Recaps

Shen Hui treated Third Zhao, whose life was in danger after prolonged exposure to cold river water. He drove the cold from Third Zhao’s body with fire techniques and left him recovering under his wife’s care.

• A tall, skinny villager led Shen Hui and Lu Huan to the Zhao family, where Third Zhao’s wife begged the Daoist priest to save her husband.
• Shen Hui examined Third Zhao and found that cold from soaking in the river had damaged his yang energy and left him near collapse.
• Shen Hui sent the family and Lu Huan outside, then used fire techniques along Third Zhao’s meridians to expel the cold evil.
• After restoring warmth and strengthening Third Zhao’s pulse, Shen Hui told his wife to give him a talisman dissolved in hot water each day and keep him from cold for seven days.
• Third Zhao and his wife thanked Shen Hui, who helped them up and said he had simply happened to know how to treat the illness.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan left the grateful villager and spent the night beneath a locust tree, where Shen Hui made Lu Huan a leafy hammock. As Lu Huan fell asleep, they agreed to visit a monk at Wan'an Temple before possibly heading east to see the sea.

• The villager thanked Shen Hui and gave him and Lu Huan eggs, and Shen Hui roasted theirs with his magic.
• Lu Huan tried to roast her egg with water arts but only washed it, so Shen Hui cooked it for her; she shared a bite with the gourd.
• Lu Huan asked why worshipping the River Goddess had not helped the villagers, and Shen Hui explained that the goddess had limited powers and duties.
• Shen Hui used his power to weave a hammock from the locust tree's branches for Lu Huan while he prepared to meditate on a bench.
• Shen Hui told Lu Huan they would visit his monk acquaintance at Wan'an Temple in Bonan County, and agreed to her suggestion that they head east afterward.
• Lu Huan settled into the hammock and fell asleep thinking about the sea and the journey ahead.

Lu Huan crossed the river with Shen Hui and learned that she had already reached the threshold of Water Art. After several falls and a lesson in calming her thoughts, she managed to stand and hop on the water as Shen Hui continued onward.

• Lu Huan woke from a sweet dream when Shen Hui shook her hammock and told her it was time to leave.
• Shen Hui stepped onto the river and Lu Huan followed, still drowsy, until the cold breeze woke her in the middle of the water.
• Lu Huan asked when she would be able to walk on water by herself, and Shen Hui told her the ability was already her own.
• Lu Huan sank when Shen Hui explained that she had to keep her thoughts calm, and he pulled her from the river.
• Shen Hui taught Lu Huan to treat the river as grassland, and she steadied herself, then excitedly hopped across the water as he walked on.

Shen Hui taught Lu Huan to consider who truly needed help before giving alms in Bonan County. An old monk who was secretly a Core Formation cultivator challenged Shen Hui’s advice, and the two prepared to debate the Dao.

• Shen Hui and Lu Huan reached Bonan County near dusk and entered the crowded town.
• Lu Huan stopped to give coins to a disabled beggar, but Shen Hui held her back and warned that some beggars might exploit people’s kindness or be part of a scheme involving maimed children.
• Shen Hui told Lu Huan to find out whether someone truly needed help and what help they needed before giving alms.
• An old monk approached and argued that people should do good regardless of whether swindlers might benefit.
• Shen Hui recognized the monk as a Core Formation cultivator, and the monk accepted Shen Hui’s invitation to debate the Dao.

Shen Hui and an old monk argued over whether charity should be given without judging a beggar’s intentions, with Shen Hui insisting that undiscerning alms could enable the abuse of children and other crimes. After the monk questioned Lu Huan’s future under Shen Hui’s influence, Shen Hui turned back and threatened to confront him with force.

• Shen Hui argued that giving money without distinguishing genuine need from deception could fund evil deeds.
• The old monk defended unconditional almsgiving as a way to cultivate compassion and said each person bore their own karma.
• Shen Hui accused the monk’s refusal to judge recipients of helping child-maiming beggars and called it complicity in their crimes.
• Shen Hui’s rebuke shook the old monk, whose prayer beads snapped and scattered across the street.
• As Shen Hui took Lu Huan’s hand to leave, the old monk warned that Lu Huan might learn discernment without compassion from him.
• Shen Hui turned back, released a chilling killing intent, and warned the old monk that he was skilled at fighting dharma.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan arrived in Bonan County and learned that Wan'an Temple was famous, though an inn servant refused to tell Shen Hui more about it. Shen Hui sent White Skeleton and Red Calamity to search for beggars, and Red Calamity found an abandoned residence in the south of the city.

• The old monk accused Shen Hui of nearing demonic ways, but fell silent when Shen Hui asked whether he intended to vanquish demons and defend the Dao.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan went to the Yuelai Inn, where Shen Hui paid for a superior room and asked the servant about Wan'an Temple.
• The servant said Wan'an Temple stood on Yongping Mountain and avoided giving Shen Hui further information, so Shen Hui took back the silver he had offered.
• Shen Hui sent White Skeleton and Red Calamity to search Bonan County for beggars and their gathering places.
• White Skeleton and Red Calamity searched bridges and city-gate tunnels before Red Calamity spotted an abandoned residence in the south of the city.

Two flying swords slaughtered the beggar gang holding a boy captive, then continued through the city until they encountered a night watchman carrying a human thigh bone. The watchman recited a macabre rhyme and announced that he would keep watch over Tiger City.

• The beggar chief ordered his men to break a runaway boy’s legs and cut out his tongue.
• A red and a white flying sword killed the beggar chief and his thugs, leaving the other beggars alive in terror.
• White Skeleton and Red Calamity flew into a secluded alley and hid as a night watchman approached.
• The watchman carried a human thigh bone and recited a rhyme about prowling streets, summoning souls, and watching over Tiger City.

Shen Hui killed a Tiger Demon that had been luring Bonan County residents to their deaths, then went with Lu Huan to Wan'an Temple to seek Master Faming. A novice told him that Faming had left the temple the previous year and was somewhere down the mountain.

• The Tiger Demon used an entranced watchman to lead sleepwalking residents out of Bonan County, but Shen Hui and the White Skeleton killed it and freed its victims.
• The next morning, constables found the tiger's carcass filled with human bones, and Shen Hui told Lu Huan that he had killed the demon during the night.
• Shen Hui explained that the tiger had trapped souls and used the watchman's clapper to lure people into its jaws.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan went to Wan'an Temple to visit Master Faming.
• A novice monk told Shen Hui that Faming had left the temple the previous year and mocked him for asking where Faming had gone.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan visited Wan'an Temple and met its abbot, Huikong, while Faming was away traveling. Over a simple vegetarian meal, Shen Hui and Huikong explained their traditions’ different uses of incense, leaving Lu Huan with the lesson that neither way was simply right or wrong.

• Shen Hui used his divine sense to confirm Faming was not at Wan'an Temple, then asked a novice to summon the abbot.
• Huikong greeted Shen Hui, learned he was an old acquaintance of Faming, and explained that Faming had left to travel and temper his cultivation.
• Huikong showed Shen Hui and Lu Huan around the temple and invited them to share a vegetarian meal.
• Lu Huan asked why Buddhist and Daoist temples used different incense, and Shen Hui and Huikong described their respective practices.
• When Lu Huan asked which tradition was right, Huikong said the Dharma had no fixed form and Shen Hui said the Dao followed nature; they smiled at each other.

Shen Hui finished suppressing the corpse plague across Luanzhou and encountered the Plague Emperor Sect's sect master at an inn. After killing two of the sect master's disciples and trading blows with him, Shen Hui declared that the sect's slaughter of ordinary people gave anyone the right to kill its cultivators.

• Shen Hui explained to Lu Huan that worshipping the Plague God could not dispel people's fear, and that he would first have to quell the corpse plague.
• Over several months, Shen Hui traveled through Luanzhou, killing walking corpses and other monsters while gaining more than a hundred thousand Dao Xing points.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan entered a quiet mountain town and found motionless bodies and a Golden Core True Person in an inn.
• Shen Hui sent Lu Huan away, then killed the sect master's arrogant young male and female followers with his sword.
• The Old Man in a Mystic Yellow Robe exploded the corpses and attacked Shen Hui with plague poison, but Shen Hui wounded him with Red Calamity and collected his blood in the Soul-Searching Gourd.
• Shen Hui identified himself as Qingxuan, master of Clear Wind Temple, and accused the Plague Emperor Sect of harming countless people; the Old Man replied that mortals were sacrifices for the sect's Great Dao.

Shen Hui burned through the Old Man’s insect plague, killed him with thunder and Red Calamity, and collected his Golden Core and storage ring. He left the ruined inn with Lu Huan, and they found the town’s people dead before settling at Drunken Immortal Residence to eat.

• The Old Man transformed the inn into swarms of insects, but Shen Hui’s flames burned them away and forced the plague worms from his body.
• Shen Hui counterattacked, severed the Old Man with divine light, and destroyed his insect form with dark lightning.
• The Old Man fled as a cloud of insects, but Red Calamity pursued and killed him, and his soul entered Shen Hui’s Soul-Searching Gourd.
• Shen Hui recovered the Old Man’s Golden Core and storage ring, then left the burning inn to meet Lu Huan.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan found the town’s residents dead from the same poison and went to Drunken Immortal Residence for food.
• Lu Huan offered a strip of meat to Patriarch Baoxue in her Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd, and he replied that he did not eat beef.

Shen Hui questioned Liu Mengshu about the Plague Emperor Sect and exposed his attempt to poison him. He forced Liu to drink the poison, then destroyed his corpse and sent his soul back into the gourd.

• Shen Hui summoned Liu Mengshu's soul and gave him a recreated body in exchange for truthful answers.
• Liu Mengshu identified Yan Jinghe as an elder stationed at Soul-Breaking Marsh and described the sect's strongholds and cultivators.
• Shen Hui offered Liu Mengshu a cup of water, but Liu confessed it was a poison-gathering ritual artifact meant to kill him.
• Shen Hui ordered Liu to drink the poison and return to the gourd, and Liu obeyed before collapsing and dying.
• Shen Hui burned Liu Mengshu's corpse to ash and remarked that he had forgotten to make Liu drip blood.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan left the emptied town and traveled through the autumn mountains, where Shen Hui unexpectedly mastered True Interpretation of Clear Wind Entering Subtlety. They followed a wedding procession toward the groom’s home, and the bride’s persistent sobbing left Lu Huan wondering whether she wanted to marry.

• Shen Hui burned the corpses in the town, then left with Lu Huan the next morning.
• Lu Huan collected autumn leaves as Shen Hui walked with her, and the mountain breeze helped him reach great mastery of True Interpretation of Clear Wind Entering Subtlety.
• A group of mule drivers asked Shen Hui for directions, and one gave Lu Huan a persimmon.
• Shen Hui picked more persimmons for Lu Huan when they passed a persimmon tree.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan followed a wedding procession after he decided they could join the feast.
• Lu Huan asked why the bride was crying, and Shen Hui explained the custom of bridal weeping.

Shen Hui discovered that a local gentry’s divine marriage custom sacrificed young girls to a murderous Earth Deity, and he destroyed the deity’s statue with lightning. He found hair, fingernails, hairpins, and bone fragments buried inside it.

• Shen Hui noticed the wedding procession had stopped at a remote Land God Temple, where the porters abandoned the bridal sedan and disappeared.
• Shen Hui freed the bound bride and learned that local gentry used divine marriages to profit, while the girls offered as brides never survived.
• Shen Hui entered the temple and sensed Blood Baleful Intent wrapped in abundant Incense and Fire Prayer Power around the Earth Deity statue.
• The Earth Deity claimed that the bride’s service was her good fortune, so Shen Hui summoned lightning and split the statue apart.
• Shen Hui found strands of hair, broken fingernails, silver hairpins, and tiny bone fragments packed inside the statue.

Shen Hui comforted the girl who had been offered as a bride to the Earth Deity and rebuilt the ruined idol as a gentle woman holding a lamp. As the girl and Lu Huan spoke through the night, the girl remained uncertain about returning home, while Lu Huan began meditating in earnest.

• Shen Hui learned that villagers would come at noon to burn the empty bridal sedan chair and celebrate the bride's return to her family home.
• Shen Hui asked the girl about her family and future, and she admitted that she wanted to go home because she had nowhere else to go.
• Shen Hui gathered the shattered clay and sculpted a new wedding-robed statue holding a lamp with a tiny, lasting flame.
• Lu Huan talked with the girl about her siblings and asked what she would do if her parents tried to marry her to another idol, but the girl did not answer.
• Lu Huan reflected on her lack of cultivation and settled down to meditate seriously.

Shen Hui replaced the Earth Deity with a Bridal Goddess who punished Liu Dehou for his crimes, then left the temple with Lu Huan. The rescued bride remained behind, and Shen Hui acknowledged that her future might be difficult but would likely be better than before.

• The villagers gathered at the ruined temple, where Shen Hui showed them the Bridal Goddess and explained that she would punish verified wrongdoing.
• Liu Dehou denounced Shen Hui and threatened to summon the authorities, but the Bridal Goddess’s flame ignited and burned him to death.
• Shen Hui warned the crowd that victims could bring their grievances to the temple and receive justice if their accusations were true.
• Shen Hui beckoned Lu Huan and left, while the rescued bride remained alone outside the temple.
• Lu Huan asked what would happen to the bride, and Shen Hui said her future might not be very good but probably would not be too bad.

Shen Hui tested his newly acquired Universe in the Sleeve while traveling with Lu Huan, then met Cloud Pine and his disciple Sun Chengying, who joined them on the road to Zhaoyang Commandery City.

• Shen Hui used Universe in the Sleeve to gather and release stones, leaves, and living butterflies without harming them.
• Lu Huan mistook Shen Hui's demonstrations for magic tricks and chased the butterflies he released.
• Cloud Pine and Sun Chengying caught up with Shen Hui and thanked him for destroying the evil shrine in the Land God Temple.
• Shen Hui learned that Cloud Pine and Sun Chengying were also traveling to Zhaoyang Commandery, and agreed to travel with them.

Shen Hui heard how Mo Yunsong and Sun Chengying had endured a disastrous three-year journey to destroy the Yellow-Throated Marten, only to be defeated by it before Shen Hui leveled its temple. As the group traveled together, Mo Yunsong began explaining the Empty Mountain Dao’s inheritance and demon-subduing methods.

• Mo Yunsong told Shen Hui that the Yellow-Throated Marten had revived through villagers’ offerings, and explained that his sect’s founder had ordered his descendants to destroy it when it returned.
• Mo Yunsong recounted how imprisonment, a Mountain Spirit, rebel troops, and walking corpses had prolonged his journey from Tongzhou to three years.
• Mo Yunsong said the Yellow-Throated Marten had broken his spells and driven him and Sun Chengying from the village before he heard Shen Hui had destroyed its temple.
• Shen Hui shared persimmons with Mo Yunsong and traveled with him and Sun Chengying, gaining respect for their perseverance.
• Shen Hui asked about the Empty Mountain Dao’s lineage, and Mo Yunsong began describing its Spiritual Pivot Resonance cultivation and demon-subduing spells.

Shen Hui and his companions camped in a pine forest, then encountered fields of Red Jade Rice on their journey. After discovering the rice contained blood qi that strengthened people while consuming their vital essence, Shen Hui heard a stranger explain that it had grown from the blood of thousands killed in a battle.

• Shen Hui, Sun Chengying, Lu Huan, and Old Daoist Mo Yunsong camped by a fire, shared food, and roasted pine nuts.
• Sun Chengying gathered a large pile of pinecones, and Shen Hui collected the remaining ones the next morning before they resumed their journey.
• Shen Hui noticed dark-red rice and crimson soil in the fields and asked local farmers about the crop.
• A farmwoman said Red Jade Rice gave people strength, while the farmers explained that merchants bought it before harvest.
• Shen Hui sensed blood qi in a grain and realized that eating it strengthened the body but secretly consumed vital essence and shortened lifespan.
• A barefoot stranger claimed the rice had turned red after thousands died in a battle between rebels and the imperial court in those fields.

Shen Hui met Xu Ye of the Extreme Devil Palace, who had come seeking rare Bloodbell Ear in the Red Jade Rice fields. After Shen Hui rescued a farmer being dragged into the living blood-soaked soil, an elder approached with a request.

• Xu Ye introduced himself and explained that he was searching the fields for Bloodbell Ear on his sect’s orders.
• A farmer sank into the mud, and Shen Hui used Point Earth to Steel to harden the ground and pull him free.
• Shen Hui sensed a strange pulse beneath the field and realized the blood-soaked soil had developed living, mystical properties.
• The farmers’ Third Great-Uncle thanked Shen Hui and began to make a request.

Shen Hui restored the villagers’ rice field, while Xu Ye collected a Bloodbell Ear and paid Old Zhou for it. Xu Ye then tried to trade parts of his body for Shen Hui’s blood pearl, leaving Shen Hui to suspect the Extreme Devil Palace cultivated its reputation as a source of treasures to lure prey.

• Shen Hui softened the transformed field back into dark-red mud after Old Zhou and the farmers begged him to restore it.
• Old Zhou offered Shen Hui and his companions Red Jade Rice, and Shen Hui let Lu Huan accept it.
• Xu Ye found a Bloodbell Ear in the mud and paid Old Zhou a gold ingot, offering to buy any more the villagers found.
• Shen Hui showed Xu Ye a blood pearl, and Xu Ye asked to trade for it.
• Xu Ye offered his hand and then suggested another part of his body, but Shen Hui stopped him because children were listening.
• Shen Hui concluded that Extreme Devil Palace disciples might advertise themselves as treasures to lure people into pursuing them.

Shen Hui traded a blood pearl to Xu Ye for a spirit-awakening method, then learned that Bright Moon Nunnery had been struck by a plague. He set out for Luoping Commandery with Mo Yunsong, Sun Chengying, and Lu Huan, where a huge wild boar blocked their path in the mountains.

• Xu Ye retrieved the Baleful Suppression Spirit-Infusion Art from his wrist and traded it to Shen Hui for the blood pearl.
• Xu Ye told Shen Hui that Bright Moon Nunnery in Jade Plate County had reportedly been struck by a plague.
• Shen Hui decided to travel to Luoping Commandery, and Mo Yunsong insisted on joining him with Sun Chengying.
• Xu Ye parted from the group and directed them toward Jade Plate County.
• Shen Hui and his companions traveled through the mountains and encountered a massive, emaciated wild boar blocking the road.

Shen Hui and his companions reached Qingxi County Seat, where armed soldiers were besieging the city. After defeating an ambush on the road, Shen Hui captured a soldier and learned the troops claimed to be suppressing rebels inside.

• Shen Hui killed a man-eating wild boar and burned its body to ash.
• Using Sitting Mountain as God, Shen Hui sensed a bone-filled valley and sent Red Calamity to retrieve a bone, which fused with White Skeleton.
• An ambush fired a poisoned arrow and a volley of arrows at Shen Hui’s group, but Shen Hui turned the attacks back on the riders.
• The group reached Qingxi County Seat and saw soldiers surrounding its closed gates and aiming at the city walls.
• Shen Hui pulled a soldier underground and questioned him, and the soldier said the troops had orders to suppress rebels inside the city.

Shen Hui entered Qingxi County Seat and discovered that the supposed siege concealed a massacre planned by a general seeking revenge against the Zhou Family. He confronted the general just as the infant heir was about to be killed and ordered the scholar to record the general's death instead.

• Shen Hui learned that a general and elite soldiers had entered Qingxi County Seat, so he went into the city to investigate.
• The general's soldiers reported that they had killed the Zhou Family and found the infant grandson bearing a birthmark tied to the general's family's execution.
• The general revealed his revenge motive and ordered his men to disguise themselves as rebels before looting the city.
• A messenger warned the general that four Daoists were approaching, and Shen Hui arrived at the government office with the Old Taoist, a youth, and a little girl.
• Shen Hui asked whether the general had changed clothes, then told the scholar to write that the general had died fighting without an intact corpse.

Shen Hui and the others left Qingxi County Seat after the bloody rain erased the dead and put the corrupt officials and soldiers to sleep. Mo Yunsong considered raising the rescued infant, and the group was left trying to soothe him as he cried on the road.

• A bloody gale destroyed the general, and Mo Yunsong picked up the laughing infant as strange rain burned the corpses and put the people in the hall to sleep.
• Shen Hui took the scholar’s fabricated memorial and let the rain wash away its writing before leading the group out of the county seat.
• Mo Yunsong asked how to settle the infant, and Shen Hui suggested finding relatives but said Mo Yunsong might live for several more years.
• Mo Yunsong said he might raise the child if no relatives could be found, and Lu Huan joked that he would become the infant’s grandpa.
• The infant began crying on the road, and after Mo Yunsong, Lu Huan, and Sun Chengying failed to calm him, Shen Hui wondered if he had soiled himself.