Recaps

Shen Hui and Lu Huan reached Twin Rivers County Seat, where the man rescued from the Ghost Market joined them at the inn and explained that he had decided to return home. He had not yet worked out how to face his sister-in-law, but the danger on the ridge and the journey afterward had begun to clarify his thoughts.

• Shen Hui and Lu Huan entered Twin Rivers County Seat after passing a brief inspection at its guarded gate.
• The group parted ways in the city, and Shen Hui took Lu Huan to the Rising Fortune Inn for the night.
• The man rescued from the Ghost Market found Shen Hui at the inn and offered Lu Huan candied hawthorn.
• The man told Shen Hui that his home was in Jing Valley County and that he intended to return now that he had sold his goods.
• The man admitted he did not know how to explain himself to his sister-in-law, then described how surviving the ridge collapse and continuing his journey had helped him understand his situation.

A grieving trader told Shen Hui how his elder brother had died from a dog bite and how he had spent years caring for his brother’s family. Shen Hui gave him a charm to cure his sister-in-law’s consumption, and the trader left for the night, planning to return home in the morning.

• The trader explained that his brother had died after a village watchdog bit him, and that he had raised his brother’s child while caring for his sick sister-in-law.
• Shen Hui drew a Dog-Stilling Stake on the trader’s palm and taught him how to use it against vicious dogs.
• The trader said he would stay at a Feather Inn and leave for home the next morning.
• Shen Hui gave the trader a talisman that could cure his sister-in-law’s consumption, and the grateful man knelt before him.
• The trader left the inn, and Lu Huan asked Shen Hui whether they would see him again; Shen Hui said perhaps tomorrow.

Shouyuan discovered that Clear Wind Temple had recovered Soul Crossing Temple’s Ascension Register and planned to bring Great Martial Uncle back to life. He left the feast triumphant, announcing that he would soon escape.

• Shen Hui and the people of Clear Wind Temple feasted and drank while Shouyuan sat apart, tormented by the food and wine he could not have.
• Shen Hui found a yellow paper memorial tablet bearing Chen Shouyuan’s name and tossed it beside Shouyuan.
• Shouyuan turned over the paper and read that Clear Wind Temple had recovered Soul Crossing Temple’s Ascension Register and would soon welcome Great Martial Uncle back to the living world.
• Shouyuan laughed with joy, and First Senior Uncle kicked him, but Shouyuan only laughed harder.
• Shen Hui read the message and fell silent as the others gathered around; Shouyuan declared that he would soon get out.

Shouyuan taunted Shen Hui and the trapped Clear Wind Temple souls, provoking First Senior Uncle into beating him before revealing how souls could escape the gourd. Shen Hui tried to keep First Senior Uncle from attacking again, and the chapter ended as he shouted that no one could be beaten to death inside the gourd.

• Shouyuan threatened to torment the others and mocked Shen Hui for meditating, then provoked First Senior Uncle by reminding him that Clear Wind Temple was dead.
• First Senior Uncle attacked Shouyuan, but Shen Hui intervened and stopped his beating.
• Shouyuan revealed that a soul could be summoned out of the gourd using its birth date and eight characters, spiritual energy, and the Soul Ferrying Art.
• Shouyuan explained that he could possess someone born in the same cycle to regain a body, while Shen Hui considered how such birth dates might match.
• Shouyuan demanded the others' birth dates, then taunted First Senior Uncle until he tried to attack again.
• Shen Hui blocked First Senior Uncle and shouted that no one could be beaten to death inside the gourd.

Shen Hui escaped the Soul-Searching Gourd after his three souls and seven spirits returned as one, then used the gourd to summon the female martial ancestor. She materialized in the inn room and asked whether the ritual had worked.

• Shen Hui meditated while First Senior Uncle kept Shou Yuan from disturbing him, and a beam of light carried Shen Hui out of the gourd.
• Shen Hui woke in an inn room with Lu Huan asleep nearby and confirmed that his three souls and seven spirits had reunited.
• Shen Hui saw the tiny figures inside the Soul-Searching Gourd and performed an incantation to bring someone out.
• Blue smoke emerged from the gourd and formed the female martial ancestor, who inspected her hands and the lamplight before asking Shen Hui if it had worked.

Shen Hui brought the female martial ancestor and his senior sisters out of the Soul-Searching Gourd, where they experienced the outside world despite being unable to touch physical objects. After preparing to leave Twin River County by water, Shen Hui set off upstream toward Yuanqiu County and Yanuo Valley.

• Shen Hui warned the female martial ancestor that her soul would dissipate outside the gourd and then returned her to it after she spent time gazing at the night.
• Shen Hui summoned the martial grandmaster's master, who explored the inn despite being unable to touch its objects, and later brought out Fourth Senior Sister Jinghui.
• Jinghui noticed Shen Hui's white hair, but Shen Hui reassured her that he would eventually reshape everyone's bodies with his Five Elements art.
• Jinghui woke Lu Huan by poking her cheek, and Lu Huan recognized her and called her Jinghui before being corrected to address her as Fourth Senior Sister.
• Shen Hui packed his Mystic Yellow Robe and sword and prepared to travel by water from Twin River County upstream to Yuanqiu County.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan left the inn and met the middle-aged man who had shared a drink with them the night before. At the city gate, Shen Hui let the old yellow dog choose whether to travel with them or the man, and the dog stayed behind with him.

• The middle-aged man greeted Shen Hui and learned that he was headed to Yuanqiu County.
• At the city gate, the man bought two skewers of candied hawthorn and gave them to Lu Huan.
• Shen Hui told the yellow dog it could go with the man and warned it that traveling with him would be dangerous.
• Shen Hui infused the dog with spiritual energy and told the man to take it along if he continued traveling as a merchant.
• The yellow dog watched Lu Huan leave, then returned to the man's side.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan traveled upstream on the Water Spirit, leaving the ferry crossing and its stunned onlookers behind. Far upriver, Shen Hui spotted a drifting boat with a steaming tea bowl aboard, suggesting it had been abandoned only recently.

• Lu Huan asked Shen Hui why he had accepted a candied hawthorn skewer, and he explained that accepting a small kindness could help fulfill the giver’s wishes.
• At the ferry crossing, Shen Hui transformed a tiny Water Spirit into a giant black carp and carried himself and Lu Huan upstream on its back.
• Lu Huan offered Shen Hui her other candied hawthorn skewer and repeated his lesson about accepting kindness, so he took it.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan traveled past boats and riverside homes until the river narrowed between cliffs and they were alone on the water.
• Shen Hui noticed an empty covered boat drifting downstream with a piece of burlap on its bow and steam rising from a tea bowl beneath its canopy.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan reached a deserted dock on the spiritually drained Si River and followed a path toward Yuanqiu County. In the mountain hollow, a corpse-eating dog demon confronted them, ending the chapter with its grotesque smile.

• Shen Hui used Water Essence Insight to discover that the Si River had no living creatures and almost no spiritual energy.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan landed at an abandoned dock, and Water Spirit shrank into a small fish before returning to Shen Hui's palm.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan followed the gravel path toward Yuanqiu County as Shen Hui sensed that the surrounding spiritual energy was nearly gone.
• A gaunt dog transformed by eating many corpses charged out of the grass and stopped when it saw Shen Hui.
• Shen Hui recognized that the dog might become a Wild Dogling, and it bared its teeth in a grotesque smile.

Shen Hui killed a dog demon and confronted the External Affairs Office disciples who had been chasing it, demanding to know who ruled the town and whom they served. After collecting one disciple’s blood in his Soul-Searching Gourd, he ordered the group to take him to their Director.

• Shen Hui stepped forward and killed the charging dog demon with a single sword strike while Lu Huan stayed behind him.
• Several Daoist disciples arrived and stopped in shock when they saw Shen Hui standing beside the defeated demon.
• Shen Hui questioned the disciples about who was in charge of the town, whom they served, and how they had been doing their jobs.
• The gong-carrying disciple said Deputy Director Qiu oversaw the town and that the group ran errands for Director Liu.
• Shen Hui ordered the disciples to take him to their Director, then made the gong-carrying disciple drip blood into his Soul-Searching Gourd.
• Shen Hui told Lu Huan to keep up and followed the disciples as they led the way.

Shen Hui reached Yuanqiu County and found thousands of walking corpses gathered outside its walls. After the Plague Emperor Sect disciples were exposed and killed, he fought the advancing corpses and discovered a tiny crystal inside one of them.

• Shen Hui and Lu Huan followed the Plague Emperor Sect disciples past abandoned villages to the outskirts of Yuanqiu County, where thousands of motionless walking corpses stood.
• The walking corpses began turning toward the group, and the disciples realized the Plague God Gu had failed; one recognized that Shen Hui was not from their sect.
• Shen Hui killed the four disciples, summoned a stone man to carry Lu Huan, and faced the horde with his sword.
• Shen Hui found that each walking corpse he killed granted one cultivation point, then summoned White Skeleton and wielded two swords against them.
• Shen Hui searched the remains of a walking corpse and found a tiny crystal with a faint, cold light.

Shen Hui fought his way toward Yuanqiu County’s gate, killing thousands of walking corpses and discovering they were all male. Inside the city, the Deputy Director oversaw the birth of more than a thousand monstrous infants and ordered them sent to the pill chamber.

• Shen Hui found a small crystal dense with spiritual energy and continued cutting down walking corpses as he advanced toward the city gate.
• After two hours of slaughter, Shen Hui noticed that every corpse he had killed was male and suspected the women had been taken elsewhere.
• Beneath the county office, the Deputy Director activated a blood sac connected to three hundred chained women.
• The women’s bellies split open, releasing crawling infants that the disciples collected in bamboo baskets.
• A disciple reported 1,443 viable fetuses, and the Deputy Director ordered them sent to the pill chamber.

Shen Hui explored an abandoned city and questioned Second Senior Sister Jingming about a captive from the Plague Emperor Sect. After learning about the sect and the captive’s birth details, Jingming asked to see her sword, but stopped herself from reaching for it because she was only a soul.

• A man fed blood to walking corpses and hurled them into a blood sac, where they were absorbed into its flesh.
• Shen Hui entered a deserted house, killed three walking corpses, and searched the rooms before summoning Second Senior Sister Jingming from the Soul-Searching Gourd.
• Jingming told Shen Hui that the captive was Mao Yong, a Qi Refining disciple of the Plague Emperor Sect, and described the sect’s origins, divisions, ranks, and Golden Core sect master.
• Jingming recited Mao Yong’s birth characters, then asked Shen Hui to show her the sword.
• Jingming reached toward the sword’s scabbard but withdrew her hand when she remembered she could not touch it as a soul.

Shen Hui questioned Mao Yong about the Plague Emperor Sect and learned that its people had taken the women of Yuanqiu County to refine Crimson Yin Great Pills. After Mao Yong tried to possess the stone man, Shen Hui forced him out and discovered that his soul could return to the Soul-Searching Gourd on its own.

• Jingming warned Shen Hui to be careful and offered to teach Lu Huan to read and write.
• Shen Hui summoned Mao Yong from the Soul-Searching Gourd and used his sword to sever Mao Yong’s right arm, then demanded information about the Plague Emperor Sect.
• Mao Yong revealed that Yanluo Valley held the sect’s local forces and that only Division Master Liu and seven disciples remained in Yuanqiu County’s city.
• Mao Yong told Shen Hui that Liu had taken the city’s women to refine Crimson Yin Great Pills.
• Shen Hui tested Mao Yong’s ability to possess a walking corpse and the stone man, then burned him out of the stone body and cut him free of the flames.
• Mao Yong’s surviving soul fragment flew back into the Soul-Searching Gourd, and Shen Hui realized it could return on its own.

Qingxuan confronted Liu Mengshu in the Yuanqiu County Yamen after finding him refining grotesque infants in a pill furnace. Liu Mengshu’s soul-seizing attack failed to stop Qingxuan’s body, and the chapter ended with Liu Mengshu disarmed and bleeding as Qingxuan collected his blood in a red-skinned gourd.

• Liu Mengshu tossed a grotesque infant into the pill furnace in the yamen’s main hall.
• Qingxuan entered and identified himself before charging Liu Mengshu with a bone sword.
• Liu Mengshu used Grand Simplicity Yin Wind to force Qingxuan’s soul out of his body.
• Qingxuan’s soulless body dodged Liu Mengshu’s strike and severed his right arm.
• Qingxuan’s soul returned to the red-skinned gourd as Qingxuan held its mouth beneath his bloodied sword.

Shen Hui defeated and killed Liu Mengshu after surviving his serpents, fire, and destructive gale. He looted Liu Mengshu’s pouch and discovered a scroll explaining the origins of the Grand Simplicity Yin Wind Soul-Seizing Edict.

• Liu Mengshu turned his severed arm into multiplying black serpents, but Shen Hui burned them with a blaze from his sleeve.
• Liu Mengshu unleashed a savage gale that demolished the county yamen, but Shen Hui remained protected by an unseen barrier.
• Liu Mengshu covered the area in black mist and fled, but Shen Hui split the mist with his sword and cut off Liu Mengshu’s head.
• Shen Hui took Liu Mengshu’s brocade pouch, broke its divine-sense imprint, and collected jade bottles and spirit crystals.
• Shen Hui read a scroll describing how the Grand Simplicity Yin Wind Soul-Seizing Edict had been altered from an ancient funerary art into a technique that forcibly separated souls from bodies.

Shen Hui returned to the Soul-Searching Gourd, mocked Shouyuan and Mao Yong, and tricked Shouyuan into giving him his birth characters. When Liu Mengshu arrived, Shen Hui claimed to be Shouyuan's ancient fellow disciple and Liu Mengshu's ancestor, leaving Shouyuan furious.

• Shen Hui returned to the gourd and told Mao Yong that he could come and go because the place was like his mother's home.
• Shen Hui taunted Shouyuan about Soul Crossing Temple's decline and used Mao Yong to challenge Shouyuan's claims about the sect.
• Mao Yong mocked Shouyuan for wearing ordinary disciple robes, while Shouyuan refused to believe Shen Hui's offer to let him leave.
• Shouyuan gave Shen Hui his birth characters, but Shen Hui admitted he had been lying and walked away laughing.
• Liu Mengshu appeared in the gourd, and Shen Hui claimed to be Shouyuanzi, an ancient Golden Core True Person and Liu Mengshu's ancestor.
• Shen Hui told Liu Mengshu to pay respects to Shouyuan, whom he called his ancestor's fellow cultivator, and Shouyuan burst into curses.

Shuangling consumed the Crimson Yin Great Pills and crystals, dismissing Youjing’s objections about their origins and karmic cost. Shen Hui entered Yanluo Valley’s underground cavern, confirmed the women there could not be saved, and used Water Spirit to kill them and destroy the blood sac’s hold over them.

• Shuangling seized control from Youjing and ate the Crimson Yin Great Pill, arguing that he bore no responsibility for its creation and could put the dead mortals’ deaths to use.
• Shuangling swallowed more pills and crystals, then said he would level Yanluo Valley and find its Ascension Register to retrieve Liu Mengshu from the gourd.
• Shen Hui descended into the underground cavern with White Skeleton and silently killed the Plague Emperor Sect disciple guarding the stairs.
• Shen Hui inspected the women on the stone platforms and found that their minds were gone and they could not be saved.
• Shen Hui sent Water Spirit into the blood sac, whose lightning surged through the flesh tubes and killed all three hundred women, leaving their faces finally at peace.

Shen Hui destroyed the blood sac, collected the bead left behind, and reunited with Lu Huan. He then summoned Shouyuan and the other souls into tiny stone bodies, planning to show them the ruined county and eventually restore their real bodies.

• Shen Hui burned the fallen blood sac to ashes and collected the blood-red bead it left behind.
• Shen Hui found Lu Huan riding the stone man as it crushed walking corpses, then led them to a nearby storeroom.
• Shen Hui summoned the Nether Essence and discovered that his cultivation points had increased and the Grand Simplicity Yin Wind Soul-Seizing Edict had appeared on his panel.
• Shen Hui summoned Shouyuan into a fist-sized stone man and told him that the people of Yuanqiu County had been murdered.
• Shen Hui gave his fellow disciples tiny stone bodies, then invited them to come outside and see the world as it was now.

Shen Hui brought the little stone people out of the gourd, and Lu Huan delightedly recognized the Clear Wind Temple disciples and helped the elders explore the street. While gathering clothes, food, and wine, Shen Hui showed Lu Huan umbrellas and explained that they kept off the rain.

• Shen Hui emerged with a crowd of little stone people, and Lu Huan recognized the Clear Wind Temple disciples among them.
• Jinghui introduced Lu Huan to the unfamiliar stone elders, and Lu Huan carefully placed them in the large stone man's palm.
• Lu Huan led the stone people down the street to look at the walking corpses while Shen Hui searched nearby shops.
• Shen Hui collected clothes, children's garments, wine, and preserved food and stored them in the gourd.
• Shen Hui inspected umbrellas in the shop, and Lu Huan learned that they were used to keep off the rain.

Shen Hui and Lu Huan traveled toward Yanluo Valley after Shen Hui recovered Shou Yuan from a walking corpse and returned him to the gourd. From a cliff overlooking the valley, Shen Hui watched the mist and told Lu Huan that it was going to rain.

• Lu Huan chose a small cat-painted umbrella at Shen Hui's suggestion that rain might come, and carried it herself.
• Shen Hui discovered Shou Yuan was missing, found him trapped inside a walking corpse, and returned him to the gourd.
• Shen Hui and Lu Huan traveled through the miasma toward Yanluo Valley, with the stone man carrying Lu Huan.
• Shen Hui climbed to a cliffside platform and surveyed the Plague Emperor Sect's old lair below.
• Lu Huan asked what Shen Hui was doing as he sat watching the valley, and he replied that it was going to rain.

A sudden, unnaturally cold rain fell over Yanluo Valley through the night. Director Zhou and Deputy Director Qiu discovered the next morning that the disciples and stewards had died in their sleep, and identified cold poison as the cause.

• A violent rainstorm broke over Yanluo Valley, and an Alchemy Room steward briefly thought a raindrop in his palm looked like a tiny carp.
• The rain continued through the night as disciples and an Alchemy Room steward fell asleep, while no one suspected danger.
• Director Zhou and Deputy Director Qiu left the Alchemy Room the next morning and noticed the temple was unnaturally quiet.
• Director Zhou and Deputy Director Qiu found twenty-nine dead disciples and seven dead stewards, all wearing peaceful smiles.
• Director Zhou and Deputy Director Qiu examined Deputy Director Xu and determined that cold poison had struck his heart and killed him.

Shen Hui confronted Director Zhou and Deputy Director Qiu in Yanluo Valley and killed them with techniques that controlled rain, water, and fire. After collecting their storage bags, he summoned White Skeleton and comprehended the killing move Hidden Scales Enter Dreams.

• Shen Hui arrived beneath an umbrella and confronted Director Zhou and Deputy Director Qiu about the takeover of the valley.
• Shen Hui used Yin Water Thunder to strike both men, killing Deputy Director Qiu and wounding Director Zhou.
• Director Zhou summoned a Plague Ghost and a giant claw formed from the valley’s miasma to attack Shen Hui.
• Shen Hui turned the rain into fire, burned away the Plague Ghost and miasma claw, and killed Director Zhou with water and fire.
• Shen Hui took both men’s storage bags, summoned White Skeleton, and comprehended Hidden Scales Enter Dreams.

Shen Hui scavenged the Taoist temple in Yanluo Valley, collecting valuables and destroying its evil manuals. After finding the sect roster, he summoned Liu Mengshu’s soul, who realized that the valley and his home had been destroyed.

• Shen Hui searched the temple rooms, taking valuables and useful items from corpses and cabinets.
• Shen Hui burned the Five Plagues Procession Diagram and collected the gold and silver hidden in the leader’s chamber.
• Shen Hui inventoried the storehouse, kept useful supplies, and burned the manuals describing evil cultivation practices.
• Shen Hui memorized the Corpse Register Manual and read the Ascension Register, finding Liu Shang’s entry under the Daoist name Mengshu.
• Shen Hui summoned Liu Mengshu’s soul, and Liu Mengshu recognized Yanluo Valley and saw that it had been stripped and destroyed.

Shen Hui questioned Liu Mengshu about the Plague Emperor Sect, its Plague God Gu, and the origins of Corpse Baleful Intent. Liu Mengshu revealed how the sect had expanded and explained several magical artifacts, leaving Shen Hui examining a Spirit-Gathering Cup.

• Shen Hui told Liu Mengshu that all thirty-nine people in Yanluo Valley had been killed and urged him to value his surviving true spirit.
• Liu Mengshu reported that several sect members sent to Yongchang Commandery had died or disappeared, and explained how the sect used Plague God Gu eggs to track their survival.
• Liu Mengshu described the Plague God Gu's cultivation benefits, oath-enforcing danger, and immunity to corpse Baleful Intent and pestilent poison.
• Liu Mengshu explained that Corpse Baleful Intent created walking corpses that absorbed spiritual energy to form Baleful Crystals, and admitted the sect spread plague largely without concern for its victims.
• Liu Mengshu said the Plague God Gu had enabled the sect's recent expansion and identified Shen Hui's artifacts, including the Nine-Orifice Yin Gourd, Corpse-Skin Bag, and Spirit-Gathering Cup.