Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Flooding has destroyed the shortest route through the mountains, leaving Lin Feng, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu, and their guide with few options. Lin Feng senses a dangerous presence ahead.
• The guide warns that the only alternate route is a corpse drivers’ path—a feared “Yin Road” that may now be haunted after the recent deaths. He says it contains a Ghost Yamen and that travelers could be mistaken for the dead.
• With the blood god still behind them and no safe way back, Lin Feng chooses the forbidden path. Zhu backs his decision, and the frightened guide leads them onward.
• The path grows unnaturally dark and oppressive. Whispering and unseen watchers surround the group, though Lin Feng and Zhu seem protected by their status and qi.
• Without seeing any attacker, the guide suddenly collapses and dies. Moments later, Zhu also falls lifeless. Lin Feng is left alone, unable to tell what killed them.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains pragmatic and decisive under pressure, choosing the dangerous route over being trapped in the mountains. His supernatural protections appear to shield him, but they do not prevent the others’ deaths.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu supports Lin Feng’s judgment and maintains a forceful, commanding presence, but is abruptly struck down by the path’s unseen threat.
• The guide is terrified of the corpse drivers’ route and explains its dangers and the low social status of people in shady trades. Despite his fear, he obeys the decision to proceed and dies along the way.
• Lin Feng’s authority overrides the guide’s protests, while Zhu reinforces that choice with a blunt ultimatum.

Significant themes

• Choice under coercion: The group must choose between an immediate, known danger and a mysterious, apparently lethal route.
• The supernatural and the unseen: The path’s threat is never revealed directly; its effects arrive without warning.
• Social hierarchy and stigma: The guide’s account shows how corpse drivers and other “shady trades” are despised, even though their survival requires specialized skill.
• Unequal protection and vulnerability: Lin Feng appears shielded by his abilities, but his companions are not, leaving him isolated in a hostile environment.

• Plot and events: On the mountain trail, Lin Feng discovers that his two companions—the guide and Hundred-Household Officer Zhu—have died. A ghost killed the guide, but Zhu appears to have died from poison, perhaps after his protective sachet stopped working. Lin Feng survives, protected by Dragon-Tiger Qi and the Mountain God’s Power. He takes their supplies, Zhu’s identification badge, and the map, but leaves the guide’s sinister ritual objects behind. The map marks several suspected danger spots.
• Lin Feng’s progress: Using Sword Heart Clarity, he senses no immediate threat and enters a trance. He sees ghosts hiding throughout the forest, but feels more confident now that he can perceive and potentially kill them. His Dragon-Tiger Qi releases a tiger-like roar that drives the ghosts away, while the mountain’s wind seems to welcome and nourish him. He gains another wisp of qi, though his cultivation remains at the modest Qi Gathering stage.
• Rising danger: After lingering, Lin Feng senses an approaching threat and notices the sky darkening. Fearing exposure, hypothermia, and lightning, he hurries toward the Auspicious Spirit Inn, despite the guide’s warning that it is sinister. The storm grows, the ghosts disappear, and Lin Feng veers off the trail—then realizes he has no compass, sun, or stars to guide him.
• Character development and interactions: Lin Feng shifts from the inexperienced survivor of his earlier adventure into a more capable, pragmatic traveler. He calmly handles the bodies, uses his protections and senses, and prioritizes survival over curiosity. His only direct interaction is with the guide’s ghost, which he destroys with one sword thrust; he also offers his dead companions a dry farewell before fleeing the storm.
• Themes: The chapter contrasts the fragility of human life with the immense power of nature and the supernatural. It also emphasizes adaptation and survival: Lin Feng’s unusual protections make him suited to the mountains, but his growing confidence cannot eliminate the dangers of weather, terrain, or poor preparation.

Key plot points and events

• Lost in a dark, storm-lashed forest, Lin Feng relies on his supernatural blessings and danger sense to find the remote Jixi Inn.
• Sinister, boneless figures approach, claiming that their “uncle” wants to see him. Lin Feng refuses and kills them with his sword. Their green, cursed blood appears connected to the strange claw he encountered earlier.
• Lightning strikes the corpses rather than Lin Feng, but his sense of imminent danger drives him to flee into the inn.
• Inside, the storm’s violence is muted. Lin Feng finds an altar holding three corpse-like figures: Mother-Child Gu, Granny Ayi, and Grandpa A-Qing. Their appearance—especially Mother-Child Gu’s insect-like body—reminds him of Third Lady.
• He waits near the entrance, wary of the altar and the absent innkeeper. When the figures seem to watch him, he offers them pieces of food and apologizes for trespassing. Their response is ominous: foul black water spills from Mother-Child Gu, and Lin Feng realizes he may have violated the local rules by failing to leave a proper offering.

Character development and interactions

• Lin Feng remains practical under pressure, but readily combines his swordsmanship with supernatural guidance when ordinary navigation fails.
• His caution shapes his choices: he ignores the strangers’ invitation, escapes the lightning, and stays near the exit rather than exploring the inn.
• He treats the shrine figures respectfully, trying to negotiate safety with food and apologies, though his ignorance of their customs may put him in danger.
• The approaching figures speak on behalf of an unseen “uncle”; Lin Feng rejects their summons and fights them. At the inn, he addresses the three enshrined corpses as powerful hosts.

Significant themes

• Survival through instinct and adaptability: Lin Feng abandons rational navigation when it fails and trusts his blessings and danger sense.
• The peril of unfamiliar customs: Respect alone may not be enough when one does not understand the rules of a supernatural place.
• The uncanny within apparent refuge: The inn offers shelter from the storm but introduces a quieter, more personal threat.
• Nature and supernatural forces intertwined: The cursed blood, targeted lightning, and rainstorm suggest that the forest’s weather is bound to the strange beings within it.

Key plot points

• Lin Feng tries to calm the three hostile ancient corpses at the Joyful Spirit Inn, offering what he has and asking them to let the matter go. When they attack anyway, he fights back with his dragon-tiger qi and Mountain God’s fury, destroying Eunuch Ah Qing, Granny Ah Yi, and the Mother-Child Gu.
• Corpse driver Li Pusa arrives and realizes the inn’s three guardians—dangerous ancient corpses bound to suppress the area’s yin energy—have all been destroyed. He finds Lin Feng gravely wounded and assumes he is dying.
• Lin Feng suddenly revives, fully healed, through the game’s “Continue Game” option. He questions Li Pusa about reaching Bull-Head Stockade. Li Pusa says the mountain road has collapsed and explains that he traveled by “yin roadwalking.”
• The inn’s protection appears to have failed after the corpses’ destruction. A strange, hanged-looking figure returns with an invitation from its uncle. Li Pusa identifies it as a summons from the Ghost Yamen. As Lin Feng senses danger, he turns to counter an unseen threat.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng is stubborn, combative, and unwilling to tolerate what he sees as an insult; even near death, he regrets only not having his sword. His revival leaves him composed and curious, and he treats Li Pusa as a potential source of information.
• Li Pusa appears meek and deferential, but he knows the region’s supernatural customs and immediately understands the danger created by the guardians’ destruction. Lin Feng’s uncanny knowledge of his name and sudden recovery leave him frightened and cautious.
• Lin Feng’s attempted negotiation with the inn’s three entities fails, leading to a violent confrontation. Afterward, he presses Li Pusa for directions and knowledge, while Li Pusa answers carefully out of fear and respect.

Significant themes

• Negotiation versus violence: Lin Feng tries to settle matters peacefully, but responds decisively when attacked.
• Folklore and supernatural systems: The inn, ancient corpses, yin roadwalking, and Ghost Yamen belong to a wider network of occult rules and institutions.
• Death and renewal: Lin Feng’s apparent death and abrupt restoration blur the boundary between life and death.
• Consequences of disrupting balance: The guardians’ destruction seems to remove the inn’s protection, allowing a new supernatural danger to return.

Key plot points and events

• After being beaten to death at the inn, Lin Feng examines his new passive skill, Precise Vision, which lets him instinctively spot an enemy’s weakness.
• He recalls that the attackers were Stone-Skinned Puppets, not tiger thralls. He fought until exhausted, even discovering a self-damaging blood-sword technique, but the toothless old woman appeared and swallowed him and Li Pusa.
• During the break between attempts, Lin Feng considers how dangerous and opaque the mission is. Clear Spring Stockade still holds mysteries involving the Embroidered Uniform Guard, poison, a blood god, and a secret letter. He suspects the group is expendable and that an enemy Yangtongzi may be waiting near Bull-Head Stockade.
• Lin Feng resumes the game and is spat out with Li Pusa into a dark, rain-soaked place. A huge figure orders that Lin Feng be “refined,” while the old woman grabs him.
• Using Precise Vision, Lin Feng strikes the old woman’s vital point and kills her. The immense figure then approaches and kills Lin Feng with a single move, twisting his head off.

Character developments

• Lin Feng stays composed after death and analyzes both his new ability and the mission’s risks. His anger toward the old woman fuels his retaliation, while the encounter with the enormous figure makes clear how far he remains from the strongest foes.
• Li Pusa remains Lin Feng’s companion, but is killed immediately after they are spat out.
• The toothless old woman is revealed as a dangerous but comparatively vulnerable servant of the larger power. Lin Feng’s new skill enables him to defeat her.
• The enormous, owl-voiced figure emerges as a far more powerful threat, apparently able to control the darkness and kill Lin Feng effortlessly.

Significant themes

• Death as trial and learning: Lin Feng treats repeated deaths as part of understanding and eventually clearing the stage.
• Being expendable: Lin Feng suspects that both the Ming authorities and local powers regard the mission’s participants as disposable.
• Escalating danger and uncertainty: The mission’s secrets remain unresolved, and each encounter exposes a still-greater threat.
• Bitter, irreverent humor: Lin Feng’s private insults and final complaint about “hospitality” provide comic relief amid the brutality.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng resents the old woman’s earlier taunts and, on meeting her again, attacks and kills her before she can explain herself.
• The enormous figure addresses Lin Feng with mock politeness, apologizes for allowing a “slave woman” to kill him, then kills him personally—making its idea of hospitality grotesquely ironic.
• Lin Feng and Li Pusa are transported and spat out together, but Li Pusa is killed before they can act as a team.

Plot points and events

• After confronting the Head-Taker in the game, Lin Feng logs out during the one-hour cooldown. He concludes that the enemy is far too powerful to fight directly and starts considering how to avoid or manage his numerous minions.
• Lin Feng is also worried about reaching Bull-Head Stockade. The mountain road may have been washed out, and the alternatives—Yin Roadwalking or flying—both seem dangerous. The storm over Western Hunan feels supernatural to him, so he decides to ask Li Pusa about Yin Roadwalking.
• He searches online for clues about Yangtongzi, the Western Hunan Blood God, and the Ghost Yamen, but finds nothing useful. Xu Nian has not replied, likely because she is back in the mountains with poor reception.
• Lin Feng reads his patrons’ reactions to his sword practice and responds to their jokes, criticism, and flirtation. He insists that he is a gaming streamer, not a lifestyle influencer.
• During Qi Gathering, Lin Feng discovers that his heightened perception lets him locate cockroach nests. He tests his precise vision and swordsmanship by firing toothpicks at the pests, clearing the apartment.
• Once the cooldown ends, he returns to the game and immediately chooses a different road. He has Officer Zhu threaten the guide into cooperating, then carries the guide over his shoulder in a way that leaves him nauseated.

Character developments

• Lin Feng is increasingly cautious and strategic: rather than challenge an overwhelming boss or blindly trust the guide, he looks for safer routes and uses leverage.
• His cultivation yields practical gains—better oxygen endurance and precise awareness—though he applies them in comic, mundane ways.
• He remains focused on gaming and earning a living, brushing off criticism and refusing to pivot to lifestyle content.
• Officer Zhu shows familiarity with Lin Feng’s methods, responding promptly when called on to pressure the guide.

Significant themes

• Power and survival: Lin Feng recognizes that courage or skill alone will not overcome a vastly stronger foe; preparation and avoidance may be wiser.
• The supernatural intruding into ordinary life: cultivation affects Lin Feng’s body and senses, while the mountain storm hints at dangers beyond normal explanation.
• Practicality and improvisation: Lin Feng turns new abilities, a toothpick, and Officer Zhu’s authority into workable solutions.
• Comedy amid danger: serious threats and supernatural uncertainty sit alongside cockroach extermination, streamer banter, and the guide’s miserable ride.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng banters with his livestream patrons, rejecting flirtation and lifestyle-streaming suggestions while tolerating their insults as familiar audience behavior.
• He thinks about seeking Li Pusa’s guidance and waits unsuccessfully for Xu Nian’s reply.
• In the game, Lin Feng directs Officer Zhu to restrain the guide and uses the guide’s cooperation to take the alternate route.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng carries the guide at a sprint while Hundred-Household Officer Zhu struggles to keep pace. Lin Feng’s enhanced abilities, including the Mountain God’s Blessing and Power, help him move through the mountains.
• With a storm approaching, the guide insists they head for the Resting Corpse Inn. Lin Feng suspects the Ghost Yamen may want to capture and “refine” him, though he does not know why.
• The Ghost Yamen’s eerie voices call from the forest, but Zhu remains calm. He recounts surviving bizarre supernatural encounters during his military service, including a river god and monstrous fish.
• At the inn, Lin Feng prepares to fight its three baleful corpses. The guide stops him, saying they can pay a toll instead.
• The guide performs offerings for Grandpa A-Qing and Granny Ayi, then asks Lin Feng for Yin Money to dispel the Mother-and-Child Goddess’s baleful aura. Lin Feng has none—he is not actually a proper Daoist priest—and the chapter ends with the implication that a fight may still be unavoidable.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng is resourceful and increasingly confident in his supernatural abilities, but remains uncertain about the Ghost Yamen’s interest in him. He is ready to attack the corpses, then abruptly stands down when told a toll will suffice.
• The guide is terrified but determined to survive. He knows how to appease the inn’s supernatural occupants and persuades Lin Feng not to attack, only to reveal that the required payment is something Lin Feng lacks.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu is revealed as a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran who has faced supernatural threats before. He trusts Lin Feng’s judgment and readily prepares to fight when asked.

Significant themes

• Survival and pragmatism: Characters choose between combat and ritual appeasement based on what offers the best chance of getting through the night.
• The ordinary and supernatural intertwined: Monsters, spirits, and strange weather are treated as familiar dangers in this world.
• Uncertainty and concealed purpose: Lin Feng’s possible value to the Ghost Yamen—and the guide’s knowledge of local customs—remain only partly understood.
• Irony and mistaken assumptions: Lin Feng is treated as a Daoist master, but he lacks even the basic Yin Money needed for the requested ritual.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng realizes the Three Baleful Corpses attacked him earlier because he had failed to pay the inn’s bill in spirit money. Neither he nor his guide has any, so he nearly resorts to violence before remembering that the approaching corpse-driver Li Pusa may be able to pay.
• To let the group pass, the guide uses ox-blood wine, a little finger, and a strange ritual to temporarily restrain the Mother-Child Gu. The ritual leaves him pale, exhausted, and reeking.
• Lin Feng questions the guide about Bull-Head Stockade, the mysterious Yangtongzi, and “Uncle” of the Ghost Yamen. The guide knows little about the first two but explains the region’s history and the Ghost Yamen.
• The guide describes the Thirty-Six Stockades in Jiao Gorge. Bull-Head Stockade is only an early stop; the most secretive stronghold, Ascension Stockade, lies deep in the gorge near Ascension Mountain, a historic source of alchemical minerals and the site of brutal mining under the Song and Yuan dynasties.
• Neither Lin Feng nor Hundred-Household Officer Zhu knows why they have been ordered to Bull-Head Stockade. The lack of information leaves Lin Feng uneasy about the larger mission.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng’s first impulse is to fight his way out of the unpaid bill, but he pauses and chooses a practical alternative: wait for Li Pusa’s help. He remains observant and persistent, pressing the guide for clues.
• The guide is fearful of Lin Feng, whom he regards as a dangerous but authentic Daoist. Despite the cost and risk of his ritual, he obeys Lin Feng’s request.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu remains composed and offers little insight, even when Lin Feng asks about the ritual and their mission.
• Lin Feng’s questioning reveals the group’s uncertainty: even Zhu, who received the orders, knows only that they came from “above.”

Significant themes

• Debt and consequence: The inn’s supernatural violence follows from a simple failure to pay, making spiritual customs materially dangerous.
• Power and exploitation: The history of Ascension Mountain shows rulers repeatedly sacrificing local lives for valuable resources.
• Mystery and foreboding: The inaccessible heart of Jiao Gorge, the unexplained mission, and the guide’s ominous account of the Ghost Yamen suggest a larger threat ahead.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Lin Feng gathers fragments of information, but each answer exposes more gaps than it fills.

Key plot points and events

• Ghost Uncle’s invitation arrives alongside eerie Nuo Opera and thunder. Inside the inn, the Three Baleful Corpses begin stirring again, while strange figures gather outside but remain wary of the heaven-reaching incense.
• Lin Feng steps into the rain to meet the toothless old woman carrying Uncle’s message. He kills her with a quick sword thrust and wooden spikes; she transforms into a clouded leopard. The opera continues, and no one else responds to the attack.
• Lin Feng calls out to complain about being summoned by a servant, then hears the Head-Taker apologize from somewhere beyond the rain. Unsure whether the Head-Taker is Uncle, he returns to the inn.
• Lin Feng breaks up a table for firewood, warms himself, and announces that they will soon take the yin road with a corpse driver. The guide begs him not to: it is a dangerous, unofficial route for common folk, and he urges Lin Feng to seek help from underworld authorities instead.
• As Grandpa A-Qing begins moving and mist gathers outside, a chant announces the arrival of a “happy spirit.” Lin Feng welcomes the arrival, remarking that the person who will pay for the journey has finally come.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains composed and self-reliant, dealing with both supernatural threats and the guide’s objections with dry humor. His confidence is grounded in his ability to fight, though he admits internally that he cannot simply summon official help.
• The guide is increasingly frightened and openly pleads with Lin Feng, explaining the yin road’s dangers and the status difference between its travelers and those who use official routes.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu stays ready for combat, positioning his saber to strike if the Three Baleful Corpses revive.
• The Head-Taker unexpectedly apologizes to Lin Feng from the rain, creating uncertainty about its identity and connection to Uncle.
• Grandpa A-Qing and the other corpses resume stirring, raising the threat inside the inn as new supernatural activity approaches outside.

Significant themes

• Composure amid the uncanny: Lin Feng responds to frightening events with practical calm, while the guide’s terror highlights how perilous the situation appears to ordinary people.
• Power, status, and dependence: The guide distinguishes official supernatural roads from the dangerous yin road reserved for people of lower standing; Lin Feng’s reluctance to seek help reflects his outsider status and lack of connections.
• The uncertain nature of spirits: The leopard spirit’s human form proves less formidable than expected, suggesting that transformation does not necessarily indicate great power.
• Dark humor and defiance: Lin Feng’s complaints about etiquette, the guide’s desperate warnings, and his “bill-payer” remark temper the chapter’s mounting supernatural tension.

Summary

• Lin Feng remains trapped in a cycle of failed attempts to travel the yin road. He has died twice after the enormous Ghost Yamen figure Bufuna caught him and twisted off his head. He now understands that avoiding her is difficult: human salve masks a traveler’s living scent from most underworld beings, but Bufuna can still smell it from miles away. Going without the salve is worse, as a vast, dark-cloud-like horror may devour travelers outright.
• Lin Feng learns why Bufuna considers him her equal. She wants the Mountain God’s blessing—and the mountain-god authority within him—so she can refine him and take it. Though she is far stronger, she treats him as a “master,” reflecting the rigid hierarchy of the setting, where powerful people regard their slaves as expendable.
• His repeated deaths have made him more capable and more pragmatic. He has improved at using hidden weapons and learned more about occult practices, including the purpose of human salve, incense, and candles in yin-road travel. His mountain-honed stamina and sword strikes have also improved, though he has not yet reached the Qi Nurturing stage.
• Lin Feng coerces Li Pusa into helping him enter the underworld. He claims that he and Hundred-Household Officer Zhu serve the imperial court, then backs up the claim with Zhu’s official token and weapons at Li Pusa’s neck. Li Pusa burns paper money to settle the Three Baleful Corpses and performs the preparations for their journey.
• At a dilapidated village on the yin road, Lin Feng stops and tells the others to continue without him. He means to stay behind and confront Bufuna rather than repeat the same failed journey.

Character developments and interactions

Lin Feng’s outlook has broadened through repeated deaths: he is less naïve, more strategic, and increasingly comfortable using authority and intimidation. He recognizes the difference between the relatively weak Three Baleful Corpses and the far more dangerous Bufuna. His relationship with Li Pusa is transactional—Lin Feng pressures him into cooperation, while Li Pusa quickly becomes deferential once the threat is clear. Lin Feng and Bufuna share an unusual status as “masters,” despite their stark difference in strength.

Significant themes

The chapter emphasizes survival through adaptation, as Lin Feng learns from each failure; social hierarchy and dehumanization, shown in Bufuna’s indifference to the deaths of her slaves; and the uncertain dangers of the occult world, where ordinary protective measures may merely trade one threat for another. The title also points to Lin Feng’s motivation: he is willing to risk death not for practical gain, but because he cannot accept leaving Bufuna undefeated.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng orders Li Pusa and the others to leave while he stays behind to face the Head-Taker. In the Underworld, his mountain-god abilities are inactive, leaving him at a disadvantage against the powerful eighth-rank-or-higher enemy.
• As the Head-Taker arrives, Lin Feng boldly announces that they will die together. A cough from the ruined village triggers a terrifying change: he rapidly ages, and the Head-Taker flees.
• An old man appears, apparently connected to the village’s hidden power. He offers Lin Feng a pact: return to life in exchange for surrendering his fate, giving up the eldest son of every generation, and eventually ending his family line after ten generations. Lin Feng refuses, and the old man eats him.
• Lin Feng wakes in the real world, shaken by what he experienced. He researches local folklore and suspects that the Ghost Yamen’s two figures may be Clouded Leopard Granny and Black Tiger Granny, mountain monsters from Miao legends.
• Reviewing his abilities, Lin Feng concludes that [Mountain God’s Power] may be his best chance of overcoming his enemies, though he does not yet know what it can do. After an hour of gathering qi, he returns to the game determined to kill Ghost Uncle.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng moves from accepting that he may die to acting boldly, then rejects the old man’s bargain despite its promise of survival and prosperity. The encounter also makes him recognize how little he understands about the Underworld—and the dangers of the living world.
• The Head-Taker is initially confident but becomes alarmed by Lin Feng’s willingness to die with her; she flees when the village’s power manifests.
• The old man offers a coercive, multigenerational bargain, then kills Lin Feng when he refuses.
• Li Pusa and the others leave at Lin Feng’s insistence, while Lord Zhu holds Li Pusa at swordpoint.

Significant themes

• The cost of survival: The old man’s pact offers life and prosperity but demands Lin Feng’s identity, descendants, and family future.
• Limits of power and knowledge: Lin Feng’s divine abilities fail outside their territory, and his research and experience still leave major mysteries unresolved.
• Courage and resolve: Facing near-certain death, Lin Feng stops trying to escape and chooses to confront danger directly.
• Folklore and hidden threats: The chapter links the game’s supernatural figures to real-world cultural legends, encouraging Lin Feng to investigate and prepare.

Plot points and events

• After re-entering the game, Lin Feng realizes that both advancing and staying put are dangerous: the second-stage Blood God is pursuing him. He sends Lord Zhu and the injured guide toward Jixi Inn, then stays behind to buy them time.
• Lin Feng meditates to discover how [Mountain God’s Power] works. The wind and wood spirits respond, and the surrounding plants and animals lend him their vitality. He can sense across the forest and even shields Lord Zhu and the guide as they leave.
• His awareness reaches Bull-Head Mountain, where he encounters a huge spirit pit viper carrying a blood-soaked Mountain God shrine fused into its head. The snake rejects Lin Feng as an intruder, forcing him to withdraw before their confrontation escalates.
• The borrowed vitality strengthens Lin Feng’s body and raises his power. He wonders whether the banyan trees in the Clear Spring Stockade forbidden ground were guardians of the Mountain God—and why one ultimately devoured its master.
• The Blood God arrives, now a grotesque walking tree with root-feet, corpses and villagers hanging from its branches, and tortured Mountain God faces embedded in its trunk. Lin Feng restrains the animals that rush to attack and confronts it himself, combining the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s dragon-tiger qi, the Mountain God’s power, and a cutting gale.

Character developments

• Lin Feng moves from uncertainty to purposeful action. Rather than flee or rely solely on the surrounding creatures, he investigates his new power, protects his companions, and takes responsibility for facing the Blood God.
• Lord Zhu proves dependable, accepting Lin Feng’s instructions and guiding the injured man away.
• The guide is frightened and demoralized, but is given a chance to escape.
• The Blood God is revealed as a more powerful and horrifying enemy, using the dead as puppets.
• The pit viper emerges as another formidable supernatural power, hostile to Lin Feng and tied to a rival Mountain God shrine.

Themes

• Nature as ally and boundary: The mountain’s spirits and creatures assist Lin Feng, but their support has limits; other regions have their own powers and territorial claims.
• Power through cooperation: Lin Feng asks the forest for help rather than simply commanding it, and its vitality strengthens him.
• Protection and sacrifice: He sends others to safety while remaining behind to face the danger.
• Corruption of the sacred: The Blood God’s desecration of Mountain God imagery contrasts with Lin Feng’s respectful relationship with the mountain.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng entrusts Lord Zhu with the guide’s safety and their escape to the inn.
• He appeals to the mountain’s spirits, plants, and animals, receiving their vitality and assistance.
• He and the pit viper clash through their spiritual auras after Lin Feng crosses into its territory.
• Lin Feng stops the animals from sacrificing themselves against the Blood God and advances to fight it himself.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng realizes that Mountain Gods are spirits tied to their mountains, and that [Mountain God’s Power] is transferable—or can be forcibly stolen. He concludes he is likely the chosen successor of Clear Spring Stockade’s Mountain God, making him valuable prey to powerful demons.
• This explains why Ghost Uncle has pursued him: she may want to extract his power. Lin Feng also recognizes the Ironhead Viper on Bull-Head Mountain as a false Mountain God in the process of transforming, devouring the mountain’s god-statue as a vessel of authority.
• Lin Feng worries that the stolen statue means Bull-Head Stockade is in danger. He also suspects the Blood God is an outsider force, likely a collective of Bloodline Worms, responsible for destabilizing the Western Hunan Mountains and weakening their Mountain God system.
• While facing the Blood God, Lin Feng chooses to stall rather than attack immediately, reasoning that time favors him. He considers how the collapse of the Mountain Gods’ protection could unleash dangerous, lawless forces across the mountains.
• He connects the crisis to the many factions and unanswered questions surrounding the region: the Tusi, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Celestial Master’s Mansion, the Ghost Yamen, and the Thirty-Six Stockades. He suspects the authorities may be searching for Mountain God authority, but also wonders whether hidden allies are aiding the Blood God.
• Lin Feng’s qi advances rapidly: he reaches Qi Nurturing, then condenses his qi into liquid and breaks through to the Seventh Rank. As the Blood God finally attacks, Lin Feng’s sword gathers wind and cuts off one of its legs from fifteen zhang away.

Character developments

• Lin Feng shifts from confusion to a broad theory of the mountain crisis, linking his own power, the demons’ pursuit, and the weakening of the Mountain Gods. Though alarmed by the danger, he remains greedy and determined to keep his new power.
• His growing cultivation appears to sharpen his thinking as well as his combat strength. He stays composed under pressure, using delay strategically before unleashing a powerful strike.
• His suspicions of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and its leadership grow, especially because they seem to have sent men into danger without explaining their mission.

Significant themes

• Power as both inheritance and prize: Mountain God authority grants real influence but can also be seized by force.
• Order collapsing into chaos: With the Mountain Gods weakened, the mountains may return to a brutal, uncontrolled state.
• Hidden agendas and uncertainty: Multiple factions pursue unclear goals, and Lin Feng must piece together the truth from scattered clues.
• Ambition amid danger: Lin Feng recognizes the risk of his power but refuses to surrender it.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng’s connection to the Western Hunan Mountains is reciprocal: the woodland spirits recognize him as one of their own and give him vitality.
• Ghost Uncle’s pursuit is reframed as an attempt to take Lin Feng’s Mountain God power.
• In the confrontation with the Blood God, Lin Feng keeps his distance and maneuvers while it chants, then responds to its attack with a long-range sword strike.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng fights the Seventh- or possibly peak-Eighth-Rank banyan Blood God. Using wind to fly and sword strikes enhanced by Mountain God’s Wrath, he steadily cuts it down while evading its roots and repelling its poisonous blood.
• Sword Heart Clarity guides his evasions, while Precise Vision helps him locate the tree’s weak point: its heart, formed where it absorbed the Mountain God’s statue. Lin Feng also picks off the smaller Blood Gods attached to the banyan.
• The sacrifices awaken and unleash a scream that nearly overwhelms Lin Feng. The Thousand-Household Commander drains nearby villagers and is empowered through the tree’s roots. Lin Feng responds with a blood sword, destroying the commander, then drives sword qi into the banyan’s heart.
• Elderly faces emerge from the statue, look at Lin Feng with relief, and vanish. The banyan dies; its roots wither, its sacrificial victims fall, and the eerie prayers stop.
• Lin Feng finds no clues among the dead. Later, ominous storm clouds gather, revealing strange figures and a vast eye that briefly harms his eyes despite showing him no hostility. He waits for the Toothless Old Lady’s invitation, but none comes, and concludes that powerful foes who hunted him when he was weaker now avoid him.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng demonstrates disciplined, tactical growth: he uses his mobility and the mountain’s support, avoids overcommitting, and exploits the Blood God’s weaknesses rather than trading blows.
• His near-fatal exposure to the sacrificial scream shows that even with his new strength, he remains vulnerable. The Western Hunan Mountains’ vitality helps him recover.
• The elderly faces’ silent, relieved farewell suggests they recognize Lin Feng’s actions as a release from their suffering.
• Lin Feng’s final frustration at the absent pursuers reveals his sharp, wry sense of humor and growing confidence.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Strength changes who dares to confront Lin Feng, while his enemy’s immense power cannot compensate for its immobility.
• Sacrifice and exploitation: The Blood God sustains itself through human victims, whom it treats as livestock.
• Old and new religious practices: Lin Feng connects the Blood Gods to ancient blood-offering traditions rejected by later religious movements.
• Power’s wider perception: Lin Feng’s advancement lets him perceive supernatural forces previously hidden, though greater awareness also exposes him to unsettling dangers.

Plot points and events

• As a violent thunderstorm sets in, the Toothless Old Lady never appears. Lin Feng concludes that she is avoiding him now that he has reached Seventh Rank, though she once targeted him when he was weaker.
• Instead of taking the practical route to Jixi Inn and continuing toward Bull-Head Stockade, Lin Feng decides to seek out the Ghost Yamen himself and confront them.
• He stays grounded rather than sending his soul out with the wind, fearing the storm’s lightning. He asks nearby tree spirits to locate the Ghost Yamen, and they agree to help.
• While waiting, Lin Feng recalls his earlier conversation with Li Pusa, a Corpse Driver. Li explained that Yin Roadwalking is a dangerous shortcut through the Underworld, but the washed-out mountain roads left him no alternative for transporting his clients.
• Lin Feng reflects on how his choices—pursuing Mountain God’s Power, cultivation, and combat—have made the game’s second act more difficult than its intended, cautious route. He would still choose the harder path.
• The tree spirits find the Ghost Yamen. Lin Feng crosses the storm-soaked mountains and reaches a flood-damaged site that appears to contain a tomb. He spots an Imperial Way and Tomb Guardian Beasts beside a dark cavern, and suspects the Ghost Yamen is inside.

Character developments

• Lin Feng shows growing confidence and defiance: rather than avoid danger, he deliberately takes the fight to the Ghost Yamen. He recognizes the costs of his choices but remains committed to strength and direct confrontation.
• Li Pusa emerges through Lin Feng’s memories as a cautious, compassionate professional. His training and beliefs emphasize avoiding baleful forces and living safely, contrasting with Lin Feng’s risk-taking.

Significant themes

• Choices and consequences: Lin Feng’s pursuit of power has raised the difficulty of his journey, but he accepts that trade-off.
• Caution versus boldness: Li Pusa’s survival-minded approach contrasts with Lin Feng’s preference for confronting threats head-on.
• The supernatural and the perilous: Yin Roadwalking, the Underworld, the uncanny storm, and the possible tomb all reinforce the dangers woven into ordinary travel.

Character interactions

• The Toothless Old Lady’s absence becomes an indirect show of fear or avoidance toward Lin Feng’s new strength.
• Lin Feng relies on the tree spirits for information, establishing a cooperative connection with the natural world.
• In memory, Li Pusa explains Yin Roadwalking and his own beliefs to Lin Feng; that conversation helps Lin Feng understand why the route to Bull-Head Stockade requires a dangerous supernatural shortcut.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng discovers a vast, apparently recent tomb passage exposed by a flash flood. It stretches at least a hundred zhang into the mountain and remains unnaturally dark even beneath lightning.
• The passage resembles the mysterious place where Ghost Uncle previously attacked him. Lin Feng senses an underground chamber beyond his scouting range, with water, pillars, ropes, and human-shaped presences.
• Intrigued by the tomb’s immense scale, Lin Feng wonders whether the Western Hunan Blood God—or some forgotten civilization—might have existed in another version of history.
• Eerie music draws him away from the tomb. He finds Ghost Uncle, Toothless Old Lady, several Terracotta Figures, and dazed villagers being escorted through the forest.
• Ghost Uncle and Toothless Old Lady recognize Lin Feng as the newly empowered “Lord Mountain God” and greet him deferentially.
• Lin Feng attacks without warning. Toothless Old Lady is killed by a single sword strike. Ghost Uncle reveals her true form: an enormous black tiger spirit. She roars away Lin Feng’s rain-blade attack, but he evades her with Sword Heart Clarity and disappears into the forest.

Character developments

• Lin Feng shifts from cautious investigation to intense curiosity about the tomb’s historical significance. His growing authority as Mountain God has also changed how Ghost Uncle and Toothless Old Lady treat him.
• Ghost Uncle remains dangerous and predatory, but now approaches Lin Feng cautiously and ingratiatingly. Her black-tiger transformation reveals her true nature and immense size.
• Toothless Old Lady is abruptly killed, ending her role in the encounter.
• The Terracotta Figures remain obedient but seem too dull to understand why their leaders are showing respect.

Significant themes

• Hidden history and cultural mystery: The tomb suggests a civilization or historical reality beyond Lin Feng’s known world.
• Power and changing status: Those who once treated Lin Feng as an ingredient for their plans now address him as a powerful deity.
• Cunning and advantage: Lin Feng uses the forest, concealment, and foresight to avoid Ghost Uncle’s attack; the closing remark stresses that Ghost Uncle lacks favorable timing, terrain, and support.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng cautiously probes the tomb with wind before choosing not to enter it.
• Ghost Uncle and Toothless Old Lady formally acknowledge Lin Feng’s Mountain God status, but he responds with an attack rather than conversation.
• Lin Feng kills Toothless Old Lady and evades Ghost Uncle, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng uses his Mountain God authority and the forest itself to hide from and wear down Ghost Uncle, attacking with wind-driven sword qi while vines hinder her escape.
• Cornered, Ghost Uncle unleashes her Tiger Roar, destroying nearby Terracotta Figures and killing the mountain villagers among them. Lin Feng notices the figures’ green, corrosive blood and faint traces of Five-Organs Incense, suggesting they have been corrupted.
• When Ghost Uncle charges into the dense forest, the trees restrict her movements. Lin Feng uses the terrain, sword qi, and even flying splinters to blind one of her eyes and further injure her.
• Realizing she cannot win, Ghost Uncle submits and offers to become Lin Feng’s mount. Lin Feng stays hidden, wary that the surrender might be a trap.
• Questioned about the Ghost Yamen, Ghost Uncle explains that she found the tomb passage after a flood exposed it. Terrified of entering its darkness, she sent villagers inside, while she cultivated outside using the incense drifting from it.
• One night, Terracotta Figures emerged from the passage and became her sedan-chair bearers. Their appearance leads Lin Feng to suspect the villagers were used in a blood sacrifice.

Character developments

• Lin Feng grows more confident in wielding the Mountain God’s authority, coordinating with the forest and fighting strategically rather than relying on direct force. He also recognizes that demons may reason differently from humans.
• Ghost Uncle, revealed as the Black Tiger Demon, proves far less proud than Lin Feng expected: once defeated, she quickly submits and reframes herself as the wronged party.
• Ghost Uncle’s account also shows her opportunistic nature. She sought to exploit the tomb’s incense for cultivation but avoided entering it herself, instead sending villagers into its darkness.

Significant themes

• Authority and power: The Mountain God’s standing in the forest gives Lin Feng both practical advantages and a claim to rule; in Ghost Uncle’s view, the stronger ruler is entitled to subdue the weaker one.
• Cunning over brute strength: Lin Feng wins by using concealment, terrain, and psychological pressure against a physically powerful opponent.
• Corruption and sacrifice: The Terracotta Figures’ blood and incense connect the tomb to a sinister process, while the villagers’ fate suggests a hidden sacrificial purpose.
• Self-interest and shifting loyalties: Ghost Uncle’s rapid surrender and self-justification show how readily survival and advantage override pride or blame.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng and Ghost Uncle engage in a prolonged hunt: he attacks from concealment while she tries to flush him out with her roar.
• After submitting, Ghost Uncle addresses Lin Feng as Lord Mountain God and answers his questions, hoping to preserve her life.
• Their exchange reveals that they interpret the conflict differently: Lin Feng sees her as the culprit who killed him, while Ghost Uncle casts herself as the victim of his attack.

Plot points and events

• Hidden in the storm, Lin Feng listens as Ghost Uncle recounts how she used Five-Organs Incense to communicate with an unknown power inside a tomb passage. After sacrificing villagers, she received Terracotta Figures, a human-skin parchment bearing a Curse Seal, and other gifts. The figures and incense also brought her strange “opportunities” and secrets.
• Lin Feng recognizes a disturbing pattern: worship, apparent divine contact, gifts, and escalating blood-food sacrifices. He suspects the events in the Western Hunan Mountains may be connected to the torrential rain and landslides.
• Ghost Uncle says Clear Spring Stockade’s Mountain God weakened and withdrew half a month earlier. She avoided investigating because she feared the stockade’s powerful guardian, an old banyan tree. She knows nothing about Bull-Head Stockade, now cut off by a landslide.
• She explains that a Yin God Forbidden Ground is a place where monsters risk harm; the tomb passage is one such place, and Yin Gods are more likely deeper in the mountains.
• Ghost Uncle offers Lin Feng the parchment and claims it contains sixteen elixirs. When it is opened, however, Lin Feng sees only bloody human skin and a heart. A strange voice from Ghost Uncle repeats the number “sixteen.” Concluding something has taken control of her, Lin Feng attacks, aiming for her head.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng shifts from questioning Ghost Uncle to recognizing an immediate supernatural threat. He remains cautious but acts decisively when the parchment’s contents contradict her account.
• Ghost Uncle reveals that fear and greed drove her to sacrifice villagers for access to the incense and its benefits. Though she begs Lin Feng for mercy and cooperates, the strange voice and contents of the parchment suggest she is no longer fully in control.
• Their exchange is initially an interrogation, with Ghost Uncle deferentially answering Lin Feng. It ends in sudden violence as he strikes before the entity within her can act further.

Significant themes

• Indifferent divinity and sacrifice: Supernatural powers are not necessarily moral; apparent rewards can encourage further bloodshed.
• Corruption through bargains: Ghost Uncle’s pursuit of supernatural benefits draws her into increasingly sinister practices.
• Unreliable perception and possession: The missing elixirs and alien voice undermine what Ghost Uncle believes and say.
• Mountains as layered danger: Different regions have distinct powers and hierarchies, while forbidden grounds mark places even monsters fear.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng unleashes his strongest sword strike yet, cutting Ghost Uncle in half before the golden priest mask can recover. The strike also gouges the ground, but leaves him exhausted.
• Ghost Uncle is revealed to have been a sacrifice herself: the mask and other ritual objects had drained her blood and flesh. The mask and staff survive the blow, and the mask appears to watch Lin Feng with hostile intent.
• As Lin Feng prepares to explore the tomb passage, his heightened Sword Heart Clarity alerts him to a towering, shadowy figure behind him. The figure appears to control the Terracotta Figures with living strings.
• Lin Feng’s powers barely affect the figure. It smashes him to the ground and strangles him, killing him.
• After reviving through Continue game, Lin Feng sees the shadow turning back toward him, apparently recognizing him as prey returned from the dead.

Character developments

• Lin Feng demonstrates major growth as a swordsman, independently creating a powerful new technique and acting with exceptional focus.
• He is more cautious about supernatural objects: despite the mask’s apparent threat, he recognizes that another strike is unlikely to destroy it and leaves the mask and staff untouched.
• His death does not discourage him. Driven by curiosity and a sense that the tomb is tied to future quests, he chooses to continue rather than restart.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and predation: Ghost Uncle’s supposed opportunity is revealed as another form of victimization; the supernatural entities exploit people without regard for morality.
• Limits of power: Lin Feng’s new strength defeats Ghost Uncle but proves nearly useless against a more formidable force.
• Curiosity and persistence: Even a sudden, baffling death only deepens Lin Feng’s determination to investigate.
• Mystery and revelation: Solving one secret—the Terracotta Figures’ unseen controller—opens the way to larger questions about the tomb and its inhabitants.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng’s decisive attack ends his confrontation with Ghost Uncle, whose fate parallels that of the mountain folk she had treated as sacrifices.
• The priest mask appears to regard Lin Feng with malicious interest, but he avoids provoking it.
• The towering shadow treats Lin Feng as prey, kills him, and then turns toward him again after his revival, setting up their next encounter.

Plot and key events

• Lin Feng returns from death and faces an apparently intangible Yin God. Since his dragon-tiger qi can harm it, he resolves to keep fighting and learn its weaknesses through repeated deaths.
• A living Priest Mask tries to tempt him with promises of wisdom and a path to godhood. Protected by Mountain God authority, Lin Feng resists its persuasion but deliberately puts it on to investigate.
• The mask painfully invades his body and forcibly transfers its legacy. Lin Feng learns the Mystic Sustenance Method, including Feasting on Wind and Drinking Dew, a practice that replaces ordinary food with wind spirits and supposedly leads toward becoming a wind god.
• The transfer overwhelms Lin Feng’s will. He dies, the Yin God loses its target and departs, and Lin Feng is ejected from the game.
• His character panel now lists Feasting on Wind and Drinking Dew as an active skill, alongside his blood-sword and self-sacrificing attacks. Curious about the method, Lin Feng re-enters the game—forgetting that the mask is still attached—and suffers its painful knowledge transfer again. It begins teaching him the Qi-Observing Eye.

Character development

• Lin Feng remains irreverent and fearless, treating the Yin God like a game boss despite the danger. His repeated deaths are a deliberate strategy, not a reason to panic.
• His curiosity and willingness to take risks lead him to accept the mask’s physical assault in hopes of learning its secrets. Though its influence eventually breaks his will, he quickly resumes investigating the new skill.
• The Priest Mask is revealed not as a mere object but as a living, enduring source of knowledge; the human priest is only its replaceable vessel.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng and the Yin God: The spirit hunts him but appears unable to harm him once he is dead; Lin Feng plans to exploit his ability to revive and test ways to attack it.
• Lin Feng and the Priest Mask: The mask attempts to persuade and then forcibly assimilate him, while Lin Feng knowingly uses the encounter to obtain its knowledge. The exchange leaves him dead, but the mask’s lessons continue when he returns.
• The Priest Mask and Lin Feng’s cultivation: The mask recognizes that his Shaman Priest cultivation does not conflict with its route to godhood and believes he has the potential to become a god.

Significant themes

• Persistence through failure: Lin Feng treats death as a repeatable cost in pursuit of progress.
• Knowledge at a price: The mask’s legacy offers powerful secrets but transfers them through pain and loss of control.
• The nature of divinity: The chapter raises questions about godhood, suggesting it may be reached through different cultivation paths and may involve embodying a force of nature.
• Identity and assimilation: The mask’s method of passing on wisdom blurs the line between learning from a legacy and being consumed by it.