Chapter Summaries

Chen Wei visited Guanjiangkou with Yang Chan and tried to win Yang Jian’s favor by calling him “Second Brother.” Yang Jian responded with a veiled threat about the brutal fate of a demon who had spoken out of turn, leaving Chen Wei to praise his wisdom.

• Chen Wei repeatedly checked his appearance before following Yang Chan into Guanjiangkou with eight gift boxes.
• Kang Anyu welcomed Yang Chan and Chen Wei and told them Yang Jian was waiting inside.
• Yang Jian greeted Yang Chan warmly but regarded Chen Wei with hostility, then praised his recent achievements.
• Chen Wei tried to flatter Yang Jian and asked permission to address him as “Second Brother,” explaining that he meant it as a mark of respect.
• Yang Jian described how he had tortured and destroyed a demon and its entire family, then asked Chen Wei what he thought of the punishment.
• Chen Wei answered, “Such wisdom, Second Brother!”

Yang Jian confronted Yang Chan over her relationship with Chen Wei and refused to let her leave Guanjiangkou with him. He confined her and threatened Chen Wei, leaving Yang Chan to choose between protecting him and defying her brother.

• Yang Chan stopped Yang Jian from attacking Chen Wei by asking to pay respects to their parents, then followed her brother to the ancestral shrine.
• Yang Chan argued that Chen Wei was an immortal and that their relationship did not violate Heavenly Law, but Yang Jian called him a schemer and accused him of using her.
• Yang Jian ordered Yang Chan to remain at Guanjiangkou and said he would take over her Mount Hua sanctuary and Tongming Hall duties.
• Yang Jian threatened that Chen Wei would not leave Guanjiangkou alive if Yang Chan tried to take him away, so she reluctantly agreed to let him leave alone.
• Yang Jian promised Chen Wei would be safe and could gain a prosperous future if Yang Chan cut off all contact with him.

Chen Wei returned to the Heavenly Court and took up a case involving a thirty percent shortfall in incense merit submitted by the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas. He decided to summon them to the East Sea and demand they make up the missing amount, while Pang Long’s concern about the case’s timing remained unresolved.

• Chen Wei left Guanjiangkou troubled by Yang Chan’s tearful farewell, then convinced himself to focus on his career and returned to the Heavenly Court.
• Ma Muzhi reported that the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas had submitted thirty percent less incense merit than required, though the Rain Supervision Office claimed its investigations found no wrongdoing.
• Chen Wei concluded that the Rain Supervision Office had avoided confronting the dragon kings and decided to meet them at the East Sea Dragon Palace to demand they make up the shortfall.
• Pang Long questioned why the case had reached Tongming Hall only after Chen Wei took office, but Chen Wei insisted that the Dragon Kings pay their share for the good of the Three Realms.

Chen Wei arrived at the East Sea Dragon Palace with Xiao Yan and Chu Feng to conduct official business, but the Four Seas Dragon Kings welcomed him with a lavish spectacle and a birthday banquet. As Ao Guang introduced his daughter Ao Rui and she asked Chen Wei for painting pointers, the Jade Pendant Yang Chan had given him suddenly glowed red.

• Chen Wei noticed Yang Chan had read his message but had not replied, then dismissed her silence as a passing mood.
• The Four Seas Dragon Kings staged an elaborate welcome for Chen Wei and praised him as he arrived at the East Sea.
• Chen Wei asked to discuss official business, but Ao Guang invited him into the Dragon Palace for Ao Rui's birthday celebration.
• Ao Guang introduced Ao Rui and said she admired Chen Wei's painting; she asked him to give her pointers someday.
• The Jade Pendant Yang Chan had given Chen Wei flared red while he was speaking with Ao Rui.

Chen Wei resisted Ao Rui’s attempts to charm him and used his unfinished Tongming Hall assignment to defer Ao Guang’s request to place her in the office. Ao Guang agreed to support Chen Wei’s work on the disputed rainfall accounts, leaving a path open for future favors once the assignment was complete.

• Chen Wei refused Ao Rui’s wine and praised his Jade Pendant for keeping him clear-headed, though the pendant soon cooled.
• Ao Guang and his brothers concluded that Chen Wei could not be swayed by ordinary treasure or charm and decided to appeal to his career and interests.
• Ao Guang asked Chen Wei to arrange a position for Ao Rui in Tongming Hall, where she could serve at his side.
• Chen Wei said he could not consider the request until he finished reconciling the Four Seas Dragon Kings’ rainfall quotas with their reported merit.
• Ao Guang promised the East Sea would support Tongming Hall’s work, and Chen Wei accepted his toast.

Chen Wei discovered that the Dragon Kings’ missing merit was authorized compensation for the Sea-Calming Divine Needle’s loss, and avoided accusing powerful figures in the Heavenly Court. He agreed to conceal the arrangement and offered Ao Rui a special Immortal Official post.

• Ao Guang led Chen Wei to a sealed pit and revealed that the Great Heavenly Venerable’s formation suppressed the Sea Eye left unstable after Sun Wukong took the Sea-Calming Divine Needle.
• Ao Guang showed Chen Wei Taibai Jinxing’s Jade Tablet and explained that the withheld merit had been approved as compensation.
• Chen Wei realized the investigation had been a trap that could have implicated Taibai Jinxing and the Great Heavenly Venerable, so he agreed to declare the Dragon Kings’ accounts clear.
• Ao Guang asked Chen Wei to help his daughter Ao Rui join the Heavenly Court, and Chen Wei invented a special recruitment qualification matching her Cuju achievement.

Chen Wei reported that nothing had happened at the East Sea Dragon Palace and accepted blame for the mistaken investigation. Taibai Jinxing urged him to stay alive and implied that the other offices involved should share responsibility, leaving Chen Wei ready to investigate them.

• Loose Immortals gathered around Tongming Hall’s recruitment notice but dispersed after seeing requirements tailored to a specific candidate.
• Chen Wei planted immortal grass for Taibai Jinxing at Clear Pool, presenting the labor as sincere service to an elder.
• Chen Wei told Taibai Jinxing that his investigation found nothing wrong at the East Sea Dragon Palace and blamed himself for misreading the records.
• Taibai Jinxing warned Chen Wei about the dangers of the Heavenly Court and said the Rain Directorate and other offices should share responsibility.
• Chen Wei understood Taibai Jinxing’s hint and declared that he would investigate the other offices thoroughly.

Chen Wei traced Jin Chuan’s attempt to trap him to Jin Chuan’s ties to Hou Zong, then confronted the Rain Directorate over the East Sea Dragon Palace’s missing share of merit. Jin Chuan refused to accept responsibility, so Chen Wei decided to take the dispute to the higher-ups for an official investigation.

• Pang Long told Chen Wei that Rain Directorate Chief Official Jin Chuan had backing from Thunder Marshal Tao Rong and was Hou Zong’s cousin.
• Chen Wei decided the Rain Directorate would cover the deficit in the Heavenly Treasury’s books and set out to meet Jin Chuan.
• At the Rain Directorate, Jin Chuan welcomed Chen Wei with false courtesy and claimed his office was poor and overworked.
• Chen Wei said the East Sea Dragon Palace’s missing thirty-percent share of merit matched a routine-loss entry in the Rain Directorate’s accounts.
• Jin Chuan denied any embezzlement and warned Chen Wei against linking the East Sea’s accounts to the Rain Directorate’s losses.
• Chen Wei proposed reporting the matter to the higher-ups and establishing which office was responsible through an official investigation.

Chen Wei pressured Jin Chuan to settle the Rain Directorate’s account shortfall, then prepared a formal complaint when Jin Chuan refused. At his mansion, Yang Chan’s Jade Pendant urged him to find her and suggested asking her maternal uncle for help.

• Chen Wei raised his demand from thirty percent to fifty percent of the merit shortfall, but Jin Chuan refused and agreed to follow procedure.
• Chen Wei drafted a formal charge against the Rain Directorate and sealed it with his official stamp.
• Alone in his mansion, Chen Wei missed Yang Chan and spoke to the Jade Pendant she had left behind.
• The Jade Pendant struck Chen Wei, then flashed to indicate that he should go to Guanjiangkou to find Yang Chan.
• When Chen Wei worried about facing Yang Jian, Yang Chan’s voice came from the Jade Pendant and told him to seek help from her maternal uncle.

Chen Wei reported the Rain Directorate’s misconduct to the Great Heavenly Venerable, then revealed that Yang Chan was trapped in Guanjiangkou and accepted an imperial decree to retrieve her. Taibai Jinxing asked the Great Heavenly Venerable to send a powerful immortal to assist Chen Wei, but no companion had yet been chosen.

• Yang Chan secretly contacted Chen Wei through her jade pendant and urged him to find her uncle because she was in trouble.
• Chen Wei used his investigation of the East Sea rainfall case to accuse Jin Chuan of abusing his authority and tampering with records for personal revenge.
• The Great Heavenly Venerable accepted Chen Wei’s report and ordered Taibai Jinxing to resolve the Rain Directorate’s misconduct.
• Chen Wei told the Great Heavenly Venerable that Yang Chan was trapped in Guanjiangkou, and the Great Heavenly Venerable issued him a decree to bring her back.
• Chen Wei accepted the dangerous mission, and Taibai Jinxing requested that another powerful immortal accompany him.

Chen Wei traveled to Guanjiangkou with Nezha to bring back the Third Holy Mother under the Great Heavenly Venerable’s decree. They found the mansion strangely unguarded, where Yang Jian calmly welcomed Nezha as Qingquan.

• Chen Wei met Nezha outside the South Heaven Gate and learned that Nezha would accompany him to Guanjiangkou.
• Nezha questioned Chen Wei about his relationship with the Third Holy Mother and warned that Yang Jian might kill him.
• Nezha told Chen Wei he would focus on rescuing him rather than fighting Yang Jian.
• Chen Wei and Nezha arrived at Guanjiangkou and found the mansion gate open with no guards in sight.
• Yang Jian sat in the courtyard drinking tea and greeted Nezha as Qingquan without looking up.

Chen Wei defied Yang Jian’s order to leave Guanjiangkou without Yang Chan, and Yang Jian prepared to use force against him. As Chen Wei stood firm under Yang Jian’s pressure, a seven-colored Auspicious Cloud arrived, while Nezha told Yang Chan that her lover was about to risk his life.

• Nezha bluntly told Yang Jian that Chen Wei had come to take Yang Chan back to Mount Hua, despite Chen Wei’s official explanation.
• Yang Jian declared that Yang Chan could not return and ordered Chen Wei to leave, but Chen Wei refused to abandon his assignment.
• Yang Jian summoned Grass-Headed God commanders to surround Chen Wei, then used his Daluo Golden Immortal aura to crush him with pressure.
• Chen Wei held the Imperial Decree aloft and refused to kneel as Nezha waited for a chance to save him.
• A seven-colored Auspicious Cloud arrived just as Yang Jian and Chen Wei faced off.
• Nezha’s soul appeared in Yang Chan’s sealed bedchamber and told her that Chen Wei was risking his life, prompting her to grab the Treasure Lotus Lamp and rush outside.

Yang Jian agreed to let Chen Wei try three wagers to decide whether Yang Chan could leave Guanjiangkou. Chen Wei faced three seemingly impossible tasks that he had to complete before sunset without using immortal magic.

• Yang Chan failed to break Yang Jian’s Restraining Seal, but Nezha reassured her that Taibai Jinxing had arrived to help Chen Wei.
• Taibai Jinxing invoked the Great Heavenly Venerable’s decree and persuaded Yang Jian to consider a compromise, though Yang Jian still refused to release Yang Chan outright.
• Taibai Jinxing proposed three wagers: if Chen Wei won, Yang Chan could return under the imperial decree; if he lost, he could not raise the matter again.
• Yang Jian accepted the wager and challenged Chen Wei to have a chicken eat a mountain of rice, a dog lick up a mountain of flour, and a candle burn through a fine-gold lock before sunset, without immortal magic.

Chen Wei tried to overcome Yang Jian’s three Heavenly Law trials to bring Yang Chan back, reasoning that the Heavenly Court’s favor gave him an advantage Sun Wukong had lacked. He wagered his cultivation on empowering the rooster to eat the Rice Mountain, but the first infusion of essence blood only began to change it.

• Yang Jian set an incense-burn countdown for Chen Wei to complete the trials before sunset.
• Chen Wei inspected the Rice Mountain and saw the rooster eating too slowly to finish it in time.
• Chen Wei realized Howling Celestial Dog’s transformation had depended on its master and resolved to enlighten the ordinary rooster with his own essence blood.
• Chen Wei poured essence blood over the rooster, but the first infusion had little effect, so he kept giving more as his face grew pale.

Chen Wei fed an ordinary chicken ten drops of his Golden Immortal essence blood, and it transformed after surviving a deliberately weakened lightning tribulation. The chicken became a gigantic Kun hovering over Guanjiangkou, leaving Taibai Jinxing astonished.

• Chen Wei gave the chicken five more drops of essence blood after its first five drops produced no transformation.
• The chicken absorbed all ten drops, then dozed off, prompting Yang Jian to say that Chen Wei's efforts could not change the rules.
• Yang Chan panicked over Chen Wei's sacrifice and grabbed Nezha, who assured her the chicken was being reborn.
• The chicken awakened and rose into the sky to undergo a lightning tribulation, while Thunder Department officials recognized Chen Wei's aura and used weak Body-Tempering Thunder instead of lethal lightning.
• After the tribulation, the chicken grew enormous and transformed into a Kun, astonishing Taibai Jinxing.

Chen Wei cleared the first test by transforming a chicken into a Kun that devoured the Rice Mountain, but Yang Jian banned blood essence in the remaining tests. Chen Wei sought help from Ao Guang to bring rain over Guanjiangkou to turn the Flour Mountain into dough, leaving Ao Guang alarmed by the request to rain on Yang Jian’s territory.

• Chen Wei used ten drops of blood essence to transform a chicken into a Kun, which swallowed the Rice Mountain and completed the first test.
• Yang Jian added a rule forbidding Chen Wei from using blood essence in the remaining tests.
• After a dog choked on dry flour, Chen Wei recalled how flour could be kneaded with water and decided to call on the East Sea Dragon Palace for rain.
• Ao Guang received Chen Wei’s request to send rain over Guanjiangkou and realized it meant bringing rain to Yang Jian’s territory.

Chen Wei arranged lawful rainfall at Guanjiangkou to turn the flour mountain into paste for the Yellow-Brown Dog, while Yang Jian let the rain proceed after recognizing the West Sea’s Ao Cunxin, who had once saved his life. Chen Wei’s side won the second round of the wager as the dog began eating.

• Ao Guang worried about angering Yang Jian but contacted his niece for help making rain at Guanjiangkou.
• Chen Wei expected the East Sea Dragon King’s promised rain to win the wager, while Yang Jian resolved to drive away anyone who tried to summon it.
• Ao Cunxin arrived in the clouds with a Water-Gathering Basin, and Yang Jian recognized the West Sea Third Princess who had rescued him from the Weak Water.
• Yang Jian withdrew rather than stop Ao Cunxin, and she summoned rain over Guanjiangkou.
• Chen Wei’s emergency rainfall directive was approved by the Rain Directorate, and the rain turned the flour mountain into paste.
• Chen Wei told the Yellow-Brown Dog to eat, and the dog plunged into the paste and began licking it up.

Chen Wei cleared the second challenge when rain washed away most of the Flour Mountain and the Yellow-Brown Dog ate the remains. With the deadline near, he began the third challenge by using the Great Heavenly Venerable’s Imperial Decree to turn the candle flame against the fine-gold lock.

• Chen Wei let the rain wash away the Flour Mountain while the Yellow-Brown Dog ate the flour paste, satisfying Yang Jian’s second challenge.
• After the rain stopped, Chen Wei heard a dragon cry that seemed wistful and wondered whether something fishy was happening between the dragon and Yang Jian.
• Yang Jian warned Chen Wei that the final challenge had to be completed before sunset and reminded him not to use spells on the fine-gold lock.
• Chen Wei placed the lock beneath Yang Chan’s bedchamber door and lit the red candle below it, but the mortal flame could not heat the gold.
• Chen Wei laid the Great Heavenly Venerable’s Imperial Decree over the candle, and its golden light flared as Yang Jian realized Chen Wei had exploited his pressure point.

Chen Wei passed Yang Jian’s three tests and secured permission to escort Yang Chan back to the Heavenly Court, despite breaking the Great Heavenly Venerable’s Imperial Decree to shatter the golden lock. As Chen Wei and Yang Chan departed together on Kun, Yang Jian’s anger flared again.

• Chen Wei broke the golden lock with ordinary fire and explained that he would accept punishment later, while insisting Yang Jian honor their wager.
• Taibai Jinxing urged Yang Jian to keep his word, and Yang Jian finally lifted the seal and allowed Yang Chan to return to the Heavenly Court.
• Nezha thanked Chen Wei for his help, and Yang Chan emerged from her boudoir and greeted him with barely concealed affection.
• Yang Jian warned Chen Wei that he had only permitted Yang Chan to return, but Chen Wei maintained that he was carrying out an official assignment.
• Taibai Jinxing warned Chen Wei not to provoke Yang Jian further, so Chen Wei summoned Kun and prepared to leave with Yang Chan.
• Yang Chan flew onto Kun, and Yang Jian grew furious at Chen Wei for taking her away on his mount.

Yang Jian’s anger over Yang Chan’s love tribulation eased when Taibai Jinxing argued that Chen Wei could help bear or resolve it. During their flight, Yang Chan fell into Chen Wei’s arms, and she later used the Treasure Lotus Lamp’s wick to heal him.

• Kun fled with Chen Wei, Yang Chan, and the Yellow-Brown Dog, while Nezha made his own quick exit from Yang Jian.
• Taibai Jinxing explained that Yang Chan’s love tribulation could unleash great destruction and that Chen Wei’s connection to her made him a useful shield.
• Kun suddenly lurched in flight, and Chen Wei caught Yang Chan as she fell into his arms.
• Yang Chan laughed off the mishap and defended Kun when Chen Wei scolded it for flying poorly.
• Yang Chan saw how badly Chen Wei had been weakened by using ten drops of his life-bound essence blood and pressed the Treasure Lotus Lamp’s seven-colored wick into his chest to heal him.