Chapter Summaries

Cui Jiuyang played an outer sect elder ordered to investigate Haotian Sect’s declining Spirit Stone production, while the Disciplinary Hall elder challenged his ability to handle the mine. After the first act ended, the stage shifted to a mine, where Lei Xiaosan’s viewpoint moved backstage as he appeared among the performers.

• Cui Jiuyang received the sect master’s order to raise Spirit Stone production by thirty percent within a month and chose to inspect the mines before proposing a remedy.
• The Disciplinary Hall elder warned that the miners were unruly and doubted Cui Jiuyang could command their respect.
• Cui Jiuyang defended the disciples and left to judge them for himself.
• The first act ended, and the audience waited in darkness while considering how their masks reflected their earlier Illusion Realm performances.
• Lei Xiaosan’s backstage viewpoint moved as the stage transformed into a mine tunnel, where he stood dressed as a martial clown among extras playing mining disciples.

During a staged opera about abuses in a Haotian Sect mine, Cui Jiuyang played the Outer Sect Elder and investigated the miners’ treatment. After hearing about a miner who died saving his workers, he sat the miners down and invited them to explain their circumstances.

• Lei Xiaosan played a mine captain who described the miners’ exhaustion and fear that reduced Spirit Stone allowances would halt their cultivation.
• Two Discipline Hall inspectors whipped the miners until Cui Jiuyang, playing the Outer Sect Elder, ordered them to stop and confined them pending an investigation.
• The Warehouse Steward accused the captain and inspectors of wrongdoing, then recited a pointed poem about the sect’s interest in Spirit Stone output before leaving.
• A grieving woman appeared, and Lei Xiaosan explained that her late husband had died holding up a collapsing mine after the sect imposed an impossible quota.
• Cui Jiuyang questioned the captain about wages, quotas, mine safety, inspectors, advancement, and education for miners’ children, then invited the miners to sit and explain everything.

Cui Jiuyang recognized that the Opera Stage was testing whether he would oppress the miners to meet a production target, and he chose a different approach inspired by a play he had seen before. The next scene revealed reforms that offered miners a share of surplus output and a voice in sect affairs, while the warehouse steward began explaining how they worked.

• The outer sect elder questioned the mining disciples about their hardships, comforted the grieving young female character in blue, and left the mine as the second act ended.
• Cui Jiuyang realized his role and thirty-percent production target tested whether he would pick up the Discipline Hall elder's whip or find another solution.
• Cui Jiuyang recalled a previously performed masterpiece and decided to follow its example as the stage lit up again.
• The crowd gathered around a noticeboard displaying new sect policies, and Lei Xiaosan's Martial Clown squad leader asked the warehouse steward to explain them.
• The warehouse steward described fixed baseline output, a sixty-percent share of surplus spirit stones for miners, and a disciple inquiry system tied to points earned partly through extra output.
• The squad leader asked how the All-Disciples Discussion Meeting worked.

Cui Jiuyang watched the play continue as Haotian Sect celebrated a fifty percent rise in spirit stone output, only for the sect master and Discipline Hall elder to challenge how the new system distributed the gains. The Outer Sect Elder defended the allocation rules, and the Discipline Hall elder demanded to know how much the miners’ allowances had increased.

• Cui Jiuyang saw the stage transform into a festive hall, where the sect master gathered elders and disciples to review the month’s spirit stone output.
• The warehouse steward reported that Haotian Sect’s output had risen by fifty percent, prompting the sect master and attendees to celebrate.
• The sect master questioned why the spirit stones delivered to his private hall had increased by less than ten percent, while the Discipline Hall elder said her supply had risen by only five percent.
• The Outer Sect Elder showed the written allocation rules, explaining that mining disciples received sixty percent of output above quota and the remaining forty percent was distributed by rank.
• The Discipline Hall elder dismissed the rules and demanded to know how much the mining disciples’ monthly allowances had increased.

After the play exposed the conflict over mining disciples’ Spirit Stones, the sect master and Outer Sect Elder faced off before the scene ended in bloodshed. The spectators returned to the bluestone street, where Cui Jiuyang discovered he had obtained the Mountain-Tapping Hammer.

• The Discipline Hall Elder argued that mining disciples’ increased Spirit Stone stipends should instead go to the sect and its leaders.
• The Outer Sect Elder mocked the sect’s praise of mining disciples while denying them their rightful rewards, then defended giving disciples a say in the sect’s future.
• The sect master challenged the Outer Sect Elder over proposals to let disciples decide stipends and advancement, and a flash of sword light was followed by blood as the stage went dark.
• The play ended, and the spectators complained about being made to see it from two perspectives until an extra said no one could stand outside the play.
• The spectators reappeared on a familiar bluestone street in their original clothes, and Cui Jiuyang found a tiny Mountain-Tapping Hammer in his palm.

After secretly obtaining the Numinous Treasure, Cui Jiuyang hid his role as the Outer Sect Elder while the cultivators tried to identify its recipient. Gray Erniang suspected Lei Xiaosan could lead her to the culprit, and the chapter ended as she pressed him for the truth.

• Cui Jiuyang concealed the Mountain-Tapping Hammer after a child announced that guests could explore Fule City for three days before leaving.
• Old Daoist Yuan questioned the cultivators about their roles in the theater, and Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan claimed to have played minor Mine Shaft characters.
• The cultivators realized that no one admitted to playing the Outer Sect Elder and concluded that the missing actor had obtained the Numinous Treasure.
• Cui Jiuyang recognized Gray Erniang, Old Daoist Yuan, and Hu Seventeen among the former performers as they searched for the Outer Sect Elder.
• Gray Erniang linked Lei Xiaosan to a Laosheng who had entered the theater near him and demanded to know whether he had thought through his answer.

After the outsiders scattered through Fule City, Cui Jiuyang navigated its bustling market, staying alert for anyone following him. He explored the stalls selling cultivation goods and decided to search for treasures there before leaving the market.

• Lei Xiaosan declared that he only wanted to save his mother and promised to repay whoever found the thousand-year-old Blood Lichen.
• The crowd rejected Gray Erniang's attempt to question them one by one and dispersed to search Fule City for treasures.
• Lei Xiaosan slipped away alone, and Cui Jiuyang waited before setting off toward the market.
• Cui Jiuyang saw that Fule City's market was filled with ordinary human and demon residents, while the city's power suppressed his Divine Sense.
• Cui Jiuyang lost himself in the crowded market to make sure no one was following him, then began examining the stalls for possible treasures.

Cui Jiuyang learned how bartering worked in Fule City after declining to trade Forget-Worry Wine for Shennong Root. He found a treasure-gambling stall and planned to test his Mountain-Tapping Hammer as a girl chose a jar.

• Cui Jiuyang recognized the old woman's Shennong Root and offered Forget-Worry Wine in exchange for it.
• The old woman offered him one foot of Shennong Root for about half a gourd of wine, but Cui Jiuyang declined because he had no use for it.
• Cui Jiuyang wandered the sundries district and found a crowded treasure-gambling stall.
• The stallholder explained the jars' contents were a mix of treasures and worthless items, and Cui Jiuyang decided to test his Mountain-Tapping Hammer there.
• Scarface paid to lift three jars and found two valuable items and a child's copper whistle.
• A girl with little to trade was allowed to lift one jar and chose one at random.

Cui Jiuyang used the Mountain-Tapping Hammer to locate a battered sword hilt and confirmed that it could find treasures. After leaving Fule City, he concealed himself in the wilderness and watched Lei Xiaosan arrive just as a violent black wind rushed toward him.

• Cui Jiuyang used the Mountain-Tapping Hammer to find a Blood-Transforming Pill inside a gold Buddha and then a battered sword hilt beneath a jar at the treasure-gambling stall.
• He followed the hammer’s other purple threads to a Shennong Root and a Hundred-Year-Old Ginseng, confirming its treasure-hunting ability.
• During three days in Fule City, Cui Jiuyang helped residents, including a Writing Brush Spirit, and received Spiritual Ink and other gifts.
• When the market did not reopen, Cui Jiuyang left Fule City and found himself transported to a desolate wilderness near Shantytown.
• Cui Jiuyang concealed his aura as Lei Xiaosan appeared in the wilderness, then a dense black wind swept toward Lei Xiaosan.

Lei Xiaosan fled Gray Erniang into the woods on Cui Jiuyang’s advice, but she caught up and demanded to know where the Laosheng was. Lei Xiaosan refused and fought her, revealing his chilling sword intent before Gray Erniang overwhelmed his attack with her Cat Rope.

• Cui Jiuyang urged Lei Xiaosan to escape into the woods, and Lei Xiaosan followed his advice as Gray Erniang pursued him.
• Cui Jiuyang used his Divine Sense to track Lei Xiaosan and directed him toward a clearing beside a pool.
• Gray Erniang confronted Lei Xiaosan and offered to spare him if he revealed the Laosheng’s whereabouts, but Lei Xiaosan refused.
• Lei Xiaosan attacked Gray Erniang with a frost-laden sword strike, and Cui Jiuyang recognized that he was entering the Dao through martial arts.
• Gray Erniang shattered Lei Xiaosan’s sword light with her Cat Rope, forcing him back, and Lei Xiaosan gathered his sword light into a protective cocoon.

Cui Jiuyang trapped Gray Erniang in the Withered Wood Cage Formation after she attacked Lei Xiaosan, and the formation drained her strength as she tried to escape. Gray Erniang begged for mercy, but Cui Jiuyang continued strengthening the formation, leaving her close to death.

• Gray Erniang pierced Lei Xiaosan's sword and ice defenses with two poisoned rat incisors, but Cui Jiuyang secretly blocked them with a golden barrier.
• Cui Jiuyang activated the Withered Wood Cage Formation, separating Gray Erniang from Lei Xiaosan and trapping her in an illusion of dead trees.
• Gray Erniang realized the branches and leaves were draining her vitality, but snapping them off and fleeing through the woods did not work.
• Gray Erniang exhausted her strength, fell to her knees, and begged Cui Jiuyang to spare her life.
• Lei Xiaosan felt compassion for Gray Erniang, but Cui Jiuyang kept strengthening the formation and reminded him that Gray Erniang would have shown him no mercy.

Cui Jiuyang killed Gray Erniang and discovered that the battered sword hilt could devour sinister treasures and restore itself. Old Daoist Yuan witnessed the fight, mistook Cui Jiuyang for Cui Chengshou, and fled toward Changchun City to find allies.

• Cui Jiuyang used the Withered Wood Cage Formation and Heavenly Thunder to kill Gray Erniang, while Lei Xiaosan watched.
• Cui Jiuyang’s mysterious sword hilt devoured Gray Erniang’s corpse and restored several turns of gold wire on its grip.
• The sword hilt then absorbed the Cat Rope and Gray Erniang’s poisoned fangs, confirming that it fed on sinister magical objects.
• Old Daoist Yuan, who had watched from hiding, realized Cui Jiuyang was the Outer Sect Elder and believed he was the formidable Cui Chengshou.
• Old Daoist Yuan fled toward Changchun City to find his allies and discuss a plan.

Old Daoist Yuan and Third Brother Liu planned to seize the Numinous Treasure but learned Cui Jiuyang had already taken it. Cui Jiuyang treated Lei Xiaosan’s mother during a severe blood-energy attack and revealed the Mountain-Tapping Hammer, leaving Lei Xiaosan hopeful that it could cure her.

• Old Daoist Yuan met Hu Seventeen, who transformed back into Third Brother Liu, and the two regretted that Cui Jiuyang had taken the Numinous Treasure first.
• Old Daoist Yuan told Third Brother Liu that he knew who possessed the treasure, and Third Brother Liu agreed to discuss a plan to seize it despite the risk.
• Cui Jiuyang accompanied Lei Xiaosan home and learned that a Yin Soul’s feeding had caused his mother’s recurring blood-energy surges, which only millennium blood lichen might cure.
• Mother Lei suffered a severe attack, and Cui Jiuyang used his Spiritual Power to calm her blood energy while Lei Xiaosan watched anxiously.
• Lei Xiaosan knelt and begged Cui Jiuyang for help, and Cui Jiuyang revealed the Mountain-Tapping Hammer, which Lei Xiaosan recognized as a Numinous Treasure.

Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan entered the mountains to find blood lichen for Lei Xiaosan’s mother, while Old Daoist Yuan and Third Brother Liu followed, hoping to exploit Cui Jiuyang’s depleted spiritual power. Guided by the Mountain-Tapping Hammer, Cui Jiuyang found increasingly rare herbs and spotted a giant scorpion near five-hundred-year blood lichen, leaving the pair ready to face it.

• Cui Jiuyang promised Lei Xiaosan that he would search for millennium blood lichen and send it to help Lei Xiaosan’s mother.
• Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan left Changchun City for the mountains, and Old Daoist Yuan and Third Brother Liu followed after suspecting Cui Jiuyang carried the Mountain-Tapping Hammer.
• Cui Jiuyang used the Mountain-Tapping Hammer and hundred-year blood lichen to draw purple threads that guided him through the mountains, restoring his spiritual power with a hearth icicle along the way.
• Lei Xiaosan harvested a patch of hundred-year blood lichen and companion herbs, then found five-hundred-year blood lichen farther up the mountainside.
• Cui Jiuyang stopped Lei Xiaosan from approaching the five-hundred-year blood lichen, and Lei Xiaosan’s sword revealed a giant black scorpion guarding it.
• Cui Jiuyang recognized that the nearly demonic scorpion could be useful to his otherwise mostly empty Five Warlords Register.

Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan subdued a scorpion spirit and harvested a five-hundred-year-old blood lichen before Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen confronted them over the Mountain-Tapping Hammer. Cui Jiuyang revealed the hammer to draw their attention, while the Scorpion General hid underground, poised to attack.

• Lei Xiaosan froze the scorpion with his Snowflow Sword Technique, and Cui Jiuyang bound it to the Five Warlords Register as Scorpion General.
• Lei Xiaosan harvested the five-hundred-year-old blood lichen, and Cui Jiuyang briefly released the obedient scorpion from the register.
• The scorpion sensed Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen approaching, and Lei Xiaosan urged Cui Jiuyang to escape with the blood lichen.
• Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen accused Cui Jiuyang of disguising himself as the Outer Sect Elder and possessing the Numinous Treasure from Fule Theater.
• Cui Jiuyang reassured Lei Xiaosan, drew the Mountain-Tapping Hammer, and showed it to Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen.
• The Scorpion General dug underground and waited in ambush as Cui Jiuyang faced the two men.

Cui Jiuyang blinded Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen and escaped with Lei Xiaosan, then prepared an illusion formation in a valley to ambush them when they tracked him down. As the pursuers approached, Cui Jiuyang explained the formation and its faceless clay figurines, whose origins he had learned about in Fule City.

• Cui Jiuyang blinded Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen with a flash of light and fled with Lei Xiaosan.
• Hu Seventeen tracked their scent through the mountains, while Old Daoist Yuan reasoned that Cui Jiuyang's spiritual power was likely depleted.
• Cui Jiuyang revealed that he had scattered Evil-Repelling Sand along the mountain paths and could use it to disrupt his pursuers' spiritual power.
• Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan reached a valley, where Cui Jiuyang set up an illusion formation and concealed themselves in a tree.
• Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen followed the scorpion's trail toward the valley as Cui Jiuyang explained that the formation used two faceless clay figurines from Fule City.

Cui Jiuyang used an Illusion Formation and face-changing clay figurines to lure Liu Sanbian and Old Daoist Yuan into an ambush, but Liu Sanbian appeared to swallow Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan. Liu Sanbian then prepared to digest them, unaware that the real pair remained hidden in the tree.

• Cui Jiuyang explained that Beyond-the-Pass Clay Figurine Bai had made the faceless figurines capable of taking on anyone’s appearance.
• Cui Jiuyang activated the Illusion Formation as Old Daoist Yuan and Hu Seventeen approached, and the figurines appeared as Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan meditating beneath a tree.
• Old Daoist Yuan urged an attack, but Hu Seventeen crept closer before revealing his giant-snake form and lunging at the apparent targets.
• A golden barrier stopped the snake’s first attack, and Lei Xiaosan’s sword thrust prompted the snake to strike him aside before swallowing the apparent Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan.
• Old Daoist Yuan praised the attacker as Liu Sanbian and revealed that he had been using Hu Seventeen’s identity to disguise his misdeeds.
• Liu Sanbian decided to meditate and digest his supposed captives, while the real Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan remained hidden in the tree.

Hu Seventeen exposed Liu Sanbian’s crimes and stopped his attempt to steal the Mountain-Tapping Hammer. After binding Liu Sanbian with the Immortal-Binding Rope, Hu Seventeen faced the captured snake demon’s furious accusations.

• Cui Jiuyang revealed that he had suspected Old Daoist Yuan was an impostor because he lacked the plant spiritual energy of the real Old Daoist Yuan.
• Old Daoist Yuan transformed back into Hu Seventeen and confronted Liu Sanbian for impersonating him and committing atrocities in his name.
• Hu Seventeen accused Liu Sanbian of murdering villagers, causing travelers’ deaths, and stealing a baby to trade for a sinister magical implement.
• Liu Sanbian tried to flee, but the two clay figures he had swallowed slowed him down.
• Hu Seventeen captured Liu Sanbian with the Immortal-Binding Rope, and Liu Sanbian cursed him while struggling against his bonds.

Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan witnessed Hu Seventeen kill Liu Sanbian after Liu Sanbian launched a desperate attack, then Cui Jiuyang absorbed Liu Sanbian’s corpse with the Sword Hilt. Back in Changchun City, Cui Jiuyang prepared to cultivate toward the Fourth Extremity, but the chapter ended as he abruptly packed to leave his inn.

• Hu Seventeen killed Liu Sanbian when Liu Sanbian attacked him, and Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan watched from a tree.
• Hu Seventeen spotted the two witnesses, left Liu Sanbian’s body behind, and walked out of the mountains.
• Cui Jiuyang used the Sword Hilt to absorb Liu Sanbian’s corpse and saw its blade grow slightly.
• Cui Jiuyang and Lei Xiaosan found another specimen of blood lichen, which Lei Xiaosan took home to help his mother.
• Cui Jiuyang checked on the railway and returned to Shopkeeper Lin’s inn to cultivate with the Mountain-Tapping Hammer.
• On the fourth day after returning from the mountains, Cui Jiuyang cursed Hu Seventeen and packed his belongings in a hurry.

Cui Jiuyang learned that Hu Seventeen had spread rumors blaming him for Liu Sanbian’s death and the Numinous Treasure, so he fled Changchun and traveled north on foot. Two nights later, a train bound for Harbin caught up with him, and he silently boarded its rear carriage.

• Lei Xiaosan told Cui Jiuyang that jianghu rumors accused him of killing Liu Sanbian and Old Daoist Yuan and taking the Numinous Treasure.
• Cui Jiuyang concluded that Hu Seventeen had spread the rumors, gave Lei Xiaosan talismans, and urged him to leave Changchun with his mother.
• Cui Jiuyang paid Shopkeeper Lin for his room and slipped away from the inn using the Invisibility Spell.
• Finding Kuanchengzi Railway Station closed, Cui Jiuyang vaulted inside and headed north along the tracks, planning to board a train when one appeared.
• On the second night, Cui Jiuyang leaped onto the rear railing of a train bound for Harbin.