Chapter Summaries

Li Yan escaped the explosion at Wenmiao Street and sheltered with the surviving allies, while Imperial Censor Wang chose to remain in Chengdu and seek a chance to seize military authority. As the New Year arrived, Li Yan visited Yang Chenghua, who revealed that the immense incense and faith he was absorbing had filled his head with voices.

• After the explosion devastated Wenmiao Street, Li Yan evaded the pursuers and reached a hidden warehouse where the survivors were sheltering.
• Li Yan warned Imperial Censor Wang and the others that the King of Shu was controlled by a demon practitioner, and Imperial Censor Wang decided to stay in Chengdu while Dong Cunshan went to seek reinforcements.
• Over the next two days, Li Yan sent Dong Cunshan out of the city, contacted the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove, and kept out of sight as the King of Shu's forces hunted their allies.
• On New Year's Eve, Li Yan used an underground passage to leave Chengdu through the southern gate and carried provisions to Hejiang Pavilion.
• Yang Chenghua told Li Yan that voices had been filling his head as he absorbed vast amounts of incense and faith.

On New Year's Eve, Li Yan accompanied Yang Chenghua through Chengdu, where Yang confronted his doubts about being a god by witnessing how ordinary people prayed and offering help to some of them. At dawn, the Prince announced that he would personally lead Chengdu's God of Joy Parade.

• Li Yan realized that Yang Chenghua's struggle between his mortal nature and a thousand years of incense was his true tribulation, then persuaded him to visit Chengdu for New Year's Eve.
• Yang Chenghua used an Invisibility Incantation to evade the Black Feather Guard, and he and Li Yan feasted at a salt merchant's home after Yang put the household to sleep.
• Yang Chenghua gave a sick child's mother medicine and money, and the two men helped or frightened people around Chengdu as they listened to believers' prayers.
• At a small riverside temple, Li Yan explained that ordinary people's worship offered hope and resolve, prompting Yang Chenghua to reconsider the purpose of his incense offerings.
• After the two drank beside the temple until dawn, the Prince's guards announced that the Prince would personally lead Chengdu's God of Joy Parade.

Li Yan and his allies planned to infiltrate the First Prince Residence and free the First Prince from a Bewitching Soul Spell so they could seize military authority from the King of Shu. As the God of Joy Parade began, the King of Shu showered Chengdu’s people with gifts, while Li Yan’s group prepared to act.

• Li Yan avoided a guarded secret-passage entrance, used another route beneath Chengdu, and returned to Yu King Temple.
• Faceless Young Master introduced Li Yan to Imperial Censor Wang and a gathering of martial-world allies, then revealed that the King of Shu’s parade was protected by Black Feather Guards.
• Imperial Censor Wang proposed entering the First Prince Residence through Faceless Young Master’s secret passage, dispelling the spell on the First Prince, and using a New Year banquet to draw in the commanders.
• Li Yan worried that the plan might be part of a trap but agreed to proceed after Faceless Young Master described precautions and an escape route.
• The King of Shu’s God of Joy Parade emerged from his residence, and Eunuch Liu announced that the Prince would distribute coins to Chengdu’s people.
• Eunuchs scattered copper coins from horseback as the crowd rushed to collect them and praised the King of Shu.

The King of Shu, Xiao Qipan, left Chengdu in a grand procession while the Faceless Young Master’s allies prepared to attack the First Prince Residence. After investigating the residence through the Yuan Guang Technique, the group launched its planned infiltration.

• Lu Sanshui examined the God of Joy Coins, warned his beggars not to collect them, and sent the coins through a hidden network to the Faceless Young Master at Yu King Temple.
• Li Yan heard a strange sound from the coins and warned that they concealed something, but the Faceless Young Master postponed investigating them until after the operation.
• Xiao Qipan visited Anfu Temple, climbed the Black Pagoda, and led his procession out through Chengdu’s southern gate as hidden observers watched.
• The Faceless Young Master led his allies through a secret passage to an inn near the First Prince Residence, where Senior Wu used a Spirit Medium to check for ambushes.
• The Faceless Young Master ordered the attack, and the Cao Gang elder raised a white fog while Tang Jiuniang sent flying shuttles and ropes toward the residence for the group to cross.

The Faceless Young Master’s allies seized the First Prince Residence and Granny Jin confirmed that the First Prince had been cursed by Yin Nuo Opera, but she could not lift the curse until noon. Meanwhile, the King of Shu’s procession reached the Marquis Wu Shrine, where Ba Dai Zha’s group exposed their trap and prepared to move against the city before a Cheng family flying sword struck.

• The Faceless Young Master’s men used fog to seize the First Prince Residence, where Granny Jin diagnosed the First Prince’s Yin Nuo Opera curse and said she needed to remove it at noon.
• The King of Shu’s procession crossed Wanli Bridge after Liu Guan Zhang impersonators killed attackers disguised as commoners and Eunuch Liu scattered real silver to keep the crowd moving.
• The procession reached the Marquis Wu Shrine, where the false King of Shu exposed the sacrificial animals as a Gu worm trap and Western Sichuan Yellow Mountain Harrier archers killed the hidden attackers.
• Ba Dai Zha killed the temple keeper and revealed himself as the King of Shu’s trusted Blood Nuo Master, while Situ Qian and the others prepared to return to the city.
• A Cheng family flying sword suddenly attacked the group, and Ba Dai Zha blocked it with his Blood Colored Scimitar before someone called out the attacker’s location.

Blood Nuo Master pursued Sword Immortal Cheng while the disguised King of Shu faced an ambush by Orthodox Xuan Gate forces at Marquis Wu Shrine. At the Prince’s Residence, Granny Jin broke the First Prince’s curse, but Black Sect Lama Duo Ji Zha Xi arrived as garrison generals approached, leaving Li Yan warning that they were trapped.

• Blood Nuo Master tracked Sword Immortal Cheng’s blood through the snow, but the King of Shu recalled him before he could catch his quarry.
• Sword Immortal Cheng, Ming Shanzi, and Ling Yunzi led Qingcheng Mountain Taoists in an Eight Formations Diagram attack, but the King of Shu broke the formation with Divine Firearms and sent a paper crane to summon Blood Nuo Master.
• Blood Nuo Master returned after falling into an ambush by monks from Guangde Temple, while Situ Qian realized that the man posing as the King of Shu was not the real one.
• Granny Jin used a spirit snake and a dough doll to take the curse from the First Prince, who agreed to seek help from the garrison generals and observe her ritual taboos.
• Li Yan sensed a trap as the generals approached the Prince’s Residence, and Black Sect Lama Duo Ji Zha Xi appeared outside to block their escape.

Li Yan and the others were trapped inside the First Prince Residence as the King of Shu’s forces besieged it, killing the First Prince and overwhelming the defenders. Li Yan summoned the underworld’s soldiers and horses, but a Yellow Silk pinned to the gate caused them to withdraw, leaving the Black Feather Guards a threat.

• Two thousand soldiers and two hundred heavily armored Black Feather Guards surrounded the First Prince Residence, while their commanders ordered the inn entrance destroyed and the secret passage collapsed.
• The First Prince ran outside pleading for help, but the leading commander shot him dead and ordered an assault on the residence.
• Granny Jin, Zhu Lao San, the blind Old Taoist, and other defenders fought back, but soldiers and the Black Sect Lama killed many of them and blocked their escape.
• Granny Jin used Five Venoms Opening the Way to poison the soldiers inside, but Duo Ji Zha Xi’s Seven Stars Lock trapped the poisonous creatures within the residence.
• Li Yan recognized the Tiger Lord Cannon loaded with New-Style Gunpowder and summoned the soldiers and horses of the underworld to stop the Black Feather Guards.
• A Yellow Silk flew onto the gate, and the underworld forces began to withdraw, leaving Li Yan horrified.

Li Yan and Granny Jin were trapped in the streets after the Faceless Young Master abandoned them in a hidden passage, while Ba Dai Zha, Duo Ji Zha Xi, and Situ Qian attacked. Just as Li Yan prepared to fight through the encirclement, Sha LiFei and the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove arrived with Lu San’s poisonous bees, and Wu Ba prepared to fire the Tiger Lord Cannon.

• The Underworld’s soldiers and horses forced the Black Sect Lama away, and the Faceless Young Master led the martial artists in a break through the Black Feather Guard.
• Li Yan supported Granny Jin, took the Yellow Silk from the gate, and used a straw horse to carry her toward the hidden passage, but Ba Dai Zha’s Blood Blade Curse blocked their escape.
• The Faceless Young Master and the others entered the Land God Temple and collapsed the hidden passage behind them, leaving Li Yan and Granny Jin exposed to the pursuing garrison.
• Granny Jin used the Sichuan Nuo Twelve Altars to disrupt the enemy’s spells while Li Yan summoned his Chuling Paper Figures and transformed into a towering black misty figure.
• Lu San’s poisonous bees attacked the surrounding soldiers, and Sha LiFei, Wang Dao Xuan, Situ Bo, Liang Yu, and the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove arrived as Wu Ba readied the Tiger Lord Cannon.

Li Yan and his allies fought the King of Shu’s forces in a chaotic Chengdu street battle, then escaped to a hidden refuge. There, Liang Yu revealed that Qingcheng Mountain’s attempt to ambush the King of Shu had failed and showed Li Yan the God of Joy Coin.

• Wu Ba fired the Tiger Lord Cannon, devastating the Black Feather Guards and clearing the street.
• Li Yan clashed with Blood Nuo Master Ba Dai Zha, who used Duo Ji Zha Xi’s aid and the Plague God Leather Armor to withstand his attacks.
• Situ Qian fought his adoptive father Situ Bo and the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove, while garrison troops and Sha LiFei exchanged gunfire with him.
• As cavalry reinforcements arrived, Li Yan and his allies withdrew through the streets, evaded pursuit, and took shelter in the Bai family’s old residence.
• Granny Jin fainted from exhaustion, and Liang Yu told the group that Qingcheng Mountain’s ambush at the Marquis Wu Shrine had failed.
• Liang Yu showed Li Yan the God of Joy Coin that the King of Shu had scattered.

Li Yan learned that the God of Joy Coin was a Cursed Artifact tied to Zhao Jie, a Firm Strength expert serving the King of Shu, and deduced that Lu Sheng’s real objective lay at Dujiangyan. As Li Yan arranged for the others to leave Chengdu and investigate, the false King of Shu revealed that he sought the Nine Cauldrons and planned to use the festival crowds to conceal his scheme.

• Wen Song identified the God of Joy Coin as a Cursed Artifact and said Zhao Jie, a powerful Immortal Sect disciple and water bandit, had used the same method before.
• Li Yan concluded that Zhao Jie’s failure to appear meant the King of Shu’s greater plan centered on Dujiangyan, then proposed keeping Lu Sheng occupied while the others contacted Ming Shanzi at Qingcheng.
• Li Yan examined an exhausted Earth Official’s Treasure Edict of Atonement and considered how it might connect to the Great Luo Dharma Realm and Yang Chenghua.
• In the Shu King Residence, the false King of Shu confirmed that his agents had distributed the God of Joy Coins and told Situ Qian that the excavation concerned the Nine Cauldrons.
• The false King of Shu recruited Situ Qian to draw out the person overseeing the ritual and ordered the Blood Nuo Master to keep Chengdu festive while trapping outsiders in the city.
• After the others left, the false King of Shu said that the Divine Land would sink when the Nine Cauldrons emerged and vowed to overturn the situation.

As Chengdu celebrated Breaking Five, Wang Dao Xuan investigated the God of Joy Coins while Li Yan’s allies prepared to undermine Lu Sheng’s scheme and hidden battles spread through the city. Li Yan met Yang Chenghua at deserted Qingyang Palace, still uncertain what the old Taoists stood to gain and suspecting the Nine Cauldrons were involved.

• Zhou household servants burned the Five Poverty Bag near the ruined First Prince Residence as Lu Sheng’s cursed rogue cultivators kept watch across Chengdu.
• Wang Dao Xuan disguised himself as a Daoist, learned that rumors against the God of Joy Coins had failed to turn the people against the Shu King, and continued probing the city.
• The Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove left for Dujiangyan while Lu San used rats to map Chengdu’s underground passages and sent word to Wang Dao Xuan.
• Sha LiFei and Hou Xuan recruited Senior Wen to build a temple and planned to help him leave Chengdu on the seventh day of the first month.
• The Shu King Residence arrested rumor-spreaders and burned the White Horse Gambling House as its forces clashed with the Faceless Young Master’s people in secret.
• Li Yan brought Yang Chenghua to Qingyang Palace and wondered what the old Taoists sought, suspecting their plans involved the Nine Cauldrons.

Li Yan and Yang Chenghua infiltrated Qingyang Palace through an ancient secret passage and discovered that its Daoists were draining divine incense to empower a ritual against Dragon Girl. They planned to exploit the ritual’s weakness during the Flower Festival, while Qingcheng Mountain’s people arrived at Dujiangyan.

• Yang Chenghua took Li Yan to Scattering Flower Pavilion, where they learned Fatty Wu had died and left Yang a room, wine, and a message recalling their youthful days.
• Yang Chenghua and Li Yan used the teahouse’s hidden passage, an ancient route beneath Qingyang Palace, to enter the temple unseen.
• The two discovered that Qingyang Palace’s Daoists were performing a reversed ritual to help Jiang God Great Lord reclaim divine essence from Dragon Girl.
• Yang Chenghua explained that removing the talismans binding the Three Purities statues simultaneously would make the ritual’s practitioners suffer backlash, and Li Yan proposed acting during the Flower Festival.
• Yang Chenghua stayed at Scattering Flower Pavilion while Li Yan left, and Qingcheng Mountain’s people arrived at Dujiangyan.

Cheng JianXin led Qingcheng and Cheng family experts to investigate the Shu King’s secret river operation and discovered it was tied to the Ancient Shu Eye. He ordered a strike against the hidden demon and opened a Qingcheng Earth Sword altar, while urging Chang Gousheng to learn from his mistakes.

• Ming Shanzi, Ling Yunzi, and other experts gathered with Cheng JianXin and watched the Shu King’s forces lower rune-carved basalt slabs into the river.
• A Qingcheng Female Taoist and her disciple Qing Xuan investigated the underwater formation, and Qing Xuan saw a bronze-like vertical eye before Cheng JianXin identified it as the Ancient Shu Eye.
• Cheng JianXin explained that the demon was Mystic Lu Sheng and ordered the experts to set up a sword formation and leave no one alive.
• Cheng JianXin reprimanded Chang Gousheng for disobeying orders during the Blood Nuo Master’s ambush and encouraged him not to lose heart over his mistake.
• Ming Shanzi and the Qingcheng cultivators opened an Earth Sword altar, drawing the mountains’ and rivers’ Gangsha Energy into seven Law Swords.

The Qingcheng Sect used its Earth Sword to attack the Shu King’s fleet at Dujiangyan, accidentally revealing a dangerous presence in the Dragon Palace Water Mansion. After Ming Shanzi’s second strike destroyed the escaping evil entity, Qingcheng and the Cheng clan charged Zhao Jie’s forces, and the two sides clashed in a chaotic battle.

• Zhao Jie ordered Lu Sheng’s allies to continue placing formation stones despite the gathering storm around Qingcheng’s Earth Sword altar.
• Ming Shanzi unleashed the Five Ding Earth Sword, shattering boats and killing more than twenty people in Zhao Jie’s fleet.
• The bloodshed stirred the river, and a curse from the Kan Position afflicted sorcerers who tried to investigate it.
• Cheng JianXin identified the presence as an Ancient Shu evil entity, and Ming Shanzi’s second sword shattered it into crimson mist.
• Cheng JianXin ordered Qingcheng and the Cheng clan to attack, while Zhao Jie ordered his remaining Black Feather Guards to open fire.
• The Female Taoist and the scarred Old Taoist disrupted the attackers’ weapons and sorcery, and both sides entered a chaotic battle.

Qingcheng Sect forces battled Zhao Jie’s Black Feather Guard and Southwestern unorthodox practitioners on the river while Zhao Jie protected the altar needed to open the Dragon Palace Water Mansion. After Zhao Jie escaped into the water, Ming Shanzi realized the palace was being drawn toward Chengdu Prefecture.

• Ming Shanzi used the Sword Altar’s fog to shroud the river, helping Qingcheng Sect fighters ambush the Black Feather Guard and unorthodox practitioners.
• Chong Chenzi rescued a Qingcheng Daoist and tore through enemies with his thunder arts and Eagle Claw Skill as both sides suffered casualties.
• Cheng JianXin, Ling Yunzi, and Ming Shanzi confronted Zhao Jie beside the altar, and Zhao Jie used Firm Strength and the Yin Body Method to resist their attacks.
• Cheng JianXin identified Zhao Jie’s Soul-Hiding Iron Plate and Flying Knife Inch Rend, while Zhao Jie’s back was wounded by Cheng JianXin’s Sword Intent.
• The river erupted in mud, fog, wind, rain, and lightning as the altar’s bamboo tallies shifted, and Zhao Jie escaped underwater.
• Ming Shanzi realized Zhao Jie had lured the Dragon Palace Water Mansion toward Chengdu Prefecture.

After the Qingcheng Sect defeated the Shu King Residence’s forces on the river, the Dragon Worship Sect gathered demonic miasma while Li Yan and his allies discovered that a curse was driving Chengdu’s people mad. Li Yan planned to destroy the curse’s formation in the Shu King Residence, but a sudden blizzard enclosed the city in white fog as the Qingcheng Sect arrived too late.

• Cheng JianXin led the surviving Qingcheng disciples toward Chengdu, while Lang Wu gathered red demonic miasma into the Ancient Shu Kingdom Sacrificial Artifact.
• The Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove returned to Li Yan and reported that Green Sun Palace had attacked the Qingcheng Sect’s hiding place.
• Wang Dao Xuan and Sha LiFei brought back a commoner whose Evil Curse had made him violent, and Liang Yu found that the curse was draining his qi, blood, and Divine Soul.
• Li Yan and his companions saw that Chengdu’s Lantern Festival crowds were feverish and fighting over rusted God of Joy Coins, and Li Yan concluded the curse’s source was in the Shu King Residence.
• Li Yan ordered the group to move gunpowder to the Shu King Residence and strike before the fifteenth day of the month, but a sudden blizzard engulfed Chengdu in dense white fog as the Qingcheng Sect approached.

As Chengdu Prefecture fell under a supernatural fog that drove its people into a frenzy, Ming Shanzi led Qingcheng experts into the city to search for the missing troops and Li Yan. They encountered Yang Jian outside the city, while Li Yan and his companions witnessed the cursed townspeople and learned the disaster was Divine Enchantment.

• Ling Yunzi arranged for reinforcements and contacted other sects, while Cheng JianXin renamed his disciple Chang TianQue.
• Ming Shanzi’s group found that the fog swallowed the Chongqing army and killed the Qingcheng disciples sent in to investigate.
• Ming Shanzi led a party into the fog, where they crossed an illusion array and found heaps of dead civilians, soldiers, and Qingcheng disciples at Fu River Wharf.
• Yang Jian appeared beside the corpses and told the Qingcheng group to follow him into the city to save Li Yan.
• Inside Chengdu, the townspeople became frenzied under the blood-red lanterns, burned a lucid merchant alive, and hunted those who remained uncursed.
• Wang Dao Xuan identified the phenomenon as Divine Enchantment and asked Li Yan whether he had heard of the West Queen Mother Edict Scheme.

Li Yan confirmed that the Divine Enchantment in Chengdu Prefecture targeted Dragon Girl and organized a Flower God Parade to awaken her and counter the curse. The procession reached Qingyang Palace, where the ritual against Dragon Girl was taking place.

• Wang Dao Xuan explained that the Divine Enchantment was a forbidden art that used Incense Power to drive ordinary people mad, and Li Yan suspected its source was the Jiang God Great Lord.
• Li Yan used the Dragon Pattern Jade Tablet to contact Dragon Girl and saw visions showing that the Jiang God Great Lord had taken the Grotto-heaven Stone and that a ritual at Qingyang Palace targeted Dragon Girl.
• Hou Xuan gathered more than a dozen young women who had avoided the God of Joy Coins, and Li Yan prepared them to take part in the Flower God Parade.
• Wang Dao Xuan established the ritual altar, and Li Yan led the women through the city with the Bronze Flower Basket while using the Northern Emperor Body Protection Incantation to confuse the pursuing townspeople.
• The procession passed through Chengdu's southern gate, where the Salt Gang fighters lay dead, and arrived at the silent Qingyang Palace.

Li Yan and his companions performed the Flower God Parade ritual to gather incense and faith for reviving Dragon Girl, then fought Qingyang Palace Daoists who tried to stop them. Li Yan led a group into the palace, where they discovered an inverted formation and faced a sword formation of Daoists corrupted by evil forces.

• Wang Dao Xuan conducted the Three Offering Ritual as the frenzied commoners cheered, offered coins, and pressed bloody handprints onto the yellow silk.
• Li Yan placed Dragon Girl’s Dragon Pattern Jade Tablet in the Bronze Flower Basket and sensed the commoners’ wishes gathering as incense power.
• More than a dozen corrupted Qingyang Palace Daoists attacked the parade, and Wu Ba and the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove killed them.
• Li Yan left Sha LiFei and several others to guard the ritual, then led Wu Ba and the rest toward Qingyang Palace after sensing its Daoists were corrupting the secular gods.
• Yue SanEr detected an inverted Celestial Star Array and exposed its concealed poisonous gas with fish-bone beads.
• Corrupted Daoists formed a Xuan Gate Sword Formation before the Three Purities Hall, and Li Yan demanded to know who they were.

Li Yan and his allies broke Qingyang Palace’s possessed Two Elements Sword Formation and raced to Doumu Hall, where the Dragon Worship Sect was draining the temple gods’ incense offerings. Li Yan summoned yin soldiers to stop the ritual, and Lang Wu revealed a bronze vertical-eye mask that Li Yan recognized as an artifact made to counter Erlang Zhenjun.

• Li Yan realized Evil Omen Qi, not Killing Intent, had possessed Qingyang Palace’s Taoists, and suspected the Dragon Worship Sect was behind the attack.
• A concealed Dragon Worship Sect gunner attacked Wu Ba, but Cui Bai used a shadow-puppet spell to immobilize him.
• Li Yan identified the Kan and Li formation masters, killed them, and helped his allies shatter the sword formation.
• Li Yan reached Doumu Hall and found Qingyang Palace’s elders dead while masked Dragon Worship Sect members channeled the temple’s incense offerings into their altar.
• Li Yan recognized the sect leader Lang Wu, whose Nation-Protecting Divine Artifact prevented the hook document from reacting, and began summoning yin soldiers to disrupt the ritual.
• Lang Wu put on a bronze vertical-eye mask, and Li Yan recognized it as an artifact designed to counter Erlang Zhenjun.