Recaps

After Li Wu died, Zhou Yi promised to protect the Li family, but the family endured repeated attacks in Shenjing. When assassins nearly wiped out the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s Residence, Zhou Yi intervened, leaving Li Ye to seek an audience with the regent.

• Li Wu died in the Heavenly Prison, and Emperor Hongchang personally presided over his funeral despite objections from the court.
• On New Year’s Eve, black-clad assassins invaded the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s Residence while Prince Anhua’s Residence remained silent.
• Li Ye refused to flee, and the attackers’ recruited martial expert, Wu Yanwang, was killed by a Sword Qi strike from Zhou Yi.
• Zhou Yi secretly helped the Li family defeat the remaining invaders, then said he had repaid his debt to Li Wu and vanished.
• Li Ye told Commander Li that Zhou Yi had protected them through repeated raids and decided to request an audience with the Crown Prince Regent.

Zhou Yi reflected on his new strength and resolved to stay cautious, then used his prison-torture methods to question a corrupt official about more than ten million taels of missing silver. The prisoner revealed that the silver was with the powerful Lu Family of Jiangnan, leaving Zhou Yi to confront the danger behind the revelation.

• Zhou Yi returned to his usual appearance, considered the limits of his Innate Realm strength, and resolved to cultivate cautiously.
• On New Year's Eve, Zhou Yi went to the Heavenly Prison and thought about how the Li family's reputation and his own relatives had faded with time.
• Zhu Xiaowei asked Zhou Yi to question a corrupt official who had hidden more than ten million taels of silver.
• Zhou Yi tortured the prisoner with Mana until he revealed that the silver was with the Lu Family of Jiangnan.
• The prisoner asked whether Zhou Yi was afraid of the Lu Family and said fear had driven him to become corrupt.

Zhou Yi learned how the Lu Family’s control over local officials had turned a once-idealistic magistrate into a corrupt official, then reported the story to Zhu Xiaowei, whose suspicious concern over the stolen relief funds foreshadowed a major court scandal. The Crown Prince’s attempted rebellion was exposed, and Zhu Xiaowei was revealed as a recent member of Zhao Chi’s faction.

• A condemned official told Zhou Yi how the Lu Family diverted flood-relief silver and grain, ruined his efforts to help the people, and later made him its corrupt agent before framing him as a scapegoat.
• Zhou Yi reported the interrogation to Zhu Xiaowei, who denied his unusual interest in the money and hurried away, leaving Zhou Yi worried he might be entangled in a dangerous plot.
• In the first month of the eighteenth year of Hongchang, the Brocade Guard caught an imperial chef trying to poison the Emperor and found a dragon robe and the Imperial Jade Seal in the Eastern Palace.
• Crown Prince Regent Zhao Chi admitted to colluding with the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s estate in a rebellion after evidence showed he had been acting as Emperor.
• Hongchang ordered the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s estate surrounded and Crown Prince faction members hunted, placing Zhu Xiaowei among the newly implicated pawns.

Zhou Yi visited Zhu Xiaowei and the imprisoned Li family, promising to help protect their families and preserve the Li bloodline. After learning the Blood Refinement of Spirit Weapons and teaching the Origin Returning Art to Li Wu’s sons, he discovered that Li Hong had an unusually strong aptitude for cultivation.

• Zhou Yi reassured Zhu Xiaowei that prison colleagues would help care for his family after his conviction and exile.
• Zhou Yi revealed to Li Ye that he had come to honor his promise to Li Wu by saving a Li family descendant.
• Li Ye admitted he had contacted the Crown Prince, said Emperor Hongchang had staged the rebellion, and offered the Blood Refinement of Spirit Weapons in exchange for Zhou Yi guiding his third brother.
• Li Ye taught Zhou Yi the secret art, which could refine a spiritual object into a weapon controlled like part of the body.
• Zhou Yi taught the Origin Returning Art to Li Ye and his three younger brothers and tested their cultivation aptitude.
• Li Hong alone sensed and drew in spiritual qi, revealing a strong cultivation aptitude that gave the Li family a potential successor.

Zhou Yi prepared to rescue Li Hong after the Li family was sentenced to exile, then followed their prison convoy toward Serpent Coil Mountain. As the escort entered the mountains, Zhou Yi watched from a nearby peak and hesitated to spill blood amid the grand scenery.

• Li Ye asked Zhou Yi to rescue Li Hong during the family's journey into exile, and Zhou Yi agreed to wait for the court's verdict.
• The court sentenced the Li family to extermination, but Emperor Hongchang changed their punishment to exile to preserve Li Wu's descendants.
• Zhou Yi left Shenjing, checked on Huang Yuniang at Emperor Chongming's mausoleum, and continued north while keeping the Imperial Guards' convoy in sight.
• Zhou Yi reached Serpent Coil Mountain ahead of the convoy and climbed an unnamed peak to watch the prison carts enter the mountains.
• Looking down at the winding convoy, Zhou Yi remarked that killing amid the mountain scenery would be unbecoming.

Zhou Yi rescued Li Hong from the massacre of the Li Lineage and took him to Barren City, where he used silver to seek out a man surnamed Wei and arrange easier work for him. The chapter ended with Steward Sun quoting a price to locate and register living prisoners.

• Zhou Yi disguised himself as a bandit while Imperial Guard Commander Yang Shou’s forces were ambushed and routed by a bandit force backed by the Jiangnan Aristocratic Families.
• Zhou Yi rescued Li Hong during the battle, leaving a disfigured bandit’s body in his place as the Li Lineage was slaughtered.
• Li Hong watched his relatives die and recognized several cousins whose faces his eldest brother had ordered destroyed to conceal his identity.
• Zhou Yi and Li Hong arrived in Barren City, where a gate official directed them to Liu San and Steward Sun to search for a man surnamed Wei.
• Zhou Yi learned that Steward Sun charged one thousand taels for each living person and another two hundred taels to register them in the household records.

Zhou Yi used his connections and money in Barren City to free the seven surviving descendants of Wei Chang from convict status and arrange them a home and work. The Wei family chose to remain on the northern frontier, while Zhou Yi left them in the care of local officials before heading back toward Shenjing.

• Zhou Yi learned from Steward Sun that Barren City officials secretly sold convicts new identities and household registrations for twelve hundred taels.
• Zhou Yi impressed the Revenue Office clerks and other officials with stories about Shenjing and Spring Breeze Pavilion.
• Bailiffs brought seven surviving members of the Wei family to the Revenue Office, and Wei Jun introduced himself as Wei Chang’s third son.
• Zhou Yi offered to help the Wei family return home or stay on the northern frontier, and Wei Jun said they would remain in Barren City.
• Zhou Yi paid Steward Sun to arrange a house and jobs guarding granaries for the Wei family, and local officials promised to look after them.

Zhou Yi helped the Wei family settle in Barren City and urged Wei Jun to preserve the Nameless Incantation for the family’s future revenge. As Li Hong chose to rebuild the city, defeated soldiers arrived with news that Great Yong had invaded and the northern frontier’s defenses were collapsing.

• The Barren City yamen registered the Wei family under new names, and Zhou Yi attended a feast with county magistrate Zhao Tai.
• The Wei family settled in an abandoned estate, where Wei Jun told Zhou Yi about his father’s cultivation arts and his adopted son who had learned the Nameless Incantation.
• Zhou Yi urged Wei Jun to protect the incantation and gave him money to redeem his adopted son from the mines.
• Li Hong refused to leave Barren City, saying he would restore its prosperity, and revealed that he had refined his first strand of Mana.
• Liang Ying arrived with hundreds of fleeing soldiers and warned that Great Yong had taken much of Yi Province and was advancing toward Barren City.

Zhou Yi left Barren City after warning Li Hong to put his survival first and consider buying a military rank. On the road south, he found Chen Family Village massacred by routed soldiers and killed the raiders, then questioned their commander.

• Zhou Yi told Li Hong that the northern frontier's collapse could help him rise in rank, advised him to buy the title of Guerrilla General, and departed for Shenjing.
• Three days later, Zhou Yi reached Chen Family Village and smelled blood near the village entrance.
• When soldiers ordered Zhou Yi to leave and the commander ordered archers to shoot him, Zhou Yi killed more than two hundred men.
• Zhou Yi summoned the village's ghosts with the House-Protecting Talisman, but the military formation's Killing Intent protected the commander from them.
• Zhou Yi used Lion's Roar to calm Chen Family Village's aggrieved soul and kept the commander alive for questioning.
• The commander admitted that his routed troops had gone without food for seven or eight days and had plundered villagers because the court provided no orders, pay, or provisions.

After Emperor Hongchang died, Chancellor Zhang Zhengyang betrayed his regency edict and joined Prince Qin Zhao Yuan in a coup to seize the throne. Their troops stormed Shangyang Palace, where Zhang revealed that his elderly appearance had been a disguise.

• Zhang Zhengyang told Zhao Yuan that Emperor Hongchang had died and that the late Emperor had appointed four regents to assist the Sixth Prince.
• Zhang Zhengyang urged Zhao Yuan to take the throne, and Zhao Yuan agreed, promising to keep Zhang as Chief Minister.
• Zhao Yuan gathered more than a thousand men and entered the imperial palace through its eastern gate with Commander Lin’s help.
• At Shangyang Palace, Imperial Concubine Sun, Eunuch Wang, Duke Cheng, and Zhang Zhengyang waited for the morning court to announce the edict.
• Prince Qin and Chancellor Zhang’s troops forced their way into the palace and killed those they encountered.
• Zhang Zhengyang removed the false aged skin from his face, revealing his true appearance.

Zhao Yuan seized the throne after killing Consort Sun and Zhao Yi, while Zhou Yi helped the ghosts of Chen Family Village bury their dead. He found the orphaned Chen Ya'er alive and decided to take her to Shenjing to find her a good family.

• Feng Zhong revealed himself as a palace eunuch, and Zhao Yuan entered the palace with soldiers and Chancellor Zhang to claim the throne.
• Zhang Zhengyang urged Zhao Yuan to eliminate Consort Sun and Zhao Yi, and Zhao Yuan ordered them and the attendants at Shangyang Palace killed.
• Feng Zhong read an edict naming Zhao Yuan as successor, and the officials acknowledged him as emperor.
• Zhou Yi collected the villagers' corpses and buried them in a spiritually blessed place, after which many of their souls dispersed.
• Zhou Yi found two-year-old Chen Ya'er alive beneath her parents' corpses and promised Old Man Chen to take her to Shenjing and find her a good family.

Zhou Yi honored the slain Chen clan and granted Old Man Chen’s request to end his soul before riding to Shenjing with Chen Ya’er. At the city gates, he entered amid strict Imperial Guard searches and rumors challenging the new emperor’s accession, as unrest gathered beneath the surface.

• Zhou Yi buried the 327 souls of Chen Family Village and carved their names’ memorial into a stone stele.
• Old Man Chen asked Zhou Yi to destroy his soul before the yin aura corrupted him, and Zhou Yi granted his request.
• Zhou Yi rode toward Shenjing with Chen Ya’er after hearing that Emperor Hongchang had died and a new ruler had ascended.
• Imperial Guards searched travelers and goods at Shenjing’s western gate, arresting people and confiscating prohibited items.
• The commander recognized Zhou Yi as the Blood Prison Old Demon, let him enter with Chen Ya’er, and sent word to his superior.
• Rumors spread that the Second Prince’s accession was illegitimate and that he had killed Imperial Concubine Sun and the Sixth Prince.

After returning to Shenjing, Zhou Yi rejected offers to serve powerful households and arranged for Lao Bai to care for Chen Ya'er. As recruiters and intruders continued to pursue him, Zhou Yi made clear that he wanted to remain in the Heavenly Prison, and the pressure finally eased.

• Zhou Yi found that visitors had recently searched his courtyard, then hired wet nurses to care for Chen Ya'er.
• Lao Bai offered Zhou Yi a position as an Attendant at Prince Dongyang's manor, but Zhou Yi declined and asked Lao Bai to take Chen Ya'er to Jiangnan with his family.
• Zhou Yi returned to the Heavenly Prison, declined Captain Lu's suggestion that he seek advancement, and accepted tea from him as a colleague.
• Zhou Yi turned down repeated recruitment offers and beat back experts who broke into his home, revealing his formidable body-tempering skill.
• Zhou Yi announced that he wanted neither glory nor power and would rather grow old in the Heavenly Prison, after which the recruiters left him in peace.

Emperor Yongxing consolidated his hold on the court and the Capital Garrison while planning to lure his rivals into the open. Meanwhile, Zhang Zhengyang met with the deposed Crown Prince Zhao Xian and warned him about the mistakes that had weakened his claim.

• Zhang Zhengyang begged for an audience with Emperor Yongxing at Shangyang Palace, but left after receiving no answer.
• Emperor Yongxing learned that Zhang Zhengyang had departed and discussed rumors accusing him of murdering his sixth brother with Li Defu and Xie Wei.
• Liang Dong assured Emperor Yongxing that he had taken control of the Capital Garrison and dispersed the Sun Family's officers and soldiers.
• A white-robed monk delivered the captured assassin Touching the Sky, whom Emperor Yongxing ordered sent to the Imperial Prison and whose family he condemned to military exile.
• Emperor Yongxing announced that he would feign being a fatuous ruler to draw his opponents out, while Zhang Zhengyang advised Zhao Xian to remain calm and criticized his alliance with the Li family.

Zhang Zhengyang explained how he planned to make Zhao Yuan destroy the rival princes so Zhao Xian could claim the throne, then Prince Chu’s failed assassination attempt left the court in turmoil. In Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi warned Captain Lu that the purge was only beginning.

• Zhang Zhengyang told Zhao Xian to wait until Zhao Yuan eliminated the princes of Chu, Han, and Jing, then overthrow him as the late emperor’s only surviving descendant.
• Zhang Zhengyang revealed that he had planted martial experts in the palace and the princes’ residences, and that an expert from Prince Chu’s Residence would soon attempt to assassinate Zhao Yuan.
• Zhang Zhengyang explained that he had obtained the Heaven Devouring Demon Art and promised to give its complete version to Zhao Xian so the Royal Family could raise Innate Grandmasters.
• In early July, an Attendant of Prince Chu’s Residence wounded Emperor Yongxing in an assassination attempt, and the Brocade Guard found dragon robes and an imperial seal at the residence.
• Emperor Yongxing ordered Prince Chu’s line exterminated, but the Court of the Imperial Clan secured a reduced punishment of exile and loss of title; authorities arrested the prince’s associates and relatives.
• In Heavenly Prison, Captain Lu thanked Zhou Yi for refusing to join Prince Chu’s household, and Zhou Yi warned him that worse events were coming.

After Prince Han and Prince Jing died in rebellions and Prince Chu’s convoy was attacked, Zhou Yi questioned Xuan Ling and concluded Chancellor Zhang had orchestrated the princes’ downfall to clear the path for the Deposed Crown Prince. Zhou Yi suspected Zhang’s schemes reached beyond the capital and decided he would need to request leave and investigate.

• Prince Han resisted the Imperial Guards and was killed, while Emperor Yongxing ordered everyone in his residence exterminated.
• Captain Lu interrogated prisoners as Zhou Yi sensed Prince Han’s heir’s grievance; a jailer reported that bandits had killed most of Prince Chu’s escort.
• Prince Jing led an assault on the imperial city’s eastern gate and died after the Imperial Guards shot him with arrows.
• Zhou Yi questioned Xuan Ling, Prince Jing’s chief Attendant, and deduced that the prince’s rebellion and the earlier attacks had been part of a plot to eliminate the three princely households.
• Zhou Yi identified Chancellor Zhang as the likely mastermind and recognized that Xuan Ling’s condition was evidence of the Heaven Devouring Demon Art.
• Zhou Yi considered how Zhang’s plans and the stalled peace negotiations had weakened Emperor Yongxing, then decided to request leave and investigate further.

While Shenjing descended into mutiny and chaos, Zhou Yi stole the Fengyang Kingdom’s Rivers and Mountains Cauldron from the unguarded Imperial Ancestral Temple. He escaped through the northern gate and headed north with the treasure.

• Zhou Yi reflected with Warden Liu on political scheming, power, and the upheaval in the capital, then received permission to leave the Heavenly Prison temporarily.
• On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, Sun Xiangming led the mutinous Capital Garrison into Shenjing and attacked the imperial city while its officials and estates stood aside.
• As Emperor Yongxing’s forces defended the imperial walls, an unknown figure entered the deserted Imperial Ancestral Temple and inspected the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron.
• Zhou Yi revealed himself in disguise, lifted the several-ton cauldron, and concealed it in black mist with his Shadow Talisman.
• Zhou Yi carried the cauldron through Shenjing’s chaotic streets, frightened the northern gate guards into fleeing, and escaped north with it on a prepared carriage.

After Zhao Xian became Emperor Jinglong, the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron vanished, and Zhou Yi left the capital for secluded cultivation in Peng Mountain. Ten years later, he completed refining the cauldron and swallowed it.

• Zhao Xian ascended the throne as Emperor Jinglong, but officials discovered that the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron had disappeared from the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
• Emperor Jinglong ordered an investigation, and reports linked the cauldron's disappearance to purple qi flying toward the northern frontier; the court later replaced it with the Jinglong Cauldron.
• Zhou Yi reached Pengshan County, heard refugees say war had resumed on the northern frontier, and traveled to Peng Mountain to cultivate in seclusion.
• Zhou Yi made a breakthrough in the Origin Returning Art while blood-refining the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron.
• Ten years later, Zhou Yi finished refining the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron, shrank it to the size of a grain of rice, and swallowed it.

After ten years of secluded cultivation, Zhou Yi tested his newly refined Rivers and Mountains Cauldron and returned to the mortal world. At Bai Estate, Chen Jinyu studied military strategy and confronted an intruder, only to discover he was an Innate Grandmaster.

• Zhou Yi used the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron to smash a cavern wall and ride through the air, then reminded himself to remain cautious.
• Zhou Yi left his mountain retreat after ten years and reflected on balancing life among mortals with secluded cultivation.
• Chen Jinyu dismissed Nanny Hu's complaints and returned to studying the Military System instead of engaging in household rivalries.
• Chen Jinyu awoke to an Old Daoist in her bedchamber and attacked him with silver needles.
• The Old Daoist stopped Chen Jinyu's needles in midair, and she recognized him as an Innate Grandmaster.

Zhou Yi visited Chen Jinyu, gave her the Origin Returning Art, and directed her to seek General Zhou in Barren City as she pursued revenge. Returning to his old courtyard, he discovered that a vicious ghost had formed from the remains of people buried there and destroyed it with the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron.

• Zhou Yi visited Chen Jinyu and learned that she planned to avenge her family by targeting their commander and the Fengyang Royal Family.
• Zhou Yi refused to accept Chen Jinyu as a disciple but taught her the Origin Returning Art and promised to protect her in Shenjing until she turned twenty.
• Before leaving, Zhou Yi told Chen Jinyu to go to Barren City and seek General Zhou.
• Zhou Yi returned to his courtyard after ten years and found a skeleton and heaps of bones beneath the earth.
• Zhou Yi activated a House-Protecting Talisman, revealed a vicious ghost, and crushed it with the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron.

After discovering that his cultivation might have caused vengeful ghosts to form in his courtyard, Zhou Yi reunited with Lao Bai after a decade and caught up on their friends and the changing world. Lao Bai departed at dawn, leaving Zhou Yi to reflect on how immortal cultivation could separate him from mortal time.

• Zhou Yi suspected his Origin Returning Art had caused the courtyard's vengeful ghost and decided to find another place to cultivate.
• Lao Bai arrived with wine, and he and Zhou Yi reunited, traded jokes, and talked about growing old and Lao Bai's romantic entanglements.
• Lao Bai told Zhou Yi that Chancellor Zhang had died and described the peaceful state of the court under Emperor Jinglong.
• Lao Bai revealed that Zhou Fang, a relative who had come to claim Zhou Yi's house, had been killed by the courtyard's vengeful ghost.
• Lao Bai left at dawn, and Zhou Yi crushed the dry bones into ash and considered how long seclusion could separate him from the mortal world.

Zhou Yi posed as his late master’s disciple to secure a meal-delivery job at the Heavenly Prison, where he quickly won Captain Lu’s approval. He exposed a bandit hideout colluding with Imperial Guards near the Imperial Mausoleum, earning merit and a foothold in the prison.

• Zhou Yi told his neighbors that he was Zhou Yi’s disciple and explained that mechanisms in the courtyard had caused the noises behind the haunting rumors.
• At the Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi used a forged recommendation letter and his claimed connection to Zhou Yi to persuade Feng Qiao and Captain Lu to give him a meal-delivery job.
• Captain Lu challenged Zhou Yi to interrogate a bandit who had resisted questioning, and Zhou Yi soon learned the bandits’ stronghold was on the southern foothills of Longevity Mountain.
• Zhou Yi revealed that the bandits had colluded with Imperial Guards stationed at the mountain, who helped conceal the hideout and shared in the stolen goods.
• Captain Lu praised Zhou Yi’s discovery as a major merit, while Zhou Yi calmly anticipated that the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of War would handle the investigation.

Zhou Yi hosted Captain Lu and the Heaven Prison guards at Spring Breeze Pavilion, where he reunited with Yun Niang, a courtesan who had known his former master. He grew closer to his colleagues and told them that the Zhou Lineage had demanded his residence, leaving with their support if the family pressed the matter again.

• Zhou Yi invited Captain Lu and the other prison guards to Spring Breeze Pavilion after receiving extra pay and praise for his work.
• Captain Lu and his companions watched Miss Susu dance and discussed the rival brothels, Bright Moon Pavilion and Spring Breeze Pavilion.
• Yun Niang recognized Zhou Yi as Old Zhou's disciple, recalled Old Zhou's appreciation of her pipa, and invited Zhou Yi upstairs after he told her his master had died.
• Zhou Yi took the last seat and served his colleagues, who shared Heaven Prison's rules with him and began treating him as one of their own.
• Zhou Yi told Captain Lu that his master's clansmen had demanded he surrender his residence, and Captain Lu and the guards promised to support him if they returned.

At Spring Breeze Pavilion, Zhou Yi witnessed Brocade Guard Chen Yang terrorize the guests and heard his colleagues discuss the Guard’s restored power and the Zhang Family’s influence. The next day, Zhou Yi learned that the new prisoner in Cell B-6 was top scholar Yu Su, whom the emperor had apparently ordered the jailers to treat carefully.

• Chen Yang used his Brocade Guard token to force Miss Susu to dance, stabbed a guest who objected, and demanded that the man surrender seventy percent of his silver.
• Captain Lu told Zhou Yi that the Brocade Guard had regained power to monitor officials and warned him against provoking the Guard or the Zhang Family.
• Zhou Yi dismissed his colleagues’ confidence in the Zhang Family’s future and returned to reading Miss Rourou’s fortune.
• The next day, Zhou Yi served meals in the Heavenly Prison and learned that the prisoner in Cell B-6 was Yu Su, the top scholar from Emperor Jinglong’s first imperial examination.
• Captain Lu told Zhou Yi that a palace eunuch had ordered the jailers not to neglect Yu Su, likely at the emperor’s instruction.

Zhou Yi spent years serving Yu Su in Heavenly Prison, where Yu Su taught him to wait patiently for the right opportunity. In the fourteenth year of Jinglong, Yu Su explained how the Zhang Family planned to take control of the court and warned that the kingdom’s decay could bring disaster.

• Zhou Yi learned that Yu Su had been imprisoned after urging Emperor Jinglong to reform official conduct, and he brought Yu Su food and wine while Yu Su exercised.
• Yu Su dismissed rumors against him and told Zhou Yi that great plans required waiting for heaven’s timing, prompting Zhou Yi to reconsider his own plans.
• Yu Su explained that he had once divided his household and moved his ancestors’ graves after a Daoist warned him his clan would bring him harm.
• In the fourteenth year of Jinglong, Yu Su told Zhou Yi that the Zhang Family intended to hollow out the Emperor’s authority and support the Crown Prince’s succession rather than rebel.
• Yu Su said he opposed the Zhang Family because official conduct and military preparedness had badly decayed, risking a great disaster.