Chapter Summaries

Luo Bin hid with the unconscious Gu Yiren in a wardrobe while Yuan Tianshu arrived at the wooden house and confronted another Gu Yiren. Luo Bin connected Gu Yiren, himself, and the guarded Tomb Passage, but the reason for their connection remained unknown.

• Luo Bin hid in the wardrobe with the unconscious Gu Yiren and found that Rewind could not recover memories of the Gu Yiren who had led him there.
• A shriveled corpse seemed to appear beside Luo Bin in the wardrobe, and he realized someone dangerous had arrived outside the house.
• Yuan Tianshu appeared in the flower garden, injured but alive, and accused the dried corpse of pushing him off a cliff into the Heart-Rending Hell.
• Luo Bin recognized Yuan Tianshu's voice and recalled that Yuan Tianshu knew several Gu Yirens and had hinted at a connection between Luo Bin, Gu Yiren, and the Tomb Passage.
• Yuan Tianshu told the Gu Yiren outside that he wanted her to cough up blood again and make azaleas bloom across the mountain.

Luo Bin realized Yuan Tianshu had mistaken the deity possessing him for a ferocious ghost and left the room. After recalling the man who had used his skin as a talisman, Luo Bin recognized Master Mao and wondered whether he was at the Outer Mountain.

• Luo Bin deduced that Gu Yiren was connected to the dried corpse and that her soul had split into multiple fragments.
• A deity within Luo Bin took control of his body and silently recited scripture as Yuan Tianshu searched the room.
• Yuan Tianshu saw the possessed Luo Bin in the cabinet, mistook him for an unknown ferocious ghost, and withdrew from the Mountain Valley without finding Luo Bin.
• Luo Bin regained control, realized the deity had made Yuan Tianshu retreat, and checked that Gu Yiren was breathing steadily.
• Luo Bin recalled a man who had used his skin as a talisman to hold off a tomb keeper, recognized him as Master Mao, and wondered if he was at the Outer Mountain.

Luo Bin recognized Mr. Mao as the benefactor who had repeatedly helped him and searched the Inner Mountain for clues. In a study, he found a record suggesting Yuan Tianshu had betrayed the mountain’s disciples, then became trapped in the final moments of the junior sister who wrote it.

• Luo Bin recalled meeting Mr. Mao before his paralysis and realized Mr. Mao had been the benefactor who repeatedly aided him.
• Luo Bin carried the unconscious Gu Yiren to a bed, then searched a study for information about the Inner Mountain.
• Luo Bin read a record describing Divine Dao Mountain’s crisis, the junior sister’s opposition to leaving, and a mission to deal with horrors emerging from a mausoleum.
• A woman resembling Gu Yiren appeared and accused Yuan Tianshu of deceiving everyone, delaying his return, and killing the inner sect disciples.
• Luo Bin realized the woman was the junior sister’s resentful spirit and that touching the book had trapped him in her repeated final moments.

Luo Bin uncovered the history of Gu Yiren, Yuan Tianshu, and Sacred Way Mountain, learning that he was Primordial Calculation’s rightful heir and had been reincarnated to oppose Yuan Tianshu. Yuan Tianshu immobilized him and explained his plans, but Luo Bin’s defiant taunts left them facing off.

• Luo Bin witnessed Gu Yiren’s failed attempt to summon her senior brother and learned how her divided soul, Yuan Tianshu’s betrayal, and Yuan Yinxin’s interference shaped the mountain’s history.
• Luo Bin realized that one part of Gu Yiren’s soul had escaped, been reincarnated as him, and earned Primordial Calculation’s recognition as its rightful heir.
• Yuan Tianshu appeared, immobilized Luo Bin, and revealed that he had arranged Luo Bin’s reincarnation to help defeat the disciple who betrayed him.
• Yuan Tianshu said Luo Bin must grow stronger before undergoing Returning Soul and taking up the duty of guarding the tomb.
• Luo Bin spat on Yuan Tianshu and mocked his failures, making Yuan Tianshu retreat warily instead of attacking.

Yuan Tianshu saw through Luo Bin’s attempt to provoke him and took him and the unconscious Gu Yiren toward the cliff, offering Luo Bin a choice between Wooden Puppet Village and death. At the stone platform, a familiar man appeared and called Luo Bin “Binzi.”

• Luo Bin repeatedly insulted Yuan Tianshu to provoke him, hoping the Great Ghost inside him would emerge, but Yuan Tianshu realized he was bluffing.
• Yuan Tianshu restrained Luo Bin, found the unconscious Gu Yiren, and left the valley with them.
• At the cliff’s edge, Yuan Tianshu offered to take Luo Bin to Wooden Puppet Village or send him over the cliff, and said Luo Bin should fulfill his duty to guard the tomb.
• Yuan Tianshu clapped, and a familiar figure stepped onto the stone platform and called Luo Bin “Binzi.”

Yuan Tianshu forced Luo Bin to surrender his Corpse Cores and ritual artifacts, then sent him over the cliff toward the Heart-Rending Hell. Afterward, Yuan Tianshu explained his plan to use the ordeal to force Luo Bin into Emergence from Darkness and spoke with Gu Yiren, whose identity and state remained uncertain.

• Yuan Tianshu revealed the old face beneath Luo Yong's skin and used it to make Luo Bin agree to enter Wooden Puppet Village.
• Yuan Tianshu controlled Luo Bin into handing over two Corpse Cores and the White Flower Lantern and Purple Flower Lantern, but Luo Bin's tongue snatched back the Moon-Shaped Stone.
• The black golden toad leaped off the platform, and Luo Bin followed over the cliff, where puppets caught him and carried him downward.
• Yuan Tianshu told He Gongde that he had deliberately angered Luo Bin so the Heart-Rending Hell would push him toward Emergence from Darkness.
• Gu Yiren condemned Yuan Tianshu, who recalled their past and said he would help Luo Bin and Gu Yiren become themselves again.

Shangguan Xingyue traveled toward an unknown destination while Kong An prepared Black City Monastery for the arrival of the Buddha Mother. Xu Lu and Bai Xian were drawn to the Tibetan Lands, where Kong An revealed that he had attained enlightenment and that Dibe Yum would enlighten the Chief Seat.

• Shangguan Xingyue traveled through the Tibetan Lands, sensing that her destination was near while struggling to control Bright Consort within her.
• Two Deduos Living Buddhas visited Daren Lama Temple, discussed Buddhist teachings with Kong An, and left him unharmed after he said he was a New Buddha.
• Kong An told Lama Tsangyang that he had been entrusted with a task, then left to seek Wengze and Juem near a black mountain.
• Xu Lu and Bai Xian recounted their wedding on Divine Firmament Mountain and how they had mysteriously awakened unable to speak, traveling toward the Tibetan Lands.
• Kong An told Xu Lu that the Buddha Mother would soon arrive and that Black City Monastery needed devotees to support its deities.
• Kong An said he had already attained enlightenment and that Dibe Yum would enlighten the Chief Seat, leaving Xu Lu and Bai Xian alarmed by his ability to read Xu Lu's thoughts.

After Yuan Tianshu threw Luo Bin into a mountain pit, Luo Bin recovered and realized he might have to achieve emergence from darkness to survive, though doing so would make him Yuan Tianshu’s pawn. With the black-gold toad and Moon-Shaped Stone reunited with him, Luo Bin pressed deeper into the crevice, where his gu insects stirred as if warning him of danger.

• Luo Bin woke in the mountain pit and pieced together how Yuan Tianshu had used him and Gu Yiren, while realizing He Gongde had likely returned to Sacred Way Mountain.
• Luo Bin suspected that Heart-Rending Hell and its prison ghost lay somewhere in the pit, but saw no sign of either.
• The black-gold toad climbed down the cliff, returned the Moon-Shaped Stone to Luo Bin, and let him store it safely.
• Luo Bin decided to search the crevice rather than follow Yuan Tianshu’s plan to force him to achieve emergence from darkness.
• Luo Bin’s gu insects followed him into a darker, narrower stretch, and the gu silkworm gold bit his brow as if warning him of something he had overlooked.

Luo Bin connected the Witchcraft Curse and the puppets in Wooden Puppet Village to the Ghost Granny Lineage of Three Perils Mountain, but found himself trapped in a mountain pit and fell asleep from exhaustion. At the deepest point of Reflecting Mountain Valley, Yuan Tianshu continued the Shaman’s Yin Soul invasion of Gu Yiren and revealed his plan to turn Luo Bin into a Silk-Thread Puppet so he could control the seal.

• Luo Bin reasoned that the Witchcraft Curse could turn Yin Spirits into puppets and might explain Yuan Tianshu’s connection to the wooden dolls, but he found no answers in his Gu Arts inheritance.
• Luo Bin discovered that steep mountain walls trapped him in a pit, then rested and fell into a deep sleep with his Gu Worms nearby.
• Yuan Tianshu oversaw the Shaman’s Yin Soul entering Gu Yiren and told her that her will would soon be erased.
• Yuan Ying reported that Heavenly Secrets Daoist Sanctuary members had moved and that two men sent to investigate Outer Mountain Cabinet had vanished in the woods during the day.
• Yuan Tianshu said Xiao Ba had gained some control over the Sacred Mountain and planned to turn Luo Bin into a Silk-Thread Puppet to make the seal submit.

Yuan Yinxin weighed the threats on Sacred Way Mountain and Headless General Mountain while plotting to use Gua Kuo and capture hidden Spirit Mediums. On Sacred Way Mountain, Luo Bin woke in the pit, found fallen puppets being eaten by gu worms, and faced hunger with no way out.

• Yuan Yinxin concluded that Luo Bin had entered Sacred Way Mountain and that Yuan Tianshu had escaped, while deciding he could not safely confront either the mountain’s forces or the outsiders at Headless General Mountain.
• Yuan Yi reported that disciples were reinforcing the mountain ban and searching for hidden Spirit Mediums and House Immortals; Yuan Yinxin ordered him to report when their connection was temporarily blocked.
• Yuan Yinxin fed Gua Kuo baskets of ripened Emotion Flower Fruits and promised to help him claim Luo Bin and kill the woman, while noticing talismanic markings spreading from his restored fingers.
• At night, stiff figures wandered near Sacred Way Mountain’s cliff, and several fell to their deaths while trying to climb down.
• Luo Bin woke in the pit, found the fallen puppets’ remains being gnawed by gu worms, and realized he had little food and no way to escape.
• Luo Bin stared at the chunks of flesh and felt revulsion as hunger and nausea rose within him.

Trapped in the mountain pit, Luo Bin used the Miao King's Ocarina to gather venomous creatures and began refining Gu while refusing to undergo Emergence from Darkness. Above the pit, He Gongde heard He Lianxin’s voice through a cloth doll and hurried off to warn Yuan Tianshu.

• Luo Bin played the Miao King's Ocarina, drawing venomous creatures into the mountain pit in great numbers.
• Luo Bin used the Golden Silkworm Gu's silk and medicine person blood to trap venomous creatures and make them fight as he raised Gu.
• Luo Bin roasted and ate snake meat, then watched the venomous creatures battle inside the silk rings.
• He Gongde, disguised as Luo Yong, watched the colored mist rise from the pit and heard He Lianxin speak through a cloth doll.
• He Gongde struck the doll and left to tell Yuan Tianshu that Luo Bin had more uncanny tricks.

Luo Bin spent over a month refining poisonous insects into eighteen three-refined Gu and discovered a concealed entrance to Heart-Rending Hell. Realizing Yuan Tianshu expected him to emerge from darkness, he sent his Gu to poison the sealed rock wall.

• He Gongde silenced the Cloth Doll and reported to Yuan Tianshu, who explained that Luo Bin could not escape without emerging from darkness.
• Luo Bin refined poisonous insects with the Golden Silkworm Gu, producing eighteen three-refined Gu worms.
• Luo Bin stopped refining when the silk rings could no longer contain the stronger Gu and he feared losing control of them.
• The thick poisonous miasma revealed a sealed entrance in the mountain wall, which Luo Bin identified as the way into Heart-Rending Hell.
• Luo Bin concluded that Yuan Tianshu was unafraid of his Gu and sent all eighteen three-refined Gu worms to release poison over the concealed wall.

Luo Bin entered Heart-Rending Hell and used the Blackblood Vine and resentful-infant Moss Eaters to subdue its prison guards. As the vines absorbed the guards, a bloated figure formed from bluish-purple mist, and Luo Bin began chanting a scripture.

• Luo Bin fed his blood to the Threefold Refinement gu worms, then climbed through the heart-shaped passage into a hidden hall inside the mountain.
• He saw prison guards repeatedly torture a wisp of Yuan Tianshu's Yin Spirit by hooking out its heart, frying it, and shattering its soul.
• More than a dozen guards attacked Luo Bin, but he summoned resentful-infant Moss Eaters and Blackblood Vines to restrain them.
• The Blackblood Vines absorbed the guards as more emerged, while the tortured wisp of Yuan Tianshu's Yin Spirit watched Luo Bin in bewilderment.
• A bloated figure formed from bluish-purple mist, and Luo Bin rose as dark, blood-tinged mist seeped from him and he chanted a scripture.

Qin Tianqing killed Qin Li after uncovering his betrayal, then followed Fourth Master Gray through a tunnel to meet another Gray Immortal. Outside Cabinet Mountain, Yuan Yinxin seized Xu Jin’s vehicle and five Dao Corpses, but an unnerving old man appeared before the group.

• Qin Tianqing rejected Qin Li’s calls to abandon Luo Xianshen and killed him when he tried to attack.
• Fourth Master Gray and the other Mountain Rats ate Qin Li, then a white-furred Gray Immortal appeared and led Fourth Master Gray into a tunnel.
• Yuan Yinxin used his technique to lure Xu Jin off course and make him stop the vehicle.
• Yuan Yinxin and Yuan Yi found five restrained Dao Corpses in the vehicle and planned to take them back to the grounds.
• An old man approached Yuan Yinxin’s group and asked whether he looked human or like an immortal.

Yuan Yinxin survived having his head severed and confronted Yi Yi’s group, revealing that he wanted the Blackblood Vine to escape a certain fate. Yi Yi recognized his disciple’s name and demanded to know whether Luo Bin was his apprentice.

• An old Yellow Weasel lured Yuan Yinxin into a trap, but an unseen attack severed Yuan Yinxin’s head while his Yin Spirit pursued it.
• Yi Yi and her Shamaness Lineage emerged and surrounded Yuan Yi’s group, hoping to find Bai Wei and locate Luo Bin.
• Yuan Yinxin’s Yin Spirit stabbed Yi Yi, and the wound killed a Cabinet Mountain Disciple, revealing that Yi Yi was possessed by an Immortal Creature.
• Yuan Yinxin reattached his head with hairlike growths and explained that his apprentice Luo Bin had brought back some Blackblood Vine, which Xiao Ba ate.
• Yuan Yinxin threatened Yi Yi’s followers unless she revealed her Immortal Creature, and Yi Yi asked whether Luo Bin was his disciple.

Yi Yi’s group attacked Yuan Yinxin after she learned he was Luo Bin’s master, and the Death-Prison Yama Ghost took his soul. As night fell, Yi Yi led the others away while the ghost kept Yuan Yinxin trapped; meanwhile, Xu Jin fled the mountain road and encountered two bell-ringing figures.

• Yuan Yinxin claimed Luo Bin had betrayed him and offered to help Yi Yi capture his former disciple, but Yi Yi accused him of lying and summoned the Death-Prison Yama Ghost.
• The Death-Prison Yama Ghost enveloped Yuan Yinxin, extracted his soul, and left his body behind as the torches and strange spirits appeared around the group.
• A runaway vehicle struck and drove over Yuan Yinxin, while Yi Yi forced Yuan Yi and another Cabinet Mountain Disciple to join her retreat.
• Qin Que and the evil spirits surrounded Yuan Yinxin as the Death-Prison Yama Ghost circled him and repeatedly entered his body.
• Xu Jin escaped in his vehicle, then saw two expressionless figures shaking familiar-looking bells in the road.

Luo Bin battled the Heart-Rending Hell Ghosts in the Heart-Rending Hell Palace while the Chief Seat Deity tried to make him retreat. The Chief Seat Deity’s mantra weakened Luo Bin, but Luo Bin used his compass and talismans to protect himself and sent the Blackblood Vine against the deity.

• Xu Jin heard the Calling Bell, lost consciousness, and crashed his car after it veered off the road.
• Four disciples hiding in a tree hollow decided to lure a Taoist into fighting the ghost so Yuan Yinxin could be freed, while keeping a gentleman away.
• Luo Bin’s Blackblood Vine drained the prison guards, and the Heart-Rending Hell Ghosts appeared as the Chief Seat Deity took control of his body.
• Luo Bin bound one Heart-Rending Hell Ghost with Blackblood Vines, but the others attacked and drove the Chief Seat Deity out of his body.
• The Heart-Rending Hell Ghosts offered to let Luo Bin leave, but he stayed and used his compass and talismans to resist the Chief Seat Deity’s mantra.
• Luo Bin sent more Blackblood Vines to wrap around the Chief Seat Deity.

Luo Bin escaped Heart-Rending Hell after using the Blackblood Vine against the Chief Seat deity, but the hell’s judgment nearly overwhelmed him. After crawling through a mountain crevice for days, he heard a woman call, “Dad...” from above.

• Luo Bin’s Blackblood Vine failed to absorb the Chief Seat deity, while Heart-Rending Hell’s ghosts and the Butcher-Block Stone Platform intensified their attack on him.
• Luo Bin dismissed the Blackblood Vine and put away the Jade Star Qimen Compass, and the Chief Seat deity disappeared into his body.
• Luo Bin fled through Heart-Rending Hell and read the warning carved beside the exit passage.
• Luo Bin crawled through the winding mountain crevice, eating snake meat and rationing water as he made his way upward.
• Luo Bin mistook moonlight for daylight, then heard a woman’s faint voice calling, “Dad...” from overhead.

Luo Bin overheard He Lianxin and He Gongde arguing, and realized He Gongde had taken part of his mother’s soul and that his life had been planned. He sent gu silkworm gold up the rock wall to attack He Gongde, who recognized it as a Golden Silkworm Gu and rejoiced at finding a possible antidote to the Witchcraft Curse.

• Luo Bin heard He Lianxin insist that he was her son while He Gongde called her a tool and denied that Luo Bin was her child.
• Luo Bin realized He Lianxin had lost the most important part of her soul, which explained her muddled state.
• Luo Bin quietly sent gu silkworm gold climbing toward He Gongde’s stone platform.
• He Gongde, wearing Luo Yong’s human skin, noticed the Golden Silkworm Gu on his eyelid and recognized it.
• He Gongde stopped trying to fling the Gu away and celebrated, believing its presence near the Witchcraft Curse was fate.

Luo Bin climbed out of the Mountain Rift, recovered his mother’s Cloth Doll, and used the puppets to kill He Gongde. He then provoked the insect poison in the mountain pit with his blood, causing the miasma to churn.

• He Gongde tried to remove the Golden Silkworm Gu from the Cloth Doll, but it burrowed into him and paralyzed him.
• Luo Bin climbed onto the stone platform and took the Cloth Doll while the puppets advanced around him.
• Luo Bin revealed that he understood He Gongde’s cruelty, peeled off Luo Yong’s skin, and wore it himself, causing the Golden Silkworm Gu to leave He Gongde.
• He Gongde begged Luo Bin to save him, but the puppets tore him apart and then dispersed.
• Luo Bin held the Cloth Doll against his chest, then spat his blood onto the stone platform to provoke the insect poison in the pit.
• The miasma churned as the gu silkworm gold signaled Luo Bin to stop.