Heaven Official's Blessing: Vol. 1

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, illness, death, and bullying.

After San Lang steps out, he returns and works outside, building and installing a door for the shrine. As they talk inside, Xie Lian notices a tattoo on San Lang’s arm but cannot decipher its meaning.

Their conversation is interrupted by a commotion outside. The villagers bring an exhausted, disheveled cultivator who claims to have barely escaped Banyue Pass. Xie Lian taps his pressure points to revive him, but the man’s words are laced with fear. He recounts how the pass killed all but him in a 60-person merchant group. Banyue Pass, once an oasis in the Gobi Desert, is now barren and deadly, claiming the lives of travelers for the past 150 years.

San Lang eyes the man suspiciously and asks if he indeed came from Banyue Pass, giving Xie Lian a meaningful look. Xie Lian offers the man water, and the cultivator hesitates before drinking. However, Xie Lian hears the unnatural sound of liquid falling through an empty vessel. Realizing something is wrong, he stops the man, who panics and attacks. San Lang swiftly reacts, throwing a chopstick through the cultivator’s stomach and pinning him to the door.