Chapter Summaries

• Plot and events: The narrator announces that they’re taking the day off from posting because their wedding is tomorrow.
• Character developments: The narrator reaches a major personal milestone by preparing to get married.
• Themes: The chapter centers on love, commitment, and making time for important life events.
• Character interactions: No interactions or other characters are described.

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Jingbei’s group narrowly escapes using a weakened Teleportation Talisman, but its shield collapses under a mysterious golden-lit figure’s attack. They land safely, though exhausted and injured.
• The newcomer, whose face resembles the River Lord’s, heals them with exceptionally pure vital energy and asks about their failed investigation into the Creation Daoist’s plans.
• Zhang Jingbei recounts how the group’s journey to Huainan spiraled from helping refugees into a series of confrontations. Their actions drew the attention of Creation Dao forces, including a powerful Venerable’s envoy, who manipulated and pursued them.
• Langhao suspects the envoy deliberately used them as bait to discover who was behind them. The newcomer, Chen Cuo, says their ordeal gives him an opening to set events in motion.
• Chen Cuo breaks the Fate-Locking Fortune-Draining Needle. Elsewhere, a white-haired Creation Daoist senses its destruction and believes “Chen Fangqing” has fallen into their trap, making him a target for capture and the draining of his fortune and lifespan.
• Disguised as Nie Zhengrong, Chen Cuo visits seven imprisoned Daoists. He claims to be a hidden ally and says he has come to show them a way to escape.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Jingbei admits the escape talisman was nearly spent and gives a candid account of the party’s setbacks, showing guilt over their failure.
• Langhao remains wary and perceptive, recognizing that the Creation Daoist’s pursuit may have been a calculated attempt to expose their allies.
• Chen Cuo proves to be a strategic operator: he heals the group, turns their misfortune into an opportunity, and continues working under an assumed identity. He plans to use the Golden Lotus Incarnation to reach Chen Fangtai and further his Dao Thought.
• The white-haired enemy mistakes Chen Cuo’s actions for a successful trap and prepares to exploit them, unaware that Chen Cuo is pursuing his own plan.
• The imprisoned Daoists trust “Nie Zhengrong” enough to hear his proposal, though their leader questions whether his frequent visits risk exposing his identity.

Significant themes

• Deception and misdirection: Both sides believe they are setting traps, while Chen Cuo conceals his true identity and intentions.
• Cause and consequence: A well-meant act of charity triggers escalating conflicts that compromise the investigation.
• Turning defeat into opportunity: Chen Cuo reframes the group’s losses as an opening for a larger strategy.
• Fortune, lifespan, and fate: The broken needle and the enemy’s plan to drain fortune and lifespan underscore the chapter’s supernatural stakes.

Chapter summary

• Plot and events: The narrator says they have nearly finished sorting things out and plan to resume regular updates the next day. They also promise to post a bonus later.
• Character development: The narrator presents themself as ready to return to their usual routine after taking time off.
• Themes: A brief pause before returning to normal, routine, and the anticipation of additional content.
• Character interactions: No other characters or interactions are mentioned.

Plot points

• Chen Cuo reveals a Teleportation Talisman and offers to help seven imprisoned Daoists escape. When they ask what he wants, he claims he hopes to restore the declining Witch Poison Dao.
• The leader, Su Ding of the Crow Mountain Sect, says he will support Chen Cuo and mentions that an elder of the Heaven and Earth Sect is in Huainan. Chen Cuo agrees to help the group escape at the third watch, during a guard shift.
• Chen Cuo spreads a gray-mist projection through the ship, altering the apparent surroundings and preparing his move.
• At the appointed hour, he creates chaos with a Myriad Manifestation projection. The Daoists suspect he has an ulterior motive and debate whether they can use his scheme, but realize their sealed cultivation leaves them little choice.
• A figure posing as Nie Zhengrong bursts into the cabin, claiming his cover has been exposed and that he must flee with them. Then the real Chen Cuo appears, revealing the deception.
• The impostor activates the Teleportation Talisman. Chen Cuo counters with an Illusory Realm, but a strange bead releases poisonous shadows that briefly holds the illusion at bay. The golden light escapes, leaving onlookers stunned by the apparent clash between Chen Cuo and the fleeing figure.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains composed and calculating, using his false identity to draw out information and stage an escape. His real objective is to learn the Creation Dao’s methods for influencing dynasties, not simply to help the Witch Poison Dao.
• Su Ding is cautious and perceptive: he recognizes that Chen Cuo likely has a hidden agenda, yet accepts that the prisoners have few options. He offers help in exchange for their return to Huainan.
• The seven Daoists distrust Chen Cuo despite his assurances. They discuss turning his plan to their advantage, but their sealed cultivation and dependence on the talisman constrain them.
• Gao Maode and the ship’s occupants witness the supernatural confrontation and mistake the escaping figure’s power for a match against Chen Fangqing.

Significant themes

• Deception and competing identities: Chen Cuo manipulates events through disguise and projection, while the apparent rescue conceals a larger contest.
• Trust under pressure: The Daoists recognize the danger in relying on Chen Cuo but have little choice.
• Power and uncertainty: The sudden escape and brief clash leave observers unsure who intervened or how the forces compare.

Key plot points and events

• A supernatural battle erupts aboard a ship, terrifying Prince Gao Jie as he witnesses cultivators wielding forces beyond mortal control. Gao Maode warns him that political power and posthumous justice cannot protect people from a cultivator willing to kill.
• Chen Cuo appears and abruptly makes the battle, its combatants, and the surrounding storm vanish. He orders the ship turned toward Ye City, the Qi capital, rather than Huainan, leaving its passengers unnerved by his power.
• Elsewhere, Chen Cuo—still disguised as Nie Zhengrong—has rescued seven Daoists from Chen Fangqing. They are astonished that he can conjure the Ten Thousand Poisons Pearl, whose visions briefly ensnare them.
• Su Ding recognizes Chen Cuo’s mastery of the Thickening Song Formula and concludes that he is nearing Longevity. The Daoists explain that Chen Fangqing has also attained Longevity and is now a threat on the level of their elders.
• Chen Cuo learns that the Jade Void Eight Gates have long suppressed the Sacred Church, weakening its succession of promising disciples. The Daoists praise him as a potential champion, but he remains focused on escaping Chen Fangqing’s reach.
• A talisman suddenly appears, carrying a plea for help from disciples of the Lihuan Dao.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Jie moves from abstract awareness of cultivators’ power to firsthand terror, and accepts Gao Maode’s warning.
• Gao Maode acts as a candid guide, explaining the limits of worldly authority and urging caution.
• Chen Cuo displays overwhelming control, conceals his identity, and uses the Daoists’ admiration to learn about Chen Fangqing and the conflict between their sects. He is not swayed by their flattery.
• Su Ding and the other Daoists shift from shock at their rescue to admiration and hope, viewing Chen Cuo as a rare talent who might resist the Jade Void sects. Their praise contrasts with his guarded practicality.

Significant themes

• The limits of political power: Rank and law offer little protection against extraordinary cultivators.
• Power and terror: Chen Cuo’s ability to erase a battle is as frightening as the violence it replaces.
• Sect rivalry and suppression: The Jade Void’s dominance has weakened rival traditions over generations.
• Reputation versus reality: Chen Fangqing’s status has risen dramatically, while Chen Cuo’s disguised identity lets him hear others discuss him without their knowledge.

Plot points

• Overseas Daoist Chu Zhengdao, wielding a Thunder Banner, ambushes a group of Creation Dao cultivators traveling toward Huainan. He easily defeats them and mocks the Central Plains’ declining cultivation traditions.
• Hu Qiu, badly weakened after years in Chen Cuo’s custody, tries to save himself by directing Chu toward Chen Fangqing, a promising Taihua cultivator who has supposedly reached the path to Longevity.
• Chu recognizes Hu Qiu’s attempt to use him as a weapon, strikes him, and demands to know whether the Creation Dao has any genuine talent. Guan Yu names Nie Zhengrong of the Witch Poison Dao, claiming he rivals Chen Fangqing.
• Chu demands to know where Nie Zhengrong is, but neither Guan Yu nor Hu Qiu has seen him in years.
• In a forest, Chen Cuo, Su Ding, and their companions observe the encounter through a Mystic Method mirror. They realize Chu is likely targeting the Immortal Sects and consider retreating.
• Chen Cuo warns that Chu has already noticed them. Chu confirms he allowed the captives to call for help as bait, then turns his attention toward the hidden group.

Character developments and interactions

• Chu Zhengdao is introduced as a boastful, exceptionally powerful Overseas cultivator eager to prove himself by defeating a renowned Central Plains talent. He is cruel to weaker opponents but perceptive enough to see through Hu Qiu’s scheme.
• Hu Qiu remains fearful and opportunistic, attempting to redirect Chu toward Chen Fangqing, then backing away when Guan Yu speaks up.
• Guan Yu shows more defiance, insisting the Sacred Church has worthy figures despite its suppression by the Immortal Sects. Her claim about Nie Zhengrong attracts Chu’s interest but also exposes the uncertainty surrounding him.
• Chen Cuo is cautious and observant, but his group’s attempt to watch from hiding fails. Chu’s trap shifts the danger directly onto them.

Significant themes

• Power and decline: Chu’s overwhelming strength underscores his belief that Central Plains cultivation has weakened, while the Creation Dao’s helplessness appears to confirm it.
• Pride and reputation: Chu seeks public recognition through a victory over a celebrated opponent; the chapter contrasts this ambition with the Central Plains’ fading prestige.
• Survival and manipulation: Hu Qiu tries to redirect danger, while Chu anticipates such tactics and uses the captives’ call for help to lure out further targets.
• Suppression and hidden potential: Guan Yu argues that the Sacred Church’s talents remain unseen because the Immortal Sects keep them down, raising the possibility that figures like Nie Zhengrong could challenge the accepted order.

Key plot points and events

• Su Ding’s group arrives after receiving the distress signal, but Chen Cuo realizes they came to observe rather than rescue. Chu Zhengdao exposes them with a lightning strike that destroys Su Ding’s spying talisman.
• Chen Cuo refuses to flee. He rebukes Su Ding’s cautious, profit-seeking attitude and argues that cultivation should be grounded in seeking the Dao. He then reveals himself under the name Nie Zhengrong and confronts Chu Zhengdao.
• Chu Zhengdao mocks the decline of the Creation Dao and attacks Chen Cuo with his power to seize and pull opponents toward him. Chen Cuo quietly dispels the force, then rises to meet him, impressing the watching cultivators.
• Chen Cuo identifies Chu Zhengdao as a Qi Refiner. Their confrontation is mirrored in a supernatural chess game played by two elders: Tushan of the Hundred Treasures Dao and a stout elder from the overseas Wa Kingdom.
• The elders discuss the overseas cultivators’ return, the changing Sea Eye, and the Divine Treasury’s arrival, which has ushered in an age of competing factions and political maneuvering.
• The stout elder praises the Witch Poison Dao’s heart-reading and plague arts, while Tushan doubts a young disciple could have accumulated the experience needed to master them. When Chu Zhengdao unleashes a storm of lightning, Chen Cuo absorbs it into his sleeve, startling both elders and deepening their suspicions about his true identity.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo / “Nie Zhengrong” emerges as confident, principled, and far more powerful than his apparent age and sect background suggest. He challenges both Chu Zhengdao and the assumptions of his own companions.
• Su Ding shifts from concern about the danger to suspicion that Chen Cuo’s bearing and abilities do not fit the young Witch Poison Dao disciple he claims to be.
• Chu Zhengdao remains taunting and self-assured, but Chen Cuo’s resistance—and especially his effortless handling of lightning—undermines his expected advantage.
• Guan Yu is relieved to see Chen Cuo and warns him, while the other Creation Dao cultivators watch with wary hope.
• Elder Tushan is defensive of the fragmented Sacred Church and increasingly suspicious of Chen Cuo. The overseas elder is more openly supportive, treating Chen Cuo as a potential standard-bearer for Creation and accusing Tushan of factional jealousy.

Significant themes

• Seeking the Dao versus seeking profit: Chen Cuo condemns cultivators who act only from fear or self-interest.
• Appearance, identity, and hidden power: Chen Cuo’s assumed identity and improbable abilities raise the possibility that he is more than he appears.
• Factional decline and political rivalry: The Sacred Church is fragmented, while rival powers position themselves amid the coming age of contention.
• Cultivation as strategy: The chessboard reflects the larger contest among sects, where individual confrontations carry political and spiritual consequences.

Key plot points and events

• Chu Zhengdao reveals his Qi Refining method: he sacrificed five close relatives to make them thunder deities representing the Five Elements. Their power is sustained by worship, fear, and the cultivation of Five Element clans.
• Chen Cuo sees through the method and its reliance on the thoughts and devotion of ordinary people. When Chu attacks, Chen counters with the Ten Thousand Poisons Pearl and the Thickening Song Formula, which turns imagination and emotional excess into power.
• Chu’s five deities manipulate Chen’s vital energy and blood, but Chen redirects the emotions associated with the Five Elements into the deities themselves, strengthening them—and, unintentionally, Chu.
• Chen then seizes Chu’s sudden joy and turns it into a Heart Plague. The five deities explode, and Chu collapses. Chen similarly overwhelms Chu’s two maids, then absorbs the colorful, lightning-flecked power from Chu’s body into the pearl.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo displays far greater understanding and control than Chu expected. Calm and curious at first, he quickly identifies the workings of Chu’s method and wins by manipulating both its supernatural forces and its emotional foundations.
• Chu Zhengdao begins confident and even approving of Chen’s ability, but his confidence turns to anger and shock when Chen exposes his hidden strength and defeats him.
• Hu Qiu and Guan Yu recognize Chen’s growing power; Hu Qiu is astonished at how much he has improved, while Guan Yu watches with admiration.
• Old Man Tushan and Elder Fuying debate whether blood-sacrifice spirit-making can count as an orthodox path. Fuying argues that the value of a method depends on whether it leads to the Dao, while Tushan views Chu’s practice with skepticism.

Significant themes

• Power through belief and emotion: Chu’s cultivation depends on shaping people’s fears and worship, while Chen turns thoughts and feelings into weapons.
• Abundance and excess: Chen’s formula uses fullness to compensate for lack, but the chapter also shows that excess can become destructive—especially when joy turns into poison.
• Orthodoxy and moral ambiguity: The debate over blood sacrifice questions whether a tradition’s legitimacy rests on its methods or its results.
• Appearance versus reality: Chu’s impressive display conceals a system Chen recognizes as hollow and vulnerable to manipulation.

Plot points and events

• Chen Cuo defeats Chu Zhengdao with overwhelming ease. He exposes the contradictions in Chu’s claim to orthodoxy: Chu’s sect uses blood sacrifice and popular worship to create Yin Deities, yet condemns other traditions. Chen argues that Chu’s self-righteousness has made him unable to recognize his own wickedness.
• A Heart Plague overwhelms Chu, disrupting his thoughts and causing his power to run wild. Chen suppresses the surging energy and examines the five lightning-bearing figures formed from the Ten Thousand Poisons Pearl.
• Chen notices unfamiliar Dynastic Purple Qi and suspects Chu’s methods combine Qi Refinement, Incense worship, and the fortune of an Outer Regions dynasty.
• Witnesses are stunned by the speed of Chu’s defeat. At the same time, Fuying and Old Man Tushan interpret the clash between their disciples as a contest mirrored by their chess game. Fuying concedes, disperses the chessboard, and leaves.
• Old Man Tushan privately admits he knows little about Nie Zhengrong’s origins, despite publicly claiming the Creation Dao raised him. He resolves to investigate Nie and considers using Su Ding and an incident in Huainan to test him.
• After leaving, Fuying discovers that the hidden contest cost him lifespan and Fortune. He tells his followers to continue their planned move against the Immortal Sect, arguing that retreat would squander their momentum. He also learns of a possible new complication: an Underworld Constable has entered the Mortal Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo reveals formidable strength, sharp insight, and a willingness to probe unfamiliar techniques rather than dismiss them. His verbal attack on Chu targets the gap between Chu’s claimed morality and his actual conduct.
• Chu Zhengdao shifts from arrogant certainty to helpless confusion as his Heart Plague takes hold. His insistence that he represents true orthodoxy underscores his self-deception.
• Old Man Tushan is surprised by Nie Zhengrong’s power and uncertain background. Though he bluffs to save face, he decides to investigate further and sees an opportunity to use the situation to his advantage.
• Fuying accepts the defeat publicly but suffers a serious hidden cost. He remains pragmatic and presses ahead with his larger plan despite the setback.
• Su Ding and the other onlookers go from confidence or fear to shock at Chen’s display. Fuying’s two followers report on their preparations and receive orders to proceed.

Significant themes

• Self-deception and hypocrisy: Chu’s belief in his own righteousness cannot erase the wickedness behind his methods.
• Power and its hidden costs: Chen’s victory is decisive, but the parallel chess contest reveals that spiritual clashes can also consume lifespan and Fortune.
• Orthodoxy and innovation: The chapter questions who gets to define tradition, especially when supposedly orthodox groups borrow from or adapt other paths.
• Uncertainty and political maneuvering: Nie Zhengrong’s emergence and the Underworld Constable’s arrival create unknowns that rival factions must assess and exploit.

Plot points and events

• Chen Cuo, traveling in his Golden Lotus Incarnation, approaches Huaiyin City with Zhang Jingbei and Langhao. The city is strategically important amid the fighting between Chen and Qi, and Chen hopes the turbulent region will help him fulfill his Dao Thought.
• Zhang and Langhao explain that Chen forces hold the lands south of the Huai River, while the northern campaign remains contested. Their conversation about whether political unity or fragmentation is more natural also highlights the contrast between Zhang’s faith in the Han Dynasty’s mandate and Langhao’s long view of history.
• Chen asks about the white-haired Creation Dao cultivator who pursued them. Zhang and Langhao recount how they first met him near Guangling, then fled south and doubled back north. Chen realizes the pursuer spared them as bait, intending to draw out the person behind them.
• The White-Haired Man appears and recognizes Chen Fangqing. He identifies Chen’s Buddhist path and warns that Chen’s Buddhist cultivation and imperial ties entangle him in competing causes and obligations.
• Chen sees through the pursuer’s technique: his words manipulate the mind and connect a target’s inner world to the outside world. The White-Haired Man then inhales, drawing a speck of golden light from Chen, accompanied by Buddhist chants. His reaction suggests the result surprises him.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains composed and perceptive, quickly inferring both the pursuer’s motive and the mechanism of his ability. His incarnation is convincing enough to pass as his true body.
• Zhang Jingbei is spirited and idealistic, defending the belief that the world naturally tends toward unity under the Han legacy. Despite his weakened vitality, he chooses to accompany Chen.
• Langhao is skeptical and pragmatic, arguing that kingdoms rise and fall and that ordinary people often forget past dynasties. His experience contrasts with Zhang’s historical idealism.
• The White-Haired Man reveals himself as a calculating opponent who uses conversation as a weapon and has been manipulating events to expose Chen. His confidence falters when his attack produces an unexpected result.
• The exchange among Chen, Zhang, and Langhao shifts from political debate to urgent investigation, then ends in a sudden confrontation.

Significant themes

• Unity and historical memory: Zhang and Langhao disagree over whether political unity is history’s natural order or merely an exception; their debate also raises the gap between elite historical memory and ordinary people’s concerns.
• Words as power: The White-Haired Man’s speech is not just persuasion but a supernatural attack, making dialogue itself a battlefield.
• Cause and effect: Chen’s Buddhist cultivation and imperial identity place him amid overlapping spiritual and political consequences.
• Instability and opportunity: Huainan’s military turmoil draws people from many traditions and offers Chen a chance to advance his spiritual aims, while also making it a dangerous place.

Plot points

• Ziyuanzi, the white-haired cultivator who previously attacked Zhang Jingbei and Langhao, confronts Chen Cuo and uses an innate ability that drains lifespan and vital essence.
• Chen Cuo’s defense releases golden Buddha Light instead of blood. After testing the ability again, Ziyuanzi realizes Chen Cuo was prepared and acknowledges his strength. He leaves, inviting Chen Cuo to discuss the Dao in Huainan.
• Chen Cuo explains that he came to clarify his own understanding of the Dao, not to defeat Ziyuanzi. He reassures Zhang Jingbei and Langhao that he will seek a way to restore the lifespan they lost.
• On entering Huaiyin City, Chen Cuo senses the overwhelming influence of the Chen Dynasty’s Fortune. He taps the air, sending invisible ripples across Huainan that reveal the presence of many powerful factions and figures.
• The disturbance awakens or alerts several forces: a horned, double-pupiled stranger in the city; a Daoist who answers a call from a “Fortune and Virtue Leader”; a waiting monk; and Underworld officials who intend to question Chen Cuo for entering the region without authorization.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo demonstrates confidence and restraint: he can withstand Ziyuanzi’s attack, but prioritizes seeking the Dao over proving his superiority. He also begins using his Imperial Clan connection to the Dynasty’s Fortune.
• Ziyuanzi shifts from hostility to respect after recognizing Chen Cuo’s unusual defense and ability. He departs on courteous terms, though he expects a future meeting.
• Zhang Jingbei and Langhao remain amazed by Chen Cuo and interpret his composure as evidence of extraordinary wisdom. They follow his lead despite not understanding how he turned the confrontation around.
• The newly revealed observers and factions show that Chen Cuo’s arrival has drawn attention across Huainan, setting up further encounters.

Significant themes

• Seeking truth over victory: Chen Cuo treats combat as secondary to understanding the Dao.
• Power and perception: His apparent calm conceals a carefully constructed incarnation and potent defenses.
• Dynastic Fortune: The Chen Kingdom’s political momentum is portrayed as a force that can overwhelm even powerful Spellcraft.
• A gathering storm: The ripples expose competing interests—military, spiritual, imperial, and Underworld—converging around the coming Dynastic Contest.

Key events

• Chen Cuo, Zhang Jingbei, and Langhao walk through Huaiyin, where many martial artists have gathered after a Southern Dynasty general marched north. Chen Cuo suspects their presence reflects a popular, grassroots response to the conflict.
• Servants at the former general’s residence think they recognize Chen Cuo as Chen Fangtai’s younger brother. Chen Fangtai publicly dismisses the report but privately confirms to Daoist Master Jing Huannian that Chen Cuo has arrived.
• Jing Huannian and Chen Fangtai discuss how to handle the meeting, agreeing to keep the conversation focused on mortal affairs. Jing then asks his fellow disciple Ziyuanzi to restrain Chen Cuo if he interferes with the Grand Formation.
• Jing Huannian believes his arrangements, allies, and political support make his plan secure.
• Meanwhile, Chen Cuo settles into an inn to listen to the crowd rather than immediately visit the prince. He says they are waiting for guests. A blue-clad man appears, the room abruptly falls silent, and two figures—one black and one white—enter.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains deliberate and observant, choosing patience over rushing into a confrontation.
• Zhang Jingbei is puzzled by Chen Cuo’s calm and presses him to visit the prince; Langhao shows greater knowledge of the martial world and tries to guide Zhang’s reactions.
• Chen Fangtai conceals his awareness of Chen Cuo’s arrival from the servants, then privately anticipates a meeting and wonders what Chen Cuo learned in the Immortal Sect.
• Jing Huannian is confident and calculating, coordinating with Chen Fangtai and arranging for Ziyuanzi to block Chen Cuo if necessary.
• The servants recognize Chen Cuo but obey their understanding that only the prince can decide whether he is truly his brother.

Significant themes

• Patience and timing: Chen Cuo waits for the right moment and the right people rather than acting impulsively.
• Appearances and concealed intentions: Chen Fangtai denies what he knows, while Jing Huannian’s outward confidence masks preparations for possible resistance.
• Power and political legitimacy: Martial artists, soldiers, rulers, and religious figures all gather around the unfolding conflict.
• Uncertainty and judgment: The chapter’s title points toward the need to wait before distinguishing friend from foe—or truth from appearance.

Plot and events

• At an inn in Huaiyin, Ox-Head and Horse-Face arrive as Underworld Envoys. Their presence freezes nearly everyone, turns the scene black and white, and surrounds people with mysterious writing that appears to reveal their lives—and perhaps their approaching deaths.
• The Envoys confront Chen Cuo, accusing him of meddling in mortal affairs after he seized two members of the Qi Kingdom’s Imperial Clan. A scroll shows his earlier intervention against the Crow Mountain Sect and the imperial relatives.
• Chen reasons that the Envoys’ unusually direct response suggests his actions matter not merely as an isolated offense, but because he is a cultivator of the Chen Kingdom’s Imperial Clan and has come to politically pivotal Huainan.
• He challenges the Underworld Office’s fairness, pointing to the Northern Fortune-Suppressing Formation, which trapped countless Remnant Souls without intervention. A blue-robed observer, apparently of the Eastern Sea Dragon Clan, also questions the Office’s conduct.
• Horse-Face attacks with a Judge’s Brush and Handbook. A supernatural decree declares that Chen, once destined to share his dynasty’s fate, improperly used divine powers to disrupt its fortune; it sentences him to lose fifty years of Dao Attainment.
• The judgment’s binding threads pass through Chen’s Golden Lotus Incarnation and use its connection to reach his true body. Elsewhere, his true-body identity, “Nie Zhengrong,” notices the development and reacts with satisfaction.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains calm and analytical under pressure. He studies the life-revealing script, infers the political stakes behind the accusation, and boldly confronts the Envoys over their apparent double standard.
• Ox-Head and Horse-Face act with absolute authority, but Chen’s criticism exposes a possible inconsistency in the Underworld Office’s enforcement. Horse-Face ultimately bypasses debate and imposes judgment.
• The blue-robed man is the only other person able to move freely. He watches events, identifies the visitors as Underworld Envoys, and openly voices doubts about their fairness.
• Zhang Jingbei, Langhao, and the inn’s other guests are immobilized and caught in the black-and-white phenomenon. They witness the confrontation and the decree, while Zhang recognizes a resemblance between the Envoys and figures associated with the Meng brothers.

Significant themes

• Justice and hypocrisy: Chen questions why the Underworld Office targets him while seemingly ignoring a larger catastrophe involving trapped souls.
• Fate, life, and death: The strange writing and black-and-white vision suggest the Underworld’s power to record lives, perceive mortality, and impose consequences.
• Dynastic duty versus cultivation: Chen’s imperial birth is used to argue that he should have remained bound to his kingdom’s fortunes, even after joining the immortals.
• Power and political influence: The severity of the response implies that Chen’s actions are dangerous because of their potential effect on the balance of dynasties, not simply because of their immediate harm.

Plot points and events

• Horse-Face, an envoy of the Underworld Office, attacks Chen Cuo’s true body while it is disguised as Nie Zhengrong. His life-and-death power freezes and chills the surrounding cultivators, forcing Chen Cuo to push his companions out of danger.
• Chen Cuo counters by using the Ten Thousand Poisons Pearl to absorb the black-and-white qi. Su Ding and the others recognize that he is refining the terror and suffering of people caught between life and death into Mind Poison.
• Horse-Face escalates the attack. Through his Judge’s Brush, he draws on the lives of people across Huaiyin City and sends their accumulated experiences and emotions—formed into halos—toward Chen Cuo. These would bind him with other people’s Cause and Effect and obligations, threatening his virtue and Dao Heart.
• Chen Cuo lets the attack reach him, but tries to absorb the halos with his pearl. Horse-Face gathers even more lives into the assault, overwhelming and shattering the pearl.
• The Creation Gate followers fear Chen Cuo has been defeated, and Hu Qiu tries to flee. Chen Cuo remains composed and summons two more Ten Thousand Poisons Pearls, preparing to continue the fight.
• Elsewhere, Ziyuanzi concludes that the attack is aimed at Chen Fangqing’s incarnation and predicts it will be driven from Huaiyin. Jing Huannian is relieved, believing this will protect his plans concerning Chen Fangtai.
• A Buddhist monk and Daoist arrive at the city. They debate the Underworld Office’s power and the suffering it imposes on ordinary people, then witness the attack’s immense force.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo shows calm and ingenuity under pressure, turning an attack into an opportunity to refine his abilities. Even after his pearl breaks, he refuses to panic and prepares to fight on.
• Horse-Face proves to be a dangerous, strategic opponent: rather than merely injuring Chen Cuo, he tries to burden him with countless entanglements and future obligations.
• Su Ding, Hu Qiu, and the other followers move from alarm to admiration, then back to fear when the pearl shatters. Their reactions highlight how far Chen Cuo’s methods exceed their expectations.
• Ziyuanzi and Jing Huannian discuss how Chen Fangqing’s presence threatens Jing’s plans. Ziyuanzi’s prediction leaves Jing hopeful but also reveals that Ziyuanzi expects a larger confrontation when Chen Fangqing’s true body arrives.
• The monk and Daoist offer contrasting perspectives: the monk frames calamity as a trial and emphasizes mutual deliverance, while the Daoist rejects Buddhist ambition and focuses on confronting the crisis.

Significant themes

• Life, death, and collective suffering: Horse-Face weaponizes the experiences and emotions of an entire city, showing how individual lives can combine into overwhelming power.
• Cause and Effect, vows, and moral burden: The halos threaten to saddle Chen Cuo with promises made on behalf of others, illustrating the spiritual consequences of obligations and broken oaths.
• Ingenuity against overwhelming force: Chen Cuo responds to danger by adapting and refining his powers, though the destruction of his pearl shows that even cleverness has limits.
• The vulnerability of ordinary people: The city’s residents become instruments in a supernatural conflict, prompting debate over who—if anyone—has the power to protect them.

Plot points and events

• Chen Cuo uses two Ten Thousand Poisons Pearls to absorb the Judge’s Brush’s halos—the Light of All Beings, each formed from human lives, memories, and fate. He refines them into a powerful multicolored halo, wresting the halos from Horse-Face’s control.
• A golden book appears above Chen Cuo, releasing a savage ape Dharma Form. The ape tries to escape, but Chen Cuo binds it with a headband forged from the halo.
• Horse-Face summons the Netherworld Gate and attacks the ape with yin lightning, which begins to dissolve its body. Chen Cuo strengthens it with his own blood, infused with Myriad Manifestation Thought and the Mind Daoist’s “thought of rebellion.” The opposing yin and yang stabilize the ape and its headband.
• On Chen Cuo’s command, the ape attacks the gate. A Bronze Man supplies weapons to cut through the lightning, allowing the ape to strike the gate open and slip into the Netherworld. The collision shakes Huaiyin City and unleashes a savage aura.
• Ox-Head and Horse-Face are injured. Horse-Face condemns Chen Cuo for damaging a Dao treasure; Chen Cuo retorts that he was merely resisting their attempt to bully him. He then opens space and brings the ape back out to attack Horse-Face.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo displays increasingly formidable control over poison, fate, thought, and space. Rather than merely restraining the Mind Monkey as before, he forges a real headband from the accumulated experiences and emotions of the mortal world. He also turns the ape’s rebellious nature into a weapon against the Netherworld.
• The savage ape gains a stabilized body and headband but remains fiercely rebellious. It obeys Chen Cuo’s command to attack the Netherworld Gate, then reappears ready to strike Horse-Face.
• Horse-Face loses control of the halos, attacks with the Netherworld Gate, and suffers the consequences when the ape damages it. He sees Chen Cuo’s actions as a serious offense.
• Su Ding, Hu Qiu, and the other observers are repeatedly overwhelmed by the Mind Poison, the halo’s power, and the clash at the gate. They struggle to comprehend Chen Cuo’s abilities and fear the impact of the confrontation.
• Ziyuanzi, the monk, and the Daoist sense the disturbance and rush toward it, signaling that the conflict is drawing wider attention. Ox-Head and Horse-Face’s injury underscores how dangerous the confrontation has become.

Significant themes

• Human experience as power: The halos embody lives, memories, and human thought; Chen Cuo turns this collective fate into a force of his own.
• Rebellion and restraint: The headband embodies an effort to contain the ape, while its “thought of rebellion” becomes essential to its strength. Control and defiance are intertwined.
• Yin and yang: The ape’s body is stabilized through the balance of Chen Cuo’s Yang-rich blood and the Netherworld’s yin lightning.
• Power and hypocrisy: Chen Cuo mocks Horse-Face for targeting him rather than a more powerful opponent, presenting his own resistance as a response to bullying.

Plot points and events

• Horse-Face invokes the Underworld Office’s authority, sentencing Chen Cuo to lose fifty years of Dao Attainment. His Judge’s Brush and Handbook amplify a black-and-white Life-and-Death force that threatens Chen and his raging ape.
• The ape uses the Headband to absorb that force, weakening Horse-Face. Chen then reveals several powerful manifestations—including a purple Emperor Star, the Bronze Man, a Five-Zhu Coin, and the Commentary on the Nine Songs—and breaks the Life-and-Death Yin-Yang Formation. The inn is wrecked, and the people trapped inside are freed.
• Ox-Head and Horse-Face try to escape through a portal, but Chen blocks it with the Song of the Sacrifice to the Gods. Horse-Face attacks again; the purple star disperses his binding force and blasts him back.
• The ape merges with the Bronze Man, becoming a three-headed, six-armed bronze warrior. It shrinks, moves at extreme speed, and snaps both the Judge’s Brush and the Book of Fate, leaving Horse-Face enraged and exposed in his true form.
• Ox-Head uses the White Banner to retreat with Horse-Face. Chen turns the attempted escape against them, trading a Mysterious Pearl for the banner and pulling them back. The pearl explodes in white flame and engulfs them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo shifts from defending himself to decisively overpowering the Underworld officials. He condemns their bullying and refuses to let them dictate the terms of the encounter.
• Horse-Face grows increasingly furious as his authority and weapons fail; he is ultimately forced into his true form after the ape destroys his tools.
• Ox-Head is more cautious, recognizing the danger and repeatedly trying to withdraw, but Chen prevents his escape.
• The raging ape proves central to the fight: it absorbs the Underworld’s force, combines with the Bronze Man, and destroys the officials’ instruments.
• The Monk and Daoist witness the upheaval from outside. The Daoist realizes they had underestimated Chen, while the Monk identifies the purple star as the Emperor Star.

Significant themes

• Resistance to unjust authority: Chen rejects the Underworld Office’s claims of power and challenges its agents directly.
• Power and fate: The officials try to impose a predetermined sentence, but Chen’s abilities overturn their decree and apparent control over life, death, and destiny.
• Consequences of arrogance: Horse-Face and Ox-Head arrive expecting easy submission; their contempt and overconfidence leave them vulnerable.
• Changing fortunes: The encounter repeatedly reverses—attack becomes defense, escape becomes capture, and the officials’ authority collapses as their tools are destroyed.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cuo defeats the Underworld Envoys Ox-Head and Horse-Face. When they threaten to implicate his master and sect, he rejects their authority and burns them away with silent white flames. Their bodies vanish, though their True Spirits return to the Netherworld.
• The flames leave behind two clusters of Fortune-Longevity Fire, which contain lifespan, virtue, and fortune. Chen Cuo collects them, anticipating further conflict with the Underworld Office.
• Daoist Duan Changjiu and Monk Fadeng introduce themselves. They explain the fire’s value and discuss Chen Cuo’s extraordinary abilities, while the monk openly hopes to draw him toward Buddhism and the Daoist warns him off.
• Chen Cuo combines the fire with his incarnation and other powers to form a new ability, Black-and-White World. He uses it to restore the ruined inn and send the frightened spectators outside.
• Watching from a distance, Ziyuanzi reassesses Chen Cuo’s strength and considers seeking allies.
• A Green-Robed Man, apparently from the Eastern Sea’s dragon race, challenges Chen Cuo. Chen Cuo recognizes the man’s surname as Ao and alludes to having nearly killed another Ao in the past. Before the challenger can press his case, Chen Cuo strengthens his incarnation with a mysterious pearl and turns his attention to a bloody glow over the General’s Residence.
• In the Netherworld, a white-haired woman notes that Chen Fangqing’s recorded fate says he should lose a battle and die in roughly a dozen years. His actions may be disrupting the larger order of fate. Nearby, three Divine Dragons are fighting.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo shows increasing confidence and resolve: he refuses to be intimidated by the Underworld Envoys, prepares for retaliation, and treats the new challenger as a distraction from more urgent business. His power and resources expand with the new fire-based ability.
• Ox-Head and Horse-Face try to restrain him through threats against his master and sect, but are destroyed.
• Duan Changjiu and Fadeng recognize Chen Cuo as a major figure and immediately compete—politely but pointedly—to claim his spiritual or sectarian affinity.
• The Green-Robed Man arrives seeking a contest, but Chen Cuo’s display of power makes him more cautious.
• Ziyuanzi shifts from underestimating Chen Cuo to worrying that he may be too powerful to confront alone.
• The Netherworld woman views Chen Cuo as a threat to the established pattern of fate.

Significant themes

• Defiance of authority: Chen Cuo challenges the Underworld Office’s selective and self-serving use of its power.
• Fate versus agency: His actions appear to contradict a destiny recorded in the Book of Life and Death, raising the possibility that personal choices can destabilize cosmic order.
• Power and consequence: Destroying the envoys wins Chen Cuo a valuable resource but may provoke further retaliation and wider disruption.
• Competition for influence: Buddhist, Daoist, political, and supernatural forces all seek to understand, recruit, or oppose Chen Cuo.

Key plot points and events

• After resolving the Underworld Office matter, Chen Cuo leaves the General’s Residence. Ziyuanzi tries to justify the Sacred Church’s work as being in service of Great Chen, but Chen Cuo remains uneasy.
• Jing Huannian returns to Chen Fangtai with a cup of blood-red wine, claiming it is the essence of a sacrificial formation. Drinking it, he says, will win popular support, strengthen Chen Fangtai’s fortune, and help him attain immortality.
• Though Jing admits the timing is premature, he urges Chen Fangtai to drink because Chen Cuo’s arrival may bring complications. Chen Fangtai is captivated by the wine and nearly drinks it.
• Chen Cuo arrives in time to warn him. He explains that the wine could corrupt Chen Fangtai’s mind and turn him into a puppet. The disturbance in the city and the blood beneath the residence suggest that someone is exploiting Chen Fangtai’s fortune for cultivation.
• Chen Cuo argues that Huainan’s long history of war makes it a concentrated reflection of the wider struggle between Qi and Chen—and a prize for factions seeking to influence the realm’s future.
• Jing Huannian defends the Sacred Church’s involvement as an effort to restore its influence by backing Chen and establishing a legitimate ruler. Chen Cuo challenges his claim to speak for the people and demands to know what the various religious factions stand to gain from unifying the realm.
• A Buddhist voice interrupts, saying that supporting a ruler establishes legitimacy and creates an opportunity for Buddhist teaching to spread.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo acts decisively to protect Chen Fangtai, while questioning the motives of the factions around him. He is wary of Jing Huannian and refuses to accept appeals to loyalty or religious ideals without scrutiny.
• Chen Fangtai is shown as handsome, entitled, and accustomed to privilege. His greed for immortality makes him vulnerable to Jing’s influence, but Chen Cuo’s warning briefly restores his clarity and raises his suspicions.
• Jing Huannian presents himself as a loyal supporter of Chen, yet his eagerness for Chen Fangtai to drink the wine—and his apparent plan to draw upon the prince’s fortune—casts doubt on his true intentions.
• Ziyuanzi has failed to stop Chen Cuo and is absent from the later confrontation. Chen Cuo’s account makes clear that the Sacred Church’s and other factions’ interests may not align with the rulers they claim to support.
• The brothers’ reunion is tense rather than affectionate: Chen Fangtai resents Chen Cuo’s lack of deference, while Chen Cuo speaks plainly and challenges both his judgment and the religious advisers manipulating him.

Significant themes

• Political power and religious ambition: Religious factions claim to support the state, but Chen Cuo questions whether they primarily seek influence, legitimacy, and access to power.
• Greed and manipulation: Chen Fangtai’s desire for immortality makes him susceptible to a dangerous scheme.
• War as both calamity and opportunity: Conflict devastates ordinary people and dynasties, yet also creates openings for ambitious rulers and factions.
• Legitimacy and the people: The chapter challenges the assumption that rulers or religious groups can claim to act for the people without their consent.
• Family versus political hierarchy: Chen Fangtai invokes brotherly seniority to assert authority, while Chen Cuo refuses to let familial rank silence his warning.

Plot points and events

• Chen Cuo welcomes a gathering of major factions—Buddhist, Immortal, Creation Dao, and Underworld—at the General’s Residence and asks what the coming “Eighty-One Years” and the chance to glimpse the Dao actually mean.
• Monk Fadeng explains that the factions are maneuvering for a unified dynasty because the period is tied to the Calamity of the Supreme Clarity, which began in Huai-Si. The Eastern Isles lineage sees it as a rare chance to return to the Central Lands and claim religious orthodoxy.
• In an inn, the Green-Robed Man reports to Elder Fuying. Fuying says the Eastern Isles have already entangled their Fortune with the Central Lands and must win, even at the cost of the leaders’ lives. He plans to let future generations blame the failed venture on those leaders.
• Fuying forbids an immediate attack on Chen Fangqing, since it would expose their intentions and involve them in the conflict. He also reveals that the Creation Demon Path has contacted a Chen Kingdom prince and is pursuing the region’s Fortune.
• The Green-Robed Man learns that Huainan matters not only as contested territory but because Hou Jing once rebelled there. The factions may still be searching for remnants of Hou Jing’s attempt to remake the Three Realms, including Divine Ability Seeds.
• A mysterious figure, connected to Fuying through strands of smoke, discusses the scattered Seeds and orders someone to retrieve an object from the General’s Residence.
• Duan Changjiu explains that remnants of Hou Jing’s formation remain in Huainan and that he has been tasked with containing them. Before the discussion can continue, a blue-robed man descends and attacks—first seeming to reach for Chen Fangtai, but then redirecting toward the residence’s plaque. Jing Huannian suspects he is after the Blood Wine of the Myriad People.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains composed and perceptive, pressing the gathered factions to explain their motives. Chen Fangtai, by contrast, is unsure how to behave around powerful sect figures who are close to his rebellious younger brother.
• Fadeng presents himself humbly while making clear that his school has high stakes in Huainan. Duan Changjiu supplies crucial history about the region and its lingering dangers.
• The Green-Robed Man’s loyalty deepens: after hearing the scale of Fuying’s gamble, he resolves to act decisively, though his master restrains him.
• Fuying is revealed as ruthless and strategic, willing to sacrifice himself and others to secure long-term influence. He and the mysterious figure are linked by an unexplained supernatural connection.
• The chapter closes with the assembled characters suddenly forced into action by the blue-robed intruder.

Significant themes

• Power, Fortune, and history: Competing factions believe control of Huainan and its people can shape the future and determine who becomes the true orthodoxy.
• The cost of ambition: Fuying’s plan treats lives and national reputation as expendable tools.
• Hidden legacies: The Calamity of the Supreme Clarity, Hou Jing’s rebellion, and the scattered Divine Ability Seeds suggest that buried past events continue to shape present conflicts.
• Public welfare versus factional gain: Unification is presented as potentially beneficial to ordinary people, yet the factions chiefly see it as an opportunity for power.

Key plot points and events

• The blue-robed Third Prince tries to seize the plaque above the General’s Residence. Duan Changjiu, Fadeng, and Ziyuanzi attack him, but he absorbs their techniques with an Azure Dragon Shikigami and briefly obscures their vision with mist.
• Chen Cuo reaches the gate first, takes down the plaque, and uses Black-and-White Light to repel the Third Prince and the others.
• The cultivators explain that new rulers replace a city’s residence plaque to inherit the incense and prayer power accumulated under previous regimes, reinforcing their claim to rule.
• The Third Prince warns Chen Cuo that taking the plaque could entangle him in the struggle for the world. Chen Cuo accepts the risk, declaring that he needs the plaque as an opportunity to advance his cultivation.
• Chen Cuo summons his Violet Star, drawing the Dynasty’s Fortune around it, and sends it into the plaque. Inside, he discovers a residence formed from incense power, with countless human figures suppressed beneath it and a shape-shifting warrior at its heart.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo shows confidence and ambition: rather than yield to the Third Prince’s warning, he openly claims the plaque for his own cultivation. His Violet Star also reveals his connection to the dynasty’s Fortune.
• The Third Prince is revealed as an opponent willing to use force, though he frames the contest as a legitimate bid for power in a chaotic age. Chen Cuo challenges him directly.
• Duan Changjiu and Fadeng provide historical context about how plaques change hands and preserve political legitimacy. Ziyuanzi privately wonders whether Chen Cuo is his true self or an incarnation.
• Inside the plaque, Chen Cuo recognizes the shifting warrior as Chen Fangtai, suggesting a hidden connection between the plaque and the Painted Skin.

Significant themes

• Political legitimacy and inherited power: A residence plaque carries the accumulated prayers and incense of past regimes, making it both a spiritual treasure and a symbol of rightful rule.
• Ambition and risk: Chen Cuo knowingly enters the struggle for power to further his cultivation.
• Hidden realities and identity: The plaque contains an entire spiritual world, while its central warrior’s ever-changing face raises questions about identity and the forces concealed within political symbols.