Chapter Summaries

Li Banfeng investigated the unexplained chaos at Yellow Earth Bridge by testing its North Bridge coal merchants, whose identical dealings suggested they were connected to a hidden Chaos Cultivator. Meanwhile, Wife restored Hong Ying’s sight, and Li Banfeng disguised himself as Pan Dehai before planning to draw out the culprit.

• Li Banfeng compared Tang Blade’s hazy memories of Green Water Bow’s attack on Beggar Bay with the Orange Garden Elder’s account and considered how population loss had weakened Tang Blade’s cultivation.
• Wife used the phonograph’s needles to restore Hong Ying’s sight, and Hong Ying mistook the projector’s shadow-play images for real people and attacked one.
• Li Banfeng visited Hu Manchun and other North Bridge coal merchants, finding that they all offered the same prices, contracts, and explanations despite their supposedly independent businesses.
• Wife and Blood-Containing Pendulum disguised Li Banfeng as Pan Dehai, and he continued visiting coal merchants under other identities to confirm their suspiciously uniform behavior.
• Ma Wu collected more than twenty train cars of coal from the merchants and concluded they were accomplices or connected to the troublemaker; Li Banfeng decided to sell the coal and lure out the Chaos Cultivator.

Li Banfeng uncovered how Little Qin and a Calculation Cultivator had stolen the coal, then confronted the jianbing seller at North Bridge. The seller revealed that the Carriage Driver had abandoned Yellow Earth Bridge and offered to take over its business, leaving Li Banfeng to face a territorial crisis.

• Ma Wu and the Carriage Driver delivered coal by train, but Little Qin’s song distracted the group while a long-aproned figure sent the train cars and coal into the Coal Sand River.
• Li Banfeng used the projector’s footage and Ma Wu’s account to reconstruct the theft and suspected the long-aproned figure was a Calculation Cultivator.
• Li Banfeng, Ma Wu, and the Carriage Driver went to North Bridge to confront Little Qin, the jianbing seller, and the coal mine owners, but the mine owners had already disappeared.
• The jianbing seller revealed that North Bridge’s residents were waiting at the station and that Yellow Earth Bridge could become Old Land if they left, weakening the Carriage Driver’s position.
• Li Banfeng learned that the jianbing seller was a Calculation Cultivator who had predicted his arrival and proposed taking over Yellow Earth Bridge’s business.
• The jianbing seller produced the territory contract and claimed the Carriage Driver had fled toward South Bridge, leaving Li Banfeng uncertain whether their agreement still held.

Li Banfeng learned that Qin Bulou had spent years forcing the Carriage Driver out of Yellow Earth Bridge and was creating a new Dao path called Mis-cultivation. After contracting with Qin Bulou to manage the territory, Li Banfeng faced a warning that Inner State would send Lu Dongliang to Yellow Earth Bridge.

• Qin Bulou explained how his Iron Certificate and calculations forced the Carriage Driver to retrieve his Contract Paper and flee Yellow Earth Bridge.
• Li Banfeng found the Carriage Driver outside Yellow Earth Bridge, but the Carriage Driver refused to return and fight Qin Bulou.
• Li Banfeng returned to Qin Bulou, agreed to operate Yellow Earth Bridge under a Contract Paper, and set terms against Inner State influence while requiring Qin Bulou to disclose his new Dao path.
• Qin Bulou revealed that Mis-cultivation used deliberate errors and accumulated mistakes, including tricks hidden in food, to create opportunities and steal Li Banfeng's coal and carriages.
• Qin Bulou delivered the first twenty carloads of coal to Ma Wu while Li Banfeng trained against Chu Shaoqiang's projected image.
• The real Chu Shaoqiang warned Li Banfeng that Inner State would send Lu Dongliang to Yellow Earth Bridge and advised him to leave.

Li Banfeng learned that an impostor claiming to be Lu Dongliang had arrived in Pro State and arranged to expose him while protecting the Lu Family’s allies. The impostor’s identity remained uncertain, but Li Banfeng prepared to send his own Lu Dongliang to the Lu Family estate, and He Jiaqing decided to seek out the newcomer.

• Chu Shaoqiang explained that he believed Lu Dongliang had gone to the Inner State to cultivate and would soon return, while Li Banfeng knew the real Lu Dongliang was dead and suspected the newcomer was an impostor.
• Li Banfeng told Luo ZhengNan to arrange newspaper stories claiming someone was impersonating Lu Dongliang, and the supposed Lu Dongliang visited Qiu Zhiheng but failed to persuade him to return to the Lu Family.
• Bamboo recognized that the visitor was not the real Lu Dongliang, and Qiu Zhiheng decided to go to Green Water City to protect Lu Chunying and his family.
• The impostor visited Lu Dongchun, who accepted him as her brother, while Lu Chunying stayed in Seven Autumn City and Duan Shaoxia refused to admit him into the Lu Family estate.
• Li Banfeng brought a Cantaloupe Person disguised as Lu Dongliang to He Yuxiu, then arranged with He Yuxiu and Qiu Zhiheng to send this version to Duan Shaoxia; she agreed after He Yuxiu confronted her about her son’s exchanged soul.
• Li Banfeng told Lu Chunying she could return to Green Water City, while He Jiaqing read news of Lu Dongliang’s return and decided to meet him.

Li Banfeng helped expose Lu Dongliang’s banquet scheme, then learned that a dangerous Drama Cultivator from the Inner State was impersonating people and targeting him. After chasing a disguised attacker into an unfamiliar ancient city, Li Banfeng found himself face-to-face with the Drama Cultivator, who claimed he could neither escape nor be rescued.

• Lu Dongliang tried to reclaim the Lu Family’s businesses and loyalty through a banquet, but guests left after learning Lu Chunying was hosting another banquet to welcome a different Lu Dongliang.
• Li Banfeng used Luo ZhengNan’s electrical technique to make the guests believe the Cantaloupe Person was the real Lu Dongliang, then danced with Chu Er while Jiang Mengting sang “Fake Decency.”
• Cui Tike warned Li Banfeng that Green Flower planned to exploit a conflict with Lu Dongliang, and the two agreed to lure the fight away from Decency Village.
• Shui Yongquan told Li Banfeng that an Above the Clouds Drama Cultivator had impersonated him and ambushed Shui Yongquan, who promised to help defeat the impostor.
• Li Banfeng and Cui Tike chased a woman who had entered Li Banfeng’s house, but Cui Tike’s apparent identity proved to be the Drama Cultivator, who had lured Li Banfeng into an ancient city and trapped him.

Li Banfeng returned to Changsan Academy with Gu Rusong, a High-Level Actor Cultivator who had tracked him, and joined the academy’s Fool Cultivators in fighting him. After Gu Rusong confessed that he had defected to the Inner State and planned to seize Yellow Earth Bridge, Sun Tiecheng destroyed him, then demanded that everyone mourn.

• Li Banfeng escaped the Actor Cultivator in Fool's City and returned to Changsan Academy, where he warned the others to prepare for a fight.
• Gu Rusong arrived looking for Li Banfeng, and Tang Changfa used Fool Cultivation Skills to resist him, sacrificing his eyes and cutting out his heart and liver.
• Li Banfeng and the academy’s Fool Cultivators overwhelmed Gu Rusong with attacks and distractions until Gu Rusong fled into an alley, where Li Banfeng killed him with Close Doors and Windows Technique.
• Sun Tiecheng arrived and accused Li Banfeng of killing his senior brother, but Gu Rusong revived as a Living Dead and admitted that he had defected to the Inner State and planned to give Yellow Earth Bridge to them.
• Sun Tiecheng destroyed Gu Rusong’s soul and corpse, then cried and demanded that Li Banfeng and the academy’s people cry with him.

After Gu Rusong's death, Li Banfeng learned more about He Jiaqing's stolen techniques and received lessons from Sun Tiecheng while searching for someone to join the sect. He used Gu Rusong's blood to set a trap for Lu Dongliang's men, while Lu Dongchun escaped with Dabo Ensi and sought refuge with Zhao Xiaowan's Flying General Camp.

• Sun Tiecheng explained that He Jiaqing could steal techniques with Mystical Empty Hand and asked Li Banfeng to find a suitable junior disciple within a year.
• Sun Tiecheng taught Li Banfeng the essentials of Riding the Donkey Downhill and showed him the changed entrance to Fool's City.
• Li Banfeng had Wife grow a Cabbage Man from Gu Rusong's blood, then lured Lu Dongliang's sixteen subordinates into the Portable Abode, where Hong Ying killed them.
• Dabo Ensi stopped Lu Dongchun from approaching Ma Wu and later persuaded her that the man in the woods was an impostor laying a trap.
• Dabo Ensi took Lu Dongchun to join Zhao Xiaowan's Flying General Camp, while Peep Eight Directions reported their escape to Li Banfeng and Wife invited them to negotiate with her directly.

Li Banfeng investigated the Flying General Camp after its members published stories about Zhao Xiaowan’s victories, and learned that the group was actively attacking the Jiang Xiang Gang. The camp destroyed halls at Luo Yu Pass and elsewhere, while Xiao Zhengong confronted Shen Jingye about the Dark Star Bureau’s failure to stop it.

• Li Banfeng rewarded Luo ZhengNan with a dance hall and ordered him to watch the Flying General Camp.
• Li Banfeng brought supplies and money to Changsan Academy, where Yan Hong told him a story about Zhao Xiaowan and the destruction of the bandits at Thousand Pearl Mountain.
• Li Banfeng and Ma Wu traced the story to Shan Zhumei, who admitted she and Xie Mengjiao belonged to the Flying General Camp and said Zhao Xiaowan planned to attack the Jiang Xiang Gang.
• Shan Zhumei told Li Banfeng that the Flying General Camp would destroy the Jiang Xiang Gang’s Luo Yu Pass hall, and the hall was destroyed two days later.
• You Tao told Li Banfeng that the Flying General Camp planned to destroy two more Jiang Xiang Gang halls.
• Xiao Zhengong confronted Shen Jingye about the Flying General Camp destroying three of his halls and questioned whether Shen wanted to replace him as the Balance Person.

Li Banfeng grew suspicious of the Flying General Camp’s planned attack on the Jiang Xiang Gang after learning that Shan Zhumei knew the operation details, while Xiao Zhengong returned to Pro State and prepared the gang for the coming assault. The chapter ended with Xiao Zhengong speaking to a hidden woman beneath the Jiang Xiang Gang’s main hall, as Dabo Ensi stood by.

• Shen Jingye questioned Xiao Zhengong’s work as a Balance Person, and Xiao Zhengong said he would return to Pro State to convey the higher-ups’ wishes and check on his gang.
• Li Banfeng learned that the Flying General Camp planned to attack the Jiang Xiang Gang’s main hall in three days and suspected that Shan Zhumei’s advance knowledge was suspicious.
• Qin Tianjiu told Li Banfeng that the Three Heroes Gate had heard of the attack, but Li Banfeng urged him to investigate the Flying General Camp and avoid rushing into the matter.
• Xiao Zhengong visited Guanfang Hall and the Jiang Xiang Gang’s main hall, where he prepared Yao Zhiyi for the expected assault and marked two disciples to be spared.
• Xiao Zhengong met Dabo Ensi in a hidden basement beneath the main hall and asked a woman concealed in a secret chamber to endure there a little longer.

Xiao Zhengong prepared Jiang Xiang Gang’s banquet as a cover for the gang’s planned disappearance, while Li Banfeng attended with the He, Lu, and Chu families and drew out Xiao’s account of Outer State’s treatment of unregistered cultivators. As He Jiaqing reached Lu Xiaolan in the hidden chamber, Li Banfeng suddenly shot Xiao Zhengong in the head at the banquet.

• Xiao Zhengong learned that Li Qi and Cui Tike would attend the banquet, and decided he would offer Li the Gang Leader’s seat before Jiang Xiang Gang disappeared.
• Li Banfeng prepared to attend with He Yuxiu, Lu Chunying, and Chu Huaiyuan, telling them the matter involved feigned death and rebirth.
• He Jiaqing emerged from Cui Tike’s leaking canister, entered the hidden chamber, and confronted Lu Xiaolan, claiming he had helped her survive.
• At the banquet, Xiao Zhengong explained that Outer State treated unregistered cultivators as threats who could be shot on sight.
• Li Banfeng drew his pistol and shot Xiao Zhengong six times, with five bullets passing through his head.

Li Qi killed Xiao Zhengong and helped destroy the Jiang Xiang Gang while Lu Xiaolan and Dabo Ensi escaped into a sealed underground chamber with Xiao Zhengong’s corpse. The chapter left He Jiaqing trapped below, while Dabo Ensi sought the secret preserved in the corpse’s blood and memories.

• Li Qi shot Xiao Zhengong, captured him, and fed him to Wife in the Portable Abode.
• Li Banfeng helped the glove remove the stone spikes, sealing He Jiaqing inside the basement as Lu Xiaolan and Dabo Ensi escaped through another passage.
• He Yuxiu captured Yao Zhiyi, and Li Qi’s allies killed the Jiang Xiang Gang’s defenders before Luo ZhengNan arrived to finish the survivors.
• Yao Zhiyi revealed that Lu Xiaolan had impersonated Zhao Xiaowan and that Xiao Zhengong had used her to raise the Flying General Camp’s banner.
• Luo ZhengNan found the underground entrance sealed and the corpse missing, while Dabo Ensi explained that Xiao Zhengong’s blood preserved part of his soul and memories.
• He Jiaqing remained trapped underground, and Cui Tike left after confirming that He Jiaqing had not returned.

Li Banfeng and his allies destroyed the Jiang Xiang Gang and uncovered new mysteries involving the Portable Abode, the Fifth Chamber, and a missing treasure. The chapter ended with White Glove confronting a black glove that had appeared inside the Portable Abode.

• Li Qi ordered Luo ZhengNan to eliminate the Jiang Xiang Gang's remaining branches in Pro State, with the He and Lu Families contributing support.
• The Portable Abode explained that eight railway tracks could break through to the Inner State, but twelve tracks and greater cultivation were needed to travel there safely and rescue Old Train.
• The projector told Li Banfeng that the Fifth Chamber woman, Su Lijun, seemed connected to a power that could create and erase consciousness, and Li Banfeng gave him Ling Miaoying's gun and other Spiritual Objects to study instead.
• Li Banfeng invited the Fifth Chamber woman to speak, but its glow and cold wind vanished; the next day he publicly reported the Jiang Xiang Gang's destruction and learned Shen Rongqing was unsure whether to publish the news.
• Ling Miaosheng entrusted her phonograph store and the Spiritual Object Tracer to Li Banfeng before leaving to seek the art and memories she had lost in Amikan Country.
• After White Glove finally gave up searching Xiao Zhengong's clothes, a door opened inside the Portable Abode, and White Glove attacked a black glove as Li Banfeng woke.

Li Banfeng captured Xiao Zhengong’s Black Glove, but chose to absorb it into Red Lotus after it injured the White Glove; the White Glove emerged from the lotus as a black-spotted glove and struggled to open the Portable Abode’s door. Meanwhile, Liao Zihui secretly monitored Carefree Dock and misread Li Banfeng’s plans, leaving Guanfang Hall preparing for a confrontation that had not yet come.

• Li Banfeng and the White Glove fought Xiao Zhengong’s Black Glove until the Judge’s Brush immobilized it, and Wife took its soul after Li Banfeng refused to spare it for hurting his brother.
• Red Lotus absorbed the Black Glove and the White Glove, then produced the White Glove as a black-spotted glove; he failed repeatedly to open the Portable Abode’s door until the Portable Abode opened it itself and knocked him unconscious by slamming it shut.
• Liao Zihui questioned Li Banfeng about Xiao Zhengong’s death and demanded his documents and seal, while Li Banfeng denied anything remained and later discovered Liao had planted a listening hook at Carefree Dock.
• Liao Zihui heard Li Banfeng’s staged talk of confronting a powerful debt collector and kept Guanfang Hall on alert, then prepared an ambush after hearing another conversation suggesting Li Banfeng would attack that night.

Li Banfeng oversaw Chu Er’s attempt to open land, brought Light Bulb to a dangerous new territory, and discovered five Heaven Heart Stones that the Portable Abode used to build a larger station. While exploring his territory, he found a mountain that had appeared unexpectedly and encountered the painter Fu Taiyue near its summit.

• Liao Zihui and Xia Shumin attended Jiang Mengting’s Song Festival, where Li Banfeng briefly spoke with them before sensing that someone was opening land.
• Li Banfeng stopped Chu Er’s land-opening ceremony until she revised the contract to exclude Cui Tike and the other foreigners, then later approved the corrected claim and arranged a test.
• Li Banfeng took Light Bulb to the new land and left him there with supplies, where Light Bulb discovered a gigantic blood-red grub beneath him.
• Li Banfeng recruited the bull-headed man and the jujube tree monster to test Chu Er’s group, offering up to ten Strange Monsters three months of cultivation each.
• The old master found five Heaven Heart Stones, and the Portable Abode began building a large station with them.
• Li Banfeng investigated a mountain that had appeared in his territory and found an unfinished portrait whose subject turned to look at him before painter Fu Taiyue emerged from the forest.

Li Banfeng investigated Fu Taiyue, a powerful Painting Cultivator whose mountain had appeared in his territory, and learned that Fu Taiyue had been sent to the Extremely Yin Land by a Mountain God. When rain transformed Fu Taiyue into a DaoLao Ghost, Knife Ghost Ridge appeared around Li Banfeng, leaving him surrounded by monsters.

• Li Banfeng met Fu Taiyue on the painted mountain, studied his painting techniques, and left him food while trying to learn why he had come.
• Hong Ying told Li Banfeng how a Painting Cultivator had once trapped her brother in a painting, and the phonograph warned Li Banfeng not to fight Fu Taiyue inside his painted world.
• Li Banfeng grew restless and repeatedly patrolled his territory before returning to the mountain to speak with Fu Taiyue.
• Fu Taiyue revealed that a Mountain God had told him to go to the Extremely Yin Land, then spoke with his own portrait about a mountain and the rain that had trapped him.
• Rain transformed Fu Taiyue into a DaoLao Ghost, and the Judge's Brush identified the monster as Li Banfeng tried to escape its attacks.
• DaoLao Ghosts emerged from the trees, grass, and ground, and Li Banfeng recognized the place as Knife Ghost Ridge.

Li Banfeng escaped Knife Ghost Ridge with Chu Er, who was poisoned by a DaoLao Ghost, and Cui Tike saved her by taking the virus into himself. Cui Tike revealed his interest in the mountain’s origins, while Li Banfeng learned that someone had diverted Knife Ghost Ridge toward his territory and the Saint was waiting for Chu Shaoqiang to find it.

• Li Banfeng trapped DaoLao Ghosts in a swamp, escaped the encirclement, and Chu Er crossed the reclamation boundary to save him before being sprayed with black mist.
• Chu Er’s memories began fading as the poison spread, but Cui Tike treated her by transferring the infection to himself and swallowing it.
• Cui Tike explained that DaoLao Ghosts carried Ang Viruses and that Knife Ghost Ridge might predate the Dao Gate Ancestor; he asked Li Banfeng to secure him three days of access to the mountain.
• Li Banfeng returned to the Portable Abode, where Wife and Hong Ying linked Knife Ghost Ridge’s appearance to a Heaven Heart Stone and warned that the mountain attracted cultivators.
• The Portable Abode offered to send Knife Ghost Ridge elsewhere using one of two remaining Heaven Heart Stones, while Chu Shaoqiang told the Saint that the guiding stone had been lost in the new land.

Li Banfeng and Cui Tike investigated Knife Ghost Ridge, but Cui Tike’s attempt to infect the DaoLao Ghosts with a disease focus instead made them able to seek water without thunderstorms and left them unusually excited. Li Banfeng then learned that Chu Shaoqiang planned to deliver Knife Ghost Ridge to the Sage, and considered helping him recover the missing Heaven Heart Stones for a suitable reward.

• The Saint decided to wait three days for Chu Shaoqiang’s explanation, while Li Banfeng ordered Old Cow’s men to keep people off the mountain.
• Cui Tike explained his theory about DaoLao Ghosts’ altered perception and used painted patterns to make one believe it had found water.
• Cui Tike spread a disease focus among the DaoLao Ghosts, but they became excited and gathered in large numbers; Li Banfeng left Cui Tike behind, and the infected ghosts could now seek water without thunderstorms.
• Chu Shaoqiang told Li Banfeng that he planned to send Knife Ghost Ridge to Sage Peak so the Sage could use the DaoLao Ghosts as an army to reclaim his former realm.
• Chu Shaoqiang admitted that delivering Knife Ghost Ridge was part of a deal with the Sage to shield him from blame, then asked Li Banfeng to help find the missing Heaven Heart Stones.
• Li Banfeng said he might help recover at least two Heaven Heart Stones, depending on the reward Chu Shaoqiang offered.

Li Banfeng traded Chu Shaoqiang two Heaven Heart Stones for a rare Inner State scroll, allowing Chu Shaoqiang to move Knife Ghost Ridge to Sage Peak. The Sage’s attempt to tame the DaoLao Ghosts ended in disaster, and a howl outside his residence suggested the danger had followed him.

• Chu Shaoqiang offered an Inner State scroll to Li Banfeng in exchange for two Heaven Heart Stones, and the Portable Abode confirmed the scroll was genuine and agreed to return the stones.
• Chu Shaoqiang retrieved the two stones and secretly guided Knife Ghost Ridge to Sage Peak, while the Sage publicly claimed he had moved the mountain himself.
• Cui Tike warned Li Banfeng that the DaoLao Ghosts’ altered vision might let them range far beyond Knife Ghost Ridge.
• The Sage led his disciples up Knife Ghost Ridge and tried to control the DaoLao Ghosts with thought cultivators, Insect Cultivators, and demonic cultivators, but every attempt failed.
• The DaoLao Ghosts overwhelmed the Sage’s disciples, and the Sage escaped the ridge with only a dozen or so followers after suffering heavy losses.
• Song Deke proposed luring the DaoLao Ghosts down the mountain, but a howl outside the Sage’s residence alarmed the Sage and Du Xiangwen.

Xu Han learned that the Sage’s disciples were under attack by the DaoLao Ghosts and sent letters urging the Sage’s old enemies to seize the chance to settle their grudges. As Sage Peak fell into ruin, Li Banfeng tried to evacuate villagers while the Sage’s former adversaries gathered outside his residence, where Song Deke’s synchronized kowtow left them competing to lead the way in.

• Xu Han captured Gong Ziming, learned that the DaoLao Ghosts had attacked Sage Peak, and sent eighteen eggplant men carrying letters to the Sage’s old enemies.
• Green Water Bow and He Jiaqing approached Sage Peak as DaoLao Ghosts roamed beyond Knife Ghost Ridge, while Li Banfeng and Cui Tike arrived and discussed the disaster they had helped bring about.
• Li Banfeng sent Cabbage Men in different directions and urged villagers to flee, killing a man who rallied the village to defend the Sage.
• The Sage’s remaining disciples held the ruined Sage’s Residence as Pan Dehai, Mu Yuejuan, Qiao Wuzui, Ye Jianhuang, and Gui Jianchou gathered outside and argued over who would confront the Sage first.
• Green Water Bow stepped toward the residence, but Song Deke and more than a dozen disciples came out, knelt, and kowtowed in unison before Song Deke claimed the right to lead the way.

The Saint escaped Sage Peak before Zhou Wencheng and the other leaders arrived, and the Imperial Jade Seal disappeared with him—or with He Jiaqing. As the DaoLao Ghosts massacred Sage Peak and Huaien Village, the story shifted to Li Banfeng leading refugees toward Carefree Plains and He Jiaqing struggling to escape a secret chamber.

• Mu Yuejuan and the others entered the Saint's residence with Zhou Wencheng, killed the disciples who ambushed them, and found the Saint and the Imperial Jade Seal missing.
• The leaders turned on Green Water Bow, but the DaoLao Ghosts arrived and scattered them; Cui Tike revealed that he had become one of the creatures.
• The DaoLao Ghosts slaughtered Sage Peak's residents and then attacked Huaien Village, where Cui Tike watched them kill villagers reciting the Saint's teachings.
• Li Banfeng led more than ten thousand people toward Carefree Plains and asked the Peddler to help guide them through the New Land.
• Green Water Bow met Wan Jinxian in Green Water City and ordered him to find He Jiaqing, while Mu Yuejuan collected Zhou Wencheng's share of magical artifacts from Boss Lu.
• Luo ZhengNan planned to eliminate bandits at Green Water Bay, while He Jiaqing scraped at a brick in the damaged secret chamber beneath the former Jiang Xiang Gang hall.