Recaps

Xue Fuyao refined Demon-Dispelling Pills and planned to expose the Devil Race and Demon Race members hidden in Western Continent temples. She sent Shadow Five, Ying Qi, and Twenty-One to establish Heaven-Seeking Tower, then traveled to Cave Flood-Dragon Marsh to find the Water Mirror; as she reached the dark marsh center, the water began to churn.

• Xue Fuyao finished refining a large supply of Demon-Dispelling Pills and decided to use them openly to reveal hidden Demon Cultivators.
• Shadow Five, Ying Qi, and Twenty-One reported that people they had contacted did not believe them, so Xue Fuyao called them back and said she would make the truth impossible to ignore.
• Xue Fuyao ordered the three men to establish Heaven-Seeking Tower, capture people identified by the Gu Butterflies, and keep the captives hidden and alive.
• Xue Fuyao left for Demon Race territory to seek the Water Mirror, which could show images in the sky and draw people's attention to them.
• Xue Fuyao reached the center of Cave Flood-Dragon Marsh in search of the ten-thousand-year-old turtle, and the dark water began to churn before she could enter.

Xue Fuyao obtained the Water Mirror from an old turtle in exchange for seeking permission for it to move to Sky Dome Marsh, though she had no intention of honoring that promise. After returning to her different space, she studied the Water Mirror and sensed that she was close to a breakthrough from Golden Core to Nascent Soul.

• Xue Fuyao met the giant turtle in Cave Flood-Dragon Marsh and told it she had come for the Water Mirror.
• Xue Fuyao revealed her white flood dragon form and claimed to come from Sky Dome Marsh, prompting the turtle to ask her to secure permission for it to live there in exchange for the Water Mirror.
• Xue Fuyao took the Water Mirror and promised to ask for the turtle, while privately deciding that the white flood dragon's promise had nothing to do with her.
• Xue Fuyao removed the turtle's tracking attempt from the Water Mirror, bound the treasure to herself, and scolded the trembling Demon-Suppressing Bracelet.
• Xue Fuyao returned to her different space, waited for Shadow Five and the others to finish their task, and began familiarizing herself with the Water Mirror.
• Xue Fuyao sensed her Golden Core cultivation had reached perfection and considered the possibility of breaking through to Nascent Soul before the operation.

Xue Fuyao publicly exposed and executed hundreds of Devil Race spies across the Western Continent through a water-mirror broadcast. The executions ended after a day, while the Heaven-Seeking Tower warned that many more spies remained.

• Xue Fuyao arranged for the captives to be punished in Shijiu's secret realm, where Shadow One and the others prepared a raised platform.
• Xue Fuyao activated a Token from a teahouse, causing a scroll and water-mirror scene to appear across the sky.
• Shadow One introduced himself as the Heaven-Seeking Tower's Punishment Pavilion master and announced the public execution of the alleged Devil Race spies.
• Shadow One tested a Demon-Dispelling Pill on himself and a captive monk, whose human skin fell away to reveal demonic markings.
• Shadow One announced each captive's name, faction, and crimes before the group executed them, and Xue Fuyao later ordered the executions sped up.
• The execution of the captives lasted a day, and Shadow One said they were only a small portion of the Devil Race spies in the Western Continent.

Xue Fuyao ordered the Heaven-Seeking Tower to expose and destroy sects that supplied people and rogue cultivators to the Demon Race. The revelations enraged the Western Continent, while observers debated the Tower’s motives and power.

• Xue Fuyao watched the Western Continent panic over Devil Race spies and ordered Demon-Dispelling Pill formulas shared with sects opposed to the Buddhist Sect.
• Xue Fuyao directed Shadow Five to destroy sects colluding with the Demon Race and publish evidence that they sent people and cultivators as tribute.
• Xue Fuyao fed Shijiu’s monster beast corpses to the trembling Demon-Suppressing Bracelet.
• Three days later, the Heaven-Seeking Tower revealed that the Demon Race had been eating people and cultivators delivered by human sects, provoking public fury.
• An old man and a young man discussed the Heaven-Seeking Tower’s intervention, and the old man warned against opposing a force capable of wiping out sects overnight.

Xue Fuyao used the Heaven-Seeking Tower’s spoils to aid ordinary people and rogue cultivators while purging corrupt sects across the Western Continent. She ordered Twenty-One to stay alert for a Buddhist Sect retaliation and insisted that the purge continue until the continent was free of Demon and Devil Race influence.

• Xue Fuyao had Shadow Five and his companions learn the Puppet Art so they could use corpses from destroyed sects to address the Heaven-Seeking Tower’s shortage of manpower.
• Shadow Five’s group distributed gold, silver, medicines, and cultivation supplies to villagers and rogue cultivators, and helped children test for cultivation talent.
• The villagers learned that their relatives had been sent to the Demon Race rather than dying in mine tunnels, and they burned the guilty sect to the ground.
• Xue Fuyao told Twenty-One to have the Gu Butterflies monitor the Buddhist Sect and continue clearing out corrupt forces.
• Twenty-One noted that the Buddhist Sect was already under scrutiny from other sects, while Xue Fuyao warned that it might still retaliate and demanded a spotlessly clean Western Continent.
• Other sects secretly observing the Heaven-Seeking Tower noticed its activities.

Xue Fuyao returned to the Yuanji Sect after being summoned and learned that a crack had appeared in the barrier between the Mortal Realm and the Cultivation Realm. She was assigned to investigate the damage with Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe and prepare to travel to the Mortal Realm.

• A young man and a middle-aged man discussed the Heaven-Seeking Tower’s lavish distribution of resources, which they suspected had been taken from destroyed sects.
• Xue Fuyao stopped cultivating Gu worms in the Western Continent and returned to the Yuanji Sect when her master summoned her.
• Xie Yichu told Xue Fuyao that the barrier’s damage had likely originated in the Mortal Realm and that the sect’s elders were too powerful to cross it safely.
• Xiao Fansheng assigned Xue Fuyao, Gu Nian, and Chu Yunzhe to investigate the barrier and uncover the cause of its damage.
• Gu Nian told Xue Fuyao and Chu Yunzhe to gather supplies and meet at the sect entrance before departing for the Mortal Realm.

Xue Fuyao traveled with Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe to the Mortal Realm to investigate the failing barrier amid a war between ten remaining nations. They reached Stone Town and joined cultivators from across the Southern Continent at the edge of the Poison Miasma Forest, preparing to enter.

• Xue Fuyao gathered spirit fruit and wine, then met Elder Xing, who gave her supplies and urged her to stay safe.
• Gu Nian explained that a poisonous, maze-like passage connected the Mortal Realm and the Cultivation Realm, and Xue Fuyao learned that ten nations were fighting after the others had been conquered.
• Chu Yunzhe warned Xue Fuyao and Gu Nian not to underestimate the Mortal Realm or the other sects, since their strength would be suppressed there.
• Two days later, Xue Fuyao, Gu Nian, and Chu Yunzhe passed through Stone Town and went to the edge of the Poison Miasma Forest.
• Xue Fuyao spotted Jimo Yunqi among the assembled sects, and Gu Nian told her to use Detoxification Pills and Chu Yunzhe to bring up the rear as they entered.

Xue Fuyao and her companions crossed the Poison Miasma Forest, where they found evidence that many Mortal Realm people had died trying to reach the Cultivation Realm. After emerging, they discovered that most cultivators had been weakened by the Mortal Realm’s restriction, while Xue Fuyao and her Dark Guard were unaffected, and they fled when a crowd hailed them as immortals who had come to save them.

• Xue Fuyao pretended to take a Detoxification Pill before entering the Poison Miasma Forest with Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe.
• The group found countless remains, and Xue Fuyao, Chu Yunzhe, and Gu Nian suspected that many of the dead Mortal Realm people had been injured and forced into the forest.
• A cultivator gave a dying man a Detoxification Pill, but he died with blood pouring from his seven orifices, so Xue Fuyao stored his body to investigate.
• After the group left the forest, the Mortal Realm’s restriction weakened the cultivators, but Xue Fuyao and her Dark Guard remained unaffected.
• A crowd hailed the newcomers as immortals who had come to save them, and Xue Fuyao urged Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe to leave; they used a Teleportation Talisman to escape.

Gu Nian, Chu Yunzhe, and Xue Fuyao investigated the barrier’s failure and returned to Lingjiu Mountain to examine a corpse from the Poison Miasma Forest. Xue Fuyao discovered that an extremely potent poison had liquefied the man’s insides, but she still had no clue how he had been poisoned.

• Gu Nian, Chu Yunzhe, and Xue Fuyao discussed investigating the barrier and finding clues in the Poison Miasma Forest while waiting for others to leave.
• Xue Fuyao recalled that she knew where the mighty figure who separated the realms had died, but that she had already searched the site and found no way to repair the barrier.
• Chu Yunzhe suggested that they examine the corpse Xue Fuyao had taken from the Poison Miasma Forest, and the three went to Lingjiu Mountain to study it.
• Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe left Xue Fuyao to examine the corpse after Chu Yunzhe admitted he knew little about medicine.
• Xue Fuyao used her Heavenly Eye to inspect the corpse and found that its insides had turned into black liquid from a potent poison.
• Xue Fuyao withdrew her spiritual energy when it cracked the corpse’s skin, learning the man’s cause of death but not how he had been poisoned.

Xue Fuyao learned that the poison Ling threatened cultivators and warned Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe to protect themselves while preparing to report it to their Sect. She then returned to her family’s burial place and found the outer area disturbed, but the formation still intact, and spoke to her deceased relatives.

• Shadow Five relayed Bai Ling’s explanation that Ling poisoned anyone exposed to spiritual energy and warned Xue Fuyao to avoid even slight contact with it.
• Bai Ling told Shadow Five that Ling’s ingredients grew in places without spiritual energy and that its appearance in the Mortal Realm suggested someone possessed a large supply.
• Xue Fuyao told Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe about Ling, and they agreed to keep their Spiritual Energy Shields raised and report the poison to their Sect.
• Xue Fuyao used three Formation Disks to conceal the mountaintop while they prepared to send a message to the Sect.
• Xue Fuyao found trees cut down and traces of an altar near her family’s burial place, but discovered that her protective formation remained intact.
• Xue Fuyao entered the formation and told her deceased father and siblings that she had avenged them.

Xue Fuyao learned that the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult was behind the strange plant Ling and the disappearances in the Poison Miasma Forest. After uncovering the cult’s activities, she sensed that the Imperial Jade Seal was responding to something nearby.

• Xue Fuyao dug up twenty-five coffins and stored them before returning to Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe.
• Gu Nian explained that the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult had once opposed cultivation and had developed the spirit plant Ling, and the Sect ordered them to stay cautious and protect themselves.
• At the Poison Miasma Forest, Xue Fuyao watched cultists herd sickly teenage boys into the mist, then killed most of the group and captured two members.
• Xue Fuyao used the Soul-Seizing Technique to learn that the cult had sent people into the forest for two years and spread rumors that it led to the Immortal Realm.
• As Xue Fuyao prepared to leave, the Imperial Jade Seal glowed faintly and tugged toward something.

Xue Fuyao followed the Imperial Jade Seal’s pull toward the former Snow Dynasty Imperial City and sent her people to investigate the dynasty’s changed state. After the group dealt with ungrateful boys tied to the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult, they set out toward their next lead, while reports revealed that the dynasty had become Great Qian and moved its capital.

• Xue Fuyao followed the Imperial Jade Seal’s pull toward the former Imperial City and ordered Shadow Three, Ying Si, Ying Eight, and Shadow Three-Seven to investigate the Snow Dynasty without drawing attention.
• Xue Fuyao returned to the Cave and learned that the boys Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe had rescued blamed them for endangering their families, so she and Gu Nian decided to send them back.
• Chu Yunzhe knocked the boys unconscious with a drug and abandoned them deeper in the Poison Miasma Forest.
• Xue Fuyao told Gu Nian that the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult was trying to complete an old plan, and they agreed to pursue their next lead near the Imperial City.
• Chu Yunzhe prepared a carriage for the journey, while Xue Fuyao listened to reports that the Snow Dynasty had become the Great Qian Dynasty and moved its capital.

Xue Fuyao sent Shadow Three and the others to search the ruined former Imperial Capital for something connected to the Imperial Jade Seal, while she learned that the seal held an inheritance left by the Xue Clan Ancestors. She recognized it as the Xue Clan’s foundation for returning to the Cultivation Realm and wondered why no one had used it before.

• Xue Fuyao decided she would eventually return to the former Imperial Capital, but sent Shadow Three and the others to investigate the Imperial Palace first.
• Shadow Three and the others searched the abandoned city and palace ruins but found nothing unusual, while an old man watched Shadow Three closely.
• Xue Fuyao noticed the Imperial Jade Seal’s light growing stronger and ordered Shadow Three and the others to lie low and await further instructions.
• Shadow One and Shadow Two revealed that memories planted by His Majesty had begun resurfacing after they became cultivators, and Shadow Two told Xue Fuyao about the inheritance.
• Xue Fuyao learned the inheritance was the Xue Clan Ancestors’ last resort for returning to the Cultivation Realm and questioned why it had never been used.

Xue Fuyao learned that the Divine Spirit Sect had sparked a craze for immortal cultivation and suspected it was the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult. She and Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe remained puzzled about why the cult was sending ordinary people into the Poison Miasma Forest.

• Xue Fuyao told Gu Nian that she had learned about her lineage and needed to collect belongings it had left for her.
• Chu Yunzhe suggested stopping at a waystation, and Xue Fuyao asked him to put away the conspicuous carriage so they could continue on horseback.
• At the crowded waystation, Xue Fuyao heard travelers discussing immortals and paid a waiter to explain the Divine Spirit Sect’s recruitment of disciples.
• The waiter told Xue Fuyao that the Divine Spirit Sect promised immortal cultivation and sent its most talented disciples to the true Immortal Realm.
• Xue Fuyao connected the Divine Spirit Sect to the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult and wondered why it was sending ordinary people into the Poison Miasma Forest.
• Gu Nian cautioned Xue Fuyao not to expect the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult to act according to ordinary logic.

Xue Fuyao, Gu Nian, and Chu Yunzhe traveled to Qian City to confront the Divine Spirit Sect at the National Preceptor Residence. After fighting their way through its disciples, they reached a man who declared them his personal disciples, leaving their response unstated.

• Xue Fuyao identified a possible location for the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult, and the three set out for Qian City without stopping to rest.
• In Qian City, Xue Fuyao led Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe away from the crowds seeking to join the Divine Spirit Sect and toward the National Preceptor Residence.
• Xue Fuyao incapacitated the guards, sealed the residence with the Formation Disk, and killed the people inside who identified themselves as Divine Spirit Sect disciples.
• As more disciples tried to stop them, Chu Yunzhe used a talisman to strike a young man with purple lightning.
• The three reached a purple-robed man, who praised their strength and announced that they would become his personal disciples.

Xue Fuyao, Gu Nian, and Chu Yunzhe questioned a Spirit-Extinguishing Cult member, who revealed the cult leader’s plans and the group’s history. The man asked them to help him cultivate, while Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe realized Xue Fuyao’s connection to the destroyed Snow Dynasty.

• Xue Fuyao threatened the man with Shattered Star, but he became excited when he realized the three were cultivators and offered information in exchange for a chance to cultivate.
• The man said the Spirit-Extinguishing Cult leader was developing poison against cultivators and wanted to destroy them, remove the barrier between the Mortal Realm and the Cultivation Realm, and rule the latter with help from a mysterious treasure.
• The man explained that the cult leader had revived the long-vanished Spirit-Extinguishing Cult three years earlier after finding its ruins, and had ordered people sent into the Poison Miasma Forest to build a bridge to the Cultivation Realm.
• The man denied that the cult had tampered with the barrier and described a deteriorated Teleportation Array once connected to the Cultivation Realm, which had come into the Qin Emperor’s possession after the Zhang Family fell.
• Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe inferred that Xue Fuyao came from the destroyed Snow Dynasty, and the man asked them to take him to cultivate.

Xue Fuyao and her companions continued investigating the Cult Leader’s scheme, then she traveled to the Snow Dynasty’s former capital to retrieve what her family had hidden in the Imperial Mausoleum. She reunited with more of her father’s Dark Guards and ordered them cared for while they waited for Shijiu to bring them to the Cultivation Realm.

• Xue Fuyao killed the man at the National Preceptor Residence, and Gu Nian insisted they keep investigating because the Cult Leader alone could not weaken the barrier between realms.
• Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe supported Xue Fuyao’s decision to visit what her family had left for her, and the three escaped the surrounded residence before she left Qian City alone.
• Xue Fuyao reached the abandoned Snow Dynasty Imperial City, where Shadow Three told her that the Imperial Mausoleum held the hidden items and needed the Imperial Jade Seal to open.
• Shadow Three explained that over a hundred retired Dark Guards had remained behind to guard the mausoleum and had waited for Xue Fuyao to return.
• Xue Fuyao thanked the Dark Guards, ordered them to accompany her to the Cultivation Realm, and told Shadow Three to settle them, test them for 'Ling,' and give each a drop of Diluted Three Luminaries Divine Water if needed.

Xue Fuyao explored the Imperial Mausoleum and discovered that its crystal coffins held powerful living puppets and fragile souls, which she sheltered in the Heavenheart Bottle before taking everything away. After concealing the ruins, she sent the Dark Guards to investigate an ancient tomb at sea that held an inheritance guarded by a hungry Black Tortoise.

• Xue Fuyao entered the Imperial Mausoleum alone after the Imperial Jade Seal activated its entrance.
• She touched the central stone stele, triggering a red force that spread through the chains and crystal coffins, and recognized the occupants as powerful puppets made while alive.
• Xue Fuyao found the occupants’ fragile souls and drew them into the Heavenheart Bottle to nourish them.
• She took the crystal coffins and other contents into the different space, then ordered Sanqi to test whether the newly settled people could cultivate and send them to the Western Continent.
• Xue Fuyao concealed the Imperial City and Mausoleum with Formation Disks before leaving to seek Senior Sister Gu Nian and Senior Brother Chu Yunzhe.
• She ordered the remaining Dark Guards in the Cultivation Realm to head toward the boundary between the Southern Continent and the Eastern Continent to explore an ancient tomb and its hungry Black Tortoise.

Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe were trapped by fellow cultivators controlled by a mortal using a strange bronze bell, but Xue Fuyao found and subdued the controller. The Sect Master arranged for the victims to be returned to their sects and warned the three disciples to stay careful while the barrier was temporarily repaired.

• Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe fought off their controlled companions inside a formation that sealed space, and Gu Nian refused to escape without Chu Yunzhe.
• Xue Fuyao arrived, knocked out the hidden controller, and showed her senior disciples the ancient bronze bell that had controlled the attackers.
• Xue Fuyao shook the silent bell, causing the fallen cultivators to rise with vacant eyes, while Chu Yunzhe determined that their sealed energy could not be safely restored.
• Gu Nian asked the Sect Master to notify the victims' sects and take the still-living cultivators back to the Cultivation Realm.
• The Sect Master agreed to handle the matter and said the barrier was being patched, though its source still had to be found for a complete repair.

Xue Fuyao suspected that the hidden force behind the attacks might be the Reclusive Aristocratic Clans, especially the Longevity Aristocratic Clan she remembered from her previous life. The investigation remained at a dead end, but she confirmed that a cultivator had secretly controlled the man through the Bronze Bell.

• Xue Fuyao suggested to the Sect Master that the incident might involve the Reclusive Aristocratic Clans and cited information about the Longevity Aristocratic Clan that she claimed to have found among her family's belongings.
• Xue Fuyao recalled that the Longevity Aristocratic Clan had used an endless supply of unpaid, expendable mine laborers and suspected they came from outside the Cultivation Realm.
• Chu Yunzhe explained to Gu Nian and Xue Fuyao that reclusive clans still sought cultivation resources, and suggested robbing them if they emerged and the disciples needed money.
• Xue Fuyao told Gu Nian that the interrogated man had been controlled and had met the masked person behind the attacks only once.
• Xue Fuyao determined that a cultivator had infused the Bronze Bell with spiritual energy, then shook the bell again after overwriting that energy with her own.

Gu Nian had Chu Yunzhe undo the seal on his exceptionally keen nose so they could try tracking the Magic Artifact’s spiritual energy, and he remained unconscious for three days while she and Xue Fuyao cared for him. After he woke, new arrivals came to the Cave and reacted with anger at the bound, unconscious people inside.

• Gu Nian proposed using Chu Yunzhe’s sense of smell to track the Magic Artifact’s remaining spiritual energy, and he reluctantly undid the seal on his nose.
• Chu Yunzhe passed out from the overwhelming scents, so Gu Nian carried him to a Cave while Xue Fuyao dragged the bound captives along behind them.
• Gu Nian and Xue Fuyao placed fresh Spirit Fruit and Spirit Flowers beside Chu Yunzhe to help him recover, and Gu Nian explained that the seal was already near its limit.
• After three days, Chu Yunzhe woke with pain in his nose but some control over his newly released ability.
• Xue Fuyao sensed approaching cultivators, who arrived at the Cave and grew furious when they saw the captives inside.

Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe protected Xue Fuyao as they investigated the bronze bell, while Sanqi revealed that the Longevity Aristocratic Clan had taken over a hundred talented children from the Mortal Realm. The chapter showed Qin Zhao enduring captivity on a hidden island and looking for a chance to escape, then ended with several youths kneeling before the Longevity Aristocratic Clan’s head and elders.

• Gu Nian rebuked the elders who had pressured Xue Fuyao, and they left with their disciples.
• Xue Fuyao preserved the bronze bell’s remaining aura, and Chu Yunzhe said he could track it despite the many scents on it.
• Sanqi told Xue Fuyao that General Qin’s children and more than a hundred other youths had been taken by people bearing a token marked “Longevity.”
• Xue Fuyao learned that the youths had been held for two years on a hidden island, where Qin Zhao watched for a chance to escape.
• Several boys and girls knelt before the head and elders of the Longevity Aristocratic Clan.

The Longevity Aristocratic Clan discovered that the Kongtong Seal had vanished after a group of young disciples tried to take it, leaving the barrier between the Mortal Realm and Cultivation Realm unstable. Meanwhile, Xue Fuyao, Gu Nian, and Chu Yunzhe followed a trail through the mist and reached the Cultivation Realm.

• The patriarch and elders reprimanded the youths for trying to seize the Kongtong Seal and endangering the Longevity Lineage.
• A chubby youth explained that the Kongtong Seal had turned into golden light and disappeared as they attempted to take it.
• Elder Qi suggested the Xue Clan might be involved, but the patriarch ordered the lineage to find the seal before outside powers learned what had happened.
• Xue Fuyao and Gu Nian followed Chu Yunzhe through the mist to a quiet stretch of sea, where their cultivation returned.
• Gu Nian recognized that they had arrived in the Cultivation Realm.

Xue Fuyao, Gu Nian, and Chu Yunzhe tracked a vanished scent to the Dead Sea and discovered a hidden formation concealing a possible reclusive clan. After knocking out five youths who mentioned the Kongtong Seal, Xue Fuyao turned Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe into spirit mice and prepared to use the youths’ identities to enter.

• Gu Nian recognized the sparse, lifeless region as the Dead Sea, and Chu Yunzhe said the scent they followed had vanished there despite signs that people had recently been present.
• Gu Nian could not contact the Sect, but Xue Fuyao and Chu Yunzhe learned that their Master was reinforcing the barrier and would be unreachable, so they decided to investigate alone.
• The three disguised themselves as rogue cultivators and searched until Chu Yunzhe located a Sect-Guarding Grand Array over the sea.
• Xue Fuyao sensed a fluctuation in the formation, and the three followed it to five youths who complained about Mo Yun and said they planned to find the Kongtong Seal.
• Xue Fuyao and the others knocked out the five youths, then Xue Fuyao transformed Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe into spirit mice so she could try to enter through the formation.

Xue Fuyao infiltrated the Longevity Aristocratic Clan by impersonating Li Ming and staging an attack that left her injured and the others apparently dead. After the Punishment Hall questioned her, she began using Gu Worms to investigate the clan while Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe agreed to act in her place as she recovered.

• Xue Fuyao destroyed Li Ming's body, staged the scene as an ambush, and wounded herself with her Spirit Sword before drawing the clan's patrols with talismans.
• Xue Fuyao woke in a crude hut and recalled choosing Li Ming because his lack of family and connections made him easy to impersonate.
• Members of the Punishment Hall questioned Xue Fuyao, and she claimed Senior Brother Xiao had led them to search for the Kongtong Seal before they were attacked.
• The Punishment Hall accepted her account, postponed her punishment for one month, and told her to recover.
• Xue Fuyao planned to use Gu Worms planted on the investigators to learn about the clan, then let Gu Nian and Chu Yunzhe out of her pouch.
• Gu Nian scolded Xue Fuyao for injuring herself, while Chu Yunzhe offered to investigate the clan with Gu Nian as Xue Fuyao healed.