Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Qin Geng completes his breakthrough to Transforming Force, gaining full control over his body and its force. Ye Lanzen explains that this is the pinnacle of physical training but only the beginning of cultivating Essence, Qi, and Spirit.
• Ye outlines the higher martial tiers: Embracing the Elixir, Astral Transformation, and Seeing the Spirit, Indestructible, illustrating the last with a legendary warrior who survived ninety-nine beheading strokes.
• He teaches that a martial artist’s path must match their nature. House Guard Zhou’s timid, defensive disposition has limited his progress, while Qin Geng’s ninth senior brother has turned his love of books and wine into a distinctive, formidable fighting spirit.
• Unsure what path suits him, Qin Geng asks how to discover his nature. Ye answers: fight. They spar, and Qin Geng’s new force proves capable of changing direction and penetrating Ye’s defenses.
• The fight awakens Qin Geng’s Dragon-Tiger Convergence talent. He abandons formal techniques and attacks with dragon and tiger forms, producing powerful cries and a fierce, fluid presence. The bout ends with both fighters driven back.
• Ye recognizes Qin Geng’s emerging martial intent and declares his path to be Dragon-Tiger True Intent. Qin accepts it, resolving to cultivate its fierce, unyielding power.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Geng moves from uncertainty about the next stage of cultivation to discovering a path that reflects his nature. His extraordinary talent lets him manifest Essence, Qi, and Spirit almost immediately after reaching Transforming Force.
• Ye Lanzen shifts from teacher to sparring partner, using combat to reveal Qin’s instincts. He is astonished by Qin’s ability and openly proud of him.
• Their relationship is warm but demanding: Ye guides and tests Qin, while Qin shows respect, trusts his instruction, and embraces the direction he provides.

Significant themes

• Cultivation as self-knowledge: Progress beyond physical mastery depends on nurturing a spirit that fits one’s character.
• Experience over abstraction: Qin discovers his path through action and combat rather than reflection alone.
• Individuality in martial arts: The same techniques can express very different natures—and those differences shape a practitioner’s limits or strengths.
• Fierce power and disciplined growth: Qin’s raw ferocity is a gift, but Ye gives it a clear direction for future cultivation.

Key plot points and events

• After visiting Master Ye, Qin Geng goes to the Xun River seeking a fight. At Wildcat Bay, he kills a giant crocodile with a single unarmed strike, demonstrating the power of his newly attained Transforming Force.
• He eats the crocodile meat and discovers that his Dragon-Tiger Convergence talent lets his body keep growing stronger beyond Transforming Force’s normal physical limit, as long as he consumes sufficiently potent “Blood Fare.” He devours the rest of the meat and saves the hide for possible bracers.
• On his return, Qin Geng overhears Wave-Quelling Bureau soldiers discussing a surge in river monsters, including a giant crab that killed two men. Rumors suggest Tianjin’s Dragon Vein is in trouble. Qin recognizes that the danger is becoming public knowledge and that fear could soon spread.
• That night, his newly unlocked Feng Shui Master profession makes geomancy texts unusually easy to understand. He studies through the night, gaining experience and grasping concepts of dragon-vein surveying and the flow of qi.
• The next morning, an errand runner from the Mound-Sealing Celestial Official Office summons him to the Lin family residence. Lin Zhengde reports repeated dreams of his dead grandfather, who appears soaked, muddy, cold, and unable to speak except by spitting black water. Lin also has bruise-like fingerprints on his neck.
• Qin Geng finds no obvious ghostly aura but senses a damp, oppressive trace. He interprets the dream as evidence of a problem at the grandfather’s grave—possibly a water-soaked coffin, ants or a shifting foundation, and baleful water entering the burial site. He and Lin set out to inspect the grave, with Qin suspecting the issue may connect to the damaged Dragon Vein and shifting underground water.

Character developments

• Qin Geng displays confidence in his new martial strength, defeating a dangerous monster without weapons or assistance. More importantly, he learns that his talent can push his body past its expected limits, giving him a potentially limitless path of physical growth.
• His Feng Shui Master abilities also begin to develop: he can absorb specialist texts rapidly and applies geomantic reasoning to a practical case.
• Lin Zhengde is more frightened and physically worn down than in their previous encounter. His terror over the dreams drives him to seek Qin Geng’s help urgently.

Significant themes

• Growth without limits: Qin Geng’s talent overturns the usual ceiling on bodily strength, turning monster meat into fuel for continued advancement.
• Changing natural order: The growing number and variety of river monsters signal a wider disturbance in the region’s spiritual or geological forces.
• Knowledge becoming power: Qin Geng’s new profession transforms difficult texts into usable understanding, which he immediately applies.
• Ancestors, land, and family fortune: The grandfather’s dream links a descendant’s suffering to the condition of the family grave and the flow of qi through the land.

Character interactions

• Qin Geng calmly tests his strength against the crocodile, then feeds its meat to Xia Qi and himself.
• He listens unobtrusively as Bureau soldiers discuss the monster attacks and Dragon Vein rumors, choosing not to alarm them or reveal his thoughts.
• Shunzi respectfully summons Qin Geng on Cao Xiaoliu’s behalf, explaining that the Lin family has requested him specifically.
• Lin Zhengde clings to Qin Geng’s help and recounts the disturbing dreams. Qin steadies him, examines the marks on his neck, and directs him to take the problem to the ancestral grave rather than treating it as a simple dream or haunting.

Plot

• Qin Geng accompanies Lin Zhengde to the Lin family’s ancestral graves on Yin Mountain, going at midday because the mountain’s awakened ghosts and baleful energy make other hours too dangerous.
• At Wanger Ridge, Qin Geng discovers that the supposedly dry, auspicious burial ground has turned waterlogged. He senses an underground river rushing beneath Old Master Lin’s coffin, and orders the grave opened.
• Black groundwater floods the grave, confirming Lin Zhengde’s dream that his father was submerged. Qin Geng has the coffin removed and warns that the site could turn the corpse into a zombie.
• The unusually fast, concentrated current leads Qin Geng to infer that the Foreigners have deliberately blasted open an underground route between the Concession and Yin Mountain, bypassing the authorities’ land and water checkpoints. He memorizes the route.
• Qin Geng reports the discovery to Zhou Dawei and Commander Jiang Youzhi. Jiang recognizes that the tunnel explains the Foreigners’ movements and orders an underwater strike: elite troops, deepwater explosives, and Qin Geng as their guide.

Character development and interactions

• Qin Geng demonstrates confidence and expertise in feng shui and water-sensing, moving from investigating a family burial problem to uncovering a major military secret. He remains composed and strategically discreet, recording the route before revealing it to the authorities.
• Lin Zhengde shifts from fearful reluctance to trust and obedience. Once the grave’s flooding confirms his dream, he grieves for his father and follows Qin Geng’s instructions.
• Zhou Dawei goes from bored and teasing to excited and decisive when Qin Geng reveals the lead; he immediately brings him to command.
• Jiang Youzhi moves from frustration over the Foreigners’ elusive tactics to relief and aggressive determination. He praises Qin Geng and promises him advancement for guiding the operation.

Significant themes

• Hidden truths beneath appearances: A prestigious, seemingly stable grave conceals dangerous water and a covert military passage.
• Knowledge as power: Qin Geng’s specialized understanding of feng shui and water exposes what conventional surveillance missed.
• Tradition, duty, and practical necessity: Lin Zhengde must accept disturbing his father’s grave to protect him and preserve household peace.
• Escalating conflict: The discovery turns a mysterious disturbance into evidence of an organized enemy operation and sets up a counterattack.

Plot points and events

• Qin Geng searches Yin Mountain for the underground river the Foreigners are using to move troops and supplies. Using his Water Lord senses rather than a compass, he identifies Ghost-Sorrow Ravine as the ideal place to collapse the passage: loose ground and weakened rock lie above a sharply bending, high-pressure current.
• At the Dragon-Guard Office, Jiang Youzhi confirms the intelligence with reports of suspicious freight traffic and pumping beneath a flour mill. Jia Xincun initially proposes mapping the underground route and tracing it to the Foreigners’ lair; Shen Yi argues that the plan is too dangerous and that the Office needs an immediate, decisive victory. With Zhao Jinglie’s support, the group chooses to demolish the passage.
• Qin Geng leads a small team into the mountains. It includes fighters Tiger Cub and Xia Jingyi, Mo School demolition specialist Zhao Yuanji and his assistants, and Daoist Chi Song, assigned to control supernatural threats. Jiang Youzhi makes Qin the operation’s leader.
• At Ghost-Sorrow Ravine, Zhao’s team plants powerful Mountain-Shaking Thunder charges at Qin Geng’s chosen weak point. Mountain Ogres and White-Haired Zombies attack, but Chi Song kills one with lightning and keeps the others at bay.
• Qin Geng senses a fleet of the Foreigners’ vessels approaching underground and orders the explosives lit at the right moment. The blast collapses the ravine into the river, crushing the fleet beneath the falling rock and cutting off the waterway.

Character developments

• Qin Geng demonstrates keen judgment and leadership, combining his Water Lord senses with practical knowledge of terrain. He takes command under pressure and times the blast to catch the fleet.
• Jia Xincun shows strategic caution, preferring intelligence-gathering and a long-term plan, but yields when others persuade him that an immediate strike is necessary.
• Shen Yi is driven by anger, concern for his casualties, and the need to restore morale; he pushes successfully for a decisive attack.
• Tiger Cub and Xia Jingyi prove capable, trusted companions. Tiger Cub’s respect for Qin is evident, while Xia remains alert and composed.
• Zhao Yuanji is revealed as a skilled demolition expert, though Qin suspects he has also joined to claim credit with limited personal risk.
• Daoist Chi Song appears reserved but proves exceptionally powerful against the creatures of yin.

Significant themes

• Strategy versus immediate action: Jia favors careful reconnaissance, while Shen argues that delay carries costs in lives and morale.
• Leadership and trust: The mission succeeds because Qin’s expertise is recognized and the team follows his orders.
• Resistance and retaliation: The operation answers the Foreigners’ covert intrusion and the Dragon-Guard Office’s mounting losses with a forceful counterstrike.
• Knowledge of the land: Qin’s sensitivity to water and earth makes the mountain itself both a weapon and a source of intelligence.

Character interactions

• Shen and Jia clash over whether to map the passage or destroy it; Shen’s appeal to the dead and wounded sways the room.
• Jiang Youzhi delivers the order to Qin and places him in command, while Qin works with Zhao to choose and prepare the blast site.
• Tiger Cub and Xia Jingyi accompany Qin as trusted allies; the team’s confidence in him is tested and affirmed when he reads the approaching fleet and gives the signal.
• Chi Song protects the demolition crew from supernatural attackers, allowing Zhao’s team to finish the job.

Key plot points and events

• After the Mountain-Shaking Thunder destroys the mountainside, Qin Geng, Zhao Yuanji, Tiger Cub, and Xia Jingyi descend into the flooded crater to search for the Foreigners’ boat and its crew.
• They find extensive wreckage but no bodies, blood, or belongings—only fragments of the oversized purple-clay vessels used to carry cargo. Zhao Yuanji discovers a mechanical steering system and realizes the boat was unmanned.
• The explosion has stopped no crew and likely lost no cargo; the Foreigners’ fleet can carry supplies underground without risking lives. Qin Geng recognizes this as a major strategic threat and races to report it before dawn.
• Jia Xincun accepts the report without blaming Qin Geng. He orders the Dragon-Guard Office to recruit people suited to underground work, establish an Underground River Department, and task the Mo School with studying the recovered machinery. Shen Yi is told to train troops for future fighting on land, water, or underground.
• Qin Geng receives “no merit, no fault”: the mission produced no enemy casualties, but its reconnaissance was valuable.
• Back home, Qin Geng confronts his sense of helplessness before foreign technology. He recommits to improving himself, advancing his professions, and surviving through his own strength.

Character developments

• Qin Geng shows practical judgment, honesty, and leadership: he reports the failure plainly and puts intelligence ahead of personal credit. His initial defeat gives way to renewed, self-focused determination.
• Jia Xincun demonstrates composure and political skill, treating the discovery as useful intelligence and turning it into an organized response rather than assigning blame.
• Zhao Yuanji contributes technical insight by identifying the unmanned boat’s mechanism; he is especially energized by the prospect of studying foreign technology.
• Tiger Cub is eager for combat rewards but frustrated when the wreckage yields no enemies. Xia Jingyi helps investigate and looks to Qin Geng for direction.

Significant themes

• Technology versus individual strength: Martial skill alone cannot answer the challenge of machines that operate without crews or fear.
• Adaptation and learning: The authorities decide to study the Foreigners’ inventions and recruit specialists rather than rely on courage alone.
• Merit, failure, and responsibility: The operation earns no direct reward, yet its discoveries may prevent future losses.
• Personal survival amid larger forces: Qin Geng rejects grand ambitions and focuses on becoming stronger enough to protect himself in a dangerous world.

Character interactions

• The team works together in the crater, then relies on Qin Geng to interpret the discovery and decide what to do.
• Qin Geng earns the others’ trust; Zhao Yuanji accepts his decision to go ahead alone, while Tiger Cub and Xia Jingyi await his return.
• Jia Xincun publicly reassures Qin Geng and gives the group a broader plan, shifting their disappointment into a coordinated effort.

Key plot points and events

• Qin Geng visits Hundred Herb Hall, run by his second senior brother, Zheng Tonghe, and asks to treat patients. Zheng initially refuses, warning that careless diagnosis could harm people.
• Qin claims he has memorized and understood several major medical texts in a month. Zheng tests him on herbal incompatibilities, diagnoses, prescriptions, and aconite; Qin answers accurately enough to convince him.
• Zheng agrees to let Qin consult under supervision. Qin treats laborers and local residents, diagnosing a dockworker’s chronic back pain and easing it with treatment and massage. The Book of a Hundred Trades rewards him with the Physician profession, which begins gaining experience as he sees more patients.
• Zheng gives medicine without charge to a desperately poor woman whose child is seriously ill, affirming Hundred Herb Hall’s rule not to refuse urgent cases or scorn the poor. Qin observes and reflects on the difference between Zheng’s charitable motives and his own practical reasons for learning medicine.
• After treating several patients and reaching Physician Level 2, Qin goes to train with Master Ye Lanzen. Ye explains that advancing from Transforming Force to Embracing the Elixir requires condensing one’s essence, energy, and spirit.
• Ye says Qin is unlikely to advance through quiet, gradual cultivation; he must face mortal danger and fight formidable opponents. Qin concludes that the Underground Dark River and its threats may be the proving ground he needs.

Character developments

• Qin Geng proves his exceptional aptitude for medicine, applies it successfully in practice, and gains a new profession. He remains driven by self-preservation and advancement, while beginning to recognize—and not imitate—Zheng’s altruism.
• Zheng Tonghe shifts from skepticism to impressed approval after Qin passes his examination. His compassion is also made clear when he treats a poor child without payment.
• Ye Lanzen gives Qin a blunt account of the dangers required for martial progress, steering him toward confrontation rather than safe, routine training.
• Qin’s outlook hardens: he accepts that becoming stronger will require risk, combat, and potentially killing, rather than relying only on study and practice.

Significant themes

• Medicine as both skill and responsibility: Knowledge must be applied carefully, but healing also demands compassion.
• Contrasting motives: Zheng sees medicine as benevolent service; Qin sees it chiefly as a means of survival, growth, and gaining useful abilities.
• Growth through danger: The chapter contrasts patient, gradual cultivation with advancement forged through life-threatening struggle.
• Ambition and its cost: Qin’s many pursuits and punishing schedule reflect extraordinary drive, but his path toward greater strength may draw him into lethal conflict.

Character interactions

• Qin and Zheng’s warm senior-junior relationship combines frank criticism, testing, and growing professional trust.
• Qin’s care for patients contrasts with Zheng’s deeper generosity toward those unable to pay.
• Ye advises Qin as a demanding but protective master, warning him about the perilous route ahead while telling him simply not to die.

Key plot points and events

• Qin Geng receives a new appointment as Inspector Envoy of the Underground River Department, a Principal Ninth Rank post that leaves his existing Wave-Quelling Bureau and Customs Bureau positions intact. It pays generously and rewards him with monthly merits, but requires him to map the dangerous Underground Dark River beneath Ping’an County and into Yin Mountain.
• Zhou Dawei explains that the mission prioritizes mapping underground waterways, caverns, and Foreign outposts. The team should avoid unnecessary fights, but may kill Foreigners when feasible. He also advises Qin Geng to delegate his other duties to trusted men and begin building a personal network.
• Qin meets his new team: Daoist Chi Song, who leads the expedition; familiar allies Tiger Cub, Xia Jingyi, Zhao Yuanji, and Cao Xiaoliu; and specialists Monk Jingkong and Miao Xiaolan, a Southern Border bug-handler. Chi Song identifies an underwater whirlpool as their entrance and demands strict obedience. The team is to enter the river the next morning and explore for two days at a time.
• Before the expedition, Qin visits the carriage depot and then shares food and liquor with his former fellow pullers in Clothes-Washing Lane. He offers Li Gou a paid intelligence-gathering role, with the possibility of earning an official appointment later.

Character developments

• Qin’s promotion marks a move from subordinate guard to official, and his responsibilities—and influence—are expanding. He recognizes that he cannot manage everything alone and begins turning his success into support for trusted former companions.
• Li Gou is overwhelmed by Qin’s offer, which gives him a chance to escape poverty and possibly gain official status. The older carriage pullers are deeply moved by Qin’s generosity and loyalty.
• Daoist Chi Song establishes himself as a stern, powerful leader who prioritizes the mission over individual glory. The team members show they are willing to follow his rules.

Character interactions

• Zhou Dawei acts as Qin’s mentor, explaining the risks of the new post and discreetly encouraging him to cultivate capable subordinates.
• Qin treats his new team with respect and promptly agrees to Chi Song’s command structure. The specialists each affirm their commitment, though some do so in their own distinct, humorous ways.
• Qin eases the carriage pullers’ awkwardness over his new rank by joking and sharing a meal with them. He then offers Li Gou a job, while reminding the group that their past kindness to him matters and that he intends to protect them.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Qin’s growing rank brings wealth and authority, but also dangerous duties and a need to delegate.
• Loyalty and social mobility: Qin uses his new position to give former companions a path toward security and official standing.
• Unity and discipline: The Underground River mission depends on a diverse team obeying orders and putting the collective objective ahead of personal glory.
• Class and status: Qin’s official uniform initially creates distance between him and his old friends, but his warmth and generosity restore their bond.

Key plot points and events

• Before descending into the Underground Dark River, Qin Geng tells Chief Banner Officer Zhou Dawei that he has given Li Gou a Truth-Hearing Guard badge. Zhou accepts the appointment and arranges for two officers to cover Qin Geng’s river-patrol duties while Qin focuses on the expedition.
• Daoist Chi Song leads Qin Geng and the team into the underground river to map the route from Ping’an County Town to Yin Mountain. A successful, accurate map will earn each member one hundred major merits.
• The group enters through Chi Song’s Water-Evasion spell and reaches an eerie cavern called Ghost Gate, where they establish roles and begin surveying.
• Chi Song explains that the underground river’s reverse flow is caused by Yin Mountain’s dragon vein and the clash of yin and yang. He teaches Qin Geng to read unusual feng-shui markings, earning Qin experience.
• The team is attacked by dozens of Living Corpses, apparently the remains of a missing Great Xin army unit. Jingkong, Miao Xiaolan, and Qin Geng display their formidable abilities, and the group destroys the attackers.
• As they travel deeper, Qin Geng’s Copper Lotus Seed grows hot and enhances his Water Lord senses. He detects the river’s routes and hazards more accurately than Zhao Yuanji’s unreliable compass, guiding the group safely through a dangerous fork.
• Qin Geng senses that the channel ahead is artificial. The team discovers a huge, foreign-built Dragon-Locking Gate that Chi Song says is trapping Yin Mountain’s dragon qi and fostering unnatural creatures. As the gate begins to open, a massive presence and two red lights appear within. Chi Song orders the group to prepare for battle.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Geng takes a more active leadership role: he has secured Li Gou’s place in the Truth-Hearing Guard, accepts the team’s trust, and uses both his growing feng-shui knowledge and Water Lord abilities to guide the expedition. In battle, he unleashes his Dragon-Tiger True Intent without restraint and gains substantial martial experience.
• Daoist Chi Song leads with authority, instructs the team, tests Qin Geng’s understanding, and ultimately trusts his judgment over the compass. His reaction to the Dragon-Locking Gate shows his determination to confront the foreign threat.
• Zhou Dawei supports Qin Geng’s new responsibilities, accepting Li Gou’s appointment and arranging temporary river-patrol coverage.
• Jingkong appears gentle and pious but fights with devastating force, then quickly returns to a peaceful demeanor.
• Miao Xiaolan relies on her insects to detect threats and destroy the Living Corpses.
• Zhao Yuanji carefully records the route but learns that his compass can fail underground; he acknowledges Qin Geng’s superior navigation.
• Tiger Cub acts boldly in the first attack, protecting Cao Xiaoliu. The group otherwise coordinates effectively, each member contributing according to their assigned role.

Significant themes

• Cooperation and specialized strengths: The expedition succeeds through clear roles and respect for different forms of expertise.
• Growing power and responsibility: Qin Geng’s expanding abilities make him increasingly valuable, while also tying him more closely to the river and its mysteries.
• Ancient forces versus foreign technology: The Dragon-Locking Gate combines foreign machinery with the manipulation of local dragon qi, presenting a threat rooted in both technological intrusion and spiritual imbalance.
• Exploration’s danger and reward: The promise of major merits motivates the team, but the hostile underground environment makes every advance perilous.

Key plot points and events

• Qin Geng’s group blows apart the Dragon-Locking Gate with Zhao Yuanji’s underwater explosive, revealing a guarded stone platform and a chained Bloodskin Rakshasa.
• The Rakshasa is a sixth-tier-or-higher monster, apparently being fed human flesh and blood at a Yin Mountain dragon-vein node. Daoist Chi Song stays to confront it while Qin Geng’s group fights the foreign guards.
• The foreigners use distinct cultivation paths. Tiger Cub’s whip cannot hurt a fat Food Cultivator, who absorbs force; Andrei, a powerful Martial Cultivator, challenges Qin Geng.
• Qin Geng defeats Andrei with a devastating Half-Step Crushing Fist, then rapidly kills the Food Cultivator, a swift Way Cultivator, and other opponents, turning the battle decisively in his group’s favor.
• Chi Song struggles against the Rakshasa’s strength and defenses. He invokes a thunder deity, summoning Purple Firmament Divine Thunder that annihilates the monster and destroys its chains and pillar. The spell leaves Chi Song badly drained and his lantern shattered.

Character developments

• Qin Geng displays a major increase in strength and control. His Dragon-Tiger True Intent grows purer after killing Andrei, and he proves capable of overwhelming several foreign cultivators in quick succession.
• Chi Song reveals the immense power—and cost—of his Daoist techniques, resorting to a desperate, high-level thunder invocation to defeat the Rakshasa.
• Tiger Cub is humbled by the Food Cultivator’s resilience and then stunned by Qin Geng’s power.
• Zhao Yuanji demonstrates his expertise with explosives and explains the foreigners’ cultivation system.
• Qin Geng’s companions, including Xia Jingyi, Jingkong, and Cao Xiaoliu, are rescued from increasingly dangerous fights and come to regard him with awe.

Significant themes

• Contrasting forms of power: The chapter pits foreign cultivation paths—martial, food, way, water, and insect cultivation—against Great Xin’s martial arts and Daoist magic.
• Mastery over brute force: Qin Geng’s refined technique and control overcome opponents who rely on raw strength, unusual bodies, or speed.
• The cost of power: Chi Song’s decisive divine thunder requires his essence blood and leaves him physically depleted.
• Corruption and desecration: The foreigners’ feeding of a monster at a dragon-vein node suggests a larger, sinister exploitation of sacred forces.

Character interactions

• Qin Geng directs the team during the breach, then divides responsibilities: Chi Song faces the monster while the others engage the foreigners.
• Zhao Yuanji warns the group about the Food Cultivator and explains the foreigners’ “fate cultivator” system.
• Qin Geng and Andrei clash over whose martial tradition is strongest; Qin Geng’s victory decisively answers the challenge.
• Qin Geng protects Tiger Cub, Xia Jingyi, and the others by intervening in their fights, while Chi Song’s battle with the Rakshasa culminates in a spectacular display of Daoist power.

After destroying a foreign stronghold beneath Yin Mountain, Qin Geng and his companions returned to the Wave-Quelling Bureau and received merit for their victory. Qin Geng spent most of his reward on the Tiger Descending the Mountain Painting to cultivate restraint and prepare for the next descent into the Underground River.

• Daoist Chi Song ordered the group to withdraw after they looted the stronghold, collected the Bloodskin Rakshasa's ashes, and learned Qin Geng had reached transforming force in just four months.
• The group returned to the Wave-Quelling Bureau, where Zhao Jinglie praised their victory and promised merit awards.
• The group received merit points, and Daoist Chi Song recommended items suited to each companion's weaknesses from the Heaven-Character Vault.
• Daoist Chi Song advised Qin Geng to study the Tiger Descending the Mountain Painting to temper his fierce killing aura, and Qin Geng spent one hundred merit points to obtain it.
• Daoist Chi Song told the group to rest for two days before descending into the Underground River again in three days, and Qin Geng left to study the painting.

Qin Geng studied the Tiger Descending the Mountain Painting and learned to conceal his strength, then treated wounded escorts and saw how demons and disasters were spreading. At the Wave-Quelling Bureau, he encountered starving refugees fleeing Shandong’s catastrophe and ordered food distributed while directing guards to watch for grain ships serving the Foreigners.

• Qin Geng used the sick tiger in the painting to practice drawing his force, blood, qi, and spirit inward, refining his control and understanding of embracing the elixir.
• Qin Geng treated wounded guards from the Shunwei Escort Agency, whose leader described a monstrous, calf-sized weasel attacking them near Jinghai.
• Qin Geng learned that spirits and demons were growing active as the dragon vein leaked qi and formation eyes were destroyed, and his Physician profession advanced to level 6.
• Qin Geng caught and ate part of a Red-Whiskered Fire Carp in the Xun River, absorbing its heat into his body.
• Qin Geng found several thousand refugees from Shandong blocked at the docks and learned that disasters, monsters, and grain profiteering had driven them from their homes.
• Qin Geng ordered food and hot porridge for the refugees and told Company Officer Wang to watch for unflagged grain ships, while resolving to become stronger.