Chapter Summaries

Constable Li discovered that the slain martial artists carried forged travel passes and suspected they were foreign spies, prompting Three Signs County officials to plan an investigation of Xiangshan Zen Monastery. Meanwhile, Yi Shuyuan watched Ding Feixiong remain unconscious and sensed that the intertwined fortunes were growing stronger.

• Constable Li found three travel passes with forged seals among the bodies and concluded the dead men were likely foreign spies who had infiltrated Su Prefecture.
• Constables at Xiangshan Zen Monastery reported that the missing visitors had not returned and that two monks were meditating before a crowd, while Master Guangji remained unseen.
• The officials of Three Signs County heard the constables’ reports and decided to notify Su Prefecture while sending men to investigate and surveil the monastery overnight.
• The county commandant, Constable Li, and several constables volunteered to pose as worshippers and stay at the monastery to investigate.
• Yi Shuyuan read the Peerless Elixir Art, noted that Ding Feixiong had not awakened, and sensed that the influence of intertwined fortunes was growing.

Yi Shuyuan planned to build an Alchemy Furnace from a yin-charged coffin while officials discovered that the missing pilgrims had been spies targeting Ding Feixiong. After Ding Feixiong awoke from seven days of meditation, Yi Shuyuan prepared to leave Xiangshan Zen Monastery, just as an armed force approached.

• Yi Shuyuan decided to seek an Alchemy Furnace and realized the peculiar coffin in his Folding Fan could be made into one.
• Constable Li and the County Commandant searched the missing pilgrims' belongings and found precise border maps, surveying tools, and a letter identifying Ding Feixiong as their target.
• Ding Feixiong awoke after seven days of meditation, and Monk Zhaoli told him that Yi Shuyuan had taught the sutra.
• Yi Shuyuan met Ding Feixiong and Monk Zhaoli, said he would leave the monastery later that day, and warned that laying down the butcher's blade did not instantly make Monk Wufa a Buddha.
• A large armed force approached Xiangshan Zen Monastery.

Great Yong troops surrounded Xiangshan Zen Monastery to arrest Ding Feixiong as a suspected Southern Yan spy. After fighting off an ambush and a volley of arrows without harming the monastery’s occupants, Ding Feixiong defeated the advancing soldiers and surrendered to prevent further casualties.

• Two battalions sealed off Xiangshan Zen Monastery, and Abbot Guangji went to confront their commander as Zhaoli vanished from sight.
• When an officer named Ding Feixiong as a suspected spy, several disguised attackers ambushed him, but his protective force sent them flying.
• Ding Feixiong used his Iron Buddha Beads and martial skill to deflect most of a volley of arrows, while Yi Shuyuan quietly redirected stray arrows away from the pilgrims.
• Ding Feixiong leaped from the monastery wall and fought through the soldiers without killing them, reaching the commanding officer and catching his spear.
• Ding Feixiong declared that he was not a spy and surrendered, allowing the soldiers to restrain him and remove his heavy prayer beads.

Ding Feixiong was captured and questioned about the Southern Yan spies he had killed, while Yi Shuyuan was identified as the scholar who had taught him a sutra. The officers found no evidence against Yi Shuyuan but kept him under guard until the governor-general could decide what to do.

• Ding Feixiong surrendered, and soldiers detained the monks and visitors at Xiangshan Zen Monastery while searching the surrounding mountains.
• Ding Feixiong told the officers that the spies had sought his Returning Origin Art and Returning Origin Pills, and he angrily rejected the accusation that he was a spy.
• The monastery's monks named Yi Shuyuan as the scholar who had taught Ding Feixiong a sutra, so officers brought Yi Shuyuan in for questioning.
• Yi Shuyuan acknowledged teaching the sutra and explained that he had mistaken Ding Feixiong for a devout monk; the officers searched his belongings and found no evidence of espionage.
• The officers arranged separate lodging for Yi Shuyuan but kept him under guard, and they decided to await the governor-general's arrival before making a final decision.

Northwest Commander Zou Jie rode to Xiangshan Zen Monastery to question Ding Feixiong and Yi Shuyuan, while Duan Silie recognized signs of an extraordinary martial artist in the captive monk. Yi Shuyuan revealed that Duan Silie's long-remembered benefactor was named Long Feiyang, leaving Duan eager to find him.

• Zou Jie received an urgent dispatch about Ding Feixiong's surrender and rode to Mount Xiang with Duan Silie and hundreds of soldiers.
• Duan Silie recalled meeting a likely innate martial artist at the Martial Arts Gathering and regretted losing the Mountain and River Immortal Furnace Diagram to Mai Lingfei.
• Zou Jie and Duan Silie met the captive monk, who said he had become Wufa after Yi Shuyuan taught him scripture and asked them not to trouble Yi Shuyuan or Zhaoli.
• Zou Jie chose to visit Yi Shuyuan himself, where he found him drinking with Zhaoli while Stoneborn slept nearby.
• Yi Shuyuan said he had only taught a scripture to a man whose heart turned toward the Buddha, rather than judging Ding Feixiong to be a spy.
• Yi Shuyuan told Duan Silie that the senior who gave him the Body-Tempering Diagram was named Long Feiyang, and that they had last met in Heaven-Bearing Prefecture several years earlier.

Yi Shuyuan persuaded Ding Feixiong to give up his martial arts so he could remain at Xiangshan Zen Monastery as Monk Wufa. Duan Silie challenged the monk to fulfill his regret of never tasting defeat, and Long Feiyang appeared to face him.

• Duan Silie recognized Yi Shuyuan’s connection to Long Feiyang and asked him to arrange a meeting, while Zou Jie cleared Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn of suspicion and let them move freely around the monastery.
• Zou Jie agreed to spare Ding Feixiong but asked Yi Shuyuan to persuade him to cripple his martial arts; Yi Shuyuan went to the meditation room to speak with him.
• Ding Feixiong accepted that he should become Monk Wufa, and Yi Shuyuan realized his only regret was never having tasted defeat.
• Duan Silie challenged Ding Feixiong to a fight, and Zou Jie ordered the soldiers to remove the monk’s shackles.
• As Duan Silie and Monk Wufa prepared to fight in the Blue Stone Courtyard, Yi Shuyuan returned to the guest quarters and sent a conjured body away.
• Yi Shuyuan transformed into Long Feiyang and looked down at the fighters, certain Duan Silie would lose, then declared that he would fulfill the monk’s wish.

Duan Silie fought Monk Wufa in a fierce duel but could not force him to use his full strength. Yi Shuyuan, appearing as Long Feiyang, challenged the monk and met his final attack on the thirtieth exchange; the clash left the courtyard hidden by wind, snow, dust, and shattered stone.

• Duan Silie unleashed a storm of spear attacks against Monk Wufa, who shattered the ground and countered with his Iron Buddha Beads.
• After seventy-two exchanges, Duan Silie admitted defeat, and Monk Wufa praised his skill while saying he might someday reach the Innate Realm.
• Yi Shuyuan entered in Long Feiyang's form, challenged Monk Wufa, and promised to decide the victor within thirty exchanges.
• Monk Wufa attacked with his beads and palms while Yi Shuyuan evaded and controlled the fight without using immortal arts.
• Yi Shuyuan explained how martial skill could follow the currents of fate, then struck Monk Wufa and evaded his flying beads and follow-up attacks.
• On the thirtieth exchange, Monk Wufa staked his true qi on a palm strike, and Yi Shuyuan met it with his own as wind, snow, dust, and shattered stone filled the courtyard.

Yi Shuyuan defeated Monk Wufa in a final palm clash, then spared him from becoming crippled and watched him make peace with the military officers. After leaving to meet his old friend, Yi Shuyuan returned to his lodging, while the emperor learned of Southern Yan spies and ordered preparations for war and an effort to bring Yi Shuyuan to the Capital City.

• Yi Shuyuan defeated Monk Wufa, who had sacrificed his martial cultivation to match the senior’s final strike, and then used his true qi to preserve the monk’s physical health.
• Monk Wufa gave Duan Silie his black-iron Buddhist Prayer Beads and promised to write out the Returning Origin Art, while Zou Jie pledged to seek an Ordination Certificate for him.
• Yi Shuyuan left for the rear courtyard with Stoneborn, agreed to let him learn martial arts, and saw through Monk Zhaoli’s illusion as the monk fled.
• Nine days later, Zou Jie’s memorial reached the emperor, who learned that Southern Yan spies had mapped the border terrain and ordered troops and equipment sent to the northwest.
• The emperor granted Monk Wufa an Ordination Certificate and instructed Zhang Liangxi to reward those involved and persuade Yi Shuyuan to come to the Capital City.

After Xiangshan Zen Monastery recovered from the clash, Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn left, while Monk Wufa received an imperial ordination certificate and the monastery was renamed Xiangshan Monastery. The story then followed Yi Shuyuan’s companions and the Mo and Yi households on New Year’s Eve, ending with Yi A Bao claiming his family still had a piece of his great-uncle’s calligraphy.

• Monk Wufa helped repair the monastery courtyard with Duan Silie, discussed the Returning Origin Art and Snow Python Gallbladder with Yi Shuyuan, and chose to stay and cultivate for a time.
• Yi Shuyuan told Monk Wufa that his story was not over, then left Xiangshan Zen Monastery with Stoneborn.
• An imperial envoy later gave Monk Wufa his ordination certificate and bestowed calligraphy and incense money on the monastery; the emperor’s calligraphy renamed it Xiangshan Monastery, drawing crowds of visitors.
• On New Year’s Eve, Master Mo and Madam Mo wondered about their absent son, while a servant reported that Master Qi had likely left Mingzhou City.
• In Su Prefecture, Yi Shuyuan, Hui Mian, and Stoneborn shared a meal as Yi Shuyuan sensed something and sighed.
• At the Yi Household, Yi A Bao defended his great-uncle’s calligraphy to his friends and insisted that his family still possessed one piece.

Yi A Bao showed his friends his great-uncle Yi Shuyuan’s ink-stained calligraphy, “Heaven and Earth Transformation,” and they were astonished by its artistry. The group brought it to Teacher Li for advice on mounting it, and a guest recommended a highly skilled craftsman in Moon Province.

• Yi A Bao fetched an old box from his parents’ room and showed his friends the damaged calligraphy his great-uncle had written.
• Yi A Bao told his friends that the calligrapher was Yi Shuyuan, also known as Yi Daozi, and that the piece was called “Heaven and Earth Transformation.”
• Yi A Bao and five friends traveled to Yuanjiang County to ask Teacher Li for help preserving the heirloom.
• Teacher Li examined the calligraphy and praised it as an extraordinary work, lamenting that ink obscured half the sheet.
• Liu warned that an ordinary craftsman might damage the old paper and recommended a skilled mounting craftsman in Moon Province.

Master Li, Yi A Bao, and their companions brought the fragile calligraphy to Xu Zichang in Moon Province to have it mounted. When Xu Zichang examined it alone, he tried to move the ink stains with a mysterious power, but the calligraphy repelled him and left him injured.

• Master Li and Qian Xingwen recommended that Xu Zichang mount Yi A Bao's fragile calligraphy, and Master Li accompanied the students to the Yi Household to discuss the trip.
• On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Qian Xingwen led Master Li, his son, and the students to Xu Zichang's home in Moon Province.
• Xu Zichang examined the calligraphy and asked to take it into his quiet room, where he attempted to draw the ink stains inward using a mysterious power.
• A powerful force hurled Xu Zichang into the wall, and he extinguished a fallen lamp before it could burn the calligraphy.
• When the others entered, Xu Zichang concealed his injuries and said thunder had startled him, then concluded that heaven's will—not the calligrapher—had ruined the ink markings.

Xu Zichang became absorbed in the Heaven and Earth Transformation and briefly encountered Yi Shuyuan through the writing before the others interrupted him. Afterward, Xu tried to persuade Yi A Bao to give him the calligraphy, but Teacher Li led the group away, warning them to avoid Xu.

• Xu Zichang studied the Heaven and Earth Transformation and murmured that he wished he could find its creator.
• Yi Shuyuan's consciousness appeared on the sheet from faraway Su Prefecture, saw Xu Zichang, and then returned to his body.
• Teacher Li and the others knocked until Xu Zichang woke, cleaned the blood from himself, and let them into the quiet room.
• Xu Zichang asked Yi A Bao to sell him the calligraphy and offered riches, status, longevity, and beautiful companions in exchange.
• Teacher Li hurried Yi A Bao and the others away, then warned them at Yibin Tower not to deal with Xu Zichang.

Yi A Bao kept the mounted calligraphy at Moon Province Academy while Xu Zichang struggled against the desire to take it. After Xu Zichang visited A Bao’s room and left without waking him, he drank beside a pond and encountered a mysterious man whose reality he later questioned.

• An old craftsman mounted the calligraphy at Moon Province Academy, and Yi A Bao wrestled with thoughts of its promised benefits and Teacher Li’s warning.
• Xu Zichang fought off strange spiritual shapes, then went to the academy and stopped himself from waking Yi A Bao and taking the calligraphy.
• Xu Zichang wandered the city drinking wine and fell into thoughts about a young woman depicted in a scroll.
• As dawn broke, Xu Zichang saw a gray-haired man in the rain who spoke of a rainwater tribulation and called it his own.
• Children startled Xu Zichang awake beside the pond, and he wondered whether the man had been real, a dream, or an illusion.

Yi Shuyuan returned to Moon City with Stoneborn, who had learned to guide their cloud past a rain cloud while his master pretended to sleep. There, Yi Shuyuan met Xu Zichang, who realized their earlier encounter had been real, and asked him about Gongsun Yin.

• Stoneborn nervously steered Yi Shuyuan’s cloud, then used his insight into the rain cloud to guide them safely around it.
• Stoneborn grew exhausted and fell asleep after they landed outside Moon City, so Yi Shuyuan carried him into the city.
• Xu Zichang retrieved his blank, waterlogged painting from the pond and left after failing to divine what had happened to its image.
• Yi Shuyuan approached Xu Zichang, introduced himself, and asked whether he knew Gongsun Yin.
• Xu Zichang recognized Yi Shuyuan from his supposed dream but denied ever hearing of Gongsun Yin.

Yi Shuyuan helped Xu Zichang’s weakened heart demon recede and sent word to Divine General Cao, then visited Moon Province Academy. Yi A Bao spotted his Great-Granduncle at the entrance and rushed to greet him.

• Yi Shuyuan dispelled the demonic thoughts that tried to infect him, and Xu Zichang realized he needed to return to his lodging and restore his mental strength.
• Xu Zichang checked Stoneborn’s precise prediction of the rainfall, then hurried to his quiet chamber to enter still concentration.
• Yi Shuyuan sent a message to Divine General Cao and told Hui Mian that Xu Zichang was deeply connected to Gongsun Yin.
• A gatekeeper interrupted Yi A Bao’s lesson to tell him his Great-Granduncle had come to visit.
• Yi A Bao ran to the academy entrance and called out to Yi Shuyuan.

Yi Shuyuan returned to Yuanjiang County with his grandnephew Yi A Bao and disciple Mo Shisheng after nearly ten years away. At the Yi Household, he reunited with his family, whose members welcomed him home and marveled at how little he seemed to have aged.

• Yi Shuyuan reunited with Yi A Bao at Moon Province Academy and invited him to return to Yuanjiang County.
• Yi A Bao obtained leave from Master Lu, and he and Yi Shuyuan traveled by boat and carriage toward West River Village.
• Mo Shisheng woke during the journey, described a strange dream of dying as a black-scaled creature, and said his energy had fully recovered.
• Yi A Bao brought Yi Shuyuan and Mo Shisheng to the Yi Household, where Zhao and Li welcomed them and learned that Mo Shisheng was Yi Shuyuan's disciple.
• Yi Baokang and Yi Yong'an hurried home to greet Yi Shuyuan, and Yi Baokang tearfully expressed how much he had missed his elder brother.

Yi Shuyuan reunited with the Yi family and enthralled them with a dramatic story about Wang Yunchun’s search for an abducted girl. After the meal, he met Huang Hongchuan, Old Pine, and the village Land God, and said he would soon visit Broad South Mountain with Stoneborn to cultivate and refine a treasure.

• Yi Shuyuan shared dinner with his family, apologized to Yi Baokang for leaving without a proper goodbye, and declined Zhao’s suggestion that he seek an official post.
• Yi Shuyuan performed the story of Wang Yunchun, moving his family with the search for Old Man Zhou’s abducted granddaughter and the girl’s reunion with her parents at her grandfather’s grave.
• Yi Shuyuan left the dining hall and found Huang Hongchuan, Old Pine, and the Land God waiting outside the courtyard gate.
• Yi Shuyuan told Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine that he planned to visit Broad South Mountain with Stoneborn to cultivate and borrow a spiritually blessed spot to refine a treasure.
• Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine departed, and the Land God promised to look after the Yi family before leaving as well.

Yi Shuyuan helped Stoneborn begin forging his immortal foundation in a stream on Broad South Mountain, using mountain power and an elaborate alchemical transformation. As Stoneborn cultivated amid water and fire, Yi Shuyuan melted the Bronze Coffin into a furnace beneath a sky where rain, lightning, sun, moon, and stars appeared together.

• Yi Shuyuan stamped his calligraphy with the seal of Yi Daozi, told Yi A Bao to keep it, and said he would go into the mountains the next morning.
• Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn visited the Yi family graves, where Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine joined them before they continued into Broad South Mountain.
• Stoneborn played in a stream, and his joy brought rain; Yi Shuyuan then told him to forge his immortal foundation there.
• Yi Shuyuan gave Hui Mian the Ritual Ruler to guard Stoneborn and asked Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine to help melt bronze and cast a furnace.
• Yi Shuyuan joined the Mountain and River State Map, the Folding Fan, the wine Gourd, and the Bronze Coffin in a fiery transformation as Stoneborn cultivated between the stream and the flames.
• Yi Shuyuan drew sun, moon, stars, rain, and thunder together above Broad South Mountain, leaving Huang Hongchuan bewildered by the scene.

Yi Shuyuan forged an extraordinary alchemy furnace with help from Huang Hongchuan, Old Pine, and his magical treasures, drawing out the Rainwater Tribulation and using its lightning to complete the furnace. Stoneborn also succeeded in forging his immortal foundation, and Yi Shuyuan prepared to refine pills and give his disciple a gift.

• As Stoneborn reached the crucial moment of forging his immortal foundation, water surged through Broad South Mountain, and Yi Shuyuan used his Dragon Pearl to keep it within the waterways.
• Yi Shuyuan asked Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine to lend their strength, and the three joined their power to shape a brass alchemy furnace as water, fire, and celestial forces converged.
• The Rainwater Tribulation broke through the Mountain and River State Map's concealment, but Yi Shuyuan and his allies channeled its lightning into the furnace until the tribulation weakened and the furnace was complete.
• The flood and flames subsided, revealing the finished Bronze Furnace, while Stoneborn succeeded in merging water and fire within his intent realm and forging his immortal foundation.
• Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine thanked Yi Shuyuan for the chance to face the Heavenly Tribulation, and Old Pine realized it had helped him overcome his cultivation barrier.
• Yi Shuyuan told Stoneborn that he would use the remaining materials, lightning, and fire to test the furnace by refining pills and give his disciple a gift.

Yi Shuyuan used the Heaven-Turning Furnace to refine an elixir and a magical treasure while Huang Hongchuan learned that Stoneborn had established an immortal foundation by forming an immortal furnace within his body. As a Thunder Department Deity arrived at Broad South Mountain, Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine wondered whether the visitor had come because of the heavenly tribulation.

• Yi Shuyuan asked Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine for ingredients, then adapted an elixir formula and began refining it in the Heaven-Turning Furnace as starlight gathered over Broad South Mountain.
• Huang Hongchuan questioned Stoneborn about his breakthrough, and Stoneborn explained that Yi Shuyuan's furnace refinement had helped him form an immortal furnace and gain immortal magical power.
• Stoneborn demonstrated Water Control, and Huang Hongchuan observed that the boy's immortal spirit qi remained fully integrated as he cast the spell.
• Old Pine spotted approaching divine light, and Huang Hongchuan and Old Pine recognized the visitor as a Thunder Department Deity drawn by the heavenly tribulation.