Chapter Summaries

Luo Bin learned that the Gu worms in the White Miao King’s tomb held fragments of his soul and that restoring him would require surviving the poisonous creatures inside. First Granduncle explained that Luo Bin needed a fundamental transformation of his soul to become a true Miao King, and they set out to meet Song Dan and the Guzang Head for preparations.

• Luo Bin acknowledged the suffering of Three Miao Village and listened as First Granduncle explained Miao Qi’s attack and apologized for the harm done to Miao Xi.
• First Granduncle introduced himself and the other granduncles, then led Luo Bin toward the Nuo God Temple.
• The Golden Silkworm Gu guided Luo Bin and First Granduncle back to the place where Luo Bin had first stopped, where they found Miao Xi transformed into a shell.
• First Granduncle revealed that the Gu worms in the White Miao King’s tomb carried pieces of his soul and that Luo Bin would need to enter the tomb and play the Miao King’s ocarina to restore him.
• First Granduncle explained that Luo Bin needed a body resistant to poison, powerful Gu worms, and a transformed soul to become a genuine Miao King, then said Song Dan and the Guzang Head had prepared for him.

Luo Bin suspected the White Miao’s account of the Three Miao sealing barrier and secretly tested Miao Xi’s soul to confirm her identity before taking control of her with the Golden Silkworm Gu. He then reached a solemn gathering where Miao Shan asked him to forgive Qi Miao for Miao Xi’s death, blaming the Black Miao and a mind-bewitching gu.

• Luo Bin questioned the granduncle about Primordial Calculation and the sealing barrier, then waited until he was alone because he remained suspicious of the White Miao.
• Luo Bin summoned Miao Xi’s soul, used the Golden Silkworm Gu to control it, and confirmed that she was a White Miao member before drawing her into a talisman.
• Luo Bin reclaimed the gu worms from Miao Xi and headed with Fourth Master Gray to the other edge of Three Miao Village.
• Luo Bin arrived at a gathering around a blood-red maple, where Miao Shan apologized for Qi Miao and said the Black Miao had caused the tragedy by afflicting him with a mind-bewitching gu.

Luo Bin underwent the Miao ritual of borrowing the mountain’s life, and a Mountain-Born Gu Seed appeared beside his existing Golden Silkworm Gu. As the Miao people celebrated the unprecedented sign, Luo Bin saw Gu worms crawling from holes in the faces of Miao Shan, Miao Ji, and Zhi Miao.

• Luo Bin gave Miao Qi the Talisman Bundle and promised to purge the traitor if the ritual succeeded.
• Miao Ji brought a Wooden Spike, and Luo Bin pierced Water Buffalo’s head while the Miao people chanted and danced.
• Miao Shan mixed the buffalo’s blood with ash and spread the mixture on a wound in the Blood Maple Tree as Miao Ji used its bark to mark Luo Bin.
• Luo Bin absorbed Mountain Qi as gray butterflies covered him, and Miao Ji identified a Mountain-Born Gu Seed and a second Golden Silkworm Gu.
• Zhi Miao celebrated Luo Bin as a Miao King with two Golden Silkworm Gu, but Luo Bin saw Gu worms crawling from holes in the three men’s skin.

Luo Bin saw the Miao villagers as Black Miao during Borrowing the Mountain's Life and inferred they had been taught to believe they were White Miao. As the villagers prepared the Miao King’s rites, he realized the Divine Cave was watching him.

• Luo Bin saw holes, gu worms, and black aura on the Miao villagers, then watched gray butterflies return to a blood maple tree that appeared to be a person pointing toward the mountain.
• Miao Zhi said Mibang Miliu had recognized Luo Bin as a worthy Miao King, and Miao Ji and Miao Shan insisted the buffalo be butchered before the gu rites began.
• Luo Bin considered whether the blood maple tree was the cast-off shell of an Immortal-Liberation Corpse that had undergone Butterfly Transformation.
• Miao Zhi explained that the Miao had passed down their identity and purpose through generations, and Luo Bin realized the villagers believed they were White Miao despite being Black Miao.
• Luo Bin suspected that the Miao King needing Soul-Gathering and Return to the Body was not the White Miao King, and that the Corpse-Liberation Immortal guarding the exit might be the Black Miao King.
• Luo Bin sensed an invisible gaze and concluded that the Black Miao's Divine Cave was watching him.

Luo Bin resisted the Cave God's influence as greed for the tribe's promised body tempering and gu refinement began to overwhelm him. When the Cave Maidens blocked his escape, the chief Bright God appeared and sent a swarm of Gu toward Luo Bin's face.

• Luo Bin questioned whether the Cave God had tampered with the promised benefits, but involuntarily asked when he could begin body tempering and gu refinement.
• Miao Zhi explained that Luo Bin had to eat and drink with the tribe before the rite could continue, and Luo Bin suppressed his growing greed.
• Luo Bin used the excuse of visiting the Nuo God Temple to leave the bonfire and ran away from the temple instead.
• Luo Bin realized his cultivation had crossed a threshold and that Upper Corpse Green was intensifying his craving for strength; he restrained Fourth Master Gray when the rat tried to seek help.
• The Cave Maidens blocked Luo Bin's path, and the chief Bright God emerged from his body and sent pale purple smoke filled with Gu toward him.

Luo Bin fought the Black Miao cave god and its gu while the chief-seat deity struggled against the possessed cave maiden. As a Black Miao Corpse King and other deadly corpses closed in, the mountain’s borrowed fate protected Luo Bin, and many voices announced that the Miao King would return to his rightful place.

• The cave god possessed a cave maiden, and Black Miao gu poured from the cave maidens to attack Luo Bin and his gu.
• Luo Bin revealed to Fourth Master Gray that the cave maidens were all Black Miao, while the chief-seat deity fought the cave god and was wounded by its gu.
• Luo Bin played the Miao King's ocarina to disrupt the gu, but a Black Miao Corpse King emerged from thick gray mist and forced him to flee into the trees.
• A Plague God Living Corpse and a wet corpse attacked Luo Bin, whose borrowed mountain fate protected him from the wet corpse's corrosive slime.
• The corpses and countless unseen voices repeated that the mountain's fate had been borrowed, the ox had been slaughtered and cooked, and the Miao King would return to his rightful place.

Luo Bin fought the Black Miao Corpse King and the corpse horde as the Cave God and Medicine Person closed in, while the three corpse worms intensified his rage and distorted his actions. The Medicine Person engulfed him in multicolored powder, leaving Luo Bin surrounded and apparently out of options.

• Miao Ji, Miao Zhi, and Miao Shan watched the signs on Nuo God Mountain and assumed the Cave God, Corpse King, and Medicine Person had come to welcome Luo Bin.
• The Corpse King opened a path down the mountain and ordered Luo Bin to return, but Luo Bin rejected Fourth Master Gray’s suggestion to flee and questioned whether Three Miao Village’s people were truly Black Miao.
• Luo Bin attacked a fierce corpse, then ran while his Moss Eaters and Blackblood Vines engaged the pursuing corpses.
• Luo Bin used a Thunder hexagram and stabbed the Black Miao Corpse King in the eye, but the Corpse King struck him into a tree.
• Luo Bin realized the three corpse worms had been influencing his thoughts and tried to resist the rage driving him to fight.
• The Medicine Person appeared behind Luo Bin and scattered multicolored powder over him as the Black Miao Corpse King and Cave God closed in.

Luo Bin escaped the Black Miao Corpse King's pursuit and followed a Gray Butterfly to a hidden Nuo God Temple, where he encountered a Primordial Calculation practitioner. As the butterfly tried to lead him inside, the tomb keeper appeared and told him to go back.

• Luo Bin fled the Black Miao Corpse King and fierce corpses, then stopped when the pursuit vanished in an unnaturally quiet area behind the mountain.
• Luo Bin spotted a Primordial Calculation practitioner and, despite Fourth Master Gray urging him to wait for Hu Fengqing, felt compelled to follow.
• A Gray Butterfly emerged from Luo Bin's brow and led him through the mountain for about half an hour.
• Luo Bin reached a Nuo God Temple and suspected the other Nuo God Temple was a decoy made to conceal the Black Miao's secrets.
• When the Gray Butterfly tried to lead Luo Bin inside, pain stabbed through his head and the tomb keeper grabbed his shoulder, telling him to go back.

After his Gu Arts breakthrough, Luo Bin realized that the Nuo God Temple and the Cave God's Gu posed a mortal threat, and he fled rather than enter. The Five Corpse Immortals rescued him from the Cave God's Gu, and he told Third Master Hu what had happened while figures in Tang suits watched from afar.

• Luo Bin hallucinated the Tomb Guardian, then saw Primordial Calculation Practitioners at the Nuo God Temple break apart into Gu Worms and fled when the same thing happened to another figure behind him.
• Gray Butterflies emerged from Luo Bin's forehead, and he concluded that a Gu linked to the Nuo God Temple was taking shape inside him.
• The Chief Seat Bright God returned to Luo Bin's body, but Cave God Gu Worms attacked Luo Bin and broke through the Golden Silkworm Gu's silk.
• Third Master Hu, Hu Qingfeng, and the Five Corpse Immortals arrived and cleared the Gu Worms from Luo Bin's face.
• Luo Bin recounted the events at the Three Miao Strongholds and the Nuo God Temple to Third Master Hu while Tang-suited figures watched from a distance.
• Third Master Hu explained that Black Miao who had joined the deception would return to their true nature once the Black Miao King was awakened.

Luo Bin escaped the Nuo God Temple’s territory with Third Master Hu’s help and learned that the Black Miao had sealed a gu-related evil inside. At Three Miao Stockade’s exit, he realized the figures blocking the road were actually White Miao afflicted by Black Miao sorcery, silently begging him to play the ocarina.

• Third Master Hu explained that the White Miao King guarded the Nuo God Temple and that the Black Miao had been sealed inside, along with a gu-related evil.
• Third Master Hu controlled Luo Bin’s body and used a Pill Corpse’s aura to conceal their escape from the Black Miao forces.
• Luo Bin and Third Master Hu crossed the empty Three Miao Stockade and headed for its main gate, where Third Master Hu said someone was waiting outside.
• A group of gu-infested figures blocked Luo Bin’s path, including the murderer of Miao Xi, but they knelt and made gestures as if playing invisible ocarinas.
• Luo Bin realized the figures were the true White Miao, transformed into human hosts by Black Miao sorcery, and understood they were begging him to play the ocarina.

Luo Bin realized the Miao outside the stockade were the true White Miao, while Mao Yousan’s group entered the tomb after sealing its door with Yuan Ying’s flesh-and-blood talisman. Inside, Luo Xianshen used a powerful Taoist spell to illuminate the passage, leaving Qin Tianqing and Bai Wei astonished by his casual explanation.

• Luo Bin concluded that the Miao outside the stockade were the true White Miao and followed them after one pointed toward an approaching danger.
• Gu Yiren completed Yuan Ying’s flesh-and-blood talisman, sealing the tomb door while Gu Shanhong argued with the soul fragment inside her body.
• Mao Yousan, Luo Xianshen, Qin Tianqing, Bai Wei, and four Dao Corpses entered the tomb, and the last Dao Corpse shut the door behind them.
• Luo Xianshen cast a powerful path-opening spell to light the passage and explained that he wanted to see better because Mao Yousan’s flashlight was dead.
• Qin Tianqing and Bai Wei exchanged astonished looks at Luo Xianshen’s use of an exhausting Taoist art for lighting.

Mao Yousan and Bai Wei followed Luo Xianshen’s trail toward Luo Bin, while the Old Miao King sensed that Luo Bin had entered the Three Miao Mountain Range and faced danger from the Black and Purple Miao. Unable to leave Three Perils Mountain or become an Immortal-Liberation Corpse, the Old Miao King waited for Miao Zi to reach Luo Bin.

• Bai Wei confirmed that Luo Bin was safe and that his life-bound Immortal Creatures had sensed the group’s direction, and Mao Yousan urged them onward.
• The Old Miao King sensed danger around Luo Bin and recognized the auras of the Black and Purple Miao in the Three Miao Mountain Range.
• The Old Miao King recalled how the Black Miao’s attempt to control poisonous insects from beneath the Nuo God Temple sparked a war, ending with the White Miao fleeing and the Purple Miao guarding the sealed temple.
• The Old Miao King realized Luo Bin had entered the Three Miao ancestral homeland as a living Divine Yang Spirit, though he had never expected his adopted disciple to hold such status.
• The Old Miao King repeatedly tried to break his cocoon and become an Immortal-Liberation Corpse, but the mountain’s vitality healed his wound each time, leaving him dependent on Miao Zi finding Luo Bin.

Luo Bin used the Gu-Breaking Ocarina Tune to purge the Witchcraft Curse from the White Miao, but the purple patterns on their clothes revealed that they served the Immortal-Liberation Corpse. The chapter ended with the corpse approaching as Gu worms restrained Luo Bin.

• Luo Bin played the Gu-Breaking Ocarina Tune in the small Miao village, forcing the Gu worms and black poison out of more than two hundred White Miao.
• Miao Zhi sent Miao Shan toward Nuo God Mountain after they heard the ocarina, but the Cave God took control of Miao Shan and ordered the others to kill the Black Miao Miao King.
• Heaven-Dumping Qin recognized Luo Bin's ocarina and led Mao Yousan and the others toward him, believing he was in danger.
• Luo Bin stopped playing after the White Immortal Lady treated some of the Miao people, and he realized the villagers could not speak despite the curse being lifted.
• The Miao people revealed purple patterns on their clothes, and Gu worms bound Luo Bin as the Immortal-Liberation Corpse approached.

Luo Bin realized the Purple Miao understood he was the White Miao King but still planned to sacrifice him to restore the seal on Sacred Way Mountain. As the Tomb Guardian prepared to extract his soul, Luo Bin thought of the people and responsibilities that would be lost with his death and refused to accept his fate.

• Gu Worms bound Luo Bin and overwhelmed the Five Corpse Immortals while the Corpse-Liberation Immortal approached.
• Luo Bin realized the Purple Miao had known he was the White Miao King and had attacked him for reasons beyond his identity.
• Miao Cang explained that Luo Bin was tied to Primordial Calculation and that the Purple Miao intended to sacrifice him to prevent the seal from being broken.
• Miao Cang ordered the branch master to extract Luo Bin's soul, and the Tomb Guardian stepped forward with his clarity restored.
• Luo Bin understood that the Tomb Guardian meant to use his body to reseal the tomb entrance, then thought of the people and causes left behind and refused to accept his death.

Luo Bin argued that the Tomb Guardian should preserve the restored Primordial Calculation inheritance, but the Tomb Guardian tried to extract his soul to seal Sacred Way Mountain. The Blackblood Vine possessed Luo Bin and attacked, then the Immortal-Liberation Corpse suppressed it; Mao Yousan arrived and struck the Gu Worms with heavenly thunder as the Tomb Guardian continued pulling Luo Bin’s soul out.

• Luo Bin urged the Tomb Guardian to spare him and protect the Primordial Calculation inheritance, but the Tomb Guardian insisted that sacrificing him would seal Sacred Way Mountain.
• The Blackblood Vine possessed Luo Bin and lunged at the Tomb Guardian, but the Immortal-Liberation Corpse covered and suppressed him with Gu Worms.
• The Tomb Guardian resumed trying to rip Luo Bin’s soul from his body while the Purple Miao watched.
• Mao Yousan arrived with four Dao Corpses and used a thunder incantation, scorching many of the Gu Worms.
• The Tomb Guardian continued extracting Luo Bin’s soul, and Mao Yousan shouted for Luo Xianshen to strike him down.

Luo Xianshen began a powerful Thunder Method ritual while the four Dao Corpses and Luo Bin fought to keep the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal and the Miao from stopping him. Luo Bin played the Miao King Ocarina to command the Gu, and the Butterfly Lady manifested as Luo Xianshen’s incantation reached its climax.

• Mao Yousan used a Calling Bell and a talisman to command the Dao Corpses while his Yin Spirit retreated from the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal.
• The Dao Corpses attacked the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal and the Tomb Guardian, but the Immortal broke their defense as Luo Bin warned that he was too powerful.
• Luo Xianshen appeared and began a lengthy Thunder Method ritual while two Dao Corpses sacrificed their Yin Spirits to restrain the Immortal and the Miao attacked the altar.
• Bai Wei prepared to fight off the Miao so Luo Xianshen could finish the ritual, while two Dao Corpses carried Luo Bin away.
• Luo Bin played the Miao King Ocarina, subdued the Gu, and manifested the Butterfly Lady as Luo Xianshen’s incantation reached its climax.

Luo Bin and the others watched Luo Xianshen's thunder strike the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal, while Mao Yousan returned and joined them. As the corpse began to disintegrate, Luo Xianshen drove a sword through its head, and Luo Bin still could not tell whether the danger had passed.

• Luo Xianshen's lightning struck the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal, leaving it and the two Dao Corpses cracked and burning.
• Mao Yousan returned, stopped Luo Bin from bowing, and noted that Luo Bin had subdued the Miao people's gu worms through Gu Arts rather than emergence from darkness.
• Luo Xianshen and Mao Yousan watched the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal crumble, while Luo Bin asked Fourth Master Gray to find the missing Tomb Guardian.
• Luo Xianshen recited the Spirit Sword Curse and thrust his bronze sword through the corpse's head.
• Luo Bin saw a hole where the corpse's head should have been, but no flesh or skull remained inside it.

The Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal survived Luo Xianshen’s Thunder Method and emerged in a monstrous body, forcing Luo Xianshen to fight while Mao Yousan and the others sought a way to break the stalemate. Mao Yousan rejected Third Master Hu’s costly plan and threw a Corpse Core to Luo Xianshen, but Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit appeared to intercept it.

• The Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal escaped Luo Xianshen’s lightning by using Golden Cicada Shedding Its Shell, then emerged from the ground in a grotesque form as Mao Yousan’s Calling Bells harmed the Purple Miao people.
• Luo Xianshen attacked the Corpse-Liberation Immortal with his sword, pestle, and Palm Thunder, while Bai Wei warned that Luo Xianshen could not defeat him through attrition alone.
• Bai Wei, speaking in Third Master Hu’s voice, proposed that the Dao Corpses pin the enemy down and Luo Bin strengthen Luo Xianshen until the Patriarch could intervene.
• Mao Yousan rejected the plan, shook the Calling Bells to knock the Five Immortals off Bai Wei, seized Third Master Hu, and removed the Corpse Core from his tails.
• Luo Bin offered to strengthen Luo Xianshen with Hexagram Speech Manifestation, but Mao Yousan threw the Corpse Core toward Luo Xianshen instead.
• Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit appeared and positioned himself to catch the Corpse Core, prompting Mao Yousan to roar at him to get lost.

Luo Xianshen summoned a Yang Spirit Patriarch, who used the Corpse Core to restore his strength and unleashed a Thunder Method against the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal. As the wounded Miao King rose again, Miao Cang urgently warned Luo Xianshen not to destroy him or play the Miao King's Ocarina.

• Luo Xianshen used the Four-Rules Mirror to summon a Patriarch, who took possession of him and halted the approaching Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal.
• The Patriarch pinned the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal with a talisman, swallowed the broken Corpse Core, and recovered his vitality.
• The Patriarch cast a powerful Thunder Method that blasted the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal into a crater and exposed Corpse-Liberation Immortal Gu inside his body.
• The Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal rose again, and Miao Cang shouted for the Miao King to stop him, warning that destroying the Purple Miao King would upset the balance among the three Miao lineages.

Luo Bin realized that Luo Xianshen’s lightning would destroy the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal’s scattered soul, so he tried to gather it back instead. He used the Divine Firmament Five-Thunder Pestle and the Miao King Ocarina to draw the escaped gray silkworms back to the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal, leaving his fate unresolved.

• Luo Xianshen struck the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal with heavenly thunder, reducing him to a dissolving shape as gray silkworm Gu carrying his soul fled.
• Luo Bin recognized that the silkworms held the Corpse-Liberation Immortal’s scattered soul and called for Luo Xianshen to wait.
• Luo Bin inserted the Divine Firmament Five-Thunder Pestle into the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal’s mouth and played the Miao King Ocarina.
• Luo Bin’s Soul-Gathering and Return to the Body melody drew escaped gray silkworms from the surrounding ground back onto the Purple Miao Corpse-Liberation Immortal.