Chapter Summaries

Gu Cheng and the others turned on one another as an unknown influence made them volatile and aggressive. The Spirit-Clearing Pendant briefly calmed Lao Hu, but the effect faded, and Gu Cheng suspected the music they had heard was responsible.

• Jackie Chan raised his gun, and Lao Hu, Fatty, Simon, David, and Bonnie aimed weapons as the groups confronted each other.
• CoCo slapped Gu Cheng and accused him of breaking his promise; Gu Cheng held the Ghost Soul Blade to her neck but regained control before hurting her.
• Gu Cheng realized an evil influence was stirring their emotions and used the Spirit-Clearing Pendant to calm Lao Hu.
• Jackie Chan rejected Gu Cheng's warning, and Lao Hu soon became angry again despite the pendant's effect.
• Gu Cheng searched for the source of the influence and suspected the music they had heard.

Gu Cheng realized that a wind-driven arrangement of holes in the rock wall produced mind-disturbing music that had caused the group to attack one another. He destroyed the source with grenades, restored everyone, and shared orange juice from the Immortal-Brew Gourd before they prepared to continue.

• Gu Cheng identified the holes in the rock wall as a natural instrument producing killer music that had overwhelmed the Spirit-Clearing Pendant when he listened nearby.
• Gu Cheng blasted two clusters of holes with grenades, and the group recovered from the music's effects.
• Gu Cheng explained what had happened and led everyone away from the holes before suggesting they rest.
• Gu Cheng used the Immortal-Brew Gourd to share orange juice with the thirsty group after they had lost their backpacks and supplies.
• Jackie Chan noticed the Gourd seemed strange when it poured orange juice despite sounding empty, and Gu Cheng urged him to drink so they could continue.

Gu Cheng and the others reached a vast Karst Cave and found an enormous Bronze Gate covered in reliefs of ancient punishments. As they examined the grisly carvings, Gu Cheng identified one depicting Brain Devouring and described its horrifying method.

• Gu Cheng warned Jackie Chan and the others to stay united, then promised to get everyone out safely.
• After resting, Gu Cheng and the others left the tunnel and entered a vast Karst Cave lit by sunlight from a crack in the ceiling.
• The group discovered an enormous Bronze Gate, and Gu Cheng estimated the tomb dated to around the Western Jin and Eastern Jin dynasties.
• CoCo explained that the gate's reliefs depicted ancient punishments, including branding, impalement, dismemberment, and crushing.
• Gu Cheng identified one relief as Brain Devouring and described how insects were lured into a living prisoner's head.

Gu Cheng identified the tomb’s owner as Sun En, the Eastern Jin pirate leader whose forces were called the Longevity Army. Despite the gate’s ominous warnings and his own sense of danger, Gu Cheng opened it and led the group inside, with everyone choosing to follow.

• CoCo found warnings carved on the Bronze Gate, including a threat from the Longevity Army.
• Gu Cheng explained Sun En’s history and linked him to the Longevity Army named in the inscription.
• Jackie Chan worried that an army might be waiting inside, but Gu Cheng insisted they had no way back and needed to enter.
• Gu Cheng used Lao Hu’s boost to pull the ring, opening the massive Bronze Gate.
• Gu Cheng, Lao Hu, Fatty, CoCo, Wu Qing, and Lili entered the tomb, followed by Jackie Chan and his three companions after they agreed to trust Gu Cheng.

Jackie Chan and his companions entered a cavern filled with the remains of tens of thousands of people and learned they were likely the craftsmen and overseers killed after building Sun En’s tomb. Gray mist then swallowed the mass graves, and an army of red-eyed skeletons emerged, leaving Gu Cheng and the others facing the undead.

• Jackie Chan and his companions found enormous pits packed with human remains beyond the Bronze Gate.
• Gu Cheng identified the dead as likely tomb craftsmen, while Lao Hu suspected soldiers and Gu Cheng guessed they had been overseers.
• Gray mist suddenly enveloped the mass graves and hid the stone path, prompting Gu Cheng and the others to draw their weapons.
• Red lights appeared in the mist, and Lao Hu recognized them as eyes as strange clacking sounds approached.
• A red-eyed skeleton stepped out of the mist, followed by countless others, and Wu Qing screamed that it was a ghost.

Gu Cheng and his companions were surrounded by countless skeletons and fought their way toward the opposite archway. Gu Cheng discovered that the skeletons could reassemble themselves and that the red flames inside their skulls could move to new ones, creating fresh skeletons.

• Gu Cheng ordered Lao Hu and Fatty to lead a charge toward the opposite archway while Jackie Chan and his team guarded the sides and CoCo, Wu Qing, and Lili stayed in the middle.
• Gu Cheng warned CoCo and her companions that he would leave them behind if they could not keep up, and Wu Qing led the three into the group.
• Gu Cheng threw four grenades, and Lao Hu and Fatty charged the skeletons with their weapons.
• Lao Hu and Fatty found that the skeletons were unexpectedly easy to break apart, but Gu Cheng saw them reassemble using nearby bones.
• Gu Cheng smashed a skeleton's skull and watched the red flames inside it move into another skull, which gathered bones and formed a new skeleton.

Gu Cheng and his group fought their way across a stone path crowded with skeletons, discovering that the Ghost Soul Blade absorbed the flames that animated them. A Skeleton King emerged and chased them toward the archway, where Gu Cheng barely escaped its saber strike with CoCo and Lili in his arms.

• Gu Cheng realized the skeletons were controlled by flames in their skulls, and his Ghost Soul Blade absorbed the flames when he struck them.
• CoCo pulled Gu Cheng away from a sneak attack but was injured by a skeleton's club, so Gu Cheng left her with Wu Qing and kept fighting.
• As the skeletons overwhelmed them, Gu Cheng used grenades to clear a path, and the group advanced close to the archway.
• A giant Skeleton King appeared, causing the smaller skeletons to stop attacking, and Gu Cheng urged everyone to run.
• Gu Cheng carried CoCo and Lili as he fled, then barely made it through the archway before the Skeleton King's saber shattered the stone path behind him.

Gu Cheng and the others escaped the skeletons through an archway and descended a seemingly endless staircase while Fatty entertained them with stories of past encounters. Gu Cheng realized they had been walking for over ten minutes without reaching the bottom and suspected they were trapped in a looping staircase or a supernatural illusion.

• Gu Cheng shielded CoCo and Lili as he landed on the stairs, and the group hurried away from the giant skeleton attacking the archway.
• Gu Cheng explained that soul fires, rather than the skeletons themselves, were ghosts controlling the bones.
• Fatty boasted about the group’s past encounters with monsters and told everyone a story about a Flood Dragon Serpent as they descended.
• Gu Cheng stopped Fatty and pointed out that they had been walking down the staircase for over ten minutes without reaching the bottom.
• Gu Cheng described how ancient tomb builders used looping stairs and optical illusions, but he was unsure whether the endless staircase was a ghost wall or a supernatural trap.

Gu Cheng and CoCo descended a seemingly endless staircase while Fatty and the others remained visible far behind them, and Gu Cheng realized the passage was isolating them rather than looping like the Soul-Hanging Ladder. After carrying the exhausted CoCo back upward without getting closer to Fatty, Gu Cheng discovered the walls were lined with expensive sound-absorbing porous stone.

• Gu Cheng suspected the staircase was a lost mechanism and took CoCo with him to test whether continuing forward would bring them behind Fatty and the others.
• After descending more than three thousand steps, Gu Cheng realized the staircase was impossibly deep and that Fatty's distant light remained visible, so he decided to head back.
• CoCo became too exhausted to climb, and Gu Cheng carried her up while they talked.
• After climbing for over half an hour, Gu Cheng found that Fatty's light was still tiny and his shouts could not reach the others.
• Gu Cheng struck the wall, exposed a soft porous stone beneath its coating, and recognized it as a sound-absorbing material.

Trapped in the Soul-Hanging Ladder, Gu Cheng realized mirrors were making the twisting stairs look straight, but he and CoCo still could not find a way out. After giving CoCo coffee and instant noodles from his Immortal-Brew Gourd, Gu Cheng began feeling his way along the wall blindfolded, guided by instinct and a warming gold coin.

• CoCo suggested that the Fatty and his lamp might be mirror-made illusions, helping Gu Cheng realize the stairs curved into branching paths.
• Gu Cheng explained that mirrors could mislead them about the stairs’ layout and redirect them onto branches, but admitted he did not know how to escape.
• Gu Cheng used the Immortal-Brew Gourd to give CoCo hot coffee and spicy beef instant noodles.
• CoCo offered to help find a way out, and Gu Cheng proposed following his instincts instead of trusting his eyes.
• Gu Cheng covered his eyes and felt his way along the wall while the gold coin sewn into his chest pocket grew slightly warm.

Gu Cheng led the group through the Soul-Hanging Ladder and into a chamber where they chose the right-hand door by vote. The route brought them to a vast cavern filled with hanging coffins, where Sun En’s message revealed they would have to defeat the Longevity Army to find the key out.

• Gu Cheng used his blindfold and strip of cloth to guide everyone out of the Soul-Hanging Ladder, astonishing the group and embarrassing CoCo.
• The group read the Tomb Master’s tablet and voted six to three to take the right-hand door, with Gu Cheng abstaining.
• A Dragon-Blocking Stone sealed the entrance behind them as Gu Cheng led the group into a huge karst cave.
• Gu Cheng identified the coffins covering the cavern walls as hanging coffins and guessed that the Longevity Army lay inside them.
• CoCo read a second tablet explaining that the group had to defeat the guards to earn chances to search the nine caves for an escape key.
• Lao Hu pointed out that chains were the only route to the stone platform, while the group worried about crossing them.

Gu Cheng crossed the chain to the stone platform and faced two zombies guarding the caves. He severed one zombie’s shoulder and escaped the other’s grasp, but its claws wounded his left arm and infected him with Corpse Poison.

• Gu Cheng crossed the swaying chain to the stone platform after collecting Lao Hu and Fatty’s weapons.
• Two armored zombies emerged from coffins, and Gu Cheng switched to the Mountain-Splitting Axe as they leaped onto the platform.
• Gu Cheng shattered one zombie’s shoulder with an axe strike, but the second zombie grabbed his left arm and bit toward his neck.
• Gu Cheng kicked the second zombie’s chin, freed himself, and cut off its left hand with the Little Divine Edge.
• Gu Cheng saw that the zombie’s claw wounds were turning black as Corpse Poison spread through his left arm.

After a zombie scratched Gu Cheng, he used blue spirit jade ore to neutralize the corpse poison and fought the two zombies while his companions watched helplessly. He discovered that a grenade could knock a zombie off the stone platform, then charged at the remaining one.

• Gu Cheng realized he had no aged glutinous rice, but remembered that blue spirit jade ore could neutralize all poisons and pressed its powder against his wound.
• The ore caused Gu Cheng intense pain as it treated the wound, while two zombies lunged at him and he fought back with Little Divine Edge and the Mountain-Splitting Axe.
• Fatty tried to rush to Gu Cheng's aid, but Lao Hu stopped him and urged him not to distract Gu Cheng.
• Gu Cheng fought the two badly injured zombies while struggling through the pain, then remembered he had grenades in his ring.
• Gu Cheng planted a grenade inside one zombie's armor, and the blast knocked it off the edge of the stone platform.
• The remaining zombie froze as Gu Cheng lunged at it with a savage grin.

Gu Cheng found alchemy treasures in one of the caves but nearly got trapped when its Dragon-Blocking Stone began to close. He escaped with several pill boxes, made room in his ring, and warned Lao Hu and Fatty to guard the items as the passage began behaving strangely.

• Gu Cheng used blue spirit jade ore powder to treat his wounds after killing the handless zombie.
• Gu Cheng entered a cave and discovered a Cinnabar Furnace, alchemy materials, Spirit Jade Boxes, and a Youth-Preserving Elixir.
• A Dragon-Blocking Stone began sealing the cave, so Gu Cheng grabbed the Spirit Jade Boxes and narrowly slid beneath it before catching the iron chain over the abyss.
• Gu Cheng returned to the platform, cleared space in his ring, and took out the Spirit Jade Boxes for Lao Hu and Fatty to guard.
• The passage and coffins began making strange sounds and moving as the group reacted to the disturbance.

Gu Cheng defeated the bronze-skinned zombie by luring it into the Abyss, then discovered five Visualization Secret Slips and escaped before the Dragon-Blocking Stone closed. He gave Lao Hu and Fatty two slips to learn, but more than a dozen coffins opened and monsters emerged.

• Gu Cheng used a Mountain-Splitting Axe to make the zombie fall into the Abyss, then treated his poisoned wounds with Blue Spirit Jade Ore.
• Gu Cheng searched a cave and found ordinary bamboo slips on its bookshelves, then discovered five Visualization Secret Slips on a desk.
• Gu Cheng collected the slips, including Iron Shirt, Mozi Saber Technique, Lightness Technique, Blissful Zen, and Turtle-Breathing Technique, and escaped as the Dragon-Blocking Stone closed.
• Gu Cheng gave the Iron Shirt and Lightness Technique slips to Lao Hu and Fatty and told them to learn the techniques and take over for him.
• More than a dozen coffins opened, and Gu Cheng watched as monsters rose from them.

Gu Cheng realized the monsters in the coffins were Sun En’s Longevity Army, transformed to guard his tomb, and fought them as Lao Hu and Fatty learned two techniques from the bamboo slips. After Lao Hu and Fatty rescued the badly injured Gu Cheng, he took the slips to cultivate so he could return to the fight.

• Gu Cheng identified the coffin monsters as Sun En’s Longevity Army and deduced that awakened soldiers had climbed out through a passage in the ceiling.
• The Longevity Army attacked, and Gu Cheng fought the smaller soldiers while holding out for Lao Hu and Fatty.
• Lao Hu and Fatty learned Iron Shirt and the Lightness Technique, greatly improving their defenses, speed, and agility.
• Gu Cheng was overwhelmed by two huge Longevity Army soldiers, who combined great strength and agility with formidable defenses.
• Lao Hu and Fatty leaped to the Stone Platform, caught Gu Cheng as the soldiers kicked him toward them, and took over the fight.
• Gu Cheng handed Lao Hu the bamboo slips and began cultivating so he could return to help.

Gu Cheng learned the Mozi Saber Technique, accidentally picked up the slips for Blissful Zen, and gained several new skills while Lao Hu and Fatty fought the Longevity Army soldiers. He spotted an opportunity to enter the Treasure Caves during the challenge and set off toward them.

• Gu Cheng entered meditation and learned the beginner-level moves of the Mozi Saber Technique in the mysterious space.
• CoCo tried to wake Gu Cheng, but he picked up the wrong slips and learned Blissful Zen, briefly struggling to control his lust before slapping himself back to his senses.
• Gu Cheng continued learning techniques in the mysterious space while Lao Hu and Fatty held their own against the two Longevity Army soldiers.
• After gaining Iron Shirt and Lightness Technique, Gu Cheng put the bamboo slips in the Ring and noticed the Treasure Caves might be accessible during the challenge.
• Gu Cheng told Lao Hu and Fatty to keep the soldiers occupied, then leaped onto a chain leading toward the caves.

Gu Cheng found a Blue Demon's Tear and a cave containing spirit soil, nine Lock-Spirit Ginseng plants, and dripping ten-thousand-year spirit liquid. As he moved to harvest the ginseng, an enormous spider attacked him from behind.

• Gu Cheng searched an armory cave, found a Supreme-grade Torture Whip, and took it before leaving.
• Gu Cheng found a mountain of gold and silver in the next cave and took the Blue Demon's Tear necklace.
• Gu Cheng used blue spirit jade ore to drive away the poisonous spiders blocking another cave's entrance.
• Gu Cheng discovered spirit soil growing nine Lock-Spirit Ginseng plants beneath a stalactite that dripped ten-thousand-year spirit liquid.
• An enormous spider appeared behind Gu Cheng and attacked as he reached toward the ginseng.

Gu Cheng escaped the cave with the Lock-Spirit Ginseng and a bronze key hidden in the spirit soil, then returned to find Lao Hu and Fatty surrounded by rampaging Longevity Army soldiers. As more soldiers poured onto the platform, Gu Cheng ordered Fatty to cut the iron chains.

• A giant spider attacked Gu Cheng, who used the torture whip against it and was dragged across the cave until he burned through its silk with gasoline.
• Gu Cheng collected the Lock-Spirit Ginseng and spirit soil, found a bronze key buried in it, and escaped before the Dragon-Blocking Stone shut the cave.
• Gu Cheng returned to the Stone Platform and helped Lao Hu and Fatty fight off the Longevity Army soldiers, then gave CoCo the key and Gourd and told her to open the door and spread gasoline.
• Lao Hu explained that the Longevity Army soldiers had suddenly awakened and overwhelmed them, and Gu Cheng ordered Fatty to cut the iron chains.

Gu Cheng led the group out of the Stone Platform battle and past a display of priceless bronzeware, warning them not to take anything. In the next cavern, he realized they had been there before.

• Gu Cheng had Fatty cut the chain linking their platform to the Stone Platform, easing the Longevity Army's attack, and then retreated with the others as CoCo opened the exit.
• Gu Cheng crossed Fatty's sea of fire and led the group onward, taking CoCo's hand as they ran.
• Wu Qing and Lili spotted a Four-Yang Square Zun among seven bronzes, but Gu Cheng persuaded everyone to leave the treasures untouched, claiming they were a trap set by Sun En.
• The group entered a vast karst cave, and Gu Cheng recognized it as a place they had already visited.