Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuezhou investigated the disappearance of three people at Emperor Luo Zhong’s mausoleum and found that they had vanished during a night fire sacrifice. As he prepared to search the mausoleum with Jin Shixue and others, he connected the disappearances to Zuo Jin’s absence and grew cautious.

• Zhang Xuezhou met Feng Ziqiang and Jin Shixue at the mausoleum, where Feng Ziqiang reported that construction was progressing and Jin Shixue revealed that three people had gone missing.
• Jin Shixue explained that the missing people had been involved in the night fire sacrifice and that their clothes were left beside the mausoleum barrier.
• Zhang Xuezhou inspected the site and considered whether the purple Gladiolus Grass or something inside the mausoleum had taken the people.
• Jin Shixue told Zhang Xuezhou that Zuo Jin had returned to Western Capital City two days earlier, after the disappearances occurred.
• Zhang Xuezhou linked the timing of the disappearances to lights at the Zuo Household and Zuo Teng’s emotional instability, then entered the mausoleum with Jin Shixue’s group wearing protective gear.

Zhang Xuezhou investigated Luo Zhong's imperial mausoleum with Jin Shixue, where a supernatural incident revealed Zuo Luo hiding inside the coffin. Zuo Luo attacked Zhang Xuezhou with a vine-like body but collapsed under his deterrent ability, leaving Zhang to wonder how a practitioner of the Fortune Technique had been defeated by it.

• Zhang Xuezhou led Jin Shixue through Luo Zhong's imperial mausoleum and examined the headless skeleton in its coffin.
• Jin Shixue saw the coffin open and the headless body sit up, leaving him frozen and unable to call for help.
• Zhang Xuezhou noticed Jin Shixue was motionless, opened the coffin, and saw the skeleton rise amid faint purple light.
• Zhang Xuezhou used his deterrent ability against the skeleton, and a voice identified itself as Zuo Luo and begged for help.
• Zuo Luo emerged as a vine-covered creature with three heads and lunged at Zhang Xuezhou, but his vines collapsed when they touched him.
• Zhang Xuezhou recognized Zuo Luo and wondered how a member of Huang Daoxian's Fortune Technique line had fallen victim to the Fortune Technique.

Zhang Xuezhou watched Zuo Luo die and discovered that the missing people’s heads were inside Luo Zhong’s imperial outer coffin. After finding signs of a hidden, possibly size-changing passage beneath the coffin, he planned to use the murder as grounds to excavate the mausoleum’s foundations and disrupt Huang Daoxian’s arrangements.

• Zuo Luo’s three vine-bound heads pleaded with Zhang Xuezhou to avenge him against Ba'ergu, then fell out as the vines vanished into purple light and ash.
• Zhang Xuezhou picked up a blood-red stalk from Luo Zhong’s remains and slapped Jin Shixue and the hired hand awake from their hallucinations.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Jin Shixue that the three missing people’s heads were inside the coffin, and the terrified hired hand fled the burial chamber.
• Zhang Xuezhou inspected the coffin’s rotted, holed underside and wondered whether a hidden structure or passage could shrink and travel underground.
• Zhang Xuezhou decided to report the murder as grounds to investigate and dig beneath Luo Zhong’s mausoleum without going through the Zuo Household.

After a headless skeleton attacked people inside Emperor Li of Luo's Mausoleum, Feng Ziqiang ordered the tomb forcibly excavated to prevent rumors from damaging the Eastern Mountain Imperial Mausoleums. Zhang Xuezhou watched the work begin, then chased a golden glow of fortune that emerged from the mausoleum and drifted northwest.

• Jin Shixue told Feng Ziqiang that someone had attacked people through the mausoleum passage, and Feng ordered the site sealed and guarded.
• Jin Shixue urged Feng Ziqiang to excavate Emperor Li of Luo's Mausoleum before rumors frightened tourists away, and Feng ordered workers and machinery to dig it open.
• Zhang Xuezhou agreed to watch the excavation, while Jin Shixue collapsed and received treatment on a stretcher.
• Feng Ziqiang gave Zhang Xuezhou his pistol and asked whether the figure in the tomb had really come back to life.
• A muffled sound came from the mausoleum, and Zhang Xuezhou and Feng Ziqiang chased a golden glow of fortune as it drifted northwest.

Zhang Xuezhou discovered a bronze turtle artifact beneath Emperor Li of Luo's Mausoleum that carried the Luofu Dynasty's fortune. After touching it triggered a scorching backlash, he had Wang Zimo lift it and saw fortune gather around the young man, leaving him to suspect the turtle was controlled by Huang Daoxian.

• After explosives disturbed the mausoleum, Zhang Xuezhou spotted golden fortune shifting beneath its western side and directed Feng Ziqiang to excavate there.
• The excavation uncovered a bronze turtle with a bowl in its mouth, and Zhang Xuezhou saw strands of fortune flowing into it.
• When Zhang Xuezhou touched the turtle, fortune collided with the fortune in his body and melted his plastic glove, so he pulled away.
• Feng Ziqiang ordered Wang Zimo to lift the turtle, and the young man handled it without harm.
• Zhang Xuezhou saw golden fortune coil around Wang Zimo and suspected the bronze turtle was a treasure Huang Daoxian used to control fortune.

Zhang Xuezhou sealed away the bronze turtle excavated beneath Emperor Li of Luo's Mausoleum while Wang Zimo recovered from its effects. At sunrise, Jin Shixue experienced a strange, fleeting change that vanished with the morning light, leaving him convinced that something beyond his understanding had occurred.

• Zhang Xuezhou had Feng Ziqiang find a sealed box and stored the bronze turtle inside it for later study.
• A doctor found Min Ziyan mentally traumatized, Jin Shixue severely depleted, and Wang Zimo asleep with a fever but otherwise healthy.
• Jin Shixue told Feng Ziqiang that Zhang Xuezhou had likely saved them and that the bronze turtle's origins were unknown.
• At sunrise, Jin Shixue saw fish-scale ripples of light on his hand and briefly felt his pain and fatigue disappear before the sensation vanished.
• Jin Shixue learned that Min Ziyan had awakened and Wang Zimo was active again, and he concluded that an inconceivable change had taken place.

After Emperor Li of Luo's Mausoleum was nearly destroyed, Zhang Xuezhou watched East Mountain's sealed fortune disperse and realized the mountain had become ordinary. The morning sunlight also changed Jin Shixue's outlook, and he asked to join the committee, leaving Feng Ziqiang shaken.

• At sunrise, Zhang Xuezhou saw East Mountain's fortune disperse in every direction and recognized that the sealed store of fortune was breaking apart.
• Zhang Xuezhou returned to his body and found East Mountain ordinary, while Jin Shixue said the sunshine had cleared his head and eased his discomfort.
• Jin Shixue asked Zhang Xuezhou to help him join the committee and said he no longer wanted to restore the old state.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Jin Shixue to consider the decision carefully and invited him to find him at the B13 Research Institute in North Rehe.
• Feng Ziqiang reacted with shock and anger as Jin Shixue turned away from the loyalists, and he felt his own convictions weaken.

Zhang Xuezhou investigated the disappearance of the purple Gladiolus Grass after learning that Zuo Jin had repeatedly inspected it. He discovered all three plants were missing, and Zhou Yueyan sent Zhou Rihui to help him investigate the Zuo Household.

• Zhang Xuezhou agreed to consider helping Jin Shixue train and told him to visit the B13 Research Institute when he was ready.
• Zhang Xuezhou received messages from Ren Anran and Ren Wuyang about the Zuo Household and Zuo Jin, then called Zhou Yueyan to ask about the purple Gladiolus Grass.
• Zhou Yueyan found that Zuo Jin had visited the High-Tech Agricultural Products Center three times but that no records showed him taking the plants.
• Zhou Yueyan confirmed that all three Gladiolus Grass plants had vanished despite being intact two days earlier.
• Zhou Yueyan failed to reach Zuo Jin and several Zuo Household researchers, then sent Zhou Rihui to assist Zhang Xuezhou's investigation.

Zhang Xuezhou used the Yin Entity Tracking Technique to investigate the vanished residents of the Zuo Household and found evidence that their mental imprints remained. He and the others entered the grounds to search for the cause, while Ren Wuyang’s difficulties crossing the wall renewed concerns about his cultivation path.

• Ren Wuyang told Zhang Xuezhou that people vanished from the Zuo Household by day but appeared as figures in buildings at night.
• Zhang Xuezhou cast the Yin Entity Tracking Technique, and its purple streaks led him to conclude that everyone in the household was currently dead.
• Ren Anran and Zhou Rihui questioned the danger and possible cause, but Zhang Xuezhou said they needed to investigate the source during daylight.
• Zhou Rihui, Ren Anran, and Zhang Xuezhou crossed the wall with ease, while Ren Wuyang fell into thorny brambles and was treated by Ren Anran.
• Zhang Xuezhou suggested Ren Wuyang might be following Ren Yisheng’s cultivation path too closely, and Ren Wuyang said his father required him to master the sixth chapter first.

Zhang Xuezhou and his companions entered Zuo Teng’s villa to investigate the strange presence detected there. In the darkness, they encountered a talking black pine that seemed to transform into a person, leaving Ren Wuyang sensing imminent danger.

• Ren Anran identified Zuo Teng’s villa, and Zhang Xuezhou used Zuo Teng’s key and access code to enter it with the group.
• Zhang Xuezhou found only Zuo Teng’s butler, Zuo Zhong, in the villa, but the Yin Entity Tracking Technique could not locate its target inside.
• Zhang Xuezhou had the group darken the living room, where a voice said that it was time to turn on the lights.
• Zhou Rihui grabbed the source of the voice and found a black pine with strange, living roots, which he broke in half.
• Ren Anran said she had sensed a person appearing, while Zhang Xuezhou suggested that something had taken form through the tree.
• Ren Wuyang felt danger drawing closer and feared that a great calamity was about to descend.

Zhang Xuezhou and his companions discovered that Demonized plants were spreading through the Zuo Household grounds, while he used the Yin Entity Tracking Technique and Ren Wuyang’s Dragon Elephant Combat Technique to assess and counter them. The weather suddenly changed, and red-eyed straw figures appeared, revealing a new threat that Zhang Xuezhou associated with Huang Daoxian.

• Zhang Xuezhou explained that Demonization could turn people or plants into dangerous creatures, and Ren Anran asked how Zuo Jin had caused it.
• Zhou Rihui and Zhou Yueyan sent photos of the Zuo Household grounds as the plants outside Zuo Teng's villa began growing and moving toward it.
• Zhang Xuezhou tracked approaching Yin Souls and told Ren Wuyang that the plants’ attack was mostly a scare tactic.
• Ren Wuyang struck through the window with the Dragon Elephant Combat Technique, causing the grass roots to fall away from the villa.
• Zhang Xuezhou suggested an unusual ability had helped kill the Zuo Household members, and the sky darkened as wind, thunder, and rain swept in.
• Zhang Xuezhou saw red-eyed straw figures rise from the ground and approach the villa, and he suspected they were evidence of Huang Daoxian’s abilities.

Zhang Xuezhou and the others endured Zuo Jin’s wind, rain, and straw-man attack from inside the Zuo Household villa, then used Luo Gaogao’s tracking skills to locate his communicator at Professor Jin Guangming’s research institute. Zhang Xuezhou headed there after Ren Wuyang, Zhou Rihui, and Ren Anran launched a counterattack, and found a bizarre-looking Zuo Jin inside.

• Zhang Xuezhou and Ren Anran realized the villa shielded them from the straw men and waited while Ren Wuyang knocked the attackers down.
• Zhang Xuezhou called Luo Gaogao, who located Zuo Jin’s communicator at Professor Jin Guangming’s research institute in the A2 buildings.
• Zhang Xuezhou sent Zhou Rihui and Ren Anran to attack the institute while Ren Wuyang led the way, and he followed behind them.
• Zhang Xuezhou slipped out through the villa’s skylight as Zuo Jin’s attack began disrupting the wooden fixtures inside.
• Zhou Rihui smashed the institute’s blast-resistant glass while Ren Anran joined the assault, and Zhang Xuezhou saw a bizarre-looking Zuo Jin through the opening.

Zhang Xuezhou and the others defeated Zuo Jin and learned that he had transformed the Zuo Household while serving Huang Daoxian. Zhang offered Zuo Jin a chance to survive by helping them deal with his master, and Zuo Jin considered the possibility of being exiled to Qinmeng.

• Zhou Rihui and Ren Anran incapacitated Zuo Jin, whose head had sprouted a flower, and Ren Anran questioned him about his identity and Huang Daoxian.
• Zuo Jin confessed that he had killed Luo En to stop him from devouring him, then warned that Huang Daoxian could see everything and would punish them.
• Zhang Xuezhou arrived and confirmed that Zuo Luo had asked him to kill Zuo Jin.
• Zhang offered Zuo Jin a choice between dying or helping them deal with Huang Daoxian in exchange for a chance to live.
• Zhang said Huang Daoxian could be killed by finding the gemstone tied to his immortality, and Zuo Jin asked whether they would send him to Qinmeng.

Zuo Jin explained his connection to Huang Daoxian and the bronze turtle worshipped at East Mountain, but knew little about their purpose. After learning the mausoleum and its arrangements had been destroyed, he warned Zhang Xuezhou and the others that Huang Daoxian was coming to Western Capital City.

• Zuo Jin told Zhang Xuezhou that he had never met Huang Daoxian and had learned what he knew through inherited knowledge as he grew and evolved.
• Zuo Jin identified the bronze turtle beneath Emperor Li of Luo's Mausoleum as the god guarded on East Mountain and said it would have given a gift once its requirements were met.
• Zhang Xuezhou explained that the bronze turtle had been dug up and East Mountain's fortune had scattered, leaving Huang Daoxian's century of arrangements ruined.
• Zuo Jin realized the guardianship on East Mountain had ended and warned that Huang Daoxian would come after everyone involved.
• Ren Anran asked when Huang Daoxian might reach Western Capital City, and Zuo Jin estimated he could arrive within three days of learning what happened.

Ren Yisheng and the others prepared for Huang Daoxian’s imminent arrival, but they lacked a reliable way to identify him or time to establish several traps. Zhang Xuezhou proposed using the Tomb Scripture with the bronze turtle, and Ren Wuyang volunteered to try reciting it as they made plans to confront the threat.

• Ren Yisheng arrived after Zhang Xuezhou’s message and identified the Luofu Imperial Palace, East Mountain, the Zuo Household, and the bronze turtle as possible places Huang Daoxian might go.
• Ren Anran, Zhou Rihui, and Zhang Xuezhou discussed how they could trap Huang Daoxian, but admitted they did not know his appearance or how he would arrive.
• Zhang Xuezhou proposed using the Tomb Scripture with the bronze turtle to try to bring forth the Fortune Eye, since the Eastern Mountain Imperial Mausoleums were no longer usable.
• Ren Anran began asking people she knew whether anyone could quickly memorize the Tomb Scripture.
• Ren Wuyang volunteered to recite the scripture from memory while Zhang Xuezhou warned that using it could carry unknown risks, then agreed to let him try.

Zhang Xuezhou recited the Tomb Scripture and gathered people with exceptional memories to help identify Huang Daoxian. As the special task force prepared heavy artillery for a possible confrontation, Zhang Xuezhou decided to invite Qimeng Haige and Twilight Years Mansion to observe and assist if needed.

• Zhang Xuezhou and Ren Wuyang recited the Tomb Scripture while Ren Yisheng and Ren Anran searched for people who could memorize it.
• Ren Anran found a rote memorizer from Shengteng Academy, while Ren Yisheng sought help from Song Sijia.
• Zhang Xuezhou recruited Ning Que and asked Jin Shixue to bring Min Ziyan and Wang Zimo to the security center.
• Ren Anran suggested seeking administrative approval, but Ren Yisheng judged the process too slow.
• Zhang Xuezhou agreed with Ren Yisheng that they should invite Qimeng Haige and Twilight Years Mansion to watch the artillery display and help if the confrontation arose.

Zhang Xuezhou and his allies failed to awaken the Fortune Eye as they prepared for Huang Daoxian’s arrival, leaving their first countermeasure in doubt. Ren Yisheng brought a tense gathering of committee members and outside helpers to the security center, where Qin Wenhan realized they faced an opponent they had never met; the two Proxima stars then vanished from the night sky.

• Zhang Xuezhou told Ren Anran that no one had awakened the Fortune Eye despite reciting the Tomb Scripture all day.
• Zhang Xuezhou considered how conflicting Fortunes and Huang Daoxian’s backlash might be disrupting their plans.
• Ren Yisheng arrived at the security center with Zhong Rang, Qimeng Haige, and many committee members, easing some of their tension when they saw Zhang Xuezhou.
• Qimeng Haige tried to leave, but Ren Yisheng and the others urged him to stay with the group.
• Qin Wenhan reflected on how dangerous the unknown Huang Daoxian was as thunder rumbled and Proxima One and Proxima Two disappeared from view.

Zhang Xuezhou ended the Fortune Eye recitations and prepared to move the bronze turtle as the group waited for Huang Daoxian, their nearly untraceable opponent. Song Sijia realized the danger they faced, and Zhang Xuezhou sensed that Huang Daoxian had arrived as thunder and rain struck.

• Zhang Xuezhou refused Jin Shixue's request for more time and ordered the bronze turtle moved from the security center.
• Song Sijia, Lin Qingyu, and Ning Que discussed their failed attempts to communicate with the bronze turtle, and Zhang Xuezhou explained that he needed eyes capable of finding their opponent.
• Ning Que learned that Zhang Xuezhou's group planned to use rocket artillery against an enemy who could appear in many forms and hide almost anywhere.
• Song Sijia recognized the threat from the Thousand Islands Alliance videos and recalled the deadly moth disaster in Laitaya City.
• Thunder and lightning startled Song Sijia, and Zhang Xuezhou sensed that Huang Daoxian had arrived.

After Zhang Xuezhou left, Ning Que urged the others to keep reciting toward the bronze turtle, hoping they could change their fate. Song Sijia taught them Resonance Between Heaven and Humanity, and Jin Shixue began to understand the method as the group continued trying to reach the statue.

• Zhang Xuezhou left the security department, and Ning Que told the others to keep reciting the incantation toward the bronze turtle.
• Wang Zimo, Min Ziyan, and Lin Qingyu recited outside while Ning Que encouraged them to seize their chance to change their fates.
• Song Sijia recalled the Resonance Between Heaven and Humanity ability Zhang Xuezhou had taught her and began guiding the three in using it to reach the bronze turtle.
• Jin Shixue listened to Song Sijia’s explanation and identified the technique as an ancient method of mental communication.
• Song Sijia stopped teaching, and Jin Shixue gained a measure of understanding as Zhang Xuezhou’s recorded recitation continued to play.

The Sequence Committee watched the bronze turtle as Ren Yisheng’s artillery deployment revealed its true target: a Fire Meteor creature. As the creature arrived and thorn bushes spread across the bombardment zone and around the security center, it trapped the observers before they could fire.

• Zhu Liangping and the other committee members questioned Ren Yisheng about the artillery deployment and speculated about its target.
• Zhou Rihui showed photos of Zuo Jin transformed into a Fire Meteor creature and warned the group about the Zuo Household’s disappearance.
• Zhong Rang urged everyone to contribute their strength if the bombardment struck the creature, while Qimeng Haige worried about the threat spreading to other states.
• Ren Yisheng announced the creature’s arrival as thorn bushes rapidly grew across the designated bombardment zone.
• Thorns also sprang up outside the security center, surrounding the committee and task force before they could act.