Chapter Summaries

Lin Bai planned the Tianshui Sect’s search for the Twelfth Prince’s Posthumous Child and agreed that Qiao Mo and Qin Yao should seek information in the Dark World. Chen Yule then visited Lin Bai, and they discussed the Chen Family’s decision not to intervene in the Tianshui Sect’s battle with the Heaven and Earth Gate.

• Lin Bai told the Tianshui Sect elders that rescuing the Posthumous Child was their priority and that they should wait for the Third Prince to act before provoking other factions.
• Lin Bai suspected that someone in the Zhao Xing Office might be concealing information about the child, so he ordered the search to remain secret.
• Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Fang Yuanshu, and Ye Guyu went to the Dark World to gather information, while the Second Elder and Fifteenth Elder went to protect Prince Chen.
• Chen Yule and Chen Yun visited Lin Bai at the Tianshui Sect’s temporary palace.
• Chen Yule apologized for the Chen Family’s failure to assist the Tianshui Sect, and Lin Bai said that outside intervention could have turned the Water Mirror Sea battle into a wider conflict.

Lin Bai tried to draw the Chen Family toward Prince Chen, but Chen Yule said the family’s Ancestor would decide its allegiance. Lin Bai then asked Chen Yule about the Second Prince’s suspicious death, hoping to find evidence that would turn the Chen Family against the Third Prince.

• Lin Bai asked Chen Yule whether the Chen Family had decided which side to support at the Chu Emperor’s Birthday Celebration, and Chen Yule said the family’s Ancestor was now in charge.
• Chen Yule suggested that he and Lin Bai could become friends, while both acknowledged they would fight without restraint if they became enemies.
• Lin Bai considered how the Chen Family and Sacred Lotus Palace might support Prince Chen, since both suspected the Third Prince had a hand in the First Prince’s and Second Prince’s deaths.
• Lin Bai told Chen Yule that he wanted to know more about the Second Prince, and Chen Yule realized Lin Bai hoped to uncover evidence against the Third Prince.

Lin Bai heard Chen Yule recount how the Second Prince died in a sealed chamber during cultivation, despite heavy security and no sign of an intruder. Lin Bai questioned whether cultivation deviation could explain the death, leaving Chen Yule and Chen Yun alert to the possibility that the case had been misunderstood.

• Lin Bai asked Chen Yule about the Second Prince, and Chen Yule explained that the prince's life tablet shattered while he was secluded in a sealed chamber.
• The Zhao Xing Office and imperial experts concluded that the Second Prince had died from cultivation deviation, and the Chen Family's long investigation found no evidence of murder.
• Chen Yule described how Chen Family experts, imperial clan elders, and Zhao Xing Office martial artists guarded the palace, while the Mountain, River, Sun, and Moon Chart detected no other powerful martial artists nearby.
• Lin Bai said the imperial clan should have had treasures to suppress inner demons and questioned how a cultivator preparing for a breakthrough could still have them.
• Lin Bai asked Chen Yule whether he had inner demons, and Chen Yule replied that his sword could slay every inner demon in his heart.

Lin Bai agreed to investigate the Second Prince’s mysterious death and visited the Celestial Mystery Pavilion to collect his Grand Yi Golden Pill and check on two treasures. Ren Xin revealed that the Heaven Measuring Ruler and Sea God Pearl had both been reforged, leaving Lin Bai eager to see their restored power.

• Chen Yule explained that the First and Second Princes had both died from cultivation deviation and offered the Chen Family’s support if Lin Bai found evidence of the Second Prince’s true cause of death.
• Chen Yule told Lin Bai that the Celestial Mystery Pavilion had refined his Grand Yi Golden Pill and that many Holy Sons were cultivating to reach the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm.
• After Chen Yule and Chen Yun left, Lin Bai went to the Celestial Mystery Pavilion to collect the pill and ask Ren Xin about his treasures.
• An attendant recognized Lin Bai and brought him to an elegant chamber to wait for Ren Xin.
• Ren Xin told Lin Bai that he had finished reforging the Heaven Measuring Ruler and Sea God Pearl, then placed the black-gold greatsword and ice-blue orb before him.

Lin Bai discovered that Ren Xin had reforged the Heaven Measuring Ruler with Divine Tears Immortal Gold, making it a supreme-grade Dao Divine Weapon weighing a million jin. Ren Xin explained that he had saved the rare metal for a worthy wielder, and had chosen Lin Bai.

• Lin Bai lifted the reforged Heaven Measuring Ruler and realized its immense weight revealed his breakthrough to the Great Purity Dao Fruit Realm.
• Ren Xin revealed that he had fused Divine Tears Immortal Gold, one of the Demon Realm’s nine famous divine metals, into the weapon.
• Lin Bai lightly swung the Heaven Measuring Ruler, shaking the Celestial Mystery Pavilion and triggering its protective formations.
• Lin Bai asked why Ren Xin had given him such a precious metal, and Ren Xin said he had sought a peerless wielder for it for five thousand years.
• Ren Xin explained that the prodigies he had considered, including the First Prince and Second Prince, had died, and that he had chosen Lin Bai after meeting him.

Ren Xin explained why he had forged the Heaven Measuring Ruler for Lin Bai and urged him to carry it to the top of the Demon Realm. When Lin Bai asked about the First Prince and Second Prince’s deaths, Ren Xin avoided answering but offered to help him leave the imperial capital, and Lin Bai refused.

• Ren Xin said he had abandoned plans to forge weapons for princes after the First Prince and Second Prince died, then chose Lin Bai as a worthy bearer for Divine Tears Immortal Gold.
• Ren Xin explained that he had fused the Divine Tears Immortal Gold into the Heaven Measuring Ruler and gave the weapon to Lin Bai, hoping it would make both their names famous.
• Lin Bai asked Ren Xin whether he knew anything about the princes’ deaths, and Ren Xin warned that the Celestial Mystery Pavilion stayed out of the struggle for the throne.
• Ren Xin denied knowing anything and told Lin Bai to leave with the Heaven Measuring Ruler and Sea God Pearl, but Lin Bai said he could not escape the conflict and would not leave the imperial capital.
• Ren Xin asked why Lin Bai wanted to investigate the princes’ deaths, and Lin Bai insisted there was something to gain and urged him to reveal any secrets he knew.

Lin Bai learned that Ren Xin had uncovered a clue linking the First Prince and Second Prince’s suspicious deaths to a poison called the God-Devil Calamity. An attacker struck before Ren Xin could explain further, leaving him gravely wounded as the assailant fled.

• Lin Bai explained why exposing the princes’ deaths could help Prince Chen gain the support of the Chen Family and Sacred Lotus Palace.
• Ren Xin agreed to reveal what he knew and took Lin Bai to a concealed courtyard in the Imperial Capital.
• Ren Xin recalled investigating the First Prince’s death and said both princes had died suspiciously in sealed chambers, supposedly from cultivation deviation.
• Ren Xin revealed that he had found traces of the God-Devil Calamity poison at the First Prince’s sleeping palace.
• A storm of silver needles pierced Ren Xin, and Lin Bai saw a figure flee into the darkness.

Ren Xin died after an assassin poisoned him, but not before revealing that the Third Prince was behind several princes’ deaths and that the God-Devil Calamity Poison came from Southern Border Insect Valley. Lin Bai failed to catch the assassin and left the Zhao Xing Office to investigate the conspiracy himself.

• An assassin struck Ren Xin with poisoned silver needles, and Ren Xin told Lin Bai that the Third Prince had harmed several princes before dying in his arms.
• Ren Xin urged Lin Bai to find Old Man Wuchuan and keep the Heaven Measuring Ruler from gathering dust.
• Lin Bai pursued the assassin and wounded him, but the black-clad figure escaped with a Universe Shift Talisman.
• Zhao Xing Office martial artists confronted Lin Bai, and Commander Zhu Mo arrived and let him leave after Lin Bai claimed he had stopped a spying attacker.
• Lin Bai concealed Ren Xin’s death and his revelations from Zhu Mo, then left to investigate the princes’ deaths.

After Ren Xin’s death, Lin Bai returned to the Tianshui Sect’s imperial residence and considered the clues he had received about the God-Devil Calamity Poison and Old Man Wuchuan. He tested the reforged Sea God Pearl, then chose to keep the Grand Yi Golden Pill for a future sale.

• Lin Bai suspected that the Third Prince was behind the attack on Ren Xin and resolved to investigate the God-Devil Calamity Poison and Old Man Wuchuan carefully.
• Lin Bai returned to his room at the Tianshui Sect’s imperial residence and examined the Heaven Measuring Ruler, Sea God Pearl, and Grand Yi Golden Pill.
• Lin Bai poured spiritual energy into the Sea God Pearl and condensed ninety thousand drops of Sea God’s Tears before stopping to avoid exhausting his Dao Fruit.
• Lin Bai decided to keep the Grand Yi Golden Pill and sell it at an auction if he got the chance.

Lin Bai learned that the Third Prince’s forces had taken the Twelfth Prince’s posthumous child to the imperial capital, where several groups were searching for him. He concluded that the child was hidden somewhere the Dark World could not infiltrate: within one of the Five Great Families and Seven Sects or the imperial clan.

• Qiao Mo and Qin Yao reported that the Third Prince’s warriors had taken the posthumous child from the Desert North Thousand Provinces and then disappeared.
• Qin Yao explained that seven Cloud Heaven Sword Sect elders involved in the mission had returned to their sect, leading the Dark World to believe the child was in the imperial capital.
• Qiao Mo and Qin Yao told Lin Bai that four groups were searching for the child, though the Dark World could identify only Prince Chen and the Zhao Xing Office.
• Lin Bai reasoned that the Dark World’s failure to find the child was valuable because it revealed the child was likely hidden somewhere the Dark World could not infiltrate.
• Lin Bai concluded that the Third Prince had hidden the posthumous child within the Five Great Families and Seven Sects or the imperial clan.

Lin Bai concluded that the Posthumous Child was likely hidden within the Imperial Clan or among several factions aligned with the Third Prince, narrowing the search to five likely locations. Prince Chen visited Lin Bai after hearing about a disturbance, and Lin Bai concealed the reason for it while receiving his Zhao Xing Office Sword-Bearer Envoy token.

• Lin Bai explained that the Dark World’s failure to locate the Posthumous Child pointed to the Imperial Clan or the Five Great Families and Seven Sects.
• Lin Bai ruled out several factions and narrowed the likely hiding places to the Imperial Clan, the Wen Tian Sect, the Zhao Family, the Sun Family, or the Li Family.
• Prince Chen arrived with Li Guxian and He Qiyun after the formation stopped them at the Tianshui Sect’s temporary palace.
• Lin Bai told Prince Chen that his disturbance in the Southern City had begun with a thief, withholding his conversation with Ren Xin.
• Prince Chen gave Lin Bai the Zhao Xing Office Sword-Bearer Envoy token and reminded him to continue searching for the Posthumous Child.
• Lin Bai told Prince Chen that he already had some leads.

Lin Bai told Prince Chen that the Posthumous Child was likely hidden within the Zhao Family, the Li Family, the Sun Family, or the imperial clan. The next day, Lin Bai used his Sword-Bearer Envoy token to enter the Zhao Xing Office and went with Zhu Mo to its secret archive chamber to search its records.

• Lin Bai explained that the Zhao Xing Office and the Dark World could not investigate the imperial clan or powerful families and sects, narrowing the Posthumous Child’s hiding place to four possibilities.
• Prince Chen entrusted the investigation to Lin Bai, who said he would search the Zhao Xing Office’s records the next day.
• Lin Bai told Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, and the others to rest while he handled the matter.
• Lin Bai showed his Sword-Bearer Envoy token to the guards at the Zhao Xing Office and was admitted.
• Zhu Mo greeted Lin Bai and led him through a formation and underground passage to the secret archive chamber.

Lin Bai toured the Zhao Xing Office’s archive chamber with Zhu Mo and learned how it protected its workers and secret intelligence. After entering the consultation room and presenting his token to Wu Chang, he began to request files.

• Lin Bai marveled at the vast archive chamber as Zhu Mo explained how its masked workers sorted intelligence and concealed their identities.
• Zhu Mo described the archive’s soul-life token checks and severe punishments for anyone who infiltrated it or leaked information.
• Zhu Mo led Lin Bai to a formation that opened a light gate to the archive’s consultation room, where Wu Chang, the Zhao Xing Office’s artifact spirit, would assist him.
• Lin Bai entered the study, presented his Sword-Bearer Envoy’s Identity Token, and was confirmed as authorized to consult files.
• Lin Bai sat in the Grand Preceptor’s chair and began to state which files he wanted to retrieve.

Lin Bai accessed the Zhao Xing Office archives to investigate the First Prince’s death and Old Man Wuchuan, but could not view the sealed records about the Twelfth Prince. He learned that the First Prince’s death had officially been ruled cultivation deviation and discovered the Zhao Xing Office had documented nearly every detail of Wuchuan’s life.

• Lin Bai asked Wu Chang to retrieve the records concerning the Twelfth Prince, but she said only the Office Director and the Emperor of Chu could access them.
• Lin Bai requested the First Prince’s death records and read that an extensive investigation had found no intrusion into his sealed cultivation chamber and ruled that he died from cultivation deviation.
• Lin Bai noticed that Old Man Wuchuan had participated in the investigation as the Celestial Mystery Pavilion’s chief artifact refiner.
• Lin Bai asked Wu Chang for Wuchuan’s records and found a remarkably detailed account of his family, relationships, and private activities.
• Lin Bai became wary of the Zhao Xing Office after seeing how thoroughly it tracked people’s lives.

Lin Bai read Old Man Wuchuan’s biography and the records of the First and Second Princes’ deaths, finding that Wuchuan had investigated both cases before leaving the capital. He suspected Wuchuan had fled amid a growing succession crisis, then requested a dossier on the Southern Border Insect Valley calamity.

• Lin Bai learned from Old Man Wuchuan’s dossier that the master artifact refiner had left the Celestial Mystery Pavilion and returned to Phoenix Luck City a thousand years earlier.
• Lin Bai read the Second Prince’s death investigation and found that it had concluded he died from cultivation deviation, just like the First Prince.
• Lin Bai noted that Old Man Wuchuan and chief alchemist Ye Danyang had participated in both investigations.
• Lin Bai compared the dates of the princes’ deaths and Wuchuan’s departure, then suspected Wuchuan had left the capital after sensing turmoil surrounding the imperial family.
• Lin Bai requested and received the dossier titled “The Seventy-Five King Poisons of the Southern Border Insect Valley—the God-Devil Calamity.”

Lin Bai investigated the deaths of the First Prince and Second Prince, then spent three months studying records on Chu’s Five Great Families and Seven Sects. After Chu Emperor learned that Lin Bai had accessed restricted dossiers, he realized that only he could inspect them.

• Lin Bai read that the Gods and Devils Calamity was a secret poison of Southern Border Insect Valley and suspected the valley might be involved in the princes’ deaths.
• Lin Bai decided to seek answers from Old Man Wuchuan in Phoenix Luck City and then requested dossiers on Chu’s Five Great Families and Seven Sects.
• Lin Bai spent three months reading thousands of dossiers, including an unusually large collection on Tianshui Sect, before Wu Chang denied his request to inspect records on the imperial clan.
• Lin Bai left the Zhao Xing Office, where Zhu Mo had waited for him, and Zhu Mo later reported his archive visit to Chu Emperor.
• Chu Emperor learned that Lin Bai had accessed several dossiers beyond Zhu Mo’s authority and concluded that only he could inspect them.

Emperor Chu secretly examined the files Lin Bai had reviewed and realized that the First Prince and Second Prince may have been killed by God-Devil Calamity. He suspected Lin Bai had uncovered the truth behind their deaths, leaving him shocked and furious.

• Emperor Chu ordered Zhu Mo to keep Lin Bai's archive visit secret, even from Prince Chen.
• Emperor Chu had Miss Wu Chang retrieve and sort every file Lin Bai had reviewed.
• Miss Wu Chang identified files about the First Prince's and Second Prince's deaths, Old Man Wuchuan, God-Devil Calamity, and the Five Great Families and Seven Sects of Chu.
• Emperor Chu read the files about the princes' deaths and Old Man Wuchuan, wondering why Lin Bai had sought them.
• Emperor Chu read the God-Devil Calamity file and realized its dormant poison could have caused the princes' deaths during their cultivation breakthroughs.
• Emperor Chu connected the poison to the princes' deaths and concluded that Lin Bai had found their true cause.

Emperor Chu let Lin Bai investigate the deaths of the First Prince and Second Prince and summoned Old Man Wuchuan and Prince Chen to the palace. Suspecting that Prince Chen might also have been poisoned, Lin Bai went to see him but waited at his residence, where Steward Zhou Wang gave him a travel journal of the imperial capital.

• Emperor Chu decided to let Lin Bai investigate and ordered Zhu Mo to summon Old Man Wuchuan from Cang Province Phoenix Luck City and Prince Chen to the palace.
• Lin Bai reasoned that the God-Devil Calamity Poison might have killed the First Prince and Second Prince during secluded cultivation, and wondered whether Prince Chen had also been poisoned.
• Lin Bai went to Prince Chen's Residence, but Zhou Wang told him that Prince Chen had just left after being summoned by Emperor Chu.
• Lin Bai waited for Prince Chen and asked Zhou Wang about the imperial capital's sights.
• Zhou Wang gave Lin Bai a travel journal of the imperial capital of Chu, and Lin Bai began reading it.

Lin Bai told Prince Chen that the First and Second Princes had likely been killed by the God-Devil Calamity Poison and warned him that he might also be poisoned. Prince Chen agreed to be cautious and asked Lin Bai to accompany him in receiving the Demon Realm’s powerful guests for the Chu Emperor’s upcoming birthday celebration.

• Prince Chen told Lin Bai that the Chu Emperor had ordered him to avoid closed-door cultivation and prepare to receive envoys for the birthday celebration.
• Lin Bai explained the God-Devil Calamity Poison and revealed that he suspected it had killed the First and Second Princes.
• Prince Chen dismissed Zhou Wang and activated the study’s formation so Lin Bai could explain his investigation in private.
• Lin Bai said exposing the princes’ deaths could help Prince Chen win the support of the Chen Family and Sacred Lotus Palace, and warned that Prince Chen might also be poisoned.
• Prince Chen thanked Lin Bai, reaffirmed his promise, and asked him to accompany him when he received the Demon Realm’s top forces.

While Lin Bai remained in the imperial capital, he and the Tianshui Sect disciples assisted the Zhao Xing Office as demonic cultivators and heretical sects caused growing disorder. With the search for the Posthumous Child stalled, Lin Bai decided to approach the Saint Sons of the Zhao, Li, and Sun Lineages for answers.

• Lin Bai remained in the capital, where Qiao Mo, Qin Yao, Fang Yuanshu, Ye Guyu, and Tianshui Sect elders served as guest officials of the Zhao Xing Office and helped capture criminals.
• Qiao Mo and Qin Yao told Lin Bai that the Radiant Holy Sect and Wind Rain Sect were causing trouble, prompting Prince Chen to order a manhunt and send confirmed offenders to the Inferno.
• Qiao Mo and Qin Yao reported that they had found no clues to the Posthumous Child, whom Lin Bai suspected the Third Prince had hidden in one of four lineages or the imperial clan.
• Lin Bai decided to seek meetings with the Saint Sons of the Zhao, Li, and Sun Lineages, believing they might know where the Posthumous Child was hidden.