Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao returns to the Eastern Mausoleum’s Main Mausoleum and begins absorbing divinity from the Divine Statues. The Incense-Free Lord’s statue contains vastly more divinity than the others, so he focuses on it.
• In Cangzhou, Provincial Governor Du Ruo tries to persuade Ye Fan, leader of the Blood Incense Path, to negotiate with Great Xia rather than continue a doomed conflict. Ye Fan reveals that Great Xia’s plan to create a god is meant to sever the connection between heaven and earth—and potentially cut off every cultivation path.
• Ye Fan learns through the Incense-Free Lord’s statue that Chen Miao has been draining the statues. When he sees that one has been completely emptied and destroyed, he orders the Incense-Free Path to prepare for Divine Descent, intending to descend himself.
• As Chen Miao continues absorbing divinity, the other seven statues crumble. The Notebook warns that Chen Miao is about to die. The Incense-Free Lord’s statue immobilizes him, and his escape abilities fail.
• A colossal golden finger appears above the mausoleum and presses through its roof, crushing the Blood Incense Path believers and forcing Chen Miao down. His antlers break and his body begins to fail.
• Realizing he cannot escape, Chen Miao orders the Notebook to absorb everything remaining in the Incense-Free Lord’s statue. It does so, the statue shatters, and the Notebook’s Incense Divinity entry changes from “Incomplete”—just as the finger’s descent and the surrounding world seem to halt.

Character developments

• Chen Miao remains eager to grow stronger, but faces the limits of his power when the divine pressure overwhelms him. Even at the apparent point of defeat, he thinks practically and uses the Notebook as a final means of survival or resistance.
• Ye Fan is revealed as a composed, strategic leader who understands the stakes of Great Xia’s plans. He is willing to gamble on Divine Descent when Chen Miao threatens the Blood Incense Path’s source of power.
• Du Ruo recognizes the enormous implications of severing heaven from earth, but keeps his alarm hidden and continues trying to prevent further conflict.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: Chen Miao’s immense strength and divine enhancements cannot overcome the force descending upon him.
• Faith, divinity, and control: Both the Blood Incense Path and Great Xia seek power over the divine—through borrowed divinity or the creation of a god.
• The cost of ambition: The struggle for power leaves civilians dead, believers expendable, and the world’s spiritual order at risk.
• Defiance in the face of death: Chen Miao’s final command shows stubborn resolve even when he appears completely trapped.

Character interactions

• Du Ruo confronts Ye Fan with the likely consequences of continuing the rebellion and offers to arrange negotiations with Great Xia. Ye Fan rejects the appeal, arguing that a plan is not the same as an accomplished victory.
• Ye Fan relies on the Incense-Free Path leader to connect him to the statue’s vision, then orders the group to prepare for his Divine Descent.
• Chen Miao’s relationship with the Notebook becomes crucial: when he cannot act, he recognizes its opportunity to absorb the remaining divinity and directly urges it to do so.

Key plot points and events

• After Chen Miao’s body is attacked by the golden finger, he separates from his physical form and is pulled out of the Mortal World. The Notebook merges with his soul, halting his passage toward another realm.
• A mysterious radiance reconstructs his soul. Chen Miao awakens as a False Deity, the lowest divine rank, and learns he can sense worshippers, protect them, affect their surroundings, and visit their dreams. The powers he grants depend on their faith, and can reflect statuses he has incorporated into his divinity.
• The Notebook now lists Chen Miao’s divine name as “Unnamed” and his incense divinity as “False Deity.” He wonders what the Notebook is, since it stopped the force guiding newly made gods away from the Mortal World, but chooses not to investigate.
• As Chen Miao descends toward the Mortal World, he encounters enormous eyes belonging to the Incense-Free Lord. The god explains that Chen Miao is unusual: unlike other gods, his true form remains in the Mortal World rather than in Chaos.
• The Incense-Free Lord manifests as a bronze ding cauldron. Chen Miao asks about gods and Chaos; the Incense-Free Lord agrees to explain in exchange for Chen Miao taking him to the Mortal World. Chen Miao accepts, and the Incense-Free Lord begins his account. Meanwhile, the Mortal World awaits its restart.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao adjusts quickly to his new divine identity, moving from confusion and shock to curiosity and cautious confidence. He considers whether the Notebook might let him absorb another god, but holds back until he understands the Incense-Free Lord better.
• The Incense-Free Lord appears curious rather than hostile. He examines Chen Miao and seeks to learn how a god could originate in the Mortal World. Their exchange becomes a bargain: knowledge for a trip back.
• Chen Miao tests whether the Incense-Free Lord can perceive the Notebook and discovers that the god cannot see it, making the object feel like a source of protection.

Significant themes

• Unusual divinity and disrupted order: Chen Miao’s presence in the Mortal World challenges the established rule that gods dwell in Chaos.
• Faith as power: A god’s ability to empower followers depends on their faith, linking divine strength to worship.
• The Notebook’s mystery: Its ability to interrupt the transition to Chaos—and remain invisible to a god—hints at power beyond ordinary divine systems.
• Curiosity, caution, and bargaining: Chen Miao and the Incense-Free Lord approach one another through questions and negotiation rather than immediate conflict.

Key plot points and events

• The Incense-Free Lord explains the relationship between the Incense Way and the Blood Incense Path. Incense followers provide vow power to gods and receive divine power in return; blood-sacrifice followers receive power carrying the gods’ karmic burden, unknowingly helping them shed it.
• Karmic burden both impedes a god’s growth and can eventually erode its consciousness. Humans are less vulnerable, but it can still make them unstable and extreme.
• Chen Miao checks his own karmic burden and discovers it is unusually heavy despite his recent ascension—and despite his never having performed blood sacrifices.
• He suspects his accumulation of yin virtue may be connected. Using his divinity, he sees a golden, silkworm-like entity devouring the karmic burden. The more yin virtue he supplies, the faster it feeds, revealing that yin virtue can counteract karmic burden.
• Chen Miao realizes that killing ghosts and yin cultivators may generate karmic burden even as it earns yin virtue. He wonders whether power transferred to his followers could provide a cleaner source.
• When asked his name, Chen Miao calls himself the Mortal Deity. The Notebook immediately establishes a new system: his followers can use his powers through Prayer Wishes, and their deeds generate yin virtue. They bear the associated burden themselves, then contribute some of their “clean” yin virtue to him.
• The Incense-Free Lord witnesses the golden silkworm and is stunned: he has believed followers were the only way to remove karmic burden. He resolves to stay close to Chen Miao and seek help, hoping to advance beyond True Deity toward becoming a Deity.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao moves from absorbing the Incense-Free Lord’s explanations to investigating his own powers and risks. He worries the Notebook may be exploiting him, but the visible karmic burden—and the silkworm consuming it—suggests the Notebook is not simply hiding a fatal danger.
• The Incense-Free Lord shifts from mentor to self-interested potential ally. His amazement at Chen Miao’s unusual ability becomes ambition: he wants access to a method that could help him overcome his own karmic burden.
• The two discuss divine mechanics, but Chen Miao’s discoveries outstrip the Lord’s established understanding. Chen Miao privately concludes that followers may be essential, while the Lord privately decides to cultivate a close relationship with him.

Significant themes

• Hidden costs of power: Blood-sacrifice followers unknowingly take on the burden gods cannot bear.
• Knowledge and trust: Chen Miao questions the Notebook’s motives but evaluates its actions rather than accepting or condemning it outright.
• Interdependence and exploitation: Gods rely on followers both for advancement and for managing karmic burden, though followers may not understand the price.
• A new path to growth: Chen Miao’s yin-virtue system may let him combine incense power with a separate mechanism for reducing karmic burden, potentially giving him an advantage over other gods.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao questions the Incense-Free Lord about the origins and number of Immortals and Gods. The deity explains that the Mortal World has passed through many ancient eras, and that gods come from countless universes—not just the Mortal World. The number of worlds gods can perceive changes as worlds are born, hidden, or destroyed.
• The Incense-Free Lord reveals that the Mortal World is weak and incomplete, and that gods are more interested in the other world connected to it. Chen Miao suspects this means reality, which may already be experiencing divine infiltration through the Administration’s Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends, as well as the more reckless actions of Evil Cultivators.
• Chen Miao confirms that his believers can still reach him through incense smoke in Cangzhou Prefecture, though his domain cannot bar a god whose true body is in the Mortal World. He and the Incense-Free Lord reaffirm their agreement.
• Returning to the Eastern Mausoleum, Chen Miao discovers that his own divinity vastly outweighs the borrowed power in the Blood Incense Path’s enormous golden-finger attack. He chooses not to destroy it, hoping the Blood Incense Path will think he is dead and leave him free to act without attracting its attention.
• Chen Miao merges the divinity of his Mirage-Escape Form into his incense-smoke divinity. This empowers the ability enough to create a convincing physical-body illusion, suggesting divinity can temporarily raise the effectiveness of statuses without permanently upgrading them with yin virtue.
• As the golden finger descends, Chen Miao activates a Divine Soul Domain, experiencing time as if magnified. This helps him infer that reality and the Mortal World alternate within one another’s brief periods of rising yang energy, explaining why he seems to gain extra time between worlds.
• The attack destroys the mausoleum and Chen Miao’s illusion, but he escapes unharmed. He reflects that gods travel by carrying their bodies with their divine souls, and that his own body may be changing under divine influence. He then heads toward the Heavenly Ruins Tomb to find the Old-Year Pagoda Tree Lord.
• Nearby, three Great Xia Imperial Family Grandmasters retreat after witnessing the attack. Their leader believes the Blood Incense Path staged the display to pressure the Imperial Family into negotiations. He declares that Great Xia ultimately intends to use Sever Heaven from Earth to possess the Mortal World’s sole god and establish permanent rule.

Character developments

• Chen Miao grows more cautious and strategic. Though confident in his new divine power, he avoids a conspicuous victory that could draw the Blood Incense Path’s pursuit and disrupt his plans.
• He learns to use divinity creatively, empowering an existing status rather than relying on costly permanent upgrades.
• The Incense-Free Lord offers broader cosmological knowledge and maintains a cooperative relationship with Chen Miao, while remaining guarded and enigmatic.
• The Great Xia leader is revealed as fiercely ambitious: he views the struggle not merely as a crisis to contain, but as a path to imperial domination.

Significant themes

• The expanding scale of the world: The Mortal World is one among countless universes, and gods’ reach shifts as worlds change.
• Infiltration and control: Divine influence is spreading into reality, while governments and cults compete over how—and whether—to use it.
• Power and restraint: Chen Miao’s strength gives him options, but concealment and patience may serve him better than open force.
• Time and interconnected worlds: The chapter presents reality and the Mortal World as linked through alternating temporal intervals, raising questions about why they are connected.
• Ambition and domination: Great Xia’s desire to claim the sole god and rule for ten thousand generations foreshadows a major political conflict.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao presses the Incense-Free Lord for answers about gods, worlds, and the Mortal World’s future, but withholds his suspicions about reality to avoid revealing a vulnerability.
• The two reaffirm their bargain and discuss the limits of Chen Miao’s ability to gather believers in Cangzhou.
• Chen Miao deliberately lets the Blood Incense Path’s attack proceed, using the resulting destruction to conceal his survival.
• The Great Xia Grandmasters discuss the attack and their next move, with their leader urging patience while portraying the Blood Incense Path as a potential negotiating partner.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao returns to the Heavenly Ruins Tomb and senses that the Old-Year Pagoda Tree Lord is a god. His divine power lets him enter the tree’s inner space and resist its overwhelming torrent of memories.
• At the center of that space, he finds a sphere that gives him a large amount of genuine divinity. The gain comes with a drastic increase in karmic burden, which he cannot undo.
• A leaf-shaped remnant shows him the tree’s history: a meteorite fragment entered the ancient tree, apparently helping it approach ascension. At the crucial moment, the fragment used the tree’s ascent to escape into the void, leaving the tree to fall back to earth.
• Chen Miao concludes that a god had fallen into the Mortal World and used the tree as a means of escape. The Notebook analyzes the remnant as [God’s Remnant (Incomplete)]; absorbing the tree completes the status. Chen Miao then leaves with the Old-Year Pagoda Tree Lord, ending its presence in the tomb.
• In Wanning Town, the Fox Immortal Path—part of the Blood Incense Path—has seized control, killed local Demon-Suppressing Guards, and forced residents to worship its deity. Fu Yun’s son Fu Zhou is condemned to be sacrificed after accidentally offending the sect.
• Fu Yun refuses his concubine’s plea to let their daughter Fu Xiang appeal to the Fox Immortal Path, fearing she will be endangered. The next morning, however, a sect Immortal Master identifies Fu Xiang as having a destined connection to the path and takes her instead as the replacement offering. Fu Zhou is released.
• After a dream teaches him a ritual for worshipping a god, Fu Yun performs it at his late wife Yu Niang’s memorial tablet. He sees no immediate sign that it worked, but the incense smoke rises straight upward and disappears.

Character developments

• Chen Miao grows in power and knowledge, but the discovery of the escaped god and the mysterious meteorite makes him feel less certain and more insignificant. He recognizes that learning more brings greater awe—and new unanswered questions.
• Fu Yun is pragmatic and fearful, willing to sacrifice one son rather than risk his daughter or the whole household. Yet his grief and guilt over Yu Niang remain strong, and the dream prompts him to try an act of faith despite his skepticism.
• Fu Xiang is shown to have a connection to the Fox Immortal Path, though she is taken away in a vacant, compliant state.
• Fu Yun’s concubine is desperate to save Fu Zhou and angry that Fu Yun will not let Fu Xiang intervene, exposing the family’s strained loyalties.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: Chen Miao gains divinity but inherits immense karmic burden; Fu Yun’s family has little power against a violent religious sect.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Each discovery expands Chen Miao’s understanding while making the world feel more mysterious and threatening.
• Faith under desperation: Fu Yun dismisses his dream as wishful thinking, yet still performs the ritual—leaving open whether belief can bring divine protection.
• Sacrifice and family loyalty: The crisis forces the Fu household to weigh one child’s life against another’s safety, amid grief, guilt, and unequal affection.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao directly examines the Old-Year Pagoda Tree Lord, accepts its divinity and memories, and absorbs the tree itself.
• Fu Yun clashes with his concubine over whether to risk Fu Xiang to save Fu Zhou; she accuses him of favoring his daughter, while he cannot bring himself to strike her.
• The Fox Immortal Immortal Master announces Fu Xiang’s “destined connection” and takes her away without resistance. Fu Yun is immobilized by the Master’s gaze and cannot stop it.
• In private, Fu Yun turns to Yu Niang’s memorial tablet, expressing his failure and grief before attempting the ritual that ends the chapter.

Plot points and events

• The Fox Immortal Path gathers Wanning Town’s residents at its newly expanded sanctuary and declares Mount Wanning off-limits to outsiders. It also demands compulsory attendance at ceremonies, religious “enlightenment” for newborns, and a believer in every household.
• During a blood sacrifice, two young women transform into white foxes. Fu Xiang, the third participant, does not transform, so the cult declares her a heretic and prepares to kill her.
• Fu Yun begs for his daughter’s life and offers to join the cult. When a fox attacks him, a golden light shields him, and a mysterious voice proclaims, “Who dares disturb my believer!”
• Supernatural flames engulf the sanctuary. They spare the townspeople but burn the Fox Immortal Path’s followers. Its leader flees, yet the fire follows him; after a final mysterious “Hmph,” he is consumed.
• The flames return to Fu Yun. He rescues the unconscious Fu Xiang and promises the townspeople an explanation the next day. He then brings her to the ancestral hall, offers incense, and fulfills a vow to the being he calls his deity. Incense smoke revives Fu Xiang, and she sees a new tablet bearing the name “Mortal Deity.”

Character developments and interactions

• Fu Yun moves from a frightened father pleading with a powerful cult to a confident, protected believer. He acts decisively to save Fu Xiang, rebukes the townspeople who had abandoned him, and publicly claims the mysterious power’s significance.
• Fu Xiang is nearly sacrificed, then survives and awakens through her father’s ritual offering. Her recognition of the “Mortal Deity” tablet hints at a personal connection to the deity.
• The Fox Immortal Path’s leader shifts from assured authority to rage and desperation as his followers and ambitions are destroyed. His final suspicion that the power belongs to an “Incense-Free Lord” suggests a larger religious conflict.
• The townspeople first cower before the cult, then turn to Fu Yun after witnessing the miracle, hoping to learn about or benefit from his protection. His family, who had retreated during the attack, later follows him and helps carry Fu Xiang.

Significant themes

• Faith and protection: Fu Yun’s vow and devotion appear to summon a power capable of defending him and his daughter.
• Coercion versus belief: The Fox Immortal Path enforces worship through threats and sacrifice, while Fu Yun’s devotion is personal and voluntary.
• Power and legitimacy: The cult’s apparent supernatural authority collapses when confronted by a greater force, leaving open the question of who—or what—the Mortal Deity is.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao has fused the divinity from Five Hells Immortal into his incense divinity, sacrificing the status itself. This greatly expands the reach of Five Prisons Descend: he can now mark targets across dozens of miles, making them feel fire burn body and soul.
• Fu Yun has become Chen Miao’s first true believer. Chen Miao discovers that he can grant believers lasting abilities and divinity; believers can strengthen these gifts by spending yin virtue, which ultimately flows back to Chen Miao.
• Fu Yun gathers Wanning Town’s residents at the Fox Immortal Path’s former ritual grounds. He openly credits the previous day’s supernatural events to the Mortal Deity, promises money to establish a shrine, and urges the townspeople to keep the deity’s existence secret from the Blood Incense Path.
• Residents begin offering donations, including ordinary families who see the deity as a possible lifeline. Fu Yun’s daughter, Fu Xiang, publicly worships the Mortal Deity.
• During her offering, incense smoke rises despite the surrounding conditions. Chen Miao appears as an apparition, touches Fu Xiang’s forehead, and vanishes. Wind then lifts her into the air, demonstrating that she has received the deity’s power.
• Yin Zheng, an undercover officer of the Demon-Suppressing Bureau, recognizes the significance: an incense god has manifested within the Blood Incense Path’s supposedly suppressive feng-shui formation. He kneels, announcing that an incense god free of the Blood Incense Path has appeared.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more powerful by incorporating Five Hells divinity into his incense power. He also begins thinking like a god with followers and resources, noticing that believers’ faith and yin virtue can strengthen both them and him.
• Fu Yun shifts from desperate petitioner to committed believer and public advocate. He protects the town by revealing enough to inspire support while insisting that the Mortal Deity does not force belief.
• Fu Xiang moves from victim of the Fox Immortal Path to the first public recipient of Chen Miao’s blessing. Her father prepares her for the ritual, and her transformation provides the crowd with visible proof of the deity’s power.
• Yin Zheng changes from a rescued, suspicious observer into the first person to understand the event’s broader implications. His questions to townspeople and self-experiment—burning his clothes to test whether smoke appears—confirm that Chen Miao’s incense manifestation is extraordinary.
• The townspeople, initially fearful and curious, respond to Fu Yun’s testimony with donations and growing attention. Their willingness to support the shrine reflects their hope for protection.

Significant themes

• Faith and protection: Belief becomes both a personal commitment and a possible defense against the Blood Incense Path.
• Power and reciprocity: Chen Miao grants lasting abilities, while believers’ faith and yin virtue empower him in return.
• Hope under oppression: Ordinary residents are especially quick to contribute because they understand the need for a “lifesaving straw.”
• Public revelation and secrecy: Fu Yun must build a community around the Mortal Deity while concealing that community from a dangerous enemy.
• A challenge to religious control: Chen Miao’s independent manifestation suggests that the Blood Incense Path does not hold absolute power over worship or the divine.

Plot points and events

• In Cangzhou Prefecture, Governor Du Ruo tells Ye Fan that the Great Xia Imperial Family is offering the Blood Incense Path legal status, a protected territory elsewhere, and a new government bureau led by Ye Fan—provided the sect leaves Cangzhou.
• Ye Fan rejects the offer. He argues that the Blood Incense Path answers to the Incense-Free Lord, not the Year Star Dao, and doubts even Great Xia’s unfinished demigod could challenge that power. He says the sect intends to survive by making the world adapt to it—and may ultimately become a god itself.
• Fu Xiang reveals that the Mortal Deity has blessed her with control over wind. She uses it to lift the kneeling crowd, prompting many to seek the same power. Fu Yun cautions them to worship sincerely rather than simply pursue strength.
• Yin Zheng, the man Fu Xiang injured while under the Fox Immortal Path’s influence, asks Fu Yun for help worshipping the Mortal Deity. After making an offering, he receives the ability Subtle Insight into Truth, which lets him perceive distant details as though they were close.
• As Yin Zheng leaves town, his Demon-Suppressing Bureau Ghost Body Manifestation unexpectedly returns. He suspects the Mortal Deity—not a setback for the Blood Incense Path—restored it. Realizing the news could be crucial, he abandons his usual contact route and heads through the forest to carry it beyond Cangzhou.
• Chen Miao watches Yin Zheng leave, pleased that the Mortal Deity may attract the Great Xia Imperial Family and Demon-Suppressing Bureau as believers. He returns to oversee construction of the first divine statue and shrine.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Fan becomes more openly defiant, dismissing Great Xia’s concessions and expressing an ambition for the Blood Incense Path to reshape the world—or become its god.
• Du Ruo moves from negotiating on Great Xia’s behalf to recognizing the scale of the Incense-Free Lord’s influence and the weakness of the imperial offer.
• Fu Xiang demonstrates her new divine blessing, while Fu Yun manages the crowd and guides prospective believers toward sincere worship.
• Yin Zheng shifts from an injured outsider to a newly empowered believer and potential messenger. His restored Bureau power leaves him both hopeful and alarmed.
• Chen Miao deliberately lets Yin Zheng escape, recognizing that the Bureau and imperial government may be important recipients of the Mortal Deity’s influence.

Significant themes

• Faith and power: The Mortal Deity’s blessings can grant extraordinary abilities, but Fu Yun warns against treating worship as a mere bargain for power.
• Competing claims to divinity: Both the Blood Incense Path and Great Xia seek power over the mortal world, while Chen Miao’s deity may offer a third force.
• Adaptation versus destruction: Ye Fan frames the Blood Incense Path’s struggle as a choice between being crushed by the existing world and forcing that world to change.
• Unintended consequences: The Mortal Deity’s blessing restores Yin Zheng’s Bureau ability, potentially altering the balance between the sect, the state, and the deity.

Plot and key events

• Lu Gui, Evergreen Town’s Demon-Suppressing Bureau chief, is relieved that his small town escaped the Blood Incense Path’s takeover. While patrolling, he mistakes the exhausted Yin Zheng for a threat and attacks him. Yin Zheng, panicked after carrying crucial intelligence through dangerous territory, strikes Lu Gui down and continues toward town.
• Yin Zheng reaches the Bureau but is repeatedly made to wait while guards verify his identity. He nearly forces his way inside before being admitted to a meeting with Cangzhou Bureau Chief Chu Xiu.
• The meeting’s leaders discuss how to respond to the Blood Incense Path, which has rejected peace and seeks to rule Cangzhou independently. The Great Xia Imperial Family favors renewed negotiations while gathering more Heaven-Ascending Grandmasters, infiltrating the prefecture, and dismantling its Grand Feng Shui Formation. A direct assault is considered too dangerous because of the overwhelming power demonstrated at the Eastern Mausoleum.
• Tensions flare when Chu Xiu trades barbs with imperial retainer Xia Yan. Yan Nangui’s frightening Blood Fiend manifestation suppresses Xia Yan’s attack, and a visiting grandmaster intervenes to cool the confrontation.
• After the meeting, Chu Xiu privately asks how long Yan Nangui can endure. Yan Nangui cannot say, and Chu Xiu is saddened by the loss and decline of familiar allies. Though he accepts the imperial plan for now, he privately remains determined to avenge Cangzhou’s dead and is open to exploiting any future conflict.
• Yin Zheng reports that the spirit tablet of the Mortal Deity he worships may allow Ghost Body Manifestations to function despite the Blood Incense Path’s restrictions. Chu Xiu tests the claim outside the Grand Feng Shui Formation: Yin Zheng’s manifestation appears, while Chu Xiu’s does not. Convinced, Chu Xiu promotes Yin Zheng to Banner Commander and orders him to recount everything about the deity.
• Elsewhere, Chen Miao extracts divinity from several statuses and adds it to the Incense Divinity. He hears of Chu Xiu and judges him a promising potential follower.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Gui goes from resentment over his modest posting to gratitude that it kept him out of the Blood Incense Path’s sweep. His ambition remains, but his overconfident attack leaves him badly injured.
• Yin Zheng is exhausted and dangerously suspicious after his journey, but succeeds in delivering vital information. His discovery brings him an extraordinary promotion.
• Chu Xiu stays composed amid the military crisis, clashes verbally with Xia Yan, and opposes letting negotiations excuse the Blood Incense Path’s survival. Yin Zheng’s revelation gives him a potentially valuable new lead.
• Yan Nangui has grown much stronger as his body deteriorates. His power intimidates even elite allies, but his uncertain remaining lifespan troubles Chu Xiu.
• Xia Yan’s arrogance provokes Yan Nangui’s threatening response; Liu Jing steps in to prevent the dispute from worsening.
• Chen Miao continues strengthening the Incense Divinity and begins considering Chu Xiu as a suitable follower.

Significant themes

• Survival and fortune: Lu Gui’s once-resented lack of status proves protective.
• Power at a cost: Yan Nangui’s growing strength accompanies severe physical decline.
• Pragmatism versus vengeance: The imperial strategy prioritizes negotiation and containment, while Chu Xiu seeks justice for Cangzhou’s dead.
• Faith as a source of power: Yin Zheng’s Mortal Deity connection appears to bypass restrictions that disable other practitioners, potentially changing the balance of the conflict.

Chen Miao fused numerous lower-tier statuses into his incense divinity and blessed five sincere believers in Wanning Town with wind-controlling abilities. Meanwhile, Yin Zheng introduced ten Demon-Suppressing Bureau officers to the Mortal Deity, and their first successful worship left even Bureau Chief Chu Xiu helpless before the god’s power.

• Chen Miao finished extracting his first- and second-tier statuses, discovered he could temporarily fuse their powers using recoverable divinity, and blessed five sincere residents of Wanning Town with Wind Granny-related abilities.
• Chu Xiu gathered ten Junior Banner Officers and had Yin Zheng lead them into Cangzhou’s grand feng shui formation, where their Ghost Body Manifestations vanished while Yin Zheng’s remained.
• Yin Zheng explained that the officers needed to worship the Mortal Deity sincerely if they hoped to reclaim Cangzhou Prefecture, then gave them tablets, incense, and instructions to begin worshipping.
• When none of the officers’ incense produced smoke, Yin Zheng told them to try again with genuine devotion or return to confinement until Cangzhou was reclaimed.
• One Junior Banner Officer finally produced incense smoke, and an overwhelming force immobilized everyone present, including the concealed Chu Xiu.
• Chu Xiu realized that the Mortal Deity’s power surpassed what the Blood Incense Path could restrain and worried about how the Bureau could dismiss the god after defeating that threat.

Chen Miao tested how his divine soul domain could accelerate time, then returned to the Tianmen Funeral Home and planned to reveal the Mortal Deity’s power. When Blood Pupil threatened Tianmen County, the Mortal Deity appeared and crushed it.

• Kong Yue revealed her three blessings and demonstrated Frost Prison, which froze the nine other Junior Banner Officers and briefly affected Chu Xiu.
• Four more Junior Banner Officers received the Mortal Deity’s favor, and Yin Zheng confirmed that the strength of their faith was not due to gender.
• Chen Miao used his divine soul domain to accelerate time, returned to his real-world body, and rejoined Shi Manman and the staff at the Tianmen Funeral Home.
• Blood Pupil appeared over Tianmen County, and the sight left Chen Guokun, Tong Yu, Baili Xuanyan, and the others unable to respond.
• The Mortal Deity appeared behind Blood Pupil, caught and crushed it, and declared that it had invaded land under the Mortal Deity’s protection.

Chen Miao visited the Old Mother Shrine and, unable to reclaim its followers’ incense power, decided to establish a Mortal Deity Shrine at Mentou Mountain. Meanwhile, Chen Guokun dreamed of the Mortal Deity suppressing Blood Pupil there, and Headquarters investigators revealed that Chen Miao had previously defeated Blood Pupil, leaving the Tianmen County staff stunned by their director’s reputation.

• Chen Miao’s aunt and Elder Uncle took him to worship at the Old Mother Shrine, believing the Mortal Deity was another name for the Old Mother Goddess.
• At the shrine, Chen Miao found that its statue held incense-derived vow power he could not absorb, so he decided to create a Mortal Deity Shrine on Mentou Mountain.
• Chen Miao chose Chen Guokun as the Mortal Deity’s first follower in the real world.
• Chen Guokun dreamed that the Mortal Deity suppressed Blood Pupil inside Mentou Mountain and became a statue on its peak.
• Lei Zhan and Xia Lin arrived with investigators from Headquarters and Shannan City, then waited for Chen Miao to return.
• Xia Lin told the investigators that Chen Miao had dispersed Blood Pupil in the Island Nation, shocking Chen Guokun, Tong Yu, Baili Xuanyan, and the others.

Chen Guokun followed the Mortal Deity’s instructions from his dreams and performed an offering on Mentou Mountain, awakening a towering divine statue that purified Tianmen County. Powerful beings across Great Xia and beyond sensed the event, and Chen Miao waited to see who would come.

• Chen Miao joined Lei Zhan, Xia Lin, Chen Guokun, and Li Quan at Mentou Mountain, where Chen Guokun found the character for “mortal” carved into the rock and saw the Mortal Deity’s apparition.
• Xia Lin ordered Mentou Mountain cordoned off, while Chen Miao reassured Chen Guokun and the group awaited Headquarters’ response.
• Chen Guokun dreamed that failing to make offerings would free Blood Pupil and destroy Tianmen County, then went to Mentou Mountain with ritual supplies before one in the morning.
• Chen Guokun burned joss paper and incense and bowed, causing the Mortal Deity’s apparition to emerge and a huge stone statue to rise from the summit.
• The statue’s power swept away Tianmen County’s yin energy and purified its ghosts, while powerful beings across Great Xia and other nations sensed the event.
• Chen Miao detected more than a hundred probing thoughts directed at him and wondered how many would come.

Lin Guanyi convened Great Xia’s senior officials to explain that the Immortals and Gods had sensed a new power in Great Xia and sought to destroy it. Chen Guokun’s ritual revealed that Chen Miao’s Mortal Deity could strip away a star’s divine favor, while Luo Que correctly guessed that the Mortal Deity had staged the confrontation to attract followers; Chen Miao considered using the same method to create more followers.

• Lin Guanyi told the deputy directors and Luo Que that the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends had been compelled by their corresponding Immortals and Gods to seek out and destroy a newly appeared power.
• Lin Ran showed footage and reports from Tianmen County, where Chen Guokun’s dream led investigators to a character reading “mortal” and a hundred-foot statue on Mentou Mountain.
• Lei Zhan transformed into a stone giant and struck the statue, but the Mortal Deity’s illusory arm seized his star and shattered the Immortal or God’s favor; Chen Guokun declared himself a follower of the Mortal Deity.
• Luo Que connected the Mortal Deity to the Five Prisons Common-Faced Deity Lord and proposed that Blood Pupil and the Mortal Deity had staged the confrontation as a performance to gain followers.
• Chen Miao sensed that someone was discussing the Mortal Deity, checked his Notebook, and wondered if he could turn the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends into followers.