Chapter Summaries

Wu Hua told Xu Bai and Liu Xu that the Extreme Life Sect in Sheng County planned a desperate attack using horrors created from a flawed imitation technique, but Xu Bai refused to help hunt them. He met Wu Hua at the Liu Residence that night to collect on their bet, watching a progress bar rise as Wu Hua read Buddhist sutras.

• Wu Hua explained that he had come to Sheng County to investigate the Extreme Life Sect and said its local branch had at most one eighth-rank expert.
• Wu Hua described how the Extreme Life Sect used the Immeasurable Dao Scripture to create strange horrors from dead cultivators and intended to make a final stand.
• Xu Bai refused Wu Hua's request to help deal with the sect, while Liu Xu accepted his decision without reproach.
• Xu Bai agreed to meet Wu Hua that night so Wu Hua could fulfill his promise from their bet, and learned how Wu Hua had found him.
• Xu Bai entered the Liu Residence, where Wu Hua began reading Buddhist sutras as Xu Bai watched his progress bar rise.

Xu Bai listened to Wu Hua explain Buddhist sutras while secretly watching the Precept Scars on his head to fill a progress bar. After returning to the escort agency at dawn, Xu Bai left Wu Hua convinced he lacked Wisdom Root but was exceptionally diligent, while the escorts remained motivated by the silver from Lin Residence.

• Xu Bai admitted he knew nothing about Buddhism and stared at Wu Hua’s Precept Scars while Wu Hua began explaining Buddhist sutras.
• Wu Hua explained that Vajra Temple monks burned nine Precept Scars onto their own heads, and Xu Bai realized the marks might trigger his progress bar.
• Wu Hua mistook Xu Bai’s fascination with his head for a desire to enter Vajra Temple and offered to recommend him.
• Xu Bai listened to Wu Hua’s sutra explanations through the night, then left at dawn and said he would return that evening.
• Wu Hua concluded that Xu Bai had no Wisdom Root but admired his diligence, while Xu Bai returned to the escort agency, where the escorts were energized by the silver from Lin Residence.

Xu Bai completed his progress bar at the Liu Residence and learned the max-level Tier Three skill Vajra Body. After he declined Wu Hua's request to join his cause, Wu Hua resolved to try another way to persuade him.

• Xu Bai spent five nights grinding the progress bar at the Liu Residence while Liu Xu imagined what he and Wu Hua were doing together in the room.
• Xu Bai completed the progress bar and comprehended Vajra Body, which let him turn True Yuan Power into golden light for defense or attack.
• Wu Hua explained that Vajra Temple's protective Buddhist light was blue, easing Xu Bai's concern that his golden Vajra Body might draw suspicion.
• Xu Bai thanked Wu Hua and left after refusing again to join him.
• Liu Xu asked Wu Hua how he planned to persuade Xu Bai, and Wu Hua said his master had taught him a third approach beyond fighting or competing in a specialty.

Wu Hua proposed giving Xu Bai a handwritten Buddhist scripture to persuade him to help, while Xu Bai considered leaving Sheng County to search for more progress bars. That night, County Magistrate Zhang’s floating head appeared and tried to confuse Xu Bai’s mind, leading him to realize the scholar tree was behind the disturbance.

• Wu Hua offered Liu Xu a handwritten scripture copied by the current abbot of Vajra Temple as a gift for Xu Bai, and Liu Xu agreed it might appeal to him.
• Xu Bai considered leaving Sheng County to search elsewhere for progress bars, then remembered the scholar tree in the backyard.
• Xu Bai heard scraping outside his room and saw County Magistrate Zhang’s severed head floating by the window.
• The head tried to make Xu Bai feel guilty for killing County Magistrate Zhang, but Xu Bai’s Inverted Chaos of the Four Directions resisted the influence.
• Xu Bai destroyed the head with his saber, then used the Four Xun Movement Technique to reach the backyard and confront the scholar tree.

Xu Bai defeated the Red Gauze Strange Entity concealed in the Chinese Scholar Tree by turning its energy-distorting attack against it and bombarding it with golden copper coins. After the entity vanished, he found an abstract human face on the tree trunk, which changed as he watched.

• Xu Bai entered the rear courtyard and saw the Red Gauze Strange Entity emerge from the Chinese Scholar Tree, singing to bewitch him.
• Xu Bai recognized that the entity's attack distorted reality like his Inverted Chaos of the Four Directions and used the Four Xun Movement Technique to evade its strike.
• Xu Bai circulated Inverted Chaos of the Four Directions and coated copper coins with golden light using the Vajra Body.
• Xu Bai attacked the Red Gauze Strange Entity with repeated volleys of Maple Leaves Like Rain until she vanished.
• Xu Bai inspected the now-normal Chinese Scholar Tree and discovered an abstract human face on its trunk that changed as he watched.

Xu Bai accepted a Buddhist scripture from Wu Hua after spotting a golden progress bar on it. Wu Hua then praised Xu Bai for supposedly planning to destroy the Extreme Life Sect, leaving Xu Bai bewildered.

• Xu Bai returned to his room after the strange presence in the Chinese scholar tree died and the tree returned to normal.
• Wu Hua went to the Fulong Escort Agency to persuade Xu Bai and brought a scripture copied by the abbot of Vajra Temple in his youth.
• Xu Bai let Wu Hua into the rear courtyard, where Wu Hua hesitated briefly upon seeing the Chinese scholar tree.
• Xu Bai noticed a golden progress bar above the scripture and accepted it from Wu Hua.
• Wu Hua told Xu Bai that he admired his supposed plan to destroy the Extreme Life Sect, leaving Xu Bai confused.

Wu Hua explained that the Extreme Life Sect buried Immeasurable Dao Scripture cultivators beneath trees to create strange entities, and Xu Bai realized those trees could provide progress bars. Xu Bai accepted Wu Hua’s Buddhist sutras while postponing his answer, then decided to verify something at the Chinese Scholar Tree that night.

• Xu Bai denied having intended to destroy the Extreme Life Sect and asked Wu Hua how he knew Xu Bai had killed one of its strange entities.
• Wu Hua explained how the sect used the Immeasurable Dao Scripture and trees to create strange entities with permanent abilities.
• Xu Bai shared what he knew about the Chinese Scholar Tree’s origins and realized that sect-linked trees could provide progress bars.
• Wu Hua admitted he had brought Buddhist sutras to persuade Xu Bai to help, and Xu Bai said he would decide the next day while keeping the books.
• After Wu Hua left, Xu Bai looked toward the Chinese Scholar Tree and resolved to verify something that night.

Xu Bai uncovered a skeleton beneath the Chinese scholar tree, confirming Wu Hua’s story about the Human-Faced Ancient Tree. An Extreme Life Sect Masked Man attacked him, but Xu Bai trapped the Black Eagle’s black mist in a formation and crippled the fleeing man.

• Xu Bai dug beneath the Chinese scholar tree and found a woman’s skeleton bound in its roots, confirming Wu Hua’s claim.
• A Masked Man from the Extreme Life Sect appeared with a Black Eagle and threatened to choose how Xu Bai would die.
• The Black Eagle split into black mist when Xu Bai cut it, and the mist pursued him.
• Xu Bai used a golden formation to trap the black mist in flames, revealing to the Masked Man that Xu Bai was not merely a martial artist.
• The Masked Man fled over a wall, but Xu Bai struck his limbs with copper coins and brought him down.

Xu Bai captured and tortured a woman from the Extreme Life Sect until she revealed what she knew about the sect’s activities and plans in Sheng County. He organized her account and began piecing together the sect’s scheme, which traced back to the Great Chu Kingdom’s campaign against them.

• Xu Bai crushed the Masked Man’s limbs, unmasked her, and carried her back to the rear courtyard.
• The woman refused to betray the Extreme Life Sect, so Xu Bai broke the bones in her right arm while threatening her with further pain and a fate among the beggars West of the City.
• Xu Bai convinced the woman to speak by reminding her that her companions would not rescue her and threatening to leave her at the beggars’ gathering place.
• The woman revealed everything she knew about the Extreme Life Sect’s activities and plans in Sheng County.
• Xu Bai sorted through her disjointed account and realized the matter began with the Great Chu Kingdom’s campaign against the Extreme Life Sect.

Xu Bai learned that a Mysterious Person had given the Extreme Life Sect the Immeasurable Dao Scripture and that the sect used the Human-Faced Ancient Tree scheme while sacrificing its own members. After bringing the wounded woman to Liu Xu and Wu Hua, Xu Bai concluded that the Mysterious Person likely had greater backing, and Liu Xu pointed toward the Azure Lotus Platform as their next lead.

• The wounded woman explained that a Mysterious Person had gifted the Immeasurable Dao Scripture to the Extreme Life Sect, whose members used it to rise again after their fall.
• Xu Bai deduced that the woman had been sacrificed as a discarded pawn and learned that she knew of no other Human-Faced Ancient Trees in the county town.
• Xu Bai carried the woman to the Liu Residence and brought Liu Xu and Wu Hua into the matter.
• Xu Bai asked whether either Liu Xu or Wu Hua could search souls to verify the woman's story, but neither knew how.
• Xu Bai judged that the Mysterious Person likely had a greater background than the Extreme Life Sect, and Liu Xu suggested the Azure Lotus Platform as the next lead.

Xu Bai, Wu Hua, and Liu Xu used the Azure Lotus Platform to uncover the Extreme Life Sect woman’s connection to Spring Rain Pavilion, then Xu Bai killed her after learning what he could. The group decided they needed to plan carefully before investigating Spring Rain Pavilion, where they would have to deal with a particular person.

• Xu Bai questioned Wu Hua about the Azure Lotus Platform and learned that the imitation detected karma but had limits, while using the genuine platform carried a steep price.
• Wu Hua used the Azure Lotus Platform to reveal the woman’s memory of entering Spring Rain Pavilion to conceal her identity for the Extreme Life Sect.
• Xu Bai accused the woman of hiding information, but she insisted the sect had only ordered her to stay at Spring Rain Pavilion.
• After Wu Hua and Liu Xu said the woman had no further use, Xu Bai killed her and searched her corpse.
• Xu Bai asked about investigating Spring Rain Pavilion, and Liu Xu and Wu Hua said they needed long-term plans and could not avoid dealing with one person.

Xu Bai, Liu Xu, and Wu Hua planned to investigate Spring Rain Pavilion in secret by posing as guests, despite the Ninth Princess’s ownership of the establishment. Liu Xu and Wu Hua prepared disguises, and the chapter ended as Liu Xu entered the room transformed in appearance and temperament.

• Liu Xu and Wu Hua told Xu Bai that Spring Rain Pavilion belonged to the Ninth Princess and that they could not investigate it openly.
• Xu Bai proposed entering Spring Rain Pavilion as guests to look for clues, and he persuaded Liu Xu and Wu Hua to disguise themselves and go along.
• Liu Xu left to prepare a disguise while Wu Hua put on a wig, false beard, and altered robes.
• Liu Xu returned in disguise, and Xu Bai noticed her changed appearance and temperament.

Xu Bai, Liu Xu, and Wu Hua disguised themselves to investigate Spring Rain Pavilion, where they hoped to uncover clues. After entering the pleasure house, Liu Xu secured a superior room, and Xu Bai watched her closely.

• Liu Xu explained her disguise and voice-changing medicine, then disguised Xu Bai and instructed him and Wu Hua to act as her servants.
• Xu Bai, Liu Xu, and Wu Hua changed into servants' clothes and left the Liu Family at night, while Liu Xu dissolved a corpse with a potion.
• Xu Bai urged the nervous Wu Hua to act naturally as they followed Liu Xu into Spring Rain Pavilion.
• Liu Xu posed as a wealthy merchant, paid the Madam for a superior room, and noticed Xu Bai watching her strangely.

Liu Xu, Xu Bai, and Wu Hua used drugged wine to incapacitate the women in their rooms at Spring Rain Pavilion, then waited for the busy establishment to quiet down. They began searching the floor for anything suspicious, but Xu Bai heard an unexpected voice just as they started.

• Liu Xu explained that the Academy taught its scholars about pleasure houses, while Wu Hua shared a different account of the scholar who had vanished after trying to assassinate the Academy Dean.
• Liu Xu chose a girl for herself and two more for Xu Bai and Wu Hua, arranging adjacent rooms for the three of them.
• Xu Bai gave his companion drugged wine, then let Liu Xu and Wu Hua into his room after she fainted.
• The three waited until Spring Rain Pavilion grew quiet, and Xu Bai examined Wu Hua's Buddhist texts while the girls remained unconscious.
• Wu Hua used his Wisdom Eye to help them search the floor, but Xu Bai heard a voice beside his ear as they began.

Xu Bai, Liu Xu, and Wu Hua encountered a mysterious, powerful Sweeping Man at Spring Rain Pavilion and fled. The Sweeping Man and a woman in yellow discussed the Ninth Princess and the Extreme Life Sect, while Xu Bai remained unusually silent after the group escaped.

• Xu Bai, Liu Xu, and Wu Hua saw a Sweeping Man cleaning the first floor of Spring Rain Pavilion, and Wu Hua's Wisdom Eye suggested the man was above the Eighth Rank.
• The Sweeping Man appeared behind the three without warning, so Xu Bai told Liu Xu and Wu Hua to flee with him.
• After they left, the Sweeping Man revealed his burn-scarred face and went to meet a woman in yellow on the third floor.
• The woman in yellow told the Sweeping Man not to interfere with the Extreme Life Sect or the Ninth Princess's affairs, and he agreed to leave matters alone.
• Outside Sheng County, Wu Hua admitted he could not judge the Sweeping Man's rank, while Xu Bai offered no clues and said they had nothing to discuss yet.
• Liu Xu noticed Xu Bai had been silent since their escape and suspected he had something on his mind.

After the Sweeping Man’s unexpected appearance, Xu Bai returned to the Liu Residence with Liu Xu and Wu Hua, where he studied sutras while learning about the Emperor’s Shadow Courier Stations. The chapter ended with the Sweeping Man silently leaving Spring Rain Pavilion.

• Wu Hua decided to return to the Liu Residence and report the Sweeping Man’s strength and the strange incident to the Bureau of Surveillance.
• Liu Xu invited Xu Bai to stay with them, and Xu Bai agreed while thinking about the golden progress bar on the Sweeping Man’s broom.
• At the Liu Residence, Xu Bai wrote a letter for Liu Er and began grinding the sutras’ progress bar while Wu Hua prepared a message for the Shadow Courier Station.
• Wu Hua explained that the Emperor had established Shadow Courier Stations to serve the martial world and the Bureau of Surveillance, and Xu Bai praised the Emperor’s resolve.
• Wu Hua struck a Wooden Fish as Xu Bai read, while the Sweeping Man quietly walked out of Spring Rain Pavilion.

The Sweeping Man left Spring Rain Pavilion to return something to the academy, despite the Red-Clothed Woman warning him of the danger and agreeing to follow him if he went back to their old land. At Liu Residence, Xu Bai, Wu Hua, and Liu Xu mistook him for an enemy and injured him with a coordinated attack.

• The Red-Clothed Woman confronted the Sweeping Man, reminding him that they had ruined their faces and paid dearly for peaceful lives, but he insisted he needed to repay his debt.
• The Red-Clothed Woman accepted that she could not stop him and said she would accompany him if they returned to their old land.
• The Sweeping Man entered Liu Xu's room at Liu Residence and found it empty, with a tunnel in the floor.
• Xu Bai, Wu Hua, and Liu Xu attacked the Sweeping Man with hidden weapons, a body charge, and Liu Xu's pages.
• The three disrupted the Sweeping Man's defenses, and Xu Bai's blade injured him despite his near-sixth-rank strength.
• As the three pressed their advantage, the Sweeping Man shouted a sentence.

• Xu Bai, Liu Xu, and Wu Hua encounter Yang Chang, a former Azure Cloud Academy scholar who assassinated the Dean and is now living in hiding.
• Yang Chang reveals that the Extreme Life Sect's Immeasurable Dao Scripture was given to them by the Mysterious Person, who is connected to the Ninth Princess.
• Yang Chang also mentions that the Extreme Life Sect's plans are linked to the Shadow Courier Station in Sheng County.
• Xu Bai decides to investigate the Shadow Courier Station and asks Liu Xu for the Spring Flower Brush, claiming he wants to study it as a scholar's tool.
• Xu Bai finishes grinding out the Buddhist scriptures and gains the Heart Demon Body skill, which fuses with his Vajra Body to create the Vajra Demon Body.
• Xu Bai discovers that his current cultivation method cannot support the Tier Four Vajra Demon Body skill for long.
• Wu Hua enters the room, and Xu Bai decides it's time to begin their plan to investigate the Shadow Courier Station.

Key Plot Points and Events

1. Encounter with Yang Chang and his revelations about the Extreme Life Sect and the Ninth Princess.
2. Xu Bai's decision to investigate the Shadow Courier Station.
3. Xu Bai's acquisition of the Spring Flower Brush from Liu Xu.
4. Xu Bai gains the Vajra Demon Body skill after finishing the Buddhist scriptures.
5. Xu Bai realizes his current cultivation method cannot support the Vajra Demon Body skill for long.
6. Wu Hua enters the room, and Xu Bai decides to begin their plan.

Character Developments

1. Xu Bai:
   • Shows curiosity and interest in scholar's tools.
   • Gains the Vajra Demon Body skill and discovers its limitations.
   • Decides to investigate the Shadow Courier Station.
2. Liu Xu:
   • Hands over the Spring Flower Brush to Xu Bai.
3. Wu Hua:
   • Struggles with the revelations about the Ninth Princess and the Extreme Life Sect.
   • Continues his duties at the Liu Residence despite his inner turmoil.

Significant Themes

1. The power of knowledge and learning, as represented by Xu Bai's interest in scholar's tools.
2. The consequences of one's actions and the weight of past mistakes, as seen through Yang Chang's story.
3. The struggle between personal beliefs and external influences, as experienced by Wu Hua.

Character Interactions

1. Xu Bai and Liu Xu:
   • Xu Bai asks Liu Xu for the Spring Flower Brush, claiming he wants to study it.
2. Xu Bai and Wu Hua:
   • Xu Bai decides to begin their plan to investigate the Shadow Courier Station.
3. Yang Chang and the trio:
   • Yang Chang reveals crucial information about the Extreme Life Sect and the Ninth Princess.
   • The trio listens to Yang Chang's story and decides to investigate the Shadow Courier Station based on his information.

Xu Bai, Liu Xu, and Wu Hua discovered that the Extreme Life Sect’s plan involved a forest of bound aberrations spreading toward the Shadow Courier Station, while trouble also erupted at the station. With Sheng County, the forest, and the station all threatened at once, Xu Bai proposed a plan that sent Liu Xu and Wu Hua to the station and left him to handle Sheng County.

• Xu Bai explained that he had asked Liu Xu to watch Spring Rain Pavilion, and the three went to the Shadow Courier Station, where Wu Hua sent an urgent message to the Bureau of Surveillance.
• The stationmaster told Wu Hua about strange nighttime sounds in the southern forest and revealed that an earlier report had never reached the Bureau of Surveillance.
• Xu Bai cleared the forest above ground with copper coins, but Liu Xu’s paper crane revealed many aberrations bound beneath it, and the buried roots began spreading toward the Shadow Courier Station.
• Xu Bai and his companions suspected Yang Chang and his wife served the Extreme Life Sect and that their mission was a ploy to draw them away from other targets.
• Battle cries erupted at the Shadow Courier Station as the roots spread faster, leaving the group to weigh the simultaneous threats to the station, the forest, and Sheng County.
• Xu Bai told Liu Xu and Wu Hua to deal with the Shadow Courier Station and then return to the forest while he went alone to Sheng County, assuring them he had his own way to handle Yang Chang.

Xu Bai confronted Yang Chang in Spring Rain Pavilion and discovered that the Immeasurable Dao Scripture let Yang Chang imitate his abilities while transferring the backlash into corpses. With Liu Xu and Wu Hua trapped by the roots surrounding the Shadow Courier Station, Xu Bai prepared to test Yang Chang with the Spring Flower Brush.

• Xu Bai sent Liu Xu and Wu Hua toward the Shadow Courier Station while he hurried to face Yang Chang in Sheng County.
• Liu Xu and Wu Hua defeated the Extreme Life Sect attackers, but their corpses fed tree roots that enclosed the Shadow Courier Station and trapped them.
• The Old Courier Chief recalled that a burned man had sold seeds there, linking Yang Chang to the roots, while Liu Xu and Wu Hua failed to break through them.
• Xu Bai found Yang Chang in Spring Rain Pavilion among the hanged courtesans and learned that Yang Chang had killed the Red-Clothed Woman after she opposed his plans.
• Yang Chang used the Immeasurable Dao Scripture to copy Xu Bai's abilities and transferred its backlash into corpses as Xu Bai deliberately revealed more techniques.
• Xu Bai took out the Spring Flower Brush and offered Yang Chang what he called his strongest ability.