Chapter Summaries

Huang Yu warned Chen Jin that Yan Hui had formed a Demon-Slaying Alliance to attack the mountain spirits, while Chen Jin considered the conflict with Yan Household Stronghold an opportunity. At the stronghold, Great-uncle ordered someone to check the cliff and instructed Yan Hui to make the expedition succeed.

• Huang Yu came to Banyan Tree Slope and told Chen Jin that Yan Hui had gathered martial artists into a Demon-Slaying Alliance.
• Huang Yu explained that Venerable Fire Crow had united the mountain spirits and ghosts to resist the alliance, and offered to follow Chen Jin's lead.
• Chen Jin considered the coming battle with Yan Household Stronghold and decided Yuan Bai could represent Banyan Tree Slope at a meeting on Black Wind Mountain.
• A man told Great-uncle that Yan Ji and Yan Fei had not returned from delivering supplies to the cliff for five days.
• Great-uncle ordered the man to send someone to inspect the cliff and tell Yan Hui to carry out the demon-slaying expedition cleanly.

Yuan Bai agreed to travel to Black Wind Mountain with Huang Yu, while Chen Jin stayed behind and practiced swordsmanship to prepare for the coming battle. Afterward, Chen Jin used his visualization method to conjure moonlight, a cup, and wine, ending the night alone beneath the old banyan.

• Yuan Bai accepted Huang Yu's invitation to travel together from the Yellow Wind Graveyard to Black Wind Mountain.
• Chen Jin reflected on his limited fighting strength and the progress he had made with the Slay Evil Sword.
• Chen Jin practiced stabbing falling leaves with his sword and managed to pierce two or three.
• Chen Jin visualized a bright moon, conjured a jade cup and grape wine, and drank beneath the old banyan.
• The conjured moonlight faded, leaving Chen Jin sitting alone among the withered leaves.

Yuan Bai traveled with Huang Yu to Black Wind Mountain for the Demon-Ghost Alliance’s founding assembly, where General Wolf challenged him over Chen Jin’s absence. The chapter ended with a report that four people had disappeared near a hanging coffin and a warning from the voice in the black coffin not to bring uncertain matters to him.

• Huang Yu gave Yuan Bai handmade straw sandals, and the two set off for Black Wind Mountain.
• Huang Yu told Yuan Bai that the mountain demons had organized the Demon-Ghost Alliance under the black bear spirit after Venerable Fire Crow urged them to unite.
• General Wolf accused Yuan Bai of spying and criticized Chen Jin for skipping the assembly, while Huang Yu defended them by explaining that Chen Jin was only a guest at Banyan Tree Slope.
• The black bear spirit welcomed the attendees and defused the confrontation as Yuan Bai sat down beside General Wolf.
• A kneeling clansman reported that Yan Li, Yan Ji, and Yan Fei had disappeared near the cliff, and the voice in the black coffin ordered him not to report matters he could not confirm.

Chen Jin gathered moonlight essence Qi while seeking a way to remove the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman, but an eerie shadow attacked him and demanded he become its servant. He drove it away with his bloodied Slay Evil Sword, though the shadow promised to return.

• Chen Jin decided to save moonlight essence Qi so he could eventually use solar essence Qi to burn away the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman.
• An eerie wind slowed Chen Jin’s thoughts, and he discovered a sinister shadow had draped itself over his back.
• The shadow’s female voice demanded that Chen Jin become its servant or die, while the frightened monkeys fled.
• Chen Jin cut his hand on the Slay Evil Sword and flicked his red blood onto the shadow, injuring it and forcing it to flee.

Chen Jin grew closer to becoming human and prepared to defend himself by making a talisman brush. After several overcast days, he sat atop the banyan tree to try absorbing the morning sun’s purple Qi as the sunrise began.

• Chen Jin realized that his soul and body were gradually connecting, bringing him closer to becoming a living person.
• After practicing swordsmanship, Chen Jin followed a little monkey to a bamboo grove and cut a stalk to make a talisman brush.
• Chen Jin planned to use the Yellow Immortal Clan’s tail-tip hairs and his blood to draw talismans against the demonic specter that had threatened to return.
• Yuan Bai and Huang Yu remained away at the gathering on Black Wind Mountain, while the mountain monkeys returned to Banyan Tree Slope.
• Chen Jin climbed to the banyan tree’s crown and prepared to absorb his first wisp of morning sun purple Qi as the sun rose.

Chen Jin refined morning sun purple Qi, then used the Slay Evil Sword to drive off a demonic woman that approached the shrine. Meanwhile, Yan Laojiu reported that White Zombie number 303 had escaped, and Great-uncle decided to keep the news from the Holy Maiden for now.

• Chen Jin gathered nine wisps of morning sun purple Qi and refined them, converting the corpse Qi in his body into True Qi.
• A dark creature approached the shrine, and the Slay Evil Sword warned Chen Jin before he commanded it to strike.
• The sword wounded the fleeing female creature, leaving glowing green blood behind, and Chen Jin recovered the blade and resumed gathering moon essence Qi.
• Yan Laojiu told Great-uncle that White Zombie number 303 had escaped and that Yan Ji and the others were missing.
• Great-uncle ordered Yan Laojiu not to inform the Holy Maiden, who was preparing to enter the mountains to slay demons.

Chen Jin continued cultivating and fishing at Banyan Tree Slope, then heard from Huang Yu about Yuan Bai’s defeat at the Demon-Ghost Alliance gathering and the alliance’s possible plans to visit him. The chapter left Chen Jin untroubled by their expected arrival, while he wondered whether the female ghost had already come.

• Chen Jin named the clever little monkey Yuan Xiaoer and reflected on his progress toward returning from death to life.
• Chen Jin’s fish escaped after snapping his fishing line, and he returned home with Yuan Xiaoer.
• Chen Jin met Yuan Bai and Huang Yu, who had returned from the Demon-Ghost Alliance gathering, and Huang Yu explained what had happened.
• Huang Yu reported that Yuan Bai had fought General Wolf, lost narrowly, and received the title of Vanguard Officer from the alliance leaders.
• Huang Yu warned Chen Jin that the black bear spirit might come looking for him, and Chen Jin calmly said they could come.

After Huang Yu left, Chen Jin studied the cultivation realms and used the rising sun to destroy the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman on his body. Newly freed from its restraint, he offered to teach Yuan Bai the method for refining the Heng Bone.

• Huang Yu left in good spirits, while Yuan Bai returned to Banyan Tree Slope and learned from the monkeys that a terrifying ghost had visited Chen Jin.
• Yuan Bai learned that Chen Jin had named Yuan Shier, let the little monkey off for breaking its rule, and hoped to follow Chen Jin out into the wider world.
• Chen Jin’s cultivation revealed twelve realms, and he puzzled over his strange ability to perform embryonic breathing and wield a little True Qi despite his zombie body.
• Chen Jin gathered the rising sun’s fire and burned the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman from his flesh, then declared that he would one day roam free.
• Yuan Bai climbed the old banyan tree after hearing Chen Jin laugh, and Chen Jin offered to teach it the method for refining the Heng Bone.

Yuan Bai visited Huang Yu after learning to speak and shared the four lines of verse Chen Jin had taught it. Meanwhile, Venerable Fire Crow confronted Chen Jin at Banyan Tree Slope with a vast flock of crows, and Chen Jin drew his sword to face them.

• Chen Jin helped Yuan Bai refine away its Heng Bone and taught it four lines of verse.
• Yuan Bai reached the Yellow Wind Graveyard and told Huang Yu that it could speak and recited the verse.
• Yuan Bai and Huang Yu discussed the verse beneath a cypress tree as night fell.
• Chen Jin sensed a familiar presence in the moonless grove and recognized that Madam Ghost had returned with an ally.
• Venerable Fire Crow accused Chen Jin of wounding Madam Ghost and declared him an enemy of the Demon-Ghost Alliance.
• Venerable Fire Crow summoned a vast flock that blotted out the moon, and Chen Jin drew his sword.

Chen Jin joined the Demon-Ghost Alliance’s march on the Yan Household Stronghold, hoping to settle matters there while the demons planned a surprise attack. The stronghold detected their approach and raised the alarm.

• The black bear spirit invited Chen Jin to join the alliance’s attack on the Yan Household Stronghold, and Chen Jin agreed because he wanted to investigate it.
• The black bear spirit led the demons and ghosts toward the stronghold while Venerable Fire Crow sent crows ahead and Madam Ghost disappeared into the darkness.
• Yuan Bai returned to fight beside Chen Jin instead of summoning the monkey troop, while Huang Yu’s Yellow Immortal Clan served as scouts.
• The black bear spirit appointed General Wolf as the vanguard after Yuan Bai left his post.
• The Yan Household Stronghold spotted the approaching force, rang its bells, and called its defenders to arms.

Yan Household disciples and their allies fought off the Demon-Ghost Alliance’s wolf vanguard, while General Wolf retreated to the enemy camp. The black bear spirit killed General Wolf to warn Chen Jin and Yuan Bai just as Venerable Fire Crow spotted an attack coming.

• Yan Household disciples, Sun Meng, Third Granny Chen, and Wu Wei attacked the wolf pack, and Wu Wei wounded General Wolf with an arrow.
• Liu Chen watched the battle from the stronghold wall, confident that the wolves posed little threat.
• General Wolf sought justice from the black bear spirit, who waited with Venerable Fire Crow for Madam Ghost and Mr. Corpse.
• Chen Jin arrived with Yuan Bai, and Yuan Bai realized that refusing to lead the vanguard had spared his monkeys from heavy losses.
• General Wolf attacked Yuan Bai, then tried to leave; the black bear spirit tore him in half for deserting.
• Venerable Fire Crow warned the others that the enemy was charging toward them.

The Demon-Slaying Alliance routed the Demon Beasts, and Liu Chen killed the black bear spirit while Chen Jin and Yuan Bai fled. Yan Hui discovered corpse stench in the forest and suspected Mr. Corpse had escaped underground.

• Wu Wei struck an ancient bronze gong, scattering Venerable Fire Crow's flock, and an arrow brought Venerable Fire Crow down as the black bear spirit fled.
• Chen Jin told Yuan Bai to run, and Yuan Bai escaped through the trees while the black bear spirit drew most of the pursuers away.
• Liu Chen and Yan Hui blocked the black bear spirit, and Liu Chen killed it with a sword strike.
• Yuan Bai heard the black bear spirit's dying roar and worried about Chen Jin's safety.
• Yan Hui detected corpse stench in the forest and concluded that Mr. Corpse had used Earth Escape.

Yan Hui discovered that a White Zombie had escaped and learned from her great-uncle that corpse 303 was missing, while the Yan Household searched the mountains for it. She agreed to bring the cliff’s zombies back to the stronghold as her family tried to contain the unexplained events.

• Yan Hui rang the Corpse-Driving Bell to summon the strange zombie, but nothing appeared, then ordered the search for Demon Beasts and the white-faced demon monkey.
• Yan Hui told Liu Chen to continue searching for the Slay Evil Sword and returned to the stronghold to question her great-uncle.
• Her great-uncle revealed that coffin 303 was empty and that Yan Ji and others had vanished; Yan Hui denied that the sword sect had uncovered the household’s crimes.
• Yan Hui’s great-uncle warned her to stay calm and said the zombies on the cliff were ready to be brought back.
• Yan Hui agreed to retrieve the cliff’s zombies while the stronghold’s disciples searched the mountains for the missing White Zombie.

As Yan Hui prepared the Yan Household’s corpses for winter, she remained haunted by the missing White Zombie and the vanished Chen Jin. Months later, spring thunder stirred a red-haired hand from beneath the soil, leaving a new danger emerging near Stream Mountain.

• Yan Hui oversaw the transfer of the corpses, soothed her great-uncle’s life-bound corpse, and worried over Chen Jin’s failed refinement and escape as snow began to fall.
• Yuan Bai waited through the winter for Chen Jin, mourning the destruction of Yellow Wind Graveyard and the scattering of the mountain’s Demon Beasts.
• After the snow melted, the old banyan tree’s charred branches formed Lightning-Struck Wood, while a toad awoke in the Nether Passage River and fled back underwater at the sound of thunder.
• Mountain foragers arrived at Stream Mountain, hoping to find treasures after the Demon-Slaying Alliance’s purge of the Demon Beasts.
• After the foragers fled from uncanny thunder, a red-haired, withered hand reached out of the soil.

After hiding underground through winter, Chen Jin emerged and evaded a lightning tribulation by taking shelter in a cave. He began refining his Qi there, discovered his corpse stench could expose him, and prepared to continue cultivating while wondering whether Yuan Bai had survived.

• Chen Jin escaped the Demon-Slaying Alliance by using Earth Escape, then spent the winter underground cultivating until spring thunder woke him.
• Chen Jin dodged a lightning strike and hid in a cave while the tribulation struck the surrounding area.
• Chen Jin found firewood in the cave, started a fire, and waited out the storm as night brought heavy rain.
• Chen Jin inspected the Slay Evil Sword and opened his nasal apertures, only to discover that his body’s corpse stench could betray him.
• Chen Jin planned to open the remaining six primary meridians, admired the rain, and wondered whether Yuan Bai had escaped.

Chen Jin returned to Banyan Tree Slope and found people preparing to rebuild its shrine and establish a new mountain god. Leaving his buried belongings behind him, he walked upstream and discovered that every hanging coffin had vanished from the cliff.

• Chen Jin absorbed the rising sun’s purple Qi, then followed a group of mountain foragers and learned that Demon Beasts had dwindled while visitors and trade had spread through the mountains.
• Chen Jin reached Banyan Tree Slope and overheard people planning to tear down the old shrine and build a larger one for a new mountain god.
• Chen Jin hid until the group left, recovered his buried belongings, and found the lightning-struck wood had been removed from the old banyan tree.
• Chen Jin encountered the mutant toad at Savage Ford, but it recognized him and fled into the river, so he continued upstream.
• Chen Jin reached a towering cliff and saw that all the hanging coffins had disappeared.

Chen Jin left the Corpse-Nurturing Cliff after the Nether Passage River began churning, while Yan Laojiu arrived with Yan Household disciples to prepare the cliff for a new year of corpse nurturing. As a massive wave surged toward them, Yan Laojiu shouted for everyone to climb up.

• Chen Jin wondered whether the Yan Household had removed its hanging coffins and decided he would still need to enter the Yan Household Great Stronghold.
• The Nether Passage River began to boil, and Chen Jin suspected the legendary great snake might be emerging to transform into a flood dragon, so he left the cliff.
• Yan Laojiu led Yan Household disciples to inspect the cliff and prepare new formations after a White Zombie escaped and Yan Ji and other disciples went missing.
• Yan Laojiu recalled the rumored fortuitous opportunity at the cliff and feared the great snake might be rising to contend for it.
• The river surged and battered the cliff, and Yan Laojiu spotted a dark shadow and shouted for the disciples to climb up.

Yan Laojiu lost seventeen disciples when a great demon in the Nether Passage River sent a wave crashing against Corpse-Nurturing Cliff, then suspected the escaped White Zombie might be connected to the promised immortal opportunity. Chen Jin avoided the disaster and found a secluded valley, where he drove a snake from a giant nest and made it his new home.

• A huge wave swept more than ten Yan Household disciples from the cliff, and Yan Laojiu counted seventeen dead or missing.
• Yan Laojiu suspected that the river’s snake demon had caused the attack and wondered whether the escaped White Zombie was the corpse mentioned in the expert’s verse.
• Yan Laojiu decided to descend the mountain and report the disaster and his suspicions to his great-uncle.
• Chen Jin heard cries from the cliff but continued away from his enemies and the snake demon, walking through the night until he reached a secluded valley.
• Chen Jin climbed into a giant nest among an ancient tree’s branches and drove away the venomous snake living there with Yin Baleful Corpse Qi.
• Chen Jin cleaned the nest, marked the surrounding area with Corpse Qi, and settled in as its new resident.

Chen Jin cultivated in his tree nest to open the foot yang meridians, while a family of mountain foragers camped nearby. After the family's protective banner suddenly fluttered in a gust, they sensed possible danger in the darkness, as Chen Jin watched them from the woods.

• Chen Jin secluded himself in the bird's nest and began opening the three yang meridians of the foot by refining yin baleful Qi.
• Old Man He led He Tie, Madam Li, He Tong, and He Juan to camp on a hillside near the miasma-filled valley.
• He Tong surveyed the area while Old Man He and He Tie discussed their poor harvest, the dangers in the mountains, and the need to avoid recklessness.
• The He family hung a divine banner and gathered around their cooking pot for a meal.
• Drawn by the smell of the broth, Chen Jin watched the family from a tree at the valley's edge without approaching.
• A sudden wind rattled the divine banner, and Old Man He and the others grabbed their weapons and prepared for danger before the banner fell still.

Chen Jin returned to his secluded valley to continue cultivating after the mountain trekkers fled, but he struggled to clear the corpse Qi blocking his final meridians. Meanwhile, the Yan Household sought help for the demon flooding Corpse-Nurturing Cliff, and Granduncle discovered that the Nameless Temple's old Daoist had vanished through corpse liberation.

• Chen Jin picked up an abandoned bamboo-leaf hat, returned to his nest, and resumed cultivation, having opened the three foot yang meridians but finding the three foot yin meridians blocked by corpse Qi.
• Yan Laojiu worried that a snake demon's floods had ruined Corpse-Nurturing Cliff's protective formation and made it impossible to nurture the household's zombies.
• Granduncle decided to visit the Nameless Temple, and Yan Laojiu escorted him and several disciples to the old Daoist's cottage.
• Granduncle told the old Daoist about the flooding, and the Daoist said heaven's mysteries had produced a variable before leaving for the door.
• The old Daoist fell and vanished, leaving only his robe, which turned to ash as the cottage and its lamplight disappeared.