Chapter Summaries

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger learned from He Feixu about Xuanyuan’s plans and brought him to the Prefect of Mount Tai’s Daoist Grounds to report their investigation. Lu Pan received them and led them to meet the Prefect, while Cui Jiuyang observed the Underworld Office’s hierarchy on the way.

• He Feixu examined the sacrificial papers and said they might be connected to Xuanyuan, though he could not confirm their origin.
• He Feixu explained that he had opposed Xuanyuan’s plans and had been exiled to Xuanyuan Mountain after urging him to stop.
• Cui Jiuyang persuaded He Feixu to accompany him and Master Tiger to Mount Tai and testify before the Prefect.
• The three reached the Prefect’s Daoist Grounds, where Cui Jiuyang recognized Lu Tu as the red-robed Judge Lu Pan.
• Lu Pan praised Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger, said he knew the investigation’s results, and took them to see the Prefect.
• Cui Jiuyang followed Lu Pan through the grounds and observed the ranks and duties of the Underworld Office’s officials and servants.

The Prefect explained how the Evil Seal Treasure Pearl had corrupted Xuanyuan and why he could not confront his brother directly. He gave Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu talismans and sent them to destroy Xuanyuan’s plans to recreate yin and yang.

• The Prefect revealed that Xuanyuan had been deceived into accepting an Evil Seal Treasure Pearl, which tainted his nature and made him violent and erratic.
• The Prefect placed a “Tai” talisman in Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu’s minds to prevent Xuanyuan from banishing them to Xuanyuan Mountain.
• The Prefect explained that he had drawn the three into Xuanyuan’s karma so they could approach his hiding place and stop him from breaking his seal.
• The Prefect said Xuanyuan intended to recreate yin and yang according to his belief in letting nature run its course, which could bring chaos and disorder.
• The Prefect ordered the three to take the wronged souls from Dustpan Village to Xuanyuan’s hiding place and destroy his arrangements.

Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger followed the Tai seal to a waterfall where the wronged souls opened a hidden fissure into Xuanyuan’s territory. They emerged into a bright space and froze at what they saw.

• Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger reached the waterfall indicated by the Tai seal and found a faint light behind it.
• Cui Jiuyang fitted the Soul-Guiding Lantern into a hole in the cliff, releasing the wronged souls from Dustpan Village.
• The wronged souls flew into the hole, and the cliff split open to reveal a narrow passage.
• Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger squeezed through the twisting fissure and stepped into the light beyond, where they froze.

Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger explored the Delusion Realm of Life and Death, where its inhabitants treated life, death, and violence as ordinary matters. At a village wine shop, they learned that the seemingly friendly drinkers were a butcher and the man he had chopped into minced meat, who had come together for wine.

• Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger descended into the bizarre realm and met a shepherd boy whose sheep were people and animals disguised in sheepskins.
• Cui Jiuyang broke the disguises, freeing a white-bearded old man, a wolf, and a calf; the old man explained that he had become his grandson’s sheep to avoid being killed and turned into a ghost.
• He Feixu watched the old man put his torn sheepskin back on while his grandson whipped him, then continued with Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger toward a village.
• At a wine shop, Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger questioned two men and learned that the realm was called the Delusion Realm of Life and Death.
• When Cui Jiuyang called the men friends and tried to leave, the thin man revealed that the fat butcher had chopped him into minced meat, and the butcher explained that they had come to drink together afterward.

Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu searched Xuanyuan’s Delusion Realm of Life and Death, following a song He Feixu recognized and a flock of wronged souls. They found the souls entering a village that resembled Dustpan Village, and went inside to discover why.

• Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu left the bizarre village and found themselves lost beside a peach grove bearing infant heads.
• An ethereal song drifted through the grove, and He Feixu recognized it as Xuanyuan’s and sang along.
• Master Tiger spotted the wronged souls from Dustpan Village flying overhead, and Cui Jiuyang urged the group to follow them.
• The three tracked the souls across rough roads and a river to a hill, where the souls landed at a village resembling Dustpan Village.
• Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu entered the village to investigate.

Cui Jiuyang destroyed Zhao Changsheng’s wronged soul and rescued the Five-Colored Sparrow’s remnant soul, then used the sacrificial ritual to trace Xuanyuan’s direction. When he interrupted the sacrifice, Xuanyuan’s power struck back, corrupting the village’s wronged souls and forcing Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu to fight.

• Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu found Zhao Changsheng reenacting the sacrifice in Dustpan Village’s square with the unconscious Five-Colored Sparrow.
• Cui Jiuyang destroyed Zhao Changsheng with an Apotropaic Coin, freeing the Five-Colored Sparrow’s remnant soul.
• Cui Jiuyang continued the ritual to trace the sacrificial formation’s target while Master Tiger and He Feixu realized what he was doing.
• Cui Jiuyang learned that the missing fragment of the Five-Colored Sparrow’s soul had kept Xuanyuan from fully awakening, then interrupted the sacrifice before the remnant soul could be offered.
• Xuanyuan’s power struck Cui Jiuyang and corrupted the villagers’ wronged souls, transforming many into malevolent ghosts.
• Cui Jiuyang formed an Evil-Expelling Formation with his Nine-Palace Apotropaic Coins as Master Tiger prepared to clear a path.

Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger defeated five powerful ghosts in Xuanyuan’s Delusion Realm and followed Cui Jiuyang’s uncertain guidance through the wilderness until they sighted Xuanyuan Mountain. As they approached, the landscape gave way to an immense expanse of black stone matching the mountain’s rock, though the mountain remained far on the horizon.

• Master Tiger, He Feixu, and Cui Jiuyang coordinated their powers to defeat the five vicious ghosts, and Cui Jiuyang collected their Evil Ghost Pearls.
• Cui Jiuyang led the exhausted trio onward through eerie villages, while Master Tiger encouraged him to trust the direction he had divined.
• The three traveled across the unchanging wilderness until He Feixu identified a distant black speck as Xuanyuan Mountain.
• As they continued toward the mountain, the pink-clouded landscape transformed into bare ground, red gravel, and finally an endless stretch of black stone.
• He Feixu touched the black stone and recognized it as the same material as Xuanyuan Mountain, though the mountain still appeared distant.

Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu crossed a vast mirror and a bank of gray mist to reach Xuanyuan Mountain. After climbing to its summit, they called out Xuanyuan, who opened a passage into the mist and challenged He Feixu.

• Cui Jiuyang realized the endless black stone might already be Xuanyuan Mountain, and a golden Five-Colored Sparrow feather lifted him and Master Tiger into the sky while He Feixu followed with his wings.
• The three passed through a boundless mirror and drifted through freezing gray mist until they reached Xuanyuan Mountain; the feather crumbled to ash.
• Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu climbed the barren mountain, passing solitary souls and aimless wandering spirits on their way to the summit.
• Unable to enter the dense mist at the summit, He Feixu shouted for Xuanyuan, who answered by accusing him of faithlessness and parting the mist to let them through.
• Cui Jiuyang entered the passage first, with Master Tiger and He Feixu following.

Xuanyuan defended his delusion realm and revealed his belief that his brother, the Prefect of Mount Tai, had imposed an artificial order on the world by separating Yin and Yang. He left Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu stunned as he argued that the original world had been a chaotic realm where humans, ghosts, demons, and gods lived together.

• Cui Jiuyang recognized the Emerald Bead as the core of Xuanyuan’s delusion realm and saw that Xuanyuan was struggling to control the Five-Colored Sparrow’s divine nature.
• He Feixu challenged Xuanyuan over the suffering in the delusion realm, and Xuanyuan blamed him for disrupting his plans with Thomas and the sacrifice.
• Cui Jiuyang secretly considered destroying the Emerald Bead, but Xuanyuan noticed his attention and questioned him about their earlier meeting.
• Xuanyuan rejected the others’ assumption that he was plotting a rebellion and claimed that his brother was the one sowing disorder.
• Xuanyuan described the Underworld Office and its rules as a fraud that enslaved the world, then argued that the original order allowed humans and ghosts to prey on one another naturally.

Xuanyuan challenged Cui Jiuyang, He Feixu, and Master Tiger over the Underworld Office’s rules, but Cui Jiuyang defended the system as protection for humans and ghosts. Xuanyuan revealed he had been stalling to capture the Five-Colored Sparrow’s remnant soul, then began refining it as the giant serpent attacked the three.

• Xuanyuan argued that people willingly accepted the Underworld Office’s rules, and Cui Jiuyang countered that humans supported them because they restrained harmful relations with ghosts and protected survival.
• Cui Jiuyang explained that ghosts also benefited from the Underworld Office through protection, reincarnation, and opportunities for advancement.
• Xuanyuan asked why ghosts had supported his brother’s system, then fell silent and summoned the giant serpent carrying the unconscious Five-Colored Sparrow’s remnant soul.
• Xuanyuan revealed that he had delayed the confrontation to capture the sparrow’s soul and began ritually refining it above the Emerald Bead while the serpent prepared to fight.
• Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu attacked the serpent; He Feixu lodged a crane feather near its Internal Core and urged the others to strike there.
• He Feixu drew the serpent’s attention by flying in front of it and firing crane feathers at its eye and mouth.

He Feixu, Cui Jiuyang, and Master Tiger killed Xuanyuan’s giant python but failed to stop Xuanyuan from completing the Delusion Realm of Life and Death. Xuanyuan dismissed their objections and effortlessly repelled Master Tiger’s surprise attack, leaving the three badly injured and unable to challenge him.

• He Feixu lured the python into exposing its underside, but its poisonous mist struck his wing and sent him crashing to the ground.
• Cui Jiuyang restrained the python with his Nine-Palace Eight-Trigram Apotropaic Coins while Master Tiger tried to stab its inner core, then Master Tiger entered its mouth and tore through its body from within, killing it.
• He Feixu treated himself and Master Tiger, but both remained horrifically injured as they saw Xuanyuan fuse the Five-Colored Sparrow’s remnant soul with its divinity in the Emerald Bead.
• Xuanyuan claimed the Evil Seal Treasure Pearl’s influence had revealed his true nature, trapped He Feixu in a stone cage, and mocked Cui Jiuyang’s beliefs about human connections and the Underworld Office.
• Master Tiger launched a surprise saber attack at Xuanyuan, but his strike vanished into an abyss-like distortion and an invisible force hurled him a hundred feet away.

Xuanyuan tried to kill Cui Jiuyang, but He Feixu stopped him and challenged him to a final game of Go. He Feixu sacrificed his soul to sever Xuanyuan’s connection to the mortal world, and the Prefect of Mount Tai arrived and subdued the Delusion Realm of Life and Death Pearl.

• Xuanyuan nearly killed Cui Jiuyang with a Wind Blade, but He Feixu threatened to destroy himself unless Xuanyuan spared him.
• He Feixu asked Xuanyuan to play Go one last time, and Xuanyuan agreed before declaring himself the winner.
• After the game, He Feixu revealed that he had destroyed his Internal Core and heart meridians and scattered his soul, severing the foundation of Xuanyuan’s connection to the mortal world.
• He Feixu explained that he chose death rather than endure Xuanyuan’s Delusion Realm of Life and Death, then died despite Xuanyuan’s efforts to save him.
• The three "Tai" talismans formed a gateway, and the Prefect of Mount Tai emerged and immobilized the Delusion Realm of Life and Death Pearl.

After He Feixu's death, Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger returned with the Prefect of Mount Tai, who rewarded their service and helped Cui survive a dangerous cultivation breakthrough. Cui and Master Tiger parted ways with a promise to stay in contact, while Cui prepared to continue his travels and investigate the hidden plot behind the sacrificial ritual.

• The Prefect of Mount Tai healed Master Tiger and offered Cui Jiuyang a reward, but Cui asked that it go to Master Tiger instead.
• Cui Jiuyang's cultivation surged toward the Third Extremity and went into deviation, so the Prefect of Mount Tai used Gui Suishou's Soul-Anchor Pearl to stabilize him.
• Master Tiger received a gold-edged token and was appointed a Seventh-Rank Impermanence Patrol Commissioner, while Cui's cultivation settled at the peak of the Second Extremity.
• Master Tiger told Cui Jiuyang that his new assignment prevented him from accompanying him to White Crane Manor, and he gave Cui a rubbing of his token so they could contact each other.
• Cui asked Master Tiger to question the Prefect of Mount Tai about the two ancient sheets recording the sacrificial method, and the two friends promised to come to each other's aid.

Cui Jiuyang left Mount Tai by train for Tianjin, carrying He Feixu’s scorched crane feather and keeping his suspicions about the Prefect of Mount Tai to himself. During the journey, he caught a bleeding girl with demonic powers outside his compartment and subdued her just as two pursuers approached; he began questioning her.

• Cui Jiuyang parted from Master Tiger, retrieved his banner and bell, and boarded a northbound train using the name Wu Yanzu.
• Cui Jiuyang reflected that the Prefect of Mount Tai had led him and Master Tiger to He Feixu’s death, and he avoided asking the Prefect for a Numinous Treasure to keep him from interfering in the Ji River matter.
• Cui Jiuyang burned Master Tiger’s rubbing of the Underworld Office talisman and imprinted its pattern onto the Soul-Anchor Pearl in his dantian.
• Cui Jiuyang awoke to the smell of blood and found an injured girl in a moon-white qipao outside his compartment, holding a bloody dagger as a vine crept toward him.
• Cui Jiuyang suppressed the girl’s demonic power with an Apotropaic Coin, silenced her with a Heart Talisman, and pulled her into his compartment before two pursuers could reach them.
• Cui Jiuyang removed the coin, made the girl sit down, and asked her name, destination, companions, and why the two people outside were chasing her.

Cui Jiuyang sheltered Bai Susu from two Queue Army soldiers searching the train compartment for her. After they escaped detection, he let her rest and considered the dangers awaiting them in Tianjin and the Capital.

• Bai Susu told Cui Jiuyang that Queue Army soldiers had killed her two senior brothers and wounded her while she traveled from Yangzhou to the Capital.
• Bai Susu said her master, Green Willow Hermit Yan Bin, had sent her to visit Li Zhongqing in the Capital.
• Cui Jiuyang hid Bai Susu with an Invisibility Spell as the Queue Army soldiers searched his compartment.
• When one soldier grew suspicious, Cui Jiuyang used an Illusion Realm to make himself appear injured and asleep, and the soldiers left without finding Bai Susu.
• Cui Jiuyang examined Bai Susu’s healing wound, told her to rest until they reached Tianjin, and reflected on his growing connection to the turbulent era.

Cui Jiuyang and Bai Susu arrived in Tianjin, where he disguised her with an illusion and hurried them into the crowded city to avoid pursuit. The chapter leaves them riding separate rickshaws into Tianjin’s bustling streets.

• Cui Jiuyang and Bai Susu stayed awake through the night on the train and shared breakfast in the morning.
• Bai Susu told Cui Jiuyang that she was an ordinary white snake who had learned to control vines from her master.
• Cui Jiuyang introduced himself as a cultivator who traveled to subdue demons and slay fiends, frightening Bai Susu.
• Cui Jiuyang and Bai Susu reached Tianjin Old Dragon Head Railway Station and followed the crowds onto the platform.
• Cui Jiuyang cast an illusion that made Bai Susu look like a thin adolescent boy, then hired two rickshaws to take them into a busy part of the city.

Cui Jiuyang confronted the two Queue Army soldiers who had followed him and Bai Susu, defeating them with talisman dogs and the Green Wisteria Technique. He let Bai Susu decide their fate, and she killed them for murdering her senior fellow disciples before Cui Jiuyang disposed of the bodies.

• Cui Jiuyang realized the Queue Army soldiers were following him and led them into a deserted alley with Bai Susu.
• The soldiers drew weapons and demanded that Cui Jiuyang hand over Bai Susu, but he summoned talisman-paper dogs and bound them with the Green Wisteria Technique.
• Cui Jiuyang took the soldiers’ pistols and magical beads, then rendered them unconscious and asked Bai Susu whether she wanted to kill them.
• Bai Susu recalled her murdered senior fellow disciples and used a vine to strangle the two soldiers to death.
• Cui Jiuyang comforted the sobbing Bai Susu, dismembered the corpses with vines, and had talisman dogs consume the remains.

Cui Jiuyang and Bai Susu hid in an elderly couple’s home in Tianjin while he planned their journey to the Capital and onward to Mount Heming. After seeing Cui Jiuyang practice and spotting the magical beads, the couple knelt and begged him to save their grandson.

• Cui Jiuyang found a discreet room for himself and Bai Susu in an elderly couple’s courtyard and decided to avoid exploring Tianjin until she was safe.
• Cui Jiuyang gave Bai Susu the two beads taken from the Queue Army soldiers to examine, but she found no way to activate them and fell asleep holding them.
• The next morning, the old man watched Cui Jiuyang practice breathing and qi cultivation, while Bai Susu sleepily returned the beads to him.
• The elderly couple stayed unusually close during breakfast, then knelt before Cui Jiuyang and begged him to save their grandson.
• The old woman explained that the old man had recognized Cui Jiuyang’s abilities after watching his cultivation and had also seen Bai Susu holding the magical beads.

Cui Jiuyang agreed to investigate why Zhang Yuanbao had abandoned his grandparents for the wealthy Li household and visited the Li residence with the Zhang couple. There, the Li elders welcomed them, but Yuanbao was away, leaving Cui to wait and observe the household.

• The Zhang couple told Cui Jiuyang how their grandson, Zhang Yuanbao, had gradually moved in with the Li Family and stopped treating them like family.
• Cui Jiuyang decided to investigate in person, left Bai Susu protected at their lodging, and coached the Zhang couple to introduce him as Yuanbao's childhood friend.
• Cui Jiuyang and the Zhang couple brought Yuanbao's favorite snacks to the imposing Li residence, where a servant said the young master had gone out and would return in the afternoon.
• Master Li and the Li Family's First Madam warmly received the visitors and questioned Cui about his background.
• Master Li judged Cui to be a modest trader and left to handle business, while the Li Family's First Madam continued speaking animatedly with Cui.

Cui Jiuyang stayed at the Li Residence to investigate Zhang Yuanbao, who pretended to share a childhood friendship with him. After Zhang Yuanbao revealed a dense, unnatural yin aura at night, Cui Jiuyang put him to sleep and examined the strange bottles on his table.

• Old Madam Li welcomed Cui Jiuyang warmly and repeatedly urged him to eat at the family meal.
• Zhang Yuanbao arrived and acted as if he and Cui Jiuyang had been close childhood friends, accepting Cui Jiuyang’s invented stories as memories.
• Master Li and Grandma Li encouraged Cui Jiuyang to stay with Zhang Yuanbao, and Cui Jiuyang agreed so he could investigate the situation.
• Cui Jiuyang pretended to sleep while Zhang Yuanbao studied him, then sensed a chilling, inhuman yin aura coming from outside the room.
• Cui Jiuyang used Sleepy Bugs to put Zhang Yuanbao to sleep and found a brass mirror and two porcelain bottles on the table; one smelled faintly of rotten almonds, while the other held a floral scent with a bloody sweetness.