Chapter Summaries

Ren Qing advanced the Dream Butterfly Method to its Third Eerie Transformation and used its new Messenger ability to deliver an artifact that helped Huang Ziwang survive a dangerous cultivation breakthrough. Meanwhile, Ren Qing discovered his Split Soul remained alive inside the earthen jar at Qingxu Temple, where marsh dwellers carried it toward the back mountain after hearing it cry.

• Huang Ziwang visited the Ghost Market, commissioned a daoist robe artifact from Great Dream Artifact Forging, and secluded himself to cultivate the Poison Bone Art.
• Ren Qing chose Messenger as the Dream Butterfly Method’s Third Eerie Transformation, gaining the ability to send Soul Butterflies and their cargo to distant targets.
• Ren Qing forged a daoist robe artifact and sent it to Huang Ziwang, easing his Aberration and helping him reach the Half-Corpse Realm while refining an Eerie Fetus Artifact.
• Ren Qing sensed that his Split Soul at Qingxu Temple had survived inside the earthen jar, sustained by the wine within it.
• A Dao Officer ordered Jinshi Zi to take the jar to the back mountain, and marsh dwellers carried it away as Ren Qing heard a child crying from inside.

Ren Qing used a Heavenly Dao Dream Seed to investigate Qingxu Temple through his Split Soul, uncovering the Wine and Meat Daoist’s imprisoned Heavenly Dao Worm and a plan to turn the corpse’s organs into a Daoist monastery. He halted the Split Soul’s transformation and withdrew, leaving Li Yaoyang’s fate uncertain while he considered his next move.

• Ren Qing sent a Nether Crow carrying the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed into Qingxu Temple, while Sun distracted the Marsh people with other Nether Crows.
• Ren Qing found his Split Soul confined in a hollowed young Heavenly Dao Worm beside the exposed brain of the Wine and Meat Daoist.
• Ren Qing watched the young worm burrow into a festering sore and realized it was being used to bind his Split Soul to Qingxu Temple and nourish the Marsh people.
• Ren Qing sensed Li Yaoyang alive inside the corpse, stopped the young worm from absorbing flesh and blood, and guided his Split Soul through a blood vessel.
• Ren Qing discovered Dao Officers reshaping the Wine and Meat Daoist’s liver into the Hall of Non-action and retreated rather than confront them.
• Ren Qing returned his Split Soul to the young worm, reported his findings to Sun and Li Tiangang, and turned to plans for extending his lifespan.

Ren Qing opened Feng Market in the Ghost Market to encourage Forbidden Guards to trade and help him gather the lifespan needed to advance the Eye-less Method. The market began attracting increasingly strange goods, and Ren Qing saw its trade—and his lifespan gains—starting to rise.

• Lin Cheng collected fish scales in Sanxiang City to cultivate the Taotie Method, then received Ren Qing’s invitation to sell goods at the Ghost Market.
• Ren Qing weighed ways to gain the five hundred years of lifespan needed to advance the Binding Yin God and decided against advancing the Netherworld Cultivation Method for now.
• At midnight, Ren Qing used the Dream Butterfly Method, the Eye-less Method, An Inch of Time, and the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord’s power to transform part of the Ghost Market.
• Ren Qing announced that Forbidden Guards would control Feng Market, where they could trade anonymously without outside interference.
• Forbidden Guards rushed to open stalls and sell unusual goods, including strange animals, evil ghosts, and cheap experimental pills.
• Ren Qing noticed that trading increased demand for materials from the Great Dream Pavilion, raising his lifespan gains.

Ren Qing advanced the Eye-less Method to Melding Yin God and used its dominance to integrate the Nightmare Art as a core Art while suppressing its mutations. His Split Soul developed a Nightmare Demon Head and entered an unfamiliar Nightmare Devouring Realm, leaving Ren Qing to investigate the consequences.

• Ren Qing spent five hundred years of lifespan to advance the Eye-less Method to Melding Yin God, awakening the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord and learning that it could create darkness for him to travel through.
• Ren Qing linked the Dream Butterfly Method to the Eye-less Method, then used the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord to control the Nightmare Art’s mutation and chose the Dream Devourer branch.
• Ren Qing advanced the Nightmare Art to the Nightmare Dream True Person branch, while the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord and his other Eerie Objects restrained its bodily transformation.
• Ren Qing discovered that the Information Flow grouped the Eerie Transformations of connected Arts, suggesting they would merge further in the Yang God Realm.
• Ren Qing found that his Split Soul had grown a Nightmare Demon Head and entered the Immortal Marsh Method’s Nightmare Devouring Realm.
• Ren Qing tested the Split Soul’s new ability and found that its two heads could switch positions as the Nightmare Demon transformation intensified.

Ren Qing infiltrated Qingxu Temple’s blood vessel caverns and discovered that a surviving Dao of Non-action Monastery disciple was using a Heavenly Dao Worm and a liquor pool to create soulless Dao Officers from corpseified disciples. After alerting Li Tiangang to prepare Yellow Sand City, Ren Qing left a trace of Nightmare Demon aura as a safeguard and headed to check on Li Yaoyang.

• Ren Qing used his Split Soul’s Nightmare Demon transformation to ambush Dao Officer Qingliu Zi, take control of his body, and avoid suspicion from a middle-aged Dao Officer.
• Ren Qing followed the corpseified Dao Officers to Wine and Meat Daoist’s damaged kidney and found a liquor pool, a young Heavenly Dao Worm, and thousands of disciples being used as Tombstone Furnaces.
• Ren Qing realized a surviving Dao of Non-action Monastery disciple was rebuilding the sect by turning the corpses into soulless Dao Officers and using liquor brewed from Ze people to sustain them.
• The middle-aged Dao Officer replenished the liquor pool and said there were too few Ze people, so it was nearly time to summon more from the lower realm to Ascend.
• Ren Qing used Sun Feather to tell Li Tiangang to begin bringing Yellow Sand City under Jailer Hall’s control, left Nightmare Demon aura in the liquor pool, and set out to check on Li Yaoyang.

Ren Qing encountered a Blood Moon-linked Wraith in the Wine and Meat Daoist’s liver and rescued Li Yaoyang from it. As Ren Qing left with the Wraith’s head, Li Yaoyang chose to consume its corpse’s Eerie Object in a desperate attempt to awaken his own.

• Ren Qing discovered that Old Daoist Six Maladies was actually a Blood Moon Wraith, which attacked Li Yaoyang during the full moon.
• A Blood Moon rose over Yellow Sand City, and a skinned arm appeared behind it as Li Tiangang and the others watched.
• Ren Qing severed the Wraith’s tentacles, then incapacitated it with Nightmare Demon aura and took its head.
• Ren Qing warned Li Yaoyang to escape before morning, but Li Yaoyang stayed behind to pursue one last chance at survival.
• Li Yaoyang pulled the Eerie Object from the Wraith’s corpse and swallowed it to awaken the Eerie Object within his body.

Ren Qing uncovered clues about Qingxu Temple and the rabbit toad Wraith Xu Tong while Jailer Hall launched its attack on Yellow Sand City. Li Tiangang sealed the city and brought its people to Abhidi Hell, where Ren Qing left Sha Shanzi to teach them the Wind Sand Method.

• Ren Qing’s Split Soul escaped Qingxu Temple after Sun carried the Wraith’s head away, and Ren Qing learned from the head that the rabbit toad Xu Tong had lived for 570 years.
• Ren Qing sent Jailer Hall clues about Qingxu Temple and warned Song Zongwu and the others about the Heavenly Dao Worm’s Yang God Realm power and its connection to the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
• Li Tiangang began Jailer Hall’s assault on Yellow Sand City, where Forbidden Guards defeated the marsh immortals and captured White Dragon Immortal and Clear Wind Immortal.
• Li Tiangang sealed Yellow Sand City inside a sheet of paper and transported its residents to Abhidi Hell.
• Ren Qing gave Sha Shanzi sand and tasked him with teaching the Wind Sand Method to Yellow Sand City’s residents, then left with Li Tiangang.

Ren Qing discovered that Qingxu Temple’s Dao Officials and resources had vanished, prompting the Jailer Hall to hurry toward the temple. As the group prepared to depart, Song Zongwu arrived after his breakthrough, and Ren Qing’s ghost ship transformed into a Kunpeng to carry him.

• Qin Jun, Qin Lan, and Xiao San'er struggled across the desert until they saw Ren Qing’s dark-red ghost ship transform into a Ghost Wolf and smash through a dune.
• Ren Qing reached the camp, then used his Split Soul to find the wine pool, Dao Officer corpses, and other resources inside Qingxu Temple gone without a trace.
• Ren Qing alerted the Jailer Hall, and Li Tiangang, Sun, and Miss Bai arrived at the camp while the group waited for Song Zongwu.
• Song Zongwu arrived with a trace of Zen intent after his breakthrough, and the group prepared to travel to Qingxu Temple on Sun’s back.
• Ren Qing offered his ghost ship when Song Zongwu proved too heavy for Sun, and the ship transformed into a Kunpeng that lifted them into the air.

Ren Qing and the Forbidden Guards reached Qingxu Temple, where they found the Wine and Meat Daoist’s corpse rapidly decaying and the Heavenly Dao Worm weakened. Ren Qing and Li Tiangang planned to lure the worm into Abhidi Hell, while Ren Qing sought the liquor-absorbing place inside the corpse.

• Sun brought the Forbidden Guards to Qingxu Temple, where they found ruined buildings, exposed rotting flesh, and no marshfolk or Dao Officers in sight.
• Song Zongwu used his Buddha Eye and sensed a single soul inside the corpse, which Ren Qing identified as Li Yaoyang.
• The Forbidden Guards split up: Song Zongwu entered the corpse with five guards, while Ren Qing and Li Tiangang went to inspect the Heavenly Dao Worm.
• Ren Qing confirmed the Wine and Meat Daoist was dead and saw the weakened Heavenly Dao Worm trapped in a wound at the back of the corpse’s head.
• Li Tiangang agreed to take the worm into Abhidi Hell after the corpse absorbed more liquor, and Ren Qing proposed using an Eerie Fetus Artifact and blood from Qi Refining Method cultivators to lure it.

Ren Qing and Li Tiangang prepared to drag the Heavenly Dao Worm into Abhidi Hell, while Li Yaoyang advanced to the Yin Messenger Realm inside the corpse. The worm and the emerging Supreme Heavenly Demon were pulled into Abhidi Hell, where Li Yaoyang then encountered a mysterious figure.

• Ren Qing completed the Bone Gate Eerie Fetus Artifact and used blood to provoke the wounded Heavenly Dao Worm.
• Li Tiangang opened a passage to Abhidi Hell as Ren Qing activated the Bone Gate and drew the Heavenly Dao Worm toward it.
• Li Yaoyang emerged from black beetles within the corpse and advanced to the Yin Messenger Realm, but the Heavenly Demon aura killed many of his Gu Insects.
• Li Yaoyang redirected his Gu Insects to guide Song Zongwu through the corpse as the Heavenly Dao Worm began to break apart.
• The Bone Gate dragged the Heavenly Dao Worm and the nearly freed Supreme Heavenly Demon into Abhidi Hell, and Great Dream True Person followed.
• Li Yaoyang turned and saw a mysterious figure that made him smell smoke and fire.

Ren Qing encountered Son of Heavenly Dao’s hidden remnant in Qingxu Temple, while the Forbidden Guards battled the Black Goat and the wounded Heavenly Dao Worm in Abhidi Hell. Son of Heavenly Dao destroyed the Bone Gate and vanished with Ren Qing, leaving the others unable to find him.

• Li Yaoyang fled Qingxu Temple as flames consumed his Gu Insects, and Song Zongwu found only charred remains before rushing into Abhidi Hell.
• The Black Goat fought Great Dream True Person in Abhidi Hell while the wounded Heavenly Dao Worm threatened Yellow Sand City, and the Forbidden Guards struggled to contain both creatures.
• Li Yaoyang re-formed his body and warned Song Zongwu that someone was still alive inside Qingxu Temple, but Miss Bai crashed into Abhidi Hell before he could explain.
• Ren Qing summoned the Bone Gate as Son of Heavenly Dao emerged from the Kindling Fire and mistook him for Huang Qi, revealing that Qingxu Temple had been his contingency against the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
• Son of Heavenly Dao attacked Ren Qing and destroyed the Bone Gate in a fiery explosion, after which Song Zongwu and the others searched Qingxu Temple for days without finding Ren Qing.

Ren Qing lived among the villagers of Tianjia Village while investigating the inexplicable changes in Jing Province and preparing to leave with Tian A. After sensing the Ghost Market again and confirming his Prison Within the Stomach had recovered, Ren Qing prepared to advance to the Yin Messenger Realm.

• The villagers celebrated the mountain potato harvest, and Ren Qing joined their meal with Tian A.
• Ren Qing gave the villagers Red Flower Grass and announced that he planned to leave Tianjia Village, offering to take Tian A with him for treatment.
• Ren Qing considered how Jing Province’s people had regained ordinary physiques and lost knowledge of the Heavenly Dao Worm, the Blood Moon, and cultivation.
• Ren Qing inspected his transformed Prison Within the Stomach and sensed that the Ghost Market was bustling with people and Forbidden Guards.
• Ren Qing gave Tian A a sugar bean made from Heavenly Dao Worm Insect Broth, then meditated until noon to prepare for his breakthrough to the Yin Messenger Realm.

Ren Qing advanced the Dream Butterfly Method’s Three Inches of Human World branch and used his dream abilities to reconnect with Xiangxiang and the Ghost Market. Through a Soul Butterfly projection, he witnessed the Giant Rabbit Toad devouring people in Jing Province, though the disaster remained invisible to his true body, leaving him shaken and uncertain about what was happening there.

• Ren Qing spent two hundred years of lifespan to advance Three Inches of Human World, suppressing its unruly Eerie Object with the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord’s aura.
• Ren Qing entered a dream of Sanxiang City, visited the Ghost Market, and left Xiao San’er insights on the Eerie Fetus Artifact Forging Method.
• Great Dream True Person warned Ren Qing to stay within Jing Province’s boundary and avoid returning his consciousness to Abhidi Hell too often.
• Ren Qing posted instructions for Forbidden Guards to use Soul Butterfly projections for Ghost Market trades, and a Reserve from Yellow Sand City used one to look toward Jing Province.
• Ren Qing saw the Giant Rabbit Toad emerge behind the Blood Moon and eat dozens of people, including villagers near Tianjia Village, while his true body saw no disturbance.
• Ren Qing returned his consciousness to Jing Province and remained shaken as Jailer Hall investigated the Giant Rabbit Toad’s appearance.

Ren Qing traveled toward Qingyan Town while investigating the Giant Rabbit Toad’s disappearances and cultivating the Dionysian Method. He transformed the Prison Within the Stomach with a river of wine, then noticed a sealed carriage in a caravan carrying someone afflicted by an anomalous sickness or aberration.

• Ren Qing rode the growing Husky toward Qingyan Town and used his Split Soul to search for cultivators and wraiths.
• Ren Qing chose the Greedy Drinker branch of the Dionysian Method, creating a wine-storing organ that fused with the Prison Within the Stomach.
• The Prison Within the Stomach expanded as wine clouds produced rain, forming streams and a river that Ren Qing began filling with plants and animals.
• Ren Qing continued along the road, gathering unusual plants and animals while listening for news about Qingyan Town.
• Head Guard Zhao passed Ren Qing with a caravan escorting Miss Sun to Jingzhou City, and Ren Qing suspected the sealed carriage contained someone with an anomalous sickness or aberration.

Ren Qing followed a caravan and witnessed Sun Rong’s heat sickness transform her before she vanished into an invisible place and reappeared. He sent a Ghost Shadow to watch her and returned to Qingyan Town, intending to investigate the Dao of Non-action Monastery and the world Sun Rong had entered.

• Ren Qing questioned Old Man Liu about heat sickness and learned that it affected only a few people in each Jingzhou town, beginning around the time the Giant Rabbit Toad appeared.
• When wolves passed nearby, Sun Rong’s condition worsened, and she clawed at her skin before declaring that the Taiyin Star Lord was calling her home.
• Sun Rong rose into the air and disappeared, leaving her clothes and a beating heart behind, then re-formed from the heart while the caravan members forgot what had happened.
• Ren Qing examined Sun Rong, hid a Ghost Shadow in her shadow, and rode Husky toward Qingyan Town to investigate the Dao of Non-action Monastery.
• After Tian A slept for a day and a night, Ren Qing walked with him to Qingyan Town and began to form an idea based on the monastery’s ancient records.

Ren Qing searched Wuguan Bookstore for traces of the Dao of Non-action Monastery and found incomplete texts on the Clear Wind Qi Refining Method, suggesting Daoist Fufeng had studied the Heavenly Dao Method. He reopened the bookstore and waited for the uneasy Daoists in Qingyan Town to reveal what had happened.

• Ren Qing entered Qingyan Town and found little evidence of the Dao of Non-action Monastery, then learned from a shopkeeper that Daoist Fufeng had disappeared ten years earlier.
• Ren Qing searched the abandoned Wuguan Bookstore and found signs that thieves had taken its cauldron, ritual objects, and other belongings.
• Ren Qing discovered Daoist Fufeng's books describing an incomplete Clear Wind Qi Refining Method that could replace the Heavenly Dao Worm, along with a warning about keeping one's eyes closed as the body grew heavier.
• Ren Qing reopened Wuguan Bookstore, used subtle interference to make residents accept its return, and waited while the town's Daoists grew uneasy.

Ren Qing learned that Daoist Fufeng had taught a dream-derived cultivation method that caused aberrations, then used Nether Essence to glimpse a terrifying version of Qingyan Town. The glimpse ended when the crushing weight forced him to disperse the Nether Essence, leaving him back in the ordinary world.

• Wu Yong mistook Ren Qing for Fufeng and demanded to know why he had harmed the wandering Daoists.
• Ren Qing revealed his power, treated Wu Yong’s legs, and asked him to explain Fufeng’s history and cultivation method.
• Wu Yong recounted how Fufeng learned the Clear Wind Qi Refining Method in a dream, taught it to local Daoists, and disappeared after the method caused sickness and deaths.
• Ren Qing learned that four other Daoists suffered from the same aberrations and told Wu Yong to bring them to the bookstore in thirty days.
• Ren Qing used the young Heavenly Dao Worm to circulate Nether Essence and saw a rain-soaked Qingyan Town filled with aberrant residents beneath a blood-red moon.
• Ren Qing witnessed a gigantic human-faced spider attack the town and saw the Hall of Non-action floating in the distance before the crushing weight made him disperse the Nether Essence.

Ren Qing discovered more about Qingyan Prefecture’s layered Blood Moon and prepared to enter the Waning Moon Layer safely, while advancing the Dionysian Method’s Peach Wine branch to produce a lifespan-extending wine. After Wu Yong returned with two fellow Daoists seeking transcendence, Ren Qing warned them that the process could kill them and asked who would go first.

• Ren Qing realized that Qingyan Prefecture had connected layers tied to the Blood Moon and concluded that voluntarily entering the Waning Moon Layer was safer than being dragged there by the Giant Rabbit Toad.
• Ren Qing learned that Tian A had seen the Blood Moon and expected the child’s growing aberration to eventually draw him into the Waning Moon Layer.
• Ren Qing advanced the Dionysian Method’s Peach Wine branch, creating a spring in the Prison Within the Stomach that produced wine capable of extending lifespan.
• After thirty days, Wu Yong brought Ma Mang and another Daoist to Ren Qing, while reporting that Cao Fang had died of old age.
• Ren Qing offered to remove the survivors’ bodily defects but warned that transcendence carried a risk of death, then asked which of them would go first.

Ren Qing sent Ma Mang and Zhang Yu into the Waning Moon Layer to investigate its dangers, where both died after encountering its horrors. After learning that Cuanlu was an aberrant wraith drawn to noise, Ren Qing entered the Waning Moon Layer himself, while Wu Yong regretted refusing his chance and died in the abandoned Bookstore.

• Ren Qing sent Ma Mang into the Waning Moon Layer, where Ma Mang panicked at its monstrous residents, asked about Cuanlu, and was killed and eaten.
• Ren Qing warned Zhang Yu about the two-faced old woman and instructed him to ask what Cuanlu was; the woman explained that it was an aberrant wraith attracted by noise.
• Zhang Yu hid beneath a bed but was crushed into minced flesh after the houses on Morning Street lit their candles at night.
• Ren Qing prepared his artifacts and belongings, then used Nether Essence to enter the Waning Moon Layer.
• Wu Yong returned to the empty Bookstore, regretted missing his chance to cultivate, and died as he recited the Clear Wind Qi Refining Method.

Ren Qing explored Morning Street in the Waning Moon Layer and discovered that it was a sealed, impoverished district whose residents were guarded and supplied from outside. After witnessing lethal force used to silence anyone who spoke across the wall, he decided to stay inside and gather information cautiously.

• Ren Qing examined the bloodstained side room, learned that Hu Yi had killed Zhang Yu, and found Daoist Fufeng's notes repeatedly mentioning Sanmu Alley End.
• Ren Qing explored Morning Street and saw its emaciated residents, scarce food, and suspicious meat stalls.
• Ren Qing followed laborers carrying goods and discovered that a towering wall sealed off Morning Street, with supplies exchanged through a hole at its base.
• A dark-green arm reached through the wall and killed a laborer, while the other workers silently collected the grain.
• Ren Qing asked how goods were traded, and people on the other side seized and killed the man who had answered him.
• Ren Qing sensed powerful cultivators guarding the wall and returned to the street, deciding to remain inside while he learned more about the Waning Moon Layer.