Chapter Summaries

The Goat Eerie devoured several of its enslaved people before entering a dark passage to confront the enemy who had challenged it. After Yang Yong’s group defeated its avatar, Jiang Chen revealed that he sensed a powerful sleeping existence inside Yang Yong and found Cao Xianming even more interesting.

• A young man tried to berate the Goat Eerie, but the people around him restrained him and explained that their contracts forced them to submit.
• After devouring several people, the Goat Eerie opened a dark passage and entered it to act in person against its enemy.
• Xiao Ying discussed Yang Yong’s Four Yang God-Sealing Banner with Jiang Chen, who said the curio had lost some abilities in this world’s declining age of magic.
• Jiang Chen said a sleeping existence inside Yang Yong was no weaker than himself, then named Cao Xianming as the most interesting member of the convoy and told the zombies to wait and see.
• Yang Yong’s group killed the Goat Eerie’s avatar, and the black mist disappeared as Zhang Bihuang and the others returned to the Buddha-Light Jewel.

After the convoy recovered under the Monk’s Buddha Light, Cao Xianming’s Data Model warned of extreme danger as the Goat Eerie’s true body approached. Cao directed everyone east toward the Goat Eerie’s lair, the route the Data Model identified as their best chance of survival, and the convoy raced toward the distant Yurts with the monster pursuing them.

• The Monk’s Buddha Light restored the injured and replenished the convoy’s supernatural power.
• Cao Xianming’s Data Model flashed a red danger warning, and he ordered everyone into their vehicles.
• Cao calculated the safest direction and found that heading east toward the Goat Eerie’s lair offered the highest probability of survival.
• Cao told the convoy to flee east, and the Goat Eerie’s true body emerged from a Black Hole behind them.
• The Survival Convoy raced toward the Yurts as the Goat Eerie’s terrifying presence closed in.

Jiang Chen concealed his presence as the Goat Eerie pursued the Survival Convoy with a vastly more dangerous form of black mist. After Cao Xianming warned that anyone touched by it would transform within three seconds, the convoy used everything available to flee, with no known defense able to stop the mist.

• Jiang Chen concealed his and his followers’ auras, then continued after the Goat Eerie and the Survival Convoy.
• The Goat Eerie sent black mist after the convoy, and Qi Peiliang sensed countless sinister Eeries within it.
• Cao Xianming judged the mist to be its complete form, with a proliferation ability a thousand times greater than before, and warned that it would transform anyone it invaded within three seconds.
• The convoy burned fuel and Yang Yong-brand Curios to increase its speed while Cao Xianming urged everyone to escape.
• The Monk asked whether Buddha Light could stop the mist, and Cao Xianming said none of the abilities they had openly shown could counter it.

The Survival Convoy fled the pursuing Goat Eerie toward its yurt settlement, where Yang Yong collected everything in their path. Cao Xianming’s calculations pointed to the largest yurt and then underground as the likeliest route to survival, and collecting the yurt triggered a spiritual energy notification.

• After eight hours of flight, the convoy reached the yurts as the enslaved people there fled from the pursuing black mist.
• He Jing supplied Combustion Agent to Qi Peiliang and the other vehicles as they ran low on fuel.
• Yang Yong used the Nine Nether Yuanchen White Bone Ring to collect the fleeing settlement’s yurts, livestock, and belongings.
• Cao Xianming admitted he did not know exactly where the way out was, but his calculations showed east as the likeliest direction for survival.
• Cao Xianming’s Data Model pointed to the largest yurt and then to a location underground.
• Yang Yong collected the largest yurt, triggering the Thousand-Hammer, Hundred-Refinement Furnace to detect spiritual energy.

Yang Yong and Cao Xianming found a huge flesh monster attacking rune-covered alloy doors, which Cao Xianming believed they needed to pass through to survive. Yezi and Yang Yong attacked the monster, but the fight was still underway when Yang Yong’s Flame Blades began cutting off its tentacles.

• Yang Yong heard that spiritual energy had been detected and wondered whether this place was another Small World like the one with the Coffin Temple.
• Cao Xianming spotted alloy doors beneath a slime-covered flesh monster, and Yang Yong flew up to inspect it and reported that its tentacles were corroding the runes.
• Cao Xianming used his Data Model and told everyone to drive the monster away from the doors so they could get through.
• Yezi flew to Yang Yong’s shoulder and sent a tiny green thing into the monster, where Climbing Vines grew and began draining its life energy.
• The monster withdrew its tentacles from the doors and attacked the Climbing Vines with corrosive slime, starting a struggle between them.
• Yang Yong summoned the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace and formed Flame Blades that cut through the monster’s tentacles, which spilled thick black liquid.

Yezi drove the Fleshball Monster away, but Corpse Ancestor Jiang Chen blocked the alloy door with a Bloodflame Flower. Cao Xianming identified the flower and chose to lead the Survival Convoy onward as the Black Mist and Goat Eerie closed in.

• Yezi tore the Fleshball Monster’s roots free and drove it away, leaving the convoy to approach the alloy door.
• Jiang Chen used an unseen force to blast Cao Xianming away from the door, where a Bloodflame Flower had bloomed.
• Cao Xianming scanned the flower and recognized Jiang Chen’s bloodflame, warning that he had blocked their way through the door.
• Cao Xianming said the convoy could not afford the time needed to find a way through the flower and pointed out that their second plan lay beyond the approaching Goat Eerie.
• Cao Xianming ordered the convoy to keep moving, and the vehicles followed his Off-Road Vehicle away from the door.

As the Black Goat Eerie’s black mist rapidly closed in on the Survival Convoy, Yang Yong tried to find a way to stop it while Cao Xianming analyzed a captured wisp. The Monk and Hu Xian'er slowed the mist and boosted the Bus, but the threat still pursued the convoy.

• Yang Yong captured a wisp of black mist in a Cloth Doll and gave it to Cao Xianming to analyze.
• Yang Yong questioned Mang Dabiao, who said their best hope was the Thousand-Hammer, Hundred-Refinement Furnace, but it did not respond.
• After the convoy passed the Yurt Camp, the Black Goat Eerie accelerated, and terrified passengers in the rear Bus called for help.
• The Monk borrowed Xiao Xuan's Buddha-Light Jewel and swept a concentrated beam through the black mist, destroying insects within it and slowing its advance.
• Hu Xian'er planted the Soul-Binding Fan in the Bus, forming an array that increased its speed, and Old Yang drove it out of the mist's reach.

The Survival Convoy fled the Black Goat Eerie after the monk wounded it with a Śarīra Relic, following Cao Xianming’s directions toward a predicted way out. After reaching a vast, empty grassland, the convoy found no apparent escape as the Eerie closed in.

• The monk used a glowing Śarīra Relic to strike the Black Goat Eerie through its gaze, provoking its fury.
• Old Yang alerted Cao Xianming that the Eerie had caught up, and Cao ordered the convoy to turn thirty degrees left and continue for half an hour.
• Yang Yong used the Four Yang God-Sealing Banner to double the bus’s speed, while He Jing watched and wished for a Curio broom of her own.
• The convoy followed Cao Xianming’s route as the monk used the Buddha-Light Jewel to hold back the pursuing black mist, though his strength began to fail.
• The convoy reached a flat, empty grassland after half an hour, but Cao Xianming could not identify the way out as the Black Goat Eerie drew closer.

With the Goat Eerie closing in, Cao Xianming’s convoy found the legendary Mechanical City appearing above them and followed his lead through a Light Gate. As the vehicles vanished, Jiang Chen seized Xiao Ying, apparently intrigued by the city’s arrival.

• Cao Xianming told the convoy to watch for a miracle as blinding lightning revealed the enormous Mechanical City overhead.
• Cao Xianming identified the city as the legendary City of Miracles, while the convoy realized Xiao Yuxia was their only Mechanic Sequence member and saw she was just as shocked as everyone else.
• Cao Xianming led the vehicles along an arcing route to a Light Gate that had appeared on the grassland.
• Cao Xianming’s vehicle entered the Light Gate first, followed by the rest of the Survival Convoy, escaping the Goat Eerie and Corpse Ancestor Jiang Chen.
• Xiao Ying asked Jiang Chen whether he would stop the convoy, and Jiang Chen seized her in a great black hand and flung her away.

Jiang Chen forced the Goat Eerie to open a Plane Channel, but the Eerie’s true body destroyed it before it could succeed. Mechanical City reappeared above a ruined city, where its leaders debated taking in the Survival Convoy and discovered it contained 232 Curios.

• Xiao Ying obeyed Jiang Chen’s order to stay with the Survival Convoy as it passed through the Light Gate, and Mechanical City vanished in a flash.
• Jiang Chen confronted the Goat Eerie, burned away the surrounding Black Mist, and demanded that it open a Plane Channel.
• The Goat Eerie agreed, but its true body triggered its explosion, blasting a third of the grassland into desert before Jiang Chen could get the channel.
• Jiang Chen left with the Second-Generation Zombies and remarked that he would have to wait for someone in Mechanical City to grow stronger.
• Mechanical City reappeared above a ruined city, where two men argued over whether to accept the Survival Convoy.
• One man checked the convoy’s vehicles and saw a calculation showing that it contained 232 Curios.

As the Mechanical City leadership discussed the convoy’s surprising number of Curios, crackling noises inside fifteen convoy members sparked panic and drew the city’s armed response. Cao Xianming determined the sounds meant their Contracts were breaking down, leaving the convoy relieved but still facing a tense standoff at the city gate.

• A Mechanical City leader said the convoy’s Curios suggested it could mass-produce them and ordered others to uncover its secret.
• Fifteen people in the convoy, including two captured Sequence Transcendents and Convoy Supervisor Lao Zhang, began crackling, frightening the survivors.
• Bus Driver Old Yang radioed Cao Xianming, who listened to the sounds and calculated their cause while the passengers panicked and scattered.
• Mechanical City officials reported the unrest, and the Grand Elder ordered an investigation; cannon barrels emerged from the walls as the convoy’s Sequence Transcendents gripped their weapons.
• Cao Xianming announced that the crackling meant the convoy members’ Contracts were breaking down, possibly because the Goat Eerie had died or the convoy had traveled beyond the Contracts’ range.

Cao Xianming introduced the Survival Convoy to Mechanical City and explained that the convoy’s earlier chaos was not caused by an eerie presence. When Mechanical City’s robot scanned Yang Yong, it detected an eerie aura and raised the alarm, leaving him surrounded by weapons and a mysterious flying sphere.

• The fifteen people caught in the trading trap laughed and cried as the convoy calmed down, but Mechanical City kept its gun ports trained on them.
• Cao Xianming introduced himself to Mechanical City, and a combat robot approached and scanned him before asking about the convoy’s disturbance.
• Cao Xianming said the disturbance came from people struggling to adjust and invited the robot to scan the convoy for eerie auras.
• The robot scanned the vehicles and their occupants while Yang Yong warned the Demoness Pickup Truck not to cause trouble.
• When the robot scanned Yang Yong, it detected an eerie presence, sounded an alarm, and aimed weapons at him.
• Yang Yong raised his hands as a fast-moving sphere flew above him and shone a bright blue light over him.

Yang Yong’s hidden Eerie traces triggered Mechanical City’s suspicion, and its guards aimed their weapons at him while the elders considered expelling him. Zheng Xiaofeng shielded Yang Yong as Wang Ying prepared to fight, and the furnace suppressed the lingering presences, but the standoff remained unresolved.

• The detection sphere failed to find the Eerie aura it had sensed on Yang Yong, prompting the Third Elder to demand his expulsion before the Grand Elder stopped him.
• A Robot ordered Yang Yong to cooperate with a Deep Scan as guards trained their guns on him and the elders prepared to act.
• In the Demoness Pickup Truck, Mang Dabiao and Xiao Ying argued about Xiao Ying’s blood-drinking and her claim to be human.
• Zheng Xiaofeng leaped in front of Yang Yong and planted his Tortoiseshell Shield, while more Robots aimed their weapons at Yang Yong.
• Yang Yong urged everyone not to attack and called on the Thousand-Hammer, Hundred-Refinement Furnace to chain down the Evil Eye Master’s and White-Bone Giant’s consciousness.
• The furnace suppressed the two presences, and Yang Yong glanced at the hovering detection sphere as the confrontation continued.

Mechanical City attacked the Survival Convoy before its scanning sphere could finish identifying them, but Wang Ying destroyed the nearby defenses in seconds. The Second Elder apologized and urged the convoy to stay in the Outer City while the elders secretly focused on learning how they mass-produced Curios, leaving Cao Xianming to decide whether to remain or leave.

• The Third Elder pressed the attack button before the scanning sphere reached a conclusion, and Mechanical City's soldiers and weapons opened fire on the Survival Convoy.
• Zheng Xiaofeng shielded Yang Yong while Wang Ying used her Black Gold Bone Blade to destroy the turrets and mechanical soldiers in three seconds.
• The Second Elder called through the loudspeaker, apologized for the attack, and said someone had pressed the button by mistake.
• Cao Xianming asked Mechanical City to open its gates so the convoy could leave, but the Second Elder urged them to settle in the Outer City and decide later.
• The elders signaled that they wanted to keep the convoy in Mechanical City to learn its method for mass-producing Curios, while Cao Xianming silently asked Yang Yong whether they should stay.

Cao Xianming agreed to bring the Survival Convoy into Mechanical City after the Second Elder showed them a zombie-filled ruined city. Their guide, Kang Yixiang, welcomed them and revealed that the city lord had been missing for ages as she led them toward the Outer City.

• Yang Yong decided to stay and observe, and Cao Xianming feigned hesitation before agreeing to remain in Mechanical City.
• The Second Elder showed the convoy a ruined city filled with thousands of zombies and warned that a zombie king ruled there.
• The Second Elder opened Mechanical City's gate and welcomed the Survival Convoy inside.
• Kang Yixiang introduced herself as a Mechanic apprentice, explained that the city lord had made her mechanical limbs, and revealed that the city lord had been missing for ages.
• Kang Yixiang led the convoy toward the Outer City and explained that Mechanical City had Outer, Inner, and Core districts with different access rules.

Kang Yixiang led the Survival Convoy through Mechanical City's peaceful Outer City and explained its robots, exoskeletons, and supernatural defenses. The group checked into the Outer City First Hotel, while Yang Yong registered under his usual alias, Li Zhi.

• Kang Yixiang showed the convoy the ordinary-looking streets, schools, hospital, and Labor Robots, explaining that mechanical replacements were used instead of medical treatment.
• Kang Yixiang described exoskeletons and said they could not fight Eerie; she explained that Mechanical City's officials could draw on its supernatural power while inside its boundaries.
• Cao Xianming and Yang Yong realized that Mechanical City's officials could keep using supernatural power as long as they remained within the city, and felt relieved they had not fought it.
• Kang Yixiang brought the convoy to the Outer City First Hotel, where Cao Xianming registered the group and a Security Robot drove their vehicles to the underground parking lot.
• The hotel assigned the convoy more than three hundred rooms, and Yang Yong wondered whether Mechanical City had used Void Crystals to make the rooms.

Yang Yong found that Mechanical City's hotel was a monitored, bare-bones place where the convoy would have to pay with supplies or work unless the Mechanic Sequence member joined the city. After sending the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost to investigate the hotel, Yang Yong woke to an invitation from Front Desk Robot 001.

• Yang Yong found Room 303 nearly empty and discovered cameras covering the corridors, while his walkie-talkie could not reach the others through the metal walls.
• Yang Yong contacted Mang Dabiao through their Contract Mark and learned that Mang Dabiao shared a spacious, zoo-like room with Hu Xian'er and other immortals.
• Yang Yong learned from Front Desk Robot 001 that the convoy could stay at the hotel only until it found housing, and that expenses could be charged to the Mechanic Sequence member if she joined Mechanical City.
• Yang Yong discovered there was no water for bathing, washed with water from the Nine Nether Yuanchen White Bone Ring, and sent the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost to investigate the Outer City's First Hotel.
• The next morning, Front Desk Robot 001 told Yang Yong that he had received an invitation.

Yang Yong joined the Survival Convoy's Sequence Transcendents on their way to breakfast with Mechanical City's Second Elder while Cao Xianming shared what he had learned about the city's residents and food. Cao Xianming suspected a powerful force was controlling Mechanical City's small population and its Mechanic Sequence members, but he did not know why.

• Yang Yong declined the Third Elder's invitation and chose the Second Elder's breakfast invitation, then discovered the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost was being held back somewhere in the hotel.
• Kang Yixiang led Yang Yong and the other Survival Convoy Transcendents toward the Inner City in driverless jeeps.
• Cao Xianming warned Yang Yong through his Data Model that they were under surveillance and told him not to discuss the convoy.
• Cao Xianming showed Yang Yong the tube of bland, nutrient-balanced food distributed to Mechanical City's residents and explained how people obtained it.
• Cao Xianming told Yang Yong that Mechanical City had roughly 2,111 residents and that many Outer City families rarely saw relatives who had entered the Inner City.
• Cao Xianming said he could not explain why Mechanical City gathered so many Mechanic Sequence members or kept its population so small, and suspected a powerful hand was controlling it.

Cao Xianming’s convoy met Mechanical City’s Second Elder over a meal, and Cao revealed that Yang Yong could refine Curios. After Yang Yong demonstrated his Sequence, the Second Elder asked whether he would join Mechanical City.

• Cao Xianming warned Yang Yong to be cautious in Mechanical City before Kang Yixiang led the convoy to meet the Second Elder.
• The Second Elder hosted the convoy at Sister-in-Law Zeng's Free-Range Chicken Pot, where the hungry survivors quickly devoured the food.
• The Second Elder asked why the convoy had so many Curios, and Cao Xianming identified Yang Yong as their chief artifact-refining master and showed him the iPad Curio.
• Yang Yong introduced himself as Li Zhi and claimed his Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace could forge Curios in batches.
• The Second Elder’s mechanical eye short-circuited while analyzing Yang Yong’s Sequence, and he then asked Li Zhi to join Mechanical City.

Yang Yong agreed to forge Curios for Mechanical City after Cao Xianming negotiated favorable terms, while Xiao Yuxia felt Mechanical City calling to her and struggled over whether to join. Cao Xianming silently warned her not to accept, and she left the invitation undecided.

• Yang Yong refused to join Mechanical City but agreed to forge Curios for payment, leaving Cao Xianming to negotiate.
• Xiao Yuxia told Yang Yong that Mechanical City seemed to be calling to her and that answering it might let her advance to Sequence Three.
• Cao Xianming negotiated a deal requiring Yang Yong to forge one Curio for every three sets of materials, with materials or equivalent supplies as payment.
• The Second Elder invited Xiao Yuxia to join Mechanical City, and a mysterious voice urged her to accept and promised advancement to higher Sequences.
• Xiao Yuxia's survival instinct warned her not to accept, and Cao Xianming shook his head at her before she said she would think about it.