Chapter Summaries

Chen Luo searched for the Past Inn’s formation eye while Gu Changkong, Sikong Bo, and Chen Yu became trapped inside and discovered the Yin Yang Incarnation Technique. The White Snake subdued the Toad Spirit as Chen Luo returned to the inn and sent a Silver Armored Corpse King ahead to investigate the formation eye.

• Chen Luo found that a special domain restricted access to Heaven and Earth Vital Qi, then searched outside the inn for the formation eye.
• Ning Chenye and the strange woman transformed into a Toad Spirit and a White Snake and fought, while Gu Changkong, Sikong Bo, and Chen Yu struggled to escape the inn’s shifting formation.
• Chen Yu led Gu Changkong and Sikong Bo through a newly opened door, where they found the Yin Yang Incarnation Technique and notes proposing a method of Spirit Transformation.
• The White Snake blasted the Toad Spirit into the room and ordered him to sleep, leaving Gu Changkong, Sikong Bo, and Chen Yu trapped in danger.
• Chen Luo found no formation nodes outside, identified the inn’s lanterns and plaque as the Yin Yang Formation Eye, and sent a Silver Armored Corpse King into the inn first.

Chen Luo navigated the inn’s layered formations and escaped into the town, only to discover the town was trapped in another formation. He reached a theater and questioned the performer onstage, seeking the powerful figure behind the strange place.

• Chen Luo failed to break the inn’s Small Three Talents Formation with his refined corpse and recognized that its fourth-rank artifacts were linked.
• Chen Luo analyzed the main hall’s formations, followed their connections through a looping corridor, and entered the back kitchen courtyard.
• Chen Luo found an Old Servant chopping an old hen; after insects helped him locate the illusion formation’s exit, he passed through the courtyard and reached the town’s outskirts.
• Chen Luo realized the town was also enclosed by a vast formation and that he could not leave it.
• Chen Luo found a theater where a costumed performer sang, then asked whether the performer was a puppet.

Chen Luo resisted the poison and curses at the inn, killed the opera actor who tried to prey on him, and searched the actor’s belongings. He learned that Yin Yang Demon Lord had gone mad and that other realms did not have Inner Demon Tribulation.

• Chen Luo unleashed the brains within him, countered the actor’s poison and curses, and seized him on the stage.
• The actor attacked with poisonous qi and talismans, but Chen Luo evaded the strikes and continued using Soul Searching Technique.
• Chen Luo’s Soul Searching Technique crippled the actor, who revealed that the Devil Lord would let him leave if he ate Chen Luo; Chen Luo then killed him and collected his soul and brain.
• Chen Luo searched the actor’s backstage room, opened his storage chest, and found the Sorrowful Thoughts Art cultivation method.
• Chen Luo read the actor’s ramblings and learned that Yin Yang Demon Lord had gone mad and that other realms lacked Inner Demon Tribulation.

Chen Luo took the theater and defeated a giant snake puppet, then uncovered the Yin Yang Demon Lord’s failed plan to fuse with an Upper Realm demon. By studying the living monster beneath This Life Inn, he learned its qi-circulation technique, named it the This Life Method, and found a gap leading back into the inn.

• Chen Luo shrank the theater into a miniature artifact and took it with him.
• Chen Luo punched apart a giant snake puppet, while his Soul Parasite Gu seized its core; he dismantled the puppet and took its valuables.
• Chen Luo deduced that the Yin Yang Demon Lord’s formation was meant to unite a Yin Body with an Upper Realm demon’s remains, but the incomplete Yang Body, Ning Chenye, had developed a will of his own.
• Chen Luo used his External Brains to memorize the inn’s qi-circulation technique and discovered that the inn was the interior of a recovering Upper Realm monster.
• Chen Luo named the technique the This Life Method, found a gap behind the back kitchen, and saw the cook say that his ordered dish would soon be ready.

Chapter Summary: “Bait”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Luo encounters another apparent puppet in the dilapidated back kitchen of This Life Inn: an old servant wielding a bloodied cleaver. The servant refuses to explain himself and ominously says that the “food” will soon be ready, but Chen Luo will not be invited to sit.
• The Dried Corpse Brain identifies the servant as a puppet. Chen Luo realizes the true puppet master is extremely cautious, using intermediaries instead of appearing personally. Unlike the weaker performer he previously met, this puppet cultivator is powerful, methodical, and dangerous.
• Chen Luo locates a spatial node connected to the inn—the well in the back kitchen—and calculates a way out. After waiting thirteen breaths, he steps into the well and escapes as day breaks.
• Outside Fox Mountain, Chen discovers that the inn has vanished and that Gu Changkong and the other cultivators who entered it have not returned. The inn remains in the nearby town, but it is now an ordinary establishment populated by real people rather than puppets.
• Chen learns that not all of the inn disappeared: Inner Demon Ancestor’s limb remnants remain somewhere on Fox Mountain, particularly his right hand. Drawn by the possibility of recovering this power, Chen begins climbing the mountain.
• The path up Fox Mountain is surrounded by powerful, layered formations involving illusion, killing, extinction, and entrapment. The landscape becomes increasingly unnatural, with fiery-red fur-like vegetation, poisonous insects, freezing rain, and severe cold.
• On the mountain platform, Chen finds the corpses of several demon cultivators, including tiger, wolf, snake, dog, and scorpion demons. All appear to have died at least ten days earlier, and their brains show approximately seventy percent damage, suggesting that their souls were searched or tampered with.
• Chen uses Ghost Cultivator techniques to summon their lingering souls, but discovers that their souls have also been deliberately shattered. The killer used highly skilled Soul Cultivator methods, leaving the victims unable to reveal what happened.
• At the entrance to the Fox Clan’s ancestral cave, a collapsed stone gate reveals Grandma Hu’s corpse hanging by a red rope. She has been dead for at least several months, despite having supposedly sent the plea for help that brought Chen and the others to Fox Mountain.
• Chen concludes that the pleas for help were fabricated bait, designed to lure cultivators to the Fox Clan grounds. Grandma Hu’s corpse was deliberately displayed like bait on a hook.
• Chen senses a terrifying Void Realm aura inside the cave, along with the presence of Inner Demon Ancestor’s limb remnants. The Dried Corpse Brain warns him of danger rather than opportunity, implying that something from the Void Realm may have entered the world.
• A powerful wave of freezing qi bursts from the cave, rapidly frosting Chen, the mountain platform, and the surrounding vegetation.

Character Developments

• Chen Luo becomes increasingly cautious and analytical. Rather than recklessly entering the Fox Clan cave, he recognizes the trap and withdraws when he senses the Void Realm aura and overwhelming danger.
• His understanding of the enemy expands: he realizes the antagonist is a sophisticated puppet cultivator who avoids direct exposure and may be manipulating entire locations and groups of victims.
• Chen’s mastery of formations and Ghost Cultivator techniques has improved through his experience in the inn, allowing him to escape, analyze Fox Mountain’s defenses, and investigate the corpses.
• The Dried Corpse Brain continues to provide precise calculations and threat assessments, while Inner Demon Ancestor’s Brain guides Chen toward the remnants of its former body, especially the right hand.
• Grandma Hu is revealed not as an active ally but as a long-dead victim whose corpse has been used to lure others into danger.

Significant Themes

• Deception and bait: The inn, the fake pleas for help, the puppet servants, and Grandma Hu’s corpse all demonstrate how appearances are manipulated to lure victims.
• Caution versus temptation: Chen is tempted by the chance to recover Inner Demon Ancestor’s power, but the warning signs force him to prioritize survival.
• The danger of hidden powers: The unseen puppet master and possible Void Realm entity are more threatening because they remain concealed while acting through puppets, corpses, formations, and manipulated souls.
• Death and violation: The victims’ bodies and souls have both been exploited—corpses are displayed, brains are damaged, and lingering souls are destroyed, emphasizing the enemy’s ruthless control over the dead.
• Boundaries between realms: The Void Realm aura suggests that the threat may not be confined to the human or demon world and that something alien may be crossing into reality.

Character Interactions

• Chen and the cleaver-wielding servant interact briefly, but the servant avoids answering questions and maintains a disturbing, false hospitality.
• Chen indirectly contrasts the servant’s master with the earlier performer, recognizing that both are heretical figures but differ greatly in sophistication and power.
• Chen attempts to communicate with the shattered souls of the dead demon cultivators, but their destruction prevents any meaningful exchange.
• Grandma Hu’s corpse becomes a silent but significant “interaction” with Chen: its placement and condition reveal that the supposed rescue mission was a trap.
• Chen’s internal brains—especially the Dried Corpse Brain and Inner Demon Ancestor’s Brain—act as constant advisors, alternately helping him escape, identifying danger, and urging him toward the hidden remains inside the cave.

Chen Luo returned from the Demon Race to the Southern Sky Region with Blood Knife, Ao Ye, and Lady Hong, intending to resume cultivation at the Qionghua Sect after learning that its war with the Millennium Ancient Kingdom had entered a temporary ceasefire. Meanwhile, Elder Si Chen confronted a black whale in the Deep Sea Area, the source of the obstruction to the sect’s One Hundred and Eight Peaks Plan.

• Chen Luo escaped the dangerous cave on Fox Mountain, returned to Gu Demon Mountain, and decided to take his companions back to the Qionghua Sect.
• Chen Luo warned the Sword Pond Peak master and Demon Sealing Elder about the danger in the Demon Race, then left with Blood Knife, Ao Ye, and Lady Hong.
• Chen Luo’s group crossed Myriad Demon Mountain without trouble and reached Medicine King City, where the Medicine King City Master welcomed them and learned Chen Luo had formed a core.
• The Medicine King City Master told Chen Luo that the Qionghua Sect and the Millennium Ancient Kingdom had declared a temporary ceasefire after their leaders fought to a draw.
• Chen Luo decided to return to the Qionghua Sect and ask Gu He for help regarding his master, True Person Wuwei, and the Millennium Ancient Kingdom’s invasion of the Divine Lake Immortal Sect.
• In the Deep Sea Area, Elder Si Chen faced a large black whale after discovering it was behind the obstruction to the One Hundred and Eight Peaks Plan.

Chen Luo returned to Qionghua Sect, where Gu He arranged a rare chance for him to gain an Innate Sword Body through Spiritual Sword Empowerment and prepare to inherit the Grand Void Sword. After learning that his former teacher True Person Wuwei had become the Millennium Ancient Kingdom’s chancellor and wielded power linked to the Inner Demon Ancestor, Chen Luo headed to Great Profound Peak for the empowerment gathering.

• Elder Si Chen attacked an enormous black whale that had swallowed Qionghua Sect’s sacred peak, but his sword abilities could not rouse it.
• Chen Luo returned to Grand Void Peak, where Gu He explained Qionghua Sect’s recent battle with the Millennium Ancient Kingdom and gave him a Small Sword for the Sword Cleansing Pool opportunity.
• Gu He revealed that the Seven Swords of Qionghua were spirit artifacts and promised to guide Chen Luo toward inheriting the Grand Void Sword after he gained an Innate Sword Body.
• Chen Luo showed Gu He a portrait of True Person Wuwei and learned that Wuwei had become the Ancient Kingdom’s chancellor, possibly empowered by a grafted piece of the Inner Demon Ancestor.
• Mu Xiao Yu summoned Chen Luo to Great Profound Peak, where he joined the other True Disciples gathered for Spiritual Sword Empowerment.

Chen Luo joined the Qionghua Sect True Disciples chosen for Sword Cleansing and met Xuan Tianchong, the Grand Profound Ancestor’s grandson, who had also been granted a place. The Spirit Pool Fairy arrived with three powerful disciples, and the allied groups prepared to travel through a Teleportation Formation to the Sword Cleansing Pool.

• Chen Luo waited in the hall with five Core Formation True Disciples before Xuan Tianchong arrived and took the seventh seat.
• Xuan Tianchong mocked the other disciples, spoke with Chen Luo about Medicine King City, and revealed that he had wanted to claim it for himself.
• The Great Profound Peak Master and the Spirit Pool Fairy arrived, and the Spirit Pool Fairy’s formation skill impressed the assembled disciples.
• The Spirit Pool Fairy brought three Lingchi True Disciples, including a mid-stage Core Formation leader whose aura surpassed the Supreme Hao Peak True Disciple’s.
• The Spirit Pool Fairy led the group toward the Teleportation Formation that would take them to the Sword Cleansing Pool.

Chen Luo and the others entered Myriad Demon Mountain, where the Grand Profound Ancestor revealed that Qionghua Sect had been extracting power from the Inner Demon Ancestor’s heart and the Thousand-Eyed Centipede to nourish its divine swords. When a sandstorm erupted and the Grand Profound Ancestor and Spirit Pool Fairy went to investigate, Chen Luo left the group and headed into the demon mist as three powerful auras clashed nearby.

• The Grand Profound Ancestor explained how Qionghua Sect had used the Inner Demon Ancestor’s heart and the Thousand-Eyed Centipede to produce Sword Washing Pool Spiritual Liquid and nourish its divine swords.
• Xue Ning’s brain identified the Thousand-Eyed Ancestor’s body nearby, while the Inner Demon Ancestor’s Brain sensed that its heart had begun beating.
• Xuan Tianchong questioned Chen Luo about whether the Seven Patriarchs could break through to Spirit Transformation before a thunderous crash interrupted them.
• The Grand Profound Ancestor and Spirit Pool Fairy went to investigate a spreading dark red sandstorm, and Xuan Tianchong vanished after them.
• Chen Luo’s instincts warned him to leave, so he headed toward a mountain ridge while the remaining cultivators formed protective barriers against the storm.
• Three powerful auras, including those of the Grand Profound Ancestor and Spirit Pool Fairy, erupted in a clash near the storm.

Chen Luo encountered True Person Wuwei, who revealed that Qionghua Sect’s plan to reach Spirit Transformation had united the other powers against it and urged Chen Luo to leave. As the battle at Myriad Demon Mountain escalated into a five-on-seven clash, Golden Light Cave Master and True Person Wuwei moved to kill Qionghua Sect’s younger disciples.

• Chen Luo followed Xue Ning’s intuition along the blood river and found True Person Wuwei, who had absorbed remnants of the Inner Demon Ancestor and warned him to leave the Southern Sky Region.
• True Person Wuwei explained that Spirit Pool Fairy, the Millennium Ancient Kingdom, Golden Light Cave, and Ghost Temple had joined forces against Qionghua Sect’s One Hundred and Eight Peaks Plan.
• Spirit Pool Fairy sealed Myriad Demon Mountain while Grand Profound Ancestor and the other Qionghua Patriarchs fought the five opposing Great Nascent Souls.
• True Person Wuwei gave Chen Luo a Small Stone and returned to the battle as Golden Light Cave Master and he were ordered to kill the disciples brought by Grand Profound Ancestor.
• A Spirit Pool True Disciple secretly struck the Supreme Hao Peak True Disciple, but the attack failed to kill him before Golden Light Cave Master and True Person Wuwei appeared overhead and attacked the disciples.

Golden Light Cave Master attacked the Qionghua Sect and Spirit Pool disciples during the siege at Myriad Demon Mountain, while Chen Luo waited in hiding with the suspicious black stone. Supreme Simplicity Peak Master found Chen Luo and asked what had happened and where the other true disciples were.

• Golden Light Cave Master used Nascent Soul magic to attack five true disciples, then let the Spirit Pool disciples flee before crushing Supreme Mystery and Supreme Clarity as they tried to escape.
• Gu He arrived outside Myriad Demon Mountain, and True Person Wuwei went to stop him while Golden Light Cave Master pursued the fleeing disciples.
• Chen Luo reached a safe cave, examined the black stone from True Person Wuwei, and reasoned that the Inner Demon Seed had been tampered with and that the factions’ battle was not over.
• Supreme Simplicity Peak Master appeared at Chen Luo’s cave and asked him to explain what had happened and where the other true disciples were.

Chen Luo fought the Golden Light Cave Master with a rain of Spirit Talismans, but Grand Void Ancestor Gu He arrived before the enemy could kill him. As the Golden Light Cave Master pursued the fleeing National Preceptor, the battle’s factions converged around the Star Gathering Jade.

• The Supreme Simplicity Peak Master struck down Xuan Tianchong’s false form and fought him after his body transformed into a mass of corrupted blood.
• Chen Luo fled the Golden Light Cave Master, then turned and attacked him with sword qi that seized Heaven and Earth Vital Qi.
• Chen Luo unleashed every Spirit Talisman he had drawn, blasting the Golden Light Cave Master and freeing himself from the enemy’s restraint.
• Grand Void Ancestor Gu He blocked the Golden Light Cave Master’s final attack and mocked his inability to defeat Chen Luo.
• The National Preceptor fled with the Star Gathering Jade as Spirit Pool Fairy, the Grand Purity Peak Master, and the Master of the Ghost Temple pursued him.
• The Golden Light Cave Master recovered from his wounds and followed the others, leaving Chen Luo behind with Gu He.

After the upheaval at Myriad Demon Mountain, Chen Luo returned to Qionghua Sect as its sole surviving True Disciple, while the Seven Patriarchs dealt with the sect’s losses and suspected deception. Chen Luo cultivated, gained fame among the disciples, and set out to meet his master, True Person Wuwei.

• The Seven Patriarchs of Qionghua gathered after the battle and discussed the loss of the Star Gathering Jade, the Thousand-Eyed Centipede Spirit, and the Sword Cleansing Pool’s power.
• The Great Profound Peak Master questioned Chen Luo’s survival, but Gu He defended him and the Supreme Simplicity Peak Master revealed evidence that Xuan Tianchong had been replaced by a skin-wearing impostor.
• The Seven Patriarchs decided to take Spirit Pool’s sect-protecting treasure to replace the Sword Cleansing Pool, then secretly left Qionghua Sect to carry out their plan.
• Chen Luo calculated that his cultivation could let him form a Nascent Soul in about four hundred years, examined the black stone from True Person Wuwei, and learned from Inner Demon Ancestor’s Brain that it was unusual.
• Qionghua Sect’s disciples recognized Chen Luo as the famed True Disciple who had injured the Golden Light Cave Master, and Chen Luo left the sect to seek True Person Wuwei.

Chen Luo reunited with True Person Wuwei in the Inner Demon Ruins and learned that his master came from another world and believed the Soul Transformation Path had been severed. A Black-robed Person revealed a possible route out through the Dragon Tomb, leaving Chen Luo with a dangerous lead to pursue.

• Chen Luo followed the aura on the black stone to an abandoned temple in the Inner Demon Ruins, where he found True Person Wuwei alone.
• True Person Wuwei told Chen Luo that he had never had a mistress, revealed that he and his master came from a place beyond the Immortal Realm, and said the Soul Transformation Path had been severed.
• A Black-robed Person appeared through the smoke and recognized Chen Luo’s Inner Demon Qi, but said Chen Luo could not safely use the passage to return without the pull of Origin Seed power.
• The Black-robed Person showed Chen Luo a map to the Dragon Tomb, where an Immortal Formation and a crack between worlds might offer a way out.
• True Person Wuwei gave the Black-robed Person more than thirty Inner Demon Stones, and the visitor departed with them to seek the sect master’s approval.

True Person Wuwei told Chen Luo that the Star Gathering Jade held a powerful Plague Beast that would target them if it broke free, while Chen Luo’s agents returned with thousands of remains to collect. Chen Luo began reading their lingering obsessions, but most offered little help to his cultivation.

• True Person Wuwei explained that the Star Gathering Jade sealed a fourth-rank Plague Beast and that the Centipede Spirit had taken the jade, leaving them in danger when its seal failed.
• Chen Luo suggested trapping the Plague Beast in the Dragon Tomb, but True Person Wuwei said they first needed to find the Centipede Spirit and reclaim the jade.
• True Person Wuwei went to search for the Centipede Spirit, while Chen Luo returned to Qionghua Sect to improve his cultivation and prepare to explore Dried Corpse Old Brother's Great Tomb.
• Ao Ye and Blood Knife presented Chen Luo with nearly eight thousand remains they had gathered, including a wild monkey Ao Ye considered a genius.
• Chen Luo rejected the monkey and began reading the remains’ obsessions, which revealed skills and advice that were mostly useless to him.

Chen Luo replenished his External Brains and returned to Black Mountain Village to investigate a lost spatial node. At Spirit Pool, Spirit Pool Fairy revealed a passage containing an intelligent Exotic Beast corpse and asked the Seven Patriarchs of Qionghua to help her pursue Spirit Transformation.

• Chen Luo selected more brains, bringing his External Brains to 509, and rewarded two grave-robbers with pills for collecting more remains.
• Chen Luo left Qionghua Sect for Black Mountain Village, intending to search the cave for a lost spatial node.
• The Seven Patriarchs of Qionghua tested Spirit Pool's sword-cleansing effects and accepted that it could not be moved from its Spirit Vein.
• Spirit Pool Fairy revealed a crimson eye inside a passage beneath the pool, and a shadow attacked Grand Purity Peak Master before he destroyed it.
• Spirit Pool Fairy explained that she planned to follow Yin Yang Demon Lord's Soul Transformation Path and asked the seven patriarchs to help deal with an intelligent Exotic Beast corpse from the Upper Realm.
• Chen Luo arrived at Black Mountain Village and found that it had grown to more than three times its former size.

Chen Luo visited Black Mountain Village and asked Du De to return with him, but Du De chose to stay because his home was there. Chen Luo then restored the lost spatial connection in his cave and returned to the Great Tomb of Yue Kingdom, where he went to check whether Dried Corpse Old Brother’s brains had refreshed.

• Chen Luo considered the Dragon Tomb, Fox Mountain, and the Great Tomb of Yue Kingdom as possible routes to the Upper Realm.
• Chen Luo visited Du De in Black Mountain Village and asked whether he wanted to return to their former home.
• Du De refused to leave, explaining that Black Mountain Village had become his home after their master died.
• Du De told Chen Luo about the Divine Lake Immortal Sect’s recovery and Chen Luo’s promotion to Great Elder.
• Chen Luo used his External Brains and the This Life Method to find and reconnect the broken spatial node in his cave.
• Chen Luo returned to the Great Tomb of Yue Kingdom and headed toward the tomb chamber to check on Dried Corpse Old Brother’s brains.

Chen Luo returned from the Great Tomb to the Yue Kingdom and revisited Qingya County after more than eighty years away. He learned that Crippled Ma had died and went to find He Min, leaving his former disciple with a Qi and Blood Pill.

• Chen Luo confirmed that the brains he had taken from the tomb chambers would not regenerate, then cleared the overgrown passage and emerged from the grave mound.
• Old Li and Li Erhe saw Chen Luo burst from the mound, mistook him for a reanimated corpse, and then bowed when he flew away on a sword.
• Chen Luo reached Qingya County and found that his old home and familiar streets had changed during his absence.
• At Crippled Ma's shop, Chen Luo learned from the current repairman that Crippled Ma had died over twenty years earlier and that He Min lived nearby.
• Chen Luo gave the repairman a Qi and Blood Pill, then disappeared before the man could speak with him further.

Chen Luo returned to Yue Kingdom and used the Life Borrowing Gu to give his dying Junior Sister He three days of life, restoring her youth and strength. After she set out to gather her family and settle unfinished matters, Chen Luo visited Chen Family Village, paid respects to his deceased relatives, and left to find Third Uncle’s grave.

• Chen Luo found He Min dying in her family home and extended her life by three days, restoring her to her youthful condition.
• He Min recognized Chen Luo, learned he had borrowed her three days of life, and ordered her descendants to return so she could address unfinished family matters.
• Chen Luo left the He Family and visited Chen Family Village, where he found Old Master’s and Third Uncle’s spirit tablets and offered incense.
• Chen Luo recalled Third Uncle’s lessons and realized why corpse buriers were needed to prevent the dead in Yue Kingdom from mutating.
• Chen Luo left the village to visit Third Uncle’s grave, startling an old man who mistook his sudden disappearance for a ghost.

Chen Luo visited his deceased Third Uncle, then returned to the Capital City and found his younger brother Chen Lin burdened by threats to the Chen Family and unrest in the Southwestern Region. He revealed himself to Chen Lin and promised to resolve the danger, leaving Chen Lin asleep with his long-absent eldest brother beside him.

• Chen Luo offered wine at Third Uncle's grave before visiting his family in the Capital City.
• Chen Luo watched his sister and the powerful Chen Family, then saw Chen Lin struggling with the family's fading influence and the Southwestern Region's drought and unrest.
• Chen Luo appeared in Chen Lin's study, identified himself by revealing the secret behind Third Uncle's name, and reunited with his younger brother.
• Chen Lin warned Chen Luo that Immortal Cultivators were behind the Southwestern Region's chaos, but Chen Luo assured him it would soon be resolved.
• Chen Luo gave Chen Lin a medicinal pill and used spiritual power to help him absorb it, then sent him to sleep.