Recaps

Sun Chen revealed the spirits of his past lives and destroyed most of the demons, while the Wolf King escaped into Ao Ding’s trap and was killed. After Sun Chen departed into reincarnation, Ao Ding inherited his curse and faced the still-open passage to the Nine Netherworlds, where a new ghost appeared.

• Sun Chen summoned two manifestations cultivated in his past lives, and the woman destroyed five of the seven demon ghosts while the Wolf King fled badly wounded.
• The Wolf King reached the Dragon-Severing Stone, where Ao Ding’s Golden Spear Cave Lock summoned a golden dragon that killed him.
• Ao Ding sensed Sun Chen’s powers vanish and realized the wolf curse had transferred to his hand.
• Ao Ding discovered that Oil Cauldron Hell was still drawing ghost qi through the open netherworld passage, while the aroma of its wolf-ghost stews risked attracting dangerous beings.
• A scarlet ghost appeared beyond the passage, and Ao Ding considered using it to seal the opening.

Ao Ding sealed a leaking passage between the Netherworld and the human world, then began refining the ghostly feast in the Oil Cauldron Hell into Netherworld Wolf-Soul Pearls. After Sun Chen appeared in a dream to reveal his successful reincarnation and counsel Ao Ding, Ao Ding completed the funeral rites and considered advancing his Northern Yin cultivation.

• The Red-Horned Ghost entered the human world through a passage and ate Ao Ding’s ghost-path Spirit Cuisine until Ao Ding confronted him and sent him back with stew as a reward for sealing the passage.
• Ao Ding sealed the passage with the Azure Jade Golden Dragon Banner and began refining the meat in hundreds of thousands of oil cauldrons into Netherworld Wolf-Soul Pearls.
• Ao Ding held vigil and chanted scriptures for Sun Chen, who appeared in a dream to say he had reincarnated on Cangluan Continent and instruct Ao Ding to guide him in his next life without taking him to the Pure Tenuity Sect.
• After Sun Chen’s reincarnation released the contract spell, Ao Ding strengthened barriers around the Oil Cauldron Hell and completed forty-nine days of rites.
• Ao Ding reviewed his Golden Light Method and Northern Yin Dharma Gate cultivation, sensing that advancing the Hell Method could bring him a great fortuitous opportunity.

Ao Ding studied the Northern Yin Hell Iron Writ and advanced his hell methods by enduring the suffering of several hells. After encountering the Green-Eyed Ghost at the passage between worlds, he made a contract to sell his ghost-soul meat stew in the netherworld, leaving both sides satisfied with the arrangement.

• Ao Ding examined the Northern Yin Hell Iron Writ, manifested several hells in his jade wheel, and endured their torments to advance his cultivation.
• The Green-Eyed Ghost sensed Ao Ding’s hell methods at the passage, mistook him for a powerful Northern Yin cultivator, and cautiously explained that ghost-made food could nourish and purify ghosts.
• Ao Ding offered to sell his meat stew and teach Northern Yin secret arts in exchange for netherworld goods, and the Green-Eyed Ghost agreed to help.
• Ao Ding and the Green-Eyed Ghost signed a contract, exchanged food, and agreed to guard the passage and establish a Ghost Gate requiring both their permission to cross.
• The Green-Eyed Ghost sent the Red-Horned Ghost to find a stall in a nearby ghost city, and Hell Eatery opened in the netherworld.

Ao Ding’s fragrant meat stew eatery prospered in the underworld, and the Yin Virtue from helping ghosts began advancing his Northern Yin cultivation. He and the Green-Eyed Ghost expanded their plans from food sales to cross-world trading and cosmetics for ghosts, while Ao Ding continued clearing the ghost domain.

• Ao Ding watched the Green-Eyed Ghost sell the stew at a profit and sent more stock after all seventy pots sold quickly.
• As Ao Ding practiced the Northern Yin path, he formed the Nine Netherworlds Burning Refinement Boiling-Form Cauldron and suspected the accumulating Yin Virtue was aiding his cultivation.
• The Green-Eyed Ghost proposed hiring hungry ghosts and building a larger eatery, and Ao Ding agreed while sending another three hundred pots.
• Ao Ding and the Green-Eyed Ghost kept their thirty-seventy arrangement and began planning to trade pure-yang goods and cultivation methods between the yin and yang worlds.
• After ghosts complained about repetitive meals, the Green-Eyed Ghost described their need for spices and cosmetics that could conceal appearances damaged by their deaths.
• Ao Ding agreed to help develop varied food and cosmetics for underworld ghosts, starting another enterprise with the Green-Eyed Ghost.

After three years on Qianling Mountain, Ao Ding reaches the Profound Gang Upper Realm, prepares to pursue a breakthrough through the Golden Light Method, and gathers his belongings before leaving. He says farewell to Green-Eyed Ghost and begins a new journey down the mountain.

• Ao Ding consumes the Jade True Golden Bud, advances his True Heaven Golden Gang, and discovers that his Primordial Truth Mirror spirit-offshoot has divided into three children representing his desires, morality, and rationality.
• Ao Ding and the three children determine that he can cultivate a Glazed Immortal Body through the Five Qi Returning to the Origin Formula and plan how to enter the Jade Tower Realm using both the Golden Light Method and Northern Yin Dharma.
• Ao Ding and Green-Eyed Ghost discuss fox ghosts searching near the Mountain Villa and the difficulty of finding skilled ghost monsters for their businesses.
• After another half year of cultivation, Ao Ding packs his scriptures, Dharma Artifacts, wealth, and the Fragrant Meat Stew recipe, then descends Qianling Mountain.
• Green-Eyed Ghost gives Ao Ding a jade bracelet that can let them communicate across realms, and Ao Ding bids him farewell before setting out.

Ao Ding traveled from Xiling City toward the Seven Spirits Sect, using the Qingji relay stations and sharing his plans to visit True Persons and old acquaintances. He reached the sect’s western gate, where someone confronted him and swung a punch at his face.

• Ao Ding feasted in Xiling City and planned to visit the Seven Spirits Sect, True Persons, and several households and sites connected to Sun Chen.
• Ao Ding toured the city and bought gifts for people at the Seven Spirits Sect.
• Ao Ding traveled with a Qingji team, then used the House-Building Technique to create wooden shelters at one of their relay stations.
• Ao Ding crossed into the Seven Spirits Sect’s territory, gave the Qingji medicinal pills and Greenwood House-Building Talismans, and entered through the western gate.
• A person shouted at Ao Ding for returning and sent a punch toward his face.

Ao Ding returned to the Seven Spirits Sect, reunited with the kitchen garden staff, and left them and his old acquaintances gifts. After learning that Wang Weilong and Deputy Sect Master Wu were reacting to his return, Ao Ding avoided the inner court and departed the sect, though he remained ready to fight anyone who pursued him.

• Ao Ding revealed his Mystic Gang Realm cultivation to an outer court disciple, then shrank him and hid him in his sleeve to keep his return quiet.
• Ao Ding reunited with Auntie Wang and the kitchen garden staff, gave them gifts and pills, and asked Auntie Wang to deliver bundles to Wang He and Luo Qiushui.
• Wang Weilong ordered Fang Cheng to send Wang He to the rear mountain and summon Luo Qiushui, while Deputy Sect Master Wu told Wu Linglong to inform Wang He that Ao Ding had returned.
• Ao Ding visited the kitchen garden workers, then crossed the outer court and left through the east gate without entering the inner court.
• Ao Ding sensed that Sect Master Wang had been watching him and decided to avoid trouble inside the sect, but warned that he would show no mercy if anyone pursued him beyond its territory.

Wang Weilong stopped Wang He from pursuing Ao Ding and persuaded him to accept spirit medicines instead. At the eastern gate, Luo Qiushui tried to keep Wu Linglong from chasing Ao Ding, defeated him easily, and then hurried after Wang Weilong as he left the sect.

• Wang Weilong confronted Wang He over his scheme to seize Sun Chen's legacy through Ao Ding and urged him to preserve the Seven Spirits Sect's favor with Ao Ding.
• Wang Weilong gave Wang He two thousand-year-old spirit medicines, then resumed watching Ao Ding and Deputy Sect Master Wu's party.
• Luo Qiushui met Wu Linglong at the eastern gate and warned him not to pursue Ao Ding, but Wu refused to obey his uncle's orders.
• Luo Qiushui neutralized Wu Linglong's punch and trapped his sword in a sea of clouds, proving he could not match her, much less Ao Ding.
• Wu Linglong left in a daze, and Luo Qiushui spotted Wang Weilong departing and hurried after him.

Ao Ding left the Seven Spirits Sect after Wang Weilong explained how the sect had used trials to temper him and revealed its bitter divide over the flawed Seven Luminaries Scripture. As Ao Ding traveled on and began cultivating the Five Qis Returning to the Origin Glazed Art, Luo Qiushui chose to study the scripture, and the chapter ended when Ao Ding rescued a woman who had jumped into a river.

• Wang Weilong told Ao Ding that he had arranged the outer court’s troubles as a trial and explained the Seven Spirits Sect’s failing scripture and Sun Chen’s past.
• Wang Weilong escorted Ao Ding out, while Luo Qiushui declared that she wanted to cultivate the Seven Luminaries Scripture to reach the Jade Tower Realm; Wang Weilong agreed to let her read it under his guard.
• Ao Ding continued toward the Country of Xuanjia, avoided visiting a ghostly residence, and decided to travel through populated areas while practicing Sun Chen’s Hundred Curses Gathering Fortune Ritual.
• Ao Ding began the Five Qis Returning to the Origin Glazed Art and formed his first Five Elements Dao Seed in his kidneys.
• Inside the Primordial Truth Mirror, the red boy imagined an art for collecting True Person talents, and the blue boy wondered whether Ao Ding’s True Person’s Eye might conflict with his own true nature.
• Ao Ding rescued a woman who had thrown herself into a river, and the blue boy sensed an opportunity.

Ao Ding rescued Ning Zhi from drowning and promised to investigate the disappearance of her child. After helping the water ghost, he pulled up the iron chain that had suppressed a demon in the river, revealing what it bound.

• Ning Zhi leaped into the river, but Ao Ding swept her back to shore and listened as she explained that her lover Huang Lang had vanished and her family claimed her baby was a burned plant root.
• Ao Ding promised to investigate whether Ning Zhi's child had survived and learned that the water ghost had been searching for a replacement for years without harming anyone.
• Ao Ding tried to deliver the water ghost but found that a ward beneath the river blocked his rite.
• The water ghost hauled up part of an iron chain marked with the Golden Court Sect's Taiwei Qiantian True Seal, and Ning Zhi recalled that a ritual master had ordered it forged to stop floods about a hundred and fifty years earlier.
• Ao Ding deciphered the seal, recited its incantation, and pulled the chain from the river, revealing a bound creature that looked like a snake.

Ao Ding helped a water ghost pass into the netherworld and investigated why Ning Zhi had given birth to a strange, plant-like object. He concluded that Huang Lang was a spirit who had lost his cultivation and returned to his original form, then led Ning Zhi’s father and brother toward Phoenix Mountain to find him.

• Ao Ding discovered that the black snake spirit was already dead, then used a talisman formation and food offerings to deliver the water ghost to the netherworld.
• The water ghost’s belongings included a spell that brought Ao Ding a small gain in fortune and a glimpse of a book-shaped Dharma Artifact.
• Ao Ding accompanied Ning Zhi home, where her family explained that they had not killed her child and showed him the charred, plant-like remains.
• After examining Ning Zhi and the remains, Ao Ding concluded that Huang Lang was a plant spirit who had spent his vital essence and reverted to his original form.
• Ao Ding sensed Huang Lang’s true qi on Phoenix Mountain, and Ning Zhi’s father and brother agreed to accompany him there.

Ao Ding uncovered the fate of Ning Zhi’s spirit lover, Huang Lang, and arranged for the two to meet briefly after death. Ning Zhi began cultivating with Ao Ding’s guidance, while he left with a spell Huang Lang had entrusted to her.

• Ao Ding led the Ning family to Huang Lang’s grave, where they found the Polygonatum Immortal’s rotted remains, and Father Ning recognized him as the yellow-clad immortal boy from his childhood.
• Ning Zhi explained that she had once saved the wounded plant by tying its branches with a red cord, which spirits had mistaken for a marriage pledge.
• Ao Ding summoned Green-Eyed Ghost, who arranged for Huang Lang and the water ghost to return from the underworld for two hours; Huang Lang explained how their romance began, and he and Ning Zhi said goodbye.
• Green-Eyed Ghost warned that Ning Zhi must not take her own life to reunite with Huang Lang, and Ao Ding passed the warning on when he returned to the Ning Household.
• Ning Zhi asked Ao Ding to teach her cultivation, and he gave her the Hundred Herbs Calamity-Transcending Scripture; she soon resumed treating townsfolk.
• Ning Zhi gave Ao Ding Huang Lang’s Life-Preserving, Illness-Dispelling, Calamity-Resolving Spell, and Ao Ding departed.

Ao Ding visited a shabby human cultivators’ spirit market seeking materials for his Collection of a Thousand Spells, but found only cheap goods and encountered cultivation theories that clashed with the teachings Sun Chen had given him. Leaving with his Dao heart strengthened, he continued toward the Mystic Jia Kingdom, where Blue Child expected him to reach full mastery of the Profound Gang Upper Realm after bathing in its spiritual pool.

• Ao Ding asked his three spirit offshoots to organize their curses and used Sun Chen’s Spirit-Seeking Secret Art to locate a spirit market.
• Ao Ding entered a small market of wooden huts, where he found only low-grade goods and no suitable materials for his Dharma Artifact.
• A stallholder explained the Seven Grades of Qi Seeds and grades of true Gang, but Ao Ding rejected the ranking system as contrary to the principle that cultivation energy should suit one’s nature.
• Ao Ding left the market resolved not to lose his lofty ambition, and his Dao heart stirred as his cultivation advanced.
• Blue Child recorded Ao Ding’s progress and predicted he would reach full mastery of the Profound Gang Upper Realm after bathing in the Mystic Jia Kingdom’s spiritual pool.

Ao Ding traveled toward the Country of Xuanjia, rescued a Mysterious Fox from a demon wolf, and studied the Golden Court Sect’s restrictions at the Xuanjia Immortal Tree. He advanced his House-Building Technique and entered the Mysterious Jia Spiritual Treasury, then began developing a spell that could make an enemy explode from excess spiritual energy.

• Ao Ding summoned Qingji for information about the Spirit Market, then continued his journey and spotted a Mysterious Fox worshipping the moon near a way station.
• Ao Ding killed a demon wolf from the Nethermoon Wolf Court after it attacked the Mysterious Fox, and the fox returned to Third Aunt Bai, who considered whether their household could help Ao Ding enter an immortal sect.
• Ao Ding examined He Wenchang and the other two Guardian-of-the-Kingdom Consorts, then spent twelve days studying the Xuanjia Immortal Tree’s Golden Court Sect restrictions.
• Ao Ding advanced his House-Building Technique to the third grade, formed a spirit terrace, and gained access to the Mysterious Jia Spiritual Treasury.
• Ao Ding replenished his magical power in the spring, completed the second step of the Five Qis Returning to the Origin Glazed Art, and conceived the Fireworks Spell.
• Ao Ding told the three children to decipher the Golden Court secret registers and design a spell that could cause a target to explode from an excess of spiritual energy.

Ao Ding tested the Wedding Garment Art, accepted the Flatbread Spell as payment for slaying a boar spirit, and hosted a feast for the villagers. He met Liu Zhongnan, a cultivator who had wandered back from the underworld, and continued toward Lingcheng County after they exchanged spells and parted ways.

• Ao Ding tested the Wedding Garment Art on a boar spirit, and the spirit exploded after absorbing too much spiritual energy.
• Ao Ding collected the Flatbread Spell from a village chief in exchange for killing the boar spirit, then adapted it into a Steamed Bun Spell and prepared a feast.
• Ao Ding and the villagers shared a lively meal, during which he reflected on the mortal world.
• Liu Zhongnan arrived from a road of the dead, explained that he had visited his ghost friend in the underworld, and thanked Ao Ding for helping him return to the human world.
• Liu Zhongnan gave Ao Ding the Flying Head Sword Spell and described the Six Sects, then headed south to confront a great disaster while Ao Ding continued toward Lingcheng County.

Ao Ding rescued the lovesick scholar He Xiao from Peach Blossom Creek and learned that He Xiao’s love for the spirit Tu Qing’er was blocked by differences in status and species, as well as a powerful tiger-spirit rival. The flood dragon maiden proposed helping He Xiao earn official honors and invited Ao Ding to a banquet in Hundred Yao Forest, where the tiger spirit and possibly Tu Qing’er would appear.

• Ao Ding rescued He Xiao from drowning and teased him about selling himself before dying, while He Xiao realized Ao Ding was a cultivator.
• A flood dragon maiden emerged from the creek and explained that He Xiao loved Tu Qing’er, whose family opposed their match and had chosen a tiger-spirit lord as her husband.
• The flood dragon maiden revealed Tu Qing’er had asked her to watch over He Xiao and suggested helping him earn official honors to improve his standing with Tu Qing’er’s family.
• Ao Ding tested He Xiao’s literary and mathematical abilities, and the flood dragon maiden said his talent could help him succeed in the examinations.
• The flood dragon maiden explained that the tiger spirit was a powerful Profound Gang Upper Realm mountain lord and invited Ao Ding and He Xiao to a Hundred Yao Forest banquet where the tiger spirit and possibly Tu Qing’er would attend.

Ao Ding and He Xiao attended the Yao Grove Bird Gathering with Wen Dan, where He Xiao and Tu Qing'er arranged to meet secretly despite pressure for her to marry the Mountain Lord. After seeing the tiger demon arrive, Ao Ding and Wen Dan planned to make He Xiao confront him, leaving their plan ready to begin when He Xiao returned.

• Ao Ding and He Xiao entered the Vermilion Bird Clan’s Dharma Realm disguised as spirits, and Wen Dan explained how He Xiao could meet Tu Qing'er during the gathering.
• The Darkwater Snake women glared at Wen Dan and her companions, but Ao Ding frightened them with his gaze.
• He Xiao left the gathering on an excuse to meet Tu Qing'er, while Fox Eighth Lady urged her younger sister to accept marriage to the Mountain Lord.
• Wen Dan told Ao Ding that the Tu Household sought an alliance with the Tiger Clan amid hardship caused by drought and famine in Liyun.
• The Mountain Lord arrived, and Ao Ding sensed his power and suspected he carried Flying Heaven Jade Tiger lineage.
• Ao Ding and Wen Dan agreed to have He Xiao face the Mountain Lord and planned to persuade the tiger spirit to back down.

Ao Ding and Wen Dan arranged for He Xiao and White Great King to compete in understanding a scripture, hoping to resolve their conflict over Tu Qing'er. Tu Qing'er then gave them the key to the Plague-Dispelling Dao's immortal abode, and Wen Dan hurried off with Ao Ding to explore it.

• Ao Ding persuaded He Xiao to challenge White Great King to a reading contest, offering him a fragment of the Nine Heavens Azure Green Primordial Scripture as the prize.
• White Great King agreed to teach He Xiao cultivation while He Xiao taught him to read, and a contract prevented the tiger from harming him during their stay together.
• Wen Dan invited Ao Ding to explore an immortal abode and offered him the abode in exchange for help recovering its legacy.
• Tu Qing'er gave Ao Ding and Wen Dan the map and key to the Plague-Dispelling Dao's immortal abode and explained that its arts could corrupt their practitioners.
• Wen Dan agreed to preserve and pass on the Plague-Dispelling Dao's teachings, then took Ao Ding to the immortal abode.

Ao Ding and Wen Dan entered the Plague-Dispelling Dao cave abode, overcame its poison wards, and searched its rooms for the inheritance. They found a fragment of Ninefold Mystic Purple-Gold Stone and, in the rear garden, the Innate Water Dragon Wall Wen Dan had sought, leaving her excited by the discovery.

• Ao Ding and Wen Dan froze the poisonous pool, found the hidden entrance, and purified the poisonous mist with Wen Dan’s Hundred-Flower Heavenly Dew.
• They opened the cave abode’s wards, searched its rooms, and found the Plague Daoist’s remains and the cultivation methods he had left behind.
• Ao Ding discovered a fragment of Ninefold Mystic Purple-Gold Stone in the storeroom and recognized it as material for the Collection of a Thousand Spells.
• Ao Ding broke open the inner door with the Golden Dragon Banner, and Wen Dan hurried through the family quarters toward the garden.
• Wen Dan found the Innate Water Dragon Wall described in her father’s records, while Ao Ding wondered about the Plague-Dispelling Dao’s decline and her father’s death.

Ao Ding and Wen Dan helped White Great King break off his engagement to Tu Qing’er, then planned to secure He Xiao a powerful backer so he could marry her. As Ao Ding brought Green-Eyed Ghost and his followers into the immortal abode to stage a proposal, Green-Eyed Ghost discovered what looked like a living heart behind the Water Dragon Wall.

• Ao Ding copied part of the Heaven-One Dragon Water Scripture for Wen Dan, and the two left the cave abode to check on He Xiao.
• After He Xiao taught him to read and helped him improve, White Great King decided to break off his engagement rather than lose face or remain indebted to the humans helping him.
• Seven days later, the Tu Household received White Great King’s letter canceling the engagement, and the fox elders argued over whether to accept the match between Tu Qing’er and He Xiao.
• Ao Ding and Wen Dan agreed to solve the remaining obstacles by finding He Xiao a respectable backer and improving his standing.
• Ao Ding asked Green-Eyed Ghost for ghost skins to impersonate an ancestor, but Green-Eyed Ghost refused to let him experiment with the Great Skin-Peeling Method and offered to help stage the plan himself.
• Green-Eyed Ghost and his ghost followers entered Ao Ding’s immortal abode, where he sensed a living heart behind the Water Dragon Wall.

Ao Ding removed a drought demon's heart and the plague Daoist's corpse from his cave, then learned that the heart contained the Drought Demon Art. With the Green-Eyed Ghost's help, he secured He Xiao and Tu Qing'er's marriage and received a scroll of the Evil-Cleansing Spell, while he considered finding someone to look after his cave abode.

• Ao Ding used water true qi to extract the demonic heart from the water dragon wall, and the Green-Eyed Ghost sent it and the plague Daoist's corpse to the underworld.
• Ao Ding's attempt to cultivate using the heart's circulation pattern caused him to cough blood, but he identified it as a drought demon's heart and tasked the three children with researching drought demons and plague-dispelling methods.
• The Green-Eyed Ghost led ghosts to frighten the Tu Household into accepting He Xiao's marriage to Tu Qing'er, then gave Ao Ding a Dream-Traversing Immortal Pillow so He Xiao could keep the underworld's accounts.
• Tu Qing'er thanked Ao Ding and gave him an Evil-Cleansing Spell scroll, while Wen Dan gave her a Glazed Immortal Pill to suppress her demonic poison and allow her to be with He Xiao.
• Ao Ding told Wen Dan he would leave and might entrust his cave abode to someone else to look after.

Ao Ding visited Lin Bai and his father, then sought Duan Lingxiao’s advice about whether helping others had entangled him in their karma. Duan reassured him, but changed his mind after learning Sun Chen had urged caution, warning Ao Ding to restrain himself around sects and spiritual mountains.

• Ao Ding visited the Lin Household and learned that Lin Bai had established his foundation and that the Wang Household was still suffering misfortune.
• Ao Ding offered Lin Bai and his father use of the Plague-Dispelling Dao’s cave abode in exchange for wine, and asked them to look after He Xiao and pass him the Immortal Pillow.
• Lin Bai’s father directed Ao Ding to Duan Lingxiao, a diviner south of the city, for advice about karma.
• Duan Lingxiao revealed his youthful appearance and reassured Ao Ding that he had acted well by helping He Xiao, Tu Qing'er, and others.
• After hearing that Sun Chen had advised Ao Ding to be cautious, Duan Lingxiao warned him to show restraint around sects and spiritual mountains.

Duan Lingxiao guided Ao Ding and Lin Bai in cultivation, then brought Ao Ding to his Purple Yang immortal mountain and helped him form a crimson Dao seed. The next day, Duan Lingxiao carried Ao Ding south to seek Cang Xuanzi, but Ao Ding learned that the senior was burning his own immortal residence to destroy a powerful demon snake.

• Duan Lingxiao denied that Sun Chen had formally left the Pure Tenuity Sect and advised Ao Ding to seek Cang Xuanzi with wine.
• Duan Lingxiao taught Ao Ding and Lin Bai about the Mysterious Gang and Jade Palace realms, then invited Ao Ding to stay at his immortal mountain.
• Ao Ding asked Duan Lingxiao detailed questions about cultivation and Six Sects arts, leaving Duan Lingxiao struggling to answer.
• Duan Lingxiao guided Ao Ding in refining a crimson Dao seed, which took root in Ao Ding's heart and caused a fourth seed to begin forming in his spleen.
• Duan Lingxiao carried Ao Ding south toward Cang Xuanzi's immortal residence, and Ao Ding arrived safely despite the rough journey.
• A cultivator told Ao Ding that Cang Xuanzi had been burning his residence for seven days to destroy a powerful demon snake.

Ao Ding stayed at the Bright Yang Immortal Estate while waiting for Ji Diyun to arrange a meeting with Cang Xuan, and received permission to study the scripture library’s first floor. He began gathering Daoist methods and found the Heavenly Eye Thousand-Eyes Register, which could help him develop his other True Person’s Eye.

• Ji Diyun examined Ao Ding’s recommendation letter from Sun Chen and invited him to stay at the Bright Yang Immortal Estate until he could contact the elders.
• Ji Diyun settled Ao Ding in the Mind-Stilling Hall, warned him to avoid the library’s second floor, and gave him stacks of study papers.
• Ao Ding waited until the next morning to visit the scripture library, and Ji Diyun noted his restraint while watching to see if he would break the rules.
• Ao Ding read and recorded Daoist methods from the library’s first floor to improve the methods he needed for the Perfect Mystery Formula.
• Ao Ding found the Heavenly Eye Thousand-Eyes Register and recognized it as a way to develop his other True Person’s Eye.

Ao Ding studied the Heavenly Eye Book and chose a path to cultivate a True Person’s Eye by combining the Golden Light Eye, Divine Aspect Eye, and Thousand Eyes. He arranged to obtain Hundred-Flower Dew for the eye-opening ritual, asking the Green-Eyed Ghost to prepare money for a trade with the flood-dragon maiden at Peach Blossom Creek.

• Ao Ding read the Heavenly Eye Book and discovered that its Thousand Eyes Sutra was part of a greater method paired with the Many Heads Sutra.
• Ao Ding chose the Golden Light Eye, Divine Aspect Eye, and Thousand Eyes as stages of a new cultivation method, and asked the three boys to help deduce it after they finished building the Heavenly Pool.
• Ao Ding borrowed a spirit spring from Ji Diyun and used it to contact the Green-Eyed Ghost in the netherworld.
• Ao Ding explained that he wanted to cultivate his right eye as an alternative True Person body, and asked the Green-Eyed Ghost to prepare money and cowries for Hundred-Flower Dew.
• Ao Ding told the Green-Eyed Ghost to send a messenger to Peach Blossom Creek to request dew from the flood-dragon maiden, whom Ao Ding planned to pay.