Chapter Summaries

Lu Ban and the others found a strange, partly preserved corpse in the Taoist temple, and Tang Que destroyed it when it attacked her. Du Ming then revealed a secret scripture he had discovered, leaving the group to investigate its contents.

• Tang Que examined a kneeling corpse and determined that it had been dead for a long time, but it suddenly bit at her hand.
• Tang Que punched the corpse through the temple wall, then said it was dead but not completely dead and unlike an ordinary zombie or transformed corpse.
• He Chong used his Yin-Yang Eyes to inspect the corpse, but looking toward Lu Ban overwhelmed him with pain and forced him to close his eyes.
• Du Ming said the temple could normally only be entered once every ten years and showed the group a thread-bound book titled "Nine Chapters of Crane Song Secret Scripture."
• Shi Buwen said he had never heard of Crane Song, and Seventh Master asked what was written inside.

Lu Ban prevented Du Ming from opening Daoist He Ming’s contaminated scripture in front of the others, then inspected it himself and learned that He Ming had based his teachings on an ancient manuscript written by someone called Profound Lord. The chapter left Lu Ban wondering why a book from the Ruined City had been placed in the temple.

• Lu Ban stopped Du Ming from opening the scripture and explained that its knowledge could contaminate anyone who read it.
• Lu Ban used True Sight to inspect the book and found chapters describing forbidden spells and rituals dangerous to the heirs of the Nine Streams.
• Lu Ban warned the others about He Ming, and He Chong suspected that Dai Yuanyang had brought the book back to turn them against one another.
• He Chong, Du Ming, and Seventh Master went to look for Dai Yuanyang while Lu Ban stayed behind with Tang Que and opened the scripture.
• Lu Ban endured pain as he read and discovered that He Ming had expanded an ancient seven-chapter manuscript attributed to Profound Lord.

Lu Ban examined the Art of Resurrection and learned that it described brutal methods involving the Mud Monster, while the book’s connection to the Profound Lord raised concerns about contamination in the world. He questioned Seventh Master about the previous Profound Lords and went to claim a jade pendant fragment, only to find Blind Zhang already holding it.

• Lu Ban read the Art of Resurrection, judged it dangerous, and took the booklet from the altar after warning the others not to read it.
• Lu Ban noticed the Fang Geng statue staring at him, and Shi Buwen warned that the night might not be peaceful.
• Lu Ban asked Seventh Master about the previous Profound Lord, who had been his cousin and later died of an illness.
• Lu Ban found five jade pendant fragments but went to the hall to retrieve another, where he saw Blind Zhang holding a jade-green stone identified as Fate Jade 1/9.

Lu Ban gathered jade pendant fragments while learning why Blind Zhang sought the Mysterious Lord, then found and killed a rabbit-like monster that contained another fragment. The round appeared secure, but the monster’s ability to mutate living creatures raised new concerns.

• Lu Ban took a jade fragment from Blind Zhang’s painting and heard that Blind Zhang pursued the Mysterious Lord out of a lifelong ambition, though he had no home to return to.
• Lu Ban retrieved another fragment from coal ash in the kitchen and encountered Dai Yuanyang, who carried at least three fragments but left without confronting him.
• Lu Ban found Du Ming frightened by a writhing monster in the guest room and killed it by writing the character for death with the Last Words Silver Pen.
• Lu Ban tore the monster apart and recovered a jade fragment from its body, then suspected that contact with the creature could mutate living beings.

Lu Ban gathered the nine Fate Jade fragments from the contest, taking Dai Yuanyang’s by knocking him unconscious. He assembled them in his room and revealed the completed emerald-green Fate Jade.

• Lu Ban collected fragments from the courtyard contestants, with Blind Zhang and He Chong lending him theirs while Dai Yuanyang refused.
• Lu Ban used the Silver Pen's Last Words to make Dai Yuanyang fall unconscious, then took his three fragments.
• Lu Ban and the others carried Dai Yuanyang to a room, and Lu Ban returned to his guest room with all nine fragments.
• Lu Ban used True Sight to fit the fragments together and formed the Fate Jade.

Lu Ban used the Fate Jade to glimpse a mysterious figure and learned more about the trials for Lord Xuan, whose position might be decided by the token’s hidden will. The next morning, he knocked Dai Yuanyang unconscious and locked him in his room, while Du Ming witnessed the aftermath.

• Lu Ban used the Fate Jade to seek knowledge of Lord Xuan and saw a blurry figure at the bottom of a seemingly endless darkness.
• Seventh Master described the upcoming item-retrieval and Dao-comprehension trials, and Shi Buwen explained that the token carried the will of the original Lord Xuan.
• Lu Ban learned that whoever formed the strongest connection with the token could be chosen as the next Lord Xuan.
• Dai Yuanyang confronted Lu Ban and accused him of ambushing him and violating martial ethics.
• Lu Ban wrote “Fall Unconscious” on Dai Yuanyang’s forehead, dragged him into his room, and locked the door as Du Ming watched.

The group reached a temple near the mountaintop and competed to retrieve a keepsake protected by a blood barrier. Several inheritors retrieved it with different methods, and Lu Ban’s turn began.

• The group climbed the increasingly hot mountain path and found a strange temple containing a monstrous statue of Fang Geng.
• Seventh Master explained that the round was to retrieve the keepsake from the altar in the shortest time.
• Tang Que failed to cross the blood barrier by force, then used a stone to knock the keepsake out and caught it.
• He Chong, Seventh Master, Shi Buwen, and Blind Zhang each retrieved the keepsake using their own abilities.
• Lu Ban stepped up to take his turn.

Lu Ban easily passed through the barrier and retrieved the token, then joined the others as they began comprehending it. While Du Ming received strange knowledge from the token, Gordon and John’s armed group found Dai Yuanyang and prepared to search the mountain for Fang Geng’s seal.

• Lu Ban passed through the barrier, retrieved the token, and discovered that it held stirring pollution and knowledge.
• The others began comprehending the token, and Du Ming experienced a vision, coughed up blood, and gained knowledge of strange entities.
• Gordon and John discussed their mission to locate Fang Geng’s seal and the danger that its pollution could spread across the mountain and city.
• Gordon’s men found Dai Yuanyang unconscious and reported that they had found the road up the mountain.
• Gordon told the group to let the others explore first while they used surveying equipment to locate the sealed area, which he believed lay in a tomb inside the mountain.

Lu Ban absorbed the forbidden knowledge in the keepsake, rescued the other heirs from its pollution, and was chosen as the winner of the contest for the position of Great Being. He climbed to a cave near the summit, while Gordon and Dai Yuanyang entered a passage beneath the mountain to inspect Fang Geng’s seal.

• Lu Ban saw visions of an ancient deity sealed beneath the mountains and a vast crimson eye before returning to the temple.
• Tang Que and the other heirs became immersed in the keepsake’s forbidden knowledge, but Lu Ban wrote above them and brought them back to their senses.
• Lu Ban warned that knowledge brought both power and pollution, and Blind Zhang declared him the winner without holding the fifth event.
• Blind Zhang told Lu Ban to climb to the cave near the summit and take the keepsake inside, and Lu Ban set off alone.
• Gordon and Dai Yuanyang found a passage into the mountain, where Gordon said Fang Geng was sealed, then led Dai inside to inspect the seal.

Gordon led Dai Yuanyang, John, and his men into a sealed chamber beneath Jiangcheng Mountain, where he opened an ancient stone coffin while searching for Fang Geng’s secret. Meanwhile, Lu Ban entered the cavern through polluted black mist and found a stone table, books, and a seated figure.

• Gordon dismissed Dai Yuanyang’s warning and urged the group to keep exploring the caves beneath the mountain.
• Gordon’s men broke through a hollow section of rock and discovered a sealed chamber filled with skeletons and a stone coffin.
• Gordon entered the chamber and, with help from his men, shifted the coffin lid open.
• Lu Ban entered the mountain cave, sensed two intermingled sources of pollution, and continued deeper inside.
• Lu Ban reached a cavern containing stone furniture, books in the language of the Ruined City, and a person seated behind a table.

Lu Ban learned that the Chosen of the Gods were sacrifices who inherited contamination to resist the sealed Old One Fang Geng beneath Jiangcheng Mountain. As the mountain’s contamination intensified and the Call of the Mountains roared in his ears, he suspected someone had disturbed the seal.

• Lu Ban examined the remains and writings in the cavern, finding records left by generations of the Chosen of the Gods.
• He read that inheritors studied the cavern’s knowledge, carried it home, and often died young after enduring its contamination.
• Lu Ban discovered that Fang Geng had been sealed beneath Jiangcheng Mountain and that the Chosen of the Gods served as a defense against its contamination.
• He realized the carved words honored the first Chosen of the Gods and the many successors who accepted the same deadly mission.
• Lu Ban noticed the contamination had grown heavier and heard the Call of the Mountains intensify, leading him to suspect the seal had been disturbed.

Lu Ban encountered the awakening kin of Fang Geng as the mountain shook, then joined the heirs of Nine Streams and several foreigners in fighting another Fang Geng statue. After they destroyed it, he asked the foreigners where their leader was.

• Lu Ban left the cave as an earthquake shook Jiangcheng Mountain and found a Fang Geng statue awakening at the ruined temple.
• Lu Ban used Last Words to hurl rocks at Fang Geng's kin, then hurried toward the temple where the heirs of Nine Streams had gathered.
• Lu Ban arrived to find the heirs and several foreigners fighting a Fang Geng statue while maggots spilled from its shattered head.
• Lu Ban set the maggots on fire, and Tang Que smashed apart the statue's remaining head as the others burned it.
• Lu Ban grabbed a foreigner and asked in English where their leader was.

Lu Ban sent the Nine Streams inheritors away from Jiangcheng Mountain and entered the cave where Dai Yuanyang and other foreigners had been corrupted by Fang Geng. After killing the dying Dai Yuanyang, Lu Ban climbed into the empty stone coffin and was transported to a temple entrance.

• Lu Ban ordered He Chong, Du Ming, and the other Nine Streams inheritors to flee Jiangcheng Mountain, saying he would take responsibility as Xuan-Jun.
• Lu Ban followed the foreigners’ directions up the mountain and found signs of excavation, corrupted guards, and dead foreigners inside a cave.
• Lu Ban used the Silver Pen to turn a firearm into a sharp projectile and cut apart the spine monsters blocking the cave opening.
• Lu Ban found Dai Yuanyang transformed and gestating a monster; after learning the others were inside the coffin, he shot Dai Yuanyang dead.
• Lu Ban entered the cavern, lay in the empty stone coffin, and reappeared at the entrance of a temple.

Lu Ban entered the temple where Fang Geng was sealed as the Old One of Blind Ignorance, and stopped Gordon from approaching the bound mass of flesh. A mysterious figure emerged from Gordon’s ornament and noticed Lu Ban.

• Lu Ban entered the impossible temple and saw Fang Geng bound by chains and the Profound Lord’s weakening ropes.
• The Old One’s presence destroyed Lu Ban’s body, but he survived as a puddle of minced flesh.
• Lu Ban saw Gordon being compelled to approach Fang Geng as the temple’s restraints continued to fail.
• Lu Ban wrapped around Gordon’s legs and stopped him from reaching the Old One.
• A dazzling figure emerged from Gordon’s ornament, stood before Fang Geng, and noticed Lu Ban.

A mysterious man spared Lu Ban but punished him after taking Gordon and the Nine Chapters of Crane Song Secret Scripture away. As an earthquake trapped Du Ming and the others on Jiangcheng Mountain, He Chong chose to return and seek the Profound Lord’s power, believing fate had called him to act.

• The mysterious man transported Gordon and the Nine Chapters of Crane Song Secret Scripture away, then touched Lu Ban and left him to suffer a punishment.
• Lu Ban crawled toward the temple’s exit as his consciousness began to fade.
• An earthquake split the mountain road, preventing Du Ming and his companions from driving down the mountain.
• Blind Zhang suggested that they could obtain the Profound Lord’s power, and Tang Que argued that the earlier tests had prepared them to enter the Profound Lord’s residence.
• He Chong resolved to return up the mountain despite the danger, and an unseen person placed a hand on his shoulder.

He Chong, Du Ming, Tang Que, Shi Buwen, and the others chose to become Xuan Lords and reinforce the seal, knowing the ritual would consume their lives. As they performed it, He Chong entered a void where the Nine Streams’ ancestors awaited him, and he saw a gigantic eye overhead.

• He Chong, Du Ming, Shi Buwen, Tang Que, and Blind Zhang chose to stay and help, while Seventh Master left the mountain.
• He Chong’s group returned to the cave, broke through its restriction, and entered despite the miasma and pollution.
• He Chong, Tang Que, and Shi Buwen found instructions explaining that becoming Xuan Lords would bind them to the formation and consume their life force.
• Du Ming and the others began the ritual, and their blood made the skeleton glow as a connection descended upon them.
• He Chong found himself among the souls and wills of Nine Streams inheritors throughout the ages, met a mature man, and saw a huge eye in the void.

He Chong and the Nine Streams predecessors helped the first Xuan Jun resist the evil god, and the seal beneath Jiangcheng Mountain seemed safe for now. Lu Ban recovered days later, found that the Great Being had stopped watching the area, and saw that his quest was complete.

• Blind Zhang steadied He Chong as the wills of the gathered predecessors bound the enormous eye and helped the first Xuan Jun resist the evil god.
• He Chong returned to the cave with the others, where the remains had vanished and Du Ming sensed the seal was safe for the time being.
• Seventh Master arrived by car and urged everyone to leave after the earthquake subsided.
• Lu Ban woke in the form of the drop he had left outside and waited several days before standing again.
• Lu Ban noticed that the Great Being no longer watched the area and wondered why the dark-skinned man had abandoned his apparent plan to free the Old Ones.
• Lu Ban found the system's notice confirming that he had completed the quest and that settlement was beginning.

After completing the task, Lu Ban returned to modern-day Jiangcheng and rode down Jiangcheng Mountain with Tang Yu, a forensic pathologist and likely descendant of the Corpse Sealer family. Tang Yu dropped him at his residential compound, then wondered what he had said his name was.

• Lu Ban completed the task, received the Nine Streams, and reflected on the heirs of the Nine Streams and the Oldest One.
• Lu Ban hitchhiked down Jiangcheng Mountain with Tang Yu, who explained that she had visited her grandmother’s old house to discuss bringing her ashes there for burial.
• Tang Yu stopped at Third People’s Hospital to collect a document bag from a nurse, and Lu Ban learned that she was a forensic pathologist named Tang Yu.
• Lu Ban recognized Tang Yu as likely descended from the Corpse Sealer family and introduced himself as Lu Ban.
• Tang Yu drove Lu Ban to his residential compound, then later struggled to remember his name.

After returning home, Lu Ban asked Feng Yu about sealed Old Ones and the entities that tried to free them. They realized they had encountered the same powerful being, and Lu Ban began connecting its schemes to the Chosen of the Gods and the seals across different realms.

• Lu Ban sent Feng Yu a message to tell her he was safe, and she later visited his home and cooked lunch.
• Feng Yu explained how Old Ones became sealed in Blind Ignorance and described the groups that sought to release them.
• Lu Ban connected Corea, who had incited the hospital director at Nanhua Private Renji Hospital, to the dark-skinned man he had encountered in the temple.
• Feng Yu said the being they both knew was a God of Gods whose many incarnations took different forms.
• Lu Ban recalled a similar figure in the Ruined City and suspected the Chosen of the Gods served entities involved in releasing or restraining sealed Old Ones.

Lu Ban considered how competing forms of pollution could slow the world's corruption and received a task to reveal hidden truths and gain 100,000 believers. He devised a mockumentary based on the Nine Streams descendants’ personal accounts, but still needed to find them.

• Lu Ban concluded that pollution from different Old Ones could counteract and slow one another, and that films could spread otherworldly pollution into his world.
• Lu Ban read the Career Development Task, which required him to reveal the truth and gain 100,000 believers.
• Lu Ban considered using legends and conspiracy theories to make people believe in hidden truths, but worried that modern audiences would dismiss video as fiction.
• Lu Ban reviewed the material he had obtained and decided to make a mockumentary featuring the Nine Streams descendants recounting their experiences.
• Lu Ban realized that he first had to find the scattered descendants of the Nine Streams.