Chapter Summaries

After waking in the body of a dead executioner, Zhou Yi began work in the Demon-Slaying Bureau’s prison and tried to understand how to survive its deadly routines. After executing a fish monster, he discovered a mysterious Demon and Monster Compendium that recorded the creature.

• Zhou Yi realized he had transmigrated into the body of a twenty-year-old executioner in the Demon-Slaying Bureau of Great Qian.
• Zhou Yi attended roll call with Shi Liu and learned that Li Jiu had died and that he was assigned to Cell C25.
• Zhou Yi recalled that his ten-year indenture offered no clear escape from the dangerous prison.
• Zhou Yi entered Cell C25 and harvested a fish monster’s eyes, scales, and liver before it died.
• Zhou Yi felt dizzy, and the Demon and Monster Compendium appeared and opened to an entry depicting the fish monster.

Zhou Yi discovered that slaying demons granted him rewards, then used a Water-Softening Pill to strengthen his body and resolved to remain safely in the Demon-Slaying Bureau. After killing a rat spirit, he gained the Qi-Reading Technique, but his attempt to inspect the penal department’s aura blinded him with overwhelming killing intent.

• Zhou Yi learned the fish demon’s history and received a Water-Softening Pill after dissecting it, then consumed the pill and grew much stronger.
• Zhou Yi delivered the fish demon’s parts to the Ministry of Works and threw its remains into the Demon Refining Cavern, estimating that the abyss was about nineteen hundred meters deep.
• Zhou Yi ate in the dining hall and listened to other executioners’ stories to gather information that might help him survive.
• Zhou Yi learned from the rat spirit’s memories that Great Qian’s court appointed its City Gods and earth gods, then received the Qi-Reading Technique after slaying it.
• Zhou Yi tried to read the Demon-Slaying Bureau penal department’s aura, but its immense killing intent blinded him.

After recovering from blindness caused by the Qi-Reading Technique, Zhou Yi was assigned to execute a powerful demonic cultivator and killed him before the prisoner could ensnare him. The Demon and Monster Compendium revealed the fiend’s history and bestowed the Yellow Court Dao Scripture, giving Zhou Yi a new way to deepen his cultivation.

• Zhou Yi recovered his sight after seven days of rest and used the Qi-Reading Technique to see that the executioners around him were nearing death.
• Lu Gang assigned Zhou Yi to execute the prisoner in Category A cell A-7, a rare and dangerous duty.
• Zhou Yi recognized the old prisoner’s overwhelming malign energy and resisted his offer to teach the Sacred Lotus Secret Art.
• Zhou Yi killed the prisoner, Zheng Hua, the Black Baleful Demon Venerable and an elder of the Black Lotus Sect.
• The Demon and Monster Compendium recorded Zheng Hua’s history and revealed that Li Mu had thwarted his blood-sacrifice scheme.
• The compendium vanished after leaving Zhou Yi the Yellow Court Dao Scripture, which could guide his spiritual energy through silent recitation.

Zhou Yi cultivated in secret while working as an executioner, steadily killing demons and fiends in the Demon-Slaying Bureau. Six months later, he met Master Fahai, who blessed the executioners before Zhou Yi led him to a cattle demon in C-block.

• Zhou Yi used the Yellow Court Dao Scripture to cultivate while disposing of the Black Baleful Demon Venerable's remains and learned that several executioners, including Shi Liu, had not returned.
• Zhou Yi killed a wolf demon in B-block and received the Lunar Body-Refining Art, then continued refining his skills and hiding his cultivation.
• Six months passed, during which Zhou Yi's roommates changed twice and he learned that displaced people and members of the Qian family had been sent to the execution prison.
• Commandant Shi Yongyan introduced Master Fahai of the Golden Light Temple, who used Buddhist light to ease the executioners' suffering from baleful qi.
• Commandant Shi sent Zhou Yi with Master Fahai to C-block, cell 72, where a cattle demon was imprisoned.

Zhou Yi executed the yellow ox demon, then listened as Fahai struggled with guilt over the demon and the Zhao family’s deaths. After Zhou Yi helped Fahai overcome his inner demon, Fahai explained the cultivator ranks and gave him a protective Wooden Fish; Zhou Yi remained committed to staying in the execution chambers.

• Fahai told the yellow ox demon that the Ministry of Justice had sentenced the five members of the Zhao Household to death, and the ox demon struggled against his chains.
• Zhou Yi executed the yellow ox demon and received an Essence-Blood Pill from the Demon and Monster Compendium.
• Fahai recounted how the ox demon had abducted refugees to repay the Zhao family’s kindness, and Zhou Yi said the deaths were justified under the law.
• Zhou Yi told Fahai to take life to protect life and sever karma, helping Fahai overcome his inner demon.
• Fahai explained the six cultivator paths and Great Qian’s nine ranks, then gave Zhou Yi a Buddhist Wooden Fish to protect him.
• Zhou Yi declined Fahai’s invitation to join the Buddhist order and chose to remain in the Demon-Slaying Bureau.

Zhou Yi began recording demon stories in Tales of the Executioner, which spread through the execution chamber as he continued slaying monsters and cultivating in secret. After killing a fish demon, he unexpectedly gained two years of Dao cultivation from the Demon and Monster Compendium.

• Zhou Yi decided to write down cautionary tales about demons and monsters and named his book Tales of the Executioner.
• Captain Shi supplied Zhou Yi with paper and brushes, and Zhou Yi wrote stories based on the Yin Ghost Scholar, the Household Demon, and the Ox and the Monk.
• Executioners shared strange experiences with Zhou Yi, whose stories circulated widely throughout the underground prison.
• Zhou Yi continued slaying demons and secretly cultivating for half a year as execution chamber captains rotated from Captain Shi to Captain Zhu.
• After Zhou Yi killed another fish demon, the Demon and Monster Compendium granted him two years of Dao cultivation, more than doubling his magical power.

After accumulating over a hundred years of Dao Attainment, Zhou Yi became powerful enough to face a dragon soul that infiltrated the Demon-Slaying Bureau prison. The dragon soul escaped through a damaged cell door and vanished underground, while the Bureau’s experts arrived.

• Zhou Yi gained more than a hundred years of Dao Attainment, completed the 206-chapter Tales of the Executioner, and received the Presence Concealment Technique after killing a monkey spirit.
• A snake-shaped phantom carrying a spirit talisman entered the prison and found its descendant, a snake demon in Class B Cell Thirteen.
• Zhou Yi opened the cell to execute the snake demon, but the phantom attacked him and bounced off his five-colored magical protection.
• The phantom revealed itself as a dragon soul, mistook Zhou Yi for part of a trap, and attacked before fleeing toward the cell door.
• Zhou Yi used the Earthly Pole True Flame to counter the dragon soul’s attack, but the soul tore open the cell door and escaped underground with its spirit talisman as the Bureau’s experts arrived.

The Azure Wave Dragon King escaped the Demon-Slaying Bureau and returned to his Water Manor, where Xuanqing, Chan Master Jingming, and the Prince of Chu tracked him down. They defeated and sealed him, while the Bureau discovered that the prisoner in Cell B-13 had dragon blood in its body.

• Xuanqing used a Spirit-Communing Turtle Shell to track the Azure Wave Dragon King's soul southeast, and Chan Master Jingming and the Prince of Chu followed.
• The Azure Wave Dragon King returned to Jade Waves Pool and accused the middle-aged man who had supplied his escape talisman of leading pursuers to his Water Manor, then swallowed him.
• Xuanqing attacked the Azure Wave Dragon King with lightning while Chan Master Jingming restrained him with prayer beads.
• The Prince of Chu pinned the Azure Wave Dragon King to the pool's bottom with a spear, and Xuanqing sealed his soul.
• The demon-slaying captains captured the fleeing water demons, and the Demon-Slaying Bureau reported that the Blackwater Mystic Serpent in Cell B-13 had dragon blood in its body.

Zhou Yi executed the Azure Wave Dragon King and gained the Heavenly Gang art Wind-Calling and Rain-Summoning, then secretly doubled his rewards by using shapeshifting and illusions to kill demons himself. After years of cultivation, he tested the art as a devastating drought and rebellions spread across Great Qian, while the court’s gods feared punishment for bringing rain without authorization.

• Zhou Yi escaped suspicion after the Demon-Slaying Bureau investigated the dragon soul’s escape and resumed work as an executioner.
• Zhou Yi executed the Azure Wave Dragon King and received Wind-Calling and Rain-Summoning from the Demon and Monster Compendium.
• Zhou Yi learned a shapeshifting art, used illusions to make an executioner believe he had killed a demon, and doubled his rewards.
• After nearly two years of killing demons, Zhou Yi’s cultivation surpassed five thousand years, and he invoked Wind-Calling and Rain-Summoning on a snake demon.
• A severe drought devastated Great Qian, while rebel groups and the Yaksha Demon Venerable seized the chance to stir unrest.
• The court punished Jiangning Commandery’s land god for bringing unauthorized rain, leaving deities across the realm afraid to answer prayers as their offerings dwindled.

The capital's City God Temple worried that a drought and failed rain-praying ceremonies would cost it the people's faith, but an unknown Daoist brought rain to Luo Capital without authorization. Zhou Yi remained undiscovered and continued his work at the Demon-Slaying Bureau, where he found that a slain fox demon did not register in the Demon and Monster Compendium.

• The City God and his officials discussed declining attendance at rain-praying ceremonies and the court's ban on bringing rain without a yellow register.
• The City God detected an orthodox Daoist rain-bringing spell in the capital, and on June seventh rain fell across Luo Capital and the surrounding hundred li.
• The immortal offices and underworld deities searched for the unauthorized Daoist but failed to find Zhou Yi, arresting demons and monsters instead.
• Zhou Yi, underground after casting Wind-Calling and Rain-Summoning, carried a snake demon's remains to the Demon Refining Cavern and reflected on its growing killing intent.
• Zhou Yi killed a fox demon in Cell B-seven and discovered that the Demon and Monster Compendium did not react, so he used Soul-Searching Technique on her spirit.

After Hu Jiu-Niang died in the Demon-Slaying Bureau’s torture prison, Zhou Yi honored her plea and saved her daughter Feng Ling’er’s soul. He secretly kept Feng Ling’er with him and strengthened her spirit by feeding it refined soul power; one year later, her soul had become nearly tangible.

• Hu Jiu-Niang recounted how Feng Zhen had repaid her kindness by reporting her and Feng Ling’er to the Capital Yamen, and she begged Zhou Yi to save her daughter.
• Zhou Yi tracked Feng Ling’er to Cell C-93, extracted her soul before Wang Erniu could execute her, and secretly returned to Cell B-7 with it.
• Feng Ling’er cried for her mother, and Zhou Yi sealed her soul and promised they could leave the torture prison together after his ten-year term.
• Zhou Yi secretly let Feng Ling’er out while inside cells and fed her pure soul power refined from demons and monsters he killed.
• One year later, Feng Ling’er’s soul had grown nearly indistinguishable from a physical body.

Zhou Yi killed a wolf monster and learned that the Demon-Slaying Bureau had used a dubious ruse to capture it, while the rising number of monsters and rebellions suggested Great Qian was descending into turmoil. He wrote new Tales of the Executioner stories about the chaos and lawlessness, then encountered Immortal Master Fahai in his ninth year in the execution chamber.

• Zhou Yi killed a wolf monster, searched its soul, and learned that the Demon-Slaying Bureau had lured it into an ambush using bandits and brigands as bait.
• Zhou Yi noted that the Bureau may have violated the Great Qian Code, refined the wolf's soul into a Soul Pearl, and gave it to Feng Ling'er.
• Zhou Yi recognized that the number of demons and monsters had sharply increased over the past two months and worried that troubled times were coming to Great Qian.
• Zhou Yi wrote new Tales of the Executioner stories about the wolf monster and a woman driven into the Naked Demon Cult, adding criticism of the Bureau and the circumstances that pushed people toward demonic cultivation.
• In his ninth year in the execution chamber, Zhou Yi encountered Immortal Master Fahai.

Zhou Yi reunited with Fahai at the prison and learned that Emperor Jingtai had ordered a sweeping campaign against demons after a hidden-demon investigation in the Capital. Fahai revealed that the emperor was using rewards from the Heaven and Earth Dao Treasury to drive the Demon-Slaying Bureau’s efforts, and showed Zhou Yi the Arhat Relic he had received.

• Fahai arrived at the prison to deliver a demonic woman from the Bare Body Sect, while Zhou Yi was assigned to execute a Tiger Demon in Jail B-Twelve.
• Zhou Yi killed the Tiger Demon with 3,600 cuts, then waited for Fahai and greeted him when he emerged from A-block with Han Er.
• Zhou Yi asked Fahai why the prison had received twice as many demons, monsters, and ghosts over the past year, including captives who claimed they had been framed.
• Fahai explained that an investigation had uncovered hundreds of hidden demons in the Capital, prompting Emperor Jingtai to issue sixteen demon-extermination decrees and impose targets on the bureau’s branches.
• Fahai said the emperor had opened the Heaven and Earth Dao Treasury to reward demon slayers, and showed Zhou Yi the Arhat Relic he had received for capturing the Naked Body Cult Saintess.

After Fahai cleansed Zhou Yi of the execution prison’s baleful energy, he secured Zhou Yi’s release and a position in the Ministry of Works once his ten-year term ended. Zhou Yi detected a violent-death omen on Feng Jun, then found Feng Jun dead and secretly watched Han Er carry away a demon’s remains.

• Fahai used an Arhat Relic to purge baleful energy from Zhou Yi and gave him a Buddha Disciple Token from the Golden Light Temple.
• Fahai asked the Demon-Slaying Bureau not to obstruct Zhou Yi, and the Prince of Chu arranged for Zhou Yi to leave the prison after ten years and join the Ministry of Works.
• Captain Wang announced Zhou Yi’s future appointment, giving the executioners renewed hope, while Zhou Yi noticed a blood-red aura above Feng Jun.
• After finishing his assigned executions, Zhou Yi found Feng Jun and the Leopard Spirit dead in cell B-24, their essence, vitality, and souls devoured.
• Zhou Yi hid and watched Han Er leave a cell carrying a fish demon’s remains toward the Demon Refining Cavern.

Zhou Yi discovered that Han Er was unknowingly merged with the soul of Saintess Jialan, who was secretly cultivating by devouring the blood essence and souls of executioners and demons. After the blood shadow attacked him, Zhou Yi destroyed it and learned Jialan’s White Lotus Reincarnation Technique would gradually transform Han Er into her.

• Zhou Yi examined Han Er after they disposed of a fish demon and found Han Er’s blood essence unusually strong, though he saw no sign of possession.
• Han Er got drunk with Zhou Yi and mourned his dead parents, while Zhou Yi watched his aura and decided to keep observing him.
• Over the next several days, Zhou Yi saw a blood shadow devour executioners and demons destined for violent deaths, and identified Han Er as its caster.
• When the blood shadow attacked Zhou Yi in Cell B-5, he trapped and destroyed it with Earthly Pole True Flame.
• The Demon and Monster Compendium revealed that Saintess Jialan had used the White Lotus Reincarnation Technique to merge with Han Er’s soul and would gradually take over as her cultivation returned.

After killing Saintess Jialan, Zhou Yi obtained the Ziying Immortal Sword and destroyed a demonic tracking mark on his back. Eight months later, his indenture ended, and he began work as a bookkeeping clerk while Heart Demon set out to investigate Jialan’s death.

• Zhou Yi received the Ziying Immortal Sword, began refining it, and drove the other magical artifacts in his dantian to its edges.
• Zhou Yi recognized the blood-red mark left after Jialan’s death as a likely Blood Shadow Demon Art technique and erased it with his magical power.
• The Lord of the Six Paths tasked Heart Demon with investigating Jialan’s death in Great Qian, offering him ten Heavenly Demon Pearls.
• After completing ten years in the execution chambers, Zhou Yi received his indenture contract and an appointment as a bookkeeping clerk under the Ministry of Works.
• Chief Clerk Chen assigned Zhou Yi to keep the five-viscera ledgers alongside Old Zhang, whom Zhou Yi recognized as a powerful Spirit Refining expert.

Zhou Yi began his new clerk job in the Demon-Slaying Bureau’s Ministry of Works, where Zhang Cheng introduced him to the tedious records work and lent him money for lodging. After finishing his first day’s assignments and studying old demon records, Zhou Yi left the underground workplace, realizing his ten-year term had ended.

• Zhang Cheng showed Zhou Yi the Ministry of Works departments and explained his duties in the Five Viscera Department.
• Zhang Cheng lent Zhou Yi two strings of coins for lodging and then pretended to nap while Zhou Yi classified and transcribed the day’s demon-material records.
• Zhou Yi read old ledgers and learned about demons and hidden threats recorded by the Demon-Slaying Bureau.
• Zhang Cheng checked Zhou Yi’s work, praised his handwriting, and took him to deliver the ledgers to Warehouse Clerk Wang.
• Zhou Yi followed Zhang Cheng toward the underground exit and realized that his ten-year term was finally over.

After leaving the Demon-Slaying Bureau, Zhou Yi explored the Capital during the Lantern Festival and tested his Purple Ying Sword by slicing the top off a mountain. Experts who discovered the severed peak recognized the lingering Sword Qi as belonging to an immortal sword and sealed the site while they prepared to report it to the emperor.

• Zhang Cheng welcomed Zhou Yi out of the underground prison, and Zhou Yi spent the evening exploring the Capital during the Lantern Festival.
• At the Same Fortune Inn, Zhou Yi used Qi-Reading Technique on Bai Yutang and warned him not to meet a woman over the next few days.
• Zhou Yi flew to an unnamed mountain at night and used the Purple Ying Sword to sever its peak with one stroke.
• Sacred Monk Wuxiang, Pei Yu, True Person Wuchen, and other experts gathered at the mountain and argued over the lingering Sword Qi.
• Wuxiang identified the sword's aura as that of an immortal sword, and the white-haired Confucian scholar sealed the peak with the Mountain-Observing Classic before ordering the matter reported to His Majesty.

Wang Ye reported evidence of an immortal sword to Emperor Jingtai, prompting him to send Eunuch Chu to investigate while the crown prince and Qin Hong considered how to use the discovery. Zhou Yi settled into his Ministry of Works job and collected his first pay, including a defective pill and demon meat.

• Wang Ye told Emperor Jingtai that a first-grade sword cultivator had severed a mountain peak with an immortal sword, and Emperor Jingtai ordered Eunuch Chu to investigate discreetly.
• The crown prince told Qin Hong he wanted to recruit the sword cultivator, but Qin Hong advised him to wait for a clash between the cultivator and Emperor Jingtai.
• Zhou Yi learned that the inn's young waiter had gone out to see the lanterns and had not returned, then went to work at the Ministry of Works.
• Zhou Yi and his colleagues copied demon-material records, and Zhang Cheng arrived late after spending the night at the Spring Breeze Pavilion.
• Zhou Yi collected half a month's pay from Administrator Bai: one defective Essence Qi Pill, five jin of tiger-demon meat, and five hundred coins.
• Zhang Cheng inspected his own pay, ate a pill, and remarked that it did not taste as good as before.

Zhou Yi learned how Ministry of Works clerks profited from defective pills and visited the Spring Breeze Pavilion with Zhang Cheng. There he spotted that the reigning courtesan, Miss Bright Moon, was a white fox and met Wang Hao, whose joke about her ruined a young painter’s admiration.

• Zhang Cheng explained how clerks obtained defective pills and introduced Zhou Yi to the practice of selling them through a trusted merchant.
• Zhou Yi gave Zhang Cheng a pill, and Zhang Cheng accepted it before taking him to the Spring Breeze Pavilion.
• Zhou Yi watched the performances and used the Spirit Eye Technique to identify Miss Bright Moon as a white fox demon.
• Wang Hao joined Zhou Yi for wine, and Zhou Yi revealed his Demon-Slaying Bureau identity.
• Wang Hao relayed Zhou Yi’s crude joke about the courtesan to the blue-robed young painter, who then declared that it was an affront to refinement.