Chapter Summaries

Li Qingyun used Zhao Fan’s identity to defeat Yize and Jindin, claiming a fourth-rank Sword Emperor throne before launching a strike against the Rotten Moon Palace in Fu Kingdom. His attack pierced Changye’s Heaven Gates and left Changye wounded as the palace’s other powerful figures converged.

• Li Qingyun challenged the fourth-rank Sword Emperor divine position, and Yize and Jindin joined forces to stop him.
• Li Qingyun shattered their sword lights and Sword Dao foundations, forcing Yize and Jindin to withdraw before he claimed the throne.
• After returning to the present world, Li Qingyun sent a wisp of soul intent to Fu Kingdom as Zhao Fan to demand justice from the Rotten Moon Palace.
• Yize, Qingquan, Yunyu, and Changye moved to defend Rotten Capital and its forbidden ground beneath the imperial city.
• Li Qingyun’s sword light pierced a hundred of Changye’s Heaven Gates and struck him, leaving a severed arm and blood behind as Changye fled.

Li Qingyun used his soul intent to breach the formation beneath the Fu Di Tower, releasing Rotten Scholar’s corrupting black qi across Rotten Capital. The Rotten Moon Palace moved to contain the disaster, while Li Qingyun returned to Qingyun Mansion expecting the Fu Kingdom to descend into chaos.

• Li Qingyun’s sword light shattered the Dao Lord statue in the Imperial Harem temple, alarming the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty and the other women.
• Li Qingyun sent his Zhao Fan phantom underground, where True Lord Yize’s projection attacked him and drove him to appear to self-destruct.
• Li Qingyun’s shattered phantom became countless strands of Sword Qi that pierced the formation’s weakest points and let Rotten Scholar’s corrupting black qi escape.
• True Lord Yize sacrificed his soul-intent projection to suppress the spreading corruption, but the black qi had already darkened Rotten Capital and begun contaminating the imperial city.
• True Lord Yize arrived and searched the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty’s soul for Zhao Fan’s aura, leaving her mentally ruined.
• Back at Qingyun Mansion, Li Qingyun accepted the loss of his soul intent and concluded that the disaster would keep the Rotten Moon Palace occupied.

Yi Tianxing sent Wang Muyun to the Southern Nether with Biyou Palace’s Anomaly Containment Lamp and urged her to seek Li Qingyun as a witness, stirring old feelings between them. Li Qingyun accepted the plan through Chen Tao, set aside his memories of Wang Muyun, and returned to the Heavenly Ruins, where he immediately struck down True Lord Tuo Feng and True Man Haoyang.

• Yi Tianxing summoned Wang Muyun and entrusted her with Biyou Palace’s Anomaly Containment Lamp for the journey to the Southern Nether.
• Yi Tianxing advised Wang Muyun to hand the lamp to a Lingbao Sect cultivator in Li Qingyun’s presence, while Wang Muyun reflected on their broken relationship.
• Li Qingyun received Biyou Palace’s message, instructed Chen Tao to handle the lamp’s reception, and entered the Inner Landscape.
• Li Qingyun arrived at Human Heaven Hall in the Heavenly Ruins and blasted True Lord Tuo Feng and True Man Haoyang into phantom bubbles with lightning.

Li Qingyun used the God-Illuminating Mirror to trace the path behind his second Gate of Origin, enduring three waves of the white-haired wind with his divine ranks and the mysterious Daoist effigy’s protection. The mirror revealed that this past life had been a white-haired demonic ape, and Li Qingyun began tracing its memories backward.

• Li Qingyun sent Jade Pure Radiance into the God-Illuminating Mirror to manifest the path behind his second Gate of Origin.
• The mirror released successive waves of white-haired wind, and Li Qingyun resisted the first two with his Fifth-Order Thunder Venerable and Fourth-Order Sword Emperor ranks.
• The mysterious Daoist effigy shielded Li Qingyun from the third wave, but a crack appeared across its face.
• The mirror showed a Daoist priest killing a white-haired demonic ape in a mass grave, revealing it as Li Qingyun’s past life.
• Li Qingyun reversed the scene and learned that the ape had fled its lair wounded, attacked a merchant caravan, grown bitter toward humans, and been driven from its tribe as a young adult.

Li Qingyun entered a past life as the white ape Bai to study Sha Refinement and find a path to the Yin God Realm. After decades of cultivation and refusal to consume humans, Bai broke through at the moment of his death, giving Li Qingyun the insight he sought before he left the life.

• Li Qingyun took over the young white ape Bai and adapted the Sha Refining Open Mansion technique to its body.
• Bai drove off the other young apes, was abandoned by his mother, and cultivated in seclusion until he became the troop’s strongest member.
• When the ape king repeatedly threatened him, Bai killed it with one strike and took its place as king.
• Bai advanced through Sha Refining Open Mansion, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul, but refused to consume human blood or souls to reach the Yin God Realm.
• After decades without a breakthrough, Bai fought a Yin God True Lord and reached the Yin God Realm just as the Daoist struck him down.
• Li Qingyun emerged from Bai’s destroyed body, killed the Yin God True Lord with a glance, and left the past life with new Sha Refinement insight.

Li Qingyun returned to the present with a greatly strengthened cultivation foundation and a Yin God advanced through Baleful Intent refinement. After surveying the growing anomaly in Southern You and the upheaval in Fu Kingdom, he faced a devastating virtual heaven backlash that he traced to Rotten Moon Palace’s ancestor Dao Lords.

• Li Qingyun emerged from his previous lives with a stronger cultivation foundation, concealed the second Gate of Origin and three High-grade Small Worlds, and advanced his soul-corpse into the Baleful Intent-refining Yin God realm.
• Li Qingyun reviewed how the repeated white-haired wind had damaged the Daoist effigy in his mind and concluded that perfect Clear Self in a previous life came from fulfilling his Dao heart and resolving lingering knots.
• Li Qingyun saw Zhu Yuyan guarding Youjiang Temple and sensed that the Anomaly Temple’s energy would likely produce a Clear Self Realm-level anomaly within one or two years.
• Li Qingyun surveyed Rotten Capital and found that Fu Di Tower’s leaking corruption had devastated Fu Kingdom, contaminated the imperial city, and forced Rotten Moon Palace to replace the dynasty’s fortune.
• Li Qingyun sensed that True Lord Wanhong would likely undergo feathered ascension within two or three years, leaving Rotten Moon Palace unable to suppress his rise in You Kingdom.
• Li Qingyun was struck by a vast virtual heaven backlash, recognized the involvement of Rotten Moon Palace’s ancestor Dao Lords, and challenged the force to strike harder.

Li Qingyun redirected the Void Sky backlash into his soul corpse, then advanced to become a fourth-tier Flame Emperor despite opposition from major sect cultivators. He returned to the God-Illuminating Mirror to observe his past life again and endured the white-haired gale emerging from it.

• Li Qingyun redirected the backlash into his soul corpse, but True Teach Ancestor Dao Lord intervened to stop another wave from striking him.
• Li Qingyun decided to pursue the fourth-tier Flame Emperor position immediately and ascended the fire-law sequence ladder.
• Li Qingyun shattered the suppressing divine fire of the Flame Emperors who tried to block him and took a fourth-tier divine seat.
• Li Qingyun returned to the Human Heaven Hall, drove Changye, Haoyang, and the other observers away, and stood before the God-Illuminating Mirror.
• Li Qingyun projected his intent into the mirror and endured the white-haired gale that shattered his fourth-tier fire-law divine might.

Li Qingyun entered the past life of a Blue Spirit Grass and rewound its history to its seed, which Zhang Ma had planted in a medicinal field. He began cultivating the fragile grass into an extraordinary life, while Zhang Ma’s attempt to protect it drew the anger of a clan steward.

• Li Qingyun saw that his past life as a Blue Spirit Grass had frozen to death after the Zhang family’s medicinal fields were burned, then rewound to the seed Zhang Ma planted.
• Li Qingyun merged with the seed and resolved to help Zhang Ma survive and marry Wu Xiaoling if the grass could gain sword intent.
• Zhang Ma watered the field, and Li Qingyun patiently nurtured the seed without releasing enough power to destroy it.
• The seed sprouted unusually early, and Li Qingyun refined its foundations with a thread of vitality.
• Zhang Ma hid the striking grass beneath weeds, but a Zhang family steward found the weeds, whipped him, and cursed his branch.

Li Qingyun cultivated his swordsmanship while inhabiting a Blue Spirit Grass blade in Zhang Ma’s medicinal field, and secretly protected Zhang Ma from harm. After Zhang Ma died searching for Wu Xiaoling, Li Qingyun broke free as a grass sword and flew toward Flower Between Temple to settle their unfinished karma.

• Zhang Qiu seized Zhang Ma’s thriving medicinal field, and Li Qingyun secretly wounded him with a flying sword, making others wary of bullying Zhang Ma.
• Li Qingyun trained his grass swordsmanship for a year and a half, reaching the limits of what his rooted grass body could achieve.
• Zhang Ma learned that the Wu family had sold Wu Xiaoling to a passing cultivator, left Southern Ridge to find her, and was later killed by the cultivator.
• Enraged by Zhang Ma’s death, Li Qingyun tore free from the soil and his swordsmanship surged to the level of a fourth-rank Sword Emperor.
• Li Qingyun flew toward Flower Between Temple, where Hua Qiuhuan had taken Wu Xiaoling and killed Zhang Ma.

Li Qingyun used his grass sword to attack Hua Qiuhuan in the ancient Flower Between Temple, confronting more than thirty patriarch Dao Lords to avenge the souls Hua Qiuhuan had used for cultivation. He killed Hua Qiuhuan, but the final sliver of grass crumbled away after the strike.

• Hua Qiuhuan cultivated with the souls trapped in more than one hundred and eighty human soul lamps.
• Li Qingyun’s grass sword pierced the temple’s protective formation and split the Dao Lord Hall after overcoming the founding patriarch’s manifestation.
• Hua Qiuhuan begged the patriarch Dao Lords for protection as their statues unleashed divine eye-light against Li Qingyun.
• Li Qingyun poured his will and sword arts into the last sliver of grass, cutting through the Dao Lords’ attack and killing Hua Qiuhuan.
• Li Qingyun’s grass sword completely crumbled after the strike.

Li Qingyun completed the True Self paths of all nine Origin Gates by experiencing nine past lives, including lives as grass, a ghost, and a Nether deity. With his insights gathered, he began merging his present life, past lives, and all things into his True Self Heaven and Earth.

• Li Qingyun freed Zhang Ma and Wu Xiaoling from their bronze lamps and sent their souls into reincarnation, achieving flawless completion in his Dao thought.
• Li Qingyun returned to his cultivation chamber, absorbed the last Shadow of Past Life, and confirmed that he had opened the third Origin Gate’s True Self path.
• Li Qingyun entered the God-Illuminating Mirror and experienced the life of a red-clothed ghost who avenged his murdered family and became a great ghost, opening the fourth Origin Gate’s True Self path.
• Li Qingyun observed the mirror repeatedly over three months and opened all nine Origin Gates’ True Self paths, including one from a life as a Nether deity.
• Li Qingyun completed his insights across nine lives, twenty-seven small worlds, and one hundred seventy-one past-life passages, then began merging them into his True Self Heaven and Earth.

Li Qingyun broke through to the Clear Self realm and shattered the Glazed Pure Realm seal that had enclosed Lingbao Sect for over two years. The sect and the watching powers celebrated his strength, while Zhu Yuyan congratulated him and felt hope for escaping her stagnant cultivation.

• Li Qingyun left Qingyun Mansion and pointed at the Glazed Pure Realm seal, nearly breaking it despite the Sever Self will within.
• Li Qingyun unleashed his power, formed a Jade Pure Clear Self Heaven and Earth, and shattered the seal around Lingbao Sect.
• Miaoxuan, Nangong Fengchuan, and the Lingbao Sect disciples celebrated as their sect was freed.
• Yi Tianxing and other leaders from the five sects arrived and were shocked by Li Qingyun's breakthrough.
• Zhu Yuyan saw Li Qingyun's power as a sign of hope for her own cultivation and congratulated him.

After breaking through into the Clear Self Realm, Li Qingyun defeated True Lord Yize and killed True Lord Qingquan, then challenged Wan Hong True Lord at Rotten Moon Palace. Wan Hong appeared and began to rebuke him, leaving their confrontation poised to begin.

• Li Qingyun emerged from the Jade Pure Lightning Lotus, accepted congratulations, and credited his breakthrough to Rotten Moon Palace's suppression.
• True Lord Yize arrived, and Li Qingyun struck him down with a palm, forcing him to flee.
• Li Qingyun found True Lord Qingquan hiding in spacetime and killed him by piercing through his previous life.
• Wan Hong True Lord sent a cutting sonic attack from afar, which Li Qingyun dispersed before traveling to Rotten Moon Palace.
• Li Qingyun challenged Wan Hong above the sect's mountain gate, and Wan Hong appeared to confront him.

Li Qingyun fought True Lord Wanhong’s phantom at Rotten Moon Palace, testing his strength against a Sever Self Realm opponent. He destroyed the phantom with a sword light formed from Jade Pure Essence, leaving the sect’s disciples stunned.

• True Lord Wanhong’s golden phantom appeared before Rotten Moon Palace, and the sect’s elders and disciples expected him to kill Li Qingyun.
• Li Qingyun’s finger strike was split apart by Wanhong’s Severing Light, but three thunder lotuses stopped the attack from reaching him.
• Wanhong tried to seal Li Qingyun away, but Li Qingyun resisted the golden ripples and reappeared in place.
• Li Qingyun counterattacked with eighty percent of his mana, forcing Wanhong’s phantom to struggle against the assault.
• Li Qingyun sent a Jade Pure Essence sword light at Wanhong, shattering his golden defense and destroying the phantom.
• Rotten Moon Palace’s elders and disciples cried out in disbelief as Wanhong’s phantom vanished.

Li Qingyun’s Jade Pure sword strike forced True Lord Wanhong to reconsider confronting Lingbao Sect, and the two began negotiating peace. Wanhong agreed to hear Qingyun’s demands over Rotten Moon Palace’s offenses against Youjiang Temple and You Kingdom.

• Li Qingyun realized his sword strike had consumed most of his Jade Pure Essence but had proven he could threaten True Lord Wanhong.
• True Lord Wanhong appeared in person, admitted he had underestimated Li Qingyun, and proposed that Rotten Moon Palace and Lingbao Sect become allies.
• Li Qingyun refused to let Wanhong’s offer erase Rotten Moon Palace’s offenses against Youjiang Temple and the Six Sects of You Kingdom.
• True Lord Yize and True Lord Yunyu appeared, and Yunyu urged Wanhong to fight Lingbao Sect; Wanhong stopped Li Qingyun’s attack and rebuked Yunyu for endangering his ascension.
• True Lord Wanhong asked Li Qingyun to state his terms, and Li Qingyun began listing his requests.

Li Qingyun secured True Lord Wanhong’s promises to protect You country, allow Lingbao Temples in Fu country, and stop persecuting the surviving Li descendants. He then found Li Yan suffering abuse in Fu country and asked whether he felt his own suffering or the common people’s suffering more.

• Li Qingyun demanded that Rotten Moon Palace leave You country and Youjiang Temple alone for ten years, permit Lingbao Temples in Fu country, and stop bullying the Li descendants; True Lord Wanhong agreed to all three terms.
• True Lord Wanhong announced that he would ascend in the middle of March the year after next and that Fu, Ying, Cao, and Wei would follow the flow of Dao fortune.
• Young Master Teng Seven sent for Li Yan so he could whip him again, while Li Yan endured his injuries and resolved to outlive his tormentor.
• Li Qingyun appeared before Li Yan, who recognized him as his Imperial Uncle and wept.
• Li Qingyun asked Li Yan whether he felt that he was suffering or that the common people of the world were suffering.

Li Qingyun freed Li Yan from Teng Manor and gave him resources to build a force in Fu Kingdom. After Li Yan killed a guard and fled, Li Qingyun restrained the Teng family and openly revealed his identity.

• Li Qingyun told Li Yan to leave Teng Manor and establish his own power in Fu Kingdom, giving him a storage ring and removing the marks placed on him by Rotten Moon Palace cultivators.
• As Li Yan crossed the threshold, guard Teng Da mocked him and ordered him to the training ground, prompting Li Yan to ask Li Qingyun for permission to kill him.
• Li Qingyun gave his approval, and Li Yan killed Teng Da before racing toward Teng Manor's gates.
• Teng family guards and cultivators attacked Li Yan, but Li Qingyun's Dao might pinned them down and nullified their strength.
• Li Qingyun sent a Nascent Soul Realm Teng family elder flying and announced that he was taking Li Yan away as Li Qingyun of You Kingdom's Lingbao Sect.

Li Qingyun ordered Lingbao Sect to select disciples to build temples in the Fu and Zhu kingdoms, aiming to expand the sect’s incense domains and strengthen its future. He assigned Yan Chaoyun to the Fu Kingdom, while Emperor Xian arrived at the mountain with his officials to present a memorial seeking the sect’s protection.

• Li Qingyun issued a decree selecting disciples to build temples in the Fu and Zhu kingdoms, and the sect’s disciples debated the opportunity and its dangers.
• Li Qingyun considered his strength and the sect’s precarious reliance on him, and resolved to expand its influence and help it grow.
• Meng Shan brought Yan Chaoyun to pay respects to Li Qingyun, who praised Yan Chaoyun’s progress and assigned him to the Fu Kingdom.
• Meng Shan pleaded against sending Yan Chaoyun abroad, but Li Qingyun confirmed the assignment and told him to prepare and inform the Yan family and Lu Liqian.
• Emperor Xian led the crown prince and officials to the Lingbao Sect and presented a memorial asking for the sect’s protection of Great You.

Emperor Xian knelt at Lingbao Sect to submit the Liu Dynasty’s memorial of loyalty, fearing that True Lord Qingyun would reject him because of the old Li-Liu feud. Li Qingyun accepted the memorial and asked the sect’s leaders to choose its first National Teacher, leaving several eager to claim the post.

• Emperor Xian knelt before Lingbao Sect and presented his memorial, while the sect waited for Li Qingyun to decide whether to accept it.
• Li Qingyun finally agreed to accept the Liu Dynasty’s memorial and sent Mengshan to receive it.
• Mengshan accepted the memorial and announced that Lingbao Sect would send disciples and a National Teacher to You Capital within two days.
• Emperor Xian thanked Lingbao Sect and departed, while Biyou Palace’s Yi Tianxing watched after choosing to yield its status as Great You’s great sect that stabilized the nation.
• Li Qingyun asked the peak masters to recommend a National Teacher, and Chen Cheng volunteered before other leaders began discussing candidates.

Li Qingyun appointed Xiao Jin as Great You National Teacher, and Xiao Jin set out for You Capital to expand Lingbao Sect’s temples and incense offerings. Meanwhile, Lin Jing and Lin Weishuo remained trapped in conflict over their shared body and plotted to exploit the opportunity in the capital.

• Linglu, Lingming, and other peak masters and elders proposed candidates for Great You National Teacher, while Nangong E recommended her daughter Nangong Qin.
• Nangong Fengchuan yielded his support, and Miaoxuan recommended Xiao Jin; Li Qingyun then appointed Xiao Jin as National Teacher.
• Xiao Jin accepted the post and received congratulations, while Li Qingyun tasked him with selecting the disciples who would go to You Capital.
• In Shuo Jin Mansion, Lin Weishuo resented Xiao Jin’s success as Lin Jing continued to struggle to fuse with his son’s soul; Lin Jing urged him to seek a Lingbao Temple post in You Capital.
• Xiao Jin led more than a hundred disciples to You Capital and took over many temples, rebuilding them as Lingbao Temples that enshrined statues of True Lord Qingyun.