Recaps

Chen Ji adapted to life in the Jing Dynasty, used his strange currents and Dark Cloud’s help to expose Zhou Chengyi’s coded messages, and earned a place working with Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit. After surviving Dream Rooster’s test, he uncovered a message pointing to a spy inside Prince Jing’s Estate, leaving him to wonder whether Old Yao or Liu Quxing was involved.

• Chen Ji died after killing Wang Long, then awoke in another world and bargained with Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit for time to find intelligence in Zhou Chengyi’s home.
• Chen Ji traced Zhou Chengyi’s secret message to Li's Sweet Water Shop, escaped the agents’ suspicion, and joined Old Yao’s medical apprentices at Great Peace clinic.
• Chen Ji identified Consort Jing’s lead cup as the source of her chronic poisoning, while icy currents from the dead and a mysterious bead began changing his body.
• Chen Ji named the injured black cat Dark Cloud, formed a bond with it, and gained its help in controlling the currents and advancing his cultivation.
• Chen Ji joined Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit’s investigation, decoded Zhou Chengyi’s copied books, and helped establish that Liu Shiyu held the seven sections of the secret message.
• Chen Ji survived an assassin with Dark Cloud’s help, paid his debts to Old Yao, and learned that Dark Cloud’s mother had likely been sold.
• Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit tested Chen Ji through Dream Rooster, but Chen Ji broke free and was judged to have xingguan potential rather than being a Jing Dynasty spy.
• Chen Ji decoded a message revealing that a spy inside Prince Jing’s Estate planned to meet Liu Shiyu, then wondered whether Old Yao or Liu Quxing was the spy.

Chen Ji investigated Old Master Liu’s disappearance while navigating the Secret Intelligence Directorate, Consort Jing, and the heir’s circle. He accepted a place in the Directorate and began purifying saltpeter to make gunpowder, with Old Yao agreeing to keep watch.

• Chen Ji investigated the Liu Family’s prison records, identified signs that Liu Shiyu’s hanging had been staged, and discovered that Old Master Liu’s coffin was empty.
• Chen Ji survived the icy currents from the dead with Dark Cloud’s help, learned more about Old Yao’s Mountain Lord cultivation path, and was accused by the Jing Dynasty’s Sicao of betraying the Secret Intelligence Directorate.
• Chen Ji won a month to prove his loyalty, learned that his maternal uncle had asked the Sicao to protect him, and watched the officer kill Shopkeeper Yuan for disloyalty.
• Chen Ji tipped off the Liu Family before Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit raided the ancestral graves, where they found Old Master Liu’s body in his coffin and were arrested.
• Chen Ji met Consort Yun and Consort Jing, learned of the Liu Family’s ties to their schemes, and accepted Consort Jing’s offer of two thousand taels to kill Liu Mingxian.
• Chen Ji’s companions defended him at the prince’s literary gathering, where he sold the heir a line of poetry and later agreed to report the heir’s movements for Jinzhu.
• Chen Ji began refining saltpeter into transparent crystals, and Old Yao demanded six taels of silver before offering to keep watch.