Recaps

The Pandavas returned to their mother, while Karna reunited with Radha and Adhiratha and discussed the coming princes’ skills exhibition with Bai Mo and Krishna. Karna decided to attend to display his abilities, and Bai Mo began arranging a challenge that would not involve the princes.

• The Pandavas returned to the palace and reunited with their mother, while Karna came home to Radha and Adhiratha.
• Krishna argued to Adhiratha that ability carried a responsibility to serve dharma, despite Adhiratha’s concerns about Karna entering elite martial affairs.
• Bai Mo warned Krishna that the skills exhibition could expose the gathered royals and nobles to a powerful attack, but Krishna said Duryodhana and his uncle would ensure it went ahead.
• After King Dhritarashtra ordered the exhibition, Karna asked Bai Mo to let him attend so he could demonstrate his skills, especially before Drona.
• Bai Mo told Karna not to challenge the princes, then began preparing another plan that left Karna uneasy.

Karna prepared to challenge Bhishma at Bai Mo’s urging while Bhima defeated Duryodhana in the princes’ exhibition. Bhima taunted Hastinapura over who could face Arjuna next, and the chapter left the princes without an apparent opponent for him.

• Vidura told Dhritarashtra that Nakula was fighting Duryodhana, while Bhishma received a message from someone challenging him to a martial exchange.
• A guard reported that the challenger wanted to prove that valor was not exclusive to Kshatriyas, prompting concern that ignoring the challenge would spread rumors of cowardice.
• Duryodhana defeated Nakula and humiliated him until Bhima entered the arena to fight.
• Bai Mo told Karna that he would spar with Bhishma instead of Arjuna, and Karna declared that he wanted to challenge caste-based society by displaying his strength.
• Bhima struck Duryodhana’s knee with his mace and began to embrace him, but Dhritarashtra stopped him before he could humiliate Duryodhana further.
• Bhima taunted the assembly that no one remained to face Arjuna, leaving Dhritarashtra wondering who could challenge the Pandavas’ strongest prince.

Arjuna challenged Karna when he arrived to face Bhishma or Drona, but Bhishma stepped in to prevent the brothers from fighting. As Karna prepared to face Bhishma, Bai Mo noticed a burly man watching Krishna with hostility.

• Dhritarashtra summoned Karna to challenge Bhishma or Drona, and Arjuna blocked Karna's path.
• Karna failed to recognize Arjuna and told him not to make trouble, angering Arjuna.
• Bhishma stopped Arjuna and declared that Karna would face him instead.
• Adhiratha, Radha, and Krishna cheered for Karna as he prepared to fight Bhishma.
• Bai Mo noticed a burly man glaring at Krishna, who said he did not know the man.

During Bhishma and Karna’s duel, Bai Mo uncovered Yao Lian’s plan to poison Hastinapura and kill its rulers, then created an antidote. Krishna consumed it and cured everyone in the city.

• Bhishma and Karna fought fiercely as Duryodhana admired Karna, while Arjuna rejected a servant’s suggestion to exploit Karna’s exhaustion and kill him.
• Bai Mo found Yao Lian after he fell from a roof and recognized the poison he had released.
• Yao Lian admitted he had poisoned Hastinapura to weaken its people and planned to kill Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, forcing Bhishma into a fight without his blessing.
• Bai Mo extracted poison from Yao Lian, restrained him, and discovered that the poison was also affecting Gandhari, Kunti, and the citizens.
• Bai Mo analyzed the poison and made an antidote, which Krishna swallowed, curing everyone in Hastinapura.

After Krishna took the antidote, Yao Lian escaped Bai Mo’s restraint and attacked Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti to force Bhishma to break his vow. Bai Mo protected the women and killed Yao Lian, while Karna called him master before Bhishma.

• Krishna took the antidote, and the assembled people recovered as Yao Lian escaped Bai Mo’s Magnetic Field Heavenly Lock.
• Yao Lian shot arrows at Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti, but Bhishma, Arjuna, and Karna tried to intercept them.
• Bai Mo caught the arrows aimed at Kunti and Gandhari, snapped them, and struck Yao Lian into the air.
• Yao Lian waited for Bai Mo in a cloud of black mist, but Bai Mo appeared behind him and killed him with a powerful punch.
• Karna called Bai Mo his master, and Bhishma regarded Bai Mo with new interest.

After Yao Lian’s death, Karna refused Dhritarashtra’s wealth and rejected Duryodhana’s offer of status, instead declaring that he wanted to build a nation where ability mattered more than birth. Dhritarashtra angrily condemned him, leaving Karna’s future alliance uncertain.

• Shakuni identified Karna to Duryodhana and urged him to befriend the powerful warrior.
• Bai Mo suspected Yao Lian had deliberately guided the attack into his own heart, then left Karna to make his own choices; Krishna warned Karna that true friends had to share a goal.
• Dhritarashtra offered Karna and Bai Mo ten chests of gold, but Karna refused the reward and Duryodhana proposed granting him a fitting status.
• Karna declared that he was proud to be a charioteer’s son and would accept Duryodhana’s support only if they shared his wish to build a nation where people were judged by their abilities rather than their birth.
• Dhritarashtra roared that Karna was absurd and foolish, while Karna’s parents looked on with pride.

Bai Mo traced Yao Lian’s fading fragment to a living man and decided to travel to the Kingdom of Magadha to deal with him. After Krishna departed to guide the Pandavas, Dhritarashtra grew furious over Karna’s remarks at the martial exhibition.

• Bai Mo used Kama as a medium to sense a muscular man who appeared to be another Yao Lian, confirming that Yao Lian was likely still alive.
• Bai Mo told Kama he would go to the Kingdom of Magadha, eliminate Yao Lian, and help Karna establish himself in Rajagriha.
• Krishna visited Bai Mo and Kama, then left to attend to the Pandavas’ affairs.
• Dhritarashtra complained to Bhishma that Karna had insulted his dignity by implying that a blind man was unfit to be king.

After Karna left Dhritarashtra’s court, Bai Mo and Kama set out for the Kingdom of Magadha, where a weeping woman trapped them on a forest road. Bai Mo recognized her as a Rakshasa and confronted her.

• Vidura called Dhritarashtra an unqualified acting king, and Bhishma mediated until Dhritarashtra agreed to let Karna leave Hastinapura with financial support.
• Bai Mo told Karna to stay behind while he and Kama traveled to the Kingdom of Magadha.
• Bhishma met Bai Mo and Kama at Hastinapura’s gates, gave Kama a conch, and asked Bai Mo to look after Karna.
• Bai Mo and Kama entered the Kingdom of Magadha, but a woman’s sobbing kept them trapped on a forest road.
• Bai Mo approached the crying woman and asked what she was trying to do, calling her a Rakshasa.

Karna agreed to leave Hastinapura and establish a kingdom of his own after Bhishma promised to protect his parents. In the Rakshasa Forest, Bai Mo confronted a band of Rakshasas and demanded to know what had happened in the Kingdom of Magadha.

• Bhishma told Karna to join the campaign against King Drupada and carve out a territory in Panchala.
• Bhishma promised to protect Karna’s parents, and Karna vowed never to return to Hastinapura once he established his own kingdom.
• Bai Mo took Vikatali toward the Kingdom of Magadha, and she led him to a clearing surrounded by Rakshasas.
• A Rakshasa attacked Bai Mo, who dodged and struck him down before asking about Yao Lian and the Kingdom of Magadha.
• When the Rakshasa lunged again, Bai Mo crushed his skull and used the Heart-Breaking Way to bring him to his knees.

Bai Mo and Kama captured a Rakshasa who revealed that King Yao Lian had allied with the Rakshasas to guard the woods around Magadha. After killing the captive, Bai Mo chose Vikatali to guide them toward the kingdom.

• Shiki teased Bai Mo for worrying about Arcueid, while Bai Mo held a Rakshasa at bladepoint and demanded answers.
• Kama burned the surrounding Rakshasas to ash and frightened Vikatali into silence.
• The captive Rakshasa revealed that King Yao Lian had ordered the ambush and that only Rakshasas could leave the woods protecting Magadha.
• Kama explained that Yao Lian used his Magnetic Field Power and the Rakshasas to defend his kingdom and exploit its people.
• Bai Mo killed the captive, discovered Vikatali could guide them out, and questioned her about the people she had lured into the forest.

Yao Lian recalled how he gained Shiva’s blessing by sacrificing a hundred kings, then ordered a Rakshasa woman to capture the princes of Panchala and King Drupada to draw Bhishma away from Hastinapura. Bai Mo and Kama arrived near Rajagriha and considered how Yao Lian’s blessing might make him difficult to defeat.

• Yao Lian sacrificed a hundred Kshatriya kings and asked Shiva for a blessing that kept his body from perishing while he was alive.
• Yao Lian split himself in two and used Cellular Regeneration to create two living versions of himself.
• Yao Lian ordered a Rakshasa woman to capture the one hundred and five princes in Panchala and also seize King Drupada, hoping to lure Bhishma away and leave Dhritarashtra exposed.
• Bai Mo and Kama reached Rajagriha, where Bai Mo observed that the city was built from gold and jade and suspected Yao Lian had already received Shiva’s blessing.
• Kama speculated that Yao Lian might have chosen a specific way to die, and Bai Mo dismissed the idea while warning her not to invite trouble.

Bai Mo and Kama disguised themselves to enter Rajagriha without fighting through its human and Rakshasa guards. At the city gate, Yao Lian challenged Kama, but Bai Mo sensed that the protective walls were watching her and stopped her from stepping forward.

• Vikatali explained that entering Rajagriha required killing every guard, so Kama proposed using a disguise instead.
• Kama transformed into Vikatali and brought Bai Mo, posing as her slave, through a checkpoint; Vikatali stayed behind in a human village.
• Kama subdued Rakshasas who questioned her strength as she and Bai Mo approached Rajagriha.
• Yao Lian appeared at the gate and challenged Kama to fight him with one hand.
• Bai Mo stopped Kama from accepting, suspecting that Yao Lian or the walls had singled her out.

Indra learned that Bai Mo had disappeared from observation, while Bai Mo and Kama faced an unexpected assassin in Rajagriha. Jara warned them that Yao Lian could only die if both versions of him were killed at the same time.

• Indra discussed his inability to track Bai Mo and learned that Kama had blocked divine observation.
• A four-armed deity took Indra's Yuga clock and replaced it with a more magnificent one.
• In Rajagriha, Bai Mo and Kama were brought inside the city wall after Yao Lian declared that he would sacrifice Bai Mo to Mahadeva.
• A female Rakshasa attacked Kama, but Bai Mo subdued her before she revealed that Krishna of Dvaraka had sent her.
• Jara identified herself as the Rakshasa who had joined Yao Lian together and warned Bai Mo that Yao Lian's blessing meant both versions had to be killed simultaneously.

Bai Mo learned that Yao Lian had used an altar and a hidden second body to avoid defeat, but Jara revealed a connection that could help Bai Mo track him. Bai Mo confronted Yao Lian at the sacrificial arena, where Yao Lian revealed his contempt for the weak and charged him with a flaming club.

• Jara warned Kama and Bai Mo that Yao Lian planned to sacrifice Kama and urged them to flee, but Bai Mo asked whether Yao Lian's two bodies were connected.
• Jara confirmed that a connection existed, and Bai Mo declared he could use it to find Yao Lian; Kama teased him while Jara left to prepare an escape route.
• The next day, Bai Mo entered Yao Lian's sacrificial arena and used his Complete Realm to turn Yao Lian's force against him, breaking a pillar against Yao Lian's arm.
• Bai Mo revealed his identity, and Yao Lian mocked him for caring about humans and serving Kama, then defended his own cruelty as the privilege of the powerful.
• Yao Lian invoked the God of Great Terror's blessing, ignited in flames, and charged Bai Mo with a massive club.

Bai Mo defeated Yao Lian’s first attack, but Yao Lian revived himself with Shiva’s flames and revealed a weapon forged from fragments taken from his enemies. Bai Mo countered with Beginning and End, damaging the weapon and pressing the fight as Yao Lian struggled to use its power effectively.

• Bai Mo redirected Yao Lian’s staff strike, used the storm around them against him, and severed his meridians with Solar Eclipse, Waning Moon.
• Yao Lian’s staff pierced his heart, but he ignited Shiva’s flames and regenerated, revealing his golden vajra-like weapon.
• Yao Lian taunted Bai Mo about Beginning and End, and Bai Mo declared that the weapon did not suit him before attacking with Avici Hell Blade-Splitting the Sky.
• Bai Mo cracked a fragment from Yao Lian’s weapon and used Eighteen Levels of Hell to draw Shiva’s flames toward Beginning and End.
• Bai Mo advanced through Yao Lian’s attacks, arguing that Yao Lian’s brutality kept him from mastering staff technique.

Bai Mo overwhelmed Yao Lian after stopping his attempt to sacrifice Kama, while Kama’s arrow struck Yao Lian’s second body in Hastinapura. The two attacks pierced Yao Lian’s hearts at once, and his wounds no longer healed.

• Bai Mo broke Yao Lian’s vajra and used Ryougi Heaven-Imprisoning Enkidu to suppress his explosion and locate his second body in Hastinapura.
• Kama fired an arrow at Yao Lian’s second body, but his power surged as he recognized her and tried to sacrifice her to Mahadeva.
• Bai Mo grabbed Yao Lian as he lunged for Kama, then summoned three figures to overwhelm him with powerful attacks.
• Yao Lian’s second body hid in Hastinapura, but a burning arrow emerged from the sun and pierced his heart as Bai Mo stabbed the other body’s heart in Rajagriha.
• Yao Lian’s heart failed to recover, and he wondered how it was possible.

Karna learned from Bai Mo that Yao Lian was hiding in Hastinapura and tried to alert the Pandavas before he could attack. Yudhishthira persuaded Arjuna to hear Karna out, leaving Arjuna to decide whether to follow his brother’s instruction and trust Karna’s warning.

• Karna received Bai Mo’s message that Yao Lian was hiding in Hastinapura and rode to a hill overlooking the city.
• Arjuna and the other Pandavas confronted Karna as he aimed at Hastinapura, and Karna explained that Yao Lian was inside the city.
• Karna asked Arjuna to use Indra’s divine net to locate Yao Lian, but Arjuna refused and aimed another arrow at him.
• Bhima offered to search for Yao Lian, but Yudhishthira reminded Karna that he had sworn not to enter Hastinapura and asked whether he stood by his claim.
• Yudhishthira told Arjuna to follow Karna’s advice, warning him that Yao Lian had previously threatened their mother and that the brothers’ arrows had collided before.

Karna and Arjuna tracked down and killed Yao Lian’s two bodies, while Bai Mo confronted him with the ruin his rule had made of Magadha. Yao Lian’s attempted sacrifice of Kama failed when Mahadeva burned him, and Krishna explained that offering a god’s enemy was sacrilege rather than a true sacrifice.

• Yudhishthira’s appeal led Indra to reveal Yao Lian’s location, and Karna pierced his heart with a flaming arrow.
• Bai Mo defeated Yao Lian in Rajagriha and showed him an illusory vision of the prosperous kingdom he could have ruled.
• Yao Lian rejected Bai Mo’s judgment and claimed he would have won if he had sacrificed Kama.
• Kama offered her blood at the altar, but Mahadeva burned Yao Lian instead of granting his plea.
• Arjuna’s arrow pierced Yao Lian’s other body in Hastinapura, killing him as well.
• Krishna told Rati that sacrifice meant giving to the gods and that offering a deity’s enemy would bring divine wrath.

After Yao Lian's death, Bai Mo guarded Rajagriha while reviewing the kingdom's affairs and considering how to contain its Rakshasa population. He discussed Kama's role in the sacrifice with her and weighed plans for Magadha as Jara arrived to discuss the spoils of victory; Krishna's hurried arrival was announced.

• Bai Mo controlled the Sword of Victory as it patrolled Magadha and killed Rakshasas attacking travelers outside Rajagriha.
• Bai Mo found Yao Lian's record of a trade with Takshaka and recognized the strange material he had received as a possible ingredient for Tenju.
• Bai Mo questioned Kama about provoking Mahadeva, then warned her that being burned would still hurt her.
• Bai Mo concluded that Magadha's people should be evacuated and that the kingdom's Rakshasa forces would need to be dealt with.
• Jara praised Bai Mo's victory and claimed he deserved a share, while Bai Mo asked where Krishna was; hurried footsteps then announced someone's arrival.

Krishna and Bala Rama arrived after Bai Mo defeated Yao Lian, and Krishna helped Jara offer the Rakshasas a chance to abandon flesh and blood through ascetic practice. By the next day, a vine had spread through the forest to trap the Rakshasas, while Bala Rama evacuated the kingdom’s humans.

• Krishna and Bala Rama arrived to congratulate Bai Mo, but Krishna pushed him aside to celebrate with Kama and Jara.
• Jara asked Krishna how to guide the Rakshasas away from their destructive ways, and Krishna pointed her toward the vine’s red fruit as a path to redemption.
• Jara invited oppressed Rakshasas, including Vikatali, to eat the bitter fruit and renounce flesh and blood, while many others refused.
• Krishna endured pain each time a Rakshasa ate a fruit and told Bala Rama not to involve Bai Mo, insisting he had promised Jara he would help.
• The vine spread through the forest and trapped any Rakshasa who entered, while Bala Rama evacuated all the humans from the kingdom.

After Yao Lian’s defeat, Bai Mo and Krishna settled the Kingdom of Magadha’s affairs, and Bai Mo gained followers who wanted to join Karna’s cause. Outside the city, Karna faced a royal decree denying him land in Panchala, prompting the Pandavas and Duryodhana’s brothers to challenge the ruling.

• Jara and Krishna concealed Yao Lian’s death while Bala Rama prepared to lead people out of Magadha and load Yao Lian’s immense treasury into wagons.
• Krishna gave Bai Mo a yuga-themed device that tracked the state of dharma and said restoring dharma could influence Arjuna and help Bai Mo return.
• People from Magadha refused to go to Dvaraka and asked Bai Mo to lead them, so Bai Mo told them they could follow his disciple Karna; Krishna and Bala Rama congratulated him on gaining followers.
• King Dhritarashtra’s envoy praised Karna for defeating the Rakshasa army but declared that he would receive no land in Panchala because he had not conquered territory there.
• Yudhishthira objected that the decree violated dharma, while Bhima and Duryodhana argued over the Hundred Sons’ capture by Rakshasas.

Bhishma forced Dhritarashtra to grant Karna a fief, and Karna settled in the barren Khandava Forest with Bai Mo and the others. When Bai Mo jokingly called out to Brahma, the god appeared, leaving Takshaka’s plans and Bai Mo’s purpose in the forest unresolved.

• Bhishma and Vidura pressured Dhritarashtra into rewarding Karna, who received Khandava Forest as his fief.
• Bai Mo arrived in Hastinapura, learned where Karna had gone, and brought Kama and the others to the forest.
• Karna resolved to perform austerities and ask a god to bring rain, but Bai Mo said he would negotiate with Takshaka instead.
• Takshaka and Maya trapped Bai Mo and Kama in an illusion, while Kama explained that Bai Mo could ask the gods for blessings.
• Bai Mo joked that calling out to Brahma would summon him, and Brahma immediately descended and shattered Maya’s illusion.
• Kama introduced Bai Mo to Brahma as her master, while Takshaka and Maya watched in alarm.

Bai Mo learned that his austerities and merit held immense power in the Indian world, and Brahma offered to trade for them. Bai Mo declined a blessing and an enormous gift of cities, then heard how he could use merit as he and Kama saw Brahma off.

• Brahma offered Bai Mo a blessing, but Bai Mo refused because he wanted to rely on his own strength and had not asked for one.
• Brahma explained that Bai Mo’s power of austerity could greatly help the world and offered assistance in return for it.
• Bai Mo asked Brahma to have Vishvakarman build a city for his disciple, and Brahma offered three billion cities like Sudarsana City.
• Bai Mo rejected the cities after learning how vast they were and said he would lead his people in building one themselves.
• Brahma explained that Bai Mo could use his power of merit to fulfill almost any wish within the world.
• Bai Mo and Kama saw Brahma off, and Kama asked him to keep her presence secret from Rati.

After Brahma left, Bai Mo and Kama entered Khandava Forest to speak with Takshaka, but Takshaka mistook Bai Mo for a threat and summoned Indra. The misunderstanding began to clear when Bai Mo said he had come peacefully, and Indra rebuked Takshaka for starting a fight.

• Bai Mo and Kama reached Takshaka and Maya’s hidden home after Hamsa dispelled its illusion.
• Takshaka feared Bai Mo had come to destroy Khandava Forest, while Maya urged him to surrender.
• Takshaka summoned Indra by invoking their pact as Bai Mo knocked and entered.
• Maya rushed to kneel before Bai Mo, but Kama’s power sent him flying as Takshaka launched an attack.
• Indra appeared, heard Takshaka demand his help in fighting Bai Mo and Kama, and struck Takshaka for provoking a conflict.
• Bai Mo said he had come to talk rather than start a conflict.

Bhishma confronted Dhritarashtra for granting Karna the dangerous Khandava Forest and insisted he provide Karna with support. In Khandava, Takshaka rejected the deed, while Shakuni hinted that the completed Palace of Lac would soon remove Duryodhana’s worries about the Pandavas.

• Bhishma challenged Dhritarashtra for granting Karna Khandava Forest without consulting him or Vidura, then demanded that Karna receive resources and manpower.
• Duryodhana offered to escort supplies to Karna, but Shakuni warned that Karna would distrust him and reminded him that Yudhishthira was popular in Hastinapura.
• Shakuni told Duryodhana that the Palace of Lac was complete, and Duryodhana became pleased.
• Takshaka read Karna’s deed to Khandava Forest and declared that the serpent race would never recognize it.
• Bai Mo warned Takshaka that Bhishma might come next, and Takshaka complained about Dhritarashtra and his powerful protector.