Chapter Summaries

Plot and events

• Lin Feng channels the Kindling Flame through his Land God Staff, rekindling household stoves and drawing their Sacrificial Fire, the hopes of Fukou’s people, and the spirits of the newly dead to him. He realizes the creature outside had been cultivating through the city’s accumulated Incense Offerings and the resentment of the Mass Grave—and that Lin Feng has disrupted its plans.
• Although the Young Shrine Attendant offers Lin Feng a chance to escape, Lin Feng refuses: having taken Fukou’s benefits, he feels bound to face the danger.
• Old Zhou grants Lin Feng the Break the Army technique, one of the Big Dipper Seven-Kill Talismans. Lin Feng adapts it from a saber form into a sword technique, combining it with his Swordsmanship Mastery to create Sword Talisman: Break the Army.
• Lin Feng begins a major sacrificial rite, feeding gathered offerings and demons into the fire. The rite joins wind, flame, talismans, and the power of the spirits. Fires throughout Fukou flare to life, pushing back darkness and harming the sinister beings and escape-attempting prisoners in hidden places.
• Old Pedant reveals his resolve and joins the fire. He explains that Fukou’s Literary Lineage was severed and its offerings misdirected, and offers his own life to repay the scholars and people whose wishes sustained the shrine. He vanishes into blue smoke, releasing a tremendous surge of Literary Qi into Lin Feng.
• Lin Feng receives a forced inheritance from the Wenchang Merit Shrine: the Sandalwood Spirit’s Literary Qi gift, Victory from the Start. The Literary Qi transforms his Brain God and produces a prominent bump on his Yin God’s forehead.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng moves from cautious understanding of the threat to deliberate commitment, accepting the risk because he has benefited from Fukou. His sacrifice also strengthens his abilities and awakens a new sword technique.
• Old Zhou silently passes on one of the few techniques he mastered. Lin Feng greedily asks for all seven, prompting restrained irritation from Old Zhou and teasing rebukes from the Young Shrine Attendant.
• The Young Shrine Attendant recognizes Lin Feng’s danger and offers him a way out, but ultimately watches him commit to the fight.
• Old Pedant sheds his earlier comic, timid manner. After joking with the Young Shrine Attendant and giving the runners who bullied him a few swats, he reveals noble resolve and willingly sacrifices himself. His final act restores Literary Qi to Lin Feng.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and obligation: Lin Feng stays because he believes accepting Fukou’s benefits creates a duty to defend it; Old Pedant likewise repays the people whose offerings sustained him.
• Inheritance and restoration: A fragment of a rare martial tradition passes from Old Zhou to Lin Feng, while Old Pedant’s gift begins restoring Fukou’s severed Literary Lineage.
• Communal faith as power: Offerings, hopes, household fires, and the spirits of the dead become forces that can resist darkness.
• Commitment in the face of death: Lin Feng and Old Pedant act without certainty of survival, choosing to confront the danger rather than retreat.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng’s Awakened Primordial Spirit mutates through Literary Qi, merging with his Swordsmanship Mastery. He gains Silver-Tongued Sword, an area attack powered by Literary Qi, and Righteous and Awe-Inspiring, which imbues weapons and objects with Literary Qi.
• The mutation makes Lin Feng’s thoughts extraordinarily fast, but also prone to aimless overactivity. He learns that Right Thought—gathering and directing his mind—is essential to control this new ability.
• His Yin God advances to Lower Seventh Rank, and his body reaches Lower Sixth Rank. He can sense dreams, hearth fires, and Door Gods throughout Fukou, though the looming supernatural threat leaves little time to grow stronger.
• The Young Shrine Attendant reveals that he is badly deteriorating, but the Heavenly Consort Goddess’s abundant offerings sustain him. He believes a corpse-liberated immortal outside the mountain is the likely culprit behind the disturbance at the Temple of Lord Guan.
• The group’s best hope is a Demon-Sealing Seal inside the mountain, left by the Maoshan Shangqing Sect. The Young Shrine Attendant plans to draw the enormous face away; Lin Feng and Old Zhou will have to face whatever lies within the mountain without his help.
• Lin Feng inscribes the True Form Diagram of the Five Sacred Mountains (Mount Tai) on his staff. Wandering souls pour into it, and he gains the ability to station Spectral Soldiers in Door God images and talismans, where they can guard homes and even enter dreams. He also uses his staff and Sacrificial Fire to ignite household hearths across Fukou, pushing back the darkness.
• Before entering the mountain, the group goes to the Temple of Lord Guan to remove the evil presence there. Lin Feng asks Old Zhou’s permission, then crushes the temple with a mass of souls summoned through his staff.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng gains powerful new abilities but recognizes their cost: his accelerated mind consumes physical resources, so his body must keep pace. Despite growing stronger, he feels increasingly aware of how dangerous the situation is.
• The Young Shrine Attendant shows both exhaustion and resolve. He envies the Old Pedant’s death as an escape from a world he calls a prison, yet accepts that he must act as the group’s only chance to divert the face.
• Old Zhou agrees to accompany Lin Feng into the mountain, accepting the danger in hopes of uncovering the truth.
• Lin Feng and Old Zhou coordinate pragmatically: Lin Feng seeks permission before damaging the temple, then acts decisively rather than risking a fair fight.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: New abilities bring physical demands and mental risks; greater strength does not necessarily bring confidence or safety.
• Control and discipline: Lin Feng’s fast, wandering thoughts show that power must be guided by a focused mind.
• Faith and protection: Temples, offerings, household gods, and Door Gods provide real protection, while collective belief and ritual have tangible effects.
• Survival through numbers and cooperation: Lin Feng turns the gathered souls into overwhelming force, and the group divides responsibilities because no one can face the threats alone.

Key plot points and events

• A mass of dark souls overwhelms the Temple of Lord Guan. Its two guardian statues, Zhou Cang and Guan Ping, prove to be weak ghosts sustained by the temple’s incense offerings; they are quickly torn apart.
• A drumbeat from the temple’s inner court destroys the attacking souls and paper figures. Lord Guan’s statue then comes alive, its heart exposed and beating.
• The statue removes a blood-soaked red cloth meant to suppress it, revealing a head made from six or seven severed heads stitched together. Their faces are sealed with cinnabar script, and they wear Taoist crowns.
• The young temple keeper recognizes the heads as belonging to Shangqing Maoshan sect members who had previously come to Fukou. Lin Feng realizes the bodies of the missing experts are inside the statue, along with their robes and magical artifacts.
• Lin Feng attacks with his new Literary Qi sword technique, forcing the creature back. When an orthodox Daoist talisman spell strikes, his instincts warn him in time to use Earth-Escape and save himself and two companions.
• He notices that the creature is trying to defile a Treasure Seal, which may be the key to understanding or defeating it.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng demonstrates the strength of his awakened primordial spirit: he can think clearly while fighting, deploys his new sword technique, and relies on his Sword Heart and Unyielding instincts to evade the spell.
• The young temple keeper helps identify the severed heads as Maoshan practitioners.
• Old Zhou trembles at the sight of the creature, but Lin Feng can tell he does not recognize the heads—raising questions about what Old Zhou knows and what happened to the missing expedition.
• Lin Feng protects the two people beside him by pulling them away from the spell’s impact.

Significant themes

• False appearances and corrupted sanctity: The temple’s guardians are only weak ghosts beneath their divine glow, while the revered Lord Guan statue conceals a grotesque monster.
• Institutional mystery and betrayal: The Maoshan experts may have died in Fukou, yet someone—or something—may have returned to their sect in their place.
• Knowledge as a weapon: Lin Feng’s observation and quick reasoning matter as much as his magical strength.
• Sacred power turned profane: The creature uses the bodies, robes, and artifacts of Daoist practitioners, transforming religious symbols into instruments of horror.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng realizes the apparent Lord Guan is an evil entity using the corpses of Daoists to defile a Dharma Seal. He attacks it with his Yin God, Sacrificial Fire, Jade Buddha, Ritual Banner, and finally [Sword Talisman: Army Breaker], destroying it with one decisive strike.
• The Young Shrine Attendant attempts to intercept the sword qi but loses half his hand. Old Zhou, who had never seen the entity’s true form before, is left bewildered.
• Lin Feng retrieves the Dharma Seal and identifies it as the seal of Mao Gu, the Central Mao Patriarch—not the more famous Nine Elders Immortal Capital Seal. The dead Maoshan Daoists have left instructions within it, including warnings to hide one’s Human Aura, avoid temples, woods, and graves, ignore calls of one’s full name, avoid lights and music, heed Ghost Owl’s cries, and not offend the dead.
• The warnings suggest that the mountains are governed by dangerous rules and that survival depends more on avoiding forbidden actions than on fighting enemies. The Young Shrine Attendant admits he knows little, but agrees to keep the seal safe.
• The attendant plans to lure away a monster at noon the next day. Lin Feng warns that noon may be especially dangerous for the dead, but accepts that they have no better option.
• Lin Feng enters the mountains at noon without his Dharma Sword, concealing his Human Aura with incense ash and carrying the Jade Buddha and Ritual Banner.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng proves resourceful and decisive in combat, but becomes increasingly wary as he learns the mountain’s threat may come from unseen rules rather than visible monsters. He prepares to test those rules, relying partly on his ability to revive if killed.
• The Young Shrine Attendant remains composed but is physically injured by Lin Feng’s strike. He does not dismiss Lin Feng’s warnings, though he still has limited knowledge of the mountains and insists the noon diversion is their only chance.
• Old Zhou is shown to have been deceived by the evil entity’s illusion: he could not perceive its true appearance until now. His confusion underscores how thoroughly it manipulated those around it.
• Lin Feng and the attendant discuss the seal’s warnings and the risks of the mountain journey; Lin Feng challenges the attendant’s plan, but ultimately proceeds.

Significant themes

• Rules over force: The mountain’s greatest dangers may be supernatural taboos that cannot be defeated by ordinary combat.
• Appearance and deception: The false Lord Guan concealed a grotesque reality, and even Old Zhou’s perception was manipulated.
• Inherited guidance and duty: The dead Daoists leave practical warnings and instructions to help Lin Feng survive and protect the seal.
• Risk and persistence: Lin Feng recognizes the danger yet continues, treating death as a possible cost of learning how the mountains work.

Summary

• Lin Feng and Old Zhou enter a desolate mountain to find the Shangqing Maoshan Order’s sealed site. Lin Feng has deliberately left the nearly corrupted Dharma Seal in Mazu’s temple rather than bring it to the mountain, where the Corpse-Release Immortal might seize it. Meanwhile, the Young Shrine Attendant is sacrificing his life to hold a monstrous face back from Fukou City for six hours.
• The mountain feels like a place outside the human world. Lin Feng accidentally speaks of it that way, and Old Zhou warns him that careless words can be dangerous in haunted places.
• A human-faced Mourning Bird cries from the trees. Soon afterward, Old Zhou collapses as if dead. Lin Feng suspects the bird’s death omen has been redirected or otherwise misfired: Old Zhou was already dead, and Lin Feng remains unharmed. He carries Old Zhou onward while strange sounds approach from the forest.
• At a Mountain God Temple, Lin Feng discovers that the terracotta Mountain God is a prison, not the sealed site he seeks. The Maoshan Daoists had bound a corpse inside it with six Demon-Binding Ropes, talismans, and incense; the Daoists themselves died holding the chains.
• The corpse begins to stir, and the dead Daoists start transforming as the incense burns faster. Lin Feng grabs books and magical artifacts from the bodies and escapes. The temple doors slam shut behind him, while the chained corpse watches him through a crack.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains cautious and pragmatic, refusing to take the compromised seal into the mountain. He relies on observation and quick judgment, and retreats rather than risk confronting the awakening corpse.
• Old Zhou acts as Lin Feng’s guide to the mountain’s taboos, but is struck down by the Mourning Bird’s apparent death omen. His condition remains unexplained.
• The Young Shrine Attendant is absent from the expedition but is making a lethal sacrifice to protect Fukou.
• The Mourning Bird marks the mountain’s uncanny danger; its omen seems to affect Old Zhou in a way Lin Feng cannot explain.
• The chained corpse becomes aware of Lin Feng and appears to remember him, foreshadowing a possible future threat.

Significant themes

• Taboos and supernatural rules: Speaking carelessly in haunted places can invite danger, and the mountain operates by unfamiliar laws.
• Sacrifice and containment: The Young Shrine Attendant and the dead Daoists give their lives to hold back powerful threats.
• Uncertainty and limited control: Lin Feng cannot tell how the Mourning Bird kills, why Old Zhou falls, or what the sealed corpse may do.
• Danger hidden behind familiar forms: A Mountain God statue is actually part of a prison, and apparent safety gives way to sudden supernatural peril.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng refuses to kiss the wet-preserved corpse and flees the temple, where he finds the doors covered in blood-written ghost script. The rising corpse qi suggests the temple is where the Mountain God has been imprisoned.
• His Ritual Banner detects an invisible hostile presence, but Lin Feng cannot see or fight it. Before he can act, a strange, transparent pressure front sweeps through the area. His spiritual artifacts go dark, the invisible enemy disappears, and the Mountain God Temple vanishes.
• Hearing sounds like a vast construction project in the woods, Lin Feng carries Old Zhou uphill toward the summit. On the way, he searches the Maoshan disciples’ belongings, learning that their spells require formal authorization. He also finds and memorizes a method for nurturing magical artifacts.
• At the summit, Lin Feng discovers a dilapidated Shrine to Bodhisattva Huaguang beside a misty path that seems to lead into a vast world where he is being observed. He burns away the unsettling thought with Sacrificial Fire.
• A red wedding invitation flies from the mist, but Lin Feng avoids it. Approaching the Shrine, he sees more unreadable ghost script. As he tries to suppress his fear and resentment, something lands on his shoulder and whispers that the inscription means “Ascension Stockade.”

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains cautious and resourceful: he resists using spells despite danger, recognizes the cost of the Soul-Reporting Bird’s cries, and salvages useful knowledge from the Maoshan disciples’ supplies.
• His fear grows as he encounters forces beyond his senses, but he actively uses Sacrificial Fire to maintain control of his thoughts.
• The Ritual Banner briefly takes over Lin Feng’s arm and points out an unseen threat, showing that the artifact has agency and a powerful spiritual presence. Lin Feng continues carrying Old Zhou, though Old Zhou does not act in this passage.
• The chapter ends with an unknown presence directly addressing Lin Feng, turning the Shrine’s inscription into an ominous warning.

Significant themes

• Limits of perception and control: Lin Feng faces enemies and spaces he cannot see or comprehend, and even his powerful artifacts can be silenced.
• Restraint amid danger: His decision not to use spells suggests that survival depends on obeying warnings rather than relying on force.
• Knowledge and authority: Maoshan spells are restricted by institutional certification, while Lin Feng’s practical gains come from examining and memorizing what he can.
• The uncanny and the sacred: Temples, divine artifacts, ghost script, and a seemingly ordinary mist all become sources of menace and uncertainty.

Plot and events

Lin Feng reaches what appears to be Ascension Stockade with the unconscious Old Zhou over his shoulder. He follows the Daoist’s warnings as best he can: he avoids using spells, does not turn around at strange sounds, and tries not to draw attention. Though a wet corpse may be clinging to him, he chooses to ignore it.
He doubts this can truly be Ascension Stockade: the infamous site is in Western Hunan, while he is in coastal Fukou, and its spreading this far would imply a much wider catastrophe. As he stands outside the shut gate, an eerie nighttime Processional Deity ritual emerges from the mist. Its procession includes centipedes controlling banner bearers, grotesque paper-like Attendant Generals, and a Principal Deity. The gate opens for the procession but not for Lin Feng. The figures file into a dark passage resembling a burial chamber. The final shrine carries a gravely wounded Shangqing Maoshan Daoist.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains cautious and disciplined, relying on concealment, composure, and the Daoist’s instructions rather than his spells. He observes the procession but avoids using a potentially dangerous technique that could reveal him.
• Old Zhou remains unconscious and dependent on Lin Feng, who carries him throughout the scene.
• The wounded Daoist is revealed at the chapter’s close, being borne into the stockade as the procession’s Principal Deity. His appearance links the ritual to the Daoist order and raises questions about his fate.
• Lin Feng does not directly engage with the procession; he watches as the gate admits its members while barring him.

Significant themes

• Caution in the face of the supernatural: Lin Feng’s survival depends on restraint and on treating unseen threats as real.
• The gap between sacred appearance and horror: A familiar folk ritual becomes threatening in this wilderness, and its “deities” look more like grotesque, soul-collecting figures than divine beings.
• Uncertainty and disorientation: The apparent location of Ascension Stockade conflicts with what Lin Feng knows, while the shrine’s burial-like interior and the wounded Daoist deepen the mystery.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng encounters a dying old Maoshan Daoist at the entrance to Ascension Stockade. The Daoist warns him of great danger and gives him a blood-soaked talisman.
• A procession enters the stockade, followed by conscripted laborers hauling an immense, shrouded Deity Statue. Looking at it overwhelms Lin Feng: he prostrates himself and unknowingly sacrifices something of himself.
• The sacrifice extinguishes Lin Feng’s magical artifacts in Fukou, plunging the city into darkness and disrupting the forces protecting it. Mazu’s temple flares with light as a warning, while the city’s divine protectors struggle to maintain their fragile balance.
• Eight hours later, Lin Feng returns to Ascension Stockade by a hidden trail and enters the procession without using the Five-Ghost Transport Art. Inside, the procession and its figures become more lifelike, and the Daoist’s fatal chest wound heals.
• The Daoist pulls Lin Feng aside and asks whether Maoshan sent reinforcements. Lin Feng explains that the other Daoists died, their bodies having been hidden inside a hollowed Lord Guan statue in an apparent attempt to break its Dharma Seal.
• Suspicious of Lin Feng, the Daoist begins a talismanic attack. Lin Feng burns away the effect with Sacrificial Fire and insists that the Daoist explain the situation, since he came to resolve it rather than worsen matters.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng shows growing composure and confidence. Even under the Deity Statue’s overwhelming influence, he later returns to investigate; when challenged, he calmly counters the Daoist’s magic and takes control of the conversation.
• The old Daoist shifts from a nearly dead, warning figure to an apparently restored but wary survivor. His hope for reinforcements collapses when Lin Feng reports that the Maoshan team was killed; he then distrusts Lin Feng and prepares to defend himself.
• Their exchange is tense but measured: the Daoist seeks proof and information, while Lin Feng provides what he knows and demands answers in return.
• The temple keeper and other divine powers cannot prevent the damage caused by Lin Feng’s sacrifice, underscoring how dependent the city’s safety is on a few strained protectors.

Significant themes

• Human insignificance before the divine: The colossal statue exerts power simply through being seen, reducing people to worshippers and laborers.
• Sacrifice and consequences: Lin Feng’s involuntary offering has immediate, citywide effects, showing that spiritual power is tied to real costs.
• Fragile protection and dwindling faith: Mazu and other defenders struggle to protect Fukou as rites weaken and their remaining strength runs low.
• Reality, deception, and survival: The procession’s figures shift from crude paper forms toward human likeness, while the Daoist’s decoy and Lin Feng’s repeated chances complicate what is real and who can be trusted.

Key plot points and events

• After four unexplained deaths and thirty-two hours of cooldowns, Lin Feng returns to [Ascension Stockade], determined to learn what happened to the Daoists who entered it.
• He reports the Temple of Lord Guan incident to the old Daoist, while carefully keeping his distance and burning away the divine sense the Daoist tries to attach to him. The old Daoist hopes to send a warning to the Shangqing Maoshan Order: the missing Daoists and their Dharma Seals may have somehow returned to the Order, despite the apparent danger.
• Lin Feng and the old Daoist agree to cooperate. The Daoist explains that he is already dead and survives only because the place’s power preserves a thread of life. He ties matching colorful cords around their wrists, warning Lin Feng that appearances and words cannot identify allies there.
• To navigate the passage, they use the burning arm of a Deity to light their way. Lin Feng sees monstrous black serpents following them but obeys the Daoist’s rules: ignore what he sees, hears, or encounters, and remain silent.
• The passage’s oppressive darkness makes Lin Feng drowsy and mentally sluggish. He nearly falls, then recovers and follows the Daoist up a staircase of thirty-three steps, passing the remains of nineteen Shangqing Maoshan Daoists.
• Lin Feng notices what looks like a face on the back of the old Daoist’s head. A gust reveals a Paper Figure’s face there, which smiles and recites an incantation. The old Daoist calmly urges Lin Feng to hurry, warning that a second wave of Processional Deities is approaching.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng is persistent and increasingly cautious. Rather than rushing in blindly, he probes the Daoist for information, guards against the Daoist’s spirit-lodging technique, and uses Sacrificial Fire to suppress intrusive thoughts. His determination to investigate outweighs his fear and impatience.
• The old Daoist shifts from disbelief and suspicion to reluctant cooperation. Though he insists that he is effectively dead, he remains focused on warning his Order and navigating the passage. He communicates through gestures and strict rules rather than conversation.
• Their partnership is uneasy but practical: Lin Feng needs the Daoist’s knowledge, while the Daoist needs Lin Feng to help carry a message out. The colorful cords mark their intended alliance, though the passage makes even that identification feel uncertain.

Significant themes

• Perception and deception: The passage distorts reality, making ordinary senses and familiar ways of identifying people unreliable.
• Death and survival: The Daoist’s suspended existence, the dead disciples, and Lin Feng’s repeated deaths make mortality a constant presence.
• Persistence in the face of the unknown: Lin Feng’s determination to uncover the passage’s secrets drives him onward despite the danger.
• Trust under uncertainty: Lin Feng and the Daoist must cooperate while surrounded by threats and unsure whether what they see is real.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng and the old Daoist reach the Heaven-Ascending Platform, whose thirty-three steps lead toward the Dancing Shadow Wall and, beyond it, a burial chamber. Lin Feng realizes the Ascension Stockade is likely an enormous tomb.
• The Daoist explains that escaping the Yellow Millet Dream Realm may require containing a “Principal Deity”—a dangerous spirit—inside one’s body. He is already doing so and is dying from the strain. He asks Lin Feng to carry word to the Maoshan Shangqing Sect or another powerful exorcist.
• As they travel, ghostly women follow them alongside giant snakes. One female specter ambushes Lin Feng and tries to ride on his back. The Daoist pins her with blood-drawn talismans.
• The attack triggers the Heaven-Ascending Platform itself to transform into a vast, many-mouthed supernatural predator. The Daoist spends his remaining strength performing a ritual, summoning a red cloud that carries them past the platform’s monstrous activity and the surrounding Ghost Gods.
• The Daoist binds the female specter to Lin Feng, explaining that she is relatively harmless and may help him escape. He suppresses the Principal Deity inside himself once more. After the platform returns to normal, they continue southeast toward the Dancing Shadow Wall.

Character developments

• Lin Feng remains cautious and observant, resisting the specter’s attempt to make him answer and choosing not to reveal that he lacks a Principal Deity. He recognizes that acting could expose him as an outsider and get him killed.
• The old Daoist reveals the cost of his mission: most of his companions have died, and his own survival is unlikely. Accepting this, he focuses on protecting Lin Feng and preserving a chance for the Maoshan sect to learn what happened. His determination holds even as his body is ravaged by the ritual and the entity within him.

Character interactions

• The Daoist communicates with Lin Feng through gestures and an improvised map, sharing what he knows while withholding explanations he considers unnecessary.
• When Lin Feng is attacked, the Daoist intervenes at great personal cost, then binds the specter to Lin Feng as a possible means of escape.
• Lin Feng supports the weakened Daoist after the ritual, while following his warnings not to look at or engage with the surrounding horrors.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and duty: The Daoist accepts death to protect his companion and pass on vital information.
• Survival through restraint: Lin Feng survives by obeying taboos, hiding what makes him different, and refusing to respond to supernatural lures.
• The cost of controlling evil: The Daoist’s attempt to contain a spirit with his own body offers temporary power but steadily destroys him.
• The uncanny and the unknown: The tomb’s scale, its predatory architecture, and its grotesque spirits deepen the mystery of who built the Ascension Stockade and what it contains.

Key plot points and events

• At the enormous, mirrorlike Dancing Shadow Wall, the old Daoist warns Lin Feng that images appearing on it are deadly. He tries to place the female ghost Lin Feng is carrying inside Lin Feng’s body as a disguise.
• The Daoist cannot cut Lin Feng’s unusually tough skin, so Lin Feng opens it himself. The female ghost burns away as soon as she touches his blood, revealing that his body is far stranger—and more hostile to ghosts—than the Daoist expected.
• Before the Daoist can devise another plan, a huge female silhouette appears within the wall. Its presence drains the Daoist’s Principal Deity, leaving him badly weakened. The surroundings transform into a flooded marshland, and uncanny snakes and other signs of danger block their escape.
• The wall shows exact images of Lin Feng and the Daoist. The Daoist tries to protect Lin Feng, but the appearance of a grotesque shamanic dance overwhelms them. Invisible threads bind and injure the Daoist; Lin Feng, strangely unaffected, breaks the threads and falls asleep.
• In his dream, Lin Feng witnesses an ancient sacrificial burial in Chu. He receives the inheritance of Wu Xian, including the ancient technique Net of Luo, which uses a God’s invisible threads to kill. He also enters a provisional pact of coexistence with Wu Xian.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains curious and composed in the face of danger. His abnormal body defeats the Daoist’s knife and destroys the female ghost, while his unexplained resistance to the dance’s power lets him break the binding threads.
• The old Daoist is resourceful but increasingly helpless: his Principal Deity is destroyed, his protective talismans fail, and he is gravely injured while trying to shield Lin Feng. His respect for Lin Feng grows, though he can only describe the young man’s condition as remarkable body-hardening.
• Lin Feng and the Daoist cooperate to survive, but their contrasting abilities become clear: the Daoist knows the uncanny world and its rites, while Lin Feng possesses a mysterious physical resilience neither of them understands.
• Wu Xian, encountered through the wall and Lin Feng’s dream, becomes bound to Lin Feng through a provisional coexistence pact.

Significant themes

• The uncanny and the limits of control: Ritual knowledge and protective charms prove inadequate before the wall’s power.
• Sacrifice and devotion: The dance depicts a performer offering her body and life to a God, while the dream’s burial recalls the human cost of ancient rites.
• Inheritance through encounter: Lin Feng gains dangerous ancient knowledge not through deliberate study, but by surviving an overwhelming supernatural experience.
• Unequal power and hidden potential: The Daoist is crushed by forces Lin Feng inexplicably withstands, hinting at the protagonist’s unusual nature.

Key plot points and events

• The old Daoist, badly injured, tries to protect Lin Feng and warn others about a hidden disaster involving Buddhism and Taoism. He recalls that senior monks and ritual masters were taken away by the court, returned changed, and then disappeared; later groups were taken and never came back.
• The Daoist discovers that a sinister bone is growing inside Lin Feng. Lin Feng realizes they are not in the real [Ascension Stockade], but in a tomb modeled on it. The real site remains suppressed by the Yin-Yang Grand Taoist Ritual; the imitation has nonetheless drawn dangerous remnants from it, including part of Wu Xian’s spirit bone.
• As they flee, Lin Feng asks the Daoist for proof of his warning. The Daoist draws a talisman on Lin Feng’s arm. Lin Feng then abruptly kills himself, apparently using death to escape the pursuing threat. A cloth-covered stone Tomb Guardian rolls toward them.
• Lin Feng awakens after the game’s eight-hour cooldown begins. He concludes he is done investigating Fukou and plans to go to the South Seas. He records his questions about the mission, Fifth Uncle, and Ligela Island, as well as the skills and items he gained.
• When Lin Feng leaves his residence, he encounters an elegant illusion and a woman approaching. He counters with the Sword Talisman: Break the Army.
• Nearby, Li Jianfeng watches, curious about the Five-Powers Immortal’s interest in Lin Feng. Lin Feng emerges unharmed, remarks that enemies keep appearing as if he had baited them, then attacks Li Jianfeng with the Net of Luo.

Character developments

• Lin Feng becomes more knowledgeable about the danger and history of [Ascension Stockade], but also more cautious: he recognizes that even its name can spread contamination. His willingness to kill himself to escape shows his extreme pragmatism and nerve. Outside the game, he shifts his focus from Fukou to the South Seas while taking stock of his gains and unresolved questions.
• The old Daoist reveals a long-buried fear that the religious orders were devastated by unexplained disappearances and may now be vulnerable to impostors. Though gravely injured, he remains determined to protect Lin Feng and get a warning out.
• Li Jianfeng appears poised and self-assured, regarding events as a spectacle—until Lin Feng’s unexpected survival and immediate attack catch him off guard.

Significant themes

• Hidden institutional collapse: Religious authorities may look powerful from the outside while being hollowed out by the disappearance of their leaders.
• Contamination and names: [Ascension Stockade] exerts influence even through its legend; knowledge itself can carry danger.
• Survival through ruthless improvisation: Lin Feng repeatedly relies on decisive, unconventional actions, including sacrificing himself to escape.
• Appearance versus reality: The imitation tomb, altered religious institutions, and Li Jianfeng’s polished demeanor all conceal deeper threats.

Character interactions

• The old Daoist tries to save Lin Feng, while Lin Feng carries him through the flood and promises to pass on his warning.
• Lin Feng asks the Daoist for a way to authenticate the message; the Daoist marks him with a talisman before Lin Feng makes his escape.
• Li Jianfeng speculates about Lin Feng’s connection to the Five-Powers Immortal, then directly encounters him. Lin Feng responds not with conversation but with an attack using the Net of Luo.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng recognizes something unusual in Li Jianfeng, whose South Seas Corpse Gu nature is revealed by his Qi-Observing Eye. Though Li Jianfeng has been sent to confront him, he is only a weak host for a more powerful sorcerer.
• Lin Feng uses Net of Luo to take complete control of Li Jianfeng’s body. He has the Galaxy Guard transport Li Jianfeng into the courtyard, demonstrating how the Thief’s Gate’s Five-Ghost Transport Art can move people silently and without a trace.
• Lin Feng’s earlier Sword Talisman: Break the Army slash exposes the weakened thatched hall and briefly reveals the Five-Powers Immortal’s corpse. The corpse cannot fully enter the world; it vanishes, leaving behind a nail.
• While investigating a familiar Mount-Viewing Kiln Culture Festival logo, Lin Feng carves a Guan Di Nuo Mask. Though made without proper preparation, the mask carries the fierce spiritual essence of Lord Guan as a demon-slaying god.
• The Nuo Opera Masters refuse to wear it, sensing that it would kill them. Bartholomew, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, puts it on instead and is transformed in bearing, taking on a fearsome, wrathful presence.
• On a yacht in the South Seas, the sorcerer controlling Li Jianfeng grows worried when contact fails. He enters Li Jianfeng’s body through a dream ritual, only to find Lin Feng waiting. Bartholomew, wearing the mask, strikes him down with the Green Dragon Crescent Blade. The sorcerer dies from the backlash, while an ominous creature approaches his corpse.

Character developments

• Lin Feng displays increasing control and confidence with his supernatural abilities. He experiments with Net of Luo, the Five-Ghost Transport Art, and mask-making, treating powerful phenomena with calm curiosity.
• Li Jianfeng shifts from arrogant confidence to helpless terror once Lin Feng takes control of his body. His fear grows when he realizes Lin Feng may be connected to the powerful beings who defeated him.
• Bartholomew accepts the dangerous mask when the other spirits refuse it. Wearing it radically changes his aura and temperament, allowing him to act as Lord Guan’s wrathful champion.
• The unseen South Seas sorcerer is revealed as a ruthless practitioner of dark corpse and lifespan-borrowing arts, but his confidence and remote control prove no match for Lin Feng and the mask.

Significant themes

• Old powers in a supposedly diminished age: Despite the belief that supernatural arts have faded, Lin Feng still wields formidable abilities, unsettling those who expected a powerless world.
• The cost of power and ritual: Ancient Chu sacrifices and the sorcerer’s sinister practices show how supernatural power is bound up with exploitation, death, and human offerings.
• Spiritual meaning beyond appearances: The Nuo Mask’s crude craftsmanship matters less than the fierce spiritual intent Lin Feng carves into it.
• Fear, authority, and transformation: The mask reshapes Bartholomew’s presence, while Lin Feng’s mastery turns Li Jianfeng from aggressor into captive.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng calmly taunts Li Jianfeng by comparing him unfavorably to the more cunning Li Junsheng, deepening Li Jianfeng’s alarm.
• Lin Feng tests the mask with the Nuo Opera Masters, but their fear leads Bartholomew to volunteer.
• The South Seas sorcerer enters Li Jianfeng’s body expecting to investigate the failed mission; Lin Feng confronts him, and masked Bartholomew kills him with a single slash.

Plot points and events

• After defeating Li Jianfeng, Lin Feng learns that his escape had relied on the Corpse Driver technique of Zombie Skin, a desperate method that trades away a doomed life. Li Jianfeng had become South Seas Corpse Gu: when he died, the Gu insects inhabiting him emerged in a swarm, seeking new hosts.
• Li Jianfeng’s account reveals that the Li Family’s troubles involve three threats: the terrifying Li Family Ancestral Hall, the Five-Powers Immortals, and Li Jianfeng’s own returning group, which included South Seas natives awakening as local “deities.” That group wanted to capture one of the Five-Powers Immortals.
• Lin Feng contains the insects with Sacrificial Fire and prepares a ritual involving a toenail, Teacher Xun’s diary, and what he has learned from an earlier sacrifice. Hoping to condense a Yin God, he plans to “move a mountain with a feather”—using a small, precise action to achieve a much greater effect.
• Meanwhile, Li Gao’s father brings home a wooden deity statue. When Li Gao warns him that it may be dangerous, his father becomes violently hostile and tries to force him to kneel before it. Li Gao sees a flash of red light from the statue, panics, and escapes with his mother.
• Once they are gone, the father briefly wonders whether his anger was an instinctive attempt to protect them. The thought fades, but the statue seems lifeless to him, and he feels calmer. A mysterious bell rings outside his door, though no one is visible.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng is bruised and frustrated by repeatedly facing powerful enemies, but learning that most are also at the Ninth Rank restores his confidence. He turns his experience with sacrifice into a bold, carefully planned attempt to gain power.
• Li Gao shows both fear and presence of mind: despite his terror of supernatural objects, he checks that he has his phone, protects his mother, and gets them to safety. His mother is shaken but tries to explain his father’s behavior as stress.
• Li Gao’s father appears to be under the wooden statue’s influence, becoming frighteningly aggressive toward his family. His brief suspicion that he may have been protecting them suggests a possible struggle against that influence, though it is unclear whether the thought is truly his own.
• The statue is portrayed as watchful and potentially controlling, while the unexplained bell at the door leaves the danger unresolved.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Lin Feng’s resentment at being outmatched shifts when he recognizes that his enemies are not invincible.
• Sacrifice and ingenuity: Lin Feng uses knowledge gained through a dangerous ritual to pursue power through precision rather than brute force.
• Supernatural influence and family loyalty: The statue turns a home into a place of danger, while Li Gao’s instinct to protect his mother cuts through his fear.
• Hidden threats: The chapter repeatedly suggests that apparent safety—and even a person’s own motives—may be deceptive.

Key plot points and events

• Li Gao’s father is attacked by the Five-Powers Immortals Corpse after the Ritual Bell rings. His room transforms into a decaying shrine, and ghostly hands try to drag him away. A recitation from the Book of Documents accompanies the supernatural assault.
• The chapter explains that powerful Uncanny entities depend on belief and conduits to exert their influence. On neutral ground, severing a conduit can leave even formidable beings unable to harm ordinary people. Folk taboos—avoiding belief, attention, contact, and knowledge—offer a chance of protection.
• The Li Family Ancestral Hall, the Five-Powers Immortals Corpse, and another Uncanny force collide. Lin Feng has deliberately engineered the clash by manipulating offerings, hoping to make the entities fight each other. The resulting backlash injures him, but he survives behind layers of protection.
• After the supernatural disturbance fades, Lin Feng spots a wooden plaque around Li Gao’s father’s neck in an old photo. He identifies it as South Seas Jianmu, a possible lead to the Land God’s Staff he wants.
• Lin Feng traces the photo’s location to Li Gao’s hometown, buys a flight, and heads there. At airport security, he worries that his concealed supernatural tools—especially the Azure Dragons in Both Sleeves—might be discovered.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Gao’s father is overwhelmed by the attack and tries to flee toward the statue of God he brought home; his protective plaque eventually breaks.
• Lin Feng shows both recklessness and calculated skill: he orchestrates a dangerous three-way supernatural conflict, accepts the backlash, then swiftly pursues a promising clue to the staff he seeks.
• The chapter briefly emphasizes the danger of Lin Feng’s actions: the supernatural entities’ rules clash, but his role as chief officiant makes him vulnerable to their retaliation.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and restraint as survival: Traditional taboos work by limiting the attention and influence that Uncanny forces can exert.
• Belief as power: Supernatural beings are constrained by their conduits and the amount of belief available to them.
• Risk and opportunism: Lin Feng exploits supernatural rules to pursue his goals, but even careful preparation cannot eliminate the cost of provoking powerful entities.
• Sacred tradition intertwined with horror: Classical scripture and religious objects appear amid a violent supernatural confrontation.

Key plot points

• Lin Feng secretly carries the Demon-Binding Rope aboard a plane. It hides between his brows, feeds on his life force, repairs its own damage, and begins guarding him instinctively.
• Mid-flight, Lin Feng senses an Uncanny curse trying to mark him as an Anchor. He lets the Demon-Binding Rope briefly stop protecting him so he can observe the attack, then keeps the curse from attaching until he can trace it after landing.
• In a hotel, Lin Feng uses Sacrificial Fire to follow the curse’s link to a badly injured Wooden Carving Deity Statue at sea. The statue is near death: its body has been torn apart, its vital substance taken, and poison is consuming what remains. Lin Feng suspects the Five-Powers Immortal and the Li Family Ancestral Hall are responsible.
• Lin Feng sacrifices the statue, releasing a great surge of life force. The Demon-Binding Rope uses it to force open one of the Eight Gods of the Upper Scene.

Character developments

• Lin Feng grows more attuned to the Demon-Binding Rope, which acts independently to protect him and responds to his intentions. He also learns that it can influence the hidden apertures within his body.
• Lin Feng remains cautious and analytical: rather than attack the unseen curse immediately, he studies it and traces its source.
• The opening of Mystic Wenhua gives him an unexpected new ability, though not the brain-related power he had hoped to awaken.

Significant themes

• The body as a hidden storehouse: Opening a bodily aperture reveals latent powers and surprising connections.
• Power with a cost: The Demon-Binding Rope consumes Lin Feng’s life force, while the sacrifice’s immense energy produces changes he did not anticipate.
• Caution and investigation: Lin Feng treats threats as sources of information, using patience and ritual rather than rushing into combat.
• The convergence of supernatural forces: Several factions and Uncanny beings are entangled through the damaged statue and its Anchor.

Character interactions and outcomes

• The Demon-Binding Rope protects Lin Feng from the curse, then assists in opening Mystic Wenhua.
• Lin Feng’s sacrifice exposes the Wooden Carving Deity Statue’s weakened state and suggests the roles of the Five-Powers Immortal and Li Family Ancestral Hall.
• Mystic Wenhua merges with Whipping Voice, and Lin Feng’s Net of Luo relocates to the aperture, growing from twelve strands to twenty-four. His hair grows rapidly and begins drawing energy from his lungs.

Key plot points and events

• After the Sacrificial Fire kills the South Seas enemy, Lin Feng discovers that his Second Life Seed has become a “Life Sun,” supplying vital essence to his other creations. It is now powerful but drains over time, requiring regular sacrifices; at its current rate, it may run dry in about ten days.
• Lin Feng’s hair has grown to his waist and become extraordinarily sharp—sharp enough to cut paper, and even ordinary hair restraints snap against it. His body is also becoming tougher through cultivation. Concerned his hair could injure someone, he ties it back with a strand of itself.
• He reflects on how his abilities and followers are turning him into a force built for combat, though he remains unsure how he should fight uncanny threats. He continues studying the Mystic Sustenance Method: Feasting on Wind and Drinking Dew, relying on his growing [Galaxy Guard] and [Nuo Opera Master] followers.
• Li Gao arranges for psychiatric orderlies to take his father away, hoping to dispose of the Deity Statue he suspects is connected to his father’s violence. The orderlies unconsciously overlook the uncovered statue and remove the unconscious father safely.
• Alone, Li Gao looks at the statue and is overwhelmed by a vision of a grotesque mass of colorful insects. He vomits, can barely move, and clings to the name of the Fah God for comfort.
• While cultivating, Lin Feng senses a strange call and sees a fine thread linking him to someone. It is not a Curse, and the Demon-Binding Rope does not react defensively. He wonders how to answer it.

Character developments

• Lin Feng grows stronger but faces new risks: his life force is now dependent on ongoing sacrifices, and his hair has become a dangerous weapon. He is wary of becoming an indiscriminate destroyer or a god burdened by worshippers.
• Li Gao acts decisively to protect his family by arranging his father’s removal and trying to get rid of the statue. His encounter with it leaves him traumatized and dependent on his faith in the Fah God.
• Li Gao’s mother is hesitant about the psychiatric intervention but accompanies her husband once the orderlies take him away.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: Lin Feng’s new strength comes with upkeep, danger, and uncertainty about how to use it.
• The limits of perception: The statue is so dangerous that people unconsciously fail to notice it, while Li Gao’s deliberate attention exposes him to its horror.
• Faith as a lifeline: Li Gao’s repeated invocation of the Fah God gives him something to hold onto when terror overwhelms him.
• Unwanted divinity and obligation: Lin Feng rejects the idea that being worshipped should make him responsible for constant service.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng tests the limits of his hair and relies on his followers to support his cultivation, while privately wrestling with what his growing power means.
• Li Gao persuades his mother and hires orderlies to remove his father, then faces the statue alone after everyone else has unconsciously ignored it.
• Lin Feng’s unexplained connection to a distant caller introduces a possible new relationship or supernatural link, though he does not yet know how to respond.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng uses the Dream-Entrusting Technique to enter Li Gao’s dream and learn the exact address of the haunting. He then travels there, keeping his dangerous hair restrained with one hand.
• In the apartment, Li Gao wakes but pretends to be unconscious as a Reverse-Worshipper performs a grotesque ritual. The man uses Spirit Oil, Bone Ash, and incense to summon a presence. A corpse-like entity appears, approaches Li Gao, and seems to force something cold into his mouth. Li Gao vomits and eventually passes out.
• As the worshipper leaves with a Deity Statue, Lin Feng attacks him. The pursuer and quarry race toward the Li Family Ancestral Hall, where Lin Feng knows the terrain from the game.
• The worshipper’s supernatural tricks—including ghosts, the statue, and curses—fail to stop Lin Feng. Lin Feng uses a sword talisman formed from his hair to destroy the creature’s second head, then captures the statue.
• The statue is actually an uncarved piece of South Seas Jianmu; its shifting forms come from the many curses placed on it. Lin Feng restrains it with Demon-Binding Ropes and plans to destroy its links to the world.
• Before he can leave, the ancestral hall tolls its ritual bell. Lin Feng realizes it has drawn the worshipper there to make someone else do its killing.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng is resourceful and increasingly confident in confronting supernatural threats. He adapts old techniques to modern life, but his dry humor and practical concerns—especially about his hazardous hair—remain.
• Li Gao is terrified and helpless in the apartment. His attempt to deny what is happening fails as the ritual’s horrors become physically invasive; he eventually loses consciousness.
• The Reverse-Worshipper is revealed as a bizarre, apparently neither living nor dead being with two heads. He serves the statue and tries several supernatural attacks, but Lin Feng overwhelms him.
• The ancestral hall emerges as an active, manipulative force, using the worshipper as an instrument rather than confronting Lin Feng directly.

Significant themes

• The ordinary and supernatural overlap: rideshares, apartment neighbors, and modern travel coexist with gods, curses, and haunted rituals.
• Fear of the unknown: Li Gao’s inability to understand what is happening makes the encounter especially terrifying.
• Appearance versus reality: the statue’s changing forms conceal its mundane wooden substance, while its curses give it power.
• Manipulation and delegated violence: the ancestral hall’s attempt to make another being kill for it mirrors Lin Feng’s own tactics, which he recognizes with wry annoyance.

Key plot points and events

• At midnight, as the Ritual Bell sounds, Lin Feng is drawn into an illusory shamanic rite around the Li Family Ancestral Hall. Painted, Nuo-opera-like corpses attempt to block his escape, while a river and its forgotten River God appear nearby.
• Lin Feng uses his living hair, Whipping Voice, and the Demon-Binding Rope to cut down the corpses and find a path back toward reality. The dead leave behind Memory Fragments, which he collects but does not examine.
• The monstrous River God attacks. Lin Feng counters with Sacrificial Fire, loses an arm to the clash, and immediately regrows it.
• Another figure emerges from the hall wearing Li Pusa’s body in the form of a Bodhisattva statue. Lin Feng suspects this being is connected to the hall’s true masters—and perhaps to the ancient Pre-Qin uncanny.
• The figure mistakes Lin Feng for an ancient Shang priest or the Flesh Mask’s successor. It offers him a human head cooked in a Shang ritual vessel, claiming that eating it would put them on the same side.
• Lin Feng refuses the implied alliance and attacks, striking the figure in the forehead with the South Seas Jianmu.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains composed amid grotesque threats, using his powers strategically rather than confronting everything head-on. He shows disgust at the insects infesting Li Pusa’s body, but quickly returns to assessing the danger. His final refusal makes clear that he will not be seduced into an alliance through ritual privilege or shared heritage.
• The entity wearing Li Pusa reveals contempt for Lin Feng’s altered body and speaks as though they share an ancient Shang-era identity. Its offer of sacrificial food is both a test and an invitation to join its side.
• The River God emerges as a decayed, forgotten deity and attacks Lin Feng, but the encounter is interrupted when the Li Pusa figure appears.

Significant themes

• The past intruding on the present: Ancient rituals and beings persist in a modern world that has forgotten them.
• Identity and inheritance: Lin Feng’s powers lead others to mistake him for someone shaped by Shang Dynasty traditions, raising questions about what he has inherited and what he chooses to become.
• Power, sacrifice, and complicity: The cooked human offering represents the privileges of ancient elites—and the violence behind them. Lin Feng rejects the idea that sharing in such a ritual makes them allies.
• Survival and transformation: Lin Feng’s ability to regrow his arm underscores how far his body has moved beyond ordinary human limits.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng defeats the Li Family ancestral spirit, “Li Pusa,” using the South Seas Jianmu engraved with the True Form Diagram of Mount Tai. Li Pusa accepts defeat calmly but vows to return and make Lin Feng a sacrificial offering.
• A river god attacks from behind as Lin Feng leaves. Lin Feng counters with his hair, Demon-Binding Ropes, and talismanic power, leaving the river god temporarily incapacitated.
• Lin Feng realizes the Li Family spirits are trapped, but may be working to find a new medium. Their plan depends partly on Li Gao, who survived longer than expected. Lin Feng resolves to strengthen himself before confronting them again.
• Lin Feng enters a Memory Fragment connected to the Li Family. In a dungeon, he sees many captives—ritualists, mediums, fortune-tellers, and even foreigners—being held by the clan.
• The memory reveals Li Junsheng organized the mass arrests as the Li Family’s curse worsened. He argues that the family must do whatever is necessary to survive, despite the danger of attracting the authorities’ attention.

Character developments

• Lin Feng shows both resolve and humor: he rejects Li Pusa’s threat, treats the spirit as a future enemy, and plans to grow stronger rather than wait for its return.
• Li Pusa is revealed as patient, confident, and still dangerous. Its defeat is temporary, and it expects to return.
• Li Junsheng emerges as a ruthless, controlled leader who believes the family’s survival justifies extreme measures. He also appears gravely ill, with death visibly close.
• The other Li family members are frightened and hesitant, particularly about the political consequences of abducting so many people.

Significant themes

• Survival versus morality: Li Junsheng sacrifices outsiders’ safety—and the family’s moral standing—in the name of preserving the clan.
• Cycles of conflict and return: Li Pusa’s defeat does not end the danger; it promises a later confrontation.
• Family power and oppression: The Li clan’s private prison reflects how powerful families can operate like miniature governments, beyond ordinary law.
• Memory and hidden history: The fragment exposes the desperate choices behind the Li Family’s survival and raises questions about what Li Junsheng did during the clan’s destruction.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng and Li Pusa exchange threats: Li Pusa imagines Lin Feng as a future offering, while Lin Feng vows to destroy it before it can recover.
• Lin Feng battles the river god immediately after defeating Li Pusa, showing that danger surrounds him even during apparent victories.
• In the memory, Li Junsheng confronts his worried relatives, dismisses their fear of the authorities, and urges them to unite behind his plan to save the family.