Recaps

Fang Zelin’s blessing helped Meng Jiuchuan establish Great Qian, while Fang Zelin continued cultivating and taught Ancient Cloud Temple’s disciples to ride spiritual swords. After learning of Northern Liang cultivators killed near Zhen’an Pass, Fang Zelin set out to investigate their deaths.

• Fang Zelin met Meng Jiuchuan on the road, gave him Clear as Empty, and left him considering an uprising with support from his wife’s family and Blazing Summer.
• Fang Zelin performed the Blessing Technique for Meng Jiuchuan, contacted the Heavenly Dao, and later learned that Meng Jiuchuan had founded Great Qian and begun expanding its territory.
• Over the following years, Fang Zelin developed his cultivation while Great Qian flourished, and he heard from Zhang Weichu that the dynasty had opened relations with Northern Liang.
• Fang Zelin visited Daoist Qianji at Ancient Cloud Temple, where Bearing the Heavens broke out of the Sword Pavilion with the treasured swords and returned after tempering them into spiritual weapons.
• Fang Zelin taught Ancient Cloud Temple’s disciples the Sword Riding Technique and learned from Daoist Qianji about the Human Seed Bag and the threat posed by overseas demons and the Aquatic Race.
• After reading historical records and returning to Yingping Peak, Fang Zelin learned of two Northern Liang cultivators killed near Zhen’an Pass and set out to investigate.
• At Zhen’an Pass, Zhenke showed Fang Zelin the mutilated corpses and told him that a herder had seen a strange black cloud flying toward Northern Liang around the time of their deaths.

Fang Zelin and Zhenke investigated the deaths of two cultivators and uncovered signs of a yao plot against Northern Liang, while their travels brought them into contact with people and spirits in need. Zhenke returned to Dinggui Mountain to warn the cultivators, and Fang Zelin continued investigating, turning his attention to a devastating drought.

• Fang Zelin and Zhenke visited Meng Jiuchuan in Youjing City, where Fang promised to protect the emperor’s descendants if Great Qian fell, provided they were not wicked villains.
• Fang Zelin and Zhenke followed reports of the black cloud west, helped rescue San'er and a villager from a water ghost, and continued their journey after Fang offered the ghost wine.
• Fang Zelin and Zhenke learned of the rumors on Pine Mountain, where the tree demon gave Wu Biling a Wondrous Blossom to save her father and revealed that demons were recruiting him to attack cultivators.
• Fang Zelin secretly protected Wu Biling and her maid from their guards with a talisman, then met Zhenke and learned that demons were gathering and cultivators had been murdered.
• Fang Zelin sent Zhenke to alert Dinggui Mountain, advised a troubled mountain god to cultivate his heart, and learned that the enemy expected Northern Liang’s cultivators to fall before Great Qian intervened.
• Zhenke delivered Chunyun and Danyan’s bodies to Daoist Priest Fuqing and reported the yao spirits’ plot to the cultivators of Dinggui Mountain.
• Fang Zelin investigated reports of drought in Northern Liang, questioned the land god, and witnessed a woman slap her baby after the child appeared to wave at the empty temple.
• Fang Zelin cleaned a dilapidated forest temple and cooked spirit rice, whose fragrance drew a group of merchants into the shelter.

Fang Zelin rescued abducted children, captured demons targeting Northern Liang cultivators, and joined Yunzi’s search for the wider scheme. He guided Wu Ling to enlightenment in Seeking Dao Mountain, where the old Daoist warned that someone might be plotting against cultivators.

• Fang Zelin exposed the fox spirits’ den, freed their captives, rescued thirty children from a cellar, and asked the Night Wandering Gods to return them home.
• Yunzi and the Northern Liang cultivators discussed Fang Zelin’s blessings for Great Qian and began investigating the demons targeting their sects.
• Fang Zelin waited at the foxes’ lair, then flew to help Zhenke, Yunzi, and their disciples fight an ape-like yaoguai that had seized children.
• Fang Zelin bound the demons and prevented the ape from killing itself, while Yunzi recovered the unharmed children and took the yaoguai into her sleeve.
• Fang Zelin joined Yunzi’s search, described the fox demons’ crimes, and discussed Northern Liang’s fading fortune and the difficulty of governing it.
• Fang Zelin explained Non-Action to Wu Ling, helping her resolve her confusion and attain enlightenment in the Dao.
• Fang Zelin and Wu Ling entered Seeking Dao Mountain, where the Fishing Old Man sent Fang Zelin to play Go with the old Daoist.
• The old Daoist warned Fang Zelin that someone might be plotting against cultivators and asked what he knew about immortal cultivators’ fortune.

Fang Zelin and Yunzi investigated droughts and the overseas demons’ attempt to steal cultivators’ fortune, uncovering a suspected Devil Race connection. After the Underworld Bureau pointed them toward Bridge Township, they defeated most of the demons there and set out for Dinggui Mountain to discuss what came next.

• Fang Zelin and Yunzi found that a pangolin yao was worshipped in Wandering Oriole Village, and Fang Zelin brought rain to the parched fields while they investigated the drought.
• The pangolin admitted a powerful yao had diverted the village’s water vein, and Fang Zelin and Yunzi left him a chance to make amends while arranging for cultivators to restore the waterway.
• Fang Zelin and Yunzi captured a demon who revealed that overseas demons planned to seize immortal cultivators’ karmic fortune, then learned from the Bull Devil King that they were recruiting demons to attack cultivators.
• At Azure Cloud Ridge, Fang Zelin used Bearing the Heavens to break the demons’ formation before it could trap Yunzi and the cultivators, and they captured the overseas great yao for the City God to interrogate.
• The City God’s investigation led Fang Zelin and Yunzi to Bridge Township, where they found villagers turned into demons and prepared to attack with the cultivators who had arrived to help.
• Fang Zelin and Yunzi led the assault on five great demons, and Fang Zelin absorbed their attacks with his gourd before striking them into the mountains with Size at Will.
• Fang Zelin pursued the fleeing demons with Bearing the Heavens, and the cultivators killed or captured those remaining, though one great demon escaped.
• Yunzi invited Fang Zelin to Dinggui Mountain to discuss the suspected Devil Race connection, and he agreed to go.