Chapter Summaries

Black Snake drove an evil spirit from a sick old man in exchange for three eggs, then wrestled with his frustration over sword practice and his hopes of studying. Unable to sleep, he hid near the County Seat, planning to find a way to read at night.

• Black Snake frightened an evil spirit out of the old man, who vomited black liquid and regained consciousness.
• Black Snake accepted three eggs as payment and left after telling the family the old man would be safe from evil spirits for thirty days.
• At the foot of the mountain, Black Snake practiced his sword moves and lamented that he still could not grasp their essence.
• Black Snake planned to visit a Village School or study at night, realizing that he could not attend daytime lessons while sunlight threatened his yin spirit.
• Unable to sleep, Black Snake carried his silver toward the County Seat and concealed himself beneath lotus leaves in a pond.

Black Snake was turned away from three private schools and realized how much He Ning’s patient teaching had given him. Determined to find her again, he rushed toward Lin Family Ferry and reached Little Valley Mountain, where Xu Jin noticed his arrival.

• Black Snake offered silver to study at three private schools, but each one rejected him because he had no elders or standing.
• Black Snake returned to the monastery and remembered He Ning teaching him for nineteen years, then resolved to find her again.
• Black Snake left for Lin Family Ferry and swam downstream without stopping to hunt.
• Xiao Yu spotted Black Snake in the River and followed him as he entered Little Valley Mountain.
• Xu Jin sensed Black Snake approaching through the medicinal field and asked why he was in such a hurry.

Black Snake failed to divine what lay ahead and learned from River Ash that a deep bond of fate might bring someone back in another life. He resolved to keep cultivating, while River Ash revealed that his own lifespan was nearing its end.

• Xu Jin could not divine Black Snake’s fate, so Black Snake decided to wait and cultivate until he was strong enough to see more.
• River Ash brought salted duck eggs and told Black Snake that a deep bond could reunite them with someone in another life, whose memories might return through cultivation.
• River Ash said he was nearing the end of his lifespan and had not decided whether to continue as a yin spirit or be reborn.
• Black Snake, Xiao Yu, River Ash, and Xu Jin shared food and stories before Xu Jin and Xiao Yu fell asleep.
• Black Snake gave up trying to read Xu Jin’s difficult books and went to the River with River Ash, who set off by boat while Black Snake submerged himself to catch fish.

Black Snake earned eggs by catching rats in a dockside town, then refused a Red-Dressed Female Ghost’s invitation to help destroy a powerful Ghost King. When rain gave him an easy way to travel, he visited and tended another hidden herb field, leaving his future at Azure Cloud Monastery undecided.

• Black Snake set up a rat-catching stall in the dockside town and earned three eggs by clearing a woman’s house of rats.
• A dozen wandering souls crossed the River, and the Red-Dressed Female Ghost destroyed them before asking Black Snake to join her against the Ghost King.
• Black Snake refused, saying he had no quarrel with the Ghost King and was uncertain the ghost’s account was true.
• Black Snake considered whether to keep guarding Azure Cloud Monastery but postponed deciding until later.
• Rain allowed Black Snake to travel quickly over the River and through the mountains, where he tended a hidden herb field and gathered medicinal plants.

Black Snake remained on Azure Cloud Monastery Back Mountain, cultivating and gathering information about the new Holy King Hall while still seeking a way to learn to read. The following spring, he visited the County Seat to catch rats, explored its lively streets, and returned to his body at the Lotus Pond.

• Black Snake gave up on paying for lessons after being turned away three times and resolved to find another way to learn to read while continuing his cultivation.
• He overheard pilgrims describe the Holy King Hall, whose simple prayers for everyday needs seemed to bring results and attracted many followers.
• The next spring, Black Snake set up a rat-catching stall in the County Seat, caught several rats, and earned three eggs.
• As he wandered through the city, Black Snake admired a tavern, obeyed He Ning's warning to avoid a gambling house, and saw two men beat someone in the street.
• Black Snake leaped over the city wall with the rats, released them outside, and returned to his physical body at the Lotus Pond.

Black Snake discovered that the Holy King Hall used a yin soul to catch rats and quietly weakened the souls of people whose wishes it granted. After returning to the mountain, he swallowed a carp that had fouled the Spring Well and climbed to the summit to absorb rain essence, hoping the coming storm would bring lightning.

• Black Snake bought a needle and thread, stole white cloth from the Holy King Hall, and awkwardly patched his worn cloth bag.
• He tended medicinal fields across several mountains, cultivated in the rain and mist, and earned eggs by catching rats in town.
• Black Snake watched a yin soul catch rats for a family that had prayed at the Holy King Hall and noticed the woman who made the wish had lost a tiny thread of her soul.
• He concluded that the Holy King was a powerful ghost that granted wishes by taking a small piece of devotees’ souls and gathering their faith.
• Black Snake returned to the mountain, ate a red carp that had made the Spring Well smell foul, and climbed to the summit ahead of the rain, hoping to be struck by lightning.

Black Snake discovered that some copper coins he had earned had been shaved, so he went out at night to spend them and stumbled upon an opera performance. He watched with the ghosts and gods who gathered there, then returned to the mountain at dawn, deciding to seek out more nighttime operas.

• Black Snake found that his newer copper coins were lighter and had been shaved, so he left the mountain to spend them.
• He heard opera near a town and settled in a tree to watch the performance.
• After the villagers left, Black Snake sat in the front row as the troupe continued performing for the ghosts and gods who arrived.
• The town's earth god greeted Black Snake, while an eerie presence fled after noticing him.
• At dawn, Black Snake tossed his shaved coins onto the stage and headed home, resolving to watch nighttime operas whenever he could.

Black Snake investigated who planned to buy the mountain where the Azure Cloud Monastery stood and discovered the Tong Household wanted to carve a statue of the Holy King there. Black Snake weakened the man surnamed Tong to stop him from going to the mountain and returned to the Lotus Pond.

• Black Snake caught rats at a wealthy household and overheard a man and woman discussing the planned purchase of the Azure Cloud Monastery’s mountain and the bandits nearby.
• Black Snake entered a sleeping man’s dream and learned that the Tong Household, newly enriched through the Holy King Hall, wanted to buy the mountain.
• Black Snake found the Tong Household and entered the man surnamed Tong’s nightmare, where he explained that he wanted to carve a statue of the Holy King from the mountain’s rock.
• Black Snake loosened the man’s three souls with a breath, leaving him ill and unable to go up the mountain, then returned to the Lotus Pond.

Black Snake gathered herbs, mapped his medicine fields with charcoal drawings, and withdrew to hibernate after learning bandits had died mysteriously. While he slept through the winter, prefectural officials raided the Holy King Hall, driving nearby demon spirits into hiding in the mountain.

• Black Snake waited at the mountain for over half a month, then gathered herbs for five days and drew a map of his medicine fields on the cave wall.
• After hearing bailiffs discuss the mysterious deaths of roving bandits, Black Snake suspected the Red-Dressed Female Ghost but decided to lie low on the mountain.
• Black Snake woke in autumn beneath frost, retreated into his cave, and began hibernating amid the fragrant herbs he had collected.
• Prefectural officials arrived with over a thousand soldiers, seized control of the county yamen, sealed the Holy King Hall, and hunted its followers.
• Nearby demon spirits fled to the mountain's ravines and caves, where they hid in fear.

Black Snake encountered an evil spirit possessing an old man and learned that the ghost king of Holy King Hall was behind a rise in eerie incidents. After heading back toward the mountains, he noticed the river was drying up and considered moving east if the rain continued to dwindle.

• Black Snake woke from hibernation as spring arrived and set out for the County Seat with copper coins in his cloth bag.
• Black Snake investigated a village house where an evil spirit possessed an old man and fled into a pond after Black Snake closed the door.
• Little Yellow Nine thanked Black Snake and warned him that the ghost king of Holy King Hall was taking revenge and that authorities and mystic sects had arrived in the County Seat.
• Black Snake returned to the mountain, then traveled downstream toward Lin Family Crossing to visit Xu Jin and Little Feather while catching fish.
• Black Snake noticed the river had grown shallower and considered moving east to find more rain if the drought continued.

Black Snake, Xiao Yu, and Xu Jin remembered River Ash and mourned the old otter over a bowl of wine. Xu Jin decided to seek a disciple, while Black Snake reflected on aging and chose not to meddle in uncertain affairs; at dusk, he spotted a flock of ducks by the river.

• Xu Jin showed Black Snake and Xiao Yu a medicinal herb and lamented that he had never explored the wider world.
• Xu Jin remembered River Ash and poured a bowl of medicinal wine in the old otter’s memory.
• Xiao Yu urged Xu Jin to find a disciple, and he agreed to leave the mountains to seek one.
• Black Snake considered how time and death would separate him from his companions, then decided not to interfere in matters he could not judge.
• Black Snake spent the afternoon catching fish and noticed a flock of ducks settling by the riverbank at dusk.

Black Snake hunted in the mountains after dreaming of guarding a mysterious vortex, then returned to Valley Mountain and watched three young visitors arrive seeking an immortal. The chapter left their visit about to begin.

• A cultivator heard an elder recount how a black Flood Dragon and a curse had driven Heretic Cultivators away from the County Seat.
• Black Snake dreamed of stopping desperate living beings from reaching a vortex, but woke without understanding why.
• Black Snake hunted a striped tiger unsuccessfully, then killed and ate a wild boar and a large gray deer.
• Black Snake returned to Valley Mountain and remembered the special cave he intended to reclaim, threatening to use Lightning against whoever occupied it.
• Three young people entered the valley, spotted Xu Jin, and excitedly called him an immortal.

As Xu Jin prepared to leave the mountains and take on disciples, Black Snake spent the rainy season tending to his cultivation and guarding the valley. He learned that demons were being tempted by rumors about eating humans, then watched Xu Jin finish preparing the Medicine Field before his departure.

• Xu Jin cleared the Medicine Field’s drainage channels and reinforced low-lying plots against floods before leaving for at least half a year.
• Black Snake reflected on the people who searched the River for a dragon and cultivated by breathing in rain and mist.
• Black Snake discovered a Wild Leopard spying near the valley and learned that rumors claimed eating Cultivators or human infants could improve a demon’s cultivation.
• Black Snake warned the Wild Leopard not to risk its life over the rumors, then returned to his shelter as the leopard left.
• Black Snake climbed above the fog at daybreak to breathe in the richer mist and later basked while Xu Jin cleared the Medicine Field’s drainage channels.

Xu Jin left the valley by boat while Black Snake returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery as the continuous rainy season began. After refusing the Red-Dressed Female Ghost’s offer to fight the Ghost King, Black Snake decided to relocate to avoid attracting attention during its lightning-based cultivation.

• Xu Jin boarded a boat with the yellow dog and left the valley, while Black Snake continued upriver toward the mountains.
• Black Snake returned to the Azure Cloud Monastery, heard from two foxes that the Government Office and Daoist sects had not captured the Holy King, and settled on the summit.
• Black Snake sensed a magical battle near the County Seat but ignored it, then worried that its lightning cultivation would draw attention from the many visitors at the monastery.
• The Red-Dressed Female Ghost asked Black Snake to help kill the Ghost King in the underworld and offered half of it to devour, but Black Snake refused.
• The continuous rainy season began, and Black Snake decided to move to another mountain and remain unnoticed.

Black Snake spent decades cultivating, gathering herbs, and living apart from the conflicts beyond the mountains, while Xu Jin died and a new caretaker took over his Medicine Field. As Black Snake approached his five-hundredth year, Xiao Yu told him that the weakened barrier had made the World Spirit accessible, and he began searching for it.

• Black Snake tempered his body with lightning during the rainy season, then returned to cultivating herbs and studying in the mountains.
• The Government Office and Mystic Sect sealed the Dry Well as life settled back into its old routines.
• More than fifty years passed, Xu Jin died beneath the apricot tree, and a young man continued tending his Medicine Field.
• Feeling an unexplained urgency as he neared five hundred years old, Black Snake stopped selling at his stall and frantically gathered herbs while continuing to draw lightning.
• Xiao Yu told Black Snake that the barrier to the World Spirit had weakened and explained how cultivators could enter it.
• Black Snake followed Xiao Yu's instructions and sensed a hazy space above the mortal world.

Black Snake entered the Spirit Realm and found himself falling through its clouds before reaching the ground. After leaving a yin spirit’s secluded sanctuary and exploring the quiet landscape, he discovered a compound called Immortal Hall, bustling with demon cultivators and two yin souls.

• Black Snake finished tending his Medicine Fields and decided to enter the Spirit Realm using Xiao Yu’s instructions.
• Black Snake passed through an opening into the Spirit Realm and slowed his fall by lashing his tail through the clouds.
• A yin spirit warned Black Snake away from a mountain sanctuary, and Black Snake left to avoid a conflict.
• Black Snake explored the silent hills, tested the stream water, and observed the unfamiliar plants and mist.
• Black Snake found a compound marked “Immortal Hall” and watched demon cultivators and two yin souls move in and out.

Black Snake visited the Cloud Immortal Hall and learned about the Spirit Realm from Hu Changqing. He returned to the mortal world with a blade of Spirit Realm grass, which quickly wilted, then headed toward the Azure Cloud Monastery Behind the Mountain.

• Black Snake met Hu Changqing and familiar demon spirits at the Cloud Immortal Hall, where Hu Changqing explained the Spirit Realm’s dangers, factions, and Spirit Halls.
• Hu Changqing offered Black Snake the position of hall master, but Black Snake politely declined and left to explore.
• Black Snake reached a lake and considered what living in the Spirit Realm might require before deciding to return to the mortal world.
• Black Snake tested whether he could bring something back by carrying a blade of grass through the connection, but he emerged in midair and crashed into a mountain forest.
• Black Snake watched the grass wilt in the mortal world, then set off through the forest toward the Azure Cloud Monastery Behind the Mountain.

As Black Snake approached its five-hundredth birthday, it kept cultivating and tending its medicine fields while an uncanny creature appeared on the Official Road and war ravaged the human world. Black Snake eventually entered a deep sleep in its cave as its body began a major transformation.

• Black Snake returned from the Spirit Realm, discovered its old money bag had rotted, and continued cultivating while preparing for its five-hundredth birthday.
• At the Crossroads, Black Snake encountered a human-faced chicken calling out about blessings, fled into the mountains, and watched it head toward Fangcheng County.
• Black Snake stayed in the mountains, tended its medicine fields, and occasionally visited the Spirit Realm while human warfare spread below.
• As its five-hundredth birthday drew near, Black Snake felt increasingly sleepy, gathered medicinal herbs, and fell into a deep sleep inside its cave.
• Decades later, the war had left the human world in ruins while elderly Daoists remained at the Azure Cloud Monastery; Black Snake's body began transforming as spiritual energy and medicinal fragrance nourished it.

After awakening from a long dormancy, Black Snake replenished its strength with Rain Essence and lightning, broke through its growth limit, and discovered it could fly by merging with rain. It learned to steer through the night sky, but as dawn came and the rain weakened, it began falling toward the farmland below.

• Black Snake woke after an unusually long hibernation and waited for a thunderstorm to restore its strength.
• Black Snake absorbed Rain Essence and repeatedly drew lightning down onto the mountain peak with Lightning Attraction.
• Black Snake grew beyond five zhang after an invisible shackle vanished, then wondered whether the shackle had come from the legend of snakes evolving at five hundred years.
• Black Snake discovered it could take to the air by merging with the rain, but lost its connection and plunged toward the mountainside.
• Black Snake gradually learned to fly, explored the ravines and climbed into the cold heights, then began falling toward farmland as the rain stopped.

Black Snake recovered from a failed attempt to fly and visited the County Seat to watch an opera. After hearing people mock dragons as food, he withdrew from the crowd, unsettled by how attitudes toward dragons had changed.

• A merchant caravan saw a long black creature fall from the sky, but Black Snake escaped the muddy impact pit and washed the mud from his scales in a pond.
• Black Snake found that his scales had grown tougher and that he could hover above the ground, then decided to rest and seek an opera performance.
• Black Snake entered the County Seat in his solid yang-spirit form, disguised with a cloth cloak and straw hat, and found an opera at the City God Temple.
• Black Snake watched an opera about a man who rescued an injured dragon and heard spectators speculate that the official had ordered three days of performances after a dream.
• The audience mocked dragons as beasts to be caught and eaten, and Black Snake moved away from them while continuing to watch the opera.