Recaps

Jin Si sensed that the Dragon-Suppressing Stakes had disrupted the rivers and dragon veins, then spent an abnormal three-day downpour cultivating in the mountains. As the floodwaters devastated the countryside, a golden figure appeared on the river and led away the souls of two young men.

• Jin Si learned that Dragon-Suppressing Stakes had been placed throughout the waterways and gave his classmate a small gourd for protection.
• When heavy rain began during class, Jin Si rushed to the Back Mountain and flew through the storm, cultivating in the clouds and lightning.
• The rain continued for days, flooding the fields and rivers, washing away farmland and houses, and destroying a riverside shrine.
• After the rain eased, villagers gathered driftwood from the swollen river and spotted a golden man walking across the water.
• The golden man beckoned, causing two young men to collapse dead as their shadowy figures joined him in the mist, and the villagers fled in terror.

Jin Si returned to the Medicine King Temple during unending rain and learned that a flood had changed the river’s course, unleashing an eerie entity that stole people’s souls. At the General Store in the Alley, Daoist Pang told him the dragon vein’s destruction had been part of an ancient clan’s plan to build a secret realm.

• Jin Si flew back to the Medicine King Temple, rested in his cave, and followed Huang Xing as she gathered wild greens.
• Jin Si dried the temple’s damp firewood with a spell, and Daoist Jiang told him that an entity in the river had killed dozens of people after floodwaters diverted into an old house.
• Jin Si suspected the Dragon-Suppressing Stakes had disrupted the water vein and concluded that he could not safely fight the entity while the stakes’ positions remained unknown.
• Jin Si repaired the temple roof, returned to the Spirit Realm, and visited Daoist Pang at the General Store in the Alley.
• Daoist Pang explained that a branch of an ancient clan had destroyed the dragon vein to use its earth energy to build a secret realm.

Jin Si cultivated in the mountains through nearly three months of rain, refusing requests to investigate an ancient tomb, a supposed Dragon Palace, and a hidden realm while searching for the gap in his cultivation. When the sky cleared, he headed back toward the Village School and found the nearby farmland and village seemingly deserted.

• Jin Si left the Cliffside Medicine Field and went into the Mortal Realm’s mountains to cultivate in the rain.
• Xiao Yu told Jin Si that Pillowstar Mountain had asked for help with an ancient tomb, but he refused; she later reported that the Azure Cloud Monastery was doing well.
• Lin Wei sent letters warning Jin Si about a false Dragon Palace and a hidden realm, and he ignored both discoveries.
• Jin Si continued searching for the gap in his cultivation, believing it was the barrier to reaching the next realm.
• After the rain stopped and the sky cleared, Jin Si basked in the sun and made his way back toward the Village School.
• Jin Si’s primordial spirit emerged from a cave and saw empty-looking fields, a broken bridge, and no one in the nearby village.

Jin Si investigated two village gatherings, discovered a fraudulent Flood Dragon Suppression ceremony, and returned to help Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing in the Vegetable Garden. He ended the day planning to return to the Village School after more than three months away.

• Jin Si approached a village gathering and discovered that a speaker was raising a ghost, which was feeding on the villagers’ power of thought.
• Jin Si followed a procession into a mountain gully, where a Daylight Thief persuaded villagers that he had suppressed a Flood Dragon in a pool that held no such creature.
• Jin Si left the ceremony and returned to the Medicine King Temple, where he helped Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing plant vegetables.
• Huang Xing asked Jin Si how to learn magic, and he told her to worry more and make her head grow bigger.
• Jin Si ate with Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing, then considered what to say when he returned to the Village School the next morning.

After three months of rain, Jin Si watched a devastating drought take hold, while reports of deaths and misfortune among the wealthy families tied to the Dragon-Suppressing Stakes made him suspect an evil entity was responsible. The drought continued to ruin the land, leaving Jin Si to conclude that he could not search the mortal world for what he lacked for several years.

• At the Village School, Jin Si heard that a golden river monster had killed an outsider and that wealthy families who funded Dragon-Suppressing Stakes had suffered deaths, illness, and losses.
• Jin Si suspected an eerie entity from the collapsed riverside buildings was causing the wealthy families' misfortunes, and he observed that the heat was drying the land.
• As the drought worsened, villagers gathered at the Dragon King Temple to pray for rain and hired an opera troupe to perform; Jin Si watched the shows, once remaining after the crowd had left.
• The troupe members noticed Jin Si leaving the performance area toward the darkness, but they kept to their rules and said nothing.
• Jin Si calculated that the drought would continue and saw famine, burial mounds, wild dogs, and bandits spreading across the countryside.

A scholar investigated a wealthy household’s deadly curse but could not identify its source, so he divined that they should seek an expert on the ninth day. On that day, Jin Si went out to buy salt and headed toward the household to investigate the deaths himself.

• A scholar arrived at the estate and found its family afflicted by a spreading evil presence after several deaths and illnesses.
• The scholar learned that the victims dreamed of floodwaters and old foundations, but a killing intent disrupted his divination.
• The scholar told the household that an expert would pass the intersection at noon on the ninth day and urged them to beg for help.
• On the ninth day, Jin Si bought a packet of salt while the Village School remained closed because of the heat.
• Jin Si noticed the gambling den was shut and the coffin shop was busy as deaths continued among wealthy households.
• Jin Si headed toward the household that had funded the Dragon-Suppressing Stake to investigate the source of the deaths.

Jin Si investigated an eerie entity afflicting a household, then followed drought-stricken villagers to the deep pool and discovered a possible hidden cultivation cave beneath it. He returned to the Medicine King Temple with salt for Huang Xing, who worried about running out of food in the heat.

• Jin Si approached the household waiting in the sun, revealed the black half-flood dragon phantom to drive the golden eerie entity back inside, and left without fighting it.
• Jin Si noticed villagers carrying incense and offerings into the mountains and followed them to the deep pool, where they prayed to the flood dragon for rain.
• Jin Si entered the pool and explored its bottom, finding spiritual energy in the rock fissures and considering opening them into a hidden cave abode.
• Jin Si returned to the Medicine King Temple and placed a packet of salt beside the sleeping Huang Xing.
• Huang Xing worried about surviving if their food ran out, and Jin Si suggested they could go dormant.

Jin Si learned that Pillowstar Mountain planned to remove the Dragon-Suppressing Stakes and asked him to help clear evil spirits from the surrounding area. He hunted with Xiao Yu and Red Clothes for several days, and the chapter ended with others discovering their victims but not identifying the hunters.

• Daoist Pang told Jin Si about the plan to remove the Dragon-Suppressing Stakes and asked him to help hunt evil spirits near Pillowstar Mountain.
• Jin Si met Xiao Yu and Red Clothes, and the three set out to search for evil spirits.
• Jin Si killed a heretic cultivator and found that the kill brought him a small benefit.
• Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes hunted together, taking turns killing confirmed evildoers and demonic beasts.
• Cultivators and Demon Spirits found the remains of their victims and noticed that a Five-Colored Demon Bird had been circling overhead.

Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes attacked a gathering of heretic cultivators and corpse puppets in the mist-shrouded woods. Jin Si and Red Clothes defeated their enemies, while a terrified young cultivator watched the battle unfold.

• Jin Si sensed a gathering of prey, and he, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes moved in to surround it.
• Jin Si surveyed the clearing and found more than a hundred corpse puppets and thirteen heretic cultivators, but no Yang Spirit Realm experts.
• Jin Si charged into the clearing as Red Clothes attacked the blue-faced old man, scattering corpse puppets and terrifying the young cultivator caught in the battle.
• An iron-blue giant corpse emerged from the ground, and Jin Si blasted it with white breath, breaking its skeleton.
• Jin Si crushed a heretic cultivator who was playing dead, while Red Clothes threw the grievously wounded old man to the ground.

Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes killed a blood-feeding old man and encountered a frightened young man who had wandered into the Spirit Realm. Jin Si then cautiously traveled toward Pillowstar Mountain with his companions, hunting along the way.

• The Black Flood Dragon questioned the wounded old man, who denied spying near Pillowstar Mountain, and Jin Si decided the area could count as its outskirts for the day.
• Red Clothes killed the old man by pulling a clump of gray vapor from his skull.
• Jin Si told the young man that he might have cultivated in a previous life, but could not reveal more about his past.
• Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes left the young man alone in the clearing and departed.
• Jin Si changed course toward Pillowstar Mountain, avoided secluded cultivators who had no connection to evil spirits, and hunted cautiously with Xiao Yu and Red Clothes.

Jin Si investigated a secluded courtyard and rescued a young cultivator from an old man who had drugged her. After Jin Si and Red Clothes left, the woman remained trapped beneath the wreckage of the ruined cottage.

• Jin Si and his companions decided to investigate places that seemed harmless after clearing away the visible evil spirits.
• Jin Si found an old man advising a young female cultivator to avoid trusting spirit beasts and demons.
• The old man drugged the female cultivator’s tea and tried to stop her from leaving.
• Jin Si smashed into the cottage, seized the old man, and Red Clothes consumed his phantom.
• Jin Si and Red Clothes departed, leaving the stunned female cultivator alone as the ruined cottage collapsed around her.

Jin Si, Red Clothes, and Xiao Yu hunted evil spirits and corrupted cultivators before killing Sideburns on Rocky Mountain. After returning to Pillowstar Mountain, Jin Si asked Lin Wei to register Red Clothes as a cultivator and have her portrait hung in the hall.

• Jin Si, Red Clothes, and Xiao Yu hunted suspicious targets around Pillowstar Mountain, sparing those who had not committed evil.
• The three friends found Sideburns and his six disciples on Rocky Mountain, and Jin Si and Red Clothes attacked while Xiao Yu stayed behind.
• Jin Si killed Sideburns with a swift sword strike, and his disciples fled in panic.
• Red Clothes questioned how to tell good people from evil spirits, and Jin Si said neither good nor bad was normal; the three then ended their hunt and returned toward Pillowstar Mountain.
• Jin Si went to Lin Wei’s courtyard and asked her to paint a portrait of Red Clothes and register her name.

Jin Si and Lin Wei discussed the missing Dragon-Suppressing Stake and received confirmation that Red Clothes could register for a portrait. After worrying about whether his medicinal-herb fermentation would work in his new cave, Jin Si set out with Red Clothes for the registration and told her she had to climb the mountain from its foot.

• Lin Wei told Jin Si that the search of the ancient tomb had stalled and that the missing Dragon-Suppressing Stake might be held by the eerie entity in the deep water.
• A paper crane returned with confirmation that Red Clothes could go for portrait registration, and Jin Si told the sleepy Lin Wei to rest before returning to the Medicine Field.
• Red Clothes thanked Jin Si for giving her a chance, and Jin Si weeded the Medicine Field with his primordial spirit before resting at the cliff's edge.
• Jin Si worried that his new cave's conditions might ruin his medicinal-herb fermentation and hurried back to inspect it.
• Red Clothes suggested they take care of portrait registration, and Jin Si said she had to walk up from the mountain's foot; she agreed and headed there.

Red Clothes was registered on the mountain, where Painter Girl made her first portrait and Lin Wei hung it beside Black Flood Dragon’s and Xiao Yu’s. Red Clothes asked that the portrait be kept so she might one day remember who she had been, then wandered the quiet settlement with Jin Si.

• Red Clothes climbed to the Mountain Gate, and Lin Wei led her through it to be registered.
• Painter Girl painted Red Clothes, while Lin Wei and Jin Si watched in silence.
• Red Clothes asked Lin Wei to keep her first portrait in case she was gone one day.
• Lin Wei hung the portrait beside Black Flood Dragon’s and Xiao Yu’s and labeled it with Red Clothes’ name and description.
• Jin Si accompanied Red Clothes through the quiet streets and introduced her to Daoist Pang at the General Store.

Jin Si brought Red Clothes to the Library Pavilion, then experimented with storing medicinal herbs for winter hibernation and discovered they rotted in his cave. He sensed an evil spirit threatening the Wang Household and entered the scene through a sliver of his spirit, where a woman in white appeared before a frightened man.

• Jin Si showed Red Clothes the Library Pavilion and explained that its books were open for anyone to read.
• Jin Si reflected on the hardships of cultivation and the possibility that the path to ascension had been severed, then returned to his cave to test how medicinal herbs might be stored for winter.
• Jin Si found the herbs had rotted, cleared them from his cave, and decided to hibernate in his old cave behind Azure Cloud Monastery, though he worried about transporting his harvest.
• Jin Si sensed an evil spirit was about to attack the Wang Household and used his connection to the family to project a sliver of his spirit there.
• Jin Si appeared as a little boy in a gray, dreamlike version of the residence, where a frightened man saw a woman in white descend in a beam of light.

Jin Si protected Master Wang from a vicious Underworld spirit that appeared in his dream as a Celestial Person, while Wang Ying checked on her brother and thanked Jin Si for his help. The chapter ended with Wang Ying joining Jin Si, Red Clothes, and Xiao Yu on the cliff, where they discussed cultivation.

• Jin Si warned Master Wang not to trust a vision that showed him what he longed to see, then confronted the vicious spirit disguised in white light.
• Jin Si struck the spirit with his sword, causing Master Wang to wake from the frightening dream and question what he had seen.
• Master Wang dreamed that Wang Ying urged him to follow her earlier instructions, then woke near dawn intending to do as she had asked.
• Wang Ying visited Jin Si, thanked him for protecting Master Wang, and apologized for the delay in sending medicinal herbs.
• Jin Si brought Wang Ying to sit on a rock with Red Clothes and Xiao Yu, where Red Clothes asked Wang Ying about cultivation.

Jin Si refused Lin Wei’s request to join Pillowstar Mountain’s group in hunting an eerie creature trapped in a river, but secretly descended the mountain to investigate and seek his old enemy. As the battle began, he moved toward a possible hiding place for the enemy while Daoist Jiang sensed the deadly conflict from afar.

• Lin Wei told Jin Si that a prolonged drought had nearly dried the river and that Pillowstar Mountain was gathering Daoists and demon spirits to slay an eerie creature trapped in deep water, but Jin Si refused to join them.
• Xiao Yu offered to keep watch, but Jin Si chose to investigate alone because he suspected his old enemy might have prepared an ambush.
• Jin Si descended from Pillowstar Mountain, traveled through hidden waterways, and crossed into the mortal realm through a passage.
• Jin Si surveyed the battlefield and surrounding terrain, calculating possible ambush sites and escape routes as Pillowstar Mountain’s group began fighting the creature.
• Jin Si approached a place where his old enemy might be hiding, while Daoist Jiang sensed the murderous conflict from the Garden Beside Medicine King Temple and told Huang Xing that powerful masters were suppressing something sinister in the river.

Jin Si searched several possible hiding places for the old bastard while a battle raged against the eerie creature. When the creature fled inland and attacked riders, Jin Si confirmed the old bastard was absent and hid ahead to ambush the creature.

• Jin Si stealthily searched a rocky rise but found no sign of the old bastard.
• Jin Si searched a ruined town and saw more than eighty mortal riders galloping toward the river.
• The eerie creature charged ashore and attacked the riders, recovering some strength by drinking their blood as the Daoists and demon spirits pursued it.
• Jin Si repeatedly searched the area and confirmed the old bastard was not nearby.
• The eerie creature ran through the ruined town and into the fields, then turned toward another group of riders.
• Jin Si slipped into a ditch ahead of the creature to prepare a lethal ambush.

Jin Si tracked the eerie creature through the battlefield and prepared an ambush, while Daoist Jiang went down from the Medicine King Temple with Huang Xing to save the villagers. The creature avoided Jin Si’s trap, and he emerged from the ruins after the pursuers passed, lamenting that Xiao Yu was not there to guide it toward him.

• Jin Si followed the eerie creature through the trench, calculated its likely route, and chose a village ruin as an ambush site.
• Daoist Jiang told Huang Xing they were going down the mountain to save people from the monster and gave her a seal to hold.
• Jin Si hid behind a broken wall and prepared a venomous strike, but the eerie creature veered beyond his reach.
• A red-furred fox searched the ruins briefly before rejoining the pursuit and sending a message to its longtime Daoist companion.
• After the pursuers had passed, Jin Si emerged from the ruins and wished Xiao Yu had been there to lead the creature into his trap.

Jin Si realized the eerie creature was luring its pursuers away so it could attack villagers hidden in a basin near the Back Mountain of the Medicine King Temple. The creature attacked the crowd, but just as Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing were about to be overwhelmed, a White Qi Pillar struck it, and Huang Xing glimpsed an enormous black beast.

• Jin Si sensed Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing in a hidden basin and deduced that the eerie creature planned to double back and attack the people there.
• Two fleeing warriors rode into the basin seeking protection, but the eerie creature killed them and their horses to replenish its strength.
• Daoist Jiang used five Talismans to block the creature's surprise attack, then strengthened their flames as the monster charged again.
• Huang Xing stepped in front of Daoist Jiang with her Short Sword, but a White Qi Pillar slammed into the eerie creature and sent it plowing backward.
• Huang Xing glimpsed an enormous black beast through the dust.

Jin Si and the arriving Daoists and spirit beasts fought the eerie creature to keep it from reaching the villagers. Huang Xing watched the Black Flood Dragon defend them and was left questioning her brother’s oath to kill the beast.

• Jin Si repeatedly blasted the eerie creature with his breath and struck it with his claws as it fought back with the Dragon-Suppressing Stake.
• Huang Xing and Daoist Jiang reached the ridge, where Huang Xing saw Jin Si battling the man-eating creature alongside Daoists and spirit beasts.
• Jin Si and the others battered the creature with breath, talismans, lightning, illusions, stones, and sword energy, but it continued fighting.
• Jin Si decided to keep the creature away from the villagers and conserve his strongest move, while noting that the Dragon-Suppressing Stake disrupted his Spirit Power.
• Huang Xing recalled her brother’s vow to kill the Flood Dragon and struggled to reconcile it with Jin Si protecting people; Daoist Jiang urged her to watch and ask him directly.

Jin Si helped the Daoists destroy the Eerie, then returned to the Spirit Realm after checking that the River was clear of Dragon-Suppressing Stakes. He received a reward for defeating the monster but remained worried about how to hibernate, and encountered a traveling Female Daoist and her wolf at the Mountain Gate.

• Jin Si stopped attacking the weakened Eerie and watched the Daoists burn it until only charred remains were left.
• Jin Si left the battlefield, disguised his route, and entered the River to check for Dragon-Suppressing Stakes before returning to the Spirit Realm.
• Jin Si received a substantial reward for destroying the Eerie and sensed that he would grow noticeably after hibernating, but he still had no plan for hibernation.
• Jin Si entered the Mist Tide and swam to the Mountain Gate, where he met a traveling Female Daoist and her wolf.
• Jin Si greeted the Female Daoist and continued through the Mountain Gate, still troubled by his coming hibernation.

Jin Si prepared to carry his medicinal herbs safely into hibernation and attended a True Person’s Dao teachings after bringing her a peach. He listened to the parts he could understand and left with plans to ask Wang Ying for advice.

• Jin Si asked Red Clothes how he could carry all his medicinal herbs without their scent escaping, and she suggested airtight bags from the General Store.
• Daoist Pang promised Jin Si several large bags as a gift for helping eradicate the eerie entity and told him to collect them in ten days.
• Jin Si rested at the Cliffside Medicine Field until Lin Wei sent a Paper Crane inviting him to hear a True Person expound on the Dao.
• Jin Si climbed the Back Mountain waterfalls and brought a ripe peach on a branch to the teaching terrace, where the elderly Female Daoist thanked him.
• Jin Si sat beside Wang Ying and listened to the teachings, following the simpler parts and dozing through the more mysterious ones.

After the True Person’s lecture, Jin Si collected a promise of medicinal herbs, planted new seeds in his Medicine Field, and returned to the Mortal Realm to attend the Village School. He left the chapter preparing to consecrate a jade pendant for a classmate whose mother had been having troubling dreams.

• Jin Si listened to the True Person’s teachings for two days, then left the mountain after learning that Wang Ying’s household had gathered three ox carts of medicinal herbs for him.
• Jin Si helped a little Daoist novice carry water, watched her tend the Medicine Field, and accepted a bundle of herb seeds from her.
• Jin Si planted the seeds in his Medicine Field, cultivated in the rising mist, and worried that Red Clothes might disappear if she could not advance her cultivation.
• Jin Si traveled to the Mortal Realm, retrieved his cloth bag, and entered the Village School through the gate to avoid being punished for climbing over the wall again.
• A classmate gave Jin Si a pastry for Huang Xing and asked him to consecrate a jade pendant because his mother had been having many dreams; Jin Si agreed.

Jin Si consecrated a Jade Pendant and was approached by a young lady from the Jiang Household who asked him to tell her fortune. He agreed, pleased at the prospect of earning money.

• Jin Si carefully fed spiritual qi into the Jade Pendant and left an imprint of his primordial spirit within it.
• Jin Si checked that the pendant remained undamaged and glowed warmly after he consecrated it.
• A young lady from a branch of the Jiang Household approached Jin Si with her maid and asked him to divine something for her.
• Jin Si agreed to the young lady’s request, glad to have another paying customer.