Chapter Summaries

Little Bad King learned that Daoist Chu had betrayed Cloud Sea and become Yunlu's disciple, while Zheng Zhuo's torture-by-gambling revealed Dong Rencheng's secret work for the Fourth Seat. The chapter ended with Little Bad King confronting Daoist Chu, who offered to share an assignment investigating the Fourth Seat in exchange for ending the beating.

• Little Bad King went to punish Daoist Chu for betraying him, but discovered Chu had become the First Seat's disciple and waited outside the Myriad Spirits Dao Palace to ambush him.
• The Myriad Spirits Five Tigers forced Zheng Zhuo to gamble continuously, draining his property until he broke and confessed that Dong Rencheng was building a secret site and assembling a cultivator army for the Fourth Seat.
• Zheng Zhuo explained why Dong Rencheng would return and insisted their friendship had kept Dong from killing him, but the Five Tigers continued interrogating him until they confirmed he had no more offenses.
• Daoist Chu spent twenty days seeking understanding in the Ancestral Hall, received saintly qi empowerment from Yunlu, and formally became his disciple despite having earned his perfect Discipline Score through reporting and entrapment.
• Little Bad King attacked Daoist Chu with a rusty kitchen knife after Chu emerged from the Dao Palace, and Chu offered to share an assignment investigating the Fourth Seat and inspecting the Dragon Palace crime scene as compensation.

Daoist Chu told Little Bad King how he had manipulated the Seven Friends assignment to kill Cao Shouyi and earn a place in the Myriad Spirits Dao Palace, then revealed the First Seat had authorized them to investigate the Dragon Palace battle. Little Bad King prepared to choose collaborators, but Liu Suihan arrived with Yang Youtian to meet him.

• Little Bad King confronted Daoist Chu over his rewards from the Seven Friends assignment, and Daoist Chu explained how he had arranged for Cao Shouyi to die by using a poisoned Star-Nourishing Pill and Little Bad King's help.
• Daoist Chu told Little Bad King that the First Seat had selected him to investigate the Dragon Palace Truth and described how an intruder had restrained the True Dragon, stolen its scales and essence blood, and destroyed the First Seat's Divine Soul Dao Body.
• Little Bad King realized the First Seat had tacitly approved his participation, and Daoist Chu agreed to buy him a residence to make up for deceiving him.
• Daoist Chu warned that dangerous killing dao intent might remain at the Dragon Palace battle site, and Little Bad King agreed to consider whom to bring along.
• The Little Marquis told Little Bad King that Liu Suihan and Yang Youtian were waiting to discuss something important, and Little Bad King went to meet them.

Little Bad King joined forces with Liu Suihan to investigate the Dragon Scale Case, then led their combined group back into the Dragon Palace. Inside Heavenly Fortune Lake, he discovered that he and Daoist Chu saw completely different scenery.

• Liu Suihan proposed that their squads share leads and split any opportunities equally, and Little Bad King agreed to investigate the Dragon Palace together.
• Liu Suihan revealed that Cloud Dragon had secretly returned to the Heavenly Capital two years before his supposed return, and Little Bad King shared his evidence linking Cloud Dragon to the dragon scale, Dong Rencheng, and Zheng Zhuo.
• Little Bad King and Liu Suihan agreed to enter the Dragon Palace the following evening, and Little Bad King put together a theory that Cloud Dragon had framed the Second Seat while seeking True Dragon blood essence.
• Daoist Chu joined Little Bad King, Liu Suihan, and their squads at Heavenly Fortune Lake, while Brother Dog, Buddha's Son, Lei Hu, and Three-Headed Bird stayed behind to keep watch.
• After the group entered the lake, Little Bad King saw a desolate, lifeless scene, but Daoist Chu described a beautiful landscape with fish jumping in the water.

Little Bad King saw a desolate version of Heavenly Fortune Lake that no one else could see, then joined Liu Suihan’s group in a trial to neutralize the Great Dao immortal light at the Dragon Palace’s battle site. He entered Yunlu’s memories and received a deceptively difficult prompt to act out the divine deer shaking its fur.

• Little Bad King discovered that he alone saw Heavenly Fortune Lake as a ruined land, but he could not determine why his vision differed from Liu Suihan’s and the Little Marquis’s.
• Daoist Chu led the two squads to the battle site, where Yang Youtian triggered the Heavenly Dao’s trial announcement: the group had to awaken Yunlu’s lingering soul aura and use it to counter twelve beams of Great Dao immortal light.
• Little Bad King took the performer role and assigned the Little Marquis and four others as guides while Liu Suihan, Yang Youtian, and the remaining members formed the audience.
• The first beam awakened and pursued the Little Marquis, who located Yunlu’s soul aura near the mountain’s southeastern foot while Little Bad King flew to find it.
• Little Bad King entered Yunlu’s memories and witnessed a divine deer braving a storm to find food for three starving young beasts; the trial then required him to act out the deer shaking its fur without speaking.

Yang Youtian failed to guess the first charades answer after insisting Little Bad King was acting out a romance, and the next trial began. In Yunlu’s second memory, Little Bad King witnessed the divine deer steal medicine and share it with every peak to save the plague-stricken spirits, then received the prompt to guess Cloud Clear’s dance.

• Little Bad King acted out a four-character answer, but Yang Youtian repeatedly guessed phrases about sex and romance until the fifteen-minute limit expired.
• The second beam of Great Dao Immortal Light began pursuing the Little Marquis, while Yang Youtian told the next spectator to keep guessing about Yunlu’s love life.
• Little Bad King entered Yunlu’s second memory and saw the plague-stricken Cloud Boar, Cloud Sea, and Cloud Clear suffering at the Divine Elephant Flying Waterfall.
• Yunlu learned that Soaring Bird blood could cure the plague but was unavailable, so he led others to steal Star-Covering Grass from Medicine Peak.
• After Cloud Clear recovered, Yunlu rejected Cloud Boar and Cloud Sea’s plan to keep the antidote and exploit the plague, and ordered them to share it with the other peaks.
• The other peaks’ spirits survived and later thanked Yunlu, while Cloud Clear danced at the celebration and triggered the second question’s prompt.

Little Bad King struggled to convey Yunlu’s memories to the audience, but Liu Suihan and Daoist Chu eventually coordinated to solve the prompts and help the team neutralize the pursuing Great Dao Immortal Light. After reaching Yunlu’s final memory, Little Bad King saw a woman from the Inner Peak and recognized her as the woman once turned into a puppet by An Mountain Master.

• Ying Bocai misread Little Bad King’s clues and guessed that Yunlu had offered a woman to flatter a superior, causing Little Bad King to abandon his performance and move on.
• Daoist Chu explained that the waiting audience members should solve the prompts together, and Liu Suihan followed his plan to answer the first question correctly as a Divine Deer shaking off water.
• Little Bad King used Yunlu’s spell to destroy a beam of Great Dao Immortal Light, revealing an Axe Shadow, while the Little Marquis’s team rotated targets to evade the other beams after Wang Eryou died in their experiment.
• Little Bad King skipped Yang Youtian and Ying Bocai, while Liu Suihan and Daoist Chu collaborated on the prompts and helped him advance through Yunlu’s memories to the twelfth and final strand.
• In the final memory, Yunlu and his siblings awaited a visitor sent to congratulate him on becoming Top Scholar, and Little Bad King recognized the woman as the former puppet controlled by An Mountain Master.

Yunlu wrote a forceful essay condemning Myriad Spirits Dao Palace’s neglect of the Outer Peak, then defended his criticism before Perfected Baoyuan and revealed that he possessed Saintly Bones. After becoming Baoyuan’s disciple and reuniting with his sworn siblings, Yunlu was left quietly drawn to Su Yan.

• Su Yan delivered Perfected Baoyuan’s untitled policy-essay challenge to Yunlu and promised to give him the Top Scholar gift.
• Yunlu wrote an essay proposing reforms to protect and support Outer Peak beings, while Cloud Boar and Cloud Clear warned that it would offend the Dao Palace’s leadership.
• Yunlu submitted his essay to Perfected Baoyuan, defended its criticisms, and endured the Half-Saint’s Saintly Qi, revealing his Saintly Bones.
• Perfected Baoyuan explained the limits imposed by funding and administration, then accepted Yunlu as his disciple to study the Saint Daoist Scripture.
• Yunlu later reunited with his sworn siblings at a banquet and stopped Cloud Boar and Cloud Sea from sneaking to watch Su Yan bathe.
• After his siblings left, Yunlu remembered Su Yan and found himself looking toward Purple Cloud Garden, while Little Bad King worried about his expression.

Yunlu confronted his feelings for Su Yan, learned to restrain his actions without denying his affection, and later defended his sworn brother Cloud Sea despite the cost to his reputation. He entered a dangerous secret realm with Shen Xu and Su Yan to retrieve what Baoyuan required to save Cloud Sea, and the three returned with Shen Xu and Su Yan dead and Yunlu gravely wounded.

• Drunk and overcome by his feelings, Yunlu sneaked into the Purple Cloud Garden to watch Su Yan bathe, but she caught him and kicked him before Shen Xu arrived.
• Yunlu confessed what he had done, and Baoyuan later advised him to face his affection honestly while restraining his actions; Yunlu resolved to keep a clear conscience and cherish his bond with Shen Xu and Su Yan.
• Years later, Yunlu pleaded for Cloud Sea after Cloud Sea was imprisoned for killing the principal offender and taking stolen goods, arguing that honoring brotherhood was also a form of virtue.
• Baoyuan agreed to plead for Cloud Sea on the condition that Yunlu retrieve something from a perilous secret realm, and Yunlu set out alone.
• Shen Xu and Su Yan joined Yunlu at the secret realm entrance, and the three entered together despite Yunlu's warning about the danger.
• The three emerged from the secret realm, but Shen Xu and Su Yan were charred corpses and Yunlu lay gravely wounded and terrified.

Little Bad King watched Yunlu wake and advance to the Dao Realm, but Yunlu could not remember the Secret Realm’s final trial or explain Su Yan and Shen Xu’s deaths. Back at the Dragon Palace, the group linked twelve weapon auras to Seat Cloud Dragon, though Little Bad King suspected the evidence was too conspicuous, and they later reported their findings and received Merit Points.

• Yunlu woke in Perfected Baoyuan’s care, learned Su Yan and Shen Xu had died, and said he could not remember the final trial.
• Perfected Baoyuan concluded Yunlu had passed the trial without betraying his conscience, and Yunlu condensed Saintly Radiance and entered the Dao Realm.
• Yunlu visited Su Yan and Shen Xu’s ice coffins and grieved while Perfected Baoyuan watched with mixed feelings and suspicion.
• Little Bad King completed the final performance prompt, and the group examined twelve distinct Weapon Phantoms left by the Great Dao Immortal Light.
• Daoist Chu and the others suspected Seat Cloud Dragon had used twelve weapons, but Little Bad King questioned why the evidence had been left behind; the group then watched a replay of the True Dragon being robbed.
• The group reported their findings to Lin Ye and received Merit Points, while Yang Youtian and Ying Bocai complained about their rewards and Wang Eryou joked that their guessing would have taken decades with Yang as performer.

Lin Ye, Little Bad King, and Liu Suihan discussed how to prove Fourth Seat Cloud Dragon framed their master, concluding that the missing True Dragon Essence Blood could expose him. Meanwhile, Yang Youtian joined the Central Heaven Sect’s efforts to cooperate with Ren Daniú’s group, then met Golden Cicada Zi, who asked about the missing Chen Zheng.

• Lin Ye took Little Bad King and Liu Suihan to dinner, while Yang Youtian was snubbed when he tried to join them.
• Ying Bocai and Wang Eryou worried that the Central Heaven Sect had lost its standing to Ren Daniú’s Azure Ox Squad, but Yang Youtian urged them to cooperate with Ren Daniú.
• Little Bad King warned Lin Ye and Liu Suihan that accusing Fourth Seat Cloud Dragon without irrefutable evidence could backfire, and proposed finding the stolen True Dragon Essence Blood in his secret stockpile site.
• Yang Youtian met Golden Cicada Zi at the Library Pavilion, and they went to the Inner Manor’s Kitchen for drinks.
• Golden Cicada Zi proposed exchanging clues about the Dragon Scale Case and asked Yang Youtian about Chen Zheng, who had been missing for more than twenty years.

Yang Youtian drugged Golden Cicada Zi and stole a statement file revealing that First Seat Cloud Clear had sent two chests of incriminating evidence about the imprisoned Second Seat to Fulong Pavilion. He told Lin Ye and Little Bad King, leaving them shocked by Cloud Clear’s apparent betrayal of their Master.

• Yang Youtian refused to trade the Dragon Palace clues with Golden Cicada Zi because the information belonged to the whole group.
• The Female Prophet gave Golden Cicada Zi a statement file and said First Seat Cloud Clear had likely framed a disciple of the Fifth Seat.
• Yang Youtian secretly drugged Golden Cicada Zi, took the file, and read that Cloud Clear had delivered two chests of evidence about the Second Seat to Fulong Pavilion.
• Yang Youtian brought the discovery to Liu Suihan, Lin Ye, and Little Bad King in the Internal Affairs Office garden.
• Little Bad King realized that Cloud Clear had apparently moved against their imprisoned Master, leaving the group stunned.

Little Bad King investigated Yang Youtian’s lead cautiously, then joined the squad in moving to arrest Dong Rencheng after he returned to the Heavenly Capital. As the group surrounded Dong Rencheng’s residence, he told his concubine that he feared he would die because more than a hundred of his fellow disciples had been reported dead in suspicious accidents.

• Little Bad King reasoned that First Seat Cloud Clear had sent evidence against Piggy Chief Seat to keep him imprisoned, then questioned Yang Youtian about how he obtained the testimony lead.
• Little Bad King warned Liu Suihan to verify Yang Youtian’s lead through Lin Ye before investigating the Fifth Seat, while encouraging Yang Youtian to keep contributing.
• Lin Ye reported that Dong Rencheng had returned to the Heavenly Capital, and Little Bad King arranged an arrest operation with Fatty Chu and the Plant Squad.
• Yang Youtian offered Little Bad King one million Star Source for the chance to capture Dong Rencheng and claim all six Merit Points, and Little Bad King accepted.
• Ren Daniu led the group to surround Dong Rencheng’s residence in the Western City, where Dong Rencheng told his concubine that over a hundred disciples under his Master had died in suspicious accidents.

Yang Youtian’s costly plan to capture Dong Rencheng failed when Dong surrendered, but his testimony revealed evidence about the Dragon Scale Case and a hidden trial leading to the Worry-Free Realm. Little Bad King’s group reached the temple on Mount Master, where they prepared to face the one-time Secret Realm trial.

• Yang Youtian hired five disciples to weaken Dong Rencheng, but Dong found them hiding in his courtyard and voluntarily surrendered, leaving Yang without the six Merit Points he had hoped to earn.
• At the Myriad Spirits Internal Affairs Office, Dong said First Seat Cloud Dragon had lost trust in him, described more than a hundred upright disciples who had vanished, and identified newly favored disciples including Miss Long, Yang Kai, Ding Ying, and Lou Changfeng.
• Dong revealed that Cloud Dragon had entered the Dragon Palace with an unknown companion and later gave him a Jade Box, and he suspected the True Dragon Blood was hidden in the Worry-Free Realm beneath Cloud Dragon’s Dao Palace.
• Dong explained that a temple trial on Mount Master could let someone pass through the Worry-Free Realm undetected, and the Heavenly Dao announced that Little Bad King had triggered a one-time hidden trial.
• Yang Youtian asked Lin Ye for the promised Merit Points, but Lin Ye refused, and the Little Marquis urged him to spend more Star Source to buy the reward.
• Little Bad King led his party to the small Ancient Temple on Mount Master, where they discussed its inscription about a Sage and the trial’s likely meaning.

Little Bad King, Daoist Chu, and Liu Suihan remained in the Saint Heart Realm after the others were expelled, and Little Bad King earned a saint rating in a water-management trial by pursuing a lasting solution instead of merely preventing immediate flood damage. After the trio passed the second trial, they faced a final trial requiring one of them to awaken Saintly Qi, and Little Bad King realized the impossible choice before them.

• Black Dog, Three-Headed Bird, and Lei Hu withdrew from the Saint Heart Realm, while Little Bad King and the others began its trials.
• The Little Marquis, Wang Eryou, and Ying Bocai were expelled after their governor mishandled a flood-control trial and provoked a rebellion.
• Yang Youtian told the group that Ren Daniú earned a saint rating by planning dams and canals for lasting water management, while Daoist Chu, Liu Suihan, and Ren Daniú all earned excellent ratings in the second trial.
• Yang Youtian explained that Ren Daniú had been disqualified from a saint rating in the second trial after the Heavenly Dao judged his Tao Te Ching a plagiarism, though he later composed the Herbal Classic.
• The mist around the small temple dispersed as Little Bad King, Daoist Chu, and Liu Suihan remained unconscious, their bodies infused with holy aura.
• The Heavenly Dao announced that an Ominous Being had descended and that the three Travelers' six Saintly Radiance points could awaken Saintly Qi in only one person, leaving Little Bad King in despair.

Little Bad King, Daoist Chu, and Liu Suihan faced a trial that tempted them to steal Saintly Radiance or sacrifice themselves, and Little Bad King passed by trusting his conclusion that the threat of a thousand-year imprisonment was a bluff. After leaving the realm with a wisp of saintly qi, he prepared to investigate the Worry-Free Labyrinth and the truth about Yunlu, while a faint rosy light appeared in two distant places.

• Little Bad King struggled against his desire to take his companions’ Saintly Radiance, while Daoist Chu resolved to help him and Liu Suihan planned to fight the others openly.
• Little Bad King concluded that the Heavenly Dao had invented the thousand-year punishment to frighten them, chose to give up his Saintly Radiance, and passed the trial.
• Daoist Chu and Liu Suihan were burned by golden flames but survived, and the Heavenly Dao said Little Bad King’s choice had given them a chance to live.
• Little Bad King reunited with Daoist Chu and Liu Suihan, explained his reasoning, and learned that both men had also tried to let him succeed.
• Little Bad King identified the realm as the one Yunlu had explored with Su Yan and Shen Xu, then planned to investigate the Fourth Seat’s Worry-Free Labyrinth for True Dragon blood and the truth about Yunlu.
• A faint rosy light appeared at the ancestral bust in the Myriad Spirits Dao Palace and at a place outside the Thirty-Two Peaks.

Little Bad King and the Little Marquis infiltrated Seat Cloud Dragon’s Worry-Free Realm, where they reached a hidden archive containing a bloodstained plaque, a Divine Supervisory Court seal, and a dossier revealing Cloud Boar’s attempted assault on Cloud Clear. As Little Bad King reeled from the discovery, Deng Tongqi was ordered to leave for Heavenly Capital City.

• Little Bad King learned from Deng Tongqi that Ding Ying, Lou Changfeng, and others handled internal affairs, then discovered that more than twenty people close to them were Travelers from the Chaos Faction.
• After Seat Cloud Dragon left the mountain, Little Bad King’s group planned an infiltration and assigned Liu Suihan to lead the support team while Little Bad King entered the Worry-Free Realm with the Little Marquis.
• At the start of Hai Hour, a sparrow set fire to the Artisan Heart Pavilion, drawing away some guards as Little Bad King led his team into the Dao Palace.
• Little Bad King and the Little Marquis descended into the Worry-Free maze using Saintly Qi and emerged in a hidden archive filled with registers and official records.
• Little Bad King failed to remove the blood covering a plaque, then found a Divine Supervisory Court seal and read a dossier stating that Cloud Boar had tried to molest Cloud Clear while she was drunk.
• Deng Tongqi arrived at the burning pavilion and received an order to go to Heavenly Capital City at once.

Ren Ye and the Little Marquis found the dragon blood while Yang Youtian’s betrayal plot closed around their allies. The Heavenly Dao revealed that the blood was only a manifestation, leaving Yang Youtian’s plan and the secret realm’s true danger unresolved.

• Ren Ye and the Little Marquis examined Cloud Dragon’s secret chamber, concluding that he was preparing a rebellion and might have killed an imperial official.
• Ding Ying and Lou Changfeng returned to the Dao Palace with their forces, while Daoist Chu realized that he was surrounded.
• Yang Youtian told Liu Suihan that he had allied with Ding Ying and Lou Changfeng, drugged Liu Suihan, and planned to kill Ren Ye and the Little Marquis using the dragon blood.
• Yang Youtian explained that he had switched to Cloud Dragon’s sect under the Fence-Sitter rule and intended to eliminate Ren Ye’s team so he could lead Order’s forces.
• Ren Ye and the Little Marquis found the dragon blood and channeled their divine soul power into it, but it did not react.
• The Heavenly Dao announced that the dragon blood did not truly exist and was only one of its manifestations, while Yang Youtian continued expecting it to erupt.

Yang Youtian’s betrayal led the Dao Palace elders to trap the Azure Ox Squad behind a formation, but Daoist Chu summoned the Ancestral Master's Divine Puppet to rescue Ren Ye, Little Bad King, and the others. The Azure Bird broke the formation at great cost, and Buddha's Son raced to save him as he fell wounded.

• Yang Youtian urged the elders to kill the intruders and sent the Chaotic Travelers to ambush the Azure Ox Squad while Daoist Chu realized they had been betrayed.
• Little Bad King and the Little Marquis cleared the Worry-Free Labyrinth's illusion and activated the dragon blood, revealing that its power had not harmed them.
• Daoist Chu summoned the Ancestral Master's Divine Puppet, which struck the hidden formation and collapsed the labyrinth as the elders and Travelers attacked it.
• The Little Marquis, Little Bad King, Ren Ye, Black Dog, Buddha's Son, and Lei Hu climbed onto the Divine Puppet's palm, and Daoist Chu struggled to break through the formation's barrier.
• The Azure Bird used Hundred Li in an Instant to attack Elder Jianchen, disrupting the formation; the backlash tore Jianchen apart and the formation collapsed.
• The Divine Puppet broke through the barrier and rose into the sky as Elder Jianchen's counterattack severed two of the Azure Bird's heads, prompting Buddha's Son to fly toward him.

Little Bad King sent his allies away with the dragon blood and unleashed his strongest reserves to rescue the Buddha's Son and Chu Qing from the Fourth Seat's forces. The Buddha's Son defeated several Travelers at the cost of his own life force, then questioned his existence after Yang Youtian revealed his status as a remnant soul, while the other Seats arrived and the Dragon Scale Case assignments were suspended.

• The Buddha's Son awakened Myriad Forms Suppression through grief over Chu Qing's injuries and fought through the defenders to retrieve him.
• Little Bad King sent Daoist Chu and the Little Marquis to deliver the dragon blood to Senior Brother Lin Ye, and sent Lei Hu and Black Dog to appeal to Heavenly Capital Prefecture.
• Daoist Yueshan rallied the Fourth Seat's disciples by claiming the dragon blood had been planted, while Yang Youtian and the other Travelers attacked the Buddha's Son.
• Little Bad King combined Divine Dao Star Sand with Cloud Sea's Saber-Drawing Talisman and killed six Fifth-Grade Realm elders and hundreds of disciples to clear his path.
• The Buddha's Son exhausted his reserves with the All-Purifying Ten Directions Seal, forced several Travelers to lose a resurrection, and suffered a crisis after Yang Youtian called him a remnant soul and supporting character.
• First Seat Yunlu, Third Seat Cloud Sea, and Fifth Seat Cloud Clear arrived as the Heavenly Dao Proclamation suspended the Dragon Scale Case assignments, while the dying Buddha's Son begged Little Bad King to tell him whether he truly existed.

Ren Ye used Saintly Qi to preserve Buddha's Son without erasing his chance at enlightenment, while Yunlu stabilized the Three-Headed Bird and sealed the Fourth Seat’s Dao Palace. As Order’s factions braced for infighting, Ren Ye arrived in a blaze of white light and challenged Yang Youtian, Ding Ying, and Lou Changfeng to face him.

• Ren Ye chose not to resurrect Buddha's Son or forcibly recruit him, and instead arranged for the First Seat to preserve the gravely injured Three-Headed Bird with Saintly Qi.
• Yunlu ordered the Fourth Seat’s Dao Palace sealed and its disciples detained, then left for the Heavenly Capital after the Divine Court summoned the three Seats.
• Ren Ye took Buddha's Son to the Internal Affairs Office while Deng Tongqi and Meng Anchen revealed that Yang Youtian had betrayed him, prompting Ren Ye to prepare a response.
• Melon, Zhang Biyun, Wei Tianbao, the Female Prophet, and other Travelers debated whether Ren Ye would retaliate and whether Order would fracture.
• Yang Youtian urged Wang Eryou and Ying Bocai to join the Fourth Seat and ally with Ding Ying and Lou Changfeng, while Meng Anchen secretly sent a Signal Arrow.
• Ren Ye appeared above the sealed Dao Palace surrounded by white light and purple qi, then called Yang Youtian, Ding Ying, and Lou Changfeng out to face him.