Chapter Summaries

Wang Quan and the Officiant Daoist Nun tricked the Zhao Household and Blissful Union House into paying six times the fee to handle fifty-two skeletons that were becoming anomalies, then buried them under Tomb Guardian Beasts. After returning to the Lower Court, Wang Quan revised his cultivation plan and arranged to borrow more money from the Round-Faced Daoist Nun for training materials.

• The Zhao Household and Blissful Union House agreed to pay six times the Green Fly Coins after the skeletons and Paper People pressured them, while Wang Quan, the Officiant Daoist Nun, and the Dream Nun helped stage the burial ritual.
• Wang Quan and the Officiant Daoist Nun realized none of them had caused the bones' strange behavior and hurried to bury the fifty-two skeletons before they became anomalies.
• Wang Quan used paper Tomb Guardian Beasts to monitor the buried bones, collected on a promise of payment, and left with the Dream Nun.
• Wang Quan decided not to dig up the bones and resolved to wait until he was stronger before confronting the old man in the Miscellaneous Goods Hall.
• Wang Quan changed his cultivation routine, told the Round-Faced Daoist Nun he would repay her, and asked her to prepare high-quality materials worth about three hundred thousand coins on credit.

After the Zhao family and Blissful Union House refused to pay the full amount for his work, Wang Quan bought affordable materials and improved his mana-refining setup. He refined two streams of mana in one night, altered the burial site in secret, and spent the following month cultivating and investigating his debtors.

• The Officiant Daoist Nun transferred Wang Quan two hundred thousand Green Beetles, explaining that the Zhao family and Blissful Union House had refused to pay more, and Wang Quan resolved not to confront them directly.
• Wang Quan bought a hundred thousand Green Beetles' worth of materials from the round-faced Daoist nun and asked her to prepare yin earth, yin wind, and yin water.
• Wang Quan used paper eagles to deliver the yin materials and command banners to the burial site, where the materials altered the site and the Tomb Guardian Beasts planted the banners before burning to ashes.
• Wang Quan arranged bright moon materials around his coffin, drew moonlight into a jade disc, and refined two streams of mana overnight.
• Over the next month, Wang Quan refined mana, gathered purple qi, learned spells, studied Daoist Scriptures, earned money, observed the Daoist priest, and secretly investigated the Zhao family and Blissful Union House.

Wang Quan prepared to send his newly purified Yin Spirit out at night, learning protective spells and gathering supplies despite the Round-Faced Daoist Nun's warnings. Before he could begin, the Officiant Daoist Nun told him the corpse he had helped bury had become an anomaly, and she planned to inspect it while he refused to take another job from its owners.

• Wang Quan reviewed his progress: he had mastered over 1,500 spells, collected 12,000 Daoist Scriptures, refined 110 strands of magic power, and purified his Yin Spirit enough to venture out at night.
• Wang Quan studied dozens of Yin Spirit excursion spells and asked the Round-Faced Daoist Nun to prepare protective, escape, and tempering supplies.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun warned Wang Quan about the dangers of the second layer of the world, but he insisted his Yin Spirit was ready and she shared what she knew.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun told Wang Quan that the buried corpse had become an anomaly and that the Blissful Union House and Zhao Household wanted him to handle it.
• Wang Quan refused to work for the Blissful Union House or Zhao Household again, while the Officiant Daoist Nun planned to inspect the anomaly and demand payment upfront.

The Officiant Daoist Nun negotiated a higher fee to clear the skeletal anomalies at the red building and recruited three helpers. In the Lower Court, Wang Quan sent his Yin Spirit into the Second-Layer World and explored its dangerous reflection of the physical world.

• The Officiant Daoist Nun found the skeletons repeating their lives at the red building, where they had killed spirits and eaten two Foundation Establishment Ancestors.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun demanded three hundred thousand Green Fly Coins, received a deposit, and recruited the Dream Nun and two other cultivators to handle the anomalies.
• Wang Quan prepared his materials, entered a coffin, and used the Yin Spirit Scripture to send his Yin Spirit outside.
• Wang Quan explored the Lower Court’s Second-Layer World, noting its pale red moon and distorted buildings and plants.
• Wang Quan saw a sinister great tomb with a Tomb Guardian Beast and found hundreds of Yin Spirits trading candles, lanterns, and other supplies nearby.

Wang Quan entered the great tomb and used his Paper Person Palace Maidens to clear evil beings from its first three levels. After finding only a handful of gloom sand, he decided that exploring for money was less worthwhile than refining magical power.

• Wang Quan bought a lantern and read a booklet describing the great tomb, its evil beings, and the valuable gloom sand found inside.
• A Daoist arrived in his physical body and led a group of Yin Spirits toward the deepest level to hunt the General, while Wang Quan chose to explore the outskirts.
• Wang Quan entered the first level and sent his Paper Person Palace Maidens to slaughter the townsfolk who tried to force him to attend their feast.
• Wang Quan cleared the first-level town and its mayor, but found no gloom sand before the tomb expelled him back to the scripture-covered hall.
• Wang Quan explored the second and third levels, where he massacred evil beings trying to make him a bride or groom, and found a handful of gloom sand on the third level.
• Wang Quan calculated that the gloom sand brought too little profit after expenses and decided to refine magical power instead.

Wang Quan learned that the [People-Crossing Scripture] was exceptionally rare and agreed to test it with the Yin Spirits. When they all entered the first level, the hall was suddenly left empty, and returning cultivators concluded that everyone inside had vanished.

• Wang Quan learned that the deeper tomb levels offered greater rewards but caused severe injuries, and heard that the Drowning Dao Lower Court might be abandoned as fewer cultivators came to maintain it.
• Wang Quan discovered that other cultivators considered the [People-Crossing Scripture] almost impossible to decipher and warned against teaching it to those without a destined affinity.
• Wang Quan agreed to test the [People-Crossing Scripture] with the Yin Spirits, and the entire group surged through the first-level doorway.
• A newly arrived Yin Spirit found the hall empty, fled in terror, and warned that everyone inside had died.
• Other Yin Spirits entered the hall and confirmed that hundreds of Yin Spirit experts and a powerful cultivator had vanished without a trace.

Wang Quan’s People-Crossing Scripture weakened the Great Tomb and caused its hall to expand, earning him the gratitude of the Yin Spirits. After returning to the Real World, he discovered that purging evil creatures granted Yin Virtue and strengthened his Yin Spirit, and he planned to return the next night.

• The Yin Spirits saw the Great Tomb’s hall expand twice and speculated about what had caused it.
• Wang Quan returned with hundreds of Yin Spirits, and the cultivator who had descended in his physical body explained that Wang Quan’s People-Crossing Scripture permanently weakened the Great Tomb whenever it purged an evil creature.
• Wang Quan promised to return every night, then left the Second Layer world as the Yin Spirits thanked him.
• The cultivator who had descended in his physical body explained that the People-Crossing Scripture required the Ten Thousand Scrolls Dao Canon and could purge only one evil creature a day without replenishing medicine.
• Wang Quan’s First-Rank Dao Seal reported Yin Virtue +2, and he realized that permanently killing evil creatures also strengthened his Yin Spirit.

Wang Quan declined to handle an anomaly while he focused on cultivating, then agreed to help Qian Xiuyue protect the laborers building her manor on Seven Maidens Mountain. He learned that her backers belonged to the Star Alliance and that the New-Method Alliance would likely interfere.

• Wang Quan spent the night gathering moonlight and studying Daoist Scriptures while many of Ying Jiaren's companions abandoned their studies.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun offered Wang Quan payment to deal with an anomaly at the Blissful Union House, but he refused until he had accumulated more Dharma Power.
• Qian Xiuyue told Wang Quan she had parted ways with Zhao Hongyi and asked him to protect the laborers establishing her manor; he agreed in exchange for a favor.
• Wang Quan asked the Round-Faced Daoist Nun for information and was directed to Fairy Qin at No. 95 Courtyard.
• Fairy Qin told Wang Quan that Qian Xiuyue's backers were the Star Alliance and warned that the New-Method Alliance would likely cause trouble, advising him to conceal his identity.

Wang Quan joined Qian Xiuyue on Seven Maidens Mountain to help guard her work gathering purple qi, then watched her group use unusual methods and spirit creatures to begin building a mountain road. He took charge of the spirit creatures and kept watch while studying Daoist Scriptures.

• Wang Quan traveled to Seven Maidens Mountain and met Qian Xiuyue and the cultivators who had gathered to help her.
• Qian Xiuyue and the others used jars of lungs to gather purple qi, while Wang Quan collected three wisps with his own method.
• Qian Xiuyue revealed that her group had smuggled laborers and materials to the mountain inside eggs to evade the New Method and Zhao Hongyi.
• The cultivators released laborers and spirit creatures, marked out the construction site with spells, and began carving a road up the mountain.
• Wang Quan led the spirit creatures digging the road, then climbed a tree to cast a warning spell and study Daoist Scriptures.

Wang Quan used the People-Crossing Scripture and his Palace Maidens to destroy the evil beings in the Great Tomb’s town, expanding the Yin Spirits’ foothold. He returned to the mountaintop for Qian Xiuyue’s banquet, where the gathering ended beneath a brilliant display of starlight.

• Qian Xiuyue invited Wang Quan to a banquet, and he entered the Lower Court’s Great Tomb to recite the People-Crossing Scripture.
• Wang Quan’s scripture transformed Cuihua into an infant and made her vanish, slightly expanding the Great Tomb’s main hall.
• Wang Quan ordered his Palace Maidens to kill the other old men and women, then watched the town burn before his Yin Spirit returned.
• Yin Spirits celebrated the expanded hall, while physical cultivators arrived with secret medicines and asked Wang Quan to help expand it further.
• Wang Quan joined Qian Xiuyue and their former Scripture Repository classmates for the banquet, where Qian Xiuyue sent a brilliant burst of starlight into the sky.

Wang Quan gathered moonlight while Qian Xiuyue and the other cultivators saw how his Daoist Scripture study had strengthened his technique and resolved to resume their own studies. After condensing surplus moonlight into moon essence, Wang Quan entered the second-layer world, where cultivators asked him to permanently clear evils from the great tomb in exchange for pills and Green Fly Coins.

• Qian Xiuyue and the other cultivators used Star Banners to gather starlight, while Wang Quan moved to a nearby mountain to gather moonlight alone.
• The cultivators saw Wang Quan gather moonlight across a thousand meters and realized his technique had grown stronger through continued study of Daoist Scriptures.
• Qian Xiuyue and the others regretted abandoning their studies and agreed to resume reading Daoist Scriptures after building the manor.
• Wang Quan gathered four strands of magic power, condensed leftover moonlight on his jade plate into moon essence, and prepared to develop Heavenly Opportunity.
• Wang Quan sent Paper People to guard him and entered the second-layer world, where cultivators offered him magic power pills and Green Fly Coins to permanently clear evils in the great tomb.

Wang Quan accepted Magic Power Pills to permanently cleanse evil and weaken the Great Tomb while cultivators launched a coordinated assault on its tenth level. The Grand General revealed a second form, and it instantly recovered from their attacks and smashed a hundred cultivators to pieces.

• Wang Quan refused Green Fly Coins and other resources, agreeing to cleanse evil in exchange for Magic Power Pills.
• Wang Quan began cleansing evil on the first level as Yin Spirits empowered Daoist Scriptures and cultivators assembled to attack the tenth level.
• Over a hundred Yin Spirit experts and several physical-body cultivators entered the tenth level and fought the city’s evil beings as the Great Tomb’s power weakened.
• The Grand General split open and transformed into a hundred-armed, eighteen-headed monster after the cultivators attacked.
• The Grand General’s second form instantly healed from its injuries and smashed a hundred cultivators to pieces.

Wang Quan’s work with the People-Crossing Scripture helped the cultivators discover that the great tomb’s general had a second form, and his Yin Spirit grew stronger after earning fifty-one yin merit. When masked cultivators approached with hostile intent, Wang Quan began his first spell duel using the Plain Moon Paper-Cutting Art.

• Wang Quan left the great tomb after clearing its first level, while more than a hundred battered Yin Spirit experts and several injured physical cultivators emerged from the tenth level.
• A physical cultivator revealed that Wang Quan’s People-Crossing Scripture had brought out the great general’s second form, giving them hope of permanently clearing the tomb, and proposed rewarding Wang Quan with mana-replenishing pills or elixir artifacts.
• Wang Quan returned to his Inner Landscape, gained fifty-one yin merit, and found that his Yin Spirit had become more substantial and easier to control.
• After gathering purple qi and studying Daoist Scriptures, Wang Quan received Qian Xiuyue’s warning that masked cultivators were approaching him with ill intent.
• Wang Quan sent paper Palace Maidens and a paper eagle to meet and scout the attackers, then chose to test his Paper-Cutting Art and illusion spells rather than attack with destructive magic.
• Wang Quan used a water basin to target the rearmost masked cultivator with moonlight; a tiny paper person cut the cultivator’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood.

Wang Quan used Tiny Paper People and anomalies to ambush cultivators raiding Seven Maidens Mountain, then confronted another group and revealed that he was allied with the spirits. He caught their leader as the man fled through smoke, leaving his fate in Wang Quan’s hands.

• Masked cultivators attacked Palace Maidens on the way to Seven Maidens Mountain, but a Tiny Paper Person killed one with a butcher’s blade while disguised as him.
• At the foot of the mountain, Wang Quan sent Tiny Paper People through a basin to ambush cultivators and replace them as they ran.
• A new group confronted Wang Quan, whose Moonlight Escape sent their spells far away and exposed their companions as paper-like anomalies.
• The group's leader tried to persuade Wang Quan that he meant no harm, but Wang Quan said he was allied with the spirits.
• The leader fled under cover of talisman smoke, and Wang Quan turned the smoke into huge hands that reached for him.

Wang Quan defeated a New Method cultivator with his paper spells and tested how magical power strengthened his creations. Qian Xiuyue and another cultivator watched from the mountaintop, discussed Wang Quan’s potential, and hoped he would join them before their paths diverged.

• The New Method cultivator raised many defensive spells, but Wang Quan’s multicolored giant hand shattered them and drove the man into a trap between Palace Maidens and Paper People.
• Wang Quan recalled the Palace Maidens and sent paper Giant Serpents to coil around the cultivator, who initially held them back with a spirit turtle defense.
• Wang Quan strengthened a Giant Serpent twice with strands of magical power, breaking the spirit turtle defense and crushing the New Method cultivator.
• Wang Quan sent Paper People to herd the fleeing spirits back to work and considered learning Thunderfire spells for stronger attacks.
• Qian Xiuyue and another cultivator confirmed that the attackers from all six directions had been dealt with, then debated Wang Quan’s strength and their own plans to advance.
• Qian Xiuyue hoped Wang Quan would join them soon, while the other cultivator predicted their cultivation would soon outpace his.

Wang Quan collected the lungs from the fallen cultivators and declined Qian Xiuyue’s invitation to join the Star Alliance. In the Great Tomb, he received a First-Turn Outer Elixir and began using its restored magical power to clear away the evil on the first layer.

• Wang Quan claimed all the corpses’ lungs and let Qian Xiuyue buy the remaining spoils for a hundred and fifty thousand Green Fly Coins.
• Wang Quan declined to join the Star Alliance, saying he wanted to pursue his own plans.
• Qian Xiuyue sent Wang Quan thirteen magically tempered sets of lungs, and he entered the Second-Layer World with his Yin Spirit.
• The cultivators gave Wang Quan a First-Turn Outer Elixir, which he quickly refined and used to replenish his magical power.
• Wang Quan entered the Great Tomb’s first layer and recited the People-Crossing Scripture while his Palace Maidens restrained the attacking old men and women.

Wang Quan continued chanting the People-Crossing Scripture, weakening the Great Tomb as cultivators battled its second-form Grand General. When the general vanished and the First Layer sealed itself, thousands of Yin Spirits and physically present cultivators gathered to break down the door and rescue Wang Quan.

• Wang Quan used his First-Turn Outer Elixir to replenish his Dharma Power and continued chanting, causing the hall to expand as Yin Spirits inscribed Daoist characters and Scriptures.
• The physically present cultivators fought the second-form Grand General in the Tenth Layer, but he repeatedly regenerated and drove them into a desperate retreat.
• The weakening Grand General transformed into black smoke and vanished from the Tenth Layer, while cultivators in other layers were suddenly forced out.
• The physically present cultivators discovered that the First Layer's door had sealed Wang Quan inside, and their attacks failed to open it.
• Yin Spirits sent out calls for help, and thousands gathered in the hall to bombard the door and try to weaken the Great Tomb.

Wang Quan cleansed the Three-Headed, Six-Armed General with the People-Crossing Scripture, freeing him from his torment and receiving an Unorthodox Art in return. The General’s disappearance revealed the Lower Court Dormitory Complex and covered Wang Quan in mysterious purple qi whose benefits left the other cultivators envious.

• Wang Quan found that the remaining evil entities had merged into a gigantic hundred-armed being, which begged him to save it.
• Wang Quan repeatedly recited the People-Crossing Scripture, reducing the being’s arms until it became the Three-Headed, Six-Armed General.
• The General told Wang Quan that he and the buried people under his command had become strange things after dying in battle, then taught him an Unorthodox Art and asked him to help him disappear.
• Wang Quan recited the scripture until the General vanished, and the Great Tomb disappeared as the Lower Court Dormitory Complex took shape in the hall.
• Purple qi streamed from Wang Quan into cultivators and off into the distance, while the physical cultivators explained that cleansing an anomalous site brought benefits.
• Wang Quan realized that the other cultivators had failed to comprehend the People-Crossing Scripture because they had not mastered the First-Rank Dao Seal.

Wang Quan returned from the Second-Layer World after the Great Tomb vanished and new buildings strengthened the Drowning Dao Lower Court’s outpost. He learned that cultivators feared an imminent clash between the New Method and Old Cultivation Method, while the Dream Nun and Officiant Daoist Nun were shocked to hear he had entered the Second-Layer World himself.

• Wang Quan saw reflected high-rises improve healing and strengthen the Scripture Repository and Coffin Dormitory Area, while the surrounding darkness and red moonlight weakened.
• Wang Quan returned to the Real World after sensing that something had happened and found Qian Xiuyue and the others discussing rumors of a major Second-Layer World conflict.
• Qian Xiuyue and the others said Zhao Hongyi wanted to meet them and make plans for the upheaval, but Wang Quan dismissed their concerns and urged them to focus on improving themselves.
• Wang Quan received messages from the Dream Nun and Officiant Daoist Nun, who speculated about the sudden movement of Yin Spirit experts and advised caution.
• Wang Quan told the two Daoist nuns that the Great Tomb had disappeared and the Lower Court’s dormitory complex had been reflected into the Second-Layer World, then admitted he had gone there himself.
• The Dream Nun and Officiant Daoist Nun gasped and asked Wang Quan whether he was afraid of dying in the Second-Layer World.

Wang Quan examined the rewards from the [First-Rank Dao Seal], including a powerful favor from the Second-Layer World and the unorthodox art [Three Heads and Six Arms]. He then harvested blood-colored moonlight in the Second-Layer World to prepare several kinds of moonlight thunderfire before dawn forced Yin Spirits to leave.

• Wang Quan ignored Wu Yong's warning and discovered that delivering the general had earned him 1000 Yin Virtue and a wisp of favor from the Second-Layer World.
• Wang Quan learned that the favor could save his life once, transport him one hundred thousand li, or become Foundation Establishment Spirit Light.
• Wang Quan studied [Three Heads and Six Arms] and found that its true form required a [third-rank Dao Seal], though he could begin cultivating the prerequisite [Yang Qi Furnace].
• Wang Quan entered the Second-Layer World again and found Yin Spirits gathered around the newly reflected Dormitory Building.
• Wang Quan collected blood-colored moonlight and refined several batches of moonlight thunderfire before dawn, then left as the Yin Spirits began departing.