Chapter Summaries

Yun Qin copied the Original Text of the Mystic Altar for Qi WuHuo and tried to teach him Cloud Seal script, only for him to master it quickly and explain its deeper principles. The two resumed their discussion after Yun Qin got embarrassed and declared she would not speak to him for fifteen breaths.

• Yun Qin copied the Original Text of the Mystic Altar onto the mirror so Qi WuHuo could study it.
• Yun Qin explained the Cloud Seal characters and their uses, expecting Qi WuHuo to need several months to learn them.
• Qi WuHuo quickly learned the characters and proposed that Cloud Seal script worked through spiritual resonance rather than fixed forms.
• Qi WuHuo explained that Cloud Seal script’s changing forms reflected the nature of clouds, leaving Yun Qin impressed and embarrassed.
• Yun Qin told Qi WuHuo she would not speak to him for fifteen breaths, while he began recording the method.

Qi WuHuo helped Yun Qin study cloud seals, then struggled to understand the Primordial Scarlet Script after she left. By combining the meanings of its three thousand derived cloud seals with the Supreme One lineage’s heart formula, he finally grasped its meaning and wrote the Edict spell.

• Qi WuHuo taught Yun Qin the true meaning of cloud seals, and she gained enough understanding to prepare for her teacher’s test.
• Yun Qin examined Qi WuHuo’s mysterious bird’s egg and promised to search the Supreme Clarity Book Pavilion for its species.
• Qi WuHuo planned to create a new cultivation method for Yun Qin without passing on Senior Disciple Sister Yu Miao’s secret sword inheritance.
• After Yun Qin’s mirror connection ended, Qi WuHuo repeatedly tried to write the Primordial Scarlet Script but found every attempt incomplete.
• Qi WuHuo recalled the three thousand cloud seals derived from the script and used their meanings to understand its character.
• Qi WuHuo understood the script’s meaning as nonaction and action, then wrote the spell called Edict.

Qi WuHuo fell asleep after struggling to write the Primordial Scarlet Script, and his [Edict] character transformed as the regrets recorded on his paper gathered into a scroll. A point of light tried to register him as a Shangqing disciple, but his wooden hairpin shattered the ritual, leaving the Danyang Miaohua Celestial Lord stunned when the name on the Shangqing Jade Tablet vanished.

• Qi WuHuo wrote an imperfect [Edict] character, exhausted himself, and fell asleep with his papers in his arms.
• Zhou Lingyi and others woke before dawn as strange, heavy clouds covered the village, while Lian Shulan wept in her sleep for her daughter.
• Qi WuHuo's [Edict] character and the paper bearing the souls' regrets transformed, and a point of light flew toward him to leave a trace of Shangqing qi.
• Qi WuHuo's wooden hairpin glowed and smashed the Shangqing name-register ritual before the light could settle between his brows.
• The Danyang Miaohua Celestial Lord saw a name appear on the Shangqing Jade Tablet, but it vanished before he could read it.

Qi WuHuo discovered that the Edict formed a nascent Spirit Treasure and began outlining a cultivation path called the Spirit Treasure Dao. In the Danyang Heavenly Palace, the Jade Tablet flashed with unfamiliar characters again, while Qi WuHuo returned to ordinary chores without realizing the Heavenly Realm had noticed him.

• Danyang Miaohua Celestial Lord investigated a name that briefly appeared and vanished on the Jade Tablet, then ordered Qingying and Yueying to summon disciples and search the Shangqing records.
• Qingying and Yueying described a useful spell from Wuhuo Daojun's scripture, and Danyang Miaohua Celestial Lord recognized the Yellow Ox Star Official's familiar trick of taking money from both sides.
• Qi WuHuo woke from a nap, examined the paper bearing the Edict, and recognized its concentrated golden resonance as that of a nascent Spirit Treasure.
• Qi WuHuo reasoned that fulfilling the wishes and regrets recorded in the Edict could temper it, and he named the cultivation path the Spirit Treasure Dao.
• Danyang Miaohua Celestial Lord saw characters flash across the Jade Tablet again as disciples began searching the records.
• Qi WuHuo gathered the characters into his sleeve, roasted sweet potatoes, and noticed his hairpin was crooked while washing up.

Qi WuHuo studied the Mystic Altar rituals and devised a simplified method to send messages over long distances. He used it to contact Elder Tao at He Lian Mountain, where the old deity heard his call in a dream.

• Qi WuHuo fed the weakened egg medicinal liquid and studied the three rituals in the Original Text of the Mystic Altar.
• Qi WuHuo combined elements of the rituals into a simplified method and created a Precious Invocation identifying himself as True Lord WuHuo.
• Qi WuHuo decided to test the method by contacting He Lian Mountain and sending word that he was safe.
• Qi WuHuo used the Mountain God Talisman Seal and Elder Tao's name in the Jade Book to perform the Mystic Altar ritual.
• Elder Tao heard Qi WuHuo's distant voice calling him in a dream and abruptly sobered up.

Qi WuHuo used a dream transmission to tell Elder Tao to prepare a ritual altar and sound the Dharma Drum, then went to Central Province Prefecture City to buy supplies. There, he learned about Heaven Emperor Coins and encountered the old man from Jinzhou playing Go beneath a huge tree.

• Qi WuHuo appeared in Elder Tao’s dream, heard about He Lian Mountain, and asked him to hold a ritual the next day and record a sacred proclamation.
• Elder Tao woke, wrote down the proclamation naming Qi WuHuo True Lord WuHuo of the Marvelous Dao, and vowed to quit drinking and resume cultivation.
• Qi WuHuo bought offerings and a Dharma Drum in Central Province Prefecture City, where a shopkeeper explained how Heaven Emperor Coins could influence underworld bailiffs.
• Qi WuHuo went east across the city and found the old man from Jinzhou coaxing a child into another game of Go beneath a huge tree.
• The old man sensed Qi WuHuo and looked up at him.

Qi WuHuo met Ao Liu beneath an old tree and played Go with him, learning from the old man’s reflections on cultivation, memory, and mortality. Ao Liu gave Qi WuHuo a cloud-and-mist cultivation manuscript, then disappeared into the crowd after recalling his deceased wife and their past.

• Ao Liu invited Qi WuHuo to play Go beneath the old tree and repeatedly lost as Qi WuHuo followed the solution he remembered from the Yellow Millet Dream.
• Ao Liu shared advice from the Eastern Sea House, and Qi WuHuo realized that playing the qin could help nurture his nature.
• Ao Liu told Qi WuHuo about his late wife and explained how the tree he planted preserved memories of his life.
• Qi WuHuo recited the game fragment’s solution, and Ao Liu gave him a manuscript combining Go with the art of clouds and mist.
• Qi WuHuo introduced himself as Qi WuHuo, and Ao Liu introduced himself as Ao Liu before they parted.
• Ao Liu walked across the stone bridge, remembered his beloved, and vanished into the crowd.

Qi WuHuo met the fortune teller again and learned that the rainmaking Water God faced judgment after a formation failure released evil qi. The fortune teller warned Qi WuHuo to stay away from the city and explained the deadly authority of the North Pole Exorcism Institute, while a persistent gray-robed monk followed him into Pingkang Ward.

• Qi WuHuo read Old Mr. Ao Liu’s manuscript on chess and qi as he walked, then encountered the fortune teller at the Knows Nothing of Everything sign.
• The fortune teller said Qi WuHuo had played the game that he and Old Mr. Ao Liu were supposed to play, and advised him to leave the city because it was crawling with monks.
• The fortune teller explained that the Thunder Department was investigating the escaped evil qi and that the Water God’s fate depended on the damage it caused.
• The fortune teller warned Qi WuHuo that the North Pole Exorcism Institute could execute gods found guilty of wrongdoing, and urged him not to draw its attention.
• A gray-robed monk followed the fortune teller into Pingkang Ward, waited outside a pleasure house, and greeted Qi WuHuo with a bow.

Qi WuHuo used the Mystic Altar to send spirit pills to Elder Tao and discovered that the method borrowed power from the ley lines, where a mysterious woman flicked his forehead. Meanwhile, Shangqing Celestial Lords nearly discovered his identity before Poor Daoist Xuandu broke into Danyang Heavenly Palace and disrupted their divination.

• Qi WuHuo prepared the Mystic Altar and adapted the Seven Orifices Exquisite Sword Heart Chapter while waiting for the agreed time.
• Elder Tao performed the invocation on He Lian Mountain, and Qi WuHuo used the ley lines to deliver spirit pills across ten million li.
• Qi WuHuo encountered a mysterious gateway and a woman's voice while traveling through the ley lines, then returned with a bump on his forehead.
• Danyang Miaohua Celestial Lord and the other Shangqing Celestial Lords divined clues about the unknown disciple and began to reveal his name.
• Poor Daoist Xuandu kicked open the gates of Danyang Heavenly Palace, scattering the name on the Jade Tablet, and claimed he had come to pay his respects.

Great Master Xuan Du learned that the Shangqing Celestial Lords had discovered his junior brother Xuanwei and intervened to keep them from claiming him. Meanwhile, Yun Qin searched the Shangqing Library for the bird egg’s identity and wandered into its unguarded second floor.

• Great Master Xuan Du visited the Danyang Heavenly Palace, distracted the three Celestial Lords, and caused the heavenly insight naming their potential disciple to disappear.
• The three Celestial Lords realized they might have been trying to poach Xuan Du’s registered junior brother, Xuanwei, and discussed claiming him first.
• Great Master Xuan Du returned to Xuan Du Temple and told his attendants he had stopped the Shangqing Celestial Lords from taking his junior brother.
• Great Master Xuan Du resumed refining pills and warned his junior brother not to attract the attention of other sects.
• Yun Qin searched the Shangqing Library for the bird egg’s identity, found no match, and unknowingly entered the unguarded second floor.

Yun Qin searched the Shangqing Library for someone who could identify Wu Huo’s mysterious bird egg, but the black-robed Daoist could not recognize it. She later showed the egg to Old Yellow Ox, whose unsettling question left its identity even more mysterious.

• Yun Qin ignored the library’s precious scriptures and met a black-robed Daoist hidden in a room behind the Shangqing Library’s second floor.
• The Daoist offered Yun Qin methods for forging a sword and cultivating the Shangqing Five Thunders Fire Spirit Seal, but she refused them and asked him to identify Wu Huo’s egg.
• The Daoist admitted he could not recognize the egg before it hatched, and Yun Qin left after promising to bring him osmanthus cake.
• Yun Qin encountered Old Yellow Ox on her way back, and he said he felt watched and decided not to go to the Thunder Prefecture.
• Yun Qin showed Old Yellow Ox the egg, and he asked whether Little Wu Huo had recently been shaved by a bald donkey.

Qi WuHuo contacted Yun Qin and Old Yellow Ox to identify the mysterious bird egg, which Old Yellow Ox recognized as connected to the Buddhist Sect. Old Yellow Ox warned them about dangerous monks who could use Buddhist teachings to transform people into beasts, then offered to examine the egg.

• Qi WuHuo set up an altar with six strikes of the Dharma Drum to contact the Ox Mansion, then used his bronze mirror to reach Yun Qin.
• Yun Qin introduced Old Yellow Ox, who admitted he recognized the egg and asked Qi WuHuo whether he had encountered any monks.
• Old Yellow Ox recounted how a monk had captured him as a mount and how he escaped, joined the heavenly ranks, and became a Star Lord.
• Old Yellow Ox explained that some extremist Buddhist monks could transform people into beasts and urged Qi WuHuo and Yun Qin to be cautious.
• Old Yellow Ox eased their alarm by calling his warning a ghost story, then asked to inspect the egg.

Old Yellow Ox told Qi WuHuo and Yun Qin that the egg was descended from the Peacock Great Wheel Ming King, encouraging them to raise it with Daoist methods while privately planning to strengthen it. After Qi WuHuo spent his earnings on supplies for the egg, Old Yellow Ox discovered that Qi WuHuo’s skin-care method worked without harming cultivation and hurried after him, eager to turn it into a fortune.

• Old Yellow Ox examined the egg and, seeing Yun Qin’s excitement, falsely claimed it came from the Peacock Great Wheel Ming King’s exalted lineage.
• Old Yellow Ox explained the Ming King’s Buddhist and Daoist history, then advised Qi WuHuo to raise the egg with Daoist teachings rather than Buddhist Dharma.
• Qi WuHuo asked Old Yellow Ox to buy suitable Celestial Realm pills for the egg, and Old Yellow Ox agreed to spend all the Heavenly Emperor Coins Qi WuHuo had earned.
• Old Yellow Ox privately planned to seek rare ingredients and old friends to improve the ordinary peacock egg’s weak foundation.
• Yun Qin showed Old Yellow Ox Qi WuHuo’s method for making skin soft and fresh, and Old Yellow Ox realized it could replace Beauty-Nourishing Pills without affecting cultivation.
• Old Yellow Ox called after Qi WuHuo, eager to discuss making a fortune from his method.

Qi WuHuo asked Uncle Niu to spend all the Heavenly Emperor Coins on supplies to strengthen the peacock egg, and Uncle Niu set out across Heaven to gather them. After Yun Qin failed to find the middle-aged Daoist at the Shangqing Library, she accepted that their meeting had ended and ate the osmanthus cakes herself.

• Qi WuHuo gave Uncle Niu the Heavenly Emperor Coins and asked him to exchange them all for supplies to cultivate the spirit beast's foundations so the life inside the egg could survive.
• Qi WuHuo inscribed a second fragment of the Wuhuo Daojun's scripture, while his words about Senior Sister and Yu Miao vanished and he instead dedicated the text to an old friend.
• Qi WuHuo sensed the peacock's lineage and recited a Daoist scripture to the egg as Uncle Niu made dozens of copies of the scripture fragment.
• Uncle Niu traded across Heaven for blood essence, primordial energy, feathers, and other supplies, then ran into Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata, who caught him and took him away to discuss Buddhist teachings.
• Yun Qin visited the Shangqing Library with osmanthus cakes, could not find the middle-aged Daoist, and concluded their fate had ended before eating the cakes herself.

Qi WuHuo healed Lian Shulan’s eyes and told her that her daughter had died, then used the last of the girl’s attachment to let her remain as a companion to her grieving mother. After fulfilling his promise, he left Water Cloud Village, while Zhou Lingyi saw spring leaves in the courtyard and began to understand his teacher’s way of being a Daoist.

• Qi WuHuo lived quietly in Water Cloud Village as the villagers grew wary of his unusual presence, though Zhou Lingyi rebuked his sons for gossiping about him.
• Qi WuHuo treated Lian Shulan’s eyes and revealed that her daughter had died, then shared how remembering his own lost family and teacher had kept him from taking his life.
• Qi WuHuo gave Lian Shulan her daughter’s portrait and urged her to live so someone would remember the girl; she wept while he left her to grieve.
• Qi WuHuo separated the girl’s lingering attachment from his scroll and sent its wisp to keep Lian Shulan company, refusing to claim the attachment as a spiritual treasure.
• Zhou Lingyi found Qi WuHuo gone with a farewell letter and saw new leaves in the courtyard as the young Daoist walked away, reflecting that he was beginning to understand his teacher.

Qi WuHuo stayed at Refining Yang Temple while searching Central Province for people connected to Tantai Xuan’s crimes, and he encountered a young prince distributing medicinal porridge. That night, Yun Qin showed him that Uncle Niu had returned transformed into a haloed, Buddha-like figure, and Qi WuHuo tried to break the spell by mentioning a second part of the Seven Apertures Art.

• Qi WuHuo entered Central Province and took temporary lodging at Refining Yang Temple after the old Daoist recognized his extraordinary abilities.
• Qi WuHuo spent his days carrying the final wishes of Tantai Xuan’s victims to their families and noticed that more people were falling ill.
• Qi WuHuo met Mingxin at a medicinal porridge stall, recognized the richly dressed young prince distributing food, and explained the porridge’s recipe, which his teacher had called Screen Powder.
• Qi WuHuo returned to the temple and saw Yun Qin through the bronze mirror; she explained that Uncle Niu had come back in an altered state while her father was away.
• Qi WuHuo told the lotus-seated, haloed Uncle Niu that he had written a second part to the Seven Apertures Art, making Uncle Niu’s benevolent expression freeze.

Old Yellow Ox escaped the Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata’s attempt to convert him, bringing back materials to strengthen the young Daoist’s peacock egg. Yun Qin visited the black-robed Daoist with osmanthus cakes, and he noticed traces of Qi WuHuo’s numinous-treasure Dao on her.

• The young Daoist tempted Old Yellow Ox with promised scroll volumes, causing Old Yellow Ox to tear apart his Buddhist wisdom halo and curse the Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata.
• Old Yellow Ox explained how the monk had converted him, then revealed that he had stolen a feather from the Golden-Winged Garuda for Yun Qin’s peacock egg.
• Old Yellow Ox gave Qi WuHuo several mythical-beast materials and promised to borrow a Huo Dou from the Thunder Department to temper other materials.
• Yun Qin returned to the Shangqing Library and brought osmanthus cakes to the black-robed Daoist, who noticed Qi WuHuo’s lingering aura and recognized his Dao of the numinous treasure.
• The black-robed Daoist tasted Yun Qin’s cakes and remarked that Qi WuHuo’s principle of observing without taking was interesting.

Yun Qin shared snacks and discussed cultivation with a black-robed Daoist, who gave her a written teaching for her friend. After she left, he discovered Buddhist Clear Glazed light in a strand of her hair, erased the worlds it revealed, and considered going out.

• Yun Qin shared osmanthus cakes and tea with the black-robed Daoist and explained why she preferred following her heart in cultivation.
• The Daoist decided to give Yun Qin’s friend a lesson and explained the distinctions between external and internal, conditioned and unconditioned, and attainable and unattainable methods.
• Yun Qin asked the Daoist to write down his teaching, and he gave her a paper bearing the five characters Great Dao Lord Yuchen.
• The Daoist told Yun Qin how to avoid Shangqing sect searches, and she promised not to reveal their meeting before leaving.
• The Daoist found Glazed Buddha light in a strand of Yun Qin’s hair, closed his hand to erase the countless worlds it manifested, and considered going out.

Great Dao Lord Yuchen decided to follow his own will and test his sword against Buddhism. After Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata restored the Pure Lapis Lazuli Buddha Kingdom and explained his hopes for Yun Qin and the yellow ox, Yuchen’s incarnation arrived and destroyed the realm without killing its inhabitants.

• Great Dao Lord Yuchen decided to leave and act according to his own wishes, dismissing the restraint of fitting a Great Celestial Venerable’s image.
• The yellow ox rampaged through the Eastern Pure Lapis Lazuli Buddha Kingdom, battered Garuda, and escaped with one of his feathers.
• Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata explained that he hoped Yun Qin might join Buddhism and become a future leader, with the yellow ox as her protector.
• Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata restored the damaged Buddha Kingdom and taught that the destruction had been a manifestation of the yellow ox’s mind.
• Great Dao Lord Yuchen arrived as one of Shangqing Spirit Treasure Great Celestial Venerable’s seventy-two incarnations and shattered the Buddha Kingdom with his sword, saying he wanted to test it.

Qi WuHuo prepared realgar water to help suppress the plague in Central Province Prefecture City, then discussed the Four Noble Truths with a monk. Their conversation ended when a blood-red glow filled the western sky and the monk sensed that a Buddha had entered Nirvana.

• Old Yellow Ox borrowed the Three-Five Fire Spirit Great General's Huo Dou to refine spiritual essences, then realized he'd sent Wu Huo a letter written backward and decided to explain it the next day.
• Qi WuHuo inspected Old Yellow Ox's bottled spiritual essences but set aside the Nine-Headed Lion Yuanzun Holy Spirit essence until the Peacock Egg awoke.
• Qi WuHuo ground realgar into water and, with Mingxin's help, sprinkled it through the city to suppress the plague.
• Qi WuHuo met a monk treating the sick and discussed how the Four Noble Truths described a Buddha's path of love, sorrow, renunciation, and return.
• A blood-red glow appeared over the city, the temple bell rang eighteen times, and the monk's prayer beads scattered as he murmured that a Buddha had entered Nirvana.