Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Metropolis Gets Pressured into Marriage Too”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arrives at a family residential compound to have dinner with Silver Wolf, but the entrance guard refuses to let him in because he works as a deliveryman for the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• The guard insults both Liu Zheng and the restaurant, revealing prejudice and abuse of authority. Liu Zheng remains outwardly calm, partly because he does not want to cause trouble for Silver Wolf.
• Liu Zheng contacts Silver Wolf, then calls Ace, a Public Security Bureau employee, to determine who controls Golden Shield Security. Ace reveals that the company is managed by the Bureau’s Logistics Support Division.
• Using Ace’s authority over the phone, Liu Zheng forces the guard to recognize his mistake. As punishment, he tells the guard to stab himself once. The guard deliberately chooses a relatively safe location, and Liu Zheng recognizes the trick but allows it.
• Liu Zheng then gives the injured guard money for medical treatment, showing that his punishment is meant to teach a lesson rather than cause unnecessary death. The guard finally lets him enter.
• At Silver Wolf’s home, Liu Zheng meets Yuriko, Yoko’s older sister. She welcomes him warmly and prepares slippers for him, displaying a gentle, domestic personality.
• During dinner, Silver Wolf wears an old formal uniform and explains that earning it required killing hundreds of people, including enemies, relatives, friends, and someone he once loved.
• Silver Wolf admits that Liu Zheng has greatly benefited his family, helping Yoko avoid punishment and enabling Silver Wolf’s rise through the Pet-Rejection Faction and the authorities.
• However, he also warns that associating with Liu Zheng may destroy their family. Since they lack sufficient power of their own, they are now dependent on Liu Zheng’s dangerous path without knowing where it will lead.
• Silver Wolf directly asks Liu Zheng what he intends to accomplish. Liu Zheng answers that he simply wants to survive as long as possible, perhaps for another seventy or eighty years, rather than explicitly seeking immortality.
• Liu Zheng explains that he follows two principles: keeping promises whenever possible, and repaying both kindness and revenge. He admits these principles constantly draw him into danger, but they allow him to live with a clear conscience.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates restraint, strategic thinking, generosity, and moral consistency. Although capable of killing the guard, he chooses humiliation and a controlled punishment instead. His stated goal is modest survival, but his principles repeatedly force him into increasingly dangerous conflicts.
• Silver Wolf: Becomes more openly vulnerable and reflective. He acknowledges both his gratitude toward Liu Zheng and his fear of being dragged into an unknown and potentially fatal future. His formal uniform and confession emphasize his violent past and the weight of his current responsibilities.
• Yuriko: Is introduced as Yoko’s older sister. She appears gentle, considerate, and affectionate, welcoming Liu Zheng into the household and supporting Silver Wolf physically and emotionally during his serious conversation.
• Ace: Is revealed to be under intense family pressure to marry and produce an heir. Despite his lazy image, he is intelligent, perceptive, and influential within the Public Security Bureau. He refuses to have a child merely to satisfy his relatives and insists that he would raise any child responsibly.
• The entrance guard: Represents institutional arrogance and discrimination. His confidence collapses once he realizes Liu Zheng has powerful connections, revealing that his hostility was based on status and perceived vulnerability rather than principle.

Significant Themes

• Power and social hierarchy: The guard abuses his position until Liu Zheng reveals his connection to the authorities, showing how respect in Metropolis often depends on influence rather than justice.
• Survival versus morality: Liu Zheng wants to stay alive, but his commitment to promises, loyalty, and revenge repeatedly puts him at risk.
• The cost of association: Silver Wolf recognizes that benefiting from Liu Zheng’s power also ties his family to Liu Zheng’s dangerous fate.
• Family and marriage pressure: Ace’s complaints introduce the chapter’s title theme, showing how even powerful individuals are pressured into marriage and producing heirs.
• Violence and restraint: Both Liu Zheng and Silver Wolf are capable of extreme violence, but Liu Zheng’s treatment of the guard shows that he can choose measured punishment instead of lethal force.
• Wealth and mortality: Liu Zheng views wealth as ultimately meaningless if one cannot live long enough to enjoy life, reinforcing his focus on survival and longevity.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the guard clash over access to the residential compound, with Liu Zheng ultimately using Ace’s authority to force compliance.
• Liu Zheng and Ace develop a casual, increasingly familiar relationship. Their conversation touches on friendship, wealth, family expectations, and Ace’s resistance to blind marriage arrangements.
• Liu Zheng and Silver Wolf share a serious discussion about their alliance. Silver Wolf expresses gratitude, fear, and uncertainty, while Liu Zheng calmly explains the principles guiding his actions.
• Yuriko welcomes Liu Zheng into the family home and shows affection toward Silver Wolf, underscoring her close position within the household.
• Silver Wolf’s physical closeness with Yuriko during his confession suggests that the conversation is not merely political but deeply personal and familial.

Chapter Summary: “French Plane Tree Got into Trouble”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng has dinner with his sister-in-law Yuriko and brother-in-law Silver Wolf. Yuriko prepares food suited to Liu Zheng’s unusual bloodline, while Silver Wolf discusses Liu Zheng’s demanding work at the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Silver Wolf gives Liu Zheng a reward for answering his earlier question satisfactorily. Liu Zheng chooses the smaller box, which contains the Arena Champion Ring, a powerful Fine-quality item that boosts Strength, Constitution, and Perception and grants the arena skill Head-On Strike.
• After leaving, Liu Zheng receives an urgent call from Black Skeleton of the Sanitation Department. French Plane Tree has caused a major disturbance on Rose Street by singing loudly while drunk. When authorities tried to intervene, the tree injured several officers and destroyed vehicles.
• The Sanitation Department’s deputy director, Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenyevwe Ugwemuhwem Osas, wants French Plane Tree severely punished by transplanting them into a volcano and forcing them to drink lava.
• Black Skeleton gives Liu Zheng one hour to find a way to save his friend before the punishment is finalized.
• Liu Zheng contacts several allies:
  • 4399 investigates and discovers that Osas supports the Mixed-Blood Faction and dislikes 4399’s Pet-Rejection Faction.
  • Silver Wolf agrees to ask around but warns Liu Zheng not to expect much.
  • Ace cannot help directly because he knows no one in the Sanitation Department, though Liu Zheng jokingly offers to send him food.
• 4399 eventually offers Liu Zheng a possible deal: if he wants French Plane Tree saved, he must carry out a dangerous assassination. The target is a former human-breeding-farm victim who was rescued, educated, and placed in City Hall, but later defected to the Mixed-Blood Faction and stole sensitive information.
• Before Liu Zheng can respond, Ace calls back with a possible solution. Through an absurdly distant family connection, Ace knows someone in the Finance Department whose intervention might resolve the matter.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng surprised that the Finance Department—not the Sanitation Department or Public Security Bureau—may be the key to saving French Plane Tree.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates strong loyalty and personal principles. Although French Plane Tree is reckless and troublesome, Liu Zheng refuses to abandon them and immediately begins seeking help.
• He also shows practical intelligence by recognizing the importance of the one-hour deadline and carefully prioritizing his calls.
• Silver Wolf appears generous and supportive, giving Liu Zheng a valuable item and agreeing to help despite limited connections.
• Yuriko is portrayed as caring and domestic, preparing food specifically for Liu Zheng’s needs and treating him warmly.
• Black Skeleton reveals a compassionate side beneath his official role. Although he criticizes French Plane Tree, he secretly gives Liu Zheng extra time to find a solution.
• 4399 becomes more candid and politically engaged, revealing internal tensions between the Pet-Rejection and Mixed-Blood Factions.
• Ace remains eccentric and humorous, but his casual social connections may prove unexpectedly useful.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus practicality: Liu Zheng knows French Plane Tree caused serious harm, yet he feels morally obligated to help because of their past assistance and friendship.
• Political factionalism: The conflict is shaped not simply by law enforcement, but by rival factions, personal grudges, and City Hall politics.
• The value of connections: Progress depends less on direct authority than on knowing the right people. Even Ace’s ridiculous family connection may be more useful than Liu Zheng’s direct contacts.
• Moral ambiguity: The proposed solution involves assassinating a former victim who became a traitor, raising questions about justice, loyalty, revenge, and political expediency.
• Comedic absurdity: The chapter balances serious danger with exaggerated names, bizarre punishments, strange social structures, and humorous misunderstandings.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Silver Wolf share relaxed brother-in-law banter, with Silver Wolf rewarding him and warning him not to misuse the Arena Champion Ring.
• Liu Zheng jokes with Yuriko about avoiding dishwashing, maintaining the family’s informal and affectionate dynamic.
• Black Skeleton acts as both an authority figure and an ally, warning Liu Zheng about the punishment while giving him a temporary chance to intervene.
• Liu Zheng’s calls to 4399 and Silver Wolf show him mobilizing his network, while Ace’s comedic conversation eventually produces the most promising lead.
• The contrast between Liu Zheng’s sincere concern and everyone else’s casual or politically calculated responses emphasizes how personally he takes French Plane Tree’s predicament.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng agrees to help Ace secure support from the Finance Department in exchange for two favors:
  1. He must guide Ace—and Nightingale—through Chaos Land, the notoriously difficult tabletop roleplaying campaign at the Red Witch Board-Game Hall.
  2. He must help Ace resolve his family’s pressure over blind dates.
• Ace also asks Liu Zheng to prepare five million and arrange a specific takeout meal. He wants to avoid accepting money directly from his uncle, since doing so would give the uncle more influence over him.
• Liu Zheng informs 4399 of his alternative plan to save the French Plane Tree and reveals that he still possesses a one-hundred-million-yuan purchasing quota for Du Kang Liquor Shop. 4399 is shocked and agrees to investigate whether the Pet-Rejection Faction can use it.
• Liu Zheng orders an elaborate meal from Guokou Tangzi for Ace, while also arranging for the Ultimate Flavor Group to collect valuable kelp. Their conversation is filled with mutual teasing about cooking ability, gang identity, and who should lead the group.
• Liu Zheng goes to Rose Street, where the French Plane Tree remains under heavy surveillance by Flymen and sprinkler trucks. Unable to learn anything from the guards, he contacts Black Skeleton.
• Black Skeleton confirms that Liu Zheng’s connection to a deputy director in the Finance Department could potentially save the tree. Liu Zheng asks to enter the restricted area to inspect the tree himself, admitting that he might forcibly rescue it if left alone.
• Black Skeleton brings Liu Zheng inside, claiming he is his younger brother. They are stopped by Sheep, an official guarding the crime scene, but Black Skeleton explains the situation in a Silent Barrier.
• Sheep is astonished by the possibility that a Finance Department deputy director could intervene. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the Finance Department’s enormous internal authority within City Hall, despite its limited influence outside the administration.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates resourcefulness, wealth, and determination. He uses Ace’s connections, his own commercial quota, and his relationships with City Hall personnel to protect the French Plane Tree. His willingness to enter a dangerous crime scene—and possibly break the tree out—shows how personally invested he has become.
• Ace is portrayed as competitive, childish, and socially pressured. His obsession with conquering Chaos Land reveals his pride, while his request for help with blind dates shows his frustration with family interference.
• 4399 acts cautiously and protectively toward the Pet-Rejection Faction. His concern about Liu Zheng’s connections reflects the faction’s fear that important members could be compromised.
• Guokou Tangzi continues to balance her criminal associations with the Ultimate Flavor Group’s culinary ambitions. Her exchanges with Liu Zheng reveal a comfortable, argumentative familiarity.
• Black Skeleton grows increasingly exasperated by Liu Zheng’s demands but remains loyal and willing to help. Their joking about family roles highlights their growing closeness.
• Sheep initially treats Liu Zheng as an intruder but quickly becomes respectful once he learns that Liu Zheng may have access to Finance Department influence.

Significant Themes

• Power through connections: The chapter emphasizes that bureaucratic relationships, especially within Finance, can accomplish what direct authority cannot.
• Found family and surrogate relationships: The title is reflected in Liu Zheng and Black Skeleton’s joking relationship, while Ace’s family situation also centers on expectations surrounding marriage, inheritance, and family roles.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Liu Zheng’s concern for the French Plane Tree goes beyond practical interests; he regards it as a friend and is prepared to risk conflict to protect it.
• Comedy amid institutional absurdity: Political bureaucracy, gang activity, supernatural species, and culinary organizations are treated with everyday familiarity, creating humor through contrast.
• Scarcity shaping behavior: Liu Zheng’s reflections on poverty explain his extravagant spending habits and suggest how childhood deprivation continues to influence adult choices.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Ace: Negotiate a mutually beneficial arrangement involving tabletop gaming, blind dates, money, and political connections.
• Liu Zheng and 4399: Discuss the Finance Department plan and the enormous Du Kang purchasing quota, revealing both cooperation and 4399’s suspicion.
• Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi: Trade insults while coordinating food delivery and the collection of kelp, reinforcing their playful but antagonistic rapport.
• Liu Zheng and Black Skeleton: Engage in affectionate bickering before Black Skeleton helps him enter Rose Street.
• Liu Zheng, Black Skeleton, and Sheep: Their encounter combines deception, humor, and political urgency as they explain Liu Zheng’s connection to the endangered tree and the possible intervention of the Finance Department.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

Liu Zheng is allowed to visit the severely punished French Plane Tree under the supervision of Sheep and Black Skeleton. The Tree has been restrained, its senses sealed with a black cloth, and its body badly damaged after resisting arrest and attacking a sanitation worker. Officials plan to punish it by transplanting it into a volcano and forcing it to drink lava.
Liu Zheng pretends to be the Tree’s “dad,” scolds it for getting drunk and causing trouble, and reveals that he spent five million in cash and used numerous connections to prevent a worse punishment. During the conversation, the Tree insists that it drank only five bottles of liquor and had previously stored the rest away. Since the Tree cannot lie to Liu Zheng, he suspects the liquor itself was tampered with or defective.
Although the liquor bottles have been sealed as evidence, Liu Zheng persuades Sheep to help recover them after the case is resolved. Black Skeleton later brings him one of the bottles found at the scene. Meanwhile, Ace contacts Liu Zheng to confirm that the matter has been settled and that the officials are withdrawing.
After the officials leave Rose Street, the Ginseng Baby emerges from the soil and unexpectedly speaks, calling Liu Zheng “Dad.” The French Plane Tree explains that Natasha and Wangsheng taught her to talk. Liu Zheng then questions the Tree about anything unusual before the incident, but receives no useful clues.
Liu Zheng declines an invitation to dinner from Sheep and Black Skeleton so he can investigate immediately. He returns to Du Kang Liquor Shop, repays the money borrowed from Feng Jizi, and presents the sealed liquor bottle for inspection. He tactfully suggests that the liquor may have caused the Tree’s abnormal drunkenness. Feng Jizi agrees to have the shop’s quality inspectors examine it, leaving the chapter poised for the investigation into possible tampering.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates loyalty, resourcefulness, and growing influence. He spends heavily and uses his connections to save the French Plane Tree, while also taking responsibility for uncovering the cause of the incident.
• He adopts a mock-parental role toward the Tree, lecturing it harshly while clearly treating it as a close friend and dependent.
• The French Plane Tree remains stubborn, sarcastic, and resentful of Liu Zheng’s “dad” act, but becomes more cooperative after learning that Liu Zheng has arranged its rescue. Its inability to lie strengthens the credibility of its claim that it drank only five bottles.
• Sheep/White Bro is strict but pragmatic. Their attitude toward Liu Zheng becomes warmer after receiving money and recognizing his influence and potential usefulness.
• Black Skeleton/Black Bro also grows friendlier toward Liu Zheng, treating him as a genuine brother and assisting him by retrieving the liquor evidence.
• The Ginseng Baby reaches an important milestone by speaking for the first time, calling Liu Zheng “Dad,” reinforcing the developing family-like bond between them.
• Feng Jizi remains polite and commercially minded, but is willing to investigate whether the liquor sold by his shop was involved.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and shared interests: Liu Zheng’s costly efforts to save the French Plane Tree show that their relationship has become mutually important.
• Found family and parental bonds: Liu Zheng jokingly—and partly sincerely—takes responsibility for the Tree and the Ginseng Baby, creating an unconventional family dynamic.
• Justice versus official punishment: The Tree is punished for resisting authorities, but Liu Zheng questions whether it was truly responsible, suggesting that official procedures may overlook hidden causes.
• Trust and suspicion: Because the Tree cannot lie, Liu Zheng trusts its account and begins investigating the liquor instead of accepting the official explanation.
• Influence and social connections: Money, favors, and relationships with officials allow Liu Zheng to protect his friends and obtain evidence, even though he lacks formal authority.
• Prejudice and appearances: The characters joke about the Sewer’s reputation, while Liu Zheng defends it, reflecting his increasing identification with beings and places others look down on.

Character Interactions

The chapter is driven by Liu Zheng’s playful but argumentative exchanges with Sheep, Black Skeleton, and the French Plane Tree. He uses humor and bribery to gain access, scolds the Tree like a parent, and negotiates with Sheep for the evidence. His interactions with Black Skeleton become increasingly friendly, while his meeting with Feng Jizi is more cautious and diplomatic. The Ginseng Baby’s first words add an emotional, family-oriented moment before Liu Zheng resumes his investigation.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jizi confirms that the alcohol originally passed quality inspection, suggesting it was tampered with after leaving quality control.
• Liu Zheng brings the suspicious bottles from French Plane Tree’s poisoning incident to Nile Doctor, who identifies one bottle as abnormal but cannot determine why.
• Healing Bee examines the bottle and discovers two poisons:
  • One muddles the mind and becomes much stronger when mixed with alcohol.
  • “Friend of Poison,” a colorless, tasteless substance that conceals the presence of other poisons.
• Healing Bee identifies two possible suppliers: Copper Seventeen of Bronze Man Hall and Ugly Dusa, the “Wig Gorgon.” It suspects Ugly Dusa produced this batch based on its “lively” medicinal properties.
• Healing Bee refuses to obtain client information from Ugly Dusa because poison-makers strictly protect their customers and Ugly Dusa is dangerously stubborn. It explains that removing her cursed Gorgon bloodline might persuade her to cooperate, though Liu Zheng doubts he can do that.
• Since the alcohol was stored safely in Liu Zheng’s storage device, Healing Bee concludes that the poison was probably added after Liu Zheng gave the alcohol to French Plane Tree. It recommends hiring a detective to inspect the area.
• Healing Bee contacts private detective Luo Ping, who agrees to investigate for 100,000. Luo insists on full payment in advance, though Healing Bee reluctantly covers half.
• Luo Ping arrives in poor apparent health, coughing and moving unsteadily, but his frail appearance seems deceptive. He confirms the assignment and accompanies Liu Zheng to Rose Street.
• They discover French Plane Tree attempting to drink more liquor placed near its roots. Liu Zheng stops him and threatens to transplant him to the Sewer if he continues.
• French Plane Tree claims the liquor was bait intended to lure out whoever poisoned him. Liu Zheng reveals that he has already found the likely culprit and orders the tree to stop interfering.
• Luo Ping begins his investigation by asking whether anyone possesses an Anti-Magic Domain or a power-nullifying item. After learning that neither Liu Zheng nor French Plane Tree has one, Luo suddenly collapses forward. Liu catches him and is shocked by how unnaturally light he is.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes increasingly focused and proactive, following the poisoning evidence through several specialists and paying for professional help without hesitation. He also shows impatience with Healing Bee’s incomplete disclosures and French Plane Tree’s recklessness.
• Healing Bee demonstrates extensive knowledge of poisons and the secretive poison trade. It also reveals a cynical, transactional personality, demanding payment for information while still helping Liu Zheng locate a suitable detective.
• French Plane Tree remains stubborn, emotional, and reckless. Despite nearly being poisoned again, it tries to use alcohol as bait, forcing Liu Zheng to control and threaten it.
• Luo Ping is introduced as an apparently sickly but mysterious detective. His unusual weight—or lack of it—and sudden collapse suggest that he may possess a supernatural condition or hidden ability.
• Nile Doctor contributes medical expertise but cannot identify the poison’s exact nature, directing Liu Zheng to Healing Bee instead.

Significant Themes

• Investigation through cooperation: Liu Zheng relies on a chain of specialists, combining quality control, medical inspection, poison lore, and detective work.
• Information as a commodity: Healing Bee repeatedly demands payment, while poison-makers protect their clients’ identities, emphasizing the value and secrecy of knowledge.
• Appearance versus reality: Healing Bee’s strange methods, Ugly Dusa’s cursed lineage, and Luo Ping’s frail appearance all conceal deeper truths.
• Authority and recklessness: Liu Zheng tries to impose order on French Plane Tree, whose impulsive actions threaten to derail the investigation and endanger itself again.
• Supernatural society and hidden systems: The chapter expands the world through cursed bloodlines, divine interference, poison guilds, supernatural abilities, and specialized investigators.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng exchanges cryptic but respectful information with Feng Jizi.
• He argues playfully with Nile Doctor, who continues promoting his lord’s evolutionary services.
• His dealings with Healing Bee are tense and transactional, with Liu Zheng repeatedly paying for information and criticizing the doctor’s omissions.
• Healing Bee and Luo Ping share a familiar, argumentative relationship: Healing Bee treats Luo’s illness but criticizes his irresponsible spending, while Luo jokes about making risky investments.
• Liu Zheng clashes with French Plane Tree, alternating between threats, sarcasm, and attempts to protect it from further harm.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng physically catching Luo Ping as the detective collapses, creating a mystery about Luo’s true nature and abilities.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits Imhotep Clinic to check on Niu Daji, who is recovering but suffering from nausea. Liu reassures him that he can replace any food he vomits rather than force himself to eat it again.
• The Delivery Gang’s usual driver informs Liu Zheng that he has been ordered to undergo a financial audit because of his frequent assignments. As a result, he cannot drive Liu or provide his usual weapons and vehicle, creating a serious logistical problem for Liu’s planned trip to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Ace contacts Liu Zheng to praise the chef’s kombu-and-bonito broth. Their conversation shifts to Liu’s need for a vehicle. Ace agrees to locate one through his connections.
• Liu specifies that he needs a durable, powerful, off-road vehicle, preferably without license plates so it will attract less attention in the mountains. Ace finds a damaged test vehicle that was used in defensive-performance trials. It is battered but usable and still contains repaired testing equipment. Liu decides to purchase it for 300,000 rather than rent it.
• Ace plans to deliver the vehicle to the clinic, though Liu warns him not to bring it to the Board-Game Hall because of the Red Witch’s presence there. Ace is intrigued by the Red Witch and becomes even more confident that Liu can help him clear Chaos Land.
• Liu learns that Xiaomei is absent because of menstruation, leading to an awkward and humorous exchange with Niu Daji. Nile Doctor then appears and jokes that he can provide fertility assistance or even develop gender-reassignment services for profit.
• Nile Doctor emerges dressed in an extravagant pharaoh-warrior outfit, complete with armor, jewelry, weapons, and a cobra. He explains that the equipment came from a hidden treasure chamber in the pyramid Liu had given him.
• Nile Doctor reveals that the treasures can double his strength, potentially making him comparable to Cow-Horse, but they can only be used once every month because he lacks the pharaoh’s full recognition. Liu mocks the clinic as functioning like a pawnshop with long cooldowns between uses.
• Since Nile Doctor is not confident driving a car, Liu contacts Yuan Bao’er to arrange an experienced driver.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains practical and resourceful, quickly adapting to the loss of his normal driver and seeking alternatives. He also shows concern for his subordinates and allies, while maintaining his sarcastic, teasing manner.
• Niu Daji continues to act as a loyal but easily embarrassed subordinate. His discomfort and fear of Liu’s threats provide comic relief.
• Ace is still being pressured into marriage, but food temporarily improves his mood. He demonstrates useful institutional connections and helps Liu obtain the vehicle. His enthusiasm for completing Chaos Land also increases after learning about Liu’s abilities and the Red Witch.
• Nile Doctor gains access to powerful ancient treasures and reveals more of his identity and past association with the pharaoh and Ra. His strength may double, but the equipment’s cooldown severely limits its usefulness.
• The driver becomes temporarily unavailable because of an audit, suggesting possible scrutiny or interference involving Liu’s organization.
• Xiaomei is briefly characterized through her absence, while the discussion surrounding her highlights the casual, comedic atmosphere among the clinic staff.

Significant Themes

• Resourcefulness and adaptation: Liu must replace transportation, firepower, and logistical support at short notice.
• Power with limitations: Nile Doctor’s treasures dramatically increase his strength but come with strict restrictions, emphasizing that extraordinary abilities are rarely freely usable.
• Money and practical survival: Characters constantly evaluate services, vehicles, treasures, medical treatment, and commissions in terms of cost and profit.
• Bureaucracy and hidden scrutiny: The driver’s financial audit may be routine or deliberate, hinting that Liu’s activities are attracting attention.
• Friendship through food and humor: Meals, especially the depression-relieving broth, strengthen relationships and provide emotional comfort.
• Comedy through cultural and social misunderstandings: Conversations about menstruation, fertility, driving, and ancient treasure are handled through teasing and exaggerated reactions.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Niu Daji display a familiar boss-subordinate relationship, mixing genuine concern with threats and banter.
• Liu and the driver discuss the unexpected audit, revealing both trust and suspicion.
• Liu and Ace maintain a friendly, transactional partnership: Ace helps arrange the vehicle while reminding Liu of his promise to help with Chaos Land.
• Liu and Nile Doctor trade sarcastic remarks about the pyramid’s treasure, their respective fortunes, and Nile Doctor’s extravagant appearance.
• Nile Doctor’s offer of fertility services embarrasses Niu Daji, who quickly escapes.
• Liu collaborates with Ace and Yuan Bao’er to solve the transportation problem, reinforcing his dependence on a broad network of allies.

Chapter Summary: “Setting Out! Bathhouse Street”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er finalize preparations for their operation against the Dark Elves and their slave-trading allies near Bathhouse Street. Yuan Bao’er offers Old Fourth as an experienced driver and agrees to send her people ahead to intimidate the enemy rather than immediately commit the entire force.
• Liu Zheng contacts Yaksha, who confirms that the Dark Elves are prepared to fight in the name of their god, Bloodhand Kane. Their exchange is hostile and sarcastic, with both sides threatening the other while arranging to meet outside Bathhouse Street in an hour.
• While waiting, Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor joke about gods, priestesses, tombs, pyramids, and possible treasure in the Cemetery.
• Ace arrives at the clinic in an armored vehicle but immediately provokes the Sphinx by calling her a “huge human-headed dog.” She attacks the vehicle until Liu Zheng intervenes.
• Liu Zheng calms the Sphinx with food and promises to build her a proper lion’s nest like Yarn Ball’s. She ultimately lets Ace live, though she bites a hole into Liu Zheng’s scalp while venting her anger.
• Ace gives Liu Zheng handwritten notes containing information about a supernatural device or system and accepts the large sum of money Liu Zheng owed him. Ace then leaves for the Red Witch Board-Game Hall, escorted by Niu Daji in the armored vehicle.
• Liu Zheng, Niu Daji, and Nile Doctor depart for the operation, with the Sphinx remaining behind to guard the clinic.
• At the Blissful Bathhouse, Yuan Bao’er gathers the bathhouse staff and members of the Yuan Family. She publicly acknowledges her previous mistake in trusting Zhen Xinzai and cuts an “X” into her own cheek as punishment.
• Yuan Bao’er condemns her people for failing to defend the family and declares that, with Liu Zheng’s help, they will restore their dignity. She orders them to eliminate the Dark Elves if fighting breaks out.
• Yuan Bao’er leads the combined forces of the bathhouse and Yuan Family out toward the confrontation.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng acts as the central coordinator, balancing strategy, diplomacy, humor, and responsibility. He avoids rushing into a full-scale assault and carefully manages his alliances, while also protecting Ace and attempting to keep the Sphinx under control.
• Yuan Bao’er reveals both accountability and ruthless leadership. She accepts blame for trusting the wrong person, physically punishes herself, and uses the incident to force her followers to regain their courage and loyalty.
• Yaksha is shown as fanatically devoted to the Dark Elves’ god and willing to demand bloodshed as proof of loyalty. His verbal sparring with Liu Zheng establishes him as both dangerous and combative.
• The Sphinx remains proud, temperamental, and easily offended, but she also shows a childish desire for affection and security through her demand for a personal nest. Despite her anger, she ultimately obeys Liu Zheng and accepts his protection.
• Ace is careless, wealthy in supernatural resources, and protected by his powerful background. His flippant behavior causes trouble, but he still fulfills his promise by delivering the needed notes and paying Liu Zheng’s assistance.
• Nile Doctor continues to serve as a humorous observer and loyal companion. He is amused by Liu Zheng’s rapid rise and quietly proud of his growth.
• Niu Daji demonstrates unquestioning loyalty to Liu Zheng and enthusiasm at being entrusted with the group’s armored vehicle.

Significant Themes

• Leadership and responsibility: Both Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er are judged by how they protect their people and respond to crisis. Yuan Bao’er’s self-punishment emphasizes that leadership requires accepting blame.
• Dignity and retaliation: The Yuan Family’s mission is not merely practical; it is an attempt to recover honor after being humiliated and weakened.
• Power balanced by strategy: Liu Zheng rejects reckless escalation, recognizing that the Dark Elves’ religious devotion and the threat of attacks from the rear make careful planning essential.
• Loyalty and authority: Characters follow leaders for different reasons—faith, fear, friendship, duty, or personal attachment. Liu Zheng’s authority grows through trust and competence rather than formal rank.
• Comedy amid danger: Sarcastic banter, the Sphinx’s exaggerated temper, and Ace’s childish carelessness contrast with the impending violence, keeping the chapter’s tone lively despite the serious conflict.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er cooperate as allies, though she initially pushes for a more direct and violent assault while he insists on caution.
• Liu Zheng and Yaksha trade threats and insults, establishing a tense alliance based on mutual usefulness rather than trust.
• Liu Zheng repeatedly mediates between Ace and the Sphinx, protecting Ace while placating the offended Sphinx with food and promises.
• Ace’s careless insult exposes the Sphinx’s pride and triggers the confrontation, while Liu Zheng’s intervention prevents violence.
• Liu Zheng assigns Niu Daji to escort Ace, showing both his concern for Ace’s safety and his expectations of loyalty from his subordinates.
• Yuan Bao’er rallies Old Fourth, Uncle Shui, the bathhouse employees, and the Yuan Family into a single force, transforming their shame into collective determination before the coming battle.

Summary

• Plot points and events: After a manageable workday, the narrator returns home alone and becomes restless and unable to concentrate. Despite trying for a long time, they cannot enter the right mindset to write and decide to take the day off. They compare their current situation with life in the city, where they had easy access to distractions and late-night activities such as massages, 24-hour convenience stores, and murder mystery games. In their quieter rural-urban fringe, those outlets are unavailable, leaving them feeling trapped and unsettled.
• Character development: The narrator is shown struggling with isolation, restlessness, and creative paralysis. Their dependence on the city’s constant activity becomes clear, as does their difficulty adjusting to a quieter environment. Taking a break suggests a temporary acknowledgment of their limits rather than forcing productivity.
• Significant themes: The passage explores loneliness, displacement, creative block, and the contrast between urban stimulation and rural quiet. It also highlights how environment affects emotional stability and the ability to work.
• Character interactions: There are no direct interactions with other characters. The narrator’s relationship with their surroundings is central: the lively city previously offered comfort and distraction, while the current setting intensifies their sense of confinement.

Summary

• Plot points and events: After a manageable workday, the narrator returns home alone and becomes restless and unable to concentrate. They spend a long time trying to enter the right mindset to write but fail, ultimately taking the day off rather than forcing themselves to continue.
• Character development: The narrator’s difficulty is shown to be less about work itself and more about isolation and the lack of stimulating outlets nearby. Their contrast between city life and their current surroundings reveals a growing awareness of how much they depended on accessible distractions and social environments.
• Significant themes: The passage explores loneliness, creative paralysis, emotional instability, and the alienation of living in a quiet urban-rural fringe. It also contrasts the city’s constant activity with the emptiness and confinement of the narrator’s current home.
• Character interactions: No direct interactions occur in the excerpt. Instead, the narrator recalls anonymous or impersonal city activities—massages, convenience stores, and all-night murder mystery games—as substitutes for companionship and ways to regulate their mood.

Chapter Summary: “Brawl Before Departure”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng, Nile Doctor, and Niu Daji travel toward Bathhouse Street. Liu discovers that the Erakos Sandworm has vanished, leaving only a dangerous pit, and criticizes the irresponsible aftermath.
• Outside Bathhouse Street, Yuan Bao’er’s forces confront a group of Dark Elves led by Yaksha. Yuan’s side consists of bathhouse employees and household servants, while the Dark Elves number fewer but possess superior equipment and powerful magic.
• Yaksha insults Yuan Bao’er’s people as menial workers and “lowborn,” while Yuan counters by accusing the Dark Elves of being slave traders hiding behind the title of “Higher Beings.”
• The argument escalates when Yaksha mocks Yuan Bao’er’s previous defeat and the betrayal by her former husband. Enraged, Yuan transforms into a towering blue-faced, golden-furred ape and leads her forces into battle.
• Both sides unleash large-scale abilities: Yuan’s people use talismans, thunder magic, rituals, and summoned powers, while the Dark Elves employ lightning, fire, acid, ice, curses, and soul magic.
• Liu Zheng arrives in an armored riot-control vehicle before the battle can become a massacre. Both sides briefly redirect their attacks toward him, but the vehicle and Nile Doctor withstand the assault.
• Liu forces both factions to agree not to attack once he leaves the vehicle. He warns that regardless of which side wins, everyone could die if the conflict continues.
• Nile Doctor confronts Yaksha after she recognizes him as a priest of the sun god Atum-Ra. He summons a devastating Solar Boat that destroys two elite Dark Elf guards and nearly overwhelms the Dark Elf defenses.
• Yaksha counters with high-level True Essence magic, disintegrating much of the Solar Boat, while the other priestesses form a “Dark Fortress” and then use the “Greedy Maw” to absorb the remaining fire and lightning.
• Nile Doctor prepares to summon more Solar Boats, making it clear that his power is effectively inexhaustible compared with Yaksha’s limited ability to use her counterspell.
• Recognizing the danger, Yaksha reluctantly apologizes and claims that the attack was merely necessary. Nile Doctor accepts this explanation in equally formal terms, leaving the confrontation tense but temporarily restrained.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates growing authority and confidence. He intervenes in the conflict, imposes a temporary truce, and treats both sides as threats capable of destroying one another.
• Yuan Bao’er shows loyalty to Liu and strong leadership over her employees and family retainers. Her transformation reveals that she has recovered significantly from her earlier injuries, though she still cannot maintain her true form for long.
• Yaksha is established as proud, provocative, and politically shrewd. She uses insults to destabilize Yuan Bao’er but becomes cautious when faced with Nile Doctor’s overwhelming divine power.
• Nile Doctor reveals himself as a formidable priest and combatant. His theatrical religious declarations conceal genuine confidence, and his Solar Boat technique gives him a major advantage over the Dark Elves.
• Yuan Bao’er’s forces prove that ordinary workers and servants can operate effectively as a coordinated magical army when led by capable commanders.
• The Dark Elf priestesses display sophisticated and varied magical abilities, but their powers are less sustainable than Nile Doctor’s sun-based attacks.

Significant Themes

• Class and social prejudice: The conflict begins partly over Yaksha’s contempt for bathhouse workers and servants, while Yuan defends honest labor against aristocratic or supernatural claims of superiority.
• Power versus authority: Both sides possess great destructive power, but Liu Zheng’s ability to command their attention shows that influence and confidence can be as important as raw strength.
• Pride and provocation: Insults concerning Yuan Bao’er’s past humiliation push her into battle, while Yaksha’s contempt nearly causes a full-scale war.
• Divine and magical rivalry: The clash between Nile Doctor’s solar religion and Yaksha’s Dark Elf magic highlights competing traditions, gods, and magical systems.
• Restraint amid violence: Even though both factions are prepared to kill, Liu’s intervention and Yaksha’s recognition of Nile Doctor’s advantage prevent the battle from becoming catastrophic.
• Recovery and resilience: Yuan Bao’er’s return to her true form reflects her determination to recover from betrayal and defeat.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Niu Daji: Liu teases and pressures Daji to drive faster, revealing their casual but familiar relationship.
• Yuan Bao’er and Yaksha: Their verbal duel reflects their opposing views of class, legitimacy, and power. Yaksha attacks Yuan’s past, while Yuan challenges the Dark Elves’ supposed superiority.
• Liu Zheng and both factions: Liu acts as mediator and threat, demanding that neither side attack once he emerges and warning that continued violence will destroy everyone.
• Liu Zheng and Yuan Bao’er: Yuan immediately agrees to Liu’s conditions, showing her respect and trust in him.
• Nile Doctor and Yaksha: Their exchange begins with religious mockery and escalates into a demonstration of power. After seeing the Solar Boat’s destructive force, Yaksha shifts from contempt to cautious diplomacy.
• Yaksha and her priestesses: The priestesses protect her with coordinated defensive magic, but Yaksha remains the central figure whose decisions determine whether the Dark Elves continue fighting.

Chapter Summary: “White Immortal”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng forces Yaksha and the Dark Elves to choose between submitting to his authority or being destroyed. Yaksha ultimately orders her people to obey, claiming their mission to complete the sacrifice for Bloodhand Kane is more important than their pride.
• Liu publicly identifies himself with the Delivery Gang and receives the support of Niu Daji and Yuan Bao’er, strengthening his political and personal alliance with the Yuan Family.
• Yuan Bao’er lends Liu three trusted associates for his expedition:
  • Old Fourth, a capable manager and fighter, who is promised a promotion.
  • Wu Zhishui, the Yuan Family’s veteran steward and a powerful protector.
  • Third Brother Bai, an experienced guide familiar with the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Yuan Bao’er advises Liu to prioritize survival and retreat if necessary. Liu promises not to take reckless risks, though he delivers the reassurance with his usual humor.
• Liu’s group departs in an armored government vehicle, while the Dark Elves travel separately and maintain communication through a walkie-talkie.
• Rather than drive directly to the Hundred Thousand Mountains, the group takes a shortcut through a Bai Family village in a secluded valley.
• Bai San’s two nephews briefly borrow Liu’s armored vehicle, revealing the affectionate and informal relationships within the Bai Family.
• In the village square, Bai San performs a ritual before a massive White Jade Hedgehog statue to request access to the Hedgehog Path, a route to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• The White Jade Hedgehog awakens and becomes intensely interested in Liu, apparently wanting to eat him. Bai San invokes the authority of the Bai Family head to restrain it, while Liu reacts with amused defiance rather than fear.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to establish himself as a confident leader. He balances intimidation, diplomacy, humor, and manipulation, presenting himself as both dangerous and approachable.
• Liu’s public alliance with the Delivery Gang marks an important expansion of his influence.
• His interactions with his allies show that he values loyalty and camaraderie, treating subordinates and powerful elders with respect while still joking freely.
• Yuan Bao’er demonstrates complete trust in Liu by lending him three of her most capable people. Her concern for their safety also reveals her responsibility as family head.
• Old Fourth grows closer to Liu through their playful exchange and eagerly accepts the opportunity for promotion.
• Wu Zhishui quickly develops a favorable impression of Liu, judging him to be reliable and superior to Yuan Bao’er’s rival, Zhen Xinzai.
• Bai San is shown to be modest but experienced, while also acting as a protective and affectionate elder toward his nephews.
• Yaksha remains cold and loyal to Bloodhand Kane, but she is forced to recognize Liu’s authority and tactical advantage.
• Liu’s self-confidence is reinforced by his belief that, with the Nile Doctor and his current abilities, he can survive even extremely dangerous opponents.

Significant Themes

• Power and negotiation: Liu secures submission without immediately resorting to violence, using the threat of force alongside psychological pressure.
• Alliance and loyalty: The Yuan and Bai Families support Liu because of his past actions and growing importance, showing how personal bonds create political strength.
• Leadership through personality: Liu commands respect not only through combat ability but also through humor, generosity, and the ability to make others feel included.
• Tradition versus modernity: The chapter contrasts ancient family customs, rituals, and village life with modern government vehicles, walkie-talkies, and urban organizations.
• Survival and pragmatism: Yuan Bao’er’s warning and Liu’s response emphasize the importance of staying alive rather than sacrificing everything for pride or immediate victory.
• Hidden danger beneath comedy: The lighthearted banter and village hospitality are interrupted by the White Jade Hedgehog’s predatory interest in Liu, hinting at threats concealed within supposedly safe traditions.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Yuan Bao’er engage in teasing, flirtatious banter while affirming their alliance.
• Niu Daji enthusiastically supports Liu and is thrilled by the public recognition of the Delivery Gang.
• Liu and Old Fourth quickly develop a friendly, joking relationship.
• Liu respectfully acknowledges Wu Zhishui’s authority and protective role.
• Liu and Bai San establish a cooperative relationship based on the latter’s knowledge of the mountain route.
• Bai San’s fond but stern treatment of his nephews highlights the warmth of the Bai Family.
• Liu and Yaksha continue their tense verbal exchanges, with Liu provoking her through references to Bloodhand Kane and the afterlife.
• The White Jade Hedgehog’s fixation on Liu creates a final moment of danger, leaving the group’s passage through the Hedgehog Path uncertain.

Chapter Summary: “Marx Did Not Deceive Me”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai San manages the White Jade Hedgehog, persuading it to allow Liu Zheng and his group to use the Hedgehog Path by offering incense and threatening to report any mistreatment to the Bai Family head.
• The White Jade Hedgehog enlarges its passage so the armored vehicle can enter. The path is one-way, dark, and maintained by the hedgehog’s formations and magical power.
• Before departing, Bai San disciplines two young Bai Family members for joking about a government vehicle, ordering them to return to guard duty.
• During the journey, Bai San reveals that his son, Bai Tianshi, is an associate chief physician at the hospital but has mysteriously stopped contacting the family. The hospital claims he is merely busy, leaving Bai San worried that something serious has happened.
• Liu Zheng and the Nile Doctor discuss religious sacrifice and Egyptian Ushabti figurines. The Nile Doctor explains that magical incantations give the clay figures life so they can perform labor in the afterlife.
• The Nile Doctor deduces that the Dark Elves are hiding in the armored vehicle’s shadow. Liu Zheng considers using Sun Power to destroy them, but Bai San warns that casting magic inside the Hedgehog Path could collapse it.
• Liu deliberately shouts about having “a hundred ways” to kill the Dark Elves, apparently trying to frighten them into revealing themselves. A brief disturbance in the darkness suggests they heard him, but they remain hidden.
• The group reaches the Hundred Thousand Mountains and arrives at a Bai Family base built from prefab buildings. Liu compares it to a construction site rather than the Bai ancestral residence.
• Bai San casually admits that the base is an illegal structure built to avoid the enormous cost of purchasing land. He explains that the Bai Family can destroy the site, flee, and pay a fine or blame someone else if authorities discover it.
• Liu concludes that Marx’s description of capitalist greed is accurate, joking that merchants will risk increasingly serious crimes as profits rise.

Character Developments

• Bai San is shown to be cautious, responsible, and protective of the Bai Family. He prioritizes avoiding conflict and protecting the family from powerful enemies, but he is also shrewd and willing to exploit legal loopholes.
• Liu Zheng displays his usual mixture of intelligence, sarcasm, mischief, and opportunism. He probes Bai San about family matters, devises a psychological trick against the Dark Elves, and mocks both religious customs and Bai Family business practices.
• The Nile Doctor acts as Liu Zheng’s knowledgeable but irritable companion. He provides information about ancient Egyptian religion and correctly identifies the Dark Elves’ hiding place, while repeatedly scolding Liu for his ignorance and shamelessness.
• Bai Tianshi does not appear directly, but his unexplained disappearance becomes an important concern and possible future mystery.
• The two young Bai Family members are portrayed as careless and cheeky, especially after boasting about driving a government vehicle. Bai San’s discipline reinforces the family’s emphasis on caution and hierarchy.
• Old Fourth remains a reliable driver and follows Liu’s orders, increasing the vehicle’s speed when they near their destination.
• The White Jade Hedgehog is established as a powerful supernatural guardian whose cooperation depends on respect, offerings, and proper conduct.

Significant Themes

• Prudence versus recklessness: The Bai Family survives by avoiding direct confrontation, while Liu Zheng continually tests dangerous situations with jokes, threats, and schemes.
• Family responsibility and anxiety: Bai San’s concern over Bai Tianshi shows the emotional cost of the hospital’s strict hierarchy and isolation.
• Religion and practical interpretation: The discussion of sacrifices and Ushabti humorously contrasts sacred belief with Liu’s mundane interpretation of divine labor contracts.
• Cunning and survival: The Bai Family’s illegal base, contingency plans, and willingness to shift blame reflect a world where survival often requires deception and flexibility.
• Profit and moral compromise: The final Marx reference satirizes how financial incentives can drive people to break laws, even while presenting their actions as practical business decisions.
• Cultural and generational friction: Liu’s irreverence clashes with the Nile Doctor’s religious pride and Bai San’s traditional caution, producing much of the chapter’s comedy.

Character Interactions

• Bai San firmly confronts the White Jade Hedgehog and negotiates access to the Hedgehog Path.
• He also disciplines the younger Bai members, demonstrating his authority within the family.
• Liu Zheng questions Bai San about the Bai Family’s connection to the hospital, prompting the revelation about Bai Tianshi.
• Liu and the Nile Doctor engage in constant teasing and arguments, especially over gods, sacrifice, marriage, education, and Liu’s shameless behavior.
• Their exchange also shows mutual reliance: the Nile Doctor supplies knowledge and tactical insight, while Liu develops aggressive strategies.
• Liu consults Bai San about the safety of using magic in the path, accepting the warning when the potential consequences become too dangerous.
• The arrival at the new base shifts the interaction from supernatural danger to social satire, with Liu criticizing and admiring the Bai Family’s criminally practical construction scheme.

Chapter Summary: “Pre-Battle Casualties”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng’s group leaves the outpost and crosses a vast grassland on the way to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Bai San explains that the grassland is largely ordinary, though its grass has an awful taste and little nutritional value. It does, however, contain trace elements beneficial to herbivores.
• Niu Daji, whose senses have been altered by medical treatment, becomes unusually excited after tasting the grass. Liu Zheng stops him when his behavior resembles intoxication.
• Nile Doctor confirms that the grass itself is harmless. Niu Daji reveals that the Healing Bee doctor warned him that his senses might temporarily change, but he failed to report this to Liu Zheng.
• After Bai San explains the grass’s benefits, Liu Zheng allows Niu Daji to eat more of it. Bai San warns that the grass loses its properties once removed from the prairie.
• Liu Zheng asks whether he can repeatedly borrow the Bai Family’s Hedgehog Path, but Bai San refuses because its existence is secret and its use required special permission.
• Bai San asks Liu Zheng to help locate his missing son, Bai Tianshi, who is in Metropolis’s public hospital. The family’s former connection in the Health Department was arrested, leaving them without an effective channel.
• Bai San gives Niu Daji a strange medicine, the Stomach-Strengthening Appetite-Boosting Pill, which greatly increases appetite and food capacity for an hour.
• The pill’s system description reveals a dangerous side effect: after the hour ends, Niu Daji must not eat again until everything is digested, or his stomach and intestines may rupture.
• Niu Daji spends the hour consuming enormous amounts of grass and becomes too bloated to walk. Liu Zheng carries him back into the vehicle, and the group continues toward the mountains.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates his protective leadership. He sharply reprimands Niu Daji for hiding medically important information, insisting that all unusual symptoms be reported immediately.
• He also shows practical concern by monitoring the pill’s effects, stopping Niu Daji precisely before the danger period ends, and carrying him back when necessary.
• Niu Daji is shown as innocent, gluttonous, and eager to please Liu Zheng, but also irresponsible in failing to disclose his altered senses. His extreme appetite becomes both a source of comedy and a potential medical danger.
• Bai San proves knowledgeable about medicine, Metropolis’s bureaucratic structure, and the properties of the grassland. He takes advantage of the journey to ask Liu Zheng for help finding his son.
• Nile Doctor acts as the group’s medical authority, examining the grass, discussing medicine with Bai San, and making dry observations about the group’s foolish behavior.
• Old Fourth remains a reliable driver and gambler. Though he loses more often than Liu Zheng because of Liu Zheng’s enhanced Luck, he insists on settling every wager fairly.
• Liu Zheng and Bai San develop greater mutual trust through Bai San’s request for help and his offer of the unusual pill.

Significant Themes

• Leadership and responsibility: Liu Zheng emphasizes that subordinates must report problems rather than make their own assumptions.
• The hidden strangeness of Metropolis: Even apparently ordinary places and objects possess unusual properties, reinforcing that nothing in this world is truly mundane.
• Medicine as both help and danger: Bai San’s improvised pill is valuable but potentially lethal, highlighting the risks of unpredictable treatments and altered bodies.
• Trust and mutual assistance: Bai San’s guidance and access to the Hedgehog Path contrast with his need for Liu Zheng’s help locating his son.
• Comedy amid danger: The characters’ bickering, gambling, disgusting food reactions, and Niu Daji’s overeating lighten the tension before the group reaches the dangerous Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Niu Daji share a boss-subordinate relationship marked by affection, discipline, and comic threats.
• Nile Doctor and Bai San exchange medical knowledge while evaluating the grass and discussing the pill.
• Bai San appeals to Liu Zheng personally for help with Bai Tianshi, and Liu Zheng agrees to investigate despite lacking connections.
• Liu Zheng and Old Fourth gamble by eating the terrible grass, ending in a mutual-loss result.
• The group collectively reacts with disgust to Niu Daji’s burps and the grass’s revolting taste, creating a humorous “pre-battle casualty” situation before their journey continues.

Chapter Summary: “Giant Panda Highway Robbery”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Nile Doctor prepares a potent digestive medicine for Niu Daji, who cannot take it orally. He administers it painfully through an unconventional method, causing Niu Daji considerable distress.
• The armored vehicle travels across the grasslands toward the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Bai San explains that the mountain roads are jointly maintained by trading houses and are often threatened by robberies or tolls from local tribes and demon kings.
• The group approaches Green Bamboo Mountain, the entrance to the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Before they can proceed, an unseen voice orders them to stop.
• After a deliberately delayed appearance, a gigantic black-and-white creature crashes down from the sky. Liu Zheng identifies him as a panda, though the creature insists that he is an “Iron-Eating Beast.”
• Through their conversation, Liu Zheng persuades him to adopt the name “Giant Panda,” while also learning that he is the Demon King of Green Bamboo Mountain.
• The Giant Panda reveals that he was raised by a human master, who taught him meditation. The technique awakened his bloodline memories and helped him discover that he was a rare species. After his master died, he searched unsuccessfully for others like himself before settling down as a mountain demon king.
• The Giant Panda explains that he killed the previous Horse-Bear Demon, only to inherit the demon’s gambling debts. To preserve Green Bamboo Mountain’s valuable bamboo forests, he has begun robbing travelers.
• He demands 50,000 as a toll, adds 10,000 to spare Niu Daji from being eaten, and then suddenly raises the demand to one million as an “environmental protection fee.”
• Suspecting that the Giant Panda will continue changing the terms even after payment, Liu Zheng decides to attack rather than negotiate. With the Nile Doctor’s approval and Old Fourth and Bai San’s support, he launches an assault.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains quick-witted, skeptical, and highly protective of his companions. He uses humor and wordplay to communicate with the Giant Panda but becomes furious when the demon repeatedly changes the price. His strong sense of trust and fairness ultimately drives him to violence.
• Niu Daji is shown as loyal and stoic despite enduring humiliating and painful treatment. He tries to reassure Liu Zheng that he can endure the medicine, though he eventually breaks down in tears. The Giant Panda’s intention to eat him highlights his vulnerability and Liu Zheng’s willingness to defend him.
• Nile Doctor is portrayed as clinically inventive, ruthless, and unconcerned with conventional methods. He treats Niu Daji’s condition efficiently but with little sympathy.
• Bai San provides practical information about the mountain roads, regional powers, and the local demon hierarchy. His knowledge helps establish the dangers of the journey.
• The Giant Panda is introduced as powerful but eccentric, socially isolated, and shaped by his human upbringing. He has genuine affection for his bamboo-covered mountain, yet his financial desperation has turned him into a highway robber. His greed and opportunism emerge when he repeatedly raises his demands.

Significant Themes

• Trust and betrayal: Liu Zheng’s refusal to tolerate the Giant Panda’s shifting demands reflects the importance of keeping one’s word. Once the demon breaks their agreement, Liu Zheng considers him fundamentally untrustworthy.
• Cultural misunderstanding and identity: The naming exchange between “Panda,” “Black-and-White Bear,” and “Iron-Eating Beast” explores how the Giant Panda understands his own species and how outsiders define him.
• Survival and moral compromise: The Giant Panda is not purely malicious. He resorts to robbery because he inherited overwhelming debts and wants to protect his mountain, showing how difficult circumstances can push characters toward criminal behavior.
• Power and exploitation: The mountain roads are controlled by demons, tribes, and commercial groups that impose tolls and protection fees. The Giant Panda’s “environmental protection fee” parodies bureaucratic justification for extortion.
• Comic fantasy juxtaposed with danger: The chapter combines absurd medical treatment, humorous animal terminology, and exaggerated dialogue with the genuine threat of violence and robbery.

Character Interactions

• Nile Doctor and Niu Daji interact through a comic but harsh doctor-patient relationship, with Liu Zheng acting as a mediator and protector.
• Liu Zheng and Bai San discuss the geography, infrastructure, and political dangers of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, establishing Bai San as an experienced guide.
• Liu Zheng and the Giant Panda develop a humorous rapport through their debate over the creature’s name and species. This briefly turns into mutual understanding before the Panda’s greed destroys the relationship.
• The Giant Panda threatens to eat Niu Daji, prompting Liu Zheng to identify him as an important subordinate and refuse to surrender him.
• Their negotiation collapses when the Giant Panda raises the toll after receiving payment. Liu Zheng interprets this as a breach of trust and initiates the chapter’s climactic confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “Hum-and-Ha Qi, Superior Inner Elixir”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng battles an ancient Giant Panda demon whose iron-like body resists ordinary attacks. Liu’s Dragon-Scale Blade manages to cut its paw, proving the blade’s exceptional sharpness.
• The panda attempts to overwhelm Liu with its speed and air-blade attacks, but the Nile Doctor intervenes, blocking its strikes with the Gemstone Scimitar and scepter.
• The Nile Doctor uses Liu’s blood to activate the Sapphire Scarab and later the Emerald Dragonfly, enhancing his strength and summoning a tornado to trap the fleeing panda.
• The panda reveals its Superior Inner Elixir, using the technique “Swallow Mountains and Rivers in One Breath” to absorb the tornado. It then launches Demon-Subduing and Demon-Suppressing Pestles at the group.
• Liu sacrifices one tentacle to counter the Demon-Suppressing Pestle, while the Nile Doctor is struck by the soul-targeting Demon-Subduing Pestles. His soul is knocked from his body, but Sun God Ra’s power recalls it before it can escape.
• Frightened that its ultimate technique has failed, the panda calls upon its master for help by repeatedly striking its head against the ground.
• The master appears as a feather-robed remnant soul. He immediately recognizes that the panda has provoked a far larger and more dangerous group than it realized, including numerous hidden donkey-ear spirits beneath the vehicle.
• The master adopts a diplomatic attitude and greets Liu Zheng’s group. Liu explains that the panda demanded an agreed toll of sixty thousand yuan, then raised it to one million. The master is left scrambling for an excuse.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates improved combat ability thanks to the Feng Hou Bamboo Leaf Tea’s speed enhancement. He remains cautious but adapts quickly, using his regenerative tentacles strategically as expendable defenses.
• The Nile Doctor displays considerable physical strength, combat experience, and tactical cunning. He nearly tricks the panda into agreeing to become a bodyguard, then uses sacred artifacts and Liu’s blood to restrain it. His past as a warrior who killed three Nadi Bears is revealed, emphasizing his formidable background.
• The Giant Panda initially appears lazy, greedy, and relatively harmless, but is shown to possess immense physical strength, a powerful Inner Elixir, and soul-attacking techniques. Despite its strength, it is impulsive and easily outmaneuvered. Its instinct to flee and summon its master highlights its lack of confidence against superior opponents.
• The feather-robed master is revealed to be powerful and perceptive. He scolds the panda for recklessly exposing his Inner Elixir and provoking a group much stronger than expected. Despite his harshness, he protects the panda because its death would also endanger his own soul.
• Bai San proves knowledgeable about supernatural treasures, immediately identifying the panda’s Superior Inner Elixir and attempting to save the Nile Doctor with a Jade Cicada.

Significant Themes

• Strength versus cleverness: Raw physical power and supernatural techniques are repeatedly countered by strategy, deception, teamwork, and specialized artifacts.
• Hidden power and misjudgment: The panda assumes it is confronting a small group but fails to perceive the many spirits hidden beneath the vehicle. Its master recognizes how badly it has underestimated its opponents.
• The dangers of revealing one’s trump card: Once the panda exposes its Inner Elixir, the group gains crucial information about its abilities, while the panda becomes increasingly desperate to eliminate witnesses.
• Divine and supernatural protection: The Nile Doctor survives a devastating soul attack through Ra’s intervention, demonstrating the importance of divine affiliations and the difference between bodily and spiritual destruction.
• Greed and negotiation: The conflict begins over an inflated toll, and the characters repeatedly use bargaining, legalistic reasoning, and verbal manipulation alongside violence.
• Master-disciple relationships: The panda’s master is both exasperated and protective. Their interaction portrays the panda as powerful but immature, while the master acts as its reluctant guardian and strategist.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the Nile Doctor fight cooperatively, though Liu resents the Doctor repeatedly using his blood to activate sacred relics.
• The Nile Doctor tries to persuade the panda to become a bodyguard, exploiting its pride in its master and reframing the arrangement as a natural consequence of its strength.
• Bai San supports the group with technical knowledge, warning Liu against directly blocking the soul-attacking pestle and attempting to preserve the Nile Doctor’s soul.
• The panda and its master argue openly: the master condemns its recklessness, while the panda insists it needs help to survive.
• Liu confronts the master over the panda’s broken agreement and excessive toll demand, forcing the master to defend his disciple’s behavior while maintaining a façade of courtesy.

Chapter Summary: “Let Them See Your Big Treasure”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Giant Panda’s earlier outburst nearly injures everyone, Liu Zheng confronts the feather-robed remnant soul inhabiting the panda. He invokes the Bloodstained Restaurant’s fearsome reputation, threatening to send both master and disciple through its “Kitchen.”
• Liu Zheng proposes continuing their earlier wager: Giant Panda must fight the Nile Doctor, with the original stakes unchanged. The feather-robed master attempts to alter the terms by insisting that Liu Zheng send out a junior opponent.
• Master and disciple secretly plan to stall the battle and escape. Liu Zheng sees through their intentions and reveals his Dragon-Fishing Rod, whose power guarantees a hit and restrains the loser according to their comparative Luck.
• The Nile Doctor displays his Miniature Pyramid. The feather-robed man initially mistakes it for the legendary Heaven-Turning Seal and is terrified, realizing that even if it is not the true immortal treasure, its power could easily destroy his remnant soul.
• Rather than fight, the feather-robed man negotiates. Liu Zheng offers to spare them if Giant Panda becomes his bodyguard. In exchange, Liu Zheng promises to help locate other pandas through clues involving a panda-clad person and the city’s Sanitation Department.
• The feather-robed master uses Giant Panda’s body to cast the Yin-Yang Aura-Reading Eye. Looking at Liu Zheng nearly blinds and severely injures him because Liu Zheng is surrounded by multiple “dragons of fortune.”
• Recognizing Liu Zheng’s extraordinary destiny, the master orders Giant Panda to follow him faithfully. He predicts that Liu Zheng will eventually face a great tribulation and that helping him may allow Giant Panda to reforge its Inner Elixir into a Supreme-Grade or even Immortal-Grade one.
• Giant Panda reluctantly agrees to accompany Liu Zheng but refuses to acknowledge him as its master. It negotiates food, drink, wages, and the right to leave.
• Liu Zheng offers 100,000 for Giant Panda’s assistance during the upcoming trip into the Hundred Thousand Mountains. The panda accepts, though it deliberately avoids learning the mission’s details so it can claim ignorance and preserve the option of retreat.
• Since Giant Panda has no personal name, Liu Zheng gives it the nickname “Abao” after rejecting alternatives such as “Dog Egg” and “Iron Pillar.” The panda dislikes the name but accepts it as the only tolerable option.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes more assertive and calculating. He uses intimidation, the Bloodstained Restaurant’s reputation, his Dragon-Fishing Rod, and the Nile Doctor’s Miniature Pyramid to force a favorable resolution without needing to fight.
• Giant Panda shifts from an enemy and escape-minded spirit beast into a reluctant temporary ally. It remains greedy, cautious, and rebellious, but its destiny becomes tied to Liu Zheng after its master recognizes Liu Zheng’s immense fortune.
• The feather-robed master is revealed to be pragmatic, domineering, and deeply invested in his disciple’s potential. Despite scolding Giant Panda, he ultimately sacrifices his freedom and urges it to follow Liu Zheng because he believes Liu Zheng may be crucial to its path toward immortality.
• The Nile Doctor reinforces his role as a powerful elder and ally to Liu Zheng by presenting the Miniature Pyramid as a major deterrent.
• Bai San contributes practical information about the income and status of Demon Kings, helping Liu Zheng negotiate Giant Panda’s salary.

Significant Themes

• Power through leverage rather than violence: Liu Zheng wins by combining reputation, strategic threats, magical treasures, and negotiation.
• Fate and fortune: The feather-robed master’s vision reveals that Liu Zheng possesses extraordinary fortune, suggesting that his destiny will affect everyone who joins him.
• Master-disciple relationships: Their relationship is unconventional and conflicted, involving fear, exploitation, protection, and mutual dependence.
• Freedom versus obligation: Giant Panda wants to preserve its independence, while its master insists that following Liu Zheng is the best route to survival and advancement.
• Names and identity: Liu Zheng’s casual renaming of the Iron-Eating Beast as “Giant Panda,” and later as “Abao,” raises questions about identity, karma, and the power of naming.
• Ambition and immortality: The master’s obsession with Supreme-Grade and Immortal-Grade Inner Elixirs reveals the extreme sacrifices and risks associated with cultivation.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the feather-robed master engage in a tense battle of threats and negotiation, with Liu Zheng repeatedly exposing the master’s attempts to escape.
• The master and Giant Panda communicate secretly, revealing their mistrust, dependence, and long history of arguing over cultivation.
• The master criticizes Giant Panda for its laziness and weak cultivation, while the panda accuses him of frightening it and preventing it from improving.
• After reading Liu Zheng’s fortune, the master changes from trying to escape him to urging Giant Panda to follow him permanently.
• Liu Zheng and Giant Panda establish a humorous but uneasy employer-bodyguard relationship, negotiating pay, food, duties, and the panda’s right to leave.
• Liu Zheng’s naming of the panda ends the chapter on a comic note, establishing “Abao” as the reluctant ally’s new nickname.

Chapter Summary: “As Long as You Lick Enough, You Can Have Anything”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and his companions leave Green Bamboo Mountain in their armored vehicle, with Abao deciding to abandon its position as Demon King. Abao considers the mountain a poor investment, though it plans to return occasionally for bamboo.
• Liu Zheng activates the skull whistle given to him by Shi Tiantian. Because the skull leaks air, he seals its openings with his tentacles before blowing through an eye socket, successfully signaling her.
• While waiting, Abao returns to the mountain to pack its belongings. It comes back carrying a bundle tied to its back, prompting Liu Zheng to tease it for looking like a thief.
• Bai San detects someone approaching rapidly underground. The visitor turns out to be Shi Tiantian, who emerges from the earth.
• Liu Zheng excessively flatters and accommodates Shi Tiantian, even cleaning the dirt from her body with his uniform. She is touched and hugs him, accidentally aggravating his already broken ribs.
• Bai San treats Liu Zheng using magical willow-based medicine, rapidly restoring his injuries. Nile Doctor then insists on using “Medicinal Excrement” to accelerate the healing process, forcing Liu Zheng to swallow it despite his disgust.
• Shi Tiantian explains that she once killed a group of humans who attacked her with weapons after encountering her in the mountains. She reveals that the humans had left behind several unusual objects.
• As an apology for injuring him, Shi Tiantian offers Liu Zheng one item from the bundle. He examines the objects and discovers several powerful single-use items:
  • Small-Wins-Big Gun: Deals greater damage against targets much larger than the user, while inflicting equal damage on the user.
  • Dyed Jade: Marks a target with dye and a strong odor detectable from two kilometers away.
  • Flash Jade: Produces an intense flash that blinds targets for three seconds.
  • Sonic Jade: Creates a deafening sound, especially effective against creatures with strong hearing.
• Liu Zheng realizes the humans were likely poachers rather than innocent picnickers.
• The final object is a mysterious notebook filled with unintelligible writing. Nile Doctor cannot decipher it but suspects it may be the diary of a follower of an obscure or sinister faith.
• Liu Zheng asks Shi Tiantian to trade him the pistol and give him the notebook. She agrees to trade but refuses money, prompting Liu Zheng to search for something suitable. The chapter ends when Nile Doctor unexpectedly returns an item to him.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to demonstrate a mixture of composure, shameless flattery, tactical judgment, and opportunism. He calmly allows Abao to leave rather than forcibly retain an unreliable ally, but immediately recognizes the value of Shi Tiantian’s items.
• His injuries emphasize both his physical vulnerability and his unusual resilience, as he recovers from broken ribs in minutes.
• Abao shows its independence and lack of attachment to power or territory. It treats ruling Green Bamboo Mountain as a bad business decision and remains carefree even while preparing to leave.
• Shi Tiantian is revealed to be immensely strong, emotionally expressive, and somewhat naïve. She interprets Liu Zheng’s flattery as genuine kindness and is eager to apologize and reward him.
• Bai San displays his excellent sensory abilities and develops further as the group’s healer. His medical techniques are absurd by real-world standards but effective in the supernatural setting.
• Nile Doctor acts as both a skeptical commentator and a serious physician. He criticizes Liu Zheng’s behavior while also treating him, though his medical methods are grotesque.
• Niu Daji becomes jealous of Abao’s popularity and strength, motivating himself to work harder so that newer companions do not overshadow his established position in the group.

Significant Themes

• Pragmatism over sentiment: Liu Zheng accepts Abao’s departure because forcing it to stay would create an unstable ally. Relationships and territory are treated according to usefulness and reliability.
• Flattery and social manipulation: The chapter’s title reflects Liu Zheng’s willingness to ingratiate himself with Shi Tiantian in order to maintain goodwill and obtain valuable rewards.
• Absurdity in a dangerous world: Broken bones, magical medicine, excrement-based healing, and powerful items disguised as plastic toys combine comedy with genuine danger.
• Human recklessness and exploitation: The presumed poachers represent outsiders who enter a deadly environment carelessly and treat supernatural creatures as targets.
• Value hidden in the ridiculous: Ordinary-looking objects—plastic balls, a small pistol, and a dirty notebook—possess extraordinary powers or possible occult significance.
• Companionship and rivalry: The group functions as a team, but its members also compete for Liu Zheng’s attention and recognition.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Abao engage in playful teasing, with Liu Zheng mocking Abao’s bundle and Abao defensively insisting it is not a thief.
• Liu Zheng comforts Shi Tiantian after her overly forceful hug and continues flattering her despite his injuries.
• Bai San and Nile Doctor cooperate in treating Liu Zheng, though Nile Doctor’s contribution becomes a source of comic conflict because Liu Zheng suspects he simply wants him to eat feces.
• Niu Daji silently resents Abao’s favored status and compares their loyalty, strength, and accomplishments.
• Liu Zheng and Shi Tiantian negotiate over the mysterious loot, establishing a friendly but transactional relationship.
• Nile Doctor’s final act of returning an item to Liu Zheng creates a cliffhanger and may provide the trade item Liu Zheng needs.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Nile Doctor gives Liu Zheng a pigeon’s-egg-sized peridot, which Liu passes to Shi Tiantian as a gift. She is delighted because peridot is rare in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Using Shepherd’s Finger, Liu determines that their destination lies northwest. Although Mount Oe is in another direction, he chooses to finish Everything Shop’s commission first and search for the Shuffled Dice.
• Shi Tiantian agrees to travel with the group using Earth Escape. The Giant Panda, Abao, offers to cast Shrinking and Feather Transformation spells so the party can travel more efficiently.
• Abao and Shi Tiantian immediately insult and threaten one another. Liu intervenes, forcing both to stop fighting. He intimidates Abao by threatening to expose it to the disgusting “Sewer” cuisine and Medicine Feces.
• Shi Tiantian shrinks to Liu’s size, while Abao shrinks to backpack-size and becomes weightless. Liu carries Shi Tiantian, leading to flirtatious and comedic physical interactions.
• The group rearranges itself inside the vehicle and resumes traveling. Nile Doctor replaces one of Niu Daji’s medicinal rods; Niu Daji tolerates the procedure without complaint and even asks for more, impressing Liu.
• Shi Tiantian dramatically improves the group’s travel speed. Her Stone Spirit abilities harden roads, transform mud into stone, and soften or reshape rock, allowing the vehicle to cross a swamp directly instead of detouring.
• Liu learns that Shi Tiantian’s family is absent because they are suppressing a nest of Earth Dragons. These creatures are actually enormous earthworms rather than true dragons and are natural enemies of the Stone Spirit Clan.
• Shi Tiantian explains that successful Earth Dragon “turning over” would prevent Stone Spirits from being born in the affected area, while devouring Stone Spirits helps the Earth Dragons mature. No known Earth Dragon has completed the process, though mysterious shed skins suggest the transformed creatures might become True Dragons.
• Bai San adds that Earth Dragon shed skin is an extremely valuable medicinal ingredient, capable of restoring flesh, reviving the dead, and protecting pregnancies even among Long-Lived Species.
• Shi Tiantian questions Bai San’s identity when Liu introduces him as a guide from the Bai Family, revealing that the family has not yet established business ties with the Stone Spirit Clan.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to act as the group’s practical leader and mediator. He values completing his commission but also recognizes the usefulness of adding capable companions. He begins viewing competition among his subordinates as a way to improve their performance.
• Shi Tiantian becomes more integrated into the traveling party. She shows affection toward Liu, enjoys his attention, and proves highly valuable through her terrain-altering abilities. Her confidence and knowledge of the Hundred Thousand Mountains are also emphasized.
• The Giant Panda/Abao remains proud, combative, and insecure about being treated as an underling. Liu’s threats force it to curb its arrogance, though it still complains about shrinking and being carried around. Its smaller form makes it unexpectedly cute and strengthens its place in the group.
• Nile Doctor continues serving as a reliable assistant, supplying both valuable objects and unpleasant medicinal substances. His ability to frighten Abao highlights his intimidating presence.
• Niu Daji demonstrates remarkable toughness by enduring another medicinal rod insertion without reacting, suggesting strong resilience and creating a humorous sense of competition within the group.
• Bai San is revealed to possess considerable knowledge of rare medicinal materials and remains modest about his family’s status.

Significant Themes

• Strength, hierarchy, and obedience: The chapter repeatedly shows that status in the Hundred Thousand Mountains is determined by power. Liu must establish authority over Abao, while Shi Tiantian and Abao instinctively challenge each other.
• Practical cooperation: Despite their arguments, the group’s abilities complement one another. Shi Tiantian, Abao, Bai San, and Nile Doctor each contribute in different ways to make the journey faster and safer.
• Culture and communication: Liu observes that people in harsh environments often communicate through bluntness and force rather than courtesy. Nile Doctor explains this as a consequence of social pressure, limited education, and a survival-oriented culture.
• Economic value and opportunity: Liu repeatedly evaluates people, resources, and discoveries in terms of usefulness—whether the peridot, Earth Dragon shed skin, or the possibility of obtaining rare creatures.
• Belonging and social integration: Abao’s reluctance to grow close to Liu contrasts with its gradual incorporation into the group. Shi Tiantian, meanwhile, becomes increasingly comfortable and emotionally attached to Liu.

Character Interactions

• Liu gives Shi Tiantian the peridot, strengthening their affectionate relationship.
• Abao and Shi Tiantian engage in a hostile exchange of insults and threats, reflecting both their personalities and the dominance-based culture of the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Liu mediates their conflict and asserts control over Abao through humorous but frightening threats involving the Sewer and Medicine Feces.
• Liu carries the shrunken Shi Tiantian, prompting flirtatious teasing and accidental rib-breaking.
• Liu rewards Abao financially for helping the group, showing that he manages even his unruly companions through incentives and authority.
• Liu praises Shi Tiantian’s contribution while compensating Abao, maintaining cooperation among the new and existing members.
• Shi Tiantian questions Bai San’s background, while Bai San humbly explains his family’s desire to establish connections with the Stone Spirit Clan.

Chapter Summary: “Nile Doctor: Don’t Hurt My Horse!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Shi Tiantian agrees to place the Bai Family on the Stone Spirit Clan’s trade list, giving Bai San a valuable new business connection. Bai San promises Liu Zheng a 30% commission from future transactions.
• Nile Doctor purchases Earth Dragon dung from Shi Tiantian. Instead of paying money, he uses his Sapphire Scarab dung beetle to transform it into Medicinal Dung, which he and Shi Tiantian agree to split equally.
• Bai San secretly tells Liu Zheng about the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Spring, a rare resource hidden inside an ancient cultivator’s cave. It can strengthen ordinary people, aid yin-cold cultivators, and potentially be used in artifact refinement.
• Bai San leaves to inspect the spring. Liu Zheng and the others soon sense a powerful presence approaching underground.
• Bai San returns in giant-hedgehog form, fleeing from a powerful Snow Horse. The horse attacks him with volleys of icy spikes.
• Liu Zheng’s group prepares for battle. Nile Doctor and Panda provide ranged support while Niu Daji protects Liu Zheng. Shi Tiantian remains neutral, wary of violating the Stone Spirit Clan’s long-standing policy of neutrality.
• Nile Doctor blocks one of the Snow Horse’s attacks and becomes excited after sensing its natural power and trace of divinity. He hopes to capture it alive and transform it into Ra’s Meteor Horse, one of Sun God Ra’s future Subordinate Gods.
• Nile Doctor activates the powers of the Sacred Scarab, scorpion, and dragonfly, gaining enhanced defense, strength, venom, speed, and flight.
• Liu Zheng orders everyone not to kill the Snow Horse unless necessary, prioritizing survival while accommodating Nile Doctor’s plans.
• The Snow Horse responds with overwhelming hostility, unleashing Iron Wall Ice Prison and trapping the group inside a thick circular ice barrier.
• Bai San explains that he barely escaped after encountering the Snow Horse at the spring. Liu Zheng realizes the horse’s presence likely explains why the Cold Jade Spring’s production has been so inconsistent.

Character Developments

• Bai San strengthens his relationship with Liu Zheng by revealing a secret family resource and offering to sell him Cold Jade Spring water at cost. His investment in Liu Zheng is tied to his hope of rescuing Bai Tianshi.
• Liu Zheng demonstrates caution and leadership. He avoids becoming entangled in broader conflicts despite knowing about many treasures, but readily accepts opportunities that can benefit his group. During the ambush, he quickly organizes a defensive response.
• Nile Doctor continues collecting rare resources and displaying his eccentric medical methods. His interest shifts from the Snow Horse as an enemy to it as a potential divine companion for Ra, revealing his long-term ambitions.
• Shi Tiantian proves useful as a merchant and resource holder but remains politically cautious. The Stone Spirit Clan’s neutrality prevents her from openly joining Liu Zheng’s side.
• Bai San’s survival skills are emphasized: his years of traveling through the mountains allow him to escape an enemy far stronger than himself.
• The Snow Horse is established as an intelligent, proud, and extremely powerful divine beast. It is aggressive because Bai San intruded on its territory and attempted to flee after discovering it.

Significant Themes

• Mutual benefit and strategic alliances: The chapter repeatedly presents cooperation as a series of profitable exchanges between Liu Zheng, Bai San, Shi Tiantian, and Nile Doctor.
• Treasure and risk: Valuable resources such as Medicinal Dung and Cold Jade Spring water offer major benefits, but their acquisition brings danger and unwanted enemies.
• Neutrality versus loyalty: Shi Tiantian’s hesitation reflects the Stone Spirit Clan’s need to preserve neutrality among powerful factions, even when it sympathizes with Liu Zheng.
• Pragmatism over idealism: Liu Zheng is willing to help Nile Doctor capture the Snow Horse, but only so long as doing so does not endanger his companions.
• Divinity and reincarnation of power: Nile Doctor’s interest in the Snow Horse connects the immediate battle to Sun God Ra’s effort to restore his lost Subordinate Gods through powerful divine beasts.

Important Character Interactions

• Shi Tiantian, Bai San, and Liu Zheng establish a profitable future trade arrangement.
• Shi Tiantian and Nile Doctor negotiate the exchange of Earth Dragon dung for a share of the resulting Medicinal Dung.
• Bai San privately trusts Liu Zheng with the Bai Family’s secret Cold Jade Spring, while demanding strict confidentiality.
• Liu Zheng coordinates Niu Daji, Nile Doctor, and Panda during the Snow Horse’s attack.
• Nile Doctor urges the group to spare the Snow Horse, while Liu Zheng makes clear that the group’s safety takes priority.
• Bai San’s encounter with the Snow Horse indirectly reveals the reason behind the spring’s unstable production.

Chapter Summary: A Single Blade Against a Spear, Nine Deaths and One Injury

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng’s group remains trapped inside the Snow Horse’s icy prison. Liu initially tries to provoke the horse into conversation, and the Snow Horse explains that it has secretly occupied the cave for centuries. It tolerated the group stealing spring water, but now intends to kill them because they discovered its existence.
• The Snow Horse launches Snowblind Technique, blinding everyone with reflected light, followed by Snowflake Dance, which turns falling snow into razor-sharp, buzz-saw-like weapons.
• Niu Da Daji protects Liu Zheng, while Liu shields Niu Da Daji with his tentacles. Panda creates protective clouds that absorb the snowflakes, though it does not extend this protection to the armored vehicle or the others.
• Bai San escapes underground, prioritizing survival, while Shi Tiantian remains unharmed because the Snow Horse respects the Stone Spirit Clan’s rules. Nile Doctor is protected by the Sun Disk, which melts the snowflakes into water.
• The Snow Horse transforms, creating Snow-Coalescing Armor and an icy spear. It identifies itself as Changshan Cangzhi Xue, while Nile Doctor formally declares himself a descendant of Ra.
• Nile Doctor fights the Snow Horse with a curved blade and other supernatural abilities. Liu Zheng recognizes the severe disadvantage of using a single blade against a spear and prepares his Dragon-Fishing Rod in case he must rescue the doctor.
• Nile Doctor counters the spear with a golden scorpion tail, then blocks the horse’s ice needles and destroys its spear. The Snow Horse responds by wielding two short spears.
• Nile Doctor divides himself and his Sun Disk into two bodies. The Snow Horse correctly reasons that one must be an illusion and kills the stronger-looking copy, freezing and shattering it.
• Believing it has defeated the real Nile Doctor, the Snow Horse disarms him and suppresses his scorpion tail. However, Nile Doctor reveals that the apparent defeat was part of a trap.
• Nile Doctor grabs the Snow Horse, draws power from the Sacred Scarab and gemstone scorpion, and repeatedly slams the horse into the icy ground. Its armor shatters, and it spits blood.
• Nile Doctor is forced to stop because his weakened body is nearing its limit. The injured Snow Horse then begins merging into the ice, alarming Nile Doctor as he reaches for its head.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains irreverent and sarcastic under pressure, but he also demonstrates loyalty by protecting Niu Da Daji and preparing to intervene if Nile Doctor is defeated. His understanding of the Snow Horse’s nature also shows growing strategic insight.
• Nile Doctor reveals himself as a highly versatile and dangerous fighter. He uses the Sun Disk, curved blade, scepter, golden scorpion tail, body duplication, and sacred relics in combination. Though physically weakened, he remains composed and ultimately outmaneuvers the Snow Horse.
• The Snow Horse/Changshan Cangzhi Xue is revealed to be an ancient, battle-hardened and extremely cautious creature. It is proud, suspicious of outsiders, and unwilling to be tamed. Its confidence becomes arrogance after it seemingly defeats one of Nile Doctor’s bodies, allowing Nile Doctor to reverse the situation.
• Niu Da Daji shows devotion to Liu Zheng by immediately shielding him from the Snowflake Dance. His emotional reaction to Liu’s protection also highlights their developing bond.
• Panda is powerful but narrowly obedient, protecting only Liu Zheng and those directly specified. Its exchanges with Liu retain their comic, insulting tone.
• Bai San displays his pragmatic and cautious nature by escaping underground rather than remaining in a battle beyond his ability.
• Shi Tiantian demonstrates the special status and rules surrounding the Stone Spirit Clan, which the Snow Horse respects.

Significant Themes

• Concealed strength and identity: The Snow Horse hides its existence, while Nile Doctor conceals which of his two bodies is real. Both sides rely on secrecy and misdirection.
• Pride versus adaptability: The Snow Horse is a skilled warrior, but its pride causes it to underestimate Nile Doctor. Nile Doctor succeeds by abandoning conventional combat and using an elaborate combination of deception and physical force.
• Survival and self-preservation: The chapter contrasts Bai San’s escape, Panda’s limited protection, and Nile Doctor’s willingness to risk his deteriorating body.
• Taming versus freedom: The Snow Horse resists becoming someone’s mount, emphasizing its independence and warrior identity.
• Ancient power in a modern conflict: The Snow Horse’s centuries of isolation and martial tradition clash with Nile Doctor’s unconventional supernatural abilities and relic-based combat.
• The danger of appearances: The Snow Horse kills the apparently stronger Nile Doctor, only to discover that strength and reality were deliberately disguised.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the Snow Horse exchange insults and accusations, with Liu challenging its fear of discovery and mocking its transformation from warhorse to general.
• Liu Zheng and Niu Da Daji show mutual loyalty through their coordinated defense during the snow attack, though Liu masks his concern with insults.
• Liu Zheng and Panda continue their familiar bickering, balancing the tension with comic relief.
• Nile Doctor attempts diplomacy, but the Snow Horse rejects discussion and demands a battle.
• Nile Doctor and the Snow Horse engage in a progressively escalating duel: spear against blade, ice needles against supernatural defenses, dual weapons against duplicated bodies, and finally raw physical strength.
• The Snow Horse initially dominates through superior spear technique and tactical reasoning, but Nile Doctor’s deception and hidden abilities ultimately turn the fight in his favor.