Chapter Summaries

Pei Ye reconstructed the Empress’s assassination by studying Yue Muzhou’s case file and the movements of Yue Muzhou and He Wujian, while Zhu Gaoyang and He Changge neared the end of the Jing River in search of He Wujian. In Bright Moon Palace, Pei Ye and Black Cat discussed the Phantom Tower before strange footsteps approached the hall.

• Pei Ye read Yue Muzhou’s case file, which described He Wujian’s failed assassination attempt against Empress Wei Qingju and Yue’s decision to leave the Crane Seal.
• Pei Ye connected He Wujian’s sword wound and sudden departure to the assassination, realizing how both men had moved with sealed True Qi.
• Zhu Gaoyang and He Changge traveled through the northern mountains toward the source of the Jing River while discussing supernatural power and the possibility of finding He Wujian.
• Pei Ye retraced the distances and movements inside Bright Moon Palace and considered how the assassin had entered and escaped.
• Pei Ye and Black Cat concluded that the Phantom Tower was a genuine Spirit Realm, then heard strange, stumbling footsteps approaching the hall from the woods.

Pei Ye caught Meng'er sneaking into the palace to search for a way out of the Divine Capital, and learned that she hoped to escape with the Sixth Princess, who was forbidden to leave the capital. After their search found nothing, Meng'er revealed that a previous attempt to investigate the rumor had cost her a leg.

• Meng'er climbed over a wall into the palace, fell into the snow, and told Pei Ye she had come alone without the Sixth Princess's knowledge.
• Pei Ye told Meng'er he was investigating the late Empress's assassination, and she explained she was searching for a route from the palace to Deep Lake City based on an old rumor.
• Pei Ye searched the palace with Meng'er but found no passage, then learned she wanted to leave the Divine Capital because the Sixth Princess could never leave it.
• Meng'er said she would return after the snow melted to search again, and told Pei Ye that palace officials had caught her investigating the rumor four years earlier and her leg had been amputated after the punishment.

Pei Ye learned from Meng'er about the palace's succession rules and the rumors surrounding Jinyang before escorting her out. He then met the young Li Wuyan near Vermilion Mirror Hall and helped her catch a fish, leaving her asking him to find a red carp.

• Meng'er told Pei Ye that Li Youlong had once searched the palace for her after she was punished, and explained that Meng'er risked sneaking out to pursue her and Jinyang's childhood wish to see beyond the city.
• Meng'er described Jinyang as isolated and the subject of palace rumors, and said her qilin blood ranked low among the succession candidates.
• Pei Ye promised Meng'er he would help her enter the palace next time, then cut the lock on the gate so she could leave safely.
• Pei Ye and Meng'er encountered the young Eleventh Highness, Li Wuyan, running toward Vermilion Mirror Hall, and Meng'er identified her.
• Pei Ye helped Li Wuyan catch a small fish in an icy stream, and she asked him to catch her a red carp, insisting she had seen one.

Pei Ye accompanied Li Wuyan to look for red carp, then learned how isolated she felt in the palace and promised to make her a fishing rod. Li Xizhou asked him to stay at Vermilion Mirror Hall while investigating the Empress’s death, and the chapter ended with her explaining why that death mattered.

• Pei Ye and Li Wuyan searched frozen ponds for red carp, but the thick ice kept them from fishing.
• Li Xizhou found them at Vermilion Pond and teased Pei Ye into promising to teach Li Wuyan how to fish after her lessons.
• Li Wuyan told Pei Ye that no one in the palace truly played or talked with her, and he promised to visit her the next day.
• Li Xizhou told Pei Ye to stay at Vermilion Mirror Hall and remain by her side except when investigating the case.
• Li Xizhou explained that the Empress’s death and the hidden plot behind it were the main questions she had been pursuing.

Li Xizhou prepared and swallowed a pill to suppress the Qilin Blood, then endured the memories of her isolated childhood and her father's rejection. The chapter ended with a warm woman inviting young Xixi to play on a swing for the first time.

• Li Xizhou told Pei Ye that she suspected the King of Yan was behind the plot involving her mother and the smuggling of Scale Clan members.
• Li Xizhou checked the recipe for the Four Spirits Blood-Sealing Gen Snow Pill, mixed the three kinds of blood with her own, and swallowed the pill to seal her Qilin Blood.
• The pill's pain brought back memories of young Xixi enduring painful Qilin Blood tests and being rejected by her father.
• After Xixi's father stopped letting her visit him, she withdrew from everyone and spent her days alone in Vermilion Mirror Hall.
• A gentle woman came to Xixi and offered to take her to play on a swing.

Pei Ye investigated the Spirit Realm in Bright Moon Palace and used the Azure Phoenix Jade to contact Li Xizhou, who had awakened from a dream about her childhood. They discussed grief and the paired Luan Pendants, then Li Xizhou asked how Pei Ye was adjusting to the palace.

• Li Xizhou woke from a dream of a woman who had taught her to play and weave flowers, and remembered their promise to meet again in ten days.
• Pei Ye considered the Spirit Realm and He Wujian’s assassination, wondering how people had entered and exited it twenty years earlier.
• The Azure Phoenix Jade awakened, and Pei Ye exchanged messages with Li Xizhou through it.
• Pei Ye advised Li Xizhou to seek support in other people and promised to help her find a way through her troubles.
• Li Xizhou explained that the paired Luan Pendants let their owners communicate and asked Pei Ye how his first day in Ming Palace had gone.
• Pei Ye said the palace was quiet but that he had not received enough food that evening.

Pei Ye received Yue Muzhou’s old account of the Empress’s assassination, while Zhu Gaoyang and He Changge found He Wujian’s underwater hiding place and discovered his ties to the Azure Wind Envoys. The chapter ended with a little girl in a red jacket waiting for Pei Ye outside the palace hall.

• Pei Ye read a letter from Yue Muzhou explaining why he left the Divine Capital and identifying He Wujian as the assassin who killed Bright Moon.
• Zhu Gaoyang and He Changge followed a blood thread through an underwater passage to He Wujian’s cavern at the tail of the Jing River.
• Zhu Gaoyang found He Wujian’s skeleton pinned to a wall and recorded the wounds and the inscription naming Yue Muzhou as his killer.
• Zhu Gaoyang identified an Azure Fan mark on He Wujian’s wrist bone and told He Changge that his father had been an Azure Wind Envoy.
• Zhu Gaoyang wrote down their findings and sent them onward in a Letter Tube.
• Pei Ye left the side hall and found the little girl in a red padded jacket waiting beneath a tree.

Pei Ye took Li Wuyan fishing while mapping Daming Palace’s pools and waterways, then studied records linking He Wujian’s altered body to Chen Renzhong. After mapping the rear palace, he entered the snow-covered Jade Hail Garden to investigate its old layout.

• Pei Ye made fishing rods with Black Cat, took Li Wuyan to several pools, caught fish, and mapped the pools and their connecting waterways.
• Pei Ye warned Li Wuyan not to enter Scenic Pool, and she said her Qilin Blood meant no one could punish her; he told her everyone deserved equal treatment.
• Pei Ye examined a report on He Wujian’s remains and connected the growths in He Wujian’s body to Chen Renzhong’s unusual underwater abilities.
• Pei Ye saw Li Youlong leave the main hall after visiting Li Xizhou, then learned Li Wuyan had to attend her studies the next day.
• Pei Ye spent several days mapping the rear palace and entered the snowbound Jade Hail Garden, searching for its old stone paths while Li Wuyan followed.

Pei Ye investigated a long-abandoned watercourse linking Scenic Pool, Jade Hail Garden, and Taiye Pool, suspecting it was connected to the preparations for Empress Wei’s death. He found records implicating the powerful eunuch Qu Chang and unsettled He Xu by suggesting Empress Li may also have been involved.

• Pei Ye and Li Wuyan discovered that a buried channel once connected Scenic Pool to the other palace pools through Jade Hail Garden.
• Pei Ye visited the Directorate of Palace Service and asked He Xu for construction records from Scale-Locking Year One through Year Four.
• Pei Ye and He Xu found a Scale-Locking Year Three authorization for the channel, issued under the Directorate of Palace Attendants’ seal.
• He Xu read a report naming Deputy Eunuch Qu Chang as a supervisor who personally oversaw construction of Jade Hail Garden.
• Pei Ye told He Xu he suspected the channel was connected to Empress Wei’s death, then asked whether Empress Li could have played a part.

Pei Ye learned that Qu Chang, the former overseer of Jade Hail Garden, had been killed by Yu Sicheng, and sought advice on investigating the powerful eunuch. He followed a clue to the Embroidered Garments Workshop, where he helped unload cloth and asked the workers about former palace servants.

• He Xuduobu told Pei Ye that Qu Chang had been Yu Sicheng’s trusted deputy and was suddenly killed after overseeing Jade Hail Garden’s construction.
• Pei Ye asked Xu Chuo how to investigate Yu Sicheng, and Xu Chuo described the eunuch’s power and suggested using his adopted son Yu Ziliang as a lead.
• Pei Ye found a late-added reinspection record naming Guo You, Chief Secretary of the Divine Martial Army.
• Pei Ye visited the Embroidered Garments Workshop and helped the palace maids unload ten oxcarts of cloth.
• The embroideresses told Pei Ye that they were preparing ceremonial garments for a palace wedding after the New Year, and he asked whether they knew Zhao Wuliang, Xu Si, and Wei Qi.

Pei Ye found Guo You, a former Chief Secretary of the Divine Martial Army whose mind had become clouded, and learned that he might know about the abandoned Jade Hail Garden and Empress Wei Qingju’s assassination. Unable to question him normally, Pei Ye began learning how to use the Immortal Edict to enter and influence Guo You’s Mindscape Realm.

• The embroideresses could not identify the people Pei Ye sought, but one recognized Guo You and directed Pei Ye to the Music Bureau.
• Pei Ye found Guo You wandering near the Music Bureau, grieving for the Goddess of the Luo River, and followed him back to his ruined courtyard.
• Pei Ye asked Guo You about Jade Hail Garden, the people involved in its construction, and the assassination of Wei Qingju; Guo You reacted to the names but could not answer clearly.
• Pei Ye discovered that Guo You possessed a Spirit Body and had reached at least the Body Recasting stage, while Black Cat confirmed that no mind-spirit power was interfering with him.
• Black Cat proposed that Pei Ye use the Immortal Edict to break through Guo You’s mental barriers and taught him the first steps of a method called Lesser Edict Usurpation.
• Pei Ye learned that [Heart Slips] let him control engraved purple bamboo in his Mindscape Realm and successfully plucked a bamboo leaf.

Pei Ye used a False Edict to draw out Guo You’s memories of the attack on Bright Moon Palace and the events at Jade Hail Garden. Guo You recalled that the conspirators meant to kill Her Majesty, but gaps in his memories remained as Pei Ye searched the long-abandoned room.

• Pei Ye used a Purple Bamboo Leaf to ask Guo You what happened to the Goddess of the Luo River and Jade Hail Garden.
• Guo You’s memories surfaced, and he recalled rushing to investigate Jade Hail Garden after learning Her Majesty’s safety was at stake.
• Guo You remembered finding Ziliang fighting intruders and realizing that they intended to kill Her Majesty.
• Pei Ye told Guo You that Wei Qingju was already dead, then noticed that important details had been erased from Guo You’s memories.
• Guo You repeatedly pleaded with Yu Sicheng to let him go, while Pei Ye searched the vacant room and reconsidered the Bright Moon Palace assassination.

Pei Ye discovered a thirty-seven-year-old letter and records in Guo You’s residence that linked Wei Qingju to the palace when she first entered as a prince’s consort, while the Immortal Platform traced Yu Ziliang’s movements for Pei Ye. In a separate past scene, Zhao Baibi took an interest in the injured Li Yao and invited him to become her follower.

• Pei Ye found records about palace halls and a letter written in Wei Qingju’s hand among Guo You’s papers.
• Pei Ye and Black Cat concluded that others were searching for something the empress had left behind, and Pei Ye decided he needed to meet Yu Sicheng.
• Xu Chuo told Pei Ye that Yu Ziliang had vanished inside Xunfang Garden with an official’s daughter and would enter the palace the next day.
• Xu Chuo identified the records as dating to thirty-seven years earlier, when the current emperor entered the Divine Capital with Wei Qingju at his side.
• Li Yao watched Zhao Baibi’s elders scold his siblings at the general’s residence, and Zhao Baibi asked to keep him with her for a few days.
• Zhao Baibi invited Li Yao to become her future Jianghu follower, and he offered to do her schoolwork.

Li Yao survived the purge that destroyed his home and the Great General’s Residence with Zhao Baibi, then chose to answer the palace’s summons and try to change things. In the later events, Pei Ye learned about Great Edict Usurpation, while Li Xianfang watched Yu Ziliang select a frightened newcomer at the Jiaofang Office.

• A rider announced that the Great General had been executed, and Li Yao saw flames rising from the Great General’s Residence.
• Li Yao found his aunt and the household servants dead, then searched the ruined residence and reunited with the wounded Zhao Baibi.
• After hiding together for a month, Li Yao decided to answer the palace’s summons, and Zhao Baibi agreed to remain his companion.
• Pei Ye learned that felling a Purple Bamboo stalk could strengthen Edict Usurpation and discussed naming the resulting art with Black Cat.
• Li Xianfang noticed Yu Ziliang arrive at the Jiaofang Office seeking two obedient girls to feed his snake.
• Yu Ziliang pointed to a newcomer, who turned pale and collapsed.

Pei Ye ambushed Yu Ziliang in the palace and tortured him for information about Jiaozhu powder and the Phantom Tower. After learning that Yu Sicheng kept powder in his study at the Directorate of Palace Attendants, Pei Ye incapacitated Li Xianfang and left to investigate.

• The Senior Matron offered Li Xianfang to Yu Ziliang, who took her to a room with two guards.
• A black-robed man killed the guards and subdued Yu Ziliang, then demanded to know how he entered the Phantom Tower.
• Yu Ziliang confessed that Jiaozhu powder let him enter the Phantom Tower and that he had stolen his supply from Yu Sicheng's study.
• Yu Ziliang said Yu Sicheng used Jiaozhu powder to send other people somewhere, but he claimed he had none left.
• Li Xianfang told Pei Ye that Yu Sicheng's residence had few guards and that cleaning eunuchs could enter it.
• Pei Ye knocked Li Xianfang unconscious, concealed the bodies and Yu Ziliang, then slipped out through a window.

Pei Ye broke into Yu Sicheng’s residence to investigate the Jiaozhu powder and found evidence that Yu Sicheng was studying passages between Mirage Realms. Yu Sicheng caught him and nearly overwhelmed him, but Pei Ye transformed into a Hornless Dragon and plunged with Yu Sicheng into an icy pool.

• Pei Ye entered Yu Sicheng’s study and found a jade box containing the powder he had taken before entering the Phantom Tower.
• Pei Ye read Yu Sicheng’s report about a passage that had yet to appear and found the Secret Classic of Seeking the Crossing on the Luo River and related books on his desk.
• Yu Sicheng returned, attacked Pei Ye, and drove him through the study wall with a single punch.
• Pei Ye fought back with his sword, Red Lotus flames, and the Flying Feather Immortal strike, but discovered Yu Sicheng’s body had undergone Spirit Profound Body Recasting.
• Yu Sicheng injured Pei Ye and pursued him beyond the residence, while Pei Ye used his command to halt and stabbed Yu Sicheng in the throat.
• Pei Ye transformed into a Hornless Dragon and swallowed himself as Yu Sicheng seized its tail; they plunged into an enormous icy pool.

Pei Ye and the Black Chi entered the Mirage Realm through South Pool and discovered they could not draw on the spirit profound there. As they traveled north toward Bright Moon Palace, unseen creatures attacked them, and Pei Ye fought a fast, scaled predator in the darkness.

• Yu Sicheng watched Pei Ye and the Black Chi vanish into the Mirage Realm beneath South Pool.
• Pei Ye reset his broken shoulder and realized that the realm's abundant spirit profound belonged to a distant master and could not replenish them.
• Pei Ye and the Black Cat headed north, where a creature launched poisonous sand at him; the Black Cat drew it out and burned away the poison.
• Pei Ye concealed his presence as the sand creature continued to follow them through the darkness.
• A swift, scaled predator wounded Pei Ye, but the Black Cat warned him when to strike, and Pei Ye stabbed it before the two fought at close quarters.

Pei Ye and the black cat fought through the Merfolk in the Mirage Realm while Yu Sicheng pursued them, then turned toward the creatures’ source after realizing their sense of direction was unreliable. As the Merfolk closed in around them, Pei Ye detected a delicate fragrance in the dark water.

• Pei Ye killed an adult Merfolk, and the black cat warned that more were tracking their blood and that Yu Sicheng had entered the water.
• Pei Ye and the black cat fought and killed three more Merfolk, but their wounds and spreading blood made escape difficult.
• Pei Ye stopped the black cat from carrying him away and urged it to turn toward where the Merfolk were coming from.
• The black cat transformed into the Hornless Dragon and charged toward the Merfolk’s source as several pursued them.
• Pei Ye and the black cat realized directions in the Mirage Realm did not match the outside world, while Yu Sicheng continued closing in.
• Pei Ye smelled a strange, delicate fragrance as a dozen Merfolk converged on them from the front left.

Pei Ye discovered the Goddess of the Luo River Wood Peach, whose gift restored his senses and control of water, and fought through the Merfolk toward Yu Sicheng. He entered the forbidden depths with Black Cat, where a Water-Splitting Daggers-wielding human ambushed him.

• Pei Ye let Black Chi carry him through the Merfolk blockade, then faced the creatures himself and found a glowing Goddess of the Luo River Wood Peach.
• The flower marked Pei Ye's wrist, sharpened his senses, let him move freely through water, and briefly strengthened his Meridian Tree; its spirit wished him a safe return to shore.
• Pei Ye killed three Merfolk and, with Yu Sicheng only a hundred zhang away, escaped into aquatic plants and stone formations.
• Pei Ye and Black Cat realized the flowers and opposing currents formed a barrier that the Merfolk cautiously explored by sending humans ahead to remove the flowers.
• Yu Sicheng searched the shallows while Pei Ye and Black Cat moved deeper into the current, where a Water Suit-clad man found Pei Ye, whistled for help, and attacked with Water-Splitting Daggers.
• Pei Ye released his sword when the eighth-growth fighter tried to wrench it away, then struck at him with a Vermilion Fire-wreathed fist; the man redirected the punch underwater.

Pei Ye and Black Chi confronted Yu Sicheng in the grassy valley beyond the countercurrent, where the eunuch tried to stop them from going deeper. Pei Ye wounded Yu Sicheng but could not kill him, and Black Chi was hurled away as the fight continued.

• Pei Ye and Black Cat realized Yu Sicheng was not following closely and hurried down the slope to find him waiting in the valley.
• Pei Ye fought Yu Sicheng at close range, using his sword techniques to turn the eunuch’s spear attacks back against him.
• Black Cat spread the Chi Flame through the water, and Pei Ye invoked Star-Guard to gather the flames onto Jade Tiger for a strike at Yu Sicheng’s chest.
• Yu Sicheng caught Jade Tiger with a bone edge protruding from his arm, but Pei Ye broke free and stabbed between his ribs before striking another hidden bone spur.
• Black Chi transformed into a Hornless Dragon and charged deeper into the realm, but Yu Sicheng seized its tail and flung it away; Black Chi broke free and hovered at a distance.