Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Cloud Radiance Sect disciples rush to Shen Leyan’s hot-pot Restaurant after classes, scrambling for seats and ordering its signature dishes. The place fills within an hour, leaving only the largest private room empty; Shen helps serve customers and is delighted by the business.
• Though Senior Brother Zheng said Sect Master Lu Yuanyi probably couldn’t come because he was meeting with elders, Lu’s frost-covered Jiangxue Sword soon appears at the Restaurant.
• The Sword Spirit follows Shen Leyan despite his attempts to keep away from its cold. Once it realizes he is sensitive to the chill, it withdraws the frost and signals that it wants to enter.
• Curious disciples watch Shen lead the conspicuous sword upstairs. To avoid further rumors about his connection to Lu, he decides he will need to write another newspaper article explaining the incident.
• In a private room, the sword transforms into Lu Yuanyi. Shen is surprised because Lu had supposedly said he would not come. Lu explains that his meeting ended and that Shen had asked him to attend to discuss splitting the Restaurant’s earnings with the sect.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan is increasingly confident as a restaurateur: he handles the rush, enjoys the profits, and remains outwardly polite even while privately calculating how to get Lu to spend money. His weak constitution also becomes clear when he recoils from the sword’s cold.
• Lu Yuanyi appears less distant and predictable than Shen expected. He comes in person after all, prompting Shen to privately call him a liar.
• The Jiangxue Sword/Sword Spirit shows awareness and consideration by recognizing Shen’s sensitivity and easing its cold.

Character interactions

• The disciples’ competitive enthusiasm turns the Restaurant into a popular gathering place, with customers seeking recommendations and even asking Qingli about beauty secrets.
• Shen speaks cautiously to the Sword Spirit, which responds nonverbally and cooperates with him.
• Shen and Lu’s polite conversation contrasts with Shen’s irreverent inner thoughts: Lu reminds him that the Restaurant’s profit-sharing arrangement was his own proposal, while Shen had hoped the sect master’s presence would draw customers.

Significant themes

• Public image and rumor: The disciples’ scrutiny turns the sword’s visit into fresh speculation about Shen and Lu, reinforcing Shen’s concern with controlling the story through the newspaper.
• Commerce and opportunity: The Restaurant’s popularity shows how quickly a clever business can thrive, while Shen’s thoughts reveal his practical focus on earnings.
• Appearance versus reality: Lu’s unexpected arrival—and Shen’s private reaction to it—undercuts the assumptions others have made about both of them.

Key plot points

• Shen Leyan declines payment for Lu Yuanyi’s meal, hoping to attract more wealthy customers from the Cloud Radiance Sect.
• When Lu invites him to eat, Shen admits he has barely begun learning the Azure Shadow Profound Art and is cultivating Spiritual Power from scratch.
• Lu asks for Shen’s birth details after hearing he may have an affinity for Heavenly Dao divination. As Lu constructs a fate chart, it violently shatters, leaving him with a cut finger.
• Shen awkwardly pretends not to notice and steers the conversation toward Zheng Ziheng, who stayed behind at the Cicada Song Pavilion to finish business.
• Lu explains Zheng is leaving for the Southwestern Territory to collect rare herbs. Shen, spotting a business opportunity in the region’s distinctive ingredients, asks if he can go along.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan remains cautious and self-deprecating about cultivation, but his practical, entrepreneurial instincts are strong. He quickly turns Zheng’s trip into a possible chance to source new ingredients and explore.
• Lu Yuanyi shows interest in Shen’s possible divination talent, though the failed chart—and Lu’s unreadable reaction—suggests the matter may be more complicated than expected.
• Zheng Ziheng is absent, but is shown as dependable: he stays behind to handle sect business and is assigned a herb-gathering trip.

Significant themes

• Commerce and survival: Shen approaches cultivation-world opportunities through the lens of running a successful restaurant.
• Mystery and fate: Shen’s suspected divination affinity and the fate chart’s sudden destruction introduce uncertainty about his destiny.
• Humor amid tension: Shen’s anxious suspicions and clumsy attempt to hide his concern contrast with Lu’s calm, reserved manner.
• Exploration and opportunity: The Southwestern Territory represents both an unfamiliar cultural landscape and a source of rare goods.

Character interactions

• Shen bargains playfully with Lu over payment and future patronage, then reluctantly accepts Lu’s invitation to eat.
• Lu gently teases Shen’s modest assessment of his cultivation and asks personal questions that make Shen wary.
• After the chart breaks, Shen tries to ease the awkwardness with food and small talk; Lu quietly accepts the gesture.
• Shen questions why Zheng is going south and, once he learns the reason, asks Lu to let him accompany Zheng.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan’s Restaurant opens successfully, earning over two hundred taels in its first hour. Before leaving to find ingredients in the Southwestern Territory, he asks Qingli to look after it.
• Chen Jing visits to say farewell before his first Inner Sect mission. When he begins talking as if he might die, Shen Leyan stops him and warns him against “death flags.” Chen Jing leaves reassured and promises to bring friends to the Restaurant.
• Shen Leyan travels south with Lu Yuanyi and Zheng Ziheng. The journey takes more than a month because they keep stopping to eat, Lu Yuanyi is poor at navigation, and they accidentally fly far off course while asleep.
• In a border marketplace, Shen Leyan gets nauseous during flight and persuades the group to stop for food. Zheng Ziheng comforts him and notes that their destination, the Southwestern Jungle, is nearby.
• At a stall selling spicy-and-sour pounded chicken feet, Shen Leyan teases Lu Yuanyi by asking the vendor to guess his age. When she learns he is over a thousand years old, her bewilderment amuses Shen Leyan. He then asks Zheng Ziheng to fly him later so he can avoid riding with Lu Yuanyi.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan is entrepreneurial and playful: he is optimistic about the Restaurant’s prospects, looks after Qingli, encourages Chen Jing, and uses humor to tease Lu Yuanyi. He also suffers from flight sickness and hunger.
• Chen Jing is excited but nervous about his first mission. Shen Leyan’s encouragement helps him approach it with confidence.
• Lu Yuanyi remains aloof but is strongly motivated by food. His poor sense of direction and quiet irritation at Shen Leyan’s teasing reveal a more comic, less imposing side.
• Zheng Ziheng is considerate and dependable, checking on Shen Leyan’s health and helping guide the group.

Significant themes

• Food and everyday comfort: Meals shape the journey, provide a reason to stop, and bring the characters together.
• Humor amid danger: The jungle mission carries real risks, but the chapter balances that danger with jokes about travel mishaps and age.
• Encouragement and superstition: Shen Leyan tries to protect Chen Jing from defeatist talk, treating “death flags” as a lighthearted but meaningful warning.

Character interactions

• Shen Leyan entrusts Qingli with the Restaurant and warmly offers Chen Jing a celebratory meal on his safe return.
• Chen Jing accepts Shen Leyan’s advice and shows enthusiasm about the Restaurant’s food.
• Shen Leyan and Lu Yuanyi bicker indirectly over food and travel; Shen Leyan’s age joke briefly gets under Lu Yuanyi’s skin.
• Zheng Ziheng looks after Shen Leyan when he feels ill, while Shen Leyan seeks his help to avoid flying with Lu Yuanyi.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan, Lu Yuanyi, and Zheng Ziheng travel toward the Southwestern Jungle, where they plan to find the century-old jadeblood snakegrass. Shen snacks on meat buns and sunflower seeds along the way.
• The route is crowded with wary cultivator groups. Two parties begin fighting over an apparent insult, and Shen slips away from Zheng’s explanation to watch.
• Lu Yuanyi suddenly pushes Shen into the middle of the brawl, apparently to test his newly learned Azure Shadow Profound Art. The fighters mistake him for an interference and attack.
• Shen’s Wind Spiritual Root surges under threat. He uses the movement technique to evade a flaming blade, then—guided by Lu Yuanyi’s voice transmission—uses the wind to subtly redirect incoming weapons.
• The onlookers cheer his escapes, but the embarrassed attackers abandon ranged attacks. One armors himself in stone and charges at Shen.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan is inexperienced and reluctant to fight, but danger draws out his wind power and reveals the promise of his movement technique. He remains gentle and apologetic even while defending himself.
• Lu Yuanyi is mischievous and deliberately throws Shen into danger, yet continues coaching him remotely, turning the attack into an impromptu lesson.
• Zheng Ziheng is patient and responsible, explaining the mission, but is left behind when Shen and Lu disappear.

Significant themes

• The cultivation world is shown as volatile and competitive: grudges, suspicion, and violence can erupt over little.
• Shen’s growth begins through pressure; practical danger forces him to apply what he has learned.
• The contrast between peril and spectacle gives the fight a comic tone: Shen faces real weapons while spectators treat the brawl as entertainment.

Character interactions

• Shen and Lu’s dynamic mixes Lu’s teasing provocation with genuine instruction.
• Shen tries to defuse the fighters’ hostility with excuses and politeness, but they ridicule his supposed lack of honor and keep attacking.
• The spectators cheer Shen’s dodges, while the fighters grow increasingly humiliated and aggressive.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan is caught between two groups of fighting cultivators. One pins him down and sends a massive stone-armored attack his way.
• Lu Yuanyi intervenes with a tiny ice needle that instantly freezes and shatters the stone armor, revealing power the onlookers assume belongs to a Nascent Soul cultivator.
• The attackers apologize and offer a box of pills useful for resisting venom and miasma in the Southwestern Jungle. Shen accepts after Lu Yuanyi’s nod.
• Zheng Ziheng returns and teases Shen about getting into trouble. Shen admits Lu Yuanyi’s staged ordeal helped him: his Wind Spiritual Root and Spiritual Power are responding more smoothly, and his senses have grown sharper.
• Shen buys a sugar figure and gives it to Lu Yuanyi, who accepts it, leaving Zheng puzzled by their changed dynamic.
• The group takes Sword Flight toward the jungle’s interior. Locals warn that flying above the jungle is dangerous because of airborne Demonic Beasts. Lu Yuanyi casually promises to knock one down for Shen to roast.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan is frightened by pain and initially resents being thrown into danger, but recognizes the incident as useful training and acknowledges Lu Yuanyi protected him when necessary. He is becoming more attuned to his wind-based abilities.
• Lu Yuanyi remains outwardly calm and severe, but his intervention and acceptance of Shen’s gift suggest care beneath his stern training methods.
• Zheng Ziheng stays warm and teasing, while noticing the growing, confusing closeness between Shen and their master.

Significant themes

• Training through adversity: Real danger deepens Shen’s understanding of his cultivation.
• Protection and trust: Lu Yuanyi allows risk for the sake of training but steps in before Shen is seriously harmed.
• Power and reputation: A quiet display of strength is enough to frighten the attackers into submission.
• Humor amid danger: Shen’s fear, the sugar figure, and Lu Yuanyi’s matter-of-fact promise to hunt a flying beast lighten the chapter.

Character interactions

• Lu Yuanyi’s intervention protects Shen and forces the attackers to apologize; Shen follows Lu Yuanyi’s cue in accepting their gift.
• Zheng teases Shen and offers to buy him a sugar figure, prompting Shen to buy one for Lu Yuanyi instead.
• At the jungle’s edge, the group’s decision to fly despite local warnings sets up the next danger, while Lu Yuanyi’s easy confidence contrasts with the bystanders’ alarm.

Key events

• A Giant Eagle attacks the three cultivators as they fly through the Southwestern Jungle. Shen Leyan disrupts its balance with an updraft spell, and the group later cooks it into braised roast eagle.
• As they near the jungle’s center, worsening weather makes flying unsafe and obscures the ground. Zheng Ziheng consults the map, and the group continues on foot to search for jadeblood snakegrass, a rare herb meant to treat his younger brother’s soul-related impairment.
• On the slippery trail, Shen Leyan admires the abundant wild mushrooms. After learning that most are poisonous—and that none of his companions can identify the safe ones—he samples several, suffering increasingly bizarre effects.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan shows improved spellwork and quick thinking against the eagle, but his appetite and taste for risky bargains remain strong. He even considers using himself to test mushrooms, trusting Lu Yuanyi to cure him.
• Lu Yuanyi is quietly protective, pulling Shen out of a mud hole with Spiritual Power. He also teases Shen by observing that cultivators supposedly care little about food, despite having just eaten eagle himself.
• Zheng Ziheng stays focused on the mission and offers Shen a sleeve to steady himself on the rough path. His reason for seeking the herb—helping his younger brother—adds personal stakes to the search.
• Shen jokingly suggests Lu Yuanyi should not accompany disciples on missions because his presence removes the challenge. Lu Yuanyi’s response suggests he recognizes Shen’s point, while Shen quickly backtracks and offers him eagle leg.

Significant themes

• Comedy through contradiction: The cultivators face danger with casual talk of cooking their attacker, while Lu Yuanyi’s austere remarks about appetite clash with his own enjoyment of the meal.
• Recklessness and dependence: Shen’s curiosity and opportunism repeatedly lead him into trouble; he relies on Lu Yuanyi’s strength and intervention to manage the consequences.
• Mission and compassion: The search for a rare medicinal plant is driven by Zheng Ziheng’s concern for his brother, grounding the group’s comic adventures in a meaningful purpose.
  The chapter ends with Shen reacting to a green mushroom by boasting in a bizarre, altered state—leaving the consequences of his latest experiment unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• After an embarrassing bout of mushroom poisoning, Shen Leyan gathers several safe mushroom varieties and stores them in Zheng Ziheng’s expensive Storage Ring. Zheng reassures him and lends him a handkerchief.
• The group moves deeper into the rain-soaked Southwestern Jungle, toward the last known location of Jadeblood Snakegrass. Insects become larger and more frightening to Shen, who hides behind Zheng.
• Lu Yuanyi warns that the route ahead is dangerous and tells Shen to wait behind. He gives Shen a Heavenheart Crystal, able to withstand one full-force Mahayana attack, and leaves him the Jiangxue Sword as protection and a sign that other cultivators should respect Lu’s authority.
• Lu and Zheng go farther into the jungle. Shen settles down to meditate, using the sword to keep insects and snakes away.
• A tremendous crash and rising dust signal a fierce battle nearby. As venomous creatures swarm around him, Shen realizes Lu may be in danger. The sentient sword refuses to leave him, so Shen asks it to take him toward its master. The chapter ends as the sword suddenly speeds off, dragging Shen through the jungle.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan remains comically anxious about insects and eager to secure powerful protection, but he also shows concern for Lu and chooses to go toward the danger rather than stay safely behind.
• Zheng Ziheng is gentle and reassuring, helping Shen with his muddy hands, dismissing his poisoning mishap, and comforting him before departing.
• Lu Yuanyi is blunt and practical: he protects Shen with valuable safeguards while teasing him for expecting high-tier artifacts to be commonplace.
• Jiangxue Sword is revealed to have a protective, responsive Sword Spirit. It prioritizes its master’s orders but ultimately helps Shen approach the battle.

Significant themes

• Protection and responsibility: Lu and Zheng take precautions for Shen, while Shen accepts the risk of going after Lu.
• Courage beneath comedy: Shen’s fear of insects contrasts with his concern for his companions.
• Trust and attachment: Shen relies on Lu’s gifts and the sword’s guidance; the sword’s loyalty shapes what happens next.
• Humor amid danger: Shen’s anxious bargaining and the absurdly powerful sword pulling him along lighten an otherwise threatening situation.

Character interactions

• Zheng treats Shen with quiet kindness and reassurance. Lu combines stern warnings with practical protection and teasing. Shen negotiates for increasingly secure safeguards, then asks the Jiangxue Sword to help him reach Lu. The sword resists leaving Shen unprotected but ultimately carries him toward the disturbance.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan is flown through a rain-soaked forest by the Jiangxue Sword and dropped near an ancient tree, where Senior Brother Zheng and another cultivator are fighting a gigantic green snake demon.
• The sword wounds the snake badly as it pursues it through the forest. Shen Leyan initially runs to safety, then notices a small red flower on the snake’s head—the sought-after jadeblood snakegrass.
• When the snake tears the immature herb off and prepares to swallow it, Shen Leyan realizes it may be their only chance to obtain the medicine in time to save Zheng’s mortal younger brother. He rushes back and tries to persuade the snake to give it up.
• The snake hesitates but explains through Zheng that it has repeatedly waited for the herb to mature, only for cultivators to defeat it and take it. Expecting the same outcome again, it wants to taste the herb before it dies.
• Shen Leyan offers a compromise: the snake can have the next stalk when it matures, with Cloud Radiance Sect disciples protecting it. The chapter ends before the snake answers.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan shifts from frightened self-preservation to courageous intervention, risking himself to protect the herb and negotiate rather than rely on force.
• The snake demon is revealed as more than a fearsome opponent: its desperation comes from years of disappointment and repeated mistreatment by cultivators.
• Zheng Ziheng pursues the snake and serves as the interpreter, helping Shen Leyan understand its motives.

Significant themes

• Compassion and negotiation: Shen Leyan tries to recognize the snake’s perspective instead of treating it as a monster to defeat.
• Conflict between urgent need and fairness: The herb is needed to save a mortal who cannot wait a century, while the snake has waited generations for a chance to benefit from it.
• The cost of repeated injustice: The snake’s desperation is shaped by a cycle in which stronger cultivators take what it has guarded.

Character interactions

• Zheng warns Shen Leyan to flee while he and the other cultivator fight the snake.
• Shen Leyan directly addresses the snake as “Brother Snake,” first warning it that swallowing the immature herb will not help much and that it may die for nothing.
• When the snake explains its history through Zheng, Sheneyan responds with an offer of protection and future access to the herb, opening the possibility of cooperation.

Plot points and events

• Zheng Ziheng agrees to swear a Heavenly Oath on behalf of the Cloud Radiance Sect, convincing an injured snake to hand over Jadeblood Snakegrass. The oath binds him to its terms; the snake says the herb needs another day to mature.
• Shen Leyan and Zheng Ziheng give the snake healing medicine. Shen offers it friendly advice about retreating from unwinnable fights, learning that it had tried to flee but was relentlessly pursued by the Jiangxue Sword.
• At night, while resting after the battle, Shen misses his friends at the sect and asks Zheng to send Qingli a message. Qingli replies that the Restaurant is thriving, but Chen Jing and his mission companions have not returned.
• Shen grows uneasy and asks about Chen Jing’s mission. Zheng explains that the group was sent to help villagers affected by demons that prey on unborn children. Though the demons are considered weak, Chen Jing’s unexplained delay troubles Shen.
• Shen asks Qingli to learn the village’s location. She reports that Chen Jing went to Glory Ancestors Village, east of the southwestern jungle, giving Shen a lead to pursue.

Character developments and interactions

• Zheng shows his reliability by taking the oath and caring for the snake; he also supports Shen by sending messages across the long distance.
• Shen is compassionate toward the snake, thanking it, sharing medicine, and advising it to flee rather than suffer needless injuries. His warmth and concern extend to his friends, particularly Chen Jing.
• The snake shifts from wary adversary to cooperative companion after the oath, accepting medicine and sharing information through Zheng.
• Qingli remains dependable and quick to investigate. Her update reassures Shen about the Restaurant but heightens his concern about Chen Jing.
• Shen and Zheng discuss the mission’s risks, with Zheng trying to reassure him while Shen’s unease prompts him to seek more information.

Significant themes

• Trust and obligation: The Heavenly Oath formalizes a bargain and makes trust consequential.
• Compassion amid conflict: Shen responds to the wounded snake with kindness rather than hostility.
• Longing and loyalty: Distance from home brings Shen’s attachment to his community into focus.
• Foreboding and concern: Chen Jing’s delayed return and Shen’s physical sense of dread foreshadow possible trouble.

Plot points and events

• Once the Jadeblood Snakegrass matures, Shen Leyan plans to visit Glory Ancestors Village, hoping to find Chen Jing and the others. Senior Brother Zheng takes the herb back to the Cloud Radiance Sect to make medicine for his younger brother.
• Lu Yuanyi accompanies Shen Leyan east through the Southwestern Jungle. The pair are both hopeless at navigation, but Lu’s fearsome reputation keeps the demons away.
• At the jungle’s edge, Shen Leyan struggles to get directions: locals either don’t recognize the village’s name or speak a dialect he can’t understand.
• To attract help, he publicly claims to be a traveling physician seeking the village because of its childbearing troubles, and offers a tael of silver for directions. An old man suddenly becomes attentive, draws them a map, and shares the village’s history.
• Glory Ancestors Village once had many children, but after a flood destroyed its ancestral graves three years earlier, pregnancies began ending in miscarriage or infant deaths. Villagers blame the rebuilt graves, and even families who move away seem unable to have children.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan is resourceful and humorous: when ordinary questions fail, he uses a crowd, gossip, and a reward to get information. He also pays extra to learn more about the village.
• Lu Yuanyi remains composed and protective, volunteering to accompany Shen Leyan. His intimidating strength is shown indirectly when a tiger demon panics and flees before he even acts.
• Senior Brother Zheng leaves with the medicinal herb, focused on treating his brother.
• The old man first pretends not to hear Shen Leyan, but responds eagerly when silver is offered, revealing both his opportunism and his useful family connection to the village.

Significant themes

• Superstition and misfortune: Villagers interpret the collapse of the ancestral graves as the cause of their reproductive tragedies.
• Practicality and folk belief: Despite consulting doctors, religious figures, and feng shui masters, the villagers have found no remedy.
• Humor amid danger and hardship: Shen Leyan’s comic misadventures with directions and his improvised announcement lighten the journey while introducing a serious mystery.

Summary

Shen Leyan learns that Glory Ancestors Village was once famous for having only sons and no daughters. Suspecting that the girls may have been deliberately killed rather than mysteriously disappearing, he raises the possibility that the village’s troubles are retribution. Lu Yuanyi cautions him not to decide what happened before investigating.
After following a map to the village, they find it largely deserted and neglected. Lu Yuanyi detects no demonic presence, though he notes that demons could hunt only periodically and leave no lasting trace. Shen Leyan asks a guarded, haggard villager for lodging, claiming he and Lu Yuanyi are traveling cultivators. To persuade her, he invents an ankle injury for Lu Yuanyi; Lu Yuanyi plays along with an illusion, and the woman lets them stay.
The woman warns them not to go out at night, while other villagers react to the strangers by shutting their windows. Once alone, Shen Leyan notices clues that the village’s past may not be the whole story: the woman is washing children’s clothes, despite reports that no children have survived there for three years, and the supposedly empty guest room is clean and furnished. Shen Leyan and Lu Yuanyi agree to investigate after dark.
When the village’s lights go out, Lu Yuanyi wakes Shen Leyan with a deliberately icy touch. He chooses the ancestral graves as their first destination, joking that, given his age, the buried villagers might have to call him “Great-grandfather.” Shen Leyan suspects the remark is payback for the ankle ruse.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan shows sharp observational skills and moral suspicion, but takes Lu Yuanyi’s warning seriously and agrees to investigate before reaching conclusions. He also uses quick improvisation to secure lodging.
• Lu Yuanyi remains calm and methodical, discouraging premature judgment. He humorously indulges Shen Leyan’s ruse, then teases him in return.
• Their exchanges show growing ease and playful familiarity, with Shen Leyan pulling Lu Yuanyi by the sleeve and later suspecting that Lu Yuanyi’s cold touch was intentional.

Significant themes

• Justice and consequence: The question of whether wrongdoing brings retribution frames the mystery of the missing girls.
• Evidence over assumption: Lu Yuanyi stresses that investigation must come before judgment.
• Hidden truths: The village’s silence, its strange history, and the children’s clothing suggest that its apparent emptiness conceals something.
• Humor amid suspense: The pair’s teasing provides levity as they prepare to probe the village’s unsettling past.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan and Lu Yuanyi sneak out at night under an invisibility spell. They must hold hands to keep it working, and Lu admits he is poor at spells that have no combat use.
• They spot a man climbing into a courtyard, but discover he is secretly visiting Cuihua, a widow. Their conversation reveals that villagers cannot have children and that the village feels sinister. They also mention Cloud Radiance Sect cultivators who came to treat the villagers but were driven away.
• Worried about Senior Brother Chen Jing and the others, Shen Leyan and Lu Yuanyi head for the ancestral graves to investigate.
• The graves show no sign of lingering souls or other disturbance. At the far end, however, they find a fenced-off path marked “No entry.” Curiosity draws them past the barrier, where they discover several small, windowed brick-and-stone towers.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan is considerate of the widows’ reputations, but his moral concern and curiosity lead him to investigate both the apparent intruder and the forbidden mountain path. He is also easily embarrassed by the lovers’ intimacy.
• Lu Yuanyi is composed and practical, stopping Shen from raising an alarm and quietly monitoring the couple’s conversation. His dry admission that he favors useful, combat-oriented spells lightly teases Shen.
• Their handholding for the invisibility spell creates an intimate, gently comedic dynamic. Shen trusts Lu’s judgment, while Lu patiently guides him through the investigation.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: The supposed thief is a lover, and reports that the sect’s cultivators failed may not tell the whole truth if demons are involved.
• Curiosity and forbidden knowledge: The warning sign only encourages Shen to explore farther.
• Village mystery and unease: The inability to have children, the eerie mountain, and the unexplained towers hint at a deeper threat.

Key plot points and events

• Thirty years earlier, a woman in Glory Ancestors Village gives birth to a second daughter. Her husband and father-in-law drown the infant, having already killed her first daughter for being female. The mother is powerless to stop them and later becomes known as a madwoman.
• She eventually gives birth to a son and resumes caring for her household. Years later, her son’s wife nearly dies giving birth to a daughter. The family drowns the baby too, while the woman’s son remains silent. The grandmother realizes that her own daughters were likely left in the village’s Abandoned Infant Tower.
• The daughter-in-law, locked in a woodshed after her grief is dismissed as madness, vows to get justice for her child. The grandmother secretly brings her food.
• In the present, Shen Leyan and Lu Yuanyi discover the towers and are horrified by the village’s treatment of infant girls. They remove the remains and bury them in a peaceful place in the mountains.
• Shen Leyan questions why the authorities have not punished the killers. A child’s voice suddenly answers that they cannot escape punishment, and a strand of spider silk drops from above, introducing a mysterious presence.

Character developments

• The grandmother moves from frightened, compliant witness to quiet compassion: she repeatedly fails to defy the men in power, but secretly supports her daughter-in-law and shares her grief.
• The daughter-in-law’s grief turns into a determined promise to seek justice.
• Shen Leyan’s anger becomes an impulse to honor the infants through a proper burial and to question the village’s impunity.
• Lu Yuanyi remains calm and offers reassurance, guiding Shen Leyan toward respectful action.

Significant themes

• Gender discrimination and infanticide: Girls are treated as disposable because the family values sons and lineage.
• Complicity and powerlessness: Family members and neighbors enable cruelty through silence, fear, or indifference.
• Grief and justice: The women’s suffering persists across generations, while the chapter raises the question of whether the perpetrators will face consequences.
• Dignity and remembrance: The burial offers the abandoned infants a measure of respect denied to them in life and death.

Character interactions

• The older men dominate the women through threats and violence; the son repeatedly complies, first with his father and later by allowing his daughter’s killing.
• The grandmother and daughter-in-law share a quiet bond of grief and care, with the grandmother secretly feeding her while she is confined.
• Shen Leyan expresses his outrage to Lu Yuanyi, who comforts him and agrees to help bury the remains.
• The child’s abrupt declaration of justice interrupts Shen Leyan’s question and hints at a supernatural development.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan and Lu Yuanyi encounter a Little Spider Demon in the woods. She explains that she and her siblings were once human children from Glory Ancestors Village, transformed after years of being raised on a spider demon’s energy.
• The child says her mother hunts in the village, targeting people she believes are guilty of killing. Shen gives her remains from the Abandoned Infant Tower and asks her to bury them.
• Returning to Glory Ancestors Village, the pair find it enclosed in a vast web. The Spider Demon is draining the life from the woman who had once sheltered them.
• The woman admits she feels responsible for the deaths of three children, but asks whether the Spider Demon’s adopted children are well. Lu explains that prolonged exposure to demonic energy will eventually destroy their human minds.
• The Spider Demon claims her victims are killers and says she spared the cultivators who confronted her half a month earlier. Shen tries to reason with her, but she attacks; Lu defeats and binds her.
• The Spider Demon confirms that Chen Jing and the other cultivators were only lightly injured and were released. However, the woman reveals that those cultivators later returned, promised to escort the villagers to safety, and then vanished. The villagers waited at the entrance, but no one saw them leave or found tracks.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan shows compassion toward both the Little Spider Demon and the village’s dead, despite his fear of bugs. He is willing to intervene, but recognizes that justice requires strength as well as good intentions.
• Lu Yuanyi remains composed and decisive, stepping in to defeat the Spider Demon when talking fails.
• The Little Spider Demon is playful and childlike, unaware of the danger surrounding her family. She willingly agrees to bury the remains.
• The Spider Demon is fierce and protective of her children, but sees herself as punishing people guilty of murder. Her account suggests she spared the earlier cultivators rather than killing them.
• The village woman faces death without protest and expresses remorse over the children’s deaths. Her concern for the Spider Demon’s adopted children complicates the question of her guilt.

Significant themes

• Justice versus revenge: The Spider Demon punishes alleged killers, but her private judgment and lethal methods raise questions about whether she is delivering justice or vengeance.
• Guilt and responsibility: The woman’s remorse, the villagers’ past crimes, and the children’s fate all blur the line between culpability and suffering.
• Compassion amid horror: Shen’s care for the dead and the Spider Demon’s children contrasts with the violence surrounding the village.
• Power and moral action: Shen recognizes that good intentions are not enough; a person must have the strength to protect others.
• Uncertainty and disappearance: The cultivators’ unexplained vanishing introduces a new mystery and raises doubts about what happened after they returned to the village.

Character interactions

• Shen and the Little Spider Demon move from an awkward, comic encounter to a trusting exchange when he asks her to bury the remains.
• Lu explains the children’s transformation to Shen and later protects him by subduing the Spider Demon.
• Shen attempts to reason with the Spider Demon, but their confrontation turns physical when she attacks.
• The Spider Demon and the village woman share a tense, revealing exchange: the woman asks after the children, while the Spider Demon condemns her for her role in their deaths.
• The woman’s final account shifts Shen’s attention from the Spider Demon to the missing cultivators, setting up the next mystery.

Chapter Summary: “A Flawless Performance”

Key plot points and events

• The spider demon explains that its aura made some village infants appear stillborn; it secretly took them from the Abandoned Infant Tower and raised them. It had come to the village to hunt people guilty of murder.
• Three years earlier, after losing its child and being gravely injured, the demon accepted a young woman’s body as a host. In return, it promised to avenge her and care for the village’s abandoned children.
• Shen Leyan and Lu Yuanyi release the demon. Lu warns that the children’s years of exposure to demonic aura may shorten their lives and advises finding them good homes. The demon also asks whether the children can regain human forms, but Lu leaves the question unanswered.
• Lu departs with the demon, giving Shen a Voice Transmission Talisman. Shen stays behind to investigate the disappearance of Senior Brother Chen Jing and other cultivators.
• A dying villager reveals where the missing cultivators had stayed, then dies. Shen suspects the disappearances were not the spider demon’s doing and stages a convincing attack, pretending to be a frightened traveler chased by it.
• He uses the villagers’ fear—and their greed—to persuade them to gather at one house. There, he pretends to be an innocent, wealthy young cultivator and drinks drugged chicken soup.
• The villagers reveal that they have been drugging and imprisoning cultivators, then carry Shen to a hidden cellar beneath a dry well. Shen secretly expels the soup, turns their Softening Powder back on them, and forces one villager to help him get the antidote.
• Disguised in the villager’s robes, Shen returns to the cellar and finds Chen Jing and the other disciples bound, filthy, and apparently unconscious. He gives Chen the antidote and begins channeling spiritual energy into him.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan shows compassion toward the spider demon’s adopted children and the dying woman, but remains clear-eyed about the village’s crimes. His improvised disguise and counter-trap reveal a clever, controlled, and resourceful side.
• Lu Yuanyi is calm and protective: he leaves Shen a way to call for help, though he also trusts him to investigate alone.
• The spider demon is revealed as more than a predator. Its actions include taking human victims, but it also cares for abandoned children and honors the bargain made with its former host.
• The silver-haired woman dies after a life of grief and helplessness, having lost her daughters and granddaughter to the village’s customs.
• The villagers shift from fear and false hospitality to exposed greed and cruelty, targeting the very cultivator who offered them help.

Significant themes

• Human cruelty versus demonic nature: The chapter contrasts the demon’s complicated motives with the villagers’ deliberate exploitation and violence.
• Appearance and performance: Shen survives by acting helpless and naïve, while the villagers’ friendly behavior conceals criminal intent.
• Abandonment and responsibility: The demon’s care for discarded children stands against the village’s lethal customs.
• Compassion amid injustice: Shen acknowledges the woman’s suffering and seeks to protect the children, even while pursuing the missing cultivators.
• Trust and vulnerability: The chapter shows how hospitality can be weaponized, and how appearances can make both victims and rescuers easy to misjudge.

Character interactions

• Shen and Lu discuss the spider demon’s bargain and the children’s uncertain future; Lu gives Shen a talisman before departing.
• Shen listens to the dying woman’s account of the missing cultivators’ lodging and remains with her until she dies.
• Shen manipulates the villagers’ fear and greed, accepting their hospitality while quietly testing their intentions.
• After the villagers drug and imprison him, Shen intimidates one captor into securing the antidote.
• In the cellar, Shen turns from escape to rescue, prioritizing Chen Jing and beginning to revive him.

Key plot points and events

• After rescuing Chen Jing and the other Cloud Radiance Sect disciples from the dry well, Shen Leyan finds his Spiritual Power nearly depleted. The poisoned villagers, convinced the cultivators cannot break their childlessness curse, pour liquor into the well and set it alight.
• Chen Jing draws on a forbidden method, destroying his spiritual root to summon enough Spiritual Power to raise a barrier and protect everyone from the flames. The black markings spreading across his body reveal the severe cost.
• Lu Yuanyi arrives only after getting lost and asking the Spider Demon for directions. The villagers involved in the poisoning and arson are arrested; the innocent villagers had already been spared by the Spider Demon.
• Lu Yuanyi diagnoses Chen Jing’s injuries: his life is safe for now, but his spiritual root and meridians are badly damaged. He preserves Chen Jing in an ice coffin, which can hold the black corruption at bay, and says the Cloud Radiance Sect has Fire-Yang Divine Wood that may help repair his meridians.
• The ordeal changes Shen Leyan’s priorities. He declares that he wants to cultivate—not simply to escape danger, but to protect the people close to him. He and Lu Yuanyi set out for the sect, carrying Chen Jing in the ice coffin.
• On the journey, Shen asks when the sect will accept disciples and whether anyone can teach wind techniques. Lu says recruitment is in October and hints that elders might take up wind cultivation if a promising wind-rooted disciple appeared.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan moves from wanting a quiet, safe life to embracing cultivation as a way to defend others. His worry for Chen Jing also exposes his doubts about his own abilities, but he resolves to train harder.
• Chen Jing demonstrates the courage behind his modest outlook: despite being dismissed for his mixed spiritual root, he believes saving even one person matters. He sacrifices his cultivation to shield Shen and the others, while joking to reassure them.
• Lu Yuanyi remains cool and dryly humorous, but acts decisively to stabilize Chen Jing and comforts Shen by explaining that the sect already has the needed wood. His teasing also hints that Shen may attract a future wind-technique mentor.
• Shen and Chen share affectionate banter in the well, even as Chen’s condition worsens. Shen and Lu trade jokes and negotiate their travel arrangements, while Lu quietly supports Shen’s new resolve.

Significant themes

• Cultivation as protection and service: Chen’s belief that saving one person matters becomes the model for Shen’s new ambition.
• Sacrifice and its consequences: Chen’s heroic act saves the group but leaves his future cultivation uncertain.
• Justice and accountability: Shen refuses to plead for villagers who knowingly poisoned and nearly burned the cultivators, distinguishing them from those without blood guilt.
• Growth through danger: Shen’s experience transforms fear and helplessness into a purposeful desire to become stronger.

Key plot points and events

• News spreads that an Outer Sect disciple with a rare wind spiritual root will seek a master at the Cloud Radiance Sect’s upcoming Apprenticeship Ceremony. The elders pretend not to be interested while privately scheming to claim him—and some even consider changing their cultivation arts.
• Lu Yuanyi brings Shen Leyan to Cicada Song Pavilion, where the strange, sentient plants include a man-eating flower that bites Shen’s hand, then rejects him as “disgusting.”
• Lu explains that Senior Brother Zheng Ziheng is still in the capital, handling family matters after obtaining a medicinal herb for his younger brother.
• At Hundred Herbs Pavilion, Lu retrieves fire-yang divine wood to repair Chen Jing’s meridians. He gives Shen a token that grants access to Cicada Song Pavilion, bypasses its formations, and helps steady the mind.
• Lu stays behind to treat Chen Jing and sends Shen to the restaurant on the Jiangxue Sword. Hungry after the long journey, Shen enjoys the familiar, lively sights of the sect and realizes how much he missed it.
• Shen reunites with Qingli, who is relieved he and Chen Jing survived their travels. He tells her briefly about the journey, including Lu’s poor sense of direction.
• At the crowded restaurant, Shen and Qingli eat in the kitchen. Qingli explains that visitors are arriving for the five-year disciple recruitment assembly, including the crown prince and children of prominent families.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan feels increasingly indebted to Lu, Zheng, and the sect, and resolves that cultivating and helping the Cloud Radiance Sect prosper may be the best way to repay them. His return home also reveals a new appreciation for the sect’s everyday warmth.
• Lu Yuanyi continues to care for Chen Jing and quietly supports Shen by giving him the pavilion token and arranging food and rest. Their exchange remains lightly teasing, with Shen’s practical daydreams about Lu’s ice-aligned powers contrasting with Lu’s calm manner.
• Qingli and Shen reunite with affectionate familiarity. Qingli’s concern quickly gives way to disappointment that Lu was not defeated by a stronger opponent.
• The elders outwardly deny wanting the wind-root disciple while competing for him in secret, creating comic rivalry.

Significant themes

• Belonging and home: Distance makes Shen recognize the sect’s ordinary bustle as a source of comfort.
• Gratitude and reciprocity: Shen reflects on the growing support he has received and how he might repay it.
• Sect life’s humor and eccentricity: Unusual plants, the elders’ scheming, and Shen’s practical thoughts provide comedy amid cultivation and healing.
• Change and anticipation: The approaching recruitment assembly brings outsiders, influential visitors, and the promise of new competition to the sect.

Key plot points and events

• After returning from the Southwestern Territory, Shen Leyan sends Sect Master Lu a new dish, Mala Xiangguo, and says he plans to visit Senior Brother Chen Jing at the Cicada Song Pavilion.
• Qingli explains how the Cloud Radiance Sect’s recruitment assembly works: candidates have their spiritual roots tested, then fight in matches while sect leaders choose disciples based on talent, character, or other preferences. Shen learns that the sect’s elders are competing to master wind techniques because they expect a candidate with a wind spiritual root—himself—to attend. He is frustrated that he cannot change his own spiritual root to make finding a suitable master easier.
• Returning to his quarters, Shen finds them occupied by Great Xia’s Crown Prince and filled with luxury goods. A guard initially bars him from entering, but Shen presents his Cicada Song Pavilion token, and the guard respectfully seeks the prince’s permission.
• The Crown Prince offers Shen a hundred-tael banknote as compensation for his belongings. Shen witnesses the prince threaten a servant with mutilation over an accidental brush of a fan. When Shen points out that bloodshed would be inauspicious before the upcoming ceremony, the prince relents, though he sends the servant to wash chamber pots.
• Shen leaves with the compensation, pleased by the unexpected profit and eager to avoid further trouble.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen is increasingly serious about cultivation, though he remains practical, humorous, and reluctant to explain his changing outlook. His wind spiritual root makes him a sought-after potential disciple, but he worries about finding the right mentor.
• Qingli is observant and considerate: they notice Shen’s changed attitude but accept his wish not to explain it, and they give him useful information about the recruitment process.
• Shen handles the guard’s hostility calmly, asserting his right to retrieve his possessions without escalating matters. His token changes the guard’s attitude immediately.
• The Crown Prince appears charming and indulgent, but his sudden cruelty toward the servant reveals the dangerous temper behind his polished appearance. Shen’s tactful reminder successfully moderates his punishment.

Significant themes

• Power and status: The guard dismisses Shen as an ordinary Outer Sect disciple until seeing his connection to the Cicada Song Pavilion; the prince’s authority likewise shapes everyone’s behavior.
• Cultivation and merit: Recruitment combines combat with subjective judgments about talent, character, and status, so victory alone does not determine a disciple’s prospects.
• Appearance versus reality: The prince’s beauty and leisurely manner conceal his brutality, while Shen’s comic, unassuming demeanor coexists with growing ambition.
• Pragmatism and restraint: Shen repeatedly chooses diplomacy and personal safety over confrontation, while still speaking up when he can prevent needless harm.

Key events

• Ji Lianyi, the crown prince, orders his attendants to investigate Shen Leyan after learning he carries a Cicada Song Pavilion Token and has unusually pure spiritual power.
• Shen Leyan settles into his new quarters, then climbs toward the pavilion carrying food for Chen Jing and Lu Yuanyi. On the way, he sells curious visitors on buying the sect’s free newspapers by claiming they contain valuable gossip about the elders.
• A group of aspiring disciples tests the pavilion’s protective formation. It publicly spanks one boy who approaches without permission, but Shen Leyan uses his token to let several promising visitors take a brief look inside—after making them promise not to cause trouble.
• Once inside, Shen Leyan finds Lu Yuanyi fishing beside the pond. A golden koi escapes his apparent dinner plans, and Lu Yuanyi tells Shen Leyan to compensate him for the fish.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan remains practical, opportunistic, and comically self-interested, but also shows concern for the sect’s future by helping talented visitors rather than letting them leave. His long climb reminds him that he needs to learn sword flight.
• Ji Lianyi becomes suspicious of Shen Leyan’s token and abilities, setting up possible scrutiny.
• The visiting youths see Shen Leyan as an unusually influential senior brother and eagerly crowd around him, imagining he might be connected to the sect master.
• Lu Yuanyi appears serene while fishing, but his complaint about the missing fish suggests he may hold Shen Leyan responsible for what happened.

Significant themes

• The chapter contrasts the visitors’ grand ambitions and heroic self-images with the comic reality of the pavilion’s brutal security.
• Shen Leyan’s humor, entrepreneurial instincts, and practical kindness coexist: he exploits the tourists a little, yet ultimately helps keep promising disciples within reach of the sect.
• The pavilion’s formation—and its inhabitants—reinforce the blend of danger and whimsy that defines this setting.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan questions Lu Yuanyi about the pond fish and discovers the Sect Master has never caught one—yet had made him pay for them. Their exchange establishes their teasing, wary rapport.
• Lu explains that he used fire-yang divine wood to rebuild Chen Jing’s meridians. Chen is enduring severe pain, but Lu believes his strong spirit may allow his cultivation to recover and even improve.
• While staying in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, Shen meditates and senses that he is nearing a breakthrough in Qi Refining. Chen wakes, jokingly complains that Shen hid his spiritual root, then tries to visit the Cicada Song Pavilion despite his injuries. The pain makes him faint again.
• Shen leaves Chen in Lu’s care and discovers Lu’s alchemy furnace automatically producing a sackful of oddly varied Pills, contrary to the grand reputation of Lu’s painstaking pill-making.
• Lu lends Shen the Jiangxue Sword to leave. A crowd of admirers waiting outside mistakes Shen for a senior brother and overwhelms him with attention; the sword rushes him down the mountain.
• Back at his restaurant, Shen eats Luosifen, which leaves the sword miserable from the smell. He then considers going to the Law Enforcement Hall to request a barrier and “No Entry” sign for the pavilion, but fears encountering the crowd.
• Instead, Shen visits Luoxiang Hall to buy stealth clothing. After a comic misunderstanding with the stallholder, he bargains the price down—though the seller’s quick agreement makes him suspect he could have negotiated harder.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan is becoming more committed to cultivation: he meditates diligently, approaches a breakthrough, and recognizes he needs strength to help others rather than always relying on Lu. He remains cautious and practical, especially about avoiding unwanted attention.
• Chen Jing wakes with his humor and affection intact, teasing Shen about his secret spiritual root. Though seriously weakened and in pain, he is eager and curious enough to want to tour Lu’s pavilion.
• Lu Yuanyi shows care by treating Chen and arranging safe transport for Shen, while maintaining his cool, teasing manner. His suspiciously convenient explanations—and possible interest in a wind-arts manual—leave Shen questioning him.
• The Jiangxue Sword appears increasingly independent and dutiful, but reacts dramatically to the smell of Luosifen.

Significant themes

• Persistence and growth: Meditation and steady practice underpin Shen’s emerging cultivation.
• Care and dependence: Shen’s wish to protect others motivates his training, while Lu’s help remains important.
• Comedy through contrast: Mystical cultivation is undercut by mundane details such as dubious bargaining, automated pill-making, and smelly food.
• Fame and personal boundaries: Shen’s unexpected popularity becomes a nuisance, prompting him to seek ways to avoid the crowd.

Character interactions

• Shen and Lu trade playful accusations and dry remarks, but Lu also provides practical support.
• Shen reassures Chen about his recovery and restrains him from attempting a dangerous outing; Chen responds with affectionate teasing.
• The crowd’s intense admiration contrasts with Shen’s discomfort and desire to escape.
• Shen’s encounter with the stallholder turns from suspicion and accusation into haggling, with both trying to outmaneuver the other.