This chapter's epigraph is from a famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, entitled "The Unconquered." In this poem, Longfellow describes the "retribution of fortune-eating snakes" as a kind of "woosh hiss," or divine retribution. He says that the snakes are "eating up" the "luck" of a cultivator. He wonders why the heavens would send such "strange divine retribution." He wonders if the fate of Luozheng bears the same fate as that of the "world changer," and he wonders if he will be able to defeat the snakes. He thinks that the only thing that will make the snakes suffer bad luck is a decrease in his fortune, but he still believes that his strength is still the key to victory.