Chapter Summaries

The villagers celebrated the opening of the Dao Xuan Heavenly Venerable Cave as Li Daoxuan granted wishes through Gao Yiye. The celebration ended when sentries spotted a large group approaching, and San Shier began organizing the village’s defenses.

• On the eighth day of the eighth month, Gao Yiye led the ceremony opening the Dao Xuan Heavenly Venerable Cave, where the villagers gathered to worship.
• Li Daoxuan told Gao Yiye to grant villagers’ wishes for rain and better harvests, and the villagers celebrated the blessings.
• San Shier asked for a personal blessing, but Li Daoxuan ordered Gao Yiye to tell him to get lost.
• The sentries sounded the alarm after spotting many people approaching from outside the village.
• San Shier took command and ordered the villagers to arm themselves with whatever they had and gather on the city wall.

Li Daoxuan helped Gao Family Village defend itself from bandits chasing refugees, while allowing the villagers to gain experience handling the danger. Mr. Bai revealed that White Family Fort had fallen to a much larger bandit force, leaving the village facing an even greater threat.

• San Shier ordered Gao Family Village's residents onto the walls as refugees and bandits approached.
• Mr. Bai and his family entered the village by carriage, and San Shier hesitated over whether to open the gate for the fleeing crowd behind them.
• Li Daoxuan raised a sandstorm to slow the bandits and give the refugees time to reach the gate.
• Mr. Bai urged the villagers to fire arrows, and they scared off the pursuing bandits long enough to bring the refugees inside and shut the gate.
• Mr. Bai told San Shier that bandits had breached White Family Fort and that hundreds, perhaps a thousand, more were behind the group outside.

San Shier and Mr. Bai explained that peasant rebellions had spread because Shaanxi Governor Hu Tingyan refused to report them or send troops, leaving the region overrun by outlaws. When bandits demanded grain from Gao Family Village, Gao Yiye relayed the Heavenly Venerable’s command to fight back, and the villagers rallied around his words.

• Mr. Bai told San Shier that Wang Er’s uprising had inspired widespread rebellions, while Governor Hu Tingyan suppressed pleas for help and let the outlaws grow stronger.
• Gao Chuwu angrily considered rebelling himself after hearing the governor would let the starving peasants plunder until spring, but Gao Yiye slapped him back to his senses.
• A bandit spokesman demanded ten shi of grain from Gao Family Village and threatened to destroy its walls if the village refused.
• San Shier asked Mr. Bai whether the bandits truly had hundreds or a thousand men, and Mr. Bai recommended paying them to avoid a disaster.
• Gao Yiye relayed the Heavenly Venerable’s command, “Afraid of them, my hammer,” and the villagers shouted it together, leaving the bandits stunned and Mr. Bai bewildered.

Mr. Bai learned that Gao Family Village worshiped the Heavenly Venerable, then took command of its defenders as bandits prepared to attack. After organizing the village’s defenses, he left Li Daoxuan browsing toys in a shop.

• Mr. Bai accused the villagers of belonging to an evil cult, but San Shier told him the Heavenly Venerable had protected them with a sandstorm.
• The bandits sent runners for reinforcements and prepared to attack Gao Family Village while the villagers sought guidance from San Shier and Gao Yiye.
• Gao Yiye said the Heavenly Venerable had left preparations to them, so San Shier persuaded Mr. Bai to lead the defense.
• Mr. Bai counted a little over a hundred fighters and ordered them to gather stones and prepare oil to defend the walls.
• Mr. Bai assigned defensive positions and attack plans while Li Daoxuan browsed toys in a shop.

Li Daoxuan bought miniature plastic catapults and sent one down to Gao Family Village to help its residents defend against bandits. The villagers marveled at the catapult’s power, while Mister Bai began to believe an immortal truly watched over them.

• Li Daoxuan searched a toy shop for usable projectile weapons, found miniature plastic catapults, and bought a box of fifty.
• Gao Family Village prepared for battle as the women cooked and heated oil, the men carried stones and timber to the walls, and Mister Bai taught the defenders to use spears.
• Li Daoxuan told Gao Yiye to prepare the villagers for weapons from the Heavenly Venerable, and Mister Bai dismissed the claim as a trick.
• A giant catapult descended from the clouds, astonishing Mister Bai and the villagers, and Gao Yiye explained how it worked.
• Li Da placed a stone in the catapult, struck its mechanism on Gao Yiye’s command, and watched it launch the boulder across the village.
• The villagers cheered the catapult as an immortal’s magic treasure, while Mister Bai acknowledged its power and felt awe at the presence in the clouds.

Mister Bai and the villagers learned to operate the Stone-Thrower, and the Heavenly Venerable bestowed twenty more to defend Gao Family Village. As the villagers prepared their defenses, Li Daoxuan noticed that the main bandit force had arrived.

• Li Da and Gao Chuwu showed the villagers how to lower the Stone-Thrower's arm and lock it into the Trigger Mechanism.
• Mister Bai ordered the Stone-Thrower moved behind the wall, and the villagers used branches as rollers to push it into place.
• Gao Yiye announced that the Heavenly Venerable had bestowed twenty colorful Stone-Throwers, which appeared behind the wall.
• Mister Bai assigned Li Da and Gao Yiyi to operate the Stone-Throwers and elderly villagers and women to reload them, while Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu took the blacksmiths' Two-Panel Armor.
• Li Daoxuan received his takeout and saw that the main bandit force had arrived at Gao Family Village.

The bandits attacked Gao Family Village, whose defenders prepared to hold the walls under Mister Bai’s direction. Li Da and Gao Yiyi fired the first two catapults, killing and injuring bandits and throwing the attackers into chaos as the battle began.

• The Supreme Wisdom King threatened to destroy Gao Family Village unless its people surrendered, while Mister Bai assigned the defenders their positions.
• The Supreme Wisdom King ordered the bandits to charge with ladders and a battering ram.
• Gao Yiye stood firm on the wall despite her fear, while Li Daoxuan settled down to watch the battle.
• Mister Bai ordered the blacksmiths to strike, and Li Da and Gao Yiyi launched two stones from the catapults.
• The stones crushed bandits and tore through the crowd, causing the attackers to panic as the blacksmiths prepared to fire again.

The villagers fought off a bandit assault on their wall with Stone-Throwers, arrows, rocks, and boiling oil, while Li Daoxuan secretly shielded them from arrows. One Blade climbed onto the wall in cowhide armor and attacked, only to discover that a villager wore iron armor.

• Li Da and Gao Yiyi hurled boulders into the bandits, slowing their charge and encouraging the villagers.
• Mister Bai ordered the defenders to fire arrows, and Li Daoxuan used his thickened hand to block the bandits' arrows from reaching the villagers.
• The retainers and villagers pelted the attackers with rocks and boiling oil, forcing the first wave to abandon its battering log.
• Bandits raised a ladder against the wall, and a villager knocked one climber down with a bamboo spear.
• One Blade climbed the ladder in thick cowhide armor, cut through a villager's spear, and leaped onto the wall.
• One Blade struck a charging villager and was shocked when his saber rang against the man's iron armor.

Zheng Daniu killed One Blade with an axe after Li Daoxuan stopped the bandit's saber, while Gao Family Village's defenses routed the attacking bandits. As the Supreme Wisdom King fled, Li Daoxuan crushed him and the men near him with an enormous hand from the sky.

• Li Daoxuan pinned One Blade's saber, allowing Zheng Daniu to strike him down with an axe.
• The Stone-Throwers, boiling oil, and defenders drove the bandits back, and the Supreme Wisdom King realized his army had scattered.
• The Supreme Wisdom King ordered a retreat and ran, while Mister Bai's arrow missed him.
• Gao Yiye told the villagers the Heavenly Venerable would eliminate the danger, and Li Daoxuan's enormous hand crushed the Supreme Wisdom King and nearby bandits, leaving a vast handprint in the ground.

After the villagers worshipped Li Daoxuan, their offerings unlocked controls that let him expand and shift the box’s field of view. He recorded how the new system worked, then noticed an injured servant and lowered burn ointment into the village.

• Mister Bai and the people of Gao Family Village knelt and praised the Heavenly Venerable after seeing the Supreme Wisdom King's corpse and the enormous handprint.
• Nearly three hundred points of light rose from the worshippers and gathered inside the Dao Xuan Heavenly Venerable Cave, which blazed with golden light.
• Li Daoxuan gained East, South, West, North, and Center buttons and used them to explore about five hundred meters of additional land in each direction.
• Li Daoxuan tested whether he could move the Daoist temple to expand his view, but a protective barrier stopped him, so he recorded his discoveries.
• The villagers cleaned up after the attack, and Li Daoxuan lowered a tiny dab of burn ointment for the White Family servant who had scalded his leg.