Chapter Summaries

Key events

• Ling Xiaoyu and Tang Changsheng discuss Dead Man Mountain and the history behind its name. She also knows that the General’s Temple has long presided over the ancestral rites of the powerful Fan, Zheng, and Chen families.
• Ling reveals that the Fan family has proposed replacing the temple as the rite’s presiding authority, though the three families have not yet reached a decision. Tang realizes they are questioning his ability, but believes he can win back their confidence by proving his power.
• He plans to reach the Spirit Terrace Realm before the rite, which is still several months away.
• Ling offers to help him resolve the dispute in exchange for Daoist instruction. Tang refuses, unwilling to expose the temple’s secrets or let anyone discover his journeys to the Immortal Realm.
• Their conversation is interrupted when Tang smells burning: he has nearly ruined the rice he was cooking. He rescues the meal, invites Ling to eat, and she happily helps set the table.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng is confident that his cultivation will eventually restore the sleeping Divine General. Though initially wary of Ling’s offer, he enjoys her company and finds her attractive, yet keeps firm boundaries around the temple’s secrets.
• Ling Xiaoyu proves knowledgeable, clever, and socially connected through her ties to the Chen family. She uses teasing and persuasion to bargain for Daoist lessons, but readily joins Tang for dinner when the chance arises.
• Their exchange shifts from probing discussion about the temple’s future to relaxed, playful companionship over a shared meal.

Significant themes

• Tradition versus change: The three families’ possible decision to replace the General’s Temple threatens a centuries-old custom.
• Faith and proof: Tang’s confidence in his future abilities contrasts with the families’ doubts about his present power.
• Secrecy and trust: Tang’s cultivation and journeys remain closely guarded, limiting how much he can share even with someone he likes.
• Everyday warmth: The burnt rice and improvised dinner bring humor and intimacy to a chapter otherwise focused on power and ritual.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng’s prepared meal proves too small for everyone, so Ling Xiaoyu cooks additional dishes that impress him.
• A phone call reports that Song Da is in the hospital. Tang suspects the attack may be connected to the mysterious expert who previously targeted Ling Xiaoyu, and asks about her bat-pendant necklace. She says she bought it at a boutique.
• Concerned for Ling’s safety, Tang invites her to remain at the General’s Temple and says he will contact her family. He suspects an enemy may be watching for him to leave, so he deliberately stays put.
• Zhang Dacheng and Zuo Xingfa arrive with footage of a huge, fast-moving creature overturning assault boats and attacking Song Da’s men. Tang recognizes the incident as the return of an old rival associated with Gourd Islet.
• Zuo and Zhang are alarmed by the name and by Tang’s authority. Tang tells them he will handle the matter without involving them, then demonstrates his power with a blast of supernatural wind.
• After they leave, Ling asks Tang whether the General’s Temple is in trouble.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng is eager to test his recently strengthened cultivation against a powerful foe. He also shows concern for Ling, though he hides his impulse to comfort her. His decision to remain at the temple suggests tactical patience as well as confidence.
• Ling Xiaoyu is perceptive: she notices Tang’s reaction to the phone call and connects his questions about the necklace to her earlier ordeal. Though frightened, she trusts his offer of protection.
• Zhang Dacheng and Zuo Xingfa are shaken by the monster and by Tang’s revelation. Their relief at being excluded from the conflict exposes their fear and sense of powerlessness.

Significant themes

• Old rivalries and inherited conflicts: The attack links present danger to the General’s Temple’s history and the legendary Gourd Islet.
• Power and intimidation: Tang’s supernatural display reinforces his dominance, while the others’ fear shapes what they dare say.
• Protection and vulnerability: Tang’s guarded concern for Ling contrasts with her fear of the hidden enemy.
• Patience and strategy: Rather than rush into a trap, Tang waits for the enemy to make the next move.

Character interactions

• Tang and Ling share a cautious, increasingly trusting exchange: she cooks for him, notices his concern, and agrees to stay at the temple.
• Tang interrogates Zhang and Zuo about the attack, then relieves them of involvement; they conceal their fear and resentment.
• Ling approaches Tang afterward, showing that she has been listening and wants to understand the threat facing the temple.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng suspects that the recent attacks—sending more than a dozen people to the hospital—are meant to lure him away from the General’s Temple. He refuses to take the bait and warns Ling Xiaoyu to stay inside, predicting the attackers may strike the temple that night.
• He explains that the General’s Temple once had several branches across Lower River. More than thirty years ago, the Gourd Islet branch violated the founder’s rules and was expelled.
• Instead of taking Ling Xiaoyu to a secret, dramatic site, Tang leads her to the study and shows her the temple’s digital archive of local histories, legends, and cultivation research.
• Ling Xiaoyu reads theories about the Great Calamity and the decline of spiritual energy. Tang believes much of the research is probably accurate and reflects on how scarce spiritual energy may have made his own cultivation harder.
• An article, “The Last Witchcraft Rebellion,” describes how spiritual energy began vanishing more than two centuries earlier, after which powerful cultivators disappeared within a few decades.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng is cautious and strategically minded, recognizing the likely diversion tactic. He also reveals that, despite his old-fashioned image, he uses modern technology and maintains a searchable archive. His reflections show uncertainty about how much his cultivation depends on the world’s dwindling spiritual energy.
• Ling Xiaoyu is curious and eager for a thrilling account of the temple’s past. She is briefly embarrassed when she learns that a legend she thought was secret is already documented, then becomes absorbed in the archive.
• Their exchange is warm and lightly humorous: Ling Xiaoyu imagines a hidden sect shrine, while Tang matter-of-factly points her toward a computer.

Significant themes

• Tradition meeting modernity: The temple preserves ancient history and cultivation knowledge through a modern digital database.
• Decline and loss: The fading of spiritual energy threatens the future of cultivation and may explain why powerful practitioners vanished.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Researchers can model the decline, but even Tang, the temple’s leader, knows little about the original calamity.
• Vigilance and hidden conflict: Tang’s warning suggests that the temple’s past grudges remain active and may soon lead to another confrontation.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng reflects on the decline of cultivation: spiritual energy vanished more than two centuries ago, leaving only diminished practices such as divination and spirit work. He wonders what caused the collapse and how it led to the Boxer Rebellion, but his sect’s records offer no answers.
• While Ling Xiaoyu reads in the General’s Temple, a bat with glowing red eyes flies through Tang’s open window. He strikes it with the Heavenly Canopy Ruler, leaving it badly injured.
• Tang recognizes that the bat’s entry is suspicious: sects use medicines and protective methods to keep pests and night creatures out.
• He sends a Yin Soldier after whoever was lurking outside. The pursuer escapes into the woods, though apparently not without difficulty. Tang decides not to follow, fearing an ambush.
• The bat’s bloodied body leaves a rancid smell on the ruler. Tang identifies it as the scent of a Three-Corpse Worm and concludes that the attacker is the same expert who previously targeted Ling Xiaoyu—and is using a method from Tang’s own sect.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng is shown to be knowledgeable about sect traditions and practical protections, not just cultivation techniques. His caution and strategic restraint keep him from pursuing an unknown opponent into dangerous woods.
• Ling Xiaoyu remains absorbed in her reading, but the sudden attack startles her. The incident pulls her into the growing threat around Tang.

Character interactions

• Tang and Ling share the room when the bat attacks; Tang acts immediately while Ling asks what happened.
• Tang confronts the unseen attacker indirectly through his Yin Soldier. The adversary escapes, leaving Tang with evidence that links the attack to Ling Xiaoyu’s earlier assailant and to the General’s Temple’s lineage.

Significant themes

• Decline and lost knowledge: Tang’s unanswered questions about the disappearance of spiritual energy frame the chapter’s larger mystery.
• Tradition as practical knowledge: A sect’s strength lies not only in manuals and techniques, but in everyday methods of protection and survival.
• Caution amid uncertainty: Even great power can be undone by unfamiliar arts, so Tang chooses prudence over reckless pursuit.
• Inheritance and danger: The attacker’s use of a method from Tang’s own sect suggests that the past—and its hidden teachings—may be returning as a threat.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng survives Da Xiang’s attempt to attack him with a Three-Corpse Worm. A consecrated Heavenly Canopy Ruler helps him fend off the bat carrying it, while his Yin Soldier wounds Da Xiang.
• After securing the temple, Tang checks himself and Ling Xiaoyu for signs of infection and finds them unharmed. The attack convinces him to train seriously in the Sun Body-Washing Method, whose True Fire could destroy evil creatures and corpse worms.
• Da Xiang escapes by car, badly wounded, but vows that Tang has not defeated him. He threatens to put Tang in a bind by exploiting his obligation to help the injured men.
• The next morning, Tang goes to Chen Family Hospital to check on Song Da and the other wounded men. Ling Xiaoyu wants to accompany him, but he persuades her to stay at the temple and gives her access to his archive.
• At the hospital, Tang’s arrival draws an unusually tense crowd. Rumors identify the injured men as members of the Xingfa Gang, and people react to the General’s Temple mage with a mixture of fear, reverence, and curiosity.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng shows both preparedness and vulnerability: keeping a powerful ritual implement close saves him, but the attack exposes the dangers of occult ambushes. His resolve to strengthen himself grows, while his sense of duty leads him to visit the wounded despite the threat.
• Ling Xiaoyu is curious and eager to investigate, but Tang entrusts her with guarding the temple. Their exchange shows his protective concern and his ability to persuade her by appealing to her interest in the archive.
• Da Xiang is revealed as ruthless and vengeful. Though injured and fleeing, he plans to use Tang’s responsibilities against him.
• The hospital’s staff and visitors react differently: ordinary employees whisper about the injured men and the gang, while older locals and even supposedly fearless young men are cowed by the mage’s reputation.
• Zuo Xingfa, Zhang Dacheng, hospital officials, and the local police chief gather around the arriving mage, underscoring his status and influence.

Significant themes

• Preparedness versus hidden danger: Even a powerful practitioner can be caught off guard by sinister techniques.
• Duty and vulnerability: Tang’s obligation to help his subordinates may become a weapon his enemy can exploit.
• Tradition and reputation: The General’s Temple’s standing inspires awe across generations, shaping how people respond to Tang.
• The limits of power and the need for growth: Surviving the attack strengthens Tang’s determination to cultivate greater protection.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng, a mage of the General’s Temple, arrives at the hospital. His presence inspires such awe that the crowd parts for him.
• He examines a severely disfigured patient and identifies the illness as Corpse Poison. He declares the patient beyond saving and orders immediate cremation to prevent Corpse Transformation.
• Tang asks about Song Da, whose condition is reportedly less severe. He vows to save those he can and have the others cremated quickly.
• Dr. Chen Xin challenges his explanation, asking whether the illness could be an infectious virus and arguing that the cases should be studied. The hospital director tries to silence her, wary of offending the powerful families and underworld figures involved.
• Before the dispute is resolved, the patient—identified as He Da—dies. His expression retains a bluish, ferocious quality, and an old man fears that he died with unresolved resentment.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng appears decisive and accustomed to authority. He is unmoved by the medical staff’s reactions, but the patient’s condition still shocks him.
• Chen Xin shows independence and a scientific outlook, openly questioning Tang despite the room’s deference to him. Her challenge also exposes her unfamiliarity with local traditions and power structures.
• The hospital director is caught between Chen Xin’s professional concerns and the risk of antagonizing influential groups. He attempts to remove her from the discussion.
• The relatives and onlookers lose hope when Tang rules the patient unsalvageable; they also show fear and reverence around death and the General’s Temple.

Significant themes

• Traditional authority versus scientific inquiry: Tang’s supernatural diagnosis is accepted by most, while Chen Xin seeks a medical explanation.
• Power and social hierarchy: The General’s Temple commands deep respect, and even prominent families tread carefully around it.
• Death, fear, and transformation: The chapter frames death not as an endpoint but as a potential danger, with resentment possibly leading to Corpse Transformation.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng explains that the dead man and the injured men were afflicted with Corpse Poison. He warns that the dead man could become a zombie after seven days, so the family and authorities quickly arrange cremation—an unusual decision in a place where burial is customary.
• Tang notices a gold chain with a purple bead clutched in the corpse’s hand. The bead seems to remind him of a legend, but he puts it away without explaining further.
• Tang examines Song Da, who is also poisoned but still alive, and declares that he can be saved. He orders medicinal ingredients and treats him and several others in herbal baths at the hospital.
• Tang learns that Ling Xiaoyu is connected to the Chen family and that her father belongs to a distant branch of the prestigious White Lake Ling Clan.
• Ling Xiaoyu waits alone at the General’s Temple as night falls. Frightened by the temple’s eerie surroundings, she longs for Tang to return. He stays at the hospital to care for the injured, partly to maintain the trust of those who work for the temple.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng acts decisively, using his knowledge of Corpse Poison to calm the group and save the living victims. His interest in the purple bead and his hope that Ling Xiaoyu can protect the temple hint at concerns he keeps to himself.
• Ling Xiaoyu shifts from curiosity about Tang’s documents to growing fear as the night deepens.
• Zhang Dacheng supplies Tang with information about Ling Xiaoyu’s family background.
• The Chen family, Zhang Dacheng, and Zuo Xingfa help make the otherwise difficult cremation possible. Even people who disliked Song Da are relieved that he may survive.

Significant themes

• Folklore and fear: Beliefs about zombies and the dead shape people’s reactions and decisions.
• Duty and trust: Tang treats the victims because they were harmed while working for the General’s Temple, and their recovery affects confidence in him.
• Tradition and modernity: The story contrasts customary burial and traditional medicine with modern hospitals and Western medicine.
• Hidden mysteries: The purple bead, the Ling Clan connection, and the threat to the temple foreshadow larger developments.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng’s ritual treatment is improving Song Da and the other patients, despite leaving behind foul, discolored bathwater that the hospital must handle carefully. Dr. Chen Xin is exhausted and baffled by the results.
• Fog creeps across the hospital grounds, the air turns unnaturally cold, and a swarm of blood-red-eyed bats attacks the staff. Chen Xin recognizes that their bites are venomous and leads the survivors out of the duty room, locking the bats inside.
• In the dim corridor, a bloodied patient with rolled-back eyes and a scalpel attacks and kills a doctor. He pursues Chen Xin, moving awkwardly but at frightening speed.
• Tang Changsheng intervenes, striking the patient and hurling him several meters. A gray-black shadow flies from the patient’s body, which Chen Xin witnesses.

Character developments

• Chen Xin shifts from skeptical curiosity about Tang Changsheng’s treatment to confronting supernatural danger firsthand. Despite her fear and venomous bites, she warns the staff and helps them escape.
• Tang Changsheng moves from quietly monitoring the situation to directly protecting Chen Xin and confronting the possessed patient.
• The hospital staff, initially focused on the exhausting treatment, are thrown into terror and disorder by the attacks.

Significant themes

• Clash between scientific medicine and the supernatural: Chen Xin cannot explain Tang’s apparently effective methods, and the attacks further undermine ordinary explanations.
• Hidden danger and escalation: The strange treatment is followed by ominous fog, cold, venomous bats, and a violent patient, suggesting a larger threat is emerging.
• Courage amid fear: Chen Xin and Tang act decisively even as the hospital descends into chaos.

Character interactions

• Chen Xin watches Tang’s treatment with skepticism and fascination, while the nurses share her exhaustion and confusion.
• When the bats attack, Chen Xin warns the staff of the venom and leads them to safety.
• Tang rescues Chen Xin from the armed patient just as he is about to strike, and she clutches Tang’s clothes in shock as the shadow leaves the patient’s body.

Plot points and events

• Da Xiang’s actions have apparently driven dozens of Vicious Ghosts into the hospital, now filled with white mist and supernatural activity.
• Tang Changsheng pulls Chen Xin to safety and destroys an attacking ghost with his blood.
• He then intervenes when a Grudge Ghost possesses a man and chases a nurse. The possessed man displays unnatural strength and agility, while the ghost rapidly drains his body’s vitality.
• Tang uses Palm Thunder to expel the ghost, but the freed spirit becomes a streak of gray vapor and attacks Chen Xin.
• Tang is too weakened to stop it. Just as the ghost reaches her, a faint light from Chen Xin makes it vanish. Tang is left wondering what protected her.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng shows courage and quick judgment, risking his health to protect others. His limited strength becomes clear: Palm Thunder severely exhausts him.
• Chen Xin remains mostly mysterious, but the light that destroys the ghost suggests she has an unexplained protective power.
• The nurse is shown terrified and vulnerable amid the attack; Tang’s intervention saves her from the possessed man.

Character interactions

• Tang protects Chen Xin as the hospital fills with ghosts, then fights to save the nurse from the possessed man.
• After Tang expels the ghost, Chen Xin warns him of the escaping spirit—but it turns on her instead.
• Tang tries to intervene, but Chen Xin’s unexplained protection resolves the danger before he can act.

Significant themes

• The supernatural returning: Ghosts appear in a world where spiritual energy and magic are thought to be fading.
• The cost of power: Tang’s techniques can defeat spirits, but using them drains his strength and vitality.
• Unanswered mysteries: The sudden outbreak and Chen Xin’s protective light raise questions about what is changing—and what Chen herself may be.

Key plot points and events

• In the hospital, Chen Xin reveals a protective necklace, and Tang Changsheng confirms that no Vicious Ghost has possessed her.
• A swarm of bats attacks Tang, but he drives them off with garlic water—an improvised defense that surprisingly works.
• Tang gets Chen Xin to safety, then follows the attacker outside. He finds yellow paper and soybeans, recognizing that the enemy used the Bean-Summoning Soldiers Technique.
• He discovers a missing relic, the Yin Soldier Camp Board, among the traces of the attack. The board had been lost for decades and is now back in the General’s Temple’s possession.
• The attacker, Da Xiang, has fled after Tang’s Yin Soldiers defeat his technique and badly injure him. He is found by companions and collapses.
• At dawn, Tang returns to Yin-Yang Mountain. Ling Xiaoyu apologizes for falling asleep while guarding the temple, but Tang reassures her that the guardian Yin Soldiers protected it.
• Tang sends Ling home and prepares to enter seclusion to cultivate. He studies the recovered board, whose thirty-two pieces correspond to the soldiers in a Yin Soldier camp.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng shows resourcefulness in the hospital, confidence in confronting the attacker, and deep satisfaction at recovering an important sect relic. He also reveals that his precautions at the temple were more substantial than Ling realized.
• Chen Xin is frightened but appears unharmed by possession; her necklace may have helped protect her.
• Ling Xiaoyu is earnest and eager to help, yet disappointed that she did not prove useful. She reluctantly leaves, though her wandering eyes suggest she may be plotting to return.
• Da Xiang recognizes Tang’s superior cultivation and is left severely injured after his technique fails.
• Tang treats Ling kindly and reassures her, while keeping her out of the hospital’s danger.

Significant themes

• Preparation and improvisation: Tang’s small supply of garlic water becomes useful at a crucial moment.
• Inherited legacy and recovered history: The Yin Soldier Camp Board reconnects the General’s Temple with a lost part of its past.
• Sect rivalry and tradition: Tang contrasts the Gourd Islet branch’s Western witchcraft with the school’s traditional techniques.
• Protection and belonging: Tang’s concern for the temple and for Ling shapes his decisions, even when he does not explain all his precautions.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng recovers the Yin Soldier Camp Board and decides that forging a full camp could give the General’s Temple a major advantage. He suspects the founding master is guiding him, and considers using the board if the Fan and Deng households remain hostile.
• He purifies his existing Yin Soldier with a talisman and places it in the board’s “General” piece. The board responds with a brief glow, confirming that it can nourish and strengthen Yin Soldiers.
• Though the board was traditionally meant for powerful ghosts, Tang accepts that his current resources are limited: he plans to build up the camp’s numbers first and improve its quality later.
• He travels to a mountain graveyard, where incense and rice attract ghosts into Eight Trigrams bags. After a night of trapping them, he takes thirty or forty ghosts back to the modern era. Most are weak Wild or Lonely Wandering Ghosts; only three are Grudge Ghosts. He leaves before the area’s intelligent Vicious Ghost can notice him.
• Back in the modern era, he begins experimenting with one of the captured Wild Ghosts.

Character development

• Tang grows more strategic and determined, viewing spells and specialized tools—not cultivation alone—as essential to defending his Dao.
• He is pragmatic about working with weak materials and ghosts, accepting an imperfect start rather than waiting for ideal resources.
• His confidence is tempered by caution: he knows he cannot yet fight powerful ghosts and carefully avoids attracting the attention of the graveyard’s Vicious Ghost.

Significant themes

• Strength through preparation: A camp of Yin Soldiers could transform the General’s Temple’s power.
• Adaptation to decline: Tang lowers his standards to suit the depleted resources of the Age of Dharma’s Decline.
• Risk and ambition: Building an army requires capturing ghosts, but stronger opponents make the undertaking dangerous.
• Ritual tools and spiritual cultivation: The board, talismans, incense, and spirit food show how specialized practices can compensate for limited personal power.

Character interactions

• Tang treats his Yin Soldier as a potential future commander, offering it a chance to rise in status before cleansing and placing it in the board.
• He lures the graveyard ghosts with incense and spirit food, then traps them in bags.
• Tang’s plans are also shaped by the political tension with the Chen, Fan, and Deng households, though his immediate focus is preparing the Yin Soldier camp.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng tests the Bagua Mirror’s ability to cross worlds. It needs substantial spiritual energy: one Grudge Ghost may suffice, but a dozen or more wandering ghosts are required. With no ghosts to feed it, the mirror draws on the pearl’s power. Modern devices also stop working when brought into the other world.
• Back at the General’s Temple, Tang focuses on refining the Yin Soldier Formation Board, which could protect him and assist during the coming ancestral rites.
• He worries that the prosperous Fan and Deng households may hire capable cultivators to interfere with the rites.
• Ling Xiaoyu warns him that the Fan Household has hired a supposed Maoshan daoist, while the Deng Household has brought in a Lai Ma Grand Shaman. Though Tang mocks the Maoshan title as often falsely claimed, he recognizes that the Fan family is unlikely to have hired a fraud.
• After learning the Deng household hired its ritual specialist mainly to compete with the Fans, Tang begins forming a plan and offers to teach Ling Xiaoyu some magic.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng grows more cautious about the ancestral rites, recognizing that skilled practitioners still exist despite the decline of traditional cultivation schools. He also shows strategic thinking by turning Ling’s interest in magic into a practical alliance.
• Ling Xiaoyu proves well-informed and eager to learn. She is delighted by Tang’s offer, though she continues calling him “Master” even after he tells her not to.
• Their exchange is playful and slightly flirtatious: Tang briefly touches Ling while stopping her bow, then quickly regains his composure. He clarifies that she will not be a formal disciple, but rather someone he teaches informally.

Significant themes

• Declining traditions and lingering power: Great schools such as Mount Mao have fallen from their former prominence, yet genuine practitioners remain.
• Power, alliances, and self-interest: The Fan and Deng households hire ritual specialists amid rivalry, while Tang’s temple traditionally forms reciprocal ties with influential supporters.
• Adaptation and resourcefulness: Tang experiments with the mirror’s limitations, prepares the Yin Soldier formation, and seeks to use Ling’s interest and information to his advantage.

• Tang Changsheng and Ling Xiaoyu: Xiaoyu asks Tang to teach her invisibility after being inspired by a movie hero. Tang explains that the art—yang escape—is beyond even his abilities and tells her to focus on fundamentals. When he suggests stance training, she protests that it might make her legs look thick and playfully coaxes him into dropping the idea. Tang tries to restore his authority as her master, but her jokingly calling him a “venerable elder” leaves him wondering whether he really seems old. Their exchange shows Xiaoyu’s cheeky confidence and Tang’s flustered, increasingly personal feelings toward her.
• The ancestral rites and the three families: The Fan, Deng, and Chen families have centuries-old ties to the General’s Temple, which has traditionally presided over their ancestral rites. Though the temple has weakened as spiritual energy has faded and the families have grown more powerful and dispersed, the custom remains. Descendants are beginning to gather in Lower River for another large ceremony, thirty years after the last one.
• The Fan family’s plans: Fan Zhifeng questions his father, Fan Zhongxin, about inviting Mage He to preside. Zhongxin says it is a precaution, but insists the family must honor its tradition: “Rules are greater than heaven.” When Zhifeng voices doubts about the temple’s decline, Zhongxin silences him and points to the Deng family’s choice of a Lai Ma Grand Shaman, suggesting the families’ competing arrangements may be part of a broader plan. Zhifeng recognizes that their alliance is held together by old rules and habits, despite internal disputes.
• Dasi Ke’s ambition: Unaware of the families’ maneuvering, the Lai Ma Grand Shaman is convinced he will defeat the General’s Temple and rise to prominence by killing Tang Changsheng. He anticipates wealth and status as an honored guest of the Fan family. The chapter closes by noting that the decline of spiritual energy has devastated orthodox cultivation traditions.
  Key themes: Tradition and obligation persist even as institutions weaken; family power is shaped by rules, alliances, and hidden motives; and the fading of spiritual energy threatens the old cultivation world.

Plot points and events

• Dasi Ke, a Lai Ma Grand Shaman, prepares two bone-filled jars by feeding them his blood. He believes his tradition’s ghost-raising arts are superior to those of the General’s Temple and is confident he can defeat Tang Changsheng.
• Tang Changsheng learns that Dasi Ke is making Mother-and-Child Vicious Ghosts—spirits created by brutally killing a pregnant woman, separating mother and child, and cultivating their resentment. He condemns the practice and decides to act.
• Tang tells Ling Xiaoyu to stay behind while he prepares. She secretly follows, and he eventually lets her watch, warning her not to interrupt or lose hold of her protective talisman.
• Tang sets up the Yin Soldier Camp Board. After revealing its hidden spirit realm, he shows Ling Xiaoyu the sect’s guardian Yin Soldier and prepares to refine his forces.

Character developments and interactions

• Dasi Ke is shown as ruthless and self-assured, willing to spill his own blood to empower his ghosts.
• Tang Changsheng responds to the atrocity with grim resolve. His confidence rests on his forebear’s victories over Southern Yi shamans and on his own improved cultivation and preparation.
• Ling Xiaoyu is horrified by the ghosts’ origins but trusts her master. Her curiosity leads her to follow him, while Tang’s stern warnings show his concern for her safety. She admires the guardian Yin Soldier rather than reacting with fear.

Significant themes

• Cruelty and resentment: The ghosts’ power is born from deliberate suffering and the severing of a mother-child bond.
• Tradition and rivalry: The chapter contrasts Lai Ma shamanic practices with the General’s Temple and invokes an old history of conflict between them.
• Preparation and growing strength: Tang’s improved skill, stored talismans, and spirit-realm board show how much more capable he has become.
• Trust and curiosity: Ling Xiaoyu’s faith in Tang coexists with her eagerness to witness his work.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng chooses to build strength through numbers rather than try to refine a few powerful Vicious Ghosts. Orthodox methods are slower than dark arts, but avoid corrupting ghosts, creating future dangers, or provoking them to turn on their master.
• He prepares a pool of true water and a Fire Marsh of True Fire, using traditional rites and talismans. Together, they cleanse and temper ghosts as part of orthodox Yin Soldier refinement.
• Tang releases captured Grudge Ghosts one at a time, washes away their resentment and impurities in the pool, then burns away their remaining vicious energy in the fire. He sends each refined spirit into the Yin Soldier Camp Board.
• After several hours, he has added eight Yin Soldiers. The first is the camp’s Ghost General; the weaker later spirits serve as ordinary Ghost Soldiers. The board can eventually hold thirty-two soldiers.
• Ling Xiaoyu finds the ritual increasingly tedious and secretly checks her phone. Her startled shout distracts Tang, causing one ghost to remain in the fire too long and nearly burn to ash.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng demonstrates patience, preparation, and commitment to orthodox cultivation, despite his limited inner power. His refinement is only a crude version of the full rite, but he presses on using the talismans he has prepared.
• Ling Xiaoyu is curious at first but grows bored because she cannot perceive the ritual’s difficulty or meaning. Her carelessness nearly disrupts the work.

Significant themes

• Orthodoxy versus dark arts: dark methods offer quick power but bring corruption and danger; orthodox practice is slower and safer.
• Purification and transformation: water and fire remove spiritual impurities and stabilize the ghosts, changing their nature rather than merely making them stronger.
• Expertise and perception: Tang understands the ritual’s complexity, while Ling sees only repetitive black energy moving between a basin and a brazier.

Character interactions

• Tang performs the ritual while Ling watches, highlighting the gap between practitioner and observer. Her sudden interruption breaks his concentration and nearly destroys a ghost, underscoring the care his work requires.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Ling Xiaoyu alerts Tang Changsheng to an unexpected thunderstorm just as he is working with the Yin Soldier Camp Board. He rushes the board and its eight Ghost Soldiers into the sealed Quiet Room before the thunder begins.
• The Ghost Soldiers are knocked down by the thunder, but the closed room shields them from its destructive power. Tang realizes how close he came to losing them and privately decides Xiaoyu may be his “lucky star.”
• Xiaoyu asks whether the Ghost Soldiers are ready to attack the Deng Household and punish Lai Ma Grand Shaman Dasi Ke. Tang refuses to challenge Dasi Ke openly, since doing so would lend an obscure opponent prestige and diminish Tang’s standing as head of the General’s Temple.
• Instead, Tang chooses a covert strike. Confident in the numbers of his thirteen Yin Soldiers, he sends them to attack Dasi Ke while he sleeps at a Deng Household residence.
• Dasi Ke’s vigilance saves him from the first blow, but the Yin Soldiers press their assault. He uses his Talisman Tong to repel one ghost, yet another cuts the talisman in half. The chapter ends with Dasi Ke cornered and unable to summon his Mother-and-Child Vicious Ghosts.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng shows caution and strategic pride: he protects his Ghost Soldiers from thunder and avoids a public challenge that could elevate Dasi Ke. He prefers a surprise attack that lets him act without appearing to dignify his rival.
• Ling Xiaoyu proves observant and quick-thinking by warning Tang in time. Tang’s growing belief that she brings him good fortune is reinforced.
• Dasi Ke is established as experienced and alert; he reacts quickly to the initial ambush. However, the coordinated attacks overwhelm him, and the destruction of his talisman leaves him frightened and vulnerable.

Significant themes

• Fortune and timely intervention: Xiaoyu’s warning protects Tang’s operation, strengthening his sense that she is unusually lucky for him.
• Reputation and status: Tang’s refusal to challenge Dasi Ke publicly reflects the importance of rank and prestige in the martial world.
• Preparation versus surprise: Dasi Ke’s vigilance helps him initially, but Tang’s hidden, coordinated attack keeps him from responding effectively.
• Supernatural vulnerability: Thunder can destroy ghosts and threaten magical artifacts, while protective talismans and ghostly forces shape the balance of power.

Character interactions

• Xiaoyu warns Tang about the storm, and he responds urgently, later crediting her with saving his work.
• Xiaoyu urges a direct attack on Dasi Ke; Tang explains the reputational cost and reveals his preference for covert action.
• The Yin Soldiers ambush Dasi Ke in his room, forcing him to rely on his talisman and leaving him unable to retaliate effectively.

Plot points and events

• Lai Ma Grand Shaman Dasi Ke is attacked in his room by multiple Yin Soldiers. He fights off some by biting his tongue and using his blood, but more overwhelm him. A Ghost Artifact cuts him from abdomen to chest, killing him before he can reach his ritual implements.
• After dawn, Mage He identifies the weapon as a Ghost Artifact: a rare, yin-made weapon that ghosts and Yin Soldiers can wield to affect the material world.
• Deng Xiancheng is less interested in who killed Dasi Ke than in what the attack reveals about the General’s Temple, whose mages he now regards as exceptionally powerful.
• Chen Weiming tells Ling Xiaoyu that the Deng Household likely hired Dasi Ke to test the General’s Temple, despite knowing the risk. He expects the household to try again. He also reveals that Ling’s father knows she is in Lower River.
• Tang Changsheng reflects on the cost of the attack: four of his eight Yin Soldiers were destroyed, his Ghost General was injured, and the Ghost Artifact shattered. Though he can replace Yin Soldiers, he has no way to replace the rare weapon.

Character developments and interactions

• Dasi Ke is exposed as powerful but fatally careless: he left his ritual implements out of reach while staying on the Deng Household’s grounds. He dies unable to use most of his abilities.
• Deng Xiancheng shows strategic restraint, focusing on the General’s Temple’s strength rather than pursuing the identity of the killer.
• Chen Weiming reveals his perceptiveness beneath his disheveled, drunken appearance. He warns Xiaoyu but admits he has concealed her whereabouts from her father—only to let slip that her father already knows.
• Ling Xiaoyu is curious about Chen’s reasoning, then becomes upset when she learns her father knows where she is.
• Tang Changsheng is troubled by the heavy losses, especially the shattered Ghost Artifact, despite the apparent success of the assassination.

Significant themes

• Preparedness and vulnerability: Dasi Ke’s lapse in caution turns his abilities into little protection.
• Power and its cost: The General’s Temple’s strength is demonstrated, but the victory consumes valuable forces and equipment.
• Political maneuvering: The Deng Household appears to have used Dasi Ke as a disposable test of the Temple’s capabilities.
• Misjudgment and hidden knowledge: Characters draw conclusions from incomplete evidence, while Chen’s insight and accidental disclosure reveal how much can be happening beneath the surface.

Key plot points

• Still shaken by his near-fatal encounter with the Lai Ma Grand Shaman, Tang Changsheng retreats from the General’s Temple to the “Immortal Realm,” realizing he fled there out of fear. He decides to replenish his Yin Soldiers.
• Rain prevents him from gathering the sun and moon’s essence. While traveling through the misty mountains, he hides from armed government soldiers who seem to be pursuing a Daoist.
• Tang reaches a burial ground and falls asleep from exhaustion. That night, shouting and fighting wake him: a wounded Daoist arrives wielding a Bronze Lamp whose red light overwhelms and subdues numerous Vicious Ghosts.
• Dozens of soldiers surround the Daoist. Tang recognizes him as True Person Lü, a powerful figure he previously saw advising nobles at a ritual.
• Lü accuses the heir of murdering his father, usurping his position, poisoning Marquis Su, and falsely blaming Lü’s elixir. He vows to fight rather than surrender.

Character developments and interactions

• Tang Changsheng recognizes how vulnerable he is after facing Dasi Ke and responds by retreating. Though he tells himself the soldiers’ pursuit is no concern of his, his unease—and later his instinct to hide—show his caution. He watches Lü’s extraordinary power with astonishment but remains concealed.
• True Person Lü is revealed as a formidable Daoist, capable of commanding ghosts with his lamp, yet badly wounded and politically hunted. His grief and anger expose the perilous circumstances behind his fall from favor.
• Tang and Lü have not yet spoken or interacted directly; Tang recognizes Lü from their earlier encounter and observes his confrontation with the soldiers.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Even renowned practitioners can be caught off guard, outnumbered, or brought low by political forces.
• Fear and self-preservation: Tang’s retreat and concealment contrast with Lü’s desperate decision to resist.
• Political treachery and scapegoating: Lü claims that murder and usurpation have been concealed by framing him and his elixir.
• The supernatural made visible: The Bronze Lamp’s effect on the ghosts emphasizes the extraordinary scale of Lü’s abilities.

Key plot points and events

• True Person Lü Yuanhua uses a lamp to unleash powerful Grudge Ghosts, which kill an entire squad of elite soldiers by draining their blood and vital essence.
• He discovers Tang Changsheng nearby. The two recognize each other from the Primordial Yang Abbey, which has been raided after Marquis Wu’s heir rebelled, killed his father, and blamed Lü.
• Lü explains that he had been making an elixir for Marquis Wu. Tang argues that helping the ruler pursue immortality threatened the heir’s future and helped provoke the rebellion.
• Lü is shaken by the accusation, admits Tang is right, and reveals that he had once intended to warn Tang. He also concedes that he would not have heeded the warning himself.
• As Lü appears close to death, Tang offers to help. Lü begins to suggest that Tang may want the ghost-controlling lamp.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng is horrified by Lü’s power but speaks candidly about the political consequences of his work. He also regrets not warning Lü earlier, while recognizing that fear and the need to protect his secret treasure had held him back.
• Lü Yuanhua shifts from fearsome practitioner to a defeated, reflective man. He accepts responsibility for his role in the disaster and seems to prepare for death.

Significant themes

• Daoist power and politics: The chapter warns that using supernatural arts to serve rulers can destabilize political succession and bring ruin.
• Advice and human nature: People often reject sound counsel when it concerns their own interests; Lü admits he would have ignored Tang’s warning.
• Regret and responsibility: Tang regrets staying silent, while Lü confronts the consequences of his choices.

Character interactions

• Tang and Lü’s reunion turns a tense encounter into a candid reckoning between former acquaintances.
• Tang challenges Lü’s account of events, linking the elixir project to the heir’s rebellion. Lü accepts the criticism rather than defending himself.
• Tang offers help as Lü falters, while Lü appears ready to discuss the lamp’s fate.

Plot points and events

• Tang Changsheng asks True Person Lü Yuanhua for the powerful Primordial Yang Treasure Lamp. Lü refuses to give him the lamp outright, but offers to teach him how to refine one.
• Lü explains that the lamp is a life-bound ritual implement: it lasts only as long as its master lives. He asks Tang to bury him with it, then dies, and the lamp’s flame goes out, leaving it ruined.
• Tang respectfully buries Lü and the destroyed lamp. He also secretly takes the Daoist scripture that fell from Lü’s clothing.
• At dawn, Tang discovers that the scripture has turned to ash, but its contents have been transmitted directly into his Sea of Consciousness. It teaches him to cultivate the Heavenly Heart and refine the Primordial Yang Divine Lamp.
• Realizing the lamp could help solve a major obstacle in cultivation, Tang returns to the General’s Temple to find someone who can forge one. Back in the temple, he checks his surroundings and summons his guardian Yin Soldiers.

Character developments

• Tang Changsheng is candid about wanting the lamp, but insists on acquiring it properly. He shows respect for Lü’s death while also pragmatically keeping the scripture. Once he understands its value, he becomes eager to apply its teachings.
• True Person Lü Yuanhua reveals his regret over failing to overcome death and fulfill his ambitions. Before dying, he passes on his knowledge and asks Tang to bury him with the lamp.

Significant themes

• The danger and uncertainty of cultivation: Lü’s sudden death illustrates how easily a cultivator can fall short of the Dao.
• Inheritance and transmission: Knowledge survives its written form through direct transmission into Tang’s consciousness.
• Practical adaptation: Tang values the scripture because its techniques address problems his own school cannot easily solve.
• Respect and self-interest: Tang honors Lü while accepting the benefits Lü deliberately leaves him.

Character interactions

• Tang and Lü negotiate over the lamp: Tang openly asks for it, while Lü refuses the direct request but offers instruction instead.
• Lü’s final request binds Tang to bury him with the lamp. Tang honors the request, though he also takes Lü’s scripture.
• After returning to the General’s Temple, Tang acts cautiously, checking the temple’s safety before pursuing the lamp’s creation.