Chapter Summaries

Chu Xinghe worried as Elder He tried to master the Formless Heart Sutra, while Ouyang Ling's attempts to drug Xinghe failed to wake him. The chapter left Elder He suffering a violent backlash after Ouyang Ling secretly gave him a potent dose of medicine.

• Ouyang Ling gave Chu Xinghe a spiked drink, but he slept soundly, and Ouyang Ming revealed he had prepared an antidote to counter her plan.
• Chu Xinghe found Elder He studying the Formless Heart Sutra at the Artifact Refining Palace and urged him not to risk Qi deviation, but Elder He insisted he was close to mastering it.
• Chu Xinghe visited Feng Fei and promised to make his wedding to Jiuli extravagant, then received lessons in formations from Yan Shoujing, who secretly taught him unstable methods.
• Ouyang Ling, frustrated that her medicine had no effect on Chu Xinghe, mixed all of it into a thick drink and brought it to Elder He as ginseng tea.
• After drinking the medicine, Elder He resumed practicing the Formless Heart Sutra, suffered a surge of wicked fire, and spat blood, mistaking the backlash for the technique's power.

Chu Xinghe tried to stop Elder He from studying the Formless Heart Sutra as its backlash worsened, but the Grand Elder let him continue. Meanwhile, Chu Xinghe’s attempts to sabotage Ouyang Ming’s artifact forging instead helped him produce increasingly powerful weapons, so Chu Xinghe turned to studying formations with Yan Shoujing.

• Elder He endured increasingly severe backlash from the Formless Heart Sutra, while Ouyang Ling supplied him with thick ginseng tea.
• Chu Xinghe told Ouyang Ming to change his forging methods, and Ouyang Ming produced a quasi-divine artifact after Chu Xinghe’s successive pointers.
• Chu Xinghe asked the Grand Elder to stop Elder He’s research, but the Grand Elder trusted Elder He’s cultivation and allowed him to continue.
• Chu Xinghe avoided the Artifact Refining Palace and went to Haotian Palace to study formations with Yan Shoujing, who was pleased that Chu Xinghe made no progress.

Chu Xinghe discovered that Flying Locust could form shifting formations in midair, turning it into a powerful new fighting method. The news spread through the Vast Heaven Sect while Chu Cheng’s hoped-for comeback was delayed by another beating.

• Yan Shoujing told Chu Xinghe that his Innate Formation Mastery might let him make formations move, though Yan Shoujing could not teach him how.
• Chu Xinghe visited Elder He, who said the Formless Heart Sutra’s dangerous nighttime backlash was worsening and that he had not found its correct cultivation route.
• Ouyang Ming explained how Flying Locust could split into countless swords and form patterns, giving Chu Xinghe the insight to use it as moving spirit stones.
• Chu Xinghe made Flying Locust form shifting formations, including the Lightning Light Formation, and astonished the Artifact Refining Palace.
• Word of the Flying Locust Sword Formation spread throughout the Vast Heaven Sect, and its disciples celebrated Chu Xinghe’s breakthrough.
• Chu Cheng declared that he would make a comeback and take revenge, but Liu Bo and the others heard him and beat him again.

Chu Xinghe’s Flying Locust let him carry changing sword formations, potentially even the Vast Heaven Sect’s mountain-guarding formation, and the sect publicly celebrated Yan Shoujing’s guidance. The announcement alarmed Wu Xingyun, who ordered Yan to focus only on teaching Xinghe while Tantai Jing began the Demonic Sect’s Fishing Plan.

• Chu Xinghe demonstrated how Flying Locust’s sword shadows carried formations that followed him and could change at a thought, astonishing the leaders in Haotian Palace.
• The grand elder praised Yan Shoujing for guiding Chu Xinghe, while Chu Xinghe sincerely thanked Yan and Yan privately despaired over the sect’s mistaken admiration.
• Gu Mingchao and the elders publicized Chu Xinghe’s achievement, and the grand elder sent a notice to the Demonic Sect; Zheng Yu read it and praised Yan’s guidance.
• Wu Xingyun confronted Yan Shoujing, accepted his explanation, and ordered him to stop scheming and concentrate on teaching Chu Xinghe.
• Wu Xingyun instructed Tantai Jing to begin the Fishing Plan, and Tantai vowed to target Chu Xinghe with a new strategy.
• The Vast Heaven Sect held a feast for Yan Shoujing and Chu Xinghe, and Yan wept as the gathered disciples repeatedly toasted him.

Chu Xinghe took charge of planning Feng Fei and Jiuli’s wedding, proposing an extravagantly costly celebration that stunned the couple. When Jiuli cooked for them, Ouyang Ming tried her food and collapsed, and Chu Xinghe discovered it was even worse than poison.

• Chu Xinghe met the Wuj iang Holy Mother and Jiuli at Haotian Palace, where Gu Mingchao and the Grand Elder entrusted him with planning Feng Fei and Jiuli’s wedding.
• Chu Xinghe insisted the wedding should be lavish, proposing a ten-thousand-person teleportation trip to fetch Jiuli and extravagant celebrations and gifts.
• Feng Fei and Jiuli were stunned by Chu Xinghe’s plans, while Chu Xinghe promised to cover every detail and expense.
• Jiuli cooked more than a dozen dishes and invited Ouyang Ming to sample them.
• Ouyang Ming ate Jiuli’s food, froze, and collapsed, crying that it was poisoned; Chu Xinghe tasted a leaf of greens and realized it was worse than poison.

Jiuli’s cooking incapacitated Ouyang Ming, Feng Fei, and a kitchen full of cooks, prompting Chu Xinghe to summon the Everlasting Spring Palace for help. Nangong Yan and her disciples failed to identify the supposed poison and were knocked down too, while Ouyang Ming woke up with an unexpected taste for the food and promptly collapsed again after another bite.

• Ouyang Ming and Feng Fei ate Jiuli’s cooking and fell over, and curious cooks who tried it soon joined them.
• Chu Xinghe summoned Nangong Yan, whose examination found no poison despite the victims’ symptoms.
• An Everlasting Spring Palace disciple tested the food and collapsed, prompting Nangong Yan to order more disciples to try it.
• Jiuli explained that the victims had been overcome by her cooking, and the Everlasting Spring Palace disciples fell one after another.
• Ouyang Ming woke up, realized the food was more terrifying than poison, and then fell over again while eating another bite.

Jiuli’s cooking wreaked havoc among the Everlasting Spring Palace and Ouyang Lineage, while Chu Xinghe sealed the dangerous Formless Heart Sutra after Elder He failed to find a safe way to use it. The chapter ended with Yan Shoujing preparing to lure Chu Xinghe and the Vast Heaven Sect into Wu Xingyun’s fishing plan.

• Nangong Yan’s disciples packed up Jiuli’s cooking, and Ouyang Ming woke again praising it and asking for more.
• Wuj iang Holy Mother arrived, recounted Jiuli’s disastrous cooking history, and forbade her from cooking again, but Ouyang Ming defended her food.
• Nangong Yan’s tests showed that Jiuli’s cooking amplified poisons, while the Ouyang Lineage obtained some and eagerly ate it despite repeatedly fainting.
• Elder He told Chu Xinghe that every safe route for using the Formless Heart Sutra had failed, so Chu Xinghe persuaded the sect master and grand elder to seal it away.
• Yan Shoujing learned from Wu Xingyun that the fishing plan was ready and resolved to use it to swindle Chu Xinghe and the Vast Heaven Sect.

After Jiuli returned to the Wuj iang to prepare for her wedding, Chu Xinghe remained uninterested in the Gate of Ruins until he learned that opening it required enormous amounts of resources. He joined an expedition intending to spend those resources and escape immediately, unaware that Yan Shoujing was luring him into the Demonic Sect’s scheme to drain the righteous path.

• The Wuj iang Holy Mother and Yan Shoujing supported Chu Xinghe’s plan for a grand teleportation-array wedding procession, and Jiuli returned to the Wuj iang to prepare.
• Chu Xinghe waited for the Misfortune Compass to react and repeatedly refused Yan Shoujing’s attempts to persuade him to visit the Gate of Ruins.
• Yan Shoujing explained that opening the Gate of Ruins required vast resources, while the Demonic Sect’s Dark Moon Shuttle secretly siphoned away everything invested in it.
• Chu Xinghe eagerly agreed to join the expedition so he could throw in resources and leave with a Flute of Space and Time before the ruins opened.
• The grand elder formed a team without Ma Liang, Mu Bai, or Feng Yuzheng, while Yan Shoujing celebrated the prospect of using Chu Xinghe to advance the Demonic Sect’s Fishing Plan.

Chu Xinghe reached the Nebula Mountain Range, where the Gate of the Ruins had attracted forces from across the world but remained unopened despite their contributions. Unaware that Tantai Jing planned to profit from him, Chu Xinghe prepared to throw in resources all at once.

• Chu Xinghe brought twenty junior brothers and sisters to the Nebula Mountain Range after selecting them for prioritizing everyone's safety.
• Zheng Yu welcomed Chu Xinghe and explained that many factions had contributed resources to the Gate of the Ruins without opening it.
• Zheng Yu told Chu Xinghe that the gate's entry requirement depended on the cultivation of the person who opened it, so smaller forces sent weaker disciples to test it.
• Tantai Jing hid nearby and planned to use the Dark Moon Shuttle to make the gate respond, encouraging Chu Xinghe to spend more resources.
• Despite Zheng Yu advising him to contribute gradually, Chu Xinghe decided to go all in.

Chu Xinghe poured his entire fortune and every rare treasure he owned into a ruin gate, convinced it would never open, but the gate finally pulled him and the Vast Heaven Sect disciples inside. Tantai Jing learned that the Demonic Sect had never opened the real ruins because it was too poor, while Chu Xinghe's group celebrated their apparent windfall in the passage.

• Chu Xinghe ignored Zheng Yu's warning and poured tens of millions of spirit stones, including supreme-grade ones, into the ruin gate, then threw in all his rare treasures when it still did not open.
• The gate suddenly opened and sucked Chu Xinghe and the nearby Vast Heaven Sect disciples into the ruins, prompting the other factions to rush inside.
• Tantai Jing received information from the Dark Moon Shuttle revealing that the ruins were real and had required an enormous amount of spirit stones to open, which the Demonic Sect had never possessed.
• Tantai Jing led the Demonic Sect into the ruins, confident that the shuttle's information would let him claim the treasures.
• Chu Xinghe found himself in a dim passage with all the Vast Heaven Sect disciples safe, and they cheered that he had opened the ruins and that Vast Heaven would prosper.

Chu Xinghe led his junior brothers and sisters through the Nine Stars Concentric Grand Formation, hoping to avoid danger and delay the expedition, but his formation talent kept finding the correct paths. When Tantai Jing pursued them with a Yin Soul, Chu Xinghe announced he had an ingenious method and chose their route by tossing his shoe.

• Chu Xinghe discovered the maze was the deadly Nine Stars Concentric Grand Formation, and repeated attempts to escape with Flutes of Space and Time failed because the formation blocked teleportation.
• Chu Xinghe led his junior brothers and sisters along the correct paths, while they praised his formation mastery and he struggled to slow their progress.
• Tantai Jing entered the maze with four formation geniuses and used the Dark Moon Shuttle to guide a Yin Soul along the correct paths toward Chu Xinghe.
• Chu Xinghe destroyed the Yin Soul after it delivered Tantai Jing's threat, then reassured his frightened companions that he had an ingenious method.
• Chu Xinghe tossed his shoe into the air, treated the direction it pointed as the correct route, and ordered everyone to charge ahead.

Chu Xinghe used his shoe to choose paths through the Nine Stars Concentric Grand Formation, leaving Tantai Jing far behind as he advanced toward the City of Dark Moon. Tantai Jing sacrificed his followers to awaken the city’s spirit entities, then cleared the road so Chu Xinghe would enter his trap.

• Chu Xinghe repeatedly tossed his shoe at forks in the maze and safely led his junior brothers and sisters along the paths it pointed to.
• Tantai Jing used the Dark Moon Shuttle to track Chu Xinghe, but he fell farther behind as formations killed several of his followers.
• Tantai Jing gave his disciples pills, then killed them and used their blood to empower the Dark Moon Shuttle and escape the maze.
• Tantai Jing awakened the spirit entities in the City of Dark Moon, but discovered they could not leave the city to attack Chu Xinghe.
• Tantai Jing cleared the dangers between the maze’s exit and the City of Dark Moon, hoping to lure Chu Xinghe and other righteous-path prodigies into his trap.

Chu Xinghe led the Vast Heaven Sect disciples through the maze and reached the City of Dark Moon, but he refused to enter despite its visible treasures. He took a barren detour around the city, hoping to avoid treasure and danger, until a junior sister pointed out something ahead.

• Chu Xinghe used his shoe to choose paths through all nine layers of the Nine Stars Concentric Grand Formation, guiding the disciples through its 1,080 forks to the exit.
• Chu Xinghe led the disciples toward the City of Dark Moon while hoping for danger that would let him escape with the Flute of Space and Time, but they encountered no obstacles.
• Tantai Jing watched from inside the city and expected Chu Xinghe to enter the open gates, but Chu Xinghe instead turned toward a rough path around the city.
• Chu Xinghe warned the disciples that the easy-to-reach treasures seemed suspicious and led them away from the city to explore the barren route.
• As Chu Xinghe began teaching the disciples to sing, a junior sister pointed ahead, and Chu Xinghe froze at what he saw.

Chu Xinghe and his junior brothers and sisters were trapped inside a deathly village after its mysterious force redirected their teleportation, and an invisible attacker ambushed him. Chu Xinghe exposed and struck the attacker, who survived and called countless figures to his aid.

• Chu Xinghe used the Evil Repeller to hold back the black fog and crushed the Flute of Space and Time, but the village redirected their teleportation and left them inside its barrier.
• Chu Xinghe failed to break the barrier, and the black fog blocked the junior brothers and sisters' attempts to teleport away, so he led them toward the village under the Evil Repeller's protection.
• Chu Xinghe formed a Light-Severing Formation and used the Suspended Shears Sword Wings to repel an invisible blade that nearly cut his throat.
• Chu Xinghe released White Rainbow, whose light revealed a dark-clad attacker standing close to him, and slapped him before piercing him with sword phantoms.
• The wounded attacker got back up, shouted that Chu Xinghe could see him, and summoned countless figures from all directions.

Chu Xinghe discovered that he alone could see the undying Dark Moon Clan, whose Great Sage An Zhi believed Chu Xinghe was destined to lead them out of their sealed village. As the clan and Chu Xinghe’s junior brothers and sisters hailed the prospect of joining the Vast Heaven Sect, Chu Xinghe remained alarmed by the burden he had stumbled into.

• Chu Xinghe saw the invisible Dark Moon Clan gathering around him, including powerful Seventh and Eighth Rank cultivators, while his junior brothers and sisters saw nothing.
• An Zhi appeared, dispelled the black mist, and asked Chu Xinghe how he could see the clan.
• An Zhi explained that the Dark Moon Clan had been cursed with undying bodies and sealed in the ruins after losing the War of Myriad Races.
• An Zhi revealed that a costly divination foretold someone who could see the clan would lead them out, then he and the clan knelt and begged Chu Xinghe to help them.
• Chu Xinghe helped the clan members rise but privately worried about their power, immortality, and the danger of taking them outside.
• Chu Xinghe’s junior brothers and sisters shouted, “Heaven blesses Vast Heaven!” as they saw the Dark Moon Clan as a tremendous boon for their sect.

Chu Xinghe discovered that the Dark Moon Clan, a group of seventy-eight powerful immortals, had joined the Vast Heaven Sect, though he privately saw them as a disastrous threat to his plans. He learned they had to wait two days for the barrier to fluctuate before escaping, while the clan bound itself to him through a blood sacrifice and bewildered him with its members’ death performances.

• Gu Feng watched Chu Xinghe open the ruins gate, navigate the formation, avoid the City of Dark Moon’s treasures, and discover the Dark Moon Clan.
• The Great Sage explained that the clan could leave only when the barrier fluctuated in two days, and that White Rainbow could break the seals then.
• Chu Xinghe hoped the other groups would take the City of Dark Moon before he and the clan escaped, while the Great Sage recounted the ancient era of ten thousand clans.
• The Great Sage led the Dark Moon Clan in a blood sacrifice that linked its members’ spiritual power to Chu Xinghe’s.
• A Dark Moon Clan member stabbed himself three times as a performance, died, then revived and thanked the audience.

After two days of enduring the Dark Moon Clan’s grotesque death performances, Chu Xinghe used White Rainbow to help the clan escape its barrier. Their freedom was short-lived as Chu Xinghe discovered the City of Dark Moon remained occupied by Tantai Jing, who had captured Zheng Yu and other righteous-path youths.

• The Dark Moon Clan repeatedly demonstrated bizarre ways to die, horrifying Chu Xinghe, Gu Feng, and the others until Chu Xinghe ordered them not to involve anyone else in their deaths.
• When the barrier fluctuated, Chu Xinghe used White Rainbow to pierce it, and the Great Sage carried the group outside.
• The Dark Moon Clan wept with joy at their freedom, then celebrated by stabbing themselves and one another.
• Chu Xinghe saw that the City of Dark Moon was still standing and realized the righteous sects had not taken it.
• Inside the city, Tantai Jing gloated over the captured Zheng Yu and other righteous-path youths and planned to torment Zheng Yu while dismissing Chu Xinghe as a coward.

Chu Xinghe reached the City of Dark Moon with the Great Sage, where Tantai Jing confronted him alongside a Ghost Emperor. The Great Sage overwhelmed the city’s forces, but Tantai Jing escaped, leaving the Great Sage convinced he had disgraced himself.

• Chu Xinghe persuaded the Great Sage not to take treasures that his friends had already found, and the Great Sage led him to the City of Dark Moon.
• Tantai Jing appeared with a Ghost Emperor, while Zheng Yu warned Chu Xinghe to flee and report the threat.
• The Great Sage entered the city and stopped the Ghost Emperor’s attack between two fingers before summoning a mara that crushed the Ghost Emperor.
• Tantai Jing used the Blood Escape Technique to flee, abandoning the Dark Moon Shuttle when he realized the Great Sage had taken control of the city.
• The City of Dark Moon’s controlled inhabitants regained their senses, while the Great Sage lamented that he had failed to catch Tantai Jing.

Chu Xinghe brought the resurrected Dark Moon Clan back to the Vast Heaven Sect, where they established the Dark Moon Palace as a powerful new force. After spending days teaching them about the current era, he thought they had stopped calling themselves useless, but a new incident left him speechless.

• The Grand Sage apologized to Chu Xinghe for letting Tantai Jing escape, and Chu Xinghe warned him not to self-destruct without permission.
• Chu Xinghe led the survivors to the City of Dark Moon’s treasury, but they refused to take any of its treasures and thanked him before departing.
• The Grand Sage used the full-moon scepter to bring the City of Dark Moon into the Dark Moon Shuttle, and Chu Xinghe returned everyone to the Vast Heaven Sect with the Flute of Space and Time.
• The Vast Heaven Sect agreed to establish the Dark Moon Palace under Grand Sage An Zhi, whose status would match that of the palace chiefs.
• Chu Xinghe spent the following days helping the Dark Moon Clan settle in and explaining the current world to them, but just as he believed the lesson had worked, something new left him speechless.

The Dark Moon Clan’s death-and-revival antics drew crowds across the Vast Heaven Sect as Chu Xinghe helped them adjust to their new lives and meet the other palaces. The Everlasting Spring Palace eagerly welcomed them after An Lan proved he could safely test poisons and report their effects.

• Disciples visiting the Dark Moon Palace watched An Lan stab himself to death and revive, then reported the sight to the sect.
• Members of the Dark Moon Clan staged bizarre deaths for visiting disciples, while Chu Xinghe encouraged the clan to stop thinking of themselves as useless and mingle with the sect.
• An Lan led clanspeople on a visit to other palaces and stabbed three of them to enliven the gathering, startling the disciples when they revived.
• The Grand Sage visited palace heads and elders, who treated him with respect after hearing of his strength; Elder He began recording the Dark Moon Clan’s history.
• The Vast Heaven Sect gradually accepted the clan after seeing that they did not harm outsiders, and the Everlasting Spring Palace became their first enthusiastic ally.
• At Nangong Yan’s request, An Lan swallowed a highly toxic drug, revived, and described its effects so the Everlasting Spring Palace could improve its poison research.