Chapter Summaries

Chu Mu studied Yu Pan’s intelligence on the Ten Thousand Mountains Kingdom and learned how the Longevity Sect and Heaven Bamboo Alliance controlled its rival tribes. He assessed the hidden Langya Wang Family’s remaining strength but resolved to focus on settling his immediate matter rather than pursuing its treasures.

• Chu Mu read Yu Pan’s Jade Slip, which detailed the Ten Thousand Mountains Kingdom’s powers and prominent cultivators.
• Chu Mu concluded that the kingdom’s thirteen tribes were divided between the Longevity Sect and Heaven Bamboo Alliance, whose agreement prevented powerful cultivators from establishing themselves there.
• Chu Mu learned that Jade Mountain County’s chaotic borderland sheltered part of the Langya Wang Family’s strength.
• Chu Mu reviewed the Wang Family’s losses in the Southwest war and considered the possibility that a surviving or newly advanced Wang Family cultivator remained.
• Chu Mu decided not to pursue the Wang Family remnants or their treasures and hoped to settle his immediate matter quickly.

Chu Mu received intelligence that Yun Ying had killed a Jadeite Tribe Guest Elder to steal a Nascent Soul-assisting pill, but a golden light from his Qiankun Pouch appeared to suggest the Guest Elder might still be alive. Alarmed and suspicious, Chu Mu left Jade Lake Bay and headed for Jade Spirit Market to investigate.

• Yu Pan and four other Longevity Sect operatives reported that Yun Ying had appeared in Jade Spirit Market and killed a Jadeite Tribe Guest Elder after the auction.
• Chu Mu saw a portrait in the intelligence Jade Slip, then opened his Qiankun Pouch and drew a streak of golden light into his Sea of Consciousness.
• Chu Mu ordered the operatives to continue investigating and left Jade Lake Bay by boat for Jade Spirit Market.
• Chu Mu reviewed the account of Yun Ying's ambush and realized the supposedly dead Guest Elder might still be alive.

Chu Mu discovered that the dead Emerald Lake Tribe Guest Elder Tie Feng was the same person as Chi Shan, whom he had known years earlier, and Wangcai’s tracking guidance still pointed to him inside Emerald Lake Palace. After planting hidden spiritual lights around the palace, Chu Mu returned his attention to Wangcai and wondered how it had seen Chi Shan’s information through the Qiankun Pouch and Jade Slip.

• Chu Mu recognized the slain Guest Elder Tie Feng as Chi Shan, a former Golden Core cultivator he had met in the Vast Ocean Cultivation Realm.
• Wangcai’s Bloodline Divine Ability tracked Chi Shan to Emerald Lake Palace despite the report that he had been killed.
• Chu Mu considered whether Chi Shan was alive or his remnant soul was being held in the palace, and suspected the Jadeite Tribe’s interception story might be staged.
• Chu Mu planted nearly undetectable spiritual lights around Emerald Lake Palace and then settled in a wine shop nearby.
• Chu Mu focused on Wangcai and questioned how it had perceived Chi Shan’s information through the Qiankun Pouch and Jade Slip.

Chu Mu nurtured Wangcai’s Blood Egg and followed Wangcai’s guidance to investigate a Jadeite Tribe patrol. He discovered that Chi Shan had disguised himself as a Second Order Gu Cultivator and entered an abandoned mine, casting doubt on the Jadeite Tribe’s account of the recent events.

• Chu Mu redirected vitality to Wangcai’s Blood Egg, which had grown more lustrous, though Wangcai no longer responded to him.
• A warning from Chu Mu’s surveillance network led him to follow a Jadeite Tribe patrol leaving Emerald Lake Palace.
• Chu Mu traced Wangcai’s guidance to a Second Order Gu Cultivator and suspected the man was connected to Chi Shan.
• The suspected cultivator left the patrol, entered an abandoned mine, and transformed into Chi Shan.
• Chu Mu realized Chi Shan’s interception by Yun Ying and the Jadeite Tribe’s mobilization had both been false.

Chu Mu pursued Chi Shan through an abandoned mine, using concealment treasures to avoid detection. He discovered hidden gu insects in a tunnel and bypassed the danger by passing through the mountain, continuing his pursuit.

• Chu Mu followed Wangcai's guidance into the mine and considered how its spirit-mine aura obstructed Divine Sense.
• Chu Mu used Flowing Gauze alongside the Black Cloud Cover to strengthen his concealment.
• Chu Mu tracked Chi Shan deeper through the mine tunnels for about a quarter of an hour.
• Chu Mu spotted threadworms disguised as gravel gaps and realized they were gu insects planted by an unknown cultivator.
• Chu Mu avoided the dangerous tunnel by sinking into the mine wall, and the threat faded as he continued after Chi Shan.

Chu Mu discovered Chi Shan meeting the Jadeite Tribe’s three third-tier Gu Cultivators in a hidden cave with other powerful cultivators. The group planned to attack the Wang Family branch at Emerald Lake, believing its Nascent Soul ancestor was dead or unlikely to intervene.

• Chu Mu followed the guiding marker through guarded mine tunnels and found Chi Shan with the Jadeite Tribe Chief, Jadeite Mountain Clan, and Jadeite Mountain Fall.
• Chu Mu hid as Yun Ying and two other third-tier cultivators arrived at the cave.
• Jadeite Mountain Clan said the Wang Family’s Nascent Soul ancestor had died from his injuries and urged the group to attack the Wang Family branch at Emerald Lake.
• Yun Ying questioned whether another Wang Family ancestor might still be alive, and the cultivators explained that the Longevity Sect had targeted the Wang Family’s Secret Realm.
• Jadeite Mountain Clan argued that the Wang Family ancestor was unlikely to defend Emerald Lake, and Yun Ying asked him to arrange the operation.

Chu Mu listened in on a conspiracy involving Yun Ying and several Gu Cultivators, then avoided confronting the group and captured Gu Yan alone. After searching Gu Yan’s soul, Chu Mu learned how the Gu Cultivator had survived his tribe’s destruction and come to Emerald Lake.

• Chu Mu secretly listened as seven third-rank True Persons discussed their plan in an abandoned mine.
• The conspirators left the mine and split up, while Yun Ying and three Jadeite Tribe Gu Cultivators headed toward the Marketplace.
• Chu Mu restrained himself from attacking Yun Ying and pursued a lone third-rank cultivator instead.
• Chu Mu captured the fleeing fat man, Gu Yan, and bound him with the Nine Dragons Suppressing Prison Tower.
• Chu Mu searched Gu Yan’s soul and learned about the Gu Huo Tribe’s destruction, Gu Yan’s rise in the Heaven Bamboo Alliance, and his arrival at Emerald Lake.

Chu Mu discovered the Jadeite Tribe’s plot to rebel against the declining Wang Family and extracted Gu Yan’s divine soul. After several days, Gu Yan’s body returned to the Emerald Lake Marketplace while unrest around the lake continued to worsen.

• Chu Mu confirmed that the Divine Soul Blade had removed the remaining contamination from his soul search and considered how to improve his technique.
• Chu Mu understood that the Jadeite Tribe had staged an interception to distract the Wang Family while plotting with Gu Yan, Yun Ying, and other Golden Core cultivators.
• Chu Mu decided to extract Gu Yan’s divine soul, killing Gu Yan’s body, then sealed himself inside the Flying Boat’s cabin.
• Several days later, a figure resembling Gu Yan appeared near Emerald Lake and transformed into an ordinary cultivator as he headed toward the Marketplace.
• The Jadeite Tribe’s mobilization intensified panic around Emerald Lake’s Marketplaces and Mines.

Seven True Persons gathered above Emerald Heart Mine after Jadeite Mountain Clan revealed that the Wang Family remnant was hiding beneath the lake. They attacked and destroyed the mine, exposing the Lake Bottom Pit and its broken formation restrictions.

• Jadeite Mountain Clan told Yun Ying and the other conspirators that the Wang Family remnant hid beneath Emerald Heart Mine and that his clan would seal off the markets when they attacked.
• Yun Ying agreed to join the assault but refused to pursue further spoils beyond his share.
• Jadeite Mountain Clan summoned the enormous Strange Giant Horse, which descended on Emerald Heart Mine and unleashed devastating destruction.
• The other True Persons joined the attack, killing countless cultivators and demolishing the mine.
• The destroyed lakebed revealed the Lake Bottom Pit, surrounded by shattered formation restrictions.

Chu Mu, disguised as Gu Yan, followed the Jadeite Tribe’s raid into the underground stronghold beneath the Emerald Heart Mine. After sealing the passage behind him, he reached a vast, silent cavern and received an urgent summons from Jadeite Mountain Clan.

• Chu Mu watched the other cultivators descend into the Lake Bottom Pit and noted that the mine’s lack of guards seemed suspicious.
• Chu Mu reasoned that the Wang Family had no hidden Nascent Soul cultivator capable of threatening the Jadeite Tribe’s plan.
• Chu Mu descended slowly, placing the Jadeite Tribe’s Array Discs along the passage to seal the route to the surface.
• Chu Mu reached a vast underground plaza, where he found no sign of the cultivators who had entered before him.
• Jadeite Mountain Clan urgently summoned Chu Mu through Gu Yan’s Sound Transmission Token, and Chu Mu hurried toward the western side of the plaza.

Chu Mu examined the formation concealing a grand hall in the empty Wang Family Residence and realized it likely contained a second formation within. Unable to reveal his true skill as Gu Yan, he hesitated over how to proceed, and the Jadeite Mountain Clan offered him a larger share if he could break it.

• Chu Mu found the Jadeite Mountain Clan members gathered before a hall whose surrounding formation they could not penetrate.
• Chu Mu used the Heavenly Eye Technique to see the Water Attribute formation and glimpsed a blood-red light inside the hall.
• Chu Mu concluded that the formation concealed another formation and explained his analysis at Gu Yan's level of expertise.
• The Jadeite Mountain Clan member offered Chu Mu an additional ten percent of the operation's gains if he broke the formation.

Chu Mu disguised as Gu Yan broke the array protecting the hall by joining forces with the other cultivators to overwhelm its shield. The hall’s destruction revealed a throne atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, with a living humanoid figure absorbing the blood qi and energy around it.

• Chu Mu pretended to hesitate before agreeing to break the array and used an earthen array to batter the hall’s defenses.
• A water-blue shield appeared over the hall, and Chu Mu urged the cultivators to attack while the array was under pressure.
• The cultivators’ combined strikes cracked the shield and destroyed the hall, exposing countless corpses and rivers of blood.
• The cultivators saw a figure seated on an altar throne as the surrounding blood qi and energy converged upon it.

The cultivators discovered that the figure on the altar was devouring a chaotic mixture of blood, essence, memories, and emotions, and they attacked to stop its transformation. After shattering its blood-colored barrier, they saw a young man in agony on the throne and launched a direct assault.

• The cultivators attacked the blood-wreathed throne, but their blows failed to damage it or the figure.
• Chu Mu examined the blood and found it was an unrefined mixture of essence, qi, spirit, memories, and emotions rather than ordinary blood qi.
• The cultivators realized the figure was devouring the blood and undergoing a terrifying transformation, so they renewed their attacks.
• The barrage shattered the blood-colored barrier, and the bloodwater flowed back down the altar, revealing a twisted young man seated on the throne.
• Jadeite Mountain Clan summoned the Strange Giant Horse and charged the young man, while the other cultivators joined the attack.

Chu Mu recognized the demonic figure attacking the gathered cultivators as the Wang Family Old Ancestor, who had seized his supposed grandson’s body and returned to the Wang Family to cultivate an evil technique. As the Old Ancestor’s remaining clarity faded, he shattered the group’s attacks and continued his rampage.

• The Wang Family Old Ancestor transformed into a towering demon and attacked a Jadeite Mountain Clan member, breaking his divine ability and Golden Shield.
• The gathered Golden Core cultivators struck together and sent the demonized man crashing through buildings.
• Chu Mu recognized the attacker as the Wang Family Old Ancestor, whom the Longevity Sect had been searching for.
• Chu Mu realized the Old Ancestor had returned to the Wang Family, where countless Wang Family cultivators had died.
• The Old Ancestor rose under the combined assault, roared that everyone deserved death, and shredded the incoming treasures and Technique Arts with his claws.

The Wang Family Old Ancestor regained some clarity but used his ghostlike speed to wound the cultivators surrounding him. Chu Mu coordinated their attacks and trapped him in a vast web of restraining inscriptions, leaving the group to unleash their full strength against him.

• The Wang Family Old Ancestor struck Jadeite Mountain Clan, then attacked Chu Mu, whose inscriptions briefly restrained his claw and let him retreat.
• The Wang Family Old Ancestor evaded the group’s attacks and wounded several cultivators, while Jadeite Mountain Clan urged Chu Mu to bind him again.
• Chu Mu agreed to coordinate with the cultivators, who attacked together to hold the Wang Family Old Ancestor in place.
• The Wang Family Old Ancestor pierced Yun Ying and severely wounded Jadeite Mountain Clan with his tail spike.
• Chu Mu formed a vast web of inscriptions that restrained the Wang Family Old Ancestor, and the cultivators unleashed their strongest attacks.

The cultivators broke the Wang Family Old Ancestor’s blood-red armor and wounded his demon body, but he broke free of their bindings and turned the battle around. After Chu Mu survived a near-fatal strike, he recognized the Saint Spirit Gu’s aura in the demon’s rapid healing and began to suspect the Old Ancestor’s escape from the Secret Realm had been part of a larger scheme.

• The cultivators’ combined attacks shattered the Wang Family Old Ancestor’s armor and tore into his demon body.
• The Wang Family Old Ancestor grew larger, snapped the spiderweb bindings, and swept his crescent blades through the crowd, killing and injuring cultivators.
• The Wang Family Old Ancestor attacked Chu Mu, who chose not to reveal his identity and was struck through the barriers into the lake.
• A beam fired from beneath the water blasted the Wang Family Old Ancestor away, while Chu Mu noticed the demon’s wounds were healing with the Power of Creation.
• Chu Mu recognized the Saint Spirit Gu’s aura in the demon’s healing and questioned how it had come to be in the Wang Family Old Ancestor’s body after Chu Mu had delivered it to Old Ancestor Xuan Cheng.

The frenzied Wang Family Old Ancestor slaughtered the cultivators in the Lake Bottom Cave, then pursued Chu Mu as the survivors fled. Chu Mu summoned his puppets and noticed that the demon healed more slowly after leaving the blood-soaked cave, giving him a possible way to fight back.

• The Wang Family Old Ancestor killed Jadeite Mountain Clan and devastated the other cultivators, leaving Chu Mu, Chi Shan, and Yun Ying among the few survivors.
• Chu Mu, Chi Shan, and Yun Ying fled in different directions, and the Wang Family Old Ancestor pursued Chu Mu.
• Chu Mu shed his disguise and sent dozens of puppets to block the demon, but their combined attack barely pushed it back and destroyed nearly a dozen puppets.
• Chu Mu noticed that the demon's wounds healed more slowly outside the Lake Bottom Cave and suspected that royal-bloodline blood had powered its transformation and healing.

Chu Mu exploited the Demon Body’s incomplete transformation and slowing regeneration, using Dawn to sever its giant blades and wound it. After a brief battle that shook Emerald Lake, the Demon Body pursued Chu Mu through the night sky as the region’s cultivators fled or hid.

• Chu Mu confirmed that the Demon Body’s wounds healed more slowly and that the Wang Family Old Ancestor had not completed his transformation or fully refined the Saint Spirit Gu.
• Chu Mu drew Dawn, and the demon attacked him with two giant blades after sensing the blade’s threat.
• Chu Mu’s blade-light severed both Demon Giant Blades, and the demon’s regeneration slowed again after several breaths.
• Chu Mu struck the demon’s abdomen with another blade attack, then used several treasures to withstand its counterattacks.
• The battle’s disturbance subsided in less than a quarter of an hour, and the Demon Body pursued Chu Mu across the night sky while cultivators in Emerald Lake hid or fled.

Chu Mu killed the Terrifying Demon, captured the wounded Yun Ying, and returned to the flooded Lake Bottom Cave to search the Wang Family Residence's hidden treasure vault. As a crimson flame tower appeared above Emerald Heart Mine, he began carefully unraveling the vault's formations and restrictions.

• Chu Mu struck the Terrifying Demon’s wound with his Three Feet Blade and brought it down into the lake.
• Chu Mu sensed Yun Ying hiding nearby, rendered him unconscious, and took him away.
• A crimson Escape Light arrived above Emerald Heart Mine, and an ancient flame tower with Nine Dragon Souls rose from the lake.
• Chu Mu entered the flooded Lake Bottom Cave and looted the ruined Wang Family Residence.
• Chu Mu found a raised patch of emerald jade flooring in the blood-colored hall and began unraveling the formations concealing the treasure vault.

Chu Mu broke through the jade floor beneath the Suppressing Prison Tower and entered the Wang Family’s hidden treasure vault. He looted the entire cave and left through the dark waters.

• The Suppressing Prison Tower’s defenses burned several cultivators who tried to approach, while Chu Mu waited for the formation restrictions beneath the lake to appear.
• Chu Mu tapped a formation restriction vein with crimson fire, extinguished the formation, shattered the jade floor, and sealed the water pouring into the cavity.
• Chu Mu entered a vast karst cave filled with the Wang Family’s stored treasures.
• Chu Mu used his Qiankun Pouch to collect the cave’s spiritual materials and treasures, focusing on third-rank and fourth-rank items.
• Chu Mu confirmed that he had left nothing behind and flew out of the cave into the dark waters.