Recaps

Qin Geng took command of a swift boat, trained in the Twelve Animal Forms, and patrolled the Xun River while searching underwater with Xia Qi for valuable prey. As the Foreigners disappeared and the river grew unnaturally quiet, Ye Lanzen promised to teach him the Half-Step Crushing Fist on the first of April, and Qin Geng resolved to use it to kill a Transforming Force expert.

• Qin Geng took possession of a modified swift boat bearing the Wave-Quelling flag and began studying feng shui books to prepare for his journey to Yin Mountain.
• Ye Lanzen taught Qin Geng killing moves from the Twelve Animal Forms and praised his growing mastery before Qin Geng left to patrol the Xun River.
• Qin Geng inspected merchant ships, rejected a bribe, and warned their crews to watch for suspicious boats while letting legitimate cargo pass.
• Qin Geng and Xia Qi searched Wildcat Bay, where Xia Qi caught a Golden-Scale Dartfish that gave Qin Geng two points of Water Lord experience.
• During a half-month of calm, Qin Geng trained, patrolled, and hunted underwater as his experience in three paths steadily increased.
• Ye Lanzen announced that he would teach Qin Geng the Half-Step Crushing Fist on the first of April, and Qin Geng resolved to kill a Transforming Force expert with it.

Qin Geng trained to refine his Half-Step Crushing Fist while the Wave-Quelling Bureau struggled to explain how supplies kept reaching the foreign Concessions despite the river blockade. After Chuanzi reported an increase in manure boats and funeral boats, Qin Geng suspected the Foreigners were hiding cargo in manure barrels and coffins, and prepared to investigate.

• Qin Geng practiced punching against heavy chains as Ye Lanzen taught him to concentrate his strength and work toward Transforming Force.
• At the Wave-Quelling Bureau, Zhou Dawei and Jiang Youzhi told Qin Geng that foreign ships had not appeared for sixteen days, yet the Concessions still had plentiful supplies.
• Qin Geng patrolled the river and reviewed Abacus Song's intelligence, then ordered the Dragon King Society's branches, fishermen, and boatmen to report anything unusual.
• After three quiet days, Chuanzi told Qin Geng that manure boats and funeral boats had increased by thirty percent and that the white boats rode unusually low and carried strong rowers.
• Qin Geng concluded that the Foreigners were smuggling supplies in manure boats and coffins, rewarded Chuanzi, and said he would inspect the boats the next day.

With the Wave-Quelling Bureau facing a three-day ultimatum to find the Foreigners’ smuggling route, Qin Geng uncovered how they hid cargo in Purple Clay Teapots carried on dung and funeral boats. He exposed a coffin packed with the artifacts, and Jiang Youzhi ordered the docks sealed and awarded Qin Geng first credit.

• Jiang Youzhi ordered the Wave-Quelling Bureau to search every boat after receiving a three-day ultimatum to find the Foreigners’ underground river entrance.
• Qin Geng stopped Er Dan’s Golden Dung boat, sensed unusual water vapor, and found a Purple Clay Teapot hidden beneath fishing nets.
• Qin Geng recognized the teapot as an artifact that could store goods and had Tiger Cub detain Er Dan and summon Zhou Dawei’s men.
• Qin Geng stopped a funeral boat marked Su Residence, sensed an artifact inside its coffin, and defeated the armed men guarding it.
• Qin Geng opened the coffin and found dozens of Purple Clay Teapots instead of a body.
• Jiang Youzhi ordered all dung and funeral boats impounded and declared that Qin Geng would receive first credit and a major commendation.

Qin Geng exposed the foreigners’ Purple Clay Teapot smuggling route, helping the Wave-Quelling Bureau seize the cargo and develop compasses to find more. He earned ten merits and exchanged them for a Nine-Turn Bear-Snake Pill, while Jiang Youzhi warned that the foreigners might make their next move at Yin Mountain.

• Qin Geng showed the Purple Clay Teapot to the soldiers, and a Geomancy Office Attendant identified it as a sinister vessel that could conceal a roomful of goods.
• Soldiers found Purple Clay Teapots hidden across Tianjin’s boats and businesses, and Jiang Youzhi ordered everyone found with one seized while allowing clean ships to pass.
• Jiang Youzhi brought Qin Geng and chests of seized teapots to Jia Xincun, who credited Qin with the case and ordered a tracking compass devised.
• A Mohist Grand Artisan modified a compass to detect Purple Clay Teapots, and the Wave-Quelling Bureau sent the new compasses out to search Tianjin.
• Jiang Youzhi awarded Qin Geng ten merits, which Qin spent on a Nine-Turn Bear-Snake Pill to replenish his blood and vitality.
• Jiang Youzhi warned Qin Geng that the foreigners might turn to Yin Mountain after their water route was disrupted.

Qin Geng used the Nine-Turn Bear-Snake Pill to master the Half-Step Crushing Fist, then learned from Ye Lanzen that Transforming Force required precise control rather than brute strength. At the Wave-Quelling Bureau, he heard that the smuggling case had been handled, but Lu Xingmin warned him that foreigners had broken three dragon-vein array nodes and demons could soon emerge.

• Qin Geng swallowed the Nine-Turn Bear-Snake Pill, trained in chains, and shattered the Iron Pearwood post with the Half-Step Crushing Fist.
• Qin Geng tried and failed to break his chains, and Ye Lanzen taught him that Transforming Force depended on controlling and redirecting force.
• Qin Geng visited the Wave-Quelling Bureau, where Chu Xing and Jiang Youzhi discussed his merits and the fates of the smugglers and Er Dan.
• Qin Geng warned that the foreigners would keep seeking ways to operate, while Chu Xing said the Customs Bureau was watching them.
• Lu Xingmin sent Qin Geng a paper bird and warned that foreigners had destroyed three dragon-vein array nodes, summoning him to the sect for an urgent meeting.

Ye Lanzen explained that Great Xin’s Dragon Vein both enabled cultivation and bound cultivators to imperial power, leaving the Ye School’s disciples torn between preserving it and destroying it. Qin Geng collected protective armor from Iron Mountain and planned to strengthen himself before seeking materials and fortune.

• Ye Lanzen told his disciples that three of the nine Dragon Vein Formation Eyes had been destroyed and explained the Dragon Vein’s role in cultivation and the founding emperor’s control over cultivators.
• Lu Xingmin condemned the choice between remaining bound by the Dragon Vein and unleashing the Demons and old powers suppressed by it.
• Ye Lanzen urged his disciples to survive and never turn against one another, without choosing a side in the conflict.
• Iron Mountain brought Qin Geng to Zhang's Smithy, explained his family ties to the shop, and gave him a Black Gold Thread Soft Armor that could stop firearms.
• Iron Mountain advised Qin Geng to prepare rare materials for a weapon when he reached Transforming Force, and Qin Geng planned to master his fists before searching for materials and slaying Demons.

Qin Geng practiced the first signs of transforming force, received Celestial Star Meteoric Iron Essence from the Divine Stride Bureau, and investigated why the foreign Concession remained well supplied despite the river blockade. Beneath the Xun River, he discovered dragon-energy-mutated creatures, defeated and devoured a giant carp, and reached Martial Artist level 26, one step from transforming force.

• Qin Geng made the chains and Mount Tai Stone Guardian tremble with force carried through his body, and Ye Lanzen recognized that he had reached the threshold of transforming force.
• A Divine Stride Bureau runner delivered Qin Geng a reward of Celestial Star Meteoric Iron Essence for slaying the foreigner's Mutant Snake Corpse.
• Qin Geng suspected the foreigners' supplies were traveling beneath the river, then entered the water at Wildcat Bay with his level-ten Water Lord senses.
• Qin Geng and Xia Qi found the river crowded with mutated creatures and fought a five-meter golden-red carp whose Dragon Might drove other fish into hiding.
• Qin Geng and Xia Qi killed the giant carp after a fierce underwater battle, and Qin Geng devoured its flesh and bones.
• The carp's essence raised Qin Geng to Martial Artist level 26 and strengthened his Hidden Force, leaving him close to transforming force as he returned with Xia Qi.

After killing a Mutant Dragon Carp, Qin Geng realized newly awakened creatures in the Underground Rivers could be hunted for rewards if he learned to locate their lairs through feng shui. Lu Xingmin confirmed Qin Geng’s aptitude, warned him that Great Xin’s Dragon Vein was doomed, and directed him to meet Third Master Cao to enter the feng shui trade.

• Qin Geng concluded that broken Dragon Vein formations had roused unintelligent creatures beneath the rivers and decided to learn feng shui to find their lairs, while also studying medicine to treat his injuries.
• Qin Geng visited Lu Xingmin and correctly explained the feng shui formation in Osmanthus Fragrance Studio’s courtyard.
• Lu Xingmin told Qin Geng that the Great Xin Dynasty and its Dragon Vein were nearing collapse, and revealed that Foreigners had defiled the Origin Mountain Formation Eye with tainted blood.
• Lu Xingmin advised Qin Geng to seek practical feng shui work through Third Master Cao, a leading Tianjin authority, and Qin Geng resolved to meet him the next day.

Qin Geng went to the Geomancy Office to seek work in Feng Shui, but learned Third Master Cao had gone to Yin Mountain to deal with graves bursting open. Cao Xiaoliu took him to the troubled Lin Residence, where Qin Geng exposed the ritual priests as members of the Thousand Gate.

• Qin Geng trained with his weighted chains, then visited the Geomancy Office to ask Third Master Cao for help entering the Feng Shui trade.
• Cao Xiaoliu told Qin Geng that Third Master Cao had been summoned to Yin Mountain, where Earth Veins were unstable and buried bodies had emerged, and offered him an urgent job at the Lin Residence.
• Cao Xiaoliu explained the trade's rules as they walked to the Lin Residence, where the Lin Family faced barking dogs, bats striking the doors, and Lin Zhengde hearing his dead father's cough.
• Qin Geng and Cao Xiaoliu entered the Lin Residence and found Lin Zhengde hosting three Daoist priests, who were performing a ritual while the family endured strange disturbances.
• Lin Zhengde explained that his five-year-old son had suddenly fallen ill, and Qin Geng stopped him from kneeling to beg for help.
• After the lead priest mocked Qin Geng's martial skills, Qin Geng examined the hall and accused the priests of being members of the Thousand Gate.

Qin Geng exposed three Thousand Gate swindlers who had terrorized the Lin family, cured Lin Zhengde’s son of gu poisoning, and arrested the conspirators. After accepting a reward, he unlocked the Feng Shui Master profession and set out to collect a bounty for the captured men.

• Qin Geng explained that the strange noises and omens at the Lin estate came from eel blood and sick hedgehogs planted by the fake Taoists, and Cao Xiaoliu found one of the hedgehogs.
• Qin Geng revealed that the Taoists planned to rob the Lin family tomb for a Jade Ruyi, then used yang blood to force a two-mouthed gu worm out of Lin Zhengde’s son and crushed it.
• The three Thousand Gate men attacked Qin Geng, but he quickly defeated them and ordered Cao Xiaoliu and the Lin family guards to bind them for the county yamen.
• Lin Zhengde gave Qin Geng a thousand silver dollars and five gold bars, and Qin Geng advised the family to clear the estate’s remaining yin energy.
• Qin Geng unlocked the Feng Shui Master profession, saw its future talents and advancement paths, and decided to take more Feng Shui work.
• Qin Geng escorted the captured men toward the county yamen and told Cao Xiaoliu to have the county magistrate settle the bounty reward.

Qin Geng registered with the Mound-Sealing Celestial Official Hall, assessed the cost of his rapid martial progress, and spent half a month training and hunting underwater creatures. He shattered the restraints during training, reached Transforming Force, and unlocked the Dragon-Tiger Convergence talent.

• Steward Wang warned Qin Geng that the Lingnan Thousand Gate would seek revenge for the captured scouts, but Qin Geng dismissed the threat.
• Cao Xiaoliu brought Qin Geng to the Mound-Sealing Celestial Official Hall, where Uncle Zhang registered him for feng shui, breaking schemes, and driving out evil.
• Qin Geng deposited his money at the Rishenglong Exchange House and realized his savings would barely cover his advance toward Transforming Force and its costly requirements.
• Qin Geng followed a strict routine of studying medicine, training with Ye Lanzen, and hunting mutated creatures in the Xun River, but failed to bind a Giant Crocodile with his Soul Seeding Supernatural Ability.
• On the first day of the fifth month, Qin Geng used a spiraling force to shatter his chains and pierce the Iron Birchwood Post, reaching Transforming Force and unlocking Dragon-Tiger Convergence.

After Qin Geng reached Transforming Force, Ye Lanzen explained the realms beyond it and told him to discover the Essence, Qi, and Spirit that suited his nature. Their spar awakened Qin Geng’s Dragon-Tiger Convergence, revealing Dragon-Tiger True Intent as his path forward.

• Qin Geng broke through to Transforming Force, and Ye Lanzen explained the stages of martial cultivation beyond the physical body.
• Ye Lanzen described how a martial artist’s nature shaped their Essence, Qi, and Spirit, citing House Guard Zhou and Qin Geng’s ninth senior brother as examples.
• Qin Geng asked how to discover his own nature, and Ye Lanzen challenged him to fight.
• Qin Geng sparred with Ye Lanzen, and his new power and Dragon-Tiger Convergence talent awakened as he fought with Dragon and Tiger forms.
• Ye Lanzen recognized Qin Geng’s Dragon-Tiger True Intent and told him to cultivate his fierce, yang-filled path toward Embracing the Elixir.

Qin Geng tested his newly formed Dragon-Tiger True Intent by killing a giant crocodile with one punch and discovered that it let his body keep growing beyond its supposed limit by consuming powerful beasts. After studying geomancy, he was summoned to the Lin residence, where he concluded that Lin Zhengde’s dreams of his drowned ancestor pointed to a serious problem at the family grave, possibly connected to the underground dark river.

• Qin Geng killed a giant crocodile at Wildcat Bay with a single Transforming Force punch, then fed its meat to Xia Qi and himself.
• Qin Geng discovered in the Book of a Hundred Trades that Dragon-Tiger Convergence let his body grow stronger without an upper limit by consuming blood fare.
• Qin Geng heard Wave-Quelling Bureau soldiers discussing recent monster attacks and rumors that Tianjin’s dragon vein was in trouble.
• Qin Geng studied geomancy through books from the Geomancy Office and gained Feng Shui Master experience.
• Shunzi summoned Qin Geng to the Lin residence, where Lin Zhengde described recurring dreams of his drowned ancestor and bruises on his neck.
• Qin Geng interpreted the signs as a problem with the Lin family’s ancestral grave and ordered Lin Zhengde to prepare a journey there.

Qin Geng discovered that the Foreigners had diverted an underground river beneath Yin Mountain to move people and supplies into the area. He reported the hidden route to Jiang Youzhi, who ordered an assault on the underground passage and appointed Qin Geng as its guide.

• Qin Geng examined the Lin Family’s ancestral grave at Wanger Ridge and found black groundwater flooding Old Master Lin’s coffin.
• Qin Geng deduced that the Foreigners had blasted an underground route from the Concession through Yin Mountain, and he memorized its course.
• Qin Geng ordered Lin Zhengde to move Old Master Lin’s coffin to a dry place before the group returned to Jinmen City.
• Qin Geng told Zhou Dawei that the Foreigners were using the underground river, and Zhou Dawei brought him to Jiang Youzhi.
• Qin Geng showed Jiang Youzhi the route on a terrain map, and Jiang Youzhi ordered elite troops and a Mo School craftsman to prepare an assault.
• Jiang Youzhi appointed Qin Geng as the operation’s guide and promised him three promotions if they trapped the Foreigners underground.

Qin Geng found the ideal place to collapse the Underground Dark River, and the Dragon-Guard Office ordered a demolition strike instead of mapping the route. He led a small team to Ghost-Sorrow Ravine, where they detonated the Mo School charges and buried the Foreigners' convoy beneath the mountain.

• Qin Geng located a weak section of rock above a bend in the Underground Dark River at Ghost-Sorrow Ravine and marked the site.
• Jia Xincun and Shen Yi argued over whether to map the river or destroy it, and Jia Xincun ultimately approved Shen Yi's plan to blow it up.
• Jiang Youzhi assembled Qin Geng, Tiger Cub, Xia Jingyi, Zhao Yuanji, Daoist Chi Song, and others, then put Qin Geng in charge of the operation.
• Qin Geng guided the team to Ghost-Sorrow Ravine, where Zhao Yuanji's crew planted Mountain-Shaking Thunder charges while Daoist Chi Song fought off Mountain Ogres and White-Haired Zombies.
• Qin Geng sensed the Foreigners' convoy approaching underground and ordered Zhao Yuanji to ignite the charges.
• The blast collapsed the ravine into the Underground Dark River, burying the convoy and blocking the waterway.

Qin Geng’s team discovered that the Foreigners’ underground boats were unmanned, and he reported the finding to the Dragon-Guard Office. Jia Xincun organized a response while Qin Geng returned home with no merit or blame and renewed his resolve to improve his skills.

• Qin Geng, Tiger Cub, Xia Jingyi, and Zhao Yuanji searched the flooded crater and found wreckage but no bodies, then realized the boats had been controlled by mechanical cores.
• Qin Geng returned to Jinmen City before dawn and reported the unmanned fleet and missing cargo to the Dragon-Guard Office.
• Jia Xincun ordered the creation of an Underground River Department, recruitment of specialists, and study of the Foreigners’ machinery, while Shen Yi was told to train the troops.
• Jia Xincun ruled that Qin Geng’s mission earned no merit and no blame, and Qin Geng returned to his team with the decision.
• Qin Geng went home and resolved to advance his Feng Shui Master, Martial Artist, and Physician professions.

Qin Geng convinced Zheng Tonghe to let him treat patients at Hundred Herb Hall after proving his medical knowledge, and he unlocked the Physician profession. Ye Lanzen then explained that Qin Geng would need to face life-and-death battles to advance toward Embracing the Elixir, leaving Qin Geng resolved to enter the Underground Dark River and fight the Foreigners there.

• Qin Geng recited medical texts and answered Zheng Tonghe's increasingly difficult questions, earning permission to see patients under supervision at Hundred Herb Hall.
• Qin Geng diagnosed and treated a laborer's back pain, earning his first Physician experience and unlocking the profession.
• Qin Geng treated several patients while Zheng Tonghe gave free medicine to a poor woman and her sick child.
• Qin Geng reached Physician level two, then left Hundred Herb Hall to train with Ye Lanzen.
• Ye Lanzen explained that Qin Geng could cultivate Embracing the Elixir quickly only by facing deadly combat, including challenges against martial arts schools or battles with Foreigners.
• Qin Geng resolved to enter the Underground Dark River and use its dangers and Foreigners as a proving ground for his martial arts.

Qin Geng received a promotion to Inspector Envoy of the Underground River Department and joined a team tasked with mapping the Underground Dark River. Before the team’s descent, he recruited Li Gou to gather intelligence for him and offered his old carriage-depot companions a path toward official positions.

• Zhou Dawei informed Qin Geng that he would keep his existing posts and become an Inspector Envoy of the Underground River Department, earning five hundred silver dollars and ten merits each month to map the Underground Dark River.
• Zhou Dawei warned Qin Geng that the mission was dangerous and advised him to recommend trusted men to help manage his other duties.
• Qin Geng met Daoist Chi Song, Tiger Cub, Xia Jingyi, Zhao Yuanji, Cao Xiaoliu, Jingkong, and Miao Xiaolan, and Daoist Chi Song ordered them to obey commands during their two-day underwater exploration.
• Qin Geng visited the carriage depot and then shared food and liquor with Xu Chun, Jin He, Li Gou, Ma Laifu, and the other carriage pullers in Clothes-Washing Lane.
• Qin Geng offered Li Gou twenty silver dollars a month to gather intelligence for the Truth-Hearing Guard and promised to recommend him for an official post if he earned merit.
• Li Gou and his mother tried to kneel in gratitude, but Qin Geng lifted them up and pledged to protect his old companions from being bullied.

Qin Geng joined Daoist Chi Song and the others to map the Underground Dark River, where the Copper Lotus Seed strengthened his ability to sense the waterway. The group reached a Dragon-Locking Gate built by the Foreigners, and a huge creature stirred behind it as they prepared for battle.

• Qin Geng told Zhou Dawei that he had given Li Gou his Truth-Hearing Guard badge, and Zhou arranged for two officers to cover Qin Geng's river duties.
• Daoist Chi Song led Qin Geng and the others into the Underground Dark River, where they took their assigned roles and began surveying the route.
• The group fought and destroyed dozens of Living Corpses, which Cao Xiaoliu identified as soldiers from the missing Bandit-Suppression Army.
• Qin Geng used the Copper Lotus Seed's heightened connection to the river to guide the group safely past a misleading fork in the passage.
• Qin Geng sensed machinery and rust ahead, and Daoist Chi Song identified an iron sluice gate as a Dragon-Locking Gate that trapped Yin Mountain's dragon qi.
• The Dragon-Locking Gate began to open, revealing two blood-red lights behind it as Daoist Chi Song ordered the group to prepare for battle.

Qin Geng and his companions blasted open the Dragon-Locking Gate and fought the foreign cultivators guarding the Underground Dark River platform. After Qin Geng overwhelmed the foreign fighters, Daoist Chi Song summoned Purple Firmament Divine Thunder to destroy the Bloodskin Rakshasa, leaving the group facing the aftermath of his exhausted victory.

• Zhao Yuanji planted Mountain-Shaking Thunder at the Dragon-Locking Gate, and the blast opened the way to a platform guarded by foreigners and a chained Bloodskin Rakshasa.
• Daoist Chi Song took on the sixth-tier Bloodskin Rakshasa while Qin Geng and his companions fought the foreign cultivators.
• Qin Geng defeated Andrei with Half-Step Crushing Fist, then killed the fat Food Cultivator and the other foreign fighters to rescue his companions.
• The Bloodskin Rakshasa battered Daoist Chi Song and began breaking its chains, forcing him to invoke the ancestral master and summon Purple Firmament Divine Thunder.
• Purple Firmament Divine Thunder annihilated the Bloodskin Rakshasa, and Daoist Chi Song collapsed after his Black-Gauze Lantern shattered.

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.

Qin Geng organized emergency rice-water relief for thousands of starving refugees at Tianjin’s docks, then helped relocate and screen them at Cold Mountain Temple. There, he reunited with his aunt Qin Xiu and discussed the worsening crisis with Zheng Tonghe.

• Qin Geng ordered Xu Chun and the Ping'an Cart Company to distribute rice water, while the Dragon King Society kept the refugee boats together.
• Qin Geng explained that the refugees needed thin rice water first, and Zhao Jinglie arrived and authorized continued relief, supplies, medical screening, and relocation to Cold Mountain Temple.
• Qin Geng escorted the refugees to Cold Mountain Temple, where he and Zheng Tonghe screened them and found no signs of a major epidemic.
• Qin Geng recognized his aunt Qin Xiu tending to refugees, and the two exchanged respectful bows without discussing their past.
• Zheng Tonghe told Qin Geng that dysentery remained a danger, and Qin Geng said blades and guns were needed to cure the world's sickness.

Qin Geng advanced his Physician skill and discovered that the refugees’ gratitude was raising his Water Lord level through incense offerings. As Tianjin’s food crisis worsened, he left Cold Mountain Temple to descend underground and seek a way forward for the people above.

• Qin Geng treated hundreds of refugees, reached Physician level 10, and unlocked Herb Recognition.
• Qin Geng identified Zheng Tonghe’s Earth-Lung Fire Fungus and warned that its appearance signaled disorder beneath Origin Mountain and a revival of spiritual energy.
• Zheng Tonghe gave Qin Geng the three-hundred-year-old fungus and confirmed that Qin Geng had reached a higher realm as a Physician.
• Refugees swelled to more than fifty thousand as foreign troops blocked grain shipments, while Zhao Jinglie received no news from the leaders trapped in Yin Mountain.
• Qin Geng realized the refugees’ worship had raised his Water Lord to level 13, instructed Abacus Song to keep the porridge shelter running, and left to descend underground.

Qin Geng tempered his marrow with the Earth-Lung Fire Fungus and began training his intent through painting under Ye Lanzen’s guidance before joining the Underground River Department’s expedition into Yin Mountain. The group found a recently made Soul-Suppressing Terracotta Figure bearing Old Master Su’s face, and Qin Geng saw its eyelids move.

• Qin Geng swallowed a piece of the Earth-Lung Fire Fungus, endured its fire poison, and reached Martial Artist level 32.
• Ye Lanzen told Qin Geng to train intent force by painting tigers, and Qin Geng produced a crooked big cat.
• Daoist Chi Song led the Underground River Department through submerged passages toward Yin Mountain, where Qin Geng killed a Yin-Baleful Salamander and helped the group evade danger.
• The group found a cavern paved with blue bricks and filled with Soul-Suppressing Terracotta Figures that Daoist Chi Song said had been made within the past few decades.
• Xia Jingyi recognized one figure as Old Master Su, and Qin Geng pulled her back when its eyelids seemed to twitch and its neck cracked.