Chapter Summaries

On the return journey through Qinmeng, Zhang Xuezhou reflected on his cultivation while Ren Yisheng lamented his disembodied existence and searched for purpose. The group found Zuo Teng and his companions unconscious by the road, and their complaints suggested Montes Arthur’s team had ambushed them.

• Zhang Xuezhou sent out his Yang Corporeal Soul and noticed it moved faster after his progress in the Mental Strengthening Chapter.
• Ren Yisheng discussed his isolation and inability to pursue research or cultivation, asking Zhang Xuezhou how he could find meaning in life.
• Wang Li stopped the truck after the group spotted Zuo Teng, Zhou Tianhao, Zhu Kuang, Changkong Weiguang, and Ding Hao unconscious beside the road.
• Ren Anran revived Changkong Weiguang, who said she remembered being in a vehicle before everything went black.
• Zuo Teng and the others blamed a high-rank Sequence Holder’s ambush, and the group suspected Montes Arthur’s team had overwhelmed them.

Zhang Xuezhou’s group rescued Zuo Teng’s team and agreed to take them along on another hunt through Qinmeng. After learning of a possible place where injured exotic beasts recovered, Zhang Xuezhou considered searching the safer intermediate area instead of venturing into the advanced region.

• Zhang Xuezhou explained why his group had defeated Montes Arthur’s team, then learned that Zuo Teng’s group lacked supplies and wanted to join them.
• Zuo Teng, Ding Hao, Zhu Kuang, Zhou Tianhao, and Changkong Weiguang persuaded Zhang Xuezhou to take them along, with Changkong Weiguang offering his wilderness cooking skills.
• Ren Anran treated Zuo Teng and his teammates as they rested in Zhang Xuezhou’s truck, while Zhang Xuezhou lay down to recover from trouble adjusting to Qinmeng’s conditions.
• Zuo Teng revealed that his grandfather had told him of a place where injured exotic beasts went to recover, and he marked its location in Qinmeng’s advanced area.
• Zhang Manqian reminded Zhang Xuezhou that the mosasaur they had hunted was recovering from a gunshot wound, prompting him to consider returning to the intermediate-area mudflats instead.

Zhang Xuezhou searched the mudlands where the group had fought the anomalous mosasaur and decided to dig for anything that might have helped it heal. The group uncovered several natural gold nuggets, leaving Wang Haoran baffled as the digging continued.

• Zhang Xuezhou used the Treasure-Seeking Technique to search the mudlands while Ren Anran and Zhang Manqian assisted him.
• Zhang Xuezhou ordered Ding Hao and the others to fetch shovels and dig where Wang Haoran and Baili Huai'an had fought the mosasaur.
• Ding Hao dug up a branch-shaped gold nugget weighing around a kilogram, and Zhou Tianhao grew eager to keep shoveling.
• Zuo Teng found another kilogram-sized natural gold nugget, surprising Wang Haoran.
• The group kept digging, and Wang Haoran's expression gradually changed as more gold appeared.

Zhang Xuezhou’s group uncovered a treasure-filled truck while digging through the mud, and he used the Treasure-Seeking Technique to locate Spirit Jade hidden inside a piece of white jade. Holding the jade eased the side effects of his genetic medicine injection as he left the pit.

• Zhang Xuezhou, Zuo Teng, Zhou Tianhao, and the others dug up gold nuggets, gemstones, and valuables from an abandoned truck buried in the mud.
• Zuo Teng regretted agreeing to work without a share, but Zhang Xuezhou reminded him to keep his word and limited his own digging to a small marked area.
• Zhang Xuezhou focused on the truck after his Treasure-Seeking Technique reacted, sensing that Spirit Jade had been mixed in with the cargo.
• Zuo Teng unearthed a large piece of mutton-fat white jade and tossed it to Zhang Xuezhou, who caught it and applied the Treasure-Seeking Technique.
• Ding Hao warned that the jade might be radioactive, but Zhang Xuezhou held it and felt his head clear as the side effects of the genetic medicine injection faded.

Zhang Xuezhou used a large piece of Spirit Jade to recover from the gene medicine’s side effects and accelerate his cultivation. He realized that Qinmeng’s resources could help him reach the peak of the Consciousness Creation Realm within a year and prepare for a breakthrough to the Body Transformation Realm.

• Zhang Xuezhou told Zhang Manqian, Ren Yisheng, and Ren Anran to keep searching for Spirit Jade and buy any pieces Zuo Teng and the others found.
• Zhang Xuezhou shut himself inside the truck’s cargo box and cultivated with the Spirit Jade, using its Spiritual Qi to cleanse his body.
• Zhang Xuezhou’s head cleared and his recent instability vanished as the jade’s nourishment helped him endure the effects of the gene medicine.
• Zhang Xuezhou considered how the Mental Strengthening Chapter had developed across generations and concluded that the Aomeijia Alliance could not quickly reproduce it.
• Zuo Teng climbed into the truck at dusk and asked Zhang Xuezhou to share the perfume he thought Zhang Xuezhou had sprayed.
• Zhang Xuezhou estimated that the Spirit Jade could bring him to the peak of the Consciousness Creation Realm within a year and let him attempt a breakthrough once he had the necessary medicines.

After returning to Chang'an City, Zhang Xuezhou learned that demons and fiends were rumored to be causing trouble, then went with Rong Tianding to check the official appointment list. His name was absent from both the appointments and the bribery blacklist, while the new emperor overheard Zhang Xuezhou denounce the bribers.

• Before leaving for the other world, Zhang Xuezhou told Zhang Manqian to cultivate with the Spirit Jade while the others searched for treasure.
• Rong Tianding told Zhang Xuezhou that rumors said demons and fiends had entered Chang'an City, prompting Zhang Xuezhou to worry about the Spirit Jade attracting beasts in the other world.
• Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding heard reports of ghost fire and burned trees, then headed to the Office of the Jingzhao Intendant to check the appointment notice.
• Zhang Xuezhou found that he had not been appointed and complained about the emperor's preference for rhapsodies, but learned his name was not on the blacklist for bribery.
• The new emperor watched from a marquis's carriage as Zhang Xuezhou denounced the bribers and recalled Zhang Xuezhou's earlier contradictory remarks.

After Zhang Xuezhou found his name on the red list and learned he could take office, he talked an angry crowd of failed candidates out of attacking him by pretending to be suicidal. The new emperor took an interest in Zhang’s lively nature, while Li Guang wondered whether he could help investigate the fires and dying trees in Chang’an.

• Zhang Xuezhou discovered that he had been appointed Gongche Sima Commandant of the Office of the Commandant of the Guard and prepared to report for duty.
• An angry failed candidate grabbed Zhang Xuezhou, but Zhang pretended to want to die, and Rong Tianding joined in to discourage the crowd from attacking him.
• The failed candidates comforted Zhang and eventually dispersed, while Li Siyang wondered whether he had been placed on the blacklist or had simply failed.
• The new emperor watched Zhang’s performance and admitted that interesting people were more likable, though Zhang’s shamelessness gave him pause.
• Li Guang suggested asking Zhang to seek the deer yao of the Xieluosi River Holy Land, but the new emperor argued that the yao was unlikely to have caused Chang’an’s fires and dying trees.

Zhang Xuezhou received a military post guarding the eastern Sima Gate at the Yang Mausoleum, then went with Rong Tianding to retrieve Spirit Jade Essence in Old Tree Alley. After a stone guardian lion spoke and crumbled into sand, Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding raised the alarm and drew the nearby residents’ attention.

• Du Rui told Zhang Xuezhou that his recommendation had led the court to assign him as a military officer, and Zhang accepted the post despite preferring to convey messages.
• Du Rui assigned Zhang to guard the eastern Sima Gate at the Yang Mausoleum in a three-shift rotation.
• Zhang met Rong Tianding outside the office and decided to look for a house in Chang'an City after visiting Old Tree Alley.
• Zhang found the porcelain bottle of Spirit Jade Essence beneath the eighteenth stone lion, which turned its head and asked why he was collecting it.
• Rong Tianding struck the stone lion with Southern Brightness Ding Fire, causing it to cry out and crumble into sand.
• Zhang and Rong Tianding pretended to panic, aged their faces with Law Power, and shouted until nearby gate attendants came out and reported the strange event.

After Wang Fugui’s stone guardian was mysteriously destroyed, he tried to leave his house but faced objections from his neighbors and strict moving procedures. Zhang Xuezhou suggested selling the haunted house cheaply, then went with Rong Tianding to the Office of the Inner Clerk to buy it.

• Wang Fugui saw that half of his stone guardian had vanished and decided to move away from the suspected calamity.
• Wang Fugui’s neighbors challenged his plan to leave, and he failed to convince them with an excuse about his sister-in-law giving birth.
• Zhang Xuezhou suggested that Wang Fugui sell the haunted house cheaply to someone willing to guard it.
• Rong Tianding realized Zhang Xuezhou had been arranging a chance to buy the house and went with him to the Office of the Inner Clerk.
• Zhang Xuezhou showed his official token, took the property register, and waited for Wang Fugui to list the house.

Zhang Xuezhou browsed the property register while looking for an affordable home, and Wang Fugui arrived to list his residence after a demonic incident made him fear it was haunted. Wang Fugui waited at the Office of the Inner Clerk for a buyer, unwilling to lower the price to Zhang Xuezhou’s budget.

• Zhang Xuezhou complained to the clerk that a minor official’s salary made buying a house difficult.
• Wang Fugui listed his residence for eighty taels of silver and explained that a demonic incident had made him afraid to keep living there.
• The clerk warned Wang Fugui that buyers would avoid the house, while Zhang Xuezhou tried to persuade him that haunted houses did not exist.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked the clerk to find him a home costing ten to thirty taels and left the office.
• Wang Fugui learned Zhang Xuezhou would not buy his house, then paid the clerk and waited for another buyer.

Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding waited for Wang Fugui, hoping their talk about a cheaper house affected by demonic evil would make him lower his asking price. When Wang Fugui asked Zhang Xuezhou to read his face, Zhang used the Person-Reading Technique and saw fragments of his life.

• Zhang Xuezhou told Rong Tianding they had to wait for Wang Fugui to reconsider his price for the residence.
• Zhang Xuezhou discussed the broad uses of Rong Tianding's Southern Brightness Fire Technique and urged him to test it on strange phenomena.
• Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding loudly discussed buying a house affected by demonic evil as Wang Fugui left the Office of the Jingzhao Intendant.
• Wang Fugui heard them describe the house's low price and worried that his own asking price of eighty taels was too high.
• Wang Fugui asked Zhang Xuezhou to read his face, and Zhang used the Person-Reading Technique to view memories of Wang Fugui's life.

After Zhang Xuezhou’s ominous fortune reading frightened Wang Fugui, Wang and his wife decided to sell their inauspicious residence to the Gongche Sima Commandant. Wang planned to find Clerk Li, who could locate the commandant and help arrange the sale so they could leave that night.

• Zhang Xuezhou hinted that Wang Fugui’s troubled past and misdeeds could bring him misfortune, then refused to read any further.
• Wang Fugui returned home, saw a frightening face appear on a pine tree, and told his wife that a demonic evil might be after him.
• Wang Fugui’s wife concluded that the commandant who had read his past might be able to suppress the evil and suggested selling him the residence cheaply.
• Wang Fugui realized Clerk Li had the commandant’s address and decided to find him so he could sell the house and leave that night.

Zhang Xuezhou explained to Rong Tianding how he had misled Wang Fugui with carefully chosen words, then negotiated to buy Wang Fugui’s supposedly haunted house. Wang Fugui offered to contribute half the reduced price, and Zhang accepted the deal as the group began recording the sale.

• Zhang Xuezhou told Rong Tianding that he had used the Person-Reading Technique and ambiguous wording to make Wang Fugui think he could predict his death.
• Clerk Li arrived at the inn with Wang Fugui, Madam Wang, Di Rang, and Zheng Wukong to discuss selling the house.
• Zhang Xuezhou said he could not afford the house at its stated price, and Wang Fugui’s neighbors agreed to help reduce it to sixty taels of silver.
• Wang Fugui offered to pay thirty taels himself if Zhang Xuezhou paid the other thirty, and Zhang accepted the bargain.
• Clerk Li began recording the sale as Di Rang and Zheng Wukong congratulated Zhang Xuezhou and got acquainted with him.

Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding moved into Wang Fugui’s strange house in Old Tree Alley, where Zhang used a staged threat of a high-level investigation to draw out the presence he suspected was responsible. The chapter ended with an old man appearing in the courtyard and asking whether Zhang meant Dou Ying.

• Zhang Xuezhou used the medical compensation from Chen Zhang, Zhou Jiande, and Tian Tian to buy a house, and planned to report for his new post in three days.
• Clerk Li informed Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding that Wang Fugui had moved out, but refused their offer of wine and meat because the damaged stone lion and withering pine unnerved him.
• Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding moved into the house at the eighteenth stone lion in Old Tree Alley, where Rong Tianding secretly began forming an incantation with Southern Brightness Fire.
• After finding nothing unusual, Zhang Xuezhou displayed the bottle of Spirit Jade Essence and loudly claimed he would take it to the Office of the Jingzhao Intendant and escalate the investigation to the chancellor.
• An old man revealed himself in the courtyard and asked whether Zhang Xuezhou meant Dou Ying.

Lu Baibai visited Zhang Xuezhou after his divine sense was destroyed, but Zhang redirected their conversation toward the feng shui damage caused by hiding Spirit Jade Essence. Lu Baibai chose to act like another victim and left the matter with Dou Ying unresolved.

• Lu Baibai explained that someone had destroyed the divine sense he attached to a stone lion after he spoke to Zhang Xuezhou.
• Zhang Xuezhou claimed the hidden Spirit Jade Essence and damage to the guardian beast had ruined his residence’s feng shui, while Rong Tianding backed him up.
• Lu Baibai stopped trying to discuss the Spirit Jade Essence after Zhang threatened whoever had disturbed the residence.
• Lu Baibai pretended that he too had been wronged in Chang'an City and decided to treat the Spirit Jade Essence as lost for now.

Zhang Xuezhou let Lu Baibai hide in the newly acquired residence while he waited for Demon King Feiyu to return. Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding decided to keep out of the demon’s affairs and began settling into their new home.

• Zhang Xuezhou convinced Lu Baibai that he had ruined the residence’s feng shui and asked why he had come to Chang'an City.
• Lu Baibai explained that he was waiting for Demon King Feiyu and hiding from someone who had been tailing him.
• Lu Baibai asked to stay in a water-filled wooden barrel so he could conceal his demonic scent, and Zhang Xuezhou agreed.
• Lu Baibai settled into the barrel and asked Zhang Xuezhou to bring him mallow greens.
• Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding took possession of the house and agreed to pretend they knew nothing about Lu Baibai while he waited for Feiyu.

Zhang Xuezhou began his new post guarding Yang Mausoleum’s East Sima Gate and discovered that tomb robbers had left its small guard force badly injured and without commanders. He resolved to catch the robbers for merit, while realizing the court had sent him there as one of its supposedly capable officials.

• Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding visited their neighbors Di Rang and Zheng Wukong, then returned home for dinner.
• The next morning, Zhang Xuezhou took a carriage to Yang Mausoleum and identified himself at the East Sima Gate as Dongfang Shuo, the newly appointed Gongche Sima Commandant.
• Zhang Xuezhou found only five injured soldiers at the gate and learned that the other two commandants had not yet taken up their posts.
• The soldiers told Zhang Xuezhou that tomb robbers had killed or wounded previous officers and guards, leaving the Sima Gates largely closed.
• Zhang Xuezhou decided to catch tomb robbers and earn enough merit to secure a transfer from the dangerous post.
• Zhang Xuezhou learned that higher officials had promised to send capable officials, and recognized that the court had counted him among them.

Zhang Xuezhou enforced tally checks at the East Sima Gate, then used the Person-Fixing Technique to uncover an old craftsman's secret connection to Jin Chang and a map of the Yang Mausoleum. He told Zhang Laogao to summon the middle-aged man to the gate that night, leaving the terrified craftsman wondering whether Zhang Xuezhou belonged to their group.

• Zhang Xuezhou refused entry to craftsmen without tallies, then let them pass after warning them to bring their documents the next day and examining their memories.
• Zhang Xuezhou saw scenes of the Yang Mausoleum through the craftsmen's memories and found little treasure inside it.
• Zhang Xuezhou discovered that Zhang Laogao had drawn a detailed map of the mausoleum and had met Jin Chang, who had pressured him to cooperate.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Zhang Laogao to have the fair-faced, wealthy-looking middle-aged man come to the East Sima Gate that night and ask for Dongfang Shuo.
• Zhang Laogao collapsed in fear and wondered whether the newly appointed Commandant of the Carriage Office was one of their own.

On his first night as Gongche Sima Commandant at the Yang Mausoleum, Zhang Xuezhou realized that tomb robbers and imperial forces made the post dangerous. He struck a three-month deal with Jin Chang, who agreed to drive away the intruders while Zhang searched for Emperor Jing’s coffin.

• Zhang Xuezhou noticed that the craftsmen had returned from work with Zhang Laogao injured, and wondered why his predecessors had died despite cooperating with or resisting the tomb robbers.
• Jin Chang appeared from Zhang Xuezhou’s shadow and explained that the King of Huainan had sent him to investigate the Yang Mausoleum.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked Jin Chang to persuade the intruders to leave, but Jin Chang demanded that Zhang find Emperor Jing’s coffin in return.
• Jin Chang agreed to clear out the named intruders for three months, while Zhang promised to pursue Jin Chang’s business and provide precise information when he was transferred.

Zhang Xuezhou entered Emperor Jing’s imperial mausoleum in his Yang Corporeal Soul and discovered its miniature imitation of Chang’an, protected by animated terracotta figures. After evading their spiritual defenses and surviving a poisoned crossbow bolt, he reached the mausoleum’s Weiyang Palace.

• Zhang Xuezhou overheard court officials discussing Emperor Jing’s possible return and learned why the King of Huainan had sent Jin Chang to investigate.
• Zhang Xuezhou followed a map through a crack in a stone gate and entered the mausoleum, where thousands of terracotta dogs barked at his Yang Corporeal Soul.
• Zhang Xuezhou solidified his Yang Corporeal Soul to resist the dogs’ spiritual disturbance and passed through the outer burial grounds.
• Zhang Xuezhou encountered terracotta figures resembling Li Guang, Cheng Bushi, and Grand Commandant Zhou, then was struck by a poisoned bolt fired from the Li Guang figure.
• Zhang Xuezhou passed through the Sima Gate and arrived at the miniature Weiyang Palace at the mausoleum’s center.