Chapter Summaries

Chu Mu helped two Nascent Soul Great Experts calm the spatial storm caused by Wang Yu detonating the Spatial Portal, then searched the shattered space for its remains. The group found the ruined portal, leaving its condition and connection to the Secret Realm uncertain.

• Chu Mu told the Longevity Sect disciples that the real Wang Yu had been seized by the Wang Family Old Ancestor, who had been impersonating him.
• A Nascent Soul Great Expert asked Chu Mu to help break the Reverse Five Elements Grand Array’s spatial nodes and gave him protection and a Thunder Cone.
• Chu Mu used the Thunder Cone to destroy spatial nodes while the two Nascent Soul Great Experts suppressed the resulting turbulence, gradually calming the spatial storm.
• Chu Mu used an ancient Compass to search for the Spatial Portal’s wreckage as the two Nascent Soul Great Experts searched the shattered space.
• Chu Mu and the two Nascent Soul Great Experts found a ruined Spatial Portal, with less than half its structure remaining and its spiritual radiance gone.

Profound Bright Old Ancestor and Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor tried to reopen the ruined Spatial Portal to the Secret Realm world, but a massive lightning strike destroyed their connection. They entered the Secret Realm before its projection vanished, and Chu Mu was pulled in with them.

• Profound Bright Old Ancestor broke down the ruined Spatial Portal and used its lingering power to trace the Secret Realm world.
• Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor reached into the world’s projection while Profound Bright Old Ancestor sent the reformed portal into it.
• A massive dark-purple lightning bolt struck the portal’s connection, and the resulting thunderclouds began destroying the scattered white threads and concealing the world projection.
• Profound Bright Old Ancestor entered the Spatial Portal, and Old Ancestor Xuan Cheng urged Chu Mu to follow before entering as well.
• Chu Mu was pulled into the portal as the world projection disappeared and the portal dimmed and began to crumble.

Chu Mu was separated from Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor and the other Nascent Soul Esteemed One after entering the Wang Family Secret Realm, and he cautiously explored its mountain ranges. His Longevity Sect True Inheritance Token briefly activated in one area before going dark again as he traveled onward.

• Chu Mu crashed into a mountain peak after emerging alone from a spatial black hole, which vanished moments later.
• Chu Mu concluded that the two Nascent Soul Esteemed Ones had entered the secret realm separately and trusted that Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor could locate him through the True Inheritance Token.
• Chu Mu flew cautiously through the unfamiliar mountains, using Reconnaissance Puppets to survey the area.
• Chu Mu discovered that his Longevity Sect True Inheritance Token had activated within the secret realm despite showing no visible changes in the surrounding mountains.
• Chu Mu traveled roughly a hundred li, and the True Inheritance Token abruptly dimmed as he took another step forward.

Chu Mu used his True Inheritance Token to discover that the Zhennan Secret Realm was divided between the Longevity Sect’s order and the Wang Family’s order. At the boundary, he found that the Wang Family Old Ancestor had apparently seized control of the Wang Family’s authority, and he retreated to the Longevity Order’s protection when the secret realm turned against him.

• Chu Mu used his True Inheritance Token to inspect the Longevity Sect’s authority within a hundred-li region of the Zhennan Secret Realm and found it was a Grade A Gu Worm Zone.
• Chu Mu entered Clear Wind Mountain, where his token’s authority restrained the Iron Thread Gu worms that attacked him.
• Chu Mu crossed the secret realm and found the Longevity Order and the Wang Family’s order alternating across the land.
• Chu Mu sensed a threat beyond the Longevity Order’s boundary and suspected the Wang Family Old Ancestor had seized control of the Wang Family’s secret realm authority.
• Chu Mu stepped into the Wang Family’s territory, triggering a storm of Heaven’s Wrath, then retreated into the Longevity Order’s lands until the storm dissipated.

Chu Mu witnessed the Wang Family and Longevity Sect contesting control of the Zhennan Secret Realm, then received limited authority from the Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor. He began examining a Jade Slip intended to guide him in using Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire to purify the secret realm.

• Chu Mu saw the Wang Family and Longevity Sect's opposing orders clash in the sky and concluded that leaders of both sides were fighting over secret-realm control.
• Chu Mu reached a Grade B Spirit Planting Garden and found most of its plants had withered after centuries without care.
• The Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor confirmed Chu Mu had refined Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire and said he would help him use it to cleanse the world.
• The Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor granted Chu Mu a small portion of secret-realm authority and sent him a Jade Slip.
• Chu Mu experienced a brief vision of controlling the entire secret realm before his authority narrowed to several hundred li, then began reading the Jade Slip.

Chu Mu studied the Jade Slip and learned how to purify the secret realm of the traces left by the Wang Family and replace its man-made rules with a formation-rule of his own. After emerging beneath the thunderclouds, he used his authority over the secret realm to survey it and began visiting the Wang Family’s treasure sites.

• Chu Mu realized that purifying the secret realm would require erasing the traces left by nearly twenty former controllers, a process that could take a long time.
• Chu Mu used Heaven and Earth Authority to understand the formation recorded in the Jade Slip and perceived how it connected to the secret realm’s World Veins.
• Chu Mu understood that the Jade Slip offered two methods: purifying the Wang Family’s traces and replacing its man-made rules with a formation-rule.
• Chu Mu left the area protected by the Longevity Order and reappeared beneath the thunderclouds, where the secret realm’s power extinguished the lightning around him.
• Chu Mu used the True Inheritance Token to survey the secret realm, identified places including Azure Eagle Mountain and Moonfall Lake, and set out to inspect the Wang Family’s treasure sites.

Chu Mu reached Langya Pavilion, took control of its formations, and began absorbing the knowledge stored inside. On the third floor, Wangcai’s spiritual light emerged from Chu Mu’s Qiankun Pouch and entered his Sea of Consciousness, while the damaged corpse puppet remained weak and motionless.

• Chu Mu used Heaven and Earth Power to bypass the mountain’s formations and enter Langya Pavilion.
• Chu Mu seized control of the pavilion’s grand formation and opened its sealed doors.
• Chu Mu swept through the pavilion’s books and Jade Slips, absorbing their information before ascending to the third floor.
• Chu Mu noticed his Qiankun Pouch trembling and shining, then isolated the area with formations.
• Wangcai’s pale golden spiritual light flew from the pouch into Chu Mu’s Sea of Consciousness, while the Spirit Planting Garden remained intact and the corpse puppet showed no signs of movement.

Chu Mu traced Wangcai’s sudden golden radiance to a concealed fourth floor of Langya Pavilion. After breaking the restriction and scouting the level with puppets, he began to ascend.

• Chu Mu reviewed a projection of Wangcai’s recovery array and saw Wangcai struggle before condensing a wisp of golden light toward the Qiankun Pouch.
• Chu Mu sensed that the golden light was guiding him and returned to Langya Pavilion’s third floor.
• Chu Mu found a staircase to a hidden fourth floor that did not appear on the pavilion’s layout map.
• Chu Mu examined and broke the third-tier restriction blocking the staircase.
• Chu Mu sent puppets to scout the unknown floor, reviewed their recordings, and ascended the staircase.

Chu Mu climbed an anomalous stairway in Langya Pavilion and entered an icy world that might be an unowned Immortal Abode. He discovered that a frozen Lava Giant Crocodile was still alive, and began to suspect the other ice sculptures concealed living beasts as well.

• Chu Mu concluded that the stairway above Langya Pavilion’s third floor might lead to an Immortal Abode and hurried upward.
• Chu Mu shattered the visions surrounding a frost-covered metal gate, then sent an Armored Soldier Puppet through it to test the way.
• Chu Mu entered the Ice and Frost World with several armored soldier puppets guarding him.
• Chu Mu examined a giant crocodile ice sculpture and sensed that it was a living Third Order Lava Giant Crocodile preserved beneath the ice.
• Chu Mu looked across the other ice sculptures and wondered whether they also contained living Monster Beasts.

Chu Mu followed Wangcai’s mysterious connection through an Ice and Frost World filled with rare, frozen Monster Beasts and discovered a wall made of soul-freezing Ethereal Ice. After sending puppets through the barrier and learning a blood-red space lay beyond, he used his True Fire to cross the wall and entered the unknown.

• Chu Mu searched the Ice and Frost World for the source of Wangcai’s connection, passing many rare Monster Beasts frozen in ice.
• Chu Mu found an Ethereal Ice curtain and watched it freeze and destroy an Armored Soldier Puppet.
• Chu Mu sent protected Reconnaissance Puppets into the ice wall and learned it was about nine zhang thick, with firelight and a blood-red space beyond it.
• Chu Mu entered Puppet Battle Armor and pushed through the wall until the cold shattered it.
• Chu Mu unleashed his True Fire, crossed the turbulent ice curtain, and entered the blood-red unknown space.

Chu Mu discovered that the vast Blood Pool inside the Stone Hall consisted entirely of Demon Beast Essence Blood and was linked to pillars of flame that reversed destruction into life. When the Qiankun Pouch’s phenomenon returned, a golden light vanished into the pool, and Chu Mu realized Wangcai’s remnant body had disappeared from its altar and followed after it.

• Chu Mu examined the Blood Pool and discovered that every sample was genuine Demon Beast Essence Blood.
• Chu Mu sensed that the stone pillars’ flames reversed the fire element’s destruction into vitality and connected to the Blood Pool.
• Chu Mu tried to trace Wangcai’s sensation but found it increasingly blurred by an unknown interference.
• The Qiankun Pouch flickered, and a pale golden Fleeting Light burst out and plunged into the Blood Pool.
• Chu Mu found Wangcai’s remnant body missing from the altar in the Qiankun Space and followed the golden light into the pool.

Chu Mu found Wangcai in the Blood Pool and followed it past a membrane that separated ordinary essence blood from a denser, more refined layer. They reached a towering altar where Wangcai circled warily around a great cauldron covered in carvings of prostrating beasts.

• Chu Mu sensed his lost connection with Wangcai and found its golden light deep in the Blood Pool.
• Wangcai signaled that it wanted to descend, and Chu Mu discovered a transparent membrane covering the pool and dividing its essence blood into two layers.
• Chu Mu cut a crack in the membrane, and Wangcai darted through it toward the bottom of the Blood Pool.
• Chu Mu followed Wangcai to an inscribed stone wall that proved to be a towering altar, with blood-red light flowing through its patterns.
• Chu Mu and Wangcai reached the altar's summit, where Wangcai circled warily around a square great cauldron carved with myriad beasts.

Chu Mu tried to open the Ten Thousand Beasts Cauldron, suspecting that something was being nurtured inside, but the Ethereal Ice within repeatedly destroyed his efforts. After his Traction Array and Array Disc were frozen and shattered, the lid slammed shut again.

• Chu Mu examined the Ten Thousand Beasts Cauldron and used Armored Warrior Puppets to try to lift its lid.
• The cauldron emitted soul-shaking hums, and Ethereal Ice burst through the opening, freezing and destroying the puppets' arms.
• Chu Mu reinforced the puppets and tried again, but the icy power overwhelmed their defenses as they lifted the lid halfway.
• Chu Mu formed a Traction Array and used chains of array restrictions to raise the lid after the puppets were destroyed.
• The Ethereal Ice surged along the chains toward Chu Mu, forcing him to discard his Array Disc, which froze and shattered before the lid slammed shut.

Chu Mu prepared to open the Ten Thousand Beasts Cauldron by using a modified Divine Fire Grand Formation to suppress its Ethereal Ice. Elsewhere in the Secret Realm, Wang Xun reversed the two Nascent Soul Supreme Elders’ growing control, but their struggle stalled in a tense deadlock.

• The Secret Realm’s World Order collapsed into chaos as the two Nascent Soul Supreme Elders fought Wang Xun for control.
• Wang Xun began devouring the elders’ control of the Secret Realm, reversing their advantage before both sides reached a stalemate.
• Chu Mu reviewed his preparations and estimated he had to withstand the Ethereal Ice for no more than thirty breaths while lifting the cauldron lid.
• Chu Mu ignited Great Sun True Fire in his modified formation, clearing the bloodwater around the cauldron and drawing the cold aura from its lid.
• The Ethereal Ice burst through the narrow gap and drove back Chu Mu’s flames as he began opening the cauldron.

Chu Mu opened the Ten Thousand Beasts Great Cauldron and found a blood orb containing an embryo. Wangcai’s golden light entered the embryo and transformed it into a sealed Blood Egg, while Wangcai’s broken body was left completely lifeless.

• Chu Mu used the Divine Fire Grand Formation to force open the cauldron and then sealed it with the Nine Dragons Sealing Grand Formation.
• Chu Mu broke through the Ethereal Ice membrane covering the cauldron mouth and discovered a blood orb with a crimson embryo inside.
• A golden light shot from Chu Mu’s Qiankun Pouch and entered the embryo, as Wangcai’s last life force vanished from its broken body.
• The blood within the cauldron solidified around the embryo, and glowing bloodlines covered it with mysterious inscriptions.
• Chu Mu drew the resulting Blood Egg out of the cauldron and hesitated to open it, while Wangcai’s body lay lifeless on the altar.

Chu Mu discovered that Wangcai’s shattered divine soul had entered the Blood Orb Embryo and transformed it into a Blood Egg, though he could not identify the living being within. He recorded the hidden Immortal Abode and considered the risks of revealing it to the Longevity Sect, then found that his memory of the embryo’s form was obscured by mist.

• Chu Mu stored the Blood Egg in his Qiankun Space after realizing Wangcai’s divine soul had entered the unknown embryo.
• Chu Mu recorded the Ten Thousand Beasts Ancient Cauldron, altar, Blood Pool, and Stone Hall in a Heavenly Traces Jade Slip.
• Chu Mu worried that the Secret Realm’s controller could discover his visit to the Immortal Abode and learn about the Blood Egg.
• Chu Mu concluded that the Stone Hall’s components formed a unified whole around the Ten Thousand Beasts Ancient Cauldron, while the living Blood Egg remained outside that unity.
• Chu Mu tried to recall and record the embryo’s form, but an unknown force obscured it as a mass of mist.

Chu Mu discovered that the Secret Realm’s Heaven and Earth Authority had vanished and received Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor’s decree to hunt down the escaped Wang Xun. After returning to Cloud Blossom Mountain, he suspected the Nascent Soul experts had sent him out to keep him from learning what had changed inside the Secret Realm.

• Chu Mu noticed the Heaven and Earth Authority disappear from the True Inheritance Token and found the Secret Realm calm again.
• Profound Sincerity Old Ancestor ordered Chu Mu to carry a decree and direct the southwest garrisons to hunt Wang Xun, who had escaped the Secret Realm.
• Chu Mu used the reopened Spatial Portal to leave the Secret Realm and saw that a spatial collapse had hollowed out Cloud Blossom Mountain.
• Chu Mu activated the decree for the waiting Golden Core cultivators, who accepted orders to arrange the hunt for Wang Xun.
• Chu Mu suspected that the Nascent Soul experts had taken back his authority and sent him away to conceal an unknown change in the Secret Realm, so he chose not to investigate.

Chu Mu waited near Cloud Blossom Mountain while preparing to refine a Jade Bone Soul for the Thread-drawing Gu. After consulting Rainbow Cloud Garrison Manor’s intelligence records for a wood-element Gu Cultivator who could provide the Night-Crying Stone’s core, he began refining the Jade Bone Soul from his Ten Thousand Souls Banner’s main soul.

• Chu Mu carved a temporary Cave Abode into a nameless hill and set up simple formations while waiting for the two Nascent Soul Great Experts to leave the Secret Realm.
• Chu Mu reviewed the Thread-drawing Gu recipe and identified the Night-Crying Stone and Jade Bone Soul as the remaining materials he needed.
• Chu Mu used his True Inheritance Token to search Rainbow Cloud Garrison Manor’s Intelligence Division for third-tier wood-element Gu Cultivators and recorded several reports.
• Chu Mu drew the Ten Thousand Souls Banner’s main Grievance Soul out of the banner and bound it with crimson threads.
• Chu Mu prepared sheep-fat jade and Halting War Mantis forelimbs, then began refining the Jade Bone Soul with crimson true fire.

Chu Mu traveled to Emerald Lake to find a third-order wood-attributed Gu Cultivator whose body could help him refine the Night-Crying Stone, while weighing the risks of targeting cultivators tied to local powers. He arrived at the lake’s crowded mining settlements, where the wanted Heretical Cultivator Yun Ying was suspected to be hiding.

• Chu Mu reviewed intelligence on Yun Ying, a Gu Cultivator blamed for killing Longevity Sect disciples and recently seen near Emerald Lake.
• Chu Mu considered why the two Nascent Soul Supreme Elders had left the secret realm without questioning him about the Immortal Abode or other events.
• Chu Mu assessed his lingering injuries, his uncertain cultivation prospects, and whether to use the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire to advance or nurture the Flower of Similarity.
• Chu Mu sent his skiff across Emerald Lake toward its bustling mining settlements, where Yun Ying was believed to have hidden for a long time.

Chu Mu entered Jade Lake Bay in search of the Heretical Cultivator Yun Ying and visited the Longevity Sect’s intelligence liaison, Jade Serenity Pavilion. He ordered Yu Pan, the long-serving undercover disciple there, to investigate Yun Ying’s whereabouts.

• Chu Mu concealed his appearance and entered Jade Lake Bay, surveying its marketplace and learning that the Jadeite Tribe ruled the Emerald Lake region under the Langya Wang Family’s influence.
• Chu Mu went to Jade Serenity Pavilion, where he learned that Yun Ying had attended an auction a month earlier and disappeared afterward.
• Yu Pan told Chu Mu he had been stationed in Jade Lake Bay for over two hundred years and explained that Yun Ying was too powerful for him to track closely.
• Chu Mu asked Yu Pan to investigate Yun Ying through his local contacts, and Yu Pan agreed to report any news promptly.