Chapter Summaries

Xu Yi restored Dongshan Prefecture after suppressing the Black Lotus Cult, then collected the three cities’ vow pearls and arranged their taxes and expenses. With nearly three thousand pearls left and the prefecture thriving, he headed to Two Kings Mountain to distribute the remaining benefits.

• Xu Yi placed true-spirit restrictions on Mr. Ge and Dong Xinchang, and Dong Xinchang decided to return to the Dongshan Prefecture office and stop rebelling.
• Xu Yi mobilized his subordinates to rebuild Dongshan Prefecture, and the three cities’ commerce and population recovered as their vow clouds grew.
• The three cities produced more than seventeen thousand vow pearls, and Xu Yi secured a reduced tax assessment by paying Mr. Ge five hundred pearls.
• Xu Yi paid taxes, officials, the treasury, and Ming Liding, leaving himself just over three thousand vow pearls.
• Xu Yi hosted a three-day banquet, then left for Two Kings Mountain to distribute benefits.

Xu Yi learned that powerful factions were forcing him out as magistrate of Dongshan Prefecture despite his success, because he lacked political backing. Mr. Ge said Xu Yi’s influence could help him secure a favorable new post, but Xu Yi pressed him to reveal which faction he planned to support.

• Xu Yi visited Mr. Ge and learned that the prefectural magistrate could not meet him because Xu Yi was expected to give up his post as Dongshan’s magistrate.
• Mr. Ge explained that Dongshan had become a valuable, prosperous post, and rival factions were competing for it now that Xu Yi had collected the wish pearls.
• Xu Yi considered undoing his achievements by restoring Huang Kai or the Black Lotus Cult, but rejected those plans rather than harm the people of the three cities.
• Xu Yi accepted that he could not keep his post and asked Mr. Ge for advice on choosing his successor.
• Mr. Ge said Xu Yi’s fame for defeating the Black Lotus Cult gave him leverage in the contest and could help him obtain a good post elsewhere.
• Xu Yi asked Mr. Ge which faction he had arranged to support and warned that he would take offense if the price was wrong.

Xu Yi accepted a third-rank staff officer post in the Elder Council’s Staff Department and prepared to leave Dongshan Prefecture. He departed with Dong Xinchang, Pan Meiren, and Qin Shousheng, and the group arrived near a vast Floating Island marked “Auspicious Bells.”

• Xu Yi agreed to Elder Xi’s offer of a nominal third-rank position after Mr. Ge explained the terms.
• Xi Yangchun took over as magistrate of Dongshan Prefecture, and Xu Yi introduced him to the prefectural office.
• Xu Yi’s transfer order arrived, appointing him a third-rank staff officer in the Elder Council’s Staff Department.
• Xu Yi freed Xueli Mei and arranged her wedding to Cheng Yan, while Zhong Wu chose to keep his department-head post.
• Xu Yi left Dongshan Prefecture with Dong Xinchang, Pan Meiren, and Qin Shousheng and traveled west to the vast Floating Island called Auspicious Bells.

Xu Yi arrived at Auspicious Chimes Immortal City and took up his Staff Department post at Cangyou Peak, where he settled into a quiet but socially demanding life in officialdom. After two months of building connections, he understood the department’s workings and decided to change how he had been living.

• Xu Yi entered Auspicious Chimes Immortal City with Pan Meiren, Dong Xinchang, and Qin Shousheng, then traveled to the Staff Department on Carefree Mountain.
• Assistant Official Fang welcomed Xu Yi to Cangyou Peak, gave him a command token and jade plaques, and introduced Liu Chang as the Menial Workers’ leader.
• Xu Yi gave Pan Meiren authority over the mountain gate, prompting Pan to assign duties and the worst caves to Dong Xinchang and Qin Shousheng.
• Xu Yi discovered that his Staff Department post offered few duties and a salary of thirty wish beads a month, and he spent his first month visiting colleagues and attending gatherings.
• After two months, Xu Yi had built a decent reputation in the department and decided to make a clean break with his previous way of life.

Xu Yi spent six months in seclusion reviewing numerology, alchemy, talismans, and cultivation classics while preserving his wish pearls. Curious about what lay beyond the Divine Embryo, he sought out Liu Junshi and arrived at his mountain, where Liu’s servant claimed his master was in seclusion.

• Xu Yi chose not to advance to the Mortal Transformation Fourth Realm because it would consume his wish pearls and bring the costly risk of the First Tribulation of Lightning.
• During six months of seclusion, Xu Yi strengthened his foundations in numerology, alchemy, talismans, and cultivation classics, though he did not solve the Seven Star Numerology puzzle.
• Wondering what realm followed the Divine Embryo, Xu Yi contacted Mr. Ge, who advised him to bring Liu Junshi wine and rare or incomplete Go manuals.
• Xu Yi gathered incomplete Go manuals and a jug of spirit-liquid wine, then traveled to Liu Junshi’s mountain to visit him.
• When Liu Junshi’s servant said his master was in seclusion and would not receive visitors, Xu Yi claimed he was an old friend visiting by appointment.

Xu Yi visited Liu Junshi and challenged him to go, despite having little experience. After nine increasingly close games revealed Xu Yi’s unusual talent, Liu Junshi was stunned, then eagerly praised the wine Xu Yi had brought.

• Xu Yi persuaded Liu Junshi’s old servant to let him through by claiming he had come to drink and play chess.
• Liu Junshi welcomed Xu Yi and insisted on taking the first move before they began their game.
• Xu Yi lost the first five games by shrinking margins, then won the sixth as their match continued.
• After nine games, Liu Junshi admitted he could not discern Xu Yi’s playing style and learned that it was Xu Yi’s first time playing someone.
• Xu Yi poured his wine for Liu Junshi, who praised it enthusiastically.

Xu Yi learned from Liu Junshi about lightning tribulations and the path to the Divine Embryo Realm, then attended a briefing on the Cult’s Crescent Moon Three Stars Seal. After studying the seal for three days, he improved the restriction-breaking art in the Minor Cloud Crane Art.

• Liu Junshi told Xu Yi how he had entered the Staff Department after witnessing his former elder die in the Ninth Tribulation of Lightning.
• Liu Junshi explained the lightning tribulations, the Heavenly Heart Pill, and the treasures cultivators used to survive them.
• Xu Yi recorded Liu Junshi’s explanation and rested before Pan Meiren told him a new lecturer had arrived.
• At the lecture meeting, Xu Yi heard that the Ancestral Court wanted the Crescent Moon Three Stars Seal and learned it might help detect hidden Night Walkers.
• Xu Yi studied the seal for three days and nights, improving the restriction-breaking art in the Minor Cloud Crane Art without fully refining the seal.

After refining the Crescent Moon Three Stars Seal, Xu Yi went to the Silent Sea to watch a cultivator cross the lightning tribulation. He witnessed Lord Guo die beneath the heavenly lightning and was left reflecting on how easily a cultivator’s long journey could end.

• Xu Yi refined the Crescent Moon Three Stars Seal and deepened his understanding of the forbidden-art-breaking techniques in the Minor Cloud Crane Art.
• Xu Yi spent several days drinking with Jiang Churan and his colleagues before Qin Shousheng told him that someone was undergoing a tribulation at the Silent Sea.
• Xu Yi rode his Green-beaked Silver-feathered Eagle to the Silent Sea and watched Lord Guo enter the azure energy mass as the First Tribulation of Lightning began.
• A Lightning Dragon killed Xu Yi’s eagle and terrified the gathered cultivators, while Lord Guo used an Azure Silk Lightning-drawing Umbrella to block the first strike.
• A second Lightning Dragon destroyed the umbrella, and a third struck Lord Guo and vanished into the sea, leaving him dead.
• Xu Yi remained at the Silent Sea, reflecting on Lord Guo’s death until a white stork catching a black carp brought him back to his senses.

Xu Yi discovered that Jiang Churan had lured him into a meeting with the suspicious Song Zhong and realized Song might be a Church Night Walker. Jiang Churan then claimed Song had ties to Church spies, leaving Xu Yi demanding the truth.

• Xu Yi fled before a lightning tribulation and decided to seek Heavenly Heart Pills and treasures that could ward off lightning.
• Jiang Churan persuaded Xu Yi to attend a supposed truce negotiation at Qingfeng Hall, where they met Song Zhong.
• After Jiang Churan left, Xu Yi learned that he had given Song Zhong a different explanation for the meeting and found a Ruyi Pearl recording them.
• Xu Yi tested Song Zhong with a talisman and detected his telltale reaction, concluding that Song Zhong was likely a Church Night Walker.
• Jiang Churan returned and claimed Song Zhong had dealings with Church spies, and Xu Yi grabbed him by the collar and demanded to know whether he was lying.

Xu Yi saw through Jiang Churan and Xi Yangchun’s scheme to extort him over Song Zhong and brutally defeated them. He left with Song Zhong, while the injured men vowed revenge and regretted their failure.

• Jiang Churan summoned Xi Yangchun, who recognized Xu Yi as his former superior and offered to resolve the alleged Night Walker case for six thousand Wish Pearls.
• Xu Yi exposed their plan, but Xi Yangchun and Jiang Churan insisted Song Zhong was a Night Walker and threatened to reveal the truth in three days.
• Xu Yi attacked Xi Yangchun and Jiang Churan, beat them unconscious, and threw them out the window into the street.
• Song Zhong emerged from the inner room looking grief-stricken and despairing, and he and Xu Yi left together.
• Xi Yangchun and Jiang Churan returned through the window; one swore revenge on Xu Yi while the other lay full of regret.

Xu Yi learned that Song Zhong’s cover as a Night Walker had been exposed, then discovered a Black-level mission involving people he had been searching for. Song Zhong entrusted the mission to Xu Yi, who resolved to take it on.

• Xu Yi confronted Song Zhong about how he had found him, and Song Zhong recognized Xu Yi’s white Crescent Moon Three Stars Seal as proof of his standing.
• Song Zhong explained that Xi Yangchun would have him arrested in three days and asked Xu Yi to take over his mission.
• A Black-level mission appeared, ordering Station Number Seven to meet Ghost Seven’s group and escort an important person to the Huaimu Teleportation Array.
• Xu Yi recognized Xuan Lengyan, Xiong Bei Ming, Gold Corpse Old Cao, and Ning Wuque among the mission’s important figures and decided to accept it.
• Song Zhong, unable to act without endangering the mission after being exposed, presented Xu Yi with several objects and entrusted the mission to him.

Xu Yi accepted Song Zhong’s request to act as chief of Night Walkers Station Number Seven and learned the Night Army’s procedures from Song Zhong’s booklets. After securing Song Zhong’s inheritance and taking control of the station’s credentials, Xu Yi was summoned to a large assembly at the Staff Department’s council hall.

• Song Zhong gave Xu Yi his resources, contact details, and credentials, asking him to take over Station Number Seven and complete a Black-level mission.
• Xu Yi read Song Zhong’s booklets and learned the Night Army’s ranks, structure, and use of seals and message tokens.
• Xu Yi refined Song Zhong’s message token, linked it to his gold seal, and established himself as Station Number Seven’s chief.
• Xu Yi copied Song Zhong’s booklets, stored the resources in a locker at Xuan Yue Pavilion, and returned to Cangyou Peak.
• Two Staff Department administrators escorted Xu Yi to a large assembly in the council hall, where his case was to be addressed.

Xu Yi faced a hearing over the alleged beating of Jiang Churan and Xi Yangchun, whose witnesses supported their accusations. He turned the tribunal against them by accusing the pair of discussing the Church and the Night Walker, triggering a dangerous investigation.

• Vice Dean Yang accused Xu Yi of assaulting Jiang Churan and Xi Yangchun, while Xu Yi denied it and rejected their deadly oaths as proof by citing the Heavenly Heart Pill case.
• Xi Yangchun presented three Qingfeng Hall attendants, who falsely claimed they had heard a fight and were the only people present.
• As Vice Dean Yang pressed Xu Yi to admit guilt, Xu Yi accused Jiang Churan and Xi Yangchun of conspiring against him because he had overheard them discussing the Church and the Night Walker.
• The accusation stunned the tribunal, and Jiang Churan, Xi Yangchun, and Vice Dean Yang realized that the Plum Blossom Iron Guard would investigate everyone involved.
• Xi Yangchun secretly begged Xu Yi to retract the accusation and settle the matter.

The Plum Blossom Iron Guard arrested Xi Yangchun, believing him to be a Night Walker after a steward linked him to a jade pendant from Song Zhong. Xi Yangchun protested that he had been framed, but Chen Tieshou searched his Starry Sky Ring, leaving the evidence hunt underway.

• Jiang Churan warned Xu Yi that the Plum Blossom Iron Guard's arrival could expose Song Zhong's identity and implicate Xi Yangchun's uncle.
• Chen Tieshou arrived with the Plum Blossom Iron Guard and had Xi Yangchun bound, accusing him of being a Night Walker.
• Chen Tieshou brought in Steward Qin, who said Song Zhong had given him a jade pendant to pass to Xi Yangchun before Song Zhong was arrested and blew himself up.
• Chen Tieshou revealed that the dead man was Song Zhong and displayed the jade pendant's Talisman Pattern, while Xi Yangchun insisted Song Zhong had framed him.
• Chen Tieshou struck Xi Yangchun with the Great Collection Hand, shattered his Starry Sky Ring, and ordered his men to search the spilled resources.

Xu Yi helped expose Xi Yangchun as a Night Walker, then accused Jiang Churan and had him arrested after he confessed to framing Xu Yi. Back in his cave abode, Xu Yi reconsidered the evidence and suspected that neither man was truly a Night Walker.

• Long Face found a jade token and a secret message in Xi Yangchun's belongings, and Chen Tieshou ordered Xi taken away as a Night Walker.
• Xu Yi accused Jiang Churan, recalling that Song Zhong had promised to remove the people obstructing Xu Yi in exchange for his help with the Cult's mission.
• Jiang Churan confessed to scheming against Xu Yi and blamed Xi Yangchun, while the Qingfeng Hall attendants also admitted to giving false testimony.
• Chen Tieshou arrested Jiang Churan for framing Xu Yi, and Vice Dean Zhang ended the hearing.
• Xu Yi returned to Cangyou Peak and, after reviewing the day's events, concluded that the testimonies were too contradictory for either Jiang Churan or Xi Yangchun to be a real Night Walker.

Chen Tieshou raided Xu Yi's cave abode and searched his Starry Sky Ring, but found no evidence linking him to the Night Walkers. Xu Yi then privately urged Chen Tieshou to consider the political consequences of clearing Xi Yangchun, leaving Chen to rethink his investigation.

• Xu Yi hid his treasures in a Sumeru Ring and tossed it into the flowing pool as Chen Tieshou entered his cave abode with the Plum Blossom Iron Guard.
• Chen Tieshou presented a search warrant and demanded that Xu Yi open his Starry Sky Ring.
• Xu Yi recorded the search with a Ruyi Pearl, and a spatial sensor stone detected nothing on him.
• Chen Tieshou searched Xu Yi's Starry Sky Ring but found only Sumeru Rings and books, leaving him embarrassed and convinced Xu Yi was innocent.
• Xu Yi dismissed Chen Tieshou's subordinates and pointed out that clearing Xi Yangchun could win no gratitude and might sacrifice a merit Chen had already earned.

Xu Yi secured access to Station Number Seven’s armory as he prepared for Xuan Lengyan and the others’ mission, while Xi Mengfan entertained Jizhou magistrate Tong Tiange and sought help for Xi Yangchun. The chapter ended with Tong Tiange offering to make Xi Yangchun’s death easier, though he could not intervene in the case itself.

• Xu Yi convinced Chen Tieshou that he wanted revenge on Xi Yangchun, easing Chen’s suspicions before retrieving the Sumeru Ring from Clear Water Pool.
• Xu Yi prepared for Xuan Lengyan and the other three to arrive, then used Song Zhong’s token and seal to unlock Station Number Seven’s armory.
• Xu Yi opened the armory cube and was astonished by the weapons and supplies inside.
• Xi Mengfan hosted Tong Tiange at the Illusory Moon Pavilion and gave him Essence of Heaven-Severing, Water-Hating.
• Tong Tiange told Xi Mengfan he could not help Xi Yangchun’s case but could make his end easier.

Xi Mengfan persuaded Tong Tiange to help him target Xu Yi, whom he considered a dangerous prodigy and an enemy of the Xi family. Tong Tiange accepted a Treasure Longevity Fruit and arranged for Xi Mengfan to join an important operation, leaving the plan poised to begin in two or three days.

• Tong Tiange told Xi Mengfan that he trusted him and that a search of Xu Yi's Starry Sky Ring had found no evidence against Xu.
• Xi Mengfan dismissed Chen Tieshou as unimportant and asked Tong Tiange what he thought of Xu Yi.
• Xi Mengfan recounted Xu Yi's rapid rise from foot soldier to third-rank official and argued that his potential made him a threat to the Xi family.
• Tong Tiange warned Xi Mengfan not to break the law, but Xi Mengfan offered him a Treasure Longevity Fruit to secure his help.
• Tong Tiange agreed to include Xi Mengfan in an operation with Old Bing and Old Huo in two or three days.

Xu Yi prepared for a Night Army assignment at Wasp Valley, then was abruptly summoned with fourteen other staff officers by the Staff Department. The chapter left him wary as Chen Tieshou and Zuo Lieyang ordered the group to accompany them without explanation.

• Ghost Seven asked Xu Yi to station five people at Wasp Valley and protect the Huaimu Teleportation Array, and Xu Yi assigned more than thirty Night Walkers to the mission.
• Xu Yi traveled to Wasp Valley overnight, returned exhausted, and rested until his Essence, Qi, and Spirit were restored.
• Xu Yi visited Liu Junshi to play chess and ask about Divine Embryo experts, but Director Zhu arrived and said the Staff Department needed Xu Yi among fifteen staff officers.
• Liu Junshi warned Xu Yi that the assignment was likely an outside matter, and Xu Yi suspected Elder Xi's side might be involved.
• Xu Yi joined the other fourteen staff officers in the administrative hall, where Chen Tieshou and Zuo Lieyang arrived together.
• Chen Tieshou told the fifteen men to accompany him without asking questions.

Zuo Lieyang led a combined force of Night Walkers, Plum Blossom Iron Guard members, and staff officials to a secret inspection, targeting Xu Yi under the authority of the Lord’s decree. Xu Yi passed the search but refused to surrender his Four-Colored Seal, and Zuo Lieyang invoked the decree to demand another inspection.

• Zuo Lieyang gathered the Night Walkers, Plum Blossom Iron Guard, and staff officials on a remote mountain and ordered everyone to submit their Starry Sky Rings for inspection.
• Zuo Lieyang demonstrated his own compliance, then searched fourteen staff officials while they resented Xu Yi’s presence.
• Zuo Lieyang singled out Xu Yi for inspection, but Xu Yi destroyed his Starry Sky Ring and several Sumeru Rings, displayed his resources, and passed the spatial sensing stone test.
• Xu Yi borrowed a Sumeru Ring from Chen Tieshou and packed away his resources after the Night Walker inspector finished searching them.
• Zuo Lieyang demanded to inspect Xu Yi’s Four-Colored Seal, and Xu Yi refused, arguing that the inspection was already complete.
• Zuo Lieyang produced the Lord’s decree again and claimed authority to inspect the seal, while Xu Yi challenged him to inspect everyone again as well.