Chapter Summaries

Li Yan agreed to help Su Hong investigate a mole within Returning Home, despite warning that he was unsuited to the task and refusing to accept restrictions or sign a blood pact. As their flying vessel entered a dangerous storm and vanished in a bolt of lightning, the story shifted to a remote mountain pavilion surrounded by Golden Bodhi Constellation Trees.

• Li Yan accepted Su Hong's request but set conditions, and Su Hong agreed to them.
• Su Hong explained that Li Yan would have to stay with her and analyze intelligence at the headquarters for up to half a year while they tried to uncover a mole.
• Li Yan agreed to do what he could and resolved to help Su Hong strengthen her standing within her Lineage.
• A violent storm and powerful restrictions engulfed the flying vessel as it plunged into black clouds and disappeared in a flash of lightning.
• The scene shifted to a mountain pavilion surrounded by ancient Golden Bodhi Constellation Trees.

Li Yan arrived at a hidden realm, where the Purple-Robed Youth and the woman in the green palace dress watched him and debated what to do about his ties to Su Hong. The chapter ended with Li Yan surveying the heavily guarded courtyard below, unaware that Su Hong’s parents were judging him.

• The Purple-Robed Youth inspected Li Yan aboard the flying boat and assessed his cultivation and combat strength.
• The woman in the green palace dress discussed Li Yan’s relationships, while the Purple-Robed Youth revealed his anger over Li Yan’s ties to Su Hong and her insistence on bringing him here.
• The Purple-Robed Youth and the woman considered killing Li Yan or erasing his memories, but postponed their decision until they could judge his abilities.
• The Purple-Robed Youth reflected on Li Yan’s past accomplishments and wondered whether he could match Su Hong’s intelligence and judgment.
• Li Yan’s flying boat stopped above a vast hidden realm, and he sensed the danger of its powerful array and courtyard below.

Li Yan entered Su Hong’s protected secret realm and discovered that the vast, flower-filled courtyard was her personal residence, not the headquarters of her Lineage. As he questioned Su Hong about her status, a familiar visitor arrived, leaving their conversation interrupted.

• Su Hong led Li Yan into the courtyard through its protective formation, where he admired the blue flowers, spiritual energy, and intricate houses.
• Li Yan realized that only he and Su Hong lived in the expansive courtyard and asked whether it was the Lineage’s residence.
• Su Hong explained that the courtyard was her home and that Li Yan would assist her there while he could not move freely around the main headquarters.
• Li Yan suspected Su Hong was the trading firm’s eldest young lady, but she deflected his question by boasting about Return and Come Again’s reach across several realms.
• A visitor entered the courtyard, greeted Li Yan warmly, and drew Su Hong’s annoyed question about whether her big brother had nothing to do.

Li Yan arrived at the main headquarters of "Return and Come Again" to help Su Hong investigate a suspected traitor behind years of attacks and leaks. Su Hong gave him a room beside hers and began explaining the accumulated evidence, leaving him to review the records and search for a new lead.

• Su Liuyun greeted Li Yan, thanked him for coming to help, and left Su Hong to arrange his stay.
• Su Hong showed Li Yan to a residence beside her own, then brought him a collection of jade slips containing evidence about the main headquarters.
• Su Hong explained the incidents in chronological order, describing how attacks had grown more frequent and how the firm had linked them to a hidden enemy.
• Li Yan recalled encountering masked black-robed figures during the battle in the Cangxuan Realm and connected that incident to Su Hong's account.
• After several hours of discussion, Li Yan asked questions, but Su Hong's investigations revealed no obvious abnormalities.

Li Yan examined Su Hong’s collected jade slips about suspected betrayals within “Return Home,” reviewing the evidence independently to avoid being influenced by her conclusions. He focused on a Body Integration Realm elder whose meetings preceded two failed escort missions, but the chapter left Li Yan still studying the recordings without a confirmed breakthrough.

• Li Yan reviewed the earliest suspected attack and set aside its jade slip because too much time had passed and too little evidence remained.
• Li Yan examined the more recent investigation records and Guiyin jade slips while Su Hong meditated nearby.
• Li Yan asked Su Hong to bring him the remaining jade slips without describing their contents first, and she handed him her storage ring.
• Li Yan continued reviewing the additional records and studied footage of a Body Integration Realm elder meeting clients before two escort missions ended in disaster.
• Li Yan repeatedly examined the elder’s recorded meetings and furrowed his brows, but reached no stated conclusion.

Li Yan questioned Su Hong about how Return and Come Back’s investigations kept being exposed and traced the possible leak to the distribution of Guiyin jade slips. Su Hong realized that the traitor might be among the storeroom staff.

• Li Yan reviewed records of failed surveillance and capture missions, then asked Su Hong how Return and Come Back investigated suspected traitors.
• Su Hong explained that targets repeatedly escaped despite the Criminal Hall and the Return Army keeping missions secret, and said the organization had suspected diviners.
• Li Yan asked how the Guiyin jade slips were issued and learned that investigators had to withdraw them from the trading house’s storerooms.
• Su Hong explained that storeroom staff rotated shifts lasting from three to sixty years, while all withdrawals were recorded.
• Li Yan’s questions led Su Hong to conclude that the traitor might be in the storerooms.

Li Yan realized the Sound-Transmission Jade Slips could have exposed covert investigations and directed Su Hong to investigate the cultivators handling supplies and accounts. Su Hong reported his lead to her parents, who were shocked to learn the suspected mole came from the main altar’s storehouse.

• Li Yan deduced that a mole could infer their operations from their use of Sound-Transmission Jade Slips and asked Su Hong to bring him the storehouse staff roster and trustworthy assistants.
• Su Hong hurried to the palace to report Li Yan’s discovery to her parents, the Chief Altar Master and his wife.
• Su Hong’s parents assumed she was exaggerating the importance of a preliminary clue to praise Li Yan and claim credit for him.
• When Su Hong said Li Yan had found the mole, her parents reacted with disbelief and the green-robed woman briefly released her pressure.
• Su Hong clarified that they had not identified the mole, but Li Yan had traced the leak to someone who allocated supplies or recorded accounts in the main altar’s storehouse.

Su Hong explained that a spy had been leaking information by inferring the merchant guild’s operations from storeroom allocation records, and the Purple-Robed Youth ordered Li Yan to investigate with support from trusted cultivators. Su Hong brought ten elite members of the Return Army to assist Li Yan, who recognized Jin Thirty-One among them.

• Su Hong explained that the traitor had used storeroom allocations and account lists to infer the guild’s plans and warn hidden agents.
• The woman in azure palace robes and the Purple-Robed Youth assessed the spy’s danger, and the Purple-Robed Youth ordered Su Hong to give Li Yan the relevant materials and reliable assistants.
• Su Hong accepted the orders and left the hall, while the woman in azure palace robes judged Li Yan to be unusually capable and potentially dangerous.
• Su Hong arrived at Li Yan’s residence with ten masked Return Army cultivators and told him they would obey his commands.
• Li Yan recognized Jin Thirty-One by his token and unchanged aura, and Jin Thirty-One greeted him.

Li Yan and Su Hong examined the storehouse staff records to identify an insider leaking information about the Guiyin jade slip. They narrowed the investigation to Xu Li and Lin Fengshan, while keeping Wu Lin and Xu Manshuang under consideration, and prepared to seek evidence before making arrests.

• Li Yan met Jin Thirty-One and the other Gui Xi Army guards, then received the storehouse personnel records from Su Hong.
• Li Yan and Su Hong independently reviewed the records and compared their lists of suspects; Su Hong named Wu Lin, Xu Li, Lin Fengshan, and Xu Manshuang, while Li Yan singled out Xu Li and Lin Fengshan.
• Li Yan explained that Wu Lin's son, Wu Zichuan, had died on an escort mission, making Wu Lin less likely to be a willing insider, and that Xu Manshuang's recent transfer and rotating shifts weakened the case against her.
• Su Hong verified that Wu Lin was Wu Zichuan's father and learned he had repeatedly sought out the Punishment Hall after his son's death, though he remained under investigation.
• Li Yan and Su Hong focused on Xu Li and Lin Fengshan, who handled storehouse transfers and had access to both inventory and account records.

Li Yan and Su Hong narrowed their search for an insider in “Return Home” and arranged covert surveillance to gather reliable evidence. The chapter ends with Lin Fengshan secretly recording the storeroom’s resource allocations.

• Li Yan and Su Hong ruled out workers whose access to the storeroom was intermittent and focused on the two suspected insiders.
• Li Yan proposed using the reserve storeroom’s resources to monitor the targets and gather an authentic recording before making an arrest.
• Li Yan directed Su Hong to watch the suspected insiders’ movements, especially where they went after leaving the storeroom.
• Li Yan appointed Jin Thirty-One and Jin Nineteen to lead teams tracking Xu Li and Lin Fengshan, with Xu Manshuang and Wu Lin also under observation.
• The ten members of the “Homecoming Army” accepted their assignments and departed, while Su Hong left to obtain resources and arrange the next stage.
• Lin Fengshan entered a secret chamber at the main storeroom and recorded a list of recently allocated resources on a jade slip.

Lin Fengshan, a hidden agent inside the Returning Home headquarters, recognized that the Returning Army had requisitioned Guiyin jade slips for image-recording formations. He decided he had to pass on the warning, while remaining confident that his own cover was safe.

• Lin Fengshan reviewed the storeroom requisition records and recalled that the main shop steward had requested fifty Guiyin jade slips.
• Lin Fengshan suspected the Returning Army had identified another hidden agent and realized the jade slips could be used to set up image-recording formations.
• Lin Fengshan reflected that he and his companion had evaded suspicion for years by avoiding headquarters intelligence and reporting only abnormalities they directly observed.
• Lin Fengshan recognized the requisitioning steward as a Returning Army operative and resolved to pass the information along.

Li Yan and Su Hong continued investigating the suspected spies Lin Fengshan and Xu Li, but Lin Fengshan waited three days before heading to Haina City's Ghost Market to send intelligence. Li Yan arranged a large covert team to monitor him, and Jin Thirty-One spotted him entering the crowded market in disguise.

• Lin Fengshan decided to delay transmitting intelligence so that his actions would not expose him or Xu Li.
• Su Hong reported that neither Lin Fengshan nor Xu Li had acted, and Li Yan told her to keep watching them.
• On the third night, Lin Fengshan left for the Ghost Market, prompting Li Yan to summon trusted subordinates who did not know him.
• Su Hong mobilized additional hidden forces while Li Yan prepared to track the message through the crowded market.
• Jin Thirty-One followed Lin Fengshan after he changed his appearance and recognized the Ghost Market as his destination.

Lin Fengshan cautiously moved through Ghost Market to pass intelligence while Jin Thirty-One and the Return Home Army tracked him. Li Yan’s people monitored the stalls and recorded possible contacts, leaving the surveillance operation in progress.

• Jin Thirty-One spread the nine Return Home Army members through Ghost Market to keep Lin Fengshan within a controlled area without alerting him.
• Lin Fengshan searched the crowd for anyone following him and stayed ready to abandon the intelligence transfer if he noticed anything suspicious.
• The Return Home Army members repeatedly changed their appearances and positions whenever Lin Fengshan grew wary of them.
• Li Yan’s agents watched stalls Lin Fengshan had paused at, using concealed marks to identify which stall owners and visitors required scrutiny.
• Jin Thirty-One’s team recorded the people who might have contacted Lin Fengshan and passed jade slips through the guards at Ghost Market’s two entrances.

Jin Nineteen followed a gaunt stall owner from the Ghost Market after suspecting he was Lin Fengshan’s contact. He identified the man as Jin Zhiyuan, a shop proprietor in Haina City, while Su Hong and Li Yan continued investigating cautiously.

• Li Yan’s plan had guards record suspected contacts and watch both Ghost Market exits, while Jin Nineteen kept tailing Lin Fengshan among the stalls.
• Lin Fengshan examined a stall owned by a gaunt old man, then left; the old man soon packed up his remaining goods and departed as well.
• Jin Nineteen arranged for another watcher to keep tracking Lin Fengshan and followed the old man out of the market, using the man’s stall number to identify him.
• The old man wound through Haina City and entered a shop without coming out, so Jin Nineteen summoned support and reported back to Li Yan and Su Hong.
• Su Hong kept the guards at the market exits in place until dawn, while Jin Nineteen identified the suspected contact as Jin Zhiyuan, a shopkeeper who sold spirit plants and had settled in Haina City two thousand years earlier.

Li Yan and Su Hong realized that Jin Zhiyuan may have secretly passed a warning after meeting Lin Fengshan, despite Jin Shijiu’s surveillance. They decided to seize Jin Zhiyuan immediately and investigate his route, while preparing to capture Lin Fengshan and Xu Li if the operation went wrong.

• Su Hong and Li Yan discussed Jin Zhiyuan’s background and considered whether he was a hidden operative or had replaced an earlier contact.
• Jin Shijiu reported that Jin Zhiyuan had hurried out of the Ghost Market, returned to his shop after several counter-surveillance maneuvers, and had not emerged again.
• Li Yan questioned Jin Shijiu and realized Jin Zhiyuan might have transmitted intelligence during his route; Jin Shijiu recalled sixteen stops and twenty-seven other reverse checks.
• Li Yan warned that Jin Zhiyuan may have alerted one or many hidden operatives, and ordered Jin Shijiu to record the locations while recommending an immediate, silent capture.
• Su Hong left with Jin Shijiu to seize Jin Zhiyuan, while Li Yan concluded that the suspected spy would likely be killed once captured.

Jin Zhiyuan’s memories revealed how a mysterious faction captured his family and forced him to work undercover in Haina City, where he learned that the faction intended to destroy Guiqulaixi. He had grown accustomed to the life of a spy, but the chapter left him unaware of whether the faction’s other networks had been exposed.

• Jin Zhiyuan reflected on a recent intelligence transmission while tending the spirit-plant shop in Haina City.
• A mysterious faction tracked Jin Zhiyuan and his family after they refused to join, then lured them into a trap and captured them.
• The faction confined Jin Zhiyuan, his Dao Companion, and their children in a secret realm, supplied them with resources, and gave them ten years before demanding their allegiance.
• Jin Zhiyuan and his wife agreed to serve the faction to protect their children and swallowed Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu to thwart Soul Searches.
• The faction separated the couple, assigned Jin Zhiyuan to work in Haina City, and tasked him with helping undermine Guiqulaixi.
• After a century of cautious service, Jin Zhiyuan met his children and learned that the faction had kept them free of the Gu; over the following centuries, he grew accustomed to his covert life.

Jin Zhiyuan relayed urgent intelligence through a secret network of hidden agents and wondered whether Guiqu Laixi was close to being brought down. A disguised Shopkeeper Hu lured him from his shop to a supposed trade gathering, while the real Shopkeeper Hu remained elsewhere.

• Jin Zhiyuan reflected on the coded silk-sash knots and counter-surveillance routes he used to pass intelligence, and suspected the latest urgent message concerned an order to withdraw.
• Jin Zhiyuan considered how the mysterious faction's conflict with Guiqu Laixi might help remove the Brain-Twining White Corpse Gu implanted in him and his wife.
• A shop assistant told Jin Zhiyuan that Shopkeeper Hu had come to invite him to a small trade gathering hosted by the returned Fellow Daoist Shi.
• Shopkeeper Hu said Shi wanted them to appraise a spiritual plant, and Jin Zhiyuan agreed to go after questioning why Shi had returned early.
• Jin Zhiyuan left with the apparent Shopkeeper Hu, unaware that an identical impostor had taken his place while the real Shopkeeper Hu spoke with a customer elsewhere.

Jin Zhiyuan followed Shopkeeper Hu to a courtyard, where he was ambushed and captured by Commander Chu and members of the Guixi Army. The attackers departed with Jin Zhiyuan’s storage pouch, leaving one person to clean up.

• Shopkeeper Hu told Jin Zhiyuan about an ancient wood-element damaged treasure he planned to show at the trade fair, and Jin Zhiyuan questioned him about it.
• Jin Zhiyuan and Shopkeeper Hu arrived at the cultivator surnamed Shi’s courtyard, where Jin Zhiyuan sensed danger after passing through the gate.
• A massive palm shattered Jin Zhiyuan’s defensive barrier and drove him into a pit that opened beneath him.
• A fat monk called Commander Chu dispelled the array, took Jin Zhiyuan’s storage pouch, and ordered his men to leave someone to clean up.
• Shopkeeper Hu revealed himself as one of four black-clad Guixi Army cultivators, and Commander Chu left with them after noting that Miss had ordered Jin Zhiyuan captured alive.

Li Yan and Su Hong’s plan successfully captured Jin Zhiyuan, and they brought him to the Returning Army’s secret prison to question him. The chapter leaves them poised to interrogate him while Jin Nineteen’s agents prepare to seize the clerks at Jin Zhiyuan’s shop.

• Jin Nineteen ordered four men to report to Jin Thirty-One and seize every clerk at Jin Zhiyuan’s shop after it closed.
• Jin Thirty-One kept the real Shopkeeper Hu occupied while two men watched Jin Zhiyuan’s shop and Li Yan’s team maintained surveillance on Xu Li and Lin Fengshan.
• Su Hong, Li Yan, and Su Liuyun hurried to the Returning Army’s secret prison after Jin Zhiyuan was captured.
• Su Liuyun learned how Li Yan had identified Jin Zhiyuan and arranged the capture, then joined Su Hong and Li Yan at the prison.
• Li Yan and Su Hong had used Jin Zhiyuan’s social connections and the detailed city records to devise a trap that would exploit his confidence and suspicion.

Li Yan and Su Hong’s team lured Jin Zhiyuan into an ambush and brought him to the secret prison of "Homeward Return." After recognizing Su Liuyun, Jin Zhiyuan realized his handler had likely been exposed, and Su Hong ordered a Soul Search.

• Li Yan and Su Hong selected Shopkeeper Hu as bait and a cultivator surnamed Shi’s vacant courtyard as the ambush site, arranging guards and contingencies to prevent the plan from being exposed.
• Jin Nineteen impersonated Shopkeeper Hu and lured Jin Zhiyuan from his shop, while Jin Thirty-One kept the real Shopkeeper Hu from interfering.
• The ambush team captured Jin Zhiyuan and bound him with purple chains that sealed his cultivation before taking him to the secret prison.
• Jin Zhiyuan reasoned that his handler had likely been exposed and recognized Su Liuyun, confirming that he was imprisoned by "Homeward Return."
• Su Hong questioned Jin Zhiyuan, checked him for restrictions, and said they could only perform a Soul Search.