Chapter Summaries

Jin Si and his companions searched for hidden evil spirits and discovered an old man who had drugged a young cultivator and tried to prey on her. Jin Si killed him and Red Clothes consumed his phantom, leaving the woman trapped in the ruined cottage as they departed.

• Jin Si told Xiao Yu how he spat out venomous mist and said they should search for evil spirits hiding beneath an innocent appearance.
• Jin Si remembered an old man’s secluded courtyard and brought Red Clothes and Xiao Yu to investigate.
• The old man advised a young female cultivator about staying safe, then drugged her tea and tried to keep her from leaving.
• Jin Si burst into the cottage, seized the old man, and shook him to death while the female cultivator watched helplessly.
• Red Clothes consumed the old man’s phantom, and Jin Si and his companions left the woman alone amid the wreckage.

Jin Si, Red Clothes, and Xiao Yu hunted Evil Spirits around Pillowstar Mountain before killing Sideburns on Rocky Mountain. After returning to the mountain, Jin Si asked Lin Wei to register Red Clothes so she could gain access to the sect’s resources.

• The three friends cleared out nearby Evil Spirits and Demonic Beasts while staying alert for the demonically corrupted old man.
• Jin Si and Red Clothes ambushed Sideburns on Rocky Mountain, killing him as his six disciples fled.
• Red Clothes questioned how to distinguish good people from Evil Spirits, and Jin Si said neither good nor bad was normal.
• The three friends decided to stop hunting and returned to Pillowstar Mountain, judging that cultivation was a better use of their strength.
• Jin Si visited Lin Wei and asked her to paint Red Clothes’s portrait and register her name at Pillowstar Mountain.

Jin Si received confirmation that Red Clothes could register her portrait and told her the news, then worried that his new cave might not suit his medicinal-herb fermentation. Red Clothes proposed they go register, and Jin Si reminded her that she had to climb the mountain from its foot on her first visit.

• Lin Wei told Jin Si that the ancient tomb search had stalled and that the missing Dragon-Suppressing Stake might be with the eerie entity in the deep water.
• A paper crane returned with confirmation that Red Clothes could go for portrait registration, and Jin Si carried the news to her at the Cliffside Medicine Field.
• Red Clothes thanked Jin Si for giving her a chance, while he weeded the medicine field and considered his upcoming winter dormancy.
• Jin Si grew concerned that Pillowstar Mountain's cave conditions could ruin his medicinal-herb fermentation and went to inspect the cave.
• Red Clothes suggested they go register her portrait, and Jin Si told her she had to walk up from the mountain's foot on her first visit.
• Red Clothes agreed and headed down the mountain, surprising Jin Si with her calm response.

Red Clothes registered on Pillowstar Mountain and received her first portrait, asking that it be kept so she might someday see her former self again. Afterward, Jin Si accompanied her through the quiet streets and introduced her to Daoist Pang.

• Jin Si watched Red Clothes climb the mountain steps and reflected on the difference between her place among the Daoists and his own.
• Lin Wei led Red Clothes through the Mountain Gate and took her to the great hall to register.
• The Painter Girl painted Red Clothes while Lin Wei and Jin Si watched.
• Red Clothes asked Lin Wei to preserve her first portrait in case she was gone one day, and Lin Wei hung it beside the portraits of Jin Si and Xiao Yu.
• Red Clothes thanked Lin Wei and the Painter Girl, then left the hall with Jin Si.
• Jin Si accompanied Red Clothes through the empty streets and introduced her to Daoist Pang at the General Store.

Jin Si brought Red Clothes to the Library Pavilion, then tried and failed to preserve medicinal herbs in his cave for hibernation. After sensing an evil presence threatening the Wang family, he sent a wisp of his spirit to intervene and appeared beside the intruder as a mysterious woman descended in white light.

• Jin Si showed Red Clothes the Library Pavilion and explained that its books were freely available, while reflecting on the difficulty of cultivation and the possibility that the path to ascension had been severed.
• Jin Si piled medicinal herbs in his cave to test whether they could help him cultivate during hibernation, but they rotted and filled the cave with a foul stench.
• Jin Si decided it would be safer to hibernate in his old cave at the Azure Cloud Monastery Behind the Mountain, but worried about transporting his year's harvest of herbs.
• Jin Si sensed an evil presence threatening the Wang family and used his connection with them to send a wisp of his spirit into their residence.
• Jin Si's spirit appeared beside a frightened man in a gray, dreamlike courtyard as a woman in white descended in a brilliant ray of light.

Master Wang dreamed that Jin Si killed a sinister spirit disguised as a Celestial Person, then woke believing his fate might be extraordinary. After Wang Ying thanked Jin Si for protecting her brother, Jin Si sat with her, Red Clothes, and Little Feather, leaving his own difficulty unresolved.

• In Master Wang's dream, Jin Si warned him not to trust visions that showed him what he longed to see, then killed the spirit posing as a Celestial Person.
• Master Wang woke from the dream, wondered whether he was a Celestial Person's reincarnation, and remembered the boy's warning and the spirit's death.
• Master Wang dreamed that Wang Ying told him to remember her instructions, then woke and planned to follow them.
• Wang Ying visited Jin Si to thank him for protecting her brother and apologized for delaying the medicinal herbs.
• Jin Si brought Wang Ying to a rock, where Red Clothes and Little Feather joined them, and Red Clothes asked Wang Ying about cultivation difficulties.

Jin Si refused Lin Wei’s invitation to join Pillowstar Mountain’s attack on an eerie entity, but secretly left the mountain to observe the battle and hunt for his old enemy. As the attack began, Jin Si approached a possible ambush site, while Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing watched the danger unfold near the river.

• Lin Wei told Jin Si that Pillowstar Mountain was gathering people to slay an eerie entity trapped in a deep pool, but Jin Si refused to join them.
• Xiao Yu offered to keep watch, but Jin Si went alone, intending to scout the battle and find his old enemy.
• Jin Si descended from the mountain, traveled through a secluded river, and crossed into the Mortal Realm.
• Jin Si located the Pillowstar Mountain Daoists, studied the terrain, and calculated likely ambush sites and escape routes.
• As the Daoists attacked the entity, Jin Si moved toward a possible hiding place for his old enemy.
• At the Garden Beside Medicine King Temple, Daoist Jiang told Huang Xing that experts were suppressing something sinister in the river.

Jin Si searched several likely hiding places for the old bastard while the Daoists and Spirit Demons battled the Eerie at the river. When the wounded Eerie fled inland and attacked passing riders, Jin Si confirmed the old bastard was not nearby and moved to ambush the Eerie ahead.

• Jin Si stealthily searched a rocky wasteland but found no sign of the old bastard as the battle raged on the river.
• Jin Si watched a group of roughly eighty riders approach the battlefield, hoping their arrival might expose the old bastard.
• The Eerie leaped ashore and attacked the riders, feeding on their blood before the Daoists and Spirit Demons drove it away from the river.
• Jin Si repeatedly searched the surroundings and confirmed the old bastard was not hiding there.
• The Eerie charged through a ruined town and toward another group of riders, while Jin Si slipped into a ditch to prepare an ambush ahead.

Jin Si tried to ambush the eerie creature as it fled through the desolate fields, while Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing descended the mountain to save the villagers. The creature avoided Jin Si’s trap, and he was left to pursue another chance to stop its slaughter.

• Jin Si studied the eerie creature’s path through the battlefield and moved ahead to prepare an ambush in a ruined village.
• Daoist Jiang told Huang Xing they were going down the mountain to save people from the monster and gave her a seal to hold.
• Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing hurried down the overgrown mountain path as mounted figures scattered in the distant fields.
• Jin Si concealed himself behind a broken wall and prepared a venomous strike, but the eerie creature cut diagonally through the ruins beyond his reach.
• A red-furred fox briefly sensed something hidden in the village ruins, then continued after the creature and sent a message to her longtime Daoist companion.
• After the pursuit passed, Jin Si emerged and wished Xiao Yu had been there to lure the creature into his trap.

Jin Si realized the Eerie was luring its pursuers away so it could attack a hidden group of villagers with Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing. After the Eerie fed on two fleeing riders and charged the villagers, a massive black beast struck it with a White Qi Pillar.

• Jin Si recognized the mountains near the Medicine King Temple and discovered a crowd hidden in a basin, including Daoist Jiang and Huang Xing.
• Jin Si realized the Eerie might double back to attack the crowd and hurried toward the basin.
• Two fleeing riders charged into the basin, but the Eerie knocked them down and fed on them and their horses.
• The Eerie regained strength and attacked the crowd, while Daoist Jiang raised his fire Talismans and Huang Xing stepped in front of him with her Short Sword.
• A glowing White Qi Pillar slammed into the Eerie and drove it across the cracked earth as Huang Xing glimpsed a massive black beast.

Jin Si and the gathered Daoists fought the eerie creature while Huang Xing and Daoist Jiang reached a nearby rise and witnessed the battle. Huang Xing questioned whether the Black Flood Dragon was truly evil, and Daoist Jiang encouraged her to watch and ask for answers.

• Jin Si used repeated blasts of breath and close attacks to keep the eerie creature from reaching the villagers, while it struck back with the Dragon-Suppressing Stake.
• Huang Xing and Daoist Jiang climbed to the crest of the hill, where Huang Xing saw Jin Si, the eerie creature, spiritual beasts, and Daoists fighting together.
• Jin Si deflected a blow from the Dragon-Suppressing Stake and helped the Daoists batter the eerie creature with flames, lightning, illusions, stones, and sword energy.
• Huang Xing recalled her brother's vow to kill the flood dragon and struggled to reconcile it with Jin Si protecting the villagers.
• Daoist Jiang told Huang Xing to take her time, watch the battle, and ask directly if she wanted answers, and her confusion gradually settled.

Jin Si helped the Daoists destroy the Eerie, then traveled through the River and Spirit Realm before returning to Pillowstar Mountain. He remained troubled by how to arrange his hibernation and encountered a young female Daoist and her wolf demon at the mountain gate.

• Jin Si stopped attacking the weakened Eerie and watched the Daoists burn it until only charred remains were left.
• Jin Si obscured his trail, entered the River, and traveled upstream to check that the Dragon-Suppressing Stakes had been cleared away.
• Jin Si entered the Spirit Realm, received a reward for destroying the Eerie, and sensed that he would grow noticeably after hibernating through winter.
• Jin Si rode the Mist Tide back to Pillowstar Mountain and met a young female Daoist and her wolf demon beneath the mountain gate.
• Jin Si greeted the female Daoist, passed through the gate, and continued worrying about how to arrange his hibernation.

Jin Si prepared to gather medicinal herbs safely before hibernation and attended the True Person’s Dao teachings after bringing her a peach. He listened to the parts he could understand and planned to ask Wang Ying for guidance.

• Red Clothes suggested that Jin Si use airtight bags for transporting the medicinal herbs, and Daoist Pang arranged for the General Store to make them for free.
• Jin Si tended the Cliffside Medicine Field and rested for two days while Red Clothes read in the Library Pavilion.
• Lin Wei sent Jin Si a Paper Crane inviting him to the True Person’s teachings, and he decided to attend with a peach as an offering.
• Jin Si climbed the waterfalls and mountain paths to reach the terrace, where he gave the peach to the elderly female Daoist.
• Jin Si listened to the True Person’s teachings beside Wang Ying and planned to ask her for guidance.

After attending the True Person’s lecture, Jin Si returned to the mountain, planted new herbs, and resumed his studies at the Village School. He left the chapter preparing to consecrate a classmate’s Jade Pendant for the boy’s troubled mother.

• Jin Si learned from the True Person’s lecture, then watched the Daoists leave as Lin Wei apologized for notifying him late and Wang Ying offered to have the gathered medicinal herbs delivered.
• Jin Si helped the little Daoist girl carry water, observed how she tended the Medicine Field, and accepted a bundle of herb seeds from her.
• Jin Si planted the seeds in his Cliffside Medicine Field, cultivated amid the mist, and worried that Red Clothes might leave if she could not advance her cultivation.
• Jin Si traveled to the Mortal Realm, returned to the Village School, and quietly took his seat after arriving late.
• During a break, Jin Si’s classmate asked him to consecrate a Jade Pendant for his mother, and Jin Si agreed.

Jin Si consecrated a Jade Pendant, then met a young lady from a branch of the Jiang Household who asked him to tell her fortune. He agreed, pleased at the prospect of another paying job.

• Jin Si infused the Jade Pendant with spiritual qi and a faint imprint of his primordial spirit, and it began to glow without breaking.
• Jin Si crouched in the courtyard plucking grass and noticed a young lady from a branch of the Jiang Household approach with her maid.
• The girl nervously asked Jin Si to divine something for her and offered to pay.
• Jin Si agreed, thinking the job would earn him enough to tip a theater troupe.

Jin Si wandered into a temporary barracks and watched a seasoned soldier practice with a long spear. Seeing how the battle-tested soldiers controlled distance and used their weapon, he decided to study their techniques to improve his own fighting.

• Jin Si wandered through the desolate streets and reached the temporary barracks.
• Jin Si slipped into the camp and watched soldiers gather around a burly man practicing with a long spear.
• Jin Si studied how the spearman controlled distance and made the long weapon an advantage.
• Jin Si recognized that the soldiers’ battle-tested techniques could help him overcome his stalled progress in swordsmanship.
• Jin Si decided to learn the army’s spear techniques while he had free time.

Jin Si practiced spearwork, scared off a group of would-be thieves from the Medicine King Temple, and returned to his moonlit cultivation. The next morning, he attended the Village School and planned his army-camp visit and return to Pillowstar Mountain.

• Jin Si practiced spearwork, then decided to observe veteran soldiers before adapting their techniques to his own style.
• Jin Si detected more than twenty people approaching the Medicine King Temple and waited outside to protect it while Daoist Jiang rested.
• Jin Si revealed one claw to frighten the intruders, who fled and left their knives and ropes behind.
• Jin Si drank from the Spring Well and returned to the summit to cultivate beneath the moon.
• Huang Xing told Daoist Jiang that knives and ropes had been left outside the gate, and Daoist Jiang calmly went to inspect them with her.
• Jin Si attended the Village School, remembered his plans to visit the army camp and collect a bag from Daoist Pang, and prepared to return to Pillowstar Mountain on Wu Day.