Chapter Summaries

Summary

The chapter is a playful, direct appeal for reader votes rather than a story episode. Shi San cheerfully describes his ideal routine as sleeping in and counting votes until his hands ache, then exaggerates how each gesture—from a wave to a bow or even a full prostration—brings in more votes. He declares that he’ll keep begging for them “to the bitter end,” asks readers to log in and click, and thanks everyone who stops by.

Character and interaction

Shi San (also referred to as Gray Wolf) adopts a comic, shamelessly persistent persona. He speaks directly to readers, using mock humility and increasingly grand images to encourage their support.

Theme

The passage’s main theme is playful audience engagement: it turns the author’s request for votes into a humorous performance of gratitude and persistence.

Summary

The author, Shi San, openly admits that his work contains many typos and repeatedly asks readers to help find them so he can correct them. He promises to proofread more carefully, though he jokes that his constant requests make him a shameless writer. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, he offers a reward: readers who catch typos may receive featured-comment spots the following week.

Character and interaction

Shi San comes across as self-deprecating and appreciative. The passage directly addresses readers, inviting them to help and thanking them in advance.

Themes

The chapter highlights humility, audience participation, and the shared effort of improving a written work.

• Key events: The author announces that the day’s chapter update will be delayed until midnight. After posting earlier chapters quickly, he needs the weekend to catch up with his ideas and revise parts of the story that have drifted off course.
• Character development: No story characters appear; the note presents the author as apologetic and determined to improve the work.
• Themes: The message emphasizes the pressures of new-book rankings, the importance of pacing and revision, and perseverance.
• Interactions: The author apologizes to readers, advises those working the next day to get some rest, and encourages everyone for the coming week.

This passage is an author’s note rather than a story chapter. The author clarifies that the game console mentioned earlier should be understood as a complete set of equipment, including the monitor, controllers, and related devices. The fictional Lower Realm does not exactly match the real world, and these details were omitted earlier for brevity. The note also thanks readers for their support.

The passage promotes Touching Stone into Gold, a rebirth-and-rags-to-riches story. Its unnamed narrator has endured more than twenty years of absurdly bad luck, until a sudden thunderclap brings liberation and a second chance at life.
Newly reborn, the narrator expects making money to be easy and jokes about the corrupt pleasures wealth might offer, then insists he is not that sort of person. Instead, he vows to live freely, fully, and without regrets.
Character development: The narrator shifts from a self-pitying victim of bad luck to an optimistic person determined to make the most of his new life.
Themes: Rebirth, fortune, ambition, and the chance to redefine one’s life. The blurb uses comic exaggeration and mock-brash humor to invite readers into the story.
Character interactions: No other characters or substantive interactions appear in this promotional synopsis.

The chapter is a promotional blurb rather than a story chapter. It introduces a novel about a modern person who finds himself in the prosperous Tang dynasty and hopes to enjoy an easy, indulgent life instead of changing history or seeking power. That plan is complicated when he discovers that his mother is Wu Zetian, the formidable empress. The premise promises comic tension as he tries to survive—and devise “strategies” against—his powerful mother.
Characters: The narrator is a reluctant time-crosser who wants comfort over ambition; Wu Zetian is presented as an intimidating maternal authority.
Themes and interactions: The blurb plays on the clash between personal escapism and a dangerous historical setting, with the mother–son relationship at its center.

This is a promotional note for Heavenly Tribulation Doctor, which Shi San praises as an excellent novel. The synopsis describes ascension’s heavenly tribulations as terrifying even to the most powerful cultivators, and introduces a specialist who helps them survive: the Heavenly Tribulation Doctor. The twist is that this formidable expert is only an “ordinary” doctor running a small clinic. The author’s identity is left teasingly undisclosed.
No characters or relationships develop in this excerpt; its focus is the novel’s intriguing premise and the contrast between the doctor’s reputation and humble workplace.

Key points and events

• The passage introduces A Profusion of Beauties, a work by Ten Years of Lingering Dreams, with a joke that the book is so scandalous its author supposedly wrote it to support an illegitimate child.
• Its synopsis describes a master from a thousand years in the past taking possession of an innocent young man. The two become one, setting the stage for a sweeping adventure.
• The story promises a world of martial arts, secret techniques, unusual innate abilities, revived alchemy, mysterious treasures, and needle-based feats.

Character development and interactions

• No specific events or character arcs are shown. The central pairing is the ancient master and the young man whose body he inhabits.
• The synopsis introduces several women—among them a nurse, a martial-arts heiress, sisters, a mischievous younger sister, and a delicate girl—and suggests they form a collective around the protagonist.

Significant themes

• Possession and the merging of two identities.
• Adventure and extraordinary abilities set against a world rooted in reality.
• Romance, beauty, and an idealized ensemble of female characters.

Summary

Plot and events

• Toad Mountain is a poor, spiritually barren corner of the Immortal Realm. There, Luo Qian runs a tiny trading company from a grand-looking cave residence, though its furnishings and inventory are mostly cheap Mirror Stone and a handful of Mortal Realm electronics.
• Luo Qian’s laptop dies after less than four hours, frustrating him because he has no way to recharge it until he can return to the Mortal Realm.
• His only customer, Ling Xiaose, arrives to collect an adult-entertainment disc and buy more batteries. Luo personally serves him, having built a lucrative business supplying him with discs and electronics smuggled from below.
• The chapter explains the Immortal Realm’s hierarchy of cultivation regions and Immortal Jade currency, as well as increasingly strict restrictions on travel to the Mortal Realm. Unauthorized descents are pursued by the Immortal Apprehension Office, and only the Immortal Emperor’s Golden Jade Order permits travel.

Character developments

• Luo Qian is resourceful, commercially minded, and ambitious. He has earned a substantial fortune from Ling, but his company remains a one-man operation, and his dreams of staff and a glamorous receptionist are still far off. His business depends on a risky illegal supply chain.
• Ling Xiaose is wealthy and well-born but socially awkward and reclusive. Luo’s discs have become a major source of pleasure for him, keeping him isolated and making him a dependable—if embarrassed—customer.

Character interactions

• Luo treats Ling warmly as his most valuable client, while also reminding him that supplying the discs puts Luo at risk of punishment.
• Ling eagerly takes the disc but is self-conscious even though no one else is present, underscoring his shyness and isolation.

Significant themes

• The contrast between the Immortal Realm’s grand reputation and Luo’s shabby surroundings creates humor and grounds the setting in everyday commercial concerns.
• Modern Mortal Realm technology and entertainment have entered the Immortal Realm, while strict regulation turns their trade into a risky enterprise.
• Wealth and status do not guarantee personal fulfillment: Ling has an elite background but remains lonely and withdrawn, while Luo’s business success has yet to match his grand ambitions.

Plot points and events

• The Immortal Apprehension Office’s three powerful enforcement artifacts are explained: the Kun Dragon Whisker warns and weakens unauthorized immortals, the Heaven-Watching Net captures them, and the Twelve Gold-Medal Command Swords serve as a potentially lethal last resort. The chapter also outlines the hierarchy of crafted artifacts, from treasure and imperial artifacts up to immortal, divine, and sacred artifacts.
• Ling Xiaose asks Luo Qian to supply discs for one million standard Immortal Jade, explaining that his father cut his allowance because he has neglected cultivation. Luo Qian agrees to let him pay later, though Ling pays with a high-grade jade worth that amount. He also leaves three batteries to be recharged.
• After Ling leaves, Luo Qian prepares to travel to the mortal realm, but Du Lengning arrives to collect a gaming guide and hard-to-find tournament videos. He pays generously and leaves twenty-five batteries for charging.
• Once both customers have gone, Luo Qian resets the protective array at his cave and uses his mysterious technique to depart for the mortal realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian is shown as a shrewd, humorous merchant who privately mocks his customers’ habits but treats them warmly to keep their business. He is still only a first-rank immortal, despite having lived in the immortal realm for decades.
• Ling Xiaose is a cultivation-neglecting, media-obsessed shut-in who is embarrassed by his limited allowance but unwilling to give up his favorite discs. Luo’s apparent generosity wins his trust, while their exchange reveals his dependence on mortal entertainment and rechargeable batteries.
• Du Lengning, a talented young immortal and young master of Distant Hall, is likewise absorbed in mortal-world entertainment—especially gaming. His casual, teasing friendship with Luo Qian is built on years of business dealings; his large battery order underscores how compulsively he plays.

Significant themes

• Commerce and cunning: Luo Qian turns access to mortal goods into a lucrative business, balancing friendly service with sharp deal-making.
• Immortals’ everyday weaknesses: Despite their power and status, the immortals are vulnerable to obsessions, indulgence, and consumer habits.
• Contrast between worlds: Mortal media and technology have become coveted novelties in the immortal realm, shaping the characters’ routines and relationships.

Plot points and events

• Luo Qian, a weak first-tier Tribulation Immortal, lands in a winter fountain in the Mortal Realm, ruining an expensive outfit. His rare ability to travel there undetected—granted as compensation for his immortal type—has made him a smuggler.
• At an electronics market, he angrily confronts Sister Hanpang over a faulty battery and her no-refunds policy. Before leaving, he secretly casts a simple immortal formation that turns customers away from her shop.
• Knowing the Immortal Apprehension Office could catch him, Luo Qian returns to his sparsely furnished city apartment and charges his batteries.
• Relaxing in a modern recliner inspires a business idea: sell comfortable Mortal Realm furniture, especially massage chairs, to Immortals, whose long meditation sessions leave them with aching backs. His enthusiasm falters when he realizes he cannot easily transport a large chair to the Immortal Realm.

Character development

• Luo Qian is resourceful, commercially minded, and willing to use magic for personal revenge. Though a smuggler and profiteer, he values comfort and takes pride in maintaining a good standard of living.
• His ambition shifts from simply smuggling goods to identifying a product with genuine appeal in the Immortal Realm. His confidence is tempered by practical obstacles.

Character interactions

• A child and her mother react with surprise to Luo Qian bathing in the public fountain, underscoring how conspicuous he is in the Mortal Realm.
• Luo Qian argues with Sister Hanpang over the defective battery; she refuses a refund and tries to discredit him to customers. His formation quietly undermines her business.
• Luo Qian’s thoughts about the Immortal Apprehension Office establish the danger behind his dealings and his need to keep his visits brief.

Significant themes

• Reversal of status and fortune: Tribulation Immortals begin unusually weak but may gain tremendous power after surviving a rare calamity.
• Commerce and ingenuity: Luo Qian treats the gap between the realms as a business opportunity, continually looking for goods that meet Immortals’ unmet needs.
• Comfort versus discipline: Immortals’ demanding cultivation creates ordinary physical discomfort, making Mortal Realm inventions potentially valuable.
• Risk beneath opportunity: Smuggling and unauthorized travel may be profitable, but discovery by the authorities could be fatal.

Plot points and events

• Luo Qian explains that the Immortal Realm’s monitoring artifact detects objects from the Mortal Realm, with larger items producing stronger “worldly taint.” His limited Immortal Spirit Energy can conceal small goods, but not something as large as a massage chair.
• To get around this, he buys a mid-priced massage chair in the Mortal Realm, haggles until the saleswoman agrees to a discount, then dismantles it so he can smuggle it into the Immortal Realm in pieces.
• He carries the parts and batteries in his suit, makes several trips through the boundary, and stores the goods in his cave on Toad Mountain. Along the way, he realizes he forgot to buy a replacement computer for his business.
• Luo Qian sends Message Talismans to customers Ling Xiaose and Du Lengning. They collect their goods and settle their remaining balances.
• On his final trip back, Luo Qian becomes lost in a thick mist. His First-Rank Pathfinding Art fails, and he realizes he has entered a Death Zone. A strange glow overtakes him, and he loses consciousness.
• A powerful old man finds him, recognizes him as another Tribulation Immortal, and carries him away. The old man uses the formidable Ninth-Rank art Dragon Points the Way to find their path.

Character development

• Luo Qian shows resourcefulness and growing business sense: he plans to smuggle the chair in parts, chooses a model with room for future upgrades, and prepares an auction to introduce the Immortal Realm’s first massage chair. His confidence and ambition are undercut by his vulnerability as a low-ranked Tribulation Immortal.
• The old man is introduced as mysterious and immensely powerful. His sympathy toward Luo Qian suggests a connection to the plight of Tribulation Immortals.

Character interactions

• Luo Qian pays off the elderly woman who confronts him over his electricity bill, then hurries away.
• He persuades the supermarket saleswoman to let him try the chairs and bargains her into discounting his choice.
• Ling Xiaose and Du Lengning collect their orders and pay Luo Qian.
• The old man finds the unconscious Luo Qian, addresses him sympathetically, and takes him with him.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity and entrepreneurship: Luo Qian turns supernatural restrictions into a logistical challenge and treats smuggling as a business to be expanded.
• Ambition versus vulnerability: His plans for profit contrast with his precarious status and limited abilities.
• Unequal power: The old man’s effortless Ninth-Rank magic highlights how vast the gap can be between Luo Qian and powerful immortals.

Plot points and events

• Tie Zheng carries the unconscious Luo Qian out of a mist-shrouded mountain region to the Old Ghost Doctor’s secluded immortal dwelling.
• There, they encounter the doctor’s disciples, Mu Yue and Mu Yang, in the middle of a chess match. Tie Zheng stops the doctor from punishing Mu Yue, and Mu Yang jokingly claims Tie Zheng’s ruling means he has not lost his wager.
• In private, Tie Zheng confirms he has decided to give Luo Qian the use of his Exquisite Gallbladder for five hundred years. The Old Ghost Doctor agrees to perform the procedure in exchange for a Ninth-Rank Jadewater Qilin, which will serve as the dwelling’s guardian.
• The doctor summons the Qilin, then transports Tie Zheng and Luo Qian into a protected White Jade Hall designed for surgery. Tie Zheng lies on one jade bed while Luo Qian lies unconscious on another.
• The Old Ghost Doctor pierces Tie Zheng’s head with three jade needles, and Tie Zheng loses consciousness as the operation begins.

Character developments

• Tie Zheng shows generosity and resolve, willingly sacrificing access to an organ that helped him rise to power so Luo Qian may survive the coming five hundred years.
• The Old Ghost Doctor is revealed as a powerful, eccentric physician who combines professional skill with a taste for wagers and a substantial fee.
• Mu Yue and Mu Yang display familiarity and affection beneath their respectful manner toward their master; Mu Yang is playful and quick to exploit Tie Zheng’s intervention.
• Luo Qian remains unconscious and dependent on Tie Zheng’s sacrifice.

Significant themes

• Self-sacrifice and compassion: Tie Zheng’s gift is an act of deliberate aid, not obligation.
• The cost of healing: The surgery requires both a valuable payment and a profound personal sacrifice.
• Trust and risk: Tie Zheng entrusts his body—and Luo Qian’s future—to the Old Ghost Doctor’s procedure.

Character interactions

• Tie Zheng and the Old Ghost Doctor speak as longtime acquaintances, with mutual respect and familiarity despite the doctor’s high fees.
• Tie Zheng’s interruption of the doctor’s attempted prank on Mu Yue earns the disciples’ amusement and gratitude.
• The doctor and Tie Zheng agree on the transfer of the Exquisite Gallbladder and the price of treatment; their conversation ends as the operation begins.

Plot points

• Luo Qian wakes on a rocky cliff outside the Death Zone, relieved to have escaped. He retrieves his intact bundle and returns to his cave on Toad Mountain.
• He spends a day reassembling a massage chair, but discovers that his batteries drain quickly. A rice cooker presents the same problem: electrical appliances could expand his business, but he needs a reliable power source.
• Luo decides to pursue an idea he has considered before: a small generator powered by immortal magic. He needs an ally skilled in lightning magic, so he visits Du Lengning at Distant Hall.
• At the Rock-Viewing Pavilion, Luo offers Du a gaming magazine and pitches the plan. He proposes making compact generators as magical artifacts, each able to power one person’s appliance, rather than bringing ordinary machinery into the Immortal Realm.
• Du worries the project could attract punishment for unauthorized dealings with the Mortal Realm. Luo argues that the generators would be magical artifacts and that buyers would be unlikely to report a scheme they themselves benefit from.
• Du agrees to look for a trustworthy lightning-magic practitioner, while insisting he is only helping with the introduction and will not join Luo’s smuggling business.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian is resourceful and commercially ambitious. His frustration with depleted batteries pushes him toward a new venture, and he uses gifts, flattery, and reassurance to win Du’s cooperation.
• Du Lengning is initially impatient to return to his game and then cautious about the risks. His interest in the magazine and the promise of uninterrupted gaming make him receptive, though he maintains a boundary between helping Luo and participating in smuggling.
• Their friendship is also a business relationship: Luo deliberately cultivates Du with Mortal Realm gadgets, while Du’s local influence and connections can help Luo find the specialist he needs.

Significant themes

• Commerce and relationship-building: Luo treats friendship as something to nurture, combining genuine familiarity with calculated favors.
• Innovation under constraint: A practical obstacle—limited battery power—leads Luo to adapt modern technology to the Immortal Realm.
• Risk and complicity: Luo presents the generator plan as safer than conventional smuggling, but its success depends on secrecy and on making collaborators and customers share the risk.
• Clashing worlds: Mortal Realm appliances and gaming culture are gradually entering an immortal society, creating both business opportunities and regulatory danger.

Plot and events

• Du Lengning asks Luo Qian to buy birdseed, mail a beauty-contest ballot, and bring back a gaming magazine. He admits he favors contestant Number Thirty-Five, who is dressed as a character from his favorite game.
• Luo Qian’s usual method for traveling to the Mortal Realm suddenly fails: Immortal Spirit Energy leaks out of him instead of opening the passage. He fears losing the ability that has helped him survive as a Tribulation Immortal.
• Luo Qian cultivates until the mysterious leak finally stops. He then successfully descends, buys the requested items, and examines the contest results. Number Thirty-Five is in fifth place, far behind the popular frontrunner.
• Back in the Immortal Realm, Du Lengning accuses Luo Qian of standing by while an “unfair” contest goes on. Luo Qian sees through the appeal to immortal justice: Du wants help getting his favorite contestant to win. Luo calculates that overtaking the leaders would require tens of thousands of votes—and asks Du to fund the enormous cost.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian remains practical, shrewd, and profit-minded. He is alarmed when his travel ability malfunctions but perseveres through cultivation; he also turns Du’s romantic enthusiasm into a business calculation.
• Du Lengning reveals an intense attachment to the contestant because she resembles his favorite game heroine. He disguises his personal wish as a moral duty, invoking immortals’ responsibility to protect mortals.
• Their friendship is familiar but transactional: Du relies on Luo’s access to the Mortal Realm, while Luo is willing to help when compensated. Their teasing gives way to a negotiation over the cost of manipulating the contest.

Significant themes

• Immortals’ ordinary selfishness: Despite their lofty status, the immortals pursue mundane entertainment, favors, and personal desires.
• Commerce and exploitation: The contest is presented as a marketing scheme built to sell magazines and votes; Luo treats helping Du as another business proposition.
• Precarious power: Luo’s sudden loss of control over his travel ability reminds him how fragile his position is as a Tribulation Immortal.

Key plot points and events

• Du Lengning asks Luo Qian to help the woman he admires win a magazine poll. After bargaining, he agrees to pay Luo two million immortal jades up front and one million a month for the next three months.
• To raise money, Luo brings a piece of Mirror Stone from the immortal realm to the mortal world. Though common where he comes from, it is recognized as rare “jade marrow.”
• Long Hair House’s Elder Xiao identifies the stone and arranges to acquire it. The shop’s boss hopes it will help the struggling business compete with rivals Deshengji and Ruifuxiang, which already own pieces of jade marrow.
• After Luo notices he is being followed, he uses his knowledge of the rivals’ advantage to negotiate firmly. Long Hair House agrees to pay thirty-five million yuan plus a valuable jadeite pendant, which Luo takes as part of the deal.
• With money secured, Luo hires people to buy magazines, fill out ballots, and mail them in bulk. By retaining the verification codes, he turns 25,000 magazines into 50,000 votes and avoids having to make repeated trips himself.

Character developments and interactions

• Du Lengning shifts from resisting Luo’s price to accepting a payment plan, revealing how deeply he cares about the woman he wants to support. He insists his feelings are not romantic, despite Luo teasing him.
• Luo Qian proves calculating and resourceful: he bargains with Du, recognizes Long Hair House’s desperation, and uses the stone’s rarity and the shop’s rivalry to secure a favorable deal. He also turns the poll scheme into an efficient, delegated operation.
• Elder Xiao is cautious at first, then becomes eager to secure the stone once he recognizes it. He and the boss work together to protect Long Hair House’s position, while Ganzi’s failure to follow Luo heightens their sense that he is no ordinary young man.

Significant themes

• Money and leverage: Luo repeatedly shows that wealth can solve problems and that rare goods gain value from scarcity and competition.
• Resourcefulness across worlds: Luo exploits the difference between what is ordinary in the immortal realm and priceless in the mortal world.
• Business rivalry and survival: Long Hair House’s fear of losing its standing pushes it to pay a steep price.
• Practicality over sentiment: Du’s affection motivates the scheme, but the effort ultimately runs through bargaining, logistics, and calculated spending.

Key plot points and events

• Lei Ming, a Thunderbird Demon Immortal whose lightning arts are among the best of his generation, is nostalgic for the bird food he enjoyed when kept as a pet in the Mortal Realm.
• Du Lengning, accompanied by his friend Luo Qian, visits Lei Ming to request help creating a device that can produce a steady electric current.
• Lei Ming is wary of the unusual request and avoids committing, promising to consider it. After Luo Qian leaves a bag of Mortal Realm bird food behind, Lei Ming recognizes the scent but initially suspects the gesture is a ploy.
• Luo Qian correctly bets that Lei Ming’s craving will overcome his caution. After three days without tasting the food again, Lei Ming contacts Du Lengning and goes to meet them.
• At their meeting, Lei Ming claims to have an initial design for the device, though he has done no work on it. Luo Qian gives him another box of bird food, and they arrange to meet again—leaving Lei Ming to produce real progress before then.

Character developments

• Lei Ming is clever and guarded, shaped by five centuries among humans, but his attachment to a Mortal Realm delicacy makes him vulnerable. He rationalizes the risks of accepting contraband food and ends up drawn into Luo Qian’s plan.
• Luo Qian shows himself to be perceptive and persuasive, using a carefully measured gift to secure Lei Ming’s cooperation. His longing for the Mortal Realm also surfaces, suggesting he, too, has an enduring personal attachment to his former life.
• Du Lengning is more straightforward and reliant on others’ expertise. He trusts Luo Qian’s judgment and helps broker the request through his old acquaintance with Lei Ming.

Significant themes

• Desire and vulnerability: Even immortals can be controlled by ordinary cravings and attachments.
• Gift-giving as strategy: Luo Qian uses a small, carefully chosen gift to create anticipation and influence Lei Ming.
• The persistence of the past: Lei Ming and Luo Qian remain emotionally tied to their Mortal Realm experiences despite their immortality.
• Cunning and self-deception: Lei Ming recognizes the danger but persuades himself it is manageable, while pretending he has begun work on the device.

Character interactions

• Du Lengning’s past bond with Lei Ming—formed when they commiserated over Fairy Li Feng’s wedding—helps open the conversation, though their old embarrassment has kept them apart.
• Luo Qian handles the negotiation, while Lei Ming responds with polite evasions and suspicion.
• The bird food becomes the unspoken leverage between Luo Qian and Lei Ming: Luo Qian supplies it, Lei Ming accepts, and both understand that the arrangement depends on his eventual help.

Key plot points and events

• Luo Qian discovers that the voting campaign for Du Lengning’s favored contestant, Number Thirty-Five, is facing a stronger-than-expected rival. He doubles down: hiring more help, buying far more magazines, and concentrating votes into a short burst.
• When Number Thirty-Five takes first place by a wide margin, Luo rewards his workers with cash and vows to keep pushing. He frames the contest as a battle against dishonest opponents, despite using the same tactics himself.
• Luo continues his Mortal Realm smuggling business, focusing on small, useful goods that immortals will pay well for. Ling Xiaose asks him to supply a computer and batteries for a cousin; Luo negotiates a higher price and throws in discs, while privately recognizing the profit and the value of future referrals.
• Returning to his rented base, Luo senses that something has gone wrong. He finds the apartment sealed by police, the room ransacked and burned, and blood on the floor. Hearing sirens approach, he escapes before they arrive.

Character developments

• Luo Qian is ambitious, resourceful, and unapologetically ruthless in business. He refuses Du Lengning’s offer to cover the extra campaign costs, insisting on bearing responsibility for his own miscalculation. His confidence is shaken, however, when he discovers the apparent crime scene at his base.
• Du Lengning is anxious about the campaign and moved by Luo’s refusal of reimbursement, seeing it as a gesture of loyalty.
• Ling Xiaose is trusting and easily persuaded, both as a customer and as a potential source of new business. He is eager to regain access to his computer and discs.
• Luo’s hired workers respond enthusiastically to his cash bonus, reinforcing his belief that generous rewards will keep them committed.

Significant themes

• Ambition and competition: The voting contest becomes a financial and strategic struggle, with both sides escalating their efforts.
• Hypocrisy and shamelessness: Luo condemns the rival’s manipulation while engaging in even more extensive vote-buying himself.
• Commerce and self-interest: Luo turns small Mortal Realm goods into profitable luxury items in the Immortal Realm, while cultivating customers and referrals.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Luo refuses to make Du Lengning pay for his own error, though the gesture also strengthens their bond.
• Sudden danger: The police-sealed apartment and signs of violence abruptly shift the story from comic business schemes to an unresolved threat.

Character interactions

• Luo and Du Lengning discuss the failing campaign; Du offers to reimburse him, but Luo refuses, prompting an emotional show of mutual regard.
• Luo motivates his workers with a large bonus and a new, more aggressive plan.
• Luo bargains with Ling Xiaose over the computer order, using claims about rising prices to secure a higher payment.
• The chapter ends with Luo silently evading the police after discovering that something violent has happened at his base.

Key plot points and events

• Luo Qian returns to his ruined base and meets Chen Baozi, the one man who escaped an attack. The attackers beat the others, wrecked the base, and stole its newly purchased magazines, shouting that the crew had crossed “Brother Geng.”
• Chen Baozi identifies the attack as retaliation over the beauty contest. Luo Qian gives him three million and orders him to move to another city and resume their plan.
• Online rumors and a classified government file reveal that “Brother Geng” is now real-estate tycoon Jia Daoyi. A former crime boss, Jia built his fortune through bribery, violence, and illegal land seizures; authorities have evidence against him but have held back while seeking his powerful protector.
• Jia had tried to influence the contest for the young actress he was pursuing. When that failed, he used underworld contacts to attack Luo Qian’s operation.
• Luo Qian decides to punish Jia. He secretly enters Jia’s villa, immobilizes him with immortal energy, and copies a detailed record of Jia’s bribes to officials.
• Luo Qian places the files in the national security department’s system, filling crucial gaps in the case against Jia. An officer discovers the evidence the next morning and exclaims that “the gods answered our prayers.”
• Back in the Immortal Realm, Luo Qian makes amends to Ling Xiaose for being away by giving him adult discs. He ends with the five Mid-Grade Immortal Jades he came to earn.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian shifts from pursuing a profitable smuggling job to acting as a self-appointed divine judge. His intervention is partly driven by moral outrage, but also by resentment that Jia’s attack disrupted his business.
• Chen Baozi is frightened and shaken, yet remains loyal. He accepts Luo Qian’s money and agrees to relocate rather than disappear with it, wary of his employer’s reach and power.
• Jia Daoyi is shown as both ruthless and calculating: he keeps records of the officials he has bribed as insurance. His confidence collapses when confronted with the supernatural, and he faints.
• Luo Qian and Ling Xiaose have a familiar, transactional relationship: Luo Qian apologizes for his absence and placates Ling with a gift.

Significant themes

• Divine justice versus official justice: The authorities have evidence but cannot act until they understand Jia’s protection. Luo Qian supplies the missing proof, making the “god” a catalyst for human law.
• Power and corruption: Jia’s rise depends on violence, bribery, and intimidation, while his carefully kept records reveal how corruption entangles powerful officials.
• Self-interest and moral action: Luo Qian frames his intervention as answering people’s prayers, but his anger and lost earnings also motivate him.
• Faith in the supernatural: Jia’s belief in gods and ghosts turns his encounter with Luo Qian into a moment of terror, while the investigator interprets the unexpected evidence as divine help.

Key plot points and events

• Lei Ming has figured out how to make the artifact Luo Qian wants, but needs an expert crafter. Luo Qian persuades Du Lengning to find one, while continuing to rig the lower-realm cosplay contest in Du’s favor by buying votes for Pei Sefei, Contestant Thirty-Five.
• Du finds Xiao Xiangzi, a secretive soul immortal who runs a shop called Ghost Refining on Ningyao Mountain. Luo Qian balks at Xiao’s price—five pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade per finished artifact—but agrees to let Du cover the cost by transferring part of his existing debt.
• Worried that the artifact might fail and waste five million standard Immortal Jade, Luo Qian attempts to descend to the lower realm. Immortal energy again vanishes into a mysterious “leak” in his body; after drawing in substantially more energy than before, he manages to descend.
• The contest results confirm Pei Sefei as champion. Luo Qian returns to the Immortal Realm with the magazine, fulfilling his promise to Du, who then asks him to record the awards ceremony for an additional million Immortal Jade.
• Luo Qian attends the ceremony in S City, spending heavily on admission and camera equipment. He films Pei Sefei’s award presentation, then visits his hideout before returning to the Immortal Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian remains shrewd and money-conscious, bargaining over the crafting fee and treating his lower-realm work as a paid obligation. He is also increasingly unsettled by the energy draining from his body, though he hides his concern behind pragmatism.
• Du Lengning depends on Luo Qian to advance his interests and knows how to negotiate with him, offering extra payment for the recording. His fascination with Pei Sefei is clear.
• Xiao Xiangzi is introduced as a guarded, formidable crafter. His humble-looking home is protected by lethal defenses, and he charges not only for his work but for secrecy.
• Pei Sefei appears at the ceremony without the elaborate contest persona. Her composure and graciousness win over the audience, while Luo Qian is struck by her natural beauty but insists to himself that she is no longer part of his world.

Significant themes

• Money, favors, and obligation: Relationships are negotiated through debts, fees, and promised services.
• Appearance versus reality: Xiao’s plain dwelling conceals dangerous defenses; the contest’s rankings are shaped by bought votes; Pei Sefei’s unadorned appearance proves more compelling than her staged image.
• Disconnection and belonging: Luo Qian moves between the Immortal Realm and the lower world but sees himself as separated from the people and life he left behind.
• Uncertainty and vulnerability: The mysterious loss of Luo Qian’s immortal energy raises concerns about his condition and future, while the costly artifact remains an uncertain investment.