Recaps

As the Sun and Zhao Families tightened their grip on the Clan Hall, Qin Yanting intervened to save Qian Zhongge from execution while pretending to accommodate Zhao Han. Inside the Divine Tomb, Ren Ye prepared to draw the enemy’s attention, and Wu Zhengfeng’s lantern call sparked a village-wide uprising that brought the Li Family into open conflict.

• Qin Yanting followed Zhao Han to the Rear Courtyard, where Zhao Han threatened Qian Zhongge and brought more than a hundred experts and an Innate Supreme Treasure to force him to kneel; six Sitting Elders stood with Qian Zhongge against them.
• Qin Yanting entered the pressure-bound space, took a drop of Qian Zhongge’s Glabella Blood as a supposed token, and persuaded Zhao Han to accept it and hold off on killing Qian Zhongge.
• Ren Ye decided to leave the Divine Tomb alone to assess the enemy and activate the Former Master’s Protective Immortal Light if necessary, while the Storyteller and Li Xiaopang prepared to follow if he failed to return.
• Sun Michen entered the Divine Tomb as Zhao Haochen waited outside, and Ren Ye’s furious voice rang from the Immortal Palace gate, challenging Zhao Haochen to a fair fight.
• Wu Zhengfeng gathered 132 Ruler Masters at the academy and urged them to light lanterns; teachers and disciples throughout Delusion Village followed, and other academies began gathering as well.
• Li Fusheng saw the lanterns and called the Li Family to action; Clan Elders rose against the Sun Family, while more than a thousand people from the Li Family Pill Academy declared clan war.

The Li Family launched an Annihilation War against the Sun Family, while Wu Zhengfeng and more than two thousand Enlightenment Academy teachers and disciples confronted Zhao Han at the Clan Hall. As the Qian Family joined the uprising, Zhao Mi watched from his cottage and hinted that Qin Yanting had entered the Divine Tomb eight years earlier.

• Li Fusheng led more than a thousand Li Family cultivators to attack the Sun Family and ordered the twenty-three Ancestors to deploy the Void Sword Formation.
• The Sun Family activated the Nine Heavens Star Rampart Formation, but three waves of Bamboo Swords weakened it and left Sun Fu'an vomiting blood as he waited in vain for reinforcements.
• Qin Yanting prevented Zhao Han from leaving the Clan Hall, while Wu Zhengfeng led more than two thousand Academy teachers and disciples there to challenge the Zhao and Sun Families.
• Nearly a thousand Qian Family members arrived at the Clan Hall, and Qian Zhongge rose from the Rear Courtyard to join them.
• Zhao Mi remained calm amid the unrest and said Qin Yanting had finally revealed himself, then wondered whether a death row inmate who fell into the Nine Netherworlds had discovered its secrets.

Qian Zhongge led the Qian Family and the Enlightenment Academies to defeat Zhao Han, while the Li Family attacked the Sun Family and the allied forces moved against the Zhao Family. Zhao Mi’s letters halted the assault, and in the Divine Tomb, Ren Ye recognized a familiar aura from the Soul Banner Yang Huanzhen brought.

• More than three thousand cultivators surrounded the Clan Hall, and Qian Zhongge forced Zhao Han to kneel before killing him and sending his head to the Zhao Family’s gate.
• Second Uncle Li ordered the Li Family to destroy the Sun Family’s defenses, kill its high-grade cultivators, and spare its young children and low-level clansmen for imprisonment.
• Qian Zhongge, Qin Yanting, and Second Uncle Li divided their forces, sending Wu Zhengfeng and a thousand cultivators into the Divine Tomb while the others went to surround the Zhao Family.
• Zhao Mi sent Yang Huanzhen into the Divine Tomb with a Nether Artifact Soul Banner and gave clan elders letters for Qian Zhongtang, Li Taishan, and Qin Yanting.
• After reading Zhao Mi’s letters, Qian Zhongge, Qin Yanting, and Second Uncle Li decided not to attack the Zhao Family and withdrew.
• Ren Ye saw Wu Zhengfeng’s reinforcements arrive in the Divine Tomb, then sensed a familiar aura from the Soul Banner Yang Huanzhen carried.

Ren Ye discovered that the Zhao Family’s Soul Banner contained Dao-Death Qi linked to his Three Thousand Secret Treasures, then watched the Zhao Family abandon Sun Michen and enter the Nine Netherworlds. As Sun and Li forces clashed, Ren Ye descended and awakened the Former Master’s power, leaving his enemies facing his Heaven-Swallowing Immortal Radiance.

• Ren Ye used the Three Thousand Secret Treasures to obtain Dao-Death Qi after realizing the Soul Banner resonated with a Dao Light in his Star Core.
• Sun Michen and Zhao Haochen agreed to attack Wu Zhengfeng’s forces, but Yang Huanzhen revealed the Soul Banner’s presence and ordered the Zhao Family into the Nine Netherworlds.
• Yang Huanzhen cleared a path with the Soul Banner, and the Zhao Family followed him into the abyss, leaving Sun Michen to realize Zhao Mi had abandoned him.
• Sun Michen summoned the Cold Sky Bell as Wu Zhengfeng’s forces attacked, while Ren Ye decided to pursue Zhao Haochen into the Nine Netherworlds.
• Ren Ye descended toward the abyss, ignored the Storyteller’s warning, and confronted Sun Family Clan Elders by claiming the identity of Huang Qi, the New Master of Delusion.
• Ren Ye unleashed three rays of the Former Master’s immortal light, filling the sky with Gray Mist as Wu Zhengfeng recognized the Former Master’s Great Dao awakening.

Ren Ye used the Former Master's immortal light to defeat and capture Zhao Haochen as the battle against the Sun Family ended. Zhao Mi emerged from seclusion, proposed a one-on-one fight against ten opponents to settle the conflict, and Zhong Deng unexpectedly challenged him alone.

• Ren Ye descended into the Nine Netherworlds, immobilized Zhao Haochen and the Zhao elders with the immortal light, destroyed Zhao Haochen’s Star Core, and carried him out alive.
• Li Xiaopang joined Ren Ye as Second Uncle Li, Qin Yanting, and Qian Zhongge led reinforcements to defeat the Sun Family, leaving Sun Michen bound and fewer than three hundred Sun Family members alive.
• Zhao Mi broke through the roof of his Enlightenment Cottage, ordered his family to remain in its courtyard, and used the Guiding Talisman to enter the Divine Tomb.
• Zhao Mi summoned the two beings beneath the Nine Netherworlds and challenged Qian Zhongge, Li Taishan, Qin Yanting, Wu Zhengfeng, and six Clan Elders to fight him together, offering to surrender his claim if they won.
• Qian Zhongge, Li Taishan, Qin Yanting, and the six Clan Elders accepted Zhao Mi’s challenge, but Zhong Deng declared that he would fight Zhao Mi alone as Ren Ye’s Path Guardian.

Ren Ye persuaded Delusion Village’s elders to let the Storyteller fight Zhao Mi over the inheritance, and the two crossed the starry Void to battle on a dead star. After Zhao Mi destroyed the Storyteller’s attempts to revive the star, the Storyteller awakened the cauldron’s Creation Qi, defeated Zhao Mi’s three Yang Bodies, and named the reborn star the Human Emperor Star before his presence vanished.

• Ren Ye asked the Storyteller to fight Zhao Mi, and Ren Ye won the elders’ permission by explaining that he trusted the Storyteller to protect his inheritance.
• Zhao Mi challenged the Storyteller to fight on a dead star, and both men crossed the Void to reach it as Delusion Village watched their auras from afar.
• The Storyteller used the cauldron’s Creation Qi to raise the sun and moon and bring forth life, but Zhao Mi summoned three Yang Bodies that destroyed each creation.
• The Storyteller awakened the cauldron’s full power and summoned a golden figure, which used Creation Qi to revive the star and shatter Zhao Mi’s three Yang Bodies.
• Zhao Mi admitted defeat, and the Storyteller named the newly revived star the Human Emperor Star before his presence disappeared; Ren Ye suspected the Storyteller had faked his death.

Zhao Mi conceded defeat and accepted responsibility for the Zhao Family’s crimes, while Sun Michen surrendered the Sun Family’s Dragon Key and took his own life. Ren Ye reclaimed his identity as Delusion’s new master and later visited Zhao Mi in confinement, where he revealed that he was grateful to him.

• Zhao Mi admitted his role in the Zhao Family’s crimes, concealed the two presences beneath the Nine Netherworlds, and agreed to enter the Heavenly Prison until the Day of Silent Death.
• Sun Michen acknowledged his defeat, surrendered the Sun Family’s Dragon Key and secret method, and used the Cold Sky Bell to kill himself.
• Li Taishan, Qian Zhongge, and the gathered cultivators bowed to Ren Ye as Delusion’s new master, and the Heavenly Dao announced that he had passed the Delusion Village trial.
• Ren Ye visited Zhao Haochen in the Heavenly Prison and called him Delusion Village’s biggest coward.
• Ren Ye shared a final drink with Zhao Mi in the Formation Core Chamber, asked why he had never taken his Three Thousand Secret Treasures, and told him he was the outsider he was most grateful to.

Ren Ye explained to Zhao Mi how he uncovered the truth about the Origin Eyes, the Tomb Keepers, and Zhao Haochen’s role in the Zhao Family’s rebellion. After learning that Zhao Mi had tried to protect his clan while upholding the law, Ren Ye revealed that Zhao Haochen and the elders responsible had already died by suicide, leaving Zhao Mi with his son’s final message.

• Ren Ye told Zhao Mi that his fairness and care had protected Ren Ye, while Zhao Haochen’s proximity to the Three Thousand Secret Treasures had fueled his desire to seize them for the Zhao Family.
• Ren Ye explained how Tian Wei had taken his Origin Eyes and reconstructed the Tomb Keepers’ plot from Zhou Taozhi’s memories and his own sensations in the coffin; Zhao Mi confirmed the account.
• Ren Ye deduced that Zhao Mi had entered the Divine Tomb to guard against Sun Michen, then had cared for Ren Ye after killing the two Tomb Keepers who tried to steal his eyes.
• Zhao Mi revealed that Yang Huanzhen and Zhao Family elders had drugged him and placed him under house arrest, and that he had acted to prevent needless deaths and preserve the clan’s strength.
• Ren Ye thanked Zhao Mi as his Path Guardian, but said the responsible Zhao Family members had to die for justice to be served.
• Ren Ye told Zhao Mi that Zhao Haochen and more than twenty elders had killed themselves in their cells, then delivered Zhao Haochen’s uneaten porridge and final message to his father.

Ren Ye left Delusion Village after completing its final hidden task and joined the others at Homesickness Tower to await Leaving Hometown Road. There, he and the Storyteller secretly poisoned each other, and Ren Ye caught the Storyteller trying to extract his Chaos Origin Qi.

• Ren Ye completed the hidden task “The Final Truth,” received the Incense Token, and learned that Zhao Haochen and the Zhao Family Clan Elders had chosen suicide to clear Zhao Mi’s name.
• Ren Ye settled with the Li Family, while Li Xiaopang persuaded Second Uncle Li to help Da Erbi obtain a place on Leaving Hometown Road.
• The immortal radiance appeared, and Ren Ye, Fatty, Da Erbi, and the others crossed the divine bridge to Homesickness Tower as Second Uncle Li decided to leave Delusion Village too.
• Ren Ye met Da Erbi privately at a banquet and recognized him as the Storyteller, who had returned under an alias after surviving his battle with Zhao Mi.
• The Storyteller drugged Ren Ye’s soup and tried to draw out his Chaos Origin Qi, but Ren Ye revealed that he had poisoned the Storyteller’s wine with every deadly poison he had obtained from the Li Family.

Ren Ye exposed the Storyteller as an Order Traveler who had stolen a Chaos Traveler’s place and entered Delusion Village to obtain the Chaos Origin Qi. Ren Ye gave him the Qi, opening Leaving Hometown Road, and departed Delusion Village with Fatty while anticipating the coming Heavenly Capital arc.

• Ren Ye explained how he deduced the Storyteller was a Player, and the Storyteller admitted he had taken a Chaos Traveler’s place using a stolen Heaven’s Grace Token.
• The Storyteller revealed that he needed the Chaos Origin Qi to avoid becoming lost, and Ren Ye willingly drew it out and handed it over.
• The Storyteller absorbed the Chaos Origin Qi, causing Leaving Hometown Road to open and the Cultivators outside Homesickness Tower to set off.
• Ren Ye gave the Storyteller the Antidote, and the Storyteller promised to return the Chaos Qi before leaving as a Divine Rainbow.
• Ren Ye reunited with Fatty, said goodbye to Delusion Village and Tan Pangzi, and thought of the approaching Ninety-Nine Human Emperor.

Ren Ye completed the Delusion Village secret realm, gained two divine rewards, and reached the consummate Fourth Grade realm before returning to the Old Fisherman. The Old Fisherman recruited him as an undercover captain for the Fulong Pavilion and sent him to rescue Jiu Zhi, while Jiu Zhi remained imprisoned in North Wind Town.

• The Heavenly Dao rewarded Ren Ye for fully exploring Delusion Village, and he chose the southern bright separation fire and a fragment of the Divine Canon Mending Heaven Formula.
• Ren Ye received ten god-level enlightenment sources and ten Understanding-level Dao Comprehension Sources, then checked his status and found that he still needed to complete his advancement assignment to reach Fifth Grade.
• After returning from the secret realm, Ren Ye told the Old Fisherman that he was Huang Qi, the Lord of Delusion's legitimate son, and described Delusion's spirit as extreme rules and extreme fairness.
• The Old Fisherman recruited Ren Ye to infiltrate Chaos on behalf of Order, appointed him captain of the Fulong Pavilion's Heavenly Mystery Squad, and gave him the Fulong Token.
• The Old Fisherman ordered Ren Ye to rescue Jiu Zhi from the Heavenly Radiance Temple's Great Might Heavenly Dragon in North Wind Town, where Jiu Zhi had been imprisoned and abused for half a month.

Ren Ye reached Heavenly Capital and met Fulong Pavilion master Long Er, who gave him a new identity for infiltrating North Wind Town. The identity also triggered a contradictory Chaos Faction assignment to steal a treasured medicine from Wang Anquan, leaving Ren Ye caught between opposing missions.

• Old Fisherman directed Ren Ye to meet Young Master Long Er at Qionghua House in Heavenly Capital.
• Ren Ye traveled to Heavenly Capital and found Long Er at Qionghua House, where Long Er tasked him with rescuing Jiu Zhi and locating the missing agent Punching Bag.
• Long Er ordered Ren Ye to secretly investigate commander Wang Anquan, turn him back to the Divine Court if possible, and help retake North Wind Town.
• Long Er used a strand of Zhenyi's Divine Soul to give Ren Ye the cover identity of a novice monk from Heavenly Radiance Temple.
• The Heaven's Grace Token assigned Ren Ye to steal the Dao-Comprehending Ginseng Fruit from Wang Anquan for Arhat Yuyang, while also giving him Order Faction missions to save Jiu Zhi and Punching Bag and recover North Wind Town.
• Ren Ye realized his two factions' assignments conflicted because one demanded he support Wang Anquan while the other required him to steal from him.

Ren Ye prepared to impersonate the monk Zhenyi by securing funding and buying Chaos-tainted disguise tools for his mission in North Wind Town. While shopping in the Heavenly Capital, he ran into his old friend Fatty Chu, who had reached Fifth Grade.

• Ren Ye pointed out that Order’s mission to recruit Wang Anquan conflicted with Chaos’s demand to kill him, and Long Er told him to prioritize Order’s assignment.
• Ren Ye persuaded Long Er to provide five hundred thousand Star Source, then left to buy disguise and assassination tools in the West Tower Bustling District.
• Ren Ye spent nearly three million Star Source on ominous treasures, pills, talismans, and a controllable corpse to conceal his identity as an Order cultivator.
• Ren Ye recognized a familiar liquor fragrance at a fortune-telling stall and exposed the Taoist priest’s scam to a woman seeking relief from bad luck.
• Ren Ye answered the riddles about the Park District’s child of Destiny and Monkey Lord, then recognized the Taoist priest as Fatty Chu and learned that he had reached Fifth Grade.

Ren Ye reunited with Daoist Chu in the Heavenly Capital, traded intelligence about the factions and assignments, and persuaded him to join the journey to North Wind Town. Disguised as the monk Zhenyi, Ren Ye reached the Fortune Comes Inn, where an explorer from the Chaos Faction introduced himself as Wang Tudou.

• Daoist Chu explained that he had searched for Ren Ye and shared news about the Heavenly Capital’s factions, assignments, and the New Year's Watchers.
• Ren Ye told Daoist Chu about his conflicting assignments and lured him into joining the trip to North Wind Town by promising access to the Delusion Divine Tomb; Daoist Chu agreed and provided two million Star Source.
• Ren Ye merged with the three wisps of Zhenyi’s Divine Soul, disguised himself with a Disguise Pill, and traveled with Daoist Chu to the Fortune Comes Inn.
• The innkeeper verified Ren Ye’s password and brought him and Daoist Chu to meet the Divine Monk Prefecture’s waiting contact.
• The contact introduced himself as Wang Tudou and revealed that he was an explorer from the Chaos Faction.

Ren Ye disguised himself as a Remnant Soul while meeting Wang Tudou and the monk Mora, then traveled with their groups toward North Wind Town. Three days later, garrison commander Wang Anquan prepared his sons for the arriving Heavenly Radiance Temple officials, while the imprisoned Little Marquis noticed his food had improved.

• Wang Tudou introduced Ren Ye to his traveling companions and Mora, the Fifth-Grade monk who would oversee the Inner Manor in North Wind Town.
• Ren Ye and Daoist Chu concluded that Wang Tudou and his companions were Travelers, and Ren Ye warned Daoist Chu that Wang Tudou was dangerous.
• Mora, Wang Tudou, and Ren Ye set out for North Wind Town with their respective groups and arrived three days later.
• Wang Anquan shaved both sons' heads and told his younger son that doing so would protect him, then ordered the Steward to entertain the sixteen arriving officials.
• The Little Marquis received an unusually good meal in North Wind Town's prison and guessed that something was happening.

Wang Anquan’s history of loyalty and political survival led him to become North Wind Town’s surrendered garrison commander, where he now depended on the incoming officials and Niu Dali. At their welcoming banquet, Niu Dali staged a murderous extortion scheme against prisoners and falsely credited Wang Anquan with devising it, while Ren Ye watched in anger.

• Wang Anquan defied the First Prince to defend his disgraced master, lost his office, and later accepted an appointment as North Wind Town’s garrison commander.
• Wang Anquan surrendered North Wind Town to the Heavenly Radiance Temple, and Niu Dali took control of the town’s monk soldiers while Wang Anquan became a powerless figurehead.
• Niu Dali proposed exploiting unidentified prisoners for Star Source and told Wang Anquan to take credit for the scheme.
• Ren Ye, Wang Tudou, Mora, and the other officials arrived in North Wind Town and attended a banquet hosted by Niu Dali and Wang Anquan.
• Wang Anquan hinted that Ren Ye should overlook irregularities in the town’s accounts, and Ren Ye agreed to visit his residence.
• Niu Dali brought prisoners before the banquet guests and threatened to kill them unless they paid for their lives, then claimed Wang Anquan had devised the plan.

At a banquet in the Garrison Prefecture, Niu Dali’s men extorted Star Source from condemned prisoners and executed those who could not pay, while Ren Ye struggled to protect them without exposing himself. The Little Marquis then escaped execution by claiming he knew the Human Emperor Successor’s whereabouts, leaving Ren Ye and Daoist Chu stunned as he began describing their supposed feud.

• Niu Dali and the new officials watched as prisoners were ordered to pay one million Star Source for another day of life.
• Six prisoners who failed to pay were beheaded, and the young bald leader killed a scholar who had borrowed Star Source to meet the price.
• Ren Ye silently reconsidered his mission and resolved to help the Divine Court retake North Wind Town, while the Little Marquis was brought forward with the next group of prisoners.
• The Little Marquis insulted the bald leader, then offered to defect to the Heavenly Radiance Divine Temple in exchange for his life.
• The Little Marquis claimed the Human Emperor Successor had entered the Year 251 Migration Land and said he knew his exact whereabouts.
• The Little Marquis called himself the Human Emperor Successor’s archenemy and invented a story about stolen opportunities and an abducted wife, while Ren Ye told Daoist Chu he was making it up.

At the welcoming banquet, the Little Marquis revealed that he knew where the Human Emperor Successor was, drawing attention to him and prompting Niu Dali to order him held separately for interrogation. Ren Ye and Daoist Chu decided to leave him under observation while investigating North Wind Town’s factions, and Ren Ye’s first review of the town’s plunder records led him toward Wang Anquan.

• The Little Marquis announced that the Human Emperor Successor was in the Year 251 Migration Land, but a warning from Heavenly Radiance Temple ordered Niu Dali not to handle the prisoners rashly and said temple interrogators would be sent.
• Niu Dali ended the banquet, ordered the Little Marquis held separately, and sent the other prisoners back to their cells pending the temple’s interrogators.
• Ren Ye and Daoist Chu discussed using the Little Marquis as bait to learn about North Wind Town’s factions, and Ren Ye concluded that Niu Dali’s banquet scheme and Wang Anquan’s secret report had shaped the evening’s events.
• Ren Ye took up his post at the Inner Manor Logistics Office and found that its ledgers recorded only a little over twenty million star source, with many entries marked “suspected” or “unknown.”
• After an official said Wang Anquan had provided the ledgers, Ren Ye left the office, joking that he was suspected of heading to a whorehouse and that the opponents he might meet were unknown.

Ren Ye confronted Wang Anquan about North Wind Town’s missing Star Source, then accepted the commander’s promise to conceal the suspicious accounts after Wang offered him several treasures. As Ren Ye left to investigate the missing fortune with Daoist Chu, Wang Anquan’s furious wife demanded her stolen hairpin, and Wang Tudou arrived insisting on seeing Jiu Zhi.

• Ren Ye visited Wang Anquan and warned that the suspicious treasury accounts could bring trouble to the Garrison Prefecture and the Martial Monk Supervisory Office.
• Wang Anquan explained that the city’s treasuries had been looted during the fall of North Wind Town and said the treasury had once held over two hundred million Star Source.
• Wang Anquan offered Ren Ye a jade hairpin, a Jade-Seated Golden Buddha, and a Puppet-Slaying Blade to persuade him not to investigate the accounts; Ren Ye agreed to report that the books matched the cash on hand.
• Ren Ye left the Garrison Prefecture planning to investigate the missing Star Source with Daoist Chu, while Wang Anquan’s wife stormed in and slapped him over her missing hairpin.
• Wang Tudou arrived at the Garrison Prefecture and told Wang Anquan that the Divine Monk Manor had sent him to see Jiu Zhi that day.

Wang Tudou found the captured Jiu Zhi too badly poisoned and cursed to escort, so he decided to wait while secretly planning for trouble. Meanwhile, Ren Ye and Daoist Chu traced a missing fortune in star source to the town treasury, and Mora prepared to use a prisoner to help Prince Gu Huang locate the Human Emperor Successor.

• Wang Tudou examined Jiu Zhi in the underground chamber and learned that he needed seven or eight days to recover before he could be moved.
• Wang Tudou ordered Wang Anquan to keep Jiu Zhi hidden from everyone, then returned to his inn and planned the escort with his seven companions.
• Ren Ye told Daoist Chu that more than two hundred million in star source had gone missing from North Wind Town, and they devised ways to investigate the funds and test Wang Anquan.
• Ren Ye realized that the town's records could identify the treasury that had held the missing star source and turned to the ledger for clues.
• Mora sent a subordinate to visit Niu Dali's prisoner, improve the prisoner's conditions, and prepare to use him to find the Human Emperor Successor for Prince Gu Huang.

Ren Ye and Daoist Chu investigated the Ministry of Revenue treasury as the likely source of North Wind Town’s missing star source, triggering a hidden assignment and uncovering signs of a massacre. They summoned a victim’s soul, which named Liu Wei as the only survivor, while an unrelated team decided to act within two days without seeking the other Divine Court agent.

• Ren Ye reasoned from the general ledger that the Ministry of Revenue treasury was the likeliest source of the missing star source, and he and Daoist Chu went to inspect it.
• Ren Ye and Daoist Chu forced the guards to let them into the ruins and found a bloodstained, sinister treasury below ground.
• Ren Ye triggered the hidden assignment, “The Unlocated Massive Star Source,” and Daoist Chu determined that the many victims’ souls had been shattered.
• Daoist Chu performed a soul-summoning ritual, and a slain monk identified Liu Wei from the Mess Hall Army as the only person who escaped.
• At an inn, a handsome young man decided his team would act within two days and rejected the suggestion that they find and work with the other Divine Court agent.

Ren Ye learned that Liu Wei of the Mess Hall Army might know what happened during the Treasury massacre and planned to approach him, while persuading Daoist Chu to fund their expenses. At the Garrison Prefecture, Wang Anquan’s son described seeing the supposedly dead Spirit Cat before a mysterious woman named Bai Zhenzhen arrived and showed Wang a token that shocked him.

• Ren Ye and Daoist Chu questioned the Monk Soldier Yin Soul and learned that Liu Wei of the Mess Hall Army had escaped the slaughter in the Ministry of Revenue's Treasury.
• Ren Ye learned from Old Zhang that Liu Wei was greedy and lustful, had been punished with the Soul Shatter Whip, and belonged to the Mess Hall Army rather than Niu Dali's forces.
• Ren Ye decided to threaten and win over Liu Wei, then convinced Daoist Chu to cover their expenses in exchange for an equal share of any opportunity they found.
• Wang Anquan beat his son Wang Wenping for leaving the compound, but Wang Wenping insisted he had chased the Spirit Cat to protect his younger brother.
• Wang Anquan encountered Bai Zhenzhen, a mysterious Fourth Grade cultivator with an Otherworlder's aura, in the rear courtyard and was stunned by the token she showed him.

Wang Anquan rejected Ren Ye’s attempt to recruit him through a Fulong Pavilion disguise, explaining that he only wanted to survive and protect his family. Ren Ye concluded that Wang Anquan was unlikely to help him recover Jiu Zhi and the Ginseng Fruit, then learned that Mora wanted to meet him.

• A gray-robed woman bearing a Fulong Token told Wang Anquan that the Pavilion Master offered him a chance to change sides, then asked him to bring Jiu Zhi back to the Heavenly Capital.
• Wang Anquan refused to hand over Jiu Zhi, described why he had surrendered North Wind Town, and warned the woman to leave with her people.
• Wang Anquan told He Zhu Zhu that he had spared the visitor because killing her could provoke Fulong Pavilion, and explained why Heavenly Radiance Temple would tolerate his decision.
• Ren Ye revealed that he had controlled the female corpse to test Wang Anquan and concluded that Wang Anquan would not risk changing sides again.
• Ren Ye decided to seek leverage by investigating the missing Star Source and planned to question Liu Wei.
• Old Zhang told Ren Ye that Mora, the chief official of the Inner Manor, wanted to meet him.

Ren Ye secured Mora’s warrant to investigate the missing Star Source, then pressured Liu Wei into revealing that the underground Treasury had held far more Star Source than the official accounts recorded. The chapter ended with Wang Anquan learning that his eldest son, Wenping, had disappeared again.

• Mora probed Ren Ye about the Star Source accounts, and Ren Ye described the suspiciously flawless ledger while leaving the decision to investigate to Mora.
• Mora ordered Ren Ye to investigate the missing Star Source discreetly and gave him a sealed warrant after Ren Ye pledged to follow the Inner Manor’s direction.
• Mora and a fellow monk decided to treat Ren Ye as a possible Traveler and let him investigate ahead as their pawn rather than keep him under surveillance.
• Ren Ye and Daoist Chu confronted Liu Wei at the Embroidered Silk Courtyard, and the yin soul identified Liu Wei as the sole survivor of the underground Treasury massacre.
• Ren Ye threatened to send the yin soul and his findings to the temple, prompting Liu Wei to admit that witnesses had seen vastly different amounts of Star Source in the Treasury, ranging from over two hundred million to more than a billion.
• The Steward told Wang Anquan that Wenping had vanished from the Garrison Prefecture, and Wang Anquan rose with a foreboding feeling.

Ren Ye questioned Liu Wei about the Treasury massacre and concluded that someone had engineered the killings to conceal a theft, with Niu Dali as a likely suspect. Meanwhile, Yu Tiange revealed that Wang Anquan’s missing son was with his friend and demanded that Wang obey him while he stayed at the residence.

• Liu Wei described how greed and chaos in the Ministry of Revenue Treasury led the Monk Soldiers to fight, and said a strange burning smell filled the underground corridors.
• Ren Ye promised to lay the Yin Soul to rest and gained Liu Wei’s loyalty, then reasoned with Daoist Chu that the Treasury massacre was a setup and Niu Dali may have planned it.
• The Heavenly Dao announced that Liu Wei’s intimacy with Ren Ye had risen to ninety percent.
• Wang Anquan feared that his missing son Wang Wenping had been abducted and secretly agreed to meet an unfamiliar young man.
• Yu Tiange showed Wang Anquan his son’s Soul-Nourishing Jade, said his friend had taken Wang Wenping as a disciple, and ordered Wang to obey him during his stay.