Chapter Summaries

After the ancestral vein’s destruction, Zhou Yi ordered the sect to stockpile spiritual resources and prepared to relocate after taking the Star Constellation Sect. He used curses to kill demon kings and loot their stores, then received True Monarch Li’s meditation cushion to use in divination.

• Zhou Yi had Yuan Qi enforce strict sect rules and ordered spiritual materials stockpiled as Spirit Stones and more Spirit Gathering Formation disks made.
• Yuan Qi reported that Star Constellation Sect disciples had ambushed Nanxi Island and seized its Fire Copper Mine, so Zhou Yi ordered preparations to annex the sect and relocate.
• Yellow Ox brought Zhou Yi hairs from ten resource-rich demon kings, and Zhou Yi cursed them to death while Yellow Ox looted their Cave Estates.
• Yellow Ox returned with more than a hundred Storage Bags of spiritual resources, and Zhou Yi suspected the demon emperors were gathering resources for a way to survive the calamity.
• Yuan Qi brought Zhou Yi True Monarch Li’s meditation cushion, which he had bought from Li’s grandson for five hundred Spirit Stones.

Zhou Yi led Earthfire Palace to establish a hidden underground sect beneath White Cloud Peak, while setting up a small temple aboveground to gather intelligence. As he sorted Old Freak Li’s spoils, he discovered powerful cultivation and treasure-refining techniques that could strengthen him in the future.

• Zhou Yi ordered Earthfire Palace’s disciples to excavate their sect three hundred zhang underground and build only a small temple above White Cloud Peak.
• At the sect-founding banquet, Zhou Yi promised to mourn each disciple after their death, lifting their spirits with heartfelt exchanges and shared wine.
• Earthfire Palace began installing a sect-protecting formation focused on defense and concealment, while True Person Zhai’s White Cloud Temple posed as a group of rogue cultivators and gathered intelligence.
• Zhou Yi examined Old Freak Li’s possessions and found Star Constellation Secrets, a Golden Core technique that could condense a dharma body.
• Zhou Yi studied the Earthly Fiend Treasure Refining Art and learned how to create magic treasures by inscribing Di Sha Restrictions on spiritual materials.

Zhou Yi arranged for White Cloud Temple to gain the Great Qian court’s support, placing Zhai Kang in charge of the Immortal Salaries Bureau to suppress demons and preserve the sect’s legacy. After preparing a miniature formation for his future seclusion, Zhou Yi visited Huang Yuniang to settle old karma before entering seclusion with only a few decades of life remaining.

• Zhou Yi explained to Yu Shou and the disciples that studying the sages’ scriptures could bring wealth and influence even after cultivation became impossible.
• Zhou Yi bought the Microcosm Formation from Xu Ling and began adapting it to conceal the Jianmu Tree and his future place of cultivation.
• Zhou Yi urged True Person Zhai to ally with Great Qian, and the Guangming Emperor later appointed Zhai Kang head of the Immortal Salaries Bureau.
• Zhai Kang recruited cultivators to hunt demons and devils, while White Cloud Temple’s reputation spread across Cloud Province.
• Zhou Yi completed a formation that could shrink his palace, then decided to enter seclusion after settling his affairs in the Nine Provinces.
• Zhou Yi visited Huang Yuniang at Emperor Chongming’s mausoleum, apologized for handing over the Ghost King Sect’s life-sustaining treasure, and rejected her offer to extend his life through the ghost path.

Zhou Yi spent thirty years compiling the Cultivation World’s scattered inheritances while relying on the growing Jianmu Tree to sustain his secluded cultivation. As spiritual energy dwindled and chaos spread, Dan Ding Sect unsealed its mountain gate, and Zhou Yi told White Cloud Temple to welcome its disciples with high positions.

• Zhou Yi dug deeper beneath Earthfire Palace, established three layers of formations, and began organizing pill formulas and other cultivation inheritances into a library.
• Yuan Qi delivered more texts and reported that spiritual energy was exhausted, cultivators were increasingly suffering cultivation deviation, and the provinces were falling into chaos.
• Over thirty years, Zhou Yi filled shelves with inheritances while watering the Jianmu Tree, which grew into a small sapling that emitted a little spiritual energy.
• Zhou Yi calculated that his spiritual objects could sustain him for several hundred years, but he worried about maintaining the Golden Core Realm as his reserves dwindled.
• Zhai Kang reported that Dan Ding Sect had unsealed its mountain gate and sent most of its disciples into the mortal world.
• Zhou Yi ordered Zhai Kang to tell the Guangming Emperor that White Cloud Temple would welcome Dan Ding Sect disciples, offering True Persons prefectural lord positions and True Lords patriarch positions.

Zhou Yi watched White Cloud Temple absorb the Dan Ding Sect’s influence as the old generation died and Earthfire Palace emptied. In Azure Province, Jian Xuan learned that the Blood Sacrifice Method had let Yuanling evade the calamity and began sacrificing Spirit Sword Sect disciples and mortals to survive it.

• Zhai Kang, with only a month of life remaining, gave Zhou Yi a Jade Slip recording his decades of demon-slaying experiences and took his leave.
• Over the following decades, Yuan Qi and Perfected Person Wei died, White Cloud Temple became Yun Province’s sole Daoist temple, and Earthfire Palace was abandoned.
• Jian Xuan learned from a Jade Slip that the Blood Sacrifice Method explained the disappearance of the One Qi Sect and Yuanling’s escape from the calamity.
• Jian Xuan summoned the scattered Spirit Sword Sect cultivators under the pretense of distributing the sect’s inheritance, then sacrificed them within the formation.
• Jian Xuan sacrificed his Nascent Soul disciple to strengthen the mark on his forehead, then flew across Azure Province and devoured the essence, energy, and Spirit Souls of thousands of mortals.

Jian Xuan slaughtered the people of Azure Province before Xiao Tiezhun killed him, and the Dan Ding Sect spread Dao Lord Xuanxiao’s warning against harming mortals. Decades later, Buddhism attacked Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple after believing Xuanxiao was gravely weakened, while Zhou Yi’s Jianmu Tree continued to grow in seclusion and his divination yielded supreme fortune.

• Jian Xuan drained the life force of more than a hundred cities in Azure Province, but Xiao Tiezhun used a substitute talisman and a Demon Subduing Pearl to defeat him and burn away his Primordial Spirit.
• The Dan Ding Sect publicized Xuanxiao’s warning that cultivators who ravaged the mortal world would be killed, frightening Nascent Soul Ancestors into silence.
• Faming urged Miaoshan to attack Xuanxiao, and Miaoshan agreed to wait until they confirmed that Xuanxiao was gravely wounded.
• After decades of misleading reports, Miaoshan and Buddhist cultivators attacked Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, where fighting continued for dozens of days and half of Miaoshan’s golden body fell.
• Zhou Yi spent ninety years cultivating the Jianmu Tree and organizing the Daoist Canon, then divined a sign of supreme fortune.

After emerging from seclusion, Zhou Yi visited White Cloud Temple to learn how the Cultivation World had changed and then met Xiao Tiezhun, now known as Dao Lord Xuanxiao. Their conversation revealed that Xiao had quietly restrained cultivators from harming the mortal world, while Zhou Yi prepared to leave after paying his respects.

• Zhou Yi stored the Jianmu Tree inside himself, gave the weakening Blood Vine Demon five Spirit Stones, and flew north with the yellow ox and ginseng doll.
• At White Cloud Temple in Qianjing, Zhou Yi met Perfected Master Xuanren, who explained that White Cloud Temple used scripture and incense to sustain its influence as spiritual qi faded.
• Xuanren told Zhou Yi that Xuanxiao had slain the demonic Heavenly Lords Jian Xuan and Miaoshan, and Zhou Yi decided to visit Xiao Tiezhun.
• At Spring Breeze Pavilion, Zhou Yi recognized the frail young man as Xiao Tiezhun and greeted him as Dao Lord Xuanxiao.
• Xiao Tiezhun revealed that he had monitored Earthfire Palace and restrained Dan Ding Sect cultivators, while praising Zhou Yi for guiding his disciples to protect the mortal world.

Xiao Tiezhun entrusted Zhou Yi with the inheritances of Dan Ding Sect and Mending Heaven Sect before they parted, and Zhou Yi fled to the North Sea to avoid the coming conflict. After more than a century of secluded cultivation, Zhou Yi attempted to preserve the dying yellow ox by reincarnating its soul into the Jianmu Tree.

• Xiao Tiezhun explained that he had dissolved Dan Ding Sect and given away its wealth, then entrusted Zhou Yi with its core texts and part of Mending Heaven Sect’s inheritance.
• Zhou Yi and Xiao Tiezhun shared music and conversation at Spring Breeze Pavilion until Xiao Tiezhun left to attend a Buddhist monk’s nirvana ceremony.
• Zhou Yi packed his books and companions, traveled north to the North Sea, and established a hidden underground refuge with the Jianmu Tree.
• Zhou Yi spent more than a hundred years cultivating in seclusion while the yellow ox helped tend the medicinal field.
• As the yellow ox neared the end of his lifespan, he chose to risk reincarnation into the Jianmu Tree, and Zhou Yi sent his soul into the tree with Creation Jade Dew.
• The yellow ox’s soul entered the Jianmu Tree and broke into fragments that merged with its azure qi.

After spending centuries nurturing Jianmu Tree and securing the yellow ox’s consciousness within it, Zhou Yi left his secluded home to return to the world. He discovered that Red Province had become a desert and that Xiao’s legacy had been erased and vilified, leaving him determined to defend Xiao’s reputation.

• Zhou Yi combined reincarnation and artifact-refining techniques to strengthen his control over Jianmu Tree and preserve the yellow ox’s consciousness.
• Jianmu Tree grew and began releasing spiritual qi, while Zhou Yi cultivated, studied the Daoist Canon, and had the Spirit Ginseng Child expand the Spirit Fields.
• After divining that the world was peaceful, Zhou Yi offered tributes at the yellow ox’s grave, took Jianmu Tree into himself, and left his home.
• Zhou Yi found Red Province buried beneath desert sands and discovered a desiccated corpse whose death resembled a blood sacrifice.
• In Qian Capital, Zhou Yi found no cultivators and learned that Great Qian had declined while historical records had removed White Cloud Temple’s achievements.
• Zhou Yi read accounts that blamed Dao Lord Xuanxiao for Red Province’s destruction and saw Xiao’s name condemned in Buddhist scriptures, so he resolved to defend Xiao’s reputation.

After leaving Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, Zhou Yi eased his anger over Xiao Tiezhun’s false reputation and settled into a new cultivation refuge on White Cloud Peak. When Qin Zheng, a prince fleeing assassins, stumbled into the hidden abode, Zhou Yi told him he was on Kunlun Mountain and would have to stay for a year.

• Zhou Yi rejected killing Buddhist disciples or trying to rewrite the scriptures, and decided to clear Xiao Tiezhun’s name gradually by guiding people over time.
• Zhou Yi wandered through Qian Capital, celebrated for half a month at Garden of Fragrances, and found the jujube tree and grapevine at his old residence beginning to transform into demons.
• Zhou Yi visited Lao Bai’s grave and the ruins of White Cloud Peak, paid respects at the underground palace graves, and planted the Jianmu Tree in a concealed sanctuary.
• Zhou Yi cultivated for years as the Jianmu Tree grew, until the Spirit Ginseng Child and Blood Vine Demon captured Qin Zheng, a prince of the Qing Kingdom fleeing assassins.
• Zhou Yi stopped the Spirit Ginseng Child from tormenting Qin Zheng and told him that he had entered Kunlun Mountain and must stay for a year before he could leave.

Qin Zheng stayed at Zhou Yi’s Kunlun retreat, learned body refinement, and discovered its rare spirit plants and the Jianmu Tree. After reading about Dao Lord Xuanxiao, Qin Zheng asked Zhou Yi whether Xuanxiao had been a demon king or a savior.

• Zhou Yi healed Qin Zheng, introduced himself as True Person Zhou, and taught him a body-refining art while they drank spirit tea.
• Qin Zheng learned that Kunlun was the only place in the world where cultivators could cultivate, then balanced body refinement with blood-qi martial arts.
• Qin Zheng grew familiar with the retreat and helped the Spirit Ginseng Child tend the spirit field, learning about its rare plants and the Jianmu Tree.
• Qin Zheng read the Record of Dao Lord Xuanxiao's Life in the Imperial Library and noticed its account seemed to reverse the story he knew about Buddhism and the enemy of Buddhism.
• Qin Zheng asked Zhou Yi whether Dao Lord Xuanxiao had truly been a demon king or a savior.

Zhou Yi told Qin Zheng how Dao Lord Xuanxiao had been slandered by the Buddhist and Daoist sects after sacrificing himself, and Qin Zheng resolved to clear his name while recognizing the danger of letting powerful factions control information. As Qin Zheng settled into farming and martial training, he revealed his childhood ties to Moyun City, and Zhou Yi began considering why its qi-and-blood methods were so effective.

• Zhou Yi claimed Dao Lord Xuanxiao as his junior brother and explained that Xuanxiao had died fighting the Buddhist and Daoist sects, whose survivors later shaped the historical record against him.
• Qin Zheng vowed to restore Xuanxiao's reputation, then concluded that rulers needed independent channels of information so ministers could not distort the truth.
• Zhou Yi warned Qin Zheng that Buddhist and Daoist curse techniques could threaten a dynasty, and Qin Zheng responded with vigilance and killing intent.
• While sharing a meal, Qin Zheng told Zhou Yi that he had grown up as Jin in Moyun City with his maternal grandfather, and Zhou Yi served him thousand-year-old pickled spirit ginseng.
• Zhou Yi realized Qin Zheng's martial art came from Moyun City and considered why qi-and-blood cultivation might be especially suited to the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Qin Zheng spent a year in Kunlun Mountain, where he trained, read immortal-cultivation tales, and received gifts from Zhou Yi and the Spirit Ginseng Child before being sent back to the mortal world. He returned to Qianjing City determined to take control of the Qing Kingdom and search for Kunlun Mountain again.

• Qin Zheng repeatedly stayed up reading tales in the Imperial Library, eventually limiting his late-night reading so he could keep training.
• Zhou Yi gave Qin Zheng Jin Ang's original book and forged him a spirit-bamboo sword.
• The Spirit Ginseng Child bestowed life force on Qin Zheng, breaking his bottleneck and forming seven acupoints.
• Zhou Yi sent Qin Zheng out of Kunlun Mountain, and the Spirit Ginseng Child questioned why he had revealed secrets about spirit medicines and the Jianmu Tree.
• Qin Zheng returned to Qianjing City, learned the assassination attempt had been blamed on bandits, and declared he would take control of the Qing Kingdom and seek Kunlun Mountain.

Zhou Yi spent centuries cultivating and refining the qi-and-blood martial path before a supreme divination slip led him to the Dividing Light Sword in Azure Province. He found the sword in a smithy and took it from a young man, revealing its former spiritual power.

• Zhou Yi revised Qin Zheng's qi-and-blood martial path to make breakthroughs easier and reduce its resource demands, while choosing to cultivate his own arts cautiously.
• After fifty years, Zhou Yi learned that Qin Zheng had conquered Yun Province and established the Qing Kingdom as its foremost dynasty.
• Zhou Yi received the supreme divination result Dividing Light and used the Black Tortoise Remains to locate the Sword Casting Hall in Azure Province.
• Zhou Yi found a nearly extinguished mana trace in a smithy in Spirit Sword City and followed a youth who bought a rusty iron sword there.
• Zhou Yi appeared before the youth, drew the sword to himself, and removed its rust to reveal a blue blade that retained a trace of spirituality.

Zhou Yi traded for the Dividing Light Sword by agreeing to teach Lin Fan, whose rare sword body had awakened the broken treasure. He trained Lin Fan in strength and movement for months, leaving him with a mountain-cutting feat to accomplish before he could roam the world.

• Zhou Yi discovered Lin Fan had learned Ephemeral Swordplay after his blood touched the Dividing Light Sword, and he took the sword to nourish it while promising to teach the boy.
• Zhou Yi met Lin Fan’s sister, Lin Yu, and began training Lin Fan in his qi-blood martial method, strength, and movement techniques.
• Zhou Yi fed the siblings spiritual rice, convincing Lin Yu that he was an extraordinary teacher and easing her worries about Lin Fan learning swordsmanship.
• After several months, Zhou Yi continued testing Lin Fan’s ability to dodge hidden weapons, and Lin Fan asked when he could venture into the jianghu.
• Zhou Yi told Lin Fan he could leave once he could sever a mountain with one sword.

Zhou Yi recalled the truth about the Spirit Sword Sect while Lin Fan continued training, and Emperor Taishi intensified his search for Kunlun Mountain. After swallowing a pill made by True Man Xu, the emperor tasted spiritual energy again and began reciting visions of Kunlun to the court scribes.

• Zhou Yi destroyed a history scroll that falsely claimed the Spirit Sword Sect's patriarch had died fighting a demon, remembering that Jian Xuan had been the first patriarch to fall into demonhood.
• Lin Fan asked Zhou Yi why he had not taught him sword techniques, and Zhou Yi replied that a single sword capable of cleaving a mountain needed no techniques.
• Emperor Taishi ordered another hundred thousand troops to search Yun Province for Kunlun Mountain, despite ministers warning of the cost and worsening droughts.
• Emperor Taishi praised Liu Jin for suppressing Buddhist and Daoist scriptures that slandered Dao Patriarch Xuanxiao.
• True Man Xu gave Emperor Taishi three incomplete longevity pills, and the emperor swallowed one without testing it.
• Emperor Taishi felt spiritual energy for the first time in thirty-six years and recited descriptions of Kunlun's treasures and Jianmu Tree as the court historians recorded his words.

Emperor Taishi resolved to pursue immortality, while the Buddhist leaders planned to exploit his harsh rule and invade Yun Province. Zhou Yi left Lin Fan, who immediately caused a deadly incident in Spirit Sword City, then returned to Yun Province and continued south toward the Ten Thousand Mountains.

• Emperor Taishi rewarded True Man Xu for refining a spiritual pill and vowed to seek Kunlun Mountain and immortality.
• At Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, the Buddhist Zen Master ordered the monks to wait until Emperor Taishi lost popular support before using their treasure to kill him and spread Buddhism into Yun Province.
• Zhou Yi said farewell to Lin Fan after ten years of teaching him, explaining why he had not taken the Dividing Light Sword and warning him to be cautious.
• Lin Fan tried to approach Wu Kun for guidance, but he killed a sword attendant with one blow and fled when Wu Kun cried out for help.
• Zhou Yi returned to White Cloud Peak to pay respects at the graves, then flew south to Moyun City, where he planned to find a mountain for secluded cultivation.

Zhou Yi returned to Moyun City, discovered that its people worshipped him as the Golden God, and established a secluded cultivation site while searching Azure Wave Lake for the Dragon Emperor. His solitude ended when he met Jin Jing, who revealed his concerns about Moyun City's growing prosperity and his cousin's troubled state of mind.

• Zhou Yi visited Moyun City, learned of its wine-drinking custom and Golden God worship, and realized that he had become the city's totem.
• Zhou Yi visited Joyful Union Courtyard and recognized that Old Daoist Lu's dual-cultivation teachings had developed into a martial sect.
• Zhou Yi established Kunlun Mountain as his secluded residence, planted the Jianmu Tree, and searched the Dragon Palace ruins for clues to the Dragon Emperor's hiding place.
• After years of seclusion, Zhou Yi went fishing by Azure Wave Lake and met Jin Jing, the Grand Elder of Moyun City.
• Jin Jing told Zhou Yi that Moyun City's prosperity had weakened its people's martial discipline and that his cousin, the ruler, had become unclear-minded.

Emperor Taishi met Lin Fan, a Kunlun Sword Sect disciple, and the two compared what they knew about Kunlun and Dao Lord Xuanxiao. Lin Fan decided to expose the truth about Xuanxiao in Qing Province, while Zhou Yi found a pearl from the green fish but learned it was not the relic he sought.

• At court, Emperor Taishi ordered an expedition to the East Sea for spiritual herbs and was told that Lin Fan, a flying swordsman who claimed to be from Kunlun, awaited him.
• Emperor Taishi met Lin Fan at Kunlun Palace, declared him a junior brother, and exchanged accounts of Kunlun Mountain and its immortals with him.
• After hearing that Emperor Taishi planned to clear Dao Lord Xuanxiao's name, Lin Fan resolved to defeat Qing Province's experts and reveal the truth without causing widespread slaughter.
• Emperor Taishi asked Lin Fan to put in a good word for him if he met the immortal again, and Lin Fan agreed.
• At Azure Wave Lake, Zhou Yi accepted Jin Jing's invitation to the Golden God's birthday celebration in Moyun City.
• The green fish spat out a black pearl for Zhou Yi, but he found it had no connection to the Dragon Palace relic he was seeking.

Zhou Yi attended a ceremony honoring the Golden God and learned that Emperor Taishi planned to expand into the Ten Thousand Mountains, while Jin Jing sought to balance his family ties and political loyalties. In the Jin family’s treasure vault, Zhou Yi found a Dragon’s Reverse Scale that could help him pursue revenge, then gave Jin Jing unusual rice seeds in exchange.

• Zhou Yi watched Jin Jing lead Moyun City’s citizens in a ceremony celebrating the Golden God, then spoke with him at the banquet.
• Prince Qin Xiao asked Zhou Yi about the East Sea, and Zhou Yi gave him a sea chart while warning that the sea was unlikely to hold spiritual herbs.
• Jin Jing explained that he supported Qin Xiao because of family ties and revealed that Emperor Taishi wanted to incorporate Moyun City into the Qing Kingdom.
• Jin Jing invited Zhou Yi to stay and choose an antique from the Jin family’s treasure vault the next day.
• Zhou Yi found a Dragon’s Reverse Scale in the vault and recognized it as a useful link to the dragons of Azure Wave Lake for his revenge.
• Zhou Yi gave Jin Jing unusual rice seeds as thanks for the scale.