Recaps

Gu Baishui discovered that the Bronze Mirror could survey the world beyond the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone, then overheard two powerful Saints discussing the gathering in Luoyang City. The chapter ended with the Old Holy Lord asking which Great Emperor Li Shiyi had been.

• Gu Baishui tested the Bronze Mirror in the tavern and saw everything within a hundred li of Luoyang City.
• Gu Baishui realized the Bronze Mirror could let him spy across the continent and wondered whether it had helped his Master prove the Dao.
• Gu Baishui's Divine Sense entered a room and recognized the Old Holy Lord of the Shaking Light Holy Land and the current head of the Ji Clan.
• The two men discussed the Saints secretly gathered in Luoyang City and said the events there could change the continent's balance of power.
• The Old Holy Lord asked the head of the Ji Clan which Great Emperor Li Shiyi had been.

Ji Changsheng and the Yaoguang Old Holy Lord discussed whether Li Shiyi was the Decaying Great Emperor and whether her tomb lay beneath Luoyang City. As Saints gathered to seek the tomb and its legacy, Gu Baishui realized he was trapped among powerful rivals whose intentions toward him remained unknown.

• Ji Changsheng told the Yaoguang Old Holy Lord that he had learned of the Decaying Great Emperor from the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone and suspected Li Shiyi had become that Emperor.
• Ji Changsheng explained that he had sent Xu'er into the Forbidden Zone to uncover its secrets, and described its mysterious Third Mister as someone Xu'er called a good person.
• Ji Changsheng said he believed Li Shiyi's tomb was buried in Luoyang City and revealed that he had brought Lu Ziyou to help enter it and claim her legacy.
• Gu Baishui's Divine Sense found Han Feicheng in a tavern, secretly admiring an album of female cultivators despite his reputation as a righteous gentleman.
• Gu Baishui discovered that many old and newly risen Saints had gathered in Luoyang City, and feared he had become tempting prey among them.

Gu Baishui’s Divine Sense searched the abandoned Ye Clan residence while Lu Ziyou explored it, talking to an unseen companion about Li Shiyi and the old mysteries of Luoyang. Gu Baishui discovered that the companion was another Red-Haired Monster.

• Gu Baishui wondered whether Li Shiyi had been the Decaying Great Emperor and who Ji Clan Head had meant would die in Luoyang City.
• Gu Baishui sent his Divine Sense to the abandoned Ye Clan residence, searching its empty courtyards for the Little Beggar.
• Lu Ziyou entered the residence with a dark yellow Compass and asked his invisible companion, Mingque, whether Li Shiyi had been his predecessor.
• Lu Ziyou recounted Li Shiyi’s brutal reputation and the history of the Ye Clan’s broken ties with the Li Household.
• Lu Ziyou searched the Ancestral Hall and discussed the unanswered questions surrounding Li Shiyi and Li Xu.
• Gu Baishui’s Divine Sense saw that the invisible presence Lu Ziyou addressed was another Red-Haired Monster.

Lu Ziyou searched the Ye Clan’s Ancestral Hall with Mingque and found a memorial tablet for Li Nianyu, while Gu Baishui’s hidden Divine Sense was shattered after he glimpsed an ancient Red-Haired Monster accompanying the Little Beggar. Gu Baishui awoke in a study drained by his Bronze Mirror, which had run out of power.

• Lu Ziyou wondered whether Li Shiyi had been a Transmigrator with a Red-Haired Monster companion, and Mingque nodded.
• Lu Ziyou speculated about the Transmigrators and their histories as he searched the Ancestral Hall.
• A gust uncovered a tablet memorializing Li Nianyu, and Lu Ziyou picked it up.
• Gu Baishui’s hidden Divine Sense reacted violently as the Little Beggar arrived with an ancient Red-Haired Monster behind her.
• Gu Baishui’s Divine Sense began to disintegrate, and the ancient Red-Haired Monster’s appearance caused him unbearable pain.
• Gu Baishui awoke drained of strength and found his Bronze Mirror covered in patina, apparently out of power.

Gu Baishui recovered enough to piece together Li Shiyi’s past from what he had seen through the Bronze Mirror. His account traced Li Shiyi’s peaceful childhood and ended with the Red-Haired Monkey revealing the mystery surrounding A-Xu.

• Gu Baishui, weakened by using the Bronze Mirror, recalled Li Nianyu’s spirit tablet in the Ye Clan ancestral hall and the Red-Haired Monster beside the little beggar.
• Gu Baishui wrote down the clues and reconstructed Li Shiyi’s history, beginning with the retired general who moved his family from Chang'an to Luoyang.
• Li Shiyi gave up pursuing cultivation after speaking with his father and spent his youth living quietly alongside his younger sister, Li Xu.
• Li Xu was taken to Weiyang Palace and became a celebrated genius, while Li Shiyi stayed in Luoyang and grew close to the Ye Clan’s daughter.
• After returning from the Cloud and Mist Mountain Range, Li Shiyi fell ill and saw a Red-Haired Monkey that no one else could perceive.
• The Red-Haired Monkey told Li Shiyi about Transmigrators, prompting him to question whether an unfamiliar soul had taken over A-Xu’s body.

On Ghost Festival night, Gu Baishui slipped out of the tavern and became lost in the rain and fog while heading toward an old residence. He found himself trapped between two groups of eerie Paper Figures approaching from opposite ends of the street.

• Gu Baishui questioned whether Li Shiyi’s tomb was in Luoyang and learned from the storyteller that the city would be under strict curfew for Ghost Festival.
• Gu Baishui promised the storyteller he would stay inside, then climbed over the tavern wall after nightfall.
• Despite his depleted Spiritual Power and Divine Sense, Gu Baishui set out for the old residence in western Luoyang, deciding to pursue the little beggar’s unfinished story.
• Gu Baishui lost his way in the rain and fog as Ghost Festival drew near.
• A silent group of white Paper Figures appeared ahead of Gu Baishui, and he heard the same eerie ringing behind him.

During Luoyang’s Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, Gu Baishui was swept away by the procession and found himself outside the Ye Clan’s residence, where he encountered Lu Ziyou. Lu Ziyou revealed his connection to the Yin-Yang Holy Land and considered killing Gu Baishui as they waited for the manor to open at midnight.

• Gu Baishui stood between the black and white paper processions, shut his eyes as they passed through him, and heard voices speaking about traveling from Xunyang to Luoyang.
• After the ghosts carried Gu Baishui away, he opened his eyes outside the Ye Clan’s residence and found Lu Ziyou waiting there.
• Lu Ziyou told Gu Baishui that the manor would open at midnight on the Ghost Festival and warned him that outsiders would not defeat him in Luoyang.
• Gu Baishui asked whether Lu Ziyou belonged to the Yin-Yang Holy Land, and Lu Ziyou removed his mask and admitted he was a candidate for Holy Son.
• Lu Ziyou thought about obtaining the Great Emperor inheritance inside the manor and considered killing Gu Baishui.

Gu Baishui faced Lu Ziyou outside the old courtyard while low on spiritual power, but an old beggar interrupted them and offered to trade for what lay inside. After learning the beggar believed Gu Baishui was destined to obtain Li Shiyi’s inheritance, Gu Baishui proposed improving the odds by making Lu Ziyou the only one to enter.

• Gu Baishui questioned whether he could defeat Lu Ziyou, who threatened him with a sword and demanded he leave or die.
• An old beggar appeared and told Gu Baishui he had followed him because he believed they were fated to meet.
• The old beggar explained that he could sense treasures a person might obtain and wanted what was inside the courtyard, believing it could extend his life and help him find a disciple.
• Gu Baishui realized the beggar had mistaken him for the courtyard’s destined inheritor and said he preferred probability to fate.
• Gu Baishui suggested that only one person needed to enter the courtyard and looked to Lu Ziyou to raise the odds.

At the entrance to Old Ye Residence, the old beggar threatened Lu Ziyou before Ji Changsheng intervened and proposed that they let Lu Ziyou and Gu Baishui compete for the opportunity inside. Ji Changsheng offered a Dragon Blood Longevity Fruit to the old beggar if Lu Ziyou won, leaving the two Saints waiting outside.

• Gu Baishui repeated Lu Ziyou's threat and told him to leave or die at the old beggar's hands.
• The old beggar pinned Lu Ziyou with Saint pressure and prepared to kill him, but Ji Changsheng appeared and stopped him.
• The old beggar and Ji Changsheng discussed why they had come to Old Ye Residence and the danger of entering during Ghost Festival.
• Ji Changsheng proposed that he and the old beggar wait outside while Lu Ziyou and Gu Baishui pursued the opportunity inside.
• Ji Changsheng offered the old beggar one of the Ji Clan's Dragon Blood Longevity Fruits if Lu Ziyou won.

Ji Changsheng persuaded the old beggar to let Lu Ziyou enter the Old Ye Residence, while Gu Baishui also chose to go inside. The residence sealed both youths’ cultivation and presented them with two paths and an exam overseen by Ox-Head and Horse-Face.

• Ji Changsheng offered the old beggar a Fruit of Immortality and explained that Lu Ziyou resembled Li Shiyi, earning the old beggar’s agreement to let him try the Old Ye Residence.
• Gu Baishui and Lu Ziyou entered the residence at the Hour of the Rat, and its gates closed behind them.
• The residence drained both Saints’ spiritual power and sealed their Divine Sense, leaving them powerless as they faced a black-brick path and a white-brick path.
• Ox-Head and Horse-Face emerged from the main hall and told the youths to choose separate paths and take an exam.
• Ox-Head explained that the white path led to a Literary Dao exam and that the other path led to a Science exam, leaving Lu Ziyou baffled.

Lu Ziyou and Gu Baishui faced separate tests in the courtyard: Lu Ziyou was given advanced science problems, while Gu Baishui was asked to finish a famous lyric attributed to A-Xu. Gu Baishui completed it and claimed he was a poet, leaving Horse-Face questioning whether he already knew the work.

• Ox-Head mocked Lu Ziyou for choosing the black stone path, and Lu Ziyou entered the hall despite his anger.
• Horse-Face urged Gu Baishui to take the Literary Dao test, and Gu Baishui sat at the white table.
• Gu Baishui read an account of A-Xu winning a Jiangnan literary banquet with Su Shi’s lyric, then learned she had only copied it and was a science student.
• Lu Ziyou recognized the science questions on his exam and erupted in frustration, but Ox-Head restrained him from flipping the table.
• Gu Baishui completed the lyric’s final lines and told Horse-Face, “I’m a poet.”

Gu Baishui passed the first test and entered a room with White Impermanence, where he received a written account of how the narrator met A-Xu and Li Shiyi. The account ended with A-Xu asking what someone should do if they woke from a nap as a different person.

• Gu Baishui handed in his test paper, and Horse-Face confirmed his answers were correct.
• Lu Ziyou suspected Gu Baishui was a Transmigrator, but Ox-Head stopped him from staring and urged him to focus on his test.
• Horse-Face led Gu Baishui to another courtyard, where White Impermanence took him into a room.
• Gu Baishui read an account describing how the narrator became friends with A-Xu, Li Shiyi’s younger sister.
• A-Xu asked the narrator what someone should do if they woke from a nap as a different person.

Li Shiyi recalled discussing possession and the nature of a soul with A-Xu, while a remembered conversation revealed why he stayed in Luoyang to celebrate her birthday. In the present, Gu Baishui followed White Impermanence toward the third courtyard and asked whether White Impermanence had been one of six corpses at the Abandoned Temple.

• Li Shiyi remembered fearing that a cultivator might take over an innocent person's body and inherit their relationships.
• Li Shiyi told A-Xu that a mature soul might have entered a baby before it developed awareness, or that a person might have lived a lifetime in a dream before birth; A-Xu smiled at his explanation.
• Li Shiyi recalled that his grandfather had invited his father to explore the world beyond the starry sky and later invited Li Shiyi to travel with him.
• Li Shiyi declined the invitation in memory, saying he needed to care for his parents and celebrate A-Xu's birthday each year.
• Gu Baishui gave White Impermanence a sheet of rice paper, then followed him toward the third courtyard and asked if they had met at the Abandoned Temple, where six corpses had lain.

Gu Baishui followed White Impermanence through Old Ye Residence and discovered that the storyteller he had met outside Luoyang City was the Red-Robed Judge. The Judge revealed that the household was searching for a true Transmigrator, then asked Gu Baishui whether he was one.

• White Impermanence told Gu Baishui that he and Ox-Head and Horse-Face were among the corpses driven to Old Ye Residence.
• White Impermanence brought Gu Baishui to a room where the Red-Robed Judge was waiting.
• Gu Baishui recognized the Judge as the storyteller he had met outside Luoyang City and admitted he had broken his promise not to go out.
• The Judge explained that the sixth corpse was their Master, a Quasi-Emperor who was outside the city and would arrive later.
• The Judge said Miss had prepared the questions to help them find a true Transmigrator, then asked Gu Baishui if he was one.

Gu Baishui denied being a Transmigrator while Lu Ziyou realized Old Ye Residence’s tests were searching for one. At the final trial, the Red-Robed Judge revealed that Miss wanted her death rehearsed and proposed a deadly wager between the two youths, ending by asking if they had played Dou Dizhu.

• Gu Baishui told the Red-Robed Judge that he was an ordinary mountain-raised person and said his Second Senior Brother could be confronted without involving him.
• Lu Ziyou passed through tests in several subjects and concluded that Old Ye Residence was testing for Transmigrators as part of Li Shiyi’s inheritance.
• Gu Baishui and Lu Ziyou met in the final room, where the Red-Robed Judge warned them that outsiders who entered the residence would die.
• The Red-Robed Judge said Miss wanted the household to rehearse her journey after death and that he intended to send one of the youths with her.
• The Red-Robed Judge opened the Book of Life and Death, offered their lifespans as the wager, and asked whether they knew how to play Dou Dizhu.

Lu Ziyou and Gu Baishui were forced to wager their lifespans against the Red-Robed Judge in Fight the Landlord, and lost three rounds in a row. In the fourth round, Gu Baishui revealed that the real contest was between him and Lu Ziyou, and that he had deliberately let the Judge take their lifespan to make the game more exciting.

• The Red-Robed Judge explained that each player had three thousand years of lifespan to wager, and Lu Ziyou and Gu Baishui began playing against him.
• Gu Baishui declined to bid for landlord in the first three rounds, and the Red-Robed Judge won each one, taking nine hundred years from each youth.
• The Red-Robed Judge revealed that the stolen lifespan was truly gone, leaving Lu Ziyou horrified and prompting him to decide to bid in the next round.
• When the Red-Robed Judge called landlord in the fourth round, Lu Ziyou bid four hundred years, but Gu Baishui immediately outbid him.
• Gu Baishui explained that the wager was really between him and Lu Ziyou, then admitted he had let the Judge win because he wanted the game to become more exciting.

Gu Baishui and Lu Ziyou wagered their remaining lifespans in a final card game, which Lu Ziyou won, but the Red-Robed Judge revealed that the contest had not decided who would inherit Li Shiyi’s legacy. The chapter left Lu Ziyou stunned after the Judge said that he and the others had killed Li Shiyi.

• The Red-Robed Judge called landlord in the fourth round and defeated Lu Ziyou, while Gu Baishui’s interference helped secure the loss.
• Gu Baishui wagered his remaining thousand years of lifespan in the fifth round, and Lu Ziyou matched the bet.
• Lu Ziyou revealed two Ghost Cards and won the final game, prompting the Judge to cross out Gu Baishui’s remaining lifespan.
• The Red-Robed Judge explained that he would answer the contestants’ questions, and Lu Ziyou asked whether the Mansion was Li Shiyi’s Mausoleum Grounds and whether Li Shiyi had become an emperor.
• Lu Ziyou claimed to be the Transmigrator Li Shiyi had spoken of and said he wanted to inherit Li Shiyi’s legacy.
• Gu Baishui asked how Li Shiyi died, and the Red-Robed Judge answered that they had killed him, leaving Lu Ziyou horrified.

The Red-Robed Judge revealed that Li Shiyi was killed just as he became a Great Emperor, after years of planning for revenge. He explained that Li Shiyi had not been a Transmigrator before falling ill in Luoyang, and the chapter ended with a mysterious man beyond a wall in Li Shiyi’s dream promising he would recover after the next spring rain.

• The Red-Robed Judge told Lu Ziyou and Gu Baishui that his group ambushed and killed Li Shiyi during his tribulation, paying a terrible price.
• The Red-Robed Judge described Li Shiyi’s crimes and said his mother had hanged herself after losing her daughter and suspecting the truth.
• Gu Baishui guessed that Li Shiyi’s story changed when he fell ill, and the Red-Robed Judge confirmed that Li Shiyi had not been a Transmigrator before that spring.
• After returning from the Cloud and Mist Mountain Range, Li Shiyi developed a persistent cough and began dreaming of thick fog and deepening loneliness.
• As his illness worsened, Li Shiyi followed the sound of water through the fog until he found a stone wall and knocked on its iron window.
• A man beyond the wall asked Li Shiyi how he was and said he would recover when the next spring rain came.

Li Shiyi’s illness stripped away his emotions, and the voice behind the dream’s stone wall revealed itself as a robot serving the devil who had returned from death. As the devil took over Li Shiyi’s body, the chapter revealed that Li Shiyi had always known A-Xu was a Transmigrator and ended with the Red-Robed Judge describing how a stranger had once taken Li Shiyi’s body and killed A-Xu.

• Li Shiyi spoke with the person behind the stone wall, who answered his questions about the world and promised to reveal everything at the final spring rain.
• As his illness erased his emotions, Li Shiyi questioned the wall’s voice about its knowledge of him and its interest in A-Xu, then concealed his worsening condition in letters to her.
• A-Xu sensed that Li Shiyi was unwell, left Chang’an, and hurried back to Luoyang, but arrived too late to save him.
• During the heavy rain, Li Shiyi pushed down the stone wall and discovered a robot imprisoned in Chang’an; the resurrected devil told him it was his system and that he would become Li Shiyi before taking over his body.
• As Li Shiyi died, he remembered recognizing A-Xu as a Transmigrator from birth and choosing to protect her secret.
• The Red-Robed Judge revealed that Li Xu had later returned to Luoyang and died at Li Shiyi’s hands after an unfamiliar soul took over his body.

Gu Baishui learned that the Old Ye Residence’s scholars had hunted Transmigrators and killed Li Shiyi, while investigating the Red-Haired Monsters that followed them. Luo Ziwei stayed behind to speak with Gu Baishui and revealed that, despite her father and Wu Tian’s efforts to prolong her life, she had decided she wanted to die.

• The Red-Robed Judge killed Lu Ziyou and explained that the Old Ye Residence had hunted Transmigrators, including Li Shiyi, who had become an emperor for less than half an hour before they killed him.
• The Red-Robed Judge said every Transmigrator had a Red-Haired Monster following them, and that the residence wanted to learn the monsters’ purpose and the Decaying Great Emperor’s identity.
• The Red-Robed Judge explained that he and Wu Tian had once been scholars who settled in the mountains after meeting the Ye Clan Young Miss, and Gu Baishui realized they had helped her take revenge on Li Shiyi.
• Luo Ziwei arrived and told the Red-Robed Judge to wait outside the city with her father while she spoke with Gu Baishui.
• Luo Ziwei explained that her father had become a Quasi-Emperor and made himself a corpse to seek revenge, while she had been kept alive for years despite finding life exhausting.
• Luo Ziwei told Gu Baishui, "I'm going to die."

Luo Ziwei left Luoyang City with the underworld officials, while Gu Baishui remained behind and opened the box she had left him. Inside, he found a letter and a Bronze Dagger, and the letter began the story of how Li Shiyi and the Ye Clan Young Miss first met.

• Luo Ziwei reflected on her memories of Luoyang City and set out with Ox-Head, Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, and the Red-Robed Judge.
• Luo Ziwei left Gu Baishui a small box containing answers and a gift, then departed from Luoyang City.
• Gu Baishui opened the box and found a letter and a clean Bronze Dagger.
• The letter recounted how the Ye Clan Young Miss traveled from Xunyang to Luoyang to seek her family and met Li Shiyi in an Abandoned Temple.
• Li Shiyi explained that he had run away to prove he could travel to Qingting, but bandits robbed and beat him before he reached the temple.
• The two hungry children shared food and laughed together, and Li Shiyi fell silent when he learned how far the little beggar had traveled.

Gu Baishui read the letter recounting Li Shiyi and the little beggar’s shared past, then realized why she had traveled with him to Luoyang. Mingque’s Red-Haired Monster revealed its forbidden art and offered Gu Baishui a deal as Luoyang’s Old Saints surrounded the Old Ye Residence.

• Gu Baishui finished reading the letter and understood that the little beggar had wanted to revisit the Abandoned Temple before her death, then chose to travel to Luoyang with him.
• The Red-Haired Monster broke into the room and seized the Bronze Dagger, revealing that its soul could move between itself and Mingque through an Innate Natal Forbidden Art.
• Gu Baishui deduced that Mingque’s soul had been shattered, leaving the Red-Haired Monster with only one life and prompting it to reveal its secret in hopes of deterring him.
• The Red-Haired Monster warned that Luoyang City was no longer theirs to control as the Old Saints entered the Old Ye Residence and surrounded it.
• The Red-Haired Monster offered to make a deal with Gu Baishui as one Transmigrator to another.

Gu Baishui revealed that he was Third Mister, a disciple of Great Emperor Changsheng, and used the Gravekeeper Token to protect himself from the Saints surrounding the Old Ye Residence. He burned the letter in the box and left Lu Ziyou facing the Saints as the only person holding Li Shiyi’s bronze dagger.

• Lu Ziyou proposed that he and Gu Baishui invent a shared account of Li Shiyi’s death to conceal the dagger and the box from the Saints.
• Gu Baishui suggested killing Lu Ziyou and taking the dagger, but Lu Ziyou warned that the Saints would not trust him outside the residence.
• Gu Baishui showed Lu Ziyou an ancient token bearing the character “Three” and identified himself as a disciple of Great Emperor Changsheng.
• Lu Ziyou recognized the Gravekeeper Token and asked whether Gu Baishui was the hidden Third Mister.
• Gu Baishui opened the box and burned the letter inside, leaving Lu Ziyou’s bronze dagger as the only remaining item from the residence.

Gu Baishui exposed Lu Ziyou as a Transmigrator and revealed that Li Shiyi had been one too, expecting the Old Saints to kill Lu Ziyou. Instead, the Saints turned their attention to Gu Baishui, as his awakened Bronze Mirror revealed nearly a hundred Red-Haired Monsters lurking behind them across Luoyang City.

• The Red-Haired Monster swallowed the Bronze Dagger and persuaded Gu Baishui that neither of them could safely expose the other to Luoyang City's Old Saints.
• Gu Baishui learned that the Red-Haired Monster had arrived three years earlier and realized it had undergone Soul Transmigration, like Li Shiyi.
• At dawn, Gu Baishui left the Old Ye Residence without the dagger while Lu Ziyou emerged pale and silent, and the Old Saints prepared to search the courtyard.
• Gu Baishui tossed down the Token and told the assembled Saints that Li Shiyi's inheritance was in Lu Ziyou's belly, prompting their Spiritual Pressure and Divine Sense to cripple Lu Ziyou.
• Gu Baishui declared that Lu Ziyou and Li Shiyi were Transmigrators, but the Old Saints stared at Gu Baishui instead of Lu Ziyou.
• Gu Baishui's Bronze Mirror warned him, and his Divine Sense revealed nearly a hundred Red-Haired Monsters standing behind the Old Saints throughout Luoyang City.

A young man in white left the Scarlet Earth Forest for Luoyang City to check on his junior brother, whom he had heard was mad. The madman vanished after being swept down the Qingliang River, while an old, red-furred shadow appeared outside Luoyang and cursed him for going there.

• The young man in white told the red-haired girl he was going to Luoyang City to see whether his junior brother was truly crazy, then left the Scarlet Earth Forest.
• The red-haired girl found blood and tufts of red fur where the young man had been standing.
• A nameless madman spent two months searching along the Luo River, clutching a broken Bronze Mirror as visitors from the human sacred lands watched him.
• The madman passed out in the Qingliang River and was swept away while clutching the last piece of Bronze Mirror he had found.
• An old, hunched shadow with deep red fur appeared outside Luoyang City beneath a blood-red moon and cursed the missing madman for going to Luoyang.