Recaps

Li Qing watched as Ghost Spirit Daoist and ten Anomalies besieged Shang Xuewen’s merchant ship, while Shang Xuewen fought to defend it with his spells and brocade handkerchief. Ghost Spirit Daoist’s powerful strike cracked the handkerchief’s protective glow, leaving the ship’s defense close to collapse.

• Ghost Spirit Daoist appeared on the lake and revealed that the Chujiang Ghost King Palace intended to interfere in North Province.
• Shang Xuewen put the ship’s occupants to sleep and shielded the vessel with a mysterious brocade handkerchief as ten Anomalies attacked.
• Shang Xuewen used his spell sword to wound the Anomalies, while Li Qing’s Shadow Paper Doll briefly seized Ghost Spirit Daoist before he destroyed it.
• Shang Xuewen killed a phantom Anomaly, but Ghost Spirit Daoist retaliated with a powerful ghostly hand that cracked the handkerchief’s protective glow.

Li Qing survived the clash between the Ghost Spirit Daoist and the swordsman who drove him away, then reflected on how his fate was disrupting cause and effect. He began considering ways to hide his fate and seek powerful heavenly calculation arts.

• Shang Xuewen prepared to flee as the Ghost Spirit Daoist’s attack overwhelmed him.
• A crimson sword light severed the ghostly hand and forced the Ghost Spirit Daoist to flee, with the swordsman pursuing him.
• The two fighters’ clash sent fragments raining around Li Qing, who used World-Walking Star-Shifting to escape to the riverbank.
• Shang Xuewen awakened the sleeping passengers and gave the captain instructions while Li Qing returned to his cabin.
• Li Qing considered finding heavenly calculation arts to conceal his fate and listed Azure Spirit Academy and Zhuge Shenji as possible leads.

Li Qing searched for ways to strengthen his knowledge and preserve his life while gathering Essence Stones aboard a merchant ship. When a mysterious fugitive with an aura like Wang Qianqiu’s appeared beneath the ship, Li Qing secretly caused him to be discovered and captured, leaving the danger apparently resolved.

• Li Qing chose Zhuge Shenji, Ma Bowen, and Zhang Daqian as possible sources of divination knowledge and considered hiding his Flesh Seed in the Zhang Family Realm’s ancient battlefield.
• Li Qing studied the Compendium of the World, avoided Shang Xuewen, and used Shadow Paper Dolls to kill weaker anomalies and collect over twenty Curse-Grade Essence Stones.
• Li Qing spotted a pale young man hiding beneath the merchant ship and sensed Calamity Qi and karmic entanglement like Wang Qianqiu’s.
• As officials searched the ship, Li Qing sent Calamity Qi through a Shadow Paper Doll, triggering a current that swept the fugitive into view.
• Soldiers spotted the fugitive underwater, and a Military School cultivator captured him before Li Qing concluded that the immediate danger had passed.

Li Qing monitored Zhu Yiba, a captured cultivator, to test whether his interference could alter someone favored by fate. Zhu Yiba was rescued from prison by Bai Shishi, leaving Li Qing to consider whether the rescue proved his theory.

• Li Qing decided to watch Zhu Yiba's fate after his capture and waited aboard the merchant ship while it stopped for the night.
• Soldiers inspected Li Qing's room, but they let him continue resting after seeing his Jixia Academy travel permit.
• Li Qing observed Zhu Yiba in the Demon Extermination Hall prison and judged that the injured cultivator might escape if fate favored him.
• Bai Shishi entered the prison, broke Zhu Yiba's shackles, and restored his strength.
• Bai Shishi warned that the guards would soon be discovered, and she and Zhu Yiba fled together while Li Qing watched.

Li Qing kept his distance from Zhu Yiba, whom he recognized as a destiny-favored figure able to influence those around him, while secretly monitoring the merchant ship. As the ship neared White Dragon Mountain, Li Qing considered using Ao Ming to make contact with such figures and expand his influence.

• After Zhu Yiba and Bai Shishi boarded the ship at Water-Land Pass, Li Qing left a Shadow Paper Doll in his room and moved ahead into the forest to follow them from a distance.
• Li Qing pursued the merchant ship downstream, using escape arts to keep up, hunting and fishing for food, and summoning weaker curse-rank anomalies for their Essence Stones.
• Zhu Yiba and Bai Shishi played music together on deck, drawing the passengers’ praise and attracting Shang Xuewen, a Legalist School successor.
• Zhu Yiba charmed Shang Xuewen during their conversation, and Li Qing sensed an unknown influence affecting both him and Bai Shishi.
• Li Qing resolved to avoid destiny-favored figures himself but considered having Ao Ming contact them and placing his own people among their forces.
• The merchant ship completed three-fifths of its journey and approached White Dragon Mountain, where the Taihe River cut through the range.

Li Qing discovered that the white mist over White Dragon Mountain was an anomalous power correcting the heavenly mechanism network, and he planned to use Zhu Yiba’s group to test its effects. The mist expanded over a hundred miles, trapping Li Qing and exposing him to a deadly song that compelled living things to walk into the river.

• Li Qing recorded the noon mist over White Dragon Mountain, and the Jade Tablet linked it to a correction of the heavenly mechanism network caused by his interference with Zhu Yiba’s fate.
• Li Qing crossed White Dragon Mountain and waited ahead of Zhu Yiba, Shang Xuewen, and Bai Shishi so he could observe whether they survived the cleansing.
• Zhu Yiba and his companions entered the mist, which abruptly spread across a hundred-mile radius and caught Li Qing as well.
• A strange song hypnotized living things in the mist and drew them toward the river, while Li Qing used Heavens Civilization Torrent to suppress its influence.
• Li Qing sensed a vast Anomaly behind the song and used World-Walking Star-Shifting to flee the dangerous mist.

Li Qing escaped the deadly Anomaly projection in White Dragon Mountain Gorge while Bai Shishi, Shang Xuewen, and Zhu Yiba survived by defending their minds aboard a merchant ship. After observing that the Child of Destiny could shelter people connected to his fate, Li Qing formed a plan to place useful forces under his protection and brought the ship’s corpses to River Town, where he met Chief Constable Wang Xiao'er.

• Bai Shishi, Shang Xuewen, and Zhu Yiba resisted the Anomaly projection as bewitched passengers jumped into the river and died.
• Li Qing escaped the white fog, then watched the merchant ship carrying the three survivors emerge from it hours later.
• After the fog vanished, the three survivors left the ship and traveled on foot, while Li Qing concluded that the Child of Destiny could protect people whose fates he had influenced.
• Li Qing collected the corpses, used his Shadow Paper Dolls to row the abandoned ship to River Town, and alerted workers at the dock.
• Chief Constable Wang Xiao'er arrived, recognized Li Qing's Jixia Academy travel permit, and agreed to inspect the ship with him.

Li Qing reported the White Dragon Mountain anomaly to Chief Constable Wang, then traveled toward Two Realms City through the Hundred-Li Water Marsh. When water bandits approached a pleasure boat carrying Wang Daochang, Li Qing recognized a Slaughter Demon Sect cultivator among them and prepared to intervene.

• Li Qing told Chief Constable Wang that a deadly fog had appeared near White Dragon Mountain and instructed him to alert the magistrate or the Demon Extermination Hall.
• Chief Constable Wang hurried to River Town to report the boat full of corpses while Li Qing continued toward Two Realms City.
• Li Qing traveled by skiff through the Hundred-Li Water Marsh and encountered a pleasure boat carrying scholars and ladies, including Wang Daochang of Taihe Academy's School of Diplomacy.
• Water bandits emerged from behind an island and pursued the pleasure boat, prompting its guards to prepare to defend it.
• Li Qing detected a Slaughter Demon Sect cultivator among the bandits and sent a Shadow Paper Doll toward their boat, intending to use Wang Daochang's Dao Lineage to deal with him.

Li Qing used the Shadow Paper Doll to secretly wrap the water bandits in Calamity Qi as they attacked a pleasure boat. Wang Daochang fought off the attackers, but a water bandit's Slaughter Demon Head spell triggered a magical disaster that destroyed the bow and left the bandits defeated.

• Li Qing sent the Shadow Paper Doll to mark the water bandits with Calamity Qi and return to his shadow.
• The water bandits boarded the pleasure boat, but their concealed weapons struck them through a string of apparent accidents.
• The remaining bandits fought the guards, and Wang Daochang drew his sword to protect the passengers.
• A black-clothed water bandit cast a Slaughter Demon Head at Wang Daochang, who shattered it with starlight.
• The bandit's magical artifact cracked, releasing an Anomaly that turned on him as Wang Daochang's attack killed him and blasted open the bow.
• Wang Daochang recognized the black-red skull spell as the Slaughter Demon Sect's Slaughter Demon Head.

Wang Daochang returned to Two Realms City after a supernatural attack, while Li Qing revealed himself as the World Patrol and entered the city. Li Qing began exploring its bustling streets, leaving his visit to Taihe Academy for later.

• Wang Daochang used a talisman to send information to Two Realms City and ordered the pleasure boat back to the dock.
• Wang Daochang noticed Li Qing's skiff and suspected that its occupant was a cultivator.
• Demon Extermination Hall soldiers cleared the dock, and one used a bell to make the passengers believe river bandits had attacked them and Wang Daochang had defended them.
• Li Qing presented his travel permit, and Wang Daochang learned that he was Li Wushuang, the World Patrol from Jixia Academy.
• Li Qing declined Wang Daochang's offer to visit Taihe Academy immediately, entered Two Realms City, and began surveying its streets.

Li Qing began building an information network in Two Realms City, recording its books and taking control of its two major gangs. He then approached a destitute scholar whose mother had died, offering him a way to bury her with honor.

• Li Qing stayed at Tongfu Inn and sent Shadow Paper Dolls throughout the city to record books and gather information.
• The Jade Tablet helped Li Qing identify the ancient Zhang Family Realm battlefield survivors and plan to investigate the four academies' Library Towers.
• Li Qing spotted Zhu Yiba and Bai Shishi at the gates of the Demon Extermination Hall and anticipated trouble in the city.
• Li Qing used Heavens Civilization Torrent to control Wu Derui and ordered him to gather information and approach Zhu Yiba for protection.
• Li Qing took control of Zhu Qingyu, leader of the Eighteen Streets Gang, and gave him orders like Wu Derui's.
• Li Qing found a grieving scholar who could not afford a coffin for his dead mother and asked whether he wanted to bury her in glory.

Li Qing used a Shadow Paper Doll to recruit a poor scholar, while Lou Xingyue investigated the Dream Black Hand behind Li Qiankun’s death and related incidents. Lou grew suspicious of Li Wushuang but hesitated to act because Li Wushuang was backed by his master and had already left Dragon Path City.

• Li Qing offered the scholar five hundred taels of gold in exchange for becoming his subordinate and signing a contract, and the scholar asked what Li Qing wanted.
• Lou Xingyue arrived in Dragon Path City and told Fang Wenxin he was investigating the Dream Black Hand and its possible hostility toward the School of Diplomacy.
• Fang Wenxin agreed to help Lou investigate people who had resented the Zhou Family Father and Son before the fifth day of the fifth month.
• Fang Dewen used the Hundred Things Eyes to monitor Lou Xingyue and Fang Wenxin, then recorded their conversation for Li Qing’s records.
• Lou Xingyue reviewed the evidence and concluded that Li Wushuang fit many clues pointing to the Dream Black Hand, but questioned whether someone behind Li Wushuang had acted after he left the city.

Lou Xingyue investigated the ruined Zhou Family and grew more suspicious of Li Qing as the Dream Black Hand, then arranged for Huang Tianhe to test him. Li Qing learned of the investigation through the Jade Tablet and began preparing to counter it, including planting the Flesh Seed and potentially faking his death.

• Lou Xingyue considered Fang Yaoguang a possible Dream Black Hand and decided to inspect the suspects' sites in person.
• Lou Xingyue used a spell to reconstruct the Zhou Family's past and found signs that Qian Jinchuan had known about the Zhou son's suspicious death.
• Lou Xingyue concluded that the Dream Black Hand was connected to the Zhou Family and summoned Huang Tianhe to test Li Qing in Two Realms City.
• Li Qing saw the Jade Tablet report that Lou Xingyue suspected him and had asked Huang Tianhe to investigate.
• Li Qing weighed escape plans, resolved to make his preparations, and considered using extraordinary means to turn the investigation to his advantage.

Li Qing toured Two Realms City while developing a network of mortals and gangs to gather information on the Dao Lineages. His spies revealed a mysterious treasure tied to the ancient battlefield of Zhang Family Realm, with Zhu Yiba at the center of the coming conflict.

• Li Qing toured Two Realms City and resolved to use mortals as eyes and ears against the Dao Lineage cultivators.
• A Shadow Paper Doll discovered a Luban Family puppet watching Li Qing from an attic across from the inn.
• Li Qing had Shadow Paper Dolls feed Lan Xinghe's recorded information into the Water Marsh Boat Gang and the Eighteen Streets Gang.
• The gangs' reports revealed that the four great academies and the Slaughter Demon Sect were searching Two Realms City for a treasure connected to the ancient battlefield of Zhang Family Realm.
• Li Qing learned that Zhu Yiba would be central to the incident and decided to focus on the academies' collections and the battlefield's resources while observing from a distance.

Li Qing visited Taihe Academy as a World Patrol from Jixia Academy to assess its rating, and Vice Dean Baili Qi presented the academy’s achievements and showed him its renovated grounds. Li Qing praised the academy’s results and facilities as the inspection continued.

• Li Qing left Tongfu Inn and introduced himself at Taihe Academy as World Patrol Li Wushuang from Jixia Academy.
• Vice Dean Baili Qi welcomed Li Qing and brought him into the academy, where Li Qing assessed the strength of its instructors.
• Baili Qi presented Taihe Academy’s three-year results, including 180 students with entry-level scholarly status and ten with licentiate status.
• Li Qing reviewed the documents and said he would truthfully report the academy’s achievements to Jixia Academy.
• Baili Qi led Li Qing on a tour and explained the academy’s greenery and recent renovation, which had cost one hundred thousand taels of silver.

Li Qing toured Taihe Academy’s Library Tower with Baili Qi and secretly had a Shadow Paper Doll record its books. He discovered another mad diary whose contents added to the pages revealing the truth of the world, while suspecting that the academy’s decision to open every room was a test.

• Li Qing entered the Library Tower with Baili Qi while the other instructors waited outside.
• Baili Qi explained the library’s collections and the trials students had to pass before joining the School of Diplomacy’s Dao lineage.
• Li Qing’s Shadow Paper Doll secretly recorded the books as he toured the library with Baili Qi.
• Li Qing noticed the restrictions around a room of cultivation texts and suspected that Huang Tianhe had arranged a test for him.
• Li Qing’s Shadow Paper Doll copied Bai Yukun’s Cultivation Diary, whose maddened entries added to the truths of the world recorded on the Jade Tablet.

Li Qing visited Taihe Academy, avoided Baili Qi’s attempt to expose him to dangerous diaries, and delivered a letter for Huang Tianhe. After Baili Qi invited him to Lily Garden, Li Qing headed to Azure Spirit Academy, where instructors were waiting for him.

• Li Qing suspected Taihe Academy’s cultivation books and mad diaries were meant to test or influence him, so he pretended to admire the school’s spells while refusing to read the diaries.
• Baili Qi privately worried that Li Qing had not taken the bait, while Li Qing observed his reaction with Ten Directions Reflection Infinite Observation.
• Li Qing toured Taihe Academy, gave Baili Qi a letter for Huang Tianhe, and said he would record his visit before continuing to the other academies.
• Baili Qi invited Li Qing to Lily Garden that night, planning to use its charms to draw him in, and Li Qing agreed to attend.
• Li Qing traveled west to Azure Spirit Academy and found a group of instructors waiting outside its gates.

Li Qing visited the academies and tried to learn more about their hidden cultivation records, while Baili Qi tested him about the Demon Sect’s plot. After a Shadow Paper Doll was destroyed by a guardian in Azure Spirit Academy’s Library Tower, Li Qing began planning to exploit a conflict to investigate the academies and their Dao Lineages, but a deadly fog suddenly enveloped Two Realms City.

• Li Qing visited the four great academies, but only Taihe Academy showed him anything beyond ordinary books.
• At Lily Garden, Baili Qi questioned Li Qing about the Demon Sect’s scheme in Dragon Path City, and Li Qing denied knowing the details before announcing he would soon leave.
• A Shadow Paper Doll entered Azure Spirit Academy’s Library Tower but was destroyed by a terrifying presence on the second floor.
• Li Qing decided to seek the treasure’s whereabouts through the three great gangs and use a conflict involving Zhu Yiba to investigate the academies and Dao Lineages.
• An icy fog swept into Two Realms City, covering the streets in frost, and Li Qing found that his Sun-Moon Divine Eye Technique could see less than thirty meters through it.

Li Qing discovered that spectral soldiers from the Zhang Family Realm had entered Two Realms City to search for a stolen treasure, while the city’s Dao Lineages froze mortals and buildings to protect them. He decided to join the hunt while hiding his involvement, but a soldier began breaking through the protection around a sleeping family.

• Li Qing fled from the spectral soldiers with World-Walking Star-Shifting and returned to his room at Tongfu Inn.
• A gray formation froze the city’s mortals and buildings, while Li Qing’s Dharma power protected him from its effects.
• Li Qing recorded the incident in his blank record book, and the Jade Tablet revealed that the soldiers sought a stolen treasure hidden somewhere in Two Realms City.
• Li Qing decided to pursue the treasure and planned to use a Shadow Paper Doll and talismans to conceal his presence before pretending to leave the city.
• A spectral soldier searched a sleeping family’s room, found no treasure, and bit through the gray radiance protecting them.

Li Qing used the Jade Tablet to uncover why Two Realms City’s Dao Lineages were allowing the Underworld Soldiers to roam: they were buying time while preparing the city’s grand formation. As the soldiers searched homes for a lost treasure, Li Qing escaped detection, while Wang Boming hid beneath his floorboards from an intruder.

• A Shadow Paper Doll watched an Underworld Soldier eat a sleeping child, and Li Qing began investigating the soldiers and the Dao Lineages’ inaction.
• The Jade Tablet revealed that four Divine Soul Realm commanders led the Underworld Soldiers from the Zhang Family Ancient Battlefield, and that Two Realms City’s leaders had sacrificed some citizens while preparing to bar the soldiers from entering at night.
• Li Qing sensed a powerful Underworld Soldier approaching, used World-Walking Star-Shifting to hide next door, and watched it search his room without finding him.
• Wang Boming sensed an Underworld Soldier at his door, escaped beneath his floorboards, and stayed silent as strange scraping and buzzing sounds came from above.

A yin soldier swallowed Wang Boming during the night in Two Realms City, while Li Qing gathered loot and planned how to exploit the treasure in Zhang Family Ancient Battlefield. After leaving the city, Li Qing hid near the mist-covered canyon and decided to send his Shadow Paper Doll into the dangerous battlefield.

• A yin soldier ambushed and devoured Wang Boming as Li Qing watched through his Shadow Paper Doll.
• Li Qing collected silver notes, Curse-Grade Essence Stones, and magical artifacts from dead Rogue Cultivators during the night.
• When the rooster crowed and the yin soldiers vanished, Li Qing planned to track Zhu Yiba and use the treasure to distract the forces guarding the Library Towers.
• Li Qing left Two Realms City by merchant ship for Water Abyss City while his real self traveled toward Zhang Family Ancient Battlefield.
• Li Qing concealed himself in a hollow near the canyon and decided to send his Shadow Paper Doll into the mist.

Li Qing sent a Shadow Paper Doll into the Mist-shrouded gorge to explore an ancient battlefield and recover surviving treasures. The doll found signs that even powerful cultivators had died without apparent wounds, and Li Qing continued deeper despite realizing the battlefield was more dangerous than he had expected.

• Li Qing guided the Shadow Paper Doll into the gorge, where it encountered bizarre plants and malformed insects living among the frost.
• The doll advanced through increasingly distorted terrain and found a skeleton holding a black sword, which Li Qing retrieved and judged usable.
• Li Qing spent half a day searching corpses, recovering artifacts and three Universe Bags while finding that deeper bodies had decayed less.
• The Shadow Paper Doll examined a well-preserved corpse and found resilient bone marrow and a shriveled brain, leading Li Qing to conclude that cultivators at the skull-nurturing level had died silently on the battlefield’s outskirts.
• Li Qing decided to continue exploring, expecting greater gains deeper in the gorge.

Li Qing learned that Lou Xingyue was investigating his identity and devised ways to evade suspicion while preparing to obtain Lou's hair. He set up covert surveillance across Dragon Path City and found a way to turn Blood Demon Sect infiltrators into material for another Dream Black Hand incident.

• Li Qing learned that Lou Xingyue was searching for evidence linking him to the Dream Black Hand and the supreme Dao Foundation, and weighed three ways to protect his identity.
• Li Qing decided to pursue all three options at once: monitor Lou, prepare another Dream Black Hand incident, and arrange resources and a safe location for his Flesh Seed.
• Li Qing ordered the three major gangs to use segmented street surveillance to record Lou's movements and search discreetly for any hair he shed.
• Li Qing reviewed Dragon Path City's recent information and discovered about a hundred Blood Demon Sect followers disguised as refugees and scattered through the city.
• Li Qing resolved to use the infiltrators, whose blood seeds could turn them into rampaging monsters, as the basis for his next Dream Black Hand incident.

Zhang Blackskin used Li Qing’s Dream Entry Technique to contact Wang Qianqiu as the supposed Dream Black Hand, then escaped detection by hiding in a night-soil cart. Chen Yilong revealed that the imperial court had ordered Demon Extermination Halls to gather Rogue Cultivators into armies ahead of the Great Tang Dynasty’s three-hundred-year cycle.

• Li Qing gave Zhang Blackskin the Dream Entry Technique and assigned him the identity of Dream Black Hand.
• Zhang Blackskin entered Wang Qianqiu’s dream from inside a night-soil cart and planted a book in his mind.
• Wang Qianqiu recognized that Dream Black Hand had influenced his dream again, searched the street, and found no trace of a cultivator.
• Zhang Blackskin was carried out of the city in the cart, then washed himself at a river and reflected that the method would conceal his identity.
• Wang Qianqiu reported the dream to Chen Yilong, who urged him to use the opportunity to rise within the Demon Extermination Hall.
• Chen Yilong told Wang Qianqiu that the imperial court had ordered the Demon Extermination Hall to build armies in preparation for the coming three-hundred-year cycle and its looming upheaval.

Chen Yilong and Wang Qianqiu led a surprise attack on Blood Demon Sect cultivators in Dragon Path City, then met Lou Xingyue, who questioned Wang about the Dream Black Hand. Lou Xingyue shifted his main suspicion to Wang and decided to test ten suspects, while Li Qing learned of the investigation and began planning to protect his identity.

• Chen Yilong led the Demon Extermination Hall cultivators in a dawn assault that wiped out the Blood Demon Sect members in Dragon Path City within half an hour.
• Lou Xingyue arrived and questioned Chen Yilong about Wang Qianqiu’s past encounter with the Dream Black Hand.
• Chen Yilong told Lou Xingyue that Wang had received another dream message, then introduced Wang as his future son-in-law.
• Lou Xingyue questioned Wang and assessed the suspects, lowering his suspicion of Li Qing while making Wang his primary target.
• Fang Dewen recorded the meeting through a stone statue fused with a Hundred Things Eye offspring, while Li Qing received the latest intelligence on his Jade Tablet.
• Lou Xingyue decided to test ten suspects’ cultivation foundations, and Li Qing began planning how to prepare for the investigation.