Chapter Summaries

Chu Mu learned that a Golden Core True Person’s defection had damaged Jingmen’s protective array and injured the Nascent Soul Cultivator whose Lifebound Treasure powered it. As he took charge of equipment maintenance on the besieged city wall, he realized the array’s ongoing resistance was forcing that injured Nascent Soul Cultivator to bear the enemy’s attacks.

• Xie Cangfeng told Chu Mu that a Golden Core True Person had defected and damaged Jingmen’s protective array, injuring the Nascent Soul Cultivator whose Lifebound Treasure powered it.
• Xie Cangfeng assigned Chu Mu to oversee equipment on the North City Wall, and Chu Mu accepted the duty rather than risk trying to leave the city.
• A Weapon Hall Artifact Refiner told Chu Mu that the Longevity Sect had surrounded Jingmen and the Outpost Camp had gone silent.
• Chu Mu saw the Longevity Sect’s forces attacking Jingmen’s array while the city’s Cultivators returned fire from behind its protection.
• As Chu Mu inspected the wall’s equipment, he realized the damaged array’s continued operation meant the injured Nascent Soul Cultivator was bearing the enemy’s assault through his Lifebound Treasure.

Chu Mu watched the Longevity Sect’s siege of Jingmen turn into a Nascent Soul battle, which ended with a self-detonation that shattered the city’s defenses and destroyed much of Jingmen. He survived the devastation, but the Longevity Sect’s forces arrived as the Righteous Path Alliance’s scattered defenders fled, leaving the city’s defeat certain.

• Chu Mu questioned Xie Ning about whether the Xie Family had a plan to retreat, but she could not answer because of an apparent restriction.
• On the fifth day of the siege, Xu Lingtian and two Longevity Sect Nascent Soul Cultivators overwhelmed a lone Righteous Path Alliance Nascent Soul Cultivator in the sky.
• The cornered Righteous Path Alliance cultivator self-detonated, destroying the Longevity Sect’s flying boats and siege forces while shattering Jingmen’s City Protection Array.
• Two figures fled from the Central Mansion as Xu Lingtian pursued them, while the explosion’s aftermath smashed through Jingmen’s walls and flattened much of the city.
• Chu Mu escaped the spirit-energy wave with Wangcai by relying on puppets, protective gear, and his Divine Wind Boots.
• As blood rain fell, Chu Mu saw the Longevity Sect’s forces approach and watched the surviving Righteous Path Alliance cultivators scatter.

A month after the Battle of Jingmen, Chu Mu recovered from his injuries while avoiding the war and reflecting on the Longevity Sect’s growing power. He returned to the town he once called home, but found its familiar places changed and the people he remembered gone.

• Chu Mu recalled escaping the collapse at Jingmen and killing the six Foundation Establishment cultivators who had tried to ambush him, leaving him badly injured.
• He learned that the Righteous Path Alliance had been shattered by its defeat, and decided to avoid the war while he recovered in the South Mountain Mountain Range.
• Chu Mu remembered Xu Lingtian’s overwhelming swordsmanship and considered whether the Sound Transmission Token from Xu Changqing might offer him a way out.
• Chu Mu recognized his old hometown and descended from his concealed Flying Boat to explore it.
• Chu Mu found that his former home had become the Li Residence and could no longer find familiar faces or the old Squad Leader in Nanshan Town.

After healing aboard his concealed Flying Boat for more than a year, Chu Mu arrived at the Guling Ji Family Stronghold to investigate how the Righteous Path Alliance had survived the Battle of Jingmen. He entered a restaurant to gather news, leaving the alliance’s strange standoff with the Longevity Sect unexplained.

• Chu Mu detected a Partition Restriction hiding a forest dwelling, but continued on without learning that Sister Ning had seen his Flying Boat.
• Chu Mu repaired his injuries aboard the Flying Boat while it drifted through the seasons for nearly a year.
• Chu Mu arrived at the Guling Ji Family Stronghold, whose importance had risen after the Righteous Path Alliance lost East Lake and split in two.
• Chu Mu observed the stronghold’s mix of cultivators and mortals, then entered a restaurant to hear the latest rumors about the Battle of Jingmen.

Chu Mu met the displaced Xie Cangfeng and learned that the Hanhai Chen Family’s shifting alliances may be prolonging the war between the Righteous Path Alliance and the Longevity Sect. Xie Cangfeng also revealed the Chen Family’s ancient Flood Dragon bloodline, leaving Chu Mu uncertain whether they were truly human or Monster Beasts.

• Chu Mu received messages from Xu Yuan, his wife, and the Xie Family, then arranged to meet Xie Cangfeng near Guling.
• Xie Cangfeng described the Xie Family’s ruin after the Jingmen Upheaval and blamed the Hanhai Chen Family for betraying the Righteous Path Alliance and later changing sides again.
• Chu Mu reasoned that the Hanhai Chen Family wanted to keep the war going so neither faction could prevail.
• Xie Cangfeng said the Chen Family had endured for thirty thousand years, venerated Flood Dragons, and replenished its Jiaolong bloodline, then questioned whether its members were human or Monster Beasts.
• Chu Mu considered the implications for the war, and Xie Cangfeng urged him to visit Hanhai.

After seeing Xie Cangfeng off, Chu Mu reflected on the Hanhai Chen Family’s Jiaolong bloodline cultivation and considered visiting the Southern Border Region. He then recognized Li Caiyi, an old acquaintance from Nanshan Town, and learned how she survived the Nanshan Calamity and entered the Cultivation World.

• Chu Mu suspected Xie Cangfeng might be nearing death and considered the implications of the Hanhai Chen Family cultivating Jiaolong bloodlines in human bodies.
• Chu Mu stopped a bearded cultivator from bullying Li Caiyi by throwing him a hundred Spirit Stones and ordering him to leave.
• Chu Mu recognized Li Caiyi, and they moved to a private room to talk.
• Li Caiyi told Chu Mu that she had been badly injured during the Nanshan Calamity, achieved Spirit Manifestation, and later received a cultivation manual from a female cultivator who brought her to Ji Family Stronghold.

Chu Mu reunited with Li Caiyi, offered her supplies and a chance to return to the mortal world with him, then settled into a rented Cave Abode to rethink his combat methods. Facing growing threats and the limits of his Puppets, he began planning a life-saving trump card using his rare materials and Wangcai.

• Chu Mu questioned Li Caiyi about the mysterious Cultivator who had aided her and learned that she had three Spiritual Roots and wanted to leave the Cultivation World.
• Li Caiyi explained that a Cultivator had repeatedly tried to take her as his concubine, and Chu Mu gave her Alchemical Pills, Spirit Stones, and Talismans offering to take her to the mortal world.
• Chu Mu rented a Cave Abode under his own identity and inspected his possessions after reaching the residence.
• Chu Mu concluded that his Puppets added little in desperate battles and recognized that his exposed methods and growing bounty left him vulnerable to groups of enemies.
• Chu Mu considered crafting armor for Wangcai and began devising a life-saving trump card suited to his saber-focused fighting style.

Chu Mu spent months refining Huiyue, a powerful battle armor that amplified his strength and combined defense, flight, and blade-like wings. After testing it, he turned his attention to designing armor for Wangcai.

• Chu Mu finished documenting his design and refined the armor over a month using the Great Sun True Fire and the Weapon Refinement Grand Summary’s methods.
• Chu Mu completed the armor, which amplified his physical strength, provided formidable defense, and unfolded into six-meter-wide blade-like wings for flight and combat.
• Chu Mu tested the armor with the Minghong Saber, named it Huiyue, and judged its capabilities at the Foundation Establishment Realm.
• Chu Mu noticed Wangcai’s interest in the armor and began designing a suit suited to its current body, habits, and fighting style.

Chu Mu traveled from Guling to Changzhou while refining a Bell Stone Spiritual Milk pill formula and escorting Li Caiyi for part of the journey. He arrived near the Chu Capital and began searching Changzhou’s mortal lands for Old Li.

• Chu Mu offered Li Caiyi the choice to continue with him, and she left the Flying Boat after six days.
• Chu Mu spent more than a year crossing into Longevity Sect territory while perfecting two Second Order High-Grade formulas centered on Bell Stone Spiritual Milk.
• Chu Mu refined twenty-one furnaces of Spiritual Milk Pills during his slow, concealed journey through the northwest.
• Chu Mu reached Changzhou Prefecture City, stored the Flying Boat, and set out with Wangcai to search for Old Li.

Chu Mu searched Changzhou Prefecture for Old Li and learned that Longevity Sect cultivated mortal populations as a source of future disciples. He found Old Li’s descendants mourning his peaceful death and began examining what he had left behind.

• Chu Mu discovered that Changzhou City’s Spirit Gathering Core raised the spiritual energy for its residents and helped Longevity Sect find children with Spirit Roots.
• Chu Mu spent months searching Changzhou Prefecture by examining the memories of local officials and other influential people.
• In Shitang County, Chu Mu learned of an old man who had returned to Tongyou Village, amassed wealth, and taken eight concubines.
• Chu Mu reached the Li Residence and found Old Li’s funeral underway, recognizing his corpse and paying his respects.
• Chu Mu searched the steward’s memories, then looked toward the three children Old Li had left behind.

Chu Mu visited the family of his late friend Old Li and agreed to guide Old Li’s son, Jing'er, into cultivation for three years. He then flew to Chu Capital, where he pondered why the Longevity Sect repeatedly suppressed and replaced the Great Chu Royal Family instead of abolishing it.

• Chu Mu arrived at Old Li’s funeral, where the family and household staff bowed to him as an Immortal Master.
• Chu Mu learned that Old Li had died and recognized that Jing'er had Spiritual Roots and a strong foundation in qi and blood.
• Chu Mu promised to guide Jing'er for three years, erased the other witnesses’ memories of him, and summoned Jing'er to the back mountain that night.
• Chu Mu let Jing'er choose between learning Artifact Refining and Alchemy; Jing'er chose Alchemy, and Chu Mu assigned him medical books and a three-month assessment.
• Chu Mu left Wangcai to guard Jing'er and flew to Chu Capital, reflecting on the repeated suppression and replacement of the Great Chu Royal Family.

Chu Mu arrived in the Great Chu Capital to purchase a large quantity of low-grade Spirit Herbs for his three-year alchemy agreement. There, he sensed a black-robed cultivator whose evil aura matched the Black Mist energy he had encountered before, then met Xu Changqing in the Longevity Sect’s hinterland and questioned why he was away from the front lines.

• Chu Mu entered the Great Chu Capital and observed the contrast between its mortal Outer City and cultivation-focused Inner City.
• Chu Mu ordered hundreds of kinds of low-grade Spirit Herbs from a shop and arranged to return in three days.
• Chu Mu sensed a black-robed cultivator passing by and recognized the man’s evil, chaotic aura as identical to the Black Mist energy he had preserved.
• Xu Changqing approached Chu Mu and asked why he had come to Chu Capital.
• Chu Mu wondered why Xu Changqing was in the Longevity Sect’s hinterland instead of the front lines, and connected his appearance with the black-robed cultivator and a Golden Core cultivator he had seen entering the city.

Chu Mu learned that demonic cultivators had appeared in Chu Capital and that a Golden Core cultivator had been sent to guard against a grave threat. Xu Changqing asked him to help investigate in exchange for withdrawing the Longevity Sect's warrant and access to two Scripture Pavilion volumes, but Chu Mu hesitated to accept.

• Xu Changqing warned Chu Mu that Chu Capital was unsafe, then hurried away after receiving an urgent message.
• Chu Mu stayed in the Outer City while waiting for his purchased Spirit Herbs, then set out to leave once he had collected them.
• Xu Changqing stopped Chu Mu at the city gate and offered to have the Longevity Sect withdraw its warrant if Chu Mu helped with a confidential matter.
• After Chu Mu swore an Oath of the Dao Heart, Xu Changqing explained that demonic cultivators had been detected in Chu Capital and that a Golden Core senior was guarding against the threat.
• Xu Changqing asked Chu Mu to use his yang-based cultivation and artifact-refining skills to help detect demonic qi, promising that he would handle any fighting.
• Chu Mu began to refuse, but Xu Changqing offered him a visit to the sect's Scripture Pavilion and the choice of two volumes, aside from its true-inheritance methods.

Chu Mu agreed to help Xu Changqing secretly investigate Demonic Cultivators in Chu Capital after Xu promised to withdraw the wanted order and grant him access to the Longevity Sect’s Scripture Pavilion. With the source and purpose of the Demonic Cultivators still unknown, Chu Mu suspected they were plotting something significant.

• Chu Mu learned that Xu Changqing was the only son of a powerful Sword Dao Nascent Soul and agreed to help him after Xu swore an oath.
• Xu Changqing explained that Demonic Qi came from the Demon World and that Demonic Cultivators in Chu Capital might be connected to a space rift.
• Xu Changqing gave Chu Mu a token granting him freedom of travel through Chu Capital and a Jade Slip containing the scant clues he had gathered.
• After Xu Changqing left, Chu Mu questioned whether Xu was withholding information and studied a map of Chu Capital.
• Chu Mu concluded that the Demonic Cultivators’ presence in Chu Capital suggested they were plotting something enormous.

After ten days of finding only minor Demonic Cultivators, Chu Mu and Xu Changqing debated whether to seal Chu Capital, but Xu Changqing chose to seek instructions from the True Person. Chu Mu then detected a new Demonic Cultivator with his Compass and pursued the fugitive out of the city.

• Foundation Establishment Cultivators argued that the Demonic Cultivators they had found were decoys and proposed sealing and searching Chu Capital.
• Xu Changqing said he would ask the True Person for instructions, then privately admitted to Chu Mu that something felt wrong.
• Chu Mu noticed the city's spiritual qi had grown purer and used his Compass to detect a new Demonic Cultivator.
• Chu Mu tracked the new target to a busy plaza, where the Compass's black dot reappeared and pointed toward the city gate.
• Chu Mu shouted for the Longevity Sect guards to stop the fugitive, but the Demonic Cultivator escaped through the Inner and Outer City gates, and Chu Mu pursued him beyond Chu Capital.

Chu Mu was ambushed by Demonic Cultivators seeking the True Demonic Qi, but his Blade Intent and Great Sun True Fire overwhelmed their defenses. The leader escaped with Blood Escape, and Chu Mu and Xu Changqing pursued the fleeing Demonic Cultivators.

• Chu Mu’s Flame Blades broke through the first Black Robe Man’s defense, prompting him to call for help from his companions.
• Four Demonic Cultivators surrounded Chu Mu and demanded the True Demonic Qi, revealing they had lured him out of the city for it.
• Chu Mu battered the Demonic Cultivators with Flame Blades and the Minghong Saber, breaking the leader’s black mist disk and forcing him to sacrifice the bait cultivator as a shield.
• The leader ordered two Foundation Establishment cultivators to block Chu Mu, then fled while they held him back.
• Chu Mu used the Bright Moon Armor’s wings to pursue the leader, who escaped with Blood Escape, while the other two cultivators scattered.
• Xu Changqing arrived and pursued the escaped leader as Chu Mu went after one of the fleeing cultivators.

Chu Mu and Xu Changqing investigated the Demonic Cultivators who had attacked Chu Mu and discovered they were Demon Puppets powered by a strange system of Branded patterns and incomplete Demonic Seeds. Chu Mu learned that this system concealed the Demonic Seeds from the Compass, leaving the question of how the demonic path was organized and who inside Chu Capital was aiding it unresolved.

• Chu Mu questioned two captured Demonic Cultivators, and Xu Changqing arrived with the remains of the Honored One and identified the captives as Demon Puppets.
• Xu Changqing said the Honored One’s memories were protected by a confinement Brand and left to take the body to the True Person for questioning.
• Chu Mu used the Soul Searching Technique on one captive, but the man’s soul exploded, so Chu Mu restrained and examined the other with his Divine Sense and Compass.
• Chu Mu discovered that the Demon Puppet’s body was covered in unfamiliar Branded patterns that formed a separate system powered by demonic qi and concealed its Demonic Seed.
• Chu Mu determined that the Demon Puppet’s Demonic Seed was incomplete and that its Branded system eroded the body without nourishing it, then burned the captive’s remains.

Chu Mu returned to Chu Capital as Xu Changqing pursued Zhao Changling, the Enforcement Hall Vice Hall Master revealed as a traitor who had seized control of the City Protection Array. Zhao Changling split the city in two with the array, and even the Azure Bamboo Staff could not break through, leaving the True Person asking Xu Changqing for a way to break it.

• Chu Mu learned that the City Protection Array had been partially activated after he left, isolating events outside the city from those within.
• Xu Changqing chased Zhao Changling from the Enforcement Hall, and Chu Mu recognized him as the Vice Hall Master who had proposed sealing off Chu Capital.
• Zhao Changling triggered the City Protection Array, dividing Chu Capital into two isolated sections, then escaped amid the confusion.
• Xu Changqing explained that Zhao Changling had stolen the array’s control core, while attacks from Foundation Establishment Cultivators failed to damage the barrier.
• The True Person struck the barrier repeatedly with the Azure Bamboo Staff but could not break it, then asked Xu Changqing whether he knew a way to do so.

Chu Mu and Xu Changqing discovered that the Demonic Cultivators were trying to corrupt the Chu Capital’s spiritual vein and turn the city into a demon domain. As the city’s defenses and communications remained compromised, Chu Mu realized that the long-running infiltration might make every Longevity Sect cultivator in the capital suspect.

• Xu Changqing admitted he could not break the array, while the cultivators questioned the Demonic Cultivators’ purpose and expected reinforcements to arrive.
• Several hundred black-robed Demonic Cultivators formed an array in the imperial palace and sent demonic qi into the ground.
• The old man recognized that the Demonic Cultivators were trying to demonize the spiritual vein beneath the palace, which could corrupt the Chu Capital and its cultivators.
• The old man attacked the barrier and ordered Xu Changqing to gather sect disciples and city cultivators, while Xu Changqing assigned Chu Mu to investigate the Demonic Cultivators.
• Chu Mu found that the array had severed communications and realized the attackers’ long-planned infiltration might make every Longevity Sect disciple in the city untrustworthy.

Chu Mu agreed to help Xu Changqing use a specialized Soul Searching Technique on the captured Honored One, whose sealed memories the technique could reveal. After building the array and carefully disrupting the captive’s consciousness, Chu Mu drew him into an illusion where his life began to replay.

• Demonic Cultivators overwhelmed one half of Chu Capital while the Longevity Sect bombarded the light curtain dividing the city.
• Chu Mu noticed demonic qi contaminating Chu Capital’s spiritual vein and extinguished a wisp with his true fire.
• Xu Changqing brought the captured Honored One to Chu Mu and asked him to assist with a soul search that required his supreme-yang method.
• Chu Mu studied the Soul Searching Technique and agreed to prepare its specialized array within one day.
• Chu Mu constructed the array and carefully disrupted the Honored One’s consciousness before pulling him into an illusion that replayed his life.