Chapter Summaries

Xu Yi tried to convince Yi Bingwei and Professor Wu Pin that she had no romantic interest in him, but Wu’s jealousy kept turning his explanations into evidence against him. When Yi Bingwei angrily rejected Xu Yi through a coursework token, Wu finally believed their relationship was a misunderstanding, though he still intended to make Xu Yi suffer.

• Yi Bingwei refused to meet Wu Pin with Xu Yi or link their Ruyi Pearls, and Xu Yi left to confront Wu himself.
• Wu Pin admitted Xu Yi into his cave abode while suspecting that Yi Bingwei had given away her feelings for him.
• Xu Yi claimed Yi Bingwei had accepted his invitation only because he was friends with Director Yu, but Wu Pin cited their drinks and poetry as proof of her affection.
• Xu Yi used a coursework token to contact Yi Bingwei, who angrily told him to stop involving her and threatened to shut down the message channel.
• Wu Pin believed Xu Yi’s innocence after hearing Yi Bingwei’s outburst, but he still resolved to make Xu Yi suffer out of jealousy.

Xu Yi exploited Wu Pin’s secret feelings for Yi Bingwei to persuade him to seek her help, then impersonated Wu Pin during a call to her. The chapter ended as Xu Yi began telling Yi Bingwei that Wu Pin wanted to apologize.

• Wu Pin dismissed Xu Yi while secretly reading a romance novel for advice about Yi Bingwei, but Xu Yi exposed his choice and offered his own relationship insights.
• Xu Yi claimed he could win over any beauty and urged Wu Pin to use distance and mystery to court Yi Bingwei.
• Xu Yi persuaded Wu Pin to lend him a Dao Palace work token so he could contact Yi Bingwei while pretending to be Wu Pin.
• Yi Bingwei answered coldly and said Xu Yi’s affairs had nothing to do with her.
• Xu Yi used Wu Pin’s voice to tell Yi Bingwei that Wu Pin wanted to apologize.

Xu Yi coached Wu Pin through a heartfelt confession to Yi Bingwei, disguising his own poetic words as Wu Pin’s. Yi Bingwei was moved by the speech, and Wu Pin ended the call after Xu Yi’s farewell.

• Wu Pin objected to apologizing, but Xu Yi told him to stay quiet and let his student handle the conversation.
• Xu Yi apologized to Yi Bingwei on Wu Pin’s behalf and said Wu Pin’s emotional turmoil had caused his inappropriate behavior.
• Xu Yi confessed Wu Pin’s enduring feelings for Yi Bingwei, who listened despite her discomfort.
• Xu Yi said Wu Pin would leave Dao Palace, prompting Yi Bingwei to respond more warmly and Wu Pin to agree to follow Xu Yi’s instructions.
• Xu Yi delivered a poetic farewell that moved Yi Bingwei and left Wu Pin frantically writing down his words.
• Xu Yi signaled Wu Pin to end the call, and Wu Pin cut the token’s connection.

Xu Yi persuaded Wu Pin to give Yi Bingwei space and leave the Dao Palace for three to five years, while Wu Pin agreed but warned that Xu Yi would still have to answer his summons. The chapter ended with Wu Pin preparing to pursue Yi Bingwei patiently and Xu Yi remaining under his authority.

• Yi Bingwei contacted Wu Pin to wish him a bright future and a safe journey, leaving him delighted.
• Xu Yi explained that he had improved Yi Bingwei's impression of Wu Pin by apologizing for him and giving her the space she wanted.
• Xu Yi urged Wu Pin to leave the Dao Palace for three to five years so Yi Bingwei's bad impression could fade and his sincere feelings could settle.
• Xu Yi advised Wu Pin to send Yi Bingwei heartfelt travel essays and spend time studying at a mortal academy while adopting a scholar's bearing.
• Wu Pin agreed to the plan but warned Xu Yi that he could summon him back if he had not become an Upper Immortal within three to five years.

Xu Yi tricked Wu Pin into deciding to travel for several years, but Yi Bingwei discovered Xu Yi had impersonated him and confronted him. After learning Wu Pin was leaving, Yi Bingwei relaxed and asked Xu Yi how he had persuaded him.

• Xu Yi left Wu Pin's mountain gate after persuading him, then returned to find Yi Bingwei waiting outside his cave abode.
• Yi Bingwei accused Xu Yi of impersonating Wu Pin and repeating Xu Yi's romantic words to her.
• Yi Bingwei explained that Director Yu had identified Xu Yi by his distinctive way of speaking, and she had caught him returning from Wu Pin's cave abode.
• Xu Yi admitted he had used a trick, then told Yi Bingwei that Wu Pin planned to travel for three or five years.
• Yi Bingwei's anger faded when she learned Wu Pin was leaving, and she asked Xu Yi to explain how he persuaded him.

Xu Yi confronted Yi Bingwei about her involvement with Wu Pin, then fell asleep after she left. The next morning, he struck Qi Tian at Zhaohui Hall, and the ensuing accusations cost Qi Tian his assistant post and student status.

• Xu Yi pressured Yi Bingwei to tell Wu Pin that she had noticed something, and she fled after knocking him down and blasting him across the room.
• After sleeping through the night, Xu Yi hurried to Zhaohui Hall for morning class and slapped Qi Tian into the hall when Qi Tian ordered him to chop wood.
• Zhang Caiwei and Bai Lan defended Xu Yi, and Xie Dongfeng removed Qi Tian as assistant and appointed Xu Yi in his place.
• Qi Tian ran to Wu Pin's mountain gate for help, but Wu Pin was away, and the guardian spirits chased Qi Tian off and reported him to the Discipline Hall.
• Qi Tian accused Wu Pin of ordering him to persecute Xu Yi, but the Dao Palace revoked his student and Official Status and sentenced him to a hundred years in Qian Prison.

After refining the Thunder Abyss Stone, Xu Yi returned to class and openly challenged Wu Boji’s sophistry. Wu Boji seized on the confrontation as a chance to bring Xu Yi down.

• Xu Yi dissolved the Thunder Abyss Stone over five days, strengthening the Magnetic Lightning Field until the stone vanished.
• Xu Yi arrived at the Dao Palace for class and was greeted by classmates who appreciated how he handled his assistant instructor duties.
• Wu Boji began teaching Profound Theory and singled Xu Yi out, ordering him to listen from outside the classroom.
• Xu Yi refused to leave and argued that Wu Boji had given no valid reason to expel him from class.
• Wu Boji demanded that Xu Yi explain the white-horse argument, and Xu Yi called it sophistry and rejected his theory of universals.
• Wu Boji welcomed the challenge, seeing a chance to defeat Xu Yi and drive him out of the Dao Palace.

Xu Yi challenged Wu Boji’s lecture with paradoxes and exposed the instructor’s reliance on sophistry, ending with questions about the Dao Ancestor’s omnipotence. The next day, the Dao Palace punished Xu Yi by ordering him to sweep the steps before the Hall of a Thousand Steps without using magic.

• Xu Yi told a story about a blind man to mock Wu Boji’s convoluted explanation, then posed a paradox about escaping an island court that sentenced outsiders according to whether their statements were true or false.
• Wu Boji failed to answer Xu Yi’s riddle, and Xu Yi revealed that he had said, “The sentence I’m saying is false.”
• Xu Yi accused Wu Boji of turning metaphysical discourse into sophistry and declared that the claim that the Dao Ancestor was omnipotent was a lie.
• Xu Yi asked whether the Dao Ancestor could create a stone he could not lift, and Wu Boji denounced him as a rebel before storming out of Zhaohui Hall.
• The Dao Palace ordered Xu Yi to sweep the more than a thousand steps before the Hall of a Thousand Steps under magic-suppressing stones.

Xu Yi resumed student life after his punishment, then discovered a far faster way to refine Profound Yellow Essence. After refining enough to trigger Heaven’s will again, he prepared for another breakthrough while messages poured in from people who had heard about his recent success.

• Yi Bingwei visited Xu Yi at the mountain woods, passed along Little Fish’s request and Wu Pin’s travelogue, then left angrily after Xu Yi dismissed her.
• Xu Yi returned to ordinary classes and became famous across the Dao Palace after defeating several opponents and humiliating Wu Boji.
• Instructor Yu Qing asked Xu Yi to lend him his Thunder Technique for three days at Zha Mountain, but Xu Yi postponed the offer until classes ended.
• Following Old Desolate’s advice, Xu Yi merged his life wheels and refined more than eight thousand pieces of Profound Yellow Essence in two days and nights.
• When Heaven’s will descended, Xu Yi used corpse grime to disguise himself and put on a green robe sewn by Yan Zi before leaving his cave abode.
• Xu Yi’s Ruyi Pearl received messages from friends and creditors, while Wu Pin reported that he was gaining attention from maids at Yuelu Academy.

After Director Yu reported that Yi Bingwei had vanished on Xuanji Island, Xu Yi set out to find her and sought information from Ruan Hongchen. He learned only that Yi Bingwei had gone there to gather Ice Soul Snow Lotuses, leaving her whereabouts unknown.

• Xu Yi encouraged Wu Pin in his pursuit of Yi Bingwei, then told Sui Clan's Four Attendants he would finish refining the Witch Pills before returning to Wuyuan.
• Director Yu told Xu Yi that Yi Bingwei had gone missing on Xuanji Island while gathering Ice Soul Snow Lotuses and urgently asked him to find her.
• Xu Yi asked Xie Dongfeng for leave, and Xie granted him up to half a month while assuring him he would pass and receive a position at Principal Seventh Rank.
• Xie Dongfeng told Xu Yi that the Dao Palace's outstanding-student places had already been assigned, but Xu Yi refused to give up on earning one.
• Xu Yi asked Ruan Hongchen for information about Yi Bingwei, but she could only confirm that Yi Bingwei had gone to Xuanji Island.

Xu Yi searched for the missing Yi Bingwei on Xuanji Island and discovered that Yu Qing had captured her to pressure him into lending his lightning arts. After Xu Yi agreed to help, Yu Qing promised to settle Xu Yi’s own business once they reached Zha Mountain.

• Xu Yi learned that Yi Bingwei had gone to Xuanji Island to gather Ice Soul Snow Lotuses, then traveled there to search for her.
• Xu Yi encountered Yu Qing, who again asked to borrow his lightning arts to refine an artifact.
• Yu Qing showed Xu Yi Yi Bingwei imprisoned in a secret chamber and threatened her to force Xu Yi’s cooperation.
• Xu Yi dropped his show of indifference when Yu Qing threatened to let Long Pi and Long Xian assault Yi Bingwei, and Yu Qing dismissed the men.
• Xu Yi agreed to lend Yu Qing his lightning arts, and Yu Qing said they would handle Xu Yi’s business after reaching Zha Mountain.

Xu Yi killed Yu Qing and his hidden Witch Clan companions, then used the fragments of Yu Qing’s memories to find Yi Bingwei at May Mountain Villa. After slipping into the manor, Xu Yi discovered that he could not contact the Dao Palace and moved to act before its leaders returned.

• Xu Yi killed Yu Qing and seven cloaked Witch Clan figures, then struck down another fleeing enemy, but Yu Qing’s Life Wheel dissipated before he could obtain its information.
• Huang Mei recovered fragments of Yu Qing’s memories that pointed Xu Yi toward May Mountain Villa, where Yi Bingwei was being held.
• Xu Yi entered May Mountain Villa using a stolen, refined token and sent Huang Mei to search its concealed passages.
• Huang Mei found a hidden route beneath a pond and overheard Long Pi and Long Xian discussing Yi Bingwei and cursing Yu Qing.
• Xu Yi tried to contact Xie Dongfeng, but a restriction blocked the Ruyi Pearl, so he moved to act before the manor’s leaders returned.

Xu Yi rescued Yi Bingwei from captivity in May Manor, but a powerful team arrived before they could escape. With their way out blocked, he was left deciding how to protect her.

• Xu Yi lured Long Pi and Long Xian into drinking wine laced with Origin Seal Beads, then killed them and let Desolate Charm consume their life wheels.
• Xu Yi used Yu Qing's token to open the hidden passage behind the rockery and reached Yi Bingwei's sealed chamber.
• Yi Bingwei rushed toward Xu Yi, then grew suspicious and accused him of being one of her captors; Xu Yi disarmed and reassured her.
• Xu Yi sensed a team of more than twenty cultivators, including several at the Fourth Realm of Divine Map, entering May Manor and realized they could not leave safely.
• Yi Bingwei told Xu Yi to escape without her and asked him to take care of Little Fish, so Xu Yi slapped her.

Xu Yi escaped the secret chamber and disrupted Gu Beiting’s gathering, forcing Gu Beiting to negotiate rather than proceed with his plan. The invited treasure refiners were left to confer among themselves, while Gu Beiting privately tried to appease Xu Yi.

• Yi Bingwei blamed Xu Yi for being a lecher and vowed to protect Little Fish from him.
• Xu Yi appeared at May Manor while Gu Beiting was hosting six invited guests and claimed Gu had invited him too.
• Xu Yi’s accusation that Gu’s men meant to wipe them out made the white-browed elder and the other guests prepare to fight.
• Xu Yi told Gu Beiting privately that he would ruin the gathering unless Gu settled the score over Yu Qing abducting his woman.
• Xu Yi proposed that the seven invited treasure refiners meet privately before Gu joined them, and Gu agreed while asking Xu to leave room for reconciliation.

Xu Yi stirred up the cultivators hired by Gu Beiting by exposing the unequal payments they had been offered, then agreed to negotiate for them. Gu Beiting and Old Sui watched uneasily as the group united behind Xu Yi.

• Xu Yi accepted Gu Beiting's offer of one thousand Profound Yellow Essences and gathered the other cultivators at Hehua Pavilion.
• Xu Yi revealed that he and the Long-browed Youth had not signed Gu Beiting's safety agreement, then learned the group included cultivators with pure Five Elements power and wind or thunder attributes.
• Xu Yi disclosed his thousand-Essence payment, prompting the others to reveal that Gu Beiting had offered them much less.
• The White-browed Daoist and the others asked Xu Yi to negotiate for higher payments, and they pledged to act together.
• Gu Beiting and Old Sui watched from the rear courtyard as the cultivators rallied behind Xu Yi.

Xu Yi outmaneuvered Gu Beiting by pretending to bargain for Yi Bingwei out of love, then used his allies’ coordinated departure to force Gu Beiting to negotiate. Gu Beiting accepted Xu Yi’s terms, and Old Sui brought Yi Bingwei out so she could be released.

• Old Sui urged Gu Beiting to seek advice from the man who had suggested using Yi Bingwei to pressure Xu Yi, but Gu Beiting doubted the plan would work.
• Xu Yi told Gu Beiting he wanted Yi Bingwei and threatened to leave when Gu Beiting refused to release her.
• Old Sui reported that Xu Yi’s allies would leave together and would not negotiate without him, prompting Gu Beiting to call Xu Yi back.
• Xu Yi persuaded Gu Beiting to release Yi Bingwei in exchange for payments to the six allies, while requiring her to send an image from Number Three Gentleman Stage.
• Gu Beiting agreed to the terms, and Old Sui brought Yi Bingwei out of the secret chamber.

Xu Yi freed Yi Bingwei, then persuaded the other captives that Gu Beiting posed a grave threat and that they should follow his lead during the weapon-refining process. Gu Beiting moved them to another manor under a communications-sealing formation, while arranging for Yi Bingwei and the recording to reach the Dao Palace.

• Xu Yi told Yi Bingwei she could leave, gave her a recording, and returned to negotiate with Gu Beiting’s guests.
• Xu Yi claimed he had secured improved terms for the households and warned the group that Gu Beiting might kill them to conceal his plans.
• The captives asked Xu Yi to lead them, and he urged them to produce enough results in the weapon-refining process to satisfy Gu without letting the work reach completion.
• Gu Beiting moved the group by Starry Sky Boat to another manor, and Xu Yi recognized that the Ruyi Pearl would seal off communication.
• Gu Beiting and Old Sui discussed Xu Yi’s influence over the captives, and Gu arranged to escort Yi Bingwei to the Dao Palace and send the recording there.

Xu Yi and the gathered cultivators discussed Gu Beiting’s secret plans and learned that he might be seeking a Five Elements Spirit connected to the Longevity Sword. The chapter ended with Xu Yi asking Xing Yi to explain the little-known Upper Heavenly Court.

• After the feast, Xu Yi chose to stay with Brother Zeng, and they set up a barrier so the group could talk privately.
• Xu Yi urged the cultivators to prepare to protect themselves and asked what Gu Beiting planned to have them forge.
• Xing Yi suggested Gu Beiting might have ties to the Evil Court and the Witch Clan, prompting Brother Zeng to recall an old offer to forge a Five Elements Spirit.
• Brother Zeng explained that the Five Elements Spirit required pure spiritual power of five elements, wind, thunder, and Witch Spirit power, and could repair ancient divine artifacts.
• The group speculated that Gu Beiting might be trying to repair the Longevity Sword, but Xing Yi proposed he wanted to use the Five Elements Spirit to reveal the Sacred Fruit Position within it.
• Xu Yi asked Xing Yi to explain the Upper Heavenly Court and the history of the Sacred Fruit Position.

Xing Yi explained the Upper Heavenly Court’s fall, the origins of the Northern and Southern Heavenly Courts, and the history of the Longevity Sword, which might contain Qinghua Emperor Lord’s Sacred Fruit Position. The group feared Gu Beiting planned to use their Five Elements Spirit to extract it, but Xu Yi urged them to stay calm.

• Xing Yi warned Xu Yi and the white-browed elder to keep his forbidden account of the Upper Heavenly Court secret.
• Xing Yi recounted how Changsheng Emperor Lord’s departure after Qinghua Emperor Lord’s death led to the Upper Heavenly Court splitting into the Northern and Southern Heavenly Courts.
• Xing Yi said the Longevity Sword had appeared at Ancestor Dragon Mountain forty years earlier and might contain Qinghua Emperor Lord’s Sacred Fruit Position.
• The group feared Gu Beiting intended to use the Five Elements Spirit to extract the Sacred Fruit Position from the Longevity Sword.
• Xu Yi suggested Gu Beiting might not possess the sword and urged everyone to remain calm.

Xu Yi and the others went to May Manor’s underground refining chamber, where Old Sui revealed they would lend their spiritual power to refine a Five Elements Spirit. Xu Yi delayed the procedure by insisting that Shopkeeper Tong of Heshengzhai come safeguard their belongings, leaving Gu Beiting unable to refuse without exposing his intentions.

• Xu Yi reassured the others, slept through the night, and then agreed to work with Gu Beiting while negotiating for wages.
• Xu Yi checked the Ruyi Pearl and confirmed that Yi Bingwei had returned to the Dao Palace.
• Old Sui led Xu Yi and the others into an underground chamber and explained that they would channel their Five Elements Spiritual Power into the Source Spirit.
• Xu Yi demanded that Shopkeeper Tong come from Heshengzhai to safeguard their treasures before the refining began.
• Old Sui went to consult Gu Beiting, who was furious but could not refuse the group’s demand.