Chapter Summaries

Gao Tian defended his intervention against Han Dang, who admitted to orchestrating trouble for Gu Shen before retreating. Bai Lu then stopped Gu Shen from leaving and asked to see the girl again.

• Gao Tian said Han Dang had broken Nagano's rules by targeting the much weaker Gu Shen.
• Bai Lu revealed her transaction with Han Dang, and Han Dang ended their deal and admitted he had orchestrated the morning's events.
• Han Dang warned Gu Shen that their conflict would continue until the matter involving [Sky Eye] was resolved, then left.
• Bai Lu questioned Gu Shen about what [Sky Eye] had done to Han Dang and suggested he had backing from the Li family.
• Bai Lu used Thorn Dream to stop Gu Shen from leaving and asked to see the girl again.

Gu Shen escaped Bai Lu’s black dream and reflected on how Blazing Fire had let him resist Han Dang’s [Truth] and consume source matter during spiritual crises. He realized Blazing Fire held an emergency reserve of swallowed source matter, leaving him with a new understanding of its true use.

• Gu Shen ignited a flower bud with Blazing Fire, shattered Bai Lu’s dream, and denied knowing about the girl she had seen.
• Bai Lu tried to question Gu Shen about the girl, but he left before she could get an answer.
• Gu Shen considered how Blazing Fire had helped him endure Han Dang’s [Truth] and how Transcendent source matter affected strength and aging.
• Gu Shen realized Blazing Fire could consume its stored source matter during a spiritual crisis and concluded he had found its true use.

Tie Wu awoke as a ghost in Gu Shen’s newly formed world and began cultivating its first seed, while Gu Shen explored the world’s rules and rested beside Chu Ling’s sleeping Source Code. The next morning, Chen Li came to Gu Shen’s courtyard demanding a rematch, and Gu Shen agreed on the condition that Chen Li accept one request if he lost.

• Tie Wu awoke in Gu Shen’s barren New World, accepted a seed to plant, and chose to call Gu Shen “Mr. Gu.”
• Gu Shen created rain and lightning in the wilderness, and Tie Wu planted the New World’s only seed.
• Gu Shen watched over Chu Ling as she slept in 00 Me, then woke refreshed after his first full circulation of Breath of Spring.
• Chen Li broke through Gu Shen’s courtyard gate after being released from detention and demanded another fight.
• Gu Shen agreed to fight Chen Li if Chen Li promised to fulfill one request should he lose.

Gu Shen defeated Shen Li by planting Blazing Fire in his mind and countering his iron-based ability, then drew him into his Mental World to soften the blow. Shen Li remained there after the fight, facing Gu Shen’s question about whether he was finally convinced.

• Gu Shen wagered that Shen Li would defeat the challengers outside Spring Rain Temple, and Shen Li agreed only if Gu Shen beat him first.
• Shen Li attacked with the Iron Folding Stool and a flying kick, but Gu Shen blocked him and warned him not to enter his dangerous state while the Federation Security Committee watched.
• Gu Shen’s hidden Blazing Fire hypnotized Shen Li and drew him into a vast Mental World, where Shen Li learned that Gu Shen had already mastered a Mental Domain.
• After Shen Li returned to the courtyard and disputed the result, Gu Shen used the Truth Ruler to liquefy Shen Li’s iron defenses and punched him in the face.
• Gu Shen pulled Shen Li into the Mental World to spare him the full impact, then asked if he was convinced.

Gu Shen defeated Chen Li in the wilderness and secured his agreement not to challenge him again, while Lu Nan Jin continued making rapid progress in cultivation. Gu Nanfeng and Luo Yu learned that Gu Shen had returned to Snow Forbidden City, where challengers were already gathering.

• Tie Wu watched Gu Shen fight in the wilderness, and Gu Shen explained that his unfinished mental world could not yet fully block outside disturbances.
• Chen Li admitted defeat, promised not to challenge Gu Shen for a long time, and offered to announce his loss on the Deep Water Zone Forum so Gu Shen could refuse other challengers.
• Gu Shen asked Chen Li to pay for the damage to the courtyard before leaving.
• Lu Nan Jin's wooden sword plunged into the ground as she finished cultivating, and Gu Nanfeng praised her progress before showing her a report on the Five Great Families' movements around Gu Shen.
• Gu Nanfeng and Luo Yu discussed the crowds seeking to challenge Gu Shen, then heard someone announce that Gu Shen had returned.

Gu Shen returned to Spring Rain Temple and confronted the crowd of challengers hired to harass him, exposing Han Dang’s involvement. After entering the courtyard with Shen Li, Gu Shen left Shen Li outside to challenge anyone who still wanted to fight him.

• Gu Shen and Shen Li arrived at Spring Rain Temple, where a crowd of transcendents had gathered to challenge Gu Shen.
• Gu Shen used Blazing Fire to expose and question a hired troublemaker, who identified Adjudication Court’s Junior Brother Han as the person behind the disturbance.
• Gu Shen invited genuine challengers to stay while the hired agitators fled from Spring Rain Temple.
• A forum post revealed that Shen Li’s second challenge against Gu Shen had failed.
• Shen Li returned to the gate with a heavy iron rod and told anyone who wanted to challenge Gu Shen to face him first.

Shen Li defeated the challengers who had come to fight Gu Shen while Gu Nanfeng discussed Gu Shen’s quiet response to Han Dang’s scheme. After the fight, Gu Nanfeng arranged care for the injured independent cultivators and reminded Luo Yu to treat them with respect.

• Gu Nanfeng told Luo Yu that Gu Shen had exposed Han Dang’s scheme but was waiting for the right moment to counterattack.
• Gu Shen thanked Shen Li for fighting the challengers, and Shen Li knocked down several dozen of them in less than half an hour.
• Gu Shen invited Shen Li to enjoy the sun, but Shen Li prepared to leave after keeping his promise and agreed to fight again the next day.
• Gu Nanfeng asked Luo Yu to have the injured challengers collected and cover medical expenses for those without sects to contact.
• Gu Nanfeng explained that a Person Above People had to treat others as people, and Luo Yu accepted the lesson and began arranging help.
• Luo Yu noticed Shen Li had left with the iron gate.

After Shen Li protected Gu Shen from challengers, Gu Nanfeng told him that the Gu Family’s welcome banquet had been a hollow reunion and asked Hua Banner to support his effort to stop the Awakening Act. Gu Shen agreed to persuade Madam Lu, leaving Gu Nanfeng with Hua Banner’s backing in Nagano.

• Shen Li’s fight drove off the challengers, and Gu Shen credited him with preventing further trouble.
• Gu Nanfeng showed Gu Shen records of his movements and explained that Wind Eyes could watch but not hear their conversations.
• Gu Nanfeng used the Villa District’s safeguards and Gale Cutter’s domain to shield their talk from surveillance.
• Gu Nanfeng said the Gu Family banquet had left him without real authority and that he needed influence in the family to negotiate against the Awakening Act.
• Gu Nanfeng asked Gu Shen to secure Hua Banner’s support, and Gu Shen agreed to have Hua Banner stand behind him.

Gu Nanfeng explained why he intended to push the bill forward despite the risk of renewed conflict, while Gu Shen listened. At Forward City, Grand Duke Cast Snow anticipated Lin Lin’s arrival from Gubu and welcomed the young brigadier general, who openly said he was unhappy to see him.

• Gu Nanfeng told Gu Shen that he would meet the Old Master and try to preserve peace while advancing the bill, despite the danger of civil conflict.
• Grand Duke Cast Snow refused Heavenly Dog’s offer to retrieve Lin Lin by force, saying Lin Lin had to choose whether to return.
• Cast Snow deduced from the flight of airship GB096 that Lin Lin was approaching Forward City.
• A Dire Hound charged at Cast Snow, but he stopped it with a sheet of paper and greeted the young man outside his study.
• Lin Lin told Cast Snow that seeing him was awful.

Lin Lin asked Cast Snow to erase GB096’s travel records so he could leave North Continent, and Cast Snow secretly granted the craft authorization before it departed. Meanwhile, 073 completed a transaction with Lu Nanzhi by dropping an armored crate onto Golden Banner Mountain, leaving her with a gift.

• Lin Lin told Cast Snow he wanted to leave Gubu Fortress for a vacation and asked him to erase GB096’s travel records.
• Cast Snow revealed he had already erased the records and granted GB096 Forward City’s highest authorization, then let Lin Lin leave without staying to see his Elder Sister.
• Lu Nanzhi waited at Golden Banner Mountain while Cui Zhongcheng monitored the isolated site and worried about her safety during the transaction.
• An airship from North Continent dropped an undamaged alloy crate onto the mountain and disappeared before anyone could see its visitor.
• Lu Nanzhi confirmed the transaction was complete and found the words “073, a gift” engraved on the crate.

Lu Nanzhi and Gu Shen completed a cautious exchange that established trust between the Ancient Text Society members, while Gu Shen arranged for Hua Banner’s materials to be delivered to Nagano. At Spring Rain Temple, Gu Shen tested his newly acquired Iron Throne ability against Shen Li, then ended their fight with Blazing Fire when Shen Li demanded a rematch.

• Lu Nanzhi told Gu Shen that 073 had delivered the case from the Northern Continent, and she confirmed that Hua Banner had prepared the needed materials despite Wind Eye’s surveillance in Nagano.
• Gu Shen gave Lu Nanzhi coordinates at Northern Nagano’s border highway, number 447, for delivering the materials.
• Shen Li finished another day of fighting challengers at Spring Rain Temple, and Gu Shen persuaded him to agree to help with future challengers in exchange for another fight.
• Gu Shen tested Iron Throne against Shen Li, using the ability to turn objects into iron and defend himself while dodging Shen Li’s attacks.
• Gu Shen admitted defeat after assessing Iron Throne’s limits, but Shen Li demanded that he fight with Blazing Fire, so Gu Shen knocked him down with a punch.

After Shen Li was beaten by Gu Shen, Li Qingsui arrived and left with Gu Shen, while Gu Nanfeng watched from Hidden Dragon Pavilion. As the Gu Family prepared to decide the future of his title, Luo Yu sensed that Gu Nanfeng was quietly gathering strength.

• Li Qingsui found Shen Li lying injured after Gu Shen beat him, teased him, and left with Gu Shen.
• Luo Yu watched Gu Shen and Li Qingsui depart and wondered why the Gu Family was not pursuing Gu Shen more actively.
• Gu Nanfeng told Luo Yu that Gu Shen was free to choose whose car he rode in and pointed out that Gu Shen already lived with the Gu Family.
• Gu Nanfeng hinted that he might no longer count as the Gu Family's young master, prompting Luo Yu to suspect his seclusion was not simple acceptance of losing his title.
• Luo Yu watched Gu Nanfeng cultivate beneath the Hidden Dragon Pavilion plaque and sensed that his former sharpness had been fully restrained.

Gu Shen rode with Gao Tian and Li Qingsui to Shrine Mountain and negotiated permission to store secret goods there beyond Wind Eye’s surveillance. The Li Family agreed on the condition that Gao Tian inspect the items and that Gu Shen accept the deeper obligations of their partnership.

• Gu Shen asked Gao Tian whether he had fought Bai Chen, and Gao Tian said he had only given him a lesson.
• Gu Shen teased Li Qingsui about her past words and persuaded her to stop threatening him.
• Gu Shen asked to store inanimate objects in Shrine Mountain to evade Wind Eye, but refused to reveal what they were.
• Gao Tian offered to inspect the goods with his spiritual power, and Li Qingsui agreed to let Gu Shen bring them in if Gao Tian found no danger.
• Li Qingsui warned that the arrangement would change the Li Family’s relationship with Gu Shen, and they agreed to a pleasant partnership.
• As they reached the 447th Highway, Gu Shen grabbed Li Qingsui’s hand and asked Gao Tian to pull over.

Gu Shen brought materials delivered by Cui Zhongcheng into Shrine Mountain to hide them from the Wind Eye, then learned more about Cui’s standing as Hua Banner’s Mountain Keeper. Cui’s loyalties and motives left Gu Shen questioning what he truly wanted.

• Gu Shen met Cui Zhongcheng at 447th Highway, where Cui delivered an alloy case and a van of materials for transport into Shrine Mountain.
• Uncle Gao confirmed the goods contained no prohibited items and told Gu Shen to leave them near Shrine Mountain’s entrance to avoid disturbing the Order Ruin Flowers.
• Gu Shen and Li Qingsui discussed Cui’s reputation and how the Li Family had once tried to recruit him after foreseeing the Zhao Family’s decline.
• Gu Shen reasoned that Cui’s role in Hua Banner’s split made his loyalties unclear and wondered whether he cared who controlled the organization or had ambitions of his own.

Gu Shen visited Li Qingci on Shrine Mountain and learned how its guardians tended the ruined territory and cared for brief-lived white flowers. Li Qingci said she would rather remain a fleeting glimmer of hope on the mountain than seek a life outside it.

• Gu Shen returned alone to Shrine Mountain, where Li Qingci recognized that he had absorbed the Transcendent Source Matter and offered to watch over the goods he had left at the entrance.
• Gu Shen asked how a living flower could grow in the Silent Extinction of Shrine Mountain, and Li Qingci explained that tiny white flowers appeared amid the shadows and soon withered.
• Li Qingci described how generations of Li family guardians used Prayer Art to sustain the mountain, though their own lives were short and the white flowers lasted only days.
• Gu Shen asked whether Li Qingci longed to leave the mountain, and she said she would rather be a White Flower that bloomed for one night and hoped that one day they would spread across Shrine Mountain.

Gu Shen climbed Shrine Mountain with Li Qingci to investigate the source of its Order Ruin Flowers, while learning about Grave Fiend’s innate bad luck and Li Qingci’s vision of a pure land. At the summit, Li Qingci revealed that the person she had seen in her dream was Gu Shen.

• Gu Shen asked Li Qingci to lead him to Shrine Mountain’s summit so he could search for the source of the black flowers, and she warned him to keep his distance from her.
• As they climbed, Li Qingci explained that Grave Fiend’s fortune was always black and that his presence had once accelerated the Order Ruin Flowers’ growth.
• Li Qingci told Gu Shen she had spent ten years of her lifespan to dream of the person who could save Shrine Mountain, and described a golden-flowered wilderness beyond a river.
• Gu Shen and Li Qingci reached the summit, where they found a talisman-covered wooden cabin, an ancient well, and a vast flowerbed surrounded by black flowers.
• Li Qingci said that the person she had seen in her dream was Gu Shen.

Gu Shen visited the Li family Shrine atop Shrine Mountain, where Li Qingci explained the Prayer Art, the Bronze Figure Lanterns, and the black flowers that seemed to fear Gu Changzhi. He left planning to return weekly to clear the flowers, then teased Li Qingsui by claiming he could free the lanterns from the Shrine.

• Li Qingci told Gu Shen that Great Aspirations had to be made inside the Shrine, whose talismans and four Bronze Figure Lanterns protected it from the black flowers.
• Gu Shen sensed that the faceless Bronze Figure Lanterns formed a barrier and might be incomplete, while Li Qingci said she felt unseen fortune gathering when she prayed at the Shrine's center.
• Li Qingci showed Gu Shen the flowerbed where Gu Changzhi had once stood and said its black flowers seemed to feel fear, as though his act of picking one had warned them.
• Gu Shen told Li Qingci he would return about once a week to clear the black flowers and protect the Shrine, and she thanked him.
• At the foot of Shrine Mountain, Li Qingsui scolded Gu Shen for visiting the Shrine until he claimed he could free the Bronze Figure Lanterns, prompting her to suddenly wish him wealth and success.

Gu Shen proposed that clearing the black flowers around Shrine Mountain might let the Li family free the Bronze Figure Lanterns, though it could take years. While resting in 00 Me, he helped Chu Ling accept that her search for a connection to Prayer Art might have no answer in the past, and she asked him to keep massaging her head.

• Gu Shen told Li Qingsui and Uncle Gao that clearing the black flowers could possibly free the incomplete Bronze Figure Lanterns, and Li Qingsui vowed to help him if needed.
• Gu Shen asked Uncle Gao to take him to Clear Tomb Cemetery, then rested in the car after collecting materials at the boundary of Shrine Mountain.
• Gu Shen woke in 00 Me and learned that Chu Ling had spent seven days searching for any link between herself and Prayer Art without finding one.
• Gu Shen explained that Prayer Art might concern what people believe exists, and advised Chu Ling to stop forcing an answer because the Deep Sea database recorded the past, not the future.
• Gu Shen rested his hand on Chu Ling's head, and she blushed and asked him to keep massaging her.

Gu Shen visited Master Chino at Clear Tomb Cemetery to deliver materials for repairing Qingzhong and asked to study her Divination Technique. After learning that the technique required sacrificing his flesh, he refused, and Master Chino offered him another way to gain a legitimate reason to enter Qingzhong.

• Li Qingsui used the future Family Head’s authority to erase records of Gu Shen’s journey, hiding his movements from the Wind Eyes and drawing the Five Great Families’ attention into speculation.
• Gu Shen met Master Chino in the Inner Tomb and explained that he needed a proper reason to return to Qingzhong without attracting suspicion.
• Gu Shen asked Master Chino to teach him the Divination Technique, but she said he could not cultivate it without sacrificing parts of his body.
• Master Chino revealed her withered arm and explained that the Divination Technique’s price was abandoning flesh; Gu Shen decided not to learn it.
• Master Chino offered to give Gu Shen a name he could openly use to enter Qingzhong.

Gu Shen agreed to become Master Chino’s disciple under the public pretense of studying divination, while privately learning to repair Qingzhong’s array patterns and seeking a way into the tomb. As Master Chino began teaching him the first blueprint, Gu Shen comprehended it in less than three minutes.

• Master Chino offered to name Gu Shen her disciple so he could study Qingzhong’s array blueprints and visit the cemetery openly.
• Gu Shen asked about the cost of the Divination Technique and proposed a plan involving entering the tomb; Master Chino listened and questioned whether he was sure.
• Master Chino explained the difference between rule-based and functional Ancient Text and taught Gu Shen that it had to be learned through visualization.
• Master Chino guided Gu Shen through visualizing the blueprint for the array pattern at the seventh array eye of the Colossus Ruins.
• Gu Shen finished comprehending the blueprint in less than three minutes, surprising Master Chino.