Chapter Summaries

Hu Mang and his friends reunited and discussed his investment opportunity before learning about Lu Chen’s breakthroughs in developing new Spirit Stones. Chen Xiaosan remained possessed by a female ghost, and Gu Yunshu arrived as he struggled with her.

• Chen Xiaosan arrived drenched in sweat and still wearing his yellow robes and crown, claiming he had taken the subway.
• Hu Mang offered Chen Xiaosan more unusual materials to study and promised to seek some overseas.
• Hu Mang recounted how he had turned down a chance to make five hundred million because he had not signed a contract.
• Lu Chen revealed papers and patents on Spirit Stones and Lightning Crystal, and Gu Yunshu praised his work.
• Chen Xiaosan complained that the female ghost had possessed him, and Gu Yunshu called out to him about bringing her into the men's room.

Chen Xiaosan’s female ghost turned dangerous in the restroom, but Hu Mang and Gu Yunshu destroyed her. As the brothers resumed drinking, a cracked Cultivation Method app appeared online, revealing the Mystic Shield Sect’s offensive had begun.

• Hu Mang and Gu Yunshu arrived as Chen Xiaosan warned that the female ghost might have a killing rule.
• The ghost vanished from the mirror under a barrage of sword intent, then appeared in the restroom, where Hu Mang subdued her and Third Brother collected her red bridal veil.
• Gu Yunshu said his briefly stirred sword intent might have provoked the ghost, frightening Third Brother, who recalled that he had joined the crowdsourced delivery system while Gu Yunshu had declined an invitation.
• Hu Mang remembered that a Wood Element expert had offered him work before he left overseas for five years, then congratulated Gu Yunshu on joining the system.
• Special links to a cracked Cultivation Method app appeared on the Electronic Wooden Fish forum, exposing the next version’s Bodhi State of Mind content as the Mystic Shield Sect’s offensive began.

Hu Mang tested his spear Compatibility at 80% and showed his friends the extraordinary weight of his great spear. When Old Third invited him to watch Master Du Renxing’s supposedly crowd-powered breakthrough to Spirit Transformation, Hu Mang and Gu Yunshu recognized the scheme as absurd.

• Hu Mang and his friends spent another day together in Demon Metropolis playing Heavenly Gate Journey to the West.
• Hu Mang tested his spear Compatibility and learned that it had reached 80%.
• Hu Mang showed Old Third his 3,500-jin reinforced great spear, and Gu Yunshu noted that Hu Mang’s strength had seemed unusual during their sparring.
• Hu Mang said he planned to leave that afternoon to return to his mother, but Old Third urged him to stay for Master Du Renxing’s breakthrough livestream.
• Old Third explained that Du Renxing planned to gather wisps of Divine Sense from ten million fans to bypass Nascent Soul and reach Spirit Transformation, prompting Hu Mang and Gu Yunshu to question the scheme.

Hu Mang and his companions went to Heavenly Bund to watch internet celebrity Du Renxing attempt to form a Golden Core, though they expected the stunt to end in disaster. Du Renxing delayed the start with a long promotional speech while plainclothes observers watched from the crowd and the water-suppressing pillars.

• Old Fifth, Lu Chen, and Old Fourth, Wen Fan, argued that Du Renxing's plan to sustain a Golden Core with fans' Divine Sense would end in disaster.
• Hu Mang and the others spent the afternoon grinding the Flood Dragon Cave, ate a vegetarian feast, and then shared pig's trotters on their way to Heavenly Bund.
• Hu Mang and Gu Yunshu sensed that Heavenly Bund was not merely an event organized by an internet celebrity, and a plainclothes Golden Core officer moved between them and the open space.
• Du Renxing greeted his fans and shook hands with them as he made his way into the open space, where Old Third excitedly joined the queue.
• Professor Mo gave a lengthy talk about Divine Sense, delaying Du Renxing's scheduled core formation until nearly nine.
• A black-clad girl in an eyepatch complained from atop a water-suppressing pillar that she was tired after attending three comic convention carnivals.

Minister Hong’s group watched an internet celebrity’s Spirit Transformation while Xiao Ji identified a possible dragon disturber among the crowd. The transformation reached a critical moment beneath a growing vortex in the sky, and Minister Hong told Xiao Ji not to act yet.

• A girl threatened a bespectacled man until Minister Hong pressed her executioner's blade into the ground and calmed the pair.
• Minister Hong asked Xiao Long about a strand of sword intent, then urged him to work harder at cultivation.
• Gu Yunshu assessed the internet celebrity’s unusual core formation and judged that he was likely forming an Industrial Golden Core.
• Hu Mang examined the celebrity’s high-tech helmet and noticed a powerful Spirit Stone glowing at its brow.
• Xiao Ji reported a 43.5% match between the crowd’s Divine Sense and a suspected dragon disturber, and Minister Hong told him to wait before acting.
• The internet celebrity’s Spirit Transformation reached a critical point as clouds formed a vast rotating vortex edged with a pale purple glow.

Du Renxing’s attempt to comprehend Golden Nature during a livestream nearly produced a breakthrough, but he abruptly stopped it and the Spiritual Qi phenomenon vanished. After the crowd dispersed, the injured internet celebrity revealed he had secretly kept a small fragment as a trump card.

• Hu Mang realized Du Renxing’s extensive Divine Sense networking and huge audience made him an ideal candidate for the experiment, while a faint wisp of Golden Nature formed above him.
• Gu Yunshu and the others were shaken by Du Renxing’s progress, and Hu Mang recognized that the experiment was aimed at forming a Golden Core.
• Du Renxing’s newly formed Golden Nature began to tremble, and he broke off the attempt, causing the Spiritual Qi vortex and sky phenomenon to disperse.
• Minister Hong told his companions to record the information on Du Renxing as the crowd fled, while the cultivators marveled at the unusual event.
• In the operating room, Du Renxing stopped pretending to cry and revealed a hidden fragment he had kept as a trump card.

Hu Mang recounted witnessing an internet celebrity’s breakthrough to Spirit Transformation while considering a possible business venture with Old Fourth and Old Fifth. Meanwhile, Minister Hong investigated Hu Mang’s background and questioned whether he had been one of the infants targeted in a demonic-path refinement incident.

• Hu Mang told a Flying Sword Gang member that he had witnessed the internet celebrity reach Spirit Transformation in Peace District.
• Hu Mang thought about investing in Old Fourth and Old Fifth’s plan to develop artificial Spirit Stones.
• Minister Hong reviewed a detailed file on Hu Mang at Heavenly Gate’s Dragon Vein oversight department.
• Minister Hong noticed that Hu Mang’s birth and adoption overlapped with a demonic-path infant-refinement incident and wondered how he could have escaped the documented rescue and registration process.
• Minister Hong considered the involvement of Ghost Lord and Lord Mao in the unresolved questions surrounding Hu Mang.

Xiao Hu recruited Hu Mang and his father to test Human-Sword Unity with a heavily modified flying sword. Hu Mang stabilized the unstable sword by incorporating Gold Nature, then warned that the modification required too much power.

• Minister Hong ordered Xiao Ji to return from leave and go north to handle a mission involving someone she had investigated.
• Xiao Hu explained that black-market flying swords used unofficial modifications, including sword spirits, artificial intelligence, and Sword Realm slots.
• Xiao Hu invited Hu Mang and his father to try Human-Sword Unity with a modified flying sword, and Hu Mang agreed.
• Hu Mang resonated with the sword, but the door-sized blade began to wobble and shake as its power drained.
• Hu Mang used Gold Nature to reduce the drain to a tenth and steady the sword, then told Xiao Hu to warn the swordsmith that the modification would fail if it required a high-quality Golden Core.

Hu Mang returned to Pine Peak Blessed Land and ran into his childhood acquaintance Huang Jiayou, who caught him up on their old companions. The two continued down the street together, with Huang Jiayou explaining that the Bai family was thriving while Liu Manqing had returned home after failing to find work.

• Hu Mang arrived at Pine Peak Blessed Land after a draining private flight and headed home to contact his mother.
• Huang Jiayou recognized Hu Mang, and the two tested their yao Qi; Hu Mang stood firm while Huang Jiayou stumbled backward.
• Hu Mang walked off, and Huang Jiayou caught up and complained as they bought fried cakes and talked.
• Huang Jiayou told Hu Mang that Liu Manqing had returned from Demon Metropolis and that their mothers wanted to arrange a match between them.
• Huang Jiayou said the Bai family had expanded its businesses and was investing in medicine, artificial blessed lands, and a possible stock-market listing.

Hu Mang intervened when Pine Peak Security members tried to force Huang Jiayou to honor a share deal, then brought Huang and Brother Li to his family home. After Mama Hu rejected their business appeal, Hu Mang sent Huang away and was caught trying to evade a blind date with the Liu Household.

• Brother Li explained that Huang Jiayou had promised to sell his founding shares in Pine Peak Company to Aunt Bai but had avoided signing the contract.
• Hu Mang stopped Brother Li from striking a young man and used his demonic pressure to silence him, then chose to take Huang Jiayou home.
• Hu Mang brought Huang Jiayou and Brother Li to the Hu Household, where Mama Hu said she had only invited them for a meal and would not get involved in the shares.
• Brother Li left after the meal, and Hu Mang threw Huang Jiayou out of the courtyard.
• Mama Hu grabbed Hu Mang by the ear and accused him of bringing outsiders home to avoid his blind date with the Liu Household.

Hu Mang told Mama Hu about his Golden Nature, his Cyber Dharma scheme, and the Ghost Lord who had resurrected him. Mama Hu revealed that the Ghost Lord had ended the resurrection mission years earlier and deceived her about whether Xie Xianyu could be brought back.

• Mama Hu questioned how Hu Mang had brought his stolen father over, then accepted his explanation and sent Father Hu to wash dishes.
• Hu Mang told Mama Hu he had repaired his foundation and cultivated Golden Nature, and she recalled the danger of condensing a Golden Core in ancient times.
• Hu Mang described how he and his father had comprehended the Cyber Dharma, only for the Electronic Wooden Fish to sell them out for fifty million; Mama Hu urged him to sue.
• Mama Hu asked how Hu Mang had become skilled in Dharma, and he claimed the Ghost Lord had been present when he was resurrected.
• Mama Hu said the Ghost Lord had ended the resurrection mission years ago, after which she left the Five Great Households to resurrect Xie Xianyu, only to learn that it was impossible.

Mama Hu explained why her attempt to resurrect Xie Xianyu had failed and what the Ghost Lord believed might make his return possible. She also revealed the true cost of her resurrection technique to Hu Mang, who learned that her rebirth had reset its toll.

• Mama Hu told Hu Mang that the Moon Fox Life-Bearing Instruction and Six Paths Pearl had failed to revive Xie Xianyu, whom the Ghost Lord believed might have joined the Dragon Vein after studying its transformations.
• Mama Hu said Xie Xianyu might still return if a system capable of communicating with heaven and earth could find and restore the sliver of his will, but the Ghost Lord crashed whenever she asked about his memories.
• Mama Hu recalled that Xie Xianyu's swordsmanship had broken free of form and explained that modern Dragon Veins were far stronger than ancient ones because Spiritual Qi had increased greatly.
• Hu Mang confronted Mama Hu for repeatedly using a technique she had claimed could only be used once, and she admitted that it consumed Moon Fox bloodline and shortened the user's life.
• Mama Hu explained that resurrection refreshed her life and also reset the Moon Fox Life-Bearing Instruction's cooldown.

Mama Hu explained how she had passed through the Xi-Yi state after returning to life and described Pine Peak Security’s history and decline. She revealed that the Liu Household had agreed to treat Hu Mang’s illness in exchange for his engagement and marriage to Liu Manqing.

• Mama Hu told Hu Mang that she had once existed between Xi and Yi, and that the state had gradually faded as she returned to being a ghost and then a yao.
• Mama Hu explained that the five Households had created Pine Peak Security to manage revived people, but the organization later fell into decline and its members turned to questionable business.
• Mama Hu said Aunt Bai was trying to seize the Huang Household’s shares because she had lost money and needed to balance the company’s accounts.
• Mama Hu told Hu Mang that Old Woman Liu had served as a medical officer to emperors of the Yu Dynasty and had agreed to treat his illness.
• Mama Hu revealed that the agreement required Hu Mang and Liu Manqing to become engaged and marry, and Hu Mang protested that the arrangement was a feudal remnant.

Hu Mang accompanied his mother and Huang Jiayou to the wealthy Liu Household, where Liu Wuniang welcomed him as a prospective son-in-law. The visit began with a warm reunion, though Liu Wuniang immediately objected to Huang Jiayou tagging along.

• Mama Hu took Hu Mang to visit the Liu Household, and Huang Jiayou joined them in his flying shuttle.
• Hu Mang saw corpses hanging among the ghost willows, but the Yin-Suppressing Marks in his eyes made them dissolve into Yin Qi.
• A girl in red escorted the visitors into the Liu Residence, where Mama Hu and Liu Wuniang greeted each other affectionately.
• Liu Wuniang praised Hu Mang’s appearance and recalled his achievements, while he remarked that he was now unemployed.
• Liu Wuniang turned cold toward Huang Jiayou and asked why he had come, but he pleaded that she spare him for his late father’s sake.

Huang Jiayou proposed using the Hu and Liu families’ engagement to gather Pine Peak Security’s old associates and surrender his underworld authority in exchange for protection. Hu Mang visited Liu Manqing, interrupting her dungeon game and meeting her awkwardly.

• Huang Jiayou told Liu Wuniang that he would offer his underworld authority to the Hu and Liu families in front of Pine Peak Security’s old associates, hoping they would protect him from the Bai Household’s fourth aunt.
• Liu Wuniang appeared tempted by Huang Jiayou’s proposal, while Mama Hu and Hu Mang worried that inviting a crowd would worsen the engagement dispute.
• Hu Mang noticed the enormous ghost willow in the Liu residence’s grove and considered what he knew about Liu Manqing.
• Hu Mang entered Liu Manqing’s room after she invited him in and found her playing a dungeon game online.
• Liu Manqing’s willow branch disconnected her from the game, leaving Hu Mang to meet her while she was embarrassed.

Hu Mang tried to break off his engagement to Liu Manqing after healing his Dantian, but Huang Jiayou’s underworld authority scheme left him caught up in the betrothal again. Liu Manqing asked Hu Mang to take her with him, while Huang Jiayou defended his deception by claiming he had meant to save her from marrying into the Bai Household.

• Liu Manqing met Hu Mang and learned he had come to break off their engagement because he had healed his Dantian and no longer needed to marry into her family.
• Hu Mang told Liu Manqing that Huang Jiayou had offered her mother his family’s share of underworld authority as a betrothal gift, making the engagement seem necessary.
• Liu Manqing insisted Hu Mang take her with him so she could avoid being engaged to a second-generation heir from the Bai Household.
• Hu Mang used a great hand seal to drag Huang Jiayou into his true form after confronting him about the deception.
• Huang Jiayou admitted he had hidden the truth because he feared Hu Mang would leave, and claimed he had also been trying to protect Liu Manqing from the Bai Household.

Huang Jiayou revealed that overseas Devil Dao cultivators had secretly tested infants’ Root Bones in Pine Peak and used Bone-Molding Pills to alter children’s potential, implicating several local households. Hu Mang was left wondering whether his Seven Absolutes Devil Meridians were connected to the pills.

• Huang Jiayou told Hu Mang that he suspected Aunt Bai of working with overseas Devil Dao smugglers and showed him several black pills.
• Huang Jiayou explained that twenty-five years earlier, overseas cultivators had used investment and charity as cover to test infants and take promising children overseas.
• Huang Jiayou suspected the Liu Household had modified the Bone-Molding Pill formula, the Bai Household had contacted the overseas Devil Dao, and the Hui Household had resumed smuggling.
• Liu Manqing asked whether her mother had been involved, and Huang Jiayou said he did not know but believed she might have improved the pill formula.
• Hu Mang realized Huang Jiayou had avoided reporting the suspected crimes because his own household had connections at Pine Peak Security and the local government might be compromised.
• Hu Mang wondered whether his Seven Absolutes Devil Meridians had anything to do with the Bone-Molding Pills.

Hu Mang discovered that his awakened devil meridian could refine Devil Qi from Bone-Molding Pills, and he used the opportunity to propose a business alliance with Liu Manqing against the Bai Household. Liu Manqing agreed only to consider it, while Hu Mang suspected her mother had an undisclosed plan of her own.

• Hu Mang swallowed a Bone-Molding Pill and sensed its Devil Qi being refined by his Cauldron-Boiling Devil Meridian.
• Hu Mang ate an entire box of Bone-Molding Pills and realized the experience might help him open another devil meridian.
• Hu Mang asked Liu Manqing to supply semi-finished Bone-Molding Pills for him to process, promising they would not reach the market.
• Hu Mang brought out Spirit Stones worth roughly ten million as a deposit to persuade Liu Manqing's mother to cooperate against the Bai Household.
• Liu Manqing declined to choose a side but agreed not to inform on Hu Mang and Huang Jiayou.
• Hu Mang suspected Fifth Aunt Liu had her own reason for agreeing to help his mother, and the younger generation's planned challenge meant the engagement could not yet be called off.

Hu Mang changed his mind about the betrothal and asked Mama Hu to return to where she had found him. At the Soul-Binding Willow, Liu Wuniang revealed the five households’ connection to the Dragon Veins and identified the vast vein beneath them as a Ghost Dragon Vein, exposing Hu Mang’s Tribulation Eye.

• Hu Mang told Mama Hu he wanted to revisit the place where she had found him, after revealing that he had comprehended the Seven Absolutes Devil Meridians.
• Mama Hu wondered whether Hu Mang had inherited any power from the fox demon bloodline she had given him.
• Liu Wuniang brought Liu Manqing and the Hu Household to the Soul-Binding Willow and explained that the five households had revived first because each had encountered a Dragon Vein in a different way.
• Mama Hu recognized the dragon-spine ridges beneath the ground as a Ghost Vein, and Liu Wuniang revealed that it was a Ghost Dragon Vein.
• Liu Wuniang pointed out Hu Mang’s knowledge of the vein, and his Tribulation Eye opened, shocking Mama Hu.

Liu Wuniang revealed her Ghost Dragon Vein and explained to Mama Hu that she had studied Dragon Veins in hopes of extending her life. As she accused Mama Hu of secretly transforming Hu Mang through Dragon Veins, the two denied it in unison while praising her insight.

• Liu Wuniang led Mama Hu and Hu Mang into the Dragon-Locking Grotto, where they saw her Soul-Binding Willow and the snakes surrounding its millstone.
• Liu Wuniang revealed her snake lower body and summoned a headless Ghost Dragon Vein from the millstone’s Yin Qi.
• Mama Hu recognized the grotto’s underworld passages and discussed her past work exploring Ghost Dragon Veins with Liu Wuniang.
• Liu Wuniang said she had studied Dragon Veins to prolong her life, noting that even the long-lived Huang had died despite the era’s abundant Spiritual Qi.
• Hu Mang used his Tribulation Eye and saw Liu Wuniang’s aged, decaying appearance beneath her cultivated looks.
• Liu Wuniang accused Mama Hu of seeking to study Dragon Veins and sending Hu Mang overseas to undergo a transformation, and both denied her suspicions while complimenting her knowledge.