Chapter Summaries

Plot points

• Ning Xinping dies, and the black-and-white rabbits devour one another before the white rabbit bursts apart. From the remains, Mu Suli emerges in a young man’s form, revealing himself as the terrifying entity Li Fuchan recognizes as an evil spirit.
• Mu Suli explains that he drained the Belly Buddha Land and used it to form a Porcelain Tower, hoping to trap Huici. Huici appears and suppresses Li Fuchan’s lightning, asking him to wait.
• Mu Suli accuses Huici of ruining his cultivation and preventing him from achieving a particular dharma aspect. Huici argues that this outcome was determined by larger forces: the North needs a Wisdom King, while the South needs a path opened between regions.
• Huici recounts his life: born mute, he gave up his parents’ carefully prepared inheritance to buy a Buddhist scripture, through which he learned to speak and eventually gained cultivation. Though he saved many people, he came to believe his life had been an illusion and that he was an “evil body.”
• Huici asks Mu Suli to release the souls swallowed by the good body. Mu Suli complies, and Huici sends the souls into reincarnation, despite their anger at being returned from the Buddha land.
• Before departing, Huici asks Li Fuchan to visit the Porcelain Womb Blessed Land every thirty years, protect its mortal inhabitants, and destroy any evil within it. He then disappears as gardenias bloom.
• Mu Suli recognizes the gardenia’s significance, foresees that the Porcelain Womb will matter to his future path, and turns north to attain the Dao. Elsewhere, Mu Liang’er notices the same unexplained gardenia fragrance.

Character developments and interactions

• Huici reveals himself as the “evil body,” challenging Li Fuchan’s assumptions about good and evil. Though he describes himself as detached from suffering, he acts to safeguard mortals and restore swallowed souls to reincarnation. His final request makes Li Fuchan responsible for protecting the Porcelain Womb.
• Mu Suli shifts from anger and blame to acceptance of Huici’s explanation. He releases the souls, then resumes his pursuit of Dao attainment.
• Li Fuchan realizes that outward appearances do not define Buddhist good and evil. He accepts Huici’s request and receives a warning to think carefully before changing his cultivation lineage.
• Huici and Mu Suli speak as counterparts whose bodies and paths are shaped by competing needs; Huici’s calm compassion contrasts with Mu Suli’s initially forceful resentment.

Significant themes

• Good and evil are not simple moral labels: Huici is called the evil body yet acts compassionately, while Buddhist doctrine’s “good” can involve swallowing people into apparent paradise.
• Individual choice versus larger forces: Huici and Mu Suli’s destinies are constrained by what Northern Buddhism and the southern immortal path require.
• Compassion and the costs of salvation: Huici returns souls from bliss to the painful cycle of reincarnation because he believes his form of goodness must let them choose and live their own lives.
• Mortals’ value and protection: In a world where powerful beings often disregard ordinary people, Huici’s concern for them sets him apart.

Chapter Summary

After Mu Suli announces that he has attained the Great Compassionate Wisdom King Rank and will establish a sanctuary in You Province, Li Fuchan reflects on surviving the upheaval at the Porcelain Womb Blessed Land. With Ning Xinping the only person he lost, he feels fortunate—but knows the site will soon attract many cultivators, so he must leave quickly. He abandons Huici’s task and expects that, once the simulation ends, he can escape Huici’s influence altogether.
Li remains puzzled by Huici’s warning that he should think carefully before changing cultivation lineages. His desire to switch paths was private, and he cannot tell whether Huici’s advice came from hidden motives or genuine kindness. After a succession of dangerous encounters and schemes, Li feels exhausted by a world where even a Wisdom King’s ascent may be subject to higher powers’ plans.
Remembering Fengci’s earlier words, Li changes course and goes to Wangci Mountain. The barren, iron-dark peak is surrounded by oppressive silence. Fengci appears behind him and explains that he has sealed the mountain with barriers, preventing Li from climbing it. Instead, he invites Li to sit for tea.
As Fengci serves Green Letter Tea, Li recognizes the distinctive bamboo used for the tea set and suspects Fengci has ties to the South of the Yangtze. Fengci says he has inspected the Porcelain Womb Blessed Land and warns Li not to approach it: it is impressive, but now attracts too much attention. He also praises Li’s rare accomplishments as a Thunder cultivator.
Li considers why he may abandon the Li Thunder lineage: its obligation to kill demons and evil beings could constrain him, and its available cultivation methods seem exhausted. By contrast, he has already obtained the Wandering Gold cultivation formula and a powerful spiritual treasure, and his battle with Flying Light gave him useful insights into that path.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Li Fuchan is relieved to have survived, but increasingly weary and distrustful of the schemes surrounding him. He is resolved to distance himself from Huici and seriously weighs changing cultivation lineages.
• Huici remains absent but influential: his warning about Li’s private plans leaves Li questioning his motives.
• Fengci acts as a guide and host, cautioning Li about the Blessed Land and recognizing his unusual cultivation achievements. Their cordial tea conversation also hints at Fengci’s background.
• Mu Suli’s attainment of the Wisdom King rank marks the event that draws the wider world’s attention to the Blessed Land.

Significant Themes

• Power and helplessness: Li’s survival amid world-shaping events makes him aware of how little control an ordinary cultivator may have.
• Trust and hidden motives: Huici’s unexpected advice leaves Li unable to distinguish kindness from strategy.
• Freedom versus obligation: Li weighs the restrictions of the Thunder lineage against the opportunities offered by Wandering Gold.
• The cost of ambition: Even momentous spiritual advancement appears entangled with the plans of powerful beings.

Plot and events

• Fengci explains why “Li Thunder” is regarded as a mark of good character: its cultivators are meant to destroy evil and protect the world. He directs Li Fuchan to Welcome Ying Isle, where the thunder tradition is well preserved, but warns that its leaders may never let him leave.
• Fengci recounts how a Li Thunder cultivator, Liang Shuping’s second son, was swallowed by a flood dragon after a failed three-bolt challenge. His grandfather rescued him, but the incident led Welcome Ying Isle to forbid its Li Thunder disciples from traveling abroad.
• Li Fuchan considers the isle as a place to study and cultivate, but realizes he could be confined there and pressed into helping organize the lineage’s knowledge. He keeps it as a possibility rather than committing.
• Li Fuchan says he plans to keep traveling in the Southern Border, though he privately intends to cultivate near Wangci Mountain under Fengci’s protection, then return south and quietly switch to “Wandering Gold.”
• Fengci instead recommends that he return south, join a sect or aristocratic clan, and participate in the Northern Lands’ campaign to reclaim the south. He explains that Buddhist teachings identify five kinds of hostile beings—called Ming Beasts by immortal cultivators—and that hunting them can greatly advance a cultivator’s attainment. The campaign’s preparations will take at least thirty years.
• Li Fuchan recognizes the opportunity to strengthen his Li Thunder cultivation, but the prospect troubles him because his real goal is Wandering Gold. The chapter ends as his expression darkens.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Fuchan presents himself with unusual humility and courtesy, earning Fengci’s respect. He weighs the benefits of learning from Welcome Ying Isle against the loss of freedom, while keeping his long-term cultivation plans private.
• Fengci acts as a knowledgeable and candid adviser. He shares ancient lore, warns Li Fuchan about the isle’s restrictions, and proposes the southern campaign as a safer opportunity for advancement.
• Their exchange is respectful and trusting: Li Fuchan seeks Fengci’s guidance, while Fengci treats him as an unusually capable thunder cultivator.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Li Thunder is associated with destroying evil, and its practitioners are expected to act accordingly.
• Freedom versus opportunity: Welcome Ying Isle offers valuable instruction but may imprison Li Fuchan in its expectations.
• Cultivation through conflict: Hunting Ming Beasts offers major rewards, tying spiritual advancement to violence and service.
• Hidden intentions and competing paths: Li Fuchan’s public plans differ from his private desire to abandon Li Thunder for Wandering Gold.

Key plot points and events

• Li Fuchan rejects the idea of joining an Immortal Sect, aristocratic clan, or the Immortal Kingdom’s bureaucracy. Recent events have shown him how easily outsiders can be mistrusted, used, or killed.
• He tries to stay at Wangci Mountain and offers to serve Fengci, even proposing to build a hut at the mountain’s foot. Fengci refuses, eventually ordering him to leave.
• Fengci recognizes Li Fuchan’s keen instincts and worries that keeping him nearby would pull him into dangerous entanglements. He returns to the mountain and hides until Li Fuchan leaves the Southern Border.
• In a cave, Li Fuchan examines the rare “whorl-circuit golden essence,” a material suited to the “Wandering Gold” cultivation path. He realizes his recent urge to abandon his current path for Wandering Gold is unnatural and inconsistent with his usual plans.
• Connecting Gu Liuru’s teachings and book of Wandering Gold deductions with Huici’s warning, Li Fuchan concludes that someone has been secretly steering him toward that cultivation path.
• Believing the influence comes from a power at least as great as a purple mansion Wisdom King, he chooses confrontation over retreat. He readies “Light-Deceiving” and threatens to destroy the precious spirit material, then addresses the unseen manipulator: “I want to speak with you.”

Character development and interactions

• Li Fuchan proves cautious and perceptive, but also shamelessly persistent when he sees a possible advantage. Once he recognizes that his choices may have been manipulated, his usual pragmatism turns to defiance.
• Fengci is wary of Li Fuchan and tries to send him away without openly revealing too much. He respects Li’s insight but fears becoming entangled in the forces influencing him.
• Huici indirectly helps Li interpret the situation through an earlier warning.
• Gu Liuru becomes suspicious in retrospect: his unusually persuasive praise and detailed guidance on Wandering Gold may have served as a channel for someone else’s influence.

Significant themes

• Agency and manipulation: Li Fuchan must determine whether his ambitions are truly his own.
• Power and vulnerability: Cultivators without powerful backing risk exploitation, while even a capable cultivator may be helpless against higher powers.
• Caution versus defiance: Li considers escape and starting over, but ultimately chooses to confront the unseen force.
• Trust and secrecy: Fengci, Huici, and Gu Liuru each reveal—or conceal—information that shapes Li’s choices.

Chapter summary

Key plot points

• Li Fuchan confronts the unseen presence behind A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales, demanding it speak openly.
• To test the presence’s limits, he destroys the precious whorl-circuit golden essence and repeatedly attempts to kill himself. Each time, the book intervenes with white light, preserving him while producing an ink portrait that records the moment of his apparent death.
• Li Fuchan concludes that the presence needs him and cannot fully control him. After a long standoff, it agrees to talk.
• The presence admits it had been secretly steering him toward cultivating wandering gold so he could help refine a divine ability. It proposes a partnership: Li Fuchan will use his Li Thunder imagery to restrain the gold-gathering current, while the presence helps him cultivate Li Thunder and nurture people whose destiny Li Fuchan can refine into talisman registers.
• The presence has no name, body, or aspect, and says Li Fuchan may give it a name. When it suggests taking two of the talisman registers, Li Fuchan pointedly asks whether it also wants his method and body. The exchange turns awkward, and he abruptly tries to kill himself again. The book saves him once more, while he accuses the presence of having audaciously overstepped.

Character development

• Li Fuchan shows that fearlessness is his main leverage against powerful beings. He is suspicious, calculating, and willing to risk death to discover what the book can—and cannot—do. He also negotiates from a position of guarded strength rather than accepting the proposed partnership at face value.
• The presence in the book is revealed as a powerful but constrained entity. It lacks its former name, body, and aspect, carries immense karmic debt, and needs Li Fuchan’s help to escape. Its repeated attempts to guide him covertly give way to a more open, if still self-interested, proposal.

Significant themes

• Power through fearlessness: Li Fuchan’s willingness to die lets him challenge a far stronger being and expose its dependence on him.
• Trust, coercion, and negotiation: The proposed cooperation is shaped by hidden manipulation and unequal power, so Li Fuchan tests the entity’s limits before considering its offer.
• Names and identity: The entity’s lost name and invitation for Li Fuchan to provide one underscore the importance of names and the entity’s diminished state.
• Destiny as a resource: The plan to cultivate destiny-bearers and refine their destiny into talisman registers frames fate as something that can be harnessed and traded.

Character interactions

The chapter centers on the tense, darkly comic negotiation between Li Fuchan and the book-bound presence. The entity tries to present cooperation as mutually beneficial; Li Fuchan counters with pointed questions and repeated suicide tests, keeping the power balance uncertain. Neither fully trusts the other, and the chapter ends with their partnership unresolved.

Key plot points

• Li Fuchan refuses Three Nothing’s demands but agrees to negotiate, recognizing that his ability to take his own life gives him leverage.
• Three Nothing explains why he wants Li Fuchan to cultivate Wandering Gold: Li Thunder can “nail” a difficult Dao Fruit into place, making it much faster to cultivate and refine into a divine ability. Three Nothing hopes to use Li Fuchan’s Li Thunder to anchor the Gold-Gathering Current and escape the book imprisoning him.
• Three Nothing reveals that Liang Shuping’s second son was likely lured into danger so his Li Thunder Dao Attainment would be broken, preventing him from helping a Purple Mansion cultivator refine a divine ability.
• He warns that Li Fuchan’s unusual connection to Li Thunder could attract the attention of powerful Purple Mansion Lords. Three Nothing claims he has concealed Li Fuchan from them.
• Li Fuchan asks how to protect himself from being secretly influenced by powerful cultivators. Three Nothing explains the Hundred-Scene Profound Immortal Way, including Outer Scenery, the Nature Root and Fate Root, and their union into a Dao Fruit.

Character developments

• Li Fuchan becomes more calculating: he sees that Three Nothing needs him and resolves to exploit that dependence, while remaining wary of the elder’s claims and motives.
• Three Nothing reveals both his practical goal—escaping confinement—and his ability to affect events beyond the book. His professed protection of Li Fuchan remains suspect.

Significant themes

• Leverage and trust: Li Fuchan must negotiate with a powerful but untrustworthy ally, balancing danger against opportunity.
• Power as a resource: Li Thunder’s rare ability to anchor Dao Fruits makes Li Fuchan valuable—and vulnerable to exploitation.
• Hidden influence and manipulation: The account of Liang Shuping’s son and Three Nothing’s warning show how cultivators may be covertly obstructed or targeted.
• Cultivation as alignment: The explanation of the Nature-and-Fate Root presents advancement as harmonizing one’s nature, destiny, and the qualities of heaven and earth.

Character interactions

• Li Fuchan challenges Three Nothing’s demands and questions his motives, but keeps his suspicions largely to himself.
• Three Nothing bargains by sharing secret knowledge, using Liang Shuping’s son as evidence for his explanation of Li Thunder.
• Li Fuchan respectfully asks for instruction on resisting influence, while privately treating Three Nothing’s dependence on him as bargaining power.

Key plot points and events

• Sanwu explains that cultivators who “supplement” their nature and life use treasures—or another being’s influence—to fill gaps in their incomplete selves. This can subtly steer their choices. Li Fuchan realizes this explains how Huici found him and how events after his escape from Black Mountain seemed guided.
• Sanwu offers to occupy Li’s gaps himself. Li refuses, suspecting Sanwu wants to control his thoughts, and threatens suicide with Light-Deceiving.
• Sanwu saves Li from the first attempt using three pages of A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales, but warns that the protection has limits. Li threatens to try again; Sanwu gives in and offers another solution.
• Sanwu advises Li to refine his Destiny into Talisman Register qi, which should protect him from outside influence and may even help him evade a Purple Mansion lord’s life-fishing ability.
• Li agrees to give Sanwu a Talisman Register after reaching Inner Vision, but only after the two swear a detailed spiritual oath. Their agreement centers on Li helping Sanwu pin down the Gold-Gathering Current.
• Li asks whether Fengci and Huici have recognized Sanwu. Sanwu says they have not identified him, though Huici sensed someone was influencing Li. Sanwu also reveals that Huici deliberately placed a white flower on Li’s shoulder to occupy one of his gaps and shield him from Sanwu’s influence.

Character developments

• Li Fuchan becomes more aware of how others have been shaping his choices. He remains wary and pragmatic, using threats and negotiation to extract protection and information rather than trusting Sanwu.
• Sanwu is revealed as manipulative but not all-powerful: he wants a Talisman Register and needs Li’s help, yet must bargain and make binding promises. He ultimately retreats when Li’s threat proves genuine.
• Huici emerges as a quiet counterforce to Sanwu. His earlier actions were protective, though Li had not understood their purpose.

Significant themes

• Influence and autonomy: Filling another person’s “gaps” can guide their behavior without their awareness; self-cultivation offers a route to independence.
• Power and leverage: The balance between Li and Sanwu shifts through mutual dependence, threats, and a binding oath.
• Trust and uncertainty: Li must cooperate with a dangerous being while limiting the risks, and he remains alert to hidden motives and observers.
• Self-preservation and resolve: Sanwu assumes Li’s suicide threats are bluffs, but Li’s willingness to follow through forces Sanwu to take him seriously.

Character interactions

• Li and Sanwu clash over control: Sanwu proposes occupying Li’s gaps, while Li rejects the offer and threatens to kill himself rather than submit.
• They move from confrontation to negotiation, agreeing on a future Talisman Register and sealing the bargain with a spiritual oath.
• Sanwu clarifies that Huici and Fengci do not know his identity, while revealing that Huici’s flower was intended to block Sanwu’s influence over Li.

Plot points and events

• Three Nothing advises Li Fuchan to delay changing his cultivation path and first perfect his “lightning-struck wood” yang aspect. He urges him to travel north, where unrest involving a Great Compassionate Venerable Wisdom King and the Southern Chu Remnant Zhu could offer rare opportunities.
• Though the Northern Lands remind Li of his dangerous past, he decides to go. Three Nothing suggests asking Fengci of Wangci Mountain for travel money, citing Fengci’s bond with Thunder Cultivators. Li refuses to exploit him, preferring not to “drain the marsh to catch its fish.”
• Li seals and wards the book containing Three Nothing’s writing, still wary despite their spiritual oath. Before leaving, he bids farewell to Wangci Mountain and loudly promises to visit Fengci again, keeping open the possibility of future refuge. He then departs in a burst of golden thunder.
• The chapter shifts to Ning Xiu Cong beneath Filth Mountain. Azure Fish Peak has ordered him to return to the sect as soon as his senior sister finishes surveying the Porcelain Womb Blessed Land. While he waits, rain washes human bones from the earth, revealing their faint green color. Ning reflects on the thunder and wonders whether even heaven mourns the world.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Fuchan shows resolve by choosing to face the Northern Lands despite his fear, but also caution: he hides his magical ring, keeps Three Nothing’s book tightly sealed, and avoids exploiting Fengci. His farewell to Fengci is both courteous and strategically minded.
• Three Nothing acts as Li’s adviser, using his knowledge to direct Li toward opportunity and suggest how he might obtain resources. Their relationship remains uneasy: Li accepts his counsel but does not fully trust him.
• Fengci remains distant and wants Li gone, while Li’s promise to return attempts to preserve their connection.
• Ning Xiu Cong waits quietly for his forced departure to Azure Fish Peak. His memories of his brothers and the old servant underline family ties, rivalry, and differing temperaments.

Significant themes

• Survival and forward motion: Li believes hesitation can mean death; victory lies in continuing onward, not looking back.
• Trust and self-protection: Li cooperates with Three Nothing while keeping safeguards in place.
• Restraint versus opportunism: Li declines to take advantage of Fengci, valuing a lasting relationship over immediate gain.
• Grief and a wounded world: The rain, exposed bones, and Ning’s final question evoke a landscape marked by death and suffering, with thunder suggesting possible mourning.

Plot and events

• After three months of travel, Li Fuchan returns to the foot of Black Mountain. In this version of events, he has not intervened: Xu Xuan discovered the mountain was deserted, and his father, Xu Sansheng, died without recognizing his son’s ambitions.
• Without his father’s final confrontation to relieve his resentment, Xu Xuan has become increasingly bitter and calculating. As household head, he worries that Xu Sansheng’s ancestral instructions could allow other branches of the family to challenge his authority as he ages.
• Xu Wen, who has cultivation aptitude, has entered seclusion. Xu Xuan feels threatened by Wen’s potential and by the distance between a cultivator and a mortal.
• Xu Wen’s maternal uncle, Li Qingshui, visits and proposes a marriage for Wen, ostensibly to preserve the family line. Xu Xuan suspects Li also hopes to gain influence over the Xu household through Wen.
• That night, Xu Xuan secretly goes to Black Mountain, lamenting that his hopes of gaining immortality have repeatedly been denied. A mysterious voice suddenly speaks to him. Convinced the mountain is offering him an art he can practice despite lacking aptitude, Xu Xuan kneels and accepts it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Xuan is capable and outwardly composed, but his fear of losing power and resentment at being unable to cultivate have grown into bitterness and desperation. His encounter with Black Mountain transforms despair into ecstatic hope.
• Xu Wen remains in seclusion, but his cultivation potential makes him a perceived rival to Xu Xuan. His failure to personally inform Xu Xuan also deepens the household head’s displeasure.
• Li Qingshui politely approaches Xu Xuan about arranging Wen’s marriage. Xu Xuan answers courteously while privately suspecting the uncle’s motives.
• Xu Sansheng, though dead, continues to shape events through his final instructions, which Xu Xuan sees as a threat to his rule.

Significant themes

• Power and insecurity: Xu Xuan’s authority is undermined by age, family politics, and Wen’s cultivation prospects.
• The divide between mortals and cultivators: Xu Xuan fears being left behind and watching others claim the household’s rewards.
• Hope and desperation: Repeated disappointments deepen Xu Xuan’s resentment, making Black Mountain’s sudden offer especially powerful.
• Appearance versus motive: Courteous family exchanges conceal competing interests and suspicions.

Plot points and events

• Li Fuchan concludes that Peaceful Way Abbey’s interest in the Xu Household is tied to Black Mountain and suspects Jia Hua is carrying out a larger plan there. He leaves to seek Jia Hua, unaware Jia has already found Xu Xuan and is deliberately stirring the force inside Black Mountain.
• Jia Hua senses that someone is watching Xu Xuan. A brief, shadowy glimpse convinces him there is a hidden observer, so he pursues them, believing he can capture and eliminate the threat.
• The observer is Li Fuchan. Warned by Illuminating Light, he prepares for Jia Hua’s illusion-based Outer Scenery and asks the mysterious book, A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales, to keep him unaffected.
• Jia Hua draws Li into an illusion in which Li is a woodcutter and Jia Hua an old shepherd. Their playful conversation is also a contest of cultivation principles: Li boasts of cutting firewood to refine a pill and build an immortal’s dwelling, while Jia counters with cryptic remarks about his sheep.
• As daylight fades, Jia Hua reveals the trap: the shepherd’s sheep are fed, but the woodcutter has gathered little firewood. He expects the illusion’s rules to make Li the loser.
• The book rustles, and Li rises despite the illusion. He threatens Jia Hua with his axe, apparently breaking or challenging the trap at its decisive moment.

Character development and interactions

• Li Fuchan is more confident and strategic than before. Rather than simply fighting Jia Hua, he intends to use Peaceful Way Abbey’s influence and negotiate from a position of strength. He stays alert inside the illusion, answers Jia’s riddles with his own barbs, and finally confronts him directly.
• Jia Hua is revealed as calculating and deeply invested in his plans for Xu Xuan, Black Mountain, the Wisdom King, and the prophesied Gao Huan. His calm, genial shepherd persona masks a lethal trap.
• Li and Jia Hua engage in a layered duel: friendly banter on the surface, but beneath it they test each other’s understanding of cultivation, perception, and the rules of the illusion. Jia thinks he has won through timing and cunning; Li’s sudden defiance unsettles that assumption.
• The book acts as Li’s adviser and possible protection, explaining the illusion’s metaphysical basis and apparently helping him resist it.

Significant themes

• Perception and self-knowledge: The illusion tests not only how each man sees the other, but how firmly each understands his own nature and principles.
• Cunning over brute force: The contest depends on timing, interpretation, and hidden rules as much as cultivation strength.
• Control and agency: Jia Hua tries to make Li a participant in a story whose outcome is predetermined; Li’s final refusal challenges that control.
• Plans and unforeseen variables: Jia Hua’s carefully arranged schemes around Black Mountain may be threatened by Li’s intervention.

Key plot points and events

• Jia Hua traps Li Fuchan in “Mirror Flowers and Moon in Water,” an illusion that uses Jia Hua’s Nature Root and Dao insight to undermine a weaker opponent’s heart and resolve. The technique is costly and unlikely to work on someone of higher cultivation.
• Li Fuchan breaks the encounter’s logic with a blunt threat: with an axe in hand, he can simply claim the shepherd’s sheep—and the shepherd himself. Faced with Li’s blade at his throat, Jia Hua concedes, and the illusion shatters.
• Li demands an explanation for Jia Hua’s nighttime pursuit and ambush. Jia Hua notices lightning in Li’s eyes and realizes he is a formidable Thunder Cultivator. Fearing possible ties to Dragonkind and the ancient conflict with Chu, he hesitates rather than give a quick excuse.
• Li interprets Jia Hua’s silence as continued hostility and readies his sword and Jade Ring, displaying dangerous power. Jia Hua judges he cannot survive a fight and hastily apologizes, offering compensation.
• Li accepts the offer after assessing Jia Hua as lacking bloodlust or sinister intent.

Character developments

• Jia Hua is clever and well-read, having devised an unconventional illusion from his knowledge of Daoist texts. But he recognizes the limits of his combat ability and responds to overwhelming danger with surrender and negotiation.
• Li Fuchan is decisive and intimidating. He refuses to be drawn into Jia Hua’s philosophical framing, then uses the threat of force to secure an apology and compensation. He also shows some restraint by judging Jia Hua’s intent before accepting the settlement.

Significant themes

• Practical force versus abstract argument: Jia Hua’s shepherd-and-woodcutter parable challenges the usefulness of lofty debate, but Li counters with control over the situation itself.
• The limits of cleverness: A carefully constructed technique can fail against someone stronger or less willing to follow its rules.
• Power and survival: Jia Hua’s awareness of the gap between their abilities drives him to choose surrender over a doomed fight.
• Suspicion and hidden history: Li’s perceived overseas origins revive Jia Hua’s fear of Dragonkind and the Peaceful Way Abbey’s concealed past.

Character interactions

• Jia Hua first tries to defeat Li through illusion and argument; Li answers with a direct threat, forcing his concession.
• After the illusion ends, Li presses Jia Hua for a reason for the ambush. Jia Hua’s alarm at Li’s lightning abilities makes him hesitate, which Li reads as a possible challenge.
• Li escalates with a show of magical force; Jia Hua apologizes and offers payment, and Li agrees to settle the matter that way.

Key events

• Jia Hua recognizes Li Fuchan’s powerful li thunder and high-grade artifacts, and concludes he is probably from Welcome Ying Isle.
• Peaceful Way Abbey needs someone to kill Ming Beasts so the sect can establish karmic ties that may help its members return south safely. Its best candidates are unavailable, and Jia Hua himself is ill-suited to combat.
• Jia Hua sees Li Fuchan as a possible solution and considers persuading him to affiliate with the abbey.
• Li Fuchan suspects Jia Hua’s schemes and judges him a dangerous, calculating opponent. Confident in his own enhanced abilities and knowledge, he decides to exploit Jia Hua’s mistaken assumption about his origins.
• Jia Hua asks whether Li Fuchan comes from an overseas immortal isle. Li Fuchan acts like an arrogant foreign cultivator, while Jia Hua presents himself as a lifelong admirer of Welcome Ying Isle.
• Jia Hua tests Li by including deliberate errors in his description of the isle. Li consults Three Nothing, who is in his Storage Bag, and corrects the details—convincing Jia Hua that he truly comes from Welcome Ying Isle.

Character developments and interactions

• Jia Hua shifts from wary suspicion to hopeful opportunism. He flatters Li and feigns emotional longing for Welcome Ying Isle, while quietly probing him.
• Li Fuchan remains guarded and strategic. He recognizes Jia Hua’s manipulation but turns it to his advantage, using information supplied by Three Nothing to maintain his false identity.
• Their exchange is a contest of deception: Jia Hua tests Li’s story, while Li feeds Jia Hua exactly the confirmation he wants.

Significant themes

• Deception and strategic performance: Both men conceal their intentions and shape their words to influence the other.
• Karma and uncertain fate: Peaceful Way Abbey treats the Ming Beasts’ deaths as a way to secure spiritual and practical advantages for its return south.
• Power and preparation: Li Fuchan’s broader knowledge, artifacts, and combat abilities give him an edge over Jia Hua’s schemes.
• Institutional necessity: The abbey’s need to protect its people drives Jia Hua toward morally complicated decisions, including making himself the villain.

Key plot points and events

• Li Fuchan criticizes Jia Hua’s account of Welcome Ying Isle, warning him not to spread its inaccuracies. Jia, privately furious, hides his anger and invites Li to Peaceful Way Abbey to correct its history.
• Li declines for now, then claims that Jia and his abbey are unlikely to be useful, hinting that Li will soon be powerful enough to demand seniority from him.
• Jia suspects Li is a direct-lineage disciple of Welcome Ying Isle. He stays deferential, knowing that challenging such a figure could bring the isle’s powerful Purple Mansion lord down on him.
• The narration reveals that Li is only borrowing Welcome Ying Isle’s identity on Three Nothing’s advice. His mastery of Li Thunder makes the disguise plausible, and Three Nothing believes the isle’s strict rules would protect Li even if the deception were discovered.
• As Li prepares to leave, Jia reveals that Peaceful Way Abbey possesses a spirit artifact of the Contrary Thunder path. Li is drawn by the prospect of seeing a magical treasure, while Three Nothing is astonished by the rare and dangerous thunder inheritance. Li stays, giving Jia hope that the artifact will secure his attention.

Character developments

• Li Fuchan uses confidence and an assumed prestigious lineage to strengthen his position, though his curiosity about the artifact overrides his plan to leave.
• Jia Hua suppresses his resentment and adapts quickly, using flattery and finally the artifact’s existence to keep Li engaged.
• Three Nothing guides Li’s deception and explains the significance of Contrary Thunder, revealing its deep connection to the Ancient Thunder Palace’s fall.

Significant themes

• Power and status: A prestigious lineage can command respect and deter opposition, even when that authority is being borrowed.
• Face and concealed resentment: Jia’s outward courtesy contrasts with his private anger, illustrating the politics of deference.
• Knowledge and inheritance: Li’s thunder cultivation lends credibility to his disguise, while the artifact represents rare, consequential knowledge from an older era.
• Strategic leverage: Jia turns a hidden resource into bargaining power just as Li is about to depart.

Character interactions

• Jia alternates between flattery, offers of help, and a final revelation to persuade Li to visit or remain.
• Li responds with condescension and declining interest in Jia’s assistance, but the mention of the artifact changes his decision.
• Three Nothing advises Li from behind the scenes and offers context on both Welcome Ying Isle’s rules and the unusual nature of Contrary Thunder.

Chapter Summary: “Quan Yong”

Key plot points and events

• Jia Hua tests Li Fuchan and, satisfied with him, proposes that he join the Peaceful Way Abbey for a hunt. Li Fuchan insists he will affiliate only with a group that does not consume people or practice corrupt methods, since such conduct could damage his cultivation of Li Thunder.
• Jia Hua claims the abbey is clean and lays out the hunting terms: Li must provide either 600 aperture-opening Ming Beasts or 21 outer-scenery Ming Beasts, along with the cultivation benefits or materials they yield. Li agrees, while privately doubting the abbey’s real nature and motives.
• Li suspects the familiar account of Ming Beasts as Buddhist “five thieves” is incomplete. He believes the hunt may serve interests far beyond gathering resources, especially given powerful cultivators’ involvement and the danger posed by Xu Xuan and Black Mountain’s teachings.
• Three days later, Quan Yong receives Jia Hua’s report and destroys it after checking for signs of a trap. Alone, he drops his gentle public façade.
• Quan Yong’s disciple Zilu confronts him through a disembodied voice, accusing him of exploiting Jia Hua, sabotaging Jia Hua’s cultivation, and arranging for Junior Sister to become the Wisdom King’s Wisdom Consort.
• Southern Peak joins the exchange and rebukes Zilu for speaking against the Wisdom King. Zilu condemns both Quan Yong’s hypocrisy and the violence hidden behind talk of “peace,” then reveals that he was sacrificed and cannot accept his fate.
• Quan Yong presses a hand to his belly, and Zilu’s anguished voice falls silent, suggesting Quan Yong has power over—or is suppressing—him.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Fuchan appears outwardly agreeable but is increasingly suspicious and politically perceptive. He recognizes that Jia Hua may be decent for now, yet does not trust the abbey’s leaders or the stated purpose of the hunt.
• Jia Hua is relieved when Li agrees and promptly reports the arrangement to Quan Yong. His earlier conduct seems genuine, but Zilu’s accusations imply that Quan Yong has manipulated him for years.
• Quan Yong is revealed as cold, calculating, and far less benevolent than his public persona. His response to Zilu is terse, and his final gesture suggests a brutal means of silencing dissent.
• Zilu emerges as bitter, sarcastic, and deeply wronged. He accuses Quan Yong of harming his disciples and resents being made to die for someone else’s idea of peace.
• Southern Peak defends Quan Yong and the Wisdom King, but his claim that peace requires human lives reveals how thoroughly he accepts the abbey’s sacrifices. Zilu’s attack forces him into silence.

Significant themes

• Hypocrisy and concealed corruption: The Peaceful Way’s virtuous image contrasts with accusations of betrayal, cannibalism, and sacrifice.
• The cost of “peace”: The chapter questions whether peace is meaningful when pursued through the deaths and exploitation of others.
• Hidden agendas and unreliable explanations: Li’s doubts about the Ming Beast doctrine suggest that religious accounts and hunting schemes conceal deeper political aims.
• Power, sacrifice, and resentment: Zilu’s outburst exposes the human cost of leaders’ ambitions—and the anger of those forced to pay it.

Key plot points and events

• Quan Yong suspects Li Fuchan’s sudden arrival and offer to hunt Ming Beasts are part of a scheme to obtain Peaceful Way Abbey’s “Contrary Thunder” artifact.
• He tells Jia Hua to verify Li’s identity and withhold the artifact for now, offering cultivation manuals and spiritual items instead. If Li proves suspicious, Quan even suggests using the artifact to control him later—but warns Jia Hua not to kill him.
• Jia Hua believes Quan’s cautious approach is naïve. He thinks the artifact is of little value to the abbey and that trading it for Li’s help would be a sensible bargain.
• Jia Hua meets Li and explains the abbot’s position, while making clear that he personally still intends to help Li obtain the artifact. He offers the other items as a temporary substitute and tries to persuade Li to stay.
• Li recognizes that the abbey has backed away from its original bargain. He refuses the substitute, condemns the abbey for breaking faith, and threatens anyone from it who commits evil on the hunting grounds. He then leaves in a flash of golden thunder.

Character developments

• Quan Yong is revealed as deeply suspicious and protective of the abbey, but isolated from the wider world. His belief that a “gentleman” can be won through upright dealing contrasts with Jia Hua’s more worldly outlook.
• Jia Hua is shrewd and pragmatic, shaped by years of dealing with people beyond the mountain. Though frustrated by Quan’s mistrust and lack of confidence in him, he does not blame his senior brother and tries to repair the situation through persuasion and personal assurances.
• Li Fuchan proves perceptive and proud. He understands the abbey’s changed offer as a breach of trust and uses his Welcome Ying Isle identity and “Li Thunder” reputation to confront it forcefully.

Significant themes

• Trust and suspicion: Quan sees a trap in an apparently convenient offer; Jia sees risk as part of doing business; Li sees the retreat from the bargain as proof of bad faith.
• The cost of caution: Quan’s effort to avoid being exploited may instead alienate a useful ally.
• Principle versus self-interest: The chapter questions whether moral reputations and righteous traditions can overcome ordinary motives, and whether transactions can be honorable when promises change.
• Words and commitments: The artifact, proposed oaths, and conflicting assurances make the reliability of promises central to the conflict.

Character interactions

• Quan’s letter sets Jia Hua at odds with his senior brother’s strategy, though Jia remains respectful and accepts some responsibility for his own past.
• Jia tries to bridge the gap between Quan’s caution and Li’s expectations by speaking candidly and offering a personal oath.
• Li rejects Jia’s compromise, turning a potential partnership into open hostility and leaving Jia to face the consequences of the abbey’s decision.

Key plot points and events

• After Jia Hua’s betrayal, Li Fuchan tells Three Nothing that he intends to take the spirit artifact Contrary Thunder from Peaceful Way Abbey, regardless of whether the abbey agrees.
• While searching near Black Mountain, he kills a strange Ming Beast carrying a human head. Inside its belly, he finds the remains of Li Si, a man he had once controlled, and reflects that He Liuhun may also have died to a Ming Beast. He burns the bodies.
• Li Fuchan hunts two aperture-opening-tier Ming Beasts and extracts the purified three qi they had digested from their victims.
• He uses that qi and three spirit talismans—Mirage Pavilion, Flying Glare, and Qi Offering—to create a remarkably lifelike qi-form body. Brow Peak makes its face seem truly alive; blood qi gives it the warmth and color of a living person.
• Though it still cannot cultivate or live independently, the body can nearly match Li Fuchan’s reconstructed true body. He sends it to approach Jia Hua, then signals to Three Nothing that it is time for his next move.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Fuchan shows little remorse about taking Contrary Thunder and uses patient preparation and deception to pursue his plans. He also recognizes the limits of his constructed body and deliberately compensates for them.
• Three Nothing questions his intentions but agrees to watch and help; Li Fuchan keeps it informed.
• Li Si and He Liuhun are recalled through Li Fuchan’s discovery and reflection on the Ming Beasts’ victims.
• Jia Hua remains Li Fuchan’s target after their falling-out; the new body is sent toward him.
• Three Nothing’s amused remark at the end frames Li Fuchan as a cunning, ruthless schemer.

Significant themes

• Deception and constructed identity: The near-perfect false body blurs the line between appearance and reality, yet cannot become truly alive.
• Pragmatism and moral ambiguity: Li Fuchan is willing to seize what he wants and use dangerous means without ethical hesitation.
• Preparation and transformation: His success depends on gathering resources, understanding their properties, and combining them carefully.
• Death’s consequences: The Ming Beasts’ victims—including people connected to Li Fuchan’s past—underscore the danger and human cost of the surrounding conflict.

Key plot points and events

• Three Nothing influences Jia Hua’s thoughts, prompting him to leave his chamber and seek out new prospects.
• Jia Hua notices a wary young Ancient Art Cultivator investigating the Xu Household’s sudden ability to cultivate. Seeing an opportunity, Jia Hua secretly studies him, then uses “Mirror Flowers and Moon in Water” to question him and teach him “Purple Firmament Thunder-Script Treasure Register.”
• Jia Hua breaks the man’s three lights and guides him into Li Thunder. This both gives him a way to repair his severed Dao Path and binds him to the Peaceful Way Abbey, since he needs the Abbey’s help to withstand the three calamities.
• Jia Hua reports the plan to Quan Yong, who approves it. He sends the man into the Hunting Grounds, where the man kills twelve aperture-opening-level Ming Beasts but repeatedly avoids stronger outer-scenery beasts.
• Frustrated, Jia Hua pressures him to fight. The man is badly injured, so Jia Hua has him temporarily return to ancient arts and heal by consuming blood qi, then sends him back into the Hunting Grounds.
• Jia Hua follows at a distance. A sudden battle between Thunder Cultivators erupts, and Li Fuchan appears in the sky, wielding his sword and displaying powerful Li Thunder. Jia Hua realizes that the Peaceful Way Abbey’s actions against a Welcome Ying Isle disciple have provoked this confrontation.

Character developments and interactions

• Jia Hua is calculating and controlling, treating the young cultivator as a chess piece. His confidence in the scheme gives way to alarm and regret when Li Fuchan appears; he recognizes that his senior brother’s decisions have left him to handle the consequences.
• The young cultivator is cautious and reluctant to face stronger opponents. Though he accepts Jia Hua’s teachings, he repeatedly avoids the dangerous fights Jia Hua wants him to undertake.
• Quan Yong endorses Jia Hua’s plan after receiving a full report, allowing the young man to be sent to the Hunting Grounds.
• Li Fuchan arrives as an imposing, openly powerful presence. His appearance makes clear that the dispute has escalated beyond Jia Hua’s control.
• Jia Hua’s relationship with the young man is manipulative: he teaches and directs him while deliberately weakening his strongest abilities and making him dependent on the Abbey. The Abbey’s mistreatment of Li Fuchan, meanwhile, has turned a private scheme into a broader conflict.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and control: Jia Hua shapes another person’s cultivation and choices to serve the Abbey’s interests.
• Power and dependence: The young man’s new path offers relief from danger but ties him to the organization that imposed it.
• Institutional hypocrisy and consequences: The Abbey’s public claims conflict with its use of blood qi, while its attempt to retain Li Fuchan has provoked a crisis it cannot openly acknowledge.
• Risk and miscalculation: Jia Hua believes he can manage the situation, but Li Fuchan’s arrival reveals how fragile that control is.

Key plot points and events

• Jia Hua considers entering the hunting grounds himself but decides he is too weak. After reporting Li Fuchan’s actions, he checks on Xu Xuan, who has grown stronger and more ruthless under Black Mountain’s influence.
• Jia Hua catches a man who has secretly learned of Xu Xuan’s trips to Black Mountain. Discovering the man’s extraordinary affinity for Blood Qi, Jia Hua rapidly strengthens him, feeds him the Blood Qi of 3,600 Pure Yang youths, and turns him into a Golden-Armored Corpse without destroying his consciousness.
• The corpse is physically powerful enough to rival an Outer Scenery cultivator, though it lacks the spells and other abilities needed to match one fully. Jia Hua sends it into the hunting grounds to fight the unintelligent Ming Beasts.
• Two months later, Li Fuchan strikes again, killing another agent of Peaceful Way Abbey. Furious, Jia Hua decides to request the Contrary Thunder spirit artifact from Flying Yellow Mountain to counter Li’s lightning and drive him from the Northern Lands.
• Li Fuchan reveals that his attacks are deliberate bait: he expects Jia Hua to seek the artifact. While waiting, he reviews his progress and plans his next steps.

Character developments and interactions

• Jia Hua becomes increasingly desperate to protect his plans and conceal Black Mountain’s influence. His response is to create a powerful, unconventional fighter rather than risk entering the hunting grounds himself.
• Xu Xuan has achieved Aperture Opening and is becoming more openly cold and brutal, suggesting his connection to Black Mountain is deepening.
• Li Fuchan remains composed and strategic. He uses spectacular lightning and repeated attacks to provoke Jia Hua into revealing his resources and intentions.
• Jia Hua’s new Golden-Armored Corpse is a product of coercion and extreme cultivation methods, but it retains its consciousness. It is sent to fight the Ming Beasts, which serve as suitable opponents because they cannot cast spells or think tactically.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: Characters seek strength through spiritual cultivation, Blood Qi, or artificial methods, each carrying risks and consequences.
• Manipulation and counterstrategy: Li’s attacks are not merely violence; they are designed to force Jia Hua into a reaction.
• Appearance versus reality: Jia Hua’s corpse-refining method is presented as less malicious than typical evil arts, despite its disturbing use of human Blood Qi.
• The danger of unchecked influence: Xu Xuan’s growing power comes alongside a loss of restraint, linking advancement to corruption.

Li Fuchan’s progress

• His Lightning-Struck Wood Yang Aspect is nearing full mastery. Completing its “form” in the Preservation stage is called Manifestation; later, mastering its “intent” leads to Transformation, which should make him harder for others to influence.
• He is developing the Thunder Escape Sword Art, including its swift first move, Answering Lightning, Flying Thunderlight, and a more advanced strike requiring Sword Qi.
• His Azure Fish Ring and its three Fire Essence motes have greatly increased his combat strength, though he recognizes that he still needs a better movement technique.

Summary

• Li Fuchan reflects on Li Thunder: it grants immense power against evil, but its flashy, recognizable signs make it dangerous in an age when its former protectors—the Thunder Palace Patrol—are gone. He would like to replace it, yet cannot give up its strength, and hopes the Contrary Thunder artifact might help him reduce its risks.
• His book, A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales, suddenly warns that someone has watched him and departed. Three Nothing explains that a Purple Mansion Lord noticed him because he has become karmically entangled with the “ghost” of the five thieves.
• The five thieves are Beast, Ghost, Demon, and Monster, along with the Ming Beasts as the most widespread manifestation. Hunting one of the four more elusive thieves can bring extraordinary blessings—enough to transform a cultivator’s abilities and prospects. But those blessings also make the hunter prey: powerful cultivators may capture them to exploit the rewards.
• Ordinarily, the four thieves and their destined hunters appear within a Wisdom King’s Sanctuary, where successful hunters are guided into becoming Great Dharma Masters. The recent attainment of the Great Compassionate Venerable Wisdom King, however, has left the thieves outside the sanctuary for the first time in two thousand years.
• Three Nothing offers Li Fuchan a way to escape the Northern Lands through the Unseen Heavens. Li refuses to flee unless necessary: he intends to pursue the opportunity, believing the potential gains may be worth the danger and could help him change his fate.
• Li suspects the Peaceful Way Abbey may be deliberately cultivating a thief through Black Mountain, whose transformations have included monster, demon, and evil-being forms. Three Nothing says the Abbey may possess an inherited Shi Water art or treasure that lets it locate the thieves and their destined hunters. The North’s chaotic spiritual currents make such divination difficult for others, though one person has already identified Li.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Fuchan moves from cautious speculation to a firm decision to risk pursuing the five thieves’ blessings. He remains skeptical of Three Nothing’s promises, including the offer to help him attain the Purple Mansion.
• Three Nothing acts as Li’s guide and protector, revealing information he had withheld to keep Li from becoming a target. He also supplies an escape route, but Li chooses ambition over immediate safety.
• Fengci is shown to have deliberately obscured knowledge of the five thieves, hoping to protect Li from becoming entangled in their dangerous karma.
• Li’s conversation with Three Nothing turns his suspicions about Black Mountain and the Peaceful Way Abbey into a plausible theory about the Abbey’s larger plan.

Significant themes

• Power carries visibility and risk: Li Thunder is potent but exposes its user.
• Opportunity and exploitation: The blessings attached to hunting a thief promise transformation, yet attract predators who would drain the beneficiary of every gain.
• Knowledge as danger and protection: Ignorance can shield a person from karma, while discovering the truth can make them a target.
• Ambition versus survival: Li understands that escape is possible, but believes progress requires accepting calculated danger.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Li Fuchan recognizes Peaceful Way Abbey’s likely plan: use a hired hunter to kill the thief and secure Changze, then trade the person to a powerful cultivator in the south for protection.
• He learns from Three Nothing that, having become karmically entangled with Ghost of the Five Thieves, he can still pursue the others—but each additional target could bring more dangerous karmic consequences. He decides not to risk it.
• Suspicious that Three Nothing may have manipulated events or withheld information, Li Fuchan seals away A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales with multiple talismans and protections. He then plans to investigate Huaishuo Town and secure the Contrary Thunder spiritual artifact.
• At Peaceful Way Abbey, Jia Hua anxiously awaits his senior brother Quan Yong and the artifact, hoping to use it to drive Li Fuchan away.
• Quan Yong arrives and breaks the influence distorting Jia Hua’s judgment. Jia Hua realizes he has been manipulated into neglecting the abbey’s real priorities and acting rashly.
• Quan Yong concludes that the two people Jia Hua selected were likely involved in a scheme to obtain the Contrary Thunder artifact. He orders Jia Hua to keep watch over Black Mountain and Xu Xuan while waiting for Gao Huan, promising to deliver the artifact to him.
• Quan Yong adds that Southern Peak has emerged from seclusion, then leaves to return to the abbey.

Character developments

• Li Fuchan remains cautious and self-aware, refusing to take on more karmic entanglements. His suspicion of Three Nothing deepens: he now considers that it may have helped expose Fengci’s obstruction or even engineered his connection to Ghost.
• Jia Hua shifts from anger and confidence to fear and self-reproach when he recognizes how badly his priorities were redirected. Quan Yong’s intervention restores his judgment.
• Quan Yong appears composed and protective toward Jia Hua, but his cold manner and quick assessment of the scheme reveal a more severe, strategic side.
• Three Nothing remains an ambiguous influence: it claims to have protected Li Fuchan, but its timing and explanations leave him doubtful.

Significant themes

• Karma and consequence: Pursuing the Five Thieves may bring escalating spiritual and political danger.
• Manipulation and perception: Both Li Fuchan and Jia Hua question whether their choices and understanding have been shaped by others.
• Caution and power: Li Fuchan avoids risks he cannot control, while Jia Hua’s impulsiveness nearly undermines his position.
• Political maneuvering: The Contrary Thunder artifact is a bargaining piece in a larger contest involving Peaceful Way Abbey and outside powers.

Character interactions

• Li Fuchan and Three Nothing: Their exchange combines practical advice with mistrust; Three Nothing explains the danger of karma, while Li Fuchan suspects it has not been fully honest.
• Jia Hua and Quan Yong: Quan Yong confronts Jia Hua’s distorted thinking, restores his life force, and gives him new orders. Jia Hua responds with alarm, then relief at the news that Southern Peak has returned.
• Peaceful Way Abbey and Li Fuchan: Their rivalry centers on the artifact, the Hunting Grounds, and the consequences of Jia Hua’s repeated attempts to counter Li Fuchan.