Chapter Summaries

Qi WuHuo helped spread sulfur water through Central Province Prefecture City and returned to Refining Yang Temple, where a strand of golden hair summoned Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata. After hearing the Buddha’s vows, Qi WuHuo questioned whether they contradicted Buddhist teachings and asked if the monk knew the Four Noble Truths.

• Shangqing Spirit Treasure Great Celestial Venerable severed one of Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata’s three Buddha incarnations, and the wounded Tathagata explained the warning to Moonlight Illumination Bodhisattva.
• Qi WuHuo and Mingxin sprinkled sulfur water around the city, then met Constable Li and learned that a nobleman had asked officials to do the same.
• Qi WuHuo returned to Refining Yang Temple and noticed a golden-glowing strand of hair in his reflection before it summoned a figure of Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata.
• Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata recited his vows, and Qi WuHuo challenged the promise to satisfy sentient beings’ needs as potentially contrary to Buddhist teachings.
• Qi WuHuo asked Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata whether he knew the Four Noble Truths.

Qi WuHuo challenged Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata’s interpretation of the Four Noble Truths and helped him realize that he had mistaken cessation for suppressing all living beings. Medicine Master chose to stop gathering his manifestations and asked Supreme Xuanwei True Person to help him turn back.

• Medicine Master explained the Truth of Suffering and the Truth of Origin to Qi WuHuo, who questioned whether his teachings matched the original Four Noble Truths.
• Qi WuHuo argued that Medicine Master’s doctrine of cessation deprived living beings of the chance to experience the world and awaken for themselves.
• Qi WuHuo asked whether Buddha had saved Medicine Master by suppressing his mind, prompting Medicine Master to remember the original teaching and break down in grief.
• Qi WuHuo used an oil lamp and moonlight to explain that cessation meant extinguishing one’s own Greed, Anger, and Ignorance, not ending all desires in living beings.
• Medicine Master stopped gathering his Dharma, power, and manifestations, then asked Supreme Xuanwei True Person to help him turn back.
• Medicine Master sat beneath the moonlight and recited Buddhist scriptures as Qi WuHuo formed a Daoist incantation and declared, “Supreme Edict!”

Qi WuHuo used Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata’s Buddha power to bring healing rain to Central Province, then bid farewell to the old monk. As dawn broke, the monk understood the cycle of life and death and passed away as a peacock chick hatched.

• Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata gave Qi WuHuo a lotus of pure Buddha light, and Qi WuHuo used it to create a rain-bearing game across Central Province.
• Qi WuHuo summoned rain infused with the Medicine Master's Buddha light, driving away pestilential energy and easing the suffering of people across the province.
• Qi WuHuo's Primordial Spirit visited a temple, offered incense before the Medicine Master's statue, and vanished as the gray-robed monk witnessed the evil qi dissipating.
• Qi WuHuo walked through the awakening city and told the Medicine Master that he had witnessed his Dao, verified his heart, and fulfilled his vow.
• The Medicine Master realized that life and death turned through Formation, Stasis, Destruction, and Emptiness as a peacock chick hatched, then passed away in the sunlight.

Qi WuHuo returned from the Buddha’s nirvana with a serene, purified Primordial Spirit and discovered that his year of meditation had made his vital energy easy to command. He welcomed the newly hatched Little Peacock, while Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata entrusted his world to Moonlight Illumination and began his final passage into reincarnation.

• A gray-clad fortune teller saw Qi WuHuo’s perfected Primordial Spirit and praised the old Daoist who had taught him.
• Qi WuHuo bought sesame flatbreads from a recovered vendor and sensed that the little Prince had chosen medicinal ingredients with genuine care.
• Back at Refining Yang Temple, Qi WuHuo discovered that his vital energy flowed at his command and used it to catch the newly hatched Little Peacock.
• Qi WuHuo welcomed Little Peacock and planned to take it to meet the medicine spirit and choose its name with Yun Qin.
• Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata restored the Pure Lapis Lazuli World with his Buddha light, appointed Moonlight Illumination its successor, and warned him to follow the true Dharma before dying.

The Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata gave Moonlight Illumination Bodhisattva his final instructions and entered nirvana, while Old Yellow Ox rushed to the sealed Pure Lapis Lazuli Buddha Kingdom hoping to seize its treasures. Moonlight Illumination asked Old Yellow Ox to help find Supreme Xuanwei True Person, leaving him stunned.

• The Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata warned Moonlight Illumination Bodhisattva of future conflict between Buddhist and Daoist teachings and urged his disciples to practice virtue and show respect to Supreme Xuanwei True Person.
• Old Yellow Ox learned from Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind Ear that the Pure Lapis Lazuli World had collapsed and the Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata had entered nirvana, then hurried there hoping to claim its treasures.
• Old Yellow Ox reached the sealed Buddha Kingdom too late and met Moonlight Illumination, who confirmed the World-Honored One had entered nirvana.
• Old Yellow Ox read the Buddha's letter, which refused to leave him the robes, and joked about selling the Buddha's relics before acknowledging that the old monk had understood something profound.
• Moonlight Illumination asked Old Yellow Ox to help locate Supreme Xuanwei True Person, whom he described as the Buddha's old friend and half-teacher, and Old Yellow Ox froze in surprise.

Old Yellow Ox learned that Moonlight Illumination Bodhisattva wanted to invite Supreme Xuanwei to tea, then returned to find Qi WuHuo caring for the newly hatched peacock. The peacock swallowed a sealed nine-headed lion essence and fell asleep, while Yun Qin contacted Qi WuHuo through the altered bronze mirror and delivered a book as a return gift.

• Moonlight Illumination Bodhisattva asked Old Yellow Ox to pass Supreme Xuanwei a message inviting him to drink tea before the Pure Lapis Lazuli World closed, and Old Yellow Ox departed.
• Qi WuHuo fed the lively newborn peacock sesame cake, and it proudly mistook itself for the Peacock Great Wheel Ming King.
• Qi WuHuo opened Uncle Niu's jade bottle of Nine-Headed Lion Yuanzun Holy Spirit, and the peacock swallowed its aura before falling asleep.
• The bronze mirror changed and showed Yun Qin, who spoke with Qi WuHuo and promised to send him candied fruit.
• Yun Qin gave Qi WuHuo an ordinary-looking book as a return gift from a lazy uncle and asked whether he could understand it.

Qi WuHuo and Yun Qin exchanged stories and made a vow before Old Yellow Ox arrived with supplies and a scroll. When Qi WuHuo opened the scroll, a powerful black-robed Daoist appeared in his mind, and Qi WuHuo instinctively snapped the book shut on him.

• Qi WuHuo discovered that Yun Qin's scroll could not be reflected or read, and Yun Qin gave it to him as a return gift for the osmanthus cakes.
• Yun Qin told Qi WuHuo she had three years left before she could visit the Human World, and they vowed before Heaven and Earth never to break their bond.
• Old Yellow Ox arrived with spiritual liquid for the little peacock and used a Mystic Altar to send the supplies and Yun Qin's book to Qi WuHuo, nearly exhausting his magic power in the process.
• Qi WuHuo opened the scroll and saw a black-robed Daoist who shouted at him for daring to look.
• Qi WuHuo snapped the scroll shut, flattening the Daoist's image between its pages as the Daoist continued to protest.

Qi WuHuo studied the black-robed Daoist’s letter, learning from the Daoist rhythm in its words before writing a respectful reply filled with questions about the Dao. He also revealed that the peacock had hatched and learned it had received the strongest aura, then left its name undecided until it woke.

• Qi WuHuo examined the black-robed Daoist’s writing and sensed how its words preserved the writer’s will and Daoist rhythm.
• Qi WuHuo read the letter’s teachings on action, nonaction, and a single thought, but found the Dao too difficult to understand.
• Qi WuHuo showed Yun Qin and Old Yellow Ox the hatched peacock, and Old Yellow Ox realized Qi WuHuo had given it the strongest aura first.
• Qi WuHuo, Yun Qin, and Old Yellow Ox agreed to wait until the peacock woke before choosing its name.
• Qi WuHuo wrote a reply to the black-robed Daoist, asking questions about the Dao and signing it with his Primordial Spirit under the title “Dao Lord Wu Huo's Respectful Reply to the Letter of the Great Dao Lord.”

Qi WuHuo told Old Yellow Ox about his conversation with Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata, leaving Old Niu astonished by WuHuo’s Buddhist understanding and borrowed mudra. Later, the young Prince met WuHuo while he helped plague victims and revealed that his sister had devised a remedy inspired by a dream of a friend named Qi WuHuo.

• Old Yellow Ox warned Qi WuHuo to cultivate steadily and avoid Buddhist monks, then learned Medicine Master had reached enlightenment after speaking with him and saw WuHuo form the Abhaya Mudra.
• Qi WuHuo put away the exhausted mirror, rested, and spent the following days studying and helping treat plague victims with Mingxin.
• The young Prince brought Qi WuHuo and Mingxin ginger meat porridge and explained that his elder sister had advised him on helping the sick.
• Mingxin praised the Prince’s fair approach to serving porridge, while Qi WuHuo guessed the Prince had changed because of his sister.
• Cui Shouqing discussed the Prince’s sister and her Screen Powder prescription, and the Prince recalled that a dream friend named Qi WuHuo had inspired the remedy’s name.

Qi WuHuo and Mingxin continued treating patients while the grey-robed monk discussed his unfulfilled great vow and challenged the claims of Buddhist vows. The crowd turned against the monk and pelted him with medicine, while he silently endured their anger.

• The young prince told Cui Shaoqing he had searched for his sister’s dreamed-of friend but found no student with that name.
• Qi WuHuo and Mingxin treated the patients alongside the grey-robed monk after the epidemic miasma dispersed.
• The fortune teller brought medicine, warned Qi WuHuo that he was valuable, and reminded him to use a different method to enter the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance the next day.
• Qi WuHuo asked the monk about his great vow, and the monk said he had not fulfilled it and kept it private.
• The monk questioned how the Buddhas’ vows could be effective while suffering persisted, provoking the patients and Buddhist believers.
• The crowd threw medicine at the monk, who joined his palms and endured the assault in silence.

Qi WuHuo and the grey-robed monk calmed an angry crowd, and the monk explained how Buddhism’s growth had turned shared spiritual practice into a struggle over desires. After sharing dinner with Mingxin and the young Prince, Qi WuHuo returned to the temple while the Prince went home and greeted Elder Sister Qiong Yu.

• Qi WuHuo sensed the crowd’s fear beneath its anger and calmed them, allowing the grey-robed monk to continue treating the sick.
• The grey-robed monk described how Buddhist communities had grown and fractured until their teachings were overshadowed by collective desires, then departed in sorrow.
• Mingxin compared the monk’s predicament to people fighting over osmanthus cakes and walked with Qi WuHuo to buy provisions and candied hawthorn.
• The young Prince served Qi WuHuo and Mingxin porridge and praised his sister, while Mingxin and the Prince compared their mentors’ greatness.
• Qi WuHuo shared roasted chestnuts with Mingxin and the young Prince, then carried Mingxin home beneath the stars.
• The young Prince returned to his residence, changed clothes, rinsed his mouth, and greeted Elder Sister Qiong Yu.

Qiong Yu explained to her younger brother why she chose to help the common people and why she trusted Qi WuHuo to keep pursuing his goals. Meanwhile, Qi WuHuo remembered his family and Teacher before the Little Peacock woke and the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance drew near.

• Qiong Yu told the young Prince she had opened a porridge stall and arranged help against the cold simply to save people, despite the risk from Second Uncle.
• Qiong Yu explained that she had sought Master Qi to confirm her dream and believed he would find another path to pursue his aims; she set the young Prince an essay about what he could learn from him.
• After the young Prince left to read, Qiong Yu wrote, “Your heart is like iron; mend the sky's cracks,” and urged Qi WuHuo to be like that.
• Qi WuHuo listened to the old Daoist scold Little Daoist Mingxin and remembered his parents, his tutor, and his Teacher, then quietly mourned their absence.
• The Little Peacock woke beside Qi WuHuo as he thought about the approaching reunion and the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance.

Qi WuHuo discovered that the Little Peacock’s dream had left it ravenously hungry, and the bird chose to share his surname. In the heavens, Great Unity Salvation Heavenly Venerate heard the peacock’s dream as an omen, while Qi WuHuo set out to meet the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance.

• Qi WuHuo used the Abhaya Mudra to calm the Little Peacock and learned it had dreamed of a nine-headed lion, an eggshell, and swallowing a great sun.
• The Little Peacock refused ordinary food but devoured a frozen chunk of raw pork, then declared that it was the Peacock Great Wheel Ming King.
• Qi WuHuo offered to name the bird, and it insisted on sharing his surname; they left its given name for later.
• Nine-Headed Lion Yuanzun told Great Unity Salvation Heavenly Venerate about the dream, and the Heavenly Venerate recognized the image of a peacock swallowing the great sun as an omen.
• Great Unity Salvation Heavenly Venerate sensed that his master might appear and warned him not to leave home, lest his disciple corner him.
• Qi WuHuo took the Little Peacock to the water at night, used his waist token to reveal a path beneath the moon, and headed toward the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance.

Qi WuHuo entered the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance to investigate its role in the Jinzhou disaster and earned alliance points by answering cultivators’ questions. He learned that the alliance had profited from doing business with the Demon Race, but he still lacked enough points to uncover the details; meanwhile, Qiong Yu accepted his advice that the pure Yin Spirit path could not lead to immortality.

• Qi WuHuo used Tantai Xuan’s token to enter the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance and exchanged pills and other goods for information about the Jinzhou disaster.
• An appraiser told Qi WuHuo that the alliance had gone to Jinzhou to trade with the Demon Race and had made a huge profit, but the goods he offered could not buy further details.
• Qi WuHuo answered questions about cultivation, progressing from basic jade slips to the alliance’s most difficult question about whether a cultivator could attain immortality through the Primordial Spirit alone.
• Qiong Yu challenged Qi WuHuo’s answer, and he explained that relying on lightning and fire to purify a Yin Spirit was a dead end; Qiong Yu recognized that this matched her dream and concluded that immortality was impossible by that path.
• Qi WuHuo earned only enough alliance points to cover two-thirds of the cost of the Jinzhou intelligence, then a fox-masked attendant told him that her young mistress would pay for his exchange in thanks for his answer.

Qi WuHuo learned how Jin Province had been devastated by demons and how the Second Prince had deliberately blocked the rescuing army, causing millions to die. After hearing how cultivators and soldiers sacrificed themselves to save survivors, he learned that an old cavalryman from the battle was still alive.

• A masked girl paid for Qi WuHuo to read the Ming Zhen Dao Alliance’s original records about Jin Province.
• The old man showed Qi WuHuo accounts of the demon invasion, the failed pleas for aid, and the Second Prince’s forged orders that stopped the Ironclad Black Army and turned it against fleeing civilians.
• The middle-aged Daoist described how monks, sword cultivators, a disobedient cavalry unit, and the Dao Sect Patriarch helped people escape, while the Dao Alliance traded profits to save 150,000 lives.
• Qi WuHuo learned that the Alliance leader had discovered a black-clad figure in a Red Dragon robe had lured the Demon Kingdoms to Jin Province, and that the disaster killed between 3.7 and 5.4 million people.
• Qi WuHuo recorded his Daoist title and left after learning the truth; the middle-aged Daoist offered to introduce him to a surviving cavalryman from the battle.

Qi WuHuo asked the Dao Alliance to search its records for his missing teacher, then visited a crippled veteran who had fought in Jin Province. The veteran recognized Qi WuHuo as a survivor of the disaster and broke down apologizing for failing to protect him.

• Qi WuHuo asked the middle-aged Daoist to find out whether the Dao Alliance had saved his missing teacher in Jin Province, and the Daoist agreed to pass along the request without charging him.
• The village chief led Qi WuHuo to a scarred, legless veteran who had spent seven years drinking away everything he owned.
• The veteran recalled the famine and the deadly clash between soldiers who fought over whether to let refugees pass through Jin Province, then demanded more wine.
• Qi WuHuo served the veteran a meal made in the style of Jin Province, and the veteran realized Qi WuHuo had survived the disaster as a child.
• The veteran wept and apologized for failing to protect Qi WuHuo, while Qi WuHuo thanked him for his sacrifice.

Qi WuHuo stayed in the village to bury the old cavalry captain, who died peacefully after reuniting with him. He inherited the captain’s spirit-filled sword, named it Kill the Bandits, and left after accepting the wishes tied to the mortal world.

• Qi WuHuo arranged the old man’s funeral and buried him facing the capital with his waist token and the village chief’s liquor.
• While sorting the old man’s belongings, Qi WuHuo and the village chief discovered a heavy broad sword that the old man had kept as a treasured keepsake.
• Qi WuHuo sealed the sword with Primordial Scarlet Script and heard the voices of those who had fought and died seven years earlier.
• Qi WuHuo named the sword Kill the Bandits and placed it beside his first sword in his sword case.
• When a neighbor asked about his relationship with the old man, Qi WuHuo called himself an old friend of theirs and walked away.
• Qi WuHuo formed a Daoist incantation and accepted the wishes tied to the sword.

Qi WuHuo fulfilled the last of Tantai Xuan’s victims’ wishes, then resolved to enter the mortal world and replace the Human Emperor without plunging the people into chaos. As the fortune teller watched him leave, Qi WuHuo declared that he would become the Emperor’s Teacher.

• Qi WuHuo fulfilled the deceased escort’s final wish by allowing the escort’s thoughts to remain with his grieving wife, completing every promise made in the town beneath He Lian Mountain.
• Qi WuHuo considered weakening the Human Emperor’s fortune through rebellion or court intrigue, but rejected provoking an uprising because it would endanger the people and the Great Wall against the Demon Kingdoms.
• Qi WuHuo told the fortune teller that he would replace the ruler because the ruler was without the Dao, while keeping the Human World’s fortune stable.
• Qi WuHuo accepted the Eight Tribulations and reflected that he understood his Senior Sister’s Dao of emotion, choosing to face the mortal world rather than avoid it.
• The fortune teller recognized Qi WuHuo’s seamless fusion with Primordial Prenatal Qi and his standing as a true disciple of the Taiqing lineage.
• When the fortune teller asked what a Daoist could do against the Human Emperor, Qi WuHuo answered that he would become the Emperor’s Teacher.

After Qi WuHuo’s breakthrough, the fortune teller realized he had learned too much about the youth’s connection to the Supreme One and tried to erase the knowledge to avoid calamity. Qi WuHuo returned to Refining Yang Temple, where his achievement was recognized, and he offered incense to the Three Pure Ones before celebrating with his fellow Daoists.

• The fortune teller praised Qi WuHuo’s cultivation, then realized his words might have alerted the Supreme One’s lineage and knelt in terror before sealing the memory from his spirit.
• Qi WuHuo returned to Refining Yang Temple and used water vapor to catch the Three Yellow Chicken for young Daoist Mingxin.
• The old Daoist confirmed Qi WuHuo had reached Primordial Prenatal Qi before turning Mingxin’s slow progress into a teasing lesson.
• Qi WuHuo declined to notify his elders, lit incense before the Three Pure Ones, and told his Teacher in his heart that he had broken through and understood what he must do.
• The old Daoist invited Qi WuHuo to celebrate with a meal, while Great Master Xuan Du refined pills in Xuan Du Palace.

Great Master Xuan Du saw Xuan Wei enter the Eight Tribulations and prepare to face them, then rushed to gather weapons when he learned Xuan Wei was practicing the sword, only for the pills in his furnace to explode again. Meanwhile, a sickly young man unearthed the old soldier’s grave, confirmed he was dead, and ordered him reburied with honors, leaving the villagers silver after his men injured the village chief.

• Great Master Xuan Du examined Xuan Wei’s name on the Jade Tablet and realized he had entered the Eight Tribulations by choosing to face them.
• Great Master Xuan Du learned Xuan Wei was practicing the sword and gathered magic treasures in case the Three Masters of Shangqing made trouble.
• An attendant told Great Master Xuan Du that the pills in the furnace had exploded again.
• A sickly young man arrived at the village, ordered the old soldier’s grave dug up, and had a rider injure the old village chief when he objected.
• The young man read the old soldier’s testament, concluded he had concealed his past to protect the villagers, and ordered a grand burial.
• The young man left silver for the villagers as compensation for his household’s discourtesy.