Recaps

Helian Yuan and the hunter killed a Split-Tooth Lizard together, and Helian Yuan confirmed that Shadow Follows the Spear worked in real combat. After discovering an advance observer and learning the Gray-Robed Retrieval Team would enter the mountains with six people and three wagons, Helian Yuan planned ways to divide their forces.

• The hunter and Helian Yuan repaired their traps and shared the night watch while keeping their secrets separate.
• They worked together to kill a level-three Split-Tooth Lizard, with Helian Yuan piercing its soft scales using Shadow Follows the Spear and the hunter finishing it with a bolt.
• Helian Yuan and the hunter divided the lizard’s meat and materials according to each item’s use and their contributions.
• The hunter found an observer’s footprints near the ditch and warned Helian Yuan that the Gray-Robed Retrieval Team would enter the mountains the day after tomorrow with three wagons and at least six people.
• Helian Yuan hid evidence of his technique, marked likely routes on his map, and planned to exploit conflicts between the team’s people, wagons, and the Blue Rock Panther.

Helian Yuan evaded the gray-robed man's questions about the iron token while discovering that the man’s group was monitoring both the buyer’s shop and his hunting shelter. He moved his medicine and returned to Sunken Bone Slope by a route that avoided the watchers, leaving the shelter as a decoy.

• Helian Yuan pretended to be a laborer when the gray-robed man questioned the buyer’s shop about Blackwater Ravine, iron chains, and an iron token.
• Helian Yuan noticed the gray-robed man’s scented silver coin was a tracking marker and secretly passed it to a sleeping gambler.
• At his hunting shelter, Helian Yuan found a square-headed nail with gray thread and traced signs that different people were using it to confirm his return.
• Helian Yuan moved his real medicine to a badger burrow, reset the nail as a decoy, and began signaling the buyer with a scale in a back-alley barrel.
• When the scale was turned face down, Helian Yuan avoided the south road and returned to Sunken Bone Slope with supplies.

Helian Yuan used false clues to manipulate the gray-robed man's search for Number Seven and learned that a higher-ranking investigator had entered the mountains. He moved the genuine records to safety and waited for the next confrontation at Sunken Bone Slope.

• Helian Yuan planted a forged account-book entry and part of the iron chain in the hunting shelter, and the gray-robed man's assistant took them after checking the iron-nail marker.
• The assistant left a nail marked with a seven, and Helian Yuan concluded that the other side had suspected a trap but could not ignore a clue tied to Number Seven.
• Helian Yuan planted three false clues around Sunken Bone Slope, while the crossbow-carrying hunter warned him about a fresh mark but refused to watch who investigated it.
• An unknown visitor ignored the false signals and removed the record-paper clue with a tool, showing Helian Yuan that someone more senior had entered the mountains.
• Helian Yuan moved the genuine records to a hollow dead tree and stopped adding false clues as a Blue Rock Panther growled in the eastern stone gully.

Helian Yuan sabotaged the Gray-Robed Retrieval Team’s attempt to capture the Blue Rock Panther and stole their master relocation chart. The team’s leader arrived with a new map before dawn, as the conflict over Sunken Bone Slope escalated.

• Helian Yuan weakened the Red-Maned Wolf’s net and used bait to draw the Blue Rock Panther into the retrieval team’s traps, disrupting their perimeter.
• Helian Yuan confused the Tracking Hounds’ scent trail and stole the master relocation chart from the third wagon.
• An unseen crossbow hunter opened a route through the perimeter cloth, and Helian Yuan changed his escape path to avoid the western slope.
• Helian Yuan read the chart and found that records for numbers seven and two other entries had been marked over, while number thirteen was listed as having materials not retrieved.
• The retrieval team lit torches to search the mountain, and its gray-robed leader arrived before dawn with a new map.

Helian Yuan stole two duplicate ledger pages while the gray-robed man’s team fought a Blue Rock Panther, then discovered that record number seven had no name despite being marked as transferred out. A fragment of Old Mo’s memory suggested cages of tiger-type demonic beasts, and Helian Yuan set out to identify number seven before the expanded search closed in.

• Helian Yuan planted genuine record paper beside a fake iron tag to make the gray-robed man consult the ledger’s duplicate pages.
• Helian Yuan triggered a Blue Rock Panther attack, and while the guards fought it, he stole only the top two pages from the carriage’s ledger bag.
• Helian Yuan escaped through a prepared route after a guard hesitated over another false marker.
• Helian Yuan found that number seven was listed at Sunken Bone Slope with its status pending retrieval, but its name field was deliberately blank.
• The page’s impressions stirred Old Mo’s memory of tiger-type demonic beasts in metal cages, including a black tiger, but Helian Yuan refused to treat the fragment as a confirmed answer.
• The gray-robed man expanded the search and removed the hunters’ markers, while Helian Yuan planned to uncover the identity behind number seven before the hunting grounds were sealed.

Helian Yuan evaded the gray-robed man’s expanding search by abandoning his shelter and misleading the guards with a false trail and fake marker. After discovering they were using powder-coated threads and stakes to map movement across Sunken Bone Slope, he set out to learn how their system worked and left a split dipper as a warning sign.

• Helian Yuan dismantled his hunting shelter, planted a fake nail marked seven, and escaped by walking upstream through the spring.
• Three guards followed the false trail, found the fake nail, and prioritized collecting it because it was marked seven.
• Helian Yuan discovered that someone had placed white tracking powder in his food, so he destroyed his supplies and abandoned the shelter.
• He observed how the searchers divided their duties and inferred that their stakes and threads formed a moving map of the hunting ground.
• After seeing a stake coated with the same white substance, Helian Yuan decided to steal the material they used to map the area.
• Helian Yuan split the shelter’s water dipper and took half, leaving the broken object as a warning about whether anyone had altered the site.

Helian Yuan disrupted the stake-replacement operation, stole collected nails and marking materials, and forced the gray-robed man’s team to change its procedures. He then approached the temporary camp and found a covered cart with a bent iron bar beneath its cloth.

• Helian Yuan discovered that the stake teams used lead impressions, bitter powder, and dead animals to detect tampering, while guards collected the old nails.
• After learning that others had also planted false sevens, Helian Yuan set a trap in the south gully and ambushed a stake replacement guard.
• Helian Yuan stole two old nails, a lead strip, and white powder, then smashed a stake and warned the guard that the hunting grounds had not been made by the gray-robed man’s stakes.
• The gray-robed man changed the rules and paired stake replacers with guards, slowing the search operation.
• Helian Yuan used powder to draw mountain foxes across the boundaries, then approached the temporary camp and found a covered cart with a bent iron bar beneath it.

Helian Yuan infiltrated the camp’s live cage and stole the blank tag for number seven, escaping through a ravine with an injured shoulder. He found evidence that the cage had held a living young beast that disappeared before the organization could name it, while a distant whistle signaled the gray-robed man’s return.

• Helian Yuan overheard guards discuss the blank name field on the tag for number seven and recognized the cart as a live cage.
• He used mountain foxes to distract the camp workers, inspected the iron cage, and found a short black hair and a blank tag marked with seven cuts.
• When a guard discovered him, Helian Yuan escaped through the cage’s floor plate, stole the tag, and fled the camp amid the pursuit.
• Helian Yuan evaded crossbowmen by descending a dry gully, injuring his shoulder and losing a packet of hemostatic powder.
• He examined the tag and found instructions to add a name after the creature returned alive, along with young-animal bite marks and traces suggesting it had been held in the cage.
• After hearing the gray-robed man return and a long whistle sound to the east, Helian Yuan realized the tag’s blank face was itself a clue.

Helian Yuan helped the hunter escape through the north post, ending their debt and partnership. After the hunter left west, Helian Yuan followed the gray-robed man's convoy as it moved the live cages and supplies deeper into the ravine.

• The hunter asked Helian Yuan to sabotage the north post so he could escape through the ravine, and Helian Yuan agreed on the condition that the hunter leave alone.
• Helian Yuan used powder-tainted mountain rats and three columns of gray smoke to draw most of the guards away from the north post.
• The hunter trapped the remaining guard and escaped through the western ravine without killing anyone.
• The gray-robed man inspected the post and ordered it sealed, believing no one had actually escaped.
• The hunter left a crossbow stock marked with a westward direction, and Helian Yuan understood that their debt and contact had ended.
• Helian Yuan heard the convoy moving live cages and supplies east and followed it alone.

Helian Yuan tracked the live-cage cart to an old quarry and uncovered a supply slip suggesting that number seven came from deeper in the mountains. He escaped after planting misleading traces, while the gray-robed man ordered the empty cage sent toward the mountain interior entrance.

• Helian Yuan followed the convoy’s tracks and discovered that the live-cage cart had taken a northern route to an old quarry.
• He watched the gray-robed man’s workers unload supplies and learned that number seven’s beast feed was deliberately omitted from the records.
• Helian Yuan crawled beneath the cart and stole a supply slip marked “return from within the mountains.”
• The gray-robed man ordered the cage sent to the mountain interior entrance and commanded the workers to burn anything bearing number seven’s scent.
• Helian Yuan planted misleading traces in the drainage ditch and left the quarry as the guards began searching for him.
• After dark, Helian Yuan studied the slip and marked number seven’s origin as deeper in the mountains, awaiting verification.

Helian Yuan infiltrated the empty circle the gray-robed man had created to track Number Seven, using rock rats and other beasts to disrupt the search. After escaping through the Blue Rock Panther’s territory, he mapped the enemy’s tools and realized the gray-robed man had noticed Tiger Shadow’s reaction to the iron whistle.

• The gray-robed man drove ordinary demonic beasts away from the quarry, creating an empty circle where traces of Number Seven would be easy to spot.
• Helian Yuan lured rock rats across the powder-marked boundary, then used the confusion to enter the circle without leaving clear footprints.
• Helian Yuan observed the gray-robed man and his medicine pouches, but the man spotted his shadow and ordered a guard to blow an iron whistle.
• Helian Yuan scattered the double-cross powder to break the gray-robed man’s line of sight and escaped toward the Blue Rock Panther’s territory.
• Helian Yuan used split-tooth lizard meat to draw the Blue Rock Panther toward the pursuers, then slipped out of the circle.
• Helian Yuan mapped the medicine zones, wind direction, and whistle’s effects, while the gray-robed man learned that the whistle caused an unusual reaction in Helian Yuan’s shadow.

Helian Yuan disrupted the transport convoy by luring the Blue Rock Panther into attacking, then stole the gray-robed man's whistle after discovering how it worked with the panther's iron ring. He escaped with the whistle and resolved not to rely on the mechanism, while the gray-robed man now knew the thief understood the ring.

• Helian Yuan lured the Blue Rock Panther toward the transport convoy by using numbing grass oil and the sound of the iron whistle.
• The Blue Rock Panther attacked the convoy, and Helian Yuan saw that the gray-robed man's whistle triggered a hidden strip in the panther's iron ring.
• Helian Yuan changed his goal and attacked the gray-robed man to seize the short whistle, using powdered mud to stop him from blowing it.
• Helian Yuan kicked the whistle into the grass, escaped the guard and the panther, then retrieved it as the convoy fell into chaos.
• In a dry cave, Helian Yuan found that the whistle and the old iron ring shared the same mechanism and chose not to use the whistle as a regular hunting tool.
• A mountain fox reacted fearfully to the whistle, and Helian Yuan wrote in his secret manual that the mechanism could be broken but not relied upon.

Helian Yuan discovered how the retrieval team's collars and green metal slivers affected demonic beasts, then tested a dangerous way to channel Tiger Shadow through his injured arm. He shifted his plan toward examining the Blue Rock Panther's collar, but the retrieval team arrived with a collared Throat-Locking Wind Wolf and folding chain nets.

• Helian Yuan found that a green metal sliver embedded in the collar amplified the iron whistle's vibration, while the collar's medicinal grease and the whistle together formed part of a repeated beast-retrieval procedure.
• Helian Yuan used Tiger Shadow to test Partial Shadow Attachment, striking stone with greater force but numbing and aggravating his injured arm.
• Helian Yuan determined that the technique required his shoulder, elbow, and wrist to form a complete path, then limited himself to three uses a day while recovering.
• Helian Yuan changed his plan to observe the Blue Rock Panther's collar and kept the green sliver separate from the whistle tube so the retrieval team could not easily restore the tool.
• The gray-robed man's retrieval team arrived with folding chain nets fitted with green slivers and a collared level-three Throat-Locking Wind Wolf, which they planned to put into a live cage.

Helian Yuan used the gray-robed man's vague bounty to mislead his watchers and force him to pay hunters for a false lead. The gray-robed man preserved the bounty's credibility at a cost, while the buyer later mocked its ambiguity, leaving the town more suspicious of the search.

• Helian Yuan recognized that the bounty's missing description was meant to draw information from hunters, then planted a false lead about an iron chest in South Gully.
• Helian Yuan used a copper bell and horseradish powder to distract guards watching the western road and slipped past them.
• Helian Yuan's planted chest drew the gray-robed man's people and three hunters to South Gully, where the crowd demanded the promised reward.
• The gray-robed man declared the lead valid and paid the hunters three gold coins, then spotted Helian Yuan's hiding place as he withdrew.
• The buyer copied the bounty notice and added a drawing of an empty chest, prompting laughter and further weakening the gray-robed man's influence.

Helian Yuan abandoned his plan to steal the recovery team's route records and rescued the old hunter from the gray-robed man's trap, taking a wound and losing the chance to seize the records. He and the old hunter reunited in an abandoned beast den, while the gray-robed man retained the initiative and learned that the old hunter could influence Helian Yuan's choices.

• Helian Yuan spotted the old hunter tied up as bait at the northern outpost and set copper bells and the iron whistle to distract the guards.
• Helian Yuan used the caged Wind Wolf's reaction to create an opening, broke the frame, and freed the old hunter, but a crossbow bolt grazed his side.
• Helian Yuan and the old hunter split up to escape, and Helian Yuan evaded two pursuers by scattering horseradish powder and collapsing part of a mud wall.
• Helian Yuan found the old hunter in an abandoned beast den, tended his wound, and explained that he had come because the old hunter was captured over the map he had given him.
• Helian Yuan recognized that the gray-robed man had sacrificed little while learning about his connections, but he accepted the cost because the old hunter was alive.

Helian Yuan learned that the seventh empty slot had been used for more than ten years and found the old southern transport road leading to the Inner Mountain Entrance. As a retrieval team moved to capture the Blue Rock Panther, he prepared to interfere with its planned route while limiting the strain on his injured arm.

• The old hunter told Helian Yuan that he had heard of an empty seventh slot at the Inner Mountain Entrance more than ten years earlier, and that gray-robed men had ordered the blank name returned inside the mountain.
• The old hunter marked the route to the Inner Mountain Entrance before leaving, and Helian Yuan used his clues to find an abandoned transport road south of the route the retrieval team was following.
• Helian Yuan compared the master list, supplementary page, and live cage tag, concluding that the seventh slot could refer to different targets or stages of transport and naming.
• Helian Yuan examined the retrieval team's preparations and learned they planned to use the Throat-Locking Wind Wolf to drive the Blue Rock Panther toward a chain net.
• Helian Yuan practiced controlling Shadow Cover with his injured arm and decided he only needed to stop the panther from retreating along the expected route.
• As the first copper bell rang, Helian Yuan buried the old hunter's fruit pit and took up his short spear while the retrieval team began closing the net.

Helian Yuan sabotaged the retrieval team's attempt to capture the Blue Rock Panther and used Shadow Cover to turn their net against them. He escaped into a gully with his right arm numb, while the team identified him as their enemy and the net caught the Throat-Locking Wind Wolf instead.

• Helian Yuan observed the retrieval team's first attempt and identified the western ground spikes as the key to controlling the chain net.
• He loosened the spikes by forcing water and wooden wedges into the rock cracks, then trained himself to use Shadow Cover briefly and precisely on his right arm.
• When the retrieval team returned with more crossbowmen and a barbed net, Helian Yuan used panther-scented cloth to disrupt the Wind Wolf's route and make the western opening rise early.
• Helian Yuan used Shadow Cover to lever up a ground spike, tilting the net so the numbing powder missed the Blue Rock Panther and the net struck the guards.
• The Blue Rock Panther broke free and dragged the Throat-Locking Wind Wolf toward the rocks as Helian Yuan fled with his right arm numb; the gray-robed man recognized him as the saboteur.

Helian Yuan disrupted the recovery team's second attempt to capture the Blue Rock Panther and stole its copper route tube. The tube revealed an old road deeper into the mountain and an order to seal the entrance, while iron bells signaled that the mountain was being closed after the failed recovery.

• Helian Yuan recognized that the black-armored men handled the recovery operation and decided to target their route tube instead of repeating his earlier tactics.
• He planted copper bells and white powder around the recovery team's equipment to create a distraction and track the route cart.
• Helian Yuan used startled mountain civets and a false whistle to disrupt the net formation, giving him a chance to cut the tube's fastening and steal it.
• The Blue Rock Panther broke the Wind Wolf's neck ring and escaped the net as Helian Yuan fled with the route tube.
• Helian Yuan found an animal-hide map, an old road into deeper hunting grounds, and a black rod engraved with the order to seal the entrance.
• Five iron-bell rings sounded from the east, signaling that the recovery team was sealing the mountain.

Helian Yuan escaped the outer region by diverting the Blue Rock Panther toward the sealed passage and breaking its collar, then crossed into the inner mountains. The gray-robed man remained behind the fallen rocks as Helian Yuan continued deeper into the mountains with the route tube.

• Helian Yuan used the broken collar’s vibration and medicinal scents to lure the Blue Rock Panther toward the alternate beast trail and the stone passage.
• Helian Yuan disrupted the guards’ attempt to seal the passage as the Blue Rock Panther charged into their formation.
• Helian Yuan pried open the panther’s iron collar, freeing it and causing it to attack the gray-robed man carrying the whistle.
• Helian Yuan threw a sealing rod toward the fuse fire, forcing the gray-robed man to turn aside, then passed through the stone passage as falling rocks blocked half the exit.
• The crossbow hunter shot through a rope the pursuers were rigging, then left west without meeting Helian Yuan.
• Helian Yuan recovered his short spear, answered the gray-robed man, and walked deeper into the inner mountains with the route tube.

Helian Yuan killed a level-three Throat-Locking Wind Wolf in a narrow passage and escaped the black-armored retrieval team, but they identified his Tiger Shadow and began pursuing him as a target. He entered the deeper mountain alone, where a mysterious figure was hammering metal by a cliff.

• Helian Yuan used the jagged rocks and the Wind Wolf’s momentum to pin its collar against his spear, then struck its throat with a partial manifestation of Tiger Shadow.
• The black-armored man recognized the tiger-shaped power and ordered his crossbowman to take Helian Yuan alive.
• Helian Yuan used a cord and the copper tube to disrupt the crossbowman, escaped the black-armored man, and abandoned his short spear in the dead wolf’s throat.
• The black-armored man warned Helian Yuan he would not survive seven days in the mountain, and Helian Yuan continued into the inner passage with the route tube.
• After entering the deeper reaches, Helian Yuan carved a mark for the level-three Wind Wolf and saw firelight near a cliff, where someone was hammering metal.

Helian Yuan struck a bargain with Ailina, Leien, and Kelin to guide them across a ravine in exchange for a temporary spear. After they escaped a Rock-Armored Rhinoceros and reached the far side, fresh tracks revealed an immature tiger cub nearby.

• Helian Yuan met Ailina, Leien, and Kelin at the broken rope bridge and offered to guide them across the ravine in exchange for a repaired weapon.
• Ailina agreed to provide Helian Yuan with a short spear, and the group set out along an old beast trail to a natural stone span.
• Helian Yuan and Ailina distracted a fourth-level Rock-Armored Rhinoceros with a copper sheet and the neck ring, letting the group cross safely.
• Ailina gave Helian Yuan a temporary spear shaft and an old three-edged spear point, while warning him to disclose any danger following him.
• Kelin found fresh claw prints and a short length of chain that appeared to belong to an immature tiger cub, not the Windclaw Lynx they were hunting.

Helian Yuan and the others killed the Windclaw Lynx, then found evidence that the chained cub had crossed its path and been wounded. The group negotiated a new arrangement and followed the cub’s trail toward the recovery team, leaving their decision about rescuing it until they found it.

• Helian Yuan showed the group the marked wooden tag, and Ailina gave him a newly joined spear while warning that its iron sleeve would last only seven days.
• The group agreed to hunt the Windclaw Lynx first, then found it in fallen trees and worked together to exploit its injured hind leg.
• Helian Yuan helped bring the lynx down with an ordinary spear thrust, and the group divided the spoils according to each member’s contribution.
• Kelin found black fur in the lynx’s stomach, while the group spotted blood and a chain mark leading deeper into the woods.
• Helian Yuan offered route information and details about the recovery team in exchange for the others continuing with him; Ailina agreed to go as far as the cub before they decided whether to save it.

Helian Yuan and the others evaded the retrieval team’s sentries and found the wounded black cub, which reacted to the blank tag as if it recognized the organization’s cages. With the Black-Armored Retrieval Team closing in, they had to choose between taking the evidence or rescuing the unregistered cub.

• Kelin, Leien, Ailina, and Helian Yuan followed signs of the wounded cub and circled the misty valley to avoid a direct approach.
• Helian Yuan and the others distracted the sentries and redirected the Scent Beasts, creating an opening at the valley entrance.
• Ailina loosened one Scent Beast’s muzzle ring as the group passed the sentry post, and they followed the sound of water into the valley.
• The group found the injured cub beneath a fallen tree and saw signs that it had endured repeated confinement.
• Helian Yuan showed the cub the blank wooden tag, and its fearful reaction suggested it had seen a live cage.
• The Black-Armored Retrieval Team approached from both sides, forcing the group to decide whether to take the evidence or the cub.

Helian Yuan and his companions freed the injured cub from the retrieval team, sacrificing their chance to recover the team’s ledger. They escaped into Mist Valley with the cub, while Helian Yuan’s right arm lost its strength again.

• The retrieval team poisoned the stream and tried to capture the cub, so Helian Yuan ordered Kelin to break its chain while the others held off the attackers.
• Helian Yuan used his shadow for one hammer blow, and Ailina broke the lock that held the cub’s leg chain.
• Helian Yuan chose to carry the cub away instead of chasing the ledger as the ledger man burned it; the cub’s growl and the Tiger Shadow briefly confused their pursuers.
• The four escaped through a rocky crevice, masked their trail, and continued retreating until nightfall with the cub and fragments of its chain and lock.
• By the fire, Ailina asked whether Helian Yuan regretted leaving the ledger behind, and he said it would have told others what the cub was called.

The young beast led Helian Yuan and the others through a hidden tunnel and across concealed ledges to escape the Recovery Society’s pursuers. At a hot-spring cave, Helian Yuan named the beast Little Mo and the group agreed on new terms, while the black-armored leader reported that the tag thief had entered the deeper hunting grounds with three companions and an ink-striped tiger cub.

• The young beast found a hidden cave entrance, leading the group through a narrow tunnel to a ledge beneath the old rope bridge.
• The group crossed a concealed rock ridge with the injured young beast, and Helian Yuan helped dislodge the bridge’s main rope to stop the black-armored pursuers from crossing.
• The young beast guided the group through the mountains until they reached a hot-spring cave, where Helian Yuan named it Little Mo and Kelin recorded the name.
• Leien, Kelin, Ailina, and Helian Yuan agreed on new terms for working together, including the right for anyone to leave at the next safe place.
• The black-armored leader sent word that the tag thief from Sunken Bone Slope had entered the deeper hunting grounds with three others and an ink-striped tiger cub.