deadly.

• Yin Qiu killed Yun Zhou in two minutes, leaving Yang Jing missing and nearly all the Ten Thousand Ghost Forest’s Major Faction leaders dead.
• Yin Qiu questioned Jiang Qiao about why he had not joined forces with Yun Zhou, and Jiang Qiao said Yun Zhou would have only held him back.
• Jiang Qiao identified Yin Qiu as an escaped evil spirit from the Abyss who called himself the Blood God and used the Earth Lord as his Physical Body.
• Yin Qiu asked about Jiang Qiao’s background, and Jiang Qiao admitted he had encountered Half-Gods and had grudges with some of them.
• Yin Qiu declared that he would kill Jiang Qiao unless Jiang Qiao could find a way to escape.

Jiang Qiao’s clone faced Yin Qiu in the Dark Domain, where Yin Qiu tried to kill him with his blood-based powers. Jiang Qiao’s Main Body descended into the clone, revealing the Void Abyss’s aura and leaving Yin Qiu wary as Jiang Qiao prepared to fight.

• Yin Qiu refused to let Jiang Qiao go unless he lured away the Child King, then used red threads to twist the Dark Domain around him.
• Jiang Qiao revealed black talismans and declared that he would beat Yin Qiu to death instead of fleeing or helping him.
• Yin Qiu turned the space into a pool of blood that expelled supernatural powers, but Jiang Qiao remained unharmed as his aura grew stronger.
• Yin Qiu recognized the Void Abyss’s aura and realized Jiang Qiao’s body was a clone receiving a Divine Descent from his Main Body.
• Jiang Qiao recalled completing the Divine Descent while alone on a bus after the other passengers died, then told Yin Qiu that killing him was all he needed to do.