Recaps

Jin Si wandered into a temporary barracks and watched a battle-tested soldier practice spear techniques. Recognizing that his own swordsmanship had stalled, he decided to study the military spear technique while he had free time.

• Jin Si wandered through the desolate streets after the rat-driving business and Dragon King Temple crowds had dwindled.
• Jin Si came upon a temporary barracks and slipped inside to watch the soldiers gathered around a sparring ring.
• Jin Si studied a burly spearman’s measured thrusts and withdrawals, noting how he used the weapon’s reach to keep opponents at a distance.
• Jin Si realized the soldiers’ hard-won combat skills could teach him something and decided to study their spear technique.

Jin Si practiced spearwork, scared off a group of would-be thieves from the Medicine King Temple, and returned to his moonlit cultivation. The next morning, he attended the Village School and planned his army-camp visit and return to Pillowstar Mountain.

• Jin Si practiced spearwork, then decided to observe veteran soldiers before adapting their techniques to his own style.
• Jin Si detected more than twenty people approaching the Medicine King Temple and waited outside to protect it while Daoist Jiang rested.
• Jin Si revealed one claw to frighten the intruders, who fled and left their knives and ropes behind.
• Jin Si drank from the Spring Well and returned to the summit to cultivate beneath the moon.
• Huang Xing told Daoist Jiang that knives and ropes had been left outside the gate, and Daoist Jiang calmly went to inspect them with her.
• Jin Si attended the Village School, remembered his plans to visit the army camp and collect a bag from Daoist Pang, and prepared to return to Pillowstar Mountain on Wu Day.

Jin Si accompanied a chubby schoolmate to watch an important elder of the Jiang Household return, then overheard the old man mention people raising ghosts with living human lives. After school, Jin Si went to the military camp and practiced spear movements by copying the soldiers.

• The chubby boy led Jin Si to a high wall so they could watch an elder of the Jiang Household arrive in an ox cart.
• Jin Si explained that a person's imposing presence could come from cultivation or a strong soul, but fear often arose when someone believed themselves inferior.
• Jin Si overheard the old man warn that people were using the war to raise ghosts with living human lives, and he decided not to approach him because resentment surrounded him.
• Jin Si returned to the Village School, finished the afternoon lessons, and headed to the military camp after dismissal.
• Jin Si concealed himself in the camp, conjured a spear, and practiced by copying the soldiers' movements.

Jin Si prepared airtight sacks for gathering herbs, but memories of someone he had waited years to see again drove him to seek help finding her. Daoist Pang could not help directly and sent him to look for True Person Liu at Redleaf Peak, where Jin Si reached the summit but could not sense the True Person.

• Jin Si collected six odorless, sealable sacks from Daoist Pang and tested one with herbs at the Cliffside Medicine Field.
• Jin Si brought pine cones to his cave, then remembered someone he had long hoped to meet again and decided to ask the Pillowstar Mountain Daoists for help.
• Daoist Pang said they and Lin Wei could not find the person, but suggested Jin Si seek True Person Liu at Redleaf Peak.
• Jin Si located Redleaf Peak, climbed its steep mountain path, and sensed the surrounding cave abodes and restrictions along the way.
• Jin Si reached the summit and realized his cultivation was too weak to detect True Person Liu.

Jin Si climbed to meet True Person Liu, who warned him to complete his true flood dragon transformation before he turned a thousand, giving him fewer than five hundred years. After leaving, Jin Si considered how to make up what he lacked and decided to hunt more evildoers, especially eerie beings.

• Jin Si climbed the mountain summit and encountered a frightened girl who transformed into a white crane and flew away.
• Jin Si met True Person Liu and respectfully asked to meet him, but True Person Liu told him to wait patiently for the promised time.
• True Person Liu warned Jin Si that he had fewer than five hundred years to complete his true flood dragon transformation before reaching a thousand years of age.
• Jin Si left the summit, troubled by the limits of his lifespan and recalling the spirits that lingered around the Library Pavilion.
• While resting beside a waterfall, Jin Si decided to hunt more evildoers and eerie beings, taking care to verify his targets before acting.

The Black Flood Dragon began expanding his Cliffside Medicine Field by collecting and replanting herbs from the forest. He sensed unfamiliar visitors approaching Pillowstar Mountain and hid in the forest while an eagle circled overhead.

• The Black Flood Dragon decided to look for more medicinal herbs and remembered he could gather wild plants rather than buy seeds at the Rogue Cultivator market.
• He descended from the cliff, collected ordinary and poisonous herbs, and replanted some in the expanded field using Three Presses, One Tug.
• As he set off to gather more herbs, the Black Flood Dragon sensed an unfamiliar aura ascending the mountain and hurried into the forest.
• Xiao Yu spotted two visitors at the Mountain Gate and reported that a white-and-gold eagle with a two-zhang wingspan circled nearby.
• The Black Flood Dragon watched from cover as two Daoists met the visitors, while Xiao Yu observed Pillowstar Mountain growing hazy and indistinct.

Jin Si learned that the visitors and their eagle were connected to the man-eating lion and might target the mountain’s Path-Guarding Spirit Beasts, but he postponed any attack. As autumn advanced, he discovered the city’s wealthy were fleeing, and the Village School closed amid warnings of coming trouble.

• Xiao Yu returned from confronting the eagle and reported that its aura resembled the man-eating lion’s; a letter confirmed the visitors sought revenge and might target the Path-Guarding Spirit Beasts.
• Jin Si decided there was no safe opportunity to ambush the visitors, then continued his routine of cloud breathing and attending the Village School.
• After several peaceful days, Jin Si saw carts carrying supplies as wealthy households secretly left the city, and he suspected it might fall during winter or early spring.
• The teacher closed the Village School temporarily and warned Jin Si to stay in the Medicine King Temple; a classmate gave him pastries before leaving.
• Jin Si visited the barracks and gave a minor officer a silver ingot, which the officer later found in his clothes despite thinking the encounter had been a dream.

Jin Si gathered medicinal herbs and seeds, then crossed the Spirit Realm during successive Mist Tides and returned to Azure Cloud Monastery. He stored the herbs in his old cave and tended an old grave, leaving himself beside it.

• Jin Si harvested medicinal plants and seeds while Xiao Yu gathered branches, leaves, vines, and Pine Cones, filling six sacks.
• Jin Si waited for the Mist Tide, then carried the sacks through the mist and hid them during each retreat.
• Jin Si continued traveling through the third Mist Tide and reached the Mortal Realm near Azure Cloud Monastery at dawn.
• Jin Si brought the sacks into his old cave and emptied them, then carried Pine Cones to an old grave nearby.
• Jin Si cleared the grave, added earth to its mound, and lay quietly beside it.