Recaps

Li Qing and Elder Huang exposed Fei Yangming as a traitor and killed him while the battle raged around them. The fight between Fang Qingyu and Young Master Blood Spirit remained unresolved, and Li Qing judged that the True Method Realm duel would decide the battle.

• Wang Jie clashed evenly with Huang Tairen as the Blood Demon Sect cultivators and the Ten Shadow Agents fought around them.
• Fei Yangming attacked Li Qing and Elder Huang, but they revealed that they had been watching him and fought back.
• Li Qing crept close under the Shadow Art and used the Spirit Summoning Tablet to distract Fei Yangming, letting a hidden blood flame burn him before he died.
• Fang Qingyu countered Young Master Blood Spirit's Ten Thousand Demon Blood Sword with the Jade Blood Divine Ruler, and the two exchanged rapid attacks.
• Li Qing watched the duel and concluded that the True Method Realm fighters would determine the battle's outcome.

Li Qing and Elder Huang tried to break Wang Jie’s military formation by attacking his cavalry, but Ghost Mask Daoist intervened and fought Elder Huang and Elder Fang. Li Qing’s Burning Blood Flame briefly threatened the cavalry before Wang Jie used the Military School Wind Formula to extinguish it.

• Li Qing told Elder Huang that Wang Jie’s strength depended on his cavalry, and they moved to attack the soldiers behind him.
• Ghost Mask Daoist appeared with a Green-Faced Imp, knocked aside Elder Huang’s pearl, and challenged the Demon Extermination Hall’s intervention.
• Elder Fang revealed himself with a flying sword and joined Elder Huang in fighting Ghost Mask Daoist while battles spread through Jade City.
• Li Qing attacked a cavalryman with Burning Blood Flame, but Ghost Mask Daoist’s black talisman missed him as he dodged away.
• Wang Jie used the Tiger Tally and Military School Wind Formula to extinguish the flames and protect his cavalry.

Li Qing used the Thunderbolt Fire Bead to turn the battle against the Blood Demon Sect, helping Huang Tairen kill Wang Jie and rout the cavalry. After the enemy leaders fled, Li Qing stayed behind in Jade City and extinguished fires, where he saw strange black wisps rising from the people.

• Li Qing cautiously moved within range of Wang Jie and threw the Thunderbolt Fire Bead at the cavalry before fleeing the Ghost Mask Daoist's attack.
• The explosion disrupted Wang Jie's vital essence, allowing Huang Tairen to kill him with the Armor-Piercing Divine Spear and cut through the cavalry.
• Young Master Blood Spirit fled, leaving Fang Qingyu to contain his Undying Blood Shadow while Huang Tairen pursued him.
• The Ghost Mask Daoist vanished, and Li Qing remained hidden as he surveyed the burning city.
• Li Qing used the Burning Blood Flame to extinguish fires and saw black wisps rise from the despairing townspeople into the sky.

After helping end the rebellion in Jade City, Li Qing received spirit medicines as a reward and began cultivating the Humanity's Overview Technique. The incantation transformed his body and created several mysterious spell structures in his dantian, leaving him wondering what they were.

• Li Qing suspected that the essence qi in the air carried people's negative emotions, but continued rescuing people from the fires while avoiding notice.
• After Wang Jie died and Young Master Blood Spirit fled, the Government Office and Demon Extermination Hall defeated the rebels and drove off the evil cultivators.
• A spy told Li Qing that he had earned 100 merit points for helping save Jade City, and delivered a box containing four hundred-year-old spirit medicines.
• Li Qing returned to his room and used ink brewed over nine kinds of flames to write the Humanity's Fleshly Body Incantation of Ten Thousand Laws on his body.
• The incantation caused extreme pain as white essence qi spread through Li Qing's organs and transformed the Burning Blood Flame spell structure.
• Several new, strange spell structures appeared in Li Qing's dantian, and he wondered what they were.

Li Qing exchanged all his merit points for twenty Foundation Establishment techniques to help derive a new cultivation method, despite Elder Fang’s warnings. Back in his room, he realized Young Master Blood Spirit might be waiting to kill him and used True Body of Ten Thousand Laws to change his appearance so he could escape.

• Li Qing assessed his essence cultivation and decided to collect meridian-circulation techniques for the second step of the Humanity's Overview Technique.
• Li Qing brought Elder Fang a list of twenty techniques and explained that he wanted to fuse them rather than cultivate them all.
• Elder Fang warned Li Qing that deriving a cultivation method was dangerous and urged him to spend his merit points on supplies, but Li Qing insisted on pursuing his interest.
• Li Qing spent his hundred merit points on the techniques and gave Elder Fang his last jar of Pear Blossom Brew.
• Li Qing returned to his room, feared Young Master Blood Spirit was waiting outside, and used True Body of Ten Thousand Laws to shrink and alter his body.

Li Qing collected twenty Foundation Establishment methods and used them to complete the second step of his cultivation technique. His essence qi limit rose twentyfold, leaving him far from full capacity and in need of at least ninety-six more Essence Stones.

• Li Qing collected twenty cultivation methods from Elder Fang, while a shadowy man questioned his plan to create his own method.
• Li Qing reviewed the methods copied onto his Jade Tablet and saw that Humanity's Overview Technique had completed its second step.
• Li Qing circulated Myriad Method Essence Qi through the Twelve Proper and Reversed Circulations of the Zhou Tian Acupoints Diagram, transforming his essence qi and spells.
• Li Qing discovered that his essence qi capacity had doubled again and estimated that he needed at least ninety-six more Essence Stones to fill it.
• Sensing Myriad Daos stirred briefly inside Li Qing.

Li Qing discovered that an iron bead was a powerful Mystic Iron Sword Pellet, then secretly left Jade City to avoid the spreading dangers. After two days on the road toward Dragon Path City, he camped beside a river to roast fish.

• Li Qing used Sensing Myriad Daos and the Heart Demon Profound Light to uncover the Mystic Iron Sword Pellet and erase the despair within it.
• Li Qing tested the Sword Pellet, learned its flying-sword strike consumed a third of his essence, and decided to keep it as a trump card.
• Li Qing burned his scriptures, left a letter and six jars of Pear Blossom Brew for Elder Huang, and slipped out of the Demon Extermination Hall without saying goodbye.
• Li Qing changed his appearance, escaped Jade City, and set out for Dragon Path City to avoid the growing dangers across the region.
• After two days of travel, Li Qing found a clear river and made camp beside it, roasting fish as dusk fell.

Li Qing fought and destroyed a dangerous Ghost Wedding Procession, absorbing the Essence Stone it left behind. He then found an unconscious scholar in the collapsed sedan chair and woke him beside his campfire.

• Li Qing hid from a Ghost Wedding Procession, but the procession turned toward him and charged.
• Li Qing burned the paper effigies with Life-Death Cycle Calamity Fire and destroyed the monster with Myriad Qi Dao-Extinguishing Wind.
• Li Qing collected the monster’s Essence Stone, and the Jade Tablet absorbed its essence into his cultivation.
• A pale-faced scholar tumbled from the collapsed sedan chair, and Li Qing woke him with river water.
• Li Qing relit his campfire and ate grilled fish as the apprehensive scholar approached.

Li Qing rescued Zhou Qingming from a ghost wedding procession and agreed to travel with him toward Three Rivers City before continuing to Dragon Path City. They reached a riverside town, where Zhou Qingming offered to treat Li Qing to a meal.

• Zhou Qingming introduced himself as a licentiate from Three Rivers City and thanked Li Qing for rescuing him.
• Zhou Qingming explained that paper figures from a ghost wedding procession had captured him while he traveled to Jade City.
• Li Qing gave Zhou Qingming the false name Bai Qingshan, and Zhou Qingming described using the Purple Star Divination Technique to locate himself.
• Li Qing and Zhou Qingming decided to travel together by boat to Three Rivers City, then continue toward Dragon Path City.
• Li Qing woke Zhou Qingming the next morning, and they walked along the river to a walled town where Li Qing paid the guards to enter.
• Zhou Qingming offered to buy Li Qing a meal, and Li Qing accepted.

Li Qing and Zhou Qingming enjoyed a meal beside the Pu River, then searched the docks for passage to Three Rivers City. An old fisherman agreed to take them for five taels of silver, but his tiny boat left Li Qing doubtful.

• Li Qing and Zhou Qingming admired the Pu River and discussed the waterways and pleasure boats of Great Tang.
• Zhou Qingming thanked Li Qing for saving his life, and they shared a meal and wine while watching the sunset.
• Li Qing and Zhou Qingming asked around the docks for a boat to Three Rivers City, but most boatmen refused them.
• Zhou Qingming failed to secure passage aboard a large merchant ship, so the two prepared to try again the next day.
• An old fisherman offered to take Li Qing and Zhou Qingming for five taels of silver, and they followed him to his small boat.

Li Qing was summoned from his boat in a dream and taken beneath the Pu River to the Dragon Palace, where he discovered that the old man he had met in the rainstorm was its king. The king welcomed Li Qing and invited him to sit, leaving their purpose for summoning him unresolved.

• Li Qing and Zhou Qingming settled in for the night aboard the fisherman's boat after deciding not to seek an inn.
• A steward called Li Qing onto a golden ship, which carried him underwater toward the Dragon Palace.
• Li Qing recognized the green token from his encounter with the old man in the rainstorm, and the steward treated him with increased respect.
• The steward entertained Li Qing with food, wine, and dancers during the journey to the palace.
• The steward introduced Li Qing to the Dragon King, whom Li Qing recognized as the old man from the rainstorm.
• The Dragon King greeted Li Qing and invited him to sit.

Li Qing attended a Dragon Palace feast where the old man revealed that every dish was made from humans and urged him to eat for the sake of cultivation. Li Qing refused on the grounds that he would preserve his humanity and original heart, and the old man welcomed him as a fellow cultivator, though Li Qing remained unsure whether he had passed a test.

• Li Qing watched the Dragon Palace dancers while the old man explained that the feast's dishes were made from human infants and virgins.
• Li Qing avoided the human dishes and drank Hundred Herb Spirit Wine, restoring vital essence to his body.
• After the attendants withdrew, the old man challenged Li Qing's refusal to eat humans and argued that cultivators followed the law of the strong preying on the weak.
• Li Qing declared that his humanity came from his inner self and vowed to preserve his original heart and never violate his precepts.
• The old man praised Li Qing's principles and said another fellow cultivator would join the path to the Great Dao, leaving Li Qing relieved but wary.

Li Qing heard the old dragon’s offer: receive a Qi-Concealing Bead and a Jixia Academy token in exchange for protecting Ao Long'er two hundred years later. The old dragon explained that Li Qing’s fate could not be divined and urged him to remain hidden, while Li Qing weighed the danger posed by five Dragon Palaces.

• The old dragon introduced his grandson Ao Long'er and offered Li Qing a deal concerning the boy.
• The old dragon gave Li Qing a Qi-Concealing Bead to hide his aura and a Jixia Academy token to help him continue cultivating.
• The old dragon asked Li Qing to protect Ao Long'er in two hundred years from the Taihe Dragon Palace and the Four Seas Dragon Palaces, or at least save his life.
• Li Qing questioned why the old dragon chose him, and the old dragon said no one could calculate Li Qing’s fate.
• The old dragon told Li Qing to conceal himself until his cultivation developed, since hiding Li Qing could also conceal Ao Long'er's fate.

Li Qing accepted the Qi-Concealing Bead and a token from the old Dragon King, who hoped he would help Ao Long'er survive the dangers ahead. After waking on the boat and testing the bead, Li Qing continued toward Three Rivers City with Zhou Qingming.

• The old Dragon King praised Li Qing's composure and potential, then gave Ao Long'er the Qi-Concealing Bead and a token for him.
• Li Qing accepted the items and promised no contract, while the old Dragon King warned that he would not intervene in Li Qing's future.
• Li Qing woke on the boat, confirmed the encounter was real, and used the bead to conceal his cultivator's aura.
• The old Dragon King told Ao Long'er that he trusted Li Qing and explained that the boy's refusal to eat humans left a chance for Li Qing to save him.
• The next morning, Li Qing and Zhou Qingming ate breakfast aboard the boat as they continued toward Three Rivers City.

Li Qing traveled down the Pu River with Zhou Qingming and considered how to gather Essence Stones faster. After killing a river Anomaly and absorbing its Essence Stone, he reached Three Rivers City with Zhou Qingming, who invited him to stay at his house.

• Li Qing observed faint essence in the riverside forest and wondered what would happen if cultivators absorbed the essence of plants and animals.
• Li Qing told Zhou Qingming that understanding ordinary people’s hardship was important for becoming a good official.
• A tentacled Anomaly attacked Li Qing’s boat, and Li Qing killed it with his sword before burning its body and collecting an Essence Stone.
• Li Qing absorbed the Essence Stone’s essence, raising his reserves by one percent, and realized he needed at least eighty-nine more stones to fill his body.
• The fishing boat reached Three Rivers City, where Zhou Qingming asked Li Qing to stay at his house for the night.

Li Qing explored Three Rivers City, found that its essence was being absorbed by forces in five directions, and discovered that eating well steadily increased his essence. After sensing a gathering of cultivators outside the city, he cautiously went to investigate and found a market in the wilderness.

• Li Qing declined Zhou Qingming's invitation, recalling that staying with Wang Kuohai's escort agency had preceded its destruction, and slipped away into Three Rivers City.
• Li Qing observed the city's poverty and prosperity, bought supplies, and checked into an inn while avoiding further investigation of the city.
• Li Qing sensed that forces in five directions were absorbing most of the essence above Three Rivers City, suggesting a Dao Lineage sect nearby.
• Li Qing spent the day eating, raising his essence by 0.5 percentage points, and considered relying on food to advance his cultivation.
• Li Qing sensed a large gathering of refined essence outside the city and waited until midnight to check that no blood qi appeared.
• Li Qing left the city in shadow and found a market in the wilderness, where a sight made his pupils shrink.

Li Qing disguised himself as Sun Wukong to enter the Ghost Market and found a green-robed Aberration cultivator selling strange objects. After demonstrating his Shadow Art and bargaining over the stall’s items, he left the seller eager to trade.

• Li Qing recognized the gathering of monsters, demons, ghosts, and Rogue Cultivators as the Ghost Market and transformed into Sun Wukong to enter unnoticed.
• Li Qing surveyed the market’s sinister stalls and used the Sensing Myriad Daos spell to avoid dangerous presences.
• Li Qing examined a green-robed cultivator’s stall, which held a Bronze Fragment, a broken Bronze Bell, an Essence Stone, and a strange head.
• Li Qing offered to trade his Shadow Art for the items and argued that the two ancient objects made the deal a gamble.
• Li Qing cast the Shadow Art to demonstrate its power, and the green-robed cultivator agreed to trade when Li Qing appeared ready to leave.

Li Qing traded the Shadow Art for an Essence Stone and two bronze objects, then mastered the Sun-Moon Divine Eye Technique. He returned to the Ghost Market and used his new vision to see the monstrous reality beneath its disguises.

• Li Qing traded the Shadow Art to a man in a blue robe for an Essence Stone, a Bronze Bell, and a Bronze Fragment.
• Li Qing infused the Bronze Fragment with Myriad Laws and Myriad Daos Essence and discovered that the essence could activate special treasures.
• Li Qing cultivated the Sun-Moon Divine Eye Technique by watching the sun and moon for a full cycle, gaining sharp vision and the ability to see through illusions.
• Li Qing returned to Three Rivers City, ate at a restaurant, and decided to revisit the Ghost Market before leaving the next day.
• Li Qing transformed into a Macaque at the Ghost Market and saw the grotesque mutations and decay hidden beneath its visitors' appearances.

Li Qing witnessed the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden arrive at the Ghost Market and drain vital essence from the crowd before entering the central temple. The Three Rivers Sect sealed the market to keep the arrival secret, trapping Li Qing inside as dangerous beings gathered in the Mist.

• Li Qing saw a righteous cultivator disguised in rat skin and altered his tail to look mutated.
• The Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden descended in a sedan couch and bewitched the cultivators, drawing vital essence from them.
• Daoist Three Rivers welcomed the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden, who entered the central temple for a banquet.
• Li Qing found the Ghost Market gate shut and the area surrounded by Mist filled with dangerous Ghosts and corpse-like beings.
• A Three Rivers Sect cultivator announced the market was sealed to prevent news of the Heavenly Maiden's arrival from leaking.
• A pig-headed Monster charged at the Three Rivers Sect Daoists with a rake.

Li Qing tried to escape the Ghost Market after the Three Rivers Sect trapped its cultivators inside, but the formations thwarted his evasion technique and killed monsters attempting to break through. He remained trapped as he overheard that the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden might be seeking revenge against Xin Shenzi of the Mo Family.

• A Three Rivers Sect Daoist used a formation to seize and dissolve a pig-headed monster, frightening Li Qing.
• Li Qing searched for a way out and discovered that formations covered the ground and sky, with dangerous corpses buried beneath the market.
• Li Qing tested his Myriad Things Evasion Technique against the boundary, but a ghostly hand formed and forced him to retreat.
• A tiger-headed monster attacked the formation, but an armored corpse delayed it until ghostly hands tore it apart and the corpse devoured its power.
• Li Qing listened to two black-robed cultivators speculate that the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden had a grudge against Xin Shenzi of the Mo Family.

Li Qing learned that the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden had taken over the Three Rivers Sect and was forcing Ghost Market cultivators to join her Heavenly Maiden Temple. He secretly subdued the Three-Corpse Divine Insect placed in his body and ended the chapter registering under the name Sun Wukong.

• Li Qing concluded that the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden was gathering allies for a conflict with Xin Shenzi and feared the Ghost Market cultivators would be forced into battle.
• The Three Rivers Sect summoned the Ghost Market cultivators and announced the creation of the Heavenly Maiden Temple, demanding that everyone take a Three Corpses God Pill.
• The Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden appeared, overwhelmed the crowd, and sent Three-Corpse Divine Insects into their bodies to bind them to her faction.
• Li Qing used his Indestructible True Body and Heart Demon Profound Light to control his insect and deceive the strange mark inside it.
• The Three Rivers Sect began registering the new disciples, and Li Qing gave the registrar the name Sun Wukong before being told to infuse a crystal ball with his essence and qi.

Li Qing passed the Three Rivers Sect’s test by disguising his essence and was assigned under Niu Shisan, who revealed the sect’s plan to attack the Mo Family branch in Three Rivers City. At Niu Shisan’s banquet, Li Qing protected the disguised Yellow Weasel Spirit from Daoist Li’s suspicious offer of Blood Wine by drinking it himself.

• Li Qing altered his essence’s aura, passed the test as a Body Strengthening inner sect disciple, and received his token.
• The disciples built a temple and its surrounding facilities, and Li Qing was assigned to serve True Disciple Niu Shisan.
• Niu Shisan told his subordinates that Lady Blood Bone planned to capture Xin Shenzi and plunder the Mo Family branch in Three Rivers City.
• At Niu Shisan’s banquet, Li Qing observed the demons and monsters feasting while he and the disguised Yellow Weasel Spirit ate cooked food.
• Daoist Li pressed the Yellow Weasel Spirit to drink Blood Wine, so Li Qing took the cup and swallowed the wine into a sphere formed inside his throat.

Li Qing learned from Daoist Yellow Weasel that escaping the sealed Ghost Market seemed possible only during the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden’s attack or by stealing a Three Rivers Sect gate pass. Distrusting his supposed ally, Li Qing secretly followed him and discovered him sending out an illusory Niu Shisan to explore the Heavenly Maiden Temple.

• Li Qing intervened when Li Daoist pressured Daoist Yellow Weasel, then took Yellow Weasel outside to discuss an escape from the Ghost Market.
• Daoist Yellow Weasel described the Three Rivers Corpse Soul Formation and the two known ways out, while Li Qing warned that both carried grave risks and agreed to remain allies.
• Li Qing secretly followed Daoist Yellow Weasel to his room using the Shadow Art and Myriad Things Evasion Technique.
• At night, Daoist Yellow Weasel painted a portrait of Niu Shisan, brought the figure to life with a Curse, and fell asleep as it left the room.
• Li Qing recognized the figure as an illusion and followed it into the depths of the Heavenly Maiden Temple, where it appeared to search for something.

Li Qing followed Niu Shisan into the heart of the Heavenly Maiden Temple and overheard Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden planning an attack on Three Rivers City. After Niu Shisan vanished and the temple began screening everyone for spies, Li Qing waited nervously as the inspection reached him.

• Li Qing followed Niu Shisan to the Heavenly Maiden Temple's inner palace, where he hid outside and listened to the leaders discuss their plans.
• Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden revealed that she had gathered disciples and allies to attack Three Rivers City and kill Xin Shenzi.
• Black Wood Maiden caught Niu Shisan eavesdropping, but he vanished before she could capture him.
• Li Qing returned to his room, then joined the temple's gathered disciples when Black Wood Maiden ordered everyone to be checked for spies.
• Black Wood Maiden examined the crowd with a mirror that could expose disguises and aberrant power, then called Li Qing forward after checking Daoist Yellow Weasel.

Black Wood Maiden’s True Form Mirror failed to identify Daoist Yellow Weasel as a spy, while he secretly reported the Heavenly Maiden’s plans to Xin Shenzi. Xin Shenzi’s allies launched a dawn raid on Heavenly Maiden Temple, where Xin Shenzi confronted Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden after the first clash.

• Black Wood Maiden scanned the gathered cultivators with the True Form Mirror but found no spies, then told the Heavenly Maiden she would investigate discreetly.
• Daoist Yellow Weasel used a talisman to contact Xin Shenzi and reveal the Heavenly Maiden’s plans.
• Xin Shenzi met with Long Feiyun and Xu Changyu in Three Rivers City and arranged a dawn strike using the Mo Family Iron Cavalry.
• Xu Changyu led the cavalry against Heavenly Maiden Temple, and the black tiger formation shattered much of the temple’s outer formation.
• Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden repelled the black tiger phantom, halting the cavalry, and Xin Shenzi rode forward to face her.