Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuezhou doubted that his dream cultivation and the Qi and Blood Pill had affected him, then woke in the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple with increased strength after using the Supreme Purity True Technique to treat his reddened, aching body. Seeing Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong below with a wild boar, he cleared away traces of his stay and left the temple.

• Zhang Xuezhou worried that his cultivation was a delusion and took three diazepam tablets when he recognized signs of an episode.
• Zhang Xuezhou repeatedly practiced the Supreme Purity True Technique until he fell asleep early.
• Zhang Xuezhou woke with a red, aching body and used the Supreme Purity True Technique to ease his symptoms.
• Zhang Xuezhou found that his strength and constitution had improved after taking the Qi and Blood Pill.
• Zhang Xuezhou saw Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong carrying a wild boar, cleared away traces of his stay, changed clothes, and went down the mountain.

Zhang Xuezhou told Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong that the venomous python he ate was likely the Ten Yin Holy Son, whose presence might endanger their family. When they returned to Zhang Household Village, they found it deserted and withdrew without entering.

• Zhang Zhong explained that the Ten Yin Holy Son was a fearsome figure from the northwest, and Zhang Xuezhou asked what would happen if someone killed him.
• Zhang Xuezhou revealed that eating the venomous snake meat had helped him enter a realm and that the Daoist master had said its presence matched the Ten Yin Holy Son's.
• Zhang Zhong decided to seek Zhang Baojia's advice, killed the mountain boar, and hurried back to Zhang Household Village with Zhang Xuezhou and Lady Yourong.
• The three reached the village after a faster return journey and found it silent, with no villagers or signs of life.
• Zhang Zhong suspected the Ten Yin Holy Son's people might have taken the villagers, but retreated with his family rather than risk entering the village.

Zhang Xuezhou and his parents traveled through the mountains toward the city as Zhang Zhong explained the dangers beyond their village. They found the injured Daoist Priest Kongxu Zou Bugui, who warned that the Golden Toad Dharma King was pursuing him and then sensed familiar Yao Qi from Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong.

• Zhang Xuezhou complained about the long mountain journey, and Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong explained why their family lived in a remote village.
• Zhang Zhong told Zhang Xuezhou about the Xiong Nu raids and recounted how he had killed a Nu ten-man commander.
• Zhang Zhong saw Zhang Xuezhou growing stronger after Realm Entry and felt more reassured about their journey.
• Zhang Xuezhou and Zhang Zhong discovered Zou Bugui collapsed in the grass, and Zou Bugui asked them to take him back to the Daoist temple.
• Zou Bugui warned that the injured Golden Toad Dharma King was hunting cultivators for their Essence Blood, then sensed familiar Yao Qi coming from Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong.

Zhang Xuezhou and his parents confronted the wounded Zou Bugui, forcing him to mask the traces of the Ten Yin Holy Son’s Yao Qi and bargain for their help. Zou Bugui offered hidden pills that could help them enter Realm Entry, and they agreed to take him back to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple.

• Zou Bugui realized Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong carried traces of the Ten Yin Holy Son’s Yao Qi and feared the consequences of the Ten Yin Holy Son’s disappearance.
• Zhang Xuezhou threatened Zou Bugui with the Wind-Breaking Saber until he revealed that Body Fragrance Pills could mask the traces; Zhang Xuezhou took all four pills.
• Zou Bugui asked Zhang Xuezhou to help him escape to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, but Zhang Xuezhou pointed out that their agreement only covered removing the traces, not masking them.
• Lady Yourong questioned whether Zou Bugui would kill them after they helped him, and he offered hidden pills that could force them into Realm Entry and help remove the Yao Qi.
• Zou Bugui’s proposal was accepted, and the group agreed to take him back to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple.

Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong rushed to help Zou Bugui, hoping to gain the strength needed to search for their missing kin, while Zhang Xuezhou reflected on his studies and cultivation. Jin Wanliang ambushed them on the mountain path, but they escaped toward a Daoist temple after Zou Bugui identified his attack and explained his weaknesses.

• Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong carried Zou Bugui along a rugged mountain path while covering their tracks from the Golden Toad Dharma King.
• Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong encouraged Zhang Xuezhou to build strength through steady effort, and he connected their advice to his studies and the Essential Instruction for Recuperation.
• Jin Wanliang, a golden-robed Yao with a long tongue, appeared and insulted Zhang Xuezhou after he mistook him for a ghost.
• Zhang Zhong blocked Jin Wanliang's tongue attack, and Lady Yourong shot an arrow that Jin Wanliang dodged by shrinking his body.
• Zou Bugui urged the group to hurry to the Daoist temple while Jin Wanliang changed into his Yao form, then explained that cultivators had weaknesses regardless of their realm.

Zhang Xuezhou and his companions raced toward the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple while Jin Wanliang continued hunting them, and Zou Bugui explained how a demon treasure powered the toad demon’s poison. As they reached the temple, Zou Bugui noticed its door was open and footprints outside, suggesting someone had disturbed the preparations he meant to use against Jin Wanliang.

• Zou Bugui explained that Jin Wanliang’s poison skills likely relied on his tongue demon treasure, which Zhang Zhong said he could not cut off.
• Lady Yourong used her bow to keep Jin Wanliang at a distance, though she had only six arrows left.
• Zhang Zhong hurried the group toward the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, which Zhang Xuezhou realized was much closer than he had expected.
• Zou Bugui reassured Zhang Zhong that he had a plan to counter Jin Wanliang, despite black blood seeping from his mouth.
• Zou Bugui saw the temple door swinging open and footprints on the path, and feared that someone had disturbed his preparations.

Zou Bugui revealed that thieves had stolen the spirit jade and Qi and Blood Pills from the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, leaving him unable to fulfill his promises to Zhang Zhong and Zhang Xuezhou. As Jin Wanliang offered gold for Zou Bugui, Zhang Zhong pushed the Daoist out toward him, but Zou Bugui sprang up as Jin Wanliang reached for him.

• Zou Bugui found his spirit jade and Qi and Blood Pills missing, and Zhang Xuezhou realized Li Jiao had likely taken them.
• Zhang Zhong threatened Zou Bugui with his saber over the broken promise to help his parents achieve Realm Entry, and Zou Bugui claimed he could still use the Yin-Yang Reversal Formation and make more pills later.
• Jin Wanliang arrived at the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple and offered a hundred taels of gold in exchange for Zou Bugui.
• Lady Yourong pulled a gold ingot into the temple, and Zhang Zhong checked its purity before pushing Zou Bugui toward Jin Wanliang.
• Jin Wanliang reached to seize Zou Bugui, but Zou Bugui rolled upright as a saber came down.

Zou Bugui gave Zhang Xuezhou an Invisibility Talisman and asked him to sneak up on Jin Wanliang while the others fought inside the Yin-Yang Reversal Formation. Zhang Xuezhou blinded Jin Wanliang with stove ash, creating an opening for Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong to land their attacks.

• Zou Bugui drained his own Law Power to keep the Yin-Yang Reversal Formation working and asked Zhang Xuezhou for help.
• Zhang Xuezhou said he would soon fall asleep, so Zou Bugui reluctantly gave him an Invisibility Talisman and told him how to use it.
• Zhang Xuezhou tested the talisman, then crept away while Zou Bugui and the others kept Jin Wanliang occupied.
• Zhang Zhong warned Lady Yourong that they would flee if they could not defeat Jin Wanliang within two more rounds, and Jin Wanliang confidently prepared to defend against their attacks.
• Zhang Xuezhou threw stove ash into Jin Wanliang's eyes, and Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong struck while he was blinded.

After a troubling dream, Zhang Xuezhou visited Ren Anran and asked for help as his condition seemed to worsen. Ren Anran referred him to a doctor at Canglan Academy’s Xuanshi Building, but Zhang Xuezhou suspected she had been taking his money without treating him and threatened to report her.

• Zhang Xuezhou woke from a dream about Jin Wanliang, recorded the events, and went to the Sunshine Psychologist Clinic after receiving money from his father.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Ren Anran that the dreams were becoming more dangerous, but she read his diary and said he needed to understand his own mind.
• Ren Anran recommended a doctor who treated patients for free at the Xuanshi Building of Canglan Academy in the Western Capital.
• Ren Anran explained that Zhang Xuezhou would need to enter the restricted building openly and go alone, despite her connection to the doctor.
• Zhang Xuezhou accused Ren Anran of taking his fees without helping him and threatened to report her if she could not explain herself.

After Ren Anran referred Zhang Xuezhou to Professor Ren Yisheng at Canglan Academy, Zhang decided he had to gain admission to reach the treatment he needed. A frightening vision of Realm Entry in the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation left him fearing his illness was worsening, but he continued studying desperately.

• Ren Anran told Zhang Xuezhou to seek treatment from Professor Ren Yisheng at Canglan Academy, and Zhang verified the professor's identity online.
• Zhang made getting into Canglan Academy his urgent goal after realizing Ren Anran could not treat his condition.
• Zhang felt his memory and comprehension improve and suspected the Essential Instruction for Recuperation was responsible.
• Zhang saw a white seed grow into a towering tree and recognized the scene as Realm Entry in the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation, just as in his dream.
• Zhang feared he could no longer distinguish dreams from reality, took three fluazepam pills, and began reading number theory aloud to prepare for admission.

Zhang Xuezhou woke to find Zhang Zhong had nearly beaten the injured Zou Bugui to death, then learned that Jin Wanliang had escaped using Golden Toad Sheds Its Shell. Zou Bugui tried to secure his life by offering the Golden Toad Treasure Robe as a valuable ingredient that could help Zhang Zhong enter a realm, leaving Zhang Zhong to weigh the offer against his distrust.

• Zhang Xuezhou woke and asked Zou Bugui how to cancel the Invisibility Talisman, then recited the incantation Zou Bugui gave him and reappeared.
• Zhang Zhong released Zou Bugui, who took a poison pill to suppress the Golden Toad Poison and begged for his life.
• Zhang Zhong doubted Zou Bugui's promises and warned that Zou Bugui's powerful connections could endanger him and Zhang Xuezhou.
• Zou Bugui explained that the imperial court was targeting sects because they took the court's most talented people.
• Zou Bugui said Jin Wanliang had escaped with Golden Toad Sheds Its Shell, leaving the Golden Toad Treasure Robe behind, and claimed it could help make a pill for smooth cultivation below the Consciousness Creation Realm.

Zhang Xuezhou questioned Zou Bugui about Realm Entry and concluded that improvements to his soul in dreams might affect him in reality, unlike changes to his dream body. Zhang Zhong took three newly made pills and left the Daoist temple, while Zou Bugui revealed that Jin Chang had led the missing villagers away using the Puppet Technique.

• Zou Bugui explained that Realm Entry strengthened Divine Sense, though he could not clearly explain the soul or the process.
• Zhang Xuezhou speculated that his dream soul could influence reality and felt relieved after connecting this idea to his experiences.
• Zou Bugui and Zhang Zhong made four pills in a Law Treasure Pill Furnace, and Zhang Zhong made Zou Bugui swallow one to test it.
• Zhang Zhong took the remaining three pills and left, telling Zou Bugui that Zhang Household Village had disappeared and asking him to forgive the trouble.
• Zou Bugui quietly said that Jin Chang had led hundreds of villagers away with the Puppet Technique and feared Jin Chang's pursuit of the Yin-Yang School's yang-aspect inheritance.

Zhang Xuezhou and his parents reached Hibiscus City, where the cost of living and their lack of money weighed on them. As Zhang Zhong encouraged Lady Yourong to be proud of their son, he resolved to trade the Body Fragrance Pills on the black market for the Qi and Blood Pill he needed to pursue Realm Entry.

• Zhang Xuezhou, Zhang Zhong, and Lady Yourong arrived at Hibiscus City just before its gates closed, and Zhang Zhong explained how expensive city life was.
• Zhang Xuezhou suggested selling a Body Fragrance Pill, but Zhang Zhong pointed out the difficulties of proving its origin and medicinal value.
• Lady Yourong said Zhang Xuezhou could stay with her well-off sister while she and Zhang Zhong went away to seek pills or investigate the people from Zhang Household Village.
• Zhang Zhong reassured Lady Yourong that Zhang Xuezhou was outstanding and urged her to hold her head high as they pursued a better future.
• Zhang Zhong decided to seek a black-market buyer for the Body Fragrance Pills so he could obtain a Qi and Blood Pill and attempt Realm Entry.

Lady Yourong reunited with her sister Rong Li in Hibiscus City, where the family welcomed Zhang Xuezhou and urged him to take up their generations-old pork trade. After meeting Rong Li’s artistic son Rong Tianding, Zhang Xuezhou decided his uncle by marriage might teach him about the culture he had seen in his dreams.

• Rong Li recognized Lady Yourong at her pork stall, and the sisters joyfully reunited.
• Rong Li welcomed Zhang Zhong and Zhang Xuezhou, praised her nephew, and offered to help him start a pork stall.
• Rong Li argued that studying offered little future and persuaded Zhang Xuezhou to promise to slaughter pigs with her the next day.
• Rong Li brought the family to her spacious home, where she scolded her son Rong Tianding for painting instead of learning the family trade.
• Zhang Xuezhou recognized his uncle by marriage as a potential teacher and resolved to learn from him.

Zhang Xuezhou joined the Rong Household’s pork business in Hibiscus City, learned to slaughter pigs, and heard rumors of ghosts haunting Ten-Li Slope. The rumors gave him an idea for selling Rong Tianding’s paintings and gaining lessons from his uncle.

• Rong Tianding showed Zhang Xuezhou his painting, which had won third place in a Hibiscus City competition, but he still had to help with the family’s pork business.
• Rong Li demonstrated how to slaughter a pig, then Rong Tianding and Zhang Xuezhou each tried the work.
• Zhang Xuezhou killed a pig for the first time, felt blood spray onto his sleeve, and received praise from Rong Li for his potential as a butcher.
• Li Erlang told Rong Li and Zhang Xuezhou that ghosts were rumored to roam Ten-Li Slope and that villages nearby had hired exorcists.
• After hearing that pig’s blood was believed to ward off ghosts, Zhang Xuezhou considered using the hauntings to help Rong Tianding sell paintings and secure lessons from his uncle.

Zhang Xuezhou persuaded Rong Tianding and Jia Zhiyuan to make and sell cheap pig-blood paintings of an invented pig-headed immortal as ghost-repelling charms. After they spent the night painting and inventing the immortal’s story, Rong Tianding opened a stall to sell them.

• Rong Tianding worried that cutting up expensive canvas and painting with pig’s blood would waste money, but agreed to try Zhang Xuezhou’s idea rather than give up on painting.
• Zhang Xuezhou argued that people would buy the paintings if they believed the images met a demand for protection from ghosts.
• Jia Zhiyuan questioned whether anyone would accept pig-headed immortals, and Zhang Xuezhou proposed inventing one and giving it a name, title, origins, and ghost-catching deeds.
• Rong Tianding warned that Daoist Mu at the Universal Cloud Daoist Temple might expose their claims, but Zhang Xuezhou said they would make the story convincing enough to withstand scrutiny.
• Zhang Xuezhou, Rong Tianding, and Jia Zhiyuan painted through the night and devised the invented immortal’s background.
• The next day, Rong Tianding set up a stall to sell the pig-blood paintings.

Rong Tianding turned his paintings into supposed charms against ghosts and sold out after rumors of the hundred ghosts' night procession spread through Hibiscus City. Just as he grew confident in his new business, a Daoist arrived at his stall holding one of his paintings.

• Rong Li made Rong Tianding sell his paintings beside her pig-butchering stall so she could prevent him and Jia Zhiyuan from faking sales.
• Zhang Xuezhou advised Rong Tianding to advertise his paintings as immortal images that warded off evil, and Rong Tianding began selling them that way.
• Rong Tianding used the story of Patriarch Nine Heavens Supreme Father, Grand Overseer of the Five Directions, High General of the Northern Pole's Left Enclosure, Grand Marshal of All Forces, True Lord Tianpeng, to persuade buyers his paintings could repel ghosts.
• Rumors about the hundred ghosts' night procession at Ten-Li Slope spread around Hibiscus City, drawing frightened customers to Rong Tianding's stall.
• Rong Tianding sold out of his paintings, but on his second day at the stall a Daoist appeared holding one of them.

Rong Tianding’s effort to sell protective immortal paintings was challenged by Daoist Mu, who demonstrated a technique and threatened to test the paintings with a ghost. That night, Daoist Mu sent a female ghost into the Rong Household, but Zhang Xuezhou simply fell asleep, leaving the Daoist bewildered.

• Daoist Mu accused Rong Tianding of selling ineffective paintings, then demonstrated his Heaven-Piercing Rope technique to the watching vendors.
• Rong Li defended Rong Tianding and challenged Daoist Mu to send a ghost to the Rong Household, and he promised to do so that night.
• Rong Tianding asked Zhang Xuezhou whether ghosts existed, and Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Li dismissed them as fears people created for themselves.
• Daoist Mu entered Zhang Xuezhou’s room disguised as a woman in white, but Zhang Xuezhou called for Rong Li and fell unconscious.
• Daoist Mu urged Zhang Xuezhou to look at the fierce female ghost, then wondered why nobody seemed afraid of ghosts anymore.

Zhang Xuezhou’s perfect number theory score drew attention at school, and he began cramming biology while wondering whether his real-life cultivation had changed him. After entering the dream world, he found his room wrecked and a white silk hanging from the beam, while Rong Tianding and the others said he had wandered and spoken in a dead woman’s voice all night.

• Mei Renteng and Zhang Xuezhou’s classmates marveled at Zhang Xuezhou’s perfect number theory score and speculated that he might do well in biology next.
• Zhang Xuezhou wondered whether Doctor Ren’s recuperation technique had let him reach Realm Entry, then planned to memorize all four biology and genetics volumes.
• Remembering the young lady in white from the dream world, Zhang Xuezhou studied human biology and prepared himself for her possible advances.
• At nine o’clock, Zhang Xuezhou entered the dream world and woke standing barefoot in a wrecked room beneath a length of white silk, with the young lady gone.
• Rong Tianding, Jia Zhiyuan, and Rong Li told Zhang Xuezhou that he had wandered and imitated a dead woman’s voice while they were unable to enter his room.
• Rong Li suspected Daoist Mu had used bewitching smoke and vowed to have Zhang Xuezhou examined and confront Daoist Mu if anything was wrong.

Zhang Xuezhou and the Rong Household went to confront Daoist Mu after a strange night, but found his temple burning and the Daoist badly injured. The worshippers’ account of a failed ritual ended with Rong Tianding noticing that a wooden head in Daoist Mu’s hand resembled Zhang Xuezhou.

• Zhang Xuezhou denied moving around his room during the night, while Rong Li blamed Daoist Mu for using a crooked trick on the Rong Household.
• Rong Li gathered Li Erlang, Wang Jiadi, Mao Renfeng, Zhu Dan, and Zhang Xuezhou to confront Daoist Mu outside the city.
• The group found the Universal Cloud Daoist Temple on fire and Daoist Mu unconscious, convulsing, and foaming at the mouth.
• The worshippers said Daoist Mu had been performing a ritual with red tables, incense burners, cloth, and wooden figures when the fire started.
• Rong Li opened Daoist Mu’s hand and revealed a wooden head, which Rong Tianding said looked like Zhang Xuezhou.