Chapter Summaries

A forest fire and the storm that followed awakened fear and fondness in a black snake, stirring a limited intelligence within it. After surviving the disaster and resuming its hunt for prey, the snake began seeking high ground whenever rain fell to breathe in the cool Rain Essence.

• A wildfire trapped the black snake in a rock crevice, and the pain and heat awakened fear in its mind.
• Rain cooled the scorched mountain, and the black snake emerged to savor the raindrops and breathe in Rain Essence.
• A thunderstorm triggered destructive debris flows, so the black snake hid in its crevice until the storm passed.
• After the disaster, the black snake searched for prey, caught and swallowed a small animal, and continued hunting to survive.
• When rain returned several days later, the black snake climbed a boulder and repeatedly breathed the cool, rain-laden air.

Fifty years after the wildfire, an unusually large black snake lived in the valley as human settlers arrived and built cottages nearby. After sensing a mysterious change within itself, the snake noticed the blue-robed man and his party approaching its boulder, while the hunter discovered the snake’s enormous shed skin.

• The black snake hunted and ignored the unfamiliar people who entered the valley and began building cottages.
• A blue-robed man arrived with his young attendant, servants, a hunter, and a yellow dog, declaring his intention to pursue secluded cultivation.
• The black snake shed its skin unusually quickly, noticed that its body had shrunk, and felt an instinctive urge to break free of an unseen constraint.
• After a night of confusion, the black snake sensed a subtle change in the air and felt delighted, then noticed heat sources approaching its boulder.
• The hunter followed the yellow dog to a crevice, found the black snake’s enormous shed skin, and hurried back to warn the others.

A man in blue robes encountered a giant black snake on Giant Rock and decided it was a spirit capable of refining qi, choosing to stay in the valley and practice cultivation. The next morning, he sat beside the snake to breathe in the mist while the hunter and page watched cautiously.

• The man in blue robes, the hunter, and the page encountered the giant black snake on Giant Rock during a storm, and the snake left them unharmed.
• The hunter urged the man in blue robes to leave and return with weapons, but the man refused, convinced the snake was a spirit and that cultivation was real.
• The man in blue robes decided to remain in the mountains, while the black snake watched the rain clouds and soon forgot about the yellow dog it had considered as prey.
• The next morning, the man in blue robes sat beside the black snake and began breathing practice as the snake calmly breathed in the valley mist.
• The black snake went hunting, while the three men discussed their new neighbor and realized it had smoothed Giant Rock by coiling around it for years.

Chi Ke settled near the black snake and read from an ancient book about Qi-Refining, hoping to cultivate beside it. After sensing an unexplained restraint, the snake grew worried and discovered that its body had begun to strengthen again, but it did not understand why.

• The black snake finished digesting its prey, then returned to its boulder before dawn while Chi Ke and his companions worked nearby.
• Chi Ke introduced himself to the snake and read aloud from an ancient book describing the Qi-Refining Breathing Art, though neither he nor the snake understood it.
• Chi Ke left the mountain with the book boy, while the black snake stayed on the boulder and sensed a slight chill linked to an inexplicable restriction.
• The black snake worried through the day instead of hunting, then noticed that its body had begun to grow stronger again.
• The black snake continued worrying until dawn, while Chi Ke returned and read from his ancient book after finding no morning mist.

As Black Snake prepared to hibernate, villagers delivered an alchemy furnace to Thatched Hut, where the late-arriving guest began studying a damaged book about alchemy and secret arts. In its cave, Black Snake entered a strange state in which its senses weakened and an indistinct warm presence approached.

• Black Snake ignored a weasel and a fox that tried to get its attention, then avoided a distant gathering of red heat sources near Thatched Hut.
• The villagers delivered supplies and a five-foot alchemy furnace to Thatched Hut, and the guest who arrived late commissioned a shelter for it.
• After the villagers left, the guest who arrived late studied a damaged book and compared its descriptions of herbs with the plants he had gathered.
• Black Snake entered its hidden cave and began hibernating, slowing its heartbeat, breathing, and body temperature.
• Black Snake suddenly found itself in a dim forest with greatly weakened smell and Thermal Sensing, then detected an indistinct warm presence approaching.

The black snake intermittently woke in a strange gray state, discovered it could draw faint comfort from breathing toward the full moon, and visited Chi Ke’s cottage during a snowy night. After the snake vanished, Chi Ke awoke from a dream feeling the weight of his stalled pursuit of the Dao, while the snake returned to its cave to sleep.

• The black snake mistook its sleeping body for another snake, then realized it had only been a strange waking experience and returned to sleep.
• Chi Ke admired the snowy mountains, glimpsed a red fox, and went back to his books and cultivation.
• On full-moon nights, the black snake began climbing to the clifftop to breathe in a faint, refreshing sensation from the moon.
• During a snowstorm, the black snake visited Chi Ke’s courtyard and found that animals and people could not see or touch it in its gray state.
• Chi Ke dreamed that the black snake visited him, then woke feeling hollow over his lack of a path to seek the Dao.
• The black snake returned to its cave and fell asleep as a snow-laden tree crashed down in the valley.

The black snake endured the end of winter and spring’s arrival while grappling with unfamiliar fears and waiting for its old skin to shed. After shedding safely, it resumed wandering and hunting, then wondered whether sleep would bring back the dim perspective it had experienced before.

• The black snake wandered too far from its cave, felt a powerful fear of becoming lost, and hurried back inside its invisible boundary.
• As spring warmed the mountain, the black snake drank from a hollow in the cave and remained dormant until the thunder of Awakening of Insects woke it.
• The black snake left the cave but waited to hunt while its vision blurred and its old skin tightened, basking in the sun until it was ready to shed.
• The black snake slipped free of its old skin among loose rocks, revealing clear vision and a longer body with glossy new scales.
• The black snake swallowed several wood frogs by the stream, drank water, and wondered whether it had to sleep for the dim perspective to return.

Black Snake shifted from hunting wood frogs to raiding bird nests, using his heat sense to find and devour eagle eggs and a nesting pheasant. After basking on the giant rock, he watched Chi Ke arrive in spring and talk about his herbs and plans to refine pills and grow medicinal ginseng.

• Black Snake hunted wood frogs along the stream until they laid their eggs and left the pools.
• Black Snake climbed a giant tree at night, displaced a female eagle, and swallowed all three eggs in her nest.
• Black Snake used his heat sense to find and eat a pheasant incubating eggs, then returned to the giant rock to bask beneath the moon.
• Chi Ke arrived at the giant rock after an anxious night of practicing sword moves beneath the moon.
• Chi Ke told Black Snake he had gathered medicinal ingredients, planned to refine pills, and prepared plots for medicinal ginseng.

Chi Ke was asked to save a village boy believed to have been possessed by an evil spirit, and the boy recovered when the spirit entered Chi Ke instead. Unsure how to drive it out, Chi Ke went to seek help from Black Snake.

• Black Snake lounged on the mountainside while Chi Ke's first attempt at refining pills ended in a smoky explosion.
• A villager brought his unconscious son, Wu Family's Second Child, to Chi Ke for help after a physician failed to cure him.
• Chi Ke examined the boy and concluded that an outside evil had invaded his body, but then felt a strange chill and believed the spirit had possessed him.
• The boy's face regained its color and he woke, while his grateful parents promised to bring Chi Ke medicinal herbs.
• Chi Ke found cinnabar to ease his chill, then headed up the mountain to ask Black Snake to deal with the wandering ghost.

Black Snake discovered a cold phantom possessing Chi Ke and chased it through the forest, where a fox helped trap and batter it until it faded. After the phantom stopped moving, Black Snake left to hunt ordinary prey, and the remnant vanished in the morning sunlight.

• Chi Ke reached Black Snake and said an evil spirit had possessed him, and Black Snake’s warning hiss drove the possession’s influence away.
• Black Snake pursued the fleeing phantom, learned to perceive its outline through a different mode of sensing, and followed it into the dark forest.
• A fox blocked the phantom’s escape and struck it repeatedly while Black Snake watched and tried unsuccessfully to gather his cool presence into his fangs.
• The fox and Black Snake batted the phantom around until it weakened and stopped struggling, after which Black Snake lost interest and left to hunt.
• The fox went to search for prey, while the abandoned phantom hid behind a tree until morning sunlight made it vanish.

Black Snake settled in a riverside meadow, adapted its hunting to its growing size, and noticed a strange, fixed glow in the mountains. It left the meadow to investigate, but after reaching the area where it had seen the light, it could find no sign of anything unusual.

• Black Snake found a prey-rich riverside meadow and decided to stay there until the rainy season.
• Black Snake struggled to catch fish at first, then changed its approach, caught one, and gave up underwater hunting when it seemed too costly.
• Black Snake noticed cloth and long black hair among the carrion by the river, while a blurry shadow later sobbed beside the corpse.
• Black Snake spotted a strange glow in the mountains and decided to investigate before returning to the valley.
• Black Snake crossed the meadow and climbed toward the glow, but found only dense woods, mossy rocks, and no unusual creatures or scents.

Black Snake returned to the valley and basked near the path while Chi Ke and Lu discussed their family troubles and the upheaval beyond the mountains. During a fierce storm, Black Snake endured a painful bodily purge that expelled parasites, then recovered by breathing in the post-rain mist.

• Black Snake followed a familiar stream back to the valley and basked beside the path as people passed nearby without noticing him.
• Chi Ke and Lu talked about their failing family fortunes, the approaching end of the turmoil, and their lack of progress toward immortality.
• A heavy storm struck the valley, and Lu spotted Black Snake on a rock during flashes of lightning, waking Chi Ke in alarm.
• As lightning and thunder intensified, Black Snake felt itching, rolled down the slope, scraped his body against a sharp rock, and vomited parasites.
• After the rain eased, Black Snake climbed back onto the rock, coiled in the rain, and regained strength by swallowing the rising mist.

Chi Ke warned Black Snake about the Alchemy Manual’s methods of refining living creatures, while Black Snake explored how mist, storms, and moonlight could nourish him. The chapter ended with Black Snake breathing in the dawn glow and mountain mist as he searched for ways to grow and communicate with other unusual beings.

• Chi Ke thanked Black Snake for helping him and noticed his fresh wounds before joining him in breathing practice.
• Black Snake drew golden radiance from the mist, and Chi Ke watched before resuming his own practice.
• Chi Ke told Black Snake that the Alchemy Manual described refining living creatures into pills, urged him to distrust humans, and said he had burned the book.
• Black Snake pondered whether rain, mist, and thunder offered nourishment, then searched for the fox to learn about its eating habits.
• Black Snake and the fox briefly left their bodies but could not communicate, and he returned to his boulder to breathe in moonlight and then the dawn glow.

Black Snake continued learning from Chi Ke while Chi Ke struggled with pill refining and a mysterious rash. When a fox warned of danger in the mountains, Black Snake sensed an unfamiliar large creature approaching their shelter.

• Black Snake followed its daily routine, shed its scales, and finally memorized the syllables of "Brother Snake," though it mistakenly thought they referred to Chi Ke.
• Chi Ke’s failed pills made the yellow dog race around with strange heat and foul gas, and Chi Ke later developed an itchy rash from a mountain plant.
• A fox appeared and cried urgently before fleeing toward the mountain peak, prompting the hunter to suspect a dangerous beast was nearby.
• Birds suddenly took flight, and the yellow dog hid beside the hunter as Black Snake rose up and used its heat sense to locate an unfamiliar creature approaching from the stream.

A tiger approached the boulder where Chi Ke, his attendant, the hunter, and Black Snake were sheltering, but Black Snake’s threatening display drove it away. After the hunter sent the yellow dog for help, more than twenty people and a pack of hunting dogs came into the mountains, and the group left after dawn.

• As a storm broke over the mountain, the hunter made wooden spears while Black Snake watched for an approaching threat.
• The hunter spotted a tiger approaching the boulder, and Black Snake intimidated it with a hiss and exposed fangs until it retreated.
• After returning to the hut, Chi Ke vowed to continue his journey, and the hunter sent the yellow dog toward the village with a tiger drawing tied to its collar.
• More than twenty people and over a dozen hunting dogs entered the mountains during the night, led by the yellow dog.
• After dawn, Black Snake watched the procession descend the streamside path as the hunter carried the exhausted yellow dog.

Black Snake’s mountain life continued as Chi Ke built a new residence and taught beneath the old pine. When an educated young visitor sought advice about baleful intent and revealed that his mother was gravely ill, Chi Ke resolved to send him safely back down the mountain the next morning.

• Hunters drove the tiger several ridges away, while Black Snake and the fox remained in the valley.
• Chi Ke returned with craftsmen and built a sturdy courtyard on a side peak, then moved in with his attendant and the hunter.
• Chi Ke studied the Yin Spirit and urged Black Snake and the fox to cultivate with him, though neither understood the lesson fully.
• A young visitor asked Chi Ke how to dispel baleful intent affecting a friend, and Chi Ke recommended sunlight, ginger broth, realgar wine, and mugwort.
• The young man explained that he had come seeking medicine for his gravely ill mother, and Chi Ke decided to have him escorted down the mountain in the morning.

After a young man begged Chi Ke for medicine to save his mother, Chi Ke explained that he could not refine pills and urged him to return home to his family. That night, Black Snake witnessed the grieving man reunite with his dead mother in a dream and became more wary of apparitions.

• Black Snake fed on wood frogs in the rainy gully before heading toward the great rock to breathe in rain essence.
• After noticing Chi Ke's alchemy furnace, the young man rushed back and begged him for medicine to save his mother.
• Chi Ke explained that he could not refine pills, and the young man described how holy places had demanded more wealth instead of helping.
• Chi Ke advised the young man to go home and spend time with his family, and the young man thanked him before leaving for the guest room.
• Black Snake saw an apparition approach the sleeping young man and witnessed him sobbing as he dreamed of meeting his deceased mother.
• After the apparition vanished, Black Snake returned to the great rock and grew more vigilant about unexplained apparitions.

Chi Ke escorted the young man out of the mountains and returned to studying with Black Snake and the fox. As winter arrived, Black Snake struggled with his fading memories, then found shelter in a cave and awaited the full moon.

• Chi Ke noticed the young man’s grief, packed him extra food, and sent the hunter to escort him safely out of the mountains.
• Chi Ke studied with Black Snake and the fox on Giant Rock, and the fox brought him a pine cone.
• Black Snake realized that his memories and sense of suffering were fading, and decided to keep pursuing memories despite the confusion they brought.
• As the weather turned cold, Black Snake reduced his activity and moved from Giant Rock to a pile of leaves.
• After waking beneath the snow and finding little warmth nearby, Black Snake remembered the cave, crawled inside, and settled down to await the full moon.

Black Snake, the fox, and the weasel met an unusual traveler who taught the fox and weasel about cultivation before leaving. The next morning, Chi Ke learned that unfamiliar footprints had appeared near the mountain dwelling, and the household stayed on guard until no one returned for more than twenty days.

• The fox called Black Snake and the weasel down the mountain, where they waited beside a frozen stream for a traveler.
• The traveler greeted the three spirits, recognized the fox as a descendant of an old acquaintance, and explained the basics of cultivation to the fox and weasel.
• Black Snake understood little of the lesson, and the traveler and weasel departed while the fox returned to the mountain.
• The hunter found unfamiliar footprints following the frozen stream upstream, and Chi Ke told the household to stay vigilant and protect the yellow dog.
• The household kept watch for more than twenty days without seeing the stranger again, leaving the footprints an unsolved mystery.

Black Snake left his cave to find water and was attacked by a starving wild boar on the ice. He poisoned the boar and escaped as the hunter, Chi Ke, and the yellow dog arrived, but his condition remained uncertain.

• Black Snake emerged from his cave, tracked underground water, and drank from a spring in a pit.
• A wounded wild boar charged Black Snake and drove him onto a slippery stretch of ice.
• Black Snake used a rock to brace himself, then struck the boar's belly and injected it with venom.
• The yellow dog alerted the hunter, who hurried downhill with Chi Ke and the young attendant.
• The boar kicked Black Snake loose and crashed into rocks, while the hunter found scrape marks on the snake but no bleeding.