Chapter Summaries

Shen Mo entered the Jade Pool Secret Realm to gather herbs and refine a Fifth-Grade Primordial Pill while Flower Fairy Ami transplanted spirit plants. After more than a hundred failed attempts, he had identified the pill’s main ingredients and believed he was close to completing it.

• Shen Mo entered the Jade Pool Secret Realm with Flower Fairy Ami and asked her to handle the spirit plants while he gathered herbs.
• Shen Mo spent half a month collecting mature medicinal herbs, then prepared the ingredients for alchemy.
• Shen Mo began testing his deduced Primordial Pill recipe, discarded a failed batch, and replaced Snake Eye Fruit after discovering it reacted badly with Fire Lotus Seed.
• Flower Fairy Ami transplanted the spirit plants and tended the secret realm while Shen Mo spent three months refining pills.
• Shen Mo told Ami that he had identified the main ingredients after more than a hundred attempts and only needed to perfect the refining process.

Shen Mo successfully reconstructed the Primordial Pill formula and refined more than a hundred pills in the Jade Pool Realm. After preparing the resources for forming a core, he restored his cultivation to its peak and began his breakthrough by eating a Primordial Fruit.

• Shen Mo refined nine Primordial Pills, assessed their quality, and stored them in two jade bottles.
• Shen Mo used the remaining materials to refine more than a hundred Primordial Pills, including two of exceptional quality and five perfect pills.
• Shen Mo decided not to make more pills and kept the formula and pills for himself unless he later chose to pass them to the sect through Zhao Lingyin.
• Shen Mo reassured Ami, then cultivated in the Jade Pool Realm until his body, Divine Soul, and Spirit Sea true essence reached their peak.
• Shen Mo took out a Primordial Fruit and bit into it to begin forming his Origin Core.

Shen Mo consumed three Primordial Fruits and a superb Fifth-Grade Primordial Pill, refining his essence, energy, and spirit as he attempted to form an Origin Core. After enduring the transformation and its inner omens, he successfully formed a flawless golden Primordial One-Qi Pill in his dantian.

• Shen Mo ate three Primordial Fruits, greatly purifying and strengthening his true essence without advancing his cultivation level.
• Shen Mo swallowed a superb Fifth-Grade Primordial Pill and refined its effects, causing his three Spirit Seas to collapse and his essence, energy, and spirit to transform.
• Shen Mo guarded against interruption by using Restriction Talismans to suppress the Soul Refining Banner before his breakthrough.
• Shen Mo kept his Dao heart steady as his memories and insights nourished his Divine Soul and his Dao Body joined with his spiritual power and true essence.
• Shen Mo refined his cultivation into a Primordial One-Qi Pill amid inner winds, rain, and lightning, then emerged from the transformation with a flawless golden Origin Core.

After forming a perfect-quality Primordial One-Qi Pill, Shen Mo left the Jade Pool Secret Realm and traveled north to visit Chen Mengze. He found five Rogue Cultivators plotting to capture her, bound them, and waited for her to return so she could deal with them.

• The pockmarked cultivator and four Rogue Cultivators prepared a formation to ambush Chen Mengze and planned to take her treasures and make her his captive.
• Shen Mo bound all five with the Immortal Binding Rope and used the Soul Searching Curse to learn their scheme and criminal history.
• Shen Mo spared the men for Chen Mengze to deal with and sat on an ice shelf near her cave while he waited for her return.
• Shen Mo reflected on forming a perfect-quality Primordial One-Qi Pill, strengthening his abilities, and escaping the Dragon-Falling Abyss without encountering the Evil Spirit.

Shen Mo reunited with Chen Mengze at her cave in the Far North Cold Domain and learned that she had grown much stronger. After they discussed rescuing Chen An and the others from the Mountain and River Secret Realm, Chen Mengze decided to return to the Linjiang Mountain Range with Shen Mo.

• Shen Mo welcomed Chen Mengze back and explained that he had subdued five Rogue Cultivators who had set a formation outside her cave to capture her.
• Chen Mengze froze and shattered the five Rogue Cultivators, then destroyed the formation outside Black Ice Cliff.
• Shen Mo praised Chen Mengze's sword path and cultivation, and they discussed her father's likely imprisonment in the Mountain and River Secret Realm.
• Shen Mo explained that he planned to visit Flower Fairy Valley and borrow the Golden Flower World before entering the Mountain and River Secret Realm to withstand the Soaring Serpent Strange Dragon's mutation.
• Chen Mengze said she would return to the Linjiang Mountain Range with Shen Mo to find out whether Chen An was safe.

Shen Mo returned to Chong'a Mountain after his achievements at Golden Light Ridge, bringing the River-Facing Sect Branch Courtyard renewed strength, resources, and hope. He asked Zhou Zhiwei to help borrow the Golden Flower World so they could try to rescue disciples trapped by the Soaring Serpent’s radiation, and a Flower Fairy arrived seeking him.

• Shen Mo returned to the River-Facing Sect Branch Courtyard, where news of his battle record, Origin Core breakthrough, and recovered resources caused a celebration among the disciples.
• Zhou Zhiwei welcomed Shen Mo as an equal and heard his account of Golden Light Ridge, Dragon-Falling Abyss, and Elder Li’s transformation into Longevity Flesh.
• Shen Mo handed Zhou Zhiwei the remains and belongings of Elder Li and Li Zhong, and brought Yan Zhuang, Zhou Ping'er, and other Outer Sect disciples back to the branch courtyard.
• Shen Mo told Zhou Zhiwei that he hoped to borrow the Golden Flower World from the Flower Fairy Great Miluos to try to rescue disciples trapped by the Soaring Serpent’s radiation.
• A disciple reported that a Flower Fairy had arrived and specifically requested to see Ancestor Shen.

Shen Mo set out to enter Mountain and River Valley and confront the Soaring Serpent, using the Golden Flower World and his Counter-Dragon Curse to prepare for its mutating power. Chen Mengze gave him a breath of innate qi before he went, and as he approached the serpent, his Killing Intent and Origin Core began resisting its crushing aura.

• Flower Fairy Ami told Shen Mo that the Flower Fairy Clan had agreed to lend him the Golden Flower World.
• Shen Mo and the others traveled to the Linjiang Mountain Range, where his Gecko False Body endured the mutation force near Mountain and River Valley before Winged Flying Snakes destroyed it.
• After recovering, Shen Mo roughly refined the Golden Flower World and prepared to enter Mountain and River Valley himself.
• Chen Mengze secretly kissed Shen Mo and passed him a breath of innate qi that strengthened his body, soul, and Primordial One-Qi Pill.
• Shen Mo flew toward the Soaring Serpent and endured intense pressure, burning pain, and itching as his Counter-Dragon Curse and Origin Core began to counter its influence.

Shen Mo fought through swarms of Winged Flying Snakes and discovered that the Counter-Dragon Curse could withstand the Soaring Serpent’s mutation. He battled a fourth-tier peak snake while closing in on Mountain and River Valley, as despair unsettled the River-Facing Sect survivors inside the secret realm.

• Shen Mo confirmed that the Golden Flower World resisted mutation and raced toward Mountain and River Valley while keeping his aura concealed.
• Shen Mo used Pure Yang True Fire and All-Encompassing Sword Qi to kill swarms of Winged Flying Snakes, but their numbers kept growing.
• Warned by Cicada Sense, Shen Mo evaded a powerful attacker and confirmed that the Counter-Dragon Curse could endure the strongest mutation.
• Shen Mo used Insight into All Living Beings to identify the attacker as a fourth-tier peak Winged Flying Snake that feared sunlight and excelled at close combat.
• Shen Mo wounded the peak snake with Sword Within the Universe and kept fighting as he advanced toward the Mountain and River Secret Realm.
• Inside the Mountain and River Realm, the River-Facing Sect survivors’ unity faltered as despair spread among them.

As River-Facing Sect’s resources dwindled and internal factions grew more hostile, Wu Gong and Zhao Lingyin faced increasing suppression tied to Shen Mo’s old conflicts. Zhao Lingyin hid from persistent suitors Tian Zhiyu and Yuan Shengcai, while Wu Gong tried to keep her from confronting the sect leadership.

• The Mountain and River Secret Realm’s dwindling resources, monster attacks, and uncertainty intensified factional struggles within River-Facing Sect.
• Wu Gong examined his meager supply of spirit herbs, and Zhao Lingyin angrily offered to report those who had mistreated him.
• Wu Gong stopped Zhao Lingyin, saying he would use his reserves to fulfill the pill-refining quota rather than burden Sect Master Yuan Qingshi.
• Wu Gong’s conflict with Rising Sun Peak Master Tang Lü and Immortal Affairs Hall head Tian Zhaoquan left him and Zhao Lingyin vulnerable to resource shortages and punishment.
• Zhao Lingyin revealed that Tian Zhiyu and Yuan Shengcai had come to pester her, so she had left her courtyard to avoid them.
• Wu Gong grew furious as he recalled Yuan Shengcai’s repeated pursuit of Zhao Lingyin and how her usual protectors were away defending the secret realm’s entrance.

Yuan Shengcai and Tian Zhiyu trapped Zhao Lingyin and Wu Gong in a Chessboard Array, then attacked them to weaken Zhao Lingyin. As Yuan Shengcai prepared to use a Love Gu on her, she remained in danger inside the array.

• Wu Gong and Zhao Lingyin discovered that Yuan Shengcai had sealed their courtyard inside a Chessboard Array that drained their spiritual energy.
• Yuan Shengcai and Tian Zhiyu arrived, and Yuan Shengcai claimed he had trapped Zhao Lingyin only to speak with her.
• Zhao Lingyin attacked Yuan Shengcai, but the array blocked her flames, and Tian Zhiyu charged at her and Wu Gong.
• Tian Zhiyu wounded Wu Gong and overpowered Zhao Lingyin, breaking through her Water Ripple Shields and knocking her to the ground.
• Tian Zhiyu urged Yuan Shengcai to use the measures he had gathered, and Yuan Shengcai revealed two Love Gu and swallowed the male worm before approaching Zhao Lingyin.

Shen Mo returned to the Mountain and River Realm and stopped Yuan Shengcai from forcing the Love Gu on Zhao Lingyin. He rescued her and subdued Yuan Shengcai and Tian Zhiyu just as Yuan Qingshi and the sect elders arrived.

• Yuan Shengcai defeated Wu Gong and prepared to force the Love Gu Queen into Zhao Lingyin, while she tried to take her own life rather than submit.
• Yuan Shengcai disarmed Zhao Lingyin, cut her jaw, and attempted to force the Gu into her mouth.
• Shen Mo appeared after breaking the Chessboard Array and severed both of Yuan Shengcai's hands with the Lightning Bolt Sword.
• Shen Mo healed Zhao Lingyin and pinned Yuan Shengcai and Tian Zhiyu down with All-Encompassing Sword Qi as they tried to flee.
• Yuan Shengcai begged Shen Mo for mercy and blamed Tian Zhiyu, while Tian Zhiyu blamed Yuan Shengcai for acting out of lust.
• Yuan Qingshi, the hall masters, and the elders arrived and saw Shen Mo and the subdued men.

Shen Mo uncovered the corruption and factional abuses behind the attack on Zhao Lingyin and executed Yuan Shengcai and Tian Zhiyu. He ordered a sweeping investigation and arrests, though Jin Chinian hesitated over whether to detain Tang Lü.

• Tian Zhiyu confessed the chain of events behind the attack and exposed corruption involving sect leaders, elders, and powerful families.
• Zhao Lingyin and Shen Mo's trusted sect members told Shen Mo about years of abuses and the sect's collapsing discipline.
• Shen Mo asked Jin Chinian to apply the sect laws, and Jin Chinian ruled that Yuan Shengcai and Tian Zhiyu deserved execution and soul refinement.
• Shen Mo killed Yuan Shengcai and Tian Zhiyu, extracted their souls, and sealed evidence from their memories in a jade slip.
• Shen Mo ordered Jin Chinian to detain everyone connected to the affair, and the Law Enforcement Hall began making arrests.
• Jin Chinian hesitated when it came to detaining Tang Lü because the available soul memories did not prove that Tang Lü had deliberately enabled the crime.

Shen Mo exposed Tang Lü’s crimes by searching his soul and insisted that the sect rules punish him as well as Tang Lü. He ordered a five-day investigation into sect violations while the senior leaders prepared to discuss how to leave the Mountain and River Realm.

• Tang Lü urged Shen Mo to stop fighting and focus on finding a way out of the secret realm, but Shen Mo asked how the sect punished unauthorized soul searches.
• Tang Lü fled toward Ancestor Yuan Heming’s retreat, but Shen Mo struck him with a Dipper Mansion Great Hand Seal, bound him with the Immortal Binding Rope, and searched his soul.
• Shen Mo recorded Tang Lü’s memories in a jade slip and gave it to Jin Chinian as evidence of Tang Lü’s crimes.
• Jin Chinian said unauthorized soul searching carried the Ten Thousand Swords Piercing Punishment, and Shen Mo ordered that he receive the same punishment.
• Shen Mo gave Jin Chinian and the Law Enforcement Hall five days to investigate violations by Inner Sect, elite, and Spirit Sea Realm disciples, then said he would accept punishment alongside them.
• Shen Mo left Zhao Lingyin and his old friends to join Yuan Qingshi and the other senior figures at the Council Hall, where Yuan Heming awaited them.

Shen Mo relinquished his position as Azure Cloud Peak Master and became the River-Facing Sect’s fifth Supreme Elder, then helped reorganize the sect after a purge of corrupt personnel. The sect remained trapped in the Mountain and River Secret Realm, grieving the losses caused by the Soaring Serpent, while Shen Mo left the Azure Cloud Peak Master post vacant for Chen Mengze.

• Shen Mo formally handed over his Azure Cloud Peak Master token and sword and accepted the title of Supreme Elder.
• Shen Mo learned that the Soaring Serpent had swallowed much of Blue Province, including Qian Xiaofeng’s family, and comforted his grieving disciple without revealing his plan to slay the creature.
• Jin Chinian led the Law Enforcement cultivators in investigating the sect’s ranks, and three-tenths of its backbone were seized for misconduct.
• Shen Mo and the sect leaders filled vacant posts by appointing Jiang Lingfeng master of the Immortal Affairs Hall, Jin Chinian Rising Sun Peak Master, Shentu Gui vice master of the Law Enforcement Hall, and Guo Xun master of the Law Enforcement Hall.
• Shen Mo left the Azure Cloud Peak Master position open, intending to recommend Chen Mengze after she became a Core Disciple.

Shen Mo prepared to establish Chen Mengze as his successor at Azure Cloud Peak while considering other sect leadership changes. After sharing a farewell moment with Zhao Lingyin, he arrived at the execution ground to face punishment and oversee judgments for the sect’s guilty members.

• Shen Mo decided that Zhao Lingyin was unsuited to leadership and planned to support Chen Mengze’s rise to Azure Cloud Peak Master, with Jiang Lingfeng as another possible successor.
• Zhao Lingyin reminded Shen Mo that he had to attend the punishment proceedings, helped him change into ordinary clothes, and gave him Fifth-Grade Spirit Pills to keep on hand.
• Shen Mo flew with Zhao Lingyin to the crowded execution ground, left her with Wu Gong and the other elders, and descended among the gathered disciples.
• The crowd praised Shen Mo for forming an Origin Core and saving them from the secret-realm prison, while grieving the family members killed by Soaring Serpent.
• Tang Lü, Tian Zhaoquan, and other serious offenders knelt bound on the execution ground as enforcement cultivators prepared to carry out their punishments.

Shen Mo publicly endured the sect’s punishment for searching Tang Lü’s Divine Soul, demonstrating that the powerful were not exempt from the law. After Jin Chinian revealed Tang Lü’s long record of crimes, Shen Mo rejected his plea for mercy and declared that he deserved execution.

• Shen Mo ordered Jin Chinian to carry out his punishment before the assembled sect members and disciples.
• Shen Mo dispersed his defenses and endured thousands of sword strikes, suffering a grievous wound to his chest.
• Shen Mo donned his Supreme Elder’s robe and crown as Jin Chinian read Tang Lü’s extensive list of crimes.
• Shen Mo resolved to kill Tang Lü after hearing the charges, while the sect members reacted in shock.
• Tang Lü pleaded with Shen Mo to ask Ancestor Yuan to spare his life, but Shen Mo refused and said Tang Lü deserved execution.

Shen Mo oversaw the River-Facing Sect’s executions and lesser punishments after uncovering years of corruption. With the purge complete, he urged the sect leaders to prepare to leave the Mountain and River Realm and take every resource they could carry.

• Shen Mo ordered Jin Chinian to execute Tang Lü, whose Divine Soul was destroyed with his body.
• Jin Chinian carried out the Penal Decree, executing many corrupt sect members and extracting the Divine Souls of those sentenced to further torment.
• The Law Enforcement Hall cleared the execution grounds, then announced and carried out lesser punishments for Ji Susu, Tang Guangsi, and other offenders.
• Yuan Heming, Yuan Qingshi, and the unimplicated hall masters admitted their failures, while Shen Mo accepted their remorse and considered the matter settled.
• Shen Mo told Yuan Qingshi to issue an edict, prepare the disciples to leave the Mountain and River Realm, and gather all the resources they could carry.

Shen Mo withdrew his sword array and escaped the Mountain and River Secret Realm through a swarm of Winged Flying Snakes, then reunited with Chen Mengze and the branch sect cultivators. He brought the sect members and nearly a hundred thousand disciples back to Chong'a Mountain, where they began building temporary dwellings.

• Shen Mo sent the disciples and sect leaders into the Golden Flower World, leaving Zhao Lingyin to safeguard his artifacts and Spirit-Hidden Rat.
• Shen Mo withdrew the Big Dipper Seven-Star Sword Array and fought through the Winged Flying Snakes as he escaped Mountain and River Valley.
• Chen Mengze, Ami, and the branch sect cultivators saw Shen Mo arrive and flew to meet him.
• Shen Mo released Zhao Lingyin, Chen An, Yuan Heming, and the others from the Golden Flower World, reuniting Chen Mengze with her father.
• Shen Mo returned to Chong'a Mountain with the nearly hundred thousand disciples, who began constructing temporary dwellings.

Shen Mo’s rescue of the sect members trapped in the Mountain and River Realm saved River-Facing Sect from a devastating long-term crisis, and his efforts earned him great credit and access to sect resources. The sect still faced missing members, lost businesses, financial shortages, and other problems.

• Shen Mo’s efforts freed the sect members trapped in the secret realm and prevented River-Facing Sect’s accumulated heritage from being lost.
• Shen Mo gained access to the Immortal Arts Pavilion’s books and secret records, could purchase top-grade spiritual treasures, and could call on sect members to gather materials for him.
• River-Facing Sect remained unable to locate Supreme Elders Gongsun Jiuru and Feng Daogu or many other missing members and disciples.
• The sect sent Spirit Sea Realm members to reconnect with businesses in other provinces after the Soaring Serpent destroyed its Blue Province income sources.
• River-Facing Sect cut stipends and mission rewards because its income no longer covered its expenses.

Shen Mo and the River-Facing Sect leaders prepared for his marriage to Zhao Lingyin while addressing the sect’s depleted resources and other post-crisis problems. The Partner-Binding Ceremony became the sect’s urgent focus and drew attention from powers across the land.

• Shen Mo and the senior sect leaders decided to give each Outer Sect disciple two low-grade Spirit Stones monthly, and scheduled Shen Mo and Zhao Lingyin’s marriage for a month later.
• Shen Mo committed three hundred thousand low-grade Spirit Stones to wedding arrangements and sect missions, and Yuan Heming and the other elders added two hundred thousand from the treasury.
• The River-Facing Sect leaders planned to recruit disciples through their businesses in other provinces and improved Chong’a Mountain’s spiritual energy with terrain work and Spirit Gathering Arrays.
• Shen Mo sent ten Demon Soul Generals bearing the Soul Splitting Curse Seal into the Nine Heavens to search for the entrance to the Spirit Void Immortal Realm.
• The River-Facing Sect and factions across the land turned their attention to Shen Mo and Zhao Lingyin’s upcoming Partner-Binding Ceremony.