Chapter Summaries

Chen Chong let Xie Zhen leave Qixia Mountain after their wager, while Jiangning’s Prince Xie failed to persuade him to hand over Junshan Zhenren. As the Buddhist convoy was destroyed and the survivors fled, Chen revealed that his true target was the Chan Master, leaving Meng Kejian worried about the consequences.

• Chen Chong withdrew the cavalry encirclement and said he had promised Xie Zhen an hour’s head start after their wager over Drunken Immortal Brew.
• Chen Chong refused Prince Xie’s requests to kill Xie Zhen and take Junshan Zhenren, explaining that Jiangning’s gifts to Nalan Xuance had not reached his cavalry.
• Prince Xie left Qixia Mountain after Meng Kejian warned him to pursue Xie Zhen himself if he wanted him dead.
• Chen Chong told Meng Kejian that Xie Zhen was a dangerous Great Chu swordsmanship genius and that war between Chu and Li was approaching.
• Du Yunzhong reported that he had deliberately held back, allowing Miao Zhen to escape, while the cavalry reported that the Brahma Sound Temple convoy had been destroyed.
• Chen Chong said the campaign’s true aim was to confront the Chan Master, and dismissed Meng Kejian’s fears about the karmic consequences.

Chen Chong deduced that Pelican had unknowingly served a secret mission connected to Xie Zhen, then ordered Meng Kejian to pursue him. As Xie Xuanyi fled Qixia Mountain with Mi Yun and Deng Baiyi, he realized escape was impossible without risking a teleportation array and asked Mi Yun to choose its destination.

• Chen Chong told Meng Kejian that Pelican may have protected someone in Pingzhi City without knowing their identity, and suspected her mission had been meant to connect Xie Zhen with that person.
• Chen Chong ordered Meng Kejian to lead the Feathered Camp iron cavalry in pursuit of Xie Zhen and warned him to show no mercy.
• Xie Xuanyi escaped Qixia Mountain with Mi Yun and Deng Baiyi, and learned that he had said nothing revealing during his drinking with Chen Chong.
• Xie Xuanyi found that the As-You-Wish Token could not connect to Chen Jingxuan and realized Chen Chong's forces had sealed the region around Qixia Mountain.
• Xie Xuanyi asked Deng Baiyi to prepare a Teleportation Talisman despite the short time and lack of known coordinates, then told Mi Yun to draw the destination.

Xie Xuanyi and Deng Baiyi tried to complete a teleportation talisman formation on Little Barren Mountain, relying on Mi Yun to draw its destination with the Causal Dao Principles. As Meng Kejian’s cavalry caught up, Xie Xuanyi drew the pursuers away and attacked their ranks, but Meng Kejian struck him and broke through his golden body.

• Xie Xuanyi explained that Mi Yun’s Causal Dao Principles could reveal the teleportation formation’s endpoint, while Deng Baiyi began drawing its formation talismans.
• Mi Yun failed to activate the Causal Dao Principles as the Yuan Province cavalry approached, and Xie Xuanyi went out to buy Deng Baiyi more time.
• Meng Kejian followed a String Plate to Little Barren Mountain, where Xie Xuanyi ambushed the cavalry with a sharpened bamboo stalk and then struck again with Sword Qi.
• Xie Xuanyi used a substitute talisman to evade Meng Kejian and slaughtered soldiers from both cavalry forces with the Principle of Annihilation.
• Meng Kejian slipped behind Xie Xuanyi and stabbed him, breaking his golden body and sending golden blood into the air.

Xie Xuanyi fought Meng Kejian and the Feathered Camp to buy time for the Teleportation Talisman on Little Barren Mountain. After Meng Kejian unleashed his serpent-spirit Dharma Aspect and engulfed Xie Xuanyi in a powerful blade strike, Mi Yun finally began channeling his Causal Dao Principles into the talisman.

• Xie Xuanyi used the Principle of Life to endure Meng Kejian’s poisoned wound and attacked the Feathered Camp with crude flying swords to keep Meng Kejian occupied.
• Meng Kejian intercepted Xie Xuanyi’s flying swords to protect his guards until the Feathered Camp cavalry charged into the forest and broke the stalemate.
• Meng Kejian summoned his serpent-spirit Dharma Aspect and struck at Xie Xuanyi with a powerful blade attack.
• Xie Xuanyi combined the Principles of Life and Annihilation in his sword, but Meng Kejian’s blade aura crushed his attack and engulfed him.
• Mi Yun steadied himself on Little Barren Mountain and drew a faint thread of golden light from his Causal Dao Principles onto the Teleportation Talisman.

Xie Xuanyi endured Meng Kejian’s devastating attack and fought to complete the Principle of Annihilation while Deng Baiyi and Mi Yun prepared a teleportation array. With the array ready but his escape uncertain, Xie Xuanyi abandoned his defenses and unleashed Annihilation against the Que Wu Blade.

• Meng Kejian’s Dharma Aspect destroyed the Feathered Camp’s remaining guards, while Xie Xuanyi survived the strike with the Immortal Spring’s help.
• Xie Xuanyi learned that Mi Yun was carving the teleportation array’s final talisman and began raising the Principle of Annihilation.
• Meng Kejian attacked to stop Xie Xuanyi from forming a complete Dao Domain, and the Que Wu Blade pierced Xie Xuanyi’s shoulder.
• Mi Yun finished the array talisman, and Xie Xuanyi told Deng Baiyi to make the formation self-destruct five breaths after activation.
• Xie Xuanyi gripped the Que Wu Blade, declared that he had a sword named Annihilation, and poured the Principle of Annihilation into it.

Deng Baiyi and Mi Yun opened a teleportation array, and Xie Zhen escaped Meng Kejian’s killing blow by reaching the gate before it closed. Chen Chong ordered a search across Yuan Province using the Causal Dao Principles left in the destroyed array, while revealing that he had hoped to meet The Chan Master.

• Deng Baiyi activated the teleportation array, and she and Mi Yun entered its gate as Xie Zhen fought Meng Kejian on the battlefield.
• Xie Zhen redirected himself with his umbrella sword and slipped through the gate just before the teleportation array self-destructed.
• Nalan Qiutong challenged Meng Kejian over the failed capture, but Chen Chong placed responsibility for the failed ambush on her and let Meng Kejian go unpunished.
• Chen Chong identified the golden light as the Causal Dao Principles and ordered Meng Kejian and Du Yunzhong to search Yuan Province for Mi Yun.
• Chen Chong concluded that The Chan Master had expected Mi Yun to escape and admitted he had come hoping to meet him.

After waking from two days and three nights unconscious, Xie Xuanyi discovered that Meng Kejian’s Dao intent had severely damaged his meridians and left him unable to walk. In the refugee village called Peach Blossom Spring, he recognized that the young physician Chu resembled the little emperor and reflected on the persecution of Buddhism, sensing that his misfortune might become a chance to break through.

• Xie Xuanyi woke in a hut after two days and three nights and learned from Chu that his meridians were badly damaged and he needed to rest.
• Xie Xuanyi recognized Chu’s resemblance to the little emperor, while Mi Yun and Deng Baiyi explained that they were hiding in Peach Blossom Spring under false identities.
• Xie Xuanyi tried to stand, collapsed, and accepted Chu’s diagnosis that a strand of Blade Aura had triggered a serious underlying condition.
• Mi Yun and Deng Baiyi pushed Xie Xuanyi through the refugee village, where Mi Yun described Chu’s medical work and the refugees’ hardship.
• Mi Yun worried that Nalan Xuance’s campaign against Buddhism would worsen the suffering, and Xie Xuanyi explained how the struggle for imperial power threatened Buddhist temples.
• Xie Xuanyi praised Mi Yun for not acknowledging Brahma Sound Temple and concluded that his injuries and arrival at Peach Blossom Spring might lead to a breakthrough.

After surviving the Qixia Mountain ambush, Xie Xuanyi contacted Chen Jingxuan, reported the delegation’s losses, and revealed that he had found Chu Guo. In Peach Blossom Spring Village, Xie Xuanyi met Chu Guo’s disabled master and learned that Chu Guo had treated his injuries.

• Sang Zheng reported that the Brahma Sound Temple delegation had vanished after passing Qixia Mountain, and Chen Jingxuan concealed his worry about Xie Zhen’s silence.
• Xie Xuanyi reached Chen Jingxuan through the As-You-Wish Illusory Realm and described the ambush, including Junshan Zhenren’s capture and the delegation’s heavy casualties.
• Chen Jingxuan offered to send help, but Xie Xuanyi refused and revealed that he had found Chu Guo in Peach Blossom Spring Village.
• Chen Jingxuan warned Xie Xuanyi to avoid further token communications because Nalan Xuance’s Iron Curtain might detect them.
• At Round Light Temple, Chu Guo introduced Xie Xuanyi to his master, Old Zheng, whose legs had been severed by bandits.
• Old Zheng explained that Chu Guo had treated Xie Xuanyi’s injuries, and Xie Xuanyi praised the young physician’s skill.

Xie Xuanyi and Deng Baiyi stayed in Peach Blossom Spring, where Xie Xuanyi began treating the famine-stricken villagers and discovered that his healing could ease but not cure many illnesses. The story left him and Zheng Fengsheng serving long lines of patients as Xie Xuanyi tried to save people out of genuine goodwill.

• Chu Guo explained that Peach Blossom Spring expelled people who harmed others or refused to work, and Mi Yun reconsidered how compassion and strict rules could coexist.
• A wounded woman thanked Chu Guo and Zheng Fengsheng for treating her; Xie Xuanyi realized her head tumor remained dangerous despite the temporary relief.
• Zheng Fengsheng asked Xie Xuanyi to help treat the village's many sick refugees, and Xie Xuanyi and Deng Baiyi agreed to stay for several days.
• Deng Baiyi asked whether Xie Xuanyi had stayed to cultivate the Principle of Life, and he said he simply wanted to try to save more people.
• Xie Xuanyi treated villagers by using the Principle of Life to suppress their pain, and the crowds soon filled both his and Zheng Fengsheng's clinics for follow-up medicine.

Xie Xuanyi warned Round Light Temple that Yuan Province’s iron cavalry was annihilating Buddhism and urged the monks to bring down the temple themselves before Meng Kejian’s forces arrived. The monks faced the choice in stunned silence as Facheng, the mute abbot who had built Peach Blossom Spring, gestured toward the temple, the moon, and his heart.

• Meng Kejian and Du Yunzhong ruled out three counties while searching for Xie Zhen, then ordered their cavalry to kill everyone at a Buddhist temple they found.
• Xie Xuanyi’s Principle of Life strengthened as he healed villagers, though his severed meridians still required time and a divine embryo to restore.
• Deng Baiyi told Xie Xuanyi that his deeds had saved many people, and he explained that he had stayed in Peach Blossom Spring to protect Chu Guo from the coming violence.
• Xie Xuanyi warned Deng Baiyi that the annihilation of Buddhism had begun and proposed destroying Round Light Temple themselves before Meng Kejian’s cavalry could reach it.
• Xie Xuanyi, Chu Guo, and Zheng Fengsheng told Round Light Temple’s monks that Yuan Province’s iron cavalry was destroying Buddhist sites, and Chu Guo argued that the absent Chan Master could not save them.
• The monks looked to Facheng for a decision, and the mute abbot gestured toward the temple, the moon, and his heart.

After Round Light Temple was destroyed to protect its monks and the refugees from the approaching cavalry, Xie Xuanyi spoke with Chu Guo about leaving Yuan Province. Xie Xuanyi offered to take Zheng Fengsheng to safety, then revealed that he suspected Chu Guo’s unusual dreams connected him to the chaos in Pingzhi City.

• Facheng chose to tear down Round Light Temple, and Mi Yun persuaded the monks that the Buddha’s teachings would remain even if the statue fell.
• The temple was razed overnight, and a scouting unit arrived at dawn, questioned the disguised monks, and left without investigating further.
• Deng Baiyi and Zheng Fengsheng watched the sunrise as Zheng guessed that she and Xie Xuanyi were not ordinary people.
• Chu Guo inferred that Xie Xuanyi and Deng Baiyi came from Chu, and Xie Xuanyi warned that the cavalry would soon return in force.
• Chu Guo asked Xie Xuanyi to take Zheng Fengsheng to safety in Qian Province but chose to remain in Yuan Province himself.
• Xie Xuanyi suggested Chu Guo feared his presence had caused the chaos in Pingzhi City and asked him to explain his recent dreams.

Xie Xuanyi revealed that Chu Guo’s recurring dreams were tied to his hidden origins and warned that Yuan Province’s lockdown made Chu Guo a target. Chu Guo chose to stay with Zheng Fengsheng for now, determined to fulfill his promise to give the old man a better life before they had to flee.

• Xie Xuanyi told Chu Guo that his repeated dreams of a flower sea and a sun-and-moon throne were no coincidence, but kept the truth of Chu Guo’s royal lineage from him.
• Chu Guo described a mysterious figure in a yellow robe who seemed to wait for him in the dream, and Xie Xuanyi suspected the figure was Chu Guo’s biological father.
• Xie Xuanyi told Chu Guo that he had to leave once his injuries healed because Chen Chong and Nalan Xuance were hunting him, and Chu Guo would likely die if he stayed behind.
• Xie Xuanyi warned that Zheng Fengsheng’s life was nearly over, and Chu Guo admitted he already knew after seeing the old man’s life line shatter when he took a blade for him.
• Chu Guo called Zheng Fengsheng his true father and vowed to fulfill his promise to take him to see the finest scenery and live in the best house.

Chu Guo began cultivating under Xie Xuanyi, while Meng Kejian and Du Yunzhong narrowed their search for Xie Zhen and Mi Yun to Yuanning County. As the iron cavalry’s search quieted, Xie Xuanyi sensed danger gathering again, and Deng Baiyi suggested that he and Chu Guo could learn from each other.

• Chu Guo swore that he wanted to cultivate, and Xie Xuanyi agreed to teach him.
• Meng Kejian concluded that Mi Yun’s Causal Dao Principles had helped Xie Zhen escape to Yuanning County, and he ordered scouts to gather old and new maps of the county.
• Xie Xuanyi told Deng Baiyi that his injury had healed but his primordial fire still had not ignited, while danger began to trouble his Heart Lake again.
• Xie Xuanyi taught Chu Guo to practice sword swings against wooden dummies, though Chu Guo struggled to cut one down.
• Deng Baiyi suggested that Chu Guo could learn to kill from Xie Xuanyi while Xie Xuanyi learned to save people from Chu Guo.

Xie Xuanyi realized Chu Guo’s reluctance to strike lethal points came from his compassion as a physician, and warned him that learning the sword meant accepting the need to kill. After revealing the dangers awaiting Chu Guo and that he could not return to his former life, Xie Xuanyi asked whether he still wanted to learn, and Chu Guo chose to continue.

• Xie Xuanyi watched Chu Guo struggle to cut down wooden dummy stakes and noticed that he avoided their fatal points.
• Chu Guo explained that he aimed for places where a wounded opponent could still be saved, and Xie Xuanyi warned that such restraint could get him killed.
• Xie Xuanyi demonstrated lethal sword strikes with a dead branch and told Chu Guo that swordsmanship required speed, precision, and ruthlessness.
• Chu Guo recalled the sacrifices made to protect him and asked whether he could return to Pingzhi City or take Old Zheng to Qian Province.
• Xie Xuanyi revealed that he was Xie Zhen, described the powerful enemies Chu Guo would face, and asked if he still wanted to learn the sword.
• Chu Guo picked up the dead branch and said that he still wanted to learn.

Zheng Fengsheng collapsed, and Chu Guo and Xie Xuanyi discovered that a poison from the blade that injured him in Pingzhi City had silently destroyed his meridians. Xie Xuanyi concealed the severity from the villagers, then shut himself in with Zheng Fengsheng and used his Principle of Life in a desperate attempt to save him.

• Zheng Fengsheng collapsed while out with Mi Yun, and Chu Guo reassured the gathered villagers by calling it exhaustion and a serious wind chill.
• Facheng gave Chu Guo body-nourishing array talismans, which Chu Guo used to help Zheng Fengsheng feel better.
• Xie Xuanyi told Chu Guo that Zheng Fengsheng's meridians were breaking down because poison had seeped into him after he blocked a blade in Pingzhi City.
• Chu Guo begged Xie Xuanyi to save Zheng Fengsheng, and Xie Xuanyi healed Chu Guo's forehead before asking to be left alone with the old man.
• Xie Xuanyi concealed the hut with talismans and began channeling his Principle of Life into Zheng Fengsheng.

Xie Xuanyi used the Principle of Life and the Immortal Spring to treat Zheng Fengsheng, whose poisoned body had been ruined by war. In Zheng Fengsheng’s memories, Xie Xuanyi discovered how he came to raise Chu Guo and that Lu Yuzhen had visited the child soon after his discovery.

• Zheng Fengsheng woke as Xie Xuanyi began drawing poison from his body with the Principle of Life.
• Zheng Fengsheng admitted he feared his survival would keep Chu Guo from leaving with Xie Xuanyi, while Xie Xuanyi continued the treatment using the Immortal Spring.
• Xie Xuanyi entered Zheng Fengsheng’s Divine Sea and saw how the bereaved old man found the abandoned infant Chu Guo and chose to raise him instead of ending his life.
• Xie Xuanyi saw Lu Yuzhen visit Zheng Fengsheng in the snow, accept a copper coin, and name the infant Chu Guo.

Xie Xuanyi learned that Lu Yuzhen had extended Zheng Fengsheng’s life with the Immortal Spring ten years earlier, but Zheng Fengsheng’s karmic debt brought him to his destined death. Zheng Fengsheng died during Xie Xuanyi’s attempt to save him, and his death unexpectedly pushed Xie Xuanyi’s Principle of Life toward completion, leaving Xie Xuanyi questioning whether the breakthrough was what he wanted.

• Xie Xuanyi watched Lu Yuzhen explain that he had used an Immortal Spring to extend Zheng Fengsheng’s life by ten years and that Zheng Fengsheng’s death was now due.
• Zheng Fengsheng told Xie Xuanyi that he had long sensed the Immortal Spring’s healing effects and had believed he could survive when he blocked a blade for Chu Guo.
• Xie Xuanyi offered to treat Zheng Fengsheng with the Immortal Spring, but Zheng Fengsheng said that cause and effect outweighed life and death.
• Zheng Fengsheng’s soul suddenly shattered, and Xie Xuanyi failed to save him.
• Zheng Fengsheng’s death triggered a breakthrough in Xie Xuanyi’s Principle of Life, which began condensing in his Divine Sea.
• Xie Xuanyi recognized that Lu Yuzhen’s actions had arranged this karmic outcome and wondered whether the resulting advancement was truly what he wanted.

After Zheng Fengsheng died, Chu Guo mourned him and decided to leave Yuan Province with Xie Xuanyi once the lockdown ended. Xie Xuanyi revealed that Zheng’s death had coincided with the opportunity for his Principle of Life breakthrough, but he remained just short of advancing because he wanted to break through in his own way.

• Xie Xuanyi told Chu Guo that he had done everything he could to treat Zheng Fengsheng, and Chu Guo collapsed in grief.
• Meng Kejian noticed that Round Light Temple had vanished from recent surveys despite appearing on old maps, suspected it had been concealed, and ordered the Feathered Camp to prepare to depart.
• Chu Guo and the residents of Peach Blossom Spring buried Zheng Fengsheng, and Chu Guo admitted he had hoped to take the physician to Qian Province.
• Chu Guo told Xie Xuanyi he did not blame him for failing to save Zheng and said he would leave Yuan Province with him after the lockdown ended.
• Deng Baiyi and Mi Yun learned that Xie Xuanyi had not broken through his Principle of Life and that Zheng Fengsheng’s death had made the breakthrough possible.
• Xie Xuanyi told Mi Yun that he had not advanced because he wanted to break through the realm in his own way.

Xie Xuanyi rejected Lu Yuzhen’s arranged karmic boon and formed his Yin Spirit Realm through his own understanding of life and annihilation. After defeating Lu Yuzhen’s Inner Demon, he perfected both principles and condensed a divine embryo that suppressed his transformed Purple Palace.

• Xie Xuanyi demonstrated how the Principle of Life restored the portion of a leaf erased by the Principle of Annihilation, then explained that he would not accept the result Lu Yuzhen had arranged for him.
• Xie Xuanyi compressed the Principles of Life and Annihilation together and began condensing a realm directly, while Deng Baiyi led Mi Yun away from the dangerous breakthrough.
• Within his Purple Palace, Xie Xuanyi reflected on the lives he had saved and the evils he had slain, then clarified his own path to the Principle of Life.
• Xie Xuanyi encountered Lu Yuzhen as his Inner Demon and fought him until he severed his head and ground him to dust with the Dao of Annihilation.
• After defeating the Inner Demon, Xie Xuanyi perfected both principles, formed a divine embryo, and used it to suppress the raging divine sea of his Purple Palace.

Meng Kejian surrounded Peach Blossom Spring Village and discovered that Xie Zhen and Mi Yun had taken refuge there. As his troops began to attack the villagers, a strange wind cut the soldiers and Meng Kejian, and a young man in black appeared in a wheelchair.

• Meng Kejian identified Peach Blossom Spring as the former site of Round Light Temple, and his String Plate reacted strongly to the village.
• Facheng rescued a novice monk from a crossbow bolt as the Feathered Camp charged into the village and forced the residents to kneel.
• Facheng stepped between a captain and a woman, taking the captain’s hand through his chest rather than letting the woman be searched.
• Meng Kejian showed portraits of Xie Zhen, Mi Yun, and a child, recognized the villagers’ reactions, and ordered every monk and resident killed.
• A gust of wind sent leaves and petals across the village, cutting the cavalry and Meng Kejian before a young man in black appeared in a wheelchair.