Chapter Summaries

Wei Gongzhan drank with Great Azure Mountain villagers, learned how they viewed Liuzhou and the people he had met, and asked about a woman he had heard in a cave. His neighbors revealed that the woman was Lord Fox Immortal, then transformed into monsters, leaving Wei Gongzhan fleeing into the night.

• Wei Gongzhan praised Brother Li’s fruit wine and told the villagers about his past as a guard and his former young master’s service in the Tiger Guard Army.
• Wei Gongzhan described the academy in Liuzhou, and the villagers discussed sending children to study there.
• Wei Gongzhan asked Brother Li about a woman’s voice he had heard near a cave, and the villagers warned him that the cave held Lord Fox Immortal.
• Brother Li transformed into a toadlike creature, while Liu Yong became a mud figure, and Wei Gongzhan ran away.
• Brother Li and Liu Yong realized they had been targeted, and Liu Yong laughed that Wei Gongzhan needed to experience the mountain’s dangers.

Wei Gongzhan discovered that a childlike Fox Immortal had transformed Great Azure Mountain and its villagers, then turned him into cow dung for pretending to be her grandfather. He learned the transformations were familiar to the villagers, but the Fox Immortal returned and sentenced him to three days in that form.

• Wei Gongzhan fled through a transformed Great Azure Mountain and called for the powerful being behind its strange changes.
• A little girl in a red bellyband appeared, and Wei Gongzhan abandoned his plan to attack her when he saw she was a child.
• The girl accused Wei Gongzhan of lying and transformed him into cow dung, leaving him to struggle slowly across the mountain.
• Wei Gongzhan met He Daniu and a transformed villager called Old Yang, who explained that the Fox Immortal regularly changed people and could be angered by refusing her wine.
• The Fox Immortal returned and said Wei Gongzhan had pretended to be her grandfather, then sentenced him to three days as cow dung.

Wei Gongzhan considered the political implications of the child’s imperial bloodline, while A Li and Ziyue discussed Hei Yun’s motives and the unstable court. Wei Gongcheng and Master Shen San decided they could not safely capture Hei Yun, leaving him free to investigate Liuzhou.

• Wei Gongzhan realized the child’s pure Golden Crow bloodline and Hei Yun’s confirmation meant she really was the emperor’s granddaughter, and he wondered whether Liuzhou might one day contend for the throne.
• A Li told Ziyue that the child could reliably see outsiders’ memories, and they concluded Hei Yun had likely fled to Liuzhou because his backer’s position had become unstable.
• A Li and Ziyue discussed the threat posed by the court’s shifting factions and agreed they needed more intelligence and could not trust Chen Qing.
• Wei Gongcheng and Master Shen San watched Hei Yun from afar and reasoned that he was using Wei Gongzhan to probe Great Azure Mountain rather than risk having his memories read.
• Wei Gongcheng asked whether they could capture Hei Yun, but Master Shen San warned that Hei Yun could kill himself to escape, so they chose not to act without certainty.

Nanming Prefecture’s defenders learned that the living corpses were sacrificing themselves to let tens of thousands of powerful new corpses land on the coast. Mu Hongqing ordered the soldiers to stop fighting and urged the governor-general to retreat, though the defenders had nowhere obvious to go.

• Mu Hongqing and the governor-general noticed that the living corpses were launching suicidal attacks and suspected something was wrong.
• A badly wounded Black Dragon Guard soldier reported that tens of thousands of powerful living corpses in Black Dragon Guard and Golden Dragon Guard armor had landed at the coast.
• The soldier said the newly landed corpses were fighting one another, allowing his small unit to escape, and that General Lu Lan had stayed behind to hold them off.
• Mu Hongqing realized the corpses were sacrificing weaker fighters to make way for the new arrivals and ordered the defenders to stop killing them and retreat.
• The living corpses attacked whenever the soldiers pulled back, then stopped resisting when the soldiers fought back, leaving the governor-general unsure how to respond.
• Mu Hongqing told the governor-general to withdraw, insisting that retreat was the only way to survive.

Mu Hongqing persuaded Zhou Hanyang and Xu Ming to abandon Nanming Prefecture so the living corpses might turn on the civilians instead of gaining reinforcements from the shore. Xu Ming stayed behind to cover the retreat while Zhou Hanyang led the officials and soldiers west, and Fifth Master Shen later praised Mu Hongqing’s strategy before reporting that Nanyang City was in trouble.

• Mu Hongqing argued that the living corpses were divided into factions and urged Zhou Hanyang and Xu Ming to retreat through the west gate, preserving their forces for a later counterattack.
• Xu Ming ordered Zhou Hanyang to escort Mu Hongqing and the important young scions to safety while he stayed behind to cover the retreat.
• Xu Ming charged the living corpses with his saber, and Zhou Hanyang bowed before leading the retreat west.
• The civilians saw the soldiers fleeing Nanming Prefecture and collapsed in despair, realizing they had been abandoned.
• Fifth Master Shen praised Mu Hongqing’s quick analysis to the grand princess, then said the situation in Nanyang City was not good.

The eldest princess negotiated with Shen Laoliu over troop shares and Shen Family members in exchange for access to Nanyang City. Chen Qing’s group prepared to land the next day, knowing their operation was their only chance to buy Jiangnan time.

• The eldest princess rejected Shen Laoliu’s demand for seventy percent of the troops and countered with forty percent.
• Chen Qing’s group insisted on securing as many troops as possible, and Shen Lao'er made Shen Laoliu demand sixty percent instead.
• The eldest princess accepted the sixty-percent share on condition that Shen Laoliu accompany her and that the sides establish a spell pact.
• After further bargaining, the eldest princess claimed Laoqi and agreed that Laoshiyi and Laoshi would go to Shen Laoliu, with a pact preventing her from using Laoqi’s spells to monitor him.
• The eldest princess scheduled the landing for the next day, and Chen Qing warned his group that the operation had only one chance.

Yuchi Feihu considered whether to leave Di Yun’s force and build a team of his own, while concealing his true identity and weighing his future in Liuzhou. After learning that Di Yun and his soldiers would fight the imperial court rather than Liuzhou, Feihu was left wondering which side he would choose if that conflict came.

• Di Yun and Yuchi Feihu welcomed refugees at the outpost and fed them meat porridge, while Di Yun explained why his soldiers needed to enforce strict order.
• Di Yun praised Yuchi Feihu’s rapid progress and offered him five hundred soldiers to lead his own team; Feihu accepted the opportunity but remained troubled by the risk of his identity being exposed.
• Yuchi Feihu asked whether Di Yun’s former service in the Black Dragon Guard could bring trouble from the imperial court, and Di Yun said the court and Liuzhou’s leadership seemed unconcerned with the officers who had come there.
• Di Yun told Feihu that if the imperial court ordered them to turn against Liuzhou, he and the others would fight to the death.
• Yuchi Feihu realized Di Yun’s force would defend Liuzhou and wondered what he himself would do if the conflict arose.

Chen Qing and his allies prepared to confront the eldest princess’s powerful living-corpse army in Nanyang City. After entering the Dragon Palace formation, the eldest princess discovered Chen Qing waiting instead of Shen Laoliu and recognized him as the Xiao Household’s prince consort.

• Chen Qing, the Shen Family sorcerers, Yuchi Feihong, and Lan Xiang’s troops gathered in Nanyang City to stop the eldest princess’s expansion.
• Lan Xiang questioned Chen Qing’s chances of success, and Chen Qing admitted that no plan could guarantee victory against the eldest princess.
• The eldest princess arrived with more than ten thousand living corpses, all at least fifth-rank martial warriors, and her forces entered the Dragon Palace formation.
• The eldest princess asked Shen Laowu how costly it would be to break the formation if Shen Laoliu betrayed them, and he estimated they would lose one-fifth of their troops.
• Instead of Shen Laoliu, Chen Qing came to greet the eldest princess, who laughed and called him the Xiao Household’s prince consort.

Chen Qing rejected the eldest princess’s offer, triggering a battle in which Xu Hu fought off her forces while Chen Qing revealed an ambush and a formation. As the armies clashed, the eldest princess realized Xu Hu’s strange fighting rhythm was setting something in motion, and her discovery left her deathly pale.

• Chen Qing admitted he controlled Shen Laoliu and refused the eldest princess’s offer of a princely title and Jiangnan.
• The eldest princess ordered ten powerful thralls to attack Chen Qing, but Xu Hu appeared and drove them back with his hammer.
• Xu Hu fought through the living corpses, growing stronger as they weakened, until the eldest princess ordered her forces to kill him.
• Chen Qing activated his formation, but the eldest princess’s forces broke its barriers by sacrificing high-ranking bloodline bearers with their blood essence.
• Chen Qing’s hidden troops surged from the shattered formation and joined the battle, while Shen Laowu and the eldest princess recognized the involvement of Laoqi’s thralls and the Shen Family.
• After nearly a quarter of an hour of fighting, the eldest princess understood what Xu Hu’s strange rhythm was setting in motion and turned deathly pale.

The Princess Royal recognized Xu Hu’s battlefield power and launched an attack, but Chen Qing’s allies had prepared a trap that left her badly wounded. The Duke of Qi’s task was complete, though Tian Heng paid heavily for striking her.

• The Princess Royal identified Xu Hu as the source of the enemy’s growing strength, while Chen Qing explained that Xu Hu’s Battle God power drew strength from his fighters’ faith.
• The Princess Royal ordered Shen Yinian to help her kill Xu Hu, and Shen Yinian used Spring Autumn Cicada to accelerate her attack.
• An Evil Eye spell immobilized the Princess Royal before she could strike Xu Hu, and Tian Heng’s sword attack cut her blood vessels and disrupted her qi.
• The Princess Royal retreated and recognized Tian Heng, whose sword shattered and whose arm was crippled by the backlash of the strike.
• Shen Laoqi concluded that Tian Heng had completed the Duke of Qi’s task by breaching the Princess Royal’s defenses.

Tian Heng and Princess White Jade trapped the Eldest Princess with sword qi, a spell, and six ancient kin, but Xiao Mingyue killed them all. She then pinpointed Chen Qing and the Shen Family through the formation and demanded to know whether they had any more cards.

• Tian Heng revealed that his sword wounds and Mysterious Water poison had immobilized Xiao Mingyue, while Princess White Jade's mist isolated her from Shen Laowu.
• Princess White Jade unleashed six ancient kin whose bodies had been preserved in profound ice, and Chen Qing explained how she had kept them ready for battle.
• Princess White Jade questioned Chen Qing about his knowledge of her secret, while he noticed Shen Yinian seemed unusually calm about Xiao Mingyue's predicament.
• The mist dispersed after Xiao Mingyue killed all six kin and tore off their heads.
• Xiao Mingyue spotted Chen Qing and his companions through the formation and asked whether they had any more cards.

Chen Qing trapped Xiao Mingyue inside a sealing barrier, where she killed him and the Shen Family members before they mysteriously reappeared. The chapter ended with Xiao Mingyue confronting Chen Qing again as Shen Laoqi feared the price of his strange technique.

• Xiao Mingyue confronted Shen Laoqi and forced Princess White Jade’s phantom to withdraw.
• Chen Qing refused to submit, but Xiao Mingyue turned to aid Shen Laowu when a powerful masked warrior attacked him outside the barrier.
• Chen Qing used Shen Laoliu to lock Xiao Mingyue inside the barrier, and she killed the Shen Family spellcasters before seizing Chen Qing.
• Xiao Mingyue burned Chen Qing to ash, but he and the Shen Family members suddenly reappeared unharmed.
• Chen Qing challenged Xiao Mingyue to guess what he had done, while Shen Laoqi warned that his strange method might come at a terrible cost.

Chen Qing used the Refracting Mirror array to trap the eldest princess and force her into negotiations, securing a truce and a year-long arrangement over Nanming Prefecture. After the armies withdrew, he explained to Shen Laoqi that the array’s severe cost made continuing the fight too dangerous.

• Shen Laoqi realized Chen Qing had anticipated the eldest princess finding them and used him as bait to lure her into the barrier.
• Xiao Mingyue deduced that Chen Qing could not sustain his time-reversal-like method and demanded terms for a truce.
• Chen Qing offered Xiao Mingyue a separate passage into Nanming Prefecture for a year in exchange for Shen Laoliu’s life, and she agreed.
• The armies stopped fighting, and Xiao Mingyue withdrew to the coast with the gravely wounded Shen Laowu under a spellbound pact.
• Shen Laowu confirmed that sacrificing one of the Shen brothers could grant control over Nine Heavens Mirror Valley, and Xiao Mingyue wondered whether sacrificing them all would grant complete control.
• Chen Qing explained to Shen Laoqi that Refracting Mirror was a costly hypnosis array that would have drained their energy and souls if they had continued using it.

Chen Qing explained Shen Laowu's forbidden Two Aspects Spacetime technique and recruited the Shen Family and Tian Heng to his cause. He asked Tian Heng to become a god as part of his plan to gain court backing and rule Jiangnan, leaving Tian Heng's answer unresolved.

• Chen Qing explained that Two Aspects Spacetime could let Shen Laowu's thralls borrow power from their future selves, but its cost made using it risky.
• Shen Laoqi agreed to discuss joining Chen Qing inside Nanyang City, and Tian Heng also accepted Chen Qing's invitation to talk.
• In the prefectural government hall, Chen Qing declared that he wanted the court's support to establish legitimate rule over Jiangnan and gain a princely title.
• Chen Qing argued that the court needed him to confront the ancient forces in the West Sea and elsewhere, and said he needed half a year to become strong enough to fight them.
• Chen Qing asked Tian Heng whether he would be willing to become a god.

Tian Heng discussed whether to join Chen Qing’s forces with Lan Xiang and the other deputy generals, who had been drawn to the Battle God Seal’s power and the chance to rise beyond their bloodline limits. Tian Heng agreed to gamble on Chen Qing’s Divine Path, warning them that their clans might cast them out and leave their families without resources.

• Lan Xiang and the deputy generals hesitated when Tian Heng asked whether they would join Chen Qing, while the soldiers nearby listened to their discussion.
• Lan Xiang explained that the Battle God Seal strengthened their bodies and meridians without conflicting with their Bloodline Power, making it a genuine path to improvement.
• Tian Heng revealed that Chen Qing wanted him to become the Dragon God of the West Sea, offering the prospect of evolving his dragon turtle bloodline into a true dragon and greatly extending his lifespan.
• Tian Heng said the court could offer them positions if they joined the Xiao Household, but warned that joining Chen Qing would make enemies of the great families threatened by his Divine Path system.
• Tian Heng agreed to lead his men in joining Chen Qing, then warned them that their clans might disown them and their wives and children could lose clan resources and status.

Chen Qing explained the terms and the Sea God system to Tian Heng, who agreed to join him as the God of the West Sea. Tian Heng then warned Chen Qing that rumors of the dead returning had begun spreading in the capital.

• Tian Heng confirmed that he and his forces could leave or refuse to fight if Chen Qing failed or faced the eldest princess or the West Sea, and Chen Qing assured him that bodily enhancements would remain even if the gods fell.
• Chen Qing described how the Sea God system rewarded protecting waterways and trade, and explained that Tian Heng’s followers would need to judge risks and returns to advance.
• Tian Heng agreed to try becoming the God of the West Sea rather than return to an idle life in the capital.
• Tian Heng asked when Chen Qing would contact the imperial court, and Chen Qing said Wang Ye was already on his way.
• Tian Heng warned that unrest had preceded his departure from the capital and that rumors of the dead returning were spreading in many places.

Wang Ye returned to the capital and learned that the Duke of Wei had raised a northern rebellion while the capital remained unaware of the disaster in Jiangnan. At the Yuchi Residence, he discovered that people remembered events differently and that the old steward he had just met had died a month earlier.

• Wang Ye learned from a teahouse shopkeeper that the Duke of Wei had allied with the northern states and that the capital's dukes had left to suppress the rebellion.
• Wang Ye went to the Yuchi Residence to ask Yuchi Peng about the court, but the old steward asked whether the demon that harmed Grand Matriarch Yuchi was dead.
• Wang Ye waited for hours, then learned that Yuchi Peng was celebrating his birthday and that the household staff claimed he had only just arrived.
• Yuchi Feizhan invited Wang Ye to the banquet, but Wang Ye's mention of Uncle He startled everyone.
• Yuchi Feizhan told Wang Ye that Uncle He had died a month earlier, leaving Wang Ye stunned.

Wang Ye attended Yuchi Peng’s birthday gathering and learned that imperial consorts had died, the Duke of Wei had rebelled, and the emperor had stopped appearing at court. After hearing about the capital’s unusual military decisions and the emperor’s strange condition, Wang Ye concluded that something was seriously wrong.

• Wang Ye felt an unsettling sensation after learning that the old steward he had met was dead, then joined Yuchi Peng and his officers at the birthday gathering.
• Wang Ye told Yuchi Peng that Wei Gongcheng was doing well in Liuzhou, and Yuchi Peng asked about the situation in Jiangnan.
• Yuchi Peng told Wang Ye that several imperial consorts, including Noble Consort Dong, had died horribly and that Princess Yong'an had fallen ill.
• Yuchi Peng explained that the emperor had not attended court, the Duke of Wei had rebelled in the north, and troops had been sent to Jiangnan under the Eldest Princess.
• Wang Ye questioned the sequence of the Duke of Wei’s rebellion and the deployment of the Golden Dragon Guard, and suspected that something was wrong in the capital.

Chen Qing warned Wang Ye that the capital was likely filled with Yin Devourers that imitated the dead and hypnotized people into accepting and forgetting them. Mr. Black Cloud recognized the creature described in his book as a Yin Devourer Demon, not an ordinary Yin Devourer.

• Chen Qing and Wang Ye discussed the Duke of Wei raising an army, the emperor possibly being controlled, and Noble Consort Dong's murder in the capital.
• Chen Qing urged Wang Ye to avoid the palace, but Wang Ye remained curious about what might have driven the emperor to seek help from the Duke of Wei.
• Chen Qing explained that the old butler Wang Ye encountered could not have been the real Butler He, since the dead were corrupted and devoured on the Yin-Yang Road.
• Chen Qing revealed that Yin Devourers consumed soul fragments and imitated the dead, making people accept their presence and forget them after they left.
• Chen Qing warned that many Yin Devourers might be in the capital and that Wang Ye's sinister chill suggested he had encountered a dangerous variant.
• Mr. Black Cloud read an ancient account and realized that the creature the emperor had brought in was likely a Yin Devourer Demon.

Hei Yun recalled how the emperor’s contact with an ancient demon led to a Yin Devourer Demon entering the living world, then questioned whether it had caused the force that killed him in the capital. While gathering intelligence on Great Azure Mountain, he learned that a strange man had been appearing around Xiaoli’s mother and interacting with villagers who later forgot him.

• Hei Yun remembered supporting the emperor’s attempt to revive the empress and realized the Yin Devourers spreading through the capital might be a Yin Devourer Demon from ancient records.
• Hei Yun reflected on fleeing the capital after a terrifying presence killed him during a rebirth and wondered whether the Yin Devourer Demon was responsible.
• Wei Gongzhan reported that his Mountain God blessing was growing stronger and that the Mountain God had offered him a chance to become an immortal farmer in Great Azure Mountain’s immortal fields.
• Wei Gongzhan told Hei Yun that Xiaoli had described a man who visited her mother, was beaten when he compared himself to Cui Yan, and had recently been sneaking out to meet villagers who later forgot him.
• Hei Yun became serious and asked Wei Gongzhan to explain the strange man’s appearances in detail.