Recaps

Black Snake guarded the Azure Cloud Monastery through famine and war, learned to read, and fought to escort a feverish child to safety. After the child died and decades passed, He Ning died too, leaving Black Snake to consider seeking what he lacked in the human world.

• Black Snake fled the cave with Xiao Yu, then learned from He Ning that rumors blamed him for taking treasures from the blessed site.
• As drought and war brought bandits and spirits to the region, Black Snake guarded the mountain and helped the Daoists guide the war dead toward the underworld.
• Black Snake learned to read with He Ning, then fought and destroyed an incense-powered Fake Dragon King that had claimed the River.
• Black Snake joined River Ash to protect Hu'er and his parents from pursuing cultivators, and killed the short-haired man who attacked them.
• Black Snake and River Ash fought ghosts, corpse monsters, and Heretic Cultivators while escorting Hu'er downstream, but Hu'er died as they reached Lin Family Crossing.
• Black Snake returned to the monastery, recovered, and spent decades searching for ancient ginseng to extend He Ning’s life, without success.
• He Ning told Black Snake she had stayed alive for his sake, then appeared to him in a vision before fading away.
• Black Snake attended He Ning’s funeral, heard the monastery master urge him to seek what he lacked in the human world, and realized her lantern would never shine at the Stone Terrace again.

Black Snake guarded Azure Cloud Monastery through war and upheaval while cultivating, helping people, and uncovering the Ghost King’s influence. After hibernating through the authorities’ crackdown, he returned to visit Xu Jin, who decided to leave the mountains to seek a disciple.

• Black Snake remained at Azure Cloud Monastery as it declined, weathered the Ghost Calamity and growing human unrest, and kept cultivating while old friends aged and the surrounding country changed.
• Black Snake investigated the Ghost King’s presence around the dry well, then confronted a rebel commander in the County Seat and killed him after destroying his evil spirits.
• Black Snake defended Azure Cloud Monastery from rebel soldiers and continued guarding it through years of war, while villagers and Daoists eventually returned and the surrounding area began to recover.
• Black Snake took on rat-catching work and drove evil spirits from people’s homes, then tried unsuccessfully to find someone to teach him to read and set out to find He Ning.
• Black Snake discovered that the Holy King Hall’s ghost granted wishes by taking pieces of its followers’ souls, and disrupted the Tong Household’s plan to buy the monastery’s mountain.
• Black Snake hibernated as officials seized the county and hunted Holy King Hall followers, then woke to warnings that the Ghost King was taking revenge and that authorities and mystic sects had arrived.
• Black Snake visited Xu Jin, who remembered River Ash and agreed to leave the mountains to seek a disciple, while Black Snake accepted that time would separate him from his companions.

After crossing into the Spirit Realm, Black Snake built a secluded life while investigating a rumor about Master Nan and confronting him. He later learned that the Holy King was gathering ghost soldiers, met up with Red Clothes, and visited a cultivator marketplace as preparations to oppose the Ghost King continued.

• Black Snake entered the Spirit Realm, met Hu Changqing at the Cloud Immortal Hall, and chose to explore rather than become hall master.
• After hibernating through war in the Mortal Realm, Black Snake woke stronger, learned to fly, and returned to the County Seat to buy books.
• Black Snake settled in a cave in the Spirit Realm, and he and Xiao Yu investigated a boy’s tale about Master Nan and a dragon at Great Black Mountain.
• Black Snake followed Master Nan to an abandoned temple, resisted his golden illusion, destroyed the false dragon, and killed him.
• Black Snake learned that the Holy King was raising ghost soldiers, refused to join the alliance, and asked Hu Changqing to arrange watchers in the Underworld.
• Black Snake found Red Clothes fighting four cultivators and told her of the planned attack on the Saint King and Ghost King Hall, and she chose to go if he went.
• Black Snake and Xiao Yu visited a cultivator marketplace, where he traded for seeds and heard about plans against the Ghost King and tensions involving the Mystic Sect.
• Black Snake returned to the Stone Terrace with Little Feather, and Red Clothes told him that two strangers had visited and escaped.

Black Snake protected the Azure Cloud Monastery, saved Sister Wang, and joined Pillowstar Mountain as Jin Si while pursuing the Ghost King. After Jin Si and Red Clothes destroyed the Ghost King, his trapped limbs began to grow, and he realized a thunderstorm might help him break through.

• Black Snake guarded the Medicine Field, drove away intruders, and then defended the Azure Cloud Monastery from the Ghost King and its ghosts.
• An old man condemned Black Snake as a demon, but Black Snake escaped his attack and withdrew after the Abbot stopped their fight.
• Black Snake rescued Sister Wang from a forced sacrifice, killed a river monster, and brought her to the monastery, where the Abbot agreed to shelter her.
• Black Snake learned that good deeds might loosen his cultivation blockage and accepted Lin Wei’s invitation to serve as a mountain-guarding spirit beast at Pillowstar Mountain.
• Black Snake chose the name Jin Si and learned that the Ghost King had killed two Daoists before he went to confront it at the ancient tomb complex.
• Jin Si entered the Underworld and fought the Ghost King, using its grief over its bride to weaken it before Red Clothes arrived.
• Jin Si and Red Clothes destroyed the Ghost King’s core, and Red Clothes thanked him for helping her take revenge.
• Jin Si found that his limbs were growing beneath his scales and concluded that a thunderstorm could help him break through.