Chapter Summaries

Pei Ling faced the arrival of Qiao Ciguang and Shi Wanli as the Floating Island’s restriction suddenly vanished. Shi Wanli tried to dissuade the Rogue Cultivators from entering, but they pushed back and prepared to seize the opportunity.

• Pei Ling learned from his followers’ talk that Qiao Ciguang and Shi Wanli had arrived, and he tried unsuccessfully to contact Zhou Miaoli for protection.
• The Floating Island’s restriction burst open just as Pei Ling’s sedan chair approached, prompting the Rogue Cultivators to rush toward the island.
• Qiao Ciguang declined to force the Rogue Cultivators back and told Shi Wanli to persuade them instead.
• Shi Wanli warned the crowd that the island was too dangerous, but the Xiao Clan’s Four Elders and other Rogue Cultivators rejected his warning and voiced their resentment.

As the Floating Island’s restrictions vanished, Qiao Ciguang warned the Rogue Cultivators about the danger, but they rushed onto the island anyway. Pei Ling sensed overwhelming hatred from within and followed the others as the island’s haze concealed everyone who entered.

• Fairy Yumeng proposed letting Qiao Ciguang and Shi Wanli enter first, but the Rogue Cultivators refused to leave.
• Qiao Ciguang warned the crowd that the island could bring death, citing the losses from the Ten Thousand Viper Sea ten years earlier.
• Pei Ling sensed boundless hatred from the Floating Island and struggled to suppress his Grievance Nightmare divine abilities.
• The Floating Island’s restrictions disappeared, and a gloomy haze spread across it.
• Led by the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan, the Rogue Cultivators rushed onto the island and vanished from perception in its dense vegetation and haze.

Pei Ling and the other cultivators boarded the Floating Island, which vanished from the sea and brought them to a forest where flight and Spiritual Sense were suppressed. After five Rogue Cultivators died and their souls disappeared, Qiao Ciguang warned everyone to leave, while Pei Ling set off in a different direction with the eight cauldrons.

• Pei Ling, Qiao Ciguang, and Shi Wanli boarded the Floating Island, which vanished into fog and reappeared as a forest beneath the Sky-Reaching Giant Wood.
• Pei Ling, Qiao Ciguang, Shi Wanli, and the other cultivators fell from the sky when they arrived and discovered that flight and Spiritual Sense were restricted.
• Five Rogue Cultivators died after entering the forest, and Pei Ling found that the soul of the corpse he examined had vanished.
• Qiao Ciguang warned the cultivators to leave, then led her junior sisters away, followed by Shi Wanli and most of the Rogue Cultivators.
• Ancestor Woqiu, Fairy Yumeng, and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan moved away from Qiao Ciguang's group, while Pei Ling chose another direction and departed with the eight cauldrons.
• The mist swallowed the five corpses, and when it cleared, only blood-soaked skeletons remained.

Pei Ling began refining a Silent Life-Suppressing Pill in the Floating Island’s disorienting fog, while Qiao Ciguang led Suzhen Heaven’s group away from the site of a curse. The chapter ended with Qiao Ciguang ready to confront the Ghostly Being if it followed them and exposed itself.

• Pei Ling stopped in the thick fog, prepared his pill furnace, and used the system to refine a Silent Life-Suppressing Pill.
• Liu Zimian and the other cauldrons watched Pei Ling refine pills and praised his skills among themselves.
• Qiao Ciguang led the Suzhen Heaven group through the forest while checking that her junior sisters remained safe.
• Shi Wanli caught up with Qiao Ciguang and asked about the earlier incident.
• Qiao Ciguang explained that a powerful Ghostly Being had likely cursed someone to death and said she would deal with it if it followed them and revealed its tracks.

Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan separated from Suzhen Heaven and the Liulan Dynasty to seek opportunities together, while Fairy Yumeng chose to stay with Qiao Ciguang for protection. The mist swallowed their scouts and killed one without leaving visible injuries, revealing that the island’s danger had followed them.

• Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan agreed to join forces and divide any spoils they found.
• Fairy Yumeng refused Ancestor Woqiu’s invitation and stayed with Qiao Ciguang and the others to avoid the Innate Religion.
• Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan gathered their followers and quietly parted from Suzhen Heaven and the Liulan Dynasty.
• The group soon entered dense mist that blocked their sight and Spiritual Sense, leaving them unable to tell which way to go.
• Xiao Botao sent two Qi Refining Rogue Cultivators ahead to scout, but one soon died in the mist with his soul scattered.

The rogue cultivators following Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan pressed onward despite unexplained deaths, while Pei Ling refined pills under the system’s control. Qiao Ciguang’s group continued through the island’s endless, foggy forest, wary of dangers and searching for its secrets.

• The rogue cultivators blamed Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan for leading them into danger, but Ancestor Woqiu silenced them and ordered the complainers to scout ahead.
• Xiao Zhongtao persuaded Ancestor Woqiu to keep searching for fortuitous opportunities, and the five leaders sent the complaining cultivators ahead.
• Pei Ling finished refining nine top-grade Silent Life-Suppressing Pills before an external attack ended the system’s cultivation session.
• Pei Ling began using the system to refine a top-grade Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill for protection.
• Shi Wanli told Qiao Ciguang that many rogue cultivators had left their group, and Qiao Ciguang warned that the island held dangers beyond the Ghostly Being.
• Qiao Ciguang and Shi Wanli discussed the island’s mysterious history as their group continued through the seemingly endless forest.

Ancestor Woqiu and the Xiao Clan elders discovered that more than a hundred low-level cultivators had vanished in the fog, while Pei Ling completed a life-saving pill and used his divine abilities to reveal a path. He followed it with his cauldrons and puppets until they reached a village beside a clear river.

• Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan realized that more than a hundred Rogue Cultivators had disappeared, then ordered the group to keep moving faster.
• Pei Ling completed a top-grade Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill, swallowed it, and gained a dormant life-saving seed within his Golden Core.
• Pei Ling decided to continue exploring the Floating Island, packed away his pill furnace, and set out with the eight cauldrons.
• Pei Ling used his Grievance Nightmare divine abilities, causing the fog to part and reveal a path.
• Pei Ling sent his ape puppets ahead to scout and followed the path with the cauldrons, arriving at a small river and an old-fashioned village.

The Liulan Dynasty and Suzhen Heaven arrived at the Ten Thousand Viper Sea to investigate the vanished Floating Island, but Si Hong Qingyan claimed it for the Sacred Sect after searching rogue cultivators’ souls. The other great sects then arrived, leaving all nine gathered at the site.

• The Liulan Dynasty delegation found the Floating Island missing and learned from Shi Wanli’s deputy that it had vanished after being covered in fog.
• Zhang Lingxin arrived with Suzhen Heaven, but she could neither locate Ciguang nor trace her grandniece Zhang Jing.
• Si Hong Qingyan emerged from a palace of bones, captured and searched the rogue cultivators, then declared the Floating Island belonged to the Sacred Sect because Han Sigu had been its rightful victor ten years earlier.
• Jiuyi Mountain, the Cold Abyss Sword Sect, Wushi Villa, the Innate Religion, the Tower of Reincarnation, and Yanxi City arrived, completing the gathering of all nine great sects.

Qiao Ciguang and Pei Ling separately discovered villages on the Floating Island, each drawn in by a strange sense that the villages held significance. Both were invited to stay for an event the next day, though one village mourned a funeral while the other prepared for a celebration.

• After searching the forest for a day and night, Qiao Ciguang found Zi Village and warned Shi Wanli to wait outside while she investigated alone.
• A duplicate of Qiao Ciguang emerged from Zi Village and led Shi Wanli, the Suzhen Heaven disciples, and the Rogue Cultivators inside.
• Qiao Ciguang found Zi Village filled with sorrowful villagers preparing for a funeral and was invited to stay for it.
• Pei Ling followed the strong pull of an opportunity and entered Sang Village with eight cauldrons.
• Pei Ling found Sang Village bustling with preparations for a happy occasion, and a villager invited him to stay for celebratory wine.

Qiao Ciguang and Shi Wanli’s group found themselves trapped in a loop around Zi Village, while Pei Ling entered Sang Village and learned that its village chief’s son would marry a bride from Zi Village. The chapter left Pei Ling seeking lodging as Woqiu and the Xiao Clan elders’ Rogue Cultivators gathered around him.

• Qiao Ciguang realized Shi Wanli and the others had been lured into Zi Village, led them out, and discovered they kept circling back to it.
• Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan lost Rogue Cultivators in the mist, then watched the remaining group follow the master of Joyful Pavilion when he beckoned them onward.
• In Sang Village, a villager invited Pei Ling to a wedding and told him the village chief’s son would marry a woman from Zi Village.
• Woqiu and Xiao Botao introduced themselves and the other Xiao brothers to Pei Ling, then knelt when he revealed he was Kang Shaoyin, a true disciple of the Innate Religion.
• Pei Ling asked the villager where he could stay for the night.

Pei Ling and Qiao Ciguang entered strange villages where locals gave them unsettling rules, while the other cultivators sought a hidden opportunity. The chapter left Pei Ling in an abandoned courtyard after hearing that he would eventually remember his hometown customs.

• Pei Ling thanked a villager for guiding him to an empty house in the west, while Ancestor Woqiu and the others decided to search the village for an opportunity.
• Ancestor Woqiu and the four others agreed to watch Kang Shaoyin and search the village once he had settled in.
• Qiao Ciguang and the Suzhen Heaven disciples found themselves back at Zi Village after every attempted route led them to its entrance.
• Qiao Ciguang entered the village with her group and learned the rules against making noise, entering empty homes, wearing red at night, and wearing flowers in their hair during the day.
• A villager told Pei Ling not to groom himself in the morning or become unkempt at night, then led him to a secluded courtyard beneath a towering banyan tree.

Pei Ling settled into a decaying village house with his eight cauldrons and ordered them not to harm the villagers. While Ancestor Woqiu and the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan launched a search for an opportunity in the village, a Rogue Cultivator was killed and skinned by a villager, and another questioned a child.

• Pei Ling found that the house’s furnishings and maids were made of paper, then ordered his cauldrons to clean up and avoid attacking villagers without his permission.
• Rogue Cultivators reported that Kang Shaoyin had settled into the western house, and Ancestor Woqiu used the news to begin searching the village with the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan.
• A Rogue Cultivator barged into a villager’s home and demanded to know where the village’s opportunity was hidden.
• The villager silently killed the Rogue Cultivator, turned him into a human skin, and carried it inside.
• Another Rogue Cultivator searched a house beside the river, then offered a Spirit Fruit to a child and asked whether the child knew any unusual stories about the village.

In Zi Village, a Rogue Cultivator was killed after the children sang a nursery rhyme, while Xiao Zhongtao, another cultivator, and Ancestor Woqiu were caught by unseen forces. Qiao Ciguang and her group inspected an isolated house and debated how to investigate the village without violating its taboos.

• A little girl told the Rogue Cultivator that the village chief's clan brother needed a wife, and other children offered to sing an ancestral nursery rhyme.
• The children sang about the willows, turning the Rogue Cultivator into a spinning top, then beat him apart and fed his remains to the willow tree.
• Xiao Zhongtao searched a mortal woman's home, but an unseen force drained his magic power and lifted him and a Foundation Establishment Realm Rogue Cultivator into the air.
• Ancestor Woqiu was also lifted into the air by an unseen force before the scene shifted to Zi Village.
• Qiao Ciguang led her companions into an abandoned house and reminded them to obey the village's taboos.
• Qiao Ciguang and Shi Wanli agreed that the group should test the village rules before deciding whether the villagers were enemies.

Qiao Ciguang, Branch Lord Shi Wanli, and the Suzhen Heaven disciples split up to investigate Sang Village while Pei Ling planned to question the village chief. Pei Ling suddenly fell asleep and dreamed of a woman among rain-soaked roses who called him “Ji Wu.”

• Qiao Ciguang went to find the village chief, while Branch Lord Shi Wanli set out to investigate the funeral household.
• Ruan Zhi and the other Suzhen Heaven disciples left in pairs to investigate the village's origins, and Fairy Yumeng slipped out to seek Qiao Ciguang.
• Pei Ling and the eight cauldrons finished preparing the house, and he decided to visit the village chief and later question the bride from Zi Village.
• A sudden wave of drowsiness put Pei Ling to sleep before he could leave the house.
• In a dream, Pei Ling saw a pale woman cutting roses through the rain, and she called him “Ji Wu” before he jolted awake.

Pei Ling went to seek the village chief while Qiao Ciguang questioned him about Zi Village’s funeral customs and rules. Qiao learned that families were chosen by drawing lots and that breaking the village rules brought a curse, while Shi Wanli secretly entered the old Xu family’s house.

• Pei Ling left his cauldrons behind and asked a villager for directions to the village chief’s mansion.
• Qiao Ciguang offered the village chief gold, but he refused it because Zi Village had little contact with the outside world.
• Qiao Ciguang learned that the old Xu family had been chosen by lot to hold a funeral and that the village chief wanted help carrying the coffin.
• The village chief refused to explain the lottery or the village’s history, but warned Qiao Ciguang that breaking the ancestral rules would bring a curse.
• Shi Wanli noticed the fresh spring couplets at the old Xu family’s house, opened its gate with spiritual power, and slipped inside.

Shi Wanli searched Old Xu’s house, discovered a dead family, and was killed by an invisible blade as he fled. Meanwhile, Ruan Zhi, Zhang Jing, Chu Hanbei, and Zhong Shizhu pursued clues about Zi Village, and Chu Hanbei and Zhong Shizhu agreed to join an old woman’s funeral in exchange for its history.

• Shi Wanli examined the family’s home and found a man, a woman, and a little girl dead in coffins in the back courtyard.
• Shi Wanli fled Old Xu’s house, but blood poured from his face and an invisible blade severed his head.
• Ruan Zhi and Zhang Jing asked villagers when Zi Village was founded, but an old man said its residents had lived there for generations, including ten years earlier.
• Chu Hanbei and Zhong Shizhu met an old woman who offered to reveal the village’s history if four virgins mourned at a funeral with her the next day.
• Chu Hanbei and Zhong Shizhu agreed and left to find Ruan Zhi and Zhang Jing.

Pei Ling questioned the village chief about Sang Village’s customs and origins, then escaped the deadly hatred that surged around him. Meanwhile, Xiao Jitao learned that his clan’s elders and Ancestor Woqiu were dead and sought out the surviving Rogue Cultivators near Kang Shaoyin’s house.

• Pei Ling visited the village chief’s mansion and noticed its furnishings were made from human remains.
• The village chief invited Pei Ling to his son’s wedding, but reacted ominously when Pei Ling asked when the village was founded.
• Pei Ling used [Grievance Nightmare divine abilities] to devour the hatred surrounding him, then left and decided to seek clues from ordinary villagers.
• Xiao Jitao fled a house after witnessing a companion being drained of blood, but found himself trapped in Sang Village.
• Xiao Jitao received no response from his three brothers or Ancestor Woqiu and concluded they had been killed.
• After learning Kang Shaoyin was heading toward the river, Xiao Jitao met the Rogue Cultivators watching him, who urged him to search nearby houses.

Xiao Jitao learned that the villagers who had searched for opportunities were dead and prepared to use Kang Shaoyin’s response to decide whether to flee. Qiao Ciguang discovered that Shi Wanli had violated the empty-house rule, survived its curse with a life-saving pill, and began questioning her junior sisters about where they had gone.

• Xiao Jitao recorded the village’s events on a jade slip and sent a Rogue Cultivator to give it to Kang Shaoyin.
• Fairy Yumeng found Qiao Ciguang and told her that only Rogue Cultivators remained at the manor, so Qiao Ciguang asked about Shi Wanli and her junior sisters.
• Qiao Ciguang and Fairy Yumeng found Shi Wanli’s headless corpse outside Old Xu’s home, where the Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill restored him.
• Shi Wanli told Qiao Ciguang that he had entered the empty Xu family home, broken the village rule, and survived the curse because of the pill.
• Qiao Ciguang returned to the manor, reunited with her unharmed junior sisters, and asked where they had gone.

Qiao Ciguang refused to let her junior disciples risk mourning with the village’s professional mourner, while Pei Ling learned that the Rogue Cultivators searching Sang Village had nearly all died. After Xiao Jitao and his companions exploded for breaking a village rule, Pei Ling returned to the house and waited for the wedding celebration.

• Chu Hanbei and Zhong Shizhu told Qiao Ciguang that the professional mourner would explain the village’s origins if they mourned with her, but Qiao Ciguang forbade her junior disciples from going.
• Fairy Yumeng offered to visit the professional mourner in their place, and Qiao Ciguang agreed.
• A Rogue Cultivator delivered Pei Ling a jade slip reporting that the Four Elders of the Xiao Clan and Ancestor Woqiu had died while searching the village, leaving Xiao Jitao and a few others alive.
• Pei Ling summoned Xiao Jitao, but Xiao Jitao and the surviving Rogue Cultivators exploded after nightfall because their appearances were disheveled.
• Pei Ling returned to the house, reminded the eight cauldrons not to put on makeup in the morning, and went to cultivate while awaiting the wedding celebration.

Qiao Ciguang and her companions waited for Old Xu’s funeral while the professional mourner entered the house with four Rogue Cultivators. As she combed a dead girl’s hair with a magical treasure, the girl suddenly opened her eyes.

• Qiao Ciguang brought Shi Wanli and four junior sisters to the village chief’s house and learned the funeral would begin at noon, with strict rules against touching or speaking to the procession.
• The professional mourner brought four Rogue Cultivators to Old Xu’s house and used live geese and silent bells to gain entry under the village’s rules.
• The professional mourner explained that an empty house had to invite visitors inside, or anyone who forced entry would die.
• In the backyard, the professional mourner dressed the three corpses in funeral finery while the Rogue Cultivators noticed her ornate comb was a magical treasure.
• The professional mourner recited a ten-part wedding blessing as she combed the little girl’s hair, and the girl opened her eyes after the final stroke.