Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Severing the Earth Veins”

Key plot points and events

• After hearing from Lei Zhan about the devastation across Great Xia, Chen Miao realizes he cannot return: travel and communications have been disrupted. He takes some comfort in knowing that his family in Tianmen County is safe.
• Chen Miao watches livestreams of the Snowcap Mountain eruption. People nearby are trapped inside an invisible boundary: they can enter the area, but cannot leave. Volcanic ash, mudflows, lava, and a descending, superheated ash cloud threaten them.
• Recalling Lei Zhan’s call to kill the Mountain Physiognomy Organization, Chen Miao heads toward Snowcap Mountain, transforming into a White Ape and leaping away.
• At the mountain’s base, Heavenly Sword Star Wang Yu, Earthly Chief Star Chen Jizhen, and Feng Shui Masters are held outside the formation. Hong Jun explains that the eruption has strengthened it: Wang Yu might break through alone, but the opening would immediately close.
• A Feng Shui Master senses vast amounts of yin energy traveling through the earth veins toward the already fiery mountain. Hong Jun fears that the clash of extreme yin and extreme yang could trigger another attack or catastrophe.
• Chen Jizhen orders them to stop it. The Feng Shui Masters identify a possible solution: sever the earth veins. The chapter ends as Chen Jizhen asks how.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from receiving news of the disaster to taking action, choosing to travel toward the danger despite the risks.
• Chen Jizhen struggles between anger at the Mountain Physiognomy Organization and the need to protect his team from reckless losses. When a new threat emerges, he becomes urgently determined to prevent it.
• Hong Jun uses his expertise to explain why the formation cannot simply be broken and to identify the danger posed by the gathering yin energy.
• Wang Yu is presented as powerful enough to force a temporary breach, but unable to create a lasting route for the group.
• The Feng Shui Masters work with Wang Yu and Chen Jizhen to study the formation and find a way to stop the gathering energy.

Significant themes

• Disaster and helplessness: The eruption and the wider crisis leave civilians trapped and rescue efforts severely constrained.
• Duty amid catastrophe: Chen Miao and the officials at Snowcap Mountain respond to danger even when the odds are poor.
• Restraint versus vengeance: Chen Jizhen shares the desire for revenge but prioritizes keeping his people alive.
• Humanity’s vulnerability to powerful forces: Natural disaster and feng shui formations combine to overwhelm ordinary escape routes and conventional solutions.

Key plot points and events

• The group realizes that stopping the yin energy requires disrupting the earth veins’ qi eyes. Although the Heavenly Sword Star can strike with enough force and Feng Shui Masters can locate the qi eyes, the two cannot coordinate their separate perceptions well enough to hit the moving targets.
• Chen Jizhen decides they must risk destroying the qi eyes rather than allow the yin energy to gather unchecked. Hong Jun volunteers to guide Wang Yu, the Heavenly Sword Star.
• Their first attempt misses. The qi eye flees, while the strike accelerates the yin energy and increases its concentration. Hong Jun warns that further attempts could worsen the situation, so Chen Jizhen calls off the effort and tells the team to continue dismantling the formation.
• Chen Miao appears unexpectedly and is struck by Chen Jizhen, who mistakes his concealed arrival for a possible threat. Recognizing him, Chen Jizhen asks why he is there.
• Chen Miao offers a solution: he can make the qi eyes visible to Wang Yu through an illusion technique. He asks the Bureau to provide help restoring his strained soul body after the mission.
• Chen Miao uses pills to spread a thin mist and projects the qi eyes as moving pillars of light. Wang Yu follows Chen Miao’s guidance and begins striking them, extinguishing the lights one by one.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Jizhen acts decisively under pressure, but is forced to abandon the initial plan when it appears to make the danger worse. His wariness toward Chen Miao stems from the latter’s unusual concealment, not from any genuine belief that he is a traitor.
• Hong Jun shows courage by volunteering despite his doubts, then provides a clear assessment of the failed attempt’s consequences.
• Wang Yu remains confident and focused. He quickly responds to Chen Miao’s offer and trusts his instructions, even though the technique is unfamiliar.
• Chen Miao moves from cautious observer to active problem-solver. Though annoyed at being punched, he understands Chen Jizhen’s reaction and accepts the physical cost of using his ability to help the group.

Significant themes

• Cooperation across different abilities: The original plan fails because strength and perception are separated; Chen Miao’s technique bridges that gap.
• Risk and unintended consequences: An attempt to prevent disaster instead accelerates it, forcing the team to reassess.
• Trust under pressure: Wang Yu readily follows Chen Miao’s guidance, while Chen Jizhen balances caution with the need to act.
• Personal cost and duty: Chen Miao’s soul body is already strained, yet he accepts further burden to counter the threat.

Key plot points and events

• Inside Snowcap Mountain, Mountain Aspect and the new Hundred Ghosts discuss Great Xia’s efforts to break the Overturning Mountains and Rivers formation. Mountain Aspect insists the active volcanic eruption makes the formation impossible to breach—even for Heavenly Sword Star.
• Mountain Aspect urges Hundred Ghosts to lure Heavenly Sword Star into the formation, where the eruption could kill him. This would restore Hundred Ghosts’ reputation, weaken Great Xia, and encourage foreign powers to challenge it.
• Hundred Ghosts, consumed by frustration and hatred, accepts the suggestion and asks Mountain Aspect what to do.
• Outside the mountain, Chen Miao uses his upgraded third-phase [Status; Qi-Gazing] to observe Heavenly Sword Star. He sees a sword-shaped mass of white smoke above him weaken as Heavenly Sword destroys nearly fifty formation nodes.
• Chen Miao notices an unseen hand holding Heavenly Sword Star’s sword. Its aura resembles the incense smoke produced by the Incense-Burning Method, leading him to suspect that Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends draw power from a source connected to unknown beings rather than polluted objects.
• As Chen Miao reflects on this possibility, a black-qi-shrouded figure flies out of Snowcap Mountain.

Character developments and interactions

• Mountain Aspect remains calm and calculating, using Hundred Ghosts’ resentment to push him toward a dangerous confrontation with Heavenly Sword Star.
• Hundred Ghosts is insecure about his new leadership and bitter about his predecessor’s death. Mountain Aspect’s plan redirects that bitterness into a willingness to risk luring Heavenly Sword Star into the formation.
• Chen Miao develops a deeper understanding of his enhanced Qi-Gazing ability and begins reconsidering the nature of the Administration’s powers.
• Heavenly Sword Star continues dismantling the formation with immense power, though the sword-shaped energy above him is visibly diminishing. Chen Miao follows him so his shared observations remain within range.
• Mountain Aspect and Hundred Ghosts interact as strategist and volatile partner: Mountain Aspect offers a calculated opportunity, while Hundred Ghosts supplies the personal motive to act.

Significant themes

• Human power versus natural forces: Mountain Aspect believes even the strongest individual cannot match the force of heaven and earth.
• Political consequences of power: The proposed attack is meant not only to kill Heavenly Sword Star but also to damage Great Xia’s deterrence and shift the balance among foreign powers.
• The nature of supernatural power: Chen Miao’s observation suggests that titles may connect their bearers to mysterious entities, much as the Incense-Burning Method communicates with unknown beings.
• Manipulation and ambition: Mountain Aspect frames a risky, self-serving plan as an opportunity, exploiting Hundred Ghosts’ pride and resentment.

Plot points

• Chen Miao’s Qi-Gazing reveals that the black aura around the enemy, Hundred Ghosts, is made of many trapped soul bodies.
• Hundred Ghosts taunts Heavenly Sword and boasts about the Hundred Ghosts Seat’s crimes: aiding the Mountain-River Collapse Plan, capturing Great Xia’s souls to make shikigami, and abducting tourists.
• Heavenly Sword ignores the provocation because entering the feng shui barrier could leave him weakened and trapped. Chen Miao offers to identify its weak points and help him attack from outside.
• Chen Miao explains that Snowcap Mountain’s eruption has overloaded the formation’s fire element, creating weak gaps where fire conflicts with metal and water. He proposes using three spirit objects to intensify those imbalances for ten seconds.
• Heavenly Sword plants the objects at Chen Miao’s marked nodes. The resulting energy surge widens the gaps, allowing Heavenly Sword to pierce the barrier and kill Hundred Ghosts in a swift, ten-second strike.
• The two leave to continue their work on the earth veins. Afterward, Hundred Ghosts’s remains are absorbed into the ground.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao uses his feng shui knowledge and Qi-Gazing to move beyond observation, taking an active role in the battle. He spends three spirit objects, expecting the reward for helping defeat Hundred Ghosts to make the cost worthwhile.
• Heavenly Sword shows restraint by refusing to be provoked, then trusts Chen Miao’s plan while keeping the option to withdraw. His precise, decisive attack highlights his power.
• Hundred Ghosts is exposed as both cruel and arrogant: he brags about atrocities but never gets to demonstrate his abilities before Heavenly Sword kills him.
• Chen Miao and Heavenly Sword work together through concise discussion and coordinated action: Chen explains the formation, marks the nodes, and triggers the objects; Heavenly Sword delivers the strike.

Significant themes

• Restraint over impulsiveness: Heavenly Sword refuses to fight on the enemy’s terms.
• Knowledge as power: Chen Miao’s understanding of the Five Elements turns a seemingly secure barrier into an exploitable weakness.
• Cooperation and trust: Their complementary skills make the victory possible.
• Boasting versus action: Hundred Ghosts’s threats and cruelty are abruptly ended by Heavenly Sword’s efficient attack.

Summary

• After Hundred Ghosts is killed, Chen Miao recognizes how the victory depended on coordinated effort. He disrupted the feng shui formation, giving Heavenly Sword Star an opening while forcing the unseen controller to choose between protecting Hundred Ghosts and risking the formation’s destruction. Chen Miao also planted Five Prisons ice marks in Hundred Ghosts, weakening him enough for Heavenly Sword’s swift execution.
• In Snowcap Mountain, Mountain Aspect abandons his original plan to obtain Heavenly Sword’s body for the Sacrifice Ritual. Instead, he uses Hundred Ghosts’ corpse as a substitute vessel. Through a blood-soaked ritual, he summons a soul and calls on the deities and spirits of Takama-ga-hara and Yomotsu to enter the mortal world.
• The ritual unleashes black smoke from Snowcap Mountain’s crater and forms a rotating vortex in the sky. People trapped nearby develop black-and-red veins; smoke pours from their bodies and streams into the vortex, leaving many dead. Some masked people appear less affected, but realize this too late. A completely black sphere forms and grows within the clouds.
• Chen Miao, Heavenly Sword, and the others regroup. Chen Jizhen warns that the sphere is still within the feng shui formation, and Heavenly Sword prepares to strike it down, taking a blood-red pill to restore his sword’s solidity. He asks Chen Miao to identify a gap in the formation.
• Using aura sight, Chen Miao sees that the sphere is actually an enormous eyeball. It turns to look directly at him, paralyzing him and slowing his consciousness as its gaze seems to draw in his soul.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao sees Heavenly Sword as decisive and capable, while also understanding that his own support—and the feng shui masters’ work—was essential to the victory. His aura sight proves useful but leaves him vulnerable to the supernatural threat.
• Heavenly Sword Star demonstrates bold judgment by entering the formation despite his earlier plan to attack from outside. He coordinates with Chen Miao and prepares to confront the sphere directly.
• Mountain Aspect reveals the true purpose behind the attack: not merely killing Heavenly Sword, but securing a body for a ritual. When that fails, he adapts and begins a far more dangerous summoning.
• Chen Jizhen assesses the threat and asks Heavenly Sword to attack, prompting the team’s response.

Significant themes

• Cooperation and hidden contributions: The battle’s outcome depends on several people’s actions, not just the visible duel.
• Escalation and sacrifice: A local victory gives way to a mass-casualty ritual, with ordinary people turned into fuel for Mountain Aspect’s plan.
• Unseen danger and vulnerability: The growing sphere appears distant and abstract until Chen Miao’s vision reveals it as a watching, predatory eye.

Key plot points and events

• Heavenly Sword realizes Chen Miao is in danger and launches a powerful strike at the black vortex. He pierces the five-element feng shui barrier, but the vortex absorbs his attack without visible damage.
• The ordinary people below continue suffering: black veins spread across their chests, and black smoke rises from their bodies.
• Sato Genichi uses his Onmyoji powers and Cypress Fan to purify some of the black smoke, forming a vast Azure Dragon-like phantom that flies toward the vortex.
• Heavenly Sword’s attack distracts the giant eyeball long enough for Chen Miao to escape its attention. Chen Miao checks his notebook and discovers that the Azure Dragon cannot prevent the eyeball’s birth—but he may be able to delay or weaken it.
• Chen Miao burns all his incense sticks with the Spirit-Burning Formula, then uses mirrors and his blood-red hair to spread the incense smoke across the sky. The smoke intercepts the black qi rising from the ground before it can reach the vortex.
• Meanwhile, the Azure Dragon collides with the vortex but rapidly shrinks without changing it. Chen Jizhen prepares the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends to attack once the feng shui masters break the barrier, but Chen Miao’s intervention offers a new way to hinder the vortex.

Character developments

• Heavenly Sword acts decisively to protect Chen Miao, though his spectacular attack fails to damage the vortex.
• Chen Miao stays alert under pressure, uses the notebook’s predictions, and devises a practical plan to interfere with the vortex rather than trying to stop its birth outright.
• Sato Genichi demonstrates that his beliefs guide his actions: he sees protection and balance—not sacrifice—as the proper purpose of Yin-Yang power.
• Chen Jizhen shifts from organizing an imminent assault to recognizing the significance of Chen Miao’s unexpected tactic.

Significant themes

• Power has limits: Even Heavenly Sword’s immense strength and the Azure Dragon’s scale cannot directly overcome the vortex.
• Knowledge and adaptation: Chen Miao succeeds by interpreting what he learns and finding a way to weaken the enemy’s supply rather than confronting it head-on.
• Protection versus sacrifice: Sato rejects a supposed divine “blessing” purchased through life and blood, emphasizing care and balance.
• Hope amid despair: The failed attacks demoralize the crowd, but Chen Miao’s smoke interception creates a small, tangible opening.

Character interactions

• Heavenly Sword notices Chen Miao’s danger and attacks the vortex, inadvertently drawing the eyeball’s gaze away from him.
• Sato Genichi responds to the suffering crowd by purifying black smoke and invoking the Azure Dragon.
• Chen Miao works independently while others focus on the Azure Dragon; Chen Jizhen eventually sees how his incense-and-mirror plan is intercepting the black qi.

Key events

• Chen Miao realizes his incense smoke cannot absorb all the black qi feeding the growing vortex and blood-red eye above Snowcap Mountain. He fears that if it continues to develop, everyone will die.
• He sends Yu Hui to find Sato Genichi, whose Azure Dragon can purify the black smoke. Sato recreates a smaller Azure Dragon and uses it as the core of a Feng Shui Barrier to suppress the qi around ordinary people.
• Chen Jizhen dispatches more Administration agents to gather people into the barrier and restrain others. Meanwhile, Feng Shui masters open a stable entrance into the mountain’s formation and hold its power at a stalemate.
• With the immediate measures in place, Chen Jizhen leads a group into Snowcap Mountain to break through, determined to succeed or die trying. Chen Miao spends more Yin Virtue on incense to continue the Transcendence Rite.
• Unable to end the notebook’s chapter or resolve the threat, Chen Miao worries that the eye will return for him. He uses his remaining Yin Virtue to attempt to transmit the cultivation art “Six Jiangzhen Secrets; Divine Gaze.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from anxious calculation to decisive action: he identifies the Azure Dragon as a way to slow the black qi and urges Chen Jizhen to prioritize containing it. His fear of the eye’s future attention deepens, but he ultimately chooses to take a risk with his cultivation art.
• Chen Jizhen trusts Chen Miao’s judgment, coordinates the scattered forces, and personally joins the assault on the formation.
• Yu Hui acts quickly on Chen Miao’s request, locating Sato and helping organize the effort to protect ordinary people.
• Sato Genichi cooperates without hesitation, using the Azure Dragon’s shared origin with the mountain’s barrier to build an effective containment field.
• The Administration agents, Feng Shui masters, and Sato’s team coordinate despite being stretched thin; only a small force remains to guard Chen Miao and the formation.

Significant themes

• Cooperation under pressure: Success depends on different abilities and groups working together, even as their forces are divided.
• Sacrifice and commitment: Chen Miao spends scarce Yin Virtue, while Chen Jizhen and his team risk their lives to stop the crisis.
• Uncertainty and looming danger: The immediate threat may be contained, but the eye’s survival and possible return leave the future unresolved.
• Resourcefulness and growth: Faced with inadequate resources, Chen Miao searches for a new solution and takes a chance on a powerful cultivation art.

Plot points and events

• Chen Jizhen uses his Earthly Chief Star ability, aided by Feng Shui masters Hong Jun and his companion, to locate a passage into Snowcap Mountain.
• The group fights through traps, formations, Shikigami, monsters, Ninjas, and Onmyoji. The formation’s defenders prove increasingly fierce, and the enemies’ bodies melt into the earth after death, raising Chen Jizhen’s suspicions.
• They teleport into a chamber and find an altar surrounded by blood and flesh, with black qi flowing through its patterns toward the mountain’s summit. The qi matches the smoke coming from ordinary people outside.
• Chen Jizhen’s vital-blood attack fails against the Mountain Aspect man, who claims the altar protects him from both vital blood and yin energy. Chen then has the eight Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends invoke their star power. Its light destroys the chamber’s flesh and kills the man.
• Hong Jun and his companion identify three points that must be struck simultaneously to destroy the altar. Three powerful allies shatter them, collapsing the chamber and shaking the mountain as the group escapes.
• Outside, the black smoke and vortex stop, seeming to signal success. But the suspended black sphere cracks, sheds its shell in red light, and reveals a blood-red eyeball. A survivor at the mountain’s foot develops another eye in his cheek.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Jizhen leads decisively, using his ability to navigate the mountain and choosing force over the slower dismantling of each formation. He conserves his strength until the Mountain Aspect man’s claims compel him to use the group’s dangerous star power.
• Hong Jun and his companion serve as the team’s specialists: they sense the hidden node, identify the altar’s weak points, and guide the others through the formations.
• The Mountain Aspect man shifts from smug confidence to shock and rage when he recognizes the group’s divine-like power. His claim that he seeks a god’s descent is cut short when the star light kills him.
• Chen Miao, weakened after repeated power transfers, uses his last six taels of yin virtue to light incense as the group escapes. Zhang Huan voices the hope that the crisis is over, but the revealed eye immediately overturns that expectation.

Significant themes

• Apparent victory and lingering horror: destroying the altar halts the smoke and vortex, yet the threat survives in a more direct, grotesque form.
• Power and its limits: Chen Jizhen’s usual attacks fail, while the rare star power works—but its use is costly and narrowly suited to living bodies and souls.
• Ritual and sacrifice: the Mountain Aspect spent generations building the formation, while Chen Miao spends his remaining virtue on incense; supernatural power exacts a price.
• Transformation and contamination: black qi, dissolving bodies, and the new eye suggest that the ritual’s influence has already reached ordinary people.

Plot points and events

• During a live broadcast from Snowcap Mountain, a cameraman mutates after a blood-red eye appears on the back of his head. He attacks the reporter and crew with unnatural speed.
• Viewers across the Island Nation are drawn to the enormous eye above the mountain. People begin mutating in the same way, and the resulting violence spreads among the crowds.
• Chen Jizhen and the other specialists feel something trying to grow inside their bodies after seeing the eye. Looking away does not stop the effect, but Chen’s summoned star drives dark-red energy out of him, Hong Jun, and a Feng Shui master.
• Chen realizes that destroying the altar did not prevent the entity from appearing. He suspects the eye may belong to a genuine, unknown deity.
• Deputy Director Dan Yang tells Chen to leave the Island Nation and finish clearing the enemy bases, then return home: a similar phenomenon appeared there too, though it has not been fully dealt with.
• As Chen’s group prepares to depart, they discover that the mutated people have surrounded them and are watching them through the eyes on their bodies.

Character developments and interactions

• The reporter’s priorities abruptly shift from getting dramatic footage to escaping; his attempt to rescue the frozen cameraman ends in horror.
• Chen responds to the threat by testing his star’s power, then uses it to protect his companions. His uncertainty gives way to a grim acceptance that the entity may truly be divine.
• Dan Yang is terse and controlled, revealing that the crisis is not confined to the Island Nation but withholding details until Chen returns.
• Chen’s team follows his orders, but their escape is immediately threatened by the mutated crowd.

Significant themes

• The danger of witnessing the unknown: simply seeing the eye infects and transforms people, even across a live broadcast.
• Powerlessness and escalating crisis: destroying the altar fails to stop the entity, and the menace has spread beyond the mountain—and even beyond the Island Nation.
• Faith versus evidence: Chen reluctantly considers that the “deity” may be real, while the star’s opposition to the eye suggests a larger supernatural conflict.

Key plot points and events

• The Blood Pupil’s gaze makes the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends’ stars burn painfully and then dims Chen Jizhen’s star, cutting off the group’s powers and trapping them on the mountain.
• Chen Jizhen and the others prepare to fight the advancing transformed crowd using Vital Blood Power, forming blood-red giant phantoms. Feng Shui Masters attempt to set up formations, but their yin energy and Soul Power are suppressed.
• A towering, mist-shrouded figure appears behind the group, with Chen Miao enveloped inside it. Its presence halts the transformed crowd.
• Chen Miao uses the newly upgraded Six Jiangzhen Secrets: Divine Descent and strikes at the Blood Pupil. A burst of power follows, but the witnesses lose part of their memories. The eye cracks and bursts into blood threads, while the transformed crowd collapses.
• Chen Miao is found unconscious. Chen Jizhen gives him a restorative pill, and his companions provide pills to restore his Soul Power. The clouds clear and sunlight returns.
• A week later, Chen Miao wakes in a room away from Snowcap Mountain. He discovers his belongings have been returned and checks his notes: he has gained substantial Yin Virtue and several new statuses.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Jizhen responds to being trapped by rallying the group to fight. After the crisis, he cares for Chen Miao and seeks help from his companions to restore the young man’s Soul Power.
• Chen Miao has used Divine Descent to confront the Blood Pupil, apparently at considerable cost. He wakes with a severe headache and concludes his body is otherwise fine so long as he avoids using Soul Power.
• Chen Miao’s notes reveal a Blood Pupil’s mark, which lets the surviving entity track him, but also grant him Blood Pupil status, which may help him detect it. He also has a Hundred-Day Soul Seal and an unranked fragment of divinity.

Significant themes

• Power and sacrifice: Chen Miao’s decisive strike saves the group, but leaves him with painful consequences and troubling statuses.
• Uncertainty and memory: The witnesses cannot recall exactly what happened, suggesting the force behind Divine Descent exceeds their understanding.
• Lingering danger: The Blood Pupil’s apparent destruction may not be final; its tracking mark means the threat remains connected to Chen Miao.
• Mutual aid: Chen Jizhen and the others protect and treat Chen Miao after the battle, emphasizing the group’s solidarity.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao discovers that using Six Jiangzhen Secrets: Divine Descent has given him the negative status Hundred-Day Soul Seal, preventing him from using soul power for a hundred days.
• During the technique’s activation, he entered an emotionless, machine-like state and gained the ability to summon a powerful phantom. With its limited power, he destroyed a blood-red eyeball—but only after the sacrifice ritual had been disrupted by Chen Miao, the shrine Onmyoji, Great Xia’s supernatural forces, and Chen Jizhen’s group.
• Chen Miao realizes the eyeball was not fully manifested. Had the ritual succeeded, it might have been far beyond his ability to defeat.
• He also gains fragmentary divinity, which enabled him to summon the phantom. He suspects his notes may have helped him acquire divinity in a way ordinary Incense-Burning Heirs cannot.
• Divinity is tied to a specific source, cannot be combined with another source’s divinity, and can be strengthened through insight or contact with its source—not by spending yin virtue. Chen Miao tries to contact his own source but receives no answer.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more aware of both the power and risks of Divine Descent. He recognizes that his access to it is exceptional, but its cost makes repeated use impractical.
• He speculates that the phantom may be connected to the creator of the notes, though he has no proof.
• Chen Miao’s thoughts briefly turn to posing as an Incense-Burning Heir in the Mortal World, but he acknowledges that he cannot yet reach it and still has unresolved problems with the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s Soul-Inquiry Hall.
• His attempt to reach the being behind his divinity ends in silence, leaving him uncertain whether the source is ignoring him or even exists.

Significant themes

• Power and cost: Chen Miao gains access to immense power, but it seals away his soul abilities for months.
• Faith, identity, and legitimacy: His unconventional path may have granted him a form of divinity unavailable to orthodox practitioners.
• Limits of knowledge: Chen Miao learns important principles about divinity but cannot fully understand them—or identify his own source.
• The uncertain divine: The phantom and the unanswered contact suggest that supernatural power may not come with a clear or responsive deity.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao reflects on divinity, which he senses in the power of the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends. He wonders whether Great Xia’s path of Yang Cultivation might eventually reach the realm of immortals and gods.
• Zhang Huan visits and learns Chen Miao can no longer use soul power. Worried about lasting damage, he rushes Chen Miao to a soul-body expert at Administration Headquarters.
• The examination confirms the loss of soul power is temporary. Heavenly Sword is waiting there too: after entering the vortex, he was trapped in a blood-red space filled with eyes. Chen Miao’s destruction of an eyeball allowed him to return.
• Director Dan Yang meets Chen Miao and arranges for Headquarters to cover the medicine needed for his recovery. Earthly Chief Chen Jizhen then briefs him on the week he was unconscious.
• The Administration has destroyed the known Mountain Physiognomy Organization bases in the Island Nation and is arresting Hundred Ghosts Seat members operating in Great Xia.
• Despite these efforts, the Mountain-River Collapse Plan partly succeeded. A Blood Gate appeared at an altar in Great Xia and then vanished; its location is unknown.
• The most urgent crisis is that Great Xia has become a source of yin energy. Its concentration has tripled in a week and continues to rise, threatening a nationwide surge in supernatural incidents. The country must also contend with disaster damage, the search for the Blood Gate, possible foreign aggression, and domestic evil cultivators.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains thoughtful about the nature of divinity but recognizes the limits of what he can safely study or understand.
• Zhang Huan shows strong concern and gratitude toward Chen Miao, whose actions saved the group on Snowcap Mountain.
• Heavenly Sword’s visit reveals gratitude and concern beneath his cold, aloof reputation: he came prepared to help Chen Miao if his soul had been permanently harmed.
• Chen Jizhen acts as Chen Miao’s guide and intermediary at Headquarters, while his authority and commanding presence become clear in that setting.
• Dan Yang’s stern manner contrasts with his genuine concern for Chen Miao’s health and his willingness to provide treatment.

Significant themes

• Power and its cost: Chen Miao’s extraordinary abilities have left him temporarily unable to use soul power, highlighting the danger of wielding forces beyond one’s limits.
• Growing supernatural threat: The vanished Blood Gate and spreading yin energy suggest that the crisis is expanding beyond any single battle or location.
• Loyalty and gratitude: Zhang Huan and Heavenly Sword respond to Chen Miao’s past help with practical concern.
• National vulnerability: Even after decisive action against the Mountain Physiognomy Organization, Great Xia faces multiple simultaneous dangers and an uncertain future.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao learns that the Mountain Physiognomy Organization’s feng shui schemes helped cause the surge of yin energy and supernatural incidents across Great Xia.
• The Administration plans to send feng shui experts to build large formations that disperse yin energy. With only eighteen Heaven-Rank masters available, each formation will take one to three months, so cities must be protected in stages.
• Shannan City is slated for the fourth batch. That could mean waiting roughly six months before construction even begins—and longer before it is finished—while Chen Miao fears Tianmen County will become increasingly dangerous.
• Chen Miao asks for the formation’s layout instructions so a smaller version might be adapted for Tianmen County. Dan Yang agrees to obtain simplified instructions from the Geomancy Department.
• Chen Jizhen reassures him that the Administration will increase its investigators and make more equipment available, though Chen Miao remains concerned.
• Dan Yang then offers Chen Miao a place at Headquarters, promising access to techniques, research, polluted objects, a possible Grandmaster mentor, and an earlier second-batch slot for Shannan City.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is practical and focused on protecting Tianmen County and his relatives. Rather than simply request preferential treatment, he seeks the formation plans so he can pursue a local solution.
• Dan Yang shares what he knows, offers help, and then makes a substantial recruitment pitch. His generosity is sincere but also intended to persuade Chen Miao to join Headquarters.
• Chen Jizhen supports Chen Miao by arranging access to simplified plans and reassuring him about broader measures.
• Dan Yang and Chen Jizhen are surprised that Chen Miao knows something about feng shui, though he clarifies that he only hopes the experts can simplify the design.

Significant themes

• Crisis and limited resources: Great Xia’s response is constrained by the scarcity of qualified feng shui masters and the time required to protect cities.
• Local responsibility versus central authority: Chen Miao looks for ways to protect his home area rather than rely solely on distant, slow-moving plans.
• Power, opportunity, and loyalty: Dan Yang’s offer links Chen Miao’s personal advancement to Headquarters’ interests—and potentially to faster protection for Shannan City.
  The chapter ends with Chen Miao stunned by Dan Yang’s offer, leaving his decision unresolved.

Plot points and events

• Deputy Director Dan Yang offers Chen Miao a position working under him at the Administration Headquarters, along with access to cultivation arts, polluted objects, research, and a place for Shannan City in a future deployment round.
• Chen weighs the substantial benefits against the likely need to travel abroad frequently and the possibility that Dan Yang wants to use him mainly for his powerful but costly Immortal-God Apparition.
• Dan Yang confirms that the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends, like Chen, can borrow power from Immortals and Gods. Headquarters’ research into this power has reached a limit, and the Island Nation operation will further slow that work by requiring those agents to stabilize Great Xia.
• Chen declines a full-time position, explaining that he does not want to leave his hometown or family. He remains willing to help when needed.
• He returns to Shannan City with soul-nourishing elixirs and a simplified feng shui formation. His Temporary Consultant title is replaced by Honorary Consultant to the Great Xia Administration Headquarters and Director of the Tianmen County Administration.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen demonstrates careful judgment: he recognizes the value of Headquarters’ resources but protects his independence and refuses to be treated as a weapon whose costly ability is used only for emergencies.
• Dan Yang is candid about both the role’s demands and his interest in Chen’s Immortal-God Apparition. Though disappointed by the refusal, he accepts it and leaves the door open for a future partnership.
• Their respectful discussion establishes mutual trust without binding Chen to Headquarters.

Significant themes

• Independence versus institutional power: Chen turns down major advantages to remain close to home and family.
• The cost and limits of power: Chen’s signature ability consumes too much to use casually, while Headquarters’ own exploration of divine power has stalled.
• Cooperation without commitment: Chen and Dan Yang preserve a working relationship even though Chen declines formal employment.

Plot points and events

• Tianmen County’s Administration outpost has been upgraded to a Branch Administration because of Chen Miao’s influence. It gains authority but no extra staff or facilities, an arrangement Chen Miao prefers because it leaves him free of administrative burdens.
• Traveling home by high-speed rail, Chen Miao follows news of Great Xia after the recent disasters. Restored internet access has exposed the crisis to the public, though graphic footage has been removed.
• He watches Yang Jiuhua livestreaming coastal rescue work. The destruction and deaths worry him: the combination of mass casualties and rising yin energy could trigger supernatural incidents.
• Chen Miao calls Ji Mo and warns him and Jiuhua to avoid rescue work at night, wear the protective items Chen gave them, and obey rescue teams’ orders. He asks them to come to Tianmen County afterward for an important discussion.
• Chen Miao spots a photograph of Snowcap Mountain erupting, with Blood Pupil above it. His new Blood Pupil status lets him sense an “eye” in the image, suggesting the entity’s power can spread through photographs—and possibly videos.
• He alerts Dan Yang, who immediately orders the image and related information blocked online. Chen Miao realizes that livestreams and recordings from the Island Nation may already have spread Blood Pupil’s influence.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is comfortable with his unusual authority in Tianmen County and remains alert to supernatural threats. His passive ability to sense “eyes” reveals that Blood Pupil may transmit through media.
• Ji Mo and Yang Jiuhua are still helping with coastal rescue efforts. Ji Mo listens to Chen Miao’s warnings and agrees to pass them on to Jiuhua.
• Dan Yang treats Chen Miao’s discovery seriously and acts quickly to limit the danger.

Significant themes

• Public knowledge versus containment: Great Xia can no longer conceal the unfolding crisis, but authorities still remove the most dangerous material.
• Supernatural threats adapting to modern media: Blood Pupil’s apparent presence in a photograph suggests images and videos can become vectors of infection.
• Disaster and the supernatural: Mass death combined with rising yin energy makes rescue zones especially vulnerable to paranormal incidents.
• Responsibility amid crisis: Chen Miao uses his knowledge to protect others, while rescue workers and soldiers continue searching for survivors and victims.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao learns that Blood Pupil’s images can spread contamination: prolonged viewing of a photo can cause symptoms, while a video can create a Mutant after ten minutes. Great Xia has blocked the material and traced its original upload; reports suggest the same contamination has caused unrest in the Island Nation.
• He wonders why the Mountain Physiognomy Organization summoned Blood Pupil and suspects they did so to achieve some hidden objective. With its leader dead and the group destroyed, he thinks the truth may lie with the Three Elders of Nine Chrysanthemums, who may also be behind the Mountain-River Collapse Plan.
• Chen Miao believes the threat is not over: the elders could foster new hostile organizations. He also questions what beings are connected to Great Xia’s 108 Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends, and to the Divine Descent technique.
• In Shannan City, Chen meets Xiang Shang and Li Zi. He corrects Xiang Shang’s hopeful assumption that a “spiritual energy revival” is bringing opportunities: Great Xia is facing an eruption of yin energy and a coming surge in supernatural incidents.
• Chen urges the couple to prepare and move their families to Tianmen County for about a year. He plans to make the county safer through a Feng Shui renovation, and Xiang Shang agrees to help arrange housing.
• Back at the Tianmen Funeral Home, Chen feels renewed resolve to protect what he regards as home. The next morning, he prepares to begin the Tianmen Feng Shui Renovation Plan.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from investigating the Island Nation’s threat to preparing his home and friends for the wider crisis. His attachment to the funeral home becomes explicit and strengthens his determination.
• Xiang Shang shows he has noticed the growing signs of danger, though he initially mistakes them for an opportunity. Once Chen explains the seriousness, he accepts the warning and promises to bring his family—and potentially Li Zi’s parents—to Tianmen.
• Li Zi listens as Chen warns the couple and helps prompt practical discussion about relocation and housing.

Significant themes

• A threat beyond the apparent victory: Destroying the two major hostile organizations may not end the danger while their mysterious backers remain.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Chen can infer motives and identify likely masterminds, but the key truth remains inaccessible.
• Preparedness over wishful thinking: Supernatural upheaval is a danger, not a source of easy opportunity.
• Home and protection: Chen’s bond with the funeral home turns personal affection into a reason to act for the wider community.

Plot points

• Chen Miao returns to Tianmen County and learns that the Fushou Funeral Center has been sold and is no longer operating. With its customers crowding Tianmen Funeral Home, all twelve refrigerated cabinets are full, and some families have had to go elsewhere.
• Concerned that the overload will become unsustainable, Chen Miao considers expanding Cold Storage, the simplest area to enlarge.
• His Elder Uncle, Chen Weiyi, reveals that wealthy businessman Xie Songde bought Fushou. Chen Miao explains that Xie may be repaying him for past help.
• When Chen Weiyi remains doubtful, Chen Miao demonstrates his powers: he conjures flames with the Spirit-Burning Formula and makes talismans fly using the Yin Blood Art. He also tells his uncle enough about the changing situation in Great Xia to explain why he needs to act.
• Chen Weiyi urges him to be cautious and reminds him that family, marriage, and a safe future matter to him. Chen Miao agrees to take care.
• Xie visits and offers Chen Miao the Fushou Funeral Center outright, or alternatively a minority investment with no role in its operation. Chen Miao accepts his generosity, then asks how much Xie knows about recent events in Great Xia.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows practical concern for the funeral home’s capacity and becomes more open with his uncle about his abilities and responsibilities. His uncle’s concern moves him, balancing his sense of duty with a longing for family warmth.
• Chen Weiyi shifts from teasing Chen Miao about romance to taking his powers seriously. Despite uncertainty, he responds with heartfelt protectiveness, emphasizing that Chen Miao should not endanger himself.
• Xie Songde demonstrates gratitude and trust by offering Chen Miao a valuable business. His eagerness when Chen Miao raises the situation in Great Xia suggests he is also seeking information or guidance.
• The exchanges are warm and familiar: townspeople welcome Chen Miao home, his uncle scolds and reassures him, and Xie approaches him respectfully as a benefactor and ally.

Significant themes

• Duty and protection: Chen Miao carries knowledge and burdens he chooses not to share fully with his uncle, while his uncle’s priority is keeping him safe.
• Family and belonging: Chen Weiyi’s hopes for Chen Miao’s marriage and children express affection and continuity across generations.
• Gratitude and reciprocity: Xie’s offer repays Chen Miao for past help and may strengthen their partnership.
• Changing customs and pressures: The funeral home’s overcrowding reflects both shifting social habits and the practical costs of Fushou’s closure.

Key plot points

• Xie Songde has grown anxious after hearing that people who enter the coastal disaster zone at night encounter “ghosts” and are later taken away. He believes the reports and has been trying to reach Chen Miao for information.
• Xie visits Chen at Tianmen Funeral Home, only to find that Hong Fan and Song Peilin have also come to see him. All three want to understand the supernatural events spreading across Great Xia.
• Chen confirms that the situation is serious and warns that supernatural incidents will become more frequent. He offers three safer plans: relocate to the capital, move near the Shannan City Administration, or hire capable, preferably registered, Spirit Mediums.
• Chen refuses Hong Fan’s offer to settle in Shannan, explaining that he has important work to do in Tianmen County—but admits it may fail and that he might eventually have to leave with his family. He says the country should remain relatively normal for another two weeks to a month, giving the businessmen time to decide.
• After they leave, Chen delegates funeral-home matters to his Elder Uncle. He considers reopening the larger Fushou Funeral Center as a northern branch of Tianmen Funeral Home, though staffing will take time.
• In the courtyard, Chen studies a simplified feng shui formation. Realizing he lacks the necessary expertise, he uses his yin virtue to begin transferring the “Five-Wheel Earth Vein Regulation Technique” from his Notebook.

Character developments and interactions

• Xie Songde reveals both his fear of the spreading supernatural threat and his belief in Chen’s importance. He had intended to give Chen the Fushou Funeral Center and quietly hoped to gain exclusive access to his advice.
• Hong Fan openly tries to keep Chen nearby by offering homes and support; Song Peilin and Xie understand the self-protective motive and consider similar arrangements.
• Chen Miao acts as a candid adviser rather than offering false reassurance. He sets limits on what he can promise and prioritizes his uncertain work in Tianmen County.
• Chen Weiyi, initially worried about the visitors’ status, is reassured when he sees how deferential the powerful businessmen are toward Chen.

Significant themes

• Fear and uncertainty: Rumors of ghosts and escalating supernatural events unsettle even wealthy, influential people.
• Practical preparation: Chen recommends concrete safety measures while warning against relying on him alone.
• Power, trust, and self-interest: The businessmen’s respect for Chen is sincere but also driven by their desire for protection.
• Growth through learning: Chen recognizes that status alone cannot replace foundational knowledge and turns to a new skill inheritance to improve his abilities.

Plot points and events

• After receiving five skill transfers, Chen Miao spends half an hour absorbing a deep understanding of Feng Shui. Unsure how to measure his new level, he reviews the formations he has learned.
• He analyzes Wind Gate Village’s Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation and Wind Gate Yin-Hiding Formation. Together with corpse nurturing, they gathered, concealed, and consumed yin energy in balance—but recreating them across Tianmen County would be impractical because of the area’s size, the time required to prepare the trees, and the lack of a way to consume the enormous amount of yin energy.
• He considers the Ghost-Blinding Formation more useful for local protection. It can impose rules that affect ghosts, but its many variables mean Chen Miao must test each rule carefully before deploying it, lest an intended safeguard become dangerous.
• He has no immediate use for the Fu Tree Setting Sun Formation, which produces controllable Fire Souls, since the Funeral Home does not need a defensive formation of that kind and he lacks the soul bodies required for its ritual.
• Reviewing the formations reveals how much his understanding has grown: he can now grasp their construction, practical use, likely complications, and optimization—not just their stated effects.
• Feeling that Feng Shui Arts may not be so difficult after all, Chen Miao examines Headquarters’ simplified Yin-Cleansing Formation. Half an hour later, he opens the Notebook and begins another skill transfer.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from merely knowing formations by description to thinking like a practitioner who can assess feasibility, adapt techniques, and anticipate risks.
• His plans remain pragmatic and morally restrained: he rejects using every body sent to the Funeral Home for corpse nurturing, recognizing that he could not justify doing so.
• There is no direct interaction with other characters in the chapter. Feng Bujue’s old work serves as an example Chen Miao studies, while Headquarters’ simplified formation prompts his next attempt to deepen his skills.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and mastery: Greater understanding turns abstract techniques into practical tools, while also revealing their constraints.
• Pragmatism and adaptation: A powerful formation is not necessarily useful if its scale, setup time, or operating requirements cannot be met.
• Responsibility and risk: Chen Miao recognizes that experimental rules can endanger people, so protection must be tested before implementation.
• Balance: Wind Gate Village’s formations succeeded by balancing the gathering, concealment, and consumption of yin energy; Tianmen County lacks the conditions to reproduce that equilibrium.

Plot points and events

• After several more transmissions of the Five-Wheel Earth Vein Regulation Technique, Chen Miao masters small-scale Feng Shui formations and develops a workable plan for the Heavenly Gate formation. He judges himself an Earth-Rank Feng Shui Master, though not yet a grandmaster, and decides to conserve his remaining yin virtue.
• He crafts a batch of peachwood talismans using century-old peach wood. They offer durable, passive protection against ghosts, yin energy, and other dangers, making them useful for safeguarding friends and family while he prepares the formation.
• Chen Miao gathers Shi Manman, Xiang Shang, Li Zi, Yang Jiuhua, Ji Mo, and Luo Zhiyong to explain the changing supernatural situation and introduce them more fully to cultivation.
• He has also invited Hua Jianming and his former colleagues from Beitai City, expecting them to come for the information and opportunities he can offer. Chen Miao envisions these recruits helping turn Tianmen Funeral Home’s “Complete Funeral Services” into a real operation.

Character developments

• Chen Miao’s Feng Shui skills and confidence have grown, and he is beginning to think like a leader: he wants a capable group that can protect the county and support him when he is away.
• Shi Manman is already his sole disciple and has become stronger than Zhong Cai was at the same stage, though she may lack experience.
• Xiang Shang is steadily practicing the Extreme Yin Body-Refining Art and has progressed to completing two cycles per session.
• The others remain beginners, familiar with only a little about talismans and cultivation.

Significant themes

• Preparation and protection: Chen Miao uses practical, economical talismans to shield others against the growing threat of yin energy and supernatural attacks.
• Knowledge and opportunity: His understanding of the crisis gives him leverage to attract other cultivators.
• Teamwork and community: His experience abroad convinces him that a capable group is safer and more effective than relying on himself alone.
• Building an organization: The chapter marks the beginnings of a broader cultivation network centered on Tianmen Funeral Home.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao explains the supernatural changes and cultivation to his gathered friends and colleagues, aiming to give them the means to defend themselves.
• He treats the group not merely as companions but as potential allies and a reserve force for Tianmen County.
• His invitations to Hua Jianming and the Beitai group extend this effort, as he hopes to persuade them to join and help build the funeral home’s new enterprise.