Recaps

Li Yan held the Jiangzhe Merchant Guild against the authorities so Wang Dao Xuan could perform a ritual to restore Shopkeeper Kong’s soul before Zi Hour. As Jinan’s powers weighed whether to intervene, Lu XiaoWu offered Prince De to go mediate the standoff.

• Wang Dao Xuan said Shopkeeper Kong’s soul had to be returned before Zi Hour, and Sha LiFei agreed they had no choice but to perform the ritual inside the guild.
• Li Yan confronted Master Zhao at the guild gates, declared the grounds forbidden for two days, and threatened to kill anyone who entered; Master Zhao withdrew rather than attack.
• Sha LiFei, Lu San, Kuai Dayou, and Fatty Lin slipped out to buy Spiritual Materials, but Zhao Tong ordered arcane-goods shops and markets placed under strict supervision.
• The Seal Holder Chiliarch and Xu Cangsong debated the risks of sending troops against Li Yan, while news of the standoff spread through Jinan’s martial world.
• At Prince De’s banquet, Kong Zhenyuan demanded troops suppress the guild, but Prince De Xiao Hong hesitated because of his ties to the guild and the political stakes.
• Lu XiaoWu offered to go persuade the opposing sides, recognizing that the standoff gave him an opportunity to advance his interests.

Lu XiaoWu secured Prince De’s support so Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan could perform the Three Yin Soul Return Altar to find Shopkeeper Kong’s soul. Fatty Lin discovered it inside a Treasure Gourd in a ruined Land God Temple outside the city, and Li Yan hurried there with him as Zhao Tong pursued.

• Prince De rejected Kong Zhenyuan’s call to attack Li Yan and sent Lu XiaoWu to negotiate with him.
• Li Yan asked for the Jiangzhe Merchant Guild to be left undisturbed until Zi Hour and for the rare materials needed to perform the ritual.
• Lu XiaoWu gathered the requested materials, and Wang Dao Xuan prepared the altar and sent Li Yan, Lu San, and Fatty Lin’s souls out on paper cranes to search for Shopkeeper Kong.
• Fatty Lin spotted Treasure Qi at a ruined Land God Temple and found Shopkeeper Kong’s soul inside a Treasure Gourd.
• Li Yan took Fatty Lin and used the North Emperor Swift Travel Technique to head for the temple, while Zhao Tong followed them.

Li Yan recovered Shopkeeper Kong’s lost Divine Soul and captured Shadowless Kick Li Qi, while Zhao Tong’s interrogation tied Li Qi to Li Family Village near Xiaqing Palace. The revelation terrified Kong Zhenyuan, who returned home and saw something move in the shadows above him.

• Li Yan defeated Shadowless Kick Li Qi at the ruined temple and took the gourd containing Shopkeeper Kong’s Divine Soul.
• Zhao Tong recognized Li Qi, knocked him unconscious, and took charge of him while Li Yan returned to help save Shopkeeper Kong.
• Wang Dao Xuan used the gourd and a soul-fixing incantation to return Shopkeeper Kong’s human soul to his body, leaving him stable but unconscious.
• At the prison, Kong Zhenyuan accused Kong Zhenlin of responsibility for Li Qi, but Zhao Tong silenced their factions and questioned Li Qi.
• Zhao Tong revealed that Li Qi came from Li Family Village near Lao Mountain, prompting alarm and exposing Kong Zhenyuan’s fear.
• Kong Zhenyuan returned home in a panic, muttered that Li Family Village had been burned away, and noticed something move in the shadows above him.

After Kong Zhenyuan and his son were murdered, Lu HongYuan investigated the case and heard Shopkeeper Kong’s testimony, which linked the killer to Cai Wei and events on Lao Mountain twenty years earlier. As the Kong family faced possible blame and the killer remained unidentified, Lu HongYuan asked Li Yan to help him kill someone.

• Lu XiaoWu told Li Yan and the others that Kong Zhenyuan and Kong Shang'an had been killed, while Lu HongYuan traveled to Jinan to oversee the case.
• Bai Lao Jiu examined evidence from the ancestral shrine and concluded that a Mystic Sect master had used Daoist techniques to kill Kong Zhenyuan.
• Lu HongYuan summoned Li Yan’s group and the Kong family, and Shopkeeper Kong described a scarred Daoist who killed Kong Zhenyuan and spared him because he had buried victims of a massacre on Lao Mountain.
• Kong Zhenlin revealed that Kong Zhenyuan had loved Cai Wei, who died after the family opposed their marriage, and Lu HongYuan ordered an investigation into Li Family Village and Lao Mountain.
• Lu HongYuan called Li Yan back after the others left and asked him to help kill someone.

Li Yan and his companions traveled toward Tai'an, where they learned Mount Tai had been sealed by order of the authorities and Daoist sects. After settling at an inn, they heard that ghosts had appeared on the mountain, leaving the cause of the lockdown unresolved.

• Li Yan recalled agreeing to kill Zhou Zhao in exchange for Lu HongYuan protecting the Kong family and guiding him in Martial Arts.
• During the journey, Kong Shangzhao and Fatty Lin discussed the missing Bohai Twisted Wood and the Lin Family’s struggle to rebuild its shipping business.
• The group sheltered in a ruined shrine to Bixia Yuanjun, where Wang Dao Xuan explained the deity’s history and state worship.
• The travelers reached Tai'an and found Mount Tai sealed, with soldiers turning away pilgrims and blocking access to the mountain.
• Li Yan said he had received reports of unusual activity on Mount Tai and sent Sha LiFei to gather information.
• Sha LiFei returned and reported that ghosts were on Mount Tai.

Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan infiltrated Mount Tai to investigate its worsening supernatural disturbance, while their companions searched Tai'an City for clues. In the city, Bai Lao Jiu revealed that Xuan Wei, the suspected killer of the Yansheng Duke, was likely nearby and connected to the woman killed by the Kong family and the Attendant captured at Kong Zhenlin's residence.

• Sha LiFei described reports of hauntings, missing Mount Tai Taoists, and a ghostly sedan procession, and Li Yan confirmed that a major event had occurred on Mount Tai.
• Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan used escape techniques to pass the soldiers and cultivators guarding Mount Tai, where they learned the disturbance had worsened over seven days and the sect elders were meeting secretly.
• Wang Dao Xuan used a Mystic Turtle Shell compass to guide Li Yan toward Jade Emperor Peak, while he stayed behind near the mountain path.
• Sha LiFei, Fatty Lin, and Kong Shangzhao searched Tai'an City for information, while Lu San and Kuai Dayou encountered Bai Lao Jiu in a wine shop.
• Bai Lao Jiu told Lu San and Kuai Dayou that Xuan Wei, a Lao Mountain cultivator from Li Family Village, was likely in Tai'an and was suspected of killing the Yansheng Duke.
• Bai Lao Jiu said the woman hounded to death by the Kong family was Xuan Wei's daughter, and that the Attendant captured at Kong Zhenlin's residence also came from Li Family Village.

Bai Lao Jiu recruited Kuai Dayou and Lu San to investigate the disappearances around Tai'an, while Li Yan infiltrated Mount Tai and witnessed a supernatural attack on the Jade Emperor Temple. The attack’s leader was revealed as Shi Xuanming, who ordered the temple’s elders to withdraw.

• Bai Lao Jiu told Kuai Dayou and Lu San that his constables and Hidden Stakes had vanished, and Kuai Dayou persuaded him to write an IOU in the Kong family’s name for the Twelve Yuan Chen.
• Kuai Dayou and Lu San arranged to shadow Bai Lao Jiu, while Lu San sent Xiaobai with a note and summoned Sha LiFei to help surround him.
• Li Yan used the Turtle-Shell Compass and his climbing skills to reach the summit of Mount Tai, where he found the Jade Emperor Temple guarded by experts from several sects.
• A strange fog filled Jade Emperor Peak, and ghostly green lights overwhelmed the temple’s defenders until Shouming Zi and six other elders emerged from the temple.
• Shouming Zi recognized the attacker as Shi Xuanming, who dismissed the elders and ordered them to withdraw.

Li Yan witnessed Shi Xuanming attack the Jade Emperor Temple while seeking the Mount Tai Prefect's office, then learned that three Earth Immortals had vanished and might be acting together. After Li Yan left Mount Tai, Lu San, Sha LiFei, and Kuai Dayou watched Divine Arrestor Bai Lao Jiu as dense fog engulfed the streets.

• Shi Xuanming used mountain spirits and earth puppets to attack the Jade Emperor Temple, claiming that Orthodox sects monopolized Mount Tai's fortune and were plotting to claim the Prefect's office.
• Shi Xuanming wounded an elder with poisoned Heart Piercing Nails, then fled when Xuan Sangzi emerged from the temple.
• Xuan Sangzi learned that two other Earth Immortals were missing and ordered the Jade Emperor Temple to strengthen its defenses until Mount Tai's earth qi stabilized.
• Li Yan told Wang Dao Xuan about the succession struggle and suspected that someone had informed the three Earth Immortals that Living Underworld Messengers were being hunted.
• Lu San, Sha LiFei, and Kuai Dayou watched Bai Lao Jiu, and thick gray-white fog suddenly swallowed the streets.

Sha LiFei and his companions defeated the paper-people attack targeting Constable Bai, captured an Old Woman, and escaped the soldiers who arrived suspiciously quickly. While they suspected someone in the Commandery Commandant Office, Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan returned from Mount Tai and recognized a man in a sedan as Fatty Lin’s clan uncle.

• Lu San identified the fog-bound attackers as paper people carrying a coffin, and Sha LiFei shot their controller after the coffin released knockout smoke.
• Lu San dispelled the fog and scattered the paper people, while Long Yan’er disabled the fleeing Old Woman and Wu Ba captured her.
• Soldiers and yamen runners surrounded the street, so Sha LiFei and the others escaped to a safe house.
• The Old Woman said an intermediary had hired her to kill Constable Bai, and Bai Lao Jiu suspected the Commandery Commandant Office because soldiers had arrived so quickly.
• Li Yan and Wang Dao Xuan returned from Mount Tai, saw a man riding in a sedan, and Wang Dao Xuan recognized him as Fatty Lin’s clan uncle.

Li Yan and his allies uncovered a plot involving Tai'an officials, Lin Yaozong, kidnapped children, and ritual instruments prepared for a ceremony in Laojun Valley. They gathered there at Zi Hour to stop the conspirators, but were astonished by the immense number of people arriving.

• Wang Dao Xuan confirmed that Fatty Lin's clan uncle, Lin Yaozong, had been seen in Tai'an, and Fatty Lin revealed his suspicion that Lin Yaozong had leaked his family's fleet routes to wokou pirates.
• Bai Lao Jiu connected the wokou to the massacre of Xuan Wei's village, while Li Yan suspected the Mount Tai conflict was linked to Jianmu and the wokou.
• Sha LiFei learned that black-canopied carts had brought children into the city, and Kuai Dayou discovered that masked customers had commissioned ritual instruments for Immortal-Guiding Music in a valley north of Mount Tai.
• Li Yan followed Lin Yaozong to a meeting with Zhao Bingzhong and Zhou Xian, where they revealed that ninety boys and girls had been placed in a cellar as blood sacrifices for a ceremony at Laojun Valley.
• Li Yan and his allies regrouped, resolved to stop the conspirators, and hid in Laojun Valley at Zi Hour as a vast procession of torches approached.

Li Yan and the Twelve Yuan Chen discovered a ritual using children as blood sacrifices, led by officials from Tai'an and the Five Yin Mountain Hag Hu Yueniang. They attacked the valley, killed Hu Yueniang, rescued the children, and prepared to take the surviving ringleaders back to Tai'an City.

• Li Yan, Lu San, and Wang Dao Xuan scouted the black-cloaked gathering and identified a Nether-Linking Eight Trigrams ritual with captured children as sacrifices.
• Fatty Lin recognized his clan uncle Lin Yaozong among the conspirators, while Zhao Bingzhong and Zhou Xian revealed their role in the plot.
• Li Yan sensed a terrestrial immortal nearby and learned from Judge Cui and the Five Paths General that Living Underworld Messengers were being hunted.
• Wu Ba fired the Tiger Crouching Cannon to launch the raid, and Sha LiFei, Lu San, Chu Qi, Kuai Dayou, and the others fought the black-cloaked warriors and Dongying fighters.
• Hu Yueniang attacked with her Blood Plague Umbrella and a curse, but Li Yan invoked his Living Underworld Messenger warrant and pursued her until she became a corpse.
• The Twelve Yuan Chen captured Zhao Bingzhong, Zhou Xian, Lin Yaozong, and other survivors, freed the children, and set out for Tai'an City.

Li Yan brought the rescued children and their bound captors to Tai'an's government office, where Prince De’s authority and Lu HongYuan’s order forced the officials to surrender. The prisoners’ confessions exposed Zhao Changsheng and Lady Lei Yin’s involvement, and the chapter ended with Mount Tai disappearing beneath dark clouds and dense fog.

• Li Yan led the rescued children and bound Lin Yaozong, Zhao Bingzhong, and Zhou Xian through Tai'an, rousing the townspeople against the corrupt officials.
• Cheng Yong and the garrison commander aimed rapid-fire guns at the crowd, but Xiao Chengyou arrived with Prince De’s command token while a Mingde Academy tutor carried Lu HongYuan’s order, forcing the authorities to stand down.
• Xiao Chengyou took control of the government office and garrison, and Li Yan explained that the officials had knowingly enabled an Excessive Sacrifice involving an Earth Immortal, Dongying pirates, and a Jianmu Demon Man.
• Under interrogation, Zhao Bingzhong confessed that Zhao Changsheng had recruited him ten years earlier, and Lin Yaozong revealed that Lady Lei Yin had ordered him to cooperate and leak the Lin Family fleet’s movements.
• A garrison commandant reported that dense fog and dark clouds had suddenly swallowed Mount Tai, prompting Li Yan and the others to look toward the mountain.

Li Yan and his companions entered Mount Tai’s deadly yin mist to investigate the supernatural disaster and reached the Jade Emperor Temple, where the surviving cultivators identified the rear mountain as its source. Li Yan realized the catastrophe might have opened Mount Tai’s passage to the netherworld.

• Wang Dao Xuan found that Mount Tai’s earth qi and spiritual apertures had fallen into a severe yin-yang imbalance as crazed beasts and corpse-like creatures attacked the garrison soldiers.
• After a wounded Banner Officer described a collapsed path and a Ghost Wall, Wang Dao Xuan used a talisman to calm him, while Xiao Chengyou arranged to summon reinforcements.
• Li Yan led his companions into the black mist, and they fought off yin-corrupted beasts and Walking Corpses while advancing toward the summit.
• Li Yan used the North Emperor Black Water Escape to reach the Jade Emperor Temple, where he found wounded cultivators sheltered behind the goddess’s weakening divine barrier.
• The cultivators told Li Yan that a rift had opened in the rear mountain and released the Yin Energy, leading him to suspect that the passage to the netherworld had been opened.

Li Yan and the Twelve Yuan Chen investigated Mount Tai’s suspected Netherworld Passageway, uncovering traces of a buried outer-domain evil spirit and finding the mountain’s seals in danger. At Hanging Coffin Cliff, they discovered Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin had left their bodies to enter the Netherworld, so Li Yan sent his soul after them to investigate the Mount Tai Prefect Divine Palace.

• Shouming Zi identified five dangerous sites on Mount Tai, and Li Yan led the group along a route to investigate them.
• In the Blood Maple Forest, Li Yan used the Goudie to dispel blood vines and found a buried dead crow tied to an outer-domain evil spirit; Shouming Zi suspected the three Earth Immortals had caused the disturbance.
• Shouming Zi stabilized the damaged seal at the Nameless Stele Yin Cave with Mount Tai stones, while the group found no immediate breach at Withered Pine Stream or Fox Immortal Cave.
• At Hanging Coffin Cliff, the group found Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin abandoning their bodies to enter the Netherworld Passageway, possibly seeking the Mount Tai Prefect Divine Palace.
• Wang Dao Xuan prepared a ritual altar, and Li Yan sent his soul toward the vast vortex beyond Hanging Coffin Cliff.

Li Yan traveled through the Netherworld passage toward the Mount Tai Prefect's divine palace, witnessing visions of Mount Tai's history along the way. Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin reached the palace but were burned by its divine flames, and Li Yan summoned underworld troops to seize them before the palace's flames drove the troops back.

• Li Yan entered the Netherworld passage and fled an icy blast that swept through the gorge.
• Li Yan passed visions of historical ceremonies and rulers on Mount Tai as he made his way toward its upside-down phantom.
• Li Yan climbed the mountain after Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin, enduring the astral winds with help from his artifacts and Great Luo Dharma Body.
• Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin reached the divine palace and found its stone shrine empty; Shi Xuanming's attempt to strike Zheng Boyin triggered the palace's divine flames, which destroyed his staff and injured him.
• Li Yan arrived and used a soul-hook warrant to summon underworld troops, who captured Shi Xuanming and Zheng Boyin before the palace's golden flames forced them to retreat.

Li Yan received greater authority as a living Yin official, entered the Divine Palace on Mount Tai, and summoned a jade seal by visualizing Erlang Zhenjun. The Netherworld passage closed as Mount Tai's Yin-Yang balance recovered, but Li Yan returned and announced that the position of Prefect had found a successor.

• The Five Paths General rescued Li Yan from the incense flames, raised his official rank, and gave him a Heavenly Official Token that let him pass into the Divine Palace.
• Li Yan entered the Divine Palace and realized its shrine was a visualized dwelling for a deity; he connected with it and formed a jade seal bearing the words “Command All Netherworld.”
• Li Yan visualized Erlang Zhenjun, causing the shrine to summon a gigantic figure in silver armor with a three-pointed, two-edged blade.
• Mount Tai's Yin-fiend fog receded, the dragon-severing stakes exploded, and the Netherworld passage closed as the Yin-Yang nexus restored its balance.
• Wang Daoxuan tried to summon Li Yan back with a soul-binding spell but collapsed, while Shali Fei and the others feared Li Yan was lost.
• Li Yan returned, reassured the group, and told Shoumingzi that the position of Prefect had found a successor.

After the Mount Tai disaster, the survivors repaired the mountain and agreed to establish a united Mount Tai Sect, while Li Yan and his companions hurried south to stop a suspected plot involving the Lin Family. Their boat reached Yangzhou, where they learned that Japanese pirates had raided the region and nearly entered the city.

• Tai'an residents mourned the disaster as authorities aided them, while rumors spread that Erlang Zhenjun had become Mount Tai Prefect.
• Shouming Zi announced that Mount Tai's sects would unite as the Mount Tai Sect, hold an Opening Cellar Assembly, and build a divine palace for Manifest Saint True Lord.
• Li Yan and his companions left Mount Tai by canal with Lin Yaozu bound, rushing toward Jinling to investigate the people he had helped infiltrate the Lin Family's businesses.
• Li Yan learned that Erlang Zhenjun had taken the position of Mount Tai Prefect to guard the netherworld passage ahead of a coming transformation of the Human Path.
• After four days of travel, the group reached Yangzhou and discovered that warships had blocked the waterway following a Japanese pirate raid.

Li Yan, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin reached Yangzhou, where Japanese pirates had ravaged the surrounding region and threatened the city’s grain supply. They investigated the bustling city and headed to their contact at Qionghua Tower, but Li Yan noticed countless cats watching from the streets and rooftops.

• A messenger told Li Yan that Japanese pirates had raided towns near Yangzhou, ambushed Commander Hong Dai’s reinforcements, and advanced toward the city.
• Lin Yu confronted Lin Yaozu about whether he had helped cause the crisis, and Lin Yaozu said he had lost control of the people he had placed in Jinling.
• Li Yan, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin entered Yangzhou and suspected the pirates were targeting its granaries, which could trigger widespread famine if the city fell.
• Fatty Lin led Li Yan and Sha LiFei through Dongguan Street, where they witnessed the city’s thriving commerce and a deadly fight between salt-ship crews using Boat Boxing.
• After sunset, Li Yan, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin traveled by black-canopied boat along the Little Qinhuai River toward Qionghua Tower, where Fatty Lin’s contact was based.
• Li Yan stopped the others before they went ashore and asked the boatman whether Yangzhou residents liked raising cats, after noticing countless cats gathered along the river.

Li Yan and his companions reached Yangzhou, where the Golden Swallow Gate briefed them on Japanese pirates terrorizing the region and the local factions united against outsiders. After Li Yan sent an urgent message to the capital, Cheng Yun pointed him toward grain merchant Yu Hailin as a possible way to clear their ship’s route; meanwhile, Yu begged Wang Dao Xuan to save his son, who was possessed by a fox spirit.

• Fatty Lin wondered why Yangzhou had so many cats, and an old boatman told the group that an immortal maiden had used a spirit cat to kill a rat demon.
• Li Yan showed the Golden Swallow Gate token to Little LaiZi, who escorted him, Sha LiFei, and Fatty Lin to meet Cheng Yun and Wu Mo at Qionghua Tower.
• Cheng Yun told the group their fame had spread and that Lu TieShou and Yu Hailin were already waiting at their boat; Wu Mo explained the Japanese pirates’ attacks and the wary local alliance holding a banquet that night.
• Li Yan declined to attend the banquet, sent a sealed message to Daoist Luo MingZi with a spirit swallow, and asked Cheng Yun how to get their ship through; she suggested helping Yu Hailin’s possessed son.
• At Dongguan Pier, Yu Hailin pleaded with Wang Dao Xuan to save his son, explaining that the boy went mad and vomited blood whenever he left the estate; Yu said a fox spirit had possessed him.

Li Yan and his companions investigated Yu Qing’s strange illness and discovered that a Jinhua Cat Demon had cursed him through contaminated water. The demon fled after a pregnant woman vanished, and Li Yan pursued it across the rooftops while Wang Dao Xuan worked to protect Yu Qing.

• Li Yan agreed to investigate Yu Hailin’s son in exchange for an official waterway permit and took Wang Dao Xuan and Lu San to the Yu residence.
• Yu Hailin described how Yu Qing had become obsessed with a white-clad fairy after visiting Bixia Hermitage and had grown dangerously ill.
• Li Yan recognized the smell in Yu Qing’s room as that of an old wildcat, and Wang Dao Xuan found demonic traces in the household’s water.
• Wang Dao Xuan identified a Jinhua Cat Demon as the source of Yu Qing’s curse and explained that it had bewitched him and poisoned the water.
• A steward reported ghostly lights in the western garden and the disappearance of a pregnant woman, prompting Li Yan to chase the demon while Wang Dao Xuan performed a soul-calming ritual for Yu Qing.
• Li Yan pursued two fast-moving balls of cat-demon fire across the rooftops but could not catch up with them.

Li Yan tracked the Jinhua Cat to Yangzhou salt merchant Wang Maode’s estate and accused him of sheltering the disguised demon at a banquet. As Li Yan rushed toward the rear courtyard after cries of alarm exposed a surge of demonic aura, Xu Zhenshan began to suspect Wang Maode.

• Li Yan used the North Emperor Calamity Removal Technique to disrupt the Jinhua Cat’s control over a pregnant woman, but the demon escaped into a dry well after he attacked it with Soul Severing Throwing Knives.
• Li Yan saved the pregnant woman with a pill, then lost the demon’s trail amid the scents and cries of thousands of cats and concluded it was hiding among the salt merchants gathered at Jiyu Garden.
• Xu Zhenshan detected Li Yan spying at Wang Maode’s banquet, and Li Yan revealed himself and explained that he was tracking a harmful monster.
• Li Yan accused Wang Maode’s supposed Immortal Maiden of being the Jinhua Cat, which raised demon cats and fed on living people; Wang Maode denied the charge and accused Li Yan of slandering her and implicating the Lin Family with the Japanese pirates.
• Xu Zhenshan attacked Li Yan, but Li Yan evaded him with his throwing knives and turned toward the rear courtyard, where screams and a strong demonic aura suddenly erupted.
• Li Yan charged toward the rear courtyard as Wang Maode showed panic and Xu Zhenshan looked at him with suspicion.

Li Yan discovered that the Ghost Opera Troupe had trapped Yangzhou City in a vast illusion formation, while Wang Dao Xuan and Lu San learned that the city was under attack and feared they could not escape.

• Li Yan found the Jinhua Cat Demon feeding on the dead in Wang Maode’s courtyard, then killed it after the Ghost Opera Troupe summoned it away.
• The Ghost Opera Troupe appeared before Li Yan, revealed that a bounty had been placed on him, and vanished into an illusion while the courtyard was surrounded by fog.
• Li Yan and Xu Zhenshan realized the formation had trapped all of Yangzhou City, and Wang Maode confessed that he had helped the Daoist lure people to the City God Temple and find a split bronze mirror from the Cui family.
• Xu Zhenshan identified the mirror as the Jade Mirror Platform, and Li Yan concluded that they were trapped inside the Netherworld Stage.
• Wang Dao Xuan cured Yu Qing of the cat demon’s influence, but he and Lu San saw fog engulf the city and flames erupt at the harbor, leaving Wang Dao Xuan convinced they could not leave.

Lu San and Wang Dao Xuan followed Chu Qi through the fog to Jiyu Garden, where they confronted Zhu Suanpan and his puppet, Ying Ling. As Wang Dao Xuan attacked Zhu Suanpan with the Seven Arrows Secret Curse, Zhu Suanpan summoned the Ghost Opera Troupe’s Netherworld Stage.

• Lu San and Wang Dao Xuan learned from Chu Qi that Yan XiaoGe had followed the mastermind to Jiyu Garden, then set out through the Bewildering Formation to find him.
• Chu Qi led them to Wang Maode’s estate, where they heard a baby’s cry and abacus clicks before Zhu Suanpan attacked Wang Dao Xuan with the Yin Debt Curse.
• Lu San drove off Ying Ling with his modified mace and caught Zhu Suanpan’s poison-filled abacus bead before it could shatter.
• Wang Dao Xuan broke the curse and began striking Zhu Suanpan with the Seven Arrows Secret Curse, wounding him with the first arrow.
• Zhu Suanpan summoned Yin Wind and raised the Netherworld Stage before the Wang family estate.

Zhu Suanpan used the Netherworld Stage to turn Ying Ling into a Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend, while Wang Dao Xuan and Lu San fought to survive its attacks. Li Yan broke the illusion formation and summoned Marshal Wen to confront the fiend, leaving the battle poised as Marshal Wen appeared before it.

• Zhu Suanpan used the Netherworld Stage to break Wang Dao Xuan's curse, then sent ghostly energy into Ying Ling and transformed him into a Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend.
• Wang Dao Xuan sent a purple paper crane to find the formation's weak point while he and Lu San fought the fiend with the Netherworld Fire Musket and Five Directions Fengdu Banner.
• Li Yan followed the paper crane to the formation eye and destroyed it, breaking the illusion around the Assistant Magistrate's Residence.
• Li Yan sent Xu Zhenshan to alert the City God Temple and commandery authorities about the Japanese pirates, then fought the fiend with his Soul Severing Throwing Knives.
• Li Yan used the Netherworld Transformation and began summoning Marshal Wen with the Bing Ding Life-Creating Ghost Talisman as Zhu Suanpan tried to make the fiend self-destruct.
• The Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend struck Zhu Suanpan from behind, and Marshal Wen appeared in a flash of fire before the creature.

Li Yan tried to refine the Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend and its Evil Omen Qi while Wang Dao Xuan and Xu Zhenshan worked to break the conspiracy’s other parts. The fog began to disperse, but at the docks Lu San discovered that Japanese pirates and local river bandits were attacking together, revealing a suspected alliance with an insider.

• Li Yan trapped the Hundred Ghost Infant Fiend in Marshal Wen’s thunder and fire and attempted to refine its Evil Omen Qi.
• Li Yan sent Wang Dao Xuan to destroy the Netherworld Stage and Lu San to support the messenger at the docks.
• Wang Dao Xuan used Black Dog Blood, burning peachwood, and the Soul Calming Mantra to break the Netherworld Stage’s hold on the Yin Souls.
• Xu Zhenshan fought Cui Erwa at the defiled City God Temple, killed him, and then rallied the surviving fighters to support the docks.
• As the fog lifted, Lu San saw Japanese pirates and local river bandits attacking the ships together and suspected an inside traitor had joined them.