Chapter Summaries

Chu Xiaoyao claimed she had spent ten thousand years becoming the Carefree Empress before returning to ask Zhou You for homework help. After she taught him from the Tao Te Ching, Zhou You unexpectedly began cultivating and floated above his bed.

• Chu Xiaoyao visited Zhou You and claimed she had time-traveled to the Primordial Continent, where she became the Carefree Empress before being betrayed and killed.
• Zhou You recalled Chu Xiaoyao’s past elaborate stories and reluctantly let her copy his summer homework.
• After finishing the homework, Chu Xiaoyao claimed she could teach Zhou You to cultivate, though she said she could not cultivate herself yet.
• Chu Xiaoyao read from the Tao Te Ching and taught Zhou You to sense spiritual qi.
• Zhou You woke from a drowsy state to discover he was floating above his bed, leaving both him and Chu Xiaoyao shocked.

Chu Xiaoyao convinced herself that she was the Carefree Empress and guided Zhou You as he began cultivating, while Zhou You discovered his soul could leave his body. As the school’s oppressive heat drove them to discuss its haunted old dormitory, Zhou You asked Chu Xiaoyao to investigate it with him.

• Chu Xiaoyao decided her memories of the Hongmeng Continent were real and told Zhou You that he had reached half-step Qi Refining after drawing qi into his body.
• At Chang'an No. 2 High School, Zhou You showed Chu Xiaoyao how his soul emerged from his body, and she said he was nearing Qi Refining.
• Chu Xiaoyao continued telling Zhou You about her supposed experiences on the Hongmeng Continent during class.
• Zhou You asked Chu Xiaoyao whether there were spells to cool down, and she said a half-step Qi Refining cultivator could not expect to learn spells.
• Zhou You asked Chu Xiaoyao to visit the school’s supposedly haunted old dormitory after evening self-study, and she confidently agreed.

Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao entered No. 2 High School’s supposedly haunted old dormitory building after evening study hall, unaware that the ghost Nuomi was circling them. Nuomi prepared to scare the pair, who still could not see her.

• Chu Xiaoyao passed Zhou You a note boasting about her power as the Carefree Empress, and their teacher confiscated it for being a novel.
• A boy and girl sneaked into the old dormitory building, where the boy mistook a uniform for a person before seeing a giant rat in the girl’s place and fleeing.
• The girl heard scraping in the corridor and found her boyfriend crawling toward her with his lower body eaten away by bugs.
• Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao arrived at the building after the couple fled, mistaking their screams for proof that a ghost was inside.
• Nuomi circled Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao, tried to frighten Zhou by blowing on his neck, and considered how to scare them next.

Zhou You used Soul Projection to see Nuomi, a female ghost, and confronted her alongside Chu Xiaoyao. After Chu Xiaoyao trapped Nuomi in a terrifying inner world and Zhou You knocked her unconscious, Nuomi woke up crying about how people had mistreated her; Zhou You then asked her to move, making her suspect they wanted to steal her territory.

• Zhou You used Soul Projection to see Nuomi and braced himself for a fight, while Chu Xiaoyao remained unaware of the ghost.
• Nuomi attacked Chu Xiaoyao with her secret art, but Chu Xiaoyao appeared in Nuomi's inner world and drove her out with her imperial majesty.
• Zhou You mistook Nuomi's return for an ongoing attack on Chu Xiaoyao and punched her, knocking her unconscious.
• Nuomi woke from a nightmare, explained that people had thrown sticky rice at her to drive her away, and burst into tears.
• Zhou You told Nuomi they wanted her to move elsewhere, and she suspected they meant to take over her territory.

Zhou You and his classmates discovered that Nuomi’s presence had made Class Three unusually cool, and Zhou You asked her about her past. Nuomi recalled that she had lost her earlier memories and once drove another ghost from the old dormitory building; she also told Zhou You about a student Daoist who had thrown glutinous rice at her.

• Students entered Class Three and found it startlingly cold, while Zhou You quietly knew Nuomi was the cause.
• Chu Xiaoyao claimed she had captured a female ghost, and Nuomi corrected her by insisting she had moved to the classroom willingly.
• Zhou You asked Nuomi what she remembered, and she said her memories began two years ago, when she took over the old dormitory building from Ghost King Zhenyue.
• Chu Xiaoyao explained that Nuomi’s lost memories might be caused by the unknown rules of life and death in their world.
• Nuomi recounted how a Daoist in a school uniform had thrown glutinous rice at her and vowed to get even if she found the Daoist again.

Su Tingxue discovered that Nuomi had left the Old Dormitory Building and mistakenly thought she had bewitched Zhou You, so she confronted them and demanded a rematch. Her attempt to settle the score left her classmates convinced she and Zhou You had a romantic history, and she ended the chapter mortified by their reaction.

• Su Tingxue sensed a vengeful ghost in Senior Year Class Three and recognized Nuomi, the ghost who had defeated her two years earlier.
• Su Tingxue entered the classroom, accused Nuomi of bewitching Zhou You, and ordered him to leave her.
• Nuomi demanded a one-on-one fight with Su Tingxue, while Zhou You tried to explain their relationship and suggest they talk outside.
• Su Tingxue challenged Nuomi to settle their old score, but her words made the classmates think she and Zhou You had a romantic past.
• Su Tingxue realized how her conversation sounded to the class and blushed, unable to meet Zhou You's eyes.

Zhou You brought Su Tingxue, Nuomi, and Chu Xiaoyao to a quiet corridor, where Su Tingxue revealed her cultivation while fighting Nuomi and was defeated. After learning that Chu Xiaoyao had not begun cultivating and Zhou You was only at Half-Step Qi Refining, Su Tingxue was left confused by his unfamiliar realm.

• Zhou You pulled Su Tingxue and Chu Xiaoyao out of the noisy classroom while Nuomi followed them.
• Su Tingxue attacked Nuomi with her Vital Yang Flame, but Nuomi dodged the flame and defeated her by drawing out her deepest fear.
• Zhou You helped the exhausted Su Tingxue up, and she introduced herself as a disciple of True Person Mu Yu of Dragon Tiger Mountain.
• Chu Xiaoyao said she was self-taught but had not started cultivating, while Zhou You introduced himself as her disciple.
• Su Tingxue mistook Zhou You's Half-Step Qi Refining for half-step Foundation Establishment, then wondered what his realm meant.

After Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao’s conversation with Su Tingxue, Chu Xiaoyao decided to rebuild her former sect, the Free and Unfettered Gate, with Zhou You as its sect leader. They founded it at school, recruited Nuomi, and then went looking for Su Tingxue, only to learn she had gone out.

• Wei Hang and two classmates followed Zhou You and saw Su Tingxue kneel before him, then misread the scene as a love-triangle dispute.
• Su Tingxue wondered whether Zhou You had yin-yang eyes like Dragon Tiger Mountain’s founding patriarch before the class bell sent everyone back to lessons.
• Chu Xiaoyao proposed rebuilding the Free and Unfettered Gate, and Zhou You agreed to be sect leader after she bribed him with two packets of spicy strips to become supreme elder.
• Chu Xiaoyao and Zhou You made nameplates and celebrated the sect’s founding with a bottle-cap pop, then appointed Nuomi deputy sect leader when she joined.
• Chu Xiaoyao, Zhou You, and Nuomi went to find Su Tingxue, but her friend Zhao Cancan said she had taken leave and gone out.
• Chu Xiaoyao said her lingering presence had frightened Zhao Cancan, and Nuomi concluded that joining the sect had given her a powerful ally.

Su Tingxue recruited Zhou You to help capture a Veil-Eye Ghost that was causing crashes at a Chang'an City intersection. After explaining how the ghost had formed, she and Zhou You rode bicycles toward the site, where she began teaching him about ghosts.

• Su Tingxue summoned Zhou You with a paper airplane and asked him to help catch an unusual ghost, offering to recommend him to Dragon Tiger Mountain.
• Zhou You told Su Tingxue he had founded the Free and Unfettered Gate, and she explained how sects announced their founding in the Cultivation World.
• Zhou You obtained leave from his homeroom teacher, left Chu Xiaoyao a note, and joined Su Tingxue on bicycles.
• Su Tingxue explained that traffic accidents at the intersection of China Street and Huaian Road had increased after drivers and pedestrians suffered sudden blindness.
• Su Tingxue identified a young woman killed in a May collision as a Veil-Eye Ghost that had been obstructing people's vision and causing accidents.
• Su Tingxue told Zhou You that resentment alone was not enough to turn someone into a ghost.

Su Tingxue explained how Veil-Eye Ghosts blinded their victims, then she and Zhou You lured one out at an intersection. After the ghost covered Su Tingxue’s eyes, a second Veil-Eye Ghost blinded Zhou You as well.

• Su Tingxue told Zhou You that he would need to pry a Veil-Eye Ghost’s hands from her eyes so she could fight it.
• Su Tingxue treated Zhou You to sticky rice rolls and explained that opening a sealed bottle cap one-handed was a cultivation-world benchmark for Qi Refining.
• Su Tingxue and Zhou You cycled around the intersection, but Zhou You proposed splitting up so he could pretend to be a pedestrian while she rode past.
• On their ninth attempt, a Veil-Eye Ghost appeared and covered Su Tingxue’s eyes.
• Zhou You saw the ghost clinging to Su Tingxue, but when he approached, a second Veil-Eye Ghost covered his eyes, and he could neither see nor touch its hands.

Zhou You and Su Tingxue faced two Veil-Eye Ghosts, and Zhou You discovered he could use Soul Projection to beat and eat one of them. After Su Tingxue sealed the other, Zhou You declined to join Dragon Tiger Mountain and asked her to teach him about the cultivation world.

• Su Tingxue realized the two Veil-Eye Ghosts had blinded both her and Zhou You, and she told him to stay still while she sought a way to fight them.
• Zhou You used Soul Projection to find the ghost behind him, punched it, and ate it.
• The frightened ghost behind Su Tingxue loosened its hold, allowing her to capture it in a talisman and seal it.
• Zhou You explained what had happened, and Su Tingxue wondered about his Soul Projection and suggested asking her master.
• Zhou You said he would ask Chu Xiaoyao, then refused Su Tingxue's offer to join Dragon Tiger Mountain.
• Zhou You asked Su Tingxue to explain the cultivation world as payment, and she agreed to find somewhere to talk.

Su Tingxue explained the history of cultivation and how modern society had changed the work of cultivators, demons, monsters, and ghosts. She also outlined cultivation realms for Zhou You, who committed the information to memory so he could tell Chu Xiaoyao.

• Su Tingxue told Zhou You that cultivators had once fought Primordial Ferocious Beasts alongside ordinary people, then went into hiding after Emperor Zhuanxu separated immortals from mortals.
• Su Tingxue explained that modern traffic deaths and social changes had given rise to New-Era Vengeful Ghosts, internet demons, Program Ghosts, and other unfamiliar supernatural threats.
• Su Tingxue described how prolonged seclusion could leave cultivators stranded by modern changes, including True Lord Wenchang, whose plan to advance through official office was derailed by the abolition of imperial examinations.
• Zhou You suggested that True Lord Wenchang might run for president abroad, and Su Tingxue decided the idea might work and said she would suggest it to him.
• Su Tingxue explained that sects had begun appearing publicly and recruiting new disciples through summer camps and aptitude tests.
• Su Tingxue described the Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core realms, while admitting she knew little about Creation and Ascension; Zhou You memorized her explanation for Chu Xiaoyao.

After consuming the Veil-Eye Ghost, Zhou You advanced to Qi Refining and tested his new abilities with Chu Xiaoyao. He learned that his soul could leave his body only a short distance and that his unusual way of inspecting his meridians came from a cultivation method different from Su Tingxue’s.

• Zhou You broke through to Qi Refining while cycling and proved his strength by removing a sealed bottle’s cap with one hand.
• Su Tingxue and Zhou You exchanged QQ details before returning to school, where Zhou You told Chu Xiaoyao about confronting and eating the Veil-Eye Ghost.
• Chu Xiaoyao explained that eating ghosts nourished Zhou You’s soul and cultivation, and Zhou You successfully projected his entire soul from his body.
• Zhou You found that his projected soul could move only three steps from his body before an unseen connection pulled it back.
• At Chu Xiaoyao’s suggestion, Zhou You used Soul Projection to inspect his body and saw his meridians, and she explained that his cultivation method differed from Su Tingxue’s.

Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao sought a way to announce the founding of the Free and Unfettered Gate without paying for a newspaper notice, then recruited Wei Hang to publish it in the school paper. The school paper ran their announcement on its front page, leaving Su Tingxue confused about whether they had started an acrobatics troupe.

• Zhou You told Chu Xiaoyao the cultivation realms and explained that Su Tingxue had said sects should announce their founding in a newspaper.
• Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao abandoned the expensive newspaper notice and the idea of rebellion, then decided to use the school paper.
• Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao asked Wei Hang to publish the sect's founding announcement, listing themselves and Nuomi as its leaders.
• Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao added claims about Zhou You's ox-like strength and ability to unscrew bottle caps with one hand.
• Wei Hang put the Free and Unfettered Gate announcement on the school paper's front page, and Su Tingxue wondered if they had started an acrobatics troupe.

Students learned that Zhou You’s group had been labeled an acrobatics troupe in the school newspaper, while True Lord Wenchang found a possible new path for his Literary Path cultivation: running for a foreign country’s highest office. He decided to pursue the American presidency, confident that his birthplace and years spent there met the requirements.

• Students read the school newspaper’s headline about the Free and Unfettered Gate, and Zhou You confronted Wei Hang for describing him as an acrobat.
• Wei Hang offered Zhou You shrimp crackers, and Zhou You and Chu Xiaoyao shared them as she laughed at the newspaper story.
• True Lord Wenchang complained to Dongyunzi that modern rules had left him unable to pursue office through examinations, until True Person Mu Yu suggested foreign elections.
• Dongyunzi proposed that True Lord Wenchang seek office in a powerful country, and Wenchang chose America despite the citizenship and residency requirements.
• True Lord Wenchang explained that he had been born in America and had spent more than fourteen years there, then resolved to try for its presidency.

True Lord Wenchang asked his grand-disciple Li Minghui for help traveling to America and running for president, then asked what Qi Refining cultivators needed most. Meanwhile, Mind Master and Force Wielder located the Humanity Supreme Treasure at Chang'an City's Second High School and decided to investigate it themselves.

• True Lord Wenchang called Li Minghui and said he wanted to go abroad and become president.
• Li Minghui advised True Lord Wenchang that cultivators needed cultivation methods more than money.
• Mind Master and Force Wielder overlaid an ancient map of Chang'an with a modern one and located the Humanity Supreme Treasure at Chang'an City's Second High School.
• Mind Master and Force Wielder learned that Ghost King Zhenyue guarded the treasure and that a powerful seal kept ghosts away from its box.
• Mind Master persuaded Force Wielder to delay reporting their discovery and investigate the school themselves.

Mind Master and Force Wielder searched Chang'an No. 2 High School for Ghost King Zhenyue, following a blessed bracelet’s warning to Grade 12, Class 3. They found the ghost king circling two students, whom Mind Master mistook for possessed victims.

• Mind Master and Force Wielder climbed into the school, where Force Wielder broke the chain around the artificial lake and Mind Master used his ancestral bracelet to search for ghosts.
• Mind Master controlled a patrolling teacher and learned that the old dormitory was haunted; the bracelet indicated a vicious ghost’s lingering traces, not the ghost king himself.
• As the pair searched the campus, the bracelet’s beads lit up and then turned black one by one while they climbed the classroom building.
• At Grade 12, Class 3, Mind Master and Force Wielder saw a human-shaped mass of black mist circling a chubby boy and two other students.
• Mind Master concluded that the two students were possessed, while one of them took prawn crackers from the chubby boy and shared them with his deskmate.

The Mind Master and Force Wielder ambushed Zhou You, hoping to learn about the Ghost King and the Humanity Supreme Treasure. Zhou You resisted their attacks and unexpectedly used the Veil-Eye Ghost’s Ghost Veil ability, leaving the fight unresolved.

• The Mind Master and Force Wielder waited outside Zhou You’s school and followed him after classes ended.
• The two confronted Zhou You alone and the Mind Master tried unsuccessfully to control him with his ability.
• The Force Wielder attacked Zhou You, who dodged his blows but struggled against his opponent’s strength and speed.
• As the Force Wielder’s punch was about to land, Zhou You suddenly appeared behind him and covered his eyes with Ghost Veil.
• Zhou You realized he had gained the Veil-Eye Ghost’s ability and slapped the blinded Force Wielder across the ear.

Zhou You drove off Mind Master and Force Wielder, who had been sent to investigate the Humanity Supreme Treasure and Chu Xiaoyao. After Chu Xiaoyao explained Zhou You’s new ghost-eating ability, he told Su Tingxue about the attack and learned she had several suspects for the rich kid who might have ordered it.

• Mind Master tried to flee Zhou You, but Force Wielder accidentally hit him with a brick, then carried him away at high speed.
• Mind Master woke with a bandaged head, and he and Force Wielder decided to contact their American headquarters for help finding the Humanity Supreme Treasure.
• Zhou You told Chu Xiaoyao and Nuomi about the fight, and Chu Xiaoyao identified the attackers as members of the organization seeking information about her.
• Nuomi used a self-writing pen to praise Chu Xiaoyao, who promised to protect her.
• Chu Xiaoyao explained that Zhou You gained his eye-veiling spell by eating a Veil-Eye Ghost and warned him to be careful about eating ghosts.
• Zhou You told Su Tingxue he suspected someone jealous of their closeness had arranged the attack, and she admitted she had several people in mind.

Zhou You and Su Tingxue followed Wang Chong after he left school and discovered he was organizing an ambush against Zhou You. Su Tingxue made a breakthrough in her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye, and the chapter ended as Zhou You revealed himself to Wang Chong’s group.

• Su Tingxue named Wang Chong as a possible suspect, then later told Zhou You that he had left school before the third evening self-study session.
• Zhou You and Su Tingxue climbed over the school wall and followed Wang Chong, while Zhou You’s advice helped Su Tingxue break through in her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye.
• The pair followed Wang Chong to the alley where Zhou You had been attacked, and Su Tingxue used a paper figure to spy on the people inside.
• Wang Chong told his lackey that he had gathered nine students from a nearby sports school to ambush Zhou You, whom he blamed for his relationship with Su Tingxue.
• Zhou You announced himself as he stood among Wang Chong’s group, and Wang Chong reacted in surprise.