Chapter Summaries

Luo Bin and Hu Jin searched the underground passages beneath Floating Tortoise Mountain, and Luo Bin used the warmth in his left hand to follow the strongest life force. After finding another entrance and realizing Hu Jin could not sense life force as he could, Luo Bin named his supposed teacher Yuan Yinxin, but admitted he did not know their school.

• Hu Jin led Luo Bin to the farthest point he had reached before, where a marker showed that the passage did not lead directly up the mountain.
• Luo Bin mapped the branching tunnels and chose routes while Hu Jin followed, and they spent seven days underground until their provisions were nearly gone.
• By rewinding his memories, Luo Bin realized that the warmth in his left hand stayed strongest and steady on the correct route.
• Luo Bin led Hu Jin through the darkness without a flashlight and found an uphill passage with scattered shoes and another narrow opening.
• Luo Bin asked Hu Jin whether he could sense the stronger life force, and Hu Jin became alarmed when he realized Luo Bin could perceive its strength from far away.
• Hu Jin asked who Luo Bin's teacher was, and Luo Bin said his name was Yuan Yinxin before admitting he did not know their school's name.

Luo Bin learned that his lineage was the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds, then discovered that Blackblood Vines and hanging horrors surrounded the Mountain God Temple. After an evil entity attacked inside, he carried Hu Jin up into the roof beams to escape the danger.

• Hu Jin recognized Qin Jiumo's name and told Luo Bin that he belonged to the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds, which had been nearly unseen for years.
• Luo Bin and Hu Jin decided to leave the temple to search for food and water, since their supplies were running low.
• Luo Bin stopped Hu Jin from opening the temple doors and saw banyans covered in Blackblood Vines, with petal-headed figures hanging beneath the canopy.
• Hu Jin urged Luo Bin to move deeper into the temple, where an evil entity emerged from behind the Mountain God Statue and lunged at him.
• Luo Bin severed the entity's neck and crippled its legs, then carried Hu Jin up a pillar into the roof beams as something crawled nearby.

Luo Bin and Hu Jin escaped the Mountain God Temple by opening its doors and slipping out over the roof, then continued through the dangerous mountainside. They found a compound with a copper-nail gate, which Luo Bin suspected was the Feng family's Main Household.

• Luo Bin opened the Mountain God Temple doors while Hu Jin distracted the evil spirits, then the two escaped through the roof.
• Hu Jin guided Luo Bin out through an open patch behind the temple and praised him for not abandoning him.
• Hu Jin argued that practitioners should sacrifice useless people to save useful ones, but Luo Bin rejected his way of thinking.
• Luo Bin warned Hu Jin that he could leave if he was useless, but Hu Jin insisted he could still help and followed him.
• After searching unsuccessfully for food, Luo Bin spotted a compound with a copper-nail gate and suspected it was the Feng family's Main Household.

Song Tianzhu forced Huang Ying back to the Song estate and revealed that he had killed Feng Si, then learned Luo Bin was nearby and set out to meet him. Luo Bin sneezed on the road and wondered who was thinking of him.

• Luo Bin and Hu Jin passed near the Song estate, while Song Tianzhu pressured Huang Ying to accept her return to the Song Family.
• Song Tianzhu admitted that he had killed Feng Si and that the Song Family had abandoned the Feng Family and taken its supplies.
• Huang Ying mentioned Luo Bin, and Song Tianzhu questioned her about him before locking her in the courtyard.
• A clansman reported seeing a Feng Family member traveling with a stranger, and Song Tianzhu decided the stranger was Luo Bin and went to find him.
• Luo Bin sneezed and wondered whether Feng Luo, Gu Ya, or Gu Yiren was thinking of him.

Luo Bin and Hu Jin were ambushed by Song Tianzhu’s group, who mistook their identities and attacked. Luo Bin revealed himself, fought back despite being restrained, and ended the chapter tearing flesh from two attackers’ arms.

• Luo Bin and Hu Jin reached a stream, where twelve Song Family members surrounded them.
• Song Tianzhu mistook Hu Jin for Luo Bin and ordered his men to kill Hu Jin while sparing Luo Bin.
• Luo Bin revealed that he was the man Song Tianzhu had been looking for and narrowly dodged his attack.
• Song Tianzhu’s men restrained Luo Bin with steel wires and rushed him with weapons.
• Luo Bin broke through the attackers’ formation, killed a man with a copper-coin sword, and survived six weapons striking him.
• Luo Bin seized two attackers by their forearms and tore away chunks of flesh.

Luo Bin survived Song Tianzhu’s attack and escaped with Hu Jin, aided by an unseen force that killed two of his assailants. As they left, Luo Bin wondered whether the mysterious presence was a Si from Floating Tortoise Mountain and why it kept helping him.

• Luo Bin tore through his attackers’ defenses, killing one man while Song Tianzhu’s men discovered that blades could not pierce his body.
• When Luo Bin was restrained and faced attacks on his eyes and throat, an unseen force suddenly killed the two men holding his arms, allowing him to break free.
• Song Tianzhu and the surviving attackers fled, but Luo Bin threw a blade into one man’s thigh before telling Hu Jin to leave with him.
• Luo Bin and Hu Jin walked away as evil spirits arrived, drawn by the blood and screams left behind.
• Luo Bin reviewed the unexplained deaths and recalled that Feng Yi had died in a similar fashion, then wondered who was helping him and whether he could cooperate with it.

Luo Bin and Hu Jin prepared supplies by a mountain creek while the Song Family learned of Luo Bin’s deadly abilities and Song Tianzhu took his anger out on Huang Ying. The chapter ended with Luo Bin silently examining his ruined clothes as Hu Jin wondered whether they should flee or avoid the Song Family.

• Luo Bin and Hu Jin continued upstream, found a quiet place, and prepared roasted game and water for their journey.
• Song Tianzhu reported Luo Bin’s attack to the Song Family, and the family head ordered him to question Huang Ying about Luo Bin.
• Song Tianzhu beat Huang Ying and demanded information, but she mocked him and refused to reveal anything about Luo Bin.
• Huang Ying bit Song Tianzhu when he tried to tear apart a bundle of clothes, and Song Tianzhu took the bundle after knocking her unconscious.
• Hu Jin asked Luo Bin whether they should return or avoid the Song Family, while Luo Bin stood silently and looked at his torn clothes.

Luo Bin decided to rescue Huang Ying and confront the Song Family, but he realized they might have anticipated an approach from the Xun Direction. He warned Hu Jin that the route was likely a deadly trap, leaving their next move unresolved.

• Luo Bin chose to repay the Feng Family’s kindness by rescuing Huang Ying, and Hu Jin agreed to accompany him.
• Hu Jin proposed infiltrating the Song Family estate from the southwest, using the hexagrams to find Huang Ying without drawing attention.
• Luo Bin and Hu Jin circled toward the Xun Direction and waited near the estate as darkness fell.
• Luo Bin felt an ominous warning and reasoned that the Song Family might have prepared for practitioners to approach from the Xun Direction.
• Luo Bin concluded that the Xun Direction was a trap and asked Hu Jin what they should do instead.

Luo Bin and Hu Jin followed the sixteen-hexagram logic into the Song Family compound and found Huang Ying chained up and badly injured. After learning of the Feng Family’s losses, they prepared to free her, but an unfamiliar man entered the room.

• Luo Bin reasoned that the Song Family’s attempt to hide Huang Ying would still leave her location shaped by the hexagram positions, and led Hu Jin toward the solid hexagram position.
• Luo Bin and Hu Jin crossed the Song Family’s wall and followed the scent of blood to a room where they found Huang Ying.
• Huang Ying told them that Third Grandpa was dead, Song Tianzhu had taken the Feng Family’s supplies and medicine, and she did not know whether the other elders had survived.
• Hu Jin confirmed that Zhan Qing and You Yang were alive, and he and Luo Bin prepared to cut Huang Ying’s chain and escape with her.
• After footsteps approached, Luo Bin and Hu Jin hid under the bed as Huang Ying sat beside it, and an unfamiliar man entered and expressed concern for her.

Luo Bin rescued Huang Ying and Hu Jin from the Song Family, then stayed behind to wreak havoc and raid the family’s Collection Garden. He broke into the room of warding objects, intent on taking what the Song Family had seized from the Feng Family.

• Luo Bin killed Song Renshu as he tried to assault Huang Ying, then learned from Huang Ying that the Song Family had sent more than thirty people to the Taoist Abbey on Floating Tortoise Mountain, none of whom had returned alive.
• Luo Bin broke Hu Jin’s chain and escorted Hu Jin and Huang Ying out, but stayed behind to cripple the Song Family and deter it from pursuing the Feng Family.
• Luo Bin left Song Renshu’s mutilated body outside a courtyard and set fires in several parts of the compound to draw the Song Family’s people away.
• Luo Bin disguised himself as a soot-covered messenger, killed the two guards at the Collection Garden, and entered it with a key he took from one of them.
• Luo Bin found the room marked for warding objects and began hacking at its locked door with his bone-cleaving knife.

Luo Bin raided the Song Family’s room of suppressive objects, took their Luo Compass and other artifacts, and set the residence ablaze before escaping. Li Tianqian confronted him in the woods with a horde of controlled evil spirits, leaving Luo Bin nearly surrounded and struggling to find a way out.

• Luo Bin found the Song Family’s Luo Compass, then filled a Black Cloth Pouch with talismans and suppressive objects.
• Luo Bin set fire to the Song Family’s residence and escaped over a rooftop instead of using the courtyard gate.
• Luo Bin sensed he was being followed and confronted Li Tianqian of the Floating Tortoise Mountain Taoist Grounds.
• Li Tianqian summoned dozens of evil spirits, and Luo Bin realized they were under his control.
• Luo Bin hurled a knife at Li Tianqian, but it struck an evil spirit standing in his place.
• Luo Bin spotted Li Tianqian behind the spirit as more than ten evil spirits closed in around him.

Luo Bin survived Li Tianqian’s assault by tearing apart the evil spirits sent after him, but Li Tianqian died mysteriously as the Black Blood Vine began to spread. Song Tianzhu followed Luo Bin into the woods, while Luo Bin washed himself in a stream and used his compass to find his bearings.

• Luo Bin was seized and bitten by dozens of evil spirits, but fought back with his hands until he had destroyed them.
• Luo Bin confronted Li Tianqian, who tried to use a bleeding palm and Black Blood Vine to control Moss Eater.
• Li Tianqian suddenly spat out a piece of flesh and died before he could finish begging for his life, as the Black Blood Vine spread over his corpse and nearby trees.
• Song Tianzhu watched Li Tianqian die, then followed Luo Bin through the trees despite his fear.
• Luo Bin left without searching Li Tianqian’s body, walked north for a long time, washed in a stream, and used his compass to determine his direction.

After escaping Song Tianzhu, Luo Bin returned to the Mountain God Temple, where he reunited with Huang Ying and considered taking her onward with him and Hu Jin. He discovered Hu Jin had lied about his usefulness on the mountain, leaving their uneasy alliance in doubt.

• Luo Bin lost Song Tianzhu while following a compass bearing, and Song Tianzhu returned to find the Song Family estate badly burned and its supplies and Collection Garden destroyed.
• Song Tianzhu told the Song Family that Luo Bin had killed a Taoist Grounds master and claimed Luo Bin had targeted the family long before the dispute over Huang Ying; the family head confronted him with a saber.
• Luo Bin entered the Mountain God Temple and reunited with Hu Jin and Huang Ying, who embraced him and offered to sew him new clothes.
• Luo Bin rejected Huang Ying's offer, explained that the Song Family was unlikely to trouble the Feng Family again, and weighed how to get Huang Ying safely down the mountain.
• Hu Jin suggested bringing Huang Ying along, and Luo Bin realized Hu Jin had lied about having an important role at the summit and pressed him to confess what else he had concealed.

Luo Bin gave Hu Jin and Huang Ying ritual artifacts from the Song Family’s collection and continued deeper into the mountain with them. After three days, they reached a strange chamber where the passage narrowed into a fissure, while Shangguan Xingyue secretly followed behind them.

• Luo Bin reassured Hu Jin that he would not abandon him, then told Huang Ying he would leave her somewhere safe, though he could not promise to return for her.
• Luo Bin gave Hu Jin the Song Family’s warding objects and told Huang Ying to take the remaining items back to the Feng Family as compensation.
• Hu Jin equipped himself and Huang Ying with talisman plaques and bells, explaining how the artifacts could protect them from evil spirits.
• After the trio entered the space beneath the Mountain God Statue, Shangguan Xingyue emerged from above, injured from killing a powerful practitioner, and praised Luo Bin’s progress.
• Luo Bin, Hu Jin, and Huang Ying traveled through the mountain for three days and reached a chamber with stone platforms and a narrow fissure leading onward.

Luo Bin discovered that the life force in Floating Tortoise Mountain’s hidden passage was turning him, Hu Jin, and Huang Ying into evil spirits, so he led them back to a Mountain God Temple. He hid Hu Jin and Huang Ying in the rafters and left to find a safer route, while Shangguan Xingyue emerged from hiding without realizing they were still there.

• Luo Bin noticed his middle finger darkening and saw that Hu Jin and Huang Ying also showed signs of decay.
• Hu Jin realized that the life force blowing through the passage transformed bound victims into evil spirits and was doing the same to them.
• Luo Bin led the group out of the passage and concluded that the Floating Tortoise Mountain Taoist Grounds had made the shortcut a trap for intruders.
• Luo Bin decided to find a safer route and hid Hu Jin and Huang Ying separately among the temple’s roof beams.
• Shangguan Xingyue emerged from behind the mountain god statue after Luo Bin left, unaware that Hu Jin and Huang Ying were hidden above her.

Luo Bin searched the apparently deserted Floating Tortoise Mountain Taoist Grounds, where Li Qi, Li Xiang, and Li Kan ambushed him. As Luo Bin fought back against their attacks, Shangguan Xingyue confronted someone following her outside the grounds.

• Luo Bin entered the Floating Tortoise Mountain Taoist Grounds and found the courtyard seemingly empty, then decided to search the rooms for information.
• A hidden attacker fired poisoned needles at Luo Bin, who kicked open a door and was confronted by Li Kan wielding a human-skin talisman.
• Luo Bin slashed Li Kan's right forearm in two despite Li Qi and Li Xiang shouting for him to stop.
• Li Qi and Li Xiang attacked Luo Bin with blackblood vines as a monstrous creature lunged at him from behind, and Luo Bin struck at its snapping jaws.
• Shangguan Xingyue hurried toward the grounds, stopped, and told the person following her to come out of hiding.

Shangguan Xingyue revealed herself to Huang Ying as Luo Bin’s senior fellow disciple, while Luo Bin fought the Moss Eaters in the Taoist Grounds. After rescuing Li Kan, Luo Bin found the woods surrounded by approaching threats and saw Huang Ying immobilized among the shadows.

• Shangguan Xingyue confronted Huang Ying, identified herself as Luo Bin’s senior fellow disciple, and asked why Huang Ying cared so much about him.
• Li Xiang and Li Qi fled the Taoist Grounds as five Moss Eaters overwhelmed Luo Bin and the Blackblood Vine consumed Li Kan.
• Luo Bin freed Li Kan’s arm from the Blackblood Vine and carried him toward the gate after Li Kan warned him that others were coming.
• Luo Bin found the Mutated Woods surrounded by shadows and vines, then turned toward the back of the Small Taoist Grounds when he could not escape through the woods.
• Luo Bin spotted Huang Ying in the distance, slumped against a tree with a dagger hilt in her forehead and unable to move or speak.

Luo Bin hid in a cave with the injured Li Kan and pieced together the schemes surrounding the Blackblood Vine and the Taoist Grounds. After pressuring Li Kan, he learned that the boy could tell him how to cross the Yin Death Path.

• Luo Bin took the unconscious Li Kan to a hidden cave, treated him, and cut off his badly injured forearm.
• Luo Bin reasoned that Floating Tortoise Mountain sought complete control of the Blackblood Vine and that the Lord of Cabinet Mountain was pursuing a similar goal.
• Li Kan woke and attacked Luo Bin, but Luo Bin caught his blade and forced him to answer questions.
• Luo Bin threatened and enticed Li Kan by pointing out his potential future status and asking whether he wanted to cooperate or die.
• Li Kan agreed to tell Luo Bin how to cross the Yin Death Path.

Luo Bin forced Li Kan to guide him along a Yin Death Road toward the heart of Floating Tortoise Mountain, where they found a cavern filled with Blackblood Vines and Moss Eaters. As Luo Bin considered whether he could sever or control the Main Vine, Shangguan Xingyue searched for Hu Jin while Hu Jin secretly followed her.

• Luo Bin gave Li Kan medicine and ordered him to lead the way, while Shangguan Xingyue searched the Mountain God Temple for Hu Jin and Hu Jin hid nearby after witnessing her attack Huang Ying.
• After night passed, Luo Bin and Li Kan followed a safe path to a cave, where Li Kan explained that the Blackblood Vine was partly awake and that straying from the path could provoke the Moss Eaters.
• Luo Bin made Li Kan continue guiding him into the cave, and they reached a vast central cavern filled with vines and Moss Eaters, with seven other entrances surrounding it.
• Luo Bin wondered where the Main Vine was and whether he could sever or control it.

Luo Bin and Li Kan hid among the Blackblood Vine as Li Yunyi entered the cave, calling for his junior sister and revealing his plans to use an Incense Burner. Luo Bin realized Li Yunyi was trying to lure Shangguan Xingyue out, and wondered what the burner could do.

• Luo Bin asked Li Kan where the Blackblood Vine's Main Vine was, and Li Kan said it was rooted somewhere in the cave.
• Li Kan heard approaching footsteps and crouched with Luo Bin to hide among the vines.
• Li Yunyi appeared, sensed a junior sister nearby, and called for her to show herself.
• Li Yunyi spoke as though he knew his martial uncle had sent his junior sister, and Luo Bin realized he was trying to draw Shangguan Xingyue out.
• Li Yunyi threatened his junior sister, mentioned lighting an Incense Burner for her, and entered the cave while avoiding the Blackblood Vine.