Recaps

Shen Hui identified an Earth Wolf in the Mass Grave and devised a plan to lure it out by disguising Monk Faming as a corpse. The Earth Wolf became tempted by Faming’s apparent body and cautiously approached after Shen Hui left.

• Shen Hui recognized the creature as an Earth Wolf and saw signs that it had eaten living people.
• Shen Hui persuaded Monk Faming to act as bait and drew talismans on him to conceal his living aura.
• Shen Hui carried Monk Faming into the Mass Grave and laid him where the Earth Wolf could see him.
• The Earth Wolf spotted the plump corpse, waited for Shen Hui to leave, and began checking the area for signs of the living.

Shen Hui trapped an unusually powerful Earth Wolf at the Mass Grave, but the creature summoned a horde of corpses. Seeing the wolf’s immense Killing Intent, Shen Hui believed he could establish his Dao foundation.

• The Earth Wolf approached Monk Faming’s corpse, but Shen Hui ambushed it with a Fire Spell and a streak of white light that wounded it without bringing it down.
• When the Earth Wolf tried to burrow away, the ground became bluestone, and Shen Hui trapped it inside a stone cage.
• The caged Earth Wolf howled with a soul-stirring sound that summoned hundreds of corpses from the Mass Grave.
• Zhang Qi watched the horde emerge as Shen Hui declared he could establish his Dao foundation.
• Shen Hui used the Aura Observation Art and saw that the Earth Wolf’s Killing Intent had grown several times thicker, indicating at least three hundred years of Dao Xing.

Shen Hui fought through the walking corpses to reach Monk Faming, who mistook him for a threat and fled. After Shen Hui burned away an illusion of beautiful women, he turned his attention to the Earth Wolf trapped in the stone cage.

• Shen Hui told Zhang Qi to stay in the mule cart and advanced toward the stone cage, burning walking corpses with sparks from his Fire Spell.
• Monk Faming opened his eyes, panicked at Shen Hui, and ran, even helping a corpse that tried to bite him.
• Shen Hui killed the corpse with Sharp Gold Qi and trapped Monk Faming inside a circular earthen wall.
• Shen Hui recognized that the corpses had become an illusion of beautiful women and burned them away, saying the Heart Lamp let him see mortal beauty as white bones.
• Shen Hui faced the Earth Wolf and transformed the fiery orb in his palm into a blood-red ghost's head.

Shen Hui faced Bai Yulian, deputy hall master of the White Bone Hall, and tried to save his life by offering to become her disciple. He offered Monk Faming as proof of loyalty and Old Taoist Ji Chen’s Sword Box as a gift, then approached Bai Yulian with the box.

• A burning corpse appeared at the Mass Grave, extinguished Shen Hui’s flames, and shattered his stone wall before revealing herself as Bai Yulian, deputy hall master of the White Bone Hall.
• Bai Yulian confronted Shen Hui over killing her disciple and niece, and Shen Hui apologized while offering to change masters.
• Shen Hui claimed his talent and rapid cultivation made him a worthy disciple, but Bai Yulian doubted his sincerity.
• Shen Hui offered to kill Monk Faming as a token of loyalty, while Bai Yulian dissolved the mule into a skeleton with a flick of her sleeve.
• Shen Hui offered Old Taoist Ji Chen’s Sword Box, and Bai Yulian asked him to bring it over for her inspection.

Shen Hui’s attack with the Sword Box seemingly killed Bai Yulian, but she regenerated her entire body and revealed her dominance over the White Bone Hall. He faced her renewed threat while trying to understand her power and consider his next move.

• Shen Hui used his fire arts and the Sword Box to burn and fatally wound Bai Yulian, while the Earth Wolf in the stone cage was reduced to cinders.
• Bai Yulian’s body was caught in midair, and she shed her burned flesh and organs before regrowing her body, skull, and neck bones.
• Bai Yulian mocked Shen Hui’s attempt to deceive her and said she had believed he might sincerely join her sect for a moment.
• Bai Yulian explained that the Bone Refining Hall had been renamed the White Bone Hall because of her and claimed she had skinned and dismembered many Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Shen Hui answered Bai Yulian calmly while considering how to deal with her.

Shen Hui faced Bai Yulian’s illusions and threats while waiting for the Corpse Liberation Wheel to finish spinning. He revealed a devastating fire attack as his final token of allegiance, leaving Bai Yulian staring up at the descending Divine Bing Fire Thunder.

• Shen Hui noticed that the interface had gained one available Corpse Liberation Wheel draw, but found no cultivation upgrade that could save him from Bai Yulian.
• Bai Yulian used Lustful Vision to surround Shen Hui with alluring illusions, but his Heart Lamp kept his gaze clear.
• Bai Yulian transformed the beauties into terrifying skeletons resembling Shen Hui’s family and companions, but he remained unmoved.
• Bai Yulian prepared to use her Bone Melting Seal, while Shen Hui stalled her by offering to become her loyal servant.
• Bai Yulian rejected Shen Hui’s offer and renewed her attack, but he pointed out the gathering scarlet clouds and announced Divine Bing Fire Thunder.

After killing Bai Yulian, Shen Hui discovered a new thunder Dao Path and used another new art to refine her remains into a Bone Sword. The sword entered his bones, leaving him changed but alive.

• Shen Hui struck Bai Yulian with Divine Bing Fire Thunder, then cut her charred body into scattered pieces to prevent her from resurrecting.
• Shen Hui checked the Parchment Interface and learned that the Five Thunders Orthodox Method let him summon powerful elemental thunder, though using it before mastering an element cost cultivation points and lifespan.
• Shen Hui decided that Corpse Condensation Sword Refinement could not be evil if he was virtuous enough to wield divine thunder, and used it on Bai Yulian's remains.
• Shen Hui refined the remains into a Bone Sword named White Skeleton, which entered his palm and caused intense pain as it settled among his bones.
• Shen Hui recovered from the pain, sensed the Bone Sword dormant inside him, and remarked that Bai Yulian had become the one whose bones were separated from her flesh.

After killing Bai Yulian, Shen Hui found a mysterious sachet and checked on Zhang Qi and Monk Faming. Faming then recalled a vivid dream of his youth as the starving Xu Jinbao, which ended with the magistrate’s daughter being killed while he tried to save her from bandits.

• Shen Hui burned Bai Yulian’s remains and scattered the Earth Wolf’s ashes, then found an unopened sachet beneath the ashes and tucked it into his robe.
• Shen Hui found Zhang Qi asleep in the mule cart and spoke with Monk Faming, who asked when the earthen wall would release him.
• Xu Jinbao remembered being a hungry fourteen-year-old beggar who received lotus seedpods and a flower from the magistrate’s daughter.
• Mounted bandits attacked Bonan County, and Xu Jinbao fled across the lotus pond while rescuing the magistrate’s daughter from the sinking boat.
• As Xu Jinbao and the young woman ran for safety, a bandit’s blade cut off her head.

Faming relived memories of the woman who had once given him lotus pods and confronted the feelings he had buried before Shen Hui freed him from an earthen prison. He emerged unharmed into the devastated Mass Grave and thanked Shen Hui.

• Trapped inside earthen walls, Faming recalled becoming a monk at Wan'an Temple after entering for food and growing into a gifted, well-fed cultivator.
• Faming recognized the woman from his childhood when she visited Wan'an Temple to pray for a child, but she did not recognize him.
• After the woman returned to give thanks, Faming saw his senior brother leaving her room and later heard rumors about the child's father, then suppressed his feelings through cultivation.
• Faming opened his eyes inside the earthen enclosure and asked Daoist Shen how much longer he would be trapped.
• Shen Hui crumbled the walls, and Faming surveyed the scorched, bone-strewn Mass Grave before thanking him.

Shen Hui, Faming, and Zhang Qi buried the charred remains at the Mass Grave and marked them with steles bearing wishes for better lives. After Zhang Qi laid his mule Gray to rest, Shen Hui carved a wish for Gray’s next life onto its tombstone.

• Shen Hui, Faming, and Zhang Qi gathered the burned remains, buried them in orderly pits, and erected a forest of steles.
• Shen Hui carved Rhine Riverside, Building Nine, Unit Two, Apartment 304 on the nameless steles as a wish for the dead to have better lives.
• Shen Hui inspected the Righteous Mortuary and found that its sinister aura had faded after the Earth Wolf and Bai Yulian died.
• Zhang Qi carefully arranged and buried Gray’s bones with help from Shen Hui and Faming.
• Shen Hui carved Gray’s Tomb, added Zhang Shuyu’s name and the date, then inscribed a wish for Gray’s next life at Rhine Riverside’s underground garage.

After the danger at the Mass Grave passed, Shen Hui divided Bai Yulian’s belongings with Monk Faming and Zhang Qi. Faming and Zhang Qi left for their separate destinations, while Shen Hui headed toward the city.

• Monk Faming said he would return to the temple, and Zhang Qi decided to resume honest work at the Post House after Gray’s death.
• Shen Hui opened Bai Yulian’s Mustard Seed Bag and divided its jewelry among himself, Faming, and Zhang Qi, giving Zhang Qi a share to make up for losing his mule.
• Faming took the gold-plated jewelry and skull wine cup, while Zhang Qi received the brushes and paper; Shen Hui burned the unwanted women’s clothes.
• Shen Hui gave Faming the empty Mustard Seed Bag as an apology for putting him in danger, and Faming accepted it.
• Faming traveled west and Zhang Qi headed south to visit his parents, while Shen Hui set off toward the city gate.

Shen Hui investigated a traveling acrobat troupe after noticing unusual qi around its performing monkey. A glimpse inside the troupe’s tent convinced him that its grotesque attractions were people who had been cut up alive, and he watched the tents from a distance.

• Shen Hui watched a handler and an unusually intelligent monkey perform in Qu County and saw strange qi surrounding the animal with the Aura Observation Art.
• Shen Hui followed the handler and monkey to a traveling acrobat troupe’s tents in South Market.
• Shen Hui watched a chained black bear perform while troupe members collected donations and sold admission to the tent.
• Shen Hui glimpsed several grotesquely deformed people behind the tent’s railings and left the crowd to observe the troupe from a tea stall.

Shen Hui learned that a troupe near the tea stall kidnapped and mutilated children with the protection of corrupt officials. After hearing that previous rescuers had been maimed or killed, he walked toward the gray tents to confront them.

• Shen Hui bought peanuts from the tea-stall owner and asked why the troupe openly practiced harvesting and maiming without being arrested.
• The owner said the troupe paid off officials and had powerful connections, while the emperor's wars and taxes had left ordinary people suffering.
• The owner told Shen Hui that a swordsman and a father who tried to intervene had both been captured and mutilated.
• Shen Hui dismissed the idea that the criminals would face natural retribution, stood up, and said he would find out why it had not come.
• Shen Hui headed toward the gray tents as the frightened tea-stall owner watched and worried about the consequences.

Shen Hui entered a tented exhibition where people and human-animal hybrids were displayed and abused for profit. He reached a final stall where a man sold pieces of a little girl's antlers as medicine, and the girl remained limp and silent as he cut one.

• Shen Hui paid the woman at the entrance and entered the crowded tent.
• Shen Hui passed displays of malformed children, people trapped in jars, and human livestock while spectators watched and the handlers abused them.
• Shen Hui reached a stall where a middle-aged man dangled a young girl with deer antlers and claimed she was a mountain spirit.
• A spectator asked the price of the girl's antlers, and the man offered to cut off a piece for two taels of silver.
• The man sliced the girl's already damaged antler as onlookers paid or watched, while she stared silently at the ground.

Shen Hui confronted the carnival troupe’s abuse of the children they displayed as curiosities and offered to help a mutilated child kill his captors. After the child nodded, Shen Hui caught a guard’s attack and set the guard ablaze, throwing the tent into chaos.

• Shen Hui watched the guards torment the children and the spectators respond with a mix of pity and curiosity.
• Shen Hui crouched before a mutilated child called a Spider Spirit, introduced himself as a Taoist priest, and promised to help kill the troupe if the child nodded.
• The child nodded through tears as a guard swung a bamboo pole at his head.
• Shen Hui caught the pole without looking away from the child, then stood as the troupe members approached with hooks and ropes.
• Flames raced along the pole and engulfed the old guard, causing chaos in the tent.

Shen Hui used the Aura Observation Art to burn everyone in the acrobat troupe and nearby spectators whose auras marked them as killers, then confronted the troupe’s owner, Fang Yan. After Fang Yan defended his treatment of the deformed children, Shen Hui warned that everyone had their own way of dying.

• Shen Hui sent Fire Ghosts after people with dark red threads of blood and Killing Intent, killing them as the tent erupted in flames.
• Shen Hui recalled the Fire Ghosts into his palm before they could attack the terrified townsfolk.
• Shen Hui turned toward the second tent, but Fang Yan, the troupe’s owner, called him to a halt.
• Fang Yan invited Shen Hui to speak privately and defended his troupe’s treatment of the deformed children.
• Shen Hui rejected Fang Yan’s excuses and told him that everyone had their own way of dying.

Shen Hui rejected Fang Yan’s bribe and threats, then killed Fang Yan’s men and the traveling acrobat troupe members. He left Fang Yan alive to suffer while the crowd applauded.

• Fang Yan offered Shen Hui two hundred taels of silver to stop and warned that the city’s powerful figures would retaliate if he destroyed the operation.
• Shen Hui refused the bribe and said he had no intention of leaving the city the next day.
• Shen Hui sent the Fire Ghost into Fang Yan, then killed the fleeing men with Sharp Gold Qi.
• Shen Hui burned the remaining members of the traveling acrobat troupe to ashes.
• Shen Hui left Fang Yan groaning in pain, and a fat man in the crowd applauded his actions.

Shen Hui freed the deformed children from their chains and told them their shattered spiritual light left them no more than three years to live. After one child asked him to end his suffering, Shen Hui killed him, and the monkey asked for the same mercy.

• Shen Hui used the Aura Observation Art to spot a fat man and an old woman who had cheered as the Fire Ghosts burned people, then killed them with sparks.
• Shen Hui broke the chains and ropes holding the deformed children and freed them from the ruins.
• Shen Hui told the children their spiritual light had shattered and they would live no more than three years, then offered them money or a quick end.
• A child with pig's ears and a snout asked Shen Hui to remove them and kill him; Shen Hui cut them off and killed him with Sharp Gold Qi.
• The monkey brought the little girl to Shen Hui and wrote that it wanted him to send it on its way too.

Shen Hui left the ruined performance grounds in Assistant Magistrate Chen Shou’s hands and discovered that his fire art had advanced greatly during the fight. A little girl with deer antlers followed him, then revealed that the other children had survived by eating her flesh.

• Shen Hui told Chen Shou to care for the rescued children, find the missing children from Xu Family Village, and execute Fang Yan under Great Shuo law.
• Shen Hui checked his Parchment Interface and saw that his Control Fire Chapter had gained over five thousand progress points.
• Shen Hui asked the antlered little girl why she was following him, and she said she believed he was a good person.
• Shen Hui challenged the girl’s claim that the other children had said so, since they could not speak.
• The girl told Shen Hui that the other children had survived by eating her flesh, and he looked at her emaciated body.

Shen Hui discovered that the little girl in Fang Yan’s troupe was a genuine young Demon Cultivator who had been captured and exploited. He bought her wontons and led her toward the Post House, with the girl quietly following him.

• Shen Hui used the Aura Observation Art and recognized the little girl as a genuine Demon Cultivator whose flesh and blood had kept the troupe’s mutilated children alive.
• Shen Hui asked how she had been caught, and the girl said she had been playing and eating grass in the mountains.
• Shen Hui noticed that the girl was hungry and set down his last peanut before walking away; she followed him through the deserted streets.
• Shen Hui bought the girl a bowl of wontons, gave her a spoon, and watched her eat slowly.
• Shen Hui bought her a second bowl to take away, and they continued toward the Post House.

Shen Hui confessed to Ji Chen that he had killed Bai Yulian and a gang of child abductors, and worried that anger rather than compassion had driven him. Ji Chen taught him that cultivators must subdue hatred while upholding justice, and left him with the example of his First Senior Uncle killing a corrupt official.

• Shen Hui told Ji Chen how he had killed Bai Yulian and attacked the criminals who abducted and mutilated children, then asked to be punished.
• Ji Chen said Shen Hui had broken no sect rule if he had killed people who deserved it, but warned that anger and arrogance could corrupt a cultivator’s heart.
• Shen Hui admitted he could not tell whether compassion or anger had driven him, and Ji Chen explained that cultivators must subdue inner demons and hold fast to compassion while upholding justice.
• Ji Chen recalled how Shen Hui’s First Senior Uncle had killed the corrupt prefect Qian during the Changzhou locust plague after relief grain was stolen from the people.

Old Taoist Ji Chen examined the little deer demon and tried to make her his disciple, but Shen Hui urged him to let her enjoy her freedom in the mountains first. Ji Chen named her Jing Huan, and Shen Hui told her to use the name Lu Huan as she settled into a room at the post house.

• Ji Chen examined the girl’s meridians and asked about her name, origins, and parents, but she knew little about herself.
• Ji Chen asked the girl to become his disciple, while Shen Hui reminded him that he had called Shen Hui his final disciple.
• Shen Hui encouraged the girl to choose for herself and argued that she should first have time to live freely on Deer Rest Mountain.
• Ji Chen agreed to let the girl stay on the mountain and named her Jing Huan; Shen Hui explained that her secular name was Lu Huan.
• Ji Chen prepared a room for Lu Huan, covered her with an oversized Taoist robe, and quietly closed the door.

Shen Hui joined Qu County’s officials for breakfast as they reported the arrests and confessions tied to Fang Yan’s crimes. He asked to witness Fang Yan’s slicing execution, and Wang Jin arranged for it to happen before the Fire Ghost inside Fang Yan could burn him to death.

• Shen Hui found Lu Huan eating breakfast with Wang Jin and several county yamen officials, who treated him with deference after the previous day’s fire.
• Chen Shou told Shen Hui that Fang Yan had confessed overnight and that Deputy Registrar Zhao Liangcai and Instructor Liu An had been arrested for taking bribes and covering up the crimes.
• Shen Hui gave Wang Jin a contract of sale, and Wang Jin promised to oversee the matter while investigators pursued the implicated officials, clerks, constable, and local toughs.
• Shen Hui asked when Fang Yan would be executed by slicing, and Wang Jin explained the limits on the number of cuts in Qu County.
• Shen Hui told Wang Jin to arrange as many cuts as possible before the Fire Ghost inside Fang Yan burned him to death, and Wang Jin sent a clerk to make arrangements.

Shen Hui took Lu Huan to a secluded spot outside the county town to practice two minor arts from Bai Yulian’s Bone Scroll. After testing them on a chicken, he reflected on their limits and on the more powerful abilities he had hoped to learn.

• Shen Hui left the Post House with a chicken he had bought from the cook, and Lu Huan followed him despite his protests.
• Shen Hui allowed Lu Huan to accompany him after she promised not to tell anyone what she saw.
• At a secluded spot by the county wall, Shen Hui used the Skin Stripping Technique to strip away the chicken’s flesh and blood, leaving its bones intact.
• Shen Hui used the Bone Melting Seal to dissolve the chicken’s skeleton into white liquid.
• Shen Hui considered the techniques’ limits and recalled hoping the Bone Scroll would contain Bai Yulian’s Flesh from Bone or Heart Illusion Technique.

Shen Hui got Lu Huan clothes and brought her along with the crowd to watch Fang Yan’s execution at the East Market. The slicing began while Lu Huan remained unable to see through the crush of people.

• Shen Hui took Lu Huan to several clothing shops before a tailor altered her daughter’s clothes and gave him a bundle of spare garments.
• Shen Hui draped a Guanyin Hood over Lu Huan, and a constable announced Fang Yan’s execution at the East Market.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan followed the crowd to the execution, where Shen Hui shielded her from being crushed.
• Wang Jin read Fang Yan’s charges and threw down the execution tablet.
• The executioner removed the walnut from Fang Yan’s mouth and began slicing him, but Fang Yan did not cry out.