Chapter Summaries

Ren Qing survived the Buddha aura’s eruption, reshaped the corpse ghost, and brought the zombie horde into the giant corpse Buddha. As he refined the Buddha in its Niwan Palace and Li Yaoyang studied the crabmen, imprisoned Daoists in the heart wondered how long they had been trapped.

• Ren Qing raised the giant corpse Buddha from beneath the ground, but the Buddha aura inside it erupted and destroyed its head before disappearing toward the Great Compassionate Maitreya Bodhisattva.
• Ren Qing used Dragon's Roar in the Scabbard to reshape the corpse ghost through the Furnace of Molten Fire, preserving its soul and most of its Yang God Realm cultivation.
• Ren Qing ordered Tian Fang and the zombies to gather corpses and crabmen, then moved the horde into the giant corpse Buddha’s stomach and intestines.
• Xiao San'er recognized Tian Fang and brought the zombies to Li Tiangang, who assigned them to work among Jailer Hall’s organs.
• Ren Qing began refining the giant corpse Buddha’s Niwan Palace to develop an artifact spirit, while Li Yaoyang took charge of the crabmen and considered how to make parasitic Artifacts.
• Imprisoned Daoists embedded in the heart’s fleshy walls recalled failing to seize the shell left by the Great Compassionate Maitreya Bodhisattva and spoke of escaping Dead Man’s Land.

Ren Qing completed the artifact spirit in the giant corpse Buddha’s secondary brain and began replacing the Buddha’s markings and scripture with his own. He stopped the Buddha in a secluded place to finish the refinement, securing greater control before venturing farther into the Dead Man Forbidden Zone.

• Ren Qing organized the zombie horde’s work and had Li Tiangang establish a trial ground inside the giant corpse Buddha.
• Ren Qing offered Corpse Ghost two cultivation paths, then sent him to Li Yaoyang to learn the Insect Nest Method and develop a suitable Art.
• Ren Qing finished engraving Moon Patterns in the secondary brain, and an artifact spirit emerged.
• Ren Qing used the artifact spirit to replace the Moon Patterns throughout the giant corpse Buddha and planned to replace the Maitreya Worm Buddhist Scripture with the Netherworld Heavenly Worm Method.
• Ren Qing stopped the giant corpse Buddha in a secluded place to complete his control of it before continuing through the Dead Man Forbidden Zone.

Ren Qing and the Jailer Hall prepared to face a strange force approaching the giant corpse Buddha, while a group of corrupted Daoists emerged from a flesh ball and resolved to seize it. The Daoists created an army of sacrificial Dao Soldiers and advanced, leaving the enemy’s identity and the coming battle unresolved.

• Ren Qing brutally refined the giant corpse Buddha’s main brain, while Li Tiangang organized the Jailer Hall to monitor its organs.
• Jiang Feng detected a living creature approaching and alerted Li Tiangang and Ren Qing, who mobilized the Jailer Hall and its allies for battle.
• Xuan Chengzi, Fire Dragon Son, Daoist Lingxiao, and other Daoists emerged from a giant flesh ball and recognized the giant corpse Buddha as the Great Compassionate Maitreya Bodhisattva’s shell.
• The Daoists sacrificed their seeds to remold their bodies and create 3,765 Dao Soldiers, then split into groups and headed toward the giant corpse Buddha.
• Daoist Lingxiao turned the flesh ball into a seed and sacrificed his body, while the narration explained that the Pill Dao Method required a catalyst refined from infants and a pure-yang golden pill.

Xuan Chengzi led a group of Alchemy Dao cultivators into the giant corpse Buddha, where the strange intestinal forest intensified his aberration and split the group. As the intruders entered the stomach and clashed with zombies, Ren Qing’s forces prepared to exploit their divisions and attack the isolated cultivator.

• Xuan Chengzi ignored Fire Dragon Son’s warnings and entered the giant corpse Buddha through its navel with several Daoists.
• Inside the intestinal tract, Xuan Chengzi and Fire Dragon Son encountered a forest that stirred their memories and triggered physical aberrations; Xuan Chengzi pressed deeper while Fire Dragon Son led the others toward the internal organs.
• Jiang Feng reported the intruders’ movements to Li Tiangang, who assigned Li Yaoyang and the Corpse Ghost to eliminate the lone Alchemy Dao cultivator.
• Xuan Chengzi reached the stomach and found a temporary camp surrounded by corpses, while he and the other cultivators suspected the scene might be bait.
• Tian Fang led several thousand zombies in an attack on the Dao Soldiers, and slaughter erupted as Xuan Chengzi watched from the camp.

The Jailer Hall and the Dan Dao Sect fought throughout the giant corpse Buddha while Li Yaoyang captured Xuan Chengzi to study the Pill Dao Method. As the battle turned toward the Jailer Hall, Ren Qing watched from afar and faced Daoist Lingxiao, who asked whether he had come out from within the gate.

• Xuan Chengzi’s Dao soldiers initially slaughtered the zombies, but Lu Liang and Tian Fang used the battle to temper themselves with the Yearly Resolution and fought back with the Crabmen’s protection.
• Xuan Chengzi succumbed to the disease seeds’ influence and attacked the zombies with flames, but Li Yaoyang and the Corpse Ghost appeared and captured him alive for study.
• The Jailer Hall and the Dan Dao Sect battled across the giant corpse Buddha’s organs, where the Jailer Hall’s varied fighters held their ground against the remaining Dao soldiers.
• Tang Sheng protected the Ci Clan people from the Dao soldiers, and Jade Splendor Daoist helped him regain his composure.
• The returning zombies reinforced the Jailer Hall, while Li Yaoyang and the Corpse Ghost headed toward the Blood River, where Li Tiangang had trapped the Dan Dao Sect’s Yin Messenger Realm cultivators.
• Ren Qing observed the fighting without intervening, and Daoist Lingxiao asked whether Ren Qing had come out from within the gate.

Ren Qing uncovered how the Dan Dao Sect used the Pill Dao Method and Pill Toxin Method to preserve disciples as memory-bearing puppets, while the Jailer Hall and Daoist temple disciples defeated the attacking Dao Soldiers. Daoist Lingxiao proposed that he and Ren Qing travel to the immortal sect together, but Ren Qing remained wary as Lingxiao hinted that he knew Ren Qing came from behind the gate.

• Ren Qing used disease strains to investigate Daoist Lingxiao and learned that he cultivated the Pill Dao Method and Pill Toxin Method.
• Jiang Feng alerted the Jailer Hall, and Han Li sealed hundreds of Dao Soldiers while Qingsongzi and the disciples joined the fight in shadow-insect forms.
• Ren Qing realized that Dan Dao Sect cultivators were newly formed bodies and souls carrying inherited memories, and that Lingxiao's chaotic soul held the sect's memories as poison.
• Daoist Lingxiao said he wanted to leave Dead Man's Land and asked Ren Qing to go to the immortal sect with him.
• Daoist Lingxiao claimed that only people from behind the gate would head for the immortal sect, then withheld what he knew as leverage for cooperation.

Ren Qing exposed Daoist Lingxiao as a puppet and fought him while refusing to enter the immortal gate. Daoist Lingxiao died in the giant corpse Buddha’s attack, leaving Ren Qing with a golden elixir and the Buddha’s brain to investigate the events of two hundred years ago.

• Ren Qing secretly poisoned Daoist Lingxiao with malformed disease strains and discovered that he was a dao soldier puppet made from memories.
• Daoist Lingxiao attacked Ren Qing with pill toxins and the shadow dragon, but Ren Qing used manifested beasts to restrain him and sent the giant corpse Buddha toward his true body.
• Daoist Lingxiao’s pill toxins turned him into flesh-and-blood vegetation as he tried to refine the giant corpse Buddha into a dao soldier.
• The giant corpse Buddha overwhelmed Daoist Lingxiao, whose pill toxins and stolen memories drove him to collapse and die.
• Ren Qing stored Daoist Lingxiao’s golden elixir and the Buddha’s damaged primary brain in the stomach world to examine their memories.

Ren Qing investigated the aftermath of the Dan Dao Sect battle, improved the Giant Corpse Buddha’s potential, and studied Daoist Lingxiao’s memories of the Pill Dao and Pill Toxin methods. He discovered that memories might be transferred into newly created zombies, suggesting a limited form of reincarnation.

• Ren Qing stored the dead cultivators on Ice Island instead of turning them into zombies, then began analyzing Daoist Lingxiao’s memories and planning new aberrant organs for the Giant Corpse Buddha.
• Ren Qing selected the Black Arm Technique and Ice Crystal Method to strengthen the Giant Corpse Buddha, but found that the shortage of Eerie Objects limited the available cultivation paths.
• Ren Qing freed Kunpeng from the world within his stomach and placed several Prison Guards and other Eerie Objects there to cultivate.
• Ren Qing compiled the Pill Dao Method and Pill Toxin Method, learning that the Dan Dao Sect used human beings as medicinal resources and stored absorbed memories in Golden Cores.
• Ren Qing tested transferring beasts’ memories into newly created souls and discovered that memories and bodies had to match, making zombie reincarnation possible but uncertain and limited to one life.

Ren Qing sifted through Daoist Lingxiao’s Natal Golden Core and discovered that the immortal gate was a colossal corpse inscribed with the incomplete Corpse Scripture. After finding a hidden memory suggesting the Dan Dao Sect’s arrival had been arranged by an unknown power, he buried that memory beneath the Longevity Tree without examining it.

• Ren Qing had fungal souls sort Daoist Lingxiao’s memories while he transformed the giant corpse Buddha’s right arm into an artifact that produced Poison Blood Fruit.
• Ren Qing altered the decayed main brain with the Soul Splitting Disease, creating seventy-eight blank consciousnesses to store memories as a backup.
• As Ren Qing sorted the Golden Core’s memories, he learned that the immortal gate was a gigantic hollowed corpse, and the factions’ forces had gathered there seeking a chance to become Immortals.
• Ren Qing used the Information Flow to identify the writing on the corpse as the incomplete Corpse Scripture, which promised freedom from aging, life, death, and perishing when fully mastered.
• Ren Qing learned that Daoist Lingxiao had retreated from the immortal gate, while corpse transformation spread and trapped him in the Dead Man Forbidden Zone for a century.
• Ren Qing found a deeply concealed memory implying that an unknown existence had directed the Dan Dao Sect to the Dead Man Forbidden Zone, then cut it out and buried it beneath the Longevity Tree.

Ren Qing prepared the giant corpse Buddha for a covert approach to the immortal sect, refining its arts and disguising its enormous, decaying body. As he headed toward the sect under the guise of Daoist Lingxiao’s Dan Dao Sect, he began helping a Black Insect refine the Buddha’s shadow.

• Ren Qing altered the Natal Golden Core to store thousands of Jailer Hall cultivators’ memories, refined it into an artifact, and set it to absorb lingering souls from corpses.
• Ren Qing directed the Jailer Hall to refine the giant corpse Buddha’s limbs with the Divine Feet Scripture and Beast Heart Ghost while continuing its other aberration refinements.
• Ren Qing shared introductory Pill Dao Method material with the Jailer Hall, and Li Yaoyang offered to provide his completed Gu Worm Method in return.
• Ren Qing decided to impersonate the Dan Dao Sect and Daoist Lingxiao to enter the immortal sect and copy the Corpse Scripture.
• Ren Qing concealed the giant corpse Buddha’s aura and compressed its height, then advanced its Divine Feet Scripture and Eternal Prison arts to the Yin Messenger Realm.
• Ren Qing formed a Black Insect through the Netherworld Heavenly Worm Method, merged it with the giant corpse Buddha’s shadow, and headed toward the immortal sect while using Ghost Shadow to help refine it.

Ren Qing brought the giant corpse Buddha to the Immortal Gate and found Daoist and Buddhist factions surviving in a town around the corpse. After he revealed himself as Daoist Lingxiao, an old Daoist recognized him and demanded to know who he was.

• Ren Qing disguised the giant corpse Buddha and himself as Daoist Lingxiao before approaching the Immortal Gate.
• Li Tiangang spotted a town near the Immortal Gate, and Ren Qing confirmed it by viewing the settlement through the giant corpse Buddha’s eyes.
• Ren Qing examined the town and found Buddhist monks sustaining their numbers with lion-like embryos, Daoists producing infants from a giant tree, and Heavenly Dao Worms hatching eggs.
• Ren Qing saw that other cultivators in the Dead Man Forbidden Zone were barely surviving and suspected the factions were waiting for a major change at the Immortal Gate.
• An old Daoist recognized Ren Qing as Lingxiao, questioned why he had returned instead of entering the Immortal Gate, and drew more than a dozen Yang God Realm figures out of the town.

Ren Qing investigated the cultivators guarding the immortal gate after they mistook him for the long-dead Daoist Lingxiao and attacked. He learned they had guarded the gate for 236 years and 11 months, then headed toward the Insect Nest territory to study the Corpse Scripture and verify his suspicions about the gate.

• Shell-Shedding Layman recognized Ren Qing as Daoist Lingxiao, and Zong Qing and the other cultivators attacked him.
• Ren Qing endured their Arts while using Ghost Shadow to inspect their Information Flow and confirm their Arts matched Daoist Lingxiao’s memories.
• Ren Qing’s giant corpse Buddha crushed the Hyena cultivator after Ren Qing singled him out.
• Great Cold True Person told Ren Qing that the cultivators had been at the gate for 236 years and 11 months, and that Zongwu of the Lion Buddha Temple had led their group.
• Ren Qing drove the giant corpse Buddha to the edge of town near the Insect Nest territory and began copying the Corpse Scripture from the immortal gate.

Jade Splendor True Person met Great Cold True Person in Dead Man's Land, claimed the Blessed Earth Immortal could take him away, and obtained two thousand Heavenly Dao Worm Eggs. At the Immortal Gate, Ren Qing discovered it was the Corpse Mirror and began questioning what had happened to Daoist Lingxiao in the Mirror World.

• Jade Splendor True Person entered the town and told Great Cold True Person that the Insect Nest had believed him dead and had sent no replacement.
• Jade Splendor True Person invoked the Blessed Earth Immortal's name, and Great Cold True Person handed over two thousand Heavenly Dao Worm Eggs.
• Jade Splendor True Person returned to the giant corpse Buddha and went to discuss incubating the eggs with Li Yaoyang.
• Ren Qing approached the Immortal Gate and learned through Ghost Shadow that it was a Corpse Mirror created from the Mirror Immortal.
• Ren Qing reasoned that Daoist Lingxiao and the other missing cultivators had entered the Mirror World, then wondered whether Daoist Lingxiao had remained himself there.

Ren Qing transcribed the Corpse Scripture from the corpse mirror and investigated the Mirror World’s effects. After examining a memory taken from Daoist Lingxiao’s main brain, he learned that the Mirror World held countless upside-down corpses and decided it might contain valuable secrets.

• Ren Qing studied the corpse mirror, transcribed the incomplete Corpse Scripture, and considered the Insect Nest’s strength and Jailer Hall’s prospects.
• Ren Qing nearly entered the Mirror World under the corpse’s influence, but Ghost Shadow stopped him, and he found the remains of cultivators who had killed one another.
• Ren Qing sent a Ghost Envoy Realm cultivator to examine a memory inside Daoist Lingxiao’s main brain, then extracted the memory and erased the cultivator’s knowledge of the Mirror World.
• Ren Qing discovered that the upside-down corpses in the memory were inside the Mirror World and that Daoist Lingxiao had been suspended there.
• Ren Qing suspected the Mirror World might contain a complete Corpse Scripture or an Art related to the Disaster Aversion Method.

Ren Qing sent a substitute into the Mirror World while translating the Corpse Scripture and helping Li Yaoyang hatch Heavenly Dao Worm people. He discovered the scripture could only be recognized when read in ancient official script, suspected it was an Ascension Method, and sent the substitute back into the Corpse Mirror to continue exploring.

• Ren Qing tested whether a Cold Fungus Soul could enter the Mirror World, then sent a pseudo-draconified flesh-and-blood artifact controlled by a Cold Fungus Soul through the Corpse Mirror.
• Ren Qing returned to the giant corpse Buddha, obtained Great Cold True Person's annotations of the ancient official script from Jade Splendor True Person, and used hundreds of fungus souls to translate the Corpse Scripture.
• Ren Qing nourished Li Yaoyang's Heavenly Dao Worm eggs with vitality and Reincarnation Remnant Souls, causing hundreds of insect-featured infants to hatch.
• Ren Qing found that the translated Corpse Scripture was recognized only when he integrated the ancient official script, and he suspected it was an Ascension Method.
• Ren Qing canceled Dragon's Roar in the Scabbard on his substitute, then caused it to emerge from the Corpse Mirror again.

Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• A figure emerges from the Corpse Mirror, emitting potent corpse qi, and transforms into a zombie.
• The zombie, a clone of Ren Qing, advances through different stages of zombification (Purple, White, Green) rapidly.
• The Old Monk Zong Qing and other Yang God Realm cultivators attempt to seize the zombie's soul, but the clone kills Great Cold True Person and the rat cultivator before disappearing into the giant corpse Buddha.

Character Developments

• Ren Qing: Maintains a strategic approach, observing the clone's transformation and the cultivators' reactions. He uses the opportunity to recruit Great Cold True Person into the Jailer Hall.
• Great Cold True Person: Initially hesitant, he eventually acts against the clone but is captured and controlled by Ren Qing.

Significant Themes

• Scheming and deception among cultivators.
• The power and danger of the Corpse Scripture and the Corpse Bone Method.
• The influence of the Dead Man's Land on cultivators' bodies and minds.

Character Interactions

• Ren Qing and the Yang God Realm cultivators: They remain vigilant of each other, each with their own agenda.
• Ren Qing and Great Cold True Person: Ren Qing manipulates Great Cold True Person, ultimately recruiting him into the Jailer Hall.
• The Yang God Realm cultivators and the zombie: They attempt to seize the zombie's soul but are outmatched by its rapid advancement and power.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Ren Qing immerses his mind into a fungal soul's memories to study the Corpse Bone Method in detail.
• He discovers the Mirror World, a prison filled with transformed bodies, including one of an old monk at the Bodhisattva fruit stage.
• The old monk's true body in the outside world is under threat, causing the Mirror World to tremble.
• Ren Qing suspects the phantom's confinement in the Mirror World is related to the Corpse Scripture.
• He creates the Corpse Bone Method, incorporating features of the Jailer Method, and masters it using one year of lifespan, advancing rapidly through its stages.

Character Developments

• Ren Qing: Becomes more determined to understand the Corpse Scripture's purpose and risks to master it. Advances in his cultivation by creating and mastering the Corpse Bone Method.
• The Old Monk: Revealed to be at the Bodhisattva fruit stage, trying to escape his fate as a Buddhist cultivator. His true body faces danger in the outside world.

Significant Themes

• The dangers and consequences of mastering powerful, ancient scripts like the Corpse Scripture.
• The struggle against fate and the consequences of one's actions, as seen in the old monk's predicament.
• The pursuit of immortality and its potential costs, as Ren Qing approaches immortality through his cultivation.

Character Interactions

• Ren Qing interacts with the old monk through the fungal soul, but the old monk is unaware of Ren Qing's presence.
• Ren Qing communicates with Li Tiangang and others about plans to "harvest leeks" (gather lifespan) but focuses on refining the Corpse Bone Method himself.

Ren Qing prepared to study the Corpse Scripture while the Jailer Hall used a Natal Golden Core to help Li Tiangang pursue the Yang God Realm. Li Yaoyang gave up the Golden Core, cultivated his Gu Nerve Scripture, and sensed Li Tiangang’s breakthrough alongside a strange rotting stench from Ren Qing’s seclusion.

• Ren Qing used corpse water and Yin Qi to begin nurturing zombies from the corpses, while he assigned Ghost Shadow to manage the work and Xiao San'er to refine the giant corpse Buddha’s main brain.
• Ren Qing sent Li Yaoyang a Natal Golden Core for Li Tiangang, and Li Yaoyang chose to pass it to Li Tiangang rather than use it himself.
• Li Yaoyang showed Li Tiangang the Golden Core and warned him about a possible soul backlash; Li Tiangang accepted it and left to prepare for advancement.
• Li Yaoyang began cultivating the Gu Nerve Scripture, using four types of Gu Insects as Natal items, and after several months neared Yin Messenger Realm Grand Completion.
• A powerful aura and medicinal fragrance rose as Li Tiangang began advancing, while Li Yaoyang also detected a rotting-corpse stench coming from Ren Qing’s seclusion.

Great Cold True Person witnessed Jailer Hall’s growing power and was nearly killed by Ren Qing’s Corpse Qi before Ren Qing saved him. Ren Qing discovered the Corpse Scripture could lead to possession by the Corpse Immortal, then helped Li Tiangang break through to the Yang God Realm, though the breakthrough left his future advancement difficult.

• Great Cold True Person saw Jailer Hall’s cultivators grow stronger, accepted that the Insect Men might eventually join Jailer Hall, and began doing menial work to integrate himself.
• Great Cold True Person was poisoned by a burst of Corpse Qi in the intestines, but Ren Qing arrived, cleared the Corpse Qi, healed him, and gave him pills.
• Ren Qing learned that completing the Corpse Scripture could draw the cultivator’s body and soul toward the Corpse Immortal, so he separated the Corpse Brain Method and planned to merge other Jailer Methods into the Scripture.
• Ren Qing went to Li Tiangang’s residence as Li Tiangang attempted a Yang God Realm breakthrough, sealed the house with Moon Patterns, and used his insights and dream Arts to steady him.
• Li Tiangang reached the Yang God Realm with Ren Qing’s help, but Ren Qing recognized that relying on outside aid would make further advancement exceedingly difficult.

Ren Qing added the Disguise Technique as a secondary Art to the Disaster Aversion Method and chose concealment-focused abilities, while preparing to derive more Arts for the Jailer Hall. He discovered that zombies were escaping the Mirror World and that the factions had grown alarmed, prompting him to consider a scheme to harvest the leeks.

• Ren Qing rejected Corpse Body as a secondary Art and chose the Disguise Technique for the Disaster Aversion Method.
• Ren Qing mastered the Disguise Technique, transferred thirteen Human Faces to Ghost Shadow, and confirmed that he could imitate others without leaking an Art's aura.
• Ren Qing selected Shed the Mundane, Actor, and Famous actor as the Disguise Technique's Eerie Transformations.
• Ren Qing directed part of his attention toward deriving Arts from Eerie Objects and checked on the outside world.
• Ren Qing learned that zombies were escaping the Mirror World and that the factions were watching the Corpse Buddha, so he considered using the unrest to harvest the leeks.