Chapter Summaries

Plot and events

• Li Xiang overwhelms the Second-Realm Fear Unicorn, a one-horned Ghostman, in a direct fight. His precise martial technique, formidable Dragon Force, and Ghost-Slaying Blade steadily drain and break down the creature.
• The Unicorn makes a desperate aerial attack. Li Xiang meets it head-on, shatters its power-bearing horn, then kills it with a swift cut as it burns its remaining strength for one final charge.
• The kill earns Li Xiang substantial Yin Virtue and advances his professions. His Embalmer reaches Lv15 and unlocks Soul-Calming Nail, a technique that can damage and immobilize spiritual enemies, interrupt their actions, or temporarily seal a living person’s energy channels.
• With the Unicorn dead, the survivors of the Eight Gates Martial Hall rally and rout the demoralized Ghost Clan forces. Li Xiang and Tiger Million help clear the battlefield.
• Li Xiang shares the valuable Ghostman marrow with those who fought bravely, restoring his own strength and helping the injured. Reinforcements arrive afterward, led by Liu Yuan, who is stunned to find the survivors victorious and the Ghostman dead.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang proves himself a formidable fighter and a calm, practical leader. He accepts the survivors’ gratitude modestly, urges them to treat the wounded, and makes clear that the marrow is a reward for those who stood and fought.
• Ma Teng, who had previously doubted Li Xiang, recognizes his skill and apologizes. Li Xiang lightly reminds him about the fare, allowing Ma Teng to save face. Ma Teng’s admiration turns into resolve to train harder.
• Chu Tian recognizes Li Xiang’s unusually advanced Dragon Force and sees renewed hope for survival. He joins the counterattack, eager to gain Yin Virtue to repair his damaged soul.
• Lü Baichuan, despite losing an arm, rallies the others and helps manage the Unicorn’s valuable remains.
• Tiger Million eagerly eats the Ghost Bones’ marrow, gaining strength and moving closer to becoming a Third-Realm Great Demon.
• Liu Yuan, once condescending toward Li Xiang, arrives expecting a massacre and is left questioning his earlier judgment when he sees Li Xiang beside the slain Ghostman.

Significant themes

• Power overturns assumptions: Li Xiang’s victory forces allies and rivals alike to reconsider what he can do.
• Courage and earned reward: Li Xiang honors those who fought rather than those who hid, linking survival’s spoils to bravery.
• Leadership through action: His strength, restraint, and practical concern for the wounded earn trust more effectively than boasting.
• Growth and ambition: The new ability, the survivors’ resolve, Ma Teng’s determination, and Tiger Million’s strengthening all point toward further advancement.

Key plot points and events

• Li Xiang’s victory over the Second Realm Fear Unicorn astonishes Liu Yuan and Ma Teng. Liu admits he had badly underestimated Li Xiang and praises his decisive intervention in saving the Eight Gates Martial Hall.
• Li Xiang shares the Unicorn’s nourishing remains with his allies. Liu Yuan initially refuses a reward he feels he did not earn, while Miao Xiyue accepts bones for herself and her Five Poison Treasures after Li Xiang reminds her that he is repaying her earlier gift.
• Reinforcements arrive, and the group returns to the Relay Station. Li Xiang’s feat spreads his reputation among the younger martial circles, but everyone recognizes that the true battle against the Ghost Clan is still ahead.
• In the forest, the ghosts learn that the Unicorn is dead. Their leaders reveal that the human forces’ gathering is part of their plan: they intend to lure everyone into a cage and activate the Ten Thousand Ghosts Devouring Hearts Formation.
• On the march, Huang Shendu secretly hears the voices of dead relatives calling him to bring them food, suggesting that he is being drawn toward the Ghost Clan.
• Li Xiang visits Ye Qingyao and gives her a prized Unicorn bone. She realizes he went into danger again and warns him not to depend too much on his Ghost-Slaying Blade: easy victories could dull his judgment and leave him vulnerable against other opponents. Li Xiang accepts the criticism and resolves to treat the blade as a tool, not a substitute for skill.
• At the Relay Station, Ye Qingyao takes command of representatives from all sixteen martial groups. With several prominent Tianjin figures missing, she decides not to wait and calls for an all-out assault on the Ghost Mist Forest.
• Before the meeting can proceed, the ghost mist engulfs the station. The surroundings become a sinister forest, and Li Xiang’s Qi Observation Art shows overwhelming killing intent. Ye identifies the trap: they have been drawn into the Netherworld and caught in the Ghost Clan’s killing game.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang earns widespread respect for his strength and generosity, but Ye Qingyao checks his growing confidence by warning him against overreliance on his weapon. His willingness to accept correction shows maturity.
• Ye Qingyao emerges as the battle’s firm commander and as a protective mentor to Li Xiang. Her concern is expressed through blunt criticism as well as practical leadership.
• Liu Yuan moves from dismissing Li Xiang to admiring him, while maintaining his personal honor by refusing an unearned reward.
• Ma Teng appears more grounded after the battle, his earlier pride tempered by experience.
• Miao Xiyue is both impressed and envious of how quickly Li Xiang’s tiger has advanced. Her awkward declaration that she and Li Xiang “can’t be together” creates comic confusion.
• Qin Zhong jokes about the pressure of having such a powerful junior brother, while Li Xiang teases him over his eagerness to eat the spoils.
• Huang Shendu becomes increasingly disturbed by the voices calling to him, foreshadowing a possible betrayal or supernatural danger.
• The ghost leaders’ conversation reveals their confidence and their intention to treat humans as livestock, raising the stakes beyond a straightforward battle.

Significant themes

• Strength and reputation: Li Xiang’s decisive victory transforms how others see him, but fame also brings scrutiny and pressure.
• Humility and self-correction: Ye’s warning stresses that a powerful weapon can create false confidence; true skill requires judgment and adaptability.
• Leadership and sacrifice: Ye and the gathered martial groups choose action despite the danger, accepting responsibility for those they are protecting.
• Loyalty and reciprocity: Li Xiang shares rewards with people who helped him, while Liu Yuan distinguishes generosity from what he considers an undeserved gain.
• Hidden traps and false confidence: The ghosts exploit humanity’s belief that gathering for a counterattack will make them safer; the apparent battlefield is revealed to be a carefully prepared prison.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• The group is suddenly transported from a meeting into the Netherworld, where they discover they are trapped in a murder game: a Ghost Domain formed by overlapping Ghost Laws. Li Xiang’s Feng Shui sense reveals that the land’s energy is being redirected to create a deadly Yin formation, likely under the direction of the powerful Black Sky Lord.
• Ye Qingyao explains that everyone—including the Ghost Clan—must obey the rules. The group must identify and kill the game’s initiator to collapse the domain.
• The first Ghost Law causes fear to ignite people from within. Ma Teng recommends using pain to suppress fear, while Qin Zhong distracts people with vivid, painful thoughts about their families. Both methods help many survive, though some victims still die.
• Ye Qingyao organizes a strike team to hunt the Ghostmen and Greater Ghosts. As the station is attacked, a second rule emerges: no more than two attackers may target the same enemy. Breaking this rule kills one attacker at random. Li Xiang realizes the ghosts can trigger the rule too and exploits it by drawing them together, causing them to die.
• The lesser ghosts repeatedly revive, making the battle seem unwinnable. Li Xiang discovers that his Ghost-Slaying Blade absorbs their energy and prevents their revival—a weapon apparently prepared by the long-dead True Person Lingxu.
• With the station’s defenses weakening and the initiator still hidden, Ye orders the fighters to leave the lesser ghosts behind and pursue the Ghostmen. Li Xiang leaves Tiger Million to guard the station and enters the Ghost Mist Forest.
• Li Xiang kills a Greater Ghost on the way, raising his Feng Shui Master level to 14, then confronts the Bat Ghostman, who taunts him for killing his brother, One-Horn. Li Xiang challenges him directly.

Character developments

• Li Xiang proves both perceptive and resourceful: he reads the battlefield through Feng Shui, identifies loopholes in the Ghost Laws, and uses his blade to permanently destroy ghosts. His confidence and respect for True Person Lingxu’s foresight deepen.
• Ye Qingyao takes command under pressure, explaining the rules, assigning targets, and making the risky decision to send the strongest fighters after the game’s initiator.
• Qin Zhong shows practical compassion beneath his rough manner, finding a way to redirect ordinary people’s fear toward grief and anger.
• Ma Teng acts decisively, injuring himself to demonstrate how to suppress fear, though Qin Zhong’s alternative method makes his sacrifice seem unnecessary.
• Tiger Million is affectionate and eager to accompany Li Xiang, but is left behind to protect the station.

Significant themes

• Rules over strength: Survival depends on understanding and manipulating the Ghost Laws, not simply overpowering enemies.
• Cruel fairness: The rules affect ghosts and humans alike, but the Ghost Clan’s advantage lies in having designed the game.
• The limits of rescue: Li Xiang can save people from physical threats, but he cannot always protect them from fear or other rules.
• Preparation across generations: The Ghost-Slaying Blade reflects True Person Lingxu’s long-reaching plans, giving the living a crucial edge against the Netherworld.
• Human attachments as both vulnerability and strength: Fear threatens everyone, but thoughts of family help some survivors resist it.

Character interactions

• Ye Qingyao coordinates the group and quietly warns Li Xiang and Qin Zhong to retreat if they face an enemy they cannot defeat.
• Qin Zhong’s blunt appeals to family life counter the panic caused by the Fear Law, while Ma Teng’s self-inflicted wound offers another way to control fear.
• Li Xiang rescues a student from a Water Ghost, but the student’s lingering terror triggers the fire rule and kills him, underscoring the rules’ mercilessness.
• Li Xiang leaves Tiger Million with food and orders him to defend the station, then heads alone into the forest to confront the Bat Ghostman.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• A noble Thunderbat ghostman confronts Li Xiang, confident that his Second Realm strength and Yin Thunder will overwhelm the human. Their opening clash proves otherwise: Li Xiang matches his strength and outmaneuvers him in close combat.
• Li Xiang combines abilities from several Professions to gain the advantage. His Fireworks Qi burns through the ghostman’s defenses and drains his ghostly energy, while his blade damages wounds that cannot heal.
• The ghostman unleashes a powerful storm of Yin Thunder, but Li Xiang reads its energy pathways and identifies weaknesses in the spell. He prepares the Embalmer ability Soul-Calming Nail, then uses it to paralyze the ghostman at the critical moment.
• Li Xiang decapitates the ghostman, then pursues and destroys both the fleeing head and body. The Ghost-Slaying Blade consumes the ghostman’s essence and severs his connection to the killing game’s resurrection rules, ensuring his death is final.
• The kill raises Li Xiang’s Swordsman Profession to level 10, unlocking Blood-Drinking, which lets his blade grow sharper through killing and release accumulated killing intent.
• The Book of a Hundred Trades reveals three Swordsman advancement paths—Knight-Errant, Blade Forger, and Man-Slayer—then unlocks a hidden fourth path: Blade Nurturer (Yin). Li Xiang chooses it, though he still needs to complete its ritual.
• He gains substantial Yin Virtue and experience in several Professions, collects the ghostman’s valuable corpse and lightning-charged wings, and prepares to continue hunting.

Character development

• Li Xiang demonstrates growing confidence and mastery, using his diverse Professions strategically rather than relying on strength alone. He remains calm under extreme pressure and decisively chooses a path that suits him: nurturing a powerful blade instead of becoming a killer consumed by slaughter.
• The Thunderbat ghostman shifts from arrogant predator to alarmed, desperate opponent. He recognizes Li Xiang as a threat, but his attempt to overwhelm him with Yin Thunder fails; even his confidence in resurrection proves misplaced.

Character interactions

• The battle is the chapter’s central interaction: the ghostman initially treats Li Xiang as potential breeding stock and then as a dangerous enemy, while Li Xiang refuses to engage in conversation and answers with relentless attacks.
• Their differing approaches highlight the power imbalance they each misjudge: the ghostman trusts rank and raw supernatural force, while Li Xiang relies on observation, technique, and abilities drawn from multiple Professions.

Significant themes

• Adaptability and expertise: Li Xiang’s varied skills let him identify and exploit weaknesses that brute force alone could not overcome.
• Power with a price: The Man-Slayer path offers formidable killing power but risks corruption and loss of self; Li Xiang deliberately rejects it.
• Weapon and wielder: The new Blood-Drinking ability and Blade Nurturer path deepen the idea that a sword can grow alongside its owner, becoming more than a tool.
• Death and consequence: The ghostman expects the killing game’s rules to restore him, but the Ghost-Slaying Blade makes his death permanent.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Black Sky Lord’s killing game transforms Blackwater Ancient Town into a ghost domain, weakening the mortal realm’s protections and greatly strengthening the Ghost Clan.
• Black Sky Lord summons the corrupted Ancient and Modern Basin, which can seize souls. Its beam strikes Zhong Shenxiu, leaving her body alive but nearly soulless.
• Grandmaster Yue answers with the Character for War volume of the Martial Lord’s Legacy. The two sacred treasures clash, devastating the battlefield, though both sides shield their own forces from the worst of the impact.
• Black Sky Lord then conjures Black Heaven’s Three Guillotines, targeting Yue, Lu Changsheng, and Qing Wuming. The three Grandmasters combine their strength to destroy them, but all are injured.
• Black Sky Lord tries to demoralize the fighters by claiming powerful human figures secretly collude with the Ghost Clan and exploit them. Yue and Lu reject his attempt to divide them, insisting they fight to protect ordinary people and will confront any traitors afterward.
• Inside the killing game, Li Xiang continues cutting down ghosts and gaining Profession experience. Qin Zhong reveals his hidden Pure Yang Force, which lets him permanently destroy Greater Ghosts.
• Li Xiang rescues a group of wounded Tianjin Professionals, then goes to help Fang Jingnian, Guo Kai, and Liu Yuan, who are struggling against a heavily armored Hòuqīng.
• The chapter ends as Li Xiang meets the Hòuqīng head-on, powering up his blade with Dragon Force, Crushing Force, and Piercing Force and preparing to test his new armor-piercing ability.

Character developments

• Grandmaster Yue moves from reluctance to full commitment, invoking his ancestor Yue Wu’s legacy and standing firm against Black Sky Lord. His courage and conviction restore the fighters’ morale.
• Lu Changsheng and Qing Wuming back Yue in the battle against the guillotines, revealing their willingness to risk themselves rather than abandon him or the human forces.
• Qin Zhong reveals that he had been concealing some of his strength, following their master’s advice to keep a reserve. His Pure Yang Force explains his ability to kill Greater Ghosts.
• Li Xiang shows growing battlefield competence and confidence. He efficiently rescues others, recognizes Qin Zhong’s skill, and seeks a stronger opponent to test his improved abilities.
• The human fighters briefly waver when Black Sky Lord raises the possibility that they are being used, but Yue’s words restore their resolve.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and duty: The Grandmasters fight to protect others, not to serve the powerful.
• Faith amid corruption: Sacred human treasures—the Basin and Azure Heaven’s Three Guillotines—have been twisted into Ghost Clan weapons.
• Unity against manipulation: Black Sky Lord uses allegations of betrayal to sow distrust, but the defenders refuse to let injustice erase their purpose.
• Hidden strength and growth: Qin Zhong’s reserve power and Li Xiang’s advancing skills underscore the value of preparation, discipline, and adaptation.
• The cost of battle: Even victories bring serious injuries, loss, and uncertainty.

Character interactions

• Yue, Lu, and Qing Wuming coordinate to withstand the three guillotines, each taking on one blade.
• Black Sky Lord attempts to turn the defenders against their own leaders; Yue and Lu publicly rebut him and reinforce the group’s resolve.
• Qin Zhong jokes with Li Xiang while explaining his hidden strength and sends him to assist others.
• Li Xiang’s rescue of the wounded Professionals earns their gratitude and forces one former skeptic to reconsider his earlier judgment of him.
• Li Xiang arrives to relieve Fang Jingnian, Guo Kai, and Liu Yuan, then faces the Hòuqīng alone as the chapter closes.

Key events and plot points

• Li Xiang tests the Ghost-Slaying Blade against a heavily armored Hòuqīng Ghostman and wounds him. He then uses superior speed, precise attacks, and his ability to read the Ghostman’s movements to overwhelm him.
• Li Xiang finishes the fight with a powerful strike combining martial force, mortal hearthfire energy, and the blade’s stored baleful energy. The blow cuts the Ghostman in two.
• Absorbing the Ghostman’s ghostly energy earns Li Xiang experience. His Feng Shui Master profession reaches Lv15, unlocking Man Wielding Terrain, which lets him draw power from nearby earth qi and surroundings—especially potent in extreme terrain or places saturated with yin energy.
• Fang Jingnian, Guo Kai, and Liu Yuan react with astonishment to Li Xiang’s strength. Guo Kai and Liu Yuan thank him for saving their lives. The group agrees the Killing Game is still active because its instigator remains alive.
• Fang Jingnian and the wounded Guo Kai head back to the Relay Station. Liu Yuan chooses to continue hunting Greater Ghosts to redeem himself. Li Xiang presses deeper into the forest to find Ye Qingyao.
• Li Xiang finds Ye Qingyao holding the last Ghostman, the One-Eyed Ghostman. She kills it after learning it did not initiate the Killing Game and refuses to reveal the culprit.
• Li Xiang uses his Embalmer ability to recover the Ghostman’s memories. He witnesses a meeting with Great Master Black Heaven, who ordered the Ghostmen to activate the Ten Thousand Ghosts Devouring Hearts Formation and keep the Ghost Gate open. The plan serves the Ghost Lord’s resurrection.
• The memory reveals that the Yellow Springs Three-Headed Hound is meant to be the heart of the formation, making it the likely key to the Killing Game.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang demonstrates rapid combat growth, combining his professions and weapon skills with confidence and tactical precision. His new terrain ability suggests he can become even stronger in places rich in yin energy. He also acts from loyalty, continuing into danger because he wants to ensure Ye Qingyao is safe.
• Ye Qingyao confirms her overwhelming strength as a Divine Dragon Venerable. She and Li Xiang work together pragmatically: she trusts his unusual methods and gives him room to investigate the corpse.
• Fang Jingnian struggles to accept Li Xiang’s superiority and suspects the blade is responsible. Guo Kai openly expresses gratitude and offers repayment; Liu Yuan accepts his defeat but responds with renewed determination.
• Li Xiang’s restraint and courtesy toward his companions contrast with his ruthless treatment of enemies. He also respects Liu Yuan’s resolve and leaves him to pursue his own challenge.

Significant themes

• Growth through combat: Li Xiang’s skills improve under pressure, while Liu Yuan treats defeat as motivation to rise again.
• Power drawn from one’s surroundings: Man Wielding Terrain introduces the idea that strength depends not only on personal ability but also on the land and its energies.
• Debt, loyalty, and gratitude: Li Xiang risks himself to repay Ye Qingyao’s past kindness, while Guo Kai feels indebted for being saved.
• A hidden threat behind the immediate battle: Killing powerful Ghostmen does not end the crisis; the characters uncover a much larger plan involving the Ghost Gate and the Ghost Lord’s resurrection.

Chapter summary

• Li Xiang discovers the real mastermind. Through the Embalmer’s Revolving Lantern, he sees a one-eyed Ghostman give a black eyeball to the Yellow Springs Three-Headed Hound. The eyeball is the core of a formation connecting the living world to the Netherworld; while the hound survives, the killing game will continue.
• The hound’s likely hiding place is revealed. The Ghostman tells it to stay beside the person it knows best. Li Xiang reasons that, beyond the dead Huang brothers, that person must be Huang Shendu. He suspects the hound is concealed near or within him, possibly through the Huang family’s dog-training techniques.
• The team returns to a devastated waystation. Li Xiang and Ye Qingyao reunite with Qin Zhong and Liu Yuan, explain that the four Ghostmen were decoys, and hurry back. They find the defenses shattered and many people dead or badly injured. Fang Jingnian, Guo Kai, and Miao Xiyue are among those suffering, while Hua Jingshan and other healers have been keeping the wounded alive.
• Li Xiang captures Huang Shendu. Ye Qingyao orders the survivors to regroup and guard the perimeter. Li Xiang quietly brings Huang Shendu to a side room, then incapacitates him with Soul-Calming Nail. With Lü Baichuan’s help, he binds Huang Shendu using a Ghost-Binding Rope and takes him to the meeting hall.
• The group agrees Huang Shendu must die. Li Xiang is “ninety-nine percent” certain the hound is connected to him. Believing Huang Shendu’s death may end the killing game and save everyone else, the assembled leaders support killing him. Ye Qingyao prepares to do it herself, partly so responsibility is shared rather than falling solely on her faction.
• Huang Shendu pleads for his life. The restraint begins to wear off. Faced with the group’s hostility, he begs them to try saving him, but Lü Baichuan looks away. The chapter ends before the group decides how to answer him.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang demonstrates his skill at drawing conclusions from scattered clues and remains cautious even when confident. His warm, familiar approach to Huang Shendu turns abruptly into a calculated attack. He and Ye Qingyao coordinate closely, with her trusting his judgment and providing the tool needed to restrain the suspect.
• Ye Qingyao takes charge after the revelation, prioritizing the group’s survival and managing the political risk of the decision. Her protectiveness toward Li Xiang and Qin Zhong shapes her willingness to shoulder responsibility.
• Huang Shendu is contrasted with Li Xiang: once a privileged Huang-family heir, he now sees himself as a helpless, inferior figure. His fear and plea complicate the group’s otherwise unanimous judgment.
• Lü Baichuan obeys Li Xiang and helps capture Huang Shendu, but later cannot meet Huang Shendu’s eyes. Qin Zhong grieves over fallen comrades, while the other survivors’ injuries and exhaustion show the human cost of the scheme.

Significant themes

• Hidden threats and misplaced trust: The mastermind is not in the forest but among the survivors, and the apparent targets—the four Ghostmen—were only a distraction.
• Sacrifice and moral certainty: The group treats killing one suspected person as a necessary price for saving many, but Huang Shendu’s plea exposes the personal cost of that calculation.
• Consequences of strategic choices: Sending the strongest fighters away left the waystation vulnerable, and the counterattack devastated those left behind.
• Power, status, and reversal: Huang Shendu’s former privilege has collapsed, while Li Xiang has risen from someone he once dismissed to the person who controls his fate.

Plot points and events

• Trapped in a waystation by the Killing Game, the survivors learn that Huang Shendu’s death may be the price of ending it. Huang accepts the sacrifice but asks Li Xiang to kill him and to tell his uncle Huang Si that he died in battle.
• Ye Qingyao offers to take responsibility herself, but Li Xiang insists that his connection to the Huang family—and the chain of events that began with them—makes him the one who should act. He kills Huang Shendu with the Ghost-Slaying Blade, destroying the Yellow Springs Three-Headed Hound as well.
• The Killing Game’s rules collapse, the ghost forest fades, and sunlight returns. But Huang Shendu’s body reassembles, a mysterious eye appears on his forehead, and the hound emerges again. Huang awakens a new Profession, calling himself a Ghost Raiser, and uses ghostly power and equipment to break the waystation’s barrier. The survivors escape and defeat the remaining Lesser Ghosts.
• In private, Huang explains that the eye contained a fragment of the Black Sky Lord’s soul and memories, intended to possess him. Li Xiang’s blade severed its connection to the Lord, forcing the eye to fuse with Huang instead. Huang gained the Ghost Raiser Profession and part of the Lord’s power, but his body and humanity are being eroded. He asks Li Xiang to kill him if he ever loses control; Li Xiang promises.
• Huang reveals that the Killing Game’s final Ghost Law is “suppression by cultivation realm.” At Blackwater Ancient Town, the collapse of the ghost domain weakens the Black Sky Lord’s incarnation, allowing three human Grandmasters to destroy it.
• Before vanishing, the Lord activates the final law at the Netherworld passage beneath Blackwater Pool: beings of the Third Realm or higher cannot enter. This prevents the Grandmasters from sealing the passage and forces humanity to rely on younger fighters. The Lord declares that humans are now the challengers. Lu Changsheng calls for recruits to confront the continuing invasion.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang accepts the moral burden of killing Huang, seeing it as the end of the entanglement with the Huang family. His blade also unintentionally saves Huang from becoming the Black Sky Lord’s vessel.
• Huang Shendu transforms from a frightened, resigned victim into a formidable but precarious Ghost Raiser. Though stronger, he fears losing his humanity and entrusts Li Xiang with stopping him if that happens.
• Ye Qingyao tries to spare Li Xiang the burden of killing a companion, then remains protective and wary of Huang after his resurrection. She joins the private conversation because of the danger he poses.
• The survivors struggle with guilt and the idea of sacrifice. Qin Zhong tries to justify Huang’s death as necessary, but Li Xiang’s senior brother, Li Xiang, challenges that rationalization. Once freed, the group’s relief gives way to renewed alarm when Huang returns.
• The Grandmasters seize the opening created by the broken Killing Game and destroy the Black Sky Lord’s incarnation, only to discover that his final law has blocked their route to sealing the passage.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and moral responsibility: The survivors debate whether one life can rightly be traded for many, and Li Xiang chooses to bear the act himself.
• Humanity versus monstrosity: Huang’s new power may help fight ghosts, but using it threatens his body, mind, and identity.
• Fate, contingency, and legacy: The Ghost-Slaying Blade and True Person Lingxu’s hidden safeguard disrupt the Black Sky Lord’s plan, even after Lingxu’s death.
• Victory and its cost: The survivors escape and the incarnation is defeated, but the Netherworld passage remains open, shifting the conflict to a new generation of challengers.

Key plot points and events

• Three days after the Killing Game, Li Xiang trains with Ye Qingyao and masters Cannon Fist. Its Cannon Force merges smoothly into his Dragon Force, raising him to Boxer Lv13. He now has Crushing, Piercing, and Cannon Forces, and hopes eventually to unite all five elemental forces.
• Ye Qingyao announces that the group is heading to Blackwater Ancient Town. The passage beneath Blackwater Pool has stabilized, but a new Ghost Law prevents anyone above the Third Realm from entering without suffering catastrophic backlash. The younger generation must therefore fight to reseal it.
• Ye reveals she cannot enter because a secondary profession has reached Master Level, even though her main Martial Cultivator profession remains in the Third Realm. She urges Li Xiang and the others to face danger without relying on her protection.
• The expedition is also drawn by the ripened spirit peaches grown from a cutting of the legendary Peach of Immortality. Though less powerful than the original, the peaches can extend life and cleanse the body. Li Xiang agrees to go, but insists they let other groups scout first rather than rush into danger.
• At Blackwater Ancient Town, the team finds a devastated battlefield: Western forces have been wiped out, and the Tianjin Black Tiger Army has suffered enormous losses. Li Xiang sees Lin Xuanguang, scarred and hardened by battle, carrying bodies—including Wang Shuo, who has been grotesquely altered by Ghost Clan body parts.
• Li Xiang reunites with his master, Hong Tianbao, and other allies. Xin Tianya has lost a leg, a devastating injury for his Rickshaw Driver profession, but jokes that he will receive a prosthetic “monster’s leg.”
• Hong Tianbao advises the group to wait while other factions take the first risks and reveal the Ghost Clan’s defenses. Li Xiang also asks him about Ghost Raisers. Hong explains that Ghost Cultivation was banned because its practitioners eventually lose control of the ghosts within them and are resurrected as monsters. Half of the Ten Great Yama Kings were once human masters who suffered this fate.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang rapidly expands his martial abilities while remaining practical and cautious. He rejects reckless heroics, agrees with Ye’s and Hong’s plan to hold back, and begins thinking about raising his Physician level to unlock the Warrior profession.
• Ye Qingyao reveals her extraordinary Master-Level secondary profession and accepts that she must stay outside the passage. She encourages Li Xiang and Qin Zhong to prove themselves, while also emphasizing survival over greed.
• Qin Zhong and Cai Jin marvel at Li Xiang’s progress. Qin is shocked to learn Ye cannot enter and briefly struggles to believe she has reached Master Level.
• Hong Tianbao welcomes Li Xiang back, recognizes his improved foundation, and notices that his Ghost-Slaying Blade resembles a forbidden Demon Blade. He shares both tactical advice and grim knowledge about Ghost Raisers.
• Xin Tianya faces the loss of his leg with humor and defiance, comforting the younger members who are distressed by his injury.
• Liu Yuan warns Li Xiang that a powerful Third Realm sworn brother is courting Zhang Yunshang and may see Li Xiang as a rival, though Li Xiang is puzzled by the warning.

Significant themes

• Growth through hardship: Ye and Hong argue that future masters must face danger themselves rather than remain sheltered.
• Caution and survival: Li Xiang and Hong favor patience and strategy over charging into a deadly battlefield for credit or treasure.
• Power has a price: Ghost Raisers gain tremendous strength but risk becoming the very monsters they fight.
• The cost of war: The ruined town, destroyed Western ships, mass casualties, and Xin Tianya’s injury show the human toll of the Ghost Calamity.
• Temptation and ambition: The spirit peaches promise rare advancement, drawing many factions toward Blackwater Ancient Town despite the danger.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Li Xiang visits the new graveyard to pay respects to Wang Shuo, pouring wine over his rough grave marker. Tiger Million briefly follows him but is soothed and sent to Miao Xiyue for food.
• Lin Xuanguang arrives at the graveyard and warns Li Xiang that something is profoundly wrong with Maoshan. He suspects its Daoists—including himself—may have been possessed or replaced without realizing it, and urges Li Xiang not to trust their words or actions.
• Li Xiang uses divination and discovers that Lin Xuanguang’s Peach Blossom Baleful Fate has become a potentially fatal Peach Blossom Tribulation. He warns Lin and dissuades him from his joking suggestion that he eliminate the danger by castrating himself.
• Lin reports that the warlords disagree over what to do about the passage beneath Blackwater Pool. He also suspects the Blackwater’s former captain helped the Ghost Clan’s invasion, perhaps knowingly—or as an unwitting pawn.
• Lin is summoned to a military meeting to discuss who will enter the passage. He leaves without saying whether he expects to return.
• On his way back, Li Xiang finds Grandmaster Ge Hunxiao holding his catatonic wife, Zhong Shenxiu. Ge is sacrificing his own vitality in an attempt to revive her. The sight reminds Li Xiang how powerless even great figures can be and renews his determination to grow stronger.
• Li Xiang returns to the medical camp and treats the wounded, rapidly gaining Physician experience. After working through the night, he reaches Physician Lv5 and gains Benevolent Healer’s Heart, which improves diagnosis and treatment, calms patients, and grants resistance to certain harmful conditions.
• Qin Zhong then warns Li Xiang that an elite team from City God Headquarters is arriving. Though officially assigned to the Blackwater Pool passage, some members will investigate the local City God’s disappearance—and will likely question Li Xiang as a local.

Character developments

• Li Xiang balances respect for the dead, caution toward the supernatural, and compassion for the wounded. Witnessing Ge’s sacrifice strips away his complacency and strengthens his resolve to improve. His new Physician ability also reinforces his sense that compassion can be as important as combat strength.
• Lin Xuanguang has lost much of his former youthful confidence after war and bloodshed. He reveals deep fear about Maoshan’s corruption and faces a deadly fate, though he tries to mask his distress with humor.
• Ge Hunxiao is shown not as an imposing Grandmaster but as a grieving husband whose love for Zhong Shenxiu is consuming his life.
• Qin Zhong appears urgently protective of Li Xiang, warning him about the investigation before the authorities arrive.

Character interactions

• Li Xiang gently calms Tiger Million and directs it to Miao Xiyue.
• At Wang Shuo’s grave, Li Xiang and Lin Xuanguang speak candidly about Maoshan, Lin’s dangerous fate, the Blackwater Pool passage, and the suspected traitor.
• Li Xiang warns Lin about the Peach Blossom Tribulation and steers him away from a reckless response.
• Li Xiang assists Hua Jingshan in the medical camp, earning his praise and helping treat the wounded.
• Qin Zhong privately alerts Li Xiang to the coming City God Headquarters investigation.

Significant themes

• Trust and hidden corruption: Lin’s warning raises the possibility that even familiar religious authorities may be compromised without knowing it.
• Love and sacrifice: Ge’s attempt to trade his life for his wife’s highlights devotion and the terrible cost of attachment.
• The limits of strength: Li Xiang recognizes that power alone cannot prevent tragedy, even for Grandmasters.
• Compassion amid violence: His healing work and new ability offer a counterweight to the killing and hostility of the age.
• Fate and agency: Lin’s deadly tribulation tests whether fate can be altered through insight and guidance rather than force.
• Accountability and suspicion: The coming investigation into the City God’s disappearance threatens to bring Li Xiang’s connection to the crisis under scrutiny.

Plot points and events

• After completing a training circuit, Li Xiang is summoned to meet investigators from Demon City’s City God headquarters. He remains calm, convinced his actions in the battle can withstand scrutiny.
• He encounters Huang Silang and Huang Shendu, also summoned over the disappearance of Blackwater Ancient Town’s City God. Huang Silang is grieving and badly diminished after his master, Lü Huanzhen, died protecting wounded soldiers. Huang Shendu has grown more confident and cold, apparently at the cost of some of his humanity due to absorbing Black Heaven’s memories.
• The Demon City envoys, Lu Zaizhou and Shen Shuyun, explain that they intend to enter the Blackwater Pool passage and seal it. They seek the City God’s sealing records and ask whether the locals recognize a photograph of him.
• Li Xiang identifies the figure as Ji Muzhi, a Soul Herder, but says he has never seen him and reasons that the photograph shows his true form, not the ordinary identity he used in town. The envoys confirm that the image was obtained through a Demon-Reflecting Mirror.
• The envoys then reveal they need Li Xiang and Huang Shendu’s local Earth Qi as catalysts inside the passage. Their participation is compulsory, though they are promised protection and a chance to study the rare Nine Nether Force afterward.
• Shen Shuyun chooses Huang Shendu, judging his Ghost Raiser abilities more useful against powerful ghosts and seeing value in cultivating his potential. Lu Zaizhou chooses Li Xiang, impressed by his combat record and physical vitality.
• Li Xiang tells his master, Hong Tianbao, what happened. Qin Zhong suspects the “anchor” role may conceal a sacrifice, but Hong reassures Li Xiang that the City God organization’s reputation and oversight make that unlikely. He advises Li Xiang to stay cautious and pursue the reward. Li Xiang also learns that Senior Sister Ye Qingyao is pursuing opportunities elsewhere.
• Preparing for the mission, Li Xiang goes to retrieve Tiger Million from Miao Xiyue. On the way, he discovers that Zither Strings House has opened a battlefield branch, offering discounts and entertainment to ghost-slaying fighters. He rejects a flirtatious invitation and hurries on.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang shows composure, clear reasoning, and ambition: he accepts the danger as a chance to test himself and recognizes the photograph’s significance. He also weighs the mission’s risks against the potential value of Nine Nether Force.
• Huang Silang is weighed down by grief over Lü Huanzhen’s death, while remaining cautious around powerful officials.
• Huang Shendu has become bolder and more analytical, but his indifference to suffering signals the growing erosion of his humanity.
• Lu Zaizhou and Shen Shuyun are capable, pragmatic representatives of powerful families. They recruit the locals for strategic reasons, but offer protection and a valuable reward.
• Li Xiang’s exchanges with Hong Tianbao and Qin Zhong show the uncertainty surrounding the mission and the trust he places in his master’s judgment.

Significant themes

• The cost of war: Even a limited clash leaves veterans dead and survivors scarred, foreshadowing far greater devastation if the realms fully collide.
• Power and moral compromise: Huang Shendu’s growing ghostly strength comes with a loss of humanity, while the possibility of sacrificing people for a “greater good” remains troubling.
• Duty, coercion, and ambition: Li Xiang has little choice about entering the passage, but the promise of Nine Nether Force gives him a personal reason to accept the risk.
• Pragmatism amid catastrophe: The powerful make calculated choices, while even ordinary businesses adapt to the battlefield—captured comically by Zither Strings House’s “ghost-slaying hero” promotions.

Key plot points and events

• Li Xiang retrieves Tiger Million from Miao Xiyue, who gives him a Tracking Gu that may help him escape the Blackwater Pool passages—or allow others to find him. He begins training the tiger through deeper mental communication and demon-power cultivation.
• Reaching Beast Tamer level 5 unlocks Beast Blood Boiling, which lets Li Xiang and Tiger Million share a surge of strength, speed, and endurance, though Tiger Million will be weakened afterward.
• Li Xiang continues training until he reaches his daily experience limits. As Blackwater Ancient Town fills with desperate adventurers drawn by the promised Peach of Immortality and other rewards, he and Qin Zhong discuss the dangers of entering the passage and several local developments: Confucian Cultivators were beaten after trying to shut down Zither Strings House, and Lu Sixuan—now a formidable Northern Shaolin lay monk—has arrived seeking recruits and hoping to meet his arranged bride, Ye Qingyao.
• Studying the Yellow Court Inner Landscape Scripture, Li Xiang realizes that the best cultivation paths all aim to develop strength from within. After sustained study, he unlocks the Daoist Profession, a rare Profession whose Inner Landscape trait creates a private inner world. It accelerates recovery and comprehension, stores objects, and may eventually support plants and spirit beasts.
• Lu Zaizhou’s attendant informs Li Xiang that the passage route has been scouted and the group will enter in three days. Lin Xuanguang warns that the Black Tiger Army lost about thirty percent of its scouts. The passage contains powerful Ghost Apes guarding a young Peach of Immortality tree, Black Moon Clan members skilled in mental illusions, and other Ghostmen—including one hunting humans as breeding stock. Lin also warns Li Xiang that his senior brother, Daoist Xuan Shu, is coming.
• After two days of intense training, Li Xiang joins the assembled expedition at the Blackwater River. He spots Huang Shendu and Lin Xuanshu, who greets him with a familiar smile.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang grows more ambitious and disciplined. His new Beast Tamer skill strengthens the bond between him and Tiger Million, while the Daoist Profession gives him a major new avenue of cultivation and a defensive barrier against hostile aura.
• Tiger Million enjoys Miao Xiyue’s affection and stories, but Li Xiang’s renewed training—and the promise of Demon Grain Pills—pulls him back into hard work.
• Miao Xiyue shows quiet concern for Li Xiang by giving him the Tracking Gu. Her fondness for Tiger Million is clear.
• Qin Zhong keeps Li Xiang informed about town politics, Lu Sixuan’s arrival, and the consequences of the recruitment drive.
• Lin Xuanguang risks slipping away from the front line to warn Li Xiang about the passage’s casualties and threats, particularly the arrival of his senior brother, Xuan Shu.
• Lu Sixuan is presented as powerful and self-assured: he recruits only high-level fighters and publicly seeks Ye Qingyao, despite her apparent efforts to avoid him.
• Lin Xuanshu’s appearance at the expedition’s gathering, and Li Xiang’s wary awareness of him, set up a potentially important encounter.

Significant themes

• Inner cultivation versus external resources: The Yellow Court Scripture challenges a Profession system focused on acquiring power from outside, presenting the body itself as a complete universe.
• Risk, desperation, and survival: Many recruits enter the passage hoping for a final chance at longevity, despite the near-certain danger.
• Power and responsibility in bonds: Li Xiang’s connection with Tiger Million becomes a source of shared strength, but it carries a cost for the beast.
• The human cost of ambition: The scouting losses and predatory Ghostmen reveal that the promised treasures come with brutal consequences.

Plot and key events

• Li Xiang meets Lin Xuanshu, who senses an unusual Daoist quality in him and offers him a place among Maoshan’s inner disciples. Li Xiang politely declines for now, remaining committed to his martial path.
• Zhang Qichen of the Celestial Master Mansion makes a similar offer after noticing Li Xiang’s spiritual aura. Li Xiang declines again. Lu Zaizhou observes that two major Daoist institutions have recognized something special in him.
• The group gathers leading young disciples from the Three Teachings—Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism—alongside promising practitioners from several other Professions. Lu divides them into two teams to enter the passage and seal its weak points.
• The passage is a fragment of a destroyed realm where outsiders shrink to one-third their normal size. The team fights off Lesser Ghosts, and Li Xiang discovers that killing them grants experience across several of his Professions; his Daoist level rises to 2.
• Wuneng warns Li Xiang that pursuing Dragon Force’s Path of Dragon Transformation is extremely dangerous, citing his own grandmaster-uncle, who disappeared into seclusion while attempting a similar path. Li Xiang accepts the warning but remains confident in his own chances.
• The team finds Ghost Spirit Orchids growing in a clearing. An Elixir Cultivator rushes toward them, triggering a trap: the ground becomes a bog, the flowers attack, and a monster emerges. The plants are being cultivated in a “human medicinal field,” using living people as fertilizer.
• Lin Xuanshu destroys the Ghostman responsible and the horrific field with a powerful Maoshan lightning technique. The group continues to the first sealing node, where Lu Zaizhou produces a Boundary-Stabilizing Stake designed to pin down the passage and suppress the flow of ghostly energy.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang receives recognition from two prestigious Daoist sects but remains focused on martial cultivation. His Daoist resonance comes from the Yellow Court Inner Landscape Scripture and his Inner Landscape trait. Combat also reveals how quickly he can advance through ghost-slaying.
• Lin Xuanshu shows strong faith in Li Xiang’s potential, while respecting his refusal to join Maoshan. His response to the human medicinal field reveals his fierce moral outrage and formidable Daoist skill.
• Zhang Qichen is sociable and talkative, teasing Lin Xuanshu about their past rivalry. He also feels an unexplained familiarity with Li Xiang, connected to memories he cannot recover.
• Wuneng offers Li Xiang sincere, compassionate counsel about the risks of Dragon Force. Li Xiang listens but chooses to continue pursuing his path.
• Lu Zaizhou takes command, organizes the elite teams, explains the dimensional fragment, and prepares the tool needed to seal its weak points. The chapter ends as he turns to Li Xiang at the first node.

Significant themes

• Unconventional talent and choice: Li Xiang’s Daoist potential attracts powerful institutions, but he chooses his own course rather than accepting an easy route.
• Risk and perseverance: Wuneng’s warning contrasts with Li Xiang’s belief that another person’s failure does not determine his fate.
• Righteousness against corruption: The Ghost Clan’s use of living humans as herb-growing material twists the Daoist idea of the body as a source of medicine into a grotesque abuse of life.
• Cooperation across traditions: The Three Teachings and the other Professions unite against a common supernatural threat.
• Growth through conflict: Fighting ghosts advances Li Xiang’s Professions, while witnessing Lin Xuanshu’s power strengthens his ambition to develop his own Daoist abilities.

Key events

• Li Xiang serves as the catalyst for sealing the first earth-vein node. Sitting atop the Boundary-Stabilizing Stake, he channels his native Earth Qi into it as Lu Zaizhou activates the sealing method.
• The stake’s impact unleashes lethal Earth Sha, but Li Xiang survives through his resilient physique, Inner Landscape, Five Viscera Deities, Dragon Spine, Martial Force, and especially the Golden Cicada, which absorbs and refines the baleful energy. The ordeal strengthens him and raises his Daoist, Boxer, and Feng Shui Master levels.
• The node is sealed, stopping the flow of deathly energy and forming a golden barrier. Li Xiang earns the respect of Lu Zaizhou, Monk Wuneng, Lin Xuanshu, and the other elites.
• Li Xiang suspects that True Person Lingxu has been arranging events around him—and Shen Shuyun—as part of a larger plan to seal the passage between worlds. He now views Lingxu’s gifts as possible advance payment for a dangerous role.
• Yue Jingxing volunteers to guard the sealed node with the Five Sacred Mountains Sword Formation while the others press onward.
• The group enters a forbidden zone, where the remains of Upper Four Realms experts create deadly distortions and trials. They encounter a vision of Oz, God of Forging, at work in a volcanic furnace—a rare Bagua Furnace Terrain.
• A Goat Demon Ghostman enters the furnace safely, apparently exploiting the chaotic rules created by Black Heaven’s Fourth Ghost Law. The possibility of claiming Oz’s legacy sparks greed among the group. Wuneng and Lin Xuanshu enter, followed by Lu Zaizhou; Li Xiang decides to follow as the chapter ends.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang proves both courageous and unusually durable, gaining strength while recognizing that his apparent good fortune may be part of a larger design. Others begin to see him as a formidable, almost Dao-like figure.
• Lu Zaizhou trusts Li Xiang with the dangerous sealing task, praises his performance, and then organizes the group’s advance. Though cautious, he is also tempted by the forging legacy.
• Wuneng and Lin Xuanshu show their ambition and confidence by entering the furnace despite its danger. Wuneng frames his attempt as a Buddhist mission; Lin Xuanshu sees the opportunity but also understands the danger of forbidden legacies.
• Yue Jingxing accepts responsibility for defending the first node and deploys his disciples in a powerful formation.
• The elites’ respect for Li Xiang grows, while the group’s cooperation gives way to competition once the potential treasure is revealed.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and hidden costs: Li Xiang’s role saves the group, but may be part of Lingxu’s long-term scheme.
• Strength forged through danger: The Earth Sha that nearly destroys Li Xiang instead tempers and advances him.
• Ambition versus caution: The forbidden zone is deadly, yet the chance to claim a god’s legacy overwhelms many characters’ restraint.
• Order disrupted by manipulation: Black Heaven’s altered laws create loopholes that turn a once-inaccessible death site into an apparent treasure ground.

Plot points and events

• Zhao Jia, acting on Lu Zaizhou’s orders to protect Li Xiang, tries to stop him entering the Volcanic Furnace. Li Xiang silently overpowers and immobilizes him, then proceeds into the heat.
• Li Xiang’s unusual physical resilience lets him cross the furnace’s outer flames with ease. Inside, the others pursue lesser opportunities among old weapons, while Li Xiang recognizes the central Five-Colored Divine Fire as the real inheritance.
• Despite warnings from Lin Xuanshu, Monk Wuneng, and Lu Zaizhou, Li Xiang approaches the furnace’s core. An ancient consciousness tests him and allows him to use the divine fire to temper himself.
• The ordeal triggers Li Xiang’s first Dragon Transformation Tribulation. He realizes that his Dragon Force need not imitate a beast: his own upright, human form embodies his will. He survives, is physically reborn, and gains Dragon Force’s second trait, the Dragon Pearl, which stores and replenishes his energy.
• Li Xiang conceals what he has gained. The other visitors acquire more visible rewards: Wuneng obtains a Buddhist pestle, Lin deepens his sword understanding, Lu gains a defensive art, and the Goat-Demon Ghostman strengthens himself. The furnace vanishes, and the group moves on.
• At Blackwater Swamp, a tentacle attacks a Rogue Cultivator, prompting Lin to rescue him and the group to fight a mass of Water Ghosts. Li Xiang tests the Dragon Pearl, finding that it greatly boosts his power and endurance.
• During the battle, Li Xiang’s Paper Effigy Maker profession reaches level 15, unlocking Paper Healing Technique. He uses it to make spirit-paper patches that seal a wound and relieve pain.
• The group reaches the second Sealing Node, guarded by a large Ghost Clan force. As they prepare to attack, Li Xiang finishes testing his healing paper and joins Lin, who says something is happening near the enemy position.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Xiang demonstrates growing confidence and formidable strength, moving beyond others’ assumptions about his First Realm status. His defining breakthrough comes from accepting that his Dragon Force should express his own identity rather than copy another creature. He also becomes more tactically capable, using his new energy reserve and healing skill while keeping his most important gain secret.
• Zhao Jia shifts from condescending gatekeeper to humiliated observer after Li Xiang disables him. Later, he avoids drawing Li Xiang’s attention.
• Lu Zaizhou presents himself as a supportive senior, but Li Xiang recognizes that he hopes to recruit him as a future follower. Li Xiang responds politely while withholding the truth.
• Lin Xuanshu and Wuneng warn Li Xiang away from the furnace core, then silently suspect he gained more there than he admits. Lin later acts swiftly to save the Rogue Cultivator and alerts Li Xiang to activity at the enemy lines.
• Sun Qing dismisses Li Xiang as an unworthy rival, while several other onlookers mistake his restraint for failure or pride.
• The Goat-Demon Ghostman gains strength but chooses not to attack the humans, wary of the furnace’s lingering divine power.

Significant themes

• Self-definition and transformation: Li Xiang’s breakthrough comes from embodying his own nature rather than imitating established forms.
• Strength versus appearance: Others judge Li Xiang by rank and visible rewards, underestimating what he has achieved.
• Restraint and secrecy: Li Xiang hides his Dragon Pearl, recognizing that survival requires concealing valuable abilities.
• Growth through danger: The furnace trial and swamp battle turn risk into opportunities for physical, spiritual, and professional advancement.
• Practical ingenuity: The new healing technique shows how unconventional skills can become valuable tools in a battlefield.

Key plot points and events

• Hundreds of Ghost Clan forces surround the team near the Sacrificial Altar. Lu Zaizhou uses a Military Cultivator’s battle array to coordinate and strengthen the group.
• Lin Xuanshu’s lightning arts and Wuneng’s Tathagata Force devastate the enemy vanguard, while Miao Zizai and Sun Qing restrain Ghostmen. Li Xiang fights among the lesser ghosts, relying on his exceptional stamina and strength.
• Li Xiang reaches Boxer Level 15 and gains Unyielding Will, making him immune to mental effects from beings of his realm or lower and more resistant to stronger attacks.
• After the Ghost Clan army is routed, the group proceeds to the second seal node. Li Xiang channels its baleful energy while the Golden Cicada absorbs and refines it, raising his Daoist level and unlocking Demon-Expelling, which purifies harmful influences and adds true damage against yin-evil creatures.
• The team seals the second and third nodes, leaving Sun Qing and then Miao Zizai with allies to guard them. Li Xiang tests his new ability by imbuing his blade with it, easily cutting down a Greater Ghost.
• The two expedition groups reunite. Yue Song has lost an arm after killing a powerful Ghostman mounted on a Fear Unicorn. He treats the injury as an acceptable cost of battle.
• With the last three nodes heavily defended, Lu Zaizhou proposes waiting for spirit peaches to ripen. Their attraction is expected to draw the Red-Rumped Ghost King Clan away from the nodes, leaving only the Black Moon Clan to oppose the team. Meng Cunzheng warns that the plan could expose the already-sealed nodes to attack, but Lu argues that confronting both clans directly would likely be worse. The group faces a high-stakes gamble with no safe alternative.

Character developments

• Li Xiang grows stronger, unlocking both a major mental defense and an active Daoist purification and anti-ghost ability. His power, stamina, and composure impress the veterans, though he privately believes his future strength will surpass even the celebrated prodigies.
• Lu Zaizhou demonstrates tactical skill and political tact: he manages the battle, gives credit to each contributor, and keeps the group united. As the danger escalates, he accepts responsibility for a risky plan.
• Lin Xuanshu and Wuneng confirm their status as formidable heirs of the Daoist and Buddhist traditions, outclassing other young elites in combat.
• Miao Zizai and Sun Qing recognize the gap between their abilities and those of the Three Teachings’ direct heirs, but remain valuable contributors and take responsibility for guarding sealed nodes.
• Yue Song is revealed as fiercely determined and willing to sacrifice greatly; his missing arm does not shake his resolve.

Significant themes

• Cooperation and leadership: Lu’s battle array turns individual fighters into an effective force, while his diplomacy restores morale after the battle.
• Growth through hardship: Combat and exposure to dangerous baleful energy accelerate Li Xiang’s development.
• The cost of duty: Yue Song’s sacrifice and the team’s continued advance show the personal losses involved in protecting the living world.
• Risk and necessity: The final strategy may endanger the team and its previous gains, but Lu believes it offers the best chance of success.
• Different forms of strength: Tactical coordination, specialized arts, endurance, and resolve all matter, though exceptional inherited techniques can create a stark advantage.

Character interactions

• Lu commands the group through the battle and later praises Lin, Wuneng, Miao, Sun, and Li Xiang in a way that recognizes their contributions and eases competitive tension.
• Li Xiang’s veteran squad first tries to match his stamina, then shifts from rivalry to admiration after witnessing his resilience and newly revealed toughness.
• Lin and Wuneng acknowledge Lu’s formation as crucial to their effectiveness, reflecting mutual respect between the fighters and their commander.
• At the reunion, Lu expresses concern for Yue Song, while Shen Shuyun explains the circumstances of his injury. Yue dismisses the loss and urges the group to focus on the mission.
• Meng Cunzheng challenges Lu’s plan, forcing him to explain the dangers and the lack of safer options to the assembled leaders.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Beneath an underground basin, nine Red-Rumped Ghost Apes guard an enormous, corrupted Ancient Peach Tree. Its nine Spirit Peaches are nearing ripeness. Their leader, Sun Tianqing, vows to kill anyone who tries to take them and speaks with Bao Huan of the Black Moon Clan through a magical eyeball.
• Several miles away, Huang Shendu tells Li Xiang that the Ghost Fragment inside him is awakening rapidly; he expects to lose control and become a ghost within a year. He asks Li to strike him with the Ghost-Slaying Blade, hoping its power will suppress the Ghost Qi temporarily. Li agrees and, after reading Huang’s dangerous Fortune, warns him to beware clever women and not try to guess their thoughts. Huang assumes the warning concerns Shen Shuyun.
• The commanders Lu Zaizhou and Yue Song plan a final assault on the passage’s Sealing Nodes. Because the Ghost Clan’s defenses are too strong for an ordinary formation, they decide to combine their forces in a Dual-Core Military Formation and forcibly awaken a White Tiger Army Soul, accepting the risk of severe injury or death.
• The assault is divided among the team’s strongest fighters: Meng Cunzheng and Huang Shendu take the right route; Lin Xuanshu and Li Xiang take the left; Zhang Qichen and Wuneng attack the central node. The teams will converge there for the final sealing.
• Meanwhile, Haitang’s hidden group—Qin Zhong, Sun Jingui, Chu Tian, John, and Haitang herself—watches the Spirit Peach basin. Haitang plans to let rival factions and the Ghost Apes weaken one another before her team makes its move. Chu Tian has recovered much of his strength, while Sun Jingui has adopted a new corpse-body that lets him conceal his living aura.
• As the peaches near ripeness, a Warlord’s Death Soldiers attack, triggering a chaotic rush by Western demon hunters, Eastern Seas fighters, and other factions. The Ghost Apes meet them head-on. Sun Tianqing’s overwhelming strength turns the clash into a massacre.
• Hearing the battle begin, Lu Zaizhou and Yue Song launch their operation. Their combined Military Formation boosts the assault team, and Lin Xuanshu leads Li Xiang toward the left Sealing Node.

Character developments

• Li Xiang remains pragmatic and guarded, but agrees to help Huang Shendu and uses his Fortune Teller ability to offer a warning. His concern is framed as a possible step toward fulfilling his advancement ritual.
• Huang Shendu is no longer portrayed simply as an arrogant heir: frightened by his impending loss of self, he openly begs for help and shows restraint in keeping Li Xiang’s weapon secret. His desperation also makes him quick to identify Shen Shuyun as the woman Li warned him about.
• Lu Zaizhou and Yue Song show their willingness to risk their lives for the mission. Lu’s family pride gives way to a fierce military resolve, while Yue commits to bearing the burden of awakening the Army Soul.
• Haitang demonstrates strategic patience and a sharp ability to read the political maneuvering behind the staged attack.
• Chu Tian is recovering, with his Double Pupils and cultivation restored enough to make him a useful presence in the hidden team.
• Sun Tianqing is established as a battle-hungry, brutal guardian, whose strength makes the Spirit Peach battle far more dangerous than the attackers anticipated.

Significant themes

• The price of power: Huang’s forced advancement and the commanders’ risky Army Soul plan show that extraordinary strength brings severe physical and spiritual costs.
• Greed and sacrifice: The Spirit Peaches draw rival factions into a deadly scramble, while military leaders deliberately accept personal danger—and exploit others as bait—to achieve a larger objective.
• Fate and resistance: Li’s Fortune Teller ritual centers on changing the fate of someone facing death, linking Huang’s crisis to the broader question of whether destiny can be defied.
• Strategy amid chaos: Both the sealing team and Haitang’s group rely on timing, coordination, and reading opponents rather than rushing blindly into combat.

Character interactions

• Li Xiang and Huang Shendu share a wary but meaningful exchange: Huang asks for help and protects Li’s secret, while Li offers a temporary remedy and a cryptic warning.
• Lu Zaizhou and Yue Song jointly plan the dangerous assault, with each accepting half the burden of the Dual-Core Formation.
• The assault team receives clearly assigned roles, reflecting trust in each fighter’s particular strengths.
• Haitang, Qin Zhong, Sun Jingui, and John trade observations and jokes while following Haitang’s plan; their contrasting attitudes reveal both camaraderie and cultural friction.
• Sun Tianqing and the invading factions meet in a one-sided battle, as his rage and strength overwhelm the first wave of attackers.

Chapter summary

• The assault on the Ghost Clan continues. Lin Xuanshu uses powerful Thunder Arts and swordsmanship to carve through the horde, while Li Xiang fights with his fists and Ghost-Slaying Blade. Killing ghosts earns him Yin Virtue and profession experience; his Daoist level rises to Lv6.
• The enemy proves unnervingly varied. Many Ghost Creatures are warped remnants of Professionals who died in the Netherworld, their monstrous forms reflecting their former trades. The group’s Dual-Core Military Formation helps protect them from the ghosts’ physical and spiritual contamination.
• Li Xiang reaches the Swordsman advancement threshold. His Swordsman profession hits Lv10 and unlocks the “Blade of the Will” ritual: he must personally kill ten people he sincerely believes deserve death. He recognizes the ritual’s danger—it could lead someone toward senseless killing—but believes it suits the brutal Age of Chaos. Lu Zaizhou interrupts his thoughts to keep him focused on the mission.
• The team seals the left earth-vein node. Li Xiang channels Earth Qi through a Boundary-Stabilizing Stake while Lu Zaizhou performs the sealing ritual. The resulting golden barrier weakens the ghosts in the area. The stake’s concentrated Earth Baleful Energy is purified by Li Xiang’s Golden Cicada, greatly strengthening his body and raising his Daoist level to Lv7.
• The central battlefield faces a powerful new threat. Grandmaster Wuneng and Zhang Qichen are being overwhelmed by Bao Huan, a prodigy of the Black Moon Clan whose third eye produces deadly illusions and mental attacks. Lin Xuanshu judges Bao Huan powerful but still below the leaders of the Three Teachings and Nine Classes. Li Xiang realizes this makes Ye Qingyao’s earlier victory over Lin even more impressive.
• Li Xiang proves unusually resistant to illusions. As the group advances, Bao Huan’s influence leaves several fighters helpless and exposed to the ghosts. Li Xiang remains unaffected, killing a Black Moon Ghostman without realizing it had tried to ensnare him. He dismisses the illusion as disgusting “cheap tricks”; Lu Zaizhou is stunned and concludes that Li Xiang has extraordinary spiritual resistance and Daoist potential.
• The force launches a desperate push toward the center. With both side nodes sealed, Yue Song awakens the White Tiger Army Soul at great personal cost. Its blessing boosts the fighters’ abilities by roughly thirty percent, but Yue can sustain it only briefly. Wuneng and Zhang Qichen counterattack Bao Huan, while Lin Xuanshu, Li Xiang, and others fight their way toward the final node.
• A parallel struggle erupts around the Ancient Peach Tree. Qin Zhong reveals his Dragon Transformation path; Haitang uses a powerful, uncanny illusion; Sun Jingui releases a troop of zombies led by the growing former-prince zombie. John escapes a Ghost Ape’s attack by magically switching places with a nearby Western hunter, sacrificing the latter. Chu Tian suspects the supposedly living Spirit Peach tree is an artificial construct, but presses onward as the peaches near ripeness.
• The chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Elsewhere beneath the tree, Lu Sixuan is nearly defeated by the enormous Ghost Ape Sun Tianqing. Rather than surrender, he opens a forbidden scroll supplied by his ancestor. It depicts a headless Former Dynasty Demonkin king, whose awakening warps the battlefield. A terrifying voice asks who has awakened him.

Character developments and interactions

Li Xiang continues combining multiple professions in battle and shows exceptional resilience to spiritual attacks, while confronting the moral implications of his Swordsman ritual. Lu Zaizhou acts as both battlefield leader and mentor, explaining the history of the Professions before rallying the group under pressure. Lin Xuanshu remains a model of disciplined, versatile combat. Yue Song’s sacrifice demonstrates the cost of sustaining the army’s power, while Li Xiang and Shen Shuyun briefly acknowledge one another after sealing separate nodes. Across the other battlefronts, allies reveal hidden abilities, make ruthless choices, and struggle over the Spirit Peaches.

Significant themes

• Power requires sacrifice: Yue Song burns through his own strength to awaken the Military Soul, while Lu Sixuan resorts to a dangerous last resort.
• Moral judgment and the danger of violence: Li Xiang’s advancement ritual makes personal conviction the measure of whom he may kill.
• Inheritance versus innovation: The Three Teachings benefit from centuries of perfected tradition, making it difficult for later practitioners to forge new paths.
• Hidden strength and deceptive appearances: Li Xiang’s resistance, Haitang’s artifact, Chu Tian’s suspicion of the tree, and the headless king’s emergence all suggest that appearances conceal far more than they reveal.
• Solidarity amid catastrophe: The sealing effort and coordinated advance depend on fighters across different professions supporting one another, even as losses mount.

Plot points and events

• Great Sage Teng Snake emerges from a scroll and freezes the battlefield with his Sage-level power. He crushes Sun Tianqing beneath a massive, five-fingered black hand after Sun defies him.
• Teng Snake reveals that the Ancient Peach Tree’s fruit could restore part of his former strength. On seeing Sun Jingui’s zombie, Prince Xuanji, he decides to take the body as a vessel, since Xuanji was his brother.
• Teacher Cao’s Divine Brush interrupts the possession and confronts Teng Snake. Teng Snake identifies Cao Yu as a Novelist who survived death by crossing from fiction into reality, and compares him unfavorably to Red-Rumped Yama, who used a similar rebirth to become one of the Netherworld’s Ten Great Yama Kings.
• The two damaged Sages battle, forcing the humans and Ghost Clan fighters to flee. At another Sealing Node, Li Xiang and his allies complete the final stage of the formation. The ten nodes create a Heaven-Sealing Grand Formation, suppressing the Ghost Clan and securing a human victory.
• As the survivors celebrate, the Ancient Peach Tree reveals itself as the true body of Red-Rumped Yama, who frees Sun Tianqing and confronts both Teng Snake and Cao Yu. The apparent contest for the peaches was a trap: Red-Rumped Yama had drawn the Sages in to capture them.
• Teng Snake realizes that Lu Changsheng—whom he thought was his loyal servant—had deliberately lured him into the trap. He erupts in rage at the betrayal.

Character developments and interactions

• Sun Tianqing begins as a formidable, defiant fighter but is effortlessly subdued by Teng Snake. He later becomes obedient and relieved when Red-Rumped Yama frees him.
• Teng Snake shifts from seeming mastermind to exposed pawn. He seeks Xuanji’s body and the peaches to restore himself, only to discover that Lu Changsheng has turned his scheme against him.
• Cao Yu / the Divine Brush stands against Teng Snake to defend his protagonist’s fate. His identity as a Novelist and his unusual second life are revealed; despite his power, he is ultimately caught in Red-Rumped Yama’s larger plan.
• Li Xiang helps seal the final node, gains experience and power, and recognizes the danger of uncontrolled Ghost incursions even while benefiting from the energy they provide. His strength earns Lu Zaizhou’s respect, changing their relationship from would-be recruitment to a more equal partnership.
• Haitang, Qin Zhong, and the others are forced to abandon the peach contest and flee the Sage battle. Their earlier assumptions about who controls events are overturned by the final reveal.
• Red-Rumped Yama is revealed as the hidden power behind the Ancient Peach Tree and the apparent peach struggle. He treats Sun Tianqing dismissively and directly challenges both Sages.

Significant themes

• The reversal of control: Those who believe they are manipulating events may themselves be pieces in a larger scheme.
• Betrayal and ambition: Teng Snake’s desire to recover his power leads him into Lu Changsheng’s betrayal and Red-Rumped Yama’s trap.
• Power and vulnerability: Even legendary Sages can be constrained by rules, weakened bodies, and enemies with greater plans.
• Collective victory amid personal danger: The sealing mission succeeds through coordinated effort, even as the larger supernatural conflict escalates.
• Fiction, fate, and identity: Cao Yu’s Novelist abilities blur the boundary between imagined stories and reality, raising questions about rebirth and control over destiny.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Red-Rumped Yama demonstrates overwhelming power. Great Sage Teng Snake wants to escape, while Divine Brush Cao Yu attempts to flee using a distance-warping divine ability. Yama traps Cao Yu with Buddha’s Palm Paradise, binds the brush with golden Rule Chains, and imprisons Teng Snake beneath a massive hand created through Heaven- and Earth-Reversing.
• The observers recognize Yama’s exceptional strength. Chu Tian realizes the Ancient Peach Tree was one of Yama’s transformations; Haitang and Sun Jingui explain that Yama’s deep command of the rules and extraordinary foundation set him far above ordinary Sages, even under the same realm suppression. John reflects on the contrast between Great Xin’s Profession system and Western supernatural paths.
• Yama rescues Bao Huan. He uses Golden Light Avenue to carry the badly wounded Black Moon Ghostman away from the battlefield, dissolving the thunder attacks that had nearly destroyed him. His presence briefly paralyzes Li Xiang and terrifies the sealing team.
• Yama chooses to take the Ghost Clan home. He reveals the true Ruyi Golden-Banded Staff, gathers the surviving ghosts, and smashes open a passage into the Netherworld. He takes the captive Teng Snake with him but leaves the human Sealing Nodes intact. Sun Tianqing’s hopes of invading the Mortal World are dismissed.
• The human team survives and the sealing is completed. With Yama and the ghosts gone, the survivors recover. Li Xiang and Lin Xuanshu remain uneasy about why Yama withdrew and whether sealing the passage can truly contain such a powerful being.
• Lu Changsheng reveals his long-concealed allegiance and strength. After learning that Teng Snake has been taken away, Lu—who had spent three centuries pretending to serve him—attacks Demonkin loyalists and kills several, including Confucian Grandmaster Kong Changkong. He declares that the Blackwater Ghost Calamity was a deliberate plot, with human collaborators aiding the invasion.
• Lu breaks with the Demonkin. He cuts off the braid he wore as a sign of submission, swears that his family will sever ties with the Demonkin, and finally breaks through to become a Peerless Grandmaster. He then orders Qing Wuming and Demon City’s Demonkin to leave Riverside within seven days, sparing Qing’s life for the moment.

Character developments and interactions

• Red-Rumped Yama is revealed as a near-mythic force: confident, disdainful of both Sages, yet tender toward the Golden Cudgel and protective of Bao Huan. Rather than pursue an invasion, he gathers his people and returns to the Netherworld.
• Lu Changsheng transforms from an apparently submissive, long-suffering servant into a formidable rebel whose three centuries of humiliation have been part of a deliberate cover. His break with the Demonkin also completes his martial breakthrough.
• Sun Tianqing regains confidence under Yama’s protection but misunderstands Yama’s intentions; his wish to invade the Mortal World is brushed aside.
• The human survivors—including Li Xiang, Lu Zaizhou, Zhang Qichen, Lin Xuanshu, Haitang, Chu Tian, Qin Zhong, Sun Jingui, and John—are left shaken by the gap between their strength and Yama’s. They regroup, but recognize that their victory and the sealed passage may not settle the larger threat.
• Qing Wuming is furious that Teng Snake has been taken, then faces Lu Changsheng’s unexpected ultimatum. Kong Changkong, who questions Lu’s accusations, is killed when Lu’s hidden strength overwhelms him.

Significant themes

• Power and the limits of mortal action: Yama’s effortless control over space, laws, and powerful Sages makes the human characters feel insignificant.
• Hidden identities and long deception: Lu Changsheng’s apparent servility conceals a three-century plan, while Yama’s earlier disguise as an Ancient Peach Tree is also revealed.
• Freedom through severing the past: Lu’s cut braid symbolizes the end of his submission and enables his martial breakthrough.
• Loyalty and protection: Yama saves Bao Huan and gathers the ghosts as their leader; Lu, meanwhile, turns against former allies to pursue his own cause.
• Uncertainty after apparent victory: The passage is sealed, but Yama’s ability to break through dimensional laws leaves the characters questioning how secure that victory really is.