Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Bu Er reveals that he and Ouyang Lin twice witnessed unfamiliar people moving bodies at night to a mass burial site. The group suspects outsiders are operating secretly within the Hard Tribe, though they don’t yet know whether the chief is aware.
• Despite Bu Er’s suggestion that they refuse Hardway’s invitation, Yang Qing chooses to attend the Moon-Praying Festival, believing they may learn more by going along with events.
• The festival preparations begin at dawn. Colorful vines and branches beneath treehouses identify households with eligible young women, revealing that the festival includes prayers for marriage and matchmaking.
• Yang Qing notices that some tribespeople grow nervous when the group approaches. He concludes that the festival’s real purpose or danger may emerge after dark.
• That night, Yang Qing and his companions head to the festival gathering in a forest clearing. He tells Bu Er to watch for suspicious behavior, while the group remains alert.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing shows both caution and resolve: he takes the burial-pit report seriously but keeps his promise to attend the festival, intending to investigate rather than withdraw.
• He expresses affection for Bu Er by encouraging him to find a wife and offering to act as matchmaker. Bu Er, worried marriage would separate them, insists he has his own plans; the exchange reveals their close, almost familial bond.
• Bu Er lightens the tense mood by teasing Ouyang and Jiang Zhizhou about matchmaking, drawing their sharp reactions.
• Jiang Zhizhou and the others support Yang Qing’s plan to observe the festival and adapt if their movements are restricted.

Significant themes

• Trust and secrecy: The tribe’s outwardly welcoming appearance contrasts with nighttime activity involving outsiders and mass burial.
• Caution and commitment: The group balances suspicion with Yang Qing’s decision to honor his agreement and investigate from within.
• Loyalty and independence: Yang Qing wants Bu Er to have a life of his own, while Bu Er fears that settling down could end their travels together.
• Unease beneath celebration: A festival associated with marriage and community may conceal darker events, heightening suspense as night falls.

Plot points and events

• During the Hard Tribe’s Moon-Praying Ceremony, Yang Qing’s party watches the solemn rites while keeping their attention on the altar and the tribe’s suspicious activity.
• Bu Er reports that Hard Tribe members have again gone toward the Mass Burial Pit. Yang Qing sends Bu Er and Ouyang Lin to investigate, then tells Jiang Zhizhou to be ready to move there if trouble breaks out.
• Yang Qing suspects that the tribe’s frequent deaths may be connected to human sacrifices, recalling a notorious blood-sacrifice case in Western Chu. Jiang Zhizhou shares his suspicion, though he questions why an isolated tribe would undertake such rites.
• The Hard Tribe suddenly surrounds Yang Qing’s group. Several tribespeople accuse the visitors of repeatedly probing the Forbidden Land and demand punishment.
• Hardway confronts Yang Qing and demands an explanation for his subordinates’ intrusion. Yang Qing counters by asking why so many people in the tribe die each day, implying their deaths are unnatural.
• Hardway refuses to answer and threatens Yang Qing by invoking the two missing subordinates. Yang Qing recognizes the threat as confirmation that the tribe is concealing something, and challenges Hardway over his course of action.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing remains calm under pressure, directs a covert investigation, and openly confronts Hardway with his suspicions.
• Jiang Zhizhou supports Yang Qing’s blood-sacrifice theory but remains cautious, pointing out that the tribe’s isolation makes its motives unclear.
• Bu Er and Ouyang Lin slip away to investigate the Mass Burial Pit.
• Hardway shifts from welcoming host to hostile authority, refusing to explain the deaths and using Yang Qing’s subordinates as leverage.
• The other Hard Tribe members turn against the visitors, intensifying the conflict between hospitality and suspicion.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and deception: The tribe’s rituals and claims of isolation may be concealing a darker purpose.
• Power and coercion: Hardway uses his authority and the visitors’ vulnerability to suppress questioning.
• Moral responsibility: Yang Qing’s memories of past human sacrifices shape his determination to investigate possible abuses.
• Hospitality versus suspicion: The guests’ honored status collapses once they probe the tribe’s forbidden secrets.

Plot points and events

• The Hard Tribe argues that Yang Qing and his companions disrupted their Moon-Praying Festival and should be seized and sacrificed. Yang Qing challenges the tribe’s blood-sacrifice practices, suggesting they summon evil spirits rather than bring divine favor.
• His accusation unsettles Chief Hardway and the tribespeople, confirming Yang Qing’s suspicion that the rites conceal a dangerous problem. When a grand elder attacks Yang Qing, Jiang Zhizhou swiftly breaks the man’s wrist and knocks him unconscious, frightening the crowd into silence.
• Yang Qing asks Hardway to lead them to the trouble within the tribe. Hardway eventually lets them proceed to the Forbidden Land, warning that it is dangerous. After they leave, he tells his people that an old legend has come true and that the visitors may be the tribe’s salvation.
• On the way to the Mass Burial Pit, Yang Qing and his companions conclude that the Hard Tribe’s blood sacrifices have gotten out of control, though the tribe itself may also have been deceived.
• Bu Er and Ouyang Lin report seeing strange lights rise from the pit shortly after they arrived. Yang Qing realizes the pit is connected to the Moon-Praying sacrifice and sets out to investigate.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing remains composed and perceptive, using Hardway’s reactions to expose the tribe’s hidden crisis. He suspects the tribe’s sacrificial practices have caused its present danger.
• Hardway shifts from resistance to reluctant cooperation. Though troubled and guarded, he believes the visitors may fulfill the tribe’s legend and save it.
• Jiang Zhizhou protects Yang Qing decisively, demonstrating his strength and reinforcing the group’s authority. He also helps clarify Yang Qing’s theory about the tribe’s predicament.
• The tribespeople are divided between fear of divine punishment and anger at the outsiders; Jiang’s intervention curbs their aggression.
• Bu Er and Ouyang Lin provide the crucial observation of the strange lights, helping Yang Qing connect the burial pit to the ritual.

Significant themes

• Consequences of wrongdoing: Yang Qing suggests that the tribe is suffering the results of its blood sacrifices.
• Deception and complicity: The tribe may have been misled into its practices, but escaping the harm they caused will not be simple.
• Faith versus truth: The tribe’s belief in divine favor clashes with Yang Qing’s warning that the rites may attract evil spirits.
• Prophecy and salvation: Hardway’s reference to the ancient legend frames Yang Qing’s group as possible deliverers, though the danger remains unknown.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Qing and Xiao Zhou’s theory is that the Hard Tribe’s Heavenly God Selection and Chosen Ones are tied to dark sorcery and blood sacrifices. The tribe may once have gained power from the practice, but its consequences have grown unbearable.
• Yang Qing suspects the tribe has secretly been relying on outsiders to escape the curse. Chief Hardway confirms that the group is now bound to it and claims they must break the Forbidden Land’s restrictions to get free.
• A luminous net activates beneath Yang Qing’s group, marking them with light like shackles while leaving Hardway and his companions untouched.
• Yang Qing deduces that the “secret” is the tribe’s uncontrolled blood sacrifices and that outsiders’ blood is needed to sustain or undo them. Two elders attack as a distraction, and the group is driven onto a hidden sacrificial platform.
• Iron pillars enclose the platform, while sharp spikes rise beneath the group. Yang Qing realizes they are meant to be drained of blood. Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou keep him airborne, but the pillars rise with them, leaving the group trapped and their strength running out.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing shows keen insight, piecing together the tribe’s motives and recognizing Hardway’s explanations as incomplete. He challenges the chief directly but stays cautious.
• Hardway shifts from apparent eagerness to cold manipulation, admitting only enough to pressure the outsiders into helping. Yang Qing senses he is still concealing something.
• Bu Er acts protectively, warning Yang Qing of the trap and helping him escape the spikes alongside Jiang Zhizhou.
• The elders reveal the tribe’s hostility once its secret is exposed, attacking the group rather than answering Yang Qing’s accusation.

Significant themes

• Power and its price: The Hard Tribe’s apparent gains from blood sacrifice have become a curse.
• Manipulation and distrust: Hardway presents the outsiders’ predicament as a choice, though he has engineered their entrapment.
• Sacrifice and survival: The group faces being used as offerings to preserve or resolve the tribe’s dark practice.

Plot and events

• Hardway tries to help Yang Qing and his companions, but two elders seal his acupoints and prevent him from interfering. He objects to sacrificing outsiders to lift the Hard Tribe’s curse, while the elders insist they are following the prophet’s plan.
• Trapped above a platform filling with spikes, Yang Qing and the others realize the iron pillars respond to their movements. At Yang Qing’s suggestion, they split into groups to confuse the pillars, then attack them when they shift out of position.
• Their strikes expose hollow pillars containing insects that track movement and guide the pillars. The group uses the insects’ behavior to locate and destroy several pillars, opening an escape route.
• The pillars suddenly begin melting, and molten iron pours down. Bu Er pulls Yang Qing back from danger, exposing himself, but Pei Buji and Jiang Zhizhou save him. One elder is badly burned by the molten iron and vows that the group will die on the altar.
• A storm gathers overhead. Yang Qing sees lightning as their only chance to destroy the altar and directs his companions to draw it toward them. As they take their positions, an iron spike pierces his foot; Bu Er angrily calls for Ouyang Lin to raise his sword.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing remains resourceful, identifying the pillars’ weakness and quickly adapting their escape plan. Even as the danger escalates, he takes charge and proposes using lightning.
• Hardway shows compassion and moral unease about sacrificing innocent travelers, but the elders restrain him and enforce the prophet’s plan.
• Bu Er is fiercely loyal to Yang Qing, repeatedly putting himself at risk to protect him. Pei Buji and Jiang Zhizhou return that loyalty by rescuing Bu Er in turn.
• The elders act as antagonists: they suppress Hardway’s dissent and attack the trapped group to protect the sacrificial ritual.

Significant themes

• Conscience versus duty: Hardway questions whether freedom gained through outsiders’ deaths is worth the moral cost.
• Ingenuity and cooperation: Yang Qing’s strategy succeeds because the group coordinates and uses the trap’s own mechanisms against it.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Bu Er’s selflessness, and his companions’ quick intervention, highlight mutual devotion.
• Escalating survival stakes: Each apparent breakthrough brings a worse threat, leaving the group with a desperate final gamble.

Key plot points and events

• As the blood-sacrifice ritual begins, the altar splits and sinks. Red-black lightning strikes Yang Qing and his companions, setting the altar ablaze with heavenly fire.
• The Grand Elder believes the sacrifice will lift his tribe’s curse and dismisses Chieftain Hardway’s objections, insisting that the captives must die.
• Hardway suspects the plan will fail. He is proven right when Yang Qing and the others survive inside a fire-free gap at the altar’s central fissure.
• Jiangli’s water-soaked fur creates a protective barrier that keeps the fire from reaching the group. Yang Qing concludes the ritual is meant to consume human blood and bones in the heavenly fire.
• On Yang Qing’s instructions, the group strikes both sides of the altar in unison. Their blows disturb the fire formation, creating brief gaps and causing the Grand Elder pain and alarm.
• The Grand Elder tries to kill Hardway, but an unseen attacker intercepts him and knocks him down. He realizes the Blood Seal has been destroyed.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing stays composed under attack, identifies the ritual’s purpose, and directs the group’s coordinated assault on the altar.
• Hardway stands by his belief that his tribe must bear responsibility for its own curse rather than sacrifice outsiders. Though physically restrained, he openly challenges the Grand Elder’s cruelty and confidence.
• The Grand Elder is ruthless and ambitious, hoping to lift the curse and claim the chieftain’s seat. His certainty gives way to panic when the fire formation falters and he is attacked.
• Jiangli protects the group with water, revealing an unexpectedly powerful ability. Yang Qing, Ouyang Lin, and the others work together, following his plan to disrupt the ritual.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and responsibility: Hardway rejects shifting the tribe’s burden onto innocent outsiders.
• Power and ambition: The Grand Elder’s desire for control fuels his willingness to treat lives as expendable.
• Courage and cooperation: Yang Qing and his companions survive by using their distinct abilities and acting together.
• Overconfidence and reversal: The Grand Elder’s belief that the ritual is unstoppable collapses when the captives resist and the Blood Seal is destroyed.

Plot points and events

• After Jiang Zhizhou knocks down the grand elder, the heavenly fire begins to die out and the sacrificial altar is confirmed destroyed. The grand elder accuses Yang Qing’s party of inviting divine punishment, but Yang Qing counters that the Hard Tribe is suffering the consequences of its own actions.
• With Hardway immobilized, Yang Qing urges him to explain the blood sacrifice. Hardway admits it is evil but says his people believed they had no choice because of a curse.
• Hardway reveals that the curse once deprived the Hard Tribe of sunlight. Their first blood sacrifice, begun about five hundred years ago, restored sunlight for nearly a century. Later sacrifices brought shorter periods of light and required ever more victims—eventually outsiders as well.
• Yang Qing connects the sacrifice to the strange natural barrier on Heaven’s Divide Mountain. Hardway confirms the tribe used the barrier to funnel exceptionally powerful travelers into its territory as offerings. Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou condemn the tribe for this, noting that many heroes may have died there.

Character developments

• Yang Qing remains composed and perceptive, challenging the tribe’s justification and piecing together the link between the curse, sacrifices, and Heaven’s Divide Mountain.
• Hardway shifts from guarded reluctance to a sorrowful confession. He portrays the sacrifices as a desperate response to his people’s fading access to sunlight, while acknowledging their terrible cost.
• The grand elder stays defiant even after the altar’s destruction.
• Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou show continued distrust of the Hard Tribe and openly condemn its exploitation of travelers.

Significant themes

• Desperation and moral compromise: The tribe’s desire to escape darkness leads it to increasingly cruel sacrifices.
• The cost of short-term solutions: Each sacrifice provides less relief while demanding more lives.
• Truth, responsibility, and justice: Yang Qing rejects the claim that outsiders are to blame for destroying the altar and insists the tribe face the consequences of its choices.
• Betrayal of trust: Travelers who survive the mountain’s deadly barrier are deliberately captured and offered up.

Character interactions

• Yang Qing confronts the grand elder and presses Hardway for an explanation.
• Bu Er warns Hardway that an apology cannot erase his wrongdoing, while Yang Qing offers him a chance to speak.
• Hardway explains the tribe’s history to Yang Qing, who questions him closely and uncovers the role of Heaven’s Divide Mountain.
• Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou respond with anger, condemning the tribe’s scheme and its victims.

Key plot points and events

• The Great Elder, badly wounded, accuses Hardway of deceiving Yang Qing and claims that Hardway alone engineered the group’s trials and their arrival at the Blood Sacrifice Forbidden Land.
• He admits that he and the Second Elder helped attack the group, but dies before offering more explanation, ending with another denunciation of Hardway.
• Yang Qing frees Hardway from his sealed acupoints, but remains cautious. Hardway offers to guide the group out of the woods; Yang refuses, wanting to investigate what may lie beneath the destroyed Sacrificial Altar.
• The altar’s collapse has left the ground beneath it smooth and apparently undisturbed. Yang suspects something is hidden there and asks Hardway to fetch a rock, pointing out a spot in the fissure.
• Hardway takes an unexpectedly long time to return. Yang and the others grow suspicious, and Yang realizes the delay may signal trouble.

Character developments

• Yang Qing stays composed and investigative, neither accepting Hardway’s apparent sincerity nor immediately accusing him. He prioritizes uncovering and eliminating the source of the blood-sacrifice practice.
• Hardway presents himself as remorseful and cooperative, but his reactions to Yang’s questions—and the group’s distrust—leave his motives uncertain.
• The Great Elder dies accusing Hardway, complicating the group’s understanding of the chief’s role in the events.
• Bu Er becomes openly wary of Hardway and urges caution.

Character interactions

• The Great Elder confronts Hardway and appeals to Yang Qing, while Hardway counters by asking whether the elder feels remorse.
• Yang questions Hardway about the altar and watches his responses closely; Hardway appears relieved when Yang says he does not know what lies below.
• Yang orders Bu Er and the others to bury the elders’ remains. Hardway accepts that the dead should be laid to rest, though his expression hints at unresolved feelings.
• Bu Er privately warns Yang that Hardway cannot be trusted. Yang replies that they need only keep watch.

Significant themes

• Truth and deception: Conflicting accusations make it unclear whom the group should believe.
• Justice and accountability: Hardway maintains that he cannot forgive the elders’ attempt on his life, while Yang insists on burying them, saying death settles all debts.
• Vigilance against evil: Yang argues that the blood-sacrifice practice must be investigated completely, lest it return.
• Trust under uncertainty: The group must cooperate with Hardway while remaining alert to his possible ulterior motives.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Qing suspects there may be a hidden space beneath the ruined Sacrificial Altar and asks Hardway to place an unusual stone on a particular spot.
• The stone sinks into the earth. The ground briefly ripples like waves, then becomes still, leaving the group with no obvious explanation.
• Yang Qing remains uneasy. Jiang Zhizhou follows his silent instructions and drops a lit fire striker onto the spot. A small patch of ground burns fiercely for a time.
• After the fire dies, Jiang Zhizhou pries up the charred earth and uncovers an iron box engraved with a lifelike lotus. Yang Qing tells him to pierce the carved dewdrops; doing so activates the box’s mechanism.
• The box splits open, and cracks spread through the already-ruined altar and the surrounding ground. The group retreats.
• Hardway suddenly dives into a collapsing crack. A strong smell of blood rises from below, leading Yang Qing to conclude that a blood pool lies beneath the altar. He believes Hardway is risking death in hopes of finding a way to live.

Character developments

• Yang Qing grows increasingly apprehensive as the investigation proceeds, though he conceals his alarm. He trusts his instincts and relies on observation and indirect signals to guide Jiang Zhizhou.
• Jiang Zhizhou responds quickly to Yang Qing’s unspoken instructions, supporting him when he trembles and carrying out each step with the fire striker and sword.
• Hardway shifts from dutifully helping Yang Qing to making a startling, apparently suicidal leap. Yang Qing interprets the act as desperate but purposeful.
• Bu Er voices suspicion about Hardway’s motives and is alarmed enough to try to stop him, but Yang Qing restrains him.
• Jiangli senses danger before the others and clings to Yang Qing, its fur standing on end.

Significant themes

• Hidden dangers beneath appearances: The seemingly quiet ground conceals a mechanism and a blood-filled space.
• Instinct and foreboding: Yang Qing’s unease proves important even when there is no visible threat.
• Desperation and survival: Hardway’s leap is framed not simply as a wish to die, but as a gamble for a chance to live.
• Old evil and unresolved history: The investigation raises the possibility that the blood-sacrifice practice—and perhaps the altar itself—may be tied to the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom.

Character interactions

• Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou communicate through subtle physical signals, showing their trust and familiarity.
• Yang Qing’s authority over Bu Er prevents him from intervening when Hardway jumps.
• Hardway cooperates with Yang Qing’s request to move the stone, then takes matters into his own hands by diving into the opening.
• The group reacts collectively to the eerie discoveries, but Yang Qing remains the one interpreting their significance.

Key plot points

• Hardway jumps into the blood pool beneath the destroyed Blood Sacrifice Altar. Yang Qing’s group realizes he had engineered events to reach it, using both the two elders and their own intervention to get what he wanted.
• Yang Qing explains that Hardway was pursuing his own survival, not the Hard Tribe’s. He knew the tribe’s repeated Blood Sacrifices had lost their effectiveness, while the blood pool held the power that mattered.
• After a tense wait, Hardway rises from the pool alive. Yang Qing orders Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou to strike him, but Hardway awakens, emerges with greatly enhanced speed, and escapes their combined attempt to stop him.
• The pool’s blood drains away, leaving clear water. Yang Qing concludes that Hardway absorbed its power and likely fled beyond the forest. Ouyang Lin and Bu Er search but return empty-handed.

Character developments and interactions

• Hardway is revealed as ruthless, patient, and self-serving. His apparent cooperation concealed a plan to escape the tribe’s curse by claiming the pool’s power for himself.
• Yang Qing sees through Hardway’s motives but chooses to observe the pool before acting. He regrets that hesitation when Hardway escapes.
• Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and Ouyang Lin recognize how thoroughly Hardway manipulated them and try to stop him, then pursue him unsuccessfully.
• Yang Qing’s explanation prompts the group to reconsider the purpose of the Blood Sacrifice and Hardway’s real priorities.

Significant themes

• Survival and self-interest: Hardway prioritizes his own life over his people.
• Deception and strategy: His apparent actions conceal a carefully laid plan.
• The cost of hesitation: Yang Qing’s desire to understand the pool gives Hardway time to escape.
• Power and desperation: The tribe’s fading ritual offers little hope, while the mysterious pool provides Hardway a chance to break free.

Key plot points and events

• After Hardway disappears, Yang Qing and his companions find no clues around the blood pool. Hardway has taken its stored power, and the moon has vanished from the black sky as a cold, unsettling wind rises.
• They decide to leave the forest, but first try to address the fate of the Hard Tribe. The tribespeople attack them, blaming them for the elders’ deaths and seeming unable to distinguish what really happened.
• The group fights back and abandons any plan to help the tribe, then heads deeper into the forest in search of an exit.
• After walking all day, they discover they have returned to their own marked trees. The forest seems to be trapping them, though nothing overtly supernatural has occurred.
• Bu Er and Ouyang Lin volunteer to scout ahead. When they fail to return for a day and night, Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou wait, concerned. At the chapter’s end, Bu Er finally appears.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing feels responsible for failing to anticipate Hardway’s plans. Though initially inclined to help the Hard Tribe, he withdraws that offer after their hostile attack and focuses on finding a way out.
• Jiang Zhizhou becomes more openly hard-hearted, believing Yang Qing’s earlier kindness—especially allowing Mo Beixing to return—helped lead them into trouble. He stops Ouyang Lin from arguing with the tribe and urges the group to leave.
• Mo Beixing is shaken that her kindness has been repaid with violence and begins to question whether she should have acted more ruthlessly.
• Bu Er and Ouyang Lin help repel the attackers, then take on the dangerous task of scouting the forest. Their prolonged absence heightens the group’s anxiety.
• Pei Buji protects Mo Beixing during the attack and later voices concern about the missing scouts.
• A tribesman Jiang once saved briefly calls out to him after being knocked down, revealing a flicker of conflict beneath the tribe’s hostility.

Significant themes

• Kindness versus self-preservation: The group’s attempt to help the Hard Tribe is met with aggression, prompting doubts about compassion in dangerous circumstances.
• Collective loyalty and judgment: The tribe’s unity has become destructive because its members act on blame rather than reason.
• Uncertainty and looming danger: Hardway’s disappearance, the stolen power, the missing moon, and the forest’s looping paths all suggest that greater trouble is coming.

Key plot points and events

• Bu Er returns from exploring with Ouyang Lin, reporting that they spent the night searching but found no route through the forest.
• Yang Qing realizes their later expedition did not loop back as before: the path seems endless. Bu Er demonstrates another distortion—the nearby trees appear far closer than they are, requiring dozens of paces to reach.
• Bu Er explains that he and Ouyang tried walking in unusual directions to avoid retracing their steps, but the forest’s strange behavior continued.
• Jiang Zhizhou suspects the forest’s distortions are connected to the curse that has trapped the Hard Tribe there for generations.
• The group waits for Ouyang, who fails to return despite having promised to come back that night. Bu Er and Jiang search the nearby paths but find no trace of him.
• Jiang reports one new clue: a stretch of path is muddy even though there has been no rain. The source of the water remains unknown.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing takes charge, listens carefully to Bu Er’s observations, identifies the apparent endlessness of the path, and sends Bu Er and Jiang to search for Ouyang.
• Bu Er shows strong faith in Yang Qing’s judgment. When Ouyang disappears, he blames himself for returning without him; Jiang reassures him that it is not his fault.
• Jiang Zhizhou offers a theory linking the forest’s supernatural effects to the Hard Tribe’s curse and contributes the unexplained mud as a possible clue.
• Ouyang Lin remains missing. His absence turns the group’s investigation into an urgent search.

Significant themes

• Disorientation and confinement: The forest distorts distance and direction, making escape or progress seem impossible.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Bu Er’s worry over Ouyang reflects their trust and his sense of duty.
• Mystery and mounting danger: The unexplained mud and Ouyang’s disappearance suggest the forest’s dangers are worsening.
• The cost of delay: The group must solve the forest’s puzzle to reach the Ultimate Land and find the Rootless Wood, so every lost moment matters.

Plot points and events

• Yang Qing’s group finds a sharply bounded patch of mud. Yang identifies its water as coming from the Blood Pool, despite Hardway having supposedly destroyed it.
• The discovery raises questions about whether the blood-sacrifice ritual has hidden stages. Yang connects it to the missing bodies at the Mass Burial Pit and worries that the forest itself may be part of a large sacrificial formation.
• Jiang Zhizhou confirms Hardway left footprints in the mud. Some footprints appear sliced in half, suggesting a blade attack—not Ouyang Lin’s work, since he favors hidden weapons.
• The group concludes that another powerful fighter may be in the forest and could have confronted Ouyang, or even allied with Hardway against them.
• Searching the trees, they find blade marks leading south. Following them, they discover blood spattered on a tree and a trail of droplets beyond it.
• Yang notices something unusual about the bloodstains and tells Bu Er to inspect the tree above. The chapter ends before he reports back.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing is observant and cautious, linking physical clues to the larger mystery of the blood sacrifice. He restrains Bu Er from rushing ahead when the blood trail seems suspicious.
• Bu Er and Pei Buji grow increasingly anxious for Ouyang, their friend, and hurry to search the trees.
• Jiang Zhizhou supports Yang by examining the tracks and protecting him as the group moves forward.
• The group’s concern for Ouyang drives them onward, even though they suspect the forest may be a trap.

Significant themes

• Hidden danger and uncertainty: Each clue suggests threats beyond Hardway, including an unknown expert and possibly coordinated enemies.
• Sacrifice and corruption: The Blood Pool and missing corpses hint at a larger, more sinister ritual whose true scope remains unclear.
• Loyalty and urgency: The group risks entering a dangerous trail because they refuse to abandon Ouyang.
• Caution versus haste: Bu Er wants to act immediately, while Yang insists that suspicious evidence must be understood before they proceed.

Key plot points and events

• Bu Er returns from exploring the towering tree, bruised and shaken. He reports that Ouyang Lin is trapped high among its branches.
• The tree contains several dangerous arrays. Bu Er escapes an illusion array by holding to his true heart, then breaks a bloodslaughter array when his sword damages the trunk.
• He finds Ouyang hanging upside down, naked and tightly bound by tough vine ropes. Blood drips steadily from his fingertips. Bu Er’s attempt to cut the ropes fails—and makes Ouyang bleed faster—so he retreats to seek help.
• Prompted by Yang Qing, Bu Er recalls that Ouyang’s blood was draining into connected grooves carved into the trunk. Yang Qing recognizes that the tree may be a legendary Sacrificial Tree.
• Yang Qing explains that such a tree feeds on human blood, using special vines called Tree Serpents to draw it. A rare treasure is said to lie beneath it, accessible only when blood serves as the key. He concludes that someone deliberately brought Ouyang there to use him in the ritual.

Character developments and interactions

• Bu Er proves observant and knowledgeable about arrays, but his urgency to save Ouyang initially causes him to overlook where the blood is going. He recounts what he saw and admits his failed attempt could have worsened Ouyang’s condition.
• Yang Qing remains calm and methodical: he stops Pei Buji from climbing prematurely, helps Bu Er think through the clues, and connects them to the Sacrificial Tree legend.
• Pei Buji reacts fiercely to the news and immediately wants to climb up and rescue Ouyang, but waits while Bu Er explains the danger.
• Ouyang Lin remains unconscious and helpless, his life being drained as part of the apparent scheme.

Significant themes

• Blood as sacrifice and access: Ouyang’s blood appears to be the price—or “key”—needed to obtain the treasure beneath the tree.
• Knowledge versus reckless action: Understanding the arrays and the vines is essential; a direct attack could accelerate Ouyang’s death.
• Betrayal and exploitation: Someone has deliberately turned Ouyang into a tool for a hidden purpose, setting up an urgent rescue and confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Qing concludes that the group must deal with the Tree Serpents before they can safely free Ouyang Lin, but they need to act quickly because he is losing blood.
• Jiang Zhizhou climbs the tree to check on Ouyang. Ouyang is barely breathing and cannot be roused, so Jiang treats his wounds while watching for danger.
• A Tree Serpent attacks Jiang from behind. He evades it and cuts it apart, then severs its connection to the tree. The remaining serpents loosen their hold on Ouyang, suggesting the slain creature was their leader.
• Jiang uses the opening to cut through the serpent binding Ouyang’s ankles. Before he can finish, a hidden attacker ambushes him.
• Jiang anticipates the attack, captures the man, and brings him down from the tree. He orders Bu Er to free Ouyang and hands the prisoner to Pei Buji.
• Pei Buji disables the captive’s body while leaving him able to speak. Asked why he harmed Ouyang, the man refuses to explain and tells them to kill him. Pei suggests giving him a quick death, signaling that he may have another plan.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Zhizhou shows patience, vigilance, and combat skill: he treats Ouyang carefully, identifies and kills the leading Tree Serpent, then turns the attacker’s overconfidence against him.
• Ouyang Lin remains unconscious and gravely weakened, but his breathing is steady; Bu Er is tasked with freeing him.
• Yang Qing takes a measured, practical approach, prioritizing Ouyang’s condition while seeking a way to handle the serpents.
• Bu Er yields the climb to Jiang, then is directed to rescue Ouyang.
• Pei Buji restrains the prisoner and signals to Yang that the group may need to respond strategically.
• The captive remains defiant despite being caught, creating tension over whether the group will interrogate or execute him.

Significant themes

• Caution and observation: Jiang succeeds by listening closely and waiting for the right moment rather than rushing into danger.
• Restraint in rescue: The group must balance fighting the threat with protecting Ouyang, who is bound among the serpents.
• Overconfidence and reversal: The hidden attacker’s assumption that Jiang is distracted leads to his capture.
• Resolve and loyalty: Jiang and the others risk themselves to save Ouyang, while the prisoner’s refusal to yield hints at a deeper conflict.

Plot points and events

• Yang Qing and Pei Buji interrogate a captured man. When he refuses to talk, Yang Qing uses a rare powder that painfully damages his face, then bluffs that they know a treasure is buried beneath the tree.
• The man confirms there is a treasure beneath it—apparently associated with a “Sacrificial Tree”—but claims it can only be obtained by filling a bloody pit with human blood. He warns that rescuing the unconscious Ouyang Lin has doomed them all.
• The man tries to persuade the group to hang Ouyang Lin back on the tree as an offering, then offers to reveal the truth only if they let him go. Instead, he triggers a trap by striking a nearby tree.
• Jiang Zhizhou and Bu Er quickly carry Yang Qing and Ouyang Lin to safety through the branches. Tree snakes burst from the ground and seize the wounded man, pinning him to the tree and draining his blood into its grooves.
• Seeing the tree’s apparent violence, the group realizes they must leave immediately. Yang Qing orders Bu Er to carry Ouyang Lin out.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing stays composed and strategic, using a bluff to test the captive and then turning the man’s own scheme against him. He also recognizes the danger of the tree and acts decisively.
• The captive shifts from defiant silence to panic when his altered face is damaged. Though he claims not to know who sent him, his desire for the treasure is clear; he ultimately tries to betray the group and is caught by the tree.
• Pei Buji supports Yang Qing’s interrogation and uses force when the captive keeps evading questions.
• Jiang Zhizhou and Bu Er remain alert to danger and act quickly to get Yang Qing and Ouyang Lin away from the trap. Bu Er’s anger at the captive’s threat to Ouyang leads him to strike the man.
• The group’s coordinated actions show trust and quick cooperation under pressure, while their exchange over whether the tree is a “tree god” underscores their uncertainty about its nature.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and deception: Yang Qing’s bluff reveals information, but the captive’s claims remain unreliable.
• Survival and betrayal: The captive will say or do anything to preserve himself, while the group prioritizes saving Ouyang Lin.
• The cost of treasure: The supposed prize demands blood, and the tree turns the pursuit of it into a lethal threat.
• Nature as a hostile force: The tree and its snakes behave with sinister, almost supernatural purpose, leaving the group in immediate danger.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Qing and his companions flee as vast areas of forest collapse, exposing cracks in the ground and hints of something enormous—or an underground city—beneath it.
• They use falling trees to speed their escape, eventually returning to the Hard Tribe’s woodland settlement.
• The settlement is deserted. Its treehouses are still standing but look badly deteriorated, as if years have passed since they were occupied.
• Though they expect a route through the forest, they realize they have been led back toward their starting point. Once they emerge, Yang Qing suggests the forest’s strange effects may explain the settlement’s condition.
• He proposes that the Hard Tribe suffered the power of time itself—“Eternal Gaze”—and that the apparent passage of years occurred during the companions’ brief absence. He suspects this was the curse Hardway sought to escape, but leaves the explanation unconfirmed.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing shifts from uncertainty about the collapsing forest to a tentative theory linking it to the Hard Tribe’s disappearance. He explains the idea to his companions through the concept of time’s destructive power.
• Jiang Zhizhou notices that the abandoned settlement’s condition is especially unusual and helps prompt Yang Qing to share his theory.
• Bu Er questions how damage could occur without human action, then connects Yang Qing’s explanation to his earlier teaching about “Eternal Gaze.”
• The group works together to flee: Jiang Zhizhou and Pei Buji carry injured or weakened companions, while the falling forest dictates their route.

Significant themes

• Time and impermanence: The ruined settlement suggests that years may have passed in moments, reducing lives and places to remnants.
• Mystery and limited knowledge: The group cannot tell what lies beneath the forest or fully explain its effects.
• The danger of forbidden escape: The curse Hardway tried to evade may have exacted a terrible cost from the tribe.
• Life as fleeting and uncertain: The vanished people and altered landscape make existence feel dreamlike and fragile.

Key plot points and events

• Ouyang Lin remains unconscious but stable after Yang Qing gives him a Revival Pill; Jiang Zhizhou expects him to wake within a day.
• Yang Qing predicts the clearing will revert, and the group watches a forest grow back rapidly—an exact recreation of the one they had entered.
• Yang Qing explains that the forest is caught in the curse Ten Thousand Years in a Glance. The Hardway Tribe’s people repeatedly live, die, and return within its cycle, drawn into blood sacrifice.
• Hardway’s decision to act disrupted that cycle and helped the group discover the hidden underground city. Yang Qing warns that entering the forest again could trap them in its curse or expose them to the tribespeople’s schemes.
• The group chooses not to investigate the city. They take a newly appeared path away from the forest, leaving Ouyang in their care. After they depart, the underground city gives off a tremendous boom.

Character developments

• Yang Qing remains cautious and decisive, interpreting the curse and persuading the others not to risk another journey into the forest.
• Bu Er and Pei Buji are tempted by the city’s possible connection to the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom, but accept Yang Qing’s reasoning.
• Mo Beixing admits the curse is unlike anything she has encountered.
• Jiang Zhizhou tends to Ouyang and provides reassurance about his recovery.
• Hardway, though absent from the scene, is recognized as the anomaly whose refusal to accept the curse’s cycle created a chance for change.

Character interactions

• The group reacts with shock as the forest regrows before their eyes.
• Yang Qing explains the danger to Bu Er, Pei Buji, and the others, answering their questions and emphasizing the risks to the injured Ouyang.
• Jiang’s update on Ouyang’s condition helps the group decide to leave promptly rather than linger.

Significant themes

• Entrapment and repetition: The curse forces the tribe into endless cycles of life and death.
• Freedom through defiance: Hardway’s willingness to resist the cycle opens a possibility of escape.
• Caution over ambition: The group gives up the chance to explore a potentially valuable city because survival and Ouyang’s safety matter more.
• Unresolved danger: The city’s unexplained boom suggests that leaving the forest may not end the mystery.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Qing and his companions finally escape the forest, though Yang Qing suspects the sudden success may conceal a larger mystery. He remains troubled by the appearance of the supposedly long-lost Eternal Gaze curse, which had been used on the Hard Tribe centuries earlier.
• The group crosses a barren, lifeless stretch of land and reaches ruins near sunset. Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou go searching for water while Yang Qing stays with Pei Buji, Ouyang Lin, and the Holy Maiden.
• Yang Qing notices seashell fragments embedded in the ruined walls—a coastal building technique that seems inexplicable so deep in a mountain valley.
• Jiangli, Yang Qing’s small companion, insists on leading him into the ruins. Once inside, Yang Qing is cut off from all sound and realizes he has entered some kind of formation.
• Jiangli guides him to a concealed chamber hidden behind a wall. Inside is a portrait of a young-looking man. As Yang Qing examines it, the painting suddenly catches fire and burns to ashes.

Character developments

• Yang Qing remains outwardly calm but grows increasingly suspicious and alert. Rather than panic when isolated in the ruins, he recognizes the situation as a likely formation and follows Jiangli, aware that he may have little choice.
• Bu Er reflects on the uncanny events, admitting that his experiences have changed his view of ghosts, gods, and the world.
• Jiangli acts unusually purposefully and patiently, guiding Yang Qing to the hidden chamber instead of wandering off as usual.

Character interactions

• Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou take responsibility for finding water, while Pei Buji is asked to watch over Ouyang Lin and the Holy Maiden.
• Jiangli communicates with Yang Qing through gestures and persistent tugging at his robe. Yang Qing questions it, then agrees to follow.
• Inside the formation, Yang Qing is alone with Jiangli and unable to call to the others.

Significant themes

• The limits of knowledge: The curse, the forest’s sudden release, the strange ruins, and the burning portrait all deepen the mystery rather than resolve it.
• Reverence and compassion: Bu Er’s changed outlook suggests that confronting the supernatural can inspire greater respect for life and the world.
• Isolation and hidden forces: The soundless formation and concealed chamber reveal that unseen mechanisms are shaping the group’s journey.

Key plot points and events

• After Yang Qing sees a portrait in a hidden chamber, it crumbles into ashes. Jiangli dives into the ashes and retrieves a blackened thumb ring.
• Yang Qing leaves the ruins and reunites with Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and the others, who had been searching for him. To avoid being drawn back inside, he asks everyone to move away before discussing what happened.
• The group examines the ring. Mo Beixing identifies its black coating as grease and teaches Yang Qing how to remove it using sandy soil mixed with honey oil.
• Beneath the coating, they discover the ring is made of bone jade, an extremely rare material associated with the Eastern Sea and the legends of Emperor Zhetian.
• The ring bears the emblem of the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom, including an Imperial Scepter. Yang Qing wonders whether it belonged to Emperor Zhetian and how it ended up in the ruins.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Qing becomes more entangled in the mysteries surrounding the ruins. He is cautious after the strange encounter, but the ring’s emblem leaves him with more questions than answers.
• Jiangli acts as Yang Qing’s guide, leading him to the hidden chamber and retrieving the ring from the portrait’s ashes. Its motives remain unclear.
• Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou show their concern by searching urgently for Yang Qing; they are relieved when he returns unharmed.
• Mo Beixing contributes her book learning to identify and clean the ring, then suggests it has chosen Yang Qing as its master.
• The group cooperates calmly, following Yang Qing away from the ruins and examining the artifact together.

Significant themes

• Mystery and uncertainty: The portrait’s sudden destruction, Jiangli’s purpose, and the ring’s presence in the ruins remain unexplained.
• The pull of the past: The ring connects the present-day characters to Emperor Zhetian and the ancient kingdom.
• Fate and ownership: Mo Beixing’s claim that the ring has chosen Yang Qing hints at a deeper bond between him and the artifact.