Recaps

Shen Le extracted spiritual liquid from the Brush Pot, shared it with the household spirits, and entrusted Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant with the Secret Realm supplies. As he struggled to finish restoring the Brush Pot, Ah Lu caught two foreign spies surveilling his residence, and Shen Le remained too exhausted by his carving work to celebrate.

• Shen Le coaxed the Brush Pot into filling jade bottles with condensed spiritual energy and shared the liquid among the household spirits, strengthening Little Puppet and Ah Lu.
• Shen Le gave the Secret Realm ingredients to the landlady of Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant to sort and distribute, then returned to work on restoring the Brush Pot's carvings.
• The Scroll and Silk Skirts helped Shen Le revise the Brush Pot's design, while a black-haired woman and a brown-haired man secretly monitored his residence and installed cameras.
• Ah Lu's roots seized the brown-haired spy after he installed the cameras, and authorities arrested him while Ah Lu threatened him into confessing.
• Ah Lu told Shen Le that he had caught two spies and demanded a reward, but Shen Le lamented that he still could not finish carving the Brush Pot.

Shen Le learned that foreign ability users had targeted his home, so he arranged with the Special Affairs Bureau and nearby cultivators to recognize Ah Lu's control of the town as his territory. He practiced jade carving under Lu Zicheng's guidance and began repairing the brush pot, leaving the work so absorbed that he missed the start of the banquet.

• Ah Lu told Shen Le it had caught an intruder and offered to guard the town in exchange for more spiritual liquid, but Shen Le refused to give it any yet.
• Gu Yulin warned Shen Le that foreign ability users had entered the country, targeted him, and installed surveillance cameras near his home.
• Shen Le consulted the Landlady, who explained that powerful cultivators could claim their homes as territory, and he proposed discussing the plan with the Special Affairs Bureau and nearby cultivators over a banquet.
• Shen Le promised Ah Lu responsibility for the town's security once the arrangements were settled, then began practicing jade carving with Lu Zicheng's instruction.
• Shen Le quickly carved several jade pieces and started restoring the brush pot, but he became so absorbed in the work that he entered meditation and missed the banquet's start.

While Shen Le remained unknowingly absorbed in meditation, the supernatural residents welcomed his plan to make Zhuxi Town his territory and asked about renting homes and working with his spiritual produce. Shen Le relived the Brush Pot’s creation and saw its spirit figures prepare to accompany a child, while their commander chose to remain behind and go to war.

• The landlady announced that Shen Le wanted to make Zhuxi Town his territory, and the diners kept eating while she waited for him to arrive.
• A Cat Demon asked to rent a room for a yoga studio, and other supernatural residents also lined up to rent homes and register with Gu Yulin and Zhang Bingxin.
• The residents supported Shen Le’s protection of the town and asked the landlady to inquire about jobs, seeds, and young spirit fish.
• Shen Le unknowingly experienced the Brush Pot’s creation, as a sculptor carved it and a deity filled it with incense offerings.
• The deity told the clay figures that they could enter the Brush Pot and accompany a child, while the commander and several others chose to stay and fight the barbarians.

Shen Le watched the Mountain God gather divine statues, demons, and spirits to escort Miss Li to her wedding, while many of them fought and died defending a town from Tatar invaders. Miss Li married the young general in a mountain fortress and began treating its soldiers, as the story ended with the fortress under siege.

• The Mountain God offered the temple's demons and spirits a choice to join the fight against the Tatars, follow Miss Li, or leave, and they divided among those paths.
• The Mountain God turned the clay procession into living people and escorted Miss Li from her village, where she recognized the temple's divine generals and officials.
• The Mountain God and the spirits attacked Tatar soldiers who had entered a county town, buying time for townspeople to flee as the defenders repeatedly possessed corpses and charged.
• The procession traveled through the mountains and entered the groom's home openly, where Miss Li married the young martial general and the escort left her with her dowry.
• Miss Li settled in the mountain fortress and worked as a physician; when the enemy besieged it in her second month there, she treated the wounded while her husband and the other commanders fought on the walls.

As the Tatars besieged the stronghold, A-Jie and his pregnant wife endured the long fight with help from her clay-figure spirits. When the Tatar Khan arrived in July, the spirits sacrificed themselves to guide a catapult stone toward him, and the chapter ends as they cheered that they had hit him.

• A-Jie used a demon ghost to scout enemy positions, then warned his wife that a Tatar invasion of three hundred thousand troops was approaching.
• A-Jie's wife refused to leave the stronghold, and she summoned the clay figures to transport medicinal herbs through the enemy encirclement.
• The stronghold survived the rainy season and summer heat, but relief forces suffered repeated defeats and failed to arrive.
• A-Jie returned to the walls despite his wounds as the Tatar Khan personally oversaw the assault, and his wife proposed using the spirits to guide a catapult stone.
• The military spirits gathered around the stone sphere and pushed it toward the Tatar Khan, cheering that they had hit him.

Shen Le witnessed the Brush Pot’s memories of the spirits’ sacrifice and the victory that killed the Tatar Khan, then freed the awakened artifact from the lathe. As the Brush Pot and its clay figures learned how much time had passed, an angry voice revealed that Japanese pirates had attacked recently.

• In the Brush Pot’s memory, the spirits sacrificed themselves to strip away the Tatar Khan’s protection, and golden light from the land scattered the enemy’s military aura and saved the spirits that remained.
• The Tatar forces retreated after the Khan was injured, and Shen Le realized the battle had ended in a great victory.
• Back in the Studio, Shen Le found the Brush Pot’s carving perfectly restored and stopped it from thrashing in the lathe clamp.
• The Brush Pot challenged Shen Le’s version of the slogan, and Lan Zhuang laughed while showing it scenes of history from the Battle of Yamen through the founding of New China.
• Shen Le restrained the Brush Pot and clay figures with his hair and the Bronze Seal, then listened as the Brush Pot recounted how they had weakened and forgotten the world over the centuries.
• The Brush Pot celebrated the peaceful age, but an indignant voice protested that Japanese pirates had attacked it just days earlier.

Shen Le negotiated an expanded alert perimeter and potential rentals for his properties, then passed Cloud Kun’s demand for revenge to the Special Affairs Bureau. The Bureau arranged a naval exercise as a first step toward a larger operation, and Shen Le joined Cloud Kun’s vessel as the group headed south and tested the newly awakened Brush Pot’s abilities.

• Shen Le calmed the little ones’ uproar about Japanese Pirates and hurried to Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant to meet the demons and cultivators.
• Shen Le and Gu Yulin won the neighbors’ approval to expand the alert perimeter, and Gu Yulin offered to help rent out Shen Le’s houses to the eager tenants.
• Shen Le told Gu Yulin that Cloud Kun and the other little ones wanted to attack the Japanese Pirates, so the Special Affairs Bureau arranged a sea exercise to study detection methods before discussing revenge.
• Cloud Kun agreed to take part after hearing that a joint exercise in the West might provide a chance to strike a greater target.
• Shen Le and the little ones traveled south aboard Cloud Kun’s vessel, where the Brush Pot linked the ship to ley lines but struggled to maintain the connection.

Shen Le successfully tested teleporting Cloud Kun and its crew, then joined a naval exercise to test the vessel’s stealth. After a powerful search nearly exposed Cloud Kun, Shen Le used the Copper Fragment to help it blend into the ocean, but the ship eventually surfaced among the fleet.

• Shen Le led a successful teleportation trial that moved Cloud Kun and its crew 12.5 kilometers, then continued testing the ability under different conditions.
• Cloud Kun shrank to evade detection while traveling toward the joint exercise, though its speed fell sharply at its smallest size.
• Shen Le sensed powerful scanning near the exercise area and told Cloud Kun to stop manipulating the currents and blend in naturally.
• Shen Le pressed the Copper Fragment against a wooden table, enveloping himself, Cloud Kun, and the surrounding water in its ripples.
• The Temple Keeper and search teams from the Special Affairs Bureau, Mazu Temple, the Maoshan Sect, and Guoqing Temple lost their signals and failed to locate Cloud Kun.
• As the agreed time approached, Cloud Kun emerged from the waves and appeared among the fleet.

Cloud Kun and Qing Deng tested their abilities during a naval exercise, learning to disguise the ship and disable enemy vessels without destroying their electronics. After successfully capturing an unmanned target and sending a signal from it, Shen Le prepared to coordinate with the fleet and try to bring back another big black fish.

• Cloud Kun surfaced during the exercise, then dove to avoid foreign surveillance as the fleet began its live-fire training.
• Qing Deng’s lightning dissipated in the seawater, and Cloud Kun escaped the exercise forces’ targeting by imitating a fish.
• Cloud Kun ambushed an unmanned vessel, disabled its electronics, and dragged it more than a hundred li away, but Shen Le warned it to attack from farther away and preserve the equipment.
• Shen Le and the experts helped Cloud Kun practice imitating tuna while Qing Deng worked on controlling a ship’s electronics through a new device.
• Cloud Kun and Qing Deng captured another unmanned vessel intact and made it signal the fleet, after which Shen Le proposed contacting the rear and preparing another deep-sea capture.

Shen Le and Cloud Kun joined a military operation to capture an unacknowledged submarine during a joint exercise by Western Power and Japan. After days of reconnaissance, they seized the submarine and brought it to the surface beside a waiting destroyer, where the crew found themselves surrounded by warships and helicopters.

• Shen Le agreed with the Shanghai Special Affairs Bureau on Cloud Kun’s range and planned to use it during the joint exercise near Ryukyu.
• Shen Le, Cloud Kun, and the Mazu Temple Keeper boarded the electronic reconnaissance ship and discussed the plan to target a concealed submarine after the exercise.
• Shen Le and Cloud Kun waited aboard the ship as they monitored vessels and aircraft, eventually identifying a suitable Big Black Fish.
• Shen Le teleported Cloud Kun and the Brush Pot to a position beneath the submarine, where Little Oil Lamp took control and Cloud Kun dragged it toward the destroyer.
• The submarine surfaced after its crew heard active sonar strikes, and they found helicopters and warships surrounding them.

Shen Le and the military planned to use Cloud Kun to capture an undisclosed submarine during a joint US-Japan exercise, while keeping the operation covert. Cloud Kun and Shen Le seized the submarine and forced it to surface beside a Chinese destroyer, where the waiting fleet confronted it.

• Shen Le told the Shanghai Special Affairs Bureau that Cloud Kun could reach the waters around Ryukyu, and they planned to use a nearby reconnaissance ship to approach exercise targets.
• Shen Le, Cloud Kun, and the Mazu Temple Keeper boarded an electronic reconnaissance ship and agreed to wait until the military exercise ended before targeting an undisclosed submarine.
• After days of surveillance, Shen Le teleported Cloud Kun and the Brush Pot toward a submarine they had identified and confirmed was not one of their own vessels.
• Cloud Kun and Little Oil Lamp disrupted the submarine, causing it to lose depth and drift until the crew regained control and heard sonar striking the hull.
• The submarine surfaced to find helicopters overhead and warships surrounding it, while a Chinese ship challenged it for entering territorial waters.

Shen Le told the Special Affairs Bureau that a vague but growing supernatural warning required him to investigate Ryukyu, despite the danger of approaching the area after the recent exercise. The director secured a discreet cruise-ship opportunity for him, and Shen Le considered going aboard the Adora Magic City in half a month.

• Ah Lu demanded classified underground blueprints, but the director explained that the bureau could not obtain them, and Shen Le calmed the tree demon with a promise of spiritual liquid.
• Shen Le asked to visit the site of the exercise, explaining that activating his teleportation there had given him a dangerous feeling that foretold a terrible disaster.
• The director questioned Shen Le about the possible disaster and urged him to delay his trip, but Shen Le said the warning and the Copper Fragment's growing signal made waiting difficult.
• Shen Le agreed to wait for the director's report, and three days later the director proposed a cruise aboard the Adora Magic City that would dock in Ryukyu for twelve hours.
• Shen Le worried that the cruise was half a month away, but the director offered him a reimbursed panoramic suite and a discreet way to travel under his real or a false identity.

Shen Le learned disguise techniques from a makeup artist, while Lan Zhuang repeatedly transformed him and his companions into different looks. After taking the little ones around the cruise ship for two days, Shen Le finally began meditating as the ship reached port and sensed something strange.

• A makeup artist taught Shen Le how makeup, padding, and altered gaits could disguise him, but Lan Zhuang used its powers to apply makeup and repeatedly cross-dress him.
• Shen Le tested Lan Zhuang's disguise on cameras and packed fingerprint stickers and voice changers before boarding the cruise ship with his companions.
• Shen Le began meditating in his cabin, but his companions grew eager to explore the ship and nearly left the room on their own.
• Shen Le packed the companions into a backpack and took them around the ship's theaters, restaurants, shops, and water park for two days.
• When the ship docked at the harbor, Shen Le resumed meditation and sensed something unusual.

Shen Le investigated new detection stakes on Ryukyu Island and discovered that a rupture in the barrier between heaven and earth was releasing wild spiritual energy into the sea. As aquatic creatures mutated around the breach, he followed the Copper Fragment’s urgent signal and set out with Cloud Kun to find and repair it.

• Shen Le sent Qing Deng to map the detection stakes, then used the map to explore Ryukyu Island while avoiding the devices.
• At Shuri Castle, Shen Le sensed that Ryukyu’s old spiritual power had nearly vanished and that a hostile force was breeding fear, anger, and sorrow.
• After searching the island and finding no source for his unease, Shen Le took Cloud Kun east into the sea, where the spiritual energy grew stronger.
• Shen Le found a breach in the Sky Curtain near the Ryukyu Islands, where wild energy transformed or killed sea creatures.
• Cloud Kun warned Shen Le that the creatures would become monstrosities, and Shen Le followed the Copper Fragment’s signal toward the dangerous breach to repair it.

Shen Le and Cloud Kun reached a massive breach in the barrier between the supernatural world and reality, where an undersea volcano threatened to erupt. As Shen Le struggled to repair it, attackers dropped a depth charge, and he retaliated by sinking their submarine to harvest metal-element power for the repair.

• Cloud Kun carried Shen Le toward the breach as he sensed an undersea volcano and a dangerous force pressing against the damaged barrier.
• Shen Le began mending the barrier, but an impact from beyond it tore through his repairs; he captured a golden-red winged fish with the Copper Fragment and continued patching the breach with elemental Talismans.
• Shen Le stabilized the barrier by directing seawater, earthfire, and seabed forces, but he still lacked enough metal- and wood-element power to complete the repair.
• Cloud Kun warned Shen Le of a depth charge, and Qing Deng identified a Japanese ship group that had attacked while investigating spiritual-energy fluctuations.
• Shen Le ordered Little Oil Lamp to sink the submarine; Cloud Kun dragged it toward the undersea volcano, and the Copper Fragment extracted metal-element power from its hull for the barrier repairs.

Shen Le repaired the damaged barrier by completing its Five Elements Talisman, then absorbed the Copper Fragment’s feedback and used the same method to strengthen the talismans on his golden orb. After finding another piece of the Bronze Tripod, he left with Cloud Kun, planning to unload their salvaged cargo at a military port.

• Shen Le fed wood-element power into the barrier using nearby sea plants and spiritual liquid, while Cloud Kun and the others offered themselves as substitutes.
• A colossal tree sent azure light into the barrier, allowing Shen Le to stabilize and connect the five elemental Talismans as the Special Affairs Bureau director searched for him in Shanghai.
• Shen Le and Cloud Kun scavenged the wreck of the Big Black Fish, and the Copper Fragment flooded Shen Le with power that he used to join his own Talismans into a larger Five Elements formation.
• Cloud Kun retrieved a golden fragment from the seabed, and it joined the Copper Fragment to form another leg of the Bronze Tripod.
• Shen Le told Cloud Kun to take their salvaged cargo to a military port, where he planned to trade it for spiritwood, instruments, and other supplies.

Cloud Kun returned to the military harbor with Shen Le and a damaged, unidentified foreign submarine, prompting an anxious inspection and unloading operation. Cloud Kun then demanded a nuclear-powered engine to increase its power, leaving the commander unable to dissuade it and ready to pass the problem to his superiors.

• Cloud Kun resurfaced at the military harbor after days out of contact, carrying parts from an unidentified big black fish and other salvaged items.
• Shen Le told the Shanghai Special Affairs Bureau director that the big black fish had no identifying number and that a warship and research vessel had been nearby.
• Cloud Kun revealed that it had crushed parts that might include an engine and had drained metal-element power from the vessel, so the officials ordered careful radiation checks and handling.
• Paper figures and Mud Figurines unloaded the salvaged equipment while Shen Le let them work and promised them a treat afterward.
• Cloud Kun asked for a nuclear-powered engine, explaining that it needed more power, while the commander warned that such an engine might not fit or work safely in a wooden ship.
• Cloud Kun insisted on getting an engine and suggested towing another big black fish if it needed more contribution points, so the commander fled to report the demand to his superiors.

Shen Le helped Cloud Kun arrange a spiritwood expansion and a spatially isolated engine room, while Zhong Xiaomei awakened as an Artifact Spirit and began constructing the compartment. The renovation was underway when Shen Le’s advisor called to say something had happened.

• A naval commander reported another Japanese black submarine had sunk and suspected East University might have caused it, prompting reports to the CIA and S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Shen Le proposed that Cloud Kun enlarge himself with spiritwood before installing a powerful engine, and Cloud Kun agreed to grow a dedicated compartment.
• Zhong Xiaomei revealed herself as the brush pot’s Artifact Spirit and provided a materials list for a spatially isolated engine room.
• Paper people and Mud Figurines delivered the supplies and began building the compartment inside Cloud Kun, while Zhong Xiaomei indicated the method could not be used on other ships.
• Shen Le received a call from his advisor, who said something had happened and asked him to come take a look.

Shen Le rushed to Coral Tree City after his advisor reported that several students had disappeared amid strange events at an ancient-building restoration site. He reached the site and learned that two students had apparently vanished into a shallow, solid-bottomed well, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• Shen Le packed to help his advisor, while his magical companions insisted on joining him and Cloud Kun offered to carry him to Coral Tree City.
• Shen Le contacted local temple keepers, who ruled out Yin evil, demons, and ghosts, then teleported to Mount Qingyuan and met a Special Affairs Bureau driver.
• Shen Le found his exhausted advisor and learned that strange incidents had begun thirteen days earlier, including blood appearing in the well and water, and frightening sounds at night.
• Shen Le and the others watched surveillance footage showing two students walk to the well after working late and seemingly jump inside.
• Shen Le examined the well as investigators reported that it was less than three meters deep and that solid ground beneath it left no room for the missing students.

Shen Le investigated the disappearance of his junior brother and sister at the Old Mansion, but found no ghosts, water-vein disturbance, or underground passage. He discovered that the mansion overlapped with an illusory residence and eventually crossed into a strange world, where he spotted people ahead.

• Shen Le reassured Professor Han, sent her to rest with his junior brothers, and began searching the Old Mansion with the Special Affairs Bureau.
• Little Oil Lamp and Cloud Kun found no ghosts or water-vein disturbance, while Zhong Xiaomei sensed that the house was somehow not itself.
• Shen Le searched beneath the mansion and found no explanation, then used his traversal Talisman to test the strange overlap, repeatedly overshooting his destinations.
• By teleporting carefully between rooms and the courtyard, Shen Le discovered an illusory ancient residence layered over the real mansion.
• After repeated attempts, Shen Le entered a different world and called out to the people ahead, wondering if they were his missing junior brother and sister.

Huang Chuxia and Ma Xuanyu became trapped in a strange version of an old residence until Shen Le found them and used his supernatural artifacts to escape with them. He placed Huang Chuxia in a bridal sedan chair and Ma Xuanyu in a coffin, and the group arrived in a desolate wilderness.

• Huang Chuxia and Ma Xuanyu wandered the residence, unable to find an exit or contact anyone by phone.
• Shen Le chased the frightened pair through the mist, drove it back with Little Oil Lamp, and proved his identity with photos and messages.
• Shen Le fed the junior disciples and summoned the Mud Figurines, then learned how to use their procession to carry people safely.
• Shen Le put Huang Chuxia inside the cramped bridal sedan chair and told Ma Xuanyu to lie in the protective coffin.
• Shen Le activated the procession and transported the group to a desolate wilderness.

Shen Le brought Junior Martial Brother Ma and Junior Sister Huang back from the haunted realm, where both discovered unexplained marks that Elder Daoqing identified as harmless obsessions. After learning the marks meant they should avoid whatever had marked them, Shen Le offered to help investigate the Old Mansion so the restoration project could continue.

• Shen Le released Junior Martial Brother Ma and brought the wedding procession’s Mud Figurines back into the Brush Pot while the group waited for a pickup on the southern coast.
• Junior Sister Huang discovered a red mark around her neck, and the Special Affairs Bureau drove the group back to Coral Tree City.
• The Temple Keeper and several cultivators examined Huang Chuxia’s mark, and Elder Daoqing identified it as a nonmalicious obsession; Ma Xuanyu then found a similar mark on his chest.
• Professor Han weighed whether to suspend the Old Mansion restoration after Elder Daoqing warned the marked people to stay away from whatever had marked them.
• Shen Le offered to join the restoration project and asked Professor Han for the Old Mansion’s historical and inheritance records.

Shen Le inspected the Huang clan’s old ancestral hall and discovered that its women’s hall held deep, enduring sorrow and resentment. After an offering from the clan’s ancestral shrine failed to change anything, he decided to travel through time to investigate the hall’s past.

• Huang Chuxia sent Shen Le the mansion records, which showed that the residence was mostly Ming Dynasty but retained Song Dynasty foundations and components.
• Shen Le went alone to the worksite and examined the three courtyards, sensing that the ancestral hall’s altar held a powerful connection to the place that had swallowed his junior brothers and sisters.
• Shen Le discovered that the rear courtyard was a separate women’s hall, where accumulated sorrow and resentment gathered around a beam beneath which women had apparently lived in widowhood.
• The cultivators explained that the resentment would not harm anyone, and Elder Daoqing brought incense offerings from the Huang clan’s ancestral shrine, but the offering had no effect.
• Shen Le decided to travel through time again to investigate the ancestral hall’s past.

Shen Le explored the Dark Ancient Residence, documented its Song-era features, and returned safely to discuss how to deal with it with Professor Han. He agreed to help restore the residence, with work set to begin after the next day’s rest.

• Shen Le teleported into the Dark Ancient Residence, discovered that its boundary opened onto a perilous void, and found that he could not fly inside it.
• Shen Le explored the residence, noted its changed layout and furnishings, and used a Scanner and camera to document its features before teleporting back after twenty-four hours.
• Professor Han worried over Shen Le’s return and studied his photographs and 3D scan, but concluded that the evidence was insufficient to justify restoring the residence that way.
• Shen Le demonstrated the powers of Little Oil Lamp and the Brush Pot, convincing Professor Han that he could help protect the restoration team.
• Shen Le agreed to assist Professor Han with the restoration, and she gave him documents to read before their work began.

Shen Le and Professor Han examined the Dark Ancient Residence’s bloodstains and discovered evidence that someone had been killed there by a barrage of arrows. After specialized Scanners revealed the victim’s lingering memory of a Mongol attack, Shen Le began investigating the massacre and how to restore the residence.

• Shen Le and Professor Han traced bloodstains on a beam and identified marks suggesting someone had been killed and pinned to a pillar by numerous arrows.
• Shen Le’s ordinary Scanners burned out in the ancient residence, so Gu Yulin arranged for the Special Affairs Bureau to provide a modified model.
• Shen Le used the modified Scanner to reveal a human-shaped depression and blood trails on the pillar, then touched it and experienced a memory of Mongol soldiers charging into the ancestral hall.
• Shen Le recognized the attackers as Mongol soldiers and recalled that Coral Tree City had fallen to the Yuan army, which had massacred people there.
• Shen Le exported the Scanner’s recording, and the teachers and students discussed investigating the well and restoring the ancient residence.