Chapter Summaries

Helian Yuan entered Sunken Bone Slope, learned its hunters’ rules, and investigated the gray-robed organization’s markers and activity. After an unknown visitor approached his shelter overnight, he moved to a hidden crevice and found that someone had turned over the number-seven marker beneath the boundary stake.

• Helian Yuan exchanged salt for water and information from a hunter, learning about nearby magical beasts and the gray-robed people’s recent survey.
• Helian Yuan examined the number-seven marker, mapped the badger burrows, and found signs that a Blue Rock Panther’s territory reached closer to the spring than expected.
• Helian Yuan found gray threads and metal shavings in the shared stone shelter’s ashes, then built a fire without clearing away the traces.
• Helian Yuan noticed unfamiliar boot prints outside his shelter pointing toward his hidden map, but avoided pursuing them and waited in an empty crevice until dawn.
• Helian Yuan found that someone had turned the number-seven marker face-down in the soil.

Helian Yuan redesigned his trail markings after someone dismantled his trap and began probing his routes, while learning that the Gray-Robed Organization planned to recover Sunken Bone Slope. He left a false trail toward the Blue Rock Panther and prepared for their arrival in three days without exposing his real hiding place.

• Helian Yuan tested four holes left by his dismantled trap and found that someone had removed only the hemp thread.
• Helian Yuan created separate systems of stone, bark, and bone markings, then tested his routes under difficult conditions.
• The crossbow hunter traded information about the Gray-Robed Organization’s recovery order for the Blue Rock Panther’s movements near the spring.
• Helian Yuan learned that the recovery order predated his discovery of number seven and that a gray-seal iron plaque could authorize entry and recovery.
• Helian Yuan prepared a tunnel collapse to block the Ironback Mountain Badger’s escape and marked the three-day countdown to the recovery.
• After finding that someone had disturbed a stone marking, Helian Yuan left a larger bone and a false route leading toward the Blue Rock Panther’s stone gully.

Helian Yuan killed a level-three Ironback Mountain Badger by studying its burrows and using traps to expose the weak point in its armor, then carved his fifth hunt mark. In the den, he found evidence that retrieval came before numbering, while the level-four Blue Rock Panther noticed and crossed out his mark.

• Helian Yuan studied the Ironback Mountain Badger's tunnels and prepared traps that would block its escape routes without alerting it.
• After the badger detected his bait and trap, Helian Yuan lured it into a stone channel, exposed its belly, and killed it with a spear thrust and repeated blows to its wound.
• Helian Yuan sealed the den loosely so the badger's young could leave, then carved his fifth hunt mark into the hide.
• Helian Yuan found an iron ring inscribed with the words "Assign a number after retrieval" and took a piece of it, revising his understanding of how hunt marks were numbered.
• The level-four Blue Rock Panther sniffed the badger's blood and scratched a fresh mark across Helian Yuan's two slanting lines.

Helian Yuan refined Shadow Follows the Spear, learning its limits and the conditions needed to use it safely. As he adjusted his routes to avoid an early fight with the level-four Blue Rock Panther, its claw marks reached a tree less than thirty paces from his shelter.

• Helian Yuan developed Shadow Follows the Spear and recorded that Tiger Shadow lasted five breaths normally and six when he was in good condition.
• Helian Yuan reinforced his spear, tested the technique against several targets, and set strict conditions for when he would use it.
• Helian Yuan traded two jin of mountain badger meat to the crossbow hunter for a new bowstring and learned that the Blue Rock Panther had come down to the second water channel.
• Helian Yuan found the panther's marks around his routes, moved his markers back, and prepared the narrower north slope as a boundary he was willing to defend.
• Helian Yuan restrained Tiger Shadow when he heard the panther growl, but its claw marks appeared on a tree less than thirty paces from his stone shelter.

Helian Yuan used smoke, traps, and Tiger Shadow to help a hunter escape a level-four Blue Rock Panther, which retreated without being defeated. After negotiating repayment, Helian Yuan realized the panther’s iron collar suggested Sunken Bone Slope was an old cage rather than an empty hunting ground.

• Helian Yuan spotted the Blue Rock Panther closing in on a hunter whose boot was caught in a trap, and he turned back to help because the hunter’s knowledge could be useful.
• Helian Yuan used smoke and a stone ridge in the water channel to give the hunter a chance to escape, then drew the panther’s attention with a blood-smeared hide.
• Helian Yuan summoned Tiger Shadow and triggered another smoke screen as the panther pounced, while the hunter brought down a branch with his crossbow to block its pursuit.
• The Blue Rock Panther retreated into the rocky gully after revealing an iron collar beneath its fur, and Helian Yuan recovered what he could from his damaged supplies.
• Helian Yuan secured the hunter’s promise to report the gray-robed men’s numbers and carriages and stand one night on watch in exchange for the rescue.
• Helian Yuan recognized that the collar on the living panther meant Sunken Bone Slope was an old cage.

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.