Recaps

The Golden Aspect Sect young hero battled the thin Daoist with pipa music and a golden artifact, while a hidden incantation caster repeatedly interfered. The thin Daoist lost his ghosts and Dew-Gathering Pouch before fleeing as reinforcements approached.

• The young hero summoned a Sound Aspect White Eagle with his pipa, but the thin Daoist released ghosts from his Beast-Head Banner to attack it.
• The thin Daoist overwhelmed the young hero’s second eagle with Human Souls, while the young hero struck his chest and vomited blood.
• A hidden caster’s “Drown” incantation raised a wave that obscured the fight, giving the young hero time to unleash a golden light that destroyed the ghosts.
• The exhausted young hero fell onto his feather-shaped flying artifact as shouts from approaching reinforcements made the thin Daoist consider retreating.
• The thin Daoist tried to escape in gray mist, but the hidden caster’s “Burn” incantation burned a hole through his Dew-Gathering Pouch, and he fled howling.

After saving the injured young hero, Yunqi met his elders from the Golden Aspect Sect and traveled with them to their home on Poyang Lake. He was welcomed into their waterside estate, but the young hero could not speak, leaving Yunqi still unaware of his name.

• The three Golden Aspect Sect elders arrived, treated the young hero, and learned that Yunqi had saved him.
• Yunqi introduced himself as a Registered Disciple of Three Pure Ones Mountain and agreed to accompany the group in case the Thin Daoist was still nearby.
• Yunqi collected his belongings, including several lake stones, and the elders carried the two youths and him across Poyang Lake by Riding the Wind.
• Jiang Yanxing explained that the islands of Poyang Lake housed immortals and ordinary people together as the group approached the sect's island estate.
• The group landed at a waterside courtyard, where the gathered household called Jiang Yanxing the family head and the injured youth the young master, while Yunqi remained unsure of the young hero's name.

Yunqi settled into the Jiang family’s Wind Lotus Retreat and examined the talisman arrow he had taken from the thin Daoist, deciding that talisman arrows suited his current cultivation goals. He realized that Poyang Lake produced the rare conches needed to make them and considered whether the Jiang family traded in them.

• Yunqi admired the lotus-filled lake around his guest courtyard, then sat by the water to study the talisman arrow he had seized.
• Yunqi considered how talisman arrows concealed and activated talismans, and recalled that the thin Daoist had planned to use one in a sneak attack on the young hero.
• Yunqi decided to focus on talismans and learn to make talisman arrows rather than spend time and resources on alchemy or artifact refining.
• Yunqi worked out that making talisman arrows required spiritually suitable metal, engraved restrictions, and a small magical conch to preserve an incantation.
• Yunqi recalled that Poyang Lake produced Little Coiled-Ear Nail Snails and wondered whether the Jiang family was involved in their trade.

Yunqi uncovered a Recording Conch hidden inside a talisman arrow and learned how it could trigger a fire talisman from a distance. The next morning, Jiang Nanjing and his family thanked Yunqi, and Jiang Nanjing offered him a Seal Knob and a void grotto stone.

• Yunqi carefully melted open a talisman arrow and found a talisman paper, a Recording Conch, and mud-hardening earth hidden inside it.
• Yunqi identified the Fire-Rain Molten-Gold Talisman and used the conch to trigger it underwater, confirming that the conch and arrow could be reused.
• Jiang Yuexing and his wife visited Yunqi to thank him for saving their son, and Yunqi learned that Jiang Nanjing was the sole heir of Bright Light Hall's main lineage.
• Jiang Nanjing stayed behind, introduced himself to Yunqi, and offered him a Seal Knob and a void grotto stone as thanks.

Jiang Nanjing gave Yunqi a Void Grotto Stone bracelet and engraved him a gold seal bearing the name Humble Caution Studio. Yunqi explored the Stone’s three-zhang space, gained a faint insight into the void, and left Jiang Nanjing with the seal’s first impression.

• Yunqi accepted Jiang Nanjing’s Void Grotto Stone bracelet but initially refused the gold seal.
• Jiang Nanjing persuaded Yunqi to choose a studio name, and Yunqi named it Humble Caution Studio.
• Jiang Nanjing engraved the name on the seal, while Yunqi unlocked the bracelet’s mesh and explored the Cave Stone’s three-zhang void realm.
• Yunqi gained a faint insight into the void and was pleased that he could store bulky belongings in the Cave Stone.
• Jiang Nanjing applied vermilion to the seal, and Yunqi stamped the first impression in Jiang Nanjing’s booklet.

Yunqi offered to teach Jiang Nanjing the Great Sun Radiance Mantra, a spell he had comprehended himself, and patiently coached him through its hand seal and incantation. Jiang Nanjing still could not make it work by the time the feast was ready, and Jiang Yanxing ordered everyone to keep well away from their practice.

• Yunqi asked Jiang Nanjing about his cultivation and offered to teach him a fire-rooted mantra that complemented his metal foundation.
• Yunqi explained that he had devised the Great Sun Radiance Mantra for inner sight and combat, then taught Jiang Nanjing its outward-casting hand seal.
• Jiang Nanjing repeatedly chanted the single-character spell Zhao, but no light appeared at his fingertip.
• Yunqi tried adding a longer invocation to help Jiang Nanjing, but his fingertip still produced no effect.
• Servants found Yunqi and Jiang Nanjing practicing at the retreat instead of attending the banquet and reported back to Jiang Yanxing and Jiang Yuexing.
• Jiang Yanxing and Jiang Yuexing listened from a distance, then Jiang Yanxing ordered everyone to stay at least eight hundred paces from the retreat unless Jiang Nanjing left.

Yunqi taught Jiang Nanjing the Great Sun Radiance Mantra and began teaching him its internal-vision method, while the Jiang family realized the value of his instruction and urged Nanjing to seek more. Yunqi planned to leave after finishing the lessons, but accepted a hundred magical Little Coiled-Ear Nail Snails with sealing clay as thanks, and hurried his teaching because he feared the family's generosity—and his own greed.

• Yunqi taught Jiang Nanjing the Great Sun Radiance Mantra, and Nanjing successfully summoned crimson-gold light after seven cycles of visualization.
• Jiang Nanjing demonstrated the spell to his father, uncle, and Daoist Manifest Tranquility, then described how Yunqi had used four single-word incantations to save him from the Thin Daoist.
• Jiang Yanxing urged Nanjing to keep studying with Yunqi and to accept any scolding or request in exchange for learning the internal-vision method.
• Yunqi told Jiang Nanjing he would teach him internal vision and planned to leave for his travels once the lessons were finished.
• Jiang Nanjing brought Yunqi a Water-Avoidance Pearl, but Yunqi refused it and asked instead for a hundred magical Little Coiled-Ear Nail Snails with sealing clay as thanks.
• Yunqi taught more quickly over the following days because he wanted to leave before the Jiang family's generosity stirred his greed further.

Yunqi heard Jiang Nanjing recount the history of the legendary zither Heavenly Wind Over Pine and Snow, which was connected to a Green Chi-Dragon and a battle in Shu sixty years earlier. After receiving talisman arrow blanks and a map of Poyang Lake from the Golden Aspect Sect, Yunqi departed and returned to the lake where he had encountered the Thin Daoist.

• Jiang Nanjing played the pipa for Yunqi and told him about the Lei clan’s famous zithers and Immortal Lei’s Heavenly Wind Over Pine and Snow.
• Yunqi recalled finding a zither with the same name in Pine Green Lake and wondered how the young Green Chi-Dragon there was connected to Immortal Lei’s friend.
• Jiang Nanjing explained that Heavenly Wind Over Pine and Snow had not appeared for a long time and might have been connected to a Green Chi-Dragon hunted in Shu sixty years earlier.
• Jiang Nanjing’s servants brought Yunqi talisman arrow blanks instead of the nail snails he had requested, and Yunqi accepted the gift and stored it away.
• Jiang Yanxing gave Yunqi a map of Poyang Lake, and Yunqi said farewell to the Golden Aspect Sect before riding south on his Dragon Chariot.
• Yunqi returned to the place where Jiang Nanjing had encountered the Thin Daoist, put away his cloud conveyance, and dove into the lake.

Yunqi reached a remote Miao village after traveling west for two months and was welcomed after its rooster judged him a good guest. The old man explained the village’s White Dragons and Red-Crest Lord, while Yunqi settled in for a stay.

• Yunqi crossed the mountains and, feeling weary and close to his birthday, followed a stream toward a village.
• Yunqi found the village’s houses and terraced fields built along opposing mountain slopes and approached carrying two rabbits.
• White dogs barked at Yunqi until a large rooster crowed, prompting the villagers to welcome him.
• An old man who spoke the official dialect led Yunqi into the village and explained that the White Dragons guarded the gates.
• The old man said the Red-Crest Lord’s long crow had identified Yunqi as the very best sort of guest.

Yunqi arrived at Chestnut Creek Stockade in the Miao Borderlands, where Chief Sang Munai welcomed him and offered him an empty house once occupied by a young Daoist. As Elder Munai explained the stockade’s Red-Crest Lord traditions and the ghosts and monsters said to haunt Great Green Mountain, Yunqi began learning about the dangers of the region.

• Elder Munai led Yunqi into Chestnut Creek Stockade and gave him a house at the stockade’s highest point.
• Elder Munai told Yunqi that a young Daoist had once stayed in the house and helped save the stockade.
• Two Miao aunties brought water, a rag, and bedding to prepare Yunqi’s room while Elder Munai showed him the stockade.
• Yunqi told Elder Munai that he had come from Yu Zhang and was wandering without a particular destination.
• Elder Munai explained that the Red-Crest Lord House-Guarding Picture protected homes from evil ghosts and venomous creatures.
• Elder Munai described the Water Monkeys, Mountain Fiends, Fox Fiends, Mist Fiends, Wailing Ghosts, and living dead said to inhabit Great Green Mountain.

Yunqi learned how roosters protected the Miao people from supernatural dangers and found a foundation for his Hairy Head Sun Star Lord visualization. At the stockade’s welcome bonfire, he gained a clearer understanding of fire as a force held in human hands.

• Munaigong explained how the Miao people had relied on white dogs, fire, and especially roosters to survive yin evils, venomous insects, and black fog.
• Yunqi recorded the roosters’ deeds and realized he could use them to ground his visualization of the Hairy Head Sun Star Lord.
• After the two aunties prepared his room, Yunqi gave them and Munaigong money and sat outside meditating as the sun set.
• That night, Munaigong ignited a large bonfire with a flame-spitting tool, driving the cold mist from the stockade.
• Watching the villagers gather around the fire, Yunqi understood that mortal fires could drive away darkness and were held in human hands.
• Munaigong and the villagers called Yunqi to join them while the White Dragons played and the roosters watched over the stockade.

Yunqi joined the villagers’ feast, shared his rabbit with the children, and learned that a child was dying after losing his soul. He asked the village chief for permission to try to help the child.

• Yunqi joined the village chief and warriors for a bonfire feast, where he drank the villagers’ strong corn liquor, White Knife.
• Yunqi gave his roasted rabbit to the village chief to share among the children, asking that corn be saved for him instead.
• A messenger summoned the village chief to a house where a child had lain unconscious for four days after losing his soul.
• The village chief explained that the child’s breathing was fading and the feather-crowned warriors were keeping watch in case he died.
• Yunqi asked the village chief if he could try to save the child.

Yunqi found Fleeceflower Root and used it to save Donghuo Nai’s child, then received the family’s gratitude and a puppy from the old chief. The child had recovered by morning, and Yunqi was left with the White Dragon puppy as a gift.

• Yunqi learned where the Fleeceflower Root grew and flew to a pond west of the stockade to find it.
• Yunqi destroyed a ghostly mist, a yellow wildcat, and a white snake before digging up five Fleeceflower Roots.
• Yunqi refined a piece of root into spiritual liquid and gave it to Donghuo Nai’s dying child, who began recovering.
• The stockade celebrated the child’s recovery, and Yunqi asked the old chief to thank him with more White Blade liquor.
• The next morning, Donghuo Nai and his family bowed to Yunqi, and Donghuo gave him a White Dragon puppy as a token of gratitude.

Yunqi accepted White Dragon as a companion and learned the stockade’s history of the Red-Crest Lord and its rooster charms. After studying the rooster’s dawn crow, he created new protective pictures and arranged for the villagers to use them, calling them Rooster God Manifestation Pictures.

• Yunqi agreed to take White Dragon, whose keen hearing could warn him of danger in the mountains.
• Munaigong told Yunqi how a Daoist taught the stockade to raise Red-Crest Double-Pupiled Chickens and left protective Rooster King House-Guarding Pictures.
• Yunqi began preparing to form the Heart Mansion’s Inner Landscape Deity by bringing the Hairy Head Sun Star Officer to life through visualization.
• On the fifth day after arriving, Yunqi watched the Red-Crest Gentleman crow at dawn and carefully recalled its movements and the rising sun.
• Yunqi showed Munaigong his new rooster-themed protective pictures and asked him to distribute them among the villagers.
• Yunqi promised to replace the pictures periodically, and he named them Rooster God Manifestation Pictures.

Yunqi used his new Burning Annihilation spell to destroy sinister entities around the Eighteen Hongjiang Stockades and collect their remnants. In Chestnut Creek Stockade, he began using the gathered spiritual materials to open the first story of his Twelve-Storied Tower, revealing its rooftop within his inner landscape.

• Yunqi and White Dragon found a demonic tree hung with corpses, and Yunqi burned it to ash with Burning Annihilation.
• Yunqi explained how he had divided the Burn incantation into Burning Annihilation, which destroyed evil, and Burning Purification, which would protect and dispel suffering.
• White Dragon dug a seed from the ashes, and Yunqi stored it in the Cave Stone before moving on to other sinister places.
• On the seventeenth day of the ninth month, Yunqi prepared spiritual materials he had collected while destroying sinister entities to force open the first story of the Twelve-Storied Tower.
• Yunqi refined water-aligned materials into spiritual liquid and directed its spiritual qi into the tower, revealing its rooftop inside his inner landscape.

Yunqi told the villagers the legend of Daoist Yuandan while his visualization gradually formed the deity within his Twelve-Storied Tower. On his twenty-first day in the village, he mastered solar bing fire and drew fiery essence from the villagers’ lamps, then resolved to create three-flavored true fire from the mortal world.

• Yunqi told the villagers how the divine rooster became Daoist Yuandan, the guardian figure on their door pictures and a star lord in the Hairy Head Lodge.
• Yunqi celebrated his birthday by bringing firewood and a wild boar to the village, where everyone held a bonfire feast.
• Yunqi meditated at sunrise as Red-Crest General crowed, drew golden vapor into his Twelve-Storied Tower, and completed the visualization method for solar bing fire.
• Yunqi meditated among the village lights, drew their fiery essence into the Twelve-Storied Tower, and decided to combine the essence of mortal hearths and affection into three-flavored true fire.

Yunqi left the Miao village and traveled south through demon-filled mountains, seeking shelter from heavy snow. While reflecting on his cultivation, he decided to open his lung palace with yin xin metal and recognized that the golden beetle corpse Master Sukong had given him might be the key.

• Yunqi said farewell to the Miao villagers and journeyed into the mountains with White Dragon, avoiding powerful demons along the way.
• As heavy snow fell, White Dragon found a sheltered cave, and Yunqi warmed it with his three-flavored true fire.
• Yunqi considered what palace aperture to open after his fire-aligned heart mansion and chose a lung palace nourished by yin xin metal.
• Yunqi remembered the One-Horned Rhinoceros Golden Beetle corpse Master Sukong had given him and wondered whether his teacher had intended it for this purpose.
• Yunqi considered nurturing an insect and seeking corpses, imagining that a golden corpse could become the Master of his Lung Palace.

Yunqi studied the Green Beetle Life-Transformation Scripture and considered what kind of corpse to seek before opening his Lung Palace. A fugitive called Toad and two pursuers from Redwood Ridge arrived near his cave, and Yunqi watched as the standoff grew more dangerous.

• Yunqi read about the five elemental types of corpses and decided he might need to search the northwest for a suitable Xin metal corpse.
• Yunqi heard a dog growl, extinguished his fire, and hid in the cave as Toad fled through the snow from two pursuers.
• The pursuers used Talisman Arrows to block and attack Toad, who stopped and traded insults with them from a distance.
• Yunqi recognized that the red-haired pursuers likely came from Redwood Ridge and inferred that Toad belonged to their rival Hundred Barbarian Mountain.
• Toad lost patience and bit down on one of his remaining fingers.

Yunqi watched Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu survive Toad’s bloodflame attack before meeting them in his cave. The men learned Yunqi was not Miao, and the chapter ended with them introducing themselves as members of Rong River Stockade.

• Toad used the Sacrifice Body Technique and pursued Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu with bloodflame.
• Lang Shanliu used a blood-soaked wooden stick to summon a flood dragon, which swallowed Toad and destroyed him.
• Hu Jinliu treated Lang Shanliu’s wound, and the two returned to Yunqi’s cave to speak with its occupant.
• Yunqi emerged with a white dog, and Hu Jinliu asked whether he belonged to the Immortal’s Cave or the Azure Dragon Cave.
• Yunqi said he was not Miao but had lived in a Miao stockade, and he invited the wounded men inside.
• Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu introduced themselves as members of Rong River Stockade under Redwood Ridge.

Yunqi discussed the Miao lands and the conflict between Redwood Ridge and Hundred Barbarian Mountain with Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu. Hu Jinliu explained the sects’ origins and shared a rumor that their leaders were rival dragons fighting over the Southern Ridge dragon vein.

• Yunqi introduced himself as Cheng Qieqing and explained that he had saved a child in the Miao Stockade with a Soul-Restoring Pill.
• Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu thanked Yunqi for his compassion, and Hu Jinliu described the Immortal’s Cave and Azure Dragon Cave.
• Lang Shanliu warned Yunqi that the Azure Dragon Cave was near the battlefront, but Yunqi said he wanted to slay monsters and vanquish demons.
• Hu Jinliu explained how the Miao and Gui people had gathered around the Red-Haired Ancestor at Redwood Ridge and the Green-Robed Ancestor at Hundred Barbarian Mountain.
• Hu Jinliu said rumors claimed the Red-Haired Ancestor was a fire-aligned Brocade Dragon and the Green-Robed Ancestor a water-aligned Black Dragon, fighting over a dragon vein that could nurture only one true dragon.

Yunqi learned why Hundred Barbarian Mountain repeatedly waged war and traveled with Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu toward Azure Dragon Cave. They reached Spring-Gazing Mountain, where Azure Dragon Cave stood.

• Hu Jinliu explained that Hundred Barbarian Mountain often provoked wars and that Green Robe used the blood of his disciples and enemies to suppress his bloodflame.
• Yunqi, Lang Shanliu, Hu Jinliu, and White Dragon left the cave and headed for Azure Dragon Cave so Yunqi could register with the sect.
• Hu Jinliu explained that Green Robe’s snow cooled Hundred Barbarian Mountain’s bloodflame cultivators but slowed the magical power of Redwood Ridge cultivators.
• Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu learned that Yunqi had named White Dragon Wait-Wait and teased the dog along the way.
• The group reached the vicinity of Azure Dragon Cave, and Hu Jinliu pointed out Spring-Gazing Mountain.

Yunqi arrived at Azure Dragon Cave with Hu Jinliu and Lang Shanliu, where Daoist Tian Fang recognized his connection to Green God Mountain and welcomed him. Tian Fang revealed that he had been friends with Yunqi’s teacher Wen Sukong and martial uncle Chen Suxing sixty years earlier, and began leading Yunqi up the mountain.

• Hu Jinliu and Lang Shanliu greeted Daoist Tian Fang as their ancestor and introduced Yunqi as a wandering Daoist seeking to register at an abbey.
• Yunqi introduced himself as Cheng Qieqing of Azure Cloud Abbey, and Tian Fang recognized that Green God Mountain was too well known for the name to work as an assumed identity.
• After Hu Jinliu and Lang Shanliu departed, Tian Fang asked Yunqi about Wen Sukong and Chen Suxing, and learned that Yunqi was Sukong’s nominal disciple.
• Tian Fang led Yunqi up Spring-Gazing Mountain and explained that he had met Sukong and Suxing sixty years earlier after rescuing them from the Miasma Forest.

Yunqi registered as a guest at the Azure Dragon Cave and accepted three assignments before heading to the Seven-Mile River Market. He set up the Azure Dragon Abbey stall to draw talismans and cleanse filth, leaving himself ready to serve the frontline market.

• Tian Fang escorted Yunqi to the Azure Dragon Cave, where Yunqi registered as a temporary guest.
• Yunqi claimed command arrows for supplying talismans, cleansing filth, and slaying twenty demon soldiers.
• Yunqi thanked Tian Fang and left the abbey with White Dragon for the Seven-Mile River Market.
• Market guards recognized Yunqi's Azure Dragon Cave command arrow and led him to the abbey's unattended stall.
• Yunqi raised the stall's banners for cleansing filth and drawing talismans.

Yunqi used Solar Bing Fire to cleanse and refine a Redwood Ridge cultivator’s fouled hammer, drawing a crowd to his Azure Dragon Abbey stall. After demonstrating a powerful Yangfire Demon-Breaking Talisman, he left the market clamoring to buy talismans.

• A Redwood Ridge man named Guai Xiyin asked Yunqi to remove Corrupting Spirit Water from his golden melon hammer without damaging it.
• Yunqi used Solar Bing Fire to cleanse the hammer and burn away inferior metal impurities, making its magical power flow better than before.
• Guai Xiyin praised Yunqi’s work aloud, and cultivators gathered at the stall with fouled artifacts for him to purify.
• A cultivator asked Yunqi to draw a fire talisman, and Yunqi gave him a Yangfire Demon-Breaking Talisman to test.
• The talisman produced two powerful fire dragons that melted nearby ice and snow, prompting cultivators on both banks to call out orders for more.

After his talismans helped a group escape an ambush, Yunqi’s business surged at Seven-Mile River Market, and he opened Humble Caution Studio to sell his own goods. He stocked the shop with powerful Talisman Arrows and began trading them for silver and cultivation materials, leaving the market eager to deal with him.

• A man from Yellow Stone Stockade praised Yunqi’s Yangfire Demon-Breaking Talismans for helping his group escape a demonic cult ambush and ordered fifty more, sparking a dispute among the market’s factions.
• Yunqi limited his output to twenty talismans a day and told the factions to decide how to divide them among themselves.
• After finishing his assignments, Yunqi built Humble Caution Studio, clarified that its goods were separate from his Azure Dragon Cave commission work, and returned to the cave to collect his highest-tier payment.
• Yunqi chose a sword manual and footwork manual as his payment, then returned to the market with a hidden bundle of unfinished Talisman Arrows and worked through the night.
• Yunqi opened the shop with Bright Light Blazing Flame Talisman Arrows, set their price at fifteen taels of snowflake silver or equivalent barter, and accepted a Water Intent Four Aspects Sword Unraveling Manual in exchange for two arrows.