Recaps

Ma Feifei reopened Mysterious Bookstore Branch Two, but its steep reading fee discouraged passersby from entering. Jing Xing arrived with fifty million Spirit Crystals to thank Ma Feifei, and just as he prepared to read, Chancellor Di Heyu and King Qin Ziying appeared.

• Ma Feifei opened the branch with Yun Qingyang and Chang Kong, posted its reading fee, and watched passersby complain and leave without entering.
• Jing Xing learned the bookstore had opened and arrived with soldiers carrying twenty chests of Spirit Crystals as thanks for Ma Feifei saving him.
• Ma Feifei accepted Jing Xing's fifty million Spirit Crystals, and Yun Qingyang rushed off with all the chests.
• Jing Xing paid Ma Feifei a million Spirit Crystals to read, and Ma Feifei prepared to take him inside.
• Chancellor Di Heyu and King Qin Ziying arrived, drawing Ma Feifei's attention.

Ma Feifei defeated Qin Ziying’s Spirit Saint protector and made Di Heyu pay his debt, revealing his overwhelming strength. As Qin State soldiers filled Chang’an Street, the Emperor appeared and the crowd bowed to him.

• Qin Ziying and Di Heyu arrived with three Spirit Saints, and Ma Feifei demanded that Di Heyu repay his debt.
• Qin Ziying insulted Ma Feifei, who slapped him across the street before anyone could react.
• Qin Ziying ordered his second-stage Spirit Saint protector to attack, but Ma Feifei subdued him with one hand and told Qin Ziying to leave.
• Di Heyu paid Ma Feifei sixty million Spirit Crystals, and Ma Feifei returned the IOU.
• Bai Ling arrived with black-armored soldiers and paid his respects to Ma Feifei.
• The crowd prostrated themselves as the Emperor appeared on Chang’an Street.

Ma Feifei welcomed Qin Shi Huang to Mysterious Bookstore Branch Two and saw a chance to begin the Immortality quest. After Qin Shi Huang explored the shelves, Ma Feifei offered him the Longevity Art, saying it could make a person immortal.

• Qin Shi Huang arrived on Chang'an Street and greeted Ma Feifei as the owner of Mysterious Bookstore.
• Qin Shi Huang offered Ma Feifei a gift for opening a branch in Qin State, but Ma Feifei refused it.
• Qin Shi Huang paid the reading fee and entered the bookstore with Ma Feifei, while Qin Ziying and Di Heyu remained outside in defeat.
• Qin Shi Huang browsed the bookshelves, marveling at the power he sensed in the books.
• Ma Feifei took out the Longevity Art and told Qin Shi Huang it could make a person immortal.

Ma Feifei gave Qin Shi Huang the Longevity Art and returned to his main store to buy Yun Ji Qi Jian so he could learn alchemy for the quest. Qin Shi Huang continued reading, while Ma Feifei learned that Yun Qingyang had made plans to draw with Ba Jiu.

• Ma Feifei handed Qin Shi Huang the Longevity Art, and Qin Shi Huang sat down to read it.
• Ma Feifei went to buy Yun Ji Qi Jian, but returned to the main store after remembering its auspicious aura could grant a purchase bonus.
• Zhang Yunji told Ma Feifei that Saint Chu wanted to see him, but Ma Feifei refused to meet him.
• Ma Feifei bought Yun Ji Qi Jian and spent over a hundred million Spirit Crystals on more purchases without triggering a critical bonus.
• Ma Feifei returned to the branch and found Qin Shi Huang still reading the Longevity Art.
• Yun Qingyang told Ma Feifei she had plans to draw with Ba Jiu, and Ma Feifei reacted with a wisp of killing intent.

Ma Feifei offered to teach Yun Qingyang alchemy while Qin Shi Huang studied the Longevity Art and discovered that practicing it required abandoning all cultivation. The chapter left Qin Shi Huang weighing immortality against his life, power, and influence over the Azure Dragon Continent.

• Ma Feifei told Yun Qingyang not to paint privately with Ba Jiu and offered to teach her alchemy instead.
• Yun Qingyang went to the back courtyard to prepare an alchemy furnace and firewood while Ma Feifei studied Yun Ji Qi Jian.
• Qin Shi Huang asked Ma Feifei whether there was another way to practice the Longevity Art.
• Ma Feifei learned from the system that the Longevity Art required its practitioner to possess no cultivation and told Qin Shi Huang he had to decide for himself.
• Qin Shi Huang considered whether to surrender his Spirit Saint-level cultivation despite his age and the risk to his life and the continent.

Ma Feifei mastered alchemy from Yun Ji Qi Jian and prepared to refine a Longevity Pill with Yun Qingyang. As she produced rare ingredients from her spatial ring, four ancient divine-beast cores revealed that her father had slain the Azure Tiger, Vast Lion, Spirit Serpent, and Thunder Eagle.

• Qin Shi Huang left without deciding whether to proceed with the main quest, and Ma Feifei put it on hold.
• Ma Feifei and Yun Qingyang prepared to refine medicine in the bookstore’s backyard using an artifact cauldron her father had left her.
• Ma Feifei mastered alchemy and learned the pill formulas in Yun Ji Qi Jian while Yun Qingyang tended the fire.
• Ma Feifei listed the rare ingredients needed for a Longevity Pill, and Yun Qingyang began producing them from her spatial ring.
• Yun Qingyang revealed four divine-beast cores, which Ma Feifei recognized as belonging to the Azure Tiger, Vast Lion, Spirit Serpent, and Thunder Eagle.

Yun Qingyang made the longevity pill, but using all three drops of phoenix blood left its effects unknown, making Ma Feifei worry about giving it to Qin Shi Huang. Chang Kong became the manager and sole employee of Mysterious Bookstore Branch Two, while Ma Feifei and Yun Qingyang returned to the main store.

• Yun Qingyang gathered the ingredients and made the pill, accidentally adding all three drops of phoenix blood.
• Ma Feifei learned the pill's effects were now unknown and worried it might harm Qin Shi Huang if he ate it.
• Chang Kong offered to look after Branch Two, and Ma Feifei hired him as its manager.
• Chang Kong settled into the branch instead of returning to Dubian Town with Ma Feifei, who took Yun Qingyang back to the main store.

Ma Feifei was drawn into Journey to the West alongside Sun Wukong to watch a reenactment of the Great Sage’s life through chapter fifty-seven. As the projection showed Sun Wukong’s early adventures, the cultivators of Dubian Town watched eagerly for the path to immortality, while Sun Wukong reflected on his past.

• Zhang Yunji told Ma Feifei that Feng Yiming was still waiting outside the bookstore, but Ma Feifei declined to see him and sent Zhang Yunji home to his pregnant wife, Baili Chuxue.
• Journey to the West began a projection after the Sky-reaching Ape Monkey triggered the Path of the Great Sage quest, and the system drew Ma Feifei inside to accompany Sun Wukong through a recollection of chapters one through fifty-seven.
• The projection showed Sun Wukong’s birth, his life on Flower-Fruit Mountain, and his journey to Mount Lingtai Fangcun, where Patriarch Subhuti taught him the path to eternal life, the Seventy-Two Transformations, and the Somersault Cloud.
• Sun Wukong recalled being expelled from Patriarch Subhuti’s cave for showing off his transformations, then watched his younger self return to Flower-Fruit Mountain and visit the East Sea Dragon Palace for the Great Sage Set and Sea Calming Divine Needle.

As the cultivators watched Journey to the West, they realized it shared a world with Lotus Lantern and followed Sun Wukong’s story from his rise to his imprisonment and release. When Tang Monk freed him, Ma Feifei triggered the Eighty-One Tribulations instance and received Investiture of the Gods as a reward.

• The cultivators watched the Stone Monkey obtain the Sea Calming Divine Needle and Great Sage Set, then learn that he erased the monkeys’ names from the Book of Life and Death.
• The Stone Monkey became Bi Ma Wen, quit after discovering the post was a stable keeper, and fought the Heavenly forces sent by the Jade Emperor.
• The cultivators connected Journey to the West and Lotus Lantern after seeing Sun Wukong’s Havoc in Heaven and learning that he had been imprisoned beneath Five Finger Mountain eight hundred years earlier.
• Guanyin guided Tang Monk toward the scriptures, and Tang Monk freed the Stone Monkey, who agreed to escort him on the journey.
• Ma Feifei triggered the Eighty-One Tribulations instance, which could be purchased after he finished watching the story, and received the Legendary-grade book Investiture of the Gods.

Ma Feifei learned that literary exam qualification certificates could activate copies based on books, while Sun Wukong silently watched the story of Journey to the West. As cultivators watched the projection, Liu Ying wondered whether the Azure Dragon Continent was itself a book and concluded that the shopkeeper was its author.

• Ma Feifei learned that certificates from specific books opened their associated copies, while event-reward certificates could be used across books.
• Ma Feifei watched Journey to the West with Sun Wukong, who grew pained and resentful when the story showed the Golden Fillet and Tight-Fillet Spell.
• Cultivators gathered around the Mysterious Bookstore to watch the projected story, and Liu Ying asked Zhang Yunji whether the ancient era had been full of immortals.
• Liu Ying suggested that the Azure Dragon Continent might be a book and that its immortals had entered other book worlds.
• Zhang Yunji dismissed Liu Ying's idea, but she decided to ask the shopkeeper and declared that he was the author who created the book that was the Azure Dragon Continent.

The spectators watched Journey to the West unfold all night, and Zhou Wuji observed that its projection was showing the story rather than giving cultivators a mission. The projection stopped in the middle of the True and False Monkey King story at dawn, and Liu Ying set off to demand an explanation from the shopkeeper.

• Zhang Yunji doubted Liu Ying’s claims and privately considered arranging a marriage for her with Zhou Guanyu.
• Zhou Wuji told the gathered spectators that Journey to the West seemed to be showing its story instead of making them complete plot missions, and they noted that no cultivators had appeared.
• Ma Feifei watched Chapter Fifty-Seven unfold, as Sun Wukong was driven away, a fake Wukong stole Tang Monk’s luggage, and Guanyin sent Sun Wukong and Sha Wujing to investigate.
• The projection abruptly stopped before the True and False Monkey King story was resolved, leaving the spectators frustrated as dawn broke.
• Zhang Yunji took Baili Chuxue inside to rest, while Liu Ying hurried off to find the shopkeeper and demand an explanation.

Ma Feifei watched Sun Wukong’s Journey to the West conclude exactly as written, then completed his task and received a new book. Back at the Mysterious Bookstore, Liu Ying confronted him with her belief that he was not from the Azure Dragon Continent.

• Sun Wukong left to kill the Six-Eared Macaque and protect Tang Monk, and the story proceeded unchanged as he killed the macaque before Tathagata Buddha.
• Ma Feifei watched Tang Monk and his disciples complete the Eighty-One Tribulations, earning access to the instance and receiving the Legendary-grade book Investiture of the Gods.
• As Ma Feifei returned to the Mysterious Bookstore, he glimpsed fiery eyes below before his vision faded.
• Liu Ying arrived early at the bookstore and knocked at the back door, hoping to confirm her suspicion.
• Ma Feifei opened the door and imagined Liu Ying might confess her feelings, but she told him he was not from the Azure Dragon Continent.

Ma Feifei learned that the Mysterious Bookstore’s first anniversary quest required him to organize an Original Works Showdown and a Knowledge Showdown. After Liu Ying mistook him for the creator of the Azure Dragon Continent, he introduced the writing competition as a way to disprove her theory.

• Liu Ying excitedly asked Ma Feifei whether he had created the Azure Dragon Continent and whether it was a world inside a book.
• Liu Ying treated Ma Feifei as the author of her life and asked him to make her stronger, predict her family’s future, and reveal her future partner.
• Ma Feifei received the system’s anniversary quest, which called for an Original Works Showdown and a Knowledge Showdown at the Mysterious Bookstore.
• Ma Feifei told Liu Ying that book lovers could submit works for rating, with Blue Quality or higher books added to the bookstore and their authors earning a share of the profits.
• Ma Feifei hoped that allowing everyone to publish profitable books would convince Liu Ying that the Azure Dragon Continent was not his creation.

Ma Feifei bought and opened the Eighty-One Tribulations instance beside the Mysterious Daochang, where cultivators discovered its Journey to the West portal. He visited Zhou Zhuling at the Wantong Trading Market to discuss the bookstore, and the chapter left him considering her as the first candidate in his search for a Book-holding woman.

• Liu Ying hurried away to try to write a Legendary-grade book after hearing about the Mysterious Bookstore's event.
• Ma Feifei spent six billion book energy to purchase the Eighty-One Tribulations instance and learned that entrants would face a random literary trial followed by a martial trial.
• Ma Feifei placed the instance beside the Mysterious Daochang, creating a golden portal marked Journey to the West.
• Passing cultivators spotted the portal and hurried back to Dubian Town to ask what had happened.
• Ma Feifei visited Zhou Zhuling at the Wantong Trading Market, and she guessed he had come about Journey to the West.
• Ma Feifei remembered his search for a Book-holding woman and considered starting with Zhou Zhuling.

Ma Feifei arranged the Journey to the West instance and anniversary celebration with Zhou Zhuling, then returned to find the anniversary events had captured Dubian Town’s attention. As cultivators debated the difficult writing contest, powerful figures from the academies began preparing entries.

• Ma Feifei asked Zhou Zhuling to announce the Journey to the West instance and anniversary celebration, then wrote notes asking whether she was a virgin and whether she would pose as a Book-holding woman.
• Zhou Zhuling agreed to help, then angrily told Ma Feifei he deserved to die alone and slammed the door on him.
• The Wantong Trading Market announced the Journey to the West instance and anniversary activities, drawing widespread discussion in Dubian Town.
• Cultivators doubted they could write books good enough for the original works competition, while academy leaders resolved to submit entries at least yellow grade.

Feng Yiming visited Ma Feifei to apologize for the Phantom Organization’s assassination order and ask for help extending his life. Ma Feifei accepted Feng Yiming’s compensation but refused his plea to help him enter the Immortal Realm.

• Ma Feifei invited Feng Yiming into the Mysterious Bookstore after he had waited outside for a day and night.
• Feng Yiming gave Ma Feifei an assassination order naming Xiaoyao Zizai as the person who had targeted him.
• Feng Yiming revealed that he had been one of the Phantom Organization’s five leaders, though he had left it, and apologized for its actions.
• Feng Yiming handed Ma Feifei a spatial ring containing ten billion Spirit Crystals, which Ma Feifei accepted as compensation.
• Feng Yiming said he had less than three months to live and asked Ma Feifei to extend his life, but Ma Feifei refused.

Ma Feifei learned that the Great Dao was incomplete and that Confucianism flourishing could restore it, blocking Feng Yiming from entering the Immortal Realm for now. He offered Feng Yiming a way to extend his life by becoming a recitation slave of the Mysterious Bookstore, though it would cost him his freedom.

• Ma Feifei checked with the system and learned that several books could help someone enter the Immortal Realm, but Gongsun Qiong had absorbed only half of the Analects’ book spirit.
• The system explained that the Great Dao was incomplete and that the book spirit had been split to protect Gongsun Qiong from backlash.
• Ma Feifei learned that the Great Dao could be made whole when Confucianism flourished, and connected this to the Four Books and Five Classics and the Tao Te Ching.
• Ma Feifei told Feng Yiming he could not enter the Immortal Realm yet but could prolong his life by becoming a recitation slave of the Mysterious Bookstore.
• Ma Feifei warned Feng Yiming that, like Jiang Bieli, he would have to surrender his freedom if he accepted.

The Mysterious Bookstore’s influence was linked to upheaval across the Azure Dragon Continent, while its Journey to the West instance drew powerful cultivators to Dubian Town. The instance’s literary test made readers valuable team members, and the remaining entry tickets were scarce.

• King Qi Wen’s daughter killed the Phantom Organization assassin with the Azure Peak Sword, and Qi Wudi disappeared after King Qi Wen suppressed the incident.
• Yuwen Hongdu denounced Yan’s new emperor, and Yan Xun led an army into Yan after the Yan Yun Twelve Cities declared for him, starting a civil war.
• Qin Shi Huang made no move during August and repeatedly visited Mysterious Bookstore Branch Two, while observers connected the bookstore to events in Qin, Qi, and Yan.
• Chu announced the Confucian Dao Academy, whose curriculum used the Four Books and Five Classics provided by the Mysterious Bookstore.
• Ma Feifei and his three employees entered the Journey to the West instance and returned with divine rewards, causing entry-ticket prices to soar and cultivators to seek readers who could pass the literary test.
• Powerful cultivators crowded outside the instance, competing to recruit a Spirit King who had read Journey to the West.

Dubian Town’s cultivators pursued the Mysterious Bookstore’s new activities while Ma Feifei prepared Feng Yiming to recite an Epic-grade formation manual in exchange for extending his life. The chapter ended as Ma Feifei and the gathered cultivators stood ready to begin Feng Yiming’s recitation.

• Cultivators learned that Orange Fragments could be found on spirit beasts in Nine Heavens Mountain and that divine arts were on sale at the Wantong Trading Market.
• Ma Feifei used Feng Yiming’s support of ten billion Spirit Crystals to repay his debt and put Daoist divine arts up for sale.
• Ma Feifei arranged for Tianshu Fragments to be hunted by cultivators in exchange for Spirit Crystals and divine arts.
• Ma Feifei prepared the Eight Formations Diagram for Feng Yiming, since its Seven Star Lantern could extend his life.
• On August 16, Feng Yiming stood bare-chested in the Mysterious Bookstore’s back courtyard as Ma Feifei and the others prepared for his recitation.

Ma Feifei inscribed the Eight Formations Diagram on Feng Yiming’s back, making him a book slave as ominous thunder rolled over Dubian Town. Meanwhile, spirit beasts rampaged out of Nine Heavens Mountain, killing cultivators until a badly wounded Spirit Emperor escaped by using Soaring Cloud Riding Mist.

• Ma Feifei warned Feng Yiming that he could still change his mind, but Feng Yiming resolutely asked him to begin.
• Ma Feifei used the Spirit Crystals Zhang Yunji supplied to inscribe the Eight Formations Diagram on Feng Yiming’s back.
• Cultivators in Dubian Town recognized the strange storm above the Mysterious Bookstore as a sign that another person had become a book slave and discussed Li Bieli’s growing power.
• Bloodied cultivators fled Nine Heavens Mountain and reported that high-rank spirit beasts had gone berserk and killed many people, including four Spirit Emperors.
• A wounded ninth-stage Spirit Emperor escaped a giant beast’s grasp with Soaring Cloud Riding Mist, and the beast withdrew after he reached safety.

After the spirit-beast rampage on Nine Heavens Mountain killed many powerful cultivators, Ma Feifei set out to investigate whether the Tianshu Fragments had caused the beasts’ growth and violence. As he prepared to enter the mountain with Yun Qingyang, the Sky-reaching Ape Monkey, and Zhou Wuji, a scout reported that the spirit beasts were heading for Dubian Town.

• The rampage on Nine Heavens Mountain left tens of thousands of cultivators dead, and Zhou Wuji closed the road and fortified Dubian Town.
• Ma Feifei finished carving the Eight Formations Diagram, and Feng Yiming left to travel east as the Mysterious Bookstore’s second recitation slave.
• Ma Feifei suspected the Tianshu Fragments had strengthened the spirit beasts and triggered their rampage, so he decided to investigate Nine Heavens Mountain with Yun Qingyang and the Sky-reaching Ape Monkey.
• Zhou Wuji insisted on accompanying Ma Feifei, and Ma Feifei agreed to let him join them.
• A blood-soaked scout arrived at the north gate and told Zhou Wuji that the spirit beasts had left Nine Heavens Mountain and were heading for Dubian Town.

Ma Feifei closed the Mysterious Bookstore as millions of low-tier spirit beasts attacked Dubian Town, then used Luan Feng’s army-wide enhancement to help the town’s troops fight them. Just as the boosted soldiers began overwhelming the beasts, new howls sounded from Nine Heavens Mountain, signaling another wave.

• Millions of spirit beasts battered Dubian Town’s ninth-tier formation, prompting cultivators to flee and Meng Shenji to decide that he and his sect would leave after discovering the Mysterious Bookstore had closed.
• Ma Feifei kept the bookstore closed to prevent panicked cultivators from crowding inside and watched as the beast horde broke through the formation.
• Two hundred thousand troops sent from Yuanfang City joined Dubian Town’s fifty thousand soldiers to confront the spirit beasts, but the human army began to fall behind.
• Ma Feifei asked Luan Feng to enhance the soldiers, and her golden light strengthened all two hundred and fifty thousand troops enough to turn the battle around.
• As the soldiers drove the spirit beasts back, new howls answered from Nine Heavens Mountain and the ground shook with the approach of another wave.

As the human army faltered against waves of spirit beasts, Ma Feifei summoned a vast purple army and had Luan Feng strengthen it. The purple soldiers overwhelmed the beasts, and the battle ended with an orange fragment appearing on a fallen fifth-tier beast.

• More than a hundred thousand fourth-tier Azure-eyed Wolves charged the human army, whose secret technique initially held them back.
• Tens of thousands of fifth-tier spirit beasts broke through the army's formation, forcing its survivors to retreat toward the Pokémon tournament venue.
• Ma Feifei flew north of town and scattered purple energy that transformed into a vast army of soldiers.
• Luan Feng boosted the purple army's strength, and its soldiers crushed the spirit beasts without giving ground.
• The cultivators noticed an orange fragment glowing on the forehead of a fallen fifth-tier spirit beast.

Ma Feifei discovered that a Tianshu Fragment might be boosting the spirit beasts' strength as he helped Dubian Town survive their attack. The battle ended with enormous losses, and he warned the commanders to prepare for a stronger assault the next day.

• Ma Feifei took an Orange Tianshu Fragment from a dead spirit beast and noticed that another beast had shrunk and dropped from the fifth tier to the fourth, leading him to suspect the fragments amplified their strength.
• Cultivators rushed from Dubian Town to fight after fragments appeared, and the battle ended at sunset with nearly a million human and spirit beast corpses across the battlefield.
• Ma Feifei estimated that twenty or thirty Tianshu Fragments had been found and lamented that nearly two hundred thousand soldiers had died.
• The city lord of Yuanfang City and Zhou Wuji thanked Ma Feifei, who warned them that stronger spirit beasts might attack the next day.
• The city lord said fifty thousand heavy-armored soldiers were on their way, and Ma Feifei reassured him that Dubian Town's cultivators would also help defend the town.

Ma Feifei encouraged Yun Qingyang to improve her dragon drawing, but she refused his help and left to prove herself. That night, a mysterious woman in black killed a tavern full of cultivators in Dubian Town and emerged from the ruins holding an Orange Fragment.

• Luan Feng joined Yun Qingyang and Ba Jiu in practicing their drawing at the Mysterious Bookstore.
• Yun Qingyang rejected Ma Feifei's offer of a dragon reference and a million Spirit Crystals, insisting she could draw one herself.
• Cultivators in Dubian Town discussed the spirit beast attack and whether they would have defended the town without Ma Feifei.
• A sudden breeze extinguished the tavern's candles, and the apologetic cultivator was found dead with his throat cut.
• An eerie voice accompanied the destruction of the tavern, killing everyone inside as a woman in black emerged from the ruins with eight bloodied claws and an Orange Fragment.