Chapter Summaries

Jiang Chen killed Xu Lai and confronted the terrifying figure summoned by the bronze compass, resisting his deathly aura with his True Dragon bloodline. The figure vanished, and Xu Fu, aboard an ancient fleet at sea, sensed the True Dragon aura and wondered whether that man was still alive.

• Jiang Chen trapped Xu Lai with fierce winds and the Yin River, then killed him with the Yin God Hammer as Xu Lai tried to take his own life.
• The bronze compass kept spinning after Xu Lai's death, and Jiang Chen sent No. 01, Zhao Xiaodong, and the others away from the battlefield.
• A mysterious figure appeared above the Yin River and overwhelmed Jiang Chen with his aura, but Jiang Chen resisted and invoked his Bloodline Talent.
• Jiang Chen revealed his True Dragon aura and addressed the figure as Xu Fu, causing the bronze compass to shatter and the figure to disappear.
• Xu Fu sensed the True Dragon aura from an ancient ship at sea, vanished from the deck, and wondered if that man was still alive.

Jiang Chen survived Xu Fu’s vanished phantom and calmed the terrified group, then let them absorb the Yin River’s pure Yin Qi. Chu Hanyue arrived, recognized the king’s aura left by the battle, and promised to escort everyone back to the branch after Jiang Chen teased her about being twelve years older.

• Jiang Chen approached the frozen Netherworld Messengers and ghosts, then smashed a nearby grave and killed a Vengeful Ghost he mistakenly accused of threatening them.
• Jiang Chen praised No. 02 for pretending the ghost had been about to ambush them and rewarded him with extra Yin Qi.
• Jiang Chen stopped the Yin River and let the psychiatric patients and novice Netherworld Messengers absorb its pure Yin Qi.
• Chu Hanyue arrived and explained that she had delayed to have the Think Tank assess the route for a possible trap.
• Chu Hanyue sensed traces of a Half-Step Great Grandmaster and a king’s aura, while Jiang Chen survived her curiosity by joking that he would marry a woman twelve years older.
• Chu Hanyue angrily corrected Jiang Chen about her age and said she would escort the group back to the branch from the shadows.

Jiang Chen led the group away after the Yin River empowered the Netherworld Messengers and pushed three Critical Patients to the peak of Blood-Clad Ghost strength. On the journey back, he considered the attention his growing power would bring and learned that Xu Fu’s supposed elixir of immortality only prolonged life through dormancy, before finding a decades-old comment linking the Netherworld to an ancient attempt at immortality.

• Jiang Chen used the Yin River’s Yin Qi to strengthen the Netherworld Messengers and the four Critical Patients, though No. 01 did not break through.
• Jiang Chen dispersed the river and made the group run after destroying two cars, using his Loudspeaker to keep them moving and gaining Ghost Qi from their exertion.
• Jiang Chen checked his gains, noted that his Ghost Qi exceeded 1.73 million, and considered how his strength would force him to take sides in future conflicts.
• Jiang Chen used the Underworld App to learn that Xu Fu’s elixir prolonged life through dormancy while the body continued to decay and mutate.
• Jiang Chen found a comment suggesting the Netherworld was an ancient attempt at immortality and noticed that it had been posted over sixty years earlier under the name Yama King Zhao Jingtian.

Jiang Chen brought the exhausted group to the Netherworld Branch Office after leading them along the wrong road, then visited Uncle Wei at the Security Office. Uncle Wei exposed the Critical Patients’ disguises and warned Jiang Chen that the position was doomed, while Jiang Chen prepared to torment the office staff by sabotaging their alarms.

• Jiang Chen realized he had led the group onto the road to Wangjiang City, but refused to turn back and drove them onward.
• The exhausted group arrived at the Netherworld Branch Office, where Chu Hanyue told Jiang Chen that Deputy Director Luo was waiting on the seventeenth floor.
• Jiang Chen argued with Uncle Wei, then discussed his promised funeral arrangements and asked for the duty roster.
• Uncle Wei identified Jiang Chen’s companions as captured mad patients and warned that the position was doomed and they should not be sent into the conflict.
• Jiang Chen ordered No. 01 and the others to disable the staff’s alarms and wake everyone by using his methods, then argued with Uncle Wei about the Security Department’s role.

Jiang Chen recruited Blood-Clad Ghosts to wake the Jiangbei Branch Bureau’s Netherworld Messengers and persuaded Deputy Director Luo Ji to establish a Wake-Up Department. After arranging for rescued patients to be considered as new Netherworld Messengers, Jiang Chen left looking injured and exhausted, prompting Luo Ji to promise him a generous mission reward.

• Xu Lei and a male Netherworld Messenger were terrified awake by Blood-Clad Ghosts recruited by Jiang Chen, who had disabled the branch’s alarm clocks.
• Jiang Chen praised Deputy Director Luo Ji extravagantly, then proposed banning alarm clocks and creating a department to wake and train the messengers.
• Chu Hanyue objected that Jiang Chen had wiped out a Hospital Ward, then left while Jiang Chen and Luo Ji arranged the Wake-Up Department.
• Jiang Chen suggested that rescued living patients could be assessed as potential Netherworld Messengers, and Luo Ji realized they might provide four team-leader-level experts.
• Jiang Chen departed after coughing and revealing blood on his hand, and Luo Ji vowed to seek the highest possible mission reward for him.

After Tang Yi awakened to a terrifying power, she met Jiang Chen to repay the debt she owed him. She offered him a jade shard and a chance to survive the coming great chaos, while agreeing to answer his questions except those concerning the Living Person Forbidden Zone.

• Jiang Chen returned home after reporting his destruction of the Hospital Ward and killing of Xu Lai to Luo Ji, who praised him and offered to introduce his daughter.
• Sister Hong told Jiang Chen that Tang Yi had fainted, then awakened acting like a different person and led her to Vengeful Ghosts so she could devour their fortune and advance to C-Class.
• Sister Hong said Tang Yi had warned her to hide the Gu family's identity and abilities, and that she wanted to settle her karma with Jiang Chen.
• Jiang Chen found Tang Yi waiting in her room and claimed she owed him for saving her life several times.
• Tang Yi offered Jiang Chen a jade shard and promised to save his life once during the coming great chaos, then agreed to answer questions about the chaos and her origins.
• Tang Yi said she knew the secrets of the Living Person Forbidden Zone but warned that speaking or hearing them would bring disaster.

Tang Yi told Jiang Chen that all the Restricted Zones would open within half a year and that terrifying Yin Gods might emerge, then revealed she was one of a group of reincarnating people with ancient powers. Before vanishing, she promised to save Jiang Chen once through the broken jade and erased his memories of their conversation.

• Tang Yi warned Jiang Chen that the Restricted Zones would open in succession within half a year, bringing a great upheaval and the emergence of Yin Gods.
• Tang Yi revealed that she was a person of reincarnation who could live new lives, and warned Jiang Chen that some of her kind were Supreme Powerhouses.
• Tang Yi explained that the Demon Suppression Bureau had been founded after an earlier upheaval and mentioned the King of Reincarnation and a mysterious final chance.
• Tang Yi gave Jiang Chen the broken jade, promised to save him once if it shattered, and vanished while erasing his memories of her and their conversation.
• Jiang Chen reasoned that people of reincarnation could use strange methods to kill those who tracked them, and decided to draw his second Five-Star Card.

After learning more about reincarnators and the Living Person Forbidden Zones, Jiang Chen drew a Five-Star Card and endured a terrifying vision of the fake Thunderclap Monastery. He returned home to discover that he had summoned the Yellow-Brow King, a powerful Five-Star figure.

• Jiang Chen found that Sister Hong had forgotten Tang Yi and considered how reincarnators might be connected to past calamities and the Living Person Forbidden Zones.
• Jiang Chen embraced the danger and uncertainty ahead, then spent one million Ghost Qi to draw a Five-Star Card.
• Jiang Chen awoke in a vast Buddhist hall, resisted the old Buddha’s spiritual influence, and watched the Tathagata kill the disguised demon with an auspicious vase that became a wolf-tooth mace.
• Jiang Chen returned to his room shaken, and the System announced that he had drawn the Five-Star Card-Yellow-Brow King.
• Jiang Chen celebrated Yellow-Brow’s strength and judged him the strongest among the Five-Star Cards.

Jiang Chen received a powerful Yellow-Brow card and prepared for an impending Netherworld incident while Xiaohai hunted ghosts. On the way to collect his reward, Jiang Chen learned that the Tang Family had been annihilated, and he suspected Tang Yi’s reincarnated peers were capable of ruthless cruelty.

• Jiang Chen considered the Yellow-Brow card’s strength and the magical treasures it might manifest, then went to sleep after completing his card draw.
• Xiaohai guarded Jiang Chen and reported killing two Vengeful Ghosts and five Vicious Ghosts; Jiang Chen praised his resolve to help suffering ghosts find release.
• Jiang Chen told Xiaohai to keep anyone who came looking for him nearby, hoping to be present for a major Netherworld event and gain ghost qi.
• Luo Ji called Jiang Chen to confirm his reward of over six million Underworld Points and a sword talisman refined by the King of Reincarnation.
• Jiang Chen and Xiaohai set out to collect the reward, and Jiang Chen read that all 270-plus members of the Tang Family had been killed overnight.
• Jiang Chen suspected that reincarnated experts such as Tang Yi could regard ordinary people’s lives as insignificant.

Jiang Chen took up his duties at the Netherworld and met Sun Zhengwen and Dao Xuan, who were stunned by his rapid rise and recent achievements. Sun Zhengwen rewarded Jiang Chen with nearly seven million Underworld Points and the King of Reincarnation’s Sword Talisman, which could win its wielder the King’s attention as a potential disciple.

• Jiang Chen used the Death-Curse Yin God Hammer to wake patients across the Netherworld while No. 01 and the other patients remained in Purgatory.
• Jiang Chen met Sun Zhengwen and Dao Xuan in the Director’s Office, where Dao Xuan was shocked to learn Jiang Chen had reached the Grandmaster ranks.
• Sun Zhengwen named Jiang Chen chief of the Wake-Up Department, and Jiang Chen jokingly suggested replacing Old Wei as Security Department chief.
• Sun Zhengwen showed Dao Xuan records of Jiang Chen’s achievements, including wiping out a Hospital Ward, killing Xu Fu’s prized disciple, and surviving Xu Fu’s Projection.
• Sun Zhengwen transferred nearly seven million Underworld Points to Jiang Chen and gave him the King of Reincarnation’s Sword Talisman, explaining it could attract the King’s attention and lead to a chance to become his disciple.

Jiang Chen received the King of Reincarnation’s Sword Talisman and turned his wake-up calls at the Jiangbei Branch Bureau into a permanent department, despite the Netherworld Messengers’ protests. As he headed to the Black Market, he considered the bureau’s preparations and the many crises unfolding across the Netherworld.

• Sun Zhengwen warned Jiang Chen that the sealed Sword Talisman could unleash power ranging from a Great Grandmaster’s strike to something far stronger, and Jiang Chen took it upstairs.
• Jiang Chen reclaimed his terrifying ghosts from the Yin God Hammer and told the Netherworld Messengers he was no longer a temporary wake-up worker, then announced that he was establishing a permanent Wake-Up Department.
• The Netherworld Messengers celebrated Jiang Chen’s supposed departure, then fell silent and slammed their doors when he explained that his work would continue.
• Uncle Wei warned Jiang Chen that forcing people to improve could turn them against him, and Jiang Chen insisted that someone had to be the villain to protect everyone.
• Jiang Chen left the Netherworld to visit the Black Market and reflected on the four Great Grandmasters at the Jiangbei Branch Bureau and crises involving Mount Tai, Western Hunan, the East Sea, and the Nine Provinces border.

Jiang Chen went to the Black Market to buy stronger restorative pills for the battles ahead, and Elder Qi was stunned by his power and wealth. Jiang Chen bought all the available Old Ginseng Pills and Living Ginseng Pills, then agreed to take all ten Azure Yang Pills held at Black Market headquarters.

• Jiang Chen visited Elder Qi at Zhenbaoge to buy pills that could keep pace with his Demonic Power consumption.
• Elder Qi recognized Jiang Chen’s hammer and sensed his murderous aura, then concluded that Jiang Chen had become at least an upper grandmaster and offered him the lowest prices.
• Jiang Chen bought all forty Old Ginseng Pills and all five Living Ginseng Pills in stock.
• Elder Qi explained that the Black Market had no Azure Yang Pills at the branch and that headquarters held ten priced at two hundred thousand points each.
• Jiang Chen agreed to buy all ten Azure Yang Pills, leaving Elder Qi shocked.

Jiang Chen strengthened the King of Reincarnation’s Sword Talisman into a half-step Supreme Powerhouse Sword Talisman, unleashing a terrifying strand of sword intent before he fled. Dao Xuan and Sun Zhengwen mistook the power in the sky for Jiang Chen’s own ability, while Uncle Wei recognized that the sword qi had merely leaked from something far more powerful.

• Jiang Chen bought ten costly pills from Elder Qi at the Black Market and strengthened his Old Ginseng Pills and Living Ginseng Pills.
• Jiang Chen strengthened the King of Reincarnation’s Sword Talisman several times, spending over two hundred thousand ghost qi and turning it into a half-step Supreme Powerhouse Sword Talisman.
• A strand of formless sword intent burst into the sky, and Jiang Chen left before anyone could ask him to explain the disturbance.
• Dao Xuan and Sun Zhengwen examined the sword intent and mistakenly judged it to be a strike from Jiang Chen, comparing his talent with a young successor of Zhengyi Dao.
• Uncle Wei arrived, noticed the spot where Jiang Chen had stood, and realized the sword qi leaking from the talisman had immense power.

Jiang Chen searched Jiangbei for ghosts but found none, then learned the Netherworld had begun a citywide hunt for Dark Alliance members. He and Xiaohai encountered two of them hiding in an abandoned house, and Jiang Chen attacked them.

• Jiang Chen searched for ghosts around Jiangbei, found nothing, and beat up the families of Zheng Shaoming, Qin Ze, and Qin Tiancheng.
• The Netherworld Jiangbei Branch Bureau ordered Unusual People and Netherworld Messengers to hunt Dark Alliance members, providing files based on evidence gathered from their crimes.
• Jiang Chen took Xiaohai to an abandoned house, where Dark Alliance members Bailing and Viper were hiding among their victims.
• Bailing recognized Jiang Chen's Blood Talisman and fled, while Jiang Chen impaled Viper and pursued her.
• Jiang Chen caught Bailing and slammed her onto the hammer handle, leaving both Dark Alliance members pleading for their lives.

Xu Lei, Luo Ji, Chen Xue, and Yang Chan hunted intruders across the city as the Netherworld’s guardians. Their hunt gave way to the arrival of a man leading the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, leaving the city’s fighters facing a terrifying new threat.

• Xu Lei killed a gentleman who had sealed a married couple in beeswax and freed them and their baby.
• Luo Ji confronted a disguised intruder at a newsstand and killed him after demanding that he answer to the owner of the stolen skin.
• Chen Xue and Yang Chan ambushed and killed a man who had been hunting women and stealing their fingers, then removed talismans from Plastic Mannequins.
• Sister Hong and Lin Youwei finished looting an old woman’s corpse while the group sensed intense Yin Qi around the abandoned complex.
• A man dragging a Sledgehammer appeared with a host of terrifying figures behind him, revealing the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

Jiang Chen used his ghost horde to wipe out nearly all the Dark Alliance members in Jiangbei and farmed Divine Abilities along the way. The operation ended with the Netherworld anticipating a greater conflict, while Jiang Chen gained the permanent Rain-Prayer Technique and several Thunder Methods.

• Jiang Chen silently invoked Two-Star Cards during the hunt and permanently inherited the Thunder Method: Celestial Pivot.
• Jiang Chen led his ghost horde through the city, helping the Netherworld kill ninety-nine percent of the Dark Alliance members sent to Jiangbei.
• The prominent families realized a larger crisis was coming, so some sent younger disciples away while their main forces stayed in Jiangbei.
• Jiang Chen followed the Netherworld Messengers to the Jiangbei Branch Bureau and told them that waking them up gave him comfort after exorcising ghosts.
• Jiang Chen reviewed his gains: he had permanently inherited ten Divine Abilities, reached the peak of the Grandmaster level, obtained the Rain-Prayer Technique, and gained the Thunder Methods: Celestial Pivot, Gui Water, and God-Slaying.

Jiang Chen and the Netherworld Messengers returned to Jiangbei’s branch bureau after a night hunt, only to learn that the city was under Level One Combat Readiness and surrounded by danger. Uncle Wei opened the main gate for them one last time and urged them to sleep, though his final words left them fearing that Jiangbei would not remain the same.

• Jiang Chen and the Netherworld Messengers received orders placing all of Jiangbei under Level One Combat Readiness and requiring Unusual Persons to keep watch in groups.
• Jiang Chen watched videos showing Netherworld Messengers controlled by a strange force killing civilians and then themselves, while eight colleagues were reported killed in the line of duty.
• The Netherworld Messengers learned that Chu Hanyue had been attacked by two powerful figures in the fog outside Jiangbei and that leaving the city was forbidden.
• Uncle Wei opened the branch bureau’s main gate and told the returning Netherworld Messengers it was the last time he would do so.
• Uncle Wei sent everyone to bed and said Jiangbei would still be the same when they woke, making the Netherworld Messengers realize that something was wrong.

Uncle Wei reflected on his life as a ghost cultivator after Jiang Chen’s teasing led him to reconsider his fear of risking himself for the Jiangbei Branch Bureau. He recounted how Zhao Qingyi saved him and became his master, then began explaining the corruption he and King Chujiang’s disciples found among the Dao Alliance’s ghost exorcists.

• Uncle Wei tried to eat and drink alone, but Jiang Chen drank from his liquor and teased him into taking the bottle.
• Uncle Wei decided he had been imprisoning himself by caring too much about staying alive and protecting the branch bureau.
• Uncle Wei told Jiang Chen that a Blood-Clad Ghost Vengeful Ghost had killed his family and him, then targeted him after he became a ghost.
• Zhao Qingyi destroyed the Blood-Clad Ghost, took Uncle Wei as her disciple, and taught him to cultivate human thoughts within a ghost’s body.
• Uncle Wei said Zhao Qingyi later entrusted him to the previous King Chujiang, after which he traveled with King Chujiang’s disciples.
• Uncle Wei recalled that Dao Alliance ghost exorcists in Jiangbei City chose whose ghosts to exorcise based on payment and abandoned poor households.

Uncle Wei told Jiang Chen about the Big Dipper, the death of Lu Wan, and his long estrangement from their captain, Po Jun. He explained that his evil corpse’s resentment had reached the king level, leaving him with one final tribulation that could make him a king or kill him.

• Uncle Wei recalled how he and his companions formed the Big Dipper under Po Jun and how Lu Wan was killed by a blood-clad ghost while Po Jun held the others back.
• Uncle Wei searched for Lu Wan’s killer, returned to Jiangbei, and learned from A Quan that Po Jun had avenged the group and established the Netherworld Branch Office.
• Uncle Wei said he left to face his tribulation alone, failed, and was sealed in a Soul-Suppressing Coffin by several Yamas.
• Uncle Wei explained that ghost cultivators refined evil corpses to contain their resentment and had to possess them during a breakthrough to confront their past resentment.
• Uncle Wei told Jiang Chen that his evil corpse’s resentment had nearly reached the king level and that he must either become a king or die, potentially leaving behind an evil corpse that could grant someone brief kingship.

Jiang Chen stayed with Uncle Wei as the old man prepared to carry the Soul-Suppressing Coffin out of the city and face the Evil Corpse. After Jiang Chen strengthened one of its talismans with Voidless Flame, Uncle Wei left to face his tribulation, accompanied by several people willing to help and Jiang Chen, who planned to watch.

• Uncle Wei told Jiang Chen that Big Dipper’s destruction may have been fated and that its members had been extraordinary talents; Jiang Chen changed his online handle to “Dream Country, Fengdu, Barren Earth... Undertaker.”
• Uncle Wei tried to send Jiang Chen away, but Jiang Chen insisted on watching him face the Evil Corpse.
• The Evil Corpse’s influence drove Jiang Chen to reach for a talisman on the coffin, but Voidless Flame strengthened it and stopped the scratching.
• Uncle Wei shouldered the Soul-Suppressing Coffin and walked out of the Netherworld’s main gate to face his tribulation.
• Sun Zhengwen, Chu Hanyue, Luo Ji, and Dao Xuan appeared and spoke with Uncle Wei; Jiang Chen joined them, saying he was there to watch the show.