Chapter Summaries

Lu Chen negotiated with Lord God of Wealth over Heavenly Gold, then met with Li City God about his bid to become Netherworld Prefect. He promised to seek Great Emperor Fengdu’s approval in exchange for Li City God’s help in eradicating the Zhao family.

• Lu Chen agreed to prepare two hundred thousand Heavenly Gold for Lord God of Wealth, who offered to help him with requests to the gods.
• Zhao Wanliang argued with Li City God about his feud with Lu Chen, then vowed to kill Lu Chen after Li City God ascended to Netherworld Prefect.
• Li City God went to Lu Chen’s home and asked about Great Emperor Fengdu’s response to his bid for Netherworld Prefect.
• Lu Chen told Li City God that Great Emperor Fengdu wanted him to observe Li City God further and report again.
• Lu Chen promised to plead with Great Emperor Fengdu for Li City God, then asked him to help eradicate the Zhao family.

Lu Chen pressured Li City God to punish the Zhao family by accusing them of grave crimes and invoking Li's past actions and reputation. Li City God agreed to investigate and left, while Lu Chen considered how to defend himself against the god and thought of Zhong Kui as a possible solution.

• Lu Chen accused the Zhao family of abusing merchants, abducting women, and committing other crimes, and Li City God reluctantly agreed that their offenses deserved punishment.
• Lu Chen praised Li City God and asked him to help eliminate the Zhao family, leaving Li torn between refusing and acting against them.
• When Li City God cited the gods' limits on interfering in mortal affairs, Lu Chen reminded him that he had previously captured Qiu Qianluo; Li then agreed to investigate the Zhao family and report back.
• Li City God and Hu Sanniang used the City God Seal to open a rift and leave, and Lu Chen wondered whether Li would sacrifice the Zhao family or protect them.
• Lu Chen worried that Li City God could attack him without warning, then hit upon Demon-Subduing True Lord—Zhong Kui as a possible answer.

Lu Chen planned to pursue more temple missions while waiting for Li City God's response about the Zhong Kui Token. At the Zhao residence, Li City God told Zhao Wanliang that Lu Chen had demanded the Zhao family be destroyed, and the two devised a plan to turn Zhao Wanliang into Lu Chen's ally by exposing the Wu and Qin families' schemes.

• Lu Chen put away the expiring Zhong Kui Token and decided to wait for Li City God's word before choosing whether to summon Zhong Kui.
• Li City God confronted Zhao Wanliang, struck him, and revealed that Lu Chen had demanded the Zhao family be wiped out.
• Li City God warned Zhao Wanliang not to attack Lu Chen, whose influence and divine offices made retaliation disastrous.
• Zhao Wanliang proposed befriending Lu Chen and shifting their conflict toward the Wu and Qin families, whose schemes threatened Lu Chen's businesses and temple.
• Zhao Wanliang suggested using Hu Sanniang as a natural intermediary to reveal the Zhao family's offer and began planning his next move.

After Lu Chen became newly wealthy, news of his rise shocked his classmates’ families and spread throughout Jiangdu. He completed the purchase of the Ma Clan Shrine and went to the City Lord’s Manor to accept temple missions, where he learned that mystic realm missions were available only to newly wealthy families and above.

• Li Ruoyi’s parents showed her the newspaper announcing Lu Chen’s promotion, and she broke down over how far she had fallen behind him.
• Song Hao’s parents feared Lu Chen would retaliate, and Song Hao vowed to avoid him for the rest of his life.
• Lu Chen completed the transfer of the Ma Clan Shrine and received the certificate for the Lu Clan Temple.
• Lu Chen visited Yu Feng, confirmed that student rewards would still be doubled, and asked to accept temple missions.
• Yu Feng took Lu Chen to the Shrine Affairs Office, where Lu Chen browsed the divine summoning requirements and discovered the mystic realm mission category.

Lu Chen learned how secret realms worked and browsed missions, growing suspicious of a high-reward secret realm in Rongcheng that hundreds had failed to open. Sun Yourong revealed she planned to go there, and Lu Chen had not yet said whether he would join her.

• Yu Feng explained that secret realms could form inside people, described the Demon Kingdom in the Palm, and warned Lu Chen that choices mattered more than talent.
• Lu Chen filtered the mission list and examined several secret-realm missions, including a recently posted Rong City Treasure Secret Realm mission with 926 failed attempts.
• Sun Yourong arrived with two bodyguards and explained that she had been in a private box reserved for the Four Great Families.
• Sun Yourong said she planned to visit Rongcheng to investigate its famous unopened secret realm, and asked Lu Chen whether he was going too.

Lu Chen accepted a high-reward temple mission to Rongcheng and secured his school’s seal before his planned departure with Sun Yourong. Zhao Wanliang approached him to propose cooperation, but Lu Chen remained unconvinced and gave him one minute to make his case.

• Lu Chen chose the Rongcheng rare-treasure mission, paid its deposit, and arranged to leave with Sun Yourong the next morning.
• Zhao Wanliang secretly followed Lu Chen as he drove to Jiangcheng No. 3 High School to get the mission document stamped.
• Lu Chen visited his former school, where staff celebrated his new noble status, and obtained the required seal.
• Zhao Wanliang approached Lu Chen at the school gate and asked to talk, claiming he wanted to resolve their conflict.
• Zhao Wanliang revealed that Hu Sanniang had informed him about Li City God’s involvement and proposed that their families cooperate in Jiangdu’s incense business.
• Lu Chen rejected Zhao Wanliang’s offer as unconvincing and gave him one last minute to make it count.

Lu Chen postponed dealing with the Zhao family, secured two protective treasures from Zhong Kui, and traveled to Rongcheng with Sun Yourong for a secret realm mission. There, Sun Yourong’s friend Xin Yao warned that a terrifying existence—possibly an immortal—had taken an interest in the secret realm.

• Zhao Wanliang gave Lu Chen dossiers about the Wu and Qin families and offered to support the Lu family in exchange for a temporary truce.
• Lu Chen postponed the Zhao family matter, and Li City God accepted the delay while waiting for the prefectural position to be settled.
• Lu Chen summoned Zhong Kui, who gave him an Evil-Repelling Bell and an Eight-Faced Asura Fan to protect his homes and accepted a future favor instead of payment.
• Lu Chen and Sun Yourong traveled to Rongcheng with a convoy and met Sun Yourong’s friend Xin Yao at their hotel.
• Xin Yao warned Lu Chen and Sun Yourong that a terrifying existence had noticed the secret realm, and they realized she meant an immortal.

Xin Yao explained why she believed the Grass Temple Village secret realm was protected by an immortal, and she, Lu Chen, and Sun Yourong traveled there to investigate. Though Xin Yao expected the mission to be impossible, Lu Chen said that if immortals were responsible, it might be easy.

• Xin Yao described the strange fragrance and mass grave at Grass Temple Village, along with the ghosts and experts who were knocked unconscious but survived.
• Xin Yao argued that the secret realm's many failed explorations without any deaths suggested its defenses were meant to keep mortals out, leading Lu Chen and Sun Yourong to suspect an immortal was protecting it.
• Xin Yao revealed that no one had passed the first stage, and she agreed to stay in the area with Lu Chen and Sun Yourong before they headed to the village together.
• On the way, Xin Yao guessed the outer ghosts resembled Netherworld methods and said the defenses had appeared with unusual speed because the treasure mattered greatly to the deity.
• Lu Chen said the mission might be easy if immortals were behind it, shocking Xin Yao.

Lu Chen and his companions arrived at Grass Temple Village to investigate the secret realm, where a mass grave filled with vicious ghosts had stopped the other explorers. He entered the graveyard in his Yanluo form and ordered his underworld forces to attack the ghost horde.

• Lu Chen explained that the mission was to open the secret realm, not necessarily claim its rare treasure, and planned to investigate whether a deity was involved.
• Lu Chen, Xin Yao, and Sun Yourong reached the guarded village and made their way to the mass grave, where explorers had gathered.
• He Xun told Lu Chen that red-clothed vicious ghosts drove away anyone who entered, despite his worship of Great Emperor Huaguang.
• Lu Chen entered the mass grave and transformed into his Yanluo form, summoning Xie Qingyi, Fan Rusong, Ox-Head, Horse-Face, and a hundred yin soldiers.
• When the vicious ghosts surged toward him, Lu Chen ordered his underworld forces to crush them.

Lu Chen used the Plague Emperor Banner to defeat and absorb most of the red-clad ghost tide, gaining several hundred Plague Ghosts. As his forces advanced deeper into the Mass Grave, a powerful presence emerged from a black vortex.

• The Underworld Envoys and their guards charged into the ghost tide, but the numerous red-clad ghosts began to overwhelm their defensive line.
• Lu Chen unleashed the Plague Emperor Banner, whose Azure Miasma weakened the ghosts and strengthened his Yin Soldiers.
• Lu Chen used the banner to absorb the ghosts, gaining several hundred Plague Ghosts whose strength fell after they left the Ghost Domain.
• Lu Chen sent the new Plague Ghosts ahead as scouts while his guards escorted him deeper into the Mass Grave.
• Black smoke gathered into a vortex and exploded, releasing a terrifying presence far stronger than the red-clad ghosts.

Lu Chen escaped a sixth-rank Ghost King in the mass grave ghost domain and learned that the mission was tied to a powerful divine scheme. A Lord of the Land revealed that at least four Heavenly Court immortals had jointly laid the scheme, leaving Lu Chen stunned.

• A sixth-rank Ghost King destroyed many of Lu Chen's plague ghosts and struck him with a blade, but [No Death] protected him long enough to escape the ghost domain.
• Lu Chen told Xin Yao and Sun Yourong about the Ghost King, then left to seek a Land God shrine while they stayed behind.
• Lu Chen summoned a Lord of the Land and asked about the strange treasure and barrier in Grass Temple Village.
• The Lord of the Land confirmed that Heavenly Court immortals were behind the barrier and revealed that no fewer than four immortals had jointly laid the scheme.

Lu Chen learned that four immortals had sealed the secret realm and deduced their identities from the formations protecting its rare treasure. He decided to challenge them for the realm and persuaded the Lord of the Land to share what he knew in exchange for a future reward.

• The Lord of the Land showed Lu Chen how four divine lights suppressed the treasure and established a barrier around the mass graveyard.
• The Lord of the Land revealed that a Formless Sword-Aura Formation had killed a level-seven great demon, while a Ghost King guarded the graveyard.
• Lu Chen learned that the rare treasure might be the secret realm’s pivot and concluded that preserving the realm would require stripping the pivot from it.
• Lu Chen offered the Lord of the Land Heavenly Gold and Netherworld notes, then promised ten fifth-rank treasures if the Lord helped him.
• The Lord of the Land inferred that the four immortals included a mortal-world patrol deity, a sword wielder, a spirit commander, and a defensive formation expert.
• Lu Chen connected the clues and identified the four immortals as the Four Heavenly Kings.

Lu Chen learned that the Grass Temple Village secret realm might be connected to the Four Heavenly Kings and sought the Plague Emperor’s help. The Plague Emperor warned him that the Heavenly Court’s Military Department could not be handled like other divine factions because it raised its own military provisions.

• Lu Chen questioned the Lord of the Land, who confirmed that other Spirit Users had asked about the matter but that he had revealed nothing to them.
• Lu Chen considered asking Lord God of Wealth for help but decided to seek the Plague Emperor’s intervention instead.
• Lu Chen returned to the hotel with Sun Yourong and Xin Yao, crafted a Plague Emperor idol, and used the Idol Communion Technique to contact the Plague Emperor.
• Lu Chen explained the secret realm and asked for help dealing with the possible involvement of the Four Heavenly Kings, offering to surrender most of its treasures.
• The Plague Emperor cautioned that the Military Department’s power and relationships made ordinary pressure tactics ineffective, then explained that it could raise its own military provisions.

Lu Chen learned that the Four Heavenly Kings had set the secret realm’s formation, and the Plague Emperor agreed to help him challenge it through the Plague Department. The chapter ended with Lu Chen planning to rest before summoning the Five Plague Envoys and revealing his Plague Department office to Sun Yourong.

• The Plague Emperor warned Lu Chen that the Ministry of War raised some of its own funds and that offering Heavenly Gold could bring the Heavenly Court down on him.
• Lu Chen insisted he would keep seeking a way to claim the secret realm, so the Plague Emperor revealed that he had been testing Lu Chen’s resolve and promised the Five Plague Envoys’ aid.
• The Plague Emperor explained that the Five Plague Envoys might only weaken the Four Heavenly Kings’ formation, and told Lu Chen to prepare and rely on his own abilities as well.
• After the divine statue’s radiance faded, Lu Chen realized a clash between immortals was coming and noted that the statue could be used only one more time.
• Sun Yourong asked whether Lu Chen would continue against the Four Heavenly Kings, and Lu Chen told her the Plague Lord had agreed to help.
• Lu Chen revealed to Sun Yourong that he was the Plague-Wielding Young Lord and planned to summon his Plague Department senior brothers the next day.

Lu Chen returned to Grass Temple Village with Sun Yourong and Xin Yao as the Wang Family’s young master arrived to challenge the secret realm. After learning more about the Wang Family’s authority, Lu Chen agreed to watch the young master try first, though the growing crowd made keeping a low profile difficult.

• Lu Chen went back to Grass Temple Village with Sun Yourong and Xin Yao, and Xin Yao said she would return home after one more day.
• Sun Yourong and Xin Yao explained that the Wang Family governed Jiang Province’s temples and could influence other clans through missions and incense prices.
• The Wang Family’s young master arrived with more than a hundred fourth-rank guards and a powerful spirit beast drawing his carriage.
• The young master put the gathered clans at ease, joked about keeping quiet if he failed, and asked to be taken to the secret realm.
• He Xun volunteered to lead the young master there, and Lu Chen decided to watch his attempt before making his own move.

Young Master Wang used a lightning magic treasure against the mass graveyard’s sixth-rank Ghost King, which drew on the ghost domain’s yin energy to become a seventh-rank Ghost King and destroy the treasure. He then unleashed the Wang Family’s seventh-rank Flying Dragon Sword, but an unseen force shattered its sword radiance and sent the sword falling at his feet.

• Young Master Wang summoned a lightning magic treasure and struck the mass graveyard, forcing the hidden sixth-rank Ghost King to emerge.
• The Ghost King absorbed the ghost domain’s yin energy, rose to seventh rank, and shattered Young Master Wang’s magic treasure before retreating.
• Young Master Wang mourned his lost treasure, then produced the Wang Family’s seventh-rank Flying Dragon Sword and launched it at the Ghost King.
• The Flying Dragon Sword cut through the Ghost King’s barriers, but its sword radiance suddenly shattered and the powerless sword fell before Young Master Wang.

After the Flying Dragon Sword was struck down, Lu Chen summoned the Plague Department’s Five Direction Plague-Bringing Envoys to breach the formation at the mass grave hill. The four envoys who answered his call appeared above the mountain as Lu Chen declared that the Plague Department had come to break the formation.

• An Invisible Sword Aura struck down Young Master Wang’s Flying Dragon Sword, prompting City Lord Huang and the crowd to abandon their attempt to enter the secret realm.
• Xin Yao insisted that Lu Chen could still break the formation, and Young Master Wang stayed to watch after learning Lu Chen had once survived inside the hill for half an hour.
• Lu Chen set out the Plague Lord Divine Statue, lit incense, and chanted the Incense-Blessing Divine Mantra as onlookers realized he was summoning a god.
• Young Master Wang recognized Lu Chen as the person who had summoned the Plague Lord Dharma Idol in Qianjiang City, just as a ghost-green celestial phenomenon spread across the sky.
• The Plague Emperor opened a passage from the Heavenly Court, and Lu Chen summoned Zhou Xin, Li Qi, Zhu Tianlin, and Yang Wenhui to the mortal world.
• Lu Chen rose into the air with the Plague Emperor Banner and declared that the Plague Department had come to breach the formation.

Lu Chen watched the Five Plague Envoys battle the Ghost King and weaken the mass grave’s defenses, while the Four Heavenly Kings debated whether to intervene. The Four Heavenly Kings grew concerned that the strange treasure might be lost, and Growth Heavenly King was asked to decide what they should do.

• Li Qi sent three giant pythons to attack the Ghost King, but Many-Hearing Heavenly King’s Primal Umbrella blocked them.
• Yang Wenhui used the Plague Brush to unleash crimson miasma that began eroding the umbrella’s protective barrier.
• City Lord Huang recognized Lu Chen as a likely Plague Department guardian deity, while Young Master Wang broke down in humiliation.
• Lu Chen saw the Plague Envoys gaining the upper hand and hoped to reach the strange treasure once the formation broke.
• Vast-Vision Heavenly King urged the Four Heavenly Kings to descend, while King Who Upholds the Nation worried about harming their mortal incense offerings.
• Many-Hearing Heavenly King and Vast-Vision Heavenly King argued that the Military Department could not afford to retreat, and the brothers turned to Growth Heavenly King for his decision.

The Four Great Heavenly Kings agreed on a plan to confront the Plague Envoys while preventing the Plague Lord from entering the battle, but the Plague Emperor appeared and approved their decision. As Lu Chen awaited the array’s collapse, the Four Great Heavenly Kings arrived, bringing the opposing sides to a standoff of eight towering Dharma forms.

• Growth Heavenly King and his brothers debated the risks of confronting the Plague Envoys, then agreed on a plan that would push the hardest challenge onto Lu Chen.
• Plague Great Emperor Haotian appeared in the Heavenly King Hall, punished Vast-Vision Heavenly King for insulting the Plague Department, and approved the brothers’ plan.
• The Four Great Heavenly Kings continued toward the mortal world as the scarlet miasma weakened the barrier around the ghost domain.
• Zhou Xin told Lu Chen to capture the seventh-rank Ghost King and raise it as a Five-Direction Plague Ghost once the array broke.
• A white vortex opened above Grass Temple Village, and the Four Great Heavenly Kings emerged to confront the Five-Direction Plague Envoys as eight Dharma forms faced off.

Eight Dharma manifestations descended over Grass Temple Village, terrifying witnesses across Rongcheng as the Four Heavenly Kings confronted the Five Direction Plague Envoys over a mortal treasure. Their dispute turned into a magical duel, but Growth Heavenly King stopped the first clash and the two sides remained hostile.

• The eight divine manifestations stunned Young Master Wang, City Lord Huang, Xin Yao, and witnesses throughout Rongcheng, while Lord of the Land kowtowed in fear.
• King Who Upholds the Nation silenced mortals’ hearing, and Growth Heavenly King demanded that Lu Chen’s allies explain their intervention.
• Zhou Xin said the Five Direction Plague Envoys had come by the Star Lord’s decree to help their junior brother and challenged the Four Heavenly Kings to settle the dispute by their abilities.
• Vast-Vision Heavenly King’s Purple-Gold Flower Marten became a colossal elephant, and Zhu Tianlin unleashed a vast sea of miasma and a demonic skull in response.
• Growth Heavenly King ordered Vast-Vision Heavenly King to withdraw his divine power, and both sides pulled back their attacks while threatening to continue the fight in the Heavenly Court.