Recaps

Shen Hui awoke from a meditation that had lasted more than a year to find Lu Huan grown and advancing in cultivation, while Patriarch Embracing Snow had reached Foundation Establishment. After learning of unrest and refugees below the mountain, Shen Hui heard Embracing Snow warn that the world was about to fall into chaos.

• Shen Hui discovered Lu Huan and Patriarch Embracing Snow waiting for him after his meditation had lasted until the end of May in the second year.
• Lu Huan told Shen Hui that she had trained with Patriarch Embracing Snow, reached the late stage of Qi Refinement, and lost her horns.
• Shen Hui used the Matter Transformation Method to repair Lu Huan's clothes and turn them into a Daoist robe matching his own.
• Shen Hui congratulated Patriarch Embracing Snow on reaching Foundation Establishment, and she declined his offer to reshape a physical body for her.
• Patriarch Embracing Snow told Shen Hui that armed unrest had broken out twice and refugees had appeared around the mountain, warning that the world was likely about to fall into chaos.

Shen Hui used over one hundred thousand Dao Xing to form a Golden Core, gaining immense spiritual power, a strengthened body, expanded Divine Sense, and the ability to sense Heavenly Secrets. After he restored the mountains with Jia Wood Azure Thunder, Patriarch Baoxue questioned whether he had only formed his core, then retreated into her gourd.

• Shen Hui spent one hundred thousand Dao Xing to begin breaking through, then added one more point to complete his Golden Core.
• The influx of spiritual energy drained the life from the surrounding peaks while reviving the summit of Deer Rest Mountain, before leaving the whole area barren.
• Shen Hui discovered the Golden Core's enhanced body, spiritual radiance, Divine Sense, and ability to sense and disturb Heavenly Secrets.
• Shen Hui flew above the mountains on Red Calamity and used Jia Wood Azure Thunder to restore the withered vegetation and clear the foul yin energy and miasma.
• Shen Hui told Patriarch Baoxue that he had formed his core; she questioned whether he had really only reached Golden Core, then returned to her Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd, which Shen Hui caught.

Shen Hui summoned Jingming and Old Taoist Ji Chen, revealed that he had formed a core and could reshape their bodies, and learned what had happened at Green City Mountain. Ji Chen urged Shen Hui to leave his senior brothers and sisters in the gourd and prioritize his own survival as he prepared to enter the mortal world.

• Shen Hui summoned Jingming from the Soul-Searching Gourd, and she advised him to consider how he would deal with Old Taoist Ji Chen.
• Shen Hui summoned Ji Chen, revealed his core formation and ability to reshape bodies, and asked what had happened at Green City Mountain.
• Ji Chen explained that True Person Lingsu had fallen to demonhood during the Sword Viewing Assembly and slaughtered many people, while the mountain's Supreme Elder had been gravely injured.
• Shen Hui said he planned to descend the mountain to eliminate demons and monsters, and that Clear Wind Temple would need a new mountain gate.
• Ji Chen warned Shen Hui not to reshape his companions yet and urged him to protect himself, while Shen Hui promised to preserve Clear Wind Temple's lineage.
• Shen Hui told Ji Chen that Patriarch Baoxue was staying in the Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd and joked that he could carry her away in it if danger came.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan descended from the mountain and encountered refugees fleeing bandits amid the fighting between the rebel army and the Iron Arm Army. After Shen Hui sent Red Calamity toward bandits threatening women and children, a mounted soldier charged at them and was cut in half.

• Shen Hui gave the jujube-red horse a wisp of Yi Wood essence before leading Lu Huan down the mountain.
• Shen Hui stopped a fleeing old man, who told him that rebel forces and the Iron Arm Army were driving refugees from Lingzhou into danger in Luanzhou.
• Shen Hui used his divine sense to find bandits threatening women and children in refugee huts, then sent Red Calamity toward them.
• Shen Hui gave the old man mountain fruits and continued down the trail with Lu Huan.
• A mounted soldier charged at Shen Hui and Lu Huan, but the rider was suddenly split in two.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan rescued refugees from soldier-bandits and learned that the men had been sent by Zhou Han to investigate a rumored treasure near Cat Ridge. After hearing how war and both rebel and imperial forces had devastated the refugees, Shen Hui set out with Lu Huan to travel among the people and sweep away the demons causing their suffering.

• Shen Hui killed the soldier-bandits attacking refugees, while Lu Huan comforted a frightened child with a wild fruit.
• Shen Hui questioned the surviving bandits and learned their commander was Zhou Han, a former Lingzhou rebel leader camped with over a hundred men at Cloud-Locking Cave on Cat Ridge.
• Shen Hui killed the bandits and asked the refugees where they came from.
• A refugee woman told Shen Hui that rebels and imperial troops had both persecuted them, and that her husband had been killed after being mistaken for a rebel.
• Shen Hui gave Lu Huan the Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd and said they were going beneath heaven, among mankind, to sweep away every demon.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan climbed Cat Ridge, where Shen Hui killed the rebel soldiers and freed their captives. After sealing the cave and burning the undead child’s corpse, they left the ridge, with Lu Huan observing that the child did not seem to like fruit.

• Shen Hui moved a broken cart off Bonan Road and suspected Cat Ridge had drawn demons, bandits, and rebel soldiers in succession.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan reached the ridge, where Shen Hui killed the sentries and found soldiers planning to use an undead child to poison arrows.
• Shen Hui used Red Calamity to kill every soldier-bandit on the ridge, then opened the sheds and told the captives they could leave.
• Shen Hui sealed the cave entrance while Lu Huan left fruit by the undead child; he then set the corpse on fire.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan left the ridge, and Lu Huan remarked that the child did not seem to like fruit.

Shen Hui witnessed soldiers mistreating refugees while dispensing porridge and discovered a human eyeball in an old woman's bowl. After freezing the porridge barrel, he demanded to see the general, and Mu Baichuan, a Corpse Refining Sect disciple serving as the general's military retainer, asked him to explain himself.

• Soldiers shoved and struck hungry refugees as they distributed watery porridge, while mocking them for seeking charity.
• An old woman found a human eyeball in her porridge and was about to be struck by a soldier when Shen Hui cut the soldier's scabbard in two.
• Shen Hui asked the soldiers to take him to their lord, but they refused and insulted him.
• Shen Hui froze the entire porridge barrel into a solid block of ice, forcing the soldiers to stop resisting.
• Mu Baichuan appeared beneath the gate tower, introduced himself as a Corpse Refining Sect disciple serving the general, and asked Shen Hui why he wanted to meet him.

Shen Hui confronted Mu Baichuan over human remains being mixed into porridge for refugees and killed him after destroying his Copper-Armored Corpses. As hurried footsteps approached from inside Qu County, someone challenged Shen Hui for causing trouble in the general’s jurisdiction.

• Shen Hui recognized Mu Baichuan as a disciple of the Corpse Refining Sect and accused him of mixing human corpses into the refugees’ porridge.
• The refugees realized what they had been eating, smashed their bowls, and demanded an explanation.
• Mu Baichuan summoned three Copper-Armored Corpses, but Shen Hui’s Red Calamity sword destroyed them in a single strike.
• Mu Baichuan begged for his life and invoked his master’s standing in the Corpse Refining Sect, but Shen Hui said that was precisely why he had to kill him.
• Shen Hui killed Mu Baichuan with Red Calamity as hurried footsteps approached from inside the city and a voice accused him of causing trouble in the general’s jurisdiction.

Shen Hui confronted the general and soldiers at Qu County’s gate after discovering they had poisoned refugee porridge with human flesh to create iron-armored corpses. He left the deputy general in charge after killing the general, then entered the city with Lu Huan, saying they would see that night whether the soldiers changed.

• The general arrived with armed soldiers, accused Shen Hui of killing Mu Baichuan, and threatened him with the court’s authority.
• Shen Hui killed the general with a flash of cold light and ordered the deputy general to take command.
• The deputy general confessed that Mu Baichuan had planned to poison refugees through the porridge so he could turn them into iron-armored corpses.
• Shen Hui questioned the deputy general about the soldiers’ crimes, and the deputy general admitted that the troops had also participated in wrongdoing under orders.
• The deputy general and soldiers swore they would stop harming the people, and Shen Hui entered the city with Lu Huan, saying they would know that night whether the soldiers kept their word.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan visited the dilapidated Qu County Post House, where the old stationmaster described the worsening hardship and unrest in the county. Shen Hui learned that Zhang Qi had left for Yujing City with a woman he had redeemed, and accepted that Zhang Qi had followed his own wishes.

• Shen Hui led Lu Huan to the abandoned Qu County Post House and found his name and his master's in its old account book.
• The old stationmaster recognized Shen Hui and Lu Huan and welcomed them inside.
• The stationmaster described rising grain prices, shortages, bandits, rebel troops, and shops closing across Qu County.
• Shen Hui asked after Zhang Qi and learned that Zhang Qi had quit delivering letters and traveled toward Yujing City with Cui and his parents.
• The stationmaster criticized Zhang Qi for spending twenty-five taels to redeem Cui, while Shen Hui said Zhang Qi could decide what was worth it.

Shen Hui leaves the old stationmaster with enchanted wine and departs with Lu Huan as the deputy general orders his troops to stop abusing civilians after the general’s death. The next morning, news that Great Shuo has fallen reveals the rebel leader the troops killed was the new emperor’s younger brother.

• Shen Hui gives the old stationmaster wine enhanced to prolong his life and leaves with Lu Huan.
• The deputy general gathers the soldiers in the rain and forbids them from oppressing civilians, looting, assaulting women, or killing innocents.
• The deputy general tells the troops that a Daoist killed the former general and declares that they will now answer to him.
• A courier arrives at dawn and reports that Great Shuo has fallen and a new emperor has taken power.
• The courier reveals that the rebel leader killed by the troops at Cat Ridge was the new emperor’s younger brother.

After learning that the new emperor had taken power, the stranded soldiers in Qu County panicked, and the deputy general lost control as they fled and rampaged through the city. The chapter ended with Squad Leader Zhou confronting soldiers who had dragged a mother and daughter into an alley, followed by a few faint clashes of metal.

• The soldiers learned that the new emperor had taken power and argued over whether to flee, surrender, or keep fighting.
• A squad leader killed the courier to prevent him from reporting the camp’s situation, and the soldiers began abandoning the camp.
• The soldiers poured into Qu County, fleeing, looting, setting fires, attacking residents, and forcing their way into Cloud-Staying Pavilion.
• Squad Leader Zhou drew his blade to stop soldiers dragging a mother and daughter into an alley, and metal clashed faintly in the rain.

After a night of chaos that he believed had only been a dream, the deputy general discovered that the soldiers who had committed atrocities were dead while those who had resisted survived with strange new abilities. He was left wondering whether the white-haired Daoist had watched the reckoning unfold.

• The deputy general woke from a dream of Great Shuo’s fall and found the camp apparently peaceful after the rain.
• He discovered seven dead soldiers in a barracks, then found that the soldiers who had committed atrocities were dead throughout the camp.
• Surviving soldiers realized that those who had fled or resisted the violence were unharmed, while the perpetrators had died.
• The survivors tested their altered bodies and found they had gained varying degrees of strength, speed, and heightened senses.
• Squad Leader Zhou cracked a saber’s wooden handle with his bare hand, while the deputy general recalled the white-haired Daoist’s warning.
• Someone handed the deputy general water and asked, “Did you do as you said?” but no one was there when he turned to look.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan left Qu County and met Liu Qing and Bai Zhi, two cultivators traveling toward White Water River. As the four traveled together, Liu Qing wondered about Shen Hui’s background and mistook Lu Huan for a sect’s heaven-favored daughter under an elder’s protection.

• Shen Hui told Lu Huan that the refugees would have to find their own livelihoods after he had ended the military threat.
• Shen Hui noticed Liu Qing and Bai Zhi among a group of refugees leaving Qu County.
• Liu Qing invited Shen Hui and Lu Huan to travel with him and Bai Zhi toward White Water River and Bonan County.
• Liu Qing introduced himself as a disciple of Ten Thousand Swords Mountain and Bai Zhi as a herb-gathering cultivator from Ten Thousand Springs Valley.
• Liu Qing failed to learn much about Shen Hui, then realized Lu Huan had reached late Qi Refining despite her childlike appearance.
• Liu Qing guessed that Lu Huan was a sect’s heaven-favored daughter traveling under Shen Hui’s protection.

Shen Hui found his renovated Land God Temple filthy and occupied by refugees, so he awakened the stone statue with protective spiritual powers before continuing down the road. He left the refugees to face the consequences of their own behavior, while Bai Zhi wondered about what she had witnessed.

• Shen Hui and the travelers reached the Land God Temple and found its water jar contaminated and its shelter littered with filth.
• When the refugees denied responsibility for the mess, Shen Hui discovered that the stone deity had no spiritual resonance.
• Shen Hui infused the statue with earth spiritual energy, gave it a flame that could repel evil spirits, and empowered its eyes to judge travelers in their dreams.
• Shen Hui decided the group should continue onward, and Liu Qing gathered the travelers to leave the temple behind.
• Lu Huan asked whether the refugees would die, and Shen Hui predicted that their poor cleanliness would likely bring them a serious illness.
• Bai Zhi overheard Shen Hui and Lu Huan's conversation, looked back at the temple, and pondered what she had seen.

After the group left the Land God Temple, Bai Zhi's senior brother caught up with them and confronted her about leaving the sect. He denied that he and Liu Ruyan were involved and answered Bai Zhi's demand for clarity with a poetic refusal to define their relationship, while Shen Hui watched the exchange.

• The group continued along the official road, and Liu Qing repeatedly glanced back at Bai Zhi as they walked.
• A young man rode up on a white horse, dismounted theatrically, and greeted Bai Zhi as his junior sister.
• Bai Zhi went pale and fell silent, while Liu Qing looked displeased and Shen Hui scrutinized the newcomer.
• Bai Zhi said she had left after seeing him holding hands with Liu Ruyan in Hidden Wind Forest, and he claimed Liu Ruyan had only held his hand to thank him for finding a replacement vine for her broken medicine hoe.
• When Bai Zhi asked what their relationship was, the man said their feelings could not be contained by labels such as fellow disciples, confidants, husband and wife, or Dao companions.
• Shen Hui sat down with Lu Huan to watch, and Patriarch Baoxue peeked out from the Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd to listen.

Shen Hui watched Meng Huaiyuan persuade Bai Zhi that his relationships with other women had been false, while Liu Qing failed to stop her from believing him. When Meng Huaiyuan swore an oath and lightning struck a willow tree, Shen Hui healed it and drew everyone’s attention, just as dark clouds gathered overhead.

• Meng Huaiyuan explained away his outings with Miss Xu as a sacrifice for the spiritual materials he needed to reach Foundation Establishment.
• Bai Zhi believed Meng Huaiyuan’s confession and moved closer to him, while Liu Qing struggled to object.
• Meng Huaiyuan swore that heaven should strike him if he had lied, and lightning hit the old willow tree beside the road.
• Shen Hui admitted to Lu Huan and Patriarch Baoxue that he had caused the lightning because he got carried away with the act.
• Shen Hui healed the charred willow tree before the stunned crowd and invited Meng Huaiyuan and Bai Zhi to continue.
• Dark clouds gathered as Shen Hui looked up at the sky, his smile fading.

The Lao Water Dragon King appeared after Shen Hui summoned lightning and challenged him for using thunder within the Dragon King's territory. Shen Hui recognized the powerful river deity and refused to accept that lightning was his exclusive domain, leaving their confrontation unresolved.

• The Lao Water Dragon King descended onto the official road and demanded to know who had summoned lightning.
• Shen Hui admitted he had called the lightning, then asked the stranger who he was.
• The man identified himself as the Lao Water Dragon King, prompting refugees to kneel and call him Grandpa Zhaomeng.
• Shen Hui recalled the conflicting legends about the Dragon King and recognized him as a great demon whose cultivation mixed demonic, divine, and Buddhist influences.
• The Dragon King accused Shen Hui of overstepping his place by summoning thunder, and Shen Hui challenged his claim to exclusive authority over lightning.

Shen Hui confronted the Nine-Headed Naga Dragon King over his claim to control thunder and defeated him in battle. He took the Dragon King's lightning pearl and left him alive, demanding that he attend to the suffering people along the riverbanks before asking for it back.

• The Nine-Headed Naga Dragon King challenged Shen Hui to a fight after Shen Hui rejected the dragon clan's authority over thunder.
• Shen Hui sent Lu Huan and the others away, then attacked the Dragon King with White Skeleton and Red Calamity.
• The Dragon King regrew a head after Shen Hui severed one, but Shen Hui's five-colored lightning forced him to reveal his naga form and destroyed another head.
• Shen Hui used divine light to seize the thunder pearl and then cut down the naga's heads while condemning his neglect of the people and the disasters along the river.
• With only three heads remaining and his body near death, the Dragon King lost the lightning pearl to Shen Hui, who ordered him to return after he cared about the common folk.

After defeating the Lao Water Dragon King, Shen Hui rested with the group and refined its thunder pearl, strengthening Water Spirit and his water-aspected arts. The travelers reached the White Water River, where prosperous fields and cheerful villagers stood in stark contrast to the devastation they had seen before.

• Shen Hui returned to the group, said the Lao Water Dragon King was only half-dead, and decided they would spend the night on the road.
• Shen Hui shaped earth into a stone chamber, then studied the naga’s nine heads and wondered whether they were separate entities with different auras.
• Shen Hui refined the water-aspected thunder pearl, and Water Spirit emerged livelier and more powerful.
• Shen Hui and the others set out the next morning, with Liu Qing, Bai Zhi, and Meng Huaiyuan treating Shen Hui more cautiously after learning his strength.
• The group reached the White Water River and saw lush fields, working farmers, and playing children instead of the ruin and desolation they had passed through.

Shen Hui visited a flourishing shrine to the White Water River Goddess and heard how villagers believed she saved lives and returned lost belongings. As the refugees prepared to cross toward Bonan County, Shen Hui asked Liu Qing whether he knew Nie Yun.

• Shen Hui and his companions inspected the River Goddess shrine, where Liu Qing read the stele and Bai Zhi studied the statue.
• The shrine keeper told Shen Hui that the River Goddess was widely worshipped for saving people, providing fish, and returning lost possessions.
• Shen Hui donated silver to the merit box, then walked beside the river with Lu Huan while the refugees prepared to cross.
• Liu Qing, Bai Zhi, and Meng Huaiyuan bid farewell to Shen Hui before heading toward Bonan County.
• Shen Hui asked Liu Qing whether he knew Nie Yun, and Liu Qing identified her as a gifted young member of Ten Thousand Swords Mountain.

Shen Hui offered Liu Qing, Bai Zhi, and Meng Huaiyuan cryptic counsel about love, attachment, and karmic consequences. After hearing him, Meng Huaiyuan abandoned the crossing and returned to the valley, while Bai Zhi continued with Liu Qing, considering Shen Hui’s question about what endures.

• Shen Hui used the river’s shifting reflections to counsel Liu Qing about letting go, and Liu Qing bowed in understanding.
• Bai Zhi asked Shen Hui why he had summoned lightning, and he urged her to distinguish lasting devotion from fleeting allure.
• Meng Huaiyuan sought Shen Hui’s farewell, and Shen Hui warned him that weaving snares for others would ensnare himself; Meng Huaiyuan thanked him uneasily.
• Bai Zhi, Liu Qing, and Meng Huaiyuan boarded the last ferry, but Meng Huaiyuan jumped into the river with his horse and returned to the bank, saying he needed to go back to the valley.
• Bai Zhi watched Meng Huaiyuan leave, and Liu Qing promised to accompany her as she recalled Shen Hui’s words about what endures.

Shen Hui explained to Lu Huan how emotional attachments could undermine a cultivator’s control of their mind and spirit. White Carp then appeared in the White Water River and asked Shen Hui to save her from the shell she could no longer control.

• Shen Hui told Lu Huan that the three cultivators’ attachments could cause spirit leakage and prevent them from advancing or forming cores.
• The White Water River fell silent and flat, and White Carp rose from its depths.
• White Carp asked Shen Hui for help, explaining that incense offerings had given her shell divine wonders and begun to control her actions.
• White Carp said the shell now forced her to patrol the river, help worshippers, and remain trapped inside it.

Shen Hui freed White Carp from the body whose prayers had awakened a new Divine Sense, leaving the woman in white to remain as the White Water River God. White Carp was free to return to her fish form, but she was unsettled that the river god never looked back at her.

• Shen Hui explained that White Carp could leave the body, but would lose any claim to it and return to being a fish.
• White Carp chose freedom, fearing that staying would leave her as nourishment for the new Divine Sense.
• Shen Hui drew White Carp out of the body with a whirlpool and waterspout, and the woman in white sank beneath the river.
• White Carp watched the woman disappear and murmured that she had not looked back, while Shen Hui said the river god now protected the people impartially.

Shen Hui left White Carp to choose her own path and entered White Water Village, where he learned that a newlywed man was suffering from a dangerous case of yang shrinkage. After hearing the villagers’ account, Shen Hui began investigating the man’s symptoms.

• White Carp asked Shen Hui to burn incense for her at the River God Shrine, but he told her to offer it herself if she someday took human form.
• Shen Hui told White Carp she was free to go wherever she wished, then left with Lu Huan.
• At dusk, Shen Hui and Lu Huan heard villagers joking about Old Zhao’s third son, whose genitals had retracted into his abdomen.
• Shen Hui recognized the condition as potentially life-threatening and asked the villagers to describe the man’s symptoms.
• The villagers said the man’s wife had sought a physician and prayed at the River God Shrine, but he had not improved; one young wife began to mention that he had been frightened on his wedding night.