Chapter Summaries

Ma Yuxuan learned from Xue Huan about the Great Jing Dynasty’s most powerful figures and questioned how its founding emperor could have died. At the Anomaly Suppression Bureau, a Black Armor officer summoned him to meet the Black-Robed Official after the events of the previous night drew attention to him.

• Ma Yuxuan explained that he sought the missing Water Law and wanted to learn who in the Great Jing Dynasty could have taken it.
• Xue Huan named Wei Zhou, Xu Nian, Chang Gui, and Jiang Heng as the dynasty’s pillars and described their reputations and power.
• Ma Yuxuan warned Xue Huan that rumors about Wei Zhou’s authority could endanger him, then asked who might have killed the founding emperor.
• Ma Yuxuan arrived at the Anomaly Suppression Bureau, where his colleagues stared at him in surprise.
• A Black Armor officer told Ma Yuxuan that the Black-Robed Official wanted to see him.

Ma Yuxuan confronted Wei Zhou about a reward, then accepted a promotion that left him responsible for hiring two costly assistants. He urged Xue Huan to sell off her household’s assets before others learned of its vulnerability.

• Ma Yuxuan demanded a reward from Wei Zhou and denied that he and his teacher resembled the wanted men in the portraits.
• Wei Zhou promoted Ma Yuxuan to serve directly under him, offered him a Bone Artifact, and let him choose two assistants and give Xue Huan a Clerk position.
• Ma Yuxuan cursed Wei Zhou after leaving the bureau and showed Xue Huan the steep costs of hiring assistants.
• Ma Yuxuan warned Xue Huan that their lives depended on choosing strong assistants despite the expense.
• Ma Yuxuan told Xue Huan to sell all her household’s businesses and properties before their value collapsed.

Ma Yuxuan urged Xue Huan to sell her family’s holdings to prepare for Bright Capital City’s chaos, while Xu Nian hired Chen Changsheng to kill Ma Yuxuan in exchange for a Black Prison Fruit. The chapter ended with Chen Changsheng accepting the job and Ma Yuxuan still searching for a way to resolve the conflict between the two cultivation systems.

• Ma Yuxuan persuaded Xue Huan to keep her ancestral home and sell the rest of the Xue Household’s assets.
• Xu Nian visited Chen Changsheng and asked him to kill Ma Yuxuan, despite knowing they were close friends.
• Chen Changsheng agreed to take the job after Xu Nian offered him a Black Prison Fruit, insisting he would still receive the rest of the payment if the mission failed.
• Xu Nian questioned whether the Great Jing emperor was still in the palace, and Chen Changsheng said the Black Prison Fruit mattered more to him than the dynasty.
• After three days, Xue Huan finished converting the Xue Household’s holdings into money while Ma Yuxuan searched for a solution to the conflict between the two systems.

Ma Yuxuan told Xue Huan that his teacher, Chen Changsheng, had accepted a commission to kill her and would tie Ma down during the attack. Ma Yuxuan refused to abandon Xue Huan and promised to keep her alive, even if he had to defeat his teacher.

• Wei Zhou ordered Ma Yuxuan to go to Mountain Hollow Village and eliminate an anomaly the following evening.
• Chen Changsheng told Ma Yuxuan that he had accepted a high-paying commission to kill him, but planned to pretend to attack and restrain him instead.
• Ma Yuxuan explained that the commission was a toll meant to make him and Xue Huan step aside as they passed through the Great Jing Dynasty.
• Xue Huan offered Ma Yuxuan her Storage Magical Artifacts and accepted that her Household might be doomed, but Ma Yuxuan returned them and promised to protect her.
• Ma Yuxuan said he would defeat Chen Changsheng if necessary, and explained that betraying his teacher was a tradition in his Household.

Ma Yuxuan assembled a team for the perilous mission to Mountain Hollow Village, including Anomaly Suppression Bureau commander Wu Yan and the mysterious gatekeeper Lao Luo. As the group set out, Ma Yuxuan exposed his suspicions about Lao Luo, who revealed that he had been listening all along.

• Ma Yuxuan told Xue Huan that fighting his teacher to the death was a required part of their school's training and warned her that Mountain Hollow Village had only a one-in-ten survival rate.
• Wu Yan agreed to follow Ma Yuxuan's orders on the mission, while Lao Luo tried to refuse until Ma Yuxuan insisted he come under the Black-Robed Official's orders.
• Ma Yuxuan explained to Xue Huan that he chose Lao Luo because the old gatekeeper's long, mysterious presence in the bureau suggested he was no ordinary man.
• Ma Yuxuan reasoned that Wu Yan likely knew Lao Luo's true identity and pointed out that Lao Luo could hear them from more than ten feet away.
• Lao Luo suddenly appeared in front of Xue Huan, and Ma Yuxuan caught his wrist as Lao Luo complained that Ma Yuxuan had spoiled his fun by seeing through him.

Ma Yuxuan protected Xue Huan from Lao Luo’s attempt to kill or frame her, while Wu Yan warned Lao Luo about Ma Yuxuan’s unknown backer. At Mountain Hollow Village, Ma Yuxuan learned that Bright Capital City routinely prepared to move whenever a powerful uncanny being threatened it.

• Lao Luo tried to touch Xue Huan, but Ma Yuxuan stopped him and explained that people in Bright Capital City wanted her dead.
• Wu Yan persuaded Lao Luo not to attack Xue Huan before investigating Ma Yuxuan’s allies, but Lao Luo returned with a hand covering his face and refused to explain what had happened.
• Ma Yuxuan, Xue Huan, Wu Yan, and Lao Luo arrived outside Mountain Hollow Village, where Wu Yan said a newly formed domain was containing a powerful uncanny being.
• Xue Huan and Wu Yan told Ma Yuxuan that uncanny beings threatened cities every few years and that the Great Jing Dynasty had moved its capital eight times.
• Wu Yan explained that Bright Capital City would begin evacuating if the group died, since their deaths could leave too few defenders and strengthen the uncanny being.

Ma Yuxuan and his companions entered Mountain Hollow Village, where the lively villagers and dense Origin Qi heightened the danger of his irreversible transformation into an eerie treasure. They accepted a villager’s wedding-wine invitation, and Ma Yuxuan urged Xue Huan to observe before acting as they ventured deeper into the eerie domain.

• Wu Yan questioned Ma Yuxuan about his homeland, and Ma Yuxuan explained that its dynasties and sects were not destroyed by natural disasters or eerie phenomena.
• Xu Nian and Chen Changsheng agreed to wait and see whether Ma Yuxuan’s group would escape Mountain Hollow Village, wagering on the outcome of their next collaboration.
• Ma Yuxuan and his companions entered Mountain Hollow Village after sunset and found it unexpectedly lively despite its earlier deathly stillness.
• Ma Yuxuan’s Bone Hairpin snapped, and Wu Yan warned him that his body’s transformation into an eerie treasure was irreversible.
• A pig-snouted villager invited the group to a wedding feast, and Ma Yuxuan stopped Xue Huan from attacking so they could observe before acting.

Ma Yuxuan sought help after entering a strange domain where the dead villagers had come back to life, only to discover that his body was transforming into an Eerie Treasure. Wang Hao proposed digging out the multiplying eyeballs to slow the transformation, leaving Ma Yuxuan facing a horrifying remedy.

• Ma Yuxuan contacted Bai Ze for guidance after he and Xue Huan entered the strange village, and Bai Ze arranged for others to help.
• Ma Yuxuan hid in a dilapidated house and set up formations, but eyes began growing across his body as the White Bone Dagger in his chest snapped.
• Ma Yuxuan used Xue Huan's Eerie Treasures and seven Bone Artifacts to slow the change, then appealed to Lu Mingyu, Wu Li, and Nian Sheng for help.
• Nian Sheng said Ma Yuxuan's body still had vitality, but Wang Hao warned that forcing out its power would turn him into a sixth-tier Eerie Treasure.
• Wang Hao advised Ma Yuxuan to dig out every eyeball to reduce the Origin Qi in his body and slow the transformation.

Ma Yuxuan tried to slow his transformation into an Eerie Treasure by removing the eyeballs growing across his body, then fought off an eerie creature and subdued its knife. Nian Sheng identified the knife as a Fourth-Tier Delusion Artifact whose rule made every swing hit its target.

• Wang Hao explained that Ma Yuxuan's body had already accepted Origin Qi's transformation, so he could only slow it rather than reverse it.
• Following Wang Hao's advice, Ma Yuxuan painfully removed more than ten bloodline-bound eyeballs, bringing his transformation under control.
• As something approached Mountain Hollow Village, Wang Hao urged Xue Huan to keep the communicator steady while Ma Yuxuan prepared to fight.
• A rotting creature rushed into the house, and Ma Yuxuan destroyed it with one punch before capturing its rust-covered kitchen knife.
• The knife's face screamed and made blood stream from Xue Huan's orifices, but Ma Yuxuan battered it with over a hundred blows until the face vanished.
• Nian Sheng identified the knife as a Fourth-Tier Delusion Artifact and said its rule made every swing hit its target.

Ma Yuxuan learned how eerie treasures formed and ventured outside the Broken Hut, where he found Wu Yan and Luo Fen offering flesh and blood to enter a strange courtyard. He was left wondering what gift he would have to sacrifice to gain entry.

• Lu Mingyu explained that the kitchen knife’s Every Swing Hits effect came from its dead owner’s obsession, while Wang Hao said Ma Yuxuan’s body could withstand the Netherworld Epoch’s Origin Qi because Chen Changsheng had carefully tempered it.
• Wang Hao urged Ma Yuxuan to explore outside the Broken Hut, and Ma Yuxuan left with Xue Huan.
• Bai Ze explained that the Netherworld Epoch’s eerie beings craved flesh and blood because consuming it eased their pain.
• Ma Yuxuan found Wu Yan and Luo Fen at a red-decorated courtyard, where an old man demanded names and gifts for the Gift Ledger.
• Wu Yan offered a severed hand and received a Lower Seat, while Luo Fen tore out his own heart, earned a Middle Seat, and mocked Ma Yuxuan.
• Wang Hao told Ma Yuxuan that he would need to offer flesh and blood to enter, suggesting he give up a couple of his newly grown eyeballs.

Ma Yuxuan and Xue Huan entered a wedding feast, where Wang Hao argued that the Netherworld Epoch’s people—not its obsession-born creatures—were its true eerie beings because they disrupted the world and produced Origin Qi. He explained that Origin Qi caused most cultivator mutations, while Xue Huan’s catlike transformation also reflected her guilt over killing her cat, leaving Ma Yuxuan to reconsider the nature of eerie beings.

• Ma Yuxuan offered two superior-grade eyeballs for himself and Xue Huan, and the gatekeeper assigned them seats at the upper tables.
• Wang Hao told Ma Yuxuan that he and Chen Changsheng believed the Netherworld Epoch’s people were its true eerie beings, prompting Xue Huan to angrily object.
• Wang Hao argued that people disrupted the world by producing Origin Qi, and Ma Yuxuan countered that the Netherworld’s inhabitants were stranger than conventional eerie beings.
• Wang Hao said Xue Huan would become a cat-shaped eerie being, and she revealed that she had killed her cat while practicing a painful Sect Technique as a child.
• Wang Hao explained that Xue Huan’s transformation was tied to her inability to move past the incident, while most mutations came from absorbing filthy Origin Qi.

Wang Hao explained how the Netherworld Epoch’s people produced Origin Qi and transformed its primordial life-forms into eerie beings, while refusing to promise Xue Huan a way to save her world. At Mountain Hollow Village’s wedding feast, Ma Yuxuan and Xue Huan discovered imperial clothes on featureless Paper figures, and Xue Huan suddenly stabbed her own abdomen as the dishes were about to be served.

• Wang Hao told Ma Yuxuan that Netherworld Epoch cultivators created a closed loop of Origin Qi and that human resentment had transformed Primordial Eerie beings into the eerie beings of the present.
• Wang Hao refused Xue Huan’s plea for help, saying he was a Demon Cultivator who killed for profit and would not save her world.
• Ma Yuxuan and Xue Huan took their seats at the wedding feast, where featureless Paper figures wore clothes Xue Huan identified as reserved for the imperial family.
• Ma Yuxuan told Xue Huan to take the unusual clothes if she got the chance, while two actors began performing a wedding opera onstage.
• Xue Huan thrust her hand through her abdomen and told Ma Yuxuan that the dishes seemed about to be served.

Ma Yuxuan resisted the anomaly’s rule that stripped flesh from those registered for its feast while trying to save Xue Huan. After Wu Yan and Luo Fen died, he realized that anomalies arose from the resentment of living people and chose to deliver the one before them by offering up his own body.

• Ma Yuxuan restrained Xue Huan as the anomaly forced her to tear at her abdominal wound, then healed her with a pill after Wang Hao explained that the anomaly’s rules were stripping their flesh.
• Ma Yuxuan endured the escalating rule effects and repeatedly used pills to heal Xue Huan, while Wu Yan eventually attacked the performers and was dismembered into dishes.
• Luo Fen begged Ma Yuxuan for help, but Ma Yuxuan kept watching the stage until Luo Fen was killed as well.
• Ma Yuxuan told Wang Hao and Nian Sheng that anomalies came from the resentment of living people and could be dealt with through force, stronger resentment, or deliverance.
• Ma Yuxuan chose to deliver the anomaly by chopping himself into eight pieces and asked Xue Huan to put his body on the table.

Xue Huan exposed Luo Fen and Wu Yan’s deception in Mountain Hollow Village, triggering a frenzy among the eerie beings and a battle with Wu Yan. As the fight began, Wang Hao and the others observed Wu Yan’s mutations and learned that he had adapted Wang Hao’s old research into powerful abilities.

• Chen Changsheng told Xue Huan to draw a symbol in Ma Yuxuan’s blood on a jade pendant, and its light shattered the illusions and exposed Wu Yan and Luo Fen.
• Wu Yan called for retreat, Luo Fen fled, and the eerie beings in Mountain Hollow Village erupted into a frenzy.
• Ma Yuxuan reunited his scattered body and threw Xue Huan to safety, while Lu Mingyu caught her through the magical artifact and urged her to move away.
• Wang Hao took control of Xue Huan’s body, refined a Delusion-Shaping Realm eerie being with a drop of blood, and moved her twenty li away.
• Wu Yan transformed with fangs and spiderlike appendages and began devouring and slaughtering eerie beings as Wang Hao and the others watched.
• Wang Hao explained that he had once spread the idea of turning eerie treasures into living things, and Wu Yan’s mutations showed that the Netherworld Epoch cultivators had developed it further.

Wang Hao explained his plan to use living beings to nurture Eerie Treasures and revealed how the Netherworld Epoch had created Maggot Weirds. The group faced the threat of Chen Changsheng’s coming offensive and renewed their resolve to fight Xiao Yunshu.

• Wang Hao told Lu Mingyu and Bai Ze that Chen Changsheng had once hoped cultivators could absorb the Netherworld Epoch’s Origin Qi, but the experiments failed because the Qi kept increasing inside living beings.
• Wang Hao admitted that he had passed on ideas for using people to nurture Eerie Treasures, hoping to make them grow stronger and create a profitable supply.
• Wang Hao warned that Chen Changsheng had made his move and that they needed to prepare to kill Xiao Yunshu, while Wu Li threatened to kill Wang Hao if he caused trouble.
• Luo Fen unleashed a sound wave that killed every eerie being in Mountain Hollow Village, then transformed into an enormous pale maggot.
• Wang Hao identified Luo Fen as a parasite on a Maggot Weird and explained how mass graves, corpse-eating maggots, and lingering obsessions could produce one.

Ma Yuxuan, Wu Yan, and Luo Fen fought the Actor Weirds at Mountain Hollow Village, but the battle revealed two transformed weirds created through a horrifying ghostly wedding. Wang Hao explained that the bride’s pure resentment came from willingly being killed by her Dao partner on their wedding night, leaving the others shaken by the Netherworld Epoch’s methods.

• Ma Yuxuan smashed through Mountain Hollow Village, while Wu Yan and Luo Fen attacked the Actor Weirds with their own abilities.
• The Actor Weirds severed one of Wu Yan’s spider legs, and Ma Yuxuan brought down a mountain on the battlefield; Nian Sheng froze the scene long enough to move Xue Huan to safety.
• Two figures emerged from the rubble wearing wedding attire, revealed as a Human Skin Weird and a White Bone Weird.
• The Human Skin Weird sang about a ghostly wedding, prompting Wu Li and the others to close their eyes in disgust.
• Wang Hao explained that the weirds had been created by a Dao partner who killed a willing bride on their wedding night to produce powerful, pure resentment.

Ma Yuxuan transformed himself into a specter to save Xue Huan, while Nian Sheng intervened and attacked Bright Capital City. Chen Changsheng called off the fight and used golden light to awaken Ma Yuxuan’s dormant Life Lamp.

• Xu Nian moved to kill Xue Huan, but Ma Yuxuan charged through the specters to protect her and Chen Changsheng blocked his way.
• Ma Yuxuan drove a dagger into his chest, separated his flesh from his bones, and took in resentful energy as he transformed into a specter.
• Nian Sheng froze Xu Nian, freed Wei Zhou from hiding, and attacked Bright Capital City with a gigantic palm.
• Chang Gui resisted Nian Sheng’s attack, and gray energy from the Imperial Palace shattered her divine ability.
• Ma Yuxuan tore apart Luo Fen and battered Wu Yan into pieces, prompting Chen Changsheng to ask Nian Sheng for help and call off the fight.
• Chen Changsheng struck the skeletal Ma Yuxuan with golden light, stirring his dormant Life Lamp.

Chen Changsheng sent Nalan Zi Ping to confront Zhu Ge, who had sought to marry Nian Sheng, while Lu Mingyu, Wu Li, and Zi Ping attacked him in the Netherworld Epoch. As the battle began, Wang Hao laughed at Zhu Ge's predicament in the Blood Sea.

• Lu Mingyu, Wu Li, Nian Sheng, and Wang Hao used their powers to restore Ma Yuxuan, remove his Origin Qi contamination, and capture the Bone-Skin Specter.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that Zhu Ge wanted to marry Nian Sheng and sent Nalan Zi Ping to confront him, telling him to spare Zhu Ge's life.
• Lu Mingyu, Wu Li, and Nalan Zi Ping arrived at the Ghost Emperor's Dojo, where Lu Mingyu attacked Zhu Ge while the others waited.
• Wang Hao watched the fight on a screen of light, and Zhang Zhen wondered whether the Netherworld Epoch made cultivators foolish.

The True Dragon and Ancestor Phoenix urged the Primordial Qilin to oppose the Beast Ancestor, arguing that his leadership had confined and weakened the Divine Beast lineage. The Primordial Qilin revealed that Chen Changsheng had predicted their predicament and that he had once tried to stop them from following the Beast Ancestor.

• Wang Hao told Zhang Zhen that high cultivation had not stopped someone from acting like an idiot, then left the Blood Sea to attend to something outside.
• The Primordial Qilin remembered his son Mo Bai choosing to stay in the Chang Sheng Epoch and shed a tear over the decision.
• The True Dragon asked whether the Primordial Qilin was satisfied with the Divine Beast lineage's current state, and the Primordial Qilin claimed that he was.
• The Ancestor Phoenix and True Dragon condemned the Beast Ancestor for keeping the Divine Beast lineage confined and said they would kill him if he refused to give up power.
• The Primordial Qilin said he could not bear the humiliation because Chen Changsheng had predicted their fate, and he had tried to stop the others from following the Beast Ancestor.

Primordial Qilin showed True Dragon and Ancestor Phoenix a sealed memory of Chen Changsheng predicting the Divine Beast lineage’s decline and explaining that strength did not guarantee authority. Realizing Chen Changsheng had foreseen their situation, Primordial Qilin rejected the Beast Ancestor’s leadership and concluded they could not let him live.

• Primordial Qilin revealed that a scale from his son Mo Bai contained a memory Chen Changsheng had asked him to preserve.
• The memory showed Chen Changsheng predicting that the Divine Beast lineage would lose morale, that True Dragon and Ancestor Phoenix would falter, and that they would eventually seek his help.
• Primordial Qilin explained that he had dismissed Chen Changsheng before hearing his warning about the difference between strength and authority.
• Primordial Qilin said Chen Changsheng had deduced the Beast Ancestor’s lack of ambition and correctly predicted the Divine Beast lineage’s loss of standing.
• Ancestor Phoenix agreed that the Divine Beast lineage’s influence had declined despite its increased strength.
• Primordial Qilin rejected the Beast Ancestor’s authority and said they had to kill him before he could retaliate.