Chapter Summaries

Lu Nan left the secret realm with a newly restored sword and the Ride the Wind ability, then learned that Wu Bai would take him to Central Continent to seek a Heaven grade Dao Foundation. Back at Yi Yuan, Lu Nan asked Wu Bai for three rare herbs and presented a pill formula to explain why he needed them.

• Lu Nan traded the corpse puppet to Blood Son for a spirit sword, then followed another spirit sword’s guidance to a buried broken sword and gained the Ride the Wind ability after restoring it.
• After wandering the secret realm without finding anything else, Lu Nan left and joined Wu Bai, who told him they would travel to Central Continent in half a month so Lu Nan could pursue a Heaven grade Dao Foundation.
• Wu Bai gave Lu Nan cultivation resources and told him to temper his foundation before attempting Foundation Establishment in a secret realm.
• Lu Nan asked Wu Bai for Crimson Flame Sky Orchid, Heart Refining Egg, and Tai Chi Gu Fruit, claiming he needed them for alchemy.
• After Wu Bai questioned whether Lu Nan had joined the sect to obtain the herbs, Lu Nan produced a pill formula that required all three.

Lu Nan obtained access to the Corpse Summoning Scripture after Wu Bai delayed giving him the promised medicinal herbs. He memorized the secret art and left the Scripture Repository without copying it.

• Wu Bai accepted Lu Nan’s fifth-grade pill formula and promised to find the medicinal herbs, but Lu Nan returned to Cliffside Courtyard wary of his master.
• Wu Bai later told Lu Nan the herbs were unavailable until they matured, and Lu Nan abandoned his idea of trading the female corpse for now.
• Lu Nan went to the Scripture Repository and received permission from Huang Shi to browse its third floor.
• Lu Nan selected the Corpse Summoning Scripture, which could awaken a battle corpse’s intelligence but risked causing it to turn on its master.
• Lu Nan memorized the Jade Slip’s contents with his Divine Sense and returned it to Huang Shi, claiming the secret art did not suit him.

Lu Nan gathered materials and prepared to refine the beautiful female corpse using the Corpse Summoning Scripture, which he learned could preserve a corpse’s full cultivation. After opening her crystal coffin, he reconsidered Corpse Peak’s methods and decided to test a corpse-refining approach of his own before proceeding.

• Lu Nan returned from the disciples' Market as Yin Ning and the others came back from the secret realm with six unrefined corpses, and he gave them a month to practice corpse refinement.
• Lu Nan studied the Corpse Summoning Scripture and discovered that it could preserve one hundred percent of a corpse’s former cultivation.
• Lu Nan excavated a hidden chamber beneath his courtyard, set up defensive arrays, and prepared medicinal liquids and refined metals for the female corpse.
• Lu Nan cut open the seamless crystal coffin with his Five Elements spirit sword and confirmed that the woman inside was dead, with a fatal wound in her forehead.
• Lu Nan reconsidered using Corpse Peak’s runes, devised a method more suited to himself, and returned the female corpse to the coffin so he could test the method first.

Lu Nan successfully created a Corpse Puppet after repeated failures, then used the technique on the precious female corpse in his coffin. The puppet awakened, concealed its powerful aura, and dressed itself, leaving Lu Nan wondering whether it possessed intelligence.

• Lu Nan tested his Corpse Puppet method on rabbits, failing several times before creating one he could command perfectly.
• Lu Nan returned to his underground space and inscribed runes on the female corpse before performing the hand seals to turn her into a Corpse Puppet.
• The female corpse awakened and released a powerful aura, but Lu Nan ordered her to retract it and checked that the Conceal Breath formation had hidden it.
• Lu Nan ordered the female corpse to get dressed, and she put on her clothes herself, shocking him into asking whether she had intelligence.

Lu Nan confirmed that the female corpse he had refined could obey commands, speak, and learn, then named her Lu Bai Yi and concealed her deathly aura with an Illusion Formation. Wu Bai summoned Lu Nan and ordered him to travel to a Foundation Establishment secret realm, leaving Lu Nan worried that his already-forged Heaven grade Dao Foundation would expose him.

• Lu Nan tested the female corpse, discovered that she could speak and disliked being stored in his Storage Ring, and found her intelligence comparable to an eight- or nine-year-old child.
• Lu Nan named her Lu Bai Yi, carved an Illusion Formation onto her chest to conceal her deathly aura, and brought her to his courtyard.
• Wu Bai summoned Lu Nan and said they would travel to a Foundation Establishment secret realm in the Desert Region of Central Continent one month later.
• Lu Nan worried that he could not enter the secret realm because he had already forged a Heaven grade Dao Foundation, but he concealed his concern from Wu Bai.
• Wu Bai promised to reveal their lineage's origins if Lu Nan forged his Dao Foundation on the trip, then said they would depart immediately.

Lu Nan accompanied Wu Bai from the Southern Domain to the Central Continent to seek Foundation Establishment in Sword Valley’s secret realm. After arriving, he learned about the Central Continent’s powerful cultivators and Sword Valley’s status as a Tribulation Crossing power.

• Lu Nan packed his Cauldron and Lu Bai Yi, left a letter for Yin Ning and the others, and joined Wu Bai at the teleportation array.
• Wu Bai brought Lu Nan through Great Geng Imperial City and onto a three-day teleportation journey to the Central Continent.
• Lu Nan woke in Mo City and learned that children there could reach Body Tempering, while some geniuses were born at Foundation Establishment.
• Wu Bai took Lu Nan toward Sword Valley and explained that outsiders could not enter its Foundation Establishment secret realm unless they belonged to the sect.
• After half a month of travel, Lu Nan and Wu Bai reached Sword Valley, where Wu Bai explained the Central Continent’s power rankings and identified Sword Valley as a Tribulation Crossing power.

Wu Bai brought Lu Nan to Sword Valley, where Bai Fu welcomed them and Lu Nan gained insight from the mountain gate’s sword intent. Bai Fu sent Lu Nan toward the Sword Stone Tablet while he and Wu Bai watched to see how he would handle the challenges ahead.

• Wu Bai introduced Lu Nan to his friend Bai Fu, who gave Lu Nan a sword-shaped jade stone and invited them to stay in Sword Valley before the secret realm opened.
• Bai Fu led Wu Bai and Lu Nan to Sword Valley and told Lu Nan he could visit the Sword Stone Tablet; the sword intent on the mountain gate’s plaque then drew Lu Nan into a brief state of enlightenment.
• Bai Fu praised Lu Nan’s comprehension, and he and Wu Bai discussed whether Lu Nan should pursue an Earth-grade or Heaven-grade Dao Foundation.
• Bai Fu gave Lu Nan an identity token that guided him toward the Sword Stone Tablet, then took Wu Bai away to observe Lu Nan from afar.
• Four Qi Condensation Perfection cultivators stopped Lu Nan and questioned where he had come from.

Lu Nan fought off successive groups of cultivators and realized Bai Fu and Wu Bai were testing his strength. He defeated a Foundation Establishment opponent and won Wu Bai a wager, while Bai Fu lamented Lu Nan’s potential and failed to persuade Wu Bai to give him up.

• Four Sword Valley cultivators attacked Lu Nan, but he defeated them and let them go after hearing their explanation.
• Lu Nan suspected Bai Fu and Wu Bai had arranged the encounters to test him, and Bai Fu praised his defeat of nine Qi Condensation Perfection cultivators as Wu Bai watched.
• Lu Nan challenged a Foundation Establishment first-level young man, who initially repelled his attacks and mocked him.
• Bai Fu wagered a top-grade Nascent Soul Pill that Lu Nan would not win within three moves, while Wu Bai staked a fourth-grade Sword Fruit.
• Lu Nan used a ghostly sword technique to cut the young man’s wrist and win the fight, earning Wu Bai the pill.
• Bai Fu offered to take Lu Nan as his own, but Wu Bai refused, and Bai Fu left regretting Lu Nan’s talent.

Lu Nan continued through the trial, defeating two Foundation Establishment cultivators with his Sword Drawing Technique and weakening a fifth-level Foundation Establishment disciple with the Curse Sword Scripture. He removed the curse after the disciple admitted defeat and continued toward the trial’s endpoint.

• Lu Nan confronted two hidden Foundation Establishment cultivators and defeated them with one Sword Drawing Technique strike, leaving them to collapse and flee in terror.
• Bai Fu and Wu Bai watched Lu Nan advance, and Wu Bai judged that his strike had combat strength at least equal to the fourth level of Foundation Establishment.
• With his waist-token marker two-thirds of the way to the red line, Lu Nan attacked a waiting fifth-level Foundation Establishment disciple.
• Lu Nan’s cursed Sword Qi weakened the disciple so he could no longer use his spiritual energy, and the disciple admitted defeat.
• Lu Nan drew the cursed Sword Qi back into himself, restored the disciple’s strength, and continued onward while reflecting on the Curse Sword Scripture’s power.

Lu Nan defeated Feng Xue’er and reached the mountain, where a Foundation Establishment ninth-layer swordsman challenged him to use the Curse Sword Scripture. Their fight left Lu Nan afflicted by curses he could not assimilate, and he began refining the Sword Qi with the Myriad Dao Method while wary of the two observers.

• Lu Nan fought Feng Xue’er, whose tracking light swords injured him, and his curse Sword Qi weakened and aged her.
• Lu Nan cured Feng Xue’er by absorbing the curse Sword Qi, learned her name, and continued toward the mountain.
• A Foundation Establishment ninth-layer young man asked whether Lu Nan knew the Curse Sword Scripture and challenged him to fight using it.
• Lu Nan initially surrendered, but the young man reduced his cultivation to Qi Condensation Perfection and insisted they fight using only the scripture.
• After they exchanged blows, Lu Nan found himself afflicted by weakness, aging, and sealed hearing; the Curse Sword Scripture could not assimilate the curses, so he refined the Sword Qi with the Myriad Dao Method.

Lu Nan faked defeat against White Sword, then climbed Sword Stone Peak to comprehend the Sword Intents on the stone tablet. He leaves having fused five elemental Sword Intents into the complete Five Elements Sword Intent.

• Lu Nan let White Sword strike him and pretended to lose, though White Sword acknowledged that Lu Nan was stronger.
• White Sword introduced himself, cleared Sword Qi from Lu Nan, and left; Wu Bai and Bai Fu then praised Lu Nan and directed him to Sword Stone Peak.
• Lu Nan climbed the peak and touched the Sword Stone Tablet, which drew him into a space filled with Sword Intents.
• Lu Nan quickly comprehended Gale Sword Intent and then gathered the Thick Earth, Blazing Fire, Cool Water, Light Gold, and Long Wood Sword Intents.
• Lu Nan brought the five elemental Sword Intents together, fusing them into the complete Five Elements Sword Intent.

Lu Nan gained Five Elements Sword Intent and a transparent sword that he discovered contained Space Sword Intent. After Bai Fu rescued him from a crowd of admirers, Lu Nan returned to his room to study the new sword intent while Wu Bai and Bai Fu vowed to protect him if he forged a Heaven grade Dao Foundation.

• Lu Nan absorbed Five Elements Sword Intent, then resisted the mystical space’s expulsion to find and take a transparent little sword.
• The mystical space expelled Lu Nan, and a crowd of people rushed to meet him until Bai Fu and Wu Bai escorted him away.
• Lu Nan thanked Bai Fu for his gains at the Sword Stone Tablet, and Wu Bai ordered him to stay in the courtyard until the Secret Realm opened.
• Wu Bai vowed to protect Lu Nan if he forged a Heaven grade Dao Foundation, and Bai Fu promised to oppose him if he risked Lu Nan’s life.
• Lu Nan discovered the transparent sword inside his mind contained Space Sword Intent and devoted himself to comprehending it.

Lu Nan mastered Space Sword Intent and entered the Sword Moon Secret Realm despite the gateway initially blocking him. Inside, Bai Fu warned him to forge a Heaven-grade Dao Foundation or face a life-and-death crisis, while Wu Bai and Bai Fu wondered whether Lu Nan’s power had confused the realm’s rules.

• Lu Nan mastered Space Sword Intent and used it to split a teacup from across the courtyard.
• Wu Bai summoned Lu Nan, and Bai Fu explained that the Sword Moon Secret Realm held three trials, other sects’ disciples, and a month-long limit.
• Bai Fu secretly placed something on Lu Nan’s shoulder before he and Wu Bai brought Lu Nan to the gathered sects at the sword peak.
• An old man opened the gateway, and Lu Nan entered after its initial resistance suddenly disappeared.
• Bai Fu warned Lu Nan through the item on his shoulder that he must forge a Heaven-grade Dao Foundation or face a life-and-death crisis, then Lu Nan fled into the realm.
• Outside, Wu Bai and Bai Fu wondered whether Lu Nan’s combat power had caused the secret realm to misjudge him.

Lu Nan learned from Xu Bai that the Sword Moon secret realm’s first layer required 108 Trial Beads to open a passage to the second layer. After helping Xu Bai survive a beast pack, Lu Nan continued hunting demonic beasts and had collected 36 beads.

• Lu Nan killed several demonic beasts but found no useful items until he spotted Xu Bai fleeing a pack of antelope-like beasts.
• Xu Bai was trapped at the edge of Strange Rock Forest, but Lu Nan appeared and killed the pursuing beasts with a breeze of sword energy.
• Lu Nan questioned Xu Bai, who explained that the Sword Moon secret realm had four layers and three trials, and that 108 Trial Beads opened the way to the second layer.
• Lu Nan returned Xu Bai’s bead and left the beast corpses as payment; Xu Bai collected 100 beads and set off to find eight more.
• Lu Nan continued killing demonic beasts, extracted a Trial Bead, and counted 36 in his Ring before heading toward another beast pack.

Lu Nan slaughtered beast hordes and gathered Trial Beads, reaching one hundred and five before using his newly comprehended Five Elements Sword Intent to destroy another horde. After observers arrived to inspect the enormous fissure he left behind, Lu Nan prepared to enter the second layer but noticed a bedraggled figure he recognized.

• Lu Nan killed a group that tried to take his Trial Beads, collected the beads from them, and then killed the last surviving young man as he fled.
• Lu Nan found another beast horde and used his Five Elements Sword Intent to split the ground and kill the beasts, collecting forty-three Trial Beads.
• Several cultivators arrived and recognized the immense Five Elements Sword Intent, with some speculating that Sword Valley had produced a prodigy.
• Lu Nan flew away, counted his Trial Beads, and prepared to enter the second layer.
• Lu Nan sensed a bedraggled figure he recognized, put away the beads, and approached.

Xu Bai was ambushed by masked men who wanted his Trial Beads, and he was beaten and restrained after trying to escape. Lu Nan appeared just as Xu Bai prepared to detonate a sphere, and the masked leader ordered his men to withdraw when Lu Nan asked to take Xu Bai away.

• Masked men tracked down the injured Xu Bai and demanded his Trial Beads.
• Xu Bai fought the attackers, but they overwhelmed him and took his storage bag.
• Xu Bai threatened to detonate a sphere, then called for Senior to save him when Lu Nan appeared.
• Xu Bai offered Lu Nan enough Trial Beads to reach the second level, and Lu Nan asked the masked leader to let him take Xu Bai away.
• The masked leader ordered his men to retreat.

Lu Nan entered the secret realm’s second level after recruiting Xu Bai as his guide, but found himself trapped in a lifeless maze that made him circle back on himself. By following breezes with his divine ability, he escaped the maze and realized the realm’s strange wind was the key to navigating it.

• Lu Nan accepted Xu Bai’s offer to guide him through the secret realm and gave him the final Trial Bead he needed.
• Xu Bai entered the second level first, and Lu Nan followed after marking him with his aura.
• Lu Nan arrived in a barren gray-black landscape, could not sense Xu Bai, and discovered that traveling in different directions only led him in circles.
• Lu Nan sensed a breeze and used his divine ability to follow it beyond the limits of his Divine Sense.
• Lu Nan passed through a ripple into a different area and realized he had escaped a vast, shifting maze by following the wind.

Lu Nan reunited with Xu Bai, who explained the maze and revealed that the First Trial was an enormous timed maze ahead in the mountains. After they reached its entrance, Xu Bai clashed verbally with Shang Lai, who called on a hulking man to attack him.

• Lu Nan found Xu Bai emerging from a maze and learned that mazes deceived the six senses and became deadly when the Red Moon rose.
• Xu Bai said the First Trial was an enormous maze with a time limit of three to seven days and used a Leaf Seeker to guide them toward it.
• The Leaf Seeker led Lu Nan and Xu Bai to a towering mountain range where other entrants were gathering.
• Shang Lai taunted Xu Bai, and Xu Bai insulted him in return.
• Shang Lai summoned a hulking man and ordered him to beat Xu Bai.

Xu Bai defeated Shang Lai’s bodyguard before the maze trial began, then followed Lu Nan through a stone door into the maze. The chapter left them in a passageway as Xu Bai sent Leaf Seeker ahead and waited for it to return.

• Xu Bai killed Zhang Wu after his saber strikes broke through the body cultivator’s defenses, then mocked Shang Lai.
• Stone doors opened across the mountains, and Xu Bai told Lu Nan that the First Trial would take place in a maze whose entrances led to random locations.
• Lu Nan chose the fourth stone door, and Xu Bai abandoned his preference for the third entrance to follow him.
• Xu Bai and Lu Nan appeared in a passageway surrounded by towering trees, and Xu Bai warned that the maze could change at any time.
• Xu Bai sent three glowing Leaf Seekers down the passage and sat down to recover while Lu Nan watched ahead.

Lu Nan and Xu Bai searched the maze, collecting wooden plaques from demonic beasts and assembling them into nine Small Cauldrons. After deciphering the cauldrons’ inscriptions, they completed a formation that created a black vortex.

• Xu Bai followed a Leaf Seeker into the maze with Lu Nan, and they chose the left passage at a fork.
• Xu Bai killed two scorpions while Lu Nan found wooden plaques carved with numbers on the beasts’ corpses.
• Xu Bai discovered that nine matching plaques formed a Small Cauldron, and he and Lu Nan gathered clues that the nine cauldrons could activate a Teleportation Array.
• Lu Nan and Xu Bai collected all nine Small Cauldrons and assembled them according to the formation inscribed on them.
• Xu Bai placed Spirit Stones in the first and ninth cauldrons and infused the formation with spiritual power, opening a black vortex.