Recaps

Wei Xin received the Formless Heart Sutra from the Great Sage and secretly sent it to the Cloud Firmament Sect, believing he was fulfilling his duty as a spy despite growing fond of the Vast Heaven Sect. When two elders were injured after cultivating it, Ling Su concluded Wei Xin had been exposed and cut off contact with him.

• The Great Sage taught Wei Xin the Formless Heart Sutra and promised to find him more suitable techniques.
• Wei Xin considered staying in the Vast Heaven Sect but decided his spy past left him no way to turn back.
• Wei Xin sent the Formless Heart Sutra to Ling Su through a spirit bird.
• Ling Su summoned two elders, who began cultivating the sutra while he kept the message from the sect master in seclusion.
• The two elders erupted in blood and collapsed after cultivating the sutra, warning Ling Su that something was wrong with it.
• Ling Su assumed Wei Xin had been exposed and sent a fake sutra, so he cut off all contact with him.

Chu Xinghe investigated the Silver Star Mountain Range after learning that mysterious ghostly figures had driven both the Vast Heaven Sect and Cloud Firmament Sect away from its valuable ore. The figures resisted Ma Liang’s formation and Evil Repeller, and Chu Xinghe claimed the range for the Vast Heaven Sect if they could clear it, while Xie Songlin privately believed the task was impossible.

• Ma Liang told Chu Xinghe that the Silver Star Mountain Range had been abandoned after endless vengeful ghosts appeared, and Deacon Yang said the Cloud Firmament Sect’s Silver Star Ore sales had increased despite its supposed withdrawal.
• Chu Xinghe traveled to the mountain range with Ma Liang and An Lan, where the ghostly figures ignored Ma Liang’s Ten Thousand Ghosts Grand Formation and Evil Repeller and kept coming despite An Lan’s attacks.
• Chu Xinghe ordered the group to retreat from the mist after concluding that the figures were not ordinary ghosts, then crossed into Cloud Firmament Sect territory to investigate.
• Xie Songlin claimed the Cloud Firmament Sect had repeatedly failed to clear the range and said the ore vein mattered to his sect, but Chu Xinghe declared that the Vast Heaven Sect would claim it if they succeeded.
• Xie Songlin watched Chu Xinghe leave and privately believed that no force could clear the seemingly endless ghostly figures.

Xie Songlin believed the Cloud Firmament Sect’s secret treasure created the endless Evil Qi Puppets in the Silver Star Mountain Range, and he expected Chu Xinghe’s attempt to clear them out to fail. Chu stopped Ma Liang from calling Feng Yuzheng and sent Ma and An Lan back to obtain Xie’s recorded promise not to reclaim the range, while Chu prepared a larger plan of his own.

• Xie Songlin recalled that the Cloud Firmament Sect had used an ancient secret treasure to drive the Vast Heaven Sect from the Silver Star Mountain Range, where the treasure’s Evil Qi continually spawned Evil Qi Puppets.
• An Lan explained to Chu Xinghe and Ma Liang that the puppets could not be eliminated unless they found their source, and Ma Liang proposed asking Feng Yuzheng to locate it.
• Chu Xinghe stopped Ma Liang from contacting Feng Yuzheng, then ordered Ma Liang and An Lan to return to Snow City and record Xie Songlin confirming that the Cloud Firmament Sect would not claim the range if the Vast Heaven Sect cleared it.
• After Ma Liang and An Lan left, Chu Xinghe sent a spirit bird toward the Vast Heaven Sect, pleased with the larger plan he was preparing.
• Ma Liang returned to Snow City and got Xie Songlin to state that the Cloud Firmament Sect would take no share of the Silver Star Mountain Range if the Vast Heaven Sect cleared it.

Chu Xinghe announced that the Vast Heaven Sect would clear ghosts from the Silver Star Mountain Range, then secretly arranged for the Dark Moon Clan to destroy the entire range. The blast flattened the mountains and left Ma Liang realizing that Xinghe had sacrificed the territory to wipe out the Cloud Firmament Sect’s forces and Evil Qi Puppets.

• Ma Liang and An Lan delivered Xie Songlin’s answer to Chu Xinghe, who issued a notice warning people away from the Silver Star Mountain Range.
• Xie Songlin dismissed the notice, kept watch for Vast Heaven Sect forces, and personally oversaw the range as no one arrived for three days.
• Chu Xinghe told Ma Liang to wait, then sat with him in Ice City as snow fell that night.
• A blinding light and immense explosions shook Ice City, halted the snowfall, and flattened the Silver Star Mountain Range.
• Deacon Yang rushed to Chu Xinghe, who calmly clapped while Ma Liang realized the Dark Moon Clan had destroyed the mountains to eliminate the Cloud Firmament Sect’s hidden forces and Evil Qi Puppets.

Chu Xinghe’s destruction of the Silver Star Mountain Range killed Cloud Firmament Sect elders Xie Songlin and Liu, and Xing Yushen arrived to seize him. Just as Xing Yushen reached for Chu Xinghe, an unseen hand emerged from the shattered void.

• Ma Liang admired Chu Xinghe’s precautions after seeing the Silver Star Mountain Range reduced to craters and realizing the Cloud Firmament Sect had ignored the warning to withdraw.
• Ma Liang and Chu Xinghe learned that Xie Songlin and Elder Liu had been inside the Silver Star Mountain Range, and they struggled to suppress their laughter.
• Cloud Firmament Sect Master Xing Yushen arrived with the sect’s elders after Xie Songlin’s and Liu’s soul lamps went out, and mistook Chu Xinghe for the culprit.
• Xing Yushen tried to capture Chu Xinghe, while Chu Xinghe kicked Ma Liang away to keep him from fighting the Half-Step Martial God.
• An invisible force shattered the void before Xing Yushen could seize Chu Xinghe, and a hand appeared.

Chu Xinghe summoned Gu Mingchao and the Vast Heaven Sect’s experts after Xing Yushen attacked him, while Xing Yushen accused them of destroying the Silver Star Mountain Range and killing two Cloud Firmament Sect elders. Ma Liang’s evidence showed the Cloud Firmament Sect had surrendered the range and received notice of the cleanup, leaving Xing Yushen unable to justify his accusation.

• Xing Yushen rushed Chu Xinghe, but Gu Mingchao struck through the shattered void and sent Xing Yushen crashing through Snow City’s wall.
• Gu Mingchao and the Vast Heaven Sect’s experts arrived as Xing Yushen accused their sect of destroying the Silver Star Mountain Range and killing two elders.
• The Vast Heaven Sect’s members saw that the Silver Star Mountain Range had become a crater after the Dark Moon Clan’s collective Universal Celebration.
• Ma Liang played a memory crystal showing Xie Songlin had declared the Cloud Firmament Sect no longer wanted the Silver Star Mountain Range.
• Ma Liang reminded Xing Yushen that the Vast Heaven Sect had announced its cleanup in advance, leaving Xing Yushen speechless.

The Vast Heaven Sect confronted Xing Yushen and the Cloud Firmament Sect over the destruction of the Silver Star Mountain Range, and Gu Mingchao forced them to retreat. After the Grand Elder searched the blasted range, he discovered that the explosion had turned its silver star ore into piles of refined silver ore.

• The Grand Elder challenged Xing Yushen over why the Cloud Firmament Sect's elders entered the range after their sect had surrendered it and the Vast Heaven Sect had forbidden entry.
• Chu Xinghe explained that he had destroyed the range to eliminate its ghosts, and Gu Mingchao warned Xing Yushen not to challenge the Vast Heaven Sect.
• Ling Su sought compensation for the two dead elders, but Gu Mingchao ordered the Grand Elder to search the range and warned the Cloud Firmament Sect not to enter.
• The Cloud Firmament Sect left without retrieving its elders' bodies while Gu Mingchao and the Vast Heaven Sect elders checked on Chu Xinghe.
• The Grand Elder and the hall masters searched the range, where Elder He found resurrected Dark Moon clanspeople and a huge pit filled with refined silver ore.

Chu Xinghe’s explosion at the Silver Star Mountain Range turned the ore into valuable refined silver, making Vast Heaven Sect a fortune instead of causing a loss. He learned that the Dark Moon Clan needed vast resources to recover after self-destructing, and began planning to use their explosions to consume the sect’s resources.

• The grand elder revealed that the blast had refined all the silver star ore, and Vast Heaven Sect’s leaders celebrated the immense windfall.
• Elder He estimated that the refined silver was worth five to ten silver star ore veins, while Deacon Yang rejoiced that Ice City had become wealthy.
• The Great Sage explained that the Dark Moon Clan’s Undying Bodies remained, but recovering from self-destruction required large quantities of resources.
• Chu Xinghe realized that funding the Dark Moon Clan’s recovery could help him use up Vast Heaven Sect’s resources and began considering where they could blow things up next.
• Chu Xinghe ruled out attacking the scattered Demonic Sect without a way to gather its members safely, then eagerly declared he would blast his way to a future.

The destruction of the Silver Star Mountain Range left the Cloud Firmament Sect unable to seek redress for its losses, and Ling Su mistakenly concluded that Wei Xin had betrayed it. Abandoned by his former sect, Wei Xin resolved to become a loyal Vast Heaven Sect disciple.

• The Vast Heaven Sect released a recording of Xie Songlin renouncing the Silver Star Mountain Range, undermining the Cloud Firmament Sect's grounds to protest the deaths of two Martial Emperors.
• Xing Yushen entered seclusion and left the Cloud Firmament Sect's affairs to Ling Su.
• Ling Su concluded that Wei Xin had defected and told Chu Xinghe about the Silver Star Mountain Range.
• Ling Su erased Wei Xin's connections to the Cloud Firmament Sect and withdrew spies from the Vast Heaven Sect's businesses to prevent further exposure.
• Wei Xin realized that the Cloud Firmament Sect had abandoned him and reflected on the sincere treatment and cultivation help he had received in the Dark Moon Palace.
• Wei Xin renounced the Cloud Firmament Sect and vowed to help Chu Xinghe build up the Vast Heaven Sect.

After returning to the Vast Heaven Sect, Chu Xinghe visited the Dark Moon Clan and the Savage Wilderness Tribes, then joined the Ouyang Lineage for a demonic-beast barbecue. When Wei Xin ate the meat, he unexpectedly broke through in front of everyone.

• Gu Mingchao and the sect's experts returned to the Vast Heaven Sect, where Ouyang Ming thanked Chu Xinghe for obtaining Refined Silver Ore.
• Chu Xinghe delivered resources to the Dark Moon Clan and encouraged Douding'er to keep raising demonic beasts despite their repeated failures to control them.
• Ouyang Ling invited Chu Xinghe to a barbecue after another demonic beast went berserk at the Dark Moon Palace, and Ouyang Ming butchered it with his sacred artifact, Demon-Slaying Soul.
• Chu Xinghe invited Wei Xin to eat with him and sampled the Ouyang Lineage's many demonic-beast dishes.
• Wei Xin stared at the meat in shock, then sat down to meditate as spiritual light erupted and he broke through.

Wei Xin discovered that meat from the demonic beasts raised by the Savage Wilderness Tribes improved his physique and pushed him from the Fourth Rank to the Fifth Rank. Tests at the Dark Moon Palace confirmed the effect, leaving the Vast Heaven Sect’s leaders eager to capitalize on the discovery while Chu Xinghe quietly sobbed.

• Wei Xin ate demonic beast meat for the first time and broke through from the Fourth Rank to the Fifth Rank as it cleared blockages in his body.
• Wei Xin explained that the meat had improved his innate physique, and Ouyang Ming and the Ouyang Lineage confirmed they had known about the effect.
• The Great Sage summoned Sect Master Gu Mingchao, the Grand Elder, and the palace heads, who tested the meat on outer disciples with poor talent.
• The outer disciples confirmed that the meat gradually improved their physiques, and the Grand Elder recognized it as a safe, mass-producible alternative to the Fate-Defying Pill.
• The Vast Heaven Sect’s leaders celebrated the discovery, while Chu Xinghe sobbed over the unexpected consequences.

The Vast Heaven Sect discovered that the Savage Wilderness’s demonic beast meat could safely transform people’s physiques, and Douding'er pledged the sect a sixty-percent share in return for its support. Chu Xinghe privately despaired over the unexpected success, while Wei Xin mistook his assignment to the Dark Moon Palace for a deliberate test and vowed to serve him.

• The Grand Elder searched the Ouyang Lineage and found large quantities of demonic beast meat in its members’ spatial rings, along with 8,695 pork knuckles in Ouyang Ling's ring.
• The Grand Elder lifted Ouyang Ling's pork knuckle ban, and she gleefully stored the pork knuckles away.
• Douding'er realized the Savage Wilderness’s demonic beast meat could improve people’s physiques and thanked Senior Brother Xinghe for supporting her tribes.
• Douding'er promised the Vast Heaven Sect sixty percent of the Savage Wilderness’s demonic beasts and future discoveries, reassuring the Grand Elder and Gu Mingchao.
• Chu Xinghe privately cursed the Savage Wilderness’s success and Wei Xin’s breakthrough, deciding to keep Wei Xin in the Dark Moon Palace.
• Wei Xin concluded that Senior Brother Xinghe had planned his assignment as a test and swore to devote himself to building up the sect.

News that the Savage Wilderness Tribes’ demon beast spirit meat could improve constitutions spread across the Blazing Sun Continent, bringing eager buyers to the Vast Heaven Sect. Chu Xinghe, frustrated that the discovery had ruined his plans to recruit weak disciples, decided to drive the meat’s price down as negotiations began.

• The Vast Heaven Sect’s disciples celebrated the tribes’ pledge to give the sect sixty percent of their future demon beast spirit meat, while Chu Cheng dismissed its benefits before Liu Bo and others beat him up.
• Zheng Yu realized the meat could let people with poor constitutions make use of their exceptional talents, then traveled with Cheng Xiaotian to the Vast Heaven Sect.
• Chu Xinghe lamented that demon beast spirit meat would turn potential recruits into geniuses and eliminate his chance to bring useless disciples into the sect.
• Representatives from major factions arrived at the Vast Heaven Sect with lavish gifts to negotiate purchases of the meat.
• Chu Xinghe decided to push the price down so the sect would earn less from its sale.

Cheng Xiaotian secured a large share of the Vast Heaven Sect’s demon beast spirit meat for Martial Emperor City at an unexpectedly high price, while the other great sects also obtained some. Ling Su tried to repair relations with the Vast Heaven Sect and buy meat for the Cloud Firmament Sect, only to be told it was sold out.

• Cheng Xiaotian asked the Vast Heaven Sect to sell Martial Emperor City all its available demon beast spirit meat, and the Grand Elder offered him thirty percent.
• Chu Xinghe named a price of one thousand spirit stones, and Zheng Yu and Cheng Xiaotian agreed to one thousand high-grade spirit stones per adult demon beast.
• Cheng Xiaotian left satisfied with his purchase, and the Grand Elder and Xinghe sold shares to the other members of the ten great sects.
• Ling Su apologized for the Silver Star Mountain Range incident and renewed the Cloud Firmament Sect’s claims of brotherly ties with the Vast Heaven Sect.
• Ling Su asked to buy demon beast spirit meat, and the Grand Elder claimed it had all been sold out.

Ling Su failed to obtain demon beast spirit meat from the Vast Heaven Sect and was sent through a teleportation array to the Sea of Mist, delaying his return to the Cloud Firmament Sect by half a month. Meanwhile, Wei Xin received a reward for finding the meat and became convinced that the Vast Heaven Sect would dominate the coming ranking of the ten great sects.

• Ling Su pleaded with the Grand Elder for demon beast spirit meat, but the Grand Elder repeatedly told him it had sold out and accepted the Cloud Firmament Sect’s apology gifts.
• The Grand Elder sent Ling Su through a teleportation array that deposited him in the Sea of Mist, where he remained for half a month before returning to the Cloud Firmament Sect.
• The Grand Elder rewarded Wei Xin with ten thousand spirit stones and elite disciple status, while the Great Sage began devising a cultivation technique suited to him.
• Wei Xin compared the Vast Heaven Sect’s fair treatment and generous rewards with his fifteen years as a Cloud Firmament Sect spy, and resolved to give his all to his new sect.
• Wei Xin concluded that the Vast Heaven Sect would remain first in the ranking of the ten great sects and that the Cloud Firmament Sect would lose its third-place standing.

After Wei Xin’s discovery of demonic beast spirit meat brought the Vast Heaven Sect and the Savage Wilderness Tribes unexpected prosperity, Chu Xinghe searched for a useless, resource-consuming elective course. The Grand Elder’s failed attempt to have sect disciples raise demonic beasts gave Chu Xinghe what he wanted, and he decided to make beast-raising an elective for the entire sect.

• Feng Fei praised Wei Xin for discovering the effects of demonic beast spirit meat, while Wei Xin thanked Chu Xinghe for bringing him into the inner sect.
• Chu Xinghe decided to launch his elective course plan early and searched the sect’s palaces for an activity that wasted resources without producing results.
• Chu Xinghe found the Thunder Palace’s Thunder War Dance useless, but it consumed no resources, so he rejected it as an elective.
• The Grand Elder told Chu Xinghe that demand for demonic beast spirit meat exceeded the Savage Wilderness Tribes’ limited supply and that other sect disciples had failed to raise beasts whose meat had the same effects.
• Chu Xinghe realized that raising demonic beasts would consume resources without yielding useful spirit meat and decided to assign it as an elective for everyone in the sect.

Chu Xinghe persuaded the Vast Heaven Sect to make raising demonic beasts an elective, expecting the disciples’ failures to drain the sect’s resources without producing demonic beast spirit meat. Just as the course consumed resources and Chu Xinghe celebrated, Hu Buqi arrived with his son Hu Wenhai, the disciple Chu Xinghe had recruited.

• Chu Xinghe convinced the Grand Elder and sect leaders to approve an elective course in raising demonic beasts, despite Douding'er confirming the Vast Heaven Sect's disciples could not produce demonic beast spirit meat.
• Chu Xinghe arranged for Mu Bai and his group to attend first, where they fed demonic beasts spirit herbs and killed them, then began researching special herbs for beasts.
• The Ouyang Lineage treated its assigned demonic beasts as barbecue, while Wei Xin volunteered to taste the meat and repeatedly suffered poisoning.
• Disciples from each palace raised demonic beasts in increasingly bizarre ways, consuming sect resources without producing demonic beast spirit meat, and Chu Xinghe celebrated as the Misfortune Compass turned.
• Shen Chun told Chu Xinghe that Hu Buqi had arrived with Hu Wenhai, the son Chu Xinghe had specially recruited, and Chu Xinghe eagerly anticipated Hu Wenhai draining the sect's resources.

Hu Buqi brought Hu Wenhai to the Vast Heaven Sect, where the palace chiefs competed to recruit him because Chu Xinghe had selected him. Chu Xinghe unexpectedly assigned Hu Wenhai to Dark Moon Palace, despite believing his real talent was speed rather than talismans.

• Hu Buqi brought Hu Wenhai to the Vast Heaven Sect, where the mountain-guarding disciples warmly welcomed him as Junior Brother Wenhai.
• The Grand Elder received Hu Buqi and Hu Wenhai at Spirit Crane Palace while Hu Wenhai worried that no palace would accept a talisman specialist.
• The palace chiefs arrived and argued over who would take Hu Wenhai, each promising to support his talisman studies because Xinghe had recruited him.
• Chu Xinghe entered with Senior Brother Shen Chun and realized the chiefs had mistaken his reasons for recruiting Hu Wenhai.
• Chu Xinghe rejected the chiefs' offers and declared that Hu Wenhai would study at Dark Moon Palace.

Chu Xinghe assigned Hu Wenhai to the Dark Moon Palace and gave him abundant resources, convinced that Hu Wenhai’s talent would lead him to waste the sect’s supplies. Hu Wenhai vowed to repay Chu Xinghe by mastering talismans, but his first hour of practice ended in 982 consecutive failures.

• Chu Xinghe persuaded the palace heads to let Hu Wenhai join the Dark Moon Palace, arguing that the Great Sage could help him improve at talismans.
• Chu Xinghe brought Hu Wenhai and Hu Buqi to the Dark Moon Palace, where the Great Sage admitted he knew nothing about talismans.
• Chu Xinghe told the Great Sage not to teach Hu Wenhai and ordered An Lan to provide him with as many resources as he wanted.
• Hu Buqi urged Hu Wenhai to be grateful to Chu Xinghe, and Hu Wenhai promised to become a master of talismans and support the Hu Lineage.
• After Hu Buqi left, Hu Wenhai began making talismans and failed 982 times in one hour, leaving him doubtful that he was a genius.

Hu Wenhai astonished the Vast Heaven Sect with his incredible talisman-making speed, despite failing to produce successful talismans. Chu Xinghe persuaded Ma Liang that Hu Wenhai’s ability to unleash a barrage of unpredictable talismans could make him a groundbreaking combatant.

• News spread through the Vast Heaven Sect that Hu Wenhai had joined the Dark Moon Palace and was destined to become a talisman king.
• Senior brothers and sisters watched Hu Wenhai make talismans at astonishing speed, then learned that his talismans lacked runic light because they had failed.
• Hu Wenhai explained that he could make talismans during combat but currently had a poor success rate, and he proudly said his speed had improved by thirty percent with Chu Xinghe’s resources.
• Ma Liang told Chu Xinghe that Hu Wenhai was wasting resources and offered to advise him about his cultivation.
• Chu Xinghe argued that a talisman master who could unleash hundreds of unpredictable talismans would be more frightening than one who made a single reliable talisman, convincing Ma Liang that Hu Wenhai might become a grandmaster.

Chu Xinghe enjoyed the Misfortune Compass finally turning as Hu Wenhai and the elective courses consumed sect resources, while he studied medicine refining and learned about the dangerous, incomplete Voodoo Art. The Grand Elder then told him to prepare for the ten great sects’ assessment, giving Chu Xinghe a chance to plot how to disgrace the Vast Heaven Sect publicly.

• Hu Wenhai’s strange talisman work caused a stir, but the sect accepted him as another prodigy discovered by Senior Brother Xinghe.
• Chu Xinghe watched Hu Wenhai and the elective courses consume resources, kept Ma Liang and Ouyang Ming away from Hu Wenhai, and enjoyed the Misfortune Compass slowly turning.
• Chu Xinghe studied medicine refining with the Grand Elder, learned that the Medicine Saint Inheritance included incomplete records of the Voodoo Art, and agreed not to use it recklessly.
• The Grand Elder told Chu Xinghe that the once-every-five-years assessment of the ten great sects was near and that he should prepare.
• Chu Xinghe learned that Wu Yang would oversee the public assessment and resolved to disrupt the Vast Heaven Sect’s arrangements to embarrass it.

As the ten great sects’ assessment approached, the Vast Heaven Sect remained confident that Chu Xinghe had made it unbeatable, while Wei Xin enjoyed his new status and Hu Wenhai’s deference. Hoping to keep the sect from placing first, Chu Xinghe urged its palaces to neglect their training and prepare for the assessment in unhelpful ways.

• The Vast Heaven Sect’s disciples dismissed the assessment as a contest among the other nine sects, boasting that their combat power, resources, and young disciples made them impossible to surpass.
• Wei Xin savored the Vast Heaven Sect’s dominance and the respect he received when Hu Wenhai addressed him as Senior Brother, and he visited Hu to offer advice about working hard.
• Chu Xinghe decided that, since he could not stop the Vast Heaven Sect from winning, he would try to make it lose face through its public assessment results.
• Chu Xinghe told the Thunder Palace to practice the Thunder War Dance instead of cultivating, urged the Hill Forest Palace’s sisters to dress up, and sent Frigid Ice Palace disciples to play with demonic beasts.
• Chu Xinghe watched the palaces abandon their usual duties and eagerly awaited Wu Yang’s assessment, believing he had prepared a surprise.

Chu Xinghe deliberately made the Vast Heaven Sect neglect its duties so Old Master Wu Yang would expose its flaws during the top-ten evaluation. When the evaluation group arrived to find no welcoming party, Wu Yang praised the sect’s lack of ceremony instead.

• Chu Xinghe arranged for the Vast Heaven Sect’s palaces and elders to neglect cultivation, duties, and preparations so the sect would appear unreliable.
• Shen Chun told Chu Xinghe that the evaluation group would arrive the next day and relayed the grand elder’s request to inform the sect master, but Chu Xinghe refused.
• Chu Xinghe sent Shen Chun to the Artifact Refining Palace and waited for the evaluation group, expecting Wu Yang to criticize the sect.
• Old Master Wu Yang and the grand elders arrived at the Vast Heaven Sect’s mountain gate, where they found no welcoming party or guarding disciples besides Chu Xinghe.
• Chu Xinghe greeted Wu Yang and the elders, and Wu Yang praised the Vast Heaven Sect for avoiding wasteful displays and showing its true demeanor.

Chu Xinghe brought Old Master Wuyang’s assessment delegation to Haotian Palace without warning the Vast Heaven Sect, hoping they would witness the sect master’s shortcomings. The chapter left the delegation praising Gu Mingchao’s delay in handling urgent affairs and his self-portrait as evidence of his calmness and talent.

• Chu Xinghe concealed the delegation’s arrival and led Old Master Wuyang and the others into the Vast Heaven Sect without a welcome ceremony.
• Old Master Wuyang praised the sect for its plain, practical conduct and recorded that it had a wholesome atmosphere and noble character.
• Chu Xinghe took the delegation directly to Haotian Grand Hall, where they heard Elder Yu urge Gu Mingchao to address two urgent matters.
• Gu Mingchao told Elder Yu to wait and see while painting a self-portrait of himself as the Martial God.
• Ling Su expected Old Master Wuyang to criticize Gu Mingchao, but Old Master Wuyang instead praised his painting and composure in a glowing recording.

During the evaluation, Old Master Wuyang praised Gu Mingchao’s self-portrait and Chu Xinghe’s unprepared Vast Heaven Sect, leaving the visitors stunned by his blatant favoritism. The group then watched Yan Shoujing’s formations explode, but Old Master Wuyang recorded the mishap as evidence of his dedication and resolve to destroy the Demonic Sect.

• Gu Mingchao painted a self-portrait while Chu Xinghe explained that he had concealed the evaluation group’s arrival so they could see the Vast Heaven Sect unprepared.
• Old Master Wuyang wrote a flattering poem about Gu Mingchao and praised the sect for showing its true state, while Gu Mingchao declared him fair and perceptive.
• Gu Mingchao led Old Master Wuyang and the evaluation group to Yan Shoujing’s residence, where they found the deputy sect master setting up formations.
• Yan Shoujing deliberately caused his formations to explode, hoping the apparent failure would embarrass the Vast Heaven Sect.
• Old Master Wuyang instead recorded Yan Shoujing as a tireless formation scholar who vowed to exterminate the Demonic Sect and kill Wu Xingyun.