Recaps

Black Snake, Xu Jin, and Xiao Yu remembered River Ash over a bowl of wine, and Xu Jin decided to seek out a disciple. As dusk fell, Black Snake watched a flock of ducks settle by the River and wondered if they were descended from River Ash’s ducks.

• Xu Jin showed Black Snake a restorative herb and lamented that he could not travel to discover more medicinal plants.
• Xu Jin, Black Snake, and Xiao Yu remembered River Ash and mourned that they would never again share his salted duck eggs or see him row his boat.
• Xu Jin poured wine for River Ash, then decided to leave the valley soon to find a disciple and pass on his skills.
• Xiao Yu asked Black Snake about doing more good deeds, and he said he would not act without the Abbot’s guidance because he could not judge who was good or evil.
• Black Snake caught fish in the River and later noticed a flock of ducks settling on the bank, wondering whether they had once belonged to River Ash.

Black Snake hunted in the mountains after dreaming of guarding a mysterious vortex, then returned to Xu Jin’s valley to rest. Three young visitors arrived seeking the white-haired old man as a master.

• A cultivator in the County Seat heard an old man explain that heretic cultivators had dwindled after a Celestial Person’s arrival and a rumored curse.
• Black Snake dreamed of stopping countless pleading beings from reaching a vortex, woke wondering why, and set the question aside.
• Black Snake encountered a tiger, then killed and ate a huge wild boar and a large gray deer while hunting in the mountains.
• Black Snake remembered the cave Xiao Yu had loved and vowed to reclaim it before returning to the valley.
• Black Snake rested beneath a rock as Xu Jin ate breakfast, then watched three young people enter the valley and run toward him, calling him an immortal.

As Xu Jin prepared to leave the Valley to wander and take on disciples, Black Snake cultivated in the rain and mist and watched him finish protecting the Medicine Field from floods. That night, Black Snake discovered a wild leopard drawn by a rumor that eating cultivators or infants could increase cultivation, then returned to bask as Xu Jin completed his preparations to depart.

• Xu Jin cleared the stream and reinforced the Medicine Field’s drainage channels before leaving the mountains.
• Black Snake reflected on why people still searched the River for a dragon and cultivated by breathing in the rain and mist.
• Black Snake detected a leopard spying near the Valley and learned that a rumor claimed eating cultivators or human infants could increase cultivation.
• Black Snake warned the leopard not to risk its life over rumors, then left it to cross the ridge.
• At dawn, Black Snake climbed above the Valley’s mist to breathe in the cleaner upper layer, then basked while Xu Jin finished clearing the drainage channels.

Black Snake learned that the Ghost King remained at large and refused the Red-Dressed Female Ghost’s offer to join her in killing him. With the continuous rainy season beginning and lightning cultivation likely to draw attention, he decided to leave the mountain and cultivate somewhere less conspicuous.

• Xu Jin boarded a boat with the yellow dog while Black Snake escorted him to the Dragon King Temple ferry landing and then returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery.
• Two foxes told Black Snake that the Government Office and the Mystic Sect had failed to capture the Holy King, though they had killed many of his underlings.
• Black Snake sensed a magical battle near the County Seat and worried that his lightning cultivation would attract the attention of the Government Office and the Mystic Sect.
• The Red-Dressed Female Ghost asked Black Snake to help kill the Ghost King, but he refused because he did not eat ghosts or want to risk his life.
• The continuous rainy season began, and Black Snake decided to leave the mountain and find a less conspicuous place to cultivate.

After more than fifty years of cultivating in the mountains, Black Snake learned from Xiao Yu that the Spirit Realm had been revealed and began searching for its entrance. He sensed a hazy space above the Mortal Realm but had not yet entered it.

• Black Snake ended his annual lightning cultivation and resumed tending his Medicine Field while life outside the mountains returned to normal.
• Xu Jin died beneath the apricot tree, and a new young man took over his work in the valley; Black Snake stopped visiting it.
• As Black Snake neared five hundred years old, he felt an inexplicable urgency and gathered herbs while continuing to endure lightning storms.
• Xiao Yu told Black Snake that the Mystic Sect and Ancient Clans had revealed the Spirit Realm after evil spirits and ghosts entered it.
• Xiao Yu explained how to sense and touch the Spirit Realm's barrier, and Black Snake detected a hazy space above the Mortal Realm.

Black Snake entered the Spirit Realm and explored its mist-shrouded mountains, where he encountered a cultivator guarding a secluded mountain before finding a compound called Immortal Hall. He cautiously approached the busy compound to learn more about the Spirit Realm.

• Black Snake finished tending his medicine fields and decided to enter the Spirit Realm using Xiao Yu’s method.
• Black Snake emerged into the Spirit Realm above a sea of clouds and slowed his fall by thrashing his tail through the mist.
• Black Snake approached a mountain with richer spiritual qi, but a Yin Spirit warned him away from the secluded cultivation site, so he left.
• Black Snake explored a quiet stream and unfamiliar vegetation, finding the Spirit Realm better suited to cultivation than the Mortal Realm.
• Black Snake spotted a compound filled with demon cultivators and two yin souls, then made out the words “Immortal Hall” on its plaque.

Black Snake visited the Cloud Immortal Hall and learned about the Spirit Realm from its master, Hu Changqing. He explored a lake before returning to the Mortal Realm, where he discovered that plants brought back from the Spirit Realm could not survive.

• Black Snake met Hu Changqing and learned that the Cloud Immortal Hall aided Demon Spirits and Yin Souls in cultivation through karmic ties in the Mortal Realm.
• Hu Changqing explained the Spirit Realm’s dangerous regions, powerful inhabitants, and conflicts, then offered Black Snake the hall master position, which he declined.
• Black Snake left the hall and explored a lake as the Spirit Realm’s sky dimmed.
• Black Snake returned to the Mortal Realm with a blade of Spirit Realm grass, but fell from the air into a forest.
• Black Snake watched the grass curl and yellow, then headed through the forest toward the Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain.

As Black Snake neared his five-hundredth year, he kept his cultivation steady, encountered a dangerous chicken with a human face, and withdrew from the wars ravaging the human world. He eventually fell into a deep sleep as his body began transforming, leaving his five-hundred-year milestone unresolved.

• Black Snake returned from the Spirit Realm, discovered his old money pouch had rotted, and continued cultivating toward becoming a yang spirit by age five hundred.
• At the Crossroads, Black Snake fled from a mysterious human-faced chicken that repeatedly called out, “Blessings,” and later saw that it continued toward the County Seat.
• When war broke out, Black Snake stayed in the mountains, tended his Medicine Fields, and occasionally visited the Spirit Realm to explore and transplant herbs.
• As his five-hundredth year approached, Black Snake gathered medicinal herbs in his cave, dealt with threats climbing the mountain, and fell into a deep sleep.
• Decades later, the war had devastated the human world while the Azure Cloud Monastery remained standing, and Black Snake's body began transforming as he slept.

After waking from a prolonged hibernation, Black Snake absorbed rain essence and lightning until he broke through a growth limit and discovered he could fly. As the storm began to end, he lost the rain that kept him aloft and plummeted toward the farmland below.

• Black Snake woke after an unusually long hibernation and waited for a thunderstorm to restore his strength.
• He used Lightning Attraction to draw repeated lightning strikes to the mountain peak and absorbed the rain essence and thunder force.
• Black Snake passed five zhang in length after an invisible shackle disappeared, then pondered whether the five-hundred-year legend had shaped his expectations.
• During the storm, Black Snake unexpectedly rose into the air, fell, and practiced flying until he could maneuver through the rain and mountain ravines.
• He flew higher until he reached his limit, then played in the sky until morning, when the weakening rain left him plummeting toward farmland.

Black Snake recovered from a failed attempt at flight and went to the county seat to watch an opera. After hearing the audience mock dragons as food, he quietly moved away from them while the performance continued.

• A merchant caravan saw a long, living shadow fall from the sky and rushed to investigate, but found only an enormous empty mud pit.
• Black Snake slipped into a pond to wash off the mud and decided to rest before trying to fly again.
• Black Snake entered the county seat in his Primordial Spirit, disguised himself with a cloak and straw hat, and followed the sound of an opera.
• Black Snake watched a folk tale about a dragon repaying a woodcutter, then overheard people casually discussing dragons as delicacies.
• Black Snake moved away from the crowd, remembering that people once spoke of dragons with reverence.

Black Snake left the County Seat after rumors turned its fall into an omen of dynastic change, then returned to the Spirit Realm to tend its Medicine Field and discuss settling there with Xiao Yu. Afterward, Black Snake went back to the Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain to wait for rain, while the Daoists learned it had survived and worried over its well-being.

• Black Snake heard people claim the fallen dragon foretold the reigning dynasty's end, left the opera, and returned to the Spirit Realm.
• Black Snake tended the Medicine Field and reflected on its rapidly growing limbs and body after breaking through five hundred years of age.
• Black Snake and Xiao Yu discussed living on the mountain near the Medicine Field, and Black Snake declined to visit a nearby Daoist temple.
• Black Snake returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain to replenish its rain essence and wait for the rainy season.
• A Daoist saw Black Snake pass through the mist, and the monastery's Daoists connected it to the fallen dragon and felt relieved that it was alive.

Black Snake went to the county seat during a battle to buy books, killed three bandits who attacked him, and returned with a primer and two medical books. On his way back, he spotted a heretic cultivator and decided it was time to go to the Spirit Realm.

• Black Snake left his mountain after the rainy season ended and traveled to the county seat to buy books.
• He ignored a wounded man begging for help and found the old bookseller injured in the damaged shop.
• When three bandits attacked, Black Snake revealed his true form and killed them, then took silver and jewelry from their bodies.
• Black Snake chose a primer and two medical books, paid the bookseller, and gave his name as Black Snake.
• As he left town, Black Snake noticed a heretic cultivator carrying sinister artifacts and watched him flee into the ruins.
• Black Snake decided to head to the Spirit Realm now that the rainy season had ended.

Black Snake moved his books into a dry cave in the Spirit Realm and settled into a quiet routine of cultivation and study. When two heretic cultivators approached the mountain, he and Xiao Yu drove them away, leaving the mountain secure for now.

• Black Snake decided he needed a name, but set the problem aside because he could not think of one.
• Black Snake found a spacious, dry cave in the Spirit Realm and brought his books there to make it his home.
• Black Snake established a routine of cultivating, tending herbs, studying, and occasionally returning to the Mortal Realm.
• Black Snake and Xiao Yu noticed two heretic cultivators approaching the mountain, and Xiao Yu circled overhead to distract them.
• Black Snake stalked the intruders through the mist, and the oppressive feeling of being watched made them retreat without a fight.

Black Snake asked Hu Changqing and the Cloud Immortal Hall to help improve the area around its cave, and the demon spirits built a bridge, pond, and stone terraces. After practicing swordplay and waiting for the mist tide, Black Snake sensed an unusual disturbance coming from the Mortal Realm.

• Black Snake struggled to lay stones outside its cave until Xiao Yu suggested asking the Cloud Immortal Hall for help.
• Black Snake visited Hu Changqing, who agreed to send demon spirits to work without payment in hopes of building a relationship.
• Hu Changqing led several dozen demon spirits to Black Snake's mountain, where they laid stone slabs, built an arched bridge, and made a pond.
• Black Snake admired the finished cave abode, then practiced swordplay on the terrace beneath the old pine.
• Black Snake waited for the mist tide and sensed a faint disturbance originating in the Mortal Realm.

Black Snake followed a desperate plea to the ruined Dragon King Temple and gave a poor boy herbs for his sick mother. He learned that a detailed false story claimed he had fought demons with Master Nan, so he set off to investigate Stone Bridge Town and Great Black Mountain.

• Black Snake tracked a sorrowful plea from the Spirit Realm to the riverside town and found a boy praying at the ruined Dragon King Temple for his mother's recovery.
• Black Snake stopped the boy from kneeling, gathered medicinal herbs, and gave them to him; the boy's mother's lifespan appeared to increase by about two years.
• The boy asked Black Snake to give some of his life to his mother, but Black Snake shook his head and returned to the river.
• Black Snake heard that people claimed he had fallen from the sky and joined Master Nan to fight demons and monsters at Great Black Mountain.
• Black Snake recalled that he had not visited the area or fought any demons lately, then headed toward Stone Bridge Town to investigate the suspicious rumor.

Black Snake investigated the supposed Master Nan and discovered two powerful ghosts guarding a sealed house in a starving town. When cultivators tore the house down, two enormous figures forged from Incense Faith Power appeared beside an old man.

• Black Snake sent Xiao Yu to search Great Black Mountain, and she found no cultivators there but reported two powerful ghosts in a nearby town.
• Black Snake and Xiao Yu watched the town and saw villagers deliver food to a sealed house where a person and the ghosts were inside.
• Black Snake suspected the person in the house was Master Nan and waited for a chance to expose him to sunlight by tearing the house down.
• More than twenty cultivators arrived, surrounded the house, and began pulling down its roof and walls.
• Two towering armored figures emerged unharmed in the sunlight, and the cultivators identified them as creations of Incense Faith Power beside a gaunt old man.

Black Snake watched Master Nan’s two great ghosts battle an organized group seeking a dragon, then followed Master Nan’s escape to an abandoned temple. The pursuers recognized Black Snake as a genuine Yang Spirit, but he sensed something was wrong and prepared to confront the remaining ghost.

• The pursuers demanded that Master Nan hand over a dragon, and his two great ghosts fought them as Black Snake watched.
• One great ghost burst into black vapor to disrupt the pursuers while the other carried Master Nan away from town.
• Black Snake followed Master Nan and the pursuing fighters to an abandoned temple on a hill.
• The pursuers stopped outside the temple as Master Nan sat inside with the surviving great ghost.
• Black Snake approached the hall, and the fighters recognized him as a genuine Yang Spirit.
• Black Snake sensed that Master Nan was unnaturally calm and began drawing his sword to deal with the remaining ghost.

Black Snake and the others fought Master Nan’s guardian ghost and uncovered the golden spectacle at the Abandoned Temple as a trap. Black Snake killed Master Nan and left the temple, realizing Master Nan had targeted Black Snake from the start.

• Black Snake wounded the great ghost and kicked it back into the hall, where it collapsed into a bead.
• Master Nan summoned a false dragon to defend himself, and the Abandoned Temple transformed into a dazzling golden illusion that forced the others to kneel.
• Black Snake resisted the illusion, pierced the false dragon, and exposed the broken Sculpture beneath the golden figure.
• Black Snake explained that the golden figure was fake and killed Master Nan with a sword strike.
• Black Snake told the others the dragon had been a ghost, then left the Abandoned Temple after confirming they did not follow.

The Black Snake staged sightings at Lin Family Crossing to discredit rumors that he had been subdued, then returned to the spirit realm and resumed his secluded cultivation. While he hibernated through winter, Xiao Yu guarded the Medicine Field and encountered a yin spirit searching for a young yang spirit.

• The Black Snake sent Xiao Yu to the spirit realm and devised a plan to spread word that he still lived freely in the river.
• The Black Snake repeatedly showed himself to crowds at Lin Family Crossing, causing the story of his subjugation to lose credibility.
• The Black Snake returned to the spirit realm, tended the Medicine Fields, and later hibernated in his cave as autumn turned to winter.
• Travelers searched the frozen river and its Dragon King Temples for the dragon, while the Black Snake slept unseen in the mountains.
• Xiao Yu chased off an unfamiliar yin spirit, then learned he was looking for a sword-wielding yang spirit resembling a shabby six- or seven-year-old boy.

Black Snake returned to the Spirit Realm after winter and learned that a yin spirit had come seeking his help against a Ghost King. He refused to join the group’s campaign, but considered whether he could enter the Underworld alone and ambush the target.

• Black Snake awoke from hibernation, found he had grown, and returned to the Cliffside Medicine Field in the Spirit Realm.
• Xiao Yu told Black Snake that someone had been asking about him, and he decided to confront the visitor rather than kill him.
• Black Snake found the yin spirit drawing by a cliff and threatened him with a sword until he explained that he wanted help defeating a Ghost King.
• Black Snake recognized the Ghost King as the Holy King hiding in the Underworld, but refused to join the other experts.
• After returning to his body, Black Snake thought of the Red-Dressed Female Ghost and considered sneaking into the Underworld alone to assassinate the Ghost King.

Black Snake visited the Cloud Immortal Hall to learn why the Ghost King called the Holy King had drawn several factions into a hunt, then returned to the Spirit Realm to cultivate and consider how its body might evolve. Xiao Yu reported a distant fight and signs of a ghost, reminding Black Snake of a secluded cultivator it had once encountered.

• Black Snake visited the Cloud Immortal Hall, where Hu Changqing explained that the Ghost King had disrupted the Spirit Halls’ work and that at least three Yang Spirit Cultivators had joined forces to kill him.
• Hu Changqing offered to have Demon Spirits and Ghost Cultivators watch the Underworld and alert Black Snake to any developments, and Black Snake agreed.
• Black Snake searched nearby lakes and pools for unfamiliar scents, then rode the mist tide and returned to its cliff to cultivate and rest.
• Black Snake pondered the difficult changes needed to grow four limbs and shift its ability to sense scents from its tongue to its nostrils, but could not devise a plan.
• Xiao Yu returned from exploring the Pale Golden Cloud Sea and told Black Snake that cultivators seemed to be fighting on a distant peak, with signs of yin energy and a ghost.
• Black Snake remembered a secluded cultivator it had encountered after first arriving in the Spirit Realm.

Black Snake found Red Clothes fighting four cultivators and brought her back to his mountain. She moved into a hidden sinkhole nearby and agreed to join him in attacking Holy King Hall's Ghost King if he went.

• Black Snake followed the battle's Spirit Power fluctuations and found Red Clothes fighting four cultivators on a mountain.
• Red Clothes left the cultivators and followed Black Snake back to his home.
• Black Snake told Red Clothes that several factions planned to attack Holy King Hall's Ghost King, and she said she would go if Black Snake did.
• Red Clothes chose a concealed sinkhole near Black Snake's mountain as her new home.
• Black Snake gathered and planted a medicinal herb, then returned to the Stone Terrace to await the next Mist Tide.

Black Snake and Xiao Yu joined Hu Changqing and other demon spirits on a trip to a Spirit Realm market, hoping to hear cultivation advice and find something worth trading. They arrived at the bustling gathering and began browsing its stalls.

• Hu Changqing invited Black Snake and Xiao Yu to attend a market where spirit beings could trade goods and exchange cultivation insights.
• Black Snake and Xiao Yu realized they had nothing to trade and decided to start accumulating possessions over time.
• Black Snake and Xiao Yu left Red Clothes to guard their lair and traveled with Hu Changqing and more than twenty demon spirits.
• Black Snake spotted human cultivators among the market visitors and drew many stares with its half-flood-dragon appearance.
• Black Snake and Xiao Yu strolled among the stalls, and Black Snake memorized the scents of unfamiliar medicinal herbs.

Black Snake browsed the Spirit Realm market, examined its goods, and heard news but found no useful cultivation insights. As Black Snake left, two large tigers appeared near three sleeping black bears.

• Black Snake admired a bird’s seeds but had no spiritual nuts to trade, so it moved on without taking them.
• Black Snake examined magical artifacts and a four-hundred-year-old ginseng root, then decided to leave some herbs growing longer in its medicine field.
• Black Snake listened to rumors about the Mortal Realm, the Ghost King, and the conflict between the Mystic Sect and its enemies, but learned nothing that resolved its cultivation doubts.
• Black Snake spotted three sleeping black bears outside the market and then saw two striped tigers emerge from the woods.

Black Snake helped keep the marketplace peaceful, traded for a pouch of seeds, and learned about a fox scholar who had secretly studied at a county school. After returning to the Stone Terrace, Black Snake heard that two strangers had escaped Red Clothes, leaving their intentions uncertain.

• Hu Changqing asked Black Snake to stay at the marketplace to help keep order, and Black Snake agreed in exchange for pine nuts.
• Black Snake traded the pine nuts to a little bird for a pouch of seeds and later asked a fox scholar how it had studied at a county school.
• The marketplace remained peaceful until it dispersed, and Black Snake left with Xiao Yu to return to the cliff.
• Red Clothes told Black Snake that two strangers had visited the previous afternoon and escaped.
• Black Snake wondered whether the strangers had any connection to it and felt relieved that Red Clothes had guarded the medicinal herbs.