Chapter Summaries

Song Qingming reached the Valley of a Hundred Spirits after surviving the poisonous river, but a powerful wind wall and Bewitching Illusion Array blocked his path to the Fire Scale Fruit. With Fire Phoenix's deadline approaching, he realized that something about his own condition explained why he could not get as far into the wind wall as his puppet had.

• Song Qingming crossed a poison-mist-covered stone bridge and continued through the secret realm toward the valley.
• Song Qingming reached the Valley of a Hundred Spirits and spotted the red spiritual glow of the Fire Scale Fruit.
• Song Qingming sent his Giant Ape Puppet Beast into the wind wall, where violent gusts destroyed it.
• Song Qingming tried to circle the valley but found that a Bewitching Illusion Array always returned him to the entrance.
• Song Qingming attempted to enter the wind wall with his Heavenly Net Umbrella, retreated when the resistance became too strong, and realized that the problem lay with himself.

Song Qingming failed to cross the Gale Array at the Valley of a Hundred Spirits before time ran out and returned injured to Fire Phoenix. She promised to send him home if he helped her obtain the Fire Scale Fruit, and Long Feng took him back to the cave where he was imprisoned.

• Song Qingming tried to cross the Gale Array without the Heavenly Net Umbrella but exhausted his mana and withdrew before reaching the end.
• Song Qingming emerged from the secret realm as the golden fissure began to close, and Fire Phoenix and Long Feng waited for him outside.
• Song Qingming told Fire Phoenix that he had found the Valley of a Hundred Spirits but failed to pass its entrance restriction in time.
• Fire Phoenix told Long Feng to take Song Qingming back and said they would return in two months.
• Song Qingming asked Fire Phoenix whether she would let him go home after he obtained the Fire Scale Fruit, and she promised to send him away if he completed the task.
• Long Feng transported Song Qingming back to the cave where he had been imprisoned.

After two months recovering with Fire Phoenix’s group, Song Qingming entered the secret realm again, carrying Thousand Year Spirit Milk to help him endure the Gale Array. He hurried toward the Valley of a Hundred Spirits, hoping to pass the array before his three-day limit expired.

• Song Qingming learned more about Long Feng and the Azure Luan Demon King while recovering in their cave.
• Fire Phoenix gave Song Qingming two bottles of Thousand Year Spirit Milk to restore his Mana during the journey.
• Song Qingming entered the secret realm himself and recognized the hill where he had previously encountered a tiger Demon Beast.
• Song Qingming killed the tiger, concluded that the secret realm’s beasts had formed within it, and hurried toward the Valley of a Hundred Spirits.
• Song Qingming realized the Azure Luan had captured him because his Mystic Light Armor could resist the Gale Array, and he continued toward it with the spirit milk and a three-day deadline.

Song Qingming crossed the Gale Array and reached the Valley of a Hundred Spirits, where he found the Fire Scale Fruit. Outside the secret realm, Fire Phoenix reaffirmed her promise to spare him if he helped her obtain it.

• Song Qingming purged the poison from his body, restored his Mana, and entered the Gale Array again.
• Fire Phoenix told Long Feng that Song Qingming could eventually pass the array and refused to break her promise to send him back alive.
• Song Qingming used Thousand Year Spirit Milk and the Incomplete Map to endure the array’s strongest winds and finally pass through.
• Song Qingming found the valley filled with mature spiritual medicines and headed toward the red light without stopping to gather them.
• Song Qingming reached the Fire Scale Fruit and, after checking for danger, reached out to take it.

Song Qingming retrieved the Fire Scale Fruit from the Valley of a Hundred Spirits and gave it to Fire Phoenix, who was delighted. After Fire Phoenix and Long Feng inspected the other spiritual medicines he had collected, they took several plants and left him with roughly half.

• Song Qingming used the Tidal Light Sword to knock the Fire Scale Fruit into a jade box, then gathered more spiritual medicines while he waited in the valley.
• Song Qingming left the secret realm and handed the Fire Scale Fruit to Fire Phoenix, who happily accepted it.
• Long Feng was impressed that Song Qingming had obtained the fruit that powerful Demon Kings had failed to retrieve before.
• Fire Phoenix demanded to inspect the spiritual medicines Song Qingming had brought out, and he reluctantly showed her more than a dozen plants.
• Fire Phoenix and Long Feng took seven or eight spiritual medicines and left roughly half for Song Qingming.

Song Qingming returned safely from the Floating Cloud Mountain Range after Fire Phoenix sent Long Feng to escort him, then intervened in a fight between the Fire Wolf Gang and a group of Rogue Cultivators. Wearing a bamboo hat, he killed all three Fire Wolf Gang members and left the survivors among the Rogue Cultivators to witness his strength.

• Long Feng escorted Song Qingming to the edge of the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, and Song Qingming flew south toward Guiyun Marketplace.
• Song Qingming reflected on Fire Phoenix’s kindness and reconsidered his belief that demonic beasts were all brutal and capricious.
• Song Qingming spotted three Fire Wolf Gang cultivators threatening five Rogue Cultivators over a Green Ox Beast they had killed.
• Song Qingming, disguised as the Man in Bamboo Hat, killed one Fire Wolf Gang cultivator with a single sword strike.
• The other two Fire Wolf Gang cultivators fled, but the Man in Bamboo Hat pursued them and killed them both.

Song Qingming rescued Shi Chun and his fellow Rogue Cultivators from the Fire Wolf Gang, then escorted them to Guiyun Marketplace and reconnected with his old friend. After inviting Shi Chun to seek refuge at Funiu Mountain if needed, Song Qingming left for home with the Fire Wolf Gang’s meager belongings.

• Song Qingming killed the Fire Wolf Gang members threatening Shi Chun’s group and revealed his identity to Shi Chun, whom he had not seen for more than a decade.
• Song Qingming disguised himself as a Qi Refining Cultivator and escorted Shi Chun and the others to Guiyun Marketplace to protect them from retaliation.
• Song Qingming and Shi Chun visited their old tavern, learned it had changed owners, and discussed how Zhang Tieshan and Qin Yu Niang had gone to Zheng State together.
• Song Qingming offered Shi Chun a place to settle at Funiu Mountain if he left Guiyun Marketplace, and Shi Chun said he would consider it.
• Song Qingming opened the Fire Wolf Gang members’ Storage Bags, found little of value, and set off for Funiu Mountain, thinking its residents must be worried about his long absence.

The Song Family debated how to respond to the Gao Family’s pressure while Song Qingming was missing, and Song Changfeng decided to risk attempting Foundation Establishment. Song Qingming returned safely, drove off the watchers around Funiu Mountain, and received the Gao Family’s invitation to discuss Qinghe Market.

• Song Changxiong objected to the Gao Family demanding one of the Song Family’s best-located shops, but Song Changxin and Song Changfeng agreed that the clan had to yield while Song Qingming was absent.
• Song Changfeng decided to attempt Foundation Establishment and left Song Changxin in charge of clan affairs during his seclusion.
• Song Qingming returned to Funiu Mountain, caught Gao Yulong watching the Song Family, and forced him to admit that he had been sent by the Gao Family.
• Song Qingming circled Funiu Mountain and drove the hidden watchers away before reuniting with Song Changfeng and the other elders.
• Song Changfeng gave Song Qingming the Gao Family’s letter inviting the Song Family to Qinghe Market to discuss the marketplace.

Song Qingming returned to Qinghe County and learned that the Huang Family had lost Huang Chenliang and was retreating under pressure from the Gao and Lu Families. He visited Taiyuan Mountain, where Huang Shengyue revealed that Huang Shengxin had entered seclusion to attempt Core Formation.

• Song Changfeng told Song Qingming that the Gao and Lu Families had seized Huang territory while the Song Family faced pressure over Song Qingming's disappearance.
• Song Qingming declined the Gao Family's invitation and went to Taiyuan Mountain to question Huang Shengyue about the Huang Family's situation.
• Huang Shengyue told Song Qingming that Huang Chenliang had died from his injuries shortly after returning to Qinghe County.
• Huang Shengyue revealed that Huang Shengxin had entered seclusion to break through to Core Formation and asked Song Qingming to keep it secret.
• Huang Shengyue said Huang Shengxin would emerge within three to five years and that the Huang Family would then make the Gao and Lu Families return what they had taken.

Song Qingming learned that Huang Shengxin was attempting to form a Golden Core and agreed to help Huang Shengyue reclaim Broken Stream Mountain in exchange for a share of its copper mine. After Huang Xiantang went to negotiate with the Gao Family, they threw him off the mountain, leaving the conflict unresolved.

• Song Qingming learned that Huang Shengxin was in seclusion to form a Golden Core and that the Gao Family had gained another Foundation Establishment Cultivator, Gao Yubai.
• Huang Shengyue asked Song Qingming to help the Huang Family confront the Gao and Lu Families, and offered the Song Family forty percent of Broken Stream Mountain's copper mine.
• Song Qingming agreed to the alliance and returned to Funiu Mountain to prepare the Song Family cultivators.
• Huang Xiantang went to Broken Stream Mountain to negotiate its return, but Gao Family cultivators blasted him down from the mountain.

The Huang Family attacked Broken Stream Mountain after Gao Family cultivators wounded Huang Xiantang, surrounding the mountain and battering its defensive formation. Gao Yubai arrived as reinforcement, but Huang Shengyue and the returning Song Qingming confronted him.

• A Gao Family cultivator mocked Huang Xiantang, who challenged him to a duel and deliberately let the man wound his shoulder before calling for help.
• Huang Family cultivators ambushed the Gao Family group, killed several, and forced the survivors to retreat into Broken Stream Mountain’s formation.
• The Huang Family surrounded Broken Stream Mountain and attacked its Mountain Protection Array, while the trapped Gao and Lu Family cultivators called for reinforcements.
• Gao Yubai arrived and unleashed the Thousand Blades Technique on the Huang Family cultivators, but Huang Shengyue blocked the attack with a Jade Tile.
• Song Qingming arrived and joined Huang Shengyue in confronting Gao Yubai, who greeted both cultivators.

Huang Shengyue and Song Qingming ambushed Gao Yubai to stop him from reinforcing the Gao Family’s claim to Broken Stream Mountain. After they injured him and destroyed his defensive magic tool, Gao Yubai fled toward the Lu Family, with both cultivators in pursuit.

• Huang Shengyue attacked Gao Yubai with his flying sword after rejecting his request to halt the fighting.
• Song Qingming blocked Gao Yubai’s escape, and the two exchanged blows as Huang Shengyue joined the attack.
• Song Qingming trapped Gao Yubai with a Level 2 Spirit Talisman, and Huang Shengyue struck him with a Fire Blade Talisman that split his defensive magic tool and badly injured him.
• Gao Yubai used low-level Spirit Talismans to delay his attackers and fled toward the Lu Family, hoping to meet Lu Xingde.
• Huang Shengyue and Song Qingming pursued Gao Yubai on their flying swords.

Song Qingming and the Huang Family reclaimed Broken Stream Mountain, binding the Song Family to the Huang Family’s conflict with the Gao and Lu Families. After a brief period of peace, Song Qingming learned that his mother was gravely ill and returned to Mujiao Town, where he gave her a spiritual pill to help her wake.

• Lu Xingde arrived as Huang Shengyue and Song Qingming pursued Gao Yubai, prompting them to retreat.
• The Huang and Song cultivators captured Broken Stream Mountain, and Song Qingming left Song Changxin and eight cultivators to help guard it.
• Song Qingming rejected the Gao Family’s shop-exchange proposal, while the Huang, Gao, and Lu Families made no further moves.
• Song Qingming received word that his mother was gravely ill and hurried to Mujiao Town.
• Song Qingming saw his bedridden mother and left a spiritual pill for his sister to give her.

Song Qingming brought Huang Siyuan to meet his family after Mother Song briefly recovered from a spiritual pill. He told Song Yunshan that the recovery was only temporary and that Mother Song had little time left, leaving Qingming and Siyuan to reflect on mortality and the hardships of cultivation.

• Mother Song woke with renewed strength, and Song Qingming explained that his spiritual pill had restored her vitality temporarily.
• Mother Song pressed Song Qingming about his wife, so he sent Huang Siyuan a sound-transmission talisman inviting her to visit.
• Huang Siyuan arrived at the Song Family home with Song Qingyu, and Song Qingming escorted her to meet his relatives.
• Song Qingming quietly told Song Yunshan to prepare for Mother Song's death, explaining that the pill's effects would last only a dozen or so days.
• Song Qingming took Huang Siyuan to his room, where she recognized Mother Song's recovery as a final flash of light before death and they discussed mortality and cultivation.

Song Qingming spent a peaceful stretch with his family before his mother’s death ended their reunion. After burying her, he brought Huang Siyuan to Funiu Mountain and asked Song Changfeng about his planned Foundation Establishment seclusion.

• Huang Siyuan spent time with Song Qingming’s family and shared a peaceful visit with them.
• Song Qingming and his siblings watched their mother pass away after she spoke to them and left a box of instructions.
• Song Qingming and the Song Family buried Mother Song on a mountain beside Mujiao Town.
• Song Qingming grieved with Huang Siyuan before taking her to Funiu Mountain instead of returning to the Song Residence.
• Song Qingming visited Song Changfeng and asked why he had not mentioned his decision to enter Foundation Establishment seclusion.

Song Qingming agreed to help Song Changfeng improve his chances of Foundation Establishment and traveled to Yangshan Marketplace to sell spirit medicines and find a Marrow Cleansing Pill. He secured the pill and sold three medicines, then planned to sell the rest elsewhere.

• Song Changfeng told Song Qingming he would not give up his planned Foundation Establishment attempt, and Song Qingming offered to look for a Marrow Cleansing Pill in Yangshan Marketplace.
• Song Changfeng revealed that he had bought an Azure Jade Pill in Jiangling Market, and he accepted Song Qingming's offer to seek additional help.
• The next day, Song Qingming escorted Huang Siyuan and Song Qingyu back to Qinghe Market, then flew alone to Yangshan Marketplace to sell Grade 2 Spirit Medicines.
• At the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, Song Qingming sold Deng Zhongkuo three Grade 2 Spirit Medicines for one thousand Spirit Stones.
• Song Qingming bought a Marrow Cleansing Pill and several other pills, spending another five or six hundred Spirit Stones, and planned to sell his remaining spirit medicines at other shops.

Song Qingming sold his remaining spirit herbs, helped prepare Song Changfeng for a dangerous Foundation Establishment attempt, and managed the Song Family’s affairs while Changfeng entered seclusion. Just as Qingming grew overwhelmed, Shi Chun arrived at Funiu Mountain seeking refuge and offered a welcome addition to the family’s depleted workforce.

• Song Qingming learned the Heavenly Pill Alliance’s Auction would not be held again until the following year, then sold his remaining spirit herbs for nearly two thousand Spirit Stones.
• Song Qingming gave Song Changfeng a Marrow Cleansing Pill and a booklet of Foundation Establishment insights, while worrying that clan members underestimated the risks of attempting Foundation Establishment without a Foundation Establishment Pill.
• Song Changfeng entered seclusion to attempt Foundation Establishment, leaving Song Qingming responsible for the clan’s affairs.
• Song Qingming welcomed Shi Chun to Funiu Mountain after the old acquaintance arrived seeking refuge.
• Song Qingming saw that Shi Chun’s arrival could help the Song Family manage its businesses and guard its holdings while many clan cultivators served at Broken Stream Mountain’s Copper Mine.

After Shi Chun brought order to the Song Family’s Treasury Pavilion, Song Changfeng emerged from seclusion after a failed Foundation Establishment attempt and survived with serious injuries. As he began recovering, he agreed with Song Qingming to record his experience in a Foundation Establishment manual for the family’s future generations.

• Song Qingming appointed Shi Chun as a Guest Elder to help Song Changling manage the Treasury Pavilion, and Shi Chun quickly organized its accounts.
• Song Xinhu reported that Song Changfeng had emerged from seclusion unconscious and bleeding after his Foundation Establishment attempt.
• Song Changling examined Song Changfeng, found two severely damaged meridians, and said he would recover but need about ten years for them to heal.
• Song Changfeng woke three days later and calmly recounted his failed attempt to family members who came to visit.
• Song Qingming suggested that Song Changfeng document his experience, and Song Changfeng agreed to write a Foundation Establishment manual warning future clansmen of the dangers.

After five peaceful years, Song Qingming reached the Third Layer of Foundation Establishment while the Song Family considered how to secure a Foundation Establishment Pill for Song Qingyu. Huang Shengyue visited Funiu Mountain to help the family’s talented youth Song Xinyu find a master in the Carefree Sect.

• Song Changfeng’s failed Foundation Establishment attempt discouraged other older Song Family cultivators from trying, leaving Song Qingyu as the strongest future candidate.
• The Song Family recognized that obtaining a Foundation Establishment Pill would require valuable spiritual items or rare opportunities, since they lacked strong connections in the Carefree Sect.
• Song Changfeng recovered enough to resume handling family affairs, while Song Qingming advanced to the Third Layer of Foundation Establishment.
• Song Xinyu, a talented Three Spirit Roots cultivator, respectfully summoned Song Qingming to the Council Hall to meet Huang Shengyue.
• Song Changfeng explained that Huang Shengyue had come to help Song Xinyu find a master before he joined the Carefree Sect.

Huang Shengyue arranged for Song Xinyu to study under a Huang Family cultivator in the Carefree Sect, then invited Song Qingming to join the Huang Family's expedition into the Taiyue Secret Realm. Song Qingming learned that Huang Shengxin had recovered and also planned to seek a Longevity Fruit.

• Huang Shengyue gave Song Qingming a letter of introduction to a Huang Family clansman in the Carefree Sect who would take Song Xinyu as a disciple.
• Song Xinyu thanked Huang Shengyue, and Song Changfeng led him from the Council Hall so the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators could speak privately.
• Huang Shengyue told Song Qingming that the Taiyue Secret Realm within Taiyue Lake would open in half a year and contained rare treasures, including Longevity Fruits.
• Huang Shengyue explained that spatial Restrictions suppressed Golden Core Cultivators inside the secret realm, making it dangerous for them to enter.
• Huang Shengyue invited Song Qingming to explore the secret realm with the Huang Family and said the Gao Family would likely participate as well.
• Song Qingming asked about Huang Shengxin, and Huang Shengyue revealed that he had recovered from his injuries and intended to seek a Longevity Fruit.