Chapter Summaries

Su Fan arrived in Northern Dome Immortal City and learned that the Shen Family was recruiting Attendants, but its formation-master requirement and old bounty missions blocked his way in. When the Shen Family announced that Shen Zhongying had gone missing, Su Fan offered to use his demon-cultivation arts to investigate and received a drop of Shen Zhongying's blood essence.

• Su Fan explored Northern Dome Immortal City, sampled its costly restaurants, obtained a spirit-stone jade talisman, and surveyed the city's formation shops.
• Su Fan traveled to Haoshan Market Town to apply as a Shen Family Attendant, but learned that applicants needed to be high-grade formation grandmasters.
• Su Fan found the Shen Family's old, uncompleted bounty missions and was about to leave when a new mission announced that Shen Zhongying had been missing for three days.
• Su Fan went to the Shen Family residence and told Shen Fang he could use a secret art to investigate, but needed Shen Zhongying's aura or blood essence.
• Shen Fang contacted the family, and two Foundation Establishment Cultivators delivered a Jade Bottle containing a drop of Shen Zhongying's blood essence.

Su Fan tracked Shen Zhongying’s bloodline to a site in the Wulong Mountain Range and used a Witchcraft Path formation to replay his death, discovering that five evil cultivators had ambushed him. Unable to safely give the recording to the Shen Household, Su Fan turned to the Demon Person Mansion for leads and posted a bounty for a complete Path of Formations inheritance.

• Su Fan arrived in Wulong Mountain City and bought demon-beast furs from an aggressively persuasive Fox Race shopkeeper.
• Su Fan used Shen Zhongying’s blood essence to locate his trail, then rode north into the Wulong Mountain Range.
• Su Fan replayed the battle at the site with the Witchcraft Path’s Round Light Reversal formation and concluded that five evil cultivators had ambushed Shen Zhongying.
• Su Fan decided not to hand the recording to the Shen Household and returned to Wulong Mountain City to search for the killers himself.
• Su Fan saw two Demon Person Mansion inquiries about Shen Zhongying and learned from Shen Fang that Shen Zhongying had gone to investigate supposed ancient remnant formation ruins.
• Su Fan posted a bounty on the Demon Person Mansion platform seeking a complete Path of Formations inheritance.

Su Fan traced Shen Zhongying’s death to a group of evil cultivators and joined the Shen Household as an Attendant in exchange for sharing his findings. After sensing a suspected murderer in Wulong Mountain City, he followed him beyond the gates and watched him change his appearance and aura.

• Su Fan received an offer to buy a Shen Household formation inheritance for thirty thousand Ghost Money, with Wulong Mountain City named as the pickup location.
• Su Fan met Shen Zhonghua, revealed how Shen Zhongying had died, and gave him a jade talisman marking the murder scene.
• Shen Zhonghua agreed to make Su Fan an Attendant of the Shen Household, settling Su Fan’s desire to study its formation inheritance.
• Su Fan overheard that news of the clue had leaked from the Shen Household, then sensed a faint trace of Evil Qi on a passing Nascent Soul Cultivator.
• Su Fan secretly followed the suspected evil cultivator through the city and out to a nearby marketplace, where the man used a disguise technique to change his appearance and aura.

Su Fan tracked evil cultivators in Wulong Mountain City, killed Li Tong, and learned that their gatherings were organized by Meng Shufan. After waiting half a month, he received a meeting location and flew to Hongshan Market Town to infiltrate the gathering as Li Tong.

• Su Fan secretly watched several Nascent Soul evil cultivators enter and leave a concealed gathering site, then followed Li Tong to his hidden Cave Mansion.
• Su Fan ambushed Li Tong, crippled him, destroyed the demonic statue in his Cave Mansion, and killed him after extracting information.
• Su Fan learned that the gathering attendees were not known members of the Demon Person Mansion and that Meng Shufan organized their meetings every half-month.
• Su Fan told Shen Zhonghua he had found no clues about Shen Zhongying's murder and kept his lead on the evil cultivators secret.
• After half a month without contact, Su Fan received a message directing him to Hongshan Market Town and flew there disguised as Li Tong.

Su Fan attended an evil cultivator gathering disguised as Li Tong and used a piece of adult Void Beast hide to draw Kunshan True Monarch’s attention. After Kunshan took the hide in an unfair trade, Su Fan followed him and prepared an ambush, while Kunshan sensed that danger was near.

• Su Fan used Li Tong’s Formation Jade Talisman to find the gathering in a misty valley near Hongshan Market Town.
• Su Fan learned that Kunshan True Monarch belonged to the Demon Person Mansion and was feared even by the Xue Family of Wulong Mountain City.
• Su Fan offered adult Void Beast hide, and Kunshan traded a Taihao Sect Path of Talismans inheritance and a thousand Spirit Crystals for it.
• Su Fan left the gathering, concealed himself nearby, and tracked Kunshan using the aura he had placed on the hide.
• Kunshan declined Meng Shufan’s invitation and flew toward Wulong Mountain City, then sensed that someone had targeted him.

Su Fan ambushed and defeated Kunshan True Monarch, then questioned him and obtained the Shen family's Artifact Path Inheritance Jade Slip. Realizing Kunshan had triggered a signal before his death, Su Fan fled to Northern Dome Immortal City, while a Late Nascent Soul Great Cultivator arrived in Wulong Mountain City seeking the killer.

• Kunshan True Monarch was trapped by Su Fan's Invert Heaven and Earth Innate Forbidden Method, but summoned a fiend and a tiger-shaped Magic Beast to fight back.
• Su Fan used Xuxu to engage the tiger-shaped Magic Beast, transformed into a demonic body, and smashed the fiend before hurling it into Kunshan True Monarch.
• Su Fan kept Kunshan alive with healing pills, defeated the tiger-shaped Magic Beast, and used the Soul-Screaming God-Slaying Technique to question Kunshan and take his Storage Ring.
• Su Fan found the Shen family's Artifact Path Inheritance Jade Slip among Kunshan's spoils, then realized Kunshan's crushed jade talisman might have summoned help and fled to Northern Dome Immortal City.
• The day after Su Fan left, a Late Nascent Soul Great Cultivator arrived in Wulong Mountain City and vowed to exterminate the household of whoever had killed his brother.

After killing Kunshan True Monarch, Su Fan hid in his Portable Secret Realm while Kunhai True Monarch searched Wulong Mountain City for the murderer. Su Fan looted Kunshan’s possessions, took his Ghost Money, and destroyed his identity tokens, while Kunhai’s investigation pointed toward the missing evil cultivators who had helped kill Shen Zhongying.

• Kunhai True Monarch threatened Xue Zhen for an explanation of Kunshan’s death, but Xue Zhen denied the Xue Family’s involvement and promised information.
• Su Fan stayed hidden in his Portable Secret Realm and studied the Shen Family’s Formation Path inheritance while Sister Zhen organized Kunshan’s spoils.
• Su Fan selected three Dao Artifacts, subdued the Soul Devouring Life Slaying Demonic Blade, and used Kunshan’s identity to transfer more than twenty thousand Ghost Money to Wang Zheng.
• Su Fan destroyed Kunshan’s Demon Person Mansion tokens after reviewing his messages and inheritance Jade Slips.
• Kunhai True Monarch learned that Kunshan’s identity token had been destroyed and focused his suspicion on the evil cultivators who had vanished after joining Kunshan’s plot against Shen Zhongying.

After months of studying the Shen Family’s formation inheritance in his Portable Secret Realm, Su Fan discovered that a bounty for wicked cultivators had probably sent the people investigating Kunshan True Monarch in the wrong direction. He went to join the Shen Family as promised, but learned that its Attendants could not live inside the family fortress and asked to be stationed in a quiet, remote market town.

• Su Fan studied the Shen Family’s formation inheritance for months, then found a bounty on wicked cultivators from Wulong Mountain City and concluded that Kunshan True Monarch’s pursuers were focused on the wrong suspects.
• Su Fan contacted Shen Zhonghua about joining the Shen Family, and Shen Zhonghua directed him to meet Shen Fang at Haoshan Market Town.
• Su Fan learned that Shen Fang disliked formations and dreamed of becoming a sword cultivator, so he described the hardships sword cultivators faced.
• Shen Fang brought Su Fan to the Shen Family Fortress and explained that most Attendants could not enter it, though they could use the Library Pavilion and attend monthly lectures.
• Su Fan reviewed the Shen Family’s available postings and asked Shen Fang to find him an opening at a small, remote market town.

Su Fan took a ten-year attendant contract with Shen Family, studied its formation records, and settled into the remote West Mountain Market Town. After he demonstrated his skill controlling Shen Fang’s flying sword, Shen Fang eagerly tried to trade Shen Family’s formation inheritance for the technique, leaving Su Fan scrambling to find a way to refuse.

• Su Fan chose a ten-year contract and consulted formation classics and ancestral insights in Shen Family Fortress’s Library Pavilion.
• Shen Fang escorted Su Fan to West Mountain Market Town, where Su Fan completed the handover and moved into his quiet courtyard.
• Shen Fang complained of being bored and boasted about his strength, so Su Fan warned that he would not survive long at the Star Domain Battlefield.
• Shen Fang showed Su Fan his small flying sword, and Su Fan controlled it with such forceful killing intent that Shen Fang trembled and two attendants fainted.
• Shen Fang begged Su Fan to teach him the sword-control method, then offered Shen Family’s formation inheritance in exchange.
• Su Fan realized his claim that he could not pass on the method had made it difficult to refuse Shen Fang’s offer.

Su Fan taught Shen Fang the basics of sword cultivation and set him arduous practice, while Shen Fang traded the Shen Family’s formation inheritance materials for Su Fan’s guidance. After several days, Shen Fang returned with a Jade Slip and showed off his progress, but Su Fan judged him nowhere near ready to roam the martial world.

• Su Fan agreed to exchange pointers with Shen Fang and taught him sword-nurturing basics and fundamental sword techniques.
• Su Fan told Shen Fang to practice each movement ten thousand times a day, and Shen Fang vowed to persevere.
• Su Fan spent the following days studying formation classics while Shen Fang practiced swordsmanship.
• Shen Fang returned to Su Fan with a basic formation Jade Slip from the Shen Family and showed him the results of his training.
• Su Fan praised Shen Fang’s progress but told him he would need another year of practice before he was ready to venture out.

Su Fan trained Shen Fang by stripping away his supplies and forcing him to walk through monster-infested mountains with only a sword. After nearly a month of surviving deadly fights and wilderness hardships, Shen Fang reached the mountains’ edge, only to face two fourth-rank Mystic Bone Black-Striped Tigers.

• Su Fan studied the Shen family's foundational Formation Dao knowledge while Shen Fang continued his sword training.
• When Shen Fang bragged about his flying sword skills and asked when he could make his debut, Su Fan took him deep into the mountains and ordered him to surrender his supplies and walk out with only his sword.
• Shen Fang fought off a fourth-rank demonic beast and spent the next several weeks battling monsters, gathering food, and surviving alone as he made his way toward the mountains’ edge.
• Just as Shen Fang neared escape, a Mystic Bone Black-Striped Tiger ambushed him, and a second tiger emerged from the forest.

Shen Fang survived a battle with two Mystic Bone Black-Striped Tigers only because Su Fan intervened, then recovered while reflecting on his family and his future as a sword cultivator. The chapter ended with the hungry, injured Shen Fang asking Su Fan for some of the meat he was roasting.

• Shen Fang fought two Mystic Bone Black-Striped Tigers with his flying sword but was exhausted and knocked down by one of them.
• Su Fan appeared, saved Shen Fang, and let the pregnant female tiger escape before giving Shen Fang pills for his injuries.
• After Shen Fang woke in Su Fan's Cave Mansion, he read his family's worried messages and replied without telling them what had happened.
• Shen Fang reflected on his family's care, his own immaturity, and whether he should continue pursuing the sword path.
• Shen Fang smelled Su Fan roasting meat and asked him to bring over a skewer.

After Shen Fang recovered and returned to the Shen Family, Su Fan continued studying formations until Shen Fang’s elder sister, Shen Jing, visited to ask about his disappearance and sudden interest in sword cultivation. She left after clashing with Su Fan and warning him to avoid the Shen family’s main Household.

• Su Fan and the injured Shen Fang shared barbecue and Spirit Wine, and Su Fan told him to decide for himself whether to pursue sword cultivation after returning home.
• Shen Fang healed and went back to Shen Family Fortress while Su Fan continued studying the Shen family’s formation inheritance at West Mountain Market Town.
• More than two months later, Shen Jing visited Su Fan and asked where Shen Fang had gone and why he had changed.
• Su Fan explained that Shen Fang had chosen to pursue the sword after hearing about sword cultivators, but Shen Jing blamed him for influencing her brother.
• Shen Jing warned Su Fan to avoid the Shen family’s main Household and left after Su Fan told her he could not help with Shen Fang’s choices.

Su Fan accepted Shen Fang's gift of the Shen Family's secret formation inheritance, then urged him to pursue sword cultivation without relying on him. Su Fan failed to find an affordable sword inheritance through the Demon Person Mansion and chose not to risk his compulsory mission; over the following year, Shen Fang trained diligently and survived another journey through the mountains.

• Su Fan decided he should keep his distance from Shen Fang, but Shen Fang arrived and gave him a Jade Slip containing the Shen Family's secret formation inheritance.
• Su Fan studied the inheritance and promised to owe Shen Fang a favor, while Shen Fang said he had decided to stop wasting his life and become a sword cultivator.
• Su Fan told Shen Fang they should meet less often, advised him to keep practicing and seek a sword inheritance, and warned him to prepare carefully before entering the mountains again.
• Su Fan searched the Demon Person Mansion trading platform for a sword inheritance but found the prices prohibitive, then abandoned his compulsory mission rather than risk assassinating a Sword Sect cultivator.
• Over the next year, Su Fan studied formations while Shen Fang trained relentlessly, stayed away from West Mountain Market Town, and survived another trip through the mountains.

Su Fan inspected the growing land of extreme yin in his Secret Realm and promised the Yaksha help reaching the Ghost Emperor realm before traveling to Shen Family Fortress for a formations lecture. He discovered that Shen Jing, the formidable elder sister of Shen Fang, was the lecturer and realized how much her knowledge surpassed his own.

• Su Fan visited his Secret Realm, where the Yaksha showed him the land of extreme yin and its growing collection of ghost forces and Bone Venerable Kings.
• Su Fan told the Yaksha he would help it attempt a breakthrough to the Ghost Emperor realm in a few years, then left it to guard the Secret Realm.
• Su Fan traveled to Shen Family Fortress, exchanged for formation classics, and joined the monthly lecture among the Shen Family Attendants.
• Shen Jing arrived to lecture, and Su Fan learned from the other Attendants that she was an elite disciple of the Northern Dome Immortal Sect and a formation prodigy.
• Shen Jing lectured for an hour, and Su Fan recognized that his formation knowledge fell far short of hers.

Su Fan investigated an evil cultivator in Northern Dome Immortal City, then returned to West Mountain Market Town and struggled to create his first formation. After finally completing the Three Talents Concealment Formation, he also made progress on two other basic formations.

• Shen Jing resented Su Fan's indifference, while Su Fan left Shen Family Fortress and traveled to Northern Dome Immortal City to buy formation materials.
• Su Fan tracked an evil cultivator from Northern Dome Immortal City to a settlement outside the city, captured and questioned him, then learned that a group of evil cultivators was preparing an unspecified operation.
• Back at West Mountain Market Town, Su Fan repeatedly failed to make the Three Talents Concealment Formation and wondered whether he lacked formation talent.
• Shen Fang contacted Su Fan to ask about a sword-path inheritance and invited him to Black Pine Valley, but Su Fan dismissed him.
• Su Fan successfully completed the Three Talents Concealment Formation and, over the following days, created the Four Symbols Black Tortoise Formation and the Five Elements Spirit Gathering Formation.

Su Fan investigated a gathering of Northern Dome Immortal City’s evil cultivators while disguised as Xiao Ming, then bought a large haul of stolen treasures. After learning that one of the cultivators he had offended, Ghost Hand Wei Cang, belonged to the Demon Person Mansion, Su Fan saw a chance to obtain a new identity for Wang Zheng’s mission.

• Su Fan sold his crafted formations, bought more materials, and used a jade talisman to disguise himself as the evil cultivator Xiao Ming.
• At the gathering, Su Fan learned that some evil cultivators were planning a major operation that could force them to leave Northern Dome Immortal City.
• Su Fan watched the gathering’s stolen-goods trade and spent lavishly to buy several treasures, including three ultimate-grade protective Dao artifacts.
• Old Li warned Su Fan that he had angered Ghost Hand Wei Cang, a vicious Nascent Soul cultivator rumored to belong to the Demon Person Mansion.
• Su Fan left the Cave Mansion under watch, pretending to flee in panic while planning to use Wei Cang as a new identity for Wang Zheng’s mission.

Su Fan lured Ghost Hand Wei Cang into attacking him, then overcame the Ghost Domain Cultivator and his Netherworld Demonic Beast. After interrogating Wei Cang’s remnant soul, Su Fan found valuable sect inheritances among his spoils, including a formation inheritance he needed.

• Su Fan drew Ghost Hand Wei Cang into the mountains, where Wei Cang trapped him in a ghost domain and tried to make him a Ghost Slave.
• Su Fan used Yang Extreme Earth Fiend to dispel the ghosts, then closed in and battered Wei Cang with lightning-wrapped punches.
• Wei Cang released a juvenile Netherworld Demonic Beast, but Su Fan cut it down with his magic sword and captured Wei Cang’s remnant soul.
• Su Fan interrogated Wei Cang’s remnant soul and learned that he belonged to Demon Person Mansion and was behind many headless blood cases in Northern Dome Immortal City.
• Su Fan searched Wei Cang’s Storage Ring and found three valuable inheritance Jade Slips, including the Northern Dome Immortal Sect’s Path of Formations, Heaven Profound Dao Palace arts, and Pure Micro Talisman Sect talismans.

Su Fan used Ghost Hand Wei Cang’s identity and more than fifty thousand Ghost Money to seek out cultivation inheritances through the Demon Person Mansion trading platform. After buying body cultivation and formation inheritances in Northern Dome Immortal City, he grew suspicious that the unusually brazen seller was not an evil cultivator.

• Su Fan took Ghost Hand Wei Cang’s alias, combined Wei Cang’s Ghost Money with Wang Zheng’s, and asked Shen Fang to look for body cultivation, talisman, and formation inheritances.
• Su Fan posted a bounty for a body cultivation inheritance and negotiated a deal that also included the He Family’s Path of Formations inheritance.
• Su Fan traveled to Northern Dome Immortal City under a new identity and received the two Jade Slips through a teahouse waiter after paying twenty thousand Ghost Money.
• Su Fan negotiated the price of a Northern Dome Immortal Sect formation inheritance down to thirty thousand Ghost Money and received the Jade Slip from another teahouse waiter.
• Su Fan noticed that the seller’s smooth, conspicuous deliveries seemed unlike an evil cultivator’s methods and suspected the seller had considerable influence in Northern Dome Immortal City.

Su Fan traded fragments of information about the Demon Ruins for Ghost Money, unknowingly drawing the attention of Northern Dome Immortal Sect and learning that he might be in danger. Bound by his contract to the Shen Family, he returned to West Mountain Market Town and prepared for trouble while the sect investigated the secret.

• Su Fan carefully concealed his identity after trading Jade Slips, then exchanged messages with his contact and revealed the terms “Demon Ruins,” “Sealing Suppression,” “White Bone Plain,” and “West Mang Mountain” for fifty thousand Ghost Money.
• Zhang Xuan, a Northern Dome Immortal Sect spy on Demon Person Mansion’s platform, recognized the significance of the information and brought it to his master, who ordered him to come outside.
• Su Fan left Northern Dome Immortal City for West Mountain Market Town and regretted that his ten-year Shen Family contract prevented him from freely fleeing the region.
• Su Fan stayed in his Cave Mansion for more than a dozen days, studying Dao Arts and preparing defensive treasures, talismans, formations, puppets, and undead forces in case the crisis reached West Mountain Market Town.