Recaps

Song Wen rented a cave abode in Shangchu City and spent thirteen years stabilizing his cultivation and learning the Great Firmament Divine Thunder. He left the city and tested the thunder art over a distant river.

• Song Wen rented First-Class Fifteen in Shangchu City and met Jiang Xian, a maid from a collateral branch of the Jiang Clan.
• Song Wen added Jiang Chao’s fifth-tier Five-Element Concealment Formation to the cave abode and began cultivating in seclusion.
• Song Wen planned to cultivate the Great Firmament Divine Thunder, refine the Chasing Sun Spear, and seek Yin-Sinking Water to upgrade the Blood Sea Seal.
• Thirteen years later, Song Wen paid his rent and flew more than a hundred thousand li from Shangchu City.
• Song Wen summoned a purple-gold thunderbolt that struck and split a great river.

Song Wen recovered Jiang Chao’s head and contacted Ye Bing, offering her the chance to avenge her son in exchange for detailed intelligence on Jiang Yushan. Ye Bing agreed to gather the information within a month after seeing proof that Jiang Chao was dead.

• Song Wen confirmed that no one had found the hidden cave, retrieved Jiang Chao’s head, and left his soul sealed in its Soul Bottle.
• Song Wen contacted Ye Bing from a teahouse near the Jiang Clan compound and admitted that he had killed Jiang Wo and Jiang Chao.
• Song Wen offered Ye Bing Jiang Chao’s soul in exchange for comprehensive information about Jiang Yushan and his guards.
• Ye Bing agreed to provide the information within a month, and Song Wen directed her to the teahouse to verify Jiang Chao’s death.
• Ye Bing found Jiang Chao’s severed head and stared at it in fury before her expression settled into calm.

Song Wen learned that leaving the Ganchang Wasteland through the Chi Family’s Teleportation Array was difficult, while the alternative passage across Rotting Miasma Ridge was perilous. He decided to seek the Chi Family’s help and left a jade box for Chi Qi through Chi Zuo, using the alias Yunxu.

• Song Wen asked an information broker about yin-sinking water but learned she had never heard of it.
• The old woman explained that the Chi Family’s Teleportation Array had few places, while the Dual Extremes Sect’s flying ship risked destruction crossing Rotting Miasma Ridge.
• The old woman suggested Song Wen might persuade the Chi Family to trade a Teleportation Array token for a tempting treasure.
• Song Wen bought information about the Jiang Clan and spent the night considering how to leave the Ganchang Wasteland.
• Song Wen visited the Chi Family compound and gave Chi Zuo a jade box intended for Chi Qi, along with ten superior spirit stones as a favor.
• Song Wen identified himself as Yunxu, a rogue cultivator, and left after Chi Zuo agreed to deliver the box.

Song Wen traded six-hundred-year-old nine-death grass to the Chi Family for a pass to use its Teleportation Array. After cautiously retrieving the Teleportation Token, he planned to leave the Ganchang Wasteland when the array opened in two years.

• Song Wen offered Chi Qi the nine-death grass in exchange for a Teleportation Array pass and claimed he had learned of Chi Qi’s search from the late Scholar Kong Jin.
• Chi Qi agreed to the trade and told Song Wen to bring the herb to the Chi Family compound, where Chi Tianhai inspected it and gave him a token valid for the array’s opening in two years.
• Song Wen sent a Heaven-and-Earth Avatar puppet to make the exchange, then waited in disguise before leaving Shangchu City.
• Song Wen hid in a riverbed while the Shadow King Gu retrieved the puppet’s storage ring and brought the Teleportation Token to him.
• Song Wen checked that the Chi Family had not tampered with the token and planned to leave the Ganchang Wasteland when the array opened.

Song Wen followed Lady Wen outside Shangchu City to question her about her reconciliation with the Jiang Clan and her history with Jiang Yushan. He learned that Jiang Yushan had discarded Lady Wen and harbored improper intentions toward Jiang Lanruo, then let Lady Wen go without revealing his identity.

• Song Wen secretly followed Lady Wen from a spiritual medicine shop to a forested mountain range outside the city.
• Lady Wen confronted Song Wen, who pretended to be an infatuated outsider clansman of the Jiang Clan before demanding to know why she had survived the Rotting Miasma Ridge mission.
• Lady Wen said she had reconciled with the Jiang Clan and recovered her soul lamp through her former relationship with Jiang Yushan.
• Lady Wen told Song Wen that Jiang Yushan had abandoned her and that he desired Jiang Lanruo, who was his adopted aunt rather than his biological aunt.
• Song Wen thanked Lady Wen for the information and chose not to attack her near Shangchu City or ask further questions that might expose him.

Song Wen and Ye Bing arranged a face-to-face exchange in Hundred Lush City, where Song Wen traded Jiang Chao's soul for intelligence about Jiang Yushan and his guards. The exchange began with Jiang Chao bound by Song Wen, while Ye Bing still held the intelligence jade slip.

• Song Wen questioned Ye Bing's intelligence on Jiang Yushan, then accepted her account of Jiang Shan and Jiang He's strength and history as convincing.
• Song Wen and Ye Bing agreed to meet alone at noon in Hundred Lush City to trade the intelligence for Jiang Chao's soul.
• Song Wen traveled south before turning east and watched Hundred Lush City from a cave, using Shadow Gu to check for an ambush.
• Ye Bing arrived above Hundred Lush City an hour before noon, and Song Wen appeared at the agreed time.
• Song Wen released Jiang Chao's soul from a soul bottle and bound it with a corpse-qi tentacle before asking Ye Bing for the intelligence.

Song Wen obtained Ye Bing’s detailed intelligence on Jiang Yushan and studied his defenses before disguising himself and visiting the Elegant Music House in Shangchu City. He introduced himself as Yang Yu while waiting to meet Dongxue.

• Song Wen exchanged the Jade Slip and Jiang Chao’s soul and Soul Bottle with Ye Bing, then promised not to reveal her role in gathering the intelligence.
• Song Wen used a Heaven-and-Earth Avatar puppet to mislead anyone tracking him before returning to Shangchu City and reviewing the records of Jiang Yushan’s character, guards, and protective treasures.
• Song Wen disguised himself as a sinister-looking Nascent Soul cultivator and entered the Elegant Music House, asking to meet its three famous beauties.
• When Xia Qing and Qiu Yue were unavailable, Song Wen chose Dongxue and followed the madam to her private room.
• Song Wen gave the madam the name Yang Yu as Dongxue prepared to come out.

Song Wen continued posing as Yang Yu while frequenting Elegant Music House, waiting for Jiang Yushan to appear. When Jiang Yushan summoned the house’s favored courtesans, Song Wen seized the chance to go pay his respects, arriving outside Jiang Yushan’s private room.

• Song Wen met Dongxue at Elegant Music House and spent the next half year visiting regularly and lavishly entertaining the top courtesans.
• Song Wen asked after Dongxue, then went to Xia Qing and Qiu Yue’s room when Madam Qing said Dongxue was unwell.
• Madam Qing interrupted Song Wen to say Jiang Yushan had requested Xia Qing, Qiu Yue, and Dongxue, who had already gone to him despite being unwell.
• Song Wen concealed that he had been waiting for Jiang Yushan and said he wished to pay his respects, promising not to intrude if turned away.
• Madam Qing led Song Wen and the courtesans to Jiang Yushan’s room on the ninth floor, where Jiang Yushan sat with Dongxue and other women while Jiang Shan and Jiang He stood behind him.

Song Wen ingratiated himself with Jiang Yushan by supplying erotic novelties and became his close companion. When Jiang Yushan asked about rumors of an ancient cultivator’s cave abode at Rotting Miasma Ridge, Song Wen feigned longing to explore it while concealing that Chi Qi had spread the rumor to lure Jiang Lanruo.

• Song Wen flattered Jiang Yushan and gave him a storage pouch of erotic accessories, including fox tails and cat ears.
• The next day, Jiang Yushan praised the accessories, and Song Wen explained that real fox maidens and cat girls were unlikely to resemble the accessories.
• Over the following month, Song Wen accompanied Jiang Yushan around Shangchu City’s pleasure houses and became his close companion.
• Jiang Yushan asked Song Wen about rumors of an ancient cultivator’s cave abode in Rotting Miasma Ridge.
• Song Wen pretended to covet the ruins but claimed he was too weak to investigate, and Jiang Yushan called him an idiot.

Jiang Yushan recruited Song Wen to obtain Withered Origin Grass from the Fate-Seeking Ghost Market so he could poison Ye Bing, a Spirit Transformation cultivator. Song Wen accepted the ghost-market pass, intrigued by the chance to search for Yin-Sinking Water.

• Jiang Yushan warned Song Wen that the ruin rumors were a trap, and Song Wen praised him for saving his life.
• Jiang Yushan asked Song Wen for a poison that could weaken someone without killing them, and Song Wen showed him a Spirit-Transforming Herb that would not work on a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
• Jiang Yushan revealed that he wanted to use poison against Ye Bing, whom he accused of betraying the Jiang Clan by wanting to return to the Ye Family.
• Jiang Yushan explained that Withered Essence Frost could weaken a Spirit Transformation cultivator and that Withered Origin Grass was needed to refine it.
• Jiang Yushan gave Song Wen a pass and sent him to the Fate-Seeking Ghost Market to find Withered Origin Grass; Song Wen considered searching there for Yin-Sinking Water.

Song Wen entered the Ghost Market to search for yin-sinking water and withered origin grass. He bought the herb from Shopkeeper Ye and learned that his search for yin-sinking water would likely take him beyond the Ganchang Wasteland to Cloud-Hidden City.

• Song Wen entered the Ghost Market using Jiang Yushan’s token and learned that the shops and many customers were likely tied to the three great Lineages.
• At the Spirit Herb Hall, Song Wen paid the shopkeeper for information about withered origin grass and learned that Shopkeeper Ye of the Pill Cauldron Pavilion had bought some.
• Song Wen confronted Shopkeeper Ye, confirmed he had the herb, and bargained until he purchased it for a hundred and sixty superior Spirit Stones.
• Song Wen asked Shopkeeper Ye about yin-sinking water, and Ye recalled hearing it mentioned in connection with Cloud-Hidden City, outside the Ganchang Wasteland.

Song Wen obtained withered origin grass for Jiang Yushan, then helped him devise a plan to poison Ye Bing at Rotting Miasma Ridge. Jiang Yushan said Ye Bing had agreed to go there and ordered Song Wen to accompany him, setting up Song Wen’s chance to strike at Jiang Yushan.

• Song Wen gave Jiang Yushan the withered origin grass and received six hundred superior spirit stones in return.
• Half a month later, Jiang Yushan showed Song Wen the withered essence frost he had refined and asked for help poisoning Ye Bing.
• Song Wen suggested luring Ye Bing to Rotting Miasma Ridge, and Jiang Yushan devised a plan using her grudge against Jiang Chao.
• Song Wen realized Jiang Yushan’s trip to Rotting Miasma Ridge could give him a chance to kill him.
• Three days later, Jiang Yushan told Song Wen that Ye Bing had agreed to go to the ridge and ordered him to wait outside Shangchu City.
• Song Wen boarded Jiang Yushan’s airship and learned that Jiang Yushan and Ye Bing would leave the city separately.

Jiang Yushan led Ye Bing, Song Wen, Jiang He, and Jiang Shi into Rotting Miasma Ridge under the pretense of searching for traces of Jiang Chao. When Ye Bing found sword marks near a dangerous demon beast’s lair and flew toward it, Jiang Yushan decided to advance his plan against her.

• Jiang Yushan welcomed Ye Bing aboard his flying ship, and they traveled toward Rotting Miasma Ridge while avoiding Demon-Suppressing Town.
• Jiang Yushan claimed that Jiang Chao’s soul remained and that he wanted to avenge Jiang Hu, making Song Wen suspect Ye Bing had learned something from Jiang Chao’s soul.
• Jiang Yushan led the group deeper into the ridge using Jiang Chao’s old route map, while Song Wen watched Ye Bing warily.
• Ye Bing spotted sword marks near a fifth-rank demon beast’s territory and insisted on investigating them.
• Ye Bing’s Plum Blossom Fan appeared as she flew toward the demon beast’s lair, and Jiang Yushan signaled Jiang Shi to follow her and moved his plan forward.

Jiang Yushan urged Yang Yu to stay close as Ye Bing’s attack exposed a wolf boa in the miasma-filled depression. The group fought the beast, and Jiang Shi wounded it, but a warning from behind left him in immediate danger.

• Jiang Yushan told Yang Yu to stay near him, and Yang Yu moved to his side.
• Ye Bing attacked the depression with ice spikes, provoking a wolf boa that struck her and then targeted Jiang Shi.
• Jiang Shi used a black defensive spirit treasure to withstand the wolf boa’s bone spike, while Jiang Yushan agreed with Ye Bing that they had to kill the beast.
• Jiang Shi distracted the wolf boa as Ye Bing froze its body and the miasma in the depression.
• Jiang Shi cut into the wolf boa’s vital point with his saber, but someone shouted for him to watch out.

Ye Bing turned on Jiang Shi during the battle, and the Wolf Serpent bit him in half, leaving only his Nascent Soul. Ye Bing then trapped Jiang Yushan, Song Wen, and the others in her Ice-Cold Domain while the wounded Wolf Serpent escaped.

• Ye Bing ambushed Jiang Shi with a massive ice pillar, driving him into the Wolf Serpent's jaws as the serpent broke free and expelled Jiang Shi's blade.
• The Wolf Serpent's jaws shattered Jiang Shi's black umbrella shield and bit him in half, while his Nascent Soul escaped to Jiang Yushan carrying the umbrella and a storage ring.
• Jiang He tried to help Jiang Shi but was blocked by Ye Bing, and Jiang Yushan fled with Jiang Shi's Nascent Soul as Song Wen followed, secretly planning to kill them and take the umbrella.
• Ye Bing unleashed her Ice-Cold Domain, freezing the miasma and trapping Song Wen, Jiang Yushan, Jiang Shi's Nascent Soul, Jiang He, and the Wolf Serpent inside an ice net.
• Ye Bing summoned Profound Chilling Ice Pillars that badly wounded the Wolf Serpent, then deliberately opened the ice net to let it escape.

Ye Bing trapped Jiang Yushan, Jiang He, Jiang Shi, and Song Wen in her Ice-Cold Domain and exposed Jiang Yushan’s role in Jiang Hu’s death. Jiang Yushan sacrificed Song Wen and tried to escape with Jiang He and Jiang Shi, but Ye Bing’s renewed assault overwhelmed them and left their survival uncertain.

• Jiang He failed to defeat Ye Bing and flew to join Jiang Yushan, Song Wen, and Jiang Shi at the edge of the frozen domain.
• Ye Bing accused Jiang Yushan of leading Jiang Chao to Jiang Hu and revealed Jiang Chao’s soul, exposing the truth to him.
• Jiang He shielded Jiang Yushan with a Thick Earth Talisman and prepared to break through while Jiang Shi spent his remaining spiritual power protecting them.
• Jiang Yushan kicked Song Wen outside Jiang Shi’s shield and ordered him to hold off Ye Bing, while Jiang He led the escape attempt.
• Ye Bing sent waves of regenerating ice cones against the group, slowing their escape and battering their shield until Jiang Shi weakened and Jiang Yushan admitted he had no more life-saving treasures.

Jiang Yushan’s final substitute puppet failed, but a sealed power awakened within him, transforming him into a creature of origin qi with six tentacles. Their mind-rending hum disrupted Ye Bing’s Ice-Cold Domain, while Song Wen remained protected by the black hole in his sea of consciousness.

• Ye Bing destroyed Jiang Yushan’s last substitute puppet and prepared to kill him, but black energy awakened within him and shattered her ice spear.
• Jiang Lanruo sensed Shadow Void’s seal being broken and hurried toward Rotting Miasma Ridge.
• Six tentacles emerged from Jiang Yushan’s sea of consciousness, and his aura changed into that of an origin qi creature as Ye Bing, Jiang He, and Jiang Shi watched in shock.
• Song Wen considered using the Soul-Splitting Blade against the ice net or Ye Bing while the black umbrella drifted nearby.
• The tentacles began humming, and their sound assaulted everyone’s seas of consciousness except Song Wen’s; Ye Bing lost control of her treasures as the Ice-Cold Domain began to dissipate.

Jiang Lanruo resealed the Shadow Void inside Jiang Yushan while Song Wen and Ye Bing tried to flee. Chi Qi arrived, stopped Song Wen’s escape, and threatened Jiang Lanruo until she revealed that Senior Ji Hong had entrusted her with a task; Chi Qi prepared to attack so he could seize it.

• Jiang Lanruo broke the ice net and began resealing the Shadow Void inside Jiang Yushan as Song Wen and Ye Bing fled.
• Jiang Lanruo ordered the fugitives to stop, then sent a flying sword after Song Wen when he kept running.
• Chi Qi shot down Jiang Lanruo’s sword and confronted her, explaining that he had lured her to Rotting Miasma Ridge with a rumor about an ancient cultivator’s cave dwelling.
• Chi Qi offered Jiang Lanruo six-hundred-year-old Nine-Death Grass in exchange for details of the task Senior Ji Hong had given her.
• Chi Qi threatened Jiang Lanruo and Jiang Yushan, and Jiang Lanruo said the task had come from Senior Ji Hong.
• Chi Qi drew his bow and aimed at Jiang Lanruo, demanding that she tell him the task.

Jiang Lanruo tried to complete the seal on Shadow Void inside Jiang Yushan while Chi Qi pressed her for the mission's secret. She revealed that Shadow Void was an egg given to her by Senior Ji Hong, and that its hatching was damaging Jiang Yushan's soul.

• Jiang Lanruo asked Chi Qi to kill Song Wen, Ye Bing, Jiang He, and Jiang Shi, and Chi Qi's arrow killed Song Wen, Jiang He, and Jiang Shi while Ye Bing survived with grave injuries.
• Song Wen appeared as an incarnation and warned Chi Qi that Jiang Lanruo was stalling, but Chi Qi destroyed the incarnation and realized Song Wen's true body was elsewhere.
• Chi Qi threatened Jiang Yushan as Jiang Lanruo neared the final stage of sealing Shadow Void, forcing her to disclose Senior Ji Hong's mission and promise of a Heavenly Dipper Body Integration Pill.
• Jiang Lanruo explained that the Shadow Void egg was sealed in Jiang Yushan's sea of consciousness and was still hatching, with six of its nine tentacles formed.
• Jiang Lanruo said Shadow Void's hatching continually damaged Jiang Yushan's human soul, so she had searched for Nine-Death Grass to keep it from dissipating.

Jiang Lanruo revealed that she had used Jiang Yushan to hatch Shadow Void in hopes of earning a Heavenly Dipper Body Integration Pill, then sent Chi Qi and herself to pursue the escaped witnesses. Song Wen fled through Rotting Miasma Ridge using the Double-Faced Buddha to hide his aura, while Chi Qi chased him and Jiang Lanruo went after Ye Bing.

• Jiang Lanruo told Chi Qi that she had chosen Jiang Yushan as Shadow Void’s vessel because she could monitor the hatching while keeping the secret from the Jiang Clan.
• Jiang Lanruo put Shadow Void into slumber and offered to help Chi Qi hatch an egg of his own if he found one.
• Jiang Lanruo and Chi Qi realized that Ye Bing and Song Wen had escaped, so Chi Qi pursued Song Wen while Jiang Lanruo went after Ye Bing.
• Song Wen explained that he had used a death-substitution spell, a Heaven-and-Earth Avatar, and the Double-Faced Buddha to escape and conceal his aura.

Song Wen repeatedly used teleportation and escape techniques to flee Chi Qi, who tracked him through the poisonous miasma. When Song Wen encountered two Spirit Transformation cultivators pursued by Poison Scythe Insects, he deliberately drew the swarm into his path, and Chi Qi arrived behind him.

• Chi Qi tracked Song Wen through the miasma with his Dream-Floating True Eye and pursued him despite his talismans, puppets, and Blood Escape Technique.
• Chi Qi demanded that Song Wen surrender his incarnation spell and teleportation talismans, but Song Wen escaped again.
• Song Wen sensed a battle and found two Spirit Transformation cultivators fleeing a swarm of Poison Scythe Insects.
• The man and woman approached Song Wen for help, but he used the Death-Substitution Spell to reappear ahead of them and charge into the insect swarm.
• Song Wen passed between the two cultivators and entered the Poison Scythe Insects, while Chi Qi arrived and killed the woman with an arrow.

Chi Qi killed the Ye Family cultivators and drove off the Poison Scythe Insects, then resumed tracking Song Wen. Song Wen identified Chi Qi’s eye technique and fled into a river to hide his traces, leaving Chi Qi above a Lake where a powerful corpse aura suddenly rose.

• Chi Qi recognized the two cultivators as members of the Ye Family but killed them both before scattering the Poison Scythe Insects with a powerful arrow.
• After searching several thousand miles, Chi Qi found Song Wen’s tracks again, while Song Wen realized Chi Qi was using an eye technique to follow him.
• Song Wen studied a terrain map and chose to escape through a rushing river, hoping its current would disrupt the traces Chi Qi tracked.
• Song Wen tossed a corpse coffin into the Lake, jumped into the river, and traveled upstream for several hundred miles.
• Chi Qi arrived above the Lake, guessed Song Wen had gone downstream, and prepared to follow the river before corpse aura erupted from the Lake below.

Song Wen used a corpse puppet to lure Chi Qi into a fight with an aquatic demonic beast, then escaped by hiding among a herd of Galloping Horse Beasts. Chi Qi searched the riverbed for him, unaware that Song Wen was buried in a tree hollow.

• Chi Qi discovered the corpse puppet at the bottom of the Lake, but an aquatic demonic beast destroyed it and attacked him.
• Chi Qi was badly injured by the beast’s tentacles and fled downstream.
• Song Wen saw the fight, released the Shadow King Gu into a Galloping Horse Beast herd, and used the fleeing animals to make his escape.
• Song Wen dropped into a tree hollow, buried himself, and concealed his aura while the Shadow King Gu returned to him.
• Chi Qi followed the herd’s tracks but failed to find Song Wen, then searched upstream along the riverbed.

After escaping deep into the Ganchang Wasteland, Song Wen planned to find a secure cultivation site and leave the region to pursue stronger techniques and resources. Disguised as Gou Jun, he reached Scarlet Rainbow City and began arranging passage to the Qicang Region aboard the Dual Extremes Sect’s flying vessel.

• Song Wen used the Shadow King Gu to scout for pursuers, then left his hiding place and traveled far into the Ganchang Wasteland while avoiding cities and cultivators.
• Song Wen decided to postpone his revenge against the Chi Family and Jiang Clan, focus on cultivation, and seek a safe place of his own.
• Song Wen resolved to leave the Ganchang Wasteland through the Dual Extremes Sect’s flying vessel, hoping to reach the Qicang Region and find the resources and techniques he needed.
• Wearing an iron mask and disguising his aura as peak Nascent Soul, Song Wen entered Scarlet Rainbow Pavilion in Scarlet Rainbow City and asked about passage across Rotting Miasma Ridge.
• Song Wen introduced himself to Steward Wang Yi as Gou Jun, and Wang Yi explained the Cangyu Flying Vessel’s defenses, speed, and high spirit-stone costs.

Song Wen reserved a place on a Cangyu Flying Vessel bound for the Qicang Region and began preparing for the dangerous journey across Rotting Miasma Ridge. After buying materials and demonic beast souls to make more death-substitute puppets, he received a message from another passenger.

• Wang Yi told Song Wen that the Cangyu Flying Vessel cost ten thousand superior spirit stones and that passengers would negotiate how to split the price.
• Song Wen paid a deposit of one hundred superior spirit stones and received a token that served as both his boarding pass and a group communication artifact.
• Song Wen used the token to contact the other passengers, introduced himself as Gou Jun, and learned that Number One was Zhong Ren, a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
• Song Wen returned to Scarlet Rainbow City after evading anyone who might have followed him, then bought materials and demonic beast souls for refining death-substitute puppets.
• Song Wen received a message from Number Eight while considering where to cultivate.