Chapter Summaries

Gu Daozhi announced the rules for the Quasi-Holy Son selection, sending the martial artists through a dangerous forest toward the divine peak. As Lin Bai raced through the forest, an assassin sent by Li Jiuge ambushed him with silent arrows.

• Gu Daozhi explained that martial artists had one month to reach the divine peak and pass one of eight Quasi-Holy Sons guarding its paths.
• The eight Quasi-Holy Sons left first, and Lin Bai and the other martial artists departed half an hour later.
• Lin Bai sped through a forest where a formation made the divine peak seem farther away than it was.
• Lin Bai sensed killing intent and dodged a silent arrow that vanished after striking a tree.
• An unknown attacker revealed that Li Jiuge had ordered him to kill Lin Bai, then fired strange arrows at him from four directions.

Lin Bai fought off Tan Ying’s spiritual-power arrows during the journey to the divine peak, while Tan Ying escaped and regrouped with Ji Yun and the other Southern Courtyard candidates. Lin Bai then encountered Lan Yunbai surrounded and badly wounded by Eastern Courtyard martial artists.

• Tan Ying attacked Lin Bai with invisible black arrows, but Lin Bai found him with his flying swords and forced him to flee after striking him with sword intent.
• Tan Ying reunited with Ji Yun and the other nine candidates, and Ji Yun led them onward to find Lin Bai.
• Lin Bai saw the corpse of a Northern Courtyard participant and continued toward the divine peak as martial artists began attacking one another.
• Lin Bai heard Lan Yunbai use Heavenly Seal Half Breath and found him grievously wounded by a group of Eastern Courtyard martial artists led by Gu Lingqi.
• Lan Yunbai challenged Gu Lingqi to fight him one-on-one.

Gu Lingqi and a group of Eastern Courtyard Gu Family martial artists tried to cripple Lan Yunbai, but Lin Bai arrived and rescued him. Gu Lingqi failed to recruit Lin Bai and ordered his followers to attack them both, promising to join the fight.

• Gu Lingqi revealed that the Eastern Courtyard Gu Family planned to cripple Lan Clan disciples and that Gu Jianfeng was among their experts.
• Gu Lingqi ordered more than a dozen Life Extinction Rankings experts to cripple Lan Yunbai, who prepared to fight rather than lose his cultivation.
• Lin Bai struck down the attackers and rescued Lan Yunbai, then challenged Gu Lingqi for bullying him with a group.
• Gu Lingqi offered Lin Bai a place in the Gu Family, but Lin Bai refused and said he would protect Lan Yunbai as Lan Yuxin's fiancé.
• Gu Lingqi ordered his followers to kill Lin Bai and Lan Yunbai, saying he would fight alongside them.

Lin Bai fought Gu Lingqi and the Eastern Courtyard martial artists, killing the group before Gu Lingqi revealed his hidden strength and unleashed the Gu Family's ultimate art. Lin Bai broke free of the attack and struck Gu Lingqi in the back with Overturning the River.

• Gu Lingqi ordered a dozen Eastern Courtyard martial artists to attack Lin Bai, who fought them with the Reaching Heaven Sword Art and Seeking the Dragon.
• Lin Bai used the Wishful Ring to move among his opponents and killed the martial artists one by one.
• Gu Lingqi punched Lin Bai back, then admitted he had hidden his strength while pretending to be a wastrel.
• Gu Lingqi used Demonic Hand World-Devastating Kill to trap Lin Bai in an enormous black palm.
• Lin Bai broke the black palm with the Taiji Two Forms Sword Formation, then struck the fleeing Gu Lingqi in the back with Overturning the River.

Lin Bai severely wounded Gu Lingqi, who escaped with a jade talisman, then learned that the Gu Family of the Eastern Courtyard was targeting the Lan Clan's disciples in the Celestial Abode Realm. Lin Bai took the injured Lan Yunbai toward the Divine Peak, while Gu Jianfeng arrived to meet Gu Lingqi.

• Lin Bai struck Gu Lingqi with Dragon Slayer Swordplay and forced him to flee using a jade talisman.
• Lin Bai collected the Storage Bags of the defeated experts and found Lan Yunbai gravely injured.
• Lan Yunbai told Lin Bai that the Gu Family of the Eastern Courtyard had long feuded with the Lan Clan and that Gu Jianfeng had entered the selection to target Lan Clan disciples.
• Lan Yunbai explained that Lan Yuxin had killed every Gu Family martial artist who entered the Celestial Abode Realm the previous year.
• Lin Bai escorted Lan Yunbai toward the Divine Peak, where Lan Yuxin could protect him.
• Gu Jianfeng approached the recovering Gu Lingqi, who told him that Lin Bai was an opponent.

Gu Lingqi recovered while Gu Jianfeng destroyed the sword energy Lin Bai had left in him and set off to pursue Lan Yunbai. Lin Bai and Lan Yunbai reached the Divine Peak, where Lin Bai watched the Ascension Token arena bouts until Qin Tang challenged him publicly.

• Gu Jianfeng criticized Gu Lingqi for wasting years pretending to hide his talent, then removed Lin Bai's sword energy from Gu Lingqi's body.
• Gu Lingqi warned Gu Jianfeng about the powerful sword cultivator accompanying Lan Yunbai, but Gu Jianfeng left confident he had no rival in the Life Extinction Realm except Fang Yiyun.
• Lin Bai and Lan Yunbai reached the Divine Peak, and Lan Yunbai explained that groups of eight fought for Ascension Tokens before challenging the Quasi-Holy Son.
• Lin Bai watched a Western Courtyard martial artist win an Ascension Token and climb the Divine Peak, while Ji Yun and the Southern Courtyard martial artists noticed Lin Bai's arrival.
• Qin Tang, ranked first on the Life Extinction Rankings, called Lin Bai out to spar, and Lin Bai neither accepted nor refused.

Lin Bai accepted Gu Jianfeng’s challenge after Gu Jianfeng returned the gravely wounded Lan Qingshui to Lan Yunbai and insulted Lin Bai. The two took their places on the martial platform as the crowd watched in alarm.

• Qin Tang invited Lin Bai to spar, and Lin Bai agreed that they might fight when an opportunity arose.
• Ji Yun said he wanted to spar with Qin Tang and readied his sword.
• Gu Jianfeng and Gu Lingqi arrived carrying the badly wounded Lan Qingshui, whose cultivation had been crippled.
• Lan Yunbai gave Lan Qingshui pills, and the unconscious man warned him to flee from Gu Jianfeng.
• Gu Jianfeng challenged Lin Bai and called him a dog of the Lan Clan, while Lin Bai taunted him in return.
• Gu Jianfeng took the vacant martial platform, and Lin Bai joined him to begin their fight.

Lin Bai, Gu Jianfeng, Qin Tang, and several other sword cultivators gathered on the fighting platform, but the required eight fighters had not yet assembled. Qin Tang called for three martial artists to join merely to activate the platform’s formation.

• Gu Jianfeng and Lin Bai waited on the platform until Qin Tang joined them, drawing excited attention from the crowd and the Quasi-Holy Sons.
• Gu Jianfeng said he would deal with Lin Bai and then Qin Tang, while Qin Tang welcomed the chance to spar with both sword cultivators.
• Ji Yun of the Southern Courtyard stepped onto the platform, greeted the group, and told Lin Bai that Li Jiuge had sent his regards.
• Yang Yilong of the Northern Courtyard joined the four sword cultivators, but no other martial artists dared to take the stage.
• Qin Tang asked three junior martial artists to join the platform just to complete the required eight and activate its formation, and three volunteered.

Qin Tang opened the battle by defeating Yang Yilong with one sword, while Lin Bai and Ji Yun clashed and Qin Tang fought Gu Jianfeng. The chapter left Lin Bai facing Ji Yun’s powerful frost aura and the revealed Frost Wasteland Sword.

• Three martial artists volunteered to join the platform, but jumped off once the formation activated.
• Yang Yilong charged Qin Tang and was defeated with a single sword, leaving only Lin Bai, Ji Yun, Qin Tang, and Gu Jianfeng on the platform.
• Ji Yun blocked Lin Bai from reaching Gu Jianfeng, and the two exchanged several hundred moves.
• Qin Tang challenged Gu Jianfeng, and their battle appeared evenly matched as their sword intents clashed.
• Lin Bai and Ji Yun separated after a fierce exchange, while Lan Qingshui recognized Ji Yun’s sword as the Frost Wasteland Sword.

Ji Yun revealed the Frost Wasteland Sword and unleashed his powerful frost swordplay against Lin Bai. Lin Bai countered Ji Yun’s killing strike with his peak Dragon Slayer Swordplay, and their clash shattered the arena’s formation, leaving the outcome uncertain.

• Ji Yun explained that the Frost Wasteland Sword was a treasured weapon from the Eastern Continent Academy and claimed that Lin Bai, Qin Tang, and Gu Jianfeng would all fall to him.
• Ji Yun attacked Lin Bai with Great Snow Mountain Swordplay, and Lin Bai defended with Azure Wood Divine Lightning and the Taiji Two Forms Sword Formation.
• Ji Yun struck Lin Bai with Icefield Ballad and sent him flying, while Lin Bai wiped away his blood and said the fight was interesting.
• Ji Yun invoked the Martial Soul Secret Method, Wrath of the Snow Kingdom, and brought a crushing frost attack down on Lin Bai.
• Lin Bai raised his cultivation with Reaching Heaven Sword Art and countered with the Demon Sword’s Seeking the Dragon strike.
• Lin Bai and Ji Yun’s swords collided, shattering the arena’s formation and injuring the martial artists watching below.

Lin Bai defeated Ji Yun, whose breakthrough to the Death Reversal Realm came after Lin Bai urged him to leave his extreme isolation behind. With Ji Yun allowed to stay and watch, Lin Bai turned to Qin Tang and Gu Jianfeng and charged into their fight, declaring he would face them both at once.

• Lin Bai overpowered Ji Yun, knocked him off the arena, and spared him while advising him to seek cultivation in the Northern Continent.
• Ji Yun took Lin Bai's words to heart and broke through to the Death Reversal Realm, losing his eligibility for the Quasi-Holy Son selection.
• Ji Yun asked Gu Daozhi to let him remain and watch the battle, and Gu Daozhi agreed on the condition that he not fight.
• Gu Daozhi offered Lan Ling ten top-grade king-level cultivation techniques for Ji Yun, but Lan Ling refused.
• Lin Bai challenged Qin Tang and Gu Jianfeng to fight him together and charged into their battle, shocking the martial artists below the arena.

Lin Bai challenged Qin Tang and Gu Jianfeng at once, provoking them to reveal their strength. He shattered Qin Tang’s four swords of Intent and struck him down with River Crossing, but Qin Tang’s cold smile suggested their battle was not over.

• Lin Bai taunted Qin Tang and Gu Jianfeng and challenged them both to attack him.
• Gu Jianfeng charged Lin Bai as Qin Tang revealed that all four of his Intents had reached Perfection Realm.
• Qin Tang launched four swords of Intent, which Lin Bai destroyed with Flying Swords and Dragon-Seeking.
• Qin Tang used the four swords as a feint and attacked Lin Bai with his fifth, strongest sword.
• Lin Bai protected himself with Azure Wood Divine Lightning and defeated Qin Tang with River Crossing.
• Qin Tang fell at the arena’s edge, then declared that his battle with Lin Bai had only just begun.

Lin Bai defeated Qin Tang’s opening attacks, but Qin Tang revealed that he had secretly arranged four swords of intent into the World Cycle sword formation and trapped Lin Bai inside. Lin Bai countered with his two flying swords, leaving Qin Tang stunned as the formation failed to injure him.

• Lin Bai struck Qin Tang off the platform, prompting Lan Yunbai to wake Lan Qingshui and tell him Qin Tang had been hit.
• Qin Tang rose and revealed that he had secretly positioned four swords of intent around Lin Bai to form a sword formation.
• Lan Qingshui recognized the formation as Qin Tang’s ultimate killing move and feared Lin Bai was in danger.
• Qin Tang unleashed the World Cycle formation, filling it with sword radiance and Sword Qi while warning Lin Bai to surrender.
• Lin Bai summoned two flying swords that cut down every attack, and after a quarter of an hour Qin Tang stared in disbelief as Lin Bai remained unharmed.

Lin Bai defeated Qin Tang by enduring the Taiji Two Forms Sword Formation until Qin Tang could no longer sustain it. Gu Jianfeng then challenged Lin Bai, arguing that his secret technique had consumed too much spiritual power, and prepared to finish the battle with one sword strike.

• Lin Bai stood unharmed inside Qin Tang's sword formation as his flying swords deflected its attacks, while Qin Tang exhausted himself and began to bleed.
• Qin Tang admitted defeat, dispersed the sword formation, and said he would return to seek Lin Bai's guidance if he advanced in swordsmanship.
• The martial artists praised Qin Tang's strength and turned their attention to the remaining fight between Lin Bai and Gu Jianfeng.
• Gu Jianfeng claimed Lin Bai's tricolored secret technique was nearing its limit after his battles with Ji Yun and Qin Tang, and Lin Bai remained silent as the others worried.
• Gu Jianfeng drew his sword, pointed it at Lin Bai, and declared that he would end the battle with a single strike.

Lin Bai confronted Gu Jianfeng after his battles with Qin Tang and Ji Yun, then revealed that he still had enough spiritual power to fight and unleashed his fused sword intents against Gu Jianfeng’s Nine Heavens Godslaying Strike. Their swords collided with such force that the martial stage exploded and the Celestial Abode Realm trembled.

• Gu Jianfeng challenged Lin Bai to a final sword fight, while the onlookers expected Lin Bai to be exhausted.
• Lin Bai attacked first with Seeking the Dragon and sent Gu Jianfeng flying, then followed with Turning the River.
• Gu Jianfeng unleashed the Gu Family of the Eastern Courtyard’s secret art, the Nine Heavens Godslaying Strike.
• Lin Bai combined Slaughter Intent, Aurora Intent, and Rainstorm Intent into Immortal Execution with the help of his Devouring Sword Soul.
• Lin Bai’s Immortal Execution clashed with Gu Jianfeng’s strike, shattering the martial stage and causing tremors and spatial cracks across the Celestial Abode Realm.

Lin Bai defeated Gu Jianfeng in the arena and prepared to cripple him, but Gu Daozhi intervened with the Nine Transformations Dragon Finger. Lin Bai retaliated by destroying Gu Jianfeng’s dantian and divine pill, leaving Gu Daozhi furious.

• Lin Bai emerged from the dust standing over the defeated Gu Jianfeng, and the martial artists watching celebrated his victory.
• Lin Bai mocked Gu Jianfeng’s poor mastery of the Nine Heavens Godslaying Strike and moved to cripple him for harming Lan Clan disciples.
• Gu Daozhi sent a divine dragon formed by the Nine Transformations Dragon Finger into Lin Bai, then lifted Gu Jianfeng away and warned Lin Bai against harming the Gu Family’s disciple.
• Lin Bai accused Gu Daozhi of interfering in the arena and used his flying swords to shatter Gu Jianfeng’s dantian and divine pill.
• Gu Daozhi voiced his anger at Lin Bai and declared that he would remember him.

Lin Bai crippled Gu Jianfeng despite Gu Daozhi’s intervention, then recovered before beginning his ascent of the Divine Peak. At the end of the path he chose, he encountered Wang Qing, a Quasi-Holy Son of the Southern Courtyard with whom he already had a grudge.

• Lin Bai’s flying swords pierced Gu Jianfeng’s dantian and divine pill, crippling his cultivation before Gu Daozhi could stop him.
• Lin Bai took the Ascension Token and healed while the battles continued; three days later, Lan Qingshui told him Qin Tang and Gu Lingqi had passed the Divine Peak’s trial.
• Lin Bai learned that Qin Tang and Gu Lingqi were the only new Quasi-Holy Sons and decided to ascend the Divine Peak.
• Lan Qingshui warned Lin Bai that Eastern Courtyard Quasi-Holy Sons might attack him to curry favor with the Gu Family, and Lin Bai set out up the mountain.
• Lin Bai chose the far-left white jade staircase and found Wang Qing waiting beneath a banyan tree at its end.
• Wang Qing praised Lin Bai’s rise and his conflicts with Li Jiuge and the Gu Family while greeting him with a smile Lin Bai sensed was cruel.

Lin Bai sparred with Wang Qing, who pretended to reconcile before suddenly striking him with lethal force. After surviving the blow, Lin Bai confronted Wang Qing, who admitted the lost inheritance was one reason he wanted him dead and revealed there were two more.

• Wang Qing apologized to Lin Bai and proposed a sparring match, promising to let him pass afterward.
• Lin Bai and Wang Qing exchanged more than a thousand moves while both appeared to hold back.
• Wang Qing suddenly unleashed his full Quasi-Holy Son strength and punched Lin Bai in the chest, sending him flying and badly injuring him.
• Lin Bai recognized that Wang Qing had tricked him and prepared to fight back with his Demon Sword and two flying swords.
• Wang Qing admitted he wanted revenge because Lin Bai had cost him Lord Yuan Zu's inheritance, then said two other reasons also compelled him to kill Lin Bai.

Lin Bai fought Wang Qing, who sought to kill him for a chance to become an Order Divine Court elder’s disciple and win favor with the Gu Family of the Eastern Courtyard. Lin Bai turned the fight around with the Heaven Measuring Ruler, leaving Wang Qing gravely wounded as he praised the weapon’s power.

• Wang Qing revealed that Li Jiuge had promised to recommend him to his father if he crippled Lin Bai, and that he also hoped to curry favor with the Gu Family of the Eastern Courtyard.
• Wang Qing demanded that Lin Bai cripple his own cultivation, but Lin Bai refused and Wang Qing attacked him with the Star-Plucking Hand of the Firmament.
• Lin Bai used sword techniques and the Zhu Xian strike, but Wang Qing withstood them and continued his assault.
• Lin Bai brought out the Heaven Measuring Ruler to block Wang Qing’s punch, then lifted it to counterattack.
• Lin Bai struck Wang Qing with the Heaven Measuring Ruler, crushing much of his body and sending him flying more than five thousand meters.

Lin Bai defeated Wang Qing, crippled his cultivation, and reached the Divine Peak Spirit Pool, where he began absorbing its spiritual energy. As Qin Tang and Gu Lingqi noticed the speed of Lin Bai’s cultivation, Gu Lingqi grew greedy for his technique.

• Lin Bai used the Heaven Measuring Ruler to leave Wang Qing gravely injured, then severed his divine pill, dantian, and meridians instead of killing him.
• Wang Qing warned Lin Bai that Li Jiuge and the Gu Family of the Eastern Courtyard would seek revenge, and Lin Bai welcomed the challenge before leaving.
• Lin Bai reached the spirit pool, where Qin Tang congratulated him on becoming the Southern Courtyard’s Quasi-Holy Son and explained their limited cultivation time.
• Lin Bai used part of his Devouring Sword Soul to draw spiritual energy from the pool and began trying to advance from the eighth to the ninth level of the Life Extinction Realm.
• Qin Tang increased his cultivation to keep pace with Lin Bai, while Gu Lingqi suspected Lin Bai possessed a powerful technique and coveted it for the Gu Family of the Eastern Courtyard.