Chapter Summaries

Chen Du discovered that spiritual qi was growing denser around his remote temple and that a strange tree had sprung up overnight, while his cat continued to show signs of becoming a spirit. During a thunderstorm, a beautiful woman emerged from an ancient tomb and came to the temple gate, where she and Chen Du recognized each other as something uncanny.

• Chen Du wrote in his diary that he could see spiritual qi and believed his cat was turning into a spirit.
• Chen Du found his master's inherited seal on the bed, then discovered a flowering, fruiting tree that had grown overnight in the courtyard.
• A thunderstorm triggered a mountain torrent that exposed an ancient tomb, and a woman emerged from it while fleeing heavenly lightning.
• The woman headed toward Chen Du's temple, drawn by its dense spiritual qi and the presence of a living person.
• Chen Du opened the gate and faced the ancient-dressed woman, and both stared at each other in alarm as lightning flashed.

Chen Du tried to conceal his fear when a mysterious woman arrived at his Daoist temple in the storm, while she mistook his composure, cat, and modern belongings for signs of immense cultivation. After inviting her inside and accusing her of lying, he watched her collapse in terror, convinced she had intruded into an expert’s residence.

• Chen Du questioned the rain-soaked woman and suspected she was a demon or ghost, while she wondered whether he was an accomplished cultivator.
• A black-and-white cat emerged, and the woman recognized it as a spirit, making her more wary of Chen Du.
• The woman claimed she had become separated from friends while hiking, and she secretly examined Chen Du’s phone, shoes, and courtyard plant.
• Chen Du invited her into the temple, and they exchanged cryptic questions as each tried to assess the other’s power and intentions.
• Chen Du accused her of being no mortal and demanded that she tell the truth, and she denied ever harming anyone.
• After lightning illuminated the temple’s modern interior and Chen Du confronted her with a sheathed sword, the woman fell to her knees, believing she had entered an expert’s residence.

Chen Du learned that Yunzhi was a centuries-old yaoguai who had awakened as spiritual qi returned, and he reluctantly let her shelter in the guest room during a dangerous thunderstorm. After she left with Side-Swept Bangs, Chen Du weighed the danger and opportunity of the supernatural world he had encountered.

• Yunzhi told Chen Du that she had awakened when a mountain torrent broke open her tomb and that she had slept to survive the end of a previous spiritual-qi cycle.
• Chen Du learned Yunzhi had gone to sleep in the tenth year of Wanli and told her that more than four hundred years had passed.
• As the thunderstorm intensified, Yunzhi pleaded to stay somewhere safe for the night rather than face the heavenly lightning outside.
• Chen Du allowed Yunzhi to use the empty guest room in exchange for cleaning the courtyard in the morning.
• Chen Du sent Side-Swept Bangs to guide Yunzhi to the guest room, then reflected on the dangers and opportunities posed by immortals and yaoguai.

Chen Du and Yunzhi spent the stormy night wary of each other, each considering how to stay safe. After Chen Du left the temple for the mountain town, Yunzhi turned back toward it, leaving their next encounter unresolved.

• Chen Du weighed calling the police, fleeing, and seeking cultivation knowledge, while Yunzhi wondered whether she could ask to stay at the temple until her magic power recovered.
• After the storm ended, Chen Du decided to leave the temple for a few days and used a planned trip to inspect a gravesite as his excuse.
• Chen Du told Yunzhi to leave after she finished sweeping, then packed his cat and belongings and descended the mountain.
• Yunzhi watched Chen Du leave, hesitated along the mountain path, and finally turned back toward the Daoist temple.

Chen Du discovered that the temple seal and a force tied to the mountain prevented him from leaving, while Yunzhi returned to steal fallen petals and became trapped by the same quaking restriction. When Chen Du went back to the temple, he found Yunzhi waiting in the courtyard and dropping to her knees.

• Chen Du tried to ride and walk down the mountain, but an unseen force stopped him and made the mountain shake whenever he advanced.
• Chen Du examined his seal and realized it bore the image of the mountain and seemed connected to a temple power that would not let its master leave.
• Yunzhi sneaked into the courtyard to retrieve fallen petals from the treasure tree, but the mountain shook when she tried to leave.
• Yunzhi returned the petals to the trash and pleaded with the unseen immortal master, then stayed put when the shaking continued.
• Chen Du turned back up the mountain, worried that being trapped would disrupt his livelihood and errands.
• Chen Du returned to the temple and found Yunzhi in the courtyard, where she fell to her knees upon seeing him.

Chen Du discovered that Yunzhi had only taken fallen blossoms from his tree, then kept her at the temple as a helper and sent her down the mountain to collect a package and buy rice. He remained stranded without food or income, but saw a possible way to use Yunzhi’s obedience to solve his immediate problems.

• Yunzhi confessed to taking fallen blossoms and apologized, while Chen Du realized she had mistaken his authority and the mountain’s tremors for proof of immense power.
• Chen Du ordered Yunzhi to stay in the front courtyard, repair the roof, and do chores in exchange for food and lodging.
• Chen Du worried that his supplies were nearly gone and that being unable to leave the mountain would threaten the temple’s income and expose his lack of cultivation.
• After Yunzhi quickly repaired the roof, Chen Du gave her the address and papers needed to collect his package and buy a fifty-jin bag of rice.
• Chen Du warned Yunzhi about modern roads, traffic lights, and officials, then sent her down the mountain.

Yunzhi traveled to the modern town to retrieve Chen Du’s packages and was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar world and the heavy load. After she returned to the Daoist temple, Chen Du invited her to stay and help with errands, and she accepted, beginning to adjust to the changed times.

• Yunzhi reached Hongyuan Supermarket · Cainiao Post and collected Chen Du’s sword along with a large stack of packages and supplies.
• Yunzhi carried the heavy load back up the mountain without using spells and arrived exhausted at the Daoist temple.
• Chen Du checked the packages, thanked Yunzhi, and offered her a place at the temple to help with his errands; she gladly agreed.
• Chen Du let Yunzhi take the petals he did not need and asked her to count the tree’s twenty-eight fruits.
• Chen Du explained how much the world had changed and warned Yunzhi not to do evil, while she said she could provide her own meals.

Chen Du considered how to keep the temple running and how to learn cultivation from Yunzhi, while Yunzhi counted the withered flowers he had given her as treasures. After dreaming of Yunzhi sending a warning to an old friend, Chen Du decided to deal with her carefully and gradually; in the morning, he noticed she was sweeping and making congee, suggesting promises of future rewards had encouraged her.

• Chen Du put fifty jin of rice away, worried about the temple’s finances and the food he could no longer buy down the mountain, and resolved to find a way to learn cultivation from Yunzhi.
• Yunzhi dreamed of fleeing a dump truck, then counted the withered flowers Chen Du had given her and planned to restore her cultivation while earning his guidance.
• Chen Du dreamed that Yunzhi sent a bamboo-leaf message to an old friend, warning about the changed mortal world and dump trucks while praising Chen Du as an immortal expert.
• Chen Du woke unsure whether the dream was real and decided to test Yunzhi, drawing on old stories as he considered how to balance kindness and authority.
• Chen Du heard Yunzhi sweeping outside and smelled congee, and concluded that promises of future rewards had made her more diligent.

Chen Du questioned Yunzhi about the spell she had cast to contact an old friend, then introduced her to modern technology by showing her television news. Yunzhi was left astonished by the changed world and confused by its advertisements.

• Chen Du asked Yunzhi about the disturbance he sensed overnight, and she admitted she had used a spell to send a message to an old friend.
• Yunzhi listed the spells she knew, including Sending Spring Afar, Like a Dream, Night Tour of the Palace, and Gathering Beasts and Summoning Birds.
• Chen Du checked the temple’s growing fruit, ate breakfast with Yunzhi, and rewarded the cat with food while considering how to get Yunzhi to teach it cultivation.
• After breakfast, Chen Du turned on the television and explained that it could show events happening in the world below the mountain.
• Yunzhi watched reports about space exploration and military events in amazement, then mistook a game advertisement about killing the Dragon King of the East Sea for reality.

Chen Du burned his diaries and searched the Daoist temple’s old books for records of immortals or cultivation, but found nothing useful. After Yunzhi welcomed two young tourists, they returned in alarm when they encountered a large snake on the mountain path, and Chen Du sent Side-Swept Bangs and Yunzhi to drive it away safely.

• Chen Du searched the temple’s old books for hidden records of immortals and spells, then burned the remaining pages of his diaries.
• Yunzhi opened the gate to two young women visiting the temple and struggled to understand their questions about why she lived there.
• Chen Du told Yunzhi to welcome future visitors casually and keep her identity as a monster from ancient times secret.
• The two women explored the temple, took photos, and played with Side-Swept Bangs before leaving to climb the mountain.
• The women ran back after finding a large black-and-yellow snake on the path, so Chen Du sent Side-Swept Bangs and Yunzhi to guide it away without harming it.

Yunzhi and Senior Xie confronted a giant snake blocking the mountain road, and Yunzhi persuaded it to retreat under the immortal master's decree. The two hikers returned to the temple to pay their respects, still wondering whether they had stumbled into a hidden world.

• Two hikers watched Senior Xie battle the giant snake and offered to help with their trekking poles.
• Yunzhi waited until Senior Xie tired, then stepped in and addressed the snake respectfully.
• Yunzhi told the snake to leave the road and convey the immortal master's decree to cultivate peacefully in the mountains.
• The snake turned away and disappeared into the grass, and Yunzhi warned the hikers to seek help at the temple if needed.
• The hikers returned to the temple, questioned Chen Du, paid respects to the deity's statue, and donated incense money.
• The hikers asked Chen Du for a talisman, but he said he did not know how to make one, so they left without it.

Chen Du planned to attract enough visitors to keep the Daoist temple supplied with money without exposing its secrets, while Yunzhi learned about modern life and was awed by its technology. After Chen Du asked her to handle a minor yin qi problem if the locals sought help, Yunzhi resigned herself to carrying out his orders.

• Chen Du gave Yunzhi a milk tea left by the two visitors and explained that he would show her local news so she could learn about modern life.
• Yunzhi marveled at airplanes, missiles, and nuclear bombs, and Chen Du arranged for her to buy meat and vegetables with the visitors’ incense money.
• Chen Du cooked lunch because Yunzhi did not recognize the ingredients or kitchen supplies, and Side-Swept Bangs received boiled chicken.
• Yunzhi told Chen Du that she had found mild yin qi in a shop, and he said she should investigate if its owners came to the temple for help.
• Chen Du told Yunzhi to call him Daoist Priest in front of other people, though she still addressed him as Immortal Master.

Two hikers discussed the strange Daoist temple and its priest after returning to town, while Chen Du discovered that the fruit on his treasure tree had begun glowing visibly. He warned Yunzhi to stop visitors from staying overnight, leaving the temple preparing to hide the tree’s growing anomaly.

• The two hikers ate noodles and bobo chicken, recalled their frightening night on the mountain, and asked the shop owner about the Daoist temple and its priest.
• The shop owner described the temple’s history and cautioned the hikers not to be swindled, while his wife suggested visiting temples because she and her husband had felt weak and suffered nightmares.
• At dusk, Chen Du noticed that the treasure tree’s fruit had begun glowing visibly, and he warned his kitten not to touch or eat it.
• Chen Du suspected the tree might be the legendary Three-Trunk Tree but remained unsure where it came from or what its fruit would do.
• Chen Du told Yunzhi to refuse overnight visitors starting the next day so people would not notice the glowing fruit, and Yunzhi struggled to meditate while thinking about the news and her dwindling petals.

A couple from town visited the Daoist temple, where Yunzhi recognized their troubles as yin energy and offered to resolve them. After she returned with food and oil instead of payment, Chen Du praised her actions, and she decided to study modern speech so she would not embarrass him.

• A couple climbing the mountain suddenly felt their discomfort vanish and went to the Daoist temple to seek help.
• Yunzhi recognized the couple as local restaurant owners and claimed their nightmares and weakness came from yin energy.
• Yunzhi told the couple she could resolve the problem after receiving the Daoist master's permission, then drove away the yin energy with a staged spell.
• The couple offered Yunzhi money, but she refused it and accepted chicken and fragrant oil instead.
• Yunzhi told Chen Du what happened, and he praised her for helping the couple without charging them.
• After learning about Weixin and recalling that the couple had criticized her accent, Yunzhi resolved to watch Xinwen Lianbo and Yizhou News to improve her speech.

Chen Du taught Yunzhi why the temple accepted voluntary donations and warned her against using magic to obtain money, while Yunzhi remembered valuables she had buried for her next life. After Yunzhi left to retrieve them, Chen Du checked the donation box and found 888 yuan.

• A couple returned to the mountain, paid their respects, and donated several banknotes to the temple.
• Chen Du explained to Yunzhi that voluntary offerings could support the temple, but that cultivators should not steal or conjure money.
• Yunzhi told Chen Du about the objects she had left in her tomb as burial goods and asked permission to retrieve them.
• Chen Du advised Yunzhi to bring the objects back as keepsakes, and she set off for the tomb.
• After Yunzhi left, Chen Du asked the black-and-white cat whether she had gone far and checked the donation box, finding 888 yuan in cash.

Chen Du talked Yunzhi out of trying to steal back her belongings after archaeologists uncovered her tomb and began removing its treasures. As the spirit fruit ripened in the temple courtyard, Chen Du’s plans reached their crucial moment.

• Chen Du found Yunzhi watching a news report about the excavation of her tomb and its artifacts.
• Yunzhi identified her belongings on television and asked Chen Du how she could get them back.
• Chen Du warned Yunzhi not to use magic to steal the artifacts, and she agreed to wait, cultivate, and learn about the modern world.
• Chen Du reassured Yunzhi with an offer of bobo chicken while Side-Swept Bangs ran off carrying a bug.
• Chen Du followed the cat outside and saw the spirit fruit ripen amid radiant spiritual light and an irresistible fragrance.

Chen Du harvested the spirit fruits and gave one to Yunzhi, who swallowed it under his watch. The fruit lit up her body, and Chen Du and the black-and-white cat watched to see what would happen.

• Yunzhi told Chen Du that the spirit fruits had ripened, and he ordered her to keep the mountain animals away.
• Yunzhi persuaded the birds and beasts to leave while Chen Du carefully harvested the fruits into a bamboo basket.
• Chen Du thanked Yunzhi for her work and gave her one of the spirit fruits as a reward.
• Yunzhi accepted the fruit and, following Chen Du's advice to eat it naturally, swallowed it as he watched.
• Light shone through Yunzhi's body after she swallowed the fruit, while Chen Du and the black-and-white cat observed her.

After eating a spirit fruit, Chen Du’s cat began absorbing its power, and he asked Yunzhi to teach her cultivation. Yunzhi agreed, while both she and Chen Du worried about what the lessons would reveal.

• Yunzhi thanked Chen Du and described how the spirit fruit had strengthened her body, clarity, and cultivation.
• Chen Du let his cat eat a spirit fruit and watched as spiritual radiance appeared around her.
• Chen Du asked Yunzhi to teach his cat, and Yunzhi explained the fruit’s effects and how it could aid cultivation.
• Yunzhi asked when the cat would begin refining qi, and Chen Du asked her to teach the cat once the fruit had been absorbed.
• Yunzhi and Chen Du both prepared anxiously for the lessons, each wondering whether the other would judge or mislead them.

Chen Du found an ancient passage on cultivation that matched Yunzhi’s explanation of essence platforms, essence fire, and the qi sea, then joined her lesson for Side-Swept Bangs. As the lesson ended, Chen Du discovered that his visualization seemed to contain over a thousand essence platforms, though he suspected he had imagined them incorrectly.

• Chen Du found a passage attributed to Chen Tuan describing how essence became fire, fire refined qi, and qi gathered into a sea.
• The cat began speaking and showed Yunzhi that it understood language, while Chen Du encouraged it to study and cultivate.
• Yunzhi taught Side-Swept Bangs about essence platforms, essence fire, qi refinement, and the different cultivation paths followed by humans and yao.
• Following Yunzhi’s guidance, Side-Swept Bangs visualized eight essence platforms, more than Yunzhi had when she first ignited her essence fire.
• Chen Du visualized four clear essence platforms, then noticed what appeared to be over a thousand more behind them and wondered if he had made a mistake.

Yunzhi taught Chen Du about cultivation, human forms, and refining spiritual qi, while Chen Du shared an ancient path to immortality. After eating a spirit fruit, he gained three real Essence Platforms and considered whether to build more or begin qi refinement.

• Yunzhi explained two ways for yao to take human form and taught Chen Du a method for gathering the sun and moon’s essence to refine yin and yang spiritual qi.
• Chen Du told Yunzhi that the ancient immortal path progressed from tempering the body and refining essence to nurturing the primordial spirit and becoming one with the Dao.
• Chen Du counted 1,095 false Essence Platforms in his visualization and ate a spirit fruit to test its effects.
• Chen Du found that the fruit greatly increased his physical energy and gave him three more real Essence Platforms, bringing his total to seven.
• Chen Du weighed the drawbacks of building more Essence Platforms against starting qi refinement, then decided to eat another spirit fruit.