Chapter Summaries

Lin Bai and the first batch of Core Disciples entered the Grand Yi Secret Realm to attempt breakthroughs to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm. Zhang Bailiu gave Lin Bai five hundred thousand Immortal Jades, leaving Lin Bai determined to stake everything on succeeding.

• Zu Zhangbai led Lin Bai and twenty-four other Dao God Realm martial artists to the Grand Yi Secret Realm, where Zhang Bailiu explained its purpose and invited them to exchange their battle merits.
• Bai Yifei, Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Ye Guyu, Fang Yuanshu, Zhou Xinjin, and the other disciples exchanged their battle merits for Immortal Jades before entering the secret realm.
• After the others had gone inside, Lin Bai asked Zhang Bailiu whether the Identity Tokens of the Heaven and Earth Gate spies he had killed counted as battle merits.
• Zhang Bailiu counted Lin Bai's Identity Tokens and awarded him one hundred and ninety thousand Immortal Jades for them, then secretly gave him another five hundred thousand because Lin Bai was a member of the Heaven Swallowing Race.
• Lin Bai thanked Zhang Bailiu and entered the Grand Yi Secret Realm, while Zhang Bailiu hoped that at least ten of the twenty-five disciples would break through.

Lin Bai searched the Grand Yi Secret Realm for a mountain peak with enough Dao Resonance to support his breakthrough to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm. After giving Ye Guyu a strong peak and failing to find anything better, he saw a radiant light erupt ahead.

• Lin Bai entered the Grand Yi Secret Realm and learned that its mountain peaks held varying amounts of Dao Resonance, where martial artists could break through undisturbed.
• Lin Bai searched the peaks and gave Ye Guyu the mountain where Dao Resonance flowed like a small river, allowing her to begin her breakthrough.
• Bai Yifei, Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Fang Yuanshu, and Zhou Xinjin each found suitable peaks and began preparing to break through.
• Lin Bai continued searching for a peak with denser Dao Resonance than the small-river variety, but found none after several hours.
• As Lin Bai prepared to settle for one of the peaks he had found, a radiant light shot into the sky ahead and struck his eyes.

Lin Bai found the densest Dao Resonance in the Grand Yi Secret Realm and began preparing to break through to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm. His contemplation made him realize that he longed to return to the Barren Ancient Continent and the people he considered home, and he began his breakthrough with that resolve.

• Lin Bai discovered a mountaintop where Dao Resonance cascaded like a Milky Way and activated its protective formation.
• Lin Bai sat among the lingering traces of his Tianshui Sect forebears and used his Mind's Eye to contemplate the worlds and the creation of heaven and earth.
• Lin Bai realized he could not find his own Dao and felt a powerful longing to return to the Barren Ancient Continent and his family and friends.
• Lin Bai took a Great Purity Evergreen Pill and used the Devouring Dao Physique to absorb the energy of one hundred thousand immortal jades.
• Lin Bai vowed to return to his loved ones and began charging toward the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm.

Lin Bai consumed large quantities of immortal jades to attempt a breakthrough in the Grand Yi Secret Realm while three Tianshui Sect elders guarded the cultivators. As they waited anxiously, Shen Chunfeng warned that the Heaven Swallowing Race had once helped the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace rise—and that hidden conspiracies lay behind its destruction.

• Lin Bai crushed batch after batch of one hundred thousand immortal jades to refine his Heaven Swallowing Dao Fruit and break through to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm.
• Zhang Bailiu, Shen Chunfeng, and Pan Qing guarded the Grand Yi Secret Realm while the Tianshui Sect's formations shielded the breakthrough from outside interference.
• After nearly three months without anyone emerging, the elders worried about the results of the Rebirth Plan and Zhang Bailiu's enormous investment in Lin Bai.
• Pan Qing recalled that the master who led the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace to dominance a hundred thousand years ago belonged to the Heaven Swallowing Race.
• Shen Chunfeng warned Zhang Bailiu that Qi Tian Sect and Ten Thousand Saints Mountain had been pawns in the conspiracy behind the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace's destruction.
• Zhang Bailiu insisted the Tianshui Sect had to risk the plan to survive and vowed to take full responsibility if it failed.

After six disciples failed to break through in the Grand Yi Secret Realm, Qiao Mo and nine others emerged as Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm cultivators. Lin Bai remained inside for five months, and the chapter ended as the light gate stirred, signaling that he was about to emerge.

• Zhang Bailiu comforted the first disciple to leave the Grand Yi Secret Realm after failing to break through.
• Five more disciples emerged and failed, leaving the patriarchs worried as six of the twenty-five attempts had ended in failure.
• Qiao Mo emerged as the seventh disciple and successfully broke through to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm; she asked to wait for Lin Bai with the patriarchs.
• Qin Yao, Fang Yuanshu, Ye Guyu, Tang Wei, Zhou Xinjin, Bai Yifei, and others also succeeded, bringing the total to ten successes and fourteen failures.
• After Lin Bai remained in the secret realm for five months, the light gate flickered and the patriarchs, Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, and the others watched in anticipation as he began to emerge.

Lin Bai emerged from the Grand Yi Secret Realm after breaking through to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm, displaying an aura far stronger than the other newly advanced cultivators. The eleven successful martial artists were named Great Purity Elders, and Lin Bai joined his companions to celebrate while the ancestors prepared another group to enter the realm.

• Lin Bai left the light gate, and his overwhelming Great Purity Dao Fruit aura astonished the gathered martial artists and ancestors.
• Lin Bai confirmed his breakthrough and congratulated the other ten martial artists who had also advanced.
• Zhang Bailiu told the eleven successful martial artists to stabilize their cultivation and announced that they would become Great Purity Elders, except Lin Bai, who remained the Saint Son.
• Bai Yifei, Zhou Xinjin, and Lin Bai agreed to celebrate their breakthroughs with wine as Zhang Bailiu, Shen Chunfeng, and Pan Qing arranged the next group’s entry into the Grand Yi Secret Realm.

After breaking through to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm, Lin Bai and his close companions celebrated with Bai Yifei’s powerful Clear Water Brew, then received word that Prince Chen’s envoy had arrived. Lin Bai went to welcome the envoy while his friends warned that the visit might involve more than congratulations.

• Lin Bai, Bai Yifei, Zhou Xinjin, Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Fang Yuanshu, and Ye Guyu gathered on Bright Moon Island to celebrate their breakthroughs with Clear Water Brew.
• Bai Yifei explained how he had brewed the wine and mourned Mu Huaqing and Li Yuanzong; Zhou Xinjin apologized to Lin Bai for having once mistrusted him.
• The group drank for three days and nights, and some of them let go of their old grudges.
• A disciple told Lin Bai that Prince Chen’s envoy had arrived to congratulate the Tianshui Sect and Lin Bai, and that the Sect Master wanted him at the Overturned Water Hall.
• Qin Yao warned Lin Bai that the envoy’s visit might not be a simple congratulatory call, and Lin Bai set out for the mountain gate with Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, and Ye Guyu.

Lin Bai met Princess Leping Li Guxian and He Qiyun, Prince Chen’s envoys, at Tianshui Sect and asked about the crisis in the imperial capital. Li Guxian said the Third Prince had revived old grievances and put Prince Chen in danger of being exiled, but the chapter ended before she explained what had happened.

• Zhang Bailiu told Lin Bai that the Third Prince had attacked Prince Chen in the capital and that Emperor Chu had nearly sent him back to his fief.
• Li Guxian and He Qiyun arrived at Tianshui Sect as Prince Chen’s envoys, and Li Guxian reassured Chu Xi that Prince Chen had survived the crisis.
• Zhang Bailiu hosted a banquet for the envoys, then left Lin Bai and the women to speak privately.
• Li Guxian scolded Lin Bai for drinking despite knowing about their visit, and He Qiyun said they had notified the sect a month earlier.
• Lin Bai asked about the capital, and Li Guxian said the Third Prince had revived old grievances, leaving Prince Chen at risk of being exiled by Emperor Chu.

Li Guxian and Sect Master Chu Xi revealed that the Third Prince had accused the Twelfth Prince’s surviving child of plotting rebellion, sparking a court crisis over Prince Chen’s efforts to protect him. Chu Xi began recounting the events a thousand years earlier and revealed that Emperor Chu had caught the Twelfth Prince with Consort Xuan.

• Li Guxian told Chu Xi that the Third Prince had reported the Twelfth Prince’s grown child in the Desert North Thousand Provinces to Emperor Chu as a rebel, while Prince Chen tried to protect him.
• Chu Xi warned Lin Bai, Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Li Guxian, and He Qiyun to keep the imperial secret, then described how the deaths of the First and Second Princes left the Third, Eighth, Twelfth, and Seventh Princes as major contenders for the throne.
• Chu Xi explained that the Twelfth Prince was a virtuous and accomplished governor and commander whom Emperor Chu cherished.
• Chu Xi said that a thousand years earlier, the Zhao Xing Office discovered the Twelfth Prince had entered the palace, and Emperor Chu went to Consort Xuan’s chamber with its experts.
• Chu Xi revealed that Emperor Chu caught the Twelfth Prince and Consort Xuan together, shocking Lin Bai and the others.

Chu Xi recounted the scandal that led to the Twelfth Prince’s execution and Prince Chen’s exile, while Lin Bai and Li Guxian pieced together the struggle over the Twelfth Prince’s surviving descendant. The descendant had vanished before Prince Chen and the Zhao Xing Office arrived, and Lin Bai suspected the Third Prince had taken him to use against Prince Chen.

• Chu Xi told Lin Bai, Qiao Mo, and Qin Yao how Emperor Chu executed the Twelfth Prince and Consort Xuan, exiled Prince Chen, and drove the Eighth Prince and Chu Xi from the capital.
• Lin Bai asked about the Third Prince’s role, and Chu Xi explained that Emperor Chu had personally handled the case and secretly executed the Zhao Xing Office martial artists who investigated it.
• Li Guxian said Prince Chen and the Zhao Xing Office had both gone to the Desert North Thousand Provinces after learning the Twelfth Prince had a surviving descendant, but the descendant had disappeared before they arrived.
• Li Guxian revealed that a group of martial artists had reached the Desert North Thousand Provinces three days earlier and taken the descendant away.
• Lin Bai reasoned that the Third Prince had arranged the abduction so he could hide the descendant and later use him against Prince Chen.

Lin Bai learned more about the royal secrets and agreed to travel to the imperial capital at Prince Chen’s urgent request. Tianshui Sect prepared a powerful escort, but Lin Bai insisted Bai Yifei and Zhou Xinjin stay behind, warning that he might die on the journey.

• Chu Xi told Lin Bai that Emperor Chu had executed the Twelfth Prince, Consort Xuan, and the Zhao Xing Office martial artists who knew of their affair, and Lin Bai suspected the Third Prince’s people had taken the Posthumous Child.
• Li Guxian invited Lin Bai to the imperial capital to help Prince Chen, and Chu Xi confirmed that Tianshui Sect supported sending him.
• Lin Bai agreed to depart the next day as Prince Chen’s situation in the imperial capital grew urgent.
• Zhang Bailiu ordered Lin Bai, Bai Yifei, Zhou Xinjin, Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, and five elders to assist Prince Chen.
• Lin Bai asked Bai Yifei and Zhou Xinjin to remain at the sect, explaining that Bai Yifei could become Saint Son if Lin Bai died in the imperial capital.

Lin Bai prepared to travel to the Imperial Capital to help Prince Chen, leaving Bai Yifei and Zhou Xinjin behind to protect the Tianshui Sect’s future. Before departing, he learned from Yi Gu that martial artists from across the Demon Realm had gathered in the Imperial Capital for the Chu Emperor’s upcoming birthday celebration.

• Lin Bai asked Bai Yifei to remain with Zhou Xinjin and take responsibility for reviving the Tianshui Sect if he died in the Imperial Capital.
• Zhang Bailiu assigned Bai Yifei and Zhou Xinjin to stay behind while Lin Bai, Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Fang Yuanshu, and Ye Guyu prepared to depart the next day.
• Lin Bai urged Bai Yifei to restore his severed arm with pills and spirit medicines, and Bai Yifei agreed to ask his Master for help.
• Lin Bai told Yi Gu that he was leaving for the Imperial Capital, and Yi Gu warned him to be careful amid the conflict between the Third Prince and Prince Chen.
• Yi Gu explained that the Chu Emperor’s ten-thousand-year birthday celebration was less than two years away and that sects and martial artists from across the Demon Realm had gathered in the Imperial Capital.

Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect group left the Water Mirror Sea for the imperial capital ahead of the Chu Emperor’s ten-thousand-year birthday celebration. The crow joined them and demanded a Green Jade Fragment in exchange for behaving, while the crowded capital awaited the gathering of the Devil Realm’s powers and the announcement of Chu’s next Emperor.

• Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect group boarded a spirit vessel and departed for the imperial capital, with Zhang Bailiu warning Lin Bai to act cautiously.
• Lin Bai and Li Guxian reflected on how their lives had changed, and Lin Bai said he was waiting for a friend.
• A black crow landed on Lin Bai’s shoulder, joined the voyage, and threatened to cause trouble unless Lin Bai gave it a Green Jade Fragment.
• Lin Bai refused the crow’s demand, noting that the Green Jade Fragment could not be found inside their bodies.
• The spirit vessel headed toward the imperial capital, where martial artists from across the Devil Realm had gathered for the Chu Emperor’s birthday celebration and the announcement of the next Emperor.

The Tianshui Sect delegation, led by Lin Bai and Li Guxian, neared the Imperial Capital and found Seven Absolutes City warriors under attack in the surrounding territory. The battle threatened to implicate Prince Chen and provoke a dispute between Chu and the Qi Tian Sect.

• After nine days of travel, the Tianshui Sect spirit ship entered the Imperial Capital’s territory, and the Second Elder told the delegation to follow Lin Bai’s orders.
• Li Guxian ordered the spirit ship toward a battle ahead after explaining that Prince Chen was responsible for security during the Chu Emperor’s Birthday Celebration.
• The delegation found a fierce battle below, with three destroyed spirit ships, widespread casualties, and soldiers from Prince Chen’s Residence gathered near Li Guxian and He Qiyun.
• An old man identified his group as warriors from Seven Absolutes City and pleaded for help against their attackers.
• The Second Elder explained that Seven Absolutes City was one of the Nine Sects of Qi Tian, and Lin Bai recognized that the deaths of its disciples could anger the Chu Emperor and strain relations between Chu and the Qi Tian Sect.

Lin Bai intervened in a battle between Seven Absolutes City and the Soaring Dragon Sect near Chu’s Imperial Capital, then branded the Soaring Dragon Sect fighters as Nine Underworlds Demon Palace remnants and ordered them killed. As his forces moved to attack, the Soaring Dragon Sect’s Saint, Li Yushan, arrived with reinforcements.

• The Second Elder tried to stop the fighting, but the Soaring Dragon Sect elder challenged him and insulted Tianshui Sect.
• Lin Bai accused the Soaring Dragon Sect fighters of being Nine Underworlds Demon Palace remnants and told the Second Elder to kill them.
• Lin Bai sent eight Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm martial artists to attack alongside the Second Elder.
• The Soaring Dragon Sect elder warned that Emperor Chu would be angered, but Lin Bai ordered the attack to continue.
• Li Yushan arrived with hundreds of martial artists, and Li Guxian identified him as the Saint of the Soaring Dragon Sect.

Lin Bai stopped the Soaring Dragon Sect from attacking Seven Absolutes City during the Chu Emperor’s Birthday Celebration preparations and forced both sides to report the incident to the Zhao Xing Office. After the sects departed, reinforcements arrived, including Seven Absolutes City’s Holy Son Lu Qingjun, whose sister Lu Lingjun had been targeted.

• Li Yushan arrived with Soaring Dragon Sect experts and explained that the sect had attacked Seven Absolutes City over a generations-old feud.
• Lin Bai reminded Li Yushan that large-scale sect fighting was forbidden near the imperial capital and told him to report the incident to the Zhao Xing Office.
• Li Yushan withdrew with his disciples, then revealed to a Soaring Dragon Sect elder that he had been plotting to kill Seven Absolutes City’s prodigies, including Lu Lingjun.
• Wang Shougu of Seven Absolutes City thanked Lin Bai for intervening and agreed to report the incident to the Zhao Xing Office.
• Dozens of Great Purity Dao Fruit experts and hundreds of Dao God Realm martial artists arrived, and Lu Qingjun reunited with his sobbing sister Lu Lingjun.
• Li Guxian told Lin Bai that Lu Qingjun was Seven Absolutes City’s Holy Son and that the Soaring Dragon Sect had likely targeted Lu Lingjun.

Lin Bai helped Lu Qingjun and the surviving martial artists of Seven Absolutes City after the Soaring Dragon Sect ambushed them, then urged Lu Qingjun to report the attack to the Zhao Xing Office. As Lin Bai and his companions headed for the Imperial City, he explained that the report could let the Chu Empire use the Soaring Dragon Sect to warn the Qi Tian Sect and other troublemakers.

• Lu Qingjun thanked Lin Bai for saving Lu Lingjun and the martial artists of Seven Absolutes City, and promised to repay him.
• Lu Qingjun explained that Lu Lingjun had secretly left the Imperial City, whereupon the Soaring Dragon Sect attacked them; Lin Bai advised him to report the incident to the Zhao Xing Office.
• Lu Qingjun agreed to report the attack and left with Lu Lingjun and the surviving Seven Absolutes City martial artists.
• Li Guxian, the Second Elder, Qiao Mo, and Qin Yao questioned why Lin Bai wanted the Zhao Xing Office involved, fearing the matter could harm His Highness Prince Chen.
• Lin Bai explained that the Chu Empire could use the Soaring Dragon Sect as a warning to the Qi Tian Sect, and admitted he also wanted to punish the sect for insulting the Tianshui Sect.

Lin Bai and Li Guxian arrived in the Imperial Capital for the Chu Emperor's Birthday Celebration and were welcomed by Prince Chen. At a banquet, Chu Junyou apologized for not helping Tianshui Sect during its fight with the Heaven and Earth Gate, and Lin Bai reassured him that intervening might have made matters worse.

• Lin Bai, Li Guxian, and the Tianshui Sect party entered the crowded Imperial Capital using Li Guxian's passage token as envoys of Prince Chen.
• Zhou Wang met them at the gate on Prince Chen's orders and escorted them in Azure Dragon Beast carriages to Prince Chen's Residence.
• Chu Junyou warmly welcomed Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect party, then hosted them at a banquet and served Dragon Blood Wine.
• After dismissing the musicians and dancers, Chu Junyou apologized to Lin Bai and the Second Elder for failing to assist Tianshui Sect against the Heaven and Earth Gate.
• Lin Bai told Chu Junyou that his intervention could have drawn in the Third Prince and worsened the conflict at Water Mirror Sea.

The Third Prince learned that Lin Bai and nine other Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm martial artists had arrived in the Imperial Capital, while Prince Chen’s favor with the Chu Emperor and alliance with the Tianshui Sect left him politically vulnerable. Old Huo proposed exploiting security failures during the Birthday Celebration to turn the Emperor against Prince Chen, and the Third Prince agreed to wait for an opportunity.

• Old Huo told the Third Prince that Lin Bai and nine other martial artists had arrived and were attending a banquet at Prince Chen’s residence.
• The Third Prince lamented Lin Bai’s role in strengthening Prince Chen and worried that the Tianshui Sect had tied its fate to Prince Chen’s.
• The Third Prince and Old Huo discussed how the Chu Emperor was no longer responding to the Third Prince’s attempts to raise the Twelfth Prince’s surviving heir.
• Old Huo proposed causing repeated chaos during the Birthday Celebration and targeting important sect and clan heirs so the Emperor would blame Prince Chen for failing to secure the Imperial Capital.
• The Third Prince agreed to wait for an opportunity and promised to make Old Huo Imperial Preceptor if Prince Chen lost favor and he became Emperor.

At Prince Chen's Residence, Lin Bai learned that the Third Prince had taken the Twelfth Prince's surviving heir to the Imperial Capital. Prince Chen asked Lin Bai to help find the heir and maintain order during Chu Emperor's Birthday Celebration, and arranged for him to become a Sword-Bearer Envoy of the Zhao Xing Office.

• Prince Chen told Lin Bai that his men had failed to find the Twelfth Prince's Posthumous Child and that he suspected the Third Prince had brought the child to the Imperial Capital.
• Prince Chen asked Lin Bai to find the Twelfth Prince's surviving heir and protect the last trace of his bloodline.
• Prince Chen asked Lin Bai to help maintain order in the Imperial Capital during Chu Emperor's Birthday Celebration, and arranged for him to become a Sword-Bearer Envoy pending Chu Emperor's approval.
• Prince Chen arranged for Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Second Elder, and the nine Tianshui Sect elders to wear Zhao Xing Office robes so they could act more conveniently in the Imperial Capital.
• Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect group thanked Prince Chen and returned to Tianshui Sect's palace in the Imperial Capital.