Chapter Summaries

Chu Mu hosted the annual True Understanding Pavilion Exchange Fair and offered rare Two Pill Pattern Nurturing Origin Pills in exchange for treasures that could aid Golden Core breakthroughs. He obtained a Heavenly Bull Horn from Fu Gang, while Chen Hanyun revealed that Sky Cloud Real Person had gone out to sea with Hanwen.

• Hongyi visited Chu Mu, and their flirtatious exchange was interrupted by Chen Hanyun.
• Chen Hanyun told Chu Mu that Sky Cloud Real Person had gone overseas with Hanwen and had not yet broken through.
• Chu Mu opened the Exchange Fair and stunned the gathered cultivators by offering ten flawless second-order high-grade Nurturing Origin Pills with Two Pill Patterns.
• Fu Gang traded Chu Mu a Heavenly Bull Horn for two pills, giving Chu Mu a rare material that could help with Pill Formation.
• Chu Mu asked the other cultivators whether they had more treasures to trade.

After the Exchange Fair, Chu Mu studied the Heavenly Bull Horn and other treasures, hoping to create a powerful pill to help him form a Golden Core. His work was interrupted when Elder Fu of the Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance urgently requested a meeting.

• Chu Mu traded eight flawless second-tier Two Pill Pattern pills for Heavenly Bull Horn, Deep Sea Musk, and Crimson Flame Spirit Liquid at the Exchange Fair.
• Chu Mu examined the treasures and considered using only the roots of his thousand-year Blazing Sun Blood Ginseng to preserve the rest while improving his Core Formation pill formula.
• Chu Mu imagined that a pill-patterned Heavenly Bull Pill, combined with other Core Formation aids, could bring the Golden Core Realm within reach.
• Chu Mu spent several sleepless days revising the Heavenly Bull Horn pill formula under Spirit Radiance Blessing.
• On the sixth day, Chang Er told Chu Mu that Elder Fu of the Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance had arrived with an urgent matter, interrupting his work.

Fu Song asked Chu Mu to travel to the Outer Sea and help refine a special pill for a Cloud Firmament True Person, offering him a Golden Core journal in return. After agreeing to depart in three days, Chu Mu studied the journal’s immersive account of core formation, which left him with valuable insights but destroyed the recording crystal.

• Chu Mu saw Fu Song anxiously waiting in the True Understanding Pavilion and met with him.
• Fu Song offered Chu Mu a Golden Core journal and explained that a Cloud Firmament True Person needed a living pill refined with utmost Yang and utmost rigid qi.
• Chu Mu learned that the pill would be refined in the Outer Sea and agreed to meet Fu Song at the Cloud Firmament Trading Company in three days.
• Chu Mu studied the journal’s immersive core-formation experience, after which its Heavenly Mark Crystal Stone broke apart.
• Chu Mu reflected on the insights he had gained from the journal.

Chu Mu and Fu Song left Red Cloud Island aboard the Cloud Firmament Trading Company’s flying boat, bound for the Outer Sea. After transferring to a concealed Cloud Firmament Flying Boat, Chu Mu inspected its construction and settled in to refine the Heavenly Bull Pill formula as the vessel made stops and took on passengers.

• Chu Mu asked Fu Song why they were traveling to the Outer Sea by flying boat rather than teleportation, and Fu Song said the route was a closely guarded secret of the Cloud Firmament Trading Company.
• Fu Song described how the Chen Family could transform a talented native cultivator’s bloodline in the Dragon Transformation Pool and make them a core descendant.
• Fu Song directed Chu Mu to land on a barren island, where they boarded a Cloud Firmament Flying Boat hidden by an Illusion Array.
• Chu Mu examined the flying boat’s materials and array inscriptions, noting that many Artifact Refiners had contributed to its construction.
• Chu Mu chose a quiet room and resumed refining the Heavenly Bull Pill formula while the flying boat stopped to collect other passengers.

Chu Mu realized the Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance was taking him to a hidden seabed stronghold in the Outer Sea, while he finished improving the Heavenly Bull Horn Pill formula. He arrived at the stronghold, assessed its powerful defenses, and was left waiting for Fu Song to summon him for alchemy.

• Chu Mu inferred that the Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance was transporting several Foundation Establishment practitioners of the Hundred Arts of Cultivation toward a secret Outer Sea base.
• Chu Mu completed a year of work on the Heavenly Bull Horn Pill formula, improving its effectiveness by nearly twenty percent and preparing for a future attempt to advance to Golden Core.
• The flying boat entered the deep sea, and Chu Mu confronted Fu Song about the dangers of the Alliance’s hidden destination.
• Fu Song reassured Chu Mu by invoking their Oath of the Dao Heart and saying Cloud Firmament True Person was his elder.
• Chu Mu arrived at a seabed stronghold atop an undersea mountain, recognized its Fourth-Order Array Formation, and was shown to a residence to await the alchemy work.

Chu Mu was summoned before the Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance’s Nascent Soul expert and ordered to refine a pill called Heaven Deceiving. After discovering that it required the living slaughter of a Bloodline Golden Core and could let someone impersonate that cultivator’s Divine Soul Aura, he suspected the Alliance planned to use it against the Hanhai Chen Family and feared they would silence him afterward.

• Fu Song escorted Chu Mu to the central hall, where Chu Mu sensed several overwhelming cultivators, including a Nascent Soul expert.
• Cloud Firmament True Person gave Chu Mu a pill formula and ordered him to prepare to refine it within three days.
• Chu Mu learned that the Heaven Deceiving Pill required extracting a living Bloodline Golden Core’s core and divine soul.
• Chu Mu realized the pill could conceal its user’s identity and make them appear to possess the slain cultivator’s Divine Soul Aura.
• Chu Mu suspected the Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance intended to use the pill against the Hanhai Chen Family and worried that the Alliance would kill him to conceal its plan.

Chu Mu discovered that the Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance planned to refine the Heaven Deceiving Pill using the imprisoned Sky Cloud Real Person, and learned that Xu Changqing’s father intended to hide a Divine Restriction Imprint inside it. Chu Mu agreed to carry out the refinement, realizing the pill’s effects could conceal the imprint as it manipulated whoever consumed it.

• Fu Song met Chu Mu after three days, and they entered the grand hall together.
• Chu Mu recognized the imprisoned Golden Core cultivator as Sky Cloud Real Person of Red Glow City.
• Xu Changqing’s father, a Nascent Soul cultivator, appeared and asked Chu Mu to refine the Heaven Deceiving Pill.
• The middle-aged man showed Chu Mu the Divine Restriction Imprint, which could secretly alter a person’s thoughts and loyalty.
• Chu Mu agreed to incorporate the imprint into the pill and realized the Heaven Deceiving Pill’s chaotic effects could hide its implantation.

Chu Mu refined the Heaven Deceiving Pill and was appointed the Longevity Sect’s Ninth True Disciple, receiving a token that promised protection. He examined the Divine Restriction Imprint and concluded the Longevity Sect was preparing to disrupt the Vast Ocean Cultivation Realm, leaving him to expect that its fragile peace would soon end.

• Chu Mu refined Sky Cloud Real Person into the Heaven Deceiving Pill, which the Sword Dao Nascent Soul collected before granting Chu Mu a token.
• Chu Mu imprinted the Ninth True Inheritance Token with his Divine Soul Aura and accepted his new title as the Longevity Sect’s Ninth True Disciple.
• Chu Mu returned to his quarters and recorded his observations of the Divine Restriction Imprint, but his attempts to reproduce it failed.
• Chu Mu considered how the Longevity Sect, the Cloud Firmament Trading Company, and the Hanhai Chen Family were connected to the Heaven Deceiving Pill plot.
• Chu Mu concluded that the Longevity Sect’s scheme would likely soon disturb the Vast Ocean Cultivation Realm’s peace.

Chu Mu helped Cloud Firmament True Person use the Heaven Deceiving Pill to disguise himself as Sky Cloud True Person, hiding the Divine Restriction Imprint beneath layers of corruption. Xu Lingtian then prepared to use the impersonation to kill the captured Profound Serpent Young Master.

• Xu Lingtian summoned Chu Mu and told him to remain with Alliance Leader Fu while he took the Heaven Deceiving Pill.
• Cloud Firmament True Person swallowed the pill and endured its violent corruption as its effects began.
• Chu Mu used his dharma power to suppress the backlash while the pill concealed the Divine Restriction Imprint and changed Cloud Firmament True Person’s Divine Soul Aura.
• Cloud Firmament True Person’s appearance and aura transformed to match Sky Cloud True Person’s exactly.
• Xu Lingtian said he had located the Profound Serpent Young Master and instructed Cloud Firmament True Person to kill him after he captured him.

Chu Mu learned that Xu Lingtian and Cloud Firmament True Person planned to use the Heaven Deceiving Pill to kill the Dark Serpent Clan’s Profound Serpent Young Master and blame the Hanhai Chen Family. As the Longevity Sect’s Ninth True Inheritance, Chu Mu was caught up in a scheme that could plunge the Vast Ocean Cultivation Realm into conflict and end the peace he had hoped to preserve.

• Chu Mu examined the Wine Gourd flying artifact and realized it could truly change size, while recalling the rare materials and Golden Core cultivation needed to refine such an artifact.
• Chu Mu reviewed a Jade Slip describing the Jiaolong Clan’s ties to the Hanhai Chen Family and the Dark Serpent Clan’s longstanding enmity with both.
• Chu Mu understood that the journey’s target was the Dark Serpent Clan patriarch’s exceptionally gifted son, the Profound Serpent Young Master.
• Xu Lingtian and Cloud Firmament True Person intended to kill the Profound Serpent Young Master with the Heaven Deceiving Pill and frame the Hanhai Chen Family.
• Chu Mu recognized that the assassination would provoke a major conflict and destroy the fragile peace in the Vast Ocean Cultivation Realm.

Sky Cloud Real Person killed the Profound Serpent Young Master and staged the murder to frame him as a bloodline hunter, while Xu Lingtian sent Chu Mu away. Chu Mu returned to Red Cloud Island and learned why its defenses had been raised, reacting with apparent disbelief.

• Sky Cloud Real Person repeatedly struck down and killed the Dark Serpent, then extracted a Blood-Colored Pill and destroyed nearby traces to complete his cover story.
• Chu Mu recognized that the counterfeit Sky Cloud Real Person had performed the act flawlessly, leaving the Dark Serpent Clan to pursue the apparent culprit.
• Xu Lingtian carried Chu Mu tens of thousands of miles away and ordered him to return to Red Cloud Island, promising that further news would come through the True Inheritance Token.
• Chu Mu avoided the Teleportation Array and hurried across the sea in his Flying Boat, reaching Red Cloud Island months later to find its defenses and harbor under martial lockdown.
• A Chen Family cultivator explained the cause of the island's heightened alert, and Chu Mu's disbelief settled into a calm expression after the cultivators departed.

Chu Mu realized Xu Lingtian had made Sky Cloud Real Person’s staged death look like a failed breakthrough, concealing the Heaven Deceiving Pill scheme while fueling the Dark Serpent Clan’s fury. After returning to Red Glow City, he learned the Beast Tide had devastated the Outer Sea and the Chen Family’s defense at Moon Ring Islands had fallen, while the wider conflict’s current state remained unclear.

• Chu Mu connected the Divine Restriction Imprint and Sky Cloud Real Person’s apparent self-detonation to Xu Lingtian’s effort to conceal the plan and silence Cloud Firmament Merchant Alliance insiders.
• Chu Mu entered Red Glow City and confirmed that the city center had been destroyed by Sky Cloud Real Person’s supposed failed breakthrough.
• Chu Mu returned to True Understanding Pavilion and reviewed sound transmissions describing the Beast Tide’s devastation across the Outer Sea and Near Sea.
• Chu Mu learned that the Chen Family’s defensive line at Moon Ring Islands had fallen, with reports claiming that Nascent Soul Great Experts and Golden Core True Persons had died.
• Chu Mu found that Red Cloud Island remained under martial law and that the Beast Tide’s next movements were unknown.

Chu Mu weighed the dangers of forming a Golden Core and the upheaval threatening the Vast Ocean Cultivation Realm, considering whether to abandon Crimson Clouds for Great Heng. He realized that the families and powers behind all three of his nominal disciples had been destroyed, each loss connected to him directly or indirectly.

• Chu Mu reviewed reports that Mountain Alliance had fallen, Fu Song had disappeared, Cloud Firmament True Person was dead, and the Chen Family had conscripted the major powers of the Vast Ocean.
• Chu Mu assessed his cultivation and core-forming materials but worried that his powerful Essence, Qi, and Spirit would make forming a Golden Core unusually difficult and dangerous.
• Chu Mu considered leaving early for Great Heng, though he regretted the thought of leaving True Understanding Pavilion and the life he had built in Crimson Clouds.
• Chu Mu dismissed his three nominal disciples after they apologized for failing to welcome him back from the sea.
• Chu Mu concluded that the backgrounds of all three nominal disciples had been wiped out and that each destruction was connected to him.

Chu Mu recognized two old acquaintances from Nanshan Town who came to his shop, and sensed that the man had become a Demonic Cultivator. After receiving their message from a True Demon, Chu Mu feared they knew about the True Demonic Qi in the East Lake Secret Realm and flew away after making a decision.

• Chang Er told Chu Mu that two visitors wanted him to refine a batch of Alchemical Pills, and Chu Mu recognized them in the surveillance projection as people from his past.
• Chu Mu met the pair at the True Understanding Pavilion and detected concealed demonic qi on the man, then warned them to leave.
• The woman delivered a Jade Slip, which Chu Mu inspected and found contained a message from a True Demon.
• The pair departed, and Chu Mu worried that the man knew about the True Demonic Qi in the East Lake Secret Realm.
• Chu Mu took out his Ninth True Inheritance token, hesitated, put it away, and flew off from the pavilion.

Chu Mu returned the Red Hawk Bloodline to the Zhu Family, where the true demon mutated it and gave it to his damaged young relative. The fifty-year agreement was declared void, but the man asked Chu Mu to break a formation and refine a pill in exchange for the Blazing Sun Fire Essence and Ten Thousand Year Fusang Wood.

• Chu Mu flew from Red Glow Port to a secluded island and met the true demon, the Zhu Family members, and a vacant-eyed young man.
• The true demon told Chu Mu their agreement was void, and Chu Mu presented the sealed Red Hawk Bloodline.
• The true demon revealed a hidden mutation in the bloodline and transferred it into the young man.
• The true demon asked Chu Mu to break one formation and refine one pill, offering the Blazing Sun Fire Essence and Ten Thousand Year Fusang Wood as rewards.

Chu Mu learned that a Nascent Soul true demon wanted him to break the Earth Fire Demon Sealing Grand Array in the East Lake Secret Realm, which sealed a spatial rift connected to the Demon World. Bound by an Oath of the Dao Heart, Chu Mu left the barren island with the man and woman from Qili Village and Li Er, while the true demon set out to confirm the secret realm’s location.

• The true demon presented Chu Mu with Ten Thousand Year Fusang Wood and Blazing Sun Fire Essence, then asked whether he could break an array.
• Chu Mu examined a Jade Slip and recognized the Earth Fire Demon Sealing Grand Array as the array sealing a spatial rift in the East Lake Secret Realm.
• The true demon explained that he had found traces of the vanished secret realm and gave Chu Mu a pill formula to address its cultivation restrictions.
• Chu Mu established an Oath of the Dao Heart and agreed to enter the secret realm and break the array.
• The true demon assigned the man and woman from Qili Village and Li Er to accompany Chu Mu, then vanished to confirm the secret realm’s direction.
• Chu Mu took his companions aboard a Flying Boat and headed toward Crimson Clouds.

Chu Mu discovered that the Divine Shadow Sea Bream he had kept for years was the key ingredient in a pill that could perfectly disguise cultivation, revealing the True Demon's plan to enter the East Lake Secret Realm. He began preparing to refine the pills and secretly alter them, hoping to protect himself while pursuing the secret realm's inheritance.

• Chu Mu studied the pill formula and recognized his preserved Divine Shadow Sea Bream as the main ingredient for Divine Shadow Pills.
• Chu Mu realized the True Demon intended to use the pills to imitate Qi Refining cultivation, enter the East Lake Secret Realm, and break its Demon Sealing Grand Array.
• Chu Mu reasoned that anyone entering the secret realm would still be restricted to Qi Refining-level cultivation, and saw a chance to revisit the Immortal Path Sect's Inheritance Ground.
• Chu Mu considered whether the True Demon had learned about the secret realm from the people of Qili Village and whether that knowledge had led to its clan's destruction.
• Chu Mu watched the Qili Village cultivators and the foolish youth through surveillance projections, then went inside to begin refining Divine Shadow Pills and secretly modifying them.

Chu Mu watched Xu Yuan complete Bloodline Foundation Establishment, then learned that Great Heng had seized the East Lake Secret Realm and that Xu Ning and Li Xiu sought to enter the Demon World. With Hanhai in turmoil and the True Demon’s plans looming, Chu Mu secluded himself and broke through to Foundation Establishment Perfection, reaching the Pseudo-Core Realm.

• Xu Yuan completed Bloodline Foundation Establishment, and Chu Mu gave him a Heart Cleansing Incantation and Top-Grade Spiritual Artifacts before warning him that Hanhai was in turmoil.
• Chu Mu met Xu Ning and Li Xiu, who revealed that Great Heng had seized the East Lake Secret Realm and made opening a concealed gate to it difficult.
• Xu Ning confirmed that she and Li Xiu had entered the demonic path to reach the secret realm and intended to enter the Demon World by breaking the Demon Sealing Grand Array.
• Chu Mu returned to his courtyard, resolved to strengthen his cultivation, and swallowed pills during secluded training.
• Chu Mu consumed a Two Pill Patterns pill and broke through to Foundation Establishment Perfection, reaching the Pseudo-Core Realm.

After nearly two years of preparation, Chu Mu joined Xu Ning, Li Xiu, and the youth aboard a Flying Boat to meet the true demon and enter the Secret Realm. The true demon arrived with news that he had found a weak point, but warned that the Secret Realm belonged to the Great Heng Imperial Clan and that spatial chaos might separate them after they entered.

• Chu Mu assessed the Alchemical Poison left by his forced breakthrough and estimated that he needed about two years to expel it and stabilize his cultivation.
• Chu Mu tested a Divine Shadow Pill and discovered that it could suppress his cultivation to a chosen level, prompting him to experiment with the Heaven Deceiving Pill and gather demon beasts for testing.
• Chu Mu spent nearly two years refining pills, making puppets and tools, studying formations, and tempering his Essence, Qi, and Spirit while turmoil from the Dark Serpent Clan continued to disrupt the Vast Ocean Cultivation Realm.
• Chu Mu, Xu Ning, Li Xiu, and the youth waited aboard a small Flying Boat in the sea near Red Glow until the true demon appeared on deck.
• Chu Mu gave the true demon Divine Shadow Pills and a recorded test of their effects, and the true demon praised his preparations.
• The true demon said he had found a weak point through which they could enter the Secret Realm, warned them not to cause trouble for the Great Heng Imperial Clan, and explained that spatial chaos could scatter them upon entry.

Chu Mu and his companions crossed the ruined Outer Sea and entered the Secret Realm through a damaged spatial portal. At Azure Cloud Ridge, Chu Mu tested the realm’s restrictions and learned that it destroyed non-native creatures above the Qi Refining Realm, while concealment could delay detection only briefly.

• Chu Mu’s party traveled nearly a year across the Outer Sea under the protection of the Nascent Soul True Demon and reached an unknown region.
• The man used water dragons to reveal and break a hidden barrier, opening a spatial portal that Chu Mu and the others entered.
• Chu Mu recognized Azure Cloud Ridge and set up a formation to test whether a sealed second-order beetle could survive inside the Secret Realm.
• A bolt of lightning obliterated the beetle when Chu Mu opened its sealed Jade Box, confirming the Secret Realm destroyed non-native creatures above the Qi Refining Realm.
• Chu Mu threw away a second sealed beetle after his Divine Soul Blade trembled, but another bolt destroyed it and scorched the forest.
• Chu Mu reasoned that isolation could delay the Secret Realm’s detection only briefly and wondered whether the True Demon feared its heavenly lightning, its Master, or both.