Chapter Summaries

Summary

• Song Shuhang tells Abbess Jiudeng that his friends Zhuge Yue and Zhuge Zhongyang are missing on Heavenly Island, and that he wants to find them before leaving. Jiudeng offers to help, claiming she is simply bored and acting as a host.
• Jiudeng and Shuhang return through the city gate. She rouses the apparently sentient gate by shouting at it, and it bashfully closes after they leave.
• Jiudeng tracks people from the plane wreckage by sensing their auras. She detects the professor’s group of eight wandering nearby, as well as another group of four who may include the Zhuge siblings.
• The pair hurry through the jungle. Jiudeng compliments Shuhang’s movement technique and his choice of words, repeatedly giving him a thumbs-up. Shuhang struggles to keep pace but manages to follow.
• They find Zhuge Yue leaning against a huge tree. She calls out to Shuhang—but appears to be only doll-sized, ending the chapter on a startling reveal.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang remains focused on finding the Zhuge siblings and getting everyone safely back to Ancient City. He is wary of Jiudeng’s unusually enthusiastic help, but accepts it when she proves useful.
• Abbess Jiudeng is playful, capable, and difficult for Shuhang to read. She guides him, tracks the survivors, and teases him with cheerful approval of his phrasing.
• Zhuge Yue’s unexpected tiny size introduces a new mystery about what happened to her.
• The chapter’s central interaction is the contrast between Shuhang’s cautious practicality and Jiudeng’s eccentric, upbeat manner. Their cooperation is smooth despite their differing temperaments.

Significant themes

• Trust and uncertainty: Shuhang questions Jiudeng’s motives even as he relies on her assistance.
• Rescue and responsibility: His priority is recovering his separated friends before leaving the island.
• Comic contrast amid danger: Jiudeng’s playful behavior and the city gate’s personality offset the dangers of the jungle and the plane survivors’ uncertain situation.

Chapter Summary: “Zhuge Zhongyang’s Super Nightmare!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang finds Zhuge Yue reduced to doll-size in the jungle. She explains that, after the plane crash, she, Zhuge Zhongyang, and two other passengers were attacked by three invisible cultivators.
• While fleeing one of the attackers, Zhuge Yue stepped into something that caused her body to shrink. Jiudeng identifies the cause as contact with a rare spirit beast native to Heavenly Island.
• Jiudeng speculates that the invisible attackers are cultivators who came to explore the island and may be hostile or murderous.
• One of the invisible attackers suddenly ambushes Song Shuhang with a metal rod. Although the blow appears fatal, Song Shuhang survives because the Spirit Ghost in his Heart Aperture activates a golden defensive shield.
• The attacker threatens Zhuge Yue and reveals his intention to exploit her special constitution for cultivation. Song Shuhang responds with Palm Thunder, severely injuring and killing him.
• Jiudeng senses Zhuge Zhongyang nearby and leads Song Shuhang and Zhuge Yue toward him.
• They arrive to find Zhuge Zhongyang cornered by another nearly identical “creepy uncle,” suggesting that the remaining invisible attackers are members of the same group.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang demonstrates improved combat ability and composure, using his defensive Spirit Ghost and Palm Thunder to defeat an enemy who successfully bypassed his detection techniques. He also becomes more cautious about the dangers posed by Heavenly Island’s cultivators.
• Zhuge Yue shifts from a frightened victim to an increasingly astonished observer of the supernatural world. Her professional curiosity briefly surfaces when she regrets losing her camera after witnessing Song Shuhang’s lightning technique.
• Jiudeng continues acting as a guide rather than a direct combatant. She provides useful information about the spirit beast, the island’s inhabitants, and Zhuge Zhongyang’s location, but deliberately leaves the battle to Song Shuhang.
• Zhuge Zhongyang remains in immediate danger, having been separated from his companions and pursued by another hostile cultivator.

Significant Themes

• The dangers and mystery of Heavenly Island: The island contains strange creatures, unexplained transformations, hidden formations or abilities, and competing cultivators.
• Appearance versus true strength: Song Shuhang appears to be only a low-level cultivator, causing the attacker to underestimate him, but his Spirit Ghost and techniques give him unexpected defensive and offensive power.
• Predation and survival: The attackers treat the stranded passengers as prey, while Song Shuhang must protect Zhuge Yue and locate Zhuge Zhongyang before the remaining enemies reach them.
• The collision of ordinary and supernatural worlds: Zhuge Yue reacts to magical events with the perspective of a normal person, even imagining Song Shuhang as a superpowered celebrity and lamenting the loss of photographic evidence.

Character Interactions

• Zhuge Yue relies on Song Shuhang for protection and explains her disappearance and transformation to him.
• Song Shuhang consults Jiudeng about Zhuge Yue’s shrinking and the identity of the invisible attackers.
• Jiudeng’s invisibility to Zhuge Yue highlights the difference between ordinary perception and cultivator abilities.
• The first creepy uncle attempts to intimidate and prey upon Zhuge Yue, but Song Shuhang intervenes and kills him with Palm Thunder.
• Jiudeng guides Song Shuhang to Zhuge Zhongyang, where they encounter a second attacker repeating the same predatory behavior, setting up the next confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “One-Inch Finger Snake”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang reflects on Heavenly Island’s mystery but dismisses the value of learning its secrets because a memory-cleansing spell will erase his memories upon departure.
• A stronger Nine Netherworld Realm cultivator appears: a charming young master who claims to be a pacifist, despite proposing to take Zhuge Yue and Zhuge Zhongyang for his own purposes.
• When the young master threatens them, Song Shuhang attacks, intending to use his final Sword Talisman.
• Before either combatant can fully engage, Song Shuhang suddenly transforms into a gigantic, hundred-meter-tall figure. The young master assumes this is an illusion and attempts to dispel it.
• The “giant” is revealed to be connected to a tiny One-Inch Finger Snake. The snake shrinks the young master and swallows him.
• Song Shuhang realizes that the snake was responsible for earlier incidents, including the giant lizard’s disappearance and Zhuge Yue’s accidental shrinking.
• The snake then attacks Song Shuhang as well, shrinking him to palm-size.
• Song Shuhang calls for Jiudeng’s help. She attacks with a Buddhist bead, forcing the snake to release him.
• The snake sheds its skin and escapes in a new body, leaving Jiudeng disappointed. She records the event in her notebook of things she wants to do.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang remains cautious and resourceful, preparing both his saber and Sword Talisman before confronting the stronger enemy. He also shows his characteristic willingness to flee and call for help when outmatched.
• The wickedly charming young master initially appears confident and more powerful than his senior brothers, but his arrogance and misinterpretation of the situation lead directly to his defeat and swallowing.
• Jiudeng is shown to be powerful, mischievous, and easily entertained. She enjoys Song Shuhang’s dependence on her and seems to have a personal agenda involving the island’s creatures.
• The One-Inch Finger Snake is established as a small but extremely dangerous spirit beast with the ability to shrink and consume creatures far larger than itself.
• Zhuge Yue and Zhuge Zhongyang remain largely helpless under the enemy’s aura, reinforcing their vulnerability in the supernatural situation.

Significant Themes

• Appearance versus reality: The apparent giant is not a transformation by Song Shuhang but the result of the snake’s shrinking ability and unusual perspective.
• Arrogance and misjudgment: The young master’s belief that everything is an illusion causes him to underestimate the danger and suffer an abrupt defeat.
• The danger of curiosity and interference: Characters repeatedly disturb powerful creatures or unknown environments, often suffering immediate consequences.
• Humor amid danger: Threatening situations are undercut by absurdity, including the villain’s overconfident speeches, Song Shuhang’s practiced cries for help, and the snake swallowing a supposedly formidable cultivator.
• Power concealed in small forms: The tiny One-Inch Finger Snake demonstrates that physical size does not reflect strength or danger.

Character Interactions

• The young master attempts to bargain with and threaten Song Shuhang, Zhuge Yue, and Zhuge Zhongyang.
• Song Shuhang responds by attacking rather than negotiating.
• The One-Inch Finger Snake interrupts the confrontation by swallowing the young master, then turns on Song Shuhang.
• Song Shuhang appeals to Jiudeng for assistance, and she rescues him with a Buddhist bead.
• Jiudeng’s playful reaction to the crisis highlights her teasing relationship with Song Shuhang and her apparent fascination with the island’s unusual creatures.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhuge Zhongyang is confronted by Strange Uncle No. 2, who repeats the same disturbing, predatory behavior and nearly identical lines used by Strange Uncle No. 1. He intends to use Zhongyang’s special constitution to improve his own cultivation.
• Song Shuhang and Jiudeng arrive just in time. Shuhang attacks Strange Uncle No. 2 with the Overlord Shatter Saber, easily cutting through the man’s iron rod and forcing him to retreat.
• Strange Uncle No. 2 activates a powerful invisibility technique that conceals not only his body but also his scent, aura, and movements. Song Shuhang is unable to locate him through sight, smell, hearing, or mental perception.
• Song Shuhang’s Spirit Ghost unexpectedly emerges and allows him to see through the black ghostly mist surrounding the enemy. Using this shared vision, Shuhang detects Strange Uncle No. 2 approaching from behind.
• Shuhang turns and cuts the invisible attacker in half. The man’s body dissolves into black mist, revealing that he is not entirely human.
• Before disappearing, Strange Uncle No. 2 curses Shuhang in the name of the Nine Netherworld Realm. However, the Spirit Ghost swallows the curse rune, preventing it from affecting Shuhang.
• Although Zhongyang is rescued, the danger is not over: one of the three strange men remains alive and is pursuing the other passengers.
• Jiudeng hints that she can explain the Nine Netherworld Realm, but Shuhang refuses to hear about it. She then redirects the conversation toward “Heavenly Island.”

2. Character Developments

• Song Shuhang demonstrates stronger combat ability and composure. He uses a direct but powerful saber strike, then remains calm while facing an enemy he cannot detect.
• His tactical awareness improves as he recognizes the danger of attacking blindly and searches for another sensory method.
• Song Shuhang’s Spirit Ghost shows a major new ability: it can perceive enemies hidden by ghostly mist and consume curse energy. Its independent action also suggests that its bond and synchronization with Shuhang are deepening.
• Zhuge Zhongyang is shown as terrified and helpless when confronted by Strange Uncle No. 2, but he is relieved and grateful when Shuhang arrives.
• Strange Uncle No. 2 is revealed to possess ghostlike qualities and a connection to the Nine Netherworld Realm. His confidence collapses when his invisibility is overcome, and his final curse fails.
• Jiudeng remains mysterious and appears to know much more about the Nine Netherworld Realm and Heavenly Island than she reveals.

3. Significant Themes

• Protection and rescue: Shuhang’s arrival prevents Zhongyang from being victimized and reinforces his role as a protector.
• Hidden danger and perception: The battle emphasizes that appearances and ordinary senses can be misleading; Shuhang succeeds only by relying on the Spirit Ghost’s unusual perception.
• Growth through partnership: The Spirit Ghost’s intervention demonstrates how Shuhang’s supernatural abilities are developing through cooperation rather than individual strength alone.
• The supernatural and the unknown: The strange uncles’ ghostly bodies, curses, and ties to the Nine Netherworld Realm expand the story’s larger mystery.
• Reluctance toward dangerous knowledge: Shuhang instinctively avoids learning about the Nine Netherworld Realm, while Jiudeng seems eager to draw him deeper into these mysteries.

4. Character Interactions

• Strange Uncle No. 2 threatens and taunts Zhuge Zhongyang, creating a frightening and grotesque confrontation.
• Song Shuhang interrupts the attack and directly engages the strange uncle.
• Zhongyang calls out to Shuhang but follows his instructions to remain still while Shuhang searches for the invisible enemy.
• Shuhang and his Spirit Ghost cooperate instinctively, with the Spirit Ghost providing the vision necessary to defeat Strange Uncle No. 2.
• After the battle, Shuhang questions Jiudeng about the enemy’s origins. She teases him with information about the Nine Netherworld Realm, then introduces the new subject of Heavenly Island.

Chapter Summary: “I Have a Few Wishes”

Key plot points and events

• Jiudeng rescues the miniature Song Shuhang from the giant tree and retrieves the One-Inch Finger Snake’s shed skin, a valuable material for making a shrinking item.
• She confirms that the two ordinary passengers traveling with Zhuge Zhongyang’s group are safe, while Gao Moumou, Tubo, Lu Fei, and her sister have already escaped.
• Song Shuhang reunites with Zhuge Zhongyang and Zhuge Yue, who are confused by the strange events, the shrinking effect, invisible cultivators, and Song Shuhang’s supernatural abilities.
• Jiudeng leads them to the Ancient City. Zhuge Zhongyang and Zhuge Yue enter a tower where they can complete a transaction and leave Heaven’s Island.
• Song Shuhang remains behind because he is still tiny and must later swear an oath and seal his memories before leaving Heaven’s Island.
• Jiudeng offers the snake skin in exchange for Song Shuhang accompanying her while she reads. He agrees, and she takes him to her Buddhist temple.
• Jiudeng also asks to borrow Onion Lady, whom she has not seen for three hundred years. She playfully pokes the onion spirit, recalling her past mistreatment.

Character developments

• Song Shuhang remains practical and responsible, prioritizing the safety of Zhuge Zhongyang and Zhuge Yue before dealing with his own situation. He is also openly eager for the snake skin, hoping to obtain a shrinking-related item.
• Jiudeng displays her playful, mischievous personality and unusual affection for Song Shuhang. Her private wish list reveals that she values shared experiences with him, including cooking, adventuring, saving him, and reading together.
• Zhuge Zhongyang shows guilt and concern over having brought everyone to danger. He is deeply confused by the supernatural events but trusts Song Shuhang’s guidance.
• Zhuge Yue is likewise bewildered but cooperates with Song Shuhang and leaves Heaven’s Island with Zhongyang.
• Onion Lady continues to resent Jiudeng, biting Song Shuhang and reacting angrily when Jiudeng begins poking her.

Significant themes

• Friendship and responsibility: Song Shuhang risks himself to rescue his friends and ensure their safe return.
• Memory and secrecy: Leaving Heaven’s Island requires cultivators to seal their memories, emphasizing the hidden nature of the cultivation world and the separation between ordinary and supernatural life.
• Playful companionship: Jiudeng’s wish list and bargain with Song Shuhang suggest that her teasing masks a desire for meaningful time together.
• Power and vulnerability: Despite being a cultivator, Song Shuhang is reduced to a palm-sized figure, forcing him to depend on Jiudeng.
• Humor through contrast: Serious dangers are mixed with absurd situations, such as Song Shuhang being shaken before a giant Zhuge Zhongyang and Jiudeng treating his panic as admirable.

Character interactions

• Jiudeng repeatedly teases and physically handles tiny Song Shuhang, while he alternates between embarrassment, irritation, and cooperation.
• Song Shuhang reassures Zhuge Zhongyang that their companions are safe and gives him instructions for escaping.
• Jiudeng negotiates with Song Shuhang rather than giving him the snake skin freely, ultimately trading it for his company while reading.
• The reunion between Jiudeng and Onion Lady is humorous but hostile, highlighting their unresolved history.

Chapter 306 Summary: The Once Shy Maiden’s Heart

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiudeng continues completing the wishes recorded in her pre-nun notebook, Things Jiudeng Wants to Do. After crossing out her fourth wish—reading many books with Song Shuhang—the fifth wish appears: to dance for him in a sea of flowers amid beautiful mountains and waters.
• Jiudeng is embarrassed and distressed because she has never learned to dance. She reflects on how many of her youthful wishes involved romantic, maidenly fantasies, including cooking for someone, accompanying him on adventures, saving him, reading together, and now dancing for him.
• While Song Shuhang reads Buddhist scriptures, Jiudeng asks what kinds of dances he likes. His vague answer—that he likes anything visually pleasing—leaves her with no clear direction.
• Jiudeng seals Cong Niang inside the Stone of Enlightenment so the scallion spirit cannot watch her dance. She then takes Song Shuhang outside.
• Using a spirit butterfly and spiritual power, Jiudeng creates a magnificent sea of flowers. The butterfly’s movements produce countless illusions, and its scattered seeds rapidly grow into blooming flowers.
• Jiudeng performs an awkward, chaotic dance among the flowers, beginning with a strange rabbit-ear gesture and eventually flailing wildly enough to damage the flower field. Despite the poor execution, she resembles a bizarre yet amusing flower fairy.
• Song Shuhang applauds and tells her the performance was “very good,” apparently out of politeness or encouragement. Jiudeng accepts this as fulfillment of her fifth wish and returns to the temple relieved.

Character Developments

• Jiudeng: Her dignified, composed image gives way to her hidden, shy, youthful side. She becomes increasingly self-conscious as she attempts to fulfill the innocent romantic wishes of her former secular self. Although embarrassed, she ultimately abandons her shame and dances sincerely—or at least enthusiastically—for Song Shuhang.
• Song Shuhang: He remains oblivious to Jiudeng’s romantic motivations. He enjoys reading deeply, responds honestly but unhelpfully about dance, and interprets her strange performance with confusion rather than recognizing its emotional significance.
• Cong Niang: She remains Jiudeng’s powerless captive and suffers Jiudeng’s poking. To cope, she fantasizes about eventually becoming strong enough to defeat Jiudeng, using an exaggerated, self-satisfying “one day I’ll get revenge” mindset.

Significant Themes

• Youthful wishes versus present identity: Jiudeng’s notebook preserves the innocent desires of her pre-monastic self, contrasting sharply with her current life as a Buddhist cultivator and nun.
• Embarrassment and emotional vulnerability: Jiudeng must overcome shame to express feelings that she can no longer openly acknowledge.
• Unspoken affection: Her actions are romantic in origin, but Song Shuhang does not understand them, creating humor and emotional irony.
• Self-delusion as coping: Cong Niang’s fantasies help her endure humiliation, while Jiudeng similarly tries to convince herself that her awkward dance was acceptable.
• Comedy through contrast: The elegant setting and romantic intention clash with Jiudeng’s stiff, chaotic performance and Song Shuhang’s bewildered reaction.

Character Interactions

• Jiudeng repeatedly torments Cong Niang while Cong Niang silently vows revenge.
• Jiudeng consults Song Shuhang about his dance preferences, but his noncommittal answer increases her anxiety.
• Jiudeng creates the flower sea specifically to fulfill her old wish and dances for Song Shuhang, who watches in complete confusion.
• Song Shuhang’s reluctant applause and praise reassure Jiudeng enough for her to consider the wish successfully completed.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Jiudeng returns to the temple, Song Shuhang follows her and resumes reading while she releases the restraints on the Enlightenment Stone and Onion Lady.
• Jiudeng reviews her notebook, “Things Jiudeng Wanted to Do,” and crosses out the fifth item—dancing for Song Shuhang. The sixth wish is revealed: fulfill one of his moderately sized wishes.
• She gives Song Shuhang the One-Inch Finger Snake’s shed skin, along with the protective box containing it. Song intends to have it refined into a Shrinking Bag.
• Jiudeng asks Song Shuhang what he wishes for. After joking about wishing for world peace and nearly angering her, he seriously says he wants:
  • To become stronger and self-reliant.
  • To obtain Dragonbone Withered Vine to help Su Clan’s Sixteen recover from her injuries.
• Jiudeng explains that genuine Dragonbone Withered Vine is extremely rare, but she knows of some growing on the bones of an ancient Flood Dragon kept by one of Heavenly Island’s guardian spirit beasts.
• She agrees to take Song Shuhang to meet the spirit beast, warning that obtaining the material will be difficult and that he may be tested.
• Jiudeng changes into a fresh blue-white monk’s robe, gathers Song Shuhang and the spiritual objects, and leads him on foot to a beautiful valley filled with music and birdsong.
• At the valley entrance, she warns him to follow her exact footprints, implying that the approach is protected by a dangerous formation. The chapter ends as Song Shuhang notices a giant parasol tree.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang demonstrates increasing concern for his friends, especially Su Clan’s Sixteen, whose recovery motivates his search for Dragonbone Withered Vine.
• He acknowledges his own weakness and expresses a sincere desire to grow stronger—not merely for himself, but to protect his family and help his companions.
• His impulsive humor and tendency toward “courting death” remain evident when he jokingly wishes for world peace, though he quickly recognizes the danger of provoking Jiudeng.
• Jiudeng continues to reveal a playful yet emotionally complicated side. Her notebook shows that she has been pursuing a series of “maidenly” wishes involving Song Shuhang, including cooking for him, adventuring with him, saving him, reading together, and dancing for him.
• She becomes more proactive in helping Song Shuhang, giving him the snake skin and offering access to the Dragonbone Withered Vine. Her serious advice about cultivation also shows a responsible, mentor-like side.
• Onion Lady remains largely passive, serving as the target of Jiudeng’s boredom and poking.

Significant Themes

• Affection expressed through actions: Jiudeng’s notebook frames emotional attachment as a sequence of practical acts—cooking, traveling, protecting, reading, and fulfilling wishes.
• Growth and responsibility: Song Shuhang’s wish to become stronger reflects his increasing awareness of his obligations toward family and friends.
• Patience in cultivation: Jiudeng emphasizes that strength must be developed steadily through physical training, cultivation, and mental improvement rather than pursued recklessly.
• Sacrifice and friendship: Song Shuhang seeks a rare treasure not for personal gain, but to aid Su Clan’s Sixteen.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter balances romantic awkwardness and comedy with the serious risks of cultivation and the mysterious trial ahead.

Character Interactions

• Jiudeng repeatedly teases and bothers Onion Lady while Song Shuhang quietly reads.
• Jiudeng presents Song Shuhang with the snake skin, reinforcing her willingness to help him.
• Their conversation about wishes reveals both Jiudeng’s hidden feelings and Song Shuhang’s priorities.
• Song’s careless joke about world peace briefly angers Jiudeng, but he apologizes and redirects the conversation toward his genuine goals.
• Jiudeng takes on the role of guide and intermediary, preparing Song Shuhang to meet the powerful guardian spirit beast and warning him to follow her carefully through the valley’s defenses.

Chapter 308 Summary: “Let Us Row Our Oars!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang and Miss Jiudeng approach a massive parasol tree, which makes Song Shuhang expect to encounter a Phoenix or another creature descended from the Phoenix bloodline.
• Instead, they find Fat Ball, an extremely round pig clinging to the tree. Fat Ball is the valley’s gatekeeper, not the spirit beast they came to meet.
• Fat Ball and Miss Jiudeng exchange their usual teasing insults. Fat Ball becomes embarrassed when Jiudeng stares at it.
• Fat Ball activates a hidden formation by knocking on the parasol tree. The idyllic valley disappears, revealing the dangerous Black Dead Sea.
• A one-leaf boat appears. Miss Jiudeng warns Song Shuhang not to speak at all while crossing the sea—even if she speaks to him—because doing so would be fatal.
• Song Shuhang rows the boat across the silent sea. The water creates no sound, and the boat constantly drifts backward whenever he stops rowing.
• The journey severely drains his Blood Qi, forcing him to consume nearly all of his Blood-Qi Pills. Despite the exhaustion and seemingly endless journey, he remains calm and patient.
• The sea eventually turns white, and a pier appears. Although Miss Jiudeng tells him he can speak, Song Shuhang realizes he has not yet reached land and wisely keeps his mouth shut.
• His restraint triggers an additional spiritual reward, causing pure spiritual energy to surge into his body. Combined with the Blood-Qi Pills he consumed, this brings his Mouth Aperture to roughly ninety percent completion.
• Song Shuhang finally rows the boat to shore. Only after both feet are firmly on land does he speak.
• Miss Jiudeng prepares to introduce him to the mysterious spirit beast senior, whose temperament, preferences, and appearance are all highly unpredictable. It can apparently take at least thirty-six different forms.

Character Development

• Song Shuhang demonstrates increasing patience, caution, and mental resilience. His past experience enduring Onion Lady’s long, monotonous dream-life helps him withstand the endless rowing without becoming frustrated.
• He also shows practical judgment by obeying Jiudeng’s instructions and realizing that he must remain silent until he has truly left the sea.
• The crossing significantly advances his cultivation, bringing him close to opening his Mouth Aperture and entering the next stage before the Dragon Gate Leap realm.
• Miss Jiudeng remains confident, sharp-tongued, and protective. She understands the danger of the sea and guides Song Shuhang safely through it.
• Fat Ball is established as a comical but powerful gatekeeper, easily embarrassed despite its intimidating voice and role.

Significant Themes

• Patience and endurance: The endless crossing tests Song Shuhang’s physical strength and mental stability.
• Obedience and caution: Survival depends on following Jiudeng’s warning exactly, especially regarding speech.
• Unexpected appearances: Song Shuhang’s expectation of meeting a majestic Phoenix is humorously overturned by the sight of a fat tree-climbing pig, while the true spirit beast may possess dozens of forms.
• Growth through adversity: The exhausting journey not only tests Song Shuhang but also directly accelerates his cultivation.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter balances the deadly Black Dead Sea with Fat Ball’s absurd appearance and its playful exchanges with Jiudeng.

Character Interactions

• Song Shuhang repeatedly stares at Fat Ball, prompting the pig to challenge him.
• Miss Jiudeng joins the exchange by staring back at Fat Ball, causing it to turn pink with embarrassment.
• Fat Ball reveals the hidden route to the valley and summons the boat.
• During the crossing, Jiudeng gives Song Shuhang strict instructions but remains silent herself.
• After reaching shore, Jiudeng praises Song Shuhang’s quick thinking and leads him toward the long-awaited meeting with the mysterious spirit beast senior.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang follows Miss Jiudeng to a magnificent palace on Heavenly Island to meet Heavenly Thunder Pig, a Seventh-Grade Spirit Beast Venerable.
• The palace is filled with self-playing ancient instruments. Heavenly Thunder Pig appears as a huge, lightning-covered pig and claims to suffer from “terminal laziness cancer.”
• Jiudeng angrily challenges the Spirit Beast’s exaggerated illness. In retaliation, Heavenly Thunder Pig activates a mechanism that drops her into a deep pit.
• Song Shuhang explains that he needs a Dragonbone Withered Vine, which Heavenly Thunder Pig possesses. The senior agrees to give it to him—provided he returns in three hundred years after the Spirit Beast has finished sleeping.
• Since Song Shuhang cannot wait that long, he asks how to obtain the item earlier. Heavenly Thunder Pig repeatedly tells him not to disturb it, then drops him into the same pit as Jiudeng.
• After trapping them, Heavenly Thunder Pig goes to sleep. The lightning around its body fades, revealing a severe wound covered in black mist, suggesting that its “illness” may conceal a genuine and dangerous injury.
• In the pit, Jiudeng reveals that she has been trapped there before and that the walls and air are protected by powerful restrictions. She claims to have prepared special clothing to escape and begins removing her robe, leaving Song Shuhang embarrassed and uncertain.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang remains polite and sincere despite Heavenly Thunder Pig’s strange behavior. However, his urgency over obtaining the Dragonbone Withered Vine leads him to persist when he should retreat.
• Miss Jiudeng is shown to have a volatile temper and a long-running feud with Heavenly Thunder Pig. Although easily provoked, she is also resourceful and has prepared a method for escaping the pit.
• Heavenly Thunder Pig is introduced as lazy, mischievous, and highly powerful. Its apparent laziness may mask a serious condition, as its hidden wound is clearly abnormal and potentially life-threatening.

Significant Themes

• Comedy and deception: Heavenly Thunder Pig uses absurd excuses, traps, and exaggerated illnesses to avoid visitors.
• The unpredictability of powerful cultivators: Despite being a mighty Seventh-Grade Venerable, Heavenly Thunder Pig behaves petulantly and capriciously.
• Hidden danger beneath humor: The Spirit Beast’s “laziness cancer” initially seems like a joke, but its concealed wound and black mist suggest a more serious mystery.
• Urgency versus patience: Song Shuhang cannot afford to wait centuries, highlighting the conflict between the long lifespans of powerful beings and the limited time available to ordinary cultivators.

Character Interactions

• Jiudeng repeatedly argues with and insults Heavenly Thunder Pig, while the Spirit Beast responds with traps and sarcastic remarks.
• Song Shuhang respectfully negotiates with Heavenly Thunder Pig for the Dragonbone Withered Vine but is ultimately punished for refusing to leave.
• After being trapped together, Jiudeng vents her anger and explains the pit’s restrictions to Song Shuhang, while he searches for a practical way out.
• The chapter ends with Jiudeng taking action and Song Shuhang awkwardly trying not to look as she reveals her escape plan.

Chapter Summary: The Dragon in the Crystal Coffin

Key Plot Points and Events

• Miss Jiudeng reveals that her pale blue-and-white monk’s robe contains thousands of Buddhist restriction-breaking runes. By turning it inside out and rolling it up, she transforms it into a powerful drill.
• Trapped with Song Shuhang in an enormous abyss sealed by seventh-rank restrictions, Jiudeng begins drilling through the wall. Song chooses the direction by tossing his treasured saber, Ba Sui, and following the direction of its hilt.
• The drilling produces deafening noise and continues for several hours. Song Shuhang spends the time cultivating, practicing techniques, and eventually doing calisthenics while waiting.
• Jiudeng finally breaks through the restrictive formation and creates a passage. She intends to tunnel upward and possibly surprise Heavenly Thunder Pig, the powerful being who imprisoned them.
• Song learns that Jiudeng is a peak Fifth Stage Spirit Emperor, while Heavenly Thunder Pig is a Seventh Stage Spirit Venerable. He becomes increasingly worried that Jiudeng’s plan will get them punished or imprisoned for years.
• Instead of reaching the surface, Jiudeng discovers a hollow chamber behind the wall and drills into it. The chamber turns out to be a tomb hidden beneath Heavenly Thunder Pig’s palace.
• The entrance repairs itself, and stronger restrictions seal them inside, suggesting that Heavenly Thunder Pig deliberately guided or trapped them in the tomb.
• The chamber contains ten coffins: nine bronze coffins surrounding a large crystal coffin on a raised platform. Inside the crystal coffin lies a beautiful, pure-white dragon.
• As Song Shuhang and Jiudeng examine the dragon, a skeletal claw emerges from one of the bronze coffins, setting up an imminent threat.

Character Developments

• Miss Jiudeng: Demonstrates ingenuity, confidence, and immense skill in breaking restrictions. She remains reckless and playful, treating the danger of provoking Heavenly Thunder Pig lightly. Her concern for Song Shuhang is also evident in her continued efforts to help him obtain dragon bones for a Dragon Bone Vine.
• Song Shuhang: Shows caution and growing anxiety about Jiudeng’s reckless decisions. He tries to think strategically, worries about the consequences of attacking a Seventh Stage expert, and spends the long wait productively by cultivating and training.
• Cong Niang: Suffers from the prolonged, thunderous drilling despite not yet possessing ears, adding a comic element to the ordeal.
• Heavenly Thunder Pig: Though mostly absent, is portrayed as powerful, observant, and possibly manipulative. The self-repairing tomb entrance and strengthened restrictions imply that it has noticed the escape attempt and may have deliberately redirected the pair.

Significant Themes

• Recklessness versus caution: Jiudeng’s bold confidence contrasts with Song Shuhang’s increasingly practical concern about the consequences.
• Power and confinement: The chapter emphasizes the enormous gap between the characters and Heavenly Thunder Pig, as well as the difficulty of escaping layered restrictions.
• Unexpected discovery: A routine escape attempt turns into an accidental intrusion into a hidden, significant tomb.
• Death and preservation: The carefully arranged coffins, flowers, and crystal enclosure suggest mourning, reverence, and the preservation of an important deceased being.
• Humor amid danger: The absurd drilling plan, Cong Niang’s suffering, and Song’s escalating distress lighten what could otherwise be a serious imprisonment and tomb-desecration scene.

Character Interactions

• Jiudeng teases Song Shuhang after he mistakenly covers his eyes when she removes her outer robe.
• The two cooperate on choosing a drilling location, though Jiudeng takes control of the escape plan.
• Song repeatedly questions Jiudeng’s strategy and warns her about Heavenly Thunder Pig, while she dismisses his fears with cheerful confidence.
• Their conversation reveals Jiudeng’s willingness to endure punishment and Song’s reluctance to be imprisoned alongside her.
• Upon discovering the tomb, both realize the seriousness of their mistake and briefly agree to retreat—but the sealed entrance forces them deeper inside.
• Their shared fascination with the white dragon momentarily distracts them from the danger, just as the skeletal claw begins emerging from a bronze coffin.

Chapter Summary: “White Senior’s Emoticon”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang and Jiudeng encounter a bony Jiao Dragon emerging from an ancient bronze coffin. Initially mistaken for a reanimated corpse, it introduces itself as Longgu, the puppet artifact spirit of a magical artifact.
• Longgu explains that it has not seen visitors for a very long time and correctly guesses that Heavenly Thunder Pig sent them into the tomb.
• Song Shuhang reveals that they came seeking Dragon Bone Vine. Longgu offers them sixteen vines in exchange for placing a bowl of Song Shuhang’s blood into a groove beside the crystal coffin containing Little White Dragon.
• Jiudeng cuts Song Shuhang’s wrist with his Ba Sui treasure blade, and his blood flows into the groove. However, the crystal coffin shows no reaction.
• Longgu explains that the ritual neither failed nor succeeded, but still honors the deal by giving Song Shuhang all sixteen Dragon Bone Vines.
• Because the tomb’s dragon-corpse aura is harmful to them, Longgu magically sends Song Shuhang and Jiudeng out through an opening in the ceiling.
• After they leave, Longgu sadly remarks that the ritual did not awaken or summon the person it was seeking. It then wakes the occupant of another coffin, “Dragon Claw,” before returning to sleep.
• The scene shifts to the Chu cultivation family, where Yurouzi organizes numerous photographs of White Senior into a cute sticker pack and sends it to Song Shuhang.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Song Shuhang remains cautious but determined. He is willing to offer his blood for the Dragon Bone Vine, though he is visibly nervous about injuring himself and losing too much blood.
• Jiudeng demonstrates confidence and practicality, recognizing that Longgu is not hostile and helping Song Shuhang complete the blood offering—perhaps more enthusiastically than he expected.
• Longgu is introduced as a polite, humorous, and unexpectedly friendly artifact spirit. Despite its frightening appearance, it jokes with the visitors, conducts a fair exchange, and safely escorts them away.
• Longgu’s disappointment after the ritual suggests that it has been repeatedly attempting to awaken or identify someone connected to the crystal coffin.
• Yurouzi displays her playful affection for White Senior and her creative, energetic personality. Her inability to choose only a few images leads her to create a full sticker pack for Song Shuhang.

Significant Themes

• Appearance versus reality: Longgu looks like a terrifying undead creature but is actually a courteous and sociable magical artifact spirit.
• Ancient mysteries and failed rituals: The blood offering hints at a long-standing purpose involving Little White Dragon or another awaited figure, but the ritual produces no visible result.
• Humor amid danger: The characters treat potentially frightening situations—such as bleeding into a mysterious coffin or awakening ancient beings—with comedic awkwardness.
• Friendship and affection: The exchange between Song Shuhang and Longgu, as well as Yurouzi’s enthusiastic creation of White Senior stickers, highlights the chapter’s lighthearted social bonds.
• Sacrifice and exchange: Song Shuhang’s blood is used as the price for obtaining the Dragon Bone Vines, though the true significance of the offering remains unresolved.

Chapter Summary: “The Seventh Wish (Seeking Monthly Tickets)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Soft Feather visits her pregnant friend, Chu Chunying, and affectionately checks on the baby. Their warm interaction highlights their close relationship.
• Chu Chunying explains that a minor cultivation sect is secretly pressuring the Chu Aristocratic Clan to surrender its Sword Formula. The clan plans to settle the dispute through a duel on the Immortal Severing Platform.
• Soft Feather eagerly volunteers to fight on the Chu clan’s behalf, confident that her strength and treasures would allow her to defeat the opposing sect. However, outside assistance is forbidden on the platform. She considers disguising herself with a transformation treasure, only to realize she lent it to Song Shuhang.
• Chu Chunying politely insists that the Chu clan handle the matter themselves.
• Elsewhere, Venerable White continues searching for the mysterious island using a divination formation on the back of a Colossal Whale. Doudou and Little Monk remain awake but unable to move.
• On Heavenly Island, Song Shuhang and Miss Jiudeng return to her temple. Song labels and safely wraps sixteen Dragonbone Withered Vines, worried that his memories of the island will be sealed when he leaves.
• Jiudeng confirms that the written label will remain unaffected. Their playful exchange leads her to mark off the sixth wish in her notebook.
• Jiudeng finally reads the seventh and last wish: to marry, have a son and daughter, grow old with her husband, and watch their children marry. The domestic vision horrifies her, especially the expectations of childbirth, family life, and her daughter’s future.
• Overwhelmed, Jiudeng repeatedly bangs her head against the table before attempting to hide her distress behind a sweet smile.

Character Developments

• Soft Feather remains energetic, innocent, and impulsive, but her eagerness to defend Chu Chunying reveals her loyalty and formidable confidence. Her playful thoughts about pregnancy and settling scores with future children reinforce her childlike personality.
• Chu Chunying appears more mature and burdened by experience. Marriage, pregnancy, and the clan’s vulnerability have made her feel older than Soft Feather, whom she increasingly regards almost like a daughter.
• Song Shuhang demonstrates practical caution by labeling the Dragonbone Withered Vines and ensuring he will not lose them after his memories are sealed.
• Miss Jiudeng completes the sixth wish but becomes deeply flustered by the seventh. Her violent reaction exposes her fear or rejection of marriage, childbirth, and conventional family life, while also hinting at unresolved resentment over being forced to become a nun.
• Venerable White remains determined and methodical in his latest attempt to locate the mysterious island.

Significant Themes

• Friendship and loyalty: Soft Feather’s immediate willingness to fight for Chu Chunying contrasts with Chu Chunying’s desire to protect her from clan troubles.
• Power and justice in the cultivation world: The Chu clan must rely on the Immortal Severing Platform because weaker forces can be coerced by stronger ones.
• Innocence versus maturity: Soft Feather’s carefree outlook contrasts sharply with Chu Chunying’s responsibilities and worldly experience.
• Memory and preservation: Song Shuhang’s efforts to label the vines reflect the importance of preserving knowledge despite supernatural memory loss.
• Fear of domestic expectations: Jiudeng’s reaction to the final wish comically presents marriage, motherhood, and family life as terrifying obligations rather than idealized happiness.

Character Interactions

• Soft Feather and Chu Chunying share a tender, sisterly exchange, with Soft Feather showing affection toward Chunying and her unborn child.
• Their discussion turns serious when they address the Chu clan’s conflict, but Soft Feather’s enthusiasm quickly restores a humorous tone.
• Song Shuhang and Jiudeng continue their teasing, informal rapport, especially over the phrase “many thanks.”
• Jiudeng’s private reaction to the final wish creates the chapter’s main comedic contrast: the wish imagines perfect family happiness, while she responds with panic and denial.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiudeng is horrified by the implications of her wish, which seems to involve marrying Song Shuhang and having two children with him. She breaks down emotionally and repeatedly bangs her head against a table until it cracks and collapses. Song Shuhang silently watches, unsure how to respond.
• The scene shifts abruptly to Song Shuhang, who finds himself sitting before a mirror while makeup artists prepare him for a wedding.
• His parents explain that he is about to marry. Song Shuhang is shocked, since he has no memory of dating or agreeing to marry anyone.
• He recalls traveling with his friends to a resort island four years earlier, after which a plane accident brought them to the Mysterious Island. His memories of everything that happened there have been sealed.
• Song Shuhang learns that he remained “dazed and foolish” for four years after returning from the island. During that time, he apparently had an appointment with a woman who agreed to marry him despite his condition.
• He speculates about possible brides, including Lu Fei, Soft Feather, Su Clan’s Sixteen, and Onion Lady, but finds none of them likely.
• His father takes him to a large cathedral in Wenzhou City, where relatives, friends, and former classmates have gathered for the wedding.
• Song Shuhang meets the veiled bride, whose identity remains hidden. The wedding proceeds quickly, with a prayer, the exchange of rings, and no traditional vows or questions because of Song Shuhang’s mental state.
• At the end of the chapter, Song Shuhang begins lifting the bride’s pearl-covered veil to discover who she is.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang: Becomes increasingly confused and alarmed as he realizes four years of his life are missing and that he apparently became mentally impaired during that period. He remains outwardly cooperative but internally panics over the inexplicable marriage.
• Jiudeng: Experiences intense emotional distress after realizing her wish may have fast-forwarded her life into marriage and motherhood. Her reaction is exaggerated and chaotic, emphasizing her refusal to accept the situation.
• Song Shuhang’s parents: They are deeply emotional and relieved that their son has found someone willing to marry him, despite his four-year condition. Their pride and happiness contrast sharply with Shuhang’s confusion.
• The veiled bride: She is introduced as mysterious, physically striking, and willing to marry Song Shuhang despite his apparent foolishness. Her identity and motives remain unknown.

Significant Themes

• Lost time and disrupted identity: Song Shuhang must confront the frightening possibility that four years of his life passed without his awareness.
• The absurdity of fate and accelerated life: Both Jiudeng and Song Shuhang appear to have been pushed abruptly into marriage and family life, bypassing normal romantic development.
• Memory and personal agency: Because Song Shuhang’s memories are sealed, he cannot determine whether the wedding reflects his true choices or events imposed on him.
• Comedy through misunderstanding: The contrast between the solemn wedding setting and Song Shuhang’s bewilderment creates much of the chapter’s humor.
• Mystery and suspense: The bride’s hidden identity, the cause of Song Shuhang’s memory loss, and the events on the Mysterious Island remain unresolved.

Character Interactions

• Jiudeng lashes out emotionally while Song Shuhang observes in silence.
• Song Shuhang’s parents comfort one another and express relief over his marriage, while Song Shuhang struggles to understand what has happened.
• Song Shuhang briefly considers his relationships with several women as possible explanations for the wedding.
• His father escorts him into the cathedral and supports him throughout the ceremony.
• Song Shuhang formally takes the bride’s hand, exchanges rings with her, and prepares to reveal her identity.

Chapter 314 Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang lifts his veiled bride’s covering during an unexpected wedding ceremony and is shocked to discover that she is bald.
• He eventually recognizes her as Great Nun Jiudeng, a woman connected to Cong Niang’s memories and possibly to his missing memories from Mysterious Island.
• Shuhang is bewildered because he does not remember agreeing to marry her, though he suspects something important happened during the four years he cannot recall.
• The wedding proceeds without the usual celebrations because of Shuhang’s past period of “dementia.” He and Jiudeng are sent to the bridal chamber.
• Jiudeng explains that, under the strange rules of this world, they can only hold hands—but doing so will somehow result in pregnancy.
• After they hold hands, Shuhang suddenly finds himself ten months later in a hospital, where Jiudeng has given birth to a son. His parents celebrate becoming grandparents.
• Two years later, Jiudeng asks to hold hands again so they can have a daughter. Shuhang agrees, and another ten months pass instantly.
• Their second child, a daughter named Xiao Miao, is born. Over the following years, Shuhang watches his children grow and becomes deeply attached to his cheerful daughter.
• Just as he begins enjoying time with Xiao Miao, the scene abruptly shifts to another wedding. Shuhang’s parents are now elderly, and his son Ren’er is getting married.
• Ren’er’s bride is visibly pregnant, implying a shotgun wedding and suggesting that time has advanced far more than Shuhang realizes.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang: Remains confused and increasingly horrified by the bizarre progression of events. He struggles with his lost memories and the lack of control over his apparent marriage, pregnancies, and rapidly advancing family life. Despite his confusion, he develops genuine affection for his children, especially Xiao Miao.
• Great Nun Jiudeng: Appears calm, mysterious, and emotionally composed throughout the events. She acts as Shuhang’s wife and confidently accepts the world’s strange “hand-holding causes pregnancy” rules. Her appearance changes over time, with her hair gradually growing from baldness to shoulder-length and eventually waist- and thigh-length hair.
• Song Shuhang’s parents: Happily embrace their roles as grandparents and later great-grandparents, though their dialogue and reactions emphasize how absurdly quickly time is passing.
• Ren’er: Grows from an infant into a young man who is suddenly preparing to marry, demonstrating the unnatural time acceleration.
• Xiao Miao: Shuhang’s young daughter is portrayed as adorable and emotionally perceptive. Her smile comforts Shuhang and gives him a sense of purpose amid the chaos.

Significant Themes

• Loss of control and memory: Shuhang’s missing memories leave him unable to understand his marriage or the events that supposedly led to it.
• Absurdity and parody: The chapter humorously exaggerates romance, marriage, pregnancy, censorship, and the passage of time.
• The unreliability of reality: Although Shuhang suspects he is dreaming, he confirms that the world does not behave like a normal dream. Its impossible rules make him question what is real.
• Family and emotional attachment: Despite the bizarre circumstances, Shuhang gradually finds happiness and motivation through his children.
• Time’s rapid passage: Years pass in the blink of an eye, emphasizing how quickly life and family milestones can arrive.
• Foreshadowing and mystery: Jiudeng’s identity, her connection to Mysterious Island, and the unexplained causal link involving Cong Niang suggest that the events may be connected to Shuhang’s lost past.

Character Interactions

• Shuhang questions Jiudeng about their relationship and missing memories, but she dismisses his concerns and urges him to hold her hand.
• Jiudeng and Shuhang’s parents treat the impossible marriage and pregnancies as completely normal, intensifying Shuhang’s confusion.
• Shuhang interacts affectionately with his children, especially Xiao Miao, whose smile emotionally “heals” him.
• Shuhang’s parents comment on the family’s rapid aging and expanding generations, while Shuhang reacts with disbelief to the increasingly illogical timeline.
• The chapter ends with Jiudeng still beside Shuhang, holding his hand as their son’s own marriage—and apparent pregnancy-related complications—continue the bizarre family cycle.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang experiences a bizarre, emotionally overwhelming vision in which he marries Jiudeng and lives through decades of family life. The vision includes raising a son, Song Ren, and a daughter, Song Miao; his son eventually marries, while his daughter is given away at her wedding.
• Although the events seem dreamlike, Song Shuhang experiences genuine physical exhaustion and emotional grief, suggesting that the experience was more than an ordinary illusion.
• He awakens in the temple with tears on the scripture he was holding and searches for Jiudeng.
• Jiudeng cuts off her extremely long hair, symbolically severing “three thousand strands of worldly troubles.” She manifests a scarlet palm containing a crystal ball that replays Song Shuhang’s entire experience.
• Jiudeng discusses the mysterious nature of the vision with a hidden male voice. It was neither an ordinary illusion nor the “Illusory Reality” associated with Seventh-Grade Venerables, but some kind of unresolved “real illusion.”
• After gaining insight from the experience, Jiudeng’s gray monk’s robe transforms into a white dress, golden lotuses appear beneath her bare feet, and her aura rises to the threshold of a breakthrough into the Sixth-Grade True Lord realm.
• Jiudeng burns her severed hair and prepares to advance, though she does not immediately undergo the breakthrough.
• Song Shuhang finds her and is struck by her transformed, almost holy appearance, though he is amused that she remains bald. Their exchange retains its usual playful tone.
• Because Jiudeng is about to break through, Song Shuhang prepares to leave Heavenly Island. Before sending him away, Jiudeng offers to teach him the Buddhist Lion’s Roar Skill, which can help him open his Mouth Aperture.
• Onion Lady produces the technique scroll she had taken from Jiudeng three hundred years earlier. Jiudeng agrees to instruct both Onion Lady and Song Shuhang.
• Meanwhile, Venerable White uses divination to track Song Shuhang from the Eastern Sea, traveling southwest on a giant whale in hopes of finding either Song Shuhang or the Mysterious Island.
• Elsewhere, Chu Chu is fleeing across an isolated island from three hired pursuers: Ox Two, Ape-like Long Arms, and Wolf-like Third Brother. They intend to stop her from returning to the Chu Aristocratic Clan and participating in the Immortal Severing Platform.

Character Developments

• Song Shuhang becomes deeply affected by the vision, developing genuine parental emotions toward the nonexistent Song Ren and Song Miao. The experience leaves him confused about the boundary between reality and illusion.
• He also appears increasingly accustomed to Jiudeng’s eccentric behavior and accepts her strange transformation with humor rather than shock.
• Jiudeng undergoes both a physical and spiritual transformation. Cutting her hair and changing into a white dress symbolize her rejection—or transcendence—of worldly attachments. Her cultivation reaches the verge of a major breakthrough.
• Jiudeng remains mysterious and self-assured. Although she admits that the vision has not given her complete clarity, she understands something important about herself.
• Onion Lady remains dependent on Song Shuhang but still possesses valuable Buddhist knowledge and resources, including the long-held technique scroll.
• Venerable White continues actively searching for Song Shuhang and shows strong curiosity about the Mysterious Island.
• Chu Chu is established as a gifted but vulnerable young cultivator being targeted because of her connection to the Chu Aristocratic Clan and the upcoming Immortal Severing Platform.

Significant Themes

• Reality versus illusion: The vision feels unreal because its people do not exist, yet the emotional and physical consequences are genuine. The chapter questions whether an experience must be historically real to have authentic meaning.
• Fulfillment and confusion: Jiudeng’s old wish has been fulfilled, but instead of providing complete enlightenment, it leaves her with deeper questions.
• Renunciation and transformation: Cutting off Jiudeng’s hair represents severing worldly troubles and moving toward spiritual transcendence. Her gray robe becoming a white dress reflects a shift in identity and spiritual status.
• Family and emotional attachment: Song Shuhang’s grief over the imagined loss of an entire family shows how powerful bonds can become, even when formed within an unreal experience.
• Approaching breakthroughs: Jiudeng’s impending advancement and Song Shuhang’s effort to open his Mouth Aperture parallel the broader theme of characters reaching new stages through insight, training, and trials.
• Humor amid mysticism: The chapter balances profound Buddhist imagery and metaphysical questions with comic details, particularly Song Shuhang’s panic over his daughter’s imagined marriage and his reaction to Jiudeng’s bald, white-dressed appearance.

Important Character Interactions

• Song Shuhang and Jiudeng: Their relationship combines gratitude, teasing, and growing familiarity. Song Shuhang recognizes Jiudeng’s power and eccentricity while she casually guides his cultivation.
• Jiudeng and the mysterious male voice: Their conversation centers on whether she has “seen through” the meaning of her fulfilled wish. Jiudeng refuses to accept another person’s definition of enlightenment, claiming that she only needs to understand what she herself has witnessed.
• Song Shuhang and Onion Lady: He relies on Onion Lady to produce the Buddhist Lion’s Roar Skill, while privately worrying that he has accumulated too many Buddhist techniques.
• Venerable White and the giant whale: Venerable White directs the whale toward Song Shuhang’s suspected location, demonstrating his persistence and adventurous curiosity.
• Chu Chu and the three pursuers: Chu Chu attempts to escape while the three brothers coordinate their pursuit, revealing an immediate conflict that sets up a separate action plot.

Chapter Summary: “The Damaged South Heaven Gate”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chu Chu flees from Ox Two, Ye Four, and the wolf-like man after they attempt to capture her and obtain the Sword Formula possessed by the Chu Aristocratic Clan. She escapes into the ocean, where her superior swimming skills give her an advantage.
• The pursuers summon Shark Nine and Whale Eight to intercept her in the water. At the same time, Fox Ten is instructed to carry out a scheme intended to trick Chu Chu into surrendering the Sword Formula.
• Outside Jiudeng Temple, Song Shuhang continues learning the Buddhist Lion’s Roar Technique from Miss Jiudeng. He quickly grasps its fundamentals and is advised to combine it with his Mouth Aperture Talent once he breaks through.
• Onion Lady attempts to learn the technique but can produce only various forms of “meowing.” Jiudeng becomes increasingly irritated and eventually tells Song Shuhang to teach Onion Lady himself.
• Jiudeng prepares to take Song Shuhang away from Heavenly Island. Song asks her to protect the ordinary professors who were separated from the group. She assures him that they will not die, though they must find the Ancient City themselves if they wish to leave.
• Jiudeng and Song ascend through the sky and enter what appears from below to be a gigantic red moon. Inside is a passage leading to a radiant realm containing a massive gateway marked “South Heaven Gate.”
• The gate is heavily damaged and visibly repaired. Its inscription appears to have been written by two different people, suggesting that the gate—and perhaps the realm beyond it—was rebuilt after a catastrophic event.
• Jiudeng confirms that it is indeed the legendary South Heaven Gate, but clarifies that this Heavenly Court is not the same as the one from human mythology. She reveals that, according to an earlier senior, this Heavenly Court once exploded.

Character Development

• Chu Chu demonstrates resourcefulness and determination by immediately recognizing that the ocean offers her the best chance of escape. Her swimming ability allows her to evade the pursuers temporarily.
• Ox Two remains crude, arrogant, and lustful, treating Chu Chu’s capture as an opportunity for personal amusement. The wolf-like man appears more practical and focused on the group’s mission.
• Song Shuhang continues progressing in his cultivation. He learns the core principles of the Lion’s Roar Technique and shows concern for the safety of the ordinary people stranded on the island.
• Onion Lady remains comical and immature, unable—or unwilling—to perform the serious lion’s roar, instead producing catlike cries. Her dependence on Song Shuhang increases after Jiudeng gives up teaching her directly.
• Jiudeng acts as Song Shuhang’s guide and mentor. Although easily angered by Onion Lady’s antics, she is patient and protective overall, explaining the mysteries of Heavenly Island while guiding Song toward the next stage of his journey.

Significant Themes

• Escape and pursuit: Chu Chu’s flight illustrates the conflict between individual freedom and the schemes of competing factions seeking power.
• Cultivation and growth: Song Shuhang’s training reflects his gradual development, while the Mouth Aperture and Lion’s Roar Technique symbolize the strengthening of both skill and personal power.
• Myth versus reality: The South Heaven Gate resembles a familiar mythological symbol, but Jiudeng emphasizes that the truth behind it is different from human legends.
• Ruins and lost civilizations: The damaged gateway and revelation that the Heavenly Court exploded introduce a larger mystery concerning a vanished or destroyed ancient power.
• Humor amid danger: Onion Lady’s failed training, Ox Two’s vulgarity, and Song’s awkward thoughts provide comic relief against the darker backdrop of pursuit and the ruined Heavenly Court.
• Protection and responsibility: Song’s concern for the stranded professors shows that, despite his own dangerous circumstances, he remains attentive to ordinary people and feels responsible for their safety.

Important Character Interactions

• The pursuers coordinate through communicators, with the wolf-like man assigning roles to Ox Two, Ye Four, Shark Nine, Whale Eight, and Fox Ten.
• Jiudeng instructs Song in the Lion’s Roar Technique and encourages him to develop his Mouth Aperture.
• Jiudeng repeatedly corrects Onion Lady’s “cat’s roar,” eventually handing responsibility for her training to Song.
• Song asks Jiudeng to protect the stranded professors, revealing his compassion and trust in her.
• At the South Heaven Gate, Song questions Jiudeng about its connection to mythology, prompting her explanation about the destroyed Heavenly Court and deepening the chapter’s central mystery.

Plot points and events

• Jiudeng describes three competing accounts of the Heavenly Court’s destruction: the Heavenly Emperor’s spell went wrong, rival realms attacked it, or the New Heavenly Dao sabotaged it. No one knows which is true.
• She explains that the Heavenly Dao itself remains unchanged, but the beings who wield its will have changed. The New Heavenly Dao was not a cultivator, and its origins and motives remain unknown; its arrival coincided with the Heavenly Court’s destruction and a major blow to the cultivators.
• Jiudeng leads Song Shuhang through the Heaven Realm, where ruined foundations and scattered palaces show that the Heavenly Court is being rebuilt. She confirms that this is Heavenly Island’s purpose, though she says the full reason is something he must ask the senior in the Bronze Ancient Hall.
• Passing a palace takes them through a True Illusion—once the Heavenly Court’s greatest secret. Shuhang resolves to keep quiet, fearing that his curiosity will get him into trouble.
• Elsewhere, an earthworm-like monster swallows the old professor. Rather than dying permanently, he is returned home by Heavenly Island’s “Free Return to Base” system and receives a healing spell—apparently fulfilling Jiudeng’s assurance that ordinary visitors’ lives are safe, at a price.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang is unsettled by the revelation of the New Heavenly Dao and the Heavenly Court’s fall. He asks practical questions, correctly guesses that the new ruler was not a cultivator, and becomes increasingly wary of learning too much.
• Jiudeng acts as guide and storyteller, teasing Shuhang for his scattered questions while gradually revealing Heavenly Island’s secrets. She is candid about the reconstruction but keeps its deeper purpose for the senior to explain.
• The old professor remains absorbed in collecting leaves until the island’s danger interrupts him; his apparent death turns out to be a costly but safe return home.

Significant themes

• The uncertainty of history: multiple explanations survive for the Heavenly Court’s destruction, and even powerful cultivators lack definitive answers.
• Power and succession: the Heavenly Dao endures, but its wielder can change—raising questions about who controls the world’s order and why.
• Curiosity versus caution: Shuhang’s questions help him understand the past, yet the revelations leave him anxious about asking more.
• Safety with a price: Heavenly Island protects ordinary visitors through a system that treats rescue and healing as paid services.

Key plot points

• Song Shuhang and Miss Jiudeng enter the Bronze Ancient Hall, where powerful icy spiritual energy makes the interior dangerously cold. Jiudeng guides him through the mist and gives him a Cold-Resistance Pill, explaining that enduring the cold also tempers and strengthens his body.
• They meet the masked, white-robed senior who lives in the hall. His presence is formidable: he has touched the mysteries of Longevity, and Jiudeng warns Shuhang that staring at his mask could affect his Dao Heart.
• The senior recognizes the special Flame Blade Shuhang inherited from Daoist Scarlet Firmament and asks whether Scarlet Firmament is still active. Shuhang says he should be.
• The senior begins explaining why he and others are cautiously rebuilding the Heavenly Court under the New Heavenly Dao. Shuhang tries to avoid hearing anything sensitive, but Jiudeng physically forces him to nod. She says the senior’s memories will be sealed afterward and hints that his lectures often bring rewards.
• The senior opens with a question about why cultivation techniques stop at the Ninth-Grade Tribulation Immortal realm rather than reaching Longevity. After learning Shuhang is only a First-Grade cultivator, he admits he has picked up the wrong manuscript—one intended for cultivators above Sixth Grade. He nevertheless asks Shuhang to guess, and Shuhang suggests that Longevity cannot be reached through a fixed technique alone; it must be comprehended.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang remains cautious about dangerous knowledge, but endures the cold and participates once the senior invites him to speculate. His inexperience contrasts with the senior’s immense power and lofty subject matter.
• Miss Jiudeng acts as Shuhang’s guide and protector, shielding him from the cold and giving him medicine. She also teasingly overrides his wishes, forcing him to hear the lecture while reassuring him that his memories will be sealed.
• The masked senior is revealed as both deeply powerful and somewhat eccentric: he cares for a long-haired rabbit, speaks with an old friend’s warmth about Daoist Scarlet Firmament, and relies on a prepared manuscript—though he has brought the wrong one.
• The senior’s connection to Scarlet Firmament establishes an older network of relationships among powerful cultivators, while Jiudeng and Shuhang’s playful exchange keeps the scene light despite its serious revelations.

Significant themes

• Power and the limits of cultivation: Longevity lies beyond what ordinary cultivation techniques can guarantee, suggesting that personal insight or comprehension is essential.
• Knowledge and danger: Shuhang understands that learning about the Heavenly Court could put him at risk, but others decide that he should hear the information anyway.
• Endurance and growth: The hall’s harsh cold is both a threat and a means of strengthening Shuhang.
• Humor amid grandeur: The senior’s profound status is undercut by his mistaken manuscript and lecture-like manner, while Shuhang’s reluctance provides comedy.

Key plot points and events

• Song Shuhang guesses that the missing techniques beyond the Tribulation Immortal level might be created by practitioners themselves. The senior dismisses the guess and explains that Tribulation Immortals are the highest cultivators beneath the Heavenly Dao.
• When the Heavenly Dao already has a master, no other cultivator can become a new Heavenly Dao. Ancient Tribulation Immortals therefore sought alternative “Daos of Longevity.”
• The senior reveals that the Ancient Heavenly Court was the Heavenly Emperor’s Dao of Longevity: a world built from “True Illusions” and treasures that escaped the Heavenly Dao’s influence. Its members could access the mysteries of Longevity, and the Court’s strength reinforced the Emperor’s.
• The senior was once a member of the Heavenly Court and survived its destruction because he was away at the time. He still does not know what caused its sudden downfall.
• Miss Jiudeng wakes from sleeping through the lecture, only to be flung out of the hall by the senior for breaking his rule against sleeping during lectures.
• Before sending Song Shuhang off the island, the senior gives him a spell that can seal his memories of the island. In exchange for listening, he turns Shuhang’s One-Inch Finger Snake skin into a magical shrinking bag—made, to Shuhang’s dismay, in the shape of a rabbit.
• The chapter ends with Venerable White finding a clue atop a giant whale in the Eastern Sea.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang listens politely and applauds enthusiastically, though he privately recognizes that the senior is reading a rehearsed speech. He learns why the senior wants to rebuild the Heavenly Court and gains a useful magical item.
• The senior shifts from scripted explanation to personal recollection, revealing his connection to the Heavenly Court and its destruction. He also shows his fondness for rabbits by shaping the shrinking bag accordingly.
• Miss Jiudeng sleeps through the lecture, confirming her habit of ignoring the senior’s rule. The senior punishes her playfully but decisively.
• Song Shuhang and the senior share a teasing exchange: Shuhang appreciates the gift but questions its rabbit design; the senior unapologetically says he likes cute rabbits.

Significant themes

• Limits and ambition: Even the most powerful cultivators face a ceiling when the Heavenly Dao has a master, prompting them to seek other paths to longevity.
• Collective strength: The Heavenly Court’s power grew through its members, while the Emperor’s Dao benefited the entire group rather than only himself.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: The senior offers a sweeping account of cultivation history but admits that the Heavenly Court’s destruction remains unexplained.
• Humor amid grand stakes: The cosmic discussion is undercut by Shuhang’s insincere applause, Jiudeng’s open-eyed sleep, and the rabbit-shaped reward.

Chapter Summary: “Fellow Daoist, Please Stay!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Venerable White successfully uses the Trigram Formation to locate Song Shuhang in the Eastern Sea through the coordinates of the Myriad-Mile Escape Technique.
• He senses that Song Shuhang is trapped in a strange, illusion-like state on the Mysterious Island, suggesting that a Venerable-Tier or stronger expert may be present there.
• Remembering that his previous Single-Use Flying Swords had entered the island, Venerable White decides to create another sword and follow it through the same passage.
• While searching for a suitable branch, he notices Fox Ten dramatically riding a willow branch across the sea.
• Venerable White pulls Fox Ten and the branch toward him. Fox Ten, a member of a criminal organization, had been traveling to rescue Chu Chu and trick her into handing over the Ancient Sword Formula.
• Venerable White takes the branch but kindly creates a replacement vehicle for Fox Ten: a swordfish enhanced with Acceleration, Mind-Control, Muddy-Water, and Spirit-Gathering Formations.
• The modified swordfish travels at roughly ten times its normal speed, but Venerable White forgets to add brakes, sending Fox Ten helplessly speeding away.
• Venerable White carves the branch into a Single-Use Flying Sword 004 and prepares to launch it toward Song Shuhang’s coordinates.
• To prevent interference, he creates a True Illusion of a desert and pulls Doudou, Little Monk, and the whale into it. He then supports the whale with a Levitation Spell and injects spiritual energy into the flying sword.

Character Developments

• Venerable White remains confident, resourceful, and extraordinarily powerful. His casual ability to seize people from a distance, create formations in midair, and transform a fish into a magical vehicle highlights both his strength and eccentric creativity.
• Fox Ten is introduced as a deceptive operative specializing in manipulating women and obtaining children or treasures through schemes. Despite his confidence and obsession with appearing handsome, he is completely overpowered by Venerable White and becomes the unwilling rider of a runaway swordfish.
• Doudou and Little Monk continue accompanying Venerable White and are temporarily drawn into his True Illusion while he attempts the rescue.
• Song Shuhang does not appear directly, but his mysterious condition and location drive Venerable White’s actions.

Significant Themes

• Venerable White’s overwhelming power and unusual methods: Ordinary objects such as branches and fish become powerful tools in his hands.
• Comedic contrast between appearance and reality: Fox Ten seeks a stylish entrance and prides himself on his looks, but his elegant branch is replaced by an embarrassing, uncontrollable swordfish.
• Good intentions producing chaotic results: Venerable White genuinely helps Fox Ten by giving him a superior vehicle, yet his lack of practical details—especially brakes—creates a new problem.
• Mystery and danger surrounding the Mysterious Island: Song Shuhang’s illusion-like state implies the presence of an extremely powerful cultivator and raises the stakes of the rescue.

Character Interactions

• Venerable White and Fox Ten have a humorous encounter in which Fox Ten mistakes White’s attention for personal interest, only to discover that White wants his branch.
• Venerable White compensates Fox Ten with a magically enhanced swordfish, while Fox Ten outwardly remains polite but inwardly panics.
• Venerable White reassures the whale after accidentally dragging it into the desert illusion, showing his casual but considerate nature.
• The chapter ends with Venerable White launching the newly created Single-Use Flying Sword toward Song Shuhang, beginning his attempt to reach the Mysterious Island.