Chapter Summaries

Dongfang Minghui learned that the Dongfang Family had been wiped out and met with Qin Mu to ask about her mother, but Geng Shan interrupted before Qin Mu could explain everything. After Dongfang Minghui opened her mother's sealed box and found a piece of cloth, Qian Wanyu began using Geng Shan’s feelings for Xian to draw information from him.

• Qian Wanyu left the living dead to Li Yunan and took Dongfang Minghui back to their lodging, where Lü Xing and Wood reunited with them.
• Dongfang Minghui learned that the Dongfang Family had been exterminated and that her mother was missing, while Qian Wanyu warned her that Xian might be Dongfang Lizhu in disguise.
• Qin Mu visited and apologized for Geng Shan’s attack, then arranged to meet Dongfang Minghui privately and claimed her mother had left a message about her true identity.
• Dongfang Minghui met Qin Mu at a restaurant, received a blood-sealed brocade box, and fought Geng Shan after he attacked; her companions captured him as Qin Mu left to deal with Jin Jing and Li Zhu’s escape.
• Dongfang Minghui opened the box and found a piece of white cloth, while Qian Wanyu questioned Geng Shan and offered to prevent Xian from becoming one of the living dead.

Geng Shan begged Qian Wanyu to save Sister Xian, believing she had lifesaving pills. Qian Wanyu warned that he might not agree to her conditions, and he promised to do whatever he could.

• Geng Shan asked Qian Wanyu what it would take for her to save Sister Xian.
• Qian Wanyu said Sister Xian was no relation or friend and that she had no reason to spend her pills on her.
• Geng Shan apologized for offending Qian Wanyu and begged her to save Sister Xian.
• Qian Wanyu warned that he might not agree to what she wanted him to do.
• Geng Shan said he would agree as long as it was within his power.

Qian Wanyu used Geng Shan’s memories and a staged infection to draw out the person posing as Xian, then fought and captured her outside Return Town. The captive’s real identity and the reason she targeted Dongfang Minghui remained unresolved when the group discovered that her neck bore no scratch marks.

• Xian repainted the marks on her neck to make her infection appear worse, while Qian Wanyu released Geng Shan after warning him about her condition.
• Geng Shan confessed his feelings to Xian, then watched the group stage Mu Sheng’s apparent infection and demonstrate Dongfang Minghui’s pills against the living dead poison.
• Geng Shan agreed to Qian Wanyu’s demand and submitted to a Soul Search, after which she instructed him to give Xian a pill and make her swallow it.
• Qian Wanyu disguised herself as Dongfang Minghui and met Xian, who revealed herself as a dark-type Spirit Master and attacked her with ice, illusions, and a giant Black Centipede.
• Qian Wanyu destroyed the Black Centipede, resisted Xian’s dark power and death aura, and captured her with the Water-Thunder Whip.
• Back at the inn, Bai Rou found no wound on Xian’s neck, despite the group having seen her grabbed by the living dead.

Lü Xing identified the woman as a Dark-Type Spirit Master as others discussed her healing. Xian regained enough strength to sit up, then smiled eerily at the people surrounding her.

• Lü Xing said the woman was a Dark-Type Spirit Master.
• Xian struggled to sit upright on the ground.
• Xian looked at the people surrounding and attacking her.
• Xian saw Wood behind Lü Xing and smiled eerily.

Qian Wanyu broke the formation trapping Homecoming Town, unleashing its Living Dead, and led her group toward the gate. Xian seized Dongfang Minghui as a hostage and began making a strange sound just as they reached safety.

• Qian Wanyu concealed Xian from Qin Mu, while Dongfang Minghui learned that her mother had warned her not to return to the Dongfang Family or investigate her origins.
• Qian Wanyu confronted Xian about her connection to Murong Qingyi and the attacks on Dongfang Minghui, but Qing Mo warned that Soul Search could trigger a deadly suggestion in Xian's soul sea.
• Qian Wanyu and Li Yunan found a Yin-Yang Mirror beneath the streambed and removed it, breaking the formation and awakening the Living Dead throughout Homecoming Town.
• Dongfang Minghui, Bai Rou, Lü Xing, Wood, and the others defended the courtyard until Qian Wanyu and Li Yunan returned, then fought their way toward the town gate with Xian captive.
• Xian grabbed Dongfang Minghui by the throat near the gate and threatened to kill her, then began making a piercing, strange sound as Qian Wanyu and the others faced her.

Please provide the full chapter text. I only received the line “It turned crimson,” which isn’t enough to summarize the plot, characters, themes, or interactions.

Dongfang Minghui was abducted by Wood after Xian used death aura and a piercing call to control him, while Qian Wanyu and Lü Xing were gravely injured trying to protect her. As Qian Wanyu’s group searched the Purple Wolf Empire for a lead, Dongfang Minghui recovered in Wood’s care and learned they were in a remote town, where she began trying to discover his destination.

• Wood attacked Qian Wanyu, and Xian tried to capture Dongfang Minghui, who escaped into a grove with Lü Xing as death aura withered the plants.
• Qian Wanyu fought Xian and Wood; Dongfang Minghui took a claw strike meant for Lü Xing, and Lü Xing later took another blow meant for Qian Wanyu.
• Wood fled with Xian and the unconscious Dongfang Minghui, then abandoned Xian and carried Dongfang Minghui to a house, where she recovered.
• Qian Wanyu’s group treated their injuries, purged the living dead from Return Town, and learned that Wood had taken Dongfang Minghui away.
• Lü Xing mapped the routes he had traveled with Wood, and Qian Wanyu led the group into the Purple Wolf Empire to search for Dongfang Minghui.
• Dongfang Minghui healed and followed Wood outside to learn their location, discovering they were in a remote town in the Purple Wolf Empire.

Qian Wanyu and her companions reached Dream Capital while searching for Dongfang Minghui, who was being carried around the city by Wood. Wood unexpectedly brought Dongfang Minghui into the Thousand Family’s forbidden back mountain, while Qian Wanyu’s group found the empty house where she had stayed and realized they had once again arrived too late.

• Qian Wanyu’s party rested in a ruined temple, where Qian Zhuoqian’s Thousand Travel House party arrived and Aunt Fang noticed Qian Wanyu resembled the Thousand Family’s fourth miss.
• Dongfang Minghui tried to explore Dream Capital with Wood, disguised his face with makeup, left Thieving Hand marks around the city, and met a young woman who felt familiar with Wood.
• After Dongfang Minghui failed to obtain samples from Wood, he carried her through mountain ranges overnight and entered the Thousand Family’s back mountain, injuring guards who tried to stop him.
• Qian Wanyu and her companions reached Dream Capital and followed Dongfang Minghui’s marks from Li Yunan’s family inn to a secluded house.
• Qian Wanyu found Dongfang Minghui’s symbol on the house door, but the house was empty, with her belongings still scattered inside.

Lü Xing reassured Mu Sheng and Wan Yu that Wood and the others would return soon. The group waited after Lü Xing noticed that some things had been left out.

• Lü Xing smiled and said the others would be back.
• Mu Sheng picked up a box of lubricating oil, opened it, and sniffed it.
• Lü Xing reasoned that Wood had only stepped out because he had left things lying around.
• Lü Xing told Wan Yu not to worry and suggested they wait longer.

Dongfang Minghui and Wood forced their way through the Thousand Family Back Mountain, broke its formation, and were recognized by Qian Zihang as his missing eldest brother. While staying at the Thousand Family residence, Dongfang Minghui slipped out with Qian Zhuoyin and discovered that Seventh Sister and Lü Xing had arrived in Dream Capital.

• Dongfang Minghui and Wood fought their way to the Fourth Peak, where Pig Immortal Grass explained the formation and Wood helped capture its leader, Zi Xiao, breaking the eighty-one-person formation.
• Qian Zihang recognized Wood as his missing eldest brother and brought him and Dongfang Minghui to the Thousand Family residence, while Qian Zhuoqian ordered them watched.
• Dongfang Minghui staged a private conversation with Wood to mislead the watchers, then met Qian Zhuoyin, who had disguised herself as Qian Zhuoqian.
• Dongfang Minghui persuaded Qian Zhuoyin to take them into Dream Capital and used a chance during their outing to leave a mark for Seventh Sister and Lü Xing.
• Dongfang Minghui found Seventh Sister's mark confirming that she and Lü Xing had reached Dream Capital, then pretended to browse a vendor's miniature zithers when Qian Zhuoyin returned.

Dongfang Minghui and Qian Ziyan returned to the Thousand Family with Qian Zhuoqian, while Minghui insisted that Qian Zhuoyin accompany them. Word spread through the Dream Capital that Qian Ziyan, missing for nearly twenty years, had come back.

• Dongfang Minghui complained that the shopkeeper had overcharged her after she bought a zither.
• Qian Zhuoyin found Dongfang Minghui and Qian Ziyan and warned them that Qian Zhuoqian's people had arrived.
• Qian Zhuoqian apologized for her younger sister and asked Qian Ziyan and Dongfang Minghui to return with her.
• Dongfang Minghui praised Qian Zhuoyin and asked Qian Zhuoqian to let her accompany them.
• Bystanders recognized Qian Ziyan, and news of his return spread through the Dream Capital to the other three great Lineages.

Dongfang Minghui and Qian Wanyu reunited at the Thousand residence, where the old madam learned that Wood was her son Qian Ziyan and recognized Qian Wanyu as her granddaughter. Qian Wanyu declared she would reclaim Qian Yiling’s place in the family and demanded a chance to compete for the heirs’ trial in three months.

• Li Yunan told Qian Wanyu and the others that he suspected Wood was Qian Ziyan, and they planned to visit the Thousand family to find Dongfang Minghui.
• Dongfang Minghui told the old madam that Qian Ziyan had become a Living Dead, and the old madam agreed to protect their secret and leave his care to her.
• Qian Wanyu entered the Thousand residence disguised as Li Yunan’s guard and reunited with Dongfang Minghui, but the old madam struck her before recognizing her as Qian Yiling’s daughter.
• Dongfang Minghui examined Qian Wanyu’s injuries while the old madam allowed her to stay and recover at the residence.
• Qian Wanyu told the old madam she had returned to reclaim her mother’s place and demanded to compete for entry into the Thousand family’s trial peaks in three months.

Qian Wanyu showed the old madam that she had awakened spiritual power in three elements and was a tri-element Spirit Master. She also recalled Qing Mo’s claim that she possessed a rare five-element spirit body.

• The old madam examined Qian Wanyu and identified her as a tri-element Spirit Master, like her mother.
• Qian Wanyu displayed her earthen, violet, and wind-element spiritual power.
• Qian Wanyu recalled Qing Mo saying that she had a true five-element spirit body, a rarity seen once in a hundred years.

Qian Wanyu and her friends settled into the Thousand Family’s Small Courtyard to prepare for the Nine Peaks qualification assessment, while Dongfang Minghui sought ways to free Wood from the living dead poison and sound-wave control. Qian Zhuoqian learned that Qian Wanyu might be Qian Yiling’s daughter and vowed to oppose her before the Three-Month Trial.

• Qian Wanyu rejected the old madam’s offer to house her friends separately and invited them to train with her for the Thousand Family Back Mountain assessment.
• Situ Hao tested Wood with the Light Element Eye, but Wood kicked him across the courtyard, and Dongfang Minghui explained that Xian could no longer control Wood for now.
• Dongfang Minghui asked Lü Xing to collect a piece of Wood’s flesh, and he cut a sample that Wood allowed him to take; the sample later rotted and released black sap that she collected in potion bottles.
• Dongfang Minghui learned that the Mo Family might possess the prescription that could counter sound-wave control, while Qian Wanyu promised to search for it through Rose Tower’s network.
• Dongfang Minghui exposed Qian Zhuoqian’s disguise as Qian Zhuoyin, then Qian Zhuoqian learned that Qian Wanyu might be Qian Yiling’s daughter and resolved to stop her from succeeding in the trial.

• Plot: Qian Zhuoqian gets an idea and calls Aunt Fang over to share what she describes as a good plan.
• Character development: The ruthless glint in Qian Zhuoqian’s eyes suggests her plan may be calculating or intended to harm someone.
• Character interaction: Qian Zhuoqian takes the lead, summoning Aunt Fang as a confidante or collaborator.
• Themes: The passage hints at scheming and the potential misuse of power, though the plan itself is not yet revealed.

Dongfang Minghui learned from the Dream Seer how she might resolve the conflict with the Mo family and obtain the prescription, then set out for the Blood Baleful Alliance with five guards. After she and her party fell into a trap in Heartless Valley, Qian Wanyu’s suppressed dark-type spiritual power ran wild, and Mu Sheng went to seek the Old Madam’s help but was intercepted by Aunt Fang.

• Dongfang Minghui learned that Mo Lu’s anger stemmed partly from having no heir and that finding the woman who had secretly borne his child could ease the conflict with the Thousand Family.
• Dongfang Minghui told the Old Madam she had a lead on the prescription and requested five people to protect her while she searched for the assassin who had found Mo Lu’s child.
• Qian Wanyu gave Dongfang Minghui the Rose Tower summons token and an Elf Clan favor token before seeing her depart for Heartless Valley with Cai Qing and five guards.
• Dongfang Minghui collected venomous creatures in the dark forest, then triggered a concealed trap that dropped her, Cai Qing, and the others underground.
• Qian Wanyu’s dark-type spiritual power surged out of control, and her attempt to suppress it with the Essence of Thunder ruptured her meridians and left her bleeding from all seven orifices.
• Mu Sheng hurried to find the Old Madam for help, but Aunt Fang stopped him and offered to guide him to the Old Madam’s courtyard.

Qian Wanyu survived her advancement, discovered that her elemental powers could blend together, and left Qian Zhuoqian trapped in a deadly formation. Meanwhile, Dongfang Minghui and her companions explored the Ten Thousand Poison Grotto, where they found a strange plant with deep roots.

• Qian Wanyu lured Aunt Fang into the woods, killed her with death aura, and absorbed her wind-element spiritual power before hiding in a cave to advance.
• Qian Zhuoqian led Thousand Family guards into Qing Mo's formation, where she attacked a guard while the others turned on one another; Qian Wanyu later broke through to Level One Spirit Master and noticed her spiritual powers had blended.
• Qian Wanyu gave an advancement elixir to the Bear Beast, then left the woods as the beast's cultivation surged and it roared behind her.
• Dongfang Minghui and Cai Qing's group fell into the Ten Thousand Poison Grotto, collected its maggots, and used venom-coated Teething Sticks to incapacitate giant rats.
• Dongfang Minghui found a green plant growing among the corpses, began digging up its extensive roots, and asked Little Lecher what it was.

Cai Qing and the others were caught by man-eating grass as living threads wrapped around them. The group was left bound like giant rice dumplings.

• Cai Qing and the others warned that the grass was man-eating.
• Living threads wound around their hands and feet.
• The threads swiftly wrapped each of them into a giant rice dumpling.

Dongfang Minghui and Cai Qing’s group escaped a man-eating grass in a pit and reached the Blood Baleful Alliance, where Dongfang Minghui asked Wei Junlan to help find Mo Lu’s son through the imprisoned assassin White-Clad Guest. Their plan to draw out the adopted child exposed an unknown attacker, and Dongfang Minghui was wounded while preventing him from taking White-Clad Guest.

• Little Lecher devoured the man-eating grass’s threads, freed Cai Qing and the others, and led them out of the cave onto a peak overlooking the Blood Baleful Alliance headquarters.
• Dongfang Minghui met Wei Junlan and asked him to help locate He Lu’s son, who might have been among the orphans supported by White-Clad Guest.
• Wei Junlan learned that White-Clad Guest had been imprisoned five years earlier for leaking an assignment, and he and Dongfang Minghui planned to lure the assassin’s adopted child by staging White-Clad Guest’s execution.
• Dongfang Minghui and Wei Junlan waited in prison, where an unknown swordsman attacked White-Clad Guest and died by poison after Wei Junlan subdued him.
• Dongfang Minghui realized the dead attacker had been a Death Warrior, then confronted another swordsman trying to take White-Clad Guest and suffered a wound to her arm.
• Wei Junlan left the Council Hall after learning Dongfang Minghui had been injured and hurried to her.

Dongfang Minghui exposed Bai Xuan as the assassin who had attacked her and schemed against Wei Junlan, then left the Blood Baleful Alliance with Wei Junlan. On the way back, she saved Cass and his Beastfolk companions from masked attackers, and she returned to the Small Courtyard just as Qian Wanyu appeared.

• Dongfang Minghui persuaded Wei Junlan to issue a Red Mist kill order, selected more than a hundred assassins, and identified Bai Xuan as the attacker by the scent of her sedative.
• Bai Xuan attacked Dongfang Minghui, but she stopped him by claiming to know his background, and the Grand Elder had him captured.
• Dongfang Minghui left the Blood Baleful Alliance for the Thousand Family, bringing Wei Junlan along despite regretting his matchmaking schemes.
• Dongfang Minghui and her companions joined Wei Junlan to investigate a battle and helped defeat masked attackers who had surrounded Cass and five other Beastfolk.
• Cass thanked Dongfang Minghui, offered himself in marriage, and gave her a tooth necklace before leaving with his companions.
• Dongfang Minghui returned to the Small Courtyard with Wei Junlan, where Qian Wanyu appeared and asked who had offered themselves in marriage.