Chapter Summaries

Chu Er settled the Chu Family’s affairs and returned home with Xiang Fenglan, while Ma Wu hosted a banquet at Carefree Dock and began recruiting wilderness reclaimers. At Guanfang Hall, Liao Zihui found Chu Huaijun’s severed head in a box, and Sun Junfu soiled himself again as the discovery changed the situation.

• Chu Er told Ma Wu that Bai Le Men would remain jointly run by the Lu Family and her, and that she would take over the Chu Family’s business from Chu Huaijun.
• Chu Er warned Xiang Fenglan to stay away from Ma Wu because he was skilled with women and still held a grudge against her.
• At Carefree Dock’s celebratory banquet, Li Banfeng got to know the six helpers from the new land, and Ma Wu arranged for more sheep after Chi Liuhe drank a pot of hotpot broth.
• Ma Wu had notices posted to recruit wilderness reclaimers after the banquet.
• Liao Zihui and Sun Junfu inspected a wooden box at Guanfang Hall and found Chu Huaijun’s head inside.
• Sun Junfu stared at the head and soiled himself, while Liao Zihui urgently asked Ling Sujun to fetch diapers.

Liao Zihui delayed operations after Chu Huaijun's death, while Li Banfeng learned of Inner Amican Country and prepared for a visit to Hibiscus Studio. A master thief searched Li Banfeng's suite for a treasure but was caught and stripped of his belongings by Glove, leaving him naked and confused at Carefree Dock.

• Liao Zihui ordered the acquisition of Bai Le Men and the operation against He Yuxiu put on hold, while deciding to continue the operation against Li Qi with a changed strategy.
• Li Banfeng bought film and phonographs from Ling Miaosheng, who revealed that Inner Amican Country existed and that its phonographs were sold in Pro State.
• Li Banfeng rejected Liao Zihui's dinner invitation but agreed to attend Li Haoyun's gathering at Hibiscus Studio.
• A man in black used master thief skills to enter Li Banfeng's suite and found a key beneath the bed, but Glove later detected that he had touched it.
• Glove tracked down the thief and returned after stripping him of his treasures; Li Banfeng spent the night in Jiang Mengting's room.
• Xie Juncong woke at Carefree Dock with his memory missing and discovered that he was naked and had lost his clothes, ring, feather, and other treasures.

Li Banfeng let Xie Juncong escape at the glove’s request, then visited Li Haoyun and heard how he had rebuilt his business after rejecting his parents’ brutal trade. The next day, Li Banfeng rejected Liao Zihui’s offer to restore the old transit fees and demanded that freight charges be cut in half, leaving Liao to depart without an agreement.

• Li Banfeng filmed and publicly identified the naked Xie Juncong as he ran past Carefree Dock, but spared him at the glove’s request.
• Li Banfeng and Ma Wu visited Li Haoyun at Hibiscus Studio, where Li Haoyun explained that he had married two former maidservants who supported him after he lost his money.
• Li Haoyun described how his parents had abused and exploited girls, and said he had resumed their business only after his maidservants raised capital for him.
• Liao Zihui offered to restore the original transit fees, but Li Banfeng said that was no real concession and demanded that freight charges be halved for their family.
• Liao Zihui refused and left, while Li Banfeng told Ma Wu that this was only the beginning.

Li Banfeng used his newly reduced freight costs to arrange business with the major Lineages and sought the Portable Abode’s help in breaking the boundary-line restrictions. He left hoping a newly born boundary line might restore the Abode’s lost memories, while Ma Wu gathered land clearers to set out for their work.

• Ling Sujun delivered Guanfang Hall’s decision to halve Li Qi’s freight charges, and Li Banfeng told Ma Wu to set rates for other Lineages according to their contributions.
• Li Banfeng asked the Portable Abode about boundary lines and railway Work Methods, and it said it had forgotten much of what it once knew and suggested Wife and Red Lotus might help.
• Li Banfeng proposed showing the Portable Abode a newly born boundary line to recover its memories, and the Abode agreed it was worth trying.
• Hong Ying asked the phonograph whether Li Banfeng’s references to Old Train and Small Train meant they had fallen into the Crazy Artisan’s train, and the phonograph confirmed the Artisan was an elder of her Dao sect.
• He Jiaqing accepted a reduced freight rate from Li Qi and urged Shen Rongqing to keep shipping, despite worrying that Li Qi was close to his aunt, He Yuxiu.
• Ma Wu gathered nearly a thousand land clearers in Blue Poplar Village, where Li Banfeng distributed their rewards and sent them on their way.

Li Banfeng brought land reclaimers to Decency Village and asked Qiu Luoye and Shui Yongquan to let Duan Wuchou, Liang Wucai, and others serve him permanently. Shui Yongquan warned that their rapid land reclamation could attract Inner State's attention, but Qiu Luoye rejected his caution and prepared to continue reclaiming land with Li Banfeng.

• Li Banfeng arrived near Decency Village with a group of land reclaimers and asked Qiu Luoye and Shui Yongquan for Duan Wuchou, Liang Wucai, and the others, contracts included.
• Shui Yongquan asked Li Banfeng and Qiu Luoye to pause land reclamation, prompting Qiu Luoye to accuse him of turning against them.
• Shui Yongquan revealed that nearly thirty percent of his and Qiu Luoye's territories had been reclaimed and warned that Inner State might interfere or destroy their contracts.
• Shui Yongquan explained that contracts recorded reclamation and were split between Local Earth Gods and Inner State, where the other halves were stored in archives.
• Shui Yongquan proposed relying on the human vitality of their people to cultivate gradually, but Qiu Luoye refused to wait and invited Li Banfeng to reclaim land on his territory.

Li Banfeng helped Qiu Luoye’s Territory clear over a hundred plots, but the rapid expansion provoked the Strange Monsters, so Li Banfeng offered to take some of them into his own Territory. After bringing over a hundred Strange Monsters home and securing their contracts, Li Banfeng decided he could take in even more.

• Li Banfeng organized more than a thousand land-clearers, paid their rewards, and found that skilled teams were being driven from their plots by a fifth-layer jujube tree.
• Qiu Luoye confronted the jujube tree, while Shui Yongquan explained that rapid land clearing had crowded the Strange Monsters and left them fearing they would lose their homes.
• Li Banfeng offered the Strange Monsters a place in his Territory, and more than a hundred joined him after the assessments ended.
• Li Banfeng brought the Strange Monsters home, sought Meng Yuchun’s help to prepare contracts, and arranged a dramatic Local Earth God introduction before distributing them.
• After the contracts were signed, Li Banfeng’s wife urged him to recruit more Strange Monsters, and Li Banfeng resolved to take in as many as Qiu Luoye could not accommodate.

Li Banfeng explored Zhang Wanlong’s village and Bei Wushuang’s hidden residence, where he found contracts and a sword that Wife recognized as Hong Ying’s. The chapter ended with Wife confronting Hong Ying over the sword, which Hong Ying said she had used to kill Wife.

• Li Banfeng visited Zhang Wanlong’s village, learned that Genzi had advanced to the third level, and discovered that the Peddler had brought Zhang Wanlong insect-killing powder.
• Li Banfeng collected the remaining Heaven Spring Joy Soil and decided to build a station in Qiu Luoye’s Territory using Bei Wushuang’s residence as a model.
• Wife imitated Bei Wushuang’s footsteps and cries to open a sand entrance, then guided Li Banfeng into his underground residence.
• Li Banfeng removed Bei Wushuang’s gold, bed, musical instruments, sword, and contracts for Strange Monsters from the residence.
• After Li Banfeng left, Wife pointed Bei Wushuang’s sword at Hong Ying, who said it was her sword and that she had used it to kill Wife.

The phonograph revealed that Hong Ying had killed Zhao Xiaowan based on false intelligence and ruined their chance to save the army, then used Hong Ying’s blood to activate a seed. Meanwhile, Li Banfeng recruited Diao Nengsou to transfer Strange Monsters to his territory, and the seed grew into a woman in white.

• The phonograph told Hong Ying that the Peddler had planned to travel through TieMang Valley, and the Portable Abode confirmed the route, leaving Hong Ying devastated.
• The phonograph pricked Hong Ying’s palm and dripped her blood onto a seed Li Banfeng had brought home.
• Li Banfeng found Diao Nengsou, who readily changed masters and helped transfer more than thirty Strange Monsters to Li Banfeng’s territory.
• Li Banfeng gave Diao Nengsou a hundred contracts to handle while he prepared to return to Qiu Luoye’s Territory and build the station.
• Wife gave Li Banfeng the seed, which grew into a fragrant melon that burst open and released a beautiful woman dressed in white robes.

Li Banfeng brought Cantaloupe Hong Ying to the Portable Abode and decided to rely on her for building a station in Qiu Luoye's Territory. After learning that the Inner State knew about the rapid wasteland expansion, Qiu Luoye chose to press ahead and face any opposition.

• Li Banfeng gave Cantaloupe Hong Ying a drop of blood, bringing her to life, while the others reacted to her striking resemblance to Hong Ying.
• Li Banfeng said he would use Cantaloupe Hong Ying to help build a station in Qiu Luoye's Territory, prompting the real Hong Ying to ram herself into the Phonograph in distress.
• Li Banfeng set out for Qiu Luoye's Territory, where Shui Yongquan warned Qiu Luoye that the Inner State had learned about his wasteland expansion.
• Qiu Luoye admitted that opening every Land Block would not make his territory Proper Land without ten thousand permanent residents.
• Li Banfeng offered to expand the territory faster, and Qiu Luoye urged him to continue while promising to fight the Inner State if it came.

Li Banfeng encountered a powerful beggar cultivator who tried to steal his combat power through charity-based techniques, but he escaped by exploiting their short activation window. Green Flower then confronted the beggar and threatened to kill him if Li Banfeng escaped again.

• Li Banfeng covered the Portable Abode’s underground station construction while recruiting people for land reclamation, and Green Flower watched the recruitment with suspicion.
• Li Banfeng met an elderly beggar near Blue Poplar Village, and the beggar used Begging for Pity and Playing the Chi for Food to try to make him give up combat power.
• Li Banfeng broke the beggar’s bamboo tube, avoided giving him a stone, and survived the beggar’s Give Him an Inch and He’ll Take a Mile technique.
• Li Banfeng struck the beggar with Ride a Horse and Admire Flowers, but Thick Face Thick Skin reduced the attack to a shallow facial wound.
• Li Banfeng inferred that the beggar’s techniques had a short window, then ran until the beggar gave up chasing him.
• Green Flower arrived, recognized the beggar’s technique, and threatened to kill him if Li Banfeng escaped again.

Green Water Beggar punished Wan Jinxian and Cui Tike, gave them tasks, and learned that Zhong Huaien from Sage Peak was in Green Water City. Wan Jinxian found Zhong Huaien waiting outside Carefree Dock with a powerful man, while Chu Huaiyuan arrived with a group of people.

• Green Flower left the beggar watching the road after reminding him not to let Li Qi escape again.
• Cui Tike told Wan Jinxian that he had seen Zhong Huaien near Carefree Dock with a powerful, familiar-looking companion.
• Green Water Beggar appeared, tested Wan Jinxian's loyalty, and ordered him to investigate why Zhong Huaien had come to the city.
• Green Water Beggar gave Cui Tike power and tasked him with watching a marked beggar in Blue Poplar Village.
• Cui Tike urged Wan Jinxian to seek the Grandmaster's power, then directed him to Carefree Dock.
• Wan Jinxian watched Zhong Huaien speak with Mister Chu, and Mister Chu went to meet Chu Huaiyuan and his group.

Chu Er offered to reclaim wilderness for Li Qi, while a mysterious man in a gray overcoat intervened at Carefree Dock and uncovered a plot linked to Liao Zihui. Green Water Beggar suspected the Inner State was preparing to take over his territory, Cui Tike arrived in Blue Poplar Village with an unclear assignment, and Li Banfeng resolved to kill Thin Donkey Yuan.

• Chu Er chose a one-li plot to reclaim for Li Qi and warned Ma Wu to be cautious after a mysterious drunk disrupted their meeting at Carefree Dock.
• Green Water Beggar concluded that the Inner State was using wilderness reclamation to gain control of Qiu Daxiang's territory and threatened Wan Jinxian before telling him to deliver a message to He Jiaqing.
• The gray-overcoated man questioned four accomplices, learned they had been sent by Liao Zihui, and told Zhong Huaien that Liao was using Chu Huaiyuan to investigate him.
• The gray-overcoated man told Zhong Huaien to keep Chu Huaiyuan out of the affair and ordered him to find someone who could persuade her.
• Cui Tike arrived in Blue Poplar Village and recognized Green Water Beggar's mark on a roadside beggar while wondering whom he had been sent to kill.
• Li Banfeng said Thin Donkey Yuan had blocked his path and decided he would have to kill him.

Li Banfeng learned how to counter Thin Donkey Yuan’s Beggar Cultivator techniques and worked with Wife and Hong Ying to prepare a plan to drive him away from the road to Decency Village. As Li Banfeng left for the confrontation, Hong Ying warned him that Thin Donkey Yuan had formidable blade work, and the Tang Blade’s silence suggested it knew why.

• Li Banfeng told Wife and Hong Ying that Thin Donkey Yuan was blocking the only road to Decency Village, and he refused to take a detour or travel back and forth through the station.
• Wife explained the Beggar Cultivator techniques and their restrictions, including how alms enabled the techniques and how Thin Donkey Yuan could use Give an Inch, Take a Foot.
• Li Banfeng described his battle plan, and Wife and Hong Ying helped him refine it over three hours.
• Li Banfeng gathered his magical artifacts and prepared to leave, but Hong Ying remembered to warn him about Thin Donkey Yuan’s powerful blade work and especially dangerous first three strikes.
• Li Banfeng took the Tang Blade and left the Portable Abode, while Wife reassured Hong Ying that nothing would happen to him with the blade at his side.

Li Banfeng and the Tang Blade planned an ambush against a Beggar Cultivator, using Cantaloupe Hong Ying to exploit the beggar’s techniques and defenses. Their gamble succeeded, and they dragged the wounded beggar into Li Banfeng’s Portable Abode.

• Li Banfeng forgave the Tang Blade for concealing his past, named him Second Donkey, and agreed to follow his battle plan against the beggar.
• The beggar used his techniques to take a tendon and two eyeballs from a Cantaloupe Hong Ying, then tried to trap her beneath his bowl.
• A second Cantaloupe Hong Ying appeared and wounded the beggar just after he used Thick Face Thick Skin, leaving him vulnerable.
• Li Banfeng attacked the beggar with Trample Ten Thousand Rivers while the Tang Blade struck, and the beggar seized the Tang Blade with Take an Inch, Demand a Foot.
• Li Banfeng used Homesickness Like An Arrow as the Tang Blade and dozens of Cantaloupe Hong Yings helped drag the beggar into the Portable Abode.
• Wife roared from inside the house, weakening the beggar as Li Banfeng pulled him through the door.

Li Banfeng traded with Cui Tike to cure the illness Green Water Beggar had placed on him, while Green Water Beggar learned that Dogtail Grass had died and began preparing a response. Zhong Huaien was infected with the same illness and sought help from Xu Han, who submerged him in a vat of golden liquid.

• Hong Ying and Li Banfeng tortured a beggar who claimed he was a Local Earth God, but he lost the ability to speak and died before they could learn who sent him.
• Cui Tike met Li Banfeng, cured his itching illness by transferring it to himself, and said Green Water Beggar had sent the beggar because he cared about Li Banfeng's land reclamation.
• Cui Tike told Green Water Beggar that Dogtail Grass had died, and Green Water Beggar identified him as a Local Earth God whose territory he planned to seize.
• Chu Shaoqiang warned Zhong Huaien against contacting the Guanfang Envoy, then recognized that Zhong Huaien had been struck by Green Water Beggar's illness.
• Wan Jinxian told He Jiaqing that Green Flower wanted an alliance, and He Jiaqing crashed his scooter after hearing that Li Banfeng had stayed overnight at the He Family estate.
• Zhong Huaien went to Medicine King Gully for help, and Xu Han submerged him in a vat of golden liquid while privately complaining that everyone mistook him for a good person.

Zhong Huaien’s body was returned to Sage Peak, where the Sage assigned Gong Ziming to investigate Xu Han and Xing Zhongquan to go to Green Water City. As the authorities postponed their operation against Li Qi to deal with Sinner City’s escapees, the refugees reached Sea Eat Ridge and learned Pan Dehai would not let them enter.

• Old Xu sent Zhong Huaien’s corpse back to Sage Peak on a stretcher carried by two eggplant men, one of whom exploded after singing at the Sage and drenched him and his disciples in golden juice.
• The Sage ordered Gong Ziming to investigate Xu Han at Medicine King Gully and sent Xing Zhongquan to Green Water City to handle matters involving Chu Shaoqiang and the Green Water Beggar.
• At Guanfang Hall, Liao Zihui and Tang Huanjie suspected Chu Shaoqiang had been behind the deaths at Carefree Dock and planned an operation against Li Qi.
• Ling Sujun reported that more than three thousand people had escaped Sinner City through New Land and appeared near Sea Eat Ridge, prompting Liao Zihui to postpone the operation against Li Qi.
• At Sea Eat Ridge, Pan Dehai brought the escapees grain but told the three-headed refugee and the others they could not enter and should find another way out.

More than three thousand Three-Headed People sought refuge after leaving Sea Eat Ridge, but Kinless Village rejected most of them and demanded they sever their family ties. Two Needle Cries welcomed them, then repeatedly asked them to build houses and reclaim farmland before telling them to move on because there still was not enough food.

• Pan Dehai gave the Three-Headed People food on the condition that they leave Sea Eat Ridge and travel a hundred li before eating.
• Juanzi led the group toward Kinless Village, where Qiao Shaofen said they could stay only if they had no male heads or attachments, effectively requiring them to cut off two of their three heads.
• After Juanzi led the group away, Two Needle Cries offered them millet and invited them to settle in his territory in exchange for building houses.
• The Three-Headed People built more than a thousand houses and reclaimed farmland, but Two Needle Cries then told them to find another place because his food supply remained insufficient.

Juanzi debated whether her starving followers should keep obeying the map or rob those who refused to help them, while Li Banfeng returned to Qiu Luoye’s Territory and reunited with Chu Er. The chapter ended with Qiu Luoye preparing to confront the escaped monsters from Sinner City, but Li Banfeng warned him that going there could lead to trouble.

• Ma Huifang urged Juanzi to let the group take food by force if the next settlements refused to shelter them, while Juanzi worried about the Guanfang Envoy pursuing them.
• Ma Wu and Li Banfeng discussed the newly opened territory, their ambitions for it, and the Guanfang Envoys’ possible role in Chu Shaoqiang’s death.
• Li Banfeng met Chu Er, who teased him about leaving her at Bitter Vegetable Manor and relayed that his Second Aunt wanted to see him.
• Qiu Luoye told Li Banfeng that monsters who had escaped from Sinner City were near the territory and said he planned to deal with them.
• Li Banfeng stopped Qiu Luoye and warned him that going to confront the monsters might cause things to go wrong.

Li Banfeng investigated Juanzi and the Three-Headed People, who had fled Sinner City and sought shelter. He accepted them into his territory, and after they built homes and harvested crops, he told them the land was their home.

• Li Banfeng went to meet Juanzi after Qiu Luoye warned him about the escaped Sinner City residents.
• Juanzi explained that the group had fled deadly heavenly light with help from an unnamed benefactor, and Li Banfeng offered them a place in his territory in exchange for work.
• Li Banfeng wrote a contract and had more than three thousand Three-Headed People press their fingerprints before giving them oranges and assigning them land to build houses and farm.
• Li Banfeng gave Juanzi Fast Crop Seeds, and the group harvested grain three days later.
• Li Banfeng told the Three-Headed People to keep the harvest and called their wooden houses home, leaving them stunned by the offer.

Li Banfeng confronted General Envoy Liao Zihui and Cai Junshan when they came to take the Three-Headed People back to Sinner City, forcing them to leave without Juanzi’s group. As daylight approached, the group discussed preparations for the new land becoming Proper Land and how Qiu Luoye might keep some of his old companions.

• Ma Wu went to the Three-Headed People's residence after sentries spotted Liao Zihui and his entourage arriving, and Cai Junshan ordered Juanzi and the others to return to Sinner City.
• Li Banfeng seized Cai Junshan, forced him to kowtow, and slapped him while comforting Juanzi’s child, Xiao Shan.
• Liao Zihui accused Li Banfeng of sheltering criminals, but Li Banfeng demanded to know what crimes they had committed and refused to accept Liao’s evasion.
• Ma Wu, Lu Chunying, He Yuxiu, and Qiu Luoye backed Li Banfeng, and Liao Zihui left Qiu Luoye’s Territory after Qiu told him to get lost.
• Li Banfeng stopped Juanzi and the other Three-Headed People from kneeling, while Lu Chunying and Xiao Yeci warned that preparations were needed for the new land’s transformation.
• Qiu Luoye asked whether he could keep some of his old companions, and Xiao Yeci said there was a way, though the rules made it difficult.