Chapter Summaries

The Heavenly Emperor accepted the evidence against the East Sea Dragon Lord and summoned Yi Shuyuan and the Dragon Lord to Heaven as witnesses. While Yi Shuyuan continued treating refugees, the Dragon Lord ordered his followers to seize Hong Wei before the Celestial Court could intervene.

• The Fire Virtue Star Lord and Water Virtue Star Lord brought the damaged Land God statue to the Heavenly Emperor, who ordered Cao Yugao to invite Yi Daozi and sent the Water Virtue Star Lord to summon the East Sea Dragon Lord.
• The Heavenly Emperor ordered the Heaven-Shaking Drum sounded and the celestial officials summoned back to their posts.
• Cao Yugao found Yi Shuyuan treating refugees in Deng Province and told him the Heavenly Emperor had invited him to Heaven; Yi Shuyuan chose to finish treating his patients first.
• The Water Virtue Star Lord told the East Sea Dragon Lord about the evidence and invited him to Heaven, but the Dragon Lord dismissed him without answering.
• The Dragon Lord ordered his followers to seize Hong Wei and Hong Jun, while Ji Zi and Ji Ming headed to Longwind Lake to enlist Dragon King Jiang, who was friends with Yi Daozi.

Jiang Lang led East Sea dragons to the Datong River to kill Hong Wei, but the Heavenly Gods sealed the waterways and confronted them. A battle erupted over Deng Province as Hong Wei fled underwater, begging the Heavenly Gods to save him.

• Jiang Lang received the Dragon Lord's decree and set out for Lingdong with three hundred Aquatic Folk and the East Sea contingent.
• Hong Wei reflected on surviving the floods and becoming a Water God before sensing a disturbance in the Datong River.
• Jiang Lang's force found the Datong River basin in Deng Province sealed by the Celestial Court, and the dragons tried to break through.
• Heavenly Gods from the Water, Fire, Thunder, and Dipper departments blocked the dragons and refused to let them execute Hong Wei before his case was judged.
• Jiang Lang and the Flood Dragons attacked the Heavenly Gods, but divine barriers and strikes gave Hong Wei time to flee underwater and plead for rescue.

Jiang Lang and the dragons risked their lives trying to kill Hong Wei before the Heavenly Gods captured him and took him to the Celestial Court. Afterward, Dragonkind imprisoned Hong Jun and returned to the East Sea, where the True Dragon spared Jiang Lang and the others; Hong Ye later learned of the family’s disgrace and was denied an audience.

• Hong Wei fled through the Datong River as Jiang Lang and the dragons attacked the Heavenly Gods and pursued him, while Yi Shuyuan chose not to intervene.
• The Heavenly Gods stopped the dragons’ final strike, captured Hong Wei, and announced that he would be taken to the Celestial Court for judgment.
• Meng Ru arrested Hong Jun, who claimed responsibility for Hong Wei’s actions, and guards sealed his Water Palace before he was imprisoned in the Dragon Palace Dungeon.
• Jiang Lang and the surviving dragons returned to the East Sea and begged the True Dragon for punishment; the True Dragon ordered them to tend to their wounds.
• Hong Ye learned that his family had been disgraced and sought an audience with the Dragon Lord, but the Dragon Lord refused to receive him.

Yi Shuyuan witnessed the Celestial Court judge Hong Wei, whose crimes were exposed before the Heavenly Emperor and Dragon Lord, and saw him sentenced to execution on Cold Dew. Dragonkind’s departure left Yi Shuyuan suspecting the dispute was not over, while rumors of the wicked dragon’s capture spread among the flood victims.

• Yi Shuyuan and Cao Yugao arrived at the Celestial Court, where the Heavenly Emperor summoned Dragonkind to witness the judgment and ordered officials to invite the Dragon Lord.
• The Dragon Lord arrived with more than a hundred Flood Dragons, including Jiang Lang, and exchanged formal greetings with Yi Shuyuan and the Heavenly Emperor.
• The Heavenly Mystery Instrument revealed Hong Wei’s crimes to the assembled gods and dragons, and the Dragon Lord agreed that Hong Wei deserved execution while asking for him to die in the East Sea.
• The Heavenly Emperor sentenced Hong Wei to execution on the Dragon-Skinning Platform on Cold Dew, and the Dragon Lord departed, saying they would see after Cold Dew.
• Yi Shuyuan returned to Dengzhou, treated patients at a clinic as residents began returning home, and heard stories of the Heavenly Gods capturing a wicked dragon spread through the disaster-stricken region.

Yi Shuyuan treated an exhausted Li Qian while warning that the lingering heat and unrecovered bodies could bring an epidemic. As Chu Hang heard heavenly drums and realized Hong Wei was being executed, the Dragon-Skinning Platform bound Hong Wei in his dragon form, and a group of Flood Dragons arrived to confront the scene.

• An elderly woman asked Yi Shuyuan and the clinic staff for medicine for her feverish child, but they had none, so Yi Shuyuan offered to visit the child at home.
• Li Qian came to the Benevolent Aid Hall for treatment, and Yi Shuyuan eased his exhausted legs while Cheng Luo and the others discussed the risk of an epidemic.
• Chu Hang heard drums that the guard could not hear, and Yi Shuyuan suggested they came from the Heavenly Realm as Hong Wei faced execution.
• Divine beings brought out the Dragon-Skinning Platform, bound Hong Wei in chains, and exposed his Flood Dragon form.
• An old Flood Dragon and several others arrived as a female dragon cried out for You'er.

The Celestial Court failed to execute Hong Wei because the East Sea Dragon Lord’s magic kept him alive, while Hong Wei mocked the gods and threatened Dragonkind would destroy their temples. Yi Shuyuan answered the prayers of the flood’s victims, transformed into the True Lord of Luminous Spirit, and beheaded Hong Wei, whose death also killed Hong Jun and wounded the Dragon Lord.

• Hong Ye reached the Dragon-Skinning Platform with Hong Wei’s mother, but the Heavenly Emperor ordered Hong Wei’s beheading despite their pleas.
• The executioner’s saber shattered, and the Heavenly Court’s true fire, five-element true thunder, and the Lord of the Martial Star’s Iron Whip all failed to kill Hong Wei.
• The Dragon Lord’s magic linked Hong Wei’s suffering to Hong Jun in the Dragon Palace Dungeon, and Hong Wei taunted the Heavenly Gods while threatening their temples.
• Yi Shuyuan drew on the people’s prayers and the Emperor’s Sword to transform into the True Lord of Luminous Spirit and fly to the Dragon-Skinning Platform.
• The True Lord of Luminous Spirit struck Hong Wei’s head from his body; Hong Jun was beheaded at the same moment, and the Dragon Lord found blood on his wounded palm.

Yi Shuyuan became the True Lord of Luminous Spirit, Calamity's Bane, and Manifest Divinity, slew Hong Wei, and sent the dragon’s head falling into Deng Province. After the Heavenly Emperor invited him to celebrate, Yi Shuyuan returned to his sleeping body at the clinic, where Li Qian wondered how to describe the heavenly events in his memorial.

• The Dragon Lord realized that the force which killed Hong Wei was not the Heavenly Emperor, as Yi Shuyuan announced himself as the True Lord of Luminous Spirit, Calamity's Bane, and Manifest Divinity.
• The Golden Palace Jade Mirror recorded Yi Shuyuan’s divine title, while he kicked Hong Wei’s head from the Dragon-Skinning Platform and the head fell into Li Family Village before dissolving.
• The Heavenly Emperor invited Yi Shuyuan to celebrate at the Divine Firmament Treasure Hall, but Yi Shuyuan declined and vanished toward the lower world.
• Yi Shuyuan woke at the clinic and received feedback of abundant merit, while Hui Mian guessed that he had slain Hong Wei in his divine form.
• Li Qian asked Chu Hang how to describe the strange events in his memorial.

Yi Shuyuan treated a gravely ill man in Dengzhou City as signs of an approaching plague spread through Lingdong. Meanwhile, Li Qian reported the Heavenly God’s dragon-slaying to the emperor, who accepted the reports and planned to grant the god official recognition after the disaster eased.

• Yi Shuyuan visited an old woman’s home and found her son burning with fever and likely beyond saving.
• Yi Shuyuan told the old woman how to care for her son and recognized that Lingdong still faced an epidemic threat.
• Li Qian questioned villagers at Li Family Village about the dragon’s head and decided their account was credible.
• Li Qian submitted a cautious memorial describing the Heavenly God’s slaying of the evil dragon and Lingdong’s disaster.
• The emperor heard corroborating reports from Zhang Liangxi, ordered more medicinal supplies sent to the region, and resolved to recognize the god after the crisis stabilized.

A plague broke out in Baishi County, and Yi Shuyuan realized the disease had already reached Zhao Province’s crowded provincial capital. As he rushed there to help, his disciple Qi Zhongbin confronted a transformed demon, only to be stopped by Senior Gray’s voice.

• Li Qian learned that plague had erupted in Baishi County and feared it would spread to the provincial capital, where over two hundred thousand refugees had gathered.
• Yi Shuyuan divined that the provincial capital was in danger, set out for Zhao Province, and urged Li Qian to prioritize protecting it.
• Yi Shuyuan traveled toward Zhao Province with a guard, while the plague had already entered the provincial capital without yet erupting.
• Qi Zhongbin sensed a transformed demon near Fenglin County, attacked her with his sword and Palm Thunder, and drove her to the ground.
• The wounded woman pleaded that she had harmed no one, and Senior Gray called out for Qi Zhongbin to stay his sword.

Hui Mian stopped Qi Zhongbin from killing Chen Han and revealed that she had helped tame the floods before suffering serious injuries. After Chen Han warned of plague ghosts spreading from the south, Qi Zhongbin went to Zhao Province to alert its governor, but left to fight the rising plague ghosts when the governor hesitated.

• Hui Mian arrived as Qi Zhongbin fought Chen Han, then explained that she had helped tame the floods and was not an evil creature.
• Chen Han warned Qi Zhongbin that plague ghosts had come from the south, and Hui Mian told him to hurry to Zhao Province and warn its authorities and local spirits.
• Qi Zhongbin and Chen Han reached Zhao Province City and used the Celestial Master Token to gain an audience with Governor Wan.
• Qi Zhongbin urged Governor Wan to isolate the sick, prepare places to treat them, and restrict travel, but the governor remained uncertain.
• Qi Zhongbin left the government office with Chen Han, saying he would slay demons because the plague ghosts would rise after nightfall.

Qi Zhongbin and Chen Han sought the Zhao Province City God's help against the Plague Ghosts, and the City God accepted Chen Han after learning she had helped tame the flood. Hui Mian taught Chen Han that the City God's change of heart came from her own intentions, while a physician in the city's shelter district began investigating a fast-spreading illness.

• Qi Zhongbin brought Chen Han to the City God Temple, where the City God and the temple's ghosts and gods initially treated her as a threat.
• Qi Zhongbin warned the City God of the Plague Ghosts and requested help from the Zhao Province Underworld Office.
• Chen Han explained that she and her sisters had tried to tame the flood in Deng Province, and the City God recognized her as one of the three demons saved by Immortal Venerable Yi Daozi.
• Hui Mian told Chen Han that the City God respected her own intentions rather than merely Yi Daozi's fame, and Chen Han knelt to thank him for enlightening her.
• A physician in the eastern shelter district examined a sick woman and, seeing similar symptoms among the people nearby, searched his books for answers.

Hu Kuangming and Qi Zhongbin urged Zhao Province’s officials to prepare for a possible plague, while Yi Shuyuan warned Chu Hang and the Great Yong court that drought could follow the floods. The chapter ended with Jian Lü riding to deliver Yi Shuyuan’s letter and Yi Shuyuan taking flight on a gust of wind.

• After a cold gust extinguished the lamp, Hu Kuangming steadied himself and told the little girl her mother needed medicinal herbs.
• Qi Zhongbin killed a Plague Ghost near the shelter and urged Hu Kuangming to report the danger to the authorities; Hu Kuangming gave the little girl his robe for her mother.
• Wan Shixing summoned officials and physicians after Hu Kuangming reported a possible epidemic.
• Yi Shuyuan wrote Chu Hang a letter warning that drought might follow the floods and recommending channels, deep wells, and water-source searches.
• Yi Shuyuan persuaded Jian Lü to deliver the letter to Chu Hang in Dengzhou City, and Jian Lü departed for the city.
• Yi Shuyuan gathered his belongings, led his horse into the air on a gust of wind, and flew away.

Yi Shuyuan investigated Baishi County’s deadly epidemic and organized Zhao Province City’s response, but the plague remained severe and supplies were scarce. When Qi Zhongbin warned that the city might not last until reinforcements arrived, Yi Shuyuan sent him a Vital Essence Pill to put in a well to sustain the people.

• Yi Shuyuan questioned Baishi County’s Netherworld Officials and dead physicians, learning the epidemic’s course and treatments while finding that medicinal ingredients were scarce.
• Yi Shuyuan entered Zhao Province City with orders from Imperial Commissioner Li and worked with Wan Shixing and local physicians to isolate patients, organize care, and manage supplies.
• Physicians in Zhao Province City argued over prescriptions and rationing as the epidemic continued, while Hu Kuangming recorded their discussions for Yi Shuyuan.
• Qi Zhongbin and Hui Mian told Yi Shuyuan that the Plague Ghosts were nearly all slain but a strange presence remained elsewhere, and Qi warned that Zhao Province City might not hold out for reinforcements.
• Yi Shuyuan gave Qi Zhongbin the Ritual Ruler and a white jade box containing a Vital Essence Pill, instructing him to cast them into a spring-fed well and suppress the pill qi.

Qi Zhongbin used the final Vital Essence Pill to help save Zhao Province City, while the emperor learned that Tan Yuanshang was bringing crucial supplies toward the plague-stricken region. When Tan’s ships ran aground, Chu Hang rallied the people of Deng Province to tow them through the shallows toward Zhao Province.

• Qi Zhongbin put the Vital Essence Pill into the Earth-Spring Well, where Jade Startle’s Ritual Ruler suppressed its glow, then left believing one elixir was worth saving over two hundred thousand lives.
• The emperor and Zhang Liangxi discussed the plague in Zhao Province, Yi Shuyuan’s journey there, and Chu Hang’s abilities before receiving Tan Yuanshang’s report that he had gathered supplies and set out.
• Tan Yuanshang’s fleet ran aground on the Datong River in Yun Province, forcing him to seek carts, horses, or small boats to move the supplies onward.
• Chu Hang brought more than a thousand people from Deng Province to Tan’s ships and proposed towing them through the shallow stretches of the river.
• Chu Hang and the people hauled the ships forward with ropes, aided by earth gods and water spirits who steadied the ground and adjusted the current.

Chu Hang led Lingdong’s people in hauling seventeen supply ships into Zhao Province, where Tan Yuanshang delivered medicine and joined Yi Shuyuan in treating plague patients. After seeing patients begin to recover, Yi Shuyuan reflected that future generations should remember the disaster and those who responded to it.

• Chu Hang and people from Deng Province and Zhao Province hauled seventeen cargo ships through the shallows over four days and five nights, reaching deep water near Zhao Province City.
• The fleet arrived at the city’s wharf, where Wan Shixing and Yi Shuyuan welcomed Tan Yuanshang and the lifesaving supplies.
• Officials kept Tan Yuanshang and the crews aboard for three days while they drank Illness-Dispelling Screen Decoction before entering the city.
• Tan Yuanshang accompanied Yi Shuyuan as he examined plague patients at a requisitioned inn, where several severe cases had begun to improve.
• Tan Yuanshang and Yi Shuyuan discussed Celestial Masters and the importance of remembering the disaster’s history.

After the epidemic and flood disaster in Lingdong were brought under control, Yi Shuyuan left Zhao Province City and entrusted Qi Zhongbin with investigating a hidden presence and protecting Great Yong. Imperial decrees then rewarded the relief effort and formally ended the disaster's aftermath.

• Hu Kuangming compiled physicians’ epidemic records with Yi Shuyuan’s guidance into the Treatise on Strange Epidemics, and the plague was eradicated across Lingdong.
• Yi Shuyuan retrieved Jade Startle from the Earth-Spring Well, then met Qi Zhongbin and Hui Mian outside Zhao Province City to discuss the elusive presence hiding from him.
• Yi Shuyuan tasked Qi Zhongbin with investigating the presence and protecting Great Yong, while Hui Mian chose to help him.
• Yi Shuyuan gave Hui Mian a secret blessing, then departed Lingdong as Qi Zhongbin and Hui Mian watched him go.
• Tan Yuanshang learned that Yi Shuyuan had left, and imperial decrees rewarded Li Qian, retained Chu Hang to oversee reconstruction, and bestowed a divine title on the Dragon-Slaying True God.

Yi Shuyuan visited the Heavenly Emperor to request an Investiture Talisman Edict for Old Vine of Heavenly Battle Mountain, whose unusual earth veins had thwarted past attempts at investiture. After the Heavenly Emperor issued a limited edict, Yi Shuyuan bowed to it, and its surface turned gold.

• Yi Shuyuan left Lingdong and traveled to the Heavenly Realm on the first day of the lunar year.
• The Heavenly Emperor asked Yi Shuyuan whether the Manifest Sage True Lord of Luminous Spirit and Calamity Abatement would accept investiture, and Yi Shuyuan said a celestial official could confer it in Lingdong the following year.
• Yi Shuyuan asked why the Heavenly Realm had not made Old Vine the mountain god of Heavenly Battle Mountain, and the Heavenly Emperor explained that past investiture attempts had failed.
• Yi Shuyuan requested an Investiture Talisman Edict for Old Vine, and the Heavenly Emperor created one while warning that Old Vine had exhausted his potential.
• Yi Shuyuan bowed to the edict, causing its white-jade surface and golden characters to turn soft gold.

Yi Shuyuan strengthened the Heavenly Emperor’s enfeoffment decree with his merit, then accompanied White Robe to Heavenly Battle Mountain, where Teng Fu was installed as its Orthodox Mountain God. The ceremony transformed Teng Fu’s connection to the mountain and renewed hope for his future, while Yi Shuyuan remained behind after White Robe returned to the Heavenly Realm.

• Yi Shuyuan infused the enfeoffment decree with merit, turning it pale gold, and agreed that a Heavenly official should perform the enfeoffment at Heavenly Battle Mountain.
• The Heavenly Emperor sent White Robe with Yi Shuyuan to Heavenly Battle Mountain to carry out the ceremony that day.
• Old Vine worried that he might not have long to live, while Xiao Yong considered whether Yi Shuyuan could help him.
• White Robe proclaimed Teng Fu’s enfeoffment as the Orthodox God of Heavenly Battle Mountain, and the decree’s radiance entered Teng Fu and spread through the mountain.
• Teng Fu sensed his connection to the mountain deepen and his hunched back straighten, then thanked the Heavenly Emperor and Yi Shuyuan.
• White Robe returned to the Heavenly Realm, while Yi Shuyuan stayed behind with Teng Fu and Xiao Yong.

After the Heavenly God departed, Yi Shuyuan warned Teng Fu to uphold virtue as Heavenly Battle Mountain’s newly invested Mountain God. Teng Fu transplanted the Mountain-Topping Immortal Herb beneath a broken peak, where it began to touch the mountain, and Yi Shuyuan sensed that the mountain’s might might rise with it.

• Teng Fu pledged to follow Yi Shuyuan, who warned him that he must act worthily to stabilize his Divine Seat.
• Teng Fu proposed moving the Mountain-Topping Immortal Herb beneath the broken mountain so it could awaken its spiritual potential.
• Yi Shuyuan approved the plan, and Xiao Yong sent his large snake subordinate away from beneath the boulder.
• Teng Fu used his new Mountain God powers to move the Mountain-Topping Grass through the earth’s spiritual veins and plant it beneath the broken peak.
• Yi Shuyuan sensed that Heavenly Battle Mountain’s might might rise along with the mountain the herb would eventually lift.
• Xiao Yong asked whether the Mountain-Topping Immortal Herb would still mature in thirty years, but Yi Shuyuan and Teng Fu did not yet answer.

Yi Shuyuan decided to let the Mountain-Topping Immortal Herb mature while he recuperated on Heavenly Battle Mountain. When drought gripped Lingdong, he brought rain as a white dragon, but the region’s water was being consumed far faster than he expected.

• Yi Shuyuan agreed to wait thirty years for the Mountain-Topping Immortal Herb to mature and stayed on Heavenly Battle Mountain to heal.
• Yi Shuyuan sensed Lingdong’s people praying for rain as a severe drought devastated their crops.
• Chu Hang organized people to dig irrigation channels, while Jian Lü and others helped resist drought, locusts, and fraudulent sorcerers.
• Qi Zhongbin and Hui Mian tracked demonic energy connected to the locust outbreak in southern Yun Province.
• Yi Shuyuan arrived as a white dragon carrying clouds and rain from the Mountain and River State Map, bringing rainfall to Lingdong.
• Yi Shuyuan realized Lingdong’s water was being consumed so quickly that he could not carry the rain onward to Deng Province as planned.