Chapter Summaries

Luo Bin avoided a reckless confrontation with the Cabinet Mountain pursuer while Bai Wei explained Yuan Yinxin’s plans to domesticate Spirit Mediums and use their inheritance. Bai Wei urged Luo Bin to master his Spirit Medium and Gu Arts so he could stop being Yuan Yinxin’s pawn, and Luo Bin accepted his advice.

• Dai Xingjie revealed himself near Luo Bin’s group, and Luo Bin suspected he was baiting them into a trap.
• Luo Bin entered the courtyard without alerting Bai Wei and hid the Black-Gold Toad beneath the eaves.
• Bai Wei reprimanded Fourth Master Gray for neglecting Luo Bin, then discussed Luo Bin’s Gu Arts and the purpose of Spirit Mediums to Cabinet Mountain.
• Bai Wei argued that Yuan Yinxin planned to domesticate Spirit Mediums, take their inheritance, and shape future generations of Yin-Yang Practitioners.
• Bai Wei warned Luo Bin that he remained Yuan Yinxin’s pawn and advised him to master Fourth Gray, pursue Unity of Man and Horse, and strengthen his Gu Arts.
• Luo Bin thanked Bai Wei and promised to remember his advice.

Liu Shuisheng explained how Auspicious Qi Town had taken his wives and sons, leaving Liu Shengqi soulless, and agreed to help Luo Bin’s group cross the river in exchange for an attempt to restore his son. Luo Bin warned Liu Shuisheng to hide underwater afterward because someone was following them, and the group prepared to cross at dawn.

• Xu Lu brought Liu Shuisheng and Liu Shengqi to meet Luo Bin and explained that their earlier encounter had been a misunderstanding.
• Liu Shuisheng recounted how three wives and three sons disappeared, then his fourth wife was taken and Liu Shengqi lost his soul while he rescued the baby from the river.
• Liu Shuisheng agreed to take Luo Bin’s group across the river if they tried to restore Liu Shengqi’s soul, and Xu Lu promised they would help.
• Luo Bin questioned why Liu Shuisheng had survived the curse, then arranged for him to hide underwater after delivering the group across.
• Xu Lu wanted to confront their pursuer, but Luo Bin cautioned that the pursuer might be baiting them and said they should continue toward the river crossing.

Luo Bin and his companions crossed the Primordial River and reached a strange settlement, where two silent old monks appeared. The group’s surroundings began to distort, and Xu Lu suddenly failed to recognize Luo Bin and attacked him.

• Liu Shuisheng ferried the group toward the far shore while rats summoned by the Corpse Immortal helped propel their boat.
• Luo Bin and the others reached a doorless settlement whose houses stretched along the shore, and two old monks suddenly appeared behind them.
• Shangguan Xingyue and Dai Xingjie followed Luo Bin’s boat across the river, but hands emerged from the water and dragged their boat under.
• Luo Bin discovered that his bone mala was missing as Xu Lu questioned the two monks.
• Xu Lu suddenly asked who Luo Bin was, demanded to know where Mr. Luo had gone, and grabbed for Luo Bin’s throat.

Luo Bin and the others discovered that their souls had entered Auspicious Qi Town, where Bai Qingjin fled and a dangerous presence rose from the river. They entered the town with Liu Shengqi, while outside Liu Shuisheng saw that everyone aboard the boats appeared soulless and feared they were lost.

• Xu Lu attacked Luo Bin, but Bai Xian struck Xu Lu’s soul apart with Palm Thunder, revealing Bai Wei behind him.
• Luo Bin realized their souls had left their bodies and that Bai Qingjin, the Gau Bone Bead deities, and other souls could enter Auspicious Qi Town.
• A face carrying the Primordial River’s corpse qi rose from the water, so Luo Bin led Bai Wei and Bai Xian toward Liu Shengqi at the town entrance.
• Liu Shengqi guided Luo Bin, Bai Wei, and Bai Xian beneath the Auspicious Qi paifang, and the dripping figure stopped pursuing them.
• Liu Shuisheng saw the town’s banks crowded with people and the boats carrying Luo Bin’s group and their pursuers, all facing away from the town like soulless figures.
• Liu Shuisheng tried to leave, but his boat would not move, and a plump gray-white creature leaped aboard and squeaked at him.

Luo Bin reasoned that Auspicious Qi Town was an abandoned feng shui barrier created by Yuan Yinxin and that escaping it would require returning their souls to their bodies. After sending Liu Shengqi to find Xu Lu, Luo Bin approached the town entrance and cautiously stepped beyond it.

• Liu Shengqi described how people trapped in Auspicious Qi Town could neither age, die, nor leave, and said he had waited for Luo Bin to fulfill his promise to take him out.
• Luo Bin concluded that the town was an uncontrolled barrier around Primordial Calculation’s origin and that Xu Lu might be the key to escaping.
• Luo Bin told Liu Shengqi to find Xu Lu and warned him to obey the town’s five taboos.
• Liu Shengqi left to search for Xu Lu while Luo Bin asked Bai Xian and Bai Wei to remain in the house and protect Xu Lu if he returned.
• Luo Bin walked to the town entrance and tentatively stepped beyond it toward the Taishi River.

Luo Bin tested whether he could leave town, then watched newcomers arrive as a supernatural mist forced everyone indoors. During the mist, he saw Xu Lu among the lifeless gentlemen in Tang suits, leaving Xu Lu’s fate uncertain.

• Luo Bin confronted the river figure at the town entrance, confirmed Rewind still worked, and decided not to try escaping through the Primordial River.
• Luo Bin saw a man and woman arrive from the riverbank, followed by a figure that drove them toward town.
• A white mist swept along Town Road, and Luo Bin entered a nearby house for shelter as a voice called his name from outside.
• Luo Bin used Rewind to avoid acknowledging the voice and saw lifeless gentlemen in Tang suits crowd the window.
• Luo Bin recognized Xu Lu among the gentlemen in Tang suits, and the group vanished after the mist cleared.

Luo Bin learned the dangers of Auspicious Qi Town and began analyzing its strange rules to find a way to rescue Xu Lu. Meanwhile, Shangguan Xingyue and Dai Xingjie entered town, where Dai Xingjie fell prey to a beggar, and the chapter left Luo Bin seeking a route out through the Primordial River.

• A dripping man tried to draw blood from Luo Bin and others, but two old monks shielded them before he took blood from Shangguan Xingyue and Dai Xingjie.
• Shangguan Xingyue and Dai Xingjie realized they had entered town as souls, then Shangguan Xingyue warned Dai Xingjie not to look at a beggar; he stared at it, and it dug into his chest.
• Liu Shengqi told Luo Bin that people taken away by gentlemen in Tang Suits lost themselves, while the beggar, white mist, and other threats brought different deadly consequences.
• Luo Bin mapped the town’s dangers and surrounding hills, reasoning that finding where the gentlemen in Tang Suits stayed could help him save Xu Lu.
• Liu Shengqi told Luo Bin that the Primordial River was the only known safe exit, while people who ventured inland into the mountains never returned.

Luo Bin studied a map of Auspicious Qi Town and concluded that its eight-wind, five-element Feng Shui layout trapped souls, then led Bai Xian and Bai Wei into the surrounding mountains to find Xu Lu. They found Xu Lu hiding near a summit, but after Luo Bin explained his plan to disrupt the layout with a talisman, Xu Lu warned that they needed a safer mountain peak.

• Luo Bin examined Liu Shengqi’s map and concluded that eight mountains and the Primordial River sealed Auspicious Qi Town and drew souls inward.
• Luo Bin told Liu Shengqi to remain inside his house, then led Bai Xian and Bai Wei out of town toward the Earth Hexagram direction.
• Luo Bin and his companions climbed a mountain and spotted Xu Lu moving among figures on the summit, while another Xu Lu emerged from nearby bushes.
• Xu Lu explained that he had sent a strand of his living soul with the gentlemen and hidden himself from them.
• Luo Bin explained that a talisman could disrupt the mountain’s Feng Shui, and Xu Lu urged them to choose a safer peak rather than approach the summit’s nexus.

Luo Bin led the group to Yuan Yinxin’s former residence, where he concluded they could break the formation without confronting the dangers guarding the eight mountains. After finding the dustless rooms and hiding from a skeletal man carrying ritual implements, Luo Bin recognized Calling Bells, Bronze Clubs, and Crystal Bottles among his gear.

• Xu Lu urged the group to use talismans and lightning, but Luo Bin studied the map and reasoned that the eight mountains formed the outer defenses while Yuan Yinxin’s former residence held the final Acupoint Eye.
• Luo Bin led Xu Lu, Bai Xian, and Bai Wei down the mountain and toward the hollow’s center, where they found a flooded rice field and several old houses.
• The group searched the houses, and Luo Bin noticed that the rooms were spotless despite appearing abandoned.
• Luo Bin ordered everyone to hide and shut the doors as they left; Bai Xian led the others behind the houses.
• Luo Bin saw a skeletal man carrying bowls of red blood and grayish-white liquid, then recognized Calling Bells, Bronze Clubs, and Crystal Bottles hanging from the man’s belt.

Luo Bin and his companions attacked a skeletal man and broke the formation imprisoning his living soul, only to discover he had been trapped there as well. They returned to their bodies aboard the river, where Xu Lu recognized the man as a dangerous traitor and ordered Bai Wei to kill the two monks nearby.

• Luo Bin and Xu Lu planned to suppress the skeletal man and destroy the formation’s Acupoint Eye beneath the Main Hall table.
• Luo Bin found blood-red rice in the Main Hall and saw the skeletal man apparently asleep in a bedroom.
• Luo Bin slapped the Five Peaks Life-Suppressing Talisman onto the man while Bai Xian and Bai Wei attacked him, and Xu Lu pressed an ancient talisman onto the Acupoint Eye.
• Xu Lu’s talisman exposed the man’s living soul within the formation, and the man rejoiced as the formation began to break.
• Bai Wei tore at the man as the surroundings shattered, sending Luo Bin and the others back to their bodies aboard the river.
• Xu Lu identified the man as a trapped traitor from Zero Orthodox Second God and ordered Bai Wei to kill the two monks facing them.

Luo Bin and his companions escaped the Primordial River as its dead attacked their boats, while Shangguan Xingyue and Dai Xingjie were left behind. After Luo Bin told Liu Shuisheng that his son had returned, the group reached shore and faced Bai Wei’s renewed hostility toward the approaching boat.

• Bai Wei recognized Shangguan Xingyue aboard a neighboring boat and tried to attack her, but Luo Bin and Bai Xian blocked him as the river’s dead began climbing aboard.
• Luo Bin, Bai Wei, and Bai Xian fought off the hands and creatures surrounding their boat while Xu Lu poled them toward the river’s center.
• Liu Shuisheng and Fourth Master Gray helped pull Luo Bin’s boat away from the opposite bank, and the group escaped the Primordial River.
• Liu Shuisheng asked whether Luo Bin had found his son, and Luo Bin told him that his son’s two souls had already reunited.
• Liu Shengqi called to Liu Shuisheng from shore, and the father and son hurried away together.
• Bai Wei prepared to confront the boat approaching behind them, while Xu Lu warned Luo Bin not to trust Shangguan Xingyue.

Luo Bin defended Shangguan Xingyue against Bai Wei’s suspicion, but Divine Firmament Mountain suddenly arrived and attacked Bai Wei. The chapter ended with Bai Wei in the Primordial River and Bai Zihua and two other Real Persons surrounding Luo Bin, Xu Lu, and Bai Xian, with every escape route blocked.

• Bai Wei questioned Luo Bin’s willingness to save Shangguan Xingyue, and Luo Bin explained that she had turned against Yuan Yinxin.
• Bai Wei agreed to let Shangguan Xingyue come ashore, but warned Luo Bin that she might be deceiving him.
• Fifteen Red-Robed Taoists surrounded Bai Wei with lightning arts, but Bai Wei escaped their formation using yellow smoke.
• Bai Zihua arrived and struck Bai Wei into the Primordial River with a Bronze Sword.
• Two more Divine Firmament Mountain Real Persons arrived carrying a damaged Bronze Bell, while the Red-Robed Taoists blocked the riverbank and left Luo Bin, Xu Lu, and Bai Xian surrounded.

Luo Bin used negotiations to create an opening for Bai Wei to ambush the Red-Robed Taoists, then fled with Xu Lu and Bai Xian while Bai Wei fought Bai Zihua. The group escaped onto another boat and picked up Shangguan Yuexingguan and Dai Xingjie, but they remained in danger as they raced away.

• Bai Zihua accused Luo Bin and Xu Lu of killing Bai Qingjin and demanded an explanation for Bai Xian's departure.
• Luo Bin challenged Bai Zihua to swear that he would not hand him over for soul seizure, and Bai Zihua's response revealed his sinister intent.
• Bai Wei burst from the river, possessed by two immortals, and attacked the Red-Robed Taoists while Luo Bin's words had distracted the group.
• Bai Wei used five-immortal possession to confront Bai Zihua as Luo Bin led Xu Lu and Bai Xian to a Corpse-Retrieval Boat.
• Luo Bin and his companions met Shangguan Yuexingguan and Dai Xingjie on another boat, and Shangguan Yuexingguan pointed them toward an escape route.

Luo Bin and his companions crossed the Primordial River while Divine Firmament Mountain’s pursuers followed, and Shangguan Xingyue revealed that she had been tracking Luo Bin to find her former master. As they headed toward the mountains, Xu Lu warned that a dangerous Six Yin Mountain traitor might be imprisoned there, and Dai Xingjie urged the group to enter town to evade their pursuers, insisting that Luo Bin listen to him.

• A swarm of rats propelled Luo Bin’s boat across the Primordial River as Xu Lu spotted their pursuers approaching behind them.
• Shangguan Xingyue told Luo Bin she had secretly followed him because she expected her former master to come looking for him, and she recognized the mountains as the place her former master came from.
• Xu Lu explained that the town’s longevity rice was made using blood and liquid extracted from human souls, and warned that a dangerous Six Yin Mountain traitor might be confined in the mountains ahead.
• As the pursuing boat closed in, Dai Xingjie proposed entering town to hide their route and argued that the mountain path could lead them into danger.
• Dai Xingjie asserted that his occult expertise had guided them this far and ordered Luo Bin to listen to him if he wanted to live.

Dai Xingjie led Luo Bin and the others into Auspicious Qi Town, where they encountered mutilated townspeople and a skeletal man approaching them. A force knocked the group to their knees just as Divine Firmament Mountain arrived, and Luo Bin warned the elders that the man was dangerous and pointed out his magical artifact.

• Dai Xingjie dismissed Luo Bin’s unease and led the group over the town wall into Auspicious Qi Town.
• Dai Xingjie led them down a side street, where rows of mutilated townspeople raised their heads and stared at them.
• A skeletal man approached, and Dai Xingjie charged him with blades between his fingers while Luo Bin and the others tried to flee.
• A heavy clang left Luo Bin, Shangguan Xingyue, Xu Lu, Bai Xian, and Dai Xingjie kneeling as Divine Firmament Mountain’s elders and Red-Robed Taoists arrived.
• Luo Bin warned the Divine Firmament Mountain elders to kill the skeletal man and look at his magical artifact, but a Red-Robed Taoist dismissed him.

Luo Bin and his companions were overwhelmed by a skeletal man from Six Yin Mountain, who used yin spirit projection and a ritual artifact to knock them unconscious and restrain them. As the man prepared to consume Bai Xian, Luo Bin sent his Golden Silkworm Gu to poison him, but the man survived and noticed Luo Bin’s gu.

• The fourteen Red-Robed Taoists attacked the skeletal man, but he projected his yin spirit and knocked their souls from their bodies.
• A Real Person elder charged to intervene, and the skeletal man struck his Bronze Clubs, sending both Real Person elders and Luo Bin unconscious.
• Luo Bin awoke kneeling with Bai Xian, Xu Lu, Shangguan Yuexingguan, Dai Xingjie, the elders, and the Red-Robed Taoists while the skeletal man explained that the town’s vitality and soul essence were nearly exhausted.
• The skeletal man chose Bai Xian to consume and raised an enamel bowl as he touched a fingernail to her neck.
• Luo Bin sent his Golden Silkworm Gu to bite the man’s scalp, spreading poison that rotted the flesh and turned it purple.
• The man recovered from the bite, watched the Golden Silkworm Gu return to Luo Bin, and asked whether Luo Bin was a Healer-Shaman.

Bai Xian and two ghost monks broke the attacker’s hold long enough for Luo Bin and Xu Lu to escape town with the others, while the attacker’s scattered soul began to reform. Elsewhere, Gonpo revealed a connection to the Bright Consort, and Bai Zihua arrived too late to save a Divine Firmament Mountain disciple.

• Two ghost monks struck the man controlling his body, and Bai Xian recited a sutra that shattered his soul into three streams of gray aura.
• Gonpo decapitated a corpse in Daren Lama Temple’s sky burial shed, then silently spoke of the Bright Consort and waiting upon the lotus dais.
• Bai Xian’s chanting restored Luo Bin and Xu Lu’s ability to move, and they carried Shangguan Xingyue and Dai Xingjie out of town toward the Eight Mountains.
• The man’s scattered soul began to gather again as he drained a red-robed Taoist and departed after splitting into three figures.
• Bai Zihua arrived with a Yang Spirit Projection talisman and found the Divine Firmament Mountain disciples kneeling; the red-robed Taoist died before he could save him.

Xu Lu, Luo Bin, and their companions traveled deeper into the woods after escaping Divine Firmament Mountain, while Shangguan Xingyue identified a possible yin-energy injury in Bai Xian. The Black-Gold Toad then warned them while facing Bai Xian, leaving Luo Bin and Xu Lu unable to understand what it sensed.

• Xu Lu complained about their misfortunes and spoke with Fourth Master Gray as the group followed the edge of the formation.
• Dai Xingjie demanded that Luo Bin put Shangguan Xingyue down, and Xu Lu rebuked him before Luo Bin set her down.
• Shangguan Xingyue examined Bai Xian from a distance and said that yin energy was suppressing her, suggesting someone had tampered with her.
• Shangguan Xingyue said she needed to examine Bai Xian after the group reached safety, while Dai Xingjie offered to help and Xu Lu objected.
• The Black-Gold Toad croaked a warning, then faced Bai Xian and croaked again, puzzling Luo Bin and Xu Lu.

Luo Bin and his companions learned that Bai Xian’s corruption had two separate causes, and Shangguan Xingyue proposed a way to treat one of them. As they hid from a strange mist spreading through the mountains, a duplicate of Xu Lu approached, formed from the soul he had shed.

• Luo Bin’s group found a Taoist grounds occupied by practitioners who had fled Auspicious Qi Town, and they chose to wait rather than approach them.
• Shangguan Xingyue examined Bai Xian and said sinister corruption was affecting her soul and consciousness, while Luo Bin explained that worms also bound her to the Black City Monastery.
• Luo Bin’s group rested near the Taoist grounds, but cold sensations and a spreading mist alerted him to danger.
• Dai Xingjie and Luo Bin woke their companions and hid them as the mist engulfed the grounds and strange practitioners wandered through it.
• Xu Lu recognized the figure approaching through the mist as the soul he had shed when he abandoned his tail.

Luo Bin’s group crossed a dangerous stretch of road and reached another Taoist resting place, while Dai Xingjie secretly did something behind them. Luo Bin confronted him, and Dai Xingjie accused him of hypocrisy.

• Luo Bin told the group to turn their backs and stay still as strange gentlemen in Tang suits passed through the mist.
• After the apparitions vanished, Luo Bin explained the town’s rules, and the group decided to travel ahead to reach shelter before the others.
• Xu Lu led the group along the road while Dai Xingjie brought up the rear, and Shangguan Xingyue discussed Primordial Calculation Mountain Gate with Xu Lu and Luo Bin.
• The group walked through the day and reached a Taoist ground near the foot of a mountain, where Dai Xingjie caught up with them.
• Luo Bin asked Dai Xingjie what he had done behind them, and Dai Xingjie admitted he had cleaned their traces and carried out other necessary acts before accusing Luo Bin of hypocrisy.