Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Shen Lang leaves his clothes and waterskin with the badly wounded Li Pu, urging him to stay awake while he and Ye Qianfan search for Life-and-Death Grass.
• They face another pit of Human Effigies—thousands of corpse-like figures. Ye Qianfan risks copying Daoist Chen’s footsteps, with Shen Lang carefully following his tracks.
• The pair cross the pit safely. At the next wall, Ye Qianfan climbs first and lowers a rope for Shen Lang.
• While Ye Qianfan is above the pit, the Human Effigies begin moving toward Shen Lang. Ye Qianfan uses Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, summoning Ye Fu, whose many eyes freeze them in place. Shen Lang closes his eyes and trusts Ye Qianfan as he is pulled to safety.
• Unbeknownst to them, a black ribbon-like strip of soil beneath the pits is fading as they pass through. Two-fifths has disappeared; the remaining three-fifths lies in the other pits, foreshadowing a coming change.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Lang shows loyalty to Li Pu by giving him his clothes and water, then places complete trust in Ye Qianfan—even when danger is close and he cannot see what is happening.
• Ye Qianfan takes responsibility for navigating the effigies and protecting Shen Lang. Though uncertain that copying Daoist Chen’s steps will work, he presses on and uses his hidden power only when necessary.
• Their light teasing during the climb briefly creates an awkward, suggestive misunderstanding, adding comic relief before the danger escalates.
• Their contrasting roles are clear: Ye Qianfan watches for threats and acts decisively, while Shen Lang follows his lead.

Significant themes

• Trust and cooperation: Their survival depends on Shen Lang following Ye Qianfan’s steps and believing him at a critical moment.
• Courage under uncertainty: Ye Qianfan must imitate a route he does not fully understand and reserve his identity-revealing ability as a last resort.
• Horror and hidden danger: The moving Human Effigies and the unexplained, vanishing black soil suggest that escaping the pits may trigger a larger threat.

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan and Shen Lang escape the second Human Effigy pit, then pass through the third and fourth by following Daoist Chen’s footwork. The effigies repeatedly surround Shen when he is left alone, but Ye keeps watch and helps him climb out.
• As the pair reach the fifth pit, huge cracks open along the black soil in the first two pits, suggesting something is stirring below.
• Daoist Chen reaches what he believes should be the entrance to the Former Dynasty Tomb, only to find a solid granite dead end. Rechecking his Divination Compass, he realizes the tomb chamber is actually somewhere inside the Human Effigy pits.
• Before he can decide whether to return and search, a Black Dragon bursts from a pit. The tomb shakes, rocks fall, and the pits collapse into a vast lake. Most of the effigies sink, though a few remain afloat and attack.
• Daoist Chen drives off an attacking effigy with his Peachwood Sword, releasing black vapor from it. His calculations reveal that someone with the Current Dynasty’s dragon bloodline has entered the tomb, triggering the upheaval. He fears the disturbance will kill him and destroy Tomb-Keeper Village and everyone within a hundred li.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan remains capable and protective, guiding Shen through the pits and keeping watch over the dangerous effigies.
• Shen Lang is frightened by the ordeal but trusts Ye. His awkward praise sounds suggestive to Ye, who quickly interrupts him and redirects their attention to rescuing Li Pu.
• Daoist Chen is revealed to be chiefly motivated by robbing the tomb; finding his brother is secondary, since his divination says the brother will survive. The growing catastrophe forces him to recognize that his own survival—and the village’s—is at stake.

Significant themes

• Hidden danger and mistaken assumptions: The apparent dead end conceals a more complicated tomb, while changes beneath the pits go unnoticed until it is too late.
• The cost of greed: Daoist Chen’s plan to plunder the tomb draws him into a conflict with consequences far beyond himself.
• Loyalty and cooperation: Ye and Shen rely on one another to survive the pits, in contrast with Daoist Chen’s self-interested aims.

Key plot points and events

• Daoist Chen escapes underwater using air-filled sheepskin breathing bags and finds a route into the tomb.
• He passes through a trap-filled corridor, though Ye Qianfan and his companions have already triggered or destroyed its hazards. Strange fish-oil lamps light the passage.
• Chen catches up with Ye Qianfan and Shen Lang at a vast chasm. Across it stands an imperial court scene: a dragon-robed skeleton on a throne, surrounded by lifelike minister effigies.
• In the chasm below, Chen recognizes a dry, mist-filled riverbed as the Netherworld River. It is covered in life-and-death grass, but he warns that entering the river is almost certainly fatal.
• Shen Lang urgently asks how anyone might survive crossing or entering it. Chen instead identifies him as the Third Prince, revealing that Shen Lang’s royal lineage has been recognized.

Character developments and interactions

• Daoist Chen regrets not killing someone earlier, suggesting he once had a chance to eliminate a person connected to the imperial bloodline. Despite his misgivings, he ventures through the tomb and explains the river’s danger.
• Ye Qianfan continues to benefit from remarkable luck or skill, having made it through the traps. He asks Chen whether the plants below are life-and-death grass.
• Shen Lang is alarmed when Chen exposes his identity. He has concealed his status not only to avoid political danger but also to find genuine friends and preserve bonds with his brothers.
• Shen Lang and Chen clash in priorities: Shen Lang presses for a way to save a teammate, while Chen responds by revealing Shen Lang’s identity rather than offering an immediate solution.

Significant themes

• Life, death, and peril: The Netherworld River is portrayed as a boundary between the living and the dead, with only a slim chance of survival for anyone who enters.
• Political identity versus personal connection: Shen Lang’s royal status threatens his safety and relationships, while he longs for friendship beyond his rank.
• Luck and fate: Ye Qianfan’s repeated success through danger makes others wonder whether he is exceptionally skilled or somehow able to foresee events.

Key plot points and events

• Daoist Chen claims Shen Lang’s powerful bloodline and golden destiny are the only way to cross the Netherworld River and obtain Life-and-Death Grass.
• Ye Qianfan distrusts Chen and attacks him, but Eunuch Wang reveals Chen’s real plan: awaken the Imperial Corpse with Shen Lang’s dragon blood, take its golden bone, and use it to pursue immortality.
• Chen attacks Shen Lang. Ye Qianfan shields him, allowing Chen to cut through his body—revealing that Qianfan is a Paper Puppet.
• Chen admits he destroyed the Puppet Sect, whom he considered traitors for supporting the current dynasty. The Daoist spirit within Qianfan urges him to drag Chen into the Netherworld River, where the dead can endure the water but the living cannot escape it.
• Shi Guang emerges from hiding and confirms Chen had controlled corpses and staged attacks to lure the Demon-Quelling Office to the tomb. He shoves Chen and Qianfan into the river.
• Chen becomes trapped underwater. Qianfan’s puppet body dissolves, but Ye Fu’s unusual nature lets him move along the riverbed and crawl toward the opposite bank. Chen begs for help, but Qianfan refuses.

Character developments and interactions

• Daoist Chen drops his patriotic justification and is exposed as a calculating, power-hungry schemer. His confidence collapses when his plan is thwarted.
• Ye Qianfan proves loyal to Shen Lang, risking his puppet body to protect him. He also takes decisive action against Chen, then coldly rejects Chen’s plea.
• Shen Lang remains skeptical of Chen and is protected by Qianfan, though he does not drive the confrontation.
• Eunuch Wang challenges Chen’s claims and identifies his hidden ambition.
• Shi Guang returns as the unexpected intervention that turns the confrontation in the heroes’ favor.
• The Daoist spirit inside Qianfan learns that Chen destroyed the Puppet Sect and urges revenge, revealing the conflict’s personal stakes.

Significant themes

• Ambition disguised as righteousness: Chen invokes rightful rule while pursuing power and immortality.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Qianfan puts himself between Chen and Shen Lang.
• The rise and fall of powers: Chen and Wang debate dynastic change, while Chen’s destruction of the Puppet Sect reflects the same cycle.
• Fate versus choice: Chen calls his defeat fate, but it results from the actions and unexpected intervention of others.

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan is gathering valuable Life-and-Death Grass when Daoist Chen secretly casts a Rebirth Incantation. A flash of golden light leaves Ye Qianfan bodiless, adrift in an endless gray mist, with no sign of Ye Fu.
• As time passes, Ye Qianfan’s senses and memories fade, and he begins to believe he is dead.
• Thinking of Shen Lang and Li Pu brings visions of the living world. Li Pu is now an old man who worships Ye Qianfan as “Celestial Venerable Ye,” a supposedly immortal protector honored by the emperor for saving him and sealing an imperial corpse.
• Ye Qianfan sees people praying to him and realizes he may be able to affect their lives. When a boy begs for help escaping a forced sale to a predatory rich man, Ye Qianfan sends him a point of golden light.
• The boy’s shove knocks his abusive father unconscious. Ye Qianfan sees part of the father’s soul and spirit enter the Bagua Mirror he holds, leaving the man alive but likely permanently bedridden unless Ye Qianfan releases him.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan shifts from greedy, practical grass-gatherer to a bewildered, apparently supernatural figure. He tests his newfound influence and finds himself enjoying the responsibility of deciding people’s fates, though he remains uncertain what he has become.
• Li Pu has aged and become a devoted worshipper of Ye Qianfan, believing him to be a true immortal. He and his wife discuss spreading Ye Qianfan’s worship to another temple.
• The boy and his father are caught in a grim reversal: the father’s attempt to sell his son is stopped, but the boy’s plea for his father’s death results instead in the father’s incapacitation. The boy may now have to care for him.
• Ye Qianfan watches these events from beyond ordinary life, able to influence people but not yet understanding the limits or nature of his power.

Significant themes

• Death and transformation: Ye Qianfan’s apparent death leads to an existence beyond his body and familiar senses.
• Faith and reputation: The living have turned him into a revered immortal, based on deeds and stories he does not yet understand.
• Power and judgment: Ye Qianfan’s intervention produces a morally complicated outcome—neither the boy’s requested revenge nor a clean rescue.
• Consequences and responsibility: His new ability to affect people’s lives suggests that wielding supernatural power may resemble “handling official business,” with lasting consequences for everyone involved.

Plot points and events

• The Daoist explains that Ye Qianfan survived because Ye Fu absorbed Daoist Chen’s power and accidentally opened the Ascension Gate. A being from the White Jade Capital granted Ye Qianfan immense divine power, but his soul nearly dissolved under it.
• Shen Lang became emperor and named Ye Qianfan “Celestial Venerable Ye.” The people’s offerings rebuilt Ye Qianfan’s soul and made him an immortal.
• The Daoist reveals that an immortal in this world is effectively its Heavenly Dao: able to alter cause and effect to ease people’s suffering, but bound to the world. Remaining there might gradually erase Ye Qianfan’s personality and desires.
• Ye Qianfan chooses freedom over immortality, leaves the Immortal Realm, and encounters the voice of Heaven, which sends him back to his original world.
• He wakes in a hospital after a three-year coma. A fire talisman works, confirming that his journey and cultivation were real. He realizes he has returned healthy and still has his powers.

Character developments

• Ye Qianfan rejects the promise of godlike control when it would cost him his identity and freedom. His defining choice is to remain himself rather than become a tool of Heaven.
• The Daoist explains Ye Qianfan’s transformation and urges him to stay, but ultimately accepts that they may never meet again.
• Shen Lang, though absent from the main action, is shown to have remembered Ye Qianfan’s help and repaid him by establishing his worship.
• The voice of Heaven is revealed as the power behind the Immortal Realm. It is intrigued by Ye Qianfan’s refusal and returns him to his original world.

Significant themes

• Freedom versus power: Ye Qianfan values the ability to choose over the authority and abilities of an immortal.
• Identity and selfhood: Spiritual “perfection” may mean losing one’s desires, personality, and humanity.
• The cost of immortality: Divine power brings responsibility and confinement rather than simple liberation.
• Ambiguous reality: The hospital awakening resembles a return from a dream, but the surviving magic confirms the experience was real.

Character interactions

• Ye Qianfan questions the Daoist about his survival and what immortality entails; their disagreement centers on whether he should remain bound to the world.
• The Daoist warns that leaving may cost him everything, while Ye Qianfan insists that remaining—and being gradually erased—would be the greater regret.
• At the White Jade Capital, Heaven acknowledges Ye Qianfan’s unusual choice and sends him home before he can ask more.