Recaps

Mo Hua and the tomb raiders crossed the three Ghost Gates and found Elder Tian’s coffin, where they were attacked by the tomb keeper Uncle Ping. As the battle turned against Uncle Ping, the supposed Smiling Face revealed himself as a powerful impostor who had eaten the real Smiling Face, but Elder Tian then sat up and addressed him.

• Mo Hua discovered that the little ghosts fled from him, and the raiders used fire to pass through the remaining Ghost Gates.
• The group entered the burial chamber and found Elder Tian’s open coffin and a life-extending lamp, but Uncle Ping ambushed them with Pear Blossom Silver Needles.
• Iron Mountain Tiger and the others fought Uncle Ping, whose strength faltered when wounds from the ghosts’ backlash reopened.
• The supposed Smiling Face seized the chance to attack Uncle Ping, but Iron Mountain Tiger exposed him as an impostor who had eaten the real Smiling Face.
• The impostor revealed his late-stage Golden Core strength, defeated Iron Mountain Tiger, Thin Cicada, and Mountain-Piercing Rat, then approached Elder Tian’s coffin.
• Elder Tian sat up and told the impostor that he was already dead and asked why he was still being pursued.

Smiling Face revealed his corpse transformation and overwhelmed Uncle Ping after the elder used God Invocation to fight him. Just as Smiling Face moved to extinguish Elder Tian’s Soul Lamp, Mo Hua distracted him with Fireballs and drew his attack.

• Smiling Face told Elder Tian that the Dark Division intended to take his corpse and use his brain, while Elder Tian refused to betray the Tian Clan’s ancestral precepts.
• Uncle Ping used God Invocation, broke Smiling Face’s arms, and drove him to the ground, but Smiling Face rose again with a fully transformed corpse body.
• Uncle Ping’s strength failed, and Smiling Face broke his limbs before turning toward Elder Tian and the Soul Lamp.
• Smiling Face tore through Tian Musheng’s hastily prepared Earth Prison and Fire Blade arrays, leaving Elder Tian unable to stop him from reaching the lamp.
• Mo Hua struck Smiling Face with three precise Fireballs, then mocked his appearance, prompting Smiling Face to charge at him with corpse claws.

Mo Hua evaded Smiling Face’s attacks, then trapped him with a Flame Kill Array and an Earth Coffin Array. After Uncle Ping killed the badly wounded Smiling Face, Elder Tian recognized Mo Hua, who removed his Ghost Mask and revealed his face.

• Smiling Face pursued Mo Hua, but Mo Hua repeatedly evaded him and attacked with Five Elements spells.
• Smiling Face intensified his assault to exhaust Mo Hua’s Lingli, but Mo Hua suddenly restored his strength and lured Smiling Face into a hidden Flame Kill Array.
• Mo Hua delayed Smiling Face with a Water Prison Technique, then trapped him in an Earth Coffin Array while the Flame Kill Array burned him.
• Mo Hua gave Uncle Ping a healing pill and ordered him to finish off Smiling Face, instructing him to pierce his vital points until he was completely dead.
• Elder Tian recognized Mo Hua, who removed his Ghost Mask and revealed his face to a stunned Uncle Ping.

Mo Hua discovered that Elder Tian had used a forbidden Earth Array to hide from the Heavenly Dao and learned that the array came from Square Inch Mountain, a secluded blessed land tied to the Earth Sect. Before Mo Hua left, Elder Tian entrusted him with the Tian Clan’s Spirit Plant Array Treasury and asked him to teach his son Tian Jizhi or pass the legacy on to the world.

• Mo Hua explained how he had investigated Elder Tian’s supposed death, followed Uncle Ping, and found the tomb by joining a group of tomb robbers.
• Mo Hua deduced that Tian Musheng had died and survived temporarily through ghost arts and an Earth Array that concealed him from the Heavenly Dao.
• Tian Musheng revealed that the array came from Square Inch Mountain, a hidden blessed land in Kun Province, but warned Mo Hua not to interfere in the dangerous affairs of the Earth Sect.
• As Mo Hua prepared to leave, Tian Musheng learned that Mo Hua had memorized two high-tier arrays after seeing them once and gave him the Tian Clan’s Spirit Plant Array Treasury.
• Tian Musheng asked Mo Hua to teach the array legacy to his son Tian Jizhi if possible, or otherwise share it with the world, and Mo Hua accepted.

After Elder Tian returned to his coffin, Mo Hua spared Iron Mountain Tiger’s group, uncovered a hidden Earth Array inheritance in Smiling Face’s body, and led the survivors out of the tomb. He deceived the three tomb raiders into believing he had rescued them from a Substitute Ghost, and Iron Mountain Tiger began explaining the deal behind their mention of “fifty million.”

• Elder Tian fell into a deep slumber, and Mo Hua stopped Uncle Ping from killing Iron Mountain Tiger’s group while Smiling Face’s corpse was set aside for disposal.
• Mo Hua found a bone fragment bearing a strange Array Pattern and a fang containing a different branch of Earth Array inheritance inside Smiling Face’s body, then asked Uncle Ping to show a copy of the pattern to Elder Tian if he awoke.
• Uncle Ping told Mo Hua that he practiced Left Path ghost arts, then parted ways with him at the tomb entrance after Mo Hua dragged Iron Mountain Tiger, Thin Cicada, and Mountain-Piercing Rat away.
• Mo Hua revived the three tomb raiders and convinced them that an empty coffin had bewitched them into fighting, while Smiling Face had become a Substitute Ghost and vanished inside it.
• Iron Mountain Tiger and the others thanked Mo Hua for saving their lives, and Iron Mountain Tiger began telling him about the deal connected to the “fifty million” they had shouted.

Mo Hua returned from Elder Tian’s tomb with Iron Mountain Tiger and his companions, then helped them settle in Houtu City and visited Bai Zixi. Bai Zixi revealed that her mother was familiar with Square Inch Mountain, leaving Mo Hua curious about the connection.

• Iron Mountain Tiger told Mo Hua that his group had been hired to find Elder Tian’s corpse for a promised fifty million Spirit Stones, but he was unsure whether the corpse he had seen was real.
• Mo Hua led Iron Mountain Tiger, Thin Cicada, and Mountain-Piercing Rat out of the tomb and gave them money and medicine after they reached Shopkeeper Zhao’s residence.
• Mo Hua asked Shopkeeper Zhao to help the three tomb raiders if they faced difficulties and to involve them in future expeditions.
• Mo Hua returned to Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land, cleaned up, and told Bai Zixi about his trip underground.
• Mo Hua asked Bai Zixi about Square Inch Mountain, and she said her mother seemed familiar with it.

Mo Hua told Bai Zixi about his tomb expedition while hiding its unresolved dangers, then reviewed the array inheritances he had gained. He discovered unfinished Spirit Plant Array drafts called “Breath Soil” and prepared to study the Earth Array manuals taken from Smiling Face.

• Mo Hua asked Bai Zixi about Square Inch Mountain and learned that even her mother had never entered its gates.
• Mo Hua concealed the graveyard’s connection to their master from Bai Zixi, then noticed she felt confined in the Small Blessed Land and offered to take her out sometime.
• Mo Hua reviewed the Tian Clan Spirit Plant Array Treasury and found incomplete, complex drafts labeled “Breath Soil.”
• Mo Hua decided to master the treasury’s complete Spirit Plant Arrays before studying the unfinished Breath Soil drafts.
• Mo Hua opened the storage space hidden in Smiling Face’s fang and found manuals containing the Earth Sect’s secret Earth Array inheritance.

Mo Hua studied Spirit Plant Earth Formations and the Dark Division’s burial Earth Arrays, gaining a tentative insight into how the earth’s life and death might relate to Yin-Yang Array Techniques. After improving Xiao Ju’s Orange Trees with new arrays, he learned that Earth Sect elders were dying amid an internal purge, then encountered Wu Ming, who challenged him to a rematch.

• Mo Hua compared Spirit Plant Earth Formations with the Dark Division’s Earth Arrays and wondered whether they revealed a path toward understanding Yin-Yang Array Techniques.
• Mo Hua studied the two kinds of arrays by day and night, but made little progress in grasping Yin and Yang while improving his practical array skills.
• Mo Hua rebuilt the arrays around Xiao Ju’s Orange Trees, causing them to grow slightly, and Xiao Ju promised to help him in the Small Blessed Land.
• Shopkeeper Zhao told Mo Hua that another dozen or so Earth Sect elders had died, while warning him that the sect was purging rivals.
• Wu Ming confronted Mo Hua and challenged him to avenge his defeat at the Sword Discussion, and Mo Hua asked whether he had brought enough Spirit Stones.

Mo Hua defeated Wu Ming in a five-hundred-thousand-Spirit-Stone duel, then shared a meal with him and learned the Wu Family had sent him to probe Mo Hua’s background. Wu Ming revealed that Kun Province’s Great Clans viewed Mo Hua as an unfathomable anomaly and that his portrait had circulated among their women as part of the region’s marriage-alliance politics.

• Mo Hua demanded five hundred thousand Spirit Stones to duel Wu Ming, who agreed and took him to a private room at the Sword Discussion Arena.
• Mo Hua defeated Wu Ming in under half an hour, leaving him shaken and questioning why his cultivation, arts, and artifacts had failed.
• Mo Hua collected the stakes and invited Wu Ming to eat; Wu Ming sent his attendants away and agreed to join him for fish at Hongyun Pavilion.
• During dinner, Mo Hua asked why Wu Ming had challenged him, and Wu Ming admitted the Wu Family’s senior elders had sent him to test Mo Hua and investigate his connections.
• Wu Ming explained that the Great Clans saw Mo Hua as a suspicious anomaly who might disrupt their marriage alliances, then revealed that his portrait had circulated among the women of Kun Province’s Great Clans.

Mo Hua learned that the great clans’ marriage alliances were suddenly being redirected toward the Earth Sect, then discovered his Taotie Spirit Remains was consuming the spiritual energy needed for his Golden Core breakthrough. He estimated that reaching Golden Core Peak and beyond could require over four billion Spirit Stones, and left to earn more.

• Wu Ming told Mo Hua that marriage arrangements among Kun Province’s great clans were shifting toward the Earth Sect, and warned him that resisting family decisions could carry a heavy cost.
• Mo Hua returned to Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land, saw Bai Zixi, and struggled to ask whether she would also be drawn into a marriage alliance.
• Mo Hua used Spirit Stones to feed his Taotie Spirit Remains, then felt his Golden Core approach the Golden Core Middle Stage bottleneck during his morning cultivation.
• The Taotie Spirit Remains devoured the spiritual energy Mo Hua tried to channel into his Golden Core, preventing his breakthrough.
• Mo Hua calculated that he needed about ten million more Spirit Stones to reach Golden Core Middle Stage and might need over four billion to fill all twelve Spirit Remains.
• Mo Hua left the Small Blessed Land to earn Spirit Stones and vowed to confront the Great Shaman if the fully fed Taotie Array proved disappointing.

Mo Hua assembled an underground team to search for a tomb after Shopkeeper Zhao found a lead from Zhou Jin. At an abandoned village, Mo Hua uncovered a sign identifying it as Little Zhou Village and confronted Zhou Jin about his connection to the place, prompting Zhou Jin to turn hostile.

• Mo Hua asked Shopkeeper Zhao to organize an underground expedition, recruiting Iron Mountain Tiger and his two companions, then choosing Zhou Jin, who had supplied a tomb lead.
• After preparing, Mo Hua said farewell to Bai Zixi and met the team at Shopkeeper Zhao's residence, where he was introduced as the expedition's Grave Leader.
• The group traveled south from Houtu City to an abandoned village, where Zhou Jin said a wealthy family's tomb was hidden nearby but that he had failed to find it.
• Mo Hua located a buried signpost and used Spirit Ink and Divine Thought to restore its writing, which identified the place as Little Zhou Village.
• Mo Hua asked Zhou Jin whether he came from the village, and Zhou Jin's expression changed as Iron Mountain Tiger and the others drew their weapons to protect Mo Hua.

Mo Hua learned that Zhou Jin had returned to Little Zhou Village to find the tomb of Zhou the Wealthy, whose Feng Shui Formation had caused the deaths of Zhou Jin’s family and the villagers. After the tomb hunters found and unearthed a suspicious iron coffin, Mo Hua opened it and absorbed the violent yin energy within.

• Mo Hua stopped Zhou Jin and Iron Mountain Tiger’s group from fighting, then pressed Zhou Jin to explain his connection to Little Zhou Village.
• Zhou Jin revealed that an Earth Master had told him Zhou the Wealthy used a Feng Shui Formation to siphon the village’s health, fortune, and lifespan, killing Zhou Jin’s family and many others.
• Mo Hua agreed to help Zhou Jin find Zhou the Wealthy’s tomb, and Iron Mountain Tiger, Thin Cicada, and Mountain-Piercing Rat located five possible burial sites using their specialized methods.
• The group dug up a deeply buried Refined Iron coffin, but Zhou Jin and Iron Mountain Tiger could not tell whether it belonged to Zhou the Wealthy.
• Mo Hua warned the others that the coffin was dangerous, opened it with a light tap, and stood unharmed as its violent yin energy surged toward him and dissipated.

Mo Hua used an Earth-Seeking Point-Acupoint Array to trace the earth qi and locate Zhou the Wealthy’s hidden tomb after discovering that five nearby coffins held rats used in a Feng Shui formation. The group uncovered the burial passage at a concealed mountain hollow, where pale yellow qi suggested Zhou the Wealthy’s treasure-gathering site.

• Mo Hua and the others opened the first coffin and found it packed with dead rats; Zhou Jin identified the remains as part of a Five-Granary Treasure Gathering Formation that used rat resentment to steal people’s fortune and spread calamities.
• Mo Hua had Iron Mountain Tiger and the others open the remaining four coffins, which also contained dead rats, confirming that Zhou the Wealthy was buried elsewhere.
• After the group scattered to search, Mo Hua tried a Ghost Summoning writ without success, then used a Third-Grade Earth-Seeking Point-Acupoint Array to read the local earth qi and feng shui.
• Mo Hua led the others to a concealed hollow in the Wild Mountains and ordered them to dig, explaining that Zhou the Wealthy’s grave would lie where earth qi gathered.
• Iron Mountain Tiger, Mountain-Piercing Rat, and Zhou Jin dug up a burial passage; inside, pale yellow qi floated instead of Corpse Qi, making the site appear to gather treasure.

Mo Hua led the tomb robbers into Zhou the Wealthy's tomb and helped them break through the Third-Grade Defense Array. After they fought the mutated rat-like corpse, Mo Hua killed it with a single finger, leaving Zhou Jin awestruck by his power.

• Mountain-Piercing Rat spoke carelessly about dying before entering the tomb, but Mo Hua reassured the group and led them onward.
• Mo Hua broke the array on the tomb door, and Zhou Jin followed the others into the Main Tomb Chamber.
• Mo Hua warned that the corpse had changed, then opened Zhou the Wealthy's coffin and revealed a half-golden, half-rotted rat-like corpse.
• Iron Mountain Tiger, Thin Cicada, Mountain-Piercing Rat, and Zhou Jin fought Zhou the Wealthy, who used Thought Power to target Mountain-Piercing Rat and nearly overwhelmed Zhou Jin.
• Mo Hua blasted Zhou Jin out of danger, then killed Zhou the Wealthy with a single pointed finger, astonishing Zhou Jin.

Mo Hua and the tomb raiders defeated Zhou the Wealthy’s corpse demon, recovered his hidden golden rat, and returned to Houtu City. Three days later, Zhou Jin secretly performed a ritual that created an evil ghost from Zhou the Wealthy’s corpse and sent it to seek his descendants.

• Mo Hua killed Zhou the Wealthy’s true body, and the group recovered their senses and searched the tomb for its valuables.
• Mo Hua found a tiny golden rat hidden in Zhou the Wealthy’s coffin and kept it after promising the others a larger share of the proceeds.
• Zhou Jin stabbed Zhou the Wealthy’s corpse eighteen times to avenge his family, then left the village with Mo Hua and the others.
• Mo Hua sealed the tomb and burned the five harmful rat coffins before the group returned to Houtu City and celebrated with Shopkeeper Zhao.
• Three days later, Zhou Jin returned to the tomb and performed a blood ritual that revived Zhou the Wealthy’s remnant soul as an evil ghost.
• Zhou Jin sent the ghost out wearing Dead Man’s Straw Sandals and following blood threads to find Zhou the Wealthy’s descendants.

Zhou Jin sent Zhou the Wealthy’s ghost into Houtu City, where it discovered that its descendants had changed their surname to Wu and abandoned their Zhou lineage. Enraged, the ghost became a Fierce Ghost and began killing them, while Zhou Jin suffered the backlash and neared death.

• Zhou Jin used blood and White Bones to help Zhou the Wealthy’s ghost cross Houtu City’s City God Realm.
• Zhou the Wealthy followed the blood thread to Wu Mansion and recognized his eldest son, who had become Elder Wu and claimed his father had left him nothing.
• Hearing Elder Wu deny his origins and embrace the Wu family, Zhou the Wealthy lost his last trace of Humanity and became a Fierce Ghost.
• Zhou the Wealthy killed Elder Wu by devouring his consciousness, then killed his second son and attacked his third son at Wu Mansion.
• Zhou Jin coughed up blood with each death and began turning into a Fierce Ghost as the backlash overtook him.

Zhou Jin’s Ghost Control ritual was disrupted, and a mysterious golden Sword Intent killed Zhou the Wealthy before it could devour him. Five days later, Mo Hua learned that the person he knew as Zhou Jin was actually Lin Youfang, whose wife had been the real Zhou Jin.

• Zhou the Wealthy prepared to devour its infant grandson, Wu Youwei, but an Array Technique disrupted Zhou Jin’s ritual and severed his control.
• The Fierce Ghost returned to Zhou Jin and attacked him, but golden Sword Intent appeared and destroyed Zhou the Wealthy.
• Five days later, Lin Youfang visited Mo Hua and revealed that she had assumed Zhou Jin’s identity.
• Lin Youfang explained that the real Zhou Jin was her wife and that she had uncovered Zhou the Wealthy’s wrongdoing through feng shui.

Mo Hua learned from Lin Youfang about the suffering of Spirit Farmers in the Great Spirit Field Realm and how that hardship fostered Left Path practices and belief in ghosts and gods. Lin Youfang left to tend his injuries, while Mo Hua grew concerned about Kun Province and quietly questioned Shopkeeper Zhao about a golden mouse.

• Lin Youfang explained that Zhou the Wealthy's Feng Shui formation had stolen Jin'er's fortune and caused her death, prompting Lin Youfang to avenge her and her family.
• Mo Hua gave Lin Youfang a high-grade pill and asked about his Ghost Refining Technique and the practices of Earth Masters and other Left Path cultivators.
• Lin Youfang explained that Left Path disciplines taught ways to use divine sense rather than cultivate it, and that hardship and dense populations made the Great Spirit Field Realm fertile ground for Thought Power, ghosts, and gods.
• Mo Hua urged Lin Youfang to stay alive, offered help if trouble arose, and told him to call him Big Brother before Lin Youfang departed.
• Mo Hua showed Shopkeeper Zhao a golden mouse from a tomb; Zhao claimed he had never seen one and avoided meeting Mo Hua's eyes.

Mo Hua collected his share of the tomb valuables and used Spirit Stones to feed his Twelve-Meridian Taotie Array, then began investigating the Golden Rat and weighing a journey to the Great Spirit Field Realm. At Fortune Pavilion, the chief shopkeeper discovered that one of his Golden Rats had died and its Karma could not be traced, suggesting that someone had broken his Feng Shui Formation.

• Shopkeeper Zhao told Mo Hua that the tomb valuables had sold, and Mo Hua collected five storage pouches containing his share of the Spirit Stones.
• Mo Hua brought treats to Bai Zixi and Xiao Ju, then cultivated with his Spirit Stones to feed the Taotie Array and advanced the third meridian more than halfway.
• Mo Hua realized the Twelve-Meridian Taotie Array might also be a Yin-Yang Array and considered the dangers and difficulties of visiting the Great Spirit Field Realm.
• Mo Hua examined the small Golden Rat in his hand and wondered where it had come from.
• Shopkeeper Zhao reported to Fortune Pavilion's chief shopkeeper, who rewarded him with extra commission while concealing a geomancy disk covered with Golden Rats.
• The chief shopkeeper found a dead Golden Rat, discovered its Karma could not be calculated, and suspected an expert had broken his Feng Shui Formation and erased a Fierce Ghost.

Mo Hua organized two steady but modestly profitable tomb raids as he worked toward filling his third Spirit Skeleton, then visited the Dao Technique Arena to earn the remaining Spirit Stones. There, he heard that a Wu Family in-law household had been slaughtered and its property might be claimed by the clan, leaving him to reflect on where the family’s accumulated wealth ultimately went.

• Mo Hua built a reliable tomb-raiding team around Iron Mountain Tiger, Thin Cicada, and Mountain-Piercing Rat, while Lin Youfang recovered from the backlash of refining Fierce Ghosts.
• Mo Hua led two more tomb raids, where his Earth Array knowledge helped the team avoid danger and earn about five hundred thousand Spirit Stones each despite modest profits.
• Mo Hua visited the Dao Technique Arena to win the remaining Spirit Stones he needed, but Wu Gui, Jin An, and Zhu Xian refused to spar and instead invited him for tea.
• Mo Hua asked about a recent massacre of a Wu Family branch household on Swallow Street, and Jin An explained that the Dao Court Office had found no clues and that the Wu Family might focus on claiming the victims’ property.
• Mo Hua connected the household’s wealth to Zhou the Wealthy’s son, who had married into the Wu Family, and wondered whose hands the wealth ultimately filled.

Mo Hua learned how Houtu City's great clans and Dao Court Office operated, then helped Lin Youfang leave for the Great Spirit Field Realm with money for his recovery. As Mo Hua left Fortune Pavilion, a young man recognized him as Senior Martial Brother, leaving Mo Hua alarmed that he could not identify the supposed junior martial brother.

• Mo Hua questioned Wu Gui, Zhu Xian, and Jin An about sons-in-law in great clans and the Dao Court Office's power, learning that a harsh investigator had recently arrived.
• Mo Hua fought three spell duels at the Sword Discussion Arena and earned one hundred eighty thousand Spirit Stones, which he used to complete his third Spirit Skeleton.
• Mo Hua met Lin Youfang at Fortune Pavilion and urged him to return to the Great Spirit Field Realm before the Dao Court Office investigated him.
• Mo Hua had Shopkeeper Zhao give Lin Youfang his one million three hundred thousand Spirit Stones so he could recover and travel.
• As Mo Hua left Fortune Pavilion, a vermilion-robed youth called him Senior Martial Brother, and Mo Hua worried that he did not recognize the youth.

Mo Hua struggled to identify the junior martial brother who had greeted him at Fortune Pavilion, eventually learning that the youth was Zhu Muchen, the Zhu Family head’s favored youngest son. Zhu Muchen, meanwhile, was hurt that Mo Hua did not recognize him and began to question whether their bond at Void Gate had ever been real.

• At Fortune Pavilion, Mo Hua failed to recognize the jade-crowned youth who called him Senior Martial Brother, and the Black-Robed Elder led the youth away.
• Mo Hua told Bai Zixi that he had thousands of junior martial brothers and could not remember which one the youth was.
• Mo Hua asked Shopkeeper Zhao to investigate, and Zhao identified the youth as Zhu Muchen, the Zhu Family head’s youngest son.
• Shopkeeper Zhao warned Mo Hua that Zhu Muchen’s family status made dealings with him politically delicate, and Mo Hua remained troubled by their encounter.
• At the Zhu Family residence, the Black-Robed Elder told Zhu Muchen to meet influential figures and prepare for marriage discussions, but Zhu Muchen refused to discuss marriage.
• The Black-Robed Elder suggested that Mo Hua had not cared about Zhu Muchen, and Zhu Muchen recalled their distant interactions at Void Gate and grew increasingly disillusioned.

Zhu Muchen’s family tried to distance him from Mo Hua and invited Mo Hua to a banquet to probe him, but Mo Hua revealed nothing and eventually apologized to Zhu Muchen for not recognizing him. The chapter left Zhu Muchen stunned and emotionally stirred after Mo Hua toasted him.

• The Zhu Family Patriarch told the Black-Robed Elder to strengthen Zhu Muchen’s loyalty to the family and invite Mo Hua to a banquet in Zhu Muchen’s name.
• Mo Hua accepted Zhu Muchen’s invitation despite suspecting a scheme, and Bai Zixi told him to return early.
• At the Zhu Family banquet, the Zhu Family Patriarch praised and questioned Mo Hua, but Mo Hua concealed everything the family hoped to learn.
• Zhu Muchen watched Mo Hua entertain the guests and grew convinced that his Senior Martial Brother had changed and their old bond meant little.
• After the Zhu Family Patriarch left, Mo Hua sat beside Zhu Muchen, apologized for failing to recognize him, and raised a toast to him.
• Zhu Muchen clinked cups with Mo Hua and drank, overwhelmed that his Senior Martial Brother had toasted him.

Mo Hua explained to Zhu Muchen why his memories had faded, comforted him about his lackluster performance at the Sword Discussion Assembly, and won his admiration. After leaving the Zhu Family’s banquet, Mo Hua recognized that the province’s aristocratic clans were probing him for weaknesses, while his unease about Kun Province deepened.

• Mo Hua told Zhu Muchen that an injury to his Sea of Consciousness from fighting a Great Demon had caused him to forget some people, and Zhu Muchen expressed concern for him.
• Mo Hua praised Zhu Muchen for competing at the Sword Discussion Assembly and assured him that even one victory had helped Void Gate; Zhu Muchen grew close to his senior martial brother over wine and food.
• The Zhu Family Patriarch returned, saw how attached Zhu Muchen had become to Mo Hua, and tried to interest Mo Hua in a marriage alliance and other dealings with the Zhu Family.
• Mo Hua declined to stay overnight and left for Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land in a Zhu Family carriage, while Zhu Muchen watched him go.
• Mo Hua found hot tea and a medicinal pill prepared by Xiao Ju and Junior Martial Sister, then reflected that the Zhu Family had been testing his weaknesses and that danger was gathering in Kun Province.

Mo Hua reunited with Zhu Muchen, who offered him supplies and promised to seek an array assessment slot from the Zhu Family. After learning that a new Chief Inspector Gu was investigating the Wu Family case and its ties to Fortune Pavilion, Mo Hua wondered whether the inspector was someone he knew.

• Mo Hua met Zhu Muchen at Fortune Pavilion, refused his gifts, and agreed to let him ask the Zhu Family for an array assessment slot.
• Zhu Muchen gave Mo Hua a Mechanical Luan Bird and shared his interest in Mechanism Arts; Mo Hua encouraged him to study it and asked him to teach him its principles.
• After Zhu Muchen left, Mo Hua asked Shopkeeper Zhao about Fortune Pavilion's unnamed chief shopkeeper.
• Shopkeeper Zhao told Mo Hua that the Dao Court Office had traced stolen goods from the Wu Family case to Fortune Pavilion.
• Shopkeeper Zhao revealed that a new inspector surnamed Gu had been assigned to investigate aristocratic-family cases, leaving Mo Hua to wonder whether the man was someone he knew.