Chapter Summaries

Summary: “Confrontation”

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng examines a blood-soaked stone operating platform and concludes that many procedures were performed there, likely involving both humans and anomalous beasts. The origins and purpose of the technology used by the Kunlun Ruins’ Remnants remain unknown.
• His laughter becomes involuntary and spreads through the area, while an itch in his throat suggests an abnormal change in his body.
• Boiling pots behind the platform reveal the bodies of Iron-Crowned Daoists. Their missing tongues suggest they had sworn themselves to secrecy, and their presence indicates that the surrounding lake may be the proper setting for the Boat Coffins found outside.
• A gigantic metallic Ba Snake rises from below the mountain. Lin Feng realizes that the carvings, spring, and laboratory are only the mountain’s surface layer; its true secret lies underground.
• Outside, the people guarding Fangxiangshi also begin laughing uncontrollably. Fangxiangshi beats a drum to dispel the abnormal influence.
• The Daoists’ corpses grow tongues, beat their bellies like drums, and release black water. Hair-like shadows drag some of them under. Other corpses chant about joining water and fire, yin and yang, and creating an “undying spirit.”
• Lin Feng recognizes the water as Jade Pool Water, which Teacher Xun said Professor Han used in surgery. He suspects it served as a fusion agent, though he cannot determine what the Daoists’ rituals or methods involved.
• As the ground shakes and skeletons begin jumping, the black hair parts to reveal a monstrous, enormous head. The missing Daoists are impaled across it like sticks in a display, making it resemble a grotesque mop or giant skewer.

Character developments

• Lin Feng remains analytical despite mounting supernatural danger, using medical knowledge and prior clues to interpret the blood, corpses, and Jade Pool Water. His involuntary laughter and throat irritation show that he is also being affected by the anomaly.
• Fangxiangshi responds to the laughter affecting the guards by beating a drum, demonstrating a method of resisting or dispelling the abnormal influence.
• The Iron-Crowned Daoists are revealed as cultivators who apparently accepted ritual mutilation to keep secrets. Their bodies become part of the lake’s disturbing transformation.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and secrecy: Powerful technologies are held by a select few, while the Daoists’ tongueless corpses embody the cost of guarding hidden knowledge.
• Transformation and bodily violation: The blood, surgery, Jade Pool Water, corpses, and monstrous head suggest experiments that fuse or alter bodies in grotesque ways.
• Surface versus hidden reality: The mountain’s visible features conceal a deeper ecosystem and the true source of its danger.
• Uncertain interpretation: Lin Feng can connect clues to familiar medical and alchemical ideas, but the Daoists’ ritual language and the anomaly’s purpose remain unclear.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng’s laughter appears to influence the corpses and spreads to the guards outside, forcing Fangxiangshi to intervene with the drum.
• The Daoists’ corpses enact and recite a ritual together, while unseen hair-like shadows pull them beneath the water.
• Lin Feng’s earlier information from Teacher Xun about Professor Han’s use of Jade Pool Water shapes his interpretation of the lake and its possible role in the experiments.

Key plot points

• Lin Feng discovers that the Iron-Crowned Daoists are merely parts of a larger being: a huge, grotesque head beneath the Jade Pool. Their ritual and its “Sacred Embryo” have gone horribly wrong.
• The creature uses black water and bronze alchemical furnaces engraved with an “Ascension to Immortality Diagram.” Lin Feng recognizes the furnaces from the South Seas and links them to the Queen Mother of the West’s remnants.
• Lin Feng draws on a formation he has spent years cultivating through the earth veins of Mount Tai. With fire, a bell, and the furnace’s resonant channels, he creates a powerful talismanic seal that forces the Sacred Embryo back to the lake bed.
• The seal’s lingering Mount Tai aura also makes Bashé hesitate and causes Fangxiangshi to abandon his attempt to leave. Lin Feng’s flames ignite the Temple Keeper’s footprints, bringing his undead allies into the confrontation.
• Lin Feng realizes the furnace contains a small world inhabited by tiny people. He sees a half-decayed, apparently female skull within it, then dives into the pool to investigate further.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng demonstrates how much he has grown since encountering a similar furnace in the South Seas: he now understands its power and can use his long-prepared Mount Tai formation to suppress an opponent of comparable rank.
• The Iron-Crowned Daoists’ attempt to create a Sacred Embryo is revealed as misguided; the enormous being they have brought forth is not what their ritual intended.
• Bashé is checked by Mount Tai’s aura, while Fangxiangshi recognizes the danger of that power and tries to withdraw. Lin Feng’s preparations prevent him from simply escaping.
• Lin Feng’s undead companions emerge from the flames to support him, while the Haunted Village altar is temporarily quieted by the formation’s force.

Significant themes

• Power built through patience: Lin Feng’s years of preparation turn into decisive strength in the crisis.
• The danger of misunderstood knowledge: The Daoists’ effort to imitate or harness natural forces has produced a monstrous result.
• Uncanny worlds within worlds: The furnace’s tiny inhabitants and living skull raise unsettling questions about the nature of reality and the Queen Mother of the West’s legacy.
• Mount Tai as an ancient authority: Its lingering power commands fear even from powerful supernatural beings.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng descends into the Jade Pool beneath Mount Tai’s protective resonance. His tests produce no reaction: the strange bird stays silent, and the pool water shows no supernatural properties.
• At the bottom, he finds no people or bodies, but a large collection of ritual objects—bronze vessels, jade, bones, and shells. Their styles date from the Yin-Shang period through the Song Dynasty, showing that offerings were made here intermittently for at least a thousand years.
• Lin Feng and the Temple Keeper retrieve and examine the objects. Their inscriptions reveal that the first people to use the site were Remnants of the Queen Mother of the West’s people, who left the Kunlun Ruins around the beginning of Yin-Shang and settled in Western Sichuan.
• The Remnants had been expelled from Kunlun and carried a mysterious object with them. It was represented by a pictograph resembling a small tree, leading Lin Feng to wonder whether it was connected to the legendary Peach of Immortality.
• The Remnants’ native “Bird Script” remains undeciphered. Later Yin-Shang-style vessels and Oracle Bone Script point to cultural assimilation, though its circumstances are unclear.
• Lin Feng turns his attention to the boat coffins outside, questioning what happened to the region’s original inhabitants and whether the later Iron-Crowned Daoists were truly their descendants.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains cautious and analytical, testing the pool while drawing only on Mount Tai’s earth veins. He avoids using his artifact to claim territory, aware of the risks of overstepping.
• The Temple Keeper serves as his research partner. They divide the recovered objects by age and compare inscriptions, with the Keeper identifying the history of the Remnants and Lin Feng probing the site’s later mysteries.
• Their investigation deepens their shared understanding but leaves the central questions unresolved: the identity of the “little tree,” the fate of the Remnants, and the origins of the boat-coffin people.

Significant themes

• Buried history and cultural change: Objects from different eras show that the site’s ritual use evolved over centuries.
• Assimilation and its costs: The spread of Yin-Shang culture into Western Sichuan may have involved more than peaceful exchange.
• Uncertainty and incomplete knowledge: The Bird Script cannot be read, and the artifacts offer only fragments of the past.
• A changing world: Lin Feng reflects that history itself is shifting, making both the past and the rules governing the present increasingly difficult to understand.

Key plot points and revelations

• Lin Feng studies the Oracle Bone Script and concludes that the people beneath the Jade Pool worshipped three things: a tree, the pool and its Shi platform, and a man-and-woman pair likely representing their ancestors. The Jade Pool may have served as a unifying sacred site for the Queen Mother of the West’s migrating people.
• Inscriptions on bronze vessels reveal that the community was devastated by an incurable plague. As people died, rituals became shorter and vessels smaller. Their final prayers accuse the tree and their ancestors of abandoning them; eventually the vessels disappear, suggesting the survivors left, stopped praying, or died.
• The tree appears to have been worshipped as a real presence, yet Lin Feng finds no depiction of it as a bronze sacred tree and no tree on the Shi mountain. This absence troubles him, especially since he cannot explain why the tree never saved its followers.
• Lin Feng and the Temple Keeper split up to translate different materials. Lin Feng examines offerings and discovers that the Di and Qiang peoples also visited the mountain and left jade objects. Their jade suggests they had skilled craftsmen and treated the place as sacred, avoiding blood offerings.
• The Boat Coffin people outside were likely from a later branch of the Di or Qiang peoples, not the earliest inhabitants. Lin Feng finds the term “Little Tree” among the jade inscriptions, confirming that these later visitors also worshipped the tree.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng’s archaeological deductions increasingly unsettle him: the tree’s importance, its absence from material representations, and its failure to answer prayers remain unexplained. He also adapts to his bronze body, which lets him function underwater, and removes a strange extra mouth that produced laughter.
• The Temple Keeper rapidly deciphers the bronze inscriptions and identifies the plague, working alongside Lin Feng as they investigate separate sources.
• Lin Feng releases Zhong Kui to guard the immobile, sleeping “Sacred Fetus” while he continues searching.

Significant themes

• Faith and abandonment: A community’s desperate prayers to its sacred tree receive no answer.
• Civilization and ritual: Jade work and burial practices challenge assumptions that the Di and Qiang peoples were uncivilized.
• Historical layering and uncertainty: Multiple groups visited the mountain across different eras, but the earliest inhabitants and the fate of the plague-stricken community remain unknown.
• The uncanny: The tree is both an object of worship and a possible real force, yet its absence and silence make it more frightening.

Lin Feng investigates the submerged Iron-Crowned Daoists and questions a bronze furnace, a sentient “Bronze Lifeform.” It tells him that he is the tree, that the tree is present, and that the furnace is “a way born of having no other way.” When the furnace’s eyes sprout branches and a corrupt, rotten aura spreads through the water, Lin Feng pieces together the mystery.
The Qiang and Di people—and, in a broader sense, all the Remnants—were the “trees.” They believed death was only a brief sleep and that restoring the Jade Pool would bring them back, so they were buried in Boat Coffins. The contaminating force beneath the pool is the Plague that killed the Remnants, and the bronze furnace’s “way” was an attempt to counter it using Shang bronze-working techniques. Lin Feng also links the ancient burial practices to the upheavals and secret bronze traditions of the Xia and Shang dynasties.
As Lin Feng escapes the spreading Plague, he encounters the giant serpent Bashé and pierces it with the Net of Luo. The Temple Keeper retrieves a coffin and gently places a smiling corpse into it. Inside, Lin Feng finds a pattern shaped like a tree: a human body’s spine, meridians, and organs arranged as a sacred, life-giving form. He concludes that the Jade Pool water nourishes this “Peach of Immortality Tree” within the body, enabling it to heal and join after a snake’s tail is grafted on. The procedure changes appearance, not the person’s essential nature: they remain a tree.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng moves from uncertainty to a coherent theory, using his calm reasoning and “Sword Heart Clarity” to interpret the furnace’s clues. He confronts the furnace, then acts decisively when its corruption threatens the others.
• The bronze furnace reveals cryptic answers but grows hostile when pressed; its response hints at an ancient, desperate solution to the Plague.
• The Temple Keeper protects Lin Feng from the stirred Iron-Crowned Daoists, helps him escape, and handles the corpse with care. His explanation confirms Lin Feng’s insight about the Qiang and Di people.
• The Iron-Crowned Daoists are suppressed but react painfully to the Plague’s aura. Bashé attacks Lin Feng and is struck by his hair-net technique.

Significant themes

• Ancient ritual and myth may encode practical or biological knowledge.
• Death, rebirth, and identity are intertwined: the buried believed they could return, while the body’s hidden “tree” represents enduring life.
• Understanding comes from connecting scattered clues, but attempts to overcome death carry the danger of corruption and plague.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng investigates a mysterious plague connected to the trees growing on people and to the Jade Pool. He concludes the Jade Pool itself has gone wrong: its water is spreading like oil, and bodies exposed to it undergo uncontrolled, cancer-like growth.
• As the lake boils over and the dead begin transforming, Lin Feng takes shelter inside the Bashé and has it flee underground. He has gathered the surviving “Mediums” and proceeds cautiously.
• The Temple Keeper relays records left by the Iron-Crowned Daoists. They had investigated the site in search of immortality and passed down their Dragon-Seeking Method.
• Lin Feng discovers a fragment of the Qi-Observing Dharma Eye in their records. It resonates with the seal in the Stone Man’s Vertical Eye, allowing him to break another layer of its incantation and awaken it further. The Bashé responds to the aura, showing that Lin Feng can now intimidate it even without the Net of Luo.
• The records describe a seemingly dead, incomplete Dragon Vein running from Karakoram. The Daoists eventually realized the vein was not the source of the site’s power: it existed because of something beneath the mountain, identified as “Dragon Bone.”
• Above ground, the spreading Jade Pool water causes the dead to shed their human skin and reveal trees within them, turning the landscape into what resembles an orchard.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains methodical and wary, recognizing that the plague defies ordinary explanations. His growing command of the Vertical Eye strengthens his authority over the Bashé.
• The Temple Keeper serves as Lin Feng’s guide through the Daoists’ records, explaining their search, methods, and findings.
• The Bashé is visibly frightened by the spreading threat and flees with Lin Feng inside it. After Lin Feng’s eye awakens further, it also reacts to his power.
• The Iron-Crowned Daoists are revealed as more than ordinary Daoists: they combined Daoist and Fangshi practices, used Earth-Lung Elixir Cultivation, and treated the “tree” as a cultivation path rather than a bodily growth. Most died exploring the site; one was eventually forgotten in the Underworld.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and uncertainty: Lin Feng can identify links among the plague, the Jade Pool, the trees, and the Dragon Vein, but the underlying forces remain difficult to explain.
• Inheritance and responsibility: The Daoists left behind their teachings and treasures for successors, as Lin Feng considers what he himself would need to preserve if he were to die.
• Nature turned monstrous: The Jade Pool’s life-giving water becomes a destructive force, producing unchecked growth and transforming the dead.
• Hidden histories: The mountain conceals an underground ecosystem, an anomalous source of power, and a tangled lineage connected to time and ancient migration.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng reaches an enormous underground world beneath the Jade Pool, where a vast natural “Mount Buzhou” formation of pillars supports a glittering crystal ceiling. Purple Miasma within the crystals gives the cavern its star-like light.
• He recognizes the pillars as Dragon Bones tied to the Jade Pool’s rise and decline, but cannot identify their true nature. One pillar begins vibrating, and Lin Feng realizes it is a gigantic bronze Jianmu—and a Source Seed.
• Blue Moss covering the Jianmu resonates with Lin Feng and appears profoundly dangerous. When he burns it away, the moss detaches and attacks nearby anomalous beasts, draining their blood. Lin Feng uses his powers to hold it back and escape, restraining the terrified Bashé.
• A colossal presence appears to watch from above: a pair of eyes seemingly belonging to a being approaching from across the galaxy. Neither Lin Feng nor the Temple Keeper can identify it.
• Lin Feng climbs a nearby pillar and discovers wall niches containing corpses of the underground world’s unknown builders. Some niches preserve Memory Fragments, offering a possible way to learn who they were.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains composed enough to investigate despite mounting danger, but the moss’s resonance affects him physically and nearly overwhelms his Sword Heart Clarity. He responds with flame, a blood-written incantation, and quick judgment.
• Bashé is revealed to fear the Blue Moss instinctively. It tries to approach the Jianmu, but Lin Feng holds it back.
• The Temple Keeper, usually experienced and knowledgeable, is visibly terrified by the immense eyes and admits he has never encountered anything like them.
• Lin Feng and the Temple Keeper communicate directly, exchanging impressions without ordinary speech.

Significant themes

• Nature and ancient technology blur together: the underground landscape looks natural, yet its bronze Jianmu and crystal “sky” suggest deliberate construction.
• Creation can bring destruction: the Dragon Bone may have helped create the Jade Pool while also contributing to its decline.
• Cosmic scale and human limits: the distant watcher and the unexplained structures confront even seasoned characters with forces beyond their understanding.
• Survival and curiosity conflict: Lin Feng risks investigating a deadly environment because its ruins may hold crucial knowledge.

Key plot points

• The Bronze Pillar’s “Blue Moss” feeds on animals climbing toward the Crystal. The Crystal drains them, then releases Purple Miasma rich in vitality; the surviving creatures absorb it, and the cycle repeats.
• Lin Feng concludes that the Miasma is not digestible by humans and avoids taking it in. When the Crystal solidifies and the Blue Moss returns to the pillar, the area becomes temporarily safe.
• While the Temple Keeper deciphers the Iron-Crowned Daoists’ coded text, Lin Feng examines the desiccated corpses and climbs the pillars. He finds simple remnants of daily life and notices that niches on the surrounding pillars contain more corpses.
• The Crystal’s apparent star field is not a real sky. Lin Feng identifies it as a chart showing stars visible in summer over the Yellow River basin, including the Summer Triangle.
• Using his Qi-Observing Eye, Lin Feng detects a woman on a nearby pillar. She appears only through this sight, does not seem to notice him, and cannot be made visible by the Haunted Village or the Twelve-Sided Die.
• The Bronze Vessel begins vibrating again, drawing animals back toward the pillar. The Blue Moss resumes feeding and the Purple Miasma returns. Knowing he is too close to the Crystal, Lin Feng plunges down the pillar. A hand reaches for him but misses.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains cautious and analytical: he studies the feeding cycle, refuses the Miasma, interprets the star chart, and retreats as soon as the danger returns. His Qi-Observing Eye reveals something beyond ordinary perception.
• The Temple Keeper focuses on deciphering the Iron-Crowned Daoists’ message, while Lin Feng investigates the physical surroundings.
• Bashé and the other creatures are first frightened, then drawn back by the vessel’s vibration despite the danger.
• The mysterious woman is introduced as a presence Lin Feng can see only with his Vertical Eye; the reaching hand at the end suggests an immediate, unexplained threat.

Significant themes

• Cycles of death and renewal: The Crystal drains creatures, then produces life-giving Miasma that sustains others.
• Limits of human understanding: The pillars, Crystal, star chart, and woman defy ordinary explanation, and Lin Feng’s tools reveal only part of what is happening.
• Dangerous attraction: The vessel’s sound compels creatures toward the Blue Moss even when they seem aware of the risk.
• Observation and interpretation: Lin Feng uses careful observation to distinguish the false star field from a real sky and to recognize the limits of what can safely be consumed or understood.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng sees a version of his own face emerge from the Purple Miasma. As the Bronze Pillar vibrates in a patterned way, he realizes it may be trying to speak. The Miasma forms a descending funnel, so he uses the Clay Jar to absorb a large amount of it.
• The Bronze Pillar’s sounds trigger overwhelming hallucinations and a strange “scripture sermon.” Lin Feng anchors himself with his intent, beats his drum, and practices mental emptiness to resist. The Fangxiangshi and many beasts are overcome; Sacred Embryos recite the True Scripture, and talismanic power seals the entire mountain.
• When the sounds stop, Lin Feng finds the cave transformed into a smooth stone enclosure with no visible exit. Most of his Thief’s Gate brothers have fallen; only the Temple Keeper and the Zhong Kui bearer remain.
• While Lin Feng searches the walls, the Temple Keeper translates Iron-Crowned Daoist records. They reveal that the site has a long history in three stages: King Fa’s people discovered the underground Crystal near the end of the Xia Dynasty; descendants of the Queen Mother of the West later used it to create the Jade Pool; and Shang nobles fleeing defeat eventually joined them.
• A plague linked to the Jade Pool Water weakened the settlement. The Shang later found and massacred its inhabitants, destroying their writings and leaving behind a curse against anyone who entered. Lin Feng suspects that curse may now be part of why escape is impossible.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng withstands the Crystal’s hallucinations through discipline and intent, but the ordeal leaves him trapped. His exchange with the Temple Keeper shifts from immediate survival to understanding the site’s history.
• The Temple Keeper proves valuable as a translator, using his knowledge of the Iron-Crowned Daoists’ cipher script to reconstruct the past.
• The Fangxiangshi recognizes the danger of the sermon but is nevertheless drawn into rapture, showing that even experienced figures may be unable to withstand it.
• The Sacred Embryos respond collectively by reciting the True Scripture, helping the mountain’s protective power take effect.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as both revelation and danger: The Crystal communicates through sounds that few can understand, and merely hearing them can overwhelm the listener.
• The burden of survival and inheritance: The present crisis is rooted in successive peoples’ use, conquest, and destruction of the site.
• History’s lingering consequences: The Shang’s ancient curse may still shape events, making the past an active threat rather than a closed chapter.
• Self-control under supernatural pressure: Lin Feng’s intent and practice of emptiness help him resist forces that overpower others.

Key plot points and events

• Trapped inside the smooth Shi coffin, Lin Feng sees a bronze pillar whose sound transforms its surroundings, making the pillar seem like a mythic Jianmu. He realizes the phenomenon is not Yin-Shang’s curse but a powerful, unpredictable natural force.
• He considers the ruined stone mountain and the fate of the Qiang and Di tribes. Their shamans sought “heavenly Qi” here, but the corrupted Jade Pool Water may have turned their visions into a source of plague; some people became part of the “tree.”
• With no other way forward, Lin Feng enters a Memory Fragment to learn how the Xia people dealt with such forces.
• Inside, he meets a female Grand Artificer, who recognizes that he is from the future and asks whether the expedition failed. She confirms that Wang Fa’s impatience contributed to the failure, though even borrowed power could not overcome what they faced.
• Lin Feng describes the Crystal-like phenomenon. The Grand Artificer concludes it is not a simple reflection but something like a mirror infested by a parasite.

Character developments

• Lin Feng shifts from observing the strange effects to actively seeking historical knowledge as his best hope of escape. He questions the Grand Artificer and reassesses Xia Jie’s claim, wondering whether he literally sought to become the sun.
• The Grand Artificer emerges as a brilliant, perceptive authority on Xia bronze vessels and natural phenomena. Though troubled by the expedition’s failure, her desire to understand the phenomenon outweighs any impulse to change events.

Significant themes

• Nature’s power and unpredictability: Natural forces are harder to understand or control than ancestor gods, and attempts to harness them can destroy whole communities.
• Knowledge and secrecy: Xia, Shang, and Zhou each developed different successful systems, while the Xia guarded the secrets of their bronze vessels closely.
• The danger of seeking power: The pursuit of “heavenly Qi” and borrowed power carries risks that safeguards may not prevent.
• Discovery as its own reward: The Grand Artificer’s response reflects the value of understanding, even when knowledge comes too late to avert disaster.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng consults the Temple Keeper about the blue moss, then questions the Grand Artificer about the mysterious phenomenon.
• The Grand Artificer recognizes Lin Feng as a future visitor and seeks confirmation that the mission ended in failure.
• Lin Feng provides his observations; she tests possible explanations, rejects the idea of a simple reflection, and arrives at the “parasite-infested Mirror” theory.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng’s account helps the Grand Artificer understand why their group was doomed: the part of “nature” they entered had been contaminated, making survival effectively impossible.
• She explains that humans, souls, nature spirits, and spiritual essences can parasitize or steal nature’s power. Humans may once have tried to coexist with nature, but its overwhelming influence eventually absorbs them.
• Lin Feng asks about the Nightmare and the Heaven-Bearing Temple. The Grand Artificer says she knows a way to let him parasitize the Nightmare, though it risks trapping him there if his will fails. She identifies the Temple as a Historian’s dwelling and says a Source Seed can listen to the Nightmare.
• Lin Feng reveals that he is a Historian and that the Fangxiangshi have nearly killed the Historians. The revelation shocks the Grand Artificer.
• She concludes that Wang Fa may have seen the end of all things by breaking the prohibition on entering time. She explains that time travel is forbidden because it is dangerous and unpredictable, and that the people of the royal capital swore to punish anyone who attempted it.
• The Grand Artificer sends Lin Feng back, promising to seek him out. She wonders whether Historians may still exist, perhaps under another identity.
• Lin Feng wakes in the present. The Shi wall around him is shrinking, and he sees Purple Miasma within it. He suspects it is the parasitic force the Grand Artificer described.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng gains a broader understanding of nature, parasitism, and the taboo surrounding time. He also recognizes that his own era may be far more devastated than the Grand Artificer imagined.
• The Grand Artificer demonstrates her immense knowledge and reasoning ability, but Lin Feng’s revelation leaves her unusually speechless. She becomes curious about the future and commits to finding him.
• Their conversation is unusually candid: the Grand Artificer shares secret knowledge, while Lin Feng uses the opportunity to ask about the Nightmare, the Temple, and time.

Significant themes

• Human limits before nature: Human strength and preparation may be useless against nature’s overwhelming power.
• Contamination and parasitism: Nature may be impartial, but something living within it can distort that neutrality and turn it hostile.
• The danger of knowledge: Learning the future is not a simple act of divination; entering time can expose people to forces they cannot control.
• Historical uncertainty and survival: Lin Feng reflects on how dynasties fall and how descendants can lose their power and identity, while the Grand Artificer wonders whether Historians have merely disappeared from public view.

Key plot points and events

• At Lin Feng’s country courtyard, his Five Ghosts experiment has produced a fully independent online persona: [One Potato], a ghost who streams and lives as if he were a real person.
• A supposed telecom technician arrives, followed by people claiming to maintain order. [One Potato] senses danger, refuses to open the door, and discovers his phone has no signal despite having reached the police.
• The courtyard’s supernatural protections—especially the divine essence of the Door Gods Tiger Tally and Zhong Kui—keep the intruders outside. More hostile people arrive overnight, including hired thugs who try to break in while others dig around the courtyard and prepare occult materials to prevent anyone from escaping.
• Meanwhile, Lin Feng investigates the history of the Historians and the Fangxiangshi. He struggles to understand how the powerful Historians vanished so abruptly and wonders who now conceals supernatural dangers from the world.
• A strange force begins affecting Lin Feng’s perception. His Heartfire burns away the invading emotion, but he notices the Copper Pillar and Blue Moss trembling. Using his Intent, he glimpses himself surrounded by people, then loses the vision. A woman’s corpse finally emerges from the Blue Moss.

Character developments

• [One Potato] has become a convincing, self-sustaining ghostly identity, distinct from Lin Feng. Under threat, his cheerful public persona gives way to calm vigilance, and he prepares to defend the courtyard.
• Lin Feng remains analytical despite danger, questioning supernatural history and recognizing when his mind is being influenced. He uses Heartfire and Intent to resist and investigate the phenomenon.

Character interactions

• [One Potato] refuses every demand from the people outside, while the intruders escalate from a false service call and threats to a coordinated siege.
• Lin Feng mentally weighs the Grand Artificer’s account of the Historians and Fangxiangshi, then confronts the mysterious presence revealed through the Copper Pillar and Blue Moss.

Significant themes

• Identity and existence: [One Potato] is a fabricated persona who has become real in practice, yet remains a ghost rather than a human.
• Protection and siege: Supernatural boundaries keep hostile forces out, while the attackers seek ways to breach or contain the courtyard.
• Hidden history and power: The Historians’ sudden disappearance and the Fangxiangshi’s rise suggest a concealed upheaval in the supernatural world.
• Perception and mental influence: Lin Feng’s vision shows that observation and Intent can expose him to forces capable of distorting his mind.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• Teacher Xun explains that the Fangxiangshi are closing in on the Historians. Their desperation makes them easier to draw into the open, and Lin Feng’s trip to the Western Sichuan Plateau is likely to provoke them.
• While Professor Han and Teacher Xun watch from a tearoom, Fangxiangshi agents infiltrate the school and head for the library, apparently targeting Xu Nian—the student most likely to inherit Professor Han’s knowledge.
• Teacher Xun reveals the Historians’ endangered lineage: of five potential successors, only three can still be traced, and two died in “accidents.” Professor Han was never meant to inherit the mantle, but events forced him into the conflict.
• He explains that a breach in the Thirty-Six Stockades let supernatural forces leak into the world. Unlike other traditions, the Historians’ abilities are not bound by changes in heaven and earth.
• Teacher Xun sends Professor Han to carry out their plan, calling it his final lesson. Han kills two agents with a single command, then passes through a mysterious door. Teacher Xun follows, armed with a knife.
• Elsewhere, two Fangxiangshi investigate the unexplained place on the Western Sichuan Plateau. Unable to find it in their records, they decide to consult the dangerous Western Sea Ancient Scroll, despite the risks of opening it.
• Teacher Xun enters their hidden Taoist temple and confronts them: “Nowhere left to run, is there!”

Character development and interactions

• Teacher Xun is physically frail and near death, yet remains spirited, strategic, and decisive. He breaks his lifelong rule against initiating killings and prepares to face the enemy directly. His conversation with Professor Han is both a confession about the lineage and a final act of mentorship.
• Professor Han moves from restrained anger to direct violence, killing the infiltrators himself. His actions mark his acceptance of the dangerous role he never wanted.
• Xu Nian is identified as a likely target and a key information hub, though he does not appear directly.
• The Fangxiangshi agents show increasing desperation: they hunt the Historians’ students and consider using a forbidden scroll, exposing both their ruthlessness and their fear.

Significant themes

• The endangerment of a lineage: the Historians’ tradition is being systematically hunted, leaving few possible successors.
• Inheritance and reluctant responsibility: Professor Han never wanted the mantle, but the crisis has made him its defender.
• Fear of the unknown versus the visible enemy: Teacher Xun argues that an unseen threat is most frightening; once it surfaces, it can be confronted.
• Knowledge and its dangers: the missing place and the Ancient Scroll show how incomplete records can conceal powerful truths—and how uncovering them may demand a terrible price.
• Courage and decisive action: echoing the opening discussion of battle, both sides are nearing exhaustion, and the conflict is approaching an all-or-nothing confrontation.

Plot points

• Teacher Xun enters a shabby Taoist temple that conceals a vast, distorted wilderness. He quickly kills its two grotesque “watchdogs” and heads toward a rocky mountain within.
• He explains that the apparent threat at the mountain is bait meant to draw Xiao Lin and others away—but he has prepared for this confrontation.
• As he advances, Teacher Xun recounts meeting the Ming-era monk Yao Guangxiao (Daoyan), who had investigated hidden beings that manipulated people and events throughout history.
• Teacher Xun concludes that these beings must be concealed either in history or in the Underworld. His investigation leads him to Wang Yangming’s enlightenment in Longchang, where the beings tried and failed to cause an “accident.”
• By spreading his intent across the ground, Teacher Xun anchors the landscape and forces the elusive mountain to become reachable. The beings inside recognize the threat, but he refuses to explain how he found them.
• Teacher Xun declares that he has come to trade his life for theirs, then attacks, releasing the lingering auras of powerful enemies previously slain by his blade.

Character developments and interactions

• Teacher Xun is revealed as a patient, formidable investigator. He has followed historical clues, studied the beings’ methods, and prepared to face them despite expecting a fight to the death. His calm storytelling gives way to direct, self-sacrificial resolve.
• Yao Guangxiao appears through Teacher Xun’s recollections as a rebellious, perceptive monk whose investigations uncovered traces of the hidden beings.
• Wang Yangming is presented as a nearly transcendent thinker whose enlightenment exposed the beings in Guizhou; they tried to stop him but failed.
• The beings, initially silent and concealed, become alarmed when Teacher Xun names Wang Yangming and reveals how much he knows. Their exchange turns into an imminent duel.

Significant themes

• Concealment and discovery: The beings hide by blending into history and the wider world, but careful inquiry can expose them.
• Intent and belief as power: Teacher Xun’s conviction helps him perceive and physically “lock” the shifting terrain.
• History as a battleground: Great historical figures and turning points have threatened the hidden beings’ influence.
• Sacrifice and resolve: Teacher Xun accepts that defeating his enemies may require exchanging his life for theirs.

Plot and events

• At the cost of his life, Teacher Xun ignites his Chivalrous Spirit and becomes a Beacon, exposing the enemy’s hidden lair so others can find it.
• At Stone Mountain, Lin Feng faces a corpse identified as the Grand Artificer—and a second, shadowy version visible only to his Vertical Eye. As he tries to determine what is real, Professor Han calls him despite the absence of any possible cell signal.
• Han explains that Teacher Xun’s Beacon lets him summon a deity’s power from another time, but warns that the deity must be close to Lin Feng or the danger could outweigh the help. Lin Feng names Yu Lei, Zhong Kui, and Zhang Zhuoen.
• As the Purple Miasma awakens, Lin Feng attacks with the Mountain Moving technique. The summoned deities answer: Yu Lei’s peach tree pierces the mist, Yu Lei protects Lin Feng, and Zhong Kui’s power forms a defensive Ghost Carpet beneath him.
• Lin Feng discovers that the Miasma consists of parasites, which can inhabit Mirrors, copy their properties, and grow new heads by absorbing people. One of its heads bears the Grand Artificer’s face; Lin Feng realizes the Xia artisans failed and that the Grand Artificer became part of the enemy.
• Lin Feng climbs Yu Lei’s peach tree to escape, but the parasite mass attacks. The Grand Artificer speaks to him through a Source Seed Copper Pillar, a sound-producing organ for the parasites, and sends many copies of herself against him.
• Zhang Zhuoen appears at full strength and begins a ritual, calling on Zhong Kui—the “Emperor Lord”—to act. The battle remains unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Teacher Xun makes a final, deliberate sacrifice, turning his death into a lasting signal for the fight against the hidden enemy.
• Lin Feng shows quick judgment and growing mastery of his powers. He recognizes the Mirror’s ability to reflect and potentially trap people, understands the Peach Tree as a route out, and accepts that the Grand Artificer has become an enemy.
• Professor Han acts as Lin Feng’s distant ally, coordinating divine aid and explaining the long-standing mutual support between Historians and deities.
• Yu Lei, Zhong Kui, and Zhang Zhuoen respond to Lin Feng’s connection to them. Yu Lei shields him and opens a path; Zhong Kui’s methods hold back the Miasma; Zhang Zhuoen arrives to lead the next stage of the defense.
• Lin Feng’s affection for Zhang Zhuoen is rooted in the Daoist’s earlier rescue of him. The pair’s reunion reinforces their bond as Zhang Zhuoen takes command of the ritual.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and legacy: Teacher Xun’s death becomes a Beacon that enables others to act.
• Trust and mutual obligation: The alliance between Historians and deities depends on genuine bonds and reciprocal aid.
• Identity, memory, and corruption: The Grand Artificer’s memory survives, but she has become part of the parasite enemy; the chapter blurs the boundary between person and monster.
• Knowledge as danger and protection: Lin Feng’s ability to interpret the Mirror, the parasites, and the Copper Pillar gives him crucial insight, while the enemy’s copied powers make observation itself perilous.

Key plot points and events

• The Crimson Flying Sword attacks the Copper Pillar, but its strike passes harmlessly through a Hydra head that manipulates time. Lin Feng recognizes the trick as a Historian’s power: accelerated time that can bypass defenses and eventually dispel summoned beings from the era.
• The group tries to escape upward through the Purple Miasma using Yu Lei’s enormous Peach Tree. Zhang Zhuoen begins a complex ritual to summon a powerful deity, while Lin Feng observes the enemy’s techniques and Zhong Kui helps defend them.
• The enemy’s time-based dispelling grows stronger. Yu Lei realizes someone must be expelled in place of himself so he can keep protecting the others; Zhong Kui accepts that role, reinforcing the Peach Tree with his anger until he is sent away.
• A Grand Artificer head attacks through mirror-like reflections, shattering part of Yu Lei’s Peach Tree and opening a route toward the group. With the tree badly damaged and the threat nearing them, Zhang Zhuoen reaches the climax of his ritual and calls desperately for the Emperor Lord.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains observant under pressure, studying the enemy Historian’s manipulation of time and recognizing it as “true damage.” His own Body-Fixing Technique briefly freezes time, but using it consumes much of his strength.
• Yu Lei takes responsibility for shielding everyone and directs the escape, ultimately choosing to remain behind while Zhong Kui is expelled.
• Zhang Zhuoen shows intense concentration and formidable ritual skill. He refuses to be distracted, reveals his grudge-holding nature, and chooses to summon a mighty deity capable of both rescue and retaliation.
• Zhong Kui is furious at the enemy’s behavior but cooperates with Yu Lei’s plan, sacrificing his place in the group to protect the others.
• The group’s roles are clear: Yu Lei defends, Zhang Zhuoen performs the ritual, Zhong Kui buys time, and Lin Feng watches for weaknesses.

Significant themes

• Time as an inescapable weapon: The enemy uses time to bypass ordinary defenses and erase supernatural beings from the present.
• Sacrifice and teamwork: Zhong Kui’s expulsion allows Yu Lei to keep protecting Zhang Zhuoen and Lin Feng.
• Observation as growth: Lin Feng treats the crisis as a chance to learn from another Historian.
• Ritual power and resolve: Zhang Zhuoen’s meticulous ceremony shows that preparation, identity, and determination can matter as much as direct force.

Key events

• Lin Feng and Zhang Zhuoen are rescued from the Mirror by the Emperor Lord’s fishing line. Zhang Zhuoen unleashes his Command Arrows while Lin Feng releases Purple Miasma and tries to capture the Historian’s severed head in his Clay Jar.
• As the Mirror awakens, it begins reproducing everything within its reach, trapping its inhabitants in endless cycles of remembered death and reincarnation. The Emperor Lord’s hand cannot be copied; it sweeps through the Mirror and erases Lin Feng, Zhang Zhuoen, Yu Lei, Zhong Kui, and the head, while the Mirror’s other contents persist.
• Lin Feng wakes alone on the Western Sichuan Plateau. He has sealed the Clay Jar and concludes that it contains a valuable Parasite and a Historian’s head. He heads home, eager to question Professor Han and learn what Teacher Xun’s larger plan might be.
• At Lin Feng’s courtyard, armed men infused with medicinal compounds and runes try to force their way in. Professor Han arrives and destroys them, but his use of power has attracted the Corpse of Nü Chou, a monster associated with the past. He wards her off temporarily with the powers of Yu Lei and Zhong Kui, at great personal cost.
• Lin Feng finds Professor Han waiting outside the courtyard, badly weakened and becoming increasingly inhuman. Their reunion ends with Han greeting him as a fellow Historian.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng survives a near-eternal imprisonment without realizing how close he came to it. He returns with new knowledge of the Mirror and remote spellcasting, plus the sealed Clay Jar, and remains determined to investigate the forces behind recent events.
• Zhang Zhuoen fights fiercely beside Lin Feng, exhausting his Command Arrows before the Emperor Lord’s rescue. He does not return with Lin Feng, underscoring their separation across eras.
• Professor Han protects Lin Feng’s home and waits for him, but his powers are consuming him: he is physically deteriorating, losing his essence, and becoming Terracotta-Figurine-like. His exchange with Lin Feng confirms their shared connection to the Historian lineage.
• The Emperor Lord rescues Lin Feng and Zhang Zhuoen and ultimately erases them from the Mirror, demonstrating power on the level of a natural phenomenon.
• The Corpse of Nü Chou pursues Professor Han after his repeated use of power. The divine forces guarding the courtyard make her retreat into a deeper layer of the world, not disappear.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: Historians’ ability to draw on forces from other eras brings a curse, attracting forgotten monsters and transforming its users.
• Nature versus control: The Mirror’s rule is impartial and terrifying, but another natural force can counter it.
• Death and memory: Within the Mirror, death leads to endless remembered reincarnation rather than release.
• Larger hidden designs: Lin Feng suspects Teacher Xun is orchestrating an immense plan, perhaps with himself included among its pieces.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng reunites with Professor Han, whose body is increasingly turning to dust, clay, and bronze. Han says Teacher Xun is dead and that Lin is now the Historians’ main hope against their enemies.
• Han explains that the Historians face “pseudonatural” beings: people whose contact with nature has allowed nature to dominate their consciousness. Fangxiangshi and Historical Remnants are among them. Lin, by contrast, remains human because his own will still controls his powers.
• These beings seek to escape their unnatural state, but they also act as bait that can draw dangerous entities out of time. Han believes they must be stopped to protect both the Historians and the wider world.
• Han directs Lin to find the enemy’s lair by looking for the place in the Historian that burns brightest—a clue left by Teacher Xun, who became a torch. Lin cannot yet perceive or navigate the Historian freely.
• The story then shifts to Director Guan, whose documentary is threatened because a key participant has been arrested for financial crimes. Unable to remove the segment, Guan considers costly AI face-swapping and urgently seeks a replacement. A senior colleague says he may know someone.

Character developments

• Lin Feng learns how his powers differ from pseudonatural transformation and begins to understand the deeper principles behind the uncanny and the Historian. He also faces the burden of succeeding Teacher Xun, though his own way of moving through the Historian remains unclear.
• Professor Han is physically deteriorating from his use of the Kiln’s power, yet stays resolute and practical. He accepts his condition as the result of his own choices and is determined to carry on Teacher Xun’s fight.
• Teacher Xun, though dead, is remembered as resilient and inspiring; his final act left Lin a clue to the enemy’s location.
• Director Guan is introduced as panicked and financially desperate, but begins searching for a practical way to salvage his film.

Significant themes

• The cost of resistance: Fighting powerful forces can erode a person’s humanity, as Han’s transformation demonstrates.
• Will and identity: What matters is whether a person remains in control of themselves or is overtaken by nature.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Han and Teacher Xun accept personal costs to protect others, while Lin inherits their cause.
• Survival versus protection: The conflict with the pseudonatural beings is driven by their willingness to do anything to survive, contrasted with the Historians’ duty to prevent wider catastrophe.

Character interactions

• Lin supports Han physically and listens as Han explains the enemy and the nature of pseudonatural beings; Han’s frankness gives Lin a new framework for understanding his own abilities.
• Han invokes Teacher Xun’s sacrifice and leaves Lin with both a warning and a task, placing responsibility for the struggle on him.
• In the documentary subplot, Guan’s staff remain silent as he vents, and he turns to industry acquaintances for help; one offers a possible lead.

Key plot points and events

• Director Guan is in crisis after a performer’s scandal forces major changes to a production. His senior recommends Lin Feng, a video creator and livestreamer, as a replacement. Guan watches Lin’s sample clip, approves him immediately, and arranges to meet.
• Lin agrees to take the role, which involves portraying a male flying apsara in a sequence for Shazhou’s Buddhist Grottoes. Because the original performer’s scandal has disrupted the schedule, much of the planned dance sequence must be cut or adapted for AI face-swapping.
• Before traveling to the set, Lin returns to the Mount-Viewing Kiln Factory with the Clay Jar containing a living Historian’s head. His lightning “intent” resonates with the lightning above the site, and his abilities intensify.
• The Historian’s head tries to summon the Mirror’s power and create a Mirror World, but the site’s Chime Bells ring first. Lin gains a new understanding of Thunder Magic and unlocks its fifth tone, [hong], striking the head with pale lightning.
• The next day, Lin meets Guan over teppanyaki. Guan confirms Lin is right for the part, but mourns the loss of the dance scenes and the time-consuming standard production process. Lin considers whether the face-swapping can be done another way.

Character developments

• Lin Feng is increasingly focused on reaching Sixth Rank. He needs stronger “anchors” tying him to the world and “heavenly fire” to temper his intent. The role may offer an opportunity to become widely recognized and gain new anchors.
• Lin’s power grows at the kiln: his lightning resonates with the site’s natural phenomenon, the Soaring Serpent Pattern emerges with heavenly fire, and he acquires the fifth tone of the Land God’s Six Tones.
• Director Guan is shown as anxious and resourceful, using every appeal he can to find a replacement. Once reassured by Lin’s sample, he becomes grateful and unusually open with him.
• Lin’s claim that he has dance training is technically dubious, but he believes his extraordinary physical abilities make it not entirely false.

Significant themes

• Breaking established rules: The chapter builds toward finding an unconventional solution to the production crisis rather than relying on ordinary filming and post-production.
• Recognition and identity: Lin’s work as a performer could help make him known to the public, supporting his need for stronger anchors—though AI face-swapping may prevent audiences from recognizing him.
• Power and danger: Lin’s advancing abilities are tied to risky encounters with supernatural forces, including the living Historian’s head and the kiln’s powerful lightning.
• Trust and desperation: Guan’s urgent need makes him rely on his senior’s recommendation, while Lin’s calm willingness to help gives Guan room to confide in him.

Character interactions

• Guan pleads with his senior for help, then quickly contacts Lin after receiving the recommendation.
• Lin and Guan agree on the replacement role. Guan praises Lin’s suitability and shares his frustration and grief over the cut dance sequence; Lin listens without reacting much.
• Lin confronts the Historian’s head alone at the kiln, where the head’s attempt to invoke the Mirror is interrupted by the Chime Bells and Lin’s new thunder technique.

Key plot points and events

• Director Guan vents his grievances to Lin Feng. Lin proposes reshooting the documentary and uses [Net of Luo] to keep the cast and crew energetic without sleep or loss of vitality.
• The reshoot in Shazhou goes exceptionally well: the crew works nearly nonstop, and the environment seems to cooperate with Director Guan’s wishes. Lin’s portrayal of the Male Flying Apsara is especially striking.
• While filming, Lin keeps watch over the Mount-Viewing Kiln, where his lightning restrains the spreading influence of the New Moon Mirror. He continues studying the kiln, Heavenly Fire, and a technique that can inflict “true damage.”
• Professor Han investigates the past disappearance of Historical Remnants and seeks allies to help Lin. As an Anchor burdened by mythic creatures and ominous vortices, he vanishes from the current era after turning into yellow earth.
• The documentary is completed, reaches a wider audience, and helps Lin gain public recognition. He also appears at two Spring Festival galas, then disappears into seclusion for six months.
• Lin returns to the Mount-Viewing Kiln and begins a sacrificial rite, arranging ritual banners, incantation scripts, and the spiritual essence of Mount Tai. He summons a wind-formed face resembling his own, starting the ceremony.

Character developments

• Lin Feng deliberately uses public exposure to strengthen his identity and “anchor” himself, aiming to reach the Sixth Rank. He is increasingly strategic about building a recognizable public image while continuing to develop his supernatural abilities.
• Director Guan shifts from overwhelmed and aggrieved to ecstatic and single-mindedly devoted to the reshoot. Lin’s power gives him the chance to realize his creative vision.
• Professor Han accepts the burden of paving the way for Lin, seeking allies and preparing to confront threats that might obstruct him.

Character interactions

• Lin listens to Director Guan’s grievances, then persuades him to reshoot the entire documentary. He secretly empowers the crew, enabling their extraordinary working pace.
• Director Guan enthusiastically praises Lin’s acting and directs the reshoot with newfound confidence.
• Professor Han’s role is largely indirect: guided by Teacher Xun’s plan, he works to clear obstacles so Lin can fulfill his part.

Significant themes

• Identity and recognition: Lin turns a public-facing role into a symbolic image that can stabilize and strengthen him.
• Power and sacrifice: Supernatural abilities solve immediate problems but carry costs; Professor Han’s transformation and burdens underscore the risks.
• Art as a supernatural tool: The documentary is more than entertainment—it helps shape Lin’s public identity and influence.
• Preparation before confrontation: Lin and Professor Han pursue different forms of groundwork—Lin builds power and recognition, while Han seeks allies and clears the path.