Chapter Summaries

Verdant Green Maiden met Ji Kang by a stream, where they shared their music and became friends through months of playing together. She left for Shu on Old Yellow Ox, promising to meet Ji Kang again and hear the piece he would compose for her.

• Verdant Green Maiden rested by a stream with Old Yellow Ox and decided to travel to Shu after their break.
• Ji Kang stumbled upon Verdant Green Maiden and apologized for interrupting her; she invited him to play his Guqin.
• Ji Kang played an unnamed piece for Verdant Green Maiden, who named it Chang Qing, then played her own music for him.
• Ji Kang asked to exchange musical techniques with Verdant Green Maiden, and they met for several months to play and talk.
• Verdant Green Maiden told Ji Kang she had to leave for Shu and promised they would exchange music again if they met.
• Ji Kang watched Verdant Green Maiden ride away on Old Yellow Ox and promised to compose a piece that would please her.

Verdant Green Maiden rescued an injured Iron Eater Beast cub and brought it with its mother to Crane Call Mountain as the Daoist temple’s new guardian beasts. After finding the temple mysteriously spotless and a single green feather, she asked Li A whether he planned to keep traveling.

• Verdant Green Maiden treated the injured cub, then invited its mother to follow her and Old Yellow Ox to Crane Call Mountain.
• Verdant Green Maiden arrived at the Daoist temple with the Iron Eater Beasts, named them Tai Tai and Ping Ping, and introduced them as the temple’s guardian beasts.
• The returning Daoist priests found the temple spotless, and Verdant Green Maiden discovered a lone green feather but no letter or bird.
• Verdant Green Maiden asked the priests about their ten years of travels, then asked Li A whether he wanted to continue wandering the world.

Verdant Green Maiden left Tai Ping Daoist temple after choosing a new abbot, then helped Yang Chan and Yang Jian set out to investigate their growing strength. The siblings encountered Sun Huo Wang on the road and learned that he, too, had ties to their side.

• Verdant Green Maiden chose a new abbot for Tai Ping Daoist temple, visited Zhang Sheng's grave, and apologized for arriving late.
• Yang Chan and Yang Jian asked Verdant Green Maiden about their unusual strength, and she let them leave Dragon Tiger Mountain to pursue their own paths.
• The siblings returned to Dujiangyan to pay respects to their family, then prepared to travel in separate directions.
• Sun Huo Wang blocked Yang Chan and Yang Jian, and Yang Jian called him a monster before Sun Huo Wang attacked.
• Xiao Tian and Pu Tian Ying fought Sun Huo Wang until Yang Chan sensed Immortal Spirit Energy on him, and the group discovered they were on the same side.

Yang Chan arranged for Yang Jian and Sun Huo Wang to travel together while she set off with Xiao Tian. Verdant Green Maiden learned of their meeting, then discovered that Old Yellow Ox was actually Heaven keeping watch over her, just as someone fell from the sky.

• Sun Huo Wang told Yang Jian and Yang Chan about Verdant Green Maiden’s legendary deeds, and Yang Jian asked him to protect Yang Chan on her travels.
• Yang Chan convinced Yang Jian and Sun Huo Wang to travel together, then left with Xiao Tian to visit the Five Sacred Mountains and Three Mountains.
• Yang Jian set out with Sun Huo Wang following him, and the two bickered as they traveled.
• Verdant Green Maiden realized Old Yellow Ox was Heaven in disguise, keeping an eye on her.
• Verdant Green Maiden refused Heaven’s offer to keep her company, and someone fell from the sky.

Verdant Green Maiden reluctantly saved the badly injured Pei Xiu after Heaven revealed he had to finish the Yu Gong Regional Map and promised her an opportunity in return. After recovering, Pei Xiu asked how he could repay her, leaving Verdant Green Maiden to decide what to demand.

• Pei Xiu fell into the valley and begged for help, but Verdant Green Maiden initially refused to save him.
• Heaven identified Pei Xiu and insisted he must live until he completed the Yu Gong Regional Map, promising Verdant Green Maiden an opportunity if she treated him.
• Verdant Green Maiden used precious medicines from the Dragon Pearl to treat Pei Xiu, while Heaven explained that he had once been destined to become Sikong of the Western Jin.
• Pei Xiu woke after many days, and Verdant Green Maiden cared for him while Heaven supplied food and other necessities.
• After recovering, Pei Xiu offered to honor Verdant Green Maiden with a statue, then asked how he should repay her when she refused.

Verdant Green Maiden traveled with Pei Xiu for years, then reached the sea and found an injured Mermaid Woman stranded on a reef. After calming and healing the communication barrier between them, she asked the Mermaid Woman how she had ended up there.

• Verdant Green Maiden agreed to travel across the land with Pei Xiu and told him to call her Yu Se.
• After several years of traveling and recording the sights, Pei Xiu and Verdant Green Maiden buried Old Yellow Ox when he died.
• Verdant Green Maiden reassured Pei Xiu that he still had decades to live, and they continued south toward the sea.
• Pei Xiu and Verdant Green Maiden reached the shore, where Pei Xiu recorded the view and Verdant Green Maiden searched for seafood.
• Verdant Green Maiden heard sobbing behind a reef and found a Mermaid Woman with her tail cut and bleeding.
• Verdant Green Maiden calmed the frightened Mermaid Woman, enabled her to understand their speech, and asked how she had ended up there.

Verdant Green Maiden rescued an injured Mermaid Woman, accepted her Weeping Pearls, and returned her to the sea before traveling north with Pei Xiu. On the way through Minyue Land, they encountered a Malaria Ghost, and Pei Xiu feared it would spread disease to nearby people.

• Verdant Green Maiden found Mermaid Woman injured and unconscious, treated her wounds, and gave her herbs.
• After recovering, Mermaid Woman thanked Verdant Green Maiden with pearls formed from her tears.
• Verdant Green Maiden returned Mermaid Woman to the sea, where she sang farewell, and Pei Xiu later asked about hearing the song.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Pei Xiu traveled north through the miasma-filled mountains of Minyue Land.
• They spotted a blood-eyed white figure in the mist, and Pei Xiu identified it as a Malaria Ghost.
• Pei Xiu feared the Malaria Ghost would spread disease to nearby people, and Verdant Green Maiden asked whether he could deal with it.

Verdant Green Maiden captured the Malaria Ghost before it could spread an epidemic through a village, then hurried into the mountains to find other villages it had infected. She discovered a plague-stricken village where residents were burning bodies, and an old man warned her to flee.

• Verdant Green Maiden stayed out of sight so the Malaria Ghost would think it was safe, while Pei Xiu warned a nearby village that it was coming.
• The Malaria Ghost entered the village in a cloud of white mist, and Verdant Green Maiden appeared and trapped it in her palm.
• Pei Xiu told Verdant Green Maiden he still resented his hardships but was glad he had saved the villagers, and she praised him.
• Verdant Green Maiden left the village herbs and set off with Pei Xiu to find other places the Malaria Ghost had visited.
• Verdant Green Maiden flew ahead and found a village ravaged by plague, where an old man urged her to escape.

Verdant Green Maiden treated the plague-stricken villagers and learned they feared a girl named He Qiong as a demoness. She discovered He Qiong was healthy and helped care for her grandmother, then left medicine and instructions for them.

• Verdant Green Maiden set up a clinic in the ancestral hall and treated the villagers, then confronted them when they hid the existence of a supposed demoness.
• The villagers told Verdant Green Maiden that He Qiong had been feared since childhood and had somehow avoided the plague, so Verdant Green Maiden went to find her.
• He Qiong attacked Verdant Green Maiden with a hoe, but Verdant Green Maiden shattered it and explained that she was a doctor, not a sorcerer hired to harm her.
• He Qiong led Verdant Green Maiden to her bedridden grandmother, and Verdant Green Maiden prepared medicine and promised to leave more herbs when needed.
• Verdant Green Maiden asked He Qiong about someone surnamed Lü, then gave her name as Dian Yu Se and left as He Qiong thanked her.

Verdant Green Maiden accepted a mysterious lotus from He Qiong and used a Snow Dragon to drive off villagers who blamed He Qiong for the epidemic. After the epidemic ended, she parted from Pei Xiu and learned from Heaven that the lotus was the Precious Lotus Lantern.

• Verdant Green Maiden accepted the unusual lotus He Qiong had found and offered to her.
• A month later, villagers accused He Qiong of causing the epidemic, so Verdant Green Maiden summoned a Snow Dragon to frighten them away.
• Verdant Green Maiden urged He Qiong to leave the village with Grandmother He, and Pei Xiu agreed to guide them.
• Verdant Green Maiden parted from Pei Xiu as he led He Qiong and Grandmother He away.
• Verdant Green Maiden admitted to Heaven that she had brought disaster upon the village and asked about He Qiong's lotus.
• Heaven told Verdant Green Maiden that the lotus was the Precious Lotus Lantern, not He Xiangu's magical artifact.

Verdant Green Maiden learned that the lotus meant for her was tied to Yang Chan’s future, then reunited with Ji Kang and heard the masterpiece he had composed while waiting for her. After naming it Guangling San, she began walking with Ji Kang and promised to tell him about her travels.

• Heaven explained that He Qiong’s changed fate had led He Xiangu to give Verdant Green Maiden a lotus intended to be refined for Yang Chan.
• Verdant Green Maiden grew the lotus into a Twin Lotus, placed the Mermaid’s Tear in its hollow, and set off north to keep an old promise.
• Verdant Green Maiden reunited with Ji Kang, who recognized her as an Immortal and played the piece he had composed for her.
• Verdant Green Maiden named Ji Kang’s masterpiece Guangling San, and he thanked her.
• Ji Kang asked about the old yellow ox and Verdant Green Maiden’s travels; she said the ox had died and that she would tell him about the world while she stayed with him.

After Liu Shan’s death, migration and disaster engulfed the Northern Lands, and Verdant Green Maiden confronted the southern-moving tribes at Bingzhou. She made the Southern Xiongnu’s Great Chanyu promise to protect local people and hinted that the Jie would face her judgment.

• Verdant Green Maiden discovered that Heaven had arranged for Brother Ox to be reborn as the old yellow ox she had ridden for nearly a century, then continued north with him.
• Liu Shan died at ninety, and Liu Xuan gave him the neutral posthumous title Han Emperor Xiaohuai as the court debated moving the capital back to Chang'an.
• As the northern disaster drove refugees and nomadic peoples south, Chunyu Tiying, Jingang, Hong Luan, and the Mount Tai Immortal Class provided relief across the north.
• At Bingzhou, Verdant Green Maiden crushed the Jie cavalry with a single stomp and waited for the Southern Xiongnu main force to arrive.
• Yufuluo, Great Chanyu of the Xiongnu, recognized Verdant Green Maiden as the Heavenly Mountain Saintess and promised that his people would protect the Han inhabitants.
• Verdant Green Maiden warned Yufuluo not to slaughter innocents and said she disliked the Jie, prompting him to turn a cold gaze toward them.

Verdant Green Maiden spent decades warning the northern Hu tribes against harming civilians, earning reverence as the Heavenly Maiden and recognition of the Divine Position of the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden. After Heaven warned her of a future calamity for her disciple Yang Chan, the Han Court abandoned its northern territories and became a Jiangnan dynasty.

• Verdant Green Maiden traveled among Hu tribes for twenty years, warning them not to slaughter innocent Han or Hu civilians, and lightning killed a Qiang chieftain who defied her.
• Han and Hu communities largely remained at peace, and people began identifying Verdant Green Maiden as the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden.
• Heaven told Verdant Green Maiden that her deeds had earned her a recognized divine position and warned that Yang Chan would face a calamity several hundred years later because of the lotus Female Immortal Yunhua had given her.
• After Liu Xuan died, the Crown Prince took the throne and abandoned most northern prefectures and counties, leaving the Han Court as a Jiangnan dynasty.

While fishing, Verdant Green Maiden pulled Bai Susu, a heavenly fairy known as White Water Fairy, from the river and took her in as a housekeeper. Traveling through Luoyang, she learned that the city had fallen to the Xiongnu People and met Zu Ti, a lord who was giving his carriage and horses to elderly refugees.

• Verdant Green Maiden caught Bai Susu by the hand after she tugged on the fishing line, learned that Bai Susu was a fairy from the Sky Han, and agreed to take her in.
• Bai Susu explained that minor immortals could reach the Mortal Realm through the sources of rivers, but the Yellow River and Luo River were forbidden without permission.
• In Luoyang, Verdant Green Maiden learned that the Xiongnu People had taken the city and that commoners were heading south because their lords were leaving for Jiankang.
• Verdant Green Maiden realized that great families were moving south to protect their own power and retainers, then noticed a lord giving his carriage and horses to elderly refugees.
• The lord introduced himself to Verdant Green Maiden as Zu Ti, courtesy name Shi Zhi.

The Verdant Green Maiden traveled to Luoyang and confronted Liu Yuan, who claimed the Han throne and vowed to reclaim the northern lands. She left for Chang'an, where she laughed at Liu Yuan's ambitions before facing the desolate Gaomiao.

• The Verdant Green Maiden declined Zu Ti's offer to travel to Jiangnan and vanished with Bai Susu and Old Yellow Ox on their way to Luoyang.
• At Luoyang's Ancestral Temple, the Verdant Green Maiden challenged Liu Yuan's claim to the Han surname and learned an elixir had saved him from a grave illness.
• Liu Yuan asserted that he was the rightful Han ruler and vowed to expand his territory, drive out the barbarians, and reclaim the northern lands.
• The Verdant Green Maiden refused Liu Yuan's offer of a title and left as he ordered his men to gather displaced commoners and prepare an expedition to Chang'an.
• At Gaomiao in Chang'an, the Verdant Green Maiden laughed at Liu Yuan's boast of emulating Emperor Shizong, then sighed at the surrounding desolation.

Zu Ti launched a Northern Expedition against Liu Yuan’s Xiongnu Han, but Cao Wei’s surprise attack shattered their stalemate. The Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden rescued Zu Ti, who survived to rally his remaining troops and withdraw.

• Zu Ti crossed the Yangtze with a few hundred followers, gathered refugees, and pushed his forces north toward Luoyang.
• Zu Ti and Liu Yuan argued over which Han court was legitimate before their armies fought a prolonged battle.
• A Wei army attacked Zu Ti’s camp at night, setting it ablaze and scattering his troops.
• The Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden rescued Zu Ti from Wei soldiers and revealed her identity before riding away.
• Zu Ti reunited with his surviving soldiers and learned that Cao Wei’s main army was advancing south.

After Zu Ti's death and the Jiangnan Han Court's retreat from the Northern Expedition, Verdant Green Maiden and Bai Susu encountered a girl sent as a sacrifice to a Snake Immortal. The girl confronted the demon at its cave, where an unseen attacker cut off its hand.

• Zu Ti died after the court delayed sending physicians, and the Jiangnan Han Court arrested and exiled his deputy general after the general condemned the aristocrats.
• Verdant Green Maiden reassured Bai Susu that no snake demon could rival her, then learned that a town was sending a girl to the Snake Immortal.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Bai Susu followed the girl, who carried a saber and provisions into the mountains to confront the demon.
• The girl waited several days outside the cave until the Snake Demon Man emerged and knocked her saber away.
• As the Snake Demon Man reached for the girl, a streak of pale blue light severed his hand, and he shouted that he was the Thousand Snake Great Immortal.

Verdant Green Maiden defeated the Snake Demon and helped Li Ji earn credit for its death before continuing toward Jiankang with Bai Susu. After learning that war had ravaged the city and hearing that Wen Jiao had retaken it, they reached Niuzhu Cliff, where spirits seemed to be inviting Verdant Green Maiden toward the Netherworld.

• Verdant Green Maiden pinned the Snake Demon with her Bamboo Hat, killed it with a thunderbolt, and told Li Ji to bury the bones of its victims.
• Verdant Green Maiden fed Li Ji, learned why she had challenged the Snake Demon, and declined to teach her cultivation until she was older.
• Bai Susu escorted Li Ji home, while Verdant Green Maiden arranged for Li Ji to receive all the credit for slaying the Snake Demon.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Bai Susu found Jiankang devastated by war, then heard that Wen Jiao had recaptured the city and continued north.
• At Niuzhu Cliff, Verdant Green Maiden saw spirits gathered by a bridge and considered summoning Damn Heaven as a Han- and Wen-bannered army approached.

Verdant Green Maiden let Wen Jiao’s army cross the haunted bridge and revealed the Ghosts and Spirits beneath it, but Wen Jiao chose to press on. A Netherworld Immortal gave her Blade Mountain Wood, which she named Rich Flower, and Heaven explained that she was Mount Tai Holy Mother, powerful in the Netherworld.

• Bai Susu asked Verdant Green Maiden whether Wen Jiao was the general who had reclaimed Jiankang, and Verdant Green Maiden confirmed it was likely him.
• Wen Jiao led his army onto the bridge despite Verdant Green Maiden’s warning, and she used Rhinoceros Horn to reveal the Ghosts and Spirits beneath the water.
• Wen Jiao saw the spirits but refused to turn back, then continued onward with his troops.
• A crowned Netherworld Immortal presented Verdant Green Maiden with a wooden sword, and Bai Susu was too frightened to touch it.
• Heaven identified the weapon as Blade Mountain Wood from Screaming Great Hell, and Verdant Green Maiden named it Rich Flower.
• Heaven revealed that the giver was Yanluo Son of Heaven and reminded Verdant Green Maiden that, as Mount Tai Holy Mother, she outranked the Ten Palace Yama once she attained her true fruition.

Verdant Green Maiden and Bai Susu watched Cao Guo proclaim himself emperor, then entered his palace to reveal Verdant Green Maiden’s divine identities. Cao Guo was left dumbfounded by her many titles.

• Verdant Green Maiden collected food with Bai Susu in Ji City and went to watch Cao Guo’s coronation ceremony.
• Bai Susu accidentally sprinkled water on Cao Guo while clearing the smoke, prompting him to end the ceremony and return to the palace.
• Cao Guo proclaimed himself emperor, established the Ganlu era, awarded titles to his ministers, and posthumously honored former Kings of Wei as emperors.
• Verdant Green Maiden and Bai Susu appeared in Cao Guo’s Inner Court after the palace attendants had disappeared.
• Bai Susu introduced Verdant Green Maiden by listing her divine titles, leaving Cao Guo dumbfounded.