Chapter Summaries

Chu Hang responded to the murders by requesting troops and officers from Grand Commander Zou Jie, while Yi Shuyuan observed him and visited the surviving Skywhale Gang members. In the mountains, Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn found a golden cicada shell that could serve as an auxiliary ingredient for a future pill, though the cicada itself escaped.

• Chu Hang sent a letter to Grand Commander Zou Jie requesting that troops and capable officers be stationed in Luling County.
• Yi Shuyuan watched Chu Hang and sensed that he had read the immortal art but remained focused on his ambitions rather than cultivation.
• Yi Shuyuan visited Pei Changtian and other surviving Skywhale Gang members, including their ailing former leader.
• Hui Mian led Yi Shuyuan to Stoneborn, who had spotted a golden cicada emerging from its shell in a secluded valley.
• Stoneborn saved the golden cicada shell from a mountain goat and gave it to Yi Shuyuan, who judged it a useful auxiliary ingredient for forming a great pill.
• Yi Shuyuan wondered where the golden cicada had flown after it vanished into the sky.

Yi Shuyuan found that the golden cicada had damaged an ancient tree while growing underground, so he treated the tree and collected the cicada’s shell and the burls from its roots. He left without chasing the newly transformed cicada, then the story shifted to a troop of soldiers approaching Luling County.

• Yi Shuyuan repaired the golden cicada’s shell with Chanting Dust and discovered that it had drained the ancient tree’s roots.
• Yi Shuyuan used wine from his Gourd to remove the poisonous burls and ease the tree’s pain, then collected the burls as pill ingredients.
• Stoneborn embraced the ancient tree and sensed that it felt natural, while Yi Shuyuan returned the shell to the Folding Fan.
• Yi Shuyuan took Stoneborn and Hui Mian away without pursuing the golden cicada, believing it had gone to cultivate.
• A troop of twenty-one mounted soldiers led by a general carrying a banner marked Duan rode toward Luling County, where the general planned to meet the county magistrate.

General Duan Silie arrived in Luling County to establish a troop-training camp and met Magistrate Chu Hang, who told him about suspicious events tied to Longwind Prefecture. As hostile men plotted to seize Chu Hang during a banquet, Pei Changtian watched them from a rooftop and saw a chance to pledge his allegiance.

• Duan Silie rode into Luling County with twenty men and told Chu Hang he had chosen the county as a site to train new troops.
• Chu Hang and Duan Silie discussed the suspicious events in Longwind Prefecture, then examined the bodies, though Chu Hang had no concrete evidence linking the incidents.
• A group of conspirators suspected Zhao Yuansong had escaped with an Immortal Book and decided to seize Chu Hang for interrogation.
• Chu Hang and Duan Silie shared a late-night banquet while the conspirators watched the restaurant and considered attacking.
• Pei Changtian secretly observed the conspirators from a rooftop and decided the moment offered him a chance to pledge his allegiance.

Duan Silie ambushed a group of suspicious men who were watching Chu Hang, then chased and fought the masked Pei Changtian. Pei Changtian escaped badly injured, wondering how powerful Mai Lingfei must be if Duan Silie had once ranked second in the world.

• Duan Silie hurled his spear through the watching group, pinning their leader and capturing the fleeing men.
• The group’s leader recognized Duan Silie as the world’s second-best at the Martial Arts Gathering over a decade earlier.
• Duan Silie noticed Pei Changtian hiding nearby and chased him across the rooftops.
• Pei Changtian used his robe to deflect Duan Silie’s flying roof tiles, but Duan Silie caught up and struck him hard in their fight.
• Pei Changtian escaped while coughing blood, excited by the chance to measure himself against Duan Silie and curious about Mai Lingfei’s strength.

Chu Hang and Duan Silie interrogated six captured men and discovered they were spies from Southern Yan, though a skilled accomplice escaped. After learning the spies had a network in Great Yong, Chu Hang identified the upcoming market as a chance to track the fugitive and enlist a capable man.

• Duan Silie returned to the restaurant after capturing six men, and Chu Hang arranged for them to be taken to the County Office.
• Chief Constable Qin and a physician treated the prisoners while officers questioned and tortured them, but the men initially revealed little.
• Chu Hang used a bailiff’s staged confession to make the prisoners believe one of their own had betrayed them, and the leader’s reaction exposed their connection to Southern Yan.
• Chu Hang and Duan Silie reviewed the interrogation records and learned that Southern Yan had maintained an intelligence network in Great Yong.
• Duan Silie said the escaped expert was likely injured and would need rare medicinal herbs, while Chu Hang proposed watching the southern gate during the upcoming market and seeking help from a capable man there.

Pei Changtian revealed that he and his father, Pei Donghao, were former members of the outlawed Skywhale Gang and offered Chu Hang and Duan Silie the gang’s intelligence network and support. Chu Hang and Duan Silie agreed to treat the surviving gang members as righteous heroes and suggested their old crimes might someday be forgiven.

• At the market fair, Pei Changtian approached Chu Hang and Duan Silie and invited them to his residence to discuss something important.
• Pei Donghao revealed that he was the former leader of the Skywhale Gang and asked the officials to consider his surrender meritorious service.
• Pei Changtian explained that he had subdued two Southern Yan spies and presented a detailed map and records of the Northwest’s hidden networks.
• After hearing Pei Changtian describe the gang’s intelligence and its more than three hundred available members, Chu Hang recognized the group’s potential value.
• Duan Silie agreed with Chu Hang that the Skywhale Gang could be treated as a group of righteous heroes, and Pei Changtian bowed in gratitude.

Yi Shuyuan visited a restaurant in Luling County and advised its proprietor on expanding and helping a sick grandfather and disabled child. In Heaven-Bearing Prefecture, the Great Yong Emperor approved Chu Hang’s request to employ members of the Skywhale Gang.

• Yi Shuyuan passed a hole in a Luling County street and entered a busy restaurant to buy food and wine.
• Yi Shuyuan advised the proprietor to expand by buying nearby land and buildings, and suggested taking a sick grandfather and disabled child on as helpers.
• Yi Shuyuan left the restaurant, where the proprietor glimpsed him with a child and a squirrel-like animal before they disappeared.
• The Great Yong Emperor read Chu Hang’s report, which detailed the Skywhale Gang and requested permission to employ its members.
• The Great Yong Emperor wrote, “Do not employ those you doubt; do not doubt those you employ,” and approved Chu Hang’s request.

Yi Shuyuan traveled into Southern Yan and transformed into a white crane while leading a flock toward a wetland. There, the cranes arrived as Zhao Yuansong’s widow and son were threatened by a sinister presence in the water.

• Yi Shuyuan crossed into Southern Yan with Stoneborn and Hui Mian, explaining that a dynasty’s fortunes could change under a wise ruler.
• Yi Shuyuan joined a migrating flock of white cranes, transformed into their leader, and told Stoneborn that transformation required understanding what he observed.
• Zhao Yuansong’s friends escorted his widow and young son through a wetland while people sought them out because Zhao’s fate remained unknown.
• A sorcerer detected a sinister presence beneath the water, and the group retreated as the horse threw Zhao Yuansong’s wife and child.
• Yi Shuyuan’s flock descended into the wetland and began feeding, dispelling the group’s sense of danger as he spread his wings and called.

A red-crowned white crane pulled a hidden paper spell from a child, breaking the trap laid for Zhao Yuansong. When the Sorcerer’s compass pointed toward the departing flock, the group followed the cranes through the mist toward a safer route.

• The white crane touched the child with its beak and pulled a strand of gray vapor from him, while the spell’s talisman tore and burned at a distant Ritual Altar.
• The Sorcerer found paper ash in the child’s hair and realized their pursuers had used a spell to lure out Zhao Yuansong.
• The group helped the mother and child back onto the horse and continued toward the mountains, but the Sorcerer’s compass needle began to waver as mist rose.
• The child asked to stay near the cranes, and the flock took flight, scattering the mist as it moved away.
• The Sorcerer tapped his compass, saw its needle point toward the cranes, and led the group after them.

After Stoneborn and Hui Mian drove through the marsh, Yi Shuyuan visited the sleeping family with Zhao Yuansong’s Blood Letter and used his power to let its Primordial Spirit meet them in a dream. Zhao Yuansong reunited with his wife and son, Ping'er, and was left weeping as the boy called him Daddy.

• Stoneborn and Hui Mian burned away the marsh mist and sent the Universe Ring into the wetlands, stirring waves and wildlife near the camp.
• The exhausted travelers made camp, and the sorcerer fell asleep after a sleep bug entered his nose.
• Yi Shuyuan approached the camp as a white crane and used the Blood Letter to let Zhao Yuansong meet his family in their dreams.
• Zhao Yuansong awoke in his familiar home and searched for his wife and son.
• Zhao Yuansong found his wife and Ping'er in the rear courtyard, and Ping'er cautiously called him Daddy.

Zhao Yuansong reunited with his wife and son in a dream, then realized he had died and his family remained in danger. He manifested his primordial spirit despite Yi Shuyuan’s warning of an imminent tribulation, determined to protect his family and end the crisis in the Rivers and Lakes.

• Zhao Yuansong embraced Zou Shaozhu and Ping'er in a dream and spoke about their future together.
• Ping'er recalled white cranes saving him after he fell from a horse, prompting Zhao Yuansong to realize he was dreaming and had died.
• Zhao Yuansong’s blood-written text collapsed as his primordial spirit began to manifest beside Yi Shuyuan.
• Yi Shuyuan warned Zhao Yuansong that manifesting would bring a tribulation that could destroy him, but Zhao Yuansong chose to act to protect his family and end the calamity.
• Zhao Yuansong recited words from the Immortal Art, and Yi Shuyuan realized he had grasped some of its mysteries.

Zhao Yuansong attempted to use the transformation art to return to his family, but heavenly thunder scattered his newly formed Primordial Spirit before he could reunite with his wife. Yi Shuyuan left the Marsh Wetlands with Stoneborn as the Greater Heat Dynasty’s shifting Destiny and an approaching tribulation drew him toward Southern Yan.

• Zhao Yuansong used the Three Chapters of Blood Writing to transform himself, hoping to see his wife and child again and destroy the demonic state preceptor.
• Heavenly thunder scattered Zhao Yuansong’s Primordial Spirit after he kissed the child’s forehead, and Yi Shuyuan watched his final transformation vanish.
• Stoneborn and Hui Mian found Yi Shuyuan among the sleeping cranes in the Marsh Wetlands, and Stoneborn told him his cultivation had improved.
• At dawn, Yi Shuyuan, Stoneborn, and the white cranes took flight; the cranes eventually departed north while Stoneborn stayed with his master.
• Hui Mian asked how they would handle the approaching tribulation, and Yi Shuyuan said Southern Yan’s Rivers and Lakes should resolve their own affairs before flying toward the direction of his spiritual intuition.

Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn arrived in a major city in Southern Yan, where they learned about the White Feather Way’s influence and Yi’s distinctive clothing drew attention. At a restaurant, they unexpectedly met Chi Qinghu, who recognized them and hinted that Yi’s presence in Great Yan could bring trouble.

• Yi Shuyuan explained Southern Yan’s history and its long rivalry with Great Yong as he and Stoneborn traveled toward a bustling city.
• Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn encountered members of the White Feather Way pushing through the street, and a vendor warned Yi to avoid wearing conspicuous white clothes.
• Yi Shuyuan explained that the White Feather Way was Southern Yan’s state religion and that the white crane was regarded as an auspicious national bird.
• Chi Qinghu recognized Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn at the restaurant, greeted them, and joked that he might seize Yi for a reward.

Chi Qinghu and the martial heroes discussed the White Feather Way’s growing power and the destruction of the Golden Mountain Gate and Zhao Household. After the group witnessed the White Feather Way’s rainmaking, Chi Qinghu joined Yi Shuyuan for a meal and asked what he knew about Sorcerers.

• Chi Qinghu told the gathered martial heroes that Yi Shuyuan was an old acquaintance and a skilled physician, then the group discussed the White Feather Way’s seizure of the Medicine King Snake and the Golden Mountain Gate’s decline.
• A burly, bearded man said Zhao Yuansong had never obtained an Immortal Book and was likely dead, while Chi Qinghu reported that Zhao Yuansong’s wife and children had escaped with outside help.
• Chi Qinghu ordered special dishes for Yi Shuyuan and his companions, and the group watched heavy rain fall after the White Feather Way’s sorcerers successfully prayed for rain.
• After the other martial heroes left, Chi Qinghu joined Yi Shuyuan, confirmed Elder Celestial Master Qi was Yi Shuyuan’s disciple, and asked what Yi Shuyuan knew about Sorcerers and the White Feather Way.
• Yi Shuyuan said he knew little about the White Feather Way but quite a bit about Sorcerers.

Chi Qinghu took Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn to watch the White Feather Way’s rain-praying ritual and explained how the order had grown into Great Yan’s state religion. After Yi Shuyuan outlined Chi Qinghu’s plan to remove Han Shiyong and unite the martial community, Chi Qinghu insisted that the State Preceptor had to be stopped.

• Chi Qinghu changed his plans and took Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn from the restaurant to see the White Feather Way’s temple.
• Chi Qinghu carried Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn onto a rooftop, where they watched the aftermath of the order’s rain-praying ritual.
• Yi Shuyuan explained that sorcerers drew on vital essence or external power and said the ritual was prayer, not true Water Control.
• Chi Qinghu described the White Feather Way’s influence as Great Yan’s state religion and recounted its abuses in the court and Rivers and Lakes.
• Yi Shuyuan guessed that Chi Qinghu’s group planned to eliminate Han Shiyong and unite the martial community against the White Feather Way.
• Chi Qinghu questioned whether removing Han Shiyong would be enough, then vowed not to let the State Preceptor continue.

Chi Qinghu spotted Han Shiyong at the White Feather Way temple and fled with Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn, drawing the pursuing Daoists away. He killed the four pursuers, while Han Shiyong divined that they had met with disaster.

• Chi Qinghu recognized Han Shiyong at the temple, and Han Shiyong noticed the group and sent Daoists after them.
• Chi Qinghu carried Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn away, covered them in incense ash, and told them to hide among the crowds before he lured their pursuers away.
• Chi Qinghu confirmed Han Shiyong was not among the pursuers and destroyed their talisman with the Wine-Swallowing Talisman-Breaking Method.
• Chi Qinghu fought the four White Feather Daoists, killed them, and covered himself with incense ash before leaving.
• Han Shiyong divined that the four Daoists had met with disaster.

Han Shiyong examined the murdered White Feather Daoists and trapped one victim’s soul in a talisman while promising to secure its rebirth. Yi Shuyuan confronted the State Preceptor in the guise of a Netherworld official and demanded that he release the soul.

• Han Shiyong inspected the four dead Daoists and used a talisman to draw one victim’s soul into it.
• Chi Qinghu reached the Lufeng Inn and told the innkeeper that Han Shiyong was in the city.
• The innkeeper prepared to spread the news, while Chi Qinghu learned that Yi Shuyuan had gone out to tidy up loose ends.
• Yi Shuyuan appeared before Han Shiyong on the street, dressed as a black-robed official, and accused him of imprisoning a soul.
• Han Shiyong was startled to find a Netherworld ghostly god standing before him.

Yi Shuyuan disguised himself as a Netherworld deity, seized the evil ghost Han Shiyong had imprisoned, and delivered him to the City God Temple. He returned to Lufeng Inn, where the innkeeper told him visitors had gone upstairs to his room.

• Han Shiyong introduced himself to Yi Shuyuan, who appeared as a ghostly deity, and claimed the ghost beneath his umbrella was his disciple.
• Yi Shuyuan declared the ghost evil, bound him with a Netherworld Chain, and pulled him out of Han Shiyong’s umbrella despite Han Shiyong’s attempt to stop him.
• Yi Shuyuan warned Han Shiyong about his corrupt path and departed; Han Shiyong chased after him but could not catch up.
• Yi Shuyuan brought the ghost to the Ghost Gate, where ghost soldiers seized him, then changed his appearance and avoided meeting the Netherworld officials.
• Yi Shuyuan returned to Lufeng Inn and learned from the innkeeper that visitors had gone upstairs to his room.

Chi Qinghu learned that Han Shiyong had used imprisoned ghosts to track him, but Yi Shuyuan had secured their release through the Underworld and broken the spell. Chi Qinghu begged Yi Shuyuan to oppose Han Shiyong, warning that the State Preceptor sought a Heavenly Book of the Immortal Dao and might bring further violence to Great Yong; Yi Shuyuan recognized the danger but called the tribulation troublesome.

• Chi Qinghu watched Stoneborn practice calligraphy until Yi Shuyuan returned and pointed out that Stoneborn's writing had worsened after his master came in.
• Yi Shuyuan explained that Han Shiyong could imprison the souls of the dead and use their karmic ties to trace Chi Qinghu's aura.
• Yi Shuyuan said he had asked the Underworld's ghosts and gods to demand the souls back, severing Han Shiyong's means of tracking Chi Qinghu.
• Chi Qinghu asked Yi Shuyuan to help oppose Han Shiyong and the White Feather Way, but Yi Shuyuan noted that the emperor might not view Han Shiyong as an enemy.
• Chi Qinghu warned that Han Shiyong sought a Heavenly Book of the Immortal Dao and might unleash more violence to obtain it, prompting Yi Shuyuan to call the tribulation troublesome.

Yi Shuyuan demonstrated the spiritual power of Stoneborn’s writing and gave Chi Qinghu a cryptic sign of support as Chi prepared to confront Han Shiyong. Chi joined the gathered Rivers and Lakes fighters, who grew eager to attack the State Preceptor despite the danger.

• Yi Shuyuan showed Chi Qinghu and Stoneborn how his brushwork brought the character for “thunder” to life, then warned Chi to think carefully before acting against Han Shiyong.
• Chi Qinghu told Yi Shuyuan that the Rivers and Lakes fighters would challenge Han Shiyong even if they failed, and left without receiving a clear promise of help.
• Stoneborn gave Chi Qinghu the unfinished copy of “Awaiting Heaven’s Rain” and urged him to carry it with him wherever he went.
• Chi Qinghu gathered with the Rivers and Lakes fighters in the inn’s woodshed and confirmed that Han Shiyong was in the city.
• The fighters discussed ambushing Han Shiyong, confident that he was vulnerable outside his guarded formation, while Chi Qinghu remembered Yi Shuyuan’s warning.