Chapter Summaries

Xu Bai reached Third Rank after completing the Nameless Saber Scripture, then accepted the Ye Family Head’s offer of the Yin Fiber Tune in exchange for trying to restore it into a Second-Rank cultivation method. As he continued grinding the book in Wind Chime Prefecture, Ye Yu secretly agreed to a demon master’s offer to help her replace Ye Zi, and Xu Bai went to investigate the arrival of guests.

• Ye Zi explained that Demon Masters enslaved demons and fed them human organs, leading Xu Bai to suspect they were behind the recent murders.
• Xu Bai completed the Nameless Saber Scripture, fused its mental method with another technique, and advanced to Third Rank.
• The Ye Family Head gave Xu Bai the Yin Fiber Tune and asked him to fuse it with a suitable Fourth-Rank cultivation method from the Imperial Palace treasury.
• Xu Bai agreed to the deal, learned that Wu Hua had reached Fourth Rank after visiting the Ye Family, and continued studying the Yin Fiber Tune.
• Ye Yu resented Ye Zi’s position and agreed to hear out a demon master who promised to help her take Ye Zi’s place.
• The next afternoon, Xu Bai heard people gathering in the courtyard to receive someone and went outside to see who had arrived.

Kong Xu revealed that demon masters had attacked him because they feared his divination could aid Xu Bai, and he warned of danger in Wind Chime Prefecture. Ye Yu then tried to assassinate Kong Xu, but Xu Bai stopped her and learned of a gathering at the LeShui Festival three days later.

• Kong Xu told Xu Bai that several thousand demons had ambushed him and showed him a divination portrait linking the attack to enemies targeting Xu Bai.
• Kong Xu warned Xu Bai that his trip to Wind Chime Prefecture held great misfortune, and Xu Bai arranged for him to recover under guard at the Ye Family estate.
• A man in black gave Ye Yu a box containing winged centipedes and persuaded her to use them to kill Kong Xu.
• Ye Yu opened the box in Kong Xu's room, but Xu Bai and the Fourth-Rank Puppet stopped the centipedes and Xu Bai broke Ye Yu's limbs.
• Xu Bai questioned a surviving centipede, which revealed that its allies would gather at the largest pleasure boat during the LeShui Festival in three days.
• Xu Bai ordered Ye Yu awakened so he could question her about the assassination attempt.

Xu Bai interrogated Ye Yu, learned that the Calamity Heart Demon Master had driven her to act, and attended the LeShui Festival after completing the Yin Fiber Tune and gaining its divine-soul abilities. The chapter ended with Wind Chime Prefecture’s nobles recognizing him aboard the Zhile Boat and crowding around to curry favor.

• Ye Yu identified the black-and-white snake-wielding Calamity Heart Demon Master as the one who had amplified her desires, and the Ye Family Head killed her after Xu Bai used Seeking Traces to clear her of suspicion.
• Kong Xu accidentally revealed Xu Bai’s martial-world title, Blood Slaughtering Saber Wielder, which Xu Bai disliked, and the group agreed to attend the LeShui Festival three days later.
• Xu Bai completed the Yin Fiber Tune, fused it into the Inverted Purple Firmament Gang Wind Yin Yang Melody, and gained stronger perception and the ability to direct his saber fragments with music.
• Xu Bai and his companions traveled to the XunLe River for the LeShui Festival, passed the musical-theory test, and boarded the Zhile Boat after the Liu Family Head recognized Xu Bai and called out his title.
• Xu Bai told the group to explore the Zhile Boat and wait for anything unusual, but the nobles and officials soon recognized him and gathered around to greet him.

Xu Bai exposed Lin Yong and the Prefectural Governor’s plot to use the LeShui Festival, forcing the festival crowd ashore before the conspirators escaped into the XunLe River. Back at the Ye Family, Xu Bai recognized that his lack of underwater combat skills had let them escape, and Ye Zi offered an idea to solve the problem.

• Xu Bai searched the Music-Knowing Boat with Kong Xu, whose divination led them to Lin Yong and then pointed beneath the ship toward the XunLe River.
• Xu Bai ordered the nobles and common people ashore, disrupting the plot and spotting Lin Yong waiting at the boat’s bow with a snake demon.
• Lin Yong revealed the bound Prefectural Governor, but Xu Bai pointed out that the man’s dry clothes betrayed the deception, and the Prefectural Governor freed himself.
• Xu Bai confronted Lin Yong and the Prefectural Governor over their collusion with the demon race, but both escaped underwater.
• Xu Bai returned to the Ye Family and reflected that his lack of underwater combat skills had allowed their escape, and Ye Zi said she had an idea.

Xu Bai organized the Wind Chime Prefecture families to gather materials for diverting the XunLe River and used his ingenious craft techniques to expose Lin Yong’s underwater hideout. Though the enemies had fled, Xu Bai discovered a golden progress bar on their building, suggesting he had gained an unexpected opportunity.

• Ye Zi proposed diverting the XunLe River around the enemies’ hiding place, and Xu Bai decided to use the local families to gather the necessary materials.
• Xu Bai summoned the family heads and assigned them materials to collect within three days, while continuing to grind progress bars and fusing two movement techniques into Movement Break Fourth Cycle.
• After the families delivered the materials, Xu Bai assembled two river barriers and a diversion channel, then carried the structures to the XunLe River.
• Xu Bai diverted the river and exposed Lin Yong’s empty underwater dwelling, discovering that its occupants had escaped.
• Xu Bai noticed a golden progress bar growing above the building and suspected Lin Yong had left him a valuable opportunity.

Xu Bai stayed at the imitation Diverting Water Altar until he comprehended the Water Adaptation Method, then set out for the XunLe River to confront Zhao Yin and Lin Yong’s followers. At the river, Zhao Yin was refining Lin Yong for the altar’s remnants when he heard fighting in the water.

• Xu Bai identified the demon-script structure as an imitation Diverting Water Altar, while Kong Xu divined that the enemy’s goal was connected to the character “odd.”
• Kong Xu’s divination shifted from great misfortune to great fortune, and he and the others left Xu Bai to study the altar’s progress bar.
• Zhao Yin confronted Lin Yong, then ordered their subordinates to overpower him and used the old turtle to imprison him for refining the Diverting Water Altar’s remnants.
• Xu Bai spent several days completing the progress bar and comprehended the Water Adaptation Method, which let him breathe underwater and use his skills effectively there.
• Xu Bai left his wooden carving and the Nameless Saber Scripture with Ye Zi, then headed alone to the XunLe River.
• Zhao Yin continued refining Lin Yong, but heard sounds of fighting in the water and realized something was happening nearby.

Xu Bai pursued Zhao Yin underwater, only to be pulled into the Demon-Strange Entity Market by Lin Yong’s sacrifice. There, Xu Bai discovered that the dead demons had consciousness, survived an attack on his soul with Little Gold’s help, and faced an approaching force led by a powerful one-horned entity.

• Xu Bai used the Water Adaptation Method to defeat Zhao Yin’s forces, while Zhao Yin fled on a turtle and left a subordinate behind to stall him.
• Xu Bai learned that Lin Yong was being refined for the Diverting Water Altar remnant, then pursued Zhao Yin and found that Lin Yong had taken control of the turtle through the Blood Exchange Art.
• Lin Yong sacrificed the turtle and Zhao Yin to activate the Diverting Water Altar remnant, trapping Xu Bai in a bloody vortex that dragged him into the Demon-Strange Entity Market.
• Xu Bai arrived in a desolate red-lit town, where Demon-Strange Entities gathered after a gong sounded and revealed that they could speak and feel emotions.
• The market’s soul-destroying force overwhelmed Xu Bai, but golden light appeared in his mind and he recovered; a Demon-Strange Entity that tried to discuss the light vanished.
• Xu Bai questioned an ox-headed Demon-Strange Entity about the market before armored forces arrived, led by a powerful one-horned Demon-Strange Entity carrying a saber.

Xu Bai entered the Demon-Strange Entity Market, where City Lord Huang explained that its residents retained their consciousness and agreed to arrange Xu Bai’s return to the human world. While waiting, Xu Bai heard Wang Fu’s request to find his clan and learned of a powerful man whose palm print remained in the market, leaving him startled by the possibility that it might be connected to his search.

• Wang Fu welcomed Xu Bai and escorted him to City Lord Huang, who received him with a banquet made from dirt.
• City Lord Huang said he had seen a sea of mist around Xu Bai, explained that market residents retained the consciousness they had in life, and arranged a passage back to the human world that would take three days to repair.
• Xu Bai stayed at the City Lord’s Mansion and agreed to deliver Wang Fu’s message to the Tuna Clan at Half-Moon Sea.
• Wang Fu told Xu Bai that City Lord Huang was First Rank and recounted how a man without a divine soul had once fought the strongest city lords and left a huge palm print in the market.
• Xu Bai abruptly stood and asked whether the palm print was still in the Demon-Strange Entity Market.

Xu Bai completed the golden progress bar on the palm print and fused a second Undying Body (Incomplete), gaining the ability to regrow severed limbs. After learning that City Lord Huang planned to trap or kill him at the passage, Xu Bai confronted him and declared he would defeat the first-rank city lord.

• Wang Fu took Xu Bai to the enormous palm print, where Xu Bai discovered a golden progress bar and stayed to watch it for several days.
• Xu Bai completed the progress bar, gained another Undying Body (Incomplete), and fused it with his existing skill, improving its recovery and allowing him to regrow severed limbs.
• Wang Fu warned Xu Bai that City Lord Huang could destroy the passage token and leave him stranded, then led him to meet the city lord.
• Xu Bai exposed City Lord Huang's plan to exploit Wang Fu's betrayal, while City Lord Huang admitted he had anticipated Wang Fu's scheme and killed him.
• City Lord Huang offered Xu Bai no way out except using the passage or starving, but Xu Bai poisoned him slightly and declared his third path was to slaughter the first-rank city lord.

Xu Bai escaped Demon-Strange Entity Market No. 563 after killing City Lord Huang and narrowly avoiding a horde of powerful demon-strange entities. Back at the Ye Family, he learned that the Female Daoist Abbot had taken Ye Zi away, and the Ye Family Head began to reveal a message Ye Zi had left for him.

• Xu Bai used Saber Intent and Seeking Traces to track and kill City Lord Huang, then activated the circular platform as dark clouds bearing dozens of stronger figures approached.
• Xu Bai returned beneath the great river and hurried to the Ye Family, where the servants and the Ye Family Head were relieved to find him alive.
• The Ye Family Head told Xu Bai that Ye Zi had set out to walk his path after believing he had died, but the Female Daoist Abbot had taken her away from the riverbank.
• The Ye Family Head explained that the Female Daoist Abbot briefly regained her senses, had Ye Zi play a piece of music related to the soul, and then let her go.
• The Ye Family Head began relaying Ye Zi's message about something she had seen at the Female Daoist Abbot's place.

Xu Bai left Wind Chime Prefecture with a Second-Rank divination book and began grinding the wooden carving while traveling to find Ye Zi. In Wind Radiance State, Ye Zi learned that Xu Bai was alive and waited for him at the city gate, where they reunited before Jiang Tong approached them.

• The Ye Family Head told Xu Bai that Ye Zi had seen a wooden carving identical to his at the Female Daoist Abbot's place, and Xu Bai set out to find Ye Zi.
• Kong Xu asked Xu Bai to introduce him to the Ninth Princess and traded him a Second-Rank divination book for the introduction.
• Xu Bai chose to grind the wooden carving as he traveled toward Wind Radiance State, despite not finding Ye Zi along the way.
• Ye Zi overheard assassins discussing Xu Bai's survival, abandoned her plan to die at the river, and waited at Wind Flower Prefecture's city gate for him.
• Xu Bai arrived at the gate, and Ye Zi joyfully threw herself into his arms; Jiang Tong recognized Xu Bai as the Blood Slaughtering Saber Wielder and approached to greet him.

Xu Bai reunited with Ye Zi in Wind Flower Prefecture and comprehended the Second-Rank skill Grafting Flowers onto Trees, which could redirect attacks and injuries. When the Jiang Family Head brought him two captured assassins, their hidden controller revealed himself and challenged Xu Bai to meet at Spring Rain Pavilion, leaving Ye Zi to offer a guess about the enemy’s profession.

• Xu Bai warned Jiang Tong not to call him Blood Slaughtering Saber Wielder again, and Jiang Tong apologized before returning to report to his family.
• Xu Bai reunited with Ye Zi at an inn, heard about an attempted ambush, and continued grinding the wooden sculpture’s progress bar.
• Xu Bai comprehended Grafting Flowers onto Trees, a Second-Rank skill that could redirect attacks and transfer injuries, then began working on a fortune-telling book.
• The Jiang Family Head brought Xu Bai two captured men suspected of plotting against him, but Xu Bai could not extract information from them with soul control or Seeking Traces.
• The men’s hidden controller spoke through them, revealed that their souls were in his possession, and invited Xu Bai to meet him at Spring Rain Pavilion the following night before killing them.
• After the Jiang Family Head left, Ye Zi told Xu Bai she might be able to identify the enemy’s profession.

Xu Bai sent a puppet to meet a Soul Controller, received intelligence about the Tong Family and a hidden leader, and asked the Jiang Family to investigate. He traded a glimpse of his Saber Intent for the Jiang Family’s heavy-sword technique and finished grinding the Second-Rank Divination Book’s progress bar.

• Ye Zi explained that Soul Controllers controlled people by extracting their souls, and Xu Bai decided to attend their meeting without going himself.
• Xu Bai sent the Fourth-Rank Puppet to Spring Rain Pavilion, where a controlled woman wrote that she wanted to cooperate and named the Tong Family and an unnamed leader as threats.
• Xu Bai and Ye Zi decided to investigate the Tong Family secretly through the Jiang Family, and the Jiang Family Head agreed to watch them.
• The Jiang Family Head traded his family’s second-rank heavy-sword technique for a chance to sense Xu Bai’s Saber Intent, allowing him to approach comprehending Sword Intent.
• Xu Bai stayed at the inn to grind the technique books, and the Second-Rank Divination Book’s progress bar reached completion.

Xu Bai mastered the Human Calculation Scripture, used it to track down the Tong Family Head, and learned that a grave robber leader planned to use his followers as burial goods for a great tomb. Seeking a Feng Shui Master to investigate, Xu Bai visited the Qian Family, but its head refused to help.

• Xu Bai mastered the Human Calculation Scripture and decided to test its tracking ability on the Tong Family.
• Xu Bai followed the Tong Family as they fled Wind Flower Prefecture and discovered the Tong Family Head had poisoned his son and other senior members to escape alone.
• Xu Bai used the Human Calculation Scripture to track the Tong Family Head after he vanished into the Living Dead Path, then forced him to reveal that their leader was a grave robber connected to a great tomb.
• Xu Bai controlled the Tong Family Head to verify his story, then killed him and returned to the inn with Ye Zi.
• Xu Bai asked the Jiang Family Head about Feng Shui Masters and learned the Qian Family was the prefecture's only such family, but using Feng Shui again could bring deadly backlash upon them.
• Xu Bai visited the Qian Family to borrow a Feng Shui Master, but the Qian Family Head rose and told him to leave.

Xu Bai completed the Qian Family’s Feng Shui book, fused its art with his divination skill, and used his new abilities to devise a way to ease the family’s backlash. After the Qian Family Head gave him a first-rank Yin-Yang Feng Shui Diagram, Xu Bai sensed its power and was astonished by what he had received.

• The Qian Family Head refused Xu Bai’s request for help with Feng Shui, but a report revealed that his eldest uncle had fatally suffered backlash while studying it.
• Xu Bai followed the Qian Family Head to the scene, learned about the family’s inherited Feng Shui book, and persuaded him to lend it for ten days.
• A grave robber told his gathered followers that the Tong Family had been killed and suspected a mole among them, then led the group to a remote hill to keep watch on one another.
• Xu Bai completed the Feng Shui book, fused the Four-Word Feng Shui Secret Art with the Human Calculation Scripture into Feng Shui Arithmetic, and discovered that he could not read his own fate through it.
• Xu Bai gave the Qian Family Head a Change Heaven and Earth array that could gradually ease the family’s backlash, and the grateful head gave him the Yin-Yang Feng Shui Diagram.
• Xu Bai sensed the first-rank diagram’s immense Feng Shui power and reacted with astonishment.

Xu Bai received the First-Rank Yin-Yang Feng Shui Diagram from the Qian Family Head and used his feng shui skills to follow a map to a grand tomb outside Wind Flower Prefecture. After entering the tomb with Ye Zi and the Fourth-Rank Puppet, he opened a coffin whose candle turned green as eerie sobbing came from within.

• Xu Bai accepted the Yin-Yang Feng Shui Diagram, and the Qian Family Head discussed Xu Bai and the imperial court with a hidden First-Rank protector.
• Xu Bai searched Wind Flower Prefecture and its surroundings, then met a Soul Controller who gave him a map marking the tomb’s location.
• At the tomb, the leader sacrificed his followers to a deadly burial mechanism before digging a passage underground, while another controlled figure followed him.
• Xu Bai entered the tomb with Ye Zi and the Fourth-Rank Puppet, defeated three Fourth-Rank eerie creatures, and reached a chamber lined with bronze coffins.
• Xu Bai opened the coffins to search for an exit, then pried at the one bearing a candle; its flame turned green as sobbing sounded from inside.

Xu Bai reached the inner tomb chamber, where a Grave Robber used poisonous mist to keep him out while attempting to merge with a corpse. Wen Si, a mortician who claimed she wanted to restore her family, removed the mist with her corpse puppets, but Xu Bai distrusted her and blocked the passage as she demanded the corpse.

• Xu Bai defeated the dried corpse in the coffin and discovered a staircase leading to murals depicting the Red Wood Tribe’s massacres.
• Xu Bai broke through the bronze door and found a Grave Robber kneeling before a huge coffin, protected by highly poisonous mist.
• The Grave Robber mocked Xu Bai and said he would merge with the corpse in ten days, while Xu Bai spotted a golden progress bar above the coffin.
• Wen Si arrived with hundreds of corpse puppets, explained that she was a survivor of the mortician Wen Family, and had the corpses absorb the poisonous mist.
• Xu Bai ordered Wen Si to kill the Grave Robber, but she proposed taking the corpse and threatened to recreate the mist; Xu Bai stayed at the passage entrance and challenged her to take it.

Xu Bai battled and defeated a Half-Step Transcendent strange being after it emerged from the Bronze Coffin, with Ye Zi supporting him through the night. After winning, Xu Bai said they still had one more enemy to deal with.

• Xu Bai exposed the stalemate between Wen Si and the grave robber, then pressured the grave robber until he rammed his bloodied head against the Bronze Coffin to awaken its occupant.
• The grave robber died when the coffin's icy aura reached him, while Wen Si feigned death and Xu Bai fled with Ye Zi and the coffin lid to claim its golden progress bar.
• The blood-haired strange being emerged from the coffin and pursued Xu Bai, who had Ye Zi hide nearby and play a tune that helped her break through to Rank Three.
• Xu Bai fought the strange being through the night, trading injuries and using his regenerative abilities until he defeated it at dawn.
• Ye Zi supported the exhausted Xu Bai, who told her to hide while he recovered and revealed that he still had one more person to deal with.

After defeating the blood-haired strange creature, Xu Bai followed Wen Si into the tomb, uncovered her plan to steal the Red Wood Tribe chief’s corpse, and captured her true body. Back at the inn, he rested with Ye Zi and asked about the realms above First Rank, learning their names before she began explaining what distinguished Transcendent from First Rank.

• Xu Bai and Ye Zi followed Wen Si into a hidden passage, where Wen Si opened a secret chamber beneath the tomb and found the Red Wood Tribe chief’s corpse.
• Wen Si summoned her true body, but Xu Bai ambushed and captured her; when Ye Zi could not breach Wen Si’s protected soul, Xu Bai tortured her until she agreed to answer his questions.
• Wen Si told Xu Bai that the tomb had been built to drain the Great Chu Kingdom’s fortune and that she wanted the chief’s corpse to improve her standing in the Great Yue Kingdom; Xu Bai killed her afterward.
• Xu Bai and Ye Zi burned the corpses, blocked the tomb entrance, and returned to the inn, where Xu Bai decided to rest and grind out more progress bars before traveling onward.
• Ye Zi explained that four realms lay above First Rank—Transcendent, Extraordinary, Entering Sainthood, and Exiting Sainthood—and began describing how Transcendent differed from First Rank.

Xu Bai learned about Heavenly Changes and the upper cultivation realms, while the Chu Emperor prepared to deal with forces implicated in the barbarians’ tomb and weighed how to recruit Xu Bai. After mastering the Crimson Blood Battle Art, Xu Bai went to the Wind Flower Prefectural Office to meet someone who knew him well, where he spotted a familiar figure.

• Ye Zi explained that entering the Transcendent Realm brought a Heavenly Change that strengthened its user and weakened enemies, and described the power increases of higher realms.
• The Chu Emperor ordered Eunuch Wei to watch the forces exposed by Xu Bai’s journey and eliminate them when Xu Bai reached the Capital City, while deciding not to clear Xu Bai’s path in advance.
• Qing Xue praised Xu Bai to Qing Mei, Zhou Qing urged the Sixth Prince to recruit him but was brushed off, and the Rising Dusk King planned to poach him if the Chu Emperor’s offer fell short.
• Xu Bai completed the coffin lid’s progress bar and learned the Crimson Blood Battle Art, a powerful technique whose bodily damage he could recover from with his Undying Body.
• A servant invited Xu Bai to the Wind Flower Prefectural Office, saying someone who knew him well was waiting there; Xu Bai arrived and recognized a familiar figure.