Recaps

Chu Tianshu fought Zhao Qinglang after Zhao unleashed the Yama Musters Soldiers Finger Technique and tried to kill him to protect a larger conspiracy. Chu Tianshu survived Zhao’s lethal strike, killed him, and collected the souls of four precursor creatures.

• Zhao Qinglang trapped Chu Tianshu’s saber with soul-bearing skulls and attacked him with the Yama Musters Soldiers Finger Technique.
• Chu Tianshu recited a mantra that released azure light and destroyed the purple skulls, while Zhao Qinglang hurled broken columns at him.
• The two fighters unleashed their martial intent, and Zhao Qinglang struck Chu Tianshu’s middle finger through the makeshift wall of column sections.
• Chu Tianshu used his muscles to blunt the force spreading through his bones, then struck a hole through Zhao Qinglang’s chest with his left hand.
• Chu Tianshu drew the souls of four precursor creatures from Zhao Qinglang, who spat blood and fell dead.

After defeating Zhao Qinglang, Chu Tianshu used his Four-Leaf Seals to defeat Ye Liren and helped end the battle against the Demon Hunting Corps. Mao Shanwei died by poison after admitting he had long known about the corps’ experiments on living people, while the city’s gathered elites remained safe.

• Chu Tianshu sensed Ye Liren’s spirit eye approaching and destroyed it with two Four-Leaf Seals.
• Ye Liren tried to block the seals with his crystal skull, but Chu Tianshu reflected sunlight into a strike that grievously wounded his soul and knocked him unconscious.
• Yu Nanfeng’s damaged mechanical giant pinned the one-eyed elder, then accidentally crushed him when he weakened while trying to speak.
• Mao Shanwei revealed that he had poisoned himself and confessed he had known about the Demon Hunting Corps’ experiments on living people for ten years before dying.
• Chu Tianshu told Mao Shanwei that his change of heart had been his own karmic affinity, then closed his eyes with a stream of azure finger wind.
• Chu Tianshu saw that the gathered city elites were safe and smiled as the sun began to set.

The wolf-headed swordsman rescued the big-headed freak from Dharma Corpse refinement and began transferring his Precursor identity to him so they could face Zhang Tao together. As the wolf fled with his new disciple, Zhang Tao received an urgent message from Xia Ningning relaying that Chu Tianshu had broken through and wanted to join the hunt.

• The wolf-headed swordsman fed the big-headed freak bear gall and explained that monster essence and his own bodily remnants had kept him alive.
• The wolf-headed swordsman said he would transfer his Precursor identity and its Ghost God Dharma Aspect shackles to the big-headed freak, whose transformation was already underway.
• The wolf-headed swordsman and the big-headed freak fled up the cleft as Zhang Tao arrived and found the black bear they had left behind.
• Zhang Tao received a message through the white jade cicada urging him to send his location.
• Xia Ningning relayed that Chu Tianshu had broken through and wanted to meet Zhang Tao to help track the wolf-headed swordsman.

The wolf-headed swordsman taught the big-headed freak to wield a living transparent fish as a saber and sent him downstream to hide. Elsewhere, Chu Tianshu explained how to move with the continuous gravity changes, while the wolf-headed swordsman was confronted by Mute and an attack of razor-sharp leaves.

• The wolf-headed swordsman caught a transparent fish and gave it to the big-headed freak to use as a living saber.
• The wolf-headed swordsman explained that the fish’s swimming skill and the Dharma Aspect’s flowing gravity changes could help the big-headed freak improve his saber techniques.
• Chu Tianshu explained to Zhang Tao that gravity changes continuously between measured intervals and advised visualizing Landform No. 7 as a vast sea and adapting to its flow.
• The big-headed freak made the shadow of his saber move with him, and the wolf-headed swordsman kicked his body into the river to conceal him.
• The wolf-headed swordsman spotted Mute approaching, but a volley of steel-hard leaves swept toward him from the jungle.

Chu Tianshu confronted the wolf-headed swordsman while Zhang Tao fought the Shadow Assassin, who had become the new Precursor. Chu and the wolf traded powerful saber techniques until the wolf unveiled his Overbearing Saber and swung a strike that threw wind, water, and light into disarray.

• Chu Tianshu attacked the wolf-headed swordsman with a barrage of leaves, and the wolf blocked them with walls of water before recognizing Chu and his breakthrough.
• Zhang Tao and Chu realized that the Shadow Assassin had become the new Precursor, and Zhang lured him into the jungle to fight among its shadows.
• Chu challenged the wolf over his dangerous influence and drew him into a saber duel, while Zhang and the Shadow Assassin continued fighting in the jungle.
• The wolf launched leaves with immense force, and Chu split them before countering with a scorching saber strike; the wolf responded by raising wolf-shaped fangs of water.
• Chu pressed the wolf back with his lifeblood-infused saber, destroying the wind, water, and other makeshift blades the wolf formed.
• The wolf seized the mountain's weight and unleashed his Overbearing Saber, sending a chaotic strike of wind, water, and light toward Chu.

Chu Tianshu used the Heavenly Heart Sorrowful Demon Slash to turn the pain of his dreams into real wounds and defeat the wolf-headed swordsman. After recovering from the technique’s effects, he followed a lingering trace downstream.

• The wolf-headed swordsman used his gravity-controlling Overbearing Saber to disrupt Chu Tianshu’s blade and tried to pull him from the cliff by catching his shadow.
• Chu Tianshu recalled the pain of his dreams and unleashed the Heavenly Heart Sorrowful Demon Slash, spreading a dark realm across the water and summoning spectral beasts.
• The wolf-headed swordsman’s attacks wounded him as he acknowledged the pain, while Chu Tianshu pressed forward with successive saber strikes.
• Chu Tianshu passed through the wolf-headed swordsman and reached the bank as the enemy’s body burst apart.
• Chu Tianshu’s dark realm receded, and after recovering from the lingering discomfort, he raced downstream following a trace in the water.

Chu Tianshu and Zhang Tao defeated the big-headed freak and decided the danger of his shadow arts outweighed the value of keeping him alive. As they returned toward Jinling, Zhang Tao resolved to leave home and help build a force worthy of the ideals the Demon Hunting Corps claimed to represent.

• Chu Tianshu drew the big-headed freak's blood, forcing the Shadow Assassin to withdraw, and learned that the freak had attacked Zhang Tao at the wolf-headed swordsman's order.
• The big-headed freak begged for his life and confessed, but Chu Tianshu and Zhang Tao chose to kill him rather than risk waiting for his transformation to lure the Ghost God Dharma Aspect.
• Chu Tianshu killed the big-headed freak, reviewed his shadow-manipulation traits and other spirit materials, and considered how close he was to meeting the requirements for his first deduction of the Sun-Chasing True Art.
• Zhang Tao buried the freak and suggested returning to Jinling for a proper meal, then asked whether the city was peaceful and revealed that he wanted to travel rather than remain at home.
• Chu Tianshu agreed to travel with Zhang Tao for a while and said the world could have many genuine heroes, not just one.

Captain Hong learned that Zhou Bancheng’s crimes had been exposed and that Chu Tianshu and Zhang Tao had gone to hunt a nearby Precursor Creature. While they chased a butterfly-like creature into the wilderness, Yu Nanfeng shared research suggesting plant-associated Ghost God Dharma Aspects had triggered the Cataclysm, which first broke out in East Asia at Busan.

• Captain Hong arrived at the Zhou estate and learned that evidence of the Zhou family’s human experiments had been sent from Zhou Bancheng’s phone.
• The factions confirmed the evidence by finding experimental bases, and an elder told Captain Hong that Chu Tianshu and Zhang Tao had gone after the nearby Precursor Creature.
• Chu Tianshu and Zhang Tao found a butterfly Precursor Creature and drove it toward a desolate area while Chu Tianshu fought off monsters with objects from the surroundings.
• Yu Nanfeng called Chu Tianshu and shared the capital’s research linking the Cataclysm to plant-associated Ghost God Dharma Aspects.
• Yu Nanfeng told Chu Tianshu that Busan was the first place in East Asia where the Cataclysm broke out.

After returning from the wasteland, Chu Tianshu transcribed the technical documents and cultivation art he had memorized, then gave the technical information to Helai and asked for help traveling to Busan discreetly. He learned that Yuan would also be going to Busan and could accompany him.

• Chu Tianshu returned home, recalled the difficult three days he had spent memorizing documents and transcribing the Drifting Tumbleweed Sun-Chasing True Art, and began writing out the technical information.
• Chu Tianshu told Helai that he had found scientific documents in a mountain ravine and sent him information on modified mech armor and electrical External Elixir technology.
• Helai recognized that the documents resembled the Special Investigation Bureau's research and warned Chu Tianshu that his secret and its risks seemed greater than he had expected.
• Chu Tianshu asked Helai for information about Busan and help entering the country without attracting attention, and Helai agreed to arrange genuine documents and an identity.
• When Chu Tianshu asked his relatives to meet, Lin Baisui said they were both occupied, and Feng Jianhua told him that Yuan was also traveling to Busan and knew the city well.

Chu Tianshu practiced the Drifting Tumbleweed Sun-Chasing True Art, enduring the strain of forming its Tianshan patterns and using his familiar fist techniques to guide his power. After several days, Helai sent him travel documents and translation equipment, leaving him prepared to travel abroad.

• Chu Tianshu learned that Principal Feng Jianhua was preparing to break through to the Taboo realm and decided not to distract him with his own breakthrough method.
• Chu Tianshu made pig's trotter soup and Spirit Realm black rice, then practiced the Sun-Chasing True Art in his yard.
• Chu Tianshu formed more than eight hundred mountain patterns and used the Palm Thunder and Storming Shaolin fist techniques to ease the strain as his True Qi and essence began to change.
• Chu Tianshu practiced late into the night and, over the following days, waited for a package Helai had arranged to send.
• Helai explained that the package contained documents and a watch, earpiece, and throat patch that translated between sixty-seven languages.
• Chu Tianshu put on the watch and counted the translator, documents, and knife as his three essentials for traveling abroad.

Chu Tianshu sailed to Busan, helped Choi Su-ju with her seasickness, and met Yuan Zhonglü at a cat café. After checking Yuan Zhonglü’s pulse, he heard that her trouble sleeping worsened when she traveled.

• Chu Tianshu used Sanqi’s hidden appearance on the ship and fed it a little of his blood to help stabilize its reserves.
• Chu Tianshu treated Choi Su-ju’s seasickness with acupuncture after meeting her and her sister, Choi Dong-ju, on deck.
• Chu Tianshu learned that Choi Dong-ju had trained in martial arts and was looking for Lü Red Fist lessons.
• Chu Tianshu sensed that the islands along the route differed from the wasteland’s information and considered whether his world would face a corpse-transformation outbreak.
• Chu Tianshu reached Busan and met Yuan Zhonglü at a cat café, where she explained that her longstanding sleep problem became more noticeable when she traveled.

Chu Tianshu examined Yuan Zhonglü’s strange dreams, then accompanied her to Mount Shenyue to look for signs of the calamity described in the wasteland’s information. At the hotel, Yuan Zhonglü fell asleep and a flame-like apparition emerged from her forehead, forming a cold-faced female Daoist.

• Yuan Zhonglü told Chu Tianshu that her dreams featured a blurry Daoist reciting scriptures from the Zhonglü Anthology on Transmitting the Dao, and explained her family’s history with the strange dreams.
• Chu Tianshu sensed a subtle trace in Yuan Zhonglü’s mind and agreed to examine it again while she slept; they went sightseeing at Mount Shenyue first.
• Chu Tianshu and Yuan Zhonglü found crowds, shops, and Buddhist sites on the mountain, but he detected no sign of the evil faction or the Longhua Treasure Tree.
• Chu Tianshu bought traditional snacks as they descended, and Yuan Zhonglü took him to the hotel suite she had booked.
• Yuan Zhonglü fell asleep on the sofa, and Chu Tianshu saw an illusory flame emerge from her forehead and take the form of a cold-faced female Daoist.

Chu Tianshu and Yuan Zhonglü learned that Chen Ying was one of seven ancient po souls competing to inherit a revived heavenly grotto treasure ship. With the hundred-day contest beginning after Yuan Zhonglü formed the final bond, Chu Tianshu resolved to find the other contestants and bring the treasure back to their country.

• Chu Tianshu pulled Chen Ying's projection into reality, and she introduced herself as a Golden Elixir Southern School disciple who had chosen Yuan Zhonglü as her incense-bearing attendant.
• Chen Ying explained that she had taught Yuan Zhonglü the True Person Foundation Establishment method, while Yuan Zhonglü described the Wind of Dao Dissolution and how it blew many heavenly grottoes away.
• Yuan Zhonglü revealed that the Big Dipper Soul-Returning Dao's treasure ship had revived and that one of its seven po souls had to win a hundred-day contest to inherit it.
• Yuan Zhonglü said some po souls might have become evil spirits, and explained that the contest would begin after all seven bonds were formed and would be confined to the city.
• Chu Tianshu asked Chen Ying to return the heavenly grotto to their country if she won, then declared that he wanted to meet the other contestants.

Takagi met Sect Leader Yeming, the Luo Patriarch Sect leader, and discussed their plans to find the other rivals bonded to the Seven Po Cave-Heaven. Yeming proposed provoking a conspicuous incident to test for enemies and signal that they were seeking allies.

• Takagi praised Sect Leader Yeming’s history and cultivation, and Yeming explained that the Cave-Heaven had drawn him away before he could support Prince Lian’s failed bid against Yongzheng.
• Yeming refused to use Bat Demonic Poison on Takagi because its Spirit Realm taint would weaken Takagi’s ability to sustain him in battle.
• Takagi admitted he envied the Divine Bat Envoys’ youth, and Yeming promised to help him advance if they won and Yeming became the Cave-Heaven’s soul.
• Yeming sensed that a seventh person had formed a bond, while Takagi concluded that several pairs of rivals were already active in the city.
• Yeming proposed creating a conspicuous disturbance to test for rivals and signal that they were seeking allies.

After sparring with Chen Ying, Chu Tianshu discussed the Seven Souls contest while Yuan Zhonglü recovered through sleep cultivation. A bombing at Shinsegae Mall, apparently tied to the Seven Stars and Seven Po Souls, prompted Chu Tianshu to head to the scene while Chen Ying stayed behind with Yuan Zhonglü.

• Chu Tianshu and Chen Ying sparred in the suite, leaving their power marks moving within the coffee table's glass and exhausting Yuan Zhonglü.
• Chen Ying explained how she could borrow Yuan Zhonglü's bond to fight at Taboo-level strength, and Yuan Zhonglü used the Living Dead Method to fall asleep and recuperate.
• Chu Tianshu and Chen Ying discussed evil Qi among the Grotto-Heaven's Qi souls, then heard sirens after an explosion nearby.
• Chu Tianshu found a video showing a pale, red-eyed man driving gas cylinders into Shinsegae Mall, shouting "Seven Stars, Seven Souls," and setting them alight.
• Chen Ying prepared to use a paper umbrella to listen in on the investigation, but Chu Tianshu warned that an evil spirit might detect her method.
• Chu Tianshu left to inspect the scene while Chen Ying stayed with Yuan Zhonglü, who described him as a fierce, ruthless pillar of the righteous path.

Chu Tianshu tracked the red-eyed man who had caused the explosion to a shipping container by the sea and subdued him with a mysterious power. The man revealed that his sect master was one of the Seven Souls and wanted Chu Tianshu to join forces with other practitioners of evil arts.

• Chu Tianshu changed his appearance and used his vision to find a trace leading from the explosion site toward the harbor.
• Chu Tianshu followed the trace through the stacked shipping containers and confronted the red-eyed man hiding inside one.
• Chu Tianshu told the red-eyed man to put down his weapons, and the man’s elbows snapped backward, making him surrender.
• Chu Tianshu asked why the man had shouted “Seven Stars and Seven Po Souls,” and the man confirmed his sect master was one of the Seven Souls.
• The red-eyed man explained that his sect master wanted evil-art practitioners to unite before those who had never cultivated evil arts joined forces against them.

Takagi and Sect Leader Yeming discussed a newly active group before Yeming received Chu Tianshu, who claimed to be an ancient cultivator from the Great Ming. Their meeting was interrupted by a powerful stranger who killed the Divine Bat Envoy and declared himself Liu Yan, founder of the Southern Han.

• Takagi told Sect Leader Yeming that Minister Han had asked whether his cult was behind the recent incident, and Yeming prepared to receive the person who had found the Divine Bat Envoy.
• Sect Leader Yeming welcomed Chu Tianshu, who introduced himself as Layman Tian, a contemporary of the Luo Sect’s founding patriarch, and revealed that he possessed his own incense-bearing child.
• Sect Leader Yeming restored the Divine Bat Envoy’s broken body, then sent him to stand guard outside while Chu Tianshu considered whether to attack Yeming and notify Chen Ying.
• A tall man in white crushed the Divine Bat Envoy’s neck, withstood Yeming’s sonic-wave and poisonous-blood attack, and confronted the sect leader.
• The man in white called himself Liu Yan and announced that he had come to form an alliance as the founding emperor of the Great Han.
• Chu Tianshu recognized Liu Yan as the founder of the Southern Han during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

Chu Tianshu defeated two of Liu Yan’s Korean subordinates with a single Palm Thunder strike, and Liu Yan accepted him as an ally. As the group planned how to strengthen their faction, Chu Tianshu proposed bringing Busan’s evil sects under their command.

• Liu Yan ordered Park Ok-gang and his younger brother, the gray-suited man, to test Chu Tianshu’s strength.
• Park Ok-gang attacked with Treasure Vase Great Qigong, but Chu Tianshu countered with a steel-and-black-Qi Taiji strike that crippled both men’s cultivation.
• Liu Yan stopped the two men from being blasted apart, then praised their courage and accepted Chu Tianshu as an ally.
• Sect Leader Yeming introduced Chu Tianshu to Liu Yan as Layman Tian of the Great Ming dynasty and declared their group the strongest among the seven factions.
• Chu Tianshu suggested recruiting Busan’s evil sects and making them serve as allies.

Liu Yan, Sect Leader Yeming, and Chu Tianshu formed an alliance and discussed ways to locate and control Busan’s heretical sect leaders. While Yuan Zhonglü and Chen Ying waited for Chu Tianshu’s message, a live television broadcast revealed a mysterious man who claimed a centuries-old weapon was the Mandarin Duck Formation-Breaking Spear.

• Sect Leader Yeming told Liu Yan that his Incense Cauldron Attendant led a heretical sect, and Liu Yan confirmed his connection to the Purifying God Society’s divine maiden.
• Liu Yan proposed using Sect Leader Yeming’s followers’ echo abilities and his own dragon-blooded subordinates to track Busan’s heretical sect leaders.
• Chu Tianshu stopped Liu Yan and Sect Leader Yeming from turning against each other and persuaded them that their alliance should remain limited to three parties.
• Chu Tianshu secretly messaged Yuan Zhonglü that he was undercover, and she waited with Chen Ying at the hotel.
• During a live craft program, the host tried to lift an ancient weapon and injured his hand; a stranger caught it and identified it as the Mandarin Duck Formation-Breaking Spear.

Yungu recovered the Mandarin Duck Formation-Breaking Spear and fled the live broadcast, then headed into the mountains to avoid being tracked. At a garbage dump, he encountered two allied enemies and prepared to fight them.

• Yungu left the broadcast after the host revealed it was live, taking his spear and vanishing through the streets of Busan.
• Yungu told Cui Douri that he had found the spear he had thrown off a cliff after becoming disillusioned with events in the army.
• Yungu chose not to return to Cui Douri, deciding to wander outside for a few days in case anyone was tracking him.
• Yungu entered the mountain woods and found a large garbage dump, where he sensed two enemies nearby.
• A woman told Yungu that she and her companion had allied long before the explosion at Shinsegae Mall, and Yungu readied his spear to face them.

Yungu fought Suluduo while the Lady of Han attacked Chen Ying with techniques from the Complete Compendium of Qiongqi Writings. The clash ended in a violent gust of garbage and debris that engulfed the battlefield as Suluduo charged into it beneath Yungu’s enormous halberd strike.

• Suluduo used rapid movement and relentless punches to deflect Yungu’s spear while Yungu countered with precise, forceful thrusts.
• The Lady of Han wrote golden spell characters that disrupted Yungu’s spear and helped Suluduo press the attack.
• Chen Ying recognized the Lady of Han as Qin Hui’s wife and struck at her with her sword, but the Lady of Han blocked the attack with an ink stroke.
• The Lady of Han launched a blood-and-ink bead at Chen Ying, who met it with an illusory ice-white elixir pellet.
• Yungu charged into a garbage dump and swept its debris into a powerful wind that engulfed the women’s fight.
• Suluduo charged into the strange wind, and Yungu’s enormous Gang Qi halberd rose from it and chopped down.

After learning that four of the Seven Souls were evil spirits, Chu Tianshu and his allies spent more than twenty days preparing to target Busan’s evil sects. When the sect leaders gathered at the villa, Chu Tianshu exposed Fu Cheng as a trap and unleashed a massacre, then turned his attack on Liu Yan as Sect Leader Yeming fled.

• Chen Ying and Yungu formed an alliance after fighting four Taboo figures, and Chen Ying secretly relayed that four of the Seven Souls were evil spirits.
• Chu Tianshu learned that most of the Seven Souls had appeared and continued coordinating with Sect Leader Yeming and Liu Yan while their subordinates investigated Busan’s evil sects.
• After more than twenty days, Sect Leader Yeming gathered over a hundred evil sect members at the villa to organize them under his and Liu Yan’s command.
• Chu Tianshu tested Fu Cheng with a precise saber strike that pierced his armor without cutting him, then revealed that the strike had planted Saber Intent inside him.
• Fu Cheng transformed and released black Saber Qi that killed more than half the gathered followers, while Sect Leader Yeming fled and Chu Tianshu’s topaz palm struck toward Liu Yan.

Chu Tianshu crippled Liu Yan with a Sun-Chasing palm, then countered Sect Leader Yeming’s sound-wave attack while revealing he was human and had come to exterminate evil. As Liu Yan tried to flee, Chen Ying and an unknown spear wielder intercepted him, while Chu Tianshu moved to confront Yeming.

• Chu Tianshu’s palm shattered Liu Yan’s white-dragon defense, crushed his right hand, and tore out his heart, which flew through the courtyard wall.
• Liu Yan seized Park Ok-gang’s heart and implanted it in his own chest, while his pain-filled howl shattered glass and burst open the wounds of the evil faction members.
• Chu Tianshu blocked Sect Leader Yeming’s lethal bat-like sound waves with a mantra-infused golden palm and told Liu Yan he was human, there to exterminate evil, and would kill him at most twice.
• Liu Yan ordered Yeming to retreat and tried to escape, but Chen Ying intercepted him with her horsetail whisk and an unknown fighter attacked with a formation-breaking spear.
• Liu Yan fought off Chen Ying and the spear wielder as Yeming watched, then Chu Tianshu’s golden hand exploded and a black shadow shot up to Yeming’s side.

Chu Tianshu battled Sect Leader Yeming, who used the Divine Bat Rebirth Great Art and claimed supremacy in palm techniques. Chu Tianshu overwhelmed him with the Samadhi Power Hand Seal and destroyed him completely.

• Chu Tianshu shattered Sect Leader Yeming's cape, but Sect Leader Yeming transformed into sound-wave bats and reformed outside the villa gates.
• Sect Leader Yeming swallowed the cinnabar poison between his brows and met Chu Tianshu's palm strike head-on.
• Chu Tianshu unleashed the Samadhi Power Hand Seal, forcing Sect Leader Yeming to retreat behind two cars and block the attack with a bloody shield.
• Chu Tianshu struck the ground, sending a palm force through the concrete that hit Sect Leader Yeming from behind.
• Chu Tianshu disrupted Sect Leader Yeming's defenses with three jabs, then turned him into bloody mist with a final palm strike.

Chu Tianshu, Chen Ying, and Yungu killed Liu Yan and examined his extraordinary corpse, then pursued the surviving Incense-Bearing Children and discussed the Seven Po Cave-Heaven's limits. Yungu left to find the president of the One-Character Spiritual Cultivation Society, while Chu Tianshu suggested he might eventually find a way to free them from the Grotto-Heaven's restrictions.

• Chu Tianshu joined Chen Ying and Yungu in killing Liu Yan, whose body kept beating after his soul was extinguished.
• Chen Ying retrieved the dragon-blood heart, but it did not respond to Liu Yan's corpse, and the three began studying his body.
• Chu Tianshu used Liu Yan's blood to locate his Incense-Bearing Child and sent Chen Ying after her.
• Yungu revealed that he had knocked out two Divine Bat Envoys, and Chu Tianshu mesmerized one to learn the president's location.
• Yungu offered to find the president, then discussed with Chu Tianshu the Seven Po Cave-Heaven and the possibility of visiting the Divine Land again.