Chapter Summaries

Lin Bai concluded that he and his companions could not safely leave Arid Dragon City, so he decided they would help Mountain Province win the war against the Demon Race. As demonic attacks continued to annihilate powerful families inside the city, Lin Bai and Zhou Xi went to investigate the Wang family's residence.

• Lin Bai told Zhou Xi that leaving Arid Dragon City with their wounded and weaker companions would be too dangerous, and declared that they must help Mountain Province win the war.
• After resting, Lin Bai and Zhou Xi surveyed the city and its defenses while the Demon Race slaughtered a major Lineage and the family of an Azure Dragon Commerce guest elder.
• On the sixth day, Lin Bai heard that the Wang family of North City had been wiped out overnight, spreading panic through Arid Dragon City.
• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi went to the Wang family's residence, where guards blocked the gathered crowd from approaching.
• Lin Bai stopped Zhou Xi from pushing through the crowd and chose to observe from a distance.

Lin Bai and Zhou Xi searched the alleys around the Wang family residence for traces of a formation that could have concealed the Demon Race’s massacre. Lin Bai noticed mysterious water on the walls and began to suspect its significance, but merchant association guards mistook them for spies before Liang Ke, Zhong Yuan, and Zheng Fang recognized him.

• Lin Bai told Zhou Xi he suspected the Demon Race had used a formation to keep the sounds of its massacres from escaping, and the pair searched the alleys for traces.
• After searching all day without finding evidence of a formation, Lin Bai noticed the alley walls were unusually wet despite the lack of rain.
• Lin Bai examined a droplet and realized the water was ordinary, then said he might understand what was happening.
• Guards from the three great merchant associations surrounded Lin Bai and Zhou Xi and accused them of being Demon Race spies.
• Liang Ke, Zhong Yuan, and Zheng Fang arrived, recognized Lin Bai as Senior Brother Qing Luo, and warned the guards not to attack him.

Lin Bai investigated the mysterious attacks in Arid Dragon City and noticed a suspicious black-robed figure after sensing a cool breeze near an alley. After the Demon Race slaughtered people in a tavern, Lin Bai and Zhou Xi arrived at Azure Dragon Commerce as the city’s martial artists began a conference to decide how to respond.

• Lin Bai declined to share his suspicions about the water at the Wang residence, and Zhong Yuan invited him to a meeting of Arid Dragon City’s powerhouses seven days later.
• On the fifth day, Lin Bai sensed a cool breeze near an alley and asked Zhou Xi to find out whether any prominent lineages were nearby.
• Lin Bai spoke with a black-robed figure at a tea stall, who denied being from Arid Dragon City and quickly left after drinking his tea.
• Zhou Xi reported that the Qian family was a prominent lineage nearby, but Lin Bai said it would not be attacked for the time being and told Zhou Xi to prepare for the alliance conference.
• That night, the Demon Race slaughtered everyone in a tavern, spreading panic through Arid Dragon City.
• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi went to Azure Dragon Commerce, where Zhong Yuan told Lin Bai that the conference had begun to discuss how to deal with the Demon Race and the city’s future.

At a meeting in Arid Dragon City, the leaders debated whether to resist the Demon Race or seek peace as demons continued killing major lineages inside the city. The three great commerces pledged to fight, and Lin Bai began to speak.

• Lin Bai arrived at the conference with Qing Luo and Zhou Xi, and Zhong Yuan seated him with the Azure Dragon Commerce faction.
• The gathered leaders discussed the demon attacks and feared that demons who had cultivated the Great Purity Dao Fruit were operating in the city.
• The Zhao Family Head of East City proposed making peace with the Demon Race, prompting several lineage heads to argue over whether to fight or surrender.
• The president of Azure Dragon Commerce stopped the quarrel and urged the leaders to keep resisting for now.
• The presidents of Sky Beam Commerce and Treasure Seeking Commerce pledged their resources to defend Arid Dragon City, and Lin Bai began to speak.

Lin Bai proposed a three-part strategy for Arid Dragon City to calm its people and defeat the Demon Race, first recommending public executions of captured demons and then urging the city to enlist the Eternal Devil Sect’s help. He left the council considering how many resources they would offer the sect, while his third proposal remained unrevealed.

• Lin Bai introduced himself as Qing Luo and offered to solve Arid Dragon City’s crisis with three actions.
• He advised the city’s factions to capture demons outside the city and publicly execute them to reassure the people; the three commerces approved, and the Zhao Family volunteered to lead the hunt.
• Lin Bai revealed that Mountain Province’s three great Demon Clans had sent treasures to the Eternal Devil Sect and promised submission in exchange for the sect staying out of the war.
• Lin Bai urged Arid Dragon City’s three great commerces to use their reserves to invite the Eternal Devil Sect’s experts to fight the Demon Race.
• The Azure Dragon Commerce president asked how much the city should offer, and Lin Bai suggested giving the sect more than the Demon Race had offered.

Lin Bai explained how Arid Dragon City could seek help from the Eternal Devil Sect and proposed a way to find the demons secretly massacring local lineages. He identified seawater at the crime scenes as a clue pointing toward a mirage demon from Jiang Province.

• Lin Bai proposed that the three major commerce networks and Arid Dragon City offer cultivation resources to persuade the Eternal Devil Sect to send experts, while clarifying that he would receive none of them.
• Lin Bai said Arid Dragon City needed to capture the demons responsible for the repeated massacres and claimed he knew how to find them.
• Lin Bai described finding damp walls and water stains near the massacred estates, then presented a spiritually protected drop of water to the gathered experts.
• Lin Bai revealed that the drop was seawater and explained that Shan Province had no sea, while Jiang Province did.
• Lin Bai recalled Qin Yuyan's account of a mirage demon in Jiang Province whose fog could confuse even Dao Realm martial artists.

Lin Bai told the leaders gathered in Arid Dragon City that a Mirage Demon from Jiang Province had scouted the Qian family of South City as the Demon Race’s next target. He argued that the Mirage Demon’s presence pointed to the hidden Eternal Demon Alliance coordinating demons across the Eternal Thirteen Provinces.

• Lin Bai said he had met a Mirage Demon in Arid Dragon City and recognized its water-dwelling scent.
• Lin Bai identified the Qian family of South City as the demons’ likely next target, saying the Mirage Demon had surveyed its estate and prepared mist there.
• The Qian family head protested, and Patriarch Zhao questioned why a demon from distant Jiang Province would help Shan Province’s demons.
• Lin Bai suggested that the Eternal Demon Alliance was mobilizing demons across the provinces and had sent the Mirage Demon to Shan Province.
• Lin Bai said the alliance could be directing the campaign behind Shan Province’s three great demon clans, prompting the gathered experts to grow grave.

Lin Bai warned Arid Dragon City’s leaders that the Eternal Demon Alliance had orchestrated Mountain Province’s invasion and urged them to seek help from the Eternal Devil Sect before the city fell. The leaders postponed a decision until dusk, while the three commerce presidents stayed behind to discuss how to decide Arid Dragon City’s fate.

• Lin Bai explained how the Eternal Demon Alliance had arranged the invasion, isolated Mountain Province, and used the Mirage Demon to weaken Arid Dragon City.
• Lin Bai urged Mountain Province’s martial artists to seek aid from the Eternal Devil Sect and warned that Arid Dragon City’s fall would leave them facing surrender, flight, or defeat.
• The Azure Dragon Commerce president accepted Lin Bai’s warning and called for the three commerces and remaining lineages to vote at dusk on whether to fight or seek peace.
• The Azure Dragon Commerce president thanked Lin Bai and had Zhong Yuan escort him to rest at the commerce.
• After Lin Bai left, the presidents of Treasure Seeking Commerce and Sky Beam Commerce rejoined the Azure Dragon Commerce president, who said the three commerces would decide Arid Dragon City’s course.

The presidents of Azure Dragon Commerce, Treasure Seeking Commerce, and Sky Beam Commerce agreed that Arid Dragon City would fight the Demon Race and trusted Qing Luo’s warning about the Eternal Demon Alliance. They decided to send cultivation resources to the Eternal Devil Sect to secure its intervention, leaving the three guilds committed to contributing one-tenth of their foundations.

• The president of Sky Beam Commerce rejected surrender, arguing that it would betray Arid Dragon City and anger its martial artists.
• The presidents of Azure Dragon Commerce and Treasure Seeking Commerce also declared that their guilds would fight the Demon Race.
• The three presidents judged Qing Luo’s account of the Demon Race’s alliance and plans to be credible.
• The presidents agreed that Mountain Province needed experts from the Eternal Devil Sect and discussed sending them cultivation resources.
• The presidents approved contributing one-tenth of their foundations to the Eternal Devil Sect.

Arid Dragon City chose to fight the Demon Race and pool one-tenth of each family's foundation to seek help from the Eternal Devil Sect. Lin Bai wrote a letter exposing the Eternal Demon Alliance, while the city prepared to defend the Qian Family from an expected attack.

• The presidents announced that Arid Dragon City would resist the Demon Race and send one-tenth of its foundations to the Eternal Devil Sect for reinforcements.
• Lin Bai explained that surrender would leave Mountain Province’s humans facing expulsion or death, and the gathered experts accepted his reasoning.
• The Azure Dragon Commerce president said the city would send its resources in nine escorted groups, and Lin Bai wrote a letter describing the Eternal Demon Alliance for the Sect Master.
• The Azure Dragon Commerce president urged the city to capture the Demon Race inside Arid Dragon City and asked whether the Qian Family was their next target.
• Lin Bai predicted an attack on the Qian Family within seven days, but warned the Qian Family Head not to underestimate the Demon Race.

Lin Bai warned the Qian Family Head that the Demon Race might attack with more than thirty Dao God-level demons, prompting Arid Dragon City’s forces to organize a counterattack and reinforce the Qian family. After helping shape the plan, Lin Bai left pleased by the power of wisdom, wealth, status, authority, and beauty beyond cultivation.

• Lin Bai warned the Qian Family Head that the Demon Race likely had more than thirty Dao God-level demons and that the Mirage Demon’s mist could weaken their opponents.
• The Qian Family Head feared his family could not face the demons alone, and the three great commerces and other forces pledged reinforcements.
• The forces in the meeting hall devised a plan to ambush the Demon Race and keep their preparations secret.
• Lin Bai declined Azure Dragon Commerce’s invitation and returned to Azure Dragon Inn while the commerces prepared resources for the Eternal Devil Sect.
• Lin Bai told Zhou Xi he was pleased to have discovered that wisdom, wealth, status, authority, and beauty could wield power beyond cultivation.

Lin Bai’s sword heart transformed as he reflected on power and cultivation, while he waited in Arid Dragon City for the Demon Race’s next move. A report of strange white mist near the Qian family sent him and Zhou Xi rushing to South City to investigate.

• Lin Bai’s sword heart transformed on his walk back to Azure Dragon Inn, advancing his cultivation and condensing the Dao intent of the Heaven Swallowing Dao Fruit.
• Lin Bai checked Sun Yao’s recovery and warned her and Liu Jiangxue to remain at Azure Dragon Inn because the Demon Race was rampant in the city.
• Zhong Yuan and Liang Ke told Lin Bai that the three great merchant associations had sent one-tenth of Arid Dragon City’s reserves toward the Eternal Devil Sect and expected its experts to arrive in about a month.
• Zhou Xi told Lin Bai that a sentry had spotted a wisp of white mist near the Qian family’s residence in South City.
• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi hurried to the Qian family’s residence to investigate the sign of a possible Demon Race attack.

Lin Bai noticed that the seemingly peaceful Qian family estate was repeating the same movements in a cycle, revealing that a formation concealed what was happening inside. He broke the formation, exposing white mist and the sounds of fierce battle, and left the three merchant associations facing the Qian family’s crisis.

• Liang Ke and Zhong Yuan brought Lin Bai to the three merchant association presidents, who watched the apparently normal Qian family estate from a nearby restaurant.
• Lin Bai spotted that the estate’s lantern, bamboo, and patrols repeated the same motions and expressions at fixed intervals.
• The presidents sent more than ten martial artists to question the Qian family steward, who insisted that nothing unusual had happened.
• Lin Bai flew above the estate and used the Ban-Breaking Dao Art to strike its formation with his Demon Sword.
• Lin Bai shattered the formation, revealing white mist across the Qian family estate and the sounds of violent battle within.

Lin Bai broke the Mirage Demon’s fog over the Qian Family residence, exposing an attack by twenty-seven powerful demons. The demons escaped the commerces’ counterattack, and a Dao God expert identified one of them as Hu Lin, the former Hell Bat King of Wang Province.

• Lin Bai cleaved through the fog around the Qian Family residence and revealed twenty-seven Dao God demons attacking it.
• Lin Bai retreated and alerted the three commerce presidents, who led their experts into battle against the demons.
• The Twenty-Seven Demons broke through the encirclement and escaped despite being attacked by numerous Dao God experts.
• The Qian Family Head blamed the commerce presidents for failing to answer his call for help, and Lin Bai explained that the Mirage Demon had made him imagine sending it.
• A Dao God expert identified one demon as Hu Lin, the former Hell Bat King of Heavenly God Mountain in Wang Province.

Lin Bai and Zhou Xi returned to Azure Dragon Inn after the Twenty-Seven Demons escaped the Qian Lineage, leaving Arid Dragon City’s defenders badly weakened. The demons then struck across the city in their true forms, and Lin Bai realized they had turned their defeat at the Qian Lineage into a successful attack on Arid Dragon City.

• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi left the Qian Lineage compound as martial artists rushed toward it, and Zhou Xi noted how badly the battle had weakened the Qian Lineage.
• Lin Bai worried that the escaped Twenty-Seven Demons would strike again before Eternal Devil Sect experts arrived in Shan Province.
• A giant black eagle flew over Arid Dragon City, destroying buildings and killing martial artists as it headed toward East City.
• Lin Bai saw demon kings rampaging through all four districts, including a three-headed White Ape, a mountain-sized black bat, and a seven-colored snake demon.
• Lin Bai concluded that the demons had exploited the defenders’ focus on the Qian Lineage to attack the rest of Arid Dragon City and turn their defeat into victory.

After the Twenty-Seven Demons began slaughtering Arid Dragon City, Lin Bai realized the city was on the verge of collapse and warned the Azure Dragon Commerce to prioritize protecting the City Protection Formation. He returned to the inn, leaving the city’s survival in the hands of the three great merchant associations.

• The Twenty-Seven Demons revealed their true forms and rampaged through Arid Dragon City, killing martial artists and causing the city's morale to collapse.
• Lin Bai told Zhou Xi that Arid Dragon City would fall if its people fled in panic, then headed back to the inn to protect those around him.
• Lin Bai warned President Azure Dragon that opening the City Protection Formation could let hidden demonic armies flood into the city.
• President Azure Dragon agreed to deploy martial artists to guard the formation while asking Lin Bai to find a way to save Arid Dragon City.
• Lin Bai told Zhou Xi to take Sun Yao and Liu Jiangxue through the secret passage if anything went wrong, then hoped the three great merchant associations could hold the formation.

Di Lin’s plan relied on the panic in Arid Dragon City driving its warriors to break through the City Protection Formation, while Lin Bai warned Zhou Xi that the Twenty-Seven Demons aimed to exploit the chaos. They reached East City and found that the Azure Dragon Inn had been destroyed by wind blades from a passing black eagle.

• Di Lin explained that the Twenty-Seven Demons had stirred up panic so the city’s warriors would force open the City Protection Formation and expose Arid Dragon City to an attack from outside.
• Lin Bai told Zhou Xi that the demons could not kill billions of warriors quickly and would likely hide again unless the City Protection Formation failed.
• Lin Bai wondered how an ordinary, weak warrior could survive the crisis in Arid Dragon City.
• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi arrived at the Azure Dragon Inn and found it reduced to ruins, with countless warriors dead beneath the rubble.
• Lin Bai saw a black eagle flying away and realized the wind blades from its wings had destroyed the inn and the buildings along the street.

Lin Bai and Zhou Xi found the Azure Dragon Inn in ruins and feared Sun Yao and the Liu Jiangxue sisters had died, but Sun Yao contacted Lin Bai and said they had escaped. As they hurried to East City Gate to meet her, they found millions of martial artists demanding that the gate be opened, unaware that breaking the city’s defenses would leave them vulnerable to the Demon Race.

• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi searched the ruins of the Azure Dragon Inn and found no trace of Sun Yao or the Liu Jiangxue sisters.
• Sun Yao sent Lin Bai a message saying that she, Liu Jiangxue, and Liu An'an had escaped and were waiting at East City Gate.
• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi hurried to East City Gate, where a huge crowd demanded that the three great merchant associations open the gates.
• Lin Bai recognized that breaking the City Protection Formation would let the Demon Race attack the city and endanger everyone inside and outside.
• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi pushed through the crowd toward Sun Yao, and Lin Bai's glare frightened a man into letting him pass.

Lin Bai found Sun Yao, Liu Jiangxue, and Liu An'an at the East City Gate and angrily confronted them for fleeing without contacting him. He told them to stay inside Arid Dragon City, and Sun Yao chose to trust him despite Su Kong warning that the demons would kill them.

• Lin Bai and Zhou Xi reached the East City Gate, where Su Kong was urging martial artists to break through the city-protecting formation and escape.
• Lin Bai reunited with Sun Yao, Liu Jiangxue, and Liu An'an, then scolded the women for not contacting him after escaping the Azure Dragon Inn.
• Su Kong defended the women and claimed he had saved them, but Lin Bai accused him of leading them toward death and dismissed him.
• Lin Bai told Sun Yao and Liu Jiangxue to return with him and stay inside Arid Dragon City.
• Su Kong grabbed Sun Yao and warned her that remaining in the city meant certain death, but she said she trusted Lin Bai more than herself.

Lin Bai tried to keep his group inside Arid Dragon City, but Su Kong blocked them and urged Sun Yao to leave with him. As the city guards and martial artists rebelled against the three great merchant associations, Lin Bai stopped a guard from urging the crowd to break out and prepared to address everyone.

• Sun Yao rejected Su Kong’s offer of protection and chose to stay with Lin Bai.
• Su Kong’s martial artists blocked Lin Bai’s group, and Su Kong argued that fleeing Arid Dragon City was their only chance to survive.
• A city guard announced that the three great merchant associations had refused to open the city pass, then urged the crowd to break out of the city.
• The gathered martial artists rallied behind the guard, and Lin Bai feared their rebellion would threaten the city.
• Lin Bai leaped onto the city wall, pointed his sword at the guard, and announced himself as Qing Luo, an inner disciple of the Eternal Devil Sect and the new master of Sword Hiding Hermitage.