Recaps

Shen Hui brought his fellow disciples and masters out of the Soul-Searching Gourd to reunite on the floating mountain and prepare to rebuild Clear Wind Temple. He learned that Yan Jinghe remained tight-lipped inside the gourd and decided to use him as an artifact spirit.

• Patriarch Baoxue examined the ancient inscription Shen Hui had copied and guessed that it might be a cultivation method.
• Shen Hui summoned Old Taoist Ji Chen, then made him a temporary body from stones and leaves to shelter his soul.
• Shen Hui released his fellow disciples, martial elders, and Mao Yong from the gourd, and Lu Huan introduced them to Hu Cheng.
• Second Senior Sister and the eldest martial uncle explained that Yan Jinghe had refused to reveal his birth characters or share information.
• Shen Hui decided to seal Yan Jinghe into the gourd as an artifact spirit.

Shen Hui reunited Clear Wind Temple’s survivors on a new mountain home and told them their temple’s killers had all been brought to justice. In private, he reminded Shouyuan that Clear Wind Temple and Soul Crossing Temple shared the same righteous purpose, then told him Soul Crossing Temple’s legacy had not been lost.

• Shen Hui announced that Clear Wind Temple had found a home and could rebuild on the blessed mountain.
• Ji Chen asked about the culprits behind the temple’s destruction, and Shen Hui said every one of them had been brought to justice.
• Shen Hui invited the elders and disciples to rest and explore while he planned to discuss restoring their bodies and rebuilding the temple.
• Shen Hui took Shouyuan aside and argued that Clear Wind Temple and Soul Crossing Temple walked the same path of upholding justice.
• Shouyuan recounted his past deeds of slaying demons and protecting people, then lamented that Soul Crossing Temple had vanished.
• Shen Hui told Shouyuan that Soul Crossing Temple’s legacy had not been lost.

Shen Hui questioned Shou Yuan about the Soul-Searching Gourd and learned that rebirth through it wore down the true spirit, making repeated returns to life increasingly dangerous. After answering Shou Yuan’s questions about his new body, Shen Hui rebuilt him a complete body, freeing him from the gourd after a thousand years.

• Shen Hui refused to return the Soul-Searching Gourd but offered to rebuild Shou Yuan’s body, then asked about the gourd’s origins and limitations.
• Shou Yuan explained that the gourd prolonged life rather than granting immortality, since each rebirth wore down the true spirit and increased the risk of cultivation madness or death.
• Shou Yuan said that remaining in the gourd forever would be a punishment, not a gift, because its occupant could neither live freely nor die.
• Shen Hui asked Shou Yuan whether he had preferences for his rebuilt body, then formed a body matching his original appearance from water.
• Shou Yuan’s sandy temporary body crumbled as his soul entered the new body, leaving him astonished to be free after a thousand years.

Shen Hui and the Clear Wind Temple group caught and roasted fish together beside the stream, enjoying a meal after losing their cultivation. Shen Hui explained that he had made a mortal body for Senior Shou Yuan, who was stranded on the mountain, and sent Lu Huan to bring him the last fish.

• Jiyun caught a large Green-Scaled Fish, then several others joined him in the stream to catch more.
• Shen Hui cleaned the fish with a spell and roasted them while Lu Huan gathered kindling.
• The group praised Shen Hui's cooking as they ate the grilled fish.
• Jiyun asked Shen Hui whether he had reached an agreement with Shou Yuan, and their grandmaster corrected him for speaking disrespectfully.
• Shen Hui said he had given Senior Shou Yuan a mortal body and that the old man could not leave the mountain without help.
• Lu Huan took the last grilled fish to Senior Shou Yuan.

Shen Hui began rebuilding the bodies of the souls in the gourd, restoring Jiyun and Qingxuan while exhausting much of his spiritual energy. As he meditated and watched Jinghui beside him, he reflected on how his growing power and role as Clear Wind Temple’s master had created distance between him and his sect.

• Jiyun volunteered first, chose to keep his appearance but grow a fuller beard, and stepped through Shen Hui’s water mirror to receive a new body.
• Jiyun confirmed that his restored body was real and strong, then hurried off to show it off to Shouyuan.
• Qingxuan volunteered next, chose no changes, and emerged from the water mirror with a renewed body before thanking Shen Hui.
• Shen Hui said he could restore only one more person that day, then meditated beneath an old pine to recover his spiritual energy.
• Jinghui joined Shen Hui on the stone, and he reflected on the distance between himself and the others as his cultivation and responsibilities had changed.

As night fell, Shen Hui told Jinghui the story of Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly, and they wondered whether either of them might be dreaming. Jinghui chose a change for her reconstructed body and saved a persimmon to eat afterward.

• Jinghui asked Shen Hui who Master Zhuang was, and he told her about Zhuang Zhou dreaming he was a butterfly.
• Jinghui asked whether she was the butterfly and whether Shen Hui was too; Shen Hui said they could be, but he hoped they were not.
• Shen Hui asked Jinghui what she wanted changed when he reconstructed her body, and she asked for a more oval face like Second Senior Sister's.
• Shen Hui gave Jinghui one of his last two persimmons, and she decided to save it until after he reconstructed her body.

Shen Hui restored the bodies of the Clear Wind Temple survivors, and they celebrated their return together. Watching the gathering from a distance, Shen Hui spoke with Jingming about Qingyi’s death and learned that Qingyi had never been a true disciple of the temple.

• Jinghui regained her body through Shen Hui’s water mirror and lamented that she could no longer become a little fish or a tiny person.
• Shen Hui rebuilt everyone’s bodies, and the survivors celebrated with food and wine beside the stream.
• Shen Hui watched the celebration from a slope, thinking about the missing Qingyi, while Jingming joined him.
• Jingming told Shen Hui that she knew he had killed Qingyi and would have purged him herself because of his sinister intentions.
• Jingming revealed that Qingyi had never been a disciple of Clear Wind Temple and that Master had known about him.

Shen Hui gave Jingming a storage pouch filled with her restored sword, a protective sect token, pills, and clothing. After showing her how to use the pouch, he customized her black Daoist robe with cloud-and-crane patterns at her request.

• Shen Hui and Jingming discussed Qingyi, and Jingming explained that Master had likely kept him around hoping he would turn back.
• Shen Hui gave Jingming a storage pouch, and she used her divine sense to retrieve its contents.
• Jingming found her sword Frostfire, which Shen Hui had maintained for two years, and a Clear Wind Token bearing a Thunder Talisman.
• Jingming inspected the labeled pills, medicinal supplies, and several sets of clothing Shen Hui had prepared for her.
• Shen Hui used the Matter Transformation Method to decorate Jingming's black Daoist Robe with clouds and cranes after she chose the pattern.

Shen Hui spent half a year refining the Soul-Searching Gourd, the Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd, and the Jadeite Gourd into a transformed treasure. When its blue-green radiance faded, everyone found themselves inside a gourd, with Shen Hui missing.

• Shen Hui drew spiritual energy into the Soul-Searching Gourd, then absorbed it into the Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd as he began refining the treasure.
• Jinghui watched Lu Huan and Hu Cheng struggle with Grandmaster's Snake Form and Crane Form, then laughed as Grandmaster realized how badly they were performing them.
• After a month of refining, Shen Hui absorbed the Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd into the Jadeite Gourd and continued tempering it through the changing seasons.
• After half a year, Shen Hui completed the crystal-clear Jadeite Gourd and released a vast blue-green radiance that transported everyone into its interior.
• Patriarch Baoxue identified their surroundings as the inside of the gourd, and everyone discovered that Shen Hui was gone.

Shen Hui completed a gourd that contained the floating immortal mountain and showed the people of Clear Wind Temple how it worked. After they explored its entrances and view of the outside world, Shen Hui asked them to help name it.

• Shen Hui showed Bixi the Jadeite Gourd and expanded it into a mountain, explaining that the floating immortal mountain was inside.
• Shen Hui invited Bixi into the gourd, but Bixi declined and returned to sleep in the valley.
• Shen Hui entered the gourd through the pavilion's game board and told the people of Clear Wind Temple that he had moved the entire mountain inside it.
• Shen Hui demonstrated how the group could travel between the gourd and the outside world and view the outside through a water mirror.
• Lu Huan asked what the gourd was called, and Shen Hui said he had not decided and asked everyone for suggestions.

Shen Hui and the others planned buildings for Clear Wind Temple, and Shen Hui used his power to construct a Guest Affairs Hall near the Mountain Gate. He named it Ford-Seeking Hall, explaining its purpose as guiding visitors, while keeping the deeper allusion behind the name to himself.

• Lu Huan and the others proposed names for the Jadeite Gourd, but Shen Hui suggested they build the temple first.
• Jinghui described the planned temple buildings, and Shen Hui chose sites for the Main Hall, Medicine Fields, Martial Training Ground, and Guest Affairs Hall.
• Shen Hui raised a three-room hall from stone, trees, and vines beside the Mountain Gate.
• Shen Hui named the hall Ford-Seeking Hall and explained that it would receive visitors and help guide them.
• Jingming interpreted the name as a promise to guide visitors out of bewilderment, while Shen Hui privately recalled the allusion to Zilu asking for the ford.

Shen Hui and the others built up the mountain path, adding couplets and landmarks as they went. They reached the Martial Training Ground, where Grandmaster proposed a couplet, leaving the group to consider it.

• Shen Hui carved a couplet onto the pillars of Ford-Seeking Hall, then transformed bluestone into the Clear Wind Mountain Gate.
• First Senior Uncle offered a comic couplet for the gate, while Old Taoist Ji Chen and Fourth Senior Sister Jinghui exchanged lines before Grandmaster supplied the matching couplet Shen Hui carved.
• Shen Hui formed stone steps along the mountain path and built Pine-Wind Pavilion on a projecting terrace; Second Senior Sister Jingming and Patriarch Baoxue composed its couplet.
• Shen Hui made a railing around a granite terrace and designated it the Martial Training Ground.
• First Senior Uncle and Senior Brother proposed a couplet for the training ground, and Grandmaster offered a more refined pair of lines.

Shen Hui completed Clear Wind Temple’s new buildings and accepted the position of its tenth temple master after Ji Chen and the others insisted he keep the title. As the group drank Patriarch Baoxue’s potent medicinal wine, Shen Hui revealed that Poisonbird Wine was meant to poison people.

• Shen Hui shaped the temple’s quarters, dining hall, main hall, scripture hall, alchemy room, and other buildings on the mountain summit.
• Shen Hui and the others restored the ancestral statues and tablets and offered incense in the new main hall.
• Patriarch Baoxue opened a jar of medicinal wine, and Hu Cheng poured bowls for the gathered temple members.
• Shen Hui offered to relinquish the temple master title, but Ji Chen handed him the Sword Box and urged him to remain in charge.
• Shen Hui accepted the position of Clear Wind Temple’s tenth temple master, and everyone drank the medicinal wine.
• When Lu Huan asked why they had not steeped the Poisonbird in wine, Shen Hui said Poisonbird Wine was specifically used to poison people.

Shen Hui and his companions traveled to the Purple Bamboo Temple, where Shouyuan learned that he could establish a Soul Crossing Temple site inside Shen Hui’s Soul-Searching Gourd. They arrived to find the temple’s bamboo grove in bloom, a rare event that meant the bamboo would wither and die.

• Shouyuan stumbled along the mountain path while boasting about his past adventures, but the others walked ahead without listening.
• Shouyuan asked Shen Hui if he could place a mountain and the Soul Crossing Temple grounds inside the Soul-Searching Gourd, and Shen Hui agreed.
• Shouyuan resolved to seek a spirit mountain and find disciples, then eagerly listed the Soul Crossing Temple’s spells.
• Lu Huan suggested that Daoist Yun Su might know of spirit mountains, and Shouyuan agreed to ask her.
• The group reached the Purple Bamboo Temple and found its bamboo grove covered in flowers.
• Jinghui explained that bamboo dies after blooming, and Shouyuan warned that bamboo flowers were considered a bad omen.

Shen Hui and his companions found that Daoist Yun Su had died during the winter, leaving Green Bamboo alone in the mountain temple. After burying her master, Green Bamboo followed them down the mountain to see the mortal world, while Shen Hui restored the bamboo grove to spring.

• Shen Hui entered the temple with his companions and told Green Bamboo that Daoist Yun Su was dead.
• Green Bamboo described how she had cared for her master and admitted that she wanted to stay at the temple, but Shen Hui and Lu Huan comforted her and asked her to come with them.
• Shen Hui, Hu Cheng, and Jinghui helped Green Bamboo bury Daoist Yun Su in front of the temple.
• Green Bamboo packed her few belongings, locked the temple, and said goodbye to her master's grave before setting out with the others.
• Shen Hui scattered the bamboo blossoms and restored the grove to green, and Green Bamboo followed Jinghui down the mountain.

Jinghui found a piece of meteoric iron while the group traveled through the mountains, and Shouyuan read Daoist Yun Su’s travel journal, learning how far she had journeyed despite never reaching Foundation Establishment. Shen Hui recognized a description of Lost Ferry Ridge in the journal and announced that the group would leave the mountains by flying sword the next day.

• Jinghui discovered meteoric iron in a roadside pit and celebrated finding enough to forge a sword embryo.
• Shouyuan read Green Bamboo’s travel journal aloud, including accounts of dangerous places Daoist Yun Su had visited.
• Shouyuan learned that Yun Su had traveled through those perils with only Qi Refining cultivation and praised her.
• Shen Hui recognized the journal’s description of a mountain with a scaled monster and copper coins as Lost Ferry Ridge.
• Shen Hui told the group they would leave the mountains by flying sword the next day.

Shen Hui led the group out of the mountains on his sword and stopped in Great Peace County City so they could rest and explore. As they continued their journey, Green Bamboo encountered the bustling world beyond the mountains, while Shen Hui bought Jinghui safer cosmetics than the shopkeeper’s lead-based powder.

• Shen Hui took everyone into the air on White Skeleton, and the group flew beyond the mountains by afternoon.
• Shen Hui landed outside Great Peace County City so Hu Cheng could recover and everyone could get food and rest.
• Lu Huan and Jinghui showed Green Bamboo the crowded streets, where she watched a man perform a stone-breaking stunt and learned about money.
• Jinghui entered a cosmetics shop with Green Bamboo, and Shen Hui stopped her from buying lead-based face powder.
• Shen Hui chose rouge and Luozi Dai for Jinghui and paid the shopkeeper with a silver ingot.

Shen Hui and his companions bought gourds and enjoyed a lavish meal, where Squire Wang told them that a male servant’s grave at the Mass Grave had been dug up. Realizing he might have overlooked a Sinful Lotus, Shen Hui left the inn to investigate.

• Shouyuan bought a gourd and pressured Shen Hui into coating it red with magic, while Lu Huan bought a tiny gourd of her own.
• The group ordered nearly every dish on the inn’s menu and warmed plum wine.
• Squire Wang recognized Shen Hui, thanked him for saving Great Peace County, and paid for the group’s meal.
• Squire Wang reported that the grave of the male servant who had died after becoming pregnant had been dug up, with the body’s belly badly rotted.
• Shen Hui suspected a Sinful Lotus had survived and left to inspect the Mass Grave west of town.

Shen Hui sent Rotborn to inspect Xu Guanglu’s grave and discovered that the corpse’s bones had been deformed after death. A Fox Spirit and Pig Demon dug up the coffin, mistook Rotborn for the flesh they sought, and carried it away, unaware Shen Hui could see through the sword.

• Shen Hui sent Rotborn to Xu Guanglu’s grave while he watched through the flying sword from the inn.
• Rotborn found disturbed earth and a skeleton with bones deformed from within after death, but no sign of the Sinful Lotus.
• A Fox Spirit and Pig Demon dug open the grave, found Rotborn beneath the bones, and took the sword with them.
• The Fox Spirit said their mission came from above and mentioned a Daoist who had gained a place of honor at a banquet with the True Lord.
• The Fox Spirit cut its finger on Rotborn, and after it wrapped the wound, an eye silently appeared on the finger.

Shen Hui learned that a cunning Fox Demon once escaped capture with the help of its extraordinary senses, and he suspected it might be connected to Lost Ferry Ridge. Before the group left to visit the Mass Grave, he diagnosed and cured Squire Wang’s congenital condition that had kept him from having a son.

• Shen Hui questioned Shouyuan about Lost Ferry Ridge and fox spirits that could hear sounds from a thousand miles away.
• Shouyuan recounted how the Fox Demon that devoured two hundred thousand people in Cangzhou repeatedly evaded its pursuers until Feng Zhiwei baited it into being captured and refined into pills.
• Shen Hui wondered whether the Fox Demon had survived and grown into a demon king, and decided to stay cautious until he reached Nascent Soul.
• Shen Hui declined Squire Wang’s offer of lodging because the group still needed to visit the Mass Grave.
• Shen Hui found and cleared the obstruction in Squire Wang’s seminal duct, prompting Squire Wang to thank him as a living immortal.

Shen Hui led his companions to the Mass Grave to investigate the Sinful Lotus and found a Ghost Market that opened at midnight. The group entered and began browsing, while the ghosts watched them without interfering.

• Green Bamboo noticed two ghostly old men following the group, and Hu Cheng reassured her that Shen Hui and the others had already noticed them.
• At the manservant's grave, Shen Hui explained that monsters had taken his Flying Sword and said he had come to ask about the Sinful Lotus.
• Shen Hui led the group along an overgrown path to an archway marked Night Market and waited until midnight.
• The Ghost Market filled with crowds after its lanterns lit, and Shen Hui warned everyone to follow the market's rules.
• Shen Hui and his companions entered the market, where ghosts sold food, clothing, and goods while watching the living visitors.

Shen Hui and his companions explored the Ghost Market, where they learned that a woman had crawled from a grave at the Mass Grave and headed north. The crow spirit who ran the market invited Shen Hui to read a book, and the group reached his cluttered home beneath a locust tree.

• Shen Hui explained Blood Baleful Intent and Evil Baleful Intent to Lu Huan, Hu Cheng, and the others as they watched a butcher's stall.
• Shen Hui found a celadon cup inscribed with a date from the previous dynasty and bluffed the stallholder into revealing that the Ghost Market was run by a crow spirit called Seventh Master.
• Shen Hui asked Seventh Master about strange events at the Mass Grave, and the crow recalled a naked, emaciated woman crawling from a grave last year and heading north.
• Seventh Master asked Shen Hui to read a book he had found, then led the group through the Ghost Market and told them about its history.
• Seventh Master brought Shen Hui and the others to his cluttered home in a locust tree, and the group suggested talking in his nest instead.

Shen Hui examined a crow spirit’s demon-subduing manual and explained why its partial human transformation had harmed its cultivation. He taught the crow spirit how to begin correcting its transformation, leaving it with a long practice ahead.

• Shen Hui read the Ghost Market rules and inspected the crow spirit’s heavily annotated Hun-yuan Demon-Slaying Three-Five Dūgong Register, recognizing it as a genuine demon-subduing art.
• The crow spirit explained that it had found the manual with a dead Daoist over two hundred years earlier, and Shen Hui warned that it could practice the art only after taking human form.
• After the crow spirit transformed into a partial human shape, Shen Hui explained that its shortcut had caused disharmony between its form, spirit, Qi, Blood, and meridians.
• Shen Hui told the crow spirit that it needed to cultivate a complete transformation and explained the risks of continuing in its unstable form.
• The crow spirit begged Shen Hui for guidance, and he advised it to visualize itself as human and conduct its daily life entirely in that form until its soul accepted the body.

Shen Hui rewrote and explained the demon-slaying manual, teaching the crow spirit and the others its internal refinement, external methods, and mnemonics. The group gathered to learn the arts, while Shen Hui also learned that a Land God near Green Terrace Town might know the woman’s whereabouts.

• The crow spirit gave Shen Hui a piece of Crow Azure and told him that the Land God outside Green Terrace Town might know where the woman was.
• Shen Hui began rewriting the manual in plain language and asked the crow spirit’s permission before teaching the others.
• Shen Hui taught the group the internal refinement steps of Visualization, Qi ingestion, and Forging Courage, including their rules and taboos.
• Shen Hui explained how to consecrate demon-slaying artifacts and demonstrated the Demon-Slaying, Demon-Binding, and Demon-Suppressing hand instructions.
• Shen Hui wrote and explained the three mnemonics, clarifying for Jinghui where a demon’s Yao Qi gathered.