Recaps

Lu Chen and Zhong Kui analyzed the Five Hells Ascension ritual and its required victims, destinies, and willing executioner. Lu Chen suspected the Living Ghost Immortal practitioner was also preparing Five Hells Ascension, and the group considered seeking information from the Four Duty Merit Officers.

• Zhong Kui examined the victims’ files and confirmed that the Gold in Sand destiny and two Four Symbols arrangements were still missing.
• Lu Chen explained that Five Hells Ascension required five Human Fiends and a willing executioner whose destiny matched the practitioner, with both risking destruction if the ritual failed.
• Lu Chen revealed that the ritual’s executioner and punished victims could ascend as Ghost Immortals together, prompting Fan Rusong to consider how many people in Jiangdu were pursuing Ghost Immortal cultivation.
• Lu Chen suspected the practitioner attempting to become a Living Ghost Immortal had prepared Five Hells Ascension as a backup plan.
• Zhong Kui examined the Yin-Thunder Wood and concluded that the person behind the ritual had substantial means and likely ties to the Netherworld.
• Lu Chen proposed asking the Four Duty Merit Officers for precise information, but Zhong Kui warned that it might not be simple.

Lu Chen accompanied Zhong Kui to Jiangdu City's City God to ask the Four Duty Merit Officers to identify the killer behind the Five Hells Ascension incidents. The officers refused to let him consult the Human Register without a decree or imperial edict, leaving Lu Chen needing the Jade Emperor's approval.

• Zhong Kui took Lu Chen's soul to Jiangdu City's City God Street while protecting his physical body with a spell.
• Hu Sanniang welcomed Zhong Kui and Lu Chen on Li City God's behalf, and Li City God apologized for his conduct at the City God Assembly.
• Lu Chen explained the Corpse Liberation Immortal incidents and asked Li City God to introduce them to the Four Duty Merit Officers.
• Li City God led Lu Chen, Zhong Kui, Xie Qingyi, and Fan Rusong to the Duty Registrar Hall, where they found the four officers sharing one body.
• The Four Duty Merit Officers refused Lu Chen access to the Human Register without a Celestial Bureaucracy decree or the Jade Emperor's edict, and told him to seek the Jade Emperor's approval.

Lu Chen and his companions failed to persuade the Four Duty Merit Officers to investigate the danger in Jiangdu, but Li City God agreed to send underworld patrols. After Zhong Kui gave Lu Chen a limited-use command token, Lu Chen learned that a Heavenly Court reform had concentrated worship in temples and weakened the incense offerings—and power—of underworld gods.

• The Four Duty Merit Officers refused to help investigate Jiangdu, so Lu Chen and his companions returned to the City God's Residence without their support.
• Li City God promised to patrol Jiangdu with underworld forces, report disturbances, and punish any ghosts or human killers involved.
• Zhong Kui returned Lu Chen and the others to the mortal world, urged Lu Chen to keep investigating, and gave him a command token usable twice for seven days.
• Fan Rusong and Xie Qingyi explained that Zhong Kui's power had declined as his incense offerings dwindled.
• Lu Chen learned that the Heavenly Court had restricted private worship and required deities to be worshipped in temples, reducing the offerings received by underworld gods.

Unable to find a way to worship the Four Duty Merit Officials, Lu Chen realized the Kitchen God might help him investigate the case and rushed to the Wu Clan Temple. Meanwhile, Li City God sent the Day-and-Night Patrol Gods to capture a suspect, and Sun Yourong and Sun Dechang met Lu Chen at the temple.

• Lu Chen remembered the Kitchen God’s role in recording household deeds and reporting to the Jade Emperor, then called Sun Yourong to ask where a statue could be found.
• Sun Dechang learned that the Wu Clan Temple worshipped the Kitchen God, and Lu Chen set off for the Wu family’s temple.
• Li City God ordered the Day-and-Night Patrol Gods to bring in a middle-aged suspect and revealed that he had used a costly secret art to find him.
• Li City God reprimanded Hu Sanniang for acting on her own, warning her not to interfere with his orders again.
• Sun Yourong and Sun Dechang waited outside the Wu Clan Temple, where they greeted Lu Chen as he arrived.

Lu Chen visited the Wu Family Shrine with Sun Dechang and Sun Yourong to worship the Kitchen God, where Old Wu warned him that the deity had never responded to hundreds of worship attempts. Lu Chen remained determined and reached the Kitchen God’s neglected shrine, ready to offer incense.

• Sun Dechang thanked Lu Chen, called him his grandson, and gave him a thick red envelope that Lu Chen accepted.
• At the Wu Family Shrine, Sun Dechang introduced Lu Chen to Old Wu, who explained his standing and the temple’s Register of Invoked Gods.
• Old Wu revealed that the Kitchen God had shown no spiritual response despite more than three hundred worship attempts, but Lu Chen still chose to try worshipping him.
• Lu Chen bought ten sticks of incense and followed Old Wu through the shrine, learning about its deities and the Moon Palace goddess.
• Old Wu led Lu Chen to the dilapidated rear-courtyard shrine and pointed out the Kitchen God’s idol.

Lu Chen discovered that household cooking smoke and rice could stir the Kitchen God's divine power after ordinary incense offerings failed. After coating the statue's mouth with melted candy, he finally reached the Kitchen God, who invited him into a farmhouse for a chat.

• Lu Chen's repeated incense offerings at the Kitchen God shrine produced no response, so he proposed building a stove to recreate the atmosphere of a mortal home.
• Old Wu agreed to Lu Chen's idea, and craftsmen built a stove where Lu Chen cooked rice beneath the Kitchen God's statue.
• Lu Chen sensed brief flickers of divine power while repeatedly offering incense, but the Kitchen God did not appear.
• Lu Chen remembered the Kitchen God's fondness for sweets and smeared melted lollipop over the statue's mouth before offering incense again.
• A blinding light transported Lu Chen to an old farmhouse, where the Kitchen God invited him inside to talk.

Lu Chen summoned the Kitchen God and asked for help catching the culprit behind the Corpse Liberation Ascension murders. The Kitchen God explained that a dead knot—not a shortage of merit or divine power—kept them from accepting his help, leaving Lu Chen without a solution.

• Lu Chen met the Kitchen God in their cottage and asked them to capture the culprit behind the Jiangdu City murders.
• The Kitchen God pointed out that Lu Chen could have sought help from the Spirit Officers or the Four Duty Merit Officers, and Lu Chen admitted the latter had driven him away.
• The Kitchen God condemned the Four Duty Merit Officers and explained that temple rules had weakened their ability to protect households.
• Lu Chen offered to replenish the Kitchen God's merit with his ancestral secret arts.
• The Kitchen God refused, explaining that their real obstacle was a dead knot that could not be untied.

Lu Chen learned that the Kitchen God’s Hearthfire Register had lost its spiritual power after the god entered the temple, leaving him unable to identify wrongdoers. Lu Chen offered to restore the register through Consecration, and after leaving the Kitchen God’s sea of consciousness, he arranged to take the Kitchen God statue for several days to prepare the ritual.

• The Kitchen God explained that the Hearthfire Register had lost its connection to household hearthfires and could no longer help him identify the true culprit.
• Lu Chen proposed using Consecration to restore the register’s spiritual resonance, and the Kitchen God agreed to trust him and promised a reward if he succeeded.
• Lu Chen left the Kitchen God’s sea of consciousness, while Elder Wu and the Sun family discussed his unusually high Divine Service Ratings.
• Lu Chen reassured Sun Yourong and Elder Wu, then asked to take the Kitchen God statue temporarily so he could prepare the restoration ritual.
• Elder Wu agreed to let Lu Chen take the statue, and Lu Chen said he would need three or four days.

Lu Chen arranged to consecrate the Kitchen God’s Hearthfire Register in Southern Mountain Residential Compound, while Li City God learned of the alliance and suspected Lu Chen still distrusted him. At dinner, Old Wu explained how Jiangdu’s God Temples competed for worshippers, outlining the stages a new temple had to survive.

• Lu Chen chose the cooking smoke of Southern Mountain Residential Compound as the primer for a consecration ritual planned for the auspicious hour two days later.
• After Lu Chen left the God Temple carrying the Kitchen God statue, Li City God observed him and concluded that the Kitchen God had agreed to help catch the culprit behind corpse liberation.
• At dinner, Old Wu and Sun Dechang discussed the Zhao family’s suppression of New Nobility lineages and its control of much of the northern city’s Incense Fire.
• Lu Chen asked how Jiangdu’s God Temples competed for worshippers, and Old Wu explained the one-year sprint phase and the subsequent test of a temple’s foundation.
• Old Wu introduced the third stage of temple competition, called diversion.

Lu Chen learned that the Zhao family’s head, Zhao Wanliang, aggressively competed for worshippers and was a powerful lightning cultivator with a frail appearance. Suspecting Zhao Wanliang might be connected to the Corpse Liberation Case, Lu Chen silently marked his name, while Li City God listened to the gathering and grew furious.

• Old Wu and Sun Dechang explained how New Nobility families avoided competing for worshippers and accused the Zhao family of aggressively taking Incense Fire from other temples.
• Sun Yourong revealed that Zhao Jiutang was only the Zhao family’s nominal head and that his nephew, Zhao Wanliang, truly ruled the clan.
• Old Wu described Zhao Wanliang’s notorious behavior and exceptional talent, including a Divine Service Rating above thirty percent with the Thunder Ancestor and likely fourth-rank strength.
• Sun Dechang recounted Zhao Wanliang’s frail appearance and said he had rejected the man’s proposal to marry Sun Yourong.
• Lu Chen connected Zhao Wanliang’s lightning cultivation, frailty, and ruthless methods to Yin-Thunder Wood, Five Hells Ascension, and the Corpse Liberation Case.
• Li City God watched the gathering from City God Street and clenched his fists in anger at Sun Dechang and Wu Zhong.

After Lu Chen prepared scriptures for the Invitation of the Sacred ritual, Hu Sanniang summoned him to City God Street, where Li City God had caught the culprit behind the corpse-shedding case. Lu Chen learned that Li City God had spent his divine lifespan to track the culprit, a living fifth-rank Spirit Practitioner from Xiangnan.

• Sun Dechang and Old Wu discussed supporting Lu Chen if the Zhao family targeted him, while Sun Yourong worried about his prospects against the powerful clan.
• Back at Cloudtop Manor, Lu Chen copied scriptures and prepared for the Invitation of the Sacred ritual, then Hu Sanniang arrived with news that Li City God had captured the true culprit.
• Lu Chen summoned six underworld constables and traveled with Hu Sanniang to City God Street, where Li City God explained that his City God Secret Art had cost him divine lifespan and aged his face.
• Li City God led Lu Chen to the imprisoned culprit, a scarred living man who protested his confinement and demanded to be released.
• Li City God identified the prisoner as Qiu, a fifth-rank Spirit Practitioner from Xiangnan, but said he could not use soul-searching on a living person.

Lu Chen interrogated Qiu Qianluo, who admitted to killing Yin soldiers and a Day Patrol God but refused to identify his accomplice. After recognizing Qiu as the fated person in the Five Hells Ascension scheme, Lu Chen knocked him unconscious and had Ox-Head and Horse-Face carry him away to investigate further.

• Lu Chen questioned Qiu Qianluo about using wicked arts, and Qiu admitted his crimes and claimed he had killed more than a dozen Yin soldiers and one Day Patrol God.
• Qiu challenged Li City God to kill him, while Lu Chen threatened him with Lead-Pouring Punishment and pretended to be the Rakshasa Cult's leader to unsettle him.
• Lu Chen used the Book of Life and Death to identify Qiu as the fated person and accused him of conspiring with a local mastermind to carry out the Five Hells Ascension method.
• Qiu refused to name his accomplice, so Lu Chen knocked him unconscious and ordered Ox-Head and Horse-Face to take him away.
• Lu Chen asked Li City God to speak with him privately.

Lu Chen learned that Li City God had helped him partly in hopes of winning the vacant Prefectural City God post. After learning Lu Chen's new rank, Li Qingyuan pledged to serve him and gave him the Jiangdu City God Token, then prepared three more gifts.

• Li City God explained that he could investigate the remaining Five Hells Ascension culprit again, but Lu Chen refused to let him risk more of his lifespan and said the Kitchen Lord was helping instead.
• Li City God apologized for their past conflict and privately asked Lu Chen to recommend him for the vacant Prefectural City God position.
• Li City God argued that Lu Chen's ties to the Plague Department and the Supreme One gave him influence over the appointment.
• Lu Chen revealed that he had become the Netherworld's Mighty Martial Virtue General and the Plague Department's Plague-Wielding Young Lord, prompting Li Qingyuan to bow and address him as Your Highness.
• Li Qingyuan offered Lu Chen the Jiangdu City God Token and pledged to serve at his command in exchange for help seeking promotion; he then produced three brocade boxes.

Lu Chen accepted three rare Netherworld treasures from Li City God and learned that the Heavenly Court had sealed the old path of cultivation through treasures of heaven and earth. After Lu Chen departed, Li City God revealed that his gift and humble performance were part of a scheme to secure the Prefecture City God position and advance a hidden plan.

• Li City God presented Lu Chen with three rare treasures and explained their uses as offerings, ritual materials, and medicine ingredients.
• Li City God told Lu Chen that mortals had once cultivated with treasures of heaven and earth, but the Heavenly Court sealed that path when it established the God Temple system.
• Li City God explained the assessment process for Prefecture City God, and Lu Chen agreed to speak with the Star Lord after handling his urgent business.
• Lu Chen accepted the three treasures, then left with Hu Sanniang after Li City God thanked him for his support.
• After Lu Chen departed, Li City God dropped his humble facade and told Hu Sanniang to notify Wan Liang and have Ma Shilong await orders.
• Li City God promised Hu Sanniang the Jiangdu City God position as compensation, then laughed as he considered the plan to be going his way.

After returning from City God Street, Lu Chen learned that Li City God wanted his help securing the powerful Provincial City God position and agreed to lend support without guaranteeing success. He rewarded Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujie, then summoned City Lord Yu Feng, who arrived to find Qiu Qianluo captured.

• Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujie explained how City Gods could monitor their cities and the limits that kept them from spying on Lu Chen at Cloudtop Manor.
• Lu Chen told the netherworld constables that Li City God wanted him to ask the Plague Emperor and the Star Lord to help him gain the Jiang Province Provincial City God position.
• Xie Bi'an explained that a Provincial City God commanded the province's City Gods and yin forces and held broad authority to appoint yin officials.
• Lu Chen agreed to put in a word for Li City God but said he could not promise the appointment, then gave Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujie five million netherworld currency notes.
• After the netherworld constables returned to the Netherworld, Lu Chen called Yu Feng, who arrived and praised him after seeing the bound Qiu Qianluo.

After Lu Chen captured Qiu Qianluo, he warned Yu Feng that another culprit remained and planned to uncover the truth by worshipping the Kitchen God. Zhao Wanliang then ordered Ma Shilong to surrender when the authorities came for him, while Lu Chen prepared a consecration ritual meant to reveal the mastermind.

• Lu Chen told Yu Feng that Qiu Qianluo was only one of two ghost immortals and suspected the other culprit was influential, gravely ill, or near death.
• Lu Chen explained that the Kitchen God would reveal what happened when Qiu Qianluo met Ma Shilong, and Yu Feng promised to keep onlookers away from the ritual altar.
• Zhao Wanliang told Ma Shilong that Qiu Qianluo's capture was planned and ordered him to surrender to Yu Feng's people the following evening.
• Ma Shilong questioned whether he and his father had chosen the right path after Zhao Wanliang threatened him and promised them ghost immortality.
• Two days later, Lu Chen explained the consecration ritual to the Kitchen God, gathered his ritual implements and robes, and set out for Southern Mountain Residential Compound.

Lu Chen prepared to restore the Kitchen God’s power with the hearthfire warmth of Southern Mountain Residential Compound, while Li City God planned to cover his tracks and advance his schemes. Li City God was confronted by the Supreme One, who had arrived in Jiangdu for a City God inspection, as the Supreme One then headed for Lu Corporation to investigate Netherworld Currency.

• Lu Chen set up an offering ritual and asked the residents of Southern Mountain Residential Compound to cook extra dishes to generate hearthfire warmth for the Kitchen God.
• Zeng Rou reported that Lu Chen’s first billion Netherworld Currency had been completed and that the materials and equipment for Elder Wang’s Plague Pill were on the way.
• Li City God planned to let Ma Shilong take the blame and then use his position to advance Zhao Wanliang and himself.
• A judge reported that the Supreme One had arrived in Jiangdu to inspect the City Gods, and Li City God used his City God Seal to locate a vast blood miasma in the southern outskirts.
• The Supreme One froze Li City God’s hall, reprimanded him for spying, and warned that he would return to deal with him.
• The Supreme One arrived at Lu Corporation with two men and set out to investigate Netherworld Currency.

Great Emperor Fengdu and the Northern Ghost Emperors confirmed that Lu Chen’s Great Silver carried the authentic seal of Netherworld currency and found a billion’s worth of it at the factory. Meanwhile, Lu Chen’s ritual to invite the Kitchen God sent a pillar of golden light across Jiangdu and manifested the Kitchen God’s Hearthfire Register, leaving the city’s experts and Great Emperor Fengdu astonished.

• Great Emperor Fengdu, Zhang Heng, and Yang Yun visited the Rakshasa Cult factory, where Wang Zhidong showed them its stored ghost money.
• Great Emperor Fengdu recognized the Great Silver’s banknote seal as genuine, learned that the warehouse held around one billion, and accepted the money as a resource for building the nineteenth level of hell.
• Lu Chen purified the altar at Southern Mountain Residential Compound and invited the Kitchen God, whose incense ignited without flame.
• Lu Chen’s ritual sent a blazing pillar of golden light into the sky, drawing the attention of people and powerful Spirit Wielders across Jiangdu.
• The Kitchen God’s Hearthfire Register manifested above the pillar as Li City God watched in disbelief and Great Emperor Fengdu praised Lu Chen’s intriguing abilities.

Lu Chen performed the Eye-Opening stage of the Hearthfire Register consecration, drawing hearthfire aura from homes across Southern Mountain Residential Compound. The ritual artifact consumed the supply faster than it could be replenished, and as the pillar of light began to collapse, Great Emperor Fengdu suggested Lu Chen might still succeed.

• Lu Chen mixed the earlier ritual’s ashes into water and used his peachwood sword and incantation to draw hearthfire aura from households into the Hearthfire Register.
• Great Emperor Fengdu, Ghost Emperor Yang Yun, and Zhang Heng recognized Lu Chen’s unusual method, while Zhao Jiutang worried that Lu Chen’s growing influence could threaten the Zhao family.
• Zhao Wanliang urged Zhao Jiutang to keep the Zhao family’s current approach toward Lu Chen rather than treat him specially.
• Yu Feng sealed off the area around the ritual with a wall of fire and ordered approaching spirit users to retreat.
• The Hearthfire Register devoured the gathered aura, but dwindling gas, exhausted cooking, and burnt cookware caused the supply to dry up and the ritual’s pillar of light to weaken.
• As onlookers feared the ritual would fail, Great Emperor Fengdu said Lu Chen’s success was not necessarily impossible.

Lu Chen completed the ritual to restore the Hearthfire Register with the Kitchen God's help, drawing hearthfire aura from across Jiangdu City. The renewed treasure recognized Lu Chen as its master, and the Kitchen God summoned him to fulfill his promise.

• Li City God and Great Emperor Fengdu watched anxiously as Lu Chen's ritual neared failure.
• Lu Chen sacrificed his essence blood to draw hearthfire aura from nearby homes, but the Hearthfire Register still lacked enough power.
• The Kitchen God manifested, replenished Lu Chen's spiritual power, and gathered hearthfire aura from kitchens throughout Jiangdu City.
• Lu Chen completed the Spirit Sealing ritual, and the Hearthfire Register absorbed the city's hearthfire aura and regained its radiance.
• The Kitchen God's dharma form faded, and Lu Chen discovered he could sense scenes and emotions from households across the city through the Hearthfire Register.
• The Kitchen God brought Lu Chen into his sea of consciousness, where the renewed Hearthfire Register circled him affectionately and the Kitchen God began to fulfill his promise.

Kitchen God used the [Hearthfire Register] to show Lu Chen how Qiu Qianluo created and controlled the red-robed ghost, then revealed Qiu meeting Ma Shilong. Lu Chen recognized Ma as the Ma Family head and realized Qiu might not be the one carrying out the corpse liberation for someone else.

• The [Hearthfire Register] gifted Lu Chen a page that could track up to ten people near cooking fires, and Kitchen God used its spiritual resonance to show him scenes from the past.
• Lu Chen watched Qiu Qianluo turn a fierce ghost into a red-robed ghost with Yin-Thunder Wood and order it to devour five hundred people.
• Kitchen God learned from Lu Chen that Qiu had been captured with the City God's help, then took him to another scene in an abandoned warehouse.
• Ma Shilong arrived to meet Qiu, and Lu Chen recognized him as the head of the North-City Ma Family.
• Ma asked whether Qiu could help his father become a Ghost Immortal, and Qiu claimed an eighty percent chance of success if Ma followed the plan.
• Lu Chen wondered whether Qiu was not the person carrying out the corpse liberation for someone else.

Lu Chen and the Kitchen God traced Qiu Qianluo’s conspiracy to the Zhao Residence, where they suspected Zhao Wanliang was the hidden young master. The Kitchen God identified a trace of Netherworld aura on the conspirators’ sound-transmission jade talismans, while the question of admissible evidence remained unresolved.

• Qiu Qianluo instructed Ma Shilong to find human yao matching the victims’ birth dates and use black jade in a ritual that would transfer their karmic burdens to Ma Shilong’s father before Ma Shilong killed him.
• After Ma Shilong left, Qiu Qianluo tried to contact the young master, but the Kitchen God found the jade talisman’s fate-concealing art blocked their view.
• Lu Chen reasoned that Qiu Qianluo and Ma Shilong must have met the young master before they began using the concealed talismans, so the Kitchen God followed Qiu Qianluo’s trail backward.
• The Kitchen God used the Hearthfire Register to trace a hidden aura to the Zhao Residence, strengthening Lu Chen’s suspicion that Zhao Wanliang was the mastermind.
• The Kitchen God questioned whether the Zhao Residence’s concealment and Lu Chen’s suspicions counted as evidence, then revealed that the sound-transmission jade talismans carried a trace of Netherworld aura.

Lu Chen uncovered evidence that Young Master Zhao and possibly Li City God were behind the plot, then sent Yu Feng to act on Ma Shilong’s hidden black jade. As Lu Chen waited for the battle to end, three unfamiliar men approached him, and their handsome leader asked what Lu Chen would call him if King Yama was his godfather.

• The Kitchen God explained that the [Hearthfire Register] had exposed Ma Shilong and Young Master Zhao, and Lu Chen suspected Li City God was helping Zhao in exchange for a chance to become Prefectural City God.
• Lu Chen told Yu Feng that Ma Shilong’s father had a piece of black jade in his mouth, and Yu Feng led his guards toward the northern city to begin the battle.
• Zeng Rou returned to the factory while Lu Chen waited to settle his assignment with Yu Feng after the fight.
• Three unfamiliar men appeared behind Lu Chen, and their handsome leader took his Daoist robe before asking what Lu Chen would call him if King Yama was his godfather.

Great Emperor Fengdu met Lu Chen, rewarded him for expanding the Netherworld’s influence, and offered him a divine office if he sold one trillion Netherworld currency. He also revealed that Li City God had been monitoring Lu Chen and gave him three months to influence the decision over the City God’s office.

• Great Emperor Fengdu froze Jiangdu City, revealed the identities of Ghost Emperor Zhang Heng and Ghost Emperor Yang Yun, and invited Lu Chen to speak with him.
• Great Emperor Fengdu gave Lu Chen tea that strengthened his three spirit lamps, then told him not to dwell on guilt over his past actions.
• Great Emperor Fengdu asked Lu Chen how long it would take to secure one-tenth of the mortal world’s incense offerings for the Netherworld, and Lu Chen estimated that the situation would become clear within a year.
• Great Emperor Fengdu promised to invest Lu Chen as the Netherworld God of Wealth if he brought one trillion Netherworld currency to the Netherworld, while warning him not to use deceitful methods.
• Great Emperor Fengdu revealed that Li City God had been monitoring Lu Chen and gave him three months before the City God’s office candidate was chosen; Lu Chen vowed to seize the opportunity.

After Great Emperor Fengdu exposed Li City God's scheme, Lu Chen realized he could use the next three months to act while Li City God remained unaware of his advantage. Ma Shilong was captured, and Li City God won Fengdu's promise to consider promoting him, while Fengdu deliberately left him in place to test Lu Chen.

• Great Emperor Fengdu warned Lu Chen against recklessly making Heavenly Gold, then departed to visit Li City God.
• Yu Feng captured Ma Shilong and recovered the black jade; he promised Lu Chen his reward and promotion report, and summoned him to a meeting the next day.
• Lu Chen returned home and prepared to tell Father Lu and Mother Lu about his achievements.
• Li City God pledged loyalty to Great Emperor Fengdu and was told his conduct and possible promotion would be considered.
• Zhang Heng questioned why Fengdu spared Li City God, and Fengdu explained that Li could help temper Lu Chen and reveal the extent of his abilities.