Chapter Summaries

Chu Tianshu learned how North American practitioners used the Collective Karma Spirit Body Contract to command ghost soldiers and agreed to attend Tang Rongfa and Anthony’s gathering. He set out with them to witness the assembled banners and ghosts.

• Anthony summoned a blue Spirit Body soldier and explained that he kept the dead from becoming Evil Spirits by honoring their contracts and making offerings.
• Tang Rongfa admitted that he also kept ghost soldiers in his cane, and Chu Tianshu reassured him that the practice depended on how its practitioner behaved.
• The narration explained that the Audit Bureau’s Collective Karma Spirit Body Contract let practitioners use their standing and Fortune to command large armies of ghosts.
• Tang Rongfa described the gathering as a chance for prominent families to display their strength, and Anthony invited Chu Tianshu to see their banners and ghost soldiers.
• Chu Tianshu accepted the invitation, and he, Tang Rongfa, Anthony, and Jon prepared to travel to the gathering.

Chu Tianshu traveled with Anthony and Tang Rongfa to inspect Chinatown and learn what the local factions wanted from him. At Tang Rongfa’s temple, Chu Tianshu discovered and extracted a Flame Demon Clan Familiar Puppet from a dying man, leaving the group with their first prize in America.

• Anthony and Tang Rongfa told Chu Tianshu they wanted greater bargaining power with the Audit Bureau and military, along with representative positions in supernatural business.
• The group drove through Chinatown, where Tang Rongfa showed Chu Tianshu the Lord Guan temple that housed his cultivators.
• Chu Tianshu directed Chen Taozhi to the temple’s back entrance, where Tang Rongfa was examining a dying elderly man and found a faint flame inside his stretched soul.
• Tang Rongfa identified the flame as a Fire of the Upper Origin, an intangible Familiar Puppet created by the Flame Demon Clan, and said it was difficult to separate from the man’s thoughts.
• Chu Tianshu summoned a crimson dragon with his palm and pulled the Fire of the Upper Origin out of the soul unharmed.

Chu Tianshu healed Liu Hanqiang after removing the Fire of the Upper Origin, then urged Tang Rongfa and Anthony to supply External Elixir products to their people. The chapter ended with Chu Tianshu agreeing to treat the proposal as their first deal and preparing to judge the group at that night’s gathering.

• Chu Tianshu absorbed the Fire of the Upper Origin and used Mind Power from the Three-Seven Sword to return Liu Hanqiang’s soul to his body.
• Aqing Gong and Tang Rongfa recognized Liu Hanqiang, a former fighter who had persevered despite never opening his aperture.
• Chu Tianshu told Tang Rongfa that Liu Hanqiang had opened his aperture and suggested supporting him with rehabilitation and an External Elixir No. 2.
• Anthony told Tang Rongfa that their organization served millions of people, and Chu Tianshu agreed to pass along a proposal for selling External Elixir products as their first deal.
• Anthony asked about exclusive sales rights and proposed cracking down on counterfeit products, while Chu Tianshu said he would assess everyone at the gathering that night.

Chu Tianshu opened the gathering at Anthony's winery by announcing that he would inspect the assembled faction leaders for Ghost God's agents. The leaders rejected his authority and unleashed the power of their banners, leaving Anthony and Jon stunned by their strength.

• Chu Tianshu and Chen Taozhi watched the faction leaders arrive with ghost soldiers carrying their banners, then went downstairs with Jon and Alexis.
• Chu Tianshu told the guests the meeting was a job interview and said he would root out the Ghost God's lackeys among them.
• A silver-haired man accused Chu Tianshu of trying to suppress the guests and challenged him to prove he was qualified to inspect them.
• Madam Mala fainted amid the guests' anger, while the silver-haired man raised his banner and declared that they would not submit to violence.
• The guests raised their banners together, summoning vast Yin Qi that darkened the estate and caused nearby lights to flicker, while Anthony and Jon realized how powerful they had become.

Chu Tianshu attacked the guests gathered above the estate, identifying hidden Evil Spirits and exposing Madam Mala as a witch. He beheaded her with a three-inch draw of his sword, leaving her soul trapped in her severed head.

• Chu Tianshu appeared among the airborne guests and attacked them with rapid strikes, knocking them from the sky.
• Chu Tianshu told Anthony that six people carried Evil Spirits and that he had frozen them so they could be identified.
• Chu Tianshu exposed Madam Mala's exaggerated fainting as an act and accused her of serving a god as an Evil Spirit.
• Madam Mala transformed into a seductive witch and tried to bewitch Chu Tianshu and the people around them.
• Chu Tianshu drew his sword three inches and severed Madam Mala's head, trapping her soul inside it.

Chu Tianshu forced the estate’s guests to return, exposed their vulnerability, and pressed them to cooperate against the demons while interrogating the captured spies and a Flame Demon witch. The witch revealed a plan to lure the Exorcist Association’s leaders into a Fire Field and exploit the Collective Karma Spirit Body Contract to produce materials for the Flame Demon Clan.

• Chu Tianshu used his voice to summon fleeing guests back to the conference hall and ordered them into their assigned seats.
• Chu Tianshu said the guests had passed an initial check but remained under suspicion, while Anthony distributed a revised proposal for coordinated action against the demons.
• Chu Tianshu used a Soul-Bewitching Mantra to interrogate the frozen spies, who revealed little about their contacts with the Flame Demon Clan.
• Chu Tianshu tortured the witch with resonating silver needles until she agreed to confess.
• The witch revealed she had impersonated Madam Mala to study the Exorcist Association’s leaders and intended to lure them into a Fire Field.
• The witch explained that the Flame Demon Clan hoped to use the Collective Karma Spirit Body Contract to turn contract cultivators into a supply of materials for producing familiar puppets.

Chu Tianshu interrogated the Flame Demon witch about the planned fire ground near San Francisco and trained the gathered ghost-soldier commanders in a coordinated military formation. He left to investigate the three possible sites while forcing the captive witch to record everything she knew about familiar puppets.

• The witch explained that the fire ground required precise timing, terrain, and a formation plate, then revealed three possible sites near San Francisco that would suit the next month.
• Tang Rongfa warned that the witch might have given false locations to mislead them, while Anthony argued that the Flame Demons lacked an insider after Chu Tianshu exposed their spy.
• Chu Tianshu praised the commanders, gave them troop-training methods carved into ice bowls, and assigned Chen Taozhi's assault team the main formation.
• The commanders discovered the methods were written in Chinese, so Chu Tianshu directed Tang Rongfa to help translate them.
• Chu Tianshu told the witch he would investigate the three sites and ordered her to write at least thirty thousand characters a day about familiar puppets, using her tongue if necessary.

Chu Tianshu and Jon entered a town hosting a lumberjack competition, where they found Fang Jun investigating the Flame Demon Clan after the death of Nie Longding’s daughter. Fang Jun revealed the banner she left him and asked Chu Tianshu to assess whether it could help with the investigation.

• Chu Tianshu and Jon arrived in town and noticed the crowds gathering for a lumberjack competition and its related contests.
• Chu Tianshu recognized the disguised Fang Jun among the spectators and led him and Jon into the woods to talk privately.
• Fang Jun explained that Nie Longding’s daughter had sought power from the Flame Demon Clan but destroyed her transformation ritual and died from its poisonous fire.
• Fang Jun said he had come to investigate the town’s suspected role in a Flame Demon Clan plan and to avenge Nie Longding’s daughter.
• Fang Jun revealed the Five Venoms Heaven-Slaying Golden Serpent Banner, which combined gu poison banner arts with curses from the Longhua and Flame Demon lineages.

Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun used the Golden Serpent Banner to search for signs of the Flame Devil Race, while Pastor Xitu and Archmage Xiama discussed their plans to expand the clan’s influence. The chapter left Xiama angrily shutting down any mention of Longhua and its allies.

• Chu Tianshu recognized the Golden Serpent Banner’s power and warned that combining the Flame Demon and Longhua paths carried great danger.
• Fang Jun used the banner to sense for Flame Devil Race arrangements nearby, and Chu Tianshu urged him to search more boldly.
• Pastor Xitu and Archmage Xiama discussed Victor Green’s strength and their plan to send Familiar Puppets to Fusang.
• Archmage Xiama explained that the Flame Demon Clan intended to use the Bear Mountain Clan’s influence in Fusang to build a secret supply of troops and establish puppet production.
• Pastor Xitu mentioned the Longhua God Tree in India, and Archmage Xiama angrily forbade him from bringing up Longhua.

Archmage Xiama detected a powerful spell and ordered the Flame Devil Race members to flee, while Jon fought Pastor Xitu in the redwood grove. Archmage Xiama sensed that revealing his true form before the approaching Chu Tianshu would expose a fatal weakness, and Chu Tianshu appeared as the chapter ended.

• Archmage Xiama detected a high-powered spell, sent seventeen ghost snacks to the Flame Devil Race members, and ordered them to hide in the mountains.
• A silver weapon struck the fleeing Flame Devil Race members, piercing three and knocking the others from the air.
• Pastor Xitu tried to escape through a redwood grove, where Jon ambushed him and they exchanged a fierce series of punches.
• Jon recognized Pastor Xitu's mastery of the Occam Truth Fist, and Pastor Xitu said his villainous nature had turned his practice into a Spirit Realm creature.
• Archmage Xiama approached in retreat and said he sensed that revealing his true form before someone nearby would expose a fatal weakness.
• Chu Tianshu appeared after a redwood moved aside, with an empty sheath hanging at his waist.

Chu Tianshu confronted Archmage Xiama, who summoned the gigantic Spirit Body Puppet Gomorrah to attack him with its Mind Power Field. Chu Tianshu severed one of Gomorrah’s horns, broke through its defenses, and struck the back of Xiama’s neck.

• Chu Tianshu stomped a Spirit Body Puppet as hundreds more emerged from the ground and flew together to form Gomorrah.
• Gomorrah unleashed a Mind Power Field that disrupted Jon and Priest Xitu, while Chu Tianshu countered the force with a red aura.
• Chu Tianshu charged at Gomorrah and severed its right horn with a sword-finger strike.
• Chu Tianshu circled back, blasted through Gomorrah’s tail and Mind Power shield, and struck Archmage Xiama on the back of the neck.

Chu Tianshu subdued Xiama and used golden Li Fire to defeat Pastor Xitu, while Fang Jun confronted the pastor over Nie Hongyao and chose to let go of his past. The chapter ended with Pastor Xitu collapsing after a golden spark pierced his heart and Spirit Body.

• Chu Tianshu sealed Xiama's Spirit Body with Sword Qi and ordered the puppet monster to capture Pastor Xitu's accomplice.
• Pastor Xitu transformed with boiling humors and challenged Chu Tianshu, then recognized Nie Hongyao's banner when Fang Jun arrived.
• Fang Jun accused Pastor Xitu of enabling Nie Hongyao's atrocities, acknowledged his own regrets, and declared that he had let the past go.
• Fang Jun positioned himself behind Chu Tianshu and pronounced Pastor Xitu guilty under the United Nations Superpower Archive Regulations.
• Chu Tianshu shaped the banner's Li Fire into a golden flower and used its petals to halt Pastor Xitu's attack.
• Chu Tianshu flicked the flower's golden center through Pastor Xitu's heart, causing him to collapse.

Grand Duke Xiade met with bear demons and their allies in the Aokigahara Sea of Trees, promising them control of the region and discussing plans to expand their influence. When he sensed Gomorrah had been assembled, he used a puppet to observe it and saw an unknown man standing over a fallen fighter.

• Grand Duke Xiade watched martial artists train in the Aokigahara Sea of Trees while considering which ones to eat.
• Xiong Zuoqu described how the bear demons had gained power by serving the High God and replacing human officials.
• Xiade promised the bear demons that arriving troops and a Familiar Puppet production line would let them control the region and eat freely.
• An old monk urged the group to make human puppets and send them into the neighboring country to seize power and Fortune.
• Xiade sensed that the Fireground Formation Disk had become Gomorrah and summoned a rhinoceros-helmeted Familiar Puppet to view it.
• The puppet's screen showed a fallen, bare-chested man and then an unknown human face appearing close to Gomorrah.

Chu Tianshu used his soul and a nine-syllable mantra to expose his power, alarming Xiade and the other leaders in Fusang. After bringing Xiama’s broken confession back to San Francisco, Chu Tianshu decided to travel to Fusang, and the American experts chose to accompany him despite the military’s reluctance.

• Chu Tianshu’s soul grew larger than Gomorrah, and his mantra caused people watching from Mount Fuji to recite it and suffer injuries.
• Xiade and Xiong Zuoqu realized that Chu Tianshu’s mantra had affected even those who had only repeated it in their thoughts, and they discussed gathering greater strength in Fusang.
• Chu Tianshu returned to San Francisco with Xiama, reported that the old man’s confession was incomplete, and destroyed him after Fang Jun and Jon confirmed the recording had been uploaded.
• Chu Tianshu announced that he was going to Fusang, but Jon tried to persuade him to stay in the Americas and leave the matter to the military.
• Adams and the Exorcist Association members declared that they would travel to Fusang of their own accord, and Alexis and Jon agreed to accompany them.

Siamese brothers Chachai and Chadama considered leaving the Aokigahara Sea of Trees for Baosheng Temple, where they hoped to find work and improve their Bodhisattva Yesu Fist. Their discussion was interrupted when they saw figures jump from airplanes, and Chachai recognized them as ghosts.

• Chadama complained that local Fusang forces controlled the best resources, and Chachai suggested returning to Siam and seeking work at Baosheng Temple.
• Chachai confronted Chadama about his relationship with Kana and announced that the brothers would soon leave the woods.
• Chachai said he hoped to meet Chu Tianshu and receive guidance, while Chadama doubted that martial arts ability alone made him a true master.
• Kana arrived after having another nightmare, and she reacted strangely when Chu Tianshu’s name came up.
• Several airplanes flew over the woods, and figures leaped from them without parachutes.
• Chadama thought he saw the figures multiply, and Chachai identified them as ghosts.

Chu Tianshu and Jon arrived at the Aokigahara Sea of Trees as tens of thousands of American ghost soldiers attacked Mount Fuji, where human traitors and Spirit Realm demons had established a stronghold. Chu Tianshu stopped the martial artists from fleeing and began fighting the traitors, ending with Xiong Zuoqu transforming into a giant bear to face a hurled lump of flesh.

• Tens of thousands of American ghost soldiers descended on Mount Fuji, frightening the martial artists gathered in the Sea of Trees.
• Chu Tianshu and Jon ordered everyone to remain in the Sea of Trees while the ghost soldiers spread out to fight across Mount Fuji.
• American ghosts and human forces exchanged fire as Fusang samurai and mana monks joined the battle against them.
• Xiong Zuoqu and two elderly men asked the Grand Duke for help, but Chu Tianshu killed one old man and crushed the other into a lump of flesh.
• Chu Tianshu hurled the lump of flesh at Xiong Zuoqu, who transformed into a gigantic black bear and snapped at it.

Chu Tianshu killed Xiong Zuoqu and pursued the Flame Demon Evil Spirit Xiade as he fled through Mount Fuji’s magma. Across the mountain, Chinese mechs and fighters fought Fusang forces while Chu Tianshu intervened, leaving Xiade still on the run.

• Chu Tianshu trapped Xiong Zuoqu’s Evil Spirit in a spinning green light, devoured it, and transformed the bear’s body into a mass of crystal spikes.
• Xiade recognized that the American forces would not stop Chu Tianshu and fled through the magma beneath Mount Fuji.
• Chu Tianshu pursued Xiade through the mountain forest and destroyed an armed helicopter as he advanced.
• Chu Tianshu smashed a golden barrier protecting Fusang monks and warriors, then told Zhang Daqiang to target the armed guards.
• Zhang Daqiang and the other mech commandos joked over their comms before resuming the fight, while Chen Taozhi continued killing Fusang forces and remarked that Chu Tianshu was competing with them for easy targets.

Chu Tianshu pursued Xiade to a shrine in Tokyo, where he fought and killed the Flame Devil in midair. Kana secretly watched the battle through her eyes, but Chu Tianshu detected her and asked whether she had seen clearly.

• Luo Zhan exposed Kana as a descendant of the Ghost Mother of Yu Mountain by throwing refined lime powder on her, and he called her identity a possible opportunity.
• After Chen Taozhi warned him that martial artists had delivered a Yu Mountain ghost's body to the strike team, Chu Tianshu remained alert as he pursued Xiade toward Tokyo.
• Xiade reached an ancient shrine in Tama Hills and ordered two old monks to conceal their activities after telling them Xiong Zuoqu had been killed.
• Chu Tianshu attacked the shrine, drove Xiade high into the sky with a succession of strikes, and cut him into fragments.
• Chu Tianshu revealed that he had sensed Kana watching and recording his fight, and Kana heard his question about whether she had seen clearly.

The high priestess and the Wangliang Divine Lord watched Chu Tianshu’s advance and discussed his rapid cultivation, the Flame Demon Clan’s loss of resolve, and the Ghost Mother Clan’s true nature. At the ancient Bear God Shrine, Chu Tianshu stayed hidden during the battle and addressed the high priestess through the watching eyes.

• The high priestess and the Wangliang Divine Lord observed Chu Tianshu’s Qi traces and remarked on how quickly he had grown stronger.
• The Wangliang Divine Lord criticized Xiade for avoiding a fight with Chu Tianshu and explained that the Flame Demon Clan’s fear went against its nature.
• The high priestess realized she should help the Flame Demon Clan build a future rather than seek immediate leverage from its losses.
• The high priestess watched Chu Tianshu reach the ancient Bear God Shrine, where the incense burner Flame Demon fought while Chu remained concealed inside the temple.
• Chu Tianshu sent a message and asked whether the high priestess of Yu Mountain was watching through the eyes before her.

Chu Tianshu exchanged one move with the high priestess through Kana and destroyed the ghost woman's body, demonstrating how much his martial arts had improved. He then prepared to use the materials from his recent killings for a deduction and examined the Mountain Fire Demon Envoy trait.

• Kana relayed the high priestess's thoughts, and Chu Tianshu taunted her about her palm strike before inviting her to exchange one move.
• The high priestess took control of the ghost woman's body and accepted Chu Tianshu's challenge, intending to use the Ghost Eye Ritual to capture his Qi signature.
• The ghost woman struck with a pure-yin palm that turned the mountain path into a crystal world, but Chu Tianshu's finger lit up the landscape and broke her move.
• Chu Tianshu avoided the ghost woman's eyes as her body crumbled into flying sand and vanished.
• Chu Tianshu reflected that his cultivation had improved, then reviewed his materials and inspected the Mountain Fire Demon Envoy trait for his next deduction.