Chapter Summaries

Qi WuHuo left the village school after another day of learning and climbed the mountain to gather firewood. A strange mist led him into a valley where unseen beasts and spirits gathered, and a mysterious singer called him forward.

• Qi WuHuo left the school with the day’s lessons in mind, while Teacher and his wife discussed his refusal to accept free tuition and Teacher’s plan to test his talent after the New Year.
• Teacher explained that Qi WuHuo brought rabbits as tuition because he believed accepting free instruction would be unfair to the other students.
• Qi WuHuo recalled surviving the Jinzhou disaster and the strange dreams that had taught him square-shaped characters and verses about learning and duty.
• Qi WuHuo gathered firewood on the mountain, but night mist obscured his route and led him onto an unfamiliar path.
• Qi WuHuo entered a deep valley where a mysterious voice sang to a gathering of beasts and spirits, then invited him forward.

Qi WuHuo met an injured old man on the mountain, treated him, and carried him toward town. The old man tested Qi WuHuo’s character, then dispelled his spell and declared that they had formed a good connection.

• Qi WuHuo found an old man in purple robes beneath the moon and cautiously checked his injured leg.
• Qi WuHuo treated the old man, shared food and water, and told him how his Teacher had sacrificed himself in the Demon Kingdom to save him.
• Qi WuHuo offered to take the old man to town or shelter him at home, then carried him down the mountain.
• The old man made himself heavier and deepened the mist to test Qi WuHuo, but Qi WuHuo kept walking and admitted he had smelled a demon.
• The old man dispelled the spell, restoring Qi WuHuo’s strength and healing his hidden injuries, while spirits and monsters escorted them through the night.
• The old man told Qi WuHuo they had formed a good connection after he carried him twelve hundred steps.

Qi WuHuo brought the injured old man home, cared for him, and shared a meal with him. After Qi WuHuo refused several offers of repayment, the old man proposed opening a gate and granting him twelve hundred years of mortal life.

• A night watchman warned Qi WuHuo about the snow, then watched in surprise as he hurried away at remarkable speed with the old man on his back.
• Qi WuHuo brought the old man to his repaired hut, warmed the room, changed his bandages, and cooked him porridge.
• The old man learned Qi WuHuo's name and offered him wealth and a marriage to a beautiful woman, but Qi WuHuo refused both on grounds of propriety and righteousness.
• The old man offered to open a gate and grant Qi WuHuo twelve hundred years of life in the mortal world.

Qi WuHuo’s strength seemed to grow despite his insistence that nothing was unusual, while Su Shengyuan visited to give him warm clothes and praise his scholarship. As Su Shengyuan left, he asked his daughter Yue'er how she would feel about getting engaged to Qi WuHuo three years later.

• The old man admitted he had made up the promise of 1,200 years of lifespan and stopped bringing up good karma.
• After ten days of heavy snow, Qi WuHuo split a thick log with one swing, but dismissed his growing strength as soft wood.
• Su Shengyuan and his wife visited Qi WuHuo, gave him winter clothes, and heard him answer questions about his studies.
• Su Shengyuan praised Qi WuHuo’s extraordinary talent and promised to recommend him for the Spring Examination.
• In the carriage, Su Shengyuan asked his daughter Yue'er whether she would agree to an engagement with Qi WuHuo in three years.

Su Shengyuan proposed Qi WuHuo as a husband for his daughter, but she rejected him in favor of a more privileged match. After Qi WuHuo explained his ambitions to serve the people and earn fame, the old man gave him a jade pillow and sent him into a dream meant to test whether he could see through worldly desires.

• Su Shengyuan urged his daughter to marry Qi WuHuo, but she refused, arguing that his lack of family standing made his prospects uncertain.
• A handsome young man from Su Shengyuan's wife's clan entered the carriage and claimed he could match Qi WuHuo's abilities, and Su Shengyuan dropped the subject.
• Qi WuHuo examined the money, clothes, and annotated books Mr. Su had left him, then joined the old man for tea.
• Qi WuHuo described his hopes of becoming an official or general to help the people, while the old man warned that service and fame would bind him to the ruler.
• The old man gave the drowsy Qi WuHuo a jade pillow and sent him to sleep, then summoned tea, a winter plum blossom, and snow as he declared that seeing through worldly splendor could lead to the immortal sects.

After waking from a strange sleep, Qi WuHuo rose to fame as a scholar and moved to the Capital, where he befriended a mysterious young lady who visited him at night. On Mid-Autumn night, she finally stepped out of her sedan chair and teased him when his zither playing faltered.

• Qi WuHuo awoke after a terrifying dream and found his belongings intact beside him.
• With Mr. Su's help, Qi WuHuo excelled in the Spring and Autumn Examinations, then went to the Capital to study.
• A green-clad maid invited Qi WuHuo to meet her young lady, who arrived that night with a lavish procession and played the zither while speaking with him.
• The young lady visited Qi WuHuo regularly for months, and the two grew close through music and conversation.
• On Mid-Autumn night, the green-clad maid opened the sedan curtains, and the young lady emerged, teasing Qi WuHuo as his music faltered.

Qi WuHuo dreamed through a lifetime of friendship, ambition, political triumph, exile, and regret before dying and meeting Qiong Yu again. He awoke back in his own home as the Millet Dream Rice was still cooking.

• Qi WuHuo recognized Qiong Yu, the Mountain God, as the green-robed attendant at her temple and received the Soul Nurturing Method from her before they parted.
• Qi WuHuo passed the Imperial Examination, rose through government service, and became renowned for helping the people and defeating the Demon Kingdom.
• After court rivalries led to his demotion and exile, Qi WuHuo returned to power under a new emperor but rejected wealth, marriage, and political maneuvering.
• Qi WuHuo died after the emperor sent Imperial Guards to his estate, leaving behind the verse, “Seventy years, a tangled wreck.”
• Qi WuHuo met Qiong Yu again after death, reflected on his life, and played the qin before his soul dispersed.
• Qi WuHuo awoke from the dream when an old man shook him and said the Millet Dream Rice needed another quarter of an hour to cook.

After waking from a jade-pillow dream in which he lived as a celebrated scholar and statesman, Qi WuHuo discovered that the knowledge he had gained remained with him. He asked the old man whether immortals existed and could live forever, and the old man answered yes.

• Qi WuHuo awoke, ate Millet Dream Rice with the old man, and told him about the dream and the jade pillow.
• Qi WuHuo recognized the books Mr. Su had given him from the dream and found that he remembered their contents and understood them deeply.
• Qi WuHuo touched the jade pillow, which cracked apart, and learned that the old man had received it from True Man Huolong.
• Qi WuHuo reflected on the dream and asked whether immortals existed and could attain eternal life; the old man said they could.

After a dream awakens Qi WuHuo’s spirit, the old man warns that his body is too weak to sustain it and prepares to teach him one move before leaving. Qi WuHuo accepts an invitation to visit the Li family, hoping to learn whether the Capital City from his dream was real.

• Qi WuHuo asks the old man to teach him, but the old man says the Great Dao and eternal life must be sought for himself.
• Qi WuHuo meditates on his dream and awakens spiritual cultivation, while the old man observes that his spirit has advanced but his body remains weak.
• Qi WuHuo senses Li Puyü approaching from hundreds of paces away and opens the door before Li Puyü can knock.
• Li Puyü invites Qi WuHuo to the Li family’s home, and Qi WuHuo accepts because he wants to ask about the Capital City.
• After Qi WuHuo’s spirit roams outside his body and nearly leaves him collapsed, the old man warns him that his weak body cannot support his powerful spirit.
• The old man says he will teach Qi WuHuo one move before he leaves.

The old man taught Qi WuHuo the principles of Daoist cultivation and guided him through Breath Nourishing Qi. After meditating through the night, Qi WuHuo sat beneath a plum tree at sunrise, and the old man asked whether he had grasped the method.

• The old man explained the lineage's General Principle and taught Qi WuHuo to cultivate essence, Qi, and spirit by reversing their natural progression.
• The old man warned Qi WuHuo that shortcuts could yield powers quickly but hinder long-term cultivation and lifespan.
• The old man guided Qi WuHuo through Breath Nourishing Qi, teaching him to use his spirit to control Qi and refine essence.
• Qi WuHuo entered meditation and circulated his breath through the winter night, remaining warm despite the cold.
• At sunrise, Qi WuHuo opened his eyes beneath the plum tree as a sparrow perched on his shoulder, and the old man asked if he had grasped the method.

Qi WuHuo learned how to cultivate primordial essence and chose to pursue the Great Dao, using sword practice to strengthen himself and defend himself. Meanwhile, Li Yixian revealed to Li YueLin that his remarkably profitable business was selling ghosts.

• The old man taught Qi WuHuo about Life Cultivation, primordial essence, and the risks of neglecting it, and Qi WuHuo declared that he wanted to seek the Great Dao.
• After breakfast, Qi WuHuo uncovered the sword he had found during the famine and practiced the swordsmanship he remembered from his dreams, feeling his primordial essence refine slightly.
• Qi WuHuo resolved to keep cultivating Complete Essence, Complete Qi, and Complete Spirit while using swordsmanship for self-defense.
• At the Li family residence, Li YueLin confronted Li Yixian about his hundred taels of gold in yearly profits, and Li Yixian said he was selling ghosts.

Li Yixian recounted how he escaped a ghost by selling it at the Ghost Market, earning enough gold to support his family. After Li YueLin worried the gold might draw more ghosts, Li Yixian reassured him that he had sought a Daoist’s protection and planned to settle down; Qi WuHuo then prepared for his visit to the Li family.

• Li Yixian told Li YueLin how he met a ghost outside the Capital City and pretended to be a ghost himself to survive.
• Li Yixian tricked the ghost into following him to the Ghost Market, used blood from his tongue to stop its transformation, and sold it to an old Daoist for a hundred and fifty taels of gold.
• Li YueLin comforted Li Yixian and worried that the gold from selling an evil ghost might attract more ghosts.
• Li Yixian said he had prayed at a Daoist temple in the Capital City and planned to stay in Zhongzhou, get married, and settle down.
• Qi WuHuo split firewood, noted the mountain was not blocked by snow, and remembered that Li Puyü had invited him to the Li family the next day.

Qi WuHuo climbed the snowy mountain to gather food and herbs, discovering several valuable Huang Jing with the help of his heightened senses. He spared a thousand-year-old Huang Jing that pleaded with him, but a talking deer accused him of stealing the plants it had cultivated.

• Qi WuHuo went up the mountain and filled his basket with winter bamboo shoots, Chinese clematis, and other mountain produce.
• Qi WuHuo found Huang Jing and gathered some, leaving one plant untouched and taking only part of another.
• Qi WuHuo discovered a thousand-year-old Huang Jing that transformed into a tiny person and begged him not to pick it.
• Qi WuHuo agreed to spare the tiny person and advised it to hide better.
• A deer on the cliff shouted at Qi WuHuo, accusing him of stealing the Huang Jing it had grown.

Qi WuHuo returned the yellow essence to the Deer Spirit that had planted it and was invited to the mountain spirits’ year-end feast. After meeting the Mountain God, a white-fronted tiger, Qi WuHuo was asked whether he would hear the tiger’s Dao.

• The Deer Spirit showed Qi WuHuo the marked patches of yellow essence, reclaimed what it had planted, and gave him a small portion as payment.
• The Deer Spirit invited Qi WuHuo to its mountain feast, and they discussed the short lives of deer and the human lifespan.
• Qi WuHuo reflected that humans were like mayflies compared with heaven and earth, and a voice ahead praised his words.
• The Deer Spirit led Qi WuHuo into a clearing, where the white-fronted tiger introduced himself as the Mountain God and welcomed him to the year-end feast.
• The mountain spirits added fruits and medicinal materials to a Bronze Cauldron to make spirit liquid, and Qi WuHuo added his yellow essence.
• The Mountain God asked Qi WuHuo whether he knew how to cultivate primordial essence, then offered to let him hear his Dao.

The tiger taught Qi WuHuo the orthodox method of gathering and refining Primordial Essence, then used spirit liquid to help him practice. Qi WuHuo gathered Primordial Essence in his limbs and bones, astonishing the tiger with how quickly he succeeded.

• Qi WuHuo accepted the tiger’s invitation to hear the Dao as the gathered beasts took seats around them.
• The tiger explained that orthodox cultivation required seeking and refining Primordial Essence throughout the body, and warned the beasts that they were not ready to receive the method.
• Qi WuHuo compared the tiger’s teaching with the old man’s earlier instructions and recognized that the methods seemed to confirm one another.
• The tiger transformed the little green cauldron, refined medicinal materials into spirit liquid, and invited Qi WuHuo and the beasts to drink.
• As the beasts became drunk, Qi WuHuo sat in the snow and used the spirit liquid’s effects to circulate his breath and gather Primordial Essence.
• The tiger saw that Primordial Essence had gathered in Qi WuHuo’s body so quickly and stared in surprise.

Qi WuHuo cultivated primordial essence under the Fierce Tiger Mountain God's guidance, surprising the mountain spirits with his quick progress. He returned home with the Mountain God's gifts and told the old man that he had cultivated primordial essence.

• Qi WuHuo gathered and refined Primordial Qi of All Things, forming primordial essence in his lower dantian and completing a cycle with his vital energy and Primordial Spirit.
• Qi WuHuo instinctively avoided the white ape's reaching paw, astonishing the ape and the Fierce Tiger Mountain God.
• The Fierce Tiger told Qi WuHuo that his cultivation far surpassed its own progress and explained that it had invited him because he spared the thousand-year-old Huang Jing.
• Qi WuHuo asked for winter bamboo shoots as a gift for a friend, and the Fierce Tiger and mountain spirits filled his basket with produce, spiritual herbs, and wine.
• Qi WuHuo returned home and cooked a meal for the old man, who noticed his primordial essence; Qi WuHuo said that he had cultivated it.

Qi WuHuo corrected the Fierce Tiger Mountain God's Primordial Essence method and returned home, while the Mountain God prepared to break through his bottleneck. The next morning, an Earth God reported deadly energy at the Li Residence, where Qi WuHuo had just arrived.

• The old man explained the flaws in the Fierce Tiger Mountain God's method, and Qi WuHuo asked permission to pass along the corrections.
• Qi WuHuo visited the Mountain God that night and taught him the corrected method, helping him see a way through his bottleneck.
• Qi WuHuo declined the Mountain God's invitation to stay, returned home, and told the old man he had delivered the message.
• The Mountain God invited nearby deities to trade for spirit-nourishing treasures as his bottleneck began to break.
• An Earth God reported deadly energy at the Li Residence, and Qi WuHuo arrived there and knocked on its gate.

Qi WuHuo attended a banquet at the Li family home, where Li Yixian’s stories about the Capital City revealed that his dream and the present differed in unsettling ways. When Qi WuHuo played the zither, his music silenced the room and a Daoist outside recognized that his Primordial Spirit had taken form.

• Li Puyü welcomed Qi WuHuo to the Li family banquet, where Li YueLin greeted him warmly and gave him New Year’s money.
• Li Puyü introduced Qi WuHuo to his second uncle, Li Yixian, a wealthy but dispirited former traveling merchant.
• Qi WuHuo challenged Li Yixian about the risks of doing business in the Capital City, startling him by describing a fate like his own.
• Li Yixian’s accounts of the Capital City partly matched Qi WuHuo’s memories, but details such as Dingyan Peak and its temple differed from his dream.
• Qi WuHuo played the ancient zither, and his music silenced everyone inside and outside the hall.
• A Daoist outside the Li family home recognized that Qi WuHuo’s Primordial Spirit had taken form.

Qi WuHuo’s qin music weakened the Taoist priest’s ghosts, but the priest entered the Li family home and demanded Li Yixian’s life in repayment for Underworld gold. When he demanded Qi WuHuo’s soul and Primordial Spirit instead, Qi WuHuo agreed and asked the Taoist to demonstrate how he would take them.

• Qi WuHuo played the qin, awakening the ghosts’ spiritual nature and forcing the Taoist priest to draw them back into his sleeve.
• The Taoist priest entered the main hall, mistook Qi WuHuo for a powerful True Person at first, then dismissed him as a crooked practitioner of the Left Path.
• The Taoist priest told Li Yixian that the gold he had received bought fifteen years of Yang Longevity and had come from the Underworld.
• Li YueLin tried to repay the gold and offered extra money to spare Li Yixian, but the bag contained soybeans and the Taoist priest produced the gold himself.
• The Taoist priest offered to spare Li Yixian if the family handed over Qi WuHuo’s soul and Primordial Spirit; Li Yixian offered himself instead.
• Qi WuHuo agreed to the Taoist priest’s demand and invited him closer so he could see the method firsthand.

Qi WuHuo fought off a Daoist who tried to capture him, but the battle turned when the Daoist unleashed a powerful divine spell. The Lord of Lianhe Mountain appeared and revealed that he had come to meet Qi WuHuo for their promised drink.

• Qi WuHuo broke free of the Daoist’s black wind, stabbed him with a dagger, and pursued him with arrows after he escaped using a talisman.
• The Daoist summoned a Black Iron Sword Box and used Sword Qi to shatter Qi WuHuo’s arrows.
• Qi WuHuo recognized a character on the Daoist’s wooden token from the Demon Kingdom calamity five years earlier as the Daoist began a divine incantation.
• The storm turned against the Daoist, battered him to the ground, and revealed the power of the Lord of Lianhe Mountain.
• The Lord of Lianhe Mountain emerged with a wine jug and spear, telling Qi WuHuo that he had been late for their promised drink.