Recaps

Fu Ping agreed to help Zeng Mu and Yao Chun search Green City for the other person who shared his curse, hoping they could break it. After the three gathered information, Yao Chun dismissed their findings and presented his own clues, including a mysterious purple fish.

• Zeng Mu and Yao Chun explained that Fu Ping's curse had split between him and another person, and promised to break it after searching Green City.
• Fu Ping agreed to help them investigate, and the three split up to question people around the city.
• Zeng Mu and Fu Ping collected several strange reports, but Yao Chun dismissed them as ordinary explanations and pranks.
• Yao Chun shared his investigation notes, which described how he bought an unidentified purple fish from an old fisherman.

Yao Chun identified the bitten Netherleap Fish as belonging to the Wang Family, leading Zeng Mu, Yao Chun, and Fu Ping to search the Wang Residence after dark. They found no culprit, but Fu Ping sensed darkness directly beneath them.

• Yao Chun showed Zeng Mu and Fu Ping a Netherleap Fish worth two hundred gold coins, whose bite marks appeared to have been made by a human.
• Yao Chun pointed out the fish's Wang Family pin pearl, and the three concluded that someone in the Wang Residence had bitten it before it was thrown into the river.
• Zeng Mu, Yao Chun, and Fu Ping returned to the Wang Residence and waited until night to investigate, while Fu Ping used an Elemental Sub-Mark to stay awake.
• The three searched the residence and found two more Netherleap Fish but no sign of who had bitten the first one.
• Fu Ping sensed darkness beneath the floor, and Zeng Mu vanished down the corridor to pursue it.

Zeng Mu, Fu Ping, and Yao Chun chased a mysterious octopus-faced man, who escaped through an underground river, then returned to the Wang Residence. On Zhao Jingya and Wang Quande’s wedding day, the three men stole herbs from Green City’s medicine shops and prepared a drug to take effect during the banquet, intending to use the chaos to find the escaped monster.

• Yao Chun gave up chasing the impossibly fast man after falling far behind Zeng Mu and Fu Ping.
• Fu Ping told Yao Chun that the octopus-faced man escaped into a pond and fled through an underground river after fighting Brother Nameless.
• Zeng Mu checked on Wang Quande, then discussed plans with Yao Chun and Fu Ping at the Wang Residence.
• On the day of Zhao Jingya and Wang Quande’s wedding, the three men searched nine herbal medicine shops and stole eighty-nine jin of ingredients.
• The three men prepared medicine designed to take effect at the wedding feast and planned to use the commotion to search for the escaped monster.

On the day of Zhao Jingya and Wang Quande’s wedding, Zeng Mu, Yao Chun, and Nameless carried out a plan to drug the banquet guests and draw out a monster hidden in the Wang Residence. As the guests began eating, strange visions and confusion spread, while the bride and groom remained locked in separate rooms.

• A dark figure secretly put something into the kitchen pots and the well while the cooks worked.
• Zeng Mu, Yao Chun, and Nameless discussed their plan to use medicinal herbs to drug the wedding crowd and expose the monster.
• The wedding ceremony was delayed, and the master of ceremonies told the guests that Zhao Jingya and Wang Quande were unwell and asked everyone to begin the feast.
• The guests ate the dishes, while the three plotters watched from upstairs and waited for the drugs to take effect.
• Someone knocked out the steward and the servants who were trying to get Zhao Jingya and Wang Quande out of their rooms.
• About half an hour into the banquet, guests began seeing strange things and speaking incoherently.

Zeng Mu, Yao Chun, and Fu Ping drugged the Wang Residence and waited for everyone to fall asleep so they could draw out the escaped Octopus Monster. When the creature emerged from a sleeping guest’s nightmare, Nameless pursued it and fought it, leaving Yao Chun trapped in the darkness of its spreading mist.

• Zeng Mu and Yao Chun patrolled while Fu Ping struggled to stay awake as the drug took effect across the Wang Residence.
• Zeng Mu sharpened his perception with elemental power, and Yao Chun listened for signs of the monster.
• Black mist filled a sleeping guest’s room, and the Octopus Monster burst through the window.
• Nameless chased the creature across the rooftops, and Yao Chun followed to find them fighting in the street.
• Nameless attacked with a golden spear while the Octopus Monster spat ink, and their clashing energy battered Yao Chun and the surroundings.
• Cracks spread across the Octopus Monster’s face before black mist engulfed Yao Chun, leaving only Nameless’s golden light visible.

Zeng Mu fought the Eight-Eyed Red-Eyed Octopus in its black mist, but the Werewolf returned and merged with it in a wine jar. Their combined attack struck Zeng Mu’s elemental barrier and sent a thunderclap across Green City, leaving the outcome uncertain.

• Zeng Mu used metal, lightning, and fire elemental power to sever the octopus monster’s limbs, but it escaped by turning into black smoke.
• Zeng Mu found the octopus hiding in a wine jar and attacked it with a Three-Light Treasure Sword, but the Werewolf blocked his strike.
• Yao Chun realized the Werewolf had returned and cursed it for leaving Zeng Mu and Nameless in danger.
• Zeng Mu recognized that the monsters were merging through a Two-Element Curse, and the Werewolf plunged into the jar’s black water.
• Yao Chun collapsed as the wine jar burst apart and eight tentacles attacked Zeng Mu from every direction.
• Zeng Mu raised a gold, purple, and red energy barrier, and the collision produced a thunderclap that woke people across Green City.

Zeng Mu used his six-element power to destroy the fused Werewolf and Octopus Monster, removing Fu Ping’s curse. He and Yao Chun then found their assassination target, Wang Quande, dead in bed, leaving them to wonder how he died.

• Zeng Mu fought the fused monster, discovered that its red eyes affected its speed, and unleashed the three-element artifact he had spent years refining.
• Zeng Mu used six kinds of elemental power to purify the monster’s cursed beam and cleave the monster in two, dispersing the black mist and ending the curse.
• Yao Chun and Zeng Mu whipped Fu Ping, who realized that he could feel pain again because his curse had been removed.
• Fu Ping thanked Zeng Mu and left, while Zeng Mu and Yao Chun entered Wang Quande’s room in the deserted Wang Residence.
• Zeng Mu found that Wang Quande was dead and wondered how he had died.

After leaving Green City, Zeng Mu received his sixth secret letter and set out for Fei City to kill Feng Gu, a poison master and gu cultivator who threatened the Knights' Order. He chose a river route and began the journey by boat, where the boatwoman slipped under his quilt as he drifted off.

• Zeng Mu and Yao Chun left Green City after completing their mission, then parted beneath a maple tree as Yao Chun continued his espionage assignment.
• Zeng Mu read the sixth secret letter, which ordered him to kill Feng Gu in Fei City, and studied Yao Chun's map of the routes there.
• Zeng Mu chose the water route, hired a boat with its crew, and began sailing east that night.
• The boatwoman told Zeng Mu about soldiers who had abused her and refused to pay for a previous trip, then offered to keep him company.
• Zeng Mu grew drowsy and lay down, and the boatwoman slipped beneath his quilt beside him.

Zeng Mu traveled by boat through the waterways and continued cultivating, sensing that a breakthrough might be near. After disembarking, he crossed a dangerous, humid forest and reached Fei City, a remote settlement known as the Forgotten City.

• Zeng Mu woke beside the boatwoman, learned that the sophora tea had helped him sleep, and refused to drink it or share her canopy again.
• Zeng Mu ate a meal of freshly caught fish and crabs aboard the moving boat as it traveled from the mountains into a broad plain of waterways.
• Zeng Mu meditated through the night and sensed the beginnings of a possible elemental breakthrough, though he did not advance.
• Zeng Mu disembarked two hours after daybreak and walked alone through a dense forest full of thorns, pools, and venomous snakes.
• Zeng Mu emerged from the forest after three hours and arrived at Fei City, the Han Kingdom's forgotten border city.

Zeng Mu entered the Azure Mystic Hermitage intending to assassinate Feng Gu, but poison on the handrail knocked him unconscious before he could find him. Feng Gu’s assistant Xuan treated him, and Zeng Mu woke to discover that she had begun working for Feng Gu at thirty, despite looking much younger.

• Zeng Mu learned that Feng Gu lived at the Azure Mystic Hermitage north of Fei City and went there to kill him.
• Zeng Mu entered the dark hermitage without announcing himself and was poisoned by the air and handrail.
• Feng Gu found the unconscious Zeng Mu and told Xuan to take him for treatment because his necklace showed he was important.
• Xuan treated Zeng Mu, who woke in her room and asked how long she had been with Feng Gu.
• Xuan explained that she had worked for Feng Gu for eight years, beginning when she was thirty, shocking Zeng Mu with her youthful appearance.

Zeng Mu recovered from Feng Gu’s poison and searched the residence, discovering a room full of Snake Gu Jars before confronting Feng Gu. He spared Feng Gu to learn how he knew so much about him, and Feng Gu asked him to serve as his bodyguard for one night.

• Zeng Mu used his elemental power to purge the poison, then explored Feng Gu’s residence while shielding himself from further toxins.
• Zeng Mu entered a cold room filled with jars of venomous snakes and realized he was in a Snake Gu rearing room.
• Feng Gu appeared and asked Zeng Mu to hear him out before killing him.
• Feng Gu revealed that he knew Zeng Mu’s identity, connections, and past assassinations, prompting Zeng Mu to pause before striking.
• Zeng Mu spared Feng Gu, revealed his face, and demanded to know Feng Gu’s conditions.
• Feng Gu asked Zeng Mu to guard him for one night and help kill people.

Zeng Mu accompanied Feng Gu through the dangerous forest to a remote cave after discovering that Feng Gu planned to confront the Soul-Returning Cult. The two reached the meeting site, where the chapter left them facing the barren area around the cave.

• Feng Gu explained the coded meeting message, and Zeng Mu deduced that it pointed to a cave south of Zero Tower.
• Zeng Mu spent time in Fei City, pieced together clues about Feng Gu, and grew concerned about the plan.
• Feng Gu arrived at the Azure Mystic Hermitage with a host of venomous creatures, and he and Zeng Mu set out south.
• Zeng Mu guessed that Feng Gu intended to meet the Soul-Returning Cult, and Feng Gu confirmed it while questioning Zeng Mu's hostility toward them.
• Feng Gu and Zeng Mu crossed the perilous forest and reached the remote cave specified by the code.

Feng Gu met two Church envoys in a cave, traded them a bowl of gu-related delicacies, and received the final snake scale he had sought. After securing the scale, he turned on the envoys and ordered them killed.

• Zeng Mu removed the Blackstone Necklace and entered the cave with Feng Gu, posing as his servant.
• Two Church envoys emerged from the black stone wall and questioned Feng Gu about Zeng Mu.
• The envoys praised Feng Gu’s past military success and gave him a map for his next assignment.
• Feng Gu offered the envoys a bowl of black gu-related substance, which one of them tasted and praised.
• The envoys gave Feng Gu the final snake scale he had been missing.
• Feng Gu took the scale, pointed at the envoys, and ordered them killed.

Zeng Mu and Feng Gu killed two Blue-Robed Envoys, but one summoned Haihui Gelin, leader of the Soul-Returning Cult. After Haihui Gelin attacked and the cave collapsed, Zeng Mu confronted him and prepared to fight.

• Zeng Mu and Feng Gu joined forces to kill the two Blue-Robed Envoys, using Zeng Mu’s strength and Feng Gu’s poison.
• As he died, a Blue-Robed Envoy crushed a Blue Molar and summoned Haihui Gelin through a black pool.
• Haihui Gelin revealed himself as the Soul-Returning Cult’s leader and demanded the Blackstone Necklace from Zeng Mu while threatening Feng Gu for betraying the cult.
• Haihui Gelin fired beams from his eyes, and Zeng Mu shielded Feng Gu before carrying him out as the cave collapsed.
• Haihui Gelin stood atop the rubble and vowed to kill them, while Zeng Mu challenged him and activated Three Lights Gather at the Crown.

Zeng Mu and Haihui Gelin fought an escalating battle, matching elemental powers in a destructive waterspout and a rapid close-combat exchange. As Haihui Gelin began to lose ground, he summoned the Snake Soul Fang and vanished into its black mist, preparing a new attack.

• Zeng Mu revealed three elemental marks, and Haihui Gelin recognized that the Divine Soul let him cultivate powers beyond ordinary elemental laws.
• Haihui Gelin attacked with a massive water column, but Zeng Mu used earth, fire, lightning, and metal to withstand it and counterattack.
• Zeng Mu and Haihui Gelin clashed with lightning and then exchanged hundreds of punches and kicks in midair.
• Haihui Gelin spat black light at Zeng Mu, who blocked it and retaliated by tearing open the mountain hollow and hurling rocks, crystals, and roots at him.
• Haihui Gelin produced the Snake Soul Fang, which released black mist as he disappeared and threatened to devour Zeng Mu.

Haihui Gelin summoned the Devouring Giant Serpent and overwhelmed Zeng Mu, whose six elemental powers could not withstand its attack. As Haihui Gelin prepared to kill him, a blue light rescued Zeng Mu, and Haihui Gelin angrily watched it vanish into the mountains.

• A blue light carried the unconscious Feng Gu away from the lake.
• Haihui Gelin appeared atop the Devouring Giant Serpent and offered Zeng Mu a choice between a quick death and prolonged torment.
• Zeng Mu mocked Haihui Gelin, who ordered the serpent to attack him.
• The Devouring Giant Serpent shattered Zeng Mu's elemental barrier and left him badly injured with his elemental power exhausted.
• Haihui Gelin fired black lightning at Zeng Mu, but a blue light enveloped him and carried him away before the attack landed.
• Haihui Gelin cursed the girl who had once again ruined his plans as the blue light disappeared into the mountains.

Okelo rescued Zeng Mu and explained Feng Gu’s death, then revealed the Elf Realm’s history and Haihui Gelin’s plan to gather power before returning there. She left Zeng Mu with knowledge of the Seven Elemental Gods, the Water God’s remnants, and the reason Haihui Gelin wanted his Blackstone Necklace.

• Okelo told Zeng Mu that the mark inside Feng Gu had been activated by Haihui Gelin, and Feng Gu died after entrusting him with the seventh Snake Scale for Xuan'er.
• Zeng Mu questioned Okelo about Haihui Gelin, Romendi, and the Peerless Grade Elemental Beast, and she revealed that it was formed from part of the Elffolk king’s soul and could awaken her sleeping uncle.
• Okelo told Zeng Mu that Haihui Gelin was her cousin, the Elffolk king’s eldest son, and had founded the Soul-Returning Cult after leaving the Elf Realm thirty years earlier.
• Okelo recounted the ancient war of the Seven Elemental Gods, the Water God’s fall, and how a rift between worlds brought Zeng Mu to the continent.
• Okelo explained that Haihui Gelin sought Zeng Mu’s Blackstone Necklace and used the Soul-Returning Cult and Devouring Serpent’s marks to gather enough power to return to the Elf Realm.

Okelo revealed that the Water God's Remnant Soul had chosen Zeng Mu and brought him into this world, and he agreed to visit the Elf Realm later. When he and Okelo returned to Fei City, they discovered Feng Gu had turned Xuan'er into a human gu, and she recovered her memories after eating the Gu Snake Scale.

• Zeng Mu learned that the Water God's Remnant Soul had chosen him and used the Blackstone Necklace to bring him into this world.
• Zeng Mu agreed to seek an audience with the Tribal King and god in the Elf Realm when his unfinished business was settled.
• Zeng Mu buried Feng Gu beneath a small pine tree and returned to Fei City with Okelo.
• Zeng Mu and Okelo found Xuan'er shivering in a dark corner, and she said Feng Gu's medicinal decoction had usually eased her recurring condition.
• Xuan'er ate the Gu Snake Scale, vomited a black-and-blue-green snake, and regained her awareness and memories.

Feng Gu remembered how merchants had introduced addictive silver mouse grass to his isolated village, destroying its people and killing his father. After Xuan'er became addicted, he took her away to treat her, but the chapter ended as the torment overwhelmed her again.

• Feng Gu recalled how his father had led the village into a new era before Fei City merchants spread silver mouse grass and turned the village into a plantation.
• Feng Gu's father died from the grass, and merchants arranged for a new chief who further enabled the village's decline.
• Feng Gu returned after his father's funeral and tried to rally the villagers against silver mouse grass, while Xuan'er stood by him.
• Xuan'er unknowingly ate grass mixed into porridge at her uncle's home and became addicted.
• Feng Gu carried Xuan'er out of the village and brought her to the nearby town, where his medical treatments briefly eased her withdrawal.
• Xuan'er was overwhelmed by the unbearable itching and pain of withdrawal despite Feng Gu's decoctions and acupuncture.

Feng Gu joined the Soul-Returning Cult to restore Xuan’er’s memories, but the Cult’s snake-scale bargain condemned her to a horrifying death. After learning Feng Gu was dead, Xuan’er asked Zeng Mu and Okelo to bury her beside him and died.

• After Xuan’er died, a black-robed Cult Envoy offered Feng Gu a snake egg that could revive her, and Feng Gu gave it to her; she woke the next morning without her memories.
• The Cult Envoy promised that seven snake scales would restore Xuan’er’s consciousness if Feng Gu joined the Soul-Returning Cult, and Feng Gu accepted the Cult Mark.
• Feng Gu became a Poison Master and spent years carrying out the Cult’s killings to earn the scales, while enduring the knowledge that a Soul-Returning Snake lived inside Xuan’er.
• Feng Gu discovered that gathering all seven scales would restore Xuan’er’s memories but make the snake tear through her body.
• As Xuan’er died, she asked Zeng Mu and Okelo where Little Gu was; after they told her Feng Gu had died, she asked them to bury her with him.

After burying Xuan'er and Feng Gu, Zeng Mu read his final secret order: he was to assassinate Zhao Zheng, the young king of Qin. He and Okelo reached Qin, where Zeng Mu saw the kingdom’s orderly streets and disciplined border defenses.

• Zeng Mu and Okelo buried Xuan'er and Feng Gu together, then discussed Okelo’s hunt for Haihui Gelin and her brother Romendi.
• Zeng Mu opened the final secret letter, which ordered him to kill Zhao Zheng and said two other agents would meet him at the Qin border pass.
• Zeng Mu concealed the order from Okelo, and they set out for Qin while discussing their past and Okelo’s lost love.
• After three days and nights of travel, Zeng Mu and Okelo reached the Qin border pass and entered the kingdom using disguises.
• Zeng Mu observed Qin’s disciplined soldiers, prosperous countryside, and orderly streets governed by Qin Law.

Zeng Mu and Okelo traveled through a border city, where Zeng Mu witnessed cruel tax enforcement before learning that a couple had clashed with the Zhou Family. At their nighttime rendezvous, he discovered their helpers were his old acquaintances Pitman and Yenaier, whom he greeted with an ill-judged joke.

• Zeng Mu saw officials and soldiers punish residents who could not pay their taxes, and he lamented the law’s lack of compassion to Okelo.
• Zeng Mu and Okelo overheard teahouse patrons describe a skilled couple who had fought Zhou Xiao Jia and angered the powerful Zhou Family.
• Zeng Mu and Okelo went to the Sky-Rigid Nine-Layer Earth-Fiend Demon-God Tower to meet their helpers and searched among the gathered couples.
• Zeng Mu followed a veiled, masked pair away from the tower, and Okelo joined him as they approached the pair on a deserted street.
• The masked man revealed himself as Pitman, and the veiled woman revealed herself as Yenaier, both old acquaintances of Zeng Mu.
• Zeng Mu recognized Yenaier and joked that she looked almost like a man, causing her smile to turn cold.

Zeng Mu reunited with Yenaier, Pitman, and Okelo, discussed their plan to assassinate Ying Zheng during his upcoming hunt, and learned Yenaier had awakened the lightning element. The chapter ended with Pitman revealing that he had condensed an Elemental Artifact, leading Zeng Mu to identify him as an Innate Elemental Artifact Master.

• Okelo reunited with Zeng Mu and Yenaier, and they discussed the continent's tense political situation before moving to an inn.
• Zeng Mu questioned Yenaier and Pitman about their clash with the Zhou Family and reminded them to investigate the young woman they had rescued.
• Yenaier revealed her lightning element had awakened after she drank Earth Spirit Essence elemental medicinal soup.
• Zeng Mu, Yenaier, Pitman, and Okelo planned to intercept Ying Zheng during his hunt near Big Bird City in three days.
• Pitman visited Zeng Mu privately and revealed a colorless Elemental Artifact he had condensed, prompting Zeng Mu to call him an Innate Elemental Artifact Master.

Pitman revealed that his Innate Elemental Artifact Master ability came from a curse tied to the Green Mist that destroyed his village, and he asked Zeng Mu to take him to the Elf Realm. Zeng Mu kept Pitman's Wind Element Bead and ended the night worrying about what would happen if others learned he did not belong to this world.

• Pitman showed Zeng Mu the Wind Element Bead and used it to reveal that Zeng Mu possessed metal, lightning, and fire Elemental Power.
• Pitman asked whether Okelo came from the Elf Realm, then explained that Uncle Kiddon had told him his innate curse originated there.
• Pitman recounted his childhood in the Fog Jungle, the Green Mist that destroyed his village, and his rescue by Lord Soxia.
• Pitman asked Zeng Mu to take him to the Elf Realm, and Zeng Mu agreed while keeping the Wind Element Bead as a secret between them.
• After Pitman left, Zeng Mu lay awake worrying that others might discover he did not belong to this world and wondering what Ma Linya would think.

Zeng Mu and Yenaier learned that the young woman they sought had been sold to the Spring Peach House after Zhou Xiao Jia abused her. They entered the brothel and discovered that she had been made a “white whore,” leaving Yenaier furious as they learned how cruelly she was being treated.

• Zeng Mu and Yenaier overheard two men reveal that the Zhou Family had sold the young woman to the Spring Peach House.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier hurried to the brothel, where Zeng Mu warned Yenaier to keep a low profile.
• Zeng Mu paid an attendant, who confirmed that the Zhou Family had delivered the young woman to the brothel.
• The attendant said Zhou Xiao Jia had abused the girl before she was sold and explained that white whores were forced to serve customers constantly for little pay.
• Yenaier grew angry as she heard what had happened to the young woman.