Recaps

Li Yan and his companions learned that a Wanyan had attacked Alligator Dragons near Dragon Spring Mountain, so they traveled to Jiangxia under the pretext of helping Shen Jinghong arrange his father’s funeral. After arriving at Jiangxia Pier, they witnessed a gang attack a restaurant and recognized Cao Gang Elder Han Kun among the people who emerged.

• Lü San told Li Yan that Giant Turtle Master had heard of a Wanyan near Dragon Spring Mountain, a sensitive area watched by the Tomb Guard Army.
• Li Yan arranged to travel to Jiangxia and agreed to help Shen Jinghong with his father’s funeral after Wang Dao Xuan assessed the strange corpse.
• Li Yan’s group boarded a boat with Shen Jinghong and his servants, while Sha LiFei teased Wu Ba about his fear of the river.
• The group reached Jiangxia Pier and saw tattooed men surround a small restaurant and charge inside.
• Han Kun emerged from the restaurant and warned that Old Eighth Wei was picking a fight.

Li Yan witnessed a Cao Gang clash with the Raft Sect, warned Han Kun and Lei Po Shan about dangers in the Yangtze, and accompanied Shen Jinghong to Shen Family Dam. There, he learned of the Shen family's Late Tang Dynasty Black Cloud Capital heritage and found the village filled with funerals.

• Han Kun's Cao Gang disciples shot down Raft Sect members, and Lei Po Shan drove their tattoo-faced leader away with the Yue Family's Six Harmonies Spear.
• Li Yan met Han Kun and Lei Po Shan, learned why the Cao Gang was transporting grain, and warned them to guard against demons and evil spirits in the river.
• Han Kun decided to recruit ritualists and asked Lei Po Shan to make inquiries as Li Yan departed for Jiangxia with Shen Jinghong and Sha LiFei.
• At Jiangxia, Shen Jinghong learned that the Shen family's second and third branches were restless, and Li Yan questioned the family's armed guards.
• Shen Jinghong explained that his family descended from Yang XingMi's Black Cloud Capital, and Li Yan recognized the guards' swords as remnants of its military tradition.
• Li Yan arrived at Shen Family Dam and saw that nearly every household was holding a funeral.

Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan accompanied Shen Jinghong to the Shen family residence, where they found his father and elder brother dead and the household divided over control of the family. Shen Jinghong won the support of the household guards by proposing aid for the grieving village, and Wang Dao Xuan began arranging his father's corpse in the posture of Seated Ascension.

• Shen Jinghong encountered the orphaned Gou Wa and ordered a servant to take the boy in and make arrangements for him.
• Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan entered the Shen residence and found two open coffins, with Shen Jinghong's father dead and seated upright with his eyes open.
• Shen Jinghong's uncles tried to seize control of the household and ordered the Black Cloud Guard to capture him, but Li Yan broke the sword leader's arm and stopped them.
• The Old Woman rebuked her two sons for dividing the family and asked Shen Jinghong how he would handle the Shen family's crisis.
• Shen Jinghong proposed using the family's funds to relieve the village and arrange funerals, winning the support of the swordsmen while his uncle refused to accept the decision.
• Li Yan urged the family to lay the dead Master Shen down, and Wang Dao Xuan directed them to arrange his corpse in the posture of Seated Ascension.

Wang Dao Xuan discovered that Master Shen’s attachment was a Gilded Copper Key, which led Li Yan and the Shen family to uncover his secret research into the Black Cloud Longsword Secret Method. As Wang Dao Xuan prepared to pacify Master Shen’s soul, the Second Master’s son secretly returned to his courtyard, apparently excited by the discovery.

• Wang Dao Xuan bound Master Shen’s corpse and used the hearts of a dead cat and crow to reveal that the corpse reacted when Jia Shi approached with the Gilded Copper Key.
• Wang Dao Xuan determined that the key was Master Shen’s attachment, and Shen Jinghong asked Li Yan to find what it opened.
• Li Yan found a black sandalwood chest in Master Shen’s study and opened its HuaQi Lock with the key.
• Shen Jinghong identified letters in DaoDou Script as secret orders and reports about searches near Liangzi Lake, and he recognized the map as part of Master Shen’s attempt to recover the Black Cloud Longsword Secret Method.
• Shen Jinghong declined to pursue the search, while Sha LiFei speculated that treasure lay near Liangzi Lake; Wang Dao Xuan began arranging the ritual to pacify Master Shen’s soul.
• The Second Master’s son returned to his courtyard with barely contained excitement.

Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan completed the ritual to settle Shen YuanWai’s spirit, while Shen Jinghong began arranging a public funeral and relief for the villagers. Shen Jingcan secretly told his master about the rumored treasure, revealing that the old man belonged to the Maitreya Sect, which was searching for a way into the ghost city.

• Wang Dao Xuan performed the Hell Breaking Lamp Ritual and told Shen Jinghong that Shen YuanWai’s spirit was at peace.
• Li Yan planned to investigate in secret for Wan Yan while Lu San set rats to watch the Shen residence.
• Shen Jingcan slipped out to meet his master at the Dragon Daughter Temple and told him about the rumored treasure and map.
• Shen Jingcan’s master reported the lead to the Maitreya Sect’s Branch Master, who said they still needed a way into the ghost city and warned the sect to lie low after Zhao Changsheng’s return.
• Before dawn, Shen Jinghong arranged communal food, promised the villagers their relief payments and work at the Kiln Site, and invited an opera troupe.

Li Yan and his companions investigated Liangzi Lake while Daoist Wang and Shen Jinghong organized the Shen family funeral. A report about strange deaths near Bai He Wan led Li Yan’s group north, where they encountered an eerie figure in the forest.

• Li Yan took Lu San and Wu Ba by boat across Liangzi Lake, but Lu San’s summoned fish scattered after sensing that the waters belonged to another creature.
• A Shen family servant warned Li Yan about dangerous rainwater, abandoned Kiln Sites, and Gu Pots around the lake.
• Shen Jinghong arranged his father’s seven-day funeral with Daoist Wang while Sha LiFei questioned carpenters and learned that people near Bai He Wan had been bitten by an enormous beast.
• Shen Jinghong’s Second and Third Branch relatives tried to interfere with the funeral funds, but the old madam ordered them confined and threatened to expel them if they caused more trouble.
• After Shen Jingcan proposed searching for their uncle’s hidden treasure, Sha LiFei sent Li Yan a message about Bai He Wan by falcon.
• Li Yan’s group landed on the northern shore and headed through the forest toward Bai He Wan, where Wu Ba sensed a wild beast and Li Yan spotted a shadow waving at them.

Li Yan, Lu San, and Wu Ba discovered that a Man-Bear had been controlled by the lingering soul of an Esoteric Buddhist monk, then continued to an inn where Li Yan recognized the guests as grave robbers. The chapter ended with the group lodging there and suspecting the newcomers might pose a threat.

• Wu Ba chased down and killed the Man-Bear, then nearly ate its brain before Lu San stopped him and reprimanded him.
• Li Yan removed the Man-Bear's jeweled Tibetan Silver collar and followed the Little White Fox to an abandoned Kiln Site and a nearby cave.
• Li Yan drove off the monk's Yin Soul with his Soul Hooking Chain and found the monk's corpse, a Tibetan letter, magical artifacts, and an eerie Thangka.
• Li Yan destroyed the monk's Vajra Pestle, Prayer Wheel, and human-skin drum, kept the letter and Thangka, and burned the remains.
• Lu San found an inn on the Official Road, and Li Yan, Lu San, and Wu Ba went there for food and rooms.
• Li Yan noticed that the inn's occupants reeked of earth and identified them as grave robbers.

Li Yan discovered that two groups of grave robbers had been summoned to Bai He Wan and learned they were seeking the tomb of Wu Youxu. He followed them with Lu San and waited outside the village, where Shen Jingcan arrived with an Old Taoist.

• Li Yan questioned the inn waiter and learned that the Bai Clan had recently driven off the Jiangxia Barbarians after a deadly attack.
• Li Yan and Lu San used rats to watch the two groups, then Li Yan followed their leaders into the forest with a Chuling Paper Figure.
• Wang Lao Bie and Third Master Chen revealed that the Bai Clan had separately hired them and that both had half of a gilded bronze plaque linked to Wu Youxu.
• Li Yan decided to wait for the grave robbers to locate the tomb and planned to capture its Tomb Guardian Beast if it was a Wan Yan.
• Li Yan and Lu San tracked the two groups to Bai He Wan, then saw Shen Jingcan arrive with an Old Taoist.

Li Yan and Lu San discovered that the Old Taoist and Shen Jingcan were heading to Bai He Wan, where the Bai family was gathering tomb robbers to search Liangzi Lake for a mausoleum containing the Mohist Mechanism Arts. Shen Jingcan returned to Shen Family Dam to involve his relatives, while Li Yan suspected a trap and decided to watch from concealment.

• Li Yan hid from the Old Taoist's unusual Spiritual Sense and warned Lu San that Bai He Wan seemed suspicious.
• The Old Taoist and Shen Jingcan reached Bai He Wan, where a farmer secretly alerted the Bai family to their arrival.
• Bai Weng Hai showed Wang Lao Bie and Third Master Chen the Rat-Chasing Pill and explained that the tomb of Wu Youxu and Wang Su might contain the lost Mohist Mechanism Arts.
• Bai Weng Hai arranged for Wang Lao Bie and Third Master Chen to search Liangzi Lake's North Bank, while secretly plotting to use Shen Jingcan and the Shen family as part of his scheme.
• Elder Wu persuaded Shen Jingcan to bring his family into the search, and Shen Jingcan borrowed Bai Blacksmith's boat to return to Shen Family Dam.
• Li Yan sensed that someone was setting a trap and told Lu San to remain hidden and observe.

Wang Lao Bie and Third Master Chen searched around Liangzi Lake for the treasure while Li Yan discovered that Bai He Wan Village sheltered Maitreya Sect followers. As the Shen family branches rode off to pursue their own treasure hunt, the tomb robbers found an iron vein and recognized it as the Iron Dome.

• Wang Lao Bie and Third Master Chen suspected the Bai family village was a bandit stronghold, agreed to cooperate until they found the treasure, and sent their men to search the hills.
• Li Yan learned from Lu San that Bai Weng Hai was leading the villagers in a Maitreya Sect ritual, and he warned Wang Dao Xuan through Lu San.
• Sha LiFei delivered the warning to Wang Dao Xuan and left for Wu Prefecture City to report the Maitreya Sect, while Shen Jinghong dismissed his departing relatives and focused on reopening the kiln and selling porcelain.
• Shen Jingcan led the Second and Third Branches toward the treasure, and Third Master Shen planned to seize it and frame Shen Jingcan's master afterward.
• Wang Lao Bie and Third Master Chen found a hill where their compasses spun and sank, but their Luoyang Shovels struck hard iron; Third Master Chen recognized the formation as the Iron Dome.

Third Master Chen and Wang Lao Bie deduced that the tomb entrance lay beneath Liangzi Lake, while Bai Weng Hai secretly planned to sacrifice people to awaken a Divine Embryo for the Ming King. As Li Yan approached the lake in the storm, Bai He Wan’s divers found the entrance, but a massive underwater creature attacked the boats.

• Third Master Chen explained Iron Domes and determined that Gaochang’s sunken Gold-Water Tomb had an underwater entrance beneath Liangzi Lake.
• Third Master Chen warned Wang Lao Bie that Bai He Wan intended to use them as sacrifices, and the two prepared a plan.
• Bai Weng Hai ordered the village to gather weapons and boats, then told Temple Keeper Wu to bring the Shen family into the tomb as sacrifices for the Divine Embryo.
• Li Yan led Lu San and Wu Ba toward the lake to watch the Maitreya Sect and investigate the strange activity.
• Wang Lao Bie found the tomb entrance and persuaded Bai Weng Hai’s men to dive first; two entered the cavern and encountered a moving, black-liquid-covered wall.
• A diver surfaced to report the cavern, but a huge creature dragged him underwater and smashed a boat, forcing Wang Lao Bie to leap to safety.

Li Yan retrieved a piece of the injured Wan Yan while a ghostly mist swallowed the tomb robbers and drew people into a place of baleful intent. Lu San confronted the Black Head Great King at an ancient shrine, and the figure answered him in Superior Language.

• A Wan Yan attacked the boats, swallowed a lit gunpowder bundle, survived the blast, and fled toward the center of the lake.
• Bai Weng Hai led his people into the tomb, while Wang Lao Bie and Third Master Chen followed with some men left behind to guard the boats.
• Li Yan used North Emperor Black Water Escape to enter the lake and retrieve flesh blasted from the Wan Yan's cheek.
• A ghostly mist filled the lake, revealed the shadow of a city, and swallowed the tomb robbers and Li Yan as Lu San failed to summon help from the fish and shrimp.
• Lu San took Wu Ba to a hillside shrine, threatened the Black Head Great King, and heard the figure reply in Superior Language.

Lu San learned that Li Yan had been trapped in the ghost city beneath Liangzi Lake, and Wang Dao Xuan devised a ghost opera to lure the ghosts away and rescue him. Meanwhile, the Shen family entered the tomb of Anping Prince Wu Youxu and encountered strange mechanisms and ghostly reflections.

• Lu San negotiated with the Black Head Great King, then escaped with Wu Ba as the Shen family arrived at the lake entrance.
• Temple Keeper Wu and Bai Blacksmith led the Shen family into the tomb, where they found corpses, a disarmed mechanism, and bronze mirrors that multiplied their reflections.
• Lu San rode to Shen Family Dam and told Wang Dao Xuan that Wan Yan had provoked the lake’s trapped ghosts, pulling Yan XiaoGe into the formation.
• Wang Dao Xuan offered Master Wu five thousand taels to perform a ghost opera, and Master Wu reluctantly agreed.
• Wang Dao Xuan warned the troupe to finish the performance no matter what they saw as they prepared to perform on the ominous Yin Stage.

Wang Dao Xuan and the opera troupe performed a ghost opera to draw the spirits from Liangzi Lake while Lu San entered the ghost city of Gaochang County to find Li Yan. Lu San found Li Yan, who revealed that the city was a living tomb guardian beast and led him to Lu Ban’s Flying Wooden Magpie as a way out.

• Wang Dao Xuan consecrated five spirit tablets, and Master Wu’s troupe performed the Breaking the Stage ritual before beginning Mulian Opera.
• The lake stirred, ghosts gathered around the stage, and Lu San rode the lake’s Wild God into the ghost city of Gaochang County.
• Lu San searched the ruined city, endured the sounds of the dead, and found the remains of the Late Tang Dynasty Xuan Troops.
• The Strange Beast Wan Yan emerged at a crossroads, and Li Yan killed it before reuniting with Lu San.
• Li Yan explained that the ghost city was alive and that leaving by the ground would provoke an attack, then showed Lu San Lu Ban’s Flying Wooden Magpie in the government office.

Li Yan and Lu San escaped the sinking ghost city by lifting a vine tower with a heated balloon, while Sha LiFei learned that a sect planned to send Black Sky Mingwang into the mortal world. At the Water God Temple, poisoned Maitreya Sect elders were interrupted as the Divine Embryo began to awaken, and Elder Wang revealed his allegiance to the Golden Horde Wolf Country.

• Li Yan ignited the balloon above the vine tower with gunpowder, and he and Lu San rose above the ghost city as it sank beneath the lake.
• Li Yan and Lu San fought off grasping corpse tendrils while Wang Dao Xuan, Wu Ba, and the opera troupe watched them rise into the sky.
• On the Jinshui River, Tong Huan told Sha LiFei that the Dakini Sect intended to bring Black Sky Mingwang into the mortal world and place him in a Great Xuan prince’s household.
• At the Water God Temple, Maitreya Sect elders tried to use the Divine Embryo to revive Chen Youliang, but they were poisoned as black mist gathered around the infant.
• Elder Wang revealed that he was the former Dark Eagle Guard member Bu ErGuDe, disrupted the black mist, and watched the infant’s eyes turn pitch-black.

Li Yan and Lu San escaped the ghost city aboard the Flying Wooden Magpie, then Li Yan attended the Shen family funeral and learned that the Dakini Sect’s Black Sky Mingwang had descended to the Lower Realm. The chapter ends with Cheng Jue revealing that the descent succeeded elsewhere, after his group found everyone at the altar dead.

• Li Yan and Lu San guided the fuel-starved Flying Wooden Magpie to the ground with help from Wu Ba, then carried it back to the Shen residence.
• Sha LiFei reported that Zen Master Tong Huan and Cheng Jue had gone to arrest Maitreya Sect followers, and Li Yan gave the Wan Yan meat to be sent to Master Lin.
• Wang Dao Xuan led the Shen family’s funeral rites as they buried Master Shen and the eldest son of the Shen family.
• Cheng Jue told Shen Jinghong that demonic cultivators had killed his uncles and clansmen, and Li Yan agreed to keep the news from the family for now.
• Master Lin received the Wan Yan meat from Li Yan, hoping it might cure his second son.
• Cheng Jue confirmed that the Black Sky Mingwang’s descent had succeeded, though the true descent site was not inside the tomb.

Li Yan and Cheng Jue traced the Maitreya Sect’s failed ritual and concluded that the Black Sky Mingwang had descended, but the Mingwang escaped detection. Li Yan negotiated with Mo Sect Elder Yuan Feng over Lu Ban’s wooden magpie and a reliable supply of gunpowder, leaving their deal tied to the imperial court’s planned Qiankun Academy.

• Cheng Jue explained the tomb’s history and the origins of the Wan Yan and Shi Rou, while Lord Yuan Feng inspected Lu Ban’s wooden magpie.
• Li Yan described the strange white-bearded Daoist to Cheng Jue, and Shen Jinghong identified him as a priest from the Dragon Daughter Temple.
• Li Yan and Cheng Jue found the Maitreya Sect’s altar abandoned, discovered its Branch Master and elders dead, and uncovered a waterway leading to Liangzi Lake.
• A white-haired woodcutter carrying the Black Sky Mingwang in a basket tricked a checkpoint soldier and continued toward Da Tong.
• Li Yan sold the wooden magpie to Lord Yuan Feng in exchange for a chance at a stable gunpowder supply, and Yuan proposed using the planned Qiankun Academy.

Li Yan agreed to serve Qiankun Academy in exchange for access to gunpowder and settled with his companions near Liangzi Lake. Wang Dao Xuan uncovered clues about the Western Xuan Lineage’s origins and its possible connection to the Shangqing Sect, while the group prepared for further cultivation and investigation.

• Yuan Feng explained Qiankun Academy’s plans and offered Li Yan gunpowder in exchange for serving as one of its guards and helping with its work, which Li Yan accepted.
• Yuan Feng recruited Li Yan to help investigate a tomb containing Mo Sect mechanisms and deal with the evil creature Shi Rou alongside Buddhist and Taoist experts.
• Shen Jinghong led Li Yan and his companions to abandoned houses near Liangzi Lake, where they settled and began cultivating.
• Wang Dao Xuan traced the Western Xuan Lineage to Chi Jiangziyu and Pei Xuanren, and revealed that Liu Gang’s books placed its ancestral court near Mao Mountain, raising the possibility of a connection to the Shangqing Sect.
• Li Yan promised to investigate the lineage’s history and led the group in training with firearms and cultivating over the following days.
• After five days, a minor official delivered Yuan Feng’s summons and invited Li Yan down the mountain.

Li Yan joined the gathering of officials and mystical experts preparing to suppress Shi Rou at Liangzi Lake, where they agreed on a plan to retrieve the tomb’s objects before destroying the creature with thunder. After Chiliarch Tian delivered a private letter from Luo MingZi, he revealed that the Commandery Commandant Office had taken over the Zhao Changsheng investigation because the Enforcement Hall had an informant working for Zhao Changsheng.

• Li Yan entered the command tent and learned that Zhang Zhi Ting, Yang Mingqing, and Yu LanShan were coordinating efforts to deal with Shi Rou.
• Yu LanShan proposed using bronze mirrors and a Two Phases Formation to confuse Shi Rou so the team could retrieve the tomb’s objects before striking it with thunder, and Yang Mingqing endorsed the plan.
• Yuan Feng asked Li Yan and Chiliarch Tian to help protect the ritual in the tomb, and Li Yan arranged for Wang Dao Xuan to join the operation.
• Chiliarch Tian told Li Yan that he had come from the capital on Luo MingZi’s behalf and met him privately outside the camp.
• Chiliarch Tian gave Li Yan a letter from Luo MingZi and explained that the Commandery Commandant Office was involved because the Enforcement Hall had an informant working for Zhao Changsheng.

Li Yan helped the Enforcement Hall investigate Zhao Changsheng before joining Cheng Jue’s party to enter the Mo Family Mechanism Tomb. After Feng Shui masters and monks subdued the disturbances around Liangzi Lake, the group cut through Shi Rou and found the tomb chamber, where fireballs suddenly lit the darkness.

• Tian Chiliarch told Li Yan that Zhao Changsheng had outmaneuvered the imperial court and that a spy had infiltrated the Enforcement Hall; Li Yan advised him to track Huang LiuShi.
• Yuan Feng introduced Master Yuan of White Deer Academy and several Ministry of Works mechanism specialists, then Cheng Jue led them underwater to the tomb entrance.
• Cheng Jue’s group found Shi Rou blocking the passage, while Tian Chiliarch’s party arrived and joined them; Master Yuan and the specialists examined the tomb’s carvings.
• Yang Mingqing and Yu LanShan used the Bagua mirror to draw opposing currents of momentum together, while Zen Master Tong Huan’s monks calmed the lake and put Shi Rou to sleep.
• Li Yan realized fire repelled Shi Rou, and he and Tian Chiliarch helped the group cut through its body until they broke into the tomb chamber.
• Tian Chiliarch, Li Yan, Cheng Jue, and the others entered the chamber, where balls of fire suddenly appeared in the darkness.

Li Yan and the others uncovered the Mo Sect inheritance in the tomb, retrieving its texts and a bronze mechanism core before the pottery tower broke apart. The next day, Zhang Zhi Ting began a thunder ritual over Liangzi Lake as the ghost city collapsed and Shi Rou stirred within it, ending with lightning striking the lake.

• Li Yan and the Ministry of Works officials explored the tomb, where a mechanical pottery tower played music and chambers held Mo Sect texts, teaching tools, and two Stone Coffins.
• The tomb plaque explained the Tomb Guardian Beasts, the lost Luban Wooden Magpies, and a hidden invention; the group carried out the texts, artifacts, and coffins while Shi Rou's passage began closing.
• The group tried to move the pottery tower, but it shattered, exposing its mechanisms; a Ministry of Works official used whale oil to activate the bronze core, and Li Yan ordered it taken away.
• The next day, Zhang Zhi Ting and Yang Mingqing's calculations proved accurate as dark clouds gathered over Liangzi Lake and the ghost city began to riot.
• Zhang Zhi Ting performed a thunder ritual on the Three-Layer Altar as the ghost city collapsed and Shi Rou's massive shadow writhed beneath the Yin mist.
• Zhang Zhi Ting cast a Yellow Talisman toward the lake, and lightning struck from the clouds.

After the Shi Rou was destroyed at Liangzi Lake, Li Yan recognized the recovered copper vessel as a device with the potential to transform the mortal world and persuaded Yuan Feng to treat it as a sacred treasure. The group returned to cultivation as unrest spread across the realm, while Yuan Feng carried the vessel toward the capital.

• Li Yan reflected on how the Dragon Tiger Mountain Daoists’ Zhengyi Thunder and Firm Fire had destroyed the Shi Rou, and soldiers recovered more Lu Ban wooden magpies from Liangzi Lake.
• Zen Master Tong Huan identified a glazed meteorite bearing a hollow Ghost Face Dakini as the Divine Embryo, then prepared to take it away while Zhang Zhi Ting departed for Sichuan.
• Li Yan showed Yuan Feng that the recovered copper vessel could power transport, industry, and machinery, prompting Yuan Feng to recognize its importance and establish an altar to venerate it.
• Two days later, after the wooden magpies were salvaged, Yuan Feng headed for the capital with the copper vessel as Li Yan and his companions settled into cultivation near Liangzi Lake.
• News reached Li Yan’s group of demons along the Yangtze, the court’s advances in Yunyang Prefecture, and Tusi forces in western Hunan preparing to challenge the court as autumn arrived.

On the Ghost Festival, Li Yan cultivated the North Emperor Yin Mountain Method in an abandoned Miao burial ground and reached the foundation needed to build his third tower. Meanwhile, the Han River’s grain transport route grew busier, and a boatman discovered that everyone aboard a wrecked ship had died mysteriously.

• At Shen Family Dam Wharf, Wang Dao Xuan performed a Ghost Festival ceremony while Shen Jinghong learned from Sha LiFei that Li Yan and his companions would soon leave and that the Shen family should befriend Ministry of Works officials.
• Lu San collected Dark Wood and other Spiritual Materials from nearby Wild Gods and spirits for Giant Turtle Master, who hoped to exchange them for a treasure on Mount Wudang.
• Li Yan cultivated in an ancient Miao cliff tomb, expanded his Yin Energy sea and divine towers, and reached the standard for building the third tower.
• Li Yan used the North Emperor Calamity Removal Technique to dispel the resentment of the Lonely Souls and Fierce Ghosts gathered outside his cave.
• An Alligator God’s followers rescued grain after two ships collided on the Han River, but a boatman who boarded the other vessel found its crew and passengers dead, with moss growing inside their eyes and mouths.

Li Yan and his companions traveled by Falcon Ship toward Mount Wudang, learning about a plague in Fan City, Xiangyang’s old water spirits, and the local gods that could complicate the Giant Turtle Master’s bid for the Han River’s Water God position. They reached a martial village below Mount Wudang, where Zhang XiaoShan greeted Li Yan.

• Gu Hanzi told Li Yan that a strange plague had broken out in Fan City, killing victims whose internal organs were covered in moss, and that Li FaCheng of the Huang Prefecture Li Family was treating it.
• Gu Hanzi explained that the Camphorwood Great King had been destroyed after a scholar surnamed Lu from Deer Mountain challenged it, and warned that Xiangyang’s Two Jiang Consort Goddesses were its established water gods.
• Li Yan and the others continued upriver, and Gu Hanzi’s disciples of the True Martial Palace met them near Mount Wudang.
• Gu Hanzi said the mountain was closed for the night because of the southwest war, so Li Yan’s group stayed in a nearby village where every villager practiced martial arts.
• Zhang XiaoShan approached Li Yan and greeted him.

Li Yan arrived at Zhang Family Village, where Zhang XiaoShan hosted a banquet and revealed he wanted Li Yan to humble the proud young Zhang disciples. After Wang Jingxiu showed interest in Lu San, Li Yan began testing the disciples and sent Zhang Yingqiong flying with one kick.

• Zhang XiaoShan welcomed Li Yan and his companions to Zhang Family Village and offered to have Wang Jingxiu treat Gu Hanzi’s injuries.
• Wang Jingxiu recognized Wu Ba as a human rakshasa, then praised Lu San as a Xuan Gate prodigy and said he wanted to speak with him.
• Zhang YuFu told Li Yan that Zhang XiaoShan had expelled him from the sect after his involvement with Liu Niang.
• At the banquet, Zhang XiaoShan admitted he wanted Li Yan to teach the young Zhang disciples a lesson, and Zhang Xiaochen explained that they needed to learn humility.
• Zhang Yingqiong challenged Li Yan with Longhua Fist, but Li Yan kicked him out of the hall and called for the next opponent.