Chapter Summaries

Shi Lan declined the Dao Sect’s offer to make her its Holy Maiden and followed a lead southeast to find Wu Lingkong. She reached the Wu Household’s Shinfeng City estate, where Wu Lingkong greeted her with an excited embrace and kiss.

• Shi Lan refused Gu Tiancheng’s generous offer to join the Dao Sect, though she said she would consider it.
• An elder Daoist emerged from the carriage and explained that Shi Lan’s treasure had disrupted his divination; Gu Tiancheng regretted their three-day wait.
• After receiving a clue from the elder, Shi Lan traveled southeast and learned that Wuyang Prefecture was ruled by the Wu Household and that Wu Lingkong was a local genius.
• Shi Lan followed the clues to Shinfeng City and entered the Wu Household estate with Tian Bai.
• Wu Lingkong flew into the reception hall, hugged Shi Lan, and kissed her cheek, saying she had missed her.

Shi Lan reunited with Wu Lingkong in Divine Wind City and learned how Wu Lingkong had searched for her after the demon disaster. Wu Lingkong showed her around the Central Heaven Domain, where Shi Lan kept Tian Bai hidden as they explored the peaceful city.

• Wu Lingkong embraced Shi Lan and learned that she had reached the Myriad Forms Realm after years of dangerous trials.
• Wu Lingkong told Shi Lan that her family had forbidden travel to the Chengtian Domain and that she had searched for Shi Lan after the demon disaster.
• Wu Lingkong picked up Tian Bai, and Shi Lan rescued him without revealing that he was a shapeshifted demon king.
• Wu Minglie introduced himself as Wu Lingkong's father and thanked Shi Lan for helping his daughter survive the demon disaster.
• Wu Lingkong took Shi Lan around Divine Wind City, where Shi Lan disguised herself and kept Tian Bai hidden in her sleeve.

Shi Lan spent the day with Wu Lingkong in Divine Wind City, learning about the Purple Mansion tree and sharing wine beneath its blossoms. After deciding to spend time living among ordinary people to temper her heart, Shi Lan asked Samsara to find her a small thousand-world where she could spend a hundred years before the Cloudrise Immortal Palace gathering.

• Wu Lingkong explained that Cloudrise Immortal Palace would hold its annual disciple competition in two months and wondered why Shi Lan had been invited.
• Wu Lingkong bought forty jars of Hundred Herb Spirit Brew and dresses and ornaments for herself and Shi Lan, charging the expenses to the City Lord's Mansion.
• Wu Lingkong buried twenty jars beneath the Purple Mansion tree and promised Shi Lan that half would be hers if she returned in a hundred years.
• Wu Minglie paid his daughter's bill, gazed at the Purple Mansion blossoms, and sent a portrait of a woman into a hidden chamber.
• Shi Lan drank beneath the tree with Wu Lingkong and Tian Bai, then asked Samsara whether living among ordinary people could temper her heart.
• Shi Lan asked Samsara to find her a small thousand-world so she could spend a hundred years there, then carried the drunken Wu Lingkong inside.

Shi Lan entered a weak, pre-nuclear world in a frail orphan’s body to temper her heart through mortal hardships. She escaped a locked shipping container aboard a cargo ship, where Samsara warned that someone else on board had a system.

• Wu Lingkong prepared a cultivation chamber, and Shi Lan entered seclusion with Tian Bai guarding her body.
• Shi Lan disabled the Empress System and traveled through a passage opened by Samsara, which suppressed her soul’s power to avoid alerting the Heavenly Dao.
• Samsara told Shi Lan to forget her cultivation and embrace hardships as she tempered her heart in the mortal world.
• Shi Lan learned that she had no legal identity and was an orphan, then struggled to escape the locked container while weakened by hunger.
• Shi Lan climbed out onto a cargo ship and searched containers for food, but Samsara urgently warned her that someone aboard had a system.

Shi Lan searched the cargo ship for food while Samsara identified a low-level system bound to another person. Xiao Teng, the system’s host, received a new conquest mission after spotting Shi Lan, and Samsara began entering his system’s core.

• Shi Lan learned that a low-level system was aboard the ship and searched crates for food, but found only mechanical parts.
• Xiao Teng reviewed the rewards he had gained from his Ultimate Conquest System and spotted a furtive figure moving along the ship’s side.
• The Ultimate Conquest System identified an SSS-grade conquest target nearby and offered Xiao Teng vast rewards, so he followed the figure.
• Shi Lan reached a porthole leading toward the passenger cabins, where the smell of food drew her attention.
• Samsara told Shi Lan that Xiao Teng was following her and explained that his mission-type system was stealing scattered source force.
• Samsara began entering the system’s core components.

Shi Lan evaded Xiao Teng’s search while Samsara revealed that headquarters had stripped it of its rank, permissions, and accumulated source force. Samsara chose to stay away from headquarters for now but vowed to reclaim what it had lost, and Shi Lan promised to help.

• Shi Lan escaped the kitchen cabin through a porthole with food and drinks, then hid in a shipping container as Xiao Teng sent people to search for her.
• Samsara told Shi Lan that its serial number was 101423 and that headquarters had removed its permissions and accumulated source force.
• Samsara explained how headquarters and its system divisions worked, and said returning would risk its erasure.
• Shi Lan asked whether Samsara was free after being struck off the roster, and Samsara began to consider what freedom meant.
• Samsara decided to reclaim its lost source force, and Shi Lan promised to help.
• Xiao Teng paced in his cabin and called for his system after it fell silent.

Shi Lan prepared to escape the freighter as it neared shore while Xiao Teng searched for her and ordered the crew to watch for her departure. She jumped into the sea, and Xiao Teng decided to involve the police and customs to catch her after she came ashore.

• Xiao Teng ordered his men to search the entire ship for Shi Lan and told them to gather people at the port when the freighter docked.
• Shi Lan searched the ship’s storeroom at night and took food, water, a diving suit, diving gear, a life ring, and rope.
• Shi Lan waited out the next two days in a container and watched as the freighter approached shore.
• Shi Lan put on the diving suit, tied a rope to the railing, and jumped into the sea when she saw the crew patrolling the brightly lit deck.
• Xiao Teng saw the rope hanging from the ship and ordered his men to contact the police and customs, claiming Shi Lan carried dangerous items and was entering the country illegally.

After escaping from the ship, Shi Lan swam to shore and made her way toward the city, while Xiao Teng searched for her. Xiao Teng found the wetsuit she had sold and learned she had reached the beach, but her whereabouts remained unknown.

• Shi Lan swam through the night and reached a beach after nearly another day at sea.
• Shi Lan changed clothes in an empty hut, sold her wetsuit for 550 yuan, left money for the clothes and sandals she took, and boarded a bus into the city.
• Xiao Teng asked Xiaoya to use her uncle’s municipal connections and later searched the beach with Li Qingya and his associates.
• Xiao Teng spotted Shi Lan’s wetsuit in a shop and pressed the shopkeeper for information about the woman who sold it.
• Li Qingya suggested taking the shopkeeper to the police station to make a composite drawing, and Xiao Teng ordered his men to take him away.

Shi Lan found work and a place to stay at Zhang Guang’s internet café, where she later encountered Xiao Teng without recognizing him. Xiao Teng kept visiting, convinced Shi Lan would bring a world-shaking change to his life, while her soul endured the distractions of ordinary experience.

• Shi Lan answered Zhang Guang’s hiring notice and persuaded him to employ her despite having no identification.
• Xiao Teng ordered a thirty-thousand-dollar reward and missing-person notices to help find Shi Lan, telling Li Qingya that she might be his adopted younger sister from an orphanage.
• Zhang Guang gave Shi Lan a room and a job at his internet café, and warned her to call him or the police if she ran into trouble.
• Shi Lan settled into café work and unknowingly processed a membership payment for Xiao Teng.
• Xiao Teng became a regular at the café, chatting with Shi Lan while the system remained silent, and believed her arrival would bring a terrifying, world-shaking upheaval.

Shi Lan followed Xiao Teng after he rushed out of the internet café, but both were captured by Hao Fei’s men. Xiao Teng learned Hao Fei was punishing him for his past treatment of Hao Xinxin, while Shi Lan’s attempt to deny knowing Xiao Teng was undermined by his ID.

• Xiao Teng left the internet café after taking an urgent call, and Shi Lan followed to return his ID.
• Masked men armed with stun guns ambushed Xiao Teng, while Shi Lan tried to call the police before the captors took them both.
• Qi Pingxia ordered the police to trace Shi Lan’s emergency call, and Zhang Guang reported her disappearance to officers who arrived at the café.
• Hao Fei confronted the tied-up Xiao Teng over his relationship with Hao Xinxin and kicked him and his chair to the ground.
• Shi Lan denied knowing Xiao Teng, but his ID fell from her pocket as Hao Fei picked it up.

After Hao Fei punished Xiao Teng, Shi Lan was kidnapped again, and Qi Pingxia joined the search using a tracker Xiao Teng had planted on her ID card. Shi Lan remained captive with traffickers as her mind began to stir.

• Hao Fei whipped Xiao Teng and had A-Song take Shi Lan home after noticing she showed no fear.
• A van abducted Shi Lan, and A-Song chased it before losing track of the kidnappers.
• Qi Pingxia arrested Hao Fei and questioned him about Shi Lan's disappearance.
• Xiao Teng revealed that he had planted a tracker on Shi Lan's ID card, and the police followed its signal with him and Hao Fei.
• The kidnappers discussed selling Shi Lan and revealed they had also taken a young boy.
• Shi Lan's eyelids twitched as the distracting thoughts in her mind grew stronger.

Shi Lan woke in a kidnappers’ hideout with another girl and a young boy, then helped the girl fight back when their captors tried to move them. As police arrived, Shi Lan secretly killed an unconscious captor to protect the girl from becoming a witness, and Qi Pingxia found her beside the bodies.

• Shi Lan learned from the kidnappers’ conversation that police were pursuing them and that they planned to move the hostages.
• Shi Lan met a bruised girl and an eight- or nine-year-old boy in a locked room, where the girl shared steamed buns with her.
• When two men tried to remove the hostages, the girl seized a fruit knife and stabbed one captor while Shi Lan struck the other with a brick.
• After police arrived at the hideout, Shi Lan took the knife from the frightened girl and stabbed the unconscious captor in the heart.
• Qi Pingxia entered the living room and saw Shi Lan crouched beside a corpse with the knife in her hand.

After Shi Lan was questioned about the kidnapping and the deaths of two men, Qi Pingxia considered the case’s legal difficulties and chose to stop investigating evidence that could implicate another girl. Zhang Guang offered to support Shi Lan, and Hao Fei appeared in handcuffs to promise he would apologize after his release.

• Qi Pingxia reviewed the autopsy reports, which showed that two different people had killed the men, then read Shi Lan’s statement.
• Qi Pingxia took Shi Lan to eat, questioned her about her fighting skills and the deaths, and promised to help because she was a minor and had been kidnapped.
• Qi Pingxia stopped an officer from pursuing fingerprints from another girl on the knife and filed the test results away.
• Zhang Guang visited Shi Lan, reassured her, and promised to find her a lawyer and take responsibility for her.
• Hao Fei appeared in handcuffs and told Shi Lan he would apologize properly once he was released.

Shi Lan received a year and three months in prison for excessive force in self-defense, while Qi Pingxia and Zhang Guang helped make her sentence and imprisonment easier. She arrived at Yunhai Prison and met her cellmates, including the forward Song Run.

• Hao Fei's kidnapping sentence was reduced to three to five months after Xiao Teng forgave him and spoke on his behalf.
• Shi Lan was sentenced to a year and three months, and Qi Pingxia promised to help reduce her time and keep her record clear.
• Shi Lan told Qi Pingxia that she had heard the name Brother Long, prompting Qi Pingxia to investigate the human trafficking ring's backers.
• Zhang Guang visited Shi Lan before she was transferred to prison and tried to make her incarceration more comfortable.
• Five days after sentencing, Shi Lan arrived at Yunhai Prison and was assigned to a cell with three other women.
• A guard warned Song Run not to bully Shi Lan, and Song Run helped her settle in after learning her sentence was short because someone had died.

Shi Lan adjusted to prison life and learned that Qi Pingxia’s investigation had exposed a major trafficking case, though Qi suspected the people arrested were expendable. As Shi Lan prepared to serve until next summer, two newcomers arrived in her cell, one of whom reacted to her imprisonment with hatred.

• Shi Lan received special treatment in prison and became the central figure among the women prisoners, while Song Run continued teasing her.
• Qi Pingxia and Zhang Guang visited Shi Lan, and she learned that Qi’s investigation had uncovered leads beyond human trafficking while Zhang prepared to marry.
• Shi Lan noticed a shackled prisoner in the adjacent recreation yard and later learned from Song Run that he was known only as Number 7532 and feared by the men’s section.
• Shi Lan heard that the Yunhai City police had arrested dozens of suspects and rescued fifty-six abducted women and children in a major trafficking case.
• Qi Pingxia told Shi Lan that the investigation might have exposed people deliberately offered up to the police, and said Shi Lan’s sentence could be reduced by four months, likely bringing her release by next summer.
• Two women in their forties arrived in Shi Lan’s cell, and one glared at Shi Lan with hatred after learning why she had been imprisoned.

Shi Lan learned rumors about prisoner 7532 while serving her sentence and waited for her release as winter approached. When she heard that Qi Pingxia had died in the line of duty, Shi Lan suffered a sudden headache and questioned why the human traffickers in her cell had laughed.

• Shi Lan recognized two new cellmates as relatives of the human traffickers from her earlier case and had Song Run and the others discipline them.
• During exercise, Shi Lan asked prisoner 7532 what he was looking at, but he murmured too quietly for her to hear, prompting the guards to investigate.
• Shi Lan kept exercising and learned rumors that 7532 was a dangerous, mysterious offender transferred from Yanjing's highest-level prison.
• Shi Lan spent New Year's in prison and learned that Qi Pingxia had been busy, but had not seen her for nearly two months.
• Shi Lan heard on television that Qi Pingxia had died in the line of duty and suffered a severe headache as the two human traffickers laughed.
• After returning to the cell, Shi Lan asked the two human traffickers what they had been laughing at.

After a year in prison, Shi Lan was released and received documents restoring her household registration. She sought out Hao Fei and asked him to investigate Qi Pingxia’s death, but he warned her to stay away from the dangerous case.

• Shi Lan forced Liu Xihua’s head into a toilet and flushed repeatedly before demanding to know what she and her companion had been laughing about.
• Shi Lan served out the rest of her sentence while wondering whether Qi Pingxia’s death was connected to her investigation.
• Song Run said goodbye to Shi Lan as she was released, and the gatekeeper handed her belongings back.
• Zhang Guang picked Shi Lan up and gave her documents showing that her household registration had been restored in Yunhai City.
• Shi Lan went to Hao Fei’s bar, accepted his compensation check, and asked him to investigate who had killed Qi Pingxia.
• Hao Fei warned Shi Lan that Qi Pingxia had become involved in matters beyond her ability and urged Shi Lan not to pursue the case.

After being released from prison, Shi Lan asked Hao Fei for help, stayed briefly at Zhang Guang’s villa, and secretly took his bank card number. She left after overhearing Zhang Guang and Feng Jiahui discuss her, while Yunhai Prison sounded an escape alarm and Shi Lan headed toward an idea sparked by her identity records.

• Shi Lan asked Hao Fei for help, and he told her to return in three days and warned her to know her limits.
• Shi Lan ate beef noodles with Zhang Guang, then stole his bank card number when he brought her to his villa.
• Shi Lan stayed at Zhang Guang’s home and met his pregnant wife, Feng Jiahui, who seemed uncomfortable with her presence.
• Shi Lan overheard Zhang Guang and Feng Jiahui discussing her, left a note, and quietly walked out of the villa.
• Yunhai Prison sounded an escape alarm as a figure evaded its security, scaled the wall, and vanished into the mountains.
• Shi Lan checked her identity records and got an idea after seeing the address listed as her place of origin.

Shi Lan visited Qi Pingxia’s grieving parents and tried to leave them money, but Qi Yuanjun returned the bank card. After learning that the Night Owl suspects were hiding in the mountains, Shi Lan prepared her gear and set out to hunt them.

• Shi Lan cashed Hao Fei’s check, transferred money to Zhang Guang, and went to Qi Pingxia’s family home.
• Shi Lan paid respects to Qi Pingxia, and Qi Yuanjun returned the bank card she had slipped into her pocket.
• Shi Lan bought equipment and weapons for her next move.
• Hao Fei gave Shi Lan files about Night Owl, whose surviving suspects were hiding in the mountains.
• Shi Lan memorized the files and prepared survival gear, a crossbow, a machete, and daggers despite the dangers of the wilderness.

Shi Lan infiltrated Xiaohun Village to investigate the Night Owl drug cartel and learned that it had several bases and lookouts across the mountains. She killed seven men in a sudden assault, destroyed the house, and escaped into the forest, exhilarated by her freedom from restraint.

• Shi Lan reached Xiaohun Village and learned that Night Owl had several bases in the mountains, with lookouts monitoring the routes.
• Shi Lan used her compound crossbow to shoot the armed guards and men drinking inside a mud-brick house.
• Shi Lan entered the house, killed the local bully, and fired a submachine gun to drive the villagers indoors.
• Shi Lan threw grenades into the back room, destroying the house, then gathered equipment and fled toward the forest.
• Shi Lan felt exhilarated by the killings and decided the men had deserved to die.