Recaps

Li Qing discovered that his Jade Tablet could transform a sinister cultivation manual into a version without a price, and he resolved to cultivate it. The chapter ended as he heard unsettling eating sounds in Mr. Huayue’s dark room and suspected that his benefactor had practiced the original art and broken its taboo.

• Li Qing found that the Jade Tablet had transformed The Blood Refining Art into the price-free Essence Blood Art, while the original warned that eating meat or fish could turn a cultivator into an Anomaly.
• Li Qing wondered whether the world was a Cthulhu-like cultivation world, then decided to practice the modified art rather than remain an ordinary commoner.
• Mr. Huayue sent Li Qing to buy a hen, and Li Qing returned to Huayue Study and prepared chicken soup for him.
• Li Qing heard chewing and sucking sounds from Mr. Huayue’s unlit room and suspected that Mr. Huayue had practiced The Blood Refining Art and broken its taboo.

Li Qing realized Mr. Huayue might be dangerous and used the Essence Blood Art to begin refining his body with a Blood Curse. As the curse spread through his veins and filled him with agony, a silent figure appeared outside his door.

• Li Qing concealed his fear from Mr. Huayue, who took the chicken soup and told him to eat more before watching him leave.
• In the kitchen, Li Qing suspected Mr. Huayue was eating raw flesh and decided the Essence Blood Art was his best chance to escape.
• Li Qing studied the Essence Blood Art, ate a full meal, and learned how to inscribe and activate its three-thousand-character Blood Curse.
• Li Qing drew blood from his fingers and spent more than an hour writing the Blood Curse across his body.
• Li Qing recited the curse, which spread over his skin and entered his blood vessels, subjecting him to unbearable pain.
• A silent figure appeared outside Li Qing's door and knocked.

Li Qing fought off Mr. Huayue with a blood-red cleaver slash, then fled into the streets as the transformed monster pursued him. After an armored figure intervened, Li Qing escaped to an abandoned house and discovered that his vital essence was rapidly healing his wounds.

• Mr. Huayue forced his way into Li Qing’s room, and Li Qing slashed his back with a blood-red cleaver using Bloodletting.
• Li Qing saw Mr. Huayue’s monstrous form and fled through the back courtyard, escaping over a wall while the monster chased him.
• Li Qing reached the main street and shouted for help, where an armored figure wrapped in silver radiance attacked Mr. Huayue.
• Li Qing used the distraction to escape into an alley and hide in the ruins of a fire-damaged house.
• Li Qing examined his claw wounds and found that the vital essence from the Essence Blood Art was rapidly healing them.

Li Qing disguised himself as a beggar and fled toward a neglected opening in Qingshi County’s river wall to escape the authorities. As pursuers reached the riverbank, he plunged underwater beside the iron grating.

• Li Qing heard Government Office agents rushing past the ruins, hid the signs of his cultivation, and disguised himself as a beggar.
• Li Qing reasoned that the authorities might discover his blood and cultivation traces and decide to arrest or execute him.
• Li Qing chose the Qing River as an escape route, using what he knew about a damaged gap beneath the city-wall grating.
• Li Qing reached the grating and dove underwater when pursuers arrived, announcing that his trail ended at the river and ordering a search.

Li Qing escaped Qingshi County after fleeing Mr. Huayue, but Captain Li ordered a countywide search for him and suspected the Blood Demon Sect had operatives in the area. Taking shelter from a violent storm on Green Mountain Ridge, Li Qing heard an eerie ringing and feared another supernatural threat was near.

• Li Qing escaped through damaged river bars, reached a field-side shelter, ate cucumbers, and slept until a rooster woke him.
• The county magistrate learned Mr. Huayue had become an Anomaly through the Blood Refining Art and that his shop assistant Li Qing was missing.
• Captain Li ordered Chief Constable Wang to mobilize the level-three team and investigate every outsider in Qingshi County.
• Li Qing left the shelter and headed toward the road, then took refuge beneath a rock when a fierce storm struck Green Mountain Ridge.
• Li Qing heard a strange ringing through the rain and grew terrified that a horror had found him.

Li Qing advised a mysterious old man on how to respond to powerful people seeking something valuable to his descendants. The old man gave Li Qing a jade token and vanished into the rain as the storm darkened and gigantic shapes passed overhead.

• An old man in a green robe approached Li Qing beneath the canyon rocks and remarked that the rain would kill many people and grow heavier.
• Li Qing cautiously asked about the rain, and the old man posed a dilemma about surrendering a family treasure to powerful challengers.
• Li Qing outlined three choices: surrender the treasure, fight to preserve it, or defeat the challengers and eliminate them, arguing that all things vie for freedom.
• The old man praised Li Qing's advice, gave him a green jade token, and vanished into the rain.
• The sky blackened and lightning revealed two enormous shapes overhead, prompting Li Qing to wonder whether one was a dragon.

Li Qing escaped the storm, learned that his jade tablet could summon a Flood Dragon phantom, and traveled hungry through Black Wind Mountain. As he rested in a tree, a badly wounded stranger spotted him and asked for help.

• Li Qing activated the jade tablet and discovered it was a Spirit Summoning Tablet that could summon a Flood Dragon phantom to devour souls and consume spirits.
• Li Qing crossed the gorge and continued toward Jade City, hungry and wary of the dangers along the mountain path.
• Li Qing avoided entering a ruined temple and climbed a tree to spend the night, holding onto the Spirit Summoning Tablet.
• Li Qing recited the Essence Blood Art until he drifted into a meditative state on a branch.
• A bloodied man approached the tree, recognized Li Qing's cultivation as the Blood Refining Art, and planned to trick him into climbing down for a Blood Pill.
• The man called up to Li Qing, asking the fellow cultivator in the tree to save his life.

Li Qing confronted a gravely wounded bearded cultivator who tried to lure him down with food and promises of help. Li Qing sprang a trap with a token that unleashed an Azure Flood Dragon, which seized the man’s soul.

• The bearded man offered Li Qing a Night-Bright Pearl and food in exchange for help treating his wounds.
• Li Qing grew suspicious when the man mentioned the Blood Refining Art and noticed signs that he might mutate.
• The bearded man claimed an attacker was pursuing him and urged Li Qing to climb down from the tree.
• Li Qing pretended to get stuck, then revealed a token and summoned a phantom Azure Flood Dragon.
• The Azure Flood Dragon stunned the bearded man and dragged a phantom figure from his body.

After killing the bearded man, Li Qing searched his corpse and discovered a revised Essence Blood Art that could let him cultivate Foundation Establishment again. He traveled toward the prefectural city, speculated about a possible Human Blood Curse, and reached a waystation as a rustling sounded behind him.

• Li Qing confirmed the bearded man was dead, searched his possessions, and took his food, silver, Night-Bright Pearl, token, and two scriptures.
• Li Qing recorded the Blood Fusion Art and learned that the revised Essence Blood Art used Heaven and Earth Blood Curses, granted Bloodletting and Blood Burning, and had no taboo price.
• Li Qing rested in a tree to recover his vital energy, then continued toward the prefectural city while discarding items that might draw attention.
• Li Qing wondered whether a Human Blood Curse could complete a three-part Foundation Establishment technique and struggled onward through the summer heat without water or food.
• Li Qing spotted a waystation and headed toward it, but heard a loud rustling behind him.

Li Qing stopped at a relay station to eat and hoped to join the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency caravan, but he noticed a disturbing anomaly and fled before it could threaten him.

• Li Qing reached the relay station, paid the waiter for food and clean water, and waited for the escort caravan.
• The caravan arrived, and its head escort tested the tea for poison with a silver needle and a live mouse.
• Li Qing received a set of clean old clothes, then heard a strange slurping noise from the waiter.
• Li Qing spotted a plump white maggot wriggling on the shopkeeper's neck and realized he might have encountered an Anomaly.
• Li Qing pretended he had dropped something, grabbed his belongings, and hurried outside.

Li Qing used the Spirit Summoning Tablet to destroy a monster that was slaughtering the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency’s guards. After the survivors thanked him, he gave Wang Kuohai the name Qin Wuming, leaving the group to decide what to do next.

• Wang Kuohai spotted Li Qing leaving and ordered the escort team to abandon the goods, but transformed attackers ambushed them.
• A fur-covered monster killed several Escort Guards, and Wang Kuohai led the survivors in an attack that failed to stop it.
• Li Qing decided the escort guards could not defeat the monster and summoned a Flood Dragon phantom with the Spirit Summoning Tablet.
• The Flood Dragon phantom tore a twisted ape apparition from the monster and destroyed it, leaving the monster’s body to collapse.
• Wang Kuohai and the surviving guards thanked Li Qing, who concealed the tablet and introduced himself as Qin Wuming.

Li Qing joined Wang Kuohai’s escort party after defeating a monster, and discovered that its stone could strengthen his bloodline essence through the Jade Tablet. As the group traveled toward Jade City, bandits ambushed them and a fight began between their leader and Wang Kuohai.

• Li Qing agreed to ride with Wang Kuohai’s escort party, then used the Jade Tablet to absorb the power of a stone from the slain monster and double his essence.
• Wang Kuohai’s Escort Guards buried their dead companions and prepared a carriage for the journey toward Jade City.
• Bandits surrounded the escort party in a wooded pass, and their leader rejected Wang Kuohai’s offer of silver and demanded all their goods.
• Wang Kuohai and his twelve Escort Guards formed up to defend the caravan as the nineteen bandits charged.
• The bandit leader lunged at Wang Kuohai with his Hundred-Forged Steel Saber.

Li Qing helped Wang Kuohai defeat a group of bandits and acquired the Seven Star Blade manual, which he learned through the Jade Tablet. He refused to let the convoy shelter in a ruined Mountain God Temple, and they made camp outdoors instead.

• Li Qing used the Spirit Summoning Tablet to summon a Flood Dragon that devoured the burly bandit's soul, allowing the Escort Guards to kill the remaining bandits.
• Wang Kuohai thanked Li Qing, explained how the Escort Guards would claim rewards for the bandits' heads, and identified the looted manual as the Seven Star Blade.
• Li Qing took the Seven Star Blade manual and money pouch from the burly man's corpse, then learned the blade technique through the Jade Tablet.
• Wang Kuohai found a ruined Mountain God Temple for the convoy to shelter in, but Li Qing warned against staying in temples, so Wang Kuohai ordered everyone onward.
• The convoy camped in a clearing, arranged the carriages around a bonfire, and ate dried-meat soup and coarse rations.

Li Qing discovered that his vital essence let him quickly master the Seven Star Blade and produce a strike that broke through the air. When a headless monster attacked the camp, the Spirit Summoning Tablet failed to affect it, leaving Li Qing to fight it with his blade.

• Li Qing practiced the Seven Star Blade and used his vital essence to master its force-generating techniques, tempering his body in the process.
• Wang Kuohai explained that breaking through the air was a sign of the legendary blood and qi, and Li Qing considered combining martial arts with his cultivation.
• The camp guards discovered Little Wang was missing, and a headless monster appeared, killed an escort guard, and used the guard's head as its own.
• Wang Kuohai attacked the monster, but his blade could not harm it, so Li Qing summoned the Flood Dragon with the Spirit Summoning Tablet.
• The Flood Dragon passed through the monster without affecting it, and Li Qing dodged its attack before striking its leg with the vital-essence-infused Seven Star Blade.

Li Qing killed the monster that attacked the escort team and urged everyone to travel through the night. He reached Jade City with Wang Kuohai and accepted an invitation to stay at the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency.

• Li Qing sliced the headless monster apart, and Wang Kuohai ordered the Escort Guards to burn its remains.
• Li Qing found no bead in the ashes and persuaded Wang Kuohai to continue traveling through the night.
• The All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency reached Jade City, and Wang Kuohai bribed a city guard to let Li Qing enter without a travel permit.
• Wang Kuohai invited Li Qing to stay at the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency, and Li Qing accepted.
• Li Qing arrived at the agency's compound with Wang Kuohai and was welcomed by the Escort Guards.

Li Qing cultivated the Essence Blood Art in the safety of the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency, enduring severe pain as the blood curses refined his vital essence. After testing the art’s Blood Burning ability, he planned to seek martial arts for the Jade Tablet to optimize.

• Wang Kuohai arranged a private courtyard for Li Qing, who decided to cultivate the new Essence Blood Art.
• Li Qing wrote the Heaven and Earth Blood Curses over his body and endured an hour of agonizing Blood Curse Body Refining without fainting.
• Li Qing found that his vital essence had become twice as pure, though its quantity remained unchanged.
• Li Qing activated Blood Burning and tested it with the Hundred-Forged Steel Blade, discovering that his strikes gained strength and scorched a stool.
• Li Qing resolved to collect martial arts for the Jade Tablet to optimize, then went to sleep as someone knocked softly at his door.

Li Qing accepted Wang Kuohai’s offer to consider serving as an Attendant at the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency, then explored Jade City and discovered a strange multicolored mist gathering above its crowds. He arranged to trade a Night-Bright Pearl for the escort agency’s martial arts and ended the chapter wondering what the mist was.

• Li Qing met Wang Kuohai for breakfast, and Wang offered him a paid position as an Attendant at the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency.
• Li Qing declined to decide immediately and went out to explore Jade City.
• Li Qing noticed faint multicolored Radiance rising from the crowds and forming a mist that the commoners could not see.
• Li Qing returned to the escort agency and asked Wang Kuohai to obtain copies of its martial arts in exchange for a Night-Bright Pearl.
• Wang Kuohai agreed to arrange at least four techniques, while Li Qing returned to his courtyard and stared up at the mist covering the city.

Li Qing received five martial arts manuals from Wang Kuohai, and the Jade Tablet fused their techniques into a single Martial Art: Essence Refining. After mastering it, Li Qing gained heightened senses and a connection to weapons, then joined Wang Kuohai for a celebratory dinner while remaining wary of the strange mist in the sky.

• A mysterious gray-robed man watched the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency and sensed an aura resembling the cult's before leaving.
• Wang Kuohai gave Li Qing five martial arts manuals bought from the agency's escort chiefs.
• Li Qing saw that the Jade Tablet had fused the manuals into Essence Refining and granted him Clear Six Senses and Weapon Spirit Connection.
• Li Qing practiced 108 force-exertion techniques, mastered them, and found that his senses had sharpened and his saber moved as if it were an extension of his body.
• Li Qing questioned the unchanging colored mist in the sky, then joined Wang Kuohai at Phoenix Pavilion, where Wang toasted him for saving his life.

Li Qing learned about the hidden Dao Lineage from Wang Kuohai, then sensed he was being watched and prepared an ambush in his room. Zhang Yutai broke in to steal Li Qing’s blood essence, and the chapter ended as Li Qing attacked him from the rafters.

• Wang Kuohai asked Li Qing about the Dao Lineage and whether immortals and dragons were real, but Li Qing admitted he knew little about it.
• On the ride back to the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency, Li Qing sensed he was being watched and prepared a decoy in his room before hiding in the rafters with his blade.
• Zhang Yutai entered Li Qing’s room through the doorway as a shadow and reached for the decoy, hoping to absorb Li Qing’s blood essence.
• Li Qing’s illusory Flood Dragon struck Zhang Yutai with a soul attack, but Zhang Yutai used a Jade Talisman to counter it.
• Li Qing leapt from the rafters and swung a dazzling blade of light at Zhang Yutai.

Li Qing killed Zhang Yutai, discovered that his stolen texts revealed combined blood arts and a new Shadow Art, and disposed of the corpse. As he returned from the alley, he spotted a figure leaping across a rooftop.

• Li Qing struck down Zhang Yutai after dodging his jade talisman's shield, then searched the corpse and found blood-organization tokens, a coded letter, scriptures, animal hide, and five thousand taels of silver.
• The jade tablet revealed that The Blood Swallowing Art, The Blood Refining Art, and The Blood Fusion Art could be cultivated together, and that the hide's The Shadow Transformation Art had been optimized into The Shadow Art.
• Li Qing wrapped Zhang Yutai's corpse, cleaned away traces of the killing, and carried it through the alleys before dumping it.
• As Li Qing headed back, he stopped after seeing a figure leap across a rooftop on the other side of the street.

Li Qing cultivated the Spirit Blood Curse and formed a blood-red seed that let him cast the Burning Blood Flame. He then cultivated the Shadow Art, gaining the ability to cloak himself in shadow and pass through walls.

• Li Qing returned to his courtyard after spotting a mysterious cultivator in Jade City and began cultivating the Three Talents Blood Curse.
• Li Qing endured an hour of pain and formed a blood-red seed in his lower abdomen, then used it to summon and control the Burning Blood Flame.
• Li Qing studied the Shadow Art and suspected it drew vital essence from people in crowded places.
• The next day, Li Qing told Wang Kuohai to keep others away and cultivated the Shadow Art in a dark corner of his room.
• Li Qing formed a black spell seed, cloaked himself in shadow, passed through a wall, and discovered he could move outside the shadows beneath sunlight.

Prefect Fang Yuqing learned that a Blood Demon Sect sleeper agent had been murdered and sent the evidence to the Demon Extermination Hall. Li Qing watched a mysterious alley where concealed figures gathered at night, then returned by day and found no sign of it.

• Fei Yangming reported that a suspected Blood Demon Sect agent had been killed and that the victim’s secret letter could only be deciphered by the sect.
• Fang Yuqing ordered Fei Yangming to take the token and letter to the Demon Extermination Hall and considered warning his sect about possible moves by the Northern Barbarians.
• Li Qing reflected on the differing vital essence produced by the Shadow Art and decided to avoid cultivating arts with incompatible attributes.
• Li Qing returned at night to the alley where he had left the body, followed a smoky figure, and watched many disguised people enter and leave a pitch-black alley.
• Li Qing chose not to enter the alley and returned the following afternoon, only to find that it seemed to have vanished.

Li Qing discovered that the vanished alley appeared at night as a hidden street where cultivators traded unusual goods and Dharma Coins. After a seller with a tentacle beneath his robe noticed him, Li Qing left the street, unaware that the man had followed him.

• Li Qing watched the wall until it vanished at midnight and revealed the dark alley.
• Li Qing disguised himself in a black robe and entered the hidden street, where he saw shops, stalls, and Dharma Coins.
• Li Qing noticed a seller with a slick black tentacle beneath his robe and suspected the man had undergone a transformation after breaking a taboo.
• The seller's eyes changed as he confronted Li Qing, who used Shadow Art and calmly walked away.
• The seller followed Li Qing into the night and searched for him.

Li Qing fought and killed a black-robed monster that had tracked him through the alley, then took its belongings back to his room at the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency. He found a cultivation manual called the Black Water Profound Yin Art among the loot.

• Li Qing encountered a black-robed figure that attacked him with freezing black water and metal-like tentacles.
• Li Qing used the Flood Dragon from the Spirit Summoning Tablet, Burning Blood Flame, and his blade to kill the attacker.
• Li Qing searched the corpse, took its pouch, and used the Shadow Art to leave with the body.
• Li Qing returned to the All-Under-Heaven Escort Agency and found a black sphere, a transparent stone, a Jade Talisman, Dharma Coins, a medicinal herb, silver notes, and two books in the pouch.
• Li Qing used the Jade Tablet to identify one book as a diary and the other as the Black Water Profound Yin Art.

Li Qing examined the Black Water cultivation arts and wondered whether he could cultivate multiple kinds of vital essence, but decided to investigate the risks first. Reading Wang Dexiu’s diary, he learned about the Black Water Profound Sect’s scheme, Jade City’s cultivators and trade, and the wider Dao Lineages that ruled the world.

• Li Qing compared the Black Water Profound Yin Art with the Black Water Art and speculated that different cultivation arts refined vital essence from different parts of the body.
• Li Qing considered cultivating many arts at once, then held back because the arts might clash and cause an Aberration.
• Li Qing read Wang Dexiu’s diary and learned that Wang Dexiu had fled the Black Water Profound Sect after discovering the abbot planned to kill disciples and use their kidneys to refine a great elixir.
• Wang Dexiu’s diary revealed that breaking his vow had led to tentacles, black pustules, and a craving for flesh and blood as he began to undergo an Aberration.
• Li Qing learned that Jade City held at least a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators, and that major sects traded resources and cultivation arts for Essence Stones.
• Li Qing learned about the seven major Dao Lineages, the Blessed Lands formed from collected vital essence, and the three stages of Foundation Establishment.