Chapter Summaries

Yunqi returned from Three Pure Ones Mountain to Camphor Fragrance Town, where he reunited with Daoist Zhenwei at Rainfall Temple and visited his old home. He was welcomed by neighbors who mistook him for a thief, and his reunion with them left the town’s affection for him clear.

• Daoist Zhenwei recognized Yunqi after he fell into the alchemy cauldron at Rainfall Temple and asked about his life on the mountain.
• Yunqi told Daoist Zhenwei that he practiced breathing and qi refinement more than swordsmanship, prompting the old temple master to recall how his own sword obsession had hindered his cultivation.
• Daoist Zhenwei invited Yunqi to visit him over the next few days, and Yunqi agreed before setting off through the rain for Camphor Fragrance Town.
• Yunqi found his courtyard clean and intact, then began tidying the house he had left behind.
• Neighbors rushed into Yunqi’s courtyard carrying weapons, believing a thief had entered, but dropped them when they recognized him and welcomed him home.

Yunqi stayed in Camphor Fragrance Town, shared medicinal pills with its residents, and visited Rainfall Temple, where Daoist Zhenwei taught him about three traditions of swordsmanship. Zhenwei’s account left Yunqi considering the merits of each path.

• The townspeople celebrated Yunqi’s return, and he agreed to stay in Camphor Fragrance Town for a few more days.
• Yunqi visited his ancestors’ graves, gathered herbs, and prepared pills for the townspeople, which he distributed through Uncle Wang.
• Daoist Zhenwei practiced swordsmanship at Rainfall Temple and asked his attendant to bring Yunqi to the rear courtyard.
• Yunqi told Daoist Zhenwei that he had little experience with swordsmanship because he lacked a proper sword and the resources to practice.
• Daoist Zhenwei explained the principles and strengths of flying swords, spell swords, and body swords, and Yunqi found himself unable to rank them.

Daoist Zhenwei gave Yunqi his treasured sword, Autumn Water, and taught him how to feed it metal essence. Yunqi left with the sword and the old temple master was left grieving in his empty residence.

• Daoist Zhenwei brought Yunqi to his residence and showed him Autumn Water, recounting how he had found and treasured the sword.
• Daoist Zhenwei offered Autumn Water to Yunqi, who accepted it and bowed his thanks.
• Daoist Zhenwei gave Yunqi his collected metal-essence ores and explained how to feed a hand-wielded sword.
• Yunqi used fire arts to melt flowing gold sinking sand and fed it to Autumn Water, which rang as it absorbed the metal.
• Daoist Zhenwei sent Yunqi home with the sword and remaining ores, then returned to his bedroom and sobbed before the empty wall.

Yunqi left town and traveled west, cultivating the five elements as he journeyed until he reached Poyang Lake. He settled in an osmanthus grove to cultivate metal energy and entered the Guangcheng Edict of Emptiness Wish-Following Mantra, where he encountered the power of the character Rend.

• Yunqi said farewell to the townspeople, asked them to look after his home and parents’ graves, and left after paying respects at the Rainfall Temple.
• Over the next twenty days, Yunqi cultivated different elemental energies in the wilderness and collected a piece of lightning-struck jujube bark for talismans.
• Yunqi reached Poyang Lake and chose an osmanthus grove on its southern shore as a place to stay and strengthen his water- and metal-aspect magical power.
• Yunqi set up Eight Trigrams Mother-and-Child Bells around the grove and chose a large rock as his seat for meditation.
• Yunqi entered the Guangcheng Edict of Emptiness Wish-Following Mantra and directed his consciousness toward Rend, witnessing a White Tiger and weapons answering the syllable.

Yunqi practiced a metal-aspect incantation in the Osmanthus Grove before following the sound of a pipa across the lake. He secretly intervened in a fight between a Golden Appearance Sect disciple and the Gaunt Daoist, but the confrontation remained unresolved.

• Yunqi practiced the Rend incantation on a boulder, carving out a hollow while exhausting and replenishing his magical power.
• Yunqi heard a piercing pipa-like sound over the lake and rode the Dragon Chariot toward it.
• Yunqi recognized a Golden Appearance Sect disciple chasing the Gaunt Daoist and hid on a nearby island to watch.
• The Gaunt Daoist tried to bribe the Golden Appearance Sect disciple, who attacked him with four pipa notes.
• Yunqi used Suppress to interrupt the Gaunt Daoist, giving the Golden Appearance Sect disciple a chance to strike.
• The Gaunt Daoist blocked the golden streaks with a bronze plaque, but Yunqi used Draw to pull away his talisman arrow.

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.