Chapter Summaries

Li Yan and the Twelve Yuan Chen discovered a ritual using children as blood sacrifices, led by officials from Tai'an and the Five Yin Mountain Hag Hu Yueniang. They attacked the valley, killed Hu Yueniang, rescued the children, and prepared to take the surviving ringleaders back to Tai'an City.

• Li Yan, Lu San, and Wang Dao Xuan scouted the black-cloaked gathering and identified a Nether-Linking Eight Trigrams ritual with captured children as sacrifices.
• Fatty Lin recognized his clan uncle Lin Yaozong among the conspirators, while Zhao Bingzhong and Zhou Xian revealed their role in the plot.
• Li Yan sensed a terrestrial immortal nearby and learned from Judge Cui and the Five Paths General that Living Underworld Messengers were being hunted.
• Wu Ba fired the Tiger Crouching Cannon to launch the raid, and Sha LiFei, Lu San, Chu Qi, Kuai Dayou, and the others fought the black-cloaked warriors and Dongying fighters.
• Hu Yueniang attacked with her Blood Plague Umbrella and a curse, but Li Yan invoked his Living Underworld Messenger warrant and pursued her until she became a corpse.
• The Twelve Yuan Chen captured Zhao Bingzhong, Zhou Xian, Lin Yaozong, and other survivors, freed the children, and set out for Tai'an City.

Li Yan brought the rescued children and their bound captors to Tai'an's government office, where Prince De’s authority and Lu HongYuan’s order forced the officials to surrender. The prisoners’ confessions exposed Zhao Changsheng and Lady Lei Yin’s involvement, and the chapter ended with Mount Tai disappearing beneath dark clouds and dense fog.

• Li Yan led the rescued children and bound Lin Yaozong, Zhao Bingzhong, and Zhou Xian through Tai'an, rousing the townspeople against the corrupt officials.
• Cheng Yong and the garrison commander aimed rapid-fire guns at the crowd, but Xiao Chengyou arrived with Prince De’s command token while a Mingde Academy tutor carried Lu HongYuan’s order, forcing the authorities to stand down.
• Xiao Chengyou took control of the government office and garrison, and Li Yan explained that the officials had knowingly enabled an Excessive Sacrifice involving an Earth Immortal, Dongying pirates, and a Jianmu Demon Man.
• Under interrogation, Zhao Bingzhong confessed that Zhao Changsheng had recruited him ten years earlier, and Lin Yaozong revealed that Lady Lei Yin had ordered him to cooperate and leak the Lin Family fleet’s movements.
• A garrison commandant reported that dense fog and dark clouds had suddenly swallowed Mount Tai, prompting Li Yan and the others to look toward the mountain.

Li Yan and his companions entered Mount Tai’s deadly yin mist to investigate the supernatural disaster and reached the Jade Emperor Temple, where the surviving cultivators identified the rear mountain as its source. Li Yan realized the catastrophe might have opened Mount Tai’s passage to the netherworld.

• Wang Dao Xuan found that Mount Tai’s earth qi and spiritual apertures had fallen into a severe yin-yang imbalance as crazed beasts and corpse-like creatures attacked the garrison soldiers.
• After a wounded Banner Officer described a collapsed path and a Ghost Wall, Wang Dao Xuan used a talisman to calm him, while Xiao Chengyou arranged to summon reinforcements.
• Li Yan led his companions into the black mist, and they fought off yin-corrupted beasts and Walking Corpses while advancing toward the summit.
• Li Yan used the North Emperor Black Water Escape to reach the Jade Emperor Temple, where he found wounded cultivators sheltered behind the goddess’s weakening divine barrier.
• The cultivators told Li Yan that a rift had opened in the rear mountain and released the Yin Energy, leading him to suspect that the passage to the netherworld had been opened.

Li Yan and the Twelve Yuan Chen investigated Mount Tai’s suspected Netherworld Passageway, uncovering traces of a buried outer-domain evil spirit and finding the mountain’s seals in danger. At Hanging Coffin Cliff, they discovered Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin had left their bodies to enter the Netherworld, so Li Yan sent his soul after them to investigate the Mount Tai Prefect Divine Palace.

• Shouming Zi identified five dangerous sites on Mount Tai, and Li Yan led the group along a route to investigate them.
• In the Blood Maple Forest, Li Yan used the Goudie to dispel blood vines and found a buried dead crow tied to an outer-domain evil spirit; Shouming Zi suspected the three Earth Immortals had caused the disturbance.
• Shouming Zi stabilized the damaged seal at the Nameless Stele Yin Cave with Mount Tai stones, while the group found no immediate breach at Withered Pine Stream or Fox Immortal Cave.
• At Hanging Coffin Cliff, the group found Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin abandoning their bodies to enter the Netherworld Passageway, possibly seeking the Mount Tai Prefect Divine Palace.
• Wang Dao Xuan prepared a ritual altar, and Li Yan sent his soul toward the vast vortex beyond Hanging Coffin Cliff.

Li Yan traveled through the Netherworld passage toward the Mount Tai Prefect's divine palace, witnessing visions of Mount Tai's history along the way. Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin reached the palace but were burned by its divine flames, and Li Yan summoned underworld troops to seize them before the palace's flames drove the troops back.

• Li Yan entered the Netherworld passage and fled an icy blast that swept through the gorge.
• Li Yan passed visions of historical ceremonies and rulers on Mount Tai as he made his way toward its upside-down phantom.
• Li Yan climbed the mountain after Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin, enduring the astral winds with help from his artifacts and Great Luo Dharma Body.
• Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin reached the divine palace and found its stone shrine empty; Shi Xuanming's attempt to strike Zheng Boyin triggered the palace's divine flames, which destroyed his staff and injured him.
• Li Yan arrived and used a soul-hook warrant to summon underworld troops, who captured Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin before the palace's golden flames forced them to retreat.

Li Yan received greater authority as a living Yin official, entered the Divine Palace on Mount Tai, and summoned a jade seal by visualizing Erlang Zhenjun. The Netherworld passage closed as Mount Tai's Yin-Yang balance recovered, but Li Yan returned and announced that the position of Prefect had found a successor.

• The Five Paths General rescued Li Yan from the incense flames, raised his official rank, and gave him a Heavenly Official Token that let him pass into the Divine Palace.
• Li Yan entered the Divine Palace and realized its shrine was a visualized dwelling for a deity; he connected with it and formed a jade seal bearing the words “Command All Netherworld.”
• Li Yan visualized Erlang Zhenjun, causing the shrine to summon a gigantic figure in silver armor with a three-pointed, two-edged blade.
• Mount Tai's Yin-fiend fog receded, the dragon-severing stakes exploded, and the Netherworld passage closed as the Yin-Yang nexus restored its balance.
• Wang Daoxuan tried to summon Li Yan back with a soul-binding spell but collapsed, while Shali Fei and the others feared Li Yan was lost.
• Li Yan returned, reassured the group, and told Shoumingzi that the position of Prefect had found a successor.

After the Mount Tai disaster, the survivors repaired the mountain and agreed to establish a united Mount Tai Sect, while Li Yan and his companions hurried south to stop a suspected plot involving the Lin Family. Their boat reached Yangzhou, where they learned that Japanese pirates had raided the region and nearly entered the city.

• Tai'an residents mourned the disaster as authorities aided them, while rumors spread that Erlang Zhenjun had become Mount Tai Prefect.
• Shouming Zi announced that Mount Tai's sects would unite as the Mount Tai Sect, hold an Opening Cellar Assembly, and build a divine palace for Manifest Saint True Lord.
• Li Yan and his companions left Mount Tai by canal with Lin Yaozu bound, rushing toward Jinling to investigate the people he had helped infiltrate the Lin Family's businesses.
• Li Yan learned that Erlang Zhenjun had taken the position of Mount Tai Prefect to guard the netherworld passage ahead of a coming transformation of the Human Path.
• After four days of travel, the group reached Yangzhou and discovered that warships had blocked the waterway following a Japanese pirate raid.

Li Yan, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin reached Yangzhou, where Japanese pirates had ravaged the surrounding region and threatened the city’s grain supply. They investigated the bustling city and headed to their contact at Qionghua Tower, but Li Yan noticed countless cats watching from the streets and rooftops.

• A messenger told Li Yan that Japanese pirates had raided towns near Yangzhou, ambushed Commander Hong Dai’s reinforcements, and advanced toward the city.
• Lin Yu confronted Lin Yaozu about whether he had helped cause the crisis, and Lin Yaozu said he had lost control of the people he had placed in Jinling.
• Li Yan, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin entered Yangzhou and suspected the pirates were targeting its granaries, which could trigger widespread famine if the city fell.
• Fatty Lin led Li Yan and Sha LiFei through Dongguan Street, where they witnessed the city’s thriving commerce and a deadly fight between salt-ship crews using Boat Boxing.
• After sunset, Li Yan, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin traveled by black-canopied boat along the Little Qinhuai River toward Qionghua Tower, where Fatty Lin’s contact was based.
• Li Yan stopped the others before they went ashore and asked the boatman whether Yangzhou residents liked raising cats, after noticing countless cats gathered along the river.

Li Yan and his companions reached Yangzhou, where the Golden Swallow Gate briefed them on Japanese pirates terrorizing the region and the local factions united against outsiders. After Li Yan sent an urgent message to the capital, Cheng Yun pointed him toward grain merchant Yu Hailin as a possible way to clear their ship’s route; meanwhile, Yu begged Wang Dao Xuan to save his son, who was possessed by a fox spirit.

• Fatty Lin wondered why Yangzhou had so many cats, and an old boatman told the group that an immortal maiden had used a spirit cat to kill a rat demon.
• Li Yan showed the Golden Swallow Gate token to Little LaiZi, who escorted him, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin to meet Cheng Yun and Wu Mo at Qionghua Tower.
• Cheng Yun told the group their fame had spread and that Lu TieShou and Yu Hailin were already waiting at their boat; Wu Mo explained the Japanese pirates’ attacks and the wary local alliance holding a banquet that night.
• Li Yan declined to attend the banquet, sent a sealed message to Daoist Luo MingZi with a spirit swallow, and asked Cheng Yun how to get their ship through; she suggested helping Yu Hailin’s possessed son.
• At Dongguan Pier, Yu Hailin pleaded with Wang Dao Xuan to save his son, explaining that the boy went mad and vomited blood whenever he left the estate; Yu said a fox spirit had possessed him.

Li Yan and his companions investigated Yu Qing’s strange illness and discovered that a Jinhua Cat Demon had cursed him through contaminated water. The demon fled after a pregnant woman vanished, and Li Yan pursued it across the rooftops while Wang Dao Xuan worked to protect Yu Qing.

• Li Yan agreed to investigate Yu Hailin’s son in exchange for an official waterway permit and took Wang Dao Xuan and Lu San to the Yu residence.
• Yu Hailin described how Yu Qing had become obsessed with a white-clad fairy after visiting Bixia Hermitage and had grown dangerously ill.
• Li Yan recognized the smell in Yu Qing’s room as that of an old wildcat, and Wang Dao Xuan found demonic traces in the household’s water.
• Wang Dao Xuan identified a Jinhua Cat Demon as the source of Yu Qing’s curse and explained that it had bewitched him and poisoned the water.
• A steward reported ghostly lights in the western garden and the disappearance of a pregnant woman, prompting Li Yan to chase the demon while Wang Dao Xuan performed a soul-calming ritual for Yu Qing.
• Li Yan pursued two fast-moving balls of cat-demon fire across the rooftops but could not catch up with them.

Li Yan tracked the Jinhua Cat to Yangzhou salt merchant Wang Maode’s estate and accused him of sheltering the disguised demon at a banquet. As Li Yan rushed toward the rear courtyard after cries of alarm exposed a surge of demonic aura, Xu Zhenshan began to suspect Wang Maode.

• Li Yan used the North Emperor Calamity Removal Technique to disrupt the Jinhua Cat’s control over a pregnant woman, but the demon escaped into a dry well after he attacked it with Soul Severing Throwing Knives.
• Li Yan saved the pregnant woman with a pill, then lost the demon’s trail amid the scents and cries of thousands of cats and concluded it was hiding among the salt merchants gathered at Jiyu Garden.
• Xu Zhenshan detected Li Yan spying at Wang Maode’s banquet, and Li Yan revealed himself and explained that he was tracking a harmful monster.
• Li Yan accused Wang Maode’s supposed Immortal Maiden of being the Jinhua Cat, which raised demon cats and fed on living people; Wang Maode denied the charge and accused Li Yan of slandering her and implicating the Lin Family with the Japanese pirates.
• Xu Zhenshan attacked Li Yan, but Li Yan evaded him with his throwing knives and turned toward the rear courtyard, where screams and a strong demonic aura suddenly erupted.
• Li Yan charged toward the rear courtyard as Wang Maode showed panic and Xu Zhenshan looked at him with suspicion.

Li Yan discovered that the Ghost Opera Troupe had trapped Yangzhou City in a vast illusion formation, while Wang Dao Xuan and Lu San learned that the city was under attack and feared they could not escape.

• Li Yan found the Jinhua Cat Demon feeding on the dead in Wang Maode’s courtyard, then killed it after the Ghost Opera Troupe summoned it away.
• The Ghost Opera Troupe appeared before Li Yan, revealed that a bounty had been placed on him, and vanished into an illusion while the courtyard was surrounded by fog.
• Li Yan and Xu Zhenshan realized the formation had trapped all of Yangzhou City, and Wang Maode confessed that he had helped the Daoist lure people to the City God Temple and find a split bronze mirror from the Cui family.
• Xu Zhenshan identified the mirror as the Jade Mirror Platform, and Li Yan concluded that they were trapped inside the Netherworld Stage.
• Wang Dao Xuan cured Yu Qing of the cat demon’s influence, but he and Lu San saw fog engulf the city and flames erupt at the harbor, leaving Wang Dao Xuan convinced they could not leave.

Lu San and Wang Dao Xuan followed Chu Qi through the fog to Jiyu Garden, where they confronted Zhu Suanpan and his puppet, Ying Ling. As Wang Dao Xuan attacked Zhu Suanpan with the Seven Arrows Secret Curse, Zhu Suanpan summoned the Ghost Opera Troupe’s Netherworld Stage.

• Lu San and Wang Dao Xuan learned from Chu Qi that Yan XiaoGe had followed the mastermind to Jiyu Garden, then set out through the Bewildering Formation to find him.
• Chu Qi led them to Wang Maode’s estate, where they heard a baby’s cry and abacus clicks before Zhu Suanpan attacked Wang Dao Xuan with the Yin Debt Curse.
• Lu San drove off Ying Ling with his modified mace and caught Zhu Suanpan’s poison-filled abacus bead before it could shatter.
• Wang Dao Xuan broke the curse and began striking Zhu Suanpan with the Seven Arrows Secret Curse, wounding him with the first arrow.
• Zhu Suanpan summoned Yin Wind and raised the Netherworld Stage before the Wang family estate.

Zhu Suanpan used the Netherworld Stage to turn Ying Ling into a Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend, while Wang Dao Xuan and Lu San fought to survive its attacks. Li Yan broke the illusion formation and summoned Marshal Wen to confront the fiend, leaving the battle poised as Marshal Wen appeared before it.

• Zhu Suanpan used the Netherworld Stage to break Wang Dao Xuan's curse, then sent ghostly energy into Ying Ling and transformed him into a Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend.
• Wang Dao Xuan sent a purple paper crane to find the formation's weak point while he and Lu San fought the fiend with the Netherworld Fire Musket and Five Directions Fengdu Banner.
• Li Yan followed the paper crane to the formation eye and destroyed it, breaking the illusion around the Assistant Magistrate's Residence.
• Li Yan sent Xu Zhenshan to alert the City God Temple and commandery authorities about the Japanese pirates, then fought the fiend with his Soul Severing Throwing Knives.
• Li Yan used the Netherworld Transformation and began summoning Marshal Wen with the Bing Ding Life-Creating Ghost Talisman as Zhu Suanpan tried to make the fiend self-destruct.
• The Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend struck Zhu Suanpan from behind, and Marshal Wen appeared in a flash of fire before the creature.

Li Yan tried to refine the Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend and its Evil Omen Qi while Wang Dao Xuan and Xu Zhenshan worked to break the conspiracy’s other parts. The fog began to disperse, but at the docks Lu San discovered that Japanese pirates and local river bandits were attacking together, revealing a suspected alliance with an insider.

• Li Yan trapped the Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend in Marshal Wen’s thunder and fire and attempted to refine its Evil Omen Qi.
• Li Yan sent Wang Dao Xuan to destroy the Netherworld Stage and Lu San to support the messenger at the docks.
• Wang Dao Xuan used Black Dog Blood, burning peachwood, and the Soul Calming Mantra to break the Netherworld Stage’s hold on the Yin Souls.
• Xu Zhenshan fought Cui Erwa at the defiled City God Temple, killed him, and then rallied the surviving fighters to support the docks.
• As the fog lifted, Lu San saw Japanese pirates and local river bandits attacking the ships together and suspected an inside traitor had joined them.

Lu San and the others helped defeat the attackers at the Yangzhou dock, then found Li Yan refining a vicious baleful entity with Marshal Wen’s power. Li Yan survived but collapsed, and three days later he awoke aboard the Lin Family’s treasure ship, still in Yangzhou while Fatty Lin and the others had already left.

• Lu San and Wu Ba exposed the Ghost Opera Troupe’s position, and Wu Ba blasted their boats with the Tiger Crouching Cannon, though the Yellow Springs Wanderer and Green Gauze Woman escaped.
• Lu San released his venomous bees to rout the water bandits, while Xu Zhenshan and government forces drove off the remaining Japanese pirates, some of whom fled using smoke and escape techniques.
• Lu San and the others reached Jiyu Garden and found Li Yan using the Soul Hooking Chain’s token to stabilize his power as he refined the infant fiend with Marshal Wen’s thunderfire.
• Li Yan destroyed the fiend’s resentment and left behind a soul essence, which Wang Dao Xuan collected into the Five Directions Fengdu Banner as a divine general.
• Li Yan collapsed from exhaustion and later awoke after three days aboard the Lin Family’s treasure ship; Sha LiFei told him that Fatty Lin and the others had already departed and they were still in Yangzhou.

Li Yan learned that the Yangzhou Cauldron had surfaced and that someone was using a desperate crowd to keep the Twelve Yuan Chen in Yangzhou. He stayed behind as bait while Wang Dao Xuan and his companions secretly left to investigate the cauldron, and the chapter ended with Li Yan waiting for the enemy to reveal themselves.

• Sha LiFei told Li Yan that officials had been arrested, Fatty Lin had gone to Jinling to stand trial, and the Yangzhou Cauldron had emerged.
• Li Yan learned that Zhou Yinyao, a legendary immortal, was being sought by river gangs, then suspected that someone had deliberately gathered the crowds demanding his help to trap him.
• Prefect Lin Qiong and Imperial Commissioner Yuan Changqing asked Li Yan to capture the mastermind, presenting a Qiankun Academy token and promising rewards.
• Li Yan assigned himself, Sha LiFei, and Long Yan'er to remain in Yangzhou while Wang Dao Xuan, Wu Ba, and Lu San secretly departed to investigate the Yangzhou Cauldron.
• Li Yan and Long Yan'er treated the sick as Sha LiFei explained their afflictions to the crowd, giving Wang Dao Xuan and his companions cover to escape the sealed docks.
• Li Yan waited aboard the treasure ship with the crowd still gathered, expecting the person behind the plot to make a move.

Li Yan investigated the massacre of a Zhang Family collateral branch in Zhangjiawan and discovered it was linked to a forbidden Snake Cult ritual and a deadly curse. He followed Long Yan’er’s Lute Worm Gu toward a fire on the rear mountain, where his divination tally began to heat up.

• Chiliarch Zhou and Zhang Tiankui asked Li Yan to investigate the slaughter of an entire clan in Zhangjiawan, and Li Yan led the group there by boat.
• Li Yan and the others found that the villagers had killed one another, and Li Yan identified Snakehead Sores as a curse of extreme Yin venom.
• Zhang Tiankui described Wu Land’s snake-worship customs, leading Li Yan to find a hidden Snake God temple beneath the rear courtyard.
• Long Yan’er recognized the altar traces as a forbidden Snake Cult technique for raising snake demons, and she sent her Lute Worm Gu to track the creature.
• Li Yan spotted a fire on the rear mountain, used North Emperor Black Water Escape to investigate alone, and felt his divination tally heating up.

Li Yan discovered that Chen Hui, the Mountain Immortal behind the Zhang family massacre, was hiding beneath a tomb and preparing a child blood sacrifice with the Ghost Opera Troupe and Dongying pirates. Li Yan attacked to rescue the children, but Yellow Springs Wanderer summoned his Soul-Calling Banner as Chen Hui vanished and a fishy snake odor filled the air.

• Li Yan identified Chen Hui as the Snake Sect leader who had controlled the Zhang family and hidden underground for centuries.
• Li Yan found Yellow Springs Wanderer and Green Gauze Woman chanting before Chen Hui’s tomb while Dongying pirates guarded four kidnapped children.
• Li Yan rushed from hiding, killed several pirates, and rescued the children as the remaining attackers tried to flee.
• Yellow Springs Wanderer and Green Gauze Woman forced the fleeing pirates to return, then prepared to fight Li Yan.
• Li Yan shot Yellow Springs Wanderer with his Flintlock Firearm, mangling his leg, and Yellow Springs Wanderer retaliated by waving the Soul-Calling Banner.
• Chen Hui’s aura disappeared as a strong, fishy snake smell spread through the mountain hollow.

Li Yan and his allies fought the Snake God and its Japanese accomplices, defeating their attackers while protecting the surviving Zhang family children. As the group regrouped, an unseen Earth Immortal Netherworld Criminal cursed Sha LiFei from afar, and his protective talisman shattered.

• Li Yan deflected the ninja's kunai and fought the shikigami while the Snake God possessed the ronin and attacked him with poisonous fog.
• Long Yan'er killed Green Gauze Woman, while Sha LiFei shot Yellow Springs Wanderer and the Onmyoji; Li Yan destroyed the shikigami and Zhang Tiankui beat the Snake God’s possessed ronin.
• Li Yan bound the Snake God with the Soul Hooking Chain as Zhang Tiankui protected the children and Chiliarch Zhou arrived with his men.
• Li Yan sensed further danger and called everyone together, but an unseen curse struck Sha LiFei as he ran over.
• Li Yan identified the attacker as an Earth Immortal Netherworld Criminal, and Sha LiFei’s protective Six Ding Six Jia Talisman shattered.