Recaps

Black Snake accepted that He Ning was nearing the end of her life, and she said farewell to him in a radiant vision before she died. After her quiet burial, the Abbot told Black Snake to seek what he lacked in the mortal world and announced he was leaving; Black Snake realized He Ning would never again teach him at the Stone Terrace.

• Xiao Yu returned from the deep mountains and told Black Snake that no spirit ginseng remained, so he went back to the Azure Cloud Monastery.
• He Ning told Black Snake she had lived long enough and recalled their past, while he admitted he had searched for spirit ginseng because he did not know what else to do.
• At dawn, Black Snake saw a youthful He Ning in radiant light as she gave him final advice and urged him to live well and persevere.
• He Ning was buried simply on the Back Mountain, and the Abbot told Black Snake to seek the missing part of his cultivation in the mortal world before departing.
• Black Snake followed his old routine at the monastery and realized the lantern would never again shine on the Stone Terrace for He Ning's lessons.

Black Snake guarded Azure Cloud Monastery through the years after the Abbot and the other Daoists departed, reaching three hundred years old and settling into a lonely routine of gathering herbs and hibernating. After killing a monster at the Crossroads, he remembered the monastery’s past and continued working toward growing limbs, facing the long wait until his next stage of life.

• Black Snake watched the Abbot and several Daoists leave Azure Cloud Monastery and accepted that their time there had become the past.
• Black Snake hid in the mountain’s forests and clouds, gathered medicinal herbs, and hibernated through the winter as years passed and he turned three hundred.
• After the snow stopped, Black Snake used Yin Spirit Separation to find and kill a low-threat monster at the Crossroads.
• Black Snake checked the Iron Pavilion’s seals, kicked away offerings near it, and reflected on He Ning and his memories of the monastery.
• Black Snake returned to his cave, drove his blood and qi to grow limbs, and considered the two centuries remaining until he might enter the next stage of life.

Black Snake met Li of Mount Ding at the Crossroads, where Li invited him to visit Mount Ding, but Black Snake remained wary and returned to his cultivation. In spring, Xiao Yu told him that a ghost king was killing people in a neighboring county; Mount Ding sent an expert to deal with it, but two months later the Ghost Calamity was still unresolved.

• Black Snake watched White Deer carry Li of Mount Ding to the Crossroads, where Li praised Azure Cloud Monastery and invited Black Snake to Mount Ding.
• Black Snake declined to pursue Li’s offer and returned to his cave to continue cultivating through the winter.
• After spring arrived, Xiao Yu told Black Snake that a powerful ghost had devoured its master, proclaimed itself a ghost king, and killed hundreds of people.
• Government constables brought official documents to Azure Cloud Monastery, but the monastery did not intervene in the Ghost Calamity.
• Pilgrims later said an expert from Mount Ding had gone to slay the ghost, but two months passed and the Ghost Calamity remained unresolved.

Black Snake developed a way to attract lightning during the rainy season, strengthening his power as repeated bolts struck the Azure Cloud Monastery’s summit. After hearing that an epidemic had killed hundreds in a nearby town, he sensed something was wrong and quietly headed there through the rain and mist.

• Black Snake learned from Xiao Yu that the Ghost King had held a wedding procession, while cultivators had not fought the ghosts.
• As the rainy season began, Black Snake discovered he could lure lightning by gathering his power along the ridges atop his head.
• Black Snake repeatedly attracted lightning for nearly a month, growing stronger and drawing pilgrims to watch the strange storms.
• Black Snake heard that an epidemic had killed hundreds in a nearby town and suspected something was false about it.
• Black Snake sensed something in the town’s direction and glided down the mountain toward the place he had once visited with He Ning.

Black Snake investigated cultivators planning to open a sealed dry well, then returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery and focused on gathering herbs as unrest spread among humans. Years later, he reunited with the aged Xu Jin, who said he might have another century to live but regretted never ascending.

• Black Snake overheard cultivators discussing opening a sealed dry well and sensed a vicious being they called the Ghost King, then withdrew without getting involved.
• Back at the Azure Cloud Monastery, Black Snake smashed offerings at the Spring Well and silenced the resentment rising from below with the threat of lightning.
• Black Snake gathered medicinal herbs and noticed signs of looming war, while gangs, heretic cultivators, and sinister ghosts grew more active.
• Several years later, Black Snake found white-haired Xu Jin working the fields near the Thatched Hut, where a frightened new yellow dog hid in its kennel.
• Xu Jin warned Black Snake to avoid the unrest and estimated that he might live another hundred years, while Xiao Yu suggested guarding him in a mountain cave to help him ascend.

Black Snake avoided Government Office cultivators searching the River for a flood dragon, but they found Xu Jin’s secluded valley and asked him about the creature. After they left, Black Snake rose from the pool beneath the waterfall.

• Black Snake noticed more boats on the River and hid from the cultivators aboard them.
• Three cultivators in dark official uniforms followed the stream into the valley and asked Xu Jin whether he had seen the Black Flood Dragon.
• Xu Jin told them the supposed flood dragon was actually a Great Black Snake and learned they sought dragon aura to stabilize the realm’s fortunes amid an approaching age of chaos.
• The cultivators left the valley disappointed, and Xu Jin returned to tending his crops.
• Black Snake emerged from the deep pool beneath the waterfall as the sun slanted westward.

Black Snake escaped to the Azure Cloud Monastery under cover of a storm and hid there as war approached. While gathering medicinal herbs, he discovered outlaws in an abandoned temple and sensed an evil spirit attached to their chief.

• Black Snake waited for rain to conceal his journey, then swam upstream through floodwaters and returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery.
• He hid on the monastery’s back mountain, listened to reports of rising taxes and conscription, and sensed that war was drawing near.
• After noticing no government cultivators searching for him, Black Snake spent his days gathering medicinal herbs and storing them in his cave.
• Black Snake found a group of desperate outlaws living in an abandoned temple and sensed an evil spirit whispering to their chief.
• Black Snake wondered whether the powerful people stirring up wars also relied on stronger, more cunning evil spirits.

Black Snake watched a massive battle devastate the County Seat, then learned that soldiers were threatening Azure Cloud Monastery and went into the city at night. He searched the burning streets for the boy he had marked earlier and continued toward a wealthy residence, passing soldiers and a heretic cultivator.

• Black Snake watched opposing forces fight on the plain until one side made a mistake and collapsed, followed by widespread looting and fires.
• A troop of soldiers led by a newly initiated cultivator demanded that Azure Cloud Monastery’s Daoists abandon the mountain and surrender its buildings.
• After the soldiers left, Black Snake followed them toward the County Seat and waited in an irrigation channel until nightfall.
• Black Snake used Yin Spirit Separation to enter the city, searched for the boy he had marked, and focused on a grand residence untouched by fire.
• Black Snake crossed the streets, seeing soldiers plunder and a heretic cultivator gather yin souls, then used his Lightning Power to resist the soldiers’ killing intent.

Black Snake infiltrated the soldiers’ back courtyard and attacked the men who commanded evil spirits. After destroying their ghosts, he faced the commander, whose protective charm stopped Black Snake’s sword and who then attacked with a bloodied saber.

• Black Snake found three evil spirits in the back courtyard and identified the fat man and the commander as Heretic Cultivators.
• Black Snake waited until the men were drunk, then entered the courtyard unnoticed by the guards.
• Black Snake destroyed the fat man’s evil spirit, leaving the man unconscious.
• Black Snake wounded one of the commander’s giant evil spirits until it dispersed, then battered the other and hurled it at the commander.
• The commander’s protective object blocked Black Snake’s sword, and the commander grabbed a saber that could injure a Yin Spirit.
• Black Snake dodged the commander’s saber and recognized that he would need to avoid it carefully.

Black Snake killed the rebel commander who had attacked him, then returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery, which stayed undisturbed for a time as war raged below. When more than seventy rebel soldiers approached the monastery and asked to enter, an elderly Daoist refused them as dusk fell.

• Black Snake killed the unconscious fat man, then ambushed the rebel commander and tore out his soul, but damaged it so badly that it could no longer speak clearly.
• Black Snake returned to the mountain and believed he had protected the Azure Cloud Monastery; for nearly half a month, no rebels or heretic cultivators came there.
• As fighting resumed around the County Seat, Black Snake gathered herbs and noticed an old man sitting silently beside a ruined house and several graves.
• With pilgrims gone and the Mountain Road empty, Black Snake worried that the rebels would target the monastery.
• More than seventy rebel soldiers came up the Mountain Road, hid beside it, and sent two men to ask the elderly Daoist to open the Mountain Gate; he refused as night approached.

Black Snake defended Azure Cloud Monastery from soldiers who attacked its gate, killing them and leaving their bodies below the mountain. Over the next ten years, war emptied the land and the monastery, while Black Snake continued guarding it and sensed others coveting the property.

• Soldiers attacked Azure Cloud Monastery, and Black Snake hunted them down in the darkness and carried their seventy-odd bodies below the mountain.
• The Daoists found blood and abandoned weapons outside the gate at dawn, while crows gathered around the bodies below.
• As war dragged on for ten years, the monastery dwindled to five Daoists and Black Snake kept practicing, gathering herbs, and killing bandits who approached.
• Black Snake noticed that someone was secretly coveting Azure Cloud Monastery, while the five Daoists refused to abandon it.

Black Snake investigated rumors of a Ghost King in the Underworld and discovered a vast ship and ancient ruins near the sealed well. Back on the mountain, Black Snake continued guarding the area as displaced families settled among the Demon Spirits.

• Black Snake killed bandits and livestock near the mountain, then worried about declining rainfall and the future of the Azure Cloud Monastery.
• Black Snake entered the Underworld and gathered rumors about a Ghost King who had claimed territory among ancient ruins and used a passage to the living world.
• Black Snake traced the Ghost King's territory to the dry square well and found a stranded great ship beside imposing ruins.
• Black Snake left the ruins without confronting anyone and returned to quietly living on the mountain.
• Black Snake observed displaced families settling in mountain valleys and living in harmony with Demon Spirits who helped protect them.

Black Snake guarded the Azure Cloud Monastery through the war and watched villagers return to rebuild the abandoned settlement. A strange, vivid dream of a vast muddy river and a sky-spanning vortex left him unsettled, and he ended the chapter still wondering what it meant.

• Black Snake killed and ate a wild boar, and a striped tiger chose to leave rather than challenge him.
• Black Snake guarded the Azure Cloud Monastery as war and unrest continued, while people tried to buy the mountain and the Daoists refused to sell it.
• After more than twenty years of desolation, nearly thirty households returned to the village site, bringing renewed activity to the monastery and surrounding settlement.
• The Daoists discussed erecting a statue or shrine to thank Black Snake, but the proposal was shelved; he quietly returned their kindness by easing their nightmares.
• Black Snake dreamed he stood beside a vast muddy river beneath a swirling vortex and barred humans and demons from approaching a passage in its center.
• After waking on the mountain summit, Black Snake remembered the dream in detail, worried over its meaning, and carried Pine Cones back to his cave.

After his hundred-year promise to guard the mountain ended, Black Snake went down to town to earn eggs by catching rats. He spared a rat nearing spiritual transformation and left the old man who had hired him to make peace with it.

• Black Snake fulfilled his hundred-year promise and decided to find something to do after Evening Liturgy.
• Black Snake disguised himself as a little boy and caught a rat that had bitten a child, earning four eggs from the family.
• Black Snake tracked a grain-stealing rat at a wealthy household and stopped the thin old man from killing it because it was close to becoming a spirit.
• The old man thanked Black Snake, let the rat return to its hiding place, and paid him four eggs before Black Snake left.

Black Snake gathered medicinal herbs, then went to town with a sign offering rat-catching and exorcism services. When a young man asked him to help his possessed father, Black Snake followed him to a house shrouded in yin energy.

• Black Snake collected herbs from a secluded mountain hollow and tended its Medicine Field.
• At dusk, Black Snake set up his sign by the town well, but no customers hired him before nightfall.
• A young man found Black Snake outside town and asked him to perform an exorcism because his father had been possessed.
• Black Snake followed the young man to his home and saw a dim oil lamp beneath a heavy pall of yin energy.

Black Snake drove an evil spirit from a sick old man in exchange for three eggs, then spent the night reflecting on his sword practice and planning to learn more by reading. He left his mountain cave before dawn and hid in a lotus pond outside the county seat.

• Black Snake scared an evil spirit out of the old man and accepted three eggs as payment for his help.
• Black Snake practiced his sword beneath the moon but remained frustrated that he could not grasp its true essence.
• Black Snake decided to seek access to a village school’s books and planned to study at night until he could withstand daylight.
• Black Snake counted his silver, ate the eggs, and imagined himself reading and teaching others.
• Unable to sleep, Black Snake traveled toward the county seat and concealed himself beneath lotus leaves in a pond.

Black Snake tried to enroll in three Village Schools but was rejected, then remembered how He Ning had patiently taught her and resolved to find her. She hurried to Lin Family Crossing and arrived at Xu Jin’s Medicine Field, where Xu Jin asked what brought her there.

• Black Snake carried silver to three Village Schools and was turned away from each one.
• Black Snake returned to the Stone Terrace and realized how much He Ning’s lessons had mattered, then longed to see her again.
• Black Snake decided to find He Ning and traveled swiftly down the River toward Lin Family Crossing.
• Xiao Yu spotted Black Snake in the River and followed her into a Valley, where Xu Jin greeted her at his Medicine Field.

Black Snake sought answers from Xu Jin about its fate but learned that it would have to keep cultivating and wait for a chance to reunite with the person it longed for. After a quiet gathering with Xu Jin, Xiao Yu, and River Ash, Black Snake went to the River to catch fish.

• Xu Jin failed to read Black Snake's fortune and advised it to let nature take its course, so Black Snake resolved to keep cultivating and wait.
• River Ash arrived with salted duck eggs and told Black Snake that a deep bond could lead to reunion across rebirth, advising it to guide the person gently if they met again.
• River Ash said its lifespan was nearing its end and that it was deciding whether to continue as a Yin Spirit or be reborn and raise ducks beside the River.
• The four shared food and stories until Xu Jin fell asleep and Xiao Yu dozed on the fence.
• Black Snake tried to read Xu Jin's abstruse books, then gave up and went with River Ash to the River, where it caught fish.

Black Snake earned three chicken eggs catching rats in a dock town, where he rejected a Red-Dressed Female Ghost’s offer to help destroy a Ghost King. After rain came, he traveled through the mountains and tended another hidden medicine field.

• Black Snake set up a rat-catching stall in the dock town and earned three chicken eggs from a kindhearted woman.
• Black Snake sensed a dozen yin souls crossing the River, then watched the Red-Dressed Female Ghost destroy them.
• The Red-Dressed Female Ghost asked Black Snake to join her against the Ghost King, but he refused because he had no quarrel with him.
• Black Snake pondered whether to leave his post guarding Azure Cloud Monastery, then decided to leave the question for the future.
• When heavy rain arrived, Black Snake traveled along the River and through the mountains, gathered herbs, and tended a hidden medicine field.

Black Snake learned about the Holy King Hall’s popular prayers and continued cultivating before traveling to the County Seat to earn eggs by catching rats. After exploring its busy streets and learning to read a wine-house sign, he left the city and returned to his body at the Lotus Pond.

• Black Snake heard that prayers at the Holy King Hall could grant modest everyday requests, though he could not determine which deity it worshipped.
• He spent months cultivating on Back Mountain, gathering herbs and occasionally catching rats in a nearby town.
• The following spring, Black Snake went to the County Seat and earned three eggs by catching rats in a courtyard.
• He explored the city, read the sign for a wine house, and continued past a street beating and a gambling house he avoided.
• Black Snake leaped across rooftops, crossed the city wall, released the rats, and returned to his physical body at the Lotus Pond.

Black Snake discovered that Holy King Hall used a ghost to catch rats in exchange for tiny portions of devotees’ souls. After returning to the mountain, he prepared to absorb Rain Essence from the summit as a storm approached.

• Black Snake bought a needle and thread, stole cloth from the Holy King Statue, and clumsily mended his pouch.
• Black Snake tended the Medicine Fields, cultivated, and sold his rat-catching services in the County Seat.
• Black Snake watched a yin soul catch rats for a household that had prayed at Holy King Hall.
• Black Snake examined the woman who made the wish and found that her soul had lost a tiny sliver of strength.
• Black Snake returned to the mountain, swallowed a red carp from the Spring Well, and found that it had spoiled the water.
• Black Snake hid his pouch at the summit and welcomed the storm, hoping to be struck by lightning.

Black Snake discovered that some of his copper coins had been shaved, so he took them out at night and spent the evening watching an opera. He returned to the mountain at dawn, pleased with the performance and resolved to seek out more nighttime operas.

• Black Snake noticed that recently earned copper coins were thinner and lighter, and he set off at night to spend them on food.
• Black Snake found an opera troupe performing at the grain-drying ground and watched from a tree as the villagers went home.
• Black Snake moved to the front row, where the troupe and arriving ghosts and gods noticed him, while the Land God greeted him from afar.
• A strange presence fled after Black Snake resolved the disturbance, and the ghosts and gods stayed to watch the opera through the night.
• At dawn, Black Snake tossed his shaved coins onto the stage, returned to the mountain with a wild boar, and decided to watch future nighttime operas.

Black Snake learned that the Tong Household planned to buy the mountain where the Azure Cloud Monastery stood and discovered they wanted to carve a Holy King Statue there. Black Snake weakened Tong in his dream to stop the plan, then returned to the Lotus Pond.

• Black Snake overheard a wealthy couple discuss the Tong Household’s plan to buy the Azure Cloud Monastery’s mountain and the arrival of dangerous bandits.
• Black Snake entered the man’s dream and learned that the Tong Household in the east of town was behind the purchase.
• Black Snake found the Tong Household and entered Tong’s nightmare, where Tong revealed that he wanted to carve a Holy King Statue into the mountain.
• Black Snake unsettled Tong’s three souls, leaving him weak and dependent on medicine, then returned to the Lotus Pond.

Black Snake gathered herbs, mapped its hidden medicine fields inside its cave, and withdrew from the world after hearing that the Roving Bandits had been mysteriously killed. As it hibernated through winter, officials raided the Holy King Hall, driving demon spirits to seek refuge in the Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain.

• Black Snake waited at the mountain for more than half a month, then spent five days collecting herbs from its hidden medicine fields.
• Black Snake drew a charcoal map of the medicine fields on its cave wall so it would not forget them.
• After hearing bailiffs discuss the Roving Bandits’ bizarre deaths, Black Snake suspected the Red-Dressed Female Ghost but decided to suspend its outings and rat-catching.
• When autumn turned cold, Black Snake returned to its cave and hibernated among its piled herbs.
• Officials from the Prefecture arrived with more than a thousand soldiers, seized the County Yamen officials, sealed the Holy King Hall, and hunted its followers.
• Demon spirits fled the County Seat and hid in ravines and caves in the Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain.

Black Snake investigated a grisly haunting in a village and learned that Government Office officials and Mystic Sect experts had arrived in the County Seat. He avoided the coming trouble, visited the River, and considered moving east if the drought worsened.

• Black Snake emerged from hibernation, watched spring arrive, and gathered copper coins before setting out for the County Seat.
• At a village, Black Snake found an evil spirit possessing an old man and feeding on two corpses, then frightened it into fleeing to the underworld.
• Huang Xiaojiu thanked Black Snake for sheltering him and warned that the Government Office and Mystic Sect had arrived in the County Seat amid a rise in hauntings.
• Black Snake returned to the mountain, collected his pouch, and traveled downstream toward Xu Jin and Xiao Yu while catching fish.
• Black Snake noticed the River had grown shallower and its large fish had become scarce, and considered moving east if the rain dwindled further.