Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: The Cricket Clan Produces Another Prodigy

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng refuses the old man’s proposals to become either his son-in-law or godson, joking that he already has too many responsibilities.
• He agrees to undergo the old man’s inheritance trial and initially chooses Tier One.
• The old man summons the Red-Headed Cricket, which beats its large tooth against a clay basin like a drum. The music causes Liu Zheng’s body to become numb and fragile, forcing him to injure himself to relieve the sensation.
• Liu Zheng discovers that the trial cannot simply be won by exhausting the cricket; the old man would continue sending out opponents.
• He advances to Tier Two, where the Purple-Headed Cricket joins the performance. The combined rhythms produce much stronger sound waves, repeatedly tearing Liu Zheng’s flesh apart and overwhelming his regenerative ability.
• Impressed by Liu Zheng’s endurance and unusual recovery, the old man suggests that his bloodline is extraordinary. Liu Zheng attributes his strength to benefits gained from powerful beings and treasures.
• Liu Zheng agrees to continue to the highest level. Instead of the usual performance, the old man summons ten crickets to perform the Grand Music, Battle-Breaking Melody.
• The old man deliberately avoids releasing Eight Defeats, a seemingly defective but extraordinarily determined Cricket King whose potential is immense. He replaces it with the weaker True White to reduce the danger to Liu Zheng.
• The music transforms into a battlefield filled with armed cricket soldiers, weapons, arrows, murderous intent, and freezing spiritual pressure.
• At the old man’s prompting, Liu Zheng recites poetry instead of singing and advances into the cricket army.
• His disguise changes into a white robe, and his four tentacles become sword-like weapons. Although he has no formal swordsmanship, he violently cuts through the cricket forces.
• Faces growing from within his sword-arms bite through weapons and enemies, while also biting Liu Zheng himself, covering him in blood.
• Liu Zheng enters a trance-like state while killing, seemingly oblivious to his own injuries.
• The old man realizes with alarm that Liu Zheng is beginning to follow the dangerous path of allowing killing intent to control him rather than mastering it himself.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates stubbornness, adaptability, endurance, and a willingness to exploit every advantage. He survives increasingly powerful trials through his abnormal regeneration and unusual body.
• His combat instincts and innate killing potential become apparent. Even without proper technique, he overwhelms the cricket army through raw strength, transformed limbs, and the monstrous faces embedded in them.
• Liu Zheng enters a dangerous mental state in which he appears detached from both thought and pain. His killing intent begins to influence his mind, hinting at a possible loss of control.
• The old man grows increasingly fond and impressed by Liu Zheng. He repeatedly jokes about making Liu Zheng part of his family, then begins treating him as a promising junior.
• The old man recognizes Liu Zheng as an unusually rare talent and even imagines him becoming a peerless genius of the Cricket Clan.
• Despite being harsh and careless toward ordinary challengers, the old man shows genuine concern by withholding Eight Defeats from the performance.

Significant Themes

• Endurance and responsibility: Both Liu Zheng and the old man acknowledge that survival requires bearing burdens without surrendering.
• Hidden value in weakness: Eight Defeats appears malformed and weak, yet possesses extraordinary will and potential, suggesting that apparent defects may conceal greatness.
• Power gained through suffering: Liu Zheng’s progress depends on enduring pain, bodily destruction, and psychological pressure.
• Control versus corruption: The chapter distinguishes between using killing intent as a tool and allowing violence to dominate one’s mind. Liu Zheng’s success may come at the cost of losing himself.
• Improvisation over formal technique: Liu Zheng lacks conventional swordsmanship but succeeds through instinct, adaptability, and overwhelming physical power.
• The influence of powerful beings: Liu Zheng’s unusual abilities stem partly from remnants and gifts connected to higher-level entities, emphasizing how even scraps from great powers can transform an ordinary person’s fate.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the old man exchange playful but persistent banter over marriage, adoption, responsibility, and inheritance.
• The old man tests Liu Zheng while simultaneously evaluating his character and potential.
• Liu Zheng’s sarcastic comments and refusal to be manipulated earn the old man’s approval rather than his anger.
• During the Grand Music, the old man actively guides Liu Zheng by encouraging him to add poetry and continue fighting.
• The old man’s admiration turns to concern when he recognizes that Liu Zheng’s killing intent is becoming dangerous, setting up a potential conflict between Liu Zheng’s growing power and his ability to remain mentally in control.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng’s accumulated resentment and killing intent trigger a dangerous qi deviation while he fights the cricket army inside the Grand Music Killing Formation.
• The old man, Jade Cricket, intervenes personally by transforming into a jade-colored cricket and taking command of the army. His leadership greatly strengthens the formation and its soldiers.
• Jade Cricket uses the Son of Heaven Sword, Jade Seal, archers, infantry, corpse manipulation, and a cavalry formation to counter Liu Zheng.
• Liu Zheng adapts repeatedly, using corpses as shields and relying on his four sword arms, immense stamina, and regenerative abilities. However, the army’s enhanced weapons and coordinated formations eventually overwhelm him.
• Jade Cricket performs his strongest attack, the Earth-Covering Hammer, shattering Liu Zheng’s sword arms and reducing his body to blood and flesh. Liu Zheng nevertheless wounds Jade Cricket with a sword fragment.
• Jade Cricket ends the Grand Music and recalls the cricket army. He then awakens Liu Zheng from the illusion.
• Afterward, Liu Zheng sincerely offers to repay Jade Cricket for saving him. Jade Cricket asks for help finding a spouse for his unmarried daughter.
• Liu Zheng awkwardly suggests a wealthy woman who is attracted to women, leading to a comedic argument because Jade Cricket wants grandchildren and continuation of the family line.
• Jade Cricket reveals that he sealed Liu Zheng’s accumulated killing intent and resentment into his four tentacles. This temporarily prevents Liu Zheng’s Killing Dao from corrupting him while also giving him a combat resource.
• Jade Cricket explains that Liu Zheng must either kill less often or properly cultivate the Killing Dao. However, Jade Cricket’s specific method can only be learned by the Cricket Clan.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng worrying about what would happen if he lost his four tentacles.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates exceptional endurance, adaptability, regeneration, and combat instinct, but also shows how dangerously close he is to losing himself to the Killing Dao. He regains his sanity after Jade Cricket’s “lesson” and becomes more aware of the consequences of uncontrolled killing intent. His tentacles now contain sealed resentment, giving him a temporary weapon but creating a new vulnerability.
• Jade Cricket/the old man: Reveals himself as a powerful and highly experienced battlefield commander. Despite appearing irritable and eccentric, he takes responsibility for saving Liu Zheng and carefully limits his attacks so as not to kill him. He also shows concern for his daughter’s future and his clan’s inheritance.
• The Cricket Clan: Their discipline, fearlessness, and military coordination are emphasized. Under Jade Cricket’s direct command, they become dramatically more powerful and unified.

Significant Themes

• Killing Dao versus sanity: The chapter explores how pursuing power through killing can turn resentment into an autonomous force and gradually destroy the practitioner’s identity.
• Righteousness and social order: The Killing Dao is labeled an “evil path” in Metropolis because unchecked killing can cause population imbalances, racial massacres, and burdens for City Hall. The morality of a cultivation path is therefore shaped by the society in which it exists.
• Discipline over instinct: Jade Cricket treats Liu Zheng like a reckless child who must be beaten into clarity. The battle is intended not merely to defeat him, but to force him to recognize his weaknesses.
• Power and restraint: Jade Cricket repeatedly holds back enough to avoid killing Liu Zheng, illustrating the difference between overwhelming strength and responsible use of it.
• Family and reproduction: The serious discussion of inheritance and descendants is played for comedy through Liu Zheng’s unconventional proposal, contrasting traditional family expectations with Metropolis’s technology and social norms.
• Hidden costs of power: Liu Zheng survives the battle but gains a dangerous condition: his killing intent is sealed in his tentacles, raising questions about control, bodily dependence, and what happens if those limbs are lost.

Character Interactions

• Jade Cricket and Liu Zheng clash as teacher and reckless student, with Jade Cricket using the battlefield to force Liu Zheng back to his senses.
• Liu Zheng’s sincere gratitude turns into an awkward matchmaking exchange when he proposes a female partner for Jade Cricket’s daughter.
• Jade Cricket alternates between irritation, sarcasm, and reluctant mentorship, ultimately helping Liu Zheng despite complaining that he should have let him die.
• Their relationship shifts from accidental rescue and combat to a tentative debt-based alliance, though Jade Cricket remains skeptical of Liu Zheng’s slippery personality.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng consults Cricket Old Man about the consequences of reverting from his mutated form. The seal restraining his killing intent is tied to his essence, so changing back into a human would weaken or remove its effects. If his mind and body were severely weakened afterward, the killing intent could become dangerous.
• Cricket Old Man suggests several solutions, especially transferring the killing intent into a weapon. Liu Zheng could potentially use blood sacrifice to forge his four tentacles into a powerful weapon, though he does not know anyone capable of performing the method.
• After leaving Sauna Room No. 3, Liu Zheng rests and requests high-protein, high-fat food because the battle has consumed much of his stamina. He prepares to visit the restaurant again, but Old Fourth receives an urgent call.
• The bathhouse owner has disappeared near the Old District after apparently being lured there by Zhen Xinzai, who may be attempting to eliminate her and seize control of the family fortune. Her companions, Yongjian and Little Ji, are also unreachable.
• Old Fourth and Secretary Li argue over how to rescue her, their own futures, and the possibility that Zhen Xinzai could take over the bathhouse. They eventually agree to use the bathhouse’s money to seek outside help.
• Liu Zheng offers assistance because the bathhouse owner is essential to his business cooperation. He proposes using traffic-camera footage to trace her movements after her vehicle tracker stopped working.
• Liu Zheng contacts 4399, who claims to have connections capable of accessing the footage. The service will cost one hundred thousand, paid through a mysterious pawnshop called “Zhengwen.” The shop’s location is given as “Wrong Diagon Alley,” an unfamiliar place even to Old Fourth and the Nile Doctor.
• Liu Zheng calls Cow-Horse to ask about the location. Cow-Horse is distracted playing chess with Napoleon while consuming the reward banquet sent for Liu Zheng’s earlier supplies mission.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to demonstrate overwhelming resilience and unusual connections. Despite his own exhaustion, he readily takes responsibility for helping the bathhouse owner, treating the rescue as both a favor and a business investment.
• Cricket Old Man reveals practical knowledge about controlling killing intent and hints that Liu Zheng’s mutated body could be transformed into a weapon. His apparent indifference masks considerable expertise and strength.
• Old Fourth shows loyalty to his employer, but also a strong awareness of his own financial and professional interests. He worries that Zhen Xinzai’s takeover would cost him his position and bluntly criticizes the missing boss’s recklessness.
• Secretary Li is pragmatic and willing to risk the bathhouse’s assets to save the owner. She also assumes personal responsibility for authorizing the expenditure.
• The bathhouse owner is characterized indirectly as independent and overconfident: she dislikes bringing others with her, even in dangerous situations, and may have walked into Zhen Xinzai’s trap.
• 4399 remains terse, efficient, and mysterious, providing a costly solution without unnecessary explanation.
• Cow-Horse continues to provide comic relief through its crude speech, boastful confidence, and absurd chess match, while still functioning as one of Liu Zheng’s useful contacts.

Significant Themes

• Power and bodily transformation: Liu Zheng’s mutations are both a source of strength and a potential danger. His body may eventually become a weapon through blood sacrifice.
• The cost of power: Controlling killing intent requires cultivation, purification, sealing, or transferring it elsewhere. Strength brings consequences that Liu Zheng cannot simply ignore.
• Loyalty versus self-interest: Old Fourth and Secretary Li want to rescue their employer, but their arguments reveal that their livelihoods and status are also at stake.
• Networks and cooperation: Liu Zheng’s influence comes not only from his own abilities but also from his willingness to call on contacts such as 4399 and Cow-Horse.
• Comedy amid danger: The chapter balances threats involving murder, betrayal, and the Old District with humorous exchanges about food, chess, bathhouse work, and Cow-Horse’s four stomachs.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cricket Old Man discuss the seal, killing intent, and the possibility of forging Liu Zheng’s tentacles into a weapon.
• Liu Zheng and Old Fourth establish a friendly but mutually beneficial relationship, with Liu Zheng offering aid and Old Fourth arranging food and services.
• Old Fourth and Secretary Li argue over the missing boss, Zhen Xinzai’s plot, and how to fund a rescue, but ultimately cooperate.
• Liu Zheng reassures Old Fourth that he is willing to help because the bathhouse owner is important to their business deal.
• Liu Zheng contacts 4399 for access to traffic-camera information, revealing his dependence on mysterious outside connections.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse exchange insults while discussing the banquet and trying to identify Wrong Diagon Alley, ending with Liu Zheng still seeking information about the mysterious location.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng learns that the owner of Blissful Bathhouse, Yuan Bao’er, disappeared in Wrong Diagon Alley in the Old District, threatening his planned business partnership.
• He persuades Cow-Horse to rescue her, though Cow-Horse warns that he can only guarantee bringing her back—not keeping her alive—because his strength is better suited to destruction than protection.
• Liu Zheng recruits Guokou Tangzi and the Ultimate Flavor Group as additional support. Since they cannot leave the city, they will accompany Cow-Horse and help protect Yuan Bao’er.
• Liu Zheng arranges for Yuan Bao’er to be taken through a manhole on Rose Street and hidden in the Sewer. He asks Fisherman to shelter her until she can be safely retrieved.
• The rescue requires a delivery order from the Bloodstained Restaurant. Because only relatives can order food for another person, Secretary Li agrees to place the order for Yuan Bao’er.
• Secretary Li orders pork and Chinese cabbage dumplings rather than potatoes, avoiding Napoleon’s anger. The order succeeds, proving that her relationship to Yuan Bao’er qualifies as familial.
• Just after the order is placed, a cashier from the Bloodstained Restaurant arrives to collect the delivery fee, creating immediate suspense over the price.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates resourcefulness and growing influence. Rather than rescuing Yuan Bao’er himself, he coordinates several factions and uses his connections to create a complete rescue and evacuation plan.
• Cow-Horse remains blunt, practical, and reluctant to get involved, but ultimately agrees to help. His warning highlights both his enormous combat ability and his limitations when protecting others.
• Guokou Tangzi shows a cautious, transactional attitude. She agrees to help in exchange for a future favor, establishing a debt between herself and Liu Zheng.
• Fisherman continues to act gruff and irritable, but his reaction reveals deep protectiveness toward Sea Woman and a willingness to help Liu Zheng’s allies.
• Old Fourth proves loyal to Yuan Bao’er despite his fear of the delivery cost. He is also manipulative, persuading Secretary Li by suggesting that saving the boss could lead to her becoming general manager—and perhaps eventually owning the bathhouse.
• Secretary Li begins suspicious and hesitant but is tempted by the possibility of advancement. She finally accepts the risk and orders the delivery, showing ambition and courage.
• Liu Zheng and Secretary Li’s relationship becomes more cooperative, as he helps her act on behalf of Yuan Bao’er while also jokingly speculating about her possible family connection.

Significant Themes

• Mutual aid and indebtedness: Liu Zheng relies on favors, alliances, and future debts rather than acting alone. The chapter presents relationships as a form of social and political currency.
• Loyalty versus self-interest: Old Fourth risks his own resources to save his boss, while Secretary Li balances genuine concern with the tempting possibility of promotion.
• Found family and ambiguous kinship: The Bloodstained Restaurant’s rule that only relatives can order for another person raises questions about what truly counts as family.
• Power and responsibility: Cow-Horse’s destructive strength is not automatically suited to rescue work, emphasizing that power alone cannot guarantee protection.
• Bureaucracy and absurdity: A life-or-death rescue depends on telephone directories, delivery rules, payment procedures, and proof of family ties, blending danger with dark comedy.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse argue over whether Cow-Horse should undertake the rescue, with Liu Zheng using the promised partnership profits to persuade him.
• Liu Zheng recruits Guokou Tangzi by appealing to Cow-Horse’s need for backup, while Tangzi negotiates compensation through a future favor.
• Liu Zheng asks Fisherman to shelter Yuan Bao’er, teasing him about Sea Woman and provoking a revealingly protective response.
• Old Fourth and Secretary Li work together to save Yuan Bao’er, but Old Fourth cleverly pushes her toward ordering the delivery by promising a path to becoming general manager.
• Liu Zheng, Old Fourth, and Secretary Li debate whether Secretary Li is sufficiently related to Yuan Bao’er. Her successful order suggests that she may be more closely connected to the bathhouse owner than previously believed.
• The chapter ends with the sudden arrival of the Bloodstained Restaurant’s cashier, leaving the cost of the rescue unresolved and hinting at further complications.

Chapter Summary: The Nature of the Bloodstained Restaurant

Key Plot Points and Events

• A cashier from the Bloodstained Restaurant arrives at the Blissful Bathhouse to collect payment from Secretary Li after the restaurant forcibly assigns her a delivery order.
• Liu Zheng initially considers intervening, but the cashier demonstrates frightening authority and familiarity with the restaurant’s internal affairs. He warns Liu Zheng not to interfere or he will be treated as an accomplice to payment evasion.
• Realizing the cashier may be connected to the restaurant at an extremely high level—and perhaps even to its owner, Si Xue—Liu Zheng withdraws with Old Fourth.
• After waiting outside, Liu Zheng and Old Fourth discover that the cashier and Secretary Li have disappeared. Secretary Li’s original form has been reduced to a sticky, dark lump resembling melted chocolate.
• Old Fourth explains that Secretary Li belongs to a family of ingot-like beings. She insists that she is a gold ingot, not chocolate or an earth ingot.
• Secretary Li reveals that she remembers only being licked once before losing consciousness. The cashier has apparently taken part of her existence as payment, leaving her unable to return to human form.
• Liu Zheng summons the Nile Doctor, who diagnoses that approximately one-tenth of Secretary Li’s body, flesh, soul, and life force has been consumed. Her survival is considered fortunate.
• Liu Zheng connects the missing one-tenth to the concept of a religious tithe and theorizes that the Bloodstained Restaurant’s delivery fee may be a kind of tax imposed by the Metropolis itself.
• He wonders whether the mandatory deliveries serve a deeper ritual purpose rather than merely collecting material payment.
• The Nile Doctor warns him not to investigate further. Understanding the true nature of powerful rule-based entities may itself be dangerous and could cause Liu Zheng to become part of the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• The chapter ends when Liu Zheng receives an unexpected phone call.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows caution and growing awareness of the hierarchy surrounding the Bloodstained Restaurant. Although he wants to protect Secretary Li, he recognizes that directly opposing the cashier would be suicidal. His curiosity about the Restaurant’s true nature also continues to grow, despite the danger.
• Secretary Li survives the collection but suffers severe metaphysical damage. She is reduced to her ingot form and loses the ability to transform back into a human. Her usual sharp temper and sarcasm remain intact, even while she is weak.
• Old Fourth displays genuine concern for Secretary Li beneath his crude humor. He is relieved that she survives and attempts to comfort her, though his jokes repeatedly anger her. He also prioritizes using company resources to secure the best possible treatment for her.
• The Nile Doctor proves knowledgeable about the cashier’s effects and provides a precise diagnosis. He also becomes an important source of philosophical and practical guidance, warning Liu Zheng against seeking forbidden knowledge.
• The Cashier is established as a polite but terrifying figure. He treats the collection as routine business, yet his authority is so great that even Liu Zheng immediately backs down.

Significant Themes

• Power and hierarchy: The cashier’s calm authority reveals that the Bloodstained Restaurant operates on a level far above ordinary supernatural factions. Respectful manners do not make its actions less threatening.
• The danger of knowledge: The Nile Doctor explains that secrets and knowledge in the Metropolis are both valuable and hazardous. Understanding powerful beings can expose a person to contamination or transformation.
• Rules and ritual: Liu Zheng suspects that the Restaurant’s mandatory deliveries are not simply commercial transactions. The collection of a “tithe” may be part of a larger ritual sustaining the Metropolis.
• Survival over victory: Secretary Li’s survival, despite losing part of her body, soul, and life force, is treated as a success. The chapter emphasizes how extreme the standards of survival are in the Metropolis.
• The unknowable nature of higher beings: Gods, evil entities, landmarks, and rule-based existences may cause harm simply by existing. Their actions need not be intentionally malicious to be dangerous.
• Humor amid horror: Old Fourth’s crude jokes and Secretary Li’s angry responses provide comic relief, contrasting with the grotesque and existential horror of the payment collection.

Character Interactions

• The cashier politely but firmly confronts Secretary Li and refuses to disclose the amount being collected.
• Liu Zheng attempts diplomacy and flattery, but the cashier warns him that his reputation and connections do not give him the right to interfere.
• Old Fourth and Liu Zheng wait anxiously outside the office, debating Secretary Li’s fate and listening for signs of what is happening inside.
• After finding Secretary Li in her damaged ingot form, Old Fourth teases her, prompting angry insults, while also expressing sincere relief that she is alive.
• Liu Zheng and Old Fourth agree to call in the Nile Doctor and use the bathhouse’s resources to treat Secretary Li.
• The Nile Doctor diagnoses Secretary Li and then cautions Liu Zheng against investigating the Bloodstained Restaurant, creating a mentor-like exchange centered on the dangers of forbidden understanding.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng learns that Guokou Tangzi has found the critically injured Secretary Li, but she will die without immediate hospital treatment.
• Tangzi and Cow-Horse are trapped in the Old District by rival gangs. The gang offers to release everyone only if Cow-Horse is left behind or a ransom of one million is paid.
• Liu Zheng refuses to sacrifice Cow-Horse and agrees to pay, but the gang demands cash. Tangzi ultimately offers her father’s keepsake—her backup soup pot—as collateral.
• After negotiations, Tangzi and her group escape through the sewers. Cow-Horse slips away separately because the gang specifically wants to keep it prisoner.
• Nile Doctor provides Secretary Li with temporary “conservative treatment” by stuffing her into his underwear, provoking alarm and disbelief from Liu Zheng and Old Fourth.
• Liu Zheng arranges for Blissful Bathhouse to collect Secretary Li and take her to a hospital, accompanied by doctors and additional guards.
• Suspecting that Zhen Xinzai may have deliberately lured the bathhouse owner into a trap, Liu Zheng warns Old Fourth that Zhen may be attempting to replace the owner or seize control of the bathhouse.
• His suspicions are confirmed when Zhen Xinzai arrives at the bathhouse with dozens of people shortly after Secretary Li is secretly transported away.
• Old Fourth prepares to confront Zhen. Liu Zheng decides to disguise himself, and Old Fourth reveals that the available disguises are provocative costumes used for special services.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates loyalty, resourcefulness, and strategic thinking. He refuses to abandon Cow-Horse, risks significant money and favors to save Secretary Li, and anticipates Zhen Xinzai’s possible power play.
• Guokou Tangzi proves highly committed to Liu Zheng’s cause. Although she complains about the danger and cost, she willingly sacrifices a valuable family keepsake as collateral, deepening her implied obligation and connection to him.
• Cow-Horse remains troublesome but capable. Its past conflicts cause the rescue party’s predicament, yet its survival instincts allow it to escape once the others are freed.
• Old Fourth becomes increasingly respectful and dependent on Liu Zheng after witnessing Bloodstained Restaurant’s power. He also shows confidence in his own authority and loyalty to the bathhouse.
• Nile Doctor remains bizarre and unconventional, treating Secretary Li in an absurd but apparently practical manner.
• Zhen Xinzai emerges as a serious threat despite being regarded as foolish. His actions suggest he may be acting as the front for a broader scheme to seize control of Blissful Bathhouse.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and reciprocal obligation: Liu Zheng refuses to sacrifice Cow-Horse, while Tangzi risks a treasured possession to help him. Their actions create mutual debts and strengthen alliances.
• Power and business intrigue: The conflict is not merely personal; control of Blissful Bathhouse is at stake. Replacing its owner or acquiring Zhen’s shares could undermine the business from within.
• Survival in a corrupt society: Money, collateral, reputation, threats, and personal connections are all necessary to navigate Metropolis. Even medical care and rescue operations are treated as transactions.
• Comedic absurdity amid danger: The chapter balances life-threatening situations with grotesque humor, especially Nile Doctor’s underwear-based treatment and Liu Zheng’s provocative banter with Fisherman.
• Appearance and deception: Disguises, hidden motives, and misleading impressions are central, as Liu Zheng questions whether Zhen’s apparent stupidity conceals a larger plan.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi negotiate urgently over Secretary Li’s rescue, with Liu refusing to abandon Cow-Horse and Tangzi criticizing his overconfidence.
• Liu Zheng and Old Fourth develop a cooperative relationship built on business interests, mutual respect, and Old Fourth’s growing recognition of Liu’s influence.
• Liu Zheng, Old Fourth, and Nile Doctor react to Secretary Li’s humiliating but allegedly practical treatment, creating one of the chapter’s main comic exchanges.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman continue their hostile, teasing relationship; Liu deliberately provokes him by joking about sharing a wife with Nightingale.
• Liu Zheng and Old Fourth analyze Zhen Xinzai’s possible scheme, with Old Fourth realizing that Zhen may be trying to exploit the bathhouse’s ownership structure.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng preparing to disguise himself in one of the bathhouse’s sexy service costumes before confronting the incoming threat.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits Blissful Bathhouse and learns that its “special service” uses magical pleasure outfits to transform the wearer’s body. The transformed body is separate from the original, so injuries or sexual experiences do not affect the wearer’s real body; virginity is also technically preserved.
• Liu reluctantly puts on a Hanfu-style pleasure outfit because no male-oriented outfits are available. He transforms into an extraordinarily beautiful, imposing woman with a flame mark on her forehead.
• While Old Fourth escorts Liu downstairs, they encounter Zhen Xinzai, the bathhouse owner’s arrogant and incompetent husband. Zhen insults Old Fourth while openly staring at Liu.
• Zhen is accompanied by a strange young man wearing a red prayer hakama. The youth possesses a frightening gaze and attempts to mentally probe Liu, but Liu breaks the connection. The youth suffers bleeding from his eyes and becomes even more interested in devouring Liu.
• Zhen attempts to lead more than fifty unfamiliar people upstairs without paying. Old Fourth blocks them, insists on enforcing the bathhouse’s rules, and demands payment for the tickets.
• Zhen cannot afford the fifty-three tickets and must ask the red-skirted youth, whom he calls “President Jiu” or nearly “Lord Jiu,” for help. The youth orders a subordinate to pay.
• Liu and Old Fourth recognize that the situation is suspicious. Old Fourth tells Liu to leave first, suggesting that the group may pose a serious threat.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Displays reluctance and embarrassment about transforming into a woman, but remains confident and sharp-tongued. He demonstrates strong mental resistance by severing the red-skirted youth’s psychic gaze with ease.
• Old Fourth: Reveals himself as a clever and protective manager. He uses bathhouse rules to obstruct Zhen’s group, mocks Zhen’s dependence on his wife, and becomes alert to the danger posed by the strangers.
• Zhen Xinzai: Is shown to be arrogant, lecherous, cowardly, and financially dependent on his wife. Despite loudly asserting authority, he immediately becomes submissive when the red-skirted youth speaks.
• The red-skirted youth: Appears powerful, predatory, and deeply abnormal. His interest in Liu shifts from curiosity to an explicit desire to consume him after their brief mental confrontation.
• Bathhouse employees: Generally support Old Fourth, though they recognize that his sudden insistence on rules is unusual and somewhat hypocritical.

Significant Themes

• The separation of body and soul: The pleasure outfit reflects Metropolis’s blurred boundary between physical identity, spiritual identity, and personal experience.
• Identity and transformation: Liu’s forced disguise raises questions about gender, bodily authenticity, and whether an experience counts if it occurs through an artificial body.
• Power and submission: Zhen acts powerful toward the bathhouse staff but becomes obedient around the red-skirted youth, exposing the true hierarchy within the group.
• Rules versus personal influence: Old Fourth argues that business rules should override status and personal connections, even though he normally relies heavily on favors and social relationships.
• Predation and danger: The youth’s gaze and desire to “devour” Liu introduce a supernatural threat beneath the bathhouse’s comedic and provocative atmosphere.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Old Fourth exchange teasing, sarcastic remarks over the pleasure outfit and Liu’s transformed appearance.
• Old Fourth openly clashes with Zhen, using the bathhouse’s payment policy to embarrass and restrain him.
• Zhen’s gaze toward Liu reveals his lust, while his interaction with the red-skirted youth reveals fear and submission.
• Liu directly counters the youth’s psychic scrutiny, establishing an immediate adversarial relationship.
• By the end, Liu and Old Fourth silently recognize that Zhen’s visitors are not ordinary guests and may be preparing to cause trouble inside the bathhouse.

Chapter Summary: “Liu Zheng: Heh Heh Heh Ah!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng confronts a provocative boy dressed in red, accusing him of ogling bathhouse patrons and behaving like a pervert.
• The red-dressed boy responds with crude flirtation and challenges Liu Zheng to a competition, wagering a night of pleasure if he wins.
• With Old Fourth acting as an informal judge, Liu Zheng chooses a drinking contest. He produces three bottles of contaminated Fifteen-Year Ascension Hair Moss, a powerful liquor obtained through Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Both contestants drink the liquor, which causes intense alternating pain and pleasure. The red-dressed boy enjoys the experience but begins showing grotesque physical changes.
• Liu Zheng suffers even more severely because his body absorbs the poison rapidly. His Black Goat’s Young physiology allows him to survive by isolating and replacing damaged organs.
• After drinking the second bottle, Liu Zheng’s body forcibly expels the contaminated matter in an extremely embarrassing public detoxification, causing him to panic and humiliate himself in the bathhouse.
• Despite his condition, Liu Zheng insists on continuing and challenges the red-dressed boy to drink the third bottle.
• The red-dressed boy realizes that another bottle could kill him. However, he refuses to surrender because losing would damage his reputation and delay his succession to the throne.
• His servant, Tubi, tries to stop him, warning that the boy is repeating the destructive habits of his father. The boy threatens to kill Tubi, but the servant refuses to release him.
• Just as the confrontation is about to escalate, a woman outside calls the red-dressed boy by name—Zhen Xinzai—and questions why he is causing trouble.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates his usual sharp tongue, shameless determination, and willingness to exploit an opponent’s arrogance. Although physically overwhelmed by the poisoned liquor, he uses his unusual regenerative abilities to survive and refuses to concede even after a disastrous public embarrassment.
• Zhen Xinzai, the red-dressed boy: Initially appears as a vulgar, confident, pleasure-seeking nobleman. His bravado gradually gives way to fear as the liquor threatens his life, but pride, ambition, and the pressure of being watched by his followers drive him to continue.
• Tubi: Reveals himself as a loyal caretaker who raised Zhen Xinzai and understands the boy’s weaknesses. He places the young master’s survival above obedience, even risking death by physically restraining him.
• Old Fourth: Attempts to maintain the bathhouse’s rules while accommodating the dangerous contest. His reactions also provide comic relief, especially when Liu Zheng’s detoxification causes a public mess.

Significant Themes

• Pride versus survival: Both contestants would rather endure extreme physical suffering than admit defeat.
• The consequences of indulgence: Zhen Xinzai’s fixation on alcohol, lust, and reckless behavior is linked to his father’s downfall and threatens to ruin his own future.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Tubi’s refusal to let Zhen Xinzai continue demonstrates genuine devotion, contrasting with the young master’s impulsive arrogance.
• Body horror and dark comedy: The deadly liquor produces grotesque mutations and painful bodily reactions, but Liu Zheng’s public detoxification transforms the danger into humiliating comedy.
• Power and succession: Zhen Xinzai’s determination is tied not merely to personal pride but to his position as a potential heir, making the contest politically significant.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Zhen Xinzai trade escalating insults and sexual provocations, each trying to undermine the other’s composure.
• Old Fourth mediates the contest but quietly recognizes that the bathhouse may permit Zhen Xinzai’s death because he deliberately caused trouble.
• Tubi repeatedly intervenes to protect Zhen Xinzai, creating a conflict between the young master’s reckless pride and the servant’s responsible loyalty.
• Liu Zheng’s humiliating detoxification changes the tone of the contest: Zhen Xinzai mocks him but becomes reluctant to continue, realizing that Liu Zheng’s body can withstand punishment he cannot.
• The chapter ends with the arrival of an unidentified woman who knows Zhen Xinzai personally, interrupting the drinking duel before its conclusion.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yuan Bao’er returns to Blissful Bathhouse despite suffering severe injuries from Zhen Xinzai’s betrayal. She exposes his lies and orders him and his allies to leave.
• Zhen Xinzai claims ownership of part of the bathhouse, but Yuan Bao’er reminds him that they are not yet divorced and that she remains the sole current owner. Old Fourth mobilizes the bathhouse employees to drive them out.
• The red-dressed youth, revealed to be “Lord Shuten,” considers killing the injured Yuan Bao’er but abandons the idea after sensing the ancient, demon-suppressing power of Liu Zheng’s mummy crown.
• Liu Zheng develops a friendly relationship with Old Fourth, allowing him to call him “Brother Zheng” and inviting him to visit the city. Old Fourth sees this as a chance to expand Bathhouse Street’s connections.
• Yuan Bao’er’s survival is revealed to be temporary. Nile Doctor used a forbidden Anubis-related divine art to keep her mobile, but unless she receives Ra’s Radiance or another miraculous treatment, her body will continue losing vitality.
• In her office, Yuan Bao’er and Liu Zheng review surveillance footage of the attack. Unable to identify the attackers, she summons Uncle Liu, an elderly employee and former family butler.
• Uncle Liu identifies the attackers as Human-Skin Red Ghosts from Mount Oe, notorious for their appetite for alcohol and lust, confirming that supernatural forces were involved.
• Yuan Bao’er vows to retaliate, believing that failing to respond would make her appear weak and invite further attacks from rivals, including people within her own bathhouse.

Character Developments

• Yuan Bao’er: Reveals herself as strong-willed, proud, and fiercely protective of the bathhouse she built. Despite her injuries and emotional pain, she refuses to surrender control and immediately plans revenge. She also admits that her marriage to Zhen Xinzai resulted from her own poor judgment.
• Zhen Xinzai: His false innocence collapses once Yuan Bao’er confronts him. He is shown to be cowardly, dependent on stronger allies, and interested primarily in exploiting the bathhouse.
• Liu Zheng: Acts as Yuan Bao’er’s rescuer and advisor. He offers emotional reassurance, recognizing that even intelligent people can be betrayed when they lower their guard. His interactions also strengthen his relationship with Old Fourth and the bathhouse community.
• Old Fourth: Demonstrates loyalty to Yuan Bao’er and authority over the bathhouse workers. He humorously tries to cultivate a relationship with Liu Zheng, hoping to extend his influence into the city.
• Lord Shuten: Though dangerous, he is cautious when confronted with Liu Zheng’s mummy crown, recognizing its power against demons and ghosts. His retreat shows that he is not willing to risk a direct confrontation without an advantage.
• Nile Doctor: Provides crucial medical and supernatural knowledge, explaining the cost of the forbidden healing technique and the danger still facing Yuan Bao’er.
• Uncle Liu: Re-emerges as Yuan Bao’er’s protective father figure. He combines loyalty, blunt criticism, and affection, while also providing vital knowledge about the attackers.

Significant Themes

• Betrayal and misplaced trust: Yuan Bao’er’s husband betrays her for personal gain, while she reflects on how love caused her to ignore warnings about his character.
• Power and deterrence: In the dangerous world of Metropolis, survival depends on appearing strong. Yuan Bao’er believes retaliation is necessary to prevent others from viewing her as vulnerable.
• Loyalty and chosen family: The bathhouse employees rally around Yuan Bao’er, while Uncle Liu resumes his parental role and Liu Zheng becomes a trusted ally.
• Consequences of supernatural power: Yuan Bao’er’s temporary survival comes at a steep physical cost, emphasizing that divine arts and forbidden techniques always demand payment.
• Appearances versus reality: Zhen Xinzai’s dramatic physical transformation, his deceptive behavior, and the hidden identities of the attackers all reinforce the contrast between outward appearance and truth.
• Community and connections: Liu Zheng’s relationship with Old Fourth shows how alliances and personal connections can expand influence across different parts of society.

Character Interactions

• Yuan Bao’er openly humiliates and rejects Zhen Xinzai, while Old Fourth and the bathhouse workers enforce her authority.
• Liu Zheng’s presence intimidates Lord Shuten and prevents a possible assassination attempt.
• Liu Zheng and Old Fourth exchange playful, informal titles, with Old Fourth calling him “Brother Zheng.”
• Yuan Bao’er and Liu Zheng discuss her injuries, the attack, and the need to identify the mastermind.
• Uncle Liu chastises Yuan Bao’er for marrying Zhen Xinzai but comforts her like a parent, restoring her confidence.
• Uncle Liu examines the surveillance footage and identifies the attackers as supernatural beings from Mount Oe, setting up the next stage of Yuan Bao’er’s retaliation.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Uncle Liu explains Mount Oe’s history: it is a powerful monster faction led by Shuten-dōji, Ibaraki-dōji, and four oni kings. They once operated pleasure bathhouses in the city but were driven out after offending a major power.
• Mount Oe had previously tried to establish itself on Bathhouse Street, but Granny Tang defeated them. This history explains why Yuan Bao’er’s grandfather and father carefully built up Blissful Bathhouse instead of acting recklessly.
• Uncle Liu reveals that Mount Oe now occupies a mountain in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, where they allegedly raise humans as livestock. Yuan Bao’er decides that Blissful Bathhouse must retaliate.
• Yuan Bao’er appoints Uncle Liu to lead an expedition. She asks Liu Zheng to send Nile Doctor as support, but both Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor refuse because the dangerous journey is outside their original agreement and unrelated to Nile Doctor’s priorities.
• Niu Daji secretly informs Liu Zheng that the attackers who had previously visited Bathhouse Street are heading toward the city. This changes the group’s immediate plan: instead of going to Mount Oe’s territory, they must pursue the attackers before they enter the city.
• Niu Daji asks to follow Liu Zheng and escape their stagnant life as a gatekeeper. Though Niu Daji cannot fight, they claim to possess ancestral equipment that may allow them to contribute. Liu Zheng agrees to give them a chance under Nile Doctor’s supervision.
• Uncle Liu, Nile Doctor, and Niu Daji leave to pursue the Mount Oe members. Liu Zheng remains behind to protect Yuan Bao’er.
• Yuan Bao’er declares Liu Zheng a permanent VIP of Blissful Bathhouse and cancels the challenge process because the bathhouse’s veteran fighters have all been mobilized.
• While Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er exchange playful compliments, the communication system suddenly malfunctions. The intercom turns red, and Yuan Bao’er is warned that an assassin has entered.

Character Developments

• Yuan Bao’er becomes more decisive and ruthless as a leader. Faced with Mount Oe’s aggression, she chooses immediate retaliation rather than passivity and mobilizes her strongest resources.
• Uncle Liu demonstrates his deep paternal loyalty to Yuan Bao’er. Although he can no longer fight, he volunteers to lead the operation and protect the family business he helped raise her to inherit.
• Liu Zheng proves cautious, principled, and protective. He refuses to recklessly alter his plans for Nile Doctor, yet agrees to stay behind and defend Yuan Bao’er when danger emerges.
• Nile Doctor remains detached from ordinary rewards and political conflicts. Money cannot persuade him, but he is willing to help within the limits of his existing arrangement with Liu Zheng.
• Niu Daji reveals ambition beneath their humble position. Dissatisfied with their inherited “iron rice bowl,” they risk Liu Zheng’s displeasure to seek a better future and show unexpected courage and honesty.
• Yuan Bao’er and Liu Zheng develop greater mutual trust and romantic tension. She treats him as a valuable ally and friend, while his decision to remain behind suggests genuine concern for her safety.

Significant Themes

• Family legacy and responsibility: Yuan Bao’er continues the mission begun by her grandfather and father, while Uncle Liu acts as the guardian of that legacy.
• Courage versus recklessness: The characters distinguish between acting decisively and entering danger without preparation, especially in relation to Mount Oe and the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Ambition and social mobility: Niu Daji’s desire to leave Bathhouse Street reflects the struggle of lower-status characters seeking opportunity in a dangerous society.
• Trust and alliances: Survival depends on forming practical alliances, even among people with different goals and loyalties.
• Hidden danger and shifting threats: The suspected conflict shifts from an attack on Blissful Bathhouse to a possible conspiracy reaching into the city, ending with the revelation that an assassin is already present.

Character Interactions

• Yuan Bao’er openly trusts Liu Zheng enough to include him in sensitive discussions about Mount Oe.
• She attempts to recruit Nile Doctor through Liu Zheng, but both men firmly reject the request.
• Niu Daji privately approaches Liu Zheng, first offering intelligence and then asking to become his follower.
• Liu Zheng tests Niu Daji’s resolve and honesty, ultimately giving them a conditional opportunity.
• Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er share flirtatious banter after the crisis appears temporarily under control, but the mood abruptly changes when an assassin is announced.

Chapter Summary: “Innate Blissful Sacred Body”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Yuan Bao’er learns that another assassin has attacked the Blissful Bathhouse, confirming that the enemy has prepared multiple lines of assault. After a security guard is suddenly silenced, she arms herself with two unusual Type 14 pistols.
• Liu Zheng urges Yuan Bao’er to retreat to her safe room. Although she initially objects that hiding would be embarrassing, she activates a bizarre mechanism that drags her into the floor and seals her away.
• Liu Zheng remains in the office and prepares his Cleaver, Boning Knife, and other abilities for an attack.
• Deputy security captain Da Xiang arrives, claiming that the security team has stopped the killer and that he has come to protect Yuan Bao’er. Liu Zheng distrusts him and refuses to open the door.
• When someone forces a hand through the door, Liu Zheng attacks. The hand is severed, yet it transforms into a powerful projectile and strikes at him. Liu Zheng blocks it with one of his tentacles, though the impact badly disrupts the tentacle and destroys part of the office.
• Da Xiang then enters carrying a riot shield and identifies himself. He explains that he is genuinely part of the security team and had previously worked under the bathhouse’s Fourth Manager. His reckless attempt to prove his loyalty was motivated partly by hopes of promotion after Captain Jian’s death.
• Da Xiang describes the assassin as a monstrous woman with long, hardened, razor-sharp hair. He distinguishes humanoids—human-like beings capable of reproducing with humans—from monsters, which generally have reproductive barriers and infertile offspring.
• As Da Xiang leaves, Liu Zheng notices that his shadow behaves unnaturally, appearing to rise and then merge into the darkness. Before he can investigate, he senses an attack.
• A concealed enemy unleashes a poisonous purple blade-light. Liu Zheng narrowly avoids the first strike by throwing himself forward, but even the residual poison causes dizziness, foul sensations, and severe internal contamination.
• Liu Zheng consumes a single-use Mutant Wine Worm, hoping to gain a useful temporary enhancement. Instead, he receives the strange status “Blissful Sacred Body,” which gives his bodily fluids effects similar to contaminated Fifteen-Year Ascension Hair Moss and causes anyone infected by them to experience increasing arousal.
• The hidden attacker continues striking with poison attacks. Liu Zheng’s lower right leg is severed, and he deliberately cuts off the rest of the leg at the thigh after realizing the poisoned flesh is rapidly rotting.
• Using his tentacles to propel himself, Liu Zheng attacks the shadowy assassin. The enemy sheaths the poisoned weapon, then unleashes the secret technique “Poison Dragon Flash Through the Void.” The chapter ends with Liu Zheng unable to dodge the deadly attack.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains cautious, aggressive, and highly pragmatic. He lies to test Da Xiang, attacks before giving opponents the initiative, and willingly amputates his own leg to prevent the poison from spreading.
• His survival instincts and willingness to mutilate himself demonstrate his growing ruthlessness and combat experience. However, the unexpected nature of the “Blissful Sacred Body” ability leaves him shocked and confused.
• Yuan Bao’er is shown to be eccentric and proud, refusing at first to hide because she considers it humiliating. Her safe room reflects the bizarre and surreal nature of the Metropolis, literally dragging her into the floor.
• Da Xiang is revealed to be loyal but opportunistic. He risks himself to appear useful and improve his chances of promotion, yet he is also a genuine member of the bathhouse’s security force.
• The assassin remains largely unidentified, but their abilities suggest a highly dangerous stealth-based combatant connected to shadows and poisonous sword techniques.

Significant Themes

• Survival over dignity: Yuan Bao’er’s embarrassment about hiding contrasts with Liu Zheng’s insistence that staying alive matters more than pride.
• Pragmatism and self-preservation: Liu Zheng repeatedly chooses brutal but effective actions, including attacking first, distrusting allies, and amputating his poisoned leg.
• Uncertainty and deception: Identities are difficult to verify, shadows may conceal enemies, and even apparent allies may have hidden motives.
• The grotesque and absurd: The chapter mixes horrific violence and supernatural danger with bizarre humor, such as Yuan Bao’er’s safe room and Liu Zheng gaining an unsettling bodily-fluid ability from a mutant worm.
• The nature of humanity: Da Xiang’s explanation of humanoids and monsters raises questions about human modification, reproduction, and what qualifies a creature as human.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er argue over whether retreating to the safe room is cowardly, with Liu Zheng using the possibility of Zhen Xinzai controlling her bathhouse and soul to persuade her.
• Liu Zheng interrogates the supposed rescuer outside the office, exposing inconsistencies in Da Xiang’s story before allowing him in.
• Da Xiang and Liu Zheng establish a wary relationship: Da Xiang tries to prove his loyalty, while Liu Zheng remains suspicious and ultimately prefers to fight alone.
• Liu Zheng’s final interaction is with the shadow assassin, whose poisonous attacks force him into increasingly desperate defensive measures and end the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng is attacked by a shadow-based female ninja assassin. Rather than evade her blade, he deliberately allows himself to be cut, severing his own lower body and tentacles to avoid a fatal strike.
• He uses his grotesque regenerative body as a weapon, throwing his severed tentacles and spraying blood and bodily fluids at the assassin. Her momentary confusion allows him to escape.
• Da Xiang attempts to protect Liu Zheng with an extending rubber baton, pinning the shadow assassin to a wall. Liu Zheng immediately abandons him and flees.
• The assassin emerges from the shadow in an almost naked form and is overwhelmed by a strange, uncontrollable sexual urge caused by Liu Zheng’s poison-like influence. She declares that she wants to have sex with him and pursues him.
• Da Xiang blocks the doorway, but is quickly defeated. Liu Zheng continues crawling through the bathhouse, bribing security guards to stop the assassin.
• The guards are unable to contain her. She uses her poisoned blade to cut through them and reveals herself as the primary threat, while the white-haired woman appears to have been a distraction.
• The ninja uses Shadow Escape to ambush Liu Zheng from his own shadow. Old Fourth intervenes, knocking her blade away with his belt and protecting Liu Zheng.
• She summons Missing-Hand Guanyin, a massive shadow construct, but Old Fourth suppresses it with his powerful kick.
• The assassin then unleashes Shadow Demon Frenzy, causing everyone’s shadows—including the guards’ and the white-haired woman’s—to attack their owners. Using the ensuing chaos, she breaks free, retrieves her blade, and escapes through the ceiling.
• Old Fourth confirms that the assassin is extremely formidable and likely connected to the larger conspiracy involving Zhen Xinzai. Liu Zheng, badly injured but alive, requests nutritious food and returns to his office, convinced that no further assassin will appear.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates extreme ruthlessness, physical resilience, and improvisational combat ability. He is willing to mutilate himself and exploit his regenerative body to survive, but remains primarily motivated by escaping the assassin’s sexual intentions rather than by fear of death.
• His cynical and opportunistic personality is reinforced: he abandons Da Xiang, uses money to recruit guards, and mocks the assassin’s lack of professionalism.
• Da Xiang proves that he possesses useful combat skills, particularly through his transforming rubber baton, but is overwhelmed by the assassin and becomes comic relief in the encounter.
• The female ninja is established as the true assassin and a highly skilled combatant with powerful poison, shadow techniques, and exceptional determination. However, her compulsive desire for Liu Zheng disrupts her professional judgment.
• Old Fourth emerges as a loyal and powerful protector of Liu Zheng. His belt weapon and devastating kick demonstrate that he is a serious fighter, while his awkwardness and stained underwear provide comic contrast.
• Liu Zheng’s relationship with the bathhouse staff is strengthened: although he insults and exploits them, they consistently defend him as an honored guest.

Significant Themes

• Survival through grotesque improvisation: Liu Zheng turns his own mutilation, bodily fluids, and regenerative abilities into tools for escape.
• Comedy amid extreme violence: Brutal injuries, assassinations, and supernatural combat are undercut by sexual absurdity, crude jokes, bribery, and embarrassing situations.
• Professionalism versus obsession: The assassin’s abilities are impressive, but her fixation on Liu Zheng compromises her mission and makes her behave irrationally.
• Loyalty and protection: The bathhouse employees repeatedly risk themselves to defend Liu Zheng, emphasizing the organization’s solidarity despite its eccentricity.
• Power concealed beneath absurdity: Characters who appear ridiculous—such as Da Xiang and Old Fourth—possess surprisingly formidable abilities.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Da Xiang cooperate only temporarily; Liu Zheng orders him to restrain the assassin, then abandons him while sarcastically assuming he will be killed.
• Liu Zheng repeatedly insults and provokes the female ninja, refusing her advances and mocking her lack of assassin discipline.
• The guards initially question Liu Zheng’s bizarre condition but obey his orders after he offers increasingly large rewards.
• Old Fourth treats Liu Zheng with formal concern and physically shields him from the assassin, while Liu Zheng responds by commenting on Old Fourth’s exposed and dirty underwear.
• The female ninja ignores Old Fourth’s challenges and remains focused on Liu Zheng, promising to pursue him in the future.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter confirms that there was no third assassin. The long-haired female ninja is killed after her failed attack, while Da Xiang, the security team’s deputy captain, is dismembered beyond recovery.
• Blissful Bathhouse suffers heavy casualties and extensive property damage, severely harming its reputation. Since many guests witnessed the attack, the incident cannot be kept secret.
• Yuan Bao’er and Old Fourth conclude that the female ninja was likely connected to Granny Tang and Mount Oe. Granny Tang had the strongest motive because Blissful Bathhouse’s rise threatened her control over Bathhouse Street.
• The Bathhouse cannot retaliate openly without concrete evidence. Other bathhouses may suspect Granny Tang but would prevent Blissful Bathhouse from using the incident to gain even more power.
• Liu Zheng, badly weakened by the ninja’s poison, is treated to an enormous meal. As the final dish, he receives a rare “Unconscious Ginseng Baby,” a powerful restorative item that can temporarily prevent fatal injuries from worsening.
• Liu Zheng chooses to preserve the Ginseng Baby for emergencies or possible trade rather than consume it. He also takes the gold-plated clay pot needed to contain it.
• Yuan Bao’er’s returning forces report severe losses: Sixth Master Pao and several younger guards are dead, while many others are injured.
• The attackers from Mount Oe included Shuten Goro and Ibaraki-doji. Sixth Master Pao dies protecting the group from Ibaraki-doji’s ambush, while the Nile Doctor and Snake Third Lord severely injure Ibaraki-doji and Shuten Goro.
• Evidence suggests one attacker had connections to Granny Tang’s Heian-kyo Bathhouse. Yuan Bao’er therefore vows lasting hostility against Granny Tang.

Character Developments

• Yuan Bao’er becomes openly furious and emotionally shaken. The attack damages both her business and her pride, while the death of Sixth Master Pao—an elderly retainer who helped raise her—causes her to lose her usual composure.
• Old Fourth continues acting as a practical manager and security figure, though he privately recognizes that Yuan Bao’er’s desire for total revenge is unrealistic. He also shows generosity toward Liu Zheng by preparing the special meal and giving him the container.
• Liu Zheng is treated increasingly like a trusted comrade rather than an outsider. Despite his reduced size and serious injuries, he remains humorous, adaptable, and pragmatic. His willingness to store the Ginseng Baby for future use shows his survival-oriented mindset.
• Sixth Master Pao is revealed as deeply loyal to Yuan Bao’er and her family. Though elderly, he willingly joins the battle to defend her and sacrifices himself to stop an ambush.
• Uncle Liu serves as a calm, reliable commander who reports the casualties and explains how Sixth Master Pao’s actions saved many lives.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and inherited bonds: The old employees of Blissful Bathhouse remain devoted to Yuan Bao’er because of their long history with her family, treating their service almost like a hereditary obligation.
• Revenge versus political caution: Yuan Bao’er wants immediate retaliation, but the complicated alliances on Bathhouse Street make direct action dangerous without proof.
• The cost of power struggles: Blissful Bathhouse’s attempt to rise in status has provoked attacks from established powers, showing that success brings both influence and enemies.
• Sacrifice and duty: Sixth Master Pao’s death highlights the willingness of loyal retainers to risk everything for Yuan Bao’er.
• Survival and pragmatism: Liu Zheng’s decision to preserve the Ginseng Baby reflects the harsh logic of Metropolis, where rare healing resources are more valuable as emergency tools or bargaining assets than as immediate nourishment.
• Humor amid violence: The absurd Ginseng Baby description, the orphanage warning, and Liu Zheng’s enormous meal provide comic relief after the massacre and destruction.

Character Interactions

• Yuan Bao’er, Old Fourth, and Liu Zheng discuss the failed assassination and likely involvement of Granny Tang.
• Old Fourth takes care of Liu Zheng’s meal and introduces the mysterious Ginseng Baby dish, while Yuan Bao’er gives Liu permission to keep it.
• Liu Zheng casually takes the valuable gold-plated container, amusingly revealing how comfortable he has become with the Bathhouse group.
• Uncle Liu’s report forces Yuan Bao’er to confront the deaths among her people, especially Sixth Master Pao’s sacrifice.
• The chapter ends with Yuan Bao’er turning her grief into a personal vow of revenge against Granny Tang.

Chapter Summary: “As Everyone Knows, Videos Can’t Be Photoshopped”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng reunites with Nile Doctor after the battle at Blissful Bathhouse. Nile Doctor complains about being burned by Winged Dragon’s flames, while acknowledging that Blissful Bathhouse’s insect-user was powerful enough to help win the battle even without him.
• Liu Zheng learns that the injured insect-user—whom he met during his earlier sauna challenge—survived. He pays Nile Doctor to treat him, revealing their increasingly familiar and transactional relationship.
• Nile Doctor returns after healing the man and jokes bitterly about Liu Zheng’s ability to form romantic or personal connections with nearly everyone he meets.
• Yuan Bao’er informs Liu Zheng that Blissful Bathhouse will support his mission to rescue Jingzi from Night Parade Bathhouse.
• Yuan Bao’er explains that negotiations are unlikely to work because Granny Tang is greedy, arrogant, and unwilling to compromise. A direct assault by only Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor would also have little chance of success.
• Yuan Bao’er reveals her family’s history: Blissful Bathhouse was originally Yuan family property, and she reclaimed it through her family’s legitimate ties to Bathhouse Street.
• She also explains the alliance of the Beyond-the-Pass Five Families—originally Hu, Huang, Bai, Liu, and Hui, with the Yuan Family replacing the destroyed Huang Family. This alliance may now support her conflict with Granny Tang.
• Yuan Bao’er proposes a rescue strategy. Liu Zheng will infiltrate Night Parade Bathhouse using a job obtained through her channels, locate Jingzi, and send a signal. Yuan Bao’er will then arrive with her people, falsely claim that Liu Zheng caused the recent attacks, and demand his handover. This will provide a legitimate pretext for confronting Granny Tang and create an opportunity for Liu Zheng and Jingzi to escape.
• To support the false accusation, Yuan Bao’er plans to manufacture video evidence, joking that “videos can’t be photoshopped.” Liu Zheng enthusiastically agrees and jokes about being filmed from his best angle.
• Liu Zheng disguises himself in an absurd bodybuilding outfit and prepares to infiltrate Night Parade Bathhouse. He recruits Niu Daji, who recently protected Nile Doctor and held off a Mount Oe demon.
• Liu Zheng pays Niu Daji and formally takes him along as an ally. Together, they set off for Night Parade Bathhouse.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to rely on charm, shamelessness, and generosity to build alliances. He appears careless and flirtatious, but he is also observant enough to recognize useful connections and practical enough to pay those who assist him.
• Nile Doctor remains abrasive and sarcastic, but his actions show loyalty. Despite complaining, he treats Liu Zheng’s injured acquaintance and continues helping with the rescue effort. His exaggerated concern about Liu Zheng influencing Sesha highlights his protectiveness toward his daughter.
• Yuan Bao’er emerges as a strategic and ambitious leader. She is willing to use deception, political alliances, and her family’s legitimate claims to challenge Granny Tang. Her support for Liu Zheng is also connected to her long-term goal of reclaiming influence on Bathhouse Street.
• Niu Daji demonstrates loyalty and growing confidence. Though modest about his achievements, he is proud of his durable ancestral armor and openly states that he wants to follow Liu Zheng. Their relationship begins to resemble that of a leader and paid subordinate, though Liu Zheng treats him generously.
• Granny Tang, though absent, is characterized as powerful, greedy, arrogant, and politically dominant. Her reputation makes negotiation or a small-scale assault nearly impossible.
• Jingzi remains the person Liu Zheng intends to rescue, serving as the central motivation for the upcoming infiltration.

Significant Themes

• Alliance and mutual dependence: In Metropolis, survival depends on forming networks and alliances. Yuan Bao’er’s family alliance and Liu Zheng’s expanding circle of companions both reflect this.
• Power versus legitimacy: Yuan Bao’er cannot defeat Granny Tang through strength alone, so she relies on legal claims, political support, and a publicly defensible pretext.
• Pragmatism and deception: The rescue plan combines infiltration, fabricated evidence, and strategic manipulation rather than straightforward heroics.
• Loyalty expressed through material support: Liu Zheng repeatedly pays those who help him, suggesting that money is one of his primary ways of showing appreciation and securing trust.
• Comedy amid danger: Serious conflicts involving family feuds, political alliances, and rescue missions are undercut by absurd disguises, suggestive jokes, and Nile Doctor’s relentless mockery.
• Reputation and social influence: Liu Zheng’s ability to connect with people across different groups is treated as both a strength and a source of suspicion, especially by Nile Doctor.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor: Their banter is antagonistic but familiar. Nile Doctor mocks Liu Zheng’s relationships and recklessness, while Liu Zheng relies on him for medical help and companionship.
• Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er: Their discussion establishes a practical partnership. Yuan Bao’er provides strategy and resources, while Liu Zheng supplies the operative who will infiltrate Night Parade Bathhouse.
• Liu Zheng and Niu Daji: Liu Zheng rewards Niu Daji for his battlefield performance and accepts him as a follower. Niu Daji’s respectful obedience contrasts with Liu Zheng’s casual, generous leadership.
• Yuan Bao’er and Granny Tang: Although they do not meet in the chapter, their rivalry drives the plot. Yuan Bao’er intends to use Liu Zheng’s rescue mission as the opportunity to openly challenge Granny Tang.
• Liu Zheng and the insect-user: Their earlier interaction has created a friendly bond, with the man protecting Liu Zheng during the challenge. Liu Zheng’s concern for him prompts Nile Doctor’s treatment.

Summary of “Yours Is Really Loose”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arrives at the Night Parade Bathhouse with Niu Daji. The bathhouse is the oldest and most prestigious on Bathhouse Street, an imposing, multilevel wooden structure with a distinctive gold, red, and green design.
• Before entering, Liu Zheng confirms that Niu Daji’s family will not be harmed for opposing Granny Tang. Niu reveals that his family has long been protected or monitored by an unknown powerful figure whose name they are forbidden to mention.
• Rather than use the main entrance, Liu Zheng enters through a tiny hidden door at the back of the bathhouse, posing as the nephew of an employee named All Terminals. He gains admission by bribing the guard.
• The bathhouse employees use Japanese Mahjong-related codenames. Liu meets Terminals and Honors, a bizarre bird-limbed attendant who accepts more money in exchange for guiding and protecting him.
• Inside, Liu witnesses the bathhouse’s grotesque supernatural operations. Shadowy creatures occupy the rooms, attendants clean up bloodied clothing, and one unseen entity devours someone behind a screen.
• Liu is nearly hypnotized or lured toward one of the rooms by an eerie sound. Terminals and Honors saves him by digging his claws into Liu’s wrist.
• A female attendant bites and drinks Liu’s blood, apparently treating his injury while becoming increasingly excited by his vitality. Liu experiences heightened alertness and violent impulses but remains physically unharmed.
• Terminals and Honors eventually stops the attendant and leads Liu deeper into the bathhouse. Liu avoids further danger by closing his eyes and covering his ears.
• They reach All Terminals, a small, elderly, strangely decorated figure whose appearance and scent are deeply unsettling. Liu presents a half-burned incense stick given to him by Yuan Bao’er.
• The incense releases authentic musk, causing All Terminals to become more cooperative. He orders Liu to retrieve something from a boiling pot of black, viscous material and give it to “that old fellow.”
• When Liu cannot find a utensil, All Terminals tells him to use his bare hands. The chapter ends as Liu plunges both hands into the boiling substance without hesitation.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates caution, adaptability, and considerable nerve. He successfully disguises his identity, uses bribery strategically, and tolerates bizarre and dangerous encounters without panicking. His regenerative abilities make him confident enough to endure injuries and even place his hands into boiling liquid.
• Niu Daji: Shows loyalty to Liu and reveals more about his family’s mysterious connection to a powerful, unnamed patron. He remains behind as Liu’s support outside the bathhouse.
• Terminals and Honors: Appears irresponsible, greedy, and casually crude, but he also understands the bathhouse’s dangers and protects Liu when necessary. His willingness to accept bribes highlights the bathhouse’s lax, transactional work culture.
• All Terminals: Initially distant and demanding, he becomes friendlier after inhaling the incense token. He appears to possess unusual authority and knowledge within the bathhouse.
• The female attendant: Is presented as both helpful and predatory. She treats Liu’s wound by drinking his blood, revealing the bathhouse’s blurred boundary between service and consumption.

Significant Themes

• Danger hidden beneath apparent luxury: The Night Parade Bathhouse looks grand and prestigious, but its interior is filled with monsters, predation, and lethal supernatural rules.
• Rules versus corruption: Although the bathhouse is supposedly governed by strict taboos, employees routinely bend rules for money. Bribery becomes a practical means of survival.
• Identity and deception: Liu gains entry by impersonating All Terminals’s nephew, relying on a fabricated relationship and a few banknotes.
• Predation and consumption: Blood-drinking, devouring, and the boiling black substance reinforce the bathhouse’s atmosphere of bodies being treated as resources.
• Liu’s abnormal resilience: His regenerative body allows him to endure dangers that would kill ordinary people, though his heightened instincts also expose him to violent or predatory impulses.
• Mystery and hidden power: Niu’s family history, Yuan Bao’er’s incense, and the bathhouse’s strange hierarchy suggest a wider supernatural network whose rules and origins remain unclear.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Niu Daji discuss the danger of opposing Granny Tang and the mysterious protection surrounding Niu’s family.
• Liu wins access to the bathhouse by bribing the hidden-door guard, then continues paying Terminals and Honors for assistance.
• Terminals and Honors alternates between mocking Liu, warning him, and rescuing him from supernatural danger.
• The female attendant’s treatment of Liu’s wound becomes an unsettling encounter in which care and predation are indistinguishable.
• Liu presents All Terminals with Yuan Bao’er’s incense token, creating a temporary bond of cooperation.
• All Terminals immediately tests Liu by ordering him to retrieve material from the boiling pot, setting up the next stage of Liu’s dangerous mission.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng retrieves a strange black, brain-shaped lump called Brain Fragrance from a boiling pot in All Terminals’s fragrance-making room. Despite its appearance, the liquid is cool and harmless to touch.
• He delivers the fragrance to Terminals and Honors, a crow-like, bird-beaked resident of the bathhouse. The creature consumes it through his beak and enters a blissful, almost trance-like state, praising All Terminals’s skill.
• All Terminals explains that Liu Zheng’s task was meant both to demonstrate their supposed family relationship and to test whether he could remain calm around nonhuman bathhouse residents. Most guests at the Night Parade Bathhouse are hostile toward humans, so exposing himself could endanger both Liu Zheng and All Terminals.
• Liu Zheng reveals that he works for the Bloodstained Restaurant as second-in-command of its Delivery Department. All Terminals is unimpressed and admits she rarely concerns herself with anything outside the bathhouse.
• All Terminals explains that she assists Yuan Bao’er because Yuan found her a rare Dream Lover’s Fragrance, though she refuses to let Liu Zheng see or smell it.
• Liu Zheng learns that mentioning the bathhouse’s ruler, Granny Tang, is dangerous because she can sense her name being spoken. Her influence comes from a combination of illegitimate authority and witchcraft.
• All Terminals offers to recruit Liu Zheng into the bathhouse. Of the available departments, Liu Zheng chooses the Massage Department, where Granny Tang’s influence is weakest and which may serve as a base for opponents of her faction.
• All Terminals brings Liu Zheng to Thirteen Yao, the department head. Thirteen Yao demands incense in exchange for accepting Liu Zheng.
• After bargaining, they agree that All Terminals will provide one stick each of Small Intestine Incense and Large Intestine Incense. Thirteen Yao reveals that he already received incense from another maker, Pure Hand, and asks All Terminals to deliver hers the following day.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing composure and adaptability. He handles grotesque supernatural objects and nonhuman beings without revealing fear, and he thinks strategically about which department will best support his investigation.
• He also becomes more confident, insisting that the Massage Department will need to earn his approval rather than the other way around.
• All Terminals is shown to be cautious, experienced, and protective of her own interests. She tests Liu Zheng’s reliability, warns him about bathhouse taboos, and uses her long-standing connections to secure his position.
• Her relationship with Liu Zheng develops into a pragmatic mentor-and-nephew-like partnership, though she remains abrasive and openly mocks his ignorance.
• Terminals and Honors reveals a strong appreciation for All Terminals’s fragrances and treats Liu Zheng more favorably after learning of their claimed family connection.
• Thirteen Yao is introduced as a demanding, eccentric, and intimidating massage master. Although he claims his harsh treatment of newcomers is intended to prepare them for spiritual pollution, All Terminals accuses him of bullying employees.
• Thirteen Yao’s correction of the exact time since he last inhaled All Terminals’s incense hints at a long, familiar relationship beneath their argumentative exchanges.

Significant Themes

• Disguise and survival: Liu Zheng must conceal his humanity and control his reactions in an environment dominated by hostile supernatural beings.
• Power through relationships: Access to the bathhouse’s departments depends on favors, reputation, family claims, and the exchange of valuable fragrances.
• Factional conflict: The Massage Department appears relatively independent from Granny Tang and may represent an anti-Granny Tang faction, making Liu Zheng’s placement there strategically important.
• Taboo and obedience: The bathhouse contains rules whose reasons are not always explained, such as keeping doors closed and avoiding Granny Tang’s name. Survival depends on respecting them.
• Incense as currency and identity: Fragrances function as luxury goods, bargaining tools, sources of pleasure, and markers of status or expertise.
• Hidden loyalties: All Terminals’s assistance to Yuan Bao’er is motivated by a personal reward rather than ideological loyalty, emphasizing the complicated alliances within the supernatural world.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and All Terminals establish a cautious working relationship in which she instructs and tests him while he responds with obedience, humor, and calculated confidence.
• Liu Zheng’s interaction with Terminals and Honors helps reinforce his cover as All Terminals’s nephew and earns him potential future support.
• All Terminals and Thirteen Yao negotiate aggressively over Liu Zheng’s recruitment, trading insults and incense while revealing decades of familiarity.
• Thirteen Yao’s final correction about when he last received All Terminals’s incense adds a subtle moment of affection or nostalgia to their otherwise combative conversation.

Chapter Summary: “Should You Go to the Service Club Instead?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• All Terminals and Thirteen Yao argue over Thirteen Yao’s past debt to her. He had borrowed a large sum from her to cover All Simples’ gambling debts, and although he repaid the original amount, she insists that the old money is worth more now and that he owes interest.
• Their argument escalates into a ridiculous contest of sarcastic bowing until Liu Zheng intervenes.
• All Terminals asks Thirteen Yao to take Liu Zheng into the Massage Department at Night Parade Bathhouse. Thirteen Yao agrees, but requires Liu Zheng to pass an employment test.
• During the test, Liu Zheng explains that he learned a family-passed-down system called Chen-style Massage and Bone Setting from his master, Chen Xuewu.
• Liu Zheng demonstrates the technique on Thirteen Yao, explaining its eight methods—pressing, rubbing, pushing, grasping, kneading, pinching, vibrating, and striking—while treating Thirteen Yao’s sore lower back and stiff shoulders.
• Impressed by Liu Zheng’s professionalism, theoretical knowledge, and practical skill, Thirteen Yao hires him immediately.
• Liu Zheng jokingly attempts to claim special treatment as Thirteen Yao’s future nephew, but Thirteen Yao refuses to show favoritism and jokes that Liu Zheng might belong in the Service Club because of his glib personality.
• A representative from the General Affairs Department arrives with a list of available code names. Liu Zheng rejects flashy names such as “Unparalleled National Scholar” and several mahjong-inspired titles, ultimately choosing Renhe, meaning unity and cooperation.
• All Terminals departs after offering help if Liu Zheng encounters serious trouble. Thirteen Yao then takes Liu Zheng to report for duty, carrying a damaged bathrobe and suggesting that work is about to begin.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates adaptability, confidence, and professionalism. He skillfully balances conversation and massage theory while concealing his deeper motives as a spy.
• He also reveals a practical awareness of appearances: although he likes grandiose names, he rejects them because a low-profile identity will better support his mission.
• Thirteen Yao is shown as both powerful and theatrical. Despite his antagonistic banter with All Terminals, he is a fair supervisor who values skill and refuses to give Liu Zheng preferential treatment.
• All Terminals appears sharp-tongued and resentful but remains protective of Liu Zheng, personally arranging his employment and offering support.
• The relationship between All Terminals and Thirteen Yao is clarified as a long-running mixture of romantic history, financial resentment, and comedic hostility.
• The General Affairs Department representative is introduced as outwardly ordinary but potentially influential, reflecting the political tension within the bathhouse.

Significant Themes

• Professional skill and competence: Liu Zheng earns his position through genuine ability rather than connections.
• Appearance versus reality: Thirteen Yao’s impressive physique, All Terminals’ hostility, and the ordinary appearance of the General Affairs employee all conceal deeper histories and abilities.
• Identity and reinvention: Choosing the name “Renhe” marks Liu Zheng’s new role and public identity within Metropolis.
• Power and institutional politics: The General Affairs Department is portrayed as the bathhouse’s political center, controlled by Granny Tang and opposed by older departmental power structures.
• Comedy amid danger: Absurd arguments, exaggerated personalities, and workplace banter contrast with the serious underlying context of espionage, factional control, and dangerous supernatural customers.

Character Interactions

• All Terminals and Thirteen Yao trade sarcastic accusations over their failed or unresolved romance, establishing their combative but familiar bond.
• Liu Zheng acts as the mediator between them, then uses humor to build rapport with Thirteen Yao.
• Liu Zheng and Thirteen Yao develop a professional relationship through the massage test, with Thirteen Yao shifting from skepticism to approval.
• Liu Zheng and All Terminals share a protective family-like connection, though the chapter leaves their exact biological relationship somewhat ambiguous.
• Liu Zheng’s encounter with the General Affairs representative introduces him to the bathhouse’s bureaucratic and political hierarchy.

Chapter Summary: “Bowing Is a Serious Art”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng officially joins Night Parade Bathhouse and begins working under Thirteen Yao, director of the Massage Department.
• Thirteen Yao tests Liu Zheng’s obedience by ordering him to respond louder and show more “spirit,” which Liu recognizes as typical workplace conditioning.
• He leads Liu through the bathhouse and warns him that the Massage Department must always take the right path at forks. The left passage appears pleasant but is filled with suspiciously human guests, whose presence signals danger and possible mind manipulation.
• Liu attempts to establish trust with Thirteen Yao, comparing himself to a duckling following its mother. Thirteen Yao rejects the familial comparison but accepts Liu’s willingness to follow orders, warning that loyalty must be supported by actual ability.
• Thirteen Yao explains that bowing is a vital survival skill in the bathhouse. The angle, force, speed, precision, rhythm, clothing, and accompanying words must all match the seriousness of the offense.
• He gives examples:
  • Insulting a guest requires immediately prostrating oneself, and the guest may still kill or eat the offender without consequence.
  • Performing a massage incorrectly requires a bow of roughly 150 degrees, an admission of incompetence, and an explanation of one’s training.
  • Excessive repentance for a minor offense can itself be interpreted negatively.
• Thirteen Yao reveals that Night Parade Bathhouse predates Bathhouse Street and possesses its own rules. Employees who follow those rules receive the bathhouse’s protection, though he deliberately withholds further information.
• The pair reach three elevators marked by masks representing a crying woman, an angry man, and a laughing old man. Thirteen Yao asks Liu to deduce the elevator rules, warning that a wrong answer carries punishment.
• Liu reasons through the possible meanings of the masks. Thirteen Yao explains that passengers should first select an elevator matching their current emotion; if none applies, they should use gender. The old man’s elevator is reserved for veteran employees with over thirty years of service and high-level management.
• Since Liu feels neither sadness, anger, nor joy, he chooses the Angry Man elevator based on his biological sex. Thirteen Yao sends him to the seventh floor but refuses to accompany him, leaving Liu to proceed alone.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains calm, observant, and skeptical despite the bathhouse’s bizarre rules. He quickly recognizes danger and manipulative behavior, while outwardly maintaining obedience to protect himself.
• He demonstrates social intelligence by trying to gain Thirteen Yao’s protection, though he understands that the director’s “hard-to-get” attitude is partly deliberate manipulation.
• Liu’s rationality is strained by the supernatural environment, and he consciously avoids learning unnecessary bizarre information to preserve his sanity.
• Thirteen Yao presents himself as stern and demanding but also acts as Liu’s instructor and protector. He values ability over blind loyalty and gradually offers useful information.
• Thirteen Yao’s past is revealed indirectly: he was once reckless and flirtatious, but years of experience have made him more cautious and mature. His story about the difficult Kappa guest shows both his former impulsiveness and his current professionalism.
• His refusal to explain everything suggests that he is testing Liu and controlling how quickly the newcomer gains access to dangerous knowledge.

Significant Themes

• Rules as survival mechanisms: In the bathhouse, etiquette is not merely social convention; following precise rules can determine whether an employee lives or dies.
• Workplace hierarchy and obedience: The chapter satirizes workplace indoctrination while showing that hierarchy has real supernatural power in this setting.
• The limits of sincerity: A gesture’s meaning depends on precision and appropriateness, not simply emotional intensity. Excessive or insufficient submission can both be dangerous.
• Knowledge and controlled disclosure: Thirteen Yao withholds information strategically, suggesting that understanding the bathhouse requires gradual discovery and experience.
• Adaptation versus maintaining sanity: Liu must learn to navigate an irrational world without allowing its absurdity to overwhelm his judgment.
• Identity and classification: The elevator discussion contrasts subjective identity with the bathhouse’s rigid, biological and institutional categories.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Thirteen Yao establish a relationship built on suspicion, testing, and reluctant cooperation.
• Liu tries to frame Thirteen Yao as a dependable elder, while Thirteen Yao insists that their relationship remain professional and hierarchical.
• Thirteen Yao teaches Liu the significance of bowing, using practical examples and the fate of his predecessor to emphasize the consequences of mistakes.
• Their conversation about the troublesome Kappa guest reveals Thirteen Yao’s past behavior and allows Liu to probe his personality.
• At the end, Thirteen Yao deliberately separates from Liu at the elevators, turning Liu’s first major task into an independent test of his judgment.

Chapter Summary: “What Level Is Hell Game at Now?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng enters the seventh-floor elevator, whose doors open into the giant mouth of a mysterious mask. He suspects the elevator is a conscious entity and tries communicating with it rather than immediately attempting to escape.
• The entity questions him about his regrets, grievances, hatred, and anger. Liu Zheng admits to having all three but explains that he is no longer angry because he has become numb after years of hardship, ALS, and the absurd dangers of the Hell Game.
• Liu Zheng reverses the questioning, forcing the elevator entity to admit that it also has regrets, grievances, hatred, and anger.
• The entity reveals its tragic history: it was once a samurai who protected a family from bandits. The family secretly practiced corpse-refining arts, transformed him into a walking corpse, and later used him as a weapon during an inheritance dispute. He accidentally killed the entire family, including his wife and daughter, and absorbed their souls.
• Liu Zheng identifies the entity as the “Blood Samurai” and challenges its fixation on anger. Rather than denying its suffering, he argues that anger and action are separate. He suggests resurrecting his family, dealing with the betrayers, and moving forward instead of remaining consumed by resentment.
• The Blood Samurai accepts Liu Zheng’s reasoning and asks for his help. In return, it offers to stop making the elevator dangerous for him.
• The Samurai warns Liu Zheng that the killing intent accumulated in his hands is dangerous because Liu Zheng has no method for cultivating or controlling it. It suggests a bladesmith who can forge vitality, techniques, and souls into weapons, potentially providing a way to transfer or manage the killing intent.
• Liu Zheng asks whether he can make a phone call from the elevator and whether Granny Tang can overhear it. After learning that the elevator is monitored, he proposes a plan to contact someone who may know whether the Samurai’s wife and daughter can be saved.
• The Blood Samurai reveals that the plan requires it to slash Liu Zheng once, ending the chapter on a threatening but potentially cooperative note.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates emotional detachment, pragmatism, and sharp psychological insight. Although he acknowledges his own resentment and violent impulses, he refuses to be ruled by them. He also shows increasing confidence, using his Delivery Slip as leverage and negotiating from a position of apparent strength.
• Blood Samurai: Changes from a hostile, grief-driven elevator guardian into a potential ally. Its anger is revealed to stem from guilt, betrayal, and the loss of its family rather than simple malice. Liu Zheng gives it a new perspective: vengeance and emotional release are different matters.
• Thirteen Yao: Appears only briefly but remains relevant through the elevator’s unusual movement and the possibility that he understands or controls the system better than Liu Zheng.
• Granny Tang: Though absent, she remains an unseen source of surveillance and danger, reinforcing the importance of secrecy in Metropolis.

Significant Themes

• Anger versus numbness: The chapter contrasts Liu Zheng’s numb acceptance with the Samurai’s overwhelming rage. Liu Zheng argues that feeling anger does not obligate someone to remain controlled by it.
• Trauma and recovery: The Blood Samurai’s tragedy shows how betrayal and guilt can trap someone in endless suffering. Liu Zheng introduces the possibility of repairing the past rather than merely mourning it.
• Pragmatism over idealism: Liu Zheng refuses heroic romanticism, arguing that good deeds require caution and that survival often demands practical, even ruthless, choices.
• Identity and transformation: The Samurai’s transformation into a walking corpse represents the loss of his former life and self. Liu Zheng’s possible transition into a Metropolis “Succubus” similarly reflects the instability of identity within the Hell Game.
• Power through information and negotiation: Liu Zheng survives not by brute force alone, but by identifying weaknesses, concealing information, and converting dangerous entities into allies.
• The absurdity of Metropolis: The elevator’s conscious personality, poor signal, and surveillance parody ordinary urban life while showing that even mundane systems in Metropolis conceal supernatural rules.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng engages the elevator entity in a philosophical interrogation, matching its questions with blunt honesty and eventually turning the questions back on it.
• He confronts the Blood Samurai’s resentment without dismissing its suffering, offering practical solutions for reviving or restoring its family.
• The Blood Samurai recognizes Liu Zheng’s unusual power and caution, especially after seeing the Delivery Slip, and negotiates rather than attacking him.
• Their relationship shifts from potential enemy and victim to mutually useful partners: Liu Zheng may help restore the Samurai’s family, while the Samurai may protect Liu Zheng from the elevator’s dangers and help him control his killing intent.
• The chapter closes with the Samurai proposing to slash Liu Zheng, suggesting that violence may be part of the plan to communicate with outside allies or resolve Liu Zheng’s hidden danger.

Chapter Summary: “Your Elevator Really Wastes Employees”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng is confronted by the Blood Samurai, who asks him to draw his weapon and fight. Liu initially refuses, complaining that he is exhausted from constant battles and would rather simply be attacked.
• The Blood Samurai reveals that he wants to spar with Liu both to avoid being overheard by the ear-like entity in the blood clouds and to sharpen his sword, Corpse-Killing Pellet. As an elevator spirit, his body and blade are formed from killing intent and resentment.
• The Blood Samurai explains his strange history: he was once a walking corpse who had killed and absorbed the souls of his wife and child. Later, he became an employee, with his physical body fused to the elevator and his soul transformed into its spirit.
• Liu agrees to fight only if he receives compensation. He asks for a quick way to learn swordsmanship, but the Blood Samurai explains that true swordsmanship requires years of repetition. He nevertheless offers to teach Liu basic self-defense through combat.
• The Blood Samurai launches a series of powerful sound- and sword-based attacks:
  • Sound Slash: Peerless, which uses shouted technique names and sound waves to overwhelm Liu.
  • A blade-generated sound barrier that gathers and redirects the attack.
  • Wave-Riding Slash, which propels the Blood Samurai forward at tremendous speed.
• During the battle, Liu contacts Jade Cricket to ask whether the Blood Samurai’s wife and child can still be saved. Jade Cricket determines that they can, because they appear in the Blood Samurai’s dreams with their backs turned, indicating their souls have not been completely absorbed.
• The Blood Samurai ultimately pierces Liu through the heart. However, Liu survives through his Flesh Rebirth ability and reveals that the injury, though painful, is not life-threatening.
• Impressed by Liu’s resilience and answers, the Blood Samurai declares that he has passed the elevator’s test. He explains that ordinary employees face simpler tests, while Liu triggered a special evaluation because of his unusual nature.
• Liu tells him that his wife and daughter can likely be revived. The Blood Samurai is overjoyed and vows to repay Liu, while Liu demands that he first fulfill his promise to teach him sword techniques.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains irreverent, lazy, and opportunistic, constantly undercutting the seriousness of the situation with jokes and complaints. Despite his reluctance to fight, he demonstrates courage and tactical confidence by willingly taking the Blood Samurai’s attacks and using the encounter to obtain training and information.
• Liu’s survival confirms the strength of his Flesh Rebirth ability. He also shows his practical, RPG-like way of interpreting events, calling the encounter a “special storyline.”
• The Blood Samurai is introduced as a powerful but duty-bound elevator spirit. Though easily irritated by Liu’s laziness, he is honorable, disciplined, and deeply motivated by the hope of rescuing his wife and child.
• The Blood Samurai’s emotional state shifts from frustration and contempt to respect, surprise, and intense gratitude after learning that his family’s souls may still be recoverable.
• Jade Cricket serves as a knowledgeable adviser, using dream symbolism to determine the condition of the trapped souls.

Significant Themes

• Duty versus personal desire: The Blood Samurai wants to fight and improve his blade, but his deeper purpose is saving his family.
• Redemption and recovery: Although the Blood Samurai committed horrific acts as a walking corpse, the chapter suggests that his wife and child may not be beyond salvation.
• Violence as both test and training: Combat is not merely destructive; it serves as an examination, a method of self-improvement, and a way to establish mutual respect.
• Absurdity within a deadly world: Liu’s jokes about being lazy, needing medical expenses, and triggering a “special storyline” contrast with the Blood Samurai’s lethal techniques and tragic past.
• Identity and transformation: The Blood Samurai’s transition from walking corpse to vicious spirit and elevator employee raises questions about memory, agency, and whether a person can regain meaning after becoming a monster.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the Blood Samurai clash verbally before fighting, with Liu teasing and frustrating him while the Blood Samurai struggles to maintain dignity.
• Their battle becomes a form of mutual assessment: the Blood Samurai tests Liu’s strength and resolve, while Liu gauges the Samurai’s abilities and negotiates training in return.
• Liu’s call to Jade Cricket directly connects the Blood Samurai’s combat trial to his personal goal of saving his family.
• By the end, hostility has turned into cooperation. The Blood Samurai accepts Liu as someone capable of helping him, while Liu gains a powerful ally and a potential swordsmanship instructor.