Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuan and Monk killed a Painted Skin disguised as Zhao Dafu, revealing that the demon had eaten the real Zhao Dafu and worn his skin. They decided to leave the village before Zhao Wu could blame them for his son's death.

• Monk attacked the fake Zhao Dafu and pinned him down while Zhang Xuan identified himself as a Demon Suppression Bureau commander.
• Zhang Xuan saw the demon's hidden face with his nether candle mystic eyes and beheaded it with the Demon-Slaying Sword.
• Zhao Wu mourned over the severed head, then saw the bluish-purple face beneath its skin and learned from Monk that the creature was a Painted Skin.
• Zhang Xuan told Monk they should leave before Zhao Wu blamed them for the death, reflecting that such blame was human nature.

Zhang Xuan and Monk met a wounded boy who said the Yandang Mountain Wolf Bandits had killed his mother, not a Demon Ghost. Zhang Xuan exposed the killings as a human atrocity but refused to intervene, leaving the boy’s desperate cries echoing in the wilderness.

• Monk sensed someone following them, and Zhang Xuan called the pursuer out of the grass.
• A bloodied boy begged Zhang Xuan to avenge his mother, claiming the Yandang Mountain Wolf Bandits had killed her.
• Zhang Xuan said the village killings were human crimes disguised as a Demon Ghost attack, explaining that the mutilated corpse had not been eaten.
• Zhang Xuan told the boy that the Demon Suppression Bureau handled demonic calamities and that human crimes belonged before the county magistrate.
• The boy accused officials and villagers of abandoning his family and demanded to know who would help people like them.

A grieving boy told Monk and Zhang Xuan how his mother had died protecting him from beasts, and Zhang Xuan chose to help him pursue vengeance. Zhang Xuan accepted the boy’s treasured pendant as payment for three human heads, while Monk thanked him for his compassion.

• The boy recounted how his mother had hidden him in a wardrobe and been killed by beasts without waking him.
• Monk warned that the boy would risk everything if he chose the path of vengeance, and Zhang Xuan said a man should choose his own path.
• Zhang Xuan asked the boy for something valuable, and the boy offered the beast-tooth pendant his mother had made for him.
• Zhang Xuan fastened the pendant to his waist and promised to trade it for three human heads.
• The boy thanked Zhang Xuan, and Monk bowed to him in gratitude while Zhang Xuan insisted it was only business.

Zhang Xuan, Monk, and the injured boy rested in a sheltered hollow after escaping danger, while Zhang Xuan reflected on the perils of his westward journey. The boy introduced himself as Ji Anning and worked to prove he could help them.

• Monk led the exhausted Zhang Xuan and the injured boy to a sheltered hollow for the night.
• Zhang Xuan took Monk's pill and ate flatbread while wondering why his journey west had been so dangerous and whether to use his remaining question for the Celestial Master's Ordination.
• The boy returned with firewood, a rabbit, and a fish, despite his injuries.
• Monk asked the boy's name, and he introduced himself as Ji Anning and explained that he had learned to hunt with his father.
• Monk told Ji Anning to call himself Anning, and Zhang Xuan backed him up.

Zhang Xuan and the monk shared a meal with the wounded Ji Anning in a desolate mountain hollow, where Zhang Xuan discovered the monk’s magical water-storage teapot was impossibly heavy. When the monk offered to treat Ji Anning’s wounds, the boy panicked, then worried that his secret would make his companions despise or abandon him.

• The monk used a Reservoir Teapot to fill a cooking pot with water, and Zhang Xuan tried to lift it but nearly fell under its thousand-jin weight.
• Ji Anning finished preparing the rabbit and fish, and the monk shared the roasted food, corn, and dried meat with him and Zhang Xuan.
• The monk approached Ji Anning with medicine to treat his wounds, but Ji Anning panicked and recoiled.
• Zhang Xuan told the monk to give Ji Anning the medicine so he could treat himself in private.
• Ji Anning accepted the medicine and cloth, then worried that Zhang Xuan had discovered his secret and might reject him.

Zhang Xuan struggled with his growing desire to kill and dreamed of his late master, Zhang Jingzhi, who urged him to accept violence when it served the right purpose. He woke from the dream reaching for his vanished master.

• Zhang Xuan realized Ji Anning was a girl and worried that he could no longer make her do hard labor, while the Monk defended his actions as compassion.
• The Monk warned Zhang Xuan that it was almost time, then caught him as the medicine took effect and settled him beside a tree.
• In a dream, Zhang Xuan met Zhang Jingzhi and confessed that he had begun to feel excited by blood and killing.
• Zhang Jingzhi told Zhang Xuan that violence could be righteous when used to protect himself and help others.
• Zhang Jingzhi reminded Zhang Xuan that he had died long ago, then vanished into starlight as Zhang Xuan woke and cried out for him.

After waking from a nightmare, Zhang Xuan reassured Ji Anning that he would honor their deal to avenge Ji Anning’s mother. The monk devised a way to heat water for bathing in the mountain hollow, leaving Zhang Xuan refreshed and Ji Anning next to bathe.

• Ji Anning offered Zhang Xuan freshly brewed Pine Needle tea and vowed to serve him loyally.
• Zhang Xuan told Ji Anning he would keep his promise despite fearing danger, and pointed out that he had accepted Ji Anning’s payment.
• Zhang Xuan learned it was still the hour of the pig and remembered he could ask the Celestial Master's Ordination a question that night.
• The monk secured the hot kettle in a notch in a tree to make a makeshift bath, and Zhang Xuan bathed.
• The monk invited Ji Anning to bathe next, and Zhang Xuan cautioned him to keep his wound dry.

Zhang Xuan discovered that the jade pendant was an incomplete immortal artifact called Mountain Suppressor, then used tomorrow’s question allowances to enter its trial. The celestial master's ordination claimed the trial was safe, though it warned him only after he had been swallowed that pain was unavoidable.

• Zhang Xuan entered his Inner Landscape and saw a towering Black Tower bound by 3,600 chains rising from the lake.
• The nether candle mystic eyes identified the tower as Mountain Suppressor, an incomplete immortal artifact with powers to imprison foes and steal their divine abilities.
• The celestial master's ordination offered to absorb Mountain Suppressor and begin a trial at the cost of all three of Zhang Xuan's question allowances for the next day.
• Zhang Xuan chose to begin the trial, entered the tower through its blood-red doors, and was engulfed by azure light.
• After Zhang Xuan vanished, the celestial master's ordination revealed that pain was unavoidable.

Zhang Xuan began a trial inside the Black Tower against the Headless Corpse Buddha and repeatedly died while learning to use his Four Divine Path Forms. After eight deaths, he had determined the limits of his techniques and prepared to face the monster again.

• Zhang Xuan selected a twelve-hour trial and encountered the Headless Corpse Buddha, which decapitated him almost immediately.
• Zhang Xuan revived and discovered that the trial involved real pain and death, then was killed again when the Corpse Buddha tore off his limbs with blood threads.
• Zhang Xuan reviewed his techniques and used the Ten Directions Five Thunders Golden Light Body Protection Divine Incantation to withstand the blood threads briefly before his energy ran out.
• Zhang Xuan realized that his condition reset after each death, so he used repeated trials to practice combining the Four Divine Path Forms.
• After his eighth death, Zhang Xuan gauged his limits for each technique and faced the Headless Corpse Buddha again.

After enduring hundreds of deaths in the Inner Landscape, Zhang Xuan reached Yandang Mountain with Ji Anning, who sought revenge on the wolf bandits who murdered his mother. Zhang Xuan confronted the bandits at their stronghold and asked where to find Mad Bull.

• Zhang Xuan recovered from a night of repeated deaths, strengthened his combat skills, and drank Pine Needle Tea from Ji Anning.
• Zhang Xuan and his companions traveled to Yandang Mountain and rested before entering, since he could not use [Nether Candle Mystic Eyes].
• Ji Anning identified the Yandang Mountain wolf bandits as his mother's killers and vowed to avenge her.
• Two wolf bandits discussed their raids and revealed that Mad Bull had abused and killed Ji Anning's mute mother.
• Zhang Xuan appeared behind the bandits, asked where Mad Bull was, and knocked a saber from one man's hand with his golden fingers.