Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng demands that the waiter return the money he supposedly paid for a coffin, since the waiter is still alive and has not fulfilled the purchase. The waiter refuses to return the payment but agrees to search for the Breath Regulation Method in exchange for additional money.
• Liu Zheng and the waiter return to the private room, where Shi Tiantian is bathing and Thirteen Yao is preparing the medicinal water. Thirteen Yao orders Liu Zheng to help fill the enormous bath and add essential oil.
• Liu Zheng shows Thirteen Yao the special-supply cigarettes he received from the Sanitation Department. However, when he tries to light one with his supernatural corn pipe, Thirteen Yao panics because the pipe contains multiple terrifying flames.
• Liu Zheng explains that he is collecting powerful flames for a job from the Gravekeeper. Thirteen Yao offers to retrieve flames from Hellflame Island, the inheritance ground of his sect, in exchange for the pipe. Liu Zheng agrees but insists that Thirteen Yao remain until their business is concluded.
• Shi Tiantian becomes impatient, forcing Liu Zheng to begin the “massage.” Wanting to ensure complete customer satisfaction, Liu Zheng uses a Legendary Deliveryman’s Ration Cigarette, activating his enhanced persona for three minutes, and also uses the Empowerment Golden Needle.
• Liu Zheng destroys the bath barrel with a precise martial-arts strike, then delivers an intense combination of punches, palms, and massage techniques. His attacks harden Shi Tiantian’s exterior while penetrating and softening its interior.
• He finishes with the secret technique Flick Flash, leaving Shi Tiantian trembling and thoroughly satisfied. Thirteen Yao is shocked by how excessive the treatment becomes.
• Yoko arrives with coolant and calming incense to stabilize Shi Tiantian and clean up the wrecked room. Thirteen Yao recognizes the incense as a rare product made by All Terminals, Liu Zheng’s undercover “uncle.”
• Liu Zheng and Thirteen Yao discuss All Terminals’ safety. Thirteen Yao expresses affection for Liu Zheng, regretting that he is only a fake nephew, while Liu Zheng affirms that their bond makes him family in spirit.
• After recovering, Shi Tiantian confirms that she is extremely satisfied. Liu Zheng then reveals the Miniature Aken Gemstone, immediately captivating her and prompting her to press her face against it.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to demonstrate his resourcefulness, shameless bargaining, and willingness to exploit every available advantage. He is also shown to be careful when necessary, choosing to use a valuable ration cigarette to guarantee success rather than risk failure.
• His relationship with Thirteen Yao becomes warmer and more familial. Their constant bickering masks mutual trust, and Thirteen Yao increasingly treats Liu Zheng like a troublesome but valued nephew.
• Thirteen Yao is revealed to be both powerful and protective. Despite his irritation at Liu Zheng’s behavior, he agrees to help retrieve the Hellflame Island flames and supports All Terminals’ undercover position.
• Shi Tiantian is portrayed as a demanding but easily pleased customer. Its enthusiasm and physical reactions show that Liu Zheng’s unconventional “service” has greatly strengthened their business relationship.
• Yoko remains dutiful and reliable, cleaning up Liu Zheng’s destruction without complaint. However, her irritation at Shi Tiantian’s satisfaction hints at jealousy or complicated feelings toward Liu Zheng.
• The waiter, though greedy and reluctant to return money, becomes motivated by the promise of further payment and begins helping Liu Zheng locate the Breath Regulation Method.

3. Significant Themes

• Trust and chosen family: Liu Zheng and Thirteen Yao’s exchange emphasizes that emotional bonds and mutual support can matter more than blood relations.
• Service and reciprocity: The chapter humorously treats a dangerous combat session as customer service, with Liu Zheng focused on fully satisfying Shi Tiantian in order to secure future cooperation.
• Resourcefulness and calculated risk: Liu Zheng constantly weighs the value of limited items against the need to succeed, showing his pragmatic approach to survival and advancement.
• Power hidden beneath comedy: The absurd massage sequence also demonstrates Liu Zheng’s growing mastery of martial arts and his ability to control immense destructive force with precision.
• Networks of cooperation: Liu Zheng’s progress depends on bargaining with the waiter, relying on Thirteen Yao, protecting All Terminals, and maintaining favorable relationships with powerful figures.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng bargains aggressively with the waiter while using threats and financial incentives to secure his cooperation.
• His interactions with Thirteen Yao are filled with sarcasm, mutual distrust, and playful physical familiarity, but they ultimately reveal genuine loyalty.
• Liu Zheng’s “massage” of Shi Tiantian is both a literal service and a strategic attempt to win its favor.
• Yoko’s arrival shifts the mood, as she handles the aftermath while showing clear annoyance at Liu Zheng and Thirteen Yao’s refusal to accept responsibility.
• Thirteen Yao’s comments about All Terminals and Liu Zheng’s “fake” nephew status deepen the emotional connection between the characters.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng presenting the Miniature Aken Gemstone to Shi Tiantian, setting up a likely negotiation or reward based on its powerful appeal.

Chapter Summary: “Am I Becoming a Father Already?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng gives Shi Tiantian a Miniature Aken Gemstone, impressing her and prompting her to ask about obtaining more.
• As a Stone Spirit tradition, Shi Tiantian gives Liu Zheng one of the skulls from her body as a symbol of friendship. Liu Zheng responds by cutting off and gifting her one of his tentacles, which she incorporates into her stone body.
• Liu Zheng explains his commission involving the Hundred Thousand Mountains, Mount Oe, and the need to locate a Mountain Core. He wins Shi Tiantian’s assistance through extensive flattery.
• Shi Tiantian agrees to help him locate the Mountain Core and negotiate with Mount Oe, though she will not directly accompany him into a mountain controlled by another owner or protect his attendants. Liu Zheng receives a small skull that he can blow to summon her.
• After Shi Tiantian leaves, Thirteen Yao explains that she is unusually clever and politically experienced compared with the generally simple Stone Spirit Clan.
• Liu Zheng prepares to descend toward the Boiler Room. He avoids using One Bamboo to smuggle him into the restricted lower levels, instead relying on his own connections and having One-Shot Samurai handle another task.
• One-Shot Samurai obtains letters from three imprisoned or isolated individuals—himself, Little Four Joys, and All Green—in exchange for Liu Zheng arranging future cleaning.
• Liu Zheng reaches the Boiler Room, where Hachijo is waiting. The Golden Dumplings enthusiastically swarm him, treating him like a beloved parent or benefactor.
• Their gratitude transforms Liu Zheng’s Dango Mark into a new single-use item, Dumplings’ Gratitude, which can transform him into a giant Dango or enhance fire and explosive abilities.
• Liu Zheng asks Hachijo to reduce the Golden Dumplings’ workload or improve their food. Hachijo agrees to give them an extra meal if Liu Zheng brings back food from outside.
• Hachijo creates a large pill and burns it in the kerosene lamp, preparing the Golden Dumplings’ meal.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates his growing skill at negotiation. He combines gifts, charm, shameless flattery, and practical bargaining to secure Shi Tiantian’s cooperation.
• He also shows increasing affection and responsibility toward the Golden Dumplings. Rather than merely using them for resources, he worries about their difficult lives, limited food, and short lifespans.
• Liu Zheng’s willingness to sacrifice a tentacle for Shi Tiantian reflects both his unusual physiology and his desire to establish genuine alliances.
• Shi Tiantian is revealed to be far more sophisticated than other Stone Spirits. Her years representing the clan have made her tactful, politically cautious, and skilled at setting boundaries.
• Thirteen Yao acts as Liu Zheng’s translator, guide, and reluctant protector. He is suspicious of Liu Zheng’s plans but clearly respects and supports him.
• Hachijo remains stern and sarcastic, but his willingness to improve the Golden Dumplings’ meals suggests he is not entirely indifferent to them.
• The Golden Dumplings increasingly regard Liu Zheng as a trusted friend or “father,” reinforcing the chapter’s focus on his unexpected caretaking role.

Significant Themes

• Friendship expressed through physical sacrifice: Both Shi Tiantian and Liu Zheng exchange parts of their bodies to formalize their bond.
• Diplomacy and manipulation: Liu Zheng uses praise, humor, gifts, and political reasoning to gain assistance without provoking unnecessary conflict.
• Responsibility and caretaking: Liu Zheng begins acting less like an opportunistic adventurer and more like a guardian toward the Golden Dumplings.
• Family and belonging: The Golden Dumplings’ affection and the item description’s reference to “our father” suggest Liu Zheng is becoming a parental figure to them.
• Pragmatism within moral limits: Liu Zheng cannot free the Golden Dumplings from their contract, but he still seeks smaller ways to improve their lives.
• Connections as power: Liu Zheng’s statement that he has “more friends than troubles” reflects how his expanding network is becoming one of his greatest advantages.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Shi Tiantian: Their exchange is playful and flattering, but also strategically important. Their mutual gifts and agreement establish a formal alliance.
• Liu Zheng and Thirteen Yao: Their banter mixes sarcasm, trust, and concern. Thirteen Yao warns him not to exploit One Bamboo or enter restricted areas improperly.
• Liu Zheng and One-Shot Samurai: Liu Zheng entrusts him with communicating with the other prisoners, showing confidence in his reliability.
• Liu Zheng and Hachijo: Their conversation is argumentative but cooperative. Liu Zheng advocates for the Golden Dumplings, while Hachijo reluctantly accommodates him.
• Liu Zheng and the Golden Dumplings: Their reunion is affectionate and almost familial. Their gratitude produces a valuable item, showing that their emotional bond has tangible consequences.

Chapter Summary: “Deity-Invoking Incense and Hachijo’s Request”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits Hachijo in the Boiler Room, where the Golden Dumplings consume smoke from a Big Black Pill in a Bagua formation. The smoke strengthens them, making their bodies larger and their fur fluffier.
• Hachijo asks Liu Zheng for help with his granddaughter, Mirai, who attends Virtue Private Middle School and appears to be suffering from school bullying. Though Mirai hides her troubles in her letters, Hachijo recognizes that something is wrong.
• Liu Zheng agrees to investigate after learning Mirai’s identifying details. He confidently claims experience dealing with bullies, recalling his violent reputation from his own school years.
• Hachijo gives Liu Zheng a rare incense as advance payment. He explains that his family, the Ouma Family, inherited the craft of making dangerous incense. Their traditional “Murder Incense” could kill without a trace, but Hachijo has abandoned the practice and refuses to pass it on to Mirai.
• The gift is instead Deity-Invoking Incense, which allows its user to summon a god’s aid by reciting the god’s True Name. It can also be offered to gods as a powerful gift, potentially earning their protection or mercy. Liu Zheng accepts it, though he rejects learning Murder Incense.
• Liu Zheng leaves the Night Parade Bathhouse and returns to the Blissful Bathhouse, where Yuan Bao’er hosts another feast.
• He reports that negotiations with the Stone Spirit Clan were mostly successful: they will provide limited assistance but do not want to become deeply involved in the outsiders’ conflict.
• Liu Zheng receives a call from Niu Sanji about Niu Daji’s condition. Daji’s injuries have stabilized, but an unidentified medicinal effect—likely connected to the Sandworm Blood—remains in his body. He needs at least three more days of treatment.
• Niu Sanji lists rare ingredients that could accelerate Daji’s recovery: Five-Leaf Grass, Male Tiger Bone, and Black Toad Venom. Yuan Bao’er agrees to obtain them through the Bai Family, a powerful medicinal-trade family.
• Unable to visit Daji directly because the Niu Family is staying in a secure safe house, Liu Zheng ends the call, eats his fill, and returns to the Bloodstained Restaurant.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows his willingness to help others, agreeing to investigate Mirai’s bullying and assist Niu Daji’s recovery. His extensive social connections and confidence demonstrate his growing influence.
• His past is revealed to include severe and often violent retaliation against school bullies and abusive teachers, explaining his confidence in handling Mirai’s situation while also highlighting his ruthless nature.
• Liu Zheng remains irreverent toward powerful beings, joking about gods and considering the potential uses—and dangers—of Deity-Invoking Incense. However, he recognizes the danger of invoking the being behind the Black Goat’s Young and wisely abandons the idea.
• Hachijo is shown to be a gruff but caring grandfather. Despite disliking his family’s murderous inheritance, he deeply values Mirai and sacrifices a rare, costly incense originally intended as her graduation gift.
• Hachijo’s relationship with Liu Zheng becomes more trusting, though their exchanges remain sarcastic and antagonistic.
• Yuan Bao’er continues to support Liu Zheng materially and emotionally, immediately offering to secure medicine for Daji and treating Liu Zheng as an ally.
• Niu Sanji acts responsibly as Daji’s caretaker and respects Liu Zheng’s decision not to reveal the Sandworm Blood’s possible effects prematurely.

Significant Themes

• Family responsibility and sacrifice: Hachijo’s concern for Mirai and his willingness to give away a treasured inheritance emphasize the sacrifices elders make for younger generations.
• The burden of inheritance: The Ouma Family’s Murder Incense represents a dangerous legacy that Hachijo wants to end rather than pass on.
• Trust and alliances: The Stone Spirit Clan’s limited cooperation reflects the difficulty of helping outsiders while protecting one’s own community. Liu Zheng’s network of allies continues to expand.
• Power and restraint: Deity-Invoking Incense offers immense potential, but invoking the wrong god could be fatal. Liu Zheng’s decision not to experiment recklessly shows unusual caution.
• Violence as protection: Liu Zheng’s brutal methods are presented as both disturbing and effective, raising questions about whether force can be justified when defending the vulnerable.
• Mutual aid: The chapter repeatedly depicts characters exchanging help, resources, and protection—from Hachijo’s incense to Yuan Bao’er’s medical assistance.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Hachijo trade insults and flattery while working together to keep the Boiler Room’s fire alive, revealing their increasingly familiar rapport.
• Hachijo entrusts Liu Zheng with Mirai’s safety, marking a significant increase in confidence between them.
• Their discussion of the Ouma Family’s history reveals both Hachijo’s shame toward Murder Incense and Liu Zheng’s preference for direct, physical combat.
• Yuan Bao’er and Liu Zheng discuss the Stone Spirit Clan’s negotiations over a meal, with Yuan Bao’er providing practical political insight.
• Liu Zheng and Niu Sanji discuss Daji’s recovery, and Yuan Bao’er immediately steps in to arrange the necessary medicine through the Bai Family.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng returns to the restaurant after being away, where his boss, Cow-Horse, angrily confronts him for leaving work and forcing Cow-Horse to cover an extra delivery.
• Cow-Horse recounts delivering food to Lord Longyang, a handsome historical figure associated with male favoritism and same-sex relationships. Lord Longyang flirted with Cow-Horse, praised his appearance and horns, and tried to get him drinking. Cow-Horse narrowly avoided becoming involved with him.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse joke about the encounter, human perversity, and Metropolis’s strange social norms. Cow-Horse demands “emotional damages” and threatens to forcibly recall Liu Zheng from future deliveries if he refuses to pay.
• Liu Zheng contacts the company’s deputy director for help investigating the bullying of Ouma Mirai, Hachijo’s granddaughter, at Virtue Private Middle School.
• The deputy director introduces Liu Zheng to his delinquent son, Li Ziming. Although Li Ziming is frightened by Liu Zheng’s intimidating reputation, he agrees to help.
• Liu Zheng learns that Li Ziming has connections with influential troublemakers at Virtue Private Middle School—students who dominate their classes, have followers, and can potentially intimidate others or manipulate school authorities.
• Liu Zheng asks Li Ziming to investigate what has been happening to Ouma Mirai. To strengthen Li Ziming’s influence, Liu Zheng agrees to let him take his friends to the Sewer for a party.
• Liu Zheng consults Fisherman about whether the Sewer will permit the gathering. Fisherman agrees after Liu Zheng links the favor to helping Sea Woman, but reminds Liu Zheng not to forget his own obligations to the Sewer.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng preparing to make arrangements with the deputy director.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains manipulative, resourceful, and protective. He uses humor and intimidation freely, but his concern for Ouma Mirai shows loyalty toward his acquaintances and a willingness to intervene when vulnerable people are bullied.
• Cow-Horse is established as both Liu Zheng’s subordinate and a petty, opportunistic boss. He complains about Liu Zheng’s absence, exploits the situation to demand money, and reveals that he possesses authority to forcibly recall Deliverymen.
• Li Ziming initially appears cowardly and intimidated, but he is also opportunistic and eager to gain status. His proposal to hold a party in the Sewer reveals his desire to appear daring and influential among his peers.
• The deputy director is deferential toward Liu Zheng but strict and embarrassed when discussing his son’s delinquency. He relies on Liu Zheng’s connections and authority.
• Fisherman continues to be protective of Sea Woman while remaining fearful of Liu Zheng and dependent on him for help. His reluctant cooperation shows the complicated power dynamic between them.

Significant Themes

• Power and influence: Liu Zheng solves problems through connections, reputation, threats, and favors rather than official channels.
• Protective intervention: The bullying of Ouma Mirai motivates Liu Zheng to use his social network to investigate and retaliate indirectly.
• Moral ambiguity: Liu Zheng’s methods are coercive and sometimes cruel, yet they are directed toward protecting others in a society where formal systems appear unreliable.
• Metropolis’s distorted social order: The chapter contrasts human behavior with the instinctive or rule-bound behavior of nonhumans, suggesting that humans helped impose whatever moral “limits” Metropolis possesses.
• Status and rebellion: Li Ziming and his friends seek prestige through delinquency and dangerous experiences, particularly the novelty of partying in the forbidden Sewer.
• Transactional relationships: Nearly every interaction involves payment, leverage, threats, or exchange—whether Cow-Horse’s “emotional damages,” Liu Zheng’s favor to Li Ziming, or his bargain with Fisherman.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their relationship is antagonistic but familiar, combining workplace conflict, mockery, threats, and reluctant cooperation.
• Liu Zheng and the deputy director: The deputy director treats Liu Zheng with exaggerated respect because of his position as a shareholder and his influence. Liu Zheng, in turn, offers assistance while asking for a favor.
• Liu Zheng and Li Ziming: Liu Zheng intimidates Li Ziming while pretending to be kind, then recruits him by appealing to his desire for greater status.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Liu Zheng manipulates Fisherman’s concern for Sea Woman to secure permission for the Sewer party. Fisherman agrees but reminds Liu Zheng that he still owes the Sewer a promised task.
• Liu Zheng and Ouma Mirai: Though they do not interact directly in the chapter, Liu Zheng’s decision to investigate her bullying establishes her as the reason behind the chapter’s main plan.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arranges for Li Ziming and his wealthy friends to travel to Sewer for a party. He warns them to bring supplies, behave themselves, and avoid causing trouble. Because he cannot supervise them personally, he recruits Nightingale to act as their chaperone and protect Sea Woman.
• Liu Zheng jokes with Nightingale over the phone, and she reluctantly agrees to escort the children from the deputy director’s house to Rose Street.
• He also considers assigning Ultimate Flavor Group a task, though he hides his intentions from Cow-Horse. His joking reference to Cow-Horse’s “guts” accidentally triggers painful memories connected to Metropolis’s atrocities, causing Cow-Horse to withdraw silently.
• Si Xue contacts Cow-Horse and orders Liu Zheng to deal with “the trouble” he caused, threatening him with a grave in Cemetery if he fails. Liu Zheng realizes the matter concerns Chihaya’s missing soul.
• Thin Horse takes Liu Zheng to Cemetery. Liu Zheng bribes it with cash, dried fish, and promises of liquor in exchange for help delaying a possible tomb-robbing assignment.
• Thin Horse reveals an unusual liquor bottle bearing a golden, helmeted old man and Runic Script matching the writing on Liu Zheng’s weapon, Hell Before One’s Eyes. Liu Zheng agrees to purchase more liquor for Thin Horse and other residents of Metropolis.
• At Cemetery, Liu Zheng discovers that Thin Horse has been punished for lingering outside too long and is hanging upside down. The Gravekeeper explains that Thin Horse was due for punishment regardless, though Liu Zheng’s request affected how long it would hang.
• Liu Zheng reports his progress in collecting flames. He has gathered two types and is working on a third, while also obtaining Dumplings’ Gratitude and upgrading his pipe into the Ultra-Fireproof Pipe. The Gravekeeper postpones Liu Zheng’s next obligation until the day after tomorrow, provided he collects at least seven types of flame.
• The Gravekeeper gives Liu Zheng an Ivory Pillow connected to Chihaya. He explains that Chihaya is not a conventional ghost but a “Worm”—a mysterious lifeform that merged with a dream. After death, she returned to her Worm form and entered the dream of a host whose soul resides within the pillow.
• Liu Zheng must sleep on the pillow to meet Chihaya. However, awakening the host’s soul will cause Chihaya to disappear, and the two cannot be separated or transferred to another host. Liu Zheng therefore asks the Gravekeeper for the most cost-effective way to keep the host’s soul asleep permanently.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display confidence, opportunism, and a willingness to manipulate circumstances for his own goals. He balances serious responsibilities—protecting Sea Woman, collecting flames, and finding Chihaya—with humor, bribery, and calculated bargaining.
• Li Ziming shows enthusiastic admiration for Liu Zheng’s strength and reputation. Although immature and eager to party, he is not portrayed as genuinely evil and appears willing to follow Liu Zheng’s instructions.
• Nightingale remains sarcastic and self-assured but accepts responsibility when Liu Zheng asks her to supervise the children. Her status, wealth, and combat ability make her especially suited to controlling the group.
• Cow-Horse reveals greater emotional vulnerability. Liu Zheng’s careless question evokes traumatic memories, showing that even an intimidating powerhouse carries psychological scars from Metropolis’s brutal past.
• Thin Horse is depicted as both dignified and mischievous. It helps Liu Zheng, enjoys liquor, seeks favors, and suffers punishment for disobeying Cemetery’s expectations.
• The Gravekeeper remains cold and authoritative, but he continues to provide Liu Zheng with information and limited accommodations. His explanation of Chihaya expands the supernatural rules governing souls, dreams, and Worms.

Significant Themes

• Responsibility and consequences: Liu Zheng repeatedly warns others not to create trouble, yet he must also face the consequences of his own past actions.
• Trauma beneath comedy: The chapter uses jokes and absurd situations—such as Cow-Horse’s reaction to “guts” and Thin Horse’s punishment—to reveal the painful history underlying Metropolis.
• Manipulation and moral compromise: Liu Zheng is prepared to keep another soul asleep permanently to preserve Chihaya, even while recognizing that the solution is unfair.
• The nature of existence: Chihaya’s condition blurs the boundaries between life, death, dreams, souls, and biological or supernatural beings.
• Deals and favors: Bribery, promises, and personal connections drive many interactions, from Liu Zheng’s arrangement with Thin Horse to his negotiations with the Gravekeeper.
• Ambition under pressure: Liu Zheng must juggle several urgent objectives—protecting his allies, gathering flames, managing the children’s trip, and resolving Chihaya’s fate.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Li Ziming interact as an intimidating adult authority and an excited younger admirer.
• Liu Zheng and Nightingale exchange flirtatious insults and sarcastic banter before settling on her assignment as caretaker.
• Liu Zheng’s teasing of Cow-Horse unintentionally exposes its trauma, creating a rare moment in which his humor causes genuine emotional harm.
• Thin Horse communicates mostly through gestures and neighs, while Liu Zheng interprets its demands and attempts to win its cooperation through gifts and promises.
• The Gravekeeper and Liu Zheng discuss Liu Zheng’s progress, future obligations, and the complicated nature of Chihaya’s existence.
• Liu Zheng’s final request—to permanently keep the host’s soul asleep—sets up the next conflict and highlights how far he may be willing to go to achieve his objective.

Chapter Summary: “Orders in the Old District Are Hard to Deliver”

Plot Points and Events

• Gravekeeper gives Liu Zheng a new task: purchase Light Wine from Du Kang Liquor Shop. In exchange, Liu Zheng must deliver a pillow containing a resentful spirit to the shop.
• Gravekeeper explains that Light Wine, derived from the life-giving “Worm” tradition, can revive the dead, regenerate flesh, and even transform short-lived creatures into Long-Lived Species. Gravekeeper wants it so he can briefly experience being alive again before burning himself in a great fire.
• The pillow may be worth far more than the resentful spirit because it could earn Liu Zheng free Light Wine and the liquor shop’s highest procurement priority.
• Gravekeeper warns Liu Zheng not to give the pillow to the resentful spirit immediately, fearing its unstable mind could awaken Chihaya’s host soul and cause chaos.
• Thin Horse transports Liu Zheng back to Bloodstained Restaurant. Before leaving, Liu Zheng gives it a massage, strengthening their friendly relationship.
• Back at the restaurant, Liu Zheng discovers Cow-Horse has gone on another delivery. He contacts Guokou Tangzi and asks her to deal with Huang Jiongjiǒng, who has been threatening Cow-Horse’s wife. Liu Zheng specifically requests an “accident” that will keep Huang unable to leave his home for about a year, rather than killing him.
• Guokou Tangzi explains her plan to reopen an izakaya under the Ultimate Flavor Group name and eventually reclaim Ultimate Flavor Tower, which has become too expensive to buy back immediately. Liu Zheng offers financial help but quickly withdraws after hearing the thirty-million price.
• Liu Zheng reflects on the people he has helped in Metropolis and considers remaining there, but ultimately recognizes that staying too long could expose him to enemies capable of bypassing his abilities. He resolves to settle the instance eventually and return stronger.
• Ghost Hand arrives, and Liu Zheng feeds it packed food and beer before accepting another delivery order:
  • Item: Supreme Oil-Sealed Giant Maggot
  • Location: 666 Ether Alley
  • Customer: Witch Wolwa
  • Time limit: One hour
• Liu Zheng learns that Ether Alley lies in the Old District, an area inhabited by dangerous witches, wizards, warlocks, and witch doctors.
• He contacts the queen of the Pink Kingdom, who agrees to lend him Zhizi as long as he remains within the Old District.
• Liu Zheng also contacts Yaksha, the Dark Elf priestess. He informs her that the expedition to the Hundred Thousand Mountains will begin soon, with the Stone Spirit Clan serving as guides.
• Because he distrusts Yaksha’s aggressive and uncontrollable nature, Liu Zheng insists that she obey his commands during the expedition, threatening to fight her if necessary. Yaksha accepts, since any bloodshed will satisfy her god, Bloodhand Kane.
• Yaksha confirms that she knows Witch Wolwa and has previously traded slaves and witchcraft knowledge with her. Liu Zheng then invites Yaksha to accompany him on the delivery, setting up the chapter’s next conflict.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng continues balancing compassion, pragmatism, and self-interest. He helps Cow-Horse’s wife without resorting to murder and remains protective of his allies, but he is also willing to threaten Yaksha to prevent future betrayal.
• His relationship with Gravekeeper becomes more transactional but remains respectful. Liu Zheng is willing to fulfill Gravekeeper’s unusual request, while Gravekeeper rewards him generously and shows a degree of mercy.
• Gravekeeper reveals a deeper emotional and existential obsession: despite being a Long-Lived Species associated with death, he longs to experience life again, even for only a moment.
• Guokou Tangzi shows a softer attitude toward Liu Zheng while pursuing a practical plan to rebuild her organization from the ground up.
• Yaksha remains bloodthirsty and arrogant, but she accepts Liu Zheng’s authority for the sake of her larger religious goals.
• Liu Zheng’s bond with Thin Horse grows through humor and mutual goodwill, while his care for Ghost Hand is expressed through food and small acts of kindness.

Significant Themes

• Life and death: Gravekeeper’s desire to experience life, the regenerative power of Light Wine, and the resentful spirit’s instability all emphasize the boundary between living and dead states.
• Pragmatism over violence: Liu Zheng repeatedly chooses solutions that accomplish his goals without unnecessary killing, especially in dealing with Huang Jiongjiǒng.
• Trust and control: The chapter stresses that allies can be as dangerous as enemies. Liu Zheng insists on controlling Yaksha before entering the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Reciprocity and exchange: Nearly every relationship involves bargaining—services for Light Wine, favors for protection, and alliances for future rewards.
• Temporary belonging: Liu Zheng feels increasingly connected to the people of Metropolis, yet understands that he cannot remain there forever without risking his life.
• Rebuilding and second chances: Guokou Tangzi’s attempt to restore her business and Liu Zheng’s efforts to improve the lives of others reflect the possibility of recovery after loss.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Gravekeeper: Negotiate the Light Wine delivery; Gravekeeper offers valuable compensation and warns him about the resentful spirit.
• Liu Zheng and Thin Horse: Share a comic, affectionate exchange involving a massage and a ride back to the restaurant.
• Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi: Discuss her business ambitions and arrange nonlethal retaliation against Huang Jiongjiǒng.
• Liu Zheng and the Pink Kingdom’s queen: Reestablish cooperation, with the queen lending Zhizi for the Old District mission.
• Liu Zheng and Yaksha: Discuss the upcoming expedition, clash over leadership, and then form a temporary working arrangement for the Witch Wolwa delivery.
• Liu Zheng and Ghost Hand: Reinforce their quiet companionship through food, drink, and mutual reliance.

Chapter Summary: “God Who Welcomes Everyone Like a Streetwalker”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng negotiates with Yaksha, leader of the Dark Elves, trying to turn their hostile relationship into a temporary partnership. He argues that their original dispute over the Wood Elf Royal Family’s corpse is now meaningless because the French Plane Tree has already absorbed it.
• When Yaksha refuses to cooperate, Liu Zheng threatens to use Deity-Invoking Incense to summon Bloodhand Kane, the Dark Elves’ god, and ask Him to kill Yaksha. He argues that, as a Deliveryman for the Bloodstained Restaurant, he can offer enough bloodshed and sacrifice to attract the god’s attention.
• Liu Zheng deliberately provokes Yaksha by suggesting that the Dark Elves’ arrogance and incompetence could cause their own god to destroy them. He then offers a compromise: if the Dark Elves cooperate during the operation against the monsters of Mount Oe, they can strengthen their relationship and potentially conduct a grand ritual to Bloodhand Kane.
• Yaksha eventually agrees to cooperate and tells Liu Zheng to meet him at Ether Alley.
• Liu Zheng discovers that his delivery meal consists of Supreme Oil-Sealed Giant Maggots, made from Divine Monster flesh. The maggots restore stamina, repair minor deficiencies, and temporarily protect against the effects of non-orderly environments.
• One maggot proves to still be alive and attacks Liu Zheng, but he effortlessly knocks it back into the pot and seals the container. He debates whether to reserve the meal for the Garbage Processing Plant or trade it to Box Spider for Spirit Silk, ultimately choosing the latter to help repair the Phoenix Cloak.
• Liu Zheng requests transportation suited to fighting witches. The driver provides a tiny carriage and a strange horse named Xiao Ma, which is resistant to Black Magic. Liu Zheng tests the horse by striking it, hoping to win the driver’s Miniature Gustav Railway Cannon, but the horse does not move.
• The carriage takes Liu Zheng to the clinic. There, he gives the Nile Doctor the Erakos Sandworm ganglion containing Spice. The doctor advises selling it whole rather than processing it into medicine, since opening it could reduce its value.
• The ganglion is assigned a reserve price of three million for Healing Bee, lower than its estimated five-million market value because Liu Zheng will continue doing business with Healing Bee.
• The Nile Doctor also informs Liu Zheng that Toxic Feces, a previously prepared trump card, is ready. Liu Zheng immediately takes possession of it.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates his characteristic combination of shamelessness, clever negotiation, intimidation, and opportunism. He smoothly shifts from threatening Yaksha with extermination to proposing cooperation, treating temporary alliance and future hostility as perfectly compatible.
• His manipulation skills become especially clear when he weaponizes Yaksha’s religious devotion against him. Rather than directly defeating the Dark Elves, Liu Zheng pressures them by threatening to invoke their own god.
• Liu Zheng also shows practical judgment and growing strategic awareness. He prioritizes repairing the Phoenix Cloak, selling the ganglion safely, and obtaining Toxic Feces as soon as possible.
• Yaksha remains suspicious and openly hostile toward Liu Zheng, but he is gradually forced to acknowledge Liu Zheng’s logic and resourcefulness. His eventual agreement marks a reluctant willingness to cooperate.
• The Nile Doctor continues to act as a knowledgeable adviser and business intermediary. His trust in Liu Zheng is reflected in his honest market advice.
• The driver maintains a sarcastic, teasing relationship with Liu Zheng, while Liu Zheng’s interactions with Xiao Ma reveal his willingness to treat bizarre Restaurant creatures as ordinary transportation and equipment.

Significant Themes

• Temporary alliances and pragmatic morality: Liu Zheng treats friendship, hostility, and cooperation as situational rather than permanent. Former enemies can become partners when their interests overlap.
• Faith as leverage: Religious belief is portrayed not only as devotion but also as a potential weapon. Liu Zheng threatens Yaksha by suggesting that his own god can be manipulated through sacrifice, faith, and Deity-Invoking Incense.
• Arrogance and incompetence: Liu Zheng repeatedly attacks Yaksha’s pride, implying that arrogance—not betrayal or blasphemy—could be the cause of the Dark Elves’ downfall.
• Commerce and exploitation: Nearly everything has a market value, from Divine Monster organs to magical food and ritual resources. Relationships are repeatedly filtered through trade, bargains, reserve prices, and future business.
• The absurdity of the supernatural world: Deadly objects and monsters are treated like food deliveries, maintenance problems, or household merchandise. The chapter’s humor comes from placing grotesque supernatural events within mundane routines.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Yaksha: Their hostile phone conversation becomes a battle of rhetoric. Liu Zheng uses logic, threats, mockery, and religious provocation until Yaksha reluctantly accepts cooperation.
• Liu Zheng and the driver: Their exchange is sarcastic and competitive. Liu Zheng complains about the carriage and horse, while the driver mocks him and tempts him with the powerful Railway Cannon.
• Liu Zheng and Xiao Ma: Liu Zheng strikes the horse to test its strength, but Xiao Ma remains motionless and responds only by farting. Despite the absurd encounter, Liu Zheng eventually treats it affectionately.
• Liu Zheng and the Nile Doctor: Their relationship is based on trust and mutual benefit. Liu Zheng accepts the doctor’s advice to sell the ganglion at a reduced reserve price and immediately claims the completed Toxic Feces.
• Liu Zheng and the clinic’s creatures: His feeding of the Sphinx and his casual handling of the living maggot reinforce his comfort with the strange, dangerous beings associated with the Bloodstained Restaurant.

Chapter Summary: “Three-Feces Power”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Nile Doctor gives Liu Zheng a newly created single-use item called Three-Feces Power, a pellet made from resentful fecal matter. When used, it releases a poisonous mist that attacks any nearby beings with excretory functions.
• Liu asks Nile Doctor about Ether Alley, where he plans to deliver takeout. Nile offers to accompany him, but Liu declines because he has already found another companion and wants Nile to conserve his strength for a future trip to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• The Sphinx refuses to accompany Liu, fearing that his bad luck will drag it into danger.
• Liu visits Healing Bee Pharmacy to retrieve his medicine jar and confronts Healing Bee for taking it without permission. After negotiating, he accepts a symbolic payment and an apology, emphasizing that respect matters more to him than money.
• Liu offers Healing Bee the nerve ganglion of an Erakos Sandworm, a valuable source of the addictive substance “Spice.” Healing Bee agrees to buy it and also offers a treatment for Niu Daji, Liu’s Minotaur subordinate, who accidentally became addicted to sandworm blood.
• Healing Bee’s treatment works by replacing the original addiction with another drug, then turning the new addiction into aversion. Though expensive and not fully tested on Minotaurs, Liu chooses it over a harsher alternative recommended by his driver.
• Liu negotiates a contract: Healing Bee values the ganglion at three million, deducts two million for Niu Daji’s treatment, and pays Liu the remaining million. Both parties sign a formal agreement.
• Liu then returns to Academy Gardens to collect a group of students for the trip. He threatens the spoiled children with terrifying punishments if they disobey Nightingale, making it clear that their wealth and family influence will not protect them.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows increasing resourcefulness and business skill. He uses humor, negotiation, legal knowledge, and intimidation to protect his interests and those under his care.
• His concern for Niu Daji demonstrates loyalty and responsibility. He is willing to spend heavily and take risks to obtain the safest available treatment for his subordinate.
• Liu also reveals a strong sense of principle. His dispute over the medicine jar is not about its monetary value but about Healing Bee’s disrespectful behavior.
• Nile Doctor remains dependable but eccentric, especially in matters related to medicine and chemical creations. He is also willing to support Liu, though Liu chooses not to exploit his help excessively.
• The Sphinx continues to be sarcastic, proud, and self-preserving. Its refusal to help reflects its distrust of Liu’s dangerous adventures.
• Healing Bee is opportunistic and suspicious but ultimately practical. It recognizes Liu as a serious customer and business partner, while also displaying professional confidence in its experimental treatment.
• Nightingale acts as Liu’s obedient subordinate and escort, immediately carrying out his orders.
• The deputy director’s son and the other students are introduced as privileged but frightened young people who quickly learn that Liu will not tolerate disobedience.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and responsibility: Liu’s willingness to pay for Niu Daji’s treatment highlights his commitment to those who serve him.
• Principle versus profit: Liu repeatedly shows that respect, fairness, and clear agreements matter more to him than simply maximizing money.
• Dangerous and unregulated science: Healing Bee’s treatment is based on experimental clinical trials and uncertain safety standards, reflecting the morally ambiguous medical practices of Metropolis.
• Power and intimidation: Liu relies on reputation and threats to control others, particularly the wealthy students who assume social status will protect them.
• Dark humor and grotesque absurdity: The chapter mixes serious danger with deliberately ridiculous elements, especially the fecal-based weapon and the characters’ casual discussion of addiction and bodily harm.
• Trust and calculated risk: Liu must judge whom to trust, balancing Healing Bee’s questionable methods against the possibility of saving Niu Daji.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Nile Doctor interact with familiarity and mutual respect, though Liu is often exasperated by the doctor’s bizarre creations.
• Liu’s exchange with the Sphinx is playful but adversarial; he tries flattery and emotional manipulation, while the Sphinx immediately rejects his request.
• Liu and Healing Bee engage in tense but controlled bargaining. Their conversation gradually shifts from a dispute over a medicine jar to a major commercial deal involving Spice and Niu Daji’s treatment.
• Liu consults his driver, who provides a more severe but cheaper treatment option. Liu ultimately prioritizes what he believes is the better chance for Niu Daji’s survival.
• Liu establishes authority over the students through a harsh warning, while Nightingale reinforces his command by obediently leading them away.

Chapter Summary: Ether Alley and the Witch Wolwa

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng meets the deputy director, who teases him about his closeness with Nightingale. Liu jokingly confirms that he is Nightingale’s “master.”
• He travels to Ether Alley with Yaksha and Zhizi, who are still hostile toward one another. Liu prevents them from fighting, insisting they cooperate for the delivery.
• Ether Alley’s entrance is guarded by earth golems. Liu’s carriage cannot enter, so he leaves the driver and Xiao Ma outside despite Xiao Ma’s disappointment at missing his bath in Black Magic.
• Inside, Ether Alley transforms into a vast forest-like plaza filled with trees, treehouse residences, and a mysterious vine that may lead to the Archmage’s domain—or another world. Liu locates treehouse 666, the residence of the Great Witch Wolwa.
• Yaksha examines Liu’s Deity-Invoking Incense, confirming that it can strengthen her connection to the deity Bloodhand Kane. Though tempted to take it, she returns it under Liu and Zhizi’s watchful eyes.
• Yaksha summons Wolwa by striking the number 666 with crimson lightning. She requests that Wolwa sign for Liu’s delivery on behalf of the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• To persuade Wolwa, Yaksha offers her a valuable twin lich skull. Wolwa accepts it as compensation for meeting them, but not as payment for signing the delivery.
• Wolwa emerges and examines Liu, identifying him as a hybrid of a Black Goat’s Young and a human. She flirts with him and jokes about her centuries-long abstinence, but Liu redirects the conversation toward business.
• Wolwa refuses to sign immediately and announces that Liu must first prove himself qualified. She raises her iron staff and prepares to test him.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains composed, irreverent, and practical. He uses humor to defuse tension, refuses to be intimidated by Ether Alley’s mysteries, and firmly safeguards the Deity-Invoking Incense. His willingness to negotiate directly with powerful supernatural beings is emphasized.
• Yaksha demonstrates her status and pride as a Dark Elf noble while also showing deep respect for Wolwa. She is willing to humble herself, offer a major magical treasure, and negotiate on behalf of Liu’s delivery. Her desire for the incense reveals her strong interest in Bloodhand Kane.
• Zhizi continues to appear innocent and cheerful, especially when enjoying Liu’s dried fish, but her cold, threatening gaze shows that she is dangerous and remains wary of Yaksha.
• Wolwa is introduced as a powerful, eccentric, and highly confident witch. She is both flirtatious and calculating, appreciating rare magical materials but refusing to perform favors without sufficient compensation or proof of worth.

Significant Themes

• Negotiation and power: Access to Ether Alley and Wolwa’s cooperation depend on status, favors, and valuable magical resources rather than simple requests.
• Appearance versus reality: Ether Alley appears whimsical and beautiful but contains deadly mysteries, such as the unexplained vine and hidden supernatural authority. Wolwa’s skull-like makeup contrasts with her beauty and vitality.
• Trust and guarded cooperation: Liu, Yaksha, and Zhizi are temporary allies who remain prepared to turn against one another. Their cooperation depends on mutual restraint and clearly defined interests.
• Identity and otherness: Liu’s hybrid nature makes him an object of curiosity to Wolwa, reinforcing his unusual position between human and supernatural worlds.
• Humor amid danger: Liu repeatedly uses sarcasm and irreverence—even when dealing with the Archmage’s domain, witches, and liches—to maintain control of tense situations.

Character Interactions

• The deputy director and Liu exchange teasing remarks about Liu’s relationship with Nightingale.
• Yaksha and Zhizi threaten one another, while Liu acts as mediator and prevents their confrontation.
• Liu shares dried fish with Zhizi, creating a brief friendly moment and irritating the more refined Yaksha.
• Yaksha warns Liu to respect Ether Alley’s unseen ruler, the Archmage, while Liu responds with skepticism and dark humor.
• Yaksha and Liu negotiate over the Deity-Invoking Incense, with Liu making clear that cooperation—or hostility—will determine its price.
• Yaksha respectfully appeals to Wolwa, offering the twin lich skull and promising the Dark Elves’ gratitude.
• Wolwa and Liu engage in flirtatious, humorous banter, but Liu remains focused on obtaining her signature.
• The chapter ends with Wolwa challenging Liu directly, setting up a likely magical or personal test.

Chapter Summary: “Surprises Everywhere in Metropolis”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wolwa, the Great Witch, tests Liu Zheng, Zhizi, and Yaksha by firing three ghostly green rays at them. Each counters the attack differently:
  • Liu Zheng sacrifices part of a tentacle, which rapidly regenerates.
  • Zhizi deflects the rays and swallows them.
  • Yaksha destroys them with Psionic Lightning.
• Wolwa reveals her interest in Liu Zheng’s regenerative abilities and suggests turning him into an undead creature.
• With Yaksha confirming that Wolwa attacked first, Liu Zheng and Zhizi retaliate. Zhizi’s sword technique damages Wolwa’s defensive bone wall, while Liu Zheng prepares to fight seriously.
• Wolwa recognizes Liu Zheng as the buyer of a sword sheath and realizes that he is connected to an old prophecy about renewing a past bond. She invites Liu Zheng, Zhizi, and Yaksha into her treehouse to negotiate.
• Inside, Liu Zheng learns that Wolwa was once a farmer before awakening as a witch. Her apparently ordinary farmhouse contains magical properties and is much larger inside than outside.
• Wolwa explains the distinctions among witches, wizards, mages, sorcerers, and witch doctors, describing them as different expressions or systems of fundamentally similar supernatural power.
• She confronts Liu Zheng about his previous battle with Peacock and mocks him for spending heavily on a dragonhide cloak. Liu Zheng admits the purchase was painful but maintains that he does not regret it completely.
• Wolwa asks for the blood relatives of the chairman connected to the Cursed Master Key in exchange for accepting Liu Zheng’s delivery. Liu Zheng refuses because he promised to protect the family.
• To prove that he can uphold the promise, Liu Zheng displays the dangerous Laughing-Gas Bomb and the Dango Mark. Wolwa recognizes that he possesses far more power and valuable items than a normal deliveryman.
• They negotiate a new deal: Liu Zheng will provide three liters of blood from the chairman’s relatives, and Wolwa will remove the curse from the Cursed Master Key. If the relatives cannot be found, Liu Zheng may substitute another reasonable request.
• Wolwa creates a magical contract from one of her hairs, and both she and Liu Zheng sign it with their blood. She explains that contracts made in Ether Alley are protected and supervised by the Archmage.
• Liu Zheng delivers the giant maggot-like Divine Monster in an enamel pot. Wolwa is pleased and realizes that Liu Zheng was involved in its capture, further raising her estimation of him.
• As a gift for completing the delivery, Wolwa allows Liu Zheng, Zhizi, and Yaksha to choose one object from her house, excluding herself and her clothing. Liu Zheng jokes about claiming the entire house, then searches for something valuable.
• His senses are drawn toward three farming tools—a hoe, a sickle, and a manure fork—suggesting that one or more may possess hidden significance.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Liu Zheng demonstrates resourcefulness, confidence, and unusual moral firmness. He is willing to fight Wolwa but prefers negotiation when possible. His insistence on honoring promises, even to the dead or nonhuman beings, establishes a central aspect of his character.
• Wolwa shifts from an aggressive examiner to a wary negotiator. She begins by threatening to turn Liu Zheng into an undead servant but gradually becomes impressed—and somewhat intimidated—by his abilities, artifacts, connections, and resolve.
• Zhizi acts decisively and aggressively in combat, immediately attacking when Liu Zheng gives the order. Her sword techniques prove powerful enough to challenge Wolwa’s defenses.
• Yaksha remains more restrained, offering strategic information and support rather than directly joining the attack. His knowledge of Metropolis’s political situation helps explain why Wolwa and the Dark Elves must behave cautiously.
• Liu Zheng and Wolwa engage in constant verbal sparring. Their conversation moves between threats, jokes, bargaining, and mutual appraisal. Although neither fully trusts the other, they recognize each other’s strength and intelligence.
• Yaksha and Liu Zheng show an established working relationship: Liu Zheng seeks his judgment before signing the contract, and Yaksha silently approves.
• Wolwa’s references to Priest Hram and Liu Zheng’s battle with Peacock reveal that Liu Zheng’s reputation and network are growing among Metropolis’s powerful residents.

Significant Themes

• Promises and personal integrity: Liu Zheng treats promises as binding regardless of the recipient’s nature or whether they are alive. Wolwa challenges whether moral commitment matters without the power to fulfill it.
• Power and negotiation: Strength is repeatedly displayed through combat, magical artifacts, and threats, but the chapter ultimately resolves through bargaining and a formal contract.
• Hidden identities and appearances: Wolwa’s farmhouse, her former life as a farmer, Liu Zheng’s seemingly modest role as a deliveryman, and the ordinary-looking farming tools all conceal deeper power or significance.
• Mutual respect among dangerous individuals: Wolwa and Liu Zheng begin as opponents but develop reluctant respect after witnessing each other’s capabilities.
• The rules of Metropolis: The city operates under unusual political and magical systems, including protected contracts, cautious residents, and harsh but negotiable consequences.
• Unexpected value: The chapter emphasizes that ordinary objects, people, and encounters may conceal extraordinary importance—reflected in the title and Liu Zheng’s discovery of the potentially significant farming tools.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng chooses the Bloodied Manure Fork from the Great Witch Wolwa’s supernatural gifts, despite its absurd appearance. The item deals poison damage, is especially effective against demon hunters, and becomes stronger when paired with feces-related items—potentially synergizing with Liu Zheng’s Three-Feces Power.
• Zhizi chooses dill seeds, while Yaksha takes a bottle of mysterious creature grease. Zhizi later gives Liu Zheng the seeds, which he plans to use for White-Feather Chicken and Guokou Tangzi.
• After leaving Wolwa’s house, the magical bone staircase disappears, forcing Liu Zheng to make an awkward midair landing. Yaksha accepts that his story is true but leaves, warning that she hopes his grand promises will come true.
• Liu Zheng and Zhizi discuss whether Yaksha should be killed. They decide against attacking her because magic-side powerhouses are dangerous to provoke unless they can be eliminated instantly.
• Zhizi reveals a much more threatening side of herself. Although one personality claims to like Liu Zheng because the Queen likes him, another personality reacts violently when Liu Zheng tries to touch her head. Liu Zheng realizes she may have dissociative identity disorder—or possibly a supernatural form of divided identity.
• During the carriage ride, the driver explains that Metropolis soldiers commonly suffer from soul-splitting, possession, and related mental problems. The military treats them with Cypress Airships, whose production involves Spice and causes severe long-term side effects.
• Liu Zheng contacts Nightingale during her party. She complains about her father and relatives, some of whom apparently want her dead. Liu Zheng promises to help her deal with them after returning from the Hundred Thousand Mountains, leading to playful joking about him proposing to her while walking through blood.
• Liu Zheng returns to the Restaurant and checks on Xiao Ma and Cow-Horse. Cow-Horse is furious because he was assigned a delivery to the Garbage Processing Plant.
• The order came from someone inside the plant who used a special treasure to contact the outside world and request a delivery partner for a game of Fight the Landlord. Cow-Horse found the request ridiculous, broke the customer’s hands, and burned the cards.
• Liu Zheng indirectly brings up Black Claw, who remains missing in the Garbage Processing Plant. Cow-Horse reacts defensively, suggesting that he searched for Black Claw but failed to find him—or may know more than he admits.
• Cow-Horse threatens Liu Zheng, but Liu Zheng placates him with money and shameless flattery. Their exchange ends in familiar comedic bickering.
• Nightingale later calls to say the party is over because the Sewer was too unpleasant for a proper gathering. Liu Zheng prepares to speak with Li Ziming.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Continues adapting to Metropolis by accepting bizarre supernatural tools and looking for ways to combine them with his existing abilities. He remains cautious around powerful enemies, pragmatic about survival, and increasingly protective of his friends. His shameless humor and ability to flatter others help him manage dangerous relationships.
• Zhizi: Displays a complex and unstable personality structure. One side is affectionate and loyal to Liu Zheng, while another is hostile, violent, and contemptuous. Her behavior confirms that she is far more dangerous and psychologically divided than Liu Zheng initially believed.
• Yaksha: Becomes somewhat more accepting of Liu Zheng after Wolwa confirms his claims, though she remains skeptical of his promises. She leaves without fighting him, suggesting a temporary truce rather than genuine trust.
• Cow-Horse: Shows frustration and embarrassment over his failed search for Black Claw, though he masks these feelings with aggression. His relationship with Liu Zheng remains antagonistic but familiar, with Liu Zheng treating his anger as part of their routine.
• Nightingale: Reveals vulnerability beneath her joking manner. She wants to return home but faces danger from her own family. Her teasing relationship with Liu Zheng also grows more openly intimate, even though both treat it humorously.
• Wolwa: Remains mysterious and influential. Her gifts are strange but powerful, and her hostility toward demon hunters hints at an undisclosed history.

Significant Themes

• Absurdity within supernatural danger: Ridiculous objects such as a manure fork or dill seeds can possess real strategic value in Metropolis.
• Survival and pragmatism: Liu Zheng repeatedly chooses caution over unnecessary conflict, recognizing that failing to kill a powerful enemy can create greater future danger.
• Mental instability in Metropolis: Psychological disorders, split identities, possession, and altered souls are treated as common consequences of life in the city, blurring the line between illness and supernatural transformation.
• The cost of survival: The discussion of Cypress Airships and Spice highlights how military and political systems accept serious future harm in exchange for immediate survival.
• Loyalty over neutrality: Liu Zheng is willing to help Nightingale against her relatives because she is his friend, even though he does not want to become involved in wealthy-family conflicts.
• Comedic companionship amid danger: Liu Zheng’s banter with Zhizi, Nightingale, and Cow-Horse provides humor while also showing how he builds relationships in an otherwise hostile environment.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Wolwa: A polite but wary exchange centered on the selection of the manure fork; Liu Zheng suspects the item reflects Wolwa’s personal grudge against demon hunters.
• Liu Zheng and Yaksha: They discuss the truth of his promises and whether to attack her. Their interaction establishes cautious respect but no genuine trust.
• Liu Zheng and Zhizi: Their relationship becomes more complicated when Zhizi threatens him for attempting friendly physical contact. The scene exposes the split between Zhizi’s affectionate and hostile identities.
• Liu Zheng and the driver: Their conversation explores Metropolis’s military practices, mental illness, and the destructive effects of Spice-based technology.
• Liu Zheng and Nightingale: They exchange reassurance and flirtatious jokes. Liu Zheng promises to help her confront her dangerous relatives, demonstrating his loyalty.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their insults, threats, and bribery reinforce their comedic boss-subordinate relationship while also hinting at Cow-Horse’s concern over Black Claw’s disappearance.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng speaks with Li Ziming, who reports that three students are harassing Ouma Mirai:
  1. A senior-like “big sister” in her class, jealous because the class heartthrob likes Ouma.
  2. The class heartthrob from the neighboring class, angry because Ouma does not return his feelings.
  3. The grade’s top student, resentful because Ouma consistently ranks first in mathematics.
• The harassment is worsened by Ouma and Hachijo’s lack of money, influence, and city household registration. Liu Zheng decides to intervene indirectly by having Li Ziming and his delinquent friends handle the students, with the goal of allowing Ouma to study peacefully for the college entrance exam.
• Liu Zheng plans to visit Du Kang Liquor Shop to fulfill several procurement requests for alcohol. Because the shop is connected to dreams and its time flow is unpredictable, he contacts White-Feather Chicken to clarify the risks.
• Liu Zheng trades the Great Witch’s magically infused dill seeds to White-Feather Chicken in exchange for assistance. He asks for Salmon to accompany him, but the request is denied. Instead, White-Feather Chicken agrees to provide him with high-quality fire and gives him a strange strip of kelp.
• The kelp is identified as A Melancholy Kelp, which becomes more delicious the sadder its eater is.
• White-Feather Chicken discovers that Cow-Horse is secretly injured and has gained considerable weight. It suspects the extra weight is due to Cow-Horse not having defecated.
• Learning that Cow-Horse visited the Garbage Processing Plant, White-Feather Chicken becomes excited because the creature’s damaged or rotten flesh may provide valuable ingredients. It forces Cow-Horse to return to the Kitchen for treatment, threatening it with disgusting staff meals if it refuses.
• Using Liu Zheng’s weapon, Anger, White-Feather Chicken cuts away the rotten flesh from Cow-Horse’s thigh. However, the Garbage Processing Plant’s influence causes Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse to experience bizarre visual distortions.
• White-Feather Chicken itself becomes affected: it accidentally removes its own head, shatters like glass, and is pulled into its chef’s hat. The hat then creates a powerful suction force that nearly drags Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse inside before abruptly throwing them away.
• The chapter ends with the lounge restored, White-Feather Chicken missing, and Cow-Horse deciding that, since matters have become so strange, it should sit on the chef’s hat and defecate first.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng takes on a more managerial and leadership-oriented role. Rather than personally solving Ouma’s problems, he delegates the task to Li Ziming and his friends. He also demonstrates caution by investigating the time difference at Du Kang Liquor Shop before making his trip.
• Li Ziming proves useful as an informant and eagerly accepts Liu Zheng’s assignment. His immature, long-winded personality remains evident, especially in the jokes about his poor essay-writing skills.
• Ouma Mirai is established as talented but socially vulnerable. Her mathematical ability makes her a target of jealousy, while her lack of wealth and connections leaves her defenseless against influential classmates.
• White-Feather Chicken is shown to be both generous and terrifying. It rewards Liu Zheng with items and assistance, but it also treats injured creatures as ingredients and uses ruthless threats to get its way. Its enthusiasm for strange food and unusual materials is reinforced.
• Cow-Horse is revealed to be injured and insecure about its condition. Despite its usual bluster, it is intimidated by White-Feather Chicken and reluctantly submits to treatment. Its final decision to defecate on the chef’s hat emphasizes its crude but comedic personality.
• Liu Zheng’s relationship with Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken becomes more familiar and antagonistically playful, with Liu Zheng flattering both while trying to avoid becoming caught between them.

3. Significant Themes

• Power, privilege, and social exclusion: Ouma’s problems are driven less by actual wrongdoing than by class hierarchy, romantic jealousy, academic rivalry, and the importance of money and connections.
• Leadership through delegation: Liu Zheng begins acting like a leader by organizing others to protect Ouma rather than handling every problem himself.
• The grotesque and the comedic: Injuries, severed body parts, rotten flesh, bodily functions, and bizarre transformations are presented through absurd humor, creating a darkly comic tone.
• Food and identity: White-Feather Chicken views nearly everything—including injury and flesh—as culinary material, blurring the line between healing, violence, and cooking.
• Unstable reality: The effects of the Garbage Processing Plant distort perception and physical form, suggesting that locations and objects in this world can undermine ordinary rules of reality.
• Risk versus efficiency: Liu Zheng constantly weighs the benefits of using delivery time, procurement time, magical assistance, and valuable items against the danger of losing control of the situation.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Li Ziming discuss Ouma’s persecutors, with Liu Zheng directing Li Ziming’s group to intervene.
• Liu Zheng and White-Feather Chicken negotiate over dill seeds, Salmon’s assistance, fire, and the melancholy kelp. Their exchange shows Liu Zheng’s resourcefulness and White-Feather Chicken’s transactional generosity.
• White-Feather Chicken and Cow-Horse engage in a hostile but familiar rivalry. White-Feather Chicken mocks Cow-Horse’s injury and weight, while Cow-Horse alternates between defiance, fear, and flattery.
• Liu Zheng attempts to mediate between them, praising White-Feather Chicken while trying not to offend Cow-Horse.
• White-Feather Chicken treats Cow-Horse’s injury, but the procedure becomes a surreal disaster when the Garbage Processing Plant’s influence triggers hallucinations and physical fragmentation.
• The chapter concludes with Cow-Horse alone with the chef’s hat, responding to the crisis in the only way it can think of: by preparing to relieve itself.

Chapter Summary: “Liu Zheng: Ran into an Ancestor While Going Out”

Key Plot Points and Events

• White-Feather Chicken leaves the break room after cutting off Liu Zheng’s tentacles and kelp-like appendages, which it takes as cooking ingredients. Cow-Horse mocks the injured chef, though it quickly backs down when threatened.
• Liu Zheng checks on Cow-Horse, whose injury was caused during their previous ordeal. Their argument reveals their familiar, bickering relationship, with Cow-Horse pretending its wound is insignificant while demanding compensation.
• Liu Zheng initially plans to spend three hours buying alcohol, but Cow-Horse warns him that Du Kang Liquor Shop accepts pleasant dreams or nightmares as payment. Using nightmares can leave customers mentally damaged, so Cow-Horse advises him to rely on the Legendary Disguise.
• Liu Zheng reviews his three major objectives:
  1. Destroy Mount Oe in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
  2. Obtain the Shuffled Dice, buy lottery tickets, destroy the lottery shop, and kill its owner.
  3. Rob the Cemetery and locate the Nine-Dragon Coffin.
     These tasks are connected because the rewards from destroying Mount Oe and exploiting the lottery are meant to improve his chances of surviving the Cemetery.
• Ghost Hand arrives after Cow-Horse contacts the owner. Liu Zheng receives a delivery order for braised Peacock flesh from Si Xue, who personally orders the meal for her own private matter.
• He rents a sports car and travels to Yunmeng Road to find Du Kang Liquor Shop. The shop is disguised as a bunker or burial mound, with its sign hidden behind a tombstone.
• After misunderstanding the entrance, Liu Zheng calls White-Feather Chicken, who explains that the tombstone itself is the door. Liu Zheng then successfully summons a receptionist, Feng Jizi.
• Feng explains that the Restaurant’s standard order requires no additional dreams, but Liu Zheng’s extensive personal order includes rare and valuable alcohols. Feng warns that such wines may consume the liquor shop’s foundations and therefore require an extremely high price.
• Liu Zheng insists on paying with nightmares despite the danger. Feng warns that even with the Legendary Disguise, escaping unharmed will be extremely difficult.
• Feng reveals that he and Liu Zheng are “fellow countrymen” because they share the same bloodline. He then indicates that he lived during the era when Ji Fa, the Marquis of the West, prepared to rebel against Di Xin. Liu Zheng realizes that Feng is not merely an acquaintance but an ancient ancestor.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains reckless but increasingly strategic. He connects his various missions into a larger plan and accepts severe risks—including sacrificing nightmares—to obtain the resources he needs.
• Cow-Horse continues to act as a foul-mouthed but caring companion. Its concern for Liu Zheng’s safety is disguised beneath complaints about work and medical expenses.
• White-Feather Chicken is shown as intimidating, violent, and practical. It treats Liu Zheng’s body as ingredients but also provides useful guidance about the liquor shop.
• Feng Jizi appears courteous, perceptive, and unusually candid. His ability to identify Liu Zheng’s troubled fate and shared bloodline introduces him as a powerful, ancient figure.
• Liu Zheng and Feng Jizi shift from a formal business interaction to a startling familial revelation, leaving Liu Zheng wary and shocked.

Significant Themes

• Risk and survival: Liu Zheng treats injury and danger as routine, accepting that every mission will likely cost him physically or mentally.
• Resource management: Dreams, nightmares, luck, and rare items function as currencies and strategic resources. Liu Zheng must calculate which sacrifices will best support his long-term objectives.
• Hidden identities and ancient connections: The Metropolis conceals people’s origins, yet loopholes in its rules allow bloodlines and past identities to resurface.
• Humor amid danger: Threats, injuries, and supernatural horror are consistently undercut by sarcastic banter and absurd misunderstandings.
• Fate versus determination: Feng describes Liu Zheng as someone with a troubled fate, but Liu Zheng’s willingness to continue risking himself shows his determination to resist that fate.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse exchange hostile jokes and complaints, but their conversation demonstrates mutual dependence and concern.
• Liu Zheng relies on White-Feather Chicken for practical information despite fearing its violent temper.
• Liu Zheng interacts politely with Feng Jizi, though he becomes increasingly suspicious of Feng’s excessive kindness.
• Their final exchange transforms the meeting: Feng’s historical identity and shared bloodline make the liquor purchase unexpectedly personal and suggest that Liu Zheng’s ancestry may be significant to the larger story.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng establishes that, despite sharing bloodline ties with Feng Jizi, they are not directly related as ancestor and descendant. They agree to address each other respectfully as “Senior Feng” and “Young Friend Liu.”
• Liu enters Feng Jizi’s nightmare trial, using nightmares as payment for obtaining wine. The experience becomes far more dangerous than expected:
  • His consciousness sinks into an ocean of subconsciousness.
  • Nightmare manifestations resembling distorted versions of himself attempt to consume him.
  • One takes the form of a monstrous mother, symbolizing nourishment being reclaimed.
  • Liu resists with flames generated from his own identity and rage, nearly choosing self-destruction rather than allowing the nightmares to feed on him.
• A gigantic entity, the Goddess of Dark Fecundity—also associated with the Supreme Mother Goddess and the Black Goat—emerges from the subconscious sea. Its black milk temporarily induces overwhelming feelings of peace, motherhood, and worship.
• Before the entity’s name can be fully invoked, Feng Jizi intervenes with his Bamboo Wine Ladle, scooping up both Liu and the nightmare manifestations and rescuing him.
• Liu wakes in Feng Jizi’s bamboo grove with severe mental trauma. His sanity defenses prevent most of the damage, but his mental attribute permanently decreases by five points and temporarily decreases by ten.
• Feng explains that Liu’s nightmare payment has only partially succeeded. The remaining nightmare contamination has spread into the Bamboo Wine Ladle, threatening to ruin both the brewed wine and a previously collected sweet dream.
• Because Liu needs to return quickly, he proposes taking the contaminated ladle to an expert capable of dealing with supernatural corruption. Feng initially hesitates but agrees to seek permission from the workshop master.
• While waiting, Liu sleeps deeply without dreaming. Feng returns and informs him that the workshop master has approved the request.
• Feng gives Liu the Bamboo Wine Ladle and a Mind-Clearing Pill. The pill removes Liu’s temporary mental trauma effects, allowing him to travel safely.
• Liu departs to visit the mysterious expert, promising not to cause Feng further trouble.

Character Developments

Liu Zheng

Liu displays independence and emotional complexity when he refuses to exploit his bloodline connection to Feng Jizi. During the nightmare trial, his intense survival instinct and refusal to be consumed—even by his own subconscious—become clear. He remains irreverent and shameless in conversation, using flattery, bargaining, and humor to get help, but he also shows consideration by offering valuable items as collateral and worrying about delaying Feng’s business.

Feng Jizi

Feng acts as a protective elder figure despite their formal lack of direct descent. He is honest about the dangers of the nightmare trial, regrets allowing Liu to undergo it, and intervenes to save him. Though frustrated by the damage Liu causes to the brewery’s resources, Feng ultimately advocates for him and provides medicine to restore his condition.

The Goddess of Dark Fecundity

The entity is revealed as a terrifying primordial maternal force. It represents both origin and destination, offering comfort and nourishment while simultaneously consuming and reclaiming its offspring. Its presence hints at a larger supernatural or religious threat connected to Liu’s nightmares.

Significant Themes

• Motherhood as both nurture and consumption: The monstrous mother figure twists the idea of maternal care into predation, suggesting that origins can also become forces that reclaim or devour their creations.
• Identity and self-preservation: Liu’s flames represent his individual will. His resistance reflects his refusal to let bloodline, dreams, gods, or subconscious impulses define or consume him.
• The danger of dreams and the subconscious: Dreams are shown not as harmless illusions but as fundamental realms where consciousness is vulnerable and reality can be reshaped.
• Exile and shared origins: Feng and Liu bond over being people separated from their respective homelands. Their relationship reflects mutual sympathy between displaced individuals.
• Cultural continuity and historical perspective: Feng’s references to ancient China and his survival across eras emphasize the persistence of civilization, tradition, and memory despite historical change.
• Bargaining and mutual obligation: The chapter repeatedly frames relationships through exchange—nightmares for wine, collateral for trust, and favors for protection—while also showing how personal goodwill complicates formal transactions.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Feng negotiate how to address one another, balancing shared ancestry with social equality.
• Feng questions Liu’s decision to use nightmares as payment, while Liu insists that his work remains serious despite being a side occupation.
• After the nightmare ordeal, Feng comforts Liu and explains the consequences of the failed payment. Liu responds with humor and attempts to negotiate a solution.
• Liu persuades Feng to consult an outside expert by flattering him and offering valuable items as collateral.
• Feng lectures Liu about perseverance, prompting Liu to mock the historical mismatch in Feng’s quotation.
• Their exchanges reveal a relationship built on teasing, suspicion, reluctant trust, and growing mutual concern.
• Feng ultimately acts as Liu’s benefactor, securing permission for his request and giving him the Mind-Clearing Pill before sending him onward.

Chapter Summary: “Meng Po Distillery”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jizi transports Liu Zheng from Du Kang Liquor Shop back to Rose Street, apparently using his sleeve as a shortcut through space. Although Liu Zheng expects to have been gone for much longer, only ten minutes have passed.
• French Plane Tree immediately demands the liquor Liu Zheng promised to obtain. Liu explains that he has not purchased it yet and heads into the sewer to retrieve the Bamboo Wine Ladle.
• In the sewer, Liu finds Fisherman cleaning up after the recent party. Fisherman worries about whether Sea Woman would have enjoyed the gathering, leading Liu to advise him to repair his relationship with his daughter and set aside his pride.
• Liu visits Red Ghost and discovers that Tonya and the other children are asleep after becoming more energetic from drinking the Hell Honey Yogurt Liu brought them. He returns Red Ghost’s newly tailored coat and asks for help with the Bamboo Wine Ladle.
• Red Ghost explains that Du Kang Liquor Shop’s treatment has drawn more of the hidden power from the object—and from Liu’s essence—back out of him. This reduces Liu’s progression toward complete transformation, but also weakens the supernatural abilities he gained from that power.
• Liu tests the change and confirms that his regeneration has slowed by roughly one-third. After considering the risks, he still chooses to have Red Ghost remove the corrupting influence, since retaining the power could eventually turn him into a true follower of the Black Goat.
• Red Ghost uses a hammer, sickle, and blue flame to refine the Bamboo Wine Ladle. The black liquid inside becomes a translucent, mist-like substance, indicating that the impurities have been removed.
• Red Ghost gives Liu a book bearing the image of Hitler, suggesting that Liu trade it to the remnants of the Third Reich for something useful. Red Ghost also requests that Liu purchase strong liquor for spirits.
• Liu returns to Du Kang Liquor Shop and presents the refined Bamboo Wine Ladle to Feng Jizi. Feng confirms that the impurities have been removed, though some valuable Wine Essence was lost during the harsh purification.
• Because Liu supplied high-quality Wine Essence, Feng obtains him a special discount: the first liquor he buys from whichever factory district he enters will cost only ten percent of its normal price.
• Liu chooses the nearest wine jar rather than trying to rely on luck and is transported to Meng Po Distillery, one of Du Kang Liquor Shop’s ten great distilleries. It specializes in brewing alcohol for spirits, making it particularly suitable for Red Ghost, Gravekeeper, and Red Pig.
• Feng leads Liu through the distillery’s various facilities and into its administrative building.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues acting as a mediator and problem-solver among the supernatural beings around him. He gives Fisherman perceptive advice about Sea Woman and demonstrates increasing willingness to make painful sacrifices for his long-term survival.
• Liu shows pragmatic judgment by accepting the loss of some regenerative power in exchange for reducing his risk of irreversible transformation. He values safety and future options over immediate strength.
• His relationship with Red Ghost becomes more cooperative and trusting. Red Ghost assists him with the Bamboo Wine Ladle, gives him a valuable book, and openly discusses purchasing alcohol for spirits.
• Fisherman is revealed to be troubled by his strained relationship with Sea Woman. Though defensive and easily angered, he listens to Liu’s advice and refrains from striking him, suggesting that Liu’s words affect him.
• Red Ghost displays greater warmth and humor. Its care for the sleeping children and willingness to help Liu show that it is not merely an intimidating supernatural entity but also a responsible caretaker and ally.
• Tonya and the other children have become livelier and more active after drinking Hell Honey Yogurt, though the increased energy now causes them to need naps.
• Feng Jizi treats Liu with growing respect. He praises Liu’s open-minded attitude and rewards his contribution to the liquor shop with a substantial discount.

Significant Themes

• Family, dependence, and reconciliation: Liu argues that Sea Woman’s relationships matter more than the form of a celebration and urges Fisherman to repair his bond with her. The chapter emphasizes that people need dependable companionship, regardless of gender or social expectations.
• Sacrifice and long-term survival: Liu willingly gives up part of his strength and regenerative ability to reduce the danger of becoming a servant of an evil god. The chapter presents survival as a matter of balancing immediate power against future freedom.
• Mutual aid and exchange: Liu’s relationships are built on reciprocal favors. He helps Fisherman, Red Ghost, and others while receiving protection, information, and access to supernatural resources in return.
• Transformation and corruption: The Bamboo Wine Ladle symbolizes the dangerous powers attached to Liu. Purifying it also weakens him, showing that supernatural strength is inseparable from the risk of losing one’s identity.
• Humor amid horror: Dark subjects such as cults, evil gods, bodily mutation, and spiritual corruption are repeatedly undercut by sarcasm, teasing, and absurd situations, especially in Liu’s interactions with Fisherman, French Plane Tree, and Red Ghost.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree: Their exchange is comic and antagonistic. French Plane Tree impatiently demands liquor, while Liu mocks its arrogance and secretly resents being ordered around.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Liu teases Fisherman about Sea Woman’s relationships but ultimately gives sincere advice about fatherhood, pride, and reconciliation. Fisherman responds angrily but appears unable to refute him.
• Liu Zheng and Red Ghost: Their interaction is practical and increasingly friendly. Liu returns Red Ghost’s coat, asks for help purifying the ladle, and discusses buying strong liquor. Red Ghost both criticizes Liu’s recklessness and supports him.
• Liu Zheng and Feng Jizi: Feng acts as a guide and intermediary into Du Kang Liquor Shop. He admires Liu’s attitude, rewards him with a discount, and introduces him to Meng Po Distillery.
• Liu Zheng and the children: Liu is amused by Tonya’s sleep and casually fixes the piece of flesh he accidentally removes from her nose, reflecting his growing familiarity with the children and their unusual nature.

Chapter Summary: “Divine-Grade Fine Wine, Epic Item!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits the administrative building of Du Kang Liquor Shop, whose bleak, old-fashioned décor resembles a mid-twentieth-century state factory.
• Feng Jizi welcomes him and serves homemade Feng Hou Bamboo Leaf Tea. Liu Zheng’s appraisal ability reveals that the tea grants increased movement speed and resistance to wind damage for 24 hours.
• Feng Jizi explains the tea’s connection to his ancestor Feng Hou and establishes that he and Liu Zheng may share a distant Huaxia ancestry. Their status as rare fellow townsmen creates an immediate bond.
• They discuss Liu Zheng’s business at the liquor shop. Liu asks Feng Jizi to identify wines from Meng Po Distillery, intending to exploit the shop’s ten-percent discount.
• Liu discovers Eight-Hot Hell Yellow Broth, a divine-grade liquor that forces the drinker through the Eight-Hot Hells for five hundred days. Surviving grants Arhat Attainment, equivalent to a Daoist Heavenly Immortal, while also freeing the drinker from many Buddhist Order restrictions.
• Although Liu recognizes its immense value, he lacks the ten million required even after the discount. He considers borrowing from the Sewer, with which he has a strong relationship.
• Feng Jizi explains that the liquor shop’s Sewer is isolated, but Liu boasts of his connections throughout Metropolis, including City Hall, the Cemetery, the Restaurant, the Black Market, and Bathhouse Street.
• The two exchange increasingly playful compliments. Liu humorously argues that Feng Jizi surpasses Confucius in three ways, causing both men to laugh.
• Feng Jizi admits that much of his memory surrounding his arrival in Metropolis has been erased, possibly through coercion or manipulation. He chooses not to dwell on it and instead focuses on cultivating in Metropolis.
• Learning that Liu wants the hell liquor for someone else and may be reimbursed, Feng Jizi offers a ten-million loan in exchange for collateral. Liu agrees and purchases the item.
• Once materialized, the liquor is revealed to be an Epic-grade, single-use item, even higher than Liu expected. It cannot be removed from the instance, but could still be exchanged for enormous resources.
• Liu then finds Three-Life Yellow Broth, a premium liquor that allows spirit bodies to relive three lifetimes in dreams and heal soul injuries. Its much lower price highlights the enormous gap between premium and divine-grade products.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates his practical, opportunistic nature by seeking the most valuable discounted item and looking for ways to finance it. However, he is not reckless: he understands that he cannot personally endure the Eight-Hot Hell and intends to use the item for someone else.
• His appraisal ability proves useful, though unreliable, and reveals the true quality and effects of rare items.
• Liu’s extensive network throughout Metropolis becomes clearer. His connections are portrayed as valuable but also burdensome, since each relationship carries risks and obligations.
• Feng Jizi is shown to be generous, knowledgeable, powerful, and deeply nostalgic. His willingness to lend Liu ten million demonstrates trust based partly on their shared cultural background.
• Feng also reveals vulnerability: his memories of arriving in Metropolis were erased, leaving him uncertain about whether he was forced or deceived into coming.
• Their relationship develops from a formal meeting between strangers into a warm, joking friendship grounded in their shared origins.

Significant Themes

• The value of shared identity: Because fellow Huaxia natives are rare in Metropolis, Liu and Feng quickly form a connection stronger than ordinary family ties.
• Pragmatism and opportunity: Liu evaluates even an apparently terrifying hell-based item according to its price, utility, and possible trade value.
• Freedom versus institutional control: Eight-Hot Hell Yellow Broth is valuable not only because it can grant Arhat Attainment, but because it allows the drinker to bypass the Buddhist Order’s normal rules and obligations.
• Memory and displacement: Feng’s erased memories reflect the alienating and dangerous nature of Metropolis, where people from different worlds may be manipulated or stripped of their pasts.
• Humor as companionship: Liu and Feng use jokes, classical references, and mutual flattery to ease the loneliness and seriousness of life in Metropolis.
• The cost of advancement: The liquor offers extraordinary power, but only through unimaginable suffering, emphasizing that shortcuts to immortality still demand an extreme price.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Feng begin with a conversation about tea and alcohol, using quotations about drinking and sorrow to establish their contrasting personalities: Feng is traditional and philosophical, while Liu is skeptical and sharp-tongued.
• Feng explains the historical background of Feng Hou Bamboo, and Liu jokingly infers that they may be fellow descendants.
• Their mutual flattery escalates into comic banter, culminating in Liu’s claim that Feng has three advantages over Confucius. Feng recognizes the teasing but enjoys it.
• Feng refuses to discuss the circumstances of his arrival in Metropolis, and Liu respects the change of subject.
• Their final transaction reinforces their developing trust: Feng lends Liu the money based on collateral and their relationship, while Liu promises to repay him later.

Chapter Summary: “Money Really Doesn’t Last”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng learns more about Du Kang Liquor Shop’s wine hierarchy: ordinary, fine, premium, supreme, and divine. The price gap between grades is enormous, especially between supreme and divine wines.
• Feng Jizi explains that divine-grade purchases require divine-grade dreams or nightmares, and Liu Zheng has already used his authorization. He still has permission to buy three supreme-grade bottles and up to one hundred million in lower-grade goods.
• Liu Zheng spends 5.5 million on three bottles requested by others:
  • Vlad III Limited Edition Vampire Girl
  • Three Generations Yellow Broth Red Pig
  • Light Wine for the Gravekeeper
• He asks Feng Jizi to select additional goods for French Plane Tree and Rust, giving him a budget of 1.5 million.
• Feng Jizi then asks Liu Zheng to act as a proxy shopper for several employees. He gives Liu Zheng a notebook containing several hundred requested items and a bank card with one million. Liu may keep any remaining money, provided he successfully purchases more than half the list.
• Liu Zheng checks and stores the liquor shipment for Restaurant using his system storage, confirming that the inventory is complete.
• Before leaving, Liu Zheng asks about Feng Jizi’s sleeve technique, “Heaven and Earth in the Sleeve.” He learns that mastering it would require cultivation and at least five hundred years to achieve minor success, so he immediately abandons the idea.
• Feng Jizi suggests that Liu Zheng’s strong baleful energy makes the Killing Dao suitable for him, but Liu still lacks an appropriate cultivation method or weapon.
• Feng Jizi sends Liu Zheng back to the street through his sleeve technique.
• Liu Zheng travels to the Sa Duyou Trading Company to retrieve his perfect-quality goods and begin purchasing supplies.
• Hui San receives him with much greater courtesy than before and brings him to his well-kept office, where they drink unusual Algae Tea.
• Liu Zheng presents the extensive shopping list. Hui San offers three purchasing plans:
  • Under 300,000 with merely acceptable quality
  • Around 1.1 million with excellent value and quality
  • Under 700,000 with above-average quality
    The chapter ends as Liu considers the options.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows himself to be practical, resourceful, and increasingly well connected. He carefully manages his money, refusing to spend everything because he wants emergency reserves.
• He also demonstrates business sense by checking inventories personally and distinguishing between fair procurement and potential waste or corruption.
• His shamelessness and opportunism remain evident when he immediately asks to learn Feng Jizi’s sleeve technique, though he quickly gives up after hearing the time required.
• Liu’s reputation continues to grow. Feng Jizi trusts him enough to handle personal purchases, while Hui San treats him with increased respect after Liu’s previous dealings and connection to Yuan Bao’er.
• Feng Jizi becomes more relaxed and familiar with Liu, shifting from formal assistance to friendly banter. He is frustrated by his workplace’s incompetent centralized procurement and sees Liu as a trustworthy solution.
• Feng also takes on a mentor-like role, giving Liu advice about cultivation and recognizing his potential in the Killing Dao.
• Hui San behaves more cautiously and transparently than before. He offers Liu several clear pricing and quality options, avoiding the possibility of another misunderstanding.

Significant Themes

• Money is quickly exhausted: Liu’s large expenditures emphasize the extraordinary prices and economic pressures of Metropolis. Even millions are insufficient for higher-grade goods.
• Trust and reputation: Liu’s honesty, connections, and willingness to provide collateral allow him to serve as an intermediary between people who normally distrust one another.
• Bureaucratic incompetence versus personal efficiency: Feng Jizi’s complaint about receiving a Gomoku board instead of a Go board highlights how centralized systems can be wasteful, rigid, and unreliable.
• Cultivation and individual suitability: Feng explains that cultivation methods differ widely and must match a person’s nature. Liu cannot simply follow any available path, despite his apparent aptitude.
• Practicality over ambition: Liu repeatedly chooses useful, attainable goals over flashy or unrealistic ones, abandoning the sleeve technique when he learns it would take centuries to master.
• Business and negotiation: The interaction with Hui San presents commerce as a matter of balancing price, quality, trust, and convenience.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Feng Jizi: Their relationship becomes increasingly friendly and informal. Liu jokes with Feng, comforts him over workplace frustrations, accepts his proxy-shopping request, and receives cultivation advice in return.
• Liu Zheng and Feng’s colleagues: Although they remain off-page, their request establishes Liu as a trusted purchasing agent for people connected to Du Kang Liquor Shop.
• Liu Zheng and Hui San: Their relationship improves significantly. Hui San now treats Liu as a valued customer and business associate, offering transparent pricing rather than trying to exploit him.
• Liu Zheng and the trading-company clerk: The clerk’s hurried report and Hui San’s immediate reception show that Liu has gained status and recognition within the company.
• Feng Jizi and the procurement system: Feng’s anger at receiving the wrong board illustrates his frustration with colleagues and bureaucracy, while Liu positions himself as the reliable alternative.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng chooses the second procurement option from Hui San: supplies worth 1.6 million rather than cash or a smaller package. Hui San agrees to deliver them and allows Liu Zheng to convert Feng Jizi’s one-million-yuan procurement funds into cash, leaving Liu Zheng with a profit and no personal expense.
• Liu Zheng contacts Nightingale outside the Board-Game Hall to deliver gifts:
  • A rare Vlad III wine for Emile, intended to restore her strength.
  • Silver Label red and fruit wines for Nightingale and Sea Woman.
• Nightingale asks when Liu Zheng will help her deal with her siblings and accompany Sea Woman to the dangerous Garbage Processing Plant to search for her mother. Liu Zheng postpones both missions, prioritizing the Hundred Thousand Mountains and the need to improve his strength and resolve Sha-chan’s wanted status.
• Liu Zheng visits the Cemetery and gives Gravekeeper the Light Wine, along with three bottles for Thin Horse. Gravekeeper silently gives him a “Dud Bullet” infused with his aura.
• The bullet protects Liu Zheng from the Cemetery’s dangers, though stepping on Thin Horse’s charred hoofprint burns his hoof and leaves flame-like markings.
• Liu Zheng confronts Red Pig at his grave and uses information about Red Pig’s missing wife, Chihaya, to gain his attention.
• He explains that Chihaya exists within the dream of another woman’s soul, preserved in a Porcelain Pillow. To reunite with Chihaya, the host must drink Three-Life Yellow Broth and remain unconscious for forty-nine days, allowing Chihaya to emerge without disappearing when the host awakens.
• Liu Zheng gives Red Pig the Porcelain Pillow and the Grudge Fish. Red Pig reveals that absorbing the fish could help him evolve to the next stage of a spirit body.
• Red Pig admits he cannot normally leave the Cemetery because his spirit body depends on its power, but he suddenly returns to his tomb chamber after considering the Grudge Fish, suggesting he may have discovered a possible solution.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to show himself as opportunistic, resourceful, and financially pragmatic. He accepts Hui San’s generosity while cleverly turning procurement funds into personal cash.
• He also demonstrates growing concern for his allies. He buys gifts for Nightingale, Sea Woman, Emile, Gravekeeper, and Thin Horse, and plans future missions to help Nightingale and Sea Woman.
• Liu Zheng’s humor remains provocative and flirtatious, especially in his exchanges with Nightingale, but he also reveals emotional loneliness when he says he has no home in either reality or Metropolis.
• Nightingale briefly drops her teasing attitude after hearing Liu Zheng’s loneliness, showing genuine sympathy. She remains playful and demanding, particularly about gifts and Liu Zheng’s promises to help her family.
• Gravekeeper remains cryptic and powerful. His gift of the aura-tainted bullet appears to be a deliberate form of assistance, though its purpose is not explained.
• Red Pig shifts from anger and suspicion to emotional vulnerability when Chihaya is mentioned. His devotion to his wife is overwhelming, and he accepts Liu Zheng’s plan despite initially rejecting the Three-Life Yellow Broth.
• Red Pig also begins accepting Liu Zheng’s leadership, agreeing to revive the Animal Farm band in a changed form.

Significant Themes

• Change and impermanence: The discussion about reforming Animal Farm emphasizes that the past cannot be perfectly restored, but recreating something similar is better than abandoning it entirely.
• Loyalty and reunion: Red Pig’s desperate attachment to Chihaya drives the chapter’s emotional core, while Liu Zheng repeatedly works to support his companions’ personal goals.
• Pragmatism versus sentiment: Liu Zheng balances profit, danger, and personal relationships, using clever bargains and leverage while still showing sincere concern for others.
• Transformation and evolution: The Grudge Fish may allow Red Pig to evolve spiritually, while the chapter also hints at broader changes in identities, bodies, and relationships.
• Loneliness and found family: Liu Zheng’s lack of a home contrasts with his growing network of companions. Animal Farm’s possible revival further reflects the creation of a new family from damaged or displaced individuals.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Hui San: Their negotiation is friendly and mutually beneficial. Hui San respects Liu Zheng’s candid, mercenary nature and offers both logistical support and financial flexibility.
• Liu Zheng and Nightingale: Their interaction is dominated by teasing, mock insults, flirtation, and an underlying trust. Nightingale pressures him about future commitments, while Liu Zheng reassures her that he intends to help.
• Liu Zheng and Gravekeeper: Their relationship is quiet and transactional but respectful. Liu Zheng provides wine, and Gravekeeper responds with the mysterious Dud Bullet.
• Liu Zheng and Thin Horse: Thin Horse reacts affectionately to Liu Zheng’s gifts, reinforcing their bond. Its burned hoofprint becomes an unexpected source of danger and symbolic power.
• Liu Zheng and Red Pig: Liu Zheng deliberately provokes Red Pig but ultimately helps him with the most important issue in his existence. Their exchange mixes manipulation, emotional support, and the beginnings of a cooperative partnership.
• Red Pig and Chihaya: Although Chihaya is absent, Red Pig’s reaction to the Porcelain Pillow reveals the depth of his love and grief. The possibility of reunion gives him renewed purpose and may lead to his escape from the Cemetery.

Chapter Summary: My Young Friend, This Old Man Is About to Show Off

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng leaves the Cemetery after helping Red Pig recover Chihaya. Red Pig gives him its old flight jacket, which contains a quarter-strength split soul that will obey his commands and guard against minor thieves.
• The split soul can temporarily become stronger than Red Pig if fed a special fish, though it will collapse afterward. Red Pig also worries about what will happen when Chihaya’s host awakens after forty-nine days; Liu Zheng confidently promises to find a solution.
• In Rose Street, Liu Zheng gives French Plane Tree its requested liquor. In return, the tree gives him the Perfect-quality Spirit Realm Coin Pouch, which contains thirty-two coins. The pouch can summon Spirit Realm creatures, but each coin consumed requires Liu Zheng to sacrifice some of his own “flesh.”
• Niu Daji calls Liu Zheng after recovering from its injuries. Liu Zheng orders it to meet him at Du Kang Liquor Shop and help inspect a large shipment.
• A Hui Family trading company delivers the goods using strange, powerful rat-like descendants of the family as laborers. The clerk explains that these creatures are either born defective or warped by cultivation, but are still cared for because they are family.
• Niu Daji arrives and enthusiastically helps Liu Zheng check the shipment, becoming even more devoted after Liu Zheng previously helped it impress its family.
• Liu Zheng brings the goods to Feng Jizi at the liquor shop. Feng Jizi stores the entire shipment inside his sleeves using powerful suction and later returns Liu Zheng’s purchased items.
• Impressed by the unusually high quality and quantity of the supplies, Feng Jizi realizes Liu Zheng went to great lengths to help the distillery. He agrees to preserve Liu Zheng’s remaining procurement allowance for a future purchase.
• As thanks, Feng Jizi gives Liu Zheng a Perfect-quality Wine Worm King, a single-use item that can enhance alcohol or potentially steal one of an alcohol-addicted target’s abilities.
• Liu Zheng is excited because this is the first item he has obtained that can directly increase his own power, but he is left wondering whom to use it on.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to build influence through generosity, resourcefulness, and confidence. He gains useful items and strengthens his relationships with powerful residents while remaining focused on solving Chihaya’s forty-nine-day crisis.
• Red Pig becomes more trusting and emotionally open. Its reunion with Chihaya brings renewed happiness, and giving Liu Zheng the flight jacket shows its willingness to entrust him with part of its own strength.
• Niu Daji grows more loyal to Liu Zheng after being treated with respect and allowed to gain status in front of its family. It eagerly accepts Liu Zheng’s authority and responsibilities.
• French Plane Tree displays a more generous side by returning the Spirit Realm Coin Pouch, though it still maintains its arrogant, insulting manner.
• Feng Jizi recognizes Liu Zheng’s sincerity and effort. Their relationship shifts from a simple business arrangement toward mutual appreciation and trust.

Significant Themes

• Reciprocity and gratitude: Liu Zheng repays Feng Jizi’s past kindness by procuring superior supplies, while Feng Jizi responds with a valuable gift.
• Trust and loyalty: Red Pig entrusts Liu Zheng with a piece of its spirit, and Niu Daji’s devotion deepens through their partnership.
• Family and responsibility: The Hui Family continues caring for its malformed descendants despite their reduced intelligence and unattractive appearances.
• Power gained through relationships: Liu Zheng’s alliances provide him with items, helpers, and opportunities that would be difficult to obtain alone.
• Potential cost of power: Both the Spirit Realm Coin Pouch and Wine Worm King offer powerful advantages, but each carries limitations, risks, or uncertain consequences.

Character Interactions

• Red Pig and Liu Zheng discuss the flight jacket, the split soul, and Chihaya’s future.
• Liu Zheng banters with the arrogant French Plane Tree before receiving the coin pouch.
• Liu Zheng and Niu Daji interact as boss and subordinate, with Daji showing growing admiration and loyalty.
• Liu Zheng works with the Hui Family clerk and its unusual laborers to receive and verify the shipment.
• Liu Zheng and Feng Jizi exchange respectful, affectionate dialogue about repayment, procurement, and future cooperation.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng contemplating the best target for the Wine Worm King’s ability-stealing effect.

Summary of “Money Came In Fast”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng considers who might be suitable to consume the Wine Worm King and then excrete it, allowing him to obtain useful abilities without directly using the item himself.
• He rejects the male candidates for emotional reasons and considers French Plane Tree and Si Xue, but worries about their incompatible bodies or the difficulty of persuading them.
• He ultimately chooses Ghost Hand as the ideal candidate because of its alcohol craving, resilience, genderless form, and likely compatibility with his own abilities. However, Ghost Hand only appears when a new order arrives, so Liu Zheng decides to wait.
• Liu Zheng brings Niu Daji to Healing Bee for treatment of his addiction using the Blood of the Erakos Sandworm and Healing Bee’s methods. He warns Daji that he cannot continue working for him if he refuses treatment.
• Daji readily agrees and asks that Bathhouse Street protect his family while they enjoy themselves at the Bathhouse. Liu Zheng accepts the request and threatens, implicitly, to use force if necessary.
• At Healing Bee Pharmacy, Liu Zheng firmly warns Healing Bee not to treat Daji as a disposable test subject and threatens Healing Bee’s life if Daji is harmed.
• Liu then visits Rose Street, where French Plane Tree is dangerously drunk and dancing while Ginseng Baby struggles to avoid being injured.
• In the Sewer, Liu Zheng tries to sell or exchange the Eight-Hot Hell Yellow Broth to Fisherman. Fisherman initially dislikes the idea of becoming indebted to Liu, especially because he suspects Liu might use the favor to gain approval for dating Sea Woman.
• Fisherman pays Liu with a mysterious jade-like river clam, supposedly worth eighty million, and gold bars worth another twenty million. The clam contains great power but will not mature for three hundred years unless accelerated by seawater.
• Liu gives Fisherman the Yellow Broth under the condition that it not be used until the bald monks threatening him are fully dealt with. Fisherman refuses to accept it immediately.
• Liu also gives Rust liquor as payment for helping with Evil God’s Nightmare. Rust plans to drink it secretly because his overseers must not smell it.
• Sea Woman refuses the Yellow Broth, so Liu agrees to hold it for her. Vampire Girl then asks Liu to visit her before she falls asleep after drinking.
• Liu remembers Silver Wolf’s dinner invitation and calls him. Silver Wolf insists that Liu visit immediately because his wife has prepared a gift.
• Liu arrives at the Market Supervision Department housing complex, where a stern security guard orders him to move his vehicle despite his Bloodstained Restaurant uniform.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows practical resourcefulness and growing authority. He carefully weighs the usefulness of potential allies, protects his subordinates, negotiates aggressively, and is willing to threaten powerful figures when necessary.
• Niu Daji demonstrates loyalty and a genuine desire to overcome his addiction. His wish to let his family enjoy themselves reveals both family affection and resentment toward generations of restrictive duty.
• Healing Bee remains arrogant and morally questionable, treating patients like test subjects, but backs down when Liu Zheng makes the consequences clear.
• Fisherman is powerful, prideful, and suspicious of emotional manipulation. His concern about Liu dating Sea Woman reveals his protectiveness as a father.
• Rust displays a mischievous, hidden indulgence beneath his serious exterior. His eagerness to obtain and secretly drink liquor contrasts with his respectable image.
• Sea Woman declines the Yellow Broth, suggesting she is cautious or uninterested in its power.
• Vampire Girl remains childish and affectionate toward Liu Zheng, while her continued work prevents her from drinking and sleeping like the others.
• French Plane Tree is shown as severely addicted and unruly when drunk, while Ginseng Baby appears vulnerable and dependent on others for protection.

Significant Themes

• Addiction and treatment: Alcohol dependence affects multiple characters, and Liu Zheng treats it as both a personal danger and a practical problem that must be addressed.
• Trust and responsibility: Liu takes responsibility for Niu Daji’s safety and insists Healing Bee honor the patient’s humanity.
• Power and negotiation: Valuable supernatural objects are exchanged through bargaining, favors, threats, and carefully defined conditions.
• Family and duty: Daji wants his family to escape their inherited responsibilities, while Fisherman’s suspicion toward Liu reflects his desire to protect his daughter.
• Pragmatism versus sentiment: Liu’s decisions are usually calculated, but he is also influenced by emotional boundaries, loyalty, and personal discomfort.
• Hidden identities and contrasts: Several characters have unexpected sides—Rust is secretly a drinker, Fisherman is boastful but fatherly, and Liu combines ruthless threats with generosity.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu and Niu Daji: Liu offers treatment or severance, while Daji accepts treatment and asks for a final family indulgence.
• Liu and Healing Bee: Their exchange is openly hostile, with Liu warning Healing Bee not to endanger Daji.
• Liu and Fisherman: They haggle over the Yellow Broth and exchange insults, goods, and guarded favors.
• Liu and Rust: Liu rewards Rust with liquor, revealing Rust’s covert drinking habits.
• Liu and Sea Woman: Liu offers her the Yellow Broth, but she refuses it.
• Liu and Vampire Girl: Their conversation is affectionate and playful, with Vampire Girl asking to see him before she sleeps.
• Liu and Silver Wolf: Silver Wolf pressures Liu into visiting for dinner and a gift, establishing a warm but commanding relationship.
• Liu and the security guard: Their final interaction introduces a mundane obstacle and ends the chapter with Liu being challenged despite his status.