Chapter Summaries

The leaders of the five small camps arrived at Rogue Camp and saw how its coal-fueled heating kept the valley warm. Luo Ming learned that coal could also soften soil for farming, then led the visitors inside, where Shi Dong spotted the small house belonging to Luo Ming’s father, Luo Feng.

• Hong Gang praised Rogue Camp’s warmth, and its people said no one there had frozen to death in nearly twenty years.
• Li Hu mocked the visitors, and Luo Ming realized coal could be used to soften land for crops; Li Hu then warned that mining enough coal would take years.
• Yang Ning urged everyone to stop talking, and Luo Ming led the group through a concealed passage into the valley.
• The visitors saw Rogue Camp’s five heated wooden buildings, and Hong Gang praised the coal heating.
• Shi Dong noticed a small wooden house beside the innermost building, and Luo Ming said it was his father Luo Feng’s residence.

Shi Qing reflected on Luo Feng’s rise and downfall before joining the others at Rogue Camp, where Luo Ming warned that without help from the other camps, they could not defeat the Wood Puppet Grotesque. He left the four camp leaders to decide whether to stay, adding that Rogue Camp might have to flee if they withdrew.

• Shi Qing recalled how Luo Feng built Rogue Camp by absorbing five camps before encountering grotesques, losing his hunting team, killing his youngest son, and going mad.
• Shi Qing and Shi Dong followed Luo Ming into Rogue Camp’s warm wooden hall, where Yang Ning and Li Hu took the main seats and Luo Ming sat third.
• Luo Ming said he would not stop Shi Qing from leaving because Big Stone Camp could not endure further losses.
• Luo Ming told Hong Gang and the other three camp leaders that Rogue Camp could not defeat the Wood Puppet Grotesque alone and asked them to decide whether to stay or withdraw.
• Luo Ming warned that if the four camps withdrew, Rogue Camp would have to leave and seek another way to survive, shocking the other leaders.

Yang Ning explained that the Wood Puppet Grotesque threatened far more than the camps around Redwood Ridge, and he refused to abandon the plan to use people as bait. After everyone returned to rest, Shi Dong woke at noon and quietly left his room.

• Hong Gang objected to sending more people as bait, and Luo Ming asked Yang Ning and Li Hu to find another way to lure out the grotesque.
• Yang Ning warned the chiefs that the Wood Puppet Grotesque could grow powerful enough to threaten nearby camps and Beishuo Town, and said Li Hu's father had died volunteering as bait.
• Yang Ning announced that they would make one final attempt the next day, then seek reinforcements if they failed and leave the camps to fend for themselves.
• Luo Ming arranged rooms for everyone, and the exhausted chiefs and their companions went to sleep.
• Shi Dong woke at noon, quietly left his room, and walked outside.

Luo Feng recalled how a specter killed his hunting team, tortured him, and demanded a hundred people in exchange for his life. Years later, after the specter’s attack left him mentally broken, it appeared in his cabin to collect the debt.

• The specter disguised itself as Luo Sheng and tortured Luo Feng until he agreed to bring a hundred people as payment for his life.
• An old man restored Luo Feng’s severed arm and ordered him to return with a hundred people in ten days, keeping Luo Sheng under the specter’s control as a monitor.
• Luo Feng destroyed the false Luo Sheng and tore off his wooden arm rather than sacrifice people from the camp, then suffered a mental breakdown.
• Years later, Luo Feng woke from a nightmare about Luo Sheng and muttered that the specter could not find him and that he would send no one.
• Two voices answered Luo Feng, demanding that he repay the life-buying debt.

Shi Qing and Shi Dong returned to Big Stone Camp, where they encountered young Great Xia practitioners gathering crystal fruit. Xia Hong revealed himself as Great Xia’s leader, and Shi Qing tried to leave without explaining his earlier fear.

• Shi Qing told Luo Ming he would not join the final hunt in Redwood Ridge and left with Shi Dong for Big Stone Camp.
• Shi Qing decided to gather more crystal fruit from the ice vast trees before returning to camp.
• Shi Qing and Shi Dong found five young men from Great Xia picking crystal fruit and initially mistook them for people controlled by strange entities.
• Xia Hong and nine others surrounded Shi Qing and Shi Dong as they tried to retreat.
• Shi Dong recognized Xia Hong, who introduced himself as Great Xia’s current leader; Shi Qing was astonished that the youths were all in the lumbering realm.
• Shi Qing claimed he needed to return to camp and invited Xia Hong to meet another time.

Xia Hong let Shi Qing and Shi Dong leave after suspecting something had happened to Big Stone Camp, then considered Great Xia Camp’s growing strength and its need for ore. Xia Chuan noticed Shi Dong had recognized Xia Hong despite never having met him, prompting Xia Hong to realize the clues pointed to danger and urge everyone to pursue them.

• Xia Hong noticed Shi Qing’s unease, let him and Shi Dong leave, and concluded that something was wrong at Big Stone Camp.
• Yue Feng agreed that Shi Qing had lied, while Xia Hong decided not to question him about another camp’s affairs.
• Xia Hong assigned the night’s tree-cutting work and reflected on Great Xia Camp’s new Lumbering Realm fighters and its shortage of coal and Iron Ore.
• Xia Chuan pointed out that Shi Dong had recognized Xia Hong despite never having seen him before.
• Xia Hong connected Shi Dong’s recognition with the dead members of Wang Ming’s group, Shi Qing’s knife, and the Crystal Fruits, then told everyone to catch up because something was wrong with Shi Dong.

Xia Hong realized that the Shi Dong who returned with Shi Qing was the Wood Puppet Grotesque and raced toward Big Stone Camp, but the creature had already infiltrated the camp. It immobilized Shi Qing and began slaughtering the people there, leaving him helpless as his family and campmates died.

• Xia Hong concluded that the real Shi Dong was likely dead and that the man accompanying Shi Qing was a fake, then hurried after them toward Big Stone Camp.
• Shi Qing led the fake Shi Dong into Big Stone Camp through its hidden entrance, unaware that the camp showed no signs of trouble.
• The Wood Puppet Grotesque bound Shi Qing with white threads and revealed that it had infiltrated the camp while disguised as Shi Dong.
• Shi Qing recognized the creature and tried to warn everyone, but the threads sewed his mouth shut before he could make himself understood.
• The Wood Puppet Grotesque killed people in the camp, and Shi Qing watched helplessly as his wife died and despair overwhelmed him.

Xia Hong found the hidden entrance to Big Stone Camp at the top of Tower Mountain and discovered that Shi Dong, controlled by a weird entity, was slaughtering the camp’s people. He killed the entity’s host with a dagger coated in Fire Condensing Oil, while the true entity remained at large.

• Xia Hong and the others searched Tower Mountain’s four sides before spotting a rattan vine leading to the summit.
• Xia Hong found the cave entrance, coated the group’s axes and his dagger with Fire Condensing Oil, then entered with Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng.
• Inside the cave, Xia Hong saw Shi Qing bound by white threads and found nearly a hundred people dead or injured around the bonfire.
• Xia Hong confronted Shi Dong, recognized the white threads as vulnerable to his coated dagger, and slashed through them to reach the controlled man.
• Xia Hong cut off Shi Dong’s arms and head, and the Fire Condensing Oil ignited the body as he vowed to hunt down the true weird entity.

After the weirdness devastated Big Stone Camp, Xia Hong agreed to take its surviving residents back to Great Xia Camp. As the survivors began evacuating, Xia Hong asked Shi Qing what he knew about the weirdness.

• Xia Hong and the others found Big Stone Camp’s survivors mourning their dead, including Shi Qing’s wife and brother.
• Xia Hong urged Shi Qing to organize the survivors before the weirdness could return, and Shi Qing sent Shi Ping and Shi Lu to count survivors and prepare the evacuation.
• Shi Qing appealed to Xia Hong to take in Big Stone Camp’s remaining residents, and Xia Hong agreed to bring them back to Great Xia Camp.
• Shi Ping reported that 132 people had died and 187 remained, and Xia Chuan organized the survivors’ orderly evacuation.
• Xia Hong helped Shi Qing onto Shi Ping’s back and asked how the camp escaped the weirdness, how Shi Dong was replaced, and whether Shi Qing had seen it.

After learning that the Wood Puppet Grotesque had infiltrated Rogue Camp, Xia Hong decided to hurry there with six companions to stop it from slaughtering the camp’s people. He left the rest of the group to return to Great Xia Camp and accepted two bows from Shi Qing before setting out.

• Shi Qing told Xia Hong about the surrounding towns and described the Wood Puppet Grotesque as an old man with scarlet pupils, a knife, and transparent threads.
• Shi Qing revealed that the grotesque had replaced Shi Dong during a bait operation and entered Rogue Camp, where over a thousand people remained.
• Xia Hong concluded that Rogue Camp was in danger and decided to go there despite Shi Qing’s warning.
• Xia Hong ordered Xu An, Liu Yuan, and Li Yuan Kun to escort the group to Great Xia Camp and seal the cavern, while he took Xia Chuan and five others toward Rogue Camp.
• Shi Qing gave Xia Hong two curved bows and quivers, and Xia Hong’s group raced north through Redwood Ridge.