Chapter Summaries

The Great Tengu tried to make Blind Girl reveal where Jin Jianglang was, but she refused because Jin Jianglang had given her warm clothes. After the Great Tengu flew off, Blind Girl realized he meant to kill Jin Jianglang and rushed into the forest to warn him, leaving Jin Jianglang to follow and stop her.

• The Great Tengu threatened Blind Girl and offered her grilled fish in exchange for the whereabouts of the Onmyoji who owned her clothes, but she refused to betray him.
• The Great Tengu flew off to search for Jin Jianglang after Blind Girl accidentally pointed toward the place where she had met him.
• Blind Girl ate her sandy grilled fish by the fire, then decided to save the senior who had given her his clothes.
• Blind Girl stumbled through the forest calling for Jin Jianglang and warning him that a monster was coming to kill him.
• Jin Jianglang picked up his Scissors and followed Blind Girl, knowing she would not survive the forest alone.

Jin Jianglang found Blind Princess being threatened by Ibaraki Doji and Yukigyo in the forest and stepped in to protect her. He told the monsters that Shuten Doji was a Shiranui Household shikigami and that they could win his friendship by bringing him one of four kinds of sake.

• Jin Jianglang lost track of Blind Princess in the dark forest and followed a distant firelight to find her with Ibaraki Doji and Yukigyo.
• Ibaraki Doji demanded that Blind Princess help him find a powerful monster so he could offer its head to Shuten Doji as a pledge of allegiance.
• Ibaraki Doji drew his Tachi on Blind Princess after learning she was an Onmyoji of the Shiranui Household, while Yukigyo tried to stop him.
• Jin Jianglang emerged from hiding, stood between Ibaraki Doji and Blind Princess, and warned the monsters not to harm anyone from the Shiranui Household.
• Jin Jianglang told Ibaraki Doji and Yukigyo that Shuten Doji served the Shiranui Household and would befriend them if they brought him one of four named sakes.

Jin Jianglang drove off Ibaraki Doji and Yukigyo, then found Blind Princess collapsed with a fever and carried her through Shuten Doji’s forest. Surrounded by hostile monsters, he summoned help as the fight escalated.

• Yukigyo led Ibaraki Doji away from Jin Jianglang, and the two decided to seek out Shuten Doji.
• Blind Princess explained that she had waited because she feared for Jin Jianglang, then collapsed from illness.
• Jin Jianglang carried Blind Princess through the forest, using talismans to light the way as monsters gathered around them.
• Jin Jianglang sent a fiery paper crane for help and killed a monkey-bodied monster that blocked his path.
• Monsters ambushed Jin Jianglang and wounded him, and a stone portal appeared beside him.

Shiranui Asuka arrived in the Maple Forest and helped Jin Jianglang bring the feverish Blind Princess to a sheltered hideout. Asuka cared for her while Jin Jianglang went to find firewood, and Blind Princess began to trust the kind girl.

• Shiranui Asuka appeared through an Anywhere Door, startling Jin Jianglang and sending nearby monsters fleeing.
• Jin Jianglang carried Blind Princess while Asuka led them to an abandoned temple hidden in the forest.
• Asuka laid Blind Princess on a bed, checked her fever, and sent Jin Jianglang to find firewood and boil water.
• Blind Princess asked why Asuka was helping her, and Asuka said she cared for sick people whether they were human or monster.
• Asuka covered Blind Princess with her robes and made her a pillow from dry grass, and Blind Princess praised her kindness.

Shiranui Asuka and Jin Jianglang cared for Blind Princess, who insisted she was human despite Jin Jianglang identifying her as a yokai. The chapter left Blind Princess gravely ill with a fever, while Jin Jianglang went to fetch medicine after Asuka noticed a cut on his hand.

• Jin Jianglang told Shiranui Asuka that he was taking his assessment in the forest, where he had found Blind Princess.
• Blind Princess explained that monsters had killed the parents who raised her, and Jin Jianglang warned her that she was in Demon King Shuten Doji's territory.
• Shiranui Asuka stopped Jin Jianglang from questioning Blind Princess and insisted that she rest.
• Shiranui Asuka discovered that Blind Princess had a severe chill, infected wounds on her bare feet, and a high fever.
• Shiranui Asuka sent Jin Jianglang to buy medicine and noticed a cut on his palm as he was leaving.

Jin Jianglang bought medicine for Blind Princess, then grew suspicious of her story and traced her past to Hiezu Village. After the Shiranui patriarch reminded him of the household’s ban on emotional attachments, Tsukimi Sake asked whether he would cut Xiao Xiang’s thread if she fell in love.

• Jin Jianglang bought Frostbite Medicine and several varieties of Wind-Cold Medicine from the apothecary.
• Jin Jianglang questioned whether Blind Princess had lied about being raised by humans and decided to investigate her village.
• Jin Jianglang asked Tsukimi Sake and Hanamitsuki to locate the village, and Tsukimi Sake traced the smoky monster’s departure to Hiezu Village seven days earlier.
• Shiranui Jiuwu confronted Jin Jianglang and reminded him that the Shiranui Household forbade emotional attachments.
• Tsukimi Sake asked Jin Jianglang whether he would cut Xiao Xiang’s thread if she fell in love.

Jin Jianglang decided to seek answers from the Blind Princess and traveled to Hiezu Village, where the villagers denied that a monster lived there. Their suspicious behavior deepened his doubts, and he ended the chapter by confronting an old man for knowing the monster was blind.

• Jin Jianglang promised to protect Xiao Xiang’s chance at love, and Hanamitsuki and Tsukimi Sake vowed to help her if needed.
• Fire God urged Jin Jianglang to visit the Blind Princess and settle his questions rather than risk leaving with regrets.
• Jin Jianglang traveled to Hiezu Village and observed its unusual wreaths, tobacco pipes, and wary residents.
• An old man denied that any monster lived in the village and complained that the Shiranui Household kept investigating it.
• Jin Jianglang pointed out that he had never told the old man the female monster was blind.

Jin Jianglang found that the villagers feared he was a Tsuchimikado Onmyoji hunting Yanyanluo, but he revealed he belonged to the Shiranui Household. The villagers explained that they knew Yanyanluo was a monster and had secretly protected her since she was a baby.

• A child accused Jin Jianglang of threatening Yanyanluo, and the villagers surrounded him with farming tools to defend her.
• Jin Jianglang identified himself as a Shiranui Onmyoji, clearing up the villagers’ mistaken belief that he served the Tsuchimikado lineage.
• The villagers confirmed they knew Yanyanluo was a monster, and Jin Jianglang asked them how she had come to live among them.
• The old man explained that Gutai’s tobacco smoke produced a baby who became a blind smoke monster, and Michiko named her Yanyanluo.
• Yanyanluo cared for the villagers, who came to love her and quietly protected her by smoking pipes so her smoke would go unnoticed.

The villagers of Hiezu told Jin Jianglang how they had hidden Yanyanluo after the Tsuchimikado Household executed her adoptive parents and made her believe monsters were responsible. Jin Jianglang agreed to protect her and left to seek advice from his younger sister.

• The villagers explained that Yanyanluo became known as Smoke Yama after she defeated twenty-eight monsters, so Gutai gave her the name Blind Princess to conceal her identity.
• The Tsuchimikado Household discovered Yanyanluo's identity and executed Gutai and Michiko while she was away picking flowers, and the villagers lied that monsters had killed them.
• The villagers begged Jin Jianglang to protect Yanyanluo, and he agreed, though he was unsure whether she would accept becoming his shikigami.
• A child gave Jin Jianglang Yanyanluo's old flower garland, and Jin Jianglang promised the villagers they could seek him at the Shiranui Household.
• Jin Jianglang took the robe and medicinal herbs and departed by Flying Talisman, intending to consult his younger sister about Yanyanluo.

After hearing Yanyanluo’s story, Shiranui Asuka and Jin Jianglang arranged for powerful monsters to impersonate the Shiranui Household so Yanyanluo could pursue her dream of becoming an Onmyoji. The staged meeting began with Shuten Doji attempting to assess her, but the improvised performance quickly went off script.

• Asuka proposed letting Yanyanluo join a pretend Shiranui Household because they had no legal grounds to attack the Tsuchimikado household.
• Asuka and Jin Jianglang brought Yanyanluo to Shuten Doji’s lair, where monsters from the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons had gathered to play the Shiranui lineage.
• Shuten Doji struggled to read his script and, after Asuka prompted him, told Yanyanluo she would need to pass an assessment to become an Onmyoji.
• Shuten Doji abruptly handed the assessment explanation to Snow Woman, who guessed that the test involved killing monsters.

Jin Jianglang helped Yanyanluo become an Onmyoji of the Shiranui Household and shared a joyful spring with her before learning that the Tsuchimikado household had massacred her village. After realizing Yanyanluo would seek revenge if she learned the truth, he decided to continue lying to protect her.

• Shuten welcomed Yanyanluo into the Shiranui Household as Shiranui Blind Princess, and Shuten's protection kept her safe.
• Jin Jianglang and Yanyanluo grew close, and he made cherry blossoms fall so she could imagine seeing them.
• Yanyanluo asked to return to Hiezu Village and tell its people she had become an Onmyoji, so Jin Jianglang went ahead to prepare them.
• A dying child from Hiezu told Jin Jianglang that the Tsuchimikado household had killed the villagers and urged him to protect Yanyanluo.
• Jin Jianglang considered how to hide the massacre from Yanyanluo, consulted his Almanac, and decided to keep lying to her.

Jin Jianglang brought more than a hundred monsters to Hiezu Village to impersonate its murdered residents and prevent Yanyanluo from discovering what had happened. As the monsters prepared the village for her arrival, a strange young man wearing a Yaksha Mask approached Jin Jianglang and said that his visit was against the rules.

• Jin Jianglang led the monsters to Hiezu Village, where they found the villagers brutally murdered.
• Jin Jianglang told the monsters to move the bodies, investigate the villagers' homes, and impersonate the residents.
• The monsters studied the houses and gathered tobacco to make smoke drift through the village, while Jin Jianglang recognized his parents' former home.
• The monsters tried to recreate the village's bustle despite the bodies and blood, making the scene eerie beneath the moonlight.
• A young man wearing a Yaksha Mask approached Jin Jianglang and hesitated as he tried to explain why he had come.

After interpreting a masked stranger’s three sentences, Jin Jianglang realized the Tsuchimikado Household might be targeting Yanyanluo and raced back to the Maple Forest. He arrived with Shuten and the Great Tengu to find Yanyanluo badly wounded, Shiranui Asuka unconscious, and Shuten seizing the enemy leader.

• A young man wearing a Yaksha Mask gave Jin Jianglang three cryptic sentences and warned him to remember them to avoid regrets.
• Jin Jianglang realized that the Maple Forest was empty of monsters because its protectors had left, leaving Yanyanluo and Shiranui Asuka exposed to the Tsuchimikado Household.
• Jin Jianglang summoned Shuten and the Great Tengu, and they flew with Yukigyo back to the Maple Forest at full speed.
• The group found dozens of dead hunters near Shikiyasha, with Yanyanluo gravely wounded and Shiranui Asuka unconscious behind her.
• The Great Tengu carried Yanyanluo to safety while Shuten seized the enemy leader by the face and confronted him.

Jin Jianglang and Shuten confronted the Tsuchimikado Household after its members attacked Yanyanluo, and Shuten brutally punished their leader. Jin Jianglang and his shikigami killed the other attackers, but the surviving Tsuchimikado member escaped using four clones.

• Jin Jianglang found Yanyanluo badly injured and unconscious, and she warned him to be careful before passing out.
• Shuten revealed that Yanyanluo was his master and tore the skin from Tsuchimikado Eleven’s forehead as punishment.
• A Tsuchimikado member accused Yanyanluo of killing villagers and thirty-six Onmyoji, prompting Jin Jianglang to question the strange circumstances surrounding her strength and his own task.
• Jin Jianglang declared that Yanyanluo would become his shikigami and drew his Scissors when the Tsuchimikado members challenged his right to protect her.
• Jin Jianglang, the Great Tengu, Shuten, and Yukigyo killed four Tsuchimikado members, but the last man used black smoke to create four fleeing clones.

Yukigyo escaped Tsuchimikado Jūichirō’s pursuit after encountering the powerful Tsuchimikado Itsuki, while Jin Jianglang realized Yanyanluo had likely protected Hiezu Village for years. When Yanyanluo awoke, she admitted she had hidden her nature and cultivation to protect the human family who raised her and the village.

• Yukigyo fled Tsuchimikado Jūichirō after Tsuchimikado Itsuki’s team stopped him, and Itsuki chose to pursue a more interesting game instead of killing him.
• Yukigyo rejoined Jin Jianglang, Great Tengu, and Shuten and warned them that Tsuchimikado Itsuki was extremely powerful.
• Jin Jianglang and Great Tengu reasoned that Yanyanluo had concealed her strength and deliberately left a monster alive to keep Hiezu Village safe.
• Great Tengu removed the needles sealing Yanyanluo’s power, and Yanyanluo woke and asked whether Shiranui Asuka was all right.
• Jin Jianglang accused Yanyanluo of lying about being human, and she explained that she had hidden the truth to protect the humans who raised her and the village.
• Yanyanluo revealed that she was born from smoke and had killed 1,923 monsters around Hiezu Village over twenty years.

Yanyanluo revealed that the Tsuchimikado Household had forced her to try to kill Jin Jianglang in exchange for sparing Hiezu Village, but she could no longer bring herself to harm him. Jin Jianglang chose to stand with her, and the others discovered that the injured Shiranui Asuka had awakened.

• Yanyanluo explained that she had approached Jin Jianglang to kill him, but fell ill before she could strike with her dagger.
• Yanyanluo told Jin Jianglang that the Tsuchimikado Household had ordered her to kill him and threatened the villagers of Hiezu Village.
• Yanyanluo said she would return to protect the villagers and tried to leave, apologizing for deceiving Jin Jianglang.
• Jin Jianglang declared that he would face the danger with Yanyanluo and gathered her into his arms.
• The Great Tengu, Shuten, and Yukigyo watched Jin Jianglang and Yanyanluo, then noticed that Shiranui Asuka had awakened.

Shiranui Asuka and Yanyanluo reunited, and Jin Jianglang reflected on how the Yaksha Mask had helped reverse a tragic outcome. As the group prepared to return to Hiezu Village, Fire God arrived and immediately tried to befriend Yanyanluo.

• Shiranui Asuka offered Yanyanluo her wooden clogs, and Yanyanluo praised Asuka for treating humans and monsters with sincerity.
• Jin Jianglang recalled the Yaksha Mask warning him and imagined the future in which Yanyanluo died, then decided to ask Shuten about the masked monster.
• Shiranui Asuka asked to take Yanyanluo home, and Yanyanluo insisted on returning to protect the villagers.
• Jin Jianglang agreed to go to Hiezu Village with the group, while they kept the villagers' deaths from Yanyanluo.
• Fire God arrived, grabbed Yanyanluo's hand, and declared them lifelong best friends after learning that she ate.

Jin Jianglang refused to return to the Shiranui Household despite the Tsuchimikado Household’s demand, choosing to stay and protect Yanyanluo. At Hiezu Village, Yanyanluo believed the monsters impersonating the murdered villagers and celebrated becoming an Onmyoji, but she noticed the smell of blood and asked about the pile of corpses.

• Fire God told Jin Jianglang that Tsuchimikado Itsuki had come to the household, accusing him of killing members of the Tsuchimikado Household and demanding his return.
• Jin Jianglang refused to leave Hiezu Village, and Fire God agreed to return and stall the Tsuchimikado Household.
• Jin Jianglang and the others reached Hiezu Village and found its villagers dead while monsters pretended to be them.
• Yanyanluo mistook the monsters for the villagers, recognized Snow Woman as Sister Jiuzi, and proudly announced that she had become an Onmyoji.
• Yanyanluo walked toward her home, noticed a mountain of corpses, and asked whether it was where the villagers had piled their fish.

Jin Jianglang watched Yanyanluo reconnect with the village and learned that Ibaraki Doji had begun to value Shuten’s cause over killing him. At the village entrance, Fire God revealed that Yanyanluo had been chosen as Jin Jianglang’s trial target and that the Shiranui Household’s trials concealed a deadly secret.

• Yanyanluo introduced Jin Jianglang to the villagers and shared concerned reminders with them while he listened.
• Ibaraki Doji returned soaked with fish, and he told Jin Jianglang that Shuten’s work seemed more meaningful than killing people.
• Jin Jianglang and the villagers prepared grilled fish for Yanyanluo, who wanted the meal because it recalled how she had met him.
• Fire God returned with Shiranui Jiuwu’s decree ordering Jin Jianglang to kill Yanyanluo, and he urged Jin Jianglang to flee with her and Xiao Xiang.
• Fire God confessed that he and the household head secretly arranged the Shiranui trials, in which members were made to kill a designated monster after their ninth kill.
• Fire God told Jin Jianglang that Yanyanluo had volunteered as his trial target and that the decree had been prepared long before the Tsuchimikado Household’s involvement.

Jin Jianglang learned that Fire God had arranged for Yanyanluo to approach him as part of the patriarch’s scheme, and he realized she had tried to protect him despite the danger. He left to confront the truth, then proposed to Yanyanluo by turning the threatening letter into a promise of marriage.

• Fire God revealed that he had made a deal with the patriarch to protect Jin Jianglang and Xiao Xiang from being forced to become Time Masters.
• Jin Jianglang realized Yanyanluo had resisted the order to kill him and had been caught between the Tsuchimikado and Shiranui households.
• Jin Jianglang’s presence changed as a yokai aura emerged, and he decided to question the Shiranui patriarch after speaking with Yanyanluo.
• Jin Jianglang found Yanyanluo in the village and asked her to leave with him and build a life together.
• Jin Jianglang read the altered wording of his letter as a marriage proposal, and Yanyanluo listened with tears in her eyes.