Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Ouma Mirai Is in Trouble”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng purchases an expensive two-bedroom apartment in Verdant Residential Complex for his subordinate, Niu Daji. He pays in full and leaves Daji to complete the paperwork.
• Liu orders Niu Daji to remain stationed at the clinic until further notice. Daji admits he enjoys staying there because of the doctors, though he privately dislikes the bear-like Cow-Horse.
• Back at the break room, Liu tells Cow-Horse about the house purchase. Cow-Horse becomes indignant that Liu bought property for a subordinate before buying one for his superior.
• Liu offers to buy Cow-Horse a house as well, but Cow-Horse clarifies that what it truly wants is Liu’s proper attitude and loyalty to the Restaurant. Liu defuses the tension by giving Cow-Horse the game console it wanted.
• Weaver Lady secretly approaches Liu from the ceiling and leaves him a new item: the Phoenix Five Virtues Cloak.
• The cloak grants the permanent ability to communicate with and suppress birds, with a 20% attribute boost when dealing with them. Its activated ability randomly grants one of the Five Virtues for twenty-four hours.
• Liu activates the cloak and receives Virtue of Benevolence, which prevents the first fatal attack he receives from killing him and likewise prevents his first fatal attack against another person from being lethal.
• Cow-Horse envies Liu’s luck but refuses to test the cloak itself, fearing Liu will mock the virtue it receives.
• Liu then receives an urgent call from Li Ziming: Ouma Mirai has been accused of poisoning Li Xueqing, the school’s top student.
• Li Xueqing collapsed during a break, and school staff discovered Spice powder in his nasal cavity and the same substance on Ouma Mirai’s fingers. Spice places victims into a deep sleep and can cause permanent brain damage if removed forcibly.
• Ouma Mirai has been detained by the school. She neither confesses nor denies the accusation and reportedly only stared blankly at Li Xueqing.
• Liu recognizes that the evidence strongly implicates her, especially because she comes from the assassin Ouma family, which is associated with Murder Incense. However, he doubts she would commit such an act openly and wants more information before deciding whether she is guilty.
• Liu orders Li Ziming to investigate Ouma’s interrogation and threatens severe consequences if he fails. He then urgently contacts Yoko and demands to speak with Master Hachijo.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to display generosity toward his subordinates, buying Niu Daji a house, while also revealing his petty and mischievous side through his exchange with the property manager.
• He proves protective and responsible toward those under his care, immediately taking Ouma Mirai’s situation seriously and refusing to judge her solely on circumstantial evidence.
• His new cloak enhances his defensive abilities, encouraging a more survival-oriented approach rather than his usual preference for overwhelming offensive power.
• Niu Daji shows loyalty and contentment with his current role at the clinic, though he still harbors an amusing dislike of Cow-Horse.
• Cow-Horse reveals its selfish, status-conscious personality. It wants priority as Liu’s superior but ultimately values recognition and obedience more than an actual house.
• Weaver Lady remains extremely shy and socially anxious but demonstrates her goodwill and usefulness by secretly gifting Liu a powerful piece of equipment.
• Ouma Mirai becomes the center of a serious crisis. Her silence and lack of denial make her appear suspicious, but the chapter leaves her true guilt uncertain.
• Li Ziming is shown to be obedient but easily intimidated by Liu’s authority.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and hierarchy: Liu’s relationship with Niu Daji and Cow-Horse highlights competing loyalties between personal bonds, subordinates, and the Restaurant’s organizational structure.
• Generosity versus self-interest: Liu willingly spends a large amount to help Daji, while Cow-Horse focuses on whether it is receiving proper respect and benefits.
• Survival over aggression: Liu’s thoughts about the Benevolence ability show his growing recognition that avoiding death may be more important than maximizing destructive power.
• Appearance versus truth: Ouma Mirai appears guilty based on the evidence, her family background, and her silence, but Liu realizes that these details may not reveal the full truth.
• Prejudice and judgment: The investigation risks condemning Ouma Mirai because of her assassin heritage, raising doubts about whether she is being judged fairly.
• Comic camaraderie amid danger: The banter between Liu and Cow-Horse, Weaver Lady’s awkward behavior, and the property manager’s petty prank provide humor before the chapter shifts into a serious emergency.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu and the property manager engage in a petty exchange over the house payment, with both trying to outmaneuver and annoy each other.
• Liu reassures Niu Daji that he must remain at the clinic, reinforcing their boss-subordinate relationship.
• Liu and Cow-Horse argue over who deserves Liu’s generosity and loyalty. Their quarrel reveals mutual familiarity, resentment, and underlying trust.
• Weaver Lady communicates with Liu indirectly, leaving him the Phoenix cloak rather than confronting him openly.
• Liu and Cow-Horse discuss the cloak’s virtue system, with Cow-Horse refusing to risk exposing its own lack of benevolence, courtesy, or trust.
• Li Ziming reports Ouma Mirai’s predicament to Liu, and Liu assumes command of the response.
• The chapter ends with Liu calling Yoko and demanding to speak with Master Hachijo, signaling that he is preparing to intervene directly in Ouma Mirai’s case.

Chapter Summary: “Sewer Routes Are the Real Fast Routes”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng contacts Hachijo after learning that Ouma Mirai is suspected of using poisonous incense to incapacitate classmates who bullied her.
• Hachijo admits Mirai may have inherited the ability to create such incense, despite never being taught how. Liu Zheng decides that determining the truth requires reaching Mirai directly.
• Hachijo authorizes Liu Zheng to act as Mirai’s guardian and arranges a delivery order for her. Liu Zheng sends Niu Daji to retrieve the authorization letter from Yoko.
• Liu Zheng receives a delivery order for a deluxe crepe from Mirai, located in the principal’s office at Virtue Private Middle School, with a two-hour deadline.
• Li Ziming informs him that Mirai has remained completely silent and that the school intends to use a Mind Flayer to read her thoughts. Liu Zheng orders people to guard a nearby sewer entrance and continue monitoring the school.
• Liu Zheng promises Panda that he will help uncover the truth behind the persecution and genocide of Panda’s race, and that he will help Panda obtain revenge or an explanation from whoever was responsible.
• After Niu Daji returns with Ouma Juro’s authorization letter, Liu Zheng takes Panda with him. He chooses Panda over Niu Daji because Panda is less conspicuous and more suitable for entering a school.
• Liu Zheng travels through the Sewer River with Fisherman, who transports him at extreme speed by having a giant fish swallow and spin him. The journey takes only three minutes, though it leaves Liu Zheng severely nauseated.
• At the school’s sewer entrance, two delinquent students, Robert “Big Radish” and Zhang “Old Wan” Zhuangzhuang, help Liu Zheng enter and guide him toward the administrative building.
• The security guards attempt to block Liu Zheng, deny that Mirai is a student, and stall him for thirty minutes so the principal can prepare.
• Panda overhears the guards’ thoughts and exposes their plan. Liu Zheng realizes the school is hiding something and prepares to fight his way to the tenth floor.
• Liu Zheng attacks the security team. His Dragon-Scale Blade easily cuts through the lead guard’s powerful riot baton, but the guard counters by activating “Biao Spirit Possession,” transforming with the phantom of a terrifying, tiger-like biao beast.
• The chapter ends as Liu Zheng’s blade clashes with the guard’s supernatural claws.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes more assertive and protective. He accepts legal responsibility for Mirai, acts as her guardian, and immediately takes action when he learns the school may forcibly read her mind.
• Hachijo demonstrates trust in Liu Zheng and concern for his granddaughter. Though uncertain whether Mirai committed the poisoning, he cooperates without hesitation and provides the authorization necessary for Liu Zheng to intervene.
• Panda continues to build trust in Liu Zheng. His questions about revenge show his deep desire for justice, while his ability to read the guards’ thoughts proves valuable during the rescue.
• Niu Daji eagerly wants to participate, especially after buying a house and becoming enthusiastic about work, but Liu Zheng leaves it behind because it would attract too much attention.
• Fisherman reveals his unusual but highly effective transportation method. His teasing and reckless treatment of Liu Zheng add humor, while his sewer route demonstrates the setting’s unconventional infrastructure.
• Big Radish and Old Wan are established as mischievous but useful students with connections to the school. Their excitement suggests they admire Liu Zheng’s reputation and expect violence or chaos.
• The lead security guard, Biaozi, is revealed to be far stronger than an ordinary guard. His former underworld experience and “Biao Spirit Possession” make him a serious opponent.

Significant Themes

• Protection and responsibility: Liu Zheng’s acceptance of guardianship shows that responsibility is defined by action rather than blood relation.
• Justice versus institutional secrecy: The school attempts to deny Mirai’s existence and obstruct Liu Zheng, suggesting that authority figures are protecting a hidden truth rather than seeking justice.
• Inherited abilities and identity: Hachijo’s concern that Mirai may have inherited talent for poisonous incense raises questions about bloodline, nature, and whether someone should be judged for abilities they did not choose.
• Trust and revenge: Panda’s desire for revenge is balanced by Liu Zheng’s promise to pursue the truth first and demand an explanation from the guilty party.
• Unorthodox power and transportation: The sewer system, supernatural creatures, and bizarre delivery methods reinforce the chapter’s darkly comic supernatural world.
• Appearances versus reality: The guards initially dismiss Liu Zheng as “just a deliveryman,” but his strength, authority, and connections make him far more dangerous than they expect.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Hachijo: They discuss Mirai’s possible guilt and arrange the authorization that allows Liu Zheng to act on her behalf.
• Liu Zheng and Panda: Liu Zheng promises to investigate Panda’s people’s genocide and support Panda’s pursuit of justice, strengthening their bond.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Their interaction combines urgency with slapstick humor, as Fisherman’s brutally fast transport leaves Liu Zheng sick but gets him to the school in minutes.
• Liu Zheng and Big Radish/Old Wan: The students guide him through the school and eagerly anticipate the confrontation, treating him as a notorious figure.
• Liu Zheng and the security guards: The guards try to intimidate and delay him, but their lies are exposed by Panda. Their confrontation escalates into a supernatural battle.
• Liu Zheng and Biaozi: Their fight establishes the chapter’s immediate climax, pitting Liu Zheng’s Dragon-Scale Blade against Biaozi’s transformed beast claws.

Chapter Summary: “Bloody Battle with the School Security Guards”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng defeats the head security guard, Brother Biao, with a surprise spinning kick after briefly distracting him with “Witness!”
• Panda traps the remaining guards inside a magical circle using “Draw the Ground as a Prison.” He threatens them while waiting for Liu Zheng, partly because he is irritated by the house-buying competition with Niu Daji.
• Liu Zheng reaches the tenth floor and is ambushed by several guards using fire, lightning, riot batons, and a bladed riot fork.
• He absorbs the flames with his pipe, withstands the weapons with “Iron Block,” and rapidly heals from a severe neck wound. His regenerative ability allows him to fight despite massive blood loss.
• Liu Zheng kills or incapacitates most of the three guards at the elevator using his tentacles, True Damage, and Blood-Spitting. One guard flees, while another reveals the location of the principal’s office after Liu Zheng threatens him.
• More guards attack after hearing that stopping Liu Zheng will earn them a four-month bonus. Liu Zheng counters by offering 100,000 in medical expenses, but the captain restores their determination by promising a long-term employment contract.
• Liu Zheng cuts off and eats his own tentacles, transforming them into ammunition. He fires accurate bloody arrows at the guards through Merit Shrapnel, injuring many of them.
• A guard uses “Phantom Target,” creating a scarecrow that redirects all incoming ranged attacks—including attacks from his allies. The technique temporarily saves the guards but drains the caster, who collapses after the decoy is destroyed.
• The security captain begins preparing a devastating saber technique that consumes his vitality. His subordinates form a defensive line to protect him while he charges the attack.
• Liu Zheng launches himself forward, enduring the guards’ combined attacks with Iron Block. Even after losing or tearing off more tentacles, he continues chewing his own flesh to produce more blood ammunition.
• His massive blood arrow pierces a riot shield and the guard behind it. The other guards slow its trajectory, but the confidant orders them to use their bodies to stop it.
• The chapter ends when an unknown voice tells the confidant to block the arrow, and someone shoves him directly into its path.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates extreme resilience, regeneration, tactical creativity, and psychological ruthlessness. He uses his own body as ammunition and treats severe wounds as minor inconveniences.
• His battle style combines items, physical abilities, regeneration, intimidation, and unconventional attacks, giving him an advantage over opponents with more limited skill sets.
• Although Liu Zheng is brutal, he does not pursue the fleeing guard, recognizing that the guards are mostly ordinary employees doing their jobs.
• Panda displays a cold, threatening personality and a strong competitive streak, especially regarding his desire to secure a house and avoid being outdone by Niu Daji.
• The security captain shows loyalty and leadership by sacrificing his own vitality for his subordinates, while also manipulating their desire for stable employment to keep them fighting.
• The security confidant acts as the captain’s chief supporter and motivational voice, but may now have been betrayed or deliberately sacrificed by an unseen ally.
• The guards shift from confidence to fear as Liu Zheng’s regeneration and grotesque self-mutilation undermine their morale.

Significant Themes

• Survival and brutality: The battle emphasizes how far Liu Zheng is willing to go to win, including consuming his own severed flesh and fighting through fatal injuries.
• Resourcefulness versus specialization: Liu Zheng’s broad arsenal and flexible tactics contrast with the guards’ more fixed abilities and equipment.
• Economic motivation and workplace loyalty: The guards are encouraged by bonuses, medical compensation, and the promise of secure contracts, showing how financial security drives them into deadly combat.
• Sacrifice and self-preservation: The captain is prepared to sacrifice his vitality, while the guards are ordered to sacrifice their lives for him. The ending questions whether loyalty will survive when someone is forced to become a human shield.
• Unequal fairness and rivalry: Panda’s resentment toward Niu Daji’s house-buying ambitions introduces a humorous subplot about competition, status, and perceived favoritism amid the violent conflict.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng defeats Brother Biao and orders Panda to handle the other guards.
• Panda intimidates the trapped guards, threatening to use them as sacrifices if they interfere.
• Liu Zheng taunts the guards during combat, explaining how poison might have been more effective against him and mocking their failed defensive techniques.
• He interrogates an injured guard about the principal’s office, combining bribery with grotesque threats until the guard gives up the information.
• Liu Zheng and the security captain compete psychologically as each uses rewards and promises to influence the guards.
• The captain’s confidant repeatedly rallies the guards and coordinates their defense, but the chapter ends with him apparently being pushed into Liu Zheng’s lethal attack.

Liu Zheng fought his way to the principal’s office to rescue Ouma Mirai and used Divine Lamp Oil to remove the office’s defenses. As he attacked the fur-clad man who had moved to strike Ouma Mirai, the man summoned a powerful technique.

• The security captain cut a marble from his heart and injected medicine, then passed out, leaving a deputy captain in charge; Liu Zheng fought through the guards and reached the principal’s office.
• Liu Zheng broke into the office, where he found Ouma Mirai restrained beside a Mind Flayer and used Witness to interrupt its psychic attack.
• The principal’s Force-Field Blast Wall stopped Liu Zheng’s blood arrow, so Liu Zheng used Divine Lamp Oil to remove every defense between himself and Ouma Mirai.
• The fur-clad man accepted the principal’s offer and moved to strike Ouma Mirai; Liu Zheng fired a blood arrow at her heart, then leaped at the man with his blade.
• The fur-clad man raised his palm as dragon and tiger cries rang out, preparing to confront Liu Zheng.

Chapter Summary: “Ouma Mirai, Take Off Your Clothes”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng identifies the girl who attacked Ouma Mirai as Gongyang Xin, a Class 8 second-year student living at 39 Rose Street. She has taken sick leave, suggesting she may be hiding because of her guilt.
• He receives a delivery order for a bizarre dish called Hellish Big Scrap Pot, but stores it away because its effects are unpredictable despite its ability to restore stamina.
• Liu Zheng examines two earlier delivery items:
  • A Deluxe Crêpe, which restores stamina.
  • French Foie Goose, which restores stamina and grants a temporary status that improves repeated-task efficiency at the cost of stamina.
• He tricks Cow-Horse into accepting the bitter goose and wine, allowing him to dispose of the unpleasant food while keeping the useful items.
• Liu Zheng gathers allies and heads to Rose Street:
  • Niu Daji is told to fight directly and protect anyone in danger.
  • Panda/Abao is assigned to guard Ouma Mirai.
  • French Plane Tree agrees to intervene if necessary and confirms that it can reach anywhere on Rose Street.
• Before confronting Gongyang Xin, Panda draws a protective Buddhist Sanskrit talisman on Ouma Mirai’s back using Liu Zheng’s blood. The procedure requires Ouma to remain still and leave her back uncovered.
• The group reaches Gongyang Xin’s two-story home. Liu Zheng disguises himself as a promoter for the Bloodstained Restaurant and Du Kang Liquor Shop to confirm the girl’s identity by voice.
• When Gongyang Xin refuses to open the door and threatens to call the police, Liu Zheng reveals that her crimes have been exposed and orders her to come out and surrender.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes increasingly cautious and strategic. He verifies Gongyang Xin’s identity, investigates her background, brings reinforcements, and prepares defensive measures before confronting her.
• His relationship with his allies remains comedic and informal. He is stingy with valuable food and wine but ultimately allows Panda to use his blood for the talisman.
• Ouma Mirai is nervous and shy but cooperates with the group, enduring the embarrassing talisman ritual because she understands its protective purpose.
• Panda demonstrates practical occult knowledge and a shameless, teasing personality. It uses Buddhist Sanskrit because its sect’s magical inheritance is incomplete and assembled from various traditions.
• Niu Daji shows enthusiasm for direct combat and eagerly accepts the role of charging into danger.
• French Plane Tree continues to act arrogant and demanding, but it is loyal to Liu Zheng and willing to help defend him.
• Gongyang Xin is presented as evasive and defensive, attempting to conceal herself behind excuses and threats to call the police.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus recklessness: Liu Zheng avoids confronting Gongyang Xin alone and arranges protection, combat support, and identity verification.
• Unconventional teamwork: Humans, demons, spirits, and other supernatural beings cooperate despite constant bickering and differing personalities.
• Comedy through contrast: Serious supernatural danger is repeatedly undercut by absurd food items, workplace-like orders, bargaining over wine, and Panda’s inappropriate instructions.
• Improvised traditions and adaptability: Panda’s use of Buddhist Sanskrit despite belonging to an Orthodox Arcane Sect reflects the practical, mixed, and incomplete nature of supernatural inheritance.
• Justice and accountability: The chapter shifts from investigation to confrontation as Liu Zheng directly challenges Gongyang Xin to face the consequences of her actions.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse exchange suspicious, sarcastic banter over the bitter goose.
• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree argue over wine while relying on each other’s abilities.
• Panda teases Liu Zheng into providing blood for Ouma Mirai’s talisman, and Liu Zheng responds with mock threats.
• Panda and Ouma Mirai interact awkwardly during the protective ritual, with Ouma obediently enduring the discomfort.
• Liu Zheng coordinates the group’s roles, emphasizing that Panda should protect Ouma and that Niu Daji should fight only as needed.
• At the house, Liu Zheng uses deception to engage Gongyang Xin before abandoning the disguise and confronting her openly.

Chapter Summary: “Something Big Is Coming!”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Gongyang Xin traps Liu Zheng inside an illusion using the Nightmare Suppression Art. In the illusion, she attacks a straw doll representing him, but Liu Zheng feels no pain because borrowed luck protects him.
• Rather than freeing himself, Liu Zheng deliberately remains immobilized so Niu Daji and Panda can gain practical combat experience.
• Outside the illusion, Panda realizes the spell cannot harm Liu Zheng directly and advises Niu Daji to destroy the house where Gongyang Xin is hiding.
• Niu Daji demonstrates immense physical strength, smashing through the gate and front door. However, the entire building is revealed to be part of a massive suppression formation shaped like a prison, trapping him inside.
• Ouma Mirai’s protective mantra begins to weaken. Panda reinforces it and starts dismantling the suppression formation with his bamboo-based bloodline ability.
• Gongyang Xin counters by covering the giant bamboo with paper offerings, transforming it into part of the prison formation.
• Panda uses “Yin-Yang Reversal, Heaven and Earth Without Direction” to disrupt the spell’s underlying qi structure, causing the bamboo and the Nightmare Suppression Prison to collapse.
• Niu Daji escapes from the destroyed building and captures a school-uniformed girl, whom Ouma Mirai identifies as the person they were seeking.
• Liu Zheng remains trapped even after Gongyang Xin is apparently captured, revealing that the girl may be a decoy or that Gongyang Xin has another escape method.
• When Panda and Niu Daji attack Gongyang Xin, her head and body transform into paper scraps and a paper doll, proving that the woman they struck was only a substitute.
• Panda traps the invisible Gongyang Xin within a bamboo circle. Unable to locate her, he prepares an area attack while Niu Daji builds up power through repeated squats and prepares to use a mysterious substance from a syringe.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Remains calm, sarcastic, and strategically passive. He trusts his subordinates enough to let them handle the battle and uses the situation as training for them.
• Panda: Shows strong tactical awareness and a growing range of abilities. He identifies the nature of the suppression formation, protects Ouma Mirai, counters Gongyang Xin’s spellwork, and takes command of the battle despite his depleted energy.
• Niu Daji: Displays extraordinary body-refinement and destructive strength, but lacks control and experience in complex magical formations. He becomes more cooperative with Panda, though the two continue trading insults.
• Gongyang Xin: Proves to be a highly capable illusionist and formation user. She adapts quickly, uses paper substitutes, and conceals her true location even after her apparent defeat.
• Ouma Mirai: Functions as the key identifier and the focus of Panda’s defensive efforts. Her weakening mantra alerts the others to the existence of Gongyang Xin’s backup plan.
• The captured girl: Is confirmed by Ouma Mirai to be their intended target, though Gongyang Xin’s continued presence suggests the situation is not resolved.

3. Significant Themes

• Delegation and growth: Liu Zheng deliberately allows his subordinates to fight so they can develop independence rather than relying on him.
• Appearance versus reality: Illusions, paper bodies, invisible movement, and decoy forms repeatedly undermine the characters’ assumptions about what is real.
• Strength versus strategy: Niu Daji relies on overwhelming physical force, while Panda uses observation, formations, and spell disruption. Their success depends on combining both approaches.
• Comedic teamwork amid danger: The serious battle is repeatedly undercut by sarcasm, arguments, and absurd behavior, especially between Panda and Niu Daji.
• Hidden escalation: Every apparent victory reveals another layer of danger, building suspense toward the chapter’s final hint that Niu Daji is about to unleash something unusual.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng mocks Gongyang Xin’s ineffective illusion attack, frustrating her.
• Panda and Niu Daji establish an antagonistic but increasingly functional partnership: Panda provides strategy while Niu Daji supplies brute force.
• Panda protects Ouma Mirai and coordinates her defense while criticizing Niu Daji’s performance.
• Niu Daji repeatedly calls for guidance and reassurance, especially because Liu Zheng remains trapped.
• Panda and Niu Daji jointly attack Gongyang Xin, only to discover they have struck a paper decoy.
• Their argument over how to force Gongyang Xin out ends with Panda preparing an area attack and Niu Daji charging up a mysterious technique, leaving the confrontation on a cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary: “Red Spider” Bathhouse

Key Plot Points and Events

• Niu Daji uses a syringe filled with strange herbs to unleash an enormous, poisonous fart. The blast propels him into the air, creates a crater, and fills the area with a debilitating stench.
• The gas overwhelms the invisible Gongyang Xin, allowing Niu Daji to locate and kick her unconscious. Liu Zheng is largely unaffected, while Panda survives by using the Qi-Repelling Art.
• Liu Zheng orders Panda to seal Gongyang Xin’s movements with a Big Dipper Soul-Sealing Nail. Panda reveals that he secretly kept one of the seven nails from an earlier incident.
• Before Panda can complete the sealing ritual, Gongyang Xin’s hidden power activates. A grotesque, half-formed entity emerges from her mouth, using the Nightmare Suppression Art to immobilize Panda and Niu Daji and threaten to kill everyone.
• Panda prepares to burn through his Golden Core in a desperate counterattack, but French Plane Tree intervenes. He restrains Gongyang Xin, Panda, and Niu Daji with magically controlled leaves and forces them to watch Ginseng Baby perform a dance as punishment.
• Meanwhile, Liu Zheng drives to the “Red Spider” Bathhouse to complete a delivery-related investigation or request. The low-end storefront hides a luxurious VIP room.
• At the bathhouse, Liu Zheng’s Bloodstained Restaurant uniform alarms the receptionist, but his cash quickly changes her attitude. He requests to see every available technician, suspecting the customer or target is somewhere inside.
• Little Rat, the transformed customer service manager, brings a group of unusually dressed human and nonhuman technicians into the room.

Character Developments

• Niu Daji demonstrates both unusual combat usefulness and cowardly pragmatism. His foul-smelling technique decisively defeats Gongyang Xin, but he immediately submits to Liu Zheng’s reprimands.
• Panda is shown to be resourceful and knowledgeable, possessing a Soul-Sealing Nail and an understanding of Big Dipper sealing techniques. His damaged but powerful Upper-Grade Golden Core reveals his formidable past and enduring strength.
• Gongyang Xin proves far more dangerous than expected. Even while apparently defeated, she retains a terrifying last-resort technique and is willing to sacrifice herself to kill her enemies.
• French Plane Tree is established as an overwhelmingly powerful but eccentric figure allied with Liu Zheng’s group. He treats the captured demons as intruders on his territory and disciplines them humorously but brutally.
• Liu Zheng remains practical, confident, and opportunistic. He balances harsh leadership with unexpected sentimentality, recalling his impoverished first date and deciding to treat the bathhouse customer more generously if they behave well.
• Little Rat is introduced as a partially transformed, rat-faced manager who is self-conscious about his appearance but competent and eager to serve customers.

Significant Themes

• Absurdity and comedy amid danger: Grotesque powers, supernatural threats, and serious combat are undercut by fart attacks, insults, forced dancing, and workplace-like reprimands.
• Power hierarchy and survival: Even powerful cultivators such as Panda and Gongyang Xin are helpless before French Plane Tree, reinforcing the chapter’s vast supernatural hierarchy.
• Loyalty and self-interest: Niu Daji’s loyalty to Liu Zheng is partly sincere but also motivated by fear of harsher punishment. The chapter presents allegiance as a mixture of personal bonds and pragmatic survival.
• Hidden identities and appearances: Gongyang Xin’s concealed entity, Little Rat’s failed transformation, and the bathhouse’s contrast between its shabby exterior and luxurious interior all emphasize that appearances are deceptive.
• Money and social mobility: Liu Zheng’s cash instantly earns him better treatment, contrasting with his memories of being poor and unable to afford even snacks on his first date.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng repeatedly scolds Niu Daji and Panda while still relying on their abilities.
• Panda and Niu Daji develop a brief mutual understanding over their shared fear of Liu Zheng’s punishment.
• Gongyang Xin attempts to drag Panda and Niu Daji into mutual destruction, but French Plane Tree suppresses all three before the confrontation can escalate.
• French Plane Tree humiliates the captives by forcing them to watch Ginseng Baby dance and threatening further punishment.
• Liu Zheng interacts with the bathhouse receptionist through a mixture of money, authority, and calculated questioning.
• He accepts Little Rat despite his unusual appearance, showing Liu Zheng’s practical lack of prejudice and focus on efficiency.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng facing a room full of human and nonhuman bathhouse workers, setting up the next stage of his investigation or delivery.

Chapter Summary: “Innate Spirit Milk”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits the Red Spider Club disguised as a customer, claiming he is looking for a technician named “Bobo.” He observes the technicians’ reactions and identifies the busty technician as the person connected to his delivery.
• The club manager initially tries to protect his employees and resist Liu Zheng’s threatening behavior. Liu offers compensation for dismissing the other technicians, paying each the equivalent of three hours’ wages.
• The technicians leave, though the snake-demon Ace Xiaobai briefly encourages a group encounter. The young technician Luoluo hesitates to leave Bobo alone, revealing her concern for Bobo. Bobo orders her to go, while Liu allows her to keep her money.
• Liu confronts Bobo about the Bloodstained Restaurant’s delivery. He offers to fulfill one wish if she willingly signs for it, but refuses to guarantee her survival or resurrection.
• When Bobo challenges his ability to help her, Liu threatens her with a direct choice: become a corpse or become his ally. Bobo then makes two requests:
  1. Liu must buy Luoluo out of her employment contract.
  2. If Bobo survives signing the delivery, Liu must provide her with a new identity, arrange schooling, and pay her university tuition if she is admitted.
• To ensure Liu will honor his promises, Bobo offers him one of her race’s two lifetime drops of Innate Spirit Milk. Anyone who breaks an oath made after drinking it will be cursed and killed.
• Liu makes several oaths and drinks the milk. The system grants him five permanent Strength and Stamina points, the temporary “Foundation Perfection” status, and the “Milk Oath Blood Curse,” which makes oath-breaking potentially fatal for one dungeon.
• Bobo signs for the delivery: a large pot from the Bloodstained Restaurant. Liu implies that the food inside will suit her, although Bobo sarcastically interprets it as a meal intended to let her die with a full stomach.
• Liu leaves to negotiate Luoluo’s release. He confronts the manager in his office and demands a price for redeeming both technicians, threatening to involve the Public Security Bureau and Market Supervision Department if the club refuses.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes increasingly forceful and confident. Rather than relying only on threats, he combines money, intimidation, institutional connections, and negotiated promises to accomplish his goals. His willingness to accept the Milk Oath Blood Curse also demonstrates his growing resistance to supernatural dangers and his confidence in his own abilities.
• Bobo is revealed to be more than a club technician. She is intelligent, cautious, and deeply concerned about her future and personal freedom. Although outwardly cynical, her requests show that she wants Luoluo protected and hopes to escape her current life through education and a new identity.
• Luoluo displays strong loyalty and affection toward Bobo. Despite being frightened and inexperienced, she wants to stay with Bobo and even gives up the money Liu offered her, suggesting she values Bobo’s safety more than immediate financial gain.
• The manager shifts from a friendly, protective proprietor to a pragmatic negotiator. He tries to defend the club’s workers while also exploiting the situation for profit, pocketing Luoluo’s unused payment.
• Xiaobai and the other technicians highlight the club’s commercial and competitive atmosphere. Xiaobai’s confidence reflects her status as the club’s top earner, while the manager’s inability to openly reprimand her shows the power hierarchy within the establishment.

Significant Themes

• Freedom versus exploitation: Bobo and Luoluo are bound by employment contracts, and Liu’s attempt to buy them out represents a possible escape from institutional control.
• Trust and binding promises: The Innate Spirit Milk turns spoken promises into life-or-death commitments. The chapter explores how trust can be created through supernatural enforcement when ordinary assurances are worthless.
• Power and negotiation: Liu repeatedly turns vulnerable situations to his advantage through money, threats, and connections. The manager’s business interests, Bobo’s survival, and Luoluo’s freedom all become matters of bargaining.
• Hidden compassion beneath cynicism: Bobo pretends to be cold and dismissive, but her requests reveal self-sacrifice and concern for Luoluo. Similarly, the Bloodstained Restaurant’s dangerous delivery may contain a small degree of mercy by providing something the recipient might value.
• Growth through supernatural means: Liu’s absorption of the spirit milk improves his physical foundation and cultivation potential, reinforcing the chapter’s focus on strengthening oneself through risk and unusual opportunities.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the manager engage in a tense contest of politeness, intimidation, and authority. Liu manipulates the manager’s concern for the club’s reputation and employees, while the manager tries to preserve control.
• Liu and Bobo challenge one another verbally. Bobo questions his promises and abilities, while Liu pressures her with a deadline and threats, eventually forcing a practical agreement.
• Bobo and Luoluo’s interaction reveals a protective but emotionally restrained relationship. Luoluo openly wants to support Bobo, while Bobo pushes her away to keep her from being endangered.
• Liu and Bobo establish a supernatural contract through the Innate Spirit Milk. Their relationship changes from adversarial negotiation to one based on binding mutual obligations.
• Liu’s final confrontation with the manager shifts the focus from Bobo’s delivery to Luoluo’s rescue, setting up the next stage of the chapter’s conflict.

Chapter Summary: “A Grand Inventory of Supernatural Items”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng negotiates with the club manager to free Bobo and Luoluo. He pays 300,000 and burns their contracts, discovering that Luoluo had been trapped in an exploitative indenture arrangement involving inflated interest and deductions.
• He warns the manager to treat the women as people and threatens the club with supernatural consequences if it mistreats them again.
• Liu Zheng retrieves Luoluo and the unconscious, severely emaciated Bobo. Luoluo carries Bobo to the hearse while Liu Zheng organizes their return.
• At Rose Street, Liu Zheng finds Niu Daji, Panda, and Gongyang Xin hanging upside down as punishment from French Plane Tree, also called Lord Dai Lego. They had been judged inefficient.
• Liu Zheng mocks Panda and supports the punishment, arguing that internal conflict can coexist with unity. French Plane Tree orders Niu Daji and Panda to write reflections after making them watch Ginseng Baby perform ballet.
• Liu Zheng kills Gongyang Xin by beheading her and gives her body to French Plane Tree as tree fertilizer. He believes her strange Nightmare Suppression Art makes her too dangerous to keep alive and wants to eliminate both her body and soul, as well as any evidence.
• Back at the clinic, Nile Doctor agrees to let Luoluo and Bobo stay. Bobo will survive but will remain physically weakened and disfigured for about a year.
• Ouma Mirai decides to return home rather than live permanently in hiding. Liu Zheng arranges for Panda to escort her to and from school.
• Liu Zheng checks whether Niu Daji found Deep-Sea Volcanic Mud. None of the trading houses have it except the Sa Duyou trading house, which Daji did not ask because he expected Liu Zheng to handle it personally.
• Liu Zheng returns to the Restaurant and banters with Cow-Horse, who complains that Liu Zheng’s increased activity has created more mistakes and work.
• Before going to the Grand Theater, Liu Zheng reviews his supernatural possessions and evaluates his strengths and weaknesses. He recognizes that his collection is exceptionally large and varied but that he lacks strong defensive equipment, ranged weapons, and major trump cards.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing authority, ruthlessness, and responsibility. He protects exploited people, makes decisions for his group, and is willing to kill dangerous enemies without hesitation. He also shows strategic foresight by assessing the gaps in his equipment.
• Luoluo moves from cautious submission to a more stable position under Liu Zheng’s protection. She adopts his preferred form of address, calling him “Boss,” and becomes responsible for caring for Bobo.
• Bobo is rescued but remains physically damaged and unconscious. Her condition emphasizes the severity of the abuse she suffered.
• Niu Daji shows growing independence and practical judgment by gathering information about the volcanic mud. Liu Zheng praises his progress but reminds him to report decisions beforehand.
• Panda remains proud and sarcastic but accepts responsibility for escorting Ouma Mirai. His punishment also reinforces that he is still learning humility.
• Gongyang Xin is permanently removed as a threat. Her death confirms Liu Zheng’s willingness to destroy enemies completely when he considers them too dangerous.
• Ouma Mirai regains courage and chooses to resume ordinary life despite the danger. Her decision reflects increased confidence in Liu Zheng’s protection.
• Nile Doctor is reluctant to house the rescued women but ultimately accepts Liu Zheng’s decision, showing his growing willingness to accommodate Liu Zheng’s expanding circle.
• Cow-Horse remains frustrated by Liu Zheng’s disruptive efficiency and teases him about overworking the Delivery Department.

Significant Themes

• Exploitation and liberation: The contract scene exposes institutional abuse, especially through predatory debts and fabricated expenses. Liu Zheng’s destruction of the contracts symbolizes freeing Luoluo and Bobo from supernatural and economic bondage.
• Power and responsibility: Liu Zheng’s authority grows, but he also takes responsibility for protecting dependents, arranging housing, transportation, and medical care.
• Justice versus ruthlessness: Liu Zheng acts compassionately toward victims but brutally toward perceived threats. Gongyang Xin’s execution shows that his idea of justice includes eliminating danger completely.
• Conflict within unity: Liu Zheng accepts punishment, rivalry, and hierarchy within his group, believing that controlled conflict can prevent hidden resentment and preserve order.
• Preparation and resource management: The inventory review portrays Liu Zheng as a strategic collector. He evaluates not only what he owns but also what he lacks, particularly defense, ranged attacks, and emergency trump cards.
• Comedic supernatural bureaucracy: Serious issues are mixed with absurd punishments, bizarre equipment, and sarcastic workplace interactions, maintaining the story’s darkly humorous tone.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng pressures the manager into surrendering the contracts, then intimidates him into treating the women humanely.
• Liu Zheng corrects Luoluo’s form of address, establishing himself as her employer and protector rather than an older relative.
• He mocks Panda and Niu Daji for being hung upside down but also supports French Plane Tree’s disciplinary authority.
• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree exchange sarcastic remarks over Gongyang Xin’s corpse, treating supernatural execution as a practical administrative matter.
• Nile Doctor challenges Liu Zheng’s casual attitude toward crowding the clinic, but ultimately accepts his plan to shelter the women.
• Liu Zheng entrusts Panda with Ouma Mirai’s safety, forcing Panda to take on a protective role.
• Liu Zheng praises Niu Daji’s initiative while reminding him that independent decisions still require communication.
• His banter with Cow-Horse reveals tension between Liu Zheng’s ambition and the established department’s reluctance to increase its workload.

Ending Position

The chapter concludes with Liu Zheng preparing for the Grand Theater while conducting a full review of his supernatural inventory. The next focus is on the unevaluated supernatural items, suggesting that they may contain unknown abilities or become important in the coming events.

Chapter Summary: “Helping Cow-Horse Rescue Someone”

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng inventories his supernatural items before setting out to deal with Black Swan, rediscovering several useful objects, including the Ritual Blade, turtle shell, Cow-Horse’s Outstanding Employee Medal, river clam, notebook, and Three-Five Evil-Slaying Sword. The collection boosts his confidence.
• While waiting for a delivery, Liu Zheng plays a bizarre life-simulation game about raising a succubus and deliberately pursuing its “good-fall” ending, including the route where she becomes a City Hall official and eventually overthrows corrupt leadership.
• Cow-Horse arrives and asks to borrow the Memorial Medal so he can personally deliver an order. He explains that Yellow Monkey’s son, Hou Taotao, has been detained by New Grape Hotel’s casino after cheating, injuring an employee, and sleeping with the casino owner’s woman.
• Cow-Horse admits that, despite Hou Taotao’s recklessness, he feels responsible for him because he is Yellow Monkey’s only child and Cow-Horse helped raise him. He cannot abandon him.
• Liu Zheng agrees to negotiate Hou Taotao’s release, joking that Cow-Horse can owe him the money if the rescue costs less than five million.
• Cow-Horse arranges for Hou Taotao to place a food-delivery order at the hotel, giving Liu Zheng an excuse to enter and more time to act. The order is for an elaborately carved but completely useless banana peel.
• Liu Zheng recruits Niu Daji, Abao, and Ultimate Flavor Group for support. He also contacts Silver Wolf and Ace to investigate possible official connections to the hotel.
• Silver Wolf has no direct contact there but offers to help if needed. Ace explains that many Public Security Bureau employees gamble at New Grape Hotel and owe it favors, making an official crackdown politically complicated. Nevertheless, Ace agrees to accompany Liu Zheng and help him negotiate.
• Liu Zheng drives to the hotel at extreme speed using the hearse’s Netherworld Power and Bone Dragon exoskeleton, arriving in under ten minutes with his allies.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng displays increasing confidence and preparedness, relying not only on his supernatural equipment but also on planning, negotiation, and institutional connections. He remains pragmatic, willing to save Hou Taotao without pretending the young man is admirable.
• Cow-Horse reveals a more sentimental and responsible side. Despite criticizing Hou Taotao’s behavior and refusing to recruit him as a Deliveryman, he still considers him family and cannot abandon him.
• Hou Taotao is established as reckless and dangerously irresponsible, having committed multiple offenses at once through gambling-related cheating, violence, and an affair.
• Ace proves dependable and willing to help Liu Zheng despite the risks to his own position. Their joking, competitive relationship also becomes more apparent.
• Yellow Monkey is characterized indirectly as a band member and father whose son’s actions have created a serious crisis for Cow-Horse and the group.
• Oink receives humorous characterization as an unexpectedly talented songwriter who specializes in sentimental love songs.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and chosen family: Cow-Horse risks trouble to protect Yellow Monkey’s son because of longstanding personal bonds, even though Hou Taotao seems undeserving.
• Pragmatism versus morality: Liu Zheng does not believe every person deserves rescue, but he supports Cow-Horse’s decision because of Cow-Horse’s emotional responsibility and loyalty.
• Mutual exploitation within friendship: Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse constantly bargain, tease, and manipulate one another, yet their willingness to help each other demonstrates genuine trust beneath the self-interested behavior.
• Corruption and institutional ambiguity: New Grape Hotel operates openly despite its casino activities because City Hall and law enforcement tolerate or benefit from it. Official intervention is complicated by debts, favors, and personal entanglements.
• Supernatural absurdity and dark humor: The chapter contrasts dangerous criminal and supernatural situations with ridiculous details, such as the useless carved banana peel, bizarre video-game endings, and the band’s unusual members.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse argue over the Memorial Medal, money, and responsibility, but ultimately cooperate to rescue Hou Taotao.
• Liu Zheng mocks Cow-Horse’s strange phrasing about Yellow Monkey’s family and jokes about Oink’s romantic songwriting, creating a familiar and irreverent friendship dynamic.
• Liu Zheng consults Silver Wolf and Ace for institutional assistance. Silver Wolf offers indirect support, while Ace agrees to accompany him personally.
• Liu Zheng gathers Niu Daji, Abao, and Ultimate Flavor Group as backup, showing that his relationships now extend across supernatural, criminal, and official circles.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng and his allies arriving dramatically at New Grape Hotel, preparing for negotiations that may escalate into confrontation.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arrives at the New Grape Grand Hotel with Ace and his group to negotiate over Hou Taotao, who has been arrested after cheating at the casino, injuring staff, and seducing the hotel owner’s woman.
• At the casino entrance, Liu identifies himself as being sent by Cow-Horse. The hotel’s guards initially demand that he enter alone, but Liu refuses, insisting that a gang leader should be allowed to bring his people.
• A confrontation begins between Liu’s group and the hotel’s gangsters. Niu Daji and Panda defend Liu, while the Ultimate Flavor Group also steps forward.
• Guokou Tangzi formally pledges the Ultimate Flavor Group’s loyalty to Liu by cutting her palm and mixing her blood with the Heritage Soup Cauldron. She declares that the group will stand with him through life and death.
• Recognizing the seriousness of the oath and unwilling to risk an open conflict, the hotel’s caiman representative allows the group to proceed.
• They are taken to the fifty-eighth floor, where they enter the heavily guarded residence of He Bishu, chairman of the New Grape Hotel. Liu notices the symbolic Pixiu guardians and the intimidating darkness beyond the entrance but shows no fear.
• He Bishu explains the charges against Hou Taotao: cheating, resisting arrest, injuring hotel personnel, and seducing He’s woman.
• Liu agrees to severe punishments for the first offenses, even offering ten times the compensation, but hesitates over the sexual offense because Cow-Horse needs Hou Taotao alive to preserve his family line.
• Liu ultimately suggests that Hou Taotao be punished by being forced to endure sexual humiliation from a group of strong men. The negotiation remains unresolved at the chapter’s end.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates confidence, ruthlessness, and strategic composure. He treats the negotiation as a business matter, readily sacrificing Hou Taotao’s limbs and dignity to preserve the broader relationship with Cow-Horse.
• He also shows political awareness: although he is willing to punish Hou severely, he recognizes that killing or permanently crippling him could damage Cow-Horse’s interests.
• Ace remains a wealthy, eccentric ally with access to unusual vehicles and resources. His casual attitude contrasts with Liu’s practical focus.
• Guokou Tangzi openly strengthens her relationship with Liu by making a blood oath on behalf of the Ultimate Flavor Group. This marks a major escalation of her group’s loyalty and commitment.
• Niu Daji and Panda act as Liu’s aggressive defenders, immediately answering the hotel gangsters’ insults and threats.
• He Bishu is introduced as a powerful, traditional, and rule-conscious gang leader. He values hierarchy, reputation, and formal gang etiquette, but also evaluates situations pragmatically.
• The caiman representative initially mocks Liu’s group but becomes more cautious after seeing the Ultimate Flavor Group’s oath and realizing that a fight could be costly.

3. Significant Themes

• Gang reputation and social rules: Even criminal organizations maintain systems of lineage, etiquette, and mutual recognition. A gang without a name or heritage is dismissed as mere street thugs.
• Loyalty and sworn allegiance: Guokou Tangzi’s blood oath shows that alliances are not merely verbal or transactional; they can carry sacred and potentially binding consequences.
• Pragmatism versus personal justice: Liu is willing to impose extreme punishment on Hou Taotao, but his decisions are shaped by political alliances and family interests rather than morality alone.
• Power and intimidation: The hotel’s architecture, guards, symbolic Pixiu statues, and dark entrance are designed to intimidate visitors. Liu’s refusal to show fear establishes his status and confidence.
• Humor amid brutality: The chapter mixes threats of mutilation, gang conflict, and sexual punishment with absurd banter about expensive drinks, luxury vehicles, and Liu’s bluntly comic proposals.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu and Ace discuss vehicles, with Ace boasting about a heavily protected van and Liu asking for an even larger one.
• Liu’s group jokes with the server by ordering legendary and impossibly expensive drinks, then settling for orange juice.
• Liu verbally clashes with the caiman and the hotel gangsters, while Niu Daji and Panda escalate the confrontation in his defense.
• Guokou Tangzi challenges the hotel’s authority by publicly linking the Ultimate Flavor Group’s fate to Liu’s, forcing the caiman to treat them as a serious allied faction.
• Liu and He Bishu engage in a tense negotiation in which Liu repeatedly offers harsh punishments for Hou Taotao, revealing both his ruthlessness and his desire to protect Cow-Horse’s interests.
• The chapter closes with Liu making a deliberately humiliating suggestion for Hou Taotao’s punishment, leaving the final decision in He Bishu’s hands.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng negotiates with an old casino owner, Mr. He, who wants him to assassinate Jiang Weisheng, leader of the Starfish Gang.
• Mr. He explains that Jiang is threatening to destroy the New Grape Hotel unless allowed to purchase shares. He believes killing Jiang would trigger a power struggle and eliminate the threat.
• Ace researches the Starfish Gang, revealing its mixed Deep Sea Empire–Metropolis origins, history in the drug trade, and current crisis after smuggling crackdowns cut off its raw materials.
• Liu Zheng refuses to kill Jiang, recognizing that doing so could provoke revenge against those around him. Ace also declares neutrality, though his connection to the Public Security Bureau subtly favors Liu’s side.
• Mr. He proposes a life-and-death arena match against Jiang, asking Liu to provide a fighter. Liu bargains aggressively, demanding both of Hou Taotao’s hands and feet as payment while offering no guarantee of victory.
• The negotiation shifts into a gamble over whether an alligator’s teeth number an odd or even amount. The count is technically odd, so Mr. He wins, but Liu graciously accepts the result and still refuses to surrender Hou Taotao’s remaining hand immediately.
• Liu later retrieves Hou Taotao, who has been severely beaten and has only one hand left. Hou signs for the delivery meal under threat, completing the condition for his rescue.
• On leaving the casino, Hou immediately wants to gamble to recover his losses. In response, Liu orders Niu Daji to take him to the Sewer and force him to eat one hundred jin of excrement, with Niu Daji punished if he falls short.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing confidence and authority. He controls the negotiation, sees through Mr. He’s hidden motives, uses political connections as leverage, and remains willing to sacrifice or punish Hou Taotao without hesitation.
• Mr. He is revealed as a calculating casino boss who relies on intimidation, social connections, and manipulation. Despite his confidence, Liu repeatedly forces him into unfavorable compromises.
• Ace/Beers provides valuable intelligence and establishes his identity as the son of the powerful Archmage Charles. His official position makes him an important political presence, even while he claims neutrality.
• Niu Daji becomes more assertive, insulting the alligator and provoking him into a confrontation. It still remains attentive to Liu’s approval and acts as his obedient enforcer.
• Hou Taotao is shown to be reckless, cowardly when threatened, and pathologically addicted to gambling. Even after losing a hand and suffering severe injuries, he immediately wants to gamble again.
• Mr. He’s subordinates, especially the alligator Shortmouth and the women counting his teeth, reinforce the casino’s strange hierarchy and comic brutality.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and leverage: The negotiation revolves around whose connections, resources, and threats carry more weight. Liu’s confidence allows him to turn Mr. He’s pressure tactics back against him.
• Crime and political influence: Both sides invoke relationships with City Hall, showing how criminal enterprises survive through connections to official institutions.
• Consequences and punishment: Hou’s mutilation and Liu’s final Sewer punishment emphasize the harsh, often absurd justice governing this world.
• Gambling and obsession: Gambling functions both literally and metaphorically. Mr. He tries to gamble over political outcomes, while Hou is unable to stop gambling even after catastrophic losses.
• Humor amid violence: Brutal threats, dismemberment, gang politics, and torture are presented through deadpan exchanges and absurd situations, creating a darkly comic tone.
• Mixed identities and social divisions: The Starfish Gang’s hybrid origins reflect the broader interaction and tension between Metropolis residents and the Deep Sea Empire.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu and Mr. He engage in a prolonged battle of wit, with Liu deliberately refusing to ask questions, exposing Mr. He’s hidden agenda, and countering every proposed arrangement.
• Niu Daji and Shortmouth nearly come to blows after trading crude insults, forcing both Liu and Mr. He to intervene.
• Liu and Ace cooperate as a team: Ace supplies information and political credibility, while Liu makes the final decisions.
• Mr. He’s daughter and Guokou Tangzi serve as representatives of their respective bosses during the tooth-counting gamble, highlighting the parallel structure between the two groups.
• Liu treats Hou as both a delivery recipient and a criminal under his control, forcing him to sign before taking him away.
• Hou’s attempt to persuade Liu to gamble is immediately rejected and replaced with an even harsher punishment, ending the chapter on a comic but threatening note.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng orders Niu Daji to take Hou Taotao to the Xi Family Army for harsh but nonlethal discipline after her gambling-related misconduct. She is to be trained until even the word “gambling” disgusts her.
• Liu Zheng and Ace discuss the Thought Vortex game at the Red Witch Board-Game Hall. Ace refuses at first because he previously failed and endured an unpleasant simulated electrocution, but Liu Zheng persuades him to try again after sharing Sea Woman’s advice: always choose designated advantages instead of random ones.
• Ace reveals that he may soon be promoted from acting section chief, though his career remains dependent on his father’s status and Liu Zheng’s support.
• Preparing for an evening outing, Liu Zheng worries about his inappropriate Bloodstained Restaurant uniform. Nile Doctor lends him a magical item, Lazy Automatic Formalwear, which transforms into suitable clothing based on the wearer’s imagined setting.
• Nile Doctor discusses his desire to obtain traditional Ra’s Lineage formalwear for Sesha’s eventual wedding, while Liu Zheng suggests recruiting powerful beings such as French Plane Tree or Snow Horse as subordinate gods of Winged Dragon.
• Back at the Restaurant, Liu Zheng reports to Cow-Horse that he rescued Hou Taotao from He Bishu but deliberately allowed one of her hands to be cut off as a warning. He also explains that she has been sent to eat Sewer filth to curb her gambling addiction.
• He reveals that He Bishu demanded a life-or-death arena battle against the Starfish Gang, with Liu Zheng’s group required to guarantee victory. Cow-Horse agrees to participate if necessary.
• Liu Zheng accepts a delivery order for Deer Child: a large serving of Hundred-Herb Rouge Rice Cake, which must be delivered to the Grand Theater within two hours. He sets off in the hearse toward Green Laurel Garden Crazy City.
• Liu Zheng meets Novelist and Hishikibe outside Novelist’s building. Novelist has dressed carefully for their outing, while Hishikibe accompanies them and complains about their flirtatious behavior.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng joking about Hishikibe sharing his hearse and grave, prompting her furious retort: “Who the fuck wants to share a grave with you?”

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to act as a pragmatic, severe leader. He is willing to impose extreme punishments to control gambling but frames them as preventive discipline rather than cruelty. He also shows consideration by worrying about his appearance and Novelist’s comfort.
• Hou Taotao is revealed to be deeply addicted to gambling and resistant to correction. Her punishment marks a major setback and an attempt to force her to confront the consequences of her behavior.
• Ace is ambitious but insecure about his future. His possible promotion depends heavily on his father’s reputation and Liu Zheng’s achievements, emphasizing his difficult position as the child of a powerful Planeswalker.
• Nile Doctor displays a softer, sentimental side through his attachment to the magical formalwear and his hopes for Sesha’s wedding. His longing for lost Ra’s Lineage traditions also highlights his grief and resignation regarding Sesha’s transformation.
• Cow-Horse remains protective of Hou Taotao despite recognizing the seriousness of her addiction. She is initially angry at Liu Zheng but ultimately accepts his authority to handle the problem.
• Novelist appears affectionate, admiring, and increasingly comfortable showing romantic interest in Liu Zheng. Her willingness to steal Hishikibe’s shawl reinforces her playful confidence.
• Hishikibe acts as a sarcastic, possessive best friend. Her insults and outrage conceal her close bond with Novelist and her discomfort with being excluded from their relationship.

3. Significant Themes

• Discipline versus affection: Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse disagree over how harshly Hou Taotao should be punished, reflecting the conflict between protecting someone emotionally and forcing them to change.
• The danger of addiction: Gambling is portrayed as a destructive force capable of consuming not only an individual’s possessions and soul but also their family’s future.
• Dependence and political hierarchy: Ace’s career and Liu Zheng’s influence reveal the importance of backing, factional politics, and inherited status in City Hall.
• Loss and impossible futures: Nile Doctor’s discussion of Sesha’s condition conveys grief over lost traditions, marriage, and the possibility of children.
• Romantic and interpersonal banter: Much of the chapter uses teasing and arguments to reveal affection, jealousy, and closeness among Liu Zheng, Novelist, and Hishikibe.
• Death treated casually: Graves, coffins, corpses, and burial are used humorously, blending the chapter’s dark setting with comedic dialogue.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng commands Niu Daji regarding Hou Taotao and later debates Ace about the dangers and rewards of Thought Vortex.
• Nile Doctor criticizes Liu Zheng’s appearance but helps him by lending magical formalwear; their exchange also touches on Nile Doctor’s feelings for Sesha.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse argue over Hou Taotao’s punishment, with Liu Zheng defending cruelty as necessary instruction and Cow-Horse reacting as a concerned aunt.
• Liu Zheng interacts warmly with Novelist, openly admitting that he thinks her outfit is too revealing. Novelist responds playfully by borrowing Hishikibe’s shawl.
• Hishikibe bickers with both of them, presenting herself as Novelist’s protective best friend while trading insults with Liu Zheng.

Chapter Summary: “Something Big Was Coming!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Gongyang Xin traps Liu Zheng in the Nightmare Suppression Art, creating an illusion in which she brutally beats him with an embroidered shoe. However, Liu Zheng’s borrowed luck protects him, making the attack ineffective. Unable to move, he calmly treats the situation as an opportunity to let Niu Daji and Panda handle the battle.
• Outside the illusion, Panda determines that the enemy’s spell cannot seriously harm Liu Zheng and advises Niu Daji to attack the enemy’s house. Niu Daji uses his powerful body-tempering abilities to smash through the gate and enter the building.
• The building itself is revealed to be part of the Nightmare Suppression Art: a massive prison-like construct made from blue-black qi. Niu Daji becomes trapped inside.
• Panda protects Ouma Mirai, whose defensive Buddhist mantra is beginning to weaken. He reinforces it and attacks the building using giant bamboo created through his bloodline ability.
• Gongyang Xin counters by covering the bamboo with spirit banknotes, merging it with the prison construct, and transforming it into a suppressing tree. Panda uses Yin-Yang Reversal, Heaven and Earth Without Direction to disrupt the spell’s qi structure, causing the bamboo and the Nightmare Prison to collapse.
• Niu Daji escapes and destroys the house in the process. He emerges carrying the captured school-uniformed girl, whom Ouma Mirai confirms is the person they were seeking.
• Liu Zheng, however, remains trapped even after Gongyang Xin is captured. Realizing something is wrong, Panda and Niu Daji attack Gongyang Xin. Her body explodes into paper scraps, revealing that she was only a paper substitute.
• Panda traps the area with Draw the Ground as a Prison, preventing Gongyang Xin from escaping, but she becomes invisible within the boundary. Since Panda cannot locate her, he asks Niu Daji to prepare a large-area attack.
• Niu Daji begins performing squats to charge up an attack, humorously implying that he is preparing to use an unusual bodily technique. The chapter ends as he prepares to deploy a syringe containing a strange half-solid substance.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains extremely confident and composed, relying on his extraordinary luck and treating his own predicament casually. He deliberately allows his subordinates to take responsibility for the fight, showing some willingness to develop their independence.
• Panda demonstrates strong tactical awareness and broad magical knowledge. He recognizes the nature of the Nightmare Suppression Art, protects Ouma Mirai, destroys the enemy’s spell structure, and takes command when the situation becomes dangerous. Despite his competence, he continues to complain about Liu Zheng and his difficult life.
• Niu Daji displays impressive physical strength and advanced body-tempering abilities, but he struggles to control his power. He is loyal and eager to prove himself, though his rivalry with Panda leads to constant arguments.
• Gongyang Xin is revealed to be more cunning than initially expected. Although her direct curse cannot harm Liu Zheng, she uses the entire building as a magical prison and later escapes through a paper substitute.
• Ouma Mirai continues to serve as the group’s identification and support specialist. Her protective mantra is important to the team’s survival, though it is gradually being damaged.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming luck versus elaborate schemes: Gongyang Xin prepares a complex and powerful magical trap, but Liu Zheng’s luck renders its main attack useless.
• Teamwork and delegation: Liu Zheng’s decision to remain uninvolved forces Panda and Niu Daji to cooperate, even though their contrasting personalities cause frequent friction.
• Strength and limitations: Niu Daji possesses immense physical power, while Panda relies on clever spells and tactical flexibility. Neither is sufficient alone, but together they can overcome the suppression technique.
• Appearance versus reality: Gongyang Xin’s apparent defeat is revealed to be an illusion or substitute, emphasizing the danger of relying on appearances.
• Comedy amid danger: The characters treat life-threatening battles with sarcasm, insults, and absurd behavior, especially Panda’s complaints and Niu Daji’s bizarre preparation for his next attack.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng mocks Gongyang Xin’s ineffective curse, irritating her and highlighting his calm arrogance.
• Panda and Niu Daji repeatedly insult one another, with Panda criticizing Niu Daji’s performance and Niu Daji defending his strength.
• Panda and Niu Daji nevertheless cooperate effectively: Panda breaks the prison while Niu Daji provides the physical force and captures the target.
• Panda protects Ouma Mirai and reinforces her defensive mantra, showing a practical but dependable concern for her safety.
• After Gongyang Xin’s apparent death proves false, Panda takes command while Niu Daji prepares a wide-area attack, both worried about Liu Zheng’s continued imprisonment.

Chapter Summary: “Red Spider” Bathhouse

Key Plot Points and Events

• Niu Daji drinks the contents of a syringe containing accumulated exotic-herb waste and unleashes an enormous, foul-smelling fart. The blast propels him into the air, creates a crater, and spreads incapacitating gas across the area.
• The gas overwhelms Gongyang Xin, who is hiding with her Invisibility Art. Niu Daji tracks her by the sound of her retching and knocks her unconscious. Liu Zheng also suffers from the smell but manages to endure it.
• Liu Zheng orders Panda to immobilize Gongyang Xin using a Big Dipper Soul-Sealing Nail. Panda reveals that he secretly kept one of the seven nails recovered from a previous incident, prompting Liu Zheng to punish him for hiding it.
• Before Panda can complete the sealing ritual, a terrifying, undeveloped creature emerges from Gongyang Xin’s mouth. Gongyang Xin uses the Nightmare Suppression Art, sacrificing part of her own origin to seize control of Panda and Niu Daji and threaten to die with them.
• Panda prepares to risk damaging his already-wounded Golden Core, but the powerful French Plane Tree intervenes. Using leaves and spiritual power, it restrains Panda, Niu Daji, and Gongyang Xin, then forces them to watch the Ginseng Baby perform a dance as punishment.
• Meanwhile, Liu Zheng unknowingly leaves the others behind and drives to the “Red Spider” Bathhouse to deliver an order. The establishment appears shabby from outside but contains a luxurious VIP room.
• Liu Zheng uses his Bloodstained Restaurant status and money to gain immediate service. He asks to see all available technicians, suspecting that the person who placed the order is somewhere inside the bathhouse.
• A receptionist brings him to VIP Room 1. The customer-service manager, Little Rat—a humanoid rat whose transformation went wrong—arrives with a group of unusually dressed human and nonhuman technicians.

Character Developments

• Niu Daji demonstrates both unusual combat utility and loyalty to Liu Zheng. Though crude and opportunistic, he understands how to remain useful to his boss and refuses to betray Panda because he knows the punishment would be worse.
• Panda is shown to be much stronger and more experienced than his comic behavior suggests. He possesses a high-quality Upper-Grade Golden Core and is willing to burn it in a desperate fight, though his core and natal artifact have been weakened by repeated battles.
• Gongyang Xin reveals a vicious survival instinct and considerable hidden power. Even while apparently unconscious and captured, she retains enough strength to launch a dangerous counterattack using a self-sacrificial technique.
• Liu Zheng remains pragmatic, domineering, and easily irritated, but his memories of a poor first date and a kind hairstylist briefly soften his attitude. He decides to treat the bathhouse client more generously if they behave well.
• The French Plane Tree is established as an overwhelmingly powerful ally or associate of the Delivery Gang. Its casual intervention completely suppresses three dangerous figures and reinforces its eccentric, bullying personality.
• Little Rat is introduced as an awkward but competent manager who has adapted to his failed transformation rather than hiding it.

Significant Themes

• Absurdity mixed with genuine danger: The chapter turns a disgusting bodily gag into an effective battlefield weapon, then shifts suddenly into horror when the creature emerges from Gongyang Xin.
• Power hierarchies and hidden strength: Even seemingly minor figures—such as a roadside tree—may possess strength far beyond ordinary cultivators. Panda’s realization emphasizes how vast and intimidating the supernatural world is.
• Loyalty through self-interest: Niu Daji’s loyalty is not presented as pure morality; he supports Panda because he understands Liu Zheng’s preferences and fears greater punishment.
• The contrast between violence and ordinary nostalgia: Liu Zheng moves from capturing enemies and dealing with supernatural threats to remembering an awkward adolescent romance, revealing a more human and reflective side.
• Social status and transactional relationships: Money, uniforms, reputation, and perceived power determine how the bathhouse staff treat Liu Zheng. His identity as a Bloodstained Restaurant employee immediately changes the receptionist’s behavior.

Character Interactions

• Niu Daji’s fart attack incapacitates Gongyang Xin and irritates Liu Zheng, who threatens to throw him into the Sewer River.
• Liu Zheng scolds and kicks Panda for concealing the Soul-Sealing Nail, while Panda sarcastically complains about being asked for valuable materials.
• Panda and Niu Daji briefly cooperate against Gongyang Xin’s Nightmare Suppression Art but are helpless until the French Plane Tree captures all three.
• The French Plane Tree humiliates its captives by forcing them to watch and judge the Ginseng Baby’s dance.
• At the bathhouse, Liu Zheng negotiates with the receptionist through money and intimidation, then accepts Little Rat’s unusual appearance without prejudice.
• The arrival of the technicians sets up Liu Zheng’s likely investigation or confrontation with the mysterious client who ordered the delivery.

Chapter Summary: “Innate Spirit Milk”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng enters the Red Spider bathhouse club searching for Bobo, a technician targeted for a Bloodstained Restaurant delivery.
• He intimidates the manager and staff by threatening Bobo with a marble, forcing the manager to clear the room. The technicians initially resist leaving, but Liu Zheng pays them three hours of their highest hourly wage to ensure their cooperation.
• Luoluo, a younger Lolita-styled technician, wants to remain with Bobo but is persuaded to leave. Bobo clearly cares about her despite acting coldly.
• Liu Zheng gives Bobo ten minutes to name a wish in exchange for voluntarily accepting the delivery. She first asks whether he can guarantee her survival or resurrection, but he refuses to make promises he cannot keep.
• When Bobo continues to challenge him, Liu Zheng adopts a harsher stance, presenting the choice as becoming his ally or dying. Bobo then makes two demands:
  1. Liu Zheng must buy Luoluo out of her contract.
  2. If Bobo survives the delivery, he must provide her with a new identity, enroll her in school, and pay for her university education if she is accepted.
• To guarantee Liu Zheng’s sincerity, Bobo offers him one of her race’s two lifetime drops of Innate Spirit Milk. Anyone who breaks an oath made before drinking it will turn into pus and blood and die.
• Liu Zheng swears the necessary promises and drinks the milk. The system grants him five permanent Strength and Stamina points, the temporary Foundation Perfection status, and the Milk Oath Blood Curse, which punishes him if he breaks his oath.
• Bobo signs for the delivery. Liu Zheng leaves to negotiate Luoluo’s release from the club.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng confronting the manager and demanding a price to buy both women out of their contracts, threatening to return with the Public Security Bureau and Market Supervision Department if the club refuses.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates increasing confidence, intimidation, and strategic manipulation. He combines threats, money, official connections, and carefully chosen promises to control the situation without unnecessary violence.
• He also shows a practical but genuine willingness to help Bobo and Luoluo, especially by offering Bobo a new identity and education and agreeing to free Luoluo from the club.
• Bobo is revealed to be intelligent, independent, and protective. Though she initially appears cynical and defiant, her first condition shows that she deeply cares about Luoluo. Her desire to attend school and build a new life suggests she is only seventeen by human standards and wants escape from her current circumstances.
• Bobo’s use of the Innate Spirit Milk shows both trust and caution: she is willing to cooperate, but only under a magically binding guarantee.
• Luoluo appears inexperienced, emotionally attached to Bobo, and uncomfortable with the club’s environment. Her decision to surrender the money Liu Zheng gave her may indicate pride or a desire not to benefit personally while Bobo remains trapped.
• The manager shifts between politeness, intimidation, and opportunism. He protects the club’s workers to preserve morale and business, but eagerly keeps Luoluo’s unwanted payment for himself.
• Xiaobai, the snake-demon technician, is portrayed as confident, flirtatious, and commercially important to the club, though she ultimately obeys the manager once payment and authority are invoked.

Significant Themes

• Coercion versus voluntary choice: Liu Zheng prefers voluntary cooperation but is willing to use threats when negotiation fails. The chapter questions how meaningful consent can be under extreme pressure.
• Trust and binding promises: The Innate Spirit Milk transforms verbal promises into life-or-death contracts. Trust is not emotional alone; it is enforced through supernatural consequences.
• Freedom and exploitation: The bathhouse operates legally but resembles a gang, with contracts functioning as restraints. Bobo and Luoluo’s attempted release highlights the gap between legality and genuine freedom.
• Survival and self-interest: Bobo refuses to trade her life for money and seeks a future instead. Liu Zheng likewise weighs risks pragmatically while exploiting his own resistance to instant-death effects.
• Power and negotiation: Money, violence, institutional authority, supernatural abilities, and social leverage all function as competing forms of power.
• Second chances and identity: Bobo’s wish for a new identity and education represents a desire to escape her imposed role and start over.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the manager engage in a tense power struggle, with Liu Zheng using money and threats while the manager attempts to protect his establishment.
• Liu Zheng’s confrontation with Bobo evolves from intimidation into negotiation. Their exchange reveals mutual skepticism but eventually establishes a binding partnership.
• Bobo and Luoluo’s interaction exposes their contrasting personalities: Luoluo is openly dependent and affectionate, while Bobo hides her concern behind harsh words.
• Liu Zheng and Bobo’s relationship becomes transactional but potentially cooperative after he accepts the Milk Oath and she signs for the delivery.
• The final negotiation with the manager expands Liu Zheng’s involvement from completing a delivery to dismantling part of the club’s contract system.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng negotiates with a supernatural club manager to free two women, Bobo and Luoluo. He pays 300,000 and destroys their exploitative contracts, condemning the manager’s treatment of them.
• Luoluo is rescued relatively unharmed, while Bobo is found unconscious and severely shriveled. Liu Zheng has Luoluo carry Bobo to his hearse and brings both back to Rose Street.
• Liu Zheng discovers that Panda, Niu Daji, and Gongyang Xin have been hung upside down by French Plane Tree as punishment for their poor performance. He laughs at them but also acknowledges that French Plane Tree’s punishment is partly justified.
• The three are ordered to write reflections, with Niu Daji explaining that their “punishment” included watching Ginseng Baby perform ballet.
• Liu Zheng abruptly beheads Gongyang Xin and uses her body as fertilizer for French Plane Tree. He believes her strange Nightmare Suppression Art makes her too dangerous to keep alive and assumes any supernatural items she possessed will eventually return to him through the tree.
• Back at the clinic, Nile Doctor agrees to shelter Bobo and Luoluo. Bobo will survive but will need roughly a year to recover physically and will not regain her former appearance completely.
• Ouma Mirai chooses to return home rather than remain hidden indefinitely. Liu Zheng assigns Panda to escort her to and from school while the danger from Gongyang Xin’s possible backers remains.
• Niu Daji reports that he could not locate Deep-Sea Volcanic Mud, though he independently checked several trading companies. Liu Zheng praises his initiative but reminds him to report important decisions beforehand.
• At the Restaurant, Liu Zheng jokingly argues with Cow-Horse, who complains about his increased workload. Their banter emphasizes Liu Zheng’s growing influence and Cow-Horse’s resentment of his disruptive efficiency.
• Before going to the Grand Theater, Liu Zheng inventories his supernatural possessions. He reviews his miscellaneous items, equipment, and props, then identifies weaknesses in his collection and prepares to examine the items that have not yet been appraised.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes more decisive and authoritative. He protects Luoluo and Bobo, destroys their contracts, manages his subordinates, and eliminates Gongyang Xin without hesitation.
• He demonstrates a mixture of compassion and ruthlessness: he opposes exploitation and protects victims, yet treats dangerous enemies as resources or fertilizer.
• Luoluo shifts from exploited worker to a protected member of Liu Zheng’s group. She cautiously accepts his authority and begins calling him “Boss.”
• Bobo is revealed to be physically devastated but is given safety and time to recover.
• Panda is humbled after being punished by French Plane Tree and is assigned the practical responsibility of protecting Ouma Mirai.
• Niu Daji shows increasing independence and judgment by investigating several trading companies without being directly instructed. Liu Zheng recognizes his growth but reinforces the need for communication.
• Ouma Mirai displays courage and determination by choosing to resume normal life despite the danger surrounding her.
• Gongyang Xin is permanently removed after nearly turning the situation against Liu Zheng with her Nightmare Suppression Art.
• French Plane Tree continues acting as both a powerful subordinate and an unpredictable disciplinary force within Liu Zheng’s group.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse maintain a sarcastic, antagonistic friendship, with Cow-Horse irritated by Liu Zheng’s productivity and arrogance.

3. Significant Themes

• Exploitation and human dignity: Liu Zheng condemns the club’s debt contracts, especially the system of endlessly increasing fees that prevents Luoluo from regaining her freedom.
• Power and authority: Liu Zheng’s leadership is reinforced through money, intimidation, discipline, and protection. His group functions through both loyalty and fear.
• Justice versus brutality: Liu Zheng rescues victims and punishes corrupt people, but his methods—such as beheading Gongyang Xin and using her as fertilizer—are extreme and morally ambiguous.
• Conflict within unity: The group’s internal teasing, punishment, and arguments suggest that disagreement can coexist with loyalty and cooperation.
• Growth and responsibility: Niu Daji’s initiative, Panda’s assigned duties, and Ouma Mirai’s decision to return home all show characters taking on greater responsibility.
• Preparation and resource management: Liu Zheng’s detailed inventory reflects his strategic mindset. He recognizes both the abundance of his resources and his weaknesses, especially his lack of defensive and ranged equipment.
• The absurdity of supernatural life: Humorous punishments, bizarre equipment, and casual conversations about fertilizer, ballet, and supernatural contracts contrast with the chapter’s darker violence.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng dominates the club manager through financial pressure and threats, forcing him to release Luoluo and Bobo.
• He establishes a more formal relationship with Luoluo by insisting she call him “Boss” rather than “Uncle” or “bro.”
• Liu Zheng mocks Panda and the others for being punished, while Panda angrily resents both the humiliation and Liu Zheng’s criticism.
• French Plane Tree and Liu Zheng exchange sarcastic remarks, revealing a relationship built on mutual usefulness and irreverent humor.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor negotiate Bobo and Luoluo’s stay at the clinic, with Nile Doctor reluctantly accepting them as patients and family.
• Liu Zheng assigns Panda to protect Ouma Mirai, and Panda complains but accepts the task.
• Liu Zheng encourages Niu Daji’s growing independence while cautioning him against making important choices without reporting back.
• Cow-Horse and Liu Zheng trade insults in the Restaurant, reflecting their ongoing rivalry and camaraderie.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng alone reviewing his vast collection of supernatural items, emphasizing his preparation for future conflicts.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Key Events

• Liu Zheng pressures the club manager into handing over Bobo and Luoluo’s contracts by offering him double the price. He discovers that Bobo has a standard employment contract, while Luoluo is trapped by a predatory indenture contract requiring repayment of her original debt plus inflated interest.
• After learning Luoluo worked for a year and a half without reducing the principal, Liu Zheng condemns the club’s exploitative practices. He pays 300,000 and burns both women’s contracts with Anger’s flames, freeing them.
• Luoluo is ordered to carry the unconscious Bobo and follow Liu Zheng. Bobo has been severely shriveled and injured, while Luoluo appears healthier after removing her makeup and changing clothes.
• Liu Zheng returns to Rose Street and finds Niu Daji, Gongyang Xin, and Panda hanging upside down as punishment from French Plane Tree and Lord Dai Lego. He mocks Panda’s incompetence but ultimately has them released.
• Niu Daji explains that he and Gongyang Xin were forced to watch Ginseng Baby perform ballet and write five-hundred-word reflections. Liu Zheng tells them to take the assignment seriously.
• Liu Zheng beheads Gongyang Xin and uses her corpse as fertilizer for French Plane Tree. He reasons that her strange Nightmare Suppression Art makes her too dangerous to keep alive and that destroying her body and soul will eliminate any chance of future trouble. Any supernatural objects she possessed are left with French Plane Tree.
• Back at the clinic, Nile Doctor examines Bobo and says she will survive but will remain physically impaired and unable to perform heavy labor for roughly a year. Liu Zheng decides that both Bobo and Luoluo may stay at the clinic temporarily.
• Ouma Mirai chooses to return home rather than remain hidden after Gongyang Xin’s death. Liu Zheng arranges for Panda to escort her to and from school.
• Liu Zheng asks about obtaining Deep-Sea Volcanic Mud. Niu Daji has checked nearly every trading company except Sa Duyou’s, correctly deciding that Liu Zheng should ask that familiar shopkeeper directly. Liu Zheng praises his initiative but reminds him to report decisions beforehand.
• Returning to the Restaurant, Liu Zheng exchanges sarcastic banter with Cow-Horse, who complains that Liu Zheng’s increased workload has caused more mistakes and trouble in the Delivery Department.
• Before leaving for the Grand Theater, Liu Zheng inventories his supernatural possessions. He reviews his miscellaneous items, equipment, and props, assessing their usefulness and identifying gaps in his arsenal.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng acts decisively and ruthlessly to free Luoluo and Bobo, showing sympathy toward exploited workers while remaining merciless toward threats such as Gongyang Xin. He also demonstrates increasing leadership by managing subordinates, arranging protection for Ouma Mirai, and evaluating his future equipment needs.
• Luoluo regains some of her dignity and vitality after escaping the club. She is initially cautious around Liu Zheng but quickly accepts his authority, agreeing to call him “boss.”
• Bobo is left severely injured and physically weakened, becoming dependent on the clinic and Luoluo’s care.
• Gongyang Xin is revealed to be dangerous even while incapacitated because of her Nightmare Suppression Art. Liu Zheng decides that killing her is safer than attempting to control or transport her.
• Niu Daji shows growing independence and judgment by gathering information selectively rather than blindly following instructions. Liu Zheng recognizes this improvement but still emphasizes discipline and communication.
• Panda is humiliated by being hung upside down and assigned another responsibility—protecting Ouma Mirai—but accepts it without serious resistance.
• Ouma Mirai displays courage and independence by choosing to resume normal life despite the danger surrounding her.
• Nile Doctor reluctantly accepts Bobo and Luoluo into the clinic, revealing his practical but somewhat conservative attitude.
• Cow-Horse remains irritated by Liu Zheng’s disruptive efficiency and increased workload, though their antagonistic exchanges also suggest familiarity and a functional working relationship.

Significant Themes

• Exploitation and liberation: The club’s contracts expose supernatural versions of debt bondage and labor exploitation. Liu Zheng’s destruction of the contracts represents freedom from institutional abuse.
• Power, hierarchy, and discipline: Characters are constantly punished, tested, or assigned roles according to their strength and usefulness. The hanging incident and reflection assignment emphasize that even powerful individuals can be disciplined by stronger authorities.
• Pragmatic morality: Liu Zheng is compassionate toward victims but ruthless toward enemies. He protects the vulnerable while treating Gongyang Xin’s corpse as a practical resource.
• Family and community: Despite their bizarre and dangerous surroundings, the clinic and Restaurant gradually function as improvised communities. Their members argue, care for one another, and share responsibilities.
• Preparedness and resource management: Liu Zheng’s inventory review shows his growing awareness that survival depends not just on strength but on possessing the right defensive and ranged tools.
• Humor amid danger: Sarcastic dialogue, absurd punishments, and ridiculous supernatural items—including excrement-storage equipment and ballet reflections—balance the chapter’s darker violence and exploitation.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the manager: Liu Zheng intimidates him into surrendering the contracts, then warns him to treat workers as human beings.
• Liu Zheng and Luoluo: He frees her from indenture and establishes a formal boss-subordinate relationship.
• Liu Zheng and Panda: He mocks Panda’s humiliation and incompetence, then assigns him the protective duty of escorting Ouma Mirai.
• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree: Their exchange over Gongyang Xin’s corpse reflects a mutually beneficial, irreverent alliance.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor: Nile Doctor objects mildly to housing the women, but ultimately accepts Liu Zheng’s decision.
• Liu Zheng and Niu Daji: Liu Zheng praises Daji’s growing initiative while reminding him to communicate before acting.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their sarcastic argument highlights workplace tension caused by Liu Zheng’s unusual competence and disruptive energy.

Chapter Summary: “Helping Cow-Horse Rescue Someone”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng inventories his supernatural possessions before undertaking a dangerous rescue mission. His collection includes the Ritual Blade, Snow Horse’s horn, the turtle shell, the river clam, the poacher’s notebook, Cow-Horse’s Memorial Medal, and the unrepaired Three-Five Evil-Slaying Sword.
• Feeling confident because of his many magical items, Liu Zheng waits at Bloodstained Restaurant while playing a strange simulation game centered on raising a Succubus daughter and guiding her toward a “falling into goodness” ending.
• Cow-Horse interrupts and asks to borrow his Memorial Medal so he can personally deliver a food order. Liu Zheng refuses to hand it over until Cow-Horse explains the emergency.
• Yellow Monkey’s son, Hou Taotao, has been detained by New Grape Hotel after cheating at its casino, injuring one of its employees, and sleeping with the casino owner’s woman. Cow-Horse wants to rescue him despite his recklessness because he helped raise the boy and cannot abandon him.
• Cow-Horse arranges for Hou Taotao to place a food order at the casino hotel, giving Liu Zheng a legitimate reason to enter the building. The delivery is an intricately carved banana peel, an ordinary item with no supernatural effect.
• Liu Zheng agrees to negotiate for Hou Taotao’s release, joking that he will guarantee the boy’s safe return if the ransom is below five million—but also making clear that Cow-Horse will eventually have to repay him.
• He recruits Niu Daji, Abao, and Ultimate Flavor Group to accompany him and contacts Silver Wolf and Ace for information or official assistance.
• Silver Wolf explains that New Grape Hotel falls primarily under the Public Security Bureau. Ace warns that the situation is complicated because many Bureau employees owe the casino debts or favors, making direct official pressure dangerous.
• Ace nevertheless agrees to meet Liu Zheng and enter the hotel with him. Liu Zheng and his group race there in the enhanced hearse, using Netherworld Power and the Bone Dragon exoskeleton to arrive in under ten minutes.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows greater preparedness and confidence after realizing how many supernatural tools he has accumulated. He remains opportunistic and sarcastic, but he is willing to help Cow-Horse even though the rescue involves a dangerous casino and a troublesome hostage.
• Cow-Horse reveals a sentimental and protective side. Although he considers Hou Taotao irresponsible and had originally recruited him for practical financial reasons, he still regards him as family and cannot leave him to die.
• Hou Taotao is characterized indirectly as reckless, violent, dishonest, and sexually irresponsible, having provoked the casino in several serious ways at once.
• Ace demonstrates both caution and loyalty. He understands the political complications surrounding the casino but still agrees to support Liu Zheng personally.
• Silver Wolf is helpful but acknowledges the limits of his department’s authority.
• Liu Zheng’s allies—Niu Daji, Abao, and Ultimate Flavor Group—are assembled as backup, emphasizing Liu Zheng’s growing network and influence.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus practicality: Cow-Horse knows Hou Taotao is a disaster but values personal bonds over financial logic.
• Power and institutional corruption: New Grape Hotel operates openly because it has connections and leverage over officials, showing how authority in Metropolis can be manipulated.
• Mutual exploitation and trust: Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse constantly tease, bargain with, and attempt to outmaneuver each other, yet their relationship is dependable when genuine danger arises.
• Preparedness and resourcefulness: Liu Zheng’s forgotten items become a source of confidence, while the seemingly useless delivery item demonstrates the absurdity of his work.
• Found family and obligation: The Delivery Department’s relationships extend beyond employment, creating responsibilities that force characters into dangerous situations.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse exchange sarcastic banter while negotiating the rescue and the cost of assistance.
• Cow-Horse explains his band’s members and his connection to Yellow Monkey, revealing the social network behind the crisis.
• Liu Zheng consults Silver Wolf about official jurisdiction, then asks Ace for help with the Public Security Bureau.
• Ace and Liu Zheng joke competitively, with Ace warning that Liu Zheng may regret invoking family connections.
• Liu Zheng gathers his allies and drives them together toward New Grape Hotel, ending the chapter as the rescue operation is about to begin.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arrives at the New Grape Grand Hotel with Ace and members of the Ultimate Flavor Group to negotiate over Hou Taotao, who has been caught cheating at the hotel’s casino, resisting arrest, injuring employees, and seducing the hotel chairman’s lover.
• Ace reveals that he has purchased a heavily armored vehicle designed for witness protection and prisoner transport. Liu Zheng asks him to obtain a larger one for his own group.
• Inside the casino, Liu Zheng identifies himself as a representative of Niu Ma. The hotel staff summon the casino owner’s men, led by a caiman, who demand that Liu Zheng meet the owner alone.
• Liu Zheng refuses to separate from his companions and provocatively defends the Delivery Gang. Niu Daji and Panda support him, while the hotel’s gangsters respond with threats.
• Guokou Tangzi intervenes dramatically by smashing her soup cauldron into the floor. She declares that the Ultimate Flavor Group owes Liu Zheng a great debt and formally swears, through blood and the Heritage Soup Cauldron, to stand with him.
• The caiman recognizes the seriousness of this oath and agrees to show the group respect. He leads them to the hotel’s hidden fifty-eighth floor, guarded by Pixiu statues and a mysterious vermilion gate.
• Liu Zheng and the others enter the seemingly bottomless darkness beyond the gate without hesitation and meet He Bishu, the elderly chairman of the New Grape Hotel, accompanied by his daughter and surrounded by armed subordinates.
• He Bishu explains the punishments normally imposed for cheating. Liu Zheng repeatedly offers extreme penalties for Hou Taotao, emphasizing that Hou’s survival matters more than its limbs, dignity, or comfort.
• When He Bishu raises the issue of Hou Taotao seducing his woman, Liu Zheng proposes having a group of muscular men assault Hou, producing an intentionally crude and shocking conclusion to the negotiation.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates confidence, fearlessness, and ruthless practicality. He refuses to be intimidated by the hotel’s gangsters and is willing to sacrifice Hou Taotao’s limbs and dignity to preserve its life and satisfy the hotel’s demand for compensation.
• Ace appears increasingly integrated into Liu Zheng’s operations. His purchase of a secure transport vehicle shows initiative and a willingness to invest in the group.
• Guokou Tangzi reveals strong loyalty to Liu Zheng. By making a blood oath on the Heritage Soup Cauldron, she turns personal gratitude into a formal alliance between the Ultimate Flavor Group and the Delivery Gang.
• Niu Daji and Panda act as aggressive defenders of Liu Zheng, immediately joining the confrontation when the hotel gang insults him.
• He Bishu is established as a powerful and traditional gang leader who values rules, reputation, and hierarchy. Although initially prepared to punish Liu Zheng’s group, he recognizes the weight of the Ultimate Flavor Group’s oath and engages in formal negotiation.
• The caiman shifts from contemptuous hostility to cautious respect after realizing that the visitors possess legitimate status and strong backing.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and alliances: Guokou Tangzi’s blood oath shows that gratitude and shared obligations can create binding political alliances.
• Gangland hierarchy and reputation: The characters repeatedly emphasize names, titles, heritage, and proper conduct among organized groups. Respect must be maintained even between enemies.
• Pragmatism versus dignity: Liu Zheng treats punishment as a negotiation problem, valuing Hou Taotao’s survival above bodily integrity, pride, or social humiliation.
• Fearlessness and intimidation: The chapter repeatedly contrasts the hotel’s threatening atmosphere with Liu Zheng’s calm behavior, suggesting that confidence itself is a form of power.
• Absurdity and dark humor: Grand mythical imagery, gangster conventions, and outrageous punishments are combined for comic effect.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Ace casually discuss vehicles, showing their practical partnership.
• Liu Zheng challenges the caiman’s authority, while Niu Daji and Panda escalate the verbal confrontation.
• Guokou Tangzi interrupts the conflict and publicly binds her organization to Liu Zheng through a solemn ritual.
• The caiman and Guokou Tangzi exchange formal, politically cautious remarks, reflecting the social rules governing rival gangs.
• Liu Zheng and He Bishu conduct a tense but surprisingly matter-of-fact negotiation. He Bishu tests Liu Zheng’s loyalty and seriousness, while Liu responds with increasingly severe proposals designed to settle every grievance without sacrificing Hou Taotao’s life.