Chapter Summaries

Bai Yujun failed to get hired at the theater, so she learned the guqin and pipa and went to a brothel to seek work as a musician. The brothel agreed to hire her as a qin player for ten taels of silver a month, and she eagerly accepted the prospect of earning more.

• Bai Yujun failed to persuade the theater master to hire her as a musician.
• Bai Yujun bought a guqin and pipa, practiced in the mountains for over a month, and mastered both instruments.
• Bai Yujun went to the brothel, where Sister Ma mistook her for a girl seeking work as a courtesan.
• Bai Yujun told Sister Ma she wanted to be a musician, and Sister Ma offered her a qin-playing job.
• Bai Yujun heard the monthly pay was ten taels of silver and exclaimed that she was rich.

Bai Yujun worked as a qin musician at a brothel, where she accidentally infused her Wind Control Talent into her playing and discovered it could cut objects. As the night unfolded, she reflected on the need to stay humble and inconspicuous until she gained enough strength to ascend.

• Bai Yujun rehearsed with the musicians and blended her Wind Control Talent into her qin playing, accidentally cutting a musician’s hair, a candle wick, and Sister Ma’s fan handle.
• Bai Yujun played refined music for the brothel’s arriving guests while carefully suppressing her power so she would not harm the mortals around her.
• Bai Yujun performed as dancers took the stage and watched the guests pursue their various desires.
• Bai Yujun considered how the Chunyang Classics connected ascension to the Celestial Court and concluded that she should keep a low profile until she possessed true strength.

Bai Yujun continued her quiet life selling instruments and playing guqin at a brothel, where her beauty and skill drew a wealthy patron's attention. After a scholar condemned her for playing music while the realm suffered rebellion, she beat him for criticizing her instead of fighting the rebels.

• Bai Yujun bought fine wood and carved a new guqin while continuing her daily work.
• Three months later, Master Wu offered a gold leaf to hear the brothel's free musician perform.
• Bai Yujun took the gold and played a piece that left the hall in stunned silence.
• A middle-aged scholar accused Bai Yujun of ignoring the nation's crisis by playing music.
• Bai Yujun dragged the scholar forward by his hair and beat him, telling him to fight the rebels instead of berating her.

As Hedong’s rebel army besieged the city, Bai Yujun ignored the fighting until the gates were betrayed and the starving soldiers poured inside. While the city burned and the brothel came under attack, its women escaped through a side door into an alley.

• Bai Yujun killed a man trying to break into a shop by flicking a tea droplet through the door into his brow.
• As the siege continued, Bai Yujun calmly carved a bamboo umbrella frame in her courtyard while the city endured days of fighting and shortages.
• Bai Yujun sensed that calamity was gathering within the city before nobles secretly opened the gates to the rebel army.
• Rebel soldiers flooded the city, killed the wealthy man and steward who claimed responsibility for opening the gates, and began looting and attacking residents.
• More than a hundred rebel soldiers attacked the brothel, and a quick-witted courtesan led the women out through a side door into an alley.

Bai Yujun relived the chaos she had faced as a young snake demon and took up her zither to protect the fleeing women and civilians. After cutting down the disorderly soldiers with Wind Blades, she saw an elite army approaching.

• Bai Yujun woke amid the burning city and remembered fighting rebels during her earlier travels and hearing Senior Sister Wei recount her own family’s death.
• Bai Yujun took her ancient zither to the roof as disorderly soldiers pursued the brothel’s courtesans and prostitutes.
• Bai Yujun used Wind Blades played through the zither strings to sever the soldiers’ limbs and drive them away from the fleeing civilians.
• Bai Yujun tuned her zither and continued killing the disorderly soldiers while civilians gathered near her for protection.
• The bandits called for the Great General, and an elite army rushed toward Bai Yujun as she finished her somber melody.

Bai Yujun played her guqin against an elite rebel army, cutting down its soldiers and hidden experts. After shattering the Golden Core sword cultivator’s seven swords, she decided she did not need a soulmate.

• Bai Yujun took her place atop a stone archway and began playing “Ambush from Ten Sides” as the armored rebel army charged.
• Bai Yujun used invisible Wind Blades to destroy the archers’ arrows and slice through the advancing soldiers.
• Bai Yujun stopped playing while a bloodied Little Girl crossed the battlefield searching for her parents, then resumed once the child had passed.
• Bai Yujun killed the experts who leaped from the army, including the rebels’ hidden leader, an early Golden Core sword cultivator.
• Bai Yujun shattered the sword cultivator’s seven treasure swords with her guqin and declared that she did not need a soulmate.

After slaughtering the rebels who attacked the city, Bai Yujun helped its restless dead move on and blessed a lost child so she could be reunited with her parents. As the city recovered and its people left her offerings, Bai Yujun returned to her courtyard to eat hot pot.

• Bai Yujun saw the ghosts of a little girl’s parents following their daughter as she searched for them, and blessed the child to change her fate.
• The little girl was reunited with a grieving couple who had lost their own daughter and took her in.
• Bai Yujun chanted scriptures until the city’s resentful souls left for the Yellow Springs Road and the Yin Sha Qi dispersed.
• The surviving citizens cleaned the city and left food at Bai Yujun’s shop to thank her.
• Bai Yujun paid the dead charcoal seller for the charcoal she took, then returned to her courtyard and cooked hot pot.

Zhang Qi reunited with Bai Yujun after years apart and sought her advice, while she tried to avoid being drawn into his military affairs. Fearing that fate would make her a victim in a grand drama, Bai Yujun packed her valuables and fled, only to run into Zhang Qi again and escape by leaping away.

• Zhang Qi entered the ruined city with his fellow generals and heard that a white-clothed Qin cultivator had defeated the rebel troops.
• Zhang Qi recognized Bai Yujun outside her shop, and she welcomed him as her former student.
• Zhang Qi asked about Bai Yujun's past and sought her advice on battle strategy, while she asked after his mother and Woniu Village.
• Bai Yujun sent Zhang Qi away before lunch, then worried that his return would pull her into danger and packed her belongings to flee.
• Zhang Qi returned just as Bai Yujun left the shop, and she made an excuse before leaping away and running off down another street.

Bai Yujun traveled north toward Chang'an through a drought-stricken land, intending to witness the Li Tang’s downfall and take revenge on the emperor. Overheated by the sun, she found a cool, yin-rich tomb and entered it to rest.

• Bai Yujun headed north as drought, famine, and war ravaged the land, and she blamed the demonic sect’s Blood Sacrifice for the calamities.
• Bai Yujun found a puddle and drank alongside wild beasts, including a Colorful Fierce Tiger, without driving them away.
• Bai Yujun switched to traveling at night and resting by day to escape the oppressive heat.
• Bai Yujun used her ability to sense qi and earth veins to locate a likely royal tomb and burrowed into its mausoleum.
• Bai Yujun lifted a heavy stone gate and entered a lavish, undisturbed tomb chamber.

Four Great Tang agents used the Dragon Seeking Plate to track the Dragon Snake and vowed to capture her, while Bai Yujun explored an underground mausoleum and settled in to rest. The agents continued their search, and Bai Yujun slept beside the underground river, unaware of the danger approaching.

• The leader of four Great Tang agents buried their Waist Tokens and ordered that only one of them could survive if their mission to capture the Dragon Snake failed.
• Bai Yujun explored the mausoleum and set up a drying formation to help preserve its collection of ancient books and bamboo slips.
• Bai Yujun swam in the underground lake, then entered the main hall and learned from the murals that the tomb belonged to a Princess of the previous dynasty.
• Bai Yujun left the Princess's treasures untouched, asked permission to stay, and made a bed beside the river.
• Bai Yujun fell asleep in the mausoleum as the four agents pressed on with the Dragon Seeking Plate.

Bai Yujun followed a mysterious summons from her underground tomb to an abandoned village, where court officials revealed a trap meant to capture her and return her to the True Dragon Hall. The Four Heavenly Kings attacked, leaving Bai Yujun surrounded and facing the court’s prepared weapons.

• Bai Yujun dreamed of Li Chongqian and then, compelled by his voice, left her tomb and walked to the surface.
• Bai Yujun found four cloaked officials building a house in an abandoned village and warned that it needed a main beam.
• The officials revealed themselves and accused Bai Yujun of abandoning her post as the Tang’s True Dragon, demanding that she return to the True Dragon Hall.
• Bai Yujun refused, criticized the court, and drew her Hengdao as the officials summoned four giant earthen generals.
• The officials formed the Heavenly Net array and prepared demon-binding weapons while the Four Heavenly Kings attacked Bai Yujun.

Bai Yujun fought four earthen giants in the imperial court’s Heavenly Net formation and used wind and careful probing to find a way past its defenses. She escaped underground through a weak point in the formation, leaving the four generals behind.

• Bai Yujun evaded the earthen giants’ attacks and discovered that they rapidly regenerated after being damaged.
• She summoned a violent wind from the sky, clearing the dust and battering the giants with Wind Blades.
• Bai Yujun led the mobile formation toward a burial mound and identified the giants’ legs as the source of their power.
• She found that the underground barrier was weaker than the one in the sky and reached the burial mound’s passage.
• Bai Yujun used three bursts of speed to separate two giants, break through the ground’s weak point, and disappear underground.

Bai Yujun reverted to her enormous serpent form and fought the four experts, killing Third Brother with her venom. After the leader sent Second Brother and Fourth Brother to summon reinforcements, Second Brother joined him in holding Bai Yujun back while Fourth Brother escaped with the Dragon Seeking Plate and formation foundations.

• Bai Yujun emerged from underground in her true form and destroyed one of the earth giant formation foundations.
• Bai Yujun attacked the experts with her massive body, tail, and venom, then seized Third Brother in her jaws.
• The experts bombarded Bai Yujun until she spat out Third Brother, who died as her venom dissolved his body.
• The leader retrieved the Dragon Seeking Plate and formation foundations, then ordered Second Brother and Fourth Brother to gather troops at the Eastern Mountain Camp.
• Bai Yujun returned to human form and fought the leader with her saber as he tried to pass the Dragon Seeking Plate and formation foundations to Fourth Brother.
• Second Brother chose to stay and help the leader hold Bai Yujun back, while Fourth Brother left to carry out their mission.

Bai Yujun defeated the four men sent to capture her and refused their leader’s plea to return to True Dragon Hall, telling him people had to save themselves. She continued north through a realm ravaged by war, banditry, and famine, crossing a battlefield untouched by its fighters.

• Bai Yujun killed Second Brother and crippled the four brothers’ leader, who begged her to return to True Dragon Hall and bring peace.
• Bai Yujun told the leader that people had to save themselves and stop deceiving the common people, then left him alive.
• An elite army arrived and found that the Dragon Seeking Plate had stopped responding.
• Bai Yujun traveled north through bandit raids, ruined towns, and armies marching across the drought-stricken land.
• Bai Yujun wove straw hats beside a battlefield and continued across it as anyone who tried to attack her died.

As Li Tang collapsed and Chang'an burned, Bai Yujun watched Emperor Renwu and the Old Eunuch die before revealing her true form to claim the capital's remaining Dragon Qi. After defeating the Demonic Cultivators and absorbing the Dragon Qi beneath True Dragon Hall, she vanished into the clouds.

• Rebels overwhelmed Chang'an, and Emperor Renwu fled to the hills with the Old Eunuch as Bai Yujun waited nearby.
• Bai Yujun offered Emperor Renwu an umbrella, then watched as he hanged himself and the Old Eunuch followed him.
• Bai Yujun transformed into her true form and flew toward Daming Palace to absorb the Dragon Qi left behind by Li Tang.
• Demonic Cultivators attacked Bai Yujun, but she struck them with lightning and forced the Nascent Soul Demonic Cultivators to flee.
• Bai Yujun summoned a tornado that destroyed True Dragon Hall, absorbed its Dragon Qi, and disappeared into the clouds.

After waking from a three-year sleep, Bai Yujun emerged from an ancient tomb and learned that the Great Tang had fallen. She changed the earth currents to conceal the tomb and set off to hide from those seeking the True Dragon.

• An old one-armed farmer pondered Dragon Snake’s final words while grave robbers dug into the tomb nearby.
• Bai Yujun awoke when the grave robbers disturbed her, killed their leader, and collapsed the tunnel over the others.
• Bai Yujun learned from the farmer that the Great Tang had been gone for over three years and explained that rigid, rotten traditions prevented peace.
• Bai Yujun altered the earth currents so the ancient tomb would be difficult to find again.
• The farmer warned Bai Yujun that ambitious men were searching for her, and she walked away to find somewhere to hide.

Bai Yujun hid beneath a great river to avoid the coming war, but a battle erupted above her and endangered the river. After helping destroy the Demon Sect’s Water Ghosts, she climbed ashore in a fury and prepared to strike the evil demon army.

• Bai Yujun traveled south in serpent form and hid inside a sunken ship in the river.
• More than two months later, Zhang Qi ordered his army to attack across the river, and the ensuing battle filled the water with soldiers, arrows, and wreckage.
• Bai Yujun used her water-controlling gift and Sword Control Technique to turn submerged arrows against the Water Ghosts attacking the ships and floating bridges.
• The opposing commander poisoned the river, killing the Water Ghosts but badly damaging the water and its surroundings.
• Bai Yujun climbed ashore, enraged by the pollution, and prepared to attack the evil demon army before fleeing.

Bai Yujun revealed her true form, crushed the demonic army’s elite formation, and escaped through the river before the Cultivation World began hunting for her. She hid in a city, found a spring rumored to lead to the Dragon Palace, and plunged inside as a great master arrived too late.

• Bai Yujun transformed into a giant serpent and crushed the demonic army’s elite formation along the riverbank.
• Bai Yujun used Wind Blades to hold off pursuers while Zhang Qi’s water snakes helped her escape underwater.
• The next day, cultivators and martial arts experts searched the great river for Bai Yujun, while she went ashore and ate at a city restaurant.
• Bai Yujun discovered Dragon King Spring, recognized its karst-cave scent, and dived into it.
• A great master arrived at the spring one incense stick later and beat his chest in frustration.

Bai Yujun returned to the Southern Wastes and visited Cloud Remote Ancient Village, where she learned that the White and Black Divisions were fighting again and that the Black Division was making zombies with Central Plains evil cultivators. She settled in to sell her treasures with Mu Duo, leaving the village's war unresolved.

• Bai Yujun reached the Southern Wastes, transformed by a lake, and headed toward Cloud Remote Ancient Village with a block of salt.
• Bai Yujun kicked a Black Division zombie off a mountain path and continued to the village.
• Bai Yujun reunited with Mu Duo and learned that the Black Division was cooperating with Central Plains evil cultivators to create zombies for use against Zhang Qi's army and the White Division.
• Bai Yujun offered to help the White Division if the fighting worsened, then asked Mu Duo to help her sell goods at a stall.
• Mu Duo asked whether Bai Yujun's purchases of Qi-and-Blood-restoring herbs served a special need, and Bai Yujun insisted she needed them to grow.

Bai Yujun slept through a Black Tribe shaman’s soul curse and unknowingly killed him with a sweep of her tail. After returning to the Hundred Thousand Mountains, she resumed trading and decided to travel to Melt Heaven Ridge to forge a shield.

• A Black Tribe shaman killed villagers with a curse, but when he entered Bai Yujun’s dream, she swatted him dead with her tail.
• After resting in Cloud Remote Ancient Village for half a month, Bai Yujun visited Snake Valley to teach Qing Ling before returning to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• At Green Wood Mountain, Bai Yujun traded salt blocks for ore and forged weapons for the demon beasts.
• Bai Yujun decided to forge a shield to complement her armor and Snake Scales, and set her sights on Melt Heaven Ridge’s volcanic craters.