Chapter Summaries

Li Minghai and his team entered Shangqing Temple and were gradually assimilated by the monstrous fog and its statues, leaving Li Minghai to succumb as well. When the missing team failed to return, Sun Zhenbang began organizing a search and suspected the mountain’s mysterious existence was involved.

• Li Minghai and his team entered Shangqing Temple, where the silent woman led them through the fog-shrouded grounds before disappearing.
• Li Minghai saw the temple’s statues change into monstrous forms, while his teammates developed slit pupils and urged him to worship them.
• The Skeleton Taoist led Li Minghai and the assimilated team into the darkness after a voice ordered that the visitors be cooked and served.
• At dusk, the construction crew accused the villagers of interfering after Li Minghai’s team failed to return, and the two groups nearly fought.
• Sun Zhenbang separated the groups, learned that the team had last checked in while surveying southeast, and prepared a search as he suspected the mysterious mountain presence was involved.

Sun Zhenbang led a search party into Longyuan Mountain to find Li Minghai and his group, but the officers became trapped in a confusing formation until they prayed to the Mountain God. They eventually found the missing people unconscious at dawn, and Sun Zhenbang waited at the hospital to learn what had happened.

• The village chief warned Sun Zhenbang that Li Minghai and his group might have angered the Mountain God, but Sun organized a search party anyway.
• Sun Zhenbang and the officers repeatedly circled through the forest until he prayed for the Mountain God to release them and spare Li Minghai's group.
• Ye Qin heard Sun Zhenbang's prayer, stopped the formation, and allowed the search party to find its way through the mountain.
• The officers followed the missing group's tracks but lost them, then discovered Li Minghai and the others unconscious at dawn beside a fallen lens.
• The villagers helped carry the unconscious group down the mountain, and the project crew apologized for having suspected them.
• Doctors found no injuries among Li Minghai and the others, and Sun Zhenbang stayed at the hospital to await their recovery and learn what had happened.

After a construction crew encountered a terrifying temple on Longyuan Mountain, Sun Zhenbang persuaded city officials to cancel the development project. Li Minghai and the others later recognized the same temple in a distant Taoist shrine, prompting its old Daoist priest to plan a visit to the White Bone Daoist priest.

• Li Minghai and the rescued workers woke in terror, and Li Minghai recalled a strange temple, a vanished woman, white bones, and the Skeleton Taoist before becoming too distressed to continue.
• Professor Zhang told Captain Zhou and Bai Yanfei that his dream of fog and a woman in ancient clothing had involved Qimen Dunjia, but he had found no evidence linking it to the mountain incident.
• Sun Zhenbang recounted Longyuan Mountain's unresolved cases and supernatural incidents to city officials, who investigated the records and canceled the development project.
• Li Minghai and the construction crew visited Longyuan Village's Mountain God Temple, recognized its snake statue from their ordeal, and offered incense in fear and apology.
• After leaving Fog City, Li Minghai and the others found a Shangqing Temple identical to the one on Longyuan Mountain and told its old Daoist about the White Bone Great Immortal.
• The old Daoist summoned his disciple and said they would visit the White Bone Daoist priest.

Ye Qin slept through winter but remained unable to form a demon core, so he left Longyuan Mountain to search for temporal fragments. In a deserted temple, he sensed one and tried to enter it, but a strange aura cut off his connection and a second statue appeared beside the Maitreya statue.

• Ye Qin strengthened the mountain formation, refined pills, and continued cultivating as the seasons passed and Longyuan Village celebrated a bountiful harvest.
• Ye Qin slept through the winter, but after waking in spring, he found his Qi Core still could not break through into a demon core.
• Ye Qin decided to search beyond the mountain for Fragmented Epochs and explored several places without finding any.
• Ye Qin sensed unusual energy in a ruined temple and recognized fluctuations from a temporal fragment.
• Ye Qin tried to enter the fragment, but an aura severed his connection, and he saw a second statue appear beside the Maitreya statue.

Ye Qin encountered a strange monk formed from incense and the thoughts of worshipers at an abandoned temple, then failed to escape its relentless haunting. Unable to cultivate under the Specter Monk’s watch, Ye Qin decided to break through to the demonic-core realm and fight back.

• Ye Qin triggered the Fragmented Epochs at a ruined temple and encountered a many-faced monk that he suspected had formed from incense and the Sentience of the Masses.
• Ye Qin fled the temple, but the monk followed him and repeatedly appeared and vanished despite Ye Qin’s attacks.
• Ye Qin raced back to Longyuan Mountain and briefly believed he had escaped the monk, only for it to appear near the Mountain God Temple.
• The Specter Monk haunted Ye Qin more frequently, disrupting his cultivation while remaining invisible to other animals and unaffected by his lightning.
• Ye Qin decided to break through to the demonic-core realm so he could confront the Specter Monk.

Ye Qin devised a method to refine an essence core from essence, Qi, and spirit, using the Mountain God Temple’s incense and villagers’ willpower as the final ingredient. He trapped the Specter Monk in a formation long enough to begin gathering the materials and refining the core.

• Ye Qin concluded that he could use his body as a furnace and refine essence, Qi, and spirit into an essence core.
• Ye Qin activated his formation to conceal himself and hold back the Specter Monk while he prepared to break through.
• Ye Qin absorbed excessive Qi of Heaven and Earth, suffered intense pain, and merged his visualization objects into the white-bone origin of Shangqing Temple.
• Ye Qin sensed the incense and villagers’ willpower within the Mountain God Temple and drew them toward the mountain.
• The villagers watched incense smoke and flames form a river toward Ye Qin, believed the Mountain God had manifested, and knelt in worship.
• Ye Qin absorbed the gathered incense and willpower into his inner furnace as the final ingredient for refining his essence core.

Ye Qin defeated the Specter Monk while breaking through to the Golden Core stage, then completed his transformation into a great demon. At dawn, he absorbed the Purple Qi from the East and commanded it to bless the people around Longyuan Mountain.

• Ye Qin sensed the formation failing, confronted the Specter Monk, and trapped him with the Qi of Heaven and Earth as he prepared a lightning strike.
• The Specter Monk chanted and spread a dangerous darkness, but Ye Qin struck him with purple lightning and destroyed him.
• After sensing a mysterious presence watching him, Ye Qin found no trace of another enemy and resumed refining his Golden Core.
• At dawn, the Source Bone helped Ye Qin complete his Golden Core, and he recognized himself as a great demon.
• Ye Qin began absorbing the Purple Qi from the East and commanded it to bless the people around Longyuan Mountain.

After Ye Qin formed his Golden Core, Primordial Violet Qi spread across Longyuan Mountain and blessed Longyuan Village, restoring villagers’ health and transforming the land. Videos of the mountain’s unusual phenomena went viral, drawing attention and visitors to Fog City and leaving its tourism officials uneasy.

• Ye Qin formed his Golden Core, grew a horn, and pondered whether to pursue a dragon’s form or another cultivation path as Primordial Violet Qi and sweet rain nourished the mountain.
• Sun Zhenbang arrived in Longyuan Village and witnessed purple qi cover the mountain, while villagers regained health, strength, and clarity and crops and medicinal herbs rapidly revived.
• Hu Xiaocao gained sharper senses and greater comprehension, and she led the villagers to worship the Mountain God and thank Ye Qin for his blessing.
• Videos of the mountain’s thunderstorms and purple skies spread online, and investigators connected Longyuan Mountain to earlier strange phenomena and viral footage.
• Fog City netizens shared accounts of other local mysteries, bringing a surge of visitors to Longyuan Mountain and prompting the Culture and Tourism Bureau to worry about the trend.

Zheng Lin and other visitors entered Longyuan Mountain, where eerie animals, dense mist, and a pursuing skeleton trapped and terrified them before Sun Zhenbang’s rescue team found them. Their accounts and a paranormal blogger’s frightened livestream made the mountain a national sensation, prompting the 749 Bureau to dispatch an investigation team.

• Zheng Lin and his companions ignored a villager’s warning and entered Longyuan Mountain, where ghostly eyes, strange animals, and thickening mist disoriented them.
• A human-shaped figure led Zheng Lin’s group through the fog before revealing itself as a skeleton and chasing them through the night.
• Sun Zhenbang organized a search after the visitors failed to return, then rescued Zheng Lin and the others and heard their account of the mountain.
• Survivors’ online warnings renewed public interest, and a paranormal blogger urged viewers to avoid the mountain before ending his livestream and deactivating his account.
• The 749 Bureau reviewed the growing reports about Longyuan Mountain, and Wang Xuehao ordered Xu Chengtian and the team to assemble for an investigation.

Ye Qin strengthened Longyuan Mountain’s formation, then the 749 Bureau investigated the mountain and suffered a series of strange attacks before retreating to the village. As they prepared to pursue other clues, an old Daoist arrived seeking a rumored temple and Skeleton Taoist, whom the village chief denied existed.

• Ye Qin upgraded the formation around Longyuan Mountain and planned to leave the mountains after enlightening the animals.
• Wang Xuehao led the 749 Bureau to Longyuan Village, where the village chief described the Mountain God incidents and villagers confirmed their belief in them.
• Wang Xuehao’s team entered Longyuan Mountain, lost their way, and endured lightning, falling fire, and hail before escaping with injuries.
• Wu Yuan treated the team, and the village chief warned that the Mountain God had punished them; Wang Xuehao decided the bureau would investigate other clues instead of entering the mountain again.
• An old Daoist arrived seeking Longyuan Mountain’s Shangqing Temple and Skeleton Taoist, but the village chief denied that either existed.

The 749 Bureau investigated the strange events on Longyuan Mountain, interviewing Hu Xiaocao, Sun Zhenbang, Xie Yixuan, and others while tracing connections to Shangqing Temple and the mountain’s legends. Their inquiries uncovered shared reports of a skeleton haunting the mountain, leaving them with more evidence of unexplained events but no clear explanation.

• The village chief showed Qingwei the Mountain God Temple, and Qingwei connected its serpent statue to the serpent that had appeared at Shangqing Temple and to Hu Xiaocao.
• After Qingwei left, Wang Xuehao chose Hu Xiaocao as the 749 Bureau’s first lead, and the agents questioned her at school about the Mountain God and her visit to Shangqing Temple.
• The agents learned about Hu Xiaocao’s unusual studies and her mother’s unexplained illness, then questioned Sun Zhenbang and Xie Yixuan, who recounted the strange Longyuan Mountain cases and confirmed that Xie had accompanied Hu Xiaocao to seek a Taoist temple.
• The 749 Bureau interviewed Captain Zhou, Bai Yanfei, and Professor Zhang, who said an archaeological team had abandoned its excavation after repeated disturbances and shared nightmares of being chased by a skeleton.
• The agents connected the archaeologists’ nightmares to a human trafficker’s report and Qingwei’s search for a Skeleton Daoist, then left the research institute unsettled by the accumulating accounts.

The 749 Bureau investigated people connected to Longyuan Mountain and found recurring reports of fog, getting lost, strange animals, dreams, and white bones. Unable to explain the events or guarantee public safety, Wang Xuehao reported the case to his superiors, who ordered a total lockdown.

• Wang Xuehao sent the 749 Bureau to question Professor Zhang, who described dreaming of a woman leading him to fog and speaking with someone hidden inside it.
• Wang Xuehao and his team questioned Li Minghai, who recalled getting lost in heavy fog and seeing Shangqing Temple and a skeletal Daoist he called the White Bone Great Immortal.
• The 749 Bureau investigated the observatory, a travel program team, and other people connected to Longyuan Mountain, gathering more reports of fog, strange animals, and white bones.
• Wang Xuehao and Xu Tiancheng concluded that people encountered different dangers depending on their purposes on the mountain and identified five recurring clues: fog, getting lost, animals, dreams, and white bones.
• Wang Xuehao submitted the case to the 749 Bureau director, who ordered a total lockdown.

The 749 Bureau declared Longyuan Mountain a forbidden zone and began sealing it off as Ye Qin prepared to leave the mountain and enter the mortal world. As the lockdown neared completion, villagers and Bureau agents witnessed a vast procession of animals emerging from the mountain, all appearing to mourn someone.

• Wang Xuehao and the 749 Bureau persuaded Mayor Song and Fog City officials to support sealing off Longyuan Mountain, while authorities suppressed online discussion of the mountain.
• Ye Qin stabilized his Golden Core, entrusted the mountain’s formation and its creatures to the animals, and left the mountain to undergo training in the mortal world.
• Wang Xuehao and the 749 Bureau began fencing off Longyuan Mountain with the village chief’s support, posting warnings and arranging for villagers to report trespassers.
• Zhu Zi alerted the village chief and the Bureau agents that livestock throughout the village were kneeling and wailing toward the southeast.
• Wang Xuehao, the villagers, and the Bureau agents saw hundreds or thousands of wild animals stream down from Longyuan Mountain in an orderly procession led by a weasel and a fox.
• The procession moved in silence with sorrowful expressions, and the onlookers thought they saw a person where the animals were gazing.

After Longyuan Mountain’s animals gathered to mourn an unseen departure, the 749 Bureau sealed the mountain and classified its investigation as top secret. Ye Qin heard that his actions in Fragmented Epochs might have affected history, then entered it for a third time and met the monk Zhi Dun at Hidden Mountain Temple.

• The animals and village livestock knelt and cried as a golden, misty presence vanished into the mountains, then returned to their homes after a distant cry.
• Wang Xuehao led the 749 Bureau team away from Longyuan Mountain, and the chief sealed their investigation records as top secret.
• Wang Xuehao’s team learned that another operation involved the remains of High Monk Zhi Dun, while a documentary about Fog City brought renewed attention to strange local events.
• Ye Qin overheard travelers discuss the historical mystery of “Carving the Boat to Seek the Sword” and wondered whether his journeys through Fragmented Epochs had altered history.
• Ye Qin returned to the wild temple, used Source Bone and Shangqing Temple to enter Fragmented Epochs, and arrived at Hidden Mountain Temple.
• Zhi Dun greeted Ye Qin in the temple and asked what had brought him there.

Ye Qin discussed Buddhism, metaphysics, and prajna with Zhi Dun in a Fragmented Epochs fragment, then returned to reality after leaving him prayer beads and receiving the Old Ferryman’s sword. Back at the Daoist temple, Ye Qin discovered that its canal held temporal power and retrieved Zhi Dun’s prayer beads from the water.

• Ye Qin and Zhi Dun discussed how Buddhism and metaphysics could complement each other, and Ye Qin explained freedom and prajna in ways that resolved Zhi Dun’s doubts.
• Zhi Dun gave Ye Qin his treasured prayer beads, and Ye Qin later returned to Hidden Mountain Temple with the Old Ferryman’s sword as a gift.
• Ye Qin left the fragment and found that the prayer beads had not come back with him; he then sensed temporal fluctuations coming from the miniature Shangqing Temple in his White Bone Origin.
• Ye Qin entered the miniature temple and discovered that its canal held a dense aura of time and had become veiled by a hazy power.
• Ye Qin reached into the canal with his tail and pulled out the prayer beads Zhi Dun had given him.

Ye Qin discovered that the water channel could bring objects out of the Fragmented Epochs, then traveled to Qiguang Temple seeking new insights. There, Bai Yanfei and the monks learned that a mysterious, unnamed figure had once inspired Zhi Dun.

• Ye Qin retrieved Zhi Dun's prayer beads from the water channel and concluded that it could carry objects across time, though he could not bring them into the real world.
• At dawn, Ye Qin left the Mountain God Temple and continued visiting temples to seek inspiration for visualization and cultivation.
• Ye Qin arrived at Qiguang Temple in Yunling City, where Bai Yanfei was visiting with her grandfather and thinking about the unresolved yin-energy killing case.
• An older monk taught a novice about Zhi Dun's life, his use of Daoist ideas, and the origins of the Form-is-Emptiness Sect.
• The older monk revealed that Zhi Dun's notes mentioned an unnamed person whose inspiration had shaped his later insights.

Ye Qin chose the Heart Sutra as a starting point for his cultivation but rejected using another person’s scripture, beginning instead to create a method of demon cultivation. As he carved the character “qi” into his Source Bone, a thief entered the Scripture Pavilion, discovered the giant snake reading, and screamed, bringing the temple awake.

• Ye Qin realized that his ideas might have influenced Zhi Dun and that he could leave traces in the history of the Fragmented Epochs.
• Bai Yanfei glimpsed a flash of green at Qiguang Temple, then agreed to stay overnight with her grandfather.
• Ye Qin entered the Scripture Pavilion and chose the Heart Sutra as his visualization object because of his connection to Zhi Dun and Prajna teachings.
• Ye Qin decided to create a unique demon cultivation method and carved the character “qi” into his Source Bone.
• Zhao Jianhua broke into the Scripture Pavilion to steal scriptures and mistook Ye Qin’s swaying shadow for a woman before finding the giant green snake reading.
• Zhao Jianhua screamed, waking the temple; Bai Yanfei joined the monks at the open entrance of the Scripture Pavilion.

After Ye Qin’s scripture visualization left a lingering aura in Qiguang Temple, the monks mistook it for Buddha’s manifestation, while thief Zhao Jianhua escaped Bai Yanfei. The incident drew crowds to the temple, and Bai Yanfei began to suspect the mysterious presence had been a snake.

• Zhao Jianhua fled the Scripture Pavilion after seeing Ye Qin, and Bai Yanfei chased him but failed to catch him.
• The monks found the Heart Sutra open and, moved by Ye Qin’s lingering aura, sat down to chant; the abbot declared that Buddha had been there.
• The monks confirmed that no scriptures were missing, while Bai Yanfei found no human traces near the books and wondered what Zhao Jianhua had encountered.
• Ye Qin left Qiguang Temple at dawn after completing his scripture visualization, puzzled that no tribulation lightning had appeared.
• News of the supposed manifestation spread, filling the temple with visitors, and Bai Yanfei kept the amulet her grandfather had obtained for her.
• After hearing a colleague mention a huge snake near the temple, Bai Yanfei remembered the strange sight she had glimpsed and continued wearing her amulet.

Archaeologists excavated an Eastern Jin temple believed to belong to Master Zhi Dun and uncovered what they thought were his remains in a sealed chamber. They found an ancient sword resting across his knees, leaving its origin and significance a mystery.

• Song An and the archaeological team reached the dried riverbed and identified the ruins as Zhi Dun's temple.
• The team excavated the temple and found Buddhist artifacts, along with a room containing statues of the Three Pure Ones.
• Song An suspected that the Daoist room had been Zhi Dun's own living quarters and ordered the team to search it carefully.
• The archaeologists discovered a well-preserved sealed chamber and carefully excavated a half-buried skeleton they believed belonged to Zhi Dun.
• The team uncovered an ancient sword across the remains' knees, with the hands resting on it, and wondered why Zhi Dun had treasured it.

Professor Song's team recovered Zhi Dun's remains and an ancient sword, but a black bear attacked them before they could leave. The sword's lingering aura frightened the bear into retreating and kneeling, and the assistant suggested that the sword possessed an aura of might.

• Professor Song's team separated the ancient sword from Zhi Dun's remains, found the character “Chu” carved on its sheath, and prepared the relics for transport.
• A black bear emerged from the mountain and charged the archaeological team, forcing everyone to scatter.
• The assistant dropped the sword box as the bear closed in, and the ancient sword fell free of its sheath.
• The sword's aura made the bear freeze, whimper, kneel, and flee, while the team sensed an inexplicable gaze.
• Professor Song's team recovered the sword, and the assistant suggested that it had an aura of might.