Recaps

Xia Fan uncovered the truth about Qingshan Town and the coming Great Desolation Evil Night while helping Li and navigating the examination’s rivalries. After burning the Luo Family’s escape platform, he rallied the examinees to fortify the town and face the Evil Spirits together.

• Xia Fan entered the Scholar Examination at Qingshan Town, met Wei Wushuang, and began seeking clues about the Spirit Fire and the town’s history.
• Xia Fan met the Fox Demon, later learned her name was Li, and treated her wounds after Ba Xingtian injured her in a fight.
• Xia Fan borrowed silver from departing examinees, clashed with Fei Nian’s blockade, and stole a bottle of Source of Spirit Fire from the Luo Family.
• Luo Qingqing investigated the Back Mountain and found a vast mound of human bones, while Wei Wushuang reported that Qingshan Town’s residents had vanished.
• Luo Qingqing identified the site as the Qingshan Array and warned that the Great Desolation Evil Night would arrive in two days, prompting plans to escape by Wooden Kites.
• Li revealed that her master had been an Azure Blade captured by the Bureau of Military Affairs, and she agreed to help Xia Fan if he passed the examination and joined the Bureau.
• Xia Fan told Luo Qingqing that the examinees should unite against the Evil Night, then set fire to the Release Platform and Wooden Kites to prevent their escape.
• Xia Fan promised the remaining examinees they could survive and pass by building a fortified city, gathering supplies, and forming a hunting team.

Xia Fan survived Great Desolation Evil Night, received an appointment to the Bureau of Military Affairs, and brought Li with him to Jinxia City. As he began training as a Spirit Master, he learned about his Zhen Attribute and questioned the Bureau’s costly services for ordinary people.

• Luo Qingqing adopted Xia Fan’s plan to fortify Qingshan Town, and the examinees worked together as unnatural fog spread from Green Mountain.
• During Evil Night, a Demon broke through the west wall, but Xia Fan used his pendant to cast Gui Shen—Thunderclap, igniting the wall and badly wounding the Demon.
• The Bureau ended the examination, and the Proctor placed Fang Xiandao, Luo Qingqing, and Fei Nian first while Xia Fan accepted a low ranking without protest.
• Xia Fan found Zhao Dahai free at the gambling house, but Zhao Dahai chose to stay, and Xia Fan later helped the Tian Family disperse the Xu Liang haunting their home.
• Xia Fan and Wei Wushuang received appointments to the Shenzhou Bureau of Military Affairs, and Xia Fan brought Li to Jinxia City in disguise.
• At Zhiwei Hall, the recruits measured their Mental Nature, and Xia Fan’s test revealed the Zhen Attribute as electricity sparked around him.
• Master Zhang explained the Bureau’s ranks and sorcery instruction, and Xia Fan questioned why its fees made help unaffordable for ordinary households.

Xia Fan uncovered how Magistrate Hu and the Du Brothers used the Bronze Disk to create Evil Spirits, then confronted Hu with Li. The fight ended with Shangguan Cai revealing she was Qi State’s Third Princess, while Li stayed beside Xia Fan as he recovered and considered the princess’s offer.

• Xia Fan investigated the rise in Gaoshan County’s Evil Spirit incidents and found that they coincided with changes in local officials and the Exorcism Tax.
• Hu Huairen ordered the Du Brothers to clear and seal the Stone Grotto, so Xia Fan and his companions followed them there.
• Xia Fan discovered that the Bronze Disk trapped people in shrinking cells and that their deaths produced Abyss Ghosts.
• Du Mingjin confessed that Hu supplied victims in exchange for silver and a woman from hooded outsiders, then died from poisoned wine before Xia Fan could take him to Jinxia City.
• Xia Fan went to confront Hu, and Li carried him into the Magistrate’s Residence, where Hu admitted his guilt and ordered Qingzi to attack them.
• Li transformed into a colossal fox and helped Xia Fan defeat Qingzi, but an Explosion Talisman badly wounded Xia Fan before Shangguan Cai arrived to stop Hu’s guards.
• Shangguan Cai revealed that she was Qi State’s Third Princess and offered Xia Fan leadership of the Bureau of Military Affairs.
• Xia Fan woke while recovering, and Li told him she would follow his choice about the princess’s offer.

Xia Fan joined forces with Ning Wanjun, investigated Yamato’s envoys and Jinxia’s salt trade, and began rebuilding the Bureau of Military Affairs’ Command Department. After surviving an ambush by the Donghai Gang, he and Ning Wanjun recognized that the enemy had brought a foreign firearm into Qi State.

• Xia Fan learned that Shangguan Cai was Ning Wanjun, Princess Guangping, and agreed to work with her as her proxy in Jinxia’s Bureau of Military Affairs.
• After Xia Fan’s fame rose for defeating an Evil Spirit, he found the Command Department stripped of staff and recruited Wei Wushuang and Luo You'er to help rebuild it.
• Xia Fan met Wuyue Yao, who asked him to help Yamato and presented an ancient alliance pact, then brought her and her companions to Ning Wanjun.
• Xia Fan proposed a tributary alliance with Yamato and demonstrated how solar salt-making could replace the Wang family’s salt production with a faster method.
• Ning Wanjun recalled more than three thousand former soldiers to Jinxia, while Mo Yun and Luo Qingqing received news that drew them toward the city.
• Xia Fan persuaded Zhao Dahai to lead Sorcery Art practitioners in the new Command Department and recruited Li Xing and his subordinates.
• Ueno Kyuchi and more than fifty Donghai Gang fighters ambushed Xia Fan and Li, but Xia Fan and his allies defeated them, killing or capturing the attackers.
• Xia Fan presented Ueno Kyuchi’s Sleeve Cannon to Ning Wanjun, who confirmed that Qi State did not make it, and Xia Fan began preparing for the future of firearms.