Chapter Summaries

Chen Luo helped the students of Floating Clouds Academy hold back a jailbreak from a sealed Collapsing Realm and discovered that their missing Head was trapped inside. The Head emerged as the Human-Puppet, reclaimed his arm, and confronted the Heart-Snatching Child.

• Chen Luo rode Xia Qingchuan’s Yellow Crane Flying Chapter into the students’ formation and used a black chess piece to briefly halt the Collapsing Realm’s expanding crack.
• When a magical palm reached through the crack, Chen Luo used Fisherman's Painting to hook and tear off an arm marked with Floating Clouds Academy’s Great Dao mark.
• A one-armed figure emerged from the Collapsing Realm, and the students recognized his voice as their Head’s, though his face was not the Head’s.
• The floating clouds in Chen Luo’s divine soul formed the Human-Puppet, which reclaimed the severed arm and shattered the figure’s attack with a punch.
• The Human-Puppet addressed the figure as Heart-Snatching Child and asked whether he found the old man’s equipment convenient to use.

Chen Luo learned that the Heart-Snatching Child was a reincarnating monster sealed beneath Floating Clouds Academy, while Head Lu Guren restored his body through the academy’s power and confronted it. Lu Guren held off the creature as Chen Luo prepared for something that would take no more than two quarters, and the battle continued with both sides trading powerful attacks.

• Xia Qingchuan told Chen Luo the Heart-Snatching Child’s history of reincarnating and stealing people’s hearts, and the creature revealed that Lu Youzi had helped it break the seal.
• The Heart-Snatching Child threatened to slaughter Floating Cloud City, but Lu Guren used clouds, the students’ shared heartbeat, and the academy’s learning to restore his limbs and senses.
• Lu Guren asked Chen Luo how long he needed, and Chen Luo said it would take at most two quarters while Lu Guren promised to hold the creature off.
• The Heart-Snatching Child sent stolen minds against Lu Guren, who cut them apart with Cloudfall.
• The Heart-Snatching Child attacked with black blood, and Lu Guren destroyed it with azure Righteous Qi thunder, sacrificing his newly formed left hand and challenging the creature to see who had more blood or hands.

Lu Guren used his sealed vitality to defeat Heart-Snatching Child and protect the Floating Clouds World Collapse, then faded away. As Heart-Snatching Child attacked Chen Luo, Chen Luo summoned a sword that pierced his heart and pinned him to the ground.

• Heart-Snatching Child trapped Lu Guren in a web of black threads, but Lu Guren burned his remnant body and broke free.
• Lu Guren unleashed three cloud techniques that scattered Heart-Snatching Child and subdued the World Collapse, then returned to the students and began to dissipate.
• Chen Luo explained that Lu Guren was only a sealed final breath of life, and Lu Guren comforted the grieving students before vanishing.
• Heart-Snatching Child emerged from the thinning clouds and lunged at Chen Luo, ignoring the Floating Clouds students charging at him.
• Chen Luo shouted, "Sword Come," and a sword formed from a green lotus pierced Heart-Snatching Child's heart, pinning him to the ground.

Chen Luo outmaneuvered Heart-Snatching Child, but the enemy’s final attack carried a mysterious power into the Dream Flower Forest. Chen Luo survived, learned the power was connected to the Phoenix Land’s destruction, and watched Heart-Snatching Child die as Lang Feixian arrived.

• Chen Luo used the chess piece and his timing calculations to help Yun Siyao and Lang Feixian return from the Collapsing Realm, and Green Lotus Sword Qi pinned Heart-Snatching Child.
• Heart-Snatching Child unleashed a final strike of Divine Sense that entered Chen Luo’s Sea of Divine Soul, leaving him motionless.
• Inside the Dream Flower Forest, a fire phoenix and a green vine destroyed the black shadow, which the Spirit of the Secret Realm identified as a Power from Beyond the Heavens and revealed it had produced three heart fruits.
• Lang Feixian restored Chen Luo with righteous qi, and Chen Luo returned to consciousness.
• Chen Luo taunted Heart-Snatching Child with his secret, and Heart-Snatching Child died in disbelief.

Chen Luo helped preserve Lu Guren’s remains and exposed the survivors’ victory over Lu Youzi, then negotiated compensation from Wenchang Pavilion for the treasures he claimed to have lost. In Dongcang, Yu Jia weighed leaving to pursue Chen Luo against staying for another performance.

• A Floating Clouds student carved Lu Guren’s remains into a four-faced wooden statue, and Lu Guren’s final wisp of spirit cursed the faces before dispersing.
• Yun Siyao and the Great Scholars returned victorious with Lu Youzi’s head, and Chen Luo explained the battle while leaving out the strike against his soul.
• Wenchang Pavilion awarded Chen Luo two inferior Great Scholar Literary Treasures and agreed to compensate him for additional treasures he said had been destroyed.
• Yu Jia decided Chen Luo threatened the barbarians and considered pursuing him south, but hesitated after receiving an advertisement for Romance of the West Chamber.

After leaving Floating Cloud City, Chen Luo traveled toward Qingning City with Yun Siyao, Lang Feixian, and their companions while deciding how to use his Primordial Chaos Qi. At Qingning’s gates, he learned about the Spring Examination’s traditions and the Cui Clan’s Entrance Question, which challenged arriving scholars to complete a poem.

• Chen Luo left Floating Cloud City with seven Confucian treasures and traveled toward Qingning City, still debating whether to draw a new book or continue Legend of the Eight Immortals.
• Chen Luo flirted with Yun Siyao in the carriage, prompting Lang Feixian to leave with Jin Guagua.
• Chen Luo and his companions entered Qingning City under assumed names, where Shi Lezhi explained that scholars walked the Ten Thousand Mile Road to prepare for the Spring Examination and earn Family Emblems.
• Shi Lezhi revealed that he had earned five Family Emblems and accompanied Chen Luo toward the city gates.
• Chen Luo learned that the Cui Clan had set an Entrance Question, a poetry challenge beginning with the line, “Year after year, the flowers remain alike; year after year, the people are not the same!”

Shi Lezhi explained the poetry challenge to Chen Luo and broke the first of three linked Entrance Questions, unaware that Chen Luo was Marquis Wu, whom he had just criticized. Yun Siyao urged Chen Luo to try the questions, and he challenged all three at once, startling the crowd and the Wenchang Pavilion official.

• Shi Lezhi explained how poets could connect artistic conceptions and invited Chen Luo to watch him break an Entrance Question.
• Shi Lezhi gave Jin Guagua a Blood Rush Pill, and Jin Guagua offered him a Condensed Origin Pill that Shi Lezhi mistook for a toy and fed to his Green Wood Toad.
• Shi Lezhi criticized Marquis Wu Chen Luo's poetry as contrived, while Lang Feixian and Chen Luo recognized that he was unknowingly speaking about Chen Luo.
• At the city gate, Shi Lezhi chose the first of three poetry questions and wrote a poem that the judges deemed barely acceptable, allowing him to enter the city.
• Yun Siyao urged Chen Luo to try a question, and Chen Luo announced that he would attempt all three connected questions, shocking the crowd and the Wenchang Pavilion official.

Chen Luo answered the first Entrance Question with a sorrowful lyric that moved the crowd and earned the Great Scholars’ acclaim. He agreed to continue, and the second question appeared on the city wall.

• Shi Lezhi warned Chen Luo not to boast, while the Wenchang Pavilion official allowed him to attempt all three questions.
• The three Great Scholars sensed that Chen Luo’s carriage party was extraordinary and discussed ways to write about time and change.
• Chen Luo wrote a lyric about parting and regret, spreading a hundred miles of poetic sentiment and leaving the gathered scholars deeply moved.
• The Great Scholars praised Chen Luo’s lyric as more than a successful answer, and he told Shi Lezhi that he had succeeded.
• Chen Luo agreed to solve the second question, which asked about the tangled sorrow of parting.

Chen Luo broke the second poetic question with a sorrowful Ci that manifested Poem Flowers, earning the scholars’ admiration and revealing his talent to Shi Lezhi. He then answered the third question with a poem that summoned an illusory lake, boat, and Milky Way, manifesting poetry and painting as the chapter ended.

• Chen Luo listened as the Great Scholars explained that the second question demanded the sorrowful Charm of parting from one’s former self.
• Chen Luo wrote a sorrowful Ci that bloomed into Poem Flowers, and the scholars clamored for copies and flowers.
• Shi Lezhi realized Chen Luo had outmatched him, apologized to the carriage, and learned that Chen Luo was Lang Feixian’s Younger Junior Brother.
• The Great Scholars praised Chen Luo’s Ci, and Ge Huaiying pretended to cry so his evaluation would be remembered.
• Chen Luo accepted wine from Lang Feixian, wrote the answer to the third question with his sword, and summoned a vision of Dongting Lake, a boat, and the Milky Way.

Liu Dongchen completed Qingning City's three poetic topics with a poem that stunned the gathered scholars, while Green Wood Toad's breakthrough revealed the identity and power of the person inside Liu Dongchen's carriage. The Great Scholars praised the poem, and Qingning City and the Cui Clan formally invited Liu Dongchen to enter.

• Great Scholar Ge Huaiying collected Liu Dongchen's poem into a Poetic Sentiment and Artistic Conception painting and sent the scroll to him.
• Green Wood Toad advanced to the Fourth Rank after discovering ancestral bloodline aura in a pill from Jin Guagua, then knelt before the carriage to honor the Noble Child of the Ancestral Bloodline.
• Shi Lezhi realized that Liu Dongchen was the person he suspected and regretted his earlier remarks after hearing Jin Guagua explain the pill's origin.
• Liu Dongchen thanked the Great Scholars and asked them to judge his poem, while the scholars pretended not to recognize him and sought to get closer to him.
• Great Scholars Li and Lu praised the poem, and Ge Huaiying bowed to Liu Dongchen and declared that he would no longer judge poetry.
• The Wenchang Pavilion Great Scholar announced that Liu Dongchen had broken all three topics, and Qingning City and the Cui Clan welcomed him.

Chen Luo visited the Cui Clan under the name Liu to investigate its connection to the Hungry Ghost Path. Yun Siyao revealed the Cui Clan’s Sacred Might on a jade slip, prompting the clan elders to assemble a key and open the Family Law Prison.

• Chen Luo arrived at the Cui residence after solving its three Entrance Questions, and Cui Youdu welcomed him with formal courtesy.
• Lang Feixian and Yun Siyao told Chen Luo about Cui Shanque and his son Cui Youqi, while Yun Siyao explained why the Hungry Ghost Path matter needed to be discussed privately.
• Chen Luo examined the Cui Clan genealogy for clues, and Yun Siyao secretly imprinted the Cui Clan’s Sacred Might onto the jade slip.
• Cui Youdu recognized the Sacred Might and brought the jade slip to the other Cui Great Scholars, who agreed to let their eldest uncle decide what to do.
• The Cui Great Scholars assembled their metal fragments into a key, and Cui Youdu ordered them to open the Family Law Prison.

Cui Youdu sought the help of his imprisoned uncle, Cui Shanque, after learning that the Marquis of Wu might have fought a Six Paths Master. At Cui Residence, a woman with Fang Family Great Scholar cultivation charged at Chen Luo, prompting Cui Youdu to offer an explanation by taking him and Yun Siyao to meet Cui Shanque.

• Cui Youdu entered the Stone Pagoda in Cui Garden and told Cui Shanque about Chen Luo and the possible connection to a Six Paths Master.
• Cui Shanque agreed to meet Chen Luo, while Chen Luo examined Cui Shanque’s calligraphy at the Cui Residence with Cui Fuling.
• A woman suddenly charged at Chen Luo, and Yun Siyao subdued her after Cui Fuling identified her as his Sixth Aunt.
• Yun Siyao recognized the unconscious woman’s cultivation as belonging to the Fang Family, and Chen Luo demanded an explanation from the Cui Family.
• Cui Youdu arrived, apologized, and invited Chen Luo and Yun Siyao to the Saint Imprisonment Tower to meet Cui Shanque.

Chen Luo and Yun Siyao visited Cui Shanque, who explained that the Hungry Ghost Path had marked Chen Luo with a Reincarnation Thread after he gave it food. The thread revealed that Cui Xiuhui’s mistaken attack stemmed from her past, and Cui Shanque ended by revealing that Cui Youqi was dead and the Humanity Path had taken his place.

• Yun Siyao took Chen Luo’s hand as they followed Cui Youdu into the Cui Family ancestral residence, and Chen Luo held on as they climbed the Stone Pagoda to meet Cui Shanque.
• Cui Shanque examined Chen Luo and explained that giving food to the Hungry Ghost Path had formed a karmic link, but Chen Luo rejected the idea that kindness made him responsible for its evil intentions.
• Cui Shanque pulled a Reincarnation Thread from Chen Luo and explained that it had made Fang Xiuhui mistake him for Cui Youqi; a red lotus flame then burned the thread away.
• Cui Youdu explained that Fang Xiuhui had been captured by savages, abandoned by her father, and rescued by Cui Youqi, who brought her back to the Cui Family and married her.
• Cui Shanque revealed that Cui Youqi was dead and that the foremost of the Six Paths Masters, the Humanity Path, now lived in his place.

Cui Shanque explained Buddhist cultivation and revealed how the Six Paths Master had been created from six First-Rank Bodhisattvas. He then disclosed that the Cui family had secretly studied the Humanity Path Sarira for millennia, awakening the Six Paths Great Bodhisattva’s hidden True Meaning of Reincarnation.

• Cui Shanque described Buddhism’s Vajra, Arhat, and Bodhisattva realms, including how Bodhisattvas used Pure Lands and reincarnation to build their power.
• Cui Shanque explained that the Six Paths Great Bodhisattva had erased six disciples’ consciousnesses and forged their Pure Lands and bodies into the Six Paths Master.
• Cui Shanque revealed that the Cui family could no longer produce Half-Saints because its inherited doctrines had fallen behind changing principles.
• Cui Shanque said the Sixth Ancestor had studied the Six Paths Master during the Confucian-Buddhist War and secretly preserved the Humanity Path Sarira.
• Cui Shanque admitted that he had awakened the True Meaning of Reincarnation hidden in the Humanity Path Sarira.

Cui Shanque explained how the Humanity Path Sarira awakened the Six Paths and how Cui Youqi sacrificed himself to save his father. As Chen Luo and Yun Siyao learned the Six Paths' motives and strength, Cui Shanque turned himself into a puppet to protect Chen Luo and help him confront the threat.

• Cui Shanque revealed that he swallowed the Humanity Path Sarira while escaping with his children, awakening the Six Paths, and then fought it for thirty years in the Saint Imprisonment Tower.
• Cui Youqi drew the Sarira into his own body to save Cui Shanque, becoming the Humanity Path and allowing the Six Paths to escape.
• Cui Shanque explained that the Six Paths sought to seize Chen Luo's Great Dao and principles of the mortal world, and described the strength and puppets of its remaining Paths.
• Cui Youdu and Cui Shanque proposed using Chen Luo as bait, with Cui Shanque's puppet serving as protection and help against the Six Paths.
• Cui Shanque extinguished his life in azure flames, and his young, vacant form entered Chen Luo's shadow as the second Human Path.

Chen Luo reflected on Cui Shanque’s death and received the Human Path puppet and a chance to exchange for some of the Cui family’s treasures. Elsewhere, Xiao Shi befriended the newly arrived Li Bajiu, who fled into the forest and was saved from wolves by his Buddhist power.

• Chen Luo considered the Six Paths Reincarnation and wondered whether the Ancient Buddhist Sect had preserved knowledge of it.
• Cui Fuling gave Chen Luo Cui Shanque’s possessions; Chen Luo returned the Great Scholar’s Literary Treasures and offered to exchange for flawed ones in return for Primordial Chaos Qi.
• Cui Fuling bowed to the Human Path puppet, and Chen Luo let him see it.
• In a secluded mountain village, Xiao Shi met Li Bajiu and tried to comfort her while the villagers teased him about her being his wife.
• A white-robed young man told an old man that Kasyapa and Ananda had entered Nirvana and that the Buddha’s seed had begun to grow.
• Li Bajiu got lost in the forest and was attacked by wolves, but Xiao Shi arrived and destroyed them with three Vajra Pestles while chanting “Om Mani Padme Hum!”

Xie Sansheng refused to empower Xiao Shi’s vow to stay with Li Bajiu until he turned eighteen, then learned of a vision of Mount Sumeru. Meanwhile, Chen Luo discovered that a Fang Family disciple was challenging the Cui Family for Sage Realm entry quotas and went to watch, recognizing the contest as the Fang Family’s attempt to restore its prestige.

• Xiao Shi told Xie Sansheng he wanted to vow never to leave Li Bajiu, but Xie Sansheng postponed the empowerment until Xiao Shi turned eighteen.
• The village chief reported that his meditation had shown a treasure mountain and Buddha’s light, possibly Mount Sumeru, and urged Xie Sansheng to search for it.
• Chen Luo learned that a Sage Realm contest was underway because the Cui Family was defending its flexible entry quotas from a challenger.
• The steward explained that Yang Wei had defeated the Qu and Zou families’ teachers and that his Heavenly Principle Card identified him as a Fang Family disciple.
• Yun Siyao told Chen Luo that the Fang Family was trying to restore its prestige after past defeats, and Chen Luo headed to the contest to oppose them.

Chen Luo arrived at the Cui Family’s Sacred Realm battle and condemned the Fang Family’s attempt to use a Sacred Heart Jade to pressure the Cui Family into handing over Cui Youqi’s widow for verification. The crowd sided with Chen Luo, and the chapter ended with Cui Youliang addressing him as Martial Uncle.

• Chen Luo and Yun Siyao reached the battle, where Cui Fuling told Chen Luo the Cui Family had lost the first match.
• A Fang Family disciple proposed that the Cui Family hand over Cui Youqi’s widow if the Fang Family won, offering a Sacred Heart Jade as the stake.
• Chen Luo denounced the Fang Family for treating family affection and the widow as bargaining chips, then questioned the principles behind their Sacred Heart Jade.
• Shi Lezhi praised Chen Luo, and the watching scholars whispered against the Fang Family’s proposal.
• The Fang Family disciple demanded an explanation from Cui Youliang, who bowed to Chen Luo and greeted him as Martial Uncle.

Chen Luo represented the Cui Family in a duel against Fang Shenxiu, wagering Daoist Bean Marshals against the Saint-realm slots Fang Shenxiu had taken from the Qu and Zou Families. Chen Luo unleashed his Seven Injuries Fist and sent Fang Shenxiu flying, ending the chapter with his first punch as a six-thousand-li Martial Dao master.

• Cui Youdu and the Cui clan publicly acknowledged Chen Luo as their Martial Uncle, and Great Scholar Lu confirmed that he could fight for the family.
• Fang Shenxiu challenged Chen Luo, while Lang Feixian restrained the Fang Family's hidden protector with Sword Qi.
• Chen Luo wagered one of three Daoist Bean Marshals against Fang Shenxiu's return of the Saint-realm slots taken from the Qu and Zou Families.
• Fang Shenxiu used his Confucian Magic, declaring himself supreme and charging Chen Luo with the force of heavenly law.
• Chen Luo's Seven Injuries True Intent afflicted the onlookers, and Yun Siyao sealed off the arena with a barrier.
• Chen Luo countered Fang Shenxiu's Exterminate Desire punch with his Six Thousand Li Martial Dao's Misty Moon First Fist, breaking Fang Shenxiu's bones and sending him flying.

Chen Luo fought Fang Shenxiu, who mistook him for a demon and attacked him with the Fang Family’s Judgment of Heavenly Reason. Chen Luo swallowed Fang Shenxiu’s three Heavenly Principle Seals with his Yin Yang Boundary, leaving Fang Shenxiu reeling as his Seven Injuries backlash worsened.

• Chen Luo’s Seven Injuries True Intent continued to ravage Fang Shenxiu after their first exchange.
• Fang Shenxiu mistook Chen Luo for a demon and accused the Cui Family of associating with the Demon Race, while Chen Luo claimed to be Liu Ni, also known as Liu Dongchen.
• Fang Shenxiu dismissed Chen Luo’s claim to be human and attacked him with the Fang Family’s Judgment of Heavenly Reason.
• Chen Luo let Fang Shenxiu’s seals enter his divine soul, where his Corpse Dog delayed them until he opened the Yin Yang Boundary and swallowed all three seals.
• Chen Luo mocked Fang Shenxiu’s feigned benevolence and righteousness, and Fang Shenxiu lost control of his seals, loosened his suppression of Seven Injuries True Intent, and vomited blood.