Chapter Summaries

After the Spirit Pill drove back the Netherworld Cult’s forces, Garden Master Lu Benxun joined the battle and helped Hundred Herbs Garden win. After learning how serious the Netherworld Cult’s threat was, he sent Zhao Xiaojie’s group onward toward the Sword Forging Furnace with more elite disciples.

• Hua Lingyu’s Spirit Pill dispersed the Netherworld darkness, and the disciples of Hundred Herbs Garden rallied to defeat the Shadow Assassins and the Netherworld Cult’s dead soldiers.
• Garden Master Lu Benxun arrived in person, healed the disciples, and turned the battle decisively in Hundred Herbs Garden’s favor.
• Lu Benxun named the half-white, half-black Spirit Pill the Black and White Pill after discovering its power against enemies.
• Hua Qianyu brought Zhao Xiaojie, Zhang Yize, and Li Yifeng to brief Lu Benxun on the invasion, and he agreed that the Mount Lu Secret Realm’s powerhouses needed to be contacted.
• Lu Benxun sent more than a dozen elite disciples with Zhao Xiaojie’s group toward the Sword Forging Furnace while he stayed behind to defend Hundred Herbs Garden and aid nearby survivors.

Zhao Xiaojie’s group built cooperative scouting teams with Hundred Herbs Garden as they traveled to Sword Forging Furnace, where Ou Yezhi learned of the Netherworld Cult’s threat. Ou Yezhi sent Ou Linghuo and Mo Ye to seek Old Yu Ouyang’s intervention while Sword Forging Furnace held off the cult.

• Zhao Xiaojie and his companions shared battlefield knowledge with Hundred Herbs Garden’s disciples and organized independent teams to scout the mountains.
• Wu Sanchai trained scouts, and Huang Lindang used his Red-Yellow Fox demon spirit to search ahead as teams began operating on their own.
• Zhang Yize’s party reached Sword Forging Furnace before the Netherworld Cult arrived, though their teams had already found signs of the cult nearby.
• Ou Yezhi received messages from the elders’ tokens and learned of the crisis facing Mount Lu Secret Realm.
• Ou Yezhi sent Ou Linghuo and Mo Ye to Samadhi Study to ask Old Yu Ouyang to intervene, while Sword Forging Furnace prepared to delay the Netherworld Cult.

Ou Yezhi sent Ou Linghuo and Mo Ye to Samadhi Study as Mount Lu Secret Realm faced an unprecedented crisis. Zhao Xiaojie and his companions reached the study and began its trials, where Zhao Xiaojie passed the first test and confronted memories of his childhood in the second.

• Ou Yezhi ordered Ou Linghuo and Mo Ye to go to Samadhi Study and warned them not to make mistakes.
• Zhao Xiaojie and Zhang Yize left the Sword Forging Furnace and headed into the mountains with Ou Linghuo and Mo Ye.
• The group entered Samadhi Study's formation and learned that the Questioning Dao Stone Tablet required each person to answer a question to advance.
• Zhao Xiaojie answered a military-strategy question correctly, passed the first trial, and entered the Questioning the Heart trial.
• Zhao Xiaojie relived his childhood memories, including his years as a bullied young eunuch and Old Zhao's eventual care and instruction.

Zhao Xiaojie relived his past in the Illusionary Realm of Questioning the Heart and recognized how Old Zhao and Zhang Mingshu had become his family. In the final trial, he chose to protect Baishi Village rather than search for his birth family, and the story left him confronting what he had truly pursued.

• Zhao Xiaojie revisited his childhood as a bullied palace eunuch and remembered how Old Zhao rescued him and taught him martial arts.
• Zhao Xiaojie recalled joining Old Zhao and Zhang Mingshu after they escaped the Imperial Palace and built their Lineage in Baishi Town.
• Zhao Xiaojie recognized Zhang Mingshu's extraordinary command of Demonic Spirit power and reflected on the Sky-Toppling Observatory's schemes around them.
• Zhao Xiaojie reached the final trial in a study filled with books and was asked what he had pursued throughout his life.
• Zhao Xiaojie decided that Baishi Village was his home, that Old Zhao and Zhang Mingshu were his family, and that he wanted to protect their homeland and its people.

Zhao Xiaojie reflected on what Household meant to him and chose loyalty to Zhang Mingshu’s family over restoring his body and founding a bloodline of his own. After guiding the group through the book house, Old Yu Ouyang returned them to the Sword Forging Furnace and arranged weapons and reinforcements for the counterattack.

• Zhao Xiaojie realized that he valued the Zhang Household’s unity and warmth, and that he regarded Zhang Mingshu as family.
• Old Yu Ouyang asked Zhao Xiaojie why he had refused a method that could restore his body and let him have descendants, and Zhao Xiaojie explained that he wanted no other Household.
• Old Yu Ouyang led Zhao Xiaojie and the others through a luminous path of books, where they gained insight, and brought them back to the Sword Forging Furnace.
• Old Yu Ouyang ordered Ou Yezhi to give each person a weapon and to prepare reinforcements for the counterattack.
• Old Yu Ouyang assigned Ou Yezhi’s forces to join Zhang Yize and Zhao Xiaojie’s forces and advance through the planned route toward Flower Immortal Valley.

Zhao Xiaojie led the Sword Forging Furnace disciples through Yigu Youlin and returned to the battered Hundred Herbs Garden, where he took charge of its defenses. He mobilized the garden's resources and prepared to lure the Netherworld Cult into an attack before launching a counterattack.

• Zhao Xiaojie chose the high-grade Azure Edge Sword, then led the Sword Forging Furnace's forces out under Old Yu Ouyang's guidance and helped drive back the Netherworld Cult.
• Hua Qianyu and Feng Zgai secured the demon spirits' permission to pass through Yigu Youlin, whose powerful residents intercepted pursuing Netherworld Cult forces.
• Zhao Xiaojie and his companions returned to find the Hundred Herbs Garden damaged by repeated attacks, with wounded disciples and more Netherworld Cult reinforcements expected.
• Zhao Xiaojie ordered Zhang Yize, Li Yifeng, Bai Shuping, Hua Qianyu, and Feng Zgai to reinforce patrols, manage supplies, and enlist the demon spirits' help.
• Lu Benxun granted Zhao Xiaojie temporary command, and Zhao Xiaojie used the medicine cauldron and Spiritual Energy to strengthen the garden's defensive formations while preparing a counterattack.

Zhao Xiaojie prepared Hundred Herbs Garden’s disciples for the Netherworld Cult’s renewed assault and coordinated strikes against the enemy’s black-robed controllers. The battle intensified as the defenders held the formation and Zhang Yize and Li Yifeng led teams into the enemy ranks, while Hua Lingyu and Lu Benxun remained uninvolved.

• The Netherworld Cult’s army advanced on Hundred Herbs Garden with demon beasts, Death Soldier Puppets, and Shadow Warriors, and Zhao Xiaojie rallied the disciples to defend the garden.
• Zhao Xiaojie ordered the disciples to activate the strengthened formation, which blocked the enemy’s initial barrage but could not stop the beasts and puppets from charging into close combat.
• Zhao Xiaojie discovered that black-robed cultivators controlled the charging creatures and assigned Li Yifeng’s and Zhang Yize’s teams to strike toward them in separate directions.
• Zhang Yize and Li Yifeng led their teams through the enemy lines, opening gaps and drawing attackers away from the garden’s front-line defenses.
• The fighting grew fiercer as Hundred Herbs Garden’s disciples resisted the seemingly endless assault, while Hua Lingyu and Lu Benxun had yet to join the battle.

The Hundred Herbs Garden’s defenders turned the battle against the Netherworld Cult after Hua Lingyu restrained the Death Spirit Envoy and Li Yifeng, Mo Ye, and their allies broke through the enemy ranks. The Netherworld Cult summoned Netherworld Ghost Generals, and Li Yifeng answered with a Golden Armored War God, though the crushed Ghost Generals began reforming.

• Lu Benxun replenished the disciples’ strength, while Hua Lingyu intercepted the Death Spirit Envoy and damaged nearby Netherworld Cult forces during their duel.
• Li Yifeng and Mo Ye charged into the enemy formation and cut down black-robed cultivators controlling the Death Soldier Puppets.
• Zhang Yize used [Brahma Dragon's Roar Technique] to devastate the Death Soldier Puppets and demonic beasts, letting the Hundred Herbs Garden disciples counterattack.
• The Netherworld Cult formed Netherworld Ghost Generals from fallen enemies, prompting Lu Benxun to warn the advancing teams.
• Li Yifeng summoned a Golden Armored War God, which trampled the Ghost Generals as they began merging, but the crushed creatures gathered and started reforming.

Li Yifeng and the Hundred Herbs Garden’s defenders turned the battle against the Netherworld Cult, but its Netherworld Ghost Generals bypassed the Golden Armored War God and attacked the protective formation. Zhao Xiaojie’s Word Spirit turned the ghosts against their allies, though their victims strengthened them when devoured.

• Li Yifeng empowered the Golden Armored War God, which shattered the Netherworld Ghost Generals even as they repeatedly re-formed and merged into a larger foe.
• The Netherworld Cult’s black-robed controllers suffered backlash after the Brahma Dragon's Roar Technique disrupted their control, allowing Wu Sanchai, Wen Xunrong, Zhu Qimo, Zhu Mingting, Chen Junluo, Zhang Shaoqing, Shi Beilu, An Muyuan, Meng Langyue, and the others to decapitate them.
• The hidden Netherworld Cult director split the giant ghost general into dozens of smaller ones and sent them around the Golden Armored War God toward the Hundred Herbs Garden’s protective formation.
• Li Yifeng sent the Golden Armored War God to aid Valley Master Hua Lingyu against the Death Spirit Envoy while Zhao Xiaojie led the reserve team to defend the formation.
• Lu Benxun strengthened the formation’s defenses as Zhao Xiaojie fought the ghost generals with the Azure Edge Sword and used Word Spirit: "Bring me a Pledge of Allegiance!" to make them attack nearby allies.
• Zhao Xiaojie found that the ghost generals devoured their victims and grew stronger, threatening to overwhelm the Hundred Herbs Garden.

Hua Lingyu sealed the Death Spirit Envoy and used her flute to steady the Hundred Herbs Garden disciples, while awakened demon spirits led by the Azure-eyed Golden Lion turned the battle against the Netherworld Ghost Generals. The defenders drove the Netherworld Cult forces from Hundred Herbs Garden and pursued them to a ruined city formerly owned by the Chen Family, where the enemy might be preparing a counterattack.

• The Golden Armored War God exploded after exhausting its strength, heavily injuring the Death Spirit Envoy and giving Hua Lingyu the chance to seal it away.
• Hua Lingyu played her jade flute, slowing the Netherworld Ghost Generals and calming the Hundred Herbs Garden disciples as Zhao Xiaojie reorganized their defenses.
• The Azure-eyed Golden Lion and other awakened demon spirits joined the battle, helping the disciples overwhelm the Netherworld Ghost Generals.
• Zhao Xiaojie coordinated the counterattack as Li Yifeng and Zhang Yize recovered and rejoined the fight, and sunlight weakened the Netherworld Ghost Generals' black mist.
• The disciples and demon spirits drove the Netherworld Cult forces out of Hundred Herbs Garden and pursued them to a ruined city formerly belonging to the Chen Family.
• A Netherworld Cult powerhouse tried to restore the clouds and black mist, but Hua Lingyu blocked him while Lu Benxun kept watch.

Zhao Xiaojie’s forces regrouped outside a small city occupied by the Netherworld Cult, tending their wounds and assessing the damage to the Chen Family of Jade Spring Manor. As reinforcements gathered, Zhao Xiaojie prepared for the cult’s expected decisive attack and considered how to secure more support.

• Zhao Xiaojie stabilized his forces after the battle, while Hundred Herbs Garden’s disciples fed and treated the exhausted demon spirits.
• Zhao Xiaojie learned that the Chen Family of Jade Spring Manor had lost its city and that its remaining elders had little combat strength or supplies.
• Zhao Xiaojie urged the Jade Spring Manor elders to turn over their remaining Spirit Stones, Spiritual Items, and Spirit Wine to support the army and earn Ou Linghuo’s approval.
• Zhao Xiaojie saw that Chen Junluo, Meng Langyue, and Huang Lingai had been seriously injured, while the Netherworld Cult gathered forces for a decisive battle.
• The Yunshan Duan Family, the Yu Family of Pine Wind Pavilion, the Shi Family of Stone Screen Tower, and the Pan Family of Azure Water Hall arrived with reinforcements.
• Zhao Xiaojie warned that the Netherworld Cult would return and calculated that he needed more assistance to face it.

Zhao Xiaojie received renewed authority to lead the battle against the Netherworld Cult after the Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat emerged from an ancient ritual. His forces fought the bat and its controlled shadows, gaining an advantage through teamwork and Hua Lingyu’s flute, while the demon spirits carried out Zhao Xiaojie’s planned assault.

• Zhao Xiaojie sensed an evil fluctuation from the small city, and Lu Benxun identified the approaching shadows as part of a ritual summoning the Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat.
• After the various Households authorized Zhao Xiaojie to command the battle, the Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat emerged from the ruins and Lu Benxun explained its origins.
• Zhao Xiaojie assigned the Azure-eyed Golden Lion to restrain the giant bat and led the cultivators against the shadows, which were revealed to be controlled by the bat.
• The Azure-eyed Golden Lion and Hua Lingyu attacked the giant bat while Zhao Xiaojie’s formation fought the shadows, and a flute played by Hua Lingyu slowed the enemies.
• Hua Qianyu seized the opening to kill several shadows, while the Flame Giant Ape, Seven-tailed Snow Fox, and other demon spirits carried out Zhao Xiaojie’s hit-and-withdraw tactic against the city wall.

Li Yifeng’s squad fought through corpse puppets as Zhang Yize’s elite squad arrived to rescue them, while the Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat attacked from above. Li Yifeng unleashed his sword insights against the bat’s swarm, leading his companions in a Sword Formation against the black mist.

• The Netherworld Cult’s battle horn weakened Hua Lingyu’s flute, and corpse puppets poured from the ruined city toward Li Yifeng’s squad.
• The Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat fought the Azure-eyed Golden Lion while Hua Lingyu’s music helped steady the allies and weaken their enemies.
• Zhao Xiaojie signaled Zhang Yize to rescue Li Yifeng’s trapped squad and fought off the approaching corpses with his companions.
• Zhang Yize’s elite squad reached Li Yifeng and tore open a path through the corpse tide, lifting the trapped squad’s morale.
• The Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat split into countless small bats and swept down at Li Yifeng’s group.
• Li Yifeng unleashed his sword insights against the black mist as his squad joined him in forming a Sword Formation.

Zhao Xiaojie and the others defeated the Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat and routed the Netherworld Cult’s forces. He then led a group into the little city to investigate and destroy the sacrificial ritual, where strange half-spirit ghosts drifted through the lingering Netherworld Ghost Qi.

• Zhao Xiaojie, Zhang Yize, Hua Qianyu, and the other disciples fought the Netherworld Cult’s forces while Valley Master Hua Lingyu and the Azure-eyed Golden Lion battled the Netherworld Ghost Giant Bat.
• A golden magical Treasure Sword struck the giant bat’s weak point, and the Azure-eyed Golden Lion followed with a claw attack, badly injuring it.
• The golden sword, the Azure-eyed Golden Lion, the Seven-tailed Snow Fox, the Twin-winged Flame Giant Ape, and Hua Lingyu’s flute weakened the giant bat until it dispersed, causing the Netherworld Cultists to falter and flee.
• Zhao Xiaojie gathered Li Yifeng, Zhang Yize, Hua Qianyu, Mo Ye, and others to enter the city and destroy the sacrificial ritual while the remaining disciples organized defenses and tended to the wounded.
• Li Yifeng led the way into the city, Zhang Yize took the middle, and Zhao Xiaojie guarded the rear; Zhao Xiaojie saw strange sights amid the lingering Netherworld Ghost Qi and half-spirit ghosts, with Hua Qianyu beside him.

Zhao Xiaojie and the others destroyed the Netherworld Cult’s sacrificial formation in the city, but a rune-covered stone stele activated a teleportation formation and pulled them into a black vortex. They vanished from the plaza, leaving their destination unknown.

• Hua Qianyu dispersed the Netherworld Ghost Qi as Zhao Xiaojie’s group advanced through the city and located the sacrificial ritual.
• Zhao Xiaojie and the others reached the plaza, where Netherworld Cult disciples were powering a formation protected by dark radiance.
• Zhao Xiaojie used a Secret Technique Spirit Bead to empower the Azure Edge Sword, and the group’s combined attack shattered the shield.
• The Netherworld Fire dissipated in the sunlight, and the Netherworld Cult disciples turned to black mist, but Zhao Xiaojie remained wary of the stone stele.
• The stone stele activated a teleportation formation, and Zhao Xiaojie, Zhang Yize, and the others were pulled into the black vortex and disappeared.

Zhao Xiaojie and the others were transported to the desolate Second Heaven surrounding the Ghost Refining Prison, where a gigantic skeletal undead creature threatened them. After splitting up to evade it and search for a way out, they crossed the hostile realm for several days and reached a Dragon Tiger Mountain cultivator near the core region.

• Zhang Yize identified the realm as the Second Heaven around the Ghost Refining Prison and warned that the giant skeletal undead was likely its guardian.
• Zhang Yize failed to contact the senior members of his Lineage, so Zhao Xiaojie and the others split into groups and fled the approaching creature.
• The undead creature abandoned their trail and charged in another direction, which Zhao Xiaojie suspected was toward the Netherworld Cult members.
• Zhang Yize used the Dragon Vein Spirit Seeking Technique to investigate while Li Yifeng sensed an unusual spiritual-energy fluctuation to the north and set out with Hua Lingyu.
• After several days crossing the realm's shifting conditions, Zhao Xiaojie and the others reached a Dragon Tiger Mountain cultivator stationed near the core region.

Li Yifeng’s group traveled through the Ghost Refining Prison while Zhao Xiaojie and Zhang Yize reached their Dragon Tiger Mountain allies. Martial Uncle Zhang explained the Prison’s history, its relationship with Dragon Tiger Mountain, and the powers it allowed cultivators to borrow.

• Hua Qianyu stopped Li Yifeng’s group from attacking a passing line of Ghost Spirits, explaining that they showed no hostility.
• Zhang Yize and Zhao Xiaojie found Martial Uncle Zhang with help from Zhang Yize’s Dragon Vein Spirit Seeking Technique.
• Martial Uncle Zhang guided the group to his valley to rest before they went to assist Li Yifeng’s group.
• Martial Uncle Zhang explained that the Ghost Refining Prison had its own will and could not be controlled by Dragon Tiger Mountain or the Netherworld Cult.
• Martial Uncle Zhang described how Dragon Tiger Mountain cooperated with the Prison and how its powers and ancestral spirits could be passed down.

Li Yifeng and Hua Lingyu discovered Yin Ling Lake, where the awakened Ancient Emperor Yin Ling Beast trapped them beneath its pressure. A mysterious Black Robed Figure arrived and addressed the beast as an old friend, leaving Li Yifeng cautiously seeking a way to protect his companions.

• Li Yifeng and Hua Lingyu combined their powers to break the runic seal on a cave entrance and descended to an underground lake.
• Hua Qianyu identified the place as Yin Ling Lake, where Yin Ling Energy harmed the living but nourished the dead, and Li Yifeng recognized ancient Suppression and Purification Runes.
• Li Yifeng touched the stele, awakening the lake and the stone house on its island; the Ancient Emperor Yin Ling Beast erupted from the water and immobilized Li Yifeng and his companions.
• A mysterious Black Robed Figure entered the cave, ignored the beast’s pressure, and greeted it as an old friend.
• The Black Robed Figure asked whether Yin Ling Lake had healed the beast’s injuries, while Li Yifeng quietly tried to recover enough strength to protect his companions.

Li Wuyou revealed himself as the thousand-year-old ancestor of the Li Family and demanded the Yin Spirit Pearl from the Yin Spirit Beast. Old Yu Ouyang confronted his former junior brother on the island, and their battle intensified as Li Yifeng and the others watched from the cavern’s edge.

• Li Yifeng attacked Li Wuyou on the Ice Mirror passage, but Li Wuyou seized control of his sword and suppressed him.
• Li Wuyou revealed his identity as Li Wuyou, an ancestor of the Li Family who founded the Netherworld Cult, and demanded the Yin Spirit Pearl from the Yin Spirit Beast.
• The Yin Spirit Beast sank beneath the lake, while Li Wuyou crossed to the island and met Old Yu Ouyang, who emerged from the stone house.
• Old Yu Ouyang and Li Wuyou began fighting, allowing Li Yifeng, Hua Lingyu, and the others to move freely and retreat to the cavern’s edge.
• Li Wuyou summoned Ghost Spirits, which Old Yu Ouyang blocked and drew into a vortex, before Li Wuyou formed a larger black vortex to clash with it.

The Fairy of the Lake emerged from the Yin Spirit Pearl and stopped Li Wuyou's battle with Old Yu Ouyang, shattering Li Wuyou's Netherworld Domain. She opened a teleportation portal that sent Li Wuyou, Old Yu Ouyang, and the others away, leaving the Ancient Emperor Yin Ling Beast alone before the stone house.

• The Yin Spirit Pearl awakened, and the Fairy of the Lake halted Old Yu Ouyang and Li Wuyou's clash with a burst of power.
• The Fairy struck Li Wuyou and dispersed his Netherworld Domain, while Old Yu Ouyang and the others bowed to her.
• The Fairy's radiance vanished, and Li Wuyou reflected on his failed plan before leaving through a teleportation portal.
• The Fairy opened a portal to send the others away, and Old Yu Ouyang ushered Li Yifeng, Hua Lingyu, Hua Qianyu, and the others through it.
• After everyone departed, the Ancient Emperor Yin Ling Beast watched the stone house and wondered whether the Fairy was waiting for someone or an immortal.