Chapter Summaries

Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan caught white fish in a mountain pool and reunited with Hu Zhou and his fiancée, Gao Junyu, who were preparing a meal. Hu Zhou insisted on steaming the fish himself, and the chapter ended as he called everyone over to taste his cooking.

• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan caught more than a dozen white fish after spotting Hu Zhou's fishing line in the pool.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan surfaced beside Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu, and Lu Zheng learned that the couple planned to marry on the tenth.
• Hu Zhou offered to steam the fish, while Lu Zheng introduced Liu Qingyan and Gao Junyu to each other.
• Liu Qingyan and Gao Junyu chatted as Hu Zhou cleaned the fish and prepared his steamer.
• Hu Zhou announced that the steamed fish was ready and invited everyone to taste it.

Lu Zheng taught Hu Zhou how to prepare fish after Hu Zhou served Gao Junyu an unseasoned meal, then shared a feast with Hu Zhou, Gao Junyu, and Liu Qingyan. The group reached Dingfeng Mountain at sunset and was welcomed by Hu Yijun, Wang Yu Zhi, Gao Xiu, and Mr. Wang just as the evening banquet began.

• Hu Zhou's unseasoned steamed fish disappointed Gao Junyu and Liu Qingyan, so Lu Zheng showed him how to season and cook several fish dishes.
• Lu Zheng prepared a large fish feast, and Hu Zhou, Gao Junyu, and Liu Qingyan ate and praised the meal.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan learned that Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu were on Dingfeng Mountain preparing their wedding banquet, while Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu learned that the couple had just arrived in the region.
• After eating, Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan traveled with Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu toward Dingfeng Mountain and arrived near sunset.
• Hu Yijun, Wang Yu Zhi, Gao Xiu, and Mr. Wang welcomed the group at the mountain gate and invited them to the evening banquet.

Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan attended Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu’s wedding banquet on Dingfeng Mountain, where Lu Zheng’s connections and Wuliangye drew the attention of arriving guests. The celebration was underway as more distinguished guests arrived and joined them in the great hall.

• Wang Yu Zhi took Liu Qingyan away for a private half-day, while Lu Zheng stayed behind and Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu showed them the surrounding area.
• Dingfeng Mountain held Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu’s wedding on the tenth day of the tenth month, with banquets for distinguished guests, visitors, and local common folk.
• Green Goat True Man arrived from Hanging Mountain, recognized Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan, and asked whether the banquet would serve Wuliangye.
• Lu Zheng confirmed that each great hall table had ten jin of Wuliangye, and Green Goat True Man complained about Hu Yijun’s past stinginess with wine.
• Du Sheng arrived from Mo Lan Mountain with his wives and children, greeted Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan, and joked with Hu Yijun and Green Goat True Man.
• More guests continued arriving at the wedding banquet.

Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan attended Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu’s grand wedding, witnessing Hu Yijun’s formidable influence among southern frontier’s powerful factions. After the couple completed the wedding rites and entered the bridal chamber, Hu Yijun and the other hosts invited their guests to drink.

• Green Goat True Man introduced the arriving leaders and their factions to Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan, while he and Du Sheng discussed the need for caution.
• Guests from across southern frontier gathered, and Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan recognized the strength and complexity of Hu Yijun’s connections.
• Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu entered the hall in red wedding garments as Hu Yijun, Gao Xiu, Wang Yu Zhi, and Wang Muran presided.
• An old scholar recited a congratulatory address, and the guests praised it before Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu completed the wedding rites and went to the bridal chamber.
• Dingfeng Mountain’s attendants poured wine, and Hu Yijun and the other hosts raised their cups to welcome the guests.

After Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu’s wedding, Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan learned that a reborn demonic ancestor had once fought Hu Yijun and other powerful figures. Hu Yijun revealed that the ancestor’s reincarnated body had been destroyed, but the Demon Ancestor might have returned in Great Jing.

• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan attended the wedding banquet, then sensed powerful magical fluctuations from the mountaintop during the night.
• Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu served tea to their elders the next morning, completing the family wedding ceremony.
• Hu Yijun said the previous night’s fight had been between monks from Golden Dragon Temple and Soul-Bewitching Valley, sparked by memories of their battle against a Demon Head.
• Hu Yijun explained that the Great Dark Heaven Heartless True Desire Demon Ancestor had created a vast Demon Cave and fought six powerful figures, who destroyed his reincarnated body at the cost of severe injuries.
• Lu Zheng told Hu Yijun about demonic cultivators reported in Great Jing, and Hu Yijun confirmed the True Desire Demon Ancestor may have escaped by possessing another body.

Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan left Dingfeng Mountain with new cultivation scriptures from Hu Yijun and continued north toward home. On the road, they met Xin Yuniang, the fox spirit of Jiyue Mountain, who invited them to stay at her Cave Residence.

• Hu Yijun explained that the Devil Ancestor might have survived by escaping through the desires he had spread across the world, but he expected the Central Plains cultivators to handle the threat.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan spent a dozen days touring Dingfeng Mountain before Hu Yijun gave Liu Qingyan the Little Green Hill Bewitching Spirit Art and Lu Zheng the True Dragon Great Handprint as farewell gifts.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan traveled north and discussed visiting the fox spirit who ruled Jiyue Mountain, but Liu Qingyan refused because she disliked the fox spirit's habit of selecting mortal men as lovers.
• Xin Yuniang stepped out from behind a tree, introduced herself to Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan, and invited them to spend the night at her Cave Residence.

Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan accepted Xin Yuniang’s invitation to stay at her estate on Jiyue Mountain, where they met her favored scholar, Luo Tao. After tasting the meal he prepared, Lu Zheng noticed that it greatly increased their appetites, though his examination with true qi revealed nothing unusual.

• Xin Yuniang invited Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan to her estate, and they agreed to stay for the night.
• Xin Yuniang led them to her manor and introduced Luo Tao, a scholar she had taught basic Qi Refining methods.
• Luo Tao welcomed the guests and served them mountain dishes with Hundred Fruits Wine.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan enjoyed the food, while Lu Zheng found that it sharply increased his appetite despite detecting nothing unusual with true qi.

After receiving an unexpected fortune from giving Luo Tao a sword, Lu Zheng suspected the man was hiding extraordinary power and returned to Dingfeng Mountain to ask Hu Yijun for help investigating. Hu Yijun brought Lu Zheng and others to Jiyue Mountain, where his attempt to seize someone behind the mountain began a violent confrontation.

• Xin Yuniang hosted Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan overnight, then gave them ten pounds of pickled rabbit meat when they departed the next morning.
• Lu Zheng gifted Luo Tao a Green Rainbow Sword and noticed that the Jade Seal in his mind gained a large amount of fortune.
• Lu Zheng reasoned that Luo Tao might be concealing strength equal to Xin Yuniang's and turned back toward Dingfeng Mountain to verify his suspicion.
• Lu Zheng told Hu Yijun about Luo Tao, and Hu Yijun took Lu Zheng, Liu Qingyan, Hu Zhou, and Gao Junyu to Jiyue Mountain.
• Xin Yuniang came out to greet Hu Yijun, and Lu Zheng asked for Luo Sheng; as her attendants went to fetch him, Hu Yijun split the ground and reached toward the rear of Jiyue Mountain.

Lu Zheng and Hu Yijun exposed Luo Tao as a Demon Head and killed him before he could refine Xin Yuniang’s heart into desire. At Xin Yuniang’s Cave Residence, Lu Zheng explained how Luo Tao’s food, literary talent, and calm reaction to a valuable sword had made him suspicious.

• Luo Tao tried to flee, but Hu Yijun bound him with divine wind and sliced him apart as he proclaimed that the Sacred Devil Ancestor would emerge from seclusion.
• Hu Yijun confirmed that Luo Tao had inherited Old Demon True Desire’s lineage, while Lu Zheng counted the Light of Luck gained from the encounter.
• Xin Yuniang thanked Lu Zheng for warning Hu Yijun and invited the group to her Cave Residence, where she asked how Lu Zheng had recognized Luo Tao.
• Xin Yuniang explained that she had rescued Luo Tao from a great snake and brought him home after taking a liking to him.
• Lu Zheng said Luo Tao’s appetizing food, remarkable literary talent, and lack of interest in the sword he had given Junyu convinced him that Luo Tao was a hidden expert.

After Lu Zheng and his companions exposed Luo Tao as a demonic cultivator, Hu Yijun warned that others might be secretly hiding among people across the Central Plains. Xin Yuniang rewarded Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan before they departed north, with Lu Zheng pleased by the Lights of Luck gained from the ordeal.

• Hu Yijun explained how powerful demonic cultivators concealed their nature and warned that the Heartless True Desire Demon Ancestor's followers might be lurking near other people.
• Hu Yijun took Hu Zhou and Gao Junyu back to the mountain, while Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan prepared to leave Jiyue Mountain.
• Xin Yuniang gave Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan jewelry, a five-hundred-year-old Jade Ginseng, and the Lesser Earth Emperor Ghost-Controlling Divine Invocation Method.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan left for the north in southern frontier Mountain People clothing and saw streaks of escaping light in the sky.
• Lu Zheng concluded that demonic cultivators were probably rare and counted the more than two hundred Lights of Luck he had gained as good fortune.

Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan wandered through a rainy town in Rongzhou Prefecture, enjoying the quiet scenery and each other’s company. After Liu Qingyan bargained for a round fan, they boarded a boat to tour the river before heading to the Yue Lai Inn.

• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan strolled hand in hand through a rain-soaked town and talked about seeing a movie in Lu Zheng’s hometown someday.
• Liu Qingyan admired a hundred-flower round fan at a shop and bargained its price down from fifteen hundred coins to eight hundred.
• Lu Zheng paid for the fan, and Liu Qingyan explained that the shopkeeper had likely still made a profit and benefited from the early sale.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan walked to a dock and hired a boatman to take them around the river before delivering them to the Yue Lai Inn by You Hour.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan settled beneath the boat’s black awning and enjoyed the rain and the gentle ride.

Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan returned from the southern frontier, shared their spoils and travel stories with Shen Ying and the Liu family, and settled back into life in Tonglin County. That night, Shen Ying summoned Lu Zheng in a dream and invited him to Peach Blossom Manor for a late-night snack.

• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan reunited with Shen Ying at Peach Blossom Glade, where they shared a feast and discussed the powerful figures and demonic cultivators they had encountered.
• Lu Zheng offered Shen Ying and the Eighteen Peach Blossom Heavenly Maidens the Lesser Earth Emperor Ghost Commanding Divine Passage Art, which could complement their spirit cultivation.
• Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan returned to Tonglin County and gave the Liu family southern specialties, jade, and jewelry from their trip.
• Old Man Liu and Du YueYao joined the family for lunch, and Du YueYao and Liu Qingquan spent the afternoon questioning Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan about their journey.
• Shen Ying contacted Lu Zheng through the Peach Wood Talisman in a dream and invited him to Peach Blossom Manor for late-night snacks.

Lu Zheng visited White Cloud Temple, where Daoist Priest Mingzhang advanced his lessons in cloud arts and demonstrated how to ride the clouds. After returning to the modern world, Lu Zheng reunited with Lin Wan at home.

• Lu Zheng brought tea and gifts to White Cloud Temple and discussed Hu Zhou’s identity with Daoist Priest Mingzhang.
• Daoist Priest Mingzhang tested Lu Zheng’s cultivation and taught him advanced cloud arts, including Ride the Clouds and Mist.
• Daoist Priest Mingzhang flew Lu Zheng down Shaotong Mountain, inspiring Lu Zheng to resolve to learn to fly.
• Lu Zheng returned to the modern world and explained that he had kept up his visits while traveling with Liu Qingyan.
• Lin Wan greeted Lu Zheng at home, and he playfully carried her into the gym.

Lu Zheng and Lin Wan used tickets from Xiaoying to attend a performance of La Traviata, where they reunited with Sanders and met his wife, Zhao Xin. After the opera, Sanders asked whether Tony had contacted them since the poisoning case, and Lu Zheng and Lin Wan said he had not.

• Lu Zheng and Lin Wan queued to see La Traviata and joked about not understanding the Italian performance.
• Lu Zheng decided to learn a foreign language, then entered the theater with Lin Wan.
• Lu Zheng and Lin Wan reunited with Sanders, who introduced his wife, Zhao Xin, and explained the opera's plot and performers.
• Lu Zheng and Lin Wan watched the opera, appreciating the performance despite not understanding its words.
• Sanders asked whether Tony had contacted Lu Zheng and Lin Wan since the poisoning case, and they said he had not.

After a month spent studying cultivation arts and foreign languages, Lu Zheng returned to Hundred Springs Valley with his companions, where the Snake Demon traded a century-old polygonatum for fresh fruit and secretly stirred desire in him and his two partners. The group left for Five Beauties Manor, where Lu Zheng prepared to make a winter barbecue with ingredients from his gourd.

• Lu Zheng mastered new cultivation arts and learned more than ten foreign languages during a month of study.
• At Hundred Springs Valley, the Snake Demon approached Lu Zheng's spring, traded a century-old polygonatum for fresh fruit, and declined his advances.
• The Snake Demon secretly affected Lu Zheng, Liu Qingyan, and Shen Ying with her venom, and Lu Zheng sealed off their springhead while they recovered.
• Liu Qingquan returned after the seal lifted, and Lu Zheng's group later reunited with Hua Yixing and the other women before heading to Five Beauties Manor.
• Lu Zheng agreed to make barbecue for dinner and astonished the women by producing a grill, charcoal, skewers, and seasonings from his gourd.

Lu Zheng spent a joyful day with Lin Wan before returning to the ancient era, where he played in the snow and made sculptures for the Liu family. That night, he learned Yuan Jing had been injured and set out to seek help from White Cloud Temple.

• Lu Zheng reassured Lin Wan that her work with the International Criminal Police Operations Division was important and suggested she use her free time to travel abroad and tackle criminals there.
• Lin Wan decided to spar with her Liaison Office colleagues after hearing they called her the Mother Tyrannosaur.
• Lu Zheng crossed into the ancient era, got into a snowball fight with Liu Qingquan, and made two snow sculptures in her likeness at the Liu residence.
• That night, Lu Zheng learned Yuan Jing had been injured by two old ghost creatures trapped in the Peach Blossom Forest, and was told to invite Daoist Priest Mingzhang from White Cloud Temple.
• Lu Zheng woke and told Liu Qingyan what had happened, then insisted she go to White Cloud Temple while he went to help Yuan Jing.

At Peach Blossom Manor, Lu Zheng helped Shen Ying subdue two powerful ghosts who had ambushed Yuan Jing over a bronze kettle called the Yang-Refining Kettle. He sealed both ghosts in a Jade Tablet, while their master, the Black Wheel King, remained an expected threat.

• Shen Ying trapped the two ghosts in Peach Blossom Manor’s peach forest after they injured Yuan Jing, and Lu Zheng gave Yuan Jing a healing pill.
• Yuan Jing explained that he had seized the Yang-Refining Kettle from a ghost gathering a village’s Yang Energy, and that the ghosts had threatened him in their master’s name.
• Lu Zheng learned that the ghosts served the Black Wheel King and agreed to help Shen Ying subdue them for his Ghost-Controlling Art.
• Lu Zheng and Shen Ying weakened the ghosts with spells and the peach forest’s formation as the ghosts demanded their release and threatened them with their master’s arrival.
• Lu Zheng bound and immobilized both ghosts, then sealed them into an ink-jade Jade Tablet.

Lu Zheng, Shen Ying, Yuan Jing, and Daoist Priest Mingzhang joined forces to trap Black Wheel King at Peach Blossom Manor. Mingzhang began a killing spell against him, while Black Wheel King warned that his soul origin was elsewhere.

• Lu Zheng and Shen Ying concealed the battle’s traces, and Yuan Jing recovered using Shen Ying’s medicine.
• Black Wheel King arrived at Peach Blossom Manor demanding the return of his treasure gourd, then tried to flee when he saw the defenders.
• Daoist Priest Mingzhang descended with Liu Qingyan and attacked Black Wheel King with a White Cloud Great Hand Seal.
• Shen Ying raised the Peach Forest formation as Lu Zheng and Yuan Jing joined Mingzhang in fighting Black Wheel King.
• Black Wheel King sent a phantom toward Shen Ying, but Shen Ying and Lu Zheng destroyed it, and Lu Zheng knocked aside the black wheel with his golden hammers.
• Mingzhang repeatedly pinned Black Wheel King with White Cloud Great Hand Seals, then cast a spell to slay him despite his warning that his soul origin was elsewhere.

Lu Zheng learned that the Black Wheel King had survived by preserving the origin of his yin soul, though rebuilding his strength would take years. He and Shen Ying bound two former servants of the Ghost King with Ghost-Commanding Seals and set out to inspect his lair for clues.

• Daoist Priest Mingzhang explained that the Black Wheel King had preserved a fragment of his yin soul and might take ten years to regain his former strength.
• Daoist Priest Mingzhang departed with Yuan Jing, and Lu Zheng escorted Liu Qingyan back to the county town before returning to Peach Blossom Manor.
• Lu Zheng and Shen Ying used a Jade Tablet and Ghost-Commanding Seals to take control of the two ghosts and remove the Black Wheel King’s seals.
• The ghosts introduced themselves as Duan Jiang and Zhan Yue and explained how the Black Wheel King gained his power and secretly cultivated in the Yang World.
• Duan Jiang and Zhan Yue revealed that the Black Wheel King’s lair was an abandoned house between Dingshan County and Tonglin County, and Lu Zheng ordered them to lead him there.

Lu Zheng discovered the Black Wheel King's hidden Yin Qi trap, which contained fragments of a method that could help ghosts cultivate by refining Yang Energy. After battling a seductive female ghost, he left her frozen and vulnerable to his next attack.

• Lu Zheng, Duan Jiang, and Zhan Yue found an abandoned estate where Yin Qi was leaking from a spiritual Curse Seal containing fragments of the Refining Yang Returning Yin method.
• Lu Zheng summoned clouds to wear away the Yin Qi, but a female ghost attacked him while a Ghost Child tried to learn the method.
• Lu Zheng ordered Duan Jiang and Zhan Yue to take on the Ghost Child while he fought the female ghost.
• The female ghost used illusions and a dance to beguile Lu Zheng, then began absorbing Yin Qi as she planned to drain his Yang Energy.
• Lu Zheng pretended to be under her spell, then froze her with a spell and struck her with True Cloud Slayers Demons.