Recaps

Gu Qingfeng survived the Dark Moon’s outbreak of monsters and earned the Liu Household caravan’s respect. After Liu Yu explained the Dark Moon and its dangers, the caravan reached sight of Red Tears City.

• During the Dark Moon, strange creatures emerged across the grassland, but the idol’s divine radiance and Gu Qingfeng’s golden light repelled them.
• The caravan members restored their bodies with the water they had shed and treated Gu Qingfeng as a powerful immortal master.
• Liu Yu apologized to Gu Qingfeng, offered him good wine, and gave him a ride atop a Blood-Sweat Iron Horse.
• Liu Yu explained that the Dark Moon awakened buried demons and ghosts, which were drawn to the moon as their origin.
• Gu Qingfeng resolved to grow stronger and survive, and Liu Yu pointed out Red Tears City in the distance.

Gu Qingfeng reached Red Tears City, where he saw the strength-ruled city and learned that newcomers needed an official identity to settle safely. At Ghosthand’s Eighteenth Apothecary, a purple bottle of medicine caught his attention with a faint fluttering sensation.

• Gu Qingfeng and the Liu Household caravan arrived at Red Tears City, a vast settlement built on Lotus Mountain.
• The caravan cleared a path through the outskirts, detouring around dangerous-looking people as Gu Qingfeng observed how the strong ruled the city.
• Gu Qingfeng entered the outer city and parted ways with the Liu Household caravan, feeling relieved by the bustling streets and determined to grow stronger.
• At Ghosthand’s Eighteenth Apothecary, Gu Qingfeng learned that becoming an apprentice could grant newcomers an identity and protect them from being sent to Black Prison.
• Gu Qingfeng noticed a faint fluttering sensation from a purple medicine bottle and wondered if it was good stuff.

Gu Qingfeng followed a faint flutter in his heart to Ghosthand's Eighteenth Apothecary, where he volunteered to test a mysterious purple pill. After the pill was forced down his throat, information about it surfaced in his sea of consciousness.

• Gu Qingfeng watched newcomers hesitate to test medicine as the apothecary's medicine boy advertised several risky drugs.
• A gaunt man agreed to test the purple pill after his wife pressured him, and a yellow-haired addict volunteered for the doubled pay.
• Gu Qingfeng also volunteered, and the three test subjects were taken to a room in the apothecary's rear courtyard.
• A purple-dressed woman fed each of them a pill, taking care to force it down their throats.
• Gu Qingfeng felt the pill's icy coolness and received information about it in his sea of consciousness.

Gu Qingfeng tested the Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pill, reversed its cost, and learned about Lord Ghosthand’s history from Huang Qu. He wanted to obtain more pills to investigate the killing aura they produced.

• The gaunt tester grew restless as the pill’s effects gradually took hold, while Gu Qingfeng and Huang Qu felt milder symptoms.
• Gu Qingfeng reversed the pill’s cost, soothing his restlessness and making his eyes feel clearer.
• Huang Qu slapped the woman in purple and explained that pill testers could do so; Gu Qingfeng struck her ten times, driving her from the room in tears.
• Huang Qu introduced himself and told Gu Qingfeng that Ghosthand had been a divine healer of the Three Gold Sect before fleeing to the Returning Ruins after conducting human experiments and cutting off his master’s hands.
• Gu Qingfeng suspected Sun Sheng was using pill testers to cultivate killing aura and decided he wanted more pills.

After earning silver by testing medicine, Gu Qingfeng explored Red Tears City and witnessed the sale of swords made from human remains. Outraged by the city’s evildoers, he decided to begin his mission by confronting the Ghost Hand Apothecary.

• The woman in purple recorded the three men's reactions to the Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pill, paid Gu Qingfeng, and sent him away.
• Gu Qingfeng toured Red Tears City and watched laborers dig into the mountain to expand the city.
• At an auction, a red-haired man sold three Grudge Spine Swords made from human spines and skulls to a cripple and two extravagantly dressed buyers.
• Gu Qingfeng learned that the well-connected man belonged to the Riches Bloom Gate and grew furious at the people who profited from the swords.
• As curfew approached, Gu Qingfeng bought incense and headed back to the Ghost Hand Apothecary, planning to confront it for testing medicine on people.

Gu Qingfeng stayed at Ghost Hand Apothecary and used the Chivalrous Spirit Incense Burner to ask Peach-Eating Jade Sword about cultivation realms. After learning that he seemed comparable to a Third-Tier True Essence Realm cultivator, he realized his strength was nearly at the level of a sect elder.

• Gu Qingfeng paid Ghost Hand Apothecary one tael of silver to stay in the room where he had tested medicine.
• Gu Qingfeng lit the Chivalrous Spirit Incense Burner, and Peach-Eating Jade Sword answered when he asked if anyone was there.
• Gu Qingfeng asked Peach-Eating Jade Sword to explain cultivation realms, and she described the first four tiers and several paths beyond them.
• Peach-Eating Jade Sword explained that a Third-Tier True Essence Realm cultivator could serve as an elder in a small or medium sect.
• Gu Qingfeng's eyes lit up when he realized his strength seemed close to that of a sect elder.

Gu Qingfeng realized his Geng-Metal Dao Fruit gave him power comparable to a True Essence Realm cultivator and planned to destroy the Ghost Hand Apothecary for its evil pills. Meanwhile, Sun Sheng learned that Gu Qingfeng was one of the Purple Pill testers and ordered the purple-clad woman to give him two pills, putting Gu Qingfeng in grave danger.

• Gu Qingfeng liquefied his Geng-Metal Power and concluded that his strength could rival an ordinary sect elder.
• Gu Qingfeng told Number Six Peach-Eating Jade Sword that he was in Red Tears City, then decided to bring down the apothecary managed by Sun Sheng.
• Sun Sheng questioned the purple-clad woman about the three Purple Pill testers, and she said Gu Qingfeng seemed as resilient as Yellow Smoke Ghost.
• Sun Sheng ordered the woman to feed Gu Qingfeng two pills the next day, despite her concern that the dose could kill him.
• The woman reflected on Sun Sheng's cruelty and feared that Gu Qingfeng was doomed.

Gu Qingfeng returned to Ghosthand's Eighteenth Apothecary for another round of medicine trials, where the dose was doubled and Sun Sheng secretly watched him. After swallowing two pills, Gu Qingfeng felt his liver growing stronger and sensed energy entering his meridians.

• Gu Qingfeng slept at the apothecary, then was refused breakfast by its attendants despite having paid for lodging.
• Gu Qingfeng left for breakfast and later returned to the testing room as other medicine testers arrived.
• The scrawny husband told Gu Qingfeng and the Yellow-Haired Smoke Ghost that the medicine had left him energetic enough to work through the night.
• The woman in purple gave Gu Qingfeng, the scrawny husband, and the Yellow-Haired Smoke Ghost two pills each, doubling their dose.
• Sun Sheng secretly watched the trial from the dark room next door as Gu Qingfeng felt his liver strengthen and energy enter his meridians.

Huang Qu and Wang Fan reacted wildly to Ghost Hand Apothecary’s doubled medicine, while Sun Sheng anticipated using Gu Qingfeng’s organs for his own advancement. Wang Fan left to find his wife, but a fat man blocked his way and dragged him into an alley.

• Huang Qu realized the stronger dose was damaging his liver, while Wang Fan became euphoric and eager to work.
• Sun Sheng watched Gu Qingfeng spank his wife and resolved to tell him he would die and become nourishment for Sun Sheng.
• The lady in purple let Wang Fan leave the apothecary after Sun Sheng instructed her to do so.
• Wang Fan headed to Clearwater Teahouse with his earnings to find his wife, but a fat man repeatedly blocked his path.
• Wang Fan developed killing intent, but the fat man seized his neck and carried him into a deserted alley.

Sun Sheng used Wang Ping as a source of Liver-Killing Aura, then murdered Wang Ping’s wife to drive him into producing more. After absorbing Wang Ping’s final burst of aura, Sun Sheng realized the man had infected him with a bit of turtle spirit.

• Sun Sheng explained how he had developed the Liver-Killing Aura Art into a method for harvesting aura from people.
• Sun Sheng cut open Wang Ping and inspected his liver, finding that it had melted inside but produced too little aura.
• Wang Ping confessed that he had wronged his wife, and Sun Sheng revealed he intended to kill her so they could reunite.
• Sun Sheng brought Wang Ping’s wife into the alley, cut out her tongue, and then beheaded her in front of him.
• Wang Ping unleashed his remaining killing aura as he attacked Sun Sheng, who absorbed it all after Wang Ping died.
• Sun Sheng said he needed to treat his wife well, then realized Wang Ping had infected him with a bit of turtle spirit.

Sun Sheng absorbed Wang Ping’s killing intent and set his sights on Gu Qingfeng, who discovered that the intent could both frighten enemies and precisely control his muscles. Later, Gu Qingfeng witnessed a dispute over a botched medicine test escalate into a public confrontation between Ghost Hand Apothecary and Jiangzhong Hall.

• Sun Sheng dissolved Wang Ping and his wife’s corpses and decided Gu Qingfeng would make a more appealing source of killing intent.
• Gu Qingfeng tested his newly condensed killing intent and used it to control his urination with remarkable precision.
• Gu Qingfeng returned to the testing room and saw a medicine test subject accuse Ghost Hand Apothecary of leaving him untreated after his intestines came out.
• Jiangzhong Hall brought the injured man to Ghost Hand Apothecary’s entrance and accused the apothecary of harming test subjects.
• Black-clad doctors from Ghost Hand Apothecary confronted Jiangzhong Hall’s group with blades, and Gu Qingfeng began calculating as the dispute threatened to turn violent.

Gu Qingfeng watched a staged knife fight between Ghost Hand Apothecary and Jiang Zhongtang, then pretended that the Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pill had injured his liver. Sun Sheng ordered his wife to give Gu Qingfeng and Huang Qu three pills each the next day, leaving her to persuade them to accept.

• Doctors from Ghost Hand Apothecary and Jiang Zhongtang exchanged threats and fought with small knives before both groups dispersed without anyone being hurt.
• Gu Qingfeng returned to his room and imitated Huang Qu’s liver pain to conceal that the pill’s murderous aura had left his liver unharmed.
• Huang Qu and the woman in purple were surprised that Gu Qingfeng’s condition had shifted from looking dangerously excited to merely injured.
• Sun Sheng learned that Gu Qingfeng and Huang Qu had not yet matured, then ordered his wife to increase their doses to three pills the next day, offering double the price if necessary.
• The woman in purple agreed to try to persuade them to take the pills.

Gu Qingfeng accompanied Huang Qu to the Leaf House to see why Immortal Leaf had made him addicted, but secondhand smoke plunged Gu Qingfeng into vivid hallucinations. He left convinced the drug was dangerous and should be destroyed, along with the Ghost Hand Apothecary.

• After collecting their pay at the Ghost Hand Apothecary, Gu Qingfeng followed Huang Qu to the Leaf House, while the physician there praised Huang Qu for bringing customers.
• At the Leaf House, Huang Qu ordered Immortal Leaf and began smoking, but Gu Qingfeng refused to try it.
• As Huang Qu smoked, Gu Qingfeng inhaled the secondhand smoke and saw smoke beauties, familiar faces, and a vision of martial arts manuals and cultivation power.
• Gu Qingfeng realized the smoke was causing hallucinations based on what a person most wanted to see, and he decided to eradicate Immortal Leaf and the Ghost Hand Apothecary.

After smoking Immortal Leaf, Gu Qingfeng experienced altered senses and witnessed Red Tears Rain falling over Red Tears City. Huang Qu explained the rain’s supposed divine origin, leaving Gu Qingfeng suspicious as he tried to discern whether the Red Tears Bodhisattva truly existed in the crimson cloud.

• Huang Qu urged Gu Qingfeng to try Immortal Leaf, but Gu Qingfeng declined and questioned whether its effects were worth the cost.
• Red rain fell over Red Tears City, and Huang Qu told Gu Qingfeng to drink it because it was Red Tears Rain.
• Gu Qingfeng tasted the rain and sensed that it faintly stimulated his blood, vitality, and true qi.
• Four Toad Gang members sucked up the nearby rain, forcing the crowd to move elsewhere before the brief rainfall ended.
• Huang Qu told Gu Qingfeng that the rain was the Red Tears Bodhisattva’s monthly gift and recounted the legend of City Lord Xi Yunlei seeing the Bodhisattva’s half-bone form.
• Gu Qingfeng doubted the story’s benevolent explanation and focused on the crimson cloud to look for the Bodhisattva.

After the Bodhisattva’s Red Tears Rain, Gu Qingfeng learned more about Red Tears City’s bizarre inner-city factions and stayed determined to keep testing medicine despite Huang Qu’s warning. When the lady in purple came to persuade him, Gu Qingfeng demanded to be “fired up,” and she shut the doors and knelt before him.

• Gu Qingfeng used his sharpened senses to glimpse a vast outline in the red clouds before the rain ended.
• Huang Qu explained how the Red Tears Rain nourished the city and described Riches Bloom Gate’s gold-growing and the Mei Family’s strange bodily planting.
• Huang Qu urged Gu Qingfeng to flee, but Gu Qingfeng insisted he could continue testing medicine, so Huang Qu left alone.
• Gu Qingfeng stayed at Ghost Hand Apothecary and waited for the next medicine test, feeling lonely after his companions disappeared.
• The lady in purple offered to double Gu Qingfeng’s silver if he took the medicine, but he demanded to be fired up instead.
• Remembering Sun Sheng’s instructions, the lady in purple shut the doors and windows and knelt before Gu Qingfeng.

Gu Qingfeng took four Liver-Severing Killing Qi Pills while secretly planning to destroy Sun Sheng, the man behind Ghost Hand Apothecary. That night, he sensed someone watching him through a hole in the wall, but could not tell whether the intruder was Sun Sheng or a ghost.

• Gu Qingfeng took four pills, which nourished and protected his liver, and decided he would kill Sun Sheng to end the threat against him.
• Madam Purple told Sun Sheng that Gu Qingfeng had swallowed four pills and admitted she had given him what he insisted on.
• Sun Sheng grew furious that Madam Purple had been intimate with Gu Qingfeng, but restrained himself and planned to let the medicine take effect.
• Sun Sheng dismissed concerns about Yellow Smoke Ghost and compared Gu Qingfeng and Yellow Smoke Ghost to dishes he intended to consume.
• That night, Gu Qingfeng heard a nearly inaudible sound, spotted an eye peering at him through a hole in the wall, and wondered whether Sun Sheng or a ghost had come.

Gu Qingfeng ambushed Sun Sheng, the fat apothecary disciple, when he came to kill him. After Sun Sheng fled with his lightness kung fu, Gu Qingfeng brought him down with a golden core branch, leaving him plummeting in despair.

• Sun Sheng silently entered Gu Qingfeng’s room, intending to pierce his liver and drain his liver-killing aura.
• Gu Qingfeng feigned fear, then struck Sun Sheng’s throat with true essence and liver-killing aura.
• Sun Sheng escaped through the door and over the courtyard wall despite his wounds, while Gu Qingfeng pursued him.
• Sun Sheng leaped toward the pavilion, hoping to reach his secret chamber and find a way to survive.
• Gu Qingfeng hurled the golden core branch from his shoulder and pierced Sun Sheng in midair, sending him falling.

Gu Qingfeng killed Sun Sheng after defeating his hidden Blood-Qi Gold Threads, then entered the Ghost Hand Apothecary disguised behind Sun Sheng and attacked the night watch. The chapter left Zhao Di dying from a surgical knife wound as the clerk and apprentice watched.

• Sun Sheng fell after Gu Qingfeng pierced his throat and tried to beg for his life.
• Sun Sheng unleashed the Ghosthand Blood-Draining Thousand-Thread Hand, but Gu Qingfeng’s Geng Metal Force broke the Blood-Qi Gold Threads.
• Sun Sheng asked Gu Qingfeng’s identity, and Gu Qingfeng called himself a hero before stabbing Sun Sheng to death.
• At the Ghost Hand Apothecary, Zhao Di and two assistants heard a knock from the rear courtyard corridor.
• Disguised behind Sun Sheng’s silhouette, Gu Qingfeng lured Zhao Di close and stabbed him in the neck with a surgical knife.

Gu Qingfeng killed the Ghost Hand Apothecary's physician, medicine boy, and shop assistant, then searched the apothecary for pills. He found the Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill and prepared to swallow it.

• Gu Qingfeng struck the medicine boy and shop assistant silent, then killed them after killing Sun Sheng and the physician on duty.
• Gu Qingfeng searched the Ghost Hand Apothecary's medicine room and found twelve Liver-Severing Qi-Killing Pills, which he ate at once.
• Gu Qingfeng discovered the Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill and learned that its power strengthened the soul while its cost drew the eater toward a Taisui corpse.
• Gu Qingfeng saw that reversing the pill's cost let him resist and shut out the Taisui's call, then opened his mouth to swallow it.

Gu Qingfeng ate the Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill and Zhao Di’s duck-leg rice, then set fire to the Immortal Leaf storeroom, causing smoke-fueled revelry as the blaze spread to the Ghost Hand Apothecary. The Red Tear Guards arrived while Gu Qingfeng stood smiling among the celebrating crowd.

• Gu Qingfeng cut the oversized Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill into pieces and ate it, then noticed killing qi seeping from his body as black vapor.
• Gu Qingfeng heated and ate Zhao Di’s braised duck-leg rice, then dragged Sun Sheng’s hand across the floor and went to the Leaf House.
• Gu Qingfeng set fire to the Immortal Leaf storeroom, and the flames spread to the Ghost Hand Apothecary.
• Gu Qingfeng escaped the burning rear courtyard with three medicine testers as nearby people inhaled the smoke and began singing and dancing while fighting the fire.
• The Red Tear Guards swooped onto the street as Gu Qingfeng smiled among the crowd.

Gu Qingfeng watched the City Warden Yu Qiling put out the fire at Immortal Leaf Hall, then discovered that the Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill had strengthened his soul and Mind Force. As Taisui called to him, Gu Qingfeng silenced the voice and stayed in Red Tears City to collect his unpaid payment and see what would happen at the massacre scene.

• Yu Qiling arrived with the Red Tears Guard Skyhawk Corps and froze the flames consuming Immortal Leaf Hall with his Icefire Ruler technique.
• Yu Qiling cursed Sun Sheng and left, while a physician discovered the bodies inside the shop and fled after realizing Sun Sheng was dead.
• Gu Qingfeng secluded himself and found that the Red Taisui Cinnamon Pill had strengthened his soul and Mind Force, letting him control his true essence with fine precision.
• Taisui called Gu Qingfeng to return, but he snapped his fingers and made the voice vanish.
• Gu Qingfeng and the other medicine testers stayed outside Ghost Hand Apothecary to demand their unpaid silver, and Gu Qingfeng waited to watch the crime scene unfold.

After Zhao Situ found a clue at the Ghost Hand Apothecary, he blamed the Jiangzhong Sect and led his people toward Jiang Zhongtang, unaware that Gu Qingfeng had planted the evidence. As spectators followed the impending confrontation, Wang Shanshan was dealing with an audit at Jiang Zhongtang when a commotion broke out outside.

• A doctor brought Zhao Situ to the Ghost Hand Apothecary after Sun Sheng and three others were found dead.
• Zhao Situ examined the bodies, found an incomplete character Jiang beneath Sun Sheng's hand, and concluded that the Jiangzhong Sect was responsible.
• Gu Qingfeng watched in surprise as Zhao Situ led his people toward Jiang Zhongtang, then hurried after them with a bowl of braised rice.
• At Jiang Zhongtang, Wang Shanshan faced an audit from Elder Yuan and worried that the scrutiny would expose his embezzlement.
• A shout of murder and a sudden commotion erupted outside while Wang Shanshan was preparing to explain the accounts.

Zhao Situ, Ghosthand’s first disciple and the Little Ghost Blade, attacked Jiang Zhongtang’s Red Tears Branch to avenge his lineage and junior brother. After killing the branch’s defenders, he used his Blood Soul Divine Needle to turn bystanders and allies into puppets and send them into battle.

• The chapter described Zhao Situ’s talent with blades, his flawed judgment, and his rise to become a fearsome enforcer on the threshold of the Divine Sense Realm.
• Zhao Situ arrived with his men and killed two medicine boys and two spectators who tried to stop or watch him.
• Three Jiang Zhongtang physicians attacked Zhao Situ with a coordinated blade formation, but his true essence armor slowed their blades and he killed them with three punches.
• Eight more black-bladed physicians emerged, while Zhao Situ’s allies and the gathered crowd hesitated to attack.
• Zhao Situ fired the Blood Soul Divine Needle into his own people and nearby passersby, then controlled them with red threads and sent them charging at Jiang Zhongtang as Gu Qingfeng dodged the needles.

Zhao Situ led a bloody assault on Jiang Zhongtang, but Wang Shanshan and Elder Yuan turned the fight against him. As Zhao Situ unleashed a deadly final technique, City Warden Yu Qiling intervened, and Zhao Situ fainted after recognizing the calm, eating Gu Qingfeng among the spectators.

• Zhao Situ used the Blood Soul Divine Needles to control people and lead them in attacking Jiang Zhongtang, overwhelming the apothecary’s physicians and medicine boys.
• Wang Shanshan and Elder Yuan joined the battle, defeated Zhao Situ’s puppets, and beat him down despite his relentless attacks.
• Elder Yuan cut Zhao Situ in half, but Zhao Situ released Ghosthand Blood-Draining Thousand Threads, impaling Wang Shanshan and Elder Yuan and dragging them toward a mutual death.
• Yu Qiling arrived and froze the three fighters in an ice pillar before breaking them apart, preventing Zhao Situ from dying alongside his opponents.
• Zhao Situ spotted Gu Qingfeng calmly eating among the spectators, suspected a hidden connection, and fainted.

Zhao Situ survived after Yu Qiling froze his severed body, and he told Ghosthand that a test subject named Gu Qingfeng may have manipulated the Ghost Hand Apothecary and the Jiangzhong Sect into conflict. The factions clashed repeatedly, and Gu Qingfeng saw a bounty notice accusing him of being a demon lord in disguise.

• Zhao Situ woke with the lower half of his body missing, and Ghosthand kept him alive with his medical skills.
• Zhao Situ told Ghosthand that an Apothecary test subject had watched the fighting while eating and had evaded his divine needles.
• Ghosthand ordered Zhao Situ to draw the test subject, whom he identified from memory as Gu Qingfeng.
• Yu Qiling and the Jiangzhong Sect received the portrait, and the Jiangzhong Sect demanded an explanation from Ghosthand.
• The Ghost Hand Apothecary and the Jiangzhong Sect clashed three more times over two days, worsening the unrest in Red Tears City.
• Gu Qingfeng saw a bounty notice depicting him as a possible evil demon lord and cursed its description.