Chapter Summaries

After escaping the ambush, Liu Rumeng and Lu Xuanji hid while their injuries worsened from Yellow Springs Corpse Poison. Liu Rumeng refused to seek help from Ziyang Mountain, then revealed how the Master had taken her in and contrasted her lowly origins with Lu Xuanji’s place as the first person the Master offered to accept as a disciple.

• Liu Rumeng carried Lu Xuanji a thousand li from the battle, concealed their auras, and began treating her wounds after spitting poisoned blood.
• Lu Xuanji and Liu Rumeng discussed Xumi Devil Lord’s defeat and learned that the ambush had likely been intended to disrupt the Master’s breakthrough to Nascent Soul.
• The Mad Demon Talisman’s power faded, leaving Lu Xuanji weakened as his cultivation fell from Purple Mansion Layer 9 to Layer 2.
• Lu Xuanji’s Nirvana Pill could not overcome the Yellow Springs Corpse Poison, and Liu Rumeng said the poison was eroding their essence blood.
• Liu Rumeng refused Lu Xuanji’s suggestion to ask Ziyang Mountain for help, explaining that the attack had aimed to draw defenders away while the Master was in seclusion.
• Liu Rumeng told Lu Xuanji how the Master had taken her in as an orphan and noted that Lu Xuanji had been the first person the Master offered to accept as a disciple.

Lu Xuanji discovered that his Pure Yang True Fire and Yin Yang Transformation could turn the Yellow Springs Corpse Poison into nourishment, strengthening his Pure Yang Dao Body. He then rescued Liu Rumeng from her worsening injuries, and she woke to find herself embracing him before they both apologized.

• Ye Feixue entered a Cave Mansion to purge the Yellow Springs Corpse Poison with the Four Symbols Power.
• Lu Xuanji used the Yin Yang Transformation to convert the Yellow Springs Corpse Poison into nourishment for his Pure Yang True Fire, clearing it in an hour.
• Lu Xuanji found Liu Rumeng unconscious and near death, with severe injuries from eight kinds of cold yin true qi.
• Lu Xuanji held Liu Rumeng's hands and used the Yin Yang Transformation to draw out and convert the cold yin qi in her body.
• Liu Rumeng woke while clinging to Lu Xuanji for warmth, then realized their compromising position and straightened her clothes.
• Lu Xuanji and Liu Rumeng apologized to each other at the same time.

Lu Xuanji refused Liu Rumeng’s offer to repay her debts with intimacy, and she left for Ziyang Mountain after declaring their karma settled. He returned cautiously to the Lu Clan, where Ye Wanyi told him that the Chu Kingdom was hunting devil cultivators and that hundreds had already been killed.

• Liu Rumeng offered herself to Lu Xuanji to repay the debts of saving her life, but he refused because he sensed no affection between them.
• Liu Rumeng accepted his refusal, said their karma was settled, and left for Ziyang Mountain after Lu Xuanji recovered from his injuries.
• Liu Rumeng told Lu Xuanji that the devil cultivators would not target the Lu Clan because doing so would bring them little benefit and expose their tracks.
• Lu Xuanji disguised himself and used Baidu Maps to watch for ambushes as he traveled cautiously back to Changyuan Mountain.
• Lu Xuanji reached the Lu Clan and learned from Ye Wanyi that the Chu Kingdom had issued wanted notices and killed hundreds of devil cultivators, including some who had been regarded as reputable cultivators.

Ye Wanyi told Lu Xuanji about the bloody purge of devil cultivators and the atrocities committed by members of her family, then began cultivating the Ice Soul True Scripture he gave her. After learning the Yue Kingdom devil cultivators remained hidden and the search might soon end, Lu Xuanji heard the Danyang Sect’s Law Enforcement Elder accuse the Lu Clan of colluding with them and threaten to exterminate the clan.

• Ye Wanyi explained that the hunt for devil cultivators had led to executions, rivalries being settled under false pretenses, and the discovery of Ye Family members who had slaughtered mortals.
• Lu Xuanji comforted Ye Wanyi over the victims and gave her the Ice Soul True Scripture, which she took into seclusion to cultivate.
• Lu Xuanji asked the Great Elder about the Yue Kingdom devil cultivators and learned they had evaded the Vast Heaven Mirror while the search continued.
• The Great Elder said the mirror could only be used for about ten more days, while the devil cultivators could remain in hiding for months.
• The Danyang Sect’s Law Enforcement Elder accused the Lu Clan of colluding with devil cultivators and threatened to exterminate it unless it offered a satisfactory explanation.

Zhao Lei of the Law Enforcement Hall accused the Lu Clan of colluding with demonic cultivators and threatened to exterminate them. Lu Xuanji rejected the accusation and challenged Zhao Lei’s evidence, while the Lu Clan faced the threat of an attack.

• Lu Xuanji reassured the panicked Great Elder and ordered the Lu Clan to activate its grand array.
• Zhao Lei accused Lu Xuanji’s elder brother, Lu Xuanxin, of becoming a demonic cultivator and claimed he had helped the Lu Clan secretly profit and aid Yue Kingdom’s invasion.
• Zhao Lei said a Golden Core Elder had gone to hunt Lu Xuanxin and demanded that the Lu Clan surrender its demonic cultivators or face extermination.
• Lu Xuanji denied that his mortal brother could cultivate without a Spirit Root and accused Zhao Lei of making up his claims without evidence.
• Zhao Lei’s killing intent frightened the Lu Family cultivators, while Lu Xuanji called out Zhao Lei’s accusation and countered with an absurd charge of his own.

Lu Xuanji refused Zhao Lei’s demand to inspect the Lu Clan and accused him of being an impostor, while clan members urged Lu Xuanji to surrender himself. The Grand Elder responded by executing the dissenters, leaving the Lu Clan terrified as Zhao Lei’s forces waited outside.

• Zhao Lei demanded that Lu Xuanji open the mountain gate for an inspection, promising to spare the Lu Clan if it was innocent.
• Lu Xuanji refused and falsely claimed that Zhao Lei was a demonic cultivator disguised as his old friend.
• Zhao Lei declared that Lu Xuanji alone would be killed if the Lu Clan surrendered and laid down its weapons.
• Lu Family cultivators urged Lu Xuanji to sacrifice himself and let the Law Enforcement Hall enter.
• The Grand Elder called the dissenters traitors and killed them one by one despite their pleas.
• The surviving Lu Family cultivators watched in fear as corpses filled the ground.

The Great Elder crushed dissent among the Lu Clan, but Zhao Lei then destroyed the clan’s mountain formation and led the Law Enforcement Hall into battle. As the Lu Clan fought and some Foundation Establishment Cultivators fled, Lu Xuanji accepted his duty as Patriarch and prepared to face Zhao Lei.

• The Great Elder executed more than two hundred Lu Clan cultivators who resisted or complained, then forced the survivors to submit.
• Zhao Lei demanded that Lu Xuanji open the mountain gate, but Lu Xuanji called him a demonic impostor and refused.
• Zhao Lei shattered the Lu Clan’s mountain-protecting formation and led fifteen Law Enforcement Hall cultivators into the clan.
• The Great Elder ordered the Foundation Establishment Cultivators to form a defense while Qi Refining Cultivators fled, but fifteen Foundation Establishment Cultivators also escaped.
• The Lu Clan’s Foundation Establishment Cultivators fought the Law Enforcement Hall as Zhao Lei focused his attacks on Lu Xuanji.
• Lu Xuanji recalled how clan elders had once sacrificed themselves to let him escape, then activated his reforged Blazing Fire Sword and prepared to fight.

Lu Xuanji fought Zhao Lei in the sky, overcame his attacks, and cut him down, but Zhao Lei survived with a substitute-death treasure and struck back with a Golden Core token. As Lu Xuanji faced the final golden palm, Bai Ling'er shielded him and fell wounded into his arms.

• Zhao Lei attacked Lu Xuanji with the Endless Stars phenomenon and Heavenly Punishment Blade, while Lu Xuanji countered with the Pure Yang Great Sun and Primordial Magnetism Celestial Blade.
• Lu Xuanji's next blade split Zhao Lei in two, but Zhao Lei escaped death using a substitute-death treasure.
• Zhao Lei summoned golden palms from his token, and Lu Xuanji's Golden Token shattered after its third use.
• Zhao Lei's golden palm restrained Lu Xuanji's Ground Shrinking Golden Light as it descended to kill him.
• Bai Ling'er carried Lu Xuanji out of the palm's confinement but was struck by its remaining force, then fell wounded into his arms.

Bai Ling'er rescued Lu Xuanji and revealed that eight Golden Core cultivators had joined forces to attack Ancestor Jin Xi while she attempted to reach Nascent Soul. Lu Xuanji refused to flee to Green Hill and went with Bai Ling'er to watch the battle near Ziyang Mountain, where demonic cultivators were assaulting Ancestor Jin Xi’s defenses.

• Bai Ling'er teleported Lu Xuanji away from Zhao Lei, then collapsed from her injuries as he insisted on returning to the Lu Clan.
• Bai Ling'er told Lu Xuanji that Ancestor Jin Xi was attempting to reach Nascent Soul and that eight Golden Core cultivators had gathered to kill her at Ziyang Mountain.
• Bai Ling'er urged Lu Xuanji to escape with her to Green Hill, but he said he would go if Ancestor Jin fell and insisted Ancestor Jin was invincible.
• Bai Ling'er took Lu Xuanji to a safe distance from Ziyang Mountain and used an imitation of the Vast Heaven Mirror to show him the battle.
• Lu Xuanji saw demonic cultivators attack Ancestor Jin Xi’s mountain peaks and painting with an array of powerful killing moves.

As the demonic cultivators breached Ziyang Mountain’s array, Azure Lotus revealed herself and turned the battle around, defeating the Five Elements Devil Lord and scattering the attackers. She captured Lu Xuanji after he defended Bai Ling'er, then left Bai Ling'er wounded and vowing to surpass Jin Xi.

• Bai Ling'er told Lu Xuanji that the Five Elements Devil Lord led the attack and that the sect reinforcements had been intercepted.
• The demonic cultivators breached an Array Node, weakening the Qiankun Diagram and allowing them to storm Ziyang Mountain.
• Azure Lotus appeared, seized the Five Elements Devil Lord’s Golden Core, sealed him in a Great Cauldron, and killed another demonic cultivator, prompting the rest to flee.
• Azure Lotus caught Bai Ling'er and Lu Xuanji after they escaped, and Lu Xuanji stepped in to prevent her from killing Bai Ling'er.
• Azure Lotus struck Bai Ling'er with reduced force, warned her to stay away from Lu Xuanji, and took him away.
• Bai Ling'er healed her injuries and vowed that she would one day send Jin Xi to Yellow Springs.

Lu Xuanji learned that Azure Lotus was Jin Xi’s clone and that Jin Xi lay near death after forming a Ninth Revolution Golden Core. He agreed to seek a chance to save her, then learned that Ye Wanyi had kept the Lu Clan from being destroyed by the Law Enforcement Hall.

• After returning to the ruined Ziyang Mountain, Azure Lotus dismissed Long Xuan and privately revealed to Lu Xuanji that she was Jin Xi’s clone.
• Azure Lotus brought Lu Xuanji to Jin Xi, who was frozen in Mystic Ice and gravely wounded after half succeeding at the Ninth Revolution of the Golden Core.
• Azure Lotus explained the Two Forms Illusory Annihilation Body and urged Lu Xuanji to seek a possible cure in a secret realm; he agreed to save Jin Xi.
• Lu Xuanji demanded that Azure Lotus avenge the Lu Clan by killing Zhao Lei, but Azure Lotus revealed that Ye Wanyi had defended the clan and nearly beaten Zhao Lei to death.

Azure Lotus revealed that Ye Wanyi and the Grand Elder had saved the Lu Clan, then took Lu Xuanji to the Danyang Sect to kill Zhao Lei under the pretext of avenging him. Afterward, she admitted that Lu Xuanji and his clan were protected because they remained useful, leaving him to accept that he was also a chess piece.

• Azure Lotus showed Lu Xuanji how Ye Wanyi and the Grand Elder had rescued the Lu Clan, injured Zhao Lei, and escaped with the clan cultivators.
• Azure Lotus took Lu Xuanji to the Danyang Sect and accused Zhao Lei of being possessed by a demonic cultivator who had led the attack on the Lu Clan.
• The Danyang Sect handed over Zhao Lei, and Lu Xuanji killed him with the Blazing Fire Sword while the Golden Core Ancestors accepted Azure Lotus's account.
• After they returned to Ziyang Mountain, Lu Xuanji asked whether he would be discarded like Zhao Lei if he became useless, and Azure Lotus told him that his value was why she protected him.

Lu Xuanji entered the Sword Island Fragment at Ancestor Azure Lotus’s request, hoping to repay her and help with her predicament. He found a vast, herb-rich wilderness suited to demonic beasts, where a flock of Purple Mansion Black Feathered Giant Eagles immediately attacked him.

• Ancestor Azure Lotus explained that the Jin Family’s Sword Island Fragment had killed many cultivators and now only allowed Purple Mansion cultivators to enter, then asked Lu Xuanji to explore it.
• Lu Xuanji agreed to enter and asked Ancestor Azure Lotus to protect the Lu Clan for a hundred years if he died; she promised to take Ye Wanyi as her disciple.
• Ancestor Azure Lotus led Lu Xuanji to a hidden vortex in Ziyang Mountain’s medicinal garden and told him the Sword Island Fragment had drawn her to the mountain more than two hundred years earlier.
• Lu Xuanji entered the vortex and arrived in a vast wilderness where ancient spirit herbs grew abundantly and spiritual energy favored demonic beasts.
• More than ten Purple Mansion Black Feathered Giant Eagles spotted Lu Xuanji and swooped down to kill him.

Lu Xuanji explored a Sword Island Fragment and discovered that its demon beasts were unusually weak because the Ancient Sword Sect had kept Spirit Severing Powder in their water. He reached the Spirit Food Garden, where the powder’s purpose was explained, while human cultivators hunted the beasts across the fragment.

• Lu Xuanji easily killed groups of Purple Mansion demon beasts and a White Tiger Demon Beast, finding their combat strength far below their cultivation levels.
• Lu Xuanji killed the Black Eagle King with his Primordial Magnetism Celestial Blade and took its Golden Core.
• Lu Xuanji hid from a passing Nascent Soul flood dragon and used Baidu Maps to track demon beasts and human cultivators across the Sword Island Fragment.
• Lu Xuanji saw human cultivators hunting demon beasts, while the hunts triggered bloody counterattacks and deaths on both sides.
• Lu Xuanji followed Baidu Maps about five thousand li to a stele marked Spirit Food Garden and learned that the Ancient Sword Sect had raised demon beasts there as food.
• Lu Xuanji examined river water and found Spirit Severing Powder, which had kept the demon beasts from developing intelligence.

Lu Xuanji watched Spirit Severing Powder fail to prevent Demon Beasts from awakening intelligence after eating human cultivators, while the beasts organized a massacre and built a gate to another world. A Spirit Transformation Demon revealed that he had engineered the expeditions and used a million human souls to transform the unstable gate into a pitch-black portal.

• Lu Xuanji saw Demon Beasts awaken intelligence by devouring human cultivators, grow stronger, and hunt humans under the command of Nascent Soul Demon Beasts.
• Lu Xuanji evaded the hunts for three months, while the number of human survivors on the Sword Island Fragment fell from around a hundred thousand to fewer than a hundred.
• The Demon Beasts gathered and used beast blood, spiritual treasures, and sacrificed Demon Beasts to form a seven-colored Realm Gate.
• A Nascent Soul Demon Beast and then a Golden Core Demon Beast tried to pass through the gate, but spatial tears killed them.
• A Spirit Transformation Great Demon revealed that he had awakened by eating a human cultivator, consumed the other Spirit Transformation Demon Beasts, and lured human cultivators to the fragment for two hundred years.
• The Spirit Transformation Great Demon sent a million collected human souls into the formation, turning the seven-colored gate pitch-black.

A silver-haired Spirit Transformation cultivator slaughtered the demon beasts and sacrificed them to complete a Realm Gate, then blood-sacrificed the plane itself. Lu Xuanji was caught in the collapsing world’s Void Turbulence and lost consciousness, believing he was dead.

• The silver-haired old man defeated the Nascent Soul Demon Beasts, crushing them and sacrificing them to the Realm Gate.
• After sacrificing the Nascent Soul and Golden Core Demon Beasts, the old man began a formation to blood-sacrifice the entire plane.
• Lu Xuanji realized the old man’s plan but could not stop him, and the formation drained the plane’s origin as its inhabitants died.
• The Realm Gate reached completion, and the silver-haired old man entered it before the plane shattered.
• Void power cut Lu Xuanji’s arm and tore through the collapsing plane, leaving him unconscious and thinking he had died.

Lu Xuanji survived the Void Turbulence on a damaged stone stele and reached Sword Island with the broken Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword. The sword spirit revealed its plan to seize Lu Xuanji’s Pure Yang Dao Body and began the attempt.

• Lu Xuanji awoke in the Void Turbulence, protected by the stone stele, and realized the stele was cracking as its barrier weakened.
• The stele carried Lu Xuanji to Sword Island, where it shattered and revealed the broken Pure Yang Sword.
• The Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword explained that Joyful Union Old Devil had broken Sword Island and the sword, and that Lu Xuanji’s Pure Yang True Blood had awakened it.
• The Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword rejected Lu Xuanji’s suggestion that it acknowledge him as its master and said it would seize his body instead.
• The Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword claimed their attributes were perfectly compatible and that its Heaven-Deceiving Secret Technique could evade the usual risks of body seizure.
• The Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword entered Lu Xuanji’s glabella and began seizing his body.

The Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword attempted to seize Lu Xuanji’s body, but his phone’s Kill Virus procedure destroyed it and absorbed its soul. After recovering, Lu Xuanji learned from its memories how a name collision had led to Sword Island’s destruction.

• The Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword began a Body Seizure, but gray light from Lu Xuanji’s Soul Treasure devoured its divine soul.
• The Spirit of the Pure Yang Sword realized Lu Xuanji was its fated tribulation before its soul shattered and nourished Lu Xuanji.
• Lu Xuanji’s phone announced that it had cleared the invading virus, and Lu Xuanji woke beside the broken Pure Yang Sword.
• Lu Xuanji spent three days adjusting to the artifact spirit’s memories as its Soul Origin strengthened his divine soul and spiritual roots.
• Lu Xuanji learned that Joyful Union Old Devil and Sword Island had fought to the destruction of the island after a sword-name mix-up.

After refining the artifact spirit’s soul, Lu Xuanji inherited vast sword dao knowledge but realized it could not make him truly devoted to swordsmanship. He explored the ruined Sword Island for treasures, only to find that the contents of its vault had decayed over hundreds of thousands of years.

• Lu Xuanji absorbed countless sword techniques and insights from the artifact spirit but concluded that his lack of passion for the sword dao remained unchanged.
• Lu Xuanji went to Sword Island to search for treasures and recalled how Joyful Union Old Devil had destroyed the once-mighty sect.
• Using the artifact spirit’s knowledge of Sword Island’s arrays, Lu Xuanji bypassed their defenses and reached a treasure vault.
• Lu Xuanji entered the vault and discovered that its swords, pills, and other treasures had decayed beyond use.

Lu Xuanji searched Sword Island’s treasury and halls, finding that time had ruined nearly every treasure and resource. In the Ancestor Hall, Two Forms Dao Lord spoke to him, warned that many people were plotting against him, and offered him a Void Treasure Chest on the treasury’s eighth layer.

• Lu Xuanji searched the treasury’s first seven layers and Sword Island’s halls, but found only ruined treasures and medicinal ash, which he gathered as fertilizer.
• Lu Xuanji paid respects to the ancestors in the Ancestor Hall and lit incense before the statues of Pure Yang Dao Lord, Two Forms Dao Lord, and Feather Dao Lord.
• Two Forms Dao Lord’s statue spoke to Lu Xuanji, who explained that he was not a sword cultivator and had once been judged dead wood in the sword path.
• Two Forms Dao Lord sensed numerous threads of karma around Lu Xuanji and said that several people were plotting against him.
• Two Forms Dao Lord told Lu Xuanji that a Void Treasure Chest he had left on the treasury’s eighth layer contained small gifts, and said taking it was Lu Xuanji’s choice.