Recaps

Chu Tianshu returned home after two months in the Republic of China world, though only one month had passed at home, and reassured his family that his illness had improved. He noticed something wrong in his grandfather’s room and began investigating whether anyone had entered it.

• Chu Tianshu returned with ten gold bars, manuals, Iron Curse Copper Ropes, and soft gold-thread armor, and discovered a symbol that suggested he might eventually return to the Republic of China world.
• Second Grandpa Chu found Chu Tianshu at home and explained that he had been missing for a month, prompting Chu Tianshu to claim he had pursued and caught a Henggong Fish in the mountains.
• Second Grandpa Chu said he had filed a missing-person report and that Chief Lin had taken Chu Tianshu’s old phone; he called to close the case and retrieve it.
• Chu Tianshu noticed that something seemed wrong in his grandfather’s bedroom, but Second Grandpa Chu and Chief Lin both said they had not entered it.

Chu Tianshu discovered that the original Annotations on Ghost Gate Witch Medicine had been stolen and used a silver needle to trace the thief to Kong Wenju’s house. City bureau officers were already investigating Kong Wenju’s thefts, and Chu Tianshu called Brother Baisui after learning the suspect had fled.

• Chu Tianshu found Grandpa’s hidden compartment empty and realized the original Annotations on Ghost Gate Witch Medicine was missing.
• Chu Tianshu and Second Master Chu gathered traces left by the thief and used a silver needle to track the direction of the stolen book.
• Chief Lin drove Chu Tianshu and Second Master Chu toward the neighboring village as the silver needle pointed to a house there.
• Second Master Chu recognized the house as Kong Wenju’s, and Chu Tianshu learned that city bureau officers were investigating Kong Wenju for stealing antiques and ancient books.
• Chu Tianshu learned that Kong Wenju had sold his shop and fled, then borrowed Second Master Chu’s phone and called Brother Baisui.

Chu Tianshu learned that Kong Wenju had stolen his grandfather’s treasured manual and fled to Macau, so he arranged to pursue him there. While waiting for travel documents, Chu Tianshu practiced his fist art and studied the Secret Incantations of Vertical and Horizontal, his anger driving him to catch the thief himself.

• Lin Baisui questioned Chu Tianshu about disappearing for a month, and Chu Tianshu offered to share the manuals and artifacts he had found in a hidden cave.
• Chu Tianshu told Lin Baisui that Kong Wenju had stolen the original Annotations on Ghost Gate Witch Medicine, and Lin Baisui arranged to review the case with the authorities.
• Lin Baisui learned Kong Wenju had fled to Macau and agreed to arrange Chu Tianshu’s travel documents and temporary consultant status so he could help with the case.
• Chu Tianshu ate a large meal with Second Master Chu, who warned him not to gamble in Macau.
• Chu Tianshu practiced Palm Thunder for four hours, then began learning the Secret Incantations of Vertical and Horizontal while vowing to catch Kong Wenju and recover his grandfather’s keepsake.

Chu Tianshu arrived in Macau and joined Fang Jun to search for the phantom thief using a needle charged with sinister Qi. The needle struggled to find its target amid Macau’s competing feng shui fields, so Fang Jun drove them through the city, stopping to buy food.

• Chu Tianshu landed at Macau International Airport and met Fang Jun, an agent of the Macau Special Investigation Bureau, beside Fang Jun’s red sports car.
• Fang Jun drove Chu Tianshu through Macau as Chu used his needle to search for the phantom thief, but the city’s many tangled feng shui fields made tracking difficult.
• Fang Jun explained that the owners of Macau’s feng shui layouts often replaced one another, and Chu noted that the city’s disorder could encourage supernatural incidents.
• Fang Jun drove through cramped residential neighborhoods and praised the local food before parking beside a shop to buy something.

Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun followed the silver needle to a warehouse, where five armed men attacked them. After Chu Tianshu subdued the men, they learned the warehouse had been watched because an old man had ambushed Brother Yong there, and one thug offered to take them to Boss Hong.

• Chu Tianshu found that the silver needle pointed toward a warehouse across the sea, and Fang Jun drove him there.
• Chu Tianshu opened the warehouse door and kicked away a man who attacked him with a baseball bat.
• Chu Tianshu disarmed and injured the four other men with a sweeping strike, then held one at batpoint while Fang Jun identified himself as a special investigation team member.
• The thugs said they worked for Boss Hong and were guarding the warehouse after an old man ambushed Brother Yong there.
• One thug said he would take Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun to Boss Hong.

Chu Tianshu challenged Hong Ying to a dice game in exchange for information about the attack on Hong Yong. After Chu Tianshu won and demonstrated his skill, Hong Ying revealed that a mysterious intruder had taken away the old man who injured Hong Yong.

• Hong Ying pretended not to know how Hong Yong had been injured, then offered to share information if Fang Jun or Chu Tianshu faced him in a private gambling match.
• Chu Tianshu accepted Hong Ying’s challenge, and Hong Ying used his twenty-sided Beauty Die for a one-round contest.
• Hong Ying shook the die with Mind Power, but Chu Tianshu correctly guessed the character “heaven” by reading the die’s movements and sounds.
• Chu Tianshu demonstrated how he could spin the die silently inside the cup, impressing Hong Ying and winning the contest.
• Hong Ying said that another person had taken away the old man who injured Hong Yong, then identified the intruder as Western Poison, Ouyang...

Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun learned that the fugitive Zhu Heng believed himself to be the Western Poison and had abducted young men he imagined were his son. After tracking him to an unfinished development on Hengqin Island, Chu Tianshu used a megaphone to call him out.

• Chu Tianshu read that Zhu Heng had gone mad after his son and sister-in-law died, and believed himself to be the Western Poison seeking his crippled son.
• Hong Ying told Fang Jun and Chu Tianshu that Zhu Heng had escaped a psychiatric hospital and abducted several young men, while their wealthy families had hired people to find him on Hengqin Island.
• Chu Tianshu, Fang Jun, and Hong Ying searched an unfinished development, but the silver needle could not point them toward Zhu Heng.
• Chu Tianshu rejected the idea of disguising someone as Zhu Heng's son and instead shouted through a megaphone, challenging him to attend the Mount Hua Sword Tournament.

Chu Tianshu’s loudspeaker taunt led Zhu Heng to believe he was on Mount Hua and being challenged by the old beggar. Kong Wenju used poison to persuade Zhu Heng to enter the tournament, and Zhu Heng leaped away to face the challenge.

• Manager Wang and his crew realized Chu Tianshu’s Mount Hua Sword Tournament announcement might trick Zhu Heng by appealing to his delusions.
• Chu Tianshu broadcast a taunt as the old beggar, challenging Old Poison to meet him at the tournament.
• Zhu Heng struck a reinforced concrete wall and accepted Kong Wenju’s claim that the unfinished buildings around them were Mount Hua.
• Zhu Heng decided not to go at first, recalling a muddled history of business, fighting, and greed, and approached Kong Wenju.
• Kong Wenju breathed hallucinogenic poison at Zhu Heng and urged him to seek victory, so Zhu Heng leaped from the third floor and raced away.

Chu Tianshu confronted Zhu Heng on the roof of an unfinished building and sensed a powerful evil spirit’s presence in him. Their fierce fight sent both men down to the ground, where Chu Tianshu continued pursuing Zhu Heng.

• Fang Jun used the Special Investigation Bureau’s authority to stop dozens of hired fighters from entering the development.
• The old madman climbed the unfinished building’s bamboo scaffolding and reached the roof, where Zhu Heng confronted him.
• Chu Tianshu accused Zhu Heng of carrying a strong evil spirit’s presence and charged after Zhu Heng cut through the loudspeaker with his palm.
• Chu Tianshu’s Taiji spear technique knocked Zhu Heng off balance and sent him flying, but Zhu Heng caught a bamboo pole and slid safely down.
• Chu Tianshu broke free another bamboo pole and slid down after Zhu Heng to the ground.

Chu Tianshu defeated Zhu Heng in a brutal fight at the construction site, using his martial arts and the rebar to pierce Zhu Heng’s chest. After discovering that Zhu Heng had been fighting for his son, Chu Tianshu dispelled the weakened evil spirit and told him to confess his sins.

• Zhu Heng kicked up sand and dust, but Chu Tianshu cleared it with Mind Power and exposed him.
• Zhu Heng charged with his Cinnabar Demon-Subduing Great Hand Seal, and Chu Tianshu snapped the tendon in his wrist with a whip-like strike.
• Chu Tianshu threw Zhu Heng toward jutting rebar, but Zhu Heng used it as a pivot to attack with all four limbs.
• Chu Tianshu blocked Zhu Heng’s attacks and struck his chest repeatedly until the rebar pierced through him.
• Zhu Heng said he had wanted to win for his son, and Chu Tianshu guessed the son was on the third floor.
• Chu Tianshu recited the Nine-Syllable Mantra to shatter the weakened evil spirit and urged Zhu Heng to confess his sins.

Chu Tianshu left Fang Jun to watch Zhu Heng’s corpse and tracked down Kong Wenju, who had stolen his grandfather’s ancient book. After disarming Kong and securing his bag, Chu questioned him about the evil spirit and the precious jade that had led him to Macau.

• Chu Tianshu told Fang Jun to keep watch over Zhu Heng’s corpse, then ran toward the place where Zhu Heng had been hiding.
• The hired people saw Zhu Heng’s corpse and left, while Manager Wang wondered whether anything had been left at the hiding place.
• Chu Tianshu detected poisonous gas behind a load-bearing wall and used his technique to disperse it before confronting Kong Wenju.
• Chu Tianshu identified himself as Old Chu the shamanic physician’s grandson and forced Kong Wenju to put down his bag and crawl away from it.
• Chu Tianshu asked Kong Wenju to explain where the precious jade came from, what he had experienced while possessed, and why he had gone to Macau.

Kong Wenju told Chu Tianshu how ancient jade had awakened his powers and led him to Macau, where an evil spirit from the Wanli-era cult leader Liu Tianxu had taken hold of him. After Fang Jun arrived, the group decided to kill the spirit, and Chu Tianshu lunged to strike it first.

• Kong Wenju explained that ancient jade had heightened his ability to sense antiques and detect and collect toxins, and that he traced the jade to Liu Tianxu, a Ming Dynasty Dragon Flower Cult Leader.
• Kong Wenju recalled abandoning his home and stealing antiques, then angrily complained that Hong Ying's younger brother had mishandled a Tang Bohu fan painting.
• Chu Tianshu observed that Kong Wenju's evil spirit was weaker and more disordered than Zhu Heng's, while Fang Jun brought Zhu Heng's wrapped corpse to the building.
• Fang Jun identified himself as a Special Investigation Bureau officer and said they should kill the evil spirit inside Kong Wenju rather than spare him.
• Fang Jun explained that the Bureau killed evil spirits in sets to cripple them and track their traces afterward, and Chu Tianshu thrust two fingers toward Kong Wenju's spleen to kill the spirit.

Chu Tianshu refined Toad Art Palm Thunder into a dangerous method that used lightning to purge the organs, then recovered his grandfather’s annotated witch-medicine manual and joined Fang Jun in tracking another precious jade evil spirit. Their search led them to an office worker drinking milk pouches, but the test tubes showed that the target was still farther away.

• Chu Tianshu used the two precious jade evil spirits to refine Toad Art Palm Thunder, whose new method called for drawing lightning through the body to cleanse the organs.
• Fang Jun returned Chu Tianshu’s annotated manual, and Chu Tianshu placed it in the Special Investigation Bureau’s safe before agreeing to continue investigating evil spirits.
• Fang Jun used two test tubes containing traces from Zhu Heng and Kong Wenju to track the Longhua Kidney Jade through Macau.
• The test tubes led Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun to an office building, where they heard a worker making chewing sounds at a desk.
• Chu Tianshu stopped Fang Jun from attacking and found the worker sucking milk from bitten-open pouches; the worker said he was working overtime.

Wang Zifang reported to the Dragon Flower Cult Leader, Liu Tianxu, that the Spleen Jade’s host had died, while Liu Tianxu failed to locate the Kidney Jade. A silver-haired stranger confronted them and urged Liu Tianxu to focus on contacting the God of Longhua; elsewhere, Little Qin returned to the Year-Eating Hotel and heard that its boss was still searching Macau for Old Man Nie.

• Wang Zifang told Liu Tianxu that the Spleen Jade’s host, a psychiatric patient, had died after government agents intervened on Hengqin Island.
• Liu Tianxu tried to trace the Kidney Jade through the Heart Jade and Liver Jade but found its connection faint and elusive.
• A silver-haired man entered Wang Zifang’s basement with two companions, identified Liu Tianxu, and urged him to renew his efforts to communicate with the God of Longhua.
• Liu Tianxu fell silent as the silver-haired man’s presence pressed against his own, leaving Wang Zifang caught between two opposing forces.
• Little Qin returned to the Year-Eating Hotel and told the long-haired, scarred boss that the job on Hengqin Island had nearly killed her.
• The hotel boss said Su Ha had proposed blowing up the Nie Family’s biggest casino, but he had refused and remained convinced Old Man Nie was still in Macau.

Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun investigated office worker Yin Fengxin, whose unusual energy and milk-drinking were linked to the Kidney Jade Evil Spirit. Chu Tianshu realized Yin Fengxin had not resisted the spirit’s influence but redirected it, and suspected the man had already died once when the jade revived.

• Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun noticed the test tubes had turned transparent, indicating the three remaining Viscera Precious Jade relics had formed a smaller closed loop.
• Chu Tianshu questioned Yin Fengxin, who described his clerical job and said he had recently begun sleeping only four hours, working more, and drinking over a case of milk each day.
• Yin Fengxin admitted his sexual urges had intensified but said he had suppressed them to focus on earning money and advancing at work.
• Fang Jun admired Yin Fengxin’s self-control, but Chu Tianshu realized he had redirected the Kidney Jade Evil Spirit’s influence toward work and suspected he had suffered sudden death when the jade revived.

Chu Tianshu arranged for Yin Fengxin to take time off and secretly resolved to try separating the Kidney Jade Evil Spirit from him himself. On the ride to Yin Fengxin’s home, Chu Tianshu fell asleep and encountered an ancient man in a dream who warned against seeking help from ghosts and gods.

• Doctor Jiang concluded that Yin Fengxin’s injuries were serious and that he would die with the evil spirit inside him in about fifteen days, but the Special Investigation Bureau could not treat him.
• Fang Jun and Chu Tianshu concealed Yin Fengxin’s condition and arranged for him to take leave as a public model example so he could recuperate.
• Yin Fengxin wondered why he had been chosen, and Chu Tianshu reassured him that he was a good person.
• Chu Tianshu decided to try separating the Kidney Jade Evil Spirit from Yin Fengxin and rode with Fang Jun and Yin Fengxin to inspect his home.
• Chu Tianshu dreamed of Macau’s feng shui manifestations, fought off lions, tigers, and pythons, then encountered an ancient man preaching, “Do not seek help from ghosts and gods!”

Chu Tianshu examined Yin Fengxin’s cramped home and learned about the jade and painting his mother had left him. He identified the painting as a possible work connected to Li Shizhen and resolved to save Yin Fengxin from the evil spirit and help him build a business.

• Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun visited Yin Fengxin’s container home, where Chu Tianshu noted that Yin had slept unusually well in his bed.
• Yin Fengxin discovered the jade his mother had left him was missing and told Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun how his mother had protected it from his gambling father.
• Chu Tianshu examined Yin Fengxin’s painting and recognized its seal, “Binh Mountain Recluse,” as Li Shizhen’s sobriquet.
• Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun tested the painting with their Mind Power; it absorbed Chu Tianshu’s power but rejected Fang Jun’s.
• Chu Tianshu concluded that Yin Fengxin had resisted the evil spirit through his own will and vowed to separate him from it and bring him into a business venture.

At Fang Jun’s house, Chu Tianshu set up an electric shock training machine to help Yin Fengxin recover and to train his own internal organs. The chapter left Chu Tianshu enduring the current as he tried to hear the thunder inside his body.

• Fang Jun explained that his birth parents had worked for Uncle Nie, who took him in after his family suffered a disaster.
• Chu Tianshu opened the box containing the electric shock training machine and carried it inside to plug it into a wall socket.
• Chu Tianshu and Fang Jun discussed Yin Fengxin’s chances of becoming a ghost and how a special playing card might be used to nurture one.
• Fang Jun offered to seek out a suitable playing card in case Yin Fengxin needed ghost-nurturing methods.
• Chu Tianshu attached the machine’s pads to acupoints on his wrists and ankles, then used the current while practicing Boxer Aperture Opening and Rapid Progress Breathing Method.

Chu Tianshu cultivated the internal-organ boxing art and used acupuncture and medicine to treat Yin Fengxin, whose condition gradually improved. As Fang Jun went to collect materials for ghost-nurturing playing cards, Chu Tianshu sensed a strange change in the house.

• Chu Tianshu entered a state of cultivation, stirring up wind-and-thunder sensations within his body, and Fang Jun recognized that he had reached the state.
• After cultivating for hours, Chu Tianshu restored his Mind Power with the Secret Incantations of Vertical and Horizontal and examined Yin Fengxin's painting, but it showed no response.
• Yin Fengxin offered Chu Tianshu the painting, then received another painful acupuncture treatment.
• Over the next week, Chu Tianshu prescribed medicine, cultivated, and treated Yin Fengxin, who began sleeping eight hours while Chu Tianshu grew more confident about his recovery.
• Fang Jun told Chu Tianshu that the custom paper for the ghost-nurturing playing cards was ready and left to collect it.
• Half an hour after Fang Jun left, Chu Tianshu sensed a strange change in the air inside the house, like the scent of a snapped willow branch.

Su Ha attacked Chu Tianshu with Glass Jiangtou and Stone Jiangtou, using a Willow Spirit Child’s power to target him. Chu Tianshu evaded the curses, traced them to the car by the pond, and charged toward his attackers.

• Su Ha prepared a curse outside Fang Jun’s house while Li Kang and A Luo questioned whether killing Fang Jun would draw Nie Longding out.
• Chu Tianshu sensed malice and sorcery, went into the courtyard, and destroyed Su Ha’s Glass Jiangtou attack.
• Chu Tianshu recognized the Willow Spirit Child’s power and understood how Su Ha’s unusual Gong Tau curses worked.
• Su Ha launched Stone Jiangtou at Chu Tianshu, but Chu Tianshu dodged the false stones and sprinted toward the car where Su Ha was waiting.

Chu Tianshu fought Li Kang, A Luo, and Su Ha after they tried to run him down, killing A Luo and Li Kang and overpowering Su Ha. The chapter ended with Chu Tianshu grabbing Su Ha by the neck after breaking through his Mind Power attack.

• Li Kang drove at Chu Tianshu, but Chu Tianshu struck the car and sent it plunging into the pond with Li Kang and Su Ha inside.
• A Luo attacked Chu Tianshu with his cursed knife, but Chu Tianshu resisted the Mother-and-Child Nails and killed him with a palm strike.
• Li Kang emerged from the pond and attacked Chu Tianshu, who broke his hand, kicked his throat, and drove him underwater.
• Su Ha spat blood that turned into green droplets, but Chu Tianshu swept them aside with a forceful palm strike.
• Su Ha unleashed a face-shaped Mind Power attack, but Chu Tianshu broke through it with the true word "Dou!" and grabbed his neck.

Chu Tianshu defeated the Gong Tau practitioners and discovered that Yin Fengxin had been possessed by an evil spirit, not altered by experiments. He finally unlocked the ancient painting, which transformed into an ivory-white longsword instead of revealing the expected medical texts and poison formulas.

• Chu Tianshu killed Su Ha, destroyed the willow-spirit doll that emerged from his mouth, and learned it had served as an emissary for a child in the Spirit Realm.
• Fang Jun arrived, secured the scene, and recovered Su Ha's phone while Chu Tianshu noted that the attackers had used Gong Tau techniques and Mother-and-Child Nails.
• Yin Fengxin emerged from the basement and mistook the fight for an attempt to silence him as a bioengineered test subject, so Chu Tianshu explained that he had been possessed by an evil spirit.
• Chu Tianshu told Yin Fengxin that the ancient painting likely concealed works by Li Shizhen and continued pouring Mind Power into it.
• The painting transformed through transparent flames into an ivory-white longsword, leaving Chu Tianshu surprised by what Li Shizhen had hidden inside.

Scarface and his group ambushed Nie Longding at a remote church, but he defeated them and took them alive. In Macau, Shen Yuntai learned the group had vanished and asked Master White Horse to read the character Nie, leaving her wondering where to find the second lead he said she needed to investigate.

• Scarface and his companions set out to kill Nie Longding after failing to reach Su Ha, Li Kang, and A Luo.
• Scarface’s group attacked the church with coordinated gunfire, but Nie Longding revealed that they had shot a stand-in.
• Nie Longding cut down the attackers with invisible playing cards and said he had captured them for a purpose.
• Shen Yuntai learned that Fang Jun and a temporary mainland consultant had been attacked, and that the vanished attackers were tied to a revenge group targeting Nie Longding.
• Shen Yuntai asked Master White Horse to divine the meaning of Nie; he warned her to abandon the easier of two leads, but she realized she did not even have a second one.

Chu Tianshu used the Three-Seven Sword to cure Yin Fengxin, whose father arrived boasting about a suspicious company promising riches. Fang Jun and Chu Tianshu followed Old Man Yin to investigate, while Shen Yuntai also pursued their van, suspecting it might lead to a major event.

• Fang Jun told Chu Tianshu that he could not reach Uncle Nie, and Chu Tianshu explained how the Three-Seven Sword concentrated Mind Power.
• Chu Tianshu used the sword to eradicate the Kidney Jade Evil Spirit afflicting Yin Fengxin.
• Old Man Yin visited Yin Fengxin and claimed his flyer-distribution company would soon make its early employees wealthy.
• Yin Fengxin worried that his father had joined a scam, so Fang Jun and Chu Tianshu agreed to follow him and investigate.
• Shen Yuntai recognized Fang Jun's van and followed it, wondering whether it was heading toward a major event.

Chu Tianshu infiltrated a company lecture and discovered that its leader, Mai Danhong, had spent two years collecting casino resentment through elderly workers as part of an evil ritual. As the ritual began and the workers weakened, Chu Tianshu sent for help and launched an attack before the reinforcements arrived.

• Chu Tianshu sneaked over the wall and entered the hall, where he found Old Man Yin and hundreds of older workers gathered for a company lecture.
• Mai Danhong announced that the workers’ old contracts were being destroyed, and Chu Tianshu sensed resentment rising from everyone in the hall.
• Chu Tianshu traced the accumulated resentment to casino feng shui and realized the company had used the workers to collect it for an evil ritual.
• Chu Tianshu sent ten exclamation marks to summon the police as the ritual’s release left the workers dizzy and weakened.
• Mai Danhong began the ritual, but Chu Tianshu charged through the hall doors toward the lectern before reinforcements arrived.