Chapter Summaries

Yi Shuyuan finished telling “River God's Fall” to the emperor and guests at the Tan residence, then spoke with the emperor before leaving for the inn. Impressed by the tale and Yi Shuyuan, the emperor ordered statues for the story’s good aquatic divine generals and an inspection of Cloud Moor Harbor’s temple, setting the tale on its way to spread widely.

• Yi Shuyuan told the second and third parts of “River God's Fall,” depicting the Carp Demon’s escape, the immortal’s defeat of Nian Chaosheng, and the river god’s execution.
• Yi Shuyuan completed the final part, in which the immortal exposed the Cat Demon and the aquatic divine generals helped avert a crisis in Heaven-Bearing Prefecture.
• The emperor questioned Yi Shuyuan about the imperial examinations and his views, while Yi Shuyuan answered calmly and left the emperor impressed.
• Yi Shuyuan declined to stay at the Tan residence and returned alone to the inn as imperial guards followed him.
• The emperor told Zhang Liangxi to arrange statues for the good aquatic divine generals at Cloud Moor Harbor and investigate whether the temple keeper and others were corrupt.

Yi Shuyuan brought Zhuo Qing to the Cloud Fragrance Pavilion, where he helped her confront the madam and secure her freedom. After leaving with her belongings, Zhuo Qing wept as Yi Shuyuan comforted her in his female form.

• Yi Shuyuan and Zhuo Qing arrived at the Cloud Fragrance Pavilion, where the madam and her instructors confronted them.
• Yi Shuyuan defeated the instructors and made Zhuo Qing slap the madam when she refused to let her go.
• Tan Yuanshang arrived, paid Zhuo Qing's redemption money, and secured her release from the pavilion.
• Zhuo Qing collected her pipa and belongings, and Yi Shuyuan destroyed her servitude contract.
• After they left, Zhuo Qing sobbed, and Yi Shuyuan changed into a woman and held her as he told her she was free.

Yi Shuyuan helped Zhuo Qing regain her confidence and brought her to a peaceful fishing village run by the Aquatic Folk of the Grand Canal. Zhuo Qing chose to settle there, while Yi Shuyuan introduced himself to the villagers as Mili, a fellow disciple of Mr. Yi.

• Zhuo Qing told Yi Shuyuan she wanted to live peacefully near the water, and he encouraged her by teaching her to skip stones.
• Zhuo Qing struck General Crab with a stone, and he emerged to greet Yi Shuyuan and reported that people had begun worshipping him.
• Yi Shuyuan warned General Crab to remain upright as a god, then accepted his offer to show Zhuo Qing a place to live.
• General Crab carried Yi Shuyuan, Zhuo Qing, and Hui Mian underwater to an Aquatic Folk village where residents farmed, raised silkworms, and forged iron.
• Zhuo Qing chose to settle in the village, and Yi Shuyuan introduced himself to its residents as Mili, a disciple of the same school as Mr. Yi.

Yi Shuyuan helped Zhuo Qing settle into a new home in Fishmulberry Village, then said goodbye after the villagers celebrated with a feast. As he traveled away, his feelings for Zhuo Qing gave rise to a new sword intent during the Grain Rain and Shangsi Festival.

• Zhuo Qing, Yi Shuyuan, Hui Mian, and the Aquatic Folk finished building a house in Fishmulberry Village.
• Yi Shuyuan prepared a feast for the villagers, whose food left most of them full, warm, and sleepy.
• Yi Shuyuan left a letter beside Zhuo Qing and said goodbye face-to-face after she woke and asked to embrace him.
• Zhuo Qing read Yi Shuyuan's letter after waking at midnight and felt little loneliness.
• Yi Shuyuan sensed a new sword intent take shape as he traveled above the Grand Canal in the rain.

Yi Shuyuan advanced his sword intent by weaving it into pipa music, then tested Xuan Ji’s experience of returning to life by burning her in the Heaven and Earth Gourd. Meanwhile, the emperor regretted driving Yi Shuyuan away and discussed his remarkable connections with Tan Yuanshang and Zhang Liangxi.

• Yi Shuyuan combined sword intent and pipa music, controlling his flying sword through a powerful melody while transformed into Mili.
• Yi Shuyuan questioned Xuan Ji inside the Heaven and Earth Gourd, then intensified the flames to observe what happened when she died.
• Hui Mian praised Yi Shuyuan’s sword control and recoiled at Xuan Ji’s agonized howls as Yi Shuyuan continued refining her.
• In the Imperial Study, the emperor regretted asking Yi Shuyuan whether he knew his identity and complained that the guards had failed to keep watch over him.
• Tan Yuanshang explained that the emperor had forbidden the guards from intervening, while he and Zhang Liangxi praised Yi Shuyuan’s extraordinary connections.

Yi Shuyuan destroyed a newly formed corpse shadow in the coffin and returned to Harbor City, where he encountered Chu Hang and Yang Bencai after they failed the imperial examination and spent the night drinking. Chu Hang chased after Yi Shuyuan, pleading for help, while Yi Shuyuan kept walking and said he would let Chu Hang sober up first.

• Yi Shuyuan opened the coffin from Chanting Dust, pinned its corpse shadow inside, burned it away, and sealed the coffin again.
• Yi Shuyuan and Hui Mian reached Harbor City and saw Chu Hang, Yang Bencai, Meng Changxian, Dugu Zhang, and An Yazhong returning from the Thirteen Pavilion Quarter after drinking all night.
• Yi Shuyuan teased Chu Hang and Yang Bencai about failing the imperial examination and spending the night seeking pleasure, then reassured Chu Hang that he would not tell his uncle.
• Yang Bencai reminded Chu Hang that he had been trying to find Yi Shuyuan, prompting Chu Hang to slap himself and hurry after him, begging him to help.
• Yi Shuyuan continued walking ahead of Chu Hang and told Hui Mian that they would let Chu Hang work up a sweat and sober up first.

Chu Hang exhausted himself chasing Yi Shuyuan, who returned in disguise and accepted his promise to give up drinking and study diligently. After a farewell meal in the capital, Yi Shuyuan, Chu Hang, and Yang Bencai traveled toward Longwind Prefecture, stopping at an abandoned house near Yan Mountain as night fell.

• Chu Hang chased Yi Shuyuan until he collapsed, and Yi Shuyuan appeared as an old villager to help him drink water.
• Yi Shuyuan revealed himself, and Chu Hang promised to give up drinking and focus on his studies.
• Yi Shuyuan and the scholars shared a farewell meal in the capital and agreed to meet again in three years.
• Chu Hang, Yang Bencai, and Yi Shuyuan left the capital together in a hired carriage bound for Longwind Prefecture.
• As darkness fell, the driver led the travelers to an abandoned house near Yan Mountain, where Yi Shuyuan noticed a tiny shrine with a clay bodhisattva.

Yi Shuyuan and his companions spent the night in a mountain temple, where Hui Mian discovered that their old horse had become a spirit. As animals gathered around the temple, its clay bodhisattva began softly chanting Buddhist scriptures.

• Yi Shuyuan recognized that a deity was seated within the temple’s statue, while the driver and the others bowed to it.
• The driver told tales of demons once found in the Yan Mountains as the group rested by a fire.
• Hui Mian caught a snake near the old horse and discovered that the horse had developed spiritual awareness, though it could not speak.
• After the men fell asleep, animals gathered near the temple, and the old horse led Hui Mian to join them.
• Hui Mian heard Buddhist scriptures softly chanted from within the clay bodhisattva.

Yi Shuyuan listened to a Buddhist sutra and discovered that a fading bodhisattva manifestation had been waiting for someone worthy to inherit its teachings. He promised to find a successor, received a Buddhist Relic, and arranged to explain the sutra to the mountain animals before leaving.

• Yi Shuyuan listened to the bodhisattva's chanting and realized its lingering presence was nearing the end.
• Yi Shuyuan bowed to the clay statue, awakening Buddhist light and a manifestation that asked him to accept its mantle.
• Yi Shuyuan declined to follow Buddhist teachings but promised to find a suitable successor and pass on the sutra and the bodhisattva's wish.
• The manifestation dispersed after accepting Yi Shuyuan's promise, leaving him a Buddhist Relic as the clay statue weathered.
• Yi Shuyuan befriended the old horse and asked it and Hui Mian to gather the animals so he could explain the sutra the following night.

Hui Mian invited a mountain ghoul to hear Yi Shuyuan expound the sutra, and Yi Shuyuan later gathered awakened animals at the abandoned shrine to teach them. After completing the teaching and accepting their offerings, he left with Hui Mian and the old horse, bringing their bond to an end.

• Hui Mian found the mountain ghoul and invited it to Yi Shuyuan's sutra teaching at the abandoned house the following night.
• Yi Shuyuan left the waystation with Hui Mian and the old horse and waited beside the shrine as awakened animals arrived.
• The mountain ghoul brought offerings, and Yi Shuyuan told the sixteen animals and the ghoul that he would teach in the bodhisattva's place and warned them against evil conduct.
• Yi Shuyuan recited the sutra and explained cultivation principles to the gathered listeners for nearly four hours.
• Yi Shuyuan collected the offerings in his Gourd, declared their bond complete, and flew back toward the waystation with Hui Mian and the old horse.

Yi Shuyuan protected a courtyard of animals from hunters before accompanying Chu Hang and Yang Bencai to Longwind Prefecture. At the Chu Residence, Chu Hang reunited with his family, and Yi Shuyuan agreed to investigate the mysterious presence that had appeared in Chu Hang’s dreams.

• A half-asleep caravan member saw Yi Shuyuan and his horse vanish into the sky, then woke his companions and led them toward the ruined house.
• Five men tried to capture the animals in the courtyard and damaged its shrine, so Mountain Ghoul frightened them away before returning to the mountains.
• Yi Shuyuan and Hui Mian discussed the collapsed shrine, and the travelers continued toward Longwind Prefecture with the horse moving unusually fast.
• Chu Hang arrived at the Chu Residence with Yi Shuyuan and Yang Bencai, where he reunited with his mother and younger mother and introduced his companions.
• After the family discussed the travelers’ experiences, Chu Hang asked Yi Shuyuan whether he sensed demonic aura, and Yi Shuyuan said he had detected nothing but would investigate that night.

Yi Shuyuan realized Chu Hang’s nightmares followed him throughout Longwind, then discovered that Chu Hang’s soul left his body each night and traveled to an underground lake. The chapter ended with Yi Shuyuan sensing a huge creature in the lake and recognizing it as a dragon.

• Chu Hang told Yi Shuyuan that his nightmares returned whenever he came to Longwind, and Yi Shuyuan suspected their source lay outside the Chu Residence.
• Master Chu welcomed Yi Shuyuan and Yang Bencai at dinner, while Chu Hang remained apprehensive around his father.
• Yi Shuyuan used a magical method to help Chu Hang fall asleep, then followed Chu Hang’s soul when it left his body.
• Chu Hang’s soul traveled from Lakeview Tower down a well and through an underwater passage into a vast underground lake, where it entered a stone pagoda.
• Yi Shuyuan sensed a massive presence in the water and realized a dragon was lurking in the underground lake.

Yi Shuyuan encountered a Flood Dragon beneath Lakeview Tower, fought it off, and escaped with Hui Mian. The next morning, Chu Hang described a change in his recurring nightmare, leading Yi Shuyuan to conclude that the Flood Dragon had been guarding the tower.

• Yi Shuyuan met a Flood Dragon in the underground lake, narrowly dodged its attack, and struck it with his sword.
• The Flood Dragon let Yi Shuyuan leave, but pursued him into a narrow passage, where Yi Shuyuan used the Ritual Ruler to stun it with a thunderous illusion and escape.
• Yi Shuyuan reassured the frightened Hui Mian and returned to the Chu Residence to wait for Chu Hang to wake.
• Chu Hang told Yi Shuyuan that his nightmare had included roars, a cow calling nearby, and the monster urging him to leave.
• Yi Shuyuan concluded that the Flood Dragon had been guarding Lakeview Tower.

Yi Shuyuan brought Chu Hang to the Land God Temple, where the Land God confirmed that Chu Hang had wandered in spirit to the underground lake and entered the stone tower guarded by a Flood Dragon. Chu Hang also witnessed the truth through the Land God’s investigation, leaving him to confront the reality of his dream.

• Yi Shuyuan told Chu Hang that a Flood Dragon guarded the underground place he had visited in his dream, and Chu Hang struggled to believe him.
• Yi Shuyuan and Chu Hang went to the Land God Temple and summoned Du Peide, the Land God of Longwind Prefecture.
• Du Peide revealed that a great lake once covered land near the city before a stone fell from the sky and the lake eventually drained underground.
• Yi Shuyuan asked Du Peide to investigate Chu Hang’s recurring dreams, and the Land God traced Chu Hang’s spirit to the underground lake and stone tower.
• Du Peide’s spiritual perception was jolted away inside the tower, while Chu Hang witnessed his own spirit journey and realized Yi Shuyuan had been telling the truth.

Yi Shuyuan helped Chu Hang recover his memories and learn that he was formed from the old Flood Dragon’s soul remnants, then tried to stop him from crying out. Chu Hang’s cry triggered flooding across Longwind Prefecture, while the Stone Pagoda began cracking as the Flood Dragon’s water essence leaked away.

• Yi Shuyuan asked the Land God to keep his visit secret and led Chu Hang away from the temple, where Chu Hang recovered memories of his dreams.
• Chu Hang told Yi Shuyuan that the being in the Stone Pagoda was a disgraced Flood Dragon who considered himself Chu Hang’s father from nine lifetimes ago and had asked to be saved.
• Chu Hang explained that the Flood Dragon had taught him cultivation methods and warned that the pagoda’s failure could cause a disaster; Yi Shuyuan struck him when he seemed about to cry out.
• The Octagonal Well overflowed after Chu Hang’s cry, and Yi Shuyuan sent Chu Hang and Hui Mian flying toward the Chu Residence as wells across the city began flooding beneath dark clouds and thunder.
• Underground, the Flood Dragon saw his vital essence leak rapidly from the Stone Pagoda; when he tried to contain it with his dragon qi, cracks spread across the stone.

Yi Shuyuan and a Flood Dragon struggled to contain the Waterside Essence escaping from a cracking Stone Pagoda beneath Longwind Prefecture. Yi Shuyuan channeled the flood into the Mountain and River Immortal Furnace Diagram, transforming its painted landscape into a world of living mountains and rivers.

• Wells erupted across Longwind Prefecture as torrential rain fell, and Yi Shuyuan realized the underground Flood Dragon was trying to contain the disaster.
• Yi Shuyuan descended into the Underground Lake and found the Flood Dragon coiled around a cracking Stone Pagoda that was leaking Waterside Essence.
• Yi Shuyuan brought out the Mountain and River Immortal Furnace Diagram and used Chanting Dust to direct the rising moisture into the painting.
• As the Stone Pagoda exploded, Yi Shuyuan asked the Flood Dragon to release it, then merged his inner realm into the diagram and guided the Waterside Essence through its landscape.
• After three days, the waters settled, and Yi Shuyuan saw that the diagram had become a vivid world of mountains, rivers, and living colors.

Yi Shuyuan and Jiang Lang stopped the flood after the Stone Pagoda shattered, and the waters receded across Longwind Prefecture. Yi Shuyuan returned to the Chu Residence, where Jiang Lang asked him to help explain his role in the disaster to Dragonkind.

• Yi Shuyuan concealed his newly created treasure and left the underground lake with Jiang Lang, whose name he learned.
• Yi Shuyuan asked Jiang Lang to control the floodwaters, and Jiang Lang swallowed the water essence in the clouds until the rain stopped.
• More dragons arrived to help disperse the clouds, and the flood receded as Longwind Prefecture's residents celebrated the return of sunlight.
• Chu Hang and others cooked porridge for disaster victims while waiting for Yi Shuyuan to return, and Hui Mian assured Chu Hang that his nightmares would end.
• Yi Shuyuan returned to the Chu Residence and told Chu Hang the hidden danger was gone, while warning him not to discuss it with outsiders.
• Jiang Lang arrived in human form and asked Yi Shuyuan to testify on his behalf, and Yi Shuyuan promised to explain what had happened.

After helping the flood survivors, Yi Shuyuan returned to the Underground Lake with Jiang Lang to meet the dragons gathered there. He showed Huang Zihe the treasure he had refined from the Mountain and River Immortal Furnace Diagram, refused to give it up, and left the dragons impressed by its power.

• Yi Shuyuan and Jiang Lang helped residents clear flood damage while Jiang Lang explained that boredom and resentment had led him to attack Yi Shuyuan.
• After Celestial Court officials departed, Yi Shuyuan and Jiang Lang entered the Underground Lake and met three flood dragons, including Huang Zihe.
• Huang Zihe asked Jiang Lang to recount how the Stone Pagoda had been broken, and Yi Shuyuan confirmed the account.
• Yi Shuyuan unfurled his refined painting, revealing a world-like scene that enthralled the dragons, and Huang Zihe recognized it as the Mountain and River Immortal Furnace Diagram.
• Huang Zihe asked to acquire the painting, but Yi Shuyuan refused because it was bound to his cultivation and understanding of the Dao.

After helping the flood dragons resolve the Stone Pagoda crisis, Yi Shuyuan learned that Longwind Lake would return and flood fertile farmland, prompting relief efforts across Longwind Prefecture. He stayed at the Chu Residence to revise the incomplete cultivation method Chu Hang had received in his dreams, hoping to improve it and advance his White Dragon Transformation.

• Yi Shuyuan named his refined immortal treasure the Mountain and River State Map, then left the underground site with Jiang Lang and the other flood dragons.
• Yi Shuyuan explained that the Stone Pagoda had gradually drawn Longwind Lake’s waters into a vortex, and that Jiang Lang accepted blame because it benefited him among Dragonkind.
• Yi Shuyuan predicted that Longwind Lake would gradually return, submerging fertile farmland, while the Grand Canal’s diversion would keep the lake from flooding Longwind Prefecture’s city.
• The emperor received news of the Longwind Prefecture flood and ordered relief supplies, tax reductions, recovery work, and measures to prevent disease and further deaths.
• After the floodwaters receded, Yi Shuyuan stayed at the Chu Residence and began revising the incomplete cultivation method recorded from Chu Hang’s dreams.

Yi Shuyuan revised a dragon cultivation method for Chu Hang and bound it into a wordless book that would reveal its contents as Chu Hang kept his promises. After Yi Shuyuan departed, Chu Hang resolved to take responsibility and study, while the book quietly began to show words.

• Hui Mian warned Chu Hang that cultivation required a proper attitude, and Yi Shuyuan agreed as he considered how to adapt the Dragonkind manuscript.
• Yi Shuyuan gave Chu Hang a revised Flood Dragon method based on three human energy points and told him to study meridian medicine.
• Yi Shuyuan transformed the manuscript into a wordless book whose writing would appear as Chu Hang honestly worked toward his promise to study diligently.
• Yi Shuyuan left the Chu household, then returned to formally bid farewell to Master Chu and Madam Chu as Longwind Lake began to reappear.
• After Yi Shuyuan departed, Chu Hang reflected on his past, admitted he had used immortality to evade responsibility, and sat down to read.
• Words appeared in the book Chu Hang had put away, though he did not know it.