Recaps

Lin Yu found Chen Yuanye hiding beneath a pool in Chen Family Fortress and forced him to confront his shame over abandoning his family and hometown. After claiming to be his junior sister from Ming Zhen Martial Arts School, she learned that he had sensed a powerful presence in the escort caravan and revealed it was a remnant body.

• Chen Yuanye explained that three Six-Guans demons had ambushed him, then his relatives had attacked him after he defeated the demons and rescued several of them.
• Lin Yu said Chen Family Fortress’s villagers seemed like puppets and condemned Chen Yuanye for hiding instead of continuing to fight for his family.
• Lin Yu claimed she was Chen Yuanye’s junior sister, sent by their school to find him, and said Senior Uncle Bai Shiying had believed he was dead.
• Chen Yuanye asked whether the powerful expert traveling with Lin Yu was her master or one of their junior uncles.
• Lin Yu realized Chen Yuanye meant the remnant body being carried by the escort caravan, and he reacted in alarm that it seemed like a living martial artist.

Lin Yu learned from Chen Yuanye that the mutilated corpse was likely the left arm and chest of Blade Demon Xie Chong. Chen Yuanye recounted Xie Chong’s rise, slaughter of martial artists, and final battle with the Guest in the Mountains, which ended with Xie Chong’s body shattered into five pieces.

• Lin Yu questioned Chen Yuanye about the seemingly living mutilated corpse, and Chen Yuanye identified it as a possible remnant of an unparalleled expert.
• Chen Yuanye suggested the remains belonged to Xie Chong, the Blade Demon who had died two years earlier.
• Chen Yuanye told Lin Yu how Xie Chong slaughtered Xuanjiang Martial Arts School, defeated numerous martial artists, and survived an ambush that crippled his right hand.
• Chen Yuanye recounted how Xie Chong later defeated nine experts at the ruins of Xuanjiang Martial Arts School, killing seven and severely injuring two.
• Chen Yuanye said the Guest in the Mountains challenged Xie Chong to a six-shichen battle, after which Xie Chong’s corpse was found shattered into five pieces.

Lin Yu learned that Xie Chong’s corpse could draw both demons and martial artists, and proposed using it to lure out whatever was threatening Chen Family Fortress. She helped Chen Yuanye leave the underground cavern, where he reunited with Yue Zhenqiao, but their dangerous situation remained unresolved.

• Chen Yuanye told Lin Yu that rumors claimed Xie Chong’s corpse held a secret that could help martial artists reach the Grandmaster realm, while Lin Yu dismissed the idea of relying on it.
• Chen Yuanye revealed that he could use only half his ability because a mysterious poison spread through his Meridians whenever he exerted himself, but he resolved to defend Chen Family Fortress.
• Lin Yu proposed using Xie Chong’s corpse as bait to draw out the hidden threat, since both humans and demons would be drawn to it.
• Chen Yuanye crossed the water and leapt out of the cavern despite the pain caused by his poison, then confronted Yue Zhenqiao’s men.
• Lin Yu introduced Chen Yuanye and Yue Zhenqiao to each other and urged them to stop exchanging pleasantries because they were in danger.

Lin Yu returned to the stone house with Yue Zhenqiao and found that most of the people had vanished after Qiao Shaowen lured guards outside. He convinced Yue Zhenqiao to use the escort carriage and Blade Demon Xie Chong’s remains as bait, then summoned rain to cool the way out as they prepared to leave Chen Family Fortress.

• Lin Yu, Yue Zhenqiao, Chen Yuanye, and three escort guards returned to the stone house and found only twelve people left inside.
• Li Nian explained that Qiao Shaowen had returned claiming a demon had captured someone, then led several guards outside despite the blazing heat.
• Lin Yu concluded that the hidden mastermind was intelligent and proposed leaving Chen Family Fortress with the escort carriage, using Blade Demon Xie Chong’s remains as bait to draw it out.
• Yue Zhenqiao agreed to Lin Yu’s plan, and Lin Yu revealed he could summon clouds and rain to ease the heat.
• Lin Yu activated the Rain Prayer ability, bringing down rain that cooled the area as the group prepared to depart.

Lin Yu used Mountain Demon Leader Three Suns to pull the escort cart carrying Xie Chong’s remains out of the damaged livestock shed. At the village road, Chen Yuanye found the villagers moving unnaturally and asked Lin Yu to run them over.

• Lin Yu summoned Three Suns to replace the missing livestock and had it pull the cart carrying Xie Chong’s remains.
• Chen Yuanye guided the cart toward the fastest route out of Chen Family Fortress as Three Suns sped through the rain.
• Villagers emerged and blocked the road, moving stiffly in unison while speaking as if nothing were wrong.
• Chen Yuanye recognized the villagers as people from his hometown and asked Lin Yu to run them over.

Lin Yu and Chen Yuanye fought their way out of Chen Family Fortress with Three Suns, leaving the puppet-like villagers behind. They headed for an abandoned Taoist temple on Double Saw Mountain, where Lin Yu noticed lush vegetation unlike the surrounding landscape.

• Lin Yu ordered Three Suns to help Chen Yuanye break through the controlled villagers, and the two forced open the fortress gate and escaped with twelve people.
• Chen Yuanye admitted that attacking his own villagers and elders was a first for him, then chose an abandoned Taoist temple as their next stop.
• As the carriage crossed Double Saw Mountain, Lin Yu noticed that no demons or wild beasts appeared, and suspected the abnormality extended beyond Chen Family Fortress.
• Chen Yuanye guided the group to the temple, where Lin Yu saw a broad patch of lush green vegetation around the abandoned building.

Lin Yu’s group discovered a Daoist temple in Fire Hell that matched one the Players had entered earlier, despite the Map placing it far away. After concluding that the same temple had somehow moved, Lin Yu examined the Map’s demon marker and asked Chen Yuanye to interpret its three skulls.

• The group approached a Daoist temple surrounded by lush plants and found its grounds cool and sheltered from Fire Hell’s heat.
• Little Fire Dragon told Lin Yu that the temple matched the one the Players had entered near Double Saw Mountain, though the Map marked that temple elsewhere.
• Lin Yu led everyone inside, where Deadshot confirmed the temple’s furnishings matched and a skeleton in a Daoist robe lay in the rear courtyard.
• Lin Yu reasoned that the temple was the same one and wondered why it had moved, then asked Chen Yuanye about the demon marked on the Map.
• Chen Yuanye explained that old Daoist maps used skulls to indicate a demon’s strength, but he could not identify what three skulls meant.

Lin Yu questioned Deadshot, Little Fire Dragon, and Squirtle about the demon they encountered, then theorized that the hidden mastermind could alter people’s pasts and turn them into puppets. He paralyzed the three with Li Nian’s help and concluded that they might be playing a different Instance from his Escort Mission.

• Lin Yu pressed Deadshot, Little Fire Dragon, and Squirtle to explain how a demon disguised as a human had lured them toward a cave before disappearing.
• Deadshot confirmed the demon vanished like the missing escort guards, and Lin Yu proposed that disappearance, memory loss, and puppet control were stages of one ability.
• Lin Yu suggested the mastermind could retrieve earlier states of things it controlled, meaning the escort guards and Chen Yuanye might already be affected through changes to their pasts.
• Li Nian paralyzed Deadshot, Little Fire Dragon, and Squirtle at Lin Yu’s command, and Lin Yu asked them to identify their Instance objective.
• Lin Yu revealed that his Instance was called Escort Mission and concluded that the three might be playing a different Instance.

Lin Yu realized that three players had been trapped in the time-warped Instance for weeks and were now puppets, then explained that Willow Town and the surrounding region might be under the mastermind’s control. He used the belief stored in the [Tower Scam] to activate precognition and began searching for the mastermind’s true form beneath Double Saw Mountain.

• Lin Yu concluded that the three players had died in the Fire Hell of Prison Mountain and had been deceived about how much time had passed.
• Lin Yu told Li Nian that the players knew her as a Tier 2 Player but knew nothing of the recent incident in Haicheng, suggesting they had been trapped for around three weeks.
• Lin Yu warned Fei Dao and Li Nian that the mastermind’s influence might reach Willow Town and possibly extend across the entire Fire Hell.
• Lin Yu proposed using the escort carriage and investigating the Demon Blade remnant body, while Li Nian suspected he had a riskier plan.
• Lin Yu claimed the Diviner had prepared methods for him to glimpse the mastermind, then used stored belief and the [Tooth of Prophecy] to activate precognition.
• Lin Yu asked Old Zheng to knock him unconscious if anything went wrong and let his consciousness descend beneath Double Saw Mountain.

Lin Yu used his transcendent perspective to discover a gigantic spider demon beneath Double Saw Mountain, where it had made abandoned Willow Town its lair. After his spying awakened the demon, he and Li Nian fled the temple as its webs searched for them.

• Lin Yu explored the underground cavern and identified the ruined settlement as Willow Town.
• Lin Yu found a mountain-sized spider demon crouched above the town, and its many crimson eyes sensed his gaze.
• Old Zheng interrupted Lin Yu's vision before the demon could devour his will, and Lin Yu told Li Nian and Fei Dao what he had seen.
• Lin Yu realized the spider demon was directly beneath them and that the escorts and Players had disappeared, leaving searching webs in the temple.
• Old Zheng warned Lin Yu that the demon had found him, and Lin Yu ordered Li Nian and Fei Dao to run.

Lin Yu, Li Nian, and Fei Dao fled Double Saw Mountain as spiders and Spider Silk swarmed around them. Lin Yu retrieved Blade Demon Xie Chong’s mutilated body and caught up with the others, while Li Nian revealed that her protective mermaid statue had belonged to Hunter Kres.

• Lin Yu, Li Nian, and Fei Dao ran from the temple as Spider Silk surged and giant spiders emerged from the ground.
• Lin Yu sent Three Suns to carry Fei Dao with Li Nian, then diverted to retrieve Blade Demon Xie Chong’s mutilated body from the carriage.
• Lin Yu used [Shady Corner] to move through the shadows and catch up with Li Nian and Fei Dao, who were protected by Li Nian’s singing mermaid statue.
• Li Nian accelerated through the spider swarm, and Lin Yu said carrying Xie Chong’s body seemed to make the monsters more frenzied.
• Li Nian revealed that the mermaid statue had belonged to Hunter Kres, and Lin Yu guessed that Kres had come to Jiang City.

Lin Yu, Li Nian, and Fei Dao reached the summit of Double Saw Mountain and realized the giant spider’s web had trapped the surrounding region, leaving them little time before Li Nian’s item expired. They deduced that another piece of Xie Chong’s remains might lie near the temple northwest of them, then spotted a powerful player using Ancestral Spirit Witchcraft in that direction.

• Li Nian’s mermaid-song item held back the spiders, while Lin Yu saw that their webs had trapped Chen Family Fortress and Five Springs Village across a vast area.
• Lin Yu rejected Fei Dao’s hope that local experts would save them and said the giant spider likely had a goal connected to the players or the remains.
• Lin Yu and Li Nian deduced that another piece of the remains might be near the northwest temple and prepared to head there.
• A massive phantom and burning meteors appeared in the northwest, and Li Nian recognized the display as Black Marsh World’s Ancestral Spirit Witchcraft.
• Old Zheng identified the distant player as likely Tier 2, explained her Student profession, and said she had released a stored ability using a Lesson Plan and Student ID.

Seagull, Gao Shan, and Snowy Owl fought off a spider tide in the Instance, but the spiders suddenly fled toward an unknown threat. Three Players arrived, and their leader introduced herself as a friend of Night Watcher from Jiang City's Jiang'an Hall.

• Seagull used a powerful meteorite attack to clear a safe zone, while Snowy Owl warned that it could only be used once and might not defeat the spiders for good.
• Gao Shan, Seagull, and Snowy Owl discussed the Instance’s unclear objective, the missing escort caravan, and the possibility that the spiders could control people.
• As Seagull’s attack faded, the spiders and webs abruptly turned away from the group and rushed toward something approaching.
• Gao Shan spotted a moving mound of spiders and silk heading toward them, and Snowy Owl prepared to meet whoever was behind it.
• Three unfamiliar Players emerged, and their leader introduced herself as a friend of Night Watcher from Jiang City's Jiang'an Hall.

Lin Yu and Li Nian encountered members of the Night Watchers and Order, who recognized Li Nian as the Divine Thief of the Freedom Alliance. Lin Yu helped persuade them to cooperate against the spider threat, and the group agreed to postpone dealing with Li Nian.

• Lin Yu introduced his companions to Snowy Owl, Seagull, and Gao Shan, explaining that Fei Dao had hired him and that he had met Alian inside the Instance.
• Gao Shan recognized Li Nian as the Divine Thief, prompting the others to put away their Items and treat her with caution.
• Lin Yu pretended to be surprised by Li Nian's identity, then argued that the group should work together against the spiders because she had protected him and Fei Dao.
• Gao Shan concluded that Order's rules did not require them to fight Li Nian, and Snowy Owl and Seagull accepted cooperating while warning her not to steal from them.
• Seagull accused Li Nian of stealing Kres's Siren's Blessing, but Li Nian denied it and claimed her statue was a Mermaid's Elegy she had bought herself.

Lin Yu and Snowy Owl’s teams agreed to cooperate in the Instance, then compared their conflicting Clearance Conditions. They discovered that both goals concerned the lost Willow Town, but Snowy Owl questioned how their objectives could be reconciled.

• Lin Yu judged that Gao Shan had recognized Li Nian, but neither team was ready to fight, so both sides agreed to prioritize clearing the Instance.
• Lin Yu explained that the teams might have opposing Clearance Conditions and asked Snowy Owl’s group to reveal theirs.
• Snowy Owl said her group had to prevent Willow Town from emerging and had slaughtered the mountain bandits who tried to rob an escort convoy.
• Seagull described letters linking the convoy’s cargo to Willow Town and recounted what the surviving bandits knew about the town.
• Lin Yu revealed that the real Willow Town was an ancient town buried in Double Saw Mountain and that his team had to reach it.
• Lin Yu concluded that their objectives might allow cooperation, but Snowy Owl asked how reaching Willow Town could be reconciled with preventing it from emerging.

Lin Yu explained that a mountain-sized spider demon controlled the ruins of Willow Town beneath Double Saw Mountain and proposed cooperating to reach the town while stopping it from emerging. He revealed that the corpse on his back was the escorted dart, which he said was the Instance’s key.

• Seagull guessed that stopping Willow Town from emerging meant going to the renamed town, but Lin Yu and Snowy Owl rejected the idea.
• Lin Yu said the true Willow Town lay beneath Double Saw Mountain and was occupied by a giant spider demon that controlled webs, spiders, and people by manipulating their pasts.
• Snowy Owl, Gao Shan, and Seagull agreed that cooperation was necessary, and Lin Yu proposed that one group enter Willow Town while the other fought the demon.
• Snowy Owl challenged the plan as impractical, and Lin Yu said the Instance’s core key was the dart he had been carrying.
• Seagull mistook Lin Yu for the Embalmer, but Gao Shan corrected him, and Lin Yu revealed that the corpse he carried was the escorted dart.

Lin Yu explained that the escort cargo was the living mutilated body of martial arts master Xie Chong, and the group set out to find another body part near a Taoist temple. When Li Nian’s protective sculpture ran out, spiders swarmed the group, Snowy Owl revealed the effects of a powerful curse, and Lin Yu prepared to take the sculpture.

• Lin Yu told Snowy Owl, Seagull, and Gao Shan that the cargo was the living remains of Xie Chong, the Blade Demon, and recounted what Chen Yuanye had told him about Xie Chong’s past.
• The group concluded that they needed more information to understand the connection between Xie Chong, Willow Town, and the spider monsters.
• Lin Yu said another part of Xie Chong’s body was likely northwest of Double Saw Mountain, inside a building resembling a Taoist temple, and Gao Shan offered to lead the way.
• Li Nian’s [Mermaid’s Elegy] ran out, ending the barrier and allowing spiders and Spider Silk to surge toward the six people.
• Snowy Owl drove back the monsters with her blade, but curse patterns appeared on her arm; Old Zheng explained that her curse had greatly reduced her strength.
• Lin Yu asked Li Nian to hand him the sculpture.

Lin Yu refreshed Li Nian’s Siren’s Blessing with his Repaired Mist Pocket Watch, allowing the group to push through the spider-infested mountains and reach the bandit stronghold. There, they found evidence of the bandits’ cruelty and the corpses of its former occupants hanging at the gate.

• Lin Yu reset Li Nian’s Siren’s Blessing with his Repaired Mist Pocket Watch, and Li Nian used it to repel the spiders again.
• Gao Shan warned Lin Yu to guard his items around Li Nian, prompting playful banter that left the group’s mutual distrust more apparent.
• The group divided tasks and followed Gao Shan’s directions through the mountains toward the stronghold and the nearby temple.
• Snowy Owl confirmed the temple was the unusual place the team had spotted earlier but skipped while pursuing the caravan.
• Lin Yu and the others reached the bandit stronghold, where human bones lined the walls and the former bandits’ corpses hung at the gate.

Lin Yu's group questioned why the bandit corpses had attracted no scavengers, then met an old Daoist who claimed he had cleared the surrounding mountains of beasts and Great Demons. After demonstrating his Taiqing Sect identity, the Daoist recognized that Lin Yu carried the incomplete remains of Xie Chong.

• Li Nian condemned the bandits for eating children, while Snowy Owl explained that their bodies had been displayed as a warning to other criminals.
• Lin Yu noticed that no Great Demons or wild beasts had touched the corpses, and Gao Shan urged the group to stay alert.
• An old Daoist emerged from the stronghold and said he had cleared the surrounding mountains of Great Demons and beasts.
• Snowy Owl questioned the Daoist, who claimed he came from the Taiqing Sect and demonstrated the Qi Transformation Clear Wind Technique.
• Lin Yu recognized the technique, and the old Daoist revealed that he knew Lin Yu had been entrusted with the incomplete remains of Xie Chong.

Lin Yu met Xuan Yunzi, a Taiqing Sect Daoist who explained that Xie Chong’s remains could help confront the spider demon threatening Double Saw Mountain. Xuan Yunzi revealed the demon’s history and the failing seal beneath Fire Hell, then invited Lin Yu’s group to his temple to explain why he guarded it alone.

• Xuan Yunzi warned Lin Yu’s group that Xie Chong’s remains concealed a great secret and could bring disaster.
• Lin Yu told Xuan Yunzi that he intended to use the remains against the spider demon near Double Saw Mountain.
• Xuan Yunzi introduced himself and identified the demon as the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord, which the Taiqing Sect had sealed in Fire Hell centuries earlier.
• Xuan Yunzi explained that the demon’s spider silk and descendants indicated its seal was failing, while the Taiqing Sect lacked the knowledge to safely repair it.
• When Lin Yu asked why no other Daoists helped guard the seal, Xuan Yunzi invited the group to his temple to hear the full story.

Xuan Yunzi explained how the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord used Karma Threads to rewrite people’s pasts and how he used that power to trap it. He revealed that the five Taoist temples were one temple replicated through the demon’s altered memories, leaving the group with the formation’s flaws concealed in those false pasts.

• Gao Shan asked why Xuan Yunzi had ignored the nearby bandits, and Xuan Yunzi explained that the threat of thousands of twelve-giving monsters made the loosened seal a lower priority.
• Xuan Yunzi brought the group to his Taoist temple, where Lin Yu recognized it as identical to the temple inside Double Saw Mountain.
• Xuan Yunzi admitted that the five temples across the mountains were one temple, and that he had used the demon’s ability to create four false pasts and restrict its true body.
• Xuan Yunzi explained that the demon’s Karma Threads rewrote memories, consumed living souls, and turned victims into puppets.
• Xuan Yunzi said he had let the demon devour his past, then used Qi Transformation External Body to make his true body vanish and trigger a formation that concealed flaws in the demon’s four altered pasts.

Xuan Yunzi explained how the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord became bound to Willow Town and why erasing the town’s existence could strip it of its Resurrection Means. He then connected the demon’s growing activity to Xie Chong, whose role remained to be explained.

• Xuan Yunzi told Lin Yu that he had crippled his divine ability to block four of the demon’s Resurrection Means and sworn a Daoist Oath restricting his cultivation to fighting demons and monsters.
• Snowy Owl asked Xuan Yunzi how the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord was connected to Xie Chong and Willow Town.
• Xuan Yunzi recounted how the Taiqing Sect Patriarch trapped and defeated the demon in Willow Town, causing the town to sink underground and all its people to die.
• Xuan Yunzi explained that the demon had fused itself with Willow Town’s past, bound its life to the souls of its former residents, and could be killed only if the concept of Willow Town disappeared.
• Xuan Yunzi said Willow Town was close to disappearing and suggested that this explained why the spider demon had grown increasingly restless.
• Xuan Yunzi brought the discussion back to Xie Chong, who had stirred up the martial world.

Xuan Yunzi explained how the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord spread its Karma Threads through people’s relationships and revealed how it manipulated Xie Chong’s past and memories. Lin Yu realized that Xie Chong’s remains may have become the demon’s new web of connections, suggesting someone was working to bring it into the world.

• Xuan Yunzi explained that the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord began with people who had few connections and spread its influence through their relationships.
• Xuan Yunzi revealed that Xie Chong’s ancestor had been the abandoned infant rescued by the founder of the Taiqing Sect, and that the demon later manipulated Xie Chong into believing he had slaughtered his sect.
• Xuan Yunzi admitted that he had confronted Xie Chong and told him the truth, but an unknown human martial artist knocked him unconscious before Xie Chong died.
• Lin Yu realized that Xie Chong’s remains had formed new connections throughout the martial world, potentially giving the demon a way to spread its Karma Threads.
• Li Nian concluded that someone from the Prison Mountain Realm was operating outside to hasten the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord’s return.

Lin Yu and the others learned that Xie Chong’s remains could help expose the demon’s accomplice, and Xuan Yunzi gave Lin Yu the sealed leg hidden in his temple. The reunited remains drew out the disguised Chen Yuanye, who revealed how he had used the real Chen Yuanye to deceive Lin Yu.

• Xuan Yunzi gave Lin Yu Divine Speed Talismans and identified a wealthy man in Xian Town, marked by a mole on his left cheek, as a lead to Xie Chong’s accomplice.
• Lin Yu reasoned that Xuan Yunzi had Xie Chong’s remains and persuaded him to surrender the sealed left leg, despite the danger of holding two pieces together.
• The leg flew to Lin Yu and rejoined the remains on his back, releasing an aura that could attract the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord.
• A disguised Chen Yuanye appeared at the temple, and Lin Yu revealed that he had doubted the stranger’s claim of being trapped for a year.
• The impostor admitted that the real Chen Yuanye had disappeared a year earlier and that he had fabricated a year of memories before releasing him to deceive Lin Yu.

Lin Yu confronted Chen Yuanye, discovered that he had genuinely released Chen Yuanye’s consciousness, and learned he could use the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord’s Karma Threads. Rather than fight over Xie Chong’s remains, Lin Yu offered to negotiate, leaving Chen Yuanye to explain his plans for them.

• Lin Yu revealed that he had lured Chen Yuanye out by carrying Xie Chong’s remains, and Chen Yuanye admitted he had commissioned the Jinfu Escort Agency to transport them.
• Chen Yuanye claimed he was human despite using the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord’s Karma Threads, while Xuan Yunzi condemned him as a demon.
• Chen Yuanye summoned martial-artist Shadows and demanded Xie Chong’s remains, prompting Snowy Owl, Gao Shan, and Seagull to prepare for battle.
• Lin Yu interrupted the fight and offered to hand over the remains if Chen Yuanye fulfilled the Players’ objective, despite Xuan Yunzi’s objections.
• Lin Yu asked Chen Yuanye what he intended to do with Xie Chong’s remains.