Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Pan Long encounters disciplined Eastern Sea Monsters guarding the approach to Half-Mountain. Their linked battle formation makes them far more dangerous together than their individual strength suggests.
• He learns that the Dragon Gods and their allies are preparing a trap: they intend to lure Demon God Yiwu to the mountain and detonate the land’s veins, even at the cost of their own lives.
• The Monsters explain why they are willing to die: Yiwu is exceptionally powerful, and the Dragon Gods are determined to avenge their kin and the late River God.
• Pan Long hears Yiwu’s history. A survivor of the Confucian School, she once escaped Di Jiazi’s purge, later tried to assassinate him, and eluded the Great Xia Dynasty’s hunters. The court eventually chose to ignore her rather than risk its strongest defenders.
• Realizing the mountain is dangerous and offers him nothing, Pan Long decides not to go up. A Shrimp Soldier asks him to escort frightened villagers back home, and Pan Long agrees.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long shows caution by respecting the Monsters’ formation and abandoning his plan to climb the mountain. He is fascinated by Yiwu’s power and independence, but also responds compassionately to the villagers’ fear.
• The turtle Monster explains Yiwu’s history and the Dragon Gods’ desperate plan. He praises Pan Long’s youth and apparent talent, then treats him as an ally after hearing that the Dragon Gods entrusted him with tasks.
• The Shrimp Soldier captain shifts from guarding the formation to asking Pan Long for help, trusting him to escort the villagers safely.
• The villagers remain frightened among the Monsters and are eager to return home; Pan Long reassures them before setting off.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and revenge: The Dragon Gods are prepared to give their lives to avenge their family.
• Power and freedom: Yiwu’s strength has allowed her to evade both imperial pursuit and accountability.
• Pragmatism in authority: The Great Xia Dynasty values the court’s security more than punishing an old enemy.
• Compassion amid conflict: Even while a dangerous battle is being prepared, Pan Long chooses to help ordinary people.

Key plot points and events

• Pan Long reaches the nameless village, where the enormous head of a dead, dragon-like creature is making the villagers too afraid to return home.
• He sends them to shelter and approaches the head, intending to roll it away.
• Touching it brings him into contact with the lingering soul of the Golden-Eyed Horned Dragon, formerly revered as the Cloud River’s River God. The dragon asks Pan Long to return its soul to the Cloud River Source in exchange for the treasures of its Dragon Palace.
• Pan Long hesitates. Although he senses no immediate danger, he suspects the dragon was cruel to mortals and does not want to help someone he considers evil.
• The dragon recognizes that Pan Long’s concern for ordinary people makes him unwilling to aid a wrongdoer. It regrets having ignored the people’s welfare and dismissing Duke Wen’s advice to treat their concerns as heaven’s will.
• The soul fades, the dragon’s remains vanish, and its tears turn into rubies. Pan Long collects the gems.

Character developments

• Pan Long shows compassion and moral discernment: he helps the frightened villagers first and weighs the dragon’s character rather than accepting its offer of treasure.
• The River God shifts from seeking a profitable bargain to confronting its past conduct. Its final words express remorse for having scorned mortals, though that regret comes too late.

Significant themes

• Consequences and remorse: The River God recognizes that its past choices brought retribution, but understanding this at the end cannot undo them.
• Compassion and moral judgment: Pan Long’s willingness to help depends on whether the petitioner deserves help, not on the reward offered.
• The people’s welfare as a measure of virtue: The dragon’s intimidating remains show how little it once considered ordinary people; it ultimately realizes that their concerns mattered.

Character interactions

• Pan Long protects the villagers and promises to clear the obstruction so they can return safely.
• In their brief exchange, the River God offers treasure for Pan Long’s help, while Pan Long’s hesitation prompts the spirit to recognize the moral basis for his refusal.

Key plot points and events

• Pan Long gathers several lustrous gems left behind when the dead Dragon God’s spirit turns into clear water and disappears.
• He brings the villagers back and tells the Village Chief that the Dragon God regretted having done no good in life. Pan Long reassures the frightened villagers that the dead god is unlikely to haunt them.
• To calm the Chief, Pan Long argues that ordinary villagers would not be important enough to attract a Dragon God’s attention. The Chief accepts this and decides the Dragon God should be worshipped.
• The Chief makes a spirit tablet honoring him as the “Cloud River Source Dragon Venerable, Nine Provinces Survey Orthodox God,” places it at the center of his family altar, and prays fervently.
• While patrolling, Pan Long encounters battered Monsters sent by the Eastern Sea’s Crab General to help with the fallen head. When they learn it is gone, the Monsters quarrel and break into a chaotic fight.

Character developments

• Pan Long is practical and irreverent: he comforts the villagers with blunt reasoning, though he is bemused by their decision to worship the Dragon God.
• The Village Chief shifts from terror to confidence after Pan Long’s reassurance, then shows strong religious reverence by giving the Dragon God pride of place on his family altar.
• The Dragon God, though absent from the events, is revealed to have regretted a life without good deeds or merit.
• The Eastern Sea Monsters are shown as unruly and combative, especially the boastful pig-like leader, whose pride is wounded by his companions’ remarks.

Significant themes

• Regret and merit: The Dragon God’s final lament suggests that power and status cannot make up for a life without good deeds.
• Fear, death, and worship: The villagers’ fear of the dead god quickly turns into ritual devotion.
• Humor and anticlimax: A mighty Dragon God’s remains lead not to solemnity, but to an awkward household shrine and a brawl among incompetent Monsters.
• Contrasts among supernatural beings: Pan Long’s closing observation highlights the apparent gap between the disciplined or capable Monsters of Yun Province and the chaotic Eastern Sea group.

Character interactions

• Pan Long calms the Village Chief, first by explaining the Dragon God’s death and then by bluntly insisting the villagers are beneath the god’s notice.
• The Chief responds by honoring the Dragon God and placing his tablet above his ancestors.
• The Eastern Sea Monsters argue over the Crab General’s beating; insults escalate into transformations and a fight, while Pan Long watches in disbelief.

Plot points and events

• After Yun Province’s monsters finish fighting one another, they decide to leave rather than risk being caught in the conflict between Yiwu and the gods. Pan Long reflects that their carefree way of life has its own value.
• Bi Lingkong reveals her immense bird form and continues battling the two Dragon Gods. Their blows send burning feathers toward the earth, threatening villages and forests.
• Pan Long prepares to defend the people nearby, but Yun Province’s City Gods and land gods intercept the fireballs. Their intervention exposes an old feud: General Fan Wushang condemns Bi Lingkong, while she denounces his own history of betrayal and hypocrisy. The other gods restrain Fan before he can attack her.
• The gods stop the falling flames and disappear. In the uneasy silence that follows, a black, gold-edged feather reaches Pan Long. When he takes out the painting, the feather joins it, forming a crow on the painted figure’s shoulder.
• The crow speaks as Bi Lingkong, explaining that she can converse with Pan Long even while fighting. She tells him that the Dragon Gods and River God sought his help because his Merit can protect their souls and enable them to be reborn.
• Bi Lingkong describes Merit as the gratitude of living beings. It can distort curses and divination, turning malicious attempts back on their makers; after death, it can allow someone to bypass the Netherworld, be reborn with exceptional gifts, and retain memories of past lives.
• Pan Long realizes that his Merit may have come from helping people in worlds created by the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment. He is left wondering how Merit earned in supposedly illusory worlds can be real.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long shows compassion and resolve by preparing to shield nearby villagers, despite knowing he cannot save everyone. His conversation with Bi Lingkong also reveals that he has amassed extraordinary Merit, though its source remains mysterious.
• Bi Lingkong appears both as a fierce, provocative combatant and as a witty, conversational crow. This contrast leaves Pan Long wondering which side better represents her nature. She also challenges the City Gods’ claims to righteousness.
• Fan Wushang reacts angrily to Bi Lingkong’s accusations, and his own past—serving one ruler before defecting to another—undercuts his moral posturing. The other gods restrain him to prevent the dispute from becoming another fight.
• The Yun Province monsters abandon their quarrel and leave together, trading insults that turn into joking camaraderie over the promise of wine.
• The Dragon Gods and River God, though absent from the conversation, are shown to trust Pan Long with their remains because his Merit could secure their rebirth.

Significant themes

• Merit and gratitude: The chapter presents Merit as the accumulated thanks of many people, with practical power over curses, divination, and rebirth.
• Compassion amid conflict: Pan Long focuses on protecting ordinary people, while the gods’ battle threatens lives far beyond its combatants.
• Righteousness and hypocrisy: Bi Lingkong exposes the gap between Fan Wushang’s moral rhetoric and his own political history.
• Different ways of living: The monsters’ cheerful, unpretentious fellowship contrasts with the solemnity of the gods and suggests that a joyful life has its own worth.
• Identity and uncertainty: Bi Lingkong’s gentle painterly manner and domineering battle persona—and the reality of Merit from supposedly unreal worlds—raise questions that remain unresolved.

Summary

Aerial fighting continues, and the crow reports that Jade Dragon—a long-lived loach who took dragon form—has been badly wounded. He mocks the Demon God’s panic, while Pan Long finds the injury alarming. The crow explains that Yun Province once held hundreds of Demon Gods, many of whom are now asleep or away; across the Nine Provinces, they still greatly outnumber practitioners in the highest human realms. Demon Gods’ numbers accumulate because they do not age or die naturally.
Bi Lingkong challenges Pan Long’s admiration of Demon God immortality. She argues that becoming a Demon God fixes one’s nature and limits personal growth, unlike Immortals and Buddhas, who can return from destruction without being confined by their Dao. Pan Long remains privately drawn to the promise of eternal life, and the crow admits he once felt the same, though he sometimes wonders whether he might have achieved more by aiming higher.
The conversation turns to the Zhao dynasty. The crow predicts that the Zhao family’s rule may soon end and recalls Zhao the First, whom he calls a self-serving ruler for giving his descendants the imperial surname after initially withholding it. He also describes Zhao’s close companion, Wen the Second: a mysterious man whose origins and disappearance were unknown, who shared Zhao’s dangers and an unusually deep understanding with him. Wen’s ideas were admirable and unwavering. The crow speculates that events might have gone better had Wen become emperor.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long is astonished by the number and longevity of Demon Gods. Though he understands Bi Lingkong’s argument about the limits of their immortality, he still finds it appealing.
• Bi Lingkong offers a philosophical distinction between Demon Gods’ static existence and the freer immortality of Immortals and Buddhas. She quickly recognizes Pan Long’s unspoken disagreement.
• The crow shifts from teasing commentary to revealing regret about his own life choices and his disapproval of Zhao the First.
• Pan Long and the crow discuss the contrast between Zhao the First and Wen the Second, while Pan Long senses an unexplained familiarity in their story.
• Bi Lingkong and Pan Long differ quietly over whether Demon God immortality is worth envying.

Significant themes

• Immortality versus growth: Long life may come at the cost of the ability to change and improve.
• Ambition and regret: The crow wonders whether aiming for a higher path would have been wiser.
• Power and character: Zhao the First is condemned for compromising his principles, while Wen the Second is admired for holding to his ideas.
• Mysterious historical echoes: The closeness between Zhao and Wen, and Pan Long’s sense of familiarity, hint at a deeper connection.

Key plot points and events

• Bi Lingkong, speaking through the crow in a painting, reflects on Wen Er’s claim that history would eventually correct Zhao Da’s mistake. She still cannot understand what the mistake was or how history could correct it.
• Pan Long asks whether Wen Er was the commander of the Imperial Guards. Bi Lingkong says he was actually the Censor-in-Chief: a scholar and gifted inventor, but a poor fighter.
• This contradicts the Pan Lineage’s account of their ancestor. Pan Long suspects he may have misunderstood Wen Er’s identity and connection to the family, but cannot reconcile the conflicting histories.
• Pan Long and Bi Lingkong agree that, if they both survive the fall of the Great Xia Dynasty, they will share what they know over drinks at Zhao Da’s grave.
• Their conversation is interrupted by news that Yiwu—Bi Lingkong—is injured as numerous Demon Gods attack her together.
• Bi Lingkong warns Pan Long to flee Yun Province. Though she expects she can escape, she fears her attackers may target people connected to her, including Pan Long.
• Pan Long wonders whether his great Merit could help in the crisis.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long grows more troubled by the contradictions surrounding Wen Er and his family’s ancestry. Though unable to fight, he worries about Bi Lingkong and wants to help her.
• Bi Lingkong reveals her long-standing confusion about Zhao Da’s alleged mistake. She is candid about her vulnerability but remains confident in her ability to escape, while taking care to protect Pan Long.
• Their warm, trusting exchange—including their promise to meet again—contrasts with the sudden danger of the battle.

Significant themes

• History and conflicting accounts: Pan Long’s family tradition clashes with Bi Lingkong’s testimony, leaving Wen Er’s identity uncertain.
• Power and responsibility: Zhao Da’s policies may have made him an effective ruler, yet his larger plans could have harmed the realm.
• Loyalty and protection: Bi Lingkong risks herself against overwhelming odds and warns Pan Long to save himself.
• Helplessness and courage: Pan Long cannot join the fight, but his concern and desire to help show his moral commitment.

Key events

• Pan Long asks how Merit might save the badly injured Bi Lingkong. She explains that most Buddhist Merit arts require lengthy cultivation, but mentions Pure Land Flower-Light, which can use Merit as light to ward off disaster or heal wounds.
• Bi Lingkong knows the art’s origin but not how to learn it. Believing time is running out, she withdraws her consciousness from the painted crow and urges Pan Long to leave.
• While traveling east, Pan Long realizes his Hero-class Resurrection Spell might heal her. He returns to the painting and offers to try.
• Bi Lingkong refuses to let him risk drawing the attention of Demon Gods or the Great Xia Dynasty by helping her. She says her deepest, unshakable conviction is righteousness: she will not preserve her own life by bringing danger to a good person.
• Pan Long casts Resurrection on the crow in the painting. It heals the painted manifestation, not Bi Lingkong’s distant, wounded body. Repeating the spell seems unlikely to help; she estimates that a thousand castings might be needed.
• Pan Long persists, determined to do everything he can. During his third casting, Bi Lingkong’s quoted Buddhist dedication verse comes back to him. A luminous halo forms above his hand as the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment responds—the first sign that he may be accessing a new Merit power.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long moves from accepting Bi Lingkong’s apparent hopelessness to actively searching for a way to save her. He is compassionate and stubborn, unwilling to stop trying even when the odds are poor.
• Bi Lingkong is revealed as principled and self-sacrificing. Though she has abandoned faith in Confucian teachings after the school’s destruction, she still holds fast to righteousness, even at the cost of her life. She also warns Pan Long that a Demon God’s core conviction is a dangerous secret, and that challenging it can make a lasting enemy.
• Their exchange becomes a clash between Pan Long’s determination to help and Bi Lingkong’s refusal to endanger him. Their mutual concern is clear: she protects him from consequences, while he refuses to abandon her.

Significant themes

• Conviction and moral consistency: Bi Lingkong’s righteousness is both the foundation of her strength and the reason she rejects an otherwise promising rescue.
• Compassion and perseverance: Pan Long believes that even a small chance warrants effort.
• Limits and sudden insight: Formal arts usually demand long cultivation, but the ending hints that sincere understanding and compassion may unlock power unexpectedly.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Both characters are willing to bear costs for their principles—Bi Lingkong will die rather than expose Pan Long to danger, and Pan Long will keep trying rather than accept her fate without effort.

Key plot points and events

• More than a dozen gigantic beasts battle above the clouds, while powerful practitioners shield the land below from the destruction.
• Demon God Bi Lingkong, in the form of a flame-wreathed crow, is badly wounded while fighting a coalition of Demon Gods. Her fiercest opponents are two Azure Dragons, who help prevent her escape.
• The dragons accuse Bi Lingkong of hypocrisy, citing her attempted assassination of Di Jiazi. She admits their point and gives Ao Qianye some grudging respect, though neither side intends to back down.
• As Bi Lingkong appears close to collapse, a radiant Thousandfold Lotus manifests around her. Its light heals her wounds and weakens the dragons’ attacks.
• The Demon Gods recognize the intervention of Amitabha Venerable and retreat. The Azure Dragons flee east, expecting Bi Lingkong to seek revenge once recovered. Observers in the clouds express surprise at the Venerable’s involvement and relief that Bi Lingkong survives.
• In the closing image, Bi Lingkong smiles with surprise and delight.

Character developments and interactions

• Bi Lingkong remains fierce and defiant despite her injuries. She acknowledges the justice of Ao Qianye’s criticism and respects his candor, but continues fighting with renewed determination.
• Ao Qianye and his sister, the Azure Dragons, show unwavering resolve, declaring they do not expect to return alive. Their attack is ultimately thwarted, and they retreat with the other Demon Gods.
• Amitabha Venerable does not appear directly, but his intervention dramatically changes the battle and saves Bi Lingkong.
• The other Demon Gods shift from confidence that Bi Lingkong will soon fall to alarm when the lotus appears; the observers in the clouds debate why the Venerable intervened.

Significant themes

• Mercy amid conflict: The lotus heals the Azure Dragons as well as Bi Lingkong, despite their attack.
• Respect between enemies: Bi Lingkong recognizes the courage and honesty of an opponent even while fighting him.
• Power and restraint: The Venerable’s intervention ends the battle without directly destroying the combatants.
• Consequences and reprisal: The dragons’ retreat reflects the danger of the enmity they have created with Bi Lingkong.

Key plot points and events

• A ruined, hidden temple called Orchid Temple stands in the void, sealed for centuries while Great Xia keeps an army stationed at the mountain’s location in the Mortal World.
• The old monk inside senses someone of great Merit before the expected calamity arrives. Though confined after losing a wager to Zhao Sheng, he recognizes a Buddhist vow being recited and praises the awakening of a compassionate mind.
• Pan Long emerges from his meditation calm and refreshed. The hostile clouds and killing intent have vanished, while the Azure and Yellow Qi in the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment remains abundant and flows in a more natural rhythm.
• Bi Lingkong tells Pan Long that his extraordinary feat has made him famous among the world’s great powers. She identifies it as Amitabha Venerable’s divine ability, Infinite Light and Life, Thousandfold Lotus, which uses Merit to awaken the bodhi mind and rescue beings from suffering.
• Pan Long does not want recognition. Bi Lingkong agrees to keep his role secret and suggests letting others believe Amitabha Venerable performed the feat.
• Bi Lingkong visits the old monk to thank him and promises to wash away the dust of his confinement when he is free. A Great Xia general then accuses the monk of breaking his suppression and vows to report him, though the monk insists the general has misunderstood.

Character developments

• Pan Long discovers that Merit may be used through compassion and a vow to save others. Despite the power and fame this could bring, he prefers anonymity.
• Bi Lingkong shows gratitude and approval toward Pan Long, while helping him avoid unwanted attention. She also appears to have a personal connection to the imprisoned monk and hopes to free him.
• The old monk remains serene despite confinement and political hostility. He sees the value in Pan Long’s compassion and reflects on how fixation clouds judgment.
• The Great Xia general is suspicious and convinced the monk is a threat, interpreting events through his own assumptions.

Significant themes

• Compassion as spiritual power: A sincere vow to relieve suffering awakens great ability.
• Merit and humility: Pan Long’s power is notable, but he cares more about the deed than recognition.
• Misunderstanding and fixation: The general mistakes what has happened, while the monk suggests that attachment and preconceived beliefs distort perception.
• Freedom versus worldly ambition: The monk contrasts his simple, quiet life with the endless struggle to acquire and control more.

Character interactions

• Bi Lingkong thanks Pan Long, explains the significance of his power, and offers to shield his identity.
• Pan Long asks her to let Amitabha Venerable receive the credit; she agrees to arrange it.
• Bi Lingkong bows to the old monk and promises to help him once he is released.
• The old monk calmly responds to the general’s threats, then reflects aloud on the general’s mistaken certainty and the blindness caused by fixation.

Key plot points and events

• Bi Lingkong returns with good news: Amitabha Venerable has taken responsibility for the battle, shielding Pan Long from attention by the Great Xia royal family. Pan Long is relieved, since his hidden secret makes fame dangerous.
• Bi Lingkong offers to help repay Pan Long’s kindness. They travel by her unusual “Free-Meal Trick” to a public birthday banquet, where they eat, drink, and talk.
• She explains that Amitabha Venerable, one of Buddhism’s Twelve Sacred Venerables, was imprisoned after losing a wager to Zhao Sheng. His confinement is sustained not by a spell but by his own virtue: Zhao Sheng’s “Substitution Method” makes Amitabha’s goodness prevent him from breaking the conditions of his defeat.
• Bi Lingkong recognizes that Pan Long follows a martial path and warns that few routes remain for martial artists seeking immortality. Pan Long says he is content with the body-tempering art he learned from Shi Gandang.
• Bi Lingkong warns that Shi Gandang’s Nine-Turn Mysterious Art may lead its practitioner toward becoming a Demon God. Demon Gods require an overriding obsession, and the art may cultivate one—perhaps explaining Shi Gandang’s legendary stubbornness.
• After pondering the danger through the evening, Bi Lingkong suddenly announces that she has devised an art that may solve the problem.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long shows caution and self-awareness: he wants to stay obscure, fears drawing the attention of powerful enemies, and takes Bi Lingkong’s warning seriously. He believes he is not especially stubborn, but accepts that his cultivation is still too early to reveal the art’s long-term effects.
• Bi Lingkong proves both generous and resourceful. She repays Pan Long’s kindness, shares knowledge about powerful figures and cultivation, and shifts between warning him against his inherited art and recognizing its practical value.
• Their conversation is warm and teasing. Pan Long jokes about settling grudges immediately; Bi Lingkong laughs and calls for wine. Later, he playfully points out that her advice about stubbornness seems contradictory.
• Amitabha Venerable is presented as compassionate and principled, while Zhao Sheng emerges as a formidable strategist whose method can turn virtue into a prison.

Significant themes

• Virtue as both protection and constraint: Great goodness can earn Merit, but it can also prevent someone from acting when action would cause harm.
• The hidden costs of power: A cultivation method may shape a practitioner’s character and destiny, not merely strengthen the body.
• Caution, reputation, and survival: Pan Long’s desire to avoid fame reflects the danger of attracting powerful, unpredictable enemies.
• Preparation versus uncertainty: Bi Lingkong urges Pan Long to consider his distant future, while the risks and benefits of his path remain unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Bi Lingkong explains the origins of the Confucian School’s art, warning Pan Long that understanding its creator’s experiences is essential to practicing it safely.
• She describes the harsh, arbitrary rule of King Tianlu, where laws burdened ordinary people but did not constrain those in power.
• The Master devised an art based on setting personal rules and following them automatically. Pan Long suggests using it to suppress his stubbornness, but Bi Lingkong warns that this would conflict with the Nine-Turn Mysterious Art and could lead to death or cultivation madness.
• Influenced by A You’s argument against submitting to corrupt rule, the Master led a rebellion, overthrew King Tianlu, and became ruler.
• After three exhausting years of governing, the Master abandoned the throne and fled to the Eastern Sea. His followers eventually found him and brought him back.
• Seeing his exhausted officials still arguing over how to rule, the Master refined his art and named it “Follow Your Heart’s Desire.”

Character developments

• Pan Long moves from suspicion and misunderstanding to a clearer grasp of the art’s history and risks. His instinct to eliminate stubbornness reveals his practical approach, but he learns that traits can be essential to a cultivation method.
• Bi Lingkong acts as a careful, knowledgeable teacher. Her teasing response to Pan Long’s proposal softens a serious warning about the dangers of incompatible arts.
• The Master emerges as a principled rebel who resists oppressive rule, yet finds governing unbearable and ultimately seeks a life free of public burdens.
• A You is shown as courageous and politically outspoken, challenging the Master’s earlier willingness to endure injustice.

Significant themes

• Context matters: An art’s origins and the creator’s experiences shape how it should be practiced.
• Balance in cultivation: Suppressing a trait that an art depends on can obstruct progress or cause catastrophe.
• Power and law: Laws may serve rulers rather than protect the weak.
• Freedom versus responsibility: The Master fights tyranny but discovers that ruling carries its own crushing demands.
• Following one’s nature: The art’s name points toward acting in accordance with one’s heart, though its meaning is shaped by the Master’s complicated history.

Character interactions

• Bi Lingkong guides Pan Long through the art’s history, correcting his assumptions and cautioning him against a dangerous interpretation.
• Pan Long questions her account, jokes about the Master’s flight, and acknowledges the difficulty of ruling.
• A You’s criticism inspires the Master to rebel; later, A You and the other officials struggle to govern in the Master’s absence.
• The Master’s followers search for him, retrieve him from Penglai Mountain, and witness his disillusionment with the burdens of rule.

Key plot points and events

• Bi Lingkong explains the Confucian art Follow Your Heart’s Desire, summed up as “do not overstep the bounds”: keep to kindness and integrity, and understand what people want, like, hate, and fear so you can act with their needs in mind.
• Pan Long questions how the Confucian School could have opposed Di Jiazi. Bi Lingkong says Zhao Sheng did not practice the art, but admits the history is complicated: many people—even Confucian disciples—supported Di Jiazi’s destruction of the School.
• She recalls the Warring States era’s extreme chaos and the enormous loss of life. Though Di Jiazi committed atrocities, his unification of the land and restoration of peace earned him popular support and made him, in her view, a sage ruler suited to his time.
• Bi Lingkong describes the art’s two components: observing people and judging matters through kindness. Its deeper purpose is to let someone step outside personal bias and assess situations objectively.
• Pan Long realizes this could counter the stubbornness that threatens his practice of the Nine-Turn Mysterious Art. He begins training, but struggles: he and Bi Lingkong stage unpaid meals as part of his cultivation, and he must observe passersby and paint their expressions and infer their thoughts. His inability to draw makes the exercise especially frustrating.

Character developments

• Pan Long moves from confusion about the Confucian School’s history to understanding why ordinary people might have backed Di Jiazi despite his brutality. He also sees how the new art could help his cultivation, though he quickly discovers that understanding a technique is easier than practicing it.
• Bi Lingkong reveals a nuanced view of her enemy: she has tried to assassinate Di Jiazi, yet acknowledges his historic achievements and the people’s reasons for supporting him. As a teacher, she is demanding and willing to make Pan Long endure embarrassing exercises.

Significant themes

• Morality and popular will: Serving people requires understanding their needs, but popular approval does not necessarily make every action just.
• Historical context and leadership: A ruler’s deeds may be judged differently in an age of catastrophic disorder, when peace and survival are scarce.
• Objectivity and self-knowledge: Learning to see beyond personal assumptions can prevent stubbornness and improve judgment.
• Cultivation through discomfort: Spiritual training may involve practical, humiliating, or difficult exercises.

Character interactions

• Pan Long challenges Bi Lingkong’s explanation of Confucian opposition to Di Jiazi; she answers candidly, sharing both her uncertainty and respect for his achievements.
• Bi Lingkong teaches Pan Long how the art can complement his existing cultivation, then puts the principles into practice through observation exercises.
• Pan Long protests the unpaid meals and struggles with the painting task, while Bi Lingkong insists both are part of his training.

Key plot points and events

• Over the summer, Pan Long follows Bi Lingkong, watching people by day and sketching by night. Their routine increasingly involves eating at dishonest establishments and fleeing without paying so Bi can observe how their staff react.
• At a black inn that extorts and kidnaps travelers, Bi uses magic to question the staff, then keeps them alive as “training partners” rather than letting Pan Long kill them. For more than a month, the pair repeatedly provoke the staff and magically erase their memories. The resulting confusion and strain eventually drive the staff into a murderous frenzy; they kill one another, and the last survivor hangs himself.
• The townspeople and constables are relieved the inn is gone, regarding its owners as criminals who deserved their fate. Pan concludes that justice should be carried out more efficiently. Bi asks him to reflect on life and mortality, but he admits he cannot see the lesson.
• They move on to another black inn, where the staff are killed after a night of violence, and then to a third. That inn survives their provocations for months before a quarrel with Greenwood travelers turns into a slaughter. The travelers loot the inn and set it on fire, which Pan helps extinguish.
• Frustrated by the slow, indirect process, Pan again asks Bi to explain what she wants him to understand.

Character developments

• Pan Long grows accustomed to the disruptive routine and even admits that stirring up trouble can be fun. Yet he remains puzzled by Bi’s lessons and increasingly feels that the months spent on each inn are a waste of life.
• Bi Lingkong presents herself as compassionate and treats the episodes as instruction, but she engineers the provocations and uses magic to manipulate the inn staff. She remains cryptic about her purpose, expecting Pan to draw his own conclusions.

Significant themes

• Justice and complicity: The black inns prey on travelers, while some officials have profited from them. Their deaths satisfy the community, complicating the distinction between justice and vengeance.
• Mortality and wasted time: Bi’s exercises seem intended to provoke reflection on life and death, but Pan cannot identify the lesson and questions the time they consume.
• Moral ambiguity and unintended consequences: The pair’s actions help expose and destroy predatory establishments, but they do so through deception and psychological manipulation, contributing to bloodshed.
• Habituation: Pan gradually becomes comfortable with behavior that once troubled him, showing how repeated wrongdoing can begin to feel ordinary—or even entertaining.

Character interactions

• Bi directs Pan’s activities and withholds her intended lesson; Pan repeatedly challenges her to state it plainly.
• Pan adopts a false, shocked persona when questioning a neighbor about the first inn, while Bi performs exaggerated compassion.
• The townspeople’s reactions affirm that the inns were widely despised, even by constables who had tolerated or benefited from them.

Key plot points and events

• Pan Long continues Bi Lingkong’s “fieldwork,” repeatedly encountering crooked inns whose schemes end in destruction, often through their own infighting. The routine has become tedious and increasingly infuriating.
• As autumn turns to winter, Pan Long still cannot identify the lesson Bi Lingkong wants him to learn. His drawing improves, however, until his portraits are at least recognizable as people.
• After another inn collapses, Pan Long drinks its poisoned wine and vents his frustration: the innkeepers’ suffering means nothing to him; he only finds them annoying and wants to kill them.
• Bi Lingkong seizes on his remark that “human joys and sorrows do not reach one another” and tells him he has finally grasped the lesson, not merely known it.
• She explains that intellectual knowledge and lived understanding are different. Pan Long realizes he can explain Buddhist teachings about seeing mountains and water without having truly experienced the insights they describe.
• Bi Lingkong says Pan Long’s youth and lack of certain profound personal losses have kept him from fully understanding the emotional distance between people. Pan Long privately reflects that, because of his hidden former life, he has experienced such grief—but cannot reveal this secret.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long grows more frustrated with the repetitive lessons and admits he has been focused on the idea intellectually rather than feeling its truth. He remains stubborn and impatient, but reaches the understanding Bi Lingkong has been guiding him toward.
• Bi Lingkong balances teasing criticism with patient instruction. She recognizes Pan Long’s talent and endurance, yet insists that genuine cultivation requires experience, not just explanation.
• Their exchanges are affectionate but exasperated: Pan Long repeatedly asks for direct teaching, while Bi Lingkong maintains that he must discover the lesson through experience.

Significant themes

• Knowing versus understanding: A concept can be familiar and explainable without being deeply realized.
• The limits of empathy: People may be unable to share or fully comprehend one another’s joys and sorrows.
• Experience and growth: Some insights require lived emotional experience rather than study alone.
• Secrecy and identity: Pan Long’s concealed past shapes his private understanding, but he chooses not to disclose it.

Plot and key events

• Pan Long notices villagers carrying a jar for a Dragon Boat Festival Gu ritual and recalls the folklore surrounding oath-witnessing Gu. Bi Lingkong explains that most claims about Gu arts are exaggerated to disguise fear and ignorance.
• The discussion brings out Bi Lingkong’s bitterness over the Confucian School’s destruction and the loss of Di Jiazi. Pan Long reflects on how astonishingly she has endured the collapse of her faith, though her grief still surfaces in bouts of laughter and silence.
• Pan Long draws Bi Lingkong. She recognizes that his imperfect portrait captures her inner melancholy more truthfully than the strength she usually presents. She then announces that he has finished his basic training and is ready to learn the true essentials of Follow Your Heart’s Desire.
• Before the lesson, Bi Lingkong tests Pan Long’s extraordinary toughness and proposes making armor from his own skin. They remove a piece, refine it with magic, and discover it can withstand a powerful blow. Bi Lingkong explains that Demon Gods often use parts of their own bodies to make artifacts.
• In a grove of magically swinging branches, Pan Long easily avoids every strike. Bi Lingkong casts a spell that traps him in an illusion of being battered, then begins teaching the art’s deeper principle.

Character development and interactions

• Pan Long shows empathy for Bi Lingkong, quietly staying beside her rather than arguing with her grief. His portrait reveals growing sensitivity to emotional expression, and he remains curious and practical even when confronted with the bizarre idea of skin armor.
• Bi Lingkong remains deeply wounded and distrustful of human nature, but her warmth and hope emerge as she praises Pan Long’s work and commits to teaching him. She also shares the limits of her own achievement: she became a Demon God but never mastered the art’s highest form.
• Their relationship is that of teacher and student, but also of mutual care: Pan Long tries to comfort her, while Bi Lingkong recognizes his progress and entrusts him with the Confucian School’s legacy.

Significant themes

• Fear, ignorance, and exaggeration: People inflate what they do not understand; Gu lore illustrates how intimidation can conceal uncertainty.
• Grief and perseverance: Bi Lingkong’s faith and world were shattered, yet she found a new obsession that lets her continue as a Demon God.
• Inner truth and self-mastery: The true art requires distinguishing the “true self” from the ordinary self, observing the world clearly, and acting without hesitation, regret, or fear.
• Art and emotional understanding: A portrait’s value lies not only in physical resemblance but in its ability to convey someone’s inner state.
• Inheritance and hope: Bi Lingkong urges Pan Long to master what she could not and carry forward the heart of Confucian teaching.

Key plot points and events

• Pan Long trains in Follow Your Heart’s Desire under Bi Lingkong’s close supervision. The practice risks Materialization, in which the practitioner loses their sense of self and merges with the world.
• Bi explains how Daoist ideas about treating all things as equal relate to transformation arts, while warning that Pan Long is not yet advanced enough to learn them safely.
• After months of practice, Pan Long learns to bring forth and safely recall his True Self. Through its perception, he sees that people and businesses in nearby towns are surrounded by ominous qi—evidence, Bi says, that the Great Xia Dynasty is near collapse.
• Bi reflects on the suffering ordinary people face during dynastic upheaval but remains committed to fighting the dynasty for its crimes against the Confucian School. Pan Long supports her, arguing that refusing to punish evil would encourage future wrongdoing.
• Having taught Pan Long what she intended, Bi leaves, transforming into a red-feathered bird. Pan Long hopes they will meet again after he has grown stronger.
• Pan Long decides to travel to the Heaven-Reaching River for a rumored summer-solstice treasure hunt, suspecting his grandfather’s jade pendant may be connected to it. He heads toward Yi Province, abandons slow carriage travel, and crosses the mountains on foot.
• Along the way, a formidable three-headed bird confronts him but retreats when he draws his blade. Pan Long reaches the Heaven-Reaching River.

Character developments

• Pan Long gains control over his True Self and greater confidence in his abilities. His difficult journey from fearful novice to capable traveler makes him recognize how much he has grown.
• Bi Lingkong reveals both her playful side—especially in recounting past transformation antics—and her serious moral concern for common people. Despite that compassion, she remains resolute in her campaign against the Great Xia Dynasty.
• Pan Long’s ambition grows: he wants to become worthy of his title as “Yiwu’s successor” and hopes to learn more from Bi in the future.

Significant themes

• Selfhood and cultivation: Spiritual practice can expand perception but also threaten identity; power must be balanced with self-mastery.
• Righteousness and consequences: Bi and Pan Long argue that evil must be opposed even when doing so carries a cost, though the suffering of innocents makes that choice painful.
• Dynastic collapse and ordinary suffering: Political change brings hardship to common people regardless of who rules.
• Growth through experience: Pan Long’s improved abilities symbolize his progress toward independence and readiness for greater challenges.

Character interactions

• Bi mentors Pan Long, explaining spiritual dangers, transformation, and the moral stakes of the coming political upheaval.
• Pan Long and Bi debate whether the pursuit of justice can justify risks to ordinary people; he affirms her resolve, and she praises his understanding.
• Their farewell is warm but uncertain: Pan Long hopes to reunite with her as a more accomplished cultivator.
• In the mountains, Pan Long’s confident response to the giant bird contrasts with his earlier fear of similar creatures, underscoring his personal growth.

Key plot points and events

• In Qiaonan Town, Ren Fengtao of the Giant Whale Gang waits eagerly for A-Fei, his companion in a planned search for a treasure hidden in the Heaven-Reaching River. The summer-solstice search has attracted many armed martial artists, raising fears of violence.
• Ren and Deputy Branch Chief Yu go to watch a duel between Lu Youwei and He Shaoming. Their feud stems from a past robbery: Lu wants revenge, while He insists that taking stolen loot from another thief was fair game. He cannot escape Lu’s superior speed, so he fights despite the odds.
• Lu gains the advantage and is about to kill He when Jiang Bei, the celebrated “Ethereal Young Master,” intervenes. He stops Lu’s sword with two fingers and immobilizes He with one hand, then persuades them to put aside their grudge and share a meal. His attendants escort the former enemies away.
• Ren examines the ground and concludes Jiang’s control of inner strength is exceptionally precise: despite sprinting and stopping abruptly, Jiang leaves no footprints. Ren suspects the powerful newcomer may have come for a troubling purpose.
• A gang member spots A-Fei approaching. Ren’s excitement over their treasure hunt immediately eclipses his concern about Jiang.

Character developments and interactions

• Ren Fengtao is curious, observant, and largely unconcerned by ordinary martial-world violence, but Jiang’s extraordinary skill makes him wary. A-Fei’s arrival quickly restores his enthusiasm.
• Deputy Branch Chief Yu is anxious about the disorder and cleanup that duels bring; he follows Ren to the fight despite his complaints.
• Lu Youwei and He Shaoming begin as bitter enemies, arguing over the ethics of theft and preparing to fight to the death. Jiang’s intervention—and the unmistakable gulf in their abilities—drains their hostility, and they accept his invitation.
• Jiang Bei is introduced as both overwhelmingly skilled and courteous. He uses force decisively but presents his intervention as a friendly effort to reconcile the rivals, winning the crowd’s admiration.
• The crowd celebrates Jiang as a model hero, while Ren privately judges his abilities more carefully and questions his intentions.

Significant themes

• Honor, reputation, and survival: He fights because retreat would cost him face and, with Lu able to outrun him, may not offer safety.
• The moral ambiguity of the Martial World: Lu condemns He’s robbery, while He points out that Lu had stolen the valuables himself; the exchange exposes the loose and self-serving rules of the Greenwood.
• Power and restraint: Jiang’s overwhelming strength ends a potentially lethal duel without killing either man, suggesting that mastery can be used to prevent violence.
• Appearance versus reality: Jiang’s public image as a benevolent hero contrasts with Ren’s suspicion that such a powerful figure may have hidden motives.

Key plot points and events

• Pan Long arrives in South Bridge Town after more than a year away, claiming he spent the time training in the mountains. At a welcome feast hosted by Ren Fengtao, he stays guarded, drinking only water and eating plain food.
• Ren explains that the Giant Whale Gang believes it has located a treasure left by a powerful figure from early Great Xia. The site may be a hidden realm, and the treasure is expected to open on the summer solstice, drawing Martial World factions from across the region.
• In private, Ren reveals the gang’s true purpose: the Fishing Plan. They intend to lure rival gangs’ experts into the treasure site and use its traps to kill them, then exploit their weakened state. Ren hopes the success will advance his own career.
• Ethereal Young Master Jiang Bei receives and destroys a coded message delivered by a bird. Its contents are not revealed, but the message prompts him to think carefully before he regains his composed manner.
• The next morning, Pan Long asks to inspect the surrounding terrain. Guided by local fishermen He Jixiang and He Ping, he visits the cleared, highly exposed area where the treasure is believed to be. The lack of hiding places reassures his guides but makes Pan Long suspect that the treasure hunt will attract a dangerous crowd.

Character developments

• Pan Long remains cautious and observant, maintaining the reserved persona of A-Fei. His questions suggest he is assessing the terrain and the gang’s plans rather than simply preparing to hunt for treasure.
• Ren Fengtao presents himself as an enthusiastic, friendly treasure seeker, but is revealed as an ambitious and ruthless strategist. The treasure is chiefly a weapon for eliminating rivals and securing promotion.
• Jiang Bei receives information that appears to trouble or engage him, though his response and the message’s significance remain unknown.
• He Ping is talkative and confident in his and his uncle’s knowledge of the river and local terrain; He Jixiang is introduced as his equally capable, more reserved uncle.

Significant themes

• Deception and hidden motives: Ren’s public enthusiasm masks a long-prepared plan to manipulate rival gangs.
• Caution versus ambition: Pan Long carefully assesses risks, while Ren gambles on a large-scale trap for power and advancement.
• Treasure as a catalyst for conflict: The rumored relic draws competing factions together, making the hunt as much a political and military contest as a search for wealth.
• Knowledge and preparation: Local expertise and attention to terrain may prove as important as martial strength.

Character interactions

• Ren warmly welcomes Pan Long and frames the treasure hunt as a shared adventure, while privately planning to use Pan Long—and the token he carries—as part of the scheme.
• Deputy Branch Leader Yu Zecheng questions whether rival gangs will take the bait, but Ren confidently persuades him that the treasure’s promise will force them to compete.
• Pan Long’s request for a local guide brings him into contact with He Ping and He Jixiang. Their confidence that the cleared treasure site is safe contrasts with Pan Long’s growing suspicion about how exposed—and crowded—the operation may become.

Plot points and events

• The Giant Whale Gang organizes the riverside grounds for an upcoming treasure hunt, assigning areas to major organizations and reserving a few, less desirable spaces for independent martial artists.
• Pan Long examines the plan and accepts that the weaker independent wanderers have little grounds to demand better positions.
• Back in South Bridge Town, now crowded with merchants, Pan Long browses a bookstall. He buys a costly memoir by an old doctor from the Miao Region, which includes local tales and medical records.
• Pan Long gives He Ping the remaining change to buy books. He Ping chooses erotic books and shares one with He Jixiang, much to both their delight.
• As he continues shopping, Pan Long finds A Brief Analysis of Plains Dragon Veins. Its discussion of geomancy and earth veins could help him locate Earthly Baleful Force, a scarce resource he uses to temper his body.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long is curious and practical: he studies the event’s arrangements without making unreasonable demands, and selects books for their useful knowledge. He sees geomancy as a way to reduce his dependence on traveling to another world to find Earthly Baleful Force.
• He Ping and He Jixiang show a more playful side, eagerly choosing and sharing erotic books. Pan Long responds with amused resignation.
• The Giant Whale Gang’s representative treats Pan Long openly, explaining the plan and recognizing his importance to the treasure hunt.

Significant themes

• Power and entitlement: In the martial world, benefits go to those strong enough to claim them; the Gang’s limited provision for independent wanderers is presented as generous.
• Knowledge as practical power: Pan Long values books not only for curiosity but for how their information can advance his cultivation.
• Humor and cultural contrast: Pan Long’s reflections on erotic books and possible authorship by transmigrators add comic commentary on the world’s literary culture.

Key plot points

• Pan Long wrestles with whether the worlds created by the Classic of Mountains and Seas Fragment are real, and whether opening them brings people into existence—or exposes them to suffering. He cannot resolve the moral worry, but accepts that he will keep using the fragment to pursue strength and longevity.
• Trying to lift his mood, he buys meat-filled flatbreads for himself and his companions, He Jixiang and He Ping.
• A huge, voracious diner, Zhong Ziliang, praises the vendor’s food and offers to kill an enemy on the vendor’s behalf. The vendor declines, saying his troubles are past and he wants to live peacefully.
• He Jixiang gently intervenes, and He Ping explains that Zhong is a well-meaning but boastful troublemaker who habitually rushes to defend people.

Character developments and interactions

• Pan Long reveals his conscience and uncertainty alongside his ambition: he knows the fragment is essential to his goals, yet wishes he could minimize its possible consequences.
• Zhong Ziliang is introduced as physically imposing, generous, and impulsively protective. He offers help out of gratitude for a good meal, even when the vendor does not want it.
• He Jixiang calmly defuses the encounter; He Ping explains Zhong’s reputation and reassures the vendor.
• The vendor politely refuses Zhong’s offer, preferring a quiet present over reopening old grievances.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Pan Long wonders whether using his supernatural advantage makes him responsible for the lives and suffering in the worlds it creates.
• Ambition versus conscience: He pursues strength despite unresolved ethical doubts, acknowledging that effort alone cannot overcome his ordinary talent and luck.
• Kindness and restraint: Zhong’s impulse to help is sincere, but the vendor’s choice to let the past rest shows that good intentions do not always mean intervention is wanted.