Chapter Summaries

Duke Yan learned that Daoist Huiyue was going to help the Xie family summon Second Master Xie so he could be reborn as Third Master Xie’s child, and he privately mourned his lost wife. Yuanbao and Xia Wanwan watched the ritual and saw a human-shaped soul approach as the summoning began.

• Gu Ming left Duke Yan to return to Xia Wanwan, and Daoist Huiyue warned Duke Yan to keep his efforts to win over the Guardian from East Lin.
• Daoist Huiyue told Duke Yan that Xie Jinzhao wanted his late brother, Second Master Xie, to reincarnate as his unborn child.
• Duke Yan returned to his room, spoke to his dead wife Shu'er, and wept over their family and the twenty years since her death.
• At the Xie residence, Xie Jinzhao rushed Daoist Huiyue to begin the ritual as his wife went into labor.
• Yuanbao and Xia Wanwan followed Huiyue and discussed the ritual’s risks, then saw a human-shaped soul drift toward them.

Xie Jinzhao and Daoist Huiyue tried to reincarnate Xie Jinqian, but his unresolved obsession drew him toward the Liu Minister's Residence. Xia Wanwan followed, fearing he meant to harm her maternal grandparents, and the chapter ended with the group secretly arriving outside their room.

• Xie Jinzhao begged Xie Jinqian to reincarnate as his child, but Daoist Huiyue warned that forcing him could destroy his soul while his obsession remained unfulfilled.
• Daoist Huiyue divined that Xie Jinqian's obsession lay southeast of the Capital, and Xie Jinzhao and Daoist Huiyue followed the light.
• Xia Wanwan realized that Xie Jinqian's obsession was not her mother and, hearing that Li Duoduo's childbirth had become life-threatening, used spiritual power to keep the mother and baby alive.
• Yuanbao recognized that Xie Jinqian was heading toward the Liu Minister's Residence, so Xia Wanwan and Yuanbao followed, worried about her maternal family.
• Xia Wanwan recognized her grandparents' room as the destination, and Daoist Huiyue secretly brought Xie Jinzhao down outside it without alerting the servants.

Xie Jinqian’s longing for loving parents led him to choose reincarnation into the Liu Family, despite Xie Jinzhao’s attempts to change his mind. As Xie Jinqian’s soul began to fade, Daoist Huiyue guided it into Minister Liu’s room, making him Xia Wanwan’s tiny uncle.

• Xie Jinzhao asked Daoist Huiyue to keep Xie Jinqian’s soul from reincarnating into the Liu Family and instead persuade him to become Xie Jinzhao’s child.
• Xie Jinqian revealed that he had chosen the Liu Family because Lady Liu’s loving care for Liu Wan had made him yearn for parents who would cherish him.
• Xie Jinqian told Xie Jinzhao to care for his unborn child, then began to dissipate as Daoist Huiyue warned that he needed to be reincarnated immediately.
• Xie Jinzhao remembered his wife was giving birth, and Daoist Huiyue kicked him out of the Minister’s Residence.
• Daoist Huiyue guided Xie Jinqian’s soul into Minister Liu’s room, and Xia Wanwan realized her tiny uncle had arrived.

Xia Wanwan told Xia Siheng that Duke Yan was hostile toward Great Xia and had secretly worked with East Lin, while Xia Siheng and Wanwan pieced together a possible explanation for his actions. The chapter left Xia Siheng preparing to question Duke Yan before the Ruler of Eastern Lin arrived.

• Duke Yan sent a visiting card to the Ninth Prince's Residence, and Xia Siheng confronted Xia Wanwan about her secret outing the previous night.
• Xia Wanwan explained that Duke Yan was coming to seek help from her new underling, Gu Ming, and described Duke Yan's hostility toward East Lin and his collusion with its people.
• Xia Wanwan suggested that Qiao Zhishu was Duke Yan's only biological son, sent to the Qiao family after Duke Yan's wife and child fell off a cliff, while a girl was brought back as a substitute.
• Xia Siheng reasoned that the fall might have been deliberate and speculated that Duke Yan's collusion with East Lin could be part of a revenge scheme, though he recognized that he needed evidence.
• Xia Siheng decided to probe Duke Yan's motives and took Xia Wanwan, Gu Ming, and Yuanbao to meet him.

Duke Yan visited Liu Wan to apologize for stirring up opposition to Xia Wanwan and offered gifts and support for the new law. He mistook Yuanbao for Gu Ming and demanded that he return with him, while Xia Siheng insisted Duke Yan take his supposed acquaintance away.

• Duke Yan brought gifts to Liu Wan and said he had learned why Xia Wanwan acted as she did in Hezhou, so he had come to apologize.
• Liu Wan questioned whether Duke Yan had planted an informant beside Xia Wanwan, but he denied it and offered to remove his old acquaintance from the Ninth Prince's Residence.
• Xia Siheng arrived with Xia Wanwan, Yuanbao, and Gu Ming, and Duke Yan mistook Yuanbao for Gu Ming because of his appearance and temper.
• Xia Siheng rejected the gifts at first and warned that he could not guarantee the old acquaintance would fare well under his command.
• Duke Yan promised to support the new law in the final tally vote, so Xia Siheng accepted the gifts but still told him to take his acquaintance away.
• Liu Wan asked which person Duke Yan meant, and he pointed at Yuanbao, called him Gu Ming, and told him to return with him.

Xia Wanwan revealed that the timid servant Gu Ming was the Great Demon she had made her lackey, and Duke Yan took him back to the Duke's Residence. There, Yu insulted Gu Ming, prompting him to crush his teacup and unleash his pressure.

• Xia Wanwan and Yuanbao fooled Duke Yan before Yuanbao revealed Gu Ming, who claimed Sister Wan's household had bullied him.
• Duke Yan welcomed Gu Ming and took him to the Duke's Residence, while a disguised servant secretly watched them leave.
• Liu Wan learned that Gu Ming was the Great Demon from the Divine Temple and marveled that Xia Wanwan had made him her lackey.
• Yu heard that Duke Yan had fetched a servant from the Ninth Prince's Residence and questioned why he had brought the man home.
• Duke Yan introduced Gu Ming as Lord Gu and ordered Yu to give him a fine courtyard, but Yu insulted Gu Ming and ordered him out of the seat of honor.
• Gu Ming crushed his teacup, released a powerful pressure, and demanded that Yu repeat her insult.

Yu insulted Duke Yan and threatened Gu Ming, who swiftly defeated her servants and forced her to apologize. Duke Yan asked Gu Ming to spare Yu’s life, but Gu Ming rejected his plea.

• Yu insulted Duke Yan by invoking his parents’ deaths and ordered her servants to maim Gu Ming.
• Gu Ming sent Yu’s servants flying, then grabbed her by the neck when she attacked him.
• Gu Ming threw Yu to the floor and demanded that she apologize to Duke Yan.
• When Yu refused, Gu Ming broke her fingers until she apologized through tears.
• Duke Yan asked Gu Ming to spare Yu, but Gu Ming told him to get out of the way.

Gu Ming punished Yu for mocking the dead, leaving her hand badly injured, while Duke Yan escorted him to a private courtyard. Yu sought help from her lover Ci Mang, who took her to the clinic of Miracle Doctor Qianyun, where she offered anything for treatment.

• Gu Ming broke Yu’s fingers and warned her never to mock the dead again, while Duke Yan escorted him away.
• Yu ordered her servants to investigate Gu Ming, then abused a maid who reminded her that the residence had no physician.
• Yu summoned Ci Mang and begged him to fetch the Sovereign’s miracle doctor, but he refused and worsened her shattered hand while examining it.
• Ci Mang took Yu to the finest medical clinic, where Yu asked Daoist Qianyun to heal her hand and offered anything in return.

Yu’s resentment toward Duke Yan was revealed as Daoist Qianyun treated her injured hand. After setting her bone, he left her unconscious, while her revenge against Duke Yan remained unresolved.

• Yu flirted with Daoist Qianyun and offered him money, while Ci Mang insulted her and dismissed their affair as mere amusement.
• Yu’s history showed that she had once been Duke Yan’s wife’s maid, loved Duke Yan, and resented both him and his former duchess.
• Yu helped an East Lin Spy harm the pregnant duchess and later aided the East Lin People, who seized Duke Yan’s daughter and forced him to marry Yu.
• After the former duchess died, Yu kept watch on Duke Yan for the East Lin People and plotted to ruin his reputation, but he remained indifferent to her affairs.
• Daoist Qianyun covered his hand with cloth and set Yu’s bone, then squeezed it hard enough to make her pass out.

Xia Wanwan heard Daoist Qianyun’s gossip about Duke Yan’s wife and learned that the Compass she carried was an ancient weapon used against the Five Elements Spirit Pearls. The chapter ended with Daoist Qianyun horrified to learn that Xia Wanwan’s “little underling” had given it to her.

• Daoist Qianyun arrived at the Ninth Prince's Residence and told Xia Wanwan that Duke Yan’s wife was cheating on him.
• Liu Zi Xing and Liu Zimu came out to hear the gossip, and Daoist Qianyun recounted how the affair’s partners had tried to kill him.
• Xia Wanwan said she would tell Father about the affair and explained that Gu Ming was following Duke Yan to investigate his loyalties and deadly soldiers.
• Xia Wanwan showed Daoist Qianyun the Compass, and he recognized it as the Demon God’s weapon against the Five Elements Spirit Pearls.
• Xia Wanwan said her little underling had given her the Compass, leaving Daoist Qianyun shocked and asking who the underling was.

Daoist Qianyun learned that Xia Wanwan’s lackey Gu Ming was the Demon God’s legendary Left Guardian and that she had delivered the infant souls in the Abandoned Infant Pagoda. He used the Compass to locate the child with the Water Elemental Spirit Pearl, only to discover that it pointed at Liu Zi Xing.

• Liu Zi Xing and Zi Mu described Gu Ming as a friendly servant, and Daoist Qianyun realized he was the Demon God’s Left Guardian.
• Xia Wanwan explained that Gu Ming had begged to become her lackey after she sent the infant souls in the Abandoned Infant Pagoda on their way.
• Daoist Qianyun was shocked that Xia Wanwan had delivered the thousands of infant souls and complained that she had left him to deal with evil spirits.
• Xia Wanwan gave Daoist Qianyun the Compass, and he cast a spell that made its needle point toward Liu Zi Xing.
• Liu Zi Xing burst into tears, and Xia Wanwan joked that he was made of water.

Liu Zi Xing asked to find his birth family and learn why they had given him up. Mama Qing revealed that his birth parents had been death warriors, leaving their fate uncertain.

• Daoist Qianyun questioned why evil spirits had not hunted Liu Zi Xing before he was three, and Liu Zi Xing admitted he could not remember his early life.
• Liu Zi Xing asked Xia Wanwan and Daoist Qianyun to help him find his birth mother, and Xia Wanwan said Mama Qing could lead them to his original family.
• Zi Mu declined to go with them so he could prepare for the Autumn Examination, while Liu Zi Xing tried to spare him painful memories of his past.
• Daoist Qianyun took Xia Wanwan and Liu Zi Xing to the Self-Rescue Home, where Mama Qing welcomed them and served them mountain jelly.
• Mama Qing hesitated to help Liu Zi Xing, then revealed that his birth parents had been death warriors and might no longer be alive.

Mama Qing revealed that Liu Zi Xing’s parents were death warriors who had sent him away so he could live safely, and she guided him to Phoenix Mountain to seek them. Liu Zi Xing, Xia Wanwan, and Daoist Qianyun entered the mountain, where Xia Wanwan’s runes on a Brass Ship startled Daoist Qianyun.

• Mama Qing explained that Liu Zi Xing’s parents had been death warriors and tied a red ribbon around his wrist before leaving him at Phoenix Mountain’s foot.
• Liu Zi Xing said he wanted to find out how his parents were doing, then asked Xia Wanwan and Daoist Qianyun to accompany him into the dangerous mountain.
• Xia Wanwan said she also had something to search for and sent a paper crane toward the Capital with a message for her father.
• After the winding path left them lost and exhausted, Daoist Qianyun enlarged a paper boat with a spell and carried the two children aboard.
• Xia Wanwan drew runes on her Brass Ship ornament, and Daoist Qianyun turned back to look at it in horror.

Xia Wanwan impressed Daoist Qianyun by copying a magical talisman and using its incantation, then found the hidden settlement where the East Lin death warriors lived. After overhearing them discuss a dangerous mission against the expert who injured Sister Yu, she learned they planned to send a married couple whose child had been secretly sent away—leaving Liu Zi Xing shaken.

• Xia Wanwan drew the Azure Cloud Temple talisman and repeated Daoist Qianyun's incantation after hearing it once, then offered him her Brass Boat if he called her Master.
• Xia Wanwan, Liu Zi Xing, and Daoist Qianyun flew over Phoenix Mountain and spotted rice fields and a cluster of houses hidden deep in the mountains.
• Xia Wanwan landed the boat near the settlement's high, thorn-covered wall after dusk and hid with Liu Zi Xing and Daoist Qianyun when footsteps approached.
• Death warriors said Leader Ci Mang was assigning a dangerous mission to assassinate the expert who had injured Sister Yu at the Duke's estate.
• A death warrior proposed sending a married couple who had secretly sent their child away years earlier, and Liu Zi Xing went rigid.

Xia Wanwan, Daoist Qianyun, and Liu Zi Xing secretly observed East Lin’s death warriors as Ci Mang assigned Wan Qu and Qian Ye to assassinate Lord Gu. Liu Zi Xing recognized a red ribbon associated with his parents, but the chapter ended before he learned the truth.

• Liu Zi Xing overheard death warriors discussing a couple who had endured torture and survived a deadly mission, and Xia Wanwan suspected they might be his parents.
• Xia Wanwan used invisibility talismans to let herself, Daoist Qianyun, and Liu Zi Xing follow the death warriors to their assembly.
• Ci Mang explained that the Sovereign would lead a delegation to Great Xia next month and ordered two people to undertake a dangerous assassination mission.
• After the death warriors refused to volunteer, Ci Mang selected Wan Qu and Qian Ye, whom he intended to use to settle a grudge.
• The deputy leader suggested sending reinforcements, but Ci Mang insisted the couple go alone and ordered them to prepare their final affairs.
• Liu Zi Xing froze when Wan Qu took Qian Ye’s hand and exposed a length of red ribbon.

Yan Xiurong refused Uncle Qi’s offer to escape, choosing to remain as leverage in the East Lin People’s plot against Great Xia. Meanwhile, Wan Qu and Qian Ye mourned the child they had sent away, and Xia Wanwan prepared Liu Zi Xing to approach them.

• Ci Mang questioned his deputy about Yan Xiurong and ordered the Death Warriors to keep her under close watch.
• Uncle Qi told Yan Xiurong he planned to arrange her escape, but she insisted on staying to protect Duke Yan’s plans.
• Yan Xiurong revealed her martial skill by embedding an embroidery needle in a post outside the courtyard.
• Wan Qu and Qian Ye looked at their child’s portrait and lamented that their deadly mission might keep them from seeing him again.
• Xia Wanwan blocked sound and movement outside the couple’s room, then removed Liu Zi Xing’s Invisibility Talisman.

Liu Zi Xing met his parents, Wan Qu and Qian Ye, in the Death Warrior camp, but hid his identity so they would not recognize him. They left believing their child might still receive their message, while Ci Mang became suspicious of the room and Wan Qu’s unnatural lack of blood.

• Wan Qu and Qian Ye recognized the resemblance between Zi Xing and their child, but warned him to leave and removed the red ribbon from his wrist.
• Zi Xing pretended to be from a house to the east and asked for their ribbons; they gave him the ribbons and the painting of their child, along with a message explaining why they had sent him away.
• Wan Qu told Zi Xing that they had never regretted having or sending away their child, and Qian Ye praised his name as a small hope in the night.
• Xia Wanwan concealed Zi Xing as the couple left, and he collapsed in tears while they faintly heard him call them Father and Mother.
• Ci Mang searched the room after hearing the cry, then slashed Wan Qu’s arm and was shocked when it produced no blood.
• Ci Mang ordered the guards to search the room for something unclean.

Ci Mang's blade stabbed Daoist Qianyun again, but Xia Wanwan and Zi Xing escaped with him using a teleportation talisman. The camp's death warriors searched for them, and just as Ci Mang found their hiding place, a familiar man appeared and told them to stay quiet and follow him.

• Ci Mang thrust his blade through the doorway and stabbed Daoist Qianyun, who appeared after his blood revealed him.
• Daoist Qianyun failed to use his bloodied Instant-Shift Talisman, so Xia Wanwan and Zi Xing teleported away with him.
• Xia Wanwan gave Daoist Qianyun a pill that helped heal his two wounds, then refused to give him more unless he called her Master.
• Ci Mang's men searched the camp for the three fugitives, and Xia Wanwan, Zi Xing, and Daoist Qianyun hid beneath the perimeter wall.
• As Ci Mang's men discovered their hiding place, a familiar man covered Daoist Qianyun's mouth and told them to come with him.

Xia Qianhui rescued Xia Wanwan, Liu Zi Xing, and Daoist Qianyun from the Death Warrior Camp and explained how he had infiltrated it. Xia Wanwan revealed that Liu Zi Xing’s parents were leaving on a mission they would not survive, while she privately suspected they were already dead.

• Xia Qianhui led Xia Wanwan, Liu Zi Xing, and Daoist Qianyun through a hidden passage to escape the pursuing Ci Mang.
• Xia Qianhui explained that the Empress Dowager had sent him to investigate Phoenix Mountain, where he and his men infiltrated the Death Warrior Camp by posing as kitchen workers.
• Xia Qianhui told Xia Wanwan that he had endured the dangerous mission to prove himself capable of helping the Crown Prince protect Great Xia.
• Xia Wanwan explained that Liu Zi Xing had come to find his birth parents, and Xia Qianhui offered to ask the Emperor to spare them after the mission.
• Xia Wanwan told Xia Qianhui that Liu Zi Xing’s parents were leaving on a mission and would not return, then privately suspected they were already dead.

Xia Wanwan and her companions fled Ci Mang’s death warriors and hid in Yan Xiurong’s courtyard, where Yan Xiurong concealed them beneath a floor tile. Ci Mang searched her room, but the fugitives remained hidden as he questioned her about where they might be.

• Xia Qianhui, Xia Wanwan, Liu Zi Xing, and Daoist Qianyun escaped from Ci Mang and the pursuing death warriors.
• Xia Qianhui recognized Yan Xiurong’s courtyard and led the group inside to seek her help.
• Xia Wanwan mentioned Qiao Zhishu, prompting Yan Xiurong to realize they knew a secret linking him to her family.
• Yan Xiurong hid the group beneath a floor tile and pretended to rest when Ci Mang’s death warriors entered her room.
• Yan Xiurong claimed that other men had searched her room earlier, while Ci Mang’s men found no one and he suspiciously inspected her bathwater.