Chapter Summaries

Sang Ying and her companions set out for the Yin Mountain Sect, but Yu Heng escaped with help from muddy-water figures in an alley. Before they could leave, Moonless City guards surrounded them and ordered them to come to the City Lord's Mansion over a corpse found in their inn room.

• Sang Ying woke Gu Shu and brought him along because she had a bad premonition, while she bound Yu Heng with Jiulian's Immortal-Binding Rope and gave the other end to Wuming.
• A man watching from a nearby teahouse sent a message and followed Sang Ying's group as they left Three Guests' Lodge.
• A piercing bird cry sounded over an alley, and Yu Heng knocked Wuming down before fleeing into the alleys.
• Sang Ying activated the Immortal-Binding Rope, but muddy water figures seized Yu Heng and carried him away.
• Armored guards and corpse puppets surrounded Sang Ying's group and ordered them to the City Lord's Mansion after a corpse was found in their inn room.

Sang Ying and her companions were imprisoned by guards who were secretly trying to keep them from seeing City Lord Liu, while they suspected the Sun-Chasing Hall had infiltrated the city lord’s estate. Yu Heng was summoned to meet the hall master about the outsider cultivators, leaving him ready to confront the man he despised.

• The jailer told Sang Ying that a corpse had been found in room three of the Jia section, then left without arranging a meeting with City Lord Liu.
• The guard captain and jailer agreed to delay the case and make Sang Ying’s group suffer in prison before seeking a conviction.
• Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue concluded that the corpse had been brought into the room from inside the inn, likely by an attendant, and suspected Sun-Chasing Hall members were in the city lord’s estate.
• Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue refused to wait passively for City Lord Liu to see them.
• Yu Heng comforted his young disciple as he struggled with the Immortal-Binding Rope, then agreed to meet the hall master when a Blue-Robed Apostle summoned him.

Yu Heng reported to the Sun-Chasing Hall master, who learned that Wuming’s curse had been suppressed and examined the Immortal-Binding Rope. After Yu Heng left, a mysterious woman ordered the hall master to release the first batch of people, and that night someone strangled a boy in a neighboring shop.

• Yu Heng entered the hall master’s residence despite the inspectors’ inability to remove the Immortal-Binding Rope.
• The hall master questioned Yu Heng about his capture, his captors, and how Wuming survived, and Yu Heng said Wuming’s curse had been suppressed.
• The hall master examined the rope but could not remove it, then dismissed Yu Heng.
• A woman told the hall master that Yu Heng had withheld information and ordered him to release the first batch of people.
• That night, a shop employee heard a noise next door but found nothing, while an unseen attacker strangled a boy in the neighboring shop.

Monsters that resisted spiritual power and cultivators' artifacts erupted across Moonless City, while the city guards were away. The outbreak reached the city lord's manor and shattered the cells holding Sang Ying and the others, leaving them to fight the monster threatening the jailer.

• Monsters appeared throughout Moonless City, attacking residents and proving impervious to ordinary spiritual power and cultivators' artifacts.
• Liu Duanyue learned that the city guards had left to patrol outside the city and suspected someone had arranged the crisis.
• A monster broke into the city lord's manor cells and attacked a prisoner, while the jailer's saber snapped against it.
• The monster wrecked several cells, freeing Sang Ying and her companions.
• Sang Ying drew her sword and rushed to help the jailer as the monster prepared to strike him.

Sang Ying and her companions subdued a monster in the jail, then discovered more had entered the city lord’s residence while the guards were missing. Sang Ying defeated them with her Spirit Transformation cultivation, leaving the jailer stunned and regretful.

• Sang Ying cut off the monster’s claw and kicked it away before Wuming and the others chained it to a pillar.
• The jailer explained that the city guards should have been protecting the residence, then went out to investigate with Sang Ying.
• Sang Ying fought the monsters that had entered the residence and found that decapitation was the only way to stop them completely.
• Jiang Zhuoxue told the jailer that Sang Ying was a Spirit Transformation cultivator, and the jailer slapped himself in regret.
• Sang Ying returned from the fight and asked why the jailer’s face was swollen, while Jiang Zhuoxue said he might be repenting.

Liu Duanyue rescued a girl from a ruined residence, drawing hundreds of monsters into pursuit as he tried to lead them out of Moonless City. Just as he prepared to fight them alone, Jiang Zhuoxue arrived and stopped him, asking whether he wanted to see an old friend.

• Liu Duanyue and Douzi fought their way through the monsters while carrying the unconscious girl, and Liu Duanyue told Douzi to escape with her.
• Liu Duanyue carved a path through the monsters, sent Douzi out with the child, and ran in the opposite direction to draw the creatures away.
• Douzi heard a friendly jailer calling from above and saw him riding a floating sword with a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
• Douzi told the jailer and Sang Ying that Liu Duanyue was alone and leading the monsters out of the city, so Sang Ying flew after him.
• Liu Duanyue realized the monsters had grown to four or five hundred and turned to attack them, but Jiang Zhuoxue appeared in a burst of white light and spoke to him.

Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue reunited with the elderly Liu Duanyue after helping defeat monsters near Moonless City. They discovered Li Jie had deceived the city guards and may have been connected to the attack, but when they returned to the city, the monsters were gone and countless mortals had died.

• Liu Duanyue recognized Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue, reunited with them, and thanked them for their past kindness.
• Duan Hanyi noticed city guards heading toward the gates, and Liu Duanyue learned Li Jie had sent them outside the city on a false night patrol.
• The jailer admitted that Li Jie had ordered him to keep Sang Ying and the others locked up without informing Liu Duanyue.
• Jiang Zhuoxue urged everyone to find Li Jie, but they discovered he had disappeared.
• Sang Ying and the others returned to Moonless City, where the monsters had vanished and the streets were strewn with mortal corpses.

After the monsters vanished from Moonless City, Sang Ying and her companions revealed what they knew about the Sun-Chasing Hall and uncovered its underground hiding place beneath the Yin Mountain Sect. Meanwhile, a Hongyi Apostle discovered that one living corpse was missing from the dungeon count.

• Liu Duanyue sent the city guards to search Moonless City for injured people and any remaining monsters, then questioned the jailer about Sang Ying and her companions.
• Jiang Zhuoxue told Liu Duanyue that he had come to obtain the Yin Mountain Sect's ten suits of Mystic Armor, and Sang Ying explained how Yu Heng, his companion, and Li Jie had led them to the Sun-Chasing Hall.
• Duan Hanyi asked Liu Duanyue for a topographical map, and the group realized the Sun-Chasing Hall was hidden underground beneath the Yin Mountain Sect.
• Liu Duanyue recognized that the Sun-Chasing Hall had been hiding beneath the city, while Hongyi Apostles counted the living corpses in their dungeon.
• One Hongyi Apostle noticed that a living corpse was missing from the register and went to report it to the White-Robed Apostle.

Liu Duanyue learned that Sun-Chasing Hall had infiltrated Moonless City and caused a deadly monster attack, while Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue prepared to help uncover its plot. The group discovered that Wuming had kept one monster captive in the prison, giving them a chance to investigate.

• Zhou Xuan reported that Sun-Chasing Hall had removed the monsters’ remains, that the fake Li Jie had replaced the real one, and that the attack killed nearly six hundred mortals.
• Zhou Xuan confessed his failure, and Liu Duanyue ordered him to keep investigating Sun-Chasing Hall and gave him a plan.
• Sang Ying offered to use the heavenly lightning stored in her body against Sun-Chasing Hall, but Jiang Zhuoxue urged her to keep that power secret.
• Liu Duanyue told the group that the monsters might contain clues to the plot, and Wuming remembered that he had chained one in the prison.
• Sang Ying and the others found the monster still tied to a pillar and restrained it, making it their breakthrough in investigating Sun-Chasing Hall.

Liu Duanyue and his allies learned that the living corpses were controlled by puppet threads and that their strange power came from bloodlines, not a curse. With no way to locate the Sun-Chasing Hall’s headquarters, Sang Ying offered a possible way to find its entrance.

• The hall master ordered the Blue-Robed Apostle to search for a missing living corpse after learning that one had been overlooked.
• Liu Duanyue brought a living corpse to a medical cultivator, who discovered that its soul was gone and its bloodline power kept its body from rotting and made it resistant to attacks.
• The medical cultivator revealed that puppet threads controlled the living corpses and explained how to immobilize them by finding their controller and severing the threads.
• The medical cultivator said a soul lost for no more than three days could potentially be restored, but the corpse he examined could not be revived.
• After Liu Duanyue’s group discussed the difficulty of reaching the Sun-Chasing Hall headquarters, Sang Ying said she might know how to find its entrance.

Yu Heng was dragged from the Sun-Chasing Hall bunker by the Immortal-Binding Rope and chose to seek Sang Ying, leaving Dongdong behind. At the City Lord's Manor, Sang Ying offered to release him if he answered Liu Duanyue's questions, and Yu Heng agreed to help on one condition.

• Yu Heng comforted Dongdong and hid the truth that Sister Yinqiu had died after the Curse erupted.
• The Immortal-Binding Rope dragged Yu Heng from his room, and he turned into sludge to escape the bunker and reach Sang Ying.
• Liu Duanyue waited at the City Lord's Manor with Liu Chengzhi, Zhou Xuan, and Sang Ying for the promised visitor.
• Yu Heng arrived as sludge, changed back into human form, and begged Sang Ying to loosen the rope.
• Sang Ying said she would release Yu Heng if his answers satisfied Liu Duanyue, and Yu Heng agreed to help in exchange for one condition.

Yu Heng revealed the Sun-Chasing Hall bunker’s location after Jiang Zhuoxue agreed to help protect his disciple Dongdong and remove his Curse. When living corpses emerged in force, Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue fought through them and entered the bunker to find the hall master, where a child suddenly attacked Sang Ying.

• Yu Heng agreed to answer questions about the Sun-Chasing Hall after Jiang Zhuoxue promised to help Dongdong with his Curse and keep him safe.
• A City Guard reported that living corpses had appeared again, and Liu Duanyue found them pouring out of the bunker near the Yin Mountain Sect.
• Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue charged into the horde, using lightning and Jiang Zhuoxue’s power over dragon blood to kill many living corpses.
• Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue followed Yu Heng’s directions into the bunker and hurried toward the hall master’s room.
• Sang Ying stopped to help a child lying in the passage, but the child suddenly revealed sharp fangs and lunged at her.

Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue found Yu Heng’s disciple Dongdong turned into a living corpse and resolved to save the bunker’s victims without killing them. Surrounded by living corpses, they recognized that their tormentor was the surviving child of the Moonless Household.

• Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue subdued Dongdong, whom they suspected was Yu Heng’s disciple, and left him bound in an empty house.
• Sang Ying worried that many Sun-Chasing Hall apostles had become living corpses, and Jiang Zhuoxue proposed removing the dragon blood and immobilizing them.
• A horde of living corpses surrounded Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue, while a hidden speaker taunted them for trying to save the victims.
• As blue-robed living corpses attacked, the speaker mocked the Three Heroes of Moonless City and revealed his hatred of them.
• Jiang Zhuoxue identified the speaker as the Moonless Household’s sole surviving child.

Wuyue Sha blamed Sang Ying and her companions for the Moonless Clan’s repeated downfall and revealed how he built the Sun-Chasing Hall and created living corpses. As the corpses attacked Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue in the bunker, Jiang began an unspecified technique while Sang Ying protected them with heavenly lightning.

• Wuyue Sha recalled the Moonless Clan’s expulsion from two cities and his own rescue by a mysterious woman, who taught him a cultivation method and helped him establish the Sun-Chasing Hall.
• Wuyue Sha used the Puppet Technique and a Devil Artifact to create and control living corpses, then sent them swarming toward Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue.
• Liu Duanyue and Duan Hanyi realized the living corpses were converging on the bunker, and Liu Chengzhi led the others in pairs to find and cut their puppet strings.
• Jiang Zhuoxue climbed to the bunker’s tallest watchtower and told Sang Ying he was starting, while Sang Ying summoned heavenly lightning to protect them.
• An invisible wave swept through the bunker.

Jiang Zhuoxue stopped the living corpses by severing their connection to the dragon blood, while Liu Duanyue’s forces and Moonless City’s defenders awaited the outcome. After the corpses collapsed, Jiang Zhuoxue sent Sang Ying to pursue Wuyue Sha, who might be preparing to escape.

• Jiang Zhuoxue’s seals froze the living corpses, giving Liu Duanyue and the others a chance to sever some of their puppet threads.
• A terrifying pressure surged from the bunker, making the living corpses writhe and roar as Liu Duanyue’s people withdrew.
• Cultivators protecting Moonless City debated whether to flee, but one refused to abandon the city after receiving its help.
• Jiang Zhuoxue completed his seals, drew the beads of blood from the living corpses, and caused them to collapse.
• Jiang Zhuoxue told Sang Ying to pursue Wuyue Sha, and she left after confirming Jiang Zhuoxue could handle what remained.

Wuyue Sha escaped the bunker and used the Nine Yin Soul-Locking Banner to send black smoke toward Moonless City, hoping to turn its cursed residents into living corpses. The smoke reached the city’s protective formation, and guttural roars began to rise throughout the city.

• Wuyue Sha fled through a hidden passage after the living corpses slipped out of his control.
• Wuyue Sha blamed Yu Heng and the woman who had abandoned him, then emerged from the passage outside Moonless City.
• Wuyue Sha revealed the Nine Yin Soul-Locking Banner and sent black smoke toward Moonless City to turn its cursed residents into living corpses.
• Liu Chengren comforted Liu Qingyu inside the protective formation as they watched over their cursed family.
• Liu Qingyu spotted black smoke in the sky, and guttural roars rang out throughout Moonless City.

Black smoke descended over Moonless City and transformed people afflicted by the Curse into living corpses, prompting Liu Duanyue to fear for the city lord’s residence. Meanwhile, Sang Ying tracked Wuyue Sha through a secret passage, then left the bunker to pursue him as the smoke filled the sky.

• Liu Duanyue sent Liu Chengzhi and sect disciples to protect the mortals at the city lord’s residence after they spotted black smoke descending toward it.
• A wisp of smoke entered Yu Heng and other people, turning them into living corpses without puppet strings; Zhou Xuan found red markings on one victim and identified the Curse.
• Liu Duanyue realized the smoke targeted people afflicted by the Curse and heard new growls from inside the city.
• Sang Ying found that Wuyue Sha had escaped through a secret passage, and she used red thread to map its routes while Jiang Zhuoxue confined the living corpses and removed the dragon blood from Dongdong.
• Sang Ying left the bunker to pursue Wuyue Sha by flying sword, but the sight of black smoke covering Moonless City made the Floating River Sword tremble in her hand.

Sang Ying pursued Wuyue Sha after stopping the living corpses at the bunker, while Liu Duanyue rushed to defend the city lord’s manor. The chapter ended with Sang Ying reaching Wuyue Sha and shattering his Soul-Locking Banner.

• Sang Ying severed the living corpses’ puppet strings and trapped them with lightning snakes before recognizing the black smoke as the hall master’s soul-snatching method.
• Sang Ying flew out of Moonless City after Wuyue Sha and told Liu Duanyue to support the city lord’s manor while she pursued the hall master.
• Liu Duanyue joined Liu Chengzhi and the Yin Mountain Sect disciples in subduing the living corpses, including Liu Chengren and his younger sister.
• Liu Duanyue told Liu Chengzhi that he trusted Sang Ying because she had brought him and the Yin Mountain Sect out of the abyss.
• Wuyue Sha hid outside the city and vowed to destroy it, but Sang Ying arrived and shattered the Soul-Locking Banner in his arms.

Sang Ying destroyed Wuyue Sha’s Soul-Locking Banner, freeing the souls trapped inside and allowing the living victims in Moonless City to recover. She rescued Wuyue Sha from the vengeful souls and arranged to return him to the city, while they gave her three days before claiming his life.

• Wuyue Sha watched as purple lightning destroyed his Soul-Locking Banner and released the trapped souls.
• Sang Ying saw the souls Wuyue Sha had harmed form a monster that swallowed him and accused him of betraying them.
• Sang Ying cut into the monster, rescued Wuyue Sha, and promised to expose his crimes before handing him over to the souls in three days.
• The monster accepted Sang Ying’s offer and dissolved into black smoke, leaving Wuyue Sha alive.
• The freed living souls returned to their bodies, and Liu Duanyue’s children recovered as Liu Chengzhi said their gamble had succeeded.

After the living corpses returned to normal, Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue received the survivors’ thanks and discussed the remaining danger in Moonless City. Liu Chengzhi recognized the captured, badly injured man as Wuyue Jizong.

• Jiang Zhuoxue told Sang Ying that the living corpses had returned to normal after he stripped Dongdong of dragon blood, and Sang Ying confirmed that she had released the trapped souls.
• Liu Duanyue and the others bowed to Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue, while Liu Duanyue vowed to strengthen the City Guard and train a successor.
• Yu Heng had Dongdong kowtow to Sang Ying and Jiang Zhuoxue, then agreed to meet Jiang Zhuoxue at the Three Guests' Lodge in three days to discuss stripping out his dragon blood.
• Sang Ying had Wuming bring the captured Wuyue Sha down from her flying sword, and the Floating River Sword rubbed itself against a tree before Sang Ying cleaned it.
• Liu Chengzhi brushed aside the injured man's hair and recognized him as Wuyue Jizong.