Chapter Summaries

Xu Chunliang found no weird entities at the Wine Pool and Meat Forest, then learned from Yuhu that her former brothel was haunted and set out for the Jade Splendor Pavilion. Meanwhile, Wei Fang released the Imperial Qi Weird Box’s Weird Madness Qi at the government office, and Blind Chen followed a bone divination to Yuhua.

• Xu Chunliang left the Wine Pool and Meat Forest after finding no weird entities, while Blood Pagoda told Human Cook that the Blood-Boiling Grand Array would activate in an hour and agreed to release the Weird Madness Qi.
• Xu Chunliang checked on Yuhu, heard about the hauntings at the Jade Splendor Pavilion, and knocked her unconscious before leaving to investigate.
• Wei Fang opened the Imperial Qi Weird Box outside the Fan City government office and released green smoke into the air.
• Blind Chen divined Yuhua’s name from his broken bone, followed the clue into a courtyard, and frightened a fat man unconscious.

Xu Chunliang infiltrated the Jade Splendor Pavilion and revealed its uncanny inhabitants, killing Yu Tangchun before confronting their leader, Boss Ruyi. As more uncanny beings gathered to defend her, he faced a growing crowd inside the darkened brothel.

• Xu Chunliang approached Yu Tangchun and used uncanny madness air to provoke her into revealing her true form.
• Yu Tangchun transformed into a fanged dairy cow, and Xu Chunliang killed her with his brass knife, gaining three attribute points.
• Xu Chunliang challenged the other uncanny beings in the Jade Splendor Pavilion and saw a jade ruyi emerge as their leader, Boss Ruyi.
• Boss Ruyi summoned the porcelain Bottle Child, who threatened Xu Chunliang, while another group of children's voices jeered from nearby.

Xu Chunliang fought the monsters inside the Jade Splendor Pavilion, destroyed Little Bottle Child, and killed the thirteen-headed conjoined infant with a new death technique called Deliverance. He left the surviving monsters kneeling in fear and asked the jade ruyi to guess which one he would kill first.

• Little Bottle Child filled the first floor with fog as the jade ruyi ordered the monsters to attack Xu Chunliang.
• Xu Chunliang fought blind, injured the monsters, and killed three of them before Little Bottle Child sucked the fog back in.
• Xu Chunliang rode the suction to smash Little Bottle Child’s white jade bottle and crushed his head beneath his boot.
• Xu Chunliang shattered the purple river cart and cut down the thirteen-headed infant, whose mother bowed to him before fading into starlight.
• Xu Chunliang used his newly named Deliverance slash to kill the fleeing infant and strip the remaining monsters of their madness.
• Xu Chunliang taunted the kneeling survivors and told the jade ruyi to guess who he would kill first.

Xu Chunliang repeatedly faced the Daoist’s deadly green attacks, then used a successful time reversal to kill him and destroy the jade ruyi. After clearing out the remaining eerie beings and looting the Jade Splendor Pavilion, Xu Chunliang stepped into Fireworks Lane and froze at what he saw in the sky.

• The Daoist appeared with Boss Ruyi and attacked Xu Chunliang with green-lit teeth, killing him as time and space shattered and rolled back.
• After the reset, Xu Chunliang dodged the Daoist’s attack, cut open his throat, crushed his heart, and sliced the jade ruyi in two.
• Xu Chunliang stunned the remaining eerie beings with Eerie Tiger Howls at the Heavens and killed them with Eerie Tiger Splits the Earth.
• Xu Chunliang searched the Jade Splendor Pavilion, took its gold and silver notes, and found the Daoist gone, leaving behind a bloody promise of revenge.
• Xu Chunliang left the Jade Splendor Pavilion and froze in Fireworks Lane as he looked at the sky and recalled Blind Chen’s warning.

As Fan City plunged into supernatural darkness, Xu Chunliang killed newly spawned skinny horses and secured the injured girl before seeking help. After a deadly encounter with Yin Immortals forced him to repeat his preparations, he headed for the Demon-Slaying Bureau, where a huge curtain blocked his way.

• Xu Chunliang killed thirteen skinny horses in Fireworks Lane and gained thirteen attribute points, while their corpses later merged into a powerful centaur who vowed that all men deserved to die and attacked a nearby residence.
• Xu Chunliang returned home, made sure the little girl was hidden beneath firewood with food and a note, then went looking for Blind Chen.
• Xu Chunliang found a street filled with Yin Immortals, who killed him instantly; he then returned to the moment before leaving home and repeated his preparations.
• Xu Chunliang abandoned the search for Blind Chen and set out for the Demon-Slaying Bureau, hoping its flag officer could help.
• A huge curtain blocked the road to the bureau, and Xu Chunliang heard a whistle as yellow light appeared behind it.

Xu Chunliang experienced the lives of Liu Dafu, Zhou Fugui, and Master Zhao while watching a shadow puppet show. After Master Zhao died, his spirit was drawn into the troupe and landed on a living shadow puppet.

• Xu Chunliang awakened as Liu Dafu at a shadow puppet show and remembered his wife Shuixian, their children, and why he had brought her to the fair.
• Liu Dafu watched the show happily with Shuixian while the gong rang.
• Zhou Fugui played the gong for the audience and dreamed about spending his earnings on food and Widow Lü.
• Master Zhao watched the show, envied Liu Dafu, and returned home to his unhappy household.
• Master Zhao died in his bed, floated above the town, and was pulled into the shadow puppet troupe, landing on a puppet holding a paper knife.

Xu Chunliang escaped the Shadow Play’s death illusion and killed it by cutting his own throat, but a strange scale weight on his wrist seemed to influence him. At the Demon-Slaying Bureau, Jin Jun revealed that Fan City was sealed under the sky’s strange phenomenon and ordered a ritual using bound civilians, leaving Xu Chunliang disturbed by his own excitement at their deaths.

• Xu Chunliang recognized that the King of Hell and his guards were shadow puppets, broke free of the illusion, and killed the Shadow Play as it fled by cutting his throat.
• Xu Chunliang noticed that the rust-red scale weight on his wrist had urged him to cut himself and seemed delighted when he killed the shadow puppet.
• Xu Chunliang met Shi Qin at the Demon-Slaying Bureau, where Jin Jun announced that Fan City was trapped and that killing eerie beings alone would not end the crisis.
• Jin Jun had a military cultivator kill chained civilians and absorb their blood into a military treatise, while Xu Chunliang found himself uncontrollably excited by the killings.
• Zhang Yu condemned the executions, and the military cultivator stabbed him in the belly before he could finish speaking.

Xu Chunliang forced the living military treatise to reveal that someone was using the uncanny to slaughter the city and that the emperor wanted the survivors dead for a Three Corpses Life-Prolonging Pill. While the others lost hope at the news, Xu Chunliang urged them to resist, and Shi Qin began to find the courage to fight back.

• The strategist tore Zhang Yu’s tongue out and placed it on the bloodied military treatise, bringing the book to life.
• Jin Jun mutilated a squad officer until the military treatise answered that someone was using the uncanny to slaughter the city.
• The military treatise demanded Xu Chunliang’s left hand, but Xu Chunliang threatened to cut his own throat until it agreed to explain what had happened.
• The crowd learned about the blood pool, the forest of corpses, and the Three Corpses Life-Prolonging Pill, and many broke down after hearing the emperor wanted them dead.
• Xu Chunliang rejected the crowd’s despair, declared that they could kill the emperor, and cut the tongue off the military treatise.
• Shi Qin pictured his loved ones being slaughtered for the emperor and resolved that they should not fear him.

Jin Jun turns the Demon-Slaying Bureau into a force hunting the Human Cook, while Xu Chunliang leads Shi Qin and three colleagues through a bamboo grove that traps their route. Deep in the grove, they encounter an enormous bamboo rat that Xu Chunliang recognizes.

• Jin Jun uses the military cultivator’s murderous aura to rally the Bureau and sends teams to find the Human Cook and destroy the Blood-Boiling Grand Array.
• Xu Chunliang takes Shi Qin and three colleagues out of the Bureau, then steers them away from Jin Jun’s team after a Solar Halo appears in the distance.
• Xu Chunliang’s group finds a bamboo grove and house blocking their way, and repeated attempts to go around lead them back to the same place.
• The group enters the grove after the bamboo leaves invite them to meet Madam Bamboo, and they discover the bamboo is enormous.
• Chen Ge disturbs a huge leaf, revealing a giant bamboo rat, which Xu Chunliang recognizes as the creature from a memory of roasting one by a river.

Xu Chunliang and his companions cleared two of Madam Bamboo’s trials in the bamboo forest, resisting its illusions and waking one another from their delusions. Madam Bamboo appeared and demanded to know whether she looked human or divine, but her forms proved to be bamboo decoys, and Du Qiang’s blunt answer drew her retaliation.

• Xu Chunliang realized the bamboo forest’s apparent size came from the group shrinking, and the first trial ended when the forest returned to normal.
• Xu Chunliang exposed an illusion of two women hanging from hooks, then woke Shi Qin and slapped Chen Ge, Li Jun, and Du Qiang out of their fantasies.
• Madam Bamboo appeared in the forest and asked Xu Chunliang whether she looked like a human or a god.
• Xu Chunliang attacked her with his brass knife, but her body turned out to be a woven bamboo pillow.
• Du Qiang stabbed another of Madam Bamboo’s bamboo decoys and called her a dead person, so she declared that he would become one as punishment.