Recaps

Qin Yan sold the giant bear’s hide and paws, then took the remaining bear paws and a huge snow-white centipede to Qinghe Town to find buyers. After Li Chun offered to help with Qin Yan’s trouble with the Mu Lineage in exchange for a future favor, Qin Yan entered town and learned that the centipede was a Mountain Treasure.

• Li Chun bought the bear hide and front paws for 249 taels and warned Qin Yan that Mu Youcheng’s wife planned to accuse him of murder.
• Qin Yan accepted Li Chun’s offer of help in exchange for a promise to assist him later, and Li Chun gave him a letter for County Magistrate Jiang.
• Qin Yan told Qin Xiaoyi to inform Uncle Seven and Uncle Zhao Yang that they could resume collecting mountain produce, then took Qin Xiaoyi and Zong Xiaoshan to Qinghe Town.
• Qin Yan paid the gate soldiers, ate at a noodle shop, and sold the remaining bear paws to Shopkeeper Wang at Abundant Harvest Tower for thirty-five taels each.
• Qin Yan showed Shopkeeper Wang a giant snow-white centipede, and Wang identified it as a Mountain Treasure.

Qin Yan learned that the White Jade Centipede was a valuable Mountain Treasure and took it to the Rising Cloud Medicine Shop to sell. After Shopkeeper Lu offered a low price, Qin Yan prepared to leave, but Helmsman Ye arrived and asked to buy the creature.

• Shopkeeper Wang warned Qin Yan that the White Jade Centipede was a rare Mountain Treasure and recommended the Rising Cloud Medicine Shop as a safe place to sell it.
• Zong Xiaoshan sensed two people following them, so Qin Yan led the group through an alley before they continued to the Rising Cloud Medicine Shop.
• Qin Yan sold a bear gallbladder to Lu Wenqing for thirty taels and showed him the White Jade Centipede, which Lu identified as Snow-Seen Red.
• Lu Wenqing offered Qin Yan two hundred taels for Snow-Seen Red, but Qin Yan rejected the offer and prepared to leave.
• Helmsman Ye entered the medicine shop and asked Qin Yan to sell him the treasure, while Qin Yan and Li Wenqing recognized each other.

Qin Yan and Zong Xiaoshan clashed with Qian Fei at the Rising Cloud Medicine Shop, but Li Wenqing settled the dispute and offered to take Qin Yan as his disciple. After rival buyers competed for Qin Yan’s Snow-Seen Red, Li Wenqing bought it for two thousand five hundred taels.

• Qian Fei berated Qin Yan for selling the Mountain Treasure, and Zong Xiaoshan attacked him when he insulted him.
• Li Wenqing moved to intervene, but Qin Yan blocked him while Zong Xiaoshan and Qin Yan brought Qian Fei down and injured him.
• Qin Yan apologized to Li Wenqing while insisting that the Snow-Seen Red remained his to sell, and Li Wenqing accepted his explanation.
• Ye Xian tried to recruit Qin Yan to the Canal Gang, prompting Li Wenqing to offer to take Qin Yan as his personal disciple; Qin Yan agreed.
• Ye Xian offered two thousand taels for the Snow-Seen Red, Lu Yunqing bid two thousand two hundred, and Li Wenqing bought it for two thousand five hundred taels.

Qin Yan secured Li Wenqing’s formal acceptance as his disciple and gained a residence in town. After delivering Uncle Chun’s letter to Jiang Fuji, he met his new senior siblings and completed the ceremony, while Jiang Fuji privately judged him a promising talent.

• Li Wenqing invited Qin Yan to bring future treasures to his shop, and Qin Yan declined Ye Xian’s offer to join the Cao Gang.
• Qin Yan gave silver to Zong Xiaoshan and Qin Xiaoyi, praising them as brothers and encouraging them to keep working hard.
• Jiang Fuji received Uncle Chun’s letter, welcomed Qin Yan as Uncle Jiang, and privately described him as a fine blade.
• Qin Yan arrived at the gambling house and met Li Wenqing’s other disciples, Tie Peng, Li Ping'er, and Li An.
• Li Wenqing formally took Qin Yan as his fourth personal disciple and gave him a small courtyard residence in town.

Qin Yan impressed Li Wenqing with his Six Harmonies Saber and received the Eight Desolations Six Harmonies Saber manual. At the training grounds, Qin Yan confronted Chang Xianwen over Zong Xiaoshan’s injury to Qian Fei, and the dispute escalated toward a fight.

• Qin Yan demonstrated that he had reached major accomplishment in the Six Harmonies Saber, astonishing Li Wenqing and Tie Peng.
• Li Wenqing demonstrated the Eight Desolations Six Harmonies Saber, then gave Qin Yan its manual and told him to seek Tie Peng’s guidance.
• Li Wenqing promised to use a Mountain Treasure to prepare a Foundation Establishment decoction for Li An, while Tie Peng and Qin Yan pledged to support him.
• Tie Peng brought Qin Yan to the training grounds, where Chang Xianwen and his men demanded an explanation for Zong Xiaoshan injuring Qian Fei.
• Qin Yan insulted Chang Xianwen and ordered Zong Xiaoshan to teach the men a lesson; Chang Xianwen declared he would teach Zong Xiaoshan a lesson.

Qin Yan settled into a courtyard in Qinghe Town and learned that Zhang Dangxing, who was connected to his father's death, planned to flee with his family. Qin Yan intercepted them on the river and killed the whole family, leaving their fate undiscovered at the dock.

• Zong Xiaoshan defeated Chang Xianwen, and Qin Yan left with his companions.
• Qin Yan moved into a courtyard, met the scholar Huang Chao, and sent grain to his new neighbors.
• After hearing that the Qiao Family had been robbed and its elders and third daughter-in-law killed, Zhang Dangxing decided to flee Qinghe Town.
• Qin Xiaoyi reported Zhang Dangxing's plans to Qin Yan, who ordered his men to watch him.
• Qin Yan disguised himself as the boatman and confronted Zhang Dangxing and his family on the river.
• Qin Yan drowned Zhang Dangxing's whole family, and a boatman later found their boat empty at the dock.

Qin Yan expanded his property and businesses in town and Shanghe Village as his fortunes grew. When Azure Blade Gang thugs demanded protection money at his bun shop, they learned who he was, and Chen Hui arrived to apologize and punish his men.

• Qin Yan bought three shops and two courtyards in town, acquired nearly three hundred and fifty mu of farmland, and built courtyards in Shanghe Village.
• Qin Yan opened a bun shop managed by Xia E and established Qin-Style Braised Delicacies while preparing to open a hot pot restaurant.
• A group of Azure Blade Gang thugs surrounded the bun shop and threatened Xia E for refusing to pay a security fee.
• Zong Xiaoshan and Qin Xiaoyi beat the thugs and brought their leader before Qin Yan, whose identity as the gang leader's personal disciple terrified them.
• Chen Hui arrived, beat the fat thug, apologized to Qin Yan, and took his men away after Qin Yan warned him not to let it happen again.

Qin Yan claimed Qinghe Town’s west district after defeating its gang leaders and ordering the area cleaned up. As he left, Di Feng offered him an internal cultivation manual in exchange for handling a favor, leaving Qin Yan curious about the offer.

• Qin Yan completed impact-resistance training and independently learned beginner Body Control, increasing his strength and resistance.
• Shi Hu reported that Qin Yan’s men had taken the west district, and Qin Yan sent him to buy food and wine for the group.
• Qin Yan confronted the west district’s three gang leaders, ordered them killed, and told Qin Xiaoyi to clean up the district and deal with the human traffickers.
• Qin Yan put Shi Hu in charge of the west district and ordered him to recruit loyal, reliable subordinates.
• Di Feng approached Qin Yan and offered an internal cultivation manual if Qin Yan helped him with a favor.

Qin Yan agreed to help Di Feng and Daoist Chen investigate a strange pregnant corpse in a river pool, hoping to earn an internal cultivation manual. As fog closed around them, Daoist Chen also learned that Qin Yan had seen a tomb robber connected to a crisis at Mass Grave Mound.

• Di Feng offered Qin Yan a cultivation method that reached the Qi Origin Realm in exchange for help luring out a corpse, and Qin Yan agreed.
• Di Feng took Qin Yan downstream, where they met Daoist Chen, who explained that a red-clad pregnant corpse lay in a deep pool near Guiliu Village and that Liu Erhe had recently drowned after approaching it.
• Daoist Chen said his sect elders were occupied suppressing corpses at Mass Grave Mound and gave Qin Yan a talisman to protect him from ordinary evil entities.
• Qin Yan recalled seeing the tomb robber before the authorities removed his corpse from town, but he knew nothing about what the robber had obtained or whom he had met.
• Di Feng noticed that fog had risen around them, and he shivered.

Qin Yan, Di Feng, and Daoist Chen became trapped in a Ghost Wall and went to Guiliu Village to find the expert controlling it. They discovered the village deserted and tracked an evil entity until it destroyed Daoist Chen’s paper crane and spoke from the fog.

• Qin Yan sensed something unclean in the fog, and Daoist Chen’s divination revealed they were trapped in a Ghost Wall with only one chance of survival.
• Daoist Chen led Qin Yan and Di Feng toward Guiliu Village because they had to find the person controlling the trap to escape.
• The three searched the village and found that all its residents had vanished and its chickens had died without visible wounds.
• Daoist Chen used an Evil-Repelling Talisman on a dead chicken, confirming that an evil entity had affected the village, while Qin Yan sensed something watching them.
• Daoist Chen sent a paper crane to track the entity, but a child’s voice called out from the fog and destroyed the crane.

Qin Yan, Daoist Chen, and Di Feng reached the deep pool and discovered that more than a hundred villagers had been murdered and fed to a powerful Mother-and-Child Corpse Sha. Their talismans failed as the corpses awakened, leaving the three men facing a rushing horde.

• The Ghost Mist attacked Di Feng, but Daoist Chen struck it with his silver sword and drove it back.
• Qin Yan suspected the hidden enemy was using the mist to distract Daoist Chen while targeting the female corpse, so the three men hurried to the deep pool.
• The men found the pool filled with the villagers’ corpses, and Qin Yan spotted the female corpse in red, who appeared to have become a formidable Mother-and-Child Corpse Sha.
• As the corpses began to climb ashore, Daoist Chen gave out Corpse-Subduing Talismans, and Qin Yan and Di Feng helped immobilize them.
• The Ghost Mist soaked the talismans and made them fall away, then a shriek turned the corpses’ eyes red and sent them charging at the three men.

Qin Yan fought the Ghost Mist and the female corpse in red, then discovered that his Sha Qi let him strike evil creatures. He left the battle overwhelming the walking corpses and destroying the Ghost Mist.

• Daoist Chen recited a scripture to free the villagers' souls while Qin Yan guarded him and fought the walking corpses.
• The Ghost Mist bound Qin Yan with mist and hurled him into the pool, where the female corpse in red dragged him underwater and tried to drain his Yang Qi.
• Qin Yan's talisman and Sha Qi drove off the female corpse in red, and he surfaced with black Qi escaping from his body.
• Di Feng told Qin Yan to coat his skin with Sha Qi so he could touch Yin Souls and Fierce Ghosts.
• Qin Yan used his Sha Qi to crush a walking corpse, then drew his Zhangfeng saber and cut through the horde.
• Qin Yan sensed the Ghost Mist and slashed it with his saber, making it scream and vanish.

After defeating the evil entity, Qin Yan recovered from evil Qi and learned that Di Feng worked for the Demon-Suppressing Bureau, which fought the growing threat of demonic forces. Di Feng explained how Daoist cultivation differed from martial arts and why Qin Yan’s killing intent let him fight incorporeal enemies.

• On a fishing boat, the black-robed old woman retrieved the female corpse in red with a thread and led it away with the other two figures.
• Qin Yan gained proficiency in Slaughter, Unlimited Combat, Heart Burst, and the Eight Desolations Six Harmonies Saber after the battle.
• Daoist Chen treated Qin Yan’s evil Qi and explained that the village’s residents had died and hundreds had been killed or injured at Mass Grave Mound.
• Daoist Chen revealed that Di Feng belonged to the Demon-Suppressing Bureau and said demonic forces and evil cults were becoming harder to contain.
• On the way back to Qinghe Town, Di Feng explained the differences between Daoist cultivators and martial artists and described how Qin Yan’s Sha Qi let him fight evil entities.

Di Feng persuaded Qin Yan to join the Demon-Suppressing Bureau, and Qin Yan agreed after learning about its authority, rewards, and local assignments. While awaiting an assessment, Qin Yan studied the first half of the Great Five-Viscera Immortal Abode and discovered it could draw in vital Qi of heaven and earth, especially at a mountain location he had found.

• Di Feng explained the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s benefits and offered Qin Yan a share of the merit points he would receive for recruiting him.
• Qin Yan agreed to join the Demon-Suppressing Bureau and learned he might be stationed in Qinghe Town after passing an assessment.
• Di Feng sent Qin Yan’s details and intelligence to Youshan Prefecture and promised to provide study materials and an internal cultivation method.
• Qin Yan read the first part of the Great Five-Viscera Immortal Abode and found that its breathing method greatly increased the circulation of his Qi and blood.
• Qin Yan sensed vital Qi gathering around him and realized the mountain forest he had visited held far more of it than his current location.

After advancing his cultivation, Qin Yan prepared his hotpot restaurant for its opening and returned to Clear Water Village, where he gave Qin Qing money for his child. He then hunted a variant silver snake in the mountain forest and gained increases to his maximum attributes by consuming it.

• After a night of cultivation, Qin Yan raised the Great Five-Viscera Immortal Abode to Entry Level and increased his maximum strength, speed, and spirit.
• Qin Yan visited his renovated restaurant, ate hotpot with Zong Xiaoshan and another brother, and confirmed with Lu Cheng that the opening preparations were ready for three days later.
• Back in Clear Water Village, Qin Yan ignored Zhao He and gave Qin Qing fifty taels as a gift for his unborn child.
• Qin Yan went to the mountain forest, found a swift variant silver snake, crushed its head, and roasted it.
• After eating the snake, Qin Yan gained increases to his maximum strength, spirit, and speed.

After a day and a night of cultivation, Qin Yan greatly increased his physical stats and traveled to Mian County to seek Ma Daren’s test for becoming a Demon-Suppression Envoy. Ma Daren received him at the Startling Watchtower and was astonished to learn Qin Yan was only fourteen.

• Qin Yan cultivated in the mountain forest for a day and a night, raising his strength, speed, and spirit stats before his gains slowed.
• Qin Yan returned to town and learned from Di Feng that he needed to find the veteran Demon-Suppression Envoy Ma Daren in Mian County and pass his test.
• Qin Yan rode to Mian County through a region filled with refugees and paid the fee to enter the city.
• Qin Yan found the Startling Watchtower and told its young night watchman that he had come to see Ma Daren.
• Qin Yan presented his document to Ma Daren, who invited him to sit and reacted with surprise when Qin Yan said he was fourteen.

Ma Daren taught Qin Yan why Demon-Suppression Envoys had to conceal their presence and gave him the Panxin Realm manual. He took Qin Yan and Ma Shi'an to a secluded crematorium, where three corpses gave off a deeply unsettling presence.

• Ma Daren explained that evil entities hunted human souls and life energy, making Qin Yan's powerful presence a beacon to them.
• Ma Daren gave Qin Yan the Panxin Realm manual and said learning to conceal his presence was essential to becoming a Demon-Suppression Envoy.
• Ma Daren told Qin Yan that his grandson, Ma Shi'an, would inherit his role, and asked Qin Yan to help him if he ever faced trouble.
• Ma Shi'an joined Ma Daren and Qin Yan, and the three traveled to a crematorium several miles from the county town.
• Qing San led them to a reinforced, talisman-covered room containing three corpses, and Qin Yan sensed a strange presence coming from them.

Qin Yan identified the most dangerous of three gang-member corpses at the Cremation Site and was assigned to burn them with Ma Shi'an. As Qing San explained how corpses transform amid the disaster’s mass deaths, he revealed that some have reanimated even inside the furnaces, though none have escaped.

• Qin Yan identified the burly corpse as the likeliest to transform because it carried strong Blood Sha Qi, and Ma Daren confirmed his judgment.
• Ma Daren left Qin Yan and Ma Shi'an to handle the three corpses, and Qin Yan startled Ma Shi'an with his strength and his claim that he killed evil spirits with his fists.
• Qing San explained that Cremation Sites had recently spread across the Great Li Dynasty and that officials planned to require cremation as corpses piled up from the famine.
• Qing San described how evil Qi, prolonged exposure, or contact with people and animals could trigger corpse transformation, and said some weak Evil Corpses had reanimated while burning but none had escaped a furnace.

Qin Yan deliberately revived three corpses in the morgue to test their strength, then crushed the rising evil entities with ease. He left Ma Shi'an watching as he overwhelmed a newly formed Green-Clothed Walking Corpse, while Dragon Wandering Step advanced to Proficient Level.

• Qin Yan ordered Qing San to lock the morgue door and asked Ma Shi'an about the strength of risen corpses.
• Qin Yan used his blood-red Qi to revive one corpse, then sent it flying with a kick when it lunged at him.
• Qin Yan killed the first corpse with Blood Sha Qi and crushed the neck of a second, destroying the evil Qi within them.
• Ma Shi'an warned Qin Yan that the last corpse was becoming a Green-Clothed Walking Corpse, and Qin Yan sent him to the corner.
• Qin Yan blasted the Green-Clothed Walking Corpse away with a fist and pounded it into the floor as Dragon Wandering Step advanced to Proficient Level.

Qin Yan killed a Green-Clothed Walking Corpse and learned that Ma Daren’s next mission was to investigate a deadly haunting in Wei Family Village. Qin Yan and Ma Daren arrived at the Wei Mansion, where they sensed powerful resentment.

• Qin Yan killed the Green-Clothed Walking Corpse, and Ma Shi'an and the others watched the corpse burners destroy the bodies.
• Ma Daren told Qin Yan about a clever ghost that had killed several people and agreed to take him to investigate it that night.
• Qin Yan cultivated Panxin Realm until he could conceal his presence from those one level higher.
• Qin Yan and Ma Daren reached Wei Family Village, where Qin Yan stopped Wei Zhong's servants from striking a deranged woman searching for her son.
• Qin Yan and Ma Daren arrived at Wei Mansion and sensed powerful resentment there.

Qin Yan and Ma Daren investigated the evil entities haunting the Wei Family and uncovered the family’s role in Cuixiang’s death. Qin Yan chased down the fleeing ghost, which declared it had sought revenge on Wei Youchang, leaving him stunned.

• Wei Youchang and Madam Xu told Qin Yan, Ma Daren, and Master Zhixing that they had sold their maid Cuixiang, who later hanged herself.
• Qin Yan sensed two evil entities around the Wei residence, and Ma Daren used a compass to locate the source of Yin Qi.
• Qin Yan and Ma Daren found dense evil Qi clinging to the unconscious Wei Xu and identified traces of Master Zhixing’s attempt to dispel it.
• Master Zhixing struck at an unseen ghost with his prayer beads, and the wounded figure fled the Wei residence.
• Qin Yan chased the ghost to the edge of the village and nearly shattered it with a blood-patterned palm strike.
• The ghost accused Qin Yan of helping Wei Youchang commit atrocities and said it had only wanted revenge on him.

Qin Yan and Ma Daren learned why Cuixiang had become a Vengeful Ghost, then discovered that Wei Fu’s grave was empty and suspected he was the other evil entity. They left Wei Family Village after accepting Wei Youchang’s reward, expecting the danger to return that night.

• Qin Yan forced Cuixiang to explain that Wei Youchang had assaulted her and Wei Xu had falsely accused her, leading to her sale and death; Cuixiang then destroyed her own spirit rather than reveal where the other evil entity was hiding.
• Qin Yan heard Auntie Li searching for her son and learned from Wei Jiaming that Wei Fu had died after becoming Wei Youchang’s son’s study attendant in the county town.
• Qin Yan and Ma Daren examined Wei Fu’s grave and found that it contained no body, prompting Qin Yan to predict that there would be trouble that night.
• Wei Youchang thanked Qin Yan, Ma Daren, and Master Zhixing for dealing with the female ghost and offered them silver, which they accepted.
• Qin Yan and Ma Daren declined Wei Youchang’s invitation to stay and left Wei Family Village that day.

Qin Yan and Ma Daren confronted the forces behind the Wei family’s deaths: Ma Daren trapped Wei Fu’s ghost, while Qin Yan fought Master Zhixing. Qin Yan battered Zhixing into a monstrous transformation and continued attacking him as Ma Daren emerged with Wei Fu in chains.

• Ma Daren trapped Wei Fu’s ghost in smoke and demanded to know why he hated the Wei family.
• Qin Yan revealed that he had discovered Master Zhixing using a ghost-control technique and confronted him outside the courtyard.
• Master Zhixing transformed into a demon-like creature, but Qin Yan struck him repeatedly and tore off his jaw.
• Qin Yan’s body turned crimson as he overpowered Zhixing, who recovered and attacked with four eerie pupils.
• Ma Daren emerged dragging Wei Fu’s spirit in chains and was shaken by Qin Yan’s blood-red appearance.

Qin Yan and Ma Daren defeated Master Zhixing and learned how Wei Fu had been abused, killed, and controlled as a Fierce Ghost. After bidding farewell to his mother, Wei Fu dispersed with the first sunlight, while Ma Daren warned Qin Yan that the Yinluo Way might seek revenge.

• Qin Yan killed the Divine-Stained Variant and advanced his Body Control skill, then learned Ma Daren had subdued Wei Fu.
• Wei Fu explained that Wei Xu and his fellow students abused him to death, after which Master Zhixing controlled him and forced him to kill and devour others.
• Ma Daren allowed Wei Fu to settle his grudge against the Wei Family, then ordered him to disperse his soul; Wei Fu asked to see his mother first.
• Wei Fu cleaned his mother's home and reunited with Auntie Li, who tearfully tried to hold him as he said goodbye.
• At sunrise, Wei Fu bowed to Qin Yan, Ma Daren, and his mother, then dissolved into the world.
• Ma Daren told Qin Yan that Master Zhixing was connected to the elusive Yinluo Way, an organization that used evil spirits and the Human-Ghost Refining Art.

Ma Daren gave Qin Yan an appointment document for the Demon-Suppressing Bureau and taught him the Qi-Reading Technique before Qin Yan traveled to Youshan Prefecture. After rapidly improving the technique on the river, Qin Yan reached the Bureau and was summoned to meet its Commandant.

• Ma Daren explained the Demon-Suppression Bureau's role and gave Qin Yan an appointment document to deliver to Youshan Prefecture.
• Ma Daren gifted Qin Yan the Qi-Reading Technique and asked him to look after Ma Shi'an.
• Qin Yan studied the manual aboard a cargo boat and raised the Qi-Reading Technique to Entry Level before reaching Youshan Prefecture.
• Qin Yan arrived at the Demon-Suppressing Bureau and presented himself as a candidate with Ma Daren's assessment document.
• Zuo Xiu led Qin Yan to the Commandant's study, where Qin Yan saw the imposing Zhao Zhen.