Chapter Summaries

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.

On Zhou Yi's sixtieth birthday, Lao Bai told him the Boundless Sword Sect had been forced to disband and join the Brocade Guard, prompting Zhou Yi to consider quietly taking control of the organization. As martial-world prisoners filled the Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi cultivated connections and observed the resentful few, while a hidden voice approached Yan Wu about revenge.

• Zhou Yi celebrated his birthday with Lao Bai, who said he had failed to save the Boundless Sword Sect from disbanding and joining the Brocade Guard.
• Zhou Yi judged the court's purge of the martial world as mixed in its effects and decided to patiently work toward gaining influence over the Brocade Guard.
• Zhou Yi observed the martial-world prisoners crowding the Heavenly Prison and identified the resentful ones as potential future pawns.
• Zhou Yi gave Yu Su pig trotters and heard that Yu Su expected to be reinstated at the Ministry of War.
• A shadow entered the Heavenly Prison at midnight and asked the sleeping Yan Wu whether he wanted revenge.

Zhou Yi recruited Yan Wu and Ye Xiong as Chess Pieces, offering them power in exchange for serving his long-term intelligence network. He reflected on the loneliness of immortality and resolved to avoid reckless risks and rely on time to overcome obstacles.

• Zhou Yi offered Yan Wu a place in the Brocade Guard and promised cultivation techniques in exchange for investigating strange people, objects, and places; he cleansed Yan Wu's marrow and named himself King Samsara.
• Yan Wu accepted Zhou Yi's terms, seeking revenge on the Black Riders for killing his family.
• Zhou Yi gave the injured Ye Xiong the Heaven Devouring Divine Art and directed him to test it on a cellmate whose acupoints had been sealed.
• Zhou Yi described recruiting and cultivating Chess Pieces in the Heavenly Prison to build a far-reaching intelligence network.
• Zhou Yi considered his greatest enemy to be enduring loneliness and slow cultivation, and resolved to stay cautious, avoid risking his life, and outlast his enemies.

Ten years later, Zhou Yi reviewed reports from his Chess Pieces and found several strange accounts that might point to cultivators, while Yuan Shun rose to become a Brocade Guard Commandant. At court, Emperor Jinglong revealed eight Martial Grandmasters and declared his advantage over the Zhang Family as he prepared for a palace coup.

• Zhou Yi reflected on the varied fates of his Chess Pieces, including Yan Wu’s death, Ye Xiong’s retirement from demon cultivation, and Zhu Yue’s failed attempt to expose King Samsara.
• Zhou Yi read Yuan Shun’s booklet of strange tales and noted Cloud Mountain and the river-demon account as possible leads, while deciding to avoid investigating immortals directly for now.
• Zhou Yi learned that Yuan Shun had been promoted to Brocade Guard Commandant after presenting Emperor Jinglong with a white deer.
• Yu Su warned Emperor Jinglong that regional military strongmen and court corruption required attention before the emperor moved against the Zhang Family.
• Emperor Jinglong revealed eight Martial Grandmasters and said his forces outnumbered the Zhang Family’s six.

Zhou Yi returned to Shenjing amid an Imperial Guard crackdown and learned from Yu Su that Emperor Jinglong’s palace coup had failed, leaving the Crown Prince to take the throne while Empress Zhang listened to affairs behind a curtain. Yu Su explained how Chancellor Zhang’s plans had led Jinglong into defeat, and the chapter ended with Zhou Yi realizing the officials had abandoned the emperor because the new ruler better served their interests.

• Zhou Yi returned to Shenjing with the white jade spirit turtle and found Imperial Guards inspecting boats, city gates, and streets.
• At the Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi discovered Yu Su imprisoned again and brought him wine and Zhang's Pig Trotters.
• Yu Su told Zhou Yi that Emperor Jinglong would claim illness, retire to Shangyang Palace, and abdicate to the Crown Prince, while Empress Zhang would listen to affairs behind a curtain.
• Yu Su explained that Chancellor Zhang had given Jinglong flawed demonic martial arts and a governing memorial that encouraged him to rely on Innate Grandmasters, leading to the failed coup.
• Yu Su said Chancellor Zhang had expected the Zhang Family to lose power gradually, but Empress Zhang’s regency left the faction with rebellion as its only path.
• Zhou Yi realized that the officials had supported Emperor Jinglong only while he served their needs and now preferred the Crown Prince.

Zhou Yi met Yuan Shun outside Shenjing and learned that Yuan had failed to secure the Brocade Guard Vice Commissioner post to Chen Yang. Zhou Yi explained the court’s political motives and advised Yuan to yield for now, then Yuan offered secret tales about Emperor Chongming and legendary cultivators of the Path of Immortality.

• Zhou Yi waited until Yuan Shun left Shenjing before appearing in his carriage and confirming his identity with their passphrase.
• Yuan Shun told Zhou Yi that he had returned to compete for the vacant Vice Commissioner post but Chen Yang had won it.
• Zhou Yi explained that Emperor Zhengtong had supported Chen Yang to win over the Former Emperor’s old retainers and counter the Empress Dowager.
• Yuan Shun admitted he had hoped to kill Chen Yang to secure a faster promotion, and Zhou Yi told him to yield temporarily instead.
• Yuan Shun asked Zhou Yi for guidance and began sharing secret tales about Emperor Chongming and legendary cultivators.

Zhou Yi learned that Emperor Chongming had imprisoned an immortal cultivator beneath the Imperial Prison and resolved to wait until he had gained more control of the Brocade Guard before investigating. He also planned to use Chen Qing’s appointment as a palace consort to bring down Chen Yang and Marquis Chen, while Yu Su renewed his hopes of reforming the government.

• Zhou Yi pressured Yuan Shun into revealing his news and ordered him to arrange for Chen Qing to enter the palace as a consort, expecting her misconduct to implicate Chen Yang and Marquis Chen.
• Yuan Shun reported that Emperor Chongming had captured an immortal cultivator and that the prisoner was still being fed in an underground Imperial Prison cell.
• Zhou Yi praised Yuan Shun for the information, warned him not to conceal anything again, and left him to send a letter to Feng Zhong.
• Zhou Yi decided not to investigate the underground prison yet and instead planned to use the Brocade Guard to search for other immortal cultivators.
• Zhou Yi told Yu Su that Duke Cheng had received posthumous honors, and Yu Su vowed to make another attempt at reforming officialdom.

Zhou Yi raced back to Shenjing after learning that his old friend Lao Bai was dying, and arrived in time to speak with him. Lao Bai asked Zhou Yi to protect his youngest son's branch if political upheaval endangered the Bai family.

• Zhou Yi returned to Shenjing after hearing that the Thief Saint Lao Bai was gravely ill, having first investigated a Daoist's tomb on his journey.
• Zhou Yi reached the Bai Estate and found Lao Bai alive, then traded jokes with him before Lao Bai sent his children away.
• Zhou Yi told Lao Bai that the Former Emperor had died after a failed plot to poison the Empress Dowager and Emperor Zhengtong, which had led to Marquis Chen's downfall.
• Lao Bai explained that he expected the Empress Dowager's faction to face a future purge and asked Zhou Yi to help his youngest son's branch escape Shenjing if disaster struck.

After Lao Bai died, Zhou Yi promised to protect Bai Siyuan and reunited with Chen Jinyu and her son, learning of her plans for the northern frontier. He later studied the cultivation texts from the tomb and confirmed that he lacked spiritual roots, while struggling to understand the Array Dao Primer.

• Zhou Yi closed Lao Bai's eyes, arranged his funeral, and privately told Bai Siyuan to take the Blood Jade Token so he could protect him.
• Chen Jinyu returned to Shenjing with Li Yi, whom she introduced as Zhou Yi's grandson, and explained how she and Li Hong had become Dao companions.
• Chen Jinyu told Zhou Yi that she and Li Hong would help him search for the Path of Immortality, then described the growing power of the northern frontier generals.
• Zhou Yi recommended Yu Su, also known as Yu Qingtian, to Chen Jinyu and said she should wait until Yu Su suffered another defeat before recruiting him.
• Zhou Yi examined the Jade Slip's Green Wood Art and Array Dao Primer, realizing he had no spiritual roots and could barely understand the array text.

Zhou Yi studied Array Dao Primer and ordered the Brocade Guard to investigate Jiangnan’s great families. At the Heavenly Prison, he met the new captain, Yang, who imposed strict reforms, while Zhou Yi concealed his own thoughts and kept out of the conflict.

• Zhou Yi struggled to study formations, reflected on Daoist Lingyun’s travels, and ordered Yuan Shun to have the Brocade Guard monitor Jiangnan’s eight great families.
• Zhou Yi arrived at the Heavenly Prison and learned Captain Lu had been exiled, while Captain Yang had taken over and was angry about Zhou Yi’s absence.
• Captain Yang docked one year of Zhou Yi’s pay and announced strict rules against accepting prisoners’ silver, citing Bai San’er’s punishment as a warning.
• Zhou Yi advised the prison guards to endure Captain Yang’s reforms, and Yang later decided Zhou Yi was useful and planned to promote him into the army.

In Prison B-6, Yu Su reflected on his failed reforms and explained why he still meant to change the court, while Zhou Yi brought him food and learned about Yang Zheng’s ambitions. Yu Su warned Zhou Yi that Yang Zheng had the bearing of a warlord, and the chapter ended with Yu Su declaring that his loyalty was not to Fengyang.

• Yu Su practiced Tai Chi Fist and told Zhou Yi that its principles had taught him to be less hasty about reforming the court.
• Zhou Yi brought Yu Su a pig trotter and wine, and Yu Su explained that his hardships among common folk had convinced him to reform the laws despite the danger.
• Yu Su told Zhou Yi that he had investigated the cohesive northern frontier forces and discovered that they were former subordinates of the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation.
• Yu Su revealed that an old daoist from the Yang Clan had once told his fortune and warned that Yang Zheng was building influence by courting Yu Su’s former associates in the Ministry of War.
• Zhou Yi told Yu Su that Jiang Chao had been imprisoned on suspicion of embezzling military pay, and Yu Su said he expected to regain everything he had lost within three years.
• Zhou Yi asked what Yu Su thought of the northern frontier, and Yu Su answered that his loyalty was not to Fengyang.