Chapter Summaries

Lin Bai met Hong Ding and Gu Wen at Greedy Wolf Commerce, where they discussed Gu Rong’s planned expedition into the Azure Ruins Battlefield and her need for protective Divine Weapons. The group met the manager, Li Pingyue, to sell demon beast bones, but the Crow’s abrupt demand for ten billion Vermillion Bird Pills left him bewildered.

• Lin Bai explained that he had returned from Demon God Ridge to sell demon beast bones, and Hong Ding invited him to join Gu Rong and Gu Wen.
• Gu Rong bristled when Lin Bai questioned her decision to enter the Azure Ruins Battlefield, while Hong Ding and Gu Wen explained that she would go with the Gu Family’s third group.
• Lin Bai inferred that the Gu Family’s three groups had different roles, and Hong Ding and Gu Wen’s concern for Gu Rong reflected her parents’ deaths and her history of being ostracized.
• Hong Ding and Gu Wen brought Gu Rong to Greedy Wolf Commerce to choose Divine Weapons that could help keep her alive in the battlefield.
• Manager Li Pingyue arrived, and the Crow demanded the ten billion Vermillion Bird Pills prepared for the sale, leaving Li Pingyue staring at it in confusion.

Lin Bai and the Crow negotiated with Li Pingyue at Greedy Wolf Commerce to sell beast bones for one billion Vermillion Bird Pills, while Gu Rong sought an Emperor Artifact sword. Li Pingyue initially doubted their claim, but the first Storage Bags impressed him, and the Crow revealed they had dozens more.

• The Crow demanded that Li Pingyue prepare one billion Vermillion Bird Pills before he showed the beast bones, while Lin Bai tried to keep the negotiations civil.
• Gu Rong asked Li Pingyue to help her purchase an Emperor Artifact sword, and Li Pingyue agreed.
• Hong Ding advised Lin Bai to let Li Pingyue inspect the bones before Greedy Wolf Commerce gathered the pills, but the Crow refused until Lin Bai guaranteed payment.
• The Crow gave Lin Bai ten Storage Bags, and Lin Bai handed them to Li Pingyue for inspection.
• Li Pingyue was stunned by the bones' apparent value, and the Crow claimed he still had dozens more Storage Bags.

Lin Bai sold a vast collection of demon beast remains to Greedy Wolf Commerce and said he planned to travel to the Azure Ruins Battlefield. The Crow revealed that his Storage Ring might even contain a dragon skeleton, leaving Lin Bai increasingly curious about the Crow’s past.

• Lin Bai confirmed that Greedy Wolf Commerce should prepare Vermillion Bird Pills for the demon beast remains, and Li Pingyue took the Storage Bags to arrange the payment and bring Gu Rong’s Divine Armory Catalog.
• After Li Pingyue left, Gu Rong, Gu Wen, and Hong Ding were astonished by the value of the remains, while Lin Bai explained that the Crow had collected most of them over many years.
• The Crow told Lin Bai that he also had a dragon skeleton in his Storage Ring, though he had eaten all the dragon meat.
• Lin Bai claimed that he had found the demon beast remains after a battle between merchant caravans and martial artist alliance groups, and Gu Rong accepted that he did not want to explain further.
• Lin Bai declined Gu Wen’s offer of a position with the Gu family and said he planned to go to the Azure Ruins Battlefield.
• Gu Rong warned that Lin Bai’s cultivation was too low for the Azure Ruins Battlefield, but Hong Ding and Gu Wen defended Lin Bai’s abilities.

Hong Ding arranged for Lin Bai to travel to the Azure Ruins Battlefield with Gu Rong’s group and asked him to protect her. Li Pingyue delivered the Crow’s billion Vermillion Bird Pills and collected the demon beast bones, unaware they belonged to the Crow.

• Hong Ding proposed that Lin Bai accompany Gu Rong’s group to the Azure Ruins Battlefield, and Gu Wen agreed.
• Hong Ding privately asked Lin Bai to keep Gu Rong safe in return for his help in Barren Mountain Dragon City, and Lin Bai accepted.
• Li Pingyue returned with a Storage Bag of Vermillion Bird Pills, which the Crow inspected and accepted.
• The Crow handed Li Pingyue dozens of Storage Bags of demon beast bones, and Li Pingyue confirmed they were worth more than a billion Vermillion Bird Pills.
• Li Pingyue praised Lin Bai for hiding the valuable bones on his spirit pet, not realizing they had belonged to the Crow all along.

Gu Rong chose the Frost Spirit Sword from the Greedy Wolf Commerce catalog, and Hong Ding offered to pay for it. Afterward, Hong Ding brought Lin Bai to his courtyard and offered him a collection of swordsmanship manuals; Lin Bai had yet to choose any.

• Gu Rong admired the Frost Spirit Sword, but its price of over two hundred million Vermillion Bird Pills far exceeded her savings.
• Hong Ding offered to cover the cost, and Li Pingyue fetched the Frost Spirit Sword in an Iron Box.
• Lin Bai and Gu Rong left the Greedy Wolf Commerce after completing their business, while Gu Rong and Gu Wen returned to the Gu family to prepare for the Azure Ruins Battlefield.
• Hong Ding took Lin Bai to his secluded courtyard in Silver Moon City and explained that he wanted to thank him for accompanying Gu Rong.
• Hong Ding brought out more than a dozen swordsmanship manuals and invited Lin Bai to choose several.

After studying Hong Ding’s Sword Sutras for five days, Lin Bai began to question whether his approach to sword cultivation had neglected the sword heart and deeper principles. Hong Ding offered guidance but ended by asking whether Lin Bai’s former master had taught him that the Heavenly Dao and all things had flaws.

• Hong Ding let Lin Bai study his collection of swordsmanship books and scrolls, which Gu Rong had previously struggled to comprehend.
• Lin Bai spent five days reading every Sword Sutra repeatedly and gained new insight into the sword path.
• Reflecting on the words “Mortal, Spirit, Dao,” Lin Bai questioned whether his past cultivation had focused too heavily on techniques and taken the wrong path.
• Hong Ding told Lin Bai that cultivation and martial arts progressed from simple to complex and asked why different people wielded the same technique with different power.
• Lin Bai answered that cultivation differed from person to person, and Hong Ding asked whether Lin Bai’s former master had taught him that the Heavenly Dao and all things had flaws.

Hong Ding explained to Lin Bai that sword techniques always had flaws and that true cultivation lay in the heart rather than fixed forms. Lin Bai understood his words, advanced toward the Dao Realm, comprehended the sword classics, and refined a sword heart.

• Hong Ding told Lin Bai that every sword technique had openings and that true martial arts could not be fully recorded in writing.
• Hong Ding used the sunset and green mountains to explain that cultivation depended on the heart, and Lin Bai reflected on his words until his understanding cleared.
• Lin Bai's cultivation advanced closer to the Dao Realm, and he realized that cultivators should cultivate the heart rather than become trapped in sword forms.
• Lin Bai comprehended the sword techniques and classics on the table, including the South Clarity Dao Lord's sword classic, and his Devouring Sword Soul released a powerful sword intent.
• Hong Ding sensed Lin Bai's sword intent and exclaimed that Lin Bai had refined a sword heart.

Lin Bai refined a sword heart and gained the ability to see flaws in the sword techniques he had learned. As Ling Tianzi and the old madam discussed the danger surrounding Lin Bai, Lin Bai began to understand his future path in the sword way.

• Hong Ding realized Lin Bai’s sword talent, rather than his own teachings, had allowed Lin Bai to refine a sword heart.
• Ling Tianzi and the old madam discussed Lin Bai’s ordeal, the threat from the Giant God Race, and their lack of a countermeasure.
• Lin Bai recognized that his sword heart let him see flaws in the South Clarity Dao Lord’s sword technique and in Lin Duo’s Dragon Slayer Swordplay.
• Lin Bai saw that his Zhu Xian Sword was full of flaws while his Sever the Roots Sword had nearly reached minor perfection.
• Lin Bai reviewed the sword techniques he had learned and began to understand the path he should take in sword cultivation.

After several days of cultivating his sword heart in Hong Ding’s courtyard, Lin Bai prepared to travel to the Azure Ruins Battlefield with Gu Rong. He joined the Gu family’s expedition and was left to accompany the isolated Gu Rong, who warned him she would not have time to look after him.

• Lin Bai cultivated his sword heart and concluded that he needed to travel and gain experience to deepen his understanding.
• Hong Ding told Lin Bai that the Gu family had arranged for him to travel to the Azure Ruins Battlefield with Gu Rong, and asked him to look after her.
• Lin Bai declined Hong Ding’s offer of anything he might need and continued cultivating until dawn.
• Lin Bai and Hong Ding went to the Gu family plaza, where three flying boats and a group of young disciples were assembled.
• Hong Ding gave Gu Rong a map of the Azure Ruins and urged her to be careful, while Gu Rong warned Lin Bai that she would not have much time to look after him.

Lin Bai traveled with Gu Rong and the Gu Family toward the Azure Ruins Battlefield, learning about the dangers ahead and the prominent young disciples aboard the vessels. After half a month on the journey, they were summoned to a meeting as they neared their destination.

• Hong Ding told Gu Rong to trust Lin Bai and rely on him if danger arose in the Azure Ruins Battlefield.
• Lin Bai boarded the Gu Family vessel and exchanged wary, respectful glances with a powerful Five Tribulation Dao Realm man on another ship.
• During the journey, Lin Bai learned that Gu Yule, Gu Gongyu, and Gu Siling were the Gu Family's three leading young disciples.
• The Gu Family vessels crossed a dangerous primeval forest, where elders killed demon birds that attacked them.
• A servant summoned Lin Bai and Gu Rong to a meeting with Elder Gu Tong two or three days before their arrival, and Gu Rong passed Lin Bai without greeting him.

Gu Tong briefed the Gu family disciples on the dangers and boundaries of their Azure Ruins Battlefield expedition. As the flying ship entered the outskirts, Lin Bai sensed an intruder and joined Gu Rong in searching for it, where they discovered a black fox.

• Gu Tong showed the disciples a map and ordered them to search only Monarch's Slope, warning them about the battlefield's dangers.
• Lin Bai returned to his room to cultivate, and two days later took an Antitoxin Pill when the flying ship entered the outskirts of the Azure Ruins Battlefield.
• Lin Bai sensed a concealed presence aboard the ship and asked Gu Rong to help search for it.
• Lin Bai and Gu Rong found a faint aura near the rear of the ship, spotted a black shadow, and chased it through a passageway.
• Lin Bai and Gu Rong caught sight of a black fox, which turned toward them and laughed sinisterly.

Lin Bai and Gu Rong confronted a Black Fox Demon that had infiltrated their flying vessel in the Azure Ruins Battlefield. After the fox wounded Gu Rong and mocked the Silver Moon City disciples, Lin Bai struck it with his sword intent, but the badly wounded demon escaped into the night.

• Gu Rong attacked the Black Fox with the Frost Spirit Sword, but its agility let it evade her strikes.
• Gu Siling arrived and warned Lin Bai that the fox’s presence in the Azure Ruins Battlefield was unusual, and Lin Bai deduced it came from the Boundless Wasteland.
• The Black Fox found an opening and clawed Gu Rong, then mocked the Gu family disciples from Silver Moon City.
• Lin Bai pulled Gu Rong out of the way when the Black Fox attacked again, while the fox dismissed him as an unworthy Quasi-Dao Realm cultivator.
• Lin Bai unleashed his sword intent and struck the retreating Black Fox, which screamed and escaped gravely wounded.

After Lin Bai drove off the Black Fox, the Gu Family’s flying ship reached Monarch’s Slope, where the disciples established a camp and began searching for treasures. Lin Bai and Gu Rong set out alone, leaving Gu Siling to lead her own group.

• Lin Bai chose not to pursue the wounded Black Fox, and Gu Rong vowed to kill him after he defeated her.
• Gu Siling recognized that Lin Bai’s sword intent surpassed Nangong Mo’s Extreme Dao Sword Intent and reported the attack to Elder Gu Tong, who ordered the ship patrolled.
• Three days later, Elder Gu Tong announced that the Gu Family had reached Monarch’s Slope, and Gu Yule chose a quiet canyon for their camp.
• After the Gu Family disciples began searching for treasures, Gu Siling invited Lin Bai and Gu Rong to join her group, but Gu Rong refused.
• Lin Bai apologized to Gu Siling and followed Gu Rong into the forest to search for treasures alone.

Lin Bai left Gu Rong to search Monarch's Slope alone and discovered that the Azure Ruins Battlefield's sinister burial grounds could nurture ghosts and corpse monsters. After destroying a Quasi-Dao Realm corpse, he considered using his Soul Refining Banner to deal with other such beings.

• Gu Rong told Lin Bai she could search for treasures on her own, and he left three strands of sword intent in her hair so he could sense danger and be contacted.
• Lin Bai flew over Monarch's Slope, sensed a sinister aura in a mountain forest, and descended after confirming nobody else was nearby.
• A dried corpse in a tomb lured Lin Bai in and attacked him, but he destroyed it with two strands of sword intent.
• Lin Bai realized the battlefield's corpses and dense sinister aura could nurture wandering souls, ghosts, and corpse monsters, then took out his Soul Refining Banner.

Lin Bai used the sinister yin energy in the Azure Ruins Battlefield to strengthen the Soul Refining Banner and absorb wandering spirits. As the banner drew energy from across Monarch's Slope, Xu Ci and fellow martial artists from Tianchi City noticed and prepared to investigate.

• Lin Bai planted the Soul Refining Banner in a forest and found that it absorbed the local sinister yin energy, strengthening its souls and drawing in unconscious wandering spirits.
• Lin Bai poured spiritual power into the banner, expanding its range and drawing sinister yin energy toward it from across Monarch's Slope.
• Xu Ci, a Two-Tribulation Dao Realm martial artist from Tianchi City, sensed the energy disappearing and suspected a powerful evil fiend or creature was consuming it.
• Xu Ci's injured companions worried that the evil creature they had fought might be recovering, and Xu Ci ordered them to heal before investigating.

Lin Bai used the Soul Refining Banner to absorb the sinister energy and lingering souls at Monarch's Slope, angering the ghost cultivator who had gathered them. Xu Ci and his companions approached Lin Bai but decided not to provoke him, only for the ghost cultivator to arrive and confront them.

• Lin Bai's Soul Refining Banner drew in the lingering souls beneath a distant cliff, enraging the ghost cultivator who had stored them as food.
• The ghost cultivator turned into a mass of black qi and charged toward Lin Bai's mountain forest.
• Xu Ci and four companions spotted Lin Bai refining the banner and descended to question him.
• Lin Bai said he was refining a magical treasure and told them they could leave, while Xu Ci judged it safer not to attack.
• As Xu Ci and his companions turned to go, the ghost cultivator appeared in a storm of black clouds and demanded to know who was causing trouble on his turf.

Xu Ci and four companions fought the old ghost in a forest thick with sinister energy, but were badly defeated. Lin Bai then revealed his sword power, captured the ghost with the Soul Refining Banner, and began dragging him inside.

• Xu Ci and the four companions attacked the old ghost, but after a prolonged fight he used the forest’s dense sinister energy to overwhelm them and tear flesh from Xu Ci’s chest.
• The old ghost spotted the Soul Refining Banner and attacked Lin Bai, assuming the Quasi-Dao Realm cultivator would be an easy target.
• Lin Bai struck the old ghost with a single finger of sword intent, blasting him away and astonishing Xu Ci and his companions.
• Lin Bai raised the Soul Refining Banner and sent its souls and soul-binding chains after the old ghost as he tried to flee.
• Nine black chains caught the old ghost and dragged him toward the Soul Refining Banner, leaving him unable to escape.

Lin Bai captured the old ghost with the Soul Refining Banner, and the Crow showed interest in the treasure after awakening from his memories. The Crow then recalled a powerful Ghost King at Monarch's Slope and explained ghost cultivation's benefits and limits, leaving Lin Bai asking how ghost cultivators preserved their intelligence.

• Lin Bai used the Soul Refining Banner to bind and capture the weakened old ghost for soul refining.
• The Crow asked to borrow the Soul Refining Banner, prompting Lin Bai to reconsider its potential and the Crow's ability to develop it.
• Xu Ci and the other four thanked Lin Bai for saving them, then left to find a place to heal.
• Lin Bai resumed refining the banner and asked the Crow what he had remembered at Monarch's Slope.
• The Crow recalled that a Ghost King had once cultivated there and explained how ghost cultivators could avoid heavenly lightning and live indefinitely, but could not pass on their bloodline or return to life.
• Lin Bai asked how ghost cultivators maintained their intelligence.

Lin Bai and the Crow discussed ghost cultivators and planned to subdue the Ghost King on Monarch's Slope to claim its treasures and use it to locate others. The Crow taught Lin Bai the Thunder Seal, then asked to borrow his Soul Refining Banner, and Lin Bai began working out conditions for the loan.

• The Crow explained that ghost cultivators craved flesh and blood and that powerful ghost cultivators had created the poisonous miasma around the Azure Ruins Battlefield.
• The Crow proposed that Lin Bai and it subdue the Ghost King on Monarch's Slope, take its treasures, and make it lead them to more.
• The Crow urged Lin Bai to rely on the Five Elements Divine Lightning Manual and taught him the Thunder Seal as a means to fight or escape the Ghost King.
• Lin Bai practiced the Thunder Seal and felt the destructive power of the Five-Colored Divine Lightning in his palm.
• The Crow asked Lin Bai to give it the Soul Refining Banner, and Lin Bai offered to lend it only if the Crow accepted his conditions.

Lin Bai lent the Soul Refining Banner to the crow on the condition that it be returned whenever needed and that the crow develop its potential. While searching Monarch’s Slope for the Ghost King’s cave, Lin Bai followed Gu family disciples to a gathering at Watching the Moon Cave, where cultivators had assembled for Moonflower Dew.

• Lin Bai lent the Soul Refining Banner to the crow, which swallowed it and urged him to search for the female Ghost King.
• Lin Bai searched Monarch’s Slope for several days while cultivating the Thunder Seal, but he and the crow failed to find the Ghost King’s cave.
• Lin Bai followed anxious Gu family disciples to a mountain where Gu family disciples, Demon Race members, and human cultivators had gathered, but he saw no sign of Gu Rong.
• The crow recognized the mountain as the site of Watching the Moon Cave, home to the female ghost cultivator Yue Shuang.
• Xu Ci greeted Lin Bai and asked whether he had come for Moonflower Dew, while Lin Bai wondered what the treasure was.