Recaps

Chen Mu left Tianhe Market for Jade Spring Mountain, where he advanced his alchemy and earned Dao Merit by refining Fasting Pills. Sent to Mist Smoke Mountain as conflict spread, he detected two hidden Aperture Condensing Adepts and began deciphering a coded scroll.

• Chen Mu uncovered a Chongshan Dao plot in Tianhe Market, killed Manager Zhang and the Long-Armed Man, and later joined the journey from Jilong Dao Upper Courtyard to Jade Spring Mountain.
• Chen Mu joined the Pill Treasure Pavilion and, after repeated failures, learned to refine Fasting Pills and gained permission to earn Dao Merit as an alchemist.
• Chen Mu perfected an efficient pill-making method, submitted thousands of Fasting Pills, and advanced his Five Ghosts Netherflame Evasion Art until he could fly.
• Chen Mu discovered Shang Huan was profiting from sales to Heterodox Path cultivators and knocked him unconscious before returning to alchemy and talisman training.
• After the Yanxia Sect’s mountain gate fell, Zhu Yi sent Chen Mu to Mist Smoke Mountain to refine its Yellow Sprout Rice, while Wei Donglai and Xin Ya prepared a forbidden technique that would drain the mountain’s spiritual essence.
• Chen Mu attended Sun Wuhuan’s Dao Discussion Gathering, bought a coded alchemist’s manual, and detected Wei Donglai and Xin Ya digging an underground altar tunnel.
• Liang Yi asked Chen Mu to help locate the Underground Yin River, but Chen Mu stayed behind to refine pills and later found that his writing skill could help him decipher the coded scroll.

Chen Mu survived Sun Wuhuan’s scheme and the Mist Smoke Mountain disaster, then cultivated the Yellow Springs General Outline while establishing himself as a Scripture Doctor and alchemy instructor. After killing Sun Chengye and fleeing the Sun Clan, he settled at Eagle Sorrow Cliff and found a way to sustain his cultivation with Return Vitality Soup.

• Chen Mu overheard the plot to sabotage his Fasting Pills, killed the Sallow Man who planned to silence Zhang Lang and Li Huan, and escaped Sun Wuhuan’s pursuit during the Mountain Protection Formation disaster.
• Chen Mu burned Sun Wuhuan’s corpse, took his treasures, and began studying the Yellow Springs General Outline while Sun Chengye investigated his brother’s disappearance.
• Chen Mu copied the General Outline onto jade plates, condensed its first Spell Talisman, and agreed to become a Scripture Doctor and annotate the Golden Pearl Talisman.
• Chen Mu returned to Jade Spring Mountain, buried the Gourd Sword Box, and cultivated the General Outline, which strengthened his Jade Seed and improved his Five Ghosts Possession.
• Chen Mu became an alchemy instructor to avoid a forced assignment, but killed Sun Chengye when Sun Chengye deduced his connection to Sun Wuhuan’s death.
• Chen Mu evaded Sun Jian, transferred to Eagle Sorrow Cliff with three apprentices, and settled there as attacks on Jilong Dao’s transport routes disrupted supplies.
• Chen Mu used the Seven Revolutions Feast Origin Curse to make Return Vitality Soup, then advanced the Yellow Springs General Outline to Tier 3 by forming two silver rings on his chest.

Chen Mu’s smuggling allies were exposed, and his attempts to protect them led to a deadly clash before Liu Hongyang’s betrayal forced Chen Mu to destroy his former mentor. After Eagle Sorrow Cliff fell and danger mounted at Jade Spring Mountain, Chen Mu moved to Mist Smoke Mountain, where he investigated Dean Qing’s strange appearances while Yang Huan recruited Sun Jian for a new scheme.

• Chen Mu discovered Shang Huan’s smuggling operation, refused its profits, and knocked Shang Huan and the Wushan Six Siblings unconscious to keep them from exposing him.
• Zhao Shaoyuan’s crackdown led to a confrontation in which Chen Mu killed Li Dechao and Zhao Shaoyuan, then warned the Wushan Six Siblings to clean up and stay out of trouble.
• Chen Mu discovered that Liu Hongyang had become a ghost soldier through worship of the Winter Moon Divine Lord, then stopped his escape and destroyed him after Liu Hongyang tried to recruit him.
• Chen Mu struggled to refine Foundation Cultivation Pills while the Other Courtyard prepared to support Six Linked Mountains, but Eagle Sorrow Cliff came under a massive Barbarian attack and began to collapse.
• Chen Mu escaped the attack, killed two Barbarians who trapped him beneath a mountain, and later reached Jade Spring Mountain, where he learned that Eagle Sorrow Cliff had almost no survivors.
• Chen Mu opened his third Secret Aperture, learned the Minor Frostfall Method, and decided to leave Jade Spring Mountain after suspecting Zhu Yi and Qi Hui were plotting to punish him.
• Chen Mu took a Collator position at Mist Smoke Mountain Scripture Academy and investigated how Dean Qing could appear behind him undetected, expanding his Hundred Mile Qi Seal to detect Qing Lu’s duplicates.
• Yang Huan urged Sun Jian to help bury Prohibitions and destroy more spirit mountains in exchange for the Yellow Springs Illustrated Record, and Sun Jian accepted the prospect of a Foundation Establishment Secret Technique over loyalty to Jilong Dao.

Chen Mu survived the Sun Clan’s pursuit and Mist Smoke Mountain’s fall, then moved to Jilong Mountain and built his cultivation and pill business amid Jilong Dao’s expansion. When a strange blight withered the fields and pale mist sealed the mountain, Chen Mu hid underground to observe what happened.

• Chen Mu killed Sun Wujiu after breaking the Seven Kill Binding Curse, then built an alchemy tower and prepared to leave East Ridge as the Sun Clan’s search intensified.
• Liyang Dao attacked Mist Smoke Mountain, but Chen Mu escaped underground, survived the trapped cave, and emerged after Jilong Dao counterattacked and Dean Qing killed Sun Jian.
• Chen Mu discovered that Jia Tian had cheated him, dragged Jia Tian into the Underground Cave, and stayed at Mist Smoke Mountain rather than join Jilong Dao’s campaign.
• Chen Mu awakened the Gourd Sword Box, refined a Vermilion Feather flying sword with the Qianji Method, and moved to Jilong Dao’s Upper Courtyard on Chaoyang Mountain.
• Chen Mu sold more than nine hundred Tongxi Baizhang Pills through Mo Wuzhou, helped reclaim Jilong Mountain’s land, and continued cultivating as its Upper Courtyard became an Other Courtyard.
• Chen Mu learned Kuishui Yinlei and advanced his cultivation while Jilong Dao expanded its territory and the Wushan Six Siblings distinguished themselves in battle.
• Chen Mu found the Yellow Sprout Rice and medicinal fields withering from a suspected loss of vital qi, while a strange white-smoke apparition appeared at his window.
• Chen Mu suggested that an unusual creature might evade investigation by slipping into the void, then watched unfamiliar cultivators seal Jilong Mountain as pale mist spread and explosions erupted, and he sank underground to observe.