Chapter Summaries

At Paradise Service Area, Yang Yong learned that Sequence Transcendents could stay for only three days and recruited desperate locals to help plant crops in exchange for seed. With less than a day and a half remaining, he organized the convoy to keep planting and maintain order.

• Drawn by the convoy’s food, the service-area residents gathered to watch, but Lu Can crawled over to ask Yang Yong for seed in exchange for information.
• Lu Can told Yang Yong that Sequence Transcendents had to leave Paradise Service Area within three days, though he did not know what would happen if they stayed longer.
• Yang Yong gave Lu Can corn kernels and a Red-Heart Potato in exchange for farming help.
• After seeing Lu Can receive seed, more than a hundred residents rushed into the fields to plant in hopes of earning some.
• Yang Yong ordered Jiang Meng to monitor those given seed, Xiong Lingling to patrol the perimeter, and Long Ya to keep planting with the children.

Yang Yong and the others finished harvesting the crops as a dangerous presence awakened within Paradise Service Area. Yang Yong began evacuating the group, while Jiang Meng raced for the exit with the unseen threat closing in behind him.

• Yang Yong and the others worked through the night, and the final round of corn was harvested by dusk the next day.
• Yang Yong, Long Ya, Jiang Meng, and Xiong Lingling sensed a powerful presence emerging from underground and the hollowed mountain.
• Yang Yong sent Long Ya, the fourteen children, and Zhang Dongyun into the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace, then stored the Demoness Pickup Truck in his ring.
• Jiang Meng abandoned the slow large truck, grabbed two bottles of Combustion Agent, and sped toward the service area exit in an Off-Road Vehicle.
• The oppressive presence drew closer behind Jiang Meng as he raced down the road without daring to look back.

Yang Yong and Long Ya escaped the Paradise Service Area, but Zhang Dongyun and the fourteen children vanished when strange fog engulfed the exit. They found themselves in an empty wasteland, separated from Jiang Meng, and Yang Yong concluded the service area was a living place that appeared randomly around the world.

• Yang Yong noticed strange fog spreading from the service area's exit, and Zhang Dongyun and the fourteen children suddenly froze as if trapped in a shared nightmare.
• A muffled bang sounded inside the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace, and Zhang Dongyun and the children disappeared, leaving only Yang Yong and Long Ya.
• Long Ya asked Yang Yong to let her search for the missing children, and he sent her out of the furnace as it left the service area.
• Yang Yong and Long Ya found themselves in an empty wasteland where the service area had vanished without a trace.
• Yang Yong concluded that the service area was alive, appeared at random, and had displaced them away from Jiang Meng.
• Long Ya blamed herself for losing the children, but Yang Yong reassured her that the service area's silent spatial displacement had been impossible to anticipate.

Yang Yong and Long Ya drove through a strange mist while searching for their separated companions. When a voice imitating Dean Granny tried to lure Long Ya outside, she recognized it as a fake.

• Yang Yong reassured Long Ya that the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace might protect the younger children and promised to find everyone who had been separated.
• Yang Yong and Long Ya set off in the Demoness Pickup Truck, and Yang Yong focused on examining the power within his body.
• A thick mist rose around the truck, and a pale, featureless figure slapped the rear window and screamed at Long Ya.
• A voice imitating Dean Granny called to Long Ya and claimed that the younger children were waiting outside.
• Long Ya touched the Small Banner containing the real Dean Granny, cleared her mind, and realized the voice was a fake.

Long Ya resisted an Eerie impersonating Dean Granny until Yang Yong opened the truck door and sent his ghosts to attack it. As the Eerie was beaten, a much larger fog-born entity appeared and asked Yang Yong whether it looked human or divine.

• Long Ya ignored the Eerie’s repeated calls to open the door, suspecting that the voice imitating Dean Granny was dangerous.
• Yang Yong opened the truck door and summoned the Red-Clothed Female Ghost, the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost, and the Little Girl Eerie.
• The Red-Clothed Female Ghost tore into the Eerie while the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost weakened it with a burning letter, and the Little Girl Eerie cheered from the truck roof.
• Yang Yong teased Long Ya for holding back and told her that he was strong enough to protect her.
• A disembodied voice asked Yang Yong whether it looked human or divine, and a towering, misshapen figure emerged from the fog.

Yang Yong exposed a young Yellow Immortal hiding in the fog and used his throwing knives to trap it while waiting for someone else to appear. Huang Santainai emerged to beg him to spare the creature and invited him to a nearby gathering place.

• Yang Yong used his Evil Eye to see through the fog and identify the enormous apparition as a small yellow weasel.
• Yang Yong trapped the fleeing Yellow Immortal in a net of three thousand throwing knives and frightened it by threatening to make its fur into a scarf.
• Long Ya pleaded with Yang Yong to spare the child, while he listened for another presence in the fog.
• Huang Santainai emerged from the fog and begged Yang Yong to spare the Yellow Immortal.
• Huang Santainai apologized to Yang Yong and invited him to visit her nearby gathering place.

Yang Yong followed the Yellow Weasel toward a small village, discovering that the creature could sense and avoid areas thick with Eerie aura. At the village, he found golden demonic patterns beneath the soil that blocked the gray mist and converged at an old well.

• Huang Santainai asked Yang Yong to take her great-grandson as a guide, and Yang Yong agreed after learning the Yellow Weasel had tried Asking for a Title from him.
• The Yellow Weasel reluctantly climbed into the Demoness Pickup Truck and directed Yang Yong and Long Ya along a winding route around Eerie-filled areas.
• Yang Yong realized the Yellow Weasel repeatedly chose paths without Eerie aura and examined a refined knife that had returned to him, noticing an unfamiliar snake-like mark on its hilt.
• After traveling forty or fifty kilometers, Yang Yong reached a dilapidated village where the gray mist stopped at an invisible boundary.
• Yang Yong used his Evil Eye to find golden demonic patterns encircling the village beneath the soil and converging at an old well.

Yang Yong and Long Ya entered Huang Santainai’s concealed village, where Yaoguai dominated the starving human residents. After Yang Yong frightened Seventh Master Huang away from a boy he was bullying, the truck reached the village hall, where Yang Yong noticed the well’s golden water channeling energy through underground patterns.

• Yang Yong recognized that Huang Santainai had concealed the entire village from Eerie sensing, and the guards alerted the village when the Demoness Pickup Truck arrived.
• A Yellow Immortal reassured the villagers that Yang Yong and Long Ya were invited guests, and they drove through the impoverished village, where Yaoguai outnumbered the starving humans.
• Seventh Master Huang tripped a boy, stole and ate his potato cake, then prepared to urinate on him while nearby humans pleaded for mercy.
• Yang Yong pointed at Seventh Master Huang and struck it with killing intent, making it flee in terror; the boy recovered his potato cake and quietly thanked Yang Yong.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya not to dwell on the humans’ mistreatment, and the truck stopped at the village hall, where Yang Yong saw the well’s golden flecks channeling energy through underground patterns.

Yang Yong confronted Huang Santainai in the Huang Family Hall, testing the village’s defenses and demanding straight answers about the Forbidden Land Wasteland. After Huang Santainai explained the dangers of its sinister places, Yang Yong asked whether her formation could keep out the Eerie, and she replied by asking if he knew about the 72-Hour Rule.

• Yang Yong warned Huang Santainai that he would tear apart the village’s formation if she tried anything against him, then entered the Huang Family Hall with Long Ya.
• Yang Yong detected soundproofing markings in the hall and disrupted them, insisting that Huang Santainai speak openly.
• Huang Santainai recognized that Yang Yong had come from the Walking Service Area and said survivors often emerged with something they should not have picked up.
• Huang Santainai explained that the Forbidden Land Wasteland contained thirteen sinister places inhabited by unclean things, and that survival meant kneeling, running, or being ruthless.
• Yang Yong asked whether Huang Santainai’s formation could keep out the Eerie, and she asked whether he knew about the 72-Hour Rule.

Yang Yong heard Huang Santainai’s offer to trade a wasteland map and a Huang Family heirloom for his help against an Eerie in Black Water Marsh, but he remained suspicious and left the decision open. After rejecting the filthy lodging Huang Yun arranged, he and Long Ya went to inspect the human settlement, where the villagers reacted fearfully to them and Long Ya’s rifle.

• Huang Santainai explained that the village’s Concealment Technique depended on a Spirit Eye and asked Yang Yong to kill the Eerie in Black Water Marsh in exchange for an heirloom and a complete map of the wasteland.
• Yang Yong drank the golden water Huang Santainai offered, warned her not to mark him, and failed to notice a fine crack opening in the bowl.
• Yang Yong grew more suspicious of Huang Santainai and declined to commit to her request, saying he needed to rest.
• Huang Yun led Yang Yong and Long Ya to a small house, but Long Ya rejected it because it was filthy and reeked of musk.
• Yang Yong and Long Ya drove to the human settlement, where frightened villagers hid and wondered whether the small girl could use her large gun.

Yang Yong and Long Ya arrived at a village where the returning supply convoy had been devastated by an Eerie in Black Water Marsh. A surviving man begged Long Ya to rescue the trapped team, then turned to Yang Yong when she called him her master.

• Yang Yong stored the Demoness Pickup Truck and searched for an empty house while villagers watched from hiding.
• A badly damaged Off-Road Vehicle returned with a bloodied survivor, and the villagers learned that the rest of the convoy had been lost or trapped.
• The survivor begged Huang Santainai to rescue the captain and corrupted team members, but the adobe hall remained silent.
• Yang Yong asked about Black Water Marsh, and the survivor recognized Long Ya as a Transcendent and pleaded with her for help.
• Long Ya asked her master Yang Yong what he thought, and the survivor clung to Yang Yong's leg and begged him to save the others.
• Yezi woke when the survivor grabbed Yang Yong's thigh.

Yang Yong reached Black Water Marsh and intervened when vine monsters overwhelmed Zhao Hu’s group. He drove the creatures back with the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace, leaving the survivors protected inside a ring of fire.

• Yezi stripped black mud, blood clots, and hidden threads from the injured man, then fell asleep again.
• Yang Yong took the man, who pointed out Black Water Marsh, and drove there with Long Ya in the Demoness Pickup Truck.
• Zhao Hu and his team struggled against headless, vine-covered monsters as the creatures dragged their injured into the marsh.
• Yang Yong arrived at the battlefield, and Long Ya warned him about vines attacking from his left.
• Yang Yong summoned the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace and spread its bluish-white flames across the mud, forcing the Eerie to retreat.

Yang Yong rescued Zhao Hu’s group from the Black Water Marsh by burning and devouring its vine monsters and wounding the enormous Eerie that controlled them. He left before pursuing it into the depths, promising to return when he was better prepared.

• Yang Yong approached the giant wall of bones and vines, confronted the Black Water Figure, and attacked it with the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace.
• Yang Yong unleashed blue-white flames across the marsh, then used the furnace to suck in the wounded Black Water Figure and the surrounding wall, mud, bones, and vines.
• Yezi woke and devoured the fleeing vine monsters while Yang Yong restrained her from harming the wounded survivors.
• Yang Yong returned Liu San to Zhao Hu, told the survivors their fate was up to them, and left with Long Ya in the Demoness Pickup Truck.
• Long Ya asked why Yang Yong had not pursued the Eerie; he explained that the marsh ran much deeper and said they would return when prepared.

Yang Yong waited in the village for a message from Wan Qi, but interference kept the signal from reaching him. After Zhao Hu returned from Black Water Marsh with the survivors, Yang Yong used Yezi’s Eerie Domain to shut out the village’s grief, drawing Huang Santainai’s attention and prompting Zhao Hu to prepare an offering for his savior.

• Yang Yong waited for a message in his mirror while Cao Xianming struggled to locate him and Wan Qi repeatedly tried to send a signal.
• Long Ya served Yang Yong boiled corn, and the battered vehicles returned to the village with wounded survivors and news of the dead.
• As villagers grieved, Yang Yong released Yezi and had her create a ten-meter Eerie Domain around his house and courtyard.
• Huang Santainai sensed the domain, recognized Yang Yong had another ability, and decided she needed another way to lure him to her.
• Zhao Hu learned that a young man and a little girl carrying a gun had arrived, recognized Yang Yong as his savior, and took out the village’s last box of instant noodles for him.

Zhao Hu sought Yang Yong’s protection and offered his team’s service, but Yang Yong refused and asked instead about the village’s location and water veins. Zhao Hu revealed that the old well connected to Black Water Marsh and sustained Huang Santainai’s talisman magic, leaving Yang Yong considering the link between the well and the thing beneath the marsh.

• Zhao Hu entered Yang Yong’s courtyard and asked to join him, describing how the Yellow Weasels exploited his team.
• Yang Yong refused to take followers and told Zhao Hu he had left Mechanical City.
• Zhao Hu spotted the Ideal Grain Seed corn Yang Yong and Long Ya were eating and offered nearly all his team’s supplies to trade for seeds.
• Yang Yong asked Zhao Hu about the surrounding area, and Zhao Hu identified their location as Lake City.
• Zhao Hu explained that the village’s old well connected to Black Water Marsh’s water veins and that Huang Santainai relied on the water vein and Water Dragon Qi to sustain her talisman magic.

Yang Yong and Long Ya endured a night of synchronized animal cries in the village, though Yang Yong found no sign of an Eerie. At dawn, the cries stopped, Yellow Weasels appeared in the village, and Zhao Hu arrived with two women and provisions.

• Yang Yong refused to take Zhao Hu in immediately and waited to see how Huang Santainai would respond.
• Yang Yong and Long Ya climbed onto the roof during the nighttime cries, but Yang Yong found no trace of an Eerie in any direction.
• Long Ya spotted a mass of silent birds in the eastern locust trees, and Yang Yong decided they would stay awake through the night.
• At dawn, the cries stopped, and Yang Yong watched exhausted Yellow Weasels limp west while more Weasels lay in formation near the old well.
• Zhao Hu brought Auntie Liu and Auntie Gu to Yang Yong's courtyard with rice and pickled vegetables, offering their cooking help.

Yang Yong gave Zhao Hu Ideal Grain Seed to plant under strict terms, then searched the village and found nothing unusual. When he tried to inspect the old well, Huang Yun and Huang Santainai stopped him, and he turned back while suspecting the elder was hiding something.

• Long Ya persuaded Yang Yong to give Zhao Hu Ideal Grain Seed to plant, allowing Zhao Hu’s people to keep thirty percent of the harvest while all new seed remained Yang Yong’s.
• Zhao Hu accepted the corn and promised to find the best land and keep the arrangement quiet.
• After eating, Yang Yong sent the Red-Clothed Female Ghost to patrol and searched every house in the village, but found nothing.
• Yang Yong headed toward the old well, and Huang Yun warned him that it was the formation eye and blocked his way.
• Huang Santainai arrived and refused to let Yang Yong inspect the well, saying it protected the village; Yang Yong agreed to leave but recognized a familiar look in her eyes.
• As Yang Yong walked away, Huang Yun stopped and turned back to address Huang Santainai.

Yang Yong investigated the old well as the village’s nightly howls intensified, while he and Long Ya helped Zhao Hu begin planting corn. Suspecting the field’s soil held ground-up animal bone ash, Yang Yong crept near the guarded well at night and peered into it with his Evil Eye.

• Yang Yong explained to Long Ya that the old well connected to Black Water Marsh’s water veins, but suspected something besides water lay beneath it.
• The village’s howls began before dark, and Yang Yong sensed they came from across the village rather than the well; Long Ya heard what sounded like a child crying, which Yang Yong identified as the Little Yellow Immortals.
• Zhao Hu brought Uncle He to collect the Ideal Grain Seed Cultivation Manual and plant corn in a prepared field near the village’s eastern edge.
• Yang Yong found fine bone ash in the field’s soil and suspected it was not human bone.
• During the fiercest howling, Yang Yong slipped past the Yellow Weasels and crouched several paces from the guarded old well, looking into it with his Evil Eye.

Yang Yong discovered that Huang Santainai was using the entity in the old well to sustain the village’s formation and suspected it shared a source with Black Water Marsh. After the corn harvest, he reflected on the village’s unnatural lack of Eerie and remained wary of what it concealed.

• Yang Yong saw something moving in the old well, and Huang Santainai admitted it helped sustain both her and the village’s formation.
• Yang Yong connected the well entity to the being in Black Water Marsh and warned Long Ya not to drink the well water starting the next day.
• Zhao Hu reported that the corn was ripe, and Long Ya confirmed the harvest was good but fewer than one in a thousand kernels could serve as seed.
• Long Ya told Yang Yong that one corn plant had produced no viable seeds, and Yang Yong accepted the result as normal outside the Paradise Service Area.
• Yang Yong considered how the village had no trace of Eerie, unlike other places where people survived.

Yang Yong realized Great-Grandmother Huang Shan might be an Eerie connected to the village’s old well, and decided they could no longer stay. He concealed his suspicions and went with Long Ya to inspect the freshly harvested corn.

• Huang Shan begged Yang Yong to return his first Curio, a knife he used to absorb Blood Moon Energy, and Yang Yong gave it back.
• Yang Yong saw that Great-Grandmother Huang Shan had no Blood Moon Energy and suspected she was an Eerie.
• Yang Yong reasoned that the current Great-Grandmother could no longer repair the village’s Array Patterns and only guarded the old well because something inside it needed guarding.
• Yang Yong concluded that he and Long Ya could not remain in the village, erased his drawing, and suggested they inspect the corn.
• Zhao Hu and Uncle He examined the fresh corn harvest with delight.