Arc 24Chapters 579–603
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
Xie Jinhuan woke after spending the night with Milk Melons, then spoke with Ye Hongshang and Ye Yunchi about their wagers, marriage, and the possibility of pregnancy before waiting in Ye Ci’s Hometown. In Danyang, He Can and Zhang Chu, desperate to survive the Nether God Sect’s collapse and their poison, decided to seek help from Monk Wuxin—until Nether God Sect remnants arrived at their restaurant.
Xie Jinhuan investigated reports that Mao Chunniang might have used a curse to free the Corpse Ancestor’s life soul, then learned that Mao and her allies had been seen in Danyang. A defecting Nether God Sect pawn revealed they had sought a suitable vessel for the Corpse Ancestor, but their whereabouts remained unknown.
Mao Chunniang and the remaining Nether God Sect followers awakened Mo Hunsheng, the Corpse Ancestor, using He Can’s blood. After learning that a century had passed and the sect had been nearly wiped out, Mo Hunsheng questioned whether his master had truly intended to rescue him.
Mo Hunsheng revealed a hidden source of spiritual power in the Western Regions and prepared to seek it, while Shang Lianbi plotted to exploit the discovery through Xie Jinhuan. In Luojing, Xie Jinhuan discussed returning the Heavenly Pavilion with Empress Dowager Guo before helping her recover, leaving the two in a teasing struggle.
Nangong Ye and Linghu Qingmo secretly visited their old residence, where Xie Jinhuan collapsed after Ye Hongshang used an incantation on him. They brought him inside to recover, and Nangong Ye joined Linghu Qingmo in tending to him.
Linghu Qingmo broke through to the Heavenly Pivot realm while Xie Jinhuan, Nangong Ye, and Ye Hongshang endured the aftermath of his reckless medicine-taking. Ye Yunchi prayed at the Temple of Confucius for a child, then was recognized as Aunt Ye by Emperor Zhao Xiao.
Ye Yunchi learned that Lu Wuzhen had revealed her identity to Zhao Xiao and arranged for her to be acknowledged as the royal family’s great-aunt, though she insisted the connection remain quiet. Meanwhile, Xie Jinhuan returned to Carefree Cave and asked Lin Zisu to develop a pill that could incapacitate a powerful cultivator, hoping it might help deal with the Corpse Ancestor.
Jiang Xian rode to Carefree Cave with Coal Ball and found Xie Jinhuan at the Medicine Workshop, where Ye Hongshang taught him a divine ability that made clothing appear transparent. As Xie Jinhuan struggled to end the spell and avoid seeing Lin Zisu and Jiang Xian naked, the pill furnace exploded and filled the room with flames and pink mist.
Lin Zisu’s experimental drug overwhelmed Xie Jinhuan, who lost control and attacked her and Jiang Xian before Qixia True Person intervened. Qixia took Jiang Xian away to discipline her, while Xie Jinhuan returned to the Pill Room just as Wanyi and Yuehua arrived.
After spending the day at Nine Dragons Hall, Xie Jinhuan learned that Duan Yuechou had resigned and that he was expected to become the Southern Region’s Martial Dao Alliance Leader. Duoduo took him home in her carriage and began an intimate musical performance while A Piao recorded them.
Xie Jinhuan returned to the Danyang Marquis Household, where Zhao Ling and Ye Yunchi’s celebration turned into an intimate attempt to help Ye Yunchi conceive. Meanwhile, Nangong Ye and Linghu Qingmo investigated reports that Mao Chunniang’s group might be seeking the Manluo Flower Sea and set off to ask Xie Jinhuan about it.
Xie Jinhuan, Linghu Qingmo, Nangong Ye, and Ye Hongshang discussed reports linking Mao Chunniang and the others to the Manluo Flower Sea, a place they could reach only when the ghost gates opened on the fifteenth of the seventh month. With two months to prepare, they agreed to cultivate together, and Linghu Qingmo and Nangong Ye switched bodies to begin training.
Xie Jinhuan learned that a plague had broken out in the Western Regions Protectorate and prepared to investigate the Corpse Ancestor threat. Meanwhile, Jiang Xian woke after more than ten days without food or water, found a diary ordering her to go west, and headed to the Danyang Marquis Household.
As Xie Jinhuan’s team prepared to hunt the Corpse Ancestor, Linghu Qingmo discovered that Nangong Ye was pregnant and warned him to stay home. Xie Jinhuan then learned Jiang Xian had returned, while far away Mo Hunsheng identified a plague in the Western Regions as a likely demon-path blood plague, leaving the group braced for Xie Jinhuan’s arrival.
Mo Hunsheng reflected on why the powerful had fled their doomed world and resolved to seek a way out for it. Meanwhile, Xie Jinhuan traveled by boat with his companions, where gambling and teasing gave way to Ye Yunchi’s renewed effort to conceive.
Lü Yan and the others investigated the plague spreading through Hekou Town, and Xie Jinhuan discovered that it came from a failed attempt to graft Gray-Ridged Wolf blood essence into human bodies. They traced the likely source to the area near Western Frost Country, while Lin Zisu planned to stabilize the patients and search for the mutating substance.
As the boat neared Western Frost Country, Ye Yunchi discovered she was pregnant, then walked in on Xie Jinhuan and Empress Dowager Guo in an awkward scene arranged by Ye Hongshang. Meanwhile, Mo Hunsheng examined a plague victim and traced the illness to a failed attempt to alter human bloodlines, setting out to help treat the outbreak and find its source in the Wolf Plains.
Monk Guan Zhi realized that the epidemic might be connected to his secret experiments in the Wolf Plains and decided to investigate, while Xie Jinhuan’s group traveled through the Western Regions to treat patients. After Lin Zisu recognized the merit of a second, cheaper prescription, the group split up and Xie Jinhuan headed for the Wolf Plains with her to find the outbreak’s source.
Xie Jinhuan and Lin Zisu found a hidden underground lair containing plague-tainted liquid and research notebooks that seemed to identify Old Sha Tu as its owner. Ye Hongshang warned that someone had recently slaughtered wolves there and disguised the evidence, and an approaching party appeared as Xie Jinhuan considered the possibility of a powerful Demon Path cultivator nearby.
Mo Hunsheng’s group traveled across the Gobi Desert toward the Demon Path’s lair while Xie Jinhuan hunted nearby, unaware of their identities. After Xie Jinhuan pursued a fleeing figure instead, Mo Hunsheng’s group turned back and left the plague investigation to the Righteous Path.
Xie Jinhuan and Lin Zisu caught up with Monk Guan Zhi, who admitted he had pursued dangerous Demon Path research but denied causing the plague. When Guan Zhi refused to return for treatment and fled, he transformed and attacked, forcing Xie Jinhuan to subdue him; Xie Jinhuan then searched the wilderness for the person who had framed him.
Xie Jinhuan defeated and sealed Monk Guan Zhi, then returned to Western Frost Country to help contain the epidemic. As medicine production continued, Lin Zisu decided to go after Xie Jinhuan and Linghu Qingmo so she could alert her aunt and protect her place in the family.
Xie Jinhuan and Linghu Qingmo bathed together aboard the pleasure boat until Lin Zisu, imitating Wanyi, interrupted them. Lin Zisu summoned Lin Wanyi through the Divine Soul Mark, leaving Xie Jinhuan and Wanyi to talk together while Ye Hongshang secretly recorded them.
Xie Jinhuan spent the night with Bu Yuehua possessing Lin Zisu’s body, while Empress Dowager Guo stayed at the Medicine Workshop and Jiang Xian’s dormant White-Haired Old Devil took over. When a Crystal Ball exposed Bu Yuehua kissing Xie Jinhuan, Lin Zisu fled, and Senior Qixia appeared at the doorway.
Xie Jinhuan fed Jiang Xian grilled fish after Qixia True Person found her standing guard hungry, while Linghu Qingmo, Lin Zisu, and Empress Dowager Guo watched from nearby. Far away, Mo Hunsheng explained his search for the Manluo Flower Sea and the rules governing divinity and reincarnation as his companions dug toward an ancient temple.