Chapter Summaries

After presiding over the dead White Feather Way Daoists’ rites, Han Shiyong resolved to pursue Zhao Yuansong and the possibility of immortality by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Chi Qinghu and several allies left Luoqi Prefecture for Yunlu Prefecture to investigate the Zhao Household, while Yi Shuyuan and Stoneborn watched them depart.

• Han Shiyong performed funeral rites for the dead Daoists and reflected on the Ghosts and Gods’ words about his inability to command the elements.
• Han Shiyong decided Zhao Yuansong might possess a path to immortality and vowed to seize the opportunity, even through coercion or violence.
• At the Lufeng Inn, Chi Qinghu and the gathered martial artists rejected attacking Han Shiyong during his ceremony and focused instead on confirming the Zhao Household’s situation.
• Chi Qinghu set out for Yunlu Prefecture with several companions after seeing the character “Thunder” on Yi Shuyuan’s paper as thunder rolled outside.
• Stoneborn and Hui Mian watched Chi Qinghu’s group leave, and Yi Shuyuan startled them by speaking from behind.

Yi Shuyuan sensed an obscured disturbance in the heavens and sent Stoneborn and Hui Mian to investigate while he remained behind. In Luoqi Prefecture City, Han Shiyong used the Medicine King Snake to ease the effects of the Returning Origin Pill, unaware that its venom was losing its potency.

• Yi Shuyuan agreed with Stoneborn that a hidden fiend might be emerging near Yunlu Prefecture, then sent Stoneborn to investigate and Hui Mian to question a Heavenly God of the Thunder Department.
• Han Shiyong meditated in the White Feather Way temple complex beside a sealed bamboo basket holding the Medicine King Snake.
• Han Shiyong removed the talisman and let the snake bite his arm, easing his discomfort before pulling his arm free.
• Han Shiyong realized the snake’s venom was losing its effectiveness and worried that killing and eating it would leave him without another remedy.
• Han Shiyong stroked the Medicine King Snake, which feared him despite its growing spiritual awareness, while he murmured for it to stay calm.

Hui Mian transformed into Great God Yunlai and met Thunder General Li Chenggang to discuss strange heavenly thunder and the possibility of a calamity emerging from the mortal world. Meanwhile, Yi Shuyuan witnessed Han Shiyong’s blessing ceremony and suspected his unusual vitality had a supernatural source; after receiving urgent news, Han Shiyong left to pursue Zhao Yuansong with the Medicine King Snake.

• Hui Mian rose above the clouds, transformed into Great God Yunlai, and met Li Chenggang, who warned that Great Yan’s complicated destiny might bring a calamity from the mortal world.
• Han Shiyong performed a public blessing ceremony in Luoqi Prefecture, making two potted trees flower and bear assorted fruit for the crowd.
• Yi Shuyuan accepted an ordinary kumquat, gave it to a man who offered to buy it, and noticed that Han Shiyong seemed unusually vigorous after his magic.
• Han Shiyong received an urgent letter reporting that his personally refined talisman had been broken and suspected Zhao Yuansong had emerged from hiding.
• Han Shiyong delegated his banquet attendance, retrieved the Medicine King Snake from the Bamboo Basket, and hurried away.

Han Shiyong and Yi Shuyuan followed the trail of the Zhao Household party as strange thunder and fog spread through the mountains. Stoneborn discovered that a gigantic toad was calling down a lightning death tribulation, while Chi Qinghu’s group sheltered with the rescued Zhao mother and child.

• Han Shiyong crossed a vast marsh and found signs that someone had purified it, then worried that others had already reached the Zhao Household’s campsite.
• Yi Shuyuan arrived at the marsh and heard strange thunder as mist gathered over the hills.
• A White Feather Daoist halted the Prefecture Army, ordered it to shelter, and waited for Han Shiyong before pursuing the wounded fugitives.
• Chi Qinghu and his allies sheltered beneath a cliff with the rescued Zhao mother and child, while the Zhao elders remained in White Feather Way custody.
• A wandering sorcerer found that his compass spun wildly and warned Chi Qinghu’s group that the qi and heavenly signs were in chaos.
• Stoneborn hid near a gigantic toad and realized it was about to undergo a lightning death tribulation.

Hui Mian and Stoneborn encountered a powerful toad undergoing a lightning tribulation on Hele Mountain as mist and demonic energy trapped the mountain’s inhabitants. After Stoneborn was swept outside the mountain, Hui Mian summoned a White-Clad Woman and led them back into the mist to find Chi Qinghu and the Zhao Household.

• Li Chenggang warned Hui Mian not to approach the heaven-and-earth lightning tribulation, but Hui Mian went to Hele Mountain to protect Stoneborn.
• The enormous toad revealed that he had sensed Stoneborn and urged him to leave before the tribulation; Stoneborn fled on the Wind-Fire Wheels as the toad drew Hele Mountain’s spirits and demons into the tribulation.
• The White Feather Daoist recognized the danger and led the White Feather Way and imperial troops out through the mist, while Chi Qinghu’s group remained trapped without a guide.
• Stoneborn emerged from the mist outside Hele Mountain and told Hui Mian that he had intended to find Chi Qinghu but had somehow been carried out of the mountain.
• Hui Mian summoned the White-Clad Woman to guide them through the shifting mist, then led her and Stoneborn back inside to rescue Chi Qinghu and the Zhao Household.

Yi Shuyuan entered Hele Mountain as a giant toad began a powerful lightning tribulation, while Li Chenggang worried that Great God Yunlai might clash with it. The tribulation’s scattered lightning devastated the mountains and trapped Han Shiyong’s party, whose leader realized their route was drawing them toward the danger.

• Yi Shuyuan sensed the toad’s immense power and transformed into a red-crowned white crane to fly into Hele Mountain.
• Li Chenggang sent a warning to the Celestial Court and edged toward the thunderclouds, fearing Great God Yunlai had entered the mountain.
• Han Shiyong mistook the tribulation for a sign that Zhao Yuansong might become an immortal and summoned a fire dragon with three talismans to clear his way.
• The giant toad dispersed a direct lightning strike with its croak, sending blasts of lightning and rocks across the mountains.
• Falling rocks killed soldiers and scattered the White Feather Way’s group, and their leading practitioner realized their path was drawing them toward the mountain’s dangerous center.

As thunder and demonic auras turned Hele Mountain into a deadly trap, the scattered government soldiers and Rivers and Lakes fighters struggled to survive its monsters. Sorcerer Zuo Guichuan sacrificed his remaining years to summon divine aid, and a radiant god appeared through the mist.

• Thunder and sinister auras drove Hele Mountain’s monsters toward the humans, while frightened soldiers began disappearing in the fog.
• A government commandant was deceived by a phantom and dragged into a swamp, but escaped the creature before stumbling into Chi Qinghu’s group of wanted criminals.
• The officer warned the gathered fighters that monsters were luring people away, as the Zhao child recognized the circling crane’s cry.
• With his supplies exhausted, Zuo Guichuan drew a blood talisman and offered the rest of his life to summon divine protection.
• Hui Mian sensed the spell, and Zuo Guichuan saw a golden-robed divine figure and a young attendant riding blazing fire emerge from the mist.

Zuo Guichuan summoned Hui Mian, who rescued the trapped martial artists and led them out of Hele Mountain with Stoneborn’s help. Hui Mian warned that a powerful Great Toad was undergoing a death tribulation, while Han Shiyong continued toward the danger at the mountain’s center to witness a mortal transcend tribulation.

• Zuo Guichuan used the Yang-Folding Deity-Summoning Art, and Hui Mian appeared with Stoneborn and Mist Ghost, restoring Zuo Guichuan’s strength.
• Hui Mian identified the Great Toad’s death tribulation as the source of Hele Mountain’s chaos and ordered the trapped people to follow him away from the lightning tribulation.
• Hui Mian and Stoneborn used divine power and the Wind-Fire Wheels to clear a path through the mist and lead the group out of Hele Mountain.
• The escaped group saw strange shadows kneel toward Hui Mian and scatter, while a military officer begged him to rescue his missing battalion; Hui Mian said he could not find them.
• Hui Mian and Stoneborn departed, and Han Shiyong pressed deeper into Hele Mountain, determined to witness a mortal transcend tribulation and become an immortal.

Yi Shuyuan’s white crane challenged the great toad as both contended for the tribulation shaking Hele Mountain. As the battle drove creatures and people into a panicked flight, Han Shiyong turned aside to rescue Liao Wenzhi, and the toad tried to stop him.

• Liao Wenzhi lit the White Feather Bright Lamp as soldiers defied him and went searching for their missing commandant and comrades.
• Yi Shuyuan circled Hele Mountain in crane form, and the great toad recognized that he was disrupting the mountain’s destiny and challenged him.
• The great toad attacked Yi Shuyuan with a lightning-wreathed tongue, but Yi Shuyuan evaded it and answered with immortal and demonic qi.
• The great toad’s croak shook Hele Mountain, sending beasts fleeing and forcing Chi Qinghu and the wanderers to run for safety.
• Han Shiyong heard Liao Wenzhi call for help, redirected his fire dragon toward him, and hurried to rescue him.
• The great toad sent lightning after Han Shiyong and the soldiers, but Yi Shuyuan shattered it, enraging the toad.

Yi Shuyuan, transformed into a white crane, attacked the Great Toad King during its tribulation and helped turn the battle into a storm of lightning and demonic power. Han Shiyong was dragged toward the fighting and burned by the toad’s blood, while the tribulation continued.

• The Great Toad King drew in the mountain’s aura, and Han Shiyong rescued Liao Wenzhi from a python before rushing toward the toad.
• Yi Shuyuan struck the Great Toad King’s swollen belly with his crane beak, puncturing it and triggering a massive explosion.
• Yi Shuyuan attacked again alongside the descending tribulation lightning, intensifying the battle and the storm over Hele Mountain.
• The Great Toad King used its suction to drag Han Shiyong toward the fight as he tried to anchor himself with Thousand-Jun Drop.
• The toad’s blood splashed onto Han Shiyong, burned him, and caused him to lose consciousness.

After surviving the lightning tribulation and transforming into human form, Yi Shuyuan told Han Shiyong that the Ascension Ladder he sought amounted to nothing and vanished. Han Shiyong returned to Yunlu Prefecture in a dazed state, where his disciple Liao Wenzhi found him and carried him away.

• The Great Toad escaped after the tribulation, while Yi Shuyuan healed with a Vital Essence Pill and transformed from a crane into a human.
• Yi Shuyuan considered whether his transformation had allowed him to pass Minor Heat, then told Han Shiyong that he was a white crane who had assumed human form and that there was no Ascension Ladder.
• Han Shiyong lost consciousness, woke later, and waited through two more days of rain before making his way back to Yunlu Prefecture.
• After walking for three days and two nights, Han Shiyong reached the city looking filthy and dazed, and onlookers wondered what had happened to him.
• Liao Wenzhi found Han Shiyong and carried him away with the White Feather Way disciples, while two martial wanderers in a teahouse decided not to attack.

After Hele Mountain, Yi Shuyuan recovered the Medicine King Snake’s fiery gallbladder while Han Shiyong spent a month in isolation and emerged changed. As Han Shiyong prepared to return to the capital, Liao Wenzhi sensed a demonic aura and sent his disciple Azheng home, fearing what lay ahead.

• Yi Shuyuan found the charred Medicine King Snake and took its fiery red gallbladder before Stoneborn and Hui Mian recognized him as their master.
• Han Shiyong remained in a dark meditation room for nearly a month, then reflected that immortal affinity might be unreachable and resolved to forge another path.
• When the emperor’s envoy summoned Han Shiyong back to the capital, Liao Wenzhi found his master’s unfamiliar gaze and later sensed a demonic aura in his meditation room.
• Han Shiyong ordered preparations for a formal return to the capital, while Liao Wenzhi’s divination tortoise shell cracked in his hand.
• Liao Wenzhi told Azheng to leave the order for six months or a year and return to his family, leaving Azheng wondering whether his master had foreseen danger.

Han Shiyong’s procession was blocked in Yunlu Prefecture by soldiers demanding answers about their missing Commandant and unpaid losses. Han Shiyong promised to grant them justice, then used a talisman to make the officers who confronted him burn alive, leaving Liao Wenzhi wary of his master.

• Han Shiyong traveled from Yunlu Temple toward East City as crowds gathered to see the State Preceptor, while he dismissed the people as irritating mortals.
• Liao Wenzhi told Han Shiyong that Azheng had gone home to visit his family, and Han Shiyong accepted the explanation.
• Soldiers blocked the procession and demanded an account of the missing Commandant and the consequences of the Hele Mountain incident.
• Han Shiyong told the soldiers that the Commandant was alive and promised them justice, but warned that obstructing his carriage had a price.
• Han Shiyong’s talisman turned to ash and marked the officers, who collapsed as if burning alive while the surrounding soldiers and onlookers watched in terror.
• Liao Wenzhi publicly condemned the officers for disrespecting the State Preceptor, then discreetly reacted with fear when Han Shiyong looked at him.

Han Shiyong’s procession survived a confrontation with prefectural troops, prompting Chi Qinghu and the other righteous warriors to plan an ambush at Green Forest Slope. As the hidden fighters prepared to attack, Han Shiyong sensed them and sent living paper snakes into the woods.

• Han Shiyong used talismans to drive off the prefectural officers who blocked his carriage, killing Li Tang and leaving the others to be carried away for treatment.
• Two disguised wanderers reported the incident to Chi Qinghu and his allies, who debated whether Han Shiyong was wounded or merely projecting strength.
• Chi Qinghu and the warriors decided to attack the White Feather Way procession at Green Forest Slope, while accepting that Mr. Yi would not join them.
• Nearly a hundred wanderers concealed themselves near the slope with talismans and incense ash as Han Shiyong’s procession approached.
• Han Shiyong detected the incense ash, animated paper snakes, and sent them into the woods, where screams of pain soon rose.

Chi Qinghu and the other martial artists ambushed Han Shiyong’s procession, but Han Shiyong nearly killed Chi before a lightning blast from the copy of “Awaiting Heaven’s Rain” drove him away. Han Shiyong escaped and hurried toward the Capital City, fearing another strike.

• Chi Qinghu crushed the tiny spellbound snakes and led the ambushers in an attack on Han Shiyong’s carriage.
• Han Shiyong appeared and fought Chi Qinghu, then faced four more experts as the White Feather Way’s attendants fled or were captured.
• Han Shiyong dazed Chi Qinghu and lunged at his chest, but a lightning blast from the cloth pouch containing “Awaiting Heaven’s Rain” struck him and forced him to flee.
• Chi Qinghu and the others found only Han Shiyong’s garment, while Liao Wenzhi remained missing and the bitten fighters recovered.
• Han Shiyong reappeared far away with a charred hand, then ran toward the Capital City, hoping the Son of Heaven’s Purple Star aura would protect him.

After fleeing toward the capital, Han Shiyong collapsed in an abandoned village, where thunder and pain from his burned hand overwhelmed him. In the capital, a White Crane awakened the emperor from a nightmare of a Giant Serpent, and the frightened emperor ordered Han Shiyong summoned back at once.

• Han Shiyong used Divine Movement to race toward the capital, but thunder startled him into ending the spell and collapsing on the road.
• Han Shiyong took shelter in an abandoned village, broke an Incense Burner, and suffered worsening pain in his burned right hand whenever lightning flashed.
• Han Shiyong hallucinated voices and memories of Hele Mountain before losing consciousness beneath a table.
• A White Crane descended into the imperial garden while the emperor dreamed that a Giant Serpent was strangling him.
• The White Crane's cry woke the emperor, and he ordered the State Preceptor summoned back to the capital immediately.

After hearing a crane cry in the night, the crown prince confirmed that a new red-crowned white crane had arrived at the palace and learned that the State Preceptor had returned early. He left to meet the State Preceptor, while the unusual crane remained by the pond.

• The emperor woke from a nightmare, spoke of missing the absent State Preceptor, and was comforted by a consort.
• The crown prince heard a crane cry during a storm, though his guards said they had heard nothing.
• The crown prince visited the palace pond and saw a new red-crowned crane that refused the food offered by the eunuchs.
• Yuan Zhaoning confirmed that he had heard the crane cry and said the new bird had likely arrived during the night, earning a reward from the crown prince.
• An attendant told the crown prince that the State Preceptor had returned alone, so the crown prince hurried away, leaving Yuan Zhaoning curious about the crane.

Han Shiyong returned to the capital and persuaded the emperor to let him use the Western Flower Palace for three years to refine an Immortal Elixir. A crane’s cry then struck him with fear and exposed a strange stench, leaving his deception under threat.

• Han Shiyong returned to the capital overnight, met Crown Prince Jian Xu at court, and concealed his burned hand.
• Han Shiyong told the emperor that he had witnessed a heavenly crane battle an enormous toad and had learned how to refine the Immortal Elixir.
• Han Shiyong requested a secluded palace and at least three years to refine the elixir, while secretly intending to use the emperor’s Purple Star qi after his death.
• Han Shiyong insinuated that Crown Prince Jian Xu wanted the emperor’s throne, provoking an uproar in the Golden Hall.
• The emperor approved Han Shiyong’s use of the Western Flower Palace, but a crane’s cry made Han Shiyong recoil as ministers noticed a strange stench.

Yi Shuyuan entered the Golden Hall as a white crane and exposed Han Shiyong as the monster haunting the emperor’s palace. He tore the giant serpent’s demonic soul from Han Shiyong and swallowed it before flying away.

• The emperor described his nightmare of a giant serpent and feared the foul odor in the Golden Hall signaled a monster nearby.
• Han Shiyong urged the emperor to authorize a ritual, but Crown Prince Jian Xu challenged him to find and defeat the monster himself.
• Yi Shuyuan arrived at the Golden Hall as a white crane, and Han Shiyong panicked while Jian Xu stopped the guards from driving the bird away.
• As Yi Shuyuan approached, Han Shiyong’s demonic aura filled the hall, and he recognized the crane from Hele Mountain.
• Yi Shuyuan revealed Han Shiyong’s giant serpent shadow, pulled it from his body, swallowed it, and flew out of the Golden Hall.

After the white crane defeated Han Shiyong, Crown Prince Jian Xu had him arrested and received authority to purge the White Feather Way. Days later, soldiers raided the Celestial Feather Temple as Liao Wenzhi watched in terror, realizing he might not escape the crackdown.

• The white crane left Han Shiyong alive but aged and powerless, and Jian Xu ordered guards to arrest him.
• Jian Xu persuaded the emperor to grant him authority to root out the White Feather Way and urged the court to keep the crane's intervention secret.
• Jian Xu rewarded Yuan Zhaoning with an Eastern Palace Command Token and ordered him to report if the unusual white crane returned.
• Days later, imperial troops surrounded and stormed the Celestial Feather Temple, knocking its gatekeepers down.
• Liao Wenzhi watched the soldiers raid the temple and realized he might not be able to save himself.