Chapter Summaries

Wang Quan incited the oppressed ghosts of Grand Residence No. 95 to rebel by giving them kneecaps and crutches, and their uprising spread into a destructive ghost tide. As the horde swept toward Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and the others, Daoist Two Ravens warned that even true ghost gods could be overwhelmed.

• A crutch-wielding descendant of ghost gods charged the servants alone, but Wang Quan gave the kneeling rebels backbone by putting kneecaps in the backs of their heads, and they fought back.
• Wang Quan equipped more ghosts with kneecaps and crutches, while the rebels attacked the pavilion and courtyard masters and recruited ghosts from the high-rises.
• The rebellion spread through Grand Residence No. 95, as angry ghosts poured out and flattened courtyards, pavilions, gardens, and pools.
• Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and the others heard the Door Gods’ warning and saw the ghost tide advancing toward them.
• Daoist Two Ravens and the other descendants of ghost gods panicked, warning that even true ghost gods would be engulfed and torn apart.

Ruo Jinghong led the ghosts and descendants of ghosts and gods in a revolt that overwhelmed the master of Grand Residence No. 95. Wang Quan used Yin Virtue and a strange scripture to claim the estate, which was recorded as belonging to Flower-Scatter Daoist Wang Quan.

• Ruo Jinghong rallied the ghosts and descendants of ghosts and gods to rebel and charge into Grand Residence No. 95.
• The residence's master tried to contact the city lord's steward, who insisted the attackers were righteous troops and advised him to wait.
• The ghosts broke through the estate's defenses, devoured the master, and celebrated their victory.
• Wang Quan burned Yin Virtue while chanting a strange scripture, creating a deed that made him the owner of Grand Residence No. 95.
• Written and supernatural records named the estate's new master Flower-Scatter Daoist Wang Quan.

Wang Quan took control of No. 95 Courtyard, spent its accumulated Yin Virtue rebuilding it, and turned it into a vast estate where ghosts and monsters could gain better homes by paying Yin Virtue. Ruo Jinghong announced a feast to celebrate, while Wang Quan discovered that the estate held immense reserves and many mysteries.

• Wang Quan used Yin Virtue to acquire the great estate and discovered its five rings, hundreds of towers, and ruined gardens.
• Wang Quan used the estate's stored Yin Virtue to rebuild its towers and other buildings, while Ruo Jinghong persuaded the ghosts and monsters that their expanded living space marked a victory.
• Wang Quan explained that creatures could move into better dwellings by paying Yin Virtue, while the gardens remained open to everyone under equal rules.
• Ruo Jinghong announced a grand feast and sent the estate's residents to prepare food, gather furniture, and invite creatures from the alley.
• Wang Quan assured Ruo Jinghong that the estate's treasury could fund the feast and that the estate could accommodate its guests by shrinking them, then remarked that it held many secrets.

Wang Quan used Grand Residence No. 95 to organize Underworld ghosts and monsters into gathering materials for several Magic Treasures, including the Celestial Pivot Divine Sand. As the residence drew attention from rebels and residents of City No. 95, Ruo Jinghong and the others continued searching for statues and managing work in the Real World.

• Ruo Jinghong reassured Wang Quan that the Underworld's conflicts did not concern them because their foundations and main task lay in the Real World and the Far Western Land.
• Ruo Jinghong and Wang Quan decided to have ghosts and monsters craft Magic Treasures in Grand Residence No. 95 in exchange for lodging and other rewards.
• Wang Quan planned to craft six weapons and Magic Treasures at once, along with first-tier Celestial Pivot Divine Sand, and Ruo Jinghong grew envious and resolved to prepare for a Magic Treasure of her own.
• Wang Quan used second-tier Inverted Wisdom to break the crafting work into missions and issued them through the property deed, prompting ghosts and monsters to rush out to complete them.
• The Army of Survival Seekers sent infiltrators to investigate Grand Residence No. 95, but the busy ghosts and monsters revealed nothing.
• Ruo Jinghong and the others used the crowds as cover while they searched for Western Ghost Emperor or Western Ghost God statues and returned to the Real World to help wear down anomalous climates.

Stone City expanded its defenses and resources while its cultivators worked to clear abnormal weather, and Wang Quan projected that it would be ready to establish a safe zone in the Second-Layer World within ten years. He also revealed to Officiant and Dream that he had discovered a way to repair Foundation Establishment foundations, while figures wearing vertical-eye masks discussed him in the Underworld.

• Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and Ma Qingqiu led cultivators in clearing abnormal weather as Stone City built Corpse Caverns, Yin Soil, and other defenses from the dead.
• Wang Quan kept Stone City’s population replenished, assigning work to its cannon fodder and organizing the different cultivators’ duties.
• The Drowning Dao Lower Court’s Sun Flower Spirits increased their sunlight output, while expanding grain production remained a limit on Stone City’s growth.
• Officiant predicted that Stone City would stabilize its internal resources within ten years and then seize a building to establish a safe zone in the Second-Layer World.
• Wang Quan told Officiant and Dream that he had found a method to repair Foundation Establishment foundations and urged them to keep the method secret and study the Daoist Scriptures.
• Cloaked figures and ghosts wearing vertical-eye masks met in the Underworld to discuss Wang Quan.

Zhao Hongyi accepted a job from the Strange Eye Alliance to investigate Grand Residence No. 95, where its spies and members of the Army of Survival Seekers had disappeared. After negotiating a larger fee, she returned to her hidden base and divined whether the assignment was dangerous.

• The Strange Eye Alliance argued over how to investigate Grand Residence No. 95 after its spies vanished and the Army of Survival Seekers asked for help.
• A cloaked figure persuaded the alliance to hire Zhao Hongyi, and the members settled on paying her five hundred strands of Foundation Establishment Spirit Light.
• The cloaked figure brought Zhao Hongyi the job, and she confronted him about his kickback before extracting five hundred and ten strands from him.
• Zhao Hongyi returned to her lavish hidden base inside an urn, absorbed masculine yang energy from her Life Cultivation practitioners, and examined a tortoise shell to divine the task's danger.

Zhao Hongyi falsified intelligence about Grand Residence No. 95, leading the Strange Eye Alliance and the Army of Survival Seekers to plan an assault there. The Army’s infiltrators were immediately beaten to ash by the courtyard’s guards.

• Zhao Hongyi’s divinations all warned of great misfortune at No. 95, so she investigated No. 96 and planned to sell fabricated findings as intelligence about No. 95.
• The Strange Eye Alliance praised the supposed intelligence on No. 95 and passed it to the Army of Survival Seekers, whose leaders decided to attack the residence.
• The giant serpent heard that No. 95’s artifacts could destroy special ghosts and reported the danger to Ninth Reincarnation.
• Ninth Reincarnation ordered the giant serpent to take No. 95, saying the residence could affect the fate of City No. 95, Ring No. 95, and Emperor's Tomb City.
• The Army of Survival Seekers sent monsters to infiltrate No. 95, but the courtyard’s guards whipped them into ash and smoke.

The Army of Survival Seekers attacked Grand Residence No. 95 with ten armored bull-headed giants, overwhelming its defenses. Wang Quan and hundreds of Dao Seal Cultivators rushed to respond, but soul-protecting monkeys thwarted one cultivator’s attack, leaving Mei Niang to face the giants with her own method.

• The general of the Army of Survival Seekers sent ten bull-headed giants, outfitted with armor and war hammers, to break into Grand Residence No. 95.
• The giants smashed through the residence’s gates and walls, while descendants of ghost gods led the army inside.
• Ma Qingqiu alerted Wang Quan, who descended into the Underworld as Ruo Jinghong, Fierce Tiger Daoist, and hundreds of other Dao Seal Cultivators joined him.
• A Dao Seal Cultivator’s bone-bow attack was blocked by monkeys protecting a giant’s soul, and the resulting blast scattered the souls of many ghosts and monsters.
• Mei Niang stepped forward and declared she would use her beauty and a blade-like waist to subdue the bull-headed giants.

Wang Quan and the others struggled to stop the Army of Survival Seekers’ bull-headed monsters as spells, animated courtyards, and Ruo Jinghong’s zodiac formation failed. Ma Qingqiu claimed he had found the monsters’ weakness and sent a Blue Lotus phantom toward them, but their own bodies forced them to fight on.

• Mei Niang’s tricks and the cultivators’ spells failed to harm the bull-headed monsters, and Daoist Two Ravens reported that they were immune to most magic and protected by soul-defending monkeys.
• Wang Quan used the estate’s yin virtue to animate its courtyards, but the bull-headed monsters smashed through the defenses and advanced toward the inner rings.
• Ruo Jinghong led Dao Seal Cultivators in a twelve-zodiac attack, but the phantoms and their altars were destroyed.
• Daoist Two Ravens urged Wang Quan to surrender, but Wang Quan refused because his Dao Seals, authority, and convictions forbade it.
• Ma Qingqiu summoned a Blue Lotus phantom that made the bull-headed monsters’ special qualities vanish and drove them to retreat.
• The bull-headed monsters’ viscera, ribs, and spines gained self-awareness and declared that bull-headed warriors never retreat.

Wang Quan and the Dao Seal Cultivators tried to stop the bull-headed giants from reaching the final compound, but their defenses were overwhelmed. As the others prepared to retreat, Wang Quan revealed that he still had more tricks to use.

• Ma Qingqiu’s Blue Lotus destroyed one bull-headed giant and damaged another, but the remaining eight survived, while the Magic Treasure phantom drained Ma Qingqiu and left him unable to strike again.
• Wang Quan animated the second-ring buildings into giants that fought the bull-headed monsters, but the building giants were gradually destroyed as their owners and servants were drained for power.
• Ruo Jinghong and the others asked Wang Quan to animate the final compound, but he said it could not defeat the bull-headed monsters.
• Daoist Two Ravens flew away, planning to sell information about Wang Quan to the rebel army while giving them false details to repay Wang Quan’s kindness.
• As the bull-headed giants advanced on the final compound, Ruo Jinghong and the others proposed returning to the Real World, but Wang Quan said he still had tricks he had not used.

Wang Quan and the Dao Seal Cultivators fought the Bull-Headed Giants while the general ordered the Army of Survival Seekers to expand through City No. 95. As the general declared his ambition to become city lord, a vast radiance descended from the sky, leaving him frozen.

• Wang Quan said his upgraded permissions could deal with the Bull-Headed Giants, and the Dao Seal Cultivators tested spell combinations against them.
• The Ninth Reincarnation King ordered the general to occupy more residences before dawn and sent him ten additional Bull-Headed Giants.
• The general launched the Army of Survival Seekers toward surrounding residences, and Daoist Two Ravens offered to serve him and share information about Grand Residence No. 95.
• The general rejected Daoist Two Ravens' offer of information, declared that he would conquer the city, and dismissed the raven's warning about a descending radiance.
• Daoist Two Ravens fled after calling the general a rebel dog, and the army stopped fighting to stare up at the sky as the general looked up and froze.

The Ninth Reincarnation King sent smaller ghost gods to help the Army of Survival Seekers conquer City No. 95, but a human patrol Magic Treasure descended from the Present World and locked onto the city’s inhabitants. The chapter ended as the bronze ship swept down in flames and the Ninth Reincarnation King recognized it.

• The ghost gods in the Underworld began preparing forces to seize City No. 95 after the Ninth Reincarnation King ordered them to attack.
• A monstrous hand tried to flee its forced labor but was beaten back and secretly ate a spirit monster to grow stronger.
• The Army of Survival Seekers and a third of City No. 95’s inhabitants froze as a vast light descended into the Underworld and targeted them.
• The light split open to reveal a bronze ship carrying a many-armed giant and a bronze beauty snake at its prow.
• The Ninth Reincarnation King awakened inside the bull-headed giant, identified the ship as a human patrol Magic Treasure, and called its attack shameless.

Wang Quan used the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure to strike one-third of City No. 95, annihilating the ghost gods, monsters, and other powerful beings in its range. The Ninth Reincarnation King's consciousness was shattered, and white lights rose above the Underworld's moon as the strike's aftershock began.

• The Ninth Reincarnation King regretted underestimating Wang Quan's authority and resolved to use the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure before resorting to stronger attacks.
• The Sky Patrol Magic Treasure descended over City No. 95, freezing its inhabitants and forcing Wang Quan to choose a strike area.
• Wang Quan ordered a minimum-area strike, and the bronze ship departed without any visible explosion or immediate destruction.
• The Ninth Reincarnation King's consciousness was cut into millions of pieces, and his attempt to send another strand of consciousness was shattered as well.
• The strike's power erupted throughout one-third of the city, slicing apart ghost gods, monsters, Magic Treasures, and other powerful beings.
• The general and other inhabitants dissolved into light, which surged toward the sky as veteran ghost gods recognized that the strike's aftershock was coming.

Wang Quan’s Sky Patrol Magic Treasure strike devastated part of City No. 95 and enraged the ghosts and gods, so he warned them he could also summon the Drowning Dao Court. The ghosts and gods made peace with him, declared him a hero, and exchanged friendship tokens, while directing him to seek compensation from the city lord.

• Wang Quan told Ruo Jinghong and the others to keep quiet about his ability to deal with bull-headed giants, but the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure’s aftershock swept debris through their courtyard and exposed their survival.
• Wang Quan admitted to the assembled ghosts and gods that he had called down the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure strike, then threatened to use his unused yearly Drowning Dao Court authorization.
• The ghosts and gods backed down and called the destruction of the Army of Survival Seekers a heroic deed, explaining that the army served the rebel Earth Treasury God King.
• Wang Quan asked for compensation, but the ghosts and gods said he would have to approach the city lord and offered him tokens of friendship instead.

The Ninth Reincarnation King learned the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure’s abilities and planned to record the imprints of future Dao Courts, while the injured ghost gods discussed escaping the Earth Treasury God King’s system. Wang Quan restored Residence No. 95 and turned his attention to news about the Western Ghost Emperor and Western Divine Emperor statues.

• After the ghost gods awoke and stopped the worksite revolt, the Ninth Reincarnation King asked about the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure and learned that its known power was cutting, while its remaining abilities might involve bewilderment, sound waves, curses, or thunderfire.
• The Ninth Reincarnation King told the ghost gods he would need them to record the imprints of heterodox Dao Courts in Emperor's Tomb City, and they accused him of sending them to their deaths.
• The ghost gods told the Ninth Reincarnation King to leave them alone as they recovered, then secretly discussed escaping the Earth Treasury God King's system.
• Wang Quan watched his ghost god friends leave City No. 95 and used Yin Virtue to rebuild the residence, allowing ghosts and ghost-god descendants to move in.
• After restoring the city, Wang Quan turned his attention to the Western Ghost Emperor and Western Divine Emperor statues because Ruo Jinghong and Ma Qingqiu had both brought news about them.

Wang Quan and Ruo Jinghong traced the Western Ghost Emperor statues to a mansion and discovered that the being behind them was Emperor Heart, a heart-reflection in water claiming to be the former Western Ghost God Emperor’s. The chapter left Wang Quan stunned after Emperor Heart explained that its high standing let it make him perceive it as a living being.

• Ma Qingqiu and Ruo Jinghong reported finding Western Ghost Emperor statues in separate mansions, and Wang Quan organized a simultaneous investigation.
• Wang Quan and Ruo Jinghong joined hundreds of Dao Seal Cultivators in searching a mansion, collecting traces of the statues’ auras.
• Wang Quan entered a central courtyard alone and encountered a being that identified itself as Emperor Heart.
• Emperor Heart claimed Ghost God Soft Bristle had formed from a hair it shed, and Wang Quan learned it was the former Western Ghost God Emperor.
• Wang Quan used his companions’ observations to determine that Emperor Heart was actually a heart that flickered between real and illusory states.
• Emperor Heart said it had deceived Wang Quan because of its high standing and called itself the former Western Ghost God Emperor’s heart-reflection in water.

Wang Quan uncovered two aspects of Emperor Heart and brought the Western Ghost Emperor and Western Divine Emperor statues to Ghost God Soft Bristle. Soft Bristle welcomed him while his cracked body leaked dangerous powers, then schemed over how to repay Wang Quan, who challenged him to either offer more residences or kill his benefactor.

• Wang Quan learned that Emperor Heart was a living reflection of the ghost aspect of an original heart, while another Emperor Heart embodied its divine aspect.
• Emperor Heart refused to merge with her divine counterpart yet and eagerly vanished to confront Ghost God Soft Bristle.
• Wang Quan collected the ghost god statue and returned to Grand Residence No. 95, where Ma Qingqiu and the others came back exhausted after meeting Divine Emperor Heart.
• Wang Quan summoned Ghost God Soft Bristle and presented him with the Western Ghost Emperor and Western Divine Emperor statues.
• Ghost God Soft Bristle claimed he owed Wang Quan a great repayment, and Wang Quan demanded more residences or told him to kill his benefactor.

Wang Quan survived Ghost God Soft Bristle’s attempt to kill him when the wounded ghost god was consumed by the [Ghost Emperor Heart]. After escaping the collapsing room, Wang Quan received a rare scripture and was left holding the [Emperor's Scripture on Saving Oneself Rather Than Others].

• Ghost God Soft Bristle prepared to kill Wang Quan without investigating him, but Wang Quan’s injury triggered the lingering power of the [Sky Patrol Magic Treasure].
• The [Ghost Emperor Heart] attacked and devoured Ghost God Soft Bristle, who died regretting that he had not seen more of the world.
• Wang Quan learned that the statues could draw Underworld beings toward the [Western Ghost God Emperor King], so he rejected their power.
• The [Ghost Emperor Heart] warned Wang Quan that the room was collapsing and took him away.
• At the Underworld's No. 95 Courtyard, the [Ghost Emperor Heart] gave Wang Quan a golden Daoist scripture titled [Emperor's Scripture on Saving Oneself Rather Than Others] before departing.

Wang Quan learned the expanded [People-Crossing Scripture] and mastered the [Self-Crossing Scripture], then used it to enter the Second-Layer World. There, evil creatures prepared to follow a route to the Underworld, believing it was an immortal paradise full of delicious food.

• Wang Quan found that the scroll extended the [People-Crossing Scripture] to one thousand and one Dao Language words and then taught the [Self-Crossing Scripture].
• Wang Quan mastered the [Self-Crossing Scripture] but put the rest of the scroll away because he could not understand its complex writing.
• Wang Quan practiced the [Self-Crossing Scripture], drawing power into his Yang Spirit and gaining a golden radiance with one thousand and one properties.
• Wang Quan's Yang Spirit entered the Second-Layer World directly, where evil creatures celebrated news of a route to the Underworld.
• The mountain eagle rallied evil creatures to make the journey, while other creatures gathered around a newly appeared building and anticipated smelling or eating humans.

Mountain Eagle and Flagpole Evil fled the golden light in the Second-Layer World and reached the Underworld, where Single Hand put them to work. As Single Hand examined the blue smoke coming from their wounds, he wondered whether a living being could reverse the Evils.

• Mountain Eagle took Flagpole Evil toward the golden light, where the light wounded them with painful holes that kept emitting blue smoke.
• Mountain Eagle and Flagpole Evil traveled the routes to the Underworld with other Evils, losing nearly all their group along the way.
• Mountain Eagle and the surviving Evils reached the Underworld and found Single Hand carrying a shoulder pole and an iron pickaxe.
• Single Hand ordered Mountain Eagle and the others to work, and they explained that the golden light had wounded them.
• Single Hand noticed their strength weakening and then returning, and wondered whether a living being could reverse the Evils.