Recaps

Yang Yong and Long Ya arrived at a village where the returning supply convoy had been devastated by an Eerie in Black Water Marsh. A surviving man begged Long Ya to rescue the trapped team, then turned to Yang Yong when she called him her master.

• Yang Yong stored the Demoness Pickup Truck and searched for an empty house while villagers watched from hiding.
• A badly damaged Off-Road Vehicle returned with a bloodied survivor, and the villagers learned that the rest of the convoy had been lost or trapped.
• The survivor begged Huang Santainai to rescue the captain and corrupted team members, but the adobe hall remained silent.
• Yang Yong asked about Black Water Marsh, and the survivor recognized Long Ya as a Transcendent and pleaded with her for help.
• Long Ya asked her master Yang Yong what he thought, and the survivor clung to Yang Yong's leg and begged him to save the others.
• Yezi woke when the survivor grabbed Yang Yong's thigh.

Yang Yong reached Black Water Marsh and intervened when vine monsters overwhelmed Zhao Hu’s group. He drove the creatures back with the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace, leaving the survivors protected inside a ring of fire.

• Yezi stripped black mud, blood clots, and hidden threads from the injured man, then fell asleep again.
• Yang Yong took the man, who pointed out Black Water Marsh, and drove there with Long Ya in the Demoness Pickup Truck.
• Zhao Hu and his team struggled against headless, vine-covered monsters as the creatures dragged their injured into the marsh.
• Yang Yong arrived at the battlefield, and Long Ya warned him about vines attacking from his left.
• Yang Yong summoned the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace and spread its bluish-white flames across the mud, forcing the Eerie to retreat.

Yang Yong rescued Zhao Hu’s group from the Black Water Marsh by burning and devouring its vine monsters and wounding the enormous Eerie that controlled them. He left before pursuing it into the depths, promising to return when he was better prepared.

• Yang Yong approached the giant wall of bones and vines, confronted the Black Water Figure, and attacked it with the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace.
• Yang Yong unleashed blue-white flames across the marsh, then used the furnace to suck in the wounded Black Water Figure and the surrounding wall, mud, bones, and vines.
• Yezi woke and devoured the fleeing vine monsters while Yang Yong restrained her from harming the wounded survivors.
• Yang Yong returned Liu San to Zhao Hu, told the survivors their fate was up to them, and left with Long Ya in the Demoness Pickup Truck.
• Long Ya asked why Yang Yong had not pursued the Eerie; he explained that the marsh ran much deeper and said they would return when prepared.

Yang Yong waited in the village for a message from Wan Qi, but interference kept the signal from reaching him. After Zhao Hu returned from Black Water Marsh with the survivors, Yang Yong used Yezi’s Eerie Domain to shut out the village’s grief, drawing Huang Santainai’s attention and prompting Zhao Hu to prepare an offering for his savior.

• Yang Yong waited for a message in his mirror while Cao Xianming struggled to locate him and Wan Qi repeatedly tried to send a signal.
• Long Ya served Yang Yong boiled corn, and the battered vehicles returned to the village with wounded survivors and news of the dead.
• As villagers grieved, Yang Yong released Yezi and had her create a ten-meter Eerie Domain around his house and courtyard.
• Huang Santainai sensed the domain, recognized Yang Yong had another ability, and decided she needed another way to lure him to her.
• Zhao Hu learned that a young man and a little girl carrying a gun had arrived, recognized Yang Yong as his savior, and took out the village’s last box of instant noodles for him.

Zhao Hu sought Yang Yong’s protection and offered his team’s service, but Yang Yong refused and asked instead about the village’s location and water veins. Zhao Hu revealed that the old well connected to Black Water Marsh and sustained Huang Santainai’s talisman magic, leaving Yang Yong considering the link between the well and the thing beneath the marsh.

• Zhao Hu entered Yang Yong’s courtyard and asked to join him, describing how the Yellow Weasels exploited his team.
• Yang Yong refused to take followers and told Zhao Hu he had left Mechanical City.
• Zhao Hu spotted the Ideal Grain Seed corn Yang Yong and Long Ya were eating and offered nearly all his team’s supplies to trade for seeds.
• Yang Yong asked Zhao Hu about the surrounding area, and Zhao Hu identified their location as Lake City.
• Zhao Hu explained that the village’s old well connected to Black Water Marsh’s water veins and that Huang Santainai relied on the water vein and Water Dragon Qi to sustain her talisman magic.

Yang Yong and Long Ya endured a night of synchronized animal cries in the village, though Yang Yong found no sign of an Eerie. At dawn, the cries stopped, Yellow Weasels appeared in the village, and Zhao Hu arrived with two women and provisions.

• Yang Yong refused to take Zhao Hu in immediately and waited to see how Huang Santainai would respond.
• Yang Yong and Long Ya climbed onto the roof during the nighttime cries, but Yang Yong found no trace of an Eerie in any direction.
• Long Ya spotted a mass of silent birds in the eastern locust trees, and Yang Yong decided they would stay awake through the night.
• At dawn, the cries stopped, and Yang Yong watched exhausted Yellow Weasels limp west while more Weasels lay in formation near the old well.
• Zhao Hu brought Auntie Liu and Auntie Gu to Yang Yong's courtyard with rice and pickled vegetables, offering their cooking help.

Yang Yong gave Zhao Hu Ideal Grain Seed to plant under strict terms, then searched the village and found nothing unusual. When he tried to inspect the old well, Huang Yun and Huang Santainai stopped him, and he turned back while suspecting the elder was hiding something.

• Long Ya persuaded Yang Yong to give Zhao Hu Ideal Grain Seed to plant, allowing Zhao Hu’s people to keep thirty percent of the harvest while all new seed remained Yang Yong’s.
• Zhao Hu accepted the corn and promised to find the best land and keep the arrangement quiet.
• After eating, Yang Yong sent the Red-Clothed Female Ghost to patrol and searched every house in the village, but found nothing.
• Yang Yong headed toward the old well, and Huang Yun warned him that it was the formation eye and blocked his way.
• Huang Santainai arrived and refused to let Yang Yong inspect the well, saying it protected the village; Yang Yong agreed to leave but recognized a familiar look in her eyes.
• As Yang Yong walked away, Huang Yun stopped and turned back to address Huang Santainai.

Yang Yong investigated the old well as the village’s nightly howls intensified, while he and Long Ya helped Zhao Hu begin planting corn. Suspecting the field’s soil held ground-up animal bone ash, Yang Yong crept near the guarded well at night and peered into it with his Evil Eye.

• Yang Yong explained to Long Ya that the old well connected to Black Water Marsh’s water veins, but suspected something besides water lay beneath it.
• The village’s howls began before dark, and Yang Yong sensed they came from across the village rather than the well; Long Ya heard what sounded like a child crying, which Yang Yong identified as the Little Yellow Immortals.
• Zhao Hu brought Uncle He to collect the Ideal Grain Seed Cultivation Manual and plant corn in a prepared field near the village’s eastern edge.
• Yang Yong found fine bone ash in the field’s soil and suspected it was not human bone.
• During the fiercest howling, Yang Yong slipped past the Yellow Weasels and crouched several paces from the guarded old well, looking into it with his Evil Eye.

Yang Yong discovered that Huang Santainai was using the entity in the old well to sustain the village’s formation and suspected it shared a source with Black Water Marsh. After the corn harvest, he reflected on the village’s unnatural lack of Eerie and remained wary of what it concealed.

• Yang Yong saw something moving in the old well, and Huang Santainai admitted it helped sustain both her and the village’s formation.
• Yang Yong connected the well entity to the being in Black Water Marsh and warned Long Ya not to drink the well water starting the next day.
• Zhao Hu reported that the corn was ripe, and Long Ya confirmed the harvest was good but fewer than one in a thousand kernels could serve as seed.
• Long Ya told Yang Yong that one corn plant had produced no viable seeds, and Yang Yong accepted the result as normal outside the Paradise Service Area.
• Yang Yong considered how the village had no trace of Eerie, unlike other places where people survived.

Yang Yong realized Great-Grandmother Huang Shan might be an Eerie connected to the village’s old well, and decided they could no longer stay. He concealed his suspicions and went with Long Ya to inspect the freshly harvested corn.

• Huang Shan begged Yang Yong to return his first Curio, a knife he used to absorb Blood Moon Energy, and Yang Yong gave it back.
• Yang Yong saw that Great-Grandmother Huang Shan had no Blood Moon Energy and suspected she was an Eerie.
• Yang Yong reasoned that the current Great-Grandmother could no longer repair the village’s Array Patterns and only guarded the old well because something inside it needed guarding.
• Yang Yong concluded that he and Long Ya could not remain in the village, erased his drawing, and suggested they inspect the corn.
• Zhao Hu and Uncle He examined the fresh corn harvest with delight.

Yang Yong discovered that the village’s array patterns were cracking and that people’s memories of Great-Grandmother Huang Shan were being obscured, so he prepared to leave with Long Ya. As their truck reached the village entrance, an alarm sounded and countless creatures emerged from the gray mist to surround the village.

• Yang Yong questioned Zhao Hu about when Great-Grandmother Huang Shan had last maintained the array patterns, but Zhao Hu could not remember clearly.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya to pack quietly, then used the Red-Clothed Female Ghost to see that cracks were spreading through the village’s protective array.
• Yang Yong arranged a public trip to the trading post as a cover for leaving, while Long Ya loaded supplies and corn onto the demon-tier pickup truck.
• Yang Yong drove toward Cockscomb Mountain with Liu San, growing uneasy when no one stopped them at the village entrance.
• As the truck neared the fence, the wind shrieked an enemy warning, and Yang Yong saw creatures crawling in from every direction toward the village.

Yang Yong escaped the village as Water Ghosts and gray mist engulfed it, then watched from a nearby rise and decided not to intervene. He headed east with Long Ya and Liu San, suspecting the attack had been timed to coincide with his departure, and kept Liu San with them for now.

• Yang Yong charged the Demoness Pickup Truck through the Water Ghosts surrounding the village while Long Ya and Liu San held on.
• Yang Yong saw Great-Grandmother Huang Shan watching from the adobe hall as the gray mist and Water Ghosts overwhelmed the village.
• Yang Yong directed the truck east to a rise overlooking the village, where he and Long Ya watched the attack without helping Zhao Hu and the others.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya that he was searching for the Paradise Service Area and planned to return after daybreak if anyone had survived.
• Yang Yong suspected Great-Grandmother Huang Shan had let him leave because the Water Ghosts' harvest coincided too conveniently with his departure.
• Yang Yong decided to keep Liu San with them rather than leave him in the gray mist.

Yang Yong encountered the white-furred Yellow Immortal Hermit Xu Bai, who asked him to save Huang Santainai and offered a talisman method in exchange. After the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace swallowed the offered light, Yang Yong agreed to help only on one condition, which he had not yet revealed.

• Yang Yong, Long Ya, and Liu San came across a phantom white weasel on the saline-alkali road, and it introduced itself as Hermit Xu Bai.
• Hermit Xu Bai asked Yang Yong to save Huang Santainai and offered him a talisman method as a token of sincerity.
• The Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace swallowed the talisman light before Yang Yong agreed, and Yang Yong refused to consider the offer binding.
• The furnace released a faint aura that terrified Hermit Xu Bai, who explained that her master had warned her to befriend anyone who wielded a furnace.
• Hermit Xu Bai named the array patterns the Nine-Palace Earth Vein Essence-Locking Array and said her master had been an old friend of the furnace’s former wielder.
• Yang Yong agreed to save Huang Santainai, but said he had one condition.

Yang Yong agreed to return to the village after two days in exchange for the complete array patterns and whatever remained in Black Water Marsh, then spent the night preparing at an abandoned house. As the Gray Mist’s creatures moved toward the village, he sent his three Eerie out to gather intelligence before the planned trip to Cockscomb Mountain.

• Yang Yong negotiated with the white-furred Yellow Immortal, demanding the original array-pattern method and the contents of Black Water Marsh, and set a two-day deadline before returning to the village.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya to watch Liu San and threatened to break his legs if he ran, then drove east and stopped at an abandoned brick house.
• Liu San cleared the house while Long Ya and Yang Yong settled in for the night, and Yang Yong checked that the furnace was still processing the yellow light it had swallowed.
• Yang Yong and Long Ya smelled water and saw Gray Mist approaching from the north; Yang Yong realized the Eerie were passing toward the village and said they would leave for Cockscomb Mountain at daybreak.
• Yang Yong summoned the Red-Clothed Female Ghost, the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost, and the Little Girl Eerie, ordering them to scout the village, Black Water Marsh, and the nearby area.

Yang Yong sent the ghosts to investigate while he planned to attack the water ghosts’ lair during their absence. After the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost showed him the village surrounded and three children missing, Yang Yong continued toward Black Water Marsh to carry out the plan.

• Yang Yong explained the Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao plan to Long Ya and waited for the ghosts to report what remained at Black Water Marsh.
• Yang Yong, Long Ya, and Liu San ate plain boiled potatoes and settled in for the night.
• The White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost returned with a letter showing water ghosts encircling the village while Zhao Hu stood watch and only six of the nine children remained.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya what he had seen, confirmed that he would proceed with the plan, and had Ya Ji drive south around the village with the headlights off.

Yang Yong investigated Black Water Marsh and found a dangerous white membrane over its center and a buried stone slab whose patterns differed from the scroll White Hair had given him. He concluded the scroll was a key meant to open something beneath the marsh, then sent Long Ya and Liu San to Cockscomb Mountain while he stayed behind to investigate.

• Yang Yong left the quarry alone and used the Red-Clothed Female Ghost to scout Black Water Marsh, where he found dense traces beneath the water and a white membrane that severed anything touching it.
• Yang Yong sent Yezi underground and found a patterned stone slab five feet below the marsh; its straight-line patterns differed from the scroll's Array Patterns.
• Yang Yong and Long Ya examined the scroll and concluded that its inward-curving patterns would release a lock rather than reinforce it, making it a key to something beneath Black Water Marsh.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya to take Liu San to Cockscomb Mountain and wait for White Hair, while he remained to investigate the marsh and planned to arrive a day later.

Yang Yong uncovered a stone slab and chained object at Black Water Marsh, concluding that White-Hair’s scroll was a key and wondering what the buried objects opened. After White-Hair failed to appear at Cockscomb Mountain and the Gray Mist stopped moving, Yang Yong and his companions fled toward the quarry in the Demoness Pickup Truck, while he suspected that whatever arrived might not be White-Hair himself.

• Yang Yong dug up part of a stone slab and an iron chain at Black Water Marsh, then buried them again after deciding White-Hair’s scroll was a key.
• Yang Yong returned to Cockscomb Mountain, where Long Ya and Liu San waited with the Demoness Pickup Truck, but White-Haired Yellow Immortal did not arrive.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya that if White-Haired Yellow Immortal still had not come by night, they would return to Black Water Marsh to dig up the slab and find the door.
• Long Ya sensed something was wrong as the Gray Mist thickened and stopped moving, so Yang Yong ordered everyone into the truck.
• The Demoness Pickup Truck drove itself through the mist toward the quarry, and Yang Yong told Long Ya that White-Hair would come, though it might not be him.

Yang Yong and his companions escaped a fog-bound road after Long Ya wounded a stalking creature, then he explained that Whitefur had lured him to Black Water Marsh to free something sealed beneath it. The chapter ended with Long Ya asking when Yang Yong had realized Whitefur needed his Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace.

• Long Ya noticed the Demoness Pickup Truck was passing the same rock repeatedly, and Yang Yong spotted a long-haired figure moving through the fog.
• Yang Yong directed Long Ya to fire at the creature, and her shot wounded it and caused the fog to disperse.
• Yang Yong had Yezi spread her Eerie Domain around the truck at the quarry, easing the sense that they were being watched.
• Yang Yong told Long Ya that Whitefur had come to get him to release the being imprisoned beneath Black Water Marsh, not to ask him to save Huang Santainai.
• Yang Yong explained that the scroll, chains, and stone slab would open the seal, and that Whitefur needed his Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace to burn through it.
• Long Ya asked when Yang Yong had figured out why Whitefur had singled him out.

Yang Yong sent Long Ya and Liu San away from the Quarry before confronting Hermit Xu Bai, who revealed that he had helped Yang Yong gather the three keys so an ancient, hungry thing could be released. Yang Yong destroyed Xu Bai’s puppet but knew the true Hermit Xu Bai was still hidden, and he noticed that the Nine Nether Yuanchen White Bone Ring had changed.

• Yang Yong told Long Ya to leave with Liu San and Yezi, and the Demoness Pickup Truck drove them east from the Quarry.
• Yang Yong called out Hermit Xu Bai, who emerged and admitted that the thing beneath the chains and stone slab had sent him to gather the three keys.
• Hermit Xu Bai said the ancient thing had been calling to him for over a thousand years and would eat when it was released.
• Yang Yong attacked Hermit Xu Bai with flying daggers and the Four Yang God-Sealing Banner, destroying the Little Yellow Immortal body he had used as a puppet.
• Yang Yong absorbed the remaining Little Yellow Immortal with the Nine Nether Yuanchen White Bone Ring and noticed that the ring had changed.

Yang Yong released the Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable from beneath Black Water Marsh after the White Bone Ring awakened and urged him to find something to eat. The beast emerged, but its attempt to restore its strength by inhaling spiritual energy yielded only Gray Mist, leaving it confused and agitated.

• The White Bone Ring spoke to Yang Yong and said something beneath Black Water Marsh smelled good and that it wanted to eat it.
• Yang Yong rode the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace into Black Water Marsh and used the White Bone Ring to break the iron chain sealing the stone slab.
• A Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable burst from beneath the slab, and Yang Yong collected the broken slab pieces before confronting it.
• The Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable inhaled the air and Gray Mist over the marsh, searching for spiritual energy but finding none.

Yang Yong pursued the Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable through the Black Water Marsh with the Nine Nether Yuanchen White Bone Ring, but the beast began absorbing Blood Moon Energy and recovering. The chapter ended as it sank beneath the water to escape his attack.

• Yang Yong used the Nine Nether Yuanchen White Bone Ring to destroy the remaining Eerie in the Black Water Marsh and absorb their blood mist.
• The Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable fled, but the Bone Rings chased it and tore open its back.
• The beast fired blood lightning at Yang Yong, and the Evil Eye between his brows swallowed the bolt before closing.
• The illusory Bone Ring caught the Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable, severed one hind leg, and absorbed it.
• The Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable absorbed Blood Moon Energy, began recovering, and sank underwater as Yang Yong attacked with both Bone Rings.

Yang Yong killed the Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable at Black Water Marsh and suspected it had been a gatekeeper rather than the entity behind the doors. After the Blood Moon brightened and the mist cleared, he reached the village and found Blood-Armored Turtle Eerie blocking the road.

• Yang Yong drove the Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable from the water with furnace fire, pinned it with the Four Yang God-Sealing Banner, and killed it with the Heavenly Dragon Slash.
• Yang Yong found a bone fragment marked with dragon and toad patterns and concluded the creature was dragonkin.
• Yang Yong wondered whether the Dragon-Headed Toad Venerable had been another gatekeeper, then headed toward the Quarry while the sensation of being watched followed him.
• The gray mist dispersed and the Blood Moon brightened, drawing living, dead, and half-dead creatures to turn toward Black Water Marsh; Long Ya looked back from the Demoness Pickup Truck and called softly to her master.
• Yang Yong used the Ten-Thousand-Forged Primordial Furnace to appear outside the village and found Blood-Armored Turtle Eerie lined across the road.

Yang Yong entered the village to investigate the well after learning that a false Huang Santainai had devoured the villagers and retreated inside. The Red-Clothed Female Ghost searched the well and found a stone gate with a Taiji Bagua carved into it, but returned with the symbol branded on her face.

• Yang Yong used the Second Ring of the Nine Nether Yuanchen White Bone Ring to swallow more than twenty Turtle Wraiths, but the ring remained nearly unchanged.
• Huang San told Yang Yong that a tentacled creature posing as Great-Grandma had eaten the returning villagers and then gone into the well.
• Yang Yong summoned the Red-Clothed Female Ghost and the White-Clothed Love Letter Ghost and ordered them to search the village for survivors.
• The two female ghosts returned after finding no survivors, and Yang Yong learned through the Red-Clothed Female Ghost that she had entered the well and found a submerged stone gate carved with a Taiji Bagua.

Yang Yong sent Huang San into the well to investigate a sealed stone door and used his Heavenly Dragon Slash blades to break through its Bagua barrier. A hole opened in the door, and Yang Yong ordered Huang San to go inside.

• Yang Yong recognized the Bagua Seal on the well door and sent Huang San down to inspect what lay beneath it.
• Yang Yong fitted Huang San with Flying Bear Wings and a black-bead chain that let him watch through a screen.
• Huang San found a submerged stone door marked with a Taiji Bagua and discovered its barrier repelled anything that approached.
• Yang Yong drilled through the barrier and broke a fist-sized hole in the center of the door.
• Yang Yong told Huang San to go inside.

Yang Yong learned that an impostor had taken Huang Santainai’s body and was heading into the ancient tomb to release her sealed master. After securing a booklet and learning the impostor’s weakness, Yang Yong descended the well and found a spectral figure beside a pool.

• Huang Santainai told Yang Yong that an impostor had taken her body and was seeking the Talisman Secret Art and the power sealed deep in the tomb.
• Yang Yong demanded a deposit, and Huang Santainai directed Huang San to retrieve a booklet hidden behind the Stone Gate.
• Huang Santainai warned Yang Yong that the impostor mimicked appearances and voices, and that a wound in the center of its chest was its weak point.
• Huang Santainai revealed that the impostor intended to release her master, a Taoist sealed in the tomb after suppressing the monster beneath Black Water Marsh.
• Yang Yong sent Huang San to wait above and tell Long Ya to head east if he did not return within two hours.
• Yang Yong entered the well and descended into a stone chamber, where he saw a spectral figure standing beside a pool.