Chapter Summaries

Lin Bai carried the injured Shui Yunmeng to Heavenly Might City, where Mo Lang sheltered her and agreed to summon her father and the Iron Sword Army. After Lin Bai questioned why the attackers wanted the spiritual medicines, Shui Yunmeng revealed that one of them concealed tiny drawings and words on its leaves.

• Lin Bai killed Zhu Jing and carried the badly wounded Shui Yunmeng away from the forest toward Heavenly Might City.
• The remaining men in black found Zhu Jing's body and followed Lin Bai and Shui Yunmeng toward Heavenly Might City.
• Three days later, Lin Bai and Shui Yunmeng reached Heavenly Might City, where Mo Lang welcomed them and arranged a secluded courtyard and medicines.
• After recovering enough to emerge, Shui Yunmeng asked Mo Lang to contact her father and send the Iron Sword Army to escort her.
• Shui Yunmeng showed Lin Bai a spiritual medicine from the Storage Bags and revealed that tiny drawings and words appeared on its leaves.

Shui Yunmeng explained that the spirit medicine contained a gap in the Eternal Sky Defense Formation, a secret capable of destroying the Divine Capital and drawing several powerful factions into a struggle over it. Lin Bai realized that he and Shui Yunmeng were now targets, and they considered who had sent the attackers they had faced.

• Shui Yunmeng told Lin Bai that a traitorous Formation Daoist had created a gap in the Eternal Sky Defense Formation and that the information had been passed on through a spirit medicine.
• She explained that the Hanging Sword Bureau had killed people who knew about the gap, while several factions fought to seize the spirit medicine during its journey to Heavenly Treasure Pavilion City.
• Shui Yunmeng revealed that she learned the secret through her father's guards and that only she, Lin Bai, her father, Wude Marquis, the Crown Prince, and the Seventeenth Prince knew about it outside the Formation Hall.
• Lin Bai recognized that he and Shui Yunmeng had become targets and worried that the Crown Prince and Seventeenth Prince might use the gap in their struggle for the throne.
• Shui Yunmeng wondered whether their attackers served the Crown Prince, the Seventeenth Prince, or Wude Marquis, but Lin Bai said they were not soldiers because they lacked the killing intent of troops.

Lin Bai and Shui Yunmeng realized the spirit medicine was a political weapon, but Xiao Zong led an attack on their courtyard to seize it and frame the Crown Prince. Xiao Zong revealed himself as a servant of the Seventeenth Prince, and Shui Yunmeng refused to let either prince use the Eternal Sky Defense Formation’s opening as a weapon.

• Shui Yunmeng stored the spirit medicine and agreed they should return it to Dragon Court, but Mo Lang arrived wounded and was killed by the attackers.
• Xiao Zong’s men surrounded the courtyard and demanded that Shui Yunmeng surrender the spirit medicine.
• Lin Bai exposed the masked leader as Xiao Zong by pointing out the weakness of the mountain formation and the attackers’ knowledge of their route.
• Xiao Zong admitted he served the Seventeenth Prince and planned to frame the Crown Prince for Shui Yunmeng’s death, forcing the Iron Sword Marquis to choose sides.
• Shui Yunmeng refused to surrender the spirit medicine, warning that the princes must not use the Eternal Sky Defense Formation’s opening in their struggle for the throne.

Shui Yunmeng refused to give Xiao Zong the spirit medicine, so Lin Bai cut open a rift to help her escape while he stayed behind to face more than three hundred attackers. He unleashed the Five Thunder Righteous Method and destroyed the City Lord's Mansion along with the black-clad men, then left Heavenly Might City.

• Shui Yunmeng refused to hand the spirit medicine to Xiao Zong, and Xiao Zong ordered his men to kill her and Lin Bai.
• Lin Bai opened a rift with his sword and sent Shui Yunmeng through it, while Xiao Zong pursued her.
• More than three hundred black-clad warriors surrounded Lin Bai at the City Lord's Mansion, where the Mo Lang Lineage and nearly everyone else had been slaughtered.
• Lin Bai summoned Five-Colored Divine Lightning and unleashed the Five Thunder Righteous Method, destroying the City Lord's Mansion and killing the black-clad men.
• Lin Bai paid his respects to Senior Mo Lang and flew out of Heavenly Might City.

After destroying the City Lord's Mansion, Lin Bai flew into the mountains and intervened as Xiao Zong cornered Shui Yunmeng. Lin Bai and Xiao Zong fought to a standstill until Xiao Zong unleashed his Starfall Fist, leaving Lin Bai facing its overwhelming force.

• The martial artists of Heaven's Might City watched a thunder-wreathed figure destroy the City Lord's Mansion and fly away, and Prince Fu's Estate received word of the incident.
• Xiao Zong struck Shui Yunmeng into a mountain and demanded the spirit medicine, but Shui Yunmeng refused to hand it over.
• As Xiao Zong moved to kill Shui Yunmeng, Lin Bai arrived and wounded him with two flying swords.
• Lin Bai offered to spare Xiao Zong if he let Shui Yunmeng go, but Xiao Zong rejected the offer and fought him.
• After hundreds of exchanges without either fighter gaining the upper hand, Xiao Zong unleashed his Starfall Fist, and Lin Bai sensed he could not easily withstand it.

Lin Bai defeated Xiao Zong with the ninth Nine Moon Severing Swords technique and killed him despite Shui Yunmeng's plea to spare him. He carried the unconscious Shui Yunmeng to Yong'an Town, where he stabilized her injuries and opened her Storage Bag.

• Lin Bai used Eternal Night to break Xiao Zong's attack and maim his arm.
• Xiao Zong threatened Lin Bai, then tried to flee, but Lin Bai struck him down and pursued him.
• Xiao Zong begged Lin Bai and Shui Yunmeng to spare his life, and Shui Yunmeng asked Lin Bai to let him go.
• Lin Bai rejected Shui Yunmeng's request and beheaded Xiao Zong, then took his Storage Bag and carried Shui Yunmeng away.
• Lin Bai brought Shui Yunmeng to an inn in Yong'an Town, treated her injuries, and opened the Storage Bag at her waist.

Lin Bai secretly swapped the rune-covered spiritual medicine in Shui Yunmeng’s Storage Bag so he could investigate its connection to a weakness in the Eternal Sky Defense Formation. After Shui Yunmeng woke and Lin Bai fed her, powerful experts approached Yong'an Town, leaving their allegiance unknown.

• Lin Bai copied the runes onto a new spiritual medicine, returned the copy to Shui Yunmeng’s Storage Bag, and kept the original and a written copy for himself.
• Shui Yunmeng woke on the third day, checked that her Storage Bag and spiritual medicine were intact, and confronted Lin Bai about killing Xiao Zong.
• Lin Bai teased Shui Yunmeng about Xiao Zong being her “little lover” and fed her beast meat because her injuries left her unable to move.
• Lin Bai sensed powerful experts approaching Yong'an Town and prepared for trouble, uncertain whether they were friends or enemies.

Wang Ge, one of the Crown Prince’s personal guards, arrived in Yong'an Town and offered to escort Shui Yunmeng, Lin Bai, and the Yang Hall disciples to the divine capital. Shui Yunmeng remained suspicious of the Crown Prince’s motives, and she and Lin Bai planned to leave as soon as her injuries improved.

• Lin Bai sensed powerful figures approaching Yong'an Town, but their auras vanished before Wang Ge knocked on his door.
• Shui Yunmeng identified Wang Ge as a powerful Crown Prince’s guard and feared he had come to seize the spirit medicine.
• Lin Bai let Wang Ge into the room, where Wang Ge apologized for arriving too late and said he had orders to escort Shui Yunmeng and the Yang Hall disciples to the divine capital.
• Wang Ge explained that the Crown Prince wanted Shui Yunmeng to protect the spirit medicine and authorized him to eliminate anyone who tried to harm her or take it.
• After Wang Ge left, Shui Yunmeng questioned the Crown Prince’s changed stance, and Lin Bai urged her to focus on reaching the divine capital safely.

Shui Yunmeng and Lin Bai returned to the Divine Capital under Wang Ge’s protection after surviving an attack, and the chapter ended with them arriving at Dragon Court and meeting Crown Prince Zhao Zhiyu and Dragon Lord Ke Yan. Wang Ge revealed that Zhao Zhiyu had saved Shui Yunmeng to preserve the Iron Sword Marquis Estate’s neutrality and draw it away from the Seventeenth Prince.

• Shui Yunmeng thanked Wang Ge for rescuing her and Lin Bai, while Wang Ge explained that the Crown Prince wanted to keep the Iron Sword Marquis Estate from supporting the Seventeenth Prince.
• Wang Ge and his party were attacked by hundreds of fifth-stage Apex Realm warriors near the Divine Capital, but he killed them with a single palm strike and brought everyone safely to the city.
• Wang Ge’s spirit vessel landed at Dragon Court’s Sun Hall, where Crown Prince Zhao Zhiyu, Marquis Shui, and Dragon Lord Ke Yan awaited them.
• Wang Ge, Shui Yunmeng, and Lin Bai greeted Zhao Zhiyu, and Shui Yunmeng reunited with her worried father.
• Dragon Lord Ke Yan recognized Lin Bai, and Shui Yunmeng explained that Ke Yan was the master of the Sun Hall and the lord of Dragon Court.

After returning to the Divine Capital, Lin Bai learned that his mentor Dong Dian had trained him to face the disciple of the Divine Capital Sword Saint in the year-end Dragon Court and Phoenix Pavilion martial contest. Dong Dian explained that winning could let him practice the sword again, but he did not reveal why he had waited for Lin Bai rather than choosing another disciple.

• Dragon Lord Ke Yan recognized Lin Bai as the disciple of an old friend, and Crown Prince Zhao Zhiyu expected him to compete in the year-end martial contest.
• Lin Bai returned to Little Yuan Mountain, rested, and then visited Dong Dian at Swordless Mountain.
• Dong Dian praised Lin Bai for killing Zhu Jing and Xiao Zong, but warned him not to get involved in the succession struggle.
• Lin Bai asked why the Crown Prince and Dragon Lord anticipated his performance, and Dong Dian explained his rivalry with the Divine Capital Sword Saint and the wager that their disciples would face each other.
• Dong Dian said he had once hoped to teach a sword prodigy more than twenty years earlier, but the man’s talent exceeded his ability to instruct him.

Dong Dian told Lin Bai about Lin Duo’s past, including his defeat of the Divine Capital Sword Saint and his later surrender to the Central Sacred Nation. Lin Bai agreed to help Dong Dian defeat the Sword Saint’s disciple and began challenging Cloudsoar Tower to prepare for the upcoming competition.

• Dong Dian recounted Lin Duo’s unmatched sword talent, his betrayal by friends, and how he defeated the Divine Capital Sword Saint with a single strike.
• Dong Dian revealed that he had once secretly helped Lin Duo escape, but Lin Duo later returned to the Divine Capital and surrendered to the Central Sacred Nation; Lin Bai reasoned that his father had done so to reach Li Subai.
• Dong Dian asked Lin Bai to defeat the Divine Capital Sword Saint’s disciple at the competition in three months, and Lin Bai agreed while declaring that he could kill the Sword Saint.
• Lin Bai planned to raise his cultivation using Cloudsoar Tower’s resources and set out to challenge the tower the next morning.
• Lin Bai entered Cloudsoar Tower and began climbing from the seventh level after another challenger was defeated there.

Lin Bai repeatedly challenged Cloudsoar Tower to collect Myriad Flow Pills, then used them and a Dragon Bone Pill to break through two realms in succession. After stabilizing his cultivation, he returned to challenge the floors above the twenty-fifth and revealed his new strength to the waiting disciples.

• Lin Bai challenged Cloudsoar Tower for days, and Sun Hall elders increased the Myriad Flow Pill rewards on its first twenty floors to help him.
• Lin Bai cleared the first twenty-five floors and collected more than three thousand Myriad Flow Pills.
• Lin Bai absorbed the pills in seclusion and advanced from the fourth-stage Apex Realm to the fifth stage.
• Lin Bai used his Dragon Bone Pill to break through to the sixth-stage Apex Realm, then spent several days stabilizing his cultivation.
• Lin Bai returned to Cloudsoar Tower and let the waiting disciples challenge first, prompting one to notice that Lin Bai had reached the sixth stage of the Apex Realm.

Lin Bai reached the thirty-fifth floor of Cloudsoar Tower, defeated a Nether Earth Golem, and surged onward through the tower. As he climbed past the fifty-seventh floor, Dong Dian explained why he preferred Lin Bai over Che Zizhen as his disciple.

• Lin Bai entered Cloudsoar Tower and passed through the first thirty floors, collecting Myriad Flow Pills he no longer needed.
• On the thirty-fifth floor, Lin Bai fought and slew a Nether Earth Golem, then took the Immortal Azure Pill.
• Lin Bai rapidly defeated the golems on subsequent floors and climbed to the fifty-seventh floor, astonishing the disciples and elders watching below.
• A stubbled young man carrying a treasured sword watched Lin Bai from the plaza, then left for Swordless Mountain.
• Dong Dian told his two personal disciples that he had chosen Lin Bai over Che Zizhen because Lin Bai was calm, rational, focused, and merciless in battle.

Lin Bai’s astonishing progress through Cloudsoar Tower drew the attention of Dong Dian’s disciples and the ambitious Che Zizhen. The chapter ended with news that Lin Bai had broken through the eightieth floor.

• Liu En told Dong Dian, Tang Shu, and Mo Ling that Lin Bai had reached the fifty-seventh floor, then a transmission reported that Lin Bai had entered the seventieth floor.
• Dong Dian praised Lin Bai’s talent and asked him to visit the next day, while Tang Shu, Mo Ling, and Liu En went to watch Cloudsoar Tower.
• Che Zizhen dismissed Lin Bai’s achievement and insisted Dong Dian would choose him, revealing his desire to learn Dong Dian’s Purgatory Seventy-Two Kills.
• The crowd at Cloudsoar Tower cried out that Lin Bai had broken through the eightieth floor.

After breaking through the eightieth level of Cloudsoar Tower, Lin Bai refused to be intimidated by Dong Dian’s disciples and returned to Little Yuan Mountain to cultivate. There, his nine intents fused into a solidified Dao Resonance, drawing Dragon Lord Ke Yan’s attention.

• Lin Bai emerged from Cloudsoar Tower after reaching the eightieth level, and Che Zizhen dismissed the achievement as Lin Bai’s limit.
• Tang Shu, Mo Ling, and Liu En stopped Lin Bai to deliver Dong Dian’s invitation to visit Swordless Mountain the next day.
• Lin Bai confronted Tang Shu’s admonishment with a surge of killing intent, then accepted the invitation and left for Little Yuan Mountain.
• Tang Shu disparaged Lin Bai, while Liu En praised his bearing and suggested he could succeed Purgatory Seventy-Two Kills; Che Zizhen then joined the three disciples.
• Lin Bai entered secluded cultivation, brought all nine intents to peak perfection, and fused them into a solidified Dao Resonance.
• Dragon Lord Ke Yan sensed Lin Bai’s breakthrough and recognized his potential to enter the Great Dao.

Lin Bai condensed a foot of Dao Resonance after leaving Cloudsoar Tower, drawing notice from Zu Wen and praise from Dong Dian. Dong Dian then began teaching him the sword technique Purgatory Seventy-Two Kills.

• Zu Wen recognized Lin Bai’s achievement and resented him for killing Zhu Jing, his disciple.
• Lin Bai wondered whether his Devouring Sword Soul could devour other martial artists’ Dao Resonance, then organized the pills he had gained from Cloudsoar Tower.
• Lin Bai visited Swordless Mountain, where Dong Dian showed him how to see the strength of Dao Resonance around others.
• Lin Bai apologized to Mo Ling for his sharp words the previous day, and she reassured him that she did not take offense.
• Dong Dian told Lin Bai about Purgatory Seventy-Two Kills and began imparting the sword technique to him.

Lin Bai emerged from three days of comprehending Dong Dian’s blood-red sword technique and declared that he would use it to defeat Gongyang Hao at the year-end tournament. Though Mo Ling doubted he could overcome Gongyang Hao’s superior cultivation, Lin Bai insisted he could win and make the top ten.

• Dong Dian showed Lin Bai a blood-red sword image, and Lin Bai comprehended its seventy-two ruthless sword forms in his mind.
• Mo Ling told Lin Bai that he had emerged from his comprehension in three days, far faster than Tang Shu, Liu En, or herself.
• Lin Bai told Dong Dian that he would use the technique to defeat Gongyang Hao at the year-end tournament, but Dong Dian urged him not to rush.
• Mo Ling explained that Gongyang Hao had reached the ninth stage of the Apex Realm, while Lin Bai was only at the sixth stage.
• Lin Bai insisted that he would compete this year and said he was confident he could defeat Gongyang Hao and enter the top ten.
• After Lin Bai left for Little Yuan Mountain, Mo Ling told Tang Shu and Liu En that Lin Bai was arrogant, while Tang Shu said he had never been wrong about people.

Lin Bai returned to the Sword Alliance after the Imperial General's Residence, the Right Prime Minister's Residence, and the Badlands Prefectural Assistant began pressuring its businesses. He ordered the alliance to resist by force and went with White Crane to confront the Prefectural Assistant.

• Lin Bai failed to advance to the seventh level of the Apex Realm but completed his mastery of the Purgatory Seventy-Two Kills.
• White Crane told Lin Bai that Drunken Dream Pavilion had been destroyed after the Imperial General's Residence demanded a share of the Sword Alliance's profits.
• Lin Bai returned to the Sword Alliance and learned that the Right Prime Minister's Residence had also demanded profits and that the Badlands Guards had sealed the alliance's businesses.
• Lin Bai ordered the Sword Alliance to reopen its sealed shops and kill anyone who interfered.
• Lin Bai sent Liu Dao and Ye Liang to Erotic Moon City and left with White Crane to confront the Prefectural Assistant.

Lin Bai and White Crane confronted the Prefectural Assistant of Badlands Prefecture and uncovered records showing he had secretly sent nearly five hundred million spirit crystals to the Seventeenth Prince. Lin Bai threatened to expose the Prefectural Assistant's allegiance to the Crown Prince, leaving the official seething with killing intent.

• Lin Bai struck down guards who mocked him and forced his way into the Badlands Prefecture office with White Crane.
• Lin Bai and White Crane searched the Prefectural Assistant's empty study and found a Jade Slip documenting his payments to the Seventeenth Prince.
• Lin Bai concluded that the Prefectural Assistant had backed the Seventeenth Prince to advance his own position, and White Crane warned him against provoking the official.
• The Prefectural Assistant returned from receiving an envoy from the Right Prime Minister's Residence and admitted he had ordered an investigation of the Sword Alliance's pleasure house.
• Lin Bai offered to spare the Prefectural Assistant's life if he stopped targeting the Sword Alliance, then threatened to reveal the Jade Slip to the Crown Prince through Wang Ge.
• The Prefectural Assistant glared at Lin Bai as killing intent surged through him.

Lin Bai threatened the Prefectural Assistant into staying out of the Sword Alliance’s affairs, then ordered a purge of the Imperial General’s and Right Prime Minister’s people in the Badlands Prefecture. As the violence began, Liu Dao and Ye Liang discussed why they followed Lin Bai, while Assassination Hall carried out a killing in Erotic Moon City.

• Lin Bai told the Prefectural Assistant that he would run the Badlands Prefecture, and the Prefectural Assistant chose not to interfere with the Sword Alliance.
• Lin Bai ordered Pigeon Hall to locate the Imperial General’s and Right Prime Minister’s people and directed Assassination Hall to kill them until they fled the prefecture.
• Liu Dao and Ye Liang heard that the purge had begun and discussed their reasons for following Lin Bai and the Sword Alliance.
• Seven Assassination Hall members killed a wounded martial artist at Heavenly Sound Pavilion, and the manager let them leave after verifying their tokens.