Chapter Summaries

Xu Bai killed Yang Chang, rescued Liu Xu, Wu Hua, and the Old Courier Chief, then destroyed the fused Weird. As the group prepared to leave, a mad Dao-robed woman appeared, split the giant tree with one strike, and departed after speaking about the Immeasurable Dao Scripture, leaving Wu Hua with a troubling conjecture.

• Yang Chang tried to imitate Xu Bai’s progress-bar ability and suffered a fatal backlash, so Xu Bai watched him explode before leaving Spring Rain Pavilion.
• Xu Bai broke through the tree-root barrier at the Shadow Courier Station and rescued Liu Xu, Wu Hua, and the Old Courier Chief as the black roots fused into a giant tree and a powerful Weird emerged.
• Xu Bai used the Vajra Heart Demon Body and Hammering Kidney Method to repeatedly strike the fused Weird until it dispersed and could no longer reform.
• Wu Hua concealed what he had noticed about Xu Bai’s condition, and the group prepared to return to Sheng County while the Old Courier Chief stayed to report the incident.
• A mad woman in a Daoist robe walked through the air, split the giant tree with a single strike, and left after crying out about the Immeasurable Dao Scripture and the People-Harming Dao Scripture.
• Wu Hua said he recognized the woman’s words and had a conjecture about her identity.

After encountering the mad Female Daoist Abbot and discovering a progress bar on the broken tree, Xu Bai returned to Sheng County and chose to pursue a post at the Shadow Courier Station rather than join the Bureau of Surveillance. He continued studying the Spring Flower Brush, and the chapter ended with him filling its progress bar.

• Wu Hua identified the mad woman as the former Female Daoist Abbot of Jade Face Temple, and Xu Bai spotted a golden progress bar on the roots struck by her palm.
• Xu Bai returned to Sheng County with Liu Xu and Wu Hua, rejected their suggestion that he join the Bureau of Surveillance, and asked them to help him become a courier chief at Shadow Courier Station.
• Xu Bai tested Liu Er's courage, offered to cultivate him into a martial artist, and then returned to studying the Spring Flower Brush.
• The Ninth Princess ordered Qing Xue to investigate Xu Bai without offending him and dismissed concerns about the Spring Rain Pavilion branch.
• Xu Bai kept grinding the Spring Flower Brush's progress bar, and it finally filled.

Xu Bai fused the Spring Flower Brush’s Strengthening Body Chapter with the Hammering Kidney Method, gaining Rank Six-level physical strength and a reserve of True Yuan Power stored in his kidneys. After meeting the newly appointed Sheng County Magistrate Yun Zihai and learning why he had been sent there, Xu Bai filled his reserves with medicinal herbs and returned to the Shadow Courier Station to build the broken tree’s progress bar; the tree suddenly changed as he prepared to leave.

• Xu Bai comprehended the Strengthening Body Chapter from the Spring Flower Brush and fused it with the Hammering Kidney Method into the max-level Strengthening Kidney Method.
• Xu Bai discovered that food and medicinal herbs could be converted into True Yuan Power stored in his kidneys, then tested the method and bought kidney-related herbs from the Qian Family Herbal Shop.
• Xu Bai met Yun Zihai, learned that he was Liu Xu’s senior brother and the new Sheng County Magistrate, and later heard that Yun Zihai had killed a prince after the prince murdered his family.
• Xu Bai returned the Spring Flower Brush to Liu Xu, learned more about Yun Zihai’s past, and saw Liu Xu and Wu Hua off as they left Sheng County.
• Xu Bai ate enough medicinal herbs to fill his kidney reserves, then visited the Shadow Courier Station and asked the Old Courier Chief to recommend him as the next courier chief.
• As Xu Bai left the station, the broken tree he had been watching underwent an abnormal change.

Xu Bai stayed at the Shadow Courier Station to grind the progress bar on the transformed giant tree while Liu Xu and Wu Hua sought guidance from their teachers about their doubts. After Yun Zihai survived an assassination attempt and Xu Bai overheard Third Brother plotting to abduct and kill him, Xu Bai decided to kill Third Brother first.

• The giant tree sprouted emerald shoots, causing Xu Bai's progress bar to recede briefly before stabilizing, so he arranged to stay at the Shadow Courier Station and keep grinding it.
• Wu Hua told Kong Chan about his turmoil over desire and the Immeasurable Dao Scripture; Kong Chan sent him to the Scripture Repository and agreed to write Xu Bai a recommendation letter.
• Liu Xu told Wang Qingfeng about her doubts over the Immeasurable Dao Scripture, and he advised her to follow the standard in her heart and read in the Book Tower.
• A black-clad assassin attacked Yun Zihai at the County Office, but Yun Zihai stopped him with written pages; the assassin poisoned himself, and Yun Zihai spread word that he had been injured.
• Xu Bai learned of Yun Zihai's failed assassination attempt but chose to stay at the tree, then later refused Third Brother's request to act as his guide.
• Third Brother told his companions he intended to find Xu Bai later, abduct him, and destroy the evidence; Xu Bai overheard the plan and decided not to let him live.

Xu Bai killed the five men who had threatened him, then returned to his progress-bar training and made plans to help Liu Er enter the martial ranks. As the giant tree’s progress bar neared completion, Qing Xue was ambushed on her way to investigate Xu Bai and escaped, leaving the attacker’s identity unknown.

• Xu Bai ambushed the five travelers in the forest, killed Third Brother, Fourth Brother, Second Brother, and Fifth Brother, then pursued Boss and killed him with the Vajra Heart Demon Body.
• Xu Bai learned from Old Courier Chief that Liu Xu and Wu Hua had secured recommendations for his appointment as station chief, though officials would still investigate his background.
• Xu Bai found a useful book about ancient warfare at the bookstore, then gave Liu Er the Bone Severing Blade Technique and Bone Severing Heart Sutra, telling him to enter the martial ranks before Xu Bai’s next return.
• Xu Bai spoke briefly with Yun Zihai at Sheng County’s gate, then returned to the Shadow Courier Station to focus on the giant tree’s progress bar.
• Qing Xue rode toward Sheng County to investigate Xu Bai for the Ninth Princess, but a black-clothed attacker ambushed her; after exchanging blows and suffering an arm wound, she escaped.
• Two days later, Xu Bai continued watching the giant tree, whose progress bar was about to fill.

Xu Bai gained Cosmic Shift, then fought Qing Xue after she mistook him for the person who had attacked her. After learning that someone was framing him and Yun Zihai, Xu Bai visited Yun Zihai, where an assassin’s attack ended with Xu Bai returning the flying knives and drawing his saber.

• Xu Bai completed the Human-Faced Ancient Tree’s progress bar and fused the Immeasurable Dao Scripture with the Four Xun Array Formation to gain Cosmic Shift, which reflected attacks of the Sixth Rank or below.
• Qing Xue arrived at the Shadow Courier Station wounded and attacked Xu Bai after recognizing his Ghost-Head Saber, but Xu Bai redirected her strike, knocked her out, and questioned her.
• Qing Xue explained that someone using techniques like Xu Bai’s had attacked her, and she reported her suspicions about Xu Bai to the Ninth Princess by carrier pigeon.
• Xu Bai told Yun Zihai about the impersonator, and they reasoned that the Sixth Prince might be testing them by framing Xu Bai and implicating the Yun Family.
• As Yun Zihai began explaining his purpose in Sheng County, an attacker threw flying knives through the window, and Xu Bai used Cosmic Shift to send them back before drawing his saber.

Xu Bai and Yun Zihai fought off another assassination attempt, then Yun Zihai revealed his imperial mission and asked Xu Bai to help investigate the Eighth Prince’s ties to heretics and demons. On his way back, Xu Bai found Qing Xue trapped in Spring Rain Pavilion and attacked the masked assailant who had framed him, leaving the assailant mutilated and asking Qing Xue for wound medicine.

• Xu Bai and Yun Zihai killed five assassins, with Xu Bai turning their weapons against one another using Cosmic Shift and Yun Zihai finishing the dagger wielder with a written character.
• Yun Zihai told Xu Bai that the Emperor had sent him to lure out people seeking the contents of a letter burned by the Eighth Prince, who had colluded with heretics and demons.
• Yun Zihai offered Xu Bai two fifth-rank secret manuals for help, and Xu Bai agreed to hear more but asked him to develop a plan first.
• Xu Bai heard fighting inside Spring Rain Pavilion and found Qing Xue surrounded by aberrations while a masked attacker struck her with Maple Leaves Like Rain.
• Xu Bai stormed into Spring Rain Pavilion, killed the aberrations in his path, and disarmed and mutilated the masked attacker after using his black-light defense and a countering technique.
• After Qing Xue cleared the remaining aberrations, Xu Bai asked her for external wound medicine from the Shadow Courier Station.

Xu Bai tortured a captured assassin into revealing that the Sixth Prince had ordered him to frame Xu Bai, then learned that Thousand-Faced Poison Lord was hunting Yun Zihai and him. After fusing two movement skills into the Four-Directional Step Technique, Xu Bai prepared for an attack, and the chapter ended as poisoned wind poured into his room.

• Xu Bai used Qing Xue's torture medicine to force the man in black to name the Sixth Prince as the one who ordered the framing, then killed him when he could provide no further information.
• Qing Xue explained that the Emperor restricted imperial family members' cultivation and retainers, and Xu Bai declined the Ninth Princess's offer to recruit him.
• Yun Zihai warned Xu Bai that Thousand-Faced Poison Lord could disguise himself and use poison, and the two confirmed each other's identities and discussed the threat.
• Xu Bai ground out a book's progress bar and fused the Marching Step with the Four Xun Movement Technique to create the tier-three Four-Directional Step Technique.
• Xu Bai prepared traps in his room while waiting for Thousand-Faced Poison Lord, then spotted poisoned wind blackening his window frame and watched it tear open.

Xu Bai chased down and captured Thousand-Faced Poison Lord, who revealed that a nameless temple north of Sheng County had hired him to kill Xu Bai and Yun Zihai. Xu Bai and Yun Zihai hurried to the temple and broke inside, where they were astonished by what they found.

• Thousand-Faced Poison Lord fled after his poison attack failed, but Xu Bai pursued him through a poisoned forest and severed all four of his limbs.
• Xu Bai brought Thousand-Faced Poison Lord to the County Office, where he revealed that a monk at a nameless temple had hired him as an intermediary.
• Xu Bai killed Thousand-Faced Poison Lord after extracting the information, then set out with Yun Zihai for the temple.
• Xu Bai and Yun Zihai found the temple atop a mountain and Yun Zihai raised a barrier around it to prevent anyone from escaping.
• Xu Bai kicked down the gate and charged inside with Yun Zihai, but both men stopped in astonishment at the scene within.

Xu Bai and Yun Zihai uncovered the Ghost Sculptor’s trap, destroyed the clay statues, and found a fragment of a map among the victims. Back in Sheng County, a visitor claiming to serve the Sixth Prince tried to approach Xu Bai, who attacked him before learning he had come to make an offer of friendship.

• Xu Bai and Yun Zihai entered the temple, where the clay Buddha opened its eyes and revealed the Ghost Sculptor’s attack.
• Clay statues containing corpses surrounded Xu Bai and Yun Zihai, but the two destroyed them and shattered the earthen barrier sealing the area.
• Xu Bai and Yun Zihai found a fragment of a map clenched in one corpse’s hand, then returned to Sheng County to search for a match.
• Yun Zihai failed to identify the fragment, while Xu Bai returned to the escort agency, replenished his True Yuan Power, and continued studying the Hundred Poisons Scripture.
• A young man in brocade arrived at the escort agency and told Xu Bai that he knew about the Yun Family assassin’s death.
• Xu Bai attacked the visitor, who revealed that he was a strategist under the Sixth Prince and had come to make friends with him.

Xu Bai accepted a second Nameless Saber Scripture from the Sixth Prince’s envoy, mastered the Hundred Poisons True Explanation, and prepared lethal poison for his saber. After Qing Xue returned with news of masked men guarding a tomb and discussing Xu Bai and Yun Zihai, Xu Bai decided she should stay and brought her to meet Yun Zihai.

• Xu Bai refused to take sides between the Ninth Princess and the Sixth Prince but accepted the Sixth Prince’s Nameless Saber Scripture as a gift.
• Qing Xue left Sheng County for the capital, then overheard masked men in the forest discussing a tomb, Xu Bai, and Yun Zihai before riding back to warn Xu Bai.
• Xu Bai completed the Hundred Poisons True Explanation, prepared several bottles of Hundred Blazing Poison and an antidote, and coated his Ghost-Head Saber with the poison.
• Qing Xue returned to the escort agency and told Xu Bai what she had heard in the forest.
• Xu Bai told Qing Xue to stay until the matter was resolved and took her to see Yun Zihai.

Xu Bai gathered Qing Xue, Zhou Qing, and Yun Zihai to investigate a stolen map that pointed to the Rising Dusk King's mausoleum, and they discovered the danger could involve upheaval on the full-moon night. The group reached the cleared wilderness where the Eighth Prince and his allies were preparing to act, setting the stage for a confrontation.

• Xu Bai persuaded Qing Xue to help, then pulled Zhou Qing into the plan after learning he served the Sixth Prince; they joined Yun Zihai at the County Office.
• Qing Xue repeated what she knew, and Yun Zihai consulted Sheng County's history, identifying the mausoleum as the burial place of the Rising Dusk King.
• Zhou Qing revealed his Zhou Family's grave-robbing expertise, and Yun Zihai sent a message to the Emperor requesting reinforcements before the group set out for the mausoleum.
• The Eighth Prince berated Ghost Sculptor over a missing corner of the mausoleum map, while Thousand-Faced Fox confronted him about the sacrifices their clan had made; the Eighth Prince ordered them to act that night.
• Zhou Qing warned that the full moon could trigger a tremendous upheaval at the mausoleum, so Xu Bai and the others hurried to intercept the enemy before their plan began.
• Xu Bai's group arrived at the cleared wilderness and spotted the masked Eighth Prince surrounded by black-robed followers, with Thousand-Faced Fox beside him.

Xu Bai and his companions broke through the forest’s illusions and traps, then fought separate groups of black-clad attackers before reuniting. The Ghost Sculptor appeared and sacrificed himself to create a peak sixth-rank clay monster, leaving the group preparing to fight it.

• Xu Bai dismantled the illusion formation, and Zhou Qing guided the group through poisoned mechanisms into a clearing where black-clad fighters attacked them.
• A mechanism separated the companions, and Xu Bai killed four seventh-rank fighters with Hundred Blazing Poison while Yun Zihai, Zhou Qing, and Qing Xue defeated their own opponents and made their way back.
• The Eighth Prince and the Thousand-Faced Fox revealed that the Eighth Prince had murdered the Ghost Sculptor’s family and concealed his daughter’s death while exploiting his loyalty.
• Xu Bai reunited with Yun Zihai, Qing Xue, and Zhou Qing, but sixteen reanimated corpses surrounded them with clay figures hanging from their necks.
• Xu Bai killed the Ghost Sculptor, but his corpse and the black-clad bodies fused into a towering clay figure that reached peak sixth-rank strength.
• Yun Zihai, Qing Xue, Zhou Qing, and Xu Bai prepared to attack the clay figure with all their strength.

Xu Bai and his companions defeated the mud man, reached the tomb entrance, and took the map from Thousand-Faced Fox after Xu Bai poisoned and killed her. The group entered the underground passage while the Eighth Prince, having memorized only half the route, used his imperial blood to disable the tomb’s mechanisms and pressed onward.

• Zhou Qing, Qing Xue, and Yun Zihai attacked the mud man, but it swallowed Xu Bai and badly injured the others.
• Xu Bai survived by combining the Vajra Heart Demon Body with Cosmic Shift, destroying the mud man from within and recovering while Yun Zihai shared pills.
• The group found the Eighth Prince confronting the wounded Thousand-Faced Fox; he abandoned her and fled into an underground passage when they approached.
• Xu Bai poisoned and killed Thousand-Faced Fox, took her map, and joined it with the missing piece Yun Zihai carried.
• Xu Bai led the group into the passage, while the Eighth Prince reached the end of the route he remembered and spilled his imperial blood to stop the mechanisms.

The Eighth Prince reached Rising Dusk King’s chamber seeking the Tiger Seal, but the Life-and-Death Reversal formation turned him into a living-energy sacrifice. Xu Bai and the others discovered the formation too late, and Rising Dusk King returned from death as his soldiers awakened, asking whether Great Yue Kingdom had been destroyed.

• The Eighth Prince opened the final door and entered a chamber filled with soldier figurines, where the formation turned him into an earthen figure and absorbed his living energy.
• Xu Bai, Yun Zihai, Qing Xue, and Zhou Qing followed the Eighth Prince’s blood trail and realized the passage formed a Life-and-Death Reversal Yin-Yang Path meant to restore Rising Dusk King.
• The group decided to retreat, but the passage collapsed behind them and the chamber door opened, leaving them no choice but to enter.
• A phantom appeared above the stone coffin, and the Eighth Prince’s body vanished as the phantom’s aura grew stronger.
• Rising Dusk King took form above the coffin, awakened the soldier figurines, and asked Xu Bai and the others whether Great Yue Kingdom had been destroyed.

Rising Dusk King revealed the Emperor’s plan to fake his death and test the imperial family’s loyalty, then asked Xu Bai to become his deputy general. Xu Bai refused, accepted a jade token for a possible future meeting, and learned that Rising Dusk King was about to face an old friend.

• Rising Dusk King used a military formation to show Xu Bai and the others how the Emperor had planned his false death, the transfer of Celestial Poison, and a test of his nine children’s loyalty.
• Xu Bai and the others learned that the Emperor had arranged the Eighth Prince’s discoveries and Yun Zihai’s involvement, while the Ghost Sculptor’s decision to attack them had disrupted the plan.
• Rising Dusk King revealed that he had taken the Eighth Prince’s appearance to identify betrayal within the imperial family, then offered Xu Bai the role of deputy general and access to the Imperial Treasury.
• Xu Bai declined Rising Dusk King’s offers, and Rising Dusk King gave him a jade token to use if he changed his mind.
• Rising Dusk King said he was going to meet an old friend and told Xu Bai and the others to watch the coming battle.

Xu Bai was abducted by the mad Female Daoist Abbot, who used his Cosmic Shift in an attempt to dispel her madness before leaving him unharmed. He returned to Sheng County, reunited with Yun Zihai and Qing Xue, and began asking Yun Zihai for help with a plan for his future.

• Xu Bai and the others emerged from underground as the Female Daoist Abbot attacked Rising Dusk King and his army, but Rising Dusk King’s formation wounded her and she escaped with Xu Bai.
• The Female Daoist Abbot carried Xu Bai to a secluded cave, where he realized she was using an imitation of Cosmic Shift to try to remove her madness; she then left him behind.
• Rising Dusk King found Xu Bai, heard what had happened, and departed with his troops to return to the Capital City and seek a way to eliminate the Female Daoist Abbot.
• Yun Zihai and Qing Xue waited outside Xu Bai’s escort agency through the night, fearing he had died, until Xu Bai returned at daybreak with breakfast.
• Xu Bai told Yun Zihai and Qing Xue that the incident had reached its end, then said he had a plan for his future and needed Yun Zihai’s help.

Xu Bai arranged to become a Shadow Courier Station chief in Yun Zihai’s new jurisdiction, while Wu Hua and Liu Xu resolved their doubts and chose to remain in the Bureau of Surveillance. After receiving two mental cultivation methods and learning he would leave for Yunlai Prefecture the next day, Xu Bai completed the Nameless Saber Scripture and prepared to depart Sheng County.

• Xu Bai asked Yun Zihai to let him serve as a Shadow Courier Station chief in Yun Zihai’s future jurisdiction, and Yun Zihai eagerly agreed.
• Qing Xue left for the Capital City after Xu Bai made clear that he did not wish to serve the Ninth Princess; Xu Bai then resumed grinding the Nameless Saber Scripture.
• Wu Hua resolved his doubts, reached the sixth rank, and told Kong Chan he planned to remain in the Bureau of Surveillance and seek a Bureau Chief position.
• Liu Xu read the books Wang Qingfeng gave her, reached the sixth rank, and decided that she suited the martial world better than official service, so she would join the Bureau of Surveillance.
• Yun Zihai brought Xu Bai two fifth-tier mental cultivation methods and said Xu Bai’s involvement with the Rising Dusk King had made him widely known.
• Yun Zihai told Xu Bai that his jurisdiction was Yunlai Prefecture and that they would leave the next day; Xu Bai completed the Nameless Saber Scripture’s progress bar.

Xu Bai fused his saber techniques, acquired a pottery jar with a progress bar, and left for Yunlai Prefecture with Yun Zihai, who learned that the prefectural magistrate had been killed by the Mirror Dead. As their carriage neared its destination, something blocked their way, and Xu Bai readied his saber.

• Xu Bai fused Severing Armor One Style with Armor Piercing Twenty-Four Styles, creating the stronger Severing and Rupturing Two Styles, then began studying the Purple Firmament Control Art.
• Wu Gou prepared to leave Yunlai Prefecture, but the Mirror Dead attacked him through a mirror and caused him to kill himself with a mirror fragment.
• Xu Bai and Liu Er left Sheng County with Yun Zihai, who received a farewell from the grateful commoners before they departed.
• At the Xinqi Circuit Shadow Courier Station, Xu Bai found a pottery jar whose patterns had a progress bar, while Yun Zihai learned that Yunlai Prefecture's Prefectural Magistrate had died.
• Yun Zihai explained that the Mirror Dead appeared through mirrors, weakened those who saw it, and could revive in the world inside mirrors; Xu Bai agreed to help deal with it.
• As Xu Bai and Yun Zihai traveled toward Yunlai Prefecture, Liu Er stopped the slowing carriage and warned that something had happened outside.

Xu Bai and Yun Zihai entered a Mirror World, destroyed the Mirror Dead, and discovered that someone had lined their road with mirrors to lure it toward them. They reached Yunlai Prefecture, where Yun Zihai began investigating the deaths at the Prefectural Office and found the case had become exceptionally difficult.

• Yun Zihai explained that the paper-money road led into a Mirror World, and Xu Bai, Yun Zihai, and Liu Er entered through a giant mirror.
• Xu Bai and Yun Zihai destroyed the forest to draw out the Mirror Dead, and Xu Bai killed it after it fused their reflections and weakened their strength.
• Xu Bai suspected someone had arranged their encounter, and Yun Zihai found and shattered dozens of mirrors hidden along the road.
• Yun Zihai and Xu Bai arrived at the Prefectural Office in Yunlai Prefecture, where they learned the former prefect's family and the night-watch staff had also died.
• Yun Zihai reviewed Zheng Jin's autopsy reports and concluded that the investigation offered no useful clues and would be difficult to handle.