Chapter Summaries

Xiao Zhaohuang asked Gao Yunyi to support her bid for the Liang Kingdom’s throne, and he accepted a mission to help her become its first empress. He agreed to wait through the preparations for her enthronement, then reminded her to finish embroidering a picture for him, unsettling her as she left.

• The little fatty worked in the courtyard before greeting Xiao Zhaohuang, who arrived to see Gao Yunyi.
• Xiao Zhaohuang presented Gao Yunyi with chests of heavenly materials and earthly treasures, which he made disappear.
• Xiao Zhaohuang knelt and asked Gao Yunyi to support her ambition to become emperor amid turmoil in the Liang Kingdom.
• Gao Yunyi accepted a mission to help Xiao Zhaohuang ascend the throne and learned the ceremony would take more than twenty days to arrange.
• As Xiao Zhaohuang left, Gao Yunyi asked whether she had finished embroidering his picture, and she departed in a fluster.

Zhang Qingyan returned to the Eldest Princess's Residence as a newly appointed Pacification Investigation Guard and told Gao Yunyi he had fallen for his superior, Wang Yanan. Encouraged by Gao Yunyi to confess, he rushed off to do so, while Gao Yunyi was left feeling envious.

• Zhang Qingyan burst into the courtyard and announced that he had joined the Pacification Investigation Office as a Pacification Investigation Guard.
• Gao Yunyi barely acknowledged Zhang Qingyan, who felt ashamed that he had not been able to help his big brother and explained he had worked hard to improve himself.
• Zhang Qingyan admitted that he liked Wang Yanan, the powerful and beautiful Commander of the Pacification Investigation Office.
• Gao Yunyi urged Zhang Qingyan to confess to Wang Yanan despite their status difference, and Zhang Qingyan hurried out to do it.
• Gao Yunyi returned to his rocking chair and privately felt sour that Zhang Qingyan had found someone he liked while he had not.

Wang Yanan resolved to drive Zhang Qingyan out of the Pacification Investigation Office, but his status as the Azure Profound Immortal Venerable's underling let him barge into her office and pester her. After Zhang Qingyan confessed he liked her and bluntly praised her legs, Wang Yanan kicked him out.

• Wang Yanan decided to assign Zhang Qingyan dangerous work so he would resign, but he suddenly appeared in her restricted office.
• Zhang Qingyan offered Wang Yanan pastries and ignored her orders to stop calling her by her name.
• Zhang Qingyan reminded Wang Yanan that he had seen her in disguise at the Eldest Princess's Residence and claimed his eyes had recognized her.
• Zhang Qingyan confessed that he liked Wang Yanan and said her long legs made his heart race.
• Wang Yanan kicked Zhang Qingyan out of her office.

During the national mourning for the late emperor, Gao Yunyi spent half a day experimenting with alchemy, producing several pills with strange effects. He left the little fatty heartbroken by criticizing his handwriting after the experiments ended.

• The court concealed the late emperor's death at an Immortal's hands and publicly declared that he had died peacefully, while the capital mourned.
• Gao Yunyi began combining materials without formulas and successfully refined a Beauty-Preserving Pill and a Dust-Forgetting Pill.
• Gao Yunyi refined a Corpse-Shedding Pill, a Demon Transformation Pill, and a Nether-Soul Pill, then wondered whether he was an evil being.
• Gao Yunyi also made a Grain Avoidance Pill and an Essence-Exploding Pill, and concluded that he and the Azure Profound Sect were innocent.
• After using up Xiao Zhaohuang's materials, Gao Yunyi reviewed the pills and the little fatty's written records, then called the little fatty's handwriting ugly.

Gao Yunyi learned from Little Fatty that Xiao Zhaohuang’s master, the Heavenly Secret Elder, lived on Qiyun Mountain west of the Capital, and hurried off to find him. Xiao Zhaohuang arrived at the courtyard to find Gao Yunyi gone, while Little Fatty feared he had caused trouble.

• The Princes came to the Capital to mourn the late emperor and publicly support Xiao Zhaohuang’s rule despite their private suspicions.
• Gao Yunyi grew restless as he waited for his task to end, while Little Fatty struggled to grow vegetables for him.
• Gao Yunyi asked Little Fatty whether other immortals existed, and Little Fatty recalled that his aunt’s master was called the Heavenly Secret Elder.
• Little Fatty remembered that the Heavenly Secret Elder lived on Qiyun Mountain west of the Capital, and Gao Yunyi vanished in a streak of light.
• Xiao Zhaohuang entered the courtyard, found Gao Yunyi gone, and heard Little Fatty say he thought he had caused trouble.

The Heavenly Secret Elder lived in seclusion on Qiyun Mountain with his granddaughter, who asked whether Immortals existed after hearing rumors that one had descended to the Capital. He denied it, but the sky suddenly changed as the clouds churned and seemed to split open.

• The chapter introduced the Heavenly Secret Elder, whose peerless martial skill and decades of seeking had convinced him that mortals could not escape aging and death.
• The Elder ate with his granddaughter, who said people below claimed his disciple, the Eldest Princess, would become emperor.
• His granddaughter asked to visit the Capital, but the Elder wondered whether she had grown tired of staying with him; she insisted she would not leave him alone.
• The girl asked whether Immortals existed and repeated rumors that an Immortal in the Capital was backing the Eldest Princess; the Elder dismissed the stories and said there were no Immortals.
• The Elder suddenly sprang up as the sea of clouds churned and appeared to tear open beneath a vast, unseen force.

A Divine Dragon appeared over Qiyun Mountain and threatened the old man, who stood his ground to protect his granddaughter. A voice stopped the attack, and the old man discovered a white-robed figure seated beneath a pine beside his hut.

• The Divine Dragon appeared above Qiyun Mountain, and its heavenly might terrified the old man and his granddaughter.
• The Divine Dragon pressed the old man to his knees and gathered a water-based Divine Ability after he refused to bow.
• The old man straightened and prepared to fight the Divine Dragon to protect his granddaughter and the mortal world.
• A cool, ethereal voice ordered the Divine Dragon to stop, and the dragon obediently dispelled its attack.
• The old man's granddaughter pointed out a white-robed figure seated beneath a pine, and the old man recognized its arrival with intense joy.

Murong Wudi knelt before Gao Yunyi and explained how Internal Force worked, prompting Gao Yunyi to decide to accelerate the world’s ascent. Gao Yunyi offered answers and a possible opportunity if Murong Wudi entertained him, and Murong Wudi launched his full-strength attack to seek guidance on the martial path.

• Murong Wudi knelt before Gao Yunyi and explained how martial artists cultivated Internal Force.
• Gao Yunyi realized the world’s power system was developing and decided to push its ascent forward himself.
• Gao Yunyi offered to answer Murong Wudi’s questions and possibly grant him an opportunity if he entertained him.
• Murong Wudi sent Qiu Di away, then gathered his Sword Intent and Internal Force to attack Gao Yunyi with Sword Eight.
• Murong Wudi burned through his essence, Qi, and spirit as his attack swept toward Gao Yunyi.

Murong Wudi exhausted his life force in a sword strike that finally injured Gao Yunyi, who rewarded him by offering the Demonic Path after explaining the gulf between martial arts and immortal cultivation. Murong Wudi accepted a Demon Transformation Pill, sent his granddaughter Qiu Di to seek refuge in the Capital, and began transforming as Gao Yunyi departed.

• Murong Wudi's sword strike struck Gao Yunyi and cost the old martial artist all his strength, while Gao Yunyi welcomed the rare proof that a mortal could harm an Immortal.
• Murong Wudi asked about the ends of the Martial Dao and whether mortals could cultivate immortality, and Gao Yunyi explained that immortal cultivation lay beyond True Qi and that mortals needed a fortuitous opportunity.
• Murong Wudi asked Gao Yunyi to show him a way forward, and Gao Yunyi offered him the Demonic Path because his martial path had ended and the immortal road was closed.
• Murong Wudi agreed without hesitation, and Gao Yunyi gave him a Demon Transformation Pill before leaving with the Divine Dragon.
• Murong Wudi ordered his granddaughter Qiu Di to go to the Capital and seek refuge with her senior sister, and she fled down the mountain as he prepared to take the pill.
• Qiu Di heard a howl of pain and madness from the summit as Murong Wudi began his transformation.

Gao Yunyi reassured Xiao Zhaohuang that her master was safe, though he had secretly transformed him into a half-demon. After accepting the robe she had sewn and giving her a Beauty-Preserving Pill, Gao Yunyi invited her into the house, leaving Little Fatty outside.

• Xiao Zhaohuang asked Gao Yunyi whether her master was all right, and Gao Yunyi assured her he was safe while concealing that he had become a person-demon.
• Xiao Zhaohuang presented Gao Yunyi with a blue robe she had sewn, and he accepted it.
• Gao Yunyi offered Xiao Zhaohuang a Beauty-Preserving Pill, briefly pretending he would give it to Little Fatty instead.
• Xiao Zhaohuang accepted the pill but asked to repay Gao Yunyi, who told her to come inside with him.
• Xiao Zhaohuang sent the attendants and Little Fatty outside, then entered the house; Little Fatty later heard a catlike cry from within.

Xiao Zhaohuang ascended the throne as Emperor Xuanqi and enshrined the Azure Profound Immortal Venerable as protector of the state. When she returned to the residence to tell him, she discovered he had left, leaving her, Xiao Gaoyi, and Zhang Qingyan heartbroken.

• Xiao Zhaohuang completed the ancestral rites and ascended the throne, naming her reign Xuanqi and appointing Xiao Gaoyi as her heir apparent.
• Xiao Zhaohuang issued an amnesty, reduced taxes, and announced a special examination before returning to her residence with Xiao Gaoyi to see the Immortal.
• Xiao Zhaohuang and Xiao Gaoyi found the courtyard apparently empty, but heard sounds from the Immortal's room and discovered Zhang Qingyan sobbing there with a silver mask.
• Zhang Qingyan told Xiao Zhaohuang that the Immortal had left, while Xiao Gaoyi went outside to hoe the soil for the chives he had promised to grow for him.
• Xiao Zhaohuang found that the embroidered picture of the Immortal was gone from her private pavilion and broke down in tears.

After completing his previous mission, Gao Yunyi was forced into a Red Dust Tribulation that stripped away his game abilities and left him stranded in a remote forest. He encountered a tiger and then rescued a blue-clad man from a cliff, leaving the newcomer face-to-face with the tiger.

• Gao Yunyi completed his mission, reached level 29, and received a Red Dust Tribulation requiring him to live as a mortal for one year.
• Gao Yunyi missed the mission countdown, lost access to his game interface and Spirit Pet Bai Suzhen, and fell from the sky.
• Gao Yunyi survived the fall using his base attributes, then beat up a tiger while trying to figure out how to leave the primeval forest.
• A blue-clad man climbing the cliff nearly fell when he spotted Gao Yunyi, but Gao Yunyi grabbed him and lifted him onto the mountaintop.
• The blue-clad man came to his senses and found himself staring at the enormous tiger.

Gao Yunyi subdued Long Yan and a tiger in the mountains, then forced Long Yan to guide him to a Miao stockade. Along the way, Gao Yunyi learned that Long Yan was only fifteen and undergoing his coming-of-age trials.

• Gao Yunyi reassured Long Yan that the tiger was harmless, then beat Long Yan into submission when he mistook Gao Yunyi for a monster.
• Long Yan told Gao Yunyi that they were on Hundred-Beast Peak in Miaojiang's Hundred Thousand Mountains and explained the region's tribes and stockades.
• Gao Yunyi ordered Long Yan to take him to Yandao Stockade, and Long Yan agreed rather than risk being beaten again.
• Gao Yunyi rode the tiger as Long Yan led him down the mountain toward the stockade.
• Long Yan explained that he was climbing the cliff and hunting a wild beast as part of his Green Miao coming-of-age ceremony, and revealed that he had just turned fifteen.

On his way home from Beast Mountain, Long Yan was ambushed by Ma Die and the Black Miao, but the Mountain Lord’s arrival drove them off. Long Yan and the tiger waited in the canyon for the vanished man in azure robes, but he never returned.

• Ma Die and the Black Miao blocked Long Yan in a canyon and tried to capture him.
• Long Yan discovered the man in azure robes and the tiger were gone, then fought the Black Miao alone.
• Ma Die played her flute and drew hundreds of venomous snakes toward Long Yan.
• The five Black Miao scouts fled back after encountering the tiger, whose roar sent the snakes retreating.
• Ma Die learned Long Yan had climbed Beast Mountain and fled with her subordinates when the Mountain Lord appeared.
• Long Yan and the tiger sat together and waited until dark for the man in azure robes, but he did not return.

Ma Die fled after Long Yan was eaten by the Mountain Lord, then met Gao Yunyi and became captivated by him. She led him toward the Black Miao stockade, leaving her subordinates worried that she was bringing an outsider inside.

• Ma Die escaped the canyon with her subordinates and ordered them to keep Long Yan's death secret.
• Ma Die encountered Gao Yunyi, mistook him for a lost Central Plains scholar, and offered to guide him.
• Gao Yunyi chose Ma Die over Long Yan as the mortal he would pursue during his tribulation.
• Ma Die fussed over Gao Yunyi as they traveled, while he responded with cool indifference that only intrigued her more.
• Ma Die's subordinates realized their route led to the Black Miao stockade and worried that bringing Gao Yunyi there would get them punished.

Ma Die smuggled Gao Yunyi into Black Li Stockade by disguising him in Miao clothing, intending to claim him after he settled in her room. Just as she prepared to return to him, her mother appeared and asked where she had been.

• Ma Die silenced a subordinate who warned that the Great Miao Lord forbade outsiders from entering the stockade.
• Ma Die persuaded Gao Yunyi to stay overnight, then dressed him in a subordinate’s Black Miao clothes to get him past the guards.
• Ma Die led Gao Yunyi into Black Li Stockade and left him in her room, warning him not to go outside.
• Gao Yunyi recalled the rule “Don’t initiate, don’t refuse, don’t take responsibility” and decided to see what Ma Die wanted.
• Ma Die prepared to bathe and return to Gao Yunyi, but her mother appeared and asked where she had gone that day.

Ma Die tried to drug and seduce Gao Yunyi, but he remained awake and exposed her deception. As she prepared to force him, her mother burst into the room.

• Ma Die hid her nervousness from her mother, who watched her suspicious behavior from the darkness.
• Gao Yunyi saw that the system had restored his original appearance and reflected on experiencing mortal life through the Red Dust Tribulation.
• Ma Die entered Gao Yunyi's room after bathing and used White Miao knockout incense, but it failed to incapacitate him.
• Gao Yunyi confronted Ma Die about her lies, and she threatened to make him her slave.
• Ma Die reached for Gao Yunyi, but her mother shoved open the door and demanded to know what she was doing.

Ma Die’s mother, the Great Miao Chief, took Gao Yunyi away under the pretense of interrogating him, while Ma Die feared her mother would torture him. In the chief’s residence, the Great Miao Chief revealed her desire for Gao Yunyi, who remained confident that he could protect himself.

• The Great Miao Chief ordered guards to take Gao Yunyi for questioning, and Ma Die begged them to handle him gently.
• The Great Miao Chief punished Ma Die by confining her to her room, then left with Gao Yunyi.
• Ma Die suspected her mother wanted Gao Yunyi for herself and sneaked out to follow them.
• At the Great Miao Chief’s residence, she changed into a revealing nightgown and told Gao Yunyi she was more interested in him than his identity.
• Gao Yunyi tried to calm the Great Miao Chief, but she moved closer, and he reminded himself that he had the strength to protect himself.

Gao Yunyi broke free from the Black Miao chief’s spider silk and turned her attempt to capture him into a fight she could not control. Outside the room, Ma Die mistook the sounds of their struggle for her mother abusing Gao Yunyi and worried for him.

• The Black Miao chief bound Gao Yunyi with Luo-You Mother Spider silk and declared she would keep him as her slave, but he snapped the silk with ease.
• The chief summoned swarms of Gu spiders to attack Gao Yunyi, but they recoiled from him, and her mother spider fled into her robe.
• The chief attacked Gao Yunyi with a whip, but he caught it and yanked her onto the bed.
• Gao Yunyi said they would spar with their whips, while Ma Die listened outside and feared her mother was hurting him.

The Great Miao Chief and Ma Die both sought to claim the Central Plains man after a difficult night, though neither knew the full truth of what had happened. The Chief ordered Ma Die to stay away from him as preparations began for the three Miao tribes’ discussion of the Beast God High Priest.

• The Great Miao Chief told Ma Die that the Central Plains man had revealed nothing, and refused Ma Die’s request to interrogate him.
• The Chief caught Ma Die admitting she had listened outside her room, then warned her not to pry into what had happened.
• Ma Die hid her anger when the Chief promised to find her a suitable man from the tribe, and noticed a whip-like wound on her mother’s wrist.
• The Chief ordered Ma Die to stay in the stockade, avoid her room, and not see the Central Plains man before the three Miao tribes met.
• After Ma Die left, the Chief vowed that the man would not harm her daughter or her people.