Chapter Summaries

Li Lieyue gave Pei Ling the [Netherflame World-Burning Arcane Art] and agreed to guard him while he cultivated the [Cicada Breath Technique]. When the system began supplying Ghost Cicada Blood, it took over Pei Ling and repeatedly drove him toward the Great Hall’s entrance despite Li Lieyue’s lashes.

• Li Lieyue confirmed the Medicine Fairy was fake, gave Pei Ling a jade slip containing the [Netherflame World-Burning Arcane Art], and urged him to claim the Holy Son’s place after reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Pei Ling asked Li Lieyue to attack him whenever his cultivation looked wrong, and she agreed and prepared a flaming whip.
• Pei Ling activated the system to cultivate the [Cicada Breath Technique], and the system offered him Ghost Cicada Blood.
• The system took control of Pei Ling and marched him toward the entrance, ignoring Li Lieyue’s instructions.
• Li Lieyue repeatedly whipped Pei Ling, but the system kept him moving until he reached the doorway.
• Li Lieyue dragged Pei Ling back with the [Five Finger Dragon Prison], but he immediately resumed crawling toward the entrance.

Pei Ling used the System to master Cicada Breath Technique and conceal his cultivation, though he vowed to stop reviewing the System after it left him badly injured. He returned to the Jiansang lineage and learned that Jin Sutai had taken Jin Sumian and Jade Snow Bat to the Stone Mirror Lineage.

• Pei Ling found Ghost Cicada Blood, and the System cultivated Cicada Breath Technique for him while Li Lieyue watched over him and whipped him when he was injured.
• The System lowered Pei Ling's aura until he seemed like an ordinary mortal, and he vowed not to give it another review.
• Li Lieyue praised Pei Ling's mastery and advised him to disguise himself as a Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivator.
• Pei Ling left Chao Na Temporary Palace in a Blood Sedan with Jiao Ni and Wu Liu and returned to his cave dwelling.
• Xiao Ci told Pei Ling that Jade Snow Bat had eaten Jin Sumian's resources, prompting Jin Sutai to take Jin Sumian and Jade Snow Bat to the Stone Mirror Lineage.

Pei Ling learned that Jin Sumian had joined the Stone Mirror Lineage and decided to challenge Jin Sutai to bring her back. After striking Ouyang Xianxing as punishment for acting without his permission, he agreed to let Wu Liu retrieve Jin Sumian.

• Xiao Ci told Pei Ling that Jin Sutai had taken Jin Sumian, while Zheng Jingshan had returned to the sect and been badly beaten by Jin Sutai.
• Pei Ling summoned Ouyang Xianxing and agreed to challenge Jin Sutai to recover Jin Sumian.
• Ouyang Xianxing asked to be punished for recalling Zheng Jingshan without Pei Ling's permission, and Pei Ling knocked her unconscious with one palm strike.
• Pei Ling gave Ouyang Xianxing a Healing Pill and had Xiao Ci take her to a guest room.
• Wu Liu offered to retrieve Jin Sumian, and Pei Ling accepted her offer.

Zheng Jingshan recovered from his injuries and planned to regain the Jiansang lineage’s Pulse Master position by appealing to Senior Sister Li and turning her against Pei Ling. Meanwhile, Jin Sumian focused on refining pills for Jade Snow Bat, whose cultivation had surpassed her own.

• Zheng Jingshan finished healing from Jin Sutai’s beating and decided to visit Senior Sister Li, hoping to gain favor and support despite failing her task.
• Zheng Jingshan blamed Pei Ling for his troubles, including the missing Seven-Heart Demonic Infant Lotus, and resolved to report him and reclaim the Jiansang lineage’s Pulse Master position.
• Zheng Jingshan gathered the ore he had mined and set out to pay his respects to Senior Sister Li.
• Jin Sumian finished refining Jade Snow Pills and fed them to Jade Snow Bat, whose cultivation had reached Foundation Establishment Late Stage.
• Jin Sumian cuddled Jade Snow Bat and put off focusing on her own cultivation, believing that refining pills for it advanced her Pill Refining Technique.

Pei Ling brought Jin Sumian to his alchemy chamber and gave her the Silent Life-Suppressing Pill examination question, hoping she would refine the pill and devise an antidote. Jin Sumian eagerly accepted the challenge in exchange for rare pills, while Jade Snow Bat hid from Pei Ling.

• Jin Sumian invited Xue Zhao to stay with her while Pei Ling cultivated in seclusion, but black mist suddenly abducted her and Jade Snow Bat.
• Pei Ling prepared Yao Qingying's jade slip and ingredients, deciding to have Jin Sumian tackle the Silent Life-Suppressing Pill rather than refine it himself.
• Wu Liu delivered Jin Sumian and Jade Snow Bat to Pei Ling's alchemy chamber, where Pei Ling dismissed her to speak with Jin Sumian privately.
• Jin Sumian read the examination question and excitedly agreed to study it for the sake of the Jiansang lineage.
• Pei Ling promised Jin Sumian a Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill if she refined the Silent Life-Suppressing Pill, and a Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill if she devised even a partial antidote formula.

Pei Ling assigned Jin Sumian to practice alchemy on Cui Lei Mountain after offering her a chance to study rare pills. He left Jade Snow Bat to face a test of strength, then departed to visit Senior Sister Li and cultivate with her.

• Jin Sumian agreed to investigate Pei Ling's pill question after learning it involved a Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill that could help her master's research.
• Pei Ling told Jin Sumian to practice alchemy on Cui Lei Mountain and gave her access to the alchemy room, while she chose to use her own furnace.
• Pei Ling took Jade Snow Bat to a secret chamber and ordered Wu Liu to arrange a fight against a Core Formation Realm opponent the next day.
• Pei Ling told Wu Liu to give Jade Snow Bat a pill if it won, but to leave it alive and send it back to Mirror Heaven if it lost.
• Pei Ling left Cui Lei Mountain with Jiao Ni to visit Senior Sister Li and cultivate with her.

Zheng Jingshan visited Li Lieyue at Chao Na Temporary Palace, hoping to earn her favor and reclaim his position as Pulse Master of the Jiansang lineage. Li Lieyue left after sensing a familiar visitor, leaving Zheng Jingshan kneeling and still rehearsing his plea.

• Zheng Jingshan congratulated Li Lieyue on becoming Saintess and imagined that she would soon entrust him with Pei Ling's resources and followers.
• Zheng Jingshan offered Li Lieyue the serpentine scale ore he had mined in the Yinlu Mountain Range and boasted that he had advanced to Foundation Establishment Late Stage.
• Li Lieyue angrily ordered Zheng Jingshan to stop talking nonsense after he mentioned his cultivation breakthrough.
• Zheng Jingshan accused Pei Ling of undermining Li Lieyue and neglecting the Jiansang lineage, then asked to be restored as its Pulse Master.
• Li Lieyue sensed a familiar visitor entering Chao Na Temporary Palace and vanished, while Zheng Jingshan remained kneeling.

Pei Ling and Li Lieyue spent the night together before turning to a matter concerning Zheng Jingshan. Li Lieyue summoned him, and he arrived hoping to reclaim his position as Pulse Master, only to find Pei Ling sitting beside her with an arm around her waist.

• Jiao Ni led Pei Ling to Li Lieyue, where he asked to cultivate dual cultivation with her and the two spent the night together.
• The next day, Li Lieyue told Pei Ling to handle a small matter, and he insisted on going with her.
• Li Lieyue and Pei Ling sat together in a side hall while Zheng Jingshan waited outside for a day.
• Jiao Ni escorted Zheng Jingshan to Li Lieyue, and he imagined gaining control of the other Inner Sect lineages.
• Zheng Jingshan entered and froze when he saw Pei Ling sitting beside Li Lieyue with an arm around her waist.

Pei Ling took charge of Zheng Jingshan’s affairs after Li Lieyue left them alone together. Zheng Jingshan gave Pei Ling the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting to secure his favor, and Pei Ling began considering a better assignment for him than mining.

• Li Lieyue told Pei Ling to handle Zheng Jingshan’s affairs as the head of the Jiansang lineage, then left the two men alone.
• Zheng Jingshan nervously praised Pei Ling’s leadership and claimed he had come to support him, while concealing his earlier complaints.
• Zheng Jingshan offered Pei Ling the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting, describing it as his most precious possession and hinting at its hidden secret.
• Pei Ling accepted the painting and promised to help Zheng Jingshan if needed.
• After Zheng Jingshan left, Pei Ling decided to find him a better assignment instead of sending him to mine.

Li Lieyue discovered that Pei Ling’s gift was a rare Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill and found Innate Religion traces on the other items. Pei Ling learned that refining the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting required becoming Jiansang Meridian’s Pulse Master and passing a trial inside it, so he went to seek Li Lieyue’s advice.

• Li Lieyue recognized the pill Pei Ling had given her as a Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill and found black qi covering the other gifts.
• Pei Ling tested the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting, but its demons were stopped by his saber intent before he shut the painting.
• Jiao Ni told Pei Ling that he had to be Jiansang Meridian’s Pulse Master and pass the Rakshasa Trial inside the painting to refine it.
• Pei Ling realized that the Jiu A Li Clan had likely arranged Zheng Jingshan’s earlier quest to obtain the painting as a trial.
• Pei Ling decided to consult Li Lieyue before entering the painting, and Jiao Ni led him to see her.

Pei Ling entered Li Lieyue’s side hall and was lured into attacking apparitions that exposed the danger hidden in the clothes he had given her. Li Lieyue gave him the Netherflame Delusion-Breaking Mirror to help him detect such concealed threats.

• Jiao Ni reminded Pei Ling that Zheng Jingshan had come to seek the position of Pulse Master of the “Jiansang” line, then directed him to Li Lieyue’s side hall.
• Pei Ling saw Li Lieyue wearing one of his gifts and reached to embrace her, but several alluring versions of her appeared around him.
• The apparitions turned into rotting female corpses, and Pei Ling used the Nine Souls Blade to cut them apart.
• Li Lieyue revealed that the clothes were dangerous and warned Pei Ling that wearing them would eventually make him like the corpses.
• Li Lieyue gave Pei Ling a jade slip containing the Netherflame Delusion-Breaking Mirror, and the System began recording the unfamiliar divine ability.

Li Lieyue gave Pei Ling a substitute puppet and told him to prepare for his True Inheritance mission by mastering the Netherflame Delusion-Breaking Mirror. After Jiao Ni advised him to investigate and destroy the Ten Thousand Viper Sea shop that had tricked him, Pei Ling returned to Cui Lei Mountain and used the system to cultivate the mirror, then tested the ability.

• Li Lieyue placed a substitute puppet inside Pei Ling and told him to master the Netherflame Delusion-Breaking Mirror.
• Jiao Ni gave Pei Ling the materials for cultivation and advised him to destroy the Ten Thousand Viper Sea shop and uncover the force behind it without telling Li Lieyue.
• Pei Ling left Chao Na Temporary Palace and returned to his cave abode at Cui Lei Mountain.
• Pei Ling used the Intelligent Cultivation System to cultivate the Netherflame Delusion-Breaking Mirror.
• Pei Ling tested the divine ability on his left hand and saw its blood flow and spiritual power circulation in detail.

Pei Ling entered the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting to refine it and found himself in a sinister bedchamber, trapped in another body with his cultivation suppressed. After he restored his power, the disturbance outside stopped and the room began to age, leaving him facing a trembling bed.

• Pei Ling used the Netherflame Delusion-Breaking Mirror to identify the seven skeletons controlling the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting as its main souls.
• Pei Ling activated the painting and was dragged inside by skeletal arms.
• Pei Ling woke beneath a bed in a blood-filled world, where the painting suppressed his cultivation.
• Pei Ling heard someone outside demand that Yi Jiao open the door and discovered he was wearing women's clothes in an unfamiliar body.
• Pei Ling circulated the Burning Night Chapter to restore his first-grade Golden Core cultivation, and the knocking stopped as the room grew dim and ancient.
• Pei Ling heard a sound behind him and saw the wooden bed tremble.

Pei Ling escaped the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting after recognizing that the skeleton beneath the bed was one of its main souls. He reentered the painting in the main soul’s weakened body and faced the knocking at the door again.

• Pei Ling regained his own body, but the skeleton beneath the bed seized his ankles and tried to drag him into the darkness.
• Pei Ling used the Art of Forgetting to stop the skeleton, then escaped the painting as a streak of Bloodlight.
• Pei Ling recognized the skeleton as one of the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting’s main souls and realized he needed to remain in a main soul’s body to refine it.
• Pei Ling activated the painting again and found himself back beneath the bed in the weakened main soul’s body as someone knocked and called for Yi Jiao to open the door.

Pei Ling tried to escape a seemingly unkillable monster in the boudoir without using his cultivation, but the door led only to the space beneath the bed. Gravely wounded and slowed by a glancing axe strike, he collapsed beside the bed as the monster prepared to attack again.

• Pei Ling hid behind the door and stabbed the monster with scissors when it entered, then fled into the darkness beyond the doorway.
• Pei Ling emerged from beneath the bed and realized the darkness had led nowhere outside the boudoir.
• Pei Ling deflected the monster's axe and stabbed its knee and eye, but neither attack hurt it.
• Pei Ling dodged the monster's blows as it smashed the small table, then tried to reach the window.
• Pei Ling failed to dodge the next axe strike completely and collapsed beside the bed, unable to get up.

Pei Ling survived the monster inside the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting by dragging it beneath a bed, where it changed into an ordinary man whom he killed. He returned to his cave abode having subdued one Rakshasa Main Soul and learned the painting’s abilities.

• Pei Ling hid beneath a bed to escape the monster’s axe and realized the monster would not reach under it.
• Pei Ling grabbed the monster’s ankles, dragged it beneath the bed, and watched it transform into a terrified middle-aged man who claimed to be Yi Jiao’s father.
• Pei Ling stabbed the man to death with scissors, and the spreading blood carried him back to the cultivation chamber at Cui Lei Mountain.
• Pei Ling saw the Main Soul transformed into a girl holding scissors and sensed that he had subdued her.
• Pei Ling learned that the painting could drain marked opponents’ vital essence and blood, create a hunting domain, and let its Main Souls use the abilities of collected skins.

Pei Ling analyzed how he had passed Yi Jiao’s trial and entered the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting to face another Main Soul’s trial. He found himself bound and sinking underwater in a young woman’s body, and began freeing himself before he drowned.

• Pei Ling concluded that Yi Jiao’s trial required him to overcome her fear of her father and bring the monster to where she had hidden her corpse.
• Pei Ling reentered the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting to subdue another Main Soul.
• Pei Ling appeared underwater in a dim, deep lake, with his cultivation suppressed and offerings sinking around him.
• Pei Ling realized he was in a young woman’s body dressed for a ritual, bound with ropes and weighed down as he sank.
• Pei Ling dislocated his left wrist to slip free of the bindings, then reset the bones in his hand.

Pei Ling struggled to escape the lake while trapped in a bound woman’s body, but a burst of saber intent restored him to his original form. He fled the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting and forced its pursuing main soul back inside.

• Pei Ling found and untied the first of three ropes binding him to the heavy object, but struggled to loosen the second knot as he sank and ran out of air.
• When Pei Ling neared unconsciousness, terrifying saber intent erupted from within him and returned him to his original body, removing the bindings and heavy object.
• The main soul of the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting appeared as a giant woman’s face that rotted into a skull with countless bony hands.
• Pei Ling transformed into a streak of blood and escaped through the painting’s water into the cultivation room at Cui Lei Mountain.
• The main soul lunged from the painting, but Pei Ling repelled it with his saber intent and slammed it back into the scroll.

Pei Ling repeated the second Rakshasa Main Soul’s trial and escaped from the lake by freeing himself from the ropes and weight. He surfaced in a seemingly endless, lifeless lake and realized he still had enough strength to swim toward shore.

• Pei Ling reviewed his previous failure and concluded that he needed to survive the lake sacrifice, then activated the [Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting].
• Pei Ling entered the lake bound to a weight and dislocated his right hand to loosen the rope on his wrist.
• Pei Ling untied the knots binding him to the weight, restored his right hand, and removed the rope from his body.
• Pei Ling freed his ankles and swam upward until he burst through the surface.
• Pei Ling found himself in a vast, silent lake with no visible shore, but he had enough strength left to swim.

Pei Ling escaped the lake in the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting, but realized the Long-haired Girl’s trial had nearly freed her from the painting. He reentered the painting and used the system’s auto-play, which left him motionless as he sank to the bottom of the lake.

• Pei Ling used the art of forgetting to stop the skull and bone hands, then fled the lake and emerged in his cultivation room.
• Pei Ling put away the Bewitching Bone Rakshasa Painting, burned away the lake water with Nanke Dream Fire, and saw the Long-haired Girl poised to break free.
• Pei Ling concluded he had one final chance to pass the Long-haired Girl’s trial and planned to use the system to choose the best way through it.
• Pei Ling left his Storage Pouch and cultivation resources outside the painting, then entered it again and activated the system to cultivate the Burning Night Chapter.
• The system held Pei Ling motionless as he sank with the heavy object behind him, and they reached the bottom of the lake.