Chapter Summaries

Lu Ren discovered that the City of Phantoms had a living owner watching it from afar and decided against trying to seize the city. Ao Li explained that the place was cut off from the True Dragon Clan’s resources and suspected its phantoms were powerful beings trapped there over time.

• Lu Ren saw blood-red eyes watching him from the darkness and realized the City of Phantoms had a living owner.
• Lu Ren sensed that the city’s food strengthened his body and spirit, but avoided absorbing its corruptive Primal Qi or provoking its owner.
• Lu Ren told Ao Li he suspected the watcher was a Golden Immortal, and she explained that the City of Phantoms could not be located from their position on the Path to Ascension.
• Ao Li said she could report on the city to the Progenitor Dragon Hall if they escaped, and suspected its phantoms had once been powerful beings from the outside world.

Lu Ren explored the City of Phantoms while searching for a way out, relying on his system to resist its corruption. After several days of watching the City Lord’s Manor and the county yamen, he saw a group of Heavenly Immortals climb into the manor to investigate.

• Lu Ren suspected the City of Phantoms had gathered over a hundred thousand Heavenly Immortals and resolved to find a way out.
• Lu Ren slept safely through the night and began exploring the city after waking the next morning.
• Constables paraded the captured Heavenly Immortal through the streets and escorted him into the fog for exile.
• Lu Ren mapped the city and observed other Heavenly Immortals gathering near the county yamen and the City Lord’s Manor.
• Lu Ren saw two or three Heavenly Immortals climb over the wall into the City Lord’s Manor.

Lu Ren watched the City Lord’s Manor and learned that three captured Celestial Immortals, including Luo Yue, had been sentenced to the Death Camp. That night, a creature impersonating Ling Que'er appeared at his door, and Lu Ren dragged it inside.

• Lu Ren hid nearby and watched the City Lord’s Manor until chaos broke out, then fled as guards searched the surrounding streets.
• The next day, Lu Ren saw three Celestial Immortals among prisoners being exiled to the Death Camp, and he noted Luo Yue’s unusually heavy restraints.
• Lu Ren wondered whether the prisoners had withheld information about him during interrogation.
• That night, a creature disguised as Ling Que'er begged Lu Ren to let it inside, and he opened the door and pulled it in.

Lu Ren discovered that killing the Phantom Devils earned him Skill Points, then learned that the creatures he killed at night became ordinary humans by day. Seeking answers about the city’s day-and-night transformation, he visited Qing Brothel and asked to meet its most exclusive women.

• Lu Ren killed Phantom Devils throughout the night and gained nearly six Skill Points before dawn.
• The Phantom Devils he had killed transformed into humans, so Lu Ren erased their memories and left them in a corner of the city.
• Lu Ren confirmed that the inn’s cleansing mechanism removed the contamination he absorbed and went out to investigate the city.
• At Qing Brothel, Lu Ren paid the madam and attendant, then asked whether they had anything better than the women presented.
• The attendant ordered portraits of the four ladies Qing, Lan, Zhu, and Mei brought for Lu Ren to see.

Lu Ren chose to meet Green Bamboo at the Qing Brothel and learned that some areas stayed open during City of Phantoms' curfew. When the attendant's Phantom Devil nature surfaced and threatened him for asking about going home, Lu Ren said he wanted to stay all day, calming the attendant before they reached Green Bamboo's pavilion.

• Lu Ren examined the portraits of the four leading courtesans and chose Green Bamboo, so the attendant led him through the Qing Brothel's rear garden.
• Lu Ren asked whether the Qing Brothel became livelier at night, and the attendant explained that Red Street and other designated areas stayed open during curfew.
• Lu Ren wondered how guests returned home from those areas, and the attendant's face twisted as he asked whether Lu Ren wanted to go back at midnight.
• Lu Ren said he wanted to stay at the Qing Brothel all day, causing the attendant's appearance and the distorted surroundings to return to normal.
• The attendant brought Lu Ren to Green Bamboo's two-story pavilion.

Lu Ren visited Green Bamboo at the Qing Brothel and discovered that the graceful beauty in her portrait was a massive flesh-covered being concealed beneath a human-skin bodysuit. After she changed into the disguise, he shared food, wine, and qin music with her while observing her appetite.

• Lu Ren arrived at Green Bamboo House and learned from the turtle servant that he could proceed upstairs alone.
• Lu Ren found Green Bamboo behind a screen as a gigantic mountain of flesh, eating pastries and claiming she had only just gotten up.
• Green Bamboo struggled to stand, explained the house’s creaking as disrepair, and squeezed herself into a human-skin bodysuit.
• Green Bamboo emerged disguised as the graceful woman from her portrait, and Lu Ren judged that the bodysuit had been refined using True Immortal methods.
• Lu Ren and Green Bamboo exchanged courtesies, then sat together as she played the qin while he ate and drank; he noticed her gaze lingering on the food.

Lu Ren learned that Green Bamboo was resisting the City of Phantoms’ assimilation and that a sky lantern might offer a way out. Green Bamboo revealed she wanted to eat him, then shed her human skin as invisible threads sealed the building.

• Lu Ren invited Green Bamboo to eat with him and confirmed she could speak the City of Phantoms’ name plainly.
• Green Bamboo described the Lantern Festival and said a sky lantern might carry someone out of the city.
• Green Bamboo explained that she was nearly merging with the city and asked to eat Lu Ren to preserve her awareness.
• Lu Ren noticed nearly invisible threads sealing the building as Green Bamboo shed her human skin and revealed her enormous body.

Lu Ren fought Lüzhu after she tried to crush and consume him, then set the Green Bamboo House ablaze to stop her from reassembling her body. He escaped the burning building while Lüzhu cried out that her Dao was unfinished.

• Lüzhu revealed her monstrous form and used threads to try to crush Lu Ren, intending to eat him.
• Lu Ren drew the Heaven Splitting Axe and severed Lüzhu's threads, then chopped her body into pieces when she attacked him.
• Lüzhu's flesh began reassembling, while her injuries caused the Green Bamboo House and its surroundings to lose their color.
• Lu Ren used the lotus lamp to ignite the greasy room, then scattered wine to make the fire spread.
• Lu Ren escaped through a window as Lüzhu screamed that she could not die before completing her Dao.

Lu Ren waited for the fifteenth of July in the City of Phantoms, killing Phantom Devils for Skill Points while the city’s corruption weakened the other Celestial Immortals. He told Fang Ling that the City of Phantoms had a master, leaving her to reconsider the supposed route out through exile to the frontier.

• Lu Ren killed Lüzhu at Green Bamboo House, triggering a System notice and spreading bizarre auras through the city.
• Lu Ren gave up trying to leave through the city gates and spent his nights killing Phantom Devils for Skill Points, though repeated kills yielded diminishing returns.
• Lu Ren learned that some Celestial Immortals had been shackled and sent toward the frontier, which might be a way out of the city.
• Ten days before the Lantern Festival, Lu Ren suggested Fang Ling seek exile, but she doubted the frontier was real.
• Lu Ren told Fang Ling he had seen the master of the City of Phantoms, and she realized Chen Huan might have been working for that master.

Lu Ren visited Fang Ling as City of Phantoms’ corruption wore her down and learned that she knew about the coming Lantern Festival. As the city prepared for the festival, Lu Ren kept gathering resources and Phantom Devils, while the lanterns that might offer a way out remained undiscovered.

• Lu Ren found Fang Ling resisting assimilation in her room and remarked that she might not survive until the Lantern Festival.
• Fang Ling reacted with surprise when Lu Ren mentioned the Lantern Festival, then declined to reveal what Chen Huan might have known about it.
• Lu Ren left Fang Ling with an offer to look out for each other if they both survived until the festival.
• Lu Ren spent his days eating and strengthening his foundation and his nights capturing Phantom Devils as the city grew busy with festival preparations.
• Lu Ren made two red lanterns and hung them beneath his eaves, while suspecting that the lanterns capable of carrying people out were hidden in the City Lord's Manor or county yamen.

Lu Ren and the trapped Celestial Immortals waited for the Lantern Festival's passenger lantern, their only apparent chance to escape the City of Phantoms. When only one lantern emerged, they realized they would have to compete for a single place, and Lu Ren quietly watched for an opportunity.

• Lu Ren killed another Phantom Devil, then scattered the unconscious infiltrators around the city as morning broke.
• Lu Ren saw Fang Ling and the other Celestial Immortals gather in the plaza as festival lanterns were brought out from the City Lord's Manor.
• The Celestial Immortals became hopeful when they saw a passenger lantern, but grew distressed when it appeared to be the only one.
• Fang Ling recalled Chen Huan's claim that at least five people could escape, while another Celestial Immortal doubted his words.
• Lu Ren judged that charging the lantern now would provoke the others and risk disrupting the festival, so he waited while keeping watch from a nearby restaurant.

Lu Ren watched the City of Phantoms’ Lantern Festival begin and learned that a single contestant could board a man-carrying lantern for a ten-gold reward. As the contest opened, a burly local man and a determined young man stepped forward to compete.

• Lu Ren observed the lantern inflate above the square as the crowd and hidden Celestial Immortals gathered.
• The Flesh Mountain City Lord arrived, opened the festival, and led the crowd in wishing for the city’s prosperity.
• A scholar announced that one person could ride the lantern out of the city, with ten gold for whoever landed safely, and set a burning incense stick as the time limit.
• After the crowd hesitated, a burly local man carrying a Level-Brow Staff volunteered to compete.
• A lean young man stepped forward, and the burly man mocked him before the youth warned that he had learned boxing.

Fang Ling and seven other Celestial Immortals waited on the lantern platform, hoping to force Lu Ren into the contest and kill him before the festival ended. Lu Ren weighed his advantage in body refinement against the formidable opponents as the deadline approached.

• A female swordswoman impressed the crowd by pressing her sword to the burly man's throat after many challengers were knocked down.
• Fang Ling and seven other Celestial Immortals spotted Lu Ren in the restaurant and took the lantern platform, waiting for him to come down.
• The Green-Robed Scholar announced that only one person could ascend once the remaining time ran out, while the eight Celestial Immortals continued to hold back.
• Lu Ren considered confronting the eight and recognized that one towering Late Celestial Immortal was especially dangerous.

At the Lantern Festival, Lu Ren watched the remaining Celestial Immortals fight for a place on the passenger lantern as the City of Phantoms’ corruption worsened. Di Long withdrew rather than face Lu Ren, while Fang Ling refused to abandon her chance to escape and prepared to fight him.

• Di Long killed a female Mid Celestial Immortal, and Fang Ling wounded him with her sword before the other Celestial Immortals joined the battle against him.
• The fight turned bloody, leaving only Fang Ling and Di Long alive among the combatants as the incense burned low.
• Lu Ren intervened, and Di Long chose to give up on the passenger lantern and endure until the next Lantern Festival.
• Lu Ren urged Fang Ling to leave or seek exile, but she refused, saying she would rather risk her life than surrender control of it.
• Lu Ren raised the Heaven Splitting Axe as Fang Ling stood ready to fight him.

Lu Ren killed Fang Ling and escaped City of Phantoms aboard a passenger Lantern Festival balloon, only to be carried into the Unknown Land. After evading a mysterious watcher, he reached the middle section of the Supreme Ancient Road.

• Lu Ren cleaved Fang Ling in two with the Heaven Splitting Axe as the Green-Robed Scholar called out to Xiang Zhi.
• Lu Ren boarded the passenger Lantern Festival balloon as four men cut its ropes, and the frenzied citizens of City of Phantoms cheered its ascent.
• As the balloon rose above the city, Lu Ren found that the surrounding rules suppressed his True Energy and stopped his cultivation from circulating.
• The system announced that Lu Ren had left the Malignant Underworld Realm and entered the Unknown Land, where an unseen existence searched for him through the mist.
• Lu Ren remained hidden from the watcher, and the system identified his location as the middle section of the Supreme Ancient Road.
• The mist thinned to reveal the ancient road, and the suppression around Lu Ren lifted apart from the road's limits on techniques and divine abilities.

After escaping the City of Phantoms, Lu Ren continued along the seemingly endless Path to Ascension, wondering where it led and how far he had to go. After nearly a century of travel and a conversation with Ao Li about the cultivators who walked the path, he discovered many hidden Blessed Lands nearby.

• Lu Ren left the City of Phantoms and resolved to follow the Path to Ascension, suspecting the city was part of a vast route created by a Golden Immortal.
• Lu Ren renewed his bond with Ao Li, then traveled without stopping for nearly a hundred years and grew weary of the monotonous road.
• Lu Ren asked Ao Li how long the journey might be, and she explained that many Celestial Immortals carried Blessed Lands and endured long periods of travel or seclusion.
• Ao Li told Lu Ren that some True Dragons who returned from the Path to Ascension had come close to Golden Immortality, but their clan's path to that fruition lay in the Progenitor Dragon Hall.
• After traveling another dozen years, Lu Ren sensed spatial fluctuations and used his Hyperdimensional Perception to find dozens of hidden Blessed Lands along the path.

Lu Ren encountered the Jade Emperor, Tathagata, and the Queen Mother of the West on the Path to Ascension after leaving a temporary gathering of Celestial Immortals. He questioned how they had prolonged their lives and left the group tense over the possibility that they had obtained the Supreme One’s inheritance.

• Lu Ren passed through a temporary gathering of Celestial Immortals and continued into the dangerous Dark Zone beneath the Cloud Sea.
• Lu Ren spotted the Jade Emperor, Tathagata, and the Queen Mother of the West and hurried over to greet them.
• The Jade Emperor and Tathagata reacted with hostility, while the Queen Mother of the West greeted Lu Ren and helped ease the awkward exchange.
• Lu Ren questioned how the Jade Emperor and Tathagata had survived despite their decaying life auras, and they traded barbed remarks.
• Lu Ren asked whether the three had obtained the Supreme One’s inheritance, prompting a tense response from the Jade Emperor.
• Lu Ren asked why the Jade Emperor and Tathagata insisted on continuing toward the Golden Immortal Dao Fruit, leaving the group on edge.

Lu Ren spoke with the Queen Mother of the West about the coming conflict with the Jade Emperor and Tathagata before she left to catch up with them. He then confronted four masked Robber Cultivators who demanded nearly all his possessions, and the chapter ended before he answered their threat.

• Lu Ren watched the Jade Emperor and Tathagata flee, then spoke politely with the Queen Mother of the West about their eventual fight.
• The Queen Mother of the West said Lu Ren was an anomaly tied to humanity's fortune but might need a long time to reach the Golden Immortal Realm.
• Lu Ren reflected that China's human race had other promising cultivators, including Chen Zian, and veterans such as Zhang Tongxuan and Ji Quanzhen to guide them.
• The Queen Mother of the West departed to catch up with the Jade Emperor and Tathagata, while Lu Ren acknowledged that they would eventually become enemies.
• Lu Ren detected four concealed Late Celestial Immortal Robber Cultivators surrounding him on the Path to Ascension.
• The Robber Cultivators demanded ninety-nine percent of Lu Ren's possessions in exchange for sparing his life.

Lu Ren attacked four Robber Cultivators and killed their female companion with the Heaven Splitting Axe. Nearby, Cao Dequan and Old Zhou recognized the aura of her fall and speculated that Lu Ren had killed her.

• Lu Ren mocked the four Robber Cultivators, vanished from their sight, and punched the hunched man through his defenses.
• The other three attacked Lu Ren with a torrent of Supernatural Arts, but he split their assault with the Heaven Splitting Axe.
• Lu Ren cleaved the female Robber Cultivator in two, destroying her Celestial Immortal Dao Fruit and preventing her recovery.
• Cao Dequan and Old Zhou sensed the female Robber Cultivator's fall and guessed that the person who had recently passed by had killed her.
• Other masters of grotto-heavens also sensed the battle on Lu Ren's side.

Lu Ren broke free of the Robber Cultivators’ seal and killed their stooped elder with his Heaven Splitting Axe, while two survivors fled. He pursued one of them to a Cloud Sea, where the man vanished into its dark depths, leaving Lu Ren unable to follow.

• Lu Ren shattered the stooped elder’s Hundred-Eyed Gaze, cut apart the middle-aged man’s ghost hand, and killed the elder with a single Axe Light.
• The two surviving Robber Cultivators fled, and Lu Ren chased the sinister man with effeminate features.
• Cao Dequan called Lu Ren a true beast of the age, while Old Zhou remarked that monsters stood out when everyone was on equal footing.
• Lu Ren reached the edge of a Cloud Sea after the sinister man plunged into its dark depths and disappeared.