Chapter Summaries

The Manifest Holiness True Lord received his Divine Investiture and authority over the Extreme North Demon-Subduing Palace, while the East Sea Dragon Lord sought to recruit the mysterious white dragon. Later, Yi Shuyuan and Shao Zhen stayed at the True Lord Temple, where Shao Zhen’s paintings gained renown and Yi Shuyuan began writing an unfinished story.

• The Dragon Lord learned that the white dragon had likely become a dragon within two twelve-year cycles and ordered Ji Zi and Ji Ming to offer him a place in the East Sea lineage’s Heavenly Dragon Illustrated Scroll.
• Jiang Lang and the old turtle discussed the Celestial Court’s divided stance toward the Manifest Holiness True Lord as his Divine Investiture concluded in Dengzhou.
• The Manifest Holiness True Lord declined to visit the Heavenly Realm immediately, accepted the Heavenly Emperor’s gifts, and returned to the True Lord Temple after the divine attendants departed.
• Hui Mian explained that the True Lord now held sole authority over the Extreme North Demon-Subduing Palace and boasted that he would visit it with Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn.
• Shao Zhen became known in Deng Province for his lifelike paintings, while Yi Shuyuan began writing a story whose ending he planned to complete later.

Yi Shuyuan demonstrated how his transformations recreated the ghosts’ feelings, then used a brush to evoke the Faceless Ghost and inspire Shao Zhen to paint him. Shao Zhen rushed away to work, while Yi Shuyuan packed up and went to cook.

• Yi Shuyuan showed Shao Zhen how he could transform into ghosts by imitating their voices, gestures, and feelings.
• Yi Shuyuan explained that the Faceless Ghost could not have a face while remaining faceless, leaving Shao Zhen to reconsider what the ghost’s name meant.
• Yi Shuyuan let down his hair and painted a face on a blank page, then spoke as the Faceless Ghost and named the technique Painted Skin.
• Shao Zhen thanked Yi Shuyuan for his guidance and hurried to his room, eager to paint the Faceless Ghost.
• Yi Shuyuan joked with Hui Mian, packed away his painting supplies, and went to cook as Chen Han and a snake watched from nearby.

Shao Zhen completed his painting of the Faceless Ghost after watching Yi Shuyuan’s transformation. Yi Shuyuan merged with the painting, mastered a new illusion technique called Painted Skin, and left the scroll, while Shao Zhen discovered the painting had changed and finally went to rest.

• Shao Zhen spent the night painting the Faceless Ghost without ink, then added a brush with a cinnabar-red tip and decided the image was complete.
• Qi Zhongbin told Shao Zhen that dinner had been left warming in the kitchen, and Shao Zhen went to eat.
• Yi Shuyuan merged with the Faceless Ghost in the painting, transformed into its uncanny form, and deduced an illusion technique he named Painted Skin.
• Yi Shuyuan left the scroll, prompting Qi Zhongbin to investigate a fleeting presence before Hui Mian reassured him and Giant Serpent emerged from the river.
• Shao Zhen returned to his room, saw mist spreading around the Faceless Ghost in the painting, and realized his work had succeeded.

Shao Zhen gave the completed Hundred Ghosts Picture to the True Lord Temple, and the newly installed statue of Great God Yunlai received a portrait scroll in its empty hand. Hui Mian took the remaining Yunlai portrait and reflected on balancing divine cultivation with the Immortal Dao, hoping the painting might help him manifest a form.

• Shao Zhen showed Yi Shuyuan the finished Hundred Ghosts Picture, and Yi praised it as a masterpiece.
• Shao Zhen donated the painting to the True Lord Temple, and Chen Han accepted it on the Manifest Holiness True Lord's behalf.
• The people of Deng Province welcomed and installed the statue of Great God Yunlai, and Yi Shuyuan placed a scroll in its left hand.
• Chen Han discovered that the scroll left in her hands showed First Seat Yunlai, and Hui Mian told her that divine cultivation still involved trials and risks.
• Hui Mian took the portrait, felt intoxicated by incense offerings, and resolved not to neglect the Immortal Dao as he considered using the painting to manifest his form.

After completing the Hundred Ghosts Picture, Shao Zhen discussed his devotion to painting and the possibility of immortality with Yi Shuyuan, who left the True Lord Temple after hinting that Shao Zhen might one day see things differently. Yi Shuyuan sent the Long-Haired Ghost to the City God of Dengzhou for a chance to repay a debt, while Shao Zhen learned that Qi Zhongbin had not been assigned to protect Yi Shuyuan.

• Shao Zhen and Yi Shuyuan discussed Shao Zhen's ambitions, and Shao Zhen said he feared losing his love of painting if he pursued immortality.
• Yi Shuyuan praised Shao Zhen's resolve, then left the True Lord Temple and promised they would meet again.
• Yi Shuyuan removed the Long-Haired Ghost from the Hundred Ghosts Picture and sent it to the City God of Dengzhou to endure hardship and repay the person it owed.
• The City God of Dengzhou protected the Long-Haired Ghost's mark and ordered netherworld officials to take it to Yellow Springs Road.
• Shao Zhen asked Qi Zhongbin why he had not left with Yi Shuyuan, and Qi Zhongbin clarified that the court had not sent him to protect Yi Shuyuan.
• Shao Zhen decided he would leave after finishing the two paintings he had promised the temple keeper.

Shao Zhen painted portraits of the spiritually aware snake She Chাংলai and fish Yu Xinmei, while Yu Xinmei returned to Longwind Lake and encountered Zhou Youzhi by the canal. At Longwind Lake, Jiang Lang reunited with Yi Shuyuan, gave him dragon scales, and asked him to find a white dragon.

• Shao Zhen agreed to paint She Chাংলai and Yu Xinmei in human form, and his portraits took shape as he studied them.
• Yu Xinmei swam upstream past Zhou Youzhi and the village children, who accidentally struck Zhou with a stone while trying to hit her.
• Zhou Youzhi treated his cut and asked his playmates not to blame A-Yu, while Yu Xinmei left the canal and remembered him.
• Jiang Lang welcomed Yi Shuyuan, Stoneborn, and Hui Mian to the Dragon Palace at Longwind Lake and reassured Mo Ye about his place there.
• Jiang Lang showed Yi Shuyuan a chest of preserved dragon scales and asked him to find the white dragon.

Jiang Lang gave Yi Shuyuan seven broken dragon scales, and Yi repaid him with a Vital Essence Pill that helped restore his strength. Later, Yi and Jiang Lang discussed the search for the White Dragon and heard Longwind locals praise Chu Hang, while Jiang Lang recognized that Chu Hang’s frontier posting reflected the emperor’s trust in him.

• Jiang Lang presented Yi Shuyuan with a chest containing seven broken dragon scales, and Yi accepted them as precious pill-refining ingredients.
• Yi Shuyuan gave Jiang Lang a Vital Essence Pill, which Jiang Lang swallowed and refined to restore some of his depleted strength.
• Jiang Lang explained that the Dragon Lord had offered the White Dragon entry into the Heavenly Dragon Illustrated Scroll in exchange for joining the East Sea lineage.
• At Lakeview Tower, Yi Shuyuan told Jiang Lang that reclaiming the Datong River depended on the people rather than the gods.
• A Longwind local praised Sima Chu and condemned the officials he believed had undermined Chu Hang’s career, while the diners shared his admiration.
• Jiang Lang recalled entertaining Chu Hang at the Dragon Palace, and Yi Shuyuan concluded that Chu Hang’s posting showed the emperor valued his abilities.

Jiang Lang and Yi Shuyuan followed the suspicious groups from Lakeview Tower to the Chu Residence, where intruders searched for the rumored Divine Craft Secrets. The thieves found a glowing book in Chu Hang’s study, while Yi Shuyuan, Jiang Lang, and Stoneborn watched from nearby.

• Jiang Lang, Yi Shuyuan, Stoneborn, and Hui Mian left Lakeview Tower and walked through the rain to the Chu Residence street.
• Jiang Lang brought the others to his nearby residence, where he asked Yi Shuyuan about his origins and whether Mili had followed the same kind of cultivation path.
• Jiang Lang and Yi Shuyuan noticed the two groups from Lakeview Tower entering houses on the street and went to watch the Chu Residence.
• The potbellied man and his companions waited in a nearby building as stealthy intruders climbed into the empty Chu Residence to search for the Divine Craft Secrets.
• The intruders searched Chu Qinglin’s and Chu Hang’s studies, found a glowing book in a wooden box, and decided to leave after its pages made them dizzy.

Yi Shuyuan watched as a staged theft at the Chu Residence turned into a real escape with the glowing wordless book. The injured bandit leader fled beyond Longwind Prefecture, where strange seal-script appeared on the book and convinced him it was an immortal’s book.

• Yi Shuyuan sensed destiny stir as the bandits found and stole the glowing book from Chu Hang’s study.
• Ambushers attacked the five bandits outside the Chu Residence; their leader escaped with the book while two men were killed and two captured.
• The potbellied man chased the leader but lost him, then learned from his companions that the Chu Household really possessed a wondrous book and that the theft had been a trap.
• The poisoned leader fled beyond the city, treated his wound, and opened the book as its light grew brighter in the drizzle.
• Yi Shuyuan and Jiang Lang watched as ancient seal-script appeared on the pages, and the leader concluded that the book was an immortal’s book.

A bandit leader stole Yi Shuyuan’s heavenly book and became consumed by the promise of immortality, while Yi Shuyuan sensed that the book and the night’s events were shifting destiny. Jiang Lang examined the book and was deeply affected by its water-aspect cultivation art before Stoneborn startled him.

• The bandit leader read the heavenly book, dreamed of gaining immortality, and returned to Longwind Prefecture City to silence his surviving companions.
• Yi Shuyuan explained that he had written the book and stopped a vision of Chu Hang from intruding further into the events.
• Chu Hang dreamed of the book, began contemplating its formula, and woke when Yi Shuyuan’s voice sent him back.
• The bandit leader sneaked back into the city, and Jiang Lang used magic to take the book from him.
• Jiang Lang opened the book, read the Body-Waves Immortal Transformation Art, and struggled to stop himself from continuing.
• Stoneborn suddenly spoke to Jiang Lang, who answered guiltily while Stoneborn and Hui Mian grew suspicious.

Jiang Lang took the Water-Element Immortal Art from a robber and returned it to Yi Shuyuan, then asked to study it. The robber searched for the lost book, eventually tried to recreate it from memory, and exhausted his life in the effort.

• The black-clad man returned to the courtyard, found two guards watching his captured companions, and realized the immortal book was missing from his robes.
• Jiang Lang admitted to Stoneborn and Hui Mian that he had taken the book, then gave it back to Yi Shuyuan, who revealed it could have stirred conflict between two nations.
• Jiang Lang asked Yi Shuyuan to let him study the book, and the group headed to the Dragon Palace at Longwind Lake.
• The robber searched his route and the wilderness for the book, then resolved to copy its Immortal Script from memory before dawn.
• The robber wrote the script and a plea for his descendants in blood and ink, while the Long-Haired Ghost on his head turned dull and gray.
• Yi Shuyuan sensed the man's struggle from the Dragon Palace and realized he was seizing his destined opportunity at the cost of his life.

Yi Shuyuan and Jiang Lang found a man who had spent his life writing the Body-Waves Immortal Transformation Art from memory, and he died after completing only three blood-written pages. Yi Shuyuan sensed the incident could become one of his calamities, while villagers discovered the body and prepared to report it.

• Yi Shuyuan and Jiang Lang followed the lingering connection to the book thief and found him writing the immortal art aboard a boat.
• The man used his life force and blood to fill three pages, then died while thinking of his family and hoping the pages would repay his kindness.
• Yi Shuyuan took the blood-written pages and noticed that their spiritual light and destiny differed from the man's final tenderness and the true art.
• Stoneborn asked whether the man might have survived if Jiang Lang had not taken the book, and Yi Shuyuan divined that the incident might become one of his calamities.
• A farmer found the dead man aboard his missing boat and alerted the village elders, who decided to report the death and summon a ritual master.

Yi Shuyuan restrained the strange power in the blood-written pages of the Immortal Art, while Jiang Lang worried over Yi Shuyuan’s seclusion and Chu Hang began sensing the flow of rain and qi after reading the Heavenly Book. The chapter left Chu Hang awakening to a new perception of his body and the world around him.

• Constables dismissed the murdered man as a Rivers and Lakes dispute, and villagers buried his body at a Mass Burial Ground.
• Martial artists dug up the corpse to search for the Immortal Book, confirmed its identity, and speculated that the book had caused the man’s rapid aging.
• Yi Shuyuan used silver radiance to suppress the blood-written pages’ strange power and realized the dead man’s essence, qi, and spirit had merged into them.
• Jiang Lang asked Stoneborn and Hui Mian how long Yi Shuyuan usually stayed in seclusion, then regretted not having been more direct with him.
• Chu Hang, having read the Heavenly Book in his dream, sensed raindrops, streams, and the movement of qi and blood while sitting at his government office.

Stoneborn encountered Mo Ye resting in Longwind Lake, and Mo Ye recognized a golden glint from Stoneborn’s Universe Ring as a clue to the past attack on Hong Wei. Jiang Lang read Yi Shuyuan’s Body-Waves Immortal Transformation Art and sensed that it lacked something; Yi Shuyuan realized the missing half was the dragon transformation that had created the White Dragon.

• Stoneborn met Mo Ye in the shallows, and the two exchanged greetings while Stoneborn praised the Flood Dragon’s strength.
• A flash from Stoneborn’s Universe Ring reminded Mo Ye of the golden light that had struck Hong Wei, leading him to suspect Stoneborn’s involvement in the old incident.
• Yi Shuyuan gave Jiang Lang permission to read the Body-Waves Immortal Transformation Art, and Jiang Lang studied it while Hui Mian and Stoneborn joined Yi Shuyuan outside.
• Jiang Lang returned the book and told Yi Shuyuan that it seemed incomplete from a Dragonkind perspective.
• Yi Shuyuan recognized that the missing half Jiang Lang sensed was the dragon transformation that had brought the White Dragon into being.

Jiang Lang learned that Yi Shuyuan had named the White Dragon Ao Po, while Chu Hang accepted that the blank book and its chance at the Immortal Dao were likely gone. As Chu Hang continued governing Luling County, an anonymous warning revealed that Southern Yan spies had infiltrated martial sects in the northwest.

• Jiang Lang challenged Yi Shuyuan to name the White Dragon, and Yi Shuyuan said his name was Ao Po before leaving the Dragon Palace.
• Chu Hang received a letter from his steward confirming that a blank book remained in his study, but realized it was only a substitute and made peace with losing the Immortal Dao opportunity.
• Chu Hang recalled the emperor’s explanation of Luling County’s strategic importance and returned to his demanding county duties.
• An iron dart carrying a bamboo tube landed on Chu Hang’s desk, and its letter warned that Southern Yan spies had infiltrated martial sects in the northwest.

Chu Hang attended Luling County’s market to gather information and met Jin Changtian, a coughing merchant who secretly demonstrated martial skill by stopping a pickpocket. After returning to the County Office, Chu Hang suspected the man was concealing his identity, and the chapter revealed that Jin Changtian was actually Pei Changtian, a fugitive young master of the Skywhale Gang.

• Chu Hang set aside a letter about possible spies and insisted on visiting the market despite the heavy rain, which stopped at the third watch as he had predicted.
• Chu Hang examined the market stall’s fine goods and noticed a sickly man in a fur hat watching him.
• A pickpocket tried to cut Chu Hang’s clothing, but an unseen strike hurt the thief’s wrist and made him flee.
• Chu Hang thanked the coughing merchant and learned that he called himself Jin Changtian, then questioned him about his trade.
• After Chu Hang left, Jin Changtian reassured his companion that the magistrate did not know their identities, while privately reflecting on whether they could return to an honest life.
• Chu Hang questioned Jin Changtian’s lack of reaction to his name, and the narration revealed that the merchant was Pei Changtian, the fugitive young master of the Skywhale Gang.

Pei Changtian persuaded former Skywhale Gang members to consider approaching the imperial court through Chu Hang, while his ailing father woke and supported his decision. Left alone, Pei Changtian realized Chu Hang’s arrival might offer him a chance to restore his family name and pursue his long-suppressed ambitions.

• Pei Changtian met with former gang members and argued that the imperial court had never truly wanted to destroy them over the Salt Case.
• Pei Changtian proposed approaching Chu Hang rather than trying to reach Grand Commander Zou Jie directly, and promised not to implicate anyone who refused to join him.
• Pei Changtian’s father fell from his bed, woke, and urged his old brothers to trust his son; Yu and Yan agreed to follow Pei Changtian.
• After the others left, Pei Changtian crushed his medicine bowl and reflected on the ambitions he had lost while living in hiding.
• Pei Changtian concluded that Chu Hang’s posting was purposeful and considered how his knowledge of the Northwest’s people and forces might help Chu Hang achieve results.

Pei Changtian investigated a rooftop disturbance and discovered that a deadly pursuit in Luling County involved people from Southern Yan. After confronting two pursuers, he fled as the constables approached, leaving the Southern Yan connection and the killers’ motives unresolved.

• Pei Changtian heard a roof tile break, put on a painted mask, and followed three nimble figures across the rooftops.
• When fighting broke out, Pei Changtian tracked the stronger of the three fugitives as seven attackers pursued them through Luling County.
• Two pursuers cornered and killed a wounded fugitive after he identified them as Southern Yan men.
• Pei Changtian attacked the two killers, disabled both, and asked whether they were from Southern Yan.
• Both men died after apparently shattering their own meridians, and Pei Changtian escaped when the yamen runners arrived.

Chu Hang investigated a deadly martial arts clash in Luling County and ordered the office to seek answers after ordinary residents were killed. That night, he heard ghostly voices in a dreamlike encounter and woke in bed, wondering if he had been sleepwalking again.

• Pei Changtian suspected the fighters were Southern Yan spies and left the courtyard as officers arrived to collect the bodies.
• Chu Hang examined the corpses, learned the constables could not match the fighters, and ordered them to post notices and investigate after residents were killed.
• Chu Hang lay awake reflecting on governing Luling County and the possibility that spies were involved in the murders.
• Chu Hang heard pleas for help, followed the voices to a side gate, and overheard unseen figures arguing about ghosts, bodies, and Southern Yan.
• Chu Hang found the street deserted and passed through the closed gate, then abruptly woke in bed and wondered whether he had been sleepwalking.

After dreamwalking and encountering Pei Changtian outside the County Office, Chu Hang sought answers from Luling County’s City God about the dead from the previous night. The City God appeared but refused to investigate, leaving Chu Hang with a hint that the conflict involved affairs of the court, beyond it, and between nations.

• Chu Hang tested whether his dream had been real by retracing his steps to the County Office’s side gate, where Pei Changtian watched him from a rooftop.
• Pei Changtian approached Chu Hang in a mask after Chu Hang sensed someone nearby and looked toward him.
• Chu Hang went to the City God temple with two bailiffs and offered incense, asking about the dead and the origins of the two groups from the Rivers and Lakes.
• The City God, Li Liangxiu, manifested before Chu Hang and said he could not interfere because the souls had entered the Underworld Office.
• Li Liangxiu warned Chu Hang not to pursue the matter, while hinting that it involved disputes within the court, beyond it, and between nations.