Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Two days after arriving in the Tianluo Secret Realm, Fang Chen eats a Blood Scale Fruit he obtained after killing the Sixth-Layer Foundation Establishment Golden Thread Snake guarding it.
• He spots Chen Xiaofei, an injured Glazed Sword Sect disciple, fleeing three Misty Sect pursuers. Fang had been searching for Chen because Dao Master Honghe told him Chen was essential to achieving Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
• Bao Rulong, the pursuers’ leader, knocks Chen down and intends to capture him for Senior Sister Liu Yan. Fang intervenes, killing the other two Misty Sect disciples with his sword.
• Bao attacks with a golden Flying Knife, but Fang’s transformed Floating Immortal Sword cuts it in half. Fang has recently advanced to the Eleventh Layer of Qi Refining.
• Bao escapes using a rare Earth Evasion Talisman. Fang introduces himself to Chen by showing him a Jade Slip, revealing that he is True Person Liuli’s disciple. Chen recognizes Fang’s senior status and addresses him as “Junior Uncle-Master.”
• Fang asks Chen, a talented alchemist, to identify Pills taken from Misty Sect disciples and select any healing ones. Concerned Bao may return with reinforcements, they search the dead disciples for valuables and leave.

Character developments

• Fang Chen demonstrates growing strength and confidence, swiftly defeating two opponents and stopping Bao’s weapon. He also takes responsibility for protecting Chen and puts his resources to practical use.
• Chen Xiaofei is revealed to be both highly talented and resilient: despite serious injuries, he remains defiant and offers his alchemical expertise. Learning Fang’s lineage, he accepts Fang’s authority respectfully.
• Bao Rulong is shown to be cruel and predatory, but cautious enough to flee when Fang proves stronger.

Significant themes

• Growth and rising power: Fang’s recent cultivation progress is reflected in his improved swordsmanship.
• Loyalty and obligation: Fang has pursued Chen because of Dao Master Honghe’s instruction and acts decisively to save him.
• Status, lineage, and respect: Chen’s discovery of Fang’s master changes their relationship, placing Fang in a senior position despite his unfamiliarity to Chen.
• Practical survival: Healing Pills, stolen valuables, and the risk of pursuit shape the pair’s next steps.

Character interactions

• Fang intervenes between Chen and the Misty Sect disciples, then reassures Chen that he is a fellow Glazed Sword Sect disciple.
• Chen verifies Fang’s identity through the Jade Slip and responds with formal respect.
• Fang entrusts Chen with identifying the Pills, while Chen warns that Bao may return; together they gather supplies and escape.

Plot points and events

• Fang Chen and Chen Xiaofei reach a valley, where Xiaofei sorts the pills taken from Misty Sect disciples. The supplies include healing and cultivation pills, poisons, hallucinogens, and potent aphrodisiacs.
• Fang Chen urges the injured Xiaofei to take more Great Return Pills than he thinks necessary, then guards him while he heals. Xiaofei recovers fully in half an hour.
• Xiaofei explains that many Glazed Sword Sect disciples have died, and that he has been separated from the others for a month after a pack of two-headed hellhounds scattered them. He survived by using the protective treasures he brought with him.
• Both men recognize that the Tianluo Secret Realm is far more dangerous than its records suggest: its demonic beasts are stronger than expected, implying something has changed.
• Fang Chen sets out with Xiaofei to find Yan Ziyi, the Saintess of Zixiao Peak. He needs her Phoenix-lineage essence blood for Xiaofei’s eventual Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
• A large myna bird defecates on Xiaofei and mocks him. When it dives at him, Fang Chen strikes it with the Floating Immortal Sword. The bird survives, and the sword sends Fang Chen an unusually intense mixture of hot and cold Spiritual Power. As Xiaofei moves to attack the bird, it sprays him with more sludge.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen shows concern for Xiaofei’s survival, insisting he take extra medicine and protecting him while he heals. He remains focused on the larger goal of helping Xiaofei achieve Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
• Chen Xiaofei is badly shaken by the losses and the danger in the realm, but his gratitude toward Fang Chen is clear. His deference leads him to resist accepting extra pills until Fang Chen orders him to.
• Their relationship is warm but hierarchical: Fang Chen discourages Xiaofei’s excessive formality while firmly taking responsibility for him.
• The myna bird’s mischievous aggression turns the scene comic, while its speed and ability to withstand Fang Chen’s sword suggest it may be more formidable than it first appears.

Significant themes

• Danger and uncertainty: The secret realm no longer matches its historical descriptions, raising questions about what has changed.
• Care, trust, and obligation: Fang Chen uses his resources and protection to keep Xiaofei alive and advance his cultivation.
• Comic relief amid peril: The bird’s antics interrupt a grim account of death and survival, though the encounter also introduces a potentially unusual creature and a new reaction from Fang Chen’s sword.

Plot points and events

• A myna bird attacks Chen Xiaofei with corrosive droppings, leaving him screaming and apparently incapacitated.
• Fang Chen tries to protect him and confronts the bird, but its rapid, seemingly endless spit keeps him at bay.
• Paper Crane suddenly intervenes, overwhelms the myna bird, and knocks it into a crater.
• Fang Chen attacks the bird with the Floating Immortal Sword. Though its body is unusually durable and its wounds heal quickly, each strike draws Spiritual Power into Fang Chen, rapidly strengthening his True Qi.
• The myna bird reveals that it can speak and boasts of its greatness, then begs for its life. It claims it can heal Chen Xiaofei because the injuries were caused by its own droppings.
• With Paper Crane ready to kill the bird if it misbehaves, Fang Chen lets it treat Chen Xiaofei. The bird spits golden saliva into Chen’s mouth, and Chen’s body begins glowing as it absorbs Spiritual Qi and expels the corrosive droppings.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen shifts from alarm over Chen Xiaofei to furious retaliation against the bird. He remains cautious, allowing the bird to help only under Paper Crane’s watch.
• Paper Crane proves fiercely protective and far more formidable than the myna bird, striking fear into it. Fang Chen treats Paper Crane as a trusted ally.
• The myna bird changes from aggressive and taunting to terrified and submissive once Paper Crane defeats it. It reveals unexpected abilities: speech, exceptional durability, rapid healing, and the power to cure its own poison.
• Chen Xiaofei is left severely injured, then begins showing signs of recovery after the myna bird’s treatment.

Significant themes

• Power and reversal: The bird initially dominates the encounter, but Paper Crane quickly turns the tables.
• Trust under threat: Fang Chen accepts the bird’s help only after establishing strict consequences for betrayal.
• Unexpected abilities: The confrontation reveals hidden powers in both the myna bird and Fang Chen’s sword, whose Spiritual Power boosts Fang Chen as he attacks.

Plot points and events

• Paper Crane unexpectedly displays formidable power, subduing the myna bird after its corrosive droppings injure Chen Xiaofei.
• Chen Xiaofei’s golden light heals his damaged skin, though his hair and clothes remain ruined. He wakes, sees the nearly featherless bird, and angrily confronts it.
• The myna bird proves both talkative and unusual: it dodges attacks and can spew a startling amount of liquid. Fang Chen considers killing it, but spares it when it claims to know the secret realm’s terrain and where to find treasures.
• The bird explains that it does not know how it came to be in the realm; it woke there unable to leave. Golden runes on its body appear to be a seal placed by someone else.
• Fang Chen offers to release it if it helps him find someone. The bird reads Dao Master Honghe’s Jade Slip, memorizes its information, and says it knows where Yan Ziyi is. It leads Fang Chen toward her.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen discovers that Paper Crane can fight, not merely store items. He handles the bird pragmatically, restraining Chen Xiaofei and turning the bird’s knowledge into a bargain.
• Chen Xiaofei awakens healed but furious and humiliated by the bird’s attack. He wants revenge, but obeys Fang Chen when told to calm down.
• The myna bird shifts from arrogant assailant to frightened captive and then a boastful potential guide. Its strange abilities and mysterious seal raise questions about its past.
• The bird trades insults with Chen Xiaofei, while Fang Chen mediates between them and directs the conversation toward finding Yan Ziyi.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and mystery: Paper Crane’s strength and the bird’s seal reveal that apparently simple or familiar things may conceal formidable abilities.
• Pragmatism over revenge: Fang Chen chooses to use the bird’s knowledge rather than simply punish or kill it.
• Comic humiliation amid danger: The bird’s crude attack and its feud with Chen Xiaofei provide humor alongside the chapter’s supernatural mysteries.

Plot points and events

• Fang Chen tells Myna bird to lead the group to Yan Ziyi. The bird and Chen Xiaofei trade insults before grudgingly following Fang Chen’s orders.
• The little Paper Crane rides on Myna bird, whose careful flying suggests he fears provoking it. Chen Xiaofei recognizes it as a Glazed Paper Crane and is surprised it has survived beyond the Trial Path.
• Fang Chen uses the Misty Turtle Step to travel through the air. When Chen Xiaofei cannot keep up on foot, Fang carries him while the Floating Immortal Sword draws in nearby Spiritual Power and replenishes Fang’s True Qi.
• Myna bird leads them to the rarely appearing Ancient Tianluo City, where he says Yan Ziyi is inside. He initially refuses to enter, claiming a force in the city causes him pain. After the Paper Crane strikes him, he commits to flying in.
• Inside the city, Fang finds his True Qi circulation severely slowed and his Spiritual Sense suppressed. Strange Spiritual Power enters his body and causes intense pain, but the Floating Immortal Sword releases a hot current that relieves it. Myna bird also reacts to the city’s force, with golden Runes appearing across his body.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen remains decisive and protective: he insists Myna bird honor their agreement and carries the exhausted Chen Xiaofei onward. He is cautious but impressed by the city’s hostile power.
• Chen Xiaofei is easily astonished, first by the Paper Crane and then by Fang’s movement technique. His banter with Myna bird is combative, while his dependence on Fang highlights their senior-junior relationship.
• Myna bird is abrasive and reluctant, but obeys Fang and shows unusual caution around the Paper Crane. His fear of the city gives way to defiant resolve after the bird’s blow.
• The Paper Crane remains mysterious and powerful: it has endured far longer than expected, commands Myna bird’s caution, and physically forces him into the city.

Significant themes

• Unexplained power and mystery: The Paper Crane’s survival, the Floating Immortal Sword’s response, and the city’s strange Spiritual Power all raise unanswered questions.
• Cooperation under pressure: Despite their squabbling and reluctance, the group must work together to reach Yan Ziyi.
• Dangerous exploration: Ancient Tianluo City’s suppression of abilities and painful energy make the search a serious risk.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Xiaofei struggles against the city’s Killing Intent, while Fang Chen remains unaffected. Fang gives him more than a dozen bottles of Spirit Transformation Pills to help.
• They reach the center of Ancient Tianluo City, where hundreds of regenerating stone men are attacking Glazed Sword Sect disciples. Yan Ziyi leads the defense, but the group is steadily weakening.
• Fang releases the myna bird after it guides him to the disciples, honoring his promise despite Chen Xiaofei’s objections. The bird flees once Paper Crane leaves its back.
• Chen Xiaofei identifies the attackers’ formation as the Eight Trigrams Gate’s Stone Man Formation, likely controlled by hidden cultivators. He explains that formations can be broken by destroying their core or overpowering them.
• Green vines restrain the disciples, arrows attack from the mist, and a golden projectile pierces Yan Ziyi’s shoulder. As the stone men press their assault, Fang gives Chen Xiaofei Earth Evasion Talismans and charges in alone to rescue the group.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen shows confidence, generosity, and a commitment to keeping his word. He also recognizes that the myna bird may be more dangerous than it appears.
• Chen Xiaofei remains humorous and impulsive—he wants to eat the bird in revenge for its earlier insult—but becomes anxious when Yan Ziyi is hurt and wants to help.
• Yan Ziyi demonstrates skill and courage, protecting the others with her sword technique even as the battle turns against her.
• The myna bird is comic and boastful, but its fear of being eaten quickly replaces its bravado.

Significant themes

• Honor and trust: Fang keeps his promise to release the bird, even when others object.
• Generosity and loyalty: He shares valuable medicine and risks himself to protect the Glazed Sword Sect disciples.
• Strategy versus force: The formation may require either finding its core or overwhelming it with strength.
• Perseverance under pressure: The disciples continue resisting despite injuries and the stone men’s ability to rebuild.

Key plot points and events

• Fang Chen enters the Stone Man Formation, where the surrounding stone warriors immediately attack. He uses the Misty Turtle Step and Floating Immortal Sword to destroy them at remarkable speed.
• Unlike stone men broken by the Glazed Sword Sect disciples, the ones Fang Chen shatters take much longer to reassemble. He destroys more than two hundred, stunning the trapped disciples and threatening the formation.
• Yan Ziyi reads Fang Chen’s Jade Slip and reveals that he is the newly appointed Holy Son of Glazed Peak—and, by seniority, her Junior Uncle-Master. The sect has instructed its disciples to support him as he attempts Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
• From the mist, the Eight Trigrams Gate disciples watch their formation fail. Their leader, Hu Li, had trapped the Glazed Sword Sect group because he coveted Yan Ziyi and intended to assault her and the other women.
• Hu Li orders the formation changed. The stone warriors merge into the hundred-foot Giant Stone King, whose power rivals a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. It fires golden beams at Fang Chen.
• Fang Chen blocks the attack with the Floating Immortal Sword. The impact drives him backward and shakes the sword, which turns red and releases a powerful force into him. His protective spiritual light rises from ten layers to eleven.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen demonstrates overwhelming speed and swordsmanship while keeping his full strength concealed at first; the escalating threat forces him to unleash more power.
• Yan Ziyi shifts from questioning Fang Chen’s sudden arrival to recognizing his rank and explaining his identity and mission to the others.
• Hu Li is revealed as the malicious architect of the trap. His confidence turns to fury and urgency when Fang Chen dismantles his formation.
• The Glazed Sword Sect disciples move from confusion to awe, then learn they are expected to assist Fang Chen. The Eight Trigrams Gate disciples, by contrast, panic as their plan collapses.

Significant themes

• Merit and hierarchy: Fang Chen’s new status changes how the Glazed Sword Sect disciples understand their relationship to him.
• Power under pressure: His abilities become increasingly visible as he faces a stronger opponent.
• Abuse of power versus loyalty: Hu Li’s predatory scheme contrasts with the Glazed Sword Sect’s duty to support one of its own.
• Ambition and rare achievement: Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment is presented as an extraordinary goal requiring more than talent alone.

Key plot points and events

• Hu Li and the Eight Trigrams Gate disciples are stunned when Fang Chen reveals he has reached the Eleventh Layer of Qi Refining and withstands the Giant Stone King’s attack.
• Fang Chen refuses help from Yan Ziyi and the Glazed Sword Sect disciples, choosing to fight the stone guardian alone. His sword wounds it, but its body quickly repairs itself, and it nearly crushes him.
• Fang Chen activates the Glazed Battle Runes, escapes the Giant Stone King’s stomp, and destroys its head with two Azure Sword Rays. The creature regenerates again, revealing that brute force alone cannot defeat it.
• The Floating Immortal Sword feeds Fang Chen Spiritual Power, and his heightened awareness lets him see the golden threads linking the Giant Stone King to a hidden Golden Great Bell. He severs the threads, causing the guardian to collapse and explode.
• Fang Chen notices the Myna bird watching from a tower, then heads toward the Golden Great Bell, where Hu Li and the others are hiding.
• Chen Xiaofei emerges from the fog and reunites with Yan Ziyi and the other Glazed Sword Sect disciples. Fang Chen tells the group to follow him.

Character developments

• Fang Chen demonstrates that his strength and insight exceed expectations. He combines combat skill with an ability to perceive and exploit the formation’s hidden mechanism, rather than relying only on force.
• Yan Ziyi and the Glazed Sword Sect disciples move from alarm to admiration as Fang Chen defeats the seemingly indestructible guardian.
• Hu Li becomes unsettled when Fang Chen breaks a formation that should have been nearly impossible to overcome without specialized knowledge.
• Chen Xiaofei’s reunion with his sectmates brings relief and renewed optimism.

Significant themes

• Power paired with perception: Fang Chen wins not merely through strength, but by understanding the guardian’s connection to its source.
• Expectations overturned: His achievement challenges the other cultivators’ assumptions about what an Eleventh Layer Qi Refining cultivator can do.
• Trust and leadership: Fang Chen’s insistence on facing the threat alone shows confidence, while his later call for everyone to follow him shifts the group toward coordinated action.

Character interactions

• Hu Li’s challenge prompts Fang Chen’s solo confrontation; Yan Ziyi tries to rally the sect disciples to help, but Fang Chen orders them to stay back.
• The Glazed Sword Sect disciples call out in fear when Fang Chen is struck, then celebrate his victory.
• Chen Xiaofei warmly greets Yan Ziyi, and the group welcomes him back before following Fang Chen.

Plot points and events

• Hu Li and the Eight Trigrams Gate disciples hide inside a Golden Great Bell and activate an Eight Trigrams Illusory Formation to conceal it.
• Fang Chen sees through the illusion and enters it. Despite illusions of attacking Demonic Beasts, he ignores them and removes the Formation Flags, quickly collapsing the array.
• Yan Ziyi and the Glazed Sword Sect disciples arrive outside. Chen Xiaofei reassures them that Fang Chen can handle the formation, and tells Yan Ziyi how Fang Chen rescued him from being taken by the Misty Sect.
• Fang Chen confronts Hu Li and identifies himself as the Glazed Sword Sect’s Holy Son of Glazed Peak. Hu Li recognizes the significance of the title, given Glazed Peak’s once-great status and its lost legacy.
• Fang Chen strikes the Golden Great Bell, but it withstands the blow and channels Spiritual Power back to him. Hu Li boasts that the Golden Bell Formation can repair itself unless destroyed in one strike.
• Yan Ziyi offers to help Fang Chen break the formation. The chapter ends as Fang Chen turns toward her with a suddenly sharpened gaze.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen demonstrates his mastery of formations and growing authority as Glazed Peak’s Holy Son. He remains confident when Hu Li’s defensive formation resists his attack.
• Hu Li moves from confidence in his traps to shock at how easily Fang Chen defeats them, then regains his composure behind the Golden Bell.
• Chen Xiaofei trusts Fang Chen’s strength and informs the others about his rescue, while the Glazed Sword Sect disciples react with anger over the Misty Sect’s capture of male disciples.
• Yan Ziyi leads the group to support Fang Chen, showing respect for him as her junior uncle-master, though she believes the Golden Bell requires their combined strength.
• Hu Li acknowledges Fang Chen’s power and the prestige of Glazed Peak, but still challenges him to overcome the Gate’s strongest defense.

Significant themes

• Decline and legacy: Glazed Sword Sect was once dominant, but Glazed Peak’s lost inheritance weakened it; Fang Chen’s title and abilities suggest a possible restoration.
• Skill versus brute force: Fang Chen dismantles a sophisticated illusion through perception and knowledge, but the Golden Bell tests whether strength alone can overcome a self-repairing defense.
• Loyalty and oppression: The Glazed Sword disciples rally together, while their anger at the Misty Sect’s abductions reinforces the hostility between the sects.

Key events

• After the Glazed Sword Sect disciples retreat to recover, Fang Chen takes on the Golden Bell Formation alone. Yan Ziyi warns that even a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator would struggle to break it, but Fang Chen insists.
• Fang Chen reasons that the formation’s controllers must continually spend Spiritual Power and Soul Power to sustain it. His Floating Immortal Sword supplies him with pure Spiritual Power as he strikes, letting him outlast them.
• As he attacks, Fang Chen’s swordplay improves. He enters a state of Enlightenment in which the Glazed Sword Art overwhelms and absorbs the Flowing Cloud Sword Art.
• Fang Chen breaks through to the sword realm known as Carrying the Light as if Heavy. His attacks become dramatically more destructive, cracking and then steadily damaging the formation faster than it can repair itself.
• The Glazed Sword Sect disciples cheer as the formation begins to fail. Inside it, Hu Li’s Eight Trigrams Gate disciples grow frightened and demand that he act.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen displays confidence and strategic insight, then makes a major breakthrough through sustained combat. His mastery and attack power rise as he fights.
• Yan Ziyi is initially alarmed and skeptical, but falls silent when Fang Chen’s progress proves his confidence justified. She is stunned by his achievement, which exceeds her own sword mastery.
• Chen Xiaofei defends Fang Chen, arguing that his persistence reflects confidence rather than foolishness, and notices his swordplay improving.
• Hu Li remains smug at first, watching from inside the formation, but his followers’ panic signals that their confidence is collapsing.
• The hidden Myna bird recognizes Fang Chen’s profound state and identifies his breakthrough.

Significant themes

• Persistence and endurance: Fang Chen turns the formation’s reliance on continuous energy into a contest he believes he can win.
• Growth through struggle: Repeated attacks become a path to insight and a sudden advance in sword mastery.
• Appearance versus ability: What the disciples see as futile hacking is, for Fang Chen, both a calculated strategy and an opportunity to improve.
• Power and fear: As Fang Chen’s strength becomes undeniable, the balance of confidence shifts from the defenders to their trapped opponents.

Key plot points and events

• Hu Li orders the Eight Trigrams Gate disciples to split their efforts: some reinforce the Golden Bell Formation, while he leads the rest in forming the Mantis Battle Formation.
• Fang Chen shatters the Golden Bell Formation, injuring the disciples maintaining it. The others combine their strength into a giant, rune-covered green mantis.
• The mantis’s wingbeats unleash a destructive sound wave, injuring Glazed Sword Sect disciples and forcing them to retreat. It then attacks Fang Chen with scythe-like blades.
• Fang Chen withstands the assault and fights the mantis in midair. Despite its strength and flight, his Eleventh Layer of Qi Refining cultivation and Misty Turtle Steps let him match it.
• While Fang Chen occupies the mantis, Yan Ziyi orders the Glazed Sword Sect disciples to kill the wounded Eight Trigrams Gate fighters. They comply, and Hu Li’s distraction at their deaths gives Fang Chen an opening to strike the mantis’s head.
• As the mantis tumbles, Fang Chen spots a gap beneath its wing and sees one of the disciples inside, revealing a possible weakness.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen demonstrates exceptional combat skill and composure, using his sword and aerial movement to resist a formation stronger than an ordinary Ninth Layer Foundation Establishment cultivator. The Floating Immortal Sword’s energy also accelerates his cultivation.
• Hu Li shifts from confidence in the Golden Bell Formation to desperation, relying on the Mantis Battle Formation. His anger and distress over his followers’ deaths briefly weaken the formation.
• Yan Ziyi moves from alarm at the mantis’s power to decisive leadership, ordering the enemy’s wounded taken out while Fang Chen engages their main force.
• The Glazed Sword Sect disciples go from fear and injury to retaliation, driven by their near-death experience in the Stone Man Formation.

Significant themes

• Combined strength and its limits: The Mantis Battle Formation magnifies the disciples’ power, but it depends on coordination and is vulnerable to emotional disruption.
• Courage and tactical awareness: Fang Chen’s skill and Yan Ziyi’s timely command turn a dangerous battle into an opportunity.
• Revenge and mercy: The Eight Trigrams Gate fighters beg for their lives, but the Glazed Sword Sect disciples show no mercy after their own ordeal.

Key events

• Fang Chen battles Hu Li’s azure-mantis formation. Though initially overwhelmed by its strength, he combines insights from the Glazed Qi Refining Art and Emerging Sword Art, breaking through to the Twelfth Layer of Qi Refining.
• His breakthrough creates a Golden Flame that strengthens his body, dantian, meridians, and Soul Origin. His Body Protection Spiritual Light gains a twelfth layer, allowing him to withstand the mantis’s attacks unharmed.
• Fang Chen severs the mantis’s forelimbs, breaking the formation and injuring its participants through backlash. The Glazed Sword Sect disciples kill the incapacitated Eight Trigrams Gate members; Fang Chen executes Hu Li when he threatens retaliation.
• The group collects the defeated cultivators’ treasures. Fang Chen assigns Pills and talismans to the disciples and medicinal herbs to Chen Xiaofei; Yan Ziyi distributes the items fairly.
• Fang Chen announces he will go to the dangerous Liudan River. The disciples choose to follow, while Yan Ziyi first asks to explore Sky Net Palace for its rumored cultivation arts and inheritance. Fang Chen agrees, and the group sets out after recovering. A myna bird follows them from a distance.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen’s breakthrough marks a major leap in power, making him a rare cultivator to reach the Twelfth Layer. He remains decisive in battle and in dealing with Hu Li.
• Yan Ziyi shows leadership and loyalty: she ensures the others receive suitable shares, takes nothing for herself, and argues for exploring Sky Net Palace before the next dangerous journey.
• Chen Xiaofei and the other disciples support Fang Chen, eagerly defend their sectmates, and unanimously agree to accompany him to the Liudan River.
• Hu Li’s confidence collapses into terror after his formation fails, but his threat against Fang Chen is cut short.

Significant themes

• Breakthrough through synthesis: Fang Chen advances by reconciling two previously conflicting arts.
• Loyalty and collective courage: The disciples choose to face danger together rather than abandon their leader.
• Leadership and fairness: Fang Chen delegates the spoils, while Yan Ziyi distributes them according to need and places the group’s welfare ahead of her own.
• Power and consequences: The formation’s strength becomes a liability when it is broken, leaving its users vulnerable to devastating backlash.

Key plot points and events

• Fang Chen and the group reach a grand palace filled with corpses from several sects. The dead have been stripped of their possessions, suggesting that some intruders survived.
• Fang Chen explores alone. Inside, the force suppressing his Spiritual Sense disappears, but he finds no cultivation texts or living beings. A White Jade Throne withstands his sword strike and sends a surge of energy into him; Paper Crane cannot move it into Spirit Crane Space.
• Fang Chen returns and tells the others the hall seems safe but contains no visible cultivation arts. Despite Yan Ziyi’s doubts, the group enters to search for themselves.
• Once everyone is inside, the doors seal shut. Words and images appear on the jade pillars, and golden characters illuminate the floor.
• A mounted corpse—the Riding Zombie—appears and sets a deadly test: the group has three two-hour periods to cultivate the Sky Net Qi Refining Art to its third layer. Those who fail will die.
• Fang Chen recognizes the art as a thirteen-layer Qi Refining method, but the chapter ends before anyone begins to make progress.

Character developments

• Fang Chen remains cautious and takes the lead in exploring, testing the throne, and warning the others. His unexpected reaction to the throne hints at a possible connection or benefit.
• Yan Ziyi relies on her knowledge of ancient records, but the palace’s behavior contradicts what she expected. She attempts to stop the doors and is thrown back by the formation.
• The group shifts from excitement at finding cultivation arts to alarm once the Riding Zombie reveals the lethal deadline.

Significant themes

• Danger hidden within opportunity: The long-sought cultivation arts appear only after the group is trapped and threatened.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Yan Ziyi’s records prove incomplete, while Fang Chen’s first inspection reveals only part of the hall’s secret.
• Survival under pressure: The group must learn quickly or face the same fate as the corpses around them.

Character interactions

• Fang Chen directs the group’s exploration and urges them to stay alert.
• Yan Ziyi challenges Fang Chen’s report because it conflicts with her historical knowledge, but follows his suggestion to investigate.
• The Riding Zombie imposes the trial and makes the group’s survival depend on mastering the art.

Key plot points and events

• Fang Chen and the Glazed Sword Sect disciples discover that the Sky Net Qi Refining Art reaches thirteen layers—one more than their existing Glazed Qi Refining Art—and absorbs Spiritual Qi exceptionally quickly.
• As the group cultivates, disciples begin suffering cultivation deviation: they lose control and attack one another. Fang Chen realizes the art is dangerous and that a murderous force is assaulting their minds.
• Fang Chen uses the Floating Immortal Sword to dispel his own bloodlust, then knocks out the frenzied disciples to stop them hurting others. Some stronger cultivators insist on enduring the ordeal, hoping to temper themselves.
• The Riding Zombie reveals that the only way out is to cultivate the art to its third layer within three two-hour periods, and claims that knocking the afflicted unconscious will not save them.
• Fang Chen challenges the zombie. Though his sword strike is easily blocked and the zombie’s counterattack sends him flying, the Floating Immortal Sword’s energy restores him. Before the zombie can attack again, a purple feather strikes its chest and knocks it from its horse.

Character developments

• Fang Chen shows quick judgment and restraint: he recognizes the art’s danger, suppresses its influence, and prioritizes protecting the disciples. He also chooses to confront the Riding Zombie despite its superior strength.
• Yan Ziyi and Chen Xiaofei struggle against the art’s effects but remain functional. Fang Chen trusts Yan Ziyi to monitor the others.
• Some disciples display determination by continuing to resist the murderous force, treating it as a chance to strengthen themselves.
• The Riding Zombie shifts from taunting Fang Chen to engaging him directly, revealing formidable combat power.

Significant themes

• Power at a price: The art’s extraordinary cultivation speed comes with a perilous, mind-corrupting influence.
• Self-control and responsibility: Fang Chen resists the urge to kill and acts to protect the group.
• Strength tested under pressure: The disciples’ different levels of endurance reveal their resolve, while Fang Chen’s confrontation with the zombie exposes the gap in their power.

Character interactions

• Fang Chen stops the afflicted disciples from attacking one another and coordinates with Yan Ziyi to watch those still resisting.
• He challenges the Riding Zombie over its claim that the group cannot escape, then attacks it when it mocks him.
• The zombie’s assault overwhelms Fang Chen, but the scene ends with an unexplained ally or weapon—the purple feather—interrupting the fight.

Plot points and events

• Yan Ziyi’s purple feather knocks the mounted zombie off its horse, creating an opening for Fang Chen.
• Fang Chen kills the zombie horse, absorbs Spiritual Power through the Floating Immortal Sword, and fights the zombie on foot. Though repeatedly thrown back by its powerful spear attacks, he grows stronger as the sword channels energy into him.
• Fang Chen beheads the zombie, but it regenerates, declares itself immortal, and continues attacking. The battle becomes a contest of endurance: Fang Chen’s strength and swordsmanship improve while the zombie’s power steadily fades.
• During the prolonged fight, Fang Chen enters Enlightenment and sees an orange pearl inside the zombie’s dantian. He cuts into the creature, removes the pearl, and finally destroys it; its body turns to ash.

Character development

• Fang Chen shows determination and tactical adaptability, enduring severe blows rather than giving up. The battle also advances his cultivation and swordsmanship, and Enlightenment lets him identify the zombie’s true weakness.
• Yan Ziyi uses a powerful feather technique, though the effort visibly drains her.
• Chen Xiaofei and the others move from celebrating Fang Chen’s apparent victory to worrying as the zombie revives.
• The Myna watches from hiding, surprised by Fang Chen’s steadily rising aura.

Significant themes

• Persistence and growth through adversity: Each clash strengthens Fang Chen, even when he is knocked down.
• Perseverance joined with insight: Force alone cannot defeat the regenerating zombie; Fang Chen succeeds by discovering and removing its source of power.
• Cultivation through combat: The battle develops Fang Chen’s energy, perception, and technique.

Character interactions

• Yan Ziyi’s intervention gives Fang Chen a chance to attack, while Chen Xiaofei and the group cheer him on and later fear for his safety.
• Fang Chen faces the zombie in a prolonged, escalating duel, with the Floating Immortal Sword both protecting him and transferring power to him.
• The Myna observes from concealment, while Fang Chen’s eventual discovery of the pearl turns the fight in his favor.

Plot points and events

• After Fang Chen kills the powerful zombie, the Orange Pearl—identified as its Inner Core—breaks free and rises into the air.
• A mysterious force draws evil Spiritual Power out of the surviving disciples, the newly awakened disciples, and the corpses, absorbing it into the pearl. Those Fang Chen had knocked unconscious wake up.
• The pearl reveals inscriptions throughout the hall: eighteen Qi Refining methods that reach the Thirteenth Layer, along with eighteen Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment Secret Methods. They appear to be fragments of eighteen Emperor Scriptures, though nothing beyond Core Formation is revealed.
• The disciples are eager to learn the methods but hesitate, remembering the danger they encountered earlier. Fang Chen tells them to memorize the inscriptions while he checks whether the methods are safe.
• He tests the thirteen-layer Starry Qi Refining Art himself, then has a lower-level disciple try it. Both experience no immediate ill effects, and the disciple praises it as superior to the sect’s art. Fang Chen remains cautious and begins testing more methods.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen’s strength and authority are reaffirmed: the disciples admire him for defeating the zombie and defer to his judgment about the newly revealed techniques.
• Chen Xiaofei explains the battle and the pearl to the disciples who have just awakened, helping them understand what happened.
• Fang Chen shows both ambition and prudence: he is excited by the rare Emperor Scripture fragments but refuses to let the group cultivate them without testing them.
• The disciples’ excitement is tempered by their fear of another hidden danger, making them willing to follow Fang Chen’s cautious plan.

Significant themes

• Power and opportunity: The discovery of eighteen Emperor Scripture fragments offers the disciples a chance to access methods usually guarded by powerful factions.
• Caution amid temptation: Even extraordinary cultivation methods may carry risks, so Fang Chen insists on testing them before the group commits.
• Hierarchy and trust: The sect members rely on Fang Chen’s strength, seniority, and judgment to guide them through the discovery.

Key plot points and events

• Fang Chen and the others test more than a dozen Qi Refining arts capable of reaching the Thirteenth Layer. None cause problems, and the group begins memorizing the hall’s techniques.
• Fang Chen records all the available arts and Foundation Establishment methods: eighteen Thirteenth-Layer Qi Refining arts, over three hundred Twelfth-Layer arts, and eighteen Innate Foundation Establishment methods. However, he cannot find the Heavenly Dao method he needs for his intended Foundation Establishment.
• Chen Xiaofei discovers that the White Jade Throne supplies cultivators with pure energy. It helps him break through to the Eleventh Layer of Qi Refining.
• A second disciple, Ma Lin—nicknamed Earth Monkey—also advances while cultivating on the throne, confirming that it can accelerate cultivation even for someone with modest aptitude.
• Chen Xiaofei reaches the Twelfth Layer, but golden runes flare across the throne and eject him. Fang Chen and Yan Ziyi tell him not to be greedy and to consolidate his progress.
• Fang Chen organizes the remaining disciples into a line, prioritizing those with lower cultivation. Yan Ziyi volunteers to wait, trusting Fang Chen to take his turn only after the others.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen remains methodical and responsible: he studies the hall’s resources, recognizes the gap in his Foundation Establishment plans, tests the throne’s benefits, and directs the group’s use of it.
• Chen Xiaofei grows more confident and excited as the throne helps him rise rapidly from the Tenth to the Twelfth Layer. His eagerness is tempered when it throws him off.
• Yan Ziyi shows patience and selflessness by giving others priority, while reinforcing Fang Chen’s warning against greed.
• Ma Lin gains hope when the throne helps him break through, encouraging the rest of the group.
• The disciples follow Fang Chen’s instructions and cooperate closely, reflecting their strong group unity.

Significant themes

• Cooperation and shared opportunity: The disciples take turns using the throne, with the weaker cultivators given priority.
• The limits of rapid advancement: The throne offers powerful help, but its ejection of Chen Xiaofei suggests that progress has boundaries and must be consolidated.
• Aptitude and suitability: Chen Xiaofei thrives with a cultivation art matched to his Fire Spiritual Root, underscoring that techniques should fit the individual.
• Ambition and uncertainty: Fang Chen’s search for a Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment method remains unresolved, despite the hall’s abundance of other resources.

Key plot points and events

• Ma Lin reaches the Eleventh Layer of Qi Refining on the White Jade Throne and is forcibly ejected. Though disappointed, he is grateful for his dramatic progress and continues cultivating on the floor.
• Fang Chen urges the Glazed Sword Sect disciples to use the hall’s dense Spiritual Qi and available pills. While they cultivate, he strengthens himself by drawing Spiritual Power through the Floating Immortal Sword.
• After three days, every disciple has used the throne: twenty have reached the Twelfth Layer, while the other forty have reached the Eleventh.
• Fang Chen and Yan Ziyi take their turn together. Yan Ziyi breaks through to the Twelfth Layer first and remains on the throne.
• Fang Chen reaches the Thirteenth Layer, accompanied by golden light and a mysterious starry vision. Unlike other cultivators, he is not ejected and continues using the throne.
• Yan Ziyi later reaches the Thirteenth Layer and is thrown off. Fang Chen, meanwhile, cycles through the Qi Refining arts of all eighteen Emperor Scriptures, pushing his True Qi to its limit.
• The throne’s Spiritual Power stops flowing, and cracks spread across it, suggesting it is about to break.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Chen shows leadership by directing the group’s cultivation, then demonstrates exceptional talent by reaching the rare Thirteenth Layer and continuing to cultivate when others are expelled. His unusual compatibility with the throne and the mysterious vision around him remain unexplained.
• Yan Ziyi advances from the Twelfth to the Thirteenth Layer. She admires Fang Chen’s greater power and unique ability to remain on the throne.
• Ma Lin and the disciples are astonished by how rapidly they advance. Chen Xiaofei and the others encourage and watch Fang Chen, treating his breakthrough as a remarkable achievement.

Significant themes

• Unequal talent and extraordinary cultivation: The disciples benefit greatly from the throne, but Fang Chen’s progress goes far beyond theirs.
• Opportunity and perseverance: The group makes the most of a rare cultivation site, while those ejected continue training rather than wasting their gains.
• Mystery and foreshadowing: Fang Chen’s starry vision, unusual response to the throne, and the throne’s cracking point toward larger forces and consequences.

Plot points and events

• The orange pearl activates a mechanism in the Sky Net Palace, causing the palace to shake and collapse. Fang Chen leads everyone out just in time.
• Fang Chen reveals his plan to attempt Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, a difficult undertaking requiring rare pills, extensive resources, and help from others. He asks Yan Ziyi and Chen Xiaofei to assist him.
• The Glazed Sword Sect disciples agree to stand by Fang Chen, grateful for his past help and the benefits they gained from the palace’s inheritance.
• Fang Chen decides to seek pill recipes at Liudan River, hoping to find the recipe for a Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment Pill. Though the others hesitate because the river is extremely dangerous, they follow after Fang Chen sets out alone.
• After a day’s travel, they reach the riverbed, littered with human and Demonic Beast corpses. Over the next three days, the group travels nearly a thousand miles upriver, fighting numerous beasts.
• Fang Chen’s party reaches sixty-two members, including two at the Thirteenth Layer of Qi Refining, twenty at the twelfth, and forty at the eleventh.
• They find roughly two thousand cultivators from several sects attacking a cracked barrier that leaks pure Spiritual Qi. Fang Chen expects it to break soon.

Character development and interactions

• Fang Chen shows ambition and determination in pursuing Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, while giving his companions the freedom to refuse a dangerous mission.
• Chen Xiaofei and Yan Ziyi openly reaffirm their loyalty, citing Fang Chen’s past rescues. Their actions persuade the rest of the group to follow him as well.
• The group’s trust in Fang Chen deepens: they choose to face Liudan River’s dangers together rather than let him go alone.
• At the barrier, the Glazed Sword Sect’s arrival draws wary attention from the Misty Sect, Lingyun Sword Sect, Eight Trigrams Gate, and other cultivators.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and gratitude: Fang Chen’s companions repay his help by joining his perilous quest.
• Ambition and sacrifice: Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment promises great potential but demands formidable resources and risks.
• Unity under danger: The Glazed Sword Sect’s strength comes not only from cultivation, but from its members’ willingness to stand together.

Key plot points and events

• The Glazed Sword Sect arrives at the Liudan River just as the Misty Sect, Eight Trigrams Gate, and Lingyun Sword Sect are about to break through a barrier to the upper reaches. The three allied sects resent the Glazed Sword Sect and refuse to let it share the rewards after spending ten days fighting the barrier.
• Their leaders—Yu Liuyan, Wang Mo, and Shi Lei—are all at the Thirteenth Layer of Qi Refining, having inherited Emperor Scriptures from the Sky Net Palace. The palace’s final inheritances were activated when Fang Chen killed its nearly immortal Riding Zombie, causing the palace to collapse.
• Yu Liuyan’s Jade Maiden Heavenly Scripture lets her strengthen herself by absorbing men’s yang energy. She had ordered her followers to capture male disciples, nearly taking Chen Xiaofei before Fang Chen rescued him.
• Bao Rulong identifies Fang Chen as the man who killed two Misty Sect disciples. When Yu Liuyan challenges him, Fang Chen insults all three sects as “trash,” provoking their disciples into drawing weapons.
• Bao Rulong attacks Fang Chen, now stronger at the Twelfth Layer of Qi Refining. Fang Chen draws the Floating Immortal Sword and kills him with a single slash, cutting both his saber and his body in two.

Character developments

• Fang Chen remains openly defiant and confident, showing little concern for the three sects’ strength. His swift execution of Bao Rulong demonstrates how far he surpasses a newly advanced Twelfth-Layer fighter.
• Yu Liuyan, Wang Mo, and Shi Lei are introduced as powerful, ambitious leaders whose sects’ new strength comes from the Sky Net Palace’s inheritances. Yu Liuyan’s anger at Fang Chen’s insults sets her up as a direct adversary.
• Bao Rulong returns seeking revenge after fleeing Fang Chen earlier. His breakthrough gives him confidence, but he is killed before he can make good on it.
• Yan Ziyi’s decision to stand behind Fang Chen draws Yu Liuyan’s attention and makes her suspect that Fang Chen’s position or strength is unusual.

Significant themes

• Power and inheritance: The Emperor Scriptures have transformed the three sects’ leaders and shifted the balance among the sects.
• Pride and rivalry: Old resentment toward the once-dominant Glazed Sword Sect fuels the three sects’ hostility.
• Cruelty in the pursuit of strength: Yu Liuyan’s cultivation method and her disciples’ efforts to capture men reveal the exploitative cost of her advancement.
• Confidence backed by force: Fang Chen’s provocation is immediately reinforced by his effortless victory over Bao Rulong.

Character interactions

• Yu Liuyan confronts Fang Chen over the Misty Sect disciples he killed, while Fang Chen responds with mockery rather than explanation.
• Bao Rulong accuses Fang Chen and launches a revenge attack; Fang Chen kills him in front of both groups.
• The three sects’ disciples and the Glazed Sword Sect’s disciples draw weapons, leaving the encounter poised to escalate into a larger battle.