Recaps

Chen Yi defeated Wang Gu and the Eastern Depot guards after they attacked him at the Infant Tower, then ordered the surviving agents to rescue the children and arrest those responsible. He left Wang Gu alive but maimed, warning him to tell Prince Jing and the Ding'an faction what had happened.

• Chen Yi killed several of Wang Gu's fourteen guards in battle, shrugging off their attacks before knocking Wang Gu unconscious with a powerful punch.
• When Min Ning arrived with Eastern Depot Agents, Chen Yi stood over the wounded Wang Gu and cut off his left arm while sparing his life.
• Chen Yi told Wang Gu to report the encounter to Prince Jing and the Ding'an faction, declaring that he would kill and handle what the Eastern Depot would not.
• Chen Yi ordered Min Ning to collect the Eastern Depot dead and send Wang Gu back to Capital City, then explained that Wang Gu's men had attacked first and enabled the Infant Tower's creation.
• Chen Yi commanded the agents to remove every child from the tower and take them to the Foundling Hall, and to arrest everyone who had helped build it.

After surviving a deadly ambush by the Ding'an faction, Chen Yi returned to the Capital City and gave Min Ning the Cangshan Fist manual, though she refused it without a trade. At home, he brought books and food to Yin Tingxue, who told him about a dream involving Zhou Yitang, and promised not to bully her while she recovered.

• Chen Yi escorted the surviving Embroidered Uniform Guards, rescued babies, and villagers toward the Capital City, worrying that the Ding'an faction might attack him again.
• Min Ning gave Chen Yi her cape, and he teased her before offering her the Cangshan Fist manual as a reward for caring about him.
• Min Ning refused the manual because she could not repay him, so Chen Yi put it away and decided to make other plans.
• Chen Yi bought books and food for Yin Tingxue, then found her awake in the hall when he returned home.
• Yin Tingxue described a dream about a one-armed woman who wanted to take her away, and Chen Yi identified the woman as Zhou Yitang.
• Chen Yi served Yin Tingxue her favorite foods and told her to focus on recovering, promising not to bully her for now.

Prince Jing’s faction planned to kill Chen Yi during the Prayer Daoist Grounds, but Yin Weiying intervened to protect Min Ning. After taking charge of the Eastern Depot, Chen Yi began gathering records on Prince Jing’s residence and planned to ensnare both the Lin and Ding'an factions.

• Elder Xu and Huang Qing rebuked Prince Jing for the failed attempt on Chen Yi and proposed killing him during the Prayer Daoist Grounds.
• Yin Weiying entered the meeting, revealed her interest in Min Ning, and persuaded Prince Jing to spare Min Ning while allowing her to target Chen Yi.
• Min Ning found the Cangshan Fist and Chen Yi’s note returning it, then headed to the Eastern Depot with conflicted thoughts about him.
• Yin Tingxue considered asking Chen Yi to help her return to Silver Terrace Temple but resisted the idea of begging him.
• Chen Yi formally assumed the position of Depot Lord and ordered the clerks to find records connected to Prince Jing’s residence.
• Chen Yi resolved to use the coming Prayer Daoist Grounds to trap both the Lin faction and the Ding'an faction.

Chen Yi ordered an investigation into Prince Jing's residence to pressure the Ding'an faction, then Min Ning kissed him as repayment and to distract him from her sister. A pigeon brought word that Min Ming was in danger at the Hundred Flowers Tower, where Yin Weiying had already defeated the hidden fighters and asked Min Ming to play the Guangling Melody.

• Chen Yi rejected the Recorder's advice to avoid antagonizing the Ding'an faction and ordered the Recorders to gather files concerning Prince Jing's residence.
• Min Ning confronted Chen Yi, kissed him to repay him for returning her Fist Manual, and admitted she wanted to protect Min Ming from his advances.
• A message carried by a pigeon warned that Min Ming was in danger at the Hundred Flowers Tower.
• At the Hundred Flowers Tower, Min Ming played the zither while Yin Weiying prepared tea beside two lifeless paper effigies.
• Min Ming asked Yin Weiying why she had come, and Yin Weiying told her to keep playing and asked whether she knew the Guangling Melody.

At Hundred Flowers Tower, Yin Weiying offered to take Min Ning up the mountain to cultivate and showed Chen Yi the vast gulf between mortal and immortal lifespans. Her lesson in severing worldly attachments nearly drew him away from the mortal world, but he could not forget Yin Tingxue’s declaration that she was his concubine.

• Chen Yi entered Hundred Flowers Tower and met Yin Weiying, who revealed that she had come for Min Moon Pond and offered to take her up the mountain to cultivate.
• Speaking as Min Ning, Chen Yi refused Yin Weiying’s offer, saying she could not abandon her elder sister or her duty to restore the Min Household.
• Yin Weiying showed Chen Yi that an eternal lamp could still go out and explained how mortals’ brief lives compared with the long spans of immortal existence.
• Yin Weiying brought Chen Yi to Silver Terrace Temple and taught that cultivating longevity required severing worldly ties and forgetting emotion.
• Yin Weiying led Chen Yi above the Capital City as centuries passed, and he began to feel that all worldly attachments were insignificant.
• As Chen Yi was about to let go of his remaining desires, he remembered Yin Tingxue’s pledge to be his concubine and realized he could not abandon her.

Chen Yi rejected Yin Weiying’s path of severing mortal ties, arguing that cultivation should make someone an immortal rather than a stone. As he escorted her from the Hundred Flowers Tower, the city plunged into unnatural darkness three days before Demon-Quelling Day, and Yin Weiying exposed a talisman-selling Daoist as a fiend.

• Chen Yi challenged Yin Weiying’s belief that supreme oblivion of emotion was the path to immortality, and she dismissed his argument as Mohist heterodoxy.
• Yin Weiying stored away her tea things, and Chen Yi escorted her from the Hundred Flowers Tower with a lantern.
• The sky abruptly darkened, yin baleful energy spread, and the streets fell silent, prompting Chen Yi to wonder why Demon-Quelling Day had arrived early.
• Chen Yi and Yin Weiying encountered Min Ning, whom Chen Yi introduced under the identity and title of Chen Yi, courtesy name Chen Zunming.
• A Daoist selling talismans tried to charge an old woman triple for his last one, and Yin Weiying called him a fiend and demanded that he reveal his true form.

During the Day of Quelling Bandits and Exorcising Demons, Chen Yi and Yin Weiying encountered several ghosts while escorting Min Ning through the darkened capital. They fled from a canal demon and a ghost general, but in a dead-end alley they came face-to-face with a dying Asura as Chen Yi smiled, knowing its identity from the walkthrough.

• Yin Weiying exposed and destroyed a dung-selling ghost whose talismans were made of manure.
• Chen Yi, Yin Weiying, and Min Ning saw the Jealous Wife Ford Deity drown men at the canal and hurried away.
• Chen Yi identified a Confucian scholar as a ghost, causing it to melt into black water.
• The group spotted a ghost general leading hopping corpses and fled into an alley.
• They encountered a dying Asura whose fall into the ghost path could make it a Ghost King, while Chen Yi smiled because he had read the walkthrough.

Chen Yi used his knowledge of the game’s Buddhist lore to free a dying Asura from its suffering and claimed the Red-Gold Sarira it left behind. Yin Weiying mistook his insight for the Heavenly Eye and offered to make him her dao companion, but Chen Yi revealed that his name was not Min Yuechi.

• Chen Yi approached the declining Asura despite Yin Weiying’s attempts to stop him, then explained that its fear of death and attachment to life were avidya.
• The Asura seized Chen Yi and demanded to know how to escape suffering, so Chen Yi told it about Indra taking refuge in the Three Refuges and challenged it to consider whether Chen Yi himself could be a Buddha ferrying it across.
• The Asura’s grip loosened as Buddhist light arose, and it vanished, leaving a Red-Gold Sarira that Chen Yi collected.
• Yin Weiying concluded that Chen Yi possessed the Heavenly Eye and reconsidered her earlier contempt for him, believing he might be her destined opportunity.
• Yin Weiying asked Min Yuechi to become her dao companion, and Chen Yi corrected her by revealing that his name was Chen Yi.

Chen Yi revealed his identity to Yin Weiying, then forced her to admit that Prince Jing's Manor planned to kill him on Demon-Quelling Day. As Chen Yi sensed a new threat approaching, Huang Liuqing of the White Willow Sect arrived in the alley.

• Chen Yi revealed that he was Thousand Household Chen Yi, and Min Ning disclosed her identity to Yin Weiying.
• Yin Weiying lost her composure, cursed Chen Yi, and attacked him with her peachwood sword before Min Ning disarmed her.
• Chen Yi pressured Yin Weiying for information, and she revealed that Prince Jing's Manor intended to kill him on Demon-Quelling Day.
• Chen Yi sensed murderous intent and saw Huang Liuqing, a True Disciple of the White Willow Sect, approaching with a saber and lantern.

Chen Yi faced Huang Liuqing, a fifth-grade martial artist sent by Prince Jing to kill him, and was badly outmatched in their saber duel. He escaped by pretending to reveal a final move and fleeing, leaving Huang Liuqing alone in the alley.

• Chen Yi sent Min Ning and Yin Weiying away before confronting Huang Liuqing, who said Prince Jing had ordered him to kill Chen Yi.
• Huang Liuqing and Chen Yi drew their sabers and fought in the alley, with Huang Liuqing's superior realm and powerful White Willow Sect technique giving him the advantage.
• Huang Liuqing wounded Chen Yi's hand and notched the Embroidered Spring Saber, while Chen Yi admitted he had one final move.
• Chen Yi hurled his scabbard at Huang Liuqing, spun around, and fled the alley as Huang Liuqing struck the scabbard and stared after him.

Chen Yi escaped Huang Liuqing and reunited with Min Ning and Yin Weiying at the Western Depot, where he forced Yin Weiying to surrender an alchemy manual. Min Ning offered to teach Chen Yi a saber move and make him her disciple, but he refused and revealed that Zhou Yitang was his only master.

• Empress An learned that Demon-Quelling Day had arrived unexpectedly and ordered the Directorate of Celestial Observations and both Depots to investigate.
• Chen Yi escaped Huang Liuqing and reached the Western Depot, where Min Ning and Yin Weiying had taken shelter.
• Chen Yi provoked Yin Weiying, demanded compensation, and took her Purple Medicine Pill Compendium before she left.
• Min Ning gave Chen Yi wound medicine and offered to teach him a newly comprehended saber move so they could investigate her grandfather's death together.
• Min Ning proposed that Chen Yi become her disciple, but Chen Yi said Zhou Yitang was his only master and described himself as a disciple who had defied his master and betrayed his lineage.

Chen Yi took Yin Tingxue to Thousand Lamps Temple, where she mourned Silver Terrace Temple’s decline, while Min Ning confronted Li the Rakshasa and demonstrated her Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber. The chapter ended with Min Ning walking away after killing him with a single strike.

• Chen Yi agreed to take Yin Tingxue to Thousand Lamps Temple and received an empress dowager’s decree to investigate Demon-Quelling Day.
• Chen Yi reviewed files about Prince Jing’s Manor and found that Jade Elegance Estate was suspected of illegally trafficking Five-Stone Powder.
• Chen Yi, Yin Tingxue, and Min Ning went to Thousand Lamps Temple, where Yin Tingxue reflected on Silver Terrace Temple’s decline.
• Min Ning asked Chen Yi again to learn her saber strike, then drank wine and confronted Li the Rakshasa after he drew his saber in public.
• Min Ning killed Li the Rakshasa with one strike, cleaving through him and the falling rain, then walked away drinking wine.

Chen Yi learned that an Extraterrestrial Demon had caused evil thoughts and yin baleful intent to surge in the Capital City, bringing Demon-Quelling Day early. Zhou Yitang told Empress An that Extraterrestrial Demons came from beyond the Three Realms, while Lu Ying explained that the term referred to demons from foreign traditions.

• Min Ning agreed to teach Chen Yi her saber technique if he promised not to touch her older sister for a year, and Chen Yi agreed to visit Thousand Lamps Temple after the crowds thinned.
• Chen Yi took Yin Tingxue through Thousand Lamps Temple and met Feiyuan True Person, who explained the history of Demon-Quelling Day and said evil thoughts gathered into ghosts.
• Feiyuan True Person said an Extraterrestrial Demon was behind the unusually strong evil thoughts and yin baleful intent in the Capital City.
• Zhou Yitang told Empress An that Extraterrestrial Demons came from beyond the Three Realms, and Lu Ying explained that the name collectively described demons such as Yama Raja, Asura, and Garuda.

Chen Yi mastered Min Ning’s Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber in an instant, astonishing her, before hearing how her family was destroyed after her grandfather’s role in the Chancellor Case. He suggested that the Suppress Bandits and Exorcise Demons Blessing Ritual might let them summon her grandfather’s soul and learn the truth.

• A message from the Do Not Use Tower asked Chen Yi to eliminate demons and ghosts in Huai River Village, and Min Ning taught him her saber strike.
• Chen Yi spent twenty years of true qi to master the Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber, then demonstrated a version far beyond Min Ning’s own.
• Min Ning explained that her grandfather was implicated in the Chancellor Case after returning from a search for divine elixirs, and that her parents later died while pursuing the truth.
• Chen Yi and Min Ning discussed whether the late emperor or Grand Secretary Lin had been involved in her grandfather’s execution.
• Chen Yi pointed out that the ritual blurred the boundary between humans and ghosts and suggested they summon Min Ning’s grandfather’s soul.

Chen Yi persuaded Min Ning to agree to summon his grandfather Min He’s soul, then took him to Min He’s grave near Huai River Village. There, Chen Yi admitted he could not perform the ritual himself, but said someone else could as Shangqing Dao Daoists arrived.

• Chen Yi appealed to Min Ning’s memories of Min He and promised to share the burden, and Min Ning finally agreed to the soul-summoning.
• Chen Yi read a notice about demons in Huai River Village and suspected Grand Secretary Lin wanted a ghost general exterminated for merit.
• Chen Yi and Min Ning rode to Huai River Village, where they heard that the ghost general had killed previous exorcists and villagers.
• Min Ning found Min He’s overgrown grave and solemnly bowed before giving Chen Yi permission to proceed.
• Chen Yi revealed that he did not know how to summon a soul but said someone else did, as a group of Shangqing Dao Daoists approached.

Chen Yi and Min Ning investigated the blood-stained ancestral hall in Huai River Village, where the terrified villagers expected Shangqing Dao to deal with a demon. Yin Weiying tried to provoke Chen Yi, but he left her flustered with a teasing proposal as the group prepared to enter the hall.

• Chen Yi showed the village chief his imperial token and demanded access to the ancestral hall, but the chief begged him to leave and warned that no one could handle what was inside.
• A villager arrived with Xuanzhen and the Shangqing Dao group, prompting the villagers to welcome them and leave Chen Yi and Min Ning aside.
• Yin Weiying recognized Chen Yi and suggested he was capable of slaying demons, while Xuanzhen urged the two officers to go back.
• The village chief opened the ancestral hall and led the Daoists and officers inside.
• Yin Weiying told Chen Yi that her divination showed he lacked the Heavenly Eye, and Chen Yi teased her by asking her to be his dao companion, leaving her blushing as other Daoists overheard.

Chen Yi and Yin Weiying arrived with Shangqing Dao priests at Huai River Village’s ancestral hall, where they discovered children being prepared as sacrifices to a ghost deity. As the priests investigated the dangerous spirit, the statue seemed to move and stare at the village chief.

• Chen Yi claimed Yin Weiying had fallen for him at first sight, embarrassing her and convincing the Shangqing Dao priests that they were lovers.
• Chen Yi teased Yin Weiying about becoming her Golden Lad and Jade Maiden, and she said she would treat it as a dog bite.
• Chen Yi and the others entered the ancestral hall and found a boy and girl tied before a ghost-general statue, with fresh beef on the altar.
• Daoist Xuan Zhen freed the children, distributed protective talismans, and urged Chen Yi and Min Ning to leave.
• The village chief said nobody knew the ghost deity’s name and admitted the villagers could not drive it away.
• The statue appeared to turn its head and stare at the village chief.

After the Deng Ghost General trapped the group in the ancestral hall, Chen Yi revealed that it feared him and made Yin Weiying beg for his help. He identified the ghost as Deng Ai and prepared to summon Jiang Wei with a door-god talisman.

• The old village chief strangled himself, and Daoist Xuanzhen recognized the arrival of the Ghost General’s ghost domain.
• The Shangqing Dao priests fought Chi and Mei while Wangliang possessed a young priest and struck Daoist Xuanzhen, leaving him gravely wounded.
• Deng Ghost General appeared outside the ancestral hall and overwhelmed Yin Weiying’s paper maids and the priests’ weapons without crossing the threshold.
• Yin Weiying asked Chen Yi for help, and he demanded that she beg before showing her a Red-Gold Sarira.
• Yin Weiying reluctantly begged Chen Yi, who revealed that the Ghost General was Deng Ai and that its presence came from a statue housing one of its manifestations.
• Chen Yi took out a door-god talisman depicting Jiang Wei and said he would invite him.

Chen Yi fought and killed the Ghost General Deng Ai in the ancestral hall, using the Red-Gold Sarira and Jiang Wei’s portrait to repel its baleful energy. Min Ning kissed Chen Yi after recognizing the finishing slash as one she had taught him, leaving Yin Weiying and the Shangqing Daoists stunned.

• Chen Yi used the Red-Gold Sarira and Jiang Wei’s portrait to withstand the Ghost General Deng Ai’s baleful energy and attacks.
• Chen Yi struck the Ghost General’s armor with his Cangshan Fist and fought on despite being pierced in the arm and struck in the shoulder.
• Chen Yi used the Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber to sever the Ghost General’s arm and spear, killing it.
• Min Ning recognized Chen Yi’s finishing slash as the one she had taught him and kissed him.
• Yin Weiying faltered as the Shangqing Daoists watched Min Ning kiss Chen Yi.

Chen Yi killed Ghost General Deng Ai, secured the Shangqing Heart Method from the Shangqing Dao, and realized he could practice cultivation methods without infusing True Qi or True Essence. Yin Weiying stayed behind to help summon a soul and asked Chen Yi to spare her parents if he ever fought her father, but he instead told her he had his eye on her.

• The villagers destroyed Ghost General Deng Ai’s remains after Chen Yi killed him, while the Shangqing Daoists watched in shock.
• Chen Yi asked the Shangqing Dao to help him summon a soul and let him study the Shangqing Heart Method, and Daoist Xuan Zhen agreed to both requests.
• After hearing the method explained, Chen Yi noticed Min Ning circulating qi and realized he could practice cultivation methods directly without infusing True Essence.
• Yin Weiying stayed behind to lead the soul-summoning formation and told Chen Yi that her father wanted to kill him, asking him to spare her parents if they ever faced each other.
• Chen Yi learned that Yin Weiying’s courtesy name was Luanhuang and told her, “I’ve got my eye on you,” leaving her unnerved.

Yin Weiying performed a soul-summoning ritual at a grave, while Chen Yi teased her about Min Ning and their past. After returning to Capital City, Chen Yi and Min Ning received a threat from Jade Elegance Estate over the Chancellor Case, and Chen Yi decided to shut the estate down.

• Yin Weiying and the Daoists summoned the scattered souls at the grave, with the ritual expected to take three days during Demon-Quelling Day.
• Chen Yi teased Yin Weiying about wanting Min Ning and about their former feelings, provoking her anger and earning three years of True Qi.
• Chen Yi and Min Ning returned to the Min Household, where a little beggar delivered a letter threatening Min Ning to stop investigating Chancellor Zhang's case.
• Min Ning explained that Jade Elegance Estate had once belonged to Chancellor Zhang and was now backed by Prince Jing, Feng Luo, and the Nameless Old Matron.
• Chen Yi told Min Ning he planned to take men and shut down Jade Elegance Estate, and Min Ning called him shameless and lewd.

Chen Yi cultivated Daoist qi despite the strange poison in his body and resolved to meet Zhou Yitang, while Jade Elegance Estate prepared a shipment of illicit pills and powders. The chapter left a Thousand Household confronting the estate guards as he moved to investigate.

• Chen Yi put a hairpin in the dressing cabinet, then cultivated with the Shangqing Heart Method and sensed qi despite the pain of his poison.
• Chen Yi considered the coming Prayer Daoist Grounds dangers and decided he needed to meet Zhou Yitang soon.
• At Jade Elegance Estate, Feng Ying dismissed Min Ning’s investigation of the Chancellor Case and praised his son Feng Luo’s martial skill.
• Feng Ying learned that a large shipment of immortal pills and powders had been unloaded and was being brought to the estate.
• An Embroidered Uniform Guard Thousand Household arrived at Jade Elegance Estate and challenged its guards after they barred his way.

Chen Yi and Min Ning led the Embroidered Uniform Guards in a raid on Jade Elegance Estate to seize its contraband. They defeated Estate Master Feng Ying and Feng Luo, leaving the estate’s defenders subdued as the battle neared its end.

• Chen Yi surrounded Jade Elegance Estate with Eastern Depot Agents and Western Depot chief constables, then ordered the guards to let them investigate.
• When the head guard tried to block Chen Yi, Min Ning severed both his hands, and fighting broke out at the estate gates.
• Estate Master Feng Ying ordered his men to stop unloading the goods and gathered the estate’s forces to resist the raid.
• Chen Yi and Min Ning fought Feng Ying and Feng Luo at the Martial Practice Field, with Chen Yi quickly defeating Feng Ying.
• Min Ning disarmed Feng Luo and knocked him down, and the battle at Jade Elegance Estate began to wind down.

Chen Yi captured Feng Ying and Feng Luo at Jade Elegance Estate, killed Feng Ying, and crippled Feng Luo to prevent revenge. Prince Jing learned of the investigation and ordered Huang Liuqing to prepare a trap to kill Chen Yi.

• Min Ning reported that the estate stewards had confessed, and Feng Ying cursed them before Zeng Chief Constable silenced him.
• Chen Yi told Feng Luo he would spare him for the Nameless Old Matron’s sake, then killed Feng Ying and severed Feng Luo’s wrist and ankle tendons.
• Chen Yi ordered Zeng Chief Constable to imprison Feng Luo and further restrict his ability to seek revenge, while the gathered officials agreed to support Chen Yi’s account of the incident.
• A servant told Prince Jing that Chen Yi had investigated Jade Elegance Estate, and Prince Jing blamed the Eastern Depot guards for failing to stop him.
• Prince Jing remembered that most of the guards had died in an earlier attempt on Chen Yi, then ordered the servant to have Huang Liuqing set up a killing trap.

Empress An and the Nameless Old Matron discussed Chen Yi’s rise and decided to draw him closer to the imperial family by sending him into danger and arranging a palace reward. After Director Wu assigned Chen Yi to investigate Demon-Quelling Day, Chen Yi recalled the demons threatening the capital and the fox ancestor tied to the Chancellor Case.

• Empress An agreed to spare Feng Luo as long as he lived and discussed testing Chen Yi’s strength with the Nameless Old Matron.
• Empress An suspected Chen Yi might be acting for Grand Secretary Lin and ordered him to investigate the Chancellor Case and the Grand Empress Dowager’s death.
• Empress An arranged for Consort Dong to be used as a reward and a means of binding Chen Yi to the imperial family.
• Director Wu told Chen Yi that officials from the Ding'an and Lin factions had impeached him over Jade Elegance Estate, then assigned him to investigate Demon-Quelling Day.
• Chen Yi recalled the three great demons threatening the capital and the fox demon Tushan Ancestor, whose involvement linked the Prayer Daoist Grounds to the Chancellor Case.