Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Inside the Marquis Wu’s State Shrine Blessed Land, Lu Yuanzhen avenges his senior brother Lü Yuanhua by using the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp to burn the old Marquis Wu and the other assembled heroic spirits.
• Lu warns Tang Changsheng that the greater threat is Marquis Wu Zhuang, founder of the Yang Clan’s Wu Hou State. As the state’s founder, Wu Zhuang commands its Netherworld fortune.
• Wu Zhuang awakens in the shrine, rousing roughly five hundred formidable black-armored soldiers and ordering them to kill. Lu sends Tang back to the physical world, warning that he cannot help in the coming clash.
• Tang returns to the rainy grounds of Marquis Wu’s Residence and discovers that his soul had left his body. The Female Official lies unconscious beside him.
• To prevent her from revealing what happened, Tang kills her and hides her body. He also realizes the Demon-Slaying Sword may be more powerful than he had assumed, since it entered the Spirit Realm with him.
• Hearing distant shouts and gongs amid the storm, Tang suspects a major disturbance and sees an opportunity to escape. Rather than risk forcing his way out or seeking the unpredictable Madam Hu’s help, he slips into the darkness.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Yuanzhen shows the overwhelming power of a Yang Spirit master, but remains focused on the larger mission: defeating Wu Zhuang and undermining the state’s foundations.
• Tang Changsheng is impressed by Lu’s power, then acts coldly and pragmatically to protect himself—killing the witness, concealing the evidence, and weighing his escape options.
• Marquis Wu Zhuang is established as a formidable antagonist whose awakening mobilizes the shrine’s elite defenders.
• Lu treats Tang as a capable but outmatched ally: he praises him, then removes him from the impending supernatural battle. Tang, in turn, obeys and wishes Lu success.

Significant themes

• Power and political legitimacy: Wu Zhuang’s command of the state’s Netherworld fortune makes him more dangerous than the spirits Lu has already destroyed.
• Survival and moral compromise: Tang’s fear of exposure leads him to commit murder, revealing how far he will go to stay alive.
• Hidden realms and concealed power: Tang’s soul travels beyond his body, while the sword’s ability to cross realms hints at its true nature.
• Opportunity amid chaos: The storm and disturbances outside provide cover for Tang’s escape, though his next move remains uncertain.

Key plot points and events

• A storm awakens Marquis Wu from a nightmare in which his murdered father and dead ministers threaten him. The Golden Gong sounds—the same alarm heard on the night he seized power.
• An attendant reports that the Ancestral Temple has collapsed. State Altar Artifacts are shattered, and the former marquises’ memorial tablets have fallen. Overcome by dread, Marquis Wu vomits blood and faints.
• Tang Changsheng, trying to escape the residence during the chaos, slips through the lightly guarded servants’ courtyard. He believes Wu Hou State is already doomed after the Azure Sea True Void Palace’s intervention and the involvement of Marquis Wu’s enemies.
• Outside, Tang walks into an ambush. His Yin Soldier Camp Board repels arrows and releases Yin Soldiers, but thunder destroys many of them and injures him through the backlash.
• He flees farther into the darkness, spots a tripwire and a Beast Trap, and realizes more attackers are waiting. With his Yin Soldiers weakened and his Gu Worms immobilized by the thunder, he must fight his way out himself.

Character developments

• Marquis Wu shifts from uneasy sleep to panic and physical collapse. The destruction of the temple—an emblem of his lineage and legitimacy—makes him fear that Heaven has turned against him.
• Tang Changsheng remains pragmatic and self-interested, prioritizing survival over the fate of the residence. His confidence in his supernatural defenses is shaken, forcing him to depend on his own abilities.

Significant themes

• Guilt and retribution: Marquis Wu’s nightmare and terror echo the murder through which he took power.
• Fate and political legitimacy: The ruined Ancestral Temple suggests the collapse of both Marquis Wu’s authority and the state.
• The limits of power: Storm and thunder disrupt Tang’s supernatural weapons, leaving him vulnerable.
• Chaos and self-preservation: As multiple factions act at once, characters focus on surviving rather than controlling events.

Character interactions

• Marquis Wu’s attendant brings him the news of the temple’s collapse, triggering his collapse.
• Tang has no direct exchange with the ambushers, but their attacks force him to use—and then abandon—his Yin Soldiers, setting up a close-quarters fight.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng fights a group of black-clad attackers near Marquis Wu’s Residence. Although a skilled martial artist wounds him, his body’s red protective light stops a fatal sword strike. Tang kills his attacker and presses the assault, his Demon-Slaying Sword making wounds especially dangerous.
• Marquis Wu’s Elite Guards arrive and slaughter most of the black-clad men. Their arrows cannot harm Tang because he is protected by the Yin Soldier Camp Board.
• Before the Elite Guards can turn on Tang, a distant uproar suggests Suxu City’s wall has fallen. The guards withdraw, and Tang escapes amid the ensuing citywide panic, looting, and fires.
• Believing the chaos makes it too dangerous to stay, Tang hides in a woodshed and uses the Bagua Mirror to return to the General’s Temple. He plans to come back later, ideally when Marquis Wu’s Residence has already been breached.
• In the temple’s secret chamber, Tang reflects on the Bright Pearl, which he now understands is the heart of the Mountain Gate Array. It grows brighter as the array absorbs spiritual power from slain Ghost Creatures.
• Tang takes out the Yin Soldier Camp Board and senses that the general Qin An has stopped struggling and is sitting cross-legged.

Character developments

• Tang’s combat prowess is revealed to rely less on martial training than on supernatural protection: his red body light and the Camp Board make him nearly impervious to weapons.
• He is resourceful but cautious. Rather than risk being caught in a collapsing city, he retreats and plans to return when conditions favor him.
• His thoughts show a pragmatic, opportunistic streak: he hopes to exploit the turmoil around Marquis Wu’s Residence.

Significant themes

• Supernatural power versus physical skill: Tang’s protections overcome the black-clad expert’s superior martial ability.
• Chaos and shifting danger: A possible breach of the city wall abruptly changes the balance of power and turns a targeted confrontation into general disorder.
• Opportunism and survival: Tang’s escape depends on adapting quickly and choosing when not to fight.
• The costs of violence: The Demon-Slaying Sword’s Killing Intent makes its victims’ injuries—and deaths—spiritually consequential.

Character interactions

• Tang duels the black-clad expert, then fights the remaining attackers; they are unnerved by his apparent invulnerability.
• The Elite Guards arrive as enemies of the black-clad men, but Tang expects they would attack him next. The city-wall crisis forces them all to scatter.
• Back at the temple, Tang uses his connection through the Yin Soldier Camp Board to observe Qin An, who has ceased resisting.

Plot and events

• Ghost General Qin An continues battering the Yin Soldier Camp Board, but refuses to leave when Tang Changsheng offers to release him. Instead, Qin An declares the board a comfortable home.
• Tang Changsheng tempts him with conjured food and wine. Qin An mocks the food as inferior to true ritual delicacies, yet eagerly eats it. Tang accepts that Qin An is temporarily contained and leaves him there.
• Back at the General’s Temple, Tang finds Yin-Yang Mountain safe despite his month- or two-month absence. He checks his cultivation: both levels of his Spirit Terrace have grown, but far more slowly than he wants.
• Tang considers how to obtain the rest of the method for refining Incense and Fire Prayer Power. He suspects Primordial Yang Abbey cannot purify worshippers’ stray thoughts completely, and believes this impurity may limit its practitioners’ advancement.
• He devises a possible workaround: rather than use the impure prayer power directly, he may use it to refine pills. As he considers the idea, several dark shapes rush from the forest and circle him.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng shows patience and strategic flexibility. Rather than confront Qin An, he placates him with food, recognizes the ghost’s cleverness, and turns his attention to improving his cultivation through unconventional methods. His confidence in his knowledge grows, though his proposed solution remains untested.
• Qin An proves both formidable and cunning. He recognizes Tang’s attempt to bargain, refuses to be lured out, and uses shameless stubbornness to remain safely inside the board. His appetite and mocking criticism give the exchange a comic edge.
• Xin Chengying is absent but relevant: he previously taught Tang only half the prayer-power refinement method, reserving the rest for Lu Yuanzhen.
• Tang’s deductions also cast doubt on Lu Yuanzhen and Primordial Yang Abbey, whose cultivation method may carry impurities that hinder spiritual progress.

Significant themes

• Cunning over force: Qin An and Tang both rely on calculation rather than direct combat.
• Limits of inherited methods: Tang questions whether an established cultivation shortcut has hidden flaws.
• Innovation and incomplete knowledge: He seeks to turn an imperfect resource into something useful, but his plan is still speculative.
• The slow cost of cultivation: Tang’s ambition for a stronger foundation clashes with the years ordinary progress would require.

Plot and events

• Tang Changsheng returns to his mountain after more than a month in seclusion. Wu Shulan reports that all is well, and that the mountain has remained undisturbed since the confrontation with the Twin Dragons Society.
• He checks the protective Reversing Yin and Yang Grand Formation and confirms it is intact, then reviews the treasures he acquired from Zhang Bancheng in the “Immortal Realm.”
• Among his gains are rare spirit-jade tablets and Bright Pearls. He decides the pearls can help Little Pearl and Cui Zhengfei, but chooses to refine them into Water-Moon Pills; the jade will serve as the key ingredient for Jade Purity Pills.
• Tang begins pill-making with the Medicine King Cauldron. To prepare, he prays before the Protector King Divine General statue and successfully draws Incense and Fire Prayer Power from other temples through the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp.
• As he refines the power, visions and prayers from worshippers flood his senses. He realizes the process is safe only because the lamp’s light is no longer connected to his Celestial Heart Sea of Consciousness. Pure droplets begin forming in the lamp.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang is relieved that his earlier show of force appears to have deterred further trouble, though he waits for Da Xiang to return before learning whether anything significant has occurred.
• His cultivation and resourcefulness continue to grow: he carefully evaluates how to use his new materials and applies a Divine Way technique despite lacking direct experience.
• Wu Shulan warmly welcomes him back and updates him; the three wildcats, now grown and no longer immediately recognizing Tang, gather around her when she calls them.
• Tang’s prayer to the Founding Patriarch succeeds, showing cooperation between him and the temple network.

Significant themes

• Abundance and opportunity: Rare resources nearly impossible to obtain in Tang’s world are readily available in the Immortal Realm.
• Caution amid power: Tang checks his defenses and recognizes the danger of spiritual overload before proceeding.
• Faith as a practical force: Worshippers’ prayers become usable power, linking religious devotion to cultivation and alchemy.
• Growth through adaptation: Tang combines inherited methods, newly acquired materials, and careful experimentation to advance his craft.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng finishes refining prayer power into sky silver. Though it retains traces of impurity, he discovers that his Heavenly Heart divine light can merge with it and shape it according to his will.
• He realizes sky silver can imitate divine power and uses it to refine pills. It fuses the ingredients and removes impurities, producing ten top-grade Jade Purity Pills and several highly toxic pills made from the discarded dregs.
• After swallowing a Jade Purity Pill, Tang feels its medicinal power cleanse his meridians and bones. He concludes that the harsher pills he took previously were likely impure.
• Noting that his Spirit Terrace has grown to nearly two zhang, he decides his expanding collection of magical treasures requires greater cultivation sooner than planned. With the pill’s aid, he attempts to break through the Core Essence Secret Aperture, but the impact nearly makes him lose his footing.

Character developments

• Tang demonstrates ingenuity by adapting divine pill-refining methods to his own resources, turning sky silver into a powerful tool.
• He remains cautious and analytical: he recognizes sky silver’s limitations, evaluates the pill’s effects, and keeps the poisonous dregs for possible future use.
• His growing magical responsibilities push him to advance before his original plan of waiting until his Spirit Terrace reached ten zhang.

Significant themes

• Experiment and adaptation: Tang repurposes prayer power and divine techniques for his own cultivation.
• Purity and imperfection: Even refined sky silver retains traces of its origins, while eliminating impurities greatly improves the pills’ effects.
• Power and responsibility: Tang’s growing collection of treasures demands more of his Divine Soul and drives him toward a risky breakthrough.
• The foundations of cultivation: The Spirit Terrace’s size represents the strength of his magical foundation.

Character interactions

• The chapter focuses almost entirely on Tang’s solitary experimentation and cultivation; there are no substantial exchanges with other characters.

Key events

• Tang Changsheng attempts to force open his dantian Secret Aperture with divine power. Two strikes loosen it, but the effort injures him before he can break through, so he decides not to force the threshold.
• The experiment nevertheless teaches him that Incense and Fire Prayer Power may help indirectly, and deepens his understanding of Nine Dragons Locking Heavenheart, which he suspects was derived from the Nine Luminaries Heavenly Heart Method.
• He identifies four known Dragon Eyes among the nine, including the one beneath Yin-Yang Mountain. He decides to secure that site and then seize the City God Underworld Office, whose temple grounds may be the central Dragon Eye of Lower River.
• Tang sends Non-Toxin into the Ghost Domain to inspect it, since his Heroic Soul is stationed in the Yin Soldier Camp Board. He finds the Heavenly King Pagoda still guarding the General’s Temple’s array hub and Spirit Realm.
• Du Song reports that Yuan Wu has led the forces in sweeping the Ghost Domain, capturing Ghost Creatures, organizing the obedient ones into units, and putting the unruly to work rebuilding a city around the pagoda.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang is cautious after injuring himself, but remains ambitious and methodical: he shifts from forcing cultivation to building strength through resources and securing strategic territory.
• Du Song, one of Tang’s earliest Spirit Ghosts, shows loyalty and pride as he reports the troops’ progress. Tang values his intelligence despite his relatively low rank.
• Yuan Wu emerges as a capable leader, taking initiative beyond Tang’s orders by expanding the force and rebuilding the city.
• Tang is impressed by the Ghost Creatures’ unexpected competence and by Yuan Wu’s achievements.

Significant themes

• Power requires patience: Tang learns that a cultivation breakthrough cannot simply be forced without consequences.
• Strategic opportunity: The apparent destruction of the City God’s forces leaves a rare opening to claim important territory.
• Leadership and initiative: Tang’s subordinates turn their freedom and resources into organized defenses without waiting for instructions.
• Expansion and consolidation: Securing Dragon Eyes, strengthening the Ghost Domain, and taking control of the Underworld Office are linked parts of Tang’s growing power.

Chapter Summary: “Yin Soldiers in Battle Formation”

Tang Changsheng visits the growing Fortified Village and finds hundreds of Ghost Creatures working in an orderly construction camp. Zhangtai, a Wild Ghost he had subdued earlier, is directing the City Wall project. Tang praises his initiative and skill, but argues that the cramped, resource-poor Ghost Domain is no place to build a city. Zhangtai then shows him the cleared drill ground, where several hundred Ghost Soldiers are training under three commanders: Zhangtai, King Shangyang, and Meng Liangze.
Tang notices that the three generals use different training and command systems, making it unclear how their troops could fight together. King Shangyang explains that Netherworld Ghost Soldiers naturally gather Military Aura, so their warfare differs from that of living troops. He demonstrates: his hundred soldiers move in unison, causing their Yin Energy and Killing Intent to gather into a cloud that nearly forms a fierce beast. He then absorbs the Military Aura, grows into a giant, and hurls a Yin-energy spear across a great distance. The display is powerful, but leaves him exhausted.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Tang Changsheng recognizes that Spirit Ghosts’ ability to act independently makes them valuable leaders. Though he admits he is no military expert, he identifies the practical problem of the generals’ incompatible methods.
• Zhangtai shows initiative and organizational talent, coordinating construction and leading troop drills. Tang’s praise reassures him after Tang questions the city-building project.
• King Shangyang confidently explains the distinctive nature of Ghost Soldiers and demonstrates how Military Aura can be used in formation and by an individual commander.
• Meng Liangze and Yuan Wu are introduced as commanders with different military backgrounds, reinforcing Tang’s concern that the forces lack a shared system.

Significant Themes

• Organization and leadership: The ghosts’ orderly labor and disciplined drills reveal their potential as an effective force.
• Unity versus difference: The commanders’ distinct methods may hinder cooperation, even though their troops share a common supernatural resource.
• Power and its cost: Military Aura grants striking strength, but King Shangyang’s exhaustion shows that using it has limits.
• Tang’s growing command: Tang is learning to assess and guide his ghostly forces while relying on their specialized expertise.

Key plot points and events

• Yuan Wu demonstrates his military skill by coordinating his ghost soldiers through a banner, keeping their martial aura controlled and sustained. His formation proves more practical and sophisticated than King Shangyang’s powerful but short-lived display.
• Tang Changsheng recognizes that Yuan Wu’s Immortal Realm military training gives him a major advantage over commanders from this world. He appoints Yuan Wu commander of the ghost soldiers, with King Shangyang and Meng Liangze as assistants.
• Yuan Wu plans to gather the War Ghosts of the Ancient Battlefield and asks for equipment. Tang provides two hundred sets of rare, spirit-iron Ghost Artifacts and offers to magically create more.
• Tang reveals his goal: to capture the City God Underworld Office. The Ghost Generals are energized by the prospect of becoming true Ghost Gods rather than merely holding ranks in Tang’s private force.
• Tang decides to delay an immediate attack until his army is better prepared, but remains determined to take the office. The City God Temple is also the crucial location of Lower River’s dragon-vein core node, which had previously obstructed the General’s Temple’s plans for the Nine-Dragon Heaven-Locking Heart Array.

Character developments and interactions

• Yuan Wu establishes himself as the strongest military strategist among the commanders. He accepts command eagerly and vows to build an elite force.
• King Shangyang and Meng Liangze are impressed by Yuan Wu’s demonstration and reluctantly accept their subordinate roles.
• Tang Changsheng acts as both patron and strategist: he rewards Yuan Wu with authority and equipment, then uses the planned conquest to rally his generals.
• The Ghost Generals’ disappointment gives way to excitement once Tang announces the campaign, revealing how strongly they value the status of becoming Ghost Gods.

Significant themes

• Different civilizations and military traditions: Yuan Wu’s inherited battle-array techniques outperform the local commanders’ methods, reflecting the gulf between the Immortal Realm and a world where spiritual power has declined.
• Preparation and practical strength: Sustained coordination and properly equipped troops are more valuable than a spectacular but brief display of power.
• Ambition and status: The prospect of becoming recognized Ghost Gods motivates the generals and strengthens their loyalty.
• Strategic control of sacred territory: The City God Temple matters not only as a political target but also because it occupies a vital dragon-vein node.

Plot and events

• Having seized the opportunity created by the City God Underworld Office’s collapse, Tang Changsheng plans to take control of the Ghost Domain beneath Yin-Yang Mountain. He intends to build the Nine-Dragon Heaven-Locking Heart Array, which would isolate Lower River from the decline of Spiritual Qi and help secure its future.
• Tang returns from the Ghost Domain to find that Da Xiang’s position in Lower River has strengthened. Since Tang destroyed the Twin Dragons Society, crime and narcotics activity have fallen, and Da Xiang has been able to buy the former Skanda Temple site and begin construction.
• Tang is more focused on gaining command of the Ghost Soldiers than on Lower River’s civic affairs. He prepares to help Yuan Wu refine hundreds of sets of equipment and Magical Artifacts, and recruits Wang Jinhai, whose family has special skill in crafting powerful paper soldiers.
• Two days later, Wang Jinhai arrives at Lower River Airport with his disciple Ji Wenxuan and younger relatives Wang Lele and Wang Xiaohao. Da Xiang welcomes them on Tang’s behalf and escorts them toward Yin-Yang Mountain.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng is pleased by his success in the Ghost Domain and increasingly confident that a force of Ghost Soldiers will make him difficult to challenge. He delegates the large-scale crafting work to Wang Jinhai.
• Da Xiang is thriving under Tang’s protection and reports Lower River’s improved order. He handles the visitors diplomatically, ignoring Wang Lele’s rude aside and politely asking about the party.
• Wang Jinhai respects Tang’s abilities and brings his younger companions both to assist with the work and to learn from an accomplished cultivator. Though he criticizes his son, celebrated film director Wang Zhifei, for abandoning the family trade, his pride in his son is evident.
• Wang Lele is skeptical of Tang’s reputation and openly mocks the welcome at the airport; Wang Jinhai rebukes her. Da Xiang tactfully redirects the exchange by asking about the group.
• Wang Xiaohao and Ji Wenxuan accompany the party, but their roles are mostly introductory.

Significant themes

• Power and security: Tang sees the Ghost Domain and its soldiers as the means to protect himself and dominate the region.
• Order through strength: Tang’s earlier show of force has sharply reduced crime, though Lower River is not yet entirely safe.
• Preparation for a changing world: The planned array is intended to preserve a refuge from the wider decline in Spiritual Qi.
• Generational expectations and reputation: Wang Jinhai’s mixed feelings about his son reveal tension between inherited family traditions and success in a different field.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng has researched Wang Jinhai’s family and realizes the distinctive style of director Wang Zhifei’s martial-arts films may draw on the Theater Sect’s traditions.
• Wang Lele reveals that her father is scouting Lower River for locations for a new film. Da Xiang hopes this might lead to a chance to work with the famous director, while Wang Xiaohao warns Lele not to share too much.
• The group flies toward Yin-Yang Mountain, where an unusual mass of black cloud conceals the mountain. They glimpse what appears to be a Flood Dragon, alarming even Wang Jinhai.
• The apparent dragon is a projection from the Dragon Soul Pearl. Tang Changsheng has taken the pearl out to examine it, and his magical power triggers a dramatic reaction: clouds gather, the dragon’s Divine Soul withdraws into the pearl, and a violent thunderstorm erupts.
• The helicopter is forced to turn away after nearly being struck by lightning. From a distance, the group sees a strange eye-like vortex above the mountain. Wang Jinhai identifies the phenomenon as the legendary Dao-Cutting Tribulation.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng shifts from investigating the pearl to fearing that he has accidentally unleashed a dangerous supernatural event.
• Da Xiang shows ambition in wanting to collaborate with Wang Zhifei, then becomes absorbed by the mysterious storm and its possible connection to the Sect Leader.
• Wang Lele is impressed by Yin-Yang Mountain and the General’s Temple, despite having previously doubted Tang Changsheng’s abilities.
• Wang Jinhai moves from surprise at the supposed dragon to recognizing the storm as a Dao-Cutting Tribulation.

Significant themes

• The peril of curiosity and power: Tang’s casual examination of an unfamiliar artifact triggers a crisis beyond his control.
• Myth meeting skepticism: The supposed Flood Dragon and tribulation blur the line between legend, debunked evidence, and undeniable experience.
• The scale of the supernatural: The storm makes the mountain seem subject to judgment from the heavens.

Character interactions

• Da Xiang flatters Wang Lele into revealing her father’s filming plans; Wang Xiaohao intervenes to stop her.
• The group shares its fear and awe as the dragon-like shape and lightning appear, while Da Xiang privately wonders what Tang is doing.
• Wang Jinhai names the phenomenon for the others, turning their alarm into recognition of a legendary event.

Plot points and events

• A Dao-Cutting Tribulation erupts over Yin-Yang Mountain. It is a rare, catastrophic heavenly tribulation said to sever a cultivator’s Dao Path; no one has successfully ascended since it appeared.
• The tribulation was triggered not by an aspiring ascender, but by the Demon Flood Dragon’s Divine Soul, sealed inside the Dragon Soul Pearl.
• Its effects reach Tang Changsheng at the General’s Temple. Stray lightning gathers around him, and the pearl seems to put him in danger. He races for the Peach Heartwood Quiet Room, the temple’s safest shelter.
• When a bolt targets him, Tang uses all the Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Star Sand in his Glazed Glass Pot to deflect it, then makes it safely into the Quiet Room. The escape leaves his clothes, hair, and eyebrows charred, and the pot empty.
• The tribulation’s lightning strikes places across the world, damaging an ancient camphor tree, the Golden Temple’s deity statue, and Pale Blue Castle’s Ancient Library.
• Tang discovers that the Three Realms Mirror has been affected. It reveals that the fog in the Ghost Domain has thinned and that fewer than one in ten of the Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers on the Ancient Battlefield remain. He fears that his own Yin Soldiers—and especially the Spirit Ghosts Yuan Wu, Zhangtai, and Du Song—may also have suffered losses.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng shifts from trying to protect the Dragon Soul Pearl to abandoning concern for it and focusing on survival. Under pressure, he uses his precious sand without hesitation.
• His earlier suspicion that Yang Qi may have given him the pearl with bad intentions resurfaces, though the chapter does not resolve the question.
• Wang Lele warns the helicopter occupants to descend as lightning approaches, while the panicked pilot reports that the helicopter is out of control.
• Tang’s final concern is less for his own losses than for the Yin Soldiers under his command, revealing his attachment to them.

Significant themes

• The cost of ambition: The Dao-Cutting Tribulation represents an almost insurmountable threat to cultivators seeking ascension.
• Disaster’s far-reaching consequences: A single supernatural event affects distant places and realms, with damage that Tang cannot fully see or measure.
• Survival and sacrifice: Tang escapes by spending a valuable resource, but the wider devastation leaves him facing uncertainty and potential loss.

Key events

• Tang Changsheng observes the Bright Pearl still shining, suggesting the General’s Temple and its protective formation survived the turmoil.
• Using the Three Realms Mirror, he sees its light devastate the Ghost Domain, destroying many Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers and dispersing its ghostly energy. When the mirror reveals unfamiliar hills, a cave, and a city, lightning bursts through the Ghost Domain’s sky, destroying a hill. Tang realizes the mirror can affect the world across realms and fears that directing it toward the city could bring down a Thunderbolt.
• The mirror briefly shows a helicopter—apparently the General’s Temple’s, sent by Da Xiang to collect someone—before the lightning storm ends. The mirror then becomes unusable, seemingly exhausted.
• Tang finds the temple untouched by lightning, protected by the Founding Patriarchs’ formation, but his own Reversing Yin and Yang Array is badly damaged. He spots a distant city in the mist and suspects the array’s failure has blurred the boundary between the human world and the Ghost Domain. Fearing the helicopter’s passengers are in danger, he sets out to rescue them.
• Meanwhile, Da Xiang, Wang Jinhai, and the others have landed after lightning damaged their helicopter. While walking toward the General’s Temple, they realize the mountain’s terrain has changed and they are lost in unfamiliar, rolling hills.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng moves from investigating the mirror’s power to recognizing the immediate danger and deciding to help the stranded group. His caution reflects his growing understanding of the mirror’s risks.
• Da Xiang admits he cannot explain the strange mountain, unsettling his companions further.
• Wang Jinhai, the most experienced of the group, asks Da Xiang what happened and tries to connect their predicament to the storm and the mountain’s changed terrain.

Significant themes

• The boundary between worlds: The damaged array may have allowed the Ghost Domain and human world to overlap.
• Power and danger: The Three Realms Mirror is extraordinarily potent, but using it can trigger catastrophic consequences.
• Protection and vulnerability: The temple’s ancient defenses hold, while Tang’s newer array fails and the travelers are left exposed.
• Uncertainty and peril: The altered landscape, storm, and unexplained lightning leave both Tang and the stranded group struggling to understand what has happened.

Key plot points and events

• Da Xiang reveals that Yin-Yang Mountain’s Reversing Sun and Moon Heavenly Mechanism Formation can bring the sealed Ghost Domain into the Mortal World. The group realizes that the gray, unfamiliar landscape around them means they have been transported into the Ghost Domain.
• Hundreds of Wandering Souls emerge from the haze. Da Xiang summons a powerful golden Yin Soldier, which protects the group and leads them through the encirclement.
• Though they escape immediate danger, the group remains trapped in the Ghost Domain, where pervasive yin and ghost energy can sicken or kill the living. They debate waiting for Tang Changsheng to find them versus searching for an exit, then decide to move.
• Wang Lele spots a partially buried cave in the mountainside. Black mist seeps from its entrance, leaving the group facing a new, ominous possibility.

Character developments and interactions

• Wang Lele shifts from admiring Tang Changsheng’s power to confronting the danger firsthand; despite her fear, her sharp eyes help the group spot the cave.
• Wang Xiaohao recognizes that the formation may have failed and voices the concern that leads the group to understand their predicament.
• Da Xiang explains the Ghost Domain and takes charge when the souls attack, summoning his Yin Soldier. He accepts the group’s decision to search for a way out rather than wait.
• Ji Wenxuan identifies the Yin Soldier’s power and argues that waiting for rescue is too risky. His practical judgment contrasts with Da Xiang’s more cautious willingness to wait.
• Wang Jinhai praises Tang Changsheng but later seeks guidance on how to escape.

Significant themes

• The danger of hidden forces: A protective formation has apparently drawn the group into the very realm it was meant to control.
• Knowledge versus experience: The group’s modest magical training offers little reassurance when they face overwhelming numbers and an unfamiliar environment.
• Survival under uncertainty: Waiting for rescue and attempting escape both carry serious risks.
• The vulnerability of the living: The Ghost Domain threatens them not only through hostile spirits but also through its poisonous atmosphere.

Plot points and events

• Da Xiang’s group decides to leave the mountain after the cave entrance fills them with dread. Before they can get far, a wave of powerful Ghost Creatures pours out and pursues them.
• Da Xiang fears the cave may connect to the Netherworld, while the others recognize the danger and flee with him.
• Wang Jinhai distracts the ghosts by scattering spirit money, then uses his Paper-Cutting Art to unleash swordlike lights that tear apart many pursuers. The Ferocious Ghost leader blocks the attack, however, and the seemingly destroyed ghosts re-form.
• Da Xiang sends his Grade-D Daoist Yin Soldier to hold the enemies back. The sight of it frightens the leader and makes it hesitate, giving the group time to escape down the mountain.
• In the fog below, the group discovers a vast battlefield strewn with bones, corpses, and weapons. Wang Lele’s scream appears to stir the fog, bringing forth rows of ghost soldiers.
• Wang Jinhai identifies them as Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers. Trapped between these formidable soldiers ahead and the pursuing ghosts behind, the group appears doomed.

Character developments and interactions

• Da Xiang prioritizes escape, then risks using his Yin Soldier as a rearguard to protect the group.
• Wang Jinhai reveals his formidable skill and resourcefulness: his spirit money briefly distracts the ghosts, and his hidden pouch releases a powerful attack. His confidence gives way when the ghosts recover.
• Wang Lele praises her grandfather, but her scream at the battlefield’s grisly sight triggers the next threat.
• The Ferocious Ghost leader is ruthless and intent on eating the living, but instinctive fear of the Daoist Yin Soldier restrains it.

Significant themes

• Desperation and survival: The group repeatedly faces overwhelming threats and can only keep moving.
• Limits of power: Wang Jinhai’s attack and the Yin Soldier buy time but cannot defeat the stronger ghosts.
• Fear and reputation: The Yin Soldier’s Daoist nature frightens the enemy even when its actual strength is modest.
• Escalating danger: Each escape leads the group into a new, seemingly worse peril.

The text contains only a list of reader tips and donations through the 14th; it does not include a story chapter. Many readers contributed Qidian coins, with Fengliu Dacaizi among the most frequent and generous supporters. There are no plot events, character developments, themes, or character interactions to summarize.

Key plot points and events

• The Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers ignore Da Xiang’s group and attack the ghost horde pursuing them. Their disciplined formation and volleys of yin arrows scatter the attackers, though the weakest pursuers are the only ones actually destroyed.
• As the soldiers turn their weapons on Da Xiang and his companions, a fiery streak descends from the sky. Tang Changsheng’s Yin Soldier Camp Board arrives, releasing hundreds of Yin Soldiers and a Demon Flood Dragon, which devastates the Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers.
• Tang’s forces surround the survivors. Rather than destroy them, Tang decides their value as disciplined War Ghosts makes them worth capturing.
• The camp board draws the Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers into its Yin Domain, where they are trapped. Ritual Food and King Shangyang’s commanding presence overcome their resistance, and the soldiers submit and are absorbed into the board’s Barracks.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng arrives as a powerful rescuer, though the figure present is his Heroic Soul. His judgment shifts from defeating the Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers to recruiting them.
• Da Xiang and Wang Jinhai recognize Tang and are relieved; the others learn that the seemingly legendary Master Tang has saved them.
• King Shangyang demonstrates his authority over lesser ghosts, using his rank to make the leaderless soldiers kneel. The account of his past—once commanding tens of thousands and requiring a major alliance to suppress—reinforces his formidable reputation.
• The Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers remain defiant at first, but without a commander they cannot unite against their captors. They ultimately submit under King Shangyang’s pressure.

Significant themes

• Discipline as strength: The Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers’ formation makes them formidable even against a larger force.
• Rank and command: Ghostly hierarchy can overpower resistance, especially when defeated soldiers have lost their leadership.
• Power used for recruitment: Tang’s victory is not simply about destruction; he turns a dangerous enemy into a potential asset.
• Rescue and reversal: Just as Da Xiang’s group appears doomed, unexpected reinforcements transform the battle and the soldiers’ fate.

Plot points

• Tang Changsheng realizes King Shangyang was a formidable leader who once commanded tens of thousands of ghosts. He mourns the loss of more than a thousand Long-Haired Ghost Soldiers to the Tribulation Lightning, though he knows he could not have subdued such a large force yet.
• He takes comfort in having recruited seventy or eighty Long-Haired War Ghosts, with Yuan Wu to lead them, and expects to build them into an elite force.
• The survivors are awed by Tang’s power and by the hundreds of Yin Soldiers he commands. He tells them that only part of his spirit is present, then orders Du Song and a squad to escort them out of the harmful Ghost Domain.
• Tang declines to leave with the others, saying he must inspect the domain’s depths. Wang Jinhai warns that a cave there may lead to the Netherworld; Tang says he already knows and flies deeper on the Yin Soldier Camp Board.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang shifts quickly from grief and regret to pragmatic optimism, focusing on the troops he did secure and the opportunities his service may bring.
• Wang Hao, Wang Lele, Ji Wenxuan, Da Xiang, and the others see Tang as an almost unmatched, immortal-level figure. Their reactions reveal how dramatically his abilities exceed their expectations.
• Tang treats Wang Jinhai’s group with courtesy, acknowledging the danger they faced, while keeping the secrets of his cultivation method and true body hidden.
• Du Song obeys Tang’s order to escort the group out, reinforcing Tang’s authority over his Yin Soldiers.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: Tang’s impressive strength still does not let him control every ghostly force he encounters.
• Loss and resilience: He regrets the fallen ghosts but refuses to remain trapped in regret.
• Reputation and awe: Witnessing Tang’s power transforms others’ doubts into reverence.
• Secrecy and ambition: Tang conceals key aspects of his cultivation while looking toward greater influence and a better territory in the “Immortal Realm.”

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng and Wang Jinhai reach the edge of the Ghost Domain, where they find a mostly collapsed Ghost Gate battered by a dangerous wind.
• A group of stranded Wild Ghosts submit to Tang. He absorbs them into his Yin Soldier Camp Board, where they become trapped and their power feeds the artifact.
• Their leader, Qian Song, reveals that he was once a Ghost Official in the Netherworld Office. When he gives his name, a ray of soul light enters the board, placing him under Tang’s control.
• Tang questions Qian Song about the Netherworld Office’s recent disaster. Qian recounts a rain of blood that overwhelmed the City God’s domain, forcing him and others to shelter in the Ghost Prison amid Bloodstained Ghosts.
• A Thunderbolt later struck the Netherworld Office, destroying many Bloodstained Ghosts and allowing the survivors to escape. Tang suspects the strike was connected to his own actions, though he does not realize how widely the Tribulation Lightning’s effects spread.
• In the Mortal World, a thunderstorm has badly damaged Lower River City’s City God Temple and started a fire. The Three Families of Xiajiang arrive to investigate.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang demonstrates his authority over the Wild Ghosts and the Yin Soldier Camp Board, which can classify, restrain, and exploit different kinds of Ghost Soldiers.
• Qian Song shifts from a frightened fugitive to a compelled informant, providing a fuller account of the Netherworld crisis than Tang had previously obtained.
• Tang connects Qian Song’s story to the demonic cult’s blood pool and his earlier discovery and killing of the Blood Demon at the City God Temple. He realizes that the blood attack may have been an attempt by the Taiping Church’s Evil God to seize the City God’s domain.
• Wang Jinhai explains the unusual, less material nature of the Ghost Domain as they travel.

Significant themes

• Power and control: Tang’s artifact turns captured Ghosts into subjects and a source of strength, raising the cost of his growing authority.
• Consequences beyond intention: Tang’s actions may have triggered a Thunderbolt with effects far beyond what he understood.
• A weakened order under attack: The shattered Divine Way and the sleeping City God leave the Netherworld vulnerable to corruption and invasion.
• Uncertainty across realms: Different flows of time make it difficult to connect events in the Netherworld with those in the Mortal World.

Key plot points and events

• Lightning strikes again at the Three Families’ ancestral compound, while the rear hall and its ancestral tablets remain intact. The families fear the worst: the statues of their ancestral Ghost Gods have already shattered, suggesting the City God’s protection—and the families’ accumulated Fortune—may be collapsing.
• Tang Changsheng leaves the worried families and returns to Yin-Yang Mountain to check on Wang Jinhai and his companions, who were recently endangered.
• Wang Jinhai promises to help Tang make paper soldiers and other Magical Weapons. He explains that his Paper Opera Sect’s craft depends on carefully made gold and silver paper, and that Magical Weapons require especially suitable bamboo.
• The ideal material is Spirit Bamboo grown on a spirit vein. Wang says paper weapons made from it could, with enough magical power, approach the strength of Spirit Iron equipment.
• Tang realizes Spirit Bamboo may be available on Fuyang Mountain in the “Immortal Realm,” but he has no clear way to transport the enormous quantity needed.

Character developments and interactions

• The younger members of Wang Jinhai’s group now treat Tang with deep respect after their frightening experience in the Ghost Domain taught them how much more powerful beings can exist beyond their own world.
• Wang Jinhai moves from explaining the limits of his craft to offering practical help, while candidly warning Tang that ordinary materials would make weaker weapons.
• Tang is pleased to have skilled collaborators and becomes intrigued by the possibility of Spirit-Bamboo equipment, though he privately worries about obtaining and transporting the material.

Significant themes

• Inherited foundations and loss: The Three Families’ fortunes rest on the sacrifices of their ancestors, making the destruction of their Ghost Gods a threat to both their history and future.
• Experience as a teacher: The younger practitioners’ ordeal turns an abstract lesson in humility into hard-earned understanding.
• Craft, resources, and power: The quality of magical weapons depends not only on skill and magical strength but also on scarce materials—and on the ability to obtain them.