Recaps

After the Opera Garden fire, Jin Si received Lin Wei’s assignment to escort an accomplished cultivator to Pillowstar Mountain. He brought Xiao Yu and Red Clothes along, and the group reached a secluded valley near the pickup location, with Red Clothes waiting in the Spirit Realm until sunset.

• Jin Si inspected the burned Opera Garden and saw grieving survivors and the souls of the dead among the ruins.
• Jin Si received a Paper Crane message from Lin Wei assigning him to protect an accomplished cultivator from creatures seeking to attach themselves to the adept.
• Jin Si decided to bring Xiao Yu and Red Clothes, and the three agreed to travel through the Spirit Realm before crossing into the Mortal Realm.
• Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes journeyed through the Spirit Realm and found few other beings along the way.
• Jin Si and Xiao Yu crossed into the Mortal Realm through a passage in a secluded valley, while Red Clothes stayed behind until sunset.

Jin Si crossed the mountains to find the expert he had been sent to fetch and discovered the secluded terrace where the Pillowstar Mountain Daoists lived. He found the expert preparing to leave, but she spent the evening with her younger brother, delaying Jin Si’s return journey.

• Jin Si followed the mountain ridges toward the location described in the letter while Xiao Yu scouted ahead.
• Jin Si spotted several hermits and crude mountain dwellings but continued searching for the expert.
• Jin Si identified the Cloud Ladder and used passages through the Spirit Realm to reach the hidden terrace.
• Jin Si found the five Daoists, their spirit beasts, and a woman whose younger brother begged her not to leave.
• The woman agreed to spend the night with her younger brother and make his favorite bean porridge, leaving Jin Si anxious about returning to Pillowstar Mountain on time.

Jin Si watched a woman’s tribulation draw uncanny creatures to the mountain terrace as the Daoists and their spirit beasts struggled to defend her. Red Clothes joined the battle with a blood-red sword, and torrential rain began as Jin Si searched the area for hidden threats.

• Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes sheltered in a ridge crevice while the Daoists and their spirit beasts fought off the first uncanny creatures at the terrace.
• As the creatures learned to evade the spirit beasts, Jin Si judged the defense weak, and a young martial artist killed one with his saber and joined the fight.
• Red Clothes revealed a blood-red longsword and went to the terrace, where she drove back the creatures as the defensive line began to collapse.
• Jin Si studied the surrounding terrain for hidden threats while Xiao Yu dozed, and torrential rain fell, sending the uncanny creatures retreating.

Jin Si patrolled Pillowstar Mountain during a supernatural rain and entered the Underworld to learn why resentful nobles were confronting the woman in plain robes. When a shadow rushed toward her during her breakthrough, Jin Si returned to his body and struck it before it could reach her.

• Jin Si patrolled the mountain through the torrential rain, then used thunder force to stop yin souls and uncanny creatures from crossing into the mortal world.
• A young martial artist spotted the Black Flood Dragon in the fog, and the Daoists identified it as Pillowstar Mountain’s guardian spirit beast.
• The woman in plain robes entered a gray realm and rejected the demands of resentful nobles who wanted her to lead them toward immortality.
• Jin Si entered the Underworld, learned the nobles were using old debts to threaten the woman, and stopped Red Clothes from intervening while she chose for herself.
• After Xiao Yu warned that something was approaching, Jin Si returned to his body and charged toward the terrace.
• The five Daoists’ formation briefly blocked the phantom, allowing Jin Si to slam it into the cliff face.

Jin Si and Xiao Yu fought a strange spell-casting man who had threatened the woman on the mountain, then abandoned the chase when the danger became too great. They returned to the ridge, where Red Clothes reported that she had settled the woman’s underworld troubles before dawn.

• Jin Si struck the strange man away from the crowd, but the man dodged his attacks and used an icy spell against him.
• Xiao Yu wounded the strange man, who fled down the cliff; Jin Si and Xiao Yu pursued him through the mist.
• At the valley floor, Jin Si stopped the pursuit, explaining that the unknown enemy posed too much risk.
• Jin Si and Xiao Yu returned to their hiding place, where Red Clothes said she had dealt with the woman’s many underworld creditors and departed for the spirit realm.
• Jin Si circled the cliff’s level ground, searching the mist for anything unusual as dawn approached.

The woman left the Mortal Realm with five Daoists and entered Pillowstar Mountain’s gate, while Jin Si escorted her journey and received a small benefit from fate. He returned to the Medicine King Temple and resumed helping Daoist Jiang, who asked him to take a letter to his teacher to explain his absence from the Village School.

• The woman said farewell to her brother and climbed the Cloud Road with the five Daoists as hermits below watched the departure.
• Jin Si and Xiao Yu entered the Spirit Realm during the mist tide, and the travelers sailed across it toward Pillowstar Mountain.
• Jin Si watched the woman climb the mountain and cross the Mountain Gate, then sensed a small benefit from fate; Xiao Yu and Red Clothes sensed it too.
• Jin Si returned to the Mortal Realm, hid in his cave, and went to the Medicine King Temple to help Daoist Jiang with water and firewood.
• Daoist Jiang asked Jin Si to deliver a letter to his teacher the next day and say that temple business had kept him away from the Village School.

Jin Si made a weakly enchanted peach pit to sell as an evil-warding charm, then returned to the Medicine King Temple after passing the burned Opera Garden. Daoist Jiang told him to visit the General Store with a letter from Daoist Pang when he returned to the mountain on Wu Day, and Jin Si ended the night in his flood-dragon form beneath the moon.

• Jin Si asked schoolchildren about flood dragon crossings and learned that stories about them were common rumors.
• A boy offered fifty coins for an evil-warding treasure, so Jin Si infused a peach pit with a faint trace of spirit power and sold it to him.
• Jin Si wandered through the market and encountered the burned Opera Garden, where rumors said ghosts lingered.
• Daoist Jiang told Jin Si that Daoist Pang had sent a letter and asked him to stop at the General Store on his way back to the mountain on Wu Day.
• Jin Si returned to his true body in the Back Mountain cave and gazed at the moon in his half-flood-dragon form.

Jin Si learned that the creature he fought was an Eerie and asked how to make warding objects, then returned to his chores and rested on the Library Pavilion roof. A newly arrived woman found him there and approached, intending to thank the Black Flood Dragon who had helped save her.

• Jin Si told Daoist Li and Daoist Pang what he knew about the creature, and they explained that it was an Eerie with unpredictable powers and no universal weakness.
• Jin Si asked whether Eeries could be eaten, then asked where to make warding objects and learned that the peach-pit charm he had sold could have been worth ten taels of silver.
• Jin Si shared what he had learned about Eeries with Xiao Yu and Red Clothes, then tended the Medicine Field and fell asleep on the Library Pavilion roof.
• A newly arrived woman came to the Library Pavilion, recognized Jin Si as the Black Flood Dragon who had helped save her, and decided to thank him in person.

Jin Si continued his studies and duties as winter arrived, while the haunting at the Opera Garden remained unresolved. After giving a coin to a freezing beggar, he discovered the boy had helped traffickers target him and freed a girl they had kidnapped.

• Wang Ying thanked Jin Si for saving her, and he welcomed her to the Library Pavilion and explained its rules.
• Jin Si kept up his daily routine of studying at the Village School and guarding the Library Pavilion as the Opera Garden haunting worsened and the Medicine King Temple received more pilgrims.
• Other practitioners failed to resolve the haunting, and the ruins were cordoned off as the weather turned colder.
• After the first snow fell, Jin Si prepared firewood at the temple and reflected on why he needed to keep studying before leaving school for the New Year.
• Jin Si gave a copper coin to a shivering little beggar, but later saw the boy point him out to two traffickers who tried to capture him.
• Jin Si weakened the three traffickers, took their belongings, and freed a bound girl from a burlap sack in a nearby courtyard.

Jin Si rescued a freezing girl and brought her to the Medicine King Temple, where Daoist Jiang sheltered her for the night. The girl fell asleep safely, while Jin Si remained puzzled by the inexplicable hostility he sensed between them.

• Jin Si returned to the courtyard, sensed the unconscious girl's orphaned circumstances through spirit divination, and carried her away from the snow.
• Jin Si warmed the girl with a careful stream of yang essence and bought her a bowl of noodle soup at a nearby eatery.
• Jin Si asked whether the girl knew him, but she shook her head, and he took her back into the snow.
• Jin Si carried the girl over the city wall to the Medicine King Temple, where Daoist Jiang welcomed them inside.
• Daoist Jiang cleaned the girl, gave her old clothes and a warm bed, and comforted her until she fell asleep.

Jin Si left Daoist Jiang’s temple after receiving Lin Wei’s request to hunt a strange beast that had been devouring people. He reached the mountain pass where the wounded Daoists had gathered and began approaching the beast’s cave stealthily.

• Jin Si returned to the temple and received a letter from Lin Wei asking him to subdue a dangerous beast six hundred li northeast.
• Jin Si set out with Xiao Yu, leaving Red Clothes behind to guard their lair.
• Jin Si found Lin Wei and six other Daoists at a mountain god’s temple, where they told him the beast resembled a lion and had eaten over a hundred people.
• Jin Si decided to investigate alone and have the Daoists pressure the beast from the perimeter.
• Jin Si approached the cave from downwind while Xiao Yu circled overhead to draw the beast’s attention.

Jin Si laid an ambush beneath the frozen river while Xiao Yu and the Daoists drove a wounded lion toward him. The Black Flood Dragon burst through the ice and sank his venomous fangs into the lion’s belly.

• Jin Si surveyed the lion’s strength and planned an ambush along the river valley.
• Jin Si hid beneath the ice at a river bend while Xiao Yu, Lin Wei, the Daoists, and the bear demon set out to drive the lion toward him.
• Xiao Yu pressured the lion with repeated dives as the group chased it through the mist and along the riverside road.
• Jin Si detected the lion’s approach through vibrations and waited motionless beneath the ice.
• The lion ran beside the river, and Jin Si burst through the ice and bit its belly, injecting venom.

Jin Si pursued the poisoned Lion through the mountains and drove it over a steep ridge, where they fought desperately down the slope. As the battle continued, Jin Si sensed a trace of pale golden thought power within Lion.

• Jin Si ambushed Lion with a venomous bite, and the Five-Colored Demon Bird’s attack forced Lion to flee rather than retaliate.
• Lion roared to warn others, then fled into the mountain forest as the venom spread through its body and weakened its hind legs.
• Jin Si followed at a measured distance while the Daoists and Black Bear pursued, waiting for Lion to grow weaker.
• Near the ridge, Jin Si circled around and attacked Lion from behind, sending them both tumbling down the steep slope.
• Jin Si and Lion grappled and battered each other among rocks and trees as they rolled downhill.
• Jin Si resolved to kill Lion and sensed a trace of pale golden thought power alongside its metal-affinity demonic qi.

Jin Si and the Daoists defeated the Lion, and Jin Si devoured most of its body before fleeing into the Spirit Realm. Two strangers arrived to claim they had pursued the Lion for years, but Lin Wei burned its remains, and Jin Si later left with Xiao Yu after hiding until morning.

• Jin Si and Xiao Yu helped the Daoists kill the Lion, and the Daoists destroyed its fleeing demonic soul.
• Jin Si ate most of the Lion's flesh, then entered the Spirit Realm when Xiao Yu warned that someone was approaching.
• Two strangers arrived as yang spirits and claimed they had pursued the Lion for over three years, but the Daoists distrusted them.
• Lin Wei burned the Lion's remains, and the strangers left without further explanation.
• Jin Si returned from hiding, confirmed the danger had passed, and later traveled with Xiao Yu after waiting until the next morning.

After returning to Pillowstar Mountain, Jin Si searched the Library Pavilion for practical cultivation books and asked Wang Ying to teach him how to fly. He learned the principles of Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving and began practicing with condensed mist.

• Jin Si returned to the mountain, found that his medicinal herbs were not mature, and took a watch shift at the Library Pavilion.
• Jin Si read a book about the Transformation Art, then searched for a practical book about flight.
• A Daoist helped Jin Si choose a book, and Jin Si borrowed it before setting off to find Wang Ying.
• Jin Si reached Wang Ying's cliffside cave abode and asked her to explain how to fly with his primordial spirit.
• Wang Ying taught Jin Si Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving, and he practiced condensing and shaping mist.

Jin Si learned wind-riding and levitation after finding Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving too slow for combat, then returned to the Library Pavilion and resumed his rest. In the Mortal Realm, a river-quelling project sparked covert conflict, while Jin Si remembered his writing practice and began tracing characters in the snow.

• Jin Si decided Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving were too slow for fighting, so Wang Ying taught him wind-riding and levitation, which he practiced in the Cave Abode before returning the book to the Library Pavilion.
• Daoist Jiang warned Huang Xing not to donate to a river-quelling fund, explaining that the supposed evil flood dragon might not exist and that good and evil were difficult to judge.
• The Jiang Household disrupted the river-quelling survey by felling willows, and further clashes over stakes and an irrigation channel led both sides to trade insults across the frozen river.
• Jin Si remembered that he had neglected his writing practice, left a message for Xiao Yu, and traveled to a secluded valley in the Mortal Realm.
• Jin Si practiced writing by tracing characters in the snow with his claw while reciting them aloud.

Jin Si discovered a blazing object that had fallen from the sky, brought the black lump he dug from its impact site back to the Medicine King Temple, and spent the snowy day practicing. The next morning, Daoist Jiang received a letter reporting that rumors about the fallen star and a Flood Dragon had sparked public panic.

• Jin Si sensed a fast-moving heat source in the clouds, followed its trail through heavy snow, and dug a warm black lump from its crater.
• Jin Si returned to the Medicine King Temple, hid the lump beneath his bed, and cleared the snow from the courtyard with his strength.
• Jin Si studied the stove's five elements, extinguished a burning stick with Gui Water Spirit Power, and listened as Daoist Jiang warned him not to enter the river because someone had altered its Feng Shui.
• Jin Si practiced swordplay in the falling snow, then returned to his cave and slept until morning.
• A household servant delivered a letter, and Daoist Jiang learned that rumors linking the fallen star to war, a Flood Dragon, floods, and droughts had spread panic.

Jin Si discovered that the meteorite was being used to stir unrest among starving people, while he and Daoist Jiang prepared to endure the winter. Later, he agreed to protect Wang Ying’s younger brother and family for three years, using a Jade Pendant to recognize his scent.

• Jin Si showed Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing the meteorite he had dug up, and Daoist Jiang warned them to conserve food and stay inside the temple.
• Huang Xing asked Daoist Jiang for a short knife, and he agreed to her request.
• Jin Si saw desperate people crossing the snowy fields and returned to the spirit realm, where he resumed his routine of tending the Medicine Field and practicing spells.
• Jin Si asked Xiao Yu and Daoist Pang about other flood dragons, but learned only that a few were rumored to exist and were difficult to find.
• Wang Ying asked Jin Si to protect her younger brother and his family from heretic cultivators and malicious ghosts for three years, offering medicinal herbs in return.
• Jin Si accepted Wang Ying’s request and memorized the scent of the Jade Pendant she gave him.

Jin Si spent New Year’s Eve on Pillowstar Mountain while Xiao Yu and Red Clothes visited a market, then traveled to the Medicine King Temple at the end of the first month and found the Mortal Realm caught in war. He left a short sword for Huang Xing and wondered whether the Village School could continue operating amid the fighting.

• Jin Si invited Red Clothes to celebrate New Year’s Eve, and she went with Xiao Yu to a nearby market while he stayed behind.
• Red Clothes and Xiao Yu returned with weapons taken from evil fiends who had attacked them, and Jin Si chose a short sword to bring to Huang Xing.
• Jin Si bought spring couplets and put them up at his cave, then spent the quiet first month on Pillowstar Mountain.
• At the end of the month, Jin Si descended into the Mortal Realm and saw signs of war, fleeing demon spirits, blood, and fires.
• Jin Si reached the Medicine King Temple, left the short sword on a table, and settled into his room in his primordial spirit.

Jin Si received an urgent letter from the Jiang Household warning that a group was trying to destroy the dragon vein in the mountains. He went to stop them, and the chapter ended as he attacked the group from the air.

• Huang Xing found the Short Sword Jin Si had left for her, while he asked Daoist Jiang about the fighting and avoided the nearby rivers where Dragon-Suppressing Stakes had been placed.
• A messenger from the Jiang Household delivered a letter and Topographic Map showing where a group had entered the mountains to target the dragon vein.
• Daoist Jiang asked Jin Si to intervene, and Jin Si agreed after learning the suspected sites were marked on the map.
• Jin Si traveled into the mountains with Xiao Yu and the Five-Colored Demon Bird to search for the intruders.
• A geomancer and six companions dug at a marked site, unaware that danger had arrived.
• Jin Si struck from above, cutting down the two guards and leaving the geomancer unable to call for help.

Jin Si and Xiao Yu searched the mountains for the people responsible for disturbing the earth, then found a group hiding in an old tomb. Jin Si defeated them, but their Geomancer died before he could explain the Ancient Clan.

• Xiao Yu found no other people nearby while Jin Si filled the pit with the excavated earth, leaving a mound where it had been.
• Jin Si followed Xiao Yu toward a snow-capped mountain and used Thermal Sensing to locate a cave hiding people.
• The men in the cave spotted Jin Si and prepared to defend themselves, believing their damage to the dragon vein had brought retribution.
• Jin Si lured the group into firing arrows and then blasted the cave with venomous white mist.
• Jin Si entered the burial chamber and killed the men, including the Geomancer, who tried to warn him about the Ancient Clan.

Jin Si and Xiao Yu reached a ridge guarded by cultivators and a formation, where they tried to find a way through. Jin Si discovered an iron nail anchoring the formation and overheard the defenders had sold their services to three different parties, but he held back to learn more.

• Jin Si left the burial chamber with Xiao Yu and continued toward the next site until a disturbance in the mountains drew them toward a fight.
• Xiao Yu repeatedly attacked the ridge’s formation while Jin Si approached in concealment and identified the cultivators maintaining it.
• Jin Si studied the earth energy for a weakness as unnatural storm clouds gathered over the ridge, and Xiao Yu drew the defenders’ attention away from him.
• Red Clothes briefly opened a passage from the Spirit Realm, startled the defenders with a vengeful ghost, then withdrew.
• In the rain, Jin Si found an iron nail embedded in the rock that appeared to channel earth energy and overheard the defenders discussing payments and dealings with three parties.
• Jin Si decided to wait and listen for more before breaking the nail or attacking.

Jin Si ambushed the cultivators on the mountain ridge, using the storm and his White Qi Pillar to seize one of them and disrupt their formation. When two surviving cultivators borrowed power and tried to summon lightning, the storm’s energy turned against them; Jin Si survived the strike and finished them off.

• Jin Si pulled an iron nail from the ridge as lightning struck a nearby tree, then blasted the five cultivators and sent two of them flying.
• He removed a second iron nail to break the failing formation, bit the weakest cultivator, and carried him into the clouds while two Sword Qi talismans pursued.
• The remaining cultivators rebuilt a formation and rallied the armed attendants, but Jin Si shattered their defenses and evaded their arrows and axes.
• Two cultivators borrowed power to reach nearly the Yang Spirit Realm and attempted to summon lightning, but the thunderclouds locked onto their energy.
• Jin Si fled as the uncontrolled lightning struck the ridge, leaving him battered after he crashed through a tree.
• Jin Si found the two surviving cultivators injured but alive, burned them with his breath, and stomped them to death.

Jin Si and his companions killed everyone at the marked sites and removed the iron nails, but they could not restore the damaged dragon vein. After returning to the Medicine King Temple, Jin Si learned that the dragon vein would take years to recover and that the Mortal Realm might face upheaval meanwhile.

• Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes pulled the iron nails from the damaged dragon vein and killed everyone at the two remaining locations on the map.
• Xiao Yu searched the mountains and found no one else, then went to the Spirit Realm while Red Clothes left for the Underworld.
• Jin Si returned to his cave and sensed Wang Ying's younger brother praying for help as attackers fought his household, but he refused to intervene because the threat came from mortals, not ghosts or evil spirits.
• Jin Si visited Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing at the Medicine King Temple and reported that he had killed the geomancers after they had already broken the dragon vein.
• Daoist Jiang told Jin Si that removing the nails would not quickly heal the dragon vein and warned that the Mortal Realm could suffer upheavals while it recovered.

Jin Si continued his routine amid the siege, briefly entering Wang Ying’s younger brother’s dream to frighten him for complaining about the Black Flood Dragon. After rebel forces assaulted the city, Jin Si surveyed the battlefield and the starving conscript army, then returned to Rocky Mountain to breathe beneath the moon.

• Jin Si promised Huang Xing he would buy her sweets when he next had time to visit town, then prepared for sleep and packed for the Village School.
• Jin Si entered Wang Ying’s younger brother’s dream and frightened him with a dream within a dream after hearing him complain about the Black Flood Dragon.
• Jin Si resumed his usual routine of studying at the Village School and visiting the Library Pavilion while the siege continued.
• Rebel troops launched an assault on the city, and looting and fighting spread while the Village School’s teacher continued the lesson.
• Jin Si examined the battlefield’s dead and observed that the rebel camp held about ten thousand ragged, forcibly conscripted men rather than a hundred thousand troops.
• Jin Si returned to the Medicine King Temple, resumed his true body, and breathed beneath the moon atop Rocky Mountain.