Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen tries to get Zi Hanyan to react to him by coughing louder and louder, then pretending to be on the verge of tears. Instead of confronting him for having seen her naked, Zi Hanyan assumes he has a cold and offers him medicine.
• Zi admits the drink contains a laxative—then Qian Rumo emerges and reveals it actually contains urea. Jun Wangchen, trying to look noble and remorseful, declares he will accept the punishment and drinks it anyway.
• The foul taste sends him rushing to the bathroom to vomit. Qian laughs at him, while Zi scolds her and helps the shaken Jun back to the sofa.
• After Zi apologizes, Jun turns the incident into another elaborate speech about correcting his emotional flaws. He asks whether she likes him flawed or flawless. When she says she prefers him without flaws, he claims this proves she likes him. Zi realizes he has tricked her and turns red.

Character developments

• Jun Wangchen remains shameless, theatrical, and quick-witted. He uses self-mockery, grand romantic declarations, and wordplay to steer an embarrassing situation to his advantage—even when his bravado leads him to drink the contaminated medicine.
• Zi Hanyan shows kindness and concern despite Jun’s earlier invasion of her privacy, but also participates in—or tolerates—a prank. She feels guilty afterward and is increasingly flustered by Jun’s teasing.
• Qian Rumo acts as the mischievous instigator and audience, delighting in Jun’s suffering until Zi rebukes her.

Significant themes

• Comedy through deception and misunderstanding: Jun’s exaggerated performance, Zi’s mistaken interpretation of his coughing, and the misleading “cold medicine” drive the scene.
• Flirtation and embarrassment: Jun exploits Zi’s concern and candid answer to turn an apology into a teasing confession.
• Consequences and accountability: Jun acknowledges that he wronged Zi, though he treats the situation less seriously than the prank and his own comic performance warrant.

Character interactions

• Jun repeatedly tries to provoke a response from Zi; she responds with practical care rather than anger.
• Qian exposes the prank and laughs at Jun, prompting Zi to defend him and later apologize.
• Jun uses a leading question to draw a revealing answer from Zi, then teases her for it, leaving her embarrassed and accusing him of trickery.

Plot points and events

• Zi Hanyan grows flustered around Jun Wangchen, reflecting on how deeply she likes him since he saved her in the woods. She believes he is exceptional and worries he may be beyond her reach unless she takes the initiative.
• Jun Wangchen misunderstands her feelings, jokingly boasts about his own appeal, and fails to realize she skipped dinner hoping to eat with him.
• He offers to cook and makes Knife-Shaved Noodles for Zi Hanyan and Qian Rumo. Both enjoy them greatly; Qian Rumo is especially impressed and finishes her bowl despite having already eaten.
• Jun Wangchen repeatedly turns “skills down below” into a cheeky double entendre. Zi Hanyan understands the innuendo and gets embarrassed, while Qian Rumo remains confused.
• After dinner, the group relaxes in front of the television. At eight o’clock, Zifeng Town and Shen Yu return to the villa, accompanied by Brother Eight and a crowd of subordinates.

Character developments and interactions

• Zi Hanyan is shown to be genuinely in love with Jun Wangchen, though his teasing and obliviousness leave her alternately flustered and exasperated.
• Jun Wangchen comes across as confident, playful, and exceptionally skilled at cooking, but comically insensitive to romantic hints.
• Qian Rumo acts as a blunt observer, pointing out Zi Hanyan’s feelings and scolding Jun Wangchen for missing them. She also becomes an enthusiastic admirer of his cooking, though she misses the innuendo between him and Zi Hanyan.
• The trio’s meal brings them together in a warm, teasing domestic scene, setting a lighthearted tone before the arrivals at the end.

Significant themes

• Unspoken affection and romantic misunderstanding: Zi Hanyan’s feelings are clear to the reader and Qian Rumo, but not to Jun Wangchen.
• Playful double meanings: The noodle-making jokes create humor through Zi Hanyan’s understanding and Qian Rumo’s innocent confusion.
• Food as care and connection: Jun Wangchen’s cooking turns a skipped dinner into a shared, enjoyable moment.

Key plot points

• Zi Hanyan, Qian Rumo, and Jun Wangchen return safely to the villa after Jun defeats the attackers sent to assassinate Rumo. Zifeng Town orders guards to search the grounds and remain alert.
• Jun warns Zifeng Town that Tian Ba likely has informants inside his organization, since he knew which people were going to the Contest. Zifeng admits he had suspected this but kept the spies under watch to gather information; the attack convinces him he misjudged the risk.
• Zifeng asks Jun to help protect the villa overnight, then probes whether Jun might become Zi Hanyan’s boyfriend. Jun says he likes her but will not rush into a relationship.
• Meanwhile, Tian Ba celebrates with West District boss Wei and claims his men will eliminate Zifeng’s Contest participants that night. The surviving Curly-Haired Woman arrives and reports that Jun killed the rest of the attacking group.
• Tian Ba recognizes Jun as the fighter who previously drove him away and realizes the Curly-Haired Woman’s survival is suspicious. He throws her from the rooftop; she explodes below, confirming she was apparently an explosive trap or planted threat. Tian Ba blames Jun and vows revenge.

Character developments and interactions

• Jun Wangchen remains composed and protective, offering strategic advice to Zifeng and agreeing to guard the villa. His respectful answer about Zi Hanyan suggests interest, but also caution.
• Zi Hanyan grows visibly flustered when her mother hints at Jun as a romantic prospect. She dodges the teasing by inviting her mother and Rumo upstairs.
• Zifeng Town is grateful to Jun and increasingly sees him as both a trusted ally and a potential partner for his daughter.
• Tian Ba shifts from confident scheming to anger and suspicion after learning his attack failed. His immediate decision to expose the Curly-Haired Woman shows his ruthlessness.
• Qian Rumo openly praises Jun’s fighting and even his cooking, while Shen Yu joins the family’s teasing about his appeal.

Significant themes

• Trust and infiltration: Tian Ba’s knowledge of Zifeng’s plans suggests a traitor within the organization.
• Protection and loyalty: Jun’s defense of the women and willingness to guard the villa reinforce his role as a dependable ally.
• Romance and restraint: The family’s matchmaking hints at a possible relationship, while Jun insists that intimacy and commitment should be mutual and not rushed.
• Escalating danger and revenge: The failed assassination deepens the conflict between Jun and Tian Ba, setting up the Contest as a potentially violent confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen reads the Strongest Chat Group in History, where King Qin Guang asks for help wooing a woman. The members offer crude, disastrous pickup lines.
• Jun sends King Qin Guang an online pickup manual. Qin Guang is amazed by it and thanks him enthusiastically, but admits he has spent all his merit points on gifts.
• Jun asks for 500 merit points so he can afford a Void Teleportation Talisman. Qin Guang instead offers to apply for the points if Jun works for an hour as Meng Po’s ghost messenger assistant.
• Curious about the Underworld and needing the points, Jun agrees. Qin Guang sends him a Soul-Separation Pill and a Contract Curse Technique.
• Jun separates his soul from his body, recites the technique, and is transported to the Underworld. Carrying the Envoy Token, he passes through the Ghost Gate and travels along the Yellow Springs Road, past the River of Forgetfulness and the Bridge of Helplessness, to Meng Po Pavilion.
• The chapter ends as the curtain rises to reveal Meng Po’s face.

Character developments and interactions

• Jun Wangchen is amused by the chat group’s antics and willing to help Qin Guang, but his practical need for merit points and curiosity lead him to take a job in the Underworld.
• King Qin Guang is earnest and excitable about romance. He values Jun’s help, though he cannot pay him directly because he has spent his savings courting his crush.
• The chat group members display their bawdy humor through increasingly outrageous romantic advice. Jun privately reacts with mock disgust, especially to an anonymous woman’s explicit message.

Significant themes

• Comedy and irreverence: The solemn figures of the Underworld participate in crude modern chat-group banter.
• Romance and courtship: Qin Guang’s clumsy efforts to woo someone prompt the chapter’s central joke and Jun’s assistance.
• Exchange and obligation: Jun’s help leads to a practical opportunity to earn the merit points he needs.
• Worlds colliding: Modern online life and the supernatural Underworld meet through chat, pills, tokens, and magical transport.

Key plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen arrives to apply for work as a Ghost Messenger Assistant and meets Meng Po, whose beauty leaves him flustered.
• Meng Po assigns him three tasks, revealing each one only after the previous is completed. His first task is to help four “living dead” on the upper level of the Bridge of Helplessness return to the Mortal Realm by resolving the questions that keep their souls wandering there.
• Meng Po explains that the living dead are living people whose souls enter the Underworld while they sleep, either because they can see ghosts or because they have an overpowering obsession. Their presence disrupts the bridge’s orderly queues.
• She opens Jun’s ghost eye so he can see the bridge’s three levels and identify the living dead, who appear in green among the upper-level ghosts.
• Jun pulls the first living dead woman, Zhou Xin, out of the queue and reads her memories by touching her forehead. She has spent years searching for her deceased boyfriend, unable to accept that she cannot see him.
• Jun tells her that her boyfriend has been beside her, protecting her. The answer restores her awareness, allowing her to see his smiling ghost beside her.

Character developments

• Jun Wangchen moves from confusion and nervousness to taking on his first duty with confidence. He quickly understands how to use his ability to uncover someone’s memories and address their emotional need.
• Meng Po is introduced as both strikingly beautiful and practical. She patiently explains the Underworld’s rules and gives Jun a manageable assignment because of his connection to King Qin Guang.
• Zhou Xin shifts from a vacant, repetitive state to a brief moment of clarity when she realizes her boyfriend is still with her.

Significant themes

• Grief and unresolved attachment: Zhou Xin’s inability to accept her boyfriend’s death has trapped her soul in a cycle of searching.
• Compassionate service: Jun’s work is less about enforcing rules than understanding people and helping them find emotional closure.
• Order versus disruption: The living dead interfere with the Underworld’s process, making Jun’s intervention necessary.
• Love that endures: Zhou Xin’s boyfriend’s continued presence suggests that care and devotion persist beyond death.

Character interactions

• Meng Po guides Jun through the Underworld’s systems and explains his responsibilities.
• Jun approaches Zhou Xin by first investigating her memories, then offers an explanation that speaks directly to her grief.
• Zhou Xin challenges his claim before recognizing her boyfriend beside her, turning Jun’s reassurance into a moment of reunion.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen continues helping the “living dead” souls on the Bridge of Helplessness recover the truths that keep them troubled.
• Liang Li, a 30-year-old woman, remembers her boyfriend as a coward who abandoned her during a shipwreck. In the past, after their boat was destroyed by a hurricane, he pushed her away and swam toward a rescue ship while sharks approached.
• Jun searches her memories and learns the boyfriend had actually cut his wrist to draw the sharks’ attention, giving Liang Li time to escape. He died in the process. Jun explains this, and Liang Li’s confusion turns to grief and remorse before she fades away.
• Xia Wenrou, an 18-year-old girl, wonders why her boyfriend gave her a 100-yuan note ending in “52” and forbade her to spend it unless he found one ending in “520.”
• Jun explains that her boyfriend used the note as a way to know when she had run out of money, since she never told him directly. Xia understands, smiles, and disappears.

Character developments

• Jun Wangchen remains compassionate and perceptive, using the souls’ memories to uncover hidden motives. Liang Li’s story leaves him reflective, while Xia’s brings out his playful, romantic side.
• Liang Li moves from bitterness and disbelief about her boyfriend to painful understanding of his sacrifice.
• Xia Wenrou shifts from quiet puzzlement to recognition of her boyfriend’s understated care, ending in a peaceful smile.
• Both women’s boyfriends are revealed as more loving than their actions initially suggested: one sacrifices himself openly, the other expresses care through a private, practical gesture.

Significant themes

• Love hidden beneath apparent flaws or misunderstandings: People may mistake fear, silence, or awkward behavior for indifference or cowardice.
• Sacrifice and protection: Liang Li’s boyfriend risks his life to save her.
• Small acts of care: Xia’s boyfriend finds a way to support her without requiring her to ask.
• Understanding before judgment: Recovering the truth transforms both women’s final feelings.

Character interactions

• Jun physically struggles with Liang Li after she bites him, then gently but firmly corrects her mistaken belief about her boyfriend.
• Jun responds to Xia’s question by interpreting the meaning behind her boyfriend’s unusual banknote rule. Xia’s gentle gesture of wiping Jun’s sweat, and her final smile, soften the interaction and close the chapter on a tender note.

Chapter Summary

Plot and key events

• Jun Wangchen approaches the final ghost in the line, Muku Yiwu, a shy twelve-year-old girl who asks three times whether she can see her dead parents again.
• When Jun tries to read her memories, he finds them sealed. By looking instead at her recent experiences, he discovers an essay describing her father’s death, her mother’s illness and death, and the meals she continues to leave at her mother’s grave.
• Her memories also reveal her difficult life: poverty, a remote mountain village, a dangerous walk to a severely under-resourced school, and household responsibilities that fall on her after her mother’s death.
• Jun tells Muku that her parents remain with her in the river of time and still want her to study and keep living. She accepts his reassurance, makes a promise to persevere, and returns with a smile.
• Though Jun completes his task as a Ghost Messenger Assistant, Muku’s story leaves him wrestling with the nature of suffering. He resolves to oppose the world’s “curse” of desire and bring light to those living in hardship.

Character development and interactions

• Muku is grieving and lonely, yet remains optimistic, determined, and committed to her education. Her repeated question exposes her longing for her parents; Jun’s answer gives her renewed comfort and hope.
• Jun moves from sympathy and grief to a firm moral resolve. He listens closely to Muku, recognizes the burdens she carries, and makes a little-finger promise with her that she will not give up.
• Their exchange is gentle and protective: Jun offers reassurance, while Muku trusts him enough to accept his promise and leave believing her parents are still beside her.

Significant themes

• Grief and consolation: The chapter addresses a child’s loss and the ways memory, love, and belief can sustain the living.
• Poverty and unequal opportunity: Muku’s hardships reveal the material conditions behind her resilience, including unsafe travel, scarce resources, and inadequate schooling.
• Suffering and responsibility: Jun rejects the idea that hardship is noble or inherently worthwhile, arguing that people often endure it because they lack a way out.
• Hope and moral purpose: Muku’s determination inspires Jun to turn his sorrow into a commitment to confront injustice and bring light to others.

Plot points

• Jun Wangchen recovers from the emotional impact of his first assignment and begins his second: find three ghosts on the Bridge of Helplessness whose good deeds outweighed their bad, then fulfill their final wishes.
• His first target is Jiang Qiaoyu, an eighteen-year-old who initially rejects him and insults his appearance. She recounts how she died in a car accident and secretly stayed with her boyfriend, hoping to comfort him.
• After her boyfriend agrees to meet a younger dance student who has confessed her feelings, Jiang Qiaoyu leaves the living world and returns to the Underworld, believing she has nothing left to hold on to.
• Jun points out that she still has a final wish. She reluctantly admits she wants to know whether her boyfriend will accept the younger girl.
• Jun takes Jiang Qiaoyu to the lakeside where the pair are meeting. She climbs onto the younger woman’s back in anger, but her boyfriend gently rejects the student, saying he still loves Jiang.
• He reveals that he has sensed Jiang’s presence all along: he felt her cling to him, sleep beside him, and even felt her icy tears on his shoulder. Jiang realizes she was never forgotten.

Character developments and interactions

• Jun Wangchen is increasingly affected by the ghosts’ suffering, but remains determined to carry out his work. Though Jiang’s insults frustrate him, he patiently listens and helps her confront her final uncertainty.
• Jiang Qiaoyu shifts from bitterness and jealousy to stunned relief and grief when she learns her boyfriend still loves her. Her attachment to him reflects her devotion, but also her inability to let go.
• The boyfriend initially appears to be moving on, but his rejection of the younger student and his intimate knowledge of Jiang’s presence reveal his continued love and awareness.
• The younger student confesses her feelings but accepts the boyfriend’s rejection and leaves.

Significant themes

• Grief and letting go: Jiang’s lingering presence comes from love and fear of being forgotten; the encounter gives her emotional closure.
• Love beyond death: The boyfriend’s continued connection to Jiang suggests that affection can endure even when the living and dead cannot communicate directly.
• Misunderstanding and appearances: Jiang interprets the boyfriend’s meeting as betrayal, while he has in fact remained faithful.
• Compassion and duty: Jun’s role is not merely to complete tasks, but to listen and help the dead resolve what still binds them to life.

Key plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen watches Jiang Qiaoyu reunite tenderly with her boyfriend after helping fulfill her final wish. He lets her remain with him for one more day before she must return to the Underworld, drink Meng Po’s Soup, and reincarnate.
• Back on the Bridge of Helplessness, Jun meets Gu Haoran, a scholar who died through treachery. Despite his resentment, Gu’s final wish is not revenge: he asks Jun to add the white sugar he brought to his wife’s Meng Po Soup, because she cannot bear bitterness. Jun accepts the box and reflects on the depth of Gu’s love.
• Jun then approaches Li Chuan, a nineteen-year-old student who died by suicide after taking poison. Li expresses anger and despair about being born into his family, saying he would rather never have existed.
• Jun invites Li to sit and talk, explaining that he can fulfill one final wish. Li agrees to speak, and admits his family drove him to suicide. The chapter ends just as he is about to explain why.

Character developments

• Jun Wangchen shows compassion and patience, allowing Jiang extra time with her boyfriend and treating Li gently rather than pressuring him. Gu’s small, loving request moves him.
• Gu Haoran is revealed as devoted and selfless: even after a wrongful death, his concern is for his wife’s comfort.
• Li Chuan appears deeply wounded and resentful, yet unusually lucid in the Underworld. He begins to trust Jun enough to discuss his family.

Significant themes

• Love and letting go: Jiang and Gu’s stories portray love as both a reason to stay and a final act of care before parting.
• Grief and remembrance: The living must eventually move on, while the dead seek closure before reincarnation.
• Family harm and despair: Li’s death introduces the damage that family relationships can inflict and raises questions about choice, birth, and belonging.
• Compassionate listening: Jun’s willingness to hear Li’s story suggests that understanding may be essential to fulfilling a final wish.

Character interactions

• Jun gives Jiang and her boyfriend a final day together, balancing her request with the limits of his ghost spell.
• Gu entrusts Jun with the sugar for his wife’s soup; Jun accepts without judgment.
• Jun approaches Li with an offer to help, then gently asks about his suicide. Li initially resists but eventually sits with him and confirms that his family was the cause.

Chapter Summary

Key events: Li Chuan recounts how his childhood was shaped by harsh discipline, frequent beatings, relentless academic pressure, and parents who dismissed his feelings. Even when he excelled at school, his achievements brought criticism or broken promises rather than encouragement. Feeling trapped, emotionally numb, and unable to find meaning in life, he eventually died by suicide. On the Bridge of Helplessness, Jun Wangchen listens to his story and asks about his final wish. Li Chuan asks him to tell others what happened so parents might stop using violence and emotional harm to raise their children. Jun vows to honor that request.
Character developments and interactions: Li Chuan begins by describing his pain with bitter anger, but Jun’s recognition of how his parents ignored his emotional needs finally makes him feel understood. He breaks down crying, then leaves with a genuine, relieved smile after Jun promises to share his story. Jun, in turn, moves beyond simply completing his task: he feels sorrow and responsibility, and sees Li Chuan’s final wish as an act of kindness toward other children.
Themes: The chapter condemns physical punishment, emotional abuse, and parenting that values achievement over a child’s humanity. It emphasizes how family relationships can shape a person’s self-worth and lasting happiness, and how parents may intend love yet express it in ways that cause deep harm. Its central idea is captured by the line: “Our parents wait for us to say thank you; we wait for them to say sorry.”

Key plot points and events

• With his first two assignments complete, Jun Wangchen receives Meng Po’s third task: make the sinner Zheng Jiajie recognize his wrongdoing and cleanse himself of his sins.
• Jun finds Zheng on the Bridge of Helplessness’s lowest, most oppressive level. Zheng dismisses his past as irrelevant now that he is dead and refuses to reflect on it.
• Jun warns that an incomplete soul cannot reincarnate, then uses his authority—and hellfire—to force Zheng to confront his life. The fire causes intense pain but does not destroy his soul.
• Under the pressure, Zheng recalls a pattern of misconduct dating back to childhood: lying, fighting, theft, extorting schoolchildren, and stealing to support his drug habit. He admits he was “human garbage,” but still does not understand his deepest sin.
• A simple bracelet on Zheng’s wrist triggers tears and a powerful sense of grief and regret. Jun tells him that this anguish points to his true sin, and a memory begins to surface. The chapter ends before it is revealed.

Character developments

• Jun Wangchen recognizes that his work in the Underworld has become more than a task for merit points: it has exposed him to human cruelty and suffering. He acts with growing confidence, using threats and hellfire to make Zheng face his past.
• Zheng Jiajie shifts from defiant indifference to fear, then to painful self-recognition. He acknowledges his repeated wrongdoing, but his emotional response to the bracelet suggests a deeper, still-unrevealed source of guilt.

Significant themes

• Accountability after death: Dying does not erase the harm a person caused in life.
• The roots of wrongdoing: Zheng’s history shows misconduct accumulating from childhood into addiction and exploitation.
• Recognition versus punishment: Hellfire can force Zheng to remember, but true remorse emerges only when he confronts the emotional meaning of his past.
• Fairness and moral judgment: Zheng objects that worse criminals seem to pass onward without consequence, raising questions about how sin is judged.

Character interactions

• Zheng initially mocks and dismisses Jun, insisting that his past no longer matters.
• Jun confronts him directly, threatens to prevent his reincarnation, and uses hellfire to push him toward honest reflection.
• Zheng’s resentment toward Jun gradually gives way to confusion, grief, and regret; Jun repeatedly guides him toward understanding that his worst sin may be more than the crimes he first admits.

Key plot points and events

• A vision reveals Zheng Jiajie as a child: his father spends 200 yuan on a Buddhist bracelet to protect him. Though it saves Jiajie from danger several times, it cannot steer him away from a life of violence and crime.
• As an adult, Jiajie becomes a drug addict who exploits and abuses his parents. Jun Wangchen identifies him in the vision as “human garbage,” then shows him the consequences of his behavior.
• Jiajie’s parents wait years without knowing whether he is alive. Drug dealers arrive to collect more than 200,000 yuan he owes and threaten to destroy the family home.
• Jiajie’s father refuses to leave, insisting that his son must still have a home if he ever returns. He and his wife sell a kidney and spinal-cord tissue to pay the debt.
• Their health deteriorates. Jiajie’s mother dies, followed by his father, who dies alone at home still waiting for his son. The debt collectors later give the father a funeral, respecting his devotion and strength.

Character development

• Zheng Jiajie: The vision confronts him with the contrast between his parents’ love and his own cruelty and destructive choices. His life is presented as a tragic failure to honor their sacrifices.
• Zheng Jiaye, his father: Shown as patient, steadfast, and self-sacrificing. Even after being beaten and impoverished, he protects the possibility that his son might come home.
• Jiajie’s mother: Shares her husband’s grief and sacrifices her health to pay her son’s debt; she dies before he returns.
• Jun Wangchen: Serves as the stern guide who reveals Jiajie’s past and forces him to face its consequences.

Significant themes

• Parental love and sacrifice: Jiajie’s parents give up their health, security, and ultimately their lives for him.
• Regret and consequences: The vision exposes how his choices devastate the people who love him.
• The limits of protection: The bracelet can shield Jiajie from physical danger, but it cannot change his character or choices.
• Home, hope, and abandonment: Jiajie’s father keeps the house because he cannot bear the thought of his son returning to nowhere.
• Moral judgment and compassion: Even the debt collectors recognize the father’s dignity, while the neighbors pity the family but cannot ease its suffering.

Character interactions

• Jiajie’s father comforts and protects him in childhood, while Jiajie responds with contempt and later abuses his parents.
• The debt collectors threaten and beat the father, but his resolve to preserve a home for Jiajie remains unchanged.
• Neighbors urge the parents to flee and offer sympathy, yet the father chooses to stay.
• Jun Wangchen confronts Jiajie with the vision, making him witness the suffering his actions caused.

Key plot points

• After witnessing the suffering his choices caused his parents, Zheng Jiajie breaks down and recognizes that his deepest wrongdoing was abandoning them and causing them grief.
• Jun Wangchen offers him ten minutes with his parents in exchange for remaining in the Underworld forever, punished by hellfire. Zheng accepts without hesitation.
• He finds his parents, Zheng Jiaye and his wife, who have waited two years on the Bridge of Helplessness rather than move on without him. Their place on its upper level means they are virtuous and destined for a favorable reincarnation.
• Zheng kneels, confesses how he wasted their sacrifices on drugs and reckless living, and begs their forgiveness. They embrace him with relief and joy.
• When the ten minutes end, Jun Wangchen surprises Zheng by allowing him to go with his parents and be reincarnated as a family. He explains that Zheng has atoned and become a good person.

Character developments and interactions

• Zheng Jiajie moves from remorse to genuine accountability. He accepts severe punishment, prioritizes apologizing to his parents, and wishes them happiness even if he cannot share their next life.
• His parents have endured years of hardship and continued waiting for their son. Their reunion brings them relief, and they welcome him without rejecting him.
• Jun Wangchen acts as judge and guide: he makes Zheng confront the consequences of his actions, then shows compassion once Zheng has truly changed.
• The family’s embrace and shared hope of being together again in another life bring the chapter to its emotional resolution.

Significant themes

• Parental sacrifice and filial responsibility: Children may recognize their parents’ hardships only after it is too late.
• Regret, repentance, and redemption: Sincere remorse must include facing the harm one caused; genuine change can make forgiveness possible.
• Family and second chances: The promised reunion in another life offers hope after years of separation.
• A warning against taking parents for granted: The closing reflection broadens Zheng’s story into a reminder to appreciate parents while there is still time.

Chapter summary

After completing the Ghost Messenger Assistant’s tasks, Jun Wangchen visits Meng Po at the Bridge of Helplessness and receives 500 merit points. He notices her loneliness and argues that emotions—including grief, anger, and joy—can give people strength, rather than being obstacles to cultivation. His words remind Meng Po of someone from her past. She gives him a special bowl of Meng Po Soup, which expands his dantian and forms a tenth spiritual-power groove. Jun Wangchen advances to late Foundation Establishment, mid Black tier, and thanks her. Meng Po encourages him to hold on to his capacity for feeling and follow the path of emotion. Before leaving, he gives her white sugar and explains that it fulfills the dying wish of the scholar Gu Haoran.
Back in the real world, Jun posts Li Chuan’s tragic story on Weibo, fulfilling Li’s wish to warn parents about similar tragedies. He then buys a Void Teleportation Talisman from the Merit Point Mall and reflects that his new strength will help him in the next day’s Contest.
A late-night call from Mo Duoduo interrupts his plans to sleep. She thanks Jun for saving her grandfather, adding to the gratitude her family already owes him, and explains how she learned that he had joined the Martial Artists’ Association: Wang Fan, whom Jun taught swordsmanship, told her. Mo invites Jun to explore the association’s Virtual Platform, a highly realistic virtual training world accessible through special contact lenses in a Martial Artist Card. Interested in the opportunity to train without time-consuming missions, Jun agrees. He verifies his account, activates the hidden lenses in his card, and enters a vast virtual space facing a door marked “Virtual Platform.”

Character and relationship developments

• Jun Wangchen grows stronger through Meng Po’s gift and becomes more firmly committed to the path of emotion. He also follows through on the dying wishes of Gu Haoran and Li Chuan.
• Meng Po reveals her loneliness and the lingering sorrow connected to someone from her past. Jun’s views on emotion resonate with her, and she responds with guidance and a cultivation-boosting gift.
• Mo Duoduo expresses deep gratitude for Jun’s repeated help to her family and invites him to train with her. Jun’s earlier instruction has also changed Wang Fan’s attitude toward him: the once-arrogant swordsman now admires him.
• Jun treats Mo’s gratitude modestly, while she privately remains determined to remember his kindness.

Significant themes

• Emotion as strength: Jun rejects the idea that cultivators must abandon feeling, arguing that human emotions can fuel growth and power.
• Memory, loss, and compassion: Meng Po’s inability to forget and the wishes of the deceased underscore how the past continues to shape people.
• Duty and gratitude: Jun honors the dead, while Mo Duoduo acknowledges the debt her family owes him.
• Growth through new opportunities: Jun’s cultivation breakthrough and entry into the Virtual Platform set up further training and challenges.

Key plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen enters the Virtual Platform for the first time and meets Mo Duoduo there. She explains Virtual City’s services: trading, training, and arena competition, as well as how users can earn virtual currency.
• The pair hurry to the newly released Forest of Death, a virtual training ground with a one-hour challenge limit and a temporary three-hour opening.
• Inside, their appearances change to protect their identities, and they receive training-only gear. Mo Duoduo explains the forest’s three regions: corpse-filled outer woods, dangerous mutant needlegrass in the middle, and an inner region guarded by a powerful, poorly understood boss.
• Jun and Mo Duoduo explore the outer region but find no corpses. They spot a limping, raggedly dressed woman and debate whether she is a corpse or a harmless system-generated NPC.
• Jun senses something is wrong. As Mo Duoduo backs away, she snaps a rotten branch. The woman freezes, then turns toward them; her face terrifies both challengers.

Character developments and interactions

• Jun is curious and enthusiastic about the Virtual Platform, enjoying its game-like features, but remains alert and cautious in the forest. He questions Mo Duoduo about the system and notices the suspicious woman first.
• Mo Duoduo acts as Jun’s guide, confidently explaining the platform and the challenge. Though she seems unusually excited rather than afraid, she admits she is also new to this particular training ground.
• Their friendly, cooperative dynamic is established as Mo Duoduo leads the way and Jun follows, while both respond together to the growing danger.

Significant themes

• Virtual reality and gaming: The platform turns training, combat, and earning money into an immersive game-like experience.
• Preparation and uncertainty: The forest’s hazards are explained, but its creatures and boss remain only partly understood.
• Appearance versus reality: The virtual disguises and the woman’s ambiguous identity make it difficult to know what is harmless and what is dangerous.
• Suspense and vigilance: A seemingly minor sound triggers a sudden threat, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Key plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen and Mo Duoduo encounter a grotesque female corpse on the outskirts of the Forest of Death. It attacks with exceptional speed, strength, poisoned claws, and corrosive drool.
• Jun dodges its first strike and learns from Mo that these corpses adapt to challengers’ strength, typically appearing one stage weaker. Given Jun’s level, the creature is still roughly early Black Tier—far stronger than expected.
• Jun chooses to fight it as a test of his newly increased strength. His sword energy and speed impress Mo, but the corpse dodges his attack and bites down on his blade, snapping it.
• Jun uses a tree needle as a projectile to pierce the corpse’s throat. Though badly wounded, it remains mobile and rapidly heals. Its claws grow longer, escalating the danger at the chapter’s end.

Character developments

• Jun Wangchen shifts from wary protector to confident combatant, eager to test his abilities. His skill and composure are evident, but he recognizes that the corpse’s regeneration makes it a serious threat.
• Mo Duoduo is initially terrified and clings to Jun, then becomes fascinated and excited by his fighting ability. Her knowledge of the trial’s rules also helps Jun assess the danger.

Significant themes

• Training through adversity: The Forest of Death’s trials are deliberately designed to create despair and force challengers to grow.
• Strength has limits: Jun’s speed and swordsmanship do not guarantee victory against an opponent with unusual defenses and regeneration.
• Escalating danger: The corpse’s adaptation, corrosive saliva, and recovery suggest that each encounter may become more perilous than it first appears.

Character interactions

• Mo explains how the corpses’ strength is calibrated and warns, indirectly, how difficult the trial will be.
• Jun protects Mo from the initial attack, then sets her aside before engaging the corpse.
• Mo watches Jun’s display of skill with growing admiration, while Jun remains focused on the corpse and its ability to recover.

Plot points and events

• In the Forest of Death, Jun Wangchen and Mo Duoduo face a female corpse that grows stronger and faster each time it regenerates. Neither knows the creatures’ weaknesses.
• Mo Duoduo protects Jun with a magically summoned ice wall, revealing that she is a Mage. Jun follows with an explosive Ink Lizard attack that destroys the corpse’s body—but the severed head absorbs the flames and grows a new body.
• The corpse attacks again, forcing Jun to use Shifting Form, Changing Shadow to evade it. When it turns on Mo, he swaps places with her and intercepts the attack, using a flowing defensive technique to redirect its force.
• As Jun struggles to hold the creature back, Mo appears behind it with the broken sword and drives the blade into its head. The corpse finally dies, and the wound does not heal.

Character development and interactions

• Jun remains resourceful under pressure, trying several techniques and repeatedly putting himself between the corpse and Mo. The creature’s escalating strength, however, leaves him increasingly alarmed and physically outmatched.
• Mo moves from supporting Jun with magic to delivering the decisive strike. Her fear briefly freezes her when the corpse targets her, but she acts boldly once Jun creates an opening.
• Their teamwork becomes crucial: Mo shields Jun, while Jun uses his teleporting ability to protect her and keep the fight going.

Significant themes

• Adaptation and discovery: The characters enter without knowing the enemy’s weaknesses and must learn through dangerous trial and error.
• Power and limits: Jun’s varied abilities and Mo’s magic are not enough to overcome a foe that continually regenerates and grows stronger.
• Cooperation and courage: Survival depends on the pair combining their abilities, with Mo’s final attack turning the tide.

Key plot points and events

• After defeating a female corpse, Jun Wangchen concludes that the corpses’ regeneration can be stopped by severely damaging the head. Healing also makes them stronger, so a missed killing blow can make a corpse more dangerous.
• Mo Duoduo boasts that her magic wand can convert internal force into targeted magic attacks. Jun teases her by pretending a corpse is behind her; she panics, leaps into his arms, and drops the wand.
• The joke turns serious when Mo spots a horde of corpses approaching. Jun initially doubts her, then sees the mass of enemies for himself and realizes they cannot safely fight them.
• Asked for his strongest move, Jun declares it is “run!” He sweeps Mo into his arms and uses Soul Power to propel them away at tremendous speed.

Character developments and interactions

• Jun Wangchen draws practical lessons from the fight and stays composed when confronted with overwhelming danger. His teasing reveals a playful side, but his quick decision to escape shows he prioritizes survival and Mo’s safety.
• Mo Duoduo shifts from confidence in her weapon to fear when the horde appears. She is embarrassed and angry when Jun tricks her, but as he carries her to safety, she begins to admire his courage and feel secure with him.
• Their playful banter gives way to a moment of trust: Mo relies on Jun in the crisis, while he takes charge of their escape.

Significant themes

• Adaptation and survival: Understanding an enemy’s weakness matters, but avoiding a fight can be the wisest choice when the odds are overwhelming.
• Confidence versus reality: Mo’s boastfulness is undercut by her fear, while Jun’s “strongest move” is not a combat technique but a practical retreat.
• Trust and protection: The danger brings out Jun’s protective instincts and prompts Mo to imagine a future with someone who could make her feel safe.

Plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen carries Mo Duoduo through the Forest of Death’s dangerous outskirts while a horde of corpses pursues them.
• His soul power forms a protective barrier that shields them from blade-sharp plants, and he uses powerful leaps and Divine Calculations to choose an escape route through the fog.
• Their run is displayed at the Virtual Training Center. The watching martial artists discuss how difficult the course is: its fog disorients challengers, its hazards can kill instantly, and its corpses are nearly impossible to defeat in large numbers.
• The crowd expects the pair to fail, but Jun keeps accelerating and dodges hazards with uncanny precision. The corpses—including some with mutated abilities—cannot catch them.
• The spectators fall silent in shock and begin memorizing Jun’s face.

Character development

• Jun Wangchen is revealed as exceptionally fast, composed, and resourceful. He combines soul-power protection, physical skill, and Divine Calculations to overcome dangers while carrying someone.
• Mo Duoduo remains largely passive in this excerpt, but Jun’s decision to carry and protect her highlights his responsibility toward her.

Character interactions

• Jun protects Mo Duoduo and leads their escape.
• The pursuing corpses rage after the pair but fail to close the distance.
• The martial artists shift from skepticism and mockery to astonishment and respect as they watch the footage.

Significant themes

• Skill over brute force: Survival depends on observation, strategy, and adaptability as much as strength.
• Defying expectations: Jun’s performance overturns the crowd’s assumption that two challengers cannot survive the course.
• Competence under pressure: Jun remains precise and controlled despite the fog, hazards, and overwhelming pursuit.

Key plot points and events

• Jun Wangchen escapes a massive horde of corpses with Mo Duoduo, using most of his soul power to evade them and finish off the few that catch up.
• They stop to recover, and Mo returns Jun’s pants after realizing she has been holding them. Their teasing turns into an argument, and Mo walks ahead despite Jun’s warning.
• Mo falls headfirst into a concealed pit. Jun pulls her out, but she bites him in anger; their scuffle and shouting attract another horde.
• As the corpses close in, Jun tests their senses and discovers they cannot see or smell humans: they locate people by sound.
• Jun uses an Ink Bird and an explosion to lure the corpses toward a shattered tree, creating a temporary opening. He urges Mo to escape quickly.

Character developments

• Jun Wangchen remains resourceful and composed under pressure, even using danger to investigate the corpses’ behavior. His confidence and shameless humor also persist throughout the crisis.
• Mo Duoduo is stubborn, impulsive, and easily embarrassed, but increasingly recognizes Jun’s competence and feels secure relying on him. She compares herself unfavorably with his calmness and quick thinking.

Significant themes

• Composure and ingenuity in danger: Careful observation and improvisation matter as much as strength.
• Trust and dependence: Mo’s admiration grows as Jun repeatedly protects her.
• Comic relief amid peril: Their teasing, bickering, and slapstick mishaps contrast with the deadly threat around them.

Character interactions

• Jun protects and carries Mo, while she alternates between gratitude, embarrassment, and irritation at his provocative jokes.
• Their playful quarrel leads to Mo’s fall and a bite-filled scuffle, whose noise brings the corpses near.
• Once danger returns, Jun takes charge and explains his discovery; Mo listens and follows his lead.