Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: Snowfall Funeral, Icefall Sky Burial

Key Plot Points and Events

• Nile Doctor discovers that the Snow Horse had not truly died but had hidden within the ice for centuries. He destroys the horse-shaped decoy, causing the real Snow Horse to emerge.
• Nile Doctor offers the Snow Horse the chance to evolve into a Subordinate God under his lord, but the Snow Horse rejects the offer, valuing its hard-won freedom after centuries of servitude.
• Liu Zheng argues that survival is more important than pride or freedom, recounting his own humiliating early experiences and how enduring them allowed him to gain power and the possibility of future freedom.
• The Snow Horse agrees with Liu Zheng’s philosophy but nevertheless decides to kill everyone to protect its existence.
• Liu Zheng attempts to negotiate by proposing a mutually beneficial supply contract: the Snow Horse would provide rare products while Liu Zheng would protect its production area and keep its location secret.
• Nile Doctor swears in Ra’s name not to expose the Snow Horse. Shi Tiantian also swears upon the Hundred Thousand Mountains that she will preserve its secret as long as the Stone Spirit Clan and the mountains are not threatened.
• The Snow Horse attacks the hidden Dark Elves beneath the armored vehicle after Liu Zheng admits they are outside his control.
• It first uses Snowfall Funeral, transforming its icy prison into countless extremely hard ice needles. The Dark Elves counter with Dark Fortress, Arnzipal’s Greedy Mouth, and Binding Darkness, successfully neutralizing the attack.
• Angered at being underestimated, the Snow Horse unleashes its true technique, Icefall Sky Burial. It summons a massive ice-crystal meteor surrounded by supernatural white flames and locks it onto the armored vehicle.
• Nile Doctor gathers everyone beneath his solar protection. Panda contributes the Lesser Yang Dawnlight Banner, enhanced with precious pill qi, while Nile Doctor summons a golden pyramid through Ra’s divine power.
• The Dark Elves use their Secret Disintegration ray, but it only reduces the meteor’s size and changes its shape. The enormous projectile continues toward them, leaving the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• The Snow Horse is revealed to be an ancient, powerful, and deeply freedom-loving creature. Having spent five hundred years as a mount and battle beast, it now refuses to surrender its autonomy again. Its willingness to negotiate shows that it is not mindlessly hostile, but its pride and fear of exposure make it highly volatile.
• Liu Zheng demonstrates his characteristic pragmatism, opportunism, and persuasive ability. He uses both sincere personal testimony and commercial strategy to turn a potential enemy into a business partner. He also remains shamelessly focused on compensation, even while facing a deadly attack.
• Nile Doctor shows patience and loyalty to his divine master, accepting that the Snow Horse may need centuries before deciding whether to become a Subordinate God. He also acts as the group’s principal protector by invoking Ra’s power.
• Panda is shown to possess impressive hidden resources as a disciple of the Authentic Mystic Sect. Though reluctant and resentful, it uses the Lesser Yang Dawnlight Banner and sacrifices valuable pill qi to help defend the group.
• Shi Tiantian cooperates readily with Liu Zheng and proves the Stone Spirit Clan’s neutrality through a binding oath.
• The Dark Elves remain secretive and difficult to control, relying on their familiar darkness techniques. Their repeated tactics are effective but begin to show limits against the Snow Horse’s strongest ability.

Significant Themes

• Freedom versus survival: The Snow Horse believes freedom is worth dying for, while Liu Zheng argues that continued life preserves the possibility of revenge, growth, and eventual freedom.
• Pragmatism over idealism: Liu Zheng’s own history supports the idea that enduring humiliation and compromise can create opportunities for future power.
• Mutual interest as a path to trust: The proposed supply contract shows how business and shared incentives can succeed where threats and moral arguments fail.
• Identity and concealment: The Snow Horse’s centuries-long hiding reflects the dangers faced by powerful beings who must remain unknown to survive.
• Power and escalation: The battle progresses from ordinary ice attacks to increasingly catastrophic supernatural techniques, emphasizing the gap between the Snow Horse’s apparent weakness and its true strength.
• Cooperation under pressure: Despite distrust and conflicting personalities, the group combines divine, mystical, and dark defensive powers when faced with the meteor.

Character Interactions

• Nile Doctor tries to recruit the Snow Horse, but the horse challenges the safety and reliability of his god, Ra.
• Liu Zheng directly debates the Snow Horse’s belief in freedom and convinces it to delay any decision about becoming a Subordinate God.
• Liu Zheng negotiates with the Snow Horse through the proposed exclusive supply contract, while also warning that killing the group would not fully erase knowledge of its existence.
• Shi Tiantian supports Liu Zheng’s negotiations by swearing an oath on behalf of the Stone Spirit Clan.
• Liu Zheng pressures Panda to contribute to the defense, mocking its reluctance and rewarding it with cash after it expends valuable pill qi.
• Nile Doctor protects the group with Ra’s sunlight and divine pyramid, while the Dark Elves repeatedly defend the armored vehicle with darkness techniques.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng taunting the Dark Elves as their disintegration attack fails to stop the incoming ice meteor, setting up the next confrontation.

Chapter Summary: The Man Who Could Burn Metropolis

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Dark Elves successfully block Liu Zheng’s powerful spell, “Dark Gate: Annihilation,” which creates a miniature black-hole-like singularity capable of destroying the ice crystal meteorite.
• Snow Horse, enraged at being mocked, activates her Dynamax Band and prepares to continue fighting. However, Yaksha emerges from hiding and reveals that most of the Dark Elf guards have sacrificed themselves to empower or return beneath the throne of their god, Blood God Cain.
• With the Dark Elves weakened, Liu Zheng’s companions side with Snow Horse. Yaksha reluctantly apologizes for her earlier behavior, and Snow Horse agrees to spare her.
• Liu Zheng negotiates compensation for Snow Horse’s damaged armored vehicle. Snow Horse gives him a jade bottle containing unpredictable pills, allowing him to take only two.
• Liu Zheng performs an absurd “luck ritual” by applying clown makeup and activating his Lucky Clown Card. His first draw appears to contain a valuable dragon-filled ice sphere, but it evaporates immediately.
• His second draw produces an Ice-Skin Jade-Bone Pill, which permanently increases his Constitution and reduces the effects of cold. He consumes it and gains the benefits.
• Liu Zheng and Snow Horse formally sign a contract. Snow Horse seals hers with hoofprints, agreeing to cooperate with him.
• Liu Zheng proposes a trade agreement between Snow Horse and the Bai Family to prevent future conflict over her cave estate and cold spring water. Bai San agrees to consult the family head.
• Snow Horse offers to sell Liu Zheng some spring water. He pays with wine, discovering that Snow Horse enjoys drinking and has painful memories connected to her former master.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates his usual mix of shamelessness, negotiation skills, opportunism, and genuine concern for maintaining peace. Though he jokes constantly, he successfully mediates between Snow Horse and the Dark Elves, then attempts to stabilize relations with the Bai Family.
• Snow Horse shifts from furious combatant to cautious ally. She proves honorable by keeping her promise to compensate Liu Zheng and accepting responsibility for her actions. Her affection for wine and sadness over her deceased master reveal a more vulnerable side beneath her pride and aggression.
• Yaksha is forced to suppress her anger and apologize because the Dark Elves have lost most of their fighters. Her willingness to protect the remaining witches shows that she values their survival over personal pride.
• Niu Daji becomes increasingly loyal to Liu Zheng, proudly defending him and believing Liu Zheng would choose him over powerful outsiders.
• Panda remains arrogant and skeptical, boasting about his lineage and status while mocking Liu Zheng’s strange behavior and Niu Daji’s loyalty.
• Bai San acts cautiously, recognizing that the Bai Family must decide whether cooperation with Snow Horse is safer than continuing their dispute.

Significant Themes

• Power and survival: The Dark Elves’ sacrifice of their own forces illustrates the extreme lengths religious factions may take for power, while Snow Horse’s restraint reflects the practical need to preserve her dwindling allies.
• Negotiation over violence: Liu Zheng repeatedly transforms potential conflicts into agreements, using contracts and trade to replace cycles of retaliation.
• Loyalty and chosen relationships: Niu Daji’s devotion to Liu Zheng contrasts with Panda’s more cynical view of relationships. Liu Zheng’s group increasingly functions as a team despite their differences.
• Luck, absurdity, and resourcefulness: Liu Zheng’s clown ritual and prayers appear ridiculous, yet they eventually help him obtain a valuable pill. The scene highlights his willingness to use any method that might improve his chances.
• Hidden grief and isolation: Snow Horse’s withdrawal from the world is hinted to be connected to the death of her master. Her interest in wine reveals that her stern, combative personality conceals loneliness and unresolved sorrow.
• Honor and trust: Snow Horse’s insistence on fulfilling her promises, even when Liu Zheng is being opportunistic, helps establish the foundation for their alliance.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng mocks the Dark Elves’ sacrificial practices, provoking Yaksha but also exposing the weakness of their faction.
• He encourages Snow Horse to demand an apology, then uses his own group’s threatening presence to force Yaksha to comply.
• Snow Horse and Liu Zheng develop a transactional but increasingly cooperative relationship through compensation, contracts, and trade.
• Niu Daji and Panda argue over Liu Zheng’s character, loyalty, and status, revealing their contrasting personalities: Niu Daji is devoted and practical, while Panda is proud and distrustful.
• Liu Zheng mediates between Snow Horse and Bai San, urging the Bai Family to replace theft and confrontation with formal commerce.
• His gift of wine creates a more personal connection with Snow Horse, prompting her to reveal her history as a warhorse who once drank with her master.

Chapter Summary: “A Head Is Still Useful”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng shares a bottle of Silver Label Fen Liquor with Snow Horse, who is immediately impressed by its quality and greedily asks for more.
• Their conversation reveals Snow Horse’s past as the companion of the ancient demon king Pink Fuzzy Thunderbolt Vajra King, a parrot spirit who became incontinent whenever he got drunk.
• Shi Tiantian recognizes Snow Horse’s former master, establishing the great age of Snow Horse and the violent changes that have occurred in the Hundred Thousand Mountains over the centuries.
• Liu Zheng refuses to give Snow Horse more wine for free, explaining that Du Kang Liquor Shop’s wine requires rare resources—not merely money—to obtain. However, he gives Snow Horse another bottle as a personal gift.
• In exchange, Snow Horse provides Liu Zheng with Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Springwater, a valuable material for medicine-making and artifact refinement. Liu buys it for a symbolic thirty thousand.
• Snow Horse also gives Liu a Cold Jade Springwater Scale, which can reduce the risk of failure in crafting and potentially improve the quality of finished products.
• Liu offers to help improve Snow Horse’s isolated cave-dwelling conditions by purchasing supplies and arranging a care package.
• Snow Horse notices the powerful flame-and-death mark on Liu’s hoof, which was given to him by the Gravekeeper’s horse, Thin Horse. Believing it may help guide his own evolution, Snow Horse attempts to imitate the mark’s technique.
• The test causes Snow Horse’s body to crack and shed pieces of flesh, but it successfully produces an extremely powerful hoofprint. When Liu steps on it, his leg is instantly frozen and shattered, though his regeneration restores him.
• Snow Horse explains that Liu can activate both of his marks simultaneously by striking a target with both hooves. The combined attack should be powerful, though Liu may be caught in the blast himself.
• Snow Horse gives Liu a horn made from a bird’s beak. Blowing it will allow Snow Horse to locate him within ten kilometers and come to his aid.
• Snow Horse departs after reminding Liu to fulfill his promises. Liu then jokingly docks Panda’s pay for failing to prevent him from losing a leg.
• Liu warns Yaksha not to remain passive and exploit his battles in the future. The group then returns to their armored vehicle.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to show his transactional but generous personality. He refuses unreasonable demands, stands firm against intimidation, yet freely helps friends with wine, supplies, and business opportunities.
• Liu’s resilience is emphasized when he survives the destruction of his leg and casually treats the injury as manageable. His willingness to use dangerous attacks—even ones that could leave him barely alive—is reinforced by his comment that having “a head” left is enough.
• Snow Horse is shown as ancient, wealthy, powerful, and socially blunt, but also isolated and somewhat directionless after centuries in seclusion. His obsession with wine reveals a desire for pleasure and companionship.
• Snow Horse’s failed attempt to copy Thin Horse’s technique exposes his poor control over his own strength, while his honest admission of this weakness earns Liu’s respect.
• Shi Tiantian demonstrates her knowledge of ancient history and enjoys Liu’s affection when he praises and pats her.
• Bai San is placed in the uncomfortable role of intermediary between Liu and Snow Horse, while quietly preserving his own options in case their larger factions come into conflict.
• Panda remains obedient but increasingly aware that Liu manipulates him through playful “rules” and rank-based authority.
• Yaksha is pressured by Liu to participate more openly rather than merely observe and benefit from others’ actions.

Significant Themes

• Friendship and exchange: The interactions are framed as business transactions, but the gifts of wine, materials, and assistance gradually establish mutual trust between Liu and Snow Horse.
• Power versus rank: Snow Horse may defeat weaker gods, but he cannot obtain a God-Tier Nightmare, showing that personal strength does not always equal status or access to rare resources.
• Survival and regeneration: Liu’s casual acceptance of severe bodily injury highlights the chapter’s darkly comic treatment of pain and the importance of endurance.
• Isolation and change: Snow Horse has accumulated wealth and strength during centuries of confinement, yet has lost touch with ordinary desires and modern life. Liu’s offer of supplies represents a possible return to society.
• Practicality over dignity: Liu tolerates crude behavior, dangerous experiments, and absurd situations as long as they produce useful results. Even Snow Horse’s phlegm-covered gift is accepted because it contains something valuable.
• Humor amid danger: Violent abilities, ancient demon history, bodily destruction, and factional threats are consistently undercut by jokes about wine, bodily functions, naming conventions, wages, and losing one’s head.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Snow Horse develop a teasing, confrontational friendship. Snow Horse tries to pressure Liu through wealth and intimidation, while Liu responds with firmness and humor.
• Shi Tiantian earns Liu’s praise by recognizing Snow Horse’s master, strengthening their affectionate dynamic.
• Liu and Bai San cooperate on pricing and delivery arrangements, though Bai San remains cautious because of possible conflict between their families or factions.
• Liu offers Snow Horse practical support, treating him less as a dangerous ancient demon and more as a neglected customer or friend.
• Snow Horse tests Liu’s physical limits and gives him tools for future cooperation, including the tracking horn.
• Liu uses Panda as a comic subordinate, docking his pay despite Panda’s technically blameless behavior.
• Liu and Yaksha exchange veiled threats, establishing continued tension and warning Yaksha that passive opportunism will no longer be tolerated.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai San initially laments the trouble surrounding his family: his promising son has encountered problems, and the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Spring became “haunted” after Liu Zheng’s involvement.
• Liu Zheng reassures him that the situation may actually benefit the Bai Family. Openly trading with Cang Xue, the guardian of the spring, will reduce security risks, increase supply, and potentially produce greater long-term profits despite lower profit margins.
• Liu Zheng’s expanding network—including City Hall, the Yuan Family, the Stone Spirit Clan, and Bai San’s own connections—convinces Bai San that Liu may eventually become a powerful force in Metropolis.
• The group continues following the direction indicated by the Everything Shop’s mysterious finger toward a mountain commission. Liu Zheng worries that the mission may be a trap, imagining ambushes and explosives. Nile Doctor agrees to investigate first, but Liu instead assigns Panda the scouting role.
• Panda accepts in exchange for a high-quality nonalcoholic drink. The group then encounters Rootless Flower, a plant whose blooming fragrance causes infertility. Bai San explains that its leaves are useful for healing when it is not blooming, reflecting the Bai Family’s sustainable approach to natural resources.
• The group debates whether to detour around the flower. Most members are unconcerned about temporary infertility, but Panda objects because it believes it is the last surviving member of its species and must reproduce.
• Liu Zheng respects Panda’s concerns and agrees to take an hour-long detour, impressing Panda and reinforcing his image as a considerate leader.
• Panda then demonstrates its cultivation abilities by activating a Qi-Repelling Formation using its own fur. The formation seals the vehicle against outside air, pollen, spores, and other particles, protecting the group from Rootless Flower’s effects.
• Panda reveals that its ability to survive without breathing normally comes from its Inner Elixir and the Lesser Heavenly Circuit. The chapter ends as Old Fourth drives the protected vehicle toward Rootless Mountain.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows increasing business sense, strategic thinking, and concern for his allies. He understands the value of long-term relationships over immediate profit and takes his subordinates’ needs seriously.
• Bai San moves from despair to cautious optimism. He recognizes that cooperating with Liu may strengthen the Bai Family financially and politically, and he explains the family’s long-term, sustainable philosophy.
• Panda is portrayed as suspicious, proud, greedy, and comically obsessed with preserving its species. Despite its complaints and defensiveness, it proves highly capable by creating the protective formation.
• Nile Doctor remains practical and blunt, criticizing Liu’s paranoia while still agreeing to investigate dangers carefully.
• The other companions reveal their individual situations through the fertility discussion: Old Fourth already has many children, Niu Daji has a large family, Shi Tiantian is unaffected due to his Stone Spirit physiology, and Bai San already has three sons.

Significant Themes

• Long-term strategy versus short-term gain: Liu argues that formal trade and stable alliances can be more profitable than dangerous, secretive theft.
• Trust and mutual benefit: Relationships with allies are shown to be valuable resources, sometimes more important than money or commodities.
• Responsible leadership: Liu’s willingness to accommodate Panda’s reproductive concerns demonstrates that maintaining loyalty requires respecting subordinates rather than treating them as tools.
• Sustainable use of nature: The Bai Family avoids destroying the Cold Jade Spring or eradicating Rootless Flower, choosing to preserve resources for continued use.
• Identity and survival: Panda’s fears about being the last of its species add a more serious undertone to the otherwise comedic fertility discussion.
• Comedy through contrast: Dangerous supernatural settings are repeatedly undercut by arguments about drinks, condoms, fertility, panda biology, and fart-related cultivation techniques.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Bai San discuss the economic and political advantages of their new arrangement, deepening their partnership.
• Liu and Nile Doctor argue over whether the mountain mission is a trap, with Nile Doctor eventually adopting a cautious investigation plan.
• Liu bargains with Panda over its scouting duty, offering payment and a drink in exchange for cooperation.
• Liu accidentally embarrasses Panda by examining its belly to determine its sex, leading to the chapter’s central comedic exchange about Panda being a “male among male bears.”
• Liu’s decision to detour around Rootless Flower surprises Panda and earns its reluctant respect.
• Panda’s formation protects the entire group and demonstrates that, beneath its complaints and vanity, it is a valuable and technically skilled member of the team.

Chapter Summary: The Corpse of an Evil God, Hungry Liu Zheng

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng, Bai San, the Nile Doctor, Niu Daji, Panda, and Old Fourth travel up Rootless Mountain in an armored vehicle.
• Bai San explains the nature of the Rootless Flowers, which grow along the mountain roads. Prolonged exposure causes permanent infertility, though the flowers have no other known side effects.
• The flowers become rarer and more potent higher up the mountain. At the summit, they turn entirely yellow and are particularly powerful.
• Liu Zheng speculates that the flowers may have grown from the corpse of an evil god buried beneath the mountain. Bai San confirms that members of his family have considered the same possibility but avoided investigating because disturbing a god could violate Metropolis’s strict taboos and provoke City Hall.
• Liu Zheng decides to collect twenty summit flowers for future use. The Nile Doctor initially volunteers, but Panda points out that the flowers’ scent could cling to them even inside a storage pouch.
• Panda uses an arcane technique, transforming his cloud aura into a magical claw that gathers the flowers and stores them in Liu Zheng’s Headless Mandarin Ducks Pouch.
• Afterward, Liu Zheng detects an appetizing meat-like smell from the pouch. Although no one else smells anything unusual, Liu Zheng suddenly eats all the Rootless Flowers.
• His behavior becomes abnormal: he insists that the flowers are simply “food” and cannot understand their true identity. The Nile Doctor concludes that Liu Zheng’s cognition has been altered by a divine or god-related affliction.
• To counteract the condition, the Nile Doctor feeds Liu Zheng the contents of a Sacred Scarab and a mass of his own body grime. Liu Zheng begins vomiting monstrous mouths identical to his own.
• The mouths repeatedly cry out from hunger and attempt to flee, but the Nile Doctor destroys them with the Sun Disk’s purifying light.
• More mouths then appear on the back of Liu Zheng’s head. Believing he must gouge out Liu Zheng’s eye to continue the treatment, the Nile Doctor invokes a divine eye technique.
• Liu Zheng suddenly resists for the first time, knocks away the Nile Doctor’s hand, and throws himself against the damaged vehicle wall. The chapter ends with the Nile Doctor ordering the others to stop him.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Displays curiosity and practical opportunism by collecting the flowers, but his reckless interest exposes him to a mysterious divine contamination. His cognition becomes distorted, transforming the flowers into irresistible “food.” Despite initially cooperating with treatment, he later reacts violently when the Nile Doctor attempts to remove his eye, suggesting that the entity affecting him is gaining influence.
• Bai San: Acts as an informed guide, explaining the mountain, the flowers, and his family’s cautious attitude toward divine relics. His respect for Liu Zheng’s boldness and intelligence remains evident, though he becomes visibly nervous when the flowers cause a crisis.
• The Nile Doctor: Takes command during the emergency and demonstrates both medical expertise and powerful anti-divine methods. His willingness to sacrifice a treasured Sacred Scarab shows his devotion to saving Liu Zheng, while his grief over the sacrifice reveals how deeply he values his creatures.
• Panda: Provides comic relief but also proves useful through his Orthodox Arcane Sect techniques and his practical warning about the lingering scent. He insists that his cultivation focuses on fundamental methods rather than combat.
• Niu Daji: Remains loyal and obedient, restraining Liu Zheng immediately when ordered.
• Old Fourth: Handles the dangerous mountain road and gets the group safely to the summit.

Significant Themes

• Life, suffering, and survival: The mountain road is said to have formed from injured or sick creatures climbing upward to consume stronger flowers, illustrating how life continues seeking survival even under dangerous conditions.
• Inheritance and family responsibility: Bai San and Liu Zheng discuss how families are built through successive generations of sacrifice, while also acknowledging that some descendants only seek benefits without contributing.
• The dangers of forbidden knowledge: The possibility that the flowers grow from an evil god’s corpse reinforces the danger of investigating divine remains. Metropolis’s taboos establish that gods are not merely mysterious but politically and cosmically hazardous.
• Hunger and loss of identity: Liu Zheng’s insistence that the flowers are ordinary food shows how divine corruption can alter perception and erase conceptual distinctions.
• Medicine versus supernatural contamination: The Nile Doctor’s unusual treatments and the mouths emerging from Liu Zheng demonstrate that ordinary medical reasoning is inadequate against god-related afflictions.
• Comedy amid horror: Casual banter, Panda’s boasting, and the absurdity of the Nile Doctor’s remedies contrast with the grotesque imagery of Liu Zheng vomiting living mouths.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Bai San engage in a philosophical discussion about family legacy, responsibility, and the origins of the mountain road.
• Liu Zheng jokes with the Nile Doctor and Niu Daji about guilt and responsibility, while the Nile Doctor responds with sarcasm.
• Liu Zheng relies on Panda’s arcane ability to collect the flowers, though Panda and the Nile Doctor continue teasing one another over Panda’s lack of combat ability.
• When Liu Zheng becomes corrupted, Niu Daji follows the Nile Doctor’s instructions without hesitation and restrains him.
• The Nile Doctor takes responsibility for treating Liu Zheng, sacrificing one of his beloved Sacred Scarabs and using his own grime as medicine.
• Panda remains beside the Nile Doctor despite being ordered away, demonstrating both loyalty and confidence in his usefulness.
• The chapter concludes with the group turning against the suddenly dangerous Liu Zheng as the Nile Doctor attempts to prevent him from escaping or injuring himself.

Chapter Summary: The Naked Nile Doctor

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng’s body becomes dangerously abnormal, forcing Nile Doctor and Panda to restrain him while attempting an emergency treatment.
• Liu fights violently despite being subdued, attacking Panda with his serrated cleaver and kicking him repeatedly. Panda eventually severs Liu’s four tentacles.
• Nile Doctor removes Liu’s right eye and replaces it with the Eye of the Sun, causing powerful Sunfire to erupt from Liu’s body.
• To contain the flames, Panda seals Liu’s orifices with go pieces and uses a fire-repelling spell to protect himself. Nile Doctor then places the sacred Crown on Liu’s head.
• The Crown’s artifact spirit, Golden Cobra, initially threatens to poison Liu because he is not part of Ra’s lineage. Nile Doctor persuades it to cooperate by explaining that Liu is a benefactor and offering a large sacrifice.
• Nile Doctor invokes Ra-Atum and channels the Sun God’s power through Liu. The treatment begins burning away the corruption inside Liu, though it also nearly destroys his body.
• Nile Doctor realizes too late that he has forgotten several openings on Liu’s body. He and Panda improvise additional seals, ultimately using Panda’s life-bound Lesser Yang Dawnlight Banner as a protective covering.
• Nile Doctor removes his own bandages and uses them to wrap Liu, revealing his severely mummified undead body in the process. The treatment consumes nearly all of Liu’s physical form, leaving only ashes around him.
• After the Crown is removed, Liu is found alive but shrunken to roughly one-tenth his former size.
• Liu immediately complains of hunger and thirst rather than discussing his near-death experience. Bai San gives him a rare ginseng-and-lingzhi tonic, and Liu consumes all thirty bottles, rapidly regaining size and beginning to recover.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains fiercely resistant and combative even while being treated, demonstrating both his stubbornness and extraordinary recovery ability. Afterward, his casual demands for food and drink show his irreverent, resilient personality.
• Panda is forced into the unpleasant role of restraining and protecting Liu. He suffers burns, kicks, and the temporary misuse of his treasured life-bound artifact, but his humor and complaints remain intact. His eagerness to receive Solar Divine Power reveals his interest in cultivation and magical advancement.
• Nile Doctor shows how far he is willing to go to save Liu. He risks his sacred artifacts, offers costly sacrifices, exposes his fragile mummified body, and personally channels divine power despite the danger. His hidden interest in turning Panda into a possible servant of Ra also reveals his opportunistic and calculating side.
• Golden Cobra is established as a proud, intelligent artifact spirit with its own authority and judgment. It can be persuaded, but only through respect, religious reasoning, and material offerings.
• Bai San demonstrates practical generosity by offering Liu an extremely valuable private medical supplement, though he is visibly pained when Liu consumes his entire stock.

3. Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and survival: Saving Liu requires everyone to surrender valuable resources, endure pain, and accept serious risks.
• Divine power as both cure and destruction: Sunfire can purge Liu’s corruption, but without the Crown’s protection it would destroy him completely.
• Improvisation under pressure: Panda and Nile Doctor repeatedly solve unexpected problems with absurd but effective methods, from go pieces to a magical banner.
• Trust and uneasy cooperation: Liu, Panda, Nile Doctor, the Crown, and Golden Cobra do not naturally cooperate, yet their shared goal forces them to rely on one another.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter undercuts its gruesome medical procedure with slapstick, bickering, crude improvisation, and Liu’s immediate request for refreshments.
• Hidden motives: Nile Doctor’s devotion to saving Liu is genuine, but he also considers exploiting the Sun God’s power and possibly recruiting Panda.

4. Character Interactions

• Panda and Liu engage in a physically chaotic struggle, with Panda taking revenge by sitting on him while Liu retaliates with kicks and weapon attacks.
• Nile Doctor directs Panda throughout the treatment, while Panda complains about the danger and the damage to his fur and magical artifacts.
• Nile Doctor negotiates directly with Golden Cobra, appealing to religious hierarchy and promising sacrifices to secure its cooperation.
• Nile Doctor and Panda repeatedly criticize and threaten one another, but their banter masks effective teamwork.
• Bai San’s gift of the tonic provides the final aid Liu needs after the Sunfire treatment, though Liu’s complete consumption of the supply leaves Bai San distressed.
• The chapter ends with Liu recovering rapidly, suggesting that the dangerous treatment succeeded and setting up the consequences of his restored condition.

Chapter Summary: “When Rootless Flowers Became Big Roots”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Nile Doctor’s transformation, his body is covered in Sunfire-infused ash, which functions as improvised armor. Although it reduces his defense, it strengthens his offensive spells.
• Liu Zheng explains that he was nearly dragged into unconsciousness by an unknown voice within the mountain. The voice became weaker as flames burned, suggesting that the mountain contains a dangerous supernatural presence.
• The group attempts to leave, but the Rootless Flower petals detach themselves and race toward the mountaintop, surrounding and blocking their vehicle.
• Because the flowers’ fragrance can control both body and mind, the group must maintain the Qi-Repelling Formation. However, attacking from inside the formation would destroy it.
• Nile Doctor volunteers to fight, but Liu Zheng instead orders Yaksha and her Dark Elf witches to handle the flowers.
• Yaksha initially refuses, worried about sacrificing more of her already-dwindling people. Liu Zheng threatens her into cooperating, though he also promises to obtain fertility medicine for the Dark Elves.
• Panda provides Yaksha with a Qi-Repelling Pearl, allowing her to leave the vehicle safely. To empower her, the witches sacrifice their own blood and vitality, creating blood daggers that they drive into Yaksha’s body.
• Yaksha uses her staff, which channels the Eight Winds of Magic, to attack the Rootless Flowers:
  • Soul Tremor summons a destructive magical thunderstorm.
  • Ar’nzipal’s Black Terror creates a tentacled black cloud that drags flower petals into another dimension.
• The spells destroy or remove many flowers, but the mountain continues producing more, turning the battle into a war of attrition.
• The mysterious force controlling the flowers responds by gathering them into a grotesque cylindrical shape with two spheres. The mass fires a powerful stream of yellow smoke at Yaksha.
• Yaksha counters with Shadow Art: Dark Abyss, opening a portal to the Shadow Realm and redirecting the attack.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor continuing their banter while observing the cost of Yaksha’s magic: her witches rapidly age and weaken from supporting her spells.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains commanding, ruthless, and irreverent. He forces Yaksha to fight but also demonstrates practical concern by arranging protection for the witches and mentioning fertility medicine for the Dark Elves.
• Nile Doctor is shown to be both powerful and technically knowledgeable. He recognizes the risks of Yaksha’s magic and contrasts its dangerous side effects with the reliability of his own spells.
• Yaksha proves herself a formidable mage capable of using multiple magical systems, but her power depends heavily on the sacrifice of her followers and her own endurance. Her concern for her sisters reveals loyalty beneath her hostility.
• Panda continues acting as comic relief while also contributing crucial knowledge and equipment. His pride in his cultivation talent leads to a humorous argument with Liu Zheng.
• The Dark Elf witches demonstrate extreme devotion by sacrificing their blood, health, and youth to empower Yaksha.
• Niu Daji becomes visibly jealous of Liu Zheng’s playful interactions with Panda, highlighting his desire for Liu Zheng’s approval.

Significant Themes

• Power and sacrifice: Yaksha’s strength is directly purchased through the blood and life force of her followers, raising questions about the cost of survival.
• Reliability versus versatility: Nile Doctor’s simple, dependable spells are contrasted with Yaksha’s spectacular but hazardous magic.
• Leadership and coercion: Liu Zheng motivates allies through threats, manipulation, and promises, blurring the line between command and exploitation.
• The mountain as a living threat: The Rootless Flowers behave as though controlled by an intelligent force, suggesting the mountain itself is hostile and conceals a larger mystery.
• Comedy amid danger: Sexual jokes, insults, jealousy, and absurd visual imagery repeatedly interrupt the serious battle, maintaining the chapter’s irreverent tone.
• Population and survival: The Dark Elves’ dwindling numbers and concerns about fertility introduce a broader theme of species survival after repeated losses.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor trade insults about the Doctor’s ash-covered appearance, his lack of bandages, and the relative merits of their magical methods.
• Liu Zheng confronts Yaksha over her refusal to fight, threatening her while negotiating protection and fertility assistance for her people.
• Panda and Liu Zheng joke about the Ninefold Union Pill, leading Panda to defensively boast about his extraordinary cultivation achievements.
• Panda and Nile Doctor exchange insults over Orthodox and heretical magic. Nile Doctor ultimately manipulates Panda by threatening to withhold honey and royal jelly.
• Yaksha and her witches share a solemn, sacrificial exchange before the witches empower her at the cost of their own youth.
• Nile Doctor and Liu Zheng evaluate Yaksha’s combat performance, with Liu Zheng acknowledging her skill and Nile Doctor criticizing the dangerous consequences of her techniques.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Faceless Man emerges from a gigantic Mysterious Female Gate formed by the Rootless Flowers. Though featureless and seemingly inhuman, he speaks in a strange language that only Liu Zheng can understand.
• His voice causes severe physical and spiritual pain throughout Rootless Mountain. Liu Zheng resists it through sheer anger and unleashes Seven Sins: Wrath, while also revealing that he cannot truly die and will eventually return if destroyed.
• Liu Zheng orders Yaksha to kill the Faceless Man and protect the Dark Elves. Yaksha initially refuses to be threatened, but attacks anyway with True Law Method: Secret Disintegration.
• Yaksha’s disintegration beam pierces more than a hundred layers of Rootless Flower shields and erases half of the Faceless Man’s body. The resulting shockwave severely injures Liu Zheng, causing bleeding from his seven orifices.
• Bai San treats Liu Zheng’s brain hemorrhage with medicine and acupuncture. At Liu Zheng’s request, he also provides the weakened Dark Elves with a Unicorn Vitality Potion, though the witches are already being drained by Yaksha’s magic.
• The Faceless Man counters with overwhelming physical strength, transforming the Rootless Flowers into a gigantic root and using it as a weapon. Yaksha’s powerful Darkness School magic is easily crushed, revealing that the Faceless Man possesses genuine divine power.
• Nile Doctor prepares to assist Yaksha, but Liu Zheng stops him, correctly realizing that the Faceless Man’s true target is Liu Zheng and that leaving would divide their defenses. Panda is sent instead to help Yaksha.
• The Faceless Man manipulates Yaksha by appearing as her god, Bloodhand Kane, and commanding her to bear and raise his child. Yaksha nearly submits, but Panda’s exorcising chant breaks the illusion.
• Furious that the Faceless Man impersonated her deity, Yaksha fights with renewed conviction. She sacrifices the lives of the Dark Elf witches, who age rapidly and die as their power is consumed.
• Yaksha unleashes her strongest technique, Ultimate Dark Magic Gate: Absolute Annihilation, creating a magic singularity that draws in the Faceless Man, Rootless Flowers, soil, and surrounding matter.
• Just as she is about to detonate the singularity, Yaksha is struck by an unknown force. She and Panda are forcibly teleported back into Liu Zheng’s armored vehicle through Shifting Forms and Positions.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates remarkable resilience, surviving the Faceless Man’s soul-rending voice and severe internal injuries. He openly hints that death cannot permanently destroy him, strengthening his position as both leader and deterrent.
• His anger remains a major source of power, but he also shows responsibility by prioritizing the Dark Elves’ survival and trusting Niu Daji with their protection.
• Niu Daji proves his loyalty by refusing to abandon Liu Zheng, even if it means dying with him. His sincere devotion contrasts with Liu Zheng’s attempts to keep him from taking unnecessary risks.
• Bai San becomes more firmly integrated into Liu Zheng’s group. Though reluctant to sacrifice his rare potion, he accepts that he is committed to the team and provides medical aid.
• Yaksha evolves from fighting under Liu Zheng’s orders to fighting for her own faith. The Faceless Man’s blasphemous impersonation of Bloodhand Kane restores her determination and pushes her to unleash her ultimate power.
• Panda continues serving as Liu Zheng’s reluctant bodyguard. His childish greed for rare food makes him easy to motivate, but he also demonstrates courage and quick thinking by breaking Yaksha’s divine illusion.
• The Faceless Man is revealed to be more than an artificial or monstrous being: his ability to wield divine power suggests that he is either a god or an incarnation of one.

Significant Themes

• Faith and blasphemy: Yaksha’s deepest motivation is loyalty to Bloodhand Kane. The Faceless Man’s impersonation transforms a tactical battle into a personal religious confrontation.
• Loyalty and leadership: Liu Zheng repeatedly protects his allies while demanding that they follow orders. Niu Daji’s willingness to die for him highlights the strength of their bond.
• Power and sacrifice: Yaksha’s ultimate magic requires her to drain the Dark Elves, causing them to die of old age. Victory is therefore tied to severe moral and personal cost.
• Identity and imitation: The Faceless Man has no face or clear identity and manipulates others by copying their beliefs and desires. His imitation of Bloodhand Kane challenges the distinction between true divinity and deception.
• Humor amid danger: Liu Zheng’s complaints about the Faceless Man’s incomprehensible speech, Panda’s obsession with Hell Honey Yogurt, and Bai San’s understated medical professionalism provide comic relief during a catastrophic battle.
• The limits of conventional magic: Yaksha’s advanced magical techniques are overwhelmed by divine power, emphasizing the immense gap between mortal spellcraft and godlike strength.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Yaksha clash verbally, with Liu Zheng insulting her refusal to act and Yaksha resisting his threats, but both ultimately cooperate against the Faceless Man.
• Liu Zheng and Niu Daji share a close boss-underling relationship: Liu Zheng tries to protect Daji from dying for him, while Daji insists that his loyalty is unconditional.
• Liu Zheng relies on Bai San’s medical expertise and then extends that trust by asking him to treat the Dark Elves.
• Liu Zheng prevents Nile Doctor from abandoning the group’s defensive position, showing strategic awareness and concern that the enemy is targeting him.
• Panda’s interaction with Liu Zheng is transactional and comedic: Liu Zheng promises rare food in exchange for protection, and Panda grudgingly accepts.
• Panda’s chant saves Yaksha from the Faceless Man’s psychological and divine manipulation, creating an important moment of cooperation between them.
• Yaksha’s final attack is both a magical assault and an act of religious devotion, as she declares that she will defend Bloodhand Kane’s honor even at the cost of her life.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• After the Magic Singularity devastates Rootless Mountain, Yaksha uses Arnzipal’s Dimensional Gate to transport the armored vehicle and its occupants into the crater.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor discuss Metropolis’s unusual power suppression near City Hall, which prevents powerful beings from freely using their abilities inside the city.
• Panda searches for the unknown god but cannot detect it with an ordinary demon-tracking talisman. Despite the danger of summoning a god, the group decides to hunt it down because it has attacked them, killed Yaksha’s sisters, and may strike again.
• The team prepares for battle:
  • Yaksha gathers her sisters’ ashes and blood to create a powerful double-headed staff devoted to the war god Kane.
  • Nile Doctor invokes Nile and covers himself in golden sand armor, gaining divine strength.
  • Panda completes a rare Daoist Eight-Dragon Cloud Seal talisman.
• Liu Zheng and Panda briefly discuss the possibility of Liu joining the Mixed Elixir Sect. Liu reveals the Grudge Fish, a powerful soul-related treasure, and suggests he may be able to restore Panda’s master, whose soul was destroyed by Tribulation Lightning.
• Yaksha protects the armored vehicle by linking it partially to the Shadow Realm, giving attacks against it only a fifty-percent chance of succeeding.
• Panda performs a ritual using twelve command flags and several supernatural offerings to lure out the hidden god.
• The god emerges from beneath Rootless Mountain as a gigantic hand covered in Rootless Flowers. The party attacks:
  • Nile Doctor’s lightning has no visible effect.
  • Yaksha’s destructive spell destroys one of the flowers, proving the god can be harmed.
  • Yaksha follows with disintegration and destruction spells.
  • Nile Doctor summons the Solar Boat and launches it at the creature.
• The god’s horrifying true form is revealed: not a normal body, but a massive womb shaped around a mysterious gate, with an upside-down root, hanging lanterns, and a grotesque divine arm. Liu Zheng reacts with disgust.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng takes firm command of the group, balancing caution with pride and revenge. Though he recognizes the danger of confronting a god, he refuses to let the enemy escape after targeting him and humiliating the team.
• Yaksha becomes consumed by vengeance for her dead sisters. Her anger drives her to risk her own blood and soul in a ritual to empower herself and hunt the god.
• Nile Doctor remains calm and obedient to Liu Zheng’s leadership. His prayers reveal his deep connection to Nile and Kemet, while his analysis shows experience confronting divine beings.
• Panda demonstrates considerable Daoist knowledge and talent by creating the advanced Cloud Seal talisman. He remains argumentative and proud, but Liu Zheng’s promise to restore his master clearly interests and unsettles him.
• Liu Zheng and Panda’s relationship develops through teasing, rivalry, and negotiation. Liu hints that he may possess the means to revive Panda’s master and restore the Mixed Elixir Sect, giving Panda a reason to take him more seriously.
• Niu Daji, Bai San, and Old Fourth remain supporting members, primarily focused on surviving and protecting themselves rather than leading the attack.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and restraint: Metropolis’s suppression of supernatural power contrasts with the catastrophic abilities displayed outside the city.
• Revenge and divine justice: Yaksha’s battle is motivated less by strategy than by the need to avenge her sisters and cleanse her humiliation.
• The danger of challenging gods: The group knowingly summons a divine enemy despite understanding that gods are difficult to fight and even harder to defeat.
• Faith and identity: Nile Doctor and Yaksha draw strength from their respective gods, showing how worship, sacrifice, and divine allegiance shape supernatural power.
• Ambition and bargaining: Liu Zheng uses promises of resurrection, sect restoration, and access to powerful treasures to influence Panda.
• The grotesque nature of divinity: The chapter deliberately presents the enemy as a horrifying, decayed, and unnatural god, challenging any traditional image of divine beauty or majesty.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng repeatedly orders Panda around, while Panda complains about being treated like a servant.
• Nile Doctor supports Liu Zheng’s decisions and reminds the group that the god may attack them even if they do not pursue it.
• Yaksha insists on finding the god because of its crimes against her sisters; Liu Zheng agrees because he also wants revenge.
• Nile Doctor criticizes Panda for failing to protect the vehicle as thoughtfully as Yaksha, causing Panda to fall unusually silent.
• Liu Zheng jokes about becoming Panda’s martial uncle, while Panda rejects the idea and insults Liu Zheng’s appearance.
• Liu Zheng reveals the Grudge Fish to tempt Panda with the possibility of restoring his master and reviving the Mixed Elixir Sect.
• Once the god appears, Yaksha and Nile Doctor coordinate their attacks, while Panda’s ritual successfully exposes the enemy’s location.

Chapter Summary: “Blow Up the Mountain First”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Divine Hand counters Yaksha’s Disintegration Ray by retracting its root and swallowing the attack inside its womb, demonstrating divine power far beyond expectations.
• It then gives birth to a glowing, featureless Big-Headed Doll connected to it by an umbilical cord. The creature embodies Arcane Disintegration and can erase matter and magic with a touch.
• The Big-Headed Doll destroys the Solar Boat and overwhelms Nile Doctor’s attacks. Nile realizes that ordinary magic cannot defeat it and asks Yaksha to help create an opening.
• Panda summons torrential rain through a Daoist talisman. Nile Doctor infuses the water with precious golden sand, forming a replenishing river of fire that repeatedly attacks Divine Hand and the doll.
• When the doll attacks Nile directly, he uses Eclipse Shield to block it. The shield’s destruction releases overwhelming sunlight, which immobilizes and weakens the doll because of its instinctive response to Sun Power.
• Nile and the river of fire damage the doll’s shell. He then pierces its chest with the Golden Scorpion Tail, allowing Yaksha to cast a simulated version of the Ultimate Darkness School’s Lockdown spell.
• Lockdown fails to contain the primordial magic and begins to destabilize. Yaksha warns that it will explode, prompting Panda to teleport himself and Nile back to the armored vehicle and activate the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Formation.
• Yaksha uses Shadow Method: Vanish to escape into the shadow world. The Big-Headed Doll attempts to return to Divine Hand, but Yaksha’s new spell, Ultimate Darkness School: Runaway, forces it to stop.
• Primordial Magic breaks through the doll’s divine shell from within, killing it after only a few minutes of existence.
• The unleashed primordial magic spreads across Rootless Mountain, generating dimensional rifts, trees, ore, flames, and spatial distortions. This severs portions of the mountain from Divine Hand’s control.
• Divine Hand attempts to reclaim the mountain, causing Rootless Mountain to shake violently and suggesting that something catastrophic is about to emerge.
• Liu Zheng orders Panda to use every remaining resource. Panda expends his last purple talisman to summon the twelve Six Ding and Six Jia divine generals, then strengthens them with incense to protect the armored vehicle and those inside.

Character Developments

• Yaksha gains a deeper understanding of the terrifying gap between ordinary divine power and higher divine authority. Despite not knowing Lockdown, she successfully recreates it through the Ultimate Darkness School and later invents or manifests Runaway, proving her growing mastery of Primordial Magic.
• Nile Doctor shows strategic intelligence and determination. Rather than trying to overpower the Big-Headed Doll directly, he uses rain, golden sand, Eclipse Shield, and the Golden Scorpion Tail in combination to weaken it and create an opening for Yaksha.
• Panda demonstrates the breadth of his Daoist abilities, summoning rain, teleporting allies, activating protective formations, and calling forth the Six Ding and Six Jia. He is reluctant because he exhausts his final talisman and incense supplies, but ultimately sacrifices his resources to protect the group.
• Liu Zheng becomes increasingly commanding and pragmatic. He recognizes the danger posed by Divine Hand’s movements and pressures Panda to use his remaining abilities, promising compensation for the resources consumed.
• Divine Hand is revealed to possess extraordinary creative and destructive divine authority, capable of turning magic into living offspring. However, its dependence on Rootless Mountain gives it a critical vulnerability: losing control of the mountain threatens both its strength and sanity.
• The Big-Headed Doll appears as an overwhelmingly powerful but newly born entity. Though it destroys nearly every attack effortlessly, it remains governed by instinct—fear or reverence toward sunlight and obedience to Primordial Magic—which ultimately causes its death.

Significant Themes

• The vastness and hierarchy of divine power: The chapter emphasizes that what seems impossible under ordinary magic may be effortless for a sufficiently powerful god.
• Magic becoming life: Arcane Disintegration is transformed from a spell into a living creature, blurring the boundaries between technique, divinity, and sentient existence.
• Strategy over brute force: The heroes cannot defeat the doll through direct attacks. Their victory depends on combining rain, fire, sunlight, protective magic, physical damage, and primordial techniques.
• Instinct versus higher principles: The doll is controlled by primal responses—its awe of the sun and its obedience to Primordial Magic. These instincts become the means of defeating it.
• Sacrifice and limited resources: Nile uses valuable golden sand, Panda expends his last talisman and incense, and everyone risks death to create a brief opportunity.
• Control and loss of territory: Divine Hand’s connection to Rootless Mountain is both its source of power and its weakness. The spread of Primordial Magic threatens to strip it of its domain.

Important Character Interactions

• Nile Doctor and Yaksha cooperate tactically, with Nile weakening the doll while Yaksha prepares Lockdown and later uses Runaway.
• Nile relies on Panda’s rain-summoning ability and orders him to act quickly, while Panda complains but follows through.
• Panda teleports himself and Nile to safety when Yaksha warns of the impending magical explosion.
• Liu Zheng presses Panda to use his remaining talisman and promises to compensate him, while Panda reluctantly obeys.
• Divine Hand and the Big-Headed Doll function as a parent and offspring-like pair: the doll remains physically tethered to the womb and tries to return to it for protection.
• The chapter ends with Panda invoking the Six Ding and Six Jia generals to defend the group as Divine Hand prepares to unleash or recover something within the violently shaking mountain.

Liu Zheng and his companions survived the magical vortex inside the experimental vehicle’s White Coffin, then emerged to find Update Hiatus Mountain devastated and Divine Hand barely alive. As the group tended to the gravely wounded Yaksha, Liu Zheng called Bro 4399 and offered him the evil god.

• Niu Daji used Unmoving as a Mountain to stop the vehicle from being dragged into the magical vortex, while Divine Hand’s attack struck the vortex with divine power.
• Old Fourth activated the vehicle’s experimental White Coffin, which shielded the group until its fuel ran out and the barrier dissipated.
• Panda contacted the Six Ding and Six Jia, who reported that they had blocked most of the vortex’s first wave before returning to the Immortal Realm.
• Liu Zheng found that Update Hiatus Mountain had been leveled and learned that Yaksha had been badly wounded while pursuing Divine Hand.
• Liu Zheng dug Divine Hand out of the rubble and called Bro 4399 to offer him the surviving evil god.

Liu Zheng absorbed the Divine Hand’s refined divine power, gaining major stat boosts and new skills at the cost of some luck. After Yaksha sacrificed part of the corpse to Bloodhand Kane and recovered, Blue Genie offered Liu Zheng and his companions a ride deeper into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

• 4399 brought Blue Genie to Rootless Mountain, where Blue Genie identified the Divine Hand as a dying god associated with reproduction and refined its remains into lamp oil for Liu Zheng to drink.
• Liu Zheng absorbed the divine essence, permanently increased his attributes and sanity, lost a little luck, and gained two powerful skills.
• Blue Genie gave Liu Zheng a single-use drop of Divine Lamp Oil, then handed him part of the corpse for Yaksha after Liu Zheng explained that she was near death.
• Yaksha sacrificed the Divine Finger to Bloodhand Kane, healed her wounds, and received a blood-red mark that signaled the god’s favor.
• Liu Zheng learned that the finger pointed toward their destination, and Blue Genie offered to carry the group there on his magic carpet.

Liu Zheng persuaded Blue Genie’s magic carpet to carry the group to a mountain in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, then asked Shi Tiantian to help locate its core so he could blow it up. Shi Tiantian confirmed the mountain was safe to destroy and found where they should dig, leaving Liu Zheng’s plan ready to begin.

• Liu Zheng convinced Blue Genie’s magic carpet to carry the group by promising it a thorough cleaning and makeover, and Blue Genie took them toward their destination.
• After more than an hour, Liu Zheng spotted the mountain indicated by the finger and asked Blue Genie to land before he and the others continued alone.
• Liu Zheng asked Shi Tiantian whether his Laughing-Gas Bombs and Dango Mark could destroy the mountain, and she judged them insufficient.
• Shi Tiantian checked whether the mountain was a qi root and found it was safe to destroy, while Liu Zheng promised her a Medium Aken Gemstone as a gift.
• Shi Tiantian removed several skulls from her body and sent them underground to search for the mountain core, then told Liu Zheng where to dig.

Liu Zheng’s group uncovered a tomb beneath the mountain while searching for its core, but the tomb’s guardians refused to negotiate and attacked them. The chapter ended as Panda confronted the animated Azure Dragon and White Tiger.

• Liu Zheng led the group in digging through the mountain, and Niu Daji uncovered bluestone steps protected from their tools and Shi Tiantian’s ability.
• Yaksha used Dark Gate: Annihilation to expose the steps, and the group realized they led to a tomb beneath the mountain.
• Nile Doctor and Panda tried to contact the tomb’s owner, but neither received a response.
• Liu Zheng ordered Yaksha to break through the tomb’s defenses, and her Disintegration Ray exposed a guarded tomb gate.
• Golden Lad and Jade Maiden threatened the group, then attacked with golden beams that Yaksha, Nile Doctor, and Panda blocked.
• Golden Lad animated the Azure Dragon and White Tiger carvings, and Panda engaged them with Primordial Thunderclap Palm.

Panda defeated Azure Dragon and White Tiger, but the group faced a powerful corpse demon emerging from the tomb. Liu Zheng’s bluff with the Miniature Pyramid drove the coffin back briefly, though the enemy returned and the confrontation remained unresolved.

• Panda used Yaksha’s magic to overpower Azure Dragon and White Tiger, captured Azure Dragon’s dragon pearl, and beheaded both guardians before taking White Tiger’s taiyi essence metal claws.
• The coffin appeared to protect Golden Lad and Jade Maiden, and Panda retreated after sensing the immense yin energy within it.
• Liu Zheng ordered the group to escape through Yaksha’s shadow portal, but the corpse demon dispelled the darkness and trapped them with a ring of yin energy.
• The corpse demon attacked with a massive hand of yin energy, and Yaksha, Nile Doctor, and Panda failed to stop it.
• Nile Doctor threw the Miniature Pyramid at the coffin, making the corpse demon retreat after mistaking it for the Heaven-Turning Seal.
• Liu Zheng challenged the returning corpse demon, claiming the Miniature Pyramid could crush it even though it was not the Heaven-Turning Seal.

Liu Zheng traded the finger for a Warm Jade Pendant, but examining it revealed a grotesque face that twisted and killed several members of his group. After Yaksha sent the survivors into the Shadow Realm, a Daoist-robed man returned to confront the coffin’s occupant and sealed it with Red Lotus Karmic Fire and seven nails, at the cost of his own hand.

• Liu Zheng negotiated with the coffin’s occupant, exchanging the finger for a Warm Jade Pendant.
• The coffin’s occupant used the Circular Light Technique to reveal the finger’s history, and the grotesque face in the mirror twisted Golden Lad, Jade Maiden, Nile Doctor, and the others.
• Yaksha summoned a blazing armored figure and sent Liu Zheng and the survivors into another dimension while the coffin’s occupant attacked the face with a taiji diagram.
• A Daoist-robed man arrived at the summit and confronted the coffin’s occupant, revealing that his master had given him to Sunflower Old Demon after pretending to love him.
• The Daoist-robed man crushed an ice lotus containing Red Lotus Karmic Fire, drove seven Big Dipper Soul-Sealing Nails into the coffin, and trapped his master inside as the fire destroyed his hand.

The Daoist-robed man tried to secure the Northern Yin Heaven-Mending Coffin and silence Liu Zheng and his companions, but Liu Zheng summoned Red Pig to protect them and fight back. Red Pig defeated the robed man’s attacks and challenged him to surrender, while the battle continued.

• The robed man used a Śarīra Relic and sutra chanting to draw the blood ice flowers from his wounds, then failed to lift the Northern Yin Heaven-Mending Coffin.
• The robed man attacked Liu Zheng and the others with ghost soldiers, but Liu Zheng fought them off and tried to negotiate before the robed man launched his Sunflower Thousand-Crack Hand.
• Liu Zheng summoned Red Pig with his flight jacket and gave him the Grudge Fish, restoring him to his full strength.
• Red Pig swallowed Liu Zheng’s companions and flew them to safety, then stayed behind to fight the robed man.
• Red Pig broke the robed man’s Bone Sword and white-bone sunflower attacks, and demanded that he surrender and become his prisoner.

Chapter Summary: “They’re All Dead Now”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Red Pig Doppelganger battles the Taoist-robed man after mocking his earlier threat. Its powerful punches force the Taoist to rely on defensive sword techniques, particularly “Evil Is Righteousness.”
• To reverse the fight, the Taoist uses “Yin-Yang Reversal, Turn Death into Life,” temporarily restoring the Red Pig Doppelganger’s dead soul into a living body. However, the technique consumes much of its soul power, weakening it.
• The Taoist follows with “Sunflower Thousand-Crack Hand” and then attempts to finish both Red Pig and Liu Zheng with “Evil Without Limit.”
• Rather than protect itself, Red Pig shields Liu Zheng from the attack, revealing its loyalty and willingness to sacrifice itself for him.
• Liu Zheng gives Red Pig the single-use trash can item, which summons a violent middle-aged woman wraith. Red Pig intimidates and controls the wraith, using her as another combat resource.
• Taking advantage of its temporarily restored body, Red Pig burns its soul, flesh, and essence through the Light of the Mind and Soulfire, transforming into a tiny bomber loaded with explosives for a final attack.
• The Taoist attempts to escape with an Eight-Faced Die, but an infant-like second Nascent Soul emerges from the tomb and bites his hand, causing him to drop it.
• The infant is revealed to be the Taoist’s master, who had secretly prepared a second Nascent Soul. The master betrays him, shatters the Nascent Soul, and unleashes “Yin Evil and Yang Venom, Heaven-and-Earth Calamity,” crippling the Taoist’s defensive Golden Body.
• Red Pig’s bomber attack detonates at high altitude, creating a massive mushroom cloud and apparently killing the Taoist.
• Red Pig survives by parachuting down, though it can no longer return to its flight jacket. It asks Liu Zheng to take the jacket back to its main body.
• Red Pig then disappears with the middle-aged woman wraith after apparently modifying or combining the trash-can item. Liu Zheng finds a new explosive version of the item, suggesting Red Pig has driven the wraith into an even more dangerous state.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng turning his attention to the abandoned Eight-Faced Die.

Character Developments

• Red Pig Doppelganger: Demonstrates immense combat strength, loyalty, courage, and a theatrical sense of humor. It willingly protects Liu Zheng and sacrifices its own existence to defeat the Taoist. Its temporary resurrection gives it one final chance to fight at full power, ending with a spectacular bomber attack.
• Liu Zheng: Remains sarcastic and opportunistic but shows respect for Red Pig’s sacrifice. He refuses to be manipulated by the Taoist’s offer of negotiation and calmly waits for him to die. He also gains another dangerous item from Red Pig.
• Taoist-robed man: His confidence collapses as Red Pig overwhelms him. He resorts to forbidden techniques, deception, teleportation, and bargaining, but ultimately dies after being betrayed by his master and caught in Red Pig’s final attack.
• The Taoist’s master: Revealed to be calculating and exceptionally cautious. His preparation of a second Nascent Soul allows him to survive outside the tomb, but he sacrifices it to ensure his disciple’s death.
• Middle-aged woman wraith: Initially defiant and argumentative, she is bullied into cooperating with Red Pig. Her transformation into the enhanced “Menopausal” trash-can spirit implies that Red Pig has made her even more unstable and destructive.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and loyalty: Red Pig’s decision to shield Liu Zheng and expend its entire existence for a final attack highlights its bond with him.
• Death and reversal: The chapter repeatedly explores resurrection, soul consumption, Nascent Souls, and the boundary between life and death.
• Betrayal and survival: The Taoist is betrayed by the very master whose techniques he used, emphasizing the ruthless logic of the world.
• Humor amid violence: Absurd objects, insults, the tiny bomber, and the eccentric wraith undercut the brutality and create a darkly comic tone.
• Identity and strength: Red Pig declares that it is strongest when alive, but proves that even as a dead or altered being, its will and ingenuity remain formidable.

Important Character Interactions

• Red Pig and the Taoist engage in a direct power struggle, with Red Pig’s physical strength countered by the Taoist’s specialized anti-dead techniques.
• Red Pig repeatedly protects and mocks Liu Zheng, while Liu Zheng responds with sarcasm but ultimately respects Red Pig’s final stand.
• Liu Zheng refuses the Taoist’s attempt to negotiate, choosing to wait for his death and claim the Eight-Faced Die afterward.
• Red Pig dominates the middle-aged woman wraith through intimidation, treating her as both a subordinate and a weapon.
• The Taoist and his master exchange a final master-disciple confrontation, ending in betrayal, mutual destruction, and the master’s triumph over his former disciple.

Chapter Summary: “Random 8 Rolled a Dead 8”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng examines an Eight-Faced Die, a powerful single-use item that randomly changes his attributes to between 50% and 200% of their current values. Because the result is random and his current strength is insufficient to guarantee victory, he decides not to use it.
• Unable to open the mysterious coffin, Liu Zheng locates the mountain’s Mountain Core, which is itself a sealed coffin. He encases it in steel plates to create a more effective blast chamber and places three Laughing-Gas Bombs inside.
• He shelters himself underground during the explosion. The blast causes a massive shockwave, leaves everyone severely injured, and knocks Liu Zheng unconscious.
• After waking, Liu Zheng learns that the others have survived but suffered severe bodily distortions from residual chaotic power. Nile Doctor explains that they must return to the clinic, where he can use the Eye of Ra’s Solar Divine Power to heal them.
• Liu Zheng abandons the plan to proceed to Mount Oe and prioritizes medical treatment. He also intends to apologize to President Yuan for the disruption.
• Yaksha accuses Liu Zheng of breaking his promise to find sacrifices, but Liu Zheng argues that sacrificing a god—apparently Bloodhand Kane—is more valuable than sacrificing numerous monsters.
• Shi Tiantian, badly twisted by the attack, reveals that the dangerous power came from the Garbage Processing Plant, one of the most dangerous places in Metropolis.
• Shi Tiantian summons her brothers, the enormous Stone Spirits Shi Zhongjian and Shi Zhongyu, for assistance. Zhongyu initially distrusts Liu Zheng and challenges him, believing he may have failed to protect or may intend to abduct Tiantian.
• Tiantian defends Liu Zheng, and Zhongjian agrees to escort her and the injured group to the city. He creates a stone boat, transports everyone—including the Northern Yin Heaven-Mending Coffin—and brings them safely to the city.
• At the city entrance, Liu Zheng sends Nile Doctor and the others to the clinic while he goes to the Black Market to complete his commission. A fiery portal appears, and he enters it.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains resourceful, reckless, and opportunistic. He combines explosives, improvised engineering, and practical knowledge to deal with the Mountain Core, while still prioritizing his allies’ survival afterward.
• His flirtatious and manipulative charm is emphasized, especially in his interactions with Shi Tiantian. He quickly persuades her to summon her clan for help by flattering her.
• Nile Doctor continues acting as a calm, experienced adviser. He understands Liu Zheng’s womanizing tendencies but still trusts his competence and explains that Liu Zheng values capability and usefulness, not merely beauty.
• Shi Tiantian grows closer to Liu Zheng and openly defends him, insisting that he did his best and that she willingly helped him. Her injuries also reveal her curiosity about the Garbage Processing Plant.
• Shi Zhongyu is shown as fiercely protective, suspicious, impulsive, and highly confrontational. His distrust of Liu Zheng creates tension, though he ultimately backs down out of respect for Tiantian and Zhongjian.
• Shi Zhongjian is the more rational and authoritative twin. He evaluates Tiantian’s condition objectively, commands Zhongyu, and provides practical transportation and protection.
• Yaksha remains suspicious of Liu Zheng’s promises and methods, while Liu Zheng continues to justify his actions through technical interpretations of their agreement.

Significant Themes

• Risk and gambling: The unused Eight-Faced Die reinforces the chapter’s focus on chance, uncertain rewards, and the danger of relying on random power.
• Improvisation and survival: Liu Zheng survives through preparation, engineering, explosives, and attention to small details, such as protecting his eardrums during the blast.
• Trust versus suspicion: The Stone Spirits’ reaction to Liu Zheng highlights the difficulty of earning trust, especially when his behavior appears manipulative or self-serving.
• Power and danger: The Garbage Processing Plant is established as an extremely dangerous force whose chaotic influence can deform even powerful beings.
• Loyalty and mutual obligation: Despite his manipulative personality, Liu Zheng takes responsibility for injured allies and arranges their treatment. Others, including Shi Tiantian and Old Fourth, also support him.
• Humor amid catastrophe: Liu Zheng’s clown makeup, absurd poetry, flirtatious dialogue, and the exaggerated reactions of the Stone Spirits provide comic relief despite the severe injuries and destructive explosion.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor discuss the group’s injuries and the need to return to the clinic.
• Liu Zheng reassures Yaksha that a god is a more valuable sacrifice than ordinary monsters.
• Liu Zheng apologizes to Shi Tiantian, then flatters her into summoning her clan.
• Yaksha privately asks Nile Doctor whether Liu Zheng always flirts with everyone; Nile Doctor confirms that he does but explains that Liu Zheng’s relationships ultimately depend on competence and conduct.
• Shi Zhongyu threatens Liu Zheng, accusing him of trying to abduct Tiantian, while Tiantian repeatedly defends him.
• Shi Zhongjian overrules Zhongyu and escorts the entire group to the city, establishing himself as the responsible elder brother.
• Liu Zheng separates from the injured group at the city entrance and enters the Black Market portal to fulfill his commission.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng returns to Everything Shop after completing his commission. Although he killed the original client, he argues that the commission was still completed because Everything Shop—not the deceased client—was his actual employer.
• Everything Shop reluctantly accepts his reasoning and gives him the reward: Shuffled Dice, a single-use item that randomly rearranges the trigger probabilities of another item’s effects.
• After being teleported out of the Black Market, Liu Zheng contacts Nile Doctor, who is still preparing materials for an exorcism ritual.
• Unsure what to do next, Liu Zheng considers investigating Black Swan, an identity-stealing Ugly Duckling connected to Big White Goose’s commission and the Grand Theater.
• Guokou Tangzi reports that she dealt with Huang Jiongjiǒng by purchasing his gambling debts and beating him badly, leaving him bedridden for six months.
• She also reveals that a powerful Long-Lived Species from the Market Supervision Department, known as Abbot, wants her to cook for him privately in exchange for helping reopen Ultimate Flavor Group. Liu Zheng suspects Abbot intends to exploit or assault her and decides to investigate him.
• Liu Zheng asks Silver Wolf about Abbot and learns that the Grand Theater falls under the Market Supervision Department, while the Publicity Department is its supervising department. Silver Wolf has no useful contacts there.
• Liu Zheng then visits Professor Newt—Miniature Man—for help contacting the Publicity Department. Newt knows little about the Grand Theater but becomes fascinated by the Ugly Duckling race and offers assistance in exchange for a painting by Beast School master Henry Claw, to be purchased from Zhengwen Pawnshop.
• Tindalos escorts Liu Zheng out while repeatedly injuring him, turning the visit into both a negotiation and an impromptu dog walk.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display extreme confidence, opportunism, and verbal cleverness. He casually justifies killing a client, manipulates bureaucratic and social relationships, and treats dangerous situations as routine work.
• He also shows growing responsibility toward his allies. He takes Guokou Tangzi’s situation seriously, intends to protect her from Abbot, and investigates Black Swan partly because of Big White Goose’s commission.
• Everything Shop recognizes Liu Zheng’s unusual value and tries to recruit him by offering immediate Silver membership, but Liu Zheng refuses out of claimed loyalty to Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Guokou Tangzi proves highly efficient and ruthless, dealing with Huang Jiongjiǒng through underworld connections rather than direct supernatural action.
• Silver Wolf acts as a practical source of institutional information, while his resentment toward the elitist Publicity Department reveals class and cultural divisions within City Hall.
• Miniature Man/Newt is established as eccentric, cautious, and intellectually curious. His interest in the Ugly Ducklings is strong enough that Liu Zheng can use it to persuade him to help.
• Tindalos demonstrates affection through violent physical contact, treating Liu Zheng as a familiar playmate despite causing severe injuries.

Significant Themes

• Transactional morality: Characters treat favors, commissions, debts, and even violence as negotiable business arrangements. Liu Zheng’s argument that killing the client does not invalidate the commission highlights this worldview.
• Loyalty versus self-interest: Liu Zheng theatrically claims absolute loyalty to Bloodstained Restaurant while constantly pursuing his own interests and maintaining connections across factions.
• Power abuse and exploitation: Abbot’s attempt to use his official position to pressure Guokou Tangzi reflects the danger of unequal power, while Liu Zheng seeks to counter such abuse through investigation and coercion.
• Class and cultural prejudice: The conflict between the Publicity Department’s educated elites and “drifters” like Silver Wolf emphasizes social hierarchy and the difference between formal culture and real-world understanding.
• Information and identity: Black Swan and the Ugly Ducklings represent the dangers of stolen identities, hidden truths, and institutional suppression of information.
• Absurdity amid danger: Serious threats—murder, supernatural races, political corruption, and exploitation—are repeatedly mixed with jokes, casual insults, and bizarre everyday interactions.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Everything Shop engage in a witty dispute over whether he deserves payment after killing the client. Their exchange establishes mutual recognition: Everything Shop sees his talent, while Liu Zheng refuses recruitment.
• Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi discuss both Huang Jiongjiǒng’s punishment and the threat posed by Abbot. Liu Zheng adopts a protective, investigative role.
• His conversation with Silver Wolf provides information about the Grand Theater and exposes Silver Wolf’s frustration with the Publicity Department’s elitism.
• Liu Zheng’s meeting with Miniature Man turns into a negotiation: he offers to capture Black Swan for research, while Newt demands a valuable painting first.
• Tindalos’s enthusiastic but harmful affection creates a comedic contrast with Miniature Man’s calm, detached attitude toward Liu Zheng’s injuries.