Chapter Summaries

Pei Buji captured a covert pursuer and forced him to reveal that Mo Feiyan, proprietor of the Heavenly Phoenix Tower, had sent him after Yang Qing and his companions. Pei Buji offered to explain the Mo Family’s background in exchange for a condition, leaving Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou waiting to hear what he wanted.

• Yang Qing refused to tell Pei Buji who he was and dismissed his offer to explain what had caught his interest.
• Pei Buji dragged a captive out of a sack and revealed that the man had followed Yang Qing and his companions from the Imperial City.
• The captive tried to crush a hidden pill, but Pei Buji turned his hand into jade-like stone and severed it at the wrist.
• Pei Buji threatened the captive until he confessed that Mo Feiyan, proprietor of the Heavenly Phoenix Tower, had sent him after Yang Qing.
• Pei Buji explained that Mo Feiyan belonged to the long-reclusive Mo Family and offered to tell them more if they met one condition.

Pei Buji demanded to travel with Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou, then told them about Mo Feiyan and the decline of the Heavenly Phoenix Tower. As they continued toward North Mountain, Yang Qing’s health worsened, and he asked Pei Buji to reveal more about Mo Feiyan.

• Pei Buji insisted that Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou take him with them, and they agreed after he warned that they could not evade him if he meant them harm.
• Pei Buji said Mo Feiyan had come from an unknown place, built the Heavenly Phoenix Tower into Northern Liang’s largest restaurant, and disappeared after heartbreak ruined his business.
• Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou wondered why Mo Feiyan had reappeared and sent people to watch them, but Yang Qing chose to continue toward North Mountain.
• Yang Qing’s strength failed during the journey, so Jiang Zhizhou gave him a pill from the Medicine Elder, and they planned to rest in Qiri Town.
• Yang Qing reassured Jiang Zhizhou about his fate and asked Pei Buji to tell them more about Mo Feiyan.

Pei Buji told Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou that the Heavenly Phoenix Tower was also known as the First Pavilion, then revealed he knew they were headed to North Mountain and joined their journey. He diverted the carriage from Qiri Town, promising to take them somewhere more interesting and find them food.

• Pei Buji described Mo Feiyan as the reclusive proprietor of the Heavenly Phoenix Tower and revealed that the tower was also called the First Pavilion.
• Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou realized the First Pavilion they had visited in Yan Prefecture was connected to the Heavenly Phoenix Tower.
• Pei Buji guessed that Yang Qing and Jiang Zhizhou were traveling to North Mountain, and they agreed to let him accompany them.
• Pei Buji proposed bypassing Qiri Town and Ni Family Fort to visit somewhere more interesting.
• Pei Buji took the whip from Bu Er and drove the carriage onward, saying they would find something good to eat.

Pei Buji led Yang Qing, Jiang Zhizhou, and Bu Er along a hidden path to hunt for unusual food. He struck down a strange horned beast said to be a Jiangli, and the group wondered whether it was truly connected to the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom.

• Pei Buji turned the carriage onto a hidden path and drove while Yang Qing, Jiang Zhizhou, and Bu Er rested for half a day.
• Pei Buji brought the three men to a secluded grassland and gave them Heavenheart Restaurant buns while they waited for the right time.
• Pei Buji led the group across the grassland and threw a dagger at something out of sight.
• Pei Buji retrieved a round, piglike creature with a horn and identified it as a Jiangli from the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom.

Pei Buji explained that treasures from the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom appeared every ten years on a full moon, and he believed Jiangli was one of them. He attacked Yang Qing to test the creature, then concluded that the treasure had chosen Yang Qing as its master.

• Jiangli escaped Pei Buji's hand and lunged at Bu Er, who dodged the attack.
• Pei Buji told Yang Qing, Jiang Zhizhou, and Bu Er that treasures descended on each month's full moon once every ten years, a legend from the Eastern Radiance Ancient Kingdom.
• Pei Buji tried to pick up Jiangli, but the little beast evaded him, prompting him to say the rumors might be true.
• Pei Buji struck at Yang Qing, but an uncanny force stopped his attack and the counterstrikes from Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou.
• Pei Buji withdrew and revealed that he had come seeking a treasure, which he believed had chosen Yang Qing as its master.

Pei Buji revealed Jiangli’s hidden prowess and took Yang Qing, Bu Er, and Jiang Zhizhou to gather Sky Mushrooms. After Jiangli urged Yang Qing to eat several, Yang Qing suffered intense pain as the mushrooms’ medicinal power took hold, and Pei Buji said enduring it could alter Yang Qing’s fate.

• Pei Buji said Jiangli possessed another rumored marvelous ability, then took Yang Qing, Bu Er, and Jiang Zhizhou to find food.
• Pei Buji gave them Sky Mushrooms and explained that eating several could cleanse the body, especially for someone with Yang Qing’s longstanding illness.
• Jiangli snatched a Sky Mushroom, then repeatedly offered mushrooms to Yang Qing until he had eaten four or five.
• Yang Qing doubled over in agony, but Pei Buji stopped Bu Er from intervening and said Yang Qing had to endure the ordeal himself to alter his fate.
• Jiang Zhizhou told Bu Er to hurry and help support Yang Qing.

Yang Qing recovered somewhat after eating the Sky Mushrooms and decided to keep the creature Jiangli. As the group neared North Mountain, he grew anxious about whether Dai Sheng was still alive and would agree to see him.

• Yang Qing told Bu Er that he felt less pain but remained lightheaded after eating the Sky Mushrooms.
• Yang Qing accepted Jiangli as his companion, while Pei Buji warned him to keep the creature safe from anyone who might try to take it.
• Pei Buji advised the group to bypass Qiri Town and revealed that they were already close to North Mountain.
• Yang Qing worried that Dai Sheng might be hiding in North Mountain and wondered whether he was still alive.
• After traveling for half a day, Yang Qing looked toward the road and hoped Dai Sheng would be glad to see him.

Yang Qing and his companions reached North Mountain, where Pei Buji explained that poisonous fog made the mountain dangerous and offered to climb it for them. Pei Buji returned at midnight with Dai Sheng, whom Yang Qing recognized despite his changed appearance.

• Yang Qing insisted on climbing North Mountain to find Dai Sheng, but Pei Buji told him poisonous fog had made the mountain deadly and that midnight-noon grass could protect against it.
• Pei Buji said he would enter the mountain at midnight, and Yang Qing accepted his offer while remaining suspicious of his motives.
• Pei Buji left the carriage and entered North Mountain at midnight as Yang Qing, Jiang Zhizhou, and Bu Er waited.
• Pei Buji returned with a tall, thin stranger, and Yang Qing recognized him as Dai Sheng.
• Dai Sheng looked at Yang Qing and asked whether he had been well.

Yang Qing reunited with Dai Sheng on North Mountain and learned how the emperor had turned against him after discovering his possible Yang Family origins. Dai Sheng began explaining his role in the emperor’s plan, leaving Yang Qing asking why Dai Sheng had come to North Mountain.

• Bu Er recognized the transformed Dai Sheng, whose face had become motionless, and Yang Qing said he had come because Dai Sheng was there.
• Dai Sheng welcomed Yang Qing, Bu Er, and Jiang Zhizhou into his home and gave them handkerchiefs soaked in midnight-noon grass juice to protect them from the mountain’s poisonous things.
• Dai Sheng and Yang Qing recalled the Li Household tea that had helped prove Li Yi’s collusion with foreign enemies, then discussed how the emperor had stopped supporting them.
• Yang Qing pressed Dai Sheng to explain what had happened after the battle of Yan Pass, and Dai Sheng recounted how Chu Jinghui revealed Yang Qing might descend from the Yang Family and branded him a threat to the throne.
• Dai Sheng said the emperor had initially wanted Yang Qing killed, but the Imperial Preceptor advised keeping him alive; Yang Qing then asked Dai Sheng why he had come to North Mountain.

Yang Qing rejected Dai Sheng’s offer of the Dai Family Jade Cicada, then returned to North Mountain and found Dai Sheng dying from a poisoning and violent attack. After accepting the token to comfort him, Yang Qing buried Dai Sheng but collapsed himself and remained unconscious for days.

• Yang Qing rejected Dai Sheng’s Jade Cicada and parted from him, while Dai Sheng warned him not to return to Western Chu.
• Pei Buji told Yang Qing that Dai Sheng had been poisoned with the incurable poison Flower Loves Beauty, so Yang Qing ordered Bu Er to turn the carriage around.
• Yang Qing and his companions found Dai Sheng gravely wounded at the foot of North Mountain, and Yang Qing accepted the Jade Cicada before Dai Sheng died.
• Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou buried Dai Sheng, and Yang Qing collapsed after speaking of his own grave.
• Several days later, Yang Qing remained unconscious as Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou worried over him.

After waking from a two-day unconsciousness, Yang Qing decided to enter Yan Prefecture to retrieve something from his old home. Pei Buji agreed to guide him and his companions through a hidden passage beneath North Mountain, but warned that he would not protect Yang Qing once they reached the city.

• Yang Qing woke after two days unconscious and learned that Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and Pei Buji had stayed at North Mountain.
• Yang Qing asked Pei Buji for a way past Yan Pass because he needed to return to Yan Prefecture.
• Pei Buji agreed to guide Yang Qing through a hidden passage, saying he would not intervene once Yang Qing entered Yan Prefecture City.
• Jiang Zhizhou drove the carriage along a narrow path, and Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou carried the group’s supplies as they prepared to proceed on foot.
• Pei Buji led Yang Qing and the others around North Mountain to a ridge, then told them to stay close as they changed routes.

Yang Qing returned to Yan Prefecture with Bu Er and their companions to retrieve a hidden item from the Yang Family's old house. After finding the lane sealed and the house ransacked, he recovered a silk roll concealed inside a pillar and left his homeland again.

• Pei Buji gave Yang Qing and his companions old travel documents, helping them enter Yan Prefecture City unnoticed.
• Yang Qing told Bu Er they would retrieve an item from the old house in Little Willow Lane and leave immediately.
• The group found Little Willow Lane sealed off, and Jiang Zhizhou discovered that someone had searched the Yang Family's old house.
• Yang Qing cut his palm and pressed it against a pillar, which absorbed his blood and revealed a hidden compartment.
• Yang Qing took a small silk roll from the pillar, secured it inside his robe, and left the old house with Bu Er.

After leaving Yan Prefecture, Yang Qing and his companions resumed their search for Northern Liang’s Dragon Vein. They decided Nether Lake might conceal it, but the lake’s shifting location left them needing to test a rumored way to find it.

• Yang Qing left Yan Prefecture with Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and Pei Buji, and told them to seek treasure and fortune.
• After searching North Mountain and finding no Dragon Vein, Yang Qing reasoned it might lie somewhere other than a mountain.
• Yang Qing proposed searching beneath Nether Lake, whose deadly legends might have been spread to keep people away.
• Jiang Zhizhou explained that Nether Lake appeared and vanished, making its location a mystery, but said hearsay offered a possible way to find it.

Yang Qing and his companions continued west toward the desert, and Yang Qing said his health seemed less sensitive to the cold. A Western Regions merchant named Fen Liyou warned them about deadly Winter Spirit Bees in a gorge ahead, leaving them to decide whether to delay their journey.

• Yang Qing, Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and Pei Buji traveled west for more than half a month toward the desert.
• Yang Qing told Bu Er that his body seemed more resistant to cold, and Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou welcomed the apparent improvement.
• A caravan from the Western Regions caught up with the travelers, and its merchant first approached Jiang Zhizhou before returning to his group.
• Fen Liyou stopped Jiang Zhizhou from driving on and explained that Winter Spirit Bees were swarming in Secluded Valley ahead.
• Fen Liyou urged Yang Qing and his companions to camp nearby for several days rather than risk the blood-feeding bees.

Yang Qing and his companions traveled with Fen Liyou’s caravan and learned that the Nether Lake supposedly appeared with Red Rain. Though Fen Liyou warned them of the desert’s dangers, he gave Yang Qing a Remnant Book and supplies before they continued their search.

• Yang Qing and his companions rested with Fen Liyou’s caravan for several days, then agreed to travel with him across the Secluded Valley.
• Fen Liyou warned Yang Qing that treasure seekers had died searching the desert for the Nether Lake.
• Yang Qing explained that his group sought the Nether Lake for another purpose and would not turn back.
• Fen Liyou revealed that a Remnant Book described the Nether Lake as a real, teleporting place that appeared when Red Rain fell.
• Fen Liyou gave Yang Qing the Remnant Book and a horse carrying supplies, and the two groups parted on friendly terms.

Yang Qing and his companions followed a road from the Remnant Book, but the promised oasis never appeared and a strange river blocked their way back. Yang Qing chose to investigate the river and the soil clinging to its skeletons.

• Yang Qing and his companions found a road described in the Remnant Book and followed it, expecting to reach an oasis.
• When no oasis appeared by dusk, Jiang Zhizhou realized they had taken the wrong road, but Pei Buji discovered that their path back had vanished beneath a pitch-black river.
• Bu Er threw stones into the river and saw them float, then the companions watched skeletons emerge from the water.
• Yang Qing and the others spent the night away from the river, which widened by morning and carried skeletons closer to their carriage.
• Yang Qing refused to travel farther and examined a skeleton on the riverbank, noticing that soil clung to its bones despite the water washing over them.

Yang Qing and his companions followed the Ghost River, suspecting it led to the Nether Lake, until it vanished and left them among ditches arranged as a Hexagram Diagram. As they approached the diagram’s eastern entrance, a sudden crack spooked the horse and sent their carriage racing out of control.

• Yang Qing told Bu Er to follow the Ghost River downstream, reasoning from the floating skeletons’ skulls that they should travel against the direction the bones faced.
• The Ghost River narrowed and disappeared on the fifth day, and Yang Qing directed the group toward a shallow ditch in the desert.
• Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou surveyed the ditches and discovered their arrangement formed a Hexagram Diagram, which Yang Qing believed might conceal something connected to the Nether Lake.
• Yang Qing said red rain was needed for the Nether Lake to appear, then used Jiang Zhizhou’s sketch to identify an eastern entrance and led the group there by carriage.
• A sudden crack startled the horse as the group reached the entrance, and Bu Er cried out that he could not stop the carriage.

Yang Qing and his companions entered the Hexagram Diagram, survived its illusion, and followed the red rain to the Nether Lake. At the lake, Yang Qing proposed searching for the dragon vein by tracking what could not move with the elusive waters.

• The horse pulling Yang Qing’s carriage went mad, and Pei Buji rescued Yang Qing and their supplies as the carriage crashed.
• Yang Qing saw through the Hexagram Diagram’s illusion of a lush landscape, and Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and Pei Buji soon escaped it too.
• Yang Qing connected the strange phenomena to the Nether Lake and predicted that gathering clouds would bring red rain.
• The sky filled with fiery clouds, and red rain fell on the horizon, prompting Jiang Zhizhou, Bu Er, and Pei Buji to hurry toward it with Yang Qing.
• Yang Qing and his companions reached the vast Nether Lake, and Yang Qing suggested that its accompanying dragon vein could be tracked because it could not move like the lake.

Yang Qing, Jiang Zhizhou, Bu Er, and Pei Buji reached the Nether Lake just before the fiery clouds vanished and discovered that its serene surface concealed a dangerous creature. The monster emerged from the lake and charged at them, leaving the group facing a threat with apparent demonic power.

• Yang Qing and his companions hurried across the Desert toward the place indicated by the fiery clouds, fearing the Nether Lake might disappear.
• The four found the clear, silent Nether Lake, and Pei Buji warned that something powerful or dangerous might lie beneath it.
• Ethereal singing drifted from the lake's center, leading Yang Qing to recall the damaged book's account of a giant beast.
• The lake churned, and a strange square monster surfaced, revealing gleaming eyes, a blood-red mouth, and sharp teeth.
• The monster charged toward the group, and Bu Er shielded Yang Qing as they retreated; the others realized it seemed to possess demonic power.

A monster’s song dragged Pei Buji, Bu Er, Jiang Zhizhou, and Yang Qing into the Nether Lake, where their attempts to swim back to the surface failed. They discovered a transparent passage made of Spirit Jade and suspected a great tomb lay beneath the lake, just as a water dragon rushed toward them.

• Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou urged Pei Buji to escort Yang Qing away, but the monster’s song suppressed their internal energy.
• Jiang Zhizhou, Bu Er, and Pei Buji tried to flee in different directions, but an invisible force pulled all four into the Nether Lake.
• Bu Er and Pei Buji tried to bring the unconscious Yang Qing to the surface, but the lake reflected their strength and pushed them deeper.
• Jiang Zhizhou, Bu Er, and Pei Buji discovered they could speak underwater, and Yang Qing woke and identified a transparent passage as likely Spirit Jade.
• Yang Qing explained that Spirit Jade could indicate a great tomb, and the four saw a water dragon rushing toward them.