Recaps

Jiang Chen learned that the Snake-Demon Widow hoped he might someday escort her back to Shipo Forest, but he refused to get involved. Their conversation was interrupted when a beautiful woman in blue robes barged in and accused him of drinking her wine and flirting with the widow.

• Jiang Chen realized that Butterfly Effect footage could show events from a different point in time, and that Thousand-Faced Fox’s attempt to deduce him had been captured by the simulator.
• The Snake-Demon Widow brought Jiang Chen wine to celebrate his rapid cultivation progress, then helped him into the spirit spring after he absorbed the wine’s power.
• The widow told Jiang Chen how she had been bought as a demon slave, married as a concubine, and left alone after her husband’s death; she asked him to take her back to Shipo Forest someday.
• The widow revealed that a powerful official outside had been harassing her and owed her several hundred spirit stones, but Jiang Chen refused to help.
• A woman in blue robes kicked open the door, saw Jiang Chen bathing, and accused him of drinking her wine and flirting with the widow.

Jiang Chen met the drunken warden Li Lingzhou, then left the Spirit Spring Inn and tried to lie low while waiting for the next main plot. He sold some belongings, checked into a mortal inn, and was woken by Li Lingzhou, who had tracked him down.

• Jiang Chen met Li Lingzhou at the Spirit Spring Inn, where she drank his wine, fell asleep in the pool, and ignored the news that the Azure Mist Sect was safe.
• Senior Zhang told Jiang Chen that Li Lingzhou was unreliable but had mysterious power, and Jiang Chen decided not to rely on her and left the inn.
• Jiang Chen thought about the Thousand-Faced Fox and decided to seek a safe place to stay until the next main plot appeared.
• Jiang Chen sold his sect robes, spare sword, and machete for twenty spirit stones, then bought a gray robe and checked into an inn for mortals.
• After sleeping through half a day and a night without the main plot appearing, Jiang Chen was woken when Li Lingzhou found him and asked where he was from.

Li Lingzhou found Jiang Chen and recruited him to accompany her to the Azure Mist Sect to collect a debt, promising him ten percent of whatever she recovered. As they flew there, she discovered Jiang Chen could use Five-Element Spirit Control and questioned how he had learned it.

• Li Lingzhou tracked Jiang Chen by his unusual spiritual power and asked where he came from, but he evaded the question.
• Li Lingzhou explained that she planned to collect spirit stones from the Azure Mist Sect for a promised siege fee and offered Jiang Chen a share to help her.
• Jiang Chen agreed to accompany Li Lingzhou, introduced himself as Jiang Chen, and flew on the tail of her sword.
• Li Lingzhou accelerated her sword, but Jiang Chen steadied himself with Metal Element and Wind Element Spirit Control.
• Li Lingzhou noticed Jiang Chen's Five-Element Spirit Control and demanded to know who had taught him.

Li Lingzhou took Jiang Chen to the Azure Mist Sect and forced Luo Qingzhou to pay five thousand spirit stones for the sect’s survival. She then brought Jiang Chen to Flame Mountain for a month-long survival trial that could help him qualify as a Prison Suppression Envoy.

• Li Lingzhou introduced Jiang Chen to Luo Qingzhou as a former Azure Mist Sect disciple who had witnessed Tian Mingye’s attack, then confronted Luo about why the demoness had spared the sect.
• Jiang Chen listed Luo Qingzhou’s wealth and past spending, and Luo paid Li Lingzhou five thousand spirit stones.
• Li Lingzhou gave Jiang Chen his promised five hundred spirit stones, while he refused her suggestion that he help her meet Tian Mingye for a money-making scheme.
• Li Lingzhou explained that Jiang Chen could earn a government salary as a Prison Suppression Envoy if he proved his abilities and reached the required cultivation.
• Li Lingzhou marked out a Sword-Qi Domain on Flame Mountain and ordered Jiang Chen to survive there for a month among the Sandworms and Sand Monsters.

Jiang Chen endured Li Lingzhou’s Flame Mountain trial by hunting Sandworms and training his skills. After half a month, he had reached Peak Perfection in his body arts and Eight-Step Mad Blade, advanced Basic Spirit Control to Consummate Mastery, and discovered that Myriad Phenomena Resonance had been unlocked.

• Li Lingzhou sealed Jiang Chen inside a Sword-Qi Domain, told him to preserve the five hundred spirit stones she had given him, and left as the trial began.
• Jiang Chen trained Eight-Step Mad Blade with mortal strength until a Sandworm attacked at night, then killed it with Earth-Element Spirit Control and his sword.
• Jiang Chen hunted dozens of Qi Refining Sandworms over the following days, sustaining himself with their cores and veins while advancing Eight-Step Mad Blade and Basic Body Arts to Peak Perfection.
• Jiang Chen failed to absorb beast spirits with the Demi-Immortal's Book, then practiced concealing his aura and moving underground inside a spirit-made Sandworm.
• After another five days, Jiang Chen advanced Basic Spirit Control to Consummate Mastery and found the full Myriad Phenomena Resonance method unlocked on the jade slip Chen Gongxing had given him.

Jiang Chen mastered Myriad Phenomena Realm Resonance and used it to kill a Foundation Establishment Sandworm while still at Qi Refining. After securing the Sandworm’s core pill, he received an invitation to begin the Plot Simulation for Main Storyline Four: "Twin Mermaids."

• Jiang Chen assessed his strengths and weaknesses, then began cultivating Myriad Phenomena Realm Resonance in the desert.
• After three days, Jiang Chen reached Beginner’s Insight, and after nine more days of studying Li Lingzhou’s Sword-Qi Domain, he advanced to Minor Mastery.
• With three days left in his trial, Jiang Chen lured a Foundation Establishment Sandworm into the Sword Domain to test his new skill.
• Jiang Chen broke through the Sandworm’s spiritual-pressure suppression, cut it open with a single sword slash, and used resonance to withstand its counterattack.
• Jiang Chen drove the weakened Sandworm from the ground, retrieved its damaged core pill, and stored it in his inventory.
• The system announced that Main Storyline Four, "Twin Mermaids," was online and asked whether Jiang Chen wanted to begin the Plot Simulation.

Jiang Chen watched a storyline in which Fireburn Kingdom agents intercepted an Artificial Sandworm carrying two captive Merfolk Women and delivered the twins to the palace. The black-clad agent later wondered whom to give the recovered Merfolk Pearls to, while Jiang Chen suspected the Empress Dowager might be connected to the fox demon legend.

• Jiang Chen began the Twin Mermaids storyline and saw an Artificial Sandworm racing through the desert near Flame Mountain.
• A black-clad Foundation Establishment man pursued the Artificial Sandworm, killed the two merchants inside, and rescued two captive Merfolk twin sisters.
• The black-clad man brought the unconscious Merfolk Women to an underground relay station, where General Chen praised his service and promised to petition for his promotion.
• General Chen returned to Xiyang City and delivered the Merfolk Women to the palace for examination by imperial physicians.
• The black-clad man found more than twenty Merfolk Pearls in a merchant's Storage Ring and debated whether to give them to the princess or the Empress Dowager.
• Jiang Chen wondered whether Thousand-Faced Fox possessed the Empress Dowager and whether she had once ruled from behind the curtain.

Jiang Chen considered using Thousand-Faced Fox’s matching avatar to approach the Empress Dowager, then began a simulation to rescue two mermaid women and acquire Merfolk Pearls. After bargaining failed inside an Artificial Sandworm, he attacked the middle-aged merchant.

• Jiang Chen reviewed the palace plot and decided the Empress Dowager might be a suitable partner for dual cultivation.
• He began the first simulation and airdropped into an Artificial Sandworm carrying two merchants, two mermaid women, and Merfolk Pearls.
• Jiang Chen warned the merchants that black-clothed Imperial Guards were pursuing them and persuaded them to dive and hide.
• After the danger passed, Jiang Chen offered sandworm cores in exchange for the mermaid women and twenty Merfolk Pearls, but the middle-aged merchant refused.
• Jiang Chen produced a bag of spirit stones to distract the merchant, then pierced his forehead with a disciple sword.

Jiang Chen killed a Foundation Establishment merchant and an insect tamer who were trafficking Merfolk Women, then waited calmly when General Chen arrived. He revealed that he belonged to the Empress Dowager, leaving General Chen to face the revelation.

• Jiang Chen defeated the merchant with his sword and destroyed the merchant’s soul and dantian after killing the insect tamer.
• Jiang Chen looted the merchants, rescued the two Merfolk Women, and sensed a Golden Core cultivator approaching.
• General Chen pulled the Sandworm vessel from beneath the desert and confronted Jiang Chen over the Merfolk Women and the merchant’s Storage Ring.
• Jiang Chen refused to identify himself until he declared that he was the Empress Dowager’s man.

Jiang Chen reached Peaceful Palace after Chen Huan confirmed that the empress dowager knew him, then faced Mu Rong’s illusion and entered her private chambers. Mu Rong attacked him in anger, but Jiang Chen survived until midnight.

• Jiang Chen told Chen Huan that the empress dowager was not human, convincing him to shelter him and the two Merfolk Women.
• Chen Huan sent the Merfolk Women to Taigan Palace, confirmed Jiang Chen was known to the empress dowager, and secretly escorted him to Peaceful Palace.
• Jiang Chen entered Peaceful Palace, ignored the palace maids under illusion, and greeted the empress dowager.
• Mu Rong struck Jiang Chen with an illusion, but he recognized the test and entered her inner chamber.
• Jiang Chen claimed he had a new ability Mu Rong would love, and she attacked him until he bled, yet he lived until midnight.

Jiang Chen finished his first simulation after learning the Empress Dowager was tied to the Dragon Bone, then began a second attempt to obtain the merfolk and their pearls. The new plan ended with him killing Chen using Sword-Qi Domain.

• Jiang Chen learned that the Empress Dowager was Mu Rong, possessed only Foundation Establishment Peak cultivation, and was waiting for an opportunity connected to the Dragon Bone.
• The first simulation ended, and Jiang Chen resolved to correct his mistakes by changing his route in the second simulation.
• Jiang Chen led the Sandworm to Flame Mountain and offered the merchant worm cores in exchange for two Merfolk Women and twenty Merfolk Pearls.
• The merchant became suspicious, fought Jiang Chen, and was killed after their battle moved between the underground and the surface.
• Chen arrived with another black-clothed man and pulled the Artificial Sandworm from underground, but Jiang Chen attacked him.
• Jiang Chen activated Sword-Qi Domain and split apart Chen's palm force and body with a single slash.

Jiang Chen defeated the attackers, cultivated to Qi Refining Ninth Layer, and brought the Twin Mermaids to Mu Rong. Mu Rong explained that her Dragon Bone vision was tied to the mermaids, and their origins suggested a connection to a beast tamer and the princess.

• Jiang Chen killed General Chen and the fleeing black-clad man, then took their belongings and returned to Flame Mountain.
• Jiang Chen absorbed Heavenly Demon qi, swallowed the Merfolk Pearls and over three hundred spirit stones, and advanced to Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
• Jiang Chen visited Mu Rong at Peaceful Palace and cultivated with her while pressing her about the palace struggle and the Dragon Bone.
• Mu Rong said she had divined that the Dragon Bone was connected to the Twin Mermaids, whose blood might carry Dragon Clan ancestry.
• Mu Rong searched the Twin Mermaids’ souls and learned that a young beast tamer had raised them before they ran away and were captured by merchants.
• Jiang Chen recalled that the princess was betrothed to a Beast Taming Sect prodigy and suspected the mermaids’ past was tied to her.

Jiang Chen learned that Princess Ping'an rivaled the Crown Prince, planned to live in the Peaceful Palace under a cover identity, and heard about Li Lingzhou’s gambling habits. After the second simulation ended, he began a third run and forcibly absorbed Li Lingzhou’s Sword Qi, which filled him with horror.

• The Empress Dowager told Jiang Chen that Princess Ping'an was engaged to Yun Lanzi and coveted the throne.
• Jiang Chen proposed posing as the Empress Dowager’s bodyguard or imperial physician, then asked about Li Lingzhou and learned she gambled away her money.
• The Empress Dowager said Li Lingzhou had invited Jiang Chen to become a Prison Suppression Envoy, but Jiang Chen preferred the imperial physician role.
• The second simulation ended, and Jiang Chen reflected on his gains before choosing to begin a third simulation.
• Jiang Chen killed the old general and the black-clad Foundation Establishment cultivator, absorbed fiendish and demonic energy, then forcibly drew in Li Lingzhou’s Sword Qi and was horrified.

Jiang Chen absorbed Li Lingzhou’s Sword Qi, greatly increasing his physical strength while keeping his cultivation and Demonic Aura separate. Li Lingzhou arrived through a spatial rift, demanded payment for her Sword Qi, and failed to recruit him; Jiang Chen left for Xiyang City and the Peaceful Palace.

• Jiang Chen subdued Li Lingzhou’s Sword Qi in his dantian, preserved his Demonic Aura, and returned to Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
• Jiang Chen devoured the rest of the Sword Qi and found that it greatly increased his speed and strength without affecting his other powers.
• Li Lingzhou tore open a spatial rift and emerged, surprised that Jiang Chen had survived and absorbed her Sword Qi.
• Li Lingzhou demonstrated her sword’s power, asked Jiang Chen to join the Prison Suppression Bureau, and demanded payment when he refused.
• Jiang Chen paid Li Lingzhou five hundred spirit stones, protected the two Merfolk Women, and flew toward Xiyang City while she went to the Thousand-Gold Gambling House.
• Jiang Chen bought a carriage and went to the Peaceful Palace to cultivate with the empress dowager.

Jiang Chen completed the third simulation, chose its ending, and returned to the palace as the Empress Dowager’s personal imperial physician. After spending the night cultivating with Mu Rong, he drew the attention of Princess Ping'an, who came to meet him.

• Jiang Chen finished the Empress Dowager storyline in his third simulation and selected its ending to overwrite the real path.
• Jiang Chen awoke in Peaceful Palace under twelve hours of system control and accepted the position of personal imperial physician.
• Jiang Chen and Mu Rong discussed the Merfolk Women, demons, and cultivation before Mu Rong gave him a Lotus Worm Pill.
• Jiang Chen used resonance, Pure Yang Sword Aura, and spirit control to overcome Mu Rong’s illusion arts and the pill’s effects during their night of cultivation.
• News of the Empress Dowager’s new imperial physician spread through the palace, and Princess Ping'an arrived at Peaceful Palace seeking him.

Jiang Chen freed the Twin Mermaids from the tear-inducing restriction and collected six Merfolk Pearls, then reviewed system footage revealing Princess Ping'an’s ties to the Beast Tamer and the fallout from the old general’s death. Princess Ping'an came to Peaceful Palace to question him, and after Jiang Chen refused her audience, she vaulted over the wall and confronted him.

• Jiang Chen discovered a hidden tear-inducing restriction on the Twin Mermaids and removed it with Myriad Phenomena Resonance.
• Jiang Chen told the Twin Mermaids Stairway to the Immortal Kingdom, prompting them to cry and produce six Merfolk Pearls.
• Jiang Chen reviewed footage showing Princess Ping'an receiving the Beast Tamer’s letter and deciding to marry the Emperor ahead of schedule.
• Jiang Chen watched footage of the Emperor avoiding an investigation into the old general’s death and Li Lingzhou being taken back to Xihe Prefecture after admitting she killed Chen.
• Princess Ping'an requested an audience with Jiang Chen, and after he refused, she vaulted over the wall into Spirit-Calming Garden and confronted him.

Jiang Chen examined Princess Ping'an Yuwen Chan and discovered that her abdominal pain came from demonic aura in tainted venison, not a gynecological illness. After she tried to seize him and accused him of molesting her, the empress dowager returned and defended him, leaving Yuwen Chan wary of the physician.

• Yuwen Chan challenged Jiang Chen to examine her abdominal pain, and he found that tainted venison rice balls had caused it.
• Yuwen Chan accused Jiang Chen of slandering her and tried to seize him, but he restrained her and suppressed her spiritual pressure.
• Jiang Chen released Yuwen Chan and told her to return, while she continued to suspect him of involvement in the Merfolk Women’s disappearance.
• The empress dowager returned, heard Yuwen Chan’s accusation, and defended Jiang Chen as an extraordinary physician.
• Yuwen Chan accepted her grandmother’s explanation and warned Jiang Chen that she would not spare him next time.

Jiang Chen investigated Princess Ping'an’s possible connection to the Dragon Bone, commissioned a Five-Element Sword, and cultivated the Demi-Immortal's Book with the Empress Dowager’s help. After reaching Minor Accomplishment, he received a prompt to enter the storyline simulation for Princess Ping'an’s broken engagement.

• The Empress Dowager told Jiang Chen that Princess Ping'an was the daughter of a Beast Taming Sect prodigy and had recently accepted her engagement to Yun Lanzi, possibly to pursue the legendary Dragon Bone.
• The Empress Dowager explained the Dragon Bone’s rumored powers and said that no known cultivator could absorb demonic and devil aura as efficiently as Jiang Chen.
• Jiang Chen commissioned a custom Five-Element Sword using Old General Chen’s heavy sword and sold his unused artifacts and resources to fund its forging.
• Jiang Chen gave the Empress Dowager six Merfolk Pearls and told her that he had removed the restrictions on the two Merfolk Women, allowing them to produce more pearls.
• Jiang Chen cultivated the Demi-Immortal's Book in the underground chamber for three days and advanced it to Minor Accomplishment.
• A system prompt announced that the storyline simulation for Princess Breaks Off the Engagement had begun and asked Jiang Chen whether he would watch and participate.

Jiang Chen watched the original storyline reveal Yun Lanzi and the Beast Taming Sect’s plot to use the Twin Mermaids to find the Dragon Bone and gain power in the Fireburn Kingdom. Princess Ping'an rejected her arranged marriage and promised to marry whoever brought her the mermaids, leaving Jiang Chen to realize he was the likely target of her scheme.

• Jiang Chen watched Yun Lanzi and Elder Guo travel to Xiyang City, where they planned to use the Twin Mermaids to locate the Dragon Bone and advance the Beast Taming Sect’s influence.
• Yun Lanzi and Elder Guo met the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, Princess Ping'an, and the court to formalize Yun Lanzi’s marriage pact with Princess Ping'an.
• Yun Lanzi said he had released the Twin Mermaids, prompting Princess Ping'an to insist that she would not marry him without them.
• Princess Ping'an declared that she would marry whichever man brought her the Twin Mermaids, and Jiang Chen realized she might be targeting him.

Jiang Chen watched the original storyline unfold, in which Yun Lanzi and Princess Ping'an schemed to recover the twin mermaids and use them in their plan. The empress dowager proposed involving Jiang Chen and the mermaids to save them, but he refused to act until he reached Foundation Establishment, and the story ended with him and the empress dowager together in the pool.

• Princess Ping'an threatened never to marry unless the Beast Taming Sect recovered the twin mermaids, and Yun Lanzi promised to search for them.
• Yun Lanzi told Elder Guo that the princess possessed his beast-taming orb and would help complete their plan.
• The empress dowager told Jiang Chen that Princess Ping'an seemed to like him, and he suspected the mermaids were central to the scheme.
• The empress dowager suggested using the mermaids in a marriage arrangement to uncover the plan and potentially save other merfolk women.
• Jiang Chen refused to gamble with the mermaids' lives and said he would reconsider after reaching Foundation Establishment.
• Jiang Chen pushed the empress dowager into the pool, and they remained together after the storyline ended.

Jiang Chen began a simulation by hiding from the danger around Xiyang City, but discovered signs that the Beast Taming Sect might be preparing to attack with a sandworm swarm. After he completed the storyline from a concealed Gray Castle inn, the Empress Dowager noticed his disappearance and suggested he could roam the entire Ascending Dragon Continent.

• Jiang Chen searched Xiyang City for powerful figures and chose to begin the simulation by hiding beneath the desert outside the city.
• He sensed sandworms moving toward Xiyang City and suspected a Nascent Soul powerhouse from the Beast Taming Sect was preparing an attack.
• Jiang Chen relocated to a Gray Castle inn, registered under the name Xuande, and completed the storyline without being noticed.
• The Empress Dowager returned to Peaceful Palace, realized Jiang Chen had vanished, and calmly speculated that he could roam the entire Ascending Dragon Continent.
• Jiang Chen wondered whether he and Thousand-Faced Fox had been fellow disciples at the Azure Mist Sect before the system appeared.

Jiang Chen helped Mu Rong form a Golden Core and secretly planted hidden spiritual marks in two Merfolk Women, preparing to use them against Yun Lanzi’s plot. He delivered the women to Yun Lanzi under the name Liu Xuande, claiming they were a gift to raise spirit stones for the wager.

• Jiang Chen used dual cultivation to clear Mu Rong’s spiritual obstruction, helping her form a Golden Core.
• Jiang Chen and Mu Rong agreed to hide his spiritual power inside the two Merfolk Women so he could interfere with the Emperor’s plan and aid them at a critical moment.
• After several failed attempts, Jiang Chen used Li Lingzhou’s Pure Yang Sword Aura wrapped in Five-Element Spirit Control to plant hidden marks in both Merfolk Women.
• Mu Rong discovered that Jiang Chen had used Li Lingzhou’s sword aura, while Jiang Chen admitted he had forcibly taken it and paid Li Lingzhou five hundred in tips.
• Jiang Chen put the unconscious Merfolk Women in water tanks, drove them to the inn, and introduced himself to Yun Lanzi as Liu Xuande while presenting them as a gift from Prison Envoy Li.

Jiang Chen collected ten thousand spirit stones from Yun Lanzi and Guo Yanzai, then learned that Li Lingzhou had nominated him for a prison suppression envoy post. After reviewing the simulation, he began a third run with a compressed timeline and reached the imperial palace with the Twin Mermaids, where the emperor summoned Liu Xuande into the hall.

• Jiang Chen convinced Yun Lanzi that he was connected to Li Lingzhou by displaying his sword aura, then received ten thousand spirit stones from Guo Yanzai.
• Jiang Chen traveled to Xihe City and discovered that Li Lingzhou had recommended him for a prison suppression envoy position, which the bureau had already approved.
• Jiang Chen returned to Xiyang City, reviewed the simulation, and decided to compress the timeline of his next attempt.
• Jiang Chen began the third simulation, quickly subdued the Twin Mermaids, and brought them by carriage to the imperial palace.
• The emperor heard that Liu Xuande had arrived with two Twin Mermaids and ordered him summoned into the hall.

Jiang Chen brought the Twin Mermaids to the Golden Hall and was forced into a sword duel with Yun Lanzi over their fate and Princess Ping'an’s marriage. He defeated Yun Lanzi with a Resonant Sword Shock, leaving the emperor to honor the duel’s terms.

• Jiang Chen brought the Twin Mermaids before the emperor, and Princess Ping'an reunited with them while Yun Lanzi confirmed they were the pair he had released.
• Jiang Chen demanded one hundred thousand spirit stones for the merfolk women, and Yun Lanzi challenged him to a sword duel after tensions rose in the Golden Hall.
• The emperor decreed that Jiang Chen could take the merfolk women and marry the princess if he won, while Yun Lanzi would prevail if Jiang Chen lost.
• Jiang Chen objected to the mismatch in cultivation, and Yun Lanzi agreed to suppress his strength to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
• Jiang Chen struck Yun Lanzi with a Resonant Sword Shock that Yun Lanzi could only deflect into a protected pillar, and Jiang Chen declared him defeated.

Jiang Chen defeated Yun Lanzi in a sword duel and was ordered to marry Princess Ping'an, who revealed that she had been plotting to rescue the merfolk women imprisoned by her father. Jiang Chen agreed to consult the empress dowager before deciding whether to help her.

• Jiang Chen used a surprise Sword Shock to defeat Yun Lanzi, who acknowledged his skill and left the hall.
• The emperor ordered Jiang Chen to marry Princess Ping'an and sent him to Pingxing Palace with a reward for the palace.
• Princess Ping'an pulled Jiang Chen into her private chambers and mistakenly assumed the empress dowager had sent him to help rescue the imprisoned merfolk women.
• Princess Ping'an explained that her father had exploited thousands of merfolk women while seeking the Dragon Bone, and that her mother had died opposing him.
• Princess Ping'an revealed that she had cooperated with the Beast Taming Sect and planned to use Xiaobai and Feifei to rescue the merfolk women, but Jiang Chen said he would first consult the empress dowager and assess the danger and reward.