Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Your King Is Thick-Skinned Enough”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Old He explains the structure of the Royal Scion Tantai Ming’s personal force, the Cangming Guard, which numbers 1,200 aquatic-clan cultivators divided into six branches.
• The group learns that Deng Yao, commander of the Cangming Guard, is Madam Deng’s biological younger brother and Tantai Ming’s brother-in-law. This reveals that Luo Fengming’s scheme was backed not only by the Royal Scion, but also by the powerful Deng Family of the Dragon Palace.
• The Cangming Guard’s search for the demons involved in the recent incident largely failed because the demons had already been evacuated to Yong Province.
• Old He praises the demons’ foresight, especially Lin Shu and his allies, while lamenting that Luo Fengming might have achieved greater influence had he cooperated with them earlier.
• Lin Shu assesses the Royal Scion’s broad network of allied forces, including the Tao, Zhang, Deng, Song, and Wang families. He realizes that this combined strength is comparable to an Outer Mansion and far exceeds Dragonspine Province’s current foundation.
• Lin Shu concludes that he must prevent the Heavenly Demon Mansion from remaining uninvolved. He intends to exploit the growing conflict, gather resources, strengthen his treasures, and advance toward the Spirit Transformation realm.
• Lin Shu examines Ning Qingzhi’s Qingxuan Rhinoceros Jade Pendant alongside his own Mountain-Sea Exotic Treasures. The pendant is clearly superior, while the Heavenly Wolf Myriad Souls Banner is close to becoming a higher-grade spiritual object.
• Ning Qingzhi casually offers Lin Shu the use of her treasures. Lin Shu immediately takes the better pendant, leaving her embarrassed but unable to retract her offer. The others are stunned by his audacity.
• The scene shifts to Wangjiang Prefecture, where Deng Yao oversees the brutal interrogation of a captured demon king. When the prisoner’s elder brother, Demon Lord Jintang, is captured and brought in, it becomes clear that Jintang knowingly returned to save him despite the overwhelming danger.

Character Developments

• Lin Shu becomes increasingly strategic and ambitious. Rather than merely surviving, he now plans to manipulate the conflict between major factions to obtain resources and reach Spirit Transformation.
• Ning Qingzhi demonstrates both immense wealth and considerable knowledge of treasures. She also shows aristocratic confidence by lending Lin Shu her pendant without hesitation, though his bluntness leaves her flustered.
• Old He develops greater respect for Lin Shu and the Yong Province demon kings, recognizing their tactical foresight and potential to become a major independent force.
• Gray Civet continues acting opportunistically and tries to obtain a treasure from Ning Qingzhi, but her cold reaction quickly silences him.
• Deng Yao is revealed as a cruel, lazy, and politically dependent commander. His position rests largely on his relationship with Madam Deng rather than on personal merit.
• Demon Lord Jintang is portrayed as loyal and self-sacrificing. Despite understanding that returning to Wangjiang Prefecture will likely result in his death, he comes back to help his captured brother.

Significant Themes

• Power concealed beneath appearances: The Royal Scion’s true strength comes from the many powerful families supporting him, not merely from his personal status.
• Strategic foresight and survival: The Yong Province demons survive because they plan ahead, while those who remain behind are hunted and tortured.
• Political alliances and bloodline influence: Deng Yao’s authority depends heavily on Madam Deng, showing how family connections can matter more than ability.
• Ambition amid danger: Lin Shu sees the escalating conflict as both a threat and an opportunity to gather resources and increase his cultivation.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Jintang’s return for his brother contrasts sharply with Deng Yao’s cruelty and self-serving behavior.
• The value and misuse of treasures: Ning Qingzhi possesses powerful artifacts but lacks combat experience, while Lin Shu immediately recognizes their value and uses them more boldly.

Character Interactions

• Old He and the group: Old He provides crucial information but feels frustrated that his knowledge is ordinary compared with the others’ growing understanding.
• Ning Qingzhi and Lin Shu: Their exchange over the Qingxuan Rhinoceros Jade Pendant highlights Lin Shu’s shameless confidence and Ning Qingzhi’s aristocratic generosity. Their relationship gains an element of humorous tension.
• Lin Shu and the demon kings: Lin Shu quietly evaluates the strength of his allies and the gap between their faction and the Dragon Palace’s forces.
• Gray Civet and Ning Qingzhi: Gray Civet attempts to benefit from Ning Qingzhi’s generosity but is intimidated by her obvious refusal to treat him like Lin Shu.
• Deng Yao and the captured demon king: Deng Yao uses horrific torture to extract information, revealing his merciless nature and disregard for justice.
• Demon Lord Jintang and his brother: Their silent reunion conveys regret, loyalty, and the tragic consequences of returning to a territory controlled by the Cangming Guard.

Plot points and events

• Demon Lord Silver Candle apologizes to his estranged elder brother, Jintang, for sending a plea that brought him into the Cangming Guard’s hands. The brothers reunite amid the guards’ torture of captured demons.
• Commander Deng Yao orders Jintang to identify names in a book of suspected Demon Kings, promising only a quick death in return. When Silver Candle is flayed alive, Jintang briefly hesitates but refuses to give information.
• Jintang’s resistance is driven less by loyalty to the Moon-Devouring Demon King than by calculation: he fears betraying his refuge and believes offending Lin Shu may be no safer than defying the Heng River Immortals. A guard infects him with Spirit-Devouring Insects, subjecting him to the same torment that broke Silver Candle.
• Silver Candle hopes Jintang has come with a powerful patron who can rescue them. Jintang admits he came secretly, shattering that hope.
• Deng Yao mocks demons for hiding and implies he is above consequence because of his powerful connections. Silver Candle retorts that Deng would be helpless if the roles were reversed and his own sister lacked a powerful marriage.
• Before Deng can retaliate, a corpse is hurled into the hall. Lin Shu enters with two women, unruffled, and asks Deng how he intended to make Jintang’s death “quick.”

Character development and interactions

• Silver Candle is consumed by guilt over betraying his brother, yet his final words urge Jintang to cooperate simply to escape needless suffering. His hope briefly returns when he mistakes Jintang’s defiance for confidence in a rescuer.
• Jintang shows grim resolve, but it comes from cautious self-preservation rather than devotion. He endures the insects and tries to hide his uncertainty from the guards; his understated humor contrasts with the horror around him.
• Deng Yao displays casual cruelty and deep-rooted arrogance, treating demons as disposable and valuing family chiefly as a source of political power. Silver Candle’s taunt exposes a personal vulnerability and provokes his anger.
• The brothers’ bond is strained by years of estrangement but persists through guilt, concern, and a shared understanding of the torture they face.
• Lin Shu’s arrival abruptly shifts the balance of power, interrupting Deng at his most threatening and setting up a confrontation.

Significant themes

• Torture and coercion: The guards use unbearable physical pain to force captives to betray others, reducing survival to compliance or finding someone else to take one’s place.
• Loyalty versus self-interest: Jintang’s choice not to inform is partly principled, but mostly pragmatic; the chapter questions whether loyalty can exist without trust or shared history.
• Power and privilege: Deng’s confidence rests on status and connections, while the demons’ survival depends on hiding. Silver Candle’s retort highlights how power determines who can mock whom without fear.
• Family and guilt: The brothers’ painful reunion shows how affection and responsibility endure even after conflict and betrayal.

Plot points and events

• At the ruined Wangjiang Prefecture, Old He explains that the Cangming Guard has already swept the area clean of demons. The devastation is the result of a planned Dragon Palace purge, though Luo Fengming’s actions hastened it and may have cost the demons a chance to fight back.
• Dongling angrily defends her late master, while Old He criticizes the consequences of his choices. Their argument threatens to fracture the group before the mission begins.
• Lin Shu cuts off the dispute and insists they deal with the immediate danger first. Old He reports that Wangjiang has more than six hundred Cangming Guards, several powerful commanders, and a formidable military formation.
• Lin Shu divides the group into three teams, assigning them to different fronts and making clear that their goal is to break through the defenses and preserve a route of retreat—not fight to the death.
• Rather than launch a cautious ambush, Lin Shu walks openly into the Cangming Guard headquarters, kills a gate guard, and confronts Commander Deng Yao. His boldness astonishes Dongling and excites Ning Qingzhi.
• Jintang recognizes Lin Shu as his Demon King and pledges himself to him. Deng Yao orders his soldiers to kill the intruders, and the Cangming Guard forms a powerful coordinated attack.
• Lin Shu strikes Deng Yao hard, but the Guard’s formation impales him with three spears. Deng Yao boasts of his royal connections and assumes Lin Shu has no powerful patron.
• Lin Shu reveals that he is the backer of those who follow him. He shatters the spears and stomps Deng Yao’s face into the stone floor.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Shu shifts from his usual humility and casual manner into a decisive commander. He takes control of the group’s disagreements, assigns roles, and personally leads the dangerous attack. His final declaration frames his strength as something his followers can rely on.
• Dongling remains fiercely loyal to Luo Fengming and resents Old He’s criticism. She is unsettled by Lin Shu’s reckless-looking plan, then stunned by his direct confrontation and apparent resilience.
• Old He is still driven by the wish to see his young master’s remains. Though he doubts the odds, he gives Lin Shu crucial intelligence and accepts his leadership.
• Ning Qingzhi feels nervous but increasingly exhilarated at openly striking against the Heng River powers, with anger over the suffering demons fueling her resolve.
• Jintang moves from apparent helplessness to renewed awe and loyalty when he recognizes Lin Shu, while Silver Candle realizes he had misunderstood the situation.
• Deng Yao is introduced as a brutal, entitled commander who relies on both his lineage and the Cangming Guard’s strength. His confidence turns to surprise as Lin Shu attacks him.

Significant themes

• Decisiveness and leadership: Lin Shu ends unproductive conflict and gives clear orders despite the risks.
• Power versus pedigree: Deng Yao trusts his royal ties, while Lin Shu asserts authority through the strength and loyalty he has earned.
• Responsibility and consequence: The chapter confronts the cost of Luo Fengming’s choices and the wider tragedy facing Wangjiang’s demon population.
• Loyalty and belonging: Jintang’s recognition of Lin Shu underscores the bond between a leader and those who choose to follow him.
• Courage in the face of overwhelming force: The group knowingly challenges a disciplined, powerful enemy rather than retreating into helplessness.

Chapter 242: Playing Dumb

Key plot points

• Lin Shu and his allies launch a coordinated attack on the Cangming Guard. While Lin Shu confronts Commander Deng Yao, Ning Qingzhi reveals her strength and attacks the officers guarding him.
• Ning Qingzhi’s Liuying Hairpin cuts through Song Qinghe’s steel fork and badly wounds him. She then uses the Return-to-Silence Divine Seal to crush the chests of two deputy commanders and separate them from their troops.
• Elsewhere, Yuan Yuan and Su Xin sow chaos in the eastern and western districts, disrupting the Guard’s formations. Old He recognizes that Lin Shu may be in danger and hurries toward the prefectural office; Gray Civet is left to fend for himself.
• Lin Shu initially dominates Deng Yao, but the commander reveals his flood-dragon immortal body and catches Lin Shu’s arm, turning the fight in his favor. Lin Shu counters by borrowing power from the Immortal Scion Phantom and impaling Deng Yao with black-flamed spikes.
• The Cangming Guard’s hidden officers reveal themselves and assemble the Nine-Dragon Formation around Lin Shu. Rather than use Deng Yao as a hostage or retreat, Lin Shu kills him with a blow to the head, then calmly invites the assembled Guard to attack.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Shu is revealed as both exceptionally controlled and audacious: he directs the chaos with confidence, withstands a surprise reversal, and chooses to kill Deng Yao even when surrounded by the Guard’s full force.
• Ning Qingzhi displays far greater power than Dongling expected. Her confident, almost delighted aggression mirrors Lin Shu’s fearlessness, and her identity as a Heavenly Demon Mansion heir shocks the Guard.
• Deng Yao shifts from a seemingly helpless opponent into a dangerous fighter after transforming, but Lin Shu ultimately overpowers and kills him.
• Old He reassesses Lin Shu’s abilities but doubts that even his impressive qualities can bridge the gap between him and the Heng River. His concern leads him to abandon the local fight and rush to help.
• Dongling realizes that Lin Shu is not a sentimental or cautious protector: he openly acts as the demonkind’s backing and seems unconcerned with aristocratic power.
• The Cangming Guard prove disciplined and calculating. Their concealed commanders avoid being drawn out by the distraction, gather their forces, and trap Lin Shu in a stronger formation.

Significant themes

• Composure versus recklessness: Lin Shu’s precise control contrasts with Deng Yao’s rage, but his refusal to retreat also makes his courage look like madness.
• Power and hidden identity: Ning Qingzhi’s abilities and the Guard’s concealed officers show how appearances can disguise the true balance of power.
• Leadership and loyalty: Lin Shu acts as a shield for the demonkind, while his allies risk themselves to support his plan.
• The cost of strength: Lin Shu’s powerful body and techniques consume substantial energy, leaving him vulnerable even as he continues fighting.

Plot points and events

• Lin Shu kills Deng Yao, a powerful Flood Dragon and the Heng River’s overlord, destroying the Cangming Guard’s intended bargaining chip. Song Qinghe realizes the killing leaves both sides at the mercy of Madam Deng and orders the guards to attack.
• The Cangming Guard deploys its Nine Dragons Array, trapping Lin Shu, Ning Qingzhi, and Dongling in a fortified zone. Ning Qingzhi admits she has no plan and challenges Lin Shu to get them out.
• Lin Shu uses the Heavenly Wolf Myriad Souls Banner to summon Yin Deities and blur the boundary between the living world and the Underworld. Rather than destroy the array, he separates it from the official compound, weakening its power.
• Lin Shu and the others fight the guards. The Cangming Guard’s dragon-shadow protection rapidly heals their injuries, making them extremely difficult to defeat. Lin Shu appears to exhaust himself, and Song Qinghe believes the guards have the advantage.
• Lin Shu abruptly stops fighting, dismisses the guards as “vulgar brutes,” and uses the Yellow Springs Nine-Nether Soul-Seizing Method. The guards are drawn into a desolate, dusky realm, apparently severed from their bodies.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Shu is revealed to possess formidable, highly coordinated techniques that seem more like those of an immortal lineage than a demon. He conceals the severe cost of his Underworld method until the guards are caught in it, turning apparent exhaustion into a trap.
• Ning Qingzhi moves from exhilaration to alarm as the consequences of killing Deng Yao sink in. Though she has no solution herself, she trusts Lin Shu to get them out; she and Dongling hold off several guards together.
• Dongling regrets having run ahead and fears the array will kill them, but regains hope as Lin Shu and Ning Qingzhi fight back.
• Song Qinghe shifts from negotiation to desperate aggression. Experienced and wary, he recognizes Lin Shu’s threat, encourages his men to exploit apparent weakness, and is ultimately caught off guard by Lin Shu’s final technique.
• The Cangming Guards’ teamwork and resilience make them formidable, while Lin Shu’s contemptuous remark and sudden change of tactics unsettle them.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: Lin Shu’s apparent exhaustion masks a decisive final attack; apparent battlefield advantage does not guarantee victory.
• The cost of power: His techniques consume not only mana but also rare divine-soul power, making his victory risky.
• Escalation and consequences: Killing Deng Yao turns a tense encounter into a deadly conflict with political repercussions.
• Trust and dependence: Ning Qingzhi relies on Lin Shu’s assurances even as the danger grows.

Key plot points and events

• Gray Civet, Old He, Yuan Yuan, and Su Xin arrive to help Lin Shu, only to find the Cangming Guard’s Nine Dragons Array sealed around the prefecture office. Their attacks cannot break it.
• Old He recognizes the array’s strength and urges the others to retreat, offering to lead them out of Great Shun and take responsibility for the consequences. Gray Civet refuses at first, unwilling to abandon Lin Shu, whom he feels indebted to.
• Yuan Yuan keeps striking the array, insisting that Lin Shu has never lost. Before Old He can finish arguing that Heng River is beyond comparison with Yong Province, the array collapses—but not because of Yuan Yuan’s blows.
• Inside the ruined courtyard, Lin Shu stands unharmed amid the fallen Cangming Guard. Nine elite Immortal Scions kneel like lifeless statues, and the rest of the guards lie dead. Ning Qingzhi recalls seeing a terrifying, dim-yellow vision before the fight abruptly ended.
• Lin Shu says he is tired and tells the group to leave. Though he appears invincible, the brief use of the Nine Nether Yellow Springs has severely drained his soul, leaving him too depleted to fight further.
• Yuan Yuan moves to Lin Shu’s side and discreetly shields him while the group departs. The survivors begin to understand the scale of Lin Shu’s victory: the Cangming Guard has lost three squads and can no longer form its complete dragon array.

Character developments and interactions

• Gray Civet reveals his loyalty to Lin Shu. Though frightened and aware they cannot help, he cannot bring himself to flee because Lin Shu once rescued and supported him.
• Old He acts pragmatically, conserving his strength and prioritizing the group’s escape. He is shaken by the victory, which echoes a painful memory of an earlier aquatic-clan encirclement—except that Lin Shu survives where another young master did not.
• Yuan Yuan shows steadfast faith in Lin Shu, continuing to fight the array because he has never seen Lin Shu lose. Afterward, he protects Lin Shu without drawing attention to it.
• Lin Shu proves devastatingly powerful but also vulnerable: his divine-soul energy is nearly exhausted. His caution around Ning Qingzhi reflects his awareness that she could take advantage of his weakened state.
• Ning Qingzhi and Dongling leave shaken and newly humbled. Ning Qingzhi realizes her greatest danger came not from the notorious enemies she expected, but from initially trying to seize spoils from Lin Shu.
• Jintang and Silver Candle are awed by Lin Shu’s strength; Silver Candle cannot understand why his brother had been hiding his connection to such a powerful ally.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and gratitude: Gray Civet and Yuan Yuan stand by Lin Shu despite the danger, shaped by his earlier acts toward them.
• Power and reputation: Lin Shu’s victory transforms him from an obscure Demon King into a figure whose name will reach the Ning household, Luo Fengge, and the Dragon Palace.
• Strength’s hidden cost: Lin Shu’s overwhelming victory comes at a severe personal price, emphasizing the difference between apparent invincibility and actual endurance.
• Humility and misjudgment: Ning Qingzhi’s experience exposes the danger of underestimating someone based on reputation or status.
• The rising tide of conflict: The destruction of the Cangming Guard’s full dragon formation marks a major shift in the balance of power along the Heng River.

Plot points and events

• At a ruined demon mountain, Silver Candle silently confronts the devastation of his former homeland. Su Xin realizes that the same devastation may soon reach Dragonspine Province, as the Dragon Palace and allied immortals wage war on demon settlements.
• Yuan Yuan worries about Su Xin’s worsening exhaustion. Though she insists she is fine, he recognizes that she is struggling under the pressure of the province’s larger crisis.
• In Lin Shu’s consciousness, the captured Cangming Guards wander through a bleak, yellow realm. Lin Shu reveals himself as a Mountain-Sea-level immortal and devours them one by one, leaving Song Qinghe until last.
• Lin Shu tortures Song Qinghe before consuming him, both to punish him for his past brutality against demons and to extract memories about the Spirit-Devouring Insects. The kills also yield a large amount of Karmafire Gold Essence, which Lin Shu can now use after mastering the Mountain-Sea Immortal Method.
• Meanwhile, the Luo Family has been keeping a low profile to ease tensions with the Dragon Palace. That strategy is upended when news arrives that a demon has massacred more than six hundred Cangming Guards, including three Langjiang, six vice generals, and Deng Yao.
• The other Heavenly Demon Mansion families suspect the Luo Family is responsible and gather at the Luo Residence to demand that Luo Fengge explain whether he intends to fight or retreat. Luo Fengge sits behind closed doors, visibly furious.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Xin hides her declining stamina behind a smile, while Yuan Yuan sees through her and feels helpless about her growing burden.
• Lin Shu demonstrates the full extent of his power: he needs no powerful patron, because he himself is the backing behind the young Demon King. His calculated cruelty toward Song Qinghe also reflects his willingness to use fear and punishment to secure information and protect his people.
• Song Qinghe goes from confidence in his status as an Immortal Scion to terror and despair when he realizes Lin Shu can kill and consume him without restraint.
• Luo Fengge had chosen restraint to protect lives and preserve the uneasy peace, but the massacre has made that policy appear untenable to his allies. Ning Yanche, unlike the others, doubts Luo Fengge is acting out of simple revenge and suspects a different explanation.

Significant themes

• Power and identity: Lin Shu’s true strength overturns Song Qinghe’s assumptions about who holds authority.
• Retaliation and moral cost: Lin Shu’s vengeance echoes the cruelty Song Qinghe inflicted on demons, while raising questions about the limits of justice.
• Personal suffering amid political crisis: Su Xin’s private exhaustion and Yuan Yuan’s concern sit alongside the threat facing an entire province.
• Restraint versus escalation: Luo Fengge’s attempt to prevent wider conflict is challenged by a massacre that threatens to force the factions into open war.

Luo Fengge refused to lead the Heavenly Demon Mansion into war with Heng River and ordered an investigation into the demons who had attacked the Cangming Guard. After learning that Qingzhi was safe and identifying several people linked to the affair, Ning Yanche ordered his forces to watch over them and the Luo Family rather than bring Qingzhi home.

• Luo Fengge told the gathered family elders he would seek justice from Heng River himself once he was strong enough, and warned them not to recruit the demons who had attacked the Cangming Guard.
• Ning Yanche rebuked the families for forgetting the insult of the Dragon Palace's celebratory banquet, then left after Luo Fengge promised to seek an answer from Heng River.
• Tan Feng told Ning Yanche that Qingzhi was safe and showed him traces identifying Old He, Gray Civet, Yuan Yuan, and Su Xin among those involved.
• Ning Yanche used the traces to reveal that an unknown person with a Calamity-Surmounting Spiritual Root had taken Qingzhi's Qingxuan Rhinoceros Jade Pendant.
• Tan Feng offered to pursue the group and bring Qingzhi home, but Ning Yanche ordered him to investigate and guard them from trouble, including threats from the Luo Family.

Lin Shu persuaded Old He to abandon his hope of returning under Luo Fengge and instead help place a loyal member of the Luo Family in the Mansion Lord’s seat. After discovering a gateway blocking his path to Spirit Transformation, Lin Shu prepared to provoke Heng River and sought a way to gain the resources needed to advance.

• Old He argued that the group might return to the Luo Family, but Yuan Yuan warned that Luo Fengge could eliminate them to protect his own position.
• Lin Shu told Old He that he understood his wish to return and proposed raising another Luo Family member who would uphold Luo Fengming’s final wishes.
• Old He pledged his life to Lin Shu and resolved that Luo Fengge was a traitor who should lose his place as Mansion Lord.
• Lin Shu realized that a gateway blocked his Dao Path and worried that he lacked the calamity-dispelling gold essence needed to open it.
• Lin Shu used knowledge from Song Qinghe’s memories to cure Demon Lord Silver Candle’s Spirit-Devouring Insects sealing technique, then called Su Xin and Jintang.
• Lin Shu prepared to provoke Heng River and hoped its Immortal Sects would bring him the virtue silver he needed.

Tantai Ming dismissed the Heavenly Demon Mansion’s offer to set aside hostilities and enlisted Master Zhang to hunt down the demons responsible for Deng Yao’s death. He revealed that Luo Fengming was imprisoned and tormented in the bronze tree, while Lin Shu prepared to protect his companions and home.

• After Madam Deng accused Tantai Ming of causing Deng Yao’s death, he feared an attack from the Heavenly Demon Mansion and sought help from the Dragon Palace elders.
• Tantai Ming received Luo Fengge’s letter denying the Heavenly Demon Mansion’s involvement and proposing cooperation over the High Immortal’s descent, then asked Master Zhang to track the culprits using the fallen Cangming Guards’ souls.
• Master Zhang sent out white flames to mobilize the netherworld’s agents, while Tantai Ming insisted that he wanted to capture and punish the demons himself.
• Tantai Ming removed his crown and revealed that one of his horns remained half-broken; he recalled Luo Fengming’s final strike and taunted the tortured figure trapped in the bronze tree, threatening to reunite it with Old He.
• Demon Lord Jintang told Lin Shu that his family missed him, and Lin Shu resolved to keep the danger away from his companions and home.
• Lin Shu immediately began addressing the Spirit-Devouring Insects, while Yuan Yuan interpreted his concern as a possible sign of interest in his daughter.

Lin Shu’s group struggled to decide how to continue disrupting the Dragon Palace’s plans, while Ning Qingzhi’s proposal to seek information from her family was rejected. After receiving a spirit decree through his Night Patrol God authority, Lin Shu learned the Heng River Prince had ordered the search for the culprit—and that the dead Cangming Guards had been turned into tracking hounds.

• Demon Lord Jintang praised Yu Sheng’s ability, leaving Ning Qingzhi jealous and determined to prove herself to Lin Shu.
• Lin Shu recognized that Luo Fengming’s clues had been exhausted and that the group lacked the intelligence and support to safely target the Dragon Palace.
• Ning Qingzhi offered to pretend to return home and extract information from her father, but Lin Shu rejected the idea and Old He suggested lying low.
• Lin Shu sensed something was wrong and moved the group away, causing Tan Feng and the Ning family elders to lose track of them while spying from the Underworld.
• The Moon-Devouring Heavenly Wolf relayed a dharma decree ordering Master Wuchang of the Zhang Family to help the Heng River Prince hunt the culprit.
• Lin Shu possessed the wolf’s body and found that the dead Cangming Guards had been transformed into chained soul hounds to track him.