That night felt endless for the common folk around Qianyang Mountain. Strange howls echoed from outside the villages, and yin winds mixed with demonic energy kept blowing, dark and terrifying. They endured the night in trembling fear, finally waiting for daybreak.

Chen Tang, Hu Feifei, and the others immediately went out, heading to every town and village to relocate the people.

Taking advantage of the daylight, they moved the populace as quickly as possible toward the mountain where the Qianyang Mountain Lord Temple stood. When night fell, the Qianyang Mountain Lord’s protection would be there.

Even more crucially, sunlight shone from within the temple, illuminating the entire mountain—a rare sanctuary for survival.

But moving these people—burdened with families and possessions—from cities and towns into the mountains was no easy task. Some fretted over their property, some clung to old homes, some followed the crowd blindly, others bargained with the authorities, demanding money before they’d move, and still others insisted on hauling every last belonging along. All kinds of bizarre situations cropped up.

Magistrate Hu simply called over all the fox spirits from the Hu family’s old mansion. A group of demons rode demon winds, sweeping people up and carrying them into the mountains.

As for building houses and reclaiming wasteland up there—that would come later. First, they had to survive the immediate crisis.

“Sister Feifei has done so much,” Chen Shi said, bringing Little Duan along to help relocate the people and calm their hearts. Watching Hu Feifei dart back and forth, he was filled with admiration.

In the end, Hu Feifei mobilized the fox spirits from Old Hu’s family to move the entire Xinxiang County office and place it on the mountain peak.

“In times of chaos, without authority and power, disorder is certain. If the people’s spirit scatters, it’ll be impossible to gather them again. Sister Feifei truly has the talent to govern a realm.”

By the time they had settled the common people of Xinxiang County, sunset was very near. Chen Shi and Little Duan came to the old willow tree on the yellow earth slope. They sat beside the stone tablet of Godmother, watching the last sunlight.

Magistrate Hu simply called over all the fox spirits from the Hu family’s old mansion. A group of monsters rode demon winds, sweeping people up and carrying them into the mountains.

Only the stone tablet of Godmother, the old willow tree, and Scholar Zhu remained.

Chen Shi offered up the Celestial Court token, opened the minor heaven, and stepped into the Celestial Court’s Six Ministries offices. It was cold and desolate, stripped of its former lively atmosphere.

The minor heaven had also grown dim, invaded by yin energy. Chen Shi and the others had tested it—the minor heaven could connect to the fifty provinces of Western Ox New Continent in the mortal world, but in the underworld, it no longer had that function.

Chen Shi came to a painted wall. On it, someone had written with incense ash: “Dear Celestial Court comrades, are you still alive? Written by Celestial Court Assistant Zhuge Jian.”

Standing before that painted wall, looking at Zhuge Jian’s words, a strange emotion stirred in Chen Shi’s chest.

He grabbed a handful of incense ash.

“Where there is hope, there is a path forward! Wait for me, comrades. Written by Celestial Court True King, Chen Shi.”

He walked alone through the Celestial Court, which had only just begun to take shape. The faces and voices of its members were still vivid before his eyes.

Chen Shi left the minor heaven.

Outside, the sky flowed with fire—flames like blood blanketing the heavens.

Chen Shi looked up at the sight.

Scholar Zhu was also staring blankly at the sky.

“The sunset has never been so beautiful,” he murmured quietly.

On a distant mountain ridge, the great serpent Xuan Shan raised his massive head, watching the surging fire clouds overhead. The clouds gradually deepened to a dark red.

Nearby, Madam Zhuang smiled as she watched a few spirits who had come to worship her light incense in the burner. She looked up at the sky as the sun sank out of sight.

She shifted her gaze to the great serpent Xuan Shan on the neighboring peak.

“Old friend, take care.”

The sky grew steadily darker. The distance between the two mountains stretched further and further apart. Hazy peaks appeared one after another between them. One by one, strange and powerful ghost gods stood atop the summits, raising their heads to the sky in earth-shaking roars.

In the sky, the fire clouds dispersed. A huge, low-hanging moon appeared behind where they had scattered.

The first night without the sun.

The Qianyang Mountain Lord’s form materialized, seated at the peak of Qianyang Mountain. Yellow Tiger lay prostrate at his feet. A halo of light shone behind his head.

Around him, the smell of gunpowder and saltpeter filled the air. Within the halo, Nine Yang Thunder Fire churned with a rumbling thunderous roar.

The moment his figure appeared, the ghost gods on the surrounding yin mountains—those who had been beaten black and blue—all bowed to him in submission.

Hu Feifei raised incense and stepped forward, lighting the first bundle of incense in the Mountain Lord Temple’s burner.

The energy of incense offerings curled into the temple, merging into the Qianyang Mountain Lord’s form.

“Humm—”

The temple’s roof blazed with light. Sunlight streamed down from the ridgepole, dispersing the surrounding yin energy and bathing almost all of Xinxiang’s relocated people in its glow.

The temple grew larger and larger, like a patch of blue sky covering the mountain. The people below looked up and saw a sun from another time and space—warm, gentle, nourishing both their bodies and souls.

Hu Feifei let out a breath. Her voice, clear and light, reached everyone’s ears.

“From today, work at sunrise, rest at sunset. Try not to leave this Mountain Lord Peak.”

She mobilized the yamen and the talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall’s Xinxiang branch to set up schools. She also directed the people to build houses, gathered all grain into the county office’s storehouses, and distributed food—busy beyond measure.

Xinxiang County’s Qianyang Mountain was the most dangerous place among the fifty provinces of Western Ox New Continent. Two layers of hell existed here. Prehistoric monsters and fierce demons lurked, and even a calamity, appearing and disappearing unpredictably. Beyond Qianyang Mountain, other places were relatively safer.

Yet Qianyang Mountain was paradoxically the safest haven. With the Qianyang Mountain Lord holding the line and the ghost gods of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom offering protection, casualties among the people here were the fewest.

In the same Xinxiang, the provincial city of Xinxiang also plunged into moonlit night at that moment. The moon overhead seemed four or five zhang across, hanging in the sky—bright enough to read and write by.

But the moonlight was cold, carrying no warmth.

At the coast, border troops guarding Xinxiang Province slowly pushed a bronze mirror over a zhang tall, shining its light across the pitch-black sea.

Where the light fell, enormous shapes seemed to writhe on the Sea of Darkness, rolling across the surface as if heading for the coastline.

But all the moonlight fell on Western Ox New Continent itself; none reached the sea. With only the bronze mirror’s light, it was impossible to tell whether the sight was an optical illusion or reality.

One of the border troops strained to turn a winch. The bronze mirror slowly tilted upward. The mirror light rose from the sea surface, still showing only pitch-black water—still showing that immense body appearing to move toward shore.

The soldier kept turning. The mirror light climbed higher. What it revealed was not the sea, but a colossal head—a human face, with seaweed-like hair and tentacle-like whiskers.

The border soldier struggled to push the winch. The mirror light swept across the sky. Dozens of massive sea monsters, as enormous as demon gods, appeared on the sea surface, surging toward the coastline like a tidal wave.

“Enemy attack!”

He let out an earsplitting shout. The sea monsters surged like a tidal wave. With a thunderous crash, they slammed into the towering city wall. Soon they overwhelmed the wall, broke through the border troops’ defenses, submerged one sentry post after another, and surged into the city.

Meanwhile, all along the border from Xinxiang Province to Gongzhou, sentry posts fell one after another. The monsters poured in like a flood, driving deep into Western Ox New Continent.

In Gongzhou, at the Mazu Temple on the cliff, boundless divine power suddenly erupted. The temple blazed with sunlight, shining outward.

The sea gave birth to angry tides. Countless monsters howled, charging at this ancestral Mazu temple on the Western Ox New Continent coast. But before the temple, which hung suspended over the sea, they all exploded into pieces.

The Red Mountain Lady sat within the temple, merging with Mazu’s divine manifestation to control the sea. Her divine power rippled through the ocean, killing every monster trying to land.

At the Main Hall of Red Mountain Hall in Gongzhou, Yu Tiancheng led talisman masters from the association. During the last sunrise, they had raced through every village and town in Gongzhou, erecting temples and statues for the Red Mountain Lady.

Red Mountain Hall in Gongzhou lacked the strength to relocate everyone, so they built branch temples to forge avatars for the Red Mountain Lady.

Once these temples received incense offerings, the Red Mountain Lady’s avatars could descend to protect those towns and villages.

But even after dark, Red Mountain Hall still hadn’t covered all of Gongzhou—only a third of the villages and towns.

Yu Tiancheng was frantic, rushing with over a dozen talisman masters straight toward Pagoda County.

The underworld of Gongzhou wasn’t as geographically complex as Qianyang Mountain, but it had still expanded tenfold, even several dozen times. The terrain had become incredibly complicated. Reaching Pagoda County, normally easy, was now extremely difficult.

They were exhausted, their energy and blood depleted. Incense Master Lu said, “Hall Master Yu, the brothers can’t hold out. Let’s rest a while!”

Yu Tiancheng looked back. Every talisman master was breathing weakly. If they forced the march, the weaker ones might collapse from exhaustion.

“I’ll teach you the Call-Yin-Spirit Art. This is the peerless technique True King Chen realized from the Call-Yin-Spirit talisman. It can refine yin into yang, protect you from yin energy erosion, and rapidly restore your cultivation!”

Yu Tiancheng taught them the Call-Yin-Spirit Art, instructing them on how to practice it.

This cultivation technique was created by Chen Shi during the Celestial Bridge incident when he fell into the Buddhist hells and needed to save the provincial graduates. Derived from the Call-Yin-Spirit talisman, it was an easy technique to learn.

For Chen Shi, understanding the art from the talisman was simple, so he stored it in the Celestial Court’s Ministry of Rites.

But for others, comprehending a cultivation technique from a spirit talisman was incredibly difficult.

This art was easy to pick up, not complicated, yet it was an absolute peerless method for moving through the underworld!

Seeing everyone gradually recover, Yu Tiancheng also relaxed. He sat down, silently eating dry rations, and looked up at the bright moon in the sky.

“Is the sun truly never going to rise again?”

A trace of bewilderment crossed his face.

Then, his hand touched something familiar in his ration bag. He pulled it out and saw that it was his own Celestial Court token.

Yu Tiancheng wiped the crumbs off his stubble, offered up the token, and a portal appeared. Suppressing his excitement, he stepped into the minor heaven.

The minor heaven was unchanged, the same as before—just much darker.

Empty and hollow. Not a single person besides him.

Yu Tiancheng felt a deep pang of sorrow. Maybe we can’t stop this disaster at all. Maybe there’s no future left for humanity…

His Dao Heart grew dim. Like a walking corpse, he wandered through the Six Ministries of the Celestial Court, grief filling his heart. Before he knew it, he arrived at that painted wall.

He stared at the writing on the wall, and his heart shook violently.

“Where there is hope, there is a path forward!”

It was as if a flame had ignited in his Dao Heart, reviving his withered spirit, reigniting his fighting will!

“Struggling against heaven—what endless joy!”

Yu Tiancheng grabbed a handful of incense ash and wrote below Chen Shi’s words: “I’m still alive! Written by Celestial Court Jade Rabbit, Yu Tiancheng!”

He exhaled a long, turbid breath. His ambition rekindled. He turned and walked out of the minor heaven.

Tai Hua Mountain, Tai Hua Qingyang Palace.

Chang Ying Daoist looked at the land and mountains that had been transformed beyond recognition. His hands trembled.

Tai Hua’s twenty-eight peaks and the Eighty-eight Demon Peaks—now their numbers had increased more than tenfold. The ghost gods and demons were far more powerful than Tai Hua Qingyang Palace!

With the palace’s strength, there was no way to protect Youzhou, let alone Tai Hua Mountain’s original territory!

“Patriarchs of every generation, please show your divine powers!”

Chang Ying Daoist burned incense and prayed, chanting continuously. “Protect Tai Hua. Protect the living!”

He chanted before the statues of the patriarchs, but no response came.

Then, a commotion arose from the foot of the mountain. Chang Ying Daoist walked out of Qingyang Palace to look. In the direction of the ancestral tombs, a fiery red sun suddenly leaped out from among the peaks, illuminating the entire mountain. It forced the ghosts and monsters that covered the hillsides to retreat, daring not to approach.

“Daoist Tianzhen?”

Chang Ying Daoist froze, then hurried toward the ancestral tombs.

There, a lingering wisp of Daoist Tianzhen’s soul remained unextinguished, his obsession unresolved. Yu Lingzi was guarding him, offering incense.

“Chang Ying Sect Master, I have persisted since the True King’s Era, a single remnant thought surviving in this world. Perhaps this moment is why.”

Daoist Tianzhen’s Realm of Emptiness shone brightly. He smiled at Chang Ying. “I will use the last radiance I have left to light the path for the world and guard the Patriarch’s legacy.”

Chang Ying Daoist bowed deeply, his tears soaking the earth.

It was the Patriarch who had sacrificed Daoist Tianzhen with the exorcising sword. But this young acolyte had never held a grudge. Even in death, he still protected Tai Hua Qingyang Palace.

Yu Lingzi stood and said to Chang Ying, “Sect Master, Patriarch Tianzhen himself is invaded by demonic energy. He can’t hold out forever. The priority is to save as many nearby commoners as possible.”

Chang Ying agreed. His mind had been a tangled mess, but now it slowly cleared. He immediately summoned the Daoists cultivating on the mountain and ordered them to descend, each to save the people of Youzhou.

Yu Lingzi took down the True Martial Exorcising Sword from its offering table. “Sect Master, we cannot just sit on Tai Hua Mountain. We must take the initiative and subdue the surrounding ghost gods!”

Chang Ying hesitated. “But… the ghost gods are too powerful!”

Yu Lingzi said, “When the Eighteen Daoists of Qingyang Palace swept Lone Star Province clean, were they afraid?”

Chang Ying’s heart trembled. “I will go with you!”

The two led the elite experts of Qingyang Palace into battle. With the might of the True Martial Exorcising Sword, they swept through the mountains.

By the time the peaks around Tai Hua Mountain had been cleared once, Chang Ying was exhausted beyond measure, unable to fight further. Many of Qingyang Palace’s Daoists had fallen. Yu Lingzi sent the sect master back up the mountain, replaced the True Martial Exorcising Sword on its altar, and bowed.

He relaxed, staring blankly at the sun still shining above the peaks.

He knew Daoist Tianzhen couldn’t hold out much longer. If one day Tianzhen couldn’t sustain it, and the sun went out—it would be an apocalyptic disaster for Qingyang Palace and all the people it sheltered.

Yu Lingzi sighed. He offered up the Celestial Court token and entered the minor heaven.

In the minor heaven, he was the only one.

His heart heavy with worries, he drifted without realizing it until he stood before that painted wall.

Yu Lingzi gazed at the wall. After a moment, a faint smile touched his lips. He grabbed a handful of incense ash and wrote: “This body is nothing but a stinking bag of skin—even in death, let my chivalrous bones carry a lingering fragrance! Written by Celestial Court Daoist, Yu Lingzi.”

—Brothers, I wish you all a very happy 2025! Where there is hope, there is a path forward!