Chapter Summaries

Chen Qing and Shen Qi learned how Ziyue and A Li had secured Northern Yan’s submission to Jiangnan, then questioned the Dowager Consort about the emperor, the great family heads, and the vanished Nether Moon Sect. Empress Dowager Qi’s unexplained silence led Chen Qing to suspect that something had happened to her.

• Chen Qing and Shen Qi reasoned that Ziyue had used A Li to alter the memories of ministers after winning the emperor’s agreement to submit Northern Yan to Jiangnan.
• The Dowager Consort said the emperor had not appeared since the decision, and that many great family heads had gone into seclusion after returning from court.
• The Dowager Consort recalled that Empress Dowager Qi had once imposed the Nether Moon Sect’s black lanterns on the palace, but had said nothing when the emperor later ordered them removed.
• Chen Qing concluded A Li likely could not control Empress Dowager Qi, then learned she had not held her usual gatherings or been seen for more than ten days.
• Chen Qing asked whether Empress Dowager Qi was still alive and, despite the Dowager Consort’s objections, considered that something might have happened to her.

Chen Qing persuaded Dowager Consort Beiyu to secretly visit Empress Dowager Qi, while Empress Yun learned that powerful family elders had vanished after meeting with the emperor. The chapter ended as Empress Yun realized Empress Dowager Qi had also been silent for days and approached Dowager Consort Beiyu.

• Chen Qing offered Dowager Consort Beiyu a chance to study at Jiangnan Academy if she helped investigate Empress Dowager Qi.
• Dowager Consort Beiyu agreed to visit Empress Dowager Qi, trusting Chen Qing to protect her as best he could.
• Empress Yun learned that her father, Old Master Qi, and other family elders had disappeared from their sealed chambers.
• The eunuch guarding the imperial study refused to let Empress Yun see the emperor and warned her not to force her way in.
• Empress Yun spotted Dowager Consort Beiyu heading toward Empress Dowager Qi's residence and went to speak with her.

Empress Yun and Dowager Consort Beiyu found the black lantern hanging outside Empress Dowager Qi’s sleeping palace, where more than a hundred palace maids had disappeared. Qi Long blocked Empress Yun from investigating, and Dowager Consort Beiyu reached for the lantern despite his warning.

• Dowager Consort Beiyu accompanied Empress Yun to visit Empress Dowager Qi, but an elderly matron said the empress dowager was unwell and would receive no visitors.
• Empress Yun challenged the matron and entered the sleeping palace with Dowager Consort Beiyu, where they found the black lantern shrouding the hall in darkness.
• Empress Yun ordered her maid Xia He to summon troops and Grand Spellcaster Qi Long, but Qi Long appeared and claimed he had been treating Empress Dowager Qi.
• Qi Long said the lantern was harmless and that Empress Dowager Qi insisted on keeping it, while Dowager Consort Beiyu accused it of harming her.
• Dowager Consort Beiyu strode toward the lantern and reached out to grab it, prompting Qi Long to shout for her to stop.

After Qi Long vanished in front of Dowager Consort Beiyu and Empress Yun, Chen Qing suspected a terrifying presence was involved and investigated the Yun and Beiyu families. He discovered Old Master Beiyu’s sealed chamber held human remains, then concluded that Qi Long had been eaten.

• Dowager Consort Beiyu told Shen Qi and Chen Qing that Qi Long vanished when she pretended to take down the black lantern, and she had sensed something frightening nearby.
• Chen Qing asked whether Empress Yun had left the palace and took Dowager Consort Beiyu to see Old Madam Yun.
• Chen Qing learned that Beiyu Jing had supposedly returned to Jiangnan Academy, but Old Madam Yun had not witnessed her departure and said Old Master Beiyu had entered seclusion.
• Chen Qing suspected Beiyu Jing had never left and Old Master Beiyu had never entered seclusion, so Old Madam Yun called to her husband and received no answer.
• Old Madam Yun and the others broke into the seclusion chamber, where they found human remains, overturned meals, and no sign of Old Master Beiyu.
• Shen Qi identified the chamber’s runes as the Heavenly Yang Formation, and Chen Qing said Qi Long had not vanished by magic but had been eaten.

Chen Qing investigated the Beiyu Family’s skeletal secret chamber and learned how the sects had recruited Northern Wolf City’s great families. He realized the old masters who secluded themselves might be targets of a hidden threat, and left suspecting that the honest-looking giant snake outside the city had tricked him.

• Chen Qing restrained Shen Qi when he felt an overwhelming urge to use his power, then questioned the Beiyu Family’s old madam about the skeletal remains and her missing husband.
• The old madam explained that sects had recruited nearly every great family by offering cultivation methods, with spellcaster families joining Nether Moon or Radiant Sun and martial bloodline families backing another sect.
• Chen Qing noted that only three factions seemed active in Northern Wolf City and wondered whether the power behind the Dragon Mother or another of the Four Great Guilds was also involved.
• Chen Qing asked the old madam to discreetly check whether other family heads who had entered seclusion had disappeared, and promised to try to save Old Master Beiyu.
• After leaving the Beiyu Family, Chen Qing told Shen Qi that his fear of being eaten was real and admitted that the honest-looking big fellow outside the city had played him.

Chen Qing explained that frequent use of transcendent power had summoned Spirit Ghosts, which hunted people who used it. He concluded that the giant python had trapped the city and poisoned its inhabitants, forcing them to choose between using transcendent power and being eaten or refusing it and dying from the poison.

• Shen Qi asked Chen Qing what the presence in the city was, and Chen Qing explained that excessive transcendent power had drawn a Spirit Ghost to restore balance.
• Chen Qing revealed that Spirit Ghosts marked people who used transcendent power and hunted them, while Shen Qi wondered why the giant python was not targeted.
• Chen Qing suspected the giant python had deliberately trapped the city to make its inhabitants use transcendent power and attract Spirit Ghosts.
• Chen Qing explained that the Poison Mother could surround the city with poison and create toxins that targeted high-energy beings.
• Shen Qi discovered black spots spreading across his arm, and Chen Qing said transcendent power could purge the toxin, leaving them trapped between poison and the Spirit Ghost.

Chen Qing explained how the spirit ghost had poisoned them and why its speed and tracking made escape nearly impossible. He and Shen Qi concluded that Ziyue and the others might be hiding beneath the black lamp in the imperial palace.

• The Beiyu Family's old madam reported that the elders of the great families had vanished, and Chen Qing promised to help find her husband.
• Chen Qing and Shen Qi realized the poison was taking effect and discussed how the spirit ghost had infected them through a honey drink.
• Chen Qing explained that using spiritual power could reveal their location to the ghost, while fleeing after purging the poison would be a dangerous gamble.
• Shen Qi proposed distracting the ghost with other people, but Chen Qing rejected the plan as risky and likely to leave them trapped.
• Chen Qing suggested that Ziyue and the others might be hiding somewhere the ghost could not detect, and Shen Qi identified the imperial palace beneath the black lamp.

Chen Qing and Shen Qi entered the imperial palace disguised as maids with Dowager Consort Beiyu, seeking to investigate the Nether Lantern and the darkness over the empress dowager’s quarters. Beiyu Yan gained them entry, and they were stunned by what they found inside.

• Chen Qing and Shen Qi disguised themselves as maids and followed Dowager Consort Beiyu into the palace.
• Chen Qing recognized the darkness over the empress dowager’s quarters as the concealment of a Nether Lantern and wondered why its holders had not used it to escape Northern Wolf City.
• Beiyu Yan requested an audience, and the Murong Family head refused her entry while denying knowledge of her missing father and the Beiyu Family elders.
• Beiyu Yan insisted on her right to enter, and a sinister female voice invited her inside.
• Beiyu Yan led Chen Qing and Shen Qi into the darkness, where the three encountered something unexpected.

Chen Qing and Shen Qi entered King Xiang Palace, where Chen Qing realized Ziyue had used Ghost Child to draw the evil spirits there and open the palace. As they searched for Ziyue, they encountered the Murong Family head and a black-robed woman, then sensed Murong Yunji using the Divine Wind Technique.

• Chen Qing recognized the palace as King Xiang Palace and deduced that Ghost Child had opened it, drawing the region’s evil spirits inside.
• Chen Qing suspected Ziyue had cooperated with the guild faction behind the Dragon Mother to bring the palace to the Northern Wasteland.
• Beiyu Yan met the Murong Family head and a black-robed woman, whose snake-like features suggested they had been changed.
• Shen Qi claimed to be Zhang Zhiwei, and the two strangers welcomed him as a direct descendant of the Zhang Family of Cloud Capital.
• Chen Qing and Shen Qi sensed a powerful Divine Wind Technique fluctuation and identified it as Murong Yunji’s.

Murong Yunji used the Divine Wind Technique to draw the Spirit Ghost toward other people while Chen Qing and Shen Qi tried to expel their poison. Chen Qing lured Murong Yuntian and the woman into activating their spiritual power, then fled with Shen Qi, but they still waited in hiding as the danger remained.

• Murong Yunji unleashed the Divine Wind Technique and provoked nearby experts, causing the Spirit Ghost to attack them.
• Chen Qing told Shen Qi to expel the poison, and Murong Yuntian and the woman joined them in forcing the toxins out.
• Murong Yunji raced east after someone shouted, "Run east!" while Chen Qing withdrew his and Shen Qi's spiritual power and fled west with him.
• The Spirit Ghost bit Murong Yuntian and the woman in half, leaving Beiyu Yan alive and terrified.
• Chen Qing and Shen Qi hid a thousand meters away, and Chen Qing waited tensely to see whether his plan had worked.

Chen Qing rescued Shen Qi from the Spirit Ghost’s guaranteed-kill range and waited for the monster to leave before heading back toward Murong Yunji. He realized Ghost Child’s urgent plea to save her, and his subsequent silence, suggested that Ghost Child might already be gone.

• A Li worried about Murong Yunji, and Ziyue said Chen Qing might be able to save her if he chose to risk his life.
• Chen Qing and Shen Qi hid without spiritual power until the Spirit Ghost left the area, relying on its programming to avoid King Xiang’s powerful aura.
• Chen Qing explained that Murong Yunji’s danger had made the others cautious and that the monster would not search near King Xiang Palace for long.
• Chen Qing and Shen Qi cautiously headed east to find Murong Yunji and reunite with Ziyue.
• Chen Qing recalled that Ghost Child had urgently asked him to save Murong Yunji, then concluded Ghost Child might already be gone.

Chen Qing and Shen Qi encountered Wang Shiyu, who recounted how villagers had turned on him and his family after learning his true identity. Wang Shiyu led Chen Qing to a gathering of people from the Four Great Guilds, who said they had waited to unite against an outside enemy and revealed that the Black Queen in the Great Jin imperial palace was dead.

• Chen Qing and Shen Qi searched for Murong Yunji but found no one willing to approach them.
• Wang Shiyu met Chen Qing and led him into a rear garden, where he described his life as a village-raised examination candidate and magistrate.
• Wang Shiyu told Chen Qing that villagers had killed his father, tortured his sisters, and beaten him to death after his identity was exposed.
• Chen Qing and Shen Qi saw Wang Shiyu waiting with people wearing moon and sun robes and others with scales and snakelike eyes.
• Wang Shiyu and the others said they had gathered to unite against an outside enemy, then told Chen Qing that the Black Queen in the Great Jin imperial palace was dead.

Chen Qing learned that the Black Queen, a powerful strategist from the Fourth Guild who had shaped several dynasties and the birth of King Xiang, had been killed by the emperor of Great Jin. The others said they had witnessed the killing in the garden at King Xiang Palace, leaving Chen Qing to reconsider how dangerous the emperor truly was.

• Chen Qing accepted Wang Shiyu's invitation and asked the group to explain the Black Queen's death.
• Wang Shiyu described how the Black Queen used the mortal-world route, player bloodlines, and carefully chosen emperors to advance the Fourth Guild's plans.
• Chen Qing learned that the Xiao Household descended from the Black Queen and realized his wife might share that lineage.
• Wang Shiyu told Chen Qing that the emperor of Great Jin had killed the Black Queen.
• Wang Shiyu revealed that the group had witnessed the killing in the garden where they were sitting.

Wang Shiyu explained how the Fourth Guild and Ziyue triggered the Spirit Ghost’s arrival in Northern Wolf City and tried to secure King Xiang Palace. Chen Qing learned that King Xiang had turned against the Black Queen and killed her.

• Wang Shiyu described how the major guilds competed for influence in the north while avoiding conflicts that might summon the Spirit Ghost.
• Wang Shiyu said the Black Queen’s Poison Mother encircled Northern Wolf City as Ziyue used a Thousand-Faced Fox to alter household heads’ memories and spark fighting inside.
• Chen Qing learned that Ziyue had taken control of Northern Yan’s imperial family and arranged for it to submit to Jiangnan, turning the Yin-Yang Road into the Underworld.
• Wang Shiyu said the Divine Path Style Underworld forced King Xiang Palace into the mortal world, so he used the Black Lantern to shield it and summoned his followers.
• Wang Shiyu revealed that an NPC from the Xiao Household killed the Black Queen after turning King Xiang against her.

Chen Qing and Shen Qi discussed why they had to cooperate with King Xiang, while Shen Qi recalled that his ancestor had feared the emperor of the Xiao Household. In Ghost King Hall, the emperor and King Xiang revealed their shared hatred of Reincarnators, and King Xiang questioned whether Chen Qing’s peaceful Underworld could last while he remained one.

• Chen Qing told Shen Qi they had to cooperate with King Xiang because the giant python’s poison and King Xiang’s control of the palace left them trapped.
• Shen Qi told Chen Qing that his thousand-year-old ancestor had feared the emperor of the Xiao Household and withdrawn into seclusion after meeting him.
• The emperor of the Xiao Household watched Chen Qing’s movements from Ghost King Hall and discussed him with King Xiang.
• The emperor said he distrusted Reincarnators and explained that his own ancestor had been one, while he and King Xiang shared hatred of them.
• King Xiang sensed the peaceful Underworld Chen Qing had created, but concluded that peace could not last while Reincarnators remained.

Ziyue and A Li waited in hiding while the poison spread through Northern Wolf City, and Chen Qing learned that Wang Shiyu’s group had delayed their escape because they needed his ability to control the Ghost Child. They had at most three days before making their move, with the Black Lotus flame able to conceal them from King Xiang for only an hour.

• Ziyue sensed that Murong Yunji had survived and guessed Chen Qing had saved her, while A Li worried that he might be in danger.
• Ziyue told A Li to remain hidden, warning that riots could erupt and expose her to the emperor from the Xiao Household.
• Chen Qing found a second Black Lantern burning the Unborn Black Lotus and learned its concealment effect would last only an hour.
• Wang Shiyu explained that King Xiang could temporarily intimidate the Spirit Ghost with his ghost-king aura, allowing him to track and poison the group without attacking them directly.
• Chen Qing questioned why the group had waited for him, and Wang Shiyu revealed that they needed Chen Qing because he could control the Ghost Child.

As the poison drove the spellcasters in King Xiang Palace into violence, Murong Yunji and Ziyue tried to navigate the chaos while Chen Qing’s group prepared to strike. After the central hall exploded, Chen Qing realized Ghost Child had opened King Xiang Palace using his own flesh and blood.

• The woman in red attacked her own family after they showed fear, triggering widespread slaughter across the dark palace.
• Murong Yunji, now recovered from the poison, worried that her actions had endangered Chen Qing, Ziyue, and A Li, then headed toward King Xiang Palace as the darkness deepened.
• Ziyue recognized the spreading darkness as Black Lotus lamplight and argued with A Li about whether she should join the fight, before a familiar voice interrupted them.
• Wang Shiyu told the group they had one hour and one chance, while Chen Qing waited for the right moment.
• The central hall exploded, and the woman from the Myriad Void Guild used a compass to identify the Tianshu Position; Chen Qing and the others rushed there at full strength.
• Chen Qing heard Ghost Child warn him to be careful and realized Ghost Child had opened King Xiang Palace with his own flesh and blood.

Chen Qing’s group carried out their plan to destroy the central hall and expose King Xiang, but Wang Shiyu sensed that King Xiang’s fate was unexpectedly unstoppable. Ziyue realized the operation was a conspiracy and rushed to warn Chen Qing that she had not summoned Ghost Child.

• Chen Qing recalled how Ghost Child had originally opened King Xiang Palace and worried that history was steering events toward the same outcome despite his intervention.
• Chen Qing’s group used Ghost Child to trigger the central hall’s hidden mechanism, hoping the blast would force the Xiao Household’s emperor to use Transcendent power and draw the Spirit Ghost away from King Xiang.
• The group found King Xiang within the destroyed Yin-Yang Barrier, still using intimidation to resist the unseen Spirit Ghost.
• Wang Shiyu confirmed King Xiang’s identity but noticed his fate was unstoppable despite his apparent disadvantage, and realized something was wrong.
• Ziyue saw that the players had already acted and hurried toward Chen Qing, believing the operation was a conspiracy and intending to tell him she had not called Ghost Child.

Ziyue realized that Mr. Myriad Forms had impersonated Ghost Child and deceived her, while Chen Qing and the Four Great Guilds walked into the Xiao Household emperor’s trap. As the emperor unleashed a devastating Golden Crow attack, Chen Qing charged toward King Xiang and Ziyue arrived too late to stop him.

• Ziyue concluded that someone from the Xiao Household had manipulated events after the Spirit Ghost failed to contact her and King Xiang Palace’s central hall was destroyed.
• Chen Qing and the other fifteen players attacked King Xiang with their strongest powers, bound by a spell that prevented them from retreating before King Xiang died.
• The Xiao Household emperor unleashed a Golden Crow’s power, killing or crushing the players caught in its overwhelming flames.
• Chen Qing used Godspeed and the Divine Wind Technique to charge toward King Xiang instead of fleeing or attacking the emperor.
• Ziyue arrived and realized the Ghost Child she had met was an impostor, likely Mr. Myriad Forms, while the real Ghost Child had been communicating with Chen Qing.
• Ziyue watched Chen Qing’s final movement and feared that they had already lost.

Chen Qing survived King Xiang’s assault by finding a way around the spell forcing him to attack, while the Xiao Household emperor revealed his power over the Golden Crow Flame and the dead players. The emperor offered Chen Qing one chance to pledge loyalty, leaving Chen Qing’s answer unresolved.

• King Xiang caught Chen Qing’s sword barehanded and shattered it, losing four fingers as his arm cracked from the strain.
• Chen Qing and King Xiang both restrained their powers, while the surviving guild players remained trapped in the Golden Crow Flame.
• Wang Shiyu and the other burned players rose as green-flamed skeletons, and the Xiao Household emperor revealed that he recognized the female envoy.
• The female player threatened the emperor and lunged at him, but she vanished before reaching him, followed by the sound of chewing.
• The emperor praised Chen Qing for finding a chance to survive and offered him one opportunity to pledge loyalty.