Recaps

Shen Le and the envoys from the Western Regions endured a perilous journey across deserts and mountains toward Chang'an. After reaching Uyghur territory, they were confined to a remote camp and left waiting for the Khagan’s permission to continue.

• Shen Le joined the assembled envoys from Khotan, Kucha, Yanqi, and Kashgar and carried military dispatches and salvaged soldiers’ letters eastward.
• Shen Le and the convoy crossed the Heavenly Mountain, endured thirst and harsh weather, and reached the Northern Court Protectorate, where Cao Lingzhong received them.
• The Northern Court contingent joined the journey, and Shen Le crossed the icy Altai Mountains with the group as they struggled through the wilderness toward Chang'an.
• A young nephew of Cao Lingzhong asked whether they would ever see Chang'an, and Shen Le described the city to the soldiers gathered around the campfire.
• Uyghur cavalry escorted the envoys to a remote camp and ordered them to wait for the Khagan, leaving Shen Le worried as the cold deepened and their supplies dwindled.

After a year-long journey, Shen Le and the surviving soldiers from the Western Regions reached Chang'an and attended an audience in Hanyuan Hall, where the Emperor praised and rewarded them. The court offered no clear promise of reinforcements, leaving Guo Xian desperate and Shen Le wondering how titles and gifts could help them fight the Tibetan Empire.

• Shen Le and the surviving envoys arrived in Chang'an after a grueling journey, then waited several days while court officials verified their identities and taught them etiquette.
• Shen Le entered Hanyuan Hall for the imperial audience and focused on observing and memorizing its architecture while an official read the envoys' report.
• The Emperor wept over the loyalty of the Western Regions' defenders, argued with ministers, and personally helped the soldiers to their feet.
• The court appointed Guo Xin Grand Protector-General of Anxi and Prince of Wuwei, renamed Cao Lingzhong Li Yuanzhong and made him Prince of Ningse, and promoted the Anxi officers and soldiers seven ranks.
• Guo Xian searched the ministries for answers about reinforcements but received no firm commitments, while Shen Le urged him to have the soldiers' letters delivered home.
• Shen Le saw the court's princely robes, seals, gold belts, and helmets arrive and doubted that the rewards could help them defeat the Tibetan Empire.

Shen Le returned to Professor Han to learn architectural surveying and drawing after seeing Hanyuan Hall in an armor’s memories, then spent two months training under her. Back home, he restored a spear and discovered a ruined saber hidden in its shaft, while the poplar wood grew unruly and Little Ink Marker offered to shave it into shape.

• Shen Le called Professor Han to ask for extra lessons, and she rushed to meet him after learning he had seen Hanyuan Hall in an armor’s memories.
• Shen Le described Hanyuan Hall while Professor Han sketched it, then agreed to train in estimating measurements and drawing architecture despite knowing his work could not be treated as academic evidence.
• Shen Le worked as Professor Han’s assistant for two months, learning to measure buildings by eye and memorize architectural details, before she sent him home to practice on his own.
• Shen Le tried to revisit Daming Palace through the restored armor and boots, but learned that their memories could not be replayed, so he began restoring the spear instead.
• Shen Le found a ruined saber concealed inside the spear shaft and struggled to restore the brittle poplar wood, eventually identifying its species and using nutrient solution and spells to regrow it.
• Shen Le used the Copper Fragment to force the poplar shaft to grow straight, revealing several names branded on it, but the wood began growing leaves again, and Little Ink Marker offered to shave it down.

Shen Le investigated the shattered Tang saber fragments, identified which pieces belonged together, and began planning to reforge the weapon with Professor Zhang’s help. The fragments rejected a spring-steel blade blank and demanded that Shen Le forge them himself, leaving him to face the task of hand-forging a saber.

• Shen Le measured and analyzed the saber fragments, then asked Professor Zhang and Alloy Master to identify their metallurgical structures.
• Professor Zhang recognized the fragments as potentially belonging to a rare Tang battle saber and visited Shen Le’s laboratory with Alloy Master.
• Shen Le resonated with the fragments and arranged them into the saber’s original shape, while Professor Zhang explained that ordinary restoration could not make the shattered weapon whole.
• Shen Le decided to reforge the saber, and the fragments reacted most strongly to a proposed combination of spring steel, shell steel, and turbine-engine alloy.
• Shen Le followed Professor Zhang’s instructions to forge a spring-steel blade blank, but the fragments rejected it and insisted that Shen Le hammer them into a blade himself.

Shen Le forged a Tang Modao with Professor Zhang’s guidance, shaping turbine steel with his supernatural abilities after discovering the Tang saber fragments wanted a weapon of that form. Once the completed weapon accepted the fragments and gained a handle, it immediately dragged Shen Le into a fierce battle.

• Professor Zhang taught Shen Le blacksmithing, and Shen Le forged a Tang horizontal saber blade blank that the Tang saber fragments rejected as too small and too thin.
• Professor Zhang designed and supplied a Modao replica, but the fragments could not communicate with it, so Shen Le forged successive blades until they approved the dimensions.
• Shen Le and Professor Zhang found they lacked the specialized furnace needed to melt turbine steel, so Shen Le used his fire, metal, and lightning abilities to heat and shape the turbine fragment without a hammer.
• Shen Le forged spring steel around the turbine-steel blade, used Metal-element magic to fuse the materials, and received the fragments’ approval to reside in the blade.
• Shen Le fitted the Modao with a guard and jujube-wood handle, after which it seized him and pulled him into a fierce battle.

Shen Le relived the defense of Khotan as an aging Tang soldier, fighting repeated sieges with the Mo Saber and discovering the weapon’s connection to the strange iron block. As Khotan’s defenders dwindled and the enemy gathered outside the walls, the general asked Shen Le to carry a message to the Grand Protector.

• Shen Le fought off waves of cavalry with a Mo Saber, which broke during his battle against an Iron Pagoda before a vision of his modern-forged saber let him strike the armored enemy down.
• After the battle, Shen Le learned that no replacement Mo Sabers remained, and the broken blade was smashed into pieces to be made into spearheads; he had some fragments welded into the iron block he recognized.
• Shen Le awoke to another siege and saw Han people among the enemy forces urging Khotan’s white-haired defenders to surrender.
• Shen Le endured repeated attacks over the following months as Khotan’s soldiers dwindled and enemy forces grew.
• The general summoned Shen Le and asked him to deliver a message to the Grand Protector because Khotan could not hold out much longer.

Shen Le received a roster of Khotan’s surviving Tang soldiers, their families, and Tang civilians, but its writing remained hidden in the armor’s memory. He crossed the desert toward Kucha alone after his companions died, and ended the chapter crawling onward with an infected leg so he could report that Khotan was about to fall.

• The Khotan general gave Shen Le a roster and asked him to deliver it to the Grand Protector, but Shen Le could not read its mist-shrouded pages.
• Shen Le set out across the desert with nine companions, and attacks, thirst, and the loss of their camels left him alone by the tenth day.
• Shen Le trudged onward, marking the dead on his belt and fighting off desert bandits who attacked him as he slept beside a fire.
• An arrow wounded Shen Le’s leg, and he killed or drove off his attackers before scavenging their coats and leather for warmth and protection.
• After twenty-two days, Shen Le’s infected wound left him crawling across the dunes, but he resolved to reach the desert’s edge and report Khotan’s impending fall.

After experiencing the modao’s memories of A-Li’s battles and final journey, Shen Le recovered by enjoying the sights and food of Nanhua Street. He returned home to find a lavish dinner waiting and prepared to exercise with the modao before eating it.

• Shen Le woke from the modao’s memories, calmed the blade, and told Professor Zhang he needed two days to rest.
• Shen Le startled Xiao Yu on Nanhua Street, then watched the evening crowds and reflected on the sacrifices that had made their peaceful lives possible.
• Shen Le toured the street eating a variety of snacks and felt his mood improve.
• Xiao Ling presented Shen Le with a large dinner sent by the landlady, and he used his cultivation to digest the food he had already eaten.
• Shen Le exercised, then went to the Studio to put on armor and swing the modao before dinner.

After recovering from the Iron Armor’s brutal battlefield illusion, Shen Le practiced artifact restoration by cleansing demonic energy from fragments supplied by Gu Yulin. Having improved his control, he turned to the corroded half-mirror, hoping to repair the Iron Armor and see Chang'an again.

• Shen Le spent half a month recovering from the illusion and found that his meditation and talisman-drawing had improved, though his murderous intent kept him away from others.
• Shen Le tried to make the Iron Armor show him Chang'an and Hanyuan Hall again, but it consumed his power without taking him back into the illusion.
• Shen Le examined the fragile, demonic-energy-saturated half-mirror and called Gu Yulin for corroded artifacts to practice restoring.
• Gu Yulin brought Shen Le four crates containing 137 contaminated artifact fragments, which Shen Le placed in his Studio.
• Shen Le practiced cleansing the fragments, learning to remove demonic energy while preserving their materials and spiritual energy.
• After half a month of practice, Shen Le finished cleaning the crates and began working on the ancient half-mirror, hoping its repair would complete the Iron Armor.

Shen Le restored the half bronze mirror and used Iron Armor and the modao to sense its missing half. After confirming the direction with the Scroll, the Compass, and the Special Affairs Bureau, he discovered that it was in LS, near the Potala Palace.

• Shen Le removed the demonic aura from the bronze mirror and restored its patterns and spirituality, but the mirror could not sense or communicate with its other half on its own.
• Shen Le fastened the mirror to Iron Armor and, after struggling to hear its resonance, swung the modao until he sensed the missing half's direction.
• Shen Le gathered Xiao Ling, Zheng Mo, Qing Deng, Lan Zhuang, Wedding Dress, and the other little ones to prepare to bring home the missing piece.
• Shen Le used his phone compass to estimate the direction and found that the line pointed southwest toward the Himalayas rather than Chang'an or Luoyang.
• Shen Le borrowed the Scroll and the Compass from Cloud Kun and asked the Special Affairs Bureau to pinpoint the location, confirming that the missing half was in LS, near the Potala Palace.

Shen Le postponed climbing the snow mountain to train his flight control in a wind tunnel, where he learned to command powerful winds. After mastering Force 10 gales and filling the tunnel with his controlled wind, he set off for the snowy mountains.

• Shen Le insisted on searching the snow mountain for the missing component of his Artifact Spirit, despite the dangerous weather and the Special Affairs Bureau officers' warnings.
• After a Drone was swept into the holy lake, Shen Le agreed to practice flying in a wind tunnel before attempting the climb.
• The Shanghai Special Affairs Bureau director arranged wind-tunnel access and warned Shen Le to train gradually and prioritize safety.
• Shen Le used his Talisman and mental power to control the wind, impressing the experts as he maneuvered against the gusts.
• After half a month of training, Shen Le flew freely through Force 10 gales and headed straight for the snowy mountains.

Shen Le climbed a snowy mountain with help from his artifacts and discovered he could sense unstable ice and control the snow. After the Bronze Mirror led him away from the main route, the awakened mountain carried him through the earth to an ice crevice near the other half of the mirror.

• Shen Le set out for the summit while the Special Affairs Bureau men loaded him with safety gear and his companions argued over how to protect him.
• Shen Le used his mental strength to detect dangerous ice and reached the 5,800-meter advance camp, where he made an ice shelter and entered Huang Yutong to rest.
• The next day, Shen Le followed the Bronze Mirror's resonance away from the main route toward a deep valley where the other half had fallen.
• Shen Le used the Copper Fragment to seek the mountain's help, and the mountain carried him through the earth to the bottom of an ice crevice.
• Shen Le sensed that the other half of the Bronze Mirror was only a few steps away.

Shen Le's attempt to reach the other half of the bronze mirror triggered a glacier collapse and revealed a colossal snow beast. After surviving the avalanche, he confronted the creature alone while the Special Affairs Bureau scrambled to identify him and decide how to help.

• Shen Le touched the ice wall, fought off its freezing mist, and used his mental power to make the surrounding ice tremble.
• Shen Le raised an ice shelter as the glacier shook and collapsed, carrying him downhill inside a tumbling cube of ice and snow.
• Two Special Affairs Bureau agents watched an enormous snow beast emerge from the avalanche and called for reinforcements.
• Shen Le dug out of the buried ice house, then rose into the snow beast's path and was nearly swept back under by its roar.
• The Special Affairs Bureau command center spotted Shen Le confronting the beast, but the commander refused to risk their Drones by bringing them closer.

Shen Le fought a giant snow-mountain beast that batted him through the air while he struggled to control the mountain winds. As he finally prepared to counterattack, his iron armor assembled itself around him and the modao drove him to raise his blade.

• Shen Le evaded an avalanche and used the Wind Talisman to steady himself in the mountain gale, but the beast struck him with its paw.
• The beast repeatedly batted Shen Le around, and he used the wind to survive and launch himself toward the mountaintop.
• Shen Le returned to the summit and slashed the beast, but realized his wind blade had only cut its cloudlike outer form.
• Little Oil Lamp urged Shen Le to fight, while Shen Le sensed that the beast might only be curiously poking at him rather than attacking with hostility.
• The modao flew into Shen Le's hand, and the armor pieces assembled themselves around him until he raised the blade and shouted, "Kill!!!"

Shen Le destroyed the snow-mountain beast, then resisted the ice mirror’s illusion of Chang’an with help from Qing Deng and Lan Zhuang. He found the other half of the Bronze Mirror and, after reaching it, was drawn into a vision of Chang’an.

• Shen Le killed the aberrant beast with one slash of his Modao, and the Special Affairs Bureau officials debated how dangerous he might be.
• The beast’s remains formed an ice mirror that showed Shen Le Chang’an and nearly pulled him into its illusion.
• Shen Le resonated with his armor to locate the other half of the Bronze Mirror, but Qing Deng and Lan Zhuang jolted him awake and reminded him of his present life.
• Shen Le charged the ice mirror, triggering a massive glacier collapse, then sensed the mirror half beneath the mountain.
• Shen Le followed a path through the ice to a cave, where he found the bronze mirror half and lifted it to his chest.
• The Iron Armor, Modao, and bronze mirror resonated together and drew Shen Le into a vision of Chang’an.

Shen Le attended a lavish banquet at General Li Sheng’s residence with the Anxi and Beiting envoys, where General Xiao Guo appealed for reinforcements after a poem exposed the frontier army’s desperate condition. General Xiao Guo told the soldiers to make their own plans in Chang'an, leaving Shen Le alarmed about what would happen to Anxi if they could not return.

• Shen Le followed the Anxi envoys to General Li Sheng’s residence and marveled at the aristocratic banquet and its elaborate dishes.
• Shen Le noticed General Xiao Guo growing troubled while the guests feasted and listened to poems.
• Scholar Xiao Dong recited verses about starving frontier soldiers, prompting General Xiao Guo and his men to beg General Li Sheng to arrange reinforcements for Anxi and Beiting.
• General Xiao Guo admitted that General Li Sheng was unlikely to help much and said Guo Ziyi’s death had left them without their former support.
• General Xiao Guo told the soldiers they could visit relatives and friends or seek ways to remain in the Central Plains, and Shen Le wondered what would become of Anxi if they did not return.

Shen Le chose to return to Anxi rather than stay with A-Li’s family, then followed A-Li’s son as he joined the army and watched the court’s hopes of reopening the Western Regions collapse. After a Daoist’s apparent magic inspired the young man to seek extraordinary power, he traveled to Zhongnan Mountain, where a beam of light appeared and someone asked if he wished to learn the sword.

• At Chang’an’s western gate, Shen Le refused his family’s pleas to stay, split the bronze mirror, and gave half to A-Li’s son.
• Shen Le followed A-Li’s son as he joined the army, but a crushing defeat and growing disorder made him despair of ever reaching the Western Regions.
• A fellow soldier took the drunken young man to Xuandu Abbey, where a Daoist made a withered tree blossom and bear pears.
• The young man begged the Daoist to take him as a disciple, but the Daoist directed him to Zhongnan Mountain to seek a sword immortal.
• The young man left his armor and official post and searched Zhongnan Mountain until a beam of light appeared and a voice asked if he wished to learn the sword.

Shen Le trained with the apes and an old swordmaster, then learned flying-sword techniques from an Immortal Master before the body’s original owner left to fight the Tibetans. The original owner turned toward the plateau to kill Tibetan nobles, and Shen Le regained control on a snowy mountain, wondering why he had to climb it.

• Shen Le followed the old ape into a ravine, where two young apes trained him until he defeated them after half a year.
• Shen Le climbed the cliff, fought off a giant bird and falling rocks, and earned the old ape’s instruction in breathing and lightness techniques.
• After another half year, Shen Le followed the old ape to a hidden pool and met an Immortal Master, who gave him a sword and taught him flying-sword skills.
• The young man left the mountain with a life-saving elixir and fought Tibetan soldiers, but realized his efforts could not reclaim the lost territories.
• The young man returned to Chang'an, crossed into Sichuan, and headed onto the plateau to kill Tibetan nobles and provoke internal chaos.
• Shen Le regained control of the body on a snowy mountain and questioned why he was climbing instead of taking a route around it.

Shen Le befriended the snow leopard Saqin Dorje after avenging its cub, then entered the Potala Palace to assassinate Tibetan Empire leaders. Inside, he encountered a powerful horned beast and ended the chapter riding on its back, preparing to stab it.

• Shen Le escaped a snow leopard’s attack on the mountain and learned it blamed him for the disappearance of its cub.
• Shen Le found the noble who had killed the cub, recovered its skull and teeth, and brought the culprit and pelts to the snow leopard.
• After the snow leopard avenged its cub, it thanked Shen Le and guided him toward Lhasa, promising to rescue him if he called its name.
• Saqin Dorje led Shen Le to the Potala Palace, where Shen Le entered at night and began killing Tibetan Empire nobles, warriors, and monks.
• A dark, powerful beast attacked Shen Le in the palace, but he seized its horns, climbed onto its back, and prepared to strike with his sword.

Shen Le fought his way toward the Tibetan Emperor but was killed when the Blood Venerable emerged from a bronze basin and charged him. The sword immortal intervened afterward, and Shen Le awoke from the illusion holding the reunited Bronze Mirror as the Western Regions returned.

• Shen Le fled the rampaging Blood Venerable and refused to let Saqin Dorje delay him, while the snow leopard followed and attacked the demon to protect him.
• Shen Le cut through the palace guards and charged the Tibetan Emperor, who summoned the Blood Venerable from a bronze basin using three calls.
• The Blood Venerable killed Shen Le and mortally wounded Saqin Dorje, after which Shen Le watched as a spirit outside his body.
• The sword immortal restored Shen Le's damaged sword, placed Saqin Dorje's spirit inside the Bronze Mirror, and burned their remains.
• The sword immortal wounded the Blood Venerable and bound its skeleton beneath the sacred lake, then left half the Bronze Mirror in a mountain valley.
• Shen Le awoke from the illusion with the two halves of the Bronze Mirror reunited, and the Western Regions returned.

After Shen Le restored the bronze mirror, a new snow leopard spirit awakened and departed, while his iron armor summoned a final companion from near the plateau capital. The summoned flying sword reached Shen Le, leaving him to wonder whether it belonged to a sect that had been searching Great Snow Mountain for it.

• Shen Le joined the bronze mirror’s halves, awakening a snow leopard spirit that thanked him and vanished into the mountain wind.
• The iron armor forced itself onto Shen Le, and its restored heart-protecting mirror sent a beam south while the armor called for its final companion.
• Shen Le fed power into the mirror, and the command center traced its signal to a location near the plateau capital.
• A golden object sped from that location toward Shen Le, and he caught it as a flying sword.
• Shen Le recognized the possibility that the sword belonged to a sect that had searched Great Snow Mountain for it for over a year.

Shen Le reunited with the flying sword that completed the armor’s Artifact Spirit, and the armor introduced itself as Li Xingtang, a newly formed spirit. Li Xingtang sent the sword across the Himalayas to destroy an evil deity’s arms, leaving Shen Le to face questions from the Special Affairs Bureau about how he had known where to strike.

• Shen Le recognized the flying sword as the final piece of the armor’s Artifact Spirit and found that he could command it effortlessly.
• The armor assembled itself and introduced itself as Li Xingtang, explaining that it was a new spirit rather than the historical soldier.
• Li Xingtang flew the sword southeast across the border, while Shen Le used the Copper Fragment to track its progress and unknowingly supplied it with energy.
• The flying sword severed four of an evil deity’s arms and ritual implements, ground them into fragments, and returned to Li Xingtang.
• The exhausted armor collapsed and its pieces were stored in Shen Le’s Brush Pot, after which Shen Le descended the mountain.
• The Special Affairs Bureau asked Shen Le how he had known Indians were bringing an evil god across the border and how he had targeted them so precisely.

Shen Le introduced the restored Tang Dynasty Iron Armor, Li Xingtang, to Professor Zhang and the Special Affairs Bureau, who registered him and tested his combat abilities. Li Xingtang wanted to keep fighting for the Tang Dynasty and recover lands beyond the modern border, leaving Shen Le to figure out how to dissuade his battle-eager Artifact Spirit.

• Professor Zhang rushed to Shen Le’s home, met Li Xingtang, and excitedly asked about Li Chonghui and a recently discovered tomb, prompting Shen Le to explain the centuries since the Tang Dynasty.
• Special Affairs Bureau personnel registered Li Xingtang, discovered that his flying sword sent his spiritual-energy reading off the charts, and explained his benefits as a newly integrated Artifact Spirit.
• When asked about a future career, Li Xingtang drew his Modao and declared that he wanted to fight for the Tang Dynasty, so Shen Le stopped him from frightening the visitors.
• Professor Zhang sparred with Li Xingtang at the Special Affairs Bureau’s training ground and was quickly defeated, while the operatives struggled to find him a suitable military role.
• Li Xingtang insisted that war was needed to recover Suyab City and lands along the Uyghur route, leaving Shen Le worried about how to talk him out of it.

Shen Le tried to keep Li Xingtang from joining the border fighting, but the Special Affairs Bureau persuaded Iron Armor to become Shen Le’s personal guard and train him instead. Li Xingtang began training and sharing historical knowledge with experts, while Shen Le struggled through close-combat drills.

• Li Xingtang rejected Shen Le’s warnings and insisted on going to the border, so the Special Affairs Bureau proposed that he guard Shen Le and teach him combat skills.
• Li Xingtang agreed to postpone enlisting and was sent to a joint Special Affairs Bureau and military institution, where Mr. Lu and researchers joined him.
• Researchers questioned Li Xingtang about his armor, ancient crossbows, and the Anxi Protectorate, while Silk Skirt translated his answers and helped present diagrams.
• Shen Le trained with soldiers in dodging and taking hits, but he struggled to react and was repeatedly struck with padded staffs.
• Shen Le reluctantly agreed to continue training and was sent to practice dodging balls from a machine.

Shen Le endured grueling training with the Artifact Spirits, then sparred with Li Xingtang and gradually brought his learned martial arts together. The session ended when Li Xingtang asked Shen Le to get him modern protective gear, raising the question of whether he wanted to replace his armor.

• Shen Le endured intensified dodgeball training, and Little Oil Lamp accidentally drained his body's bioelectricity before returning the current and apologizing to the instructor.
• Shen Le received massages and stretching before soldiers helped him put on protective gear for sparring.
• Li Xingtang defeated one soldier after another with his modao while the soldiers took turns testing themselves against him.
• Shen Le sparred with Li Xingtang, and his movements gradually became more natural as they traded blows.
• Li Xingtang's shoulder armor came loose, so he stopped the spar and asked Shen Le to get him a set of modern protective gear.