Recaps

Su Mo danced a requiem with Tongtong’s wandering soul, using her song to kill the three Black-Robed Men who had trapped them. Tongtong remembered that she was already dead and faded away after Su Mo sang to comfort her, leaving him alone in the rain.

• Su Mo, while possessed by the uncanny being, danced with Tongtong and made the three Black-Robed Men hear her song.
• Tongtong’s singing caused the first Black-Robed Man to rapidly age and die, while Monk Zhixuan and Daoist Mude watched helplessly.
• Su Mo’s rules killed the other two Black-Robed Men, and he told Tongtong they could finally go home.
• Tongtong remembered that she had been murdered and admitted she could never go home again.
• Su Mo comforted Tongtong about the afterlife and sang opera as she fell asleep and faded away.

After the dread entity’s control over Su Mo ended, he left the courtyard but collapsed from exhaustion and blood loss. Gu Yu and Luo Yin arrived searching for him and learned that he lay unconscious near the entrance.

• Su Mo regained control of himself, left the courtyard, spat blood, and fainted outside the gate.
• Gu Yu arrived, questioned Zhixuan and Mude, and learned that a dread entity had killed the black-robed men refining blood pills.
• Luo Yin arrived searching for Jing Yan and told Gu Yu that he might be in danger.
• Gu Yu realized the Dean’s missing junior brother was Su Mo and asked Zhixuan and Mude if they had seen him.
• Mude pointed out that Su Mo, dressed in black, was unconscious just behind Gu Yu and Luo Yin.

Gu Yu and Luo Yin found the unconscious Su Mo after he killed several Foundation Establishment cultivators and brought him back to the Academy. Su Mo awoke in a mountain lodge with an old man in blue robes, where he drank Apricot Blossom Village wine and learned how costly it was.

• Gu Yu and Luo Yin found Su Mo collapsed, and Mude recounted how he had killed a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator with one arrow and three more after entering the Underground Palace.
• Gu Yu examined Su Mo, then he and Luo Yin took him to the Academy while ordering Zhixuan and Mude to keep the Blood Pill and Great Calamity matter quiet.
• Zhixuan and Mude wondered whether the Great Calamity had left Su Mo and hurried away, fearing it might still be nearby.
• Su Mo awoke in a mountain lodge and met an old man in blue robes warming Apricot Blossom Village wine.
• Su Mo poured a cup of wine onto the ground as an offering to keep a promise, then drank another and learned it was an expensive eighteen-year-aged brew.

Su Mo discussed his doubts about cultivation with the old man in blue, who persuaded him that the Academy’s path aligned with his desire to protect mortals and pursue justice. Su Mo agreed to join, then learned the old man was Mo Shangao, the Academy’s dean, before wine made him collapse during his attempted formal greeting.

• The old man in blue told Su Mo that his disillusionment with cultivators was a great Dao wound and urged him to uphold what he believed in.
• Su Mo asked about the Academy, and the old man explained that it sought to understand humanity’s relationship with heaven and earth.
• Su Mo decided to go to the Academy, and the old man revealed himself as Mo Shangao, its dean, and demanded that Su Mo accept him as his master.
• Su Mo knelt to pay his respects but collapsed from drinking too much wine.

After waking from a ten-day drunken unconsciousness, Su Mo reunited with the little girl who had anxiously watched over him. The Dean departed, leaving Gu Yu to guide Su Mo into the Dao and requiring him to take first place in the Spring Examination as a test of his heart.

• The Dean reassured the little girl that Su Mo would recover in time for the Spring Examination, while Gu Yu reported that the blood pills were missing and officials appeared to be involved.
• The Dean told Gu Yu to stay out of the blood-pill matter, then left and instructed him to help Su Mo enter the Dao and have him take first place in the Spring Examination as a trial.
• The Dean praised Luo Yin's progress, and Luo Yin asked Gu Yu to tell Su Mo to visit the Riverboat Pavilion after he woke.
• The little girl reflected on Su Mo's compassion and the dangers he had faced, then stayed beside him as he slept.
• Su Mo woke and comforted the little girl, who told him she had missed him and was glad he was safe.

Gu Yu told Su Mo that he had to take first place in the Spring Examination the next day to qualify as an Academy disciple, then gave him a cultivation method and explained the basics of cultivation. Su Mo left the exhausted little girl to sleep and ended the night beginning to understand how cultivation and entering the Dao worked.

• Gu Yu told Su Mo that the Dean had set him an entrance test: he had to take first place in the Spring Examination, which was happening the next day.
• The little girl explained that she and Gu Yu had brought Su Mo back from West City and cared for him while he slept for over ten days.
• Su Mo promised to visit the Riverboat Pavilion after the examination to thank Luo Yin, then let the exhausted little girl sleep while he went outside.
• Su Mo sat beneath the stars, brooding about his distant homeland, until Gu Yu appeared and gave him a cultivation method.
• Gu Yu explained that a cultivation method only guided cultivation, while entering the Dao required insight and the extraordinary abilities Su Mo described were Dao Arts.

Su Mo began cultivating under Gu Yu’s guidance and quickly entered an unusual trance, drawing a surge of spiritual power into himself and forming a spirit sea. Exploring its strange, star-filled depths, he spotted a mysterious figure in the mist.

• Su Mo sensed the spirit sword Gu Yu had given him and used its spiritual aura to find the power of heaven and earth.
• Su Mo entered a trance and began guiding spiritual power through a lesser celestial circuit, while Gu Yu noticed his eerie, mysterious aura.
• A spirit tide formed around Su Mo as his spiritual power gathered into a spirit sea threaded with eerie mist and scattered stars.
• Su Mo explored his spirit sea, wondered what object would manifest from his Book Dao, and worried that stray thoughts might shape it.
• Su Mo saw a curvaceous figure hidden in the mist within his spirit sea.

Su Mo discovered that the Great Calamity had been living in his Spirit Sea and planned to stay there, claiming she had opened it for him as a place to rest. After she expelled him from the Spirit Sea, Su Mo mistakenly concluded that his talent was poor because others opened their Spirit Seas themselves.

• Su Mo encountered the silent woman meditating in his Spirit Sea and recognized her as the Great Calamity when she finally spoke.
• The Great Calamity told Su Mo she had remained in his Spirit Sea since their encounter underground and had opened it for him so she could make it her home.
• The Great Calamity dismissed Su Mo's concerns about her learning his cultivation secrets, claimed no one in his world could rival her, and expelled him from the Spirit Sea.
• Su Mo woke beside Gu Yu and asked whether cultivators opened their own Spirit Seas.
• Gu Yu reassured Su Mo that his talent was not bad, while privately recognizing it as exceptional; Su Mo instead believed his talent was poor.

Su Mo traveled to the Spring Examination with the little girl, met fellow candidate Jiang Yu, and learned the exam would combine the classics, policy questions, and an eight-legged essay in one session. As the examination began, Su Mo recognized the aura of the Blood Pill and found his paper completely blank.

• Su Mo recited poetry on the way to the examination, and the little girl reminded him to stop drinking and finish the poem.
• Su Mo met Jiang Yu, who recognized his earlier work and explained that the Spring Examination would combine several subjects in a single paper.
• Su Mo left the little girl with the horse to go to Luo Yin’s Riverboat Pavilion, then entered the examination grounds.
• Su Mo sensed the Blood Pill’s aura as the bell rang and received a paper with no words on it.

Su Mo wrote a cryptic account of Peach Mountain on the blank Spring Examination paper, then waited outside the examination grounds for whoever carried the aura of the Blood Pill. He identified the man as Liu Feng and decided to avenge the Blood Pill’s victims, hoping to end his karmic entanglement.

• Su Mo interpreted the blank examination paper as an invitation to write anything and submitted a tale about Peach Mountain, a chess-playing old man, and tigers.
• Su Mo waited outside the examination grounds, sensing the Blood Pill’s aura and remembering the wronged souls who had died to create it.
• Su Mo spent the day at a roadside tea stall, watching candidates leave while the old stallkeeper repeatedly replaced his untouched tea.
• Su Mo recognized Liu Feng among the departing candidates and followed his carriage to the Liu Residence.
• Su Mo returned toward the Riverboat Pavilion, resolving to avenge the victims and protect the little girl from the dangers surrounding his cultivation.

Su Mo realized that the Blood Pill murders stayed hidden because mortals and cultivators lived in separate worlds, and he identified Luo Yin’s Riverboat Pavilion as a link between them. He reunited with the little girl there and left his restless thoughts behind as they shared a peaceful moment with Luo Yin.

• Su Mo questioned why nobody among the common people knew about the West City courtyard murders and concluded that news rarely crossed between mortals and cultivators.
• Su Mo decided he needed a connection to both worlds and recognized Luo Yin’s Riverboat Pavilion as a place that served both cultivators and ordinary people.
• A guard welcomed Su Mo to the Riverboat Pavilion and told him that Luo Yin and the little girl were upstairs.
• The little girl sensed Su Mo’s arrival, ran to greet him, and clung to him when he entered.
• Luo Yin and Su Mo agreed to address each other as fellow Academy members, while the little girl joked about her qin lessons.

Su Mo learned that the West City massacre had been hidden from the victims’ loved ones because of the Immortal-Mortal Divide, and that joining the Academy would prevent him from intervening in mortal affairs. He left the girl with Luo Yin for two days and, torn between cultivation and justice, asked the strange woman in his Spirit Sea to bring the dead before the world.

• The little girl told Su Mo she wanted to learn the sword, and he sent her to read books after discussing his Spring Examination with her and Luo Yin.
• Su Mo asked Luo Yin whether the victims’ families knew about the West City massacre, and she explained that the Immortal-Mortal Divide kept mortals from learning the truth.
• Luo Yin told Su Mo that the Academy could not interfere in a nation’s affairs and confirmed he would have to give up involvement in mortal matters if he entered the Academy.
• Su Mo asked Luo Yin to care for the girl for two more days, then left the Riverboat Pavilion to think over his choice.
• Back on his Painted Pleasure Boat, Su Mo weighed the risks of cultivation against the suffering of West City’s dead and asked the woman in his Spirit Sea to make their souls appear before the world.

Su Mo learned that the departed souls he wished to avenge had already dissipated, but that his Spiritual Power could expose those who had consumed Blood Pills. After the Golden Ranking summoned him to the Palace Examination, Eunuch Ji uniquely escorted him to the palace, where Su Mo arrived by a sudden transfer.

• Su Mo asked the woman in his Spirit Sea for help settling his karma with the departed souls, but she said they had dissipated and explained that his Spiritual Power carried their resentment.
• The woman told Su Mo he could reveal Blood Pill consumption by circulating his Spiritual Power near someone, though doing so would prevent him from entering the Academy.
• After two days in the Rocking Chair, Su Mo heard the nine bells and saw his name, along with other candidates, appear on the Golden Ranking summoning them to the Palace Examination.
• Eunuch Ji arrived by imperial decree and said Su Mo alone would receive an escort to the Imperial Palace.
• Su Mo changed into a Tribute Graduate Robe and accompanied Eunuch Ji, arriving inside a resplendent palace after his vision blurred.

Su Mo entered the palace, answered Eunuch Ji’s test, and received the Memory-River Spirit Jade before joining the candidates for the palace examination. The emperor asked why they studied, while a grief-stricken man nearby searched for Tongtong.

• Eunuch Ji asked Su Mo what he would do about a savage tiger he could not defeat, and Su Mo answered that he must first remedy his own afflictions and become stronger.
• Eunuch Ji gave Su Mo the Memory-River Spirit Jade, which could make his memories take shape, and sent him to the palace examination.
• Su Mo joined the candidates at the Hall of Supreme Splendor, where he recognized Jiang Yu and Liu Feng and stood beside Ji Hongyan.
• The emperor arrived, announced an oral inquiry, and asked the candidates why they studied.
• As the candidates pondered the question, a sorrowful, drunken man repeatedly called for Tongtong and asked whether the child no longer wanted her daddy.

At the palace examination, Su Mo listened as candidates explained why they studied, but he could not find his own answer. Elsewhere, Hongyi helped her blue-robed teacher uncover a hidden site, where he warned that the Ends of the Earth would soon disappear.

• Candidates gave the emperor varied reasons for studying, including serving the realm, gaining recognition, and freely seeing the world.
• Ji Hongyan said she studied to read the world’s affairs and behold its sights, earning the emperor’s amused approval.
• Su Mo reflected that none of the answers fit him and wondered whether he had any reason to study at all.
• Hongyi complained that her teacher had summoned her away from the palace examination to help explore a so-called blessed land.
• The blue-robed old man activated the formation disks and raised a blue-green beam from underground, then told Hongyi that the Ends of the Earth would soon disappear.

Su Mo used the Memory-River Spirit Jade before the emperor to reveal an underground cavern where thousands of people had been killed for a blood pill, accusing Liu Feng of deception. The vision faded, leaving the emperor watching and the dispirited man staring at the corpse of a girl he recognized.

• Liu Feng told the Sage that he studied to relieve the people's suffering and strengthen the nation, earning the officials' admiration.
• When the emperor asked Su Mo for his answer, Su Mo mocked Liu Feng's claims and spoke of the dead beneath West City.
• Su Mo activated the Memory-River Spirit Jade, projecting a blood-filled underground cavern before the court.
• Su Mo explained that the corpses had been used to refine a blood pill as officials and examinees watched.
• The vision faded, and the dispirited man stared blankly at the corpse of a little girl he recognized.

At the Palace Examination, Su Mo exposed Liu Feng and Liu Cheng’s role in refining Blood Pills from thousands of people, but the officials dismissed the revelation as lies. Su Mo gave up his chance to enter the Academy, while his companions sensed his heartbreak and his teacher learned of his choice.

• After Su Mo’s illusion revealed the Blood Pill atrocity, the officials fell silent, and Liu Feng accused Su Mo of spreading lies.
• Su Mo condemned the officials’ indifference, then removed his Tribute Graduate’s ceremonial cap and renounced both the Academy and public office.
• The little girl sensed Su Mo’s heartbreak through Little Stone and wanted to find him, but Luo Yin persuaded her to wait.
• On a desolate mountain, the blue-robed old man told the red-robed woman that his seventh disciple had chosen not to enter the Academy.

Before the emperor and assembled officials, Su Mo recited his answer about establishing a heart for heaven and earth, serving the people, carrying on the sages’ teachings, and bringing peace to future generations. He rejected becoming an official and entered the Dao through writing, while a mysterious Book of Life and Death took shape in his spirit sea.

• Su Mo removed his tribute scholar’s clothes and recited his answer to the examination question, awakening a powerful cultivator’s aura.
• Su Mo proclaimed that he would establish a heart for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, carry on the lost teachings of past sages, and usher in peace for ten thousand generations.
• Thunder and dark clouds swept across the sky as the old man in green sensed the Heaven and Earth Consciousness beginning to awaken and realized the seventh was close to entering the Dao.
• Liu Feng was shaken by Su Mo’s words, and Liu Cheng used his spiritual power to calm him.
• Su Mo declared that he would no longer become an official and would instead sing to voice his aspirations and write to carry the Dao.
• A pitch-black Book of Life and Death formed within Su Mo’s spirit sea, stunning the uncanny, seductive woman who watched it.

Su Mo entered the Dao through the written word, manifesting an eerie Book of Life and Death, and declared his answer before the emperor. When Liu Cheng tried to kill him, Prince Ying intervened and revealed that Su Mo carried the presence of his missing daughter.

• Su Mo's innate spiritual manifestation took the form of the eerie Book of Life and Death as he entered the Dao.
• The little maid sensed that Su Mo had entered the Dao, and Luo Yin comforted her when she worried that he seemed unhappy.
• Su Mo gave his answer to the emperor, inspiring the assembled officials, but Liu Cheng accused him of treason and launched a fatal attack.
• The Book of Life and Death formed a black barrier before Su Mo, and Prince Ying appeared to block Liu Cheng's strike.
• Prince Ying told Su Mo that he carried her presence, then warned Liu Cheng that he was too loud.

Prince Ying asked Su Mo to show him the memories of his dead daughter, Tongtong, through the Memory-River Spirit Jade. He relived her final moments and watched her fade away, while Liu Cheng secretly crushed a jade slip nearby.

• Prince Ying pleaded with Su Mo to tell him what he had seen and revealed that his lost daughter was named Tongtong.
• Su Mo used the Memory-River Spirit Jade to share his memories of meeting Tongtong’s departed soul with Prince Ying.
• Prince Ying watched Tongtong cling to Su Mo in the darkness and follow him toward home, while Liu Cheng secretly crushed a jade slip.
• Prince Ying followed Su Mo and Tongtong through the rainy night, watching Su Mo defeat the cultivators who blocked their way.
• Tongtong told Su Mo she was afraid of dying and being alone, and Prince Ying tried in vain to shield her from the cold.
• Su Mo comforted Tongtong, held her, and sang to her until she faded from the memory.

After Su Mo revealed that Liu Feng carried the blood-pill aura made from thousands of lives, Liu Cheng admitted the Liu Household’s crimes and invoked his son’s ties to the Holy Sect. Prince Ying summoned the Holy King Spear and prepared to avenge Princess Tong, leaving the confrontation poised to turn violent.

• Prince Ying returned from the Memory-River Spirit Jade in grief and accused Liu Cheng and his son of knowing what happened to Princess Tong.
• Su Mo pointed out that Liu Feng still carried the aura of the blood pill, allowing Prince Ying to sense the evidence.
• Liu Cheng admitted that his household had used the victims as stepping stones for Liu Feng’s rise and dismissed them as lowborn vermin.
• Prince Ying summoned the Holy King Spear as Liu Cheng revealed Liu Feng was set to become a disciple of the Holy Sect’s Third Elder.
• Prince Ying rejected Liu Cheng’s offer of compensation, demanded the heads of the entire Liu Household, and raised the spear against him and Liu Feng.

Prince Ying attacked Liu Cheng and Liu Feng over the harm they had done to his daughter, but the Holy Sect’s Holy Maiden, Ning Baixue, intervened to save them. As the emperor of Great Hua joined Prince Ying in defying the sect, the nation’s power awakened.

• Prince Ying wounded Liu Cheng and drove him back, then prepared to kill him while condemning him for harming his daughter and preventing two children from going home.
• A sheet of white paper blocked Prince Ying’s spear, and Ning Baixue arrived on a white crane with a Spirit Transformation elder.
• Ning Baixue declared that Liu Cheng and Liu Feng could not die because Liu Feng was about to enter the Holy Sect, and the elder drew Liu Feng to his side.
• Prince Ying challenged Ning Baixue for saving the men despite knowing their crimes, while the emperor came to stand beside him.
• The emperor recalled Su Mo’s words about shattering like jade, then raised his hand as Great Hua’s imperial power awakened.

The emperor used national fortune power and the Academy Dean’s Deity-Sealing Edict to help Prince Ying kill Liu Cheng and confront the Holy Sect over Liu Feng. Su Mo unleashed the resentment of the blood-pill victims, and Liu Feng died from their backlash as Ning Baixue watched in shock.

• The emperor lent Prince Ying national fortune power, while the Deity-Sealing Edict suppressed the white-haired Spirit Transformation elder’s cultivation.
• Prince Ying pierced Liu Cheng with the Holy King Spear, killing him despite Liu Feng’s and Ning Baixue’s protests.
• Prince Ying demanded that Liu Feng remain behind, but the white-haired elder insisted he could still lead the Holy Sect party away.
• Su Mo confronted Liu Feng and invoked the resentment of the thousands of souls killed to make blood pills.
• Black mist and ghostly hands engulfed Liu Feng, whose screams faded before he died from the blood pill’s backlash.

After Liu Cheng’s body burned in karma fire, the resentful spirits he had wronged appeared above the Imperial Palace and found peace. They reunited with loved ones and received farewells from the people below, while Su Mo and Prince Ying witnessed the spirits’ final goodbyes.

• Liu Cheng’s corpse burned in karma fire, and the ashes became specks of light from which resentful spirits appeared.
• The spirits recognized Su Mo as the one who had avenged them, and they bowed or gestured their thanks before fading.
• Tongtong appeared above the forecourt, reunited with Prince Ying and her mother, and smiled as she said she had come home.
• A woman and her child recognized the butcher’s spirit, and the child bowed to bid his father farewell.
• Students recited the Rules for Disciples to their teacher’s spirit and bowed to bid him farewell.
• A scholar prepared to take a black pill as he addressed the spirit of the woman he loved, and she told him they would meet again in the next life.

Su Mo bid farewell to the departed souls, who gave him a protective scholar’s robe before vanishing. When the Holy Sect demanded that he accompany them, Prince Ying and his wife stood against them, but Su Mo stepped forward to go willingly rather than endanger them, just as two figures appeared.

• Su Mo recited a farewell poem as the spectral souls departed, and they bowed to him before fading away.
• The souls’ white light formed a scholar’s robe for Su Mo, a parting gift that would protect him from evil.
• Ning Baixue and the white-haired elder demanded that Su Mo join the Holy Sect, and Ning Baixue said he could not refuse.
• Prince Ying claimed Su Mo as Tongtong’s big brother and his son, while the princess consort revealed her Spirit Transformation cultivation and joined him in refusing to let Su Mo be taken.
• Su Mo offered to go with the Holy Sect to spare Prince Ying and his wife from its wrath, but two figures in blue and red robes appeared.