Recaps

Lu Xiao collected supplies and standard tactical equipment after declining Dan Guofeng’s offer of a new officer’s set. As the squad headed out on a mission to hunt two giant cockroaches, Dan Guofeng began training Lu Xiao and warned him to avoid contact with civilians.

• Dan Guofeng helped Lu Xiao receive three protein bars and offered him a new set of tactical gear, but Lu Xiao declined and joined the equipment line.
• Lu Xiao received an assault rifle, spare magazines, and a lightly damaged protective suit whose previous owner had been killed in action.
• Dan Guofeng explained that Lu Xiao would train on missions for a week before officially joining them, then received an assignment to hunt two giant cockroaches for food supplies.
• Dan Guofeng helped Lu Xiao put on his gear and told him to conserve ammunition for frontline soldiers.
• As the squad set out, Dan Guofeng began Lu Xiao’s special training and warned him to avoid interacting with civilians during missions.

Lu Xiao exposed a man who was pretending to be a baby's father and had been suffocating the child, then left the baby where its real mother could reach him. The woman found the baby safe along with two protein bars and bowed in gratitude toward Lu Xiao's departing squad.

• Dan Guofeng warned Lu Xiao not to risk the mission by helping civilians, but the squad soon encountered a man begging them to save the baby in his arms.
• Lu Xiao offered the man protein bars and noticed his greedy reaction; when the man tried to take what Lu Xiao reached for, Lu Xiao killed him.
• Lu Xiao picked up the baby, whose color returned after he was no longer being squeezed, and explained that the dead man was not the child's father.
• Lu Xiao spotted the baby's real mother hiding in the ruins, left the baby and two protein bars for her, and continued on with the squad.
• The woman carried her baby to safety, found the protein bars, and bowed toward Lu Xiao and the others.

As the squad continued its mission through the ruins, Lu Xiao recognized Dan Guofeng as Dan Qingrong’s son and improvised an identity to explain how he knew the family’s secrets. Dan Guofeng accepted him as Shadow and asked where his good-for-nothing father had gone.

• Lu Xiao gave away part of his ration to save a life, and Dan Guofeng ordered the squad to continue its mission.
• Lu Xiao asked Dan Guofeng about Dan Qingrong, prompting Dan Guofeng to point his gun at him when Lu Xiao revealed he knew she was his mother.
• Lu Xiao claimed his real name was Liu Guang and his codename was Shadow, then revealed Dan Guofeng’s parents were Dan Qingrong and Zhang Chu.
• Dan Guofeng lowered his gun, accepted that Lu Xiao was the person he claimed to be, and asked where his father had gone.

Lu Xiao questioned Dan Guofeng about his past and learned that he had spent most of his life on Mount Kunlun before coming down to find his father, Zhang Chu. Dan Guofeng revealed that General Bai had promised to bring Zhang Chu to him when he earned a decoration, leaving Lu Xiao suspicious of Bai’s intentions.

• Lu Xiao told Dan Guofeng that his father was carrying out an important mission, then the squad defeated a giant cockroach.
• Lu Xiao learned that Dan Guofeng had come down from the mountain nearly three years earlier, after spending his first thirty-odd years there.
• Dan Guofeng said he had come down to drag his father, Zhang Chu, back to the mountain, and described the insults his elders had used for him.
• Dan Guofeng explained that his mother had called Zhang Chu merely a disappointment and asked Lu Xiao where he was.
• Lu Xiao said Zhang Chu’s mission was classified, and Dan Guofeng revealed that General Bai had promised to bring his father to him when he was decorated.
• Lu Xiao doubted Bai Xuedong would give up Zhang Chu and suspected he intended to keep both Zhang Chu and Dan Guofeng.

Lu Xiao received a transfer order from Bai Xuedong recalling him to the frontline headquarters, but he could not end the superdream experience and tried to get Dan Guofeng to kill him. Dan Guofeng stopped him and suspected Lu Xiao was faking an injury to avoid returning to the front.

• Lu Xiao spent over a month with Dan Guofeng in the rear without facing a life-or-death crisis.
• A messenger addressed Lu Xiao as Mr. Shadow and delivered a handwritten transfer order from Bai Xuedong.
• Lu Xiao tried to end the superdream experience, but remained in the cooking squad's tent.
• Lu Xiao asked Dan Guofeng to kill him, then pointed an assault rifle at his own forehead.
• Dan Guofeng used a spell to freeze Lu Xiao, took the gun, and read the transfer order.
• Dan Guofeng suspected Lu Xiao was trying to get injured so he could stay in the rear.

After Dan Guofeng restrained Lu Xiao and disarmed him, Lu Xiao questioned whether he was in a Dreamscape and tested whether he still had abilities. He decided to follow his transfer to the front lines for answers, while resolving to investigate the Taoist Temple and its unusual connection to trait holders.

• Dan Guofeng immobilized Lu Xiao, dismantled the Assault Rifle, removed its rounds, and then released him.
• Lu Xiao explained that he had tried to wake himself from a Dreamscape, but began to doubt that explanation when the situation seemed too comfortable and he had no abilities.
• Lu Xiao offered Dan Guofeng a rifle barrel as a bribe and asked him to striptease; Dan Guofeng recoiled, convincing Lu Xiao that he truly lacked abilities.
• Lu Xiao decided to follow his transfer order to the front lines and asked Dan Guofeng to explain the Immobility Spell he had used.
• Dan Guofeng said the spell was ordinary and known to everyone on the mountain, prompting Lu Xiao to resolve to revisit the Taoist Temple and investigate its secrets.

With Lu Xiao missing as the allied forces attacked the Succubus Settlement, Calamity and Ruiqi tried to carry out his defensive plan and contact him. Lu Xiao was elsewhere with Dan Guofeng, heading toward Bai Xuedong and guessing he had been summoned to help refine the Prison Plan and Spark Plan.

• A wounded Succubus reported that the allied forces had breached the Settlement’s first line of defense, and Calamity promised to intervene while Ruiqi went to display her power.
• Calamity investigated the room where Lu Xiao had vanished, then performed a summoning ritual with a Severed Finger, but Lu Xiao did not answer.
• Lu Xiao strolled through the ruins with Dan Guofeng following him and remarked that Bai Xuedong had arranged for Dan Guofeng to see a transfer order.
• Lu Xiao recalled that Bai Xuedong was nearing the end of his life and inferred that he had been summoned to help refine the Prison Plan and Spark Plan.
• Lu Xiao decided to take his time and thought of teasing Dan Guofeng, whom he regarded as an inexperienced young Taoist.

Lu Xiao deliberately stalled after he and Dan Guofeng stepped on concealed traps, waiting to see how Dan Guofeng would react. When a group of cannibalistic survivors approached, Lu Xiao fled to get backup and left Dan Guofeng behind.

• Lu Xiao spotted a suspicious piece of chocolate near the ruins and pretended to approach a trap, prompting Dan Guofeng to rush out and step on it.
• Lu Xiao kept Dan Guofeng talking and moved slowly, then stepped on another concealed trap disguised as a land mine.
• Lu Xiao recognized the traps as empty drinks cans but stayed quiet to buy time and test Dan Guofeng.
• A ragged group of survivors approached, and Lu Xiao ran off, telling Dan Guofeng he was going to get backup.
• Dan Guofeng realized Lu Xiao had left him trapped on purpose and wondered how he had offended him.

Lu Xiao watched as Dan Guofeng was surrounded by scavengers who revealed they had eaten a baby’s mother and threatened the infant. Dan Guofeng rescued the baby and slaughtered the attackers with inhuman speed, leaving Lu Xiao astonished by his strength.

• Lu Xiao watched Dan Guofeng prepare to fight as ragged scavengers surrounded him and one thrust a sharpened rebar at him.
• A scavenger exposed a bloodied baby and said that he and the others had eaten its mother.
• Dan Guofeng invoked the Patriarch, moved out of danger, and found that he had not stepped on a land mine.
• Dan Guofeng wrapped the baby in his clothes and set it down safely before turning on the scavengers.
• Dan Guofeng moved with blinding speed and brutally killed the fleeing scavengers as Lu Xiao watched in astonishment.

Lu Xiao joined Dan Guofeng after Dan nearly killed a group of attackers, and the two tortured the last survivor for information about where people like them gathered. They set off to deal with the remaining criminals, while Lu Xiao carried and fed the baby he had rescued.

• Dan Guofeng spared the last attacker after breaking his spine, and Lu Xiao emerged from hiding.
• Dan Guofeng told Lu Xiao to interrogate the survivor and find where the attackers gathered so he could wipe them out.
• Lu Xiao tortured the survivor until he died, extracting the information before he could answer without being asked.
• Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng left the scene, and Lu Xiao carried the rescued baby and fed it pieces of a protein bar.
• As they walked, Lu Xiao recalled Dan Guofeng's ability and thought it resembled someone.

Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng reflected on how to deal with human cruelty, then entered a filthy subway shelter to investigate. In Hell, Ding Dan and Yi Hao realized Morati had been missing since Ding Dan’s return and feared something had happened to him.

• Lu Xiao told Dan Guofeng to leave judgment to the Dao Ancestor, helping him recover from his inner turmoil.
• Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng reached a subway shelter, recoiled at its foul conditions, and began descending with the baby.
• Ding Dan asked Yi Hao why Morati had not come to see him in Hell.
• Yi Hao recalled that Morati had also been absent when he last visited, and Ding Dan concluded that something had happened to Morati.

Yi Hao explained that the succubus’s public appeal to return home had made her a political liability, and a rival Deity tried to exploit the situation. After ordering the rival killed if possible, Yi Hao told the succubus that her presence endangered her people and his plans.

• Ding Dan granted the succubus permission to return to her people, and Yi Hao agreed to arrange it.
• Yi Hao privately warned the succubus that publicly appealing to Ding Dan had diminished his standing and could bring trouble to her people.
• Yi Hao revealed a Deity disguised as the succubus and explained that a substitute could be sent back in her place.
• A Deity from another allied force asked to take the real succubus, but Yi Hao ordered him to leave.
• The rival Deity challenged Yi Hao and left, after which Yi Hao ordered the disguised Deity to kill him if an opportunity arose.
• Yi Hao warned the succubus that others wanted to use her to stir up trouble, and she nodded in understanding.

Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng cleared the shelter, then followed familiar human-sounding roars into a dark subway tunnel. They found a metal staircase near the source of the noise and suspected it led to an equipment or maintenance room.

• Yi Hao told Ding Dan that the Succubus was dead and proposed disguising Ding Dan as her to meet someone; Ding Dan agreed to the plan.
• Yi Hao said he would lure Deities from other races to accompany Ding Dan so they could be captured for Mr. Shadow.
• Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng finished torturing the shelter’s evildoers, and Lu Xiao noticed roars coming from a nearby tunnel.
• Lu Xiao headed into the tunnel toward the roars, and Dan Guofeng followed him through the darkness.
• Lu Xiao located a metal staircase beside the roars and said a subway equipment or maintenance room was likely above it; Dan Guofeng felt his way over.

Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng reached a rusted iron door, where Dan Guofeng summoned his Patriarch to possess him and destroy it. Inside the subway maintenance room, they found a bloodstained, bandage-wrapped humanoid that charged at Dan Guofeng, crying that it was hungry.

• Dan Guofeng used a fingertip flame to light the tunnel, and Lu Xiao led him toward the iron door where the roaring sound came from.
• Lu Xiao suggested Dan Guofeng let his Patriarch possess him before they entered, and Dan Guofeng performed a summoning ritual.
• The Patriarch possessed Dan Guofeng, whose white motes of light filled the room after he disintegrated the iron door and walked inside.
• Lu Xiao saw bones and a bloodstained, bandage-wrapped humanoid crouching beside a chainsaw in the maintenance room.
• The humanoid stood, cried that it was hungry, and charged at Dan Guofeng.

Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng subdued Chainsaw Man after he tried to eat Lu Xiao, then carried him back to Doctor Li. Dan Guofeng explained that using the Deity-Inviting Incantation burned his blood, and he mocked Lu Xiao's claim to have been a devout Daoist.

• A bandage-wrapped Chainsaw Man asked Dan Guofeng and Lu Xiao for food, then lunged toward Lu Xiao when he was told he could not eat his friend.
• Dan Guofeng used the Deity-Inviting Incantation to bind Chainsaw Man with barbed fleshy sprouts, and Lu Xiao stopped him from draining all of Chainsaw Man's blood.
• Lu Xiao asked Dan Guofeng to take Chainsaw Man to Doctor Li, and the two headed back with Chainsaw Man, the chainsaw, and the sleeping baby.
• Dan Guofeng told Lu Xiao that the Deity-Inviting Incantation burned his blood and dismissed Lu Xiao's claim that he had been a devout Daoist as a child.

Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng bickered as they carried Chainsaw Man out of the tunnel, while Lu Xiao privately lamented that he was not really a con artist. In Hell, Ding Dan approached the Succubus Settlement disguised as a Succubus and carrying seven hostile Deities inside him, as Ruiqi and Calamity debated whether to accept him.

• Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng argued over Lu Xiao’s claim that he was a devout Daoist and his earlier lie about going to find help.
• Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng pushed Chainsaw Man onto a platform, and Lu Xiao quietly wished he really were a con artist.
• Ding Dan traveled toward the Succubus Settlement in disguise while seven Deities parasitized him and plotted to attack it.
• Ding Dan’s disguise and the seven Deities’ plan were part of Yi Hao’s scheme to catch the hostile Deities in one net.
• Ruiqi argued that they should kill the returning Succubus rather than risk the Settlement, while Calamity was willing to accept him despite suspecting something was wrong.

Calamity reassured Ruiqi that Lu Xiao’s plans were unfolding, though he was privately troubled by signs that Lu Xiao might have fallen. When Ding Dan arrived disguised as a succubus and asked where Morati was, Calamity’s frozen reaction convinced him Morati was in trouble.

• Ruiqi asked Calamity whether Lu Xiao was still alive and admitted she regretted staking her clan’s future on him.
• Calamity told Ruiqi that the factions in Hell were following Lu Xiao’s plans, but he privately worried because Lu Xiao had not answered his calls and the clan’s faith statue showed signs of losing its target.
• The soldiers returned with Ding Dan disguised as a succubus, and Ruiqi immediately recognized that he was not one of her people.
• Calamity learned through their mental link that the disguised newcomer was Ding Dan and suspected Yi Hao had sent him with ulterior motives.
• Ding Dan asked where Morati was, and Calamity’s reaction made Ding Dan certain that something had happened to him.

Ding Dan revealed his divine form and used the King's Authority to force the seven Deities and Ruiqi to kneel. Calamity realized Ding Dan was a deity with powerful Authority, while Ding Dan explained that he could not make all of Hell submit at once.

• Ding Dan learned from Calamity that Morati had been detained and could be freed for one hundred million souls.
• Ding Dan tore the seven Deities from his abdomen and transformed into his five-meter-tall demonic form, revealing his Crown and King's Authority.
• Ding Dan commanded Ruiqi and the seven Deities to kneel, and they all obeyed.
• A Deity accused Ding Dan of colluding with outsiders and threatened to expose him, but Ding Dan forced the seven Deities back to their knees.
• Calamity asked why Ding Dan did not make all of Hell submit, and Ding Dan explained that Hell had too many lives to control at once.

Ding Dan gave the seven infiltrating Deities a choice: submit to being studied by Calamity and Ruiqi, or die along with their clans. Calamity backed up the threat with his higher-ranked aura and maddening murmurs, leaving the Deities shaken and facing a seemingly hopeless decision.

• Ding Dan let the seven Deities rise after suppressing them, while Ruiqi remained kneeling because she trusted that the Great Lord was on their side.
• The parasitic Deity challenged Ding Dan, who said he had brought them there to give them a choice rather than kill them outright.
• Ding Dan offered the Deities the choice of returning with Calamity and Ruiqi to be studied or dying alongside their clans.
• Calamity revealed his ancient, higher-being aura and used Information flood to fill the Deities' minds with maddening whispers.
• The Deities realized Calamity could drive them toward madness and began to despair over the danger to their lives and clans.

Ding Dan forced the seven Deities to submit by revealing that he had taken control of the Parasite Demon race’s people and their hosts. After assigning six Deities to Calamity, Ding Dan left with Parasite Demon and planned to summon the missing Lu Xiao through a mass ritual; Amilia then brought up a prophecy about the devil who would rule Hell.

• Ding Dan told Parasite Demon that his people had been forced to parasitize a matching population of slaves, and Amilia confirmed that the Great Lord held the race’s fate in his hands.
• The other six Deities feared that their own homes were vulnerable, and all seven Deities knelt and submitted to protect their people.
• Ding Dan handed the six Deities other than Parasite Demon over to Calamity, who promised to arrange research work and possible compensation for them.
• Ding Dan and Calamity decided to gather Hell’s native beings to call Lu Xiao simultaneously, hoping he would sense them if he was alive.
• After Parasite Demon swore submission, Ding Dan left with him, and Amilia appeared beside Ruiqi and praised the Great Lord’s ruthless methods.
• Calamity asked Amilia to explain the prophecy about the devil who could rule Hell.

Calamity learned how Hell’s prophecy of a one-horned demon arose and asked Amilia about the Great Lord’s authority of the King. Amilia explained that it could bind public submissions to lifelong service and gradually shape them into loyal followers.

• Amilia told Calamity that the Royal Family’s prophecy came from a tablet found inside a berserk Hell Worm, and that the High Priest later dreamed of the one-horned demon.
• Amilia explained that demon horns could not be changed, and that the new Great Lord had gained the Will of Hell’s recognition and the authority of the King.
• Calamity asked Amilia what the authority of the King could do, and Amilia said it suppressed beings of lower life levels and empowered rulership over those who submitted.
• Amilia explained that a public submission bound a subject to the King as long as witnesses remained alive, with the rules punishing any betrayal.
• Amilia added that subjects would gradually come to prioritize the King’s interests and become loyal to him, using the Parasite Demon’s oath as an example.

Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng took the bound Chainsaw Man toward the front, while Amilia decided to align himself more closely with Lu Xiao to avoid Ding Dan’s eventual rule over Hell. On the way, Lu Xiao’s disastrous driving demonstration sent their off-road vehicle rolling sideways.

• Ruiqi asked Amilia whether Ding Dan’s aura had made her submit, and Amilia explained that submission required an oath or a genuine desire to yield.
• The six Deities concluded they were fortunate to have submitted early, and Amilia decided that tying himself to Lu Xiao was his best way to avoid being shaped by Ding Dan’s rule.
• Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng dragged the bound Chainsaw Man to a guarded outpost, requisitioned an armored off-road vehicle using Bai Xuedong’s letter, and headed toward the front.
• Lu Xiao tried feeding Chainsaw Man protein bars, but Chainsaw Man showed no interest, so Lu Xiao planned to leave the feeding problem to Doctor Li.
• When Dan Guofeng shouted for Lu Xiao to turn around rubble, Lu Xiao mishandled the steering wheel and rolled the vehicle onto its side.
• Lu Xiao helped Dan Guofeng set the vehicle upright and claimed the accident was a demonstration of what not to do.

Dan Guofeng drove the Off-Road Vehicle as Lu Xiao rode beside him, but their journey took a strange turn when Dan pressed a red button and the vehicle skidded to a halt. Lu Xiao activated autonomous driving, and the system projected a tiny girl as the vehicle started moving again.

• Dan Guofeng took over driving and gradually increased the vehicle’s speed while Lu Xiao sat quietly beside him.
• As night fell and Dan Guofeng grew exhausted, the vehicle recommended activating autonomous driving mode.
• Lu Xiao warned Dan Guofeng not to press a glowing red button, but Dan pushed his hand aside and pressed it, causing the vehicle to skid.
• Lu Xiao told Dan Guofeng the button was probably an emergency stop and activated autonomous driving mode.
• The system announced that Lu Xi had taken over, a tiny girl appeared in azure light, and the Off-Road Vehicle started up again.

Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng rode to the front lines in a vehicle controlled by Lu Xi, who drove at high speed and predicted their arrival. Lu Xiao hinted that Dan Guofeng’s father, Zhang Chu, was on the front lines, then demanded that Dan Guofeng call him his dear big brother in exchange for more information.

• Lu Xi activated the vehicle’s automated controls and drove Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng toward the front lines at nearly 200 kilometers per hour.
• Lu Xiao asked Lu Xi how long the trip would take, and she said they would arrive in just over an hour and that frontline command had been notified.
• Lu Xiao teased Dan Guofeng about desertion and suggested he could put in a good word with Old Bai.
• Lu Xiao mentioned his bond with Dan Guofeng’s father, Zhang Chu, prompting Dan Guofeng to ask whether his father was on the front lines.
• Lu Xiao confirmed Zhang Chu was there and offered to tell Dan Guofeng more if he called him his dear big brother.

Lu Xiao realized his inexplicable hostility toward Dan Guofeng might be linked to Dan Guofeng’s ability or an unknown Authority. He traced the change to a misunderstanding after General Bai’s transfer order and began questioning whether Dan Guofeng’s supposed power to invite a Patriarch was genuine.

• Dan Guofeng asked Lu Xiao why he kept making things difficult for him, prompting Lu Xiao to realize his behavior was abnormal.
• Lu Xiao reviewed his time with Dan Guofeng and asked when the targeting had begun; Dan Guofeng said it started when Lu Xiao received General Bai’s transfer order.
• Dan Guofeng explained that he had thought Lu Xiao deliberately hurt himself to evade the transfer and leave him unable to clear his name.
• Lu Xiao concluded that the misunderstanding had caused Dan Guofeng to view him as a bad person, and suspected Dan Guofeng’s ability or an unknown Authority was affecting him.
• Lu Xiao reasoned that Dan Guofeng’s claimed ability to invite a Patriarch could not work as described, since Zhang Chu would have used it too.