Chapter Summaries

Xu Chunniang saved Cheng Qingjia’s three spiritual souls with a Sun Soul Bead and learned that Zhan Yingluo had tried to forge a Cheng Family bloodline to open Penglai’s inheritance barrier. She deduced that voluntary soul blood was the key, leaving Zhan Yingluo furious as Xu prepared to obtain it from Cheng Qingjia.

• Xu Chunniang learned that Zhan Yingluo had drained Cheng Qingjia’s blood and refined his seven corporeal souls in an attempt to create a Cheng Family bloodline.
• Cheng Qingjia’s spiritual souls began to fade, but Xu Chunniang used a Sun Soul Bead to disperse the black mist and stabilize them.
• Cheng Qingjia considered entering reincarnation, and Xu Chunniang urged him to consider whether he could reach the Yellow Springs without his seven corporeal souls.
• Xu Chunniang questioned Cheng Qingjia about what Zhan Yingluo had wanted, but his damaged memories kept him from recalling it clearly.
• Xu Chunniang confronted Zhan Yingluo and claimed she knew how to open the inheritance barrier, then deduced from Zhan Yingluo’s reaction that soul blood was the key.

Xu Chunniang and Cheng Qingjia tried to open the Cheng Family ancestor’s barrier with soul blood, but Cheng Qingjia’s remnant soul could not supply enough. The barrier shattered after mysterious impacts from within, releasing a powerful yin soul that attacked Xu Chunniang before Cheng Qingjia stopped it, leaving them to wonder what the ancestor’s presence was.

• Xu Chunniang restrained Zhan Yingluo and considered how to recover Cheng Qingjia’s seven corporeal souls without damaging his Primordial Spirit.
• Cheng Qingjia secretly condensed a drop of soul blood from his three souls, and it weakened the barrier but was quickly consumed.
• Cheng Qingjia prepared to condense more soul blood, but Xu Chunniang restrained him and urged him not to risk his remnant soul for the treasures.
• Impacts from inside the barrier shattered it, and a chilling aura struck Xu Chunniang while sweeping Cheng Qingjia’s Primordial Spirit away.
• Cheng Qingjia stopped the yin soul from attacking Xu Chunniang and explained that she had saved him; the yin soul apologized, while Xu Chunniang wondered what it was.

Xu Chunniang met the Cheng Family ancestor, now an Artifact Spirit of the Soul-Gathering Lamp, who helped her deal with Zhan Yingluo and gave her an Immortal Palace Token. The ancestor explained that the Immortal Palace Ruins would open in less than three years and warned Xu Chunniang that entering as a newly advanced Golden Core cultivator would be dangerous.

• The ghostly Cheng Family ancestor revealed that the Soul-Gathering Lamp had gathered her remnant soul and turned her into its Artifact Spirit, and warned Xu Chunniang that the lamp belonged to Penglai.
• Xu Chunniang asked the ancestor to remove the seven essences refined into Zhan Yingluo's Primordial Spirit, and the ancestor stripped them away before crushing the Primordial Spirit.
• The ancestor gave Xu Chunniang a jade hairpin containing her former possessions, including an Immortal Palace Token, as payment for helping the Cheng Family.
• The ancestor explained that the token allowed entry to the Immortal Palace Ruins, which would open in less than three years and offered many inheritances to Golden Core cultivators.
• Xu Chunniang learned that outsiders could enter with tokens, but the ancestor warned that the ruins' dangers and elite competitors made entry perilous for a Rogue Cultivator at Golden Core Layer One.

Xu Chunniang accepted the Yin Soul’s warning about the dangers of the Immortal Palace Ruins but chose to go, and the Yin Soul rewarded her with soul power from the Soul-Gathering Lamp. After leaving the cave abode, Xu Chunniang explored the secret realm and examined Zhan Yingluo’s belongings, finding that most had decayed over a thousand years.

• Xu Chunniang decided to seek an opportunity in the Immortal Palace Ruins, and the Yin Soul gave her the Immortal Palace Token to guide her there.
• The Yin Soul explained the Soul-Gathering Lamp’s power and offered Xu Chunniang its soul light, which strengthened her Primordial Spirit and divine sense.
• The Yin Soul advised Xu Chunniang to keep a low profile in the Immortal Palace Ruins, and Xu Chunniang departed after saying farewell to her and Cheng Qingjia.
• Xu Chunniang wandered through the secret realm for several days and found several nearly vanished second-grade spiritual materials.
• Xu Chunniang searched Zhan Yingluo’s Storage Ring and jade hairpin, discovering that most stored items had lost their efficacy and that a third-grade spiritual material had rotted away.

Xu Chunniang collected an Immortal Palace Token, preserved records, a sea chart, and resources from Zhan Yingluo's Storage Ring before learning Cloud Concealment Escape. She followed the senior's directions out of the secret realm and emerged in a fishing net, where the fishermen were stunned to find her.

• Xu Chunniang opened the bone boxes, claimed the Immortal Palace Token, and sorted the bone fragments, including a sea chart spanning several continents.
• Xu Chunniang searched Zhan Yingluo's Storage Ring, took its spirit stones and useful items, and chose the Cloud Concealment Escape technique.
• Xu Chunniang learned the escape technique over four or five days and headed for the secret realm's exit.
• Xu Chunniang dived through a seemingly tiny pool and emerged in a lake, caught in an old fishing net.
• The fishermen hauled in the net and froze when they saw Xu Chunniang inside.

After emerging from an underwater vortex secret realm, Xu Chunniang was mistaken for a clam gatherer and brought aboard a fishing boat. As she traveled with the fishermen, she found peace in their ordinary lives, gained perspective on her path, and stabilized her Golden Core cultivation.

• Old Li mistook Xu Chunniang, still caught in the fishing net, for a clam gatherer and had the fishermen bring her aboard.
• Xu Chunniang accepted the fishermen’s invitation to return with them and learned that the Lin Household taxed the local people.
• Old Li proudly told Xu Chunniang about his son’s cultivation and the fishermen discussed their catch and hardships.
• Xu Chunniang listened to the fishermen and reflected on the sea, her cultivation, and the Great Dao.
• Xu Chunniang’s worries eased, and her cultivation finally stabilized.

Xu Chunniang arrived on Black Fish Island and accepted Old Li and Aunt Li’s warm hospitality while reflecting on her long absence from her mortal family. Their son, Li Yuan, returned home and hurried off to find his father, hoping to obtain a black fish to present to Young Master Lin Qi.

• Old Li insisted that Xu Chunniang stay at his home on Black Fish Island, and she agreed after he pulled her along.
• Aunt Li welcomed Xu Chunniang, who helped her cook and thought of her family, whom she had not seen in over thirty years.
• Li Yuan returned home and mistook Xu Chunniang for a mortal clam gatherer.
• Li Yuan learned that Old Li might have caught a black fish and hurried off to find him before it could be sold, hoping to present it to Young Master Lin Qi.

Li Yuan returned home seeking the blackfish his father had caught, but learned it had been sold and asked Old Li to save the next one for him. After Li Yuan left, Xu Chunniang spoke with Old Li and Aunt Li over dinner and shared her spirit wine.

• Li Yuan arrived home and asked Old Li about the blackfish, then complained that it had been sold and its spirit stones distributed.
• Old Li gave Li Yuan thirty-seven spirit stones, and Li Yuan urged his father to reserve the next blackfish for him to present to Young Master Lin Qi.
• Li Yuan left after telling Old Li not to bring strangers home, leaving Old Li and Aunt Li watching him go.
• Xu Chunniang pointed out that Li Yuan could hunt blackfish himself, but Old Li said going to sea was too dangerous.
• Xu Chunniang revealed her spirit wine and poured bowls for Old Li and Aunt Li.

Xu Chunniang prepared to leave Black Fish Island, but Lin Yongguang arrived to demand her spirit wine and threatened Old Li. After she effortlessly destroyed his attack, Lin Yongguang invoked the Lin family and invited her to visit, and she agreed to go with him.

• Xu Chunniang shared diluted Sweet Dew Fragrance with Uncle Li and Aunt Li and told them she planned to leave the next day.
• Lin Yongguang barged into Old Li's home and demanded to know about the cultivator who brewed wine.
• Xu Chunniang admitted she was the cultivator Lin Yongguang sought, and he attacked Old Li with a barbed spirit vine.
• Xu Chunniang burned the spirit vine to ash, frightening Lin Yongguang into changing his attitude.
• Lin Yongguang invited Xu Chunniang to the Lin family to discuss her spirit wine, and she agreed to go with him.

Xu Chunniang left Old Li and Aunt Li after warning Old Li about Li Yuan, then followed Lin Yongguang to Lin Manor. Old Li realized she was likely a powerful cultivator and kept secret the spirit wine and pills she had hidden for his family, while Xu Chunniang entered the manor intending to use its teleportation array.

• Xu Chunniang warned Old Li that Li Yuan relied too much on his parents, and Old Li cautioned her not to provoke the powerful Lin family.
• Xu Chunniang used voice transmission to reassure Old Li and reveal she had hidden spirit wine and body-strengthening pills beneath the osmanthus tree for him to retrieve later.
• Old Li decided it might be time to change how he treated Li Yuan, while Aunt Li remained unaware of Xu Chunniang's gift.
• Lin Yongguang led Xu Chunniang to Lin Manor and assumed she had been intimidated into cooperating.
• Xu Chunniang agreed to wait in the stewards' hall, intending to borrow the Lin family's teleportation array.

Lin Qi blamed Fourth Miss Lin for protecting a goshawk that killed his beloved cat, Snowball, but Li Yuan revealed that Snowball had killed the hawk’s five eaglets. Fourth Miss Lin urged Lin Qi to learn right from wrong, leaving him guilty but still shaken by Snowball’s death.

• Xu Chunniang watched as a goshawk attacked Snowball, while Fourth Miss Lin blocked Lin Qi’s spirit arrows from killing the bird.
• Lin Qi accused Fourth Miss Lin of letting Snowball die, and Lin Shuangcheng joined him in blaming her.
• Fourth Miss Lin asked Li Yuan to explain what he had witnessed, and he said Snowball had killed five eaglets while the goshawk was away.
• Li Yuan clarified that Snowball had played with the eaglets until they died without eating them, and Lin Qi accused him of lying.
• Fourth Miss Lin rebuked Lin Qi and told him to learn right from wrong, while Lin Qi recalled Snowball’s mischief and his own urge to take his anger out on Li Yuan.

After confronting Lin Qi over his behavior, Fourth Miss Lin met Xu Chunniang and learned she had come to Lin Manor with a spirit wine recipe. She offered to bring Xu Chunniang to the Lin Family Head, and Xu accepted.

• Fourth Miss Lin rebuked Lin Qi for failing to restrain Snowball and for mistreating Li Yuan while indulging Lin Shuangcheng.
• Fourth Miss Lin noticed Xu Chunniang outside the side hall and learned from Lin Yongguang that Xu had a spirit wine recipe.
• Fourth Miss Lin asked whether Xu had come willingly, and Xu said she had but had not decided whether to sell her recipe.
• Fourth Miss Lin offered to take Xu to meet her grandfather, the Lin Family Head, who could decide the matter.
• Xu Chunniang calmly agreed to go with Fourth Miss Lin.

Xu Chunniang met the Lin Family Head and arranged to leave Black Fish Island with him in half a month, saving on transmission costs. Before leaving the hall, she raised a question about something she had observed.

• Fourth Miss Lin brought Xu Chunniang to meet the Lin Family Head, who recognized her as a Golden Core cultivator.
• Xu Chunniang explained that she wanted to borrow Lin Manor’s transmission array to leave the island.
• The Lin Family Head offered to depart with Xu Chunniang in half a month, and she agreed to share the transmission costs.
• The Lin Family Head asked about Xu Chunniang’s spirit wine recipe, and she explained that it required a good spirit spring, which Black Fish Island lacked.
• As Xu Chunniang prepared to leave, she told the Lin Family Head that she had a question about something she did not understand.

Xu Chunniang discussed Black Fish Island’s poverty and heavy taxes with the Lin Family Head, then offered to help improve the island’s spiritual energy with a Spirit Gathering Formation. The Lin Family Head accepted her offer after she demonstrated that she was a Level 3 Formation Master, while Lin Qi wondered about her background.

• Xu Chunniang told the Lin Family Head that fishermen paid half their earnings in taxes, and he explained the island’s costly defenses, dwindling resources, and worsening poverty.
• Xu Chunniang proposed going to sea to slay demon beasts, but the Lin Family Head explained the dangers and recounted how Li Yuan had nearly been eaten by a Foundation Establishment sea serpent.
• Xu Chunniang urged the Lin Family Head to change the island’s course, and he said its barren spiritual energy could only be improved by moving a Spiritual Vein or using high-level Spirit Gathering Formations.
• Xu Chunniang revealed that she was a Level 3 Formation Master and offered to try setting up a Spirit Gathering Formation if the Lin Family Head provided the method and materials.
• Xu Chunniang demonstrated a Level 3 Five Elements Defense Formation, and the Lin Family Head ordered someone to retrieve a formations bone book and materials from the treasury.
• In the side hall, Lin Qi asked Fourth Miss Lin whether Xu Chunniang was someone their grandfather had known, and Fourth Miss Lin said she did not know but thought not.

The Lin Family Head summoned Li Yuan and reassigned him from Lin Qi to cultivate with Fourth Miss Lin, recognizing his diligence and spiritual aptitude. Li Yuan left hopeful about his future, while the Family Head told Fourth Miss Lin to deal with Lin Shuangcheng and his father as she saw fit.

• Lin Yongguang left after waiting nearly an hour, while Lin Shuangcheng and Li Yuan stayed outside the hall.
• Fourth Miss Lin summoned Li Yuan to meet the Lin Family Head, and Li Yuan followed her into the hall while Lin Shuangcheng watched resentfully.
• The Lin Family Head praised Li Yuan for advancing from the second level of Qi Refining in eight years and ordered him to stop following Lin Qi.
• The Lin Family Head assigned Li Yuan to cultivate with Fourth Miss Lin and told her to handle Lin Shuangcheng and his father as she saw fit.

Xu Chunniang inspected Black Fish Island’s deteriorating Level 3 Spirit Gathering Formation and began repairing it after studying its recorded design. The repair caused the formation’s spiritual energy to dissipate, and the Lin Family Head received a report about the change while holding a Lineage assembly.

• The Lin Family Head explained why he had arranged for Li Yuan and invited Xu Chunniang to inspect Black Fish Island’s Spirit Gathering Formation.
• Xu Chunniang sensed the formation’s poor spiritual energy flow, and the Lin Family Head barred cultivators from approaching it while she examined its structure.
• Cultivators on the island worried that losing access to the formation would hinder their cultivation, then learned that a formation master had come to repair it.
• Xu Chunniang studied the bone fragment’s instructions and began removing formation items from the nodes, causing the gathered spiritual energy to dissipate.
• The Lin Family Head received a report about the change while presiding over a Lineage assembly.

The Lin Family Head defended Xu Chunniang’s work on the Spirit Gathering Formation while Sixth Uncle suspected she was unqualified and tried to inspect the formation. After sneaking past the guards with an illusion formation, Sixth Uncle entered and found the formation foundations in disarray as Xu Chunniang prepared the next step.

• Sixth Uncle questioned whether Xu Chunniang was truly a Level 3 Formation Master, but the Lin Family Head insisted she was a Golden Core cultivator with precise control of the formation disk.
• After the council meeting, Sixth Uncle went to the Spirit Gathering Formation, but the Lin Family Head ordered the guards not to let him enter.
• Sixth Uncle secretly used an illusion formation to get past the two guards, who discovered the deception only after he had disappeared inside.
• The Lin Family Head learned that Sixth Uncle had entered and decided to warn Xu Chunniang in case she accidentally injured him.
• Xu Chunniang sensed an elderly man enter the formation as she removed spiritual objects from its foundations, and Sixth Uncle lamented that the damaged foundations would make even restoring the formation difficult.

Xu Chunniang explained the Spirit Gathering Formation’s hidden flaw to Sixth Uncle, then began rebuilding it while he watched. After a day and a night, she had rearranged all seventy-two formation nodes and completed the Eight Gates, leaving the formation poised for its next stage.

• Xu Chunniang summoned Sixth Uncle and explained that the formation’s weak spiritual-energy control, not its nodes, caused energy to thin near the formation and gather farther away.
• Sixth Uncle realized his past repairs had missed the real problem, apologized through his changed demeanor, and asked to watch Xu Chunniang rebuild the formation.
• Xu Chunniang allowed Sixth Uncle to observe, then spent a day and a night rearranging all seventy-two formation nodes as he tried to memorize their positions.
• Xu Chunniang began placing the Eight Gates, setting the Opening Gate at Qian with a high-quality Spirit Transformation Stone and then adding the remaining gates.
• Xu Chunniang completed the Eight Gates, which formed the shape of a massive Primordial Eight Trigrams diagram.

Xu Chunniang completed the Level 3 Spirit Gathering grand formation and found Lin Family Sixth Uncle exhausted from studying it. After refusing to take him as a disciple, she received his formation notes and noticed two formations that resembled teleportation formations.

• Xu Chunniang completed the Spirit Gathering grand formation after ten days of work and notified the Lin Family Head.
• Xu Chunniang found Sixth Uncle absorbed in his formation calculations and explained that his divine sense was too weak to grasp the full formation.
• Sixth Uncle asked Xu Chunniang to accept him as her disciple, but she refused and urged him to believe he could still reach the Golden Core stage.
• Sixth Uncle gave Xu Chunniang a bone slip containing his formation insights, and she noticed two formations resembling teleportation formations.

Xu Chunniang received two complete teleportation array diagrams and formation knowledge from Sixth Uncle, then gave him her own formation insights and an incomplete Level 3 teleportation array. After recovering, she arrived in southern Black Fish Island to build a second Spirit Gathering Formation and entrusted Sixth Uncle with preparing its formation anchors.

• Xu Chunniang studied the bone fragment’s two teleportation array diagrams and discovered Sixth Uncle had also recorded formation methods and years of experience.
• Xu Chunniang gave Sixth Uncle her formation insights and an incomplete Level 3 teleportation array, and he explained that generations of Lin Household Formation Masters had developed the two diagrams.
• Xu Chunniang agreed to help Sixth Uncle set up a new Spirit Gathering Formation on Black Fish Island three days later, then rested until she had recovered.
• Xu Chunniang met the Lin Family Head and Sixth Uncle in southern Black Fish Island to begin setting up the island’s second Spirit Gathering Formation.
• Xu Chunniang gave Sixth Uncle the sorted materials and made him responsible for preparing the formation anchors.