Recaps

After his strength test, Cheng Sheng studied how Jiang masters drew power from the Void Realm and considered whether he could become one despite his connection to the Abyss. He arrived at the zoo he had bought for sacrificial rituals and found its Snake Palace filled with giant snakes.

• Cheng Sheng completed his strength test while hiding his true level, and he noticed Su Tai coughing up maggots.
• Cheng Sheng studied Wang Shan’s notes and learned about Jiang masters, the Void Realm, soul threads, spiritual power, and Jiang poison.
• Cheng Sheng suspected that his connection to the Abyss might prevent the Void Realm from choosing him, and he decided to gather more information by killing Jiang masters.
• Jia Wa drove Cheng Sheng to the closed zoo that had been bought for his rituals and offerings.
• Cheng Sheng entered the Snake Palace and saw a glass enclosure packed with giant pythons and boas.

Cheng Sheng prepared a sacrifice by driving a roomful of giant snakes into a frenzy and collecting their blood. Meanwhile, Su Tai sent Songpa to search for missing Sha Lie, who was hiding in Nabang, badly wounded and consumed by pain after a confrontation with Peng La’s people.

• Cheng Sheng released drug mist into the snake palace and used Demonic Language to make the pythons and boas fight each other to the death.
• Cheng Sheng told Jia Wa to bring him the snakes’ blood, and Jia Wa hurried to fetch a bucket of it.
• Su Tai learned that Sha Lie had not been heard from since arriving in Nabang and ordered Songpa to search for him.
• Sha Lie killed two thugs who tried to rob him in a Nabang alley, then collapsed against a wall.
• Sha Lie recalled being rejected and attacked after approaching Peng La’s people about a Soul Root, and revealed his body was covered in festering burn wounds that repeatedly regenerated and rotted.

After being robbed and left badly injured, Sha Lie accepted the giant centipede Tanier’s offer of power and followed it into the darkness. Meanwhile, Cheng Sheng completed a sacrifice that greatly strengthened him and let him master the Black Killing Style’s third level, Crocodile Bones.

• Sha Lie struggled through his worsening Curse Arts injuries and tried to escape a giant centipede in an alley.
• The centipede spoke, identified itself as Tanier, and offered Sha Lie power and revenge against Wengzan’s people.
• Sha Lie followed Tanier into the darkness, accepting that only a curse master could stand against a curse master.
• At the snake palace, Cheng Sheng absorbed power from the Abyss and underwent a major boost in strength.
• Cheng Sheng manifested Crocodile Bones and became the first core disciple besides Sha Lie to master the Black Killing Style’s third level.

Cheng Sheng gained the Python Soul trait by combining his optimized Black Killing Style secret arts with Elephant Soul, then wondered whether his power matched that of a true martial artist. Later, he watched Su Tai harshly audit his core disciples and left the Black Killing Training Hall after noticing Su Tai had injured Sulai.

• Cheng Sheng activated Elephant Soul with his three optimized secret arts and unleashed the oppressive power of his new Python Soul trait.
• Jia Wa described seeing black snakes in the air, and Cheng Sheng ordered him to clean the room and find a barber.
• Cheng Sheng considered exploring the eerie fog zone during the next Black Tide, then waited beneath a porch during a rainstorm as Su Tai audited his core disciples.
• Nalong told Cheng Sheng that something seemed to have happened on Sha Lie's side and that Su Tai's temper had worsened.
• Cheng Sheng noticed redness on Sulai's foot after a teacup shattered, then left the Black Killing Training Hall without meeting Su Tai's gaze.

Cheng Sheng investigated the Black Tide on the Qingsha coast and used it to test the plague flies, then followed his Primordial Mark to a remote pier where he found a physical evil spirit chopping at a hut door. The spirit turned and realized Cheng Sheng had discovered it.

• Cheng Sheng reached the Black Tide and concluded his new Control Shadow spell might explain why he could absorb energy from the eerie fog.
• Cheng Sheng sent plague fly larvae into the Black Tide to test how they would mutate and decided not to absorb the tide himself.
• Cheng Sheng retrieved two black cocoons, returned the plague flies inside to his body, and rode along the coast.
• The Primordial Mark alerted Cheng Sheng to a wandering evil spirit, leading him to an abandoned pier and a hut.
• Cheng Sheng approached a huge masked figure hacking at the hut door, but it turned around before he could reach it.

Cheng Sheng killed a relentless corpse fiend during the Black Tide and met four survivors from the Black Curse Society. After leaving them, he returned to his reef and found that all twenty-one Hell Plague Flies had changed.

• Lulu and her three companions fled from beneath the pier and saw Cheng Sheng destroy the corpse fiend as it crumbled into black smoke.
• Cheng Sheng learned that the survivors were apprentices from the Black Curse Society and exchanged contact information with them.
• When the young man asked how Cheng Sheng had defeated the monster, Cheng Sheng jokingly credited Datuk Gong's blessing before leaving on his motorcycle.
• Lulu silently memorized Cheng Sheng's phone number while the others discussed whether Datuk Gong or Curse Art was more useful.
• Cheng Sheng returned to his reef after the Black Tide receded and discovered that all twenty-one Hell Plague Flies had undergone unexpected changes.

Cheng Sheng discovered that the Plague Fly larva that had absorbed Strange Mist had emerged as a pale, enlarged fly. Meanwhile, Ruan Xian attacked Su Tai at the Black Killing dojo, then demanded Su Tai’s daughter as compensation for Ruan Wen’s death.

• Cheng Sheng found that eight Plague Fly larvae had died, but the largest larva emerged from its cocoon as a pale gray fly.
• Ruan Xian surprised Su Tai in the dojo, killing a maid and fighting him until Su Tai was hurled into a wall.
• Ruan Xian introduced himself as Wunan’s Number One Killing King and revealed that the Hundred Feet Sect had paid him twenty million to bring back Su Tai’s head.
• Su Tai offered Ruan Xian fifty million to abandon the job, and Ruan Xian accepted the offer.
• Ruan Xian accused the Black Killing Style of killing his daughter, Ruan Wen, and demanded Su Tai’s daughter as compensation; Su Tai refused.

Ruan Xian used Sha Lie’s death and Su Tai’s curse poison to pressure him into accepting a condition, while Cheng Sheng learned his plague flies were evolving and continued preparing to study the Black Tide. Five days later, Cheng Sheng arrived at the Black Killing Dojo after Su Tai summoned all its core disciples, unaware of what the teacher planned to announce.

• Ruan Xian told Su Tai that Sha Lie had been beaten to death after seeking help from Peng La, then offered a cure for Su Tai’s curse poison if he accepted Ruan Xian’s condition.
• Cheng Sheng discovered that one of his Hell Plague Flies had become a Plague Envoy and suspected the Black Tide was driving the mutations.
• Cheng Sheng decided to investigate the Black Tide and had Jia Wa monitor outbreaks while several greater one-horned rhinos arrived for his seventh sacrifice.
• The rhinos fell ill after transport, delaying Cheng Sheng’s sacrifice as he focused on improving his Primordial Mark and training his Void Realm perception.
• Five days later, Cheng Sheng went to the Black Killing Dojo, where Nalong and the other core disciples said Su Tai had summoned them to announce something important.

Su Tai announced that Sha Lie had probably died, reclaimed several core disciples’ assets, and arranged Sulai’s marriage to Ruan Xian as part of an alliance with the Ruan Clan. When Sulai tried to flee, Cheng Sheng stopped her and confronted Su Tai, asking whether he had gone senile.

• Cheng Sheng learned from Sulai that Su Tai had sold off boxing gym assets and had recently ordered her to stay home.
• Su Tai took back the assets managed by several core disciples and confirmed that Sha Lie probably would not return from Nabang.
• Su Tai announced an alliance with the Wunan Ruan Clan and said Sulai would marry its head, Ruan Xian.
• Sulai refused the marriage and tried to run, but Cheng Sheng caught her wrist and led her before Su Tai.
• Cheng Sheng asked Su Tai whether he had gone senile or whether the curse poison had reached his brain, shocking everyone present.