Recaps

Xu Ye told Shen Hui and Lu Huan that Daoist Friend Mo had died and become the Peach God, whose peach tree fed the hungry. The three continued to a mountain town and stopped at an inn, where Xu Ye’s noisy arrival caused a quarrel with guests upstairs.

• Xu Ye told Shen Hui and Lu Huan that Daoist Friend Mo had died and become the Peach God, and described the tree’s powers.
• Shen Hui told Lu Huan that Mo had fulfilled his lifelong wish by protecting the peach tree and starving people, so they would not return to see him.
• Lu Huan rang her Worry-Forgotten Bell as the three walked into a mountain town late at night.
• Xu Ye paid a waiter in gold for rooms, food, wine, and hot water, while Lu Huan noticed him secretly scraping off gold shavings.
• Xu Ye argued with a guest upstairs and offered more gold to rent out the inn, but Shen Hui persuaded him not to disturb the other travelers.

Shen Hui, Lu Huan, and Xu Ye left the inn and continued east after breakfast, where Xu Ye antagonized a group of escort guards and their noble companions. When the two groups met again on the road, the guards accused Shen Hui's group of following them, and Xu Ye approached with a menacing grin.

• Shen Hui, Lu Huan, and Xu Ye ate breakfast at the inn, where the innkeeper and waiter complained about rising food prices and shortages.
• Xu Ye traded insults with the burly escort guard, but Shen Hui urged him to stop, and the two groups ate separately.
• Lu Huan admired the young girl's fox-fur shawl, and the girl smiled at her before leaving with her companions.
• Shen Hui attached a talisman to Lu Huan's collar to warm her as they traveled east through the frosty morning.
• Shen Hui's group caught up with the escorts on the road, and the burly man demanded to know why they were following them.
• Xu Ye laughed and walked toward the guards, sizing them up without answering.

Shen Hui and Xu Ye learned that the girl and her brothers were heading toward sealed Cold Spring County to find their missing father before the Blood Banner Army arrived. Shen Hui agreed to help, and Xu Ye chose to go with him.

• The girl apologized to Xu Ye, and the two groups continued along the road separately.
• Xu Ye showed his strength by hurling a pebble hard enough to shake the mountain trees, frightening the escorts.
• The girl told Shen Hui and Xu Ye that her father had disappeared after visiting Mystic Response Hall in Cold Spring County, which the imperial court had sealed off.
• The girl revealed that the Blood Banner Army had been clearing towns and leaving no survivors, and she wanted to find her father before it reached the county.
• Xu Ye rejected her offer of gold, but Shen Hui agreed to help her find her father.
• Xu Ye picked up the gold and told Shen Hui he would go with him.

Shen Hui, Lu Huan, and Xu Ye learned from Miss Zhu that the Blood Banner Army had slaughtered its way south, while Shen Hui explained that plague victims became violent walking corpses. After the group took a desolate side path to avoid a checkpoint, they encountered a monstrous, emaciated pig.

• Miss Zhu introduced her brothers and the escort guards, then told Shen Hui's group that the Blood Banner Army spared neither people nor animals.
• Xu Ye recalled finding a burned village in Lingzhou, and Shen Hui explained that plague victims could become walking corpses through Corpse Baleful Force.
• Miss Zhu led the group onto a rough side path to avoid soldiers at a checkpoint.
• The group found a nearly dry, foul river, and Lu Huan used qi to create water for their water skins.
• Xu Ye spotted a huge, skeletal monster pig emerging from the dead grass, and the escorts drew their weapons to protect the Zhu family.

Shen Hui and the others encountered corpse-tainted strange pigs on the road to Cold Spring County, where Zhao Kun tried to raise the escort price. Shen Hui killed the surrounding beasts with a thunderous Daoist art, and Miss Zhu thanked him as they continued toward the county.

• Shen Hui and Xu Ye recognized that a strange pig had grown fierce by eating walking corpses and suspected Cold Spring County was nearby.
• Zhao Kun and the escort guards urged Miss Zhu to turn back or pay them more to continue, and she agreed to an additional hundred taels for each man.
• Xu Ye mocked Zhao Kun for raising the price after danger appeared, provoking an angry confrontation.
• Shen Hui spotted seven or eight strange pigs surrounding the group and destroyed them with Kui Water Yin Thunder.
• Shen Hui burned the corpse-poisoned beasts, and Miss Zhu praised his Daoist arts.

Shen Hui, Lu Huan, and Xu Ye entered the vine-covered Cold Spring County to investigate and search for survivors, while the rest of the group followed behind. Inside, the city was empty, and the animals refused to go farther, leaving the group stranded as the danger remained unclear.

• Shen Hui cut through the vines covering Cold Spring County’s gate and went inside with Lu Huan, followed by Xu Ye.
• The young lady led the remaining group into the city after her brothers insisted on searching for their father.
• The group found the streets and buildings smothered in vines, with no people visible anywhere.
• The animals balked at continuing, and Boss Zhao stabbed a mule after kicking it.
• The mule kicked Boss Zhao down and then fled toward the city gate, startling the other animals.

Miss Zhu’s party entered a vine-filled house and discovered corpses drained by the plants, while Zhao Kun was seized by a new vine attack. Elsewhere, Shen Hui searched the city’s connected vines for their source, suspecting they had formed a Spirit of Wood Baleful Intent.

• Miss Zhu ordered her group to follow Shen Hui into the city despite Zhao Kun’s concern.
• Miss Zhu’s party found three drained corpses suspended by vines inside a dark house.
• Zhao Kun cut down the vines and dismissed the danger, while his companions examined the hollow bodies.
• Pale vines descended unnoticed, made Miss Zhu’s group disappear, and strangled Zhao Kun.
• Shen Hui sensed the city’s vines from a rooftop and searched for their shared source, wondering whether they had formed a Spirit of Wood Baleful Intent.

Shen Hui rescued Zhao Kun’s group from the green vines and followed their trail west toward Mystic Response Hall. He left the injured group safely in his sleeve and continued with Xu Ye and Lu Huan into the vine-choked streets, where the vines grew thicker and more dangerous.

• Shen Hui let the vines drag Zhao Kun’s group to a ruined ancestral hall, then sent Red Calamity to cut them free before the vines could reach their heads.
• Xu Ye swallowed a green vine while inspecting it, then spat it out with black sludge as Lu Huan laughed at him.
• Shen Hui led Xu Ye and Lu Huan north in search of the vines’ source, while Zhao Kun’s group woke and the round-faced escort accused Shen Hui of causing their injuries.
• Shen Hui flicked his sleeve and placed Zhao Kun’s group inside it, then continued west with Xu Ye and Lu Huan toward Mystic Response Hall.
• Xu Ye asked about the hall’s deity as the three walked through increasingly thick, barbed vines that covered the street and blocked the sky.

Shen Hui, Xu Ye, and Lu Huan entered Mystic Response Hall and found it overrun with vines that had pierced and suspended people and livestock. After identifying two dead cultivators as members of the Plague Emperor Sect, Shen Hui destroyed the creatures and vines, leaving the hall in ruins.

• Shen Hui cut through the vines covering Mystic Response Hall and entered with Xu Ye and Lu Huan.
• The group discovered people and livestock hanging from vines, along with two corpses wearing Mystic Yellow Robes.
• Shen Hui identified the corpses as Plague Emperor Sect cultivators and took a pouch from one of them.
• Shen Hui warned Xu Ye that the Plague Emperor Sect used gu poison and killed two crimson insects found in the cultivators’ heads.
• Shen Hui sent White Skeleton and Red Calamity through the hall, shredding the hanging corpses and vines.

Shen Hui, Xu Ye, and Lu Huan confronted the vine-covered Mystic Response True Lord statue in the Mystic Response Hall. After the statue regenerated from their attacks and the vines spread throughout the city, Shen Hui rescued his companions and rose above Cold Spring County, where he saw the entire city transformed into a mass of living vines.

• Shen Hui explained that demonic cultivators relied on brute force and blood qi, which were poorly suited to destroying the city-spanning plant spirit.
• A thirty-foot vine-covered statue of the Mystic Response True Lord emerged from the hall wall, and its first strike hurled Xu Ye into another wall.
• Shen Hui severed the statue's controlling vines and cut its limbs and head off, but the vines reassembled it and made it grow larger.
• Shen Hui burned the statue's vines with Fire Ghosts, triggering a violent eruption of vines through the hall.
• Shen Hui drew Lu Huan into his sleeve, swept Xu Ye inside, and flew above Cold Spring County, where he saw vines engulfing the entire city and forming a mountain around the statue.

Shen Hui battled the regenerative Vine Mountain and used a mountain giant to free and destroy the Mystic Response True Lord’s statue. He refined the revealed Spirit of Wood Baleful Intent, causing the vines to wither and completing his Five Elements Divine Light.

• Shen Hui attacked Vine Mountain with divine thunder, the Five Elements Divine Light, and fire, but its vines regenerated and extinguished his flames.
• Shen Hui led Vine Mountain to a nearby peak, raised the mountain into a giant, and made it grapple with the vine monster.
• The mountain giant pulled the Mystic Response True Lord’s statue from Vine Mountain, and Shen Hui severed the vines binding it.
• Shen Hui destroyed the statue with thunder and the Five Elements Divine Light, revealing an emerald pearl inside.
• Shen Hui burned away the pearl’s roots and agreed to refine the Spirit of Wood Baleful Intent, causing the city’s vines to wither and completing the Five Elements Divine Light.

Shen Hui reached the Five Qi Returning to Origin realm, then used the Dragon-Crouching Point to advance his completed Five Elements Divine Light into the Great Five-Elements Extinction Divine Light and acquire Yin-Yang Dual Qi. He learned that both new abilities were dangerous to use carelessly.

• Shen Hui completed the Five Qi Returning to Origin realm, cleansing his body and steadying his emotions.
• Unable to grasp an elusive insight, Shen Hui realized he needed to Revert to Root, Return to Origin and tried using the Dragon-Crouching Point.
• Shen Hui found that the Five Thunders Orthodox Method and Corpse Condensation Sword Refinement could not be upgraded, but the Five Elements Divine Light could.
• Shen Hui confirmed the upgrade, changing the Five Elements Divine Light into the Great Five-Elements Extinction Divine Light and gaining the Yin-Yang Dual Qi divine ability.
• Shen Hui learned that Yin-Yang Dual Qi could backlash if used with biased thoughts and that the Extinction Divine Light was a lethal art he should unleash only in dire circumstances.

Shen Hui defeated the vine demon that destroyed Cold Spring County, then brought the survivors to safety on a mountain. After the Blessing siblings and their escorts left, a nearly transparent insect flew out of the clouds and struck Xu Ye.

• Shen Hui examined the Yin-Yang mark that appeared on his forehead and found that his tongue had healed.
• Shen Hui released the Blessing siblings and Zhao Kun's escorts from Universe in the Sleeve on a mountain peak.
• Shen Hui showed the survivors the ruins of Cold Spring County and told Miss Blessing that the vine demon had likely killed her father.
• Miss Blessing thanked Shen Hui, and she and the escorts tried to descend the mountain by its rear slope.
• Xu Ye wondered aloud about the promised reward, then stiffened as a nearly transparent flying insect struck his forehead.

Xu Ye parted ways with Shen Hui and Lu Huan after receiving an urgent summons home. Two months later, Shen Hui and Lu Huan reached Floating Cloud County, where they learned rumors of powerful figures on Severed Connection Mountain before Shen Hui revealed they were going there to kill someone.

• Xu Ye told Shen Hui that his elders had ordered him to return home, then said goodbye to Shen Hui and Lu Huan before leaping from a cliff and vanishing into the mountains.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan continued their journey and, two months later, arrived in Floating Cloud County after dealing with demons and corrupted mountain sects along the way.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan ate at Cloud-Coming Residence, where Shen Hui asked the waiter about Severed Connection Mountain.
• The waiter warned Shen Hui and Lu Huan about the mountain's deadly cold and shared rumors that immortals or great masters lived there.
• After the waiter left, Lu Huan asked whether immortals really lived on the mountain, and Shen Hui said they were going there to kill someone.

Lu Huan and Shen Hui listened to a storyteller recount how Daoist Mo sacrificed himself to save starving people, and Shen Hui explained that the Peach God’s roots had already reached Floating Cloud County through the story and the people’s good intentions. Shen Hui gave Lu Huan silver to reward the storyteller, even though the tale embellished the truth.

• Lu Huan became absorbed in the storyteller’s tale of Daoist Mo killing a corrupt commandery governor and merchants before giving his life to nourish a peach tree.
• The crowd praised the story and rewarded the storyteller, who insisted that the Peach God’s tree still grew in Zhaoyang Commandery City.
• Shen Hui told Lu Huan that Daoist Mo had probably used a firewood cleaver and that the story’s details had been embellished to make it more compelling.
• Shen Hui explained that the Peach God had already reached Floating Cloud County because the story had taken root in people’s hearts.
• Shen Hui gave Lu Huan silver and asked her to reward the storyteller because he had told the story well.

Shen Hui learned that the Peach God had a successor at a temple beneath the peach tree, then was asked to treat a young man who bit anyone he saw. After examining the Liu family's afflicted son, Shen Hui identified the cause as gu poison.

• Lu Huan gave the storyteller silver and asked whether the Peach God had successors; he told her about the Peach God Temple and its young temple keeper.
• Lu Huan told Shen Hui that the temple's incense offerings flourished and that its keeper was the Peach God's successor.
• A servant stopped Shen Hui in the street and asked him to treat his young master, who had become violent after visiting Severed Connection Mountain with other young men.
• The servant led Shen Hui and Lu Huan to the Liu Residence, where Liu Chongshan and Madam Liu brought them to their chained son.
• Shen Hui examined the young man and determined that his illness was gu poison, not Corpse Baleful Force.

Shen Hui cured Liu Chongshan’s son and treated two more young men poisoned after visiting Severed Connection Mountain, then stayed at the Chen Residence. The Zhang and Qian families came seeking help the next morning, but Shen Hui left them waiting.

• Shen Hui used a wisp of Fire Ghost to cure Liu Chongshan’s son and learned that five other young men had visited Severed Connection Mountain with him.
• Shen Hui noticed a blade-wielding man surrounded by Blood Baleful Intent near the Liu Residence, then visited the other families with Lu Huan and a Liu servant.
• The Zhang gatekeeper and the Qian steward refused to let Shen Hui examine their sick young men, so Shen Hui moved on.
• Shen Hui cured chief clerk Wang’s son and then treated Chen Huan, whose father hosted Shen Hui and Lu Huan for the night.
• Two visitors from the Zhang and Qian families waited at the Chen Residence the next morning, and Shen Hui told the servants to let them wait.

Shen Hui demanded increasingly higher payments from Zhang Yuanshou and Qian Yongfa to save their sons, exposing Qian’s attempt to shortchange him. After Zhang paid three thousand taels, Shen Hui gave him a talisman to treat his son, while Qian left to gather the increased sum.

• Zhang Yuanshou and Qian Yongfa begged Shen Hui to save their sons after offending him, but Shen Hui demanded one thousand taels for his help.
• When Qian Yongfa tried to bargain, Shen Hui raised the price repeatedly until Zhang agreed to pay three thousand taels.
• Zhang Yuanshou brought exactly three thousand taels, and Shen Hui confirmed the amount with his Divine Sense.
• Shen Hui detected that Qian Yongfa’s chests held less than the promised three thousand taels and raised his fee to five thousand taels after Qian protested.
• Shen Hui drew a talisman for Zhang Yuanshou to burn in water and give to his son, and Zhang left happily with it.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan left Floating Cloud County after he received payment for curing the Chen family, and Shen Hui gave Lu Huan a storage bracelet. After questioning a military scout and helping people along the way, they reached the foot of Severed Connection Mountain, where Shen Hui began teaching Lu Huan to play a bamboo flute.

• Qian Yongfa brought Shen Hui four chests of silver, and Shen Hui gave him a talisman before taking leave of the Chen family.
• Shen Hui gave Lu Huan Pei Wan's storage bracelet, and she filled it with snacks, leaves, feathers, and candied hawthorns.
• Shen Hui followed the bamboo-hatted man out of town, where the man revealed he was a military scout investigating reports of Corpse Plague; Shen Hui let him leave after learning Floating Cloud County was safe.
• On the journey to Severed Connection Mountain, Shen Hui used a Tranquility Talisman to help a frightened child and advised a poor family on a burial site and date.
• Shen Hui taught Lu Huan about the Wind Flute Sword, then made her a short bamboo flute because her cultivation was not yet strong enough to control a flying sword.

Shen Hui infiltrated Severed Connection Mountain and used a rain of transforming fish to kill thousands of Plague Emperor Sect members. He stopped the attack when Zhuge Qian appeared and challenged him.

• Shen Hui awakened spirits in trees and rocks around Severed Connection Mountain to block the sect members' escape routes, then hid Lu Huan in his sleeve.
• Shen Hui climbed to the mountain summit and discovered the Plague Emperor Sect concealed in a warm, forested hollow.
• Shen Hui summoned clouds and transformed the rain into tiny fish that slipped into the sect members and killed them silently.
• Dao Xing points surged as thousands of Plague Emperor Sect members died in the rain.
• Zhuge Qian flew out of the hollow and shouted at the attacker, and Shen Hui stopped the rain and asked if he was Zhuge Qian.

Shen Hui confronted Zhuge Qian on Severed Connection Mountain and defeated him with the Great Five-Elements Extinction Divine Light, but a Nascent Soul Cultivator appeared and caught Shen Hui in an overwhelming attack. The chapter ended with the cultivator’s grasp freezing the spiritual energy around Shen Hui, leaving him unable to evade.

• Shen Hui identified Zhuge Qian as a member of the Plague Emperor Sect and attacked him on Severed Connection Mountain.
• Zhuge Qian unleashed poisonous Gu insects and spreading green mist, which Shen Hui destroyed with Jia Wood Azure Thunder.
• Zhuge Qian blanketed Shen Hui with poisonous threads, but Shen Hui’s Great Five-Elements Extinction Divine Light annihilated them and struck Zhuge Qian as he tried to flee.
• Zhuge Qian cried out for the True Lord, and a white-haired Nascent Soul Cultivator appeared in the clouds and caught his remaining head.
• Shen Hui struck the Nascent Soul Cultivator and Zhuge Qian with the divine light, but the cultivator reformed from the chaos and grabbed at Shen Hui.
• The Nascent Soul Cultivator froze the spiritual energy around Shen Hui, leaving him unable to move or escape.

Shen Hui turned the reborn Nascent Soul Cultivator into the Flesh Sword Decaying Life and fused it with White Skeleton, Red Calamity, and the swords formed from the Plague Emperor Sect disciples’ corpses. He comprehended Hundred-Sword Corpse Coffin and stood alone in the empty valley.

• Shen Hui broke through the Nascent Soul Cultivator’s restraint and destroyed him again with lightning and the Great Five-Elements Extinction Divine Light.
• Shen Hui accepted the panel’s prompt to condense the Cultivator’s remains into Decaying Life.
• White Skeleton, Red Calamity, and Decaying Life entered Shen Hui, transforming him into three torrents of Sword Qi.
• The corpses of more than a hundred Plague Emperor Sect disciples became flying swords and joined the three torrents.
• Shen Hui reformed in the pit and comprehended the killing move Hundred-Sword Corpse Coffin.
• Shen Hui searched the valley with his Divine Sense and found no living people or remaining corpses.

Shen Hui questioned an old man from the Corpse Refining Sect and learned that True Lord Xuanwei had been turned into a corpse puppet by Sect Master Zhuge. The old man revealed the Soul-Swaying Bell and explained how Spell Corpses were graded and refined.

• An old man from the Corpse Refining Sect approached Shen Hui and said Sect Master Zhuge had sent him to control True Lord Xuanwei's corpse.
• The old man explained that Zhuge had used Corpse Baleful Force and gu insects on Xuanwei, who periodically went mad and attacked people.
• Shen Hui took the Soul-Swaying Bell, which the old man said suppressed the corpse's madness.
• At Shen Hui's demand, the old man produced an Iron-Armored Corpse and described the three grades of Spell Corpses and the limits on controlling them.
• The old man detailed the four stages of refining an Iron-Armored Corpse, from preparing a cultivator's body to sealing its baleful force with a Lead Crown.

Shen Hui destroyed the Old Man’s Spell Corpses and demanded his escape technique, but the Old Man used a horde of corpses to cover his flight. Shen Hui was left with only the Old Man’s shovel and realized the man had escaped by trickery.

• Shen Hui split the Old Man’s Iron-Armored Corpse and Copper-Armored Corpse with sword light, gaining Dao Xing from both.
• The Old Man released three Gold-Armored Corpses and a Many-Armed Monster, but Shen Hui destroyed them and blocked the Old Man’s escape with Point Earth to Steel.
• Shen Hui demanded that the Old Man hand over his escape technique, and the Old Man pretended to agree before releasing a horde of Spell Corpses.
• Shen Hui cut down the corpse horde with White Skeleton, Red Calamity, and Rotborn, then found that the Old Man had vanished, leaving behind a small shovel.

Shen Hui chased down the old man who had escaped in a golden bird, only to discover he had killed a decoy while the real man got away. He returned to Severed Connection Mountain with Lu Huan and began harvesting valuable materials from the pavilion.

• Shen Hui pursued the old man on a golden bird, rejected his offers of escape techniques, and beheaded him before destroying the bird.
• Shen Hui found that the corpse was an earth-filled substitute and the jade tablets were ordinary stones, realizing the old man had escaped by shedding a decoy.
• Shen Hui searched the old man's pouch, found only worthless items, and returned to Severed Connection Mountain.
• Shen Hui let Lu Huan out of his sleeve, and she checked whether he had been injured.
• Shen Hui explained that the pavilion's Azure-Void Jade tiles were valuable and gathered the roof tiles into his sleeve.
• Shen Hui inspected the pavilion's fragrant purple-black pillars as Lu Huan asked whether he planned to take them too.