Recaps

Shen Le secured official support and Professor Zhang’s team began planning the restoration of an ancient Xing kiln, while students researched kiln structures and refractory bricks. When ordinary studios could not provide traditional wood firing, Shen Le called Mr. Zhao, whose demon connections sent experts and two youths to help, though they warned that the kiln’s spirit could not tolerate the unfamiliar clay.

• Professor Zhang agreed to help restore Shen Le’s damaged kiln after the Special Affairs Bureau promised to handle permits and cover costs.
• Shen Le and Professor Zhang’s students excavated other kilns and researched ancient kiln restoration, while Professor Zhang assigned studies on refractory bricks and kiln simulations.
• Shen Le arranged hands-on practice at a local Xing Kiln Studio, but its owner explained that the business used coal kilns rather than traditional wood-fired kilns.
• Professor Zhang asked Shen Le to find a traditional kiln, and Shen Le called Mr. Zhao, who agreed to lend one and provide workers.
• Mr. Zhao sent three veteran bricklayers, a kiln master, and two youths to the ruins; the youths reported that the kiln spirit could not get used to the unfamiliar clay brought for making bricks.

Shen Le and the researchers restored the ancient dragon kiln and successfully test-fired it, then tried to repair the Porcelain Tower by firing it there. The tower remained cracked because it had not absorbed enough spiritual energy, and its fragments revealed that Shen Le might need to restore the kiln himself for the next attempt to work.

• Professor Zhang pushed the researchers and students to analyze local clay and bricks while Shen Le helped restore the dragon kiln.
• The students made saggers and loaded the kiln, and Mr. Zhao's firing master directed a thirty-six-hour test firing that produced a success rate above eighty percent.
• Shen Le persuaded the firing master to fire the Porcelain Tower's fragments in the restored kiln, but a Porcelain Demon warned that the tower lacked enough spiritual energy to fuse.
• After the kiln cooled, Shen Le found the Porcelain Tower still cracked, and Little Oil Lamp explained that the tower could not draw power from a kiln Shen Le had not restored himself.

Shen Le persuaded Professor Zhang to let him remove the newly built bricks without harming the ancient kiln, then rebuilt the dragon kiln with machinery, spiritual power, and his own labor. After he fired it with spirit fire, Little Oil Lamp reported that the Porcelain Tower wanted to be fired immediately.

• Professor Zhang objected to demolishing the rebuilt section until Shen Le showed he could remove the bricks without damaging the Northern Qi kiln, then called the higher-ups for approval.
• Shen Le recorded the kiln’s structure, removed the new bricks, and used machines infused with his spiritual power to make fresh bricks and mortar.
• Shen Le laid bricks by hand during the day and secretly used spiritual power to build much of the kiln overnight.
• A kiln master instructed Shen Le on building the curved vault, while Shen Le used spiritual power to dry the mortar and complete the kiln late the next night.
• Shen Le fired the kiln with spirit fire, and Little Oil Lamp said the Porcelain Tower wanted to go inside and be fired at once.

Shen Le supervised the Porcelain Tower’s firing in an ancient kiln, despite the kiln master’s warnings and the tower’s demands for more heat. As the Porcelain Tower absorbed the kiln’s energy and the site’s ancient aura, Shen Le sensed memories of the kiln’s history, then struggled to keep the rapidly intensifying fire under control.

• Professor Zhang and Master Ba Zhuang inspected Shen Le’s kiln and approved it for refiring.
• Shen Le followed Master Ba Zhuang’s instructions to place the Porcelain Tower in the kiln and seal the kiln door.
• Shen Le bribed the firekeeper with a mysterious fruit-scented item and ignored his warnings to keep the fire low because the Porcelain Tower demanded more heat.
• The kiln’s ancient aura gathered into the Porcelain Tower, and Shen Le witnessed visions of the kiln workers who had built the site and its eventual destruction.
• The Porcelain Tower shouted that it remembered, then Shen Le used wind to intensify the fire until the peepholes turned brilliant white.
• Shen Le realized the kiln was in danger of exploding and forced the fire to subside, promising the Porcelain Tower more heat later.

Shen Le and the two Porcelain Demons fired and repaired the Porcelain Tower, only to learn that its swords and figures needed further work in other kilns. After touching the Tower, Shen Le entered a memory in which he inhabited a young master tasked with choosing a hillside for a kiln.

• Shen Le used spiritual power and spiritwood to keep the kiln firing while the Porcelain Demons restrained the unruly Porcelain Tower and guided the flames.
• After twelve hours, the Porcelain Demons declared the firing complete and blasted open the kiln door to escape.
• Shen Le inspected the Tower and found its forty-nine Porcelain Swords and figurines crooked, while the Porcelain Demons learned the Tower required other kilns to finish its contents.
• Shen Le waited for the Tower to cool, touched it, and entered a first-person memory as a young master of the Lu Family.
• Shen Le recognized that the memory required him to choose a kiln site, examined the hillside, and wondered whether he could use magic to help build the kiln.

Shen Le and the old man struggled to build a kiln until the immortal master supplied protective talismans and permission to hire workers. After Shen Le learned to make porcelain pieces, he discovered that firing the secret Translucent White Porcelain required decoding an obscure recipe, leaving him to work out the craft without a laboratory.

• Shen Le and the old man spent over a month making more than six thousand bricks for their kiln.
• The immortal master gave Shen Le three talismans and an incense stick, allowing him to shop and hire help for the kiln.
• Shen Le tested a talisman, then used the money and new protections to buy supplies and recruit workers.
• Shen Le practiced throwing vessels and sculpting porcelain figurines until the old man began teaching him to fire porcelain.
• The old man revealed that Translucent White Porcelain was a Lu Family secret and gave Shen Le a booklet and a packet of white powder with an obscure recipe.

Shen Le struggled to identify the ingredients and methods needed to reproduce the Lu Family’s Translucent White Porcelain, then spent months learning to fire a kiln. He finally produced a thin, glazed cup, but the old retainer said its color was still wrong and died urging him to decipher the lost secret formula.

• Shen Le questioned an old retainer and searched markets, mines, and medical clinics to identify the glaze ingredients, settling on calcite, quartz, kaolin, and borax.
• Shen Le found the Lu Family’s secret glaze powder hidden beneath his bed but could not identify it, so he fired porcelain without that final ingredient.
• Shen Le repeatedly ruined kiln loads while learning how to arrange saggars, seal the kiln, and control the fire.
• After months of practice, Shen Le fired a thin, translucent glazed cup and showed it to the bedridden old retainer.
• The old retainer said the glaze color did not match the Lu Family’s Translucent White Porcelain, urged Shen Le to decipher the secret formula, and died.

Shen Le urgently begged the Immortal Master to save Uncle Liang, then offered his lifetime of service in exchange. After the Immortal Master revived Uncle Liang with a drop of dew, he examined the mysterious glaze ingredient and gave Shen Le the ability to perceive its eerie nature.

• Shen Le found Uncle Liang barely alive and tried spells, inner force, and a protective barrier, but none improved his condition.
• Shen Le summoned the Immortal Master and refused to back down when the young man threatened him, insisting that he needed Uncle Liang to finish the Translucent White Porcelain Soul-Calming Figurines.
• The Immortal Master offered three ways to intervene, and Shen Le agreed to make whatever artifacts he wanted in exchange for Uncle Liang living another ten years.
• The Immortal Master gave Uncle Liang a drop of dew that restored his vitality, then put him to sleep to recover.
• Shen Le showed the Immortal Master the unknown glaze powder, and the young man touched Shen Le's brow, enabling him to see its green glow and hear its ghostly cries.

Shen Le struggled for two months to fire Translucent White Porcelain while coping with an epidemic among the mountain communities. When the Immortal Master returned, he insisted that Shen Le use human bones for the Soul-Calming Figurines and took him to a mass grave to collect them.

• Shen Le suspected the powder the Immortal Master gave him was human bone ash, but the Immortal Master refused to teach him immortal arts and left.
• Shen Le organized workers to prepare animal bone ash and repeatedly fired porcelain, but his first batches had flawed colors and bubbles.
• After nearly ten kilns and a month and a half of failed experiments, Shen Le heard that an epidemic was spreading down the mountain and ordered precautions at the kiln.
• Shen Le led workers down the mountain to gather pinewood, saw corpses and deserted households, and returned to resume firing.
• The Immortal Master arrived before Shen Le opened the kiln, blamed him for the epidemic's severity, rejected his bone powder, and demanded powdered human bones.
• The Immortal Master carried Shen Le to a mass grave and ordered him to collect usable bones.

Shen Le used fire talismans to burn the mass grave and gather bones for the Soul-Calming Figurine, impressing the immortal master and earning a chance to join his sect if he finished within a month. After struggling through many attempts and firing the figurines, Shen Le heard a shriek from the kiln, suggesting some resentment had survived the flames.

• Shen Le used his Heavenly Eye to inspect the mass grave, then cast fireballs to burn its corpses and spirits for usable bones.
• The immortal master intensified the flames, praised Shen Le’s talent, and promised to recommend him to a sect if he fired the Soul-Calming Figurine within a month.
• The immortal master left Shen Le with a booklet of exact figurine requirements and flew away before Shen Le could ask for a fire-control incantation.
• Shen Le gathered bones, made dozens of clay figurines, glazed them, and arranged them in the kiln using several firing methods.
• As Shen Le fed fireballs into the kiln, a shriek rang out, revealing that resentment remained in the bone powder.

Shen Le endured a disastrous first firing of the Soul-Calming Figurines, then carefully fired a second batch and produced one intact large figurine. The Immortal Master tested it with yin wind, and it shattered, leaving Shen Le insisting he had followed the instructions exactly.

• Shen Le kept Uncle Liang back from the kiln, showed him his protective Talisman, and ordered a boundary built while he tended the fire.
• Shen Le overfired the first batch, causing the sagger stacks to collapse; after opening the kiln, he found usable pieces but was missing every robe-hem section, along with a tiny intact figurine.
• Shen Le repaired the kiln and fired a second batch more carefully, producing one intact eight-foot Soul-Calming Figurine and enough smaller components for several sets.
• The Immortal Master inspected the figurine and struck it with yin wind, causing it to crack apart; Shen Le protested that he had followed the requirements exactly.

Shen Le and the young man tested Soul-Calming Figurines and discovered that their bone powder needed stronger spiritual essence. After the young man supplied ashes from several sources, five of forty-nine figurines survived testing, and he invited Shen Le to the Capital City to kill someone for better materials.

• The young man tested Shen Le’s porcelain figurine with black wind and green fire, destroying it and concluding that its bone powder lacked sufficient spiritual essence.
• Shen Le explained that he lacked the knowledge and materials to improve the figurines, so the young man left and later returned with gold, incense, and ashes from mass graves, battlefields, and executions.
• Shen Le organized the seven kinds of ashes and fired forty-nine Soul-Calming Figurines, using lightning and fire to subdue their spiritual essence when the unfired figurines began fighting.
• After five days, Shen Le opened the kiln and summoned the young man, whose test destroyed or damaged four figurines while the fifth resisted the black wind.
• The young man concluded that ashes from powerful generals might work best, then invited Shen Le to the Capital City to kill someone suitable for their next batch.

Shen Le and the Immortal Master tracked the banner associated with the Lu Family’s destruction to a noble clan and discovered that a greedy man had ordered the attack to seize the family’s property and destroy its Soul-Calming Figurines. After killing him, Shen Le found his remains unsuitable for making a Soul-Calming Figurine and proposed investigating the man’s claim that Prince Xiang was plotting rebellion.

• The Immortal Master identified the attackers’ banner, and Shen Le spotted it on cavalrymen riding through Ye City.
• Shen Le and the Immortal Master traced the banner to the Zu Family and questioned its patriarch, who blamed a distant nephew for borrowing the family banner to destroy the Lu Family.
• The Immortal Master and Shen Le found the nephew, who claimed Prince Xiang had ordered the Lu Family’s destruction to provoke resentment and rebellion.
• The Immortal Master determined that the nephew had acted out of greed, and Shen Le killed him but found his remains unsuitable for making a Soul-Calming Figurine.
• Shen Le suggested investigating Prince Xiang’s alleged rebellion.

Shen Le and Lou Yun rushed to Cool Breeze Hall to save Hulü Guang, but arrived as Liu Taozhi and three strongmen tried to kill him. After Lou Yun broke the bowstring and Shen Le caught the wounded general, Hulü Guang refused to escape and impaled himself on the spear through his body.

• Lou Yun brought Shen Le to the Prince of Xiang's residence, where they learned Hulü Guang had gone to the palace to thank the emperor for a horse.
• Shen Le realized Hulü Guang was in danger and guided Lou Yun through the palace to Cool Breeze Hall beside Zhaoyang Hall.
• Shen Le and Lou Yun entered the hall and found Liu Taozhi and three strongmen forcing Hulü Guang to draw an iron bow.
• Lou Yun snapped the bowstring, and Shen Le caught Hulü Guang as he fell, discovering an iron spear had already pierced him.
• Hulü Guang rejected Lou Yun's offer to help him escape, declared he had not betrayed the nation, and threw himself backward onto the spear.

Shen Le relived the death of Hulü Guang and learned that the general’s willing sacrifice had supplied the final ingredient for Soul-Calming Figurines, but he refused to make any more. Back in the present, he discovered he could fire Translucent White Porcelain figurines and followed the Porcelain Tower’s memories toward the kiln where it had been completed.

• Hulü Guang asked Shen Le and Lou Yun to use his remains to make a Soul-Calming Figurine and save his youngest son, and Shen Le promised before Hulü Guang died.
• Lou Yun performed a rite over Hulü Guang, and he and Shen Le escaped the palace with the general’s body and youngest son.
• Ten days later, Shen Le and Lou Yun fired Soul-Calming Figurines using Hulü Guang’s ashes, while learning that the Emperor had ordered more members of the Hulü Family killed.
• Lou Yun condemned the Emperor and the realm, and Shen Le abruptly returned to the present after experiencing the Porcelain Tower’s memories.
• Shen Le told Professor Zhang he could fire Translucent White Porcelain figurines, then followed the Porcelain Tower’s memories underground in search of its original kiln.
• The Porcelain Tower sent forty-nine Porcelain Swords flying into the distance, and Shen Le warned it not to get hit by a missile again.

Shen Le finally caught the evasive Porcelain Sword, which led him through an illusion in the mountains to an underground stone hall inhabited by fox spirits. The sword drew a Big Dipper shape on the floor, and the hall began to shake.

• Shen Le stopped chasing the Porcelain Sword until it dropped toward the ground, then caught it and cut his palms while preventing it from shattering.
• The Porcelain Sword tugged Shen Le across a mountain ridge and through an illusionary wall into a carved passage.
• Shen Le followed the Porcelain Sword into a stone hall, where it trapped several frightened fox spirits in a cage of light.
• Shen Le learned the foxes had secretly moved into the hall and allowed them to stay while he asked the Porcelain Sword what it wanted.
• The Porcelain Sword scratched a Big Dipper shape into the floor, and the stone hall began to shake.

Shen Le followed the Porcelain Sword through a hidden passage to a sealed chamber, where he discovered a jade pillow containing embroidered silk. The silk began deteriorating after the pillow opened, and Shen Le preserved the pillow in his laboratory before realizing he could not open it again.

• Shen Le kept the cave passage from collapsing as seven stone swords fell into place, then watched the furballs escape to safety.
• Shen Le followed the Porcelain Sword through a narrow passage, which the sword sped through with him, and arrived in a bright, sealed stone chamber.
• Shen Le searched the chamber and sent his power into a stone couch, which revealed a glowing jade pillow.
• The Porcelain Sword split the jade pillow open, exposing embroidered red silk that began fading when exposed to air.
• Shen Le put the jade pillow in his restoration cabinet, but he could not pry it open and wondered whether the original Porcelain Sword was needed.

Shen Le preserved a fragile silk textile found inside a mountain residence, researched a careful restoration plan, and brought university experts to witness the work. As the silk’s embroidered writing revealed a powerful spiritual presence, a streak of white light emerged and Shen Le caught it between his fingers.

• Shen Le used the Porcelain Sword to split the jade pillow, confirmed the silk inside remained intact, and searched for safe preservation methods after realizing he had no signal underground.
• The Porcelain Sword struck Shen Le and nearly hit him, so he trapped it in its scabbard and packing tape before following its direction out of the mountain.
• Shen Le researched restoration procedures from a mountaintop, then contacted the Capital City's Special Affairs Department and invited university teachers to examine the relic under protection.
• Shen Le used non-contact techniques to clean the silk and treated it with Silk Fibroin Solution, restoring its vivid red color and revealing embroidered writing.
• A calligraphy-restoration teacher began tracing the revealed characters, and Shen Le caught a streak of white light that suddenly shot out.

Shen Le contained the dangerous white light released from the ancient silk and learned a sword scripture written on it. After practicing, he absorbed the light into his body as a controllable sword and prepared to restore the scroll while the professors watched.

• Shen Le trapped the white light in silver energy after it burst from the silk, but metal, wood, and jade boxes failed to contain it.
• Shen Le asked the Copper Fragment for help, and Porcelain Sword mimed characters that led him to read the scripture on the silk.
• Shen Le copied and recited the scripture, causing his inner breath to circulate and resonate with the white light.
• After Shen Le read the scripture nine times, the white light dissolved into his silver energy and formed a sword he could control and draw back into his lungs.
• Shen Le reassured Professor Han and told the professors he would begin restoring the scroll as they monitored his work.

Shen Le practiced restoring supernatural textiles and uncovered silver-thread instructions hidden in the silk from the jade pillow. When he activated the thread, a chilling sword light enveloped him, and Professor Han called for him not to go.

• Shen Le demonstrated that he could split, embroider, and remove threads without damaging the silk, impressing the professors.
• Shen Le practiced on the Special Affairs Bureau's damaged magical textiles, removing yin fire from a robe and restoring its embroidered crane.
• Shen Le cleansed the bloodied robe, then repaired an umbrella canopy and a cloud-embroidered curtain.
• Shen Le opened the lining of the jade-pillow silk and found tiny writing formed from silver thread.
• Shen Le read and photographed the instructions, breathed a streak of white light into the silk, and reached for it as sword light began to envelop him.
• Professor Han shouted for Shen Le not to go as his figure began to blur into the sword light.

Shen Le finished firing the Soul-Calming Figurines and followed Lou Yun to an immortal sect, where he quickly mastered sword cultivation and entered the inner sect. After learning its spells, he descended the mountain with a sword to see what had become of the realm and consider taking down the mad emperor.

• After the last Soul-Calming Figurine sank into the Zhang River, Lou Yun flew Shen Le to a mountain hut and left him to study an introductory sword manual.
• Shen Le recognized that the manual was a lower-tier version of the sword technique he had learned before, and he swiftly developed the ability to control his sword.
• Lou Yun returned after half a month, praised Shen Le's progress, and led him through a cliffside test to the immortal sect, where Shen Le met Hulü Guang's youngest son and greeted his new master.
• Shen Le moved into a cave, condensed sword qi, and learned the spells in a booklet, though the sect had no treasured sword to give him.
• After mastering the spells, Shen Le descended the mountain with a longsword and headed for the nearest major city.

Shen Le searched Northern Qi’s palace treasury for a sword or refined metal essence and found the Prince of Lanling’s mask, but chose to preserve it rather than use it to forge a sword. As Northern Qi fell to Northern Zhou, he was left wondering whether he would have to enlist to find the materials he needed.

• Shen Le learned that the Zhou army had taken Jinyang and was advancing, then hurried to Ye City as Northern Qi prepared to pass the throne to the eight-year-old Crown Prince.
• Shen Le searched the palace halls and secret treasury for a famous sword or refined metal essence, but found only a glowing mask among the Prince of Lanling’s armor.
• Shen Le recognized the mask as Gao Changgong’s relic and decided not to destroy it, sealing the chest with Talismans before leaving.
• Shen Le watched Gao Wei flee and Northern Zhou troops take the city, then wondered whether he would have to join the army to find a sword.

Shen Le returned from Kunlun Mountain as the Sui Dynasty rose, only to find the realm stricken by poverty and the capital guarded by a Red Dragon that forbade unauthorized magic. After Lou Yun brought him into Chang'an, Shen Le learned that the sect needed him to make Soul-Calming Figurines again to contain the dead spirits from the campaign against Chen.

• Shen Le abandoned his search near the capital and spent twenty years digging in Kunlun Mountain, but found no Five-Metal Essence.
• After returning from the mountains, Shen Le saw widespread poverty on the road and found a Red Dragon guarding Chang'an against unauthorized magic.
• Shen Le secretly gave gold to a child after a foreigner stole food, then fled when the Red Dragon warned him and Lou Yun caught up with him.
• Lou Yun escorted Shen Le into Chang'an and offered him a jade token authorizing magic in the capital, but Shen Le refused it.
• Lou Yun asked Shen Le to fire another kiln of Soul-Calming Figurines because the dead from the Campaign to Pacify Chen were forming a Charnel Grove that could turn the South of the Yangtze into a ghost realm.
• Shen Le asked whose ashes would be used to fill the figurines.

Shen Le discovered that the Charnel Forest near Jiankang was a spreading, murderous haunt and agreed to make three hundred Soul-Calming Figurines to suppress it. After completing the figurines, he watched as the immortal sect’s disciples buried them around the forest and the sealing formation faced a charge from the undead.

• Shen Le traveled south and found black clouds, barren land, and restless dead surrounding Jiankang.
• Inside the Charnel Forest, Shen Le encountered a bone tower, raven swarms, and a bone city whose dancing skeletons tried to lure him; he escaped with help from a senior martial brother.
• Shen Le learned that three hundred Soul-Calming Figurines were needed and agreed to make them, then joined the effort at the Daoist temple.
• Shen Le tested the kiln, refined his firing process, and produced all three hundred figurines after several firings.
• The immortal sect’s disciples buried the figurines around the Charnel Forest, and as the formation closed, skeletal monsters charged toward them.

Shen Le developed mass-produced porcelain swords to strengthen the Soul-Calming Figurines guarding the Charnel Forest. The swords helped the sect’s formation strike back against the skeleton army, and the martial brothers prepared to seal and destroy the forest.

• After the skeleton army shattered half the Soul-Calming Figurines, Shen Le warned Eldest Senior Martial Brother that the formation might need to withstand repeated attacks and proposed giving the figurines weapons.
• Shen Le tested different porcelain sword formulas, discovered that tiny swords mixed with iron powder could hold spiritual power, and persuaded the sect to provide Essence of Five Metals.
• The martial brothers tested the porcelain swords and found that they could detect nearby lesser demons, fly out to attack them, and be produced in large quantities.
• Shen Le equipped all three hundred and sixty Soul-Calming Figurines with lower-spec porcelain swords and gave twelve stronger swords to his martial brothers.
• The completed formation unleashed its sword power against the Charnel Forest, shattering two skeletons atop the bone city and prompting the martial brothers to push on and destroy the forest.