Chapter Summaries

Yue abducted Li Jingshu during the chaos, but the old village chief sent Li Yu after them using the sleepy bugs that were connected to her. As Yue realized the village might be protected by a god and that he had mistaken its people for the fox’s allies, he stopped and asked whether they could resolve the misunderstanding, while Xiao Gui apologized to Li Jingshu.

• Yue escaped the earthquake’s aftermath with Li Jingshu and Xiao Gui, and Li Yu realized Li Jingshu had been taken hostage.
• The old village chief pointed Li Yu toward the sleepy bugs, which could lead him to Li Jingshu, and Li Yu set off after them.
• Yue questioned Li Jingshu about her village’s other shaman and its mountain god, and she told him that Little Brother and Big Cat were powerful.
• Li Jingshu explained that she had not brought foxes into the village because Little Brother had warned that villagers and spirits could not yet understand one another.
• Yue concluded he had mistaken the villagers for the fox’s allies, stopped running, and asked Li Jingshu whether they could clear up the misunderstanding.
• Xiao Gui ignored Yue’s questions and apologized to Li Jingshu for failing to hold out.

Li Jingshu, Yue, and Xiao Gui stumbled into Li Boyang’s magically cultivated bamboo grove, where Yue’s arrival disturbed the Sleepy Bugs and awakened the Fang Boar. The Fang Boar rebuilt itself from soil after Yue struck it down, and fallen bamboo began forming more bodies.

• Li Jingshu comforted Xiao Gui and explained that the Spider Queen had sent her to monitor Flying Peak, though she had shared no important information.
• Yue accused Xiao Gui’s mother of helping the fox, then noticed that he and the others had entered a strange mist-shrouded bamboo grove marked with natural Witchcraft Incantations.
• Li Jingshu warned Yue that the grove belonged to her little brother and urged him to leave before disturbing its inhabitants.
• Hundreds or thousands of Sleepy Bugs rose from the bamboo, and Li Jingshu shouted for Yaya to save her.
• The Fang Boar emerged from the earth in a berserk state, and Yue hurled Li Jingshu and Xiao Gui away before fighting it with his battle-axe.
• Yue knocked the Fang Boar down, but it rebuilt its damaged body from soil, while fallen bamboo began taking on similar forms.

Yue was overwhelmed by the artificial Fang Boars and invisible Sleepy Bugs in the ruined bamboo grove, but survived being trampled with only broken bones. The Deception Rabbit arrived to clean up the damage and questioned how Li Jingshu had encountered a mortal with such an extraordinary constitution.

• Li Jingshu watched damaged bamboo become misshapen artificial Fang Boars as the creatures and Yue devastated the grove.
• A Sleepy Bug knocked Yue unconscious, and the Fang Boars trampled him before reverting to broken bamboo.
• Li Jingshu and Xiao Gui found Yue battered but alive, with no bleeding wounds, as an invisible Sleepy Bug emerged from his ear.
• The Deception Rabbit arrived, scolded Li Jingshu for the destruction, and examined Yue.
• Li Jingshu said Yue had survived through his physical constitution, and Xiao Gui confirmed that he had provoked them.

Li Boyang and Xiluo discovered an outsider who had abducted Li Jingshu and been left with broken bones, while Li Boyang connected the intruder and another outsider to the Witch of the Huai River. The chapter ended with Li Boyang addressing the supposedly unconscious man as Great Xia’s minister of justice and threatening to kill him if he kept pretending.

• Li Boyang divined that an outsider had taken Li Jingshu hostage, and he and Xiluo returned to Flying Peak to find the bamboo grove ruined.
• Xiluo found the Deception Rabbit with the injured intruder and learned that Li Jingshu had returned to the village to reassure everyone she was safe.
• Li Boyang sent the Deception Rabbit back to the swamp to watch over Nüman, whose awakening was near.
• Li Boyang hinted that the outsiders were connected to the Witch of the Huai River, prompting Xiluo to prepare to attack the intruder.
• Li Boyang stopped Xiluo and called the seemingly unconscious intruder Great Xia’s minister of justice, warning him to stop pretending or be left asleep forever.

Li Boyang offered to mend the injured man’s bones in exchange for an explanation of why the fox came, and the man agreed after recognizing he had no choice. The chapter then described Great Xia’s rule and the Sikou official’s role in enforcing the Overlord’s bans on blood sacrifices and living offerings.

• Li Boyang exposed the man’s feigned unconsciousness and offered to save him if he explained why the fox had come.
• Xiluo broke the man’s knee when he demanded a guarantee, and Li Boyang told him he could only choose whether to trust him.
• The man agreed to believe Li Boyang.
• The chapter explained that Great Xia ruled the Central Continent through largely independent constituent states that paid tribute and sent hostages.
• The Overlord of Great Xia claimed divine ancestry, sought greater authority, and banned blood sacrifices and living offerings while requiring states to erect his statues.
• The Sikou official described how he enforced the Overlord’s orders, especially by investigating illegal sacrifices because he had once been a human sacrificial victim.

Yue told Li Boyang and Xiluo that an eight-tailed fox had led an infant living sacrifice in Qingqiu Kingdom, with the kingdom’s ruler tacitly approving it. Li Boyang distrusted Yue’s account and found his fate configuration suggested he was a person who should not exist, but chose to investigate why Yue pursued the fox and why she had come.

• Yue explained that Qingqiu Kingdom had suffered a severe decline in births because an eight-tailed fox conducted an infant living sacrifice, apparently with the ruler’s approval.
• Yue claimed the fox had come from farther south and suggested she might have bewitched Qingqiu’s ruler, while admitting he did not know whether the people had acted willingly.
• Li Boyang told Xiluo he doubted Yue’s account because Yue had not explained how he stopped a sacrifice involving an entire kingdom.
• Li Boyang said his examination of Yue’s face and fate showed that Yue was a living person who should not exist, and Xiluo urged him to deal with Yue immediately.
• Li Boyang stopped Xiluo and said they should discover why Yue pursued the fox and what the fox wanted, since divination showed her arrival was no coincidence.
• Xiluo warned Li Boyang not to trust the Nine Chapters of the Lower Mysteries or the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron too completely when judging people’s hearts.

Li Boyang discovered that the injured man’s altered body and meridians formed a living talisman incantation, and saw a new way to approach his research into spell seals. He offered to repair the man’s shattered bones in a way that would improve the incantation and make him stronger.

• Li Boyang let Xiluo leave without asking about the Witch of the Huai River and made splints before returning to the injured man.
• The injured man questioned Li Boyang about Xiluo, and Li Boyang began setting his broken bones, causing him intense pain.
• As he treated the man, Li Boyang used his third eye to examine his abnormal organs, muscles, and meridians.
• Li Boyang realized the man’s modified meridians formed a living talisman incantation activated by life primordial Qi, and considered how the idea might inform his spell-seal research.
• Li Boyang proposed rebuilding the man’s bones to correct flaws in the incantation and make his body stronger, and the man showed interest.

Li Boyang learned that Mountain Hollow Village needed seeds after mountain monsters attacked it, and he recommended drought-resistant buckwheat instead of rice. Li Jingshu revealed that Li Household Village had agreed to trial a wider range of staple crops, encouraged by the success of Li Boyang’s vegetable basket plan.

• Li Boyang recalled that the man chosen for Sikou did not know his body had been transformed by a Witchcraft Incantation.
• Li Jingshu and Xiao'e met Li Boyang at the village entrance, where Xiao'e introduced Uncle Lu, the chief of Mountain Hollow Village, who had come to borrow seeds after a monster attack.
• Li Boyang explained that Mountain Hollow Village’s poor sunlight and lack of water made rice a bad fit, then proposed growing his drought- and cold-resistant buckwheat instead.
• Uncle Lu hesitated to make a decision about changing the village’s main crop, but Li Jingshu told him Li Household Village had approved a trial of Li Boyang’s staple crops next year.
• Li Jingshu said the vegetable basket plan had persuaded the village elders that crop changes could improve the villagers’ health and the children’s condition.

At Li Household Village’s monthly assembly, Li Boyang proposed teaching the village children to read and giving them broader practical education. The old village chief worried that knowledge might offend the gods, but Li Boyang argued that learning was necessary to help the village thrive.

• Li Chengfeng and Li Er speculated that the assembly would discuss repairing a damaged road and the village’s growing number of births.
• Li Boyang told the assembly he wanted to teach the children to read, with Big Girl leading them, and said he was still preparing suitable materials.
• Li Boyang explained that literacy and arithmetic would help villagers manage grain and trade, and that lessons could also cover seasons, land, soil, and water.
• The old village chief feared that teaching children divination and other knowledge could offend the gods and bring disaster to the village.
• Li Boyang argued that the village needed knowledge to secure food and said the Mountain God and he were there to address the old man’s fears.

Xiluo confronted the Heaven-Eroding Lord when his spiritual awareness entered the mountain god's temple, then learned he was seeking a way to give his Primordial Spirit physical form. Back in Ghost God Cave, the Heaven-Eroding Lord reflected on his progress and wondered whether the sleeping witch puppet outside could help him reach his goal.

• Xiluo complained about Li Boyang's choices and wondered whether the Witch of the Huai River could have changed her fate by being more cautious.
• The Heaven-Eroding Lord appeared in the temple as a wisp of spiritual awareness and challenged Xiluo and the Witch of the Huai River.
• Xiluo dispersed the Heaven-Eroding Lord's Primordial Spirit using a method Li Boyang had taught her.
• The Heaven-Eroding Lord returned to his body in Ghost God Cave and vowed to gain enough knowledge and wisdom to give his Primordial Spirit physical form.
• The Heaven-Eroding Lord recognized the sleeping figure outside as a witch puppet and wondered why it retained its mind and seemed stronger than the witch puppets he remembered.

The Six-Tailed Fox led the crippled Spider Queen to the mountain villagers’ settlement, intending to draw out its hidden god and use the villagers as hostages against the red-haired boy. A thousand-year-old tortoise emerged to defend the village, and the Six-Tailed Fox began fighting him.

• The Six-Tailed Fox explained that she planned to enter the village and threaten the red-haired boy with its people, while the Spider Queen regretted revealing information about him.
• The Six-Tailed Fox used the Spider Queen’s powers to summon a swarm of spiders toward the village, hoping to force its hidden god to appear.
• The ground split between the village and the spiders, and a gigantic tortoise emerged from the fissure to confront the Six-Tailed Fox.
• The Six-Tailed Fox identified herself as a fox of Qingqiu and a child of Mount Tu, then declared that she intended to take the tortoise’s territory.
• The tortoise attacked by splitting the earth beneath the Six-Tailed Fox and Spider Queen, but the Six-Tailed Fox leaped clear and sent six flaming dragons of Foxfire crashing down at him.

After repeatedly failing to escape Flying Peak, Yue learned that Li Boyang might teach him the Perception Method and examined the Incantation-bearing bamboo Li Boyang had cultivated. Their discussion turned to Great Xia’s jointly chosen common sovereign, leaving Li Boyang questioning whether its human-and-god government truly served the public.

• Yue failed another attempt to escape Flying Peak, where Li Boyang’s Sleepy Bugs and the mist kept him trapped.
• Li Jingshu told Yue that Li Boyang might teach him the Perception Method, since he had already taught Xiao Gui.
• Yue visited Li Boyang in the rapidly regrown bamboo grove and admired bamboo bearing naturally formed Talisman Incantations.
• Yue explained that Great Xia’s common sovereign was chosen jointly by shamans, gods, and ordinary people rather than through hereditary rule.
• Li Boyang questioned whether Great Xia’s gods were impartial overseers or an influential senate, and asked what had enabled humans and gods to govern together.

Li Boyang explained how he cultivated talisman-bearing bamboo to produce Fang Boars and offered to strengthen Yue so he could face the fox. Yue agreed to consider the treatment, but grew uneasy when Li Boyang mentioned that he knew more dangerous methods too.

• Li Boyang compared the talismans in his bamboo to the talismans forcibly formed in Yue’s meridians.
• Li Boyang explained that his Fang Boars were intended as cheap, automatically farming tools, but most were incomplete and too destructive to use safely.
• Yue asked Li Boyang to let him leave so he could stop the fox, and Li Boyang reminded him that he was a prisoner and too weak to defeat it.
• Li Boyang offered Yue a second stage of treatment to strengthen his bones and said he was interested in researching Yue’s Body of a Hundred Battles.
• Yue asked whether Li Boyang intended to replace all his bones, and Li Boyang described a safer process of gradually strengthening them through surgery, supplements, and tempering.
• Yue realized Li Boyang had also considered unsafe shortcuts and asked him about them.

Li Boyang tried to use the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron to temper a volunteer’s body with Sha Qi, but the cauldron malfunctioned and the process went awry. The man’s bones began to melt and reform while the metals in the pills he had swallowed damaged his body.

• Xiluo questioned Li Boyang about making the man a test subject, and Li Boyang explained that the man had volunteered to use the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron.
• Li Boyang showed Xiluo that he had configured the cauldron to gather Sha Qi and explained how its patterns could form a variant of the Energy Talisman Incantation.
• Xiluo noticed that the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron was not running correctly, and its Sha Qi burst into a spiritual fire dragon that repelled the Sha Qi and spirituality from the man’s body.
• The man felt his bones melt and reform as the spiritual essences in the pills took effect, but the cauldron’s failure prevented the intended body-tempering process.
• The metals in the pills damaged the man’s bones and caused symptoms of severe heavy-metal poisoning.

Li Boyang took control of Yue’s body and used the Thousand Transformations Divine Ability to rebuild his bones and alter his body. He left Yue’s new form to stabilize in the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron and explained to Xiluo why his ability was harder to use than the Deception Rabbit’s innate power.

• Li Boyang’s Primordial Spirit tamed the Sha Qi dragon and guided Sha Qi and Life Primordial Qi through Yue’s body.
• Yue’s destroyed bones regenerated into a growing metal skeleton, while Li Boyang transformed his body and formed two fleshy growths on his shoulder blades.
• Li Boyang used the Thousand Transformations Divine Ability to enhance Yue’s body and inscribe talismans on his regenerated bones.
• After returning to his own body, Li Boyang told Xiluo that Yue’s form only needed to stabilize in the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron.
• Li Boyang demonstrated how he could shape his own body and explained that his Divine Ability required a manifested Primordial Spirit and biological knowledge.

Li Boyang learned from a Human-Faced Fish that a village along the river had become strangely isolated, then watched Li Jingshu enter a meditative state for the first time. He left Xiluo to watch over her and prevent her from suffering Qi Deviation.

• A Human-Faced Fish told Li Boyang that villagers in a nearby village had stopped communicating with outsiders and with one another.
• The Human-Faced Fish confessed that it liked Li Boyang, and he welcomed it to visit the waterfall pool whenever it wished.
• Li Jingshu focused beneath the waterfall and instinctively formed Body-Protecting Gang Qi, keeping the water from striking her.
• Xiluo said Li Jingshu had almost no weaknesses left, but Li Boyang replied that she had only now formally begun cultivation.
• Li Boyang left and asked Xiluo to watch Li Jingshu, warning her to wake the girl if she risked Qi Deviation.

Li Boyang entered Mountain Hollow Village to confront the white fox hiding there, while Chi and the Human-Faced Fish moved the unconscious villagers to safety. In a cellar, the dying Spider Queen taunted the fox that Li Boyang had come and predicted they would both die.

• Li Boyang recognized Mountain Hollow Village and saw that its villagers were acting like puppets under the white fox’s influence.
• Li Boyang sent Sleepy Bugs to incapacitate villagers who tried to stop him, and the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron revealed that the fox had seen the Witch of the Huai River alive over a thousand years earlier.
• Chi surfaced with the Human-Faced Fish and ordered them to carry the unconscious villagers somewhere safe before the coming battle.
• In a cellar, the white fox continued draining the Spider Queen’s vitality as piles of desiccated spiders surrounded them.
• The Spider Queen told the fox that Li Boyang had arrived and said she would wait for her in the Netherworld.

Li Boyang found a hidden cellar beneath Mountain Hollow Village and recognized its crude altar as a flawed imitation of the Witch of the Huai River’s Yin-Yang Talisman Incantation. He exposed the seven-tailed fox’s illusion and automatic defenses struck her, but she split into two foxes and continued the confrontation.

• Li Boyang searched Mountain Hollow Village with sleepy bugs and found a recently dug cellar containing a crude altar.
• Li Boyang recognized the altar’s symbols as a deconstructed imitation of the Yin-Yang Talisman Incantation and caused the altar and cellar entrance to collapse by altering one symbol.
• A seven-tailed fox appeared and called Li Boyang the Witch of the Huai River’s successor, but Li Boyang accused her of hiding her true body inside the cellar.
• Li Boyang used his Heavenly Eye to see through the fox’s illusion because it lacked a flow of Yuan Qi.
• The seven-tailed fox attacked Li Boyang, and his Body-Protecting Sword Qi automatically cut her in two.
• The fox transformed into two seven-tailed foxes and challenged Li Boyang again.

Li Boyang destroyed the altar’s illusions and entered the underground shrine, where he confronted the seven-tailed fox beside the dying Spider Queen. In Mountain Hollow Village, Chi and the Human-Faced Fish evacuated the villagers, including a pregnant woman who trusted the Son of the Mountain God.

• Li Boyang cut through the fox illusions and altar with a Sword-Ray, revealing a bloodstained passage to a colossal underground shrine.
• Li Boyang entered the shrine and accused the seven-tailed fox of planning to sacrifice Mountain Hollow Village after using beasts and spirits as offerings.
• Li Boyang found the dying Spider Queen and confronted the real seven-tailed fox in the shrine’s central hall.
• The Human-Faced Fish found a pregnant villager awake and struggled to earn her trust, until she recognized Li Boyang as the Son of the Mountain God and agreed to leave.
• The Human-Faced Fish brought the pregnant woman to Chi, who said Li Boyang was the one who wanted to save the villagers.

Li Boyang defeated the Six-Tailed Fox’s body and rescued the dying Spider Queen, who revealed that the fox had prepared a reincarnation ritual. The Spider Queen suspected the fox’s next target was the village’s tortoise Land God.

• The Seven-Tailed Fox attacked Li Boyang, but he grabbed one of her tails and struck her, causing her to shed the tail and escape in Six-Tailed Fox form.
• Li Boyang cut the escaping Six-Tailed Fox in two with a Sword-Ray, collapsing the underground shrine and creating a pit in Mountain Hollow Village.
• The Spider Queen told Li Boyang that the fox was not truly a fox and had used the vitality drained from her descendants to fuel a reincarnation ritual.
• Li Boyang covered the Spider Queen with his red leather coat, which rapidly healed her wounds and restored some of her vitality.
• The Spider Queen explained that the fox body was a decoy and guessed that the fox’s next reincarnation target might be the village’s tortoise Land God.