Chapter Summaries

After obtaining the West Sea Chart, Xu Chunniang tried to leave the island but was told the teleportation array was under repair, so she returned to Zhu Family’s gathering. Zhu Qiaoqiao began the martial debate with valuable prizes, and Fey Shadow Fairy gained the upper hand against Iron Fan Scholar.

• Xu Chunniang put away the tortoiseshell map and decided to focus on improving her cultivation before traveling to the West Sea.
• A Zhu Family cultivator told Xu Chunniang that the island’s teleportation array had malfunctioned and would take two days to repair, so she returned to the gathering.
• Zhu Qiaoqiao announced the martial debate and offered a Teleportation Talisman and other prizes to the top contestants.
• Fey Shadow Fairy defeated a lanky male cultivator with her movement technique and palm strike.
• Iron Fan Scholar trapped Fey Shadow Fairy with his fan-rib formation, but she used the Fey Shadow Avatar to appear beside him and strike his shoulder.

Fey Shadow Fairy defeated Iron Fan Scholar before losing to a later challenger, while Xu Chunniang watched the martial contest and declined to compete. Tun Yue True Person entered the arena and withstood True Person Fu Guang’s Void Spirit Talisman with his bare hand.

• Fey Shadow Fairy defeated Iron Fan Scholar, then was defeated by another cultivator who entered the arena.
• Xu Chunniang suspected the Zhu Family was using the contest to identify powerful cultivators and declined to enter when others urged her to compete.
• Tun Yue True Person entered the arena and faced True Person Fu Guang, an experienced late Golden Core cultivator with five consecutive wins.
• True Person Fu Guang formed a Void Spirit Talisman from spiritual energy and sent it at Tun Yue True Person.
• Tun Yue True Person grabbed the talisman, and it exploded in his palm without injuring his hand.

Tun Yue True Person dominated the arena with six consecutive victories until Three Stones Layman challenged him using the Three Stones Ring. The ring’s carved heads began to restrain Tun Yue True Person, leaving their match unresolved.

• True Person Fu Guang conceded to Tun Yue True Person after deciding not to spend his precious talismans.
• Tun Yue True Person defeated four more challengers, bringing his winning streak to six and daring the crowd to face him.
• Three Stones Layman took the stage and summoned his Three Stones Ring, whose three carved heads represented a maiden, a youth, and an old man.
• Tun Yue True Person seized the ring and tried to tear it apart, but the fairy maiden’s words briefly distracted him and her golden light burned his hand.
• The mortal old man spoke, and an invisible force trapped Tun Yue True Person, leaving him unable to move.

Tun Yue True Person resisted the Three Stones Ring’s counsel and was nearly drained by its vicious ghost before conceding and leaving the arena. Three Stones Layman then faced a tall female Beast Tamer, whose two spirit beasts and Konghou music put him at a disadvantage as he continued fighting without using the ring.

• Tun Yue True Person rejected the elderly mortal’s advice, and the vicious ghost youth enveloped him in blue-black vapor and began devouring his spiritual energy.
• Tun Yue True Person conceded before the vicious ghost could drain his Golden Core, and Three Stones Layman recalled the Three Stones Ring.
• Tun Yue True Person accused Three Stones Layman’s artifact of being vicious, then left the arena after Three Stones Layman defended it.
• A tall female Beast Tamer challenged Three Stones Layman and summoned two Golden Core stage spirit beasts.
• Three Stones Layman split his black-and-white lasso to restrain the beasts while the female cultivator played her Konghou, leaving him pressured by their combined attacks.

Three Stones Layman defeated the tall female cultivator and several challengers with black-and-white qi suspected to be True Saint Wuji’s Great Law of Karma Reincarnation, earning six consecutive victories. Zhu Qiaoqiao urged True Person Qingzhu to demonstrate his swordsmanship, and his casual strike pierced the arena’s Level Four Defensive Formation, leaving Xu Chunniang to assess his formidable Azure Bamboo Sword Intent.

• Three Stones Layman trapped the tall female cultivator’s two spirit beasts in a black-and-white net that shared damage with them, forcing her to concede.
• Spectators recognized Three Stones Layman’s black-and-white qi as possibly linked to True Saint Wuji’s Great Law of Karma Reincarnation, and more challengers took the stage and lost to him.
• Three Stones Layman reached six consecutive victories, tying Tun Yue True Person for first place without using his Three Stones Ring again.
• Zhu Qiaoqiao invited True Person Qingzhu to demonstrate his swordsmanship, and he sent a bamboo leaf of Azure Bamboo Sword Intent through the arena’s defensive formation.
• Xu Chunniang judged True Person Qingzhu’s Sword Intent faster and stronger than her Purple Intent Blade, while believing her blade could match it at Peak Golden Core Realm.

At the Zhu Family’s Dao Discussion Convention, Three Stones Layman won the martial contest, and Zhu Yanzhi offered rewards while recruiting the top cultivators. Zhu Yanzhi recognized Xu Chunniang from the Immortal Palace Ruins, leaving Zhu Qiaoqiao suspicious of their connection as the auction began.

• Zhu Qiaoqiao invited Xu Chunniang and the other cultivators to challenge Three Stones Layman, but none accepted, so she declared him the martial contest’s winner.
• Zhu Yanzhi arrived to distribute the prizes, recognized Xu Chunniang from the Immortal Palace Ruins, and recruited several of the top contestants.
• Three Stones Layman declined Zhu Yanzhi’s offer to join the Zhu Family but accepted the Teleportation Talisman awarded for first place.
• Zhu Yanzhi departed, and Zhu Qiaoqiao resumed the auction while wondering how Xu Chunniang had come to know the young master.

Xu Chunniang met Zhu Yanzhi in a bamboo grove, where he tried to learn about her time in the Immortal Palace Ruins and invited her to join the Zhu Family. After she left, Zhu Yanzhi remained unsure whether she was connected to the Chengyun Hall disturbance and worried that the Qi Family had gained the True Immortal Inheritance.

• Zhu Yanzhi summoned Xu Chunniang to a bamboo grove, where he greeted her and served her Sunset Spirit Tea.
• Zhu Yanzhi asked about Xu Chunniang's time in the Immortal Palace Ruins and whether she would join the Zhu Family, but she declined.
• Xu Chunniang said she had been trapped on a mountain after escaping the gray mist corridor, then took her leave after exchanging soul auras with Zhu Yanzhi.
• Zhu Yanzhi told his middle-aged cultivator that Xu Chunniang might be connected to the Chengyun Hall disturbance, though he thought it unlikely.
• The middle-aged cultivator and Zhu Yanzhi discussed how the Qi Family had been blamed for obtaining the True Immortal Inheritance and feared its eventual power.

Zhu Yanzhi arranged to give Xu Chunniang Vermillion Bird Fire so he could track her through his bloodline, while delaying action against Three Stones Layman over the Great Law of Karma Reincarnation. Xu Chunniang accepted the flame at the auction, unaware of Zhu Yanzhi’s scheme.

• Zhu Yanzhi ordered a middle-aged cultivator to watch Xu Chunniang and give her Vermillion Bird Fire, which would let him sense her location after she absorbed it.
• Zhu Yanzhi learned Three Stones Layman had obtained the Great Law of Karma Reincarnation and decided to wait before approaching him.
• After the auction ended, Zhu Qiaoqiao received orders to give Xu Chunniang the Vermillion Bird Fire she had been guarding for herself.
• Zhu Qiaoqiao presented the flame publicly as a gift from Zhu Yanzhi, startling the crowd and Xu Chunniang.
• Xu Chunniang accepted the Vermillion Bird Fire and asked Zhu Qiaoqiao to thank Zhu Yanzhi, leaving Zhu Qiaoqiao resentful.

Xu Chunniang returned from the Zhu Family’s Dao convention with the Vermillion Bird Fire and refused a scar-faced cultivator’s plea to intervene for his ill Dao companion. Back at her residence, she began unsealing the fire so the Heartfall Flame could devour it.

• Xu Chunniang listened to three Nascent Soul Cultivators discourse on the Dao for three days and returned from Ancestral Island to Wind Thunder Island.
• A scar-faced male cultivator asked Xu Chunniang to introduce him to Zhu Yanzhi so he could obtain spirit medicine for his ill Dao companion, but she refused and advised him to help himself.
• Xu Chunniang returned to her residence, let Little Orange cultivate, and took out the Vermillion Bird Fire sealed in Thousand-Year Profound Ice.
• Xu Chunniang opened a small crack in the ice casket, and the room’s temperature suddenly soared.

Xu Chunniang’s Heartfall Flame devoured the Vermillion Bird Fire, but her strengthened flame offered little comfort when she learned that millions of sea demon beasts had surrounded Wind Thunder Island. She found cultivators trying to flee through the unguarded north, where Lingyu True Monarch confronted them and declared that cowards who fled from battle would die.

• Xu Chunniang’s Heartfall Flame defeated and consumed the Vermillion Bird Fire, then returned to her body stronger than before.
• Xu Chunniang learned at the Merit Hall that millions of sea demon beasts had surrounded Wind Thunder Island on three sides and that cultivators had to prepare to fight.
• Xu Chunniang heard cultivators arguing in the Teleportation Hall over the ban on leaving the island and suspected the open northern route might be a trap.
• Xu Chunniang went north and saw cultivators attempting to escape, where Lingyu True Monarch blocked their way.
• The fleeing cultivators pleaded for mercy, but Lingyu True Monarch declared that those who fled from battle would die.

Xu Chunniang saw Lingyu True Monarch punish a cultivator who argued against defending Wind Thunder Island, then joined the eastern defenses as the sea demon army approached. Reports revealed twenty-eight Nascent Soul great demons across three fronts, while the defenders feared the Sea Clan might also send Spirit Transformation-level powerhouses.

• Lingyu True Monarch killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator who argued that Wind Thunder Island should be abandoned, then used his remnant soul to consecrate a banner and warned the others against fleeing.
• The remaining cultivators returned to the island’s interior, and Xu Chunniang headed east after learning that the eastern sea demon army was nearest.
• Xu Chunniang joined the eastern defenders and saw seven Nascent Soul great demons leading the seemingly endless sea demon army.
• Scouts reported that the army would take two days to reach the nearby waters, and the Nascent Soul True Lords debated whether to send out a vanguard.
• A black-robed old man learned that the southern and western forces included twelve and nine Nascent Soul great demons, bringing the revealed total across the three fronts to twenty-eight.
• The defenders judged they could handle the revealed great demons but feared the Sea Clan might deploy Spirit Transformation-level powerhouses.

As the sea demon beast tide closed in on Wind Thunder Island, its leaders avoided attacking the island’s protective formation, prompting the Nascent Soul cultivators to take the initiative and lead a vast force into battle. Xu Chunniang joined the army as human and beast casualties mounted, while the Nascent Soul leaders held back from intervening.

• A dozen or so Golden Core cultivators fought a sea demon beast vanguard, and only two survived to return to Wind Thunder Island.
• For two days, the human cultivators met successive vanguard attacks as the sea demon beast tide advanced and then encamped fifty li east of the island.
• Snow Sword Immortal and the black-robed old man suspected the sea demon beasts meant to exhaust and trap the island’s defenders, so the Nascent Soul True Lords decided to attack first.
• Xu Chunniang and tens of thousands of cultivators left Wind Thunder Island and charged the sea demon beast army, while both sides’ Nascent Soul leaders watched without engaging.
• A dark-faced Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator worried over his dying clansmen, but the black-robed old man argued that intervening would escalate the conflict.

After six months of battle around Wind Thunder Island, Xu Chunniang was ambushed by four sea demon beasts when her spiritual energy was nearly depleted. She restored her strength, killed one with Innate Violet Qi and orange flames, then withstood three more beasts’ attacks and smashed one’s head, leaving two attackers alive.

• After sensing her spiritual energy was running low, Xu Chunniang retreated toward Wind Thunder Island but was surrounded by four sea demon beasts.
• Xu Chunniang drank a drop of Thousand-Year Spirit Milk to replenish her spiritual energy, frustrating the beasts’ plan to catch her exhausted.
• Xu Chunniang trapped the first attacker in a net of Innate Violet Qi and burned it to death with orange flames.
• The remaining three late Golden Core stage sea demon beasts attacked together, but Xu Chunniang defended herself with the Mountain and River Diagram, Primordial Heavy Water armor, and a violet barrier.
• Xu Chunniang strode toward one of the three beasts and smashed its head with her black fist, leaving the other two alive.

Xu Chunniang defeated four Golden Core sea demon beasts, but a Nascent Soul great demon’s Water Arrow Technique pierced her purple qi barrier before a black-robed elder intervened. After returning to Wind Thunder Island, she reflected on new uses for her purple qi and gave Little Orange pills and Pure Heart Lotus Seeds for Little White’s impending breakthrough.

• Xu Chunniang killed the four sea demon beasts that had surrounded her, then used her purple qi barrier to survive a Nascent Soul great demon’s Water Arrow Technique.
• The black-robed old man killed a sea demon beast and confronted the Nascent Soul great demon, which agreed to a temporary truce.
• Xu Chunniang thanked the old man, considered the danger of Nascent Soul Cultivators breaking their agreement, and returned to Wind Thunder Island with light injuries.
• Xu Chunniang reflected on how purple qi could form nets and barriers, and wondered whether its sharpness and flexibility could be combined.
• Xu Chunniang gave Little Orange pills and Pure Heart Lotus Seeds for Little White to eat before attempting to form its core.

Xu Chunniang fused rigid and soft violet qi into an Innate Purple Qi Taiji Diagram, unlocking the second step of Nine Steps of Freedom and its short-distance teleportation. She then exchanged her merit points for Top-grade Spirit Stones and left the Merit Hall as others debated her choice.

• After recovering, Xu Chunniang experimented with rigid and soft violet qi and combined them into an Innate Purple Qi Taiji Diagram.
• The Taiji Diagram revealed the second step of Nine Steps of Freedom, Moving Form with Qi, and Xu Chunniang used it to teleport from her room to the courtyard.
• Xu Chunniang realized the new movement technique could help her evade danger and considered how it combined with Controlling Qi with Qi.
• At the Merit Hall, Xu Chunniang exchanged her merit points for thirty-three Top-grade Spirit Stones, bringing her total to thirty-seven.
• After Xu Chunniang left, Merit Hall visitors discussed whether she should have exchanged her points for Nascent Soul Pills instead.

Xu Chunniang used vast quantities of spirit stones to advance from Golden Core Layer Four to Layer Eight, then prepared for Little White’s impending core formation. She brought Little White to the northern sea to undergo its lightning tribulation, where she reminded it that it would have to face the test on its own.

• Xu Chunniang cultivated for two months, spending thirty-two Top-grade Spirit Stones and over two thousand High-grade Spirit Stones to advance to Golden Core Layer Eight.
• Xu Chunniang discovered that her abundant purple qi concealed her cultivation and aura, and that the little withered branch had grown a second sprout.
• Xu Chunniang learned from Little Orange that Little White was sleeping after taking a pill and might soon form its core, so she refined two defensive array plates for its tribulation.
• Little White woke two days later on the verge of breaking through, and Xu Chunniang carried it to the northern sea to keep its lightning tribulation from damaging nearby residences.
• Xu Chunniang stopped near the battle flag and reminded Little White that it had to rely on itself to pass the lightning tribulation.

Little White underwent its Golden Core lightning tribulation while Xu Chunniang and Little Orange watched from a distance. After enduring the final bolts with severe injuries, Little White rose to face the last strike.

• Xu Chunniang pulled Little Orange away as Little White’s tribulation clouds gathered, then watched Little White block the first lightning bolt by finding its weakest point.
• Little White endured more than a dozen bolts, grew bloodied, and used the array disks Xu Chunniang had given it to weaken the lightning.
• Xu Chunniang gained a moment of insight as she watched Little White, and the sprouts on the withered branch beside her purple core stretched.
• The final array disk exploded while blocking a bolt, and Little White easily stopped the next one before the last two strikes remained.
• A bolt tore open Little White’s wounds and left it floating helplessly on the sea, but Xu Chunniang stopped Little Orange from interfering.
• Little White swallowed its remaining pills, rose to its feet, and faced the final bolt of Heavenly Lightning.

Little White survived its tribulation and reached the Golden Core stage after the little branch healed its damaged core. Xu Chunniang and Little Orange went to the Merit Hall to take a mission, where Zou Yue and Wang Quan taunted them about Xu Chunniang’s absence and supposed rejection by the Zhu Family’s young master.

• Little White was struck by the final bolt of Heavenly Lightning and fell unconscious, but Xu Chunniang used the little branch’s green qi to repair its Golden Core.
• Little White recovered beneath the auspicious clouds, then accepted four Top-grade Spirit Stones from Xu Chunniang and Little Orange as breakthrough gifts.
• Xu Chunniang left Little White at home to consolidate its cultivation and took Little Orange to the Merit Hall to accept a mission.
• Zou Yue mocked Xu Chunniang for her two-month absence and falling ranking, while Wang Quan suggested the Zhu Family’s young master had cast her aside.
• Little Orange insulted Zou Yue and Wang Quan, and Wang Quan angrily threatened it before repeating his claim that Xu Chunniang had been rejected.

Xu Chunniang challenged Wang Quan to prove his courage and skill without weakening the human forces, so they agreed to compete for merit on the front lines. They set a three-day contest with ten Top-grade Spirit Stones at stake, while Zou Yue wagered five more on Wang Quan, and the group headed east toward the battlefield.

• Xu Chunniang challenged Wang Quan to a life-and-death duel after he provoked and insulted her, but Wang Quan refused, citing the war against the sea demon beasts.
• Xu Chunniang proposed that they compete on the front lines to see who earned more merit in three days, and Wang Quan accepted.
• Wang Quan wagered ten Top-grade Spirit Stones and barred Little Orange from interfering; Xu Chunniang agreed to the terms.
• Zou Yue added five Top-grade Spirit Stones to the contract, betting on Wang Quan's victory.
• Xu Chunniang and Wang Quan set out for the eastern battlefield as other cultivators followed and debated who would win.

Xu Chunniang and Wang Quan competed to kill sea demons for merit points, with Wang Quan relying on his treasures and talismans to build an early lead. After Xu Chunniang disappeared toward the battlefield’s center, Wang Quan believed he had the wager won, while the cultivators watching remained divided over who would prevail.

• Xu Chunniang and Wang Quan rushed beyond the formation to hunt sea demons, while Little Orange recorded them with an Imprint Stone.
• Xu Chunniang quickly killed sea demons of higher cultivation than Wang Quan’s first targets, putting him behind in merit points.
• Wang Quan used talismans, an array disk, and Dharma artifacts to kill stronger sea demons and earn three thousand six hundred merit points in half a day.
• After exhausting himself, Wang Quan withdrew to recover and later returned to find Xu Chunniang absent from the outskirts and several Imprint Pearls left behind.
• Wang Quan assumed Xu Chunniang had gone to the dangerous battlefield center and believed he would win, while watching cultivators argued over the contest and proposed another wager.