Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Lin Jiu Suppresses a Great Sage”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qin Ming returns openly to Maple Forest City alongside Liu Tianshen, no longer hiding or moving cautiously after previously being hunted by Earth Immortals.
• They visit Qin Ming’s former residence, where Jiang Cheng and Jiang Xiwei suspect that the supposedly dead Qin Ming may have returned, despite his claim to be Qin Mo’s older brother.
• Qin Ming reunites with his sworn brothers Mu Shinian and Zhou Tian. Mu Shinian, now an Ancestor, challenges him to a Dao contest to overcome his lingering defeat and resentment.
• Their contest takes place through tea-cup-sized manifestations rather than a destructive battle. Mu Shinian displays formidable Time Dao techniques, including temporal illusions, the Wheel of Time, Withering-Flourishing Flame, Time Scissors, and time-freezing abilities.
• Qin Ming effortlessly counters every attack using Primordial One Qi, the Azure Lamp, yin-yang transformations, illusion-reality shifts, and overwhelming control of space and law. He ultimately defeats Mu Shinian with a punch and a torrent of Thunderfire.
• A Demon Court Earth Immortal observes the exchange and concludes that Qin Ming is at least a late-stage Ancestor capable of killing Earth Immortals—possibly even stronger.
• Qin Ming, Mu Shinian, and Zhou Tian go to the Spirit Monkey Tavern to drink Demon Monkey Wine. Their public appearance immediately sparks rumors that Qin Ming is actually the resurrected Great Sage Zheng Guang.
• Duan Yin arrives with Xu Yuan to investigate. Duan Yin recognizes Qin Ming’s presence but refuses to believe Zheng Guang could have returned and insults him.
• Qin Ming suppresses Duan Yin with a wine cup containing a manifested divine moon, forcing the Great Sage to bow before him. When an Earth Immortal secretly intervenes, Qin Ming’s superior backing injures the Earth Immortal as well.
• Duan Yin leaves humiliated, while Xu Yuan decides to summon his secluded elder brother. News of Qin Ming’s power spreads rapidly, drawing other major figures—including Yun Nixue, Si Yeli, and Yan Chuan—to the tavern.

Character Developments

• Qin Ming: Returns with greatly increased confidence and power. He is no longer concerned about hiding his identity and openly displays strength far beyond ordinary Ancestors. His mastery allows him to defeat Mu Shinian casually and suppress a Great Sage with a simple wine cup.
• Liu Tianshen: Acts as Qin Ming’s powerful companion and protector, while preparing to investigate the Yin-Yang Ruins through a split Pure Yang Consciousness.
• Mu Shinian: Has advanced into the Ancestor Realm and remains determined to defeat Qin Ming because of an old psychological grudge. His sophisticated Time Dao techniques are nevertheless completely outclassed, deepening his frustration and “psychological shadow.”
• Zhou Tian: Demonstrates clear insight into both brothers. He recognizes Qin Ming’s superiority, understands Mu Shinian’s obsession, and avoids competing with Qin Ming himself.
• Duan Yin: Once confident as a Great Sage, he is publicly humiliated and physically forced to bow. His fear and resentment toward Qin Ming/Zheng Guang remain evident.
• Jiang Xiwei and Jiang Cheng: Begin suspecting that the mysterious visitor is actually Qin Ming, based especially on his familiar eyes and bearing.

Significant Themes

• Resurrection and identity: Qin Ming’s return from apparent death creates uncertainty throughout Maple Forest City, with people questioning whether he is truly Zheng Guang or an entirely new powerhouse.
• Overwhelming advancement: Qin Ming’s rapid rise demonstrates the gap between ordinary prodigies and an exceptional anomaly capable of defeating opponents across realms.
• Pride and psychological fixation: Mu Shinian’s challenge shows how past defeats can become obsessions, while Duan Yin’s humiliation reveals the consequences of underestimating a former enemy.
• Dao mastery in miniature: The tea-cup battle emphasizes that the highest experts can express devastating power within a confined space, without destroying the surrounding city.
• Public reputation and intimidation: Qin Ming’s return immediately changes the balance of power. His casual displays of strength cause rumors, fear, and the arrival of numerous major figures.

Character Interactions

• Qin Ming and Liu Tianshen share a relaxed reunion, contrasting their former period of concealment and danger.
• Qin Ming gives Jiang Cheng and Jiang Xiwei a deliberately vague explanation of his identity, though Jiang Xiwei notices his resemblance to Qin Mo.
• Mu Shinian attempts to “teach” Qin Ming through Time Dao, but Qin Ming repeatedly reverses the situation and defeats him. Zhou Tian acts as an amused observer and commentator.
• At the Spirit Monkey Tavern, Qin Ming drinks with Mu Shinian and Zhou Tian, presenting himself openly while the city speculates about his identity.
• Duan Yin confronts Qin Ming and insults him, prompting Qin Ming to suppress him with the divine moon in a wine cup. Xu Yuan tries to intervene, but Mu Shinian blocks him, while an Earth Immortal’s secret assistance is punished by an even stronger unseen force.
• The chapter ends with the arrival of several powerful figures, setting up a larger confrontation or meeting at the tavern.

Chapter Summary: “Great Sage Showdown”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Si Yeli recognizes the supposedly dead Zheng Guang inside the Spirit Monkey Tavern. In reality, he is Qin Ming in disguise or under Zheng Guang’s identity, and his appearance causes an immediate uproar throughout Maple Forest City.
• Zheng Guang’s survival revives old rumors and comparisons between him and other prodigies, especially Jiang Xiyi. Crowds gather to witness both his return and the resolution of his past conflict with Duan Yin and Xu Yuan.
• Si Yeli warmly reunites with Qin Ming, recalling their past connection and revealing that she once wished to accompany him to the Night Prefecture. Their conversation also hints at intimate and humorous shared memories, provoking teasing from Mu Shinian and Zhou Tian.
• Duan Yin, Xu Yuan, and Yan Chuan arrive to demand compensation for Duan Yin’s humiliation. Xu Yuan orders Qin Ming and his companions to leave, while Yan Chuan deliberately ignores them and treats them with contempt.
• Qin Ming refuses to submit, telling Xu Yuan to “get lost” and declaring that words are unnecessary—they should simply fight.
• Mu Shinian prepares to block Xu Yuan, while Qin Ming is expected to face Yan Chuan. The confrontation threatens to become a massive battle involving seven great sages.
• Yan Chuan orders Si Yeli to withdraw and demands that Qin Ming submit to the same treatment he allegedly inflicted on Duan Yin. Qin Ming responds with open defiance, provoking Yan Chuan into preparing an attack.
• Before Yan Chuan can suppress Qin Ming, Meng Zhiyu’s White Tiger Body appears and blocks his power. Their brief exchange shatters Yan Chuan’s netherworld techniques, preventing an immediate clash.
• Qin Ming insists that he can handle Yan Chuan himself, confidently claiming that he can defeat the powerful ancestor-realm sage despite the vast disparity in cultivation.

Character Developments

• Qin Ming/Zheng Guang: Reveals an extremely bold and confrontational attitude. Although aware of Yan Chuan’s superior cultivation, he refuses to show fear or accept humiliation. His calm drinking and blunt insults demonstrate his confidence, while his claim that he can win suggests hidden strength or preparation.
• Si Yeli: Displays strong affection and loyalty toward Qin Ming, openly caring for his safety. She attempts to mediate with Yan Chuan and is visibly distressed by the possibility that Qin Ming may be suppressed.
• Yan Chuan: Establishes himself as arrogant, emotionally detached, and overwhelmingly powerful. He ignores the others, calmly drinks tea, and treats the surrounding great sages as beneath his notice. His composure masks an aggressive intent to humiliate Qin Ming publicly.
• Xu Yuan: Acts as Duan Yin’s spokesman and becomes increasingly enraged by Qin Ming’s disrespect. His pride is wounded by their past defeat and by Qin Ming’s refusal to acknowledge his present ancestor-realm status.
• Duan Yin: Though less verbally prominent, he reveals his humiliation by seeking Yan Chuan’s intervention after losing to Qin Ming.
• Mu Shinian: Shows both a playful, gossip-loving side in his exchange with Si Yeli and a protective side when he prepares to defend Qin Ming by confronting Xu Yuan.
• Zhou Tian: Joins the teasing and remains alert to the danger, but wisely restrains himself when confronted with Yan Chuan’s superior realm.
• Meng Zhiyu: Enters as a powerful protector. Her White Tiger Body effortlessly neutralizes Yan Chuan’s initial techniques, demonstrating that she can restrain or challenge him despite his formidable cultivation.

Significant Themes

• Return and resurrection: Zheng Guang’s reappearance revives a legendary reputation that many believed had ended, emphasizing the dramatic impact of a fallen genius returning to the world.
• Pride and humiliation: The conflict is driven less by justice than by wounded pride, old grudges, and attempts to publicly establish dominance.
• Hidden strength versus visible cultivation: Qin Ming appears to be at a disadvantage against Yan Chuan’s Third Heaven Ancestor Realm, yet his confidence suggests that realm alone may not determine the outcome.
• Loyalty and protection: Si Yeli and Meng Zhiyu both intervene to protect Qin Ming, showing the strength of his relationships and alliances.
• Public spectacle and reputation: The confrontation unfolds before a massive crowd, making every insult and challenge part of a broader struggle for status within the cultivation world.
• Arrogance versus composure: Yan Chuan’s silent disdain contrasts with Qin Ming’s equally calm but openly defiant attitude, creating tension between two figures who refuse to acknowledge the other’s authority.

Character Interactions

• Si Yeli and Qin Ming: Share a warm, emotionally charged reunion filled with reminiscence and hints of past intimacy.
• Si Yeli and Yan Chuan: She challenges his attempt to suppress the group and warns against using his superior cultivation to bully them.
• Qin Ming and Yan Chuan: Engage in a direct battle of wills, trading threats and insults before combat begins.
• Qin Ming and Xu Yuan: Qin Ming dismisses Xu Yuan with a single insult, reigniting their old antagonism.
• Mu Shinian and Xu Yuan: Prepare to fight one another, with Mu Shinian using the power of time to block Xu Yuan’s ancestor-level pressure.
• Meng Zhiyu and Yan Chuan: Clash briefly when she intercepts his attack, proving that she will not allow him to harm Qin Ming or his companions.
• Mu Shinian, Zhou Tian, and Si Yeli: Form a lively, teasing group around Qin Ming, contrasting their familiar camaraderie with the hostile arrival of Yan Chuan and his allies.

Summary of “A Day of Rest”

• Plot and events: The narrator explains that they were occupied and away for the day, so they chose to rest instead of continuing their usual work. They intend to resume their efforts tomorrow.
• Character development: The narrator demonstrates self-awareness and recognizes the importance of taking a break. Their commitment to continuing tomorrow suggests persistence and responsibility.
• Themes: The chapter emphasizes rest, balance, personal limits, and perseverance. It presents pausing as a temporary and necessary part of sustained effort rather than giving up.
• Character interactions: The narrator directly addresses and thanks the readers, creating a brief sense of connection and appreciation between the narrator and the audience.

Chapter Summary: “Ancestor Qin, Not Yet Thirty”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qin Ming publicly challenges Yan Chuan outside the Spirit Monkey Tavern, shocking everyone because Zheng Guang is believed to be not yet thirty and may have already reached the Ancestor Realm.
• Meng Zhiyu confirms that Yan Chuan is far stronger than an ordinary Ancestor, having reached the Third Heaven of the realm. Despite this, Qin Ming insists on fighting him rather than allowing anyone else to intervene.
• The confrontation moves outside Maple Forest City to prevent the city from being destroyed. Numerous experts—including Zhou Tian, Mu Shinian, Si Yeli, Yun Nixue, the Golden Crow King, the Time Beast, and Old Dream Insect—follow to watch.
• Qin Ming reveals that he has broken through to the Ancestor Realm. His allies are both amazed and concerned, especially because his External Demon body has suffered serious damage to its origin.
• Qin Ming deliberately chooses to display his weakened condition. By exposing the flaws in his body, he hopes to convince hidden enemies that his future is uncertain and discourage powerful old monsters from targeting him.
• The battle begins with a clash of kicks that devastates the surrounding mountains, confirming to spectators that Qin Ming truly possesses Ancestor-level power.
• Yan Chuan uses Netherworld Crossing, allowing him to vanish into yin energy and attack from hidden angles. Qin Ming counters with the Primal Chaos Golden Bridge and the complete Inner Scenery Sky-Opening Axe.
• Qin Ming’s axe breaks Yan Chuan’s powerful Netherworld Heaven-Overturning Seal and cuts his hand, demonstrating that the newly advanced Ancestor can fight an opponent three minor realms higher.
• Yan Chuan summons a terrifying Netherworld army of gods, demons, dragons, and corpses. Qin Ming destroys the legion with the Ancestor Worm’s Cry, then splits the enormous altar controlling it with his axe.
• Yan Chuan unveils an even greater technique: a black bridge over the river of life and death that places him in a realm seemingly beyond the reach of ordinary attacks. From there, he can strike the real world while remaining protected.
• Qin Ming counters by combining the Black White Scripture, the Primordial Ten Thousand Void Inscription, Primordial One Qi, the Mystic Blue Lotus, and the Primal Chaos Golden Bridge. He forcibly enters Yan Chuan’s Netherworld domain and prepares for a direct confrontation.

Character Developments

• Qin Ming/Zheng Guang: Reveals that he has reached the Ancestor Realm before the age of thirty, making him an unprecedented prodigy. He displays greater confidence, aggression, and strategic maturity, refusing to hide despite his damaged body. His arrogant taunts reflect his former reputation, but his decision to expose his weakness shows careful long-term planning.
• Yan Chuan: Established as an exceptionally powerful and arrogant Ancestor at the Third Heaven. He initially underestimates Qin Ming, believing a newly advanced Ancestor should not be able to match him. As the battle progresses, he relies on increasingly profound Netherworld techniques and becomes visibly challenged by Qin Ming’s abilities.
• Meng Zhiyu: Acts as Qin Ming’s protector and adviser. She warns him not to underestimate Yan Chuan and promises to intervene if necessary, while defending Qin Ming against Yan Chuan’s criticism.
• Xu Yuan: Remains resentful toward Qin Ming because of their earlier humiliation. He wants to fight Qin Ming himself, but Qin Ming dismisses him, revealing that their previous power gap has not been forgotten.
• Si Yeli and Qin Ming’s allies: React with astonishment and concern upon learning of Qin Ming’s breakthrough and damaged origin. Their admiration is tempered by fear that his renewed prominence will attract powerful enemies.
• Observers: The various Great Sages and ancient experts are stunned by Qin Ming’s early breakthrough and his ability to battle Yan Chuan evenly. His performance confirms that he is one of the most extraordinary figures of the age.

Significant Themes

• Unprecedented talent: Qin Ming’s breakthrough before thirty places him among the rarest prodigies in history, surpassing even other famous young Ancestors.
• Strength versus cultivation level: Although Yan Chuan possesses a major advantage in realm and experience, Qin Ming’s supreme techniques, physique, and combat instincts allow him to challenge him directly.
• Concealing and revealing power: Qin Ming’s decision to expose his damaged origin illustrates the strategic importance of controlling how others perceive one’s strength.
• Pride and defiance: Both Qin Ming and Yan Chuan are intensely arrogant. Their battle is driven not only by cultivation but also by their refusal to yield status or dignity.
• The danger of fame: Qin Ming understands that exceptional talent attracts hunters and schemers. He therefore tries to present himself as powerful but damaged, hoping to discourage future attacks.
• Reality versus the Netherworld: Yan Chuan’s techniques blur the boundary between the living world and the Underworld, while Qin Ming’s combined arts allow him to penetrate and challenge that supposedly untouchable domain.

Character Interactions

• Qin Ming and Yan Chuan exchange repeated insults, with Qin Ming calling him arrogant and demanding that he “take his beating,” while Yan Chuan threatens to destroy him.
• Qin Ming humiliates Xu Yuan verbally, reminding him that he has beaten him before and refusing to treat him as a serious opponent.
• Meng Zhiyu supports Qin Ming’s decision to fight and firmly rejects Yan Chuan’s attempt to criticize her sixth brother.
• Qin Ming reassures his companions before the battle, while they worry that his damaged body and renewed visibility will bring further danger.
• The spectators’ reactions reinforce Qin Ming’s growing reputation: his breakthrough and battle against Yan Chuan transform him from a controversial prodigy into a figure capable of astonishing the entire cultivation world.

Plot and key events

• Qin Ming and Yan Chuan clash in the Netherworld, each trying to harness the age’s chaotic, dangerous dao rhythms. Qin Ming uses his fused Ten Sacred Fiends—and the Primordial Yellow Fiend as a stabilizing “Sea-Calming Needle”—to redirect the heavenly force. Yan Chuan’s Nether Bridge, Life-and-Death River, and three life-linked Netherworld Flowers are destroyed or exhausted, leaving him gravely injured. Qin Ming also suffers backlash but remains comparatively unharmed.
• Yan Chuan continues fighting with sinister Netherworld techniques. Qin Ming withstands the Nether Lord’s Seed, destroying its physical form and residual presence in his mind, then breaks Yan Chuan’s fate-rewriting art through the strength of his unified cultivation.
• Yan Chuan traps them in Netherworld City and attacks with a soul-thread rain curtain. Qin Ming breaks through the restraints and wins their weapon duel, cutting Yan Chuan down. When Yan Chuan’s allies charge in, Qin Ming also defeats Xu Yuan and Duan Yin. The three opponents lie apparently dead as the assembled factions watch.
• Other powers prevent the confrontation from becoming a broader battle between Daoist factions. Afterward, Qin Ming is surrounded by admirers and well-wishers, while Duan Yin—still alive—lies unnoticed and complains bitterly.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming proves that his recent breakthrough has made him one of the era’s most formidable fighters. He combines confidence with tactical control, stopping the dao-rhythm assault when its risks are no longer worthwhile, then methodically overcoming Yan Chuan’s successive arts. His triumph earns him attention from the Myriad Spirits Sect, the Demon Court, and his own allies.
• Yan Chuan is revealed as both exceptionally dangerous and extraordinarily stubborn. Even after losing his major defenses, he deploys lethal seed, fate, and battlefield-control techniques, but Qin Ming ultimately overpowers him.
• Xu Yuan and Duan Yin rush to save Yan Chuan despite the danger and are cut down by Qin Ming. Their loyalty and courage are clear, though their intervention cannot change the outcome.
• Qin Ming’s allies and spectators react with alarm, admiration, and growing recognition of his status. Si Yeli and a Myriad Spirits elder show personal warmth toward him; the Old Dream Insect and Demon Court figures also hint at possible closer ties. Their attention to Qin Ming contrasts humorously with Duan Yin’s overlooked condition.

Significant themes

• Adapting to a changed world: Chaotic dao rhythms threaten even veteran cultivators, making the ability to withstand the new environment a mark of exceptional talent.
• Power and its cost: Both fighters risk severe backlash, and Yan Chuan’s life-linked defenses exact a lasting price even when they keep him alive.
• Skill versus bravado: Qin Ming’s earlier confidence is validated by his victory, while Yan Chuan’s arsenal and tenacity cannot overcome Qin Ming’s breadth of power.
• Reputation and factional tension: The battle establishes Qin Ming’s standing, while the presence of many competing sects makes restraint—and the risk of wider conflict—part of the encounter.

Summary of “True Heart [Part 1]”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Qin Ming, disguised as Zheng Guang, defeats Yan Chuan, the aftermath leaves the Ember Cause and Origin Ruins Dao Fields humiliated. Yan Chuan was publicly cut in half and decapitated, while Duan Yin and Xu Yuan also suffered repeated defeats.
• The Netherworld Dao Field retrieves Yan Chuan, recognizing that although he lost, he displayed extraordinary power by borrowing chaotic Dao resonance. He remains an important future pillar of his sect.
• Qin Ming claims Yan Chuan’s black Exotic Metal scepter as spoils of war. The Netherworld Dao Field chooses not to reclaim it, unwilling to provoke another battle between their Earth Immortals.
• Qin Ming’s victory causes a sensation throughout Maple Forest City and the surrounding regions. He has not only survived but broken through to the Ancestor realm and defeated three Great Sages.
• Qin Ming’s injuries and unusual life origin are examined by several senior figures. They discover that his life origin had once been refined away, leaving possible hidden dangers and impurities.
• Despite these flaws, the elders believe Qin Ming may undergo another Great Nirvana, shed his damaged “old self,” and potentially advance to the level of a Supreme Expert.
• Qin Ming returns to Maple Forest City surrounded by allies, receiving precious medicines from Old Dream Insect, the Myriad Spirits Sect, and the Golden Crow King to help restore his life origin.
• Once inside the city, senior powerhouses formally recognize Qin Ming’s new status. His achievements have earned him a place among the important younger figures of the Dao Fields.
• News of the battle spreads rapidly through birds, messengers, newspapers, and Mist Gates. Qin Ming becomes the new “youngest Ancestor,” replacing Jiang Xiyi, who is mockingly nicknamed “Old Jiang.”
• Jiang Xiyi’s reputation is dragged into public discussion despite his not having participated in the battle. His supporters dismiss the rumors and insist that true Supreme seeds may remain unknown for a long time.
• In Heaven City, people investigate Qin Ming’s origins and discover his connection to the Jade Capital Dao Field, an enemy faction. His old title, “One Sword Cleaves Through Thirty-Six Heavens,” is viewed as evidence of his arrogance and formidable background.

Character Developments

• Qin Ming/Zheng Guang: Establishes himself as a genuine Great Sage-level combatant and newly risen Ancestor. Although his life origin bears severe damage, his battle performance convinces powerful elders that he has immense future potential. He remains modest and accepts the medicines and goodwill offered by his allies.
• Yan Chuan: Suffers a crushing but respectable defeat. His ability to fight for an extended period and use chaotic Dao resonance preserves his reputation, even though he is publicly humiliated and loses his scepter.
• Duan Yin: Becomes increasingly resentful and embarrassed after Qin Ming’s victory. He is unable to retaliate because Qin Ming’s weapon remains ready, forcing him to endure taunts and humiliation.
• Xu Yuan: Is repeatedly split apart by Qin Ming after attempting to retaliate against Mu Shinian. His damaged divine soul and vitality force him to remain silent and passive.
• Old Dream Insect: Shows great concern for Qin Ming’s recovery and jokingly tries to match him with Meng Zhiyu. His teasing reveals both his affection for her and his high opinion of Qin Ming.
• Meng Zhiyu: Is embarrassed and irritated by Old Dream Insect’s matchmaking attempts. She firmly rejects the idea, emphasizing that she and Qin Ming are sworn siblings and belong to different races.
• Mu Shinian and Zhou Tian: Help lighten the tense aftermath with jokes and mockery. Zhou Tian humorously declares Qin Ming his elder brother, while Mu Shinian teases him for lowering his own seniority.
• Si Yeli: Becomes more openly warm toward Qin Ming, calling him “Brother Qin” and personally serving him tea. Her slight embarrassment when Zhou Tian twists the address into “Love Brother” hints at a growing emotional closeness.
• Jiang Xiyi: Becomes an indirect victim of the public excitement. His former reputation as the youngest Ancestor is eclipsed by Qin Ming’s achievement.
• Yun Nixue: Watches Qin Ming closely after the battle, particularly his back and right hand, suggesting curiosity or suspicion about the extent of his strength and identity.

Significant Themes

• The rise of a new generation: Younger Ancestors are beginning to master chaotic Dao resonance, surpassing the expectations of older powerhouses and signaling a shift in the era.
• Glory and humiliation: Qin Ming’s victory elevates his reputation while simultaneously disgracing Duan Yin, Xu Yuan, and Yan Chuan’s factions. Personal defeats become collective sect humiliations.
• The price of power: Qin Ming’s victory comes with backlash and the revelation that his life origin is damaged. Great strength does not guarantee a perfect or secure future.
• Imperfection and renewal: The elders reflect on the principle that fullness leads to decline and perfection is rare. Qin Ming’s flaws may become the basis for a future Great Nirvana and an even stronger rebirth.
• Reputation and public perception: News reports, rumors, and comparisons quickly reshape the standing of Qin Ming, Yan Chuan, and Jiang Xiyi. Public fame is shown to be unstable and easily rewritten by a single battle.
• Factional rivalry: Qin Ming’s connection to the Jade Capital Dao Field complicates his rising fame, as other factions begin investigating whether he is an enemy rather than a potential ally.

Character Interactions

• Old Dream Insect alternates between caring for Qin Ming and attempting to arrange a marriage between him and Meng Zhiyu.
• Meng Zhiyu rejects the proposal, insisting that her relationship with Qin Ming is one of sworn brotherhood.
• Zhou Tian and Mu Shinian mock the defeated Duan Yin and Xu Yuan, provoking their anger while Qin Ming’s continued presence keeps them from fighting back.
• Qin Ming cuts Xu Yuan apart again when Xu Yuan tries to rise and attack Mu Shinian, reinforcing his dominance over the defeated Great Sages.
• Several senior figures show support for Qin Ming by offering medicines and discussing his prospects openly.
• Si Yeli’s tea-serving scene and Zhou Tian’s teasing create a lighter, more intimate atmosphere among Qin Ming’s companions after the brutal battle.
• The wider cultivation world reacts collectively to Qin Ming’s achievement, elevating him from a mysterious fighter to one of the most discussed figures of the era.

Plot points and events

• Several powerful factions arrived in Maple Forest City, including the Ancestral Abyss and Totem Faction, which joined forces with Heaven City. Qin Ming was unconcerned: he had Liu Mo and a broad network of allies, including the Demon Court, Dream Insect Clan, Tushita Palace, Myriad Spirits Sect, and Primordial Yellow Dao Field.
• Qin Ming learned that Liu Mo had refined the Yin-Yang Soul-Fixing Coin and awakened some of its memories. The coin had once been thrown by a Ninth Realm expert to become the key to the mysterious Supreme Secret Realm, but it could not explain why the Yin-Yang Dao Field had fallen.
• Qin Ming brought the coin to meet his sworn brothers, hoping they would become suitable hosts for Li Feifan. After several months of refining, Meng Zhiyu, Niu Wuwei, Si Yeli, and others earned the coin’s approval. The coin suspected Qin Ming’s friends were conspiring to trick it and eventually fled to escape his matchmaking.
• Qin Ming warned his brothers that the Secret Realm could be perilous. They revealed they had prepared powerful substitute bodies for him, prompting affectionate teasing and an awkwardly flirtatious exchange between Si Yeli and Meng Zhiyu.
• The group discussed the Yin-Yang Dao Field’s fall. It seemed to have collapsed mysteriously from within, shortly after a grand sacrificial ceremony. Its ruins remain dangerous, riddled with Void Cracks connecting to unknown realms, including the depths of the Night Mist World.
• Qin Ming accepted a powerful incarnation made from Revival Wood. When the coin finally announced the Secret Realm’s opening, it guided fifteen teams through the Many-Treasure Mountains and a Mist Gate to the Yin-Yang Ruins. The actual Secret Realm lay in a connected realm beyond the ruins.
• At the ruins, outsiders from the deeper Night Mist World asked to join teams. One group was powerful enough that the Dwelling in the World Organization surrendered four places for them. A brown-haired outsider approached Qin Ming’s team; Liu Mo agreed to take him in, privately dismissing him as a decaying Heavenly Immortal.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming remains confident and strategic, relying on allies while preparing cautiously for the dangerous expedition. He accepts his friends’ protective gift despite having planned to use a substitute body.
• Liu Mo reveals key information about the coin and the danger posed by the newcomers, while maintaining a bold, dismissive attitude toward the outsider’s apparent status.
• The sworn brothers show deep loyalty by preparing Qin Ming a powerful substitute body. Their concern is mutual: Niu Wuwei admits they are also worried about Qin Ming.
• The Yin-Yang Coin is discerning but increasingly exasperated by Qin Ming’s efforts to recruit his friends as hosts. Its escape and later formation of fifteen teams suggest it is trying to protect its independence.
• Si Yeli and Meng Zhiyu tease one another over their closeness with Qin Ming, revealing playful rivalry beneath their friendship.
• Green Phoenix remains an ardent admirer of Zheng Guang, whose survival is confirmed by Six Desires.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and mutual protection: Qin Ming and his sworn brothers look out for one another, even while joking and arguing.
• Trust and deception: The brothers’ substitute bodies, Qin Ming’s “recruiting” scheme, and the coin’s suspicions complicate otherwise sincere relationships.
• Mystery and peril: The unexplained collapse of the Yin-Yang Dao Field, its sacrificial ceremony, and the dangerous Void Cracks deepen the central mystery.
• Power and shifting alliances: The gathering of major factions—and the arrival of even stronger forces from the Night Mist World—suggests the coming expedition will test established hierarchies.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• In the Yin-Yang Ruins, Liu Mo’s group encounters powerful outsiders from five ancient organizations in the deeper reaches of the Night Mist World. Their leaders include Gu Rui of the Eternal Mist Origin Cult, Mo Lin of the Kirin Cult, and Yun Zhaoxia of the Black Vault Ancient Cult. They use their organizations’ reputations to secure places in the outer-region teams.
• Gu Rui insists that Liu Mo lead the expedition while he guards the rear, treating Liu as a pathfinder but avoiding an open confrontation. Liu agrees for the sake of safety.
• Guan Xu of Tushita Palace refuses to be impressed by the outsiders. Yun Zhaoxia initially challenges him, but becomes more cautious after learning his affiliation; Guan eventually permits two members of her cult to join his team.
• The Yin-Yang Soul-Fixing Coin guides the assembled teams through a maze of Void Cracks. Records left by earlier explorers describe deadly routes and strange sights, including powerful Divine Insects and a decaying, radiant bodhisattva.
• The coin activates a rune-covered gateway, which leads into the Supreme Secret Realm. There, enormous crystals turn into mirrors and reflect the arrivals. Qin Ming uses his Eye of New Life to detect immortal mist and layers of petals within some of them—the legendary Flower in the Mirror.

Character developments and interactions

• Liu Mo stays diplomatic, accepting Gu Rui’s arrangement and coordinating quietly with Guan Xu to investigate the outsiders’ motives.
• Guan Xu remains blunt and self-assured, showing little respect for the ancient cults. His apparent willingness to accommodate Yun Zhaoxia masks his confidence and possibly concealed strength.
• Yun Zhaoxia shifts from assertive to guarded when she hears of Guan Xu’s Tushita Palace lineage, though she privately believes her own power will matter more inside the secret realm.
• Qin Ming remains observant and skeptical, noticing the social maneuvering around him and ultimately identifying the phenomenon within the crystal mirrors.
• Si Yeli and Yun Nixue attract attention from young men, but their attempts to draw the attention of Yan Chuan’s group and Qin Ming have little effect.

Significant themes

• Power and status: Ancient affiliations shape alliances and behavior, but Guan Xu’s defiance shows that reputation does not intimidate everyone.
• Diplomacy and concealed intentions: Teams accept outsiders for safety or strategic advantage, while individuals hide their true cultivation, motives, and confidence.
• The danger and mystery of the ruins: The Void Cracks, unreliable explorer records, and the newly revealed secret realm suggest that the ruins conceal truths of immense significance.
• Perception and discovery: The crystal mirrors appear mysterious to most, but Qin Ming’s special eye reveals a deeper layer within them.

Key plot points and events

• The crystal mirrors hold Flowers in the Mirror, dangerous monsters, and rare Mirror Fruits that extend life. To retrieve anything, cultivators must understand the mirrors’ Black White Scripture and use its Illusion-Reality principles.
• Qin Ming and Liu Mo collect several fruits, gaining potential lifespans of two hundred and over a hundred years respectively. As they continue, a mirror apparition warns that excessive fruit-taking has consequences. Liu Mo also discovers that prolonged exposure can create mirror duplicates, so they stop.
• An Earth Immortal and his companions try to rob Qin Ming and Liu Mo. The pair swiftly kill them. Elsewhere, Guan Xu kills a Kirin Cult Earth Immortal who attempts to buy his fruit cheaply.
• Mirror doubles emerge, indistinguishable from their originals. Zhou Tian and Si Yeli each become trapped in mirrors while identical versions stand outside. The group cannot reliably determine which versions are genuine; their numbers grow by roughly twenty percent, with no way to identify the duplicates.
• The survivors leave the mirror expanse, wary of its dangers. They reach a crowded market and discover an active, upside-down Dao Field bearing the name Yin-Yang Dao Field, raising doubts about whether it was ever destroyed.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming’s extraordinary luck brings him valuable fruits, but he shows restraint after Liu Mo’s warning. He also helps free Si Yeli from a mirror, though the rescue only deepens uncertainty about her identity.
• Liu Mo reveals overwhelming strength, killing the Earth Immortals who threaten them and protecting Qin Ming. His caution contrasts with the group’s greed.
• Guan Xu responds to attempted exploitation with lethal force; Niu Wuwei realizes that meat Guan Xu previously served him was kirin.
• Zhou Tian and Si Yeli become the focus of the group’s fear and confusion when their mirror doubles prove impossible to distinguish from them. Even experienced figures, including the Golden Crow King and Time Beast, struggle to judge what is real.
• The cultivators’ encounters reveal how quickly cooperation gives way to threats and violence when life-extending treasures are at stake.

Significant themes

• Illusion and reality: The mirrors blur the distinction between originals and copies, undermining trust and even certainty about personal identity.
• Greed and its cost: The promise of extended life drives powerful cultivators to risk danger and attack one another.
• Limits and restraint: The apparition’s warning and Liu Mo’s discovery suggest that pursuing a boon too far can bring unforeseen harm.
• Uncertainty and survival: Even the strongest experts cannot fully understand the Dao Field, forcing the group to move on without resolving who is real—or what awaits them.

Key plot points

• The visitors discover that the supposedly destroyed Yin-Yang Dao Field still exists, hidden in a mysterious domain. Its inhabitants are real, living people, descended from those who withdrew from the dangerous Night Mist World to escape an anticipated catastrophe.
• The Dao Field claims to be peaceful and allows visitors to leave, provided they drink Forget-Worry Soup and keep its location secret. Its leaders explain that their former Dao Lord foresaw the Dao Field’s destruction unless it withdrew from the world.
• Liu Mo reveals his formidable hidden power, silencing Gu Rui’s attempts to command others. Some visitors enter the Dao Field to study its scriptures and undergo disciple selection.
• Qin Ming earns the highest possible marks for comprehension and perfect compatibility with the Black White Scripture. He is named the Dao Field’s only confirmed Dao Child, despite being an incarnation.
• Uneasy about the Dao Field’s promises, Qin Ming secretly creates ways to monitor visitors who leave. When he compares what his second-stage demon perceives with what his true body sees outside, the accounts contradict each other: the demon sees people leave and reach Maple Forest City, while Qin Ming’s true body sees no one emerge—and cannot see or sense the demon.
• Qin Ming’s apparent visit to the city and the Spirit Monkey Tavern seems completely real, but his true body cannot verify it. The chapter ends with him horrified by the possibility that reality inside and outside the Dao Field is being divided or manipulated.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming shifts from cautious observer to Dao Child, while remaining deeply suspicious. His unusual resonance and layered incarnations let him investigate the mystery, but also expose him to conflicting realities.
• Liu Mo displays authority and concealed strength, protecting the group from Gu Rui’s pressure and helping organize precautions.
• Gu Rui loses confidence when he realizes Liu Mo is far more powerful than he assumed.
• The visitors and Dao Field inhabitants cautiously question one another about the outside world, the Dao Field’s history, and whether departure is truly safe.
• Si Yeli and Zhou Tian each develop mirror doubles after staring into strange mirrors. Both doubles insist they are the original; the Si Yelis even share intimate memories, leaving the group unsure how to distinguish them.

Significant themes

• Reality and perception: Qin Ming’s true body and demon experience incompatible versions of events.
• Trust and uncertainty: The Dao Field appears welcoming, yet its assurances cannot be independently confirmed.
• Cycles of prosperity and decline: The Dao Field’s withdrawal was an attempt to avoid the fate of powerful lineages that flourished and then vanished.
• Identity and duplication: The mirror selves raise doubts about what makes someone the “original.”
• Knowledge as risk and opportunity: Qin Ming’s pursuit of the Black White Scripture draws him deeper into a place whose true nature remains unknown.

Plot and key events

• Qin Ming and his Twice-Demon incarnation occupy the same tavern in Maple Forest City, yet neither can see the other. They perceive the same surroundings, but the tavern’s regulars remember no Bai Jin or Twice-Demon—suggesting their experiences may be real and unreal at once.
• The incarnation returns to the Yin-Yang Dao Field with Heavenly Immortal Bai Jin, refusing to drink the mysterious Forget-Worry Soup. Qin Ming’s true body also returns, but he remains uncertain whether either of them ever truly escaped the Yin-Yang Ruins.
• Inside the Dao Field, Qin Ming shares his unease with Si Yeli and quietly warns his companions. Several people are dismissed for poor progress and made to drink Forget-Worry Soup, raising fears that the field is pressuring everyone to cultivate the Black White Scripture.
• Qin Ming confirms that the scripture is genuine and gains access to its foundational teachings. Liu Mo reveals that he, too, has been made a Dao Child, and privately warns Qin Ming that something is gravely wrong.
• Liu Mo takes the Yin-Yang Soul-Fixing Coin to examine and refine it. Half a month later, his seclusion erupts into a battle between four versions of Liu Mo. He urges Qin Ming and the others to flee.
• The group escapes with the coin, while Qin Ming’s true body waits outside the ruins. But as the fugitives travel farther away, their bodies grow faint and nearly vanish. They turn back, becoming solid again as they approach the ruins, and suspect the Dao Field is forcing them to return.
• Asked what has happened to the Dao Field, the Soul-Fixing Coin answers: “The Dao Venerable... has regrets.”

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming shifts from cautious curiosity to profound distrust, questioning whether his companions, his own escape, and even the surrounding world can be trusted. He stays alert, gathers information, and prepares for a possible rescue.
• Si Yeli quickly understands Qin Ming’s unspoken suspicions, but even she cannot be certain that she is safe or truly herself.
• Liu Mo becomes a key ally: he warns Qin Ming, investigates the coin, and orchestrates the escape. His confrontation with his doubles suggests the danger reaches even powerful insiders.
• Guan Xu leads the companions out, while the Soul-Fixing Coin—normally a source of knowledge—admits it does not understand the crisis.
• Qin Ming’s true body and Twice-Demon finally reunite in perception during the escape, but the group’s near-disappearance shows that leaving the ruins may not be possible.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and distorted reality: Events appear fully real, yet evidence contradicts them; even familiar people and places cannot be trusted.
• Entrapment and coercion: The Dao Field may be compelling its inhabitants to remain, while Forget-Worry Soup and forced departures deepen suspicion.
• Identity and duplication: Qin Ming’s divided selves and Liu Mo’s multiple counterparts blur the line between original and copy.
• A broken legacy: The Soul-Fixing Coin’s final revelation hints that the Dao Venerable’s unresolved regret may lie at the heart of the Dao Field’s corruption.

Key plot points

• The Yin-Yang Soul-Fixing Coin reacts in terror to the Yin-Yang Dao Field, muttering that the dead “came back to life” and hinting at the Dao Venerable, but it becomes incoherent before it can explain.
• Qin Ming watches people—including Guan Xu’s group, his own incarnation, and powerful aberrants—reach the ruins and vanish. Black-and-white patterns also cling to their messages and messengers, suggesting the field can reach beyond its apparent boundaries.
• Within the Dao Field, escape attempts fail: the landscape restores everyone to their original places. Dao Child Liu Mo is struck by a mysterious force while trying to flee, while Heavenly Immortal Mo Lin loses twenty years of life after approaching the Nine-Colored Immortal Tree.
• Qin Ming suspects the field creates a near-perfect illusion of the real world, with two corresponding versions of places and people. Concluding that the threat exceeds what he can handle alone, he considers asking other major powers for help.
• Yin Jiuxu secretly leads Liu Mo to the Yin-Yang Pool, where they see the Dao Field’s true state: it and the surrounding kingdoms are dead ruins, while the apparent prosperity is an echo of the past.
• Yin Jiuxu explains that the Yin-Yang Dao Venerable foresaw the Dao Field’s destruction and tried to prevent it. His actions may have brought about the very future he sought to avert. The Dao Venerable now sits ruined in the Black Mist, connected by Dao patterns to a solitary stone door. He opened it slightly, restoring the illusory world; what lies beyond it remains unknown.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming shifts from investigating the mystery to recognizing the scale of the danger. Though he has a possible escape strategy using his External Demon and Prison Cloth, he fears the field’s mastery of illusion and reality—and the Dao Venerable’s lingering power—makes trying it suicidal.
• Liu Mo remains cautious and skeptical when Yin Jiuxu approaches him, but follows him to learn the truth. The revelation shakes him, especially the possibility that the Dao Venerable’s attempt to defy fate helped fulfill it.
• Yin Jiuxu presents himself as an ally who wants to end the suffering and help Liu Mo escape, but withholds his own reasons and identity. He guides Liu Mo through the field’s defenses and reveals the ruins hidden beneath its splendor.
• Mo Lin’s near-fatal mistake underscores the danger of treating the illusory landscape as harmless or ordinary.

Significant themes

• Illusion and reality: The same place can appear thriving to some and ruined to others; the Dao Field seems to reproduce the real world with uncanny precision.
• Fate and intervention: The Dao Venerable’s attempt to change a foreseen catastrophe may have caused it, raising the question of whether fate can be resisted.
• Hidden catastrophe and corrupted memory: The field’s beauty conceals death, while its inhabitants may experience the past as present.
• The limits of individual power: Even formidable figures are trapped by forces they cannot understand, leaving Qin Ming to consider seeking outside help.

Plot and events

• Liu Mo learns from Yin Jiuxu that the Night Mist World may itself be a vast “Void World,” where reality and illusion overlap. The Dao Venerable’s lingering power sustains it, and the only way to end the stalemate is to awaken his remaining spirituality and resolve the knot in his heart.
• Liu Mo proposes bringing young cultivators to spar with the Dao Venerable, hoping the encounters will revive memories of his youth. Yin Jiuxu agrees, and groups of cultivators gather at the Yin-Yang Dao Field.
• The groups enter the barrier within the Dao Venerable’s palm one by one. They receive brief instruction and leave with new insights. The Dao Venerable also resolves Si Yeli’s confusion about her two selves by merging them, advises Zhou Tian and Mu Shinian, and recognizes Liu Mo’s cultivation of the Black White Scripture.
• Qin Ming’s restrained encounter with the Dao Venerable is unexpectedly uneventful, though the latter senses in him the shadow of an old acquaintance.
• The Dao Venerable appears to release everyone and declare that the Void World will end. Instead, the ruined Yin-Yang Dao Field revives as luminous sights pour from a stone door. The Dao Venerable explains that he had been holding the door shut, then uses his remaining strength to close it and seal it within his body. He dies in the effort.
• The seal may not hold: the Flesh Door begins shaking, a pale hand appears, and battle sounds and luminous mist spill through. Outside the ruins, the Exotic Gold Cloth suddenly urges Qin Ming’s true body to prepare to fight its way in.

Character developments and interactions

• Liu Mo moves from seeking an explanation to proposing a way to reach the Dao Venerable emotionally. He receives recognition as a potential successor to the Black White Scripture, along with further teachings.
• Yin Jiuxu reveals himself as the last survivor of an earlier generation within the Dao Venerable’s palm. He guides Liu Mo and helps organize the awakening attempt.
• The Dao Venerable is revealed as gentle and reflective rather than domineering. His advice repeatedly concerns accepting change and letting go—principles he ultimately acts upon by sacrificing himself to seal the door.
• Si Yeli confronts the uncertainty of which version of herself is real; the Dao Venerable tells her both are her and merges them.
• Mu Shinian seeks help refining his control over time. The Dao Venerable corrects his technique and warns him that time consumes life, and that he must know when to let go.
• Meng Zhiyu directly challenges the Dao Venerable about his own unresolved attachment. He accepts her point, acknowledging that his era has passed.
• Qin Ming behaves with unusual restraint, while the Dao Venerable recognizes something familiar in him. The chapter ends with the Exotic Gold Cloth taking an unexpectedly active, urgent role.

Significant themes

• Reality and illusion: The Void World blurs the distinction between what is real and what is perceived, raising the question of whether an illusion experienced as real can still be called false.
• Letting go and mortality: The Dao Venerable’s counsel to others reflects his own need to release the past. His final sacrifice accepts the end of his era and life.
• Inheritance across generations: The Dao Venerable passes on insight to younger cultivators, while Liu Mo’s command of his scripture marks him as a possible heir.
• The cost of sealing danger: Though the Dao Venerable seems to resolve the crisis, the Flesh Door’s renewed movement leaves the threat—and the next conflict—open.

Summary of “Old Cloth Goes Berserk [Part One]”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Dao Venerable’s detached Flesh Door reappears on the highest peak of the Yin-Yang Dao Field, bleeding from its crack. A pale, bloodstained hand forces the door open, suggesting that something—or someone—has survived inside.
• Qin Ming alone can perceive the tattered Exotic Gold Cloth beyond ordinary perception. Because of his connection to the cloth, he realizes that it has an owner and that its secrets are far greater than previously believed.
• Yin Jiuxu confirms that the Flesh Door originally belonged to the Dao Venerable rather than being an external artifact. Its existence may be linked to the survival of Supreme Dao Fields and the mysterious origins of the inverted Dao Fields.
• As the door opens, the dead Yin-Yang Dao Field begins to revive. Scenes, words, battle images, and other fragments of information pour from the door like remnants of history or another world.
• A gray-haired old man emerges, proving that he is not the Dao Venerable. He uses the nearly destroyed Exotic Gold Cloth to block the visions flowing from the door and to help force it open.
• The old man immediately evaluates the gathered cultivators as potential “Heaven’s Chosen,” especially Meng Zhiyu, Jiang Xiyi, and other talented figures. His attitude reveals that he views them as experimental subjects or resources rather than people.
• When Guan Xu challenges him, the old man attempts to seize and suppress the Eighth Realm expert with a single hand. The cultivators unite and attack him.
• Even combined assaults from Yin Jiuxu, Liu Mo, Guan Xu, and numerous Heavenly Immortals fail. The Exotic Gold Cloth blocks every technique, demonstrating its terrifying defensive power.
• The gray-haired man withdraws through a branching path connected to the depths of the Flesh Door. He rings a Golden Bell, apparently signaling others.
• The cultivators identify him as a member of the ancient Heaven’s Selection Organization, an organization associated with dangerous experiments and possibly with the Longevity Abomination groups.
• Yin Jiuxu concludes that the organization targeted the Dao Venerable near the end of his lifespan. After his death, they likely exploited his temporary silence, leaving behind a mark or hidden contingency inside his Flesh Door.

Character Developments

• Qin Ming: Gains a deeper understanding of the Exotic Gold Cloth and its connection to a hidden owner. He becomes increasingly aware that the cloth is not merely an artifact but part of a vast, dangerous scheme.
• Yin Jiuxu: Demonstrates exceptional caution and insight. He conceals his aura before the door opens, recognizes the gray-haired man’s threat, and reconstructs the likely history of the Dao Venerable’s exploitation.
• Liu Mo: Acts as a leader during the crisis, awakening the intimidated cultivators and urging everyone to attack together. He fights alongside Yin Jiuxu against the intruder.
• Guan Xu: Remains outspoken and defiant despite the old man’s overwhelming strength. His refusal to accept being “selected” provokes the first direct confrontation.
• Gray-haired old man: Reveals himself as arrogant, powerful, and predatory. He considers talented cultivators future Perfect Creators but is willing to kill those who resist him. His dependence on the Exotic Gold Cloth suggests that even he cannot fully control it.
• Exotic Gold Cloth: Displays immense defensive power and unusual emotional reactions. Qin Ming’s original cloth senses that the other piece has been “defiled,” causing it to lose control and surge with intense emotion.

Significant Themes

• Exploitation of the powerful: Even the Dao Venerable, a Supreme Expert, may have been targeted and manipulated after his death, suggesting that no one is truly safe in this world.
• The uncertainty of reality and history: The door releases scenes, words, and battles that seem to revive the past, blurring the line between memory, recorded information, and actual physical existence.
• Hidden organizations and experimentation: The Heaven’s Selection Organization appears to conduct long-term experiments on powerful beings and talented cultivators, treating individuals as test subjects.
• Power versus autonomy: The old man’s language of “selecting” Heaven’s Chosen masks coercion and domination. The cultivators resist being classified or controlled by an outside power.
• Artifacts with owners and wills: The Exotic Gold Cloth is revealed to have a mysterious origin, an owner, and possibly its own consciousness or emotional response. Its true nature may be central to the larger conflict.
• Revival after death: The Yin-Yang Dao Field begins to regenerate after the Dao Venerable’s fall, implying that death and destruction may contain hidden forms of rebirth.

Character Interactions

• The elders debate whether the Dao Venerable survived or whether something else occupies his door, creating widespread fear.
• Gu Rui and others question the gray-haired man, while he responds by judging them as potential Heaven’s Chosen.
• Guan Xu openly insults and challenges the intruder, prompting the old man’s attempt to suppress him.
• Liu Mo rallies the frightened cultivators, leading a collective assault against the gray-haired man.
• Yin Jiuxu and Liu Mo combine their opposing Yin-Yang powers, while Guan Xu uses the Diamond Ring, but all three attacks are stopped by the Exotic Gold Cloth.
• Qin Ming communicates with the cloth connected to him, learning that the cloth confronting the cultivators is abnormal and may have been corrupted.
• Yin Jiuxu finally explains the likely connection between the intruder, the Heaven’s Selection Organization, and the Dao Venerable’s mysterious Flesh Door, leaving the group facing a much larger threat than a single enemy.

Plot and key events

• Guan Xu, Yin Jiuxu, and the others piece together how Heaven’s Selection Organization exploited the Flesh Door: it waited for the Dao Venerable’s power to fade, then used the branching passage to harvest mysterious substances and writings. The group suspects the organization also played a role in the fate of the former Xuandu.
• A force from the organization’s Blood Origin Experiment Site emerges, including rare sacred beasts and wondrous insects—some recovered from ancient remains, others created in experiments. Its gray-haired leader orders them to capture the assembled fighters as experimental materials.
• The leader’s contingent uses the seemingly invisible Torn Cloth to suppress everyone’s abilities and force them into battle. The defenders suffer severe injuries: Gu Rui loses an arm, Zhou Tian is badly wounded, and Meng Zhiyu, Mu Shinian, Yan Chuan, Jiang Xiyi, Duan Yin, and others are also pushed to the brink.
• Qin Ming urges Old Cloth to intervene. Old Cloth suddenly replaces him with the twice-demon and rises to fight the charred Torn Cloth. Their clash ends the suppression, turning the tide: the organization’s fighters are now weakened instead.
• Qin Ming attacks the Thousand-Eyed Sacred Tortoise, blinding many of its eyes, then kills a genuine Earth Immortal who has been reduced to Ancestor-level strength by the reversal. Zhou Tian finishes the wounded opponent. Qin Ming presses forward against the remaining enemies.

Character developments and interactions

• Guan Xu’s fury reflects the group’s outrage at the organization’s crimes. Yin Jiuxu remains grim but confirms the Dao Venerable is truly dead, while Mo Lin and Yun Zhaoxia try to reassure the others that this is only one of the organization’s nine experiment sites.
• Rivals and uneasy allies—including Gu Rui, Mo Lin, and Yun Zhaoxia—set aside private agendas to fight together against a common threat.
• The gray-haired leader shifts from confidence to alarm when Old Cloth turns the organization’s weapon against it.
• Qin Ming moves from constrained defender to aggressive combatant once the suppression lifts. Zhou Tian, despite his injuries, helps defeat the Earth Immortal.

Themes

• Exploitation and hubris: The organization treats rare beings and its enemies as experimental resources, assuming it can control the battlefield.
• Fear and uncertainty: Even powerful factions hesitate before the Dao Venerable’s possible return, showing how a reputation can endure beyond death.
• Reversal and retribution: The weapon used to dominate the defenders changes sides, and the organization suffers the same suppression it imposed on others.
• Cooperation under pressure: Old rivalries give way to a temporary alliance when survival depends on fighting together.

Key plot points and events

• The battle turns against Heaven’s Selection Organization after its protective cloth loses control and the enemy’s advantage collapses. Qin Ming and his allies cut through their forces; Qin Ming kills a powerful crimson dragon, while Meng Zhiyu, Yan Chuan, Yun Nixue, and Liu Mo also defeat formidable opponents.
• The gray-haired elder requests a “balanced battlefield,” but the fighting expands to include the Blood Origin Experiment Site’s mass-produced Perfect Creators and rare, powerful creatures. Qin Ming dominates the ensuing battle, destroying a squad of Twelve-Winged Angels and several Perfect Creators—including Golden Crows, a Thousand-Eyed Sacred Tortoise, and Sun Worms and Moon Insects—and collecting unusually potent blood.
• As the Dao Venerable’s corpse disintegrates, the battlefield’s participants begin fading away and losing their memories. Exotic Gold Cloth extracts Qin Ming’s true body and has fused with the scorched Torn Cloth. The Yin-Yang Dao Field collapses into ash, and the Flesh Door turns to stone and explodes.
• Qin Ming’s incarnation experiences what appears to be the survivors’ return to their homes, but his true body cannot find them in Maple Forest City. Letters later confirm that his acquaintances seem to have returned—yet the letters include details known only to the incarnation. Qin Ming suspects the incarnation remains trapped in the Void World or an inexplicable loop.
• At the Spirit Monkey Tavern, the mysterious Yin Jiuxu approaches Qin Ming’s concealed true body, leaves behind a book titled Black White Scripture, and departs.

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming is revealed as an overwhelming combatant, confidently taunting enemies while fighting several major threats and harvesting rare blood. Afterward, his triumph gives way to fear and confusion as he confronts the possibility that reality, memory, and his incarnation’s experiences no longer align.
• The allies prove their strength as the battle shifts: Meng Zhiyu, Yan Chuan, Yun Nixue, and Liu Mo each turn the tide against powerful foes. Green Phoenix openly admires Qin Ming, while Jiang Xiyi and Yun Nixue recognize him as the mysterious fighter they had encountered before.
• Gu Rui moves from renewed confidence to humiliation when he learns that the opponent who wounded him was a Half-step Heavenly God—and that his lost arm was not proof of weakness in the way he had assumed.
• Heaven’s Selection Organization shifts from confidence to desperation. Its elder tries to retreat and summon reinforcements, but the battlefield’s rules and the collapsing site leave his side exposed.

Significant themes

• Fortune and reversal: The battle’s momentum changes abruptly, leaving once-dominant forces trapped and overwhelmed.
• The cost and ambiguity of victory: The experiment site is destroyed, but the survivors’ memories and identities become uncertain.
• Reality, illusion, and memory: Qin Ming cannot determine whether his incarnation’s world is real, whether his friends truly returned, or whether the Void World persists.
• Power and exploitation: The Blood Origin Experiment Site’s engineered “Perfect Creators” embody the attempt to manufacture and control rare life forms.

Character interactions

• Qin Ming’s irreverent insults contrast with his allies’ familiarity with his supposedly righteous reputation.
• His rivals and companions alike witness his astonishing battlefield prowess, and Green Phoenix praises him openly.
• After the battle, Qin Ming’s true body and incarnation become divided witnesses to events: one sees farewells and apparent homecomings, while the other finds no one present.
• Yin Jiuxu’s unexplained delivery of the Black White Scripture leaves Qin Ming with a final, unsettling clue.

Key plot points and events

• Qin Ming realizes that he, too, may be trapped in a reality-distorting scene. His External Demon, the Spirit Monkey Tavern, the Demon Monkey Wine, and even the Black White Scripture seem to appear and vanish according to his actions.
• The tavern’s old monkey tells him that Qin Ming’s friends truly escaped the Yin-Yang Dao Field, but Qin Ming’s true body was left behind when the Dao Venerable reversed the relationship between illusion and reality. The letters and replies exchanged with his friends were genuine.
• The old monkey reveals himself as a shadow of Yin Jiuxu, who is closely tied to the Dao Venerable. The Dao Venerable has not fully returned to life: he remains in the Void World, and his survival depends on extraordinary circumstances and comes at a steep cost.
• The Dao Venerable’s recent opportunity arose from the clash between two pieces of Exotic Gold Cloth. The old monkey warns that drawing in too many strange scenes and writings can bring calamity.
• The old monkey reverses the effect trapping Qin Ming and sends his incarnation to him. Qin Ming leaves the city, tests whether he has truly returned to reality, and then flees far away.
• A cup of special Demon Monkey Wine triggers a flood of suppressed childhood memories, including visions of his parents. Qin Ming asks Old Cloth about the Fate Cave, hoping it will help him uncover his origins.
• Old Cloth says the cave lies near the boundary between the Supreme Dao Sanctuary and the deeper Night Mist World. Qin Ming sets out. More than twenty days later, he reaches a region shaped by an ominous sense of fate and witnesses a vast winged creature carrying a glowing city across the sky.

Character developments

• Qin Ming moves from confidence in his layered defenses to profound fear and uncertainty when even his true body appears vulnerable. Though shaken, he questions the old monkey carefully, tests his surroundings, and proceeds cautiously toward the Fate Cave.
• Old Cloth becomes more forthcoming than before, answering questions about the cave and its dangers.
• The old monkey / Yin Jiuxu’s shadow acts as both guide and messenger, reassuring Qin Ming about his friends while revealing the limits and costs of the Dao Venerable’s survival.
• Qin Ming’s concern for his family becomes newly urgent as the wine brings back lost memories and strengthens his resolve to investigate his past.

Significant themes

• Reality versus illusion: Qin Ming cannot initially tell whether his world, memories, or even his thoughts are real; the chapter suggests that lived experience may matter more than a firm distinction.
• The price of survival and power: The Dao Venerable’s continued existence is neither easy nor free, and attempts to manipulate strange forces carry consequences.
• Memory, identity, and origins: Recovering fragments of childhood and hearing his parents’ voices renews Qin Ming’s search for his roots.
• Fate and uncertainty: The new region’s atmosphere suggests that destiny may be predetermined, while the enormous airborne city introduces another mystery.

Character interactions

• Qin Ming privately warns Old Cloth that Yin Jiuxu may have detected him; Old Cloth raises the possibility that Qin Ming’s own consciousness is caught in an illusion.
• Qin Ming questions the old monkey about his friends, his own situation, the Dao Venerable, the Flesh Door, and the Exotic Gold Cloth. The monkey answers candidly, though some mysteries remain beyond his knowledge.
• The monkey reassures Qin Ming that his friends departed safely and gives him rare wine said to awaken hazy memories.
• After the wine reveals more of his past, Qin Ming consults Old Cloth about the Fate Cave and chooses to investigate it.

Chapter Summary: “Land of Fate”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qin Ming enters the Land of Fate, a mysterious buffer region between areas rich in Supreme Dao Grounds and the deeper Night Mist World.
• He witnesses a gigantic Starsea Behemoth, whose body carries the floating Hermit City. The creature’s passage creates devastating Astral Winds, though it avoids populated areas.
• Locals explain that Hermit City is inhabited by powerful hermits from across the Night Mist World who seek to break through the mist and reach “Beyond Heaven” and the distant Xinghai. Their attempts have occasionally produced fragments of Memory Crystals describing unknown lands and stars.
• Qin Ming learns that the Land of Fate is famous because of the mysterious Fate Cave, which may connect to the deepest regions of the Night Mist World.
• The cave is associated with:
  • Altering or escaping predetermined fate
  • Awakening dormant

Past Life Wisdom

• Recovering forgotten memories
• Producing spiritual radiance linked to deceased beings from the deepest Night Mist World
• Those who enter the cave often disappear, with their soul lamps going out. Powerful organizations have recently sealed the cave, making direct investigation impossible.
• Qin Ming notices a wanted notice for the Unfettered Demon, whose description may possibly relate to his senior brother Lu, though the image is too vague to confirm.
• Instead of entering Fate Cave directly, Qin Ming decides to visit the Hall of Past Lives, an organization possessing a treasure capable of reproducing part of the cave’s mysterious domain.
• He travels to Past-Life City to participate in the organization’s monthly test, despite the test supposedly being intended for children.

Character Developments

• Qin Ming becomes increasingly intrigued by the Land of Fate’s mysteries, especially the possibility that Fate Cave could reveal his lost memories and origins.
• He remains skeptical of the concept of Past Life Wisdom, insisting that he is simply himself rather than someone dependent on special destiny or inherited fortune.
• At the same time, his subconscious seems to urge him toward Fate Cave, suggesting that he may possess hidden memories or an unresolved connection to the cave.
• His curiosity and caution develop together: after learning that Fate Cave is controlled by powerful forces, he chooses the safer alternative of testing himself through the Hall of Past Lives.
• Qin Ming also demonstrates adaptability by quickly integrating into local society and gathering information through conversations, resonance, teahouses, and taverns.

Significant Themes

• Fate versus free will: The Land of Fate attracts those seeking to break predetermined life paths, while Qin Ming questions whether his own journey is being guided by destiny.
• Identity and memory: Qin Ming’s lack of knowledge about his parents and origins motivates his interest in the cave’s ability to restore complete past memories.
• The unknown and cosmic exploration: The Starsea Behemoth, Hermit City, Beyond Heaven, and the Xinghai expand the setting’s sense of scale and mystery.
• Power and exploitation: Major organizations compete for children with strong spirituality and Past Life Wisdom, raising questions about whether they value the children or merely the power within them.
• Mystery and rumor: Much of the Land of Fate’s history is based on legends, incomplete evidence, and unreliable reports, leaving Qin Ming to distinguish truth from speculation.

Character Interactions

• Qin Ming questions a local old man about the Starsea Behemoth and learns about Hermit City, the Hermit Alliance, Fate Cave, and the Land of Fate’s reputation.
• He gathers information from residents and travelers across villages, towns, tea houses, taverns, and Giant Cities.
• Qin Ming reflects on the wanted notice for the Unfettered Demon and briefly considers whether the figure could be connected to his senior brother Lu.
• His planned interaction with the Hall of Past Lives marks the chapter’s conclusion: he intends to undergo their spirituality test in hopes of awakening hidden memories or discovering his connection to Fate Cave.

Key plot points and events

• Qin Ming arrives in Past-Life City ahead of the monthly Wisdom Awakening ceremony. To observe safely, he chooses three unruly children—Black Dragon Mu Ye, human Yuan Kun, and Blood Roc Fuyao—as temporary relay vessels.
• At the Hall of Past Lives, Destiny Pillars screen the candidates for spiritual sensitivity. The survivors enter a vast inner hall, where the Destiny Ruler measures their innate spiritual radiance. Fuyao proves especially gifted, but no one awakens Past Life Wisdom.
• During the next stage, Spirit Induction, Qin Ming sees the truth: the Hall siphons away candidates’ spiritual radiance. The stolen essence is refined into Spirituality Medicine, which powerful sects and their favored descendants consume to enhance their own aptitude.
• Qin Ming learns that major organizations are complicit and that even the children who are not selected as inner disciples are exploited. He later watches the medicine being made and distributed, but refuses to take any, suspecting it is akin to consuming people.
• The Hall plans to send promising candidates to another place that may serve as a trap for hunting Zizai. Qin Ming considers following the children there.
• He secretly takes the nearly spent replica Destiny Ruler from a neglected storeroom. Far from the city, he uses it inside the Exotic Gold Cloth and discovers his spiritual radiance is immense. The ruler’s rules stir his subconscious, revealing a mysterious inner landscape and an unseen voice saying, “You’ve come.”

Character developments and interactions

• Qin Ming remains cautious after his earlier close call at the Yin-Yang Dao Field. He uses the children as observation vessels rather than entering the ceremony himself, then shifts from detached study to moral outrage once he uncovers the Hall’s exploitation. He ultimately turns the stolen ruler into a tool for investigating his own mind.
• Mu Ye, Yuan Kun, and Fuyao are introduced as aggressive, cruel children whom Qin Ming labels potential “chosen people.” Their behavior—especially Fuyao’s insults toward a nervous young Giant—reveals their bullying nature. Fuyao’s exceptional talent makes him a likely target for recruitment, though he too loses spirituality during the ceremony.
• The Hall’s elders and the allied sects present a respectable public face while secretly discussing the extraction and sale of children’s spiritual essence. Their private exchanges expose resentment, complicity, and the influence of powerful outside organizations.
• The children are reassured and guided through the ceremony, unaware that their spiritual radiance has been diminished. Meanwhile, favored young people receive the medicine made from that stolen essence.

Significant themes

• Corruption behind respected institutions: A celebrated hall uses a benevolent-sounding ceremony to exploit the vulnerable.
• Power, privilege, and complicity: Major sects benefit from the scheme, while ordinary candidates bear its cost.
• Appearance versus reality: The children feel no immediate harm, and the theft remains invisible without the Destiny Ruler.
• Moral limits and suspicion: Qin Ming rejects the medicine, unwilling to profit from a practice he sees as consuming people.
• Awakening and hidden potential: The ruler’s test not only exposes Qin Ming’s extraordinary spirituality but also opens a new, enigmatic layer of his consciousness.

Chapter Summary: “High-End Game”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qin Ming discovers a mysterious Golden Palace deep within his subconscious, containing a Purple Copper Brazier, immortal scriptures, oracle-bone writing, and a book made from Immortal Skin.
• An ethereal voice addresses him and says he has come too early: his childhood memories cannot awaken until he enters the Fate River.
• Qin Ming attempts to enter the palace using the Exotic Gold Cloth and the Destiny Ruler, but the palace vanishes once his consciousness is concealed. He concludes that it is connected to sealed memories or hidden aspects of his origins.
• He wonders whether the palace and book relate to Past Life Wisdom, an evil spirit, his parents, or Ancestor Qin Zhaogu. The Yellow Gauze Canopy Umbrella suggests that someone may have deliberately prepared him as a vessel for the inheritance of a supreme expert.
• After exhausting the Destiny Ruler through another unsuccessful activation, Qin Ming returns it to the Hall of Past Lives.
• He learns that the three Ming-Selected Sons—Fuyao, Yuan Kun, and Mu Ye—have been sent to the Fate Medicine Fields to study and “herd” medicinal plants. Their performance may determine whether they become inner disciples of powerful organizations.
• Qin Ming decides to enter the medicine fields, both to obtain rare medicines before the coming medicinal famine and to oppose the organizations responsible for exploiting young people through “spirit drawing.”
• He secretly approaches the Fate Medicine Fields and observes their unusual structure:
  • Pure Yang Medicine Fields move across the desert like islands carried by drifting sand.
  • Yin Fields appear only at night.
  • The mysterious Ghost Fields lie deep underground.
• Qin Ming believes the medicine fields may provide the resources needed for his next breakthrough.
• Later, several powerful intruders attack the fields with beams resembling Higher Heavenly Light associated with the New Life Path. Qin Ming suspects that one of them may be Senior Brother Lu, or Lu Zizai, and realizes that Lu has powerful companions.

Character Developments

• Qin Ming becomes increasingly suspicious of his own identity and origins. He fears that his subconscious memories may involve Past Life Wisdom or manipulation by an ancient power.
• His cautious and distrustful nature deepens, especially regarding his possible parents and Ancestor Qin Zhaogu. He refuses to blindly follow the clues leading to the Fate Cave.
• Despite his uncertainty, Qin Ming becomes more ambitious and pragmatic. He recognizes the Fate Medicine Fields as a rare opportunity to gather resources and advance his cultivation.
• His hostility toward the major organizations intensifies because of their cruel practice of draining spiritual potential from children and youths.
• The Yellow Gauze Canopy Umbrella, or Little Yellow, acts as Qin Ming’s adviser, offering the possibility that his hidden inheritance may be a carefully arranged opportunity rather than a curse.
• Fuyao, Yuan Kun, and Mu Ye serve as Qin Ming’s indirect sources of information through their shared perception, though they remain inexperienced in the medicine fields.
• Senior Brother Lu/Lu Zizai becomes a major looming figure. Qin Ming suspects that he is active in the region and may be leading a group of powerful allies.

Significant Themes

• Identity and hidden origins: Qin Ming struggles to determine whether his memories are genuine, fabricated, or tied to a past-life inheritance.
• Fear of destiny versus control over one’s life: The Fate River, Fate Cave, and sealed childhood memories suggest that Qin Ming’s path may have been arranged long before he understood it.
• Inheritance as both opportunity and danger: Past Life Wisdom could grant immense power but might also allow an ancient consciousness to manipulate or consume him.
• Exploitation and moral opposition: The major organizations’ “spirit drawing” practices reveal a corrupt cultivation system that sacrifices the futures of the young for medicinal resources.
• Scarcity and survival: With the Night Mist World approaching a medicinal famine, Qin Ming feels compelled to seize the remaining era of abundant high-level medicines.
• High-level conflict beneath the surface: The attacks on the medicine fields suggest that powerful factions are maneuvering over hidden resources and engaging in a larger strategic struggle.

Character Interactions

• Qin Ming repeatedly consults the Yellow Gauze Canopy Umbrella about the Golden Palace and the possibility of Past Life Wisdom. Their exchange highlights Qin Ming’s skepticism and Little Yellow’s broader understanding of ancient inheritances.
• Qin Ming reflects on the mysterious young couple believed to be his parents and on Ancestor Qin Zhaogu, questioning whether either party left the message in the Immortal Skin book.
• Through Fuyao, Yuan Kun, and Mu Ye, Qin Ming observes the Fate Medicine Fields and learns about the Pure Yang, Yin, and Ghost Fields.
• An old instructor explains the medicine fields to the newly arrived youths, introducing them to the dangerous and shifting environment.
• At the end, Qin Ming watches the attacks from afar and decides he may need to coordinate with the unknown intruders. His desire to meet Lu Zizai signals the beginning of a possible alliance or confrontation.