Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng completes another forced inheritance from the Priest’s mask, learning the Qi-Observing Eye, an incomplete fragment of ancient geomancy that lets its user discern another person’s true nature. The inheritance warns that uniting all thirty-six fragments would bring catastrophe.
• The mask then breaks Lin Feng’s will and kills him. He reflects that each death yields knowledge, but the process inflicts extraordinary pain—and his three available lives are now exhausted, temporarily keeping him out of the game.
• Back in the real world, Lin Feng tests his new skill Feasting on Wind and Drinking Dew. Overcome by unnatural hunger, he raids the refrigerator, but ordinary food does not satisfy him.
• He instinctively performs ritual gestures, throat sounds, and an impossible dance—ways of communicating with the gods. Wind gathers around him and flows into his body through his skin. After more than half an hour, the hunger passes, and he notices that his surroundings seem to have changed.

Character developments

• Lin Feng treats the mask’s deadly inheritance as a calculated use of the game’s mechanics, though he recognizes how dangerous and painful it is.
• He shows restraint outside the game: despite gaining extraordinary abilities, he refuses to test a destructive attack on his apartment or harm his landlady.
• His experiment reveals that his new abilities can overwhelm his body and instincts, but his cultivation and flexibility help him endure the ritual.

Significant themes

• Knowledge at a cost: The Priest’s secret is acquired through repeated death and suffering.
• Power and restraint: Lin Feng has unusual abilities but tries to avoid recklessness and harm.
• Humanity’s connection to the divine: Dance, melody, and writing are presented as channels for communicating with gods.
• The uncanny in everyday life: A supernatural ritual unfolds inside Lin Feng’s ordinary rented apartment, blurring the boundary between game powers and the real world.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng interacts only indirectly with the Priest, whose mask forces knowledge upon him and ultimately kills him.
• In the real world, he thinks of his landlady and deliberately avoids causing damage that might provoke her.
• No one responds to the strange ritual noises, despite Lin Feng’s stomping and chanting.

Chapter summary: “On Fortune”

Key plot points and events

• After performing the Sacrificial Chant and Dance, Lin Feng finds his apartment wrecked: his body has bled, the floor tiles are broken, and he is shedding large strips of dead skin. His injuries heal rapidly, but he prioritizes cleaning before anyone sees the damage.
• His ritual has affected the neighbors. They experience shared hallucinations and feel as though they lived through an entire lifetime, then wake confused and alarmed. Property management investigates reports of strange noises.
• Lin Feng cleans the apartment with superhuman speed, hides the broken tiles beneath a rug, and convinces the staff that nothing unusual happened.
• He tests his new Qi-Observing Eye, which displays a person’s type, fortune, and threat level. He notices that ordinary people and the seriously ill tend to have gray or black-tinged fortunes, while people near the Yamen display brighter red fortunes.
• Lin Feng concludes that stronger red coloring indicates better luck or prospects. When he tries to check his own fortune, the skill causes a sharp pain in his head.

Character developments

• Lin Feng’s body has grown stronger through the ritual and qi cultivation. His skin can now absorb qi independently, giving his body a second source of cultivation and potentially accelerating his progress toward the eighth rank. His healing has also improved.
• He remains practical and secretive, focusing on covering up the ritual’s consequences rather than explaining them to others.
• His curiosity about his abilities leads him to use the Qi-Observing Eye repeatedly and without restraint, revealing that the skill has a cost.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng reassures the property-management staff, especially an older woman who is suspicious enough to peer into his apartment. He secretly uses the Qi-Observing Eye on her and a younger colleague.
• The younger woman becomes uncomfortable under Lin Feng’s intense gaze, while the older woman’s cough finally brings him back to his senses.
• Though Lin Feng does not interact directly with his neighbors, his ritual leaves the whole building shaken and prompts them to contact property management.

Significant themes

• Power and unintended consequences: Lin Feng’s cultivation strengthens him, but his ritual also damages his home and disrupts everyone nearby.
• Curiosity and restraint: New abilities invite experimentation, but Lin Feng learns that using them carelessly can be dangerous.
• Fortune and uncertainty: The Qi-Observing Eye offers a way to read people’s prospects, yet Lin Feng can only guess what the colors mean—and cannot safely inspect his own fortune.

Key plot points and events

• Still suffering headaches from overusing the Qi-Observing Eye, Lin Feng studies his notes in a coffee shop. His clues point toward the Western Hunan Blood God, with possible links to an ancient priest, the Northern Song emperor, a Yuan dynasty imperial preceptor, and an Ascension Stockade. He has a theory but needs more evidence.
• Lin Feng decides to balance game time with earning money through livestreaming, then returns to the game intending to spend three lives extracting everything he can from the flesh mask.
• When his party reaches a collapsed road, Lin Feng tells the guide to find another route and leaves them behind. The guide protests, but Hundred-Household Officer Zhu uses his sword to make the guide comply.
• In the rain, Lin Feng ambushes Ghost Uncle, the toothless old woman, and their Terracotta Figure guards. He uses the Qi-Observing Eye to see their dire fortunes, then kills them swiftly with his sword. His Mountain God status gives him enough vitality to use Self-Sacrificing Strike repeatedly without suffering its usual cost.
• Expecting the Yin God to appear, Lin Feng waits—but it does not. He realizes the mask is likely the trigger, takes it from Ghost Uncle, and puts it on.
• The mask forces priestly knowledge into him, revealing the Ritual Incense Crafting Method: an ancient sacrificial practice using captives, livestock, or wild beasts to create incense that connects worshippers to divine realms. The method reflects the brutality behind the path to godhood.
• The mask assimilates and kills Lin Feng. He revives and puts it on again several times, receiving the same information each time. After waiting out its cooldown, he finally exhausts its knowledge and mocks it as an “illiterate moron.”

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng is more cautious about risking his only real-world life, but in the game remains bold and calculating. He relies on planning, rapid violence, and repeated resurrection to exploit the mask’s limits. His improved stamina and vitality hint at growing strength.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu follows Lin Feng’s instruction without hesitation and handles the guide through intimidation.
• The guide is frightened and reluctant, caught between Lin Feng’s impossible order and Zhu’s blade.
• Ghost Uncle and the other demons are swiftly killed before they can stop Lin Feng from reaching the mask.
• The mask tries to assimilate Lin Feng by imparting its priestly inheritance, but Lin Feng treats it as a resource to be drained rather than a threat to fear.

Significant themes

• Risk and survival: Lin Feng distinguishes between the game’s expendable lives and his one real-world life.
• Pragmatism over convention: He abandons his party, attacks by surprise, and uses a supposedly costly ultimate move as a routine attack.
• Knowledge and exploitation: Lin Feng repeatedly submits to death to extract the mask’s secrets, turning a supernatural inheritance into a resource to exhaust.
• The brutality of divine power: The incense method reveals that worship, access to divine realms, and the pursuit of godhood are founded on blood sacrifice.
• Livelihood and responsibility: Even amid supernatural dangers, Lin Feng recognizes that he must keep streaming to earn a living.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng extracts all of the mask’s knowledge after dying three times. Though the deaths are painful, he considers the information well worth the cost.
• He learns how to make Ritual Incense, a key offering in sacrificial rites, and studies its five grades. The most accessible grade is abysmal; he plans to try making it with rabbits and available ingredients. He dismisses the more elaborate recipes as unrealistic.
• Lin Feng prepares to return to the game later, hoping to test his theory and advance to the next act. For now, he turns to streaming to earn money.
• The scene shifts to a remote excavation site in western Hunan, where rain and rough terrain make a rescue search difficult. Professor Han is distressed because his doctoral student Ran Zhihui has disappeared. Ran had previously reported seeing a blood-red figure in the forest and had behaved strangely before vanishing.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng emerges from the ordeal satisfied and newly confident in his practical skills, while remaining skeptical of grandiose recipes and determined to work within his means.
• His humor and informality carry over to his streaming session, where he jokes with familiar viewers and reacts to an unexpected paid message.
• Professor Han’s students and security personnel try to comfort him, but his grief is intensified by the loss of his most senior student. The chapter hints that Ran’s disappearance may be connected to the supernatural events around the excavation.

Significant themes

• Knowledge at a cost: Lin Feng’s discoveries come through repeated, painful deaths.
• Tradition and loss: Ritual practices have changed or faded across history, while the excavation suggests buried mysteries may still persist.
• Pragmatism versus the supernatural: Lin Feng dismisses impossible ambitions and focuses on what he can realistically attempt.
• Suspense and foreshadowing: Ran’s disappearance, his earlier sighting, and his final strange remarks set up a looming mystery.

Key plot points and events

• Ran Zhihui has vanished during a stormy night in the Western Hunan Mountains. His large footprints lead into dense forest and then abruptly disappear.
• Professor Han is devastated and repeatedly tries to join the search, but Security Section staff stop him because the terrain, weather, and danger of venomous snakes make it too risky.
• A local elder, unsettled by the disappearance, recalls legends of supernatural dangers in the mountains. Despite his fear, he takes several staff members into the forest to search.
• Xu Nian has already searched nearby with fellow students. She is anxious about Ran but is prevented from going out again.
• While waiting, Xu Nian recalls Ran’s earlier warning: the excavation site contains disturbing artifacts and remains, including Yin-Shang-style ritual vessels, worm-filled human bones, jars of human heads, and skeletons pierced by banyan roots. Ran believed the site was cursed and urged Xu Nian to leave.
• Ran’s warning had ended with a terrifying sight: his eyes moved in opposite directions, making him appear profoundly unlike himself.

Character developments and interactions

• Professor Han shows intense grief and helplessness; Ran is his first disciple and intended successor, making the loss deeply personal and professional.
• Xu Nian is frightened but concerned for Ran. She remembers that he had always been trustworthy, even though others dismissed him as mad.
• The local elder moves from fearful superstition to reluctant action, choosing to search despite believing the mountains may hold something dangerous.
• The students and Security Section staff try to comfort Professor Han while restraining him and Xu Nian for their safety.

Significant themes

• Rational inquiry versus superstition: The excavation’s discoveries and Ran’s disappearance blur the line between archaeological evidence and supernatural threat.
• Isolation and helplessness: Rain, darkness, difficult terrain, and limited medical resources make the group feel trapped.
• Foreboding and distrust: Ran’s warning suggests the expedition has disturbed something dangerous, while his disturbing appearance leaves open whether he was ill, terrified, or affected by something beyond explanation.

Key plot points and events

• During a rainy expedition in the Western Hunan Mountains, Xu Nian catches an unfamiliar, heavy fragrance. It briefly makes the world feel strange and unreal, and she feels nauseated.
• The search for senior student Ran Zhihui yields no results overnight. Professor Han, visibly worn down, tells the group to rest.
• Xu Nian experiences worsening dizziness and weakness in her tent. Unable to move or call for help, she sees Ran Zhihui crawl inside, emaciated and with blood-red horsehair worms coming from his eyes. He warns that the place is cursed and everyone will die, then begs her to save him. His scream jolts her back to strength.
• The chapter abruptly shifts to Lin Feng livestreaming a shooter game. His unusually sharp reflexes let him score repeated headshots, attract fans and donations, and stay energetic after hours of streaming.
• Later, while looking outside his apartment in Fog City, Lin Feng sees a headless person shuffling across the street. Nobody else appears to notice it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Nian shifts from curiosity about the scent to fear and helplessness, then regains strength when confronted by Ran Zhihui. Her isolation and uncertain perception leave open whether she is ill, under an influence, or witnessing something supernatural.
• Ran Zhihui, previously a powerful senior student, appears gravely transformed and terrified. His warning and desperate plea suggest he has learned something horrific about the mountains.
• Professor Han is deeply affected by the failed search, appearing aged and exhausted.
• Lin Feng discovers that cultivation-enhanced reflexes improve his gaming, boosting both his performance and income. His encounter with the headless figure brings the supernatural into his otherwise ordinary urban life.
• Xu Nian’s fellow students try to look after her, while Lin Feng engages his viewers through gameplay and banter. No one around Lin Feng reacts to the headless figure.

Significant themes

• The uncanny invading ordinary life: A strange scent, worm-infested eyes, and a headless figure disrupt familiar settings.
• Isolation and helplessness: Xu Nian is trapped in her body and separated from the people nearby; Ran Zhihui and the headless figure are likewise alone in different ways.
• Uncertainty and altered perception: Xu Nian questions whether she is feverish, while the chapter leaves the nature of both supernatural encounters unexplained.
• Unexpected consequences of cultivation: Lin Feng’s improved abilities prove useful in gaming and earning money, even as the wider world grows increasingly strange.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng watches a headless apparition pacing along his street. Cars and people pass through it, and it seems trapped in a repetitive routine.
• Several more uncanny beings gather nearby. Their growing hostility creates baleful energy and chills the street. Once more than a dozen have assembled, all but the headless figure look up at Lin Feng.
• Rather than panic, Lin Feng taunts them and invites them to come up and fight.
• In the Western Hunan Mountains, nine hours after the livestream ends, a scream brings the search party to Xu Nian’s tent. A tall, perfumed man in a raincoat claims she has a dangerous fever and urges them to take her down the mountain.
• Xu Nian, visibly feverish, identifies the man as Ran Zhihui, her eldest senior brother. Ran reveals himself, warns the group not to go, then flees into the forest as thunder and lightning break overhead.

Character developments

• Lin Feng shows greater composure around supernatural beings than before. Though he recognizes his limited abilities in the real world, curiosity and confidence outweigh his fear.
• The exhausted rescue officer remains alert enough to respond to Xu Nian’s apparent illness, but realizes too late that the raincoat-clad man’s story is suspicious.
• Xu Nian’s fever leaves her vulnerable, yet she manages to identify Ran Zhihui and alert the others.
• Ran Zhihui is revealed to be both deceptive and threatening: he disguises himself, misdirects the rescue team, and escapes when recognized.

Significant themes

• Growing supernatural intrusion: Uncanny beings appear in ordinary streets and remote wilderness alike, increasingly affecting the living world.
• Fear and courage: Lin Feng’s confidence contrasts with the rescue team’s mounting alarm and exhaustion.
• Deception and uncertainty: Ran Zhihui’s disguise makes it difficult to know who can be trusted.
• Limits of power and perception: Lin Feng understands that his abilities are weaker in the real world, while both scenes leave key supernatural events unexplained.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng observes the apparitions from his balcony, then directly challenges the hostile group after they target him.
• Ran Zhihui approaches a rescue officer with a false-sounding warning about Xu Nian, prompting the team to investigate.
• Xu Nian exposes the deception by naming Ran Zhihui; the officer and others pursue him, but he escapes into the forest.

Key plot points and events

• Torrential rain and darkness trap an expedition on the mountain. Xu Nian’s fever remains high, and a doctor finds abnormal sounds in her lungs, warning that she needs urgent treatment at a hospital.
• The security officer insists that saving Xu Nian comes first. The group straps her to a stretcher and begins the dangerous descent.
• Feverish, Xu Nian mutters ominously that everyone will die, the excavation is in the wrong place, and the sacrificial burial pit connects past and present. Professor Han places a carved rhinoceros-horn statue of the Taoist guardian Wang Lingguan around her neck before she leaves.
• The rain intensifies, an uncanny fragrance spreads through the camp, and the people carrying Xu Nian sense a presence in the woods. Her speech turns into an eerie, songlike mixture of languages.
• Their route is cut off when the mountain trail collapses, leaving them unable to descend.
• In Fog City, Lin Feng tends to rabbits given blessed medicine and recalls using a feather duster to drive away otherworldly beings drawn together by baleful energy. In his game, the guide tells him the trail has collapsed. Lin Feng proposes trying another route using “Yin Roadwalking.”

Character developments and interactions

• The security officer breaks the group’s paralysis with a forceful decision to prioritize Xu Nian’s life, rallying the others into action.
• The doctor gives a blunt assessment of Xu Nian’s condition and urges evacuation, despite the danger of descending in the storm.
• Professor Han appears devastated and hesitant, but offers Xu Nian a protective religious artifact before she is carried away.
• Xu Nian becomes increasingly delirious, yet her words suggest disturbing knowledge about the excavation and impending danger.
• Lin Feng remains pragmatic and self-assured, treating supernatural threats as manageable while turning to a new route when the trail is reported blocked.

Significant themes

• Life versus danger: The group must risk the storm to get Xu Nian medical care.
• Superstition and the supernatural: Strange speech, an unexplained fragrance, and a felt presence blur the line between folklore and reality.
• Knowledge and warning: Xu Nian’s delirious statements may reveal that the excavation has disturbed something tied to both past and present.
• Human limits against nature: Rain, darkness, and landslides make the mountain itself a deadly obstacle.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng finishes the game’s stage, carries the reluctant guide to Jixi Inn, and finds the Three Baleful Corpses unusually submissive. He concludes his Qi-Observing Eye may be too incomplete to read the fortune of the dead or other nonhumans.
• Li Pusa arrives in the rain. Lin Feng pressures him into helping with Yin Roadwalking, using both threats and appeals to duty. Li Pusa supplies the three dangerous ritual materials: a bowl used by the dead, incense left from offerings to ghosts and gods, and corpse-derived ointment that hides a person’s vital flames.
• Lin Feng asks about the strange old man he encountered in the Underworld. Li Pusa is terrified; he explains that the Underworld is only partly known, and that an entity capable of demanding worship and stealing fate is beyond even ordinary officials’ control.
• Li Pusa leads Lin Feng and his companions safely through Yin Roadwalking from Jixi Inn to the inn near Bull-Head Mountain. Their ranks fall while in the Underworld, so they proceed in silence and fear.
• On emerging, Lin Feng senses a formidable presence outside. Before he can investigate, the scene breaks and the game starts its final beginner act: survive eight hours while waiting for rescue. The mission allows only one life and warns that survival depends on uniting allies and facing the horror together.
• Frustrated by the abrupt transition and the game’s taunting difficulty, Lin Feng vows to prove himself rather than give up.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains bold and domineering, but also practical: he avoids provoking the corpses without reason, coerces Li Pusa when necessary, and takes the Underworld threat seriously. The final challenge turns his frustration into defiance.
• Li Pusa begins wary but quickly becomes compliant under Lin Feng’s pressure. His genuine terror at the old man’s appearance shows how dangerous the anomaly is, even to an experienced Corpse Driver.
• The Three Baleful Corpses act powerful but cautious around Lin Feng; when he calls Li Pusa his brother, they refuse to accept offerings from him.
• The guide remains reluctant, while the game’s hostile, taunting prompts become a kind of antagonist to Lin Feng’s pride.

Significant themes

• Deception as survival: Yin Roadwalking depends on tricks and disguises that conceal the living from supernatural beings; if these fail, the consequences are fatal.
• Power and fear: Supernatural forces can overwhelm even experienced practitioners, while the corpses’ deference to strength highlights how power shapes behavior.
• Uncertainty and limited knowledge: The Underworld is largely unmapped, and the old man represents a threat beyond established systems.
• Solidarity and resilience: The final mission emphasizes gathering allies, while Lin Feng’s response expresses stubborn courage in the face of overwhelming danger.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng decides to watch Act Four, “Hymn of Despair,” before pursuing other plans. He knows the final act allows only one life per attempt; death means restarting, while the game’s eight-hour cooldown makes repeated attempts costly.
• The cutscene opens in a violent, seemingly supernatural storm. Lin Feng, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu, guide, Li Pusa, and Li Pusa’s clients emerge from Yin Roadwalking into torrential rain.
• Lightning instantly incinerates Li Pusa’s clients. Lin Feng’s Sword Heart Clarity warns him of danger from every direction, so he drops his metal sword and lies flat. Li Pusa follows suit, while Zhu refuses to let go of his saber.
• After the storm eases, Lin Feng sees what appears to be the Jixi Inn—but it is an eerie ancestral hall surrounded by clouds and mist. Green lamps held by kneeling children illuminate its doors, corpse-skinned “bats” hang beneath its bells, and the doors crack open, releasing a stench of decay.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng approaches the act with wary curiosity but stays composed during the storm, recognizing the lightning’s danger and acting quickly to protect himself.
• Li Pusa is stunned by the sudden change in circumstances. He and Lin Feng share the same practical concern: why have they appeared outside the inn, exposed to the storm?
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu shows stubborn attachment to his weapon, even when holding metal makes him vulnerable.
• The cutscene’s background explains Li Pusa’s harsh life: his master abducted him as a child because of his birth chart, and Li Pusa avoids returning home for fear of bringing misfortune to his parents.

Significant themes

• Death and risk: The game’s one-life rule makes failure especially consequential, while the cutscene immediately establishes lethal stakes.
• The supernatural and the uncanny: Divine-seeming lightning and the impossible ancestral hall unsettle the characters and signal that ordinary rules no longer apply.
• Marginalization and survival: The exposition presents corpse drivers as socially despised outsiders, yet their work persists because people need help returning the dead to their homelands.
• Duty versus exclusion: Ideals of filial piety and loyalty are celebrated by society, while the people who serve those traditions—corpse drivers—are treated with contempt.

Plot points and events

• As the group approaches the Ancestral Hall, its doors crack open and a bloodless hand emerges. Li Pusa breaks the group’s trance by shouting for them to run.
• They flee into the Dense Forest. Lin Feng sees a Paper Figure peering through the doors and smiling at him.
• Once they are safe, Li Pusa uses a bone dagger to cut his hand and feed his blood to the Guanyin-like image tattooed on his back. The image transforms into a clawed, fanged monster and drinks his blood.
• Li Pusa explains that the mountains’ feng shui has collapsed, reversing yin and yang. Their return route is blocked by an Uncanny from the Underworld, so they must press deeper into the mountains.
• The group reaches Bull-Head Stockade and finds it devastated: villagers hang from enormous, exposed tree roots, and blood and chewing sounds come from within.
• A gigantic Yin God emerges from behind a ravine and looks toward them. The cutscene ends, leaving Lin Feng expecting an immediate, likely fatal encounter when gameplay begins.

Character developments

• Lin Feng remains observant and defiant, even staring down the monstrous “Bodhisattva,” but the horrors leave him terrified and convinced he may not survive.
• Li Pusa reveals both his grim resolve and the cost of his unusual faith: he sacrifices his own blood to the creature on his back, which also seems to drain his vitality.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu stays alert and armed, though even his experience does not spare him from fear.
• The guide is briefly delighted when Li Pusa addresses the group as officers, then shares their despair at the stockade’s destruction.

Significant themes

• Sacred and monstrous blurred: A seemingly holy Guanyin image is revealed as a blood-drinking creature, challenging assumptions about what deserves worship.
• Human vulnerability: In the mountains, people are prey amid forces they cannot understand or control.
• Corruption of the natural order: The collapse of feng shui and reversal of yin and yang signal that familiar protections and routes no longer apply.
• Fear and survival: The group’s only option is to flee danger when possible and continue into a landscape filled with unknown threats.

Character interactions

• Li Pusa takes charge during the Ancestral Hall encounter, physically pulling Lin Feng and the others to safety.
• Lin Feng and the monster on Li Pusa’s back engage in a silent staring contest; Lin Feng refuses to look away.
• Li Pusa warns the others that they are “all in the same boat” and explains why turning back is impossible.
• The group reacts together to the apparent destruction of Bull-Head Stockade, where the massive Yin God confronts them.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng ignores his intention to quit and enters the game for “one life,” expecting an eight-hour cooldown if he dies.
• He arrives on a freezing, rain-soaked Bull-Head Mountain. His companions—Hundred-Household Officer Zhu and two others—are already dangerously cold.
• System messages reveal that leaving Clear Spring Stockade has weakened Lin Feng’s Mountain God protection by 30%. They also announce a “Qi mutual hunting” mode and reveal that the Western Hunan Mountain God has been shattered into six fragments. Lin Feng receives the first fragment and is marked as an enemy by Bull-Head Mountain’s hostile Mountain God.
• Lin Feng’s Qi-Observing Dharma Eye identifies the giant figure before him as a highly dangerous Land God. A bloody eight-hour countdown hangs in the sky.
• The apparent threat is not attacking Lin Feng: numerous monstrous Yin Gods are tearing apart and devouring the Land God. Lin Feng realizes the scene is a divine feeding frenzy and quietly leads his group away.
• The battle’s supernatural aftereffects spread through Bull-Head Stockade: strange cries, long-dead bodies weeping blood, and a red mist. Li Pusa suffers a nosebleed, though the guide cannot perceive what is happening.
• Once the group reaches the forest, they flee. Lin Feng decides to head toward the Ironhead Viper, a false Mountain God he has already sensed, judging it the most manageable target available.

Character developments

• Lin Feng embraces the danger of the game despite knowing he may die, driven by curiosity and enjoyment of its brutal realism. When faced with the divine battle, however, he acts cautiously and protects the group rather than intervening.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu notices Lin Feng’s alarm and follows his instructions to retreat.
• Li Pusa appears physically affected by the supernatural disturbance, suggesting he is sensitive to forces others cannot see.

Significant themes

• Survival through restraint: Lin Feng’s best response to overwhelming danger is to withdraw rather than fight.
• Hidden supernatural realities: Ordinary characters cannot see the divine conflict, yet they suffer its physical consequences.
• Fragmented power and rivalry: The Mountain Gods’ broken authority creates new enemies and forces competing deities into conflict.
• The cost of exploration: Entering a new region brings both reduced protection and immediate exposure to threats far beyond Lin Feng’s strength.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng silently signals the group to retreat from the feast; Zhu questions him, but Lin Feng does not explain.
• Lin Feng’s allies comply, and he leads them through the forest toward the danger he considers comparatively less formidable: the Ironhead Viper.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng and three companions are trapped deep in the mountains after Bull-Head Stockade is overrun. With no clearly safe route and rescue perhaps eight hours away, Lin Feng decides to lead them toward the Ironhead Viper’s lair, hoping its known danger is safer than the unknown wilderness.
• The guide checks Lin Feng’s Map and reveals that every route around the stockade leads through forbidden ground. Before they can choose a path, a pursuing presence emerges from the forest. Li Pusa identifies it as a corpse surrounded by dense corpse qi, apparently something from the Underworld.
• Li Pusa performs a ritual with incense and human-fat salve to mask the group’s Human Aura. It briefly reduces their exposure, but a procession of skeletal ritual masters catches up. The group sees human-faced, female “crows” overhead and a towering skeleton mage carrying a skull bowl and a child’s skeleton.
• The procession passes without noticing the group—until the guide suddenly kneels and joins its chanting, putting everyone in danger.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng takes charge, prioritizing the survival of his companions and relying on Li Pusa and the guide for their expertise. His confidence is tempered by the realization that even familiar threats may be preferable to the unknown.
• Li Pusa, despite his injuries and black blood, recognizes the pursuing danger and uses his ritual knowledge to conceal the group’s Human Aura.
• The guide initially helps identify the forbidden routes, but his fear—or susceptibility to the procession’s chants—causes him to kneel and join in. Lin Feng is shocked that the guide proves the weakest-willed of the group.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu shows intense hatred toward the skeletal ritual masters, hinting at a personal or historical connection.

Significant themes

• Survival through knowledge: Lin Feng values Li Pusa’s and the guide’s expertise as much as their physical abilities.
• The danger of the unknown: The familiar Ironhead Viper seems safer than the wilderness, where threats are unpredictable.
• Human vulnerability and unreliable safety: The group is briefly overlooked, but a single person’s reaction can undo their concealment.
• The past intruding on the present: The ritual procession may be connected to people who died in the mountains during the Mongol Yuan era.

Key plot points and events

• The guide succumbs to the Skeleton Mages’ Sanskrit chant, loses his remaining vitality, and joins their procession in a trance. The great Skeleton Mage drains him through a bone straw, leaving only his skin; the others remove his organs and place them in urns.
• The Skeleton Mages notice Lin Feng and his companions and advance, forcing Lin Feng and Hundred-Household Officer Zhu to prepare for a fight.
• Zhu reveals that the “Demon monks” in pointed hats destroyed his family: his younger brother was taken and skinned, his mother disappeared, and his father starved after they raised the rent. His anger turns into open resolve to fight.
• Lin Feng agrees to take on the larger skeletons while Zhu handles the smaller ones. He tells Li Pusa to flee with a map once the fighting begins, but Li refuses to run, accepting that he may die.
• Before the battle starts, another group appears: chained skeletons dressed as Daoists or scholars. They laugh and chant the ominous name “A Lu Hun.” The human-faced crows scatter, and the great Skeleton Mage responds with a ritual chant.
• Black qi streams from the Mage into the ritual banners and blood-filled urns. The urns boil as more skeletons begin rising from them.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains composed in the face of imminent danger, but the guide’s fate and Zhu’s story sober him. He offers Zhu a clear division of opponents and tries to give Li Pusa a chance to escape.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu reveals the personal grief behind his hatred of the Skeleton Mages and commits himself to fighting them despite the likelihood of death.
• Li Pusa calmly accepts the danger and chooses to stay and witness the fight rather than flee.
• The guide is shown to have been nearly dead already; the chant strips away what little life he has left, and the Skeleton Mages use his body for their ritual.

Significant themes

• Cruelty and exploitation: The Skeleton Mages’ predation echoes the abuses that ruined Zhu’s family.
• Death and resolve: The characters face near-certain death in different ways—Zhu with fury, Li with acceptance, and Lin Feng with guarded confidence.
• Horror and ritual: The chanting, human-faced crows, harvested organs, and rising skeletons create a world where the dead are manipulated and turned into weapons.
• The past returning: The prisoners’ chant of “A Lu Hun” interrupts the confrontation and hints at an older conflict or power connected to the Skeleton Mage.

Character interactions

• Li Pusa prevents Lin Feng from trying to save the guide, explaining that nothing can be done.
• Lin Feng and Zhu share a brief moment of agreement and anger, then establish how they will divide the fight.
• Lin Feng urges Li Pusa to escape; Li declines, choosing to remain beside them.
• The Skeleton Mage’s attention shifts from the guide to Lin Feng’s group, but the arrival of the chained skeletons halts the confrontation and redirects the Mage’s attention.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng observes a battle between mage skeletons and square-headscarf skeletons. The latter register no threat, which puzzles him.
• As prisoners chant, the earth trembles and the mage skeletons magically acquire flesh, organs, human faces, and stolen skins, disguising themselves as living people. Li Pusa identifies them as Yakshas—corpse-digging spirits who plunder burial goods.
• The prisoners’ chant triggers a collapse in the nearby mountains. A wave of powerful Corpse miasma spreads, making Li Pusa and Officer Zhu vomit and poisoning them. Lin Feng shields them with wind and diverts the falling stones; Li Pusa administers antidotes.
• The prisoners perform a strange, captivating dance that seems to affect the mind. Lin Feng is briefly drawn in but regains control.
• A Corpse Demon emerges from the collapsed mountain, surrounded by Red-Line Worms. Lin Feng recognizes him as A Lu Hun, a Third-Stage Blood God of the Heavenly Demon Cult, and realizes the seemingly harmless skeletons are merely his minions. Overwhelmed by A Lu Hun’s power, Lin Feng expects the worst.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng stays alert, protects his companions, and resists the prisoners’ mind-affecting dance thanks to his spiritual discipline.
• Li Pusa, though initially a captive, has stopped struggling. He explains the Yakshas and uses his knowledge of corpse work to treat the poisoned men. He eagerly enjoys being addressed as “Master,” though he insists Lin Feng call him “Little Li.”
• Officer Zhu, a hardened veteran, is nevertheless overcome by the miasma.
• The prisoners act in concert, using chanting and dance to summon or awaken a greater threat.
• A Lu Hun is introduced as an exceptionally dangerous undead figure, marking a sharp escalation in the confrontation.

Significant themes

• Deceptive appearances: Skeletons become convincing “living people,” while harmless-looking lackeys serve a formidable master.
• The grotesque and supernatural: Corpse magic, miasma, worms, and bodily transformation make death an active force.
• Unequal power and survival: Lin Feng’s competence can protect others, but A Lu Hun’s strength leaves him seemingly outmatched.
• Humor amid horror: Li Pusa’s comic, worldly commentary provides an irreverent contrast to the increasingly gruesome danger.

Plot points and events

• Trapped in the mountains as A Lu Hun prepares to fight the great Skeleton Mage, Lin Feng realizes they cannot escape. Numerous unknown creatures are watching from the forest, ready to attack whoever survives.
• Lin Feng, Li Pusa, and Officer Zhu accept their likely fate and gather firewood to warm themselves while the two powerful beings clash.
• Lin Feng uses his Qi-Observing Dharma Eye to glimpse another nearby demon, whose threat is extremely high but whose appearance and fortune remain unknown.
• The battle begins when A Lu Hun charges the Skeleton Mage’s forces at incredible speed, tearing through the Corpse-Piercing Yakshas and smashing the lesser Skeleton Mages, who prostrate themselves before him.
• A Lu Hun and the great Skeleton Mage chant competing rituals. The Skeleton Mage’s ritual summons indigo Vajras, but A Lu Hun’s chant sets the kneeling skeletons ablaze; their smoke and “incense” causes the Vajras to fall asleep.
• The ritual’s effects reach Lin Feng’s group. Sensing that Li Pusa and Officer Zhu are burning, Lin Feng tries to kill them swiftly with his sword. Someone catches the blade between two fingers, and Lin Feng’s Sword Heart Clarity signals danger. He turns to see what has happened and reacts with disbelief.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng shifts from considering escape to accepting that survival is unlikely. He responds to danger with dry humor and practical concern, even trying to spare his companions a painful death.
• Li Pusa shares Lin Feng’s fatalistic calm, helping gather firewood and joking about the monsters watching them. His apparent death—or transformation—ends with a startling intervention that catches Lin Feng’s sword.
• Officer Zhu is already suffering from the cold and recognizes that the creatures behind them will wait until the duel ends before acting.
• A Lu Hun is revealed as a terrifyingly fast, savage fighter whose ritual power can destroy his opponents’ ranks and disrupt the Skeleton Mage’s summoned beings.
• The Skeleton Mage counters with elaborate ritual magic, summoning Vajras through a ritual implement, bowl, and banner.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: The duel is a clash between overwhelming forces, while ordinary people nearby are helplessly caught in the consequences.
• Predator logic and fatalism: The creatures behave like wild animals, waiting for a fight to end before attacking the wounded survivor. Lin Feng and his companions recognize the grim logic and make the best of their remaining time.
• Ritual, history, and cultural remnants: References to Yuan-era language and the Imperial Preceptor connect the supernatural conflict to buried historical traces in the mountains.
• Dark humor amid horror: Lin Feng and Li Pusa use jokes and mundane comforts to face an almost certain death, ending on Lin Feng’s incredulous quip about Li Pusa having a “deathrattle.”

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng fights the resurrected Bodhisattva, who has trapped his sword in her fanged mouth and already inflicted severe wounds, including a nearly fatal abdominal injury.
• He unleashes Gale Wind and sword qi, shredding her body and crushing her head—but, having learned from an earlier encounter, he knows that destroying her head will not kill her.
• The Bodhisattva grows a grotesque new Buddha-like head. Lin Feng severs the five-meter White Down between her brows, causing massive bleeding and agonizing her.
• Furious over the death of Hundred-Household Officer Zhu, Lin Feng attacks again with a Self-Sacrificing Strike, splitting the Bodhisattva in half. She still tries to regenerate, so he keeps stabbing and cutting her.
• Worn out and badly hurt, Lin Feng sits to recover. An enormous Ironhead Viper, concealed in the forest and apparently waiting for its chance, swallows him whole. He dies and is ejected from the game, ending the group’s first exploration of Act Four.

Character developments

• Lin Feng fights through critical injuries with anger, determination, and hard-won knowledge of the Bodhisattva’s resilience. His grief and rage over Zhu’s death push him to keep attacking even when exhausted.
• Hundred-Household Officer Zhu dies in the battle. His personal remarks and warmth had made him feel real to Lin Feng, making the loss emotionally significant.
• The Bodhisattva is revealed as extraordinarily difficult to kill: she regenerates after severe damage and uses a horrifying, distorted version of Buddha’s auspicious features.
• The Ironhead Viper proves unexpectedly patient and opportunistic, waiting until Lin Feng is vulnerable before ambushing him.

Significant themes

• The danger of underestimating enemies: The Bodhisattva survives injuries that seem decisive, and Lin Feng misses the threat behind him.
• Violence and survival: Lin Feng’s battle is brutal and physically costly, with wounds and exhaustion limiting his options.
• The uncanny and sacred turned monstrous: The Bodhisattva’s Buddha-like marks, meant to signify holiness, become grotesque when embodied without their spiritual meaning.
• The emotional weight of simulated life and death: Lin Feng knows the game’s characters can die, yet Zhu’s apparent humanity makes his death feel real.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng battles the Bodhisattva at close range, repeatedly adapting his attacks as she regenerates.
• Zhu’s death intensifies Lin Feng’s anger and resolve, though he cannot stop to grieve.
• Just as Lin Feng turns from combat to recovery, the hidden viper takes advantage of his exhaustion and kills him.

Key plot points and events

• After surviving only a little over an hour of the mission, Lin Feng earns an eight-hour cooldown. His first run yielded little direct information, but he recalls Skeleton Mages fighting headscarf-wearing skeletons—figures who may not be local to Western Hunan.
• Searching historical sources, he finds that the name “A Lu Hun” could refer not to the famous Mongol khan, but to part of a Uyghur name. Records offer no clear evidence explaining why Yuan-era figures might have entered the Thirty-Six Stockades.
• Lin Feng organizes his clues into a timeline: Song and Yuan figures may have explored Ascension Stockade; Ming officials and local Tusi powers later became involved; an Embroidered Uniform Guard commander died from Red-Line Worm contamination; and the Grand Elder transformed into the Blood God.
• He suspects mercury and cinnabar mining may have been a cover for grave robbing. This could explain why people from several eras entered the mountains—and raises urgent questions about the missing Yangtongzi, earlier court experts, and when reinforcements will arrive.
• Back in the game, Lin Feng checks the rabbit, whose Ritual Incense fragrance is benefiting his body. He now has three strands of qi stored in his lungs and hopes to reach Eighth Rank.
• He reviews a newly unlocked Fortune-Enhancement Method, which increases the odds of success when learning, combining, or creating skills. He wonders whether it might protect risky attempts to merge abilities.

Character development

• Lin Feng responds to his failed run by investigating systematically, connecting historical clues and developing a more ambitious theory about the mountain’s secrets.
• Though frustrated and frightened by the game’s dangers, he tries to reassure himself with plans to grow stronger in reality.
• His curiosity shifts toward the potential uses of the Fortune-Enhancement Method, suggesting he may attempt more complex skill development.

Significant themes

• History and hidden motives: Sparse, unreliable records leave room for competing explanations of past expeditions.
• Mining versus grave robbing: The chapter reframes apparent resource extraction as possible tomb excavation.
• Overlapping powers and mysteries: The court, Tusi, local forces, and supernatural entities may all be competing within the mountains.
• Preparation and survival: Lin Feng uses research, cultivation, and game mechanics to compensate for his vulnerability.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng has no direct conversations in the chapter. His interactions are mainly with historical records, the game system, and the rabbit producing Ritual Incense.
• He also mentally addresses absent allies and rescuers—especially Yangtongzi and the earlier experts—while anxiously wondering why help has not arrived.

Key plot points

• Lin Feng discovers that the Fortune-Enhancement Method can raise the odds of combining skills, but only by spending fortune. A 0.5% combination proves possible, while a safer combination has a 75% success rate. He suspects the system is designed to drain resources.
• He inspects newly available skills from the Corpse Driver’s arts. The God-Piercing Mountain-Bearing Art reveals that the “Bodhisattva” associated with Li Pusa is likely a Wild God that adopted a sacred image after inhabiting an unconsecrated statue. Lin Feng recognizes its worship as sinister and refuses to learn the art, partly because it requires the ashes of a close relative.
• Lin Feng considers the Five-Ghost Transport Art. Though unstable and weak against powerful opponents, it might be useful for scouting unknown territory. He has not yet decided whether to buy it permanently or use it only in the game.
• While taking a break, Lin Feng notices several “bros” watching him in daylight. He approaches them and confirms they follow him, suggesting they have come specifically for him.

Character developments

• Lin Feng becomes more discerning about the system: he sees both its potential and its exploitative, gambling-like design.
• He shows caution and practical judgment, rejecting powerful but disturbing corpse arts while considering how a seemingly poor skill could serve a tactical purpose.
• His confidence in his physical condition is evident when he runs downstairs rather than taking the elevator.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng mentally confronts the game system over its fortune-based odds, likening it to a predatory cash grab.
• He imagines his father’s furious response to being asked about reserving his ashes, highlighting Lin Feng’s awareness of family ties and the absurdity of the requirement.
• The “bros” silently respond to Lin Feng’s presence by following him, setting up a possible confrontation or investigation.

Significant themes

• Luck, risk, and exploitation: Fortune can improve odds, but the system appears to monetize uncertainty.
• Appearance versus reality: The Wild God looks like a Bodhisattva but lacks divine essence and benevolence.
• Power and its costs: Sinister arts demand disturbing sacrifices and can bring dangerous consequences.
• Weakness as a tactical advantage: A flawed skill may still be valuable when used for reconnaissance rather than combat.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng studies the seven old spirits that have been following him. They are harmless, invisible to ordinary people, unable to affect the material world, and easily frightened by his Dragon-Tiger Qi. Their weakness makes him think they might be useful.
• Hoping to turn them into scouts or servants, Lin Feng permanently unlocks the low-grade Five-Ghost Transport Art. It is poor for combat but useful for reconnaissance, and unlike more dangerous versions, it does not require him to feed the ghosts his vital blood.
• He improvises the ritual with five One Piece figurines—members of the Seven Warlords—as substitutes for skeletal remains, along with funeral offerings, incense, water, and a kitchen bowl used as a bell.
• The ritual succeeds: five spirits enter the figurines, and Lin Feng repeats the process with additional figures so that all seven can serve him. He jokingly names the group the Seven Warlords of the Sea and sends them to scout.
• The spirits become more agile and let Lin Feng perceive through their eyes, passing through walls. He observes an empty apartment, a neighbor’s caged corgi, and the way living beings appear to spirits—as bright, flame-like presences.
• When a spirit looks at Lin Feng and his game console, both appear as immense masses of darkness, like black holes against the world.

Character developments

• Lin Feng remains irreverent and practical, treating the supernatural as something to test and exploit. His willingness to improvise a ritual shows his growing confidence, while his strange appearance to spirits hints that he—and perhaps the game console—may be far from ordinary.
• The seven spirits shift from passive, timid followers into more capable, obedient scouts once bound through the technique. Their loyalty and close attachment to Lin Feng remain notable.

Significant themes

• Power and usefulness: The spirits’ weakness makes them valuable for scouting, illustrating that strength is not the only advantage.
• Improvisation and irreverence: Lin Feng bends ritual rules and uses toys as substitutes, mixing occult practice with comedy and modern life.
• Perception and hidden nature: Spirits see the world differently, and their view of Lin Feng and the console suggests that appearances—and ordinary definitions of life—may conceal something vast or unusual.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng tests the spirits with Dragon-Tiger Qi; they flee but repeatedly return to his side.
• Through the ritual, he binds them to figurines and gives them commands. They respond obediently and share their perceptions with him.
• The spirits encounter the neighbor’s corgi, which cannot see them, and perceive it as a small flame. They also reveal Lin Feng’s and the console’s unsettling darkness.