Recaps

Zhang Xuan and Monk Sanjie worked together to ambush Xu Ming, a Demon Suppression Bureau cultivator who had raised the Headless Corpse Buddha. Xu Ming’s magic failed to stop Sanjie’s immense physical strength, and the monk prepared to overwhelm him with fistwork.

• Zhang Xuan learned that his Nether Candle Mystic Eyes gained experience through observation and could eventually unlock status analysis and karmic tracing.
• Sanjie lunged at Xu Ming, but Xu Ming’s jade pendant raised a barrier that blocked the monk’s punch.
• Xu Ming drew his Demon-Slaying Sword, then used wind blades and sword control to attack Sanjie.
• Sanjie shrugged off the wind blades and caught the flying sword beneath his arm, revealing that Xu Ming had badly underestimated him.
• Sanjie introduced himself and unleashed his immense strength, leaving Zhang Xuan stunned.

Zhang Xuan and the monk worked together to break Xu Ming’s Azure Phoenix Ward and wound him, but as Xu Ming prepared a lethal counterattack, a red thread struck and cut into his neck. Meng Changxi emerged from the woods, leaving Xu Ming’s fate uncertain.

• Xu Ming tried to withstand the monk’s attack with his Azure Phoenix Ward, but Zhang Xuan sprayed black dog blood on it after recognizing its weakness.
• The monk shattered the corroded ward with a punch, broke Xu Ming’s left arm, and sent him tumbling into the mud.
• Xu Ming formed a small scarlet sword from his blood and aimed it at the monk, who braced himself to take the strike.
• A red thread shot from the ruined temple, pierced Xu Ming’s neck, and tightened around it.
• Meng Changxi emerged from the woods as Xu Ming stared toward the source of the attack.

The Corpse Buddha transformed into a Netherworld Ghost King and killed Xu Ming, leaving Zhang Xuan and the monk facing it. Zhang Xuan seized the moment to attack its Buddha Treasure with Supreme Unity Divine Thunder, and his strike pierced the monster’s protective flesh.

• The Corpse Buddha possessed Meng Changxi and ambushed Xu Ming, while Falcon warned that the monster had become a Netherworld Ghost King.
• Xu Ming tried to kill the Corpse Buddha with his Flying Sword, but the red thread severed his head; his uncontrolled sword froze the monster instead.
• The monk urged Zhang Xuan to retreat, but Zhang Xuan vanished and then appeared beside the immobilized Corpse Buddha.
• Zhang Xuan attacked the Buddha Treasure in the monster’s chest with Supreme Unity Divine Thunder.
• The Corpse Buddha gathered its human-faced flesh around the treasure to block the strike, but Zhang Xuan’s lightning began dissolving it.

Zhang Xuan used Palm Thunder to destroy the Corpse Buddha and kill the Phoenix-Cry Mountain God, despite nearly exhausting his life force. He gave the scorched Two-Faced Buddha Head to Monk Sanjie, confirmed the monk remained trustworthy, and left him wondering how Zhang Xuan had timed his strike so precisely.

• The Corpse Buddha begged Zhang Xuan for mercy, then threatened him with Heaven's punishment when Zhang Xuan refused to stop.
• Zhang Xuan condemned the Mountain God for slaughtering its people and used Palm Thunder to tear out and destroy the Two-Faced Buddha Head, killing the Corpse Buddha.
• Zhang Xuan tossed the burning Buddha Head to Monk Sanjie, who caught it and brought down a Falcon trying to report the Emissary's death.
• Zhang Xuan checked that Monk Sanjie still appeared harmless through his mystic eyes, then staggered over to examine Xu Ming's headless corpse.
• Monk Sanjie considered the timing of Zhang Xuan's strike and wondered whether the young Daoist could foresee the future.

Zhang Xuan’s plan to steal the Two-Faced Buddha Head and escape the Corpse Buddha’s pursuit is revealed, along with his urgent need to obtain its power and become a cultivator. The chapter ends as the Celestial Master's Ordination provides an answer to his seemingly impossible question.

• Monk concluded that Zhang Xuan’s perfectly timed attack on the Corpse Buddha could not be explained by martial skill and found him unfathomable.
• Zhang Xuan had identified Meng Changxi as a marked vessel who could carry the Two-Faced Buddha Head out of the temple without attracting the Corpse Buddha’s attention.
• Zhang Xuan planned to steal the Buddha Treasure because it was needed to make a Marrow-Washing Body-Refining Pill and because the Five Thunder Righteous Art could cleanse its karmic obstruction.
• When Xu Ming confronted them, Zhang Xuan entered the Inner Landscape and asked how to seize the Buddha Head while escaping both Xu Ming and the Corpse Buddha.
• After three breaths, the Blood Moon in the Inner Landscape gave Zhang Xuan an answer.

Zhang Xuan followed the Celestial Master's Ordination to kill Xu Ming and the Corpse Buddha, confirming the ordination’s uncanny predictions and obtaining the Buddha Treasure. He then stripped Xu Ming’s uniform and learned how the Demon Suppression Bureau’s operatives received assignments, leaving him considering impersonating a Hundred-Man Commander.

• Zhang Xuan followed the ordination’s instructions, killed Xu Ming, and used divine thunder to destroy the Corpse Buddha.
• Zhang Xuan celebrated the ordination’s accuracy, then collapsed from coughing and exhaustion beside Xu Ming’s corpse.
• Zhang Xuan and Monk Sanjie stripped Xu Ming and recovered his Azure Dragon Guard uniform and Azure Phoenix Jade Pendant.
• Monk Sanjie explained that operatives worked independently and used Long-Beaked Messengers to receive assignments from prefectural headquarters.
• Monk Sanjie described how the Fate-Command Palace connected the messengers, jade pendants, and command banners through divided souls.
• Zhang Xuan considered impersonating Xu Ming and praised the Demon Suppression Bureau’s system for dispatching operatives.

Zhang Xuan learned how the Demon Suppression Bureau tracked its agents and discovered that the monk had once served in the Bureau. After the monk bound the Long-Beaked Messenger to Zhang Xuan, they prepared to investigate the forces behind Xu Ming and the corruption of Phoenix-Cry Mountain God.

• The monk explained that the Prefectural Headquarters relied on reports from local dispatch runners and sent inspectors when agents failed to confirm their missions.
• Zhang Xuan asked whether they could impersonate Xu Ming without raising suspicion, and the monk warned that the messenger could only connect once every seven days and that someone would investigate Xu Ming's death.
• The monk described Yuwen Zheng's loss and brutal methods, then revealed that a secret technique was needed to control the Long-Beaked Messenger.
• The monk used Zhang Xuan's blood and a secret art to bind the Azure Phoenix Jade to him, modifying it to warn him whenever the Prefectural Headquarters tried to locate the messenger.
• The monk revealed that he had once belonged to the Demon Suppression Bureau, and Zhang Xuan changed into Xu Ming's uniform.
• Zhang Xuan argued that posing as an agent would help the monk investigate supernatural disturbances, then questioned why Bureau agents had fed people to the mountain god.

Zhang Xuan persuaded the monk to let him assume Xu Ming’s Demon Suppression Bureau identity, then helped destroy the Mountain God Temple and buried the old man and Gouwa’s keepsake. He vowed to hunt down the evildoers responsible as the pair set out from the ruins.

• Zhang Xuan convinced the monk that impersonating Xu Ming could help them uncover the Demon Suppression Bureau’s corruption and give Zhang Xuan a legitimate identity.
• The monk approved Zhang Xuan’s plan and helped him change into the uniform of an Azure Dragon Guard Captain.
• The monk buried Xu Ming while Zhang Xuan rested, and the pair recovered a wooden horse and grease-stained paper from the ruined temple.
• Zhang Xuan and the monk burned the Mountain God Temple to ensure the Corpse Buddha’s evil could not return.
• Zhang Xuan buried Gouwa’s wooden horse and vowed to punish those responsible for the old man and boy’s deaths.

Xu Shang, Wu Dongyan, and Xuan Feng investigated the ruined temple and argued over who had taken the Buddha Treasure and what had happened to Xu Ming. After Xuan Feng blasted the two men to stop their fight, she insisted they recover the treasure, while Xu Ming’s fate remained unknown.

• Xu Shang questioned whether the Heavenly Gate, Nanwu’s faction, or the Myriad Nations Trading Company had destroyed the temple and stolen the Buddha Treasure.
• Wu Dongyan suggested that Xu Ming might have taken the treasure, and Xu Shang attacked him with his saber to defend his older brother.
• Wu Dongyan accused Xu Ming of pursuing credit, and Xu Shang challenged him to fight.
• Xuan Feng conjured a flame that exploded between the men, injuring both and ending their confrontation.
• Xuan Feng declared that they could not afford to lose the Buddha Treasure, while the group still did not know what had happened to Xu Ming.

Xuan Feng arranged for the Demon Suppression Bureau to investigate Xu Ming’s disappearance, then sent an Empathic Bird to scout Phoenix-Cry Mountain. After claiming it found nothing, she chose to search west while Wu Dongyan and Xu Shang went east and north; a dead woman bearing a Vermilion Bird mark lay hidden elsewhere in the mountains.

• Xuan Feng proposed using Xu Ming’s Long-Beaked Messenger records to determine whether he had defected or died, and the squad agreed to investigate while awaiting the Prefectural Headquarters’ response.
• Xuan Feng sent a confidential letter to the Prefectural Headquarters and released an Empathic Bird to scout the mountain.
• The Empathic Bird returned, and Xuan Feng told Wu Dongyan and Xu Shang that it had found nothing.
• Xuan Feng chose to search west, while Wu Dongyan and Xu Shang released their Long-Beaked Messengers and headed east and north.
• A woman’s intact, decaying corpse was found in a secluded hollow, with a Vermilion Bird marked on her right arm.

After escaping Phoenix-Cry Mountain, Zhang Xuan learned that Celestial Master's Ordination was upgrading after the mountain god’s death and sought a feasible way to obtain a Marrow-Washing Body-Refining Pill. He and Monk Sanjie continued toward a village where they could spend the night, while the upgrade was set to last twelve hours.

• Zhang Xuan and Monk Sanjie left Phoenix-Cry Mountain exhausted after evading the Demon Suppression Bureau and keeping the Buddha Treasure.
• Monk Sanjie told Zhang Xuan that Yao County was still a day’s walk away, but they could reach a village soon and ask to stay the night.
• Zhang Xuan entered the [Inner Landscape] and found that the Blood Moon had become a full moon covered in pulsing markings.
• Celestial Master's Ordination announced that killing the Phoenix-Cry Mountain God had brought spiritual essence to its threshold and started a twelve-hour upgrade.
• Zhang Xuan refused to spend a daily question opportunity asking about spiritual essence and chose to wait for the upgrade to finish.
• Zhang Xuan asked Celestial Master's Ordination for a genuinely feasible plan to obtain a Marrow-Washing Body-Refining Pill with his current resources and strength.

Zhang Xuan assessed the dangers and uses of the Divine Path arts in his possession, realizing that most required spiritual power he lacked. He resolved to learn three techniques he could use and reckoned that his current strength amounted to only a few uncertain advantages.

• Zhang Xuan recalled learning from the monk that spiritual-power cultivation methods were rare and that his stolen Daoist arts book contained a priceless Mystic Gate inheritance.
• Zhang Xuan recognized that activating the book’s later techniques without spiritual power could drain his vital essence, so he decided to avoid them until he entered the Dao.
• Zhang Xuan considered learning the Golden Light Incantation for protection, Gen Mountain Suppresses the Peaks as a restrictive sealing technique, and Chaotic Stars Fall as a risky escape art.
• Zhang Xuan tallied his Four Divine Path Forms, Nether Candle Mystic Eyes, the Monk, and the Celestial Master's Ordination as his limited resources.
• The blood moon blurred beneath Zhang Xuan’s expectant gaze and gave its answer.

Zhang Xuan learned that the Celestial Master's Ordination required him to kill Xu Shang and impersonate Xu Ming to gain Xuan Feng’s trust. He followed the monk toward a deserted village despite his exhaustion, while keeping the Falcon from fleeing.

• The Celestial Master's Ordination revealed tasks to kill Xu Shang and deliver part of the Two-Faced Buddha Head to Xuan Feng while posing as Xu Ming, but refused to disclose more without extra payment.
• Zhang Xuan deduced that Xu Shang was connected to Xu Ming and that Xuan Feng was likely the mastermind he would infiltrate.
• Zhang Xuan and the monk found a desolate village with no cooking smoke, and the monk noticed a smell of blood.
• Little Qing refused to scout, prompting the monk to remark that souls shared temperaments with their masters; Zhang Xuan tried to leave but followed the monk into the village.
• Zhang Xuan stopped the Falcon from fleeing and warned the monk he would run if danger appeared, while the monk recognized how severely Zhang Xuan had been weakened by using Palm Thunder.

Zhang Xuan and Monk entered a deserted village and discovered a boy who had attacked Monk beside a mutilated woman’s corpse. As Monk dismissed the boy’s attack as the work of a Demon Ghost, Zhang Xuan realized the horrific scene left him disturbingly calm and wondered what his lost past concealed.

• Monk and Zhang Xuan entered the silent village after noticing signs that people had lived there recently and smelling blood.
• Monk gave Zhang Xuan a Black Donkey Hoof before they searched a house with an open door.
• A ragged boy rushed at Monk with a sharpened stick, and Zhang Xuan warned Monk before Monk pulled back his fatal blow.
• The boy stabbed Monk above the lower abdomen, then recoiled and fell after seeing blood on his hands.
• Zhang Xuan and Monk found a mutilated woman’s corpse, and Monk identified another Demon Ghost.
• Zhang Xuan felt unnaturally calm at the bloody scene and wondered whether his lost past had exposed him to such horrors before.

After Widow Li was found dead, Zhao Wu tried to have her son killed by calling him a jinx, but Zhang Xuan and Monk intervened. Zhang Xuan ordered the crowd killed.

• Villagers found Widow Li’s mutilated corpse and learned she had been eaten by a Demon Ghost.
• Zhao Wu revealed he had used chicken blood to lure the Demon Ghost to Widow Li’s home so her family would die in place of the Zhao family.
• Widow Li’s son attacked the villagers, accusing Zhao Wu of directing the Demon Ghost toward their house.
• Zhao Wu persuaded the villagers that the boy was a jinx, and Zhao Daqing swung a stick at him.
• Monk caught Zhao Daqing’s stick as he and Zhang Xuan emerged from the bloodied doorway.
• Zhang Xuan confronted Zhao Wu and ordered, “Kill!”

Zhang Xuan and Monk killed a Painted Skin disguised as Zhao Dafu, revealing that the demon had eaten the real Zhao Dafu and worn his skin. They decided to leave the village before Zhao Wu could blame them for his son's death.

• Monk attacked the fake Zhao Dafu and pinned him down while Zhang Xuan identified himself as a Demon Suppression Bureau commander.
• Zhang Xuan saw the demon's hidden face with his nether candle mystic eyes and beheaded it with the Demon-Slaying Sword.
• Zhao Wu mourned over the severed head, then saw the bluish-purple face beneath its skin and learned from Monk that the creature was a Painted Skin.
• Zhang Xuan told Monk they should leave before Zhao Wu blamed them for the death, reflecting that such blame was human nature.

Zhang Xuan and Monk met a wounded boy who said the Yandang Mountain Wolf Bandits had killed his mother, not a Demon Ghost. Zhang Xuan exposed the killings as a human atrocity but refused to intervene, leaving the boy’s desperate cries echoing in the wilderness.

• Monk sensed someone following them, and Zhang Xuan called the pursuer out of the grass.
• A bloodied boy begged Zhang Xuan to avenge his mother, claiming the Yandang Mountain Wolf Bandits had killed her.
• Zhang Xuan said the village killings were human crimes disguised as a Demon Ghost attack, explaining that the mutilated corpse had not been eaten.
• Zhang Xuan told the boy that the Demon Suppression Bureau handled demonic calamities and that human crimes belonged before the county magistrate.
• The boy accused officials and villagers of abandoning his family and demanded to know who would help people like them.

A grieving boy told Monk and Zhang Xuan how his mother had died protecting him from beasts, and Zhang Xuan chose to help him pursue vengeance. Zhang Xuan accepted the boy’s treasured pendant as payment for three human heads, while Monk thanked him for his compassion.

• The boy recounted how his mother had hidden him in a wardrobe and been killed by beasts without waking him.
• Monk warned that the boy would risk everything if he chose the path of vengeance, and Zhang Xuan said a man should choose his own path.
• Zhang Xuan asked the boy for something valuable, and the boy offered the beast-tooth pendant his mother had made for him.
• Zhang Xuan fastened the pendant to his waist and promised to trade it for three human heads.
• The boy thanked Zhang Xuan, and Monk bowed to him in gratitude while Zhang Xuan insisted it was only business.

Zhang Xuan, Monk, and the injured boy rested in a sheltered hollow after escaping danger, while Zhang Xuan reflected on the perils of his westward journey. The boy introduced himself as Ji Anning and worked to prove he could help them.

• Monk led the exhausted Zhang Xuan and the injured boy to a sheltered hollow for the night.
• Zhang Xuan took Monk's pill and ate flatbread while wondering why his journey west had been so dangerous and whether to use his remaining question for the Celestial Master's Ordination.
• The boy returned with firewood, a rabbit, and a fish, despite his injuries.
• Monk asked the boy's name, and he introduced himself as Ji Anning and explained that he had learned to hunt with his father.
• Monk told Ji Anning to call himself Anning, and Zhang Xuan backed him up.

Zhang Xuan and the monk shared a meal with the wounded Ji Anning in a desolate mountain hollow, where Zhang Xuan discovered the monk’s magical water-storage teapot was impossibly heavy. When the monk offered to treat Ji Anning’s wounds, the boy panicked, then worried that his secret would make his companions despise or abandon him.

• The monk used a Reservoir Teapot to fill a cooking pot with water, and Zhang Xuan tried to lift it but nearly fell under its thousand-jin weight.
• Ji Anning finished preparing the rabbit and fish, and the monk shared the roasted food, corn, and dried meat with him and Zhang Xuan.
• The monk approached Ji Anning with medicine to treat his wounds, but Ji Anning panicked and recoiled.
• Zhang Xuan told the monk to give Ji Anning the medicine so he could treat himself in private.
• Ji Anning accepted the medicine and cloth, then worried that Zhang Xuan had discovered his secret and might reject him.

Zhang Xuan struggled with his growing desire to kill and dreamed of his late master, Zhang Jingzhi, who urged him to accept violence when it served the right purpose. He woke from the dream reaching for his vanished master.

• Zhang Xuan realized Ji Anning was a girl and worried that he could no longer make her do hard labor, while the Monk defended his actions as compassion.
• The Monk warned Zhang Xuan that it was almost time, then caught him as the medicine took effect and settled him beside a tree.
• In a dream, Zhang Xuan met Zhang Jingzhi and confessed that he had begun to feel excited by blood and killing.
• Zhang Jingzhi told Zhang Xuan that violence could be righteous when used to protect himself and help others.
• Zhang Jingzhi reminded Zhang Xuan that he had died long ago, then vanished into starlight as Zhang Xuan woke and cried out for him.

After waking from a nightmare, Zhang Xuan reassured Ji Anning that he would honor their deal to avenge Ji Anning’s mother. The monk devised a way to heat water for bathing in the mountain hollow, leaving Zhang Xuan refreshed and Ji Anning next to bathe.

• Ji Anning offered Zhang Xuan freshly brewed Pine Needle tea and vowed to serve him loyally.
• Zhang Xuan told Ji Anning he would keep his promise despite fearing danger, and pointed out that he had accepted Ji Anning’s payment.
• Zhang Xuan learned it was still the hour of the pig and remembered he could ask the Celestial Master's Ordination a question that night.
• The monk secured the hot kettle in a notch in a tree to make a makeshift bath, and Zhang Xuan bathed.
• The monk invited Ji Anning to bathe next, and Zhang Xuan cautioned him to keep his wound dry.

Zhang Xuan discovered that the jade pendant was an incomplete immortal artifact called Mountain Suppressor, then used tomorrow’s question allowances to enter its trial. The celestial master's ordination claimed the trial was safe, though it warned him only after he had been swallowed that pain was unavoidable.

• Zhang Xuan entered his Inner Landscape and saw a towering Black Tower bound by 3,600 chains rising from the lake.
• The nether candle mystic eyes identified the tower as Mountain Suppressor, an incomplete immortal artifact with powers to imprison foes and steal their divine abilities.
• The celestial master's ordination offered to absorb Mountain Suppressor and begin a trial at the cost of all three of Zhang Xuan's question allowances for the next day.
• Zhang Xuan chose to begin the trial, entered the tower through its blood-red doors, and was engulfed by azure light.
• After Zhang Xuan vanished, the celestial master's ordination revealed that pain was unavoidable.

Zhang Xuan began a trial inside the Black Tower against the Headless Corpse Buddha and repeatedly died while learning to use his Four Divine Path Forms. After eight deaths, he had determined the limits of his techniques and prepared to face the monster again.

• Zhang Xuan selected a twelve-hour trial and encountered the Headless Corpse Buddha, which decapitated him almost immediately.
• Zhang Xuan revived and discovered that the trial involved real pain and death, then was killed again when the Corpse Buddha tore off his limbs with blood threads.
• Zhang Xuan reviewed his techniques and used the Ten Directions Five Thunders Golden Light Body Protection Divine Incantation to withstand the blood threads briefly before his energy ran out.
• Zhang Xuan realized that his condition reset after each death, so he used repeated trials to practice combining the Four Divine Path Forms.
• After his eighth death, Zhang Xuan gauged his limits for each technique and faced the Headless Corpse Buddha again.

After enduring hundreds of deaths in the Inner Landscape, Zhang Xuan reached Yandang Mountain with Ji Anning, who sought revenge on the wolf bandits who murdered his mother. Zhang Xuan confronted the bandits at their stronghold and asked where to find Mad Bull.

• Zhang Xuan recovered from a night of repeated deaths, strengthened his combat skills, and drank Pine Needle Tea from Ji Anning.
• Zhang Xuan and his companions traveled to Yandang Mountain and rested before entering, since he could not use [Nether Candle Mystic Eyes].
• Ji Anning identified the Yandang Mountain wolf bandits as his mother's killers and vowed to avenge her.
• Two wolf bandits discussed their raids and revealed that Mad Bull had abused and killed Ji Anning's mute mother.
• Zhang Xuan appeared behind the bandits, asked where Mad Bull was, and knocked a saber from one man's hand with his golden fingers.