Recaps

Black Snake waited for rain on Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain, and the downpour let him rise into the sky and grow claws. Lightning struck him, briefly sent him falling, and then left him with greater control over his new limbs, though he remained short of becoming a true flood dragon.

• Black Snake waited three days for rain as pilgrims gathered at Azure Cloud Monastery, hoping to see the rumored dragon.
• A sudden downpour filled the mountain with rain essence, allowing Black Snake to uncoil, float, and stretch the claws on his four limbs.
• Black Snake discovered his new limbs were stiff and difficult to move, then lightning struck his back and sent him plummeting from the clouds.
• Black Snake used his gui water spiritual energy to stop his fall and returned to the clouds as Daoists and pilgrims watched and cried out that they had seen a dragon.
• Black Snake found he could move his claws more easily after the lightning strike and realized he had begun transforming but had not yet become a true flood dragon.
• Black Snake counted four toes on each claw and decided to accept them for now.

Jin Si used lightning and rain essence to open his newly grown limbs’ meridians as he continued transforming into a black flood dragon. After a clumsy landing, he tested his claws, tended the medicine fields, and settled on the monastery’s back mountain to absorb rain essence.

• Jin Si cautiously approached lightning in the storm clouds, using its thunder force to loosen the obstructions in his limbs and improve control of his paws.
• Jin Si discovered that his right front paw had developed more fully than his left front paw and hind paws, and recalled the Abbot’s warning that his incomplete cultivation made perfection difficult.
• Jin Si avoided the crowd at the Azure Cloud Monastery and tried landing on a grassy ridge, but his front paws buckled and he crashed into the sodden ground.
• Jin Si tested his right front paw by tearing into a tree and crushing rocks, then used his paws to tend all the medicine fields through the night.
• Jin Si returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain, dug his paws into a boulder, and breathed in the rain essence.

Azure Cloud Monastery’s visitors and cultivators debated whether the Black Snake might become a threat after the Ghost King’s death, while the Abbot questioned his past decision to send it to Pillowstar Mountain. Now a four-clawed Black Flood Dragon, Jin Si spotted a powerful yin soul climbing the mountain and blocked its path.

• Cultivators confirmed that the Ghost King of the Holy King Hall was dead, then worried that Azure Cloud Monastery’s powerful spirit beast could become another danger.
• The Abbot reflected on his decision to send the Black Snake to Pillowstar Mountain and judged the possessed old man a more immediate threat.
• Jin Si rested at the summit, practiced controlling his four claws, and watched the mountain for the old man.
• After nightfall, Jin Si sensed an unusually dense yin soul approaching the mountain and found no other strange presence nearby.
• Jin Si slipped down the mountain and barred the wet stone steps as the searching yin soul walked uphill.

Jin Si rejected Mount Tai Prefecture’s offer to join the Underworld Bureaucracy and learned from Hu Changqing why the office had recruited him. He remained determined to focus on becoming a true flood dragon and returned to tend his home on the mountain.

• Clerk Ren visited Jin Si on Mount Tai Prefecture’s orders and invited him to join the Underworld Bureaucracy’s Pursuit and Arrest Office, but Jin Si refused.
• Jin Si spent the rainy weeks playing with his claws and mountain prey, then entered the Spirit Realm and visited Hu Changqing.
• Hu Changqing congratulated Jin Si on growing claws and explained that the Pursuit and Arrest Office recruited him because he had killed the Holy King Hall’s Ghost King.
• Hu Changqing explained that a divine office offered cultivators a way to avoid oblivion after death, but Jin Si still chose not to join.
• Jin Si headed back to his peak, eager to tend the medicine field and repair the paving tiles.

Jin Si received Lin Wei’s invitation to Pillowstar Mountain and decided to move there with Xiao Yu and Red Clothes after winter. As he prepared for the change, he visited the grave and shared the news, wishing the person there could see his new claws.

• Xiao Yu caught a paper crane carrying Lin Wei’s letter, and Jin Si and Xiao Yu slowly read its invitation and route map.
• Jin Si decided he and Xiao Yu would move to Pillowstar Mountain in the spring, then invited Red Clothes to come with them.
• Red Clothes accepted and privately reflected on how peaceful she felt with Jin Si and Xiao Yu, though she worried about whether the Mystic Sect would accept her.
• Jin Si tidied the Medicine Field, spent more than half a month cultivating, and then carried two pine cones to the grave.
• Jin Si arranged the pine cones before the grave and told its occupant about his claws and plans to move, ending by wishing they could see.

Jin Si left his mountain home with Xiao Yu and Red Clothes to journey toward Pillowstar Mountain, carrying his supplies and keeping his destination in mind. Along the way, the travelers passed a bustling market in the Spirit Realm.

• Jin Si awoke from hibernation after absorbing the medicinal herbs and found that he had grown to five zhang and five chi long.
• Jin Si visited the Spring Well, Stone Terrace, old pavilion, and pine tree before leaving the monastery grounds and entering the Spirit Realm.
• Jin Si packed herb seeds, root tubers, valuables, and Lin Wei’s letters, then prepared to depart with Xiao Yu and Red Clothes.
• Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes set off across the Mist Sea toward Pillowstar Mountain.
• The group passed above a lively market where demonic beasts, yin souls, and humans traded goods.

Jin Si, Xiao Yu, and Red Clothes traveled through the Mist Sea, passing ruined battle sites and admiring the spirit realm’s scenery before reaching a view of Pillowstar Mountain. Jin Si planned to secretly observe the mountain’s visitors before deciding whether to approach its Daoist sect.

• Jin Si and his companions traveled according to the mist tide, avoiding inhabited areas and resting among the mountains.
• Jin Si spotted ruined dwellings and a devastated woodland, where Xiao Yu found a broken blade and Red Clothes remarked on strife across the realms.
• The companions continued their journey, admiring unoccupied scenery and collecting medicinal herbs during their rests.
• Jin Si recognized the towering mountain ahead as Pillowstar Mountain after Red Clothes named it.
• Xiao Yu described Pillowstar Mountain’s grand but sparsely populated halls and broad mountain road, leaving Jin Si uncertain about its nature.
• Jin Si decided to watch people entering and leaving the mountain road before approaching Pillowstar Mountain.

Jin Si waited beneath a pool for someone to pass before deciding whether Pillowstar Mountain was safe, but Lin Wei revealed that her martial uncle had known he was there all along. Jin Si and Xiao Yu then set out for the mountain with Lin Wei, while Red Clothes stayed behind to wait for news.

• Jin Si hid in a pool for days, then recognized an elderly female Daoist as someone who had once accompanied the First Abbot from Azure Cloud Monastery.
• Lin Wei arrived and told Jin Si that her martial uncle had spotted him three days earlier and had sent her to escort him up the mountain.
• Lin Wei admitted that she had slept for three days after setting out to find Jin Si, and Jin Si went to retrieve Xiao Yu and Red Clothes.
• Jin Si and Xiao Yu planned to go up the mountain while Red Clothes remained below, then Jin Si carried their belongings back to Lin Wei.
• Lin Wei led Jin Si and Xiao Yu along Pillowstar Mountain’s secluded paths, bridges, and cliffside trail as they climbed higher into the mist.

Lin Wei brought Jin Si and Xiao Yu through Pillowstar Mountain’s Mountain Gate and had them entered in the register. After their portraits and wooden plaques were hung in the hall, she led them farther into the quiet mountain grounds.

• Lin Wei told Jin Si that Pillowstar Mountain had grown deserted as Daoists spent more time suppressing evil spirits in the Mortal and Spirit Realms.
• Lin Wei led Jin Si and Xiao Yu through the Mountain Gate and across the grotto-heaven’s grounds, where the female Daoists stared in surprise at Jin Si.
• Lin Wei brought Jin Si and Xiao Yu to a hall where Martial niece Du painted their portraits for the register.
• Lin Wei hung Xiao Yu’s aura-marked plaque beside her portrait and placed Jin Si’s existing plaque beside his newly painted portrait.
• Lin Wei led Jin Si and Xiao Yu onward across a stone arch bridge into the quiet, spacious mountain grounds.

Jin Si and Xiao Yu began guarding Pillowstar Mountain's Library Pavilion and explored its books, though Jin Si could not understand them. They chose a secluded ledge for a new lair, and Xiao Yu went to fetch Red Clothes while Jin Si started digging.

• Lin Wei showed Jin Si and Xiao Yu the Library Pavilion, explained its rules and protections, and told them they could settle anywhere on the mountain.
• Jin Si and Xiao Yu toured all five floors, but Jin Si found that he could not understand the books and wished he could attend school.
• The pair searched Pillowstar Mountain's outskirts and chose a mist-covered ledge with a spring as their new home site.
• Xiao Yu went to fetch Red Clothes while Jin Si returned for their belongings and began digging a cave into the ledge.
• Red Clothes chose a fissure in the rock wall, and Jin Si washed the dust from his scales beneath the waterfall before resting.

Jin Si went to Pillowstar Mountain’s General Store to buy a hoe for his medicine field and met Daoist Pang, who recognized him as the Black Flood Dragon’s primordial spirit. Daoist Pang thanked him for avenging her family and gave him a book about identifying and cultivating spirit medicine.

• Jin Si worked on his cave and medicine field until Red Clothes told him to get a hoe instead of digging with a stick.
• Jin Si set out for the Mountain Gate and saw two women on a bridge transform into red-crowned cranes and fly away.
• Jin Si explored the deserted buildings near the Mountain Gate and found Daoist Pang tending the General Store.
• Jin Si bought an iron hoe from Daoist Pang for one tael of silver.
• Daoist Pang thanked Jin Si for avenging her relatives against the Holy King Hall and gave him a book about spirit medicine.

Jin Si settled into life on Pillowstar Mountain, planted his Medicine Field, and rested by the Library Pavilion while longing to learn to read. Meanwhile, the Abbot faced growing supernatural trouble in the Mortal Realm, and Jin Si eventually left the pavilion to seek out Daoist Pang.

• Jin Si acknowledged Daoist Pang’s gratitude, then encountered a Daoist with a plum blossom deer on his way home.
• Jin Si planted his seeds and root cuttings, visited Xiao Yu at the Library Pavilion, and fell asleep on a boulder.
• At the Azure Cloud Monastery, the Abbot read reports of escaped vengeful souls and river monsters and realized the monastery’s spirit beast was gone.
• Jin Si woke and decided to ask Daoist Pang or Lin Wei to help him attend school and learn to read.
• Jin Si spent time dozing on the Library Pavilion roof, then flew toward the General Store and startled Daoist Pang.

Jin Si asked Daoist Pang to help him get into a Mortal Realm school, and she promised to find someone to recommend him. After practicing swordplay, he noticed a dazed mortal woman approaching the Library Pavilion and stopped when an elderly Female Daoist told him not to interfere.

• Jin Si squeezed through an alley in his Black Flood Dragon form and asked Daoist Pang to help him find a school.
• Daoist Pang explained that Jin Si needed a proper identity and a recommendation, then promised to arrange one and told him to wait for news.
• Jin Si returned to his routine, browsed books in the Library Pavilion with his Primordial Spirit, and practiced the Abbot's swordplay.
• Jin Si sensed an ordinary young woman wandering toward the Library Pavilion and prepared to stop her.
• An elderly Female Daoist arrived and told Jin Si the woman was a pitiable soul who could look around, so he withdrew his claws and watched her.

Jin Si witnessed a former cultivator dreamwalk back to her old home and learned that cultivators who refuse reincarnation may become Eerie. He warned Red Clothes about the danger, then returned to his den and fell asleep.

• An elderly Daoist explained that the woman visiting the pool had once cultivated on the mountain and would forget her dream after waking; she soon vanished.
• The Daoist warned Jin Si that cultivators and other beings who refuse reincarnation can become Eerie, then flew away.
• Jin Si breathed in the mist, watered struggling medicinal plants with a leaf funnel, and daydreamed about attending school and watching plays.
• Jin Si asked Red Clothes where Xiao Yu was, then told her about the Eerie and warned that they might grow more numerous.
• Red Clothes suggested that Eerie could exist in the Spirit Realm, and Jin Si decided to seek advice from Lin Wei or Daoist Pang before returning to his cave to sleep.

Jin Si visited Daoist Pang to ask about the promised news and learned where Lin Wei lived and that a True Person was expounding the Dao. He found Lin Wei asleep, but she hurried him to the gathering, where they arrived before the elderly female Daoist giving the discourse.

• Jin Si went to Daoist Pang after waiting two days, and Daoist Pang told him to return in about an hour for news.
• Daoist Pang described the route to Lin Wei's Cave Abode and recommended that Jin Si attend a True Person's discourse.
• Jin Si found Lin Wei asleep in her courtyard and woke her by pushing his head into her room.
• Lin Wei remembered the discourse, rushed out, and led Jin Si up the mountain to the gathering.
• Lin Wei and Jin Si arrived at a cavern hall where many Daoists sat beneath an old pine before an elderly female Daoist.

Jin Si failed to understand the Daoist’s lecture but resolved to learn to read, and Daoist Pang arranged for him to study in the Mortal Realm. Jin Si prepared to leave the mountain, eager to begin his education.

• Jin Si listened to the True Person’s lecture, grew confused, then calmed himself and resolved to study seriously.
• Jin Si left the lecture and went to Daoist Pang, who gave him a letter for Daoist Jiang and arranged for him to attend a school in the Mortal Realm.
• Daoist Pang told Jin Si to return to the Library Pavilion every Wu Day and Gui Day, and Jin Si memorized the schedule.
• Jin Si returned to his lair, gathered his silver, and told Xiao Yu and Red Clothes that he was going to study.
• Jin Si asked why two Daoists were heading down the mountain, and Daoist Pang explained that Jin Si’s approach to dealing with spirits would leave no room for mercy.

Jin Si left Pillowstar Mountain and traveled to the Mortal Realm to deliver Daoist Pang’s letter to Daoist Jiang at the Medicine King Temple. Daoist Jiang welcomed him and arranged a room, while Jin Si waited to meet the temple’s teacher.

• Jin Si discovered that a formation prevented him from entering the Mortal Realm until he reached the foot of Pillowstar Mountain, so he registered his departure and descended through the mist.
• At the mountain’s base, Jin Si opened a passage to an unfamiliar place in the Mortal Realm and headed for the nearby Medicine King Temple.
• Jin Si made a small cave behind the temple, then went to its gate and presented Daoist Pang’s letter to Daoist Jiang.
• Daoist Jiang invited Jin Si inside and showed him a clean side room, saying he would take him to see the teacher that afternoon.
• After Daoist Jiang went to attend to pilgrims, Jin Si put his bag beneath the bed and went out to look around.

Jin Si spent the morning helping Daoist Jiang at the Medicine King Temple, where a visiting boy briefly saw Jin Si’s monstrous true form. After arranging for Jin Si to study as a Daoist novice, they set out for town to buy books and school supplies.

• Jin Si helped Daoist Jiang serve pilgrims and run errands at the Medicine King Temple.
• A boy with Spirit-Sight Eyes saw Jin Si as a giant black-scaled snake, but Jin Si decided the boy posed no threat.
• Jin Si told Daoist Jiang he had money for books, then transformed his clothes into a Daoist robe.
• Jin Si gave Daoist Jiang some silver, and the two left the temple to go to town.
• They rode an ox cart into the city, where Jin Si followed Daoist Jiang through the busy streets.

Jin Si began his studies at the Village School and returned to the Medicine King Temple with new books. He adjusted his cultivation routine around his school schedule and found a rocky summit where he could cultivate beneath the moon.

• Daoist Jiang brought Jin Si to meet teacher Jiang, who accepted him after checking his appearance and learning that his hands each had four fingers.
• Jiang explained the school rules, and Daoist Jiang bought Jin Si books before they headed home.
• Daoist Jiang warned Jin Si not to harm anyone at school, and Jin Si promised to avoid trouble.
• Jin Si read his new Thousand Character Classic, then returned to his body in the mountain cave after nightfall.
• Jin Si found a broad, level rocky summit and began cultivating by drawing in moonlight essence.

Jin Si used his Primordial Spirit to attend the Jiang Household's Village School, where he struggled through a day of lessons and kept apart from the other children. After returning to the Medicine King Temple, he wondered why studying felt so ordinary after he had longed for it for over a hundred years.

• Jin Si left his body, collected his schoolbag, and traveled over the walls and rooftops to the Village School.
• Jin Si took a seat at the back of the classroom and followed Jiang's morning reading and individual instruction, struggling to recognize the characters.
• Jin Si stayed by himself during breaks while the other schoolchildren played, and he received no meal at noon.
• Jin Si imitated the pupils' farewell to their teacher, then returned to the Medicine King Temple after nightfall.
• Jin Si resumed his Black Flood Dragon form and absorbed Moonlight Essence, wondering why attending school had felt so ordinary.

Jin Si balanced his Village School studies with rat-removal work and watched an opera, where he heard that a flood dragon had supposedly caused a deadly mountain flood. He returned to Pillowstar Mountain determined to investigate the claim and check on his Medicine Field.

• Jin Si continued learning the Thousand Character Classic while keeping to himself among the Village School pupils.
• Jin Si took a rat-removal job for five copper coins, then released the rats and headed to a nearby opera.
• Jin Si overheard wealthy spectators say a master blamed a deadly mountain flood that summer on a flood dragon undergoing tribulation.
• Jin Si doubted the explanation, resolved to investigate the western mountains, and returned to Pillowstar Mountain before dawn.
• Jin Si checked the Mountain Gate noticeboard and Library Pavilion, then headed to his old cliff lair, worried about the Medicine Field.

Jin Si returned to the Cliffside Lair, tended the Medicine Field, and went to Lin Wei to ask about a deadly flood blamed on a flood dragon crossing. Lin Wei reported that evil spirits were causing trouble across the Spirit Realm and Mortal Realm, and hinted Jin Si could help the mountain in exchange for cultivation benefits.

• Red Clothes questioned Jin Si about the Village School, and Jin Si admitted the teacher frightened him before recalling a powerful sword-bearing old Daoist who kept him from doing evil.
• Jin Si's primordial spirit weeded the Medicine Field, then he drank in the Mist Tide and slept while guarding the Library Pavilion.
• After noticing that his soft spines wasted strength in flight, Jin Si searched for a white crane to ask for advice, but it fled when it saw him.
• Jin Si visited Lin Wei and asked whether a flood dragon crossing had caused a flash flood that killed more than forty people; Lin Wei sent a Paper Crane to investigate.
• Lin Wei told Jin Si that evil spirits were stirring up trouble around the Azure Cloud Monastery and across both realms, and said the mountain might soon ask him for help.
• Lin Wei said punishing villains and eliminating evil could bring unseen benefits to Jin Si's cultivation, making him consider getting involved.

Lin Wei told Jin Si that enemies were spreading rumors to lure him into the mortal world's rivers, so he agreed to stay hidden. Back at his lair, Jin Si watched wounded Daoists and a Gray Wolf arrive, then saw Xiao Yu return from a flight with a white crane feather.

• Lin Wei told Jin Si the flood-dragon rumors were likely meant to frame him and lure him into a trap, and she advised him to stay at the Village School or Medicine King Temple.
• Jin Si described how he had transformed his yin spirit into a yang spirit, telling Lin Wei to bask in the sun and worry more.
• Jin Si saw Daoist Pang, another Daoist, and an injured Gray Wolf arrive at the General Store and post a notice, but he held back from intervening because his enemies were searching for him.
• Jin Si returned to his lair and asked Xiao Yu why she was so good at flying, and she answered, "Feathers."
• Xiao Yu flew to the Pine Forest and returned with a white crane feather, which Jin Si examined.

Jin Si prepared to reach the Medicine King Temple before dawn, while a young villager agreed to train with an old man so he could avenge his parents by killing the flood dragon. The girl feared the old man’s golden apparitions and watched her brother’s hatred take hold.

• Red Clothes told Jin Si to grow fine hairs between his back and tail spines to catch the wind, and he began practicing the change.
• Jin Si flew to the Library Pavilion to study how to grow the hairs while waiting for the hour of the Rabbit.
• A young man and his sister visited the mound where their parents and half the village had been buried after a flash flood caused by a flood dragon’s tribulation.
• An old man urged the young man to seek revenge and promised he could kill the flood dragon in two or three years, so the young man agreed to go with him despite his sister’s pleas.
• The old man summoned two towering golden apparitions, and the girl noticed their cold malice as the villagers knelt.
• At the beginning of the hour of the Rabbit, Jin Si prepared water and incense at the Medicine King Temple, then left for the city.

Jin Si followed his quiet daily routine until an uneasy feeling drove him away from the Opera Garden shortly before a fire broke out and trapped the audience. Watching the blaze from the Back Mountain, he wondered why powerful figures never intervened in human disasters, then fell asleep as the fire died down.

• Jin Si studied at the Jiang Household's Village School, noticed a classmate with a face that suggested a death in the family, and continued his daily routine of catching rats, watching plays, and visiting the Back Mountain.
• At the crowded Opera Garden, Jin Si sensed danger and left for the Back Mountain before a fire started backstage.
• A stove toppled and set the Opera Garden ablaze while the audience watched the performance, and the panicked crowd crushed the attendants against the doors.
• Jin Si saw the fire through his Thermal Sensing vision and wondered why the Religious Orders and factions did not intervene in disasters.
• Jin Si recalled the classmate who might soon wear deep mourning, then fell asleep on the peak as the fire dwindled near midnight.