Chapter Summaries

Ren Ye tried to learn about Delusion Village’s secrets by contacting No. 79 Death Row Inmate, while Li Xiaopang canceled his plan to sabotage the Yin Family. No. 79 finally agreed to talk in exchange for a lavish last meal, leaving Ren Ye with a chance to hear his story.

• Ren Ye learned that the Yin Family had beaten an alchemist to death as a warning amid its rivalry with the Li Family, and realized how dangerous Li Xiaopang’s scheme had been.
• Li Xiaopang told Ren Ye that his family had blamed and beaten him over the missing Passion Flower Pollen, then canceled their plan against the Yin Family.
• Ren Ye resolved to contact No. 79 secretly and waited until the prison passage was nearly empty before approaching the inmate’s cell.
• No. 79 ignored Ren Ye until he offered extra food, then requested twelve dishes and two pots of wine for his last meal.
• No. 79 declined Ren Ye’s offer to find him a woman and promised to tell him what he wanted to know if Ren Ye prepared a decent final meal.

Ren Ye secretly fed No. 79, the Storyteller, and learned that he might know the truth about Ren Ye’s origins and the Delusion Divine Tomb. The Storyteller offered to lead Ren Ye to a surviving, now-mad tomb guardian in exchange for help escaping before Death Sacrifice Day, leaving Ren Ye torn over the dangerous bargain and asking Zhao Mi for expensive food.

• Ren Ye smuggled food and wine to No. 79 during his midday break and questioned him about a child who had awakened in the Delusion Divine Tomb nine years earlier.
• The Storyteller described how the blind child’s lost eyes disappointed Delusion Village’s hopes, then revealed that a survivor from the tomb’s guardians still lived in the village but had gone mad.
• The Storyteller offered to take Ren Ye to the surviving guardian if Ren Ye helped him escape before Death Sacrifice Day, and explained that Spirit-Passing Powder from the Yin Family or Li Family could counter one of his restraints.
• Ren Ye spent the afternoon weighing the risks of a prison break against his need for the Storyteller’s clues, while reminding himself that the prison was heavily guarded.
• Ren Ye visited Zhao Mi again at dusk and asked him for a list of costly specialty dishes, recalling that buying food for the Storyteller had helped him understand why he had lost behavioral compatibility value.

Ren Ye treated Tian Wei to a lavish dinner, then persuaded her to help steal Spirit-Passing Powder so he could pursue a lead about his missing eyes. After Tian Wei planned the theft, Ren Ye found the Li and Yin families facing off across Delusion Long Street.

• Ren Ye obtained fine dishes from Zhao Mi and brought them home for a long-overdue dinner with Tian Wei.
• Ren Ye told Tian Wei he needed Spirit-Passing Powder and asked her to help him learn the Yin Family Pharmacy’s layout.
• Tian Wei agreed to steal the powder herself and proposed copying its recipe so she could replace what she took.
• Ren Ye warned Tian Wei that the theft would be more difficult than she expected, then waited anxiously through the night for her return.
• Ren Ye went to Delusion Long Street and saw the Li and Yin families gathered in a standoff as Li Xiaopang declared that their struggle would end that day.

Ren Ye was dragged into the confrontation between the Li and Yin Families, where Li Taishan threatened to destroy the Yin clan and revealed a tiny mirror that summoned a strange, familiar aura. As dark clouds gathered over Delusion Village, Ren Ye sensed that the source of the aura was somehow both distant and close.

• Ren Ye learned that the Li and Yin Families had gathered after the Li Family smashed the Yin Family Pharmacy’s signboard, but Li Xiaopang forced him to come along with the Li Family.
• Yin Hong prepared to fight the Li Family, while Li Taishan entered the Yin Family Pharmacy with only six young people and demanded tea before declaring he had come to exterminate the clan.
• Yin Ping sought help from Zhao Haochen, who refused to mediate on the Yin Family’s terms and warned that the Zhao Family would demand its agreed share if the Yin Family survived.
• Yin Hong rejected Li Taishan’s challenge to a Heaven-Ascending Deathmatch and rallied the Yin clansmen, who released their powerful auras.
• Li Taishan raised a tiny mirror and revealed that the Li Family’s reserves had not been exhausted, summoning dark clouds and a vast aura that made Ren Ye sense something familiar.

Li Taishan and Yin Hong agreed to settle their families’ conflict with a death duel through pill refining, while the Li Family revealed its power by opening the Delusion Divine Tomb. As the contest began, Yin Hong revealed that he had secretly obtained the Southern Bright Separation Fire.

• Li Taishan opened the Delusion Divine Tomb, causing a jade mirror to reveal a crimson bronze coffin, while Old Qian decided not to intervene in the Li-Yin conflict.
• Ren Ye learned from Li Xiaopang that an ancestor in the Years-Old Hanging Coffin might awaken briefly, and he resolved to investigate the divine tomb after sensing a familiar aura.
• Yin Hong accepted Li Taishan’s proposal for a pill-refining death duel and wagered his life, while Li Taishan demanded the women who had shared Yin Hong’s bed if Yin lost.
• The Sun Family head presided over the duel, and Yin Hong revealed that his apparent failures at pill refining had been a performance.
• Yin Hong summoned the Southern Bright Separation Fire, shocking Ren Ye, who wanted to obtain it for refining aphrodisiac powder.

Yin Hong and Li Taishan fought a pill duel to decide their families’ fates, with Yin Hong producing a peerless Primordial Vajra Pill using Southern Bright Separation Fire. Li Taishan won with a Supreme Treasure-grade pill by compressing his flame through Void Power, claimed the Heaven-Mending Formula, and left Ren Ye wondering why Heavenly Dao had shown him the rare techniques and treasures.

• Yin Hong summoned Southern Bright Separation Fire and refined a peerless one-of-a-kind Primordial Vajra Pill, prompting the Sun Family patriarch to praise its quality.
• Li Taishan began refining the same pill with Myriad Spirits Bone Fire, which Li Xiaopang explained was produced by the Li Family’s formation from captured beings.
• Li Taishan used Void Power to compress the fire beneath his furnace, then risked aggravating his hidden ailment to sense the pill’s final changes and withdraw the flame at the right moment.
• The Sun Family patriarch inspected Li Taishan’s Supreme Treasure-grade pill and declared him the winner, while Li Taishan spat blood from his relapse.
• Yin Hong surrendered the Heaven-Mending Formula, and Li Taishan demanded that Yin Hong’s wives and maidservants come to the Li Family’s gates before leaving.
• Heavenly Dao told Ren Ye he could remember the fire, pills, and Divine Canon Mending Heaven Formula but would receive none of them, while Li Xiaopang collapsed in relief at the Li Family’s victory.

After the Yin Family lost the pill duel, Ren Ye understood that Delusion Village’s brutal rules rested on fairness and gave its people hope. The Yin Family’s women refused to become the Li Family’s spoils and killed themselves, while Yin Hong sent his family away and then ended his own life.

• Ren Ye reflected on the Li and Yin families’ conflict and concluded that Delusion Village’s harsh competition was accepted because education, public positions, and chances to advance were broadly fair.
• At a council meeting, Yin Hong explained that Li Taishan had demanded his wives to strip the Yin Family of its dignity and drive it out of Delusion Village; he urged the family to relocate, settle its debts, and choose a new clan head.
• Ye Hongmian asked Yin Hong whether he could win the women back; when he said no, she led the Yin Family women to the Li Family’s front hall and declared they would not become wagers or playthings.
• Ye Hongmian killed herself before the Li Family’s entrance, and the other Yin Family women followed by taking their own lives; Li Taishan told his descendants that the Yin Family had forced them into this position through its unity and backbone.
• Yin Hong sent his son Yin Ping away, urging him to raise his children and return one day; after Yin Ping left, Yin Hong shattered his Star Core and dissolved into the Dao.

Ren Ye negotiated with the Storyteller over helping him escape before Death Sacrifice Day, securing the Storyteller’s Life-Bound Treasure as a token of sincerity. Meanwhile, Li Taishan appointed Li Fusheng to fill the vacancy in the Heavenly Prison, and Li Xiaopang insisted on becoming a jailer too.

• Ren Ye used his time at the Heavenly Prison to investigate the prison district and prepare for No. 79’s escape before Death Sacrifice Day.
• Ren Ye tested the Storyteller’s commitment by threatening to abandon him, then demanded security before agreeing to help him escape.
• The Storyteller offered Ren Ye eight million star source, a Fifth Grade Peerless Treasure, and an oath before finally handing over his Life-Bound Treasure, the Storyteller’s Opening Block.
• Li Taishan assigned Li Fusheng to become the new Prison Supervisor, while Li Xiaopang unsuccessfully pleaded to serve in the Heavenly Prison as well.
• The Heavenly Dao identified the Storyteller as a powerful special death-row inmate and activated Ren Ye’s Dangerous Relationship assignment.

Ren Ye secured the Storyteller’s Life-Bound Treasure and prepared to rescue him on Death Sacrifice Day, while the Yin Family’s collapse brought an unexpected clue about Ren Ye’s identity. At the prison, Li Fusheng took over as Prison Supervisor and revealed that Li Xiaopang would begin as a temporary guard.

• Ren Ye learned the Storyteller had hidden his striking block by swallowing it, took the treasure, and ordered him to follow instructions during the planned escape.
• Ren Ye scouted the prison, visited Zhao Haochen, and received two medicinal powders from his aunt after the Yin Family prepared to leave Delusion Village.
• Ren Ye thanked Yin Ping at the prison gate, and Yin Ping revealed his father had chosen to die with the women of the clan before calling Ren Ye “Brother Huang,” giving him the surname Huang.
• Ren Ye returned to the prison intending to carry out the rescue plan and learned that Li Fusheng had replaced Yin Ping as Prison Supervisor.
• Li Fusheng explained that Li Xiaopang would take a public recruitment assessment and serve as a temporary guard in the meantime, while Li Xiaopang privately teased Ren Ye about his new position.

Ren Ye prepared to guide Number 79’s escape from prison while keeping himself safely away from the breakout, and Li Xiaopang learned how the prison’s formation and Death Sacrifice preparations worked. The chapter ended with the Storyteller ready to break out and Li Xiaopang preparing to steal something from Heavenly Prison that night.

• Ren Ye made preparations to rescue Number 79 and arranged to spend the evening at the Zhao Family residence as an alibi.
• Li Fusheng toured Heavenly Prison with the veteran jailer, who explained the Locking Spirit Grand Formation and the Death Sacrifice’s Guiding Talismans; Li Xiaopang secretly watched the handover.
• Ren Ye saw the Yin Family leave Delusion Village in a large procession, then went to the Zhao Family residence with Young Master Zhao.
• The Storyteller found Ren Ye’s hidden packet in his dinner plate and read instructions for the escape, while grumbling that Ren Ye had taken eight million Star Source from him.
• After Li Fusheng left the Prison Supervisor’s room, Li Xiaopang shut the door and prepared to steal something from Heavenly Prison as the Storyteller also readied his breakout.

The Storyteller used Ren Ye’s detailed escape plan as a starting point, then recovered his spiritual power and used an inherited storytelling art to slip through the Death Prison and reach its formation core chamber. There, he found Li Xiaopang hiding behind the three-headed Nether Beast statue, leaving both men on the verge of a dangerous encounter.

• The Storyteller read Ren Ye’s escape plan, swallowed the Spirit-Passing Powder, and suppressed the aura of his recovering spiritual power.
• The Storyteller narrated a tale that drew the Death Prison’s jailers into its story, transformed himself into the Night Wandering God, and escaped his cell without opening its doors.
• The Storyteller forced out the twelve Source-Sealing Nails, slipped through his restraints, unlocked Qian Mei’s office, and took the Dragon Pillar.
• The Storyteller entered the formation core chamber through the inspection passage and approached the three-headed Nether Beast statue while continuing his tale.
• Li Xiaopang, trapped inside the chamber after stealing a Guiding Talisman, hid behind the statue and watched the Storyteller approach with the Dragon Pillar.

The Storyteller’s attempt to destroy the Heavenly Prison’s Grand Formation was disrupted when he encountered Li Xiaopang, whose escape attempt exposed them both and triggered a prison-wide alarm. After collapsing the formation, the Storyteller abducted Li Xiaopang and fought his way into the sky, leaving Delusion Village’s jailers and families scrambling to stop him.

• Li Xiaopang mistook the Storyteller for a jailer and tried to bribe him, disrupting the Storyteller’s story and waking the Heavenly Prison’s guards.
• The Storyteller captured Li Xiaopang with a Nether Soul Cage, while Li used the Space-Escaping Ancient Mirror to send the Dragon Pillar to dear Grandson’s Prison Supervisor’s office.
• The Storyteller’s Night Wandering God blade shattered the Spirit-Communicating Great Mage’s statue, collapsing the Grand Formation and its oppressive pressure.
• The Storyteller teleported away with Li Xiaopang and killed a charging jailer with a single slash before Qian Mei led more than thirty jailers against him.
• The Storyteller unleashed Thousand-Shadow Strangulation against the jailers as the Qian Family mobilized and Zhao Haochen summoned Ren Ye to the Heavenly Prison.

Ren Ye and Zhao Haochen rushed to the Heavenly Prison, where they learned that the Storyteller had escaped after killing more than a dozen guards and fleeing toward the Southern Sky amid the Yin Family’s battle against intruders. Outside the village, the Storyteller persuaded Li Xiaopang to cooperate in entering the Delusion Divine Tomb, while Li Xiaopang began suspecting his own Second Uncle was the mysterious mastermind behind the escape.

• Zhao Haochen took Ren Ye to the Heavenly Prison as the Yin Family fought intruders on the Conquest Road in the Southern Sky.
• Ren Ye and Zhao Haochen found the Heavenly Prison’s Front Courtyard ruined and learned from Qian Mei that the Storyteller had escaped after destroying the Spirit-Communicating Great Mage’s statue.
• The Four Great Families’ experts arrived at the Heavenly Prison, and Ren Ye worried that the Storyteller’s actions would trigger a major reckoning.
• The Storyteller concealed his aura with Soul-Calming Pills and confronted Li Xiaopang, who had helped him escape while seeking the Guiding Talisman.
• The Storyteller claimed a powerful insider had arranged his escape, leading Li Xiaopang to suspect his Second Uncle and the Yin Family.
• The Storyteller revealed that he wanted Li Xiaopang to help him enter the Delusion Divine Tomb, and Li Xiaopang asked him to identify the mysterious mastermind.

Li Xiaopang agreed to cooperate with the Storyteller and secretly planned to use him to enter the Divine Tomb. Meanwhile, Zhao Haochen investigated No. 79’s escape and concluded that a Death Prison guard had helped him, placing Ren Ye in danger despite Ren Ye’s insistence that he had never entered the formation core chamber.

• Li Xiaopang agreed to cooperate with the Storyteller and placed a strand of his divine soul into The Human World Story Miscellany as a token of sincerity.
• The Storyteller gave Li Xiaopang a signal to watch for and sent him home, while his immersion in the Night Wandering God’s character left him struggling with its urges.
• Li Xiaopang considered creating an alibi and planned to use his knowledge of the Divine Tomb to turn against the Storyteller if necessary.
• Zhao Haochen took charge of the Heavenly Prison investigation and deduced that No. 79 had escaped without using a key, then inspected the formation core chamber with Sun Michen and Ren Ye.
• Zhao Haochen found footprints behind the Three-Headed Netherworld Beast sculpture and identified their pattern as matching Ren Ye’s shoes.
• Zhao Haochen concluded that a Death Prison guard had secretly helped No. 79, leaving Ren Ye stunned because he had never entered the chamber.

After rescuing the Storyteller, Ren Ye learned that Li Xiaopang had accidentally become involved in the escape and accepted the Storyteller’s plan to keep him at a distance while they hid for two days. The Storyteller gave Ren Ye a one-use talisman, while Zhao Haochen began narrowing the Heavenly Prison investigation to Death Prison jailers and planned to lure the mole into revealing himself.

• Zhao Haochen ordered the Formation Core Chamber and No. 79’s cell sealed, then told Ren Ye he would receive merit for helping with the incident.
• Sun Michen offered to find Ren Ye’s aunt a respectable job, prompting Ren Ye to suspect that she was avoiding the Sun Family.
• Ren Ye met the Storyteller near the ruined temple and learned that Li Xiaopang had been caught in the Formation Core Chamber and recruited into their group.
• Ren Ye judged the Storyteller’s account consistent with the clues at the prison and agreed that Li Xiaopang could join, while warning the Storyteller to conceal Ren Ye’s identity.
• The Storyteller gave Ren Ye a one-use Nine Heavens Mystic Venerable Talisman, and Ren Ye agreed to bring him food while he recovered in hiding for two days.
• At the Clan Hall, Zhao Haochen argued that a Death Prison jailer was the mole and proposed investigating meal deliveries, bathing, and head shaving without alerting the jailers.

After the Heavenly Prison breakout, the Clan Hall organized the hunt for No. 79 while Ren Ye and Li Xiaopang tried to protect their secrets. As Ren Ye reported for duty, a hidden plot began framing Li Xiaopang as the inside mole.

• Zhao Mi assigned the Patrol Hall to investigate the mole and recapture No. 79, while the Clan Hall postponed Death Sacrifice Day and arranged guards at the village approaches.
• Ren Ye admitted his role in the escape to Aunt Tian Wei, who supported him but refused Sun Michen's invitation to dinner.
• Li Fusheng told Li Xiaopang that the Clan Hall suspected a mole, and Xiaopang worried that the investigation would expose him.
• Ren Ye used a story about a compromised constable to encourage Li Xiaopang to exploit his connections and keep No. 79 ahead of the authorities.
• Ren Ye declined the Sun Family's invitation on his aunt's behalf, then headed to the Heavenly Prison for duty.
• A disheveled figure ordered a burly man to plant guard shoes bearing Formation Core Chamber stone fragments in Li Xiaopang's home as evidence against him.

Ren Ye woke from a witchcraft-induced dream when the Nine Heavens Mystic Venerable Talisman warned him that three black-qi men were breaking into his home to plant shoes as evidence. He secretly drew the Divine Method Old Swallows Return to the Nest, while Sun Qingxue arrived nearby to invite Tian Wei to the Sun Family banquet.

• Sun Qingxue agreed to personally invite Tian Wei to the Sun Family banquet after Sun Michen explained that Tian Wei had refused to attend.
• Ren Ye asked Zhao Mi how to study secret methods from other inheritances, and Zhao Mi advised him to contemplate carefully and immerse himself in perception.
• Three black-qi men led by a burly man entered the alley outside Ren Ye's home, intending to plant fabricated evidence while Pengyuan used witchcraft to draw Ren Ye into a dream and Lin Er concealed the area.
• The Nine Heavens Mystic Venerable Talisman warned Ren Ye of the intruders, and Ren Ye discovered that Tian Wei was absent from the house.
• Ren Ye used the Heavenly Grace Enlightenment Talisman and gained the Divine Method Old Swallows Return to the Nest as the burly man entered his home carrying a pair of shoes.
• Sun Qingxue and Shan'er arrived by carriage nearby and prepared to walk to Ren Ye's home.

Sun Qingxue and Shan'er arrived at Ren Ye’s home to invite him and his aunt to a banquet, but discovered three intruders using an illusion realm to frame the family. Sun Qingxue fought them with the Cold Heaven Shuttle and secretly contacted Ren Ye, who woke but kept his eyes closed as she began a plan to trap the attackers.

• Sun Qingxue walked into the alley with Shan'er and explained why the Huang Family deserved respect, despite Shan'er’s contempt for them.
• Lin Er detected Sun Qingxue approaching the Huang home and warned Yu Ge and Pengyuan, who abandoned their plan to plant fabricated evidence and decided to subdue the two women.
• Sun Qingxue detected the illusion realm and sent Shan'er to summon the Patrol Hall, but Lin Er expanded the realm and pulled both women inside.
• Yu Ge attacked with the Ten Thousand Bone Jar while Pengyuan used the Moon-Sleep Art, but Sun Qingxue awakened the Cold Heaven Shuttle and broke free of the spell.
• Sun Qingxue’s Cold Heaven Shuttle damaged Pengyuan’s Thousand-Faced Skin, exposing his identity and prompting the three intruders to attack the women in earnest.
• Sun Qingxue secretly urged Ren Ye to wake; he answered that he was already awake, and she told him to keep pretending while she devised a plan to trap all three men.

Ren Ye escaped the illusion realm to summon help for Sun Qingxue and Shan'er, but found the night patrol absent and used the Nine Heavens Mystic Venerable Talisman instead. Its power transformed him and alerted Delusion Village’s strongest figures, leaving Yu Ge and his brothers surrounded as they attacked the two women.

• Sun Qingxue planned to break the illusion realm with her Heavenly Frost Sword Talisman, while Ren Ye proposed ambushing one of the attackers; Shan'er scolded him and he agreed to escape and alert the night patrol.
• Sun Qingxue lured Yu Ge and his brothers east, then shattered a corner of the illusion realm in the Southern Sky with the Heavenly Frost Sword Talisman, allowing Ren Ye to escape.
• Ren Ye called for the night patrol, but found no patrolmen nearby; after he shouted again, auras rose from across Delusion Village.
• Ren Ye sensed through Old Swallows Return to the Nest that Sun Qingxue and Shan'er were badly wounded, so he activated the Nine Heavens Mystic Venerable Talisman to return and help them.
• Heavenly lightning engulfed Ren Ye without harming him, poured into his dantian, and raised his combat strength beyond its normal limits.
• The village's family heads and night watchmen converged on the illusion realm, and Lin Er told Yu Ge and Pengyuan that they were surrounded.

Ren Ye used the Nine Heavens Mystic Venerable Talisman to unleash heavenly lightning, saving Shan'er and defeating the three Black Qi-level attackers. After Yu Ge was killed by Patrol Hall experts, Ren Ye grew suspicious of their account and saw a chance to claim Yu Ge's Ten Thousand Bone Jar.

• Yu Ge ordered Lin Er to kill Shan'er and Pengyuan to help capture Sun Qingxue, while he attacked her with the Ten Thousand Bone Jar's netherworld swords.
• Ren Ye appeared through Old Swallows Return to the Nest, destroyed Lin Er's sword with heavenly lightning, and killed him with a close-range attack.
• Ren Ye and Sun Qingxue pursued the fleeing attackers; they killed Pengyuan when he tried to dissolve into the Dao, then chased Yu Ge toward Great Northern Mountain.
• Three Patrol Hall experts told Ren Ye and Sun Qingxue that Yu Ge had tried to dissolve into the Dao and that they had killed him, but Ren Ye suspected their explanation and their delayed response.
• Ren Ye realized the Ten Thousand Bone Jar was a valuable treasure and considered how to claim it without drawing the Patrol Hall's suspicion.