Chapter Summaries

Li Banfeng found Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying hiding with a group of children who had escaped the Sage Disciples but could not leave the mountains. Suspecting the Sage was trapping him, Li Banfeng began robbing the villagers’ tribute shipments to challenge him.

• Xiao Yeci explained that a Jiang Xiang Gang member had lured her and Lu Chunying to Jingde Village, where the Sage Disciples taught little and beat children who questioned them.
• Xiao Yeci told Li Banfeng that she and the children had been unable to find a way out of the mountains for a month.
• After searching for a way out and witnessing the Sage Disciples torment children and collect farmers’ harvests, Li Banfeng suspected the Sage was keeping him trapped.
• Li Banfeng gave Xiao Yeci a knife and taught her to recite bandit verses so she could help feed the children by robbing people.
• Xiao Yeci, Lu Chunying, and the children helped Li Banfeng seize a grain cart bound for Sage Peak, and Li Banfeng stayed behind to rob more tribute shipments.

Li Banfeng took in hungry children who had escaped from Jingxian Village, fed and clothed them, and organized them to help transport goods after robbing travelers. When the surrounding villages tried to escort offerings to the sage, his paper figures drove them off, but the villagers returned with more supplies and a group of elderly people.

• Li Banfeng and Xiao Yeci gathered food and cloth for the children, and Li Banfeng learned that some had been abducted while others had been sent to Jingxian Village by their parents.
• Niu Guangda brought more than a dozen children to Li Banfeng, who offered them food in exchange for work and warned them not to surrender their lives or make reckless promises.
• Li Banfeng led the children in robbing travelers for three days, prompting six villages to send sixty strongmen to escort grain and supplies up the mountain.
• Li Banfeng sent paper figures to attack the escort, and Niu Guangda and the boys collected the abandoned carts of goods.
• Three days later, more than two hundred villagers returned with elderly people leading the procession, and Li Banfeng accepted their supplies on behalf of his son.

Qu Jingzhang and Ren Wenlie went to Benefactor Stronghold to confront Li Banfeng, but their virtue techniques and his counterattacks turned the encounter into a contest of guilt and deception. They left the cave uncertain whether he was the Peddler’s senior brother, giving Li Banfeng a chance to attack them from behind.

• Villagers persuaded three Sage Disciples to carry their complaints about the bandits to Sage Peak, and the Sage ordered Qu Jingzhang and Ren Wenlie to teach Li Banfeng a lesson.
• Qu Jingzhang and Ren Wenlie disguised themselves as poor old men and used appeals to respect elders to gain entry to Benefactor Stronghold.
• Li Banfeng resisted their Seeing Virtue, Think of Equaling It technique with help from Wine Gourd, Blood-Containing Pendulum, and Dream Virtue.
• Li Banfeng claimed to be the Peddler’s senior brother and used Definite Statement and Fool’s Thousand Thoughts to make the two disciples doubt themselves.
• Qu Jingzhang and Ren Wenlie turned to leave the cave, and Li Banfeng crushed a stone to send fragments striking the backs of their heads.

Li Banfeng killed Qu Jingzhang and learned that Ren Wenlie had used a Scholar Cultivation technique to escape. Ren Wenlie reported to the Sage, who sent him to fetch Cong Shixiang for another attempt against Li Banfeng.

• Qu Jingzhang tried to reason with Li Banfeng and was beheaded, while Ren Wenlie escaped after his words slowed Li Banfeng’s pursuit.
• Xiao Yeci identified Ren Wenlie’s technique as the Scholar Cultivation Third Layer technique Shared Script, Shared Rules and explained A Word Becomes Reality.
• Li Banfeng considered the Sage’s power, ate Golden Essence and Blue Leaf Pills, and took Qu Jingzhang’s corpse back to refine into pills.
• Ren Wenlie reported his defeat to the Sage, who ordered him to take Cong Shixiang along on the next mission.
• Ren Wenlie found Cong Shixiang digging maggots from his flesh, helped him remove them, and led him down the mountain.

Li Banfeng tried to learn about Hong Ying and Wife’s past fight, but their argument interrupted him before Lu Chunying warned that Saint’s followers had arrived at the stronghold. Li Banfeng faced Ren Wenlie and Cong Shixiang, then found himself outmatched when Cong Shixiang’s body resisted his attacks and gained the Rust Pill’s power.

• Li Banfeng treated Hong Ying’s wounds with Snow Cream and pressed her to describe her deadly fight with Wife, but Wife woke and attacked Hong Ying after smelling the ointment.
• Lu Chunying told Li Banfeng that five people sent by the Saint had arrived, including Ren Wenlie, three new disciples, and Ren Wenlie’s senior brother Cong Shixiang.
• Li Banfeng confronted the group at the stronghold gate and warned them that none of them would escape, while Cong Shixiang remained unaffected by Definite Statement.
• Cong Shixiang rushed Li Banfeng, swallowed the Rust Pill after tearing it from his own head, and endured Li Banfeng’s attacks without turning to rust.
• Cong Shixiang’s presence caused Li Banfeng’s Short Knives to rust and stopped the Tang Blade from striking as Cong Shixiang charged at him.

Li Banfeng used the Portable Abode and Red Lotus to defeat Cong Shixiang, a soulless Broken Cocoon Chrysalis, then returned to the stronghold and killed Ren Wenlie. The chapter ended with Ren Wenlie’s junior brothers still at the entrance.

• Cong Shixiang resisted Li Banfeng’s attacks, devoured a cow and Jiang Shirong, and transformed as he fought.
• Li Banfeng lured Cong Shixiang into the Portable Abode, where the phonograph severed his limbs and Red Lotus drew him into her Lotus Heart.
• Wife explained that Cong Shixiang was a Broken Cocoon Chrysalis whose body had advanced toward the Tenth Stage while his soul had scattered.
• Hong Ying admitted she had urged Li Banfeng to bring Red Lotus, and she argued with Wife over helping her.
• Ren Wenlie entered the stronghold with Pei Maojin and Gao Yangting, and Li Banfeng killed him after he lowered his weapon.

Li Banfeng learned that the region was called Bastard Slope and that escaping it could take decades, while the Sage might soon confront him. After the Sage's disciple arrived with a meeting request, Li Banfeng agreed to wait for the Sage at Benefactor Stronghold ten days later.

• Li Banfeng killed Ren Wenlie, took Pei Maojin and Gao Yangting to the Portable Abode, and learned that they called the region Bastard Slope.
• Wife devoured Pei Maojin and Gao Yangting’s souls, while the phonograph questioned Hong Ying and Red Lotus about the place and the Broken Cocoon Chrysalis.
• Li Banfeng returned to Benefactor Stronghold, where the residents respected him more, and left Xiao Yeci a bag of silver after she spoke about her gratitude and fears.
• A White Clothes youth arrived at the stronghold and told Li Banfeng that the Sage wanted to see him in ten days.
• Li Banfeng told the youth to relay that he would meet the Sage at the stronghold gate at ten o’clock at night.

Li Banfeng prepared to confront Sage, while Dong Qiaoqin’s arrival at Benefactor Stronghold raised suspicions that she had been sent by Sage. When Sage came to let Li Banfeng leave, Li Banfeng demanded permission to take anyone who wanted to go with him, and the two faced off.

• Several dozen people sought refuge at Benefactor Stronghold, including Dong Qiaoqin, whose family had been killed and who had been abused by villagers and Sage’s disciples.
• Dong Qiaoqin quickly started farming, raising livestock, and breeding silkworms, but Li Banfeng told Xiao Yeci that her suffering was real and she might still have been sent by Sage.
• Li Banfeng asked Wife and Hong Ying to lend him enough bearing to face Sage, and Hong Ying reluctantly agreed to help.
• Sage arrived at Benefactor Stronghold and offered to let Li Banfeng leave alone, but Li Banfeng demanded that he be allowed to take everyone who wanted to leave.
• Sage released his imposing aura, and Li Banfeng met it with borrowed bearing as he repeated his demand.

Li Banfeng bluffed the Sage into agreeing to let him leave Bastard Slope with anyone who chose to go, but most residents stayed behind. The Sage imposed a seventy-percent harvest levy on Benefactor Stronghold and ordered an investigation into Li Banfeng’s identity, while predicting that he would return.

• Li Banfeng held his ground against the Sage, secured permission to leave with willing residents, and accepted a case of historical records without opening it.
• Xiao Yeci asked the residents whether they would leave, but none immediately agreed because they feared having nowhere to go, being sent back, or trusting Li Banfeng to defeat the Sage.
• Li Banfeng left at eight the next evening with Niu Guangda and more than twenty young followers.
• After Li Banfeng departed, the Sage’s disciple demanded seventy percent of Benefactor Stronghold’s harvest and killed several residents until they submitted.
• The Sage watched the residents accept the levy, said Li Banfeng had won half the battle and might return, and ordered the white-clothed disciple to investigate Li Banfeng’s identity.

Li Banfeng led Xiao Yeci, Lu Chunying, and the others out of Bastard Slope, then learned from the history books that his wife Zhao Xiaowan had fought the Demon Land. The group reached an unfamiliar plain and followed Xiao Yeci’s directions, only to find a dilapidated manor resembling the buildings on Sage Peak.

• Li Banfeng struggled through five volumes of annalistic histories and found records of Zhao Xiaowan and Hong Ying being sent to fight the Demon Land.
• After twelve days of travel, Li Banfeng’s group ran out of food and survived by hunting until heavy rain fell and they reached a plain beyond Bastard Slope.
• Xiao Yeci told Li Banfeng that travelers could reach Green Water Bay without Travel Permits, so he decided to take the group there.
• Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying led everyone toward a village they remembered, but the group found a large, weathered manor instead.
• Li Banfeng inspected the manor, knocked on its unlocked gate, and opened it to find an overgrown yard and moss-covered walls.

Li Banfeng and his companions took shelter in an abandoned prince's residence, which he suspected lay in the Old Land. When a ghostly opera performer trapped Lu Chunying in another courtyard, Li Banfeng confronted it and heard a voice Hong Ying recognized as Prince Chun's.

• Li Banfeng inspected the residence, kept the group in the first courtyard, and suspected they had reached the Old Land after discussing the journey with Wife.
• Lu Chunying went searching for a latrine and, under a ghost's illusion, entered the second courtyard, where a blue-clad opera performer threatened her.
• Li Banfeng followed Lu Chunying into the courtyard and tried to distract the performer with silver and lines from Peking opera.
• Li Banfeng used the Deep Mansion Technique to weaken the ghost, then sent the Blood-Containing Pendulum to cut it before retreating toward the Portable Abode.
• The performer revealed a rough male voice, and Hong Ying recognized it as Prince Chun's.

Li Banfeng fought the opera performer and searched Prince Chun's Mansion for the people the performer had trapped. He brought several ghosts into the Portable Abode, where the phonograph swallowed them, including Peng Chunyang, whom Hong Ying recognized.

• Li Banfeng failed to escape the sealed mansion and discovered that the opera performer had trapped everyone inside with a Heavenly Net.
• Li Banfeng exposed the fake Xiao Yeci after the impostor ordered Lu Chunying to kneel, and the performer revealed that the real Xiao Yeci was in the main courtyard.
• Li Banfeng saw through the fake Lu Chunying, then entered the third courtyard and fought the Sage from Bastard Slope and his attendants with opera singing.
• Li Banfeng lured the remaining dead souls into the Portable Abode with Wife's singing, and the phonograph swallowed them.
• Peng Chunyang identified himself as a steward from Prince Chun's Mansion and recognized Hong Ying, but the phonograph swallowed him before they could speak further.

Li Banfeng traded the “Changban Slope” record to an opera performer for a route out of Carefree Plains and a Horse Whip, then questioned him about the singer, Zhao Xiaowan. The performer revealed Zhao Xiaowan’s past as a general and opera singer but refused to explain why she and Hong Ying were imprisoned, leaving Li Banfeng unwilling to sell the record.

• Li Banfeng used his pendulum to play the “Changban Slope” aria, and the opera performer returned Xiao Yeci in exchange for hearing the record again.
• The opera performer offered Li Banfeng a map out of Carefree Plains and a Horse Whip that could harm dead souls in exchange for the record.
• Li Banfeng asked who sang the aria, and the opera performer identified Zhao Xiaowan as a famed general of the Great Huan Dynasty and a renowned opera performer.
• The opera performer described how Zhao Xiaowan was exiled into military service, rose through the ranks, and became Swift Cavalry General, with Hong Ying as her deputy.
• The opera performer refused to reveal why Zhao Xiaowan and Hong Ying had been imprisoned, so Li Banfeng threatened to withdraw the record from sale.

Prince Chun recounted Zhao Xiaowan and Hong Ying’s rise and deaths, then revealed that he was a Drama Cultivator whose disguises could imitate even a person’s internal conditions. The chapter ended with Xiao Zhengong confronting the bedridden He Jiaqing and questioning whether he was really ill.

• Prince Chun told Li Banfeng that he had wanted to marry Zhao Xiaowan, but she refused and he accepted Hong Ying instead.
• Prince Chun recounted how The Emperor imprisoned Zhao Xiaowan and Hong Ying, then sent them back to war, where Zhao Xiaowan’s victories made her famous.
• Prince Chun said Zhao Xiaowan and Hong Ying fought just before victory, killing Zhao Xiaowan and fatally wounding Hong Ying; afterward, he woke dead in Carefree Plains.
• Prince Chun returned Li Banfeng’s record and explained that his Drama Cultivator abilities let him impersonate familiar people and imitate their illnesses, injuries, poisons, and medicines.
• At Third Hospital in Yuezhou, Xiao Zhengong confronted He Jiaqing, doubted his illness, and threatened him while he remained in Outer State.

After leaving Prince Chun’s Mansion, Li Banfeng guided the group out of Old Land and toward Green Water Bay, where he learned more about Lu Xiaolan’s escape and the attack on Lu Dongliang. Lu Chunying’s account triggered one of Li Banfeng’s episodes, and his repeated question about He Jiaqing reached Red Lotus in the Sixth Room.

• Prince Chun made Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying watch his performance until the rain stopped, then Li Banfeng led everyone out of Old Land.
• Wife, Hong Ying, and Li Banfeng discussed their lost memories of Demon Soil and the Great Huan Dynasty.
• Li Banfeng assigned routes to the group, but Niu Guangda chose to follow him toward Green Water Bay instead of returning to Sea Eat Ridge.
• Li Banfeng brought everyone through Carefree Plains to Guangming Town, where Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying changed into men's clothes and explained what had happened at the Lu Family.
• Li Banfeng questioned who had sent Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying a letter, how Lu Dongliang and He Yuxiu had flown away, and whether Lu Xiaolan had really been telling the truth about He Jiaqing.
• Li Banfeng began an episode, repeatedly asking whether the person was He Jiaqing, and Red Lotus heard him from the Sixth Room.

After recovering from his episode, Li Banfeng suspected that He Jiaqing had used him to bring the Mystic Life Crimson Lotus back to Pro State, though he still did not understand He Jiaqing’s full plan. He watched the rival films Blood Blade Detective and Blood Spear Detective in Guangming Town, where Ma Wu’s explicit parody became a hit, and Ma Wu ended the chapter asking Lu Yuanshan and Lu Yuanhai to share the blame for its reputation.

• Li Banfeng recovered in the Portable Abode, realized He Jiaqing might have manipulated him into returning the Red Lotus to Pro State, and questioned the silent Red Lotus about her plans with He Jiaqing.
• Li Banfeng went to a cinema in Guangming Town and found that Ling Family Film Industry’s Blood Blade Detective and Ma Wu’s Blood Spear Detective were both screening.
• Li Banfeng bought tickets for his group and watched Blood Blade Detective, a suspense film starring Sheng Xijun and Xiao Xiufēi that ended on a cliffhanger.
• Li Banfeng and the others watched Blood Spear Detective, whose explicit plot drew a packed crowd and shocked or embarrassed several viewers, including He Cunshou.
• Ma Wu told Lu Yuanshan and Lu Yuanhai that they had made Blood Spear Detective together and that he could not bear its reputation alone.

Ma Wu struggled with the Lu Family’s attempt to leave him holding the blame for their joint film venture, then prepared to make a second movie with Li Banfeng’s encouragement. After Three Heroes Gate repeatedly disrupted filming, Li Banfeng confronted the young troublemaker, who recognized him as Seventh Brother.

• Lu Yuanshan and Lu Yuanhai offered Ma Wu all the profits from Blood Spear Detective while planning to distance the Lu Family from the company and its infamy.
• Ma Wu told Li Banfeng about his doubts over making another film, and Li Banfeng persuaded him to continue with a stronger story.
• Zhou Changhong urged Ling Miaoying to have Three Heroes Gate disrupt Ma Wu’s next production, and she said the gate’s Second Boss might help.
• A young Three Heroes Gate member stopped filming, rejected Ma Wu’s money, and warned him to quit making movies.
• When the young man returned to halt filming again, Li Banfeng confronted him, and the man dropped his chicken leg and called him Seventh Brother.

Qin Tianjiu explained that Three Heroes Gate had made him an Empty Code Copper Seal and sent him to disrupt Ma Wu’s filming, but he and Silver Seal Tan Jinle chose to avoid provoking the Lu Family. Meanwhile, Ling Miaoying’s Blood Blade Detective lost audiences to Ma Wu’s Blood Spear Detective, leaving Zhou Changhong wondering how to stop its success.

• Qin Tianjiu told Li Banfeng and Ma Wu that he had been ordered to disrupt the set, then stayed there with his men while filming continued.
• Qin Tianjiu reported Ma Wu’s warning about Lu Family members to Tan Jinle, who ordered him to watch the set without attacking anyone.
• Ling Miaoying’s Blood Blade Detective premiered to strong attendance, but audiences quickly deserted it because they wanted the blood and guns of Blood Spear Detective.
• Zhou Changhong watched the second Blood Spear Detective and wondered how he could stop Ma Wu’s film from succeeding.

Ma Wu and Li Banfeng moved their film production to Decency Village in the New Land after Zhou Changhong repeatedly burned their sets and reels. As the crew began filming there, Zhou Changhong tried to sabotage the cameras but was confronted by Old Shui and Old Qiu, who demanded that he leave.

• Lu Yuanshan decided the Lu Family should withdraw from Ma Wu’s film business, while Qin Tianjiu assured Li Banfeng and Ma Wu that the Three Heroes Gate would not interfere with them.
• Zhou Changhong ordered attacks on Ma Wu’s sets and film reels, and repeated fires destroyed equipment and nearly all the film copies.
• Li Banfeng persuaded Ma Wu to move the production to Decency Village, and Zuo Wugang convinced the crew to travel there with threats and reassurances.
• Hunters flocked to Decency Village to help build the production and appear in the film, while Zhou Changhong infiltrated the crew disguised as a hunter.
• As Zhou Changhong prepared to smash the cameras, Old Shui and Old Qiu cornered him and told him to leave.

Xiao Zhengong exposed Zhou Changhong’s impersonation of He Jiaqing by infecting him with living pollen and forcing him to confess. Meanwhile, the Sage learned that He Jiaqing had returned to Pro State and sent a disciple to have an old friend test him in Green Water Bay.

• Zhou Changhong worried that Chen Changrui had realized he was impersonating He Jiaqing, while Xiao Zhengong suspected that the real He Jiaqing had gone to Bastard Slope as the Benefactor.
• Xiao Zhengong visited the hospital, questioned the motionless He Jiaqing, and used living pollen from Cui Tike to infect him.
• As the pollen made him cough blood, Zhou Changhong confessed to Xiao Zhengong that he was posing as He Jiaqing and explained that He Jiaqing had helped him become an Actor Cultivator and meet Ling Miaoying.
• Big Head overheard Zhou Changhong’s confession and left the hospital without approaching the ward.
• The Sage learned that the person who defeated Cong Shixiang was He Jiaqing, alias Zhou Changhong, and ordered a disciple to take a generous gift to an old friend in Green Water Bay to test him.