Chapter Summaries

Xu Taiping went with Cuicui to find Li Damo, the tofu seller, after learning that he needed to mention Wang Ling'er to gain entry. Li Damo initially rejected him but opened his gate when Xu Taiping confirmed that Wang Ling'er wanted to eat his tofu.

• Xu Taiping refused Cuicui's offer of porridge and asked her to take him to Li Damo.
• Heavenly Lord Xuanbei, Ghost King Qin Ming, and the others discussed Xu Taiping's Book of Life and Death legacy and vowed to keep it secret.
• Xu Taiping gave Big Yellow Dog a Phoenix Beak Rosy Marrow Pill, and the dog began to glow with earthen-yellow light.
• Li Damo tried to turn Cuicui and Xu Taiping away, then slammed the courtyard gate after Xu Taiping mentioned Wang Ling'er.
• Li Damo reopened the gate and invited Xu Taiping inside after asking whether Wang Ling'er had really sent the message.

Xu Taiping earned Li Damo’s trust by relaying Wang Ling’er’s unsent words, then found the water lily Venerable Xuanbei wanted in Li Damo’s courtyard. He asked Li Damo for permission to take it to Ling’er, and Li Damo questioned whether she would want an ordinary flower.

• Xu Taiping told Li Damo that his aunt would make milk-sugar rice dumplings for a visiting friend, moving Li Damo with the message.
• Gu Changming recounted Li Damo and Wang Ling’er’s history, and Xu Taiping explained that his words came from her unsent letters.
• Xu Taiping sensed a water lily in a courtyard vat and realized it was the object Venerable Xuanbei sought.
• Li Damo brought Xu Taiping and Cuicui tofu pudding, then Xu Taiping asked to take the water lily to Ling’er.
• Li Damo asked whether Ling’er would want the ordinary water lily, and Xu Taiping said she had mentioned it before.

Xu Taiping tried to obtain the water lily token from Li Damo, but Xiao Moji’s claim over the courtyard’s old objects blocked him. Xu Taiping recited a poem from Wang Ling’er’s letter, prompting Li Damo to finally stand up to his mother and demand the flower back.

• Li Damo agreed to give Xu Taiping a water lily, but Xiao Moji arrived and claimed the right to choose old objects in the courtyard under his agreement with Li Damo’s mother.
• Xiao Moji insisted that nothing in the courtyard could be given away until he had finished choosing, and Li Damo’s mother took the flower from her son.
• Li Damo’s mother belittled him as a freeloader, and Li Damo lowered his head instead of resisting.
• Xu Taiping recited a poem from Wang Ling’er’s letter, and Li Damo recognized its words and shouted at his mother.
• Li Damo thrust out his hand and demanded that his mother give the water lily back.

Li Damo broke free from his mother's control and delivered his message to Wang Ling'er through Xu Taiping, allowing her spirit to return to him. Xiao Moji acknowledged Xu Taiping as an opponent, then warned that the Green Sand Gang would attack Three Paths Village the next day, just as an alarm announced that bandits were already coming.

• Li Damo smashed a teapot, cut his wrist, and gave Xu Taiping the lotus to deliver to Wang Ling'er.
• Xu Taiping discovered that Wang Ling'er's spirit remained in Three Paths Village, and Li Damo regained consciousness and sensed her presence.
• Xiao Moji tried to bind Xu Taiping with Li Damo's request and declared that he considered Xu Taiping an opponent.
• Gu Changming confirmed Li Damo still had a marriage thread, and Wang Ling'er rushed into the courtyard and reunited with him.
• Xiao Moji vanished after warning that the Green Sand Gang would attack the next day, while a gong sounded announcing that mountain bandits were attacking the village.

Heavenly Lord Xuanbei and the others discussed Xu Taiping’s options for surviving the coming massacre in Three Paths Village and the challenges of breaking its Netherworld Edict. As Xu Taiping hurried to the ancestral shrine with Cuicui, Ninth Madam showed the group another cultivator preparing to flee with a villager.

• Ninth Madam asked whether Xu Taiping knew how to escape the massacre, and Heavenly Lord Xuanbei and Daoist Fengzhu explained the dangers of hiding, surrendering, or being expelled from Three Paths Village.
• Heavenly Lord Xuanbei and Heavenly Lord Fengzhu explained that Xu Taiping’s ability to command Ghost Generals could help him survive attacks, but Ping'an learned it would not let him change the village’s fate.
• Ghost King Qin Ming said breaking the Netherworld Edict might require learning every villager’s name, and Heavenly Lord Xuanbei suggested finding the village genealogy, which Ninth Madam said had long been lost.
• Old Daoist Huang and Ping'an concluded that Xu Taiping should focus on surviving the massacre, while Xu Taiping set off for the ancestral shrine with Cuicui and the tokens.
• Ninth Madam showed the group a young cultivator packing a villager’s belongings, and Brother Sun told Xiaohui he planned to take her out of the village before the bandits arrived.

Sun Xiao tried to escape Three Paths Village by leading Xiaohui into the mountains and offering her to the Green Sand Gang in exchange for joining them. The bandits killed him anyway because their strategist had ordered them to let no outsiders escape.

• Sun Xiao fled Three Paths Village with Xiaohui, relying on her help to evade villagers and find a path out.
• Sun Xiao led Xiaohui into the mountains, where they encountered the Green Sand Gang.
• Sun Xiao shoved Xiaohui toward the bandits and offered her as a gift so they would let him join.
• Xiaohui revealed her evil ghost form, but a bandit kicked her down and her transformation vanished.
• Sun Xiao offered the bandits a map of Three Paths Village, but their leader cut off his head before he could explain it.
• The bandit leader said the strategist had ordered them to kill every outsider, and Ping'an cursed Sun Xiao.

The observers learned that Su Chan, presumed dead after Xu Taiping killed him, had appeared as the Strategist commanding the mountain bandits to kill everyone in Three Paths Village. Xu Taiping refused Old Man Liu’s offer to take Cuicui away, and discovered the village had been testing whether he was a bandit spy.

• The white-robed Strategist ordered the mountain bandits to kill Xiaohui and everyone who passed, then revealed himself as Su Chan.
• Old Daoist Huang explained Su Chan’s history with Xu Taiping, while Heavenly Lord Xuanbei and Daoist Fengzhu discussed whether he might be a demon seed awakened by the Demon Mother.
• Old Man Liu told Xu Taiping that the Village Chief planned to negotiate with the bandits and urged him to take Cuicui to another village.
• Xu Taiping’s Lotus Eye warned him not to leave, so he refused and said he wanted to help defend Three Paths Village.
• Old Man Liu revealed that he and the Village Chief had offered Xu Taiping a chance to leave to test whether he was a spy for the bandits.

Xu Taiping learned that the Green Sand Gang had secretly surrounded Three Paths Village and planned to use the villagers to force the government to free its old leader. The Village Chief urged Xu Taiping to join the villagers’ planned resistance and fight their way out.

• The Village Chief explained that he had tested Xu Taiping because a mysterious outsider had tried to assassinate him, then escaped the villagers.
• Gu Changming identified the escaped outsider as Ye Lingxu, Xiao Moji’s friend, and Xu Taiping wondered whether Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu had acted together.
• The Village Chief revealed that the Green Sand Gang had blocked every route into and out of Three Paths Village several days earlier.
• The Village Chief said the gang intended to use the village to pressure the government into releasing its old leader, and that he had used the planned negotiation to conceal preparations for resistance.
• Xu Taiping and Gu Changming realized that the villagers’ organized resistance might reveal what had truly happened before earlier massacres.
• The Village Chief asked Xu Taiping to join the villagers and carve a way out through the Green Sand Gang.

Xu Taiping joined the villagers of Three Paths Village as they prepared to resist the mountain bandits and learned why cultivators such as Xiao Moji sought to break the village’s seven-day reincarnation. The village militia had captured the outsiders who tried to assassinate Scholar Liu, and Xu Taiping went with the village chief to see them.

• Gu Changming told Xu Taiping that the village’s fate was sealed and explained that Xiao Moji wanted to assassinate the village chief to break the seven-day reincarnation and obtain a great opportunity.
• Xu Taiping followed the village chief to the ancestral hall, promised Cuicui they would meet again, and learned the village chief was called Scholar Liu.
• Tian Bufan welcomed Xu Taiping as an ally against the mountain bandits and reported that the village militia had captured the outsiders who tried to assassinate Scholar Liu.
• Xu Taiping and Gu Changming were shocked to hear that Xiao Moji and his group had been captured.

Xu Taiping and Gu Changming found Xiao Moji and other outsiders captured by Three Paths Village, then learned the village was preparing to defend against the Green Sand Gang. As Xu Taiping was asked to help delay the bandits, Blade Ghost awoke and offered to lend a hand if the village had enough Soulfire Stones.

• Scholar Liu ordered the captured outsiders, including Xiao Moji, taken away for execution, and Xu Taiping refused Xiao Moji's plea for help.
• Scholar Liu introduced Xu Taiping to headman Tian Bufan and squad leader Liu Zheng, who explained that the village faced roughly six hundred bandits with only around a hundred and sixty soldiers.
• Tian Bufan demonstrated that Three Paths Village could use Soulfire Stones as blasting traps, but the stones lost their power outside the village.
• Tian Bufan assigned Xu Taiping and sixty village soldiers to harass the bandit camp while Scholar Liu posed as a prisoner to get them through its gates.
• Blade Ghost awakened and told Xu Taiping to ask how many Soulfire Stones the village had, offering to help if there were enough.

Xu Taiping agreed to help Scholar Liu, believing Three Paths Village was close to revealing the truth behind its destruction, and learned that Blade Ghost had awakened his identity and needed Soulfire Stones to recover. He emerged to accept Scholar Liu’s request on two conditions, beginning with supplies for a raid on the bandits’ camp and custody of the other outsiders.

• Xu Taiping told Gu Changming that he wanted to stay and investigate Three Paths Village rather than leave.
• Xu Taiping found Blade Ghost weakened after breaking through the Eighteen-Layer Blade Domain, and learned that his mortal enemy had sensed him.
• Blade Ghost identified the Soulfire Stones as a way to manifest in Three Paths Village and recover his strength, so Xu Taiping sent him his remaining stones.
• Gu Changming agreed to take the gamble, and Xu Taiping told Scholar Liu he would help if his conditions were met.
• Xu Taiping demanded a batch of Blasting Stones and asked Scholar Liu to hand the group of outsiders over to him.

Xiao Moji tried to free the imprisoned cultivators and help them escape, but Xu Taiping and the village soldiers stopped them. With the captives beaten and left alone with Xu Taiping, he asked Xiao Moji whether he was afraid to die.

• Ye Lingxu urged Xiao Moji to escape, but Xiao Moji promised to free the captives and hold off the villagers so the others could flee.
• Xiao Moji used golden sword qi to cut through everyone's ropes as the villagers opened the door.
• Xu Taiping exchanged places with a villager and used his True Dragon Ten-Zhang Forbidden Domain Power to break the cultivators' abilities.
• Xiao Moji and the other cultivators attacked Xu Taiping, but Tian Bufan and the village soldiers beat them back into the room.
• Xu Taiping stopped Tian Bufan's men and, left alone with the battered captives, asked Xiao Moji if he was afraid of dying.

Xu Taiping released the cultivators who feared death and challenged Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu to join him on a raid against the Green Sand Gang's main camp. He planned to buy Three Paths Village time to prepare to defeat the bandits, hoping the villagers' victory would break the Seven-Day Reincarnation Netherworld Power, and Xiao Moji agreed to go with him.

• Xu Taiping asked the captives whether they feared death, and the other cultivators begged for mercy while Ye Lingxu refused to yield.
• Xu Taiping let the pleading cultivators leave Three Paths Village freely, and they hurried out of the courtyard.
• Xu Taiping offered Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu the same chance to leave, but they stayed and mocked his offer.
• Xu Taiping announced that he would lead sixty village soldiers to raid the Green Sand Gang's main camp and buy the villagers time to prepare for an assault.
• Xu Taiping explained that the villagers killing every bandit might break the Seven-Day Reincarnation Netherworld Power, and Xiao Moji embraced the plan.
• Xiao Moji asked when they would march to the bandit camp, and Xu Taiping answered that they would leave right now.

In the Yellow Springs Ruins, the observers accepted Xu Taiping’s risky choice to uncover Three Paths Village’s truth, while he and his allies prepared to attack the Green Sand Gang’s camp. Xu Taiping opened a Divine Soul Mark to make a deduction, and the scene within it finally began to change.

• Ghost King Qin Ming warned that the Green Sand Gang would attack Three Paths Village a day earlier, leaving Xu Taiping and the others to adapt without reliable information.
• Heavenly Lord Xuanbei and Daoist Fengzhu approved of Xu Taiping’s resolve to investigate the village’s truth, even if it cost them the water lily.
• Gu Changming reported that Village Chief Liu and eight villagers had entered the bandit camp to negotiate, potentially buying the attackers time.
• Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu proposed preparing another way into the camp, but Xu Taiping warned that the bandits would detect them without cover.
• Xu Taiping opened the Divine Soul Mark sensed by the Lotus Eye and saw a scene resembling the camp before him; after remaining frozen, it suddenly changed.

Xu Taiping used a deduction to realize the Green Sand Gang might have uncovered Village Head Scholar Liu’s plan, then devised a way to draw the bandits out while his allies attacked their supplies. The chapter leaves him preparing to face the encampment alone, while Heavenly Lord Xuanbei and Daoist Fengzhu approved of his daring.

• Xu Taiping saw a deduction in which Su Chan ambushed his group after the bandits exposed their raid.
• When a lantern-bearing figure emerged from the encampment, Xu Taiping warned his companions that it might be a bandit in disguise.
• Xu Taiping proposed drawing the bandits out alone while Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu led the villagers through a side gate to burn the provisions and fodder.
• Xu Taiping summoned ghost generals with the Fengdu Token and said he would hold off hundreds of bandits while his allies entered the encampment.
• Ping'an and Ninth Madam worried that Xu Taiping was being reckless, while Heavenly Lord Xuanbei and Daoist Fengzhu recognized his daring as familiar.

Xu Taiping and Blade Ghost led more than a hundred Ghost Generals in an attack on the bandit encampment, while Gu Changming and Xiao Moji moved the villagers toward its side gate. After the bandits surrounded Xu Taiping’s group and were killed, the Netherworld Edict revived them as evil ghosts.

• Xu Taiping reunited with Blade Ghost, gave him the bone blade No Edge, and summoned more than a hundred lifelike Ghost Generals with the Fengdu Token.
• Xu Taiping told Gu Changming to lead Xiao Moji and the sixty villagers into the encampment through its side gate when the bandits surrounded him.
• Su Chan appeared above the gate, called Xu Taiping his junior brother, and vanished after promising him a grand gift.
• Bandits poured out of the encampment and surrounded Xu Taiping and the Ghost Generals as arrows rained down from the ramparts.
• Blade Ghost brought down the blue-faced bandit leader’s horse, and Xu Taiping beheaded the leader while the Ghost Generals killed the other attackers.
• The slain bandits, including their leader, revived as evil ghosts under the Netherworld Edict.

Xu Taiping and Blade Ghost fought overwhelming numbers of bandit evil ghosts while waiting for Gu Changming to reach the encampment. The chapter ended when flames erupted in the encampment, throwing the bandits into chaos and giving the two a chance to fight on.

• Blade Ghost cleaved the Qingmian Evil Ghost and its warhorse in half, while Xu Taiping drove back another evil ghost with an improved slash.
• As the bandits’ evil ghosts overwhelmed them, Xu Taiping summoned more than three hundred ghost generals and formed a battle formation that shattered dozens of enemies.
• Gu Changming told Xu Taiping that he had led his people into the encampment but needed another tea-brewing’s time, and Xu Taiping and Blade Ghost continued fighting the bandits.
• After a tea-brewing’s time, Xu Taiping and Blade Ghost were nearly out of ghost generals when flames erupted in the encampment and the bandits fell into chaos.
• Blade Ghost swallowed a Soulfire Stone and declared he still had strength to fight.

Xu Taiping led the Three Paths Village soldiers and ghost generals in repeated charges against the mountain bandits, but their strength dwindled while the villagers' traps remained unfinished. With the defenders close to exhaustion, Tian Bufan urged them to fight, and Xu Taiping combined the remaining village soldiers and ghost generals into a new formation for the next charge.

• Xu Taiping directed Xiao Moji, Ye Lingxu, the ghost generals, and the Three Paths Village soldiers to repeatedly break the mountain bandits' formation.
• Old Daoist Huang warned that each charge consumed the ghost generals' numbers and the magic power of Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu.
• After dozens of charges, Xu Taiping's forces had dwindled, and Ping'an and the others worried that the defenders could not hold out much longer.
• Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu urged Xu Taiping to find another strategy, while Tian Bufan and the village soldiers called to be allowed to fight.
• Xu Taiping changed the formation, joining the remaining village soldiers with the ghost generals and rallying them against the charging bandits.

Xu Taiping, Xiao Moji, Ye Lingxu, and the remaining village soldiers fought the mountain bandits with desperate resolve as their forces dwindled. When fireworks signaled that Three Paths Village was ready, Xu Taiping summoned Blade Ghost to help them break out.

• Xu Taiping united the battle intent of his soldiers, ghost generals, Xiao Moji, and Ye Lingxu, then led them through the mountain bandits’ formation.
• The fighters battled on, killing at least a hundred bandits, but Xu Taiping’s ghost generals were destroyed and fewer than thirty village soldiers remained.
• Xiao Moji and Ye Lingxu agreed to keep fighting alongside Xu Taiping until the last soldier, despite Gu Changming warning that they needed to escape.
• Fireworks appeared over Three Paths Village, signaling that it was ready, and Gu Changming urged the three fighters to break out.
• Xu Taiping sensed the signal and summoned Blade Ghost, who appeared beside him.

Xu Taiping and his companions escaped the mountain bandits’ formation, but the Three Paths Village soldiers became untouchable as the village’s destruction began replaying around them. Xiao Moji realized they had uncovered the truth behind the village’s fall, and the group watched as the bandits advanced toward Three Paths Village.

• Blade Ghost used his remaining power to slash a path through the mountain bandits, and Gu Changming carried Xu Taiping, Xiao Moji, Ye Lingxu, and the soldiers away before the Netherworld Edict’s backlash forced him to drop them.
• As the Mountain Bandits Leader and his forces pursued them, Xu Taiping found that the village soldiers were intangible and could not hear or sense the outsiders.
• Xiao Moji explained that revealing the truth behind Three Paths Village’s destruction sealed the world and forced its ghosts to reenact the events of that day.
• Tian Bufan and the other soldiers fought the bandits in the forest, but the Mountain Bandits Chieftain killed them and displayed Tian Bufan’s head beside Village Head Scholar Liu’s.
• The bandits charged toward Three Paths Village, and Xiao Moji told Xu Taiping they had discovered the truth behind its destruction.