Chapter Summaries

Lin Heng left Green Pavilion Sect for the alliance headquarters and outlined his defenses against Black Bamboo Sacred Land, while Meng Yutong prepared to act at home. As Lu Yuanliang’s forces crossed the Western Wasteland, Lin Heng’s first planned ambush began.

• Lin Heng asked Dugu Feng and Uncle Prison to guard Green Pavilion Sect while he went to the alliance headquarters with Jiang Jingyi.
• Meng Yutong learned that Lin Heng and other disciples had left and decided to strike after the enemy moved.
• He Qingcang reported the alliance’s ambushes and preparations to Lin Heng, who explained his first step with the story of the wolf coming.
• Lu Yuanliang led Black Bamboo Sacred Land’s force through the Western Wasteland and dismissed Zhong Yue’s warnings about Lin Heng and the alliance.
• A force of more than a thousand attackers charged the rear of Lu Yuanliang’s Cloud Boats.

Lu Yuanliang dismissed repeated puppet attacks as harmless harassment, but his fleet was ambushed in a narrow valley and lost a Cloud Boat and a True Lord. He claimed the losses were deliberate reconnaissance, while news of Ji Taichang’s successful strike reached Dragon Ridge Mountain.

• Zhong Yue warned that the attackers’ puppet raids might conceal a larger plan, but Lu Yuanliang agreed only to stay alert.
• After two more puppet attacks, Lu Yuanliang rejected Zhong Yue’s cautious route and chose the southwest passage.
• Real attackers struck the fleet in a narrow valley, destroying the rear Cloud Boat, killing a True Lord, and escaping after inflicting further losses.
• Lu Yuanliang laughed and insisted that he had feigned carelessness to probe the enemy, and the others accepted his explanation.
• News that Ji Taichang had destroyed a Cloud Boat and killed a True Lord without casualties reached Dragon Ridge Mountain, shocking Jiang Jingyi, He Qingcang, and the others.

Lin Heng explained how his false-troop ruses helped Ji Taichang’s forces ambush Black Bamboo Sacred Land and win their first battle without casualties. Murong Ziyan revised her wager with Lin Heng, and after he accepted her challenge to stop the enemy before it reached the Mother-and-Child Mountain Range, Lin Heng announced his next plan.

• He Qingcang and Jiang Jingyi were stunned by the report that Ji Taichang’s forces had sunk an enemy Cloud Boat and killed a True Lord without losing anyone.
• Lin Heng explained that he had privately arranged successive false alarms and a final ambush in the Narrow Valley with Clan Head Ji.
• Murong Ziyan argued that the enemy’s entry into the Narrow Valley did not settle their wager, so she and Lin Heng agreed that he would win if he stopped Black Bamboo Sacred Land before the Mother-and-Child Mountain Range.
• Murong Ziyan raised the stakes, promising to become Lin Heng’s maid if she lost, and Jiang Jingyi approved the wager.
• Jiang Jingyi asked Lin Heng what he planned to do next, and he announced a second step called “a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring.”

Lu Yuanliang ignored Zhong Yue’s warning and led the Cloud Boat fleet into the southwest road, where traps wrecked their formation and killed more than forty Golden Core cultivators. He blamed the ambush on a deeper plan, drove Zhong Yue away, and continued forward.

• A black-clad attendant reported mist and unfinished traps on the southwest road, but Lu Yuanliang ordered the fleet to take it.
• Zhong Yue returned and challenged Lu Yuanliang’s decision, but Lu Yuanliang laughed off the warning and claimed the traps were a feint.
• The fleet entered the formations, where the Fifth and Sixth Boats collided, the Seventh Boat was cut off, and more than forty Golden Core cultivators died.
• Lu Yuanliang insisted the traps were part of a plan to steer the fleet toward a more dangerous road, then threatened those who questioned him.
• Zhong Yue left the team after condemning Lu Yuanliang, who dismissed him and ordered the Cloud Boats to continue forward.

Song Feilan’s ambush team intercepted a lone Black Bamboo Sacred Land scout, while Lin Heng’s plan in the Western Wasteland produced another victory. Jiang Jingyi recognized how he had exploited the enemy’s arrogance, and she asked what kind of person he thought she was.

• Song Feilan learned the Black Bamboo Sacred Land fleet was still advancing and ordered Daoist Wang and two others to capture a lone enemy who had turned back.
• Lin Heng waited calmly while his forces used the Western Wasteland’s harsh conditions and the enemy’s limited resources to their advantage.
• Murong Ziyan complained about Lin Heng’s idleness, and Jiang Jingyi teased her about losing their bet and becoming his maid.
• A hidden guard delivered Song Feilan’s victory report, which shocked Murong Ziyan and confirmed Lin Heng’s plan had succeeded.
• Jiang Jingyi praised Lin Heng for understanding the enemy’s arrogance, then asked what sort of person he thought she was.

Lin Heng flirted with Jiang Jingyi and tried to recruit the Murong Clan as an ally, but Meng Yutong arrived and confronted them. Meng Yutong then gave Lin Heng Dao weapons to use as formation bases for the killing Formation he was preparing.

• Lin Heng praised Jiang Jingyi's ambition and proposed that the Murong Clan ally with the Dugu Clan to seize the Heavenly Action Continent.
• Jiang Jingyi teased Lin Heng about his interest in her and asked him to compare her bearing with Meng Yutong's.
• Meng Yutong arrived, criticized Jiang Jingyi and Lin Heng for flirting, and dragged Lin Heng away when he tried to leave.
• Meng Yutong gave Lin Heng a Storage Pouch filled with Dao weapons, saying she had brought them for the killing Formation's bases.
• Lin Heng wondered how Meng Yutong had learned about the Formation he was preparing without telling anyone.

Lin Heng and Jiang Jingyi tried to pressure captured strategist Zhong Yue into revealing the Supreme Alliance’s secrets, while Jiang Jingyi and Meng Yutong bickered over a chair. Zhong Yue began to reconsider his refusal and said they could still negotiate.

• Meng Yutong gave Lin Heng Rain Pavilion’s treasured Storage Pouch, then tried to leave with him before Murong Ziyan arrived with news of a captured prisoner.
• The group found Zhong Yue, a strategist from the Divine Calculation Pavilion who had served the Black Bamboo Sacred Land and joined the Supreme Alliance.
• Lin Heng offered Zhong Yue a choice between revealing important information and being killed so they could search his soul.
• Lin Heng asked Meng Yutong for a rocking chair, but Jiang Jingyi took it, prompting the two women to argue while Zhong Yue protested that they were ignoring him.
• After Lin Heng ordered Zhong Yue killed, Zhong Yue pleaded for a chance to negotiate and said he was too old to lose the cultivation he had worked hard to attain.

Lin Heng interrogated Zhong Yue, who revealed the Supreme Alliance might be using a hidden passage to reach the Heavenly Profound Continent and explained the Black Bamboo Sacred Land’s plan to capture Lin Heng. Lin Heng imprisoned Zhong Yue, then hurried Jiang Jingyi away when she and Meng Yutong began arguing again.

• Lin Heng stopped Zhong Yue from being taken away after Zhong Yue offered to reveal why the Supreme had not appeared.
• Zhong Yue speculated that the Supreme had vanished before and might now be traveling through a hidden passage between the continents.
• Zhong Yue explained that the Black Bamboo Sacred Land had planned a rapid attack to capture Lin Heng and destroy the Western Continent Alliance’s morale.
• Lin Heng refused to release Zhong Yue and ordered him locked up for later use as a bargaining chip.
• Jiang Jingyi mocked Meng Yutong about nearly being refined into a pill, and Lin Heng led Jiang Jingyi away to prevent another argument.

Jiang Jingyi tried to stir conflict between Meng Yutong and Lin Heng’s companions while Meng Yutong reunited with her disciples. Meanwhile, Lu Yuanliang’s Black Bamboo Sacred Land survivors rested in a valley, only to discover they had fallen into another ambush.

• Jiang Jingyi told Murong Ziyan she had challenged the Rain Pavilion Master because she disliked her arrogance, then ordered gifts sent to Lin Heng’s three dao companions.
• Meng Yutong questioned Lin Heng about Murong Yi, warned him to settle his heart, and joked with him before Mu Liuxi and the others arrived.
• Lin Heng introduced the masked Meng Yutong as the Rain Pavilion Master, and she left after meeting his senior sisters.
• Lu Yuanliang led the battered Black Bamboo Sacred Land survivors into a plateau valley, where an enemy force surrounded them and announced that they had fallen into the alliance master’s scheme.

Lu Yuanliang split his forces and used himself as bait, while Song Feilan refused to attack his lone Cloud Boat and instead continued disrupting the main force. The chapter ended with Mu Liuxi caught being affectionate with Lin Heng when Duan Shuyun and Leng Qingqiu arrived.

• Lu Yuanliang destroyed a puppet pig, then reassured the elders that the Immortal Alliance was trying to make them panic.
• At a fork in the road, Lu Yuanliang proposed sending the main force toward the High Earth Mountains while he traveled alone across the Barren Earth Plain as bait.
• Song Feilan rejected Ji Taichang's suggestion to attack Lu Yuanliang's lone Cloud Boat and ordered the puppets to keep interfering with the main force.
• The following morning, Duan Shuyun and Leng Qingqiu caught Mu Liuxi being affectionate with Lin Heng, and Mu Liuxi teased her sisters in response.

Lin Heng and his senior sisters learned that Murong Ziyan had given them Zhangluan Phoenix Rings, imperial gifts that granted their status as principal wives and offered refuge in a spatial illusion. Leng Qingqiu realized the rings could give them leverage over their domineering Master and decided to meet Lady Yi that night.

• Mu Liuxi showed Lin Heng and the others the rings Murong Ziyan had sent to the three senior sisters.
• Leng Qingqiu demonstrated that a ring could hide its wearer inside an inverted luan space and confuse enemies with an illusion.
• Leng Qingqiu explained that the rings were bestowed by the Female Emperor to recognize noble households’ principal wives and protect their standing.
• Lin Heng suggested the rings gave the senior sisters bargaining power against their Master, and Leng Qingqiu realized the gift might be connected to Lady Yi’s hidden identity as the Supreme One.
• Leng Qingqiu invited Mu Liuxi and Duan Shuyun to meet Lady Yi that night.

As Saint Ye’s group built a trapping formation in the Western Wasteland, Song Feilan realized that Lu Yuanliang was absent from the main boat team and had taken a different route. She rallied the alliance forces to seize their chance against the several hundred people left behind.

• Dugu Feng and Martial Man struggled to find a formation base strong enough for Saint Ye’s trap until Shen Yeting brought three Dao weapons from Dragon Ridge Mountain.
• Saint Ye opened the Storage Pouch holding the Dao weapons, triggering an outburst of Dao power that melted the pouch and sent him flying.
• With the Dao weapons serving as formation bases, Saint Ye’s group finally began setting up the trapping formation.
• Song Feilan noticed that the main boat team’s behavior did not fit Lu Yuanliang’s usual decisiveness and concluded that he was not aboard.
• Ji Taichang and the others realized Lu Yuanliang had taken the side boat, then Song Feilan urged them to attack the several hundred people remaining with the main boat team.

As the Western Continent forces attacked the Black Bamboo Sacred Land, Jiang Jingyi discussed Lin Heng’s Dragon Qi and the danger of others targeting his fortune. She rejected the rumor that he was her illegitimate son, while Murong Ziyan proposed linking his imperial blood to the Dugu Clan; Jiang Jingyi saw that the idea still left the origin of his cultivation method unexplained.

• Song Feilan directed the Western Continent forces to attack the Black Bamboo Sacred Land’s fleet and block its escape while Guo Xiao and the others prepared a formation.
• Jiang Jingyi told He Qingcang that Lin Heng’s strategy had made the Black Bamboo Sacred Land wary, and He Qingcang asked whether Lin Heng was her son.
• He Qingcang argued that Lin Heng’s Dragon Qi and Jiang Jingyi’s past seclusion made him seem like her illegitimate son, angering her and prompting her to order him out.
• Jiang Jingyi told Murong Ziyan that Lin Heng’s Dragon Qi could make him a target and that she needed to tie his fortune to the Dynasty’s fortune.
• Murong Ziyan suggested claiming that a past marriage alliance with the Dugu Clan explained Lin Heng’s imperial blood, but Jiang Jingyi noted that the idea did not explain how he learned to condense Dragon Qi.

Jiang Jingyi used the Zhangluan Phoenix Rings to win over Lin Heng’s three Dao companions and encourage them to stand up to their master. Murong Ziyan believed Jiang Jingyi was trying to stir up trouble in Lin Heng’s Inner Court, while Jiang Jingyi concealed her real motive of building allies against the lazy fish.

• Jiang Jingyi decided to use Murong Ziyan’s proposed method and welcomed Duan Shuyun, Leng Qingqiu, and Mu Liuxi, who came to return their rings.
• Jiang Jingyi explained that the rings were rewards for Lin Heng’s victory and said she wanted to help the three women, whom Meng Yutong had mistreated.
• Jiang Jingyi urged the three women to use their new status and support from their Dugu Clan mother-in-law to defend their dignity.
• Duan Shuyun, Leng Qingqiu, and Mu Liuxi thanked Jiang Jingyi and left feeling more confident.
• Murong Ziyan praised Jiang Jingyi for supposedly provoking conflict in Lin Heng’s Inner Court, and Jiang Jingyi warned her to remember their bet.
• Murong Ziyan remained confident that she would win the bet because she had heard no good news from the Western Wasteland.

Lin Heng welcomed Ji Taichang and the returning forces after their victory over the Black Bamboo Sacred Land, while Murong Ziyan accepted that she had lost her bet with him. Qiu then urged Ye Tian to exploit Meng Yutong’s Meng Clan background for revenge, but Ye Tian suspected she was trying to use him.

• Meng Yutong returned to Dragon Ridge Mountain and learned that Lin Heng had gone to receive Ji Taichang and the others.
• Ji Taichang apologized to Lin Heng, reported their victory and casualties, and presented six captured enemies for interrogation.
• Lin Heng led the returning group to Dragon Ridge Mountain, while Jiang Jingyi recognized that Murong Ziyan had lost her bet.
• Ye Tian angrily rejected the idea that Lin Heng’s success proved his ability, and Qiu told him the Black Bamboo Sacred Land had suffered a major defeat.
• Qiu suggested that Ye Tian use Meng Yutong’s ties to the Meng Clan to take revenge, but Ye Tian realized she was trying to manipulate him.

Ye Tian refused Qiu’s plan to target Meng Yutong and was slapped for pointing out Qiu’s weakened position. At the celebration feast, Duan Shuyun proposed a scheme for Mu Liuxi and Leng Qingqiu to reveal the rings to Jiang Jingyi, while He Qingcang mistakenly concluded that Lin Heng was Jiang Jingyi’s illegitimate son and hoped to gain favor with him.

• Ye Tian told Qiu that her fear of Meng Yutong and her loss of standing made her plan unwise, and Qiu slapped him away.
• At the Dragon Ridge Mountain feast, Meng Yutong and Jiang Jingyi watched each other tensely as Lin Heng’s companions discussed their rings.
• Duan Shuyun proposed that Mu Liuxi use her ring to call Lin Heng away, prompting the others to reveal its meaning to Jiang Jingyi.
• He Qingcang compared Lin Heng and Jiang Jingyi and wrongly decided that Lin Heng was the Female Emperor’s illegitimate son.
• He Qingcang told Wu Yan that befriending Lin Heng might restore his royal title.

At the victory banquet, Lin Heng warned the leaders that the Heavenly Action Continent’s divided forces could unite to invade if the Heavenly Profound Continent showed weakness, then proposed a strategy to repel them. After the banquet, Meng Yutong confronted Lin Heng over his closeness to Murong Yi.

• Ji Taichang asked Lin Heng about Zhong Yue and the Supreme Alliance, and Lin Heng claimed the alliance had at least three Supremes and countless cultivators.
• Lin Heng argued that the Heavenly Profound Continent should prepare for a wider invasion by holding the Northern Continent and defeating the current attackers decisively.
• Jiang Jingyi supported Lin Heng’s warning, explaining that a retreat could signal weakness and draw more forces from the Heavenly Action Continent.
• Lin Heng praised Jiang Jingyi for understanding his thoughts, leaving Meng Yutong resentful while the leaders agreed to follow his plans.
• After the victory banquet, Lin Heng planned to rest and check his Humanity Fruit, but Meng Yutong confronted him and accused him of growing closer to Murong Yi.

Meng Yutong tried to punish Lin Heng for his lustful behavior, but Mu Liuxi interrupted to ask him to help with her sword-art bottleneck. Leng Qingqiu and Duan Shuyun arrived as the master and disciples argued over who would keep Lin Heng for the night.

• Meng Yutong proposed binding Lin Heng, sealing his cultivation, and spanking him as training to resist temptation.
• Lin Heng praised Meng Yutong to appease her, but Mu Liuxi appeared and invited him to help with her sword art.
• Meng Yutong challenged Mu Liuxi for seeking Lin Heng's help at night, and Lin Heng tried to escape their dispute.
• Meng Yutong and Mu Liuxi caught Lin Heng before he could leave, and Leng Qingqiu and Duan Shuyun arrived looking for Mu Liuxi.

Duan Shuyun, Mu Liuxi, and Leng Qingqiu staged a performance with Murong Yi’s ring to test Meng Yutong’s attitude, but Meng saw through their plan. She punished the three seniors and Lin Heng by sending them flying onto a crooked-neck tree.

• Mu Liuxi claimed Murong Yi had given her a ring, and Leng Qingqiu explained its imperial significance to make it seem like the imperial family recognized Mu Liuxi as Fairy Cloud Peak’s mistress.
• Duan Shuyun and Leng Qingqiu suggested that Meng Yutong would have to respect the imperial family’s intentions, but Meng challenged their claims and struck Leng Qingqiu and Mu Liuxi out of the hall.
• Duan Shuyun tried to blame the others, but Meng sent her flying too.
• Lin Heng attempted to sneak away, but Meng caught him and launched him onto a crooked-neck tree with the three senior sisters.
• Jiang Jingyi and Murong Ziyan came out to watch, and Jiang Jingyi laughed at the four hanging from the tree.

Jiang Jingyi’s plan to sow discord between Meng Yutong and her disciples led to Duan Shuyun, Leng Qingqiu, and Mu Liuxi getting beaten and flung from trees. Meanwhile, Saint Ye’s formation trapped Lu Yuanliang for more than two hundred days from his perspective, but he escaped with his remnant soul.

• Jiang Jingyi and Murong Ziyan gloated over the rift they hoped to create between Meng Yutong and her disciples.
• Lin Heng used a spell to bring Duan Shuyun, Leng Qingqiu, and Mu Liuxi down from the trees after Meng Yutong sent them flying.
• Lin Heng suggested Murong Yi might join Fairy Cloud Peak, but the three women objected and warned that she might become overbearing too.
• Duan Shuyun invited Lin Heng to join the three women, suggesting they could play mahjong if he was tired.
• Saint Ye explained that his Time Soul-Locking Formation had trapped Lu Yuanliang for over two hundred days in his perception, but Lu Yuanliang escaped after his physical body was destroyed.