Recaps

Chu Xingchen rented a residence in Yuzhou City for his disciples, then secretly went to visit the courtesan Yaoqin at the Bamboo Jade Court. The chapter ended as Yaoqin entered her chamber and greeted him with a zither in her arms.

• Chu Xingchen rented a clean quadrangle residence for six months after Li Yingling approved of it.
• Chu Xingchen gave Li Yingling money and sent her and Li Xingtian to buy necessities, promising to explain their reasons for coming to Yuzhou City later.
• Chu Xingchen shut the gate and set concealed alert formations around the residence before vanishing from the courtyard.
• Chu Xingchen drank tea in Yaoqin's private chamber at the White Jade Tower and criticized the brew, angering her maid Xiao Ling.
• Yaoqin entered the chamber and Chu Xingchen greeted her, saying it had been a long time.

Chu Xingchen visited Yaoqin in Yuzhou City and asked her to find a way to purify a Blood Qi Spirit Stone, after his attempt to charm her with a verse went badly. Yaoqin agreed to investigate and kept the address where he was staying so she could send him an answer.

• Yaoqin sent Xiao Ling away and demanded to know why Chu Xingchen had come to see her.
• Chu Xingchen recited a verse about entrusting his heart to Yaoqin, but she blasted him with a sonic wave and called him a lecher.
• Chu Xingchen showed Yaoqin a Blood Qi Spirit Stone, and she suspected he had taken up evil cultivation after learning he had reached golden core.
• Chu Xingchen explained that he had obtained the stone at the Clearwind Sect's mine and asked Yaoqin how it could be purified.
• Yaoqin agreed to investigate, took the address Chu Xingchen wrote down, and demanded that he leave the verse behind.

Chu Xingchen studied a sinister blood-qi Spirit Stone while waiting for his disciples to return from shopping in Yuzhou City. Li Yingling came back with an enormous haul from a ring-toss vendor, including a wooden fish allegedly imbued with a monk’s merit, and Chu Xingchen learned the vendor’s troupe had fled the city after the monk passed into nirvana.

• Chu Xingchen examined a blood-qi Spirit Stone and suspected its craftsmanship exceeded what the remote region could produce.
• Li Yingling and Li Xingtian returned with bundles of prizes from a ring-toss stall, and Li Yingling gave Chu Xingchen a luxurious set of white clothing.
• Chu Xingchen inspected the odd prizes, including a set of wooden fish instruments, and tapped Li Yingling on the head with a wooden fish mallet.
• Li Yingling and Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen that a Qi Refining monk had practiced Karmic Dharma and passed into nirvana after she won the wooden fish, claiming he infused it with his merit.
• Chu Xingchen asked to see the vendor, but Li Xingtian said the stallholders had packed up and fled toward Yuzhou City's gates.

Chu Xingchen and his disciples sorted their strange haul, discussed the blood-tainted spirit stones, and agreed to attend Yuzhou City's Lantern Festival. While Chu Xingchen fished outside the city, he finally reeled in something—but it was a huge corpse, not a fish.

• Chu Xingchen barred the strange pots and basins from the kitchen, and Li Yingling took the items she wanted while the rest went into a side room.
• Chu Xingchen showed Li Yingling and Li Xingtian a Blood Qi Spirit Stone and said he had asked someone to resolve the mine's spirit stone problem.
• Li Yingling asked to attend Yuzhou City's Lantern Festival, and Chu Xingchen agreed to take both disciples when it arrived.
• Chu Xingchen let Li Xingtian cultivate with the Blood Qi Spirit Stones while Li Yingling practiced her divine abilities, and he set up a concealment formation around Li Xingtian's room.
• Chu Xingchen spent several days fishing outside Yuzhou City, then reeled in a huge corpse instead of a fish and blamed Li Yingling's wooden fish.

Chu Xingchen rescued an unconscious Demon-Suppression Bureau constable from the river and helped a young physician treat the rampaging energy in his meridians. When the physician tried to draw it out, Chu Xingchen recognized the aura as resembling the blood energy in blood-energy spirit stones.

• Chu Xingchen fished a still-living Demon-Suppression Bureau constable from the river and used silver needles to keep the rampaging energy from reaching his heart.
• Chu Xingchen carried the constable on a reclining chair to Yuzhou City's gate, where guards summoned help from the bureau and asked Chu Xingchen to wait.
• A little physician arrived, checked the constable, and asked Chu Xingchen to help her draw the energy out.
• The little physician gave the constable medicine through a balloon flower stalk and told Chu Xingchen to pull out the needles while suppressing the energy.
• The little physician tried to guide the energy out, but it attacked her spiritual power and contaminated the surrounding flesh; Chu Xingchen recognized its blood energy as resembling that in blood-energy spirit stones.

Chu Xingchen helped A Nian control the blood energy in an injured young man he had caught while fishing, then returned home and agreed to take Li Yingling to the Little Temple Fair. At the Demon-Suppression Bureau, A Nian realized the unconscious young man was the younger brother of a feared squad leader and struggled to explain his injuries.

• Chu Xingchen helped A Nian suppress the blood energy attacking her spiritual power, and she thanked him and invited him to claim a reward from the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
• Chu Xingchen left the injured young man in A Nian's care and returned to his rented house without his fishing rod or chair.
• Li Yingling laughed at Chu Xingchen for catching a person instead of a fish and asked him to accompany her to the Little Temple Fair the next evening; he agreed.
• At the Demon-Suppression Bureau, A Nian recognized the injured young man as the younger brother of a squad leader and feared the consequences of his possibly ruined meridians.

After finding her younger brother gravely injured by blood qi, Zhao Wanqing began a separate investigation into the attack at Wang Family Village. She asked Yaoqin to trace the blood qi, and Yaoqin agreed after recognizing it.

• A Nian warned Zhao Wanqing that her unconscious younger brother's meridians and limbs were badly damaged, and Zhao Wanqing collected a trace of his blood qi with a talisman.
• Zhao Wanqing searched the archives, found her brother's mission file about missing people in Wang Family Village, and ruled out retaliation by a fellow Bureau member.
• Yaoqin's attempt to reverse the blood qi's corrosion of a spirit stone failed, and she continued working alone after sending A Ling away.
• Zhao Wanqing visited Yaoqin and asked her to identify the blood qi used against the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
• Yaoqin sensed the blood qi in Zhao Wanqing's talisman, agreed to investigate it, and promised to send word when she had results.

Yaoqin suspected Chu Xingchen was hiding his cultivation or practicing evil arts and went to find him. While his disciples stalled her at his residence, Chu Xingchen was at a brothel quietly discussing literature and worldly affairs with a courtesan.

• Yaoqin examined the violent blood qi in a talisman and decided Chu Xingchen might be concealing something or practicing evil cultivation.
• Yaoqin went to Chu Xingchen's residence, where Li Yingling opened the gate and tried to learn why she was looking for him.
• Li Yingling sent Li Xingtian out the back door to find Chu Xingchen while she kept Yaoqin waiting.
• Li Xingtian found Chu Xingchen at a brothel, where he was drinking tea and conversing with a pipa-playing courtesan.
• The courtesan admired Chu Xingchen's knowledge, manners, and appearance, while he recognized that he had charmed her.

Chu Xingchen returned to the courtyard with Li Xingtian and discovered that Yaoqin had come to investigate whether he was connected to the Blood Qi Spirit Stones. After examining him and hearing how he had rescued the Demon-Suppression Bureau man involved, Yaoqin confirmed he was not an evil cultivator, but Chu Xingchen realized she still had not sorted out the spirit stones.

• Chu Xingchen charmed Wanyun with a poetic farewell, while a young man in white listened and praised his words.
• Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen that a cold-looking woman was waiting at the courtyard, and Chu Xingchen recognized her as Yaoqin.
• Yaoqin examined Chu Xingchen’s spiritual energy and found no blood qi, then showed him a talisman with blood qi matching the Blood Qi Spirit Stones.
• Chu Xingchen explained that he had rescued the Demon-Suppression Bureau man who had fallen victim to the talisman, and Li Yingling asked to join him on a future fishing trip.
• Chu Xingchen asked whether Yaoqin had sorted out the Blood Qi Spirit Stones, and her evasive expression revealed that she had not.

Yaoqin visited Chu Xingchen, questioned his rapid cultivation, and shared a meal with him and his disciples. After returning to her room in Yuzhou City, she learned that Miss Zhao had been waiting for her for nearly four hours.

• Chu Xingchen invited Yaoqin to stay for a meal and asked Li Yingling and Li Xingtian to buy groceries.
• Yaoqin asked Chu Xingchen how he had advanced from Foundation Establishment Peak to the mid-to-late Golden Core Stage, and he attributed it to a fortuitous opportunity.
• Chu Xingchen cooked for Yaoqin, Li Yingling, and Li Xingtian, and Yaoqin enjoyed the meal despite her careful manners.
• Yaoqin said goodbye to Chu Xingchen after nightfall and returned to her room.
• Xiao Ling told Yaoqin that Miss Zhao had been waiting downstairs for nearly four hours.

After being badly wounded while investigating evil cultivators, Zhao Wanqing asked Yaoqin to find a Golden Core cultivator to help rescue her younger brother, Zhao Zhengyang. Yaoqin gave her Chu Xingchen’s address, and Zhao Wanqing arrived at his gate determined to seek help.

• Zhao Wanqing arrived at Yaoqin’s residence covered in wounds and explained that evil cultivators had badly injured her younger brother, Zhao Zhengyang.
• Zhao Wanqing asked Yaoqin to find a Golden Core cultivator to help investigate the attackers, whose blood-energy-enhanced techniques exceeded their apparent cultivation.
• Yaoqin offered to pass the case details to Chu Xingchen and told Zhao Wanqing she could offer him more than three hundred spirit stones if needed.
• Yaoqin gave Zhao Wanqing Chu Xingchen’s address and required her to owe a favor regardless of his answer.
• Zhao Wanqing treated her wounds, reflected on her promise to protect Zhao Zhengyang, and reached Chu Xingchen’s shut gate.

Zhao Wanqing arrived with a letter from Yaoqin asking Chu Xingchen for help investigating evil cultivators, and Chu Xingchen agreed to assist. He sent Li Xingtian to investigate with Zhao Wanqing that night, while Li Yingling stayed behind and was promised she could join Chu Xingchen the next day.

• Li Yingling let Zhao Wanqing into the courtyard and went to fetch Chu Xingchen.
• Zhao Wanqing gave Chu Xingchen Yaoqin’s letter and offered him up to four hundred spirit stones for help with the investigation.
• Chu Xingchen agreed to assist and sent Li Xingtian to investigate with Zhao Wanqing that night, telling him to meet at the fishing spot at noon the next day.
• Zhao Wanqing told Li Xingtian she had found an evil cultivator ritual near the crime scene, and he agreed to follow her there.
• Chu Xingchen warned Li Xingtian to be careful, then refused to let Li Yingling join the nighttime investigation.
• Li Yingling agreed to sleep and asked Chu Xingchen to take her along the next day.

Li Xingtian and Zhao Wanqing investigated signs of Evil Cultivator rituals near Yuzhou City, and Li Xingtian removed the blood energy slowing Zhao Wanqing's injured leg. After he detected a disorientation formation, they escaped it and discovered a village massacred by the Evil Cultivators.

• Li Xingtian noticed Zhao Wanqing's injured right leg and used his spiritual energy to draw the clinging blood energy out of her wounds.
• Zhao Wanqing showed Li Xingtian the cleared site of a ritual, then led him north toward secluded villages where the Evil Cultivators might strike next.
• Li Xingtian realized they had circled inside a disorientation formation and found a stone-bead that he used to guide them out.
• Li Xingtian and Zhao Wanqing emerged before a burned village filled with slaughtered residents and headless corpses.
• Li Xingtian memorized the ritual traces and told Zhao Wanqing to search the village for useful information.

Zhao Wanqing investigated the ruined village and was attacked by a powerful evil cultivator, but Li Xingtian intervened and drove him off with a devastating sword strike. Li Xingtian brought the badly injured Zhao Wanqing to the Courtyard House, where Chu Xingchen saw her condition.

• Zhao Wanqing found the villagers' remains at the village center and encountered a black-robed evil cultivator who attacked her.
• The black-robed man overwhelmed Zhao Wanqing, but Li Xingtian arrived and pulled her out of the way of a lethal saber strike.
• Li Xingtian unleashed a powerful sword strike that destroyed the area and frightened the black-robed man into fleeing.
• Zhao Wanqing vomited blood from her injuries, and Li Xingtian decided to retreat with her rather than pursue the enemy.
• Li Xingtian took Zhao Wanqing to the Courtyard House, where Chu Xingchen saw her pale, bloodied condition.

Li Xingtian brought the badly injured Zhao Wanqing to the Courtyard House, where Chu Xingchen treated her with an iron-wok medicine that caused a bizarre reaction while healing her. He then showed Chu Xingchen the ritual formations linking the village sacrifice to the Clearwind Sect’s practices and urged him to act while an opportunity remained.

• Li Yingling welcomed Zhao Wanqing and persuaded her to try Chu Xingchen’s newly concocted healing medicine.
• Chu Xingchen made medicine in an iron wok, and Zhao Wanqing swallowed it despite its strange appearance and suffered an intense reaction as her injuries began to heal.
• Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen that the village ritual shared an origin with the Clearwind Sect’s formation, though the two groups used blood qi differently.
• Li Xingtian drew both ritual formations and considered reporting the Clearwind Sect, whose evil cultivation could be tied to a larger force.
• Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen, “An opportunity must not be missed. When it's time to make the cut, don't hesitate.”

Zhao Wanqing joined Chu Xingchen to continue investigating the evil cultivators after the Bureau’s response was delayed. Chu Xingchen brought her to a smuggling dock, where its boss eagerly pointed them toward a rival criminal, leaving the investigation poised to follow that lead.

• A Nian examined Zhao Wanqing’s rapidly healing hand and told her to rest, but Zhao Wanqing hurried away after hearing Chu Xingchen was waiting.
• Zhao Wanqing told Chu Xingchen the Bureau’s investigation would take about half a month, and she agreed to accompany him because she had no leads of her own.
• Chu Xingchen took Zhao Wanqing to a secluded Canal Gang dock, where smugglers unloaded crates and guards challenged them.
• After seeing Zhao Wanqing’s Bureau badge, the dock guard fetched the boss, who denied wrongdoing and offered to lead them to Wang Er, accusing him of human trafficking, usury, and forcing women into prostitution.

Chu Xingchen and Zhao Wanqing pressured Guan Quan for information about the buyers of Ritual Foundation Stones and uncovered the Spirit Evil Cult’s connection to the blood sacrifices. Guan Quan revealed that the cult members came from Central Province.

• Chu Xingchen checked Guan Quan’s traits, then forced him to help investigate the Ritual Foundation Stone buyers.
• Guan Quan admitted that a group had bought many Ritual Foundation Stones at high prices, and Chu Xingchen had Zhao Wanqing take him aside for questioning.
• Guan Quan revealed that the buyers were evil cultivators planning a major ritual, using a grand mystery stone as the formation eye’s core.
• Guan Quan said Wang Ermazi had sold the grand mystery stone, then identified the group as the Spirit Evil Cult.
• After Chu Xingchen threatened Guan Quan with his spirit sword, Guan Quan revealed that the Spirit Evil Cult members came from Central Province.

Chu Xingchen and Zhao Wanqing learned that the Central Province evil cultivators might be targeting nearby sects for blood sacrifices. After Zhao Wanqing decided to keep investigating, she followed Guan Quan back to the docks and witnessed the black-robed man kill him.

• Guan Quan told Chu Xingchen and Zhao Wanqing that the evil cultivators' mortal sacrifices were likely a cover for attacks on nearby sects.
• Guan Quan injured himself to make clear where he stood, and Zhao Wanqing let him go.
• Zhao Wanqing decided to continue investigating, and Chu Xingchen offered to help if she paid more.
• Guan Quan returned to the docks and warned the black-robed man that the Demon-Suppression Bureau had discovered them, but the man refused to flee.
• The black-robed man attacked Guan Quan, then brutally smashed his head apart in front of the arriving Zhao Wanqing.

Zhao Wanqing watched Chu Xingchen drive off the black-robed evil cultivator, unaware that the fight had been staged by Chu Xingchen and Li Xingtian. After finding a Blood Qi Spirit Stone on Guan Quan’s corpse, she realized the evil cultivators had already sacrificed a sect and prepared to alert the Demon-Suppression Bureau.

• Zhao Wanqing watched Li Xingtian, disguised as a black-robed evil cultivator, kill Guan Quan before Chu Xingchen charged in and chased him away.
• After pursuing Li Xingtian for half an hour, Chu Xingchen met him in private and learned Zhao Wanqing had not suspected their staged fight.
• Chu Xingchen explained that he and Li Xingtian had investigated the smugglers’ wharves and used a real evil-cultivator identity to stage the encounter.
• Chu Xingchen returned to Guan Quan’s wharf, where Zhao Wanqing showed him a Blood Qi Spirit Stone she had found on Guan Quan’s corpse.
• Chu Xingchen concluded that the evil cultivators had likely already sacrificed a sect, and Zhao Wanqing set out to report the discovery to the Demon-Suppression Bureau.

Chu Xingchen told Yaoqin he would stay out of the Clearwind Sect matter after she warned him about the Blood Qi Spirit Stone and promised to repay Zhao Wanqing’s debt. He took Li Yingling and Li Xingtian to Yuzhou City’s temple fair, where the chapter explained how Zen Grove Buddhist Temple turned the Lantern Festival into a profitable event.

• Yaoqin warned Chu Xingchen to avoid the Clearwind Sect investigation and said Central Province specialists would handle the Blood Qi Spirit Stone.
• Yaoqin told Chu Xingchen she would repay Zhao Wanqing’s spirit stone debt, and he promised to stay out of trouble.
• Li Yingling and Li Xingtian returned after completing their mission, and Chu Xingchen announced they would attend the temple fair instead of continuing their preparations.
• Chu Xingchen took his disciples to the temple fair at Zen Grove Buddhist Temple in Yuzhou City.
• The chapter explained how Zen Grove Buddhist Temple attracted visitors and vendors during the Lantern Festival to earn money.

Li Yingling and Li Xingtian visited Chanlin Temple’s fair, where they found Chu Xingchen surrounded by women. Yaoqin approached after hearing Chu flirt with one of them and confronted him about how he read a career line.

• Li Yingling and Li Xingtian walked through Chanlin Temple’s fair while Li Xingtian carried candied hawthorns for his senior sister.
• Li Yingling spotted Chu Xingchen surrounded by young women and told Li Xingtian not to warn him when Yaoqin appeared.
• Yaoqin noticed Chu Xingchen with the women and headed toward him after Li Yingling pointed him out.
• A woman asked Chu Xingchen to read her career line, and he teased that it was not read from the hand.
• Yaoqin confronted Chu Xingchen, asking if that was how he read a career line.

At the temple fair, Chu Xingchen reunited with Yaoqin, who explained that the Waterwood Dharma Assembly gathered wish power and described its costs. The group remained at the assembly, with Chu Xingchen still hoping to earn the spirit stones Yaoqin had promised him.

• Yaoqin found Chu Xingchen surrounded by women, sent them away, and asked why he had claimed to be visiting the temple fair with his disciples.
• Chu Xingchen joked with Yaoqin about his new clothes, while Li Yingling and Li Xingtian joined them.
• Yaoqin mentioned the Waterwood Dharma Assembly, and Chu Xingchen immediately asked whether it had anything special to offer when she threatened his promised spirit stones.
• Yaoqin explained that Chanwood Temple gathered wish power at the assembly and that people who used it became dependent on it and had to fulfill their believers' wishes.

Chu Xingchen, Li Yingling, Li Xingtian, and Yaoqin visited the Chanwood Dharma Assembly to see how the temple was using wish power and to witness its abbot’s enormous spirit tablet. After enjoying the temple fair, they entered Chanwood Temple, where Li Yingling decided the abbot was even more shameless than Chu Xingchen.

• Chu Xingchen explained that wish power acted like counterfeit cultivation pills, and Yaoqin said the Chanwood Dharma Assembly seemed to be testing new uses for it.
• The four agreed to visit Chanwood Temple after hearing that donors had paid in spirit stones for an enormous spirit tablet to be placed on the abbot.
• At the temple fair, Li Yingling bought masks for everyone, and the group joked about their place in one another’s rankings.
• Li Yingling enjoyed the performers, especially a fire-breather, as the group made their way through the crowded fair.
• With Yaoqin’s help, the four entered Chanwood Temple, where Li Yingling looked toward the center and apologized for calling Chu Xingchen the most shameless person in the world.

Chanwood Temple prepared for the Waterwood Dharma Assembly, where abbot Yuanjing honored a paid promise by holding up a humiliating plaque. After the young novice Yuankong broke his vows at the plaque’s wording, he approached Yaoqin and her companions at the assembly.

• Yuanjing explained to Yuankong that accepting the assembly’s arrangement was not greed if he acted for others, then told Yuankong to lead the chanting.
• Yuankong recited the Heart Sutra until he heard that a plaque had arrived for Yuanjing, then cursed when he saw its insulting message.
• At the Waterwood Dharma Assembly, Yuanjing held up a plaque reading, “Don't fight this old monk over the nun,” while the monks endured the crowd’s mockery.
• Yuankong approached Yaoqin and her companions, addressed her as Benefactor Yaoqin, and revealed that he could see through her illusion.

Yaoqin and her companions met Yuankong, Chanwood Temple’s Buddhist Child, while waiting for the Waterwood Dharma Assembly to begin. After Chu Xingchen discovered Yuankong’s unusual traits, he bet Yaoqin that the day’s wish power was intended for the novice.

• Yuankong welcomed Yaoqin, Chu Xingchen, Li Yingling, and Li Xingtian into the Side Hall and explained that the abbot had not yet allowed him to practice Chanwood Temple’s Dharma Method.
• Yuankong said he had to lead his martial nephews in chanting and left the guests to wait for the Dharma Assembly.
• Chu Xingchen used the system to inspect Yuankong and found a gold Born Buddhist Child trait, several other traits, and a black cultivation-impaired constitution trait; the system briefly gave conflicting recruitment results.
• Chu Xingchen said he believed the day’s wish power was meant for Yuankong, but Yaoqin argued that using it could harm his future as a Buddhist Child.
• Chu Xingchen wagered that he was right, and Yaoqin accepted, agreeing that he would owe her double the spirit stones if he lost.