Recaps

After escaping the Xinrong Sect, Zhang Xiaohua traveled inland with Ji Xiaohua’s help and set out on Huanhuan. He learned that the Misty Sect had been destroyed and intervened when three Righteous Path Alliance men tried to capture a wounded disciple.

• After four years on the island, Zhang Xiaohua was rescued by Chai Feng and Bai Yonggui, who sought the red-cloaked man’s sheepskin scroll and plotted against him.
• Zhang Xiaohua escaped the Xinrong Sect’s attempt to capture him, defeated Yuanshan and wounded Bai Yonggui, then fled the docks using Earth Evasion.
• In Songning Town, Zhang Xiaohua befriended Ji Xiaohua, bought him food, and gave money and jade to help his family.
• Zhang Xiaohua acquired Huanhuan from Old Father Hao and rode out of town, where he killed Old Xu and three bandits who planned to rob him.
• While traveling with Huanhuan, Zhang Xiaohua cultivated and practiced formations before hearing three men accuse a wounded Misty Sect disciple of being a thief.
• The men revealed that the Misty Sect had been destroyed three years earlier, and Zhang Xiaohua wondered whether Zhang Xiaohu had survived.
• When the disciple tried to kill himself rather than be captured, Zhang Xiaohua shattered his sword with a flying dagger and confronted the three Righteous Path Alliance men.

Chu Yunfei told Zhang Xiaohua how the Misty Sect was destroyed and its survivors taken in by the Incense-Passing Cult. On the road, Zhang Xiaohua rescued Nie Qianyu and Xiao Juzi, reached the sixth layer of Qi Cultivation, and agreed to help them for now.

• Chu Yunfei told Zhang Xiaohua that the Misty Sect had fallen, then recounted how Zhang Xiaohu searched for his missing brother and how the sect came under attack.
• Ou Peng prepared the Misty Sect for an assault, but Zhang San and the Righteous Path Alliance overwhelmed its defenses while the sect’s allies arrived too late to prevent its destruction.
• Ou Peng severed his meridians and died, Zhang Chengyue killed himself, and Yang Ruying secured Abbess Jingyi’s promise to protect Ou Yan and the surviving disciples.
• The three sects searched Huanxi Mountain Villa for the sheepskin scroll, and Yang Ruying led the Misty Sect survivors to the Incense-Passing Cult, and Zhang Xiaohua set out to find Zhang Xiaohu and seek revenge.
• Zhang Xiaohua rescued Nie Qianyu and Xiao Juzi from bandits who had attacked their carriage, then helped them reach a market town and arranged for them to hide at an inn.
• While caring for the women, Zhang Xiaohua cultivated and broke through to the sixth layer of Qi Cultivation.
• Nie Qianyu thanked Zhang Xiaohua and urged him to stay with them, and he agreed to keep helping for now and took her prescription to copy it.

Zhang Xiaohua escorted Nie Qianyu and Xiao Juzi toward safety, then returned to Misty Mountain Villa and Guo Village. He reunited with his family and helped open the strange formation surrounding his newborn nephew, whose birth deepened his understanding of the Heavenly Dao.

• Zhang Xiaohua killed Hall Master Qiu and his four men when they tried to seize Nie Qianyu and Xiao Juzi, then took the women out of Danhe City after learning the escort agencies would not help them.
• Zhang Xiaohua traveled with Nie Qianyu and Xiao Juzi toward Pingyang City, lodged them there, and went alone to Misty Mountain Villa.
• Zhang Xiaohua met Qiuju, learned about the Misty Sect’s destruction, and received a birthday letter and box for Qiutong to deliver.
• Zhang Xiaohua buried a cat killed by a carriage, experienced the Heavenly Dao, and realized the Big Dipper Divine Fist’s second stage had to be performed in reverse.
• Zhang Xiaohua returned to Guo Village as Liu Qian went into labor and found that her newborn was enclosed in a golden lotus formation.
• Zhang Xiaohua split open the formation with his small sword, and the newborn’s gaze drew him into a vision of the universe’s evolution and collapse.
• Zhang Xiaohua reunited with his family, visited his grandmother’s grave, and studied the formation and purple Qi he had encountered.
• Zhang Xiaohua joined his family’s feast and discovered that his newborn nephew quieted and fell asleep after receiving a Qi Stone.

Zhang Xiaohua returned to Guo Village, entrusted his family with protective talismans, and left to find Zhang Xiaohu. In Pingyang City, he tracked Xiao Juzi’s abduction to a manor and discovered a chamber where seventy-seven girls were being used in a formation, but someone caught him as he tried to rescue her.

• Zhang Xiaohua reunited with his family, helped name Liu Qian’s son Zhang Jian, and showed his relatives his strength and hidden treasure.
• After Zhang Cai challenged him to remember the Misty Sect’s kindness, Zhang Xiaohua accepted the rebuke, resolved to act with compassion, and gave his family protective talismans before leaving Guo Village.
• Zhang Xiaohua arrived at the inn and learned from Nie Qianyu that Xiao Juzi had been abducted during the Lantern Festival.
• Zhang Xiaohua searched Pingyang City for Xiao Juzi and followed suspicious manure collectors to a village, where he discovered that Flag Bearer Gao was handling the captive girl.
• Zhang Xiaohua tracked Flag Bearer Gao to a manor near Lu Town, while Yu Deyi went to Hui Lu Town to gather soldiers.
• Zhang Xiaohua infiltrated the manor and learned that the Lord needed seventy-seven girls born on the seventh day of the seventh month to cultivate an inner art by absorbing their primordial Yin.
• Zhang Xiaohua entered the underground chamber, found Xiao Juzi in a jade coffin among seventy-seven coffins, and removed the coffin lids and other formation materials with his money pouch.
• As Zhang Xiaohua reached to pull Xiao Juzi from her coffin, someone cried out in surprise and demanded to know who he was.