Chapter Summaries

Li Banfeng learned that Qin Tianjiu was trapped in the wormhole and sought a way to rescue him while investigating who was studying the boundary. Meanwhile, He Jiaqing tried to steal information from Boss Lu, and competing forces moved to develop a method for breaking the boundary lines.

• Li Banfeng crossed the boundary through the hidden bridges, saw White Crane and a gaunt man in the wormhole, then learned the missing man was Qin Tianjiu and decided to rescue him.
• Wife explained how the real and illusory bridges worked, and Li Banfeng sent the pendulum and Dream Virtue to her laboratory to help research a rescue.
• Boss Lu arranged for Lin Fojiao to buy scientific research equipment, and Tang Changfa recognized that the list included the same electromagnetometer the shopkeeper had previously bought.
• Li Banfeng told Tang Changfa to proceed with the equipment deal and discreetly discover who had commissioned it, while He Haisheng bought the list and traced it to Lu Family Bookstore.
• He Jiaqing broke into Boss Lu’s bookstore but was overwhelmed by animated characters until Master Kong Fang helped him escape; they discussed using Yu Yaoming’s research to break the boundary lines.
• Cui Tike learned that He Jiaqing was researching the boundary and, watching the DaoLao Ghosts prepare for New Year, pondered what to name his second technique.

Li Banfeng and the phonograph investigated the light inside a wormhole while He Jiaqing violently took control of the Azure Cloud Society and drew attention to himself. He revealed to Big Head that his conspicuous actions were meant to keep powerful people at a distance, leaving his intentions toward the Hundred Flowers Gate uncertain.

• Li Banfeng told the phonograph that he had seen light and people inside the wormhole, and they discussed making a rope to reach those beneath the Dark Bridges.
• He Jiaqing ordered Big Head to endure the Azure Cloud Society’s harassment before directing him to beat the gang’s hoodlums, after which their severed heads appeared at the gang’s hall.
• He Jiaqing’s forces killed Han Yaomen and devastated Azure Cloud Society branches; He Jiaqing installed Yue Hongliang as the new leader and publicly advertised the gang’s destruction.
• Zhang Xiuling received He Jiaqing’s invitation to a theater opening, while Master Kong Fang ended his business with He Jiaqing after learning he was targeting the Hundred Flowers Gate.
• He Jiaqing told Big Head that powerful figures had used him as a scapegoat, and that he had made himself conspicuous so they would keep their distance.

Zhang Xiuling surrendered the Hundred Flowers Gate to He Jiaqing, but he later pursued her and Fu Lianhong after deciding she had to die. Ma Wu sheltered them at Carefree Dock, where He Jiaqing backed down after being urgently contacted, while Li Banfeng learned that Judge's Brush had lent some of its power to Zhang Xiuling.

• Zhang Xiuling rejected He Jiaqing's demands at first, but after Fu Lianhong urged her to leave the gang, she handed him the Hundred Flowers Gate's roster and seal and departed with Fu Lianhong.
• He Jiaqing ordered Shen Rongqing and Duan Shuqun to kill Zhang Xiuling, then confronted her and Fu Lianhong as they tried to flee, stealing their ink, blood, and sand before a sudden snowfall disrupted his pursuit.
• After He Jiaqing's followers cut off their escape routes, Zhang Xiuling and Fu Lianhong reached Carefree Dock, where Ma Wu sheltered them and arranged for their injuries to be treated.
• He Jiaqing demanded that Ma Wu hand Zhang Xiuling over, but left after receiving word that Guanfang Hall had intercepted a shipment and threatened to seal up his operation.
• Li Banfeng learned from Judge's Brush that it had lent part of its power to Zhang Xiuling and that the power was now in the sky.

Li Banfeng tried to use Intent Travels a Thousand Mountains to reach the clouds, while Zhang Xiuling reclaimed Hundred Flowers Garden through Li Qi’s influence over Guanfang Hall. After the Peddler warned He Jiaqing against further attacks, he confronted Li Banfeng for repeatedly setting fires on the cloud where his sweetheart lived.

• Li Banfeng asked the Judge's Brush how it had left part of itself in the sky, then tried to recreate the experience with Dream Virtue and Intent Travels a Thousand Mountains.
• Li Banfeng's attempts to relocate a cloud produced smoke and fires in Li Qi's room, while Ma Wu told him that He Jiaqing had stolen threads of affection from Miss Feng.
• Li Banfeng urged Zhang Xiuling to reclaim Hundred Flowers Garden by taking over He Jiaqing's sealed businesses, and He Jiaqing returned the garden after Liao Zihui refused to intervene.
• He Jiaqing began building a manor on Hundred Flowers Gate land, but a mysterious worker vanished before him and the Peddler warned him not to target Ground Skin again.
• Li Banfeng asked Shen Jinzhong to find rare medicinal herbs, including Water Snake Grass, and the Peddler confronted him for setting fires on the cloud where his sweetheart lived.

Li Banfeng used a special rope made by Wife to rescue Qin Tianjiu from the wormhole, then helped the rope bring out the white-clad man and another prisoner. The White Crane gave the remaining escape chances to others, and Li Banfeng recognized the next woman to emerge as Teacher Song.

• Li Banfeng denied setting the Peddler’s house on fire, learned that the Cloud Gate Technique was a Boundless Skill, and discussed advancement and popularity with him.
• The Peddler offered to teach Li Banfeng the Cloud Gate Technique if he served as Local Earth God at Virtue Praise Cliff, but Li Banfeng refused and bought Water Snake Grass.
• Wife made a special rope, and Li Banfeng carried it into the wormhole to find Qin Tianjiu.
• The rope compressed Qin Tianjiu enough to pull him through the Dark Bridge gap, and Li Banfeng brought him safely out of the wormhole.
• The White Crane let the white-clad man escape first, then gave the next chance to a woman who turned out to be Teacher Song.

Li Banfeng rescued Song Shu from a dangerous encounter, while White Crane and Bai Xinsheng reached Green Water City and found work at Ling Miaosheng’s phonograph store. After Liao Zihui reported that Shen Jingye had vanished while investigating Gourd Village, Li Banfeng entered a Dark Star Bureau meeting and announced that Shen was trapped in the Unnameable Place.

• Li Banfeng secured White Crane, the man in white, and Song Shu’s silence with contracts, and Song Shu left the swamp without knowing where she was.
• Song Shu encountered Zhao Xiaowan in the forest, whose entrancing voice nearly led her home, but Li Banfeng carried Zhao Xiaowan away before she could capture her.
• White Crane and Bai Xinsheng arrived in Green Water City, earned Ling Miaosheng’s offer to record their music, and met Li Banfeng at dinner.
• Li Banfeng learned from Ling Miaosheng that Inner Amikan Country feared an impending attack by the Demon King, then agreed to help Liao Zihui find Shen Jingye.
• Li Banfeng interrupted Guan Zhengyang’s meeting and told the Dark Star Bureau that Shen Jingye was trapped in the Unnameable Place, challenging Guan to see it for himself.

Li Banfeng searched for Shen Jingye in Gourd Village, then investigated the Dark Star Bureau’s medicine supplies and discovered a report linking Black Dwarf Star eruptions to mutations and wars. The chapter ended with the Peddler assigning a man to end a violent conflict at Virtue Praise Cliff, while Li Banfeng wondered whether a new war would reach Pro State.

• Li Banfeng ordered a citywide search for Shen Jingye, then entered Gourd Village and learned Shen had signed a contract and was living at Gourd Waist.
• Li Banfeng arranged for the projector to repeatedly report to Guan Zhengyang, prompting Guan to suspend the task force and leave the search for Shen to Li Qi.
• Li Banfeng investigated the Pharmaceutical Department, uncovered its raw-material preparation process, and secured the promised three hundred units of Harmonizing Agent after three days of inspections.
• Tangyuan brought Li Banfeng an archive report stating that Black Dwarf Stars periodically erupted, caused mutations, and were followed by wars; Li Banfeng connected the findings to possible conflict in Pro State.
• At Virtue Praise Cliff, opposing factions fought and left many dead, and the Peddler tasked a man with restoring order by deciding who would stay and who would die.

Cui Tike rescued the abused child Tang Xinde, whom he called Xiao De, and confronted the virtue cultivators of Virtue Praise Cliff while investigating the war. After Song Demei’s men ambushed him, Cui Tike returned wounded to the cave, where Xiao De waited for him and began to form a bond with him.

• Luo ZhengNan saw virtue cultivators beating a young child and watched Cui Tike carry him away; the attackers soon suffered horrific injuries without Cui Tike visibly striking them.
• Cui Tike treated the child, learned his name was Tang Xinde, called him Xiao De, and brought him to a cave on Virtue Sincerity Mountain.
• Song Demei learned that Cui Tike had injured her villagers, confronted him at a tailor shop, and heard him condemn her war and claim he would stay until it ended.
• Cui Tike defended himself against Song Demei’s moral suppression by invoking his virtue and his Dao Gate Ancestor, the Green Water Beggar, then left with supplies.
• Travel Cultivators ambushed Cui Tike on the mountainside; he returned to the cave at night wounded, with his cart and much of his food destroyed.
• Xiao De had waited and saved food for Cui Tike, who gave him cotton-padded clothes, prepared to bake bread, and asked him to remind him of his rule about whom to kill.

Li Banfeng investigated a disastrous Dark Star Bureau operation after Guan Zhengyang’s team entered a tracker-linked Stealth Space and was attacked by spherical creatures. Evidence pointed toward the elusive Steam Restoration Faction, while Cui Tike expanded his strange rules-based technique at Virtue Praise Cliff and continued questioning a child.

• Li Banfeng learned that Light Bulb had locked onto a Stealth Space entrance, but Guan Zhengyang took control of the operation and sent the Special Operations Team inside.
• Spherical creatures emerged within the vector passage, killed many team members, and badly injured Guan Zhengyang before the survivors escaped.
• Li Banfeng questioned the surviving captain, concluded the space was not Gourd Village, and secured authority to investigate in exchange for the Three-Headed People and the Harmonizing Agent.
• Li Banfeng and Wife examined the tracker, and Wife identified its operating principle and proposed modifying the Dark Bridge Cannon.
• Tangyuan found the Steam Restoration Faction insignia among the creature remains and warned that the Dark Star Bureau had failed to capture anyone from the group.
• Cui Tike explained that his technique now made people ill if they attacked him or broke promises, while the child kept eating bread and feeding noodle soup to a DaoLao Ghost.

Li Banfeng realized the Steam Restoration Faction case was a diversion concealing an attack aimed at Light Bulb, whose face cream contained fat-eating microorganisms. He traced the cream to a factory in Yuezhou and confronted its manager, Han Xiaoxuan, whom he recognized as an Inner State person.

• Tangyuan briefed Li Banfeng on the Steam Restoration Faction’s history, its vanished workers, and its elusive leader, He Yunfei, while the bureau prioritized investigating the faction.
• Eighth House identified the faction case as an Unsolvable Problem and argued that its apparent operations made little practical sense, prompting Li Banfeng to reconsider the attack on Light Bulb.
• Li Banfeng discovered that Candied Fruit’s face cream contained microorganisms that multiplied on fat and had dried out Light Bulb’s face, then ordered the bureau to investigate the cream’s manufacturer in secret.
• The lab traced the face cream to a factory in Yuezhou run by Han Xiaoxuan, and Li Banfeng assembled a team and went to raid it.
• Li Banfeng entered the factory manager’s office, found Han Xiaoxuan touching up her makeup, and recognized her as an Inner State person.

Li Banfeng fought the seemingly unkillable Han Xiaoxuan while the Dark Star Bureau attacked the factory and sealed it beneath a protective barrier. After Li Banfeng removed Han Xiaoxuan's powder box, he discovered that she was the dust itself and that the factory's puppets were made from her body.

• Han Xiaoxuan attacked Li Banfeng with poisonous powder and a reflected beam, but Li Banfeng and his shadow struck back as Han Xiaoxuan repeatedly exploded and reappeared.
• Li Banfeng searched the office building and recognized its workers as puppets, while Chen Changrui launched a drone assault on the factory's materials, production, and finished-goods areas.
• Chuunibyou evacuated the sales personnel from the finished-goods warehouse, and Chen Changrui ordered the factory sealed beneath a barrier made from a Phlegm Cultivator's thick phlegm.
• Li Banfeng tracked down Han Xiaoxuan, took her powder box, and used a boundary to destroy her body, but she revived and pursued him as he carried the box away.
• Li Banfeng tossed the powder box into the Portable Abode, leaving Han Xiaoxuan motionless as the factory's puppet workers exploded and their dust flowed into her.
• Li Banfeng realized Han Xiaoxuan was the powder dust throughout the factory and had created its puppets from her own body.

Li Banfeng learned that Han Xiaoxuan’s face cream spread a fungus that turned infected people into Living Dead, revealing that the Inner State’s war against the Outer State had already begun. With Light Bulb, Preserved Fruit, and Crabapple infected, Li Banfeng took them to Pro State to seek help from Cui Tike, who agreed to treat them after settling the price.

• Li Banfeng questioned Han Xiaoxuan and learned that the fungus in her face cream would control users’ brains and turn them into Living Dead who spread spores.
• Wife drew Han Xiaoxuan’s soul from her body, and Li Banfeng ordered Chen Changrui to shut down face cream sales, recall the product, and isolate everyone exposed.
• Li Banfeng found Light Bulb standing rigidly in a corner and realized that he, Preserved Fruit, and Crabapple were showing signs of infection.
• Li Banfeng arranged a special train to Pro State and traveled with the three infected colleagues, hoping to find someone who could treat them.
• Liao Zihui directed Li Banfeng to Cui Tike on Virtue Sincerity Mountain, where Cui Tike examined the infected group and agreed to help after negotiating a fair price.

Li Banfeng treated the Pro State gangs to a threatening banquet and drove them to leave Virtue Praise Cliff, then accepted Song Demei’s invitation. He stayed on Virtue Sincerity Mountain while her third son was killed and hung from a memorial arch, leaving Song Demei’s plans in disarray.

• Cui Tike set conditions for treating Light Bulb and asked Li Banfeng to drive the gangs away, provide grain to Virtue Praise Cliff, and deter its restless leaders.
• Li Banfeng investigated the gangs and held a banquet where Luo Tongkui’s severed head frightened the guests into leaving Virtue Praise Cliff.
• Song Demei appealed to the departing gang leaders’ old debts of gratitude, but they left by the village’s eastern entrance rather than stay and fight.
• Song Demei and her sons planned a banquet to deal with Li Qi, and Li Banfeng accepted their invitation.
• Song Demei’s third son was found dead, hanging from the Song family patriarch’s memorial arch, while Li Banfeng ate noodles on the mountain.
• Li Banfeng explained that he had hung the third son on the arch to help him cut the line for a memorial arch.

Li Banfeng left Virtue Praise Cliff to retrieve Qin Tianjiu from Pan Dehai, who revealed a divination predicting a bloodshed disaster at the cliff. While Cui Tike treated the patients and prepared to distribute grain, a boy named Liang Chongde lured him away, and Cui Tike returned to find the child dead, triggering a storm and the emergence of DaoLao Ghosts.

• Cui Tike’s virus treatment improved Light Bulb’s condition, and he prepared a strain that could cure most infected people.
• A Xia told Li Banfeng that Pan Dehai had captured Qin Tianjiu, so Li Banfeng went to Sea Eat Ridge and learned Pan Dehai wanted to train Qin Tianjiu as a Food Cultivator.
• Pan Dehai and A Xia divined that a bloodshed disaster threatened Virtue Praise Cliff, prompting Li Banfeng to race back toward the mountain.
• Cui Tike cured Light Bulb, Candied Fruit, and Crabapple and sent them down the mountain with Luo ZhengNan to collect and distribute grain.
• Liang Chongde falsely claimed that villagers were fighting over the grain, drawing Cui Tike away from the cave while he urged the child to return to the village.
• Cui Tike returned to find the child dead and collapsed in grief as black rashes spread across his face, thunderclouds gathered, and DaoLao Ghosts emerged from the mountain.

Song Demei’s scheme to force Cui Tike into retreat failed after he unleashed his Barren Land technique across Virtue Praise Cliff, killing many and infecting the villages. After Li Banfeng helped rescue surviving allies, the Peddler arrived and, instead of punishing Cui Tike, gave him Virtue Praise Cliff as his territory.

• Song Demei admitted she had ordered Liang Chongde to kill Tang Xinde and planned to use villagers as hostages to force Cui Tike to leave.
• Cui Tike entered Virtue Praise Cliff with DaoLao Ghosts, infected its people with black rashes, and killed his way toward Song Demei.
• Cui Tike defeated Song Demei and spread his Barren Land technique through the surrounding villages, while Li Banfeng arrived and found the child buried beside Cui Tike.
• Cui Tike refused Li Banfeng’s offer to revive the child as a Living Dead and explained that Yue Congde was an Inner State spy who had already fled.
• Cui Tike helped Li Banfeng remove lesions from surviving allies and asked him to plant the child’s flower by his grave if he died.
• The Peddler arrived and gave Cui Tike Virtue Praise Cliff as his territory, despite the devastation.

Li Banfeng learned how the Peddler judged risky business and proposed rescuing all the Three-Headed People of Three Heads Junction through his hidden bridge. Cui Tike failed to secure seeds from Zhang Wanlong, while the chapter ended with Yue Congde developing an itchy rash after reporting on Virtue Praise Cliff to Inner State ministers.

• The Peddler explained that Virtue Praise Cliff was a hopeless business and that Cui Tike had contained its losses, then agreed to help Li Banfeng plan to bring the Three-Headed People across the boundary if his bridge could carry two hundred people at once.
• Cui Tike visited Zhang Wanlong to seek seeds, but Zhang denied selling them and Cui Tike left without help.
• Zhang Wanlong refused to sell seeds to He Jiaqing, allowed him to steal seeds that would not grow as intended, and later identified Du Wenming as another visitor seeking seeds.
• Du Wenming and Master Kong Fang speculated about the Peddler's response to Virtue Praise Cliff, while Yue Congde told Inner State ministers that Cui Tike had wiped out the territory.
• After receiving his reward, Yue Congde felt an itchy rash spreading across his back and feared anyone would notice it.

Du Wenming failed to get Zhang Wanlong’s seeds and agreed to help Master Kong Fang abduct Yu Yaoming from Lu Family Bookstore, while Li Banfeng secured seeds from Zhang Wanlong for Cui Tike. At the bookstore, Master Kong Fang’s attack ended with him trapped in the Ink Fragrance Shop, and Boss Lu later told Yu Yaoming he had found him a test subject.

• Du Wenming tried to seize Zhang Wanlong’s seeds, but Zhang Wanlong’s two wives evaded his techniques and drove him from the village.
• Master Kong Fang told Du Wenming that he needed Zhang Wanlong’s seeds as bait to lure Zhou Badou out of Lu Family Bookstore; Du Wenming insisted on taking Yu Yaoming himself, and Master Kong Fang agreed to let him try.
• Li Banfeng bought five hundred seeds from Zhang Wanlong for Cui Tike and promised to ask the Local Earth God to approve expanding the village’s territory.
• Li Banfeng visited Boss Lu, criticized his attempted sequel to Embroidered Frost Collection, and discussed revisions with him through the night while Master Kong Fang distracted him downstairs.
• Du Wenming entered the bookstore storeroom to find Yu Yaoming, but Boss Lu’s written character captured him; Master Kong Fang was drawn into the Ink Fragrance Shop after his attack revealed that his opponent was not Zhou Badou.
• Boss Lu later went to Fragrant Pavilion, found Yu Yaoming drinking with courtesans, and told him he had found a test subject.

Boss Lu and Yu Yaoming sent the sealed Du Wenming into a wormhole, while Zhang Wanlong and Genzi used poisonous bok choy to defeat the Strange Monsters and reclaim ten li of land ahead of schedule. After the victory, Pan Dehai sought a teacher for his hungry new disciple, Qin Tianjiu.

• Boss Lu sealed Du Wenming’s cultivation and senses, then Yu Yaoming fired him into a wormhole to locate its exit, where Du Wenming found a narrow crack he could not pass through.
• Zhang Wanlong and Genzi defended their new land with bok choy that poisoned the charging Strange Monsters, and Li Banfeng realized the plants could use techniques resembling those of Poison Cultivators.
• Zhang Wanlong hosted the defeated Strange Monsters for a feast, and Li Banfeng’s recognition of his strength caused the territory to declare the reclamation successful before the three-day assessment ended.
• A man seeking advice about reclaiming land left Zhang Wanlong’s feast, then reported news of the successful ten-li reclamation to the Golden Gear Newspaper.
• Pan Dehai heard the reclamation report and learned Qin Tianjiu had eaten another cow, so he asked Gao Shuxia to approach Forget Sorrow Lady about taking Qin Tianjiu as her disciple.

Shen Jingye returned from Gourd Village and was coached by Chen Changrui to present a cover story, while Li Banfeng brought thirty thousand Three-Headed People to Snake Bridge Village and negotiated their use in reclaiming land. He secured an agreement with Meng Yuchun and set conditions for other Local Earth Gods, then visited Chu Er to discuss buying something valuable from her father.

• Tangyuan’s agents detained Shen Jingye as he emerged from the entrance to Gourd Village, and Chen Changrui instructed him to claim the bureau had rescued him from Dark Dimension Space.
• Liao Zihui sent twenty thousand approved Three-Headed People and ten thousand more from outside Sinner City with Li Banfeng to Snake Bridge Village.
• Li Banfeng assigned the newcomers food and shelter, gave two thousand people to Lu Chunying, and told visiting Local Earth Gods to prepare their territories before requesting help.
• Li Banfeng inspected Meng Yuchun’s preparations, signed a contract with her, and promised her three thousand Three-Headed People after the New Year.
• Li Banfeng required other Local Earth Gods to sign contracts barring them from handing their territories to Inner State and placing specified decisions under his authority; they delayed their answers until after the New Year.
• Li Banfeng visited Chu Er and told her he wanted to buy something valuable from her father.

Li Banfeng sought a way to recover Meng Yuchun’s deed and learned how rare Profound Essence Pills were, while also negotiating with plague-stricken snails for medicine in exchange for deeds. He asked Cui Tike to cure three people in Inner State, offering him a new plot of land with a complete deed as payment.

• Chu Er used her blood to summon Chu Shaoqiang to the Stone House, where Li Banfeng asked to buy Meng Yuchun’s deed.
• Chu Shaoqiang explained that the deed would cost twenty Profound Essence Pills and warned Li Banfeng that Inner State’s imperial clan was resistant to the plague.
• Li Banfeng asked Red Lotus, Hong Ying, and Wife about Profound Essence Pills, but learned little and hesitated to spend the seventeen pills Wife had carefully saved.
• Feng Daiku told Li Banfeng that Luo Lijun wanted to see him, and Li Banfeng met Luo Lijun, Luo Yanjun, and Luo Shaojun at the Soda Kiln.
• Luo Lijun agreed to trade three deeds for medicine for the three snails, and Li Banfeng learned that imperial-blooded people were unaffected by the plague.
• Li Banfeng asked Cui Tike to cure three people in Inner State and offered him a new plot of land with a complete deed as payment.